Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Activation of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Human CTLs by Extracellular Vesicles Engineered with the N Viral Protein

We propose an innovative anti-SARS-CoV-2 immune strategy based on extracellular vesicles (EVs) inducing an anti-SARS-CoV-2 N CD8+ T cytotoxic lymphocyte (CTL) immune response. We previously reported that the SARS-CoV-2 N protein can be uploaded at high levels in EVs upon fusion with Nefmut, i.e., a biologically inactive HIV-1 Nef mutant incorporating into EVs at quite high levels. Here, we analyze the immunogenic properties in human cells of EVs engineered with SARS-CoV-2 N fused at the C-terminus of either Nefmut or a deletion mutant of Nefmut referred to as NefmutPL. The analysis of in vitro-produced EVs has supported the uploading of N protein when fused with truncated Nefmut. Mice injected with DNA vectors expressed each fusion protein developed robust SARS-CoV-2 N-specific CD8+ T cell immune responses. When ex vivo human dendritic cells were challenged with EVs engineered with either fusion products, the induction of a robust N-specific CTL activity, as evaluated by both CD107a and trogocytosis assays, was observed. Through these data we achieved the proof-of-principle that engineered EVs can be instrumental to elicit anti-SARS-CoV-2 CTL immune response in human cells. This achievement represents a mandatory step towards the upcoming experimentations in pre-clinical models focused on intranasal administration of N-engineered EVs.
Analysis of the ALS1 and HWP1 genes from clinical isolates of Candida albicans / Análise de genes ALS1 e HWP1 em isolados clínicos de Candida albicans

Candida albicans has several virulence factors including the adhesins, which are codified for ALS1 and HWP1 genes. Here, we evaluate the frequency of those genes in clinical isolates of C. albicans . We analyzed 73 clinical isolates, including 19 vaginal and 53 oral samples. PCR approach was used to detect the genes. The presence of the ALS1 gene was identified in 26.39% of all strains, while the HWP1 gene was present in 56.94%. The ALS1 gene was predominant between vaginal samples and HWP1 was more abundant in the oral samples. These results suggest distinct virulence profiles from C. albicans related to different sites of infection and colonization.
Readings in the modern theory of economic growth

This study explores the following question: Does a worker's relationship to technology and degree of job specialization influence in a predictable way his integration into or alienation from work? The book shows that the degree of differentiation in the division of labor is related to technology in a similar manner in both the office and factory and that automated technology reduces the levels of alienation among both office employees and factory workers. The author samples three man-machine relationships in the office and factory: (1) workers in non-mechanized production systems; (2) machine operators in mechanized production systems; and (3) operators or monitors in automated production systems. In addition to separate chapters on office and factory workers, one chapter compares degrees and types of alienation among office employees as compared to factory workers.This book is one of the last in a series of research studies on the impact of computers completed by the Industrial Relations Section of the Alfred P. Sloan School of Management at M.I. T. In a foreword to the book, Charles A. Myers notes that "this important study puts to rest extreme fears about the alienation of workers as a consequence of automation. Professor Shepard's study provides new insights about the impact of advanced mechanization and automation in offices, which computers and allied information technology are invading at a rapid rate.As a sociologist among economists, [he] has brought fresh perspective to this series of research reports. "
Piezoelectric power generation for sensor applications: design of a battery-less wireless tire pressure sensor

An in-wheel wireless and battery-less piezo-powered tire pressure sensor is developed. Where conventional battery powered Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) are marred by the limited battery life, TPMS based on power harvesting modules provide virtually unlimited sensor life. Furthermore, the elimination of a permanent energy reservoir simplifies the overall sensor design through the exclusion of extra circuitry required to sense vehicle motion and conserve precious battery capacity during vehicle idling periods. In this paper, two design solutions are presented, 1) with very low cost highly flexible piezoceramic (PZT) bender elements bonded directly to the tire to generate power required to run the sensor and, 2) a novel rim mounted PZT harvesting unit that can be used to power pressure sensors incorporated into the valve stem requiring minimal change to the presently used sensors. While both the designs eliminate the use of environmentally unfriendly battery from the TPMS design, they offer advantages of being very low cost, service free and easily replaceable during tire repair and replacement.
Identification, development and testing of thermal error compensation model for a headstock assembly of CNC turning centre

In CNC machine tools, transient temperature variation in the headstock assembly is the major contributors for spindle thermal error. The compensation of thermal error is critical for ensuring the accuracy of machine tool. The performance of an error compensation system depends largely on the accuracy and robustness of the thermal error model. In the present work, a robust thermal error model is developed for minimizing the error in lateral direction of the spindle which significantly influences the geometrical accuracy of the workpiece. Analysis-of-variance (ANOVA) is applied to the results of the experiments in determining the percentage contribution of each individual temperature key point against a stated level of confidence. Based on the analysis of existing approaches for thermal error modeling of machine tools, an approach of LASSO (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator) is proposed in order to avoid the multi collinearity problem. The proposed method is an innovative variable selection method to remove redundant or unimportant temperature key points in the linear thermal error model and minimize the residual sum of squares. The predictive error model is found to have better robustness and accuracy in comparison to the combination of grey correlation and step wise linear regression for error compensation of CNC lathe.
Genomic Instability and Cancer Risk Associated with Erroneous DNA Repair

Many cancers develop as a consequence of genomic instability, which induces genomic rearrangements and nucleotide mutations. Failure to correct DNA damage in DNA repair defective cells, such as in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutated backgrounds, is directly associated with increased cancer risk. Genomic rearrangement is generally a consequence of erroneous repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), though paradoxically, many cancers develop in the absence of DNA repair defects. DNA repair systems are essential for cell survival, and in cancers deficient in one repair pathway, other pathways can become upregulated. In this review, we examine the current literature on genomic alterations in cancer cells and the association between these alterations and DNA repair pathway inactivation and upregulation.
Recovering from Interruptions: Does Alert Type Matter?

One method for reducing the disruptiveness of interruptions is to present an alert prior to an interruption. Based on the Memory for Goals theory (Altmann and Trafton, 2002), this alert period provides an opportunity to maintain an associative link between the suspended primary task goal and relevant environmental cues which facilitates resumption. This theory does not, however, describe what types of alerts are most effective. Using reaction time and eye movement measures, three different types of alerts were examined to determine which alerts were the most effective and to determine which afforded the greatest opportunity to form an associative link between the suspended primary task goal and relevant environmental cues. Alert conditions resulted in faster resumption times than a no alert condition. There were no differences between the alert conditions themselves, despite eye movement differences reflecting cue association processes. The eye movement data suggest that one fixation is enough to form an associative link which reduces the disruptiveness of interruptions.
An accurate model of submicron MOS electrical characteristics for analogue applications

An accurate and physics-based analytical model for the submicron MOSFET with application in analogue design is presented. The model considers velocity saturation and carrier mobility degradation in the channel. Analytical equations for the drain current and for transconductance in the strong inversion region are derived. The combined effects of the horizontal and vertical fields are taken in account. A different approach to electron velocity modelling in the channel is proposed in order to obtain the same current expressions for both nMOS and pMOS devices. The channel length modulation is also taken into account. New parameters are introduced for the description of these secondary effects. A very good agreement between the model and data measured on 0.22 µm CMOS process devices is proved. This model, being based on a reduced set of parameters, has the ability of being simply implemented in an analogue ICs simulator.
Biomechanical analysis of the post-cam mechanism in a TKA: comparison between conventional and semi-constrained insert designs

Posterior-stabilized (PS) total knee arthroplasty (TKA) designs were introduced to compensate for the resected or deficient posterior cruciate ligament and to avoid paradoxical anterior sliding of the femur. Knee joint stability may differ among patients and, therefore, orthopaedic companies developed several solutions to compensate for these differences. In particular, conventional PS designs are used for conventional TKA and semi-constrained PS designs are mainly applied in revision surgery or in conventional surgery when there is a compromised soft tissue envelope. However, despite good functional long-term results, a better understanding of forces acting on the post of the polyethylene insert is needed to find an eventual correlation with the risk of post-cam failure or loosening of the tibial baseplate for the two PS solutions. To the authors’ best knowledge, no literature data is currently available to compare the two solutions. In this paper, a validated numerical model was developed to analyse and compare the posterior of the post-cam mechanism of the same TKA design with conventional and semi-constrained inserts during several motor tasks. For each solution, different motor tasks show different values of maximum post-cam force. Comparing the two solutions, a general slightly higher force (range between 3 and 5%) is observed in the semi-constrained solution. The results concerning the conventional solution are in agreement with the literature. After this analysis, we can report that a semi-constrained design shows only slightly higher posterior post-cam contact force, and thus would not be expected to significantly increase the risk of failure of the post-cam mechanism, as compared to a conventional PS design.
A Prospective Study to Assess the Efficacy and Risk Associated With the Use of Bronchodilators in Pediatric Patients with Bronchiolitis – A Pilot Study

Bronchiolitis is a common lung infection in young children and infants. It causes inflammation and congestion in the small airways (bronchioles) of the lung. Bronchiolitis is almost caused by a virus. Bronchodilators are medication which makes breathing easier by relaxing the muscles in the lungs and widening airways. To assess the efficacy and risk associated with the use of bronchodilators in pediatric patients with bronchiolitis. To assess the Efficacy of Bronchodilators, to evaluate the risk associated with bronchodilators in bronchiolitis patients and to evaluate the patient compliance in patients using bronchodilator for bronchiolitis. This study was conducted in 10 bronchiolitic pediatric patients. This study was conducted by categorizing the patients according to their Respiratory Rate, SpO2 and Heart Rate values. Patient compliance is analyzed using CRS scale and risk is assessed with Wang Scale. Keywords: Bronchiolitis, Bronchodilators, Levosalbutamol
Novel dual‐mode square‐loop resonators using Hilbert perturbation for simultaneous size reduction and mode splitting

The novel dual‐mode square‐loop resonator (DMSLR) with Hilbert perturbation is introduced to design bandpass filter in this paper. To obtain low insertion loss (0.55 dB), high out‐of‐band rejection level (−28.8 dB), and wider splitting band (BW 26.14%) filters, iterative Hilbert perturbation and space‐filling technique usage are proposed here. Significant size reduction of over 19% is obtained at 0.948 GHz. Results including surface current distributions and frequency responses are presented and discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 49: 1735–1739, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.22503
Guidance effect of a parking guidance system in a middle-wide range area

In this paper, the authors describe the guidance effects of a parking guidance system by traffic simulator. First, to compare the guidance effects of the systems, the authors constructed a cell automaton simulator. To purely evaluate the guidance effect by the simulator, the authors measured the total time for a round trip between origin and destination, without other traffic passing. A driver’s parking choice is based on Katori et al.’s “Comparison between automatic distribution and driver’s feature in parking guidance system”, 2006. If a driver has no knowledge concerning parking availability, in other words, if there is no parking guidance system, the driver chooses a nearest parking spot from his own destination. If drivers are provided with information by information boards, they consider the parking situation (full congested or empty), and they choose a parking location. The parking situation information is renewed at each intersection where the boards stand. The authors define the “driver’s parking choice” as a combination of information about the parking situation, destination and car park location. The authors compare the guidance effects under these circumstances. The area under consideration is east Tokyo to west Chiba along the Edogawa River, and this area includes some living zones. The parking lots in this area are managed by the parking situation information system, and the authors show the quantitative evaluation values of the guidance effect.
LiDAR-Aided Relative and Absolute Localization for Automated UAV-based Inspection of Aircraft Fuselages

Robust localization is a crucial task for various robotic applications, such as the inspection of aircraft surfaces by autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). Currently, aircraft inspection in mostly done in GNSS-denied hangar environments but UAV indoor localization using external positioning systems has several deficits regarding practicability, safety and security. Since aircraft standing times are the crucial cost factor, inspection should perspectively be shifted outdoors to the runway in order to further increase efficiency, which requires an onboard localization of the UAV relative to the aircraft that ensures robustness by working independendly of hangar features or external hardware. This paper proposes a novel approach to exploit a-priori knowledge of a cylindrical shaped inspection object, such as an aircraft fuselage, in order to support and supplement the position state estimation of the UAV. The relative localization approach comprises shape fitting of a cylinder model into LiDAR measurements of the aircraft using Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC), preceded by an intensity-based prefiltering, resulting in a significant increase of performance. This method can be applied to individual LiDAR sweeps, enabling onboard computation in soft real-time with a cycle time of 100 ms. Moreover, with the help of the onboard LiDAR-derived relative positioning to the aircraft, the problem of continuous line of sight to any transmitter of an indoor navigation system (iGPS) is alleviated by supplementing an existing sensor fusion for absolute localization, while maintaining an accuracy requirement in the submeter range. The feasibility of the proposed approach is verified experimentally by evaluating measurements obtained in a hangar with a Boeing 737–500.
R-CNN-Based Large-Scale Object-Defect Inspection System for Laser Cutting in the Automotive Industry

A car side-outer is an iron mold that is applied in the design and safety of the side of a vehicle, and is subjected to a complicated and detailed molding process. The side-outer has three features that make its quality inspection difficult to automate: (1) it is large; (2) there are many objects to inspect; and (3) it must fulfil high-quality requirements. Given these characteristics, the industrial vision system for the side-outer is nearly impossible to apply, and indeed there is no reference for an automated defect-inspection system for the side-outer. Manual inspection of the side-outer worsens the quality and cost competitiveness of the metal-cutting companies. To address these problems, we propose a large-scale Object-Defect Inspection System based on Regional Convolutional Neural Network (R-CNN; RODIS) using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. In this paper, we introduce the framework, including the hardware composition and the inspection method of RODIS. We mainly focus on creating the proper dataset on-site, which should be prepared for data analysis and model development. Additionally, we share the trial-and-error experiences gained from the actual installation of RODIS on-site. We explored and compared various R-CNN backbone networks for object detection using actual data provided by a laser-cutting company. The Mask R-CNN models using Res-net-50-FPN show Average Precision (AP) of 71.63 (Object Detection) and 86.21 (Object Seg-mentation), which indicates a better performance than that of other models.
Comparison of Intelligent Approaches for Cycle Time Prediction in Injection Moulding of a Medical Device Product

Injection moulding is an increasingly automated industrial process, particularly when used for the production of high-value precision components such as polymeric medical devices. In such applications, achieving stringent product quality demands whilst also ensuring a highly efficient process can be challenging. Cycle time is one of the most critical factors which directly affects the throughput rate of the process and hence is a key indicator of process efficiency. In this work, we examine a production data set from a real industrial injection moulding process for manufacture of a high precision medical device. The relationship between the process input variables and the resulting cycle time is mapped with an artificial neural network (ANN) and an adaptive neuro-fuzzy system (ANFIS). The predictive performance of different training methods and neuron numbers in ANN and the impact of model type and the numbers of membership functions in ANFIS has been investigated. The strengths and limitations of the approaches are presented and the further research and development needed to ensure practical on-line use of these methods for dynamic process optimisation in the industrial process are discussed.
Hepatoprotective Effects of Calotropis procera (Ait.) R. Br Root Bark Extracts against Diethylnitrosamine Induced Liver Injury in Rats

Background: Diethylnitrosamine (DEN) is a hepatotoxin whose metabolic activation by liver cytochromes P450 is responsible for the necrosis, mutagenicity and carcinogenicity of liver cells. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the protective effects of Calotropis procera roots bark against DEN induced hepatocellular damage in rats. Material and Methods: Hepatoprotective activity of the ethanolic extract of Calotropis procera root bark were evaluated by induction of liver injury with DEN in Wistar male rats distributed in six groups of six. Serum hepatic markers, alanine amino transferase (ALAT), aspartate amino transferase (ASAT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total protein and albumin were evaluated and the enzymes antioxidant activities, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase, as well as the level of malonedialdehyde (MDA) were determined in the liver homogenate. Histological analysis was carried out on sections of rat livers. Phytoconstituents have also been studied. Results: Pretreatment of rats with the extract showed a significant decrease in ALAT, ASAT and ALP while there was an increase in total protein and albumin compared to rats treated only with DEN. It also showed a significant increase in SOD and catalase and a decrease in MDA levels suggesting the hepatoprotective effect of the extract. Observation of liver sections confirmed the results of the biochemical parameters which would attest that the extract is hepatoprotective. Phytoconstituents such as sterols, triterpenes and phenolic compounds have been demonstrated. Conclusion: Ethanolic extract of Calotropis procera roots bark has shown hepatoprotective effects that could be due to its content in sterols and triterpenic and phenolic compounds.
Can Exhaled Carbon Monoxide Be Used as a Marker of Exposure? A Cross-Sectional Study in Young Adults

Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning is a major public health issue worldwide. People are exposed to CO in their daily lives, with one of the common sources of CO being cigarette smoking. Inhalation of CO leads to elevated carboxyhaemoglobin (COHb) levels in the blood and also in exhaled CO concentration. Several factors have been shown to affect COHb concentration and COHb half-life. However, factors affecting exhaled CO concentration and exhaled CO half-life are not well understood. The present study aimed to investigate the potential factors related to baseline exhaled CO concentration and exhaled CO half-life among smokers. A cross-sectional study was conducted between 26 January and 30 June 2019, and young adults were recruited into the study. A total of 74 participants (mean age: 27.1 years, 71.6% males and 28.4% females) attended the study. They were invited to complete a questionnaire, including demographic, physiological, and behavioural factors. Then, exhaled CO measurements were taken. These measurements were taken before and after smoking a single cigarette for smokers and only once for non-smokers. The average baseline exhaled CO concentration was 6.9 ± 4.9 ppm for smokers and 1.9 ± 0.5 ppm for non-smokers. The mean of exhaled CO half-life was around 273.3 min (4.6 h) for smokers. No difference was seen in exhaled CO half-life between light smokers and heavy smokers in the smoking group. Gender and cigarettes smoked weekly affected baseline exhaled CO in smokers. Even though height seemed to positively associate with exhaled CO half-life, the relationship disappeared when adjusting by gender and weight. Therefore, exhaled CO could be used as a marker of CO exposure, but we cannot ignore the factors mentioned in the study. For future study, considering factors related to smoking habits and smoking style are recommended as these may affect total inhaled CO.