Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integration of Diverse Transcriptomics Datasets using Random Forest to Predict Universal Functional Pathways in Tfr Cells

Motivation T follicular regulatory (Tfr) cells are a specialized cell subset that controls humoral immunity. Despite a number of individual transcriptomic studies on these cells, core functional pathways have been difficult to uncover due to the substantial transcriptional overlap of these cells with other effector cell types, as well as transcriptional changes occurring due to disease settings. Developing a core transcriptional module for Tfr cells that integrates multiple cell type comparisons as well as diverse disease settings will allow a more accurate prediction of functional pathways. Researchers studying allergic reactions, immune responses to vaccines, autoimmunity and cancer could use this gene set to better understand the roles of Tfr cells in controlling disease progression. Additional cell types beyond Tfr cells that have similar features of transcriptomic complexity within diverse disease settings may also be studied using similar approaches. High-throughput sequencing technologies allow the generation of large datasets that require specific tools to best interpret the data. The development of a core transcriptional module for Tfr cells will allow investigators to determine if Tfr cells may have functional roles within their biological systems with little knowledge of Tfr biology. With this work, we have addressed the need of core gene modules to define specific subsets of immune cells. Results We introduce an integrated “core Tfr cell gene module” that can be incorporated into GSEA analysis using various input sizes. The integrated core Tfr gene module was built using transcriptomic studies in Tfr cells from several different tissues, disease settings, and cell type comparisons. Random forest was used to integrate the transcriptomic studies to generate the core gene module. A GSEA gene set was formulated from the integrated core Tfr gene module for incorporation into end-user friendly GSEA. The gene sets are presented along with random genes taken from the GTEX data set and are presented as GMT files. The user can upload the gene set to the GSEA website or any gene set tool which takes GMT files. We also present the full results of the model including p-values calculated by random forest. This provides users with more flexibility in choosing a p-value cutoff that is most appropriate for the experimental setting. Availability The core Tfr gene sets are freely available at: https://github.com/alosdiallo/TFR_Model. We have also included all of the code and data used in developing these gene sets. The code and results are released under an MIT license. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Fabrication and evaluation of microscale thermoelectric modules of Bi2Te3-based alloys

Microscale thermoelectric modules are fabricated by a facile process based on mechanical cutting combined with photolithography processes. Fine-grained materials of p-type Bi0.5Sb1. 5Te3 and n-type Bi2Te3 dispersed with 0.5 vol% nano-SiC particles, which show improved mechanical strength than that without SiC additions, were prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS) for the module microfabrication. The fabricated modules have 28 pairs of thermoelectric legs, each of them being as fine as 200 × 400 µm2 in cross-section with a height up to 600 µm, which were connected in series by Ni–Cu electrodes made by photolithographic patterning and magnetron sputtering. Such a microscale module was evaluated under both Seebeck and Peltier working modes. According to the Seebeck mode, when the module is heated under a lamp, the maximum open output voltage and the maximum output power are about 20 mV and 0.15 µW (1.6 µW cm−2), respectively. In the Peltier mode, a temperature difference of approximately 7 K is obtained with the input current of 4 mA.
Mapping blood biochemistry by Raman spectroscopy at the cellular level

We report how Raman difference imaging provides insight on cellular biochemistry in vivo as a function of sub-cellular dimensions and the cellular environment. We show that this approach offers a sensitive diagnostic to address blood biochemistry at the cellular level. We examine Raman microscopic images of the distribution of the different hemoglobins in both healthy (discocyte) and unhealthy (echinocyte) blood cells and interpret these images using pre-calculated, accurate pre-resonant Raman tensors for scattering intensities specific to hemoglobins. These tensors are developed from theoretical calculations of models of the oxy, deoxy and met forms of heme benchmarked against the experimental visible spectra of the corresponding hemoglobins. The calculations also enable assignments of the electronic transitions responsible for the colour of blood: these are mainly ligand to metal charge transfer transitions.
INFORMATION COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES AND ACADEMIC LIBRARIES IN THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

Using a case study of a library in Zimbabwe, the purpose of the research was to establish how Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) were being used to enhance Knowledge Management practices at the library. This included establishing the perceptions of the library staff concerning KM and knowledge sharing practices prevalent at the library. The ICT infrastructure in place was assessed in terms of adequacy, information literacy skills and provision of information and internet services to users. The research revealed that KM was a concept not well understood at the library. Participants are open to the idea of sharing knowledge but cited lack of trust concerning other people’s knowledge, lack of motivation to support knowledge sharing initiatives and lack of proper organizational guidelines on sharing as challenges affecting knowledge sharing initiatives. The ICT infrastructure was deemed not adequate and problems to do with bandwidth were cited. It is recommended that KM workshops and seminars be conducted to enlighten members on the idea, an incentive system should be put in place to motivate members to share knowledge and a separate bandwidth be dedicated specifically for the library.
Safety and Immunogenicity of M2-Deficient, Single Replication, Live Influenza Vaccine (M2SR) in Adults

M2SR (M2-deficient single replication) is an investigational live intranasal vaccine that protects against multiple influenza A subtypes in influenza-naïve and previously infected ferrets. We conducted a phase 1, first-in-human, randomized, dose-escalation, placebo-controlled study of M2SR safety and immunogenicity. Adult subjects received a single intranasal administration with either placebo or one of three M2SR dose levels (106, 107 or 108 tissue culture infectious dose (TCID50)) expressing hemagglutinin and neuraminidase from A/Brisbane/10/2007 (H3N2) (24 subjects per group). Subjects were evaluated for virus replication, local and systemic reactions, adverse events (AE), and immune responses post-vaccination. Infectious virus was not detected in nasal swabs from vaccinated subjects. At least one AE (most commonly mild nasal rhinorrhea/congestion) was reported among 29%, 58%, and 83% of M2SR subjects administered a low, medium or high dose, respectively, and among 46% of placebo subjects. No subject had fever or a severe reaction to the vaccine. Influenza-specific serum and mucosal antibody responses and B- and T-cell responses were significantly more frequent among vaccinated subjects vs. placebo recipients. The M2SR vaccine was safe and well tolerated and generated dose-dependent durable serum antibody responses against diverse H3N2 influenza strains. M2SR demonstrated a multi-faceted immune response in seronegative and seropositive subjects.
The relationship between ground data systems and flight operations for the Aura project TES instrument

While Ground Data systems are normally thought of primarily in terms of processors of Science and Calibration data, they are also used by Instrument Operations teams. This paper briefly outlines Aura's Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) experiment and TES Instrument Operations activities. It describes the data used to trend the health, status, and performance of the TES instrument, which are routed to the TES Instrument Operations Team (IOT) by the Ground Data system. TES is a typical in that it has some engineering data that are available only in the high rate data stream, rather than in low-rate engineering data. Blocks of commands to perform anticipated TES tasks were developed in parallel with TES flight software design. This paper concludes by showing how this early development of command blocks permitted significantly more flexibility in resolving a variety of TES Operations issues.
Online Educational Tools for Caregivers of People with Dementia: A Scoping Literature Review

Background Informal caregivers of people with dementia provide the majority of health-based care to people with dementia. Providing this care requires knowledge and access to resources, which caregivers often do not receive. We set out to evaluate the effect of online educational tools on informal caregiver self-efficacy, quality of life, burden/stress, depression, and anxiety, and to identify effective processes for online educational tool development. Methods We conducted a scoping review of articles on online educational interventions for informal caregivers of people with dementia searching CINAHL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PubMed from 1990 to March 2018, with an updated search conducted in 2020. The identified articles were screened and the data were charted. Results 33 articles that reported on 24 interventions were included. There is some evidence that online interventions improve caregiver-related outcomes such as self-efficacy, depression, dementia knowledge, and quality of life; and decrease caregiver burden. Common findings across the studies included the need for tailored, stage-specific information applicable to the caregiver’s situation and the use of psychosocial techniques to develop the knowledge components of the interventions. Conclusion We demonstrate the importance of having caregivers and health-care professionals involved at all stages of tool conceptualization and development. Online tools should be evaluated with robust trials that focus on how increased knowledge and development approaches affect caregiver-related outcomes.
Numerical Assessment of the Lateral Stiffness of Unreinforced Masonry Rectangular Columns

Using an efficient numerical model capable of capturing the cracking and second-order effects, this study investigates the lateral stiffness of unreinforced masonry rectangular columns at uncracked and cracked situations. The columns are modeled as prismatic cantilevers undergoing their own weights, eccentric vertical top loads, and static concentrated lateral top loads having increasing magnitude. The lateral force is considered to perform a monotonic lateral load analysis on the columns. On the basis of the numerically obtained lateral force versus lateral displacement relationships, the behavior of the columns is characterized by two limit states corresponding to the first cracking and the maximum resistance. For a reference column, the lateral stiffness values at these limit states are determined and compared with each other. The results show that the lateral stiffness of a column is related to the displacement level and hence the level of cracking. Implementing parametric analyses, the effects of some parameters are also investigated such as the column slenderness, the magnitude and eccentricity of the vertical top load, the flexibility parameter, and the angle of tilt, if any, on the lateral stiffness of the columns.
An expanded Matrix Factorization model for real-time Web service QoS prediction

Real-time prediction of Web service of quality (QoS) provides more convenience for web services in cloud environment, but real-time QoS prediction faces severe challenges, especially under the cold-start situation. Existing literatures of real-time QoS predicting ignore that the QoS of a user/service is related to the QoS of other users/services. For example, users/services belonging to the same group of category will have similar QoS values. All of the methods ignore the group relationship because of the complexity of the model. Based on this, we propose a real-time Matrix Factorization based Clustering model (MFC), which uses category information as a new regularization term of the loss function. Specifically, in order to meet the real-time characteristic of the real-time prediction model, and to minimize the complexity of the model, we first map the QoS values of a large number of users/services to a lower-dimensional space by the PCA method, and then use the K-means algorithm calculates user/service category information, and use the average result to obtain a stable final clustering result. Extensive experiments on real-word datasets demonstrate that MFC outperforms other state-of-the-art prediction algorithms.
sbRIO Lab-On-Chip Gas Sensing and Monitoring for Multisensory Array

It is utmost to create a system at which can monitor and indicate the gas level exist in certain area, especially for hazardous gas, as early preparation and protection before something worst happen. The gas sensing and monitoring system composes of hardware and software elements. A spiral chamber which is simplified on chip, known as Lab–On–Chip (LOC), plays an important role in this system. The examined gases will be analysed by 16 sensors during the flow through the spiral chamber. The responses of these sensors are obtained via analogue input channels from single board RIO (sbRIO) and are displayed on a computer using LabVIEW virtual instrument software. The system offers portable, real–time monitoring and fast response time even in room temperature.
Electric Ultra Fast Charging Stations: a Real Case Study

The number of Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) available on the car market is continuously growing. The electrification of the mobility is definitely related to the diffusion of the charging infrastructures widely distributed on the territory. Indeed, PEV owners request for charging stations able to offer features adequate to the expectations. They are expected to be able to recharge vehicle’s on-board battery in a ten of minutes. In this paper, Ultra Fast Charging Stations (UFCSs) are investigated. The stations are discussed in terms of electric schemes and modalities of control. There is a focus on components, systems, state variable and security level. Moreover, the UFCS realized at the University of Naples Federico II is highlighted. The lab prototype is discussed in terms of configuration and rated values. The results of some numerical tests are carried out. They point out both the main features of the charging slots and the requirements of load emulators for UFCS.
Assessment of Polymer Concrete Sample Geometry Effect on Ultrasonic Wave Velocity and Spectral Characteristics

In this paper an analysis of the influence of polymer concrete sample shape and dimensions on ultrasonic wave propagation is carried out. Compositions of tested fly ash polymer concretes were determined using a material optimization approach. The tests were carried out on the samples of three shapes: cubes, beams, and plates. The ultrasonic testing was done by a direct method (transmission method) using a digital ultrasonic flow detector and piezoelectric transducers of 100 kHz central frequency. Propagation of the ultrasonic wave was characterized by pulse velocity. Frequency spectra and time-frequency spectrograms obtained using Fourier transform and Fourier-based synchrosqueezing transform were also presented. The correlation analysis showed that neither the path length nor the lateral dimension to the direction of wave propagation are not statistically significant for the UPV variability. However, a general trend of decrease in the UPV with increasing the path length was noticed. The analysis of the signal in time-frequency domain seemed to be useful in the analysis of particulate composites properties, especially when UPV changes are not clear enough, since it revealed greater differences in relation to changes in sample geometry than frequency spectra analysis.
Building Façade Protection Using Spatial and Temporal Deep Learning Models Applied to Thermographic Data. Laboratory Tests

This paper proposes a methodology that combines spatial and temporal deep learning (DL) models applied to data acquired by InfraRed Thermography (IRT). The data were acquired from laboratory specimens that simulate building façades. The spatial DL model (Mask Region-Convolution Neural Network, Mask R-CNN) is used to identify and classify different artificial subsurface defects, whereas the temporal DL model (Gated Recurrent Unit, GRU) is utilized to estimate the depth of each defect, all in an autonomous and automated manner. An F-score average of 92.8 ± 5.4% regarding defect identification and classification, and a root-mean-square error equal to 1 mm in the estimation of defect depth equal to 10 mm as the best defect depth estimation, are obtained with this first application of a combination of spatial and temporal DL models to the IRT inspection of buildings.
Detection of spring wheat plants affected by powdery mildew using hyperspectral survey data

In laboratory experiments, spectral characteristics of three varieties of Siberian selection spring wheat affected under field conditions by powdery mildew (Blumeria graminis (DC.) Speer) were obtained using hyperspectral camera. The variety specificity of the reflectivity of wheat leaves affected by powdery mildew with the same severity has been established. A change in the leaves reflectivity depending on the severity was revealed. The most informative spectral indicator (index) for the powdery mildew detection has been determined.
Effective variables on following behaviour of heavy vehicle drivers

Following behaviour of passenger car drivers has been modelled in many studies over the last half a century. However, the existence of heavy vehicles in the traffic stream has not received the same level of attention. Heavy vehicles drivers show different following behaviour which could be the result of the different characteristics of their vehicles. This difference can significantly influence the traffic stream characteristics. With attention to the increasing volumes of heavy vehicles, it is essential to examine how the future road networks can deal with heavy vehicles. This study uses detailed vehicle trajectory data recorded in congested traffic condition as a basis to analyse heavy vehicle driversr vehicle following behaviour. Two vehicle-following combinations are considered in this study in which a heavy vehicle follows either a passenger car (H-C) or another heavy vehicle (H-H). The influence of various traffic variables on this particular behaviour is investigated. The effective features are selected by using two different methods. The first one is scatter plots and linear regression method and the second one is the stepwise regression method. The findings of this study serve as a guidance to develop a specific model to capture heavy vehicle driversr following behaviour. The results also could be the interest of modellers attempting to replicate driversr following behaviour in micro-simulation models and manage multiclass vehicle interactions.
3D bioprinting of tissue units with mesenchymal stem cells, retaining their proliferative and differentiating potential, in polyphosphate-containing bio-ink

The three-dimensional (3D)-printing processes reach increasing recognition as important fabrication techniques to meet the growing demands in tissue engineering. However, it is imperative to fabricate 3D tissue units, which contain cells that have the property to be regeneratively active. In most bio-inks, a metabolic energy-providing component is missing. Here a formulation of a bio-ink is described, which is enriched with polyphosphate (polyP), a metabolic energy providing physiological polymer. The bio-ink composed of a scaffold (N,O-carboxymethyl chitosan), a hydrogel (alginate) and a cell adhesion matrix (gelatin) as well as polyP substantially increases the viability and the migration propensity of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC). In addition, this ink stimulates not only the growth but also the differentiation of MSC to mineral depositing osteoblasts. Furthermore, the growth/aggregate pattern of MSC changes from isolated cells to globular spheres, if embedded in the polyP bio-ink. The morphogenetic activity of the MSC exposed to polyP in the bio-ink is corroborated by qRT-PCR data, which show a strong induction of the steady-state-expression of alkaline phosphatase, connected with a distinct increase in the expression ratio between RUNX2 and Sox2. We propose that polyP should become an essential component in bio-inks for the printing of cells that retain their regenerative activity.
Fault-tolerant Consensus of Leaderless Multi-AUV System with Partial Actuator Breakdown

In this paper, a fault-tolerant consensus problem of the leaderless second-order multiple autonomous underwater vehicle systems with partial actuator breakdown is considered. The dynamic model of AUV is linearized by the feedback linear method. The communication graph is any strongly connection directed graph, and the effectiveness of the actuator can be obtained by a physical device or analysis algorithm. The fault-tolerant consensus protocol is proposed. The stability of the fault-tolerant multi-AUV system is derived by Lyapunov functional. A numerical example illustrates the effectiveness of the fault-tolerant consensus protocol method.
Growing IVY: Building the Immersive Visual environment at York

When we move about within our environment, we are presented with a range of cues to our motion. Virtual reality systems attempt to simulate these various sensory cues. IVY – the Immersive Visual environment at York – is a virtual environment being constructed at York University to investigate aspects of human perception and to examine the relative importance of various visual and non-visual cues to the generation of an effective virtual environment. This paper describes the movation behind the design of IVY, and describes the design of the essential hardware and software components.
The role of automatic stabilizers in business cycle: the case of indonesia

TThe use of large fiscal stimulus packages to dampen the impact of Covid-19 recently has raised concerns about the effectiveness of the discretionary fiscal policy. This paper aims at analysing the feasibility of automatic fiscal stabilisers to mitigate economic fluctuations in the case of Indonesia. Using the IMF standard model for quarterly data over the period of 2001(1) to 2019(4), we find that the role of automatic fiscal stabilisers is getting greater both in revenue and spending. This implies that the automatic fiscal stabilisers are feasible as the main fiscal policy instrument for economic stability goals in the future. However, given the existing circumstances, Indonesia has to reform economic, regulatory, and institutional ecosystems in adopting the automatic fiscal stabilisers.
Grounded-gate nMOS transistor behavior under CDM ESD stress conditions

This paper contains a systematic study into the effects of design and process variations on the behavior of the grounded-gate nMOS transistor under CDM ESD stress conditions. The correlation of both electrical behavior and physical failure is evaluated for socketed CDM, nonsocketed CDM, and HBM ESD stress models. It is shown that a new compact transistor model, concerning its application for the simulation of CDM behavior, is employed in electro-thermal simulation to explain the experimental results.