Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fc;RIIIa Expression Is Not Increased on Natural Killer Cells Expressing the Fc;RIIIa-158V Allotype

The presence of a valine (V) versus a phenylanaline (F) at position 158 of Fc;RIIIa/CD16a improves the affinity for IgG and is associated with higher therapeutic response to rituximab. Increased CD16 expression on natural killer (NK) cells from donors with the VV or VF versus FF genotype has recently been reported. We indeed observed higher binding of the anti-CD16 monoclonal antibody (mAb) 3G8 on NK cells from V carriers (VV = VF > FF). However, the binding of two other antiCD16 mAbs, LNK16 and DJ130c, decreased with the number of Vallele (VV < VF < FF). CD16 transcript levels were independent on the genotype. Rituximab binding to NK cells from V carriers was higher than its binding to FF NK cells at low concentrations (10 and 100 Mg/mL). However, the difference was nearly completely abolished at saturating concentrations (z1,000 Mg/mL). Finally, nearly 100% of CD16-expressing NK cells displayed a complete down-modulation of the receptor after optimal engagement by plate-bound 3G8, whatever the genotype. By contrast, the percentages of NK cells downmodulating CD16 after competitive engagement of the receptor by plate-bound rituximab increased with the number of V allele (FF, 18.2 F 8.6%; VF, 32.0 F 4.9%; and VV, 42.4 F 9.9%). These results are in discrepancy with the expected increased competition that would result from an increased expression of CD16 on VV and VF NK cells. We conclude that increased binding and functional and clinical responses associated with the high-affinity Fc;RIIIa-158V are unrelated to an increased expression of this allotype. [Cancer Res 2008;68(4):976–80]
Directed Diversity: Leveraging Language Embedding Distances for Collective Creativity in Crowd Ideation

Crowdsourcing can collect many diverse ideas by prompting ideators individually, but this can generate redundant ideas. Prior methods reduce redundancy by presenting peers’ ideas or peer-proposed prompts, but these require much human coordination. We introduce Directed Diversity, an automatic prompt selection approach that leverages language model embedding distances to maximize diversity. Ideators can be directed towards diverse prompts and away from prior ideas, thus improving their collective creativity. Since there are diverse metrics of diversity, we present a Diversity Prompting Evaluation Framework consolidating metrics from several research disciplines to analyze along the ideation chain — prompt selection, prompt creativity, prompt-ideation mediation, and ideation creativity. Using this framework, we evaluated Directed Diversity in a series of a simulation study and four user studies for the use case of crowdsourcing motivational messages to encourage physical activity. We show that automated diverse prompting can variously improve collective creativity across many nuanced metrics of diversity.
Conductivity and structure of poly(ethylene glycol) complexes using energy dispersive X-ray diffraction

Triflate salts of Mg(II), Zn(II), and Cu(II) in liquid, low weight poly(ethylene glycol) dimethyl ether (PEGM(400)) to determine their conductivity and to ascertain their possible use as electrolyte media, have been studied. Their liquid structures have been studied by energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction. By this technique, the cation geometrical coordination has been determined. Furthermore, the local structure of the bivalent cations has been singled out by application of the difference method to isomorphic solutions. We found that the investigated cations have an octahedral coordination, with the exception of Cu, which displays two apical bonds longer than the planar ones. We also found that the polymer chain is coordinated to the cations Mg and Zn through the oxygen atoms of the polymer units 1, 5, and 9.
Transgressing borders with participatory video technologies: Reflections on creative knowledge production with asylum seekers in Australia

Abstract In this article we ask: how might the significant turn towards creative modes of knowledge production bring together researchers, participants and audiences to disrupt bordering technologies that dehumanise asylum seekers? We focus on videos taken by asylum seekers in Darwin who express their everyday experiences of encountering and transgressing borders. As researchers, we use experimental editing techniques to make these transgressions visible in a society with a white majority culture. We argue, however, that these video techniques often work to privilege our creative agency as researchers, even though the aim is to illuminate different temporalities and visualities of the global refugee crisis. This article problematises this agency and attends to ethical dilemmas by revisiting the juxtapositions, montages, fades, distortions and vortexes we use to centre asylum seeker lives. These visual techniques are an attempt to respond to xenophobic nationalism and racially discriminatory immigration policies through forms of digital activism that transgress standard ‘borders’ of representation and the self/other borders of public debates. In our demand for social and cultural justice, we are inspired by work that uses the affordances of digital technologies to dismantle the rigidity of sovereign borders.
Detecting Serial Dependence in Binomial Time Series @let@token 1/cmr/m/n/10 II: Observation Driven Models

The detection of serial dependence in binary or binomial valued time series is difficult using standard time series methods, particularly when there are regression effects to be modelled. In this paper we derive score-type tests for detecting departures from independence in the directions of the GLARMA and BARMA type observation driven models. These score tests can easily be applied using a standard logistic regression and so may have appeal to practitioners who wish to initially assess the need to incorporate serial dependence effects. To deal with the nuisance parameters in some GLARMA models a supremum type test is implemented.
Amidation of Monolayers on Silicon in Physiological Buffers: A Quantitative IR Study

Mixed carboxyl-terminated monolayers grafted onto monocrystalline (111) silicon are prepared by photochemical hydrosilylation of undecylenic acid/1-decene mixtures on hydrogenated surfaces. The attachment of a simple primary amine (hexylamine) to the mixed-acid-terminated monolayers is achieved in a physiological buffer by a two-step process using the water-soluble coupling agents N-ethyl-N‘-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) and N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) to activate the carboxyl terminations. The chemical compositions of the acid-terminated, activated, and amidated monolayers are studied carefully as a function of the morphology of the initial hydrogenated surface (rough or flat) by quantitative FTIR spectroscopy (ATR geometry) coupled with AFM imaging. For the amidation reaction, in situ IR experiments are performed in hexylamine solutions at three different concentrations. A simple model is proposed to explain the sublinear variation of the reaction rate as a function of the amine.
Imaging Condition Optimization in Multiphoton Microscopy of Three‐Dimensional Collagen Fiber Structures

Multiphoton generated autofluorescence and second harmonic signals are useful luminescent signatures for probing the structural and spectral properties of collagen fibers. However, optimization of image formation deep within a three-dimensional collagen sample may be hindered by index-mismatch induced spherical aberration. In this work, we examined this issue by comparing the axial multiphoton luminescence profiles of bovine tendon under water, glycerin, and oil immersion conditions. Our results show that, although in general, oil immersion imaging resulted in the slowest decay of measured axial luminescence profile, other immersion conditions can perform better at specific locations within the tendon, indicating the existence of local variations of refractive indices within the collagen-filled tendon. Our results suggest that optimizing multiphoton imaging of collagen requires acquiring and comparing imaging results using different immersion fluids and that the results may be used to infer the spatial distribution of refractive indices in biological specimens.
Flavor and Selected Chemical Components of Ground Beef from Steers Backgrounded on Pasture and Fed Corn up to 140 Days

Flavor and selected chemical components of ground beef from 60 steers were studied as a function of days (up to 140) that corn was fed to steers after grazing on pasture. During the 140 days on corn, significant changes occurred in the fatty acid composition of ground beef and in its carbohydrate content, titratable acidity, volatile fatty acid content, aroma and flavor. Flavor changes were related to certain chemical components. Results indicate that finishing cattle on corn for periods longer than 80–90 days causes little change in beef flavor.
Multiple Chemotherapy-Based Combination Therapy Strategies for Advanced Lung Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis

Background: At present, the treatments for patients with advanced lung cancer focus on chemotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, or a combination of multiple treatments. Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to compare the various chemotherapy-based combination therapies and find the best one for patients with advanced lung cancer. Methods: Based on database (PubMed, EMBASE and Medline) for randomized controlled trials of advanced lung cancer with combination therapy from 2008 to 2020, we searched literatures with overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), objective response rate (ORR) and adverse as outcome indicators and established a Bayesian mesh meta-analysis for multiple treatment strategies. Then, we combined the results of four outcome indicators to find out the best chemotherapy-based combination therapy strategy for patients with advanced lung cancer, further, we tried to screen out the best drugs of which were commonly used now. Results: It contained a total of 51 studies, including five combination therapies: Chemotherapy/Chemotherapy plus placebo (CT), chemotherapy plus one targeted therapy drug (CT+T), chemotherapy plus two targeted therapy drugs (CT+T+T), chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy (CT+I) or chemotherapy combined with biotherapy (CT+B). In terms of four outcome indicators, CT+I showed the best therapeutic benefits. In the comparison of immunotherapy drugs, pembrolizumab showed the best effect. Conclusion: Our results showed that, among the multiple chemotherapy-based combination therapy strategies, chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy is the best choice for patients with advanced lung cancer, and pembrolizumab combined with chemotherapy has the best effect.
Deriving Tree Size Distributions of Tropical Forests from Lidar

Remote sensing is an important tool to monitor forests to rapidly detect changes due to global change and other threats. Here, we present a novel methodology to infer the tree size distribution from light detection and ranging (lidar) measurements. Our approach is based on a theoretical leaf–tree matrix derived from allometric relations of trees. Using the leaf–tree matrix, we compute the tree size distribution that fit to the observed leaf area density profile via lidar. To validate our approach, we analyzed the stem diameter distribution of a tropical forest in Panama and compared lidar-derived data with data from forest inventories at different spatial scales (0.04 ha to 50 ha). Our estimates had a high accuracy at scales above 1 ha (1 ha: root mean square error (RMSE) 67.6 trees ha−1/normalized RMSE 18.8%/R² 0.76; 50 ha: 22.8 trees ha−1/6.2%/0.89). Estimates for smaller scales (1-ha to 0.04-ha) were reliably for forests with low height, dense canopy or low tree height heterogeneity. Estimates for the basal area were accurate at the 1-ha scale (RMSE 4.7 tree ha−1, bias 0.8 m² ha−1) but less accurate at smaller scales. Our methodology, further tested at additional sites, provides a useful approach to determine the tree size distribution of forests by integrating information on tree allometries.
Tidsskrift for omsorgsforskning

The Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) is a widely used instrument to measure safety attitudes among health care providers. The overall aim of this project is to provide research that contributes to developing better patient safety cultures in Norwegian home health care. First we will develop a tool for measuring patient safety culture in home health care services, by validating the Norwegian translation of the SAQ in the home health care setting. Second, we will study safety attitudes amongst health care employees in home health care – and whether patterns in attitudes are related to professional background, gender, age and workplace. Third, we will investigate the experienced quality of collaboration and communication between employees in home health care – and other parts of the health care services. Last, we will compare findings related to safety attitudes across services in primary health care (home health care, nursing homes, out-of-hours clinics and general practitioner (GP) practices). As part of the overall Safety Culture in Primary Care (SIP) project, this project will follow the same design as previous completed SIP studies in other services of primary care in Norway.
Measuring Learner Engagement to Create a Gameful Learning Environment

If educators were to be skilled game designers, then they would be better equipped in designing engaging education scenarios. This paper investigates a Gameful Method for designing educational scenarios, based around the core principle that instead of being educators dissecting and borrowing game elements, that they would be better suited to approach learning similar to how game designers approach games, building engaging scenarios. This research aims to identify and define the framework element appropriate for Gameful Learning by mapping engagement using established game development formats like that of Mechanics, Dynamics & Aesthetics (MDA) and Flow to quantifiable metrics. In this paper the author quantifies metrics related to the Flow of an educational scenario and proposes a measured understanding of a learner’s engagement with clear correlation between motivation and design elementsestablished.
North American gross primary productivity: regional characterization and interannual variability

Seasonality and interannual variability in North American photosynthetic activity reflect potential patterns of climate variability. We simulate 24 yr (1983–2006) and evaluate regional and seasonal contribution to annual mean gross primary productivity (GPP) as well as its interannual variability. The highest productivity occurs in Mexico, the southeast United States and the Pacific Northwest. Annual variability is largest in tropical Mexico, the desert Southwest and the Midwestern corridor. We find that no single region or season consistently determines continental annual GPP anomaly. GPP variability is dependent upon soil moisture availability in low- and mid-latitudes, and temperature in the north. Soilmoisture is a better predictor than precipitation as it integrates precipitation events temporally. The springtime anomaly is the most frequent seasonal contributor to the annual GPP variability. No climate mode (i.e. ENSO, NAM) can be associated with annual or seasonal variability over the entire continent. We define a region extending from the Northeast United States through the midwest and into the southwestern United States and northernMexico that explains a significant fraction of the variability in springtime GPP. We cannot correlate this region to a single mechanism (i.e. temperature, precipitation or soil moisture) or mode of climate variability.
Insights Into the Roles of the Sideroflexins / SLC56 Family in Iron Homeostasis and Iron-Sulfur Biogenesis

Sideroflexins (SLC56 family) are highly conserved multi-spanning transmembrane proteins inserted in the inner mitochondrial membrane in eukaryotes. Few data are available on their molecular function but, since their first description, they were thought to be metabolite transporters probably required for iron utilization inside the mitochondrion. Such as numerous mitochondrial transporters, sideroflexins remain poorly characterized. The prototypic member SFXN1 has been recently identified as the previously unknown mitochondrial transporter of serine. Nevertheless, pending questions on the molecular function of sideroflexins remain unsolved, especially their link with iron metabolism. Here, we review the current knowledge on sideroflexins, their presumed mitochondrial functions and the sparse - but growing - evidence linking sideroflexins to iron homeostasis and iron-sulfur cluster biogenesis. Since an imbalance in iron homeostasis can be detrimental at the cellular and organismal levels, we also investigate the relationship between sideroflexins, iron and physiological disorders. Investigating Sideroflexins’ functions constitutes an emerging research field of great interest and will certainly lead to main discoveries on mitochondrial physiopathology.
Sol–gel derived metal oxides doped with silver nanoparticles as tunable plasmonic materials

New composite materials made of transition metal oxides doped with silver nanoparticles are proposed. Titanium and zirconium dioxide matrices were prepared by sol–gel method adjusted for addition of silver nanodopants. Commercially available silver nanoparticles in the form of powder (30–50 nm) or colloidal solution (5–15 nm) were used for doping of oxide hosts. To recover plasmonic properties of silver after annealing in air, reduction of samples in the H2:Ar atmosphere was performed. As a result, the silver‐containing TiO2 and ZrO2 films of good optical quality with plasmonic absorption near 400 nm were obtained. The potential of embedding of luminescent markers (like rare earth ions) into considered films is discussed.
Long-Distance Contributions to D-D̄ Mixing Parameters

Long-distance contributions to the D0-D̄0 mixing parameters x and y are evaluated using latest data on hadronic D0 decays. In particular, we take on two-body D → PP and V P decays to evaluate the contributions of two-body intermediate states because they account for ∼ 50% of hadronic D0 decays. Use of the diagrammatic approach has been made to estimate yet-observed decay modes. We find that y is of order a few ×10−3 and x of order 10−3 from hadronic PP and V P modes. These are in good agreement with the latest direct measurement of D0-D̄0 mixing parameters using the D0 → KSππ and KSKK decays by BaBar. We estimate the contribution to y from the V V modes using the factorization model and comment on the single-particle resonance effects and contributions from other two-body modes involving even-parity states.
Liquid Pertraction or Liquid Membranes—State of the Art

Abstract Liquid pertraction∗ or liquid membranes appeared as a prospective separation process relatively recently. Due to its obvious advantages over solid membranes and liquid-liquid extraction, liquid pertraction has attracted the attention of many scientists and engineers. At present there are more than 160 research teams around the world exploring this new, emerging separation operation.
Depressive symptoms in pregnant women and intimate partner violence: a cross-sectional study

Objective: To evaluate the presence of depressive symptoms in pregnant women and their association with intimate partner violence. Methods: This is a cross-sectional pilot study conducted with a sample of 65 pregnant women who performed prenatal care at the Basic Health Unit of the Federal University of Amapá in September and October 2018. For data collection, a socioeconomic, demographic and obstetric questionnaire was used, apart from the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale, and the Multi-Country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence. Results: 41.5% of the pregnant women had depressive symptoms; in the logistic regression analysis, these symptoms have a significant association in women who suffer some type of intimate partner violence (OR = 6.74; 95% CI: 2.0 21.7; p = 0.001). In addition, being employed, being single, having low schooling, low family income, and unwanted pregnancies were affected by depressive symptoms during pregnancy. Conclusions: There was a high percentage of depressive symptoms during pregnancy and these were related to intimate partner violence.
Fluorescent Light Exposure of Rebaudioside A in Mock Beverages under International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) Guidelines

Photostability of rebaudioside A, a sweet constituent of Stevia rebaudiana was studied under fluorescent light exposure at 25 o C in mock beverages at pH 3.8 using International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) technical requirements covering the stability testing of new drug substances and products. Experimental results indicated that rebaudioside A did not undergo any major decomposition with fluorescent light exposure for 2 weeks. Identification of the degradation products furnished two minor compounds which were identified as 13-[(2-O--D-glucopyranosyl-3-O--D-glucopyranosyl--Dglucopyranosyl)oxy]-17-hydroxy-ent-kaur-15-en-19-oic acid -D-glucopyranosyl ester and 13-[(2-O-β-Dglucopyranosyl-3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-β-D-glucopyranosyl)oxy]-16β-hydroxy ent-kauran-19-oic acid D-glucopyranosyl ester on the basis of extensive spectroscopic data and chemical studies. Also, the mass balance for rebaudioside A was calculated against their control samples which were found 99.1%, suggesting any appreciable amount of undetected degradation products were formed under the conditions of the study.
Special issues in diabetes: nitric oxide and oxidants in diabetic vascular complications

Summary Vascular disease in diabetes is accompanied by decreased levels of the vasodilators, nitric oxide (NO) and prostacyclin, and increased levels of vasoconstrictor eicosanoids, which enhance the progression of the disease. The vascular dysfunction caused by short term exposure to elevated glucose and the long term effects of diabetes are similar, suggesting that the alteration in endothelial factors in diabetes primarily results from exposure of endothelial cells to elevated glucose. Undoubtedly hyperlipidaemia contributes as well. Increased formation of reactive oxygen species is an important feature of the diabetic endothelial cell phenotype. This results in part from uncoupling of endothelial nitric oxide synthase such that it generates superoxide anion in addition to NO, forming peroxynitrite, a damaging molecule. Peroxynitrite inactivates prostacyclin synthase leading to the accumulation of inflammatory and prothrombotic eicosanoids. This not only helps to explain the impairment of endothelial vasodilator mechanisms, but also increased progression of vascular disease. Many of these cellular abnormalities can be prevented by adequate scavenging of oxygenderived free radicals or by blocking the actions of the eicosanoids at TP receptors. Exposure to elevated glucose also gives rise to oxidants in smooth muscle, and recent studies indicate that oxidation of cysteine thiols under these conditions may prevent physiological NO signaling. As a result the responsiveness to NO is impaired and accounts in part for abnormal endotheliumdependent vasodilatation.