Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Heterogeneous distribution of Cardinium in whitefly populations is associated with host nuclear genetic background

Inherited bacterial symbionts are very common in arthropods, but infection frequency can vary widely among populations. Experiments and interpopulation comparisons suggest that host genetic background might be important in explaining this variation. Our extensive field investigation showed that the infection pattern of the facultative symbiont Cardinium was heterogeneous across geographical populations of the invasive whitefly Bemisia tabaci Mediterranean (MED) in China, with genetic nuclear differences evident in 2 of the populations: 1 with a low infection rate (SD line) and 1 with a high infection rate (HaN line). However, whether the heterogeneous frequency of Cardinium is associated with the host genetic background remains poorly understood. Here, we compared the fitness of the Cardinium‐infected and uninfected sublines with similar nuclear genetic backgrounds from SD and HaN lines, respectively, and further determine whether host extranuclear or nuclear genotype influenced the Cardinium–host phenotype by performing 2 new introgression series of 6 generations between SD and HaN lines (i.e., Cardinium‐infected females of SD were backcrossed with uninfected males of HaN, and vice versa). The results showed that Cardinium provides marginal fitness benefits in the SD line, whereas Cardinium provides strong fitness benefits in the HaN line. Further, both Cardinium and the Cardinium–host nuclear interaction influence the fecundity and pre‐adult survival rate of B. tabaci, whereas the extranuclear genotype does not. In conclusion, our results provide evidence that Cardinium‐mediated fitness effects were closely associated with the host genetic background, which provides a fundamental basis for understanding the mechanism underlying the heterogeneous distribution of Cardinium in B. tabaci MED populations across China.
The frequency of sarcopenia has increased in patients with glomerulonephritis

Sarcopenia is defined as the loss of muscle mass and muscle strength, and its frequency increases in kidney patients. However, sarcopenia frequency in patients with glomerulonephritis is unknown. The present study aimed to investigate the frequency of sarcopenia in patients with glomerulonephritis and compare the results with the healthy population for the first time in the literature.
Validation studies of Japanese administrative health care data: A scoping review

Large‐scale administrative health care databases are increasingly being utilized for research. However, there has not been much literature that validated administrative data in Japan; a previous review identified six validation studies published between 2011 and 2017. We conducted a literature review of studies that assessed the validity of Japanese administrative health care data.
On "weak" embeddings of L1

We study the relationships between some notions of "weak" embeddings (semi-embeddings, sign-embeddings, etc.) of the space of the Lebesgue summable functions on the unit segment. First kind of problems - which "weak" embeddings are automatically other ones - are simple and we answer them completely. The questions of the second kind - which "weak" embeddabilities imply others - are difficult and some of them remain still open.
Laplacian Salience-Gated Feature Pyramid Network for Accurate Liver Vessel Segmentation

Liver vessels generated from computed tomography are usually pretty small, which poses major challenges for satisfactory vessel segmentation, including 1) the scarcity of high-quality and large-volume vessel masks, 2) the difficulty in capturing vessel-specific features, and 3) the heavily imbalanced distribution of vessels and liver tissues. To advance, a sophisticated model and an elaborated dataset have been built. The model has a newly conceived Laplacian salience filter that highlights vessel-like regions and suppresses other liver regions to shape the vessel-specific feature learning and to balance vessels against others. It is further coupled with a pyramid deep learning architecture to capture different levels of features, thus improving the feature formulation. Experiments show that this model markedly outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches, achieving a relative improvement of Dice score by at least 1.63% compared to the existing best model on available datasets. More promisingly, the averaged Dice score produced by the existing models on the newly constructed dataset is as high as ${0}. {734}\pm {0}. {070}$ , which is at least 18.3% higher than that obtained from the existing best dataset under the same settings. These observations suggest that the proposed Laplacian salience, together with the elaborated dataset, can be helpful for liver vessel segmentation.
Risk Factors for Postdischarge Major Thromboembolism and Mortality in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19 with Cardiovascular Comorbidities: Insights from the CORE-19 Registry

Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with venous and arterial thromboembolism (VTE and ATE) and all-cause mortality (ACM) in hospitalized patients. High-quality data are needed on post-discharge outcomes in patients with cardiovascular disease. Objectives To analyze outcomes and identify risk factors for ATE, VTE, and ACM in a high-risk subgroup of hospitalized COVID-19 patients with baseline cardiovascular disease. Methods We investigated post-discharge rates and associated risk factors of ATE, VTE, and ACM in 608 hospitalized COVID-19 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), carotid artery stenosis (CAS), peripheral arterial disease (PAD), or ischemic stroke. Results Through 90 days post-discharge, outcome rates were: ATE 27.3% (10.2% myocardial infarction, 10.1% ischemic stroke, 13.2% systemic embolism, 12.7% major adverse limb event); VTE 6.9% (4.1% deep vein thrombosis, 3.6% pulmonary embolism); composite of ATE, VTE, or ACM 35.2% (214/608). Multivariate analysis showed significant association between this composite endpoint and age > 75 years (odds ratio [OR]: 1.90, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.22-2.94, p = 0.004), PAD (OR: 3.23, 95% CI: 1.80-5.81, p = < 0.0001), CAS (OR: 1.74, 95% CI: 1.11-2.75, p = 0.017), congestive heart failure (CHF) (OR: 1.84, 95% CI: 1.02-3.35, p = 0.044), previous VTE (OR: 3.08, 95% CI: 1.75-5.42, p < 0.0001), and intensive care unit (ICU) admission (OR: 2.93, 95% CI: 1.81-4.75, p < 0.0001). Conclusions COVID-19 inpatients with cardiovascular disease experience high rates of ATE, VTE, or ACM through 90 days post-discharge. Age > 75 years, PAD, CAS, CHF, previous VTE, and ICU admission are independent risk factors.
Piezo1 opposes age‐associated cortical bone loss

As we age, our bones undergo a process of loss, often accompanied by muscle weakness and reduced physical activity. This is exacerbated by decreased responsiveness to mechanical stimulation in aged skeleton, leading to the hypothesis that decreased mechanical stimulation plays an important role in age‐related bone loss. Piezo1, a mechanosensitive ion channel, is critical for bone homeostasis and mechanotransduction. Here, we observed a decrease in Piezo1 expression with age in both murine and human cortical bone. Furthermore, loss of Piezo1 in osteoblasts and osteocytes resulted in an increase in age‐associated cortical bone loss compared to control mice. The loss of cortical bone was due to an expansion of the endosteal perimeter resulting from increased endocortical resorption. In addition, expression of Tnfrsf11b, encoding anti‐osteoclastogenic protein OPG, decreases with Piezo1 in vitro and in vivo in bone cells, suggesting that Piezo1 suppresses osteoclast formation by promoting Tnfrsf11b expression. Our results highlight the importance of Piezo1‐mediated mechanical signaling in protecting against age‐associated cortical bone loss by inhibiting bone resorption in mice.
XXIV.—On the Law of Visible Position in Single and Binocular Vision, and on the representation of Solid Figures by the union of dissimilar Plane Pictures on the Retina

In the course of an examination of Bishop Berkeley's “New Theory of Vision,” the foundation of the Ideal Philosophy, I have found it necessary to repeat many old experiments, and to make many new ones, in reference to the functions of the eye as an optical instrument. I had imagined that many points in the physiology of vision were irrevocably fixed, and placed beyond the reach of controversy; but though this supposition may still be true in the estimation of that very limited class of philosophers who have really studied the subject, yet it is mortifying to find that the laws of vision, as established by experiment and observation, are as little understood as they were in the days of Locke and Berkeley. Metaphysicians and physiologists have combined their efforts in substituting unfounded speculation for physical truth; and even substantial discoveries have been prematurely placed in opposition to opinions of which they are the necessary result.
Study of Spatio-Temporal Modeling in Video Quality Assessment

Video quality assessment (VQA) has received remarkable attention recently. Most of the popular VQA models employ recurrent neural networks (RNNs) to capture the temporal quality variation of videos. However, each long-term video sequence is commonly labeled with a single quality score, with which RNNs might not be able to learn long-term quality variation well: What’s the real role of RNNs in learning the visual quality of videos? Does it learn spatio-temporal representation as expected or just aggregating spatial features redundantly? In this study, we conduct a comprehensive study by training a family of VQA models with carefully designed frame sampling strategies and spatio-temporal fusion methods. Our extensive experiments on four publicly available in- the-wild video quality datasets lead to two main findings. First, the plausible spatio-temporal modeling module (i. e., RNNs) does not facilitate quality-aware spatio-temporal feature learning. Second, sparsely sampled video frames are capable of obtaining the competitive performance against using all video frames as the input. In other words, spatial features play a vital role in capturing video quality variation for VQA. To our best knowledge, this is the first work to explore the issue of spatio-temporal modeling in VQA.
EXPONENTIAL STABILISATION OF A TREE-SHAPED NETWORK OF STRINGS WITH VARIABLE COEFFICIENTS*

Abstract In this paper, we deal with a tree-shaped network of strings with a fixed root node. By imposing velocity feedback controllers on all vertices except the root node, we show that the spectrum of the system operator consists of all isolated eigenvalues of finite multiplicity and is distributed in a strip parallel to the imaginary axis under certain conditions. Moreover, we prove that there exists a sequence of eigenvectors and generalised eigenvectors that forms a Riesz basis with parentheses, and that the imaginary axis is not an asymptote of the spectrum. Thereby, we deduce that the system is exponentially stable.
Medical causes of poor performance and their associations with fitness in Standardbred racehorses

Abstract Background Poor performance is a multifactorial syndrome of racehorses, commonly associated with subclinical disorders, which can be diagnosed by exercise testing. Objectives Describe the prevalence of medical causes of poor performance in Standardbreds unassociated with lameness, and evaluate their relationships with fitness variables measured by exercise treadmill test. Animals Hospital population of 259 nonlame Standardbred trotters referred for poor performance. Methods The horses' medical records were retrospectively reviewed. Horses underwent a diagnostic protocol including resting examination, plasma lactate concentration, treadmill test with continuous ECG and assessment of fitness variables, creatine kinase activity, treadmill endoscopy, postexercise tracheobronchoscopy, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), and gastroscopy. The prevalence of different disorders was evaluated, including cardiac arrhythmias, exertional myopathies, dynamic upper airway obstructions (DUAOs), exercise‐induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH), moderate equine asthma (MEA), and gastric ulcers (EGUS). The associations of these disorders with fitness variables were investigated individually and using multivariable models. Results Moderate equine asthma and EGUS were the most common disorders, followed by EIPH, DUAOs, cardiac arrhythmias, and exertional myopathies. Hemosiderin score was positively correlated with BAL neutrophils, eosinophils, and mast cells; increased creatine kinase activity was associated with BAL neutrophilia, DUAOs, premature complexes, and squamous gastric disease. Treadmill velocity at a plasma lactate concentration of 4 mmol/L and at heart rate of 200 beats per minute was negatively affected by BAL neutrophilia, multiple DUAOs, exertional myopathies, and squamous gastric disease. Conclusions The multifactorial nature of poor performance was confirmed, with MEA, DUAOs, myopathies and EGUS representing the main diseases involved in fitness impairment.
KLF2 inhibits colorectal cancer progression and metastasis by inducing ferroptosis via the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway

Krüppel‐like factor 2 (KLF2) belongs to the zinc finger family and is thought to be a tumor suppressor gene due to its low expression in various cancer types. However, its functional role and molecular pathway involvement in colorectal cancer (CRC) are not well defined. Herein, we investigated the potential mechanism of KLF2 in CRC cell invasion, migration, and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT). We utilized the TCGA and GEPIA databases to analyze the expression of KLF2 in CRC patients and its correlation with different CRC stages and CRC prognosis. RT‐PCR, western blot, and immunohistochemistry assays were used to measure KLF2 expression. Gain‐of‐function assays were performed to evaluate the role of KLF2 in CRC progression. Moreover, mechanistic experiments were conducted to investigate the molecular mechanism and involved signaling pathways regulated by KLF2. Additionally, we also conducted a xenograft tumor assay to evaluate the role of KLF2 in tumorigenesis. KLF2 expression was low in CRC patient tissues and cell lines, and low expression of KLF2 was associated with poor CRC prognosis. Remarkably, overexpressing KLF2 significantly inhibited the invasion, migration, and EMT capabilities of CRC cells, and tumor growth in xenografts. Mechanistically, KLF2 overexpression induced ferroptosis in CRC cells by regulating glutathione peroxidase 4 expression. Moreover, this KLF2‐dependent ferroptosis in CRC cells was mediated by inhibiting the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway that resulted in the suppression of invasion, migration, and EMT of CRC cells. We report for the first time that KLF2 acts as a tumor suppressor in CRC by inducing ferroptosis via inhibiting the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, thus providing a new direction for CRC prognosis assessment and targeted therapy.
Animal models: An essential tool to dissect the heterogeneity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Jingxian Jiang1#, Shuanglan Xu1#, Zi Chen1#, Weihua Liu1, Liuchao Zhang1, Jianmin Li2, Zhou Zhu3, Linfu Zhou1,2,4 1Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China; 2Animal Core Facility, Key Laboratory of Model Animal, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211166, Jiangsu Province, China; 3Department of Pediatrics and Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Brown University Warren Alpert Medical School, Providence, RI 02912, USA; 4Institute of Integrative Medicine, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China
Outpatient speech and language therapy via videoconferencing in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic: Experiences of therapists / Videotherapie in der ambulanten Logopädie/Sprachtherapie in Deutschland während der COVID-19 Pandemie: Erfahrungen von Therapeut/innen

Abstract During the COVID-19 pandemic, videoconferencing as a synchronous form of telepractice service delivery models received a boost. In Germany, online-only sessions are not a standardised means of healthcare provision, while telepractice is already well established internationally. This study examines videoconferencing in outpatient speech and language therapy during the first period of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. The experiences of therapists are reported in this study. For this quantitative study, data were collected by an online survey. Speech and language therapists in Germany were surveyed (n = 816). Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The results demonstrated that 87% of participants used videoconferencing in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Videoconferencing was conducted with patients of different ages and disorder indications. In their use of videoconferencing, 78% of therapists described benefits. The mentioned benefits and limitations are similar to international findings, showing the potential for synchronous speech and language therapy via videoconferencing. German therapists display a general acceptance of the sustainable use of videoconferencing, and the majority of therapists can imagine transferring videoconferencing to standard healthcare.
Integrated quantum key distribution sender unit for daily-life implementations

Unlike currently implemented encryption schemes, Quantum Key Distribution provides a secure way of generating and distributing a key among two parties. Although a multitude of research platforms has been developed, the integration of QKD units within classical communication systems remains a tremendous challenge. The recently achieved maturity of integrated photonic technologies could be exploited to create miniature QKD add-ons that could extend the primary function of various existing systems such as mobile devices or optical stations. In this work we report on an integrated optics module enabling secure short-distance communication for, e.g., quantum access schemes. Using BB84-like protocols, Alice's mobile low-cost device can exchange secure key and information everywhere within a trusted node network. The new optics platform (35×20×8mm) compatible with current smartphone's technology generates NIR faint polarised laser pulses with 100MHz repetition rate. Fully automated beam tracking and live basis-alignment on Bob's side ensure user-friendly operation with a quantum link efficiency as high as 50% stable over a few seconds.
Scaling arguments for the fluxes in turbulent miscible fountains

Abstract For established axisymmetric turbulent miscible Boussinesq fountains in quiescent uniform environments, expressions are developed for the fluxes of volume, momentum and buoyancy at the outflow from the fountain: the outflow referring to the counterflow at the horizontal plane of the source. The fluxes are expressed in terms of the fountain source conditions and two dimensionless functions of the source Froude number, ${\rm Fr}_{0}$ : a radial function (relating a horizontal scale of the outflow to the source radius) and a volume flux function (relating the outflow and source volume fluxes). The forms taken by these two functions at low ${\rm Fr}_{0}$ and high ${\rm Fr}_{0}$ are deduced, thereby providing the outflow fluxes and outflow Froude number solely in terms of the source conditions. For high ${\rm Fr}_{0}$ , the outflow Froude number, ${\rm Fr}_{out}$ , is shown to be invariant, indicating (by analogy with plumes for which the ‘far-field’ Froude number is invariant with source Froude number) that the outflow may be regarded as ‘far-field’ since the fluxes within the fountain have adjusted to attain a balance which is independent of the source conditions. Based on ${\rm Fr}_{out}$ , the fluxes in the plume that forms beyond the fountain outflow are deduced. Finally, from the results of previously published studies, we show that the scalings deduced for fountains are valid for $0.0025 \lesssim {\rm Fr}_{0} \lesssim 1.0 $ for low ${\rm Fr}_{0}$ and $ {\rm Fr}_{0} \gtrsim 3.0 $ for high ${\rm Fr}_{0}$ .
Density by Moduli and Lacunary Statistical Convergence

We have introduced and studied a new concept of -lacunary statistical convergence, where is an unbounded modulus. It is shown that, under certain conditions on a modulus , the concepts of lacunary strong convergence with respect to a modulus and -lacunary statistical convergence are equivalent on bounded sequences. We further characterize those for which , where and denote the sets of all -lacunary statistically convergent sequences and -statistically convergent sequences, respectively. A general description of inclusion between two arbitrary lacunary methods of -statistical convergence is given. Finally, we give an -analog of the Cauchy criterion for convergence and a Tauberian theorem for -convergence is also proved.
A new graph-theoretic approach to clustering, with applications to computer vision

This work applies cluster analysis as a unified approach for a wide range of vision applications, thereby combining the research domain of computer vision and that of machine learning. Cluster analysis is the formal study of algorithms and methods for recovering the inherent structure within a given dataset. Many problems of computer vision have precisely this goal, namely to find which visual entities belong to an inherent structure, e.g. in an image or in a database of images. For example, a meaningful structure in the context of image segmentation is a set of pixels which correspond to the same object in a scene. Clustering algorithms can be used to partition the pixels of an image into meaningful parts, which may correspond to different objects. In this work we focus on the problems of image segmentation and image database organization. The visual entities to consider are pixels and images, respectively. Our first contribution in this work is a novel partitional (flat) clustering algorithm. The algorithm uses pairwise representation, where the visual objects (pixels, images) are mapped to the nodes of an undirected edge-weighted graph, with edge weights representing pairwise similarity relations. The clustering problem is formulated as a graph partitioning problem, namely a meaningful partitioning of the nodes into clusters is thought. Our clustering algorithm is centered around the notion of a dominant set, a novel combinatorial concept which arises from the study of a continuous formulation of the maximum clique problem. Our proposal seems to be a plausible generalization of the notion of a maximal clique in the context of edge-weighted graphs since, in the unweighted case, dominant sets turn out to be equivalent to (strictly) maximal cliques. Formal properties, intuitive arguments, and empirical findings make dominant sets reasonable candidates for a new