Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Tumor Necrosis Factor Inhibitor Therapy on Osteoclasts Precursors in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Objective. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) increases circulating osteoclast (OC) precursors numbers by promoting their proliferation and differentiation. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of TNF inhibitors (TNFi) on the differentiation and activity of OC in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Methods. Seventeen RA patients treated with TNFi were analyzed at baseline and after a minimum follow-up period of 6 months. Blood samples were collected to assess receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B ligand (RANKL) surface expression on circulating leukocytes and frequency and phenotype of monocyte subpopulations. Quantification of serum levels of bone turnover markers, in vitro OC differentiation assays, and qRT-PCR for OC specific genes was performed. Results. After TNFi therapy, patients had reduced RANKL surface expression in B-lymphocytes and the frequency of circulating classical CD14brightCD16− monocytes was decreased. Serum levels of sRANKL, sRANKL/OPG ratio, and CTX-I were reduced in RA patients after TNFi treatment. Moreover, after exposure to TNFi, osteoclast differentiation and activity were decreased, as well as the expression of TRAF6 and cathepsin K. Conclusion. We propose that TNFi arrests bone loss and erosion, through two pathways: direct reduction of osteoclast precursor numbers and inhibition of intracellular signaling pathways acting through TRAF6.
A Semantic Model for Species Description Applied to the Ensign Wasps (Hymenoptera: Evaniidae) of New Caledonia

Taxonomic descriptions are unparalleled sources of knowledge of life's phenotypic diversity. As natural language prose, these data sets are largely refractory to computation and integration with other sources of phenotypic data. By formalizing taxonomic descriptions using ontology-based semantic representation, we aim to increase the reusability and computability of taxonomists' primary data. Here, we present a revision of the ensign wasp (Hymenoptera: Evaniidae) fauna of New Caledonia using this new model for species description. Descriptive matrices, specimen data, and taxonomic nomenclature are gathered in a unified Web-based application, mx, then exported as both traditional taxonomic treatments and semantic statements using the OWL Web Ontology Language. Character:character-state combinations are then annotated following the entity–quality phenotype model, originally developed to represent mutant model organism phenotype data; concepts of anatomy are drawn from the Hymenoptera Anatomy Ontology and linked to phenotype descriptors from the Phenotypic Quality Ontology. The resulting set of semantic statements is provided in Resource Description Framework format. Applying the model to real data, that is, specimens, taxonomic names, diagnoses, descriptions, and redescriptions, provides us with a foundation to discuss limitations and potential benefits such as automated data integration and reasoner-driven queries. Four species of ensign wasp are now known to occur in New Caledonia: Szepligetella levipetiolata, Szepligetella deercreeki Deans and Mikó sp. nov., Szepligetella irwini Deans and Mikó sp. nov., and the nearly cosmopolitan Evania appendigaster. A fifth species, Szepligetella sericea, including Szepligetella impressa, syn. nov., has not yet been collected in New Caledonia but can be found on islands throughout the Pacific and so is included in the diagnostic key. [Biodiversity informatics; Evaniidae; New Caledonia; new species; ontology; semantic phenotypes; semantic species description; taxonomy. ]
Point Matching Estimation for Moving Object Tracking Based on Kalman Filter

Video-based information collection has become an important research direction, and moving object tracking technique plays a key role nowadays. The classic corner tracking algorithm doesn’t meet the real-time requirement, and loses the object mostly due to occlusions, the change of geometrical scale or/and some similar objects approaching to the object. To solve the problems, a new algorithm based on Kalman filter and point matching estimation is proposed in the paper. Combined with predicting the target’s location based on Kalman filter, the extracted multi-scale corner points which are geometrically invariant are given different weights for the responsible function, and then divided the image into blocks, the location is tracked by its average vector. The experiments results show that the proposed method can perform well in on-line and robust tracking systems.
Collective Engagement in Creative Tasks

Research on group creativity has concentrated on explaining how the group context influences idea generation and has conceptualized the evaluation of creative ideas as a process of convergent decision making that takes place after ideas are generated to improve the quality of the group’s creative output. We challenge this view by exploring the situated nature of evaluations that occur throughout the creative process. We present an inductive qualitative process analysis of four U.S. healthcare policy groups tasked with producing creative output in the form of policy recommendations to a federal agency. Results show four modes of group interaction, each with a distinct form of evaluation: brainstorming without evaluation, sequential interactions in which one idea was generated and evaluated, parallel interactions in which several ideas were generated and evaluated, and iterative interactions in which the group evaluated several ideas in reference to the group’s goals. Two of the groups in our study followed an evaluation-centered sequence that began with evaluating a small set of ideas. Surprisingly, doing so did not impede the groups’ creativity. To explain this, we develop an alternative conceptualization of evaluation as a generative process that shapes and guides collective creativity.
HIGH-RESOLUTION MULTIMODAL IMAGING AFTER IDIOPATHIC EPIRETINAL MEMBRANE SURGERY

Purpose: To investigate the changes of the vitreomacular interface during a 1-year follow-up after idiopathic epiretinal membrane (iERM) surgery. Methods: Six patients affected by fovea-attached iERM were recruited in this pilot study. Pars plana vitrectomy associated with epiretinal membrane peeling was performed uneventfully in all cases. In four cases, the inner limiting membrane was removed using Brilliant blue G. En face high-resolution adaptive optics and cross-sectional spectral domain optical coherence tomography retinal imaging were performed before and at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after surgery. The microstructures of vitreomacular interface in high-resolution adaptive optics images were correlated to the cross-sectional spectral domain optical coherence tomography data. Results: Preoperatively, adaptive optics images showed multiple abnormalities of the vitreomacular interface, such as macrofolds, microfolds, and hyperreflective microstructures. We identified two subtypes of iERM according to the distribution of microfolds over the foveal area, which included the radial-type and the grid-type iERM. After surgery, the morphology of the vitreomacular interface changed compared with the preoperative state. The number of both macrofolds and microfolds was reduced in all cases. The hyperreflective structures were still resolvable in all cases, however presenting different shape and morphology than preoperatively. In addition, they showed marked differences between eyes that had internal limiting membrane removal and eyes that did not. Conclusion: Adaptive optics imaging gives new insight into the changes of vitreomacular interface after iERM surgery. Enhanced multimodal imaging of the vitreomacular interface and retinal structures can be valuable to monitor treatment outcome of iERM.
Orchestrator: A low-cost solution to reduce voltage emergencies for multi-threaded applications

Voltage emergencies have become a major challenge to multi-core processors because core-to-core resonance may put all cores into danger which jeopardizes system reliability. We observed that the applications following SPMD (Single Program and Multiple Data) programming model tend to spark domain-wide voltage resonance because multiple threads sharing the same function body exhibit similar power activity. When threads are judiciously relocated among the cores, the voltage droops can be greatly reduced. We propose “Orchestrator”, a sensor-free non-intrusive scheme for multi-core architectures to smooth the voltage droops. Orchestrator focuses on the inter-core voltage interactions, and maximally leverages the thread diversity to avoid voltage droops synergy among cores. Experimental results show that Orchestrator can reduce up to 64% voltage emergencies on average, meanwhile improving performance.
Age-Related Macular Degeneration: Clinical Findings following Treatment with Antiangiogenic Drugs

Purpose. To survey the management of patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nvAMD) in Spain. Methods. An observational retrospective multicenter study was conducted. The variables analyzed were sociodemographic characteristics, foveal and macular thickness, visual acuity (VA), type of treatment, number of injections, and the initial administration of a loading dose of an antiangiogenic drug. Results. 208 patients were followed up during 23.4 months in average. During the first and second years, patients received a mean of 4.5 ± 1.8 and 1.6 ± 2.1 injections of antiangiogenic drugs, and 5.4 ± 2.8 and 3.6 ± 2.2 follow-up visits were performed, respectively. The highest improvement in VA was observed at 3 months of follow-up, followed by a decrease in the response that stabilized above baseline values until the end of the study. Patients who received an initial loading dose presented greater VA gains than those without. Conclusions. Our results suggest the need for a more standardized approach in the management and diagnosis of nvAMD receiving VEGF inhibitors. To achieve the visual outcomes reported in pivotal trials, an early diagnosis, proactive approach (more treating than follow-up visits), and a close monitoring might be the key to successfully manage nvAMD.
Strategic framework of an energy management of a microgrid with a photovoltaic-based active generator

By taking into account the fluctuations of renewable energy based power production (photovoltaic panels) and the ancillary services supply to a microgrid (improvement of the availability and capacity of the power from Renewable Energy Source, uninterruptible supply of critical loads, micro grid power quality improvement, peak shaving, load shifting, reactive power supply/compensation etc.), this paper describes an energy management of a micro grid with a PV-based active generator. This energy supervision is implemented into two parts: a central energy management of the microgrid and a local power management in the active generator. Between them information and orders are exchanged. Our energy supervision is organized in different functions. In this paper we present the following functions: the prediction of the power production and the load forecasting; power planning and the real time power regulation.
Classrooms as installations: a conceptual framework for analysing classroom photographs from the past

This paper suggests a new way of working with and analysing school photographs in history of education research, especially photographs of school classrooms. It advances a new methodological approach for inquiring into the spatiality and materiality of schooling. This approach is located in the practice of installation art and draws from the theory of relational aesthetics and postproduction. As demonstrated in the paper, thinking about school spaces and places as installations, and place‐making practices as a form of installation making, presents opportunities for posing new and different types of research questions. It also provides opportunities for generating new inquiry and representational practices in educational research. Conceptualising school spaces and places as installations that demand spectator participation to function as intended requires educational researchers to think critically about the spatial dimensions of educational experiences and the experiences of place in educational contexts.
One Neighborhood, Two Communities: The Public Archaeology of Class in a Gentrifying Urban Neighborhood

Abstract The Hampden Community Archaeology Project (HCAP) is a public archaeology project in a former textile mill neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland. Since the early 1990s the area has been transformed by gentrification. There are now two distinct communities (an older, working-class community and a newer, upper-middle-class community) in the neighborhood. The goal of HCAP is to create a critical public dialogue on issues of class and economic inequality relevant to the current issues facing the neighborhood. After three years of public archaeology in Hampden-Woodberry, the project has achieved some notable successes but has also run up against several roadblocks.
Use of Multisensory Environments in Schools for Students with Severe Disabilities: Perceptions from Schools.

Multisensory environments (MSEs) have become popular in schools for students with severe disabilities in the UK, the US, and Australia, despite a lack of convincing research evidence for any positive effects on learning and behaviour. This paper reports on in depth interviews with staff from two schools in Sydney, NSW, Australia that explored the background to the installations of MSEs, perceptions, and beliefs about the effects of use of MSEs. School staff was unfamiliar with the literature on MSEs and relied on the Internet and commercial firms for information. They accepted the claims made for the effects of MSEs, but translated these claims in the light of their beliefs about the needs of their student population. Calls are made for education departments to provide more information and support to schools when they make decisions about the use of resources and to support schools in making objective evaluations of the outcomes of use of MSEs. Multisensory environments (MSEs) are rooms or spaces containing equipment that is designed to provide sensory stimulation to the users. Ideally, the sensory experiences provided are tailored to the perceived needs of the user (Fowler, 2008). The equipment typically includes items such as projectors and effect wheels, bubble tubes, music equipment, fibre optics, vibrating devices, aroma diffusers and sound equipment (Fowler; Lancioni, Cuvo, & O’Reilly, 2002). MSEs originated in Holland in the 1970s and were originally intended to provide a leisure option for persons with severe and profound disabilities. Hulsegge and Verheul (1987) gave them the name snoezelen, but this term is now a registered brand name belonging to the Rompa company and MSE is the preferred term (Botts, Hershfeldt, & Christensen-Sandfort, 2009). In the original concept of snoezelen, participants were free to explore and enjoy the experiences provided, and there were no predetermined aims or objectives, and certainly no educational or therapeutic outcomes were intended (Botts et al.; Bozic, 1997; Hogg, Cavet, Lambe, & Smeddle, 2001; Hulsegge &
Impact of Personality on Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia

Compared with the rather uniform cognitive syndrome in Alzheimer's disease (AD), behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are considerably more heterogeneous in terms of incidence, prevalence, and association with disease duration and severity of dementia (Hope et al., 1999). The neurobiologic basis of AD is obviously less of a determinant of noncognitive symptoms than of cognitive symptoms. Therefore, the possible psychological and social causes of BPSD, such as premorbid personality, should be considered. Underlying personality traits not only shape a person's response to normal aging, but also set the stage for a range of responses to age-related stress and brain disease (Agronin, 1998).
Evaluating vowel normalisation procedures: A case study on Southern Sotho vowels

Abstract Extended research has established the fact that it is difficult, if not impossible, to conduct a direct acoustic–phonetic comparison between the vowels produced by female and male speakers or groups of speakers. This is due to the effects of physiological and anatomical speaker differences on vowel formants, especially F1 and F2. A variety of computational procedures (or algorithms, methods, techniques) have been developed to allow for the normalisation of formant-frequency measures and to assist in reducing or even eliminating the consequences of speaker-specific variability, without losing information with regards to other important features, such as age and ethnicity. In the present article, eight such procedures are tested on a large data-set of Southern Sotho vowels (4 434 tokens), as produced by twelve speakers (six of each gender and balanced as to age and locality). We concentrated on the examination of two types of normalisation procedures: firstly, the vowel-extrinsic class of normalisation procedures, which requires a sampling of the entire vowel space of the language; and, secondly, the vowel-intrinsic class, the relevant procedures of which can be conducted on a single vowel or vowel class. In this study, the various procedures are evaluated by using a squared coefficient of variance (SCV) metric and then converting the results to effect sizes, in terms of d-scores. The results in all instances show Lobanov's procedure (a vowel-extrinsic, formant-intrinsic procedure) to be superior to the others, and Bark (vowel-and formant-intrinsic) to be the worst performer. In the case of vowel-extrinsic procedures, the relative strength of two procedures, both developed by Nearey, was evaluated; one of them is formant-intrinsic, the other is formant-extrinsic. All things being equal, the former, as predicted on the grounds of evaluations reported in the existing literature, turned out to be the better performer.
The First 100 Days

The first 100 days of a new senior executive appointment are fraught with multi-faceted challenges that rely on specific leadership approaches for their resolution. The purpose of this article is to (1) explore which leadership issues and initiatives most present themselves in the first 100 days of such an appointment, (2) examine the extent to which each dimension of the transformational-transactional leadership model manifests itself in the first 100 days of a new senior executive appointment in response to these issues, and (3) enhance the transformational model by examining it in terms of instructional leadership and three meta-dimensions, namely mission-centred, performance-centred and culture-centred leadership in relation to the key issues. Recommendations for replication of the study in different work environments and for practice are provided.
Development of a Real-Time qPCR Method for Detection and Enumeration of Mycobacterium spp. in Surface Water

ABSTRACT A real-time quantitative PCR method was developed for the detection and enumeration of Mycobacterium spp. from environmental samples and was compared to two other methods already described. The results showed that our method, targeting 16S rRNA, was more specific than the two previously published real-time quantitative PCR methods targeting another 16S rRNA locus and the hsp65 gene (100% versus 44% and 91%, respectively).
Image Deformation Based on Wavelet Filter and Control Curves

We provide an image deformation method based on wavelet filter using control curves and moving least squares. The image is preprocessed firstly instead of being directly deformed by the old ways. And the original image will be filtered into a high frequency part and a low frequency part by the wavelet, and then use the moving least squares and the control curves only to deform the low frequency part, but not the high frequency part. The key points are set to create control curves according to shape information or deformation requirement, and moved to new position to deform the image using moving least squares. The final result of image deformation is obtained by adding the deformed low frequency part to the high frequency part of the original image. Experiments show that the high frequency detail information is well preserved and the image shape and contour are also well described, and so the deformation results are satisfactory and realistic. DOI : http://dx.doi. org/10.11591/telkomnika.v12i5. 4390
A Novel Antibody Humanization Method Based on Epitopes Scanning and Molecular Dynamics Simulation

1-17-2 is a rat anti-human DEC-205 monoclonal antibody that induces internalization and delivers antigen to dendritic cells (DCs). The potentially clinical application of this antibody is limited by its murine origin. Traditional humanization method such as complementarity determining regions (CDRs) graft often leads to a decreased or even lost affinity. Here we have developed a novel antibody humanization method based on computer modeling and bioinformatics analysis. First, we used homology modeling technology to build the precise model of Fab. A novel epitope scanning algorithm was designed to identify antigenic residues in the framework regions (FRs) that need to be mutated to human counterpart in the humanization process. Then virtual mutation and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation were used to assess the conformational impact imposed by all the mutations. By comparing the root-mean-square deviations (RMSDs) of CDRs, we found five key residues whose mutations would destroy the original conformation of CDRs. These residues need to be back-mutated to rescue the antibody binding affinity. Finally we constructed the antibodies in vitro and compared their binding affinity by flow cytometry and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) assay. The binding affinity of the refined humanized antibody was similar to that of the original rat antibody. Our results have established a novel method based on epitopes scanning and MD simulation for antibody humanization.
Quantum Algorithms for Graph Problems A Survey

In this survey we give an overview about important methods to construct quantum algorithms and quantum lower bounds for graph problems. We show how to use these methods, and we give a summary about the quantum complexity of the most important graph problems. At the end of our paper, we give some interesting questions in this research area.
The context dependence of assortative mating: a demonstration with conspecific salmonid populations

Assortative mating is thought to play a key role in reproductive isolation. However, most experimental studies of assortative mating do not take place in multiple natural environments, and hence, they ignore its potential context dependence. We implemented an experiment in which two populations of brown trout (Salmo trutta) with different natural flow regimes were placed into semi‐natural stream channels under two different artificial flow regimes. Natural reproduction was allowed, and reproductive isolation was measured by means of parentage assignment to compare within‐population vs. between‐population male–female mating and relative offspring production. For both metrics, reproductive isolation was highly context dependent: no isolation was evident under one flow regime, but strong isolation was evident under the other flow regime. These patterns were fully driven by variance in the mating success of males from one of the two populations. Our results highlight how reproductive isolation through assortative mating can be strongly context dependent, which could have dramatic consequences for patterns of gene flow and speciation under environmental change.