Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Crescent Nebula and its hundreds of line-of sight stars as seen with the imaging FTS SITELLE

The Crescent Nebula, NGC 6888, has long been the muse of many scientific and amateur research. However, the recent data provided by SITELLE, a wide-field imaging Fourier transform spectrometer at the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope call for new analysis and conclusions. The spectral cubes offer a field of view of 11 × 11 arcminutes2 and have been acquired trough 5 different filter-selected bands covering the optical waveband (from 350 to 680 nm), allowing 23 characteristic emission optical lines to be described with a spectral resolution reaching up to 2500. Doppler shifting allow two-components velocity fits, describing the multi-layered bubble’s kinematics. The sulfur doublet describes electronic densities. Other faint lines (including [NII] 5755, [OIII] 4363 and NeIII 3868) are essential to determine accurate temperatures and abundances. Emission lines are key to this nebular research, but absorption lines in the spectrum of hundreds of field stars are also studied. All this leads to a more complete physical description of NGC 6888, its central star WR136 and the stars present in the field of view.
Adaptive Control of Hybrid Battery Energy Storage Systems under Capacity Fade*

There is an emerging call for applications in energy storage systems which use a mixture of batteries. These hybrid battery solutions may contain different battery types for example; using second life ex-transportation batteries in grid support applications or a combination of high power, low energy and low power, high energy batteries to meet multiple energy requirements or even the same battery types but under different states of health for example, being able to hot swap out a battery when it has failed in an application without changing all the batteries and ending up with batteries with different performances, capacities and impedances. These types of applications typically use multi-modular converters to allow hot swapping to take place without affecting the overall performance of the system. A key element of the control is how the different battery performance characteristics may be taken into account and the how the power is then shared among the different batteries in line with their performance. This paper proposes a novel control strategy which allows the power in the batteries to be effectively distributed even under varying parameter conditions such as, capacity fade conditions using adaptive power sharing strategy. The proposed strategy has been experimentally validated against a system of three different battery types connected to a grid connected multi-modular converter both with and without capacity fade mechanisms in place.
The Effect of EGR1 on the Proliferation of Dermal Papilla Cells

Early growth response factor 1 (EGR1) is a zinc-finger transcription factor that plays a vital role in the development of hair follicles. According to our previous studies, EGR1 is a transcriptional promoter of the bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP7), a candidate gene involved in the proliferation of dermal papilla cells. Since hair follicles are the basis of lambskin pattern formation and dermal papilla cells (DPCs) act on hair follicle growth, in order to elucidate the role of EGR1 and hair follicles, this study aimed to investigate the biological role of EGR1 in DPCs. In our study, the EGR1 coding sequence (CDS) region was firstly cloned by polymerase chain reaction, and bioinformatics analysis was performed. Then, the function of EGR1 was detected by 5-ethynyl-2’-deoxyuridine (EDU) and Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK8), and Western blot (WB) was conducted to analyze the cellular effect of EGR1 on DPCs. The proliferative effect of EGR1 on DPCs was also further confirmed by detecting its expression by qPCR and WB on marker genes of proliferation, including PCNA and CDK2. The sequence of the EGR1 CDS region of a lamb was successfully cloned, and its nucleic acid sequence was analyzed and found to be highly homologous to Rattus norvegicus, Mus musculus, Bos taurus and Homo sapiens. Predictive analysis of the protein encoded by EGR1 revealed that it is an extra-membrane protein, and not a secretory protein, with subcellular localization in the nucleus and cytoplasm. The proliferative effect of DPCs was significantly stronger (p < 0.01) in EGR1 up-regulated DPCs compared to the controls, while the opposite result was observed in EGR1 down-regulated DPCs. Markers of proliferation including PCNA and CDK2 also appeared to be differentially upregulated in EGR1 gene overexpression compared to the controls, with the opposite result in EGR1 gene downregulation. In summary, our study revealed that EGR1 promotes the proliferation of DPCs, and we speculate that EGR1 may be closely associated with hair follicle growth and development.
Evaluation of Hormonal Profile and Ovarian Morphology among Adolescent Girls with Menstrual Irregularities in a Tertiary Care Centre at Central India

Menstrual disturbances are common among adolescents with a prevalence rate of 11.3–26.7%. The most frequent menstrual irregularities are oligomenorrhea, menorrhagia, polymenorrhoea, and hypomenorrhea. PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) is now recognized as the most prevalent endocrine disorder among the women of reproductive age. The current study was planned to evaluate socio-demographic factors, endocrine profiles, and ovarian morphology among adolescent girls with menstrual irregularities and compare these parameters in different phenotypes of adolescent PCOS cases. It is a hospital-based cross-sectional study among 248 adolescent girls (10–19 years) with menstrual irregularities. After obtaining informed consent, history and clinical examination findings were recorded on preform proforma. All girls were assessed on day 2/3 of the menstrual cycle for hormonal profile (serum TSH, FSH, LH, prolactin, and serum testosterone) and ovarian morphology (by transabdominal ultrasonography). All participating girls were divided into three groups (groups 1, 2, and 3) corresponding to phenotypes A, B, & D as per the Rotterdam criteria. In the study, oligomenorrhea was the most common menstrual disorder (70.97%). Biochemical hyperandrogenism and thyroid dysfunction were reported in 14.91% and 8.46% of girls, respectively. Our study noted that phenotype D ,i.e., group 3 (MI + PCOM-HA; 49.43%) was the most common phenotype in the study. In a comparative analysis of different groups, significant differences (p < 0.05) in hormonal and metabolic parameters showed highest in group 2, which represents phenotype B of PCOS (hyperandrogenic anovulation). This analysis revealed that adolescent hyperandrogenism (phenotypes A and B) is associated with a more deranged hormonal and metabolic profile than nonandrogenic PCOS (phenotype D). To prevent long-term sequelae, lifestyle changes, early treatment, and close follow-up are recommended in this subset of girls.
Heterologous saRNA Prime, DNA Dual-Antigen Boost SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination Elicits Robust Cellular Immunogenicity and Cross-Variant Neutralizing Antibodies

We assessed if immune responses are enhanced in CD-1 mice by heterologous vaccination with two different nucleic acid-based COVID-19 vaccines: a next-generation human adenovirus serotype 5 (hAd5)-vectored dual-antigen spike (S) and nucleocapsid (N) vaccine (AdS+N) and a self-amplifying and -adjuvanted S RNA vaccine (SASA S) delivered by a nano-lipid carrier. The AdS+N vaccine encodes S modified with a fusion motif to increase cell-surface expression. The N antigen is modified with an Enhanced T-cell Stimulation Domain (N-ETSD) to direct N to the endosomal/lysosomal compartment and increase MHC class I and II stimulation potential. The S sequence in the SASA S vaccine comprises the D614G mutation, two prolines to stabilize S in the prefusion conformation, and 3 glutamines in the furin cleavage region to increase cross-reactivity across variants. CD-1 mice received vaccination by homologous and heterologous prime > boost combinations. Humoral responses to S were the highest with any regimen including the SASA S vaccine, and IgG bound to wild type and Delta (B.1.617.2) variant S1 at similar levels. An AdS+N boost of an SASA S prime particularly enhanced both CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses to both wild type and Delta S peptides relative to all other vaccine regimens. Sera from mice receiving SASA S homologous or heterologous vaccination were found to be highly neutralizing of all pseudovirus strains tested: Wuhan, Beta, Delta, and Omicron strain. The findings here support the clinical testing of heterologous vaccination by an SASA S > AdS+N regimen to provide increased protection against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants.
Drug-Loaded Polymeric Particulated Systems for Ophthalmic Drugs Release

Drug delivery to the anterior or posterior segments of the eye is a major challenge due to the protection barriers and removal mechanisms associated with the unique anatomical and physiological nature of the ocular system. The paper presents the preparation and characterization of drug-loaded polymeric particulated systems based on pre-emulsion coated with biodegradable polymers. Low molecular weight biopolymers (chitosan, sodium hyaluronate and heparin sodium) were selected due to their ability to attach polymer chains to the surface of the growing system. The particulated systems with dimensions of 190–270 nm and a zeta potential varying from −37 mV to +24 mV depending on the biopolymer charges have been obtained. Current studies show that particles release drugs (dexamethasone/pilocarpine/bevacizumab) in a safe and effective manner, maintaining therapeutic concentration for a longer period of time. An extensive modeling study was performed in order to evaluate the drug release profile from the prepared systems. In a multifractal paradigm of motion, nonlinear behaviors of a drug delivery system are analyzed in the fractal theory of motion, in order to correlate the drug structure with polymer. Then, the functionality of a SL(2R) type “hidden symmetry” implies, through a Riccati type gauge, different “synchronization modes” (period doubling, damped oscillations, quasi-periodicity and intermittency) during the drug release process. Among these, a special mode of Kink type, better reflects the empirical data. The fractal study indicated more complex interactions between the angiogenesis inhibitor Bevacizumab and polymeric structure.
Preconditioned conjugate gradient methods for absolute value equations

We investigate the NP-hard absolute value equations (AVE), \(Ax-B|x| =b\), where \(A,B\) are given symmetric matrices in \(\mathbb{R}^{n\times n}, \ b\in \mathbb{R}^{n}\). By reformulating the AVE as an equivalent unconstrained convex quadratic optimization, we prove that the unique solution of the AVE is the unique minimum of the corresponding quadratic optimization. Then across the latter, we adopt the preconditioned conjugate gradient methods to determining an approximate solution of the AVE.The computational results show the efficiency of these approaches in dealing with the AVE.
Grad-CAM for Visualizing Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is damage to the retina that occurs due to high blood glucose. This disease can lead to early blindness and hence it is important to diagnose it at an earlier stage. The use of artificial intelligence to aid a doctor in identifying such disorders is beneficial as it reduces the time spent by them. State of art model using the convolutional neural network (CNN) has an accuracy of 75%, however, CNNs are black-box models, and it is difficult to interpret their functioning. Hence, the outcome provided by the model cannot be trusted which warrants the use of explainable AI techniques to provide explanations that justify the model’s output. In this paper, we have enhanced the state of art model using a CNN to identify DR which gave an accuracy of 92%. Gradient-Weighted Class Activation Map (Grad-CAM) explainability is used to verify the regions considered significant by the model. The application presents the classification outcome along with explainability thereby aiding the medical practitioners to arrive at a decision.
Development of a Clinical Prediction Rule for Adverse Events in Multimorbid Patients in Emergency and Hospitalisation

(1) Background: There is currently a global consensus that the quality of comprehensive care for acutely hospitalised elderly people should include addressing functionality and mobility, cognitive status, prevention of pressure ulcers, urinary incontinence, falls and delirium, as well as pain control and medication-related problems. The aim of this study is to develop and validate a clinical prediction rule for multimorbid patients admitted to an acute care hospital unit for any of the five adverse events included in our vulnerability pentad: falls, pressure ulcers, urinary incontinence, pain and delirium. (2) Methods: Longitudinal analytical clinimetric study, with two cohorts. The study population will consist of multimorbid patients hospitalised for acute care, referred from the Emergency Room. A clinical prediction rule will be proposed, incorporating predictive factors of these five adverse outcomes described. This study has received funding, awarded in November 2020 (PI-0107-2020), and was approved in October 2019 by the Research Ethics Committee ″Costa del Sol″. (3) Conclusions: Preventing adverse events in hospitalised patients is particularly important for those with multimorbidity. By applying a clinical prediction rule to detect specific risks, an estimate can be obtained of their probability of occurrence.
Gestion énergétique sous incertitude : Application à la planification et à l'allocation de réserve dans un micro réseau électrique urbain comportant des générateurs photovoltaïques actifs et du stockage

Le developpement massif des energies renouvelables intermittentes dans les systemes de puissance affecte le fonctionnement des systemes electriques. En raison des techniques limitees et des investissements necessaires pour maintenir le niveau de securite electrique actuel, les questions liees a l'envoi, a la stabilite statique et dynamique pourraient arreter le developpement de ces sources. Le sujet de la these est de developper un outil pour mesurer l'incertitude sur la disponibilite de la puissance produite par les generateurs photovoltaiques dans un reseau urbain. Premierement, l'incertitude est modelisee par l'etude de la nature incertaine de la PV energie production et de la charge. Avec les methodes stochastiques, on calcule la reserve de puissance (OR) un jour d'avance en tenant compte d'un indice de risque de fiabilite associe. Ensuite, l'OR est distribue en differents generateurs (generateurs photovoltaiques actifs et micro-turbines a gaz). Afin de minimiser le cout operationnel total et/ou les emissions equivalentes de CO2, une planification optimale et une repartition quotidienne de l'OR dans differents generateurs d'energie sont mises en œuvre. Enfin, un logiciel libre «Un systeme de gestion de l'energie convivial et un superviseur de la planification operationnelle» est developpe a partir de l'interface utilisateur graphique de Matlab pour conceptualiser le fonctionnement global du systeme.
Numerical Simulation of the Installation of Jacked Piles in Sand with the Material Point Method

Pile installation has a great impact on the subsequent mechanical pile response. It, however, is not routinely incorporated in the numerical analyses of deep foundations in sand. Some of the difficulties associated with the simulation of the installation process are related to the fact that large deformations and distortions will eventually appear. The Finite Element Method is not well suited to solve problems of this nature. Hence, an alternative procedure is tested herein, by using the Material Point Method to simulate the installation of statically jacked or pushed-in type piles, which has successfully demonstrated its capacity to deal with this simulation. Two constitutive models were also tested, i.e. the Modified Cam Clay (MCC) and the Subloading Cam Clay (SubCam), allowing a clear perception of the great advantage to consider the soil with the SubCam model. The simulations have indeed reproduced some of the important features of the pile installation process, as the radial stress acting around the .
Managing opportunistic and dedicated resources in a bi-modal service deployment architecture

With the emergence of service oriented computing, hosting platforms are becoming key elements of the Internet. One popular example of service hosting platform is Internet Data Center that relies on statically dimensioned centralized pools of server resources. Although direct control over the resources is a key advantage here, such platforms are often unable to handle highly varying workloads of many applications. On the other hand, popular peer-to-peer systems that opportunistically aggregate idle resources from widely distributed end-user computers demonstrate the huge potential of these public resources to build highly scalable, low cost and easily deployable platforms. However, due to the uncertain availability of these resources, it is hard to guarantee any performance for the deployed services on such peer-to-peer platforms. In this thesis, we introduced a new bi-modal architecture for a geographically distributed and cost-effective service hosting platform. The proposed architecture utilizes a combination of statically provisioned dedicated resource pools and widely available opportunistic public resources to provide quality assured services. The core idea is that through dynamic management of a combination of these two classes of resources, one can gain from the scalability of the public resources and achieve assured quality services by masking their unreliable behavior with the controlled performance of the dedicated resources. We have explored the combination in two different dimensions—bi-modal computing resources and bi-modal communication links. In the first case, a combination of a dedicated cluster of computers and idle capacities of user computers have been exploited to build a platform to serve compute intensive applications with response time guarantees. In the second case, a collection of geographically distributed dedicated servers inter-connected with a combination of dedicated links and variable capacity public network paths have been utilized to serve distributed stream processing applications that requires simultaneous allocation of computing and communication resources. In both cases, we have observed that by designing appropriate resource management policies, the combined sets of resources can be utilized to increase the overall resource utilization and throughput of the system as well as to increase the client satisfaction in terms of fulfillment of the service agreements.
Active surface measurements for large aperture millimeter/submillimeter-wave telescopes using a photogrammetry technique

Photogrammetry technique is widely used for the initial alignment of main-reflector panels of millimeter/ submillimeter-wave telescopes by analyzing a great number of photos of the reflector at the rest state taken from different angles and distances. In this study, we investigated a possibility that the photogrammetry can be applied for real-time surface measurements which is important to realize active surface controls that improve reflector surface accuracy during scientific observations. The technique is important especially for realizing larger aperture and higher frequency telescopes. We developed a simulator to investigate the accuracy of the surface measurements with photos taken with fixed cameras mounted on the stays of the sub-reflector. As a result, we found that the accuracy of surface measurement is roughly inversely proportional to square-root of the number of fixed cameras, and the calculation time roughly proportional to the product of the numbers of cameras and measurement points. For the case of Nobeyama 45-m telescope, the accuracy of 1 mm (rms) was achieved for 164 surface points by 10 cameras with a calculation time of ∼2 sec by a developed python code using a single-core Xeon processor. In order to improve the accuracy with a minimum number of cameras, more various camera positions (e.g., surrounding the vertex hole of the main reflector and surrounding the main reflector) should be investigated, and their combination should be optimized. Applying high-performing technologies such as multiprocessors and/or GPUs, faster calculation is to be considered.
Marine Sponges in a Snowstorm – Extreme Sensitivity of a Sponge Holobiont to Marine Oil Snow and Chemically Dispersed Oil Pollution

Holobionts formed by a host organism and associated symbionts are key biological units in marine ecosystems where they are responsible for fundamental ecosystem services. Therefore, understanding anthropogenic impacts on holobionts is essential. Sponges (Phylum Porifera) are ideal holobiont models. They host a complex microbial community and provide ecosystem services including nutrient cycling. At bathyal depths, sponges can accumulate forming dense sponge ground habitats supporting biodiverse associated communities. However, the impacts of spilled oil and dispersants on sponge grounds cannot be understood without considering exposures mediated through sponge filtration of marine snow particles. To examine this, we exposed the model sponge Halichondria panicea to oil, dispersant and “marine oil snow” contaminated seawater and elucidate the complex molecular response of the holobiont through metatranscriptomics. While the host response included detoxification and immune response pathways, the bacterial symbiotic response differed and was at least partially the result of a change in the host environment rather than a direct response to hydrocarbon exposure. As the sponge host reduced its pumping activity and internal tissue oxygen levels declined, the symbionts changed their metabolism from aerobic to anaerobic pathways possibly via quorum sensing. Furthermore, we found evidence of hydrocarbon degradation by sponge symbionts, but sponge mortality (even when exposed to low concentrations of hydrocarbons) implied this may not provide the holobiont with sufficient resilience against contaminants. Given the continued proposed expansion of hydrocarbon production into deep continental shelf and slope settings where sponge grounds form significant habitats it is important that dispersant use is minimised and that environmental impact assessments carefully consider the vulnerability of sponge holobionts.
The study of fatty acid mediated Mefp-1 adsorption by Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation

ABSTRACT As an important model organism for the study of marine bioadhesion, mussels have attracted extensive attention and research. Recent studies have shown that lipids are involved in mussel bioadhesion. To investigate the role of lipids in the mussel adhesion process, we use a Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation (QCM-D) to investigate the dynamic adhesion process of mussel foot proteins (Mefp-1) on different substrates in the presence of lipids by monitoring the changes of Mefp-1 adsorption in real-time. The results show that Mefp-1 binds less to polar hydrophilic SiO2 substrate than to Au substrate, and the introduction of C16:0 palmitic acid significantly promotes the binding of Mefp-1 to different substrates. With increasing palmitic acid concentration, more Mefp-1 would bind to the substrate. According to the adsorption model analysis, palmitic acid may promote the adhesion and binding of Mefp-1 by changing the hydration environment of the adhesion interface in the adhesion process. This study on the effects of fatty acids on Mfp-1 adhesion can help us better understand the bioadhesion mechanisms of mussels, and provide insight for marine antifouling research.