Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Associations between IL-23R gene polymorphisms and the susceptibility of rheumatoid arthritis: a meta-analysis

Abstract Objective This meta-analysis was aimed to verify the influences of interleukin 23 receptor (IL-23R) rs11209026 and rs2201841 polymorphisms on the susceptibility of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods We searched potentially relevant studies on the relationships of IL-23R gene rs11209026 and rs2201841 polymorphisms with RA susceptibility from PubMed (Medline), CNKI and EMBASE web databases. Crude odds ratios (ORs) along with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated to assess the strength of association through the fixed- or random-effects model. Results Eight published articles containing 5544 RA patients and 5532 health individuals were included in our meta-analysis. In total analysis, we found IL-23R gene rs11209026 polymorphism was not related to RA susceptibility in all genetic models, but there was a significant association between rs2201841 polymorphism and RA susceptibility under G vs. A model. In stratified analysis by ethnicity, an increased RA susceptibility was detected for rs2201841 polymorphism in Caucasian group. Conclusion The results of meta-analysis indicated that IL-23R gene rs2201841 polymorphism might be a susceptible factor for RA under G vs. A model, especially in Caucasian population.
Assessing the utility of minority variant composition in elucidating RSV transmission pathways

Reconstructing transmission pathways and defining the underlying determinants of virus diversity is critical for developing effective control measures. Whole genome consensus sequences represent the dominant virus subtype which does not provide sufficient information to resolve transmission events for rapidly spreading viruses with overlapping generations. We explored whether the within-host diversity of respiratory syncytial virus quantified from deep sequence data provides additional resolution to inform on who acquires infection from whom based on shared minor variants in samples that comprised epidemiological clusters and that shared similar genetic background. We report that RSV-A infections are characterized by low frequency diversity that occurs across the genome. Shared minor variant patterns alone, were insufficient to elucidate transmission chains within household members. However, they provided inference on potential transmission links where phylogenetic methods were uninformative of transmission when consensus sequences were identical. Interpretation of minor variant patterns was tractable only for small household outbreaks.
Synchronization and locking in oscillators with flexible periods

Upon interaction with a stimulus sequence, an oscillator may assume the stimulus' period via a process called entrainment. Standard models of entrainment assume that the oscillator has a fixed natural period and, thus, a limited range of periods to which it can entrain. However, experiments have shown that some oscillating systems have flexible periods; that is, the period of the oscillator can be changed due to external stimuli, and this period persists when the stimulus is discontinued. Studying this type of coordination, Loehr et al. (2011) showed that the synchronization of pianists with a metronome can be described by a nonlinear oscillator model that is quantitatively described using a circle map of phase and period with sinusoidal coupling terms. Here we introduce two variants, termed the multiplicative and additive forced oscillator models, so-called based on their period descriptions. Unlike the Loehr et al. model, these models include a preferred period, as most biological oscillating systems will oscillate at a fixed natural period when not experiencing driving or damping forces. This study focuses on the stability of points of N:M locking, a complex type of entrainment in which the phase of a model rotates N times in response to M stimuli. Locking types investigated here are 1:1, 1:2, 2:3, along with their reciprocals. We identify numerous parameter regimes of multi-stability, and how such regions evolve with changes in preferred period elasticity. Such multi-stability is not generally possible without a malleable period. The basins of attraction of the various types of N:M locking are investigated, with observations of fractal behavior and remarks on how the domains of attraction depend on coupling and elasticity parameters. Finally, we compare and contrast the multiplicative and additive models with other models of synchronization and beat-keeping.
Social Media Usage, Self-Presentation, Narcissism, and Self-Esteem as Predictors of Instagram Addiction: An Intercultural Comparison

Instagram, kullanici sayisi ve populerligi her gecen gun artan bir sosyal medya araci olarak dikkat cekmektedir. Olaylar ve kisiler hakkinda bilgi saglama, eglence ve rahatlama, iliskileri surdurme, kisisel sunum, farkli kimliklerle etkilesim kurma, yeni arkadasliklar edinme fotograftan videoya, canli yayindan anlik hikâye paylasimina kadar bircok acidan hayati kolaylastiran Instagram’in, asiri gereksiz kullanimi beraberinde bagimlilik sorununun yasanmasina neden olabilmektedir. Bu arastirma; iki farkli kulturden (Turkiye ve Malezya) universite ogrencilerinin Instagram bagimlilik duzeyini, Instagram bagimlilik duzeyi ile narsisizm, ozsaygi, kisisel sunum ve kullanim oruntuleri arasindaki iliskiler karsilastirmali olarak mercek altina almak amaciyla dizayn edilmistir. Saha arastirmasi yonteminin kullanildigi calismada veriler, 403 katilimcidan yuz yuze anket uygulanarak elde edilmistir. Arastirma sonucunda katilimcilarin cinsiyetine gore, Instagram bagimlilik duzeyinin anlamli farklilik gostermedigi tespit edilmistir. Yasadiklari ulkeye gore ise Instagram bagimlilik duzeyleri anlamli olarak farklilasmaktadir. Malezyali katilimcilarin Instagram bagimlilik duzeyleri; Turkiye’deki ogrencilere gore daha yuksektir. Instagram Bagimliligi uzerinde benlik sunumu ve sosyal medya kullanim suresinin pozitif; oz saygi duzeyinin ise negatif yonde anlamli belirleyici oldugu dikkat cekmektedir. Narsisizm duzeyinin anlamli belirleyici olmadigi bulgulanmistir.
Etude du mécanisme d’activation de l’oxygène par les NO-Synthases

Le monoxyde d'azote est exclusivement synthetise chez les mammiferes par une famille d’hemoproteines, les NO-Synthases. Le cœur de l’activite des NO-Synthases est l’activation de l’oxygene c'est-a-dire l’activation de l’intermediaire reactionnel FeIIO2. Cette etape est controlee par la reactivite intrinseque du fer, par les transferts de proton et les transferts d’electron. Elle doit etre parfaitement maitrisee car elle controle le chemin catalytique emprunte et la nature du produit final. Comprendre l’etape d’activation de l’oxygene est essentiel a la comprehension du role biologique et/ou pathologique de la NO-Synthase de mammifere. Cette question s'etend aux NO-Synthases bacteriennes pour lesquelles on ne connait ni le mecanisme moleculaire ni la fonction biologique. Ce manuscrit propose une analyse approfondie de l’etape d’activation de l’oxygene de la NO-Synthase. Dans un premier temps, nous avons etudie l’influence de l’environnement proximal sur la reactivite intrinseque du fer et l’activation de l’oxygene. Nous avons genere des proteines mutees qui modifient les proprietes electroniques de la liaison proximale de l’heme. Ces proteines mutees ont ete caracterisees par differentes spectroscopies (resonance paramagnetique electronique, Raman de resonance). Dans un second temps nous avons directement etudie le complexe FeIIO2, en presence d’analogues de substrat, grâce a des analyses de cinetique rapide en flux continu et en flux arrete (stopped-flow). Dans un troisieme temps, le role du cofacteur tetrahydrobiopterine dans le transfert de proton et d’electron a ete etudie par une methode de piegeage a des temps tres courts : le freeze-quench. L'ensemble de nos resultats montrent que l’activation de l’oxygene est regulee par les proprietes electro-donneuses du ligand proximal et par le reseau de liaisons H distal. Nous mettons en evidence des differences dans le role redox du cofacteur tetrahydrobiopterine entre la NO-Synthase de mammifere et la NO-Synthase bacterienne. La difficulte majeure pour comprendre l’etape d’activation de l’oxygene de la NO-Synthase reside dans la complexite et la rapidite de la reaction catalytique. Dans ce contexte, nous avons cherche a adapter une methodologie qui a prouve son efficacite dans le cas des cytochromes P450 : la cryo-reduction couplee a des sauts en temperature.
Microarray Analysis of Small Extracellular Vesicle-Derived miRNAs Involved in Oxidative Stress of RPE Cells

The aim of this study was to investigate the miRNA profiles of nanosized small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) from human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells under oxidative damage. ARPE-19 cells were cultured with ox-LDL (100 mg/L) or serum-free medium for 48 hours, sEVs were then extracted, and miRNA sequencing was conducted to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the 2 groups. RNA sequence results were validated using quantitative real-time PCR. The Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway, and ingenuity pathway analyses (IPA) were performed for the DEGs. Results revealed that oxidative stress inhibited RPE cell viability and promoted sEV secretion. A total of 877 DEGs from sEVs were identified, of which 272 were downregulated and 605 were upregulated. In total, 66 enriched GO terms showed that the 3 most significant enrichment terms were cellular processes (biological processes), cell (cellular component), and catalytic activity (molecular function). IPA were used to explore DEGs associated with oxidation damage and further construct a miRNA-target regulatory network. This study identified several DEGs from oxidation-stimulated RPE cells, which may act as potential RNA targets for prognosis and diagnosis of RPE degeneration.
Towards quantum degenerate Fermi mixtures : photoassociation of weakly bound 6Li40K molecules

This thesis reports on the construction of a new experimental apparatus aiming to study, at ultracold temperatures, a quantum degenerate gas mixture of two different atomic species of fermionic nature: 6Li and 40K. A detailed description of the design and implementation as well as a characterization of the apparatus is presented. We have realized a very large atom number dual-species magneto-optical trap and a magnetic transport of the two species over a large distance. We have used this atomic mixture to create, for the first time, excited heteronuclear 6Li40K* molecules by photoassociation. We have recorded and assigned photoassociation spectra for the most weakly bound states of seven excited molecular potentials and inferred the shape of the molecular potentials at long range. Our results pave the way for the production of ultracold bosonic ground-state 6Li40K molecules which exhibit a large intrinsic permanent electric dipole moment. Finally we have developed theoretically a novel method for the manipulation of quantum particles, which could be applied to polar 6Li40K molecules. This method consists in trapping the particles in a rapidly oscillating potential (ROP) and to induce an instantaneous change of phase of the trapping potential (a phase hop). We show that the particle's motion can thus be significantly manipulated in a controlled fashion. This method has found a first application for Bose-Einstein condensates trapped in a time-averaged orbiting potential.
Genome wide analysis of heat responsive microRNAs in banana during acquired thermo tolerance

MicroRNAs are a class of small regulatory RNAs in plants, which play vital roles during various abiotic and abiotic stress conditions including plant processes. In this present study, we examined the expression of miRNAs and their predicted target expression levels during heat stress in banana. Out of 235 miRNA found in Musa, 40 miRNA showed homology to heat responsive miRNAs from other plants. Further, 14 targets for miRNA were predicted that are potentially regulated by their cognate miRNAs and were monitored under three stages of stress viz, induction, induction + lethal alone using qPCR analysis. The results suggest that generally, there is a negative relationship in the expression patterns of miRNA and their predicted cognate targets - HSP70, HSP90, SAP, DNAj genes. These were highly up regulated and their respective miRNAs showed lower expression. This is the first report in banana, which demonstrated that during induction stress, various thermo-protective genes are activated at initial stages of stress to achieve thermotolerance through altered miRNA expression. The results will help in broadening our understanding acquired thermotolerance and their regulation by miRNAs in plants.
Complex Defect Structure in the Core of Sn-Doped In2O3 Nanorods and Its Relationship with a Dislocation-Driven Growth Mechanism

Sn-doped In2O3 arrow-shaped nanorods have been grown by a catalyst-free evaporation–deposition method. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) investigations reveal a complex defect structure consisting of nanoprecipitates, dislocation loops, and voids, in the core of the nanorods, extending all along the growth axis. The nanoprecipitates are Sn or Sn-rich and appear sometimes associated with small voids. The voids appear aligned in rows or discontinuous empty nanochannels along the nanorod core. TEM images depict the presence of surface ripples perpendicular to the growth direction, with typical distances of less than 10 nm. The relationship of the observed defect structure with a dislocation-driven growth of the nanorods is discussed.
Applying deep learning for food image analysis

With the increasing availability of data on the internet, deep learning techniques have been on the rise these past decade. Food images speciﬁcally are one of the most commonly shared types of image on social media. Because of this, the problem of food image analysis has been receiving increasing attention these past few years. However, it presents a series of challenges compared to other computer vision problems, which has limited the progress on the ﬁeld. Nevertheless, some speciﬁc methods who capitalize on these challenges have been able to obtain good results. In this thesis, the method of multi-scale multi-view feature aggregation (MSMVFA) applied to food recognition is explored. It is a strategy that has been able to obtain state-of-the-art performances on the literature recently. It capitalizes on merging information from diﬀerent scales as well as diﬀerent types, for instance ingredient and dish features. By using data coming from diﬀerent granularity levels a more robust and discriminative classiﬁcation is possible. A detailed validation is provided to test the results of the method under diﬀerent conditions. We see that both multi-scale and multi-view aspects of the strategy can be beneﬁcial for the classiﬁcation in various conditions for the food recognition problem.
Etudes de traitement des lixiviats des déchets urbains par les procédés d’oxydation avancée photochimiques et électrochimiques : application aux lixiviats de la décharge tunisienne "Jebel Chakir"

L'installation de decharges sanitaires represente la seule methode de stockage des dechets menagers solides dans plusieurs pays. Les lixiviats generes a partir de ces decharges presentent une grande toxicite aigue et chronique. Lorsqu'ils ne sont pas traites, ces lixiviats peuvent penetrer dans la nappe phreatique ou contaminer les eaux de surface et donc contribuer a la pollution des eaux. Divers procedes biologiques ont ete appliques au traitement des lixiviats de decharge. Cependant, ces procedes sont relativement inefficaces pour le traitement des lixiviats a cause de la presence de composes biorefractaires. Les procedes d'oxydation avancee representent une excellente alternative pour le traitement des eaux polluees par les polluants toxiques et/ou persistants (biorfractaires). Dans ce travail, quelques procedes d'oxydation avancee (procede Glidarc, electro-Fenton, oxydation anodique et photo-Fenton) ont ete appliques au traitement de deux molecules modeles appartenant chacune a une famille de polluants presents dans la matrice du lixiviat tunisien de la decharge controlee de Jebel Chakir (identifiee dans ce travail), a savoir, l'anhydride phtalique et le 8-hydroxyquinoleine sulfate. Pour ces deux molecules, une etude de la degradation et la mineralisation a ete realisee en optimisant les parametres experimentaux. L'etude cinetique montre que la degradation oxydative des deux polluants etudies suit une cinetique de reaction du pseudo-premier ordre, avec des temps de degradation assez courts. Par exemple, avec une anode de Pt, l'oxydation complete de l'anhydride phtalique a ete achevee en moins de 15 min sous un courant applique de 2,88 mA cm-2. L'identification des intermediaires aromatiques et carboxyliques a courte chaine carbonee a permis de proposer un mecanisme de degradation de l'anhydride phtalique par les radicaux hydroxyles. Les valeurs des constantes de vitesse des reactions entre les •OH, et les deux polluants et leurs intermediaires ont ete determines par la technique de cinetique de competition a l'aide d'un compose de reference ; l'acide 4-hydroxybenzoϊque. Le suivi de la toxicite lors du traitement de la solution de 8-HQS par la methode Microtox®, (une methode basee sur la mesure de la luminescence des bacteries marines Vibriofischeri) a montre la formation des intermediaires plus toxiques que les molecules meres. Une comparaison des procedes d'oxydation avancee appliques a ete realisee pour chacun des polluants. Enfin, differents procedes d'oxydation avancee (procede Glidarc, electro-Fenton, oxydation anodique et photo-Fenton) ont ete appliques a la depollution du lixiviat tunisien de Jebel Chakir. Une etude comparative a ete realisee afin d'evaluer le cout des procedes. L'ensemble des resultats obtenus confirme l'efficacite du procede electro-Fenton pour la depollution des lixiviats
La Maladie d'Alzheimer et la place des polyphénols au sein des nouvelles stratégies thérapeutiques : analyse multi-techniques des interactions "polyphénols-peptides Tau"

La Maladie d’Alzheimer est caracterisee par la formation de degenerescences neurofibrillaires, constituees de proteine Tau anormalement hyperphosphorylee et agregee. De nombreuses etudes traitent de possibles strategies therapeutiques basees sur l’inhibition de cette polymerisation, et presentent les effets benefiques de certaines molecules dont les polyphenols, mais les resultats obtenus jusque la, manquent de donnees au niveau moleculaire. Ainsi, apres avoir synthetise, une banque de polyphenols de structures differentes, et 3 peptides representatifs de la region P de phosphorylation de Tau, c’est en suivant une strategie combinant la RMN et la modelisation moleculaire, que nous avons evalue les parametres dynamiques du complexe forme. Ce projet nous a apporte des informations en termes d’affinite, et de relations structure/activite et ainsi, de mieux apprehender les mecanismes d’interactions intervenant dans l’agregation de Tau par les polyphenols.
How Parents’ Perceptions of Public Schools Influence School Choice

Introduction.6 Context.4 Supporting Research and Literature Review.5 Methodology.17 Findings.44 Teachers Satisfaction.44 School Location.50 Schools Focus and Philosophy.56 Available Services.69 Local Political Climate.81 Discussion.89 Conclusion.90 Appendices.92 References.117
Hyaluronic acid production in Streptococcus equi species

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a glycosaminoglycan which exists ubiquitously in all organisms where it possesses a range of important functions. Due to the rheological properties and biocompatibility of HA solutions, it has been employed in a variety of medical applications. The rheology of a HA solution is a consequence of the concentration and molecular weight of the HA present. The current commonly used method for HA production is bacterial fermentation using Group C Streptococcus species which produce HA as a protective capsule in order to evade immune responses of their hosts. These are fastidious organisms and the fermentation process requires strict regulation of culture parameters in order to obtain optimum yields. A disadvantage of bacterial HA production is that the molecular weight of the product is often lower than the ideal range and the optimal yield is low at 5-10 g/L. The aim of this project is to investigate metabolic and genetic factors influencing HA capsule production in subspecies of the Group C Streptococcus equi. The study identifies a novel strain of S. equi capable of producing high concentrations of HA under the conditions studied and evaluates a currently used industrial procedure. Genomic and proteomic differences between subspecies of S. equi and mucoid/non-mucoid phenotypes have been investigated. The effects of the antibiotic phosphomycin on growth and HA production have also been explored. Collectively the results of this study have opened the scope of HA production research beyond the conventional methods used to date.
Dataset Augmentation for Aspect Level Sentiment Analysis

DATSET AUGMENTATION FOR ASPECT LEVEL SENTIMENT ANALYSIS Nikhil Sapru Advisor: University of Guelph, 2020 Dr. Graham W. Taylor Deep learning models have been instrumental in achieving state-of-the-art performance on benchmark datasets across various tasks in computer vision as well as natural language processing. The success of these models has come as a result of the availability of large scale labeled datasets along with compute infrastructure to process that data. Deep neural networks perform poorly when there is a lack of labeled data to train them. Data augmentation is one of the methods used to boost model performance by creating new training data from previously labeled data. Improved data augmentation techniques would be an effective tool to expand smaller datasets to match the amount of labeled data required to maximize the performance of deep learning models. This would eventually help to reduce the time and cost to develop these models. However, for data augmentation techniques in the natural language processing domain, most of the developed methods are unique to a particular task or dataset. Therefore, there is a need to develop task agnostic data augmentation techniques in the domain of natural language processing. In this thesis, we the application of two recently known data augmentation techniques to a new task in natural language processing. Manifold mixup is a data augmentation technique for images developed by Verma et al. to act as a regularizer for neural network and SwitchOut is another technique developed by Wang et al. to boost the performance of neural networks used for machine translation. Through carefully designed experimentation, the thesis demonstrates the viability and usability of manifold mixup and SwitchOut as efficient task agnostic data augmentation techniques in natural language processing.