Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Speech Recognition for Functional Decline assessment in older adults

Functional decline is one of the serious syndromes experienced among older adults. Its early assessment is critical to preventing its symptoms. Some Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment CGA questionnaires, chosen amongst others, can be performed as in-home self-assessments by older adults using QuestIO, a device based on automatic speech recognition ASR. This paper investigates the performance of the ASR on English Isolated words while using different features; Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC), Relative spectra-perceptual linear prediction (RASTA-PLP), Perceptual linear prediction (PLP), Linear Prediction Cepstral Coefficients (LPCCs) or a combination of these, and the random forest classifier, to select the features that give the best performance. The performance was obtained based on the word recognition rate WRR and the real-time factor RTF. As a result, we selected the MFCC and RASTA-PLP cepstral coefficients. The WRR reached for these features is 96.57% with an RTF of 11×10-4.
A review of deep learning-based crowd abnormal behavior detection

Video surveillance plays a crucial role in improving people's well-being and reducing social crime rates. In order to assist observers to improve the efficiency of surveillance, a large number of scholars have used deep learning to construct models for abnormal behavior detection by learning positive and negative samples. In this paper, we summarize the common methods of abnormal behavior detection from both traditional and deep learning perspectives, introduce the basic principles and steps of detection, and the more commonly used public datasets. The current state of research at home and abroad in recent years is analyzed, the problems faced by anomalous behavior detection are summarized, and finally the future direction of anomalous behavior detection is prospected.
Energy loss by resonance line photons in an absorbing medium

The mean path length of photons undergoing repeated scatterings in media of large optical thickness is calculated from accurate numerical solutions of the transfer equation including the effect of frequency redistribution characteristic of combined Doppler and natural broadening. Energy loss by continuous absorption processes, such as ionization or dust absorption, is discussed, and asymptotic scaling laws for the energy losss, the mean path length, and the mean number of scatterings are inferred from the numerical data.
Admissible Controls and Attainable States for a Class of Nonlinear-systems With General Constraints

We consider nonlinear control systems where the control and the state variables are submitted to explicit constraints. This paper has two objectives. First, for a class of nonlinear systems with constraints, an existence result of nontrivial admissible controls and some of their interesting properties are proved. Then, we investigate the problem of local controllability in a neighbourhood of an equilibrium point, while observing state and control constraints along the whole trajectory. An iterative procedure is also given, which allows one to compute the steering admissible control function. This procedure is illustrated with a classical example.
Quantification of the hepatitis B virus cccDNA: evidence-based guidelines for monitoring the key obstacle of HBV cure

Objectives A major goal of curative hepatitis B virus (HBV) treatments is the reduction or inactivation of intrahepatic viral covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA). Hence, precise cccDNA quantification is essential in preclinical and clinical studies. Southern blot (SB) permits cccDNA visualisation but lacks sensitivity and is very laborious. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) has no such limitations but inaccurate quantification due to codetection of viral replicative intermediates (RI) can occur. The use of different samples, preservation conditions, DNA extraction, nuclease digestion methods and qPCR strategies has hindered standardisation. Within the ICE-HBV consortium, available and novel protocols for cccDNA isolation and qPCR quantification in liver tissues and cell cultures were compared in six laboratories to develop evidence-based guidance for best practices. Design Reference material (HBV-infected humanised mouse livers and HepG2-NTCP cells) was exchanged for cross-validation. Each group compared different DNA extraction methods (Hirt extraction, total DNA extraction with or without proteinase K treatment (+PK/−PK)) and nuclease digestion protocols (plasmid-safe ATP-dependent DNase (PSD), T5 exonuclease, exonucleases I/III). Samples were analysed by qPCR and SB. Results Hirt and −PK extraction reduced coexisting RI forms. However, both cccDNA and the protein-free relaxed circular HBV DNA (pf-rcDNA) form were detected by qPCR. T5 and Exo I/III nucleases efficiently removed all RI forms. In contrast, PSD did not digest pf-rcDNA, but was less prone to induce cccDNA overdigestion. In stabilised tissues (eg, Allprotect), nucleases had detrimental effects on cccDNA. Conclusions We present here a comprehensive evidence-based guidance for optimising, controlling and validating cccDNA measurements using available qPCR assays.
A Pathway for Northern Hemisphere Extratropical Cooling to Elicit a Tropical Response

Previous studies have found that Northern Hemisphere aerosol‐like cooling induces a La Niña‐like response in the tropical Indo‐Pacific. Here, we explore how a coupled ocean‐atmosphere feedback pathway communicates and sustains this response. We override ocean surface wind stress in a comprehensive climate model to decompose the total ocean‐atmosphere response to forced extratropical cooling into the response of surface buoyancy forcing alone and surface momentum forcing alone. In the subtropics, the buoyancy‐forced response dominates: the positive low cloud feedback amplifies sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies which wind‐driven evaporative cooling communicates to the tropics. In the equatorial Indo‐Pacific, buoyancy‐forced ocean dynamics cool the surface while the Bjerknes feedback creates zonally asymmetric SST patterns. Although subtropical cloud feedbacks are model‐dependent, our results suggest this feedback pathway is robust across a suite of models such that models with a stronger subtropical low cloud response exhibit a stronger La Niña response.
A review of U.S. tenure and promotion guidelines in media and communication and their support for engaged scholarship

People within academia choose their path because they want to make positive differences in society, in their community or practice. A diversity of venues and methodological approaches should be accepted within academia, because theoretical, critical, and applied approaches toward knowledge-making can inform one another to help society make sense of its complex problems and evaluate solutions to those problems. Nontraditional scholars such as consultants, engaged scholars, and artists frequently choose to disseminate their artifacts in venues (e.g., educational videos, podcasts, reports) other than academic journals or books with the goal of connecting nonacademics with their work (Miller, 2022). Engaged scholars often prefer to form partnerships with nonprofit institutions, the government, and other institutions to enrich communities by providing realworld solutions or stimulating dialogue (Waisbord, 2020). In this essay, I argue that applied, outreach, and consulting work should fall under the umbrella of engaged scholarship. Educational researcher Ernest Boyer’s (1990) work is often cited as the catalyst for recognizing the value of engaged scholarship. Van de Ven (2007) described engaged scholarship as a “participatory form of research for obtaining the advice and perspectives of key stakeholders. to understand a complex social problem” (p. ix). Van de Ven (2007) stated engaged research should address and resolve a particular problem; moreover, scholars should not emphasize creating generalizable information, since engaged scholarship concentrates on helping community-based programs. Engaged scholarship is the application or exchange of intellectual, artistic, and professional expertise, knowledge, skills, or resources to benefit external nonacademic stakeholders that may involve collaboration between academics and nonacademics (Miller, in press). Yet colleges and universities constrain academics from doing this type of work by creating tenure and promotion guidelines that state what types of scholarship count and do not count. A complex faculty rewards structure within academia often disadvantages scholars who select paths that counter interpretations of acceptable scholarship output such as a journal article or book publication. Engaged scholars criticize tenure and promotion documents for not properly acknowledging such approaches (Van de Ven, 2007). Historically, university and departmental leadership rely on proxies such as journal outlet and productivity to assess a candidate’s performance (Saaty & Ramanujam, 1983). Long-held beliefs and norms need to be readdressed at this moment in time based on momentum supporting engaged approaches (Waisbord, 2020).
Effect of zinc uptake on alcohol dehydrogenase, protein and mineral contents of hydroponically grown chickpea (Cicer arietinum)

Abstract Biofortification of micronutrients is a cost-effective and sustainable approach toward addressing micronutrient malnutrition prevailing across the globe. Understanding Zn uptake dynamics is critical for Zn biofortification of chickpea grains. This study employed the treatment of chickpea with different levels of ZnSO4.7H2O and its effect on growth parameters. 2 µM concentration of Zn + for 12 hrs resulted in significantly higher crude enzyme (Alcohol dehydrogenase) content, enzyme activity and Zn content as compared to all other treatment. Zn content increased significantly with higher Zn application with ZnSO4 concentration with respect to time, giving a maximum increase of 175.22% with 4 µM of Zn. On basis of experimental findings, it is suggested that incorporating 2 µM of Zn in culture solution up to 12 hrs will probably be the best combination of treatment to improve the plant growth, development and quality parameters of chickpea.
Photorefractive self-trapping and deflection of optical beams

The band transport model is used to derive the space-charge field induced by an optical beam propagating in photorefractive materials with the application of an external dc field in the steady state. The derivation explicitly displays the screening and diffusion fields and other higher-order corrections to them. The condition caused by the screening field for steady-state self-trapping of the optical beam is found analytically by means of a variational approach and compared with the numerical solution. The deflection of the optical beam that is caused by the asymmetric diffusion field, as well as its effect on self-trapping, are also studied.
On regularity properties of nonsymmetric ornstein-uhlenbeck semigroup in LP spaces

We study properties of the transition semigroup Rt corresponding to the Hilbert space valued nonsymmctric Ornstein-Uhlenheck process possessing an invariant measure μ Necessary and sufficient condition is given for Rtφ to be infinitely smooth in the direction of the Reproducing Kernel of μ for every bounded Borel φ. Estimates on the derivatives of Rtφ are obtained and the same estimates are obtained for the adjoint semigroup. We give also necessary and sufficient conditions for Rt to be an integral operator on LP (H,μ) extending earlier results by Da Prato-Zabczyk and Fuhrman. It is shown also that the integral kernel possesses strong integrability properties. The transition semigroup is also investigated in the scale of Sobolev spaces generalizing those of Malliavin calculus. The transition semigroup turns out to be strongly continuous in those spaces and compact if it is integral in LP (H,μ) Finally, an application to some parabolic PDE's on Hilbert space is given.
Adjustments to the reference dataset design improve cell type label transfer

The transfer of cell type labels from prior annotated (reference) to newly collected data is an important task in single-cell data analysis. As the number of publicly available annotated datasets which can be used as a reference, as well as the number of computational methods for cell type label transfer are constantly growing, rationals to understand and decide which reference design and which method to use for a particular query dataset is needed. Here, we benchmark a set of five popular cell type annotation methods, study the performance on different cell types and highlight the importance of the design of the reference data (number of cell samples for each cell type, inclusion of multiple datasets in one reference, gene set selection, etc.) for more reliable predictions.
Using mechanistic models and machine learning to design single-color multiplexed Nascent Chain Tracking experiments

mRNA translation is the ubiquitous cellular process of reading messenger-RNA strands into functional proteins. Over the past decade, large strides in microscopy techniques have allowed observation of mRNA translation at a single-molecule resolution for self-consistent time-series measurements in live cells. Dubbed Nascent chain tracking (NCT), these methods have explored many temporal dynamics in mRNA translation uncaptured by other experimental methods such as ribosomal profiling, smFISH, pSILAC, BONCAT, or FUNCAT-PLA. However, NCT is currently restricted to the observation of one or two mRNA species at a time due to limits in the number of resolvable fluorescent tags. In this work, we propose a hybrid computational pipeline, where detailed mechanistic simulations produce realistic NCT videos, and machine learning is used to assess potential experimental designs for their ability to resolve multiple mRNA species using a single fluorescent color for all species. Through simulation, we show that with careful application, this hybrid design strategy could in principle be used to extend the number of mRNA species that could be watched simultaneously within the same cell. We present a simulated example NCT experiment with seven different mRNA species within the same simulated cell and use our ML labeling to identify these spots with 90% accuracy using only two distinct fluorescent tags. The proposed extension to the NCT color palette should allow experimentalists to access a plethora of new experimental design possibilities, especially for cell signalling applications requiring simultaneous study of multiple mRNAs.
Chemokine positioning determines mutually exclusive roles for their receptors in extravasation of pathogenic human T cells

Pro-inflammatory T cells co-express multiple chemokine receptors, but the distinct functions of individual receptors on these cells are largely unknown. Human Th17 cells uniformly express the chemokine receptor CCR6, and we discovered that the subgroup of CD4+CCR6+ cells that co-express CCR2 possess a pathogenic Th17 signature, can produce inflammatory cytokines independent of TCR activation, and are unusually efficient at transendothelial migration (TEM). The ligand for CCR6, CCL20, was capable of binding to activated endothelial cells (ECs) and inducing firm arrest of CCR6+CCR2+ cells under conditions of flow - but CCR6 could not mediate TEM. By contrast, CCL2 and other ligands for CCR2, despite being secreted from both luminal and basal sides of ECs, failed to bind to the EC surfaces - and CCR2 could not mediate arrest. Nonetheless, CCR2 was required for TEM. To understand if CCR2’s inability to mediate arrest was due solely to an absence of EC-bound ligands, we generated a CCL2-CXCL9 chimeric chemokine that could bind to the EC surface. Although display of CCL2 on the ECs did indeed lead to CCR2-mediated arrest of CCR6+CCR2+ cells, activating CCR2 with surface-bound CCL2 blocked TEM. We conclude that mediating arrest and TEM are mutually exclusive activities of chemokine receptors and/or their ligands that depend, respectively, on chemokines that bind to the EC luminal surfaces versus non-binding chemokines that form transendothelial gradients under conditions of flow. Our findings provide fundamental insights into mechanisms of lymphocyte extravasation and may lead to novel strategies to block or enhance their migration into tissue.
Loss of genital epithelial barrier function is greater with depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate than intravaginal rings that release etonogestrel and ethinyl estradiol

The injectable progestin depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) is a popular contraceptive choice in sub-Saharan Africa although mouse models indicate it weakens genital epithelial integrity and barrier function and increases susceptibility to genital infection. The intravaginal ring NuvaRing® is another contraceptive option that like DMPA suppresses hypothalamic pituitary ovarian (HPO) axis function with local release of progestin (etonogestrel) and estrogen (ethinyl estradiol). As we previously reported that treating mice with DMPA and estrogen averts the loss of genital epithelial integrity and barrier function induced by DMPA alone, in the current investigation we compared genital levels of the cell-cell adhesion molecule desmoglein-1 (DSG1) and genital epithelial permeability in rhesus macaques (RM) treated with DMPA or a NuvaRing®re-sized for RM (N-IVR). While these studies demonstrated comparable inhibition of the HPO axis with DMPA or N-IVR, DMPA induced significantly lower genital DSG1 levels and greater tissue permeability to intravaginally administered low molecular mass molecules. By identifying greater compromise of genital epithelial integrity and barrier function in RM administered DMPA vs. N-IVR, our results add to the growing body of evidence that indicate DMPA weakens a fundamental mechanism of anti-pathogen host defense in the female genital tract.
Ultrasensitive detection of circulating LINE-1 ORF1p as a specific multi-cancer biomarker

Improved biomarkers are needed for early cancer detection, risk stratification, treatment selection, and monitoring treatment response. While proteins can be useful blood-based biomarkers, many have limited sensitivity or specificity for these applications. Long INterspersed Element-1 (LINE-1, L1) open reading frame 1 protein (ORF1p) is a transposable element protein overexpressed in carcinomas and high-risk precursors during carcinogenesis with negligible detectable expression in corresponding normal tissues, suggesting ORF1p could be a highly specific cancer biomarker. To explore the potential of ORF1p as a blood-based biomarker, we engineered ultrasensitive digital immunoassays that detect mid-attomolar (10-17 M) ORF1p concentrations in patient plasma samples across multiple cancers with high specificity. Plasma ORF1p shows promise for early detection of ovarian cancer, improves diagnostic performance in a multi-analyte panel, and provides early therapeutic response monitoring in gastric and esophageal cancers. Together, these observations nominate ORF1p as a multi-cancer biomarker with potential utility for disease detection and monitoring. Statement of Significance LINE-1 ORF1p transposon protein is pervasively expressed in many cancers and a highly specific biomarker of multiple common, lethal carcinomas and their high-risk precursors in tissue and blood. Ultrasensitive ORF1p assays from as little as 25 μL plasma are novel, rapid, cost-effective tools in cancer detection and monitoring.
Self-organized, one-dimensional Pt nanowires on Ge(001)

Pt atoms adsorbed onto Ge(001) surface form extremely well-ordered nanowire arrays by self-organization after high-temperature annealing. Using scanning tunneling spectroscopy/microscopy, it is shown that they are metallic and defect free. They are only 0.4 nm thick with a spacing of 1.6 nm in between, and have aspect ratios up to 1000. Their formation can be discussed in terms of a relativistic property possessed by heaviest 5d elements, and the pathway to their formation can be explained by dimer breakup on Ge(001) surface at elevated temperatures followed by a surface polymerization reaction
Increased Ca2+ signaling through CaV1.2 induces tendon hypertrophy with increased collagen fibrillogenesis and biomechanical properties

Tendons are tension-bearing tissues transmitting force from muscle to bone for body movement. This mechanical loading is essential for tendon development, homeostasis, and healing after injury. While Ca2+ signaling has been studied extensively for its roles in mechanotransduction, regulating muscle, bone and cartilage development and homeostasis, knowledge about Ca2+ signaling and the source of Ca2+ signals in tendon fibroblast biology are largely unknown. Here, we investigated the function of Ca2+ signaling through CaV1.2 voltage-gated Ca2+ channel in tendon formation. Using a reporter mouse, we found that CaV1.2 is highly expressed in tendon during development and downregulated in adult homeostasis. To assess its function, we generated ScxCre;CaV1.2TS mice that express a gain-of-function mutant CaV1.2 channel (CaV1.2TS) in tendon. We found that tendons in the mutant mice were approximately 2/3 larger and had more tendon fibroblasts, but the cell density of the mutant mice decreased by around 22%. TEM analyses demonstrated increased collagen fibrillogenesis in the hypertrophic tendon. Biomechanical testing revealed that the hypertrophic Achilles tendons display higher peak load and stiffness, with no changes in peak stress and elastic modulus. Proteomics analysis reveals no significant difference in the abundance of major extracellular matrix (ECM) type I and III collagens, but mutant mice had about 2-fold increase in other ECM proteins such as tenascin C, tenomodulin, periostin, type XIV and type VIII collagens, around 11-fold increase in the growth factor of TGF-β family myostatin, and significant elevation of matrix remodeling proteins including Mmp14, Mmp2 and cathepsin K. Taken together, these data highlight roles for increased Ca2+ signaling through CaV1.2 on regulating expression of myostatin growth factor and ECM proteins for tendon collagen fibrillogenesis during tendon formation.