cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Mechanical tests and definition of new indexes of grape berry firmness. Evolution of berry skin hardness during alcoholic fermentation
Creators: name: Abbal, P.
name: Vernhet, A.
name: Abi-Habib, E.
name: Carrillo, S.
name: Ducasse, M. A.
name: Poncet Legrand, C.
Publisher: name: VITIS - Journal of Grapevine Research
Year: 2020

description: The mechanical strength or firmness of a fruit is considered an important parameter to characterise its state of ripeness or conservation, as well as other parameters such as sugar level or color. The mechanical hardness of grapes influences the integrity and sanitary quality of the harvest. In this study, the mechanical characteristics of grapevine berries were studied at harvest time in order to determine their rheological properties (firmness and hardness of the berry skin) during alcoholic fermentation. Special indexes were defined measuring the energy needed to crush the berries to 50 % of their initial diameter, and applied successively to two different varieties. The entire berry firmness and the skin hardness were both different. Mechanical indexes linked to grape firmness were defined. Using these indexes, a significant effect on the firmness behavior due to variety was recorded: the skin of 'Grenache Noir' was found firmer and harder than 'Carignan Noir'. Furthermore, during the alcoholic fermentation, no change in skin hardness was observed for both varieties, despite changes in the composition of the must. These results give new information on mechanical properties of berries and could be used as an aid in the winemaking process. Indeed, they would probably help the winemaker to better choose the type of fermentation and maceration adapted to his grapes according to the type of wine he wishes to produce.
description: VITIS - Journal of Grapevine Research, Vol. 59 No. 4 (2020): Vitis
Semantic Segmentation of Urban Textured Meshes Through Point Sampling
Creators: name: Grzeczkowicz, Grégoire
name: Vallet, Bruno
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences
subject: I.4.6; I.5.4
subject: 68T10 (Primary) 68T20, 68T07

description: Textured meshes are becoming an increasingly popular representation combining the 3D geometry and radiometry of real scenes. However, semantic segmentation algorithms for urban mesh have been little investigated and do not exploit all radiometric information. To address this problem, we adopt an approach consisting in sampling a point cloud from the textured mesh, then using a point cloud semantic segmentation algorithm on this cloud, and finally using the obtained semantic to segment the initial mesh. In this paper, we study the influence of different parameters such as the sampling method, the density of the extracted cloud, the features selected (color, normal, elevation) as well as the number of points used at each training period. Our result outperforms the state-of-the-art on the SUM dataset, earning about 4 points in OA and 18 points in mIoU.
description: 9 pages, 6 figures, conference, presented at XXIV ISPRS Congress
Modern tools for Assessment of Ayurveda Prakriti: A Scoping Review
Creators: name: GUPTA, ANKIT
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Medicine and Health Sciences
subject: Alternative and Complementary Medicine
subject: Assessment
subject: Ayurveda
subject: Body constitution
subject: Body types
subject: Naadi
subject: Prakriti

description: National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), USA, emphasize multidisciplinary research into CAM modalities. Ayurveda, one of the identified NCCAM modality, is a science based on experimentation and observation. The modality includes the assessment of prakriti body types for personalized medication(s), lifestyle and diet. Ayurveda practitioners use radial pulse diagnosis to assess one's prakriti. However, the procedure involves subjective variations. Therefore, prakriti assessment tools in the form of scales, questionnaires, algorithm based models, software, and devices have been developed to bring objectivity to the assessment procedure. Despite this, researchers from non-ayurveda background face challenges to identify a reliable and validated prakriti assessment tool. This is where this scoping review may be useful to the interdisciplinary researchers as a first hand resource to identify a reliable and validated prakriti assessment tool.
Infected-Host-Cell Repertoire and Cellular Response in the Lung following Inhalation of Francisella tularensis Schu S4, LVS, or U112
Creators: name: Gunn, B. M.
name: Hall, J. D.
name: Frelinger, J. A.
name: Craven, R. R.
name: Kawula, T. H.
name: Taft-Benz, S.
name: Woolard, M. D.
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2008

description: Francisella tularensis causes systemic disease in humans and other mammals, with high morbidity and mortality associated with inhalation-acquired infection. F. tularensis is a facultative intracellular pathogen, but the scope and significance of cell types infected during disease is unknown. Using flow cytometry, we identified and quantified infected-cell types and assessed the impact of infection on cell populations following inhalation of F. tularensis strains U112, LVS, and Schu S4. Initially, alveolar macrophages comprised over 70% of Schu S4- and LVS-infected cells, whereas approximately 51% and 27% of U112-infected cells were alveolar macrophages and neutrophils, respectively. After 3 days, roughly half of Schu S4- and LVS- and nearly 80% of U112-infected cells were neutrophils. All strains infected CD11bhigh macrophages, dendritic cells, monocytes, and alveolar type II cells throughout infection. Macrophage, monocyte, and dendritic-cell populations were reduced during U112 infection but not Schu S4 or LVS infection. These results demonstrate directly that F. tularensis is a promiscuous intracellular pathogen in the lung that invades and replicates within cell types ranging from migratory immune cells to structural tissue cells. However, the proportions of cell types infected and the cellular immune response evoked by the human pathogenic strain Schu S4 differ from those of the human avirulent U112.
LC-ESI-MS analysis, antioxidant, anti-diabetic and molecular docking studies on Corchorus depressus (L.) C.Chr
Creators: name: Anjum, Shazia
name: Tahir, Humna
name: Sarwar, Sadia
name: Raza, Wajid
name: Latif, Irum
name: Rasheed, Hafiz Muhammad Farhan
name: Jabeen, Qaiser
name: Shahid, Wardah
name: Ashraf, Muhammad
name: Zehra, Syeda Sadaf
name: Ul-Haq, Zaheer
name: Ayaz, Muhammad
name: Sadiq, Abdul
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Biochemistry
subject: Space Science
subject: Pharmacology
subject: Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: Immunology
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine
subject: Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified

description: The present study encompasses the ethnomedicinal consumption of Corchorus depressus (L.) C.Chr. (C. depressus) for diabetes. Samples were subjected to LC-ESI-MS analyses. The n-hexane, methanolic and water extracts were screened for α-glucosidase inhibition and in vivo anti-diabetic studies. Further, antioxidant (DPPH) and anti-inflammatory study was performed via luminol-enhanced chemi-luminescence assay. The identified compounds were docked against the target enzymes of diabetes. The n-hexane fraction (CD-J1) showed IC50 of 8.4 ± 0.1 µg/mL against α-glucosidase enzyme. The sub fractions CD-12 and CD-13 of CD-J1 obtained after flash column chromatography displayed further reduced IC50 values of 4.3 ± 0.1 and 6.3 ± 0.1, respectively, as compared with standard drug acarbose (IC50 values of 37.5 ± 0.2 µg/mL). Simultaneously, dereplication of most active sub-fraction CD-12 by LC-ESI-MS led to the identification of strophanthidin and some other active metabolites responsible for anti-diabetic activity. Molecular docking of strophanthidin with α-glucosidase and α-amylase revealed high affinity for these target enzymes.
On the role of lower- and upper-bounded contexts in realizing scalar inferences
Creators: name: Dfdfbd
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Architecture
subject: FOS: Civil engineering
subject: Arts and Humanities
subject: Scalar inferences (e.g., the interpretation of "Divya ate some of the cookies" as meaning "Divya didn't eat all of the cookies") are often assumed to be derived when a stronger alternative is relevant in the discourse context. In other words, linguistic theory assumes that "Divya ate some of the cookies" will be interpreted as mening "Divya didn't eat all the cookies" mainly when the question of whether or not she ate all the cookies is relevant to the context, and it will be less likely to be interpreted in this way if the question of whether or not she ate all the cookies is irrelevant. However, contrary to this prediction, previous studies in this project have suggested that inferences (i.e., interpretations of "some" as meaning "not all") seem to be drawn at similar rates regardless of whether the context is a question about whether Divya ate ALL of the cookies or whether she ate ANY of the cookies. We hypothesize that, at least for the case of "some", maybe any context that draws the hearer's attention t

description: Scalar inferences (e.g., the interpretation of "Divya ate some of the cookies" as meaning "Divya didn't eat all of the cookies") are often assumed to be derived when a stronger alternative is relevant in the discourse context. In other words, linguistic theory assumes that "Divya ate some of the cookies" will be interpreted as mening "Divya didn't eat all the cookies" mainly when the question of whether or not she ate all the cookies is relevant to the context, and it will be less likely to be interpreted in this way if the question of whether or not she ate all the cookies is irrelevant. However, contrary to this prediction, previous studies in this project have suggested that inferences (i.e., interpretations of "some" as meaning "not all") seem to be drawn at similar rates regardless of whether the context is a question about whether Divya ate ALL of the cookies or whether she ate ANY of the cookies. We hypothesize that, at least for the case of "some", maybe any context that draws the hearer's attention to quantities makes it likely for them to realize scalar inferences that make the meaning of "some" more specific. This is regardless of whether the context raises a question about the upper bound of the quantity (i.e., "Did Divya eat all of the cookies?") or the lower bound ("Did Divya eat any of the cookies?") On the other hand, a context which doesn't draw attention to quantity at all (e.g., "Why isn't Divya hungry?") should be less likely to make hearers draw an inference about whether or not she ate all of the cookies. The present study will test this directly by comparing how often inferences are realized in these three different kinds of linguistic contexts.
Dynamical environments of (486958) Arrokoth: prior evolution and present state
Creators: name: Shevchenko, Ivan I.
name: Lages, José
name: Vavilov, Dmitrii E.
name: Rollin, Guillaume
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We consider dynamical environments of (486958) Arrokoth, focusing on both their present state and their long-term evolution, starting from the KBO's formation. Both analytical (based on an upgraded Kepler-map formalism) and numerical (based on massive simulations and construction of stability diagrams in the 3D setting of the problem) approaches to the problem are used. The debris removal is due to either absorption by the KBO or by leaving the Hill sphere; the interplay of these processes is considered. The clearing mechanisms are explored, and the debris removal timescales are estimated. We assess survival opportunities for any debris orbiting around Arrokoth. The generic chaotization of Arrokoth's circumbinary debris disk's inner zone and generic cloudization of the disk's periphery, which is shown to be essential in the general 3D case, naturally explains the current absence of any debris in its vicinities.
description: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 21 pages, 9 figures
Chemical composition and biological activities of the essential oil from Eugenia stipitata McVaugh leaves
Creators: name: dos Santos, Cícero R. B.
name: Sampaio, Mariana G. V.
name: Vandesmet, Lilian C. S.
name: dos Santos, Bruno S.
name: de Menezes, Saulo A.
name: Portela, Benedito Y. M.
name: Gomes, Douglas W. R.
name: Correia, Maria T. S.
name: Gomez, Maria C. V.
name: de Alencar Menezes, Irwin R.
name: da Silva, Márcia V.
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Biochemistry
subject: Genetics
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Pharmacology
subject: Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Science Policy
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Inorganic Chemistry
subject: FOS: Chemical sciences

description: In the present study, the volatile components and cytotoxic, antibacterial, antioxidant, and antiprotozoal activities of the essential oil obtained from the leaves of Eugenia stipitata McVaugh (Myrtaceae) grown in the Brazilian Northeast region (Araripe) were investigated. The essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation. The leaves of E. stipitata provided an oil yield of 0.13 ± 0.01% (w/w). The volatile compounds in the essential oil of E. stipitata were analysed using gas chromatography, and the volatile chemical composition was mainly composed of β-eudesmol (15.28%), γ-eudesmol (10.85%), elemol (10.21%) and caryophyllene oxide (6.65%). The essential oil of E. stipitata was highly selective against Leishmania braziliensis and L. infantum promastigotes. The essential oil exhibited good antibacterial activity. E. stipitata essential oil showed low free-radical scavenging activity. Our results suggest that the E. stipitata essential oil is a relevant source of the primary compounds required for the development of antibacterial and antiprotozoal drugs.
Diverse and strain-specific metabolites patterns induced by fungal endophytes in grape cells of different varieties
Creators: name: Pan, Xiao-Xia
name: Yuan, Ming-Quan
name: Chen, Jing-Chao
name: Yu, Man
name: Qu, Jin-Zhuo
name: Liu, Fang
name: Xiang, Si-Yu
name: Zhu, You-Yong
name: Yang, Ming-Zhi
Publisher: name: VITIS - Journal of Grapevine Research
Year: 2020

description: The potential for endophytes to initiate changes in host secondary metabolism has been well documented. However, the mechanisms underlying endophyte-plant metabolic interactions are still poorly understood. Here, we analysed the effects of fungal endophytes on the metabolite profiles of grape cells from two cultivars: 'Cabernet Sauvignon' (CS) and 'Rose honey' (RH). Our results clearly showed that co-culture with endophytic fungi greatly modified the metabolic profiles in grape cells of both varieties. Treatments with endophytic fungal strains caused the numbers of detected metabolites to vary from 10 to 19 in CS cells and from 8 to 14 in RH cells. In addition, 5 metabolites were detected in all CS cell samples, while 4 metabolites were detected in all RH cell samples. Some endophytic fungal strains could even introduce novel metabolites into the co-cultured grape cells. The metabolic profiles of grape leaves shaped by endophytic fungi exhibited host selectivity and fungal strain specificity. In this assay, the fungal strains RH32 (Alternaria sp.) and MDR36 (Colletotrichum sp.) triggered an increased response of the detected metabolites, including the greatest increase in the metabolite contents in grape cells of both cultivars. No obvious effects in terms of metabolite numbers and contents in grape cells when co-cultured with fungal strains RH7 (Epicoccum sp.) and RH48 (Colletotrichum sp.) were observed. The results of this experiment suggest that endophytic fungi could be used to control the metabolic profiles of grapes and thus increase grape quality.
description: VITIS - Journal of Grapevine Research, Vol. 59 No. 4 (2020): Vitis
selfdefence module.pdf
Creators: name: D, Anitta
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: 90204 Automotive Safety Engineering
subject: FOS: Mechanical engineering
subject: 90303 Biomedical Instrumentation
subject: FOS: Medical engineering
subject: Computer Engineering
subject: 90602 Control Systems, Robotics and Automation
subject: FOS: Electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering
subject: 99902 Engineering Instrumentation
subject: FOS: Other engineering and technologies
subject: 91002 Flexible Manufacturing Systems

description: This article is related to wearable safety devices for women and child safety.
Religion and the Law in modern pluralist states: Towards a more balanced judicial approach to manifestation of belief in secular societies
Creators: name: Bacquet, Sylvie
Publisher: name: University of Westminster
Year: 2020

description: The work presented for the Phd by publication is located within the law and religion sub-discipline and is committed to enhancing religious freedom. It focuses on manifestation of belief and is dedicated to the legal protection of religious minorities. It highlights the difficulties of adjudicating conflicts related to religious symbols in modern liberal states and aims to deepen the understanding of manifestation of belief. It shows that religious symbols contribute to the making of contemporary individual and collective identities. The thesis advocates a more contextual approach to manifestation of belief which views religion as an element of identity rather than an elective characteristic of the individual. It therefore promotes collaborations with other disciplines within the social sciences such as history, sociology, and anthropology in order to enhance the legal approach and move the field in new directions.
Chemical profile and toxicogenetic safety assessment of Smallanthus sonchifolius (yacon) organic extracts
Creators: name: Szokalo, Rocío Ayelén Moreira
name: Ulloa, Jerónimo
name: Tulino, María Soledad
name: Redko, Flavia
name: Flor, Sabrina
name: Muschietti, Liliana
name: Carballo, Marta A.
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Biochemistry
subject: Genetics
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Cancer
subject: Hematology

description: The interest in Smallanthus sonchifolius (yacon) has strongly resurfaced due to its multiple beneficial effects on human health. This study aimed at determining the toxicity and the chemical profile of an ethanol extract (EE) and a crude lactone mixture (CLM) of yacon leaves. Cytotoxicity and genotoxicity tests were performed by the MTT assay and the alkaline version of the comet assay respectively. The phytochemical analysis, performed by chromatographic and spectroscopy techniques, revealed the presence of nine sesquiterpene lactones (STLs) and two acyclic diterpene acids. In all cases, cell viability was inversely proportional to the extract concentration employed. The effects obtained with the highest dose of EE were significantly different from those obtained with the negative and solvent controls. Conversely, no significant differences were observed between the lowest doses of EE and controls. As for CLM, all tested doses showed statistically significant increases, as compared to negative and solvent controls.
Directive Explanations for Monitoring the Risk of Diabetes Onset: Introducing Directive Data-Centric Explanations and Combinations to Support What-If Explorations
Creators: name: Bhattacharya, Aditya
name: Ooge, Jeroen
name: Stiglic, Gregor
name: Verbert, Katrien
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC)
subject: Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)
subject: Machine Learning (cs.LG)
subject: Software Engineering (cs.SE)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Explainable artificial intelligence is increasingly used in machine learning (ML) based decision-making systems in healthcare. However, little research has compared the utility of different explanation methods in guiding healthcare experts for patient care. Moreover, it is unclear how useful, understandable, actionable and trustworthy these methods are for healthcare experts, as they often require technical ML knowledge. This paper presents an explanation dashboard that predicts the risk of diabetes onset and explains those predictions with data-centric, feature-importance, and example-based explanations. We designed an interactive dashboard to assist healthcare experts, such as nurses and physicians, in monitoring the risk of diabetes onset and recommending measures to minimize risk. We conducted a qualitative study with 11 healthcare experts and a mixed-methods study with 45 healthcare experts and 51 diabetic patients to compare the different explanation methods in our dashboard in terms of understandability, usefulness, actionability, and trust. Results indicate that our participants preferred our representation of data-centric explanations that provide local explanations with a global overview over other methods. Therefore, this paper highlights the importance of visually directive data-centric explanation method for assisting healthcare experts to gain actionable insights from patient health records. Furthermore, we share our design implications for tailoring the visual representation of different explanation methods for healthcare experts.
description: \c{opyright} Bhattacharya et al, 2023. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM. The definitive version was published in ACM IUI '23: 28th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1145/3581641.3584075
A stakeholder-focused, emotion-driven model of social media secondary crisis communication : exploring how consumers emotionally cope with a brand crisis news on social media
Creators: name: Lim, Ha Young
name: 0000-0002-6690-2264
Publisher: name: The University of Texas at Austin
Year: 2022
Subjects: Secondary crisis communication
Social media
Emotional venting
Brand crisis
Brand identification
Crisis involvement

description: Given the rapidly changing social media environment and its influence on crisis communication process, this dissertation seeks to develop a model for emotion-driven secondary crisis communication on social media, demonstrating how stakeholders emotionally engage with a crisis in social media environments, from the moment of processing crisis news to engaging in secondary crisis communication themselves, depending on individual factors such as crisis involvement and identifying relationship with an organization. First, this research developed the scale for measuring consumers’ crisis emotions in brand crises by identifying 12 crisis emotions that consumers experience from brand corporate crises and conceptualizing the three crisis emotion clusters, namely (1) attribution-independent (AI) emotions including anxiety, apprehension and fear, (2) external-attribution-dependent (EAD) emotions including anxiety, contempt, disgust, disappointment, sadness, and sympathy, and (3) internal-attribution-dependent (IAD) emotions including embarrassment, guilt, and shame. In demonstrating the underlying psychological process of emotion-driven secondary crisis communication on social media addition, this study identified the role of a need for emotional venting that mediates the relationship between crisis emotions and intention to engage in secondary crisis communication on social media. In addition, this study found the differential effects of two stakeholder factors (crisis involvement and brand identification) on crisis emotions and secondary crisis communication on social media. Furthermore, this study articulates how social information of the crisis news (i.e., the number of likes, comments, and shares) affects consumers’ perceived intensity of secondary crisis communication and intention to engage in secondary crisis communication as well as crisis emotions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Ethical principles shaping cybersecurity decision-making
Creators: name: Fenech, Joseph
Publisher: name: Macquarie University
Year: 2022
Subjects: Other education not elsewhere classified

description: The human factor in information systems has been a large vulnerability when implementing cybersecurity and many approaches, including technical and policy driven solutions, seek to mitigate this vulnerability. However, decisions to implement technical solutions or apply policy must consider the ethical ramifications. Our aim for this research involves evaluating how individuals prioritise ethical principles when making cybersecurity sensitive decisions and how much perceived choice they have when doing so. We accomplish this by performing a study involving participants from two separate backgrounds (Computing and Psychology students) that collects their responses to cybersecurity scenarios and creates profiles that match their values. A total of 193 participants responded to five different cybersecurity ethically sensitive scenarios in random order selecting their action as well as the ethical principle (i.e. Beneficence, Non-Maleficence, Justice, Autonomy, Explicability) and reason behind their action. Using participants’ demographic, personality, values, and cyber hygiene practice, we created profiles using machine learning to predict participants’ choices and the most important ethical principle. Autonomy was found to be the most important ethical principle followed by Justice. Our study suggests participants were able to weigh up the ethical principles but future work should be directed at larger and more varied participant pools.
Physiological impacts of early defoliation on the cold hardiness of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) 'Sultana'
Creators: name: Sarikhani, H.
name: Delgarm, H.
name: Mansouri, S.
Publisher: name: VITIS - Journal of Grapevine Research
Year: 2020

description: Low winter temperatures are one of the limiting factors of grape production worldwide. This study was undertaken to inquire about the effects of postharvest early defoliation on the cold hardiness of grapevine. The grapevines samples, cv. Sultana, were defoliated at two stages (10 and 25 days after harvest), and then they were compared with natural leaf fall. Cane samples were collected in December 2017 and February 2018, and analyzed in terms of water content, soluble carbohydrate, and proline concentrations in both bud and cane tissues. The samples were then subjected to freezing treatments i. e. -8, -12, -15, -18, -21, and -24 °C for evaluating the levels of cold hardiness. Based on these results, early defoliation reduced proline and soluble carbohydrate concentrations but increased the water content compared to the control. Leaf removal also decreased abscisic acid concentration in the bud samples. Investigation of cold hardiness by electrolyte leakage and tetrazolium staining examinations showed that the defoliation decreased cold hardiness. Results demonstrated that leaf removal between the growing season and the beginning of the acclimation stage decreased the metabolite concentration in buds and canes and resulted to a reduction of cold hardiness.
description: VITIS - Journal of Grapevine Research, Vol. 59 No. 4 (2020): Vitis
Protective effects of Leuzea uniflora (Rhaponticum uniflorum) on the brain mitochondrial function in white rats at hypoxia/reoxygenation
Creators: name: Toropova, Anyuta A.
name: Razuvaeva, Yanina G.
name: Olennikov, Daniil N.
name: Markova, Kristina V.
name: Lemza, Sergey V.
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Biochemistry
subject: Cell Biology
subject: Neuroscience
subject: Physiology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: Science Policy

description: Protective effects of Leuzea uniflora (L.) Holub (Rhaponticum uniflorum (L.) DC., Asteraceae) on the white rats’ brain mitochondrial function in acute hypobaric hypoxia/reoxygenation were studied. The extract of L. uniflora in the dose of 100 mg/kg was administered to animals for 14 days. The effects of the extract on the brain mitochondria respiration rate as well as on the NADH- and succinate dehydrogenase activities were determined. The extract of L. uniflora increased the oxidative phosphorylation processes coupling in brain mitochondria, namely, it significantly stimulated basal respiration, caused an increase in NADH-oxidase and succinate dehydrogenase complexes activity, increased the ATP content, reduced the lipid peroxidation intensity and improved the antioxidant state. The results obtained indicate the presence of energy-protective and antioxidant activities of L. uniflora, which are due to its ability to reduce the oxidation of biomacromolecules in hypoxia/reoxygenation.
Outer Membrane Protein DsrA Is the Major Fibronectin-Binding Determinant of Haemophilus ducreyi
Creators: name: Spinola, S. M.
name: Throm, R. E.
name: Leduc, I.
name: White, C. D.
name: Nepluev, I.
name: Elkins, C.
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2008

description: The ability to bind extracellular matrix proteins is a critical virulence determinant for skin pathogens. Haemophilus ducreyi, the etiological agent of the genital ulcer disease chancroid, binds extracellular matrix components, including fibronectin (FN). We investigated H. ducreyi FN binding and report several important findings about this interaction. First, FN binding by H. ducreyi was greatly increased in bacteria grown on heme and almost completely inhibited by hemoglobin. Second, wild-type strain 35000HP bound significantly more FN than did a dsrA mutant in two different FN binding assays. Third, the expression of dsrA in the dsrA mutant restored FN binding and conferred the ability to bind FN to a non-FN-binding Haemophilus influenzae strain. Fourth, an anti-DsrA monoclonal antibody partially blocked FN binding by H. ducreyi. The hemoglobin receptor, the collagen-binding protein, the H. ducreyi lectin, the fine-tangle pili, and the outer membrane protein OmpA2 were not involved in H. ducreyi FN binding, since single mutants bound FN as well as the parent strain did. However, the major outer membrane protein may have a minor role in FN binding by H. ducreyi, since a double dsrA momp mutant bound less FN than did the single dsrA mutant. Finally, despite major sequence differences, DsrA proteins from both class I and class II H. ducreyi strains mediated FN and vitronectin binding. We concluded that DsrA is the major factor involved in FN binding by both classes of H. ducreyi strains.
Additional file 1 of Naturally acquired antibody kinetics against Plasmodium vivax antigens in people from a low malaria transmission region in western Thailand
Creators: name: Liu, Zoe Shih-Jung
name: Sattabongkot, Jetsumon
name: White, Michael
name: Chotirat, Sadudee
name: Kumpitak, Chalermpon
name: Takashima, Eizo
name: Harbers, Matthias
name: Tham, Wai-Hong
name: Healer, Julie
name: Chitnis, Chetan E.
name: Tsuboi, Takafumi
name: Mueller, Ivo
name: Longley, Rhea J.
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Immunology
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine

description: Additional File 1: Fig S1. Schematic representation of the relationship between the population-level and individual-level parameters for the half-life of the short-lived ASCs. Fig S2. Total IgG kinetic profiles against 52 P. vivax antigens in 34 Thai patients with symptomatic P. vivax infections. Fig S3. Adjusted total IgG kinetic profiles at an individual level following symptomatic infections. Fig S4. Comparison of the adjusted peak IgG subclass magnitude between symptomatic Thai patients and the PNG hyperimmune pool. Fig S5. Comparison of the peak IgM magnitude between symptomatic Thai patients and malaria-free individuals. Fig S6. Unadjusted IgM kinetics against 15 P. vivax antigens in 34 Thai individuals following symptomatic P. vivax infections. Fig S7. Distribution of data for estimated half-lives of antibodies and ASCs against IgG-immunogenic antigens following symptomatic P. vivax infections in the Thai symptomatic cohort. Fig S8. Comparison of adjusted total IgG against 27 P. vivax antigens following symptomatic or asymptomatic P. vivax infections.
Additional file 2 of Naturally acquired antibody kinetics against Plasmodium vivax antigens in people from a low malaria transmission region in western Thailand
Creators: name: Liu, Zoe Shih-Jung
name: Sattabongkot, Jetsumon
name: White, Michael
name: Chotirat, Sadudee
name: Kumpitak, Chalermpon
name: Takashima, Eizo
name: Harbers, Matthias
name: Tham, Wai-Hong
name: Healer, Julie
name: Chitnis, Chetan E.
name: Tsuboi, Takafumi
name: Mueller, Ivo
name: Longley, Rhea J.
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Immunology
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine

description: Additional file 2: Table S1. Immunogenicity of total IgG against 52 P. vivax antigens at 1-week post-infection in Thai symptomatic volunteers. Table S2. P. vivax proteins used in this study. Table S3. Immunogenicity of total IgG against 27 IgG-immunogenic P. vivax antigens at 0-week since infection in Thai asymptomatic volunteers.
Ripening effect on the concentration of polyfunctional thiol precursors in 'Gewürztraminer'
Creators: name: Nicolini, G.
name: Tonidandel, L.
name: Barbero, A.
name: Paolini, M.
name: Celotti, E.
name: Bottura, M.
name: Roman, T.
Publisher: name: VITIS - Journal of Grapevine Research
Year: 2020

description: The effect of ripeness on the concentration of polyfunctional thiol precursors was investigated in 'Gewürztraminer' juices in two vintages characterised by very different climate conditions. An incremental trend of glutathionyl-3-mercaptohexan-1-ol and cysteinyl-3-mercaptohexan-1-ol during ripening was observed. The increase in the last phase of maturation was noticeable in both vintages. The concentration of 4-S-glutathionyl-4-methylpentan-2-one and 4-S-cysteinyl-4-methylpentan-2-one was confirmed to be low in 'Gewürztraminer', although the latter was found at quantifiable levels in a couple of samples. The management of the harvest date appears to be highly important in order to exploit the potential grapefruit-like note related to polyfunctional thiols of little aromatic GWT wines, particularly in case of challenging vintage years.
description: VITIS - Journal of Grapevine Research, Vol. 59 No. 4 (2020): Vitis
CoPracTter: Toward Integrating Personalized Practice Scenarios, Timely Feedback and Social Support into An Online Support Tool for Coping with Stuttering in China
Creators: name: Li, Feng
name: Xiong, Zeyu
name: Li, Xinyi
name: Fan, Mingming
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Stuttering is a speech disorder influencing over 70 million people worldwide, including 13 million in China. It causes low self-esteem among other detrimental effects on people who stutter (PwS). Although prior work has explored approaches to assist PwS, they primarily focused on western contexts. In our formative study, we found unique practices and challenges among Chinese PwS. We then iteratively designed an online tool, CoPracTter, to support Chinese PwS practicing speaking fluency with 1) targeted stress-inducing practice scenarios, 2) real-time speech indicators, and 3) personalized timely feedback from the community. We further conducted a seven-day deployment study (N=11) to understand how participants utilized these key features. To our knowledge, it is the first time such a prototype was designed and tested for a long time with multiple PwS participants online simultaneously. Results indicate that personalized practice with targeted scenarios and timely feedback from a supportive community assisted PwS in speaking fluently, staying positive, and facing similar real-life circumstances.
description: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '23), April 23--28, 2023, Hamburg, Germany
Right-wing extremist threats to Australia in the context of the Christchurch terrorist attack
Creators: name: Kennedy, Mark
Publisher: name: Macquarie University
Year: 2022
Subjects: Other education not elsewhere classified

description: This thesis seeks to examine whether the Christchurch terror attack in New Zealand in 2019 constituted a failure in Australia’s counter-terrorism strategy. A comparative case study analysis was undertaken of the Five Eyes (FVEY) countries’ counter-terrorism strategies to evaluate their effectiveness in mitigating RWE terrorism between 2014 and 2020. The findings revealed that Australia and New Zealand were slower to take action against the RWE threat, in contrast to the UK and Canada, and to a lesser extent, the US. Australia’s slowness was, in part, due to its complacency, given that Australia had not experienced any significant RWE attacks, unlike the US, UK and Canada. Another reason for Australia’s slowness was because of its disproportionate focus on Islamist extremist terrorism, driven by the predominantly anti-Muslim terrorism discourse of some mainstream politicians. The thesis also explores what Australia could do to counter the growing RWE threat.
AOTF based spectro-polarimeter for observing Earth as an Exoplanet
Creators: name: Jaiswal, Bhavesh
name: Singh, Swapnil
name: Jain, Anand
name: Sankarasubramanian, K
name: Nandi, Anuj
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Earth is the only known habitable planet and it serves as a testbed to benchmark the observations of temperate and more Earth-like exoplanets. It is required to observe the disc-integrated signatures of Earth for a large range of phase angles, resembling the observations of an exoplanet. In this work, an AOTF (Acousto-Optic Tunable Filter) based experiment is designed to observe the spectro-polarimetric signatures of Earth. The results of spectroscopic and polarimetric laboratory calibration are presented here along with a brief overview of a possible instrument configuration. Based on the results of the spectro-polarimetric calibration, simulations are carried out to optimize the instrument design for the expected signal levels for various observing conditions. The usefulness of an AOTF based spectro-polarimeter is established from this study and it is found that, in the present configuration, the instrument can achieve a polarimetric accuracy of $<0.3$\% for linear polarization for an integration time of 100 ms or larger. The design configuration of the instrument and the planning of conducting such observations from Lunar orbit are discussed.
description: 23 Pages, 10 Figures, 4 Tables
Respiratory Francisella tularensis Live Vaccine Strain Infection Induces Th17 Cells and Prostaglandin E2, Which Inhibits Generation of Gamma Interferon-Positive T Cells
Creators: name: Frelinger, J. A.
name: Kawula, T. H.
name: Woolard, M. D.
name: Hensley, L. L.
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2008

description: Two key routes of Francisella tularensis infection are through the skin and airway. We wished to understand how the route of inoculation influenced the primary acute adaptive immune response. We show that an intranasal inoculation of the F. tularensis live vaccine strain (LVS) with a 1,000-fold-smaller dose than an intradermal dose results in similar growth kinetics and peak bacterial burdens. In spite of similar bacterial burdens, we demonstrate a difference in the quality, magnitude, and kinetics of the primary acute T-cell response depending on the route of inoculation. Further, we show that prostaglandin E2 secretion in the lung is responsible for the difference in the gamma interferon (IFN-γ) response. Intradermal inoculation led to a large number of IFN-γ+ T cells 7 days after infection in both the spleen and the lung. In contrast, intranasal inoculation induced a lower number of IFN-γ+ T cells in the spleen and lung but an increased number of Th17 cells in the lung. Intranasal infection also led to a significant increase of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. Inhibition of PGE2 production with indomethacin treatment resulted in increased numbers of IFN-γ+ T cells and decreased bacteremia in the lungs of intranasally inoculated mice. This research illuminates critical differences in acute adaptive immune responses between inhalational and dermal infection with F. tularensis LVS mediated by the innate immune system and PGE2.
Deep Reinforcement Learning for Robotic Pushing and Picking in Cluttered Environment
Creators: name: Deng, Yuhong
name: Guo, Xiaofeng
name: Wei, Yixuan
name: Lu, Kai
name: Fang, Bin
name: Guo, Di
name: Liu, Huaping
name: Sun, Fuchun
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Robotics (cs.RO)
subject: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV)
subject: Machine Learning (cs.LG)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: In this paper, a novel robotic grasping system is established to automatically pick up objects in cluttered scenes. A composite robotic hand composed of a suction cup and a gripper is designed for grasping the object stably. The suction cup is used for lifting the object from the clutter first and the gripper for grasping the object accordingly. We utilize the affordance map to provide pixel-wise lifting point candidates for the suction cup. To obtain a good affordance map, the active exploration mechanism is introduced to the system. An effective metric is designed to calculate the reward for the current affordance map, and a deep Q-Network (DQN) is employed to guide the robotic hand to actively explore the environment until the generated affordance map is suitable for grasping. Experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed robotic grasping system is able to greatly increase the success rate of the robotic grasping in cluttered scenes.
description: has been accepted by IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems 2019
RipA, a Cytoplasmic Membrane Protein Conserved among Francisella Species, Is Required for Intracellular Survival
Creators: name: Kijek, T. M.
name: Taft-Benz, S.
name: Kawula, T. H.
name: Craven, R. R.
name: Hall, J. D.
name: Fuller, J. R.
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2008

description: Francisella tularensis is a highly virulent bacterial pathogen that invades and replicates within numerous host cell types, including macrophages and epithelial cells. In an effort to better understand this process, we screened a transposon insertion library of the F. tularensis live vaccine strain (LVS) for mutant strains that invaded but failed to replicate within alveolar epithelial cell lines. One such strain isolated from this screen contained an insertion in the gene FTL_1914, which is conserved among all sequenced Francisella species yet lacks significant homology to any gene with known function. A deletion strain lacking FTL_1914 was constructed. This strain did not replicate in either epithelial or macrophage-like cells, and intracellular replication was restored by the wild-type allele in trans. Based on the deletion mutant phenotype, FTL_1914 was termed ripA (required for intracellular proliferation, factor A). Following uptake by J774.A1 cells, F. tularensis LVS ΔripA colocalized with LAMP-1 then escaped the phagosome at the same rate and frequency as wild-type LVS-infected cells. Electron micrographs of the F. tularensis LVS ΔripA mutant demonstrated the reentry of the mutant bacteria into double membrane vacuoles characteristic of autophagosomes in a process that was not dependent on replication. The F. tularensis LVS ΔripA mutant was significantly impaired in its ability to persist in the lung and in its capacity to disseminate and colonize the liver and spleen in a mouse model of pulmonary tularemia. The RipA protein was expressed during growth in laboratory media and localized to the cytoplasmic membrane. Thus, RipA is a cytoplasmic membrane protein conserved among Francisella species that is required for intracellular replication within the host cell cytoplasm as well as disease progression, dissemination, and virulence.
Additional file 1 of Vascular hyperacetylation is associated with vascular smooth muscle dysfunction in a rat model of non-obese type 2 diabetes
Creators: name: Carrillo-Sepulveda, Maria Alicia
name: Maddie, Nicole
name: Johnson, Christina Mary
name: Burke, Cameron
name: Lutz, Osina
name: Yakoub, Bamwa
name: Kramer, Benjamin
name: Persand, Dhandevi
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Medicine
subject: Genetics
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Physiology
subject: Biotechnology
subject: 39999 Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Chemical sciences
subject: 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified

description: Additional file 1: Material and Methods—MTT Assay Cell Viability.
Toll-Like Receptor 9-Dependent Macrophage Activation by Entamoeba histolytica DNA
Creators: name: Ivory, C. P. A.
name: Prystajecky, M.
name: Jobin, C.
name: Chadee, K.
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2008

description: Activation of the innate immune system by bacterial DNA and DNA of other invertebrates represents a pathogen recognition mechanism. In this study we investigated macrophage responses to DNA from the intestinal protozoan parasite Entamoeba histolytica. E. histolytica genomic DNA was purified from log-phase trophozoites and tested with the mouse macrophage cell line RAW 264.7. RAW cells treated with E. histolytica DNA demonstrated an increase in levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) mRNA and protein production. TNF-α production was blocked by pretreatment with chloroquine or monensin. In fact, an NF-κB luciferase reporter assay in HEK cells transfected with human TLR9 demonstrated that E. histolytica DNA signaled through Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) in a manner similar to that seen with CpG-ODN. Immunofluorescence assays confirmed NF-κB activation in RAW cells, as seen by nuclear translocation of the p65 subunit. Western blot analysis demonstrated mitogen-activated protein kinase activation by E. histolytica DNA. E. histolytica DNA effects were abolished in MYD88−/− mouse-derived macrophages. In the context of disease, immunization with E. histolytica DNA protected gerbils from an E. histolytica challenge infection. Taken together, these results demonstrate that E. histolytica DNA is recognized by TLR9 to activate macrophages and may provide an innate defense mechanism characterized by the induction of the inflammatory mediator TNF-α.