Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MRG-1/MRG15 Is a Barrier for Germ Cell to Neuron Reprogramming in Caenorhabditis elegans

Chromatin regulators play important roles in the safeguarding of cell identities by opposing the induction of ectopic cell fates and, thereby, preventing forced conversion of cell identities by reprogramming approaches. Our knowledge of chromatin regulators acting as reprogramming barriers in living organisms needs improvement as most studies use tissue culture. We used Caenorhabditis elegans as an in vivo gene discovery model and automated solid-phase RNA interference screening, by which we identified 10 chromatin-regulating factors that protect cells against ectopic fate induction. Specifically, the chromodomain protein MRG-1 safeguards germ cells against conversion into neurons. MRG-1 is the ortholog of mammalian MRG15 (MORF-related gene on chromosome 15) and is required during germline development in C. elegans. However, MRG-1’s function as a barrier for germ cell reprogramming has not been revealed previously. Here, we further provide protein-protein and genome interactions of MRG-1 to characterize its molecular functions. Conserved chromatin regulators may have similar functions in higher organisms, and therefore, understanding cell fate protection in C. elegans may also help to facilitate reprogramming of human cells.
Advances in Multi-Functional Ligands and the Need for Metal-Related Pharmacology for the Management of Alzheimer Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the age linked neurodegenerative disorder with no disease modifying therapy currently available. The available therapy only offers short term symptomatic relief. Several hypotheses have been suggested for the pathogenesis of the disease while the molecules developed as possible therapeutic agent in the last decade, largely failed in the clinical trials. Several factors like tau protein hyperphosphorylation, amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide aggregation, decline in acetyl cholinesterase and oxidative stress might be contributing toward the pathogenesis of AD. Additionally, biometals dyshomeostasis (Iron, Copper, and Zinc) in the brain are also reported to be involved in the pathogenesis of AD. Thus, targeting these metal ions may be an effective strategy for the development of a drug to treat AD. Chelation therapy is currently employed for the metal intoxication but we lack a safe and effective chelating agents with additional biological properties for their possible use as multi target directed ligands for a complex disease like AD. Chelating agents possess the ability to disaggregate Aβ aggregation, dissolve amyloid plaques, and delay the cognitive impairment. Thus there is an urgent need to develop disease modifying therapeutic molecules with multiple beneficial features like targeting more than one factor responsible of the disease. These molecules, as disease modifying therapeutic agents for AD, should possess the potential to inhibit Aβ-metal interactions, the formation of toxic Aβ aggregates; and the capacity to reinstate metal homeostasis.
Interactive Classification Using Spectrograms and Audio Glyphs

Figure 1. (A) Interactive spectrogram and (B) audio glyph - both views (A) and (B) show the same preprocessed supposed audio sample of a pipit call. (A) shows an interactive spectrogram and (B) an audio glyph that maps the spectral roll-off of the audio sample to a global linear color scale. three different bird calls (1–3) are visible in the spectrogram and the audio glyph.The VAST Challenge 2018 aims to clarify the situation of the Rose-Crested Blue Pipit’s population in the Boonsong Lekagul Wildlife Preserve. We propose an interactive spectrogram and a representative novel audio glyph to support the classification of bird calls. The second visualization of our system helps to identify spatio-temporal patterns of bird species in the preserve. Using the system, we are able to solve the Mini Challenge 1 (MC1) tasks to classify claimed pipit calls and detect multiple spatio-temporal migratory patterns in the preserve. We find evidence that the pipit population is declining, but we can not identify any clear evidence that the accused company is responsible for the decrease of the pipit population.
Histological Findings in the Kernicterus-Associated Vulnerable Brain Regions are Linked to Neurodegeneration, Alterations in Astrocyte and Pericyte Distribution, and Vascular Modifications

Kernicterus is a severe manifestation of neonatal unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia. We investigated the neuro-glia-vascular alterations in autopsy material from three infants with kernicterus. Histological and immunohistochemical studies were performed in the cerebellum, hippocampus and basal ganglia, the most vulnerable brain regions to bilirubin-induced neurotoxicity. The data obtained were compared with the relatively spared temporal cortex, as well as with three aged-matched controls with no hyperbilirubinaemia. Our data showed a reduction of the external germinal layer thickness e kernicterus cases cerebellum, indicating that bilirubin compromises the neural progenitor cells. Results also showed that neuronal dysfunction, including neuronal death and reduced neuronal bodies, was prevalent in the cerebellum, hippocampus and basal ganglia. The hippocampus was the region presenting the greatest neuronal loss and vacuolation, also showing astrogliosis and loss of pericyte vascular coverage. A marked decrease in the basement membrane collagen IV immunoreactivity was observed in the cerebellum, a region presenting increased vessel density, particularly in the cerebellar cortex. Moreover, based on the enhanced caveolin-1 expression observed in the cerebellum and hippocampus we hypothesize that a transcellular hyperpermeability may have been involved in cases of kernicterus. The temporal cortex did not show signs of endothelial dysfunction and was the one with the lowest microvessel density and the highest basement membrane thickness, features that may account to the limited bilirubin passage across the blood-brain barrier into the brain and to the low propensity of the temporal cortex to kernicterus. Conclusion: The results obtained in three post-mortem brain samples of children with kernicterus and comorbid factors indicate that neuronal impairment and astrocytosis occur in parallel with microvascular alterations commonly associated with blood-brain barrier impairment.
Nanowire formation under femtosecond laser radiation in liquid

The size and shape of nanoscale materials provide excellent control over many of the physical and chemical properties, including electrical and thermal conductivity, magnetic properties, luminescence, and catalytic activity (Lieber, 1998). In particular, the synthesis and morphological control of nanosized particles, which exhibit surprising and novel phenomena based on the unique property called the quantum size effect, are attractive to chemists and physicists (Alivisatos, 1996). In recent years, nanoparticles are widely used in many applications ranging from biosensing (Anker et al., 2008; Elghanian et al., 1997; Lin et al., 2006), plasmonic devices (Ferry et al., 2008; Maier et al., 2003), and multifunctional catalysts (Hu et al., 1999; Lu et al., 2004). There are a wide variety of techniques that are capable of creating nanoparticles with various morphology and production yield. These nanoparticle formation approaches are typically grouped into two categories: ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’. The first involves the breaking down of large pieces of bulk material into the required nanostructures. The second involves the building of nanostructures, atom-byatom or molecule-by-molecule in a gas phase or solution. These two approaches have evolved separately and reached the limits in terms of feature size and quality, in recent years, leading to exploring novel hybrid approaches in combining the top-down and bottom-up methods. Colloidal chemists have gained excellent controlled nanosized particles for several spherical metal and semiconductor compositions, which has led to the discovery of quantum size effect in colloidal nanocrystals (Alivisatos, 1996). However, various bottomup approaches for making morphologically controlled nanoparticles have been found; most of these solution methods are based on thermal process. On the other hand, top-down approaches have been developed for producing metal and semiconductor nanowires, nanobelts, and nanoprisms (Hu et al., 1999; Pan et al., 2001; Jin et al., 2001). In particular, the laser-induced ablation method has become an increasingly popular approach for making nanoparticles due to the applicability to various target materials in an ambient atmosphere (Jia et al., 2006a; Kawasaki & Masuda, 2005; Link et al., 1999; Sylvestre et al., 2004; Tamaki et al., 2002; Tull et al., 2006). Recently, various shape-controlled nanoparticles, such as nanowires (Morales & Lieber, 2008), nanotubes (Rao et al., 1997), and composite nanostructures (Zhang et al., 1998), have been fabricated by this technique. More recently, pulsed laser ablation in liquid has become profoundly intrigued for preparing nanoparticles from the viewpoint of the concise procedure and the ease of handling (Kawasaki & Masuda, 2005; Tamaki et al., 2002; Shimotsuma et al., 2007).
Progress in triboelectric nanogenerators as a new energy technology and self-powered sensors

Ever since the first report of the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) in January 2012, its output area power density has reached 500 W m−2, and an instantaneous conversion efficiency of ∼70% and a total energy conversion efficiency of up to 85% have been demonstrated. We provide a comprehensive review of the four modes, their theoretical modelling, and the applications of TENGs for harvesting energy from human motion, walking, vibration, mechanical triggering, rotating tire, wind, flowing water and more as well as self-powered sensors.
Microlensing Searches for Exoplanets

Gravitational microlensing finds planets through their gravitational influence on the light coming from a more distant background star. The presence of the planet is then inferred from the tell-tale brightness variations of the background star during the lensing event, even if no light is detectable from the planet or the host foreground star. This review covers fundamental theoretical concepts in microlensing, addresses how observations are performed in practice, the challenges of obtaining accurate measurements, and explains how planets reveal themselves in the data. It concludes with a presentation of the most important findings to-date, a description of the method’s strengths and weaknesses, and a discussion of the future prospects of microlensing.
Review of Multi Criteria Recommender Systems and its Issues

Recommender systems are intelligent systems capable of helping users to easily locate the relevant information based on the users‟ preferences from a large repository of information. Collaborative filtering algorithms have traditionally been designed to work with user‟s overall ratings about items. Although the recommender systems based on single overall rating have been successful in a number of applications, representing complex user preferences with a single rating can negatively affect the predictive performance of recommender systems. Recently there has been a growing interest in using ratings on multiple aspects of items. Since the user‟s preferences in multiple aspects of items will provide detailed preference information to the Recommender systems, the systems are capable of providing accurate recommendations. Based on this aspect, this survey paper reviewed the approaches followed in Collaborative Recommender Systems using multiple criteria ratings, issues in this area and extension possibilities.
Towards a Smart System for Rehabilitation: TANGO-H Recommender System

The main objective of this work was to build an intelligent system for user rehabilitation. The system comprehends a platform with an exercise player and a designer tool. The intelligent platform analyzes the user interactions with it at every time along with the user record evolution to recommend new activities to the user. The main contributions of this work are, firstly, the definition of a recommender system based on different difficulty levels and user skills. The recommender system therefore has the function of providing the user a personalized game mode based on his own records and preferences. Secondly, a gamified system has been developed in the platform to increase the motivation of users and to prevent them from abandoning. Lastly, a twofold validation of the built system has been performed, with a group of experts in the first place and in a real intervention with children afterwards.
Modelling sperm whale habitat preference: a novel approach combining transect and follow data

ABSTRACT: Sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus habitat preferences are still poorly understood inthe Mediterranean, despite the population being classified as ‘Endangered’ by the IUCN. Techniquesto make the best use of multiple data sources are important in improving this situation. This work pro-vides a detailed evaluation of sperm whale distribution and habitat use around the Balearic Islandsusing a novel analytical framework that combines transect and follow data while accounting for anyautocorrelation present. During dedicated research cruises (2003 to 2008), sperm whales werelocated by listening at regular intervals along a search track and subsequently followed acoustically.Sperm whales were encountered 56 times and followed for periods ranging from a few hours to 3 d.Logistic Generalized Additive Models were used to model the probability of whale presence acrossthe study area as a function of environmental variables, and Generalized Estimating Equations wereused to account for autocorrelation. The results suggest that sperm whales do not use the region uni-formly and that topography plays a key role in shaping their distribution. Moreover, solitary individ-uals were found to use the habitat differently from groups. This segregation appeared to be driven bywater temperature and might reflect different needs or intraspecific competition. By shedding lighton sperm whale habitat preference in such a critical area, this study represents an important steptowards the implementation of conservation measures for this population.KEY WORDS: Habitat modelling · Cetacean · Distribution · Balearic Islands · GAM · GEE · Multi-scale
A Two-dimensional Finite Element Thermomechanical Approach to a Global Stress-Strain Analysis of Steel Continuous Casting

This paper addresses the two-dimensional finite element simulation of steel continuous casting using a global non steady-state approach. The method aims at the calculation of the thermomechanical state (temperature, deformation, stresses) of steel all along the continuous casting machine. Both plane deformation and axisymmetric versions have been developed. The first one addresses the simulation of continuous casting of slabs, taking into account the possible curvature of the machine, whereas the second one applies to cylindrical billets. The implementation of the method is validated by comparison with results from the literature. It is applied to the study of a slab continuous caster for which successive depressive and compressive stress states are revealed in the secondary cooling region.
X-ray absorption near-edge structure calculations with the pseudopotentials: Application to the K edge in diamond and α-quartz

We present a reciprocal-space pseudopotential scheme for calculating x-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectra. The scheme incorporates a recursive method to compute absorption cross section as a continued fraction. The continued fraction formulation of absorption is advantageous in that it permits the treatment of core-hole interaction through large supercells (hundreds of atoms). The method is compared with recently developed Bethe-Salpeter approach. The method is applied to the carbon K edge in diamond and to the silicon and oxygen K edges in α-quartz for which polarized XANES spectra were measured. Core-hole effects are investigated by varying the size of the supercell, thus leading to information similar to that obtained from cluster size analysis usually performed within multiple scattering calculations.
Cage Deployed Through Transforaminal Approach Biomechanics of an Expandable Lumbar Interbody Fusion

Background: A novel expandable lumbar interbody fusion cage has been developed which allows for a broad endplate footprint similar to an anterior lumbar interbody fusion; however, it is deployed from a minimally invasive transforaminal unilateral approach. The perceived benefit is a stable circumferential fusion from a single approach that maintains the anterior tension band of the anterior longitudinal ligament. The purpose of this biomechanics laboratory study was to evaluate the biomechanical stability of an expandable lumbar interbody cage inserted using a transforaminal approach and deployed in situ compared to a traditional lumbar interbody cage inserted using an anterior approach (control device). Methods: Twelve cadaveric spine specimens (L1-5) were tested intact and after implantation of both the control and experimental devices in 2 (L2-3 and L3-4) segments of each specimen; the assignments of the control and experimental devices to these segments were alternated. Effect of supplemental pedicle screw-rod stabilization was also assessed. Moments were applied to the specimens in flexionextension (FE), lateral bending (LB), and axial rotation (AR). The effect of physiologic preload on construct stability was evaluated in FE. Segmental motions were measured using an optoelectronic motion measurement system. Results: The deployable expendable transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) cage and control devices significantly reduced FE motion with and without compressive preload when compared to the intact condition (P , .05). Segmental motions in LB and AR were also significantly reduced with both devices (P , .05). Under no preload, the deployable expendable TLIF cage construct resulted in significantly smaller FE motion compared to the control cage construct (P , .01). Under all other testing modes (FE under 400N preload, LB, and AR), the postoperative motions of the 2 constructs did not differ statistically (P . .05). Adding bilateral pedicle screws resulted in further reduction of range of motion for all loading modes compared to intact condition, with no statistical difference between the 2 constructs (P . .05). Conclusions: The ability of the deployable expendable interbody cage in reducing segmental motions was equivalent to the control cage when used as a standalone construct and also when supplemented with bilateral pedicle screw-rod instrumentation. The larger footprint of the fully deployed TLIF cage combined with preservation of the anterior soft-tissue tension band may provide a better biomechanical fusion environment by combining the advantages of the traditional anterior lumbar interbody fusion and TLIF approaches.
Relativizing Human Rights

Research, policy analysis, and conditional aid policy among some donor countries rely on standards-based measures of country human rights performance. These measures code annual performance based on narrative reports published by the US State Department and Amnesty International. The coding yields a performance ranking for countries that in our view is “absolute” or reflects that current state of human rights performance without taking into account the relative social, political, or economic conditions within countries. While this absolute ranking is useful for empirical analyses of some human rights questions and policy applications, it can lead to perverse outcomes in other areas of work. This article provides an alternative method for ranking country human rights performance that takes into account an array of additional variables that are related to the protection of civil and political rights. The method involves three stages. Stage one applies principal component factor analysis to five different standards-based measures of civil and political rights to extract a single human rights “factor score. ” Stage two regresses the factor score on a series of explanatory variables for the protection of civil and political rights for which there is widespread consensus and then saves the residual as an indicator of the “over” or “under” performance of countries with respect to the protection of those rights. Stage three plots the “factor score” alongside the relative score to compare these different measures of human rights performance over time and across different regions. Our results lead to a new depiction of human rights progress in the world that we believe will be of interest to human rights scholars and practitioners.
Protective effect of hesperidin against ammonium chloride-induced hyperammonemia in rats

The current study aimed to investigate the protective effect of hesperidin against hyperammonemiainduced inflammation and oxidative stress. Hyperammonemia was induced by daily intraperitoneal injection of 100 mg/kg body weight ammonium chloride for 8 weeks. Administration of ammonium chloride induced hyperammonemia as evident by the significant increase in blood ammonia and urea levels. In addition, hyperammonemic rats exhibitedsignificantly increased brain lipid peroxidation as well as declined glutathione content and glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase activities. Moreover, hyperammonemia induced a significant increase in serum tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) accompanied with significant upregulation of brain TNF-α mRNA expression. Concomitant administration of the flavonoid hesperidinsignificantlyameliorated the altered parameters. In conclusion, hesperidinprotects against hyperammonemia-induced oxidative stress and inflammation, demonstrating its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory efficacies. [Mousa O. Germoush. Protective effect of hesperidin against ammonium chloride-induced hyperammonemia in rats. Life Sci J 2014;11(7):365-370]. (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite. com. 42
Integration of local ecological knowledge and conventional science: A study of seven community-based forestry organizations in the USA

Natural resource management decisions can be based on incomplete knowledge when they lack scientific research, monitoring, and assessment and/or simultaneously fail to draw on local ecological knowledge. Many community-based forestry organizations in the United States attempt to address these knowledge gaps with an integrated ecological stewardship approach that balances ecological, social, and economic goals. This paper examines the use and integration of local knowledge and conventional science in ecological stewardship and monitoring by seven community-based forestry demonstration projects. Through document reviews and interviews with both participants and partners of all of these community- based organizations, we found that all the community-based forestry groups incorporated local ecological knowledge into many aspects of their management or monitoring activities, such as collaboratively designing monitoring programs with local ranchers, forest workers, and residents; involving local people in collecting data and interpreting results; and documenting the local ecological knowledge of private forest landowners, long-time residents, and harvesters of nontimber forest products. We found that all the groups also used conventional science to design or conduct ecological assessments, monitoring, or research. We also found evidence, in the form of changes in attitudes on the part of local people and conventional scientists and jointly produced reports, that the two types of knowledge were integrated by all groups. These findings imply that community-based forestry groups are redistributing the power of conventional science through the use of diverse knowledge sources. Still, several obstacles prevented some local, traditionally under- represented groups from being significantly involved in monitoring and management decisions, and their knowledge has not yet been consistently incorporated.