Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gram-negative quorum sensing signalling enhances biofilm formation and virulence traits in gram-positive pathogen Enterococcus faecalis

ABSTRACT Acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs) are typical quorum-sensing molecules of gram-negative bacteria. Recent evidence suggests that AHLs may also affect gram-positives, although knowledge of these interactions remains scarce. Here, we assessed the effect of AHLs on biofilm formation and transcriptional regulations in the gram-positive Enterococcus faecalis. Five E. faecalis strains were investigated herein. Crystal violet was employed to quantify the biomass formed, and confocal microscopy in combination with SYTO9/PI allowed the visualisation of biofilms’ structure. The differential expression of 10 genes involved in quorum-sensing, biofilm formation and stress responses was evaluated using reverse-transcription-qPCR. The AHL exposure significantly increased biofilm production in strain ATCC 29212 and two isolates from infected dental roots, UmID4 and UmID5. In strains ATCC 29212 and UmID7, AHLs up-regulated the quorum-sensing genes (fsrC, cylA), the adhesins ace, efaA and asa1, together with the glycosyltransferase epaQ. In strain UmID7, AHL exposure additionally up-regulated two membrane-stress response genes (σV, groEL) associated with increased stress-tolerance and virulence. Altogether, our results demonstrate that AHLs promote biofilm formation and up-regulate a transcriptional network involved in virulence and stress tolerance in several E. faecalis strains. These data provide yet-unreported insights into E. faecalis biofilm responses to AHLs, a family of molecules long-considered the monopole of gram-negative signalling.
Measurement of Atmospheric Noise

AbstractTwo methods of measuring atmospheric noise levels, subjective and objective, have been describe. The various technical aspects underlying the instrumentation for carrying out the measurements these methods have been critically examined and the results of the experiments, used as basis subjective measurements, have been described. A statistical correlation between the two methods measurements has been established. The values of minimum signal strength required for satisfactory' listening of broadcast programmes obtained by the subjective method followed at Delhi have be presented for the period from November 1955 to March 1958. The diurnal, seasonal and frequency variations of these values in the form of graphs have also been given. The absolute values of noise for different months, frequencies and times of the day have been given separately in the Appendix.
A GENERALIZED QUASI-RESIDUAL PRINCIPLE IN REGULARIZATION FOR A SOLUTION OF A FINITE SYSTEM OF ILL-POSED EQUATIONS IN BANACH SPACES

In this paper we present a generalized quasi-residual principle to select a value for regularization parameter in the Browder–Tikhonov regularization method, for finding a solution of a system of ill-posed equations involving potential, hemicontinuous and monotone mappings on Banach spaces. An estimate of convergence rates for regularized solution is also established.
Broadband Three-Section Branch-Line Coupler Realized by Ridge Gap Waveguide Technology From 12 to 20 GHz

The novel ridge-gap waveguide (RGW) technology which uses an entire metal structure has various advantages at high frequencies, such as broad bandwidth, low loss, low sensitivity to manufacturing errors, and uncomplicated integration with passive and active components. In this paper, a broadband RGW-based three-section branch-line coupler in the frequency band of 12 to 20 GHz is proposed, simulated, and experimentally demonstrated. The proposed structure employs four short stubs at the branches with a quarter wavelength for impedance matching. Also, four steps have been added for better power division on the coupling branch lines. The proposed structure with WR62 transition shows low-loss, equal-power division, 90-degree with good impedance matching, and isolation in the frequency band of 12–20 GHz containing the Ku band, and, the measured results are in good agreement with the simulations. The introduced structure can be extended to an arbitrary broadband power divider/combiner, which can find various applications, such as in array antenna feed networks and solid-state power amplifiers. It can be redesigned for broadband, high-power, and low-cost millimeter-wave applications.
The origin and dispersal of Firmiana danxiaensis among isolated specific landscapes

China has the most numerous Danxia and Karst landscapes, which serve as special terrestrial islands harboring ample endemic species, though how did these endemic species spread among those isolated sites is still an unresolved issue. To address this question, we explored the phylogeographical structure and demographic history of Firmiana danxiaensis, a tree species endemic to Danxia and Karst landscapes. We collected 295 samples (28 populations) of F. danxiaensis. Plastid genomes were assembled for 25 representative samples. Sanger sequencing of four plastid regions and restriction‐site‐associated DNA sequencing were performed on the 28 populations. The phylogenetic tree constructed from plastid genomes and restriction site‐associated DNA sequencing (RAD‐seq) data supported that F. danxiaensis originated from Mount Danxia and Nanxiong Basin, spread to Karst landscapes near Yingde City, and then back to Danxia Mountain and the Nanxiong Basin. In the Nanxiong Basin, the latter arrivals captured the plastid of the former. Population analyses revealed strong population structure among and within Danxia and Karst landscapes, possibly due to low seed and pollen dispersal abilities of the species. The demographic and ecological niche modeling approaches suggested that F. danxiaensis have widely occurred in the southeast of China during the last glacial period, and later retreated to the cliffs of Danxia and Karst landscapes due to temperature rising and competition failure. The declining of the effective population size of the species throughout the postglacial period suggested that global warming, agriculture, and industrial civilizations could have affected the survival of this species, and more measures should be taken to conserve these species.
Implications of grammatical gender for the theory of uninterpretable features

I argue that grammatical gender is semantically empty but intrinsically valued, so the strict linkage between uninterpretable and unvalued in Chomsky (2001) cannot be correct. I then demonstrate that gender is infinitely reusable as an “ activity” feature; in contrast, abstract Case activates a DP for just one Agree relation. This asymmetry suggests that valuation via Agree causes goal deactivation, and that deactivation is not necessary for every uninterpretable feature ( u F). I accordingly analyze deactivation as arising from PF illegibility of multiple values for a single feature. Agree relations value Case, but never value nominal gender, so the legibility problem does not arise. I demonstrate that in Bantu, adjunction of N to D makes gender accessible to all probes outside DP. This and the reusability of gender as an activity feature leads to a cluster of systematic contrasts between Bantu and Indo-European languages: Bantu DPs A-move much more freely than Indo-European DPs, and value iterating subject agreement. The facts thus demonstrate that the internal syntax of DP impacts its feature matrix; it is not the case that a DP automatically inherits all f-features of its subparts, as syntactic theory generally assumes. Finally, I illustrate that Bantu C and T can agree with different expressions, casting doubt on the Feature Inheritance approach to u F in Chomsky (2007, 2008) and Richards (2007). The facts of grammatical gender argue that valued u F Transfer to the Conceptual-Intentional Interface without inducing crashes.
Mesoscopic Transport in Topological Insulator Nanostructures

Topological insulators in two dimensions have received much attention recently because they are theoretically expected to show properties that make them very attractive for spintronics applications. For example, they feature spin-momentum-locked edge states which are protected from elastic backscattering. However, current experiments are not able to unambiguously observe all of these predicted characteristics. One big part of this thesis is dedicated to a better understanding of these experimental shortcomings from a theoretical perspective by studying an important model Hamiltonian which describes the currently most important realization of a two-dimensional topological insulator: quantum wells built from mercury telluride. To this end, the influence of disorder and external magnetic fields is considered. Moreover, the effects of phase-coherence breaking due to inelastic processes are quantitatively investigated and it is shown that they may provide an explanation for the experimentally observed on-edge backscattering. In addition, the thesis contains a treatise on heterostructures of metallic systems and two-dimensional topological insulators, in which it is shown that such heterostructures generally give rise to perfectly conducting channels, which inherit the protection from backscattering from the topological insulator edge states. The last part of the thesis deals with transmission-eigenvalue distributions of star-shaped diffusive many-lead devices. Here, it is shown that these distribution functions often feature a cutoff, i.e., a maximal transmission above which the probability of finding a transmission eigenvalue drops to zero. This makes this many-lead scenario very different from the well-known case of two-terminal diffusive transport. The cutoff is seen to be dependent on the geometry and on the total transmission through the device.
Sac à dos multidimensionnel en variables 0-1 : encadrement de la somme des variables à l'optimum

Dans le cadre de la resolution des programmes lineaires en variables 0-1, Glover a ete le premier auteur a utiliser dans une methode d'enumeration implicite une contrainte supplementaire du type encadrement de la somme des variables a l'optimum. Dans ce papier, nous proposons pour le sac a dos multidimensionnel en variables 0-1, une evaluation fine des bornes basee sur la resolution exacte du dual surrogate de relaxations du type sac a dos bidimensionnel, et sur la connaissance d'une bonne solution realisable du probleme ininial. De nombreuses experiences numeriques montrent l'efficacite de notre methode sur les problemes tests de la litterature ainsi que sur des instances de grande taille tirees au hasard selon la loi uniforme
Out-of-pocket Expenditure on Medicines and Financial Risk Protection in India: Is the Sustainable Development Goal in Sight?

Out-of-pocket expenditures on medicines (ME) form a large share of the total out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) and pose financial risks for Indian households. Using repeated cross-section analysis of national health surveys for 2014 and 2017–2018, change in financial risk due to ME is examined. Logit regression is used to look at the factors associated with financial risk due to medicine expenditure. Households incurring ME declined by 7%. Per capita monthly ME declined to ₹80 (US$1.25, 95% CI: 78–82) from ₹111 (US$1.74, 95% CI: 108–114). Catastrophic headcount declined to 8.6% from 13.5%, but the mean positive overshoot remained constant at ₹9.5 at the 10% threshold. Impoverishment headcount also declined to 1.4% from 2.2%, and 6.1% persons were immiserated in 2017–2018. Distribution of ME and catastrophe continued to be pro-rich, but impoverishment was greater in poorer households. Among states, the headcount of catastrophe was highest in Kerala, and Odisha had the greatest impoverishment in 2017–2018. Cancer patients faced the largest catastrophe, and tuberculosis patients faced the largest impoverishment due to ME. The odds ratio of financial vulnerability was 2.91 (95% CI: 2.5–3.3) for households with more than one member incurring ME, 1.82 (95% CI: 1.6–2.1) for households with chronic disease patients, and 1.6 (95% CI: 1.4–1.8) for private care utilisation. We conclude that declining OOPE led to a decline in financial risk due to ME.
Structural Basis of PE_PGRS Polymorphism, a Tool for Functional Modulation

Background: The mycobacterial PE_PGRS protein family is present only in pathogenic strains of the genus mycobacterium, such as Mtb and members of the MTB complex, suggesting a likely important role of this family in pathogenesis. Their PGRS domains are highly polymorphic and have been suggested to cause antigenic variations and facilitate pathogen survival. The availability of AlphaFold2.0 offered us a unique opportunity to better understand structural and functional properties of these domains and a role of polymorphism in Mtb evolution and dissemination. Methods: We made extensive use of AlphaFold2.0 computations and coupled them with sequence distribution phylogenetic and frequency analyses, and antigenic predictions. Results: Modeling of several polymorphic forms of PE_PGRS33, the prototype of the PE_PGRS family and sequence analyses allowed us to predict the structural impact of mutations/deletions/insertions present in the most frequent variants. These analyses well correlate with the observed frequency and with the phenotypic features of the described variants. Conclusions: Here, we provide a thorough description of structural impacts of the observed polymorphism of PE_PGRS33 protein and we correlate predicted structures to the known fitness of strains containing specific variants. Finally, we also identify protein variants associated with bacterial evolution, showing sophisticated modifications likely endowed with a gain-of-function role during bacterial evolution.
Transformation of Two-Dimensional Roesser Model Into Two-Dimensional Decoupled Model: Application to Model Reduction via Balanced Framework

Two transformations are presented in this research; the first approach takes a generic two-dimensional (2-D) framework and transforms it into a diagonalized 2-D framework without resorting to minimal rank-decomposition criteria. Afterward, it converts the diagonalized system into two subsystems (i.e., one-dimensional (1-D) cascaded systems). Moreover, the proposed transformation retains the symmetrical structure of the two decomposed subsystems. Likewise, the second transformation converts 1-D submodels to the balanced structure used for model reduction operations. The proposed model reduction approach efficiently performs the model reduction task on a given 2-D diagonalized model by utilizing optimal Hankel norm approximation. The numerical results demonstrate that the proposed transformations efficiently convert the standard 2-D framework to a diagonalized model form and develop a stable reduced-order model.
Hypersonic Wind-Tunnel Measurements of Boundary-Layer Transition on a Slender Cone

Boundary-layer transition was studied on a sharp 7 deg cone in two hypersonic wind tunnels at Mach numbers of 5, 6, 8, and 14 over a range of freestream Reynolds numbers between 3.3 and 15.4×106/m. High-speed schlieren measurements visualized the intermittent formation of instabilities and turbulent spots within the transitional boundary layer. Surface pressure and heat-transfer measurements revealed how the intermittent behavior of the boundary layer produces the mean character of these quantities. Transition at Mach 5 appeared to be initiated by a combination of first- and second-mode instabilities. These disturbances were isolated and surrounded by an otherwise smooth boundary layer. At higher Mach numbers, the boundary layer was dominated by second-mode instabilities, which covered most of the model before breakdown into turbulent spots. The spots remain surrounded by second-mode waves throughout the transitional region. These differences alter the pressure fluctuations and heat transfer profiles duri.
Quark-Nova as Gamma Ray Burst Precursor

We explore the scenario where the core of a neutron star (having experienced a transition to an up and down quark phase) shrinks into the equilibrated quark object after reaching strange quark matter saturation density (where a composition of up, down and strange quarks is the favored state of matter). The overlaying (envelope) material free-falls following the core contraction releasing upto 10 53 ergs in energy as radiation, partly as a result of the conversion of envelope material to quarks. This phenomena, we named Quark-Nova, leads to a wide variety of ejectae ranging form the Newtonian, “dirty” to the ultra-relativistic ﬁreball. The mass range of the corresponding compact remnant (the quark star) ranges from less than 0 . 3 M ⊙ up to a solar mass. We discuss the connection between Quark-Novae and Gamma ray bursts and suggest the recently studied GRB011211 event as a plausible Quark-Nova candidate.
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility and Performance of Textile Industry in Eldoret Town, Kenya

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to find out the influence of strategic corporate social responsibility on performance of textile industry in Eldoret Town. The study specifically centered on establishing the influence environmental responsibility, ethical responsibility, economic responsibility and philanthropic responsibility on performance of textile industry in Eldoret Town. The study was guided by the Stakeholder Theory, Resource-Based Theory, Legitimacy Theory and Institutional Theory. Methodology: A descriptive research design was employed in the study. The target population for this study consisted of 10 textile firms operating in Eldoret town. The unit of observation comprised of employees from occupying managerial positions in the respective firms. A total of 90 respondents were targeted in the study. The researcher used questionnaires to collect primary data. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the collected data. SPSS statistical software was utilized in generating the statistics. Findings: The results of the study were displayed in form of tables and figure. The study established that environmental responsibility, ethical responsibility and economic responsibility bears a positive and significant influence on performance of textile industry in Eldoret Town. This is shown by beta values of 0.395, 0.316 and 0.246 and significance values of 0.000, 0.005 and 0.018 respectively. The results implies that increasing either of the independent variables with one unit increases the performance of textile industry in Eldoret Town with the respective beta unit. The study also revealed that philanthropic responsibility bears a positive but insignificant influence on performance of textile industry in Eldoret Town. This implies that enhancing philanthropic responsibility in the operations of textile industry results to insignificant influence on performance. Unique Contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study recommended the management of the textile firms operating in Eldoret town to enhance strategic CSR comprising of environmental responsibility, ethical responsibility, and economic responsibility since the practices positively and significantly influences performance of the firms.
Associations of gross motor skills with self-regulation and executive function in preschool-aged children

This study aimed to examine associations between gross motor skills and executive functions (EF) in a large sample of Australian preschool-aged children. Of 566 children (mean age = 3.2 ± 0.4 years, 51.2% girls), locomotor, object control, and total skill competence were significantly associated with visual spatial working memory and inhibition (p < 0.05). Total skill competence was associated with shifting and locomotor skills were significantly associated with self-regulation (p < 0.05). Static balance was significantly associated with inhibition and shifting (p < 0.05). In boys, an association between object control skills and visual spatial working memory was observed. In girls, an association between static balance and visual spatial working memory, phonological working memory, and shifting was observed. The identification of significant associations between gross motor skills and different EFs is an important contribution to the growing evidence on the relationship between motor skills and EFs in early childhood.
Survey on dimension reduction techniques

Dimension reduction techniques were discussed from the two aspects: feature selection and dimension transformation. Firstly, the basic theory and famous algorithms of feature selection were roughly introduced. Then, several most popular dimension transformation techniques were analyzed in detail including Principal Components Analysis and its related methods, Independent Components Analysis, factor analysis, projection pursuit, etc. Meanwhile, connection and distinction between them were provided. Finally, the present situation and future development of dimension reduction techniques were pointed out.
Detecting disability using self-reported and clinical assessments in early-stage relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: Looking for a complementary approach

Disability accrual is mainly driven by progression independent of relapse activity, which is present even in early stages of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and sometimes overlooked. This multicenter, non-interventional study evaluated whether patient-reported outcomes measures (PROMs) could capture disability in 189 early-stage RRMS patients (mean age: 36.1 ± 9.4 years, 71.4% female, mean disease duration: 1.4 ± 0.8 years, median EDSS: 1.0). The 9-Hole Peg Test (9-HPT), NeuroQoL Upper Extremity (NeuroQoL-UE), Timed 25-Foot Walk (T25-FW), Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale (MSWS-12), Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), and Perceived Deficits Questionnaire (PDQ-5) were used to assess hand function, gait, and cognition, respectively. These functions were at least mildly affected in this early-stage population, finding significant correlations between PROMs and clinical assessments. PROMs could enable early-stage RRMS patients to communicate their perceived disability in different domains, assisting clinicians in disease monitoring and decision making.
Preparation and Investigation of the SPF and Antioxidant Properties of O/W and W/O Emulsions Containing Vitamins A, C and E for Cosmetic Applications

In the current work, Oil in Water (O/W) and Water in Oil (W/O) emulsions containing Vitamins A, C and E in 0.5, 1 and 2% wt concentrations were prepared. The pH and viscosity stability over storage, as well as the sunscreen and antioxidant properties of the obtained emulsions, were investigated. The results obtained showed that vitamins slightly increased the pH of the blank emulsions; however, their pH values were within the acceptable values (pH = 4–6). Nevertheless, all emulsions presented excellent pH stability during storage for up to 90 days. Similar results were observed by rheological measurements as the prepared emulsions did not exhibit viscosity instabilities deriving during storage. Moreover, emulsions containing Vitamin A exhibited higher UV protection than the other emulsions, as the W/O emulsion containing 2% wt Vitamin A presented the highest SPF value at 22.6.
The forward interest rate curve driven by a L

In this paper, we propose a term structure of forward rates driven by a L evy random eld under the HJM framework. The L evy random eld is composed of a kernel- correlated Gaussian random eld and a Poisson random eld. We will give a criterion to preclude arbitrage under the risk-neutral measure. Finally, an interest rate derivative is priced under this framework.