Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transition from Rolling to Firm Adhesion Can Be Mimicked by Extension of Integrin αLβ2 in an Intermediate Affinity State*

αLβ2 affinity for intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) is regulated by the conformation of the αL I domain, which is in turn controlled by the conformation and orientation of other adjacent domains. Additionally, overall integrin conformation (bent versus straightened) influences the orientation of the I domain and access to its ligands, influencing adhesive efficiency. The open or high affinity I domain conformation supports strong adhesion, whereas the closed, low affinity conformation mediates weak interactions or rolling. We have previously suggested that αLβ2 can also exist on the cell surface in an intermediate affinity state. Here we have studied the adhesive properties of integrin αLβ2 containing mutant I domains with intermediate affinities for ICAM-1. In an overall bent conformation, the intermediate affinity state of αLβ2 is hardly detected by conventional adhesion assays, but robust adhesion is seen when an extended conformation is induced by a small molecule α/β I allo-steric antagonist. Intermediate affinity αLβ2 supports more stable rolling than wild-type αLβ2 under shear tions. Moreover, antagonist-induced extension conditransforms rolling adhesion into firm adhesion in a manner reminiscent of chemokine activation of integrin αLβ2. These findings suggest the relevance of intermediate affinity states of αLβ2 to the transition between inactive and active states and demonstrate the importance of both I domain affinity and overall integrin conformation for cell adhesion.
Inhibition of hormone sensitive lipase and pancreatic lipase by Rosmarinus officinalis extract and selected phenolic constituents

Rosmarinus officinalis L. (Rosemary) has been long claimed to have hypogylcemic-hypolipidemic dual effects in folkloric medicine. In an effort to explain rosemary's claimed benefits, numerous published studies have investigated an array of pharmacologic activities of the plant including anti-inflammatory, anticarcinogenic and metabolic effects. The question remained, however, as how rosemary would target both plasma lipids and glucose levels simultaneously. A newer mechanism has been suggested, in which targeting the hormone sensitive lipase (HSL) would be the common link between the two metabolic effects. In fact, HSL has been extensively studied for its effects on the metabolic switch between glucose and free fatty acids (FFAs) as an energy source. The current manuscript summarizes a significant amount of work that was undertaken to identify plant species native to Jordan with potential HSL and pancreatic lipase (PL) inhibitory activities. Our results demonstrated in vitroinhibitory effects of R. officnalis on both HSL and PL in a dose dependent manner. Interestingly, the rosemary extract had an IC50 for PL that was several fold lower than the IC50 for HSL, indicating a higher affinity to the former enzyme (13.8 and 95.2 μg/mL for PL and HSL, respectively). In addition, we have compared the inhibitory activities of purified constituents found in rosemary to the parent plant [rosmarinic acid (RA), chlorogenic acid (CA), caffeic acid (CaA) and gallic acid (GA)]. Our results showed that all the tested compounds (RA, CA, CaA, and GA) were able to inhibit the PL and HSL activities in a dose dependent manner, but with different potencies. PL and HSL IC50 values were calculated for each compound and GA was found to be the most potent (IC50 10.1 and 14.5 for PL and HSL, respectively). Further work is necessary to determine whether our in vitro findings would correlate with the in vivo effects. Nonetheless, our results are a first step in fully understanding the long claimed hypoglycemic-hypolipidemic dual effects of rosemary. Simultaneous targeting of both HSL and PL is likely to open the door for a new era in our continuous battle against DM type 2 and its cardiovascular complications. Currently, we are working on identifying the most active constituents of the plant to evaluate a structure-activity relationship which would pave the road for future therapeutic use. Key words: Rosmarinus officinalis, Rosemary, obesity, diabetes mellitus, pancreatic lipase, hormone sensitive lipase, phenolic compounds, rosmarinic acid.
Unusual motility characteristics of sperm of the spotted wolffish

Unlike the sperm of most teleosts, that of the spotted wolffish Anarhichas minor is motile on stripping, remains motile for at least 2 days and loses motility when exposed to sea water. Computer assisted sperm analysis (CASA) was used to quantitatively examine the motility characteristics of spotted wolffish sperm. Straight line velocity (VSL), beat cross frequency (BCF) and percentage motility were the most sensitive indicators of movement. Sperm trajectories were very different to those of other teleosts examined, showing large side-to-side movements of the sperm head and a more ‘wiggly’ behaviour which may be an adaptation to swimming in the viscous gelatinous egg mass. VSL was not altered by pH from 5·0 to 9·0, but was lower at pH 4·5. It was highest at 200 to 500 mOsm and decreased rapidly at 500 mOsm. It is suggested that the unusual characteristics of spotted wolffish sperm in its trajectory and duration of motility, its release in a fully activated state and its greatly decreased motility in both fresh and sea water are related to a spawning strategy involving mixing of sperm with eggs contained in a gelatinous mass rather than release directly into water in proximity to the ova.
Potentialities of Inverse Scattering Techniques for Breast Cancer Imaging at Millimeter-Waves Frequencies

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death among women in industrialized countries. Several microwave imaging systems have been proposed for the diagnosis of breast cancer, based on both the tomographic and radar approach, being tested in some cases even on real patients. However, the low working frequency of all these systems, which allows to reach non superficial targets, has been in some cases the main cause of a non-optimal resolution. Based both on the results of recent dielectric characterization campaigns on ex-vivo tissues of the human breast up to 50 GHz and on the promising achievements of the feasibility studies of mm-wave imaging systems, in this article, the tomographic approach to manipulate the simulated results of a linear radar scenario at the frequency of 30 GHz is proposed. In particular, two image reconstruction techniques, the Linear Sampling Method and the Born Approximation, are proposed and compared.
Research on Power Control Method of Zero-voltage Soft-switching Wireless Charging System

For the problems of high voltage and current stress and high switching loss of power electronic switching devices in wireless charging system, And the circuit theory is used to deduce the output characteristics of the inverter circuit in ideal state. The application of zero-voltage soft switching technology to wireless charging systems is proposed. Multisim software was used to simulate and verify the proposed system. Finally, an experimental platform of zero-voltage soft switch wireless charging system was built to verify the correctness of theoretical derivation and simulation
Bit-Stream Functional Converters for Decentralized Sensor Systems

In article necessity of development of converters for calculations “near the sensor” for application in the decentralized sensor systems is proved. Often the sensor signal is represented in the form of frequency or PWM signal, so it is important to develop specialized converters that perform joint processing of such data. By the example of multifunctional converter, the article shows how calculations with bit streams can be presented by simple addition and multiplication operations and are implemented in digital element base. In the article the variant of realization of the converter on the basis of FPGA is considered.
Biota and palaeoatmospheres

A meeting on Biota and palaeoatrnospheres was held at the Geological Society’s apartmenfs at Burlington House on 19 December 1987. It was a joint Ordinary Meeting with the Linnean Society and the Palaeontological Association. This symposium formed part of the celebrations of the Linnean Societ of London, and was held on the eve of its bicentenary year of 1988. The Linnean Society had elected to hold a series of joint meetings with other Societies with allied or overlapping interests, and the Geological Society was an obvious choice. The two societies have been linked physically, by occupying adjoining premises in Burlington House, but more importantly by shared Fellowship, from the earliest days of their co-existence in the present rooms. The principal common ground of the two Societies lies largely in palaeontology and so it was appropriate that plans for a joint meeting should also have involved the Palaeontological Association, which in turn shares membership with both the Geological Society and the Linnean Society. It was, in this way, that the three bodies came to convene a symposium which was to reflect some aspect of their common interests. The organizers decided to try to avoid any of the aspects of conventional palaeontology, but rather sought out a topic which would bring together biologists and geologists on less well-worn ground. The theme of the interaction of the atmosphere and biota through time was chosen as one which fulfilled this aim, but one which was also topical. The recently initiated International Geosphere–Biosphere Programme has
FogPi: A Portable Fog Infrastructure through Raspberry Pis

Nowadays, Fog computing is facing the requirements of time-sensitive applications in the IoT-cloud continuum. These requirements are decisive for mission-critical applications like structural health monitoring. In this paper, a portable Fog computing infrastructure, known as FogPi, is presented. This infrastructure has been designed around Raspberry Pi, which offers a low-cost and scalable solution for running containerized applications. FogPi allows the deployment, management, and orchestration of Docker containers and is especially suitable for environments where the limited Internet connection and reduced budgets limit the adoption of Fog and Edge deployments.
Fungi associated with necrotic apical parts of Fraxinus excelsior shoots

Summary Stem necrosis was investigated in 2–3-year-old seedlings of European ash Fraxinus excelsior, both self-sown and in plantations within four Forest Divisions in eastern, northern and central Poland. Fungi isolated from the apical parts of shoots showing fresh necroses were identified and the pathogenicity of some of them was determined. Some species were isolated at all four sites; the most consistent members of this group were Cladosporium cladosporioides, Cytospora ambiens, Discula sp. , Fusarium lateritium, Phoma sp. , Phomopsis scobina and P. controversa. Diplodia mutila was isolated at all the sites, but with variable frequency. It induced necrotic lesions following wound inoculation of stems of 2-month-old and 2-year-old seedlings of F. excelsior in growth chamber and greenhouse conditions. Resume Des necroses de tiges ont eteetudiees chez des semis de 2-3 ans de Fraxinus excelsior, semis naturels ou plantes, dans quatre Divisions forestieres dans l'est, le nord et le centre de la Pologne. Les champignons isoles des parties apicales des pousses qui presentaient des necroses fraiches ont ete identifies et le pouvoir pathogene de certains d'entre eux a ete determine. Certaines especes ont ete isolees dans les quatre sites ; les especes les plus frequentes etaient Cladosporium cladosporioides, Cytospora ambiens, Discula sp. , Fusarium lateritium, Phoma sp. , Phomopsis scobina, et P. controversa. Diplodia mutila a ete isole dans les quatre sites mais a des frequences variables. Il produisait des lesions necrotiques a la suite d'inoculation sur blessure sur des tiges âgees de 2 mois et chez des semis de frene de 2 ans en chambre climatique et en serre. Zusammenfassung Es wurden Nekrosen an Trieben von 2-3 jahrigen Eschensamlingen (Fraxinus excelsior) untersucht, die in Naturverjungungen und Pflanzungen in vier Forstdistrikten in Ost-, Nord- und Zentralpolen auftraten. Von den frischen Nekrosen im Bereich der Triebspitze wurden Pilze isoliert und bei einer Auswahl der Isolate wurde die Pathogenitat getestet. Einige Pilzarten wurden an allen vier Standorten nachgewiesen, die haufigsten Vertreter dieser Gruppe waren Cladosporium cladosporioides, Cytospora ambiens, Discula sp. , Fusarium lateritium, Phoma sp. , Phomopsis scobina und P. controversa. Diplodia mutila wurde an allen Standorten nachgewiesen, jedoch in unterschiedlicher Haufigkeit. Dieser Pilz verursachte nach Wundinokulationen an zwei Monate und zwei Jahre alten Samlingen von Fraxinus excelsior Nekrosen (sowohl im Phytotron als auch unter Gewachshausbedingungen).
E-Field Distribution in Ex-Vivo Porcine Skin Layer from a Subsurface UHF Transmitter

A tuned small slot antenna has been used for radio communications with internal transceivers/transmitters for invivo medical applications. The 2.45 GHz properties (permittivity and conductivity) shows that porcine skin tissue can be used as a substitute for human skin tissue in medical applications. In this study, a measure of the E-field distribution on the skin surface of human and porcine tissue is presented. Ex vivo measurements on boneless layered pork belly-fat (45mm thick 300mm x 150 mm sample of skin, fat and muscle) were compared with numerical modelling for a subdermal PIFA tuned antenna. The surface electric field distribution is quite well matched to an analytical formula over a 70dB dynamic range. The conductivity $(\sigma = 4 \mathrm{S}/\mathrm{m}, \varepsilon_{\mathrm{r}} = 10)$ and relative permittivity adjusted to fit the measurement profile aligned with previously reported values. These results support the strategy that field strength measurements can be used to locate an injects radio transmitter.
First Record of the Tree-Frog Genus Liuixalus from Vietnam with the Description of a New Species (Amphibia: Rhacophoridae)

Abstract: We record a tree frog of the genus Liuixalus for the first time from outside of China and describe it as a new species, Liuixalus catbaensis, on the basis of a single juvenile specimen collected from Cat Ba Island, northern Vietnam. The new species is easily distinguished from all other members of the genus Liuixalus by its uniformly brick-red dorsum lacking dark markings. The biogeographical significance of finding of this species in Vietnam is briefly discussed.
Thinned Array Antenna at L band

This paper presents the configuration study for different Thinned array configurations like X, Y and T. Y type array antenna has been selected for planar antenna design and development at L band based upon the configuration study. This Thinned array antenna has been used for Synthetic Aperture radiometer. A novel capacitive coupled probe fed element has been used as single element. Y type thinned array consisting of 8 elements have been used to form an array. The results of the developed antenna have been discussed.
Practical Low-Loss Substrate-Integrated-Waveguide Feed Network for mm-Wave PCB Antenna Designs

This paper discusses a novel SIW feed network which demonstrates a substantial reduction in the insertion loss of SIW at V band (50–75 GHz). More than 30 dB improvement was achieved in the loss-per-unit length compared with that for same-width SIW on a thin substrate. This design technique targets multilayer PCBs that carry both mm-wave electronic devices and planar antennas and is particularly beneficial for designs that feature electrically-large, high-gain mm-wave antennas, including those with a corporate-feed network synthesized in SIW.
Human carbonic anhydrases and post-translational modifications: a hidden world possibly affecting protein properties and functions

Abstract Human carbonic anhydrases (CAs) have become a well-recognized target for the design of inhibitors and activators with biomedical applications. Accordingly, an enormous amount of literature is available on their biochemical, functional and structural aspects. Nevertheless post-translational modifications (PTMs) occurring on these enzymes and their functional implications have been poorly investigated so far. To fill this gap, in this review we have analysed all PTMs occurring on human CAs, as deriving from the search in dedicated databases, showing a widespread occurrence of modification events in this enzyme family. By combining these data with sequence alignments, inspection of 3 D structures and available literature, we have summarised the possible functional implications of these PTMs. Although in some cases a clear correlation between a specific PTM and the CA function has been highlighted, many modification events still deserve further dedicated studies.
A biological foundation for spatial–numerical associations: the brain's asymmetric frequency tuning

“Left” and “right” coordinates control our spatial behavior and even influence abstract thoughts. For number concepts, horizontal spatial–numerical associations (SNAs) have been widely documented: we associate few with left and many with right. Importantly, increments are universally coded on the right side even in preverbal humans and nonhuman animals, thus questioning the fundamental role of directional cultural habits, such as reading or finger counting. Here, we propose a biological, nonnumerical mechanism for the origin of SNAs on the basis of asymmetric tuning of animal brains for different spatial frequencies (SFs). The resulting selective visual processing predicts both universal SNAs and their context‐dependence. We support our proposal by analyzing the stimuli used to document SNAs in newborns for their SF content. As predicted, the SFs contained in visual patterns with few versus many elements preferentially engage right versus left brain hemispheres, respectively, thus predicting left‐versus rightward behavioral biases. Our “brain's asymmetric frequency tuning” hypothesis explains the perceptual origin of horizontal SNAs for nonsymbolic visual numerosities and might be extensible to the auditory domain.
5G Millimeter-Wave NLOS Coverage Using Specular Building Reflections

Maximization of 5G millimeter-wave base station coverage and range is important to reduce the number of required base stations. Buildings could be used as reflectors to provide coverage in NLOS areas due to their high reflectivity at millimeter-waves. This paper presents the results of a measurement campaign investigating specular reflections from buildings at 24.00-24.25 GHz. The angle of minimum path loss for single-building reflections agrees well with the direction of the specular path. This agreement is less accurate in case of a double-building reflection, possibly due to obstructions in the specular path or multipath fading. In case of a single-building reflection, 1-9 dB excess loss compared to free-space path loss is measured. The excess loss is in the range of 9-20 dB for a double-building reflection. Although more research on this topic is required, these results are promising and indicate that buildings can be used as effective millimeter-wave reflectors.
Logistic regression classification model identifying drugs of abuse based on their ATR-FTIR spectra: Case study on LASSO and Ridge regularization methods

We are presenting a comparative study of two variable selection methods, i.e. Ridge and LASSO regularization methods that were used for selecting the most adequate coefficients for error minimization. The logistic regression model was used for the detection (classification) of new analogues of high risk drugs of abuse belonging to the 2C-x and DOx classes of hallucinogenic amphetamines, based on their ATR-FTIR spectra. The results indicate that the LASSO method yields the best results. Although both methods generate remarkably sensitive class identity recognition tools, the system based on the Ridge regularization method is less selective than that using the LASSO method.
Space Phased Array Antenna Developments: A Perspective on Structural Design

As the “right-hand man” to space communications, navigation, environmental monitoring, and other satellite systems, the space active phased array antenna is capable of scanning and covering long distances and large scale ranges through its complex deployment mechanism, large physical aperture, and lightweight structural design. In comparison with mechanical scanning antennas, the space active phased array antennas can realize flexible beam scanning through the active phased array principle, while simultaneously achieving a high gain, low sidelobe, high resolution, and high reliability. Improving the comprehensive performance of the satellite is crucial with the rapid development requirement and large application field. In this article, the development history of the space active phased array antennas is summarized, and these antennas are characterized by the following structural features: large aperture, deployment mechanism, and lightweight configuration. The state of the art of space deployable active phased array antennas is also presented. Furthermore, seven crucial design technologies of antenna essential components are discussed, and the development trends of structural technologies of the space deployable active phased array antenna are demonstrated.
Impact of sarcopenia on survival of pancreatic cancer patients treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy

Purpose: To investigate the prognostic impact of sarcopenia on the survival of patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 299 patients diagnosed with LAPC and treated with definitive CCRT from 2000 to 2015. Skeletal muscle index (SMI) was measured using computed tomography scans and sarcopenia was defined as SMI <29.6 cm2/m2 for women and <36.2 cm2/m2 for men. The significance of sarcopenia for progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) was evaluated. Results: Sarcopenia was present in 29 patients (9.7%). In multivariate analysis, sarcopenia was a significant factor for PFS (p = 0.043). Although sarcopenia was not a significant factor for OS (p = 0.121) in multivariate analysis, long-term survivors were observed only in the no sarcopenia group (OS at 60 months: 9.5% vs 0%, p < 0.001). Conclusion: In patients undergoing CCRT for LAPC, sarcopenia is an independent factor for adverse prognosis.