Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phase retrieval approach for an accurate reconstruction of an arbitrary optical waveform in the petahertz optical oscilloscope

An arbitrary optical waveform can be measured using the technique called the ‘petahertz optical oscilloscope’ in which an electron trajectory in the process of high harmonic generation is used as a fast temporal gate. In the petahertz optical oscilloscope, a signal laser pulse that needs to be measured is superposed on a fundamental laser pulse that generates high harmonic radiation. The addition of the signal laser pulse slightly modifies the amplitude and phase of the harmonic radiation, which have information on the signal field. While these changes are imposed in the generation medium, the harmonic radiation is measured at the detector. Thus, one needs a special technique to find the phase modulation in the medium using the variation of the spatially-resolved harmonic spectrum measured at the far field. We find that a simple estimation using the deflection angle of the harmonic radiation is not accurate enough for a broadband signal pulse. Here we introduce a phase retrieval approach for the reconstruction of the broadband signal pulse. Our calculations show that the broadband signal pulse can be accurately reconstructed using the phase retrieval approach.
The use of the Taguchi approach to determine the influence of injection-moulding parameters on the properties of green parts

Purpose: The paper is focused on the influence of injection moulding parameters on the properties of green parts in powder injection moulding. Because of the nature of this technology all the technological phases must be mastered. Design/methodology/approach: For the design of experiments (DOE) we used the Taguchi approach and the results were analysed with the analysis of variance (ANOVA). Findings: As is presented in the paper the injection moulding parameters have big influence on weight and dimensions of the green parts. The mould temperature, material temperature and holding pressure are the parameters which influence the dimensions most. The influence of cycle time has to be examined in further experiments. Research limitations/implications: It would also be advisable to conduct additional research on all the influential factors and their interaction. The factors would appear on three or more levels, which would make it possible to show the non-linear dependence of the output, and to optimize the process itself. Practical implications: The optimisation of injection moulding parameters gives better tolerances of both, the green parts and the sintered parts. Originality/value: Not much research work has been done to examine the influence of injection moulding parameters in PIM. With these experiments we upgraded our existing knowledge about the influence of the injection-moulding parameters on the dimensional accuracy of the green part, made from stainless steel 316L, and thus contributed to improving the process’s reliability.
Immunization Against Specific Fragments of Neurotrophin p75 Receptor Protects Forebrain Cholinergic Neurons in the Olfactory Bulbectomized Mice

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by progressive cognitive impairment associated with marked cholinergic neuron loss and amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide accumulation in the brain. The cytotoxicity in AD is mediated, at least in part, by Aβ binding with the extracellular domain of the p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR), localized predominantly in the membranes of acetylcholine-producing neurons in the basal forebrain. Hypothesizing that an open unstructured loop of p75NTR might be the effective site for Aβ binding, we have immunized both olfactory bulbectomized (OBX) and sham-operated (SO) mice (n = 82 and 49, respectively) with synthetic peptides, structurally similar to different parts of the loops, aiming to block them by specific antibodies. OBX-mice have been shown in previous studies, and confirmed in the present one, to be characterized by typical behavioral, morphological, and biochemical AD hallmarks, including cholinergic deficits in forebrain neurons. Immunization of OBX- or SO-mice with KLH conjugated fragments of p75NTR induced high titers of specific serum antibodies for each of nine chosen fragments. However, maximal protective effects on spatial memory, evaluated in a Morris water maze, and on activity of choline acetyltransferase in forebrain neurons, detected by immunoreactivity to specific antibodies, were revealed only for peptides with amino acid residue sequences of 155–164 and 167–176. We conclude that the approach based on immunological blockade of specific p75NTR sites, linked with the cytotoxicity, is a useful and effective tool for study of AD-associated mechanisms and for development of highly selective therapy of cholinergic malfunctioning in AD patients.
THE TENSILE TESTING OF SINGLE WOOD PULP FIBERS IN AIR AND IN WATER

A technique for the tensile testing of single wood pulp fibers in air and in water is described. Successive loading-unloading tests with increasing loads showed that the immediate elastic recovery of the wood pulp fibers was a linear function of the removed load. The slope of the straight line is inversely proportional to the rigidity of the fibers. Creep curves were recorded at 50% relative humidity and in water. As the testing method involves the measurement of the elastic recovery, the effect on the strain of the irreversible extension of microcompressions and crimps is eliminated. The method presented in this paper may therefore be more accurate for the determination of rigidity than those which evaluate rigidity from stress-strain curves. The tensile testing technique was critically examined, with special emphasis on the reliability of the adhesive used in attaching the fibers to the testing apparatus. The calculated elastic moduli and the creep behavior agreed well with literature data.
Multidimensional Compressive Sensing Based Analog CSI Feedback for Massive MIMO-OFDM Systems

We study the analog feedback of channel state information (CSI) in the massive multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) transmission. In a massive MIMO-OFDM system, the amount of CSI required by the transmitter increases linearly with the number of transmit antennas and subcarriers. To address this challenge, in this paper we propose a novel CSI feedback method for massive MIMO-OFDM systems based on the multidimensional compressive sensing theory. Taking advantage of a mathematical advance, the Tucker tensor decomposition, and spatial and frequency correlation of the channel, we reveal the connection between the tensor decomposition model and CS involving multidimensional signals (tensors). Then by making use of this connection, we exploit the structure contained in all different dimensions of the original channel matrix and compress it in each dimension simultaneously, thereby resulting in a large reduction in amount of CSI to be fed back and enabling a significant enhancement of spectral efficiency. The numerical results validate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Supporting Transitions in Care for Older Adults With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Obesity.

The aim of the current study was to compare outcomes for older adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity following participation in a transitional care intervention that included diabetes self-management education (DSME) and homecare. The three groups analyzed comprised an inpatient DSME plus homecare group (n = 35); an inpatient DSME only group (n = 100); and a group who received usual care (n = 45). Outcomes of interest included rehospitalization rates and hemoglobin A1C (A1C) for up to 1-year post hospital discharge. Rates of rehospitalization and A1C improved for older adults who received nurse-led inpatient DSME and homecare during transitions of care from hospital to home. Rehospitalization rates up to 90 days were decreased for the DSME plus homecare group (10%) compared to DSME only (20%) and usual care groups (26.7%) (p < 0.05). A decrease of -0.4 and -2.3 A1C units was observed for the DSME group and DSME plus homecare group, respectively, at 90 days. These results support a transitional care educational intervention for older adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity. TARGETS Older adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity. INTERVENTION DESCRIPTION Transitional care intervention including diabetes self-management education and homecare. MECHANISMS OF ACTION Inpatient diabetes education and homecare helps improve rates of rehospitalization and hemoglobin A1C during care transitions from hospital to home. OUTCOMES Rehospitalization rates, glycemic control (i.e., A1C level). [Res Gerontol Nurs. 2018; 11(2):71-81. ].
Location-aware instant search

Location-Based Services (LBS) have been widely accepted by mobile users recently. Existing LBS-based systems require users to type in complete keywords. However for mobile users it is rather difficult to type in complete keywords on mobile devices. To alleviate this problem, in this paper we study the location-aware instant search problem, which returns users location-aware answers as users type in queries letter by letter. The main challenge is to achieve high interactive speed. To address this challenge, in this paper we propose a novel index structure, prefix-region tree (called PR-Tree), to efficiently support location-aware instant search. PR-Tree is a tree-based index structure which seamlessly integrates the textual description and spatial information to index the spatial data. Using the PR-Tree, we develop efficient algorithms to support single prefix queries and multi-keyword queries. Experiments show that our method achieves high performance and significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods.
The seasonal influence of climate and environment on yellow fever transmission across Africa

Background Yellow fever virus (YFV) is a vector-borne flavivirus endemic to Africa and Latin America. Ninety per cent of the global burden occurs in Africa where it is primarily transmitted by Aedes spp, with Aedes aegypti the main vector for urban yellow fever (YF). Mosquito life cycle and viral replication in the mosquito are heavily dependent on climate, particularly temperature and rainfall. We aimed to assess whether seasonal variations in climatic factors are associated with the seasonality of YF reports. Methodology/Principal findings We constructed a temperature suitability index for YFV transmission, capturing the temperature dependence of mosquito behaviour and viral replication within the mosquito. We then fitted a series of multilevel logistic regression models to a dataset of YF reports across Africa, considering location and seasonality of occurrence for seasonal models, against the temperature suitability index, rainfall and the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) as covariates alongside further demographic indicators. Model fit was assessed by the Area Under the Curve (AUC), and models were ranked by Akaike’s Information Criterion which was used to weight model outputs to create combined model predictions. The seasonal model accurately captured both the geographic and temporal heterogeneities in YF transmission (AUC = 0.81), and did not perform significantly worse than the annual model which only captured the geographic distribution. The interaction between temperature suitability and rainfall accounted for much of the occurrence of YF, which offers a statistical explanation for the spatio-temporal variability in transmission. Conclusions/Significance The description of seasonality offers an explanation for heterogeneities in the West-East YF burden across Africa. Annual climatic variables may indicate a transmission suitability not always reflected in seasonal interactions. This finding, in conjunction with forecasted data, could highlight areas of increased transmission and provide insights into the occurrence of large outbreaks, such as those seen in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Brazil.
Proton Pump Inhibitor Intake neither Predisposes to Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis or Other Infections nor Increases Mortality in Patients with Cirrhosis and Ascites

Background and Aim The aim of this study was to assess the impact of proton pump inhibitor (PPI) intake on the development of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) or other infections, as well as on mortality, in a thoroughly documented cohort of patients with cirrhosis and ascites. Patients and Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of follow-up data from 607 consecutive patients with cirrhosis undergoing their first paracentesis at a tertiary center. A binary logistic regression model investigating the association between PPI intake and SBP at the first paracentesis was calculated. Competing risk analyses and Cox models were used to investigate the effect of PPIs on the cumulative incidence of SBP or other infections and transplant-free survival, respectively. Adjustments were made for age, hepatocellular carcinoma, history of variceal bleeding, varices and model of end-stage liver disease score. Results Eighty-six percent of patients were receiving PPIs. After adjusting for potential confounding factors, PPI intake was neither associated with increased SBP prevalence at the first paracentesis (odds ratio (OR):1.11,95% confidence interval (95%CI):0.6–2.06; P = 0.731) nor cumulative incidence of SBP (subdistribution hazard ratio (SHR): 1.38; 95%CI:0.63–3.01; P = 0.42) and SBP or other infections (SHR:1.71; 95%CI:0.85–3.44; P = 0.13) during follow-up. Moreover, PPI intake had no impact on transplant-free survival in both the overall cohort (hazard ratio (HR):0.973,95%CI:0.719–1.317; P = 0.859) as well as in the subgroups of patients without SBP (HR:1.01,95%CI:0.72–1.42; P = 0.971) and without SBP or other infections at the first paracentesis (HR:0.944,95%CI:0.668–1.334; P = 0.742). Conclusions The proportion of cirrhotic patients with PPI intake was higher than in previous reports, suggesting that PPI indications were interpreted liberally. In our cohort with a particularly high prevalence of PPI intake, we observed no association between PPIs and SBP or other infections, as well as mortality. Thus, the severity of liver disease and other factors, rather than PPI treatment per se may predispose for infectious complications.
Noncoding RNAs, Emerging Regulators of Skeletal Muscle Development and Diseases

A healthy and independent life requires skeletal muscles to maintain optimal function throughout the lifespan, which is in turn dependent on efficient activation of processes that regulate muscle development, homeostasis, and metabolism. Thus, identifying mechanisms that modulate these processes is of crucial priority. Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), including microRNAs (miRNAs) and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), have emerged as a class of previously unrecognized transcripts whose importance in a wide range of biological processes and human disease is only starting to be appreciated. In this review, we summarize the roles of recently identified miRNAs and lncRNAs during skeletal muscle development and pathophysiology. We also discuss several molecular mechanisms of these noncoding RNAs. Undoubtedly, further systematic understanding of these noncoding RNAs' functions and mechanisms will not only greatly expand our knowledge of basic skeletal muscle biology, but also significantly facilitate the development of therapies for various muscle diseases, such as muscular dystrophies, cachexia, and sarcopenia.
Incentive-Based Entity Collection using

Crowdsourced entity collection leverages human’s ability to collect entities that are missing in a database, which has many real-world applications, such as knowledge base enrichment and enterprise data collection. There are several challenges. First, it is hard to evaluate the workers’ quality because a worker’s quality depends on not only the correctness of her provided entities but also the distinctness of these entities compared with the collected ones by other workers. Second, crowd workers are likely to provide popular entities and different workers will provide many duplicated entities, leading to a waste of money and low coverage. To address these challenges, we propose an incentive-based crowdsourced entity collection framework CrowdEC that encourages workers to provide more distinct items using an incentive strategy. CrowdEC has fundamental differences from existing crowdsourcing collection methods. One the one hand, CrowdEC proposes a worker model and evaluates a worker’s quality based on cross validation and entity checking. CrowdEC devises a worker utility model that considers both worker’s quality and entities’ distinctness provided by workers. CrowdEC proposes a worker elimination method to block workers with a low utility, which solves the first challenge. On the other hand, CrowdEC proposes an incentive pricing technique that encourages each qualified (i.e., non-eliminated) worker to provide distinct entities rather than duplicates. CrowdEC provides two types of tasks and judiciously assigns workers with appropriate tasks to address the second challenge. We have conducted both real and simulated experiments, and the results show that CrowdEC outperforms existing state-of-the-art works on both cost and quality.
The genetics and physiology of polycystic kidney disease.

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is a major, inherited disorder that is characterized by the growth of large, fluid-filled cysts from the tubules and collecting ducts of affected kidneys, and by a number of extrarenal manifestations including liver and pancreatic cysts, hypertension, heart valve defects, and cerebral and aortic aneurysms. Mutations in either of 2 different genes (PKD1 or PKD2) give rise to ADPKD. Most mutations identified in affected families appear to inactivate the PKD genes, and accumulating evidence suggests that a 2-hit mechanism, in which the normal PKD1 or PKD2 allele is also mutated, may be required for cyst growth. The protein products of the PKD genes (polycystin-1 and polycystin-2) are thought to function together as part of a multiprotein membrane-spanning complex involved in cell-cell or cell-matrix interactions. Polycystin-1 and polycystin-2 can initiate signal transduction, leading to the activation of a number of downstream effectors, including heterotrimeric G-proteins, protein kinase C, mitogen-activated protein kinases, beta-catenin, and the AP-1 transcription factor. In addition, polycystin-2 may function in mediating calcium flux. The pathogenesis of cyst formation is currently thought to involve increased cell proliferation, fluid accumulation, and basement membrane remodeling. It now appears that cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) metabolism is a central component of cyst formation, stimulating apical chloride secretion and driving the accumulation of cyst fluid. Recent evidence has shown that ADPKD cells also have an altered responsiveness to cyclic AMP. In contrast to normal kidney cells whose cell proliferation is inhibited by cyclic AMP, ADPKD cells are stimulated to proliferate. Thus, it is likely that an alteration in polycystin function transforms the normal cellular phenotype to one that responds to elevated cyclic AMP by an increased rate of cell proliferation and that the enlarging cyst expands by an increased rate of cyclic AMP-driven fluid secretion. Cyclic AMP and growth factors, including epidermal growth factor, have complementary effects to accelerate the enlargement of ADPKD cysts, and thereby to contribute to the progression of the disease. This knowledge should facilitate the discovery of inhibitors of signal transduction cascades that can be used in the treatment of ADPKD.
HDAC2/3 binding and deacetylation of BubR1 initiates spindle assembly checkpoint silencing

BubR1 acetylation is essential in spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) signaling. Here we show that BubR1 deacetylation is a signal that initiates mitotic exit. Sustained BubR1 acetylation arrests the cells in metaphase, although chromosome congression is achieved. BubR1 deacetylation was coordinated with dephosphorylation in mitotic exit, suggesting the presence of a coordinated acetylation–phosphorylation code in mitotic signaling. Histone deacetylase (HDAC) 2 and 3 bound to acetylated BubR1 exclusively in mitosis and led to the polyubiquitination of BubR1. Subsequent degradation of BubR1 resulted in the disassembly of the mitotic checkpoint complex. Importantly, BRCA2 was required for HDAC2/3 association with acetylated BubR1 in nocodazole (Noc)‐arrested cells. Plk1, PP2A, P300/CBP‐associated factor (PCAF) and BubR1 were found in the mitotic BRCA2 complex, suggesting that BRCA2 acts as a signaling scaffold for BubR1 modification. Furthermore, we show that Plk1 is required for BRCA2 to localize at the prometaphase kinetochore (KT). Inhibition of Plk1 resulted in the loss of BRCA2 from the KT, and so did PCAF, consistent with the loss of BubR1 acetylation. Concordantly, BRCA2‐dysfunctional cells exhibited resistance to trichostatin A, which was restored when BRCA2 was introduced. That loss of Brca2 conferred resistance to various HDAC inhibitors was corroborated by the experiments in mouse pancreatic organoids. These results suggest that the BRCA2–BubR1 acetylation–deacetylation pathway is an important decision‐making point for the HDAC inhibitor response. Taken together, BRCA2 is a signaling platform for BubR1, and BubR1 deacetylation is a cue for SAC silencing.
Bacillus subtilis Spores as Vaccine Adjuvants: Further Insights into the Mechanisms of Action

Bacillus subtilis spores have received growing attention regarding potential biotechnological applications, including the use as probiotics and in vaccine formulations. B. subtilis spores have also been shown to behave as particulate vaccine adjuvants, promoting the increase of antibody responses after co-administration with antigens either admixed or adsorbed on the spore surface. In this study, we further evaluated the immune modulatory properties of B. subtilis spores using a recombinant HIV gag p24 protein as a model antigen. The adjuvant effects of B. subtilis spores were not affected by the genetic background of the mouse lineage and did not induce significant inflammatory or deleterious effects after parenteral administration. Our results demonstrated that co-administration, but not adsorption to the spore surface, enhanced the immunogenicity of that target antigen after subcutaneous administration to BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice. Spores promoted activation of antigen presenting cells as demonstrated by the upregulation of MHC and CD40 molecules and enhanced secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines by murine dendritic cells. In addition, in vivo studies indicated a direct role of the innate immunity on the immunomodulatory properties of B. subtilis spores, as demonstrated by the lack of adjuvant effects on MyD88 and TLR2 knockout mouse strains.