Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Intravitreal Aflibercept on the Systemic Insulin-like Growth Factor-I and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-A in Patients with Diabetic Retinopathy and Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Purpose To analyze the effect of intravitreal aflibercept injections on systemic levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 and vascular endothelial growth factor-A in patients with diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration. Methods Vascular endothelial growth factor-A and insulin-like growth factor-1 levels were determined before and one week and four weeks after intravitreal injection of aflibercept (2.0 mg/50 μl) for 19 patients with age-related macular degeneration (mean age, 76 ± 11 years) and 18 patients with diabetic retinopathy (mean age, 64 ± 14 years). Twenty-two healthy individuals were enrolled as controls. Results A significant decline in systemic vascular endothelial growth factor-A level, from 43 (30–57) pg/ml at baseline to 8 (8–8) pg/ml (p < 0.001) at week one and 17 (8–25) pg/ml (p=0.0054) at week four, was observed in the age-related macular degeneration group. In the diabetic retinopathy group, vascular endothelial growth factor-A levels declined from 53 (35–117) pg/ml to 2 (1–5) pg/ml (p < 0.0001) one week after injection and 16 (13–22) pg/ml four weeks after injection (p=0.0327). At baseline, systemic insulin-like growth factor-1 concentration was higher in the diabetic retinopathy group (57 [37–99] pg/ml) than in the age-related macular degeneration group (35 [24–51] pg/ml) (p=0.0056). A subgroup analysis showed that patients in the proliferative diabetic retinopathy subgroup had significantly higher systemic insulin-like growth factor-1 concentrations (71 [44.7–243] pg/ml) than those in the nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy subgroup (43 [29–66] pg/ml) (p=0.0048). Conclusions The difference between the baseline systemic insulin-like growth factor-1 levels of the age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy groups and the higher insulin-like growth factor-1 levels in the proliferative diabetic retinopathy subgroup one week after aflibercept therapy suggest that insulin-like growth factor-1 may play a role in the pathomechanism of diabetic retinopathy.
Angiotensin-(1–7) Analogue AVE0991 Modulates Astrocyte-Mediated Neuroinflammation via lncRNA SNHG14/miR-223-3p/NLRP3 Pathway and Offers Neuroprotection in a Transgenic Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease

Objective Emerging evidence suggests that brain angiotensin-(1–7) (Ang-(1–7)) deficiency contributes to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Meanwhile, our previous studies revealed that restoration of brain Ang-(1–7) levels provided neuroprotection by inhibition of inflammatory responses during AD progress. However, the potential molecular mechanisms by which Ang-(1–7) modulates neuroinflammation remain unclear. Materials and Methods APP/PS1 mice were injected intraperitoneally with AVE0991 (a nonpeptide analogue of Ang-(1–7)) once a day for 30 consecutive days. Cognitive functions, neuronal and synaptic integrity, and inflammation-related markers were assessed. Since astrocytes played a crucial role in AD-related neuroinflammation whilst long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) were reported to participate in modulating inflammatory responses, astrocytes of APP/PS1 mice were isolated for high-throughput lncRNA sequencing to identify the most differentially expressed lncRNA following AVE0991 treatment. Afterward, the downstream pathways of this lncRNA in the anti-inflammatory action of AVE0991 were investigated using primary astrocytes. Results AVE0991 rescued spatial cognitive impairments and alleviated neuronal and synaptic damage in APP/PS1 mice. The levels of Aβ1-42 in the brain of APP/PS1 mice were not affected by AVE0991. By employing high-throughput lncRNA sequencing, our in vitro study demonstrated for the first time that AVE0991 suppressed astrocytic NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated neuroinflammation via a lncRNA SNHG14-dependent manner. SNHG14 acted as a sponge of miR-223-3p while NLRP3 represented a direct target of miR-223-3p in astrocytes. In addition, miR-223-3p participated in the AVE0991-induced suppression of astrocytic NLRP3 inflammasome. Conclusion Our results suggest that Ang-(1–7) analogue AVE0991 inhibits astrocyte-mediated neuroinflammation via SNHG14/miR-223-3p/NLRP3 pathway and offers neuroprotection in APP/PS1 mice. These findings reveal the underlying mechanisms by which Ang-(1–7) inhibits neuroinflammation under AD condition and uncover the potential of its nonpeptide analogue AVE0991 in AD treatment.
Resistance to Airflow of Bluestem Grass Seed

ABSTRACT THE airflow resistance of Bluestem grass seed was measured for three different harvest dates at 17 to 79 percent MC, 10 to 17 percent purity, and 50 to 120 kg/m3 bulk density and compared with 63 percent purity seed stored from a previous crop. In a plot of Shedd's equation, bulk density was found to influence the slope and moisture content the intercept value. Purity in-fluences bulk density, which is the major parameter affecting airflow resistance.
Who are the 3 Per Cent? The Connections Among Climate Change Contrarians

Abstract Despite 97 per cent of scientists agreeing on anthropogenic global warming, the remaining 3 per cent play a critical role in keeping the debate about climate consensus alive. Analysis of climate change contrarians from multi-signatory documents reveals 3 per cent of signees to be climate experts, while the remaining 97 per cent do not meet expert criteria and are also involved with organizations and industries who make up the climate change countermovement. The data also reveal most contrarians to be aged sixty-five or older. As a result, we explore other factors (for example, collective memories and ideological views) that may have also contributed to expert and non-expert views.
Cellular Memory of HipA-Induced Growth Arrest: The Length of Cell Growth Arrest Becomes Shorter for Each Successive Induction

Toxin–antitoxin (TA) systems are genetic modules found commonly in bacterial genomes. HipA is a toxin protein encoded from the hipBA TA system in the genome of Escherichia coli. Ectopic expression of hipA induces cell growth arrest. Unlike the cell growth arrest caused by other TA toxins, cells resume growth from the HipA-induced cell growth arrest phase after a defined period of time. In this article, we describe the change in the length of growth arrest while cells undergo repeated cycles of hipA induction, growth arrest and regrowth phases. In the multiple conditions tested, we observed that the length of growth arrest became successively shorter for each round of induction. We verified that this was not due to the appearance of HipA-resistant mutants. Additionally, we identified conditions, such as the growth phase of the starting culture and growth vessels, that alter the length of growth arrest. Our results showed that the length of HipA-induced growth arrest was dependent on environmental factors—in particular, the past growth environment of cells, such as a previous hipA induction. These effects lasted even after multiple rounds of cell divisions, indicating the presence of cellular “memory” that impacts cells’ response to HipA-induced toxicity.
Tools or traits : the path to successful continuous improvement implementation in a logistics environment

This thesis examines the opportunities to improve the implementation of a Continuous Improvement (CI) culture supporting the success of logistics organisations of the future. It is based on the proposition that the manner in which individuals and organisations behave will form greater influence on the success of CI implementation programs than the use of recognised CI tools and techniques taught in the classroom. By definition CI covers wide-ranging themes and its applications are not tied specifically to projects; the literature review will explore how CI can be utilised to improve organisational performance evaluating synergies between CI and associated domains. Enablers and blockers to successful CI implementation programs will be examined leading to an understanding of the amalgam between soft and hard skills and their interactions. Reflective practice is the chosen approach to the PhD, underpinned with over twenty years’ experience of the researcher working with CI as part of their roles and responsibilities. The literature review provided a theoretical base, including the development of content for the semi-structured interviews deriving qualitative data in support of the thesis aims and objectives. This process supported additional unexpected outputs, discussed within the conclusions and recommendations sections. The over-riding domain of the thesis is CI Implementation; however this was broken down into Organisational Learning, Organisational Frames of Reference, Learning Organisations, Culture, Emotional Intelligence and Appreciative Inquiry with supplemental areas of Knowledge Management, Innovation and Trust. The taskorientated elements of CI tools and techniques are described, providing the reader with an overview of their use and potential value to organisations. Conclusions are drawn regarding the importance of successful CI implementation in logistics organisations. Recommendations are proposed as to how to improve CI implementation by reducing the potential for blockers to stall or ultimately prevent the process from operating as a self-sustaining business as usual activity. This is achieved through a blend of task, organisational and individual cultures working in unison. The main contribution of the thesis is the provision of a CI Implementation Model, developed through the thesis and detailed within Chapter 7. Further contributions to theory and practice are derived from the research undertaken, specifically targeting a cultural rather than task-orientated approach. These include; the wider CI community, Deutsche Post (DP) DHL community, methods and practice. Methods by which colleague engagement can be improved are identified from individual and organisational perspectives targeting discretionary effort of colleagues as a key measure of successful implementation of a CI culture.
Effects of Power Distance on Organizational Commitment: A Study on Maritime Faculty Students

1Karadeniz Technical University Surmene Faculty of Marine Sciences, Department of Maritime Transportation and Management Engineering, Trabzon, Turkey 2Artvin Coruh University Hopa Vocational School, Maritime and Port Management Program, Artvin, Turkey 3İstanbul Technical University Maritime Faculty, Department of Maritime Transportation and Management Engineering, İstanbul, Turkey ORIGINAL RESEARCH (AR)
Artificial intelligence to solve the X-ray crystallography phase problem: a case study report

The determination of three dimensional structures of macromolecules is one of the actual challenge in biology with the ultimate objective of understanding their function. So far, X-ray crystallography is the most popular method to solve structure, but this technique relies on the generation of diffracting crystals. Once a correct data set has been obtained, the calculation of electron density maps requires to solve the so-called «phase problem » using different approaches. The most frequently used technique is molecular replacement, which relies on the availability of the structure of a protein sharing strong structural similarity with the studied protein. Its success rate is directly correlated with the quality of the models used for the molecular replacement trials. The availability of models as accurate as possible is then definitely critical. Very recently, a breakthrough step has been made in the field of protein structure prediction thanks to the use of machine learning approaches as implemented in the AlphaFold or RoseTTAFold structure prediction programs. Here, we describe how these recent improvements helped us to solve the crystal structure of a protein involved in the nonsense-mediated mRNA decay pathway (NMD), an mRNA quality control pathway dedicated to the elimination of eukaryotic mRNAs harboring premature stop codons.
Relationship between Adolescent Depression and Insecure Attachment: Mediating Effect of Psychological Capital.

BACKGROUND Depression is the primary factor influencing the mental health of adolescents. To explore the psychogenesis mechanism of adolescent depression, the relationships of adolescent depression with insecure attachment and psychological capital were discussed. SUBJECTS AND METHODS A total of 200 depression patients were selected as the research group through the simple sampling method from the adolescents accepting psychological counseling in Wuhan, China, from April to June 2020, and another 200 mentally healthy adolescents were taken as the control group. Positive Psycap Questionnaire (PPQ), Center Epidemiological Studies of Depression (CES-D) scale, and Experiences in Close Relationship (ECR) scale were distributed in the two groups to evaluate their psychological capital, depression, and insecure attachment. RESULTS Compared with the control group, the avoidant attachment and anxious attachment scores are higher in the research group, but the score of each dimension of psychological capital and the total score is lower (P<0.05). Avoidant attachment is positively correlated with both anxious attachment and depression and negatively correlated with psychological capital. Anxious attachment shows a positive correlation with depression and a negative correlation with psychological capital. A negative correlation is observed between psychological capital and depression (P<0.05). Incomplete family, left-behind children, psychological capital, each dimension of psychological capital, avoidance attachment and anxious attachment are all independent influencing factors of adolescent depression, among which anxious attachment and avoidant attachment exert significant direct effects on adolescent depression, and psychological capital plays an incomplete mediating role in the relationships of anxious attachment and avoidant attachment with adolescent depression. CONCLUSION Psychological capital can relieve the depression degree, while insecure attachment has a positive predicting effect on adolescent depression, and psychological capital exerts an incomplete mediating effect on the relationship between insecure attachment and adolescent depression.
Single-cell resolution unravels spatial alterations in metabolism, transcriptome and epigenome of ageing liver

Epigenetic ageing clocks have revealed that tissues within an organism can age with different velocity. However, it has not been explored whether cells of one type experience different ageing trajectories within a tissue depending on their location. Here, we employed lipidomics, spatial transcriptomics and single-cell ATAC-seq in conjunction with available single-cell RNA-seq data to address how cells in the murine liver are affected by age-related changes of the microenvironment. Integration of the datasets revealed zonation-specific and age-related changes in metabolic states, the epigenome and transcriptome. Particularly periportal hepatocytes were characterized by decreased mitochondrial function and strong alterations in the epigenetic landscape, while pericentral hepatocytes – despite accumulation of large lipid droplets – did not show apparent functional differences. In general, chromatin alterations did not correlate well with transcriptional changes, hinting at post-transcriptional processes that shape gene expression during ageing. Together, we provide evidence that changing microenvironments within a tissue exert strong influences on their resident cells that can shape epigenetic, metabolic and phenotypic outputs.
Organosolv Lignin from European Tree Bark: Influence of Bark Pretreatment

As lignin is becoming more and more attractive to industry and the circular economy continues to grow, the utilization of a byproduct that, to date, has been underrated by the wood industry is investigated as an abundantly available source of lignin. Bark from spruce, larch and beech tress is extracted using the organosolv process with and without prior hot water extraction. The influence of the treatment on chemical properties of the lignin was determined by spectrophotometric, chromatographic, and vibrational spectroscopy. It was found that hot water extraction prior to organosolv extraction influences the chemical composition, antioxidative properties and molecular weight distribution of the obtained extracts. While hot water extracts are rich in flavonoids, organosolv fractions can contain high amounts of organic acids depending on whether they are from a hardwood or softwood source. This investigation lays the foundation for further research into the utilization of byproducts to generate high-value resources.
Commercial Avocado Rootstock Evaluation at Merensky Technological Services: Further Progress in 1997

The avocado clonal rootstocks D9, Thomas, Barr Duke, Dusa and Merensky were compared to Duke 7 for the cultivar Hass at Westfalia Estate. At one site, affected by drought until 1995, production of Hass on Thomas (5.8 t/ha cumulative yield) was significantly less than on Duke 7 (16.8 t/ha cumulative). At another site, less severely affected by drought, Hass on Thomas (17.1 t/ha cumulative) did not have significantly different production when compared to Duke 7 as a rootstock for Hass. Hass on both Merensky (renamed from Latas) and Dusa rootstocks have out-yielded Hass on Duke 7 for two seasons by at least 29%. Although it is still early in the commercial evaluation of these rootstocks, promising Phytophthora tolerance results have led to an early release of Merensky to local and overseas institutions for testing purposes. Colin V-33 is being tested as an interstock between Duke 7 rootstock and Hass scion, but the commercial block has yet to bear fruit.
Uncertainty quantification of geological model parameters in 3D gravity inversion by Hessian informed Markov chain Monte Carlo

Geological modeling has been widely adopted to investigate underground geometries. However, modeling processes inevitably have uncertainties due to scarcity of data, measurement errors, and simplification of modeling methods. Recent developments in geomodeling methods have introduced a Bayesian framework to constrain the model uncertainties by considering additional geophysical data into the modeling procedure. Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods are normally used as tools to solve the Bayesian inference problem. To achieve a more efficient posterior exploration, advances inMCMC methods utilize derivative information. Hence, we introduce an approach to efficiently evaluate second-order derivatives in geological modeling and introduce a Hessian-informed MCMC method, the generalized preconditioned Crank-Nicolson (gpCN), as a tool to solve the 3D model-based gravity Bayesian inversion problem. The result is compared with two other widely applied MCMC methods, random walk Metropolis-Hasting and Hamiltonian Monte Carlo, on a synthetic three-layer geological model. Our experiment demonstrates that superior performance is achieved by the gpCN, which has the potential to be generalized to more complex models.
RESIDUE TYPE AND PLACEMENT EFFECTS ON DECOMPOSITION: FIELD STUDY AND MODEL EVALUATION

Decomposition of corn (Zea mays L.), soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.), wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench), and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) residues and dead roots was studied under field conditions at the Midwest Claypan Experimental Farm located near Kingdom City, Missouri. Residues in fiberglass bags were placed on the soil surface and 0.15 m above and below the surface of a Mexico silt loam (Udollic Ochraqualf). Root bags were also buried 0.15 m below the surface. Samples were collected 11 times during the two-year study. Mass losses in one year for above-surface, surface, buried residue, and dead root were 41, 66, 78, and 65%, respectively, for corn; 37, 66, 79, and 51% for soybean; 17, 36, 69, and 64% for wheat; 45, 66, 80, and 76% for grain sorghum; and 40, 58, 76, and 46% for cotton. Decomposition was relatively slow during the second year of the study because of the previous loss of easily decomposed compounds. Decomposition data were used to evaluate a theoretically derived residue decay model. Relationships between predicted and measured mass loss were linear with r2 values > 0.93.
Exploring the Concept of Team Situation Awareness in a Simulated Air Combat Environment

This paper evaluates team SA in air combat simulations. Team composition (in terms of diversity in team members' experience) as a factor that could influence team SA is analyzed in a study of 16 military fighter pilots performing simulated air combat missions in teams of two. The study used different measures to assess team SA, including SAGAT, self-appraisal, appraisal of teammate's state, and teamwork behavior and communication. The analysis of intercorrelations between different measures of team SA shows that they are not fully overlapping. The results show high association between good SA and team interaction as measured by information sharing and feedback, support, and backup behavior. The results also suggest the potential negative impact of diversity in team members' experience on team SA and interaction processes. Finally, we reveal that teams that perform well are characterized by individuals with high SA related to own task, well-calibrated confidence level, and good team interaction. On the other hand, teams that perform well do not necessarily do better in estimating their self-SA and teammate's status.
Cross-phase modulation in multispan WDM optical fiber systems

The spectral characteristics of cross-phase modulation (XPM) in multispan intensity-modulation direct-detection (IM-DD) optical systems are investigated, both experimentally and theoretically. XPM crosstalk levels and its spectral features are found to be strongly dependent on fiber dispersion and optical signal channel spacing. Interference between XPM-induced crosstalk effects created in different amplified fiber spans is also found to be important to determine the overall frequency response of XPM crosstalk effects. XPM crosstalk between channels with different data rates is evaluated. The crosstalk level between higher and lower bit rate channels is found to be similar to that between two lower bit rate channels. The effect of dispersion compensation on XPM crosstalk in multispan optical systems is discussed and per span dispersion compensation was found to be the most effective way to minimize the effect of XPM crosstalk.