Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cytokines Elevated in HIV Elite Controllers Reduce HIV Replication In Vitro and Modulate HIV Restriction Factor Expression

ABSTRACT A subset of HIV-infected individuals termed elite controllers (ECs) maintain CD4+ T cell counts and control viral replication in the absence of antiretroviral therapy (ART). Systemic cytokine responses may differentiate ECs from subjects with uncontrolled viral replication or from those who require ART to suppress viral replication. We measured 87 cytokines in four groups of women: 73 ECs, 42 with pharmacologically suppressed viremia (ART), 42 with uncontrolled viral replication (noncontrollers [NCs]), and 48 HIV-uninfected (NEG) subjects. Four cytokines were elevated in ECs but not NCs or ART subjects: CCL14, CCL21, CCL27, and XCL1. In addition, median stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) levels were 43% higher in ECs than in NCs. The combination of the five cytokines suppressed R5 and X4 virus replication in resting CD4+ T cells, and individually SDF-1β, CCL14, and CCL27 suppressed R5 virus replication, while SDF-1β, CCL21, and CCL14 suppressed X4 virus replication. Functional studies revealed that the combination of the five cytokines upregulated CD69 and CCR5 and downregulated CXCR4 and CCR7 on CD4+ T cells. The CD69 and CXCR4 effects were driven by SDF-1, while CCL21 downregulated CCR7. The combination of the EC-associated cytokines induced expression of the anti-HIV host restriction factors IFITM1 and IFITM2 and suppressed expression of RNase L and SAMHD1. These results identify a set of cytokines that are elevated in ECs and define their effects on cellular activation, HIV coreceptor expression, and innate restriction factor expression. This cytokine pattern may be a signature characteristic of HIV-1 elite control, potentially important for HIV therapeutic and curative strategies. IMPORTANCE Approximately 1% of people infected with HIV control virus replication without taking antiviral medications. These subjects, termed elite controllers (ECs), are known to have stronger immune responses targeting HIV than the typical HIV-infected subject, but the exact mechanisms of how their immune responses control infection are not known. In this study, we identified five soluble immune signaling molecules (cytokines) in the blood that were higher in ECs than in subjects with typical chronic HIV infection. We demonstrated that these cytokines can activate CD4+ T cells, the target cells for HIV infection. Furthermore, these five EC-associated cytokines could change expression levels of intrinsic resistance factors, or molecules inside the target cell that fight HIV infection. This study is significant in that it identified cytokines elevated in subjects with a good immune response against HIV and defined potential mechanisms as to how these cytokines could induce resistance to the virus in target cells.
The traveling salesman problem with cumulative costs

In this paper, we consider a special case of the time-dependent traveling salesman problem where the objective is to minimize the sum of all distances traveled from the origin to all other cities. Two exact algorithms, incorporating lower bounds provided by a Lagrangean relaxation of the problem, are presented. We also investigate a heuristic procedure derived from dynamic programming that is able to evaluate the distance from optimality of the produced solution. Computational results for a number of problems ranging from 15 to 60 cities are given. They show that problems up to 35 cities can be solved exactly and problems up to 60 cities can be solved within 3% from optimality. © 1993 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
What do we really talk about when we talk about context in pervasive computing: a review and exploratory analysis

At the heart of ubiquitous and pervasive computing is the integration of semantically rich contextual information into systems that intelligently adapt their behavior to the context. This paper presents an analysis of the contextual elements considered in the scientific discourse on pervasive computing. To support researchers with positioning their work, this paper explores how well the facets of context are represented and which context elements are particularly important in specific application domains, such as healthcare or traffic. Results suggest that context elements are considered diversely among domains. Context spreads across a long tail of heterogeneous, rather specific context elements. Potential factors explaining this high diversity relate to sensor technology, structure of context information as well as purposes and design of context-aware systems.
Effects of short‐term sex steroid suppression on dietary fat storage patterns in healthy males

Hypogonadism in males is associated with increased body fat and altered postprandial metabolism, but mechanisms remain poorly understood. Using a cross‐over study design, we investigated the effects of short‐term sex hormone suppression with or without testosterone add‐back on postprandial metabolism and the fate of dietary fat. Eleven healthy males (age: 29 ± 4.5 year; BMI: 26.3 ± 2.1 kg/m2) completed two 7‐day study phases during which hormone levels were altered pharmacologically to produce a low sex hormone condition (gonadotropin releasing hormone antagonist, aromatase inhibitor, and placebo gel) or a testosterone add‐back condition (testosterone gel). Following 7 days of therapy, subjects were administered an inpatient test meal containing 50 μCi of [1‐14C] oleic acid. Plasma samples were collected hourly for 5 h to assess postprandial responses. Energy metabolism (indirect calorimetry) and dietary fat oxidation (14CO2 in breath) were assessed at 1, 3, 5, 13.5, and 24 h following the test meal. Abdominal and femoral adipose biopsies were taken 24 h after the test meal to determine uptake of the labeled lipid. Postprandial glucose, insulin, free‐fatty acid, and triglyceride responses were not different between conditions (P > 0.05). Whole‐body energy metabolism was also not different between conditions at any time point (P > 0.05). Dietary fat oxidation trended lower (P = 0.12) and the relative uptake of 14C labeled lipid into femoral adipose tissue was greater (P = 0.03) in the low hormone condition. Short‐term hormone suppression did not affect energy expenditure or postprandial metabolism, but contributed to greater relative storage of dietary fat in the femoral depot. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03289559.
Numerical and experimental studies of high strain rate mechanical behavior of E-glass/polyester composite laminates

Quasi-static (∼10−3 s−1 ) and high strain rate (∼850 s−1 ) compression behavior of an E-glass/polyester composite was determined in the through-thickness and in-plane directions. In both directions, modulus and failure strength increased with increasing strain rate. Higher strain rate sensitivity for both elastic modulus and failure strength was observed in the inplane direction. A numerical model was developed to investigate the compressive deformation and fracture of an E-glass/polyester composite. Excellent agreement was demonstrated for the case of high strain rate loading. Also, the fracture geometries were successfully predicted with the numerical model.Copyright © 2010 by ASME
Deficits in Social Cognition: An Unveiled Signature of Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract Background and Objectives: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic progressive inflammatory disease of the central nervous system, representing the primary cause of non-traumatic disability in young adults. Cognitive dysfunction can affect patients at any time during the disease process and might alter the six core functional domains. Social cognition is a multi-component construct that includes the theory of mind, empathy and social perception of emotions from facial, bodily and vocal cues. Deficits in this cognitive faculty might have a drastic impact on interpersonal relationships and quality of life (QoL). Although exhaustive data exist for non-social cognitive functions in MS, only a little attention has been paid for social cognition. The objectives of the present work are to reappraise the definition and anatomy of social cognition and evaluate the integrity of this domain across MS studies. We will put special emphasis on neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies concerning social cognitive performance in MS. Methods:Studies were selected in conformity with PRISMA guidelines. We looked for computerized databases (PubMed, Medline, and Scopus) that index peer-reviewed journals to identify published reports in English and French languages that mention social cognition and multiple sclerosis, regardless of publication year. We combined keywords as follows: (facial emotion or facial expression or emotional facial expressions or theory of mind or social cognition or empathy or affective prosody) AND multiple sclerosis AND (MRI or functional MRI or positron emission tomography or functional imaging or structural imaging). We also scanned references from articles aiming to get additional relevant studies. Results: In total, 26 studies matched the abovementioned criteria (26 neuropsychological studies including five neuroimaging studies). Available data support the presence of social cognitive deficits even at early stages of MS. The increase in disease burden along with the “multiple disconnection syndrome” resulting from gray and white matters pathology might exceed the “threshold for cerebral tolerance” and can manifest as deficits in social cognition. Admitting the impact of the latter on patients’ social functioning, a thorough screening for such deficits is crucial to improving patients’ QoL. (JINS, 2017, 23, 266–286)
Research on on-line DGA using FTIR [power transformer insulation testing]

Electrochemical sensors and gas chromatography are widely used in online monitors for dissolved gas-in-oil of power transformers, but some fatal defects exist. In view of the many advantages of FTIR, the basics of applying it on such monitors are studied and the results are presented. Investigation shows that all the characteristic peaks needed to be analyzed can be covered if the measurable wavenumber region of the spectrometer is 720 cm/sup -1//spl sim/3400 cm/sup -1/, and the optimum optical length of the gas cell is around 150 mm. Comparative results demonstrate that absorption spectra obtained by wavelet transmission are consistent to those with their real back ground divided and are independent on spectrometers. It is concluded that such a monitor can be constructed using FTIR that can precisely detect all the diagnostic gases except hydrogen and are free of consuming gases as well as in situ calibration.
The potential role of prebiotic fibre for treatment and management of non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease and associated obesity and insulin resistance

Non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and the more severe non‐alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) represent a spectrum of diseases involving hepatic fat accumulation and histological features essentially identical to alcoholic liver disease; however, they occur in the absence of excessive alcohol intake. They typically arise in conjunction with one or more features of the metabolic syndrome. Lifestyle mediated weight loss remains the primary mode of therapy for NAFLD and NASH, but this is often ineffective and adjunctive medical and surgical treatments are presently lacking. Prebiotic fibres are a group of non‐digestible carbohydrates that modulate the human microbiota in a manner that is advantageous to host health. Rodent studies suggest that dietary supplementation with prebiotic fibres positively impacts NAFLD by modifying the gut microbiota, reducing body fat, and improving glucoregulation. Future research should focus on placebo‐controlled, human, clinical trials using histological endpoints to address the effects of prebiotics on NAFLD and NASH. The aim of this review is to summarize current knowledge about prebiotics as an emerging therapeutic target for NAFLD.
Aetiology-Specific Estimates of the Global and Regional Incidence and Mortality of Diarrhoeal Diseases Commonly Transmitted through Food

Background Diarrhoeal diseases are major contributors to the global burden of disease, particularly in children. However, comprehensive estimates of the incidence and mortality due to specific aetiologies of diarrhoeal diseases are not available. The objective of this study is to provide estimates of the global and regional incidence and mortality of diarrhoeal diseases caused by nine pathogens that are commonly transmitted through foods. Methods and Findings We abstracted data from systematic reviews and, depending on the overall mortality rates of the country, applied either a national incidence estimate approach or a modified Child Health Epidemiology Reference Group (CHERG) approach to estimate the aetiology-specific incidence and mortality of diarrhoeal diseases, by age and region. The nine diarrhoeal diseases assessed caused an estimated 1.8 billion (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 1.1–3.3 billion) cases and 599,000 (95% UI 472,000–802,000) deaths worldwide in 2010. The largest number of cases were caused by norovirus (677 million; 95% UI 468–1,153 million), enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) (233 million; 95% UI 154–380 million), Shigella spp. (188 million; 95% UI 94–379 million) and Giardia lamblia (179 million; 95% UI 125–263); the largest number of deaths were caused by norovirus (213,515; 95% UI 171,783–266,561), enteropathogenic E. coli (121,455; 95% UI 103,657–143,348), ETEC (73,041; 95% UI 55,474–96,984) and Shigella (64,993; 95% UI 48,966–92,357). There were marked regional differences in incidence and mortality for these nine diseases. Nearly 40% of cases and 43% of deaths caused by these nine diarrhoeal diseases occurred in children under five years of age. Conclusions Diarrhoeal diseases caused by these nine pathogens are responsible for a large disease burden, particularly in children. These aetiology-specific burden estimates can inform efforts to reduce diarrhoeal diseases caused by these nine pathogens commonly transmitted through foods.
Real-time implementation of H∞ controller for UAV helicopter using MATLAB-based embedded programming approach

The rapid-prototyping and deployment of flight control algorithm on a real-time embedded target has been one of the major challenges in an unmanned helicopter system development. In this paper, a MATLAB-Simulink based embedded target programming approach is presented to address this challenge. The motivation for this approach is that, since most of the computational tasks in the unmanned helicopter system, such as modeling, controller design and simulation are readily and effectively achieved within the MATLAB environment, then, extending the platform to deployment of the resulting flight algorithm onto an embedded target would greatly ease the overall developmental activities. The design and deployment of an H∞ based flight control algorithm onto an embedded target is presented for a small scale unmanned helicopter system. The results of the hardware-in-loop simulation and real-flight tests show effectiveness of the proposed approach. This is expected to facilitate and contribute towards a single-platform integrated development environment for unmanned system development.
Cloning and expression analysis of cDNAs encoding ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase large and small subunits from hulless barley (Hordeum vulgare L. var. nudum)

Abstract As an important plateau cereal crop, hulless barley is the principal food for the Tibetan people in China. ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPase) is considered as the key enzyme for starch biosynthesis in plants. In this study, cDNAs encoding the small subunit (SSU I) and large subunit (LSU I) of AGPase were isolated from hulless barley. The results showed that SSU I and LSU I were 1438 and 1786 bp in length with a complete open reading frame (ORF) of 1419 and 1572 bp. The ORF-encoded polypeptides of 472 and 523 amino acids were having calculated molecular masses of 52.01 and 58.23 kDa, and the pI values were 5.59 and 6.30. In addition, phylogenetic analysis showed that SSU I and LSU I had the same phylogenetic trends with some species. Furthermore, expression levels in different growth periods and tissues of two hulless barley varieties were analyzed by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Gene expression levels of SSU I and LSU I were consistent with the total starch accumulation rate in endosperm. In conclusion, our data confirmed that SSU I and LSU I played an important role in hulless barley starch synthesis.
Information propagation in microblog networks

Information propagation in a microblog network aims to identify a set of seed users for propagating a target message to as many interested users as possible. This problem differs from the traditional influence maximization in two major ways: it has a content-rich target message for propagation and it treats each link in the network as communication on certain topics and emphasizes the topic relevance of such communication in propagating the target message. In realistic situations, however, the topics associated with a link are not explicitly expressed but are hidden in the microblogs previously exchanged through the link. In this paper, we present a topic-aware solution to information propagation in a microblog network. We first model the latent topic structure of the network using observed microblog messages published in the network. We then present two methods for estimating the propagation probability based on the topic relevance between a link and the target message. Once the propagation probability is estimated, we adopt the standard greedy algorithm for influence maximization to find seed users. This approach is topic-aware in that the target message finds its way of propagation according to its topic relevance to the latent topic structure in the network. Experiments conducted on real Twitter datasets suggest that the proposed methods are able to select right seed users.
Research on metro risk assessment and maintenance management based on big data

The risk management and maintenance management of urban subway is very import, which can reduce or eliminate the adverse influence of risk factors and prolong the structure service. First, the framework of the safety risk assessment and maintenance management is introduced. Secondly, the process of risk assessment management is given according to the different risk characteristics during the construction and operation phases. Finally, according to the metro safety standard, the expert system based on JESS is proposed to automatically provide the best maintenance strategy.
The Contribution of Nanotechnology for Removal of Water Pollutants

The use of nanosized semiconductor particles in various forms for the photocatalytic degradation of pollutants has been discussed. The aim of this review is to provide a critical analysis of various reports on the degradation of pollutants by various semiconductor nanomaterials. It has been shown that self-organized one-dimensional nanotube matrix creates a better opportunity to remove pollutants more efficiently than the randomly oriented nanoparticles. The use of metal doping and mixed semiconductor systems has also been analyzed. Although large improvements in the present technology are required, the review points to focus on the advantages of nanomaterials compared to bulk materials in efficient purification of water.
Increased Sleep Spindle Activity in Patients With Costello Syndrome (HRAS Gene Mutation)

Summary: Costello syndrome is a congenital disorder because of HRAS gene mutation, frequently associated with neurologic impairment and sleep disorders. The aims of the study were to evaluate the sleep EEG, and particularly the sleep spindles, in a population of patients with Costello syndrome and to compare them with those characterizing unaffected subjects. Eleven subjects (5 men and 6 women) with Costello syndrome were included in the study; age ranged between 18 months and 31 years (mean, 9.6 ± 9.4 years). The diagnosis was posed on the basis of established clinical criteria and confirmed molecularly. Sleep EEG was studied by means of full-night, laboratory-based video–polysomnography, performed overnight, during hospitalization. Sleep activity was quantified by means of power spectral analysis. Patients heterozygous for an HRAS mutation exhibited increased EEG power in 12- to 15-Hz activity band compared with age-matched control subjects. In conclusion, the authors observed a consistent increase in the amplitude of cortical sleep spindles in all our subjects with an HRAS mutation. These “giant” spindles were not associated with any evidence of structural damage of the cortex or the thalami and should be considered as phenotypic feature of sleep EEG activity in Costello syndrome because of HRAS mutation.
A cortically-inspired model for inverse kinematics computation of a humanoid finger with mechanically coupled joints

The human hand’s versatility allows for robust and flexible grasping. To obtain such efficiency, many robotic hands include human biomechanical features such as fingers having their two last joints mechanically coupled. Although such coupling enables human-like grasping, controlling the inverse kinematics of such mechanical systems is challenging. Here we propose a cortical model for fine motor control of a humanoid finger, having its two last joints coupled, that learns the inverse kinematics of the effector. This neural model functionally mimics the population vector coding as well as sensorimotor prediction processes of the brain’s motor/premotor and parietal regions, respectively. After learning, this neural architecture could both overtly (actual execution) and covertly (mental execution or motor imagery) perform accurate, robust and flexible finger movements while reproducing the main human finger kinematic states. This work contributes to developing neuro-mimetic controllers for dexterous humanoid robotic/prosthetic upper-extremities, and has the potential to promote human–robot interactions.