Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inotodiol From Inonotus obliquus Chaga Mushroom Induces Atypical Maturation in Dendritic Cells

Dendritic cells (DCs) have the ability to stimulate naïve T cells that coordinate subsequent adaptive response toward an inflammatory response or tolerance depending on the DC differentiation level. Inotodiol, a lanostane triterpenoid found in Inonotus obliquus (wild Chaga mushroom), is a natural compound with a wide range of biological activities. In this study, we investigated whether inotodiol promotes the maturation of bone marrow-derived DCs (BMDCs) and inotodiol-treated BMDCs induce T cell activation. Inotodiol increased the expression of surface maturation markers, including MHC-I, MHC-II, CD86, and CD40, on BMDCs without affecting the production of various cytokines, including TNF-α and IL-12p40 in these cells. T cells primed with inotodiol-treated BMDCs proliferated and produced IL-2, without producing other cytokines, including IL-12p40 and IFN-γ. Injection of inotodiol into mice induced maturation of splenic DCs and IL-2 production, and the administration of inotodiol and inotodiol-treated BMDCs induced the proliferation of adoptively transferred CD8+ T cells in vivo. The phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase inhibitor wortmannin abrogated the upregulation of Akt phosphorylation and CD86 and MHC-II expression induced by inotodiol. However, inotodiol failed to induce phosphorylation of the IκB kinase and degradation of IκB-α, and increased expression of CD86 induced by inotodiol was not blocked by an IκB kinase inhibitor. These results suggest that inotodiol induces a characteristic type of maturation in DCs through phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase activation independent of NF-κB, and inotodiol-treated DCs enhance T cell proliferation and IL-2 secretion.
Subject-Independent Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy-Based Brain–Computer Interfaces Based on Convolutional Neural Networks

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has attracted increasing attention in the field of brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) owing to their advantages such as non-invasiveness, user safety, affordability, and portability. However, fNIRS signals are highly subject-specific and have low test-retest reliability. Therefore, individual calibration sessions need to be employed before each use of fNIRS-based BCI to achieve a sufficiently high performance for practical BCI applications. In this study, we propose a novel deep convolutional neural network (CNN)-based approach for implementing a subject-independent fNIRS-based BCI. A total of 18 participants performed the fNIRS-based BCI experiments, where the main goal of the experiments was to distinguish a mental arithmetic task from an idle state task. Leave-one-subject-out cross-validation was employed to evaluate the average classification accuracy of the proposed subject-independent fNIRS-based BCI. As a result, the average classification accuracy of the proposed method was reported to be 71.20 ± 8.74%, which was higher than the threshold accuracy for effective BCI communication (70%) as well as that obtained using conventional shrinkage linear discriminant analysis (65.74 ± 7.68%). To achieve a classification accuracy comparable to that of the proposed subject-independent fNIRS-based BCI, 24 training trials (of approximately 12 min) were necessary for the traditional subject-dependent fNIRS-based BCI. It is expected that our CNN-based approach would reduce the necessity of long-term individual calibration sessions, thereby enhancing the practicality of fNIRS-based BCIs significantly.
Comprehensive Analysis of Ferroptosis Regulators in Lung Adenocarcinomas Identifies Prognostic and Immunotherapy-Related Biomarkers

Ferroptosis is a newly discovered type of programmed cell death that differs from canonical apoptosis. However, the potential role of ferroptosis in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) has not been elaborated. In total, 1,328 samples from databases and 36 ferroptosis regulators were included in this study. By combining random survival forest and principal component analysis algorithms, a robust prognostic ferroptosis-related risk score (FRRS) was constructed, and the performance was validated in three independent datasets. Based on the median risk score, two subgroups were identified. Then, comparisons, including of mutational profiles, functional enrichment analyses and immune components, were conducted between subgroups. An immunotherapy cohort was applied to explore potential therapeutic-related biomarkers. Finally, the clinical utility of FRRS was validated in a proteomic cohort. In the TCGA-LUAD cohort, FRRS was calculated using the expression of 11 selected genes, and patients with high FRRS had a significantly (p < 0.001) worse prognosis than those with low FRRS. Multivariate regression suggested that FRRS was an independent prognostic factor. Functional enrichment analysis indicated that FRRS was mainly involved in cell cycle, metabolic and immune-related pathways. Furthermore, FRRS was shown to be significantly (p < 0.001) associated with the abundance of CD8 T cells and tumor mutation burden (TMB). The combination of TMB and FANCD2 expression, the main contributor to FRRS, substantially increased the precision of predicting the therapeutic response. In conclusion, the present study revealed the potential role of ferroptosis regulators in LUAD and identified ferroptosis-related biomarkers for prognostic and immunotherapeutic predictions.
Exploitation Histories of Pangolins and Endemic Pheasants on Hainan Island, China: Baselines and Shifting Social Norms

Overexploitation is a critical threat to the survival of many species. The global demand for wildlife products has attracted considerable research attention, but regional species exploitation histories are more rarely investigated. We interviewed 169 villagers living around seven terrestrial nature reserves on Hainan Island, China, with the aim of reconstructing historical patterns of hunting and consumption of local wildlife, including the globally threatened Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) and Hainan peacock-pheasant (Polyplectron katsumatae), from the mid-20th century onwards. We aimed to better understand the relationship between these past activities and current consumption patterns. Our findings suggest that eating pangolin meat was not a traditional behaviour in Hainan, with past consumption prohibited by local myths about pangolins. In contrast, local consumption of peacock-pheasant meat was a traditional activity. However, later attitudes around hunting pangolins and peacock-pheasants in Hainan were influenced by pro-hunting policies and a state-run wildlife trade from the 1960s to the 1980s. These new social norms still shape the daily lifestyles and perceptions of local people towards wildlife consumption in Hainan today. Due to these specific historical patterns of wildlife consumption, local-adapted interventions such as promoting substitute meat choices and alternative livelihoods might be effective at tackling local habits of consuming wild meat. Our study highlights the importance of understanding the local historical contexts of wildlife use for designing appropriate conservation strategies.
Reinforcement learning vs. rule-based adaptive traffic signal control: A Fourier basis linear function approximation for traffic signal control

Reinforcement learning is an efficient, widely used machine learning technique that performs well when the state and action spaces have a reasonable size. This is rarely the case regarding control-related problems, as for instance controlling traffic signals. Here, the state space can be very large. In order to deal with the curse of dimensionality, a rough discretization of such space can be employed. However, this is effective just up to a certain point. A way to mitigate this is to use techniques that generalize the state space such as function approximation. In this paper, a linear function approximation is used. Specifically, SARSA ( λ ) with Fourier basis features is implemented to control traffic signals in the agent-based transport simulation MATSim. The results are compared not only to trivial controllers such as fixed-time, but also to state-of-the-art rule-based adaptive methods. It is concluded that SARSA ( λ ) with Fourier basis features is able to outperform such methods, especially in scenarios with varying traffic demands or unexpected events.
RASSLE: Return Address Stack based Side-channel LEakage

Microarchitectural attacks on computing systems often stem from simple artefacts in the underlying architecture. In this paper, we focus on the Return Address Stack (RAS), a small hardware stack present in modern processors to reduce the branch miss penalty by storing the return addresses of each function call. The RAS is useful to handle specifically the branch predictions for the RET instructions which are not accurately predicted by the typical branch prediction units. In particular, we envisage a spy process who crafts an overflow condition in the RAS by filling it with arbitrary return addresses, and wrestles with a concurrent process to establish a timing side channel between them. We call this attack principle, RASSLE 1 (Return Address Stack based Side-channel Leakage), which an adversary can launch on modern processors by first reverse engineering the RAS using a generic methodology exploiting the established timing channel. Subsequently, we show three concrete attack scenarios: i) How a spy can establish a covert channel with another co-residing process? ii) How RASSLE can be utilized to determine the secret key of the P-384 curves in OpenSSL (v1.1.1 library)? iii) How an Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) secret key on P-256 curve of OpenSSL can be revealed using Lattice Attack on partially leaked nonces with the aid of RASSLE? In this attack, we show that the OpenSSL implementation of scalar multiplication on this curve has varying number of add-and-sub function calls, which depends on the secret scalar bits. We demonstrate through several experiments that the number of add-and-sub function calls can be used to template the secret bit, which can be picked up by the spy using the principles of RASSLE. Finally, we demonstrate a full end-to-end attack on OpenSSL ECDSA using curve parameters of curve P-256. In this part of our experiments with RASSLE, we abuse the deadline scheduler policy to attain perfect synchronization between the spy and victim, without any aid of induced synchronization from the victim code. This synchronization and timing leakage through RASSLE is sufficient to retrieve the Most Significant Bits (MSB) of the ephemeral nonces used while signature generation, from which we subsequently retrieve the secret signing key of the sender applying the Hidden Number Problem. 1RASSLE is a non-standard spelling for wrestle.
Aplicação de calcário e culturas de cobertura na implantação do sistema plantio direto em cerrado

The objective of this study was to evaluate soil correction in the implantation of the no-till system in an Oxisol of the Cerrado, Selviria - MS, Brazil (20o 22´ S, 51o 22´ W). The treatments consisted of five lime application forms, in only one or split rates and two cover crops. Liming without incorporation, independent of the application form, corrected soil acidity and increased Ca and Mg levels in the 0-0.05 m layer; in the other layers these attributes were not significantly changed. Limestone incorporation in the layer 0-0.2 m, uniformly modified the values of soil pH, Ca, Mg and sum of bases to a depth of 0.2 m. Sorghum as cover crop led to higher Ca, Mg concentrations, when liming was split in three applications.
Fundamentals of the hydrodynamic mechanism of splitting in dispersion processes

The splitting of globules is an important phenomenon during the final stages of disintegration processes. Three basic types of deformation of globules and six types of flow patterns causing them are distinguished. The forces controlling deformation and breakup comprise two dimensionless groups: a Weber group NWe and a viscosity group NVi. Breakup occurs when NWe exceeds a critical value (NWe)crit. Three cases are studied in greater detail: (a) Taylor's experiments on the breakup of a drop in simple types of viscous flow, (b) breakup of a drop in an air stream, (c) emulsification in a turbulent flow. It is shown that (NWe)crit depends on the type of deformation and on the flow pattern around the globule. For case (a) (NWe)crit shows a minimum value ∼ 0.5 at a certain value of (NVi) and seems to increase indefinitely with either decreasing or increasing ratio between the viscosites of the two phases. For case (b) (NWe)crit varies between 13 and ∞, depending on NVi and on the way in which the relative air velocity varies with time, the lowest value refers to the true shock case and Nvi→0. For case (c) (NWe)crit, which determines the maximum drop size in the emulsion, amounts to ∼1, and the corresponding values of NVi appear to be small. A formula is derived for the maximum drop size.
Factors Predicting the Outcome of Stevens–Johnson Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis: A 5-Year Retrospective Study

Background: Clinicodemographic and laboratory parameters predicting the outcome of Stevens–Johnson syndrome (SJS)/toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) may vary among populations owing to genotypic and environmental variations. There is a scarcity of studies evaluating these parameters in Indian population. Aims: To analyze clinicodemographic and laboratory parameters predicting disease outcome in patients of SJS/TEN. Materials and Methods: Clinical records of patients admitted with a diagnosis of SJS/TEN from January 2014 to December 2018 were reviewed retrospectively with respect to data pertaining to clinicodemographic details, laboratory parameters, and disease outcome. Results: Of 51 patients included in the study, 24 (47.06%) were females. Anticonvulsants [phenytoin (19.6%), carbamazepine (13.7%), others (5.88%)] were the most commonly implicated drugs followed by NSAIDs (19.6%). The overall mortality was 21.6% [SJS (0%), SJS-TEN overlap (18.8%), and TEN (28.6%)]. The mean detached body surface area (BSA) (35.4% ± 10.4% vs. 25.7% ± 11.8%; P = 0.02) was significantly higher among patients with mortality. Blood urea nitrogen, serum HCO3− levels, and random blood sugar were significantly associated with mortality. Presence of sepsis during the disease course was associated with higher mortality (9/12 vs. 2/39; P = 0.001). Other components of SCORTEN like age and heart rate were not significantly associated with poor outcome in our study. None of our patients had associated malignancy. Conclusion: A higher detached BSA, presence of sepsis, higher blood urea nitrogen and random blood sugar, and lower serum HCO3− levels were associated with mortality. Refinement of scoring systems predicting the outcome of SJS-TEN is needed for better disease prognostication.
Early Quantification of Salivary Gland Function after Radioiodine Therapy

Purpose of the Study: Radioiodine (I-131) is used as an effective noninvasive treatment for thyroid malignancies. Salivary gland is one of the most affected nontarget organs. The present study aims to perform early quantification of salivary gland function after I-131 therapy (RIT) for thyroid cancer considering I-131 down-scatter in the Tc-99m window. Materials and Methods: A total of 20 patients (6 males and 14 females) with differentiated thyroid carcinoma were enrolled in the study. Baseline dynamic salivary scintigraphy was performed in all patients using 185–370 MBq (5–10 mCi) Tc-99m pertechnetate. Posttherapy, salivary scintigraphy was performed 10–25 days after RIT in the range of 1.85–7.4 GBq (50–200 mCi). Time–activity curves obtained from the pre- and posttherapy dynamic salivary scintigraphy were used for semi-quantitative analysis. Uptake ratio (UR), ejection fraction (EF%), and maximum accumulation (MA%) were calculated by drawing regions of interest of individual parotid and submandibular glands over a composite image, after correcting for down-scatter from I-131 in the Tc-99m window. A paired t-test was used for comparison of the parameters obtained. Results: Significant changes were observed in UR and EF% of both parotid and submandibular glands (P < 0.05). No significant changes were found in the value of MA% of left parotid gland and both submandibular glands in the posttherapy scans in comparison to pretherapy scans (P > 0.05). However, significant difference was observed in the MA% of the right parotid gland (P = 0.025). Conclusion: Salivary gland function was found to deteriorate after RIT, with the parotid glands affected more than the submandibular glands.
Excitation-Sculptured Indirect-Detection Experiment (EXSIDE) for Long-Range CH Coupling-Constant Measurement

A new pulse sequence (excitation-sculpturedindirect-detectionexperiment, EXSIDE) for measuring long-range heteronuclear coupling constants has been proposed. The experiment is a band-selective variant of the gradient–HSQC experiment. The initial polarization transfer from1H to13C and the refocusing of the antiphase1H magnetization after the back-transfer from13C to1H is unmodulated by any passive homonuclear couplings. This is achieved by a variation of the double pulse-field-gradient spin-echo technique. The sequence provides pure absorptive lineshapes, and long-range heteronuclear coupling constants areJ-scaled and measured along theF1(carbon) dimension. Unlike methods where the heteronuclear couplings are extracted along theF2(proton) dimension with overlapping homonuclear couplings, in the EXSIDE spectrum the active coupling constant is measured with no interference from any passive couplings. As long as one can group subsets of resonances that are not coupled to each other, the method can be used with multifrequency selection. The applicability of the experiment to measurenJCHis demonstrated using strychnine. The unique chemical-shift region of anomeric protons in oligosaccharides and the H1′ protons in oligonucleotides makes this method easily applicable for measuring long-range CH coupling constants across the glycosidic bond.
Preparation of PbZrO3/ASO4 Composites (A = Ca, Sr, Ba) and PbZrO3 by Metathetic Reactions in the Solid State: Metathetic Exchange of Divalent Species

Metathetic solid-state reactions of alkaline earth perovskite zirconates (AZrO3, A = Ca, Sr, Ba) and lead sulfate (PbSO4) result in the relatively quick formation of perovskite PbZrO3 and the corresponding alkaline earth sulfate ASO4 at temperatures as low as 1023 K. The product can be described as a composite dispersion of small (<300 nm) particles of PbZrO3 on larger crystals of the alkaline earth sulfates. The solid-state reaction at 973 K between ZrO2, PbSO4, and K2CO3 followed by washing in water to remove K2SO4 provides a quick route to submicron (<1 μm) PbZrO3 powders starting from inexpensive precursors. In all the reactions, we believe the driving force to be the high enthalpy of formation of ASO4 or K2SO4. The reactions presented here provide proof of concept for the preparation of a number of important polar lead-based perovskite phases under relatively mild conditions: (i) as composites, (ii) as small particles, and (iii) possibly as porous monoliths.
Role of Technetium-99m-Ethylenedicysteine in the Calculation of Differential Renal Function: A Comparison Study with Dimercaptosuccinic Acid Renal Scintigraphy

Purpose of the Study: The aim of our study was to compare the technetium-99m (Tc-99m)-ethylenedicysteine (EC) renography calculation of differential renal function (DRF) with this measurement using Tc-99m-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) scintigraphy. Materials and Methods: Patients referred to our department were included in our study, and both DMSA and EC scans were performed for each patient according to the standard imaging protocols. A checklist was filled for each patient. Statistical analysis was performed using correlation and regression methods. Results: Forty-two patients (mean age: 3.6 ± 3.4 years), including 32 boys and 10 girls, participated in our study. The results of EC scintigraphy were significantly correlated with the values of DMSA scintigraphy (P < 0.001). Performing linear regression, EC renography significantly (P < 0.001) predicted the DRF as it was calculated by DMSA scintigraphy (R2 = 0.92, P < 0.001). This test was significant in both male and female subgroups (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Overall, our study findings were similar to the reported results in the other reviewed studies, showing that Tc-99m-EC can be considered as an alternative for DMSA scintigraphy, providing interchangeable results.
Magnetism of iron above the Curie temperature

The electronic structure of paramagnetic iron is calculated self-consistently within the local spin density functional formalism by applying the coherent potential approximation with the muffin-tin potential model. The effective exchange parameters Jn are calculated as the interaction energy between two magnetic moments in the paramagnetic medium obtained. A discussion on the magnetism of iron above the Curie temperature is presented using the Heisenberg model with the calculated Jn.
Rotatory atlantoaxial dislocation presenting as spinal kyphoscoliosis

A 16-year-old male presented with primary complaint of worsening dorsal spinal kyphoscoliosis (SKS) for 3 years. More recently, he developed spasticity in legs, breathlessness on mild exertion, and sleep apneas. Apart from SKS, investigations revealed rotatory atlantoaxial dislocation. Atlantoaxial fixation resulted in rapid recovery from all symptoms including from spinal deformity. Observations in this patient suggest that rotatory dislocation can be a cause of spinal deformity.
An advanced-stage large-cell neuroendocrine lung carcinoma with intramedullary spinal metastases detected by positron emission tomography

Large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) is a rare form of lung cancer with an aggressive behavior that frequently metastasizes to liver, brain, and bone. Intramedullary spinal cord metastasis (ISCM) is a rare clinical presentation of solid cancer and always indicates a dismal prognosis. This article presents a 72-year-old male patient diagnosed with an advanced-stage LCNEC who initially presented with ISCM that was diagnosed by positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT). This case demonstrates the diagnostic performance of PET-CT for ISCM. PET may be an alternative diagnostic modality for patients intolerant or unable to receive magnetic resonance imaging study to detect ISCM in those with LCNEC.
Neoplasma_2018_02_final-for print.indb

1Department of Medical Laboratory and Research Center; Tangdu Hospital; Fourth Military Medical University; Xi’an, China; 2Department of Ophthalmology; Xi ’an No. 4 Hospital; Xi’ an, China; 3Department of Ophthalmology, Eye Institute of Chinese PLA, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China; 4Department of Blood Transfusion, Tangdu Hospital, Th e Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China; 5Department of Medical, AstraZeneca China