Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Can immunotherapy reinforce chemotherapy efficacy? a new perspective on colorectal cancer treatment

As one of the main threats to human life (the fourth most dangerous and prevalent cancer), colorectal cancer affects many people yearly, decreases patients’ quality of life, and causes irreparable financial and social damages. In addition, this type of cancer can metastasize and involve the liver in advanced stages. However, current treatments can’t completely eradicate this disease. Chemotherapy and subsequent surgery can be mentioned among the current main treatments for this disease. Chemotherapy has many side effects, and regarding the treatment of this type of tumor, chemotherapy can lead to liver damage, such as steatohepatitis, steatosis, and sinus damage. These damages can eventually lead to liver failure and loss of its functions. Therefore, it seems that other treatments can be used in addition to chemotherapy to increase its efficiency and reduce its side effects. Biological therapies and immunotherapy are one of the leading suggestions for combined treatment. Antibodies (immune checkpoint blockers) and cell therapy (DC and CAR-T cells) are among the immune system-based treatments used to treat tumors. Immunotherapy targets various aspects of the tumor that may lead to 1) the recruitment of immune cells, 2) increasing the immunogenicity of tumor cells, and 3) leading to the elimination of inhibitory mechanisms established by the tumor. Therefore, immunotherapy can be used as a complementary treatment along with chemotherapy. This review will discuss different chemotherapy and immunotherapy methods for colorectal cancer. Then we will talk about the studies that have dealt with combined treatment.
Extending the search for new resonances with machine learning

The oldest and most robust technique to search for new particles is to look for ``bumps'' in invariant mass spectra over smoothly falling backgrounds. We present a new extension of the bump hunt that naturally benefits from modern machine learning algorithms while remaining model agnostic. This approach is based on the classification without labels (CWoLa) method where the invariant mass is used to create two potentially mixed samples, one with little or no signal and one with a potential resonance. Additional features that are uncorrelated with the invariant mass can be used for training the classifier. Given the lack of new physics signals at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), such model-agnostic approaches are critical for ensuring full coverage to fully exploit the rich datasets from the LHC experiments. In addition to illustrating how the new method works in simple test cases, we demonstrate the power of the extended bump hunt on a realistic all-hadronic resonance search in a channel that would not be covered with existing techniques.
Child-spacing effects on infant and early child mortality.

For at least 60 years the deleterious effects of rapid childbearing on infant and early child survival chances have been the subject of study. The analyses of child spacing effects on infant and early childhood mortality presented here are based upon data from 26 developing countries which participated in the World Fertility Survey (WFS). All WFS data sets include a complete live birth history including the date of birth of all children born alive and information on their survival status and where relevant age at death. This information allows greater flexibility in analysis. Birth intervals can be calculated and counts of births in specific segments of time can be computed. It is also possible to estimate survivorship status of a birth at the time of some other event such as a subsequent birth or an anniversary of that subsequent birth. The goal is to explore some of the effects of child spacing both in terms of overall but localized rapidity and in terms of specific intervals. The approach adopted is to form counts of births in segments of time before and after the child in question or index child. 3 2-year "windows" of observation immediately prior to the birth of the index child are used forming counts of births 0-2 2-4 and 4-6 years before. The approach through the use of windows is designed for multivariate analysis. A table shows exponentiated parameter estimates or relative risks which result from fitting a common model to the data for each country. This model includes main effects for each of the 3 variables considered birth 0-2 and 2-6 years before the index child and mothers education. In general all 3 main effects were significant. The exponentiated parameter estimates for births in the 2 years preceding the index birth were startling. 1 such birth raised the risks by 50% or more in all but 2 countries and more than doubled the risk in 14 countries. These effects were consistently around 2 in Africa and over 2 in most of the Asian countries. 2 or more nearby births in the 2 years preceding the index birth had even more marked effects on neonatal mortality raising it at least 3-fold in 17 countries. In regard to the effects of childbearing experience in the 2-6 years before the index birth occurrence of zero births in this period led to varied relative risks compared with the baseline group. This zero group seemed to experience slightly lower mortality risks in most Latin American countries but little else can be said about patterns.
Seismic response analysis of Monte Po hill (Catania)

In the paper the results of a large number of seismic response analyses of the Monte Po hill (Catania, Italy) are presented. The interest for this site is due to the presence of several constructions, including a school, in the vicinity of the toe of the slope. In the past, these structures suffered damage related to the precarious stability conditions of the slope and the consequences of some excavation performed during the construction of some buildings in the area. Since all the damaged buildings are still in use, a study of the seismic stability condition of the slope is required. To develop a reliable soil model, available in situ and laboratory test results were analysed. The seismic response analyses were performed using two records of the December 13, 1990 Santa Lucia Earthquake and artificial acceleration time-histories developed referring to a M=7.0 scenario earthquake. The results show significant differences in the hill response depending on the dynamic characteristics of the involved soils. In particular, considerable effects are related to the variation of the shear modulus and damping ratio with shear strain adopted in soil modelling. The obtained acceleration responses show the possible occurrence of permanent deformations of a potentially unstable soil mass; these phenomena can significantly affect the post-seismic serviceability conditions of some structures involved in the hill.
Albumin‐indocyanine green evaluation of future liver remnant predicts liver failure after anatomical hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma: A dual‐center retrospective study

Abstract Aim The albumin‐indocyanine green evaluation (ALICE) score is a useful predictor of post‐hepatectomy liver failure (PHLF); however, its usefulness in combination with future liver remnant (FLR), measured by 3‐D volumetry, has not been investigated. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the ALICE of the FLR (ALICE‐FLR) score and severe PHLF. Methods The clinical data of 215 patients who underwent anatomical hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma without portal vein embolization at two institutes between January 2010 and December 2021 were analyzed retrospectively. PHLF occurrence and severity were determined according to the International Study Group of Liver Surgery's definition. Grades B and C PHLF were defined as severe PHLF. The ALICE‐FLR, ALICE scores, and indocyanine green clearance of FLR (ICGK‐FLR) were evaluated for severe PHLF prediction. Results Severe PHLF was observed in 40 patients (18.6%). The areas under the curve (AUCs) for the ALICE‐FLR, ALICE scores, ICGK‐FLR, and FLR were 0.76, 0.64, 0.73, and 0.69, respectively. The AUC of the ALICE‐FLR score was significantly higher than that of the ALICE score. The ALICE‐FLR score was identified as an independent predictor of severe PHLF (the odds ratio for every 0.01 increment in the ALICE‐FLR score was 1.24; 95% confidence interval, 1.070–1.453; p = 0.004). Among patients with severe PHLF, the ALICE‐FLR score was significantly higher in the grade C than in the grade B PHLF group. Conclusion The combination of liver function models, including indocyanine green, albumin, and FLR is considered compatible for predicting severe PHLF.
High throughput sequencing data reveals the complete mitogenome, abundance, maternal phylogeny, and mitogenomic diversity of Alectoris chukar of Iraq

Alectoris chukar is a wild game bird found in the north of Iraq, near the center of domestication and diversity of species. The mitogenome is one of the most vital resources for comprehensive studies of genetic diversity and molecular evolutionary relationships among avian species. In this study, we used whole genome sequencing raw reads and bioinformatics analysis to sequence and assemble Alectoris chukar's complete mitogenome for the first time. We also studied the maternal lineage and phylogenetic position of Alectoris chukar, as well as some mitogenomic diversity parameters. As a result, the complete mitogenomes with a length ranging from 16686 bp to 16688 bp of four individuals of wild Alectoris chukar were sequenced and assembled. They have a typical avian mitogenome structure with 2 ribosomal RNA (rRNA), 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, and one non-coding control region. Our findings from bioinformatics analysis remarkably demonstrated that copies of the mitogenome are more abundant in liver tissues than in blood and in the liver tissues of females than in males. The results of phylogenetic analysis clustered the studied mitogenomes with Alectoris chukar as a monophyletic clade. Moreover, in comparison to the different genera, Alectoris chukar showed a high level of mitogenomic similarities to the snowcock species of the genus Tetraogallus within the Phasianidae family. However, they were more distant from other partridges. Additionally, a high percentage of mitogenomic pairwise identities within Iraqi Alectoris chukar and high mitogenomic variations compared to Chinese populations were discovered. The number and location of polymorphic sites indicated that the majority of the mitogenome sequences were conserved, with the control region, ND5, and CYTB genes having the most polymorphic sites. Analyses of phylogenetic and mitogenomic diversity revealed that samples of Alectoris chukar from Iraq have a unique maternal lineage and mitogenomic diversity specific to their geographic distribution, suggesting an Alectoris chukar kurdestanica subspecies. The molecular findings presented here provide valuable knowledge and mitogenomic resources into the evolutionary relationships of Alectoris chukar from the Middle East to avian species in the Phasianidae family. Key words: DNA sequencing; Mitochondrial genome; Partridges; Phasianidae; Phylogeny
Effect of Motivational Strategies on Employee Performance in Nigerian Commercial Banks

The objective of this research is to investigate the connection between motivational strategies and employee performance, as well as the role of employee formal recognition as a mediator between these motivational strategies and performance. Data were collected from a sample of 579 employees using a simple sampling technique, resulting in 497 usable responses and a response rate of 85.84%. Structural equation modeling (SmartPLS 4.0) was employed to analyze the relationships between the variables. Among the 10 hypothesized paths, 8 were supported. Motivational strategies (salary satisfaction, working environment, bonus and fringe benefit & training and development) except job security significantly influence employee performance; herein training and development has the greatest effect on employee performance. This study also reveals that employee formal recognition partially mediates in the link between motivational strategies and employee performance except for job security. These findings will provide valuable insights for banks and other stakeholders in understanding the importance of motivational strategies and employee formal recognition in enhancing employee performance within the banking sector. This study is one of the first of its kind to explore the mediating role of employee formal recognition in the relationship be-tween motivational strategies and employee performance specifically in the Nigerian banking sector.
Bear in mind: the role of personal background in semantic animal fluency – The SMART-MR study

Objectives Semantic fluency is a prominent neuropsychological task, typically administered within the category ‘animals’. With the increasing development of novel item-level metrics of semantic fluency, a concern around the validity of item-level analyses could be that personal background factors (e.g., hobbies like birdwatching or fishing) may disproportionally influence performance. We analyzed animal fluency performance at the item level and investigated the prevalence of individuals with abundant knowledge in specific classes of animals (e.g., birds, fish, insects) and the relationship of such knowledge with personal background factors and other cognitive tasks (episodic memory and executive functioning). Method Participants included 736 Dutch middle-aged to older adults from the SMART-MR cohort (mean age 58 ± 9.4 years, 18% women). Individuals were asked to name as many animals as possible for 2 min. Number of people with abundant animal class knowledge was calculated for the ability to recall a series of minimum ≥5 and up to ≥15 animals within a specific class with at most one interruption by an animal from another class. Subsequent analyses to investigate relationships of abundant class knowledge with sociodemographic characteristics (t-tests and chi-square tests) and cognitive performance (linear regressions) were performed for a cut-off of ≥10 animals within a specific class (90th percentile), with a sensitivity analysis for ≥7 animals (67th percentile). Results A total of 416 (56.2%) participants recalled a series of ≥5 animals from a specific class, 245 (33.3%) participants recalled ≥7, 78 (10.6%) participants recalled ≥10, and 8 (1.1%) participants recalled ≥15. Those who recalled a series of at least 10 animals within a class were older, more often men, and more often retired than those who did not. Moreover, they had a higher total score on animal fluency, letter fluency (i.e., executive functioning), and episodic memory tasks compared to those who did not. Discussion Our results suggest that the benefit of abundant animal class knowledge gained by personal background does not disproportionally influence animal fluency performance as individuals with such knowledge also performed better on other cognitive tasks unrelated to abundant knowledge of animal classes.
The Environmental Design Pocketbook

1. CO2, Climate Change Mitigation and the Building Industry 2. Design Strategies and Adaptations for a Changing Climate 3. Environmental Site Planning 4. Urban Greenery and Biodiversity 5. Water and Flooding 6. The Internal Environment: Space, Warmth, Light and Air 7. The Building Fabric 8. Retrofit of Existing Housing Stock 9. Key Details 10. Energy Supply and Demand 11. Zero Carbon Buildings 12. Low and Zero Carbon Technologies and Renewables
Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Echocardiographic Parameters of Left Ventricular Diastolic Function: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The cardiovascular implications of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) have been associated with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). The purpose of this review was to conduct a bibliographic search regarding the correlation between NAFLD and the echocardiographic parameters of left ventricular diastolic function. A systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed and Embase for original research data reporting on the association of NAFLD with diastolic function markers [E/e′, left atrial volume index (LAVi), left ventricular mass index (LVMi)]. Meta-analysis was performed using the meta and dmetar packages in R studio v.1. 4.1106, with p < 0.05 values being considered significant. Results are expressed as the standardized mean difference (SMD) for continuous variables and as the odds ratio (OR) for categorical variables, with respective 95% confidence intervals (CI). Heterogeneity between studies was expressed with index Ι2. From the preliminary search, 2619 articles were found from which 31 studies were included in the final statistical analysis. The meta-analysis of 8 studies which reported on the prevalence of diastolic dysfunction showed that it was increased in patients with NAFLD (OR: 2.07, 95% CI 1.24–3.44 with p = 0.01, I2: 80% with p < 0.01). The meta-analysis of 21 studies showed significantly higher E/e′ in NAFLD patients (SMD 1.02, 95% CI 0.43–1.61 with p < 0.001, I2: 97% with p < 0.001). Individuals with NAFLD had increased LAVi (SMD: 0.87, 95% CI 0.38–1.37 with p < 0.001, I2: 96% with p < 0.001) and LVMi (SMD: 0.89, 95% CI 0.31–1.48 with p = 0.003, I2: 100% with p < 0.001). To conclude, in the meta-analysis of 31 observational studies, NAFLD patients were found to have affected left ventricular diastolic function, supporting the hypothesis of NAFLD being associated with HFpEF.
The Safety and Effectiveness of mRNA Vaccines Against SARS-CoV-2

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has resulted in numerous deaths worldwide, along with devastating economic disruptions, and has posed unprecedented challenges to healthcare systems around the world. In the wake of COVID-19's emergence in 2019, a variety of vaccine technologies were formulated and developed, including those that drew from the technology employed in messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, designed to curb the disease's transmission and manage the pandemic. mRNA vaccine has several advantages over traditional ones, and hence its development has received considerable attention recently. Researchers believe the mRNA vaccine technology will emerge as the leading technology because it is potent, inexpensive, rapidly developed, and safe. This article provides an overview of mRNA vaccines with a special focus on the efficacy and safety of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccines against the different variants of COVID-19 and compare them with the Oxford-AstraZeneca (viral vector) and Sinopharm (inactivated virus) vaccines. The clinical data reviewed in this article demonstrate that the currently authorized Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccines are highly safe and potent against different variants of COVID-19, especially in comparison with Oxford-AstraZeneca (viral vector) and Sinopharm (inactivated virus) vaccines.
Cultural Actions In The Play Of Preschool Children

The article is devoted to the analysis of the key mechanisms of children's development in the play – the correlation of cultural actions and the conditions of their formation that arise in the process of children's play. A detailed analysis of the concepts of "situation" and "normative situation" is given. According to L.S. Vygotsky, a special role in children’s play is assigned to the imaginary situation, which determines the subjective nature of children's activity, and directs it to the development of the semantic side of actions due to the specifics of the imaginary situation. In other words, conditions are created in preschool childhood both for mastering normative action and for establishing an attitude to normative action. This is possible due to the presence of two spaces: culture and the space of an imaginary situation. Within these spaces, cultural artifacts themselves are mastered and a subjective attitude to various aspects of cultural objects is generated. The relevance of the theoretical analysis of the mechanisms of development in the play is due to the growing interest in the play as a means of purposeful development and education of preschool children.
Improving Commute Experience for Private Car Users via Blockchain-Enabled Multitask Learning

With deepening urbanization and Internet of Vehicles (IoV) applications, the number of private cars has been increasing in recent years. However, because the surging number of private cars is not compatible with limited road resources, private car users have had unsatisfactory commute experiences during their daily travel. In this work, we focus on improving private car users’ commute experience based on an analysis of IoV trajectory data in a privacy-preserving way. Our idea is based on the following observations: 1) the commute experience of private car users is closely related to the departure time and the travel cost and 2) most travel costs are spent on urban hot zones. Motivated by these findings, we propose a novel blockchain-enabled model named Deep Improving Commute Experience (DeepICE) to improve private car users’ commute experience by predicting when to depart and when to arrive. In this model, a blockchain with a consensus mechanism is developed to address private car user privacy concerns. In addition, we propose a multitask learning-enabled graph convolution network (GCN) method to capture the highly complex features and relations between two tasks, i.e., the departure time and travel cost, and then develop the model to predict these two tasks. The experimental results demonstrate the superior performance of our proposed model compared to existing approaches. Our model can be applied to efficiently enhance private car users’ commute experience.
Sertularioidea (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) from the Guinea Current Large Marine Ecosystem (GCLME)

ABSTRACT This paper describes the study of a small collection of Sertularioidea Lamouroux, 1812 (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) collected along the Guinea Current Large Marine Ecosystem (GCLME) during four oceanographic surveys performed between 2005 and 2008. The samples were collected at 12 stations located at depths between 18 and 359 m using a bottom trawl and a Petersen grab. A total of 112 colonies were identified, belonging to 13 species, nine genera, and three families. The family Sertulariidae showed the highest species richness, with 11 species, whereas the families Thyroscyphidae and Sertularellidae were represented only by one species each. In this manuscript is described the first report of Salacia tetracythara in the Eastern Atlantic, Abietinaria abietina in West Africa, and Salacia desmoides in the GCLME region. One species was only described to the genus level, and material of Dynamena dalmasi from Cape Verde was also examined as comparison material.