Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Firefighter hood contamination: Efficiency of laundering to remove PAHs and FRs

Abstract Firefighters are occupationally exposed to products of combustion containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and flame retardants (FRs), potentially contributing to their increased risk for certain cancers. Personal protective equipment (PPE), including firefighter hoods, helps to reduce firefighters’ exposure to toxic substances during fire responses by providing a layer of material on which contaminants deposit prior to reaching the firefighters skin. However, over time hoods that retain some contamination may actually contribute to firefighters’ systemic dose. We investigated the effectiveness of laundering to reduce or remove contamination on the hoods, specifically PAHs and three classes of FRs: polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), non-PBDE flame retardants (NPBFRs), and organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs). Participants in the study were grouped into crews of 12 firefighters who worked in pairs by job assignment while responding to controlled fires in a single-family residential structure. For each pair of firefighters, one hood was laundered after every scenario and one was not. Bulk samples of the routinely laundered and unlaundered hoods from five pairs of firefighters were collected and analyzed. Residual levels of OPFRs, NPBFRs, and PAHs were lower in the routinely laundered hoods, with total levels of each class of chemicals being 56–81% lower, on average, than the unlaundered hoods. PBDEs, on average, were 43% higher in the laundered hoods, most likely from cross contamination. After this initial testing, four of the five unlaundered exposed hoods were subsequently laundered with other heavily exposed (unlaundered) and unexposed (new) hoods. Post-laundering evaluation of these hoods revealed increased levels of PBDEs, NPBFRs, and OPFRs in both previously exposed and unexposed hoods, indicating cross contamination. For PAHs, there was little evidence of cross contamination and the exposed hoods were significantly less contaminated after laundering (76% reduction; p = 0.011). Further research is needed to understand how residual contamination on hoods could contribute to firefighters’ systemic exposures.
Detecting skewness of big spatial data in SpatialHadoop

In recent years several extensions of Hadoop system have been proposed for dealing with spatial data and SpatialHadoop belongs to this group. In the MapReduce paradigm a task can be parallelized by partitioning data into chunks and performing the same operation on them, eventually combining the partial results at the end. Thus, the applied partitioning technique can tremendously affect the performance of a parallel execution, since it is the key point for obtaining balanced map tasks. However, when skewed distributed datasets are considered, using a regular grid might not be the right choice and other techniques have to be applied, which in turn are more expensive to build. This paper illustrates an approach for detecting the degree of skewness of a spatial dataset, based on the box counting function. Moreover, given the degree of skewness and some experimental observations, a heuristic is sketched in order to decide which partitioning technique to apply in order to improve as much as possible the performance of subsequent operations.
Stress and psychosomatic symptoms in Chinese adults with sleep complaints: mediation effect of self-compassion

ABSTRACT Although stress has been widely acknowledged to link to psychosomatic dysfunctioning, the underlying mechanism that transmits the impact is not adequately investigated. This study examined self-compassion as a potential mediator that may explain the pathway from stress to depressive and somatic symptoms. Data in the present study were drawn from a baseline survey of 998 Chinese participants who enrolled in an intervention study on sleep disturbance in Hong Kong. Participants completed measures of perceived stress, self-compassion, depressive symptoms, and somatic symptoms. The results showed that stress was associated with depressive symptoms (r = .79, p < .01) and somatic symptoms (r = .47, p < .01). The path analyses showed that low levels of self-compassion mediated the association between stress and psychosomatic symptoms. Our findings provide insight into the pathway how stress affects psychosomatic symptoms. The intervention programs for stress management to improve psychological and physical functioning are recommended to consider self-compassion as a promising component in practice.
Differential diagnostic value of diffusion-weighted and dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging in non-cystic lesions in floor of the mouth.

METHODS: A total of 82 patients were included in this study. The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values and time-signal intensity curves (TICs) were measured. Clinical characteristics, ADC value, and TIC pattern were compared between benign and malignant FOM lesions. Receiver operating characteristic curve and logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate respective and combined value of ADC value and TIC pattern for differential diagnosis. The retrospective study was approved by our institutional review board, and the need for informed consent was waived. RESULTS: The area under the curve ADC value and TIC pattern were 0.71 and 0.73, respectively. The combined use of ADC value and TIC pattern increased the area under the curve value to 0.81 [95% confidence interval (CI), (0.66-0.97)]. ADC < 1.23 × 10-3 mm2 s-1 (odds ratio, 45.8; 95% CI, 2.8-737.9) and both the plateau and washout TIC patterns (OR, 6.8; 95% CI, 1.8-24.8) were significantly associated with malignancy of FOM lesions. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that both diffusion-weighted imaging and DCE-MRI could contribute to the differential diagnosis of non-cystic FOM lesions, especially when used in combination.
Activity profile in elite Polish soccer players

ABSTRACT The aim of the present study was to determine and characterize the activity of male Polish Premier League soccer players during elite-level matches, depending on playing position, activity intensity range, and match period. The study sample comprised 1178 players. Amisco Pro® was used to track the match activity players. Statistical analysis of the total distance covered by players revealed that the greatest distance was covered by central midfielders (11894 ± 765 m) and external midfielders (11751 ± 686 m). In terms of velocity, the greatest distance was covered by players in the V1 range (0 ≤ V1 < 11 km · h−1, standing, walking), (7028 ± 294 m). The difference between the match periods was statistically non-significant, amounting to only 0.5%. As such they could prove useful for present and future comparisons between positions and represent the scientific basis for developing position-specific conditioning/training regimes for both clubs and individuals.
miR-338-3p Is Regulated by Estrogens through GPER in Breast Cancer Cells and Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts (CAFs)

Estrogens acting through the classic estrogen receptors (ERs) and the G protein estrogen receptor (GPER) regulate the expression of diverse miRNAs, small sequences of non-coding RNA involved in several pathophysiological conditions, including breast cancer. In order to provide novel insights on miRNAs regulation by estrogens in breast tumor, we evaluated the expression of 754 miRNAs by TaqMan Array in ER-negative and GPER-positive SkBr3 breast cancer cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) upon 17β-estradiol (E2) treatment. Various miRNAs were regulated by E2 in a peculiar manner in SkBr3 cancer cells and CAFs, while miR-338-3p displayed a similar regulation in both cell types. By METABRIC database analysis we ascertained that miR-338-3p positively correlates with overall survival in breast cancer patients, according to previous studies showing that miR-338-3p may suppress the growth and invasion of different cancer cells. Well-fitting with these data, a miR-338-3p mimic sequence decreased and a miR-338-3p inhibitor sequence rescued the expression of genes and the proliferative effects induced by E2 through GPER in SkBr3 cancer cells and CAFs. Altogether, our results provide novel evidence on the molecular mechanisms by which E2 may regulate miR-338-3p toward breast cancer progression.
Efficient and Scalable Multi-task Regression on Massive Number of Tasks

Many real-world large-scale regression problems can be formulated as Multi-task Learning (MTL) problems with a massive number of tasks, as in retail and transportation domains. However, existing MTL methods still fail to offer both the generalization performance and the scalability for such problems. Scaling up MTL methods to problems with a tremendous number of tasks is a big challenge. Here, we propose a novel algorithm, named Convex Clustering Multi-Task regression Learning (CCMTL), which integrates with convex clustering on the k-nearest neighbor graph of the prediction models. Further, CCMTL efficiently solves the underlying convex problem with a newly proposed optimization method. CCMTL is accurate, efficient to train, and empirically scales linearly in the number of tasks. On both synthetic and real-world datasets, the proposed CCMTL outperforms seven state-of-the-art (SoA) multi-task learning methods in terms of prediction accuracy as well as computational efficiency. On a real-world retail dataset with 23,812 tasks, CCMTL requires only around 30 seconds to train on a single thread, while the SoA methods need up to hours or even days.
Efficacy of Luliconazole Against Broad-Range Filamentous Fungi Including Fusarium solani Species Complex Causing Fungal Keratitis

Purpose: Fungal keratitis can be difficult to medically treat. Topical antifungals are usually applied empirically as the initial option in treating fungal keratitis. Natamycin (NAT) and/or voriconazole (VRCZ) have been widely used in the treatment of fungal keratitis. However, Fusarium solani species complex (FSSC), which are the dominant species of fungal keratitis, are resistant to VRCZ. This study investigated in vitro efficacy of luliconazole (LLCZ), a new imidazole antifungal, against FSSC and other filamentous fungi. Methods: A total of 18 Fusarium isolates and 7 others were grown on potato dextrose agar at 30 and 37°C. For Fusarium, species identification and phylogenetic tree analysis were performed based on elongation factor-1&agr; (EF-1&agr;) DNA sequencing. The broth microdilution method was used for antifungal susceptibility testing of 11 antifungal drugs including LLCZ. Results: The 18 identified Fusarium isolates belonged to FSSC (n = 13), Fusarium oxysporum species complex (FOSC; n = 2), Fusarium chlamydosporum species complex (FCSC; n = 1), Fusarium incarnatum-equiseti species complex (FIESC; n = 1), and Fusarium fujikuroi species complex (FFSC; n = 1). We further divided 13 FSSC isolates into 3 clades, FSSC5 (n = 8), FSSC3 + 4 (n = 4), and FSSC9-a (n = 1), with 8 FSSC strains growing at 37°C. LLCZ showed lowest minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) against all tested filamentous fungi, with a MIC90 against the Fusarium species of 0.06 &mgr;g/mL, whereas MIC90 for NAT and VRCZ were 4 and 8 &mgr;g/mL, respectively. Conclusions: LLCZ has the strongest in vitro antifungal activity among all drugs used against broad-range filamentous fungi including FSSC. LLCZ may potentially be a new medical treatment option for fungal keratitis.
Expression of β‐NGF and high‐affinity NGF receptor (TrKA) in llama (Lama glama) male reproductive tract and spermatozoa

β‐Nerve growth factor (β‐NGF) is a seminal plasma element, responsible for inducing ovulation in camelids. The main organ of β‐NGF production remains nondescript. The aims of this study were to (a) characterize gene expression and protein localization of β‐NGF and its main receptor tyrosine kinase receptor A (TrKA) in the llama male reproductive tract, and (b) determine whether the seminal β‐NGF interacts with ejaculated sperm by localizing β‐NGF and TrKA in epididymal, ejaculated, and acrosome‐reacted (AR) sperms and, additionally, by identifying β‐NGF presence in sperm‐adsorbed proteins (SAP). Both β‐NGF and TrkA transcripts are widely expressed along the male reproductive tract, with a higher expression level of β‐NGF at prostate (p < 0.05). β‐NGF immunolabeling was only positive for prostate, whereas TrKA label was present in epithelial and muscular cells of testis, prostate, bulbourethral glands, and epididymis. Using an immunofluorescent technique, β‐NGF was colocalized with TrKA in the middle piece of ejaculated and AR sperm. However, only TrKA was observed in epididymal sperm indicating that β‐NGF could have a seminal origin. This was also confirmed by the identification of four β‐NGF isoforms in SAP. This study extends the knowledge about the participation of β‐NGF/TrkA in llama reproduction, providing evidence that may have roles in the regulation of sperm physiology.
Efferocytosis capacities of blood monocyte‐derived macrophages in systemic sclerosis

A defect in the apoptotic cell clearance (efferocytosis) by phagocytic cells may participate in autoimmunity and chronic inflammation. The mechanisms leading to the emergence of autoimmunity in systemic sclerosis (SSc) are still to be determined. In this study, the efferocytosis capacities of blood monocyte‐derived macrophages (MDM) from patients with SSc were evaluated. Blood monocytes obtained from patients with SSc and healthy donors (HD) were differentiated in vitro into macrophages. The capacities of MDM to engulf CFSE+ apoptotic Jurkat human T lymphocytes were compared between SSc MDM and HD using flow cytometry. The expression of classical engulfing receptors in SSc MDM and HD MDM was also evaluated and their involvement in the modulation of efferocytosis was confirmed using a siRNA approach. The mean phagocytic index (PI) reflecting efferocytosis capacities of SSc MDM (PI = 19.3 ± 3.0; n = 21) was significantly decreased in comparison with the PI of HD MDM (PI = 35.9 ± 3.0; n = 31; P < 0.001). In comparison with HD, SSc MDM exhibited a downregulated expression of scavenger receptor (SR)‐B1, SR‐A1 and integrin β5 (ITGβ5). In HD MDM, the extinction of these receptors was followed by a reduction of efferocytosis only for the repression of ITGβ5, suggesting a possible selective role of this integrin in the impaired efferocytosis observed in SSc. As efferocytosis may be at the crossroads of inflammation, autoimmunity and fibrosis, in showing impaired efferocytosis capacities of blood MDM in SSc, our study offers new pathogenesis considerations for the involvement of macrophages in the autoimmune processes driving this disorder.
TCF/LEF dependent and independent transcriptional regulation of Wnt/β‐catenin target genes

During canonical Wnt signalling, the activity of nuclear β‐catenin is largely mediated by the TCF/LEF family of transcription factors. To challenge this view, we used the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing approach to generate HEK 293T cell clones lacking all four TCF/LEF genes. By performing unbiased whole transcriptome sequencing analysis, we found that a subset of β‐catenin transcriptional targets did not require TCF/LEF factors for their regulation. Consistent with this finding, we observed in a genome‐wide analysis that β‐catenin occupied specific genomic regions in the absence of TCF/LEF. Finally, we revealed the existence of a transcriptional activity of β‐catenin that specifically appears when TCF/LEF factors are absent, and refer to this as β‐catenin‐GHOST response. Collectively, this study uncovers a previously neglected modus operandi of β‐catenin that bypasses the TCF/LEF transcription factors.
Long-Term Labeling of Hippocampal Neural Stem Cells by a Lentiviral Vector

Using a lentivirus-mediated labeling method, we investigated whether the adult hippocampus retains long-lasting, self-renewing neural stem cells (NSCs). We first showed that a single injection of a lentiviral vector expressing a green fluorescent protein (LV PGK-GFP) into the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the adult hippocampus enabled an efficient, robust, and long-term marking of self-renewing NSCs and their progeny. Interestingly, a subset of labeled cells showed the ability to proliferate multiple times and give rise to Sox2+ cells, clearly suggesting the ability of NSCs to self-renew for an extensive period of time (up to 6 months). In addition, using GFP+ cells isolated from the SGZ of mice that received a LV PGK-GFP injection 3 months earlier, we demonstrated that some GFP+ cells displayed the essential properties of NSCs, such as self-renewal and multipotency. Furthermore, we investigated the plasticity of NSCs in a perforant path transection, which has been shown to induce astrocyte formation in the molecular layer of the hippocampus. Our lentivirus (LV)-mediated labeling study revealed that hippocampal NSCs are not responsible for the burst of astrocyte formation, suggesting that signals released from the injured perforant path did not influence NSC fate determination. Therefore, our studies showed that a gene delivery system using LVs is a unique method to be used for understanding the complex nature of NSCs and may have translational impact in gene therapy by efficiently targeting NSCs.
Large-Scale Collaborative Innovation: Challenges, Visions and Approaches

Emerging online innovation platforms have enabled large groups of people to collaborate and generate ideas together in ways that were not possible before. However, these platforms also introduce new challenges in helping their members to generate diverse and high quality ideas. In this paper, we enumerate collaboration challenges in crowd innovation: ﬁnding inspiration for contributors from a large number of ideas, motivating crowd to contribute to improve group understanding of the problem and solution space, and coordinating collective effort to reduce redundancy and increase quality and breadth of generated ideas. We discuss possible solutions to this problem and present our recent work that addresses some of these challenges using techniques from human computation and machine learning.
Detrimental Effects of Doping Al and Ba on the Thermoelectric Performance of GeTe

GeTe-based materials are emerging as viable alternatives to toxic PbTe-based thermoelectric materials. In order to evaluate the suitability of Al as dopant in thermoelectric GeTe, a systematic study of thermoelectric properties of Ge1−xAlxTe (x = 0–0.08) alloys processed by Spark Plasma Sintering are presented here. Being isoelectronic to Ge1−xInxTe and Ge1−xGaxTe, which were reported with improved thermoelectric performances in the past, the Ge1−xAlxTe system is particularly focused (studied both experimentally and theoretically). Our results indicate that doping of Al to GeTe causes multiple effects: (i) increase in p-type charge carrier concentration; (ii) decrease in carrier mobility; (iii) reduction in thermopower and power factor; and (iv) suppression of thermal conductivity only at room temperature and not much significant change at higher temperature. First principles calculations reveal that Al-doping increases the energy separation between the two valence bands (loss of band convergence) in GeTe. These factors contribute for Ge1−xAlxTe to exhibit a reduced thermoelectric figure of merit, unlike its In and Ga congeners. Additionally, divalent Ba-doping [Ge1−xBaxTe (x = 0–0.06)] is also studied.
A Simulated Cyberattack on Twitter: Assessing Partisan Vulnerability to Spear Phishing and Disinformation ahead of the 2018 U.S. Midterm Elections

State-sponsored “bad actors” increasingly weaponize social media platforms to launch cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns during elections. Social media companies, due to their rapid growth and scale, struggle to prevent the weaponization of their platforms. This study conducts an automated spear phishing and disinformation campaign on Twitter ahead of the 2018 United States midterm elections. A fake news bot account — the @DCNewsReport — was created and programmed to automatically send customized tweets with a “breaking news” link to 138 Twitter users, before being restricted by Twitter.Overall, one in five users clicked the link, which could have potentially led to the downloading of ransomware or the theft of private information. However, the link in this experiment was non-malicious and redirected users to a Google Forms survey. In predicting users’ likelihood to click the link on Twitter, no statistically significant differences were observed between right-wing and left-wing partisans, or between Web users and mobile users. The findings signal that politically expressive Americans on Twitter, regardless of their party preferences or the devices they use to access the platform, are at risk of being spear phished on social media.
Clinical Outcomes of Monolithic Zirconia Crowns with CAD/CAM Technology. A 1-Year Follow-Up Prospective Clinical Study of 65 Patients

Aim/Purpose: The primary aim of this study was to examine the clinical performance of posterior monolithic single crowns in terms of failure or complications and the secondary aim was to assess the quality of these restorations according to the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) criteria. Methods: Ιn a private dental clinic, 65 patients with need of posterior crowns were restored with monolithic zirconia crowns. All the restorations were evaluated 6 and 12 months after their cementation. The modified United States Public Health Service (USPHS) criteria and periodontal parameters were applied for the clinical evaluation of the crowns. Restorations with Alpha or Bravo rating were considered a success. Results: Descriptive statistics and nonparametric tests were used for statistical analysis. Sixty-five patients (mean age: 49.52) were restored with 65 monolithic zirconia crowns. No fracture of the restorations was recorded. The overall success rate was 98.5%. The clinical quality of all crowns was acceptable except for the marginal discoloration of one crown at the 6- and 12-month follow-up examination. Conclusions: In this study, no fracture of single-tooth monolithic crowns occurred and the success rate was high. Monolithic zirconia restorations fabricated is a viable option for the restoration of single posterior teeth.
Mapping the MHC Class I–Spliced Immunopeptidome of Cancer Cells

Unconventional spliced peptides can be presented by cancer cells. This survey of peptide characteristics in the immunopeptidome of colon and breast carcinoma cell lines may help to predict and identify an unforeseen pool of antigenic targets for immunotherapy. Anticancer immunotherapies demand optimal epitope targets, which could include proteasome-generated spliced peptides if tumor cells were to present them. Here, we show that spliced peptides are widely presented by MHC class I molecules of colon and breast carcinoma cell lines. The peptides derive from hot spots within antigens and enlarge the antigen coverage. Spliced peptides also represent a large number of antigens that would otherwise be neglected by patrolling T cells. These antigens tend to be long, hydrophobic, and basic. Thus, spliced peptides can be a key to identifying targets in an enlarged pool of antigens associated with cancer.
SpecRPC: A General Framework for Performing Speculative Remote Procedure Calls

In this paper we introduce SpecRPC, a speculative execution framework that allows applications to concurrently execute dependent operations both locally and through remote procedure calls. The framework tracks dependencies among non-speculative and speculative operations and ensures that incorrect speculations do not affect the correctness of applications that follow our suggested design pattern. By using speculation to parallelize dependent operations, SpecRPC can significantly reduce application latency even if only a fraction of the results can be correctly speculated. We evaluate SpecRPC by using it to implement Replicated Commit, a low-latency distributed transaction commit protocol for geo-replicated database systems. Our evaluation results show that, compared to RPC frameworks that sequentially execute dependent operations, SpecRPC can reduce the average transaction completion time of Replicated Commit by 58%.