Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Formation of supramolecular activation clusters on fresh ex vivo CD8+ T cells after engagement of the T cell antigen receptor and CD8 by antigen-presenting cells

Upon productive interaction of CD4 T cells with antigen-presenting cells (APCs), receptors and intracellular proteins translocate and form spatially segregated supramolecular activation clusters (SMACs). It is not known whether SMACs are required for CD8 T cell activation. CD8 T cells, unlike CD4 T cells, can be activated by a single peptide-MHC molecule, or by purified monovalent recombinant peptide-MHC molecules. We studied, by three-dimensional digital microscopy, cell conjugates of fresh ex vivo CD8 T cells (obtained from OT-1 mice, which are transgenic for T cell antigen receptor reactive with the complex of H-2Kb and the ovalbumin octapeptide SIINFEKL) and peptide-pulsed APCs. Remarkably, even in T cell:APC conjugates that were formed in the presence of the lowest concentration of peptide that was sufficient to elicit T cell proliferation and IFN-γ production; the θ isoform of protein kinase C was clustered in a central SMAC, and lymphocyte function-associated antigen 1 and talin were clustered in the peripheral SMAC. Conjugation of T cells to APCs that were pulsed with concentrations of peptide smaller than that required to activate T cells was greatly reduced, and SMACs were not formed at all. APCs expressing mutant H-2Kb (Lys227) molecules that do not bind CD8 were unable to form stable conjugates with these T cells, even at high peptide concentrations. Thus, although CD8 and CD4 T cells may display different sensitivity to the concentration and oligomerization of surface receptors, SMACs are formed and seem to be required functionally in both cell types. However, unlike CD4 T cells, which can form SMACs without CD4, CD8 T cells from OT-1 transgenic mice depend on their coreceptor, CD8, for the proper formation of SMACs .
Atrial Fibrillation Pathophysiology and Prognosis: Insights From Cardiovascular Imaging

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia and is characterized by ineffective atrial contractions and often rapid ventricular response rates. It has been recognized that the risk of AF increases with age and the rise in AF incidence in recent decades is at least partly accounted for by the aging population in addition to the increase in other risk factors, including obesity.1,2 The global estimated prevalence of AF was >33 million in 2010,3 and projections indicate that its incidence and prevalence could potentially increase >2.5-fold by 2030.4 Although aging, hypertension, body mass index, structural heart disease, heart failure, and pulmonary disease are recognized clinical risk factors for the development of AF,5,6 advances in cardiovascular imaging, including novel echocardiographic techniques, cardiac MRI (CMR), computed tomography (CT), and positron emission tomography, have provided novel insights into AF pathogenesis, prediction, and natural history. Despite the use of novel imaging technologies and the use of sophisticated invasive ablative techniques and newer anticoagulation strategies, AF still comprises a considerable public health burden and results in major morbidity and expenditures.7,8 Thromboembolism and its sequelae account for much of this burden. Ineffective atrial contraction results in decreased flow and stagnation of blood in atrial structures, primarily the left atrial (LA) appendage (LAA), and AF itself may represent an inflammatory and procoagulable state, further contributing to thromboembolism pathogenesis.9,10 In addition, one has to take into account the company it keeps in that AF is associated with a significant number of comorbidities, which may independently contribute to thromboembolism and other adverse outcomes. Given this expanding burden and the challenges in developing effective management strategies for AF and its complications, workshops of the American Heart Association and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute …
Biodegradation of the toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon , phenanthrene by an indigenously isolated Alcaligenes faecalis MVMB 1 strain

The biodegradation of phenanthrene, a model PAH compound was examined by employing aerobic bacterial strain, Alcaligenes faecalis MVMB1 isolated from contaminated soil. The effects of inoculum concentration, pH, and substrate concentration on phenanthrene degradation were studied. Five kinetic models (Monod, Haldane, Yano, Edward and Competitive inhibition) were applied to the experimental growth data for predicting substrate inhibition of the microorganism. The optimum parameters for maximum degradation and growth were observed at 12% inoculum concentration and 6.5 pH. Within 50 h and at 30 °C, the strain metabolized 98 % of phenanthrene (100 mg L) with maximum specific growth rate of 0.0239 h under optimized conditions. The complete degradation of phenanthrene implies A. faecalis MVMB1 as a promising candidate for bioremediation. Keywords-Biodegradation; Phenanthrene; Alcaligenes faecalis MVMB1; Monod model; Substrate inhibition kinetics
Evidências empíricas sobre a relação entre educação e crescimento no Rio Grande do Sul

Este artigo investiga as relacoes empiricas entre a educacao e o crescimento economico para as micro regioes do Rio Grande do Sul no periodo 1991-1998. Os resultados mostraram que a acumulacao de capital humano na forma de ensino fundamental possui efeito positivo sobre o crescimento economico. A acumulacao de capital humano na forma de ensino medio e superior nao teve efeito sobre a taxa de crescimento das micro regioes. O ensino fundamental com maior qualidade afeta positivamente o crescimento economico, enquanto que o ensino medio com maior qualidade tem um efeito negativo sobre o crescimento. Tres fatores ajudam a reduzir o carater contraintuitivo deste resultado. Primeiramente, a acumulacao de capital fisico mostrou-se fortemente associada ao crescimento economico. O aumento da oferta de trabalho nao se mostrou significativo na explicacao do crescimento economico. Por fim, os resultados mostraram a presenca de convergencia condicionada entre as micro regioes.
pSTAT1, pSTAT3, and T‐bet expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from relapsing‐remitting multiple sclerosis patients correlates with disease activity

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system, and it is considered to be a T helper 1 (Th1) cell‐mediated autoimmune disease. T‐bet has been identified as a key transcription factor for the development of Th1 cells and the induction of interferon (IFN)‐γ production. T‐bet is induced during T‐cell activation by the IFN‐γ signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT)‐1 signalling pathway. In this study we found an up‐regulation of T‐bet and pSTAT1 in peripheral blood CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and monocytes from relapsing‐remitting MS patients in relapse compared with patients in remission and with healthy subjects. The increased expression of pSTAT1 strongly correlated with T‐bet expression in CD4+ and CD8+ cells and monocytes from patients in relapse and was associated with an increased production of IFN‐γ by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). pSTAT3 was also up‐regulated in CD4+ and CD8+ cells and monocytes from patients in relapse and was associated with an increased production of interleukin (IL)‐10 but not of IL‐6. pSTAT1, pSTAT3, and T‐bet expression strongly correlated with Gd‐DTPA‐enhanced lesions on brain and spinal cord magnetic resonance imaging. Our data show for the first time that there is an up‐regulation of type 1 immunity‐correlated transcription factors such as STAT1 and T‐bet in peripheral blood subpopulations of MS patients in the active phase of disease. The evaluation of T‐bet and pSTAT1 expression in peripheral blood CD4+, CD8+ T cells and monocytes could be used as a marker of disease activity in relapsing‐remitting MS. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
La producción de energía eléctrica y la salud de los trabajadores

El sistema hidroelectrico estudiado esta integrado por el conjunto de recursos naturales y materiales necesarios para la produccion, transformacion y distribucion de energia electrica en la Zona Metropolitana de la Ciudad de Mexico. De este complejo proceso de trabajo se generan una gran cantidad de riesgos fisicos, quimicos y mecanicos y, tambien, exigencias y estresores. La presente investigacion pretende explicar mas ampliamente la relacion entre estos problemas y la salud en un grupo de trabajadores que desarrollan su actividad en una planta generadora de energia electrica. El estudio fue transversal y participaron todos los trabajadores de base del sistema hidroelectrico (N = 318). Se realizo en dos fases: en la primera se identifico el proceso de trabajo general y la deteccion de los principales riesgos laborales. En la segunda se identifico el perfil de morbilidad, a traves de los expedientes clinicos de los trabajadores y se recogieron los reportes de accidentes de trabajo. Se llevaron a cabo entrevistas a profundidad con cada responsable de area. El analisis conjunto de estas dos etapas permitio la construccion de mapas de salud laboral y la identificacion de los principales riesgos y danos en los trabajadores. Las infecciones de las vias respiratorias y los trastornos relacionados con situaciones de estres fueron las dos causas de morbilidad mas importantes. La tasa de incidencia anual de accidentes fue de 14.2 por cada 100 trabajadores, la cual es mas de cuatro veces superior a la media nacional. Se plantean las asociaciones encontradas entre estos problemas y se explican las medidas de proteccion, generales e individuales, propuestas.
The origin of human trisomy: a study of heteromorphisms and satellite associations

The origin of the additional chromosome was studied in 45 trisomic‐21 Down‐syndrome patients. In 17 patients the additional chromosome was maternal, in 2 it was paternal and in the remaining 26 the parental origin could not be determined. Acrocentric chromosome association was studied in parents of Down‐syndrome offspring and in parents of spontaneous abortions that were trisomic for an acrocentric chromosome. Parents of trisomic 16 abortuses and parents of triploid and chromosomally normal abortuses were used as controls. No increased association index was found for the specific acrocentric chromosome involved in the trisomy, either for the liveborn or for the aborted trisomies. However, the overall association index of the parent in whom the non‐disjunctional event leading to the acrocentric trisomy occurred was increased by comparison with that of the parent in whom non‐disjunction did not occur and with that of the controls. The reasons why we consider satellite associations to play an insignificant role in the aetiology of non‐disjunction are discussed.
Endoderm development in vertebrates: fate mapping, induction and regional specification

The formation of the vertebrate body plan begins with the differentiation of cells into three germ layers: ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm. Cells in the endoderm give rise to the epithelial lining of the digestive tract, associated glands and respiratory system. One of the fundamental problems in developmental biology is to elucidate how these three primary germ layers are established from the homologous population of cells in the early blastomere. To address this question, ectoderm and mesoderm development have been extensively analyzed, but study of endoderm development has only begun relatively recently. In this review, we focus on the ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘how’ of endoderm development in four vertebrate model organisms: the zebrafish, Xenopus, chick and mouse. We discuss the classical fate mapping of the endoderm and the more recent progress in characterizing its induction, segregation and regional specification.
Iterative Channel Estimation and Equalization Techniques for Multipath Channels with Multiple Frequency Offsets

We provide an iterative joint channel estimation and data detection algorithm for multipath channels with multiple frequency offsets (FOs). Pilot symbols are generally not long enough to provide enough resolution to estimate frequency offsets. Hence we used initial pilot based channel estimation to generate soft decision of the transmitted signal using log likelihood ratios, and the frequency offsets were estimated using these soft estimates of the transmitted signal together with pilots. Using extensive simulation study, we demonstrated the convergence of this joint channel and frequency offsets estimation and data detection. We also showed the variances of the iterative channel and the frequency offset estimates using 26 pilot symbols attain the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) derived assuming all 142 symbols in the burst are pilot symbols
Early communication deficits in the Shank1 knockout mouse model for autism spectrum disorder: Developmental aspects and effects of social context

Alterations in SHANK genes were repeatedly reported in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD is a group of neurodevelopmental disorders diagnosed by persistent deficits in social communication/interaction across multiple contexts, with restricted/repetitive patterns of behavior. To date, diagnostic criteria for ASD are purely behaviorally defined and reliable biomarkers have still not been identified. The validity of mouse models for ASD therefore strongly relies on their behavioral phenotype. Here, we studied communication by means of isolation‐induced pup ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) in the Shank1 mouse model for ASD by comparing Shank1−/− null mutant, Shank1+/− heterozygous, and Shank1+/+ wildtype littermate controls. The first aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of Shank1 deletions on developmental aspects of communication in order to see whether ASD‐related communication deficits are due to general impairment or delay in development. Second, we focused on social context effects on USV production. We show that Shank1−/− pups vocalized less and displayed a delay in the typical inverted U‐shaped developmental USV emission pattern with USV rates peaking on postnatal day (PND) 9, resulting in a prominent genotype difference on PND6. Moreover, testing under social conditions revealed even more prominently genotype‐dependent deficits regardless of the familiarity of the social context. As communication by definition serves a social function, introducing a social component to the typically nonsocial test environment could therefore help to reveal communication deficits in mouse models for ASD. Together, these results indicate that SHANK1 is involved in acoustic communication across species, with genetic alterations in SHANK1 resulting in social communication/interaction deficits. Autism Res 2016, 9: 696–709. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Nuclear or cytoplasmic expression of survivin: What is the significance?

Growing evidence suggests that survivin expression in cancer cell nuclei may represent an important prognostic marker to predict disease outcome for cancer patients. Current reports in this research area, however, are inconsistent and propose opposing conclusions regarding the significance and prognostic value of survivin nuclear expression. The aim of our study is to review and discuss the data reported in the original publications. We have also provided new experimental data to support our view regarding the possible reasons for the observed inconsistencies in the literature. This would alert researchers to pay attention to potential pitfalls in the determination of nuclear or cytoplasmic expression of survivin for the future. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Charge Plasma n-p-n Impact Ionization MOS on FDSOI Technology: Proposal and Analysis

In this paper, we propose the charge plasma n-p-n impact ionization MOS (I-MOS) on a lightly doped p-type silicon film using the charge plasma concept. The performance of the proposed device is exhaustively investigated using 2-D simulations. The proposed device does not have metallurgical junctions and needs no chemical doping for creating the source and drain regions. Therefore, the proposed device combines the benefits of the bipolar I-MOS (low avalanche breakdown voltage and immunity toward the hot carrier injection) and a junctionless FET (low thermal budget process). The proposed charge plasma n-p-n I-MOS exhibits excellent electrical characteristics, such as a low avalanche breakdown voltage (VB) of 2.123 V, a steep subthreshold swing of 4.53 mV/decade, and an ION/IOFF ratio of ~106, as compared with the conventional bipolar I-MOS.
Urban Scale Photovoltaic Charging Stations for Electric Vehicles

An energy integration between photovoltaic (PV) systems and electric vehicles (EVs) can help to overcome problems related to the feasibility of a more sustainable mobility, most of all in urban context. This paper aims to examine the potential and the technical benefits of using PV systems as energy supplier for charging EVs. For this purpose, an urban scale integrated system is presented through a mathematical model that considers the power flows related to the PV generator, the charging station, and electric grid. The most significant result is the evaluation of the self-consumption in order to optimize the interaction between the PV system and charging station for EVs. This analysis has been conducted for different vehicles typologies and different PV installations, giving rise to more than 9000 different cases and allowing to consider the wideness of the self-consumption range for different months.
Differential Induction of Macrophage GSIB4‐Binding Activity

Activated macrophages display a terminal galactopyranosyl group on their membrane surface that binds the lectin Griffonia simplicifolia–IB4 (GSIB4). Using FITC‐conjugated GSIB4, we examined the induction and subsequent expression of this corresponding marker on peritoneal macrophages from normal (NMO) and LPS‐treated (LPS MO) mice. Although the percentage of fresh LPS MO explants that bound GSIB4 was always higher when compared to the NMO counterparts, marker expression on the latter was readily enhanced by cufturing the cells in vitro either alone or with stimuli. Moreover, we found that an increase in this activity was promoted by either nonspecific phagocytosis of latex beads, or γ‐interferon (γ‐IFN) treatment. Further investigation showed that a prerequisite sequence of signal delivery to the macrophages was associated with maximal expression of the GSIB4 binding. When γ‐IFN treatment preceded latex bead ingestion, maximum GSIB4 binding occurred. Data obtained from using short‐term (1 hr) and long‐term (24 hr) exposure to latex beads showed that metabolic processing of induction signals was required to enhance the response over time. This yielded better GSIB4‐binding activity when responses to these pulses were analyzed in freshly explanted macrophages.
Chronic Stress Causes Frontostriatal Reorganization and Affects Decision-Making

Brain Rewiring After Stress Chronic stress, mainly through the release of corticosteroids, affects executive behavior through sequential structural modulation of brain networks. Stress-induced deficits in spatial reference, working memory, and behavioral flexibility are associated with synaptic and dendritic reorganization in both the hippocampus and the medial prefrontal cortex. However, the effects of chronic stress on action selection strategies are unclear. Dias-Ferreira et al. (p. 621) examined whether chronic stress affects the ability of animals to select the appropriate actions based on the consequences of their choice, and found that rats exposed to chronic unpredictable stress rapidly shift toward using habitual strategies. The shift in behavioral strategies observed in chronically stressed animals corresponded to dramatic and divergent changes in connectivity in the associative and sensorimotor corticostriatal circuits underlying these behaviors. Chronic stress alters brain neural circuits and affects the ability of animals to perform actions based on their consequences. The ability to shift between different behavioral strategies is necessary for appropriate decision-making. Here, we show that chronic stress biases decision-making strategies, affecting the ability of stressed animals to perform actions on the basis of their consequences. Using two different operant tasks, we revealed that, in making choices, rats subjected to chronic stress became insensitive to changes in outcome value and resistant to changes in action-outcome contingency. Furthermore, chronic stress caused opposing structural changes in the associative and sensorimotor corticostriatal circuits underlying these different behavioral strategies, with atrophy of medial prefrontal cortex and the associative striatum and hypertrophy of the sensorimotor striatum. These data suggest that the relative advantage of circuits coursing through sensorimotor striatum observed after chronic stress leads to a bias in behavioral strategies toward habit.
Research on optimal scheduling strategy for household loads considering rooftop photovoltaic

As the renewable energy has been widely applied in household electricity, an optimal scheduling strategy for household loads considering rooftop photovoltaic (PV) has been proposed. In this paper, different kinds of flexible loads as well as household customer satisfaction have been modelled after analysing the different characteristics of household loads. In meeting the optimal target of economy, which takes Time-of-Use (TOU) price and feed-in tariff of extra PV generation into account, this strategy optimizes the load control for the purpose of making user comfort the highest. A numerical example demonstrates that the optimization of household loads can reduce the power cost and improve the ability of local consumption of distributed PV.
Oxygen Evolution Reaction Electrocatalysis on Transition Metal Oxides and (Oxy)hydroxides: Activity Trends and Design Principles

Poor oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysis limits the efficiency of H2 production from water electrolysis and photoelectrolysis routes to large-scale energy storage. Despite nearly a century of research, the factors governing the activity of OER catalysts are not well understood. In this Perspective, we discuss recent advances in understanding the OER in alkaline media for earth-abundant, first-row, transition-metal oxides and (oxy)hydroxides. We argue that the most-relevant structures for study are thermodynamically stable (oxy)hydroxides and not crystalline oxides. We discuss thin-film electrochemical microbalance techniques to accurately quantify intrinsic activity and in situ conductivity measurements to identify materials limited by electronic transport. We highlight the dramatic effect that Fe cations—added either intentionally or unintentionally from ubiquitous electrolyte impurities—have on the activity of common OER catalysts. We find new activity trends across the first-row transition metals.
MAI cancellation of stage-based fractional users in CDMA systems

In this paper, a multiuser receiver, which cancels the multiple access interference (MAI) of the stage-based fractional number of users, is proposed for CDMA systems. In each stage, MAI of fractional number of users is regenerated and subtracted from the received signal. The fractional number is defined according to the number of successive stages. The simulation results show that the performance can be significantly improved by the proposed scheme compared to the conventional multistage detector.