Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The use of focused electron and ion beams for the functionalization and nanostructuring of polymer surfaces

Polymers are nowadays actively used in numerous applications owing their low cost and optimized structural properties. Besides, the miniaturization of the novel materials down to nano and even atomic scale needs the use of Electron Microscopy techniques both for imaging and structuring abilities. When used for surface modification, electrons and ions allow altering the surface properties towards special material designs. This study mainly focuses on investigation, optimization and modification of polymers’ surface properties by the use of electron and ion beam treatment assisted by gas enhanced etching processes in FIB-SEM dual-beam platforms. Direct electron/ion beam etching and XeF2 assisted etching were applied on high density polyethylene (HDPE), Melinex® and polypropylene (PP) samples, in order to obtain different forms of functionalized surfaces. The alterations in the surface properties provided by electron/ion beam and gas assisted modification processes were examined using complementary advanced analysis techniques, such as HR-SEM and AFM.
Breaking down and putting back together: analysis and synthesis of New Testament Greek

In this paper we first briefly describe the design of a corpus containing the Koine Greek original text of the New Testament and its translations in to Gothic, Latin, Old Church Slavic and Armenian. We then discuss extensively the annotation that we have applied in each layer of annotation: morphology and syntax, information structure, animacy, and token alignment. For each type of annotation we provide some preliminary results and applications that draw on it, often in combination with other layers of annotation.
An outbreak of Salmonella Infantis gastroenteritis in a residential aged care facility associated with thickened fluids

SUMMARY Twenty-two confirmed cases of Salmonella Infantis were identified in 70 residents of high-level care areas of a residential aged care facility in Sydney in April 2010 during an outbreak of gastroenteritis. A retrospective cohort study was conducted to identify a possible cause. Consuming a soft diet, puréed diet, or thickened fluid were each independently associated with illness. A logistic regression showed consumption of thickened fluid to be the only significant exposure associated with illness (adjusted odds ratio 11·8, 95% confidence interval 1·9–75·9). It was postulated that the thickened fluid had been contaminated by chicken mince, a sample of which also cultured S. Infantis. This finding reinforces the need to educate food-handlers on the risk of potential cross-contamination; it also highlights the need to consider all dietary components, such as thickened fluids, as potential vehicles for transmission in an outbreak.
Efficiency Increase of an Induction Motor by Improving Cooling Performance

Improving the efficiency of induction motors, which are the most energy-consuming electric machines in the world, saves much energy. The efficiency can be increased by improving cooling performance as well as by using better materials or by improving electromagnetic performance with better design. This paper presents the relationship between the efficiency or the losses and the temperature of coils with experiments as well as simulations by changing parameters such as the load, the flow rate of cooling air. The losses and the efficiency are calculated from an equivalent circuit method as well as experiments. Coil temperatures variation affects much on the efficiency. The internal cooling method is better than that of external cooling for the coil temperature reduction. Several cooling methods are compared focusing on the fan efficiency and performance, from which the values of the efficiencies of the motors are expected. The fan efficiency as well as the fan performance should be considered for the optimum fan design to increase the total efficiency of a motor. The simulations are validated by the comparison with the experiments.
Histopathological findings in systemic sclerosis-related myopathy: fibrosis and microangiopathy with lack of cellular inflammation

Objectives: The objective of this study was to identify specific histopathological features of skeletal muscle involvement in systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients. Methods: A total of 35 out of 112 SSc-patients (32%, including 81% female and 68% diffuse scleroderma) presenting clinical, biological and electromyographic (EMG) features of muscle weakness, were included. Patients underwent vastus lateralis biopsy, assessed for individual pathologic features including fibrosis [type I collagen (Coll-I), transforming growth factor β (TGF-β)], microangiopathy [cluster of differentiation 31 (CD31), pro-angiogenic vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A), anti-angiogenic VEGF-A165b], immune/ inflammatory response [CD4, CD8, CD20, human leucocyte antigens ABC (HLA-ABC)], and membranolytic attack complex (MAC). SSc biopsies were compared with biopsies of (n = 35) idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs) and to (n = 35) noninflammatory myopathies (NIMs). Ultrastructural abnormalities of SSc myopathy were also analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Results: Fibrosis in SSc myopathy (81%) is higher compared with IIM (32%, p < 0.05) and with NIM (18%, p < 0.05). Vascular involvement is dominant in SSc muscle (92%), and in IIM (78%) compared with NIM (21%, p < 0.05). In particular, CD31 shows loss of endomysial vessels in SSc myopathy compared with IIM (p < 0.05) and with NIM (p < 0.01). VEGF-A is downregulated in SSc myopathy compared with IIM (p < 0.05) and NIM (p < 0.05). Conversely, VEGF-A165b is upregulated in SSc myopathy. The SSc immune/inflammatory response suggested humoral process with majority (85%) HLA-ABC fibral neoexpression and complement deposits on endomysial capillaries MAC, compared with IIM (p < 0.05), characterized by CD4+/CD8+/B-cell infiltrate, and NIM (p < 0.05). TEM analysis showed SSc vascular alterations consisting of thickening and lamination of basement membrane and endothelial cell ‘swelling’ coupled to endomysial/perimysial fibrosis. Conclusions: Fibrosis, microangiopathy and humoral immunity are predominant in SSc myopathy, even if it is difficult to identify specific histopathological hallmarks of muscle involvement in SSc, since they could be present also in other (IIM/NIM) myopathies.
Matrix metalloproteinase-9 in cerebral aneurysms.

OBJECTIVE Generalized disruption of arterial wall morphological changes in patients harboring cerebral aneurysms has been documented; however, little is known regarding the pathogenesis of these changes. To explore the role of the elastolytic gelatinase, matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), levels of this enzyme in the wall of intracranial aneurysms were compared with those in both intracranial and extracranial arteries. The tissue levels of its major inhibitor, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP), were measured in these tissues as well. The activity of MMP-9 in plasma was also evaluated. METHODS The aneurysm wall was excised from three of six patients undergoing craniotomies for aneurysm clipping. A 1-cm segment of superficial temporal artery (STA) was obtained from each of six patients. Additional STAs were obtained from six patients in the control group who were undergoing craniotomies for nonvascular disease. An intracranial artery was also obtained from the anterior temporal neocortical resection of a patient undergoing a craniotomy for mesial temporal sclerosis. MMP-9 and TIMP levels were determined via Western blot analysis. Using substrate gel Zymography, MMP-9 plasma activity was determined for a separate cohort of patients with aneurysms (n = 6) and patients in the control group (n = 6). RESULTS MMP-9 and TIMP levels in the aneurysm wall were markedly increased beyond levels in both extracranial arteries (STAs from patients with aneurysms and patients in the control group) and the intracranial artery. There were no differences in the levels of MMP-9 in the STAs of patients harboring aneurysms when compared with patients in the control group. Also, no differences were noted in plasma MMP-9 activity. CONCLUSION Local rather than systemic perturbations in MMP-9 levels may contribute to the matrix disruption associated with cerebral aneurysms. This local up-regulation is not the result of TIMP down-regulation. The lack of increased systemic metalloproteinase activity precludes the use of plasma MMP-9 activity as a screening tool for presymptomatic aneurysms. However, local therapeutic modulation of MMP-9 activity may help arrest aneurysm progression.
Role of thermodynamic and kinetic parameters in gadolinium chelate stability

In recent years there has been a renewed interest in the physicochemical properties of gadolinium chelates (GC). The aim of this review is to discuss the physicochemical properties of marketed GC with regard to possible biological consequences. GC can be classified according to three key molecular features: 1) the nature of the chelating moiety: either macrocyclic molecules in which Gd3+ is caged in the preorganized cavity of the ligand, or linear, open‐chain molecules; 2) ionicity: the ionicity of the molecule varies from neutral to tri‐anionic agents; and 3) the presence or absence of an aromatic lipophilic moiety, which has a profound impact on the biodistribution of the GC. These parameters can also explain why GC differ considerably with regard to their thermodynamic stability constants and kinetic stability, as demonstrated by numerous studies. The concept of thermodynamic and kinetic stability is critically discussed, as it remains somewhat controversial, especially in predicting the amount of free gadolinium that may result from decomplexation of chelates in physiologic or pathologic situations. This review examines the possibility that the high kinetic stability provided by the macrocyclic structure combined with a high thermodynamic stability (reinforced by ionicity for macrocyclic chelates) can minimize the amount of free Gd3+ released in the body. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2009;30:1249–1258. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Working Paper No. 133

We use a multi-factor asset pricing model to investigate whether fluctuations in industry stock returns are due to industry-specific shocks or to monetary and other macroeconomic factors. We find that common factors explain a substantial portion of the variation in stock returns, indicating that economic fluctuations are not due to industry-specific factors alone. We also find that disinflationary monetary policy harms both small and large firms while expansionary policy benefits large but not small firms. These results have mixed implications for the view that credit market frictions propagate monetary shocks_.
Hepatocyte Growth Factor/C-Met Axis in Thyroid Cancer: From Diagnostic Biomarker to Therapeutic Target

The hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)/c-met axis plays a crucial role in cancer development by promoting cellular proliferation, motility, and morphogenesis, as well as angiogenesis. Different cellular distributions of both the ligand and the receptor in benign vs malignant lesions indicate this biological system as a candidate for a diagnostic biomarker of malignancy occurring in endocrine glands, such as the thyroid and pituitary. Furthermore, the HGF/c-met expression may help to identify a subset of patients eligible for potential targeted therapies with HGF/c-met inhibitors or antagonists in thyroid tumour, as well as in other malignancies. This may be relevant for iodine-refractory cancers, the treatment of which is still a major challenge. With this in mind, HGF/c-met expression in thyroid cancer tissue may be useful for prognostic and therapeutic stratification of patients.
PAI‐1 in tissue fibrosis

Fibrosis is defined as a fibroproliferative or abnormal fibroblast activation‐related disease. Deregulation of wound healing leads to hyperactivation of fibroblasts and excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins in the wound area, the pathological manifestation of fibrosis. The accumulation of excessive levels of collagen in the ECM depends on two factors: an increased rate of collagen synthesis and or decreased rate of collagen degradation by cellular proteolytic activities. The urokinase/tissue type plasminogen activator (uPA/tPA) and plasmin play significant roles in the cellular proteolytic degradation of ECM proteins and the maintenance of tissue homeostasis. The activities of uPA/tPA/plasmin and plasmin‐dependent MMPs rely mostly on the activity of a potent inhibitor of uPA/tPA, plasminogen activator inhibitor‐1 (PAI‐1). Under normal physiologic conditions, PAI‐1 controls the activities of uPA/tPA/plasmin/MMP proteolytic activities and thus maintains the tissue homeostasis. During wound healing, elevated levels of PAI‐1 inhibit uPA/tPA/plasmin and plasmin‐dependent MMP activities, and, thus, help expedite wound healing. In contrast to this scenario, under pathologic conditions, excessive PAI‐1 contributes to excessive accumulation of collagen and other ECM protein in the wound area, and thus preserves scarring. While the level of PAI‐1 is significantly elevated in fibrotic tissues, lack of PAI‐1 protects different organs from fibrosis in response to injury‐related profibrotic signals. Thus, PAI‐1 is implicated in the pathology of fibrosis in different organs including the heart, lung, kidney, liver, and skin. Paradoxically, PAI‐1 deficiency promotes spontaneous cardiac‐selective fibrosis. In this review, we discuss the significance of PAI‐1 in the pathogenesis of fibrosis in multiple organs. J. Cell. Physiol. 227: 493–507, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Case study: using sequence homology to identify putative phosphorylation sites in an evolutionarily distant species (honeybee)

The majority of scientific resources are devoted to studying a relatively small number of model species, meaning that the ability to translate knowledge across species is of considerable importance. Obtaining species-specific knowledge enables targeted investigations of the biology and pathobiology of a particular species, and facilitates comparative analyses. Phosphorylation is the most widespread posttranslational modification in eukaryotes, and although many phosphorylation sites have been experimentally identified for some species, little or no data are available for others. Using the honeybee as a test organism, this case study illustrates the process of using protein sequence homology to identify putative phosphorylation sites in a species of interest using experimentally determined sites from other species. A number of issues associated with this process are examined and discussed. Several databases of experimentally determined phosphorylation sites exist; however, it can be difficult for the nonspecialist to ascertain how their contents compare. Thus, this case study assesses the content and comparability of several phosphorylation site databases. Additional issues examined include the efficacy of homology-based phosphorylation site prediction, the impact of the level of evolutionary relatedness between species in making these predictions, the ability to translate knowledge of phosphorylation sites across large evolutionary distances and the criteria that should be used in selecting probable phosphorylation sites in the species of interest. Although focusing on phosphorylation, the issues discussed here also apply to the homology-based cross-species prediction of other posttranslational modifications, as well as to sequence motifs in general.
Influência da tensão mecânica (strain) no abaixamento de barreira induzido pelo dreno (DIBL) em FinFETs de porta tripla.

This work presents a study about the influence of strain in the drain induced barrier lowering effect (DIBL) in triple gate SOI FinFETs. Also it is analyzed the selective epitaxial growth used in that structures, comparing their behavior in relation to DIBL effect. Using the vertical multi-gate devices become possible the downscale whereas they present higher current level and suppressed short channel effects. However, reducing the channel width, the transistor’s total resistance increases and consequently its performance decreases. In order to improve this feature, the strained technology and the Source/Drain’s growth technique has been employed. In the first case, the mechanical deformation causes a change in the electron shell, which improves the carrier mobility. Consequently, the current level and the transconductance also improve. The selective epitaxial growth technique aims to reduce the device’s total resistance since these regions areas increase, allowing large contacts which are responsible for the main parcel of the total resistance. This work is based on experimental results and tridimensional simulations that analyze the transistor behavior using the technologies above presented as a function of DIBL effect. Key-words: DIBL effect. Multiple-Gates. Selective Epitaxial Growth. Strained Channel. SOI Technology.
An experimental research of the pair programming in java programming course

In recent years, as a process improvement strategy for learning programming skills, pair programming is increasingly used in research and practice in the field of computer teaching. This paper conducts teaching experiment by applying pair programming to teach Java programming course at the Chongqing Technology and Business University (China). The experiment results show that most students involved in the pair programming agree to use it for the following benefits: (i) improvement of the learning self-confidence, (ii) higher quality of the experiment finished. This research validates the previous research of pair programming, and demonstrates that better teaching effects will be achieved if this technology is used in the teaching programming course.
EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION SHOWS DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER RESISTANCE TO A MICROSPORIDIAN PATHOGEN HAS FITNESS COSTS

Most organisms experience strong selection to develop mechanisms to resist or tolerate their pathogens or parasites. Limits to adaptation are set by correlated responses to selection, for example reduced abilities to detect other parasites or trade-offs with other fitness components. For a few model systems it is now becoming possible to compare the evolutionary response to a broad range of natural enemies. In Drosophila, the evolutionary responses to ectoparasitic mites, parasitoids, and fungal and bacterial pathogens have previously been studied. Here replicate lines of D. melanogaster were exposed to the microsporidian parasite Tubulinosema kingi over a period of 61 weeks, with overlapping generations. Compared to controls, exposed lines had higher early-life fecundity and increased longevity when infected suggesting successful selection for resistance or tolerance. In the absence of the pathogen, exposed lines had lower fecundity when reared under harsh environmental conditions, and were poorer larval competitors than controls. They also had relatively higher densities of haemocytes, a component of the cellular immune system. Defense against this pathogen resembles more that against macroparasites than microsparasites, and this is interpreted in the light of what is known about the mechanisms of resistance to microsporidians.
Human T cell leukemia virus type I and neurologic disease: Events in bone marrow, peripheral blood, and central nervous system during normal immune surveillance and neuroinflammation

Human T cell lymphotropic/leukemia virus type I (HTLV‐I) has been identified as the causative agent of both adult T cell leukemia (ATL) and HTLV‐I‐associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). Although the exact sequence of events that occur during the early stages of infection are not known in detail, the initial route of infection may predetermine, along with host, environmental, and viral factors, the subset of target cells and/or the primary immune response encountered by HTLV‐I, and whether an HTLV‐I‐infected individual will remain asymptomatic, develop ATL, or progress to the neuroinflammatory disease, HAM/TSP. Although a large number of studies have indicated that CD4+ T cells represent an important target for HTLV‐I infection in the peripheral blood (PB), additional evidence has accumulated over the past several years demonstrating that HTLV‐I can infect several additional cellular compartments in vivo, including CD8+ T lymphocytes, PB monocytes, dendritic cells, B lymphocytes, and resident central nervous system (CNS) astrocytes. More importantly, extensive latent viral infection of the bone marrow, including cells likely to be hematopoietic progenitor cells, has been observed in individuals with HAM/TSP as well as some asymptomatic carriers, but to a much lesser extent in individuals with ATL. Furthermore, HTLV‐I+ CD34+ hematopoietic progenitor cells can maintain the intact proviral genome and initiate viral gene expression during the differentiation process. Introduction of HTLV‐I‐infected bone marrow progenitor cells into the PB, followed by genomic activation and low level viral gene expression may lead to an increase in proviral DNA load in the PB, resulting in a progressive state of immune dysregulation including the generation of a detrimental cytotoxic Tax‐specific CD8+ T cell population, anti‐HTLV‐I antibodies, and neurotoxic cytokines involved in disruption of myelin‐producing cells and neuronal degradation characteristic of HAM/TSP. J. Cell. Physiol. 190: 133–159, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Analysis of individual immunoglobulin λ light chain genes amplified from single cells is inconsistent with variable region gene conversion in germinal‐center B cell somatic mutation

Responding B cells in specific immune responses diversify their immunoglobulin genes and are selected on their variant antigen receptors in the microenviroment of the germinal center. The patterns of mutations previously reported for immunglobulin (Ig) genes have supported mechanistic hypotheses of either error‐prone DNA synthesis or templated variable region gene conversion as the underlying mechanism in the generation of these mutations. To assess the role of gene conversion in germinal‐center somatic mutation, we chose to examine nucleotide changes in mouse λ light chain genes which arose in response to a specific antigen. Laboratory mice possess three Vλ subexons, two of which differ from one another by only seven nucleotides, making these two subexons ideal for gene conversion. In the current study, we used six‐parameter flow cytometry to isolate single λ light chain‐expressing germinal‐center B cells from two different time points in a primary immune response. We then individually amplified and sequenced individual Vλ1 genes from these single cells for mutational analysis. None of the 32 Vλ1 genes, containing a total of 40 mutations, showed evidence of gene conversion from either of the other Vλ subexons. Features such as the replacement to silent ratio of the mutations documented at the earlier time point indicate an absence of antigen‐driven selection. These data indicate that V region gene conversion does not contribute to germinal‐center somatic mutation and that gene conversion is not responsible for targeting mutation specifically to rearranged Ig genes. The biological implications are discussed.
YNUDLG at IJCNLP-2017 Task 5: A CNN-LSTM Model with Attention for Multi-choice Question Answering in Examinations

In this paper, we perform convolutional neural networks (CNN) to learn the joint representations of question-answer pairs first, then use the joint representations as the inputs of the long short-term memory (LSTM) with attention to learn the answer sequence of a question for labeling the matching quality of each answer. We also incorporating external knowledge by training Word2Vec on Flashcards data, thus we get more compact embedding. Experimental results show that our method achieves better or comparable performance compared with the baseline system. The proposed approach achieves the accuracy of 0.39, 0.42 in English valid set, test set, respectively.