Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rabbit anti‐HMG‐17 antibodies recognize similar epitopes on the HMG‐17 molecule as lupus autoantibodies. Relation with histone H1 defined epitopes

HMG‐17 is a nucleosomal protein which is an immune target of autoantibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and other autoimmune diseases. Autoantibody production in SLE is believed to result from autoantigen specific immune stimulation and subsequently, it is expected that antigenic determinants recognized by SLE autoantibodies and induced antibodies by immunization are quite similar. To examine this issue, rabbits were immunized with purified HMG‐17. The produced antiserum showed cross reactivity on blots and in inhibition ELISA with histone H1, even after its affinity purification with immobilized HMG‐17. Finally, purification of the antiserum over H1 absorbed on nitrocellulose membrane produced specific anti‐HMG‐17 antibodies in the supernatant and anti‐HMG‐17/H1 antibodies that were bound to H1. SLE sera positive for HMG‐17 had also cross reactivity with H1, and following the same procedure as before we received HMG‐17 specific SLE autoantibodies and anti‐HMG‐17/H1 autoantibodies. Using the multipin epitope mapping technology, 19 overlapping 15‐mer HMG‐17 peptides and six 15‐peptides, corresponding to known epitopes of histone H1, were synthesized. Four major epitopes were identified on the HMG‐17 molecule, reactive with induced anti‐HMG‐17 antibodies, and these were the same as major autoepitopes in SLE. The sequence 25–51 of HMG‐17, part of its DNA‐binding domain, was recognized by the anti‐HMG‐17/H1 antibodies that were bound to H1. These antibodies recognized also defined epitopes of H1. Our results show that SLE autoantibodies can be directed against the same or similar epitopes as do IgGs evoked during the active immunization of animals, and provide additional evidence that autosensitization with an autoantigen might be operative. The possibility that the same or similar epitopes are found on different molecules (in this study HMG‐17 and H1) supports the fact that there are rules by which nature selects the most dominant immunodeterminant to a given protein, which often represents functional or structural sites in the autoantigen. Copyright © 2002 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Mixing in the Romanche Fracture Zone

The Romanche Fracture Zone is a major gap in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at the equator, which is deep enough to allow significant eastward flows of Antarctic Bottom Water from the Brazil Basin to the Sierra Leone and Guinea Abyssal Plains. While flowing through the Romanche Fracture Zone, bottom-water properties are strongly modified due to intense vertical mixing. The diapycnal mixing coefficient in the bottom water of the Romanche Fracture Zone is estimated by using the finestructure of CTD profiles, the microstructure of high-resolution profiler data, and by constructing a heat budget from current meter data. The finestructure of density profiles is described using the Thorpe scalesLT. It is shown from microstructure data taken in the bottom water that the Ozmidov scale LO is related to LT by the linear relationship LO 5 0.95LT, similar to other studies, which allows an estimate of the diapycnal mixing coefficient using the Osborn relation. The Thorpe scale and the diapycnal mixing coefficient estimates show enhanced mixing downstream (eastward) of the main sill of the Romanche Fracture Zone. In this region, a mean diapycnal mixing coefficient of about 1000 3 1024 m2 s21 is found for the bottom water. Estimates of cross-isothermal mixing coefficient derived from the heat budgets constructed downstream of the current meter arrays deployed in the Romanche Fracture Zone and the nearby Chain Fracture Zone are in agreement with the finestructure estimates of the diapycnal mixing coefficient within the Romanche Fracture Zone. Although the two fracture zones occupy only 0.4% of the area covered by the Sierra Leone and Guinea Abyssal Plains, the diffusive heat fluxes across the 1.4 8C isotherm in the Romanche and Chain Fracture Zones are half that found over the abyssal plains across the 1.88C isotherm, emphasizing the role of these passages for bottom-water property modifications.
Correction of interleukin-2 production in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus by removal of spontaneously activated suppressor cells.

Interleukin-2 (IL-2) production in vitro is depressed in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. It is not known whether this abnormality is caused by a defect in the producer lymphocytes or by excessive suppression. We report that removal of OKT8 (Leu 2a)+ cells increased the IL-2 production by in vitro-stimulated lymphocytes to normal or above normal levels in 19 of 21 SLE patients. This increase was more apparent in those patients with clinically inactive disease and/or receiving less than 7.5 mg of prednisone. Removal of OKT8+ cells from normals did not significantly increase IL-2 activity. SLE, but not normal, OKT8+ cells decreased IL-2 production when added back to autologous OKT8-depleted cells. In some experiments, OKT8+ cells from normal donors also suppressed IL-2 production in SLE. This result suggests that the defect in IL-2 production is complex and may involve multiple cell interactions. Three lines of evidence suggest that the SLE OKT8+ cells actively inhibit the production of IL-2 rather than passively absorb this lymphokine: (a) only 3.2% of SLE lymphocytes expressed IL-2 receptors as detected with anti-Tac; (b) freshly prepared SLE lymphocytes did not absorb IL-2; and (c) cell-free supernatants from SLE OKT8+ cells inhibited IL-2 production, but not IL-2 activity. Double-labeling studies by flow cytometry revealed that 19.3% of SLE OKT8+ cells were also Ia-positive, and approximately 33% co-expressed the natural killer cell marker, HNK-1 (Leu 7). Removal of Leu 7+ cells also significantly elevated IL-2 production in SLE. These studies suggest that one or more circulating mononuclear cell subsets in SLE patients can suppress IL-2 production and that one subset may possibly belong to a non-T, non-B "third mononuclear population. "
Contrast Agents for Photoacoustic and Thermoacoustic Imaging: A Review

Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) and thermoacoustic imaging (TAI) are two emerging biomedical imaging techniques that both utilize ultrasonic signals as an information carrier. Unique advantages of PAI and TAI are their abilities to provide high resolution functional information such as hemoglobin and blood oxygenation and tissue dielectric properties relevant to physiology and pathology. These two methods, however, may have a limited detection depth and lack of endogenous contrast. An exogenous contrast agent is often needed to effectively resolve these problems. Such agents are able to greatly enhance the imaging contrast and potentially break through the imaging depth limit. Furthermore, a receptor-targeted contrast agent could trace the molecular and cellular biological processes in tissues. Thus, photoacoustic and thermoacoustic molecular imaging can be outstanding tools for early diagnosis, precise lesion localization, and molecular typing of various diseases. The agents also could be used for therapy in conjugation with drugs or in photothermal therapy, where it functions as an enhancer for the integration of diagnosis and therapy. In this article, we present a detailed review about various exogenous contrast agents for photoacoustic and thermoacoustic molecular imaging. In addition, challenges and future directions of photoacoustic and thermoacoustic molecular imaging in the field of translational medicine are also discussed.
Malignant MCA Infarction: Pathophysiology and Imaging for Early Diagnosis and Management Decisions

Background: Malignant middle cerebral artery infarction is a devastating condition, with up to 80% mortality in conservatively treated patients. The pathophysiology of this stroke is characterized by a large core of severe ischemia and only a relatively small rim of penumbra. Due to the fast development of irreversible morphological damage, cytotoxic edema occurs immediately in a large portion of the ischemic territory. The subsequent damage of the tight junctions leads to the breakdown of the blood brain barrier and vasogenic brain edema, resulting in space-occupying brain swelling. The progressive vasogenic edema reaches its maximum after 1 to several days and exerts a mechanical force on surrounding tissue structures leading to midline shift and transtentorial herniation and finally brain stem compression and death. Summary: Early severe neurological symptoms - hemiparesis, gaze deviation, higher cortical signs - followed by headache, vomiting, papillo edema and reduced consciousness may predict the deleterious course. Imaging supports the suspected diagnosis with hypodense changes on CT extending beyond 50% of the MCA territory. The size of the probably infarcted tissue and a midline shift on CT as well as the size of the lesion on diffusion-weighted MRI are predictive of a malignant course. Reduction of cerebral blood flow below a critical value and volume of irreversible tissue damage detected by positron emission tomography in the early hours after the stroke are indicative of progression to malignant infarction with increased intracranial pressure (ICP) and decreased tissue oxygen tension observed by multimodal neuromonitoring in the later course. Treatment options of malignant infarction include general measures to limit the extent of space-occupying edema, but these therapies have not been efficacious. Only surgical intervention with decompressive hemicraniectomy (DHC) was successful in relieving the effects of increased ICP and of the deleterious shifts of brain tissue. Several controlled clinical trials have proven the efficacy of DHC with a significant decrease in mortality and improved functional outcome. However, DHC must be performed early and with a large diameter, regardless of the age of patients, but in patients beyond 60 years, the higher likelihood of resulting severe disability should be taken into consideration. Key Messages: Malignant MCA infarction can be predicted early with a high sensitivity by neuroimaging. The early diagnosis is mandatory for DHC, which was shown to reduce mortality and improve functional outcome in several controlled clinical trials.
Signal peptidase I-mediated processing of an engineered mammalian cytochrome b5 precursor is an exocytoplasmic post-translocational event in Escherichia coli

Proteins destined for translocation across the prokaryotic cytoplasmic membrane are synthesized as precursors carrying transient N-terminal extensions known as signal sequences. They facilitate initial engagement of precursor proteins with the sec-dependent translocase to initiate active threading of the polypeptide across the membrane. The translocated precursor is then processed by a transcytoplasmic signal peptidase anchored to the inner membrane. The temporal nature of cleavage of the signal sequence during pre-protein translocation has remained elusive. Using an engineered mammalian cytochrome b5 precursor we demonstrate that the signal peptide processing in Escherichia coli is an event that can occur after almost complete exocytoplasmic translocation of the preprotein is accomplished. We discuss implications of the findings in light of the known working model of sec-dependent pre-protein translocon.
Investigation of shorting vias for suppressing common-mode radiation in different frequency range

The effects of shorting vias on suppressing common-mode radiation in different frequency range are investigated based on a typical wire-bonded ball grid array (WB-BGA) package. Conventional shorting vias provide a short return path for common-mode currents so as to reduce the radiation effectively at low frequencies. However, the suppression is limited at higher frequencies due to the excess parasitic inductance. Therefore, a novel concept of absorptive shorting vias is presented for suppressing radiation in high frequency range.
Childhood correlates of adult TV viewing time: a 32-year follow-up of the 1970 British Cohort Study

Background To identify, using a longitudinal data set, parental and childhood correlates of adult television (TV) viewing time at 32-year follow-up. Method Data were derived from the 1970 British Cohort Study, a longitudinal observational study of 17 248 British people born in a single week of 1970. The present analyses incorporated data from the age 10 and 42-year surveys. When participants were aged 10 years, their mothers provided information on how often participants watched TV and played sports (never/sometimes/often), and parents’ own occupation, as well as height and weight. A health visitor objectively assessed participants’ height and weight at age 10. Thirty-two years later, when participants were aged 42 years, they reported their daily TV viewing hours (none/0≤1/1<3/3<5/≥5), physical activity and health status. Associations between putative childhood and parental correlates and adult TV viewing time were investigated using logistic regression. Results Valid data at both time points were available for 6188 participants. Logistic regression models showed that those who reported ‘often’ watching TV at baseline were significantly more likely to watch >3 h/days of TV at follow-up (OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.21 to 1.65), as were those whose father was from a lower socio-occupational class (intermediate, routine/manual) compared with managerial (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.14 to 2.11; OR 2.05, 95% CI 1.47 to 2.87). Body mass index (BMI) at age 10 was inversely associated with high TV in adulthood (per unit increase; OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.90 to 0.96) although fathers BMI when the child was aged 10 was positively associated with high TV in adulthood (per unit increase; OR 1.04, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.06). Conclusions Findings suggest that childhood TV viewing time tracks into adulthood. Parents’ health behaviours and social position appear to be associated with their children's viewing habits, which may have important implications for the direction of future policy and practice. Specifically, findings support the case for early life interventions, particularly on socioeconomic inequalities, as a way of preventing sedentary behaviour in later life.
Sentiment Analysis of Figurative Language using a Word Sense Disambiguation Approach

In this paper we propose a methodology for sentiment analysis of figurative language which applies Word Sense Disambiguation and, through an n-gram graph based method, assigns polarity to word senses. Polarity assigned to senses, combined with contextual valence shifters, is exploited for further assigning polarity to sentences, using Hidden Markov Models. Evaluation results using the corpus of the Aective Text task of SemEval’07, are presented together with a comparison with other state-of-the-art methods, showing that the proposed method provides promising results, and positive evidence supporting our conjecture: figurative language conveys sentiment.
In Situ Measurement of Aerosol Light Absorption and Single-Scattering Albedo at the NSA and SGP CART Sites

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory (CMDL) maintains four surface aerosol-monitoring stations in North America. The reasons for conducting aerosol measurements at these stations are (1) to characterize means, variabilities, and trends of climate-forcing properties of different types of aerosols, and (2) to understand the factors that control these properties. Two of these stations, at Bondville, Illinois, and at Lamont, Oklahoma, are rural mid-continental sites. The other two stations, at Barrow, Alaska, and at Sable Island, Nova Scotia, are remote coastal sites. The Lamont station is operated in collaboration with the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) site, while the Barrow station is operated in collaboration with ARM at the North
Swell and Slanting-Fetch Effects on Wind Wave Growth

Abstract Wind-sea generation was observed during two experiments off the coast of North Carolina. One event with offshore winds of 9–11 m s−1 directed 20° from shore normal was observed with eight directional stations recording simultaneously and spanning a fetch from 4 to 83 km. An opposing swell of 1-m height and 10-s period was also present. The wind-sea part of the wave spectrum conforms to established growth curves for significant wave height and peak period, except at inner-shelf stations where a large alongshore wind-sea component was observed. At these short fetches, the mean wave direction θm was observed to change abruptly across the wind-sea spectral peak, from alongshore at lower frequencies to downwind at higher frequencies. Waves from another event with offshore winds of 6–14 m s−1 directed 20°–30° from shore normal were observed with two instrument arrays. A significant amount of low-frequency wave energy was observed to propagate alongshore from the region where the wind was strongest. The.
Total electron content variations due to nonclassical traveling ionospheric disturbances: Theory and Global Positioning System observations

Measurements of total electron content (TEC) variations are easy to perform. As several authors have pointed out, however, TEC variations must be interpreted carefully since TEC is an integrated quantity. Prior studies of TEC variations have considered these variations to stem from “classical” gravity-wave interaction with the ionosphere at midlatitudes; that is, the component of gravity-wave neutral wind perturbations along the local magnetic field moves the charged particles up and down the field lines. Recent evidence suggests that at night, in the absence of photoproduction and when E layer conductivity becomes small, electrodynamic effects come into play and gravity-wave perturbations can yield vertical movement of the F layer, rather than movement along the field lines. Here we consider the TEC variations resulting from horizontally propagating disturbances in ionospheric height. First, we develop an analytic model, assuming sinusoidal height variations and a geostationary satellite, to estimate the magnitude of TEC variations produced. In this case, the dependence of TEC variations on the orientation of the line of sight, relative to the direction of disturbance propagation, takes on a different form from the classical case. Total electron content variations may also be observed using nonstationary satellites, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites. We present GPS measurements from Puerto Rico for the night of August 22–23, 1995, which show TEC variations of ∼ ±5 × 1015 m−2 in the presence of a southwesterly propagating ionospheric height disturbance (as independently corroborated by 630-nm airglow images at Arecibo and Ramey digisonde measurements). Although GPS satellite motion does not permit direct application of the geostationary theory, geostationary theory still allows us to make a crude estimate of the magnitude of TEC variations that result.
A novel dq-vector based control for the three phase active rectifier in a power electronic transformer

In recent years, Power Electronic Transformers (PETs) are being used in micro-grids, distribution systems, renewable energy systems, traction applications etc., due to their power quality enhancement capability and reduced weight as well as size. The design and operation principles of a three phase active rectifier based PET are analysed in the paper. The structure of PET consists of three parts: a three phase active front end rectifier, a dual active bridge (DAB) based isolation stage, and an inversion stage. A novel dq-vector based control strategy for the rectification stage is explained that does not require phase locked-loop (PLL) to calculate the phase angle, maintains unity power factor at the input side, and provides constant DC voltage at the rectifier output terminals under variable load conditions. A modest controller is used for DAB to generate a desired DC-link voltage signal for the inverter circuit. In addition to unity power factor and constant voltage characteristics, bidirectional power flow can also be possible using the discussed topology. Simulation results using PSCAD/EMTDC are presented to validate the discussed topology and the controller.
Raman spectroscopy of shocked gypsum from a meteorite impact crater

Abstract Impact craters and associated hydrothermal systems are regarded as sites within which life could originate on Earth, and on Mars. The Haughton impact crater, one of the most well preserved craters on Earth, is abundant in Ca-sulphates. Selenite, a transparent form of gypsum, has been colonized by viable cyanobacteria. Basement rocks, which have been shocked, are more abundant in endolithic organisms, when compared with un-shocked basement. We infer that selenitic and shocked gypsum are more suitable for microbial colonization and have enhanced habitability. This is analogous to many Martian craters, such as Gale Crater, which has sulphate deposits in a central layered mound, thought to be formed by post-impact hydrothermal springs. In preparation for the 2020 ExoMars mission, experiments were conducted to determine whether Raman spectroscopy can distinguish between gypsum with different degrees of habitability. Ca-sulphates were analysed using Raman spectroscopy and results show no significant statistical difference between gypsum that has experienced shock by meteorite impact and gypsum, which has been dissolved and re-precipitated as an evaporitic crust. Raman spectroscopy is able to distinguish between selenite and unaltered gypsum. This shows that Raman spectroscopy can identify more habitable forms of gypsum, and demonstrates the current capabilities of Raman spectroscopy for the interpretation of gypsum habitability.
Neural Network Probability Estimation for Broad Coverage Parsing

We present a neural-network-based statistical parser, trained and tested on the Penn Treebank. The neural network is used to estimate the parameters of a generative model of left-corner parsing, and these parameters are used to search for the most probable parse. The parser's performance (88.8% F-measure) is within 1% of the best current parsers for this task, despite using a small vocabulary size (512 inputs). Crucial to this success is the neural network architecture's ability to induce a finite representation of the unbounded parse history, and the biasing of this induction in a linguistically appropriate way.
A clinical evaluation of acne scarring and its incidence

Despite scarring being a recognized sequel of acne, the actual extent and incidence of residual scarring remains unknown. One hundred and eighty‐five acne patients were included in this study (101 females, 84 males). Patients were selected from acne clinics and their acne scarring was examined. The scarring was quantified according to a lesion count and allocated a score. The type and extent of scarring was correlated to the age and sex of the patient, the site of the acne, the previous acne grade according to the Leeds Technique,1 acne type (noted in clinic at the original referral time) and duration of acne, before adequate therapeutic measures had been instituted. Results indicate that facial scarring affects both sexes equally and occurs to some degree in 95% of cases. Total scarring on the trunk was significantly greater in males, as was hypertrophic and keloid scarring in these sites (P <0.05). There were significant correlations between the initial acne grade and the overall severity of scarring in all sites and in both sexes (P<0.01). Superficial inflamed papular acne lesions as well as nodular lesions were capable of producing scars, A time delay up to 3 years between acne onset and adequate treatment related to the ultimate degree of scarring in both sexes and in all three sites. This emphasizes the need for earlier adequate therapy in an attempt to minimize the subsequent scarring caused by acne.