Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Silibinin Attenuates Experimental Periodontitis by Downregulation of Inflammation and Oxidative Stress

Periodontitis is an oral microbiota-induced inflammatory disease, in which inflammation and oxidative stress play a critical role. Silibinin (SB), a Silybum marianum-derived compound, exhibits strong anti-inflammatory and antioxidative properties. We adopted a rat ligature-induced periodontitis model and a lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) stimulated human periodontal ligament cells (hPDLCs) model to evaluate the protective effects of SB. In the in vivo model, SB reduced alveolar bone loss and apoptosis of PDLCs in the periodontal tissue. SB also maintained the expression of nuclear factor-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), a key regulator of cellular resistance to oxidative stress, and attenuated lipid, protein, and DNA oxidative damages in the periodontal lesion area. Meanwhile, in the in vitro model, SB administration reduced the production of intracellular reactive oxidative species (ROS). Furthermore, SB exerted a strong anti-inflammatory property in both in vivo and in vitro models by inhibiting the expression of inflammatory mediators including nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) as well as nucleotide binding oligomerization domain- (NOD-) like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) and downregulating the levels of proinflammatory cytokines. This study, for the first time, demonstrates that SB exhibits the anti-inflammatory and antioxidative properties against periodontitis by downregulating the expression of NF-κB and NLRP3 and upregulating Nrf2 expression, suggesting a promising potential clinical application of SB in periodontitis.
A numerical model incorporating friction induced temperatures for contact recording applications

The study deals with the development of a computational procedure for evaluating the temperature rise in layered concentrated contacts of head/disk interface. A transient computational model is utilized. The computational distribution of temperature is obtained with the analytical findings for various composition and contact conditions. This general class of problems can be treated provided that heat generation distribution and layer properties are known. It can also provide tribological evaluation to analyze the thermal pulse that induces thermal signals in the head.
Mechanistic insight into the efficient packaging of antigenomic S RNA into Rift Valley fever virus particles

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV), a bunyavirus, has a single-stranded, negative-sense tri-segmented RNA genome, consisting of L, M and S RNAs. An infectious virion carries two envelope glycoproteins, Gn and Gc, along with ribonucleoprotein complexes composed of encapsidated viral RNA segments. The antigenomic S RNA, which serves as the template of the mRNA encoding a nonstructural protein, NSs, an interferon antagonist, is also efficiently packaged into RVFV particles. An interaction between Gn and viral ribonucleoprotein complexes, including the direct binding of Gn to viral RNAs, drives viral RNA packaging into RVFV particles. To understand the mechanism of efficient antigenomic S RNA packaging in RVFV, we identified the regions in viral RNAs that directly interact with Gn by performing UV-crosslinking and immunoprecipitation of RVFV-infected cell lysates with anti-Gn antibody followed by high-throughput sequencing analysis (CLIP-seq analysis). Our data suggested the presence of multiple Gn-binding sites in RVFV RNAs, including a prominent Gn-binding site within the 3’ noncoding region of the antigenomic S RNA. We found that the efficient packaging of antigenomic S RNA was abrogated in a RVFV mutant lacking a part of this prominent Gn-binding site within the 3’ noncoding region. Also, the mutant RVFV, but not the parental RVFV, triggered the early induction of interferon-β mRNA expression after infection. These data suggest that the direct binding of Gn to the RNA element within the 3’ noncoding region of the antigenomic S RNA promoted the efficient packaging of antigenomic S RNA into virions. Furthermore, the efficient packaging of antigenomic S RNA into RVFV particles, driven by the RNA element, facilitated the synthesis of viral mRNA encoding NSs immediately after infection, resulting in the suppression of interferon-β mRNA expression.
New Approach for Modeling, Analysis, and Control of Air Traffic Flow

An Eulerian approach to modeling air traffic flow is advanced. This modeling technique spatially aggregates air traffic to generate models of air traffic flow in a network of interconnected, one-dimensional control volumes. The approach simplifies the problem of characterizing the air traffic flow because the order of the corresponding airspace model depends only on the number of spatial control volumes used to represent the air traffic environment and not on the number of aircraft operating in it. Under a quasi-steady-state assumption, this process results in linear models of the air traffic environment. It is shown that analysis and design methods from linear control theory can be applied to this model to yield useful approaches for characterizing and controlling the air traffic flow.
Paving the Way for Personalized Medicine in First Kidney Transplantation: Interest of a Creatininemia Latent Class Analysis in Early Post-transplantation

Plasma creatinine is a marker of interest in renal transplantation but data on its kinetics in the first days following transplantation are scarce. The aim of this study was to identify clinically relevant subgroups of creatinine trajectories following renal transplantation and to test their association with graft outcome. Among 496 patients with a first kidney transplant included in the French ASTRE cohort at the Poitiers University hospital, 435 patients from donation after brain death were considered in a latent class modeling. Four distinct classes of creatinine trajectories were identified: “poor recovery” (6% of patients), “intermediate recovery” (47%), “good recovery” (10%) and “optimal recovery” (37%). Cold ischemia time was significantly lower in the “optimal recovery” class. Delayed graft function was more frequent and the number of hemodialysis sessions was higher in the “poor recovery” class. Incidence of graft loss was significantly lower in “optimal recovery” patients with an adjusted risk of graft loss 2.42 and 4.06 times higher in “intermediate recovery” and “poor recovery” patients, respectively. Our study highlights substantial heterogeneity in creatinine trajectories following renal transplantation that may help to identify patients who are more likely to experience a graft loss. Graphical Abstract
Ecological Risks from Atmospheric Deposition of Nitrogen and Sulphur in Jack Pine forests of Northwestern Canada

Chronic elevated nitrogen (N) deposition can have adverse effects on terrestrial ecosystems. For large areas of northern Canada distant from emissions sources, long-range atmospheric transport of N may impact plant species diversity, even at low deposition levels. The objective of this study was to establish plant species community thresholds for N deposition under multiple environmental gradients using gradient forest analysis. Plant species abundance data for 297 Jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.)-dominant forest plots across Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada, were evaluated against 43 bioclimatic and deposition variables. Bioclimatic variables were overwhelmingly the most important drivers of community thresholds. Nonetheless, dry N oxide (DNO) and dry N dioxide deposition inferred a total deposited N (TDN) community threshold of 1.4–2.1 kg N ha−1 yr−1. This range was predominantly associated with changes in several lichen species, including Cladina mitis, Vulpicida pinastri, Evernia mesomorpha and Lecanora circumborealis, some of which are known bioindicators of N deposition. A secondary DNO threshold appeared to be driving changes in several vascular species and was equivalent to 2.45–3.15 kg N ha−1 yr−1 on the TDN gradient. These results suggest that in low deposition ‘background’ regions a biodiversity-based empirical critical load of 1.4–3.15 kg N ha−1 yr−1 will protect lichen communities and other N-sensitive species in Jack pine forests across Northwestern Canada. Nitrogen deposition above the critical load may lead to adverse effects on plant species biodiversity within these forests.
Eclipsing phenomena of the symbiotic star CH Cygni

Eclipsing phenomena of the inner binary with a period of 756 d in the triple symbiotic system CH Cyg may have been detected in detailed spectrophotometric observations. The eclipse of the hot component by the red giant started on 1994 October 11 and finished between 1995 January 8 and 18. The ingress duration was less than one day. The radius of the red giant is estimated to be 288 ± 15 R⊙ from the duration of the eclipse. Assuming the bolometric correction of the red giant (M7 III) as 4, the distance to this object is estimated to be 307 ± 32 pc, which agrees well with that obtained in the observations by Hipparcos. The interstellar extinction in the direction of this object may be much lower than that in the nearby areas. It has been suggested that the outer binary system with an orbital period of about 15 yr is an eclipsing one. It seems unlikely, however, that the variation of the activity of this object with a time-scale of more than 10 yr was a result of eclipses.
Stability and discretization error analysis for the Cahn-Hilliard system via relative energy estimates

The stability of solutions to the Cahn-Hilliard equation with concentration dependent mobility with respect to perturbations is studied by means of relative energy estimates. As a by-product of this analysis, a weak-strong uniqueness principle is derived on the continuous level under realistic regularity assumptions on strong solutions. The stability estimates are further inherited almost verbatim by appropriate Galerkin approximations in space and time. This allows to derive sharp bounds for the discretization error in terms of certain projection errors and to establish order-optimal a-priori error estimates for semi- and fully discrete approximation schemes. Numerical tests are presented for illustration of the theoretical results.
Finite volume approximation of two phase-fluid flows based on an approximate Roe-type Riemann solver

Abstract We introduce an approximate Roe type Riemann solver for the numerical simulation of two-phase fluid flows composed of liquid droplets suspended in gas. We compute a Roe linearization of some well-conditioned approximate Rankine-Hugoniot relations in non-conservation form. The computed solutions are found to be in good agreement with the exact solution in one dimension slab geometry. We extend this solver to two-dimensional geometries using a finite volume formulation.
A Modified Pressure-Correction Scheme for the SIMPLER Method, MSIMPLER

A new method is proposed to accelerate the convergence rate for the SIMPLER algorithm by artificially changing the underrelaxation term to match the dependent variable to be solved. Based on this idea, a new pressure-correction equation is derived, and the modified algorithm is named MSIMPLER. Five numerical experiments show that the MSIMPLER algorithm can appreciably enhance the convergence rate for cases of low and moderate underrelaxation factors with good robustness.
Experimental Study of Curing Temperature Effect on Mechanical Performance of Carbon Fiber Composites with Application to Filament Winding Pressure Vessel Design

During the forming process of carbon fiber composite pressure vessels, the parameters of the curing and forming processes become one of the critical factors affecting the production cost and forming quality. The curing temperature of 4251 A4/B2 epoxy resin is measured in this research, and the effect of curing temperature on the mechanical properties of composite materials for winding is studied, which is finally verified in the test of pressure vessels. First, the actual curing temperature of the epoxy resin is tested and analyzed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Second, under two different curing regimes, the tensile and flexural properties are tested by making pure epoxy resin matrix test pieces, Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL) rings, and carbon fiber composite unidirectional plates that affect the overall performance of composite pressure vessels. At the same time, the test results provide reliable process parameters for numerical simulation and manufacturing of pressure vessels. Finally, the filament-wound 35 MPa type III pressure vessel is cured and carried out using a hydraulic burst test. The results show the resin matrix has good fluidity and excellent interface bonding with carbon fiber when the curing temperature is 112 °C. Compared with the results in curing temperature of 100 °C, the tensile strength of the NOL ring reaches 2260.8 MPa, up by 22%. In the 90° direction, the tensile and flexural strengths of the unidirectional plates increase by 68.86% and 37.42%, respectively. In the 0° direction, the tensile and flexural strengths of the unidirectional plates increase by 5.82% and 1.16%, respectively. The pressure vessel bursting form is reasonable and meets the CGH2R standard. The bursting pressure of the vessel is up to 104.4 MPa, which verifies the rationality of the curing regime used in the curing process of the pressure vessel. Based on the results of this paper, the curing temperature affects the fluidity of the epoxy resin, which in turn affects the interfacial bonding properties of the composite, and the forming quality of the wound components and the pressure vessel, ultimately. When using 4251A4/B2 epoxy resin for wet winding pressure vessels, the choice of a 112 °C curing temperature will help improve the vessel’s overall performance. This work could provide reliable experience and insight into the curing process analysis of pressure vessel manufacturing.
Condensed matter applications of the Gauge/Gravity correspondence

In this thesis, we investigate non-perturbative features of strongly coupled condensed matter systems, generically, placed at finite temperature, charge density and, possibly, in a magnetic field using the theoretical framework of the gauge/gravity correspondence. According to the dictionary of the duality, such field theories are related to charged black holes in one dimension higher that emerge from weakly interacting gravity theories. Following this approach, progress has been made in understanding some of the universal features of field theories at strong coupling, with new classes of black holes being discovered along the way. The bulk of the thesis consists of four interconnected parts. In the first, we study magnetically charged black holes and we find that, at some critical temperature, a new branch of spatially modulated branes appears, corresponding to a dual field theory with a current density wave. In the second part, we investigate the ground state of strongly coupled field theories placed in magnetic field, within the context of gauged supergravity in D = 4, 5 dimensions. This analysis revealed a rich structure of instabilities and, in particular, showed that only the supersymmetric solutions correspond to stable configurations. In the third part, we consider a generalised version of local quantum critical points, called ⌘-geometries, in the context of U(1)4 supergravity in D = 4 dimensions. We show that the latter theory admits extremal black holes carrying three non-zero electric or magnetic charges which approach an ⌘ = 1 geometry in the IR, while a small fourth charge resolves the singularity of the ⌘-geometry replacing it with an AdS 2 ⇥ R factor in the far IR. Finally, in the last part, we discuss the possibility of spatially modulated superconductors. We construct electrically charged black holes dual to four dimensional CFTs in a superfluid phase with either p-wave or (p+ ip)-wave order and we discuss their thermodynamic properties, the corresponding ground states as well as the competition of the two types of order. 5 To my family and friends, and the memory of my beloved Linos
High harmonics from solid surfaces as a source of ultra-bright XUV radiation for experiments

The coherent high-order harmonic generation from the interaction of ultra-intense femtosecond laser pulses with solid density plasmas holds promise for tabletop sources of extreme ultraviolet (XUV) and soft x-ray radiation with attosecond duration and unprecedented intensities. Together with the generation of mono-energetic electron beams from gas jets and capillaries and the generation of mono-energetic ions from thin foils, this offers a unique tool box of tabletop-laser-generated radiation sources for a wide range of applications previously only accessible with large-scale accelerator and synchrotron-radiation facilities. Especially, the generation of high harmonics from laser plasmas has the potential of being applied to a wide range of experiments from plasma physics to molecular dynamics. So far the studies addressing the generation of high harmonics from laser-generated overcritical plasma surfaces have concentrated mainly on the characterization of the harmonic beams themselves not considering how, in a next step, these beams could be applied to experiments. In this paper we discuss the generation of surface harmonics with the ATLAS (800 mJ, 40 fs) laser system with the emphasis on the transport, spectral shaping refocusing of the harmonic beams, all of these being absolute prerequisites for multi-shot experiments. We also present considerations for future improvements and possible future experiments exploiting the full potential of high harmonic radiation from solid targets.
Marketing and School Choice: A Systematic Literature Review

School-choice programs may increase schools' incentives for marketing rather than improving their educational offering. This article systematically reviews the literature on the marketing activities of primary and secondary schools worldwide. The 81 articles reviewed show that schools’ marketing has yet to be tackled by marketing academics or other social scientists outside the education field. Market-oriented U.S. charter schools and their international equivalents have stimulated recent research, but geographical gaps remain, particularly in countries with long-established school-choice policies and in rural areas. Schools deploy a range of marketing techniques with the intensity of activity directly correlated to the level of local competition and their position in the local hierarchy. Studies have analyzed schools’ use of market scanning, specific words and images in brochures, branding, segmentation, and targeting. These marketing activities are rarely accompanied by substantive curricular change, however, and may even contribute to social division through targeting or deceptive marketing activity.
Beyond the Flâneur: Urban Walking as Peripatetic Phenomenological Pedagogy

This essay analyses a key motif in geographical scholarship: the most basic form of mobility achieved by an abled-bodied person engaging in acts of walking. By embedding “walking” firmly within a phenomenological tradition, the essay places “being mobile” qua walking within a field of enquiry that conceptualises an embodied form of mobility as both enabling and limiting. Building furthermore from a growing body of literature that has differentiated between “walking” as an active form of engagement and a host of different geographically relevant modes of being, the paper adds a specifically epistemological set of considerations in an attempt critically to contribute to existing literatures and to interrogate the embodied practice of walking. Key in this endeavour is the contribution mobile modes of existence make to the construction of knowledge about the social world. The paper concludes with a prolegomena that recasts walking in the form of a geographically informed pedagogical practice.
3D low‐dispersion IFD‐FDTD based on 3D isotropic finite difference

Usually, 1D finite difference based on the Taylor series expansion theorem is used to approximate the spatial ideal partial‐differential operator (IPDO) using conventional FDTD methods. Such a treatment is simple, but its severe numerical dispersion is untenable. In this paper, a kind of 3D isotropic finite difference (IFD) is introduced and a new FDTD method, called IFD‐FDTD, is presented. A numerical‐dispersion analysis shows that it is superior to Yee's conventional FDTD method. In addition, through the analysis of stability, it is found that its stability condition is the same as that of Yee's FDTD method. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 46: 381–384, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.20993
Mixed‐grid and staggered‐grid finite‐difference methods for frequency‐domain acoustic wave modelling

SUMMARY We compare different finite-difference schemes for two-dimensional (2-D) acoustic frequency-domain forward modelling. The schemes are based on staggered-grid stencils of various accuracy and grid rotation strategies to discretize the derivatives of the wave equation. A combination of two staggered-grid stencils on the classical Cartesian coordinate system and the 45° rotated grid is the basis of the so-called mixed-grid stencil. This method is compared with a parsimonious staggered-grid method based on a fourth-order approximation of the first derivative operator. Averaging of the mass acceleration can be incorporated in the two stencils. Sponge-like perfectly matched layer absorbing boundary conditions are also examined for each stencil and shown to be effective. The deduced numerical stencils are examined for both the wavelength content and azimuthal variation. The accuracy of the fourth-order staggered-grid stencil is slightly superior in terms of phase velocity dispersion to that of the mixed-grid stencil when averaging of the mass acceleration term is applied to the staggered-grid stencil. For fourth-order derivative approximations, the classical staggered-grid geometry leads to a stencil that incorporates 13 grid nodes. The mixed-grid approach combines only nine grid nodes. In both cases, wavefield solutions are computed using a direct matrix solver based on an optimized multifrontal method. For this 2-D geometry, the staggered-grid strategy is significantly less efficient in terms of memory and CPU time requirements because of the enlarged bandwidth of the impedance matrix and increased number of coefficients in the discrete stencil. Therefore, the mixed-grid approach should be suggested as the routine scheme for 2-D acoustic wave propagation modelling in the frequency domain.
Modulation Strategy for Suppressing Peak Voltage Spikes of SiC-MOSFETs During ANPC Commutation

After active neutral point clamped(ANPC) adopts SiC-MOSFETs, SiC-MOSFETs are easily damaged due to the excessive peak voltage. This paper establishes a single-phase parasitic inductance model of ANPC based on the SiC-MOSFET half-bridge modules. Then, based on this model, the cause of peak voltage on SiC-MOSFETs during ANPC commutation is analyzed. Finally, a short-loop commutation modulation strategy is proposed under the full working conditions of ANPC. The modulation strategy considers the influence of modulation carriers selection and dead time on ANPC commutation and optimizes the ANPC commutation loop to suppress the overvoltage on SiC-MOSFETs during ANPC commutation.