Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Highway-Related Pollutant on the Groundwater Quality of Turfy Swamps in the Changbai Mountain Area

Transportation activities such as fuel consumption, vehicle wear and road deicing can detrimentally affect the groundwater quality of fragile roadside wetland environments including. Nineteen parameters (Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Cr, Ni, Hg, As, pH, TDS, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, SO42−, Cl−, HCO3−, NO3− and F−) were determined in groundwater samples from turfy swamps impacted by highway traffic from Jiangyuan (JY), Longquan (LQ), and Huangsongdian (HSD). Our results indicate that the metals Cu, Pb, Zn, Cr, Cd, the ions Na+, K+ and Cl− in groundwater were negatively affected by highway transportation, and the maximum affected distance of these pollutants varied from 15 to 100 m. The content of most of these pollutants in roadside groundwater decreased exponentially with the distance from the highway, as did the heavy metal pollution index HPI and Cd. The values of HPI and Cd in these three sites ranged from 46.8 to 78.4 and −4.9 to −2.9, respectively. The low pollution levels of heavy metals are related to the strong adsorption capacity of turfy soil towards metals. In any case, road transport activities increased the Cu, Pb, Zn, Cr, Cd, Na+, K+ and Cl− content in roadside groundwater in turfy swamp. With the increase of highway operation time, it will inevitably have a great influence on the groundwater quality of these wetlands. Therefore, the long-term monitoring is necessary to protect the sustainable development of turfy swamp.
Detailed Human Avatars from Monocular Video

We present a novel method for high detail-preserving human avatar creation from monocular video. A parameterized body model is refined and optimized to maximally resemble subjects from a video showing them from all sides. Our avatars feature a natural face, hairstyle, clothes with garment wrinkles, and high-resolution texture. Our paper contributes facial landmark and shading-based human body shape refinement, a semantic texture prior, and a novel texture stitching strategy, resulting in the most sophisticated-looking human avatars obtained from a single video to date. Numerous results show the robustness and versatility of our method. A user study illustrates its superiority over the state-of-the-art in terms of identity preservation, level of detail, realism, and overall user preference.
Onset and Progression of Human Osteoarthritis—Can Growth Factors, Inflammatory Cytokines, or Differential miRNA Expression Concomitantly Induce Proliferation, ECM Degradation, and Inflammation in Articular Cartilage?

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative whole joint disease, for which no preventative or therapeutic biological interventions are available. This is likely due to the fact that OA pathogenesis includes several signaling pathways, whose interactions remain unclear, especially at disease onset. Early OA is characterized by three key events: a rarely considered early phase of proliferation of cartilage-resident cells, in contrast to well-established increased synthesis, and degradation of extracellular matrix components and inflammation, associated with OA progression. We focused on the question, which of these key events are regulated by growth factors, inflammatory cytokines, and/or miRNA abundance. Collectively, we elucidated a specific sequence of the OA key events that are described best as a very early phase of proliferation of human articular cartilage (AC) cells and concomitant anabolic/catabolic effects that are accompanied by incipient pro-inflammatory effects. Many of the reviewed factors appeared able to induce one or two key events. Only one factor, fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2), is capable of concomitantly inducing all key events. Moreover, AC cell proliferation cannot be induced and, in fact, is suppressed by inflammatory signaling, suggesting that inflammatory signaling cannot be the sole inductor of all early OA key events, especially at disease onset.
Health and Health Behavior Concordance between Spouses in Same-Sex and Different-Sex Marriages

Research shows that heterosexual spouses are concordant on a variety of health and health behavior outcomes. Yet, little is known about patterns of concordance between spouses in same-sex marriages, or whether concordance patterns differ for spouses in same- and different-sex marriages. Using descriptive techniques, we analyze survey data from both spouses in 121 gay, 168 lesbian, and 122 heterosexual married couples to examine health and health behavior concordance. We find that gay and lesbian couples are more concordant than heterosexual couples on several health and health behavior outcomes. Differences in concordance between gay and lesbian couples are also found. Findings suggest that the pathways through which concordance occurs may differ in important ways for same-sex and different-sex unions.
Effects of creativity on social and behavioral adjustment in 7‐ to 11‐year‐old children

This study sought to explore whether creativity in undertaking activities such as free writing, telling a story, crafts, painting, drawing, or drama at age 7 is associated with a lower risk of social and behavioral maladjustment in children at the onset of adolescence. Data from 7558 7‐year‐olds who were socially and behaviorally “stable” at baseline were analyzed from the nationally representative National Child Development Study. Multinomial regression analyses showed associations between teacher‐rated creativity at age 7 and a lower relative risk of social and behavioral instability and maladjustment at age 11. Specifically, the associations were found between moderate and marked creativity and a lower risk of symptoms of internalizing behaviors (including depression and withdrawal), externalizing behaviors (such as restlessness) as well as a lower risk of various nervous symptoms of social and behavioral instability and maladjustment. Associations were independent of social, demographic, educational, parental, academic, and personality covariates, and robust to a range of sensitivity analyses. These results suggest that facilitating engagement with creative activities could be explored further as a way of reducing levels of instability and maladjustment at the onset of adolescence.
Pharmacokinetics and Bioavailability Study of a Prednisolone Tablet as a Single Oral Dose in Bangladeshi Healthy Volunteers

The aim of the study was to assess the pharmacokinetic and bioavailability of 2 formulations of 5-mg prednisolone tablets, reference product (Teva UK Limited) and Pred (Eskayef Bangladesh Ltd) as test product. The open-label, randomized, 2-way crossover studies were conducted on 14 healthy subjects. Participants were assigned to receive both products as a single dose (20 mg formulations, 4 × 5 mg tablets) followed by a 2 weeks’ washout period. Following oral administration, samples were obtained at various time intervals and analyzed for prednisolone concentrations using a validated high-performance liquid chromatography assay method with ultraviolet detection. The obtained values for test and reference products were 683.00 ± 94.54 ng/mL and 635.16 ± 125.57 ng/mL for Cmax; 2716.54 ± 196.28 ng·h/mL and 2780.5 ± 119.73 ng·h/mL for AUC0-12; 3284.36 ± 138.12 ng·h/mL and 3317.96 ± 133.95 ng·h/mL for AUC0-∞, respectively. From the paired Student t test, no significant differences between 2 formulations were observed (P > .05). The 90% confidence intervals of Cmax, AUC0-12, and AUC0-∞ were found to be 99.0% to 100.9%, 99.4% to 100.5%, and 99.9% to 101.3%, respectively. Finally, it can be concluded that Pred (Test) of Eskayef Bangladesh Ltd and prednisolone (Reference) of Teva UK Limited are bioequivalent and interchangeable.
Circulating Biomarkers and Resistance to Endocrine Therapy in Metastatic Breast Cancers: Correlative Results from AZD9496 Oral SERD Phase I Trial

Purpose: Common resistance mechanisms to endocrine therapy (ET) in estrogen receptor (ER)–positive metastatic breast cancers include, among others, ER loss and acquired activating mutations in the ligand-binding domain of the ER gene (ESR1LBDm). ESR1 mutational mediated resistance may be overcome by selective ER degraders (SERD). During the first-in-human study of oral SERD AZD9496, early changes in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) were explored as potential noninvasive tools, alongside paired tumor biopsies, to assess pharmacodynamics and early efficacy. Experimental Design: CTC were enumerated/phenotyped for ER and Ki67 using CellSearch in serial blood draws. ctDNA was assessed for the most common ESR1LBDm by droplet digital PCR (BioRad). Results: Before starting AZD9496, 11 of 43 (25%) patients had ≥5 CTC/7.5 mL whole blood (WB), none of whom underwent reduction to <5 CTC/7.5 mL WB on C1D15. Five of 11 patients had baseline CTC-ER+, two of whom had CTC-ER+ reduction. CTC-Ki67 status did not change appreciably. Patients with ≥5 CTC/7.5 mL WB before treatment had worse progression-free survival (PFS) than patients with <5 CTC (P = 0.0003). Fourteen of 45 (31%) patients had ESR1LBDm+ ctDNA at baseline, five of whom had ≥2 unique mutations. Baseline ESR1LBDm status was not prognostic. Patients with persistently elevated CTC and/or ESR1LBDm+ ctDNA at C1D15 had worse PFS than patients who did not (P = 0.0007). Conclusions: Elevated CTC at baseline was a strong prognostic factor in this cohort. Early on-treatment changes were observed in CTC-ER+ and ESR1LBDm+ ctDNA, but not in overall CTC number. Integrating multiple biomarkers in prospective trials may improve outcome prediction and ET resistance mechanisms' identification over a single biomarker.
Depressed as Freshmen, Stressed as Seniors: The Relationship between Depression, Perceived Stress and Academic Results among Medical Students

Research in the field has identified the presence of stress and depression among medical students. However, no other study has pointed out the differences between years of study. The objectives of the study are to identify the levels of stress and depression among medical students and to point out the relationship between these two variables. Methods: The cross-sectional study gathered data regarding socio-demographic characteristics, depression, self-identified psychological and physical symptoms during stressful periods and perceived stress among medical students in a university in Romania. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics v23. For comparative analysis the t-test for independent samples and one-way ANOVA was used and for correlational analysis, Pearson and Spearman correlations was used. Results: Freshmen are the most depressed and graduating students are the most stressed medical students. Statistical analysis reveals an average score of perceived stress (M = 17.31 ± 6.79) and mild-moderate depression (M = 10.11 ± 7.69). Women are more prone to symptoms of depression. Students enrolled in the third year of study are the least depressed and the least stressed. Perceived stress is significantly positive correlated with depression and negative in strong correlation with the number of course credits received. More than half of students experience an increased rate of anxiety and consumption of alcohol, coffee, sweets or cigarettes during stressful academic periods. Over 60% declare themselves satisfied with their academic results. Conclusions: Strategies to diminish the level of stress and depression among medical students are necessary. Psychological support and educational counseling should start from admission, since freshmen experience the highest rate of depression.
Measuring the Impact of a Successful DDoS Attack on the Customer Behaviour of Managed DNS Service Providers

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks continue to pose a serious threat to the availability of Internet services. The Domain Name System (DNS) is part of the core of the Internet and a crucial factor in the successful delivery of Internet services. Because of the importance of DNS, specialist service providers have sprung up in the market, that provide managed DNS services. One of their key selling points is that they protect DNS for a domain against DDoS attacks. But what if such a service becomes the target of a DDoS attack, and that attack succeeds? In this paper we analyse two such events, an attack on NS1 in May 2016, and an attack on Dyn in October 2016. We do this by analysing the change in the behaviour of the service's customers. For our analysis we leverage data from the OpenINTEL active DNS measurement system, which covers large parts of the global DNS over time. Our results show an almost immediate and statistically significant change in the behaviour of domains that use NS1 or Dyn as a DNS service provider. We observe a decline in the number of domains that exclusively use NS1 or Dyn as a managed DNS service provider, and see a shift toward risk spreading by using multiple providers. While a large managed DNS provider may be better equipped to protect against attacks, these two case studies show they are not impervious to them. This calls into question the wisdom of using a single provider for managed DNS. Our results show that spreading risk by using multiple providers is an effective countermeasure, albeit probably at a higher cost.
Indoor air pollution aggravates asthma in Chinese children and induces the changes in serum level of miR-155

ABSTRACT Indoor air pollution is associated with childhood asthma but the molecular mechanism remains unclear. We aimed to explore the relationship between indoor air pollution and pediatric asthma, and the potential molecular mechanism. The serum level of miR-155 was measured by real-time qPCR in 180 Chinese children with asthma caused by air pollution (an asthma group). Meanwhile, 180 healthy subjects were selected as a control group. HCHO, NO2, and particles (PM10, PM2.5, and PM1) were measured. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were analyzed to assess the relationship between air pollutants and asthma risk. A rank correlation test was used to explore the relationship between serum level of miR-155 and the level of PM2.5 or HCHO. Serum level of miR-155 was higher in the asthma group than the control group (p < 0.001). The history of childhood allergy, breastfeeding, environmental tobacco smoke, PM2.5, and HCHO were significantly different between two groups (p < 0.05). Serum level of miR-155 was closely associated with the levels of indoor PM2.5 and HCHO in the asthma group (p < 0.05) but not in the control group (p > 0.05). Indoor air pollution aggravates the asthma in Chinese children and induces the changes in the serum level of miR-155. Abbreviation: DEP: Diesel exhaust particles; PAHs: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; THBS1: thrombospondin 1; ISAAC: International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood; PFTs: Pulmonary Function Tests; FEV1: The first second of forced expiration; EDTA, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid; RT-qPCR, Reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR; ETS: environmental tobacco smoke; PAEs: phthalate esters
The contribution of cross-talk between the cell-surface proteins CD36 and CD47–TSP-1 in osteoclast formation and function

Antibody-mediated blockade of cluster of differentiation 47 (CD47)–thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) interactions blocks osteoclast formation in vitro and attenuates parathyroid hormone (PTH)-induced hypercalcemia in vivo in mice. Hypercalcemia in this model reflects increased bone resorption. TSP-1 has two cell-associated binding partners, CD47 and CD36. The roles of these two molecules in mediating the effects of TSP1 in osteoclasts are unclear. Osteoclast formation was attenuated but not absent when preosteoclasts isolated from CD47−/− mice were cocultured with WT osteoblasts. Suppressing CD36 in osteoclast progenitors also attenuated osteoclast formation. The hypercalcemic response to a PTH infusion was blunted in CD47−/−/CD36−/− (double knockout (DKO)) female mice but not CD47−/− mice or CD36−/− animals, supporting a role for both CD47 and CD36 in mediating this effect. Consistent with this, DKO osteoclasts had impaired resorptive activity when analyzed in vitro. Inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) signaling is known to promote osteoclastogenesis, and TSP-1 suppresses NO production and signaling. An anti-TSP-1 antibody increased NO production in osteoclasts, and the inhibitory effect of anti-TSP-1 on osteoclastogenesis was completely rescued by l-nitroarginine methyl ester (l-NAME), a competitive NO synthase inhibitor. Supportive of an important role for CD36 in mediating the pro-osteoclastogenic effects of TSP-1, engaging CD36 with a synthetic agonist, p907, suppressed NO production in anti-TSP-1–treated cultures, allowing osteoclast maturation to occur. These results establish that CD36 and CD47 both participate in mediating the actions of TSP-1 in osteoclasts and establish a physiologically relevant cross-talk in bone tissue between these two molecules.
Evaluation of Cytotoxicity Effects of Chalcone Epoxide Analogues as a Selective COX-II Inhibitor in the Human Liver Carcinoma Cell Line

Objectives Study of the mechanisms involved in cancer progression suggests that cyclooxygenase enzymes play an important role in the induction of inflammation, tumor formation, and metastasis of cancer cells. Thus, cyclooxygenase enzymes could be considered for cancer chemotherapy. Among these enzymes, cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) is associated with liver carcinogenesis. Various COX-2 inhibitors cause growth inhibition of human hepatocellular carcinoma cells, but many of them act in the COX-2 independent mechanism. Thus, the introduction of selective COX-2 inhibitors is necessary to achieve a clear result. The present study was aimed to determine the growth-inhibitory effects of new analogues of chalcone epoxide as selective COX-2 inhibitors on the human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cell line. Methods Estimation of both cell growth and the amount of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production were used to study the effect of selective COX-2 inhibitors on the hepatocellular carcinoma cell. Cell growth determination has done by MTT assay in 24 h, 48 h and 72 h, and PGE2 production has estimated by using ELYSA kit in 48 h and 72 h. Results The results showed growth inhibition of the HepG2 cell line in a concentration and time-dependent manner, as well as a reduction in the formation of PGE2 as a product of COX-2 activity. Among the compounds those analogues with methoxy and hydrogen group showed more inhibitory effect than others. Conclusion The current in-vitro study indicates that the observed significant growth-inhibitory effect of chalcone-epoxide analogues on the HepG2 cell line may involve COX-dependent mechanisms and the PGE2 pathway parallel to the effect of celecoxib. It can be said that these analogues might be efficient compounds in chemotherapy of COX-2 dependent carcinoma specially preventing and treatment of hepatocellular carcinomas.
An Efficient Deep Reinforcement Learning Model for Urban Traffic Control

Urban Traffic Control (UTC) plays an essential role in Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) but remains difficult. Since model-based UTC methods may not accurately describe the complex nature of traffic dynamics in all situations, model-free data-driven UTC methods, especially reinforcement learning (RL) based UTC methods, received increasing interests in the last decade. However, existing DL approaches did not propose an efficient algorithm to solve the complicated multiple intersections control problems whose state-action spaces are vast. To solve this problem, we propose a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) algorithm that combines several tricks to master an appropriate control strategy within an acceptable time. This new algorithm relaxes the fixed traffic demand pattern assumption and reduces human invention in parameter tuning. Simulation experiments have shown that our method outperforms traditional rule-based approaches and has the potential to handle more complex traffic problems in the real world.
Generation of transgenic‐cloned Huanjiang Xiang pigs systemically expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein

Huanjiang Xiang pig is a unique native minipig breed originating in Guangxi, China, and has great utility value in agriculture and biomedicine. Reproductive biotechnologies such as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) and SCNT-mediated genetic modification show great potential value in genetic preservation and utilization of Huanjiang Xiang pigs. Our previous work has successfully produced cloned and transgenic-cloned embryos using somatic cells from a Huanjiang Xiang pig. In this study, we firstly report the generation of transgenic-cloned Huanjiang Xiang pigs carrying an enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) gene. A total of 504 SCNT-derived embryos were transferred to two surrogate recipients, one of which became pregnant and gave birth to three live piglets. Exogenous eGFP transgene had integrated in all of the three Huanjiang Xiang piglets identified by genotyping. Furthermore, expression of eGFP was also detected from in vitro cultured skin fibroblast cells and various organs or tissues from positive transgenic-cloned Huanjiang Xiang pigs. The present work provides a practical method to preserve this unique genetic resource and also lays a foundation for genetic modification of Huanjiang Xiang pigs with improved values in agriculture and biomedicine.
Contribution of STAT3 to Inflammatory and Fibrotic Diseases and Prospects for its Targeting for Treatment

Signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) 3 plays a central role in the host response to injury. It is activated rapidly within cells by many cytokines, most notably those in the IL-6 family, leading to pro-proliferative and pro-survival programs that assist the host in regaining homeostasis. With persistent activation, however, chronic inflammation and fibrosis ensue, leading to a number of debilitating diseases. This review summarizes advances in our understanding of the role of STAT3 and its targeting in diseases marked by chronic inflammation and/or fibrosis with a focus on those with the largest unmet medical need.
Telemetry-based stream-learning of BGP anomalies

Recent technology evolution allows network equipments to continuously stream a wealth of "telemetry" information, which pertains to multiple protocols and layers of the stack, at a very fine spatialgrain and at high-frequency. Processing this deluge of telemetry data in real-time clearly offers new opportunities for network control and troubleshooting, but also poses serious challenges. We tackle this challenge by applying streaming machine-learning techniques to the continuous flow of control and data-plane telemetry data, with the purpose of real-time detection of BGP anomalies. In particular, we implement an anomaly detection engine that leverages DenStream, an unsupervised clustering technique, and apply it to features collected from a large-scale testbed comprising tens of routers traversed by 1 Terabit/sec worth of real application traffic. In spirit with the recent trend toward reproducibility of research results, we make our code, datasets and demo available as open source to the scientific community.