Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Growth and characterisation of niobium/gadolinium superconductor-ferromagnet nanocomposites

Superconductivity and ferromagnetism are two antagonistic physical phenomena which their coexistence in a uniform material can be resolved only under extraordinary conditions. The reason for that is the phonon-mediated attraction energy between electrons which results in the formation of the so-called Cooper pairs, is usually smaller that the exchange (Zeeman) interaction between electrons which tend to align the electron spins. However, non-zero total momentum Cooper pairs can be accomplished even in the presence of an exchange field as surprisingly! predicted first by Fulde and Ferrel [1] and independently by Larkin and Ovchinikov [2] nearly 50 years ago. This coexistence has already been observed experimentally in both bulk samples [3, 4] and in thin films [5-7] which result from a different type of electron-pairing mechanism which electrons with spin pointing in the same direction team up to form Cooper pairs with one unit of spin, resulting in the so-called triplet superconductivity. Apart from this so-called ferromagnetsuperconductors which both superconducting and ferromagnetism order parameters are present in a uniform material, hybrid systems [8] are made form materials with different or even mutually exclusive properties. Therefore the overall property can be strongly affected by the interaction between constituent materials. The present work, concerns such a hybrid system where Nb, a superconducting metal having transition temperature below 9.5K, is placed in contact with a ferromagnetic metal, Gd with bulk Curie temperature of around 290 K in a form of a nanocomposite. The mutual immiscibility of these two elements gives us the opportunity to take advantage of both the superconduction and ferromagnetism properties of the constituents and further study the transport and magnetic behavior of the system and their effects on each other specially on the critical current of the superconductor which is expected to be modified by the proximity of the ferromagnetic metal. [1] P. Fulde and R. A. Ferrel, Phys. Rev. 135, A550 (1964). [2] A. I. Larkin and Y. N. Ovchinikov, Sov. Phys. JETP 20, 762 (1965). [3] D. Aoki et al., Nature (London), 413, 613 (2001). [4] S. S. Saxena et al. Nature (London), 406, 587 (2000). [5] T. Kontos et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 137007 (2002). [6] V. V. Ryazanov et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 2427 (2001). [7] R. Meservey et al., Phys. Rep. 238, 173 (1994). [8] I. F. Lyuksyutov et al., Adv. in Phys. 54, 1, 67–136, (2005).
Cellular immunotherapies for cancer

ABSTRACT Lessons learned over decades on the use of gene and cell therapies have found clinical applicability in the field of cancer immunotherapy. On December 16th, 2016 a symposium was held in Pamplona (Spain) to analyze and discuss the critical points for the clinical success of adoptive cell transfer strategies in cancer immunotherapy. Cellular immunotherapy is being currently exploited for the development of new cancer vaccines using ex vivo manipulated dendritic cells or to enhance the number of effector cells, transferring reinvigorated NK cells or T cells. In this meeting report, we summarize the main topics covered and provide an overview of the field of cellular immunotherapy.
The Association between Monocyte Surface CD163 and Insulin Resistance in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

Aim To investigate the association between monocyte CD163 and insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods One hundred sixty-six patients with type 2 diabetes without inflammatory or chronic kidney disease were recruited. The monocyte CD163 levels were measured by flow cytometry and soluble CD163 (sCD163) by ELISA. Insulin resistance was evaluated by the index of the homeostasis model assessment (HOMA-R). Results The median sCD163 and monocyte CD163 expression levels were 582.9 (472.4–720.0) ng/ml and 6061 (4486–7876) mean fluorescent intensity (MFI), respectively. In a simple regression analysis, monocyte CD163 was inversely correlated with log [HOMA-R] (r = –0.257, p = 0.010), and sCD163 was positively correlated with log [HOMA-R] (r = 0.198, p = 0.042). In multiple regression analyses, monocyte CD163 was an independent contributor to log [HOMA-R] (β = –0.220, p = 0.020) even after adjustment of various clinical factors for HOMA-R (R2 = 0.281, p = 0.001), whereas sCD163 was not. Conclusions Monocyte surface CD163 expression levels were more significantly associated with insulin resistance than sCD163 in patients with type 2 diabetes, suggesting a novel pathophysiological role of CD163.
Identifying Functional MicroRNAs in Macrophages with Polarized Phenotypes*

Background: Macrophages that respond to external stimuli assume a spectrum of activation states. Results: Expression of several miRNAs was altered significantly in different macrophage activation states. Functional activities on cytokine/chemokine expression were shown. Conclusion: miRNAs influenced macrophage differentiation toward distinct activation patterns. Significance: Profiling miRNA guide and passenger strands can reveal miRNA changes in differentiated cells responding to acute stimuli. Macrophages respond to external stimuli with rapid changes in expression of many genes. Different combinations of external stimuli lead to distinct polarized activation patterns, resulting in a spectrum of possible macrophage activation phenotypes. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, noncoding RNAs that can repress the expression of many target genes. We hypothesized that miRNAs play a role in macrophage polarization. miRNA expression profiles were determined in monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs) incubated in conditions causing activation toward M1, M2a, M2b, or M2c phenotypes. One miRNA guide strand and seven miRNA passenger strands were significantly altered. Changes were confirmed in MDMs from six separate donors. The amplitude of miRNA expression changes in MDMs was smaller than described studies of monocytes responding to inflammatory stimuli. Further investigation revealed this correlated with higher basal miRNA expression in MDMs compared with monocytes. The regulation of M1- and M2b-responsive miRNAs (miR-27a, miR-29b, miR-125a, miR-146a, miR-155, and miR-222) was similar in differentiated THP-1 cells and primary MDMs. Studies in this model revealed cross-talk between IFNγ- and LPS-associated pathways regulating miRNA expression. Furthermore, expression of M1-associated transcripts was increased in THP-1 cells transfected with mimics of miR-29b, miR-125a-5p, or miR-155. The apparent inflammatory property of miR-29b and miR-125a-5p can be at least partially explained by repression of TNFAIP3, a negative regulator of NF-κB signaling. Overall, these data suggest miRNAs can contribute to changes in macrophage gene expression that occur in different exogenous activating conditions.
Semi-centralized control for multi robot formation

Multi-robot formation control enables robots to cooperate as a working group in completing complex tasks. Given a formation to reach, each robot may first choose a position in the formation. Apart from arranging each robot with a fixed position, we may have more reasonable arrangement to minimize the moving cost while reaching the formation. To solve the problem, we formulate an optimization problem and give a solution by the Hungarian method. The moving cost of our proposed method is compared with others by simulation. As an extension, we discuss controlling of transformation between different formations. A theorem is given here confirming that our proposed strategy to choose center of the new formation may minimize the moving cost. Our work can improve the performance of multi-robot formation control and guide the system design.
Anti-DNA virus activity of the 5'-nucleotide and 3',5'-cyclic nucleotide of 9-beta-D-arabinofuranosyladenine.

9-β-D-Arabinofuranosyladenine-5′-phosphate (ara-AMP) and 9-β-D-arabinofuranosyladenine 3′,5′-cyclic phosphate (cyclic ara-AMP) had significant in vitro activity against types 1 and 2 herpes simplex, pseudorabies, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, murine and human cytomegalo, vaccinia and myxoma viruses. The drugs were not inhibitory to type 3 adeno, type 3 parainfluenza, or type 13 rhino virus in cell culture. The antiviral activity of the nucleotide and the cyclic nucleotide appeared equivalent to that seen using the known active purine nucleoside 9-β-D- Arabinofurnosyladenine (ara-A) in parallel experiments. Injection of each compound directly into the brains of mice infected intracerebrally with type 1 or type 2 herpes simplex viruses or with vaccinia virus resulted in a highly significant increase in survivors. The intracerebral dose of ara-A was limited by its relative insolubility in aqueous solutions. Intraperitoneal or per os ara-AMP, cyclic ara-AMP or ara-A treatment of mice infected intracerebrally with type 1 herpes simplex virus significantly prevented encephalitis-induced death or prolonged the mean survival time of the animals. Cyclic am-AMP was at least 10-fold more toxic than ara-A and ara-AMP when administered intraperitoneally, but this toxicity was not seen when it was administered per os. All three compounds were also active when administered per os against type 2 herpes simplex virus-induced encephalitis in mice. Topical application of ara-AMP or cyclic ara-AMP inhibited herpes keratitis in experimentally infected rabbits and herpes virus-induced cutaneous lesions in tails of mice. This activity was generally greater than that seen using ara-A tested in simultaneous experiments.
Research and Reports in Urology Dovepress Il-8 Secretion in Primary Cultures of Prostate Cells Is Associated with Prostate Cancer Aggressiveness

Background: Chronic inflammation is believed to be a major factor in prostate cancer initiation and promotion and has been studied using prostate cancer cells and immortalized cell lines. However, little is known about the contribution of normal cells to the prostatic microenviron-ment and inflammation. We aim to study the contribution of normal prostate epithelial cells to prostate inflammation and to link the inflammatory status of normal cells to prostate cancer aggressiveness. Materials and methods: Short-term primary cell cultures of normal epithelial prostate cells were derived from prostate biopsies from 25 men undergoing radical prostatectomy, cystopros-tatectomy, or organ donation. Cells were treated with polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid, a mimic of double-stranded viral RNA and a potent inducer of the inflammatory response. Secretion of interleukin (IL)-8 in the cell culture medium by untreated and treated cells was measured and we determined the association between IL-8 levels in these primary cell cultures and prostate cancer characteristics. The Fligner–Policello test was used to compare the groups. Results: Baseline and induced IL-8 secretion were highly variable between cultured cells from different patients. This variation was not related to drug use, past medical history, age, or preop-erative prostate-specific antigen value. Nonetheless, an elevated secretion of IL-8 from normal cultured epithelial cells was associated with prostate cancer aggressiveness (P=0.0005). Conclusion: The baseline secretion of IL-8 from normal prostate epithelial cells in culture is strongly correlated with cancer aggressiveness and may drive prostate cancer carcinogenesis. A better characterization of individual prostate microenvironment may provide a basis for per-sonalized treatment and for monitoring the effects of strategies aimed at preventing aggressive prostate cancer.
Dopamine D1 or D2 receptor‐expressing neurons in the central nervous system

Dopamine signals mainly through D1 receptors (D1Rs) and D2 receptors (D2Rs); D1R‐expressing or D2R‐expressing neurons contribute to distinct reward and addictive behaviors. Traditionally, transgenic mice expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) under D1R or D2R promoters are used for fluorescent verification in electrophysiology studies, whereas Cre mice are employed for behavioral research. However, it is unknown whether the same neuronal populations are targeted in GFP and Cre mice. Additionally, while D1Rs and D2Rs are known to be expressed in different striatal neurons, their expression patterns outside the striatum remain unclear. The present study addressed these two questions by using several transgenic mouse lines expressing fluorescent proteins (GFP or tdTomato) or Cre under the control of D1R or D2R promoters. We found a high degree of overlap between GFP‐positive and Cre‐positive neurons in the striatum and hippocampus. Additionally, we discovered that D1Rs and D2Rs were highly segregated in the orbitofrontal cortex, prefrontal cortex, dorsal and ventral hippocampus, and amygdala: ~4–34 percent of neurons co‐expressed these receptors. Importantly, slice electrophysiological studies demonstrated that D1R‐positive and D1R‐negative hippocampal neurons were functionally distinct in a mouse line generated by crossing Drd1a‐Cre mice with a Cre reporter Ai14 line. Lastly, we discovered that chronic alcohol intake differentially altered D1R‐positive and D2R‐positive neuron excitability in the ventral CA1. These data suggest that GFP and Cre mice target the same populations of striatal neurons, D1R‐expressing or D2R‐expressing neurons are highly segregated outside the striatum, and these neurons in the ventral hippocampal may exert distinct roles in alcohol addiction.
Critical Roles for Interleukin 1 and Tumor Necrosis Factor α in Antibody-induced Arthritis

In spontaneous inflammatory arthritis of K/BxN T cell receptor transgenic mice, the effector phase of the disease is provoked by binding of immunoglobulins (Igs) to joint surfaces. Inflammatory cytokines are known to be involved in human inflammatory arthritis, in particular rheumatoid arthritis, although, overall, the pathogenetic mechanisms of the human affliction remain unclear. To explore the analogy between the K/BxN model and human patients, we assessed the role and relative importance of inflammatory cytokines in K/BxN joint inflammation by transferring arthritogenic serum into a panel of genetically deficient recipients. Interleukin (IL)-1 proved absolutely necessary. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)–α was also required, although seemingly less critically than IL-1, because a proportion of TNF-α–deficient mice developed robust disease. There was no evidence for an important role for IL-6. Bone destruction and reconstruction were also examined. We found that all mice with strong inflammation exhibited the bone erosion and reconstruction phenomena typical of K/BxN arthritis, with no evidence of any particular requirement for TNFα for bone destruction. The variability in the requirement for TNF-α, reminiscent of that observed in treated rheumatoid arthritis patients, did not appear genetically programmed but related instead to subtle environmental changes.
Survey on Collaborative Filtering, Content-based Filtering and Hybrid Recommendation System

systems or recommendation systems are a subset of information filtering system that used to anticipate the 'evaluation' or 'preference' that user would feed to an item. In recent years E-commerce applications are widely using Recommender system. Generally the most popular E- commerce sites are probably music, news, books, research articles, and products. Recommender systems are also available for business experts, jokes, restaurants, financial services, life insurance and twitter followers. Recommender systems have formulated in parallel with the web. Initially Recommender systems were based on demographic, content-based filtering and collaborative filtering. Currently, these systems are incorporating social information for enhancing a quality of recommendation process. For betterment of recommendation process in the future, Recommender systems will use personal, implicit and local information from the Internet. This paper provides an overview of recommender systems that include collaborative filtering, content-based filtering and hybrid approach of recommender system.
Chemical Composition of Corallina mediterranea Areschoug and Corallina granifera Ell. et Soland

Abstract The composition of sterols, volatiles and some polar compounds from three Corallina samples (C. granifera and C. mediterranea from the Black Sea and C. mediterranea from the Mediterranean Sea) was established. The sterol composition of the Black Sea samples was similar but it differs from that of the Mediterranean sample. The composition of the volatiles was very complex. The main groups of constituent were hydrocarbons, alcohols, carbonyl compounds, acids and their esters, terpenes. The composition of the polar components, soluble in n-butanol, was also established. There were some differences in the chemical composition of the two Black Sea species, which may be due to the biodiversity between them, while the differences in the composition of the two C. mediterranea samples could be due to the differences in the environment (salinity, temperature, pollution, etc.).
Alzheimer’s disease: A matter of blood–brain barrier dysfunction?

Montagne et al. examine the role of blood–brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction in Alzheimer’s neurodegeneration and how targeting the BBB can influence the course of neurological disorder in transgenic models with human APP, PSEN1 and TAU mutations, APOE4 (major genetic risk), and pericyte degeneration causing loss of BBB integrity.
GLM-based optimization of NGS data analysis: A case study of Roche 454, Ion Torrent PGM and Illumina NextSeq sequencing data

Background There are various next-generation sequencing techniques, all of them striving to replace Sanger sequencing as the gold standard. However, false positive calls of single nucleotide variants and especially indels are a widely known problem of basically all sequencing platforms. Methods We considered three common next-generation sequencers—Roche 454, Ion Torrent PGM and Illumina NextSeq—and applied standard as well as optimized variant calling pipelines. Optimization was achieved by combining information of 23 diverse parameters characterizing the reported variants and generating individually calibrated generalized linear models. Models were calibrated using amplicon-based targeted sequencing data (19 genes, 28,775 bp) from seven to 12 myelodysplastic syndrome patients. Evaluation of the optimized pipelines and platforms was performed using sequencing data from three additional myelodysplastic syndrome patients. Results Using standard analysis methods, true mutations were missed and the obtained results contained many artifacts—no matter which platform was considered. Analysis of the parameters characterizing the true and false positive calls revealed significant platform- and variant specific differences. Application of optimized variant calling pipelines considerably improved results. 76% of all false positive single nucleotide variants and 97% of all false positive indels could be filtered out. Positive predictive values could be increased by factors of 1.07 to 1.27 in case of single nucleotide variant calling and by factors of 3.33 to 53.87 in case of indel calling. Application of the optimized variant calling pipelines leads to comparable results for all next-generation sequencing platforms analyzed. However, regarding clinical diagnostics it needs to be considered that even the optimized results still contained false positive as well as false negative calls.
Validity of the Nintendo Wii Balance Board for Kinetic Gait Analysis

The Nintendo Wii Balance Board (WBB) has been suggested as an inexpensive, portable and accessible alternative to costly laboratory-grade force plates for measuring the vertical ground reaction force (vGRF) and center of pressure (COP). Kinetic gait analysis provides important information for the rehabilitation of patients with gait disorders; however, the validity of the WBB for measuring kinetic gait parameters has not been evaluated. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the accuracy of walking force measurements—which change dynamically in a short period of stance time—collected with the WBB. Three healthy adults were asked to walk 10 steps along both straight and curved paths in clockwise (CW) and counterclockwise (CCW) directions while measurements were taken using the WBB and the force plate. The accuracy of the vGRF, COP trajectory, and stance duration were evaluated using the root-mean-square error (RMSE), Pearson’s correlation coefficient and Bland–Altman plots (BAPs) to compare the WBB and the force plate. The results of the vGRF showed high accuracy (r > 0.96 and %RMSE < 6.1% in the mean values), and the stance duration as defined by the vGRF and COP trajectory was equivalent to that of commercial instrumented insoles, which are used as an alternative to the force plates. From these results, we determined that the WBB may be used for kinetic gait analysis in clinical settings where lower accuracy is acceptable.
Ultrasonic fast identification of automotive body spot weld defect based on echo characteristics qualitative analysis

Spot welds are used extensively by automobile manufacturers as an efficient method for joining sheet steel. The quality of them can be tested non-destructively by using ultrasound. But when spot weld defect happens, the current ultrasonic inspection methods of weld quality are difficult to achieve an ideal result especially for the stick weld defect which is one of the most important types of spot weld defects in the automotive body. At first, this paper detailedly analyses the echo characteristics of ultrasonic curves which can reflect different spot welding joint defects. After echo characteristics qualitative analysis of different spot weld defects, a peak value marking algorithm is developed to identify the joint defects especially the stick weld defect rapidly and efficiently through selecting and confirming many optimal characteristic parameters. Finally, a lot of experiments are performed to verify the proposed methods. The results indicate that this fast identification method is credible and the identification rate can reach 95% in total test samples.
A serine protease homologue Bombyx mori scarface induces a short and fat body shape in silkworm

Body shape is one of the most prominent and basic characteristics of any organism. In insects, abundant variations in body shape can be observed both within and amongst species. However, the molecular mechanism underlying body shape fine‐tuning is very complex and has been largely unknown until now. In the silkworm Bombyx mori, the tubby (tub) mutant has an abnormal short fat body shape and the abdomen of tub larvae expands to form a fusiform body shape. Morphological investigation revealed that the body length was shorter and the body width was wider than that of the Dazao strain. Thus, this mutant is a good model for studying the molecular mechanisms of body shape fine‐tuning. Using positional cloning, we identified a gene encoding the serine protease homologue, B. mori scarface (Bmscarface), which is associated with the tub phenotype. Sequence analysis revealed a specific 312‐bp deletion from an exon of Bmscarface in the tub strain. In addition, recombination was not observed between the tub and Bmscarface loci. Moreover, RNA interference of Bmscarface resulted in the tub‐like phenotype. These results indicate that Bmscarface is responsible for the tub mutant phenotype. This is the first study to report that mutation of a serine protease homologue can induce an abnormal body shape in insects.