Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Highly Focused Antigen Receptor Repertoire Characterizes γδ T Cells That are Poised to Make IL-17 Rapidly in Naive Animals

Interleukin (IL)-17 plays a key role in immunity. In acute infections, a rapid IL-17 response must be induced without prior antigen exposure, and γδ T cells are the major initial IL-17 producers. In fact, some γδ T cells make IL-17 within hours after an immune challenge. These cells appear to acquire the ability to respond to IL-1 and IL-23 and to make IL-17 naturally in naïve animals. They are known as the natural Tγδ17 (nTγδ17) cells. The rapidity of the nTγδ17 response, and the apparent lack of explicit T cell receptor (TCR) engagement for its induction have led to the view that this is a cytokine (IL-1, IL-23)-mediated response. However, pharmacological inhibition or genetic defects in TCR signaling drastically reduce the nTγδ17 response and/or their presence. To better understand antigen recognition in this rapid IL-17 response, we analyzed the antigen receptor repertoire of IL-1R+/IL-23R+ γδ T cells, a proxy for nTγδ17 cells in naïve animals directly ex vivo, using a barcode-enabled high throughput single-cell TCR sequence analysis. We found that regardless of their anatomical origin, these cells have a highly focused TCR repertoire. In particular, the TCR sequences have limited V gene combinations, little or no junctional diversity and much reduced or no N region diversity. In contrast, IL-23R− cells at mucosal sites similar to most of the splenic γδ T cells and small intestine epithelial γδ lymphocytes expressed diverse TCRs. This remarkable commonality and restricted repertoire of IL-1R+/IL-23R+ γδ T cells underscores the importance of antigen recognition in their establishment/function.
DNA Adenine Methyltransferase Influences the Virulence of Aeromonas hydrophila

ABSTRACT Among the various virulence factors produced by Aeromonas hydrophila, a type II secretion system (T2SS)-secreted cytotoxic enterotoxin (Act) and the T3SS are crucial in the pathogenesis of Aeromonas-associated infections. Our laboratory molecularly characterized both Act and the T3SS from a diarrheal isolate, SSU of A. hydrophila, and defined the role of some regulatory genes in modulating the biological effects of Act. In this study, we cloned, sequenced, and expressed the DNA adenine methyltransferase gene of A. hydrophila SSU (damAhSSU) in a T7 promoter-based vector system using Escherichia coli ER2566 as a host strain, which could alter the virulence potential of A. hydrophila. Recombinant Dam, designated as M.AhySSUDam, was produced as a histidine-tagged fusion protein and purified from an E. coli cell lysate using nickel affinity chromatography. The purified Dam had methyltransferase activity, based on its ability to transfer a methyl group from S-adenosyl-l-methionine to N6-methyladenine-free lambda DNA and to protect methylated lambda DNA from digestion with DpnII but not against the DpnI restriction enzyme. The dam gene was essential for the viability of the bacterium, and overproduction of Dam in A. hydrophila SSU, using an arabinose-inducible, PBAD promoter-based system, reduced the virulence of this pathogen. Specifically, overproduction of M.AhySSUDam decreased the motility of the bacterium by 58%. Likewise, the T3SS-associated cytotoxicity, as measured by the release of lactate dehydrogenase enzyme in murine macrophages infected with the Dam-overproducing strain, was diminished by 55% compared to that of a control A. hydrophila SSU strain harboring the pBAD vector alone. On the contrary, cytotoxic and hemolytic activities associated with Act as well as the protease activity in the culture supernatant of a Dam-overproducing strain were increased by 10-, 3-, and 2.4-fold, respectively, compared to those of the control A. hydrophila SSU strain. The Dam-overproducing strain was not lethal to mice (100% survival) when given by the intraperitoneal route at a dose twice that of the 50% lethal dose, which within 2 to 3 days killed 100% of the animals inoculated with the A. hydrophila control strain. Taken together, our data indicated alteration of A. hydrophila virulence by overproduction of Dam.
Recurrence Quantification Analysis on Gait Reaction Forces of Elderly Adults for Determination of Pathological States

A better classification between patients with parkinson disease and healthy adults is of great importance for clinicians and directly affects the selection of treatment method, the adjustment of medication dose, or even the decision about a dopaminergic therapy. Clinicians widely use semi-objective/subjective assessments in order to be able to differ patients from healthy adults. Here, to make an objective classification between two distinct groups (healthy/patient), we apply a powerful method, recurrence quantification analysis, on data including trajectory behavior of gait reaction forces with long length collected from elderly patients with Parkinson disease and healthy adults as they walk. We show that the complexity measures of the quantification analysis, determinism, entropy and divergence, behave different for two distinct groups (healthy/patients) and may be used for an objective classification.
Effect of Oxidative Aging on the Engineering Properties of DGAMs

Short and long term aging were conducted on the dense graded asphalt mixtures (DGAMs) containing 40-50 penetration grade asphalt cement binders. The short term oven aging (STOA) was conducted on loose mixtures at temperature of 135 °C for four hours and at temperature of 154 °C for two hours, whereas, the long term oven aging (LTOA) was conducted at temperature of 85 °C and at two periods of time between four and eight days. Marshall properties, tensile and compressive strength at 25 and 60°C, flexural strength at 0 and -10°C, cohesion at 60°C, tensile strength ratio, and index of retained strength were carried out on unaged and aged DGAM. A mechanistic-empirical design approach using BISAR program was adopted for estimating the improvement in service life of the pavement or reduction in thickness of DGAM and base layer for the same service life due to the aging of DGAM. The results showed that the STOA and LTOA: (1) increases resistance of DGAM against permanent deformation, stripping, and flexural strength; (2) increases traffic benefit ratio between 10 and 20%; (3) reduces the thickness of the surface layer between 8 and 14%; and (4) the base thickness reduces between 35% and 57%.
Women, anxiety and mood: a review of nomenclature, comorbidity and epidemiology

Women experience a high prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders, and comorbidity of mood and anxiety disorders is highly prevalent. Both mood and anxiety disorders disturb sleep, attention and, thereby, cognitive function. They result in a variety of somatic complaints. The mood disorder continuum includes minor depression, dysthymia, major depression and bipolar disorder. Chronobiological disorders, such as seasonal affective disorder as well as premenstrual dysphoric disorder, occur in some women, with comorbid seasonal affective disorder and premenstrual dysphoric disorder in just under half of these individuals 1. Early life experience, heritability, gender, other psychiatric illness, stress and trauma all interact dynamically in the development of mood and anxiety disorders. The epidemiology, nomenclature and clinical diagnostic issues of these illnesses in midlife woman are reviewed.
SUPPORTING ARGUMENT IN E-DEMOCRACY

Methods of argument representation can be exploited in systems for edemocracy. In this paper we discuss a particular method of argument representation, known as an argumentation scheme, and some issues concerning the relations between arguments represented using such schemes. We show how this method of argument representation has been implemented in a practical system designed for the public to critique policy proposals.
Developmental and evolutionary significance of the mandibular arch and prechordal/premandibular cranium in vertebrates: revising the heterotopy scenario of gnathostome jaw evolution

The cephalic neural crest produces streams of migrating cells that populate pharyngeal arches and a more rostral, premandibular domain, to give rise to an extensive ectomesenchyme in the embryonic vertebrate head. The crest cells forming the trigeminal stream are the major source of the craniofacial skeleton; however, there is no clear distinction between the mandibular arch and the premandibular domain in this ectomesenchyme. The question regarding the evolution of the gnathostome jaw is, in part, a question about the differentiation of the mandibular arch, the rostralmost component of the pharynx, and in part a question about the developmental fate of the premandibular domain. We address the developmental definition of the mandibular arch in connection with the developmental origin of the trabeculae, paired cartilaginous elements generally believed to develop in the premandibular domain, and also of enigmatic cartilaginous elements called polar cartilages. Based on comparative embryology, we propose that the mandibular arch ectomesenchyme in gnathostomes can be defined as a Dlx1‐positive domain, and that the polar cartilages, which develop from the Dlx1‐negative premandibular ectomesenchyme, would represent merely posterior parts of the trabeculae. We also show, in the lamprey embryo, early migration of mandibular arch mesenchyme into the premandibular domain, and propose an updated version of the heterotopy theory on the origin of the jaw.
Higher education, career opportunities, and intergenerational inequality

The UK government has expressed a desire to increase social mobility, with policies to help achieve this aim focused on reducing inequalities in educational attainment. This paper draws together established and new information about the contribution that higher education can make to social mobility using a life-course approach, considering differences by family background in terms of university attendance and achievement, as well as occupation and earnings following graduation. We find substantial socio-economic differences at each stage. Young people from poorer backgrounds are, on average, less likely to go to university than their richer peers. Even among the selected group who do go to university, they are less likely to attend the highest status institutions, less likely to graduate, and less likely to achieve the highest degree classes. These differences in degree outcomes contribute to the lower average earnings of graduates from poorer families, but earnings differentials go well beyond those driven purely by degree attainment or institution attended. The evidence strongly suggests that, even after taking these factors into account, graduates from affluent families are more likely to obtain a professional job and to see higher earnings growth in the labour market. We discuss the implications of these findings for the prospects of higher education as a route to greater social mobility.
Topology-aware PEX for improving BitTorrent

In this letter, we propose one easily deployable traffic localization technique, tPEX for BitTorrent. Using peer exchange (PEX) of BitTorrent, tPEX injects a set of local peers to the local peers in the target network domain so that they realize the traffic localization. Through simulations, we show that, in AS with 200 simultaneous local peers, tPEX enables the local peers to download around 60% of content within the same AS. The traffic localization by tPEX also improves the download performance by 45%. Even in AS with 13 simultaneous local peers, tPEX enables the local peers to download around 35% of content within the same AS and improves the download performance by 17%.
The Prevalence of Parasitic Human Intestinal Helminthes and the Efficacy of Anthelmintic Drug in Children in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area, Enugu State, Nigeria

Introduction: A study on the current status of parasitic intestinal helminthes and the efficacy of anthelmintic drug was carried out among primary school pupils at Community Primary School Ogurugu, Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area, Enugu State. Objectives: The research was conducted in order to determine the prevalence of human intestinal helminthes among primary school pupils, and also to determine the prevalence in relation to age and sex, and to check the efficacy of anthelmintic drug (Levamisole) on the worms, in Ogurugu Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area, Enugu State, Nigeria. Methods: A total of 242 faecal samples were collected randomly from the school children and analyzed using standard parasitological procedures. Results: Data obtained showed an overall prevalence of 143 (59.1%) out of 242 samples and that the efficacy of anthelmintic drug Ergamisole? (Levamisole R12564; Unicure Pvt.ltd India) 50 mg in reducing the worm burden was 99 (82.5%) in 120 samples treated. Age related prevalence and efficacy of anthelmintic varied across the sample groups. There was no significant difference in sex related infections in the sample group (P > 0.5). The efficacy of the drug reduces with the increase in age. Also the efficacy of Levamisole drug in reducing the worm burden were hookworm 59 (89.5%), Ascaris 24 (85.7%), Trichuris 26 (78.6%) while Taenia and Strongyloides showed drug resistance. This indicates that a single dose of the medication is not enough for total elimination of these endo parasites. Conclusion: The study revealed that poor hygienic practices as well as unsanitary conditions were responsible for high prevalence recorded in the area, and advocated health education through primary health care and mass deworming of primary school children as control measures.
Colour Image Segmentation: A Survey

Image segmentation, i.e., identi cation of homogeneous regions in the image, has been the subject of considerable research activity over the last three decades. Many algorithms have been elaborated for gray scale images. However, the problem of segmentation for colour images, which convey much more information about objects in scenes, has received much less attention of scienti c community. While several surveys of monochrome image segmentation techniques were published, similar comprehensive surveys for colour images, to our knowledge, did not emerge. This report contains: an extensive survey of algorithms for colour image segmentation, a categorization of them according well de ned list of attributes, suggestions for their improvements, and descriptions of few novel approaches.
MARKOV CHAIN AND HIDDEN MARKOV MODEL

Figure 1. Finite state machine for a Markov chain X0 → X1 → X2 → · · · → Xn where the random variables Xi’s take values from I = {S1, S2, S3}. The numbers T (i, j)’s on the arrows are the transition probabilities such that Tij = P (Xt+1 = Sj|Xt = Si). Definition 1.2. We say that (Xn)n≥0 is a Markov chain with initial distribution λ and transition matrix T if (i) X0 has distribution λ; (ii) for n ≥ 0, conditional on Xn = i, Xn+1 has distribution (Tij : j ∈ I) and is independent of X0, . , Xn−1. By the Markov property we have P (X0, . . . , Xn) = P (X0)P (X1|X0) · · ·P (Xn|X0, . . . , Xn−1) (1)
A Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews and Panoramic Meta-Analysis: Staples versus Sutures for Surgical Procedures

Objective To systematically evaluate the evidence across surgical specialties as to whether staples or sutures better improve patient and provider level outcomes. Design A systematic review of systematic reviews and panoramic meta-analysis of pooled estimates. Results Eleven systematic reviews, including 13,661 observations, met the inclusion criteria. In orthopaedic surgery sutures were found to be preferable, and for appendicial stump sutures were protective against both surgical site infection and post surgical complications. However, staples were protective against leak in ilecolic anastomosis. For all other surgery types the evidence was inconclusive with wider confidence intervals including the possibly of preferential outcomes for surgical site infection or post surgical complication for either staples or sutures. Whilst reviews showed substantial variation in mean differences in operating time (I2 94%) there was clear evidence of a reduction in average operating time across all surgery types. Few reviews reported on length of stay, but the three reviews that did (I2 0%, including 950 observations) showed a non significant reduction in length of stay, but showed evidence of publication bias (P-value for Egger test 0.05). Conclusions Evidence across surgical specialties indicates that wound closure with staples reduces the mean operating time. Despite including several thousand observations, no clear evidence of superiority emerged for either staples or sutures with respect to surgical site infection, post surgical complications, or length of stay.
Robustness of Visual Place Cells in Dynamic Indoor and Outdoor Environment

In this paper, a model of visual place cells (PCs) based on precise neurobiological data is presented. The robustness of the model in real indoor and outdoor environments is tested. Results show that the interplay between neurobiological modelling and robotic experiments can promote the understanding of the neural structures and the achievement of robust robot navigation algorithms. Short Term Memory (STM), soft competition and sparse coding are important for both landmark identification and computation of PC activities. The extension of the paradigm to outdoor environments has confirmed the robustness of the vision-based model and pointed to improvements in order to further foster its performance.
Grounded lexicon acquisition — Case studies in spatial language

This paper discusses grounded acquisition experiments of increasing complexity. Humanoid robots acquire English spatial lexicons from robot tutors. We identify how various spatial language systems, such as projective, absolute and proximal can be learned. The proposed learning mechanisms do not rely on direct meaning transfer or direct access to world models of interlocutors. Finally, we show how multiple systems can be acquired at the same time.
Partial Equalization of Non-Minimum-Phase Impulse Responses

We propose a modified version of the standard homomorphic method to design a minimum-phase inverse filter for non-minimum-phase impulse responses equalization. In the proposed approach some of the dominant poles of the filter transfer function are replaced by new ones before carrying out the inverse DFT. This method is useful when partial magnitude equalization is intended. Results for an impulse response measured in the car interior show that by using the modified version we can control the sound quality more precisely than when using the standard method.
Specification and evaluation of machine translation toy systems - criteria for laboratory assignments

Implementation of machine translation “toy” systems is a good practical exercise especially for computer science students. Our aim in a series of courses on MT in 2002 was to make students familiar both with typical problems of Machine Translation in particular and natural language processing in general, as well as with software implementation. In order to simulate a software implementation proc- ess as realistic as possible, we introduced more than 20 evaluation criteria to be filled by the students when they evaluated their own products. The criteria go far beyond such “toy” systems, but they should demonstrate the students, what a real software evaluation means, and which are the particularities of Machine Translation Evaluation.
Characterization Non-Deterministic of Optical Channels

Abstract—The use of optical technologies in the telecommunications has been increasing due to its ability to transmit large amounts of data over long distances. However, as in all systems of data transmission, optical communication channels suffer from undesirable and non-deterministic effects, being essential to know the same. Thus, this research allows the assessment of these effects, as well as their characterization and beneficial uses of these effects.
Blending multiple views

Current blending methods in image-based rendering use local information such as "deviations from the closest views" to find blending weights. They include approaches such as the view-dependent texture mapping and blending fields used in unstructured lumigraph rendering. However, in the presence of depth discontinuities, these techniques do not provide smooth transitions in the target image if the intensities of corresponding pixels in the source images are significantly different (e.g. due to specular highlights). In this paper, we present an image blending technique that allows the use of global visibility and occlusion constraints. Each blending weight now has a global component and a local component, which are due to the view-independent and view-dependent contributions of the source images, respectively. Being view-independent, the global components can be computed in a preprocessing stage. Traditional graphics hardware is exploited to accelerate the computation of the global blending weights.
Supporting Spectators in Online Multiplayer Games

We examine network support for spectators in online multiplayer games. We consider how the associated challenges are different from those in traditional audio/video streaming. Specifically, we consider two problems: spectating (distributing the gaming stream reliably to spectators, who may outnumber the players by several orders of magnitude) and cheering (delivering the spectators’ audio cheers to the players as well as to other spectators). We point out the many unique challenges and opportunities for optimization that arise in this context in terms of resilience, bandwidth adaptation, and dynamically varying user interest. We outline a solution based on overlay networking and quantify some of our design arguments with a preliminary evaluation of Quake III, a popular first-person shooting game.
Escherichia coli gpt gene provides dominant selection for vaccinia virus open reading frame expression vectors

Mycophenolic acid, an inhibitor of purine metabolism, was shown to block the replication of vaccinia virus in normal cell lines. This observation led to the development of a dominant one-step plaque selection system, based on expression of the Escherichia coli gpt gene, for the isolation of recombinant vaccinia viruses. Synthesis of xanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase enabled only the recombinant viruses to form large plaques in a selective medium containing mycophenolic acid, xanthine, and hypoxanthine. To utilize the selection system efficiently, we constructed a series of plasmids that contain the E. coli gpt gene and allow insertion of foreign genes into multiple unique restriction endonuclease sites in all three reading frames between the translation initiation codon of a strong late promoter and synthetic translation termination sequences. The selection-expression cassette is flanked by vaccinia virus DNA that directs homologous recombination into the virus genome. The new vectors allow high-level expression of complete or partial open reading frames and rapid construction of recombinant viruses by facilitating the cloning steps and by simplifying their isolation. The system was tested by cloning the E. coli beta-galactosidase gene; in 24 h, this enzyme accounted for approximately 3.5% of the total infected-cell protein.