Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dust Destruction in the Cygnus Loop Supernova Remnant

Abstract The Cygnus Loop supernova remnant serves as an excellent laboratory for the study of radiative and non-radiative shocks with speeds in the 150–450 km s−1 range. We present results on shock-excited emission and dust destruction based on Spitzer Space Telescope observations of two well-studied regions in the remnant, (i) a non-radiative shock filament along the NE limb, and (ii) the XA region, characterized by emission from bright radiative shocks.
Whole‐Brain Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Reveals Distinct Alterations in Neurometabolic Profile in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is an atypical Parkinsonian syndrome characterized by supranuclear gaze palsy, early postural instability, and a frontal dysexecutive syndrome. Contrary to normal brain magnetic resonance imaging in Parkinson's disease (PD), PSP shows specific cerebral atrophy patterns and alterations, but these findings are not present in every patient, and it is still unclear if these signs are also detectable in early disease stages.
Follow-Up and Outcome after Coronary Bypass Surgery Preceded by Coronary Stent Implantation

Abstract Background Guidelines on myocardial revascularization define recommendations for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. Only little information exists on long-term follow-up and quality of life (QoL) after CABG preceded by PCI. The aim of our study was to evaluate the impact of prior PCI on outcome and QoL in patients with stable coronary artery disease who underwent CABG. Methods In our retrospective study, CABG patients were divided in: CABG preceded by PCI: PCI-first (PCF), and CABG-only (CO) groups. The PCF group was further divided in guideline-conform (GCO) and guideline nonconform (GNC) subgroups, according to the SYNTAX score (2014 European Society of Cardiology [ESC]/European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery [EACTS] guidelines). Thirty days mortality, major adverse cardiac events, and QoL using the European Quality-of-Life–5 Dimensions were evaluated. Results A total of 997 patients were analyzed, of which 784 underwent CABG without (CO), and 213 individuals with prior PCI (PCF). The latter group consisted of 67 patients being treated in accordance (GCO), and 24 in discordance (GNC) to the 2014 ESC/EACTS guidelines. Reinfarction (PCF: 3.8% vs. CO: 1.0%; p = 0.024), re-angiography (PCF: 17.6% vs. CO: 9.0%; p = 0.004), and re-PCI (PCF: 10.4% vs. CO: 3.0%; p < 0.001) were observed more frequently in PCF patients. Also, patients reported better health status in the CO compared to PCF group (CO: 72.48 ± 19.31 vs. PCF: 68.20 ± 17.86; p = 0.01). Patients from the guideline nonconform subgroup reported poorer health status compared to the guideline-conform group (GNC: 64.23 ± 14.56 vs. GCO: 73.42 ± 17.66; p = 0.041) and were more likely to require re-PCI (GNC: 18.8% vs. GCO: 2.4%; p = 0.03). Also, GNC patients were more likely to have left main stenosis (GCO: 19.7% vs. GNC: 37.5%; p < 0.001) and showed higher preinterventional SYNTAX score (GCO: 18.63 ± 9.81 vs. GNC: 26.67 ± 5.07; p < 0.001). Conclusion PCI preceding CABG is associated with poorer outcomes such as reinfarction, re-angiography, and re-PCI, but also worse health status and higher rehospitalization. Nevertheless, results were better when PCI was guideline-conformant. This data should impact the Heart Team decision.
PCI or CABG for left main coronary artery disease: the SWEDEHEART registry

Abstract Aims An observational nationwide all-comers prospective register study to analyse outcomes after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in unprotected left main coronary artery (LMCA) disease. Methods and results All patients undergoing coronary angiography in Sweden are registered in the Swedish Web-system for Enhancement and Development of Evidence-based care in Heart disease Evaluated According to Recommended Therapies registry. Between 01/01/2005 and 12/31/2015, 11 137 patients with LMCA disease underwent CABG (n = 9364) or PCI (n = 1773). Patients with previous CABG, ST-elevation myocardial infarction (MI) or cardiac shock were excluded. Death, MI, stroke, and new revascularization during follow-up until 12/31/2015 were identified using national registries. Cox regression with inverse probability weighting (IPW) and an instrumental variable (IV), administrative region, were used. Patients undergoing PCI were older, had higher prevalence of comorbidity but lower prevalence of three-vessel disease. PCI patients had higher mortality than CABG patients after adjustments for known cofounders with IPW analysis (hazard ratio [HR] 2.0 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.5–2.7]) and known/unknown confounders with IV analysis (HR 1.5 [95% CI 1.1–2.0]). PCI was associated with higher incidence of major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (MACCE; death, MI, stroke, or new revascularization) than CABG, with IV analysis (HR 2.8 [95% CI 1.8–4.5]). There was a quantitative interaction for diabetic status regarding mortality (P = 0.014) translating into 3.6 years (95% CI 3.3–4.0) longer median survival time favouring CABG in patients with diabetes. Conclusion In this non-randomized study, CABG in patients with LMCA disease was associated with lower mortality and fewer MACCE compared to PCI after multivariable adjustment for known and unknown confounders.
Abortion rights are health care rights

Historical perspective on abortion in the United States The practice of abortion is deeply rooted in American history. The practice of “restoring the menses” was prevalent among European colonists, Indigenous tribes, and enslaved Africans, with many women using herbal recipes shared by mothers, aunts, daughters, and sisters (1). Even health manuals that provided guidance were published. By the mid-18th century, premade abortifacients were available in New England and sold by traveling salesmen (1). Induction of miscarriage was considered part of a woman’s self-care regimen and was acceptable up to the point of “quickening,” when the fetus first kicks — only then was abortion considered illegal and immoral (2). The first laws banning the use of abortifacients after quickening were passed in the 1820s and 1830s, with the intent to protect women from potentially poisonous remedies for so-called “menstrual obstruction” and the men who coerced their use (1). By the 1840s, women received abortion care through mail-order pharmacy or by procedural specialists (3). The American Medical Association (AMA) started the antiabortion movement in 1857 to wrest control of reproductive health from the purview of midwives. Criminalization of abortion at every stage, except for those deemed medically necessary by a physician, restricted clientele from the midwives and homeopaths who previously dominated maternal health and women’s health care (3). Female physicians were initially […]
Exploring the internal forward model: action-effect prediction and attention in sensorimotor processing

Abstract Action-effect predictions are believed to facilitate movement based on its association with sensory objectives and suppress the neurophysiological response to self- versus externally generated stimuli (i.e. sensory attenuation). However, research is needed to explore theorized differences in the use of action-effect prediction based on whether movement is uncued (i.e. volitional) or in response to external cues (i.e. stimulus-driven). While much of the sensory attenuation literature has examined effects involving the auditory N1, evidence is also conflicted regarding this component’s sensitivity to action-effect prediction. In this study (n = 64), we explored the influence of action-effect contingency on event-related potentials associated with visually cued and uncued movement, as well as resultant stimuli. Our findings replicate recent evidence demonstrating reduced N1 amplitude for tones produced by stimulus-driven movement. Despite influencing motor preparation, action-effect contingency was not found to affect N1 amplitudes. Instead, we explore electrophysiological markers suggesting that attentional mechanisms may suppress the neurophysiological response to sound produced by stimulus-driven movement. Our findings demonstrate lateralized parieto-occipital activity that coincides with the auditory N1, corresponds to a reduction in its amplitude, and is topographically consistent with documented effects of attentional suppression. These results provide new insights into sensorimotor coordination and potential mechanisms underlying sensory attenuation.
ChIFNα regulates adventitious root development in Lotus japonicus via an auxin-mediated pathway

ABSTRACT Adventitious roots (ARs), developing from non-root tissue, play an important role in some plants. Here, the molecular mechanism of AR differentiation in Lotus japonicus L. (L. japonicus) with the transformed chicken interferon alpha gene (ChIFNα) encoding cytokine was studied. ChIFNα transgenic plants (TP) were identified by GUS staining, PCR, RT-PCR, and ELISA. Up to 0.175 μg/kg rChIFNα was detected in TP2 lines. Expressing rChIFNα promotes AR development by producing longer roots than controls. We found that the effect was enhanced with the auxin precursor IBA treatment in TP. IAA contents, POD, and PPO activities associated with auxin regulation were higher than wild type (WT) in TP and exogenous ChIFNα treatment plants. Transcriptome analysis revealed 48 auxin-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (FDR < 0.05), which expression levels were verified by RT-qPCR analysis. GO enrichment analysis of DEGs also highlighted the auxin pathway. Further analysis found that ChIFNα significantly enhanced auxin synthesis and signaling mainly with up-regulated genes of ALDH, and GH3. Our study reveals that ChIFNα can promote plant AR development by mediating auxin regulation. The findings help explore the role of ChIFNα cytokines and expand animal gene sources for the molecular breeding of growth regulation of forage plants.
Cumulative Lifetime Violence, Gender Role Conflict, and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Eastern Canadian Men

Despite violence being a chronic stressor that negatively affects health through allostatic overload and potentially harmful coping behaviors, the relationship between cumulative lifetime violence severity (CLVS) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in men has received little attention and the role of gender has not been considered. Using survey and health assessment data from a community sample of 177 of eastern Canadian men with CLVS as target and/or perpetrator, we developed a profile of CVD risk measured by the Framingham 30-year risk score. We tested the hypothesis that CLVS measured by the CLVS-44 scale has direct and specific indirect effects through gender role conflict (GRC) on 30-year CVD risk using parallel multiple mediation analysis. Overall, the full sample had 30-year risk scores 1.5 times higher than their age-based Framingham reference normal risk scores. Men classified as having elevated 30-year CVD risk (n = 77) had risk scores 1.7 times higher than reference normal. Although the direct effects of CLVS on 30-year CVD risk were not significant, indirect effects of CLVS through GRC, specifically Restrictive Affectionate Behavior Between Men, were significant. These novel results reinforce the critical role of chronic toxic stress, particularly from CLVS but also from GRC, in influencing CVD risk. Our findings highlight the need for providers to consider CLVS and GRC as potential antecedents to CVD and to routinely use trauma- and violence-informed approaches in the care of men.
Quartet Fiduccia–Mattheyses revisited for larger phylogenetic studies

Abstract Motivation With the recent breakthroughs in sequencing technology, phylogeny estimation at a larger scale has become a huge opportunity. For accurate estimation of large-scale phylogeny, substantial endeavor is being devoted in introducing new algorithms or upgrading current approaches. In this work, we endeavor to improve the Quartet Fiduccia and Mattheyses (QFM) algorithm to resolve phylogenetic trees of better quality with better running time. QFM was already being appreciated by researchers for its good tree quality, but fell short in larger phylogenomic studies due to its excessively slow running time. Results We have re-designed QFM so that it can amalgamate millions of quartets over thousands of taxa into a species tree with a great level of accuracy within a short amount of time. Named “QFM Fast and Improved (QFM-FI)”, our version is 20 000× faster than the previous version and 400× faster than the widely used variant of QFM implemented in PAUP* on larger datasets. We have also provided a theoretical analysis of the running time and memory requirements of QFM-FI. We have conducted a comparative study of QFM-FI with other state-of-the-art phylogeny reconstruction methods, such as QFM, QMC, wQMC, wQFM, and ASTRAL, on simulated as well as real biological datasets. Our results show that QFM-FI improves on the running time and tree quality of QFM and produces trees that are comparable with state-of-the-art methods. Availability and implementation QFM-FI is open source and available at https://github.com/sharmin-mim/qfm_java.
Linking genome structures to functions by simultaneous single-cell Hi-C and RNA-seq

Much progress has been made recently in single-cell chromosome conformation capture technologies. However, a method that allows simultaneous profiling of chromatin architecture and gene expression has not been reported. Here, we developed an assay named “Hi-C and RNA-seq employed simultaneously” (HiRES) and performed it on thousands of single cells from developing mouse embryos. Single-cell three-dimensional genome structures, despite being heavily determined by the cell cycle and developmental stages, gradually diverged in a cell type–specific manner as development progressed. By comparing the pseudotemporal dynamics of chromatin interactions with gene expression, we found a widespread chromatin rewiring that occurred before transcription activation. Our results demonstrate that the establishment of specific chromatin interactions is tightly related to transcriptional control and cell functions during lineage specification. Description Editor’s summary Whether changes in the three-dimensional (3D) structures of chromosomes regulate gene expression during development has been hotly debated. A major challenge to studying these systems is how to relate a long-range chromatin interaction thousands of base pairs away to its target gene. Liu et al. developed a multi-omics sequencing approach to profile 3D genome structures and gene expression at the same time in single cells, which enables a direct linkage between chromatin conformation and gene expression. Leveraging this new tool, the authors identified widespread chromatin interactions, especially between loci enriched for active enhancers, and found that they were rewired before gene activation during mouse embryonic development. This observation suggests that dynamic chromatin organization plays a critical role in the control of gene expression. —Di Jiang Joint profiling of a single cell’s 3D genome and transcriptome revealed specific chromatin dynamics associated with transcription during development.
The ecology of scale: impact of volume on coalescence and function in methanogenic communities

Engineered ecosystems span multiple volume scales, from a nano-scale to thousands of cubic metres. Even the largest industrial systems are tested in pilot scale facilities. But does scale affect outcomes? Here we look at comparing different size laboratory anaerobic fermentors to see if and how the volume of the community affects the outcome of community coalescence (combining multiple communities) on community composition and function. Our results show that there is an effect of scale on biogas production. Furthermore, we see a link between community evenness and volume, with smaller scale communities having higher evenness. Despite those differences, the overall patterns of community coalescence are very similar at all scales, with coalescence leading to levels of biogas production comparable with that of the best-performing component community. The increase in biogas with increasing volume plateaus, suggesting there is a volume where productivity stays stable over large volumes. Our findings are reassuring for ecologists studying large ecosystems and industries operating pilot scale facilities, as they support the validity of pilot scale studies in this field.
Ratio of non-growing season to growing season N2O emissions in Canadian croplands: an update to national inventory methodology

Abstract National inventory reporting of agricultural nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions in Canada is based primarily on measurements obtained using static chambers. In regions with cold winters and an accumulated snowpack (including Canada), these measurements tend to focus on the growing season (typically May–October). However, research has shown that emissions continue throughout the non-growing season (NGS) and that these account for a significant proportion of annual emissions. In the Canadian National Inventory NGS emissions currently are assumed to be adequately captured in western Canada, while they are accounted for in eastern Canada by multiplying the growing season emissions by a correction factor of 1.4, a value that was derived based on a limited number of measurements. Here we use recent Canadian studies to validate this correction factor. We collected data from available Canadian studies that measured soil N2O emissions from agricultural systems for the entire year and determined the proportion of these emissions that occurred during the NGS. The proportion of annual N2O emissions that occurred during the NGS varied widely, ranging from −4% to 119% with a mean of 35.5%, compared to the previous estimate of 30%. Due to high variability, few differences were observed between means associated with climatic, soil, and management variables. To correct for NGS N2O emissions from Canadian agricultural soils, we suggest that the current correction factor for converting growing season to total annual emissions be changed from 1.4 to 1.55 and that this be used for all agricultural soils in Canada rather than just eastern Canada.
Mining dense substructures from large deterministic and probabilistic graphs

ix DECLARATION . x CHAPTER
Joint Geometric-Semantic Driven Character Line Drawing Generation

Character line drawing synthesis can be formulated as a special case of image-to-image translation problem that automatically manipulates the photo-to-line drawing style transformation. In this paper, we present the first generative adversarial network based end-to-end trainable translation architecture, dubbed P2LDGAN, for automatic generation of high-quality character drawings from input photos/images. The core component of our approach is the joint geometric-semantic driven generator, which uses our well-designed cross-scale dense skip connections framework to embed learned geometric and semantic information for generating delicate line drawings. In order to support the evaluation of our model, we release a new dataset including 1,532 well-matched pairs of freehand character line drawings as well as corresponding character images/photos, where these line drawings with diverse styles are manually drawn by skilled artists. Extensive experiments on our introduced dataset demonstrate the superior performance of our proposed models against the state-of-the-art approaches in terms of quantitative, qualitative and human evaluations. Our code, models and dataset will be available at Github.
Flipped Classroom for Teaching English in Ecuadorian Distance Higher Education

This study is aimed at proving the effectiveness of the flipped classroom model within the context of EFL students’ listening and speaking skills, namely those whose English major is taught on a distance education program in Ecuador. For this study, an experimental method was used. In addition, qualitative and quantitative information was gathered to answer the proposed research questions. The present study involves 19 students from a Listening and Speaking class, who were randomly divided into an experimental group that consisted of 10 students and a control group with 9 students. During one academic term, participants from the experimental group attended virtual flipped classes, while the rest of the students followed the traditional teaching method using the main textbook as the only resource. Based on these findings, it has been possible to conclude that students who attended the flipped lessons were more proficient at the moment of speaking and understanding the target language. Moreover, their academic achievement was also improved as they obtained higher scores and showed a positive attitude towards the flipped classroom strategy.
Amplifiers and Dampeners of Patient Safety Risk in the Operating Room: Interim Analysis of Surgical Video Recorded with the Operating Room Black Box

Preventable intraoperative adverse events (iAEs) may emerge from interactions between multiple work system factors (WSFs) (e.g., technology design, organizational policy, physical environment); these interactions may amplify or dampen patient safety risk. We conducted an exploratory observational study using audiovisual data captured by the Operating Room Black Box to characterize the relationships between associated WSFs. Human factors specialists reviewed video recordings of surgical procedures before transcribing events of interest and classifying them into the relevant WSF categories as defined by the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety model. Each WSF code was categorized as either a safety threat (ST) or resilience support (RS), and their interactions with associated WSFs were characterized. We transcribed 706 events over 73.5 hours of surgery, and 32 iAEs were identified. We coded 382 STs and 312 RSs, and 249 co-occurring WSF pairings. Co-occurring team (e.g., clear communication, feedback, and leadership) RSs were found to be the most prevalent mechanism to dampen all categories of ST. Co-occurring task (e.g., challenging anatomy) and environment (e.g., disruptive working environments, suboptimal ergonomic monitor setups) STs were the most common risk amplifiers contributing to the occurrence of iAEs. By assessing WSFs in the context of other WSFs, future research may develop interventions that more precisely target risk reduction in the operating room.
Stability of palatal rugae after orthodontic/orthopaedic expansion: a scoping review

Abstract Objective The palatal rugae are connective tissue located in the anterior third of the hard palate and present asymmetrically on each side of the palatine raphe. The stability and individualistic features of the palatal rugae have been suggested as an alternative human identification method in forensic medicine. However, there are different views about the tissue’s stability and reliability in individuals undergoing orthodontic expansion, as the palatal mucosa is stretched which likely alters palatal rugal morphology. The present review aims to summarise the available evidence regarding the stability of the palatal rugae after orthodontic expansion. Method Following the PRISMA-Scr guidelines, an extensive search was conducted using three databases (PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus). Only studies that had control groups were included to allow for comparison. Results A total of six studies were identified. One report did not mention the type of expansion used, another used slow maxillary expansion (SME), and the other four used rapid maxillary expansion (RME). The results related to rugal length, morphological shape, and root mean square were inconclusive, likely because of data heterogeneity in expansion mechanics, the age of inclusion, and measurement outcomes. Conclusion More high-quality research is needed to substantiate the importance of palatal rugae in forensic medicine.