Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Associations with the use of multidimensional performance measures and the effectiveness of performance measurement systems

This paper examines the associations between: (i) business strategy and organisational culture with the usage of multidimensional performance measures and (ii) the use of multidimensional performance measures and information system characteristics with the effectiveness of performance measurement systems (PMSs). Using a mail survey method, data were collected from a random sample of 540 senior financial officers in Australian manufacturing organisations. The results revealed that business strategy (product differentiation and low cost) and a teamwork oriented culture were associated with the use of multidimensional performance measures. In addition, the use of multidimensional performance measures and all four information system characteristics (i.e. scope, timeliness, integration and aggregation) were associated with the performance related outcome dimension of PMS effectiveness, while the use of multidimensional performance measures and integrated information were associated with staff and strategic related outcomes. The study contributes to the literature by examining the use and effectiveness of PMSs.
Fault Diagnosis of Wind Turbine Gearboxes Through Temperature and Vibration Data

Gearbox faults are one of the most common and severe causes of energy losses in large wind turbine technology. Further, degradation of gearboxes is an elusive phenomenon by the point of view of diagnostics. Yet, nowadays the widespread diffusion of Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) control systems is a keystone for fault prevention. It is desirable to conjugate accuracy of the outputs with intuitiveness and reasonable computational cost. The present work deals with these issues: some methods are proposed for data mining of SCADA gearbox temperature and vibration measurements. In particular, a model based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) is proposed and its performances are compared against similar approaches in the literature. It arises that vibration analysis at the time scale of SCADA data isn’t effective for fault diagnosis, even if powered by the artificial intelligence of the ANN, while the proposed ANN model for gearbox temperatures is useful for early fault diagnosis. The method is tested on the data sets of a wind farm in southern Italy and it is shown that the method is capable of diagnosing incoming faults to three out of nine wind turbines of the site.
Distributed actuation concepts for a morphing aileron device

ABSTRACT The actuation mechanism is a crucial aspect in the design of morphing structures due to the very stringent requirements involving actuation torque, consumed power, and allowable size and weight. In the framework of the CRIAQ MD0-505 project, novel design strategies are investigated to enable morphing of aeronautical structures. This paper deals with the design of a morphing aileron with the main focus on the actuation technology. The morphing aileron consists of segmented 'finger-like' ribs capable of changing the aerofoil camber in order to match target aerodynamic shapes. In this work, lightweight and compact actuation kinematics driven by electromechanical actuators are investigated to actuate the morphing device. An unshafted distributed servo-electromechanical actuation arrangement is employed to realise the transition from the baseline configuration to a set of target aerodynamic shapes by also withstanding the aerodynamics loads. Numerical investigations are detailed to identify the optimal actuation architecture matching as well as the system integratability and structural compactness.
Case Report: Recurrent Malignant Struma Ovarii With Hyperthyroidism and Metastases, A Rare Case Report and Review of the Literature

Background: SO (Struma ovarii) is a rare form of ovarian teratoma which originates from ovarian dermoid cysts. Due to the rarity of this disease, relevant studies might not be sufficiently documented, especially cases with hyperthyroidism and multiple metastases. Case Presentation: A 40-year-old female patient was admitted to our hospital due to management of early pregnancy along with a recurrent abdominal and pelvic mass. Contrast-enhanced CT images showed an irregular mass (10.7 × 8.6 × 12.8 cm) located in the right side from the hypogastrium to the pelvic cavity and another mass (3.8 × 3.7 cm) in the liver. Laboratory examination showed that CA125 (Carbohydrate Antigen-125) was 118.10 U/mL, Tg (thyroglobulin) was >300 ng/ml, FT4 (free thyroxine) was 22.11 pmol/L, and TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone) was <0.004 mIU/L. She subsequently underwent liver mass dissection, omentectomy, tumor dissection, peritoneal nodule resection, as well as rectal anterior wall nodule resection. The patient was diagnosed with malignant SO (papillary type) along with multiple metastases. Also, we conducted a literature review based on 290 SO cases from 257 articles. Conclusion: This study showed that malignant SO might be prone to relapse and metastasize (a metastatic rate of 52.94%) and therefore aggressive management might need to be recommended for malignant SO. Also, laparotomy might need to be recommended for large tumors that cannot be resected by laparoscopic surgery since these tumors might be prone to rupture and thus produce peritoneal implants. Furthermore, Graves’ disease might need to be considered in the differential diagnosis.
Mucopolysaccharidosis Type IVA: Extracellular Matrix Biomarkers in Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Mucopolysaccharidosis Type IVA (Morquio A), signified by valvular disease and cardiac hypertrophy, is the second leading cause of death and remains untouched by current therapies. Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) is the gold-standard treatment for MPS disorders including Morquio A. Early administration of ERT improves outcomes of patients from childhood to adulthood while posing new challenges including prognosis of CVD and ERT’s negligible effect on cardiovascular health. Thus, having accurate biomarkers for CVD could be critical. Here we show that cathepsin S (CTSS) and elastin (ELN) can be used as biomarkers of extracellular matrix remodeling in Morquio A disease. We found in a cohort of 54 treatment naïve Morquio A patients and 74 normal controls that CTSS shows promising attributes as a biomarker in young Morquio A children. On the other hand, ELN shows promising attributes as a biomarker in adolescent and adult Morquio A. Plasma/urine keratan sulfate (KS), and urinary glycosaminoglycan (GAG) levels were significantly higher in Morquio A patients (p < 0.001) which decreased with age of patients. CTSS levels did not correlate with patients’ phenotypic severity but differed significantly between patients (median range 5.45–8.52 ng/mL) and normal controls (median range 9.61–15.9 ng/mL; p < 0.001). We also studied α -2-macroglobulin (A2M), C-reactive protein (CRP), and circulating vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) in a subset of samples to understand the relation between ECM biomarkers and the severity of CVD in Morquio A patients. Our experiments revealed that CRP and sVCAM-1 levels were lower in Morquio A patients compared to normal controls. We also observed a strong inverse correlation between urine/plasma KS and CRP (p = 0.013 and p = 0.022, respectively) in Morquio A patients as well as a moderate correlation between sVCAM-1 and CTSS in Morquio A patients at all ages (p = 0.03). As the first study to date investigating CTSS and ELN levels in Morquio A patients and in the normal population, our results establish a starting point for more elaborate studies in larger populations to understand how CTSS and ELN levels correlate with Morquio A severity.
Multiple Lenses of N-Isotopes Reveal Active Dissolved Organic Nitrogen Cycling in a Subtropical Estuary and Marginal Sea

Dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) is an important component of the marine nitrogen (N) inventory and plays an essential role in N cycling in global estuaries and marginal seas. Understanding DON cycling is important but challenging. Global estuaries and marginal seas are experiencing significant anthropogenic impacts and have intensive physical/biochemical gradients. Therefore, high-quality DON concentration and N-isotope (δ15N–DON) data are very difficult to obtain. To enrich this knowledge, we take the Changjiang Estuary and the adjacent East China Sea shelf seas as a representative example and analyzed multiple isotopes and the concentrations of nitrate ( N O 3 − ), particulate nitrogen (PN), and DON. N isotopes combined with optimum multiparameter analysis proved to be very informative. This integrated analysis discriminates active DON production and consumption from a seemingly conservative distribution pattern of DON. The study area was divided into DON production zones 1 and 2 (P-zone 1 and 2) and DON consumption zones 1 and 2 (C-zone 1 and 2). For P-zone 1, the PN-originated DON elevated the δ15N–DON, while in P-zone 2, the DON excreted by phytoplankton was characterized by low δ15N and lowered δ15N–DON. DON consumption occurred in the N O 3 − depleted surface waters (C-zone 1) as well as the shelf middle and bottom waters (C-zone 2). This study discovers and consolidates the active and dynamical zoning of DON cycling from the estuary to the offshore marginal sea and establishes a useful means that is of valuable reference to DON cycling studies in global estuaries and marginal seas.
Effect of Panicle Morphology on Grain Filling and Rice Yield: Genetic Control and Molecular Regulation

The demand for rice is likely to increase approximately 1.5 times by the year 2050. In contrast, the rice production is stagnant since the past decade as the ongoing rice breeding program is unable to increase the production further, primarily because of the problem in grain filling. Investigations have revealed several reasons for poor filling of the grains in the inferior spikelets of the compact panicle, which are otherwise genetically competent to develop into well-filled grains. Among these, the important reasons are 1) poor activities of the starch biosynthesizing enzymes, 2) high ethylene production leading to inhibition in expressions of the starch biosynthesizing enzymes, 3) insufficient division of the endosperm cells and endoreduplication of their nuclei, 4) low accumulation of cytokinins and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) that promote grain filling, and 5) altered expressions of the miRNAs unfavorable for grain filling. At the genetic level, several genes/QTLs linked to the yield traits have been identified, but the information so far has not been put into perspective toward increasing the rice production. Keeping in view the genetic competency of the inferior spikelets to develop into well-filled grains and based on the findings from the recent research studies, improving grain filling in these spikelets seems plausible through the following biotechnological interventions: 1) spikelet-specific knockdown of the genes involved in ethylene synthesis and overexpression of β-CAS (β-cyanoalanine) for enhanced scavenging of CN− formed as a byproduct of ethylene biosynthesis; 2) designing molecular means for increased accumulation of cytokinins, abscisic acid (ABA), and IAA in the caryopses; 3) manipulation of expression of the transcription factors like MYC and OsbZIP58 to drive the expression of the starch biosynthesizing enzymes; 4) spikelet-specific overexpression of the cyclins like CycB;1 and CycH;1 for promoting endosperm cell division; and 5) the targeted increase in accumulation of ABA in the straw during the grain filling stage for increased carbon resource remobilization to the grains. Identification of genes determining panicle compactness could also lead to an increase in rice yield through conversion of a compact-panicle into a lax/open one. These efforts have the ability to increase rice production by as much as 30%, which could be more than the set production target by the year 2050.
Attitudes Toward HPV Vaccination in Sweden: A Survey Study

Background While HPV vaccination uptake in Sweden is quite high, at around 80%, vaccine hesitancy remains an issue in countries throughout Europe. The latter can be related to a contemporary context of increased contestation of expert knowledge and of a large share of information on health-related issues including vaccination today being sought via the internet. Still, there is a paucity of recent research on attitudes toward the HPV vaccine in a larger sample of the population in Sweden. This survey study assesses such attitudes and any correlations between vaccine hesitancy and sociodemographic characteristics, trust in healthcare and other societal institutions, and evaluation of the reliability of different sources of information. Methods The validated survey questionnaire was distributed to adult women in Sweden (n = 2,000), via a nationally representative web panel. The response rate was 37%. Aside from descriptive statistics, associations between vaccine hesitancy and sociodemographic and other variables were computed using logistic regressions and expressed as odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). Results Our results show a positive attitude toward HPV vaccination overall. Still, some degree of HPV vaccine hesitancy was indicated by 33.8% of the respondents, and more pronounced hesitancy by 7.6%. Regarding vaccination in general, a very positive attitude was indicated by 55%. HPV vaccine hesitancy was associated with low education and low income and strongly associated with a lack of confidence in healthcare and other societal institutions. It was also correlated with a self-assessed lack of access to, and ability to assess the origin, quality and reliability of, information about the HPV vaccine. Conclusion Efforts to provide transparent information about HPV vaccination should be combined with healthcare providers being open to discuss vaccine concerns with patients and avoiding practices that do not promote trust.
Automatic Mapping and Monitoring of Marine Water Quality Parameters in Hong Kong Using Sentinel-2 Image Time-Series and Google Earth Engine Cloud Computing

Continuous monitoring of coastal water qualities is critical for water resource management and marine ecosystem sustainability. While remote sensing data such as Sentinel-2 satellite imagery routinely provide high-resolution observations for time-series analysis, the cloud-based Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform supports simple image retrieval and large-scale processing. Using coastal waters of Hong Kong as the study area, this study utilized GEE to (i) query and pre-process all Sentinel-2 observations that coincided with in situ measurements; (ii) extract the spectra to develop empirical models for water quality parameters using artificial neural networks; and (iii) visualize the results using spatial distribution maps, time-series charts and an online application. The modeling workflow was applied to 22 water quality parameters and the results suggested the potential to predict the levels of several nutrients and inorganic constituents. In-depth analyses were conducted for chlorophyll-a, suspended solids and turbidity which produced high correlations between the predicted and observed values when validated with an independent dataset. The selected input variables followed spectral characteristics of the optical constituents. The results were considered more robust compared to previous works in the same region due to the automatic extraction of all available images and larger number of observations from different years and months. Besides visualizing long-term spatial and temporal variabilities through distribution maps and time-series charts, potential anomalies in the monitoring period including algal bloom could also be captured using the models developed from historical data. An online application was created to allow novice users to explore and analyze water quality trends with a simple web interface. The integrated use of remotely-sensed images, in situ measurements and cloud computing can offer new opportunities for implementing effective monitoring programs and understanding water quality dynamics. Although the obtained levels of accuracies were below the desired standard, the end-to-end cloud computing workflow demonstrated in this study should be further investigated considering the cost and computational efficiency for timely information delivery.
Identification of TRP-Related Subtypes, Development of a Prognostic Model, and Characterization of Tumor Microenvironment Infiltration in Lung Adenocarcinoma

The TRP (transient receptor potential) superfamily, as cation channels, is a critical chemosensor for potentially harmful irritants. Their activation is closely related not only to tumor progression and prognosis but also to tumor therapy response. Nevertheless, the TRP-related immune gene (TRIG) expression of the tumor microenvironment (TME) and the associations with prognosis remain unclear. First, we represented the transcriptional and genetic variations in TRIGs in 535 lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) samples as well as their expression patterns. LUAD samples were divided into two distinct subtypes based on the TRIG variations. Significant differences had been found in prognosis, clinical features, and TME cell-infiltration features between the two subtypes of patients. Second, we framed a TRIG score for predicting overall survival (OS) and validated the predictive capability of the TRIG score in LUAD patients. Accordingly, to enhance the clinical applicability of TRIG score, we developed a considerable nomogram. A low TRIG score, characterized by increased immunity activation, indicated favorable advantages of OS compared with a high TRIG score. Furthermore, the TRIG score was found to have a significant connection with the TME cell-infiltration and immune checkpoint expressions. Our analysis of TRIGs in LUAD showed their potential roles in prognosis, clinical features, and tumor-immune microenvironments. These results may advance our knowledge of TRP genes in LUAD and show a new light on prognosis estimation and the improvement of immunotherapy strategies.
Early Word Segmentation Behind the Mask

Infants have been shown to rely both on auditory and visual cues when processing speech. We investigated the impact of COVID-related changes, in particular of face masks, in early word segmentation abilities. Following up on our previous study demonstrating that, by 4 months, infants already segmented targets presented auditorily at utterance-edge position, and, using the same visual familiarization paradigm, 7–9-month-old infants performed an auditory and an audiovisual word segmentation experiment in two conditions: without and with an FFP2 face mask. Analysis of acoustic and visual cues showed changes in face-masked speech affecting the amount, weight, and location of cues. Utterance-edge position displayed more salient cues than utterance-medial position, but the cues were attenuated in face-masked speech. Results revealed no evidence for segmentation, not even at edge position, regardless of mask condition and auditory or visual speech presentation. However, in the audiovisual experiment, infants attended more to the screen during the test trials when familiarized with without mask speech. Also, the infants attended more to the mouth and less to the eyes in without mask than with mask. In addition, evidence for an advantage of the utterance-edge position in emerging segmentation abilities was found. Thus, audiovisual information provided some support to developing word segmentation. We compared 7–9-monthers segmentation ability observed in the Butler and Frota pre-COVID study with the current auditory without mask data. Mean looking time for edge was significantly higher than unfamiliar in the pre-COVID study only. Measures of cognitive and language development obtained with the CSBS scales showed that the infants of the current study scored significantly lower than the same-age infants from the CSBS (pre-COVID) normative data. Our results suggest an overall effect of the pandemic on early segmentation abilities and language development, calling for longitudinal studies to determine how development proceeds.
Maternal Smoking, Alcohol and Recreational Drug Use and the Risk of SIDS Among a US Urban Black Population

Background Rates of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) are twice as high among Black infants compared to white infants in the US. While the contribution of sleep environment factors to this disparity is known, little is known about the risk of SIDS among Black infants in relation to maternal prenatal smoking, alcohol and drug use as well as infant smoke exposure. Objective To assess the contribution of maternal substance use during pregnancy and the potential interactions with infant bedsharing in a high-risk, urban Black population. Methods The Chicago Infant Mortality Study (CIMS) collected data on 195 Black infants who died of SIDS and 195 controls matched on race, age and birthweight. Risk of SIDS was calculated for maternal smoking, alcohol and drug use, adjusting for potential confounding variables and other risk factors for SIDS. Interactions between these substance use variables and bedsharing were also calculated. Results Infants were more likely to die from SIDS if the mother smoked during pregnancy (aOR 3.90, 95% CI 1.37–3.30) and post-pregnancy (aOR 2.49, 95% CI 1.49–4.19). There was a dose response seen between amount smoked during pregnancy and risk of SIDS. Use of alcohol (aOR 2.89, 95% CI 1.29–6.99), cocaine (aOR 4.78, 95% CI 2.45–9.82) and marijuana (aOR 2.76, 95% CI 1.28–5.93) were associated with increased risk of SIDS. In the final, multivariable model controlling for sociodemographic factors and covariates, maternal smoking (aOR 3.03, 95% CI 1.03–8.88) and cocaine use (aOR 4.65, 95% CI 1.02–21.3) during pregnancy remained significant. There were significant, positive interactions between bedsharing and maternal smoking during pregnancy and post-pregnancy, alcohol use and cocaine use. Conclusion Maternal use of tobacco, alcohol and cocaine during pregnancy is associated with significantly increased risk of SIDS in a Black, urban population. Reducing substance use and eliminating disparities in SIDS, sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) (also known as sudden unexpected death in infancy or SUDI) and infant mortality need to involve more than individual level education, but instead will require a comprehensive examination of the role of social determinants of health as well as a multi-pronged approach to address both maternal and infant health and wellbeing.
Identification of SF-1 and FOXL2 and Their Effect on Activating P450 Aromatase Transcription via Specific Binding to the Promoter Motifs in Sex Reversing Cheilinus undulatus

The giant wrasse Cheilinus undulatus is a protogynous socially hermaphroditic fish. However, the physiological basis of its sex reversal remains largely unknown. cyp19 is a key gender-related gene encoding P450 aromatase, which converts androgens to estrogens. cyp19 transcription regulation is currently unknown in socially sexually reversible fish. We identified NR5A1 by encoding SF-1, and FOXL2 from giant wrasse cDNA and cyp19a1a and cyp19a1b promoter regions were cloned from genomic DNA to determine the function of both genes in cyp19a1 regulation. Structural analysis showed that SF-1 contained a conserved DNA-binding domain (DBD) and a C-terminal ligand-binding domain (LBD). FOXL2 was comprised of an evolutionarily conserved Forkhead domain. In vitro transfection assays showed that SF-1 could upregulate cyp19a1 promoter activities, but FOXL2 could only enhance cyp19a1b promoter transcriptional activity in the HEK293T cell line. Furthermore, HEK293T and COS-7 cell lines showed that co-transfecting the two transcription factors significantly increased cyp19a1 promoter activity. The −120 to −112 bp (5′-CAAGGGCAC-3′) and −890 to −872 bp (5′-AGAGGAGAACAAGGGGAG-3′) regions of the cyp19a1a promoter were the core regulatory elements for SF-1 and FOXL2, respectively, to regulate cyp19a1b promoter transcriptional activity. Collectively, these results suggest that both FOXL2 and SF-1 are involved in giant wrasse sex reversal.