Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling anabolic and antiresorptive therapies for fracture healing in a mouse model of osteogenesis imperfecta

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a genetic bone fragility disorder that features frequent fractures. Bone healing outcomes are contingent on a proper balance between bone formation and resorption, and drugs such as bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) and bisphosphonates (BPs) have shown to have utility in modulating fracture repair. While BPs are used for OI to increase BMD and reduce pain and fracture rates, there is little evidence for using BMPs as local agents for fracture healing (alone or with BPs). In this study, we examined wild‐type and OI mice (Col1a2+/G610C) in a murine tibial open fracture model with (i) surgery only/no treatment, (ii) local BMP‐2 (10 µg), or (iii) local BMP‐2 and postoperative zoledronic acid (ZA; 0.1 mg/kg total dose). Microcomputed tomography reconstructions of healing fractures indicated BMP‐2 was less effective in an OI setting, however, BMP‐2 +ZA led to considerable increases in bone volume (+193% WT, p < 0.001; +154% OI, p < 0.001) and polar moment of inertia (+125% WT, p < 0.01; +248% OI, p < 0.05). Tissue histology revealed a thinning of the neocortex of the callus in BMP‐2 treated OI bone, but considerable retention of woven bone in the healing callus with BMP + ZA specimens. These data suggest a cautious approach may be warranted with the sole application of BMP‐2 in an OI surgical setting as a bone graft substitute. However, this may be overcome by off‐label BP administration.
Climatic legacy effects on the drought response of the Amazon rainforest

Extreme precipitation and drought events are predicted to become more intense and more frequent over the Amazon rainforest. Because changes in forest dynamics could prompt strong feedback loops to the global climate, it is of crucial importance to gain insight into the response of tropical forests to these recurring extreme climatic events. Here, we evaluated the Amazon forest stability (resistance and resilience) to drought in the context of past dry and wet climatic events using MODIS EVI satellite imagery and cumulative water deficit anomalies. We observed large spatial differences in the occurrence of extreme climatic events from 1980 to 2019, with an increase in drought frequency in the central and northern Amazon and drought intensity in the southern Amazon basin. An increasing trend in the occurrence of wet events was found in the western, southern, and eastern Amazon. Furthermore, we found significant legacy effects of previous climatic events on the forest drought response. An extreme drought closely preceding another drought decreased forest resilience, whereas the occurrence of a recent drier‐than‐usual event also decreased the forest resistance to later droughts. Both wetter‐than‐usual and extreme wet events preceding an extreme drought increased the resistance of the forest, and with similar effects sizes as dry events, indicating that wet and dry events have similarly sized legacy effects on the drought response of tropical forests. Our results indicate that the predicted increase in drought frequency and intensity can have negative consequences for the functioning of the Amazon forest. However, more frequent wet periods in combination with these droughts could counteract their negative impact. Finally, we also found that more stable forests according to the alternative stable states theory are also more resistant and resilient to individual droughts, showing a positive relationship between the equilibrium and non‐equilibrium stability dynamics.
Exploring the Immunotherapeutic Potential of Oleocanthal against Murine Cutaneous Leishmaniasis

Abstract Leishmaniasis is a major tropical disease with increasing global incidence. Due to limited therapeutic options with severe drawbacks, the discovery of alternative treatments based on natural bioactive compounds is important. In our previous studies we have pointed out the antileishmanial activities of olive tree-derived molecules. In this study, we aimed to investigate the in vitro and in vivo antileishmanial as well as the in vivo immunomodulatory effects of oleocanthal, a molecule that has recently gained increasing scientific attention. Pure oleocanthal was isolated from extra virgin olive oil through extraction and chromatography techniques. The in vitro antileishmanial effects of oleocanthal were examined with a resazurin-based assay, while its in vivo efficacy was evaluated in Leishmania major -infected BALB/c mice by determining footpad induration, parasite load in popliteal lymph nodes, histopathological outcome, antibody production, cytokine profile of stimulated splenocytes and immune gene expression, at three weeks after the termination of treatment. Oleocanthal demonstrated in vitro antileishmanial effect against both L. major promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes. This effect was further documented in vivo as demonstrated by the suppressed footpad thickness, the decreased parasite load and the inflammatory cell influx at the infection site. Oleocanthal treatment led to the dominance of a Th1-type immunity linked with resistance against the disease. This study establishes strong scientific evidence for olive tree-derived natural products as possible antileishmanial agents and provides an adding value to the scientific research of oleocanthal.
Invasiveness of cutleaf ground cherry (Physalis angulata L.) populations and impacts of water and nutrient availability of soil water and nutrient availability.

Las invasiones biologicas son una amenaza importante para los ecosistemas naturales y agroecosistemas, mientras que, globalmente, la flora de malezas parece cambiar notablemente. En este estudio se evaluo el potencial de una especie nativa de America, tomatillos de Brihuega (Physalis angulata L.), para invadir las regiones semiaridas de Grecia. Se realizaron experimentos de invernadero y laboratorio para evaluar los efectos de diferentes recursos ambientales (disponibilidad de nutrientes y agua), crecimiento de las plantulas, produccion de biomasa, fecundidad y germinacion de las semillas de cuatro poblaciones de tomatillos de Brihuega. Nuestros resultados sugieren que P. angulata no tolera una extrema sequia durante las primeras etapas de crecimiento, pero puede sobrevivir y sus semillas germinar adecuada y rapidamente (> 85%) incluso en condiciones de baja humedad del suelo. Ademas, con alta humedad y disponibilidad de nutrientes genera un alto crecimiento y produccion de biomasa y asegura una alta produccion de semillas, llegando a mas de 4000 semillas por planta. Sugerimos que la alta humedad del suelo y en segundo lugar la disponibilidad de nutrientes son los factores criticos que afectan el potencial invasor de P. angulata en ambientes semiaridos. Comprender las caracteristicas ecologicas de las plantas mediante un estudio realizado en una fase de invasion temprana en lugar de tardia, permitira adoptar medidas de control apropiadas para esta especie, las cuales deben dirigirse primeramente a campos fertilizados con frecuencia despues de eventos de precipitacion.
Ghrelin-Reactive Autoantibodies as Potential Modulators of Dysfunctional Eating Patterns in Women: An Exploratory Study

Abstract Dysfunctional eating patterns include alterations in experiencing and expressing hunger, appetite, and satiety, which may lead to eating disorders or obesity in the long term. Alterations in hormones such as ghrelin have been suggested to influence emotional eating in women with obesity. Ghrelin-reactive autoantibodies (autoAbs) are present both in healthy individuals and those with eating disorders and have been suggested to protect the hormone from degradation and preserve its functional activity. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between IgG ghrelin-reactive autoAbs with dysfunctional eating patterns, subjective perception of stress, and body composition parameters in young women. This cross-sectional study included 82 women (age 21±2 years) classified according to body fat percentage. Dysfunctional eating patterns were measured with the Spanish version of the Three-factor Eating Questionnaire-R18, and perceived stress was measured with the Spanish version of the Perceived Stress Scale – 10. A validated in-house enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was performed to measure IgG ghrelin-reactive autoAbs in its free, total, and immune complex fractions. Free IgG ghrelin-reactive autoAbs were positively correlated with weight, BMI, body fat percentage, waist, and hip circumference in women with very high body fat percentage. In this group, a negative correlation was observed between ghrelin immune complexes and uncontrolled eating. This exploratory research shows that IgG ghrelin-reactive autoAbs have a potential role in altered body composition parameters and appetite expression, such as uncontrolled eating in women with very high body fat. Further studies are required to clarify the role of IgG autoAbs in eating behavior.
Applying Image-Based Food-Recognition Systems on Dietary Assessment: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACT Dietary assessment can be crucial for the overall well-being of humans and, at least in some instances, for the prevention and management of chronic, life-threatening diseases. Recall and manual record-keeping methods for food-intake monitoring are available, but often inaccurate when applied for a long period of time. On the other hand, automatic record-keeping approaches that adopt mobile cameras and computer vision methods seem to simplify the process and can improve current human-centric diet-monitoring methods. Here we present an extended critical literature overview of image-based food-recognition systems (IBFRS) combining a camera of the user's mobile device with computer vision methods and publicly available food datasets (PAFDs). In brief, such systems consist of several phases, such as the segmentation of the food items on the plate, the classification of the food items in a specific food category, and the estimation phase of volume, calories, or nutrients of each food item. A total of 159 studies were screened in this systematic review of IBFRS. A detailed overview of the methods adopted in each of the 78 included studies of this systematic review of IBFRS is provided along with their performance on PAFDs. Studies that included IBFRS without presenting their performance in at least 1 of the above-mentioned phases were excluded. Among the included studies, 45 (58%) studies adopted deep learning methods and especially convolutional neural networks (CNNs) in at least 1 phase of the IBFRS with input PAFDs. Among the implemented techniques, CNNs outperform all other approaches on the PAFDs with a large volume of data, since the richness of these datasets provides adequate training resources for such algorithms. We also present evidence for the benefits of application of IBFRS in professional dietetic practice. Furthermore, challenges related to the IBFRS presented here are also thoroughly discussed along with future directions.
The Analysis of Inhomogeneous Barrier Height in In/SnTe/Si/Ag Diode

SnTe thin film layer was fabricated by magnetron sputtering technique on n-Si substrate, and the electrical properties of the In/SnTe/Si/Ag diode structure was investigated by using temperature dependent forward bias current-voltage (I-V) measurements. The main diode parameters were calculated according to the thermionic emission (TE) model and they were found in an abnormal behavior with change in temperate in which zero-bias barrier height ( Φ B 0 ) increases and ideality factor ( n ) decreases with increasing temperature. Therefore, the total current flow though the junction was expressed by the Gaussian distribution (GD) of barrier height. The plot of Φ B 0 vs q 2 kT showed the existence of inhomogeneous barrier formation and evidence for the application of Gaussian function to identify the distribution of low barrier height patches. The mean barrier height was found as 1.274 with the 0.166 eV standard deviation. From the modified Richardson plot, Richardson constant was calculated as 119.5A/cm 2 K 2 in very close agreement with the reported values. Additionally, the effects of the series resistance ( R S ) were analyzed by using Cheung’s function. Distribution of the interface states ( D it ) were extracted from the I-V characteristics and found in increasing behavior with decreasing temperature.
Representativeness of autistic samples in studies recruiting through social media

Survey‐based research with recruitment through online channels is a convenient way to obtain large samples and has recently been increasingly used in autism research. However, sampling from online channels may be associated with a high risk of sampling bias causing findings not to be generalizable to the autism population. Here we examined autism studies that have sampled on social media for markers of sampling bias. Most samples showed one or more indicators of sampling bias, in the form of reversed sex ratio, higher employment rates, higher education level, lower fraction of individuals with intellectual disability, and later age of diagnosis than would be expected when comparing with for example population study results from published research. Findings from many of the included studies are therefore difficult to generalize to the broader autism population. Suggestions for how research strategies may be adapted to address some of the problems are discussed.
Phase estimation for investigating the optical and mechanical properties of Monocryl suture for soft tissue approximation and ligation

Monocryl is a bio‐absorbable suture composed of a polyglycolide and poly‐epsiloncaprolactone copolymer material and is considered a promising candidate for soft tissues approximation. Consequently, the physical, mechanical, and morphological properties are essential for the surgeons to select the suitable suture for their surgical perform. In this article, Mach Zehnder interferometer equipped with a mechanical drawing device are used for evaluating the mechanical properties and a better understanding of how the Monocryl suture reacts to loading. The two‐dimensional fast Fourier transform is applied to extract the phase from the captured interference microinterferograms at different draw ratios. The extracted phase helps to determine some opto‐mechanical and structural properties of Monocryle suture. Quantitative structure–activity relationships model is employed for investigating the biological activity of the tested suture. The stress–strain behavior of Monocryl suture has a J‐shaped behavior which compatible with the behavior of the soft tissues. The molecular electrostatic potential maps showed that Monocryl model structure is proved to be electrophilic interplays.
Blogging with dementia: Writing about lived experience of dementia in the public domain

Public narratives around dementia have historically been negative, and have not been shaped by people with dementia themselves, but stories of living with dementia are becoming more common in the public domain. This qualitative study explored the motivations and experiences of bloggers by conducting interviews with six bloggers with dementia in the UK. Thematic analysis suggested that the asynchronous nature of blogging offered a valuable, personalised space for people with dementia to tell their own stories in their own way. Blogging as a format posed some practical challenges, but bloggers developed strategies to overcome these. Motivations for blogging were on three levels: the personal (as a journal, and as a ‘room of one’s own’); community (as solidarity for other people with dementia, and as comfort for families and friends) and society (as an educational and campaigning tool). Whilst the study is small, and there are many voices of people with dementia missing from the blogging community, this research demonstrates the potential for blogging by people with dementia to change public narratives and perceptions of dementia.
Numerical study on static component generation from the primary Lamb waves propagating in a plate with nonlinearity

Under the discipline of nonlinear ultrasonics, in addition to second harmonic generation, static component generation is another frequently used nonlinear ultrasonic behavior in non-destructive testing (NDT) and structural health monitoring (SHM) communities. However, most previous studies on static component generation are mainly based on using longitudinal waves. It is desirable to extend static component generation from primary longitudinal waves to primary Lamb waves. In this paper, static component generation from the primary Lamb waves is studied. Two major issues are numerically investigated. First, the mode of static displacement component generated from different primary Lamb wave modes is identified. Second, cumulative effect of static displacement component from different primary Lamb wave modes is also discussed. Our study results show that the static component wave packets generated from the primary S0, A0 and S1 modes share the almost same group velocity equal to the phase velocity of S0 mode tending to zero frequency cplate. The finding indicates that whether the primary mode is S0, A0 or S1, the static components generated from these primary modes always share the nature of S0 mode. This conclusion is also verified by the displacement filed of these static components that the horizontal displacement field is almost uniform and the vertical displacement filed is antisymmetric across the thickness of the plate. The uniform distribution of horizontal displacement filed enables the static component, regardless of the primary Lamb modes, to be a promising technique for evaluating microstructural damages buried in the interior of a structure. Our study also illustrates that the static components are cumulative regardless of whether the phase velocity of the primary and secondary waves is matched or not. This observation indicates that the static component overcomes the limitations of the traditional nonlinear Lamb waves satisfying phase velocity matching condition to achieve cumulative second harmonic generation. This nature also enables the primary Lamb waves excited at a low center frequency to generate static component used for inspecting large-scale structures with micro-scale damages.
Effect of chlorine on corrosion in Drinking Water Systems

The federal Ground Water Rule may require some water utilities that do not use disinfection to begin doing so. A common method of disinfection is to add chlorine to the water. A study was performed to investigate the corrosive effects of chlorine in drinking water systems out of concern for staying in compliance with the corrosion control stipulations of the Lead and Copper Rule. Comparative corrosivity experiments using pipe loops were performed at two test sites. In this study, iron appears to be the most affected by free chlorine addition, followed by copper, followed by lead, which may or may not experience increased corrosion. Elevating the pH of the water at one site (originally at a pH of 7.8, 140 mg/L as calcium carbonate [CaCO3] total alkalinity, 6 mg/L dissolved oxygen) was beneficial in counteracting the corrosive effect of chlorinated water on iron. However, in this case, the elevation of pH was not beneficial in controlling corrosion of lead or copper. Adding orthophosphate decreased corrosion of lead and iron in contact with chlorinated water at the other site (original pH of 7.4, 290 mg/L as CaCO3 total alkalinity, 11 mg/L dissolved oxygen). However, copper corrosion appeared to reach an increased level in the long term.
Mutual effect of geometric modifications and diagrid structure on structural optimization of tall buildings

ABSTRACT Structural efficiency and flexibility in architectural planning have made diagrid structural system so popular among engineers and architects, currently. Since considering architectural and structural parameters can help architects and engineers to have more efficient buildings the focus of this research is to study the effect of both different geometric base and top plans configurations of tall building and the angle of diagrid structure to design efficient tall buildings with respect to two objectives: the total weight of structural elements per unit area and horizontal displacement of top floor (both minimized). To this aim, 64 parametric models with various cross-sectional shapes and 180 m height are generated by randomly increasing the number of sides at the base and top plans. The generated models are developed for varying angle of diagonal members. Rhino software and its plug-in Grasshopper are used for modelling and Grasshopper's plug-in called Karamba is used for structural analysis. The optimal models are resulted by means of genetic algorithm-based optimization. Ultimately, it is found that the optimum bound for diagrid angle is between 53° and 70° and if the number of polygonal cross-sections goes up, the efficiency of the buildings with diagrids that have the optimum diagonal angles increases.
TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY OF THE ACCLIMATIZATION SYSTEM IN AVIARY OF POSTURE: A CASE STUDY

: The objective of this study was to compare the performance of laying hens between automated aviaries, one with and another without acclimatized system. On a daily basis it was registered in each aviary the mortality, the egg production, and the feed consumption. The variables of the dry bulb temperature, relative humidity and black globe temperature were registered every 30 minutes using the thermos hygrometer. Every 28 days ninety eggs from each aviary were collected randomly and the variables egg weight, shell weight, shell thickness and Haugh Unit were registered. The consumption and quality of the electrical energy supply were monitored every 30 minutes using registers of electrical magnitude. The results showed that the acclimatization system consumes more electrical energy; however it provides thermal environment more suitable for bird raising, resulting in better production and quality of the eggs. The quality of the electrical energy supply was not maintained, since several interruptions occurred which resulted in higher mortality in the acclimatized aviary. It was concluded that the acclimatization system is technically feasible, since the electrical energy supply is guaranteed.
Effectiveness of auriculotherapy for stress, based on experience of the therapist: a clinical trial

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of auriculotherapy with semipermanent needles on stress levels in the nursing staff of a teaching hospital. Methods: A clinical trial with forty-nine people randomized into three groups: group 1 (control), group 2 (less experienced therapists) and group 3 (more experienced therapists), conducted between January and July 2010. The subjects received eight sessions with the Shen Mein, kidney and brainstem points being assessed at baseline, after four and eight sessions, and at follow-up (15 days). Results: The ANOVA showed statistically significant differences between the results before and after between the groups in the third assessment (F = 3.404 / p = 0.042) and at follow-up (F = 4.106 / p = 0.023). These differences were between groups 1/3 in the third assessment (p = 0.036) and at follow-up (p = 0.033). A marginally significant result was found at follow-up between groups 1/2 (p = 0 059). Conclusion: Auriculotherapy with more experienced therapists effectively reduced stress in nursing professionals, however, one considers the need for more studies with this procedure.