Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Specificity of resistance and tolerance to cucumber vein yellowing virus in melon accessions and evidence for resistance breaking associated with a single mutation in VPg.

Cucumber vein yellowing virus (CVYV) is an emerging virus on cucurbits in the Mediterranean Basin, against which few resistance sources are available, particularly in melon. The melon accession PI 164323 displays complete resistance to isolate CVYV-Esp, and accession HSD 2458 presents a tolerance, i.e. very mild symptoms in spite of virus accumulation in inoculated plants. The resistance is controlled by a dominant allele Cvy-11, while the tolerance is controlled by a recessive allele cvy-2, independent from Cvy-11. Before introducing the resistance or tolerance in commercial cultivars through a long breeding process, it is important to estimate their specificity and durability. Upon inoculation with eight molecularly diverse CVYV isolates, the resistance was found to be isolate-specific since many CVYV isolates induced necrosis on PI 164323, whereas the tolerance presented a broader range. A resistance-breaking isolate inducing severe mosaic on PI 164323 was obtained. This isolate differed from the parental strain by a single amino acid change in the VPg coding region. An infectious CVYV cDNA clone was obtained, and the effect of the mutation in the VPg cistron on resistance to PI 164323 was confirmed by reverse genetics. This represents the first determinant for resistance-breaking in an ipomovirus. Our results indicate that the use of the Cvy-11 allele alone will not provide durable resistance to CVYV and that, if used in the field, it should be combined with other control methods such as cultural practices and pyramiding of resistance genes to achieve long-lasting resistance against CVYV.
T cell–derived tumor necrosis factor induces cytotoxicity by activating RIPK1-dependent target cell death

TNF ligation of TNF receptor 1 (TNFR1) promotes either inflammation and cell survival by (a) inhibiting RIPK1’s death-signaling function and activating NF-κB or (b) causing RIPK1 to associate with the death-inducing signaling complex to initiate apoptosis or necroptosis. The cellular source of TNF that results in RIPK1-dependent cell death remains unclear. To address this, we employed in vitro systems and murine models of T cell–dependent transplant or tumor rejection in which target cell susceptibility to RIPK1-dependent cell death could be genetically altered. We show that TNF released by T cells is necessary and sufficient to activate RIPK1-dependent cell death in target cells and thereby mediate target cell cytolysis independently of T cell frequency. Activation of the RIPK1-dependent cell death program in target cells by T cell–derived TNF accelerates murine cardiac allograft rejection and synergizes with anti-PD1 administration to destroy checkpoint blockade–resistant murine melanoma. Together, the findings uncover a distinct immunological role for TNF released by cytotoxic effector T cells following cognate interactions with their antigenic targets. Manipulating T cell TNF and/or target cell susceptibility to RIPK1-dependent cell death can be exploited to either mitigate or augment T cell–dependent destruction of allografts and malignancies to improve outcomes.
Myofunctional therapy for OSA: a meta-analysis

ABSTRACT Introduction Myofunctional therapy (MT) improves obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients. Areas Covered We systematically reviewed publications to evaluate MT as a treatment for OSA. We identified relevant articles and performed a meta-analysis on apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) scores, lowest oxygen saturation (LSAT), and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). Search databases were retained as primary data sources with the search performed through 18 June 2021. Expert Opinion Fifteen studies with 237 patients provided OSA outcomes before and after MT, which were analyzed for this meta-analysis. The mean AHI scores decreased from 28.0 ± 16.2/h to 18.6 ± 13.1/h. The AHI standard mean difference (SMD) is −1.34 (large effect) [95% CI −0.84, −1.85], (P < 0.00001). LSAT (197 patients) improved from 83.18 ± 6.10% to 85.13 ± 7.01%. The LSAT SMD is 0.44 [95% CI 0.75, 0.12], (P < 0.007). Sleepiness measured via ESS (156 patients) demonstrated a decrease from 12.71 ± 5.73 to 8.78 ± 5.80. The ESS SMD is −1.0 [95% CI −0.50, −1.50], (P < 0.0001).
Type IV Pili of Streptococcus sanguinis Contribute to Pathogenesis in Experimental Infective Endocarditis

This work provides evidence that type IV pili produced by Streptococcus sanguinis SK36 are critical to the ability of these bacteria to attach to and colonize the aortic heart valve (endocarditis). We found that an S. sanguinis type IV pili mutant strain was defective in causing platelet-dependent aggregation in a 24-h infection assay but not in a 1-h platelet aggregation assay, suggesting that the type IV pili act at later stages of vegetation development. ABSTRACT Streptococcus sanguinis is a common cause of infective endocarditis (IE). Efforts by research groups are aimed at identifying and characterizing virulence factors that contribute to the ability of this organism to cause IE. This Gram-positive pathogen causes heart infection by gaining access to the bloodstream, adhering to host extracellular matrix protein and/or platelets, colonizing the aortic endothelium, and incorporating itself into the aortic vegetation. While many virulence factors have been reported to contribute to the ability of S. sanguinis to cause IE, it is noteworthy that type IV pili (T4P) have not been described to be a virulence factor in this organism, although S. sanguinis strains typically encode these pili. Type IV pili are molecular machines that are capable of mediating diverse virulence functions and surface motility. T4P have been shown to mediate twitching motility in some strains of S. sanguinis, although in most strains it has been difficult to detect twitching motility. While we found that T4P are dispensable for direct in vitro platelet binding and aggregation phenotypes, we show that they are critical to the development of platelet-dependent biofilms representative of the cardiac vegetation. We also observed that T4P are required for in vitro invasion of S. sanguinis into human aortic endothelial cells, which indicates that S. sanguinis may use T4P to take advantage of an intracellular niche during infection. Importantly, we show that T4P of S. sanguinis are critical to disease progression (vegetation development) in a native valve IE rabbit model. The results presented here expand our understanding of IE caused by S. sanguinis and identify T4P as an important virulence factor for this pathogen. IMPORTANCE This work provides evidence that type IV pili produced by Streptococcus sanguinis SK36 are critical to the ability of these bacteria to attach to and colonize the aortic heart valve (endocarditis). We found that an S. sanguinis type IV pili mutant strain was defective in causing platelet-dependent aggregation in a 24-h infection assay but not in a 1-h platelet aggregation assay, suggesting that the type IV pili act at later stages of vegetation development. In a rabbit model of disease, a T4P mutant strain does not develop mature vegetations that form on the heart, indicating that this virulence factor is critical to disease and could be a target for IE therapy.
Visual Outcomes After Implantation of Allogenic Lenticule in a 100-µm Pocket for Moderate to High Hyperopia: 2-Year Results.

PURPOSE To investigate 2-year visual outcomes, stability, and predictability after allogenic lenticule implantation in a 100-µm pocket for moderate to high hyperopia correction. METHODS In this prospective case series, 14 eyes of 9 patients with moderate to high hyperopia ranging from +3.00 to +8.00 diopters sphere were included between March and September 2018. Allogenic lenticules extracted from myopic small incision lenticule extraction were implanted into a pocket created by femtosecond laser at a 100-µm depth in recipients with hyperopia. All patients were followed up for 2 years. Uncorrected (UDVA) and corrected (CDVA) distance visual acuity, manifest refraction, corneal topography, Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography, and in vivo confocal microscopy were examined. RESULTS At postoperative 2 years, 2 eyes (14.3%) gained one line of CDVA, 11 eyes (78.6%) had unchanged CDVA, and 1 eye (7.1%) lost one line of CDVA. No eyes lost two or more lines of CDVA. Twelve of the treated eyes (85.7%) had postoperative uncorrected near visual acuity equal to or better than pre-operative values. The spherical equivalent decreased from +5.53 ± 1.45 D preoperatively to -0.60 ± 1.20 D at postoperative year 2 (P < .001). The anterior mean keratometric readings increased from 42.41 ± 1.03 D preoperatively to 48.38 ± 1.98 D at postoperative year 2 (P < .001). Of 14 treated eyes, 10 eyes (71.4%) had spherical equivalent within ±1.00 D. CONCLUSIONS The findings suggest that allogenic lenticule transplantation may be a promising option for the correction of moderate to high hyperopia. [J Refract Surg. 2021;37(11):734-740. ].
Optimum regulation of DC sources in cascaded multi‐level inverters

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new concept in selecting the values of the DC source voltages in cascaded multi‐level inverters in order to improve the output voltage THD.Design/methodology/approach – In cascaded multi‐level inverters, it is usually assumed that the DC sources have the same constant voltage and output harmonics minimization is accomplished by applying proper switching angles. Employing different DC voltages with proper ratios can result in further reduction of the harmonics. After formulation of the system, i.e. describing the inverter's output voltage components in terms of the switching angles and unequal DC source voltages, a rule is applied to obtain the step heights of the staircase output waveform (DC source voltages), so that the output waveform becomes as close to the required fundamental sine wave as possible. Substituting the obtained DC source voltages into the harmonics elimination equations results in a set of equations, which are functions of switching .
Aspergillus nidulans AmyG Functions as an Intracellular α-Amylase to Promote α-Glucan Synthesis

Short α-1,4-glucan was suggested as the primer structure for α-glucan synthesis. However, the exact structure and its source remain elusive. ABSTRACT α-Glucan is a major cell wall component and a virulence and adhesion factor for fungal cells. However, the biosynthetic pathway of α-glucan was still unclear. α-Glucan was shown to be composed mainly of 1,3-glycosidically linked glucose, with trace amounts of 1,4-glycosidically linked glucose. Besides the α-glucan synthetases, amylase-like proteins were also important for α-glucan synthesis. In our previous work, we showed that Aspergillus nidulans AmyG was an intracellular protein and was crucial for the proper formation of α-glucan. In the present study, we expressed and purified AmyG in an Escherichia coli system. Enzymatic characterization found that AmyG mainly functioned as an α-amylase that degraded starch into maltose. AmyG also showed weak glucanotransferase activity. Most intriguingly, supplementation with maltose in shaken liquid medium could restore the α-glucan content and the phenotypic defect of a ΔamyG strain. These data suggested that AmyG functions mainly as an intracellular α-amylase to provide maltose during α-glucan synthesis in A. nidulans. IMPORTANCE Short α-1,4-glucan was suggested as the primer structure for α-glucan synthesis. However, the exact structure and its source remain elusive. AmyG was essential to promote α-glucan synthesis and had a major impact on the structure of α-glucan in the cell wall. Data presented here revealed that AmyG belongs to the GH13_5 family and showed strong amylase function, digesting starch into maltose. Supplementation with maltose efficiently rescued the phenotypic defect and α-glucan deficiency in an ΔamyG strain but not in an ΔagsB strain. These results provide the first piece of evidence for the primer structure of α-glucan in fungal cells, although it might be specific to A. nidulans.
Haptic Feedback Based on Movement Smoothness Improves Performance in a Perceptual-Motor Task

In many training scenarios, and in surgery in particular, feedback is provided to the trainee after the task has been performed, and the assessment is often qualitative in nature. In this paper, we demonstrate the effect of real-time objective performance feedback conveyed through a vibrotactile cue. Subjects performed a mirror-tracing task that requires coordination and dexterity similar in nature to that required in endovascular surgery. Movement smoothness, a characteristic associated with skilled and coordinated movement, was measured by spectral arc length, a frequency-domain measure of smoothness. The smoothness-based performance metric was encoded as a vibrotactile cue displayed on the user's arm. Performance on the mirror tracing task with smoothness-based feedback was compared to position-based feedback (where the subject was alerted when they moved outside the path boundary) and to a no vibrotactile feedback control condition. Subjects receiving smoothness-based feedback altered their task completion strategies, resulting in faster task completion times, but their accuracy was slightly worse overall than the other two groups. In procedures such as endovascular surgery, the reduction of procedure time that could be achieved with smoothness-based feedback training may be advantageous, despite the fact that accuracy was inferior to that observed with no feedback or position-based feedback.
Dynamic Structural Analysis of Deployment of Scissors Structure in Space

The objective of the present study is to investigate the dynamic motion of a deployable structure, which is composed of a scissors mechanism assumed to be deployed in space with a self-balancing moment by actuators. For this purpose, the present paper focuses on how to calculate the dynamic motion of deployment of the scissors mechanism in space with a self-balancing moment, in consideration of its mass and rotational friction around the joints, and showing its numerical results. The present paper also checks the stress and deflection of the frame, as a problem of the structural analysis of an unstable structure without outer boundaries.
Dual-band metal skin UHF RFID tag antenna

A novel dual-band metal skin UHF radio-frequency identification tag antenna for 866/915 MHz applications is proposed, which is suitable for attaching to metallic objects. To achieve long read ranges within dual band on an ultra-thin substrate, the antenna is designed with two patch arrays printed on a flexible substrate polypropylene for low-cost production. The prototype antenna is fabricated and tested with the commercial tag chip by dual-port connection. The experiment results show that it has similar radiation patterns for the dual band and the read ranges are 3.5 and 3.6 m for 866 and 915 MHz, respectively, when it is mounted on a metal plate.
Bodies and Minds: Heavier Weight Targets Are De-Mentalized as Lacking in Mental Agency

Five experiments investigate the hypothesis that heavier weight individuals are denied mental agency (i.e., higher order cognitive and intentional capacities), but not experience (e.g., emotional and sensory capacities), relative to average weight individuals. Across studies, we find that as targets increase in weight, they are denied mental agency; however, target weight has no reliable influence on ascriptions of experience (Studies 1a–2b). Furthermore, the de-mentalization of heavier weight targets was associated with both disgust and beliefs about targets’ physical agency (Study 3). Finally, de-mentalization affected role assignments. Heavier weight targets were rated as helpful for roles requiring experiential but not mentally agentic faculties (Study 4). Heavier weight targets were also less likely than chance to be categorized into a career when it was described as requiring mental agency (versus experience; Study 5). These findings suggest novel insights into past work on weight stigma, wherein discrimination often occurs in domains requiring mental agency.
Unsupervised Learning of Local Equivariant Descriptors for Point Clouds

Correspondences between 3D keypoints generated by matching local descriptors are a key step in 3D computer vision and graphic applications. Learned descriptors are rapidly evolving and outperforming the classical handcrafted approaches in the field. Yet, to learn effective representations they require supervision through labeled data, which are cumbersome and time-consuming to obtain. Unsupervised alternatives exist, but they lag in performance. Moreover, invariance to viewpoint changes is attained either by relying on data augmentation, which is prone to degrading upon generalization on unseen datasets, or by learning from handcrafted representations of the input which are already rotation invariant but whose effectiveness at training time may significantly affect the learned descriptor. We show how learning an equivariant 3D local descriptor instead of an invariant one can overcome both issues. LEAD (Local EquivAriant Descriptor) combines Spherical CNNs to learn an equivariant representation together with plane-folding decoders to learn without supervision. Through extensive experiments on standard surface registration datasets, we show how our proposal outperforms existing unsupervised methods by a large margin and achieves competitive results against the supervised approaches, especially in the practically very relevant scenario of transfer learning.
Slew rate enhancement via excessive transient feedback

A simple yet very effective slew rate enhancement (SRE) method is proposed. The proposed SRE feedback is normally off and is activated only when an excessive transient signal in the output stage indicates the onset of slewing. Therefore, the method does not degrade the small signal performances or the linearity of amplifiers as do most existing SRE techniques. The new SRE applies to both single-stage and multi-stage, both single-ended and fully differential amplifiers. Simulation results of an example implementation show more than 700% slew rate boost with less than 2.5% power consumption overhead.
The Research on Modified Park-Ang Damage Model Based on Effective Energy Dissipation

Collapse of buildings in earthquakes causes casualties and economic losses, the reinforced concrete columns damage models is a basis for the research of integer collapse. The major advantage of Park and Ang's method is the consideration of first exceedance failure and cumulative damage failure in terms of defining the structural damage under earthquake, however, it isn't consider the differences of structural failures by different displacement amplitudes and load sequence. By multiplying the effective energy dissipation factor and the load sequence factor, the modified Park-Ang seismic damage model is obtained. The comparison between the two models indicates that the modified Park-Ang model have mean value closer to 1 and smaller scatter, besides the effects of load path and load sequence on damage can be taken into account in the modified model.
A noise-exclusive adaptive filtering framework for removing impulse noise in digital images

A class of noise-exclusive adaptive filters for removing impulse noise from digital images is developed and analyzed in this brief. The filtering scheme is based on noise detection using a self-organizing neural network and noise excluding estimation. These filters suppress impulse noise effectively while preserving fine image details. Applications of the filters to several images show that their properties of efficient impulse noise suppression, edges and fine detail preservation, minimum signal distortion, or minimum mean square error are better than those of the traditional median-type filters.
Continuous Blood Pressure Estimation From Non-Invasive Measurements Using Support Vector Regression

Blood pressure (BP) is one of the most crucial vital signs of the human body that can be assessed as a critical risk factor for severe health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and hypertension. An accurate, continuous, and cuff-less BP monitoring technique could help clinicians improve the prevention, detection, and diagnosis of hypertension and manage related treatment plans. Notably, the complex and dynamic nature of the cardiovascular system necessitates that any BP monitoring system could benefit from an intelligent technology that can extract and analyze compelling BP features. In this study, a support vector regression (SVR) model was developed to estimate systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) continuously. We selected a set of features commonly used in previous studies to train the proposed SVR model. A total of 120 patients with available ECG, PPG, DBP and SBP data were chosen from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC III) dataset to validate the proposed model. The results showed that the average root mean square error (RMSE) of 2.37 mmHg and 4.18 mmHg were achieved for SBP and DBP, respectively.
Use of genetic algorithms for optimizing vibration actuator placement for minimizing sound transmission into enclosed spaces

Active noise control has shown much promise in recent years as a viable and practical technique for attenuating low frequency sound levels in complex enclosures such as motor vehicles and propeller aircraft fuselages. However, the optimal placement of actuators and sensors to reduce the global interior noise levels still remains a significant design problem. In the absence of a direct analytical method for determining the optimal actuator location configurations, alternative methods have been sought, all too often defaulting to a partial or complete search of possible configurations until adequate system performance is achieved. As the search space becomes larger, difficulty arises due to an increasing number of potential location configurations, often far exceeding practical search limitations. The possibility of searching only a small portion of the total search space to find an overall optimum solution therefore becomes increasingly desirable. One method displaying significant potential in achieving this task is the genetic algorithm. Here, it is specifically developed for application to the potentially large problem of optimizing the locations of up to four vibration control actuators on a stiffened cylinder with floor structure (representative of an aircraft fuselage) to actively control harmonic interior sound levels. For the purposes of demonstration, the primary excitation was simulated by up to ten point forces acting on the cylinder boundary. The development of the genetic algorithm for optimal search performance was undertaken using a generalized multi-modal technique. The performance characteristics of various genetic algorithm operators were tested, and the optimal configuration was then applied to the stiffened cylinder with integral floor model with good results.