Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tocilizumab Induces IL-10-Mediated Immune Tolerance in Invasive Candidiasis

The existence of a hyperinflammatory state has been observed in patients with invasive fungal infections (IFI). It is being postulated whether morbidity from IFI may, in part, be a consequence of an unnecessarily prolonged or exaggerated proinflammatory immune response including interleukin 6 (IL-6) post-infection, in a host with dysregulated or compromised immunity. This, in turn, induces collateral host injury at the tissue and organ level, leading to adverse outcomes. Tocilizumab has become widely used as an immunomodulator in the treatment of inflammatory conditions. Here, we evaluated the use of tocilizumab to curb post-infective inflammatory flare in the setting of an in-vivo mouse model for invasive candidiasis. Following Candida infection, the tocilizumab-treated mice showed improved short-term survival compared with the saline-treated control mice. There was a reduced inflammatory response mounted by the host, coupled with reduced IL-6 but increased IL-10 levels. TNF-α and IFN-γ responses were not affected. Tocilizumab facilitated immune tolerance by selectively inducing IL-10, producing CD8α+ conventional dendritic cells (DCs) and peripheral T-regulatory cells, over CD11b+ conventional DCs and plasmacytoid DCs. We demonstrate here the sequelae from immunomodulatory manipulation and the basis whereby the use of monoclonal antibodies may be further explored in IFI.
Potent Acrylamide Determination in Food Products Using Ion-Selective Electrode Technique

A potent selective acrylamide liquid sensor based on the reaction of acrylamide with 2-(5-Bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5-[N-n-Propyl-N-(3-Sulfopropyl) amino] aniline reagent is successfully designed. The characteristics slope (52.33 mV/decade), linearity usable range from 1.0 × 10−7–1.0 × 10−1 molar, limit of detection (1.6 × 10−8) molar, selectivity attitude to several inorganic cations, amino acids and sugars, time of response (8 s), lifetime (four months), pH effect on the electrode potential and the basic validation parameters were studied. The desirable pH applicable range was 3.0–6.5, and the restraint of the developed sensor is independent on this working pH range. The deployed electrode was effectively applied for rapid inexpensive analysis of acrylamide cations in food products with comparison to high-performance liquid chromatographic method and the results were agreeable with each other. The obtained data by the suggested electrode were treated statistically and compared with the various recently published acrylamide sensors.
Antimicrobial Activity and Action Mechanisms of Arg-Rich Short Analog Peptides Designed from the C-Terminal Loop Region of American Oyster Defensin (AOD)

American oyster defensin (AOD) was previously purified from acidified gill extract of the American oyster, Crassostrea virginica. AOD is composed of 38 amino acids with three disulfide bonds and exhibits strong antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria as well as significant activity against Gram-negative bacteria. Here, to develop promising peptides into antibiotic candidates, we designed five arginine-rich analogs (A0, A1, A2, A3, and A4), predicted their loop and extended strand/random structures—including nine amino acids and a disulfide bond derived from the C-terminus of AOD—and described their antimicrobial and cytotoxic effects, as well as their modes of action. In our experimental results, the A3 and A4 analogs exhibited potent antimicrobial activity against all test organisms—including four Gram-positive bacteria, six Gram-negative bacteria, and Candida albicans—without cell toxicity. A sequence of experiments, including a membrane permeabilization assay, DNA binding study, and DNA polymerization inhibition test, indicated that the two analogs (A3 and A4) possibly did not act directly on the bacterial membrane but instead interacted with intracellular components such as DNA or DNA amplification reactions. AOD analogs also showed strong bacterial inhibition activity in the plasma environment. In addition, analog-treated microbial cells clearly exhibited membrane disruption, damage, and leakage of cytoplasmic contents. Collectively, our results suggest that two analogs, A3 and A4, have potent antimicrobial activity via DNA interaction and have the potential for development into novel antimicrobial agents.
Influence of conductivity on the electro-dewatering of sewage sludge under constant voltage

ABSTRACT In this work, the influences of sewage sludge conductivity on the electro-dewatering (EOD) effect and energy consumption under constant voltage were evaluated. The results showed that on adding NaCl solution to the sludge, the average water content in 20 min decreased with the increasing electric current. However, the energy consumption increased with increasing conductivity. Decreasing the sludge conductivity by deionized water washing had little impact on the average water content. However, the energy consumption decreased with the reduction of electric current. To sum up, increasing the conductivity can help shorten the EOD time, but decreasing the conductivity can lower the energy consumption of EOD.
Characterisation of synaptic transmission and angiotensin II type 1A receptor activity at nucleus of the solitary tract neurons

i Preface . vi Acknowledgements . viii Table of contents . x List of figures . xiii List of tables. xvi List of abbreviations . xvi Chapter 1: Introduction . 1 1.1 Dynamic control of homeostasis . 1 1.1.1 Hormone secretion . 1 1.1.2 The autonomic nervous system . 3 1.1.3 Sympathetic nervous system and efferent organisation . 3 1.1.4 Parasympathetic nervous system and efferent organisation. 4 1.2 Central and peripheral sensory neurons and reflex recruitment . 5 1.2. 1 Central sensory nuclei . 6 1.2. 2 Visceral sensory afferents . 6 1.2. 3 Baroreceptor and chemoreceptor reflexes . 7 1.3 The nucleus of the solitary tract . 12 1.3. 1 NTS sensory afferent organisation and neurotransmitters . 13 1.3. 2 Viscerosensory afferent sub-populations and functional consequences . 15 1.3. 3 NTS neurons and neurochemical phenotypes . 18 1.3. 4 Interneurons and central NTS inputs . 19 1.3. 5 NTS neuron electrophysiological characteristics . 21 1.4 Modulation of reflexes . 23 1.4. 1 Paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus . 24 1.4. 2 PVN modulation of cardiorespiratory reflexes . 25 1.4. 3 PVN modulation of NTS neurons . 26 1.5 Renin angiotensin system. 28 1.5. 1 Peripheral renin angiotensin system. 28 1.5. 2 Angiotensin receptors. 32 1.5. 3 Angiotensin type 1A receptor signalling. 33 1.5. 4 Angiotensin type 1A receptor trafficking . 34 1.5. 5 Central renin angiotensin system . 34 1.5. 6 The effects of central AngII on cardiovascular reflexes . 37 1.5. 7 Neuronal angiotensin type 1A receptor signalling and receptor trafficking . 38 1.6 Renin angiotensin system in the NTS . 41 1.6. 1 Effect of AT1AR activity in the NTS . 41 1.6. 2 Angiotensin receptor cellular localisation . 43 1.6. 3 NTS somato-dendritic AT1AR expression and activity . 43 1.6. 4 NTS sensory axon AT1AR expression and activity . 44 1.6. 5 AT2R expression and activity. 45 1.6. 6 Non-neuronal AT1AR expression and activity . 46
Femoral Bicondylar Angles among Dry-Habitat Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) Resemble Those of Humans: Implications for Knee Function, Australopith Sexual Dimorphism, and the Evolution of Bipedalism

We used image analysis software (ImageJ) to measure femoral shaft obliquity in 76 humans, 57 forest chimpanzees, and four dry-habitat (Semliki) chimpanzees. We found that dry-habitat chimpanzee femora were intermediate between forest chimpanzees and humans and significantly different from each (χ2 = 6.21, p = 0.013; χ2 = 11.11, p = 0.001). We further compared human femoral obliquity with the published values of six australopiths. Mean bicondylar angles were found to be 10.9° for humans, −0.3° for forest chimpanzees, 4.2° for Semliki chimpanzees, and 12.0° for australopiths (midsex average = 11.4°). Contrary to expectation, australopith bicondylar angles were not significantly greater than those of humans (χ2 = 0.67, p = 0.41). Human females had significantly greater angles than males (Kruskal-Wallis analysis, p = 0.002). Femoral obliquity among dry-habitat chimpanzees is consistent with the hypothesis that bipedalism evolved as a dry-habitat foraging strategy.
Infrequent Fluctuations in Temperature and Salinity May Enhance Feeding in Pisaster ochraceus (Asteroidea) but Not in Dendraster excentricus (Echinoidea) Larvae

In recent years, low-salinity events characterized by high temperatures (18–23 °C) and low-salinity waters (20‰–22‰) have increased during late spring and summer, when many marine invertebrate larvae are developing. The present study examines the effects of low-salinity events on particle ingestion for larvae of two echinoderm species, the sea star Pisaster ochraceus and the sand dollar Dendraster excentricus. Larvae were exposed to high temperatures and low salinities for 24 hours, followed by feeding on the alga Isochrysis galbana in high or low salinity for another 10 minutes. Exposing Pisaster larvae to high temperatures and low salinities, followed by feeding in low salinity, did not impair ingestion rates. In fact, these larvae ingested particles at similar and sometimes higher rates than those in the controls. In sharp contrast, a 24-hour exposure to a high temperature and low salinity, followed by continued exposure to low salinity to feed, led to a decrease in the number of particles ingested by 8-arm Dendraster larvae. Larvae of both species captured very few particles when returned to 30‰ after a low-salinity event, indicating that continuous interruption of larval feeding by low-salinity events during development could be deleterious. Sand dollar larvae may have responded negatively to low-salinity events in our experiments because they are found in protected bays, where they may seldom experience these events.
SALAD: Static Analyzer for Loop Acceleration by Exploiting DLP

Data-intensive applications are becoming increasingly popular. However, only a few of them with high volume can afford dedicated hardware acceleration (such as Neural Network Processor, or NPU) or platform-specific software implementation (such as Tensorflow running on GPU). In this paper, we propose a hardware and software transparent framework for the acceleration of general-purpose data-intensive applications. Our framework is based on a key insight that most data-intensive applications spend the vast majority of their execution time on some inner loops with abundant opportunities for Data-Level Parallelism (DLP). In particular, we propose SALAD, a static analyzer for loop acceleration by exploiting DLP in hot loops under the LLVM (LLVM compiler infrastructure) framework. In contrast to traditional DLP exploration techniques, SALAD is both software and architectural transparent, without the need to change either the source code or binary code, and does not need vectorized instruction set architecture (ISA) extensions. Instead, it directly works on the program binary code and generates a profile for DLP opportunities in the binary. This profile will be fed to the hardware accelerator transparently to speed up execution. With the experiments result, we estimate that the DLP information provided by SALAD could result in 3.6x-60.2x speedups on a set of benchmarks, depending on their inherent DLP.
CTFS: A Configurable Tuning Framework on SHENWEI System

Performance tuning faces challenges of the heterogeneousness, complexity and flexibility of the modern processors. Due to the limited knowledge of the underlining architecture, users are usually confused about which optimizing should be enabled to speed up their applications on the target processor. In this paper, a configurable tuning framework, CTFS, is proposed to probe the compiler options automatically to optimize programs on SHENWEI system. Tightly coupling with the system software of the SHENWEI family processors, CTFS provides flexible iterative target supports and configurable iterative progress, which dramatically improvement user-friendliness of the computer systems built on SHENWEI family processors. The evaluation shows that with the help of CTFS, the performance of the SWDNN cases can be improved about 9% on average compared with the -O3 optimizing level. A case study of a real-world application, Graph500, which is speeded up by 27% with the help of CTFS.
Stream-AI-MD: streaming AI-driven adaptive molecular simulations for heterogeneous computing platforms

Emerging hardware tailored for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) methods provide novel means to couple them with traditional high performance computing (HPC) workflows involving molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We propose Stream-AI-MD, a novel instance of applying deep learning methods to drive adaptive MD simulation campaigns in a streaming manner. We leverage the ability to run ensemble MD simulations on GPU clusters, while the data from atomistic MD simulations are streamed continuously to AI/ML approaches to guide the conformational search in a biophysically meaningful manner on a wafer-scale AI accelerator. We demonstrate the efficacy of Stream-AI-MD simulations for two scientific use-cases: (1) folding a small prototypical protein, namely ββα-fold (BBA) FSD-EY and (2) understanding protein-protein interaction (PPI) within the SARS-CoV-2 proteome between two proteins, nsp16 and nsp10. We show that Stream-AI-MD simulations can improve time-to-solution by ~50X for BBA protein folding. Further, we also discuss performance trade-offs involved in implementing AI-coupled HPC workflows on heterogeneous computing architectures.
Highly conductive and elastic nanomembrane for skin electronics

Thin, sensitive skin electronics The properties of the human sense of touch, including high sensitivity to differences in temperature, pressure, or surface roughness, are challenging to replicate in robotics because skin materials must be highly conductive, stretchable, and thin. Jung et al. developed a process to assemble nanomaterials as a monolayer that is partially embedded in an ultra-thin elastomer. The process works by depositing a mixed solvent containing nanostructured silver and/or gold, along with elastomer, onto deionized water. This results in a layer of nanoparticles residing at the interface coating with elastomer, which is further densified by the addition of surfactant. The process is scalable, and the resulting elastomer membranes can be transferred to other substrates. Science, abh4357, this issue p. 1022 A float assembly method enables fabrication of highly conductive, stretchable, and ultrathin nanomembranes. Skin electronics require stretchable conductors that satisfy metallike conductivity, high stretchability, ultrathin thickness, and facile patternability, but achieving these characteristics simultaneously is challenging. We present a float assembly method to fabricate a nanomembrane that meets all these requirements. The method enables a compact assembly of nanomaterials at the water–oil interface and their partial embedment in an ultrathin elastomer membrane, which can distribute the applied strain in the elastomer membrane and thus lead to a high elasticity even with the high loading of the nanomaterials. Furthermore, the structure allows cold welding and bilayer stacking, resulting in high conductivity. These properties are preserved even after high-resolution patterning by using photolithography. A multifunctional epidermal sensor array can be fabricated with the patterned nanomembranes.
Identity and change of a field: A literature analysis of the concept of social mobility

Social mobility is one of the concepts which is the most intrinsically bound to sociology. Hence, the diachronic analysis of this concept contributes to our understanding of sociology and the way that the discipline has changed, as it turned to individual social trajectories according to different topics. Aimed at contributing to this understanding, I’ve developed a literature review based on a systematic collection of the scientific publications in social sciences directly addressing social mobility. A database with conceptual and methodological variables was compiled (N=1054) and worked on. Distinct periods in the life course of this concept have been identified, with the emergence of a scattered concept (1920–1959), the golden age of social mobility (1960–1989), followed by a period of fragmentation and resistance (1990–2012). These three periods are characterized by different methodological and geographical hegemonies, flows and volumes of publications, and also by different tendencies and theoretical and disciplinary rivalries.
Visual Mis- and Disinformation, Social Media, and Democracy

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Bubble behaviour in a horizontal high-speed solid-body rotating flow

Abstract We study experimentally the behaviour of a bubble injected into a horizontal liquid solid-body rotating flow, in a range of rotational velocities where the bubble is close to the axis of rotation. We first study the stretching of the bubble as a function of its size and of the rotation of the cell. We show that the bubble aspect ratio can be predicted as a function of the bubble Weber number by the model of Rosenthal (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 12, 1962, 358–366) provided an appropriate correction due to the impact of buoyancy is included. We next deduce the drag and lift coefficients from the mean bubble position. For large bubbles straddling the axis of rotation, we show that the drag coefficient $C_D$ is solely dependent on the Rossby number $Ro$, with $C_D \approx 1.5/Ro$. In the same limit of large bubbles, we show that the lift coefficient $C_L$ is controlled by the shear Reynolds number $Re_{shear}$ at the scale of the bubble. For $Re_{shear}$ larger than 3000 we observe a sharp transition, wherein large fluctuations in the bubble aspect ratio and mean position occur, and can lead to the break-up of the bubble. We interpret this regime as a resonance between the periodic forcing of the rotating cell and the eigenmodes of the stretched bubble.
T‐ and B‐cell therapy in solid organ transplantation: current evidence and future expectations

Cell therapy has emerged as an attractive therapeutic option in organ transplantation. During the last decade, the therapeutic potency of Treg immunotherapy has been shown in various preclinical animal models and safety was demonstrated in first clinical trials. However, there are still critical open questions regarding specificity, survival, and migration to the target tissue so the best Treg population for infusion into patients is still under debate. Recent advances in CAR technology hold the promise for Treg‐functional superiority. Another exciting strategy is the generation of B‐cell antibody receptor (BAR) Treg/cytotoxic T cells to specifically regulate or deplete alloreactive memory B cells. Finally, B cells are also capable of immune regulation, making them promising candidates for immunomodulatory therapeutic strategies. This article summarizes available literature on cell‐based innovative therapeutic approaches aiming at modulating alloimmune response for transplantation. Crucial areas of investigation that need a joined effort of the transplant community for moving the field toward successful achievement of tolerance are highlighted.
A yeast model of the ALS protein Matrin3 uncovers Hsp90 and its co-chaperone Sti1 as modifiers of misfolding and toxicity

The MATR3 gene encoding the protein Matrin3 is implicated in the pathogenesis of the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Matrin3 forms neuronal cytoplasmic and nuclear inclusions in ALS-affected neurons. Additionally, 13 heterozygous missense mutations in MATR3 are identified in ALS patients. To further explore Matrin3 misfolding and toxicity, we established and characterized a yeast model. We demonstrate that wild type Matrin3 and the ALS-associated variant F115C are toxic and form inclusions in yeast. Our further characterization uncovers substantial modification of Matrin3 toxicity and inclusion formation by Hsp90 and its co-chaperones, specifically Sti1. Thus, our study demonstrates how specific branches of cellular protein quality control regulate the misfolding and toxicity of Matrin3. Summary Statement We established and characterized a yeast model expressing human Matrin3, a protein implicated in the pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Using this yeast model and mammalian neuronal cells, we showed that Matrin3 mislocalizes and forms inclusions, is cytotoxic, and increases sensitivity to cellular stress. We also uncovered that Hsp90 and particularly its co-chaperone Sti1 alter Matrin3 toxicity.
Electrophysiological Markers of Fairness and Selfishness Revealed by a Combination of Dictator and Ultimatum Games

Event Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 39 participants who played the role of Allocators in a Dictator Game (DG) and Responders in an Ultimatum Game (UG). Most participants expressed very low levels of altruistic decision making, and two homogeneous groups could be identified, one formed by fair (N = 10) individuals and another by selfish (N = 8) individuals. At fronto-central cortical sites, the ERP early negativity (N1) was reduced in selfish participants with a latency about 10 ms earlier than in fair participants. In fair DG players, the features of the subsequent positive wave P2 suggested that more cognitive resources were required when they allocated the least gains to the other party. P2 latency and amplitude in the selfish group supported the hypothesis that these participants tended to maximize their profit, as expected by a rational Homo economicus. During UG, we observed that a medial frontal negativity (MFN) occurred earlier and with greater amplitude when selfish participants rejected less favorable endowment shares. In this case, all players received zero payoffs, which showed that MFN in selfish participants was associated with a spiteful punishment. At posterior-parietal sites we found that the greater the selfishness, the greater the amplitude of the late positive component (LPC). Our results bring new evidence to the existence of specific somatic markers associated with the activation of distinct cerebral circuits by the evaluation of fair and unfair proposals in participants characterized by different expressions of perceived fairness, thus suggesting that particular brain dynamics could be associated with moral decisions.