Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of Lymphocyte Subsets in Lymph Node and Spleen Sections in Fatal Pediatric Malaria

Secondary lymphoid tissues play a major role in the human immune response to P. falciparum infection. Previous studies have shown that acute falciparum malaria is associated with marked perturbations of the cellular immune system characterized by lowered frequency and absolute number of circulating T cell subsets. A temporary relocation of T cells, possibly by infiltration to secondary lymphoid tissue, or their permanent loss through apoptosis, are two proposed explanations for this observation. We conducted the present study to determine the phenotype of lymphocyte subsets that accumulate in the lymph node and spleen during acute stages of falciparum malaria infection in Malawian children, and to test the hypothesis that lymphocytes are relocated to lymphoid tissues during acute infection. We stained tissue sections from children who had died of the two common clinical forms of severe malaria in Malawi, namely severe malarial anemia (SMA, n = 1) and cerebral malaria (CM, n = 3), and used tissue sections from pediatric patients who had died of non-malaria sepsis (n = 2) as controls. Both lymph node and spleen tissue (red pulp) sections from CM patients had higher percentages of T cells (CD4+ and CD8+) compared to the SMA patient. In the latter, we observed a higher percentage of CD20+ B cells in the lymph nodes compared to CM patients, whereas the opposite was observed in the spleen. Both lymph node and spleen sections from CM patients had increased percentages of CD69+ and CD45RO+ cells compared to tissue sections from the SMA patient. These results support the hypothesis that the relocation of lymphocytes to spleen and lymph node may contribute to the pan-lymphopenia observed in acute CM.
A Rapid and Efficient Method for Isolation and Transformation of Cotton Callus Protoplast

Protoplasts, which lack cell walls, are ideal research materials for genetic engineering. They are commonly employed in fusion (they can be used for more distant somatic cell fusion to obtain somatic hybrids), genetic transformation, plant regeneration, and other applications. Cotton is grown throughout the world and is the most economically important crop globally. It is therefore critical to study successful extraction and transformation efficiency of cotton protoplasts. In the present study, a cotton callus protoplast extraction method was tested to optimize the ratio of enzymes (cellulase, pectinase, macerozyme R-10, and hemicellulase) used in the procedure. The optimized ratio significantly increased the quantity and activity of protoplasts extracted. We showed that when enzyme concentrations of 1.5% cellulase and 1.5% pectinase, and either 1.5% or 0.5% macerozyme and 0.5% hemicellulase were used, one can obtain increasingly stable protoplasts. We successfully obtained fluorescent protoplasts by transiently expressing fluorescent proteins in the isolated protoplasts. The protoplasts were determined to be suitable for use in further experimental studies. We also studied the influence of plasmid concentration and transformation time on protoplast transformation efficiency. When the plasmid concentration reaches 16 µg and the transformation time is controlled within 12–16 h, the best transformation efficiency can be obtained. In summary, this study presents efficient extraction and transformation techniques for cotton protoplasts.
Academic Adjustment in the UK University: A Case of Chinese Students’ Direct-Entry as International Students

This case study examines the academic adjustment of five direct-entry Chinese students at a UK university. Specifically, it investigates two questions: 1) What kind of academic challenges are faced by Chinese direct entrants enrolled in a banking and finance programme at a UK university? and 2) What are the external resources and personal coping strategies that participants perceive to be effective in counteracting these challenges? The findings from in-depth, semi-structured interviews fall under two broad domains: 1) the academic challenges; and 2) the coping strategies. The academic obstacles as experienced by participants include English language issues, content knowledge of the subject, course delivery pace, and time management. The perceived effective strategies that help to overcome the challenges include: making use of pre-sessional programmes, taking advantage of tutorials and professors’ weekly office hours, taking an active part in learning and figuring out the best learning approach, and seeking help proactively. This research has implications for educators and students who are involved or interested in similar programmes.
Overview of the Third Shared Task on Artificial Intelligence for Legal Assistance at FIRE 2021

The third edition of the shared task on Artificial Intelligence for Legal Assistance (AILA 2021) focused on two problems: (1) Rhetorical Role labeling for Legal Judgements and (2) Legal Document Summarization. Task 1 was a continuation from the previous year, where the objective is to assign one of the rhetorical labels – Facts of the case, Ruling by the Lower Court, Argument, Statute, Precedent, Ratio of the decision, and Ruling by the Present Court – to each sentence in a case judgement (of the Supreme Court of India). For Task 2, entire texts of Supreme Court judgements were provided and the task was to generate a summary by selecting the most important content. Task 2 was further divided into two sub-tasks: (2a) Identifying “summary-worthy” sentences in a court judgement, and (2b) Generating a summary from a given court judgement.
Control and Stabilization of Distributed Parameter Systems; Theoretical and Computational Aspects

Abstract : In this research, the issue of uniform stabilization has been investigated for large classes of conservative systems arising in elasticity. In the case of linear problems, two types of feedback have been considered: (1) dissipative feedback operators acting only on the 'velocity' (2) generally non- dissipative feedback based on Riccati operators and acting on the full pair of position and velocity. In non linear problems, feedback of type (1) have been studied. Numerical implementation for both types of feedbacks have received special attention.
In Vivo and In Vitro Comparison of the DPP-IV Inhibitory Potential of Food Proteins from Different Origins after Gastrointestinal Digestion

Dipeptidyl-peptidase IV (DPP-IV) plays an essential role in glucose metabolism by inactivating incretins. In this context, food-protein-derived DPP-IV inhibitors are promising glycemic regulators which may act by preventing the onset of type 2 diabetes in personalized nutrition. In this study, the DPP-IV-inhibitory potential of seven proteins from diverse origins was compared for the first time in vitro and in vivo in rat plasma after the intestinal barrier (IB) passage of the indigested proteins. The DPP-IV-inhibitory potentials of bovine hemoglobin, caseins, chicken ovalbumin, fish gelatin, and pea proteins were determined in rat plasma thirty minutes after oral administration. In parallel, these proteins, together with bovine whey and gluten proteins, were digested using the harmonized INFOGEST protocol adapted for proteins. The DPP-IV half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) was determined in situ using Caco-2 cells. The DPP-IV-inhibitory activity was also measured after IB passage using a Caco2/HT29-MTX mixed-cell model. The peptide profiles were analyzed using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (RP-HPLC-MS/MS) with MS data bioinformatics management, and the IC50 of the identified peptides was predicted in silico. The in vitro and in vivo DPP-IV-inhibitory activity of the proteins differed according to their origin. Vegetable proteins and hemoglobin yielded the highest DPP-IV-inhibitory activity in vivo. However, no correlation was found between the in vivo and in vitro results. This may be partially explained by the differences between the peptidome analysis and the in silico predictions, as well as the study complexity.
Temporal Cortical Thickness and Cognitive Associations among Typical and Atypical Phenotypes of Alzheimer’s Disease

Background: The hippocampus and temporal lobe are atrophic in typical amnestic Alzheimer’s disease (tAD) and are used as imaging biomarkers in treatment trials. However, a better understanding of how temporal structures differ across atypical AD phenotypes and relate to cognition is needed. Objective: Our goal was to compare temporal lobe regions between tAD and two atypical AD phenotypes (logopenic progressive aphasia (LPA) and posterior cortical atrophy (PCA)), and assess cognitive associations. Methods: We age and gender-matched 77 tAD participants to 50 LPA and 27 PCA participants, all of which were amyloid-positive. We used linear mixed-effects models to compare FreeSurfer-derived hippocampal volumes and cortical thickness of entorhinal, inferior and middle temporal, and fusiform gyri, and to assess relationships between imaging and memory, naming, and visuospatial function across and within AD phenotype. Results: Hippocampal volume and entorhinal thickness were smaller bilaterally in tAD than LPA and PCA. PCA showed greater right inferior temporal and bilateral fusiform thinning and LPA showed greater left middle and inferior temporal and left fusiform thinning. Atypical AD phenotypes differed with greater right hemisphere thinning in PCA and greater left hemisphere thinning in LPA. Verbal and visual memory related most strongly to hippocampal volume; naming related to left temporal thickness; and visuospatial related to bilateral fusiform thickness. Fewer associations remained when examined within AD group. Conclusion: Atypical AD phenotypes are associated with greater thinning of lateral temporal structures, with relative sparing of medial temporal lobe, compared to tAD. These findings may have implications for future clinical trials in AD.
ECG Signal Classification using Deep Neural Networks with Ensemble Techniques

Electrocardiogram (ECG) is a vital signal, used to identify cardiovascular diseases like arrhythmias, heart attacks and coronary heart diseases. The classification of ECG signals help doctors to give correct treatment of a particular disease. Our proposed work based on classification of five classes. This research study has used a stack of neural networks, ensemble techniques like Dropout, global maxpooling and data sets like MITBE PTBDB which are considered as the open source databases. Data pre-processing is done by using resampling and normalization techniques. The proposed CNN-BiLS TM-Attention mechanism has obtained an accuracy of 98.9% and F1score of 0.947. Comparing to existing methods, the proposed method improves the accuracy.
Effect of bending stiffness on the polymer adsorption onto a heterogeneous stripe-patterned surface

Adsorption of a single homopolymer chain with bending stiffness onto a heterogeneous regular stripe-patterned surface consisting of adsorbing and non-adsorbing stripes is studied theoretically in the framework of the lattice model and the generating functions approach. The stiffness is introduced by assigning a statistical weight to a trans-isomer (a straight segment) with respect to a gauche-isomer (a kink). The temperature is taken as the main control parameter since it affects both the strength of the monomer units’ attraction to the adsorbing stripes and the chain stiffness. It is shown that the adsorption transition temperature is a non-monotonic function on the bending energy having a minimum. The position of this minimum depends on the stripes’ width and only slightly deviates from zero bending energy. Temperature dependences of the main conformational and thermodynamic characteristics of the adsorbed chain are obtained. It is demonstrated that in most of the studied cases the adsorption is accompanied by the chain localization on a single adsorbing unit stripe and the chain stiffness enhances this effect.
Thermochromic Insulation Materials for Thermal Sensing and Overheat Prewarning

The real-time monitoring and scientific prewarning of local overheating for electrical equipment and electronic devices are of great significance but remain challenging. Therefore, in this work, a temperature-responsive microcapsule is prepared to endow insulating materials with the ability to thermally sense external temperature fields. Specifically, in the microcapsule/epoxy composites, the epoxy resin served as the polymer matrix was doped with reversible thermochromic microcapsules, acting as a temperature indicator whose color transition temperature is centralized between 45 °C and 55 °C. The test results indicate that the color of the prepared composites can sensitively vary in response to the fluctuations in external ambient temperature, which was illustrated by the behavior of isothermal melting. Further analysis reveals that composites are able to precisely locate multiple tiny overheated areas and present remarkable thermal durability undergoing 480 h of aging at 70 °C. The thermochromic materials designed in this article provide a new technological route for large-scale thermal sensing applications of electrical equipment.
LncRNA/miRNA/mRNA ceRNA network analysis in spinal cord injury rat with physical exercise therapy

Noncoding RNAs have been implicated in the pathophysiology of spinal cord injury (SCI), including cell death, glial scar formation, axonal collapse and demyelination, and inflammation. The evidence suggests that exercise therapy is just as effective as medical treatment in SCI. However, studies of competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA)-mediated regulation mechanisms in the therapy of SCI with exercise are rare. The focus of this research was to investigate the effect of exercise therapy on the expression levels of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA), microRNA (miRNA), and mRNA in rats with SCI. The RNA-seq technology has been used to examine the differentially expressed circRNAs (DECs), lncRNAs (DELs), miRNAs (DEMs), and genes (DEGs) between SCI and exercise therapy rats. The ceRNA network was established using interactions between miRNAs and mRNAs, as well as between miRNAs and lncRNAs/circRNAs. The Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery was used to anticipate the underlying functions of mRNAs. Our current study identified 76 DELs, 33 DEMs, and 30 DEGs between groups of SCI rats and exercise therapy rats. Subsequently, these newly discovered ceRNA interaction axes could be important targets for the exercise treatment of SCI.
Deformation Work Absorbed by the Workpiece During Metal Cutting

The deformation work absorbed by the workpiece during metal cutting is analyzed. It was shown from photomicrographs that this is appreciable and may constitute the major energy absorbed in metal cutting when the depth of cut becomes small. The so-called “size effect in metal cutting,” in part, may be explained by this workpiece deformation. Correcting cutting forces for workpiece deformation in no way detracts from Merchant’s analysis, based on the minimum-energy principle. However, the criteria of plasticity in metal cutting and the correlation of metal-cutting data with tensile data remain in doubt.
Linguistic universals and language change

1. Introduction PART I UNIVERSALS AND CHANGE: GENERAL PERSPECTIVES 2. Universals Constrain Change Change Results in Typological Generalizations 3. On the Explanation of Typologically Unusual Structures PART II PHONOLOGICAL UNIVERSALS: VARIATION, CHANGE, AND STRUCTURE 4. Consonant Epenthesis: Natural and Unnatural Histories 5. Formal Universals as Emergent Phenomena: The Origins of Structure Preservation PART III MORPHOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS: THE SHAPE OF PARADIGMS 6. Paradigmatic Uniformity and Markedness 7. Explaining Universal Tendencies and Language Particulars in Analogical Change PART IV MORPHOSYNTACTIC PATTERNS: THE FORM OF GRAMMATICAL MARKERS 8. Creating Economical Morphosyntactic Patterns in Language Change 9. On the Explanatory Value of Grammaticalization PART V PHRASE STRUCTURE: MODELLING THE DEVELOPMENT OF SYNTACTIC CONSTRUCTIONS 10. The Classification of Constituent Order Generalizations and Diachronic Explanation 11. Emergent Serialization in English: Pragmatics and Typology PART VI CONCLUSION 12. Universals and Diachrony: Some Observations References Index
Influence of the Field of View on Shear Wave Velocity Estimation

Abstract Tissue elasticity contains important information for physicians in diagnosis and treatment, and, e.g., can help in tumor detection because tumors are stiffer than healthy tissue. Ultrasound shear wave elastography imaging (US-SWEI) can be used to estimate tissue stiffness by measuring the velocity of induced shear waves. Commonly, a linear US probe is used to track shear waves at a high imaging frequency in 2D. Realtime US-SWEI is limited by the required time for data processing. Hence, reducing the imaging field of view (FOV) is beneficial as it decreases the size of the acquired data and thereby the acquisition, transfer and processing time. However, a decrease in the FOV has the disadvantage that shear waves are tracked over a smaller distance and thus, also fewer sampling points are available for velocity estimation. This trade-off between a smaller FOV and thus, a smaller data size, and the accuracy of shear wave velocity estimation is investigated in this work. For this purpose, shear waves were tracked with a linear US probe in gelatin phantoms with four different stiffness values. During data processing, we reduced the FOV virtually from 38.1mm to 2.1mm. It was found that a reduction of the FOV to 4.5mm leads to an overestimation of up to five times larger shear wave velocities but still allows to distinguish between phantoms of different stiffness. However, not all estimated velocity values could be clearly assigned to the correct stiffness value. The smallest studied FOV of 2.1mm was not sufficient for distinguishing between the phantoms anymore.
Tropical surface gold mining: A review of ecological impacts and restoration strategies

Surface gold mining severely degrades landscapes, causing deforestation, soil erosion and displacement, and toxic contamination. The prevalence of both large‐scale and artisanal, small‐scale surface gold mining in the tropics has risen over recent decades. Restoration strategies developed for less‐severe forms of degradation may not sufficiently address the unique ecological conditions of former gold mines. In this review, we summarize biophysical challenges to the restoration and reforestation of large‐ and small‐scale gold mines in the tropics and synthesize the findings of studies that test restoration strategies at these sites. Certain practices, such as the backfilling of mined pits, topsoil conservation, and the preservation of local seed sources, emerge from the literature as crucial for the timely and effective restoration of gold mines. However, because the severity of ecological degradation varies greatly within and between individual mines, and given the relatively small number (n = 42) of published tropical field studies found in our literature review, we highlight a clear need for continued research and development of restoration strategies specific to ecological conditions of former gold mines in the tropics.
Financial literacy and its correlates among healthcare professionals of India: An ignored educational need

BACKGROUND: Financial literacy is a person's capability to manage their own monetary matters. There was no information available on financial literacy status of healthcare professionals (HCPs) of India. So, the current research was formulated to assess the financial literacy status and its correlates among HCPs of India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was an observational study, cross-sectionally designed, conducted among 524 HCPs of India using a structured Google form during July 2020. For data analysis, SPSS (version 22) was used. RESULTS: Among the study participants, 68.3% were found to be financially literate. Among the various subdomains of the total financial literacy, knowledge regarding general domain was observed to be the best (69.3%) followed by savings (63.7%) and investment (58.0%) domains, respectively. The total financial literacy score was found to be positively correlated with higher age [spearman rho correlation co-efficient (ρ) = 0.25; P =< 0.01], qualification [(medical postgraduate) (ρ= 0.16; P =< 0.01); (medical super speciality) (ρ = 0.14; P =< 0.01)], and annual family income (ρ= 0.29; P =< 0.01). Moreover, males (ρ= 0.23; P =< 0.01)], currently married (ρ= 0.19; P =< 0.01), and surgeons (ρ= 0.12; P =< 0.01) were found to be more financially literate compared with others. Positive financial attitude (ρ= 0.26; P =< 0.01) and regular maintenance of financial record (ρ= 0.21; P =< 0.01) were the other enabling factors of financial literacy observed in the study. CONCLUSIONS: Financial literacy was found to be quite low in the surveyed HCPs as every third study participant were found to be deficient in knowledge regarding one or more financial attributes. Incorporation of finance management in curriculum of the healthcare allied courses and repeated sensitization of the graduated HCPs are warranted to enable them to take effective financial decisions to meet their personal and organizational financial goals.
Combined effects of urbanization and longitudinal disruptions in riparian and in-stream habitat on water quality of a prairie stream

Local habitat and riparian modifications imposed by surrounding land use drastically impact the water quality of streams. However, whether these effects could still be discernible when the watercourse also receives urbanization effluents has not been fully explored. We evaluated the water quality of a Neotropical prairie stream exposed to urbanization and explored the role of downstream patches of different surrounding land uses (cropland and livestock) in further regulating water quality. Forty-two variables of water quality, habitat structure and riparian condition were measured at four reaches of the Langueyú stream. Significant differences in water quality were observed. Water conductivity, dissolved oxygen, salinity, dissolved solids, chloride, inorganic nitrogen and bacteriological loads displayed a continuum of recovery from the urban reach. Indeed, almost 24 percent of the total variation in water quality was explained by the longitudinal arrangement of sites. Alternatively, pH, phosphorous, suspended solids and chemical oxygen demand showed a disruption in this continuum of recovery and were highly related with local aspects of habitat structure and riparian conditions imposed by cropland and livestock. Key aspects of effluent treatment, riparian integrity and in-stream habitat must be addressed within a comprehensive social context in order to design sustainable management of fluvial urbanised ecosystems.