Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Long- and Short-Term Atmospheric Water Cycles on the Water Balance over the Maritime Continent

This study investigated atmospheric water cycles over several time scales to understand the maintenance processes that control heavy precipitation over the islands of the Maritime Continent. Large island regions can be divided into land, coastal, and ocean areas based on the characteristics of both the hydrologic cycle and the diurnal variation in precipitation. Within the Maritime Continent, the major islands of Borneo and New Guinea exhibit different hydrologic cycles. Large-scale circulation variations, such as the seasonal cycle and the Madden–Julian oscillation, have a lesser effect on the hydrologic cycle over Borneo than over New Guinea because the effects depend on their shapes and locations. The impact of diurnal variations on both regional-scale circulation and water exchange between land and coastal regions is pronounced over both islands. The recycling ratio of precipitation, which can be related to stronger diurnal variation in the atmospheric water cycle that results from enhanced evapotranspiration over tropical rain forests, is higher over Borneo than over New Guinea.
Electrophilic Compounds in the Human Diet and Their Role in the Induction of the Transcription Factor NRF2

The phrase “Let food be thy medicine…” means that food can be a form of medicine and medicine can be a form of food; in other words, that the diet we eat can have a significant impact on our health and well-being. Today, this phrase is gaining prominence as more and more scientific evidence suggests that one’s diet can help prevent and treat disease. A diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein can help reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other health problems and, on the other hand, a diet rich in processed foods, added sugars, and saturated fats can increase the risk of the same diseases. Electrophilic compounds in the diet can have a significant impact on our health, and they are molecules that covalently modify cysteine residues present in the thiol-rich Keap1 protein. These compounds bind to Keap1 and activate NRF2, which promotes its translocation to the nucleus and its binding to DNA in the ARE region, triggering the antioxidant response and protecting against oxidative stress. These compounds include polyphenols and flavonoids that are nucleophilic but are converted to electrophilic quinones by metabolic enzymes such as polyphenol oxidases (PPOs) and sulfur compounds present in foods such as the Brassica genus (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, etc.) and garlic. This review summarizes our current knowledge on this subject.
A Comprehensive Study on Folate-Targeted Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles Loaded with 5-Fluorouracil for the Enhanced Treatment of Gynecological Cancers

Background: Gynecological cancers are a significant public health concern, accounting for 40% of all cancer incidence and 30% of deaths in women. 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) can be used with chemotherapy to improve treatment in advanced-stage gynecological cancer. Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) can improve drug effectiveness and reduce toxicity. Folic acid can target folate receptors in epithelial malignancies like ovarian and cervical cancer. Methods: The mixture of MSN-NH2 was synthesized by dissolving N-lauroylsarcosine sodium in a water–ethanol mixture, adding APTES and TEOS, and heating at 80 °C for 18 h, before being fully characterized. The drug is loaded into a 5-FU solution and functionalized with folate. The drug release mechanism, as well as ex vivo intestinal permeation from MSN-NH2 formulations, was tested. The cell viability study of the nanoparticles was evaluated in various cancer cell lines, and the cellular uptake was measured indirectly using HPLC. Results: The study analyzed the amine content, propylamine loading, and drug loading capacity of MSN-NH2 nanoparticles. It found that the loading of propylamine was around 0.733 mmol/g, and the surface density was 0.81 molecules/nm. The study also showed that the surface decoration of MSN-NH2 with folic acid was successfully achieved. The release rate of 5-FU from MSN-NH2 was slow and controlled, with a slower rate at pH 5.5. The study found that the amin surface functionalization of MSN-NH2 nanoparticles can reduce potential toxicity in ovarian and cervical cancer cells. Conclusions: Based on the results, the encapsulation of 5-FU and functionalization of MSN-NH2 with folic acid can serve as potential carriers for 5-FU in treating gynecological cancer.
Loss of Proteostatic Control as a Substrate for Atrial Fibrillation: A Novel Target for Upstream Therapy by Heat Shock Proteins

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common, sustained clinical tachyarrhythmia associated with significant morbidity and mortality. AF is a persistent condition with progressive structural remodeling of the atrial cardiomyocytes due to the AF itself, resulting in cellular changes commonly observed in aging and in other heart diseases. While rhythm control by electrocardioversion or drug treatment is the treatment of choice in symptomatic AF patients, its efficacy is still limited. Current research is directed at preventing first-onset AF by limiting the development of substrates underlying AF progression and resembles mechanism-based therapy. Upstream therapy refers to the use of non-ion channel anti-arrhythmic drugs that modify the atrial substrate- or target-specific mechanisms of AF, with the ultimate aim to prevent the occurrence (primary prevention) or recurrence of the arrhythmia following (spontaneous) conversion (secondary prevention). Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are molecular chaperones and comprise a large family of proteins involved in the protection against various forms of cellular stress. Their classical function is the conservation of proteostasis via prevention of toxic protein aggregation by binding to (partially) unfolded proteins. Our recent data reveal that HSPs prevent electrical, contractile, and structural remodeling of cardiomyocytes, thus attenuating the AF substrate in cellular, Drosophila melanogaster, and animal experimental models. Furthermore, studies in humans suggest a protective role for HSPs against the progression from paroxysmal AF to persistent AF and in recurrence of AF. In this review, we discuss upregulation of the heat shock response system as a novel target for upstream therapy to prevent derailment of proteostasis and consequently progression and recurrence of AF.
Analyses of occurrence data of protected insect species collected by citizens in Italy

Citizen science, the engagement of people in a research project, has grown rapidly in recent years, also for mapping of species of conservation interest. The Life Project “Monitoring Insects with Public Participation” (MIPP) actively promoted collaboration amongst scientists, public administrations and citizens in the collection of occurrence data of nine insect species listed in the Habitats Directive: Lucanus cervus, Osmoderma eremita, Cerambyx cerdo, Rosalia alpina, Morimus asper/funereus, Lopinga achine, Parnassius apollo, Zerynthia cassandra/polyxena and Saga pedo. These species were selected because they share two main characteristics: (i) they are listed in Annexes II and IV of the Habitats Directive and (ii) they are large and relatively easy to identify. From 2014 to 2016, many different strategies were applied to contact and engage the public and approximately 14,000 citizens were reached directly. Additionally, printed and Nature Conservation 20: 265–297 (2017) doi: 10.3897/natureconservation.20. 12704 http://natureconservation.pensoft. net Copyright Alessandro Campanaro et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CONSERVATION IN PRACTICE Launched to accelerate biodiversity conservation A peer-reviewed open-access journal
Link Propagation: A Fast Semi-supervised Learning Algorithm for Link Prediction

We propose Link Propagation as a new semi-supervised learning method for link prediction problems, where the task is to predict unknown parts of the network structure by using auxiliary information such as node similarities. Since the proposed method can fill in missing parts of tensors, it is applicable to multi-relational domains, allowing us to handle multiple types of links simultaneously. We also give a novel efficient algorithm for Link Propagation based on an accelerated conjugate gradient method.
Generation of Highly Functional Hepatocyte-like Organoids from Human Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Cultured with Endothelial Cells

Previously, we successfully established a highly functional, three-dimensional hepatocyte-like cell (3D-HLC) model from adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs) via a three-step differentiation protocol. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether generating hepatocyte-like organoids (H-organoids) by adding endothelial cells further improved the liver-like functionality of 3D-HLCs and to assess H-organoids’ immunogenicity properties. Genes representing liver maturation and function were detected by quantitative reverse transcription–PCR analysis. The expression of hepatic maturation proteins was measured using immunofluorescence staining. Cytochrome P (CYP)450 metabolism activity and ammonia metabolism tests were used to assess liver function. H-organoids were successfully established by adding human umbilical vein endothelial cells at the beginning of the definitive endoderm stage in our 3D differentiation protocol. The gene expression of alpha-1 antitrypsin, carbamoyl–phosphate synthase 1, and apolipoprotein E, which represent liver maturation state and function, was higher in H-organoids than non-organoid 3D-HLCs. H-organoids possessed higher CYP3A4 metabolism activity and comparable ammonia metabolism capacity than 3D-HLCs. Moreover, although H-organoids expressed human leukocyte antigen class I, they expressed little human leukocyte antigen class II, cluster of differentiation (CD)40, CD80, CD86, and programmed cell death ligand 1, suggesting their immunogenicity properties were not significantly upregulated during differentiation from ADSCs. In conclusion, we successfully established an H-organoid model with higher liver-like functionality than previously established 3D-HLCs and comparable immunogenicity to ADSCs.
Seawater strontium isotopes, oceanic anoxic events, and seafloor hydrothermal activity in the Jurassic and Cretaceous

There were three negative seawater strontium-isotope excursions (shifts to lower 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values) during the Jurassic and Cretaceous that were of relatively short duration (5-13 my) and showed a relatively quick recovery to pre-excursion 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios. These excursions occurred in the Pliensbachian-Toarcian (Early Jurassic), Aptian-Albian, and Cenomanian-Santonian (Early and Late Cretaceous respec- tively). Each excursion coincided closely in time with an Oceanic Anoxic Event (OAE) marked by sediments unusually rich in organic carbon. The Jurassic OAE occurred at the end of the strontium-isotope excursion, whereas the two Cretaceous OAEs oc- curred at the onset of the accompanying strontium-isotope excursions. The possible causes of these excursions were evaluated by successively examining the changes in the riverine strontium fluxes, riverine 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios, or hydrothermal strontium fluxes required to produce each excursion. A range of seawater strontium budgets was used to encompass the uncertainties in modern and ancient cycles. To produce the excursions, we calculate that the riverine strontium fluxes would have had to decrease by 6 to 15 percent or the fluvial 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios by 0.00019 to 0.00046. The uncertainties largely stem from the assumed magnitude of the hydrothermal strontium flux at the onset of each excursion. Alternatively, increases in sea-floor hydrothermal activity of 7 to 104 percent could also have produced the strontium-isotope excursions. This large range is due mostly to uncertainties in the relative flux of strontium from axial high-temperature hydrothermal systems and low-temperature off-axis systems. Only a small portion of this range stems from uncertainties in the riverine strontium terms. The possible causes of the excursions were further evaluated by examining several geologic factors that could have affected riverine strontium, including climate change, sealevel, and the eruption of flood basalts. We conclude that neither variations in riverine strontium fluxes nor in 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios is the likely cause of the strontium- isotope excursions. The most probable explanation is increased rates of hydrothermal activity related to increased ocean-crust production at the mid-ocean ridges. The close correlation in time between the strontium-isotope excursions and the major Oceanic Anoxic Events (OAEs) is compatible with a causal linkage. We propose that increased ocean-crust production led to enhanced CO2 outgassing and global warming, which in turn led to several processes that acted to make surface ocean waters more productive. However, because OAEs did not occur throughout the proposed periods of enhanced hydrothermal activity, it appears that these processes only preconditioned the oceans for the OAEs: sealevel rise may have been the final trigger. This model explains why all three OAEs did not occur at the same time relative to the onset of excess hydrothermal activity and why OAEs are not associated with every sealevel rise documented in the stratigraphic record.
Preparation and passive target of 5-fluorouracil solid lipid nanoparticles

This work studied the intravenous injection formulation of solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) loaded with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). The goal was to design longer drug residence in vivo and passive targeting nanoparticles which could improve therapeutic efficacy and reduce side-effects. Based on the optimized results of uniform design experiment, 5-FU-SLNs were prepared by multiple emulsion-ultrasonication (w/o/w). The SLNs were found to be relatively uniform in size (182.1 ± 25.8 nm) with a negative zeta potential (−27.89 ± 5.1 mV). The average drug entrapment efficiency and loading were 74% and 10%, respectively. Compared with the 5-FU solution (t1/2β, 0.593h; MRT, 0.358h) after intravenous injection to rats, the pharmacokinetic parameters of 5-FU-SLNs exhibited a longer retention time. (t1/2β, 4.0628h; MRT, 3.5321h). The area under curve of plasma concentration-time (AUC) of 5-FU-SLNs was 1.48 times greater than that of free drugs. The overall targeting efficiency (TEC) of the 5-FU-SLNs was enhanced from 13.25–20.45% in the lung and from 11.48–23.16% in kidney while the spleen distribution of 5-FU was significantly reduced as compared with that of the 5-FU solution. These results indicated that 5-FU-SLNs were promising passive targeting therapeutic agents for curing primary lung carcinoma.
Protective Effect of Que Zui Tea on d-Galactose-Induced Oxidative Stress Damage in Mice via Regulating SIRT1/Nrf2 Signaling Pathway

Que Zui tea (QT) is an important herbal tea in the diet of the ‘Yi’ people, an ethnic group in China, and it has shown significant antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and hepatoprotective effects in vitro. This study aims to explore the protective effects of the aqueous-ethanol extract (QE) taken from QT against ᴅ-galactose (ᴅ-gal)-induced oxidative stress damage in mice and its potential mechanisms. QE was identified as UHPLC-HRMS/MS for its chemical composition and possible bioactive substances. Thus, QE is rich in phenolic and flavonoid compounds. Twelve compounds were identified, the main components of which were chlorogenic acid, quinic acid, and 6′-O-caffeoylarbutin. Histopathological and biochemical analysis revealed that QE significantly alleviated brain, liver, and kidney damage in ᴅ-gal-treated mice. Moreover, QE remarkably attenuated oxidative stress by activating the Nrf2/HO-1 pathway to increase the expression of antioxidant indexes, including GSH, GSH-Px, CAT, SOD, and T-AOC. In addition, QE administration could inhibit the IL-1β and IL-6 levels, which suppress the inflammatory response. QE could noticeably alleviate apoptosis by inhibiting the expressions of Caspase-3 and Bax proteins in the brains, livers, and kidneys of mice. The anti-apoptosis mechanism may be related to the upregulation of the SIRT1 protein and the downregulation of the p53 protein induced by QE in the brain, liver, and kidney tissues of mice. Molecular docking analysis demonstrated that the main components of QE, 6′-O-caffeoylarbutin, chlorogenic acid, quinic acid, and robustaside A, had good binding ability with Nrf2 and SIRT1 proteins. The present study indicated that QE could alleviate ᴅ-gal-induced brain, liver and kidney damage in mice by inhibiting the oxidative stress and cell apoptosis; additionally, the potential mechanism may be associated with the SIRT1/Nrf2 signaling pathway.
Sex and risk of hip implant failure: assessing total hip arthroplasty outcomes in the United States.

IMPORTANCE The role of sex in relationship to implant failure after total hip arthroplasty (THA) is important for patient management and device innovation. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association of sex with short-term risk of THA revision after adjusting for patient, implant, surgery, surgeon, and hospital confounders. DESIGN AND SETTING A prospective cohort of patients enrolled in a total joint replacement registry from April 1, 2001, through December 31, 2010. PARTICIPANTS Patients undergoing primary, elective, unilateral THA. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Failure of THA, defined as revision procedure for (1) any reason, (2) septic reason, or (3) aseptic reason after the index procedure. RESULTS A total of 35,140 THAs with 3.0 years of median follow-up were identified. Women constituted 57.5% of the study sample, and the mean (SD) patient age was 65.7 (11.6) years. A higher proportion of women received 28-mm femoral heads (28.2% vs 13.1%) and had metal on highly cross-linked polyethylene-bearing surfaces (60.6% vs 53.7%) than men. Men had a higher proportion of 36-mm or larger heads (55.4% vs 32.8%) and metal on metal-bearing surfaces (19.4% vs 9.6%). At 5-year follow-up, implant survival was 97.4% (95% CI, 97.2%-97.6%). Device survival for men (97.7%; 95% CI, 97.4%-98.0%) vs women (97.1%; 95% CI, 96.8%-97.4%) was significantly different (P = .01). After adjustments, the hazards ratios for women were 1.29 (95% CI, 1.11-1.51) for all-cause revision, 1.32 (95% CI, 1.10-1.58) for aseptic revision, and 1.17 (95% CI, 0.81-1.68) for septic revision. CONCLUSIONS After considering patient-, surgery-, surgeon-, volume-, and implant-specific risk factors, women had a 29% higher risk of implant failure than men after THA in this community-based sample.
The impact of stratification by implausible energy reporting status on estimates of diet‐health relationships

The food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) is known to be prone to measurement error. Researchers have suggested excluding implausible energy reporters (IERs) of FFQ total energy when examining the relationship between a health outcome and FFQ‐reported intake to obtain less biased estimates of the effect of the error‐prone measure of exposure; however, the statistical properties of stratifying by IER status have not been studied. Under certain assumptions, including nondifferential error, we show that when stratifying by IER status, the attenuation of the estimated relative risk in the stratified models will be either greater or less in both strata (implausible and plausible reporters) than for the nonstratified model, contrary to the common belief that the attenuation will be less among plausible reporters and greater among IERs. Whether there is more or less attenuation depends on the pairwise correlations between true exposure, observed exposure, and the stratification variable. Thus exclusion of IERs is inadvisable but stratification by IER status can sometimes help. We also address the case of differential error. Examples from the Observing Protein and Energy Nutrition Study and simulations illustrate these results.
A Simplified Sea Surface Emissivity Model for Retrieving Sea Surface Temperature From Sentinel-3A SLSTR Data

Sea surface temperature (SST) is an important parameter for assessing sea–atmosphere energy interaction and understanding climate change. One of the primary approaches for obtaining global-scale SST is retrieving from satellite thermal infrared (TIR) remote sensing data. However, it is challenging to accurately retrieve large-scale SST due to the complexity of retrieving the key intermediate parameter, i.e., sea surface emissivity (SSE), using the standard theoretical model. In this study, we proposed a simplified SSE estimation model based on the satellite view zenith angle (VZA) and wind speed and compared it with three commonly used SSE estimation models. Then, the retrieved SSTs based on those SSEs were validated against in situ SSTs. The results show that the SSE from the proposed estimation model shows the highest consistency and the lowest biases with the theoretical values compared to the other three estimation models, especially in large VZAs. In situ observation-based SST validation results show that the SST retrieved using the proposed SSE estimation model also achieves the highest accuracy compared to the other three SSTs, with a mean bias error of 0.08 K, and a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 0.30 K, which is close to the official SST products. In conclusion, the proposed SSE estimation model shows good performance both in SSE estimating and SST retrieving. Furthermore, the proposed model has the potential to estimate SSE on large scales that can serve as a reference for obtaining SST from other similar sensors to promote the development of marine remote sensing.
Utilizing term proximity for blog post retrieval

Term proximity is effective for many information retrieval (IR) research fields yet remains unexplored in blogosphere IR. The blogosphere is characterized by large amounts of noise, including incohesive, off‐topic content and spam. Consequently, the classical bag‐of‐words unigram IR models are not reliable enough to provide robust and effective retrieval performance. In this article, we propose to boost the blog postretrieval performance by employing term proximity information. We investigate a variety of popular and state‐of‐the‐art proximity‐based statistical IR models, including a proximity‐based counting model, the Markov random field (MRF) model, and the divergence from randomness (DFR) multinomial model. Extensive experimentation on the standard TREC Blog06 test dataset demonstrates that the introduction of term proximity information is indeed beneficial to retrieval from the blogosphere. Results also indicate the superiority of the unordered bi‐gram model with the sequential‐dependence phrases over other variants of the proximity‐based models. Finally, inspired by the effectiveness of proximity models, we extend our study by exploring the proximity evidence between uery terms and opinionated terms. The consequent opinionated proximity model shows promising performance in the experiments.