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NLRC3, a member of the NLR family, has been reported as a negative regulator of inflammatory signaling pathways in innate immune cells. However, the direct role of NLRC3 in modulation of CD4+ T-cell responses in infectious diseases has not been studied. In the present study, we showed that NLRC3 plays an intrinsic role by suppressing the CD4+ T cell phenotype in lung and spleen, including differentiation, activation, and proliferation. NLRC3 deficiency in CD4+ T cells enhanced the protective immune response against Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Finally, we demonstrated that NLRC3 deficiency promoted the activation, proliferation, and cytokine production of CD4+ T cells via negatively regulating the NF-κB and MEK-ERK signaling pathways. This study reveals a critical role of NLRC3 as a direct regulator of the adaptive immune response and its protective effects on immunity during M. tuberculosis infection. Our findings also suggested that NLRC3 serves as a potential target for therapeutic intervention against tuberculosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Breast cancer has distinct immunoprofiles among different molecular types. • Tumor-associated macrophages display various and even opposite functions. • Fetal-derived tissue resident macrophages are versatile and re-polarized. • Recruited macrophages are polarized by tissue microenvironments. • Fetal-derived resident and recruited macrophages are two contrary populations in tumor. Macrophage is the important sentinel cell type of innate immune system, and bridge with the adaptive immune response via antigen presentation. Tissue-resident macrophages are universal in almost all organs and play essential roles in maintaining specific organ homeostasis, inflammation responses, and disease genesis, including tumorigenesis. Macrophage is generally divided into two extreme statuses, M1 and M2, with sophisticated continuous subtypes due to different stimuli and microenvironments. Tumor-associated macrophage (TAM) is regarded as the key factor related to the prognosis, staging, classification, and treatment strategy of various cancers. However, emerging evidence indicated potential opposite functions of TAM in different tumor models. Recent studies found that different originated resident macrophages show notably different profiles in the same tissue niche. More evidence pointed out that the strategies to repolarize the subtypes of TAM or resident macrophages are valuable in carcinoma treatments. In the breast cancer model, studies pointed that macrophages located differently in histology show obvious different cell markers and functions. In this review, we will illustrate the profiles of resident macrophages in breast cancer with various aspects, including origination, polarization, tumoricidal activity, tumorigenesis, and the factors that could regulate the functions of macrophages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2020, potato tubers in storage (1% of 1,000 tons) in southern Alberta showed decay symptoms. This is the first report on I I. crassa i infecting potato in North America and I I. pseudodestructans i infecting potato in the world, respectively. [Extracted from the article]

The etiology of internal fruit rot of greenhouse-grown sweet pepper, caused by the fungus Fusarium lactis, was investigated during anthesis and fruit development using stereo, fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy. Proliferation of fungal mycelium was observed on the surface of the stigma one day after inoculation (DAI). Mycelial growth was also visible in the transmitting tissues of the style and inside the ovary at 5 and 6 DAI. When externally symptomless sweet pepper fruits were sectioned 45 DAI, typical internal fruit rot symptoms were observed. Culturing of hyphal-like strands and ovules from inoculated flowers on potato dextrose agar (PDA) confirmed the presence of F. lactis. Similarly, symptomless seeds from infected fruit also yielded colonies of the fungus on PDA. These findings support the hypothesis that internal fruit rot of greenhouse sweet pepper caused by F. lactis is initiated through the infection of the stigma and style during anthesis. Moreover, symptomless seed infection may contribute to disease spread between greenhouses, although further work is needed to understand how F. lactis becomes established and spreads from infected seeds to flowers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increase in temperature and change of correlated color temperature (CCT) would affect cognitive performance and human physiology. Moreover, the effect of CCT on thermal sensation at different temperatures is controversial and needs to be further explored. In order to study the effects of CCT variations on students' short-term memory performance and thermal sensation, 20 subjects were exposed to a "neutral temperature" (26 °C) and two "slightly warm temperature" (28 °C, 30 °C) in different periods. In each period, short-term memory tests were assessed under different CCT (3000 K, 4500 K, and 6000 K), and subsequently completed the questionnaire about their thermal sensation. Subjects' short-term memory performance was assessed using the N-back memory tool, the thermal sensation was evaluated using a seven-point scale while undergoing electrocardiogram (ECG) continuous recording by PowerLab. Spectral analysis of ECG provided indices of heart rate variability (HRV). The results indicate the short-term memory performance was not significantly affected by temperature and CCT. In addition, the results indicate the short-term memory performance was not significantly affected by temperature and CCT. The effect of CCT over thermal sensation was weaker compared with the temperature effect. There was a significant negative correlation between CCT and thermal sensation at 26 °C and 28 °C. When the temperature difference is 2 °C, CCT would change the dominance of temperature on thermal sensation. When the temperature remained the same and the CCT difference reached 3000 K, there was a significant difference in thermal sensation. Moreover, the effect of CCT over thermal sensation was consistent with "Hue-heat" hypothesis. HRV could be used to evaluate short-term memory performance and thermal sensation. • The short-term memory is not affected by temperature and CCT within acceptable range. • A significant negative correlation exists between CCT and thermal sensation. • CCT could dominate the thermal sensation within comfort range (26 °C–28 °C). • HRV could be used to evaluate short-term memory performance and thermal sensation. • The thermal environment is accepted when the HRV value is close to 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• EPANET was used to simulate the pipelines to obtain pipeline data. • The concept of "manifold" was introduced to measure the distance of spatial attribute parameters. • Clustering by fast search and find of density peaks (CFSFDP) clustering algorithm was used to perform cluster analysis. • The optimal layout of pressure monitoring points proposed in this paper provides a valuable reference. In view of the safety and stability requirements of the cooling water system (CWS) of the nuclear fusion device, it is necessary to optimize the pressure monitoring points of the water-cooling pipelines. To optimize the layout of pipeline pressure monitoring points, a method based on clustering by fast search and find of density peaks (CFSFDP) algorithm is proposed. By combining the fusion distance of the pipeline spatial attributes and the efficient CFSFDP clustering algorithm, the layout of the pressure monitoring points in the pipeline network can be effectively optimized. Further simulations and analysis show that this method can quickly realize the optimal layout of pressure monitoring points, and the rationality and effectiveness of the fusion distance is verified. Compared with other typical clustering algorithms, the CFSFDP algorithm for cluster analysis reflects the high efficiency advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a promising technology for building lifecycle management. Currently, BIM has been extensively used in both the sketch design (sketch) and detailed design (design) stages. Due to different purposes and different BIM tools, the reusability of sketch BIM models in the design stage is still challenging. To address this issue, this study proposes a building e lement i dentification scheme using a s egmentation- a ggregation strategy, termed EI-SA. Since Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) is the international standard of BIM, the EI-SA is built according to the IFC specification. Firstly, the element identification Problem is formally defined, followed by the overall framework of the EI-SA. Then, a presentation-level BIM segmentation algorithm is developed to divide a sketch BIM model into slices of geometric representations. Thirdly, a representation aggregation scheme is proposed to solve the element identification problem. The representation aggregation scheme employs a triangle-triangle intersection to detect the geometric connection and an object recognition algorithm to identify elements. Finally, experiments were conducted on several sketch BIM models. The experiment results showed that the EI-SA identified 82.22% elements on average, which verified the effectiveness of the EI-SA. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to solve the building element identification problem according to IFC. The proposed EI-SA will bridge the gap between sketch BIM models and design BIM models, smooth the reusability of data from the sketch stage to downstream stages, and improve the design efficiency by avoiding the re-designing of building elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NOD‐like receptor (NLR) family CARD domain containing 3 (NLRC3), an intracellular member of NLR family, is a negative regulator of inflammatory signaling pathways in innate and adaptive immune cells. Previous reports have shown that NLRC3 is expressed in dendritic cells (DCs). However, the role of NLRC3 in DC activation and immunogenicity is unclear. In the present study, we find that NLRC3 attenuates the antigen‐presenting function of DCs and their ability to activate and polarize CD4+ T cells into Th1 and Th17 subsets. Loss of NLRC3 promotes pathogenic Th1 and Th17 responses and enhanced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) development. NLRC3 negatively regulates the antigen‐presenting function of DCs via p38 signaling pathway. Vaccination with NLRC3‐overexpressed DCs reduces EAE progression. Our findings support that NLRC3 serves as a potential target for treating adaptive immune responses driving multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune disorders. Synopsis: The innate immune sensor NLRC3 negatively regulates dendritic cell activation to affect Th1 and Th17 cell differentiation and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. NLRC3 attenuates the antigen‐presenting function of DCs and their ability to activate and polarize CD4+ T cells into Th1 and Th17 subsets.Loss of NLRC3 promotes pathogenic Th1 and Th17 responses and enhanced EAE development.NLRC3 negatively regulates the antigen‐presenting function of DCs via p38 signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is currently the type of breast cancer with the worst prognosis; it lacks specific treatments, such as ER/PR antagonistic endocrine and anti-HER2 targeted therapies. Although immunotherapy with immune checkpoints has shown some efficacy in many solid tumors, clinical data in TNBC suggest significant limitations. The essence of ferroptosis is the impaired metabolism of intracellular lipid oxides, which in turn causes the activation and abnormalities of the immune system, including ROS, and not only plays an important role in liver injury and organ aging but also a large amount of data points to the close correlation between the ferroptosis process and tumor development. In this study, through the analysis of large-throughput biological data of breast tumors, combined with the characteristics of the biological process of ferroptosis, the specific gene IDH2 was found to be significantly highly expressed in TNBC and functionally correlated with ferroptosis. Through clinical specimens validated at the gene and protein levels, in vitro tumor cell line validation, and in vivo mouse models, we found that the high expression of IDH2 in TNBC has a role in inhibiting the ferroptosis process in TNBC, thus promoting the proliferation of TNBC cells and other malignant features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The prognostication for the injured recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) with incomplete loss of signal (LOS) and its function outcome have not been well unified. A warning criterion was proposed to predict RLN injury during monitored thyroidectomy. Methods: A retrospective review of prospectively collected data from consecutive 357 patients with 560 nerves at risk was conducted. Vocal cords mobility with laryngoscope was performed preoperatively, on the second day, and once a month postoperatively until complete recovery. Different cutoff values of the percentage reduction in sum of the amplitude of left and right channel at the end of the surgery, for postoperative vocal cord paralysis (VCP) prediction were compared. Results: Percentage reduction in sum of the amplitude of left and right channel at the end of operation ranged from 30.2 to 63.6% in 27 nerves with incomplete LOS (absolute amplitude value of final R2 > 100 μV with reduction > 50% of R1). Seven (1.25%) nerves experienced transient postoperative VCP, in which one nerve with postoperative VCP showed no amplitude reduction. The positive predictive value of VCP for the sum amplitude reduction exceeding 30, 40, 50, and 60% was 22.2, 40, 85.7, and 100%, respectively. Accuracy was 96.1, 98.2, 99.6, 99.4%, respectively. Conclusion: Percentage reduction in sum of the amplitude of left and right channel is a meaningful method to improve the accuracy of VCP prediction. When the sum amplitude reduction ≥ 50%, surgeons should consider the possibility of postoperative VCP and correct some surgical maneuvers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurately predicting the power demand of large-scale electric vehicles (EVs) is one of the key tasks of power grid operation optimization. However, this task is difficult to complete due to insufficient data and high randomness of power demand. To address this issue, this paper proposes a transfer learning based hybrid method for power demand prediction of large-scale EVs. Firstly, the linear trend of power demand is extracted by Multiple Linear Regression (MLR), and the nonlinear residual error is obtained by removing the trend from the original data. Secondly, the residual error is predicted via the bidirectional long short-term memory network (BiLSTM). Meanwhile, transfer learning is employed to improve the prediction accuracy of BiLSTM. The BiLSTM is pre-trained using the residual error data from building energy consumption and fine-tuned by the residual error data from EV power demand. Finally, the extracted trend of large-scale EVs' power demand and the predicted residual errors are combined to obtain the final predicted results. To validate the proposed method, the power demand of a real EV charging station is predicted using the proposed method, and fifteen models are taken for comparison (including the most popular data-driven models). The experimental result indicates that the proposed method can improve the predictive performance by at least 14.23% compared with the comparative models in terms of symmetric mean absolute percentage error, effectively avoids negative transfer results, and significantly enhance the confidence level. • Proposing a new hybrid architecture for predicting the large-scale EVs' power demand. • Constructing a new transfer learning strategy to improve the prediction accuracy. • The proposed hybrid model significantly improves prediction accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey was conducted in southern Alberta, Canada, to collect Fusarium stalk rot and Fusarium head blight (FHB) disease samples from corn and wheat fields, respectively, with an aim to understand the diversity in the population of Fusarium graminearum. From 77 wheat and 80 corn samples, 79 isolates of F. graminearum were obtained. These 79 isolates were evaluated for their growth rate, sporulation ability, pathogenicity and trichothecene genotype. Eighty-two percent of the isolates were recovered from corn, which suggests corn residue may be better suited than wheat for perpetuating the FHB pathogen. Three genotypes with potential of producing 3-ADON, 15-ADON and NIV were present in the population, and among them, 15-ADON producing genotype was predominant, and 3-ADON genotype produced more spores than the 15-ADON genotype. The proportion of 3-ADON genotype is increasing overtime in Alberta. The impact of increasing population of 3-ADON genotype is worthy of to be monitored for the management of FHB. There were variations in the population of F. graminearum isolates for growth rate, sporulation and pathogenicity but revealed no association among the parameters suggesting other factors like host susceptibility and environment play a significant role in the development of FHB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve the problem of voltage overshoot during switching-off transient in H-bridge, an active lossless H-bridge snubber composing of auxiliary switch and snubber capacitor is discussed, which aims to enable the H-bridge to realize a higher voltage and current. When the main switch is turned off, the capacitor absorbs the overshoot energy and the energy is returned to DC side through the auxiliary switch. Compared with the conventional RCD snubber, the voltage overshoot can be limited effectively by increasing the snubber capacitor value without considering ohmic loss. As a result, the working voltage of the switch is indirectly improved. In addition, the problem of resistance volume and heat dissipation has been avoided. All the work had been done provides a useful reference in optimizing the topology structure of Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) fast control power supply, which can reduce the volume of power supply and simplify the control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Composite visualization represents a widely embraced design that combines multiple visual representations to create an integrated view. However, the traditional approach of creating composite visualizations in immersive environments typically occurs asynchronously outside of the immersive space and is carried out by experienced experts. In this work, we aim to empower users to participate in the creation of composite visualization within immersive environments through embodied interactions. This could provide a flexible and fluid experience with immersive visualization and has the potential to facilitate understanding of the relationship between visualization views. We begin with developing a design space of embodied interactions to create various types of composite visualizations with the consideration of data relationships. Drawing inspiration from people's natural experience of manipulating physical objects, we design interactions based on the combination of 3D manipulations in immersive environments. Building upon the design space, we present a series of case studies showcasing the interaction to create different kinds of composite visualizations in virtual reality. Subsequently, we conduct a user study to evaluate the usability of the derived interaction techniques and user experience of creating composite visualizations through embodied interactions. We find that empowering users to participate in composite visualizations through embodied interactions enables them to flexibly leverage different visualization views for understanding and communicating the relationships between different views, which underscores the potential of several future application scenarios.

Data transformation is an essential step in data science. While experts primarily use programming to transform their data, there is an increasing need to support non-programmers with user interface-based tools. With the rapid development in interaction techniques and computing environments, we report our empirical findings about the effects of interaction techniques and environments on performing data transformation tasks. Specifically, we studied the potential benefits of direct interaction and virtual reality (VR) for data transformation. We compared gesture interaction versus a standard WIMP user interface, each on the desktop and in VR. With the tested data and tasks, we found time performance was similar between desktop and VR. Meanwhile, VR demonstrates preliminary evidence to better support provenance and sense-making throughout the data transformation process. Our exploration of performing data transformation in VR also provides initial affirmation for enabling an iterative and fully immersive data science workflow.