Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Asymptomatic bacteriuria

Introduction: Asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) is a condition characterised by significant infection in urine. Its association with diabetes mellitus is strongly suggested. However, the exact prevalence has been controversial. Objectives: The study was undertaken with the aim of evaluating the prevalence and aetiology of asymptomatic bacteriuria in diabetics as well as non-diabetics. Materials and Methods: A total of 460 patients were included in the study with 230 diabetics and 230 non-diabetics. Midstream clean catch urine samples were collected alongwith parallel blood samples for estimating the glycosylated haemoglobin levels. Results: Of the total 460 subjects, 78 (17.0%) had ASB with 56 in diabetics and 22 in non-diabetics, depicting a higher rate of ASB in diabetes mellitus. Majority of the patients who had ASB were aged more than 60 years, irrespective of whether in the diabetic or non-diabetic category. Also, there was a significant difference in the type of infective organism in urine from diabetic patients as compared to the non-diabetic patients. Conclusion: A higher prevalence rate of ASB was observed in diabetic patients as compared to non-diabetics. Furthermore, the newer infecting organisms that are more common in patients with diabetes mellitus was highlighted in the study
Neighborhood as refuge : community reconstruction, place remaking, and environmental justice in the city

Environmental justice as studied in a variety of disciplines is most often associated with redressing disproportionate exposure to pollution, contamination, and toxic sites. In Neighborhood as Refuge, Isabelle Anguelovski takes a broader view of environmental justice, examining wide-ranging comprehensive efforts at neighborhood environmental revitalization that include parks, urban agriculture, fresh food markets, playgrounds, housing, and waste management. She investigates and compares three minority, low-income neighborhoods that organized to improve environmental quality and livability: Casc Antic, in Barcelona; Dudley, in the Roxbury section of Boston; and Cayo Hueso, in Havana. Despite the differing histories and political contexts of these three communities, Anguelovski finds similar patterns of activism. She shows that behind successful revitalization efforts is what she calls "bottom to bottom" networking, powered by broad coalitions of residents, community organizations, architects, artists, funders, political leaders, and at times environmental advocacy groups. Anguelovski also describes how, over time, environmental projects provide psychological benefits, serving as a way to heal a marginalized and environmentally traumatized urban neighborhood. They encourage a sense of rootedness and of attachment to place, creating safe havens that offer residents a space for recovery. They also help to bolster residents' ability to deal with the negative dynamics of discrimination and provide spaces for broader political struggles including gentrification. Drawing on the cases of Barcelona, Boston, and Havana, Anguelovski presents a new holistic framework for understanding environmental justice action in cities, with the right to a healthy community environment at its core.
MUC 1 is a downstream target of STAT 3 and regulates lung cancer cell survival and invasion

Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is aberrantly activated in human cancer including lung cancer and has been implicated in transformation, tumorigenicity, and metastasis. One putative downstream gene regulated by STAT3 is MUC1 which also has important roles in tumorigenesis. We determined if STAT3 regulates MUC1 in lung cancer cell lines and what function MUC1 plays in lung cancer cell biology. We examined MUC1 expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines and found high levels of MUC1 protein expression associated with higher levels of tyrosine phosphorylated STAT3. STAT3 knockdown downregulated MUC1 expression whereas constitutive STAT3 expression increased MUC1 expression at mRNA and protein levels. MUC1 knockdown induced cellular apoptosis concomitant with reduced Bcl-XL and sensitized cells to cisplatin treatment. MUC1 knockdown inhibited tumor growth and metastasis in an orthotopic mouse model of lung cancer by activating apoptosis and inhibiting cell proliferation in vivo. These results demonstrate that constitutively activated STAT3 regulates expression of MUC1, which mediates lung cancer cell survival and metastasis in vitro and in vivo. MUC1 appears to be a cooperating oncoprotein with multiple oncogenic tyrosine kinase pathways and could be an effective target for the treatment of lung cancer.
THE ENGINEERING IMPLICATIONS OF RISING GROUNDWATER LEVELS IN THE DEEP AQUIFER BENEATH LONDON

This report examines the rise in the level of the groundwater in the sands and the chalk below London. During the past two centuries, the pumping from the deep aquifer lowered the groundwater level by as much as 70 metres. The level is now rising, in many areas by about 1 metre a year. If the rise continues for 20 to 30 years, the water pressures in the sand and clays above the chalk will increase, causing ground movements in the clays. These pressure changes and movements could damage some large buildings and tunnels in central London and increase leakage into them. This report identifies the areas of London most likely to be affected and provides guidance for engineers. The potential effects on tunnels and shafts are examined. If water levels continue to rise, tunnels under London will suffer water ingress, deformation, and minor cracking and spalling. The problems will arise where tunnels are located near the base of London Clay or in the Lower London Tertiaries. There are at least 130 km of tunnels in these zones. A figure of 8 million is recommended for structural repair. These problems could be avoided if the groundwater level in the aquifer in Central London were held below about -20 mOD.
Grey Matters: Political-Economic Analyses of Long-Term Care

This dissertation includes two quantitative studies on Medicaid long-term care (LTC) coverage in the United States, and one qualitative study that draws lessons from Germany’s LTC system for Canada. Chapter one is a political analysis of Medicaid LTC expenditures. Historically, public financing of Medicaid LTC has favored institutional over homeand community-based services (HCBS). However, as states face political, fiscal and social pressures to provide more care in people’s home and communities, this paper provides a longitudinal, political analysis of interstate variation in spending on different HCBS programs. Fixed effects regression models are used to examine state HCBS expenditures per capita and as a share of total state LTC spending for the period 2001-2010. Generally, a Democratic governorship has a relatively strong and positive effect on HCBS spending, while a socially liberal electorate has a strong but negative effect. Chapter two estimates the impact of HCBS waiver spending on different types of LTC spending. In 1981, Congress introduced the 1915(c) waiver program to assist state Medicaid programs with expanding their provision of HCBS. Given that a waiver for HCBS may only be extended to beneficiaries who meet their state’s eligibility criteria for institutional care, policymakers have long considered the waiver program to be one that lowers Medicaid LTC
B. Amplitude Spectra of ACDC and Cityscapes

All of our experiments are conducted using PyTorch in combination with PyTorch Lightning. We use the PyTorch implementation of ERFNet provided by [13], which can be found at: github.com/Eromera/erfnet pytorch, the DeepLabV3+ [4] implementation from Segmentation Models PyTorch [9] and the SegFormer-B2 [17] implementation from HuggingFace Transformers [16]. The weights for the pre-trained ResNet-50 [8] backbones are taken from:
Risk factors and cognitive correlates of white matter hyperintensities in ethnically diverse populations without dementia: the COSMIC consortium

INTRODUCTION: White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are an important imaging marker for cerebral small vessel diseases, but their risk factors and cognitive associations have not been well-documented in populations of different ethnicities and/or from different geographical regions. METHOD: Magnetic resonance imaging data of five population-based cohorts of non-demented older individuals from Australia, Singapore, South Korea, and Sweden (N = 1,946) were examined for WMH and their associations with vascular risk factors and cognition. RESULT: Factors associated with larger whole brain WMH volumes included diabetes, hypertension, stroke, current smoking, body mass index, higher alcohol intake and insufficient physical activity. Participants with moderate or higher physical activity had less WMH than those who never exercised, but the former two groups did not differ. Hypertension and stroke had stronger associations with WMH volumes in the White, compared to Asian subsample. DISCUSSION: The current study highlighted the ethnic differences in the contributions of vascular risk factors to WMH.
Inactivate the two-faced HDAC-brake: Cell cycle regulation and tumor suppression by histone deacetylases HDAC1 and HDAC2

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) counterbalance acetylation of histone and nonhistone proteins, which regulate gene expression among other critical biological processes. Epigenetic modifications are reversible, and therefore, inhibitors of epigenetic regulators, like HDAC inhibitors (HDACi) are developed to revert aberrant histone modifications in cancer. To improve therapeutic potential of HDACi, it is crucial to understand the role of individual HDACs in cell development. Therefore we investigated the role of Hdac1 and Hdac2 in cell cycle progression, hematopoietic differentiation, and tumor development, using conditional knockout (cKO) alleles in mice. Hdac1 and Hdac2 are critical for maintaining cell cycle progression, since combined deletion or inactivation of Hdac1 and Hdac2, in primary or oncogenic-transformed mouse fibroblasts, resulted in a senescence-like G1 cell cycle arrest. In vivo dual inactivation of Hdac1 and Hdac2 in hematopoietic cells resulted in apoptosis of megakaryocytes with concomitant anemia and thrombocytopenia, suggesting that similar toxicities observed in patients treated with HDACi are caused by on-target inhibition. Unexpectedly, we identified Hdac1 and Hdac2 as tumor suppressors. Systematic combination of Hdac1 and Hdac2 cKO alleles in murine thymi resulted in dosage-dependent tumor development of monoclonal lymphoblastic lymphomas, characterized by Myc-oncogene overexpression and a novel p53-suppressing mechanism. In human tumors, we identified somatic mutations catalytically inactivating HDAC1. These inactive HDAC1 mutants had a dominant-negative effect on regulating histone acetylation, suggesting a tumor-driving capacity of heterozygous inactivating HDAC1 mutations. Furthermore, screening for lower HDAC-expression levels and inactivating mutations may serve as diagnostic tools for HDACi sensitivity, since lowered HDAC-activity increased HDACi-mediated tumor cell eradication.
Human cerebrospinal fluid contains diverse lipoprotein subspecies enriched in proteins implicated in central nervous system health

Lipoproteins in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of the central nervous system (CNS) resemble plasma high-density lipoproteins (HDLs), which are a compositionally and structurally diverse spectrum of nanoparticles with pleiotropic functionality. Whether CSF lipoproteins (CSF-Lps) exhibit similar heterogeneity is poorly understood because they are present at 100-fold lower concentrations than plasma HDL. To investigate the diversity of CSF-Lps, we developed a sensitive fluorescent technology to characterize lipoprotein subspecies in small volumes of human CSF. We identified 10 distinctly sized populations of CSF-Lps, most of which were larger than plasma HDL. Mass spectrometric analysis identified 303 proteins across the populations, over half of which have not been reported in plasma HDL. Computational analysis revealed that CSF-Lps are enriched in proteins important for wound healing, inflammation, immune response, and both neuron generation and development. Network analysis indicated that different subpopulations of CSF-Lps contain unique combinations of these proteins. Our study demonstrates that CSF-Lp subspecies likely exist that contain compositional signatures related to CNS health.
Linking serum vitamin D levels with gut microbiota after 1-year lifestyle intervention with Mediterranean diet in patients with obesity and metabolic syndrome: a nested cross-sectional and prospective study

ABSTRACT Vitamin D, microbiota, and the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) have been the focus of recent research due to their potential role in maintaining overall health. We hypothesize that MedDiet may alter the gut microbiota profile through changes in vitamin D levels. We aimed to investigate changes in gut microbiota and serum vitamin D levels after a MedDiet within a lifestyle intervention. The study included 91 patients with obesity and metabolic syndrome, who were categorized based on their serum vitamin D levels as having either optimal or low 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D levels]. The profile of the gut microbiota was analyzed by the 16S rRNA sequencing, inferring its functionality through PICRUsT. Participants underwent a hypocaloric MedDiet and change in their lifestyle for 1 year, and the profile and functionality of their gut microbiota were evaluated by analyzing inter-individual differences in time. At baseline, gut microbiota profiles qualitatively differed between participants with Optimal or Low 25(OH)D levels [Unweighted (p = 0.016)]. Moreover, participants with Optimal 25(OH)D levels showed a higher gut microbiota diversity than those with Low 25(OH)D levels (p < 0.05). The differential analysis of abundance between the Low and Optimal 25(OH)D groups revealed differences in the levels of Bacteroides, Prevotella, and two Clostridiales features. After 1-year dietary intervention, both groups increased their 25(OH)D levels. Furthermore, both groups did not show significant differences in gut microbiota diversity, although the Low 25(OH)D group showed greater improvement in gut microbiota diversity by comparing at baseline and after dietary intervention (p < 0.05). Changes in specific bacterial taxa were observed within each group but did not differ significantly between the groups. Metabolic pathway analysis indicated differences in microbial functions between the groups (p < 0.05). These findings suggest that 25(OH)D status is associated with gut microbiota composition, diversity, and functionality, and lifestyle intervention can modulate both gut microbiota and 25(OH)D levels, potentially influencing metabolic pathways.
Analysis of Mathematical Connection and Students' Self Confidence in Flat-Side Space Material

This research is a study to analyze the ability of mathematical connections and self-confidence in the flat-side space material for junior high school students. This research used a qualitative descriptive method. The study was conducted at 47 Bandug Junior High School in 9th grade students of SMPN 47 Bandung who had studied in a flat side room. The research subjects were ninth grade F. The data were collected in the form of a description of the test instrument and self-confidence questionnaire. The results of the study concluded: 1) the level of students' mathematical connection skills in the settlement pointed at good categories; 2) students have mastered the materials so that they could understand problems and concepts well; 3) students already have had good self-confidence.
Physical influences on the skin barrier and pathogenesis of allergy

Purpose of review As the incidence of allergic conditions has increased in recent decades, the effects of climate change have been implicated. There is also increased knowledge on the effects of other physical influences, such as scratching and Staphylococcus aureus. The skin barrier is the first line of defense to the external environment, so understanding the ways that these factors influence skin barrier dysfunction is important. Recent findings Although the impact on environmental exposures has been well studied in asthma and other allergic disorders, there is now more literature on the effects of temperature, air pollution, and detergents on the skin barrier. Factors that cause skin barrier dysfunction include extreme temperatures, air pollution (including greenhouse gases and particulate matter), wildfire smoke, pollen, scratching, S. aureus, and detergents. Summary Understanding the ways that external insults affect the skin barrier is important to further understand the mechanisms in order to inform the medical community on treatment and prevention measures for atopic conditions.
Elementary fractal geometry. 3. Complex Pisot factors imply finite type

Self-similar sets require a separation condition to admit a nice mathematical structure. The classical open set condition (OSC) is difficult to verify. Zerner proved that there is a positive and finite Hausdorff measure for a weaker separation property which is always fulfilled for crystallographic data. Ngai and Wang gave more specific results for a finite type property (FT), and for algebraic data with a real Pisot expansion factor. We show how the algorithmic FT concept of Bandt and Mesing relates to the property of Ngai and Wang. Merits and limitations of the FT algorithm are discussed. Our main result says that FT is always true in the complex plane if the similarity mappings are given by a complex Pisot expansion factor $\lambda$ and algebraic integers in the number field generated by $\lambda . $ This extends the previous results and opens the door to huge classes of separated self-similar sets, with large complexity and an appearance of natural textures. Numerous examples are provided.
The High-redshift Clusters Occupied by Bent Radio AGN (COBRA) Survey: Investigating the Role of Environment on Bent Radio AGNs Using LOFAR

Bent radio active galactic nucleus (AGN) morphology depends on the density of the surrounding gas. However, bent sources are found inside and outside clusters, raising the question of how environment impacts bent AGN morphology. We analyze new LOw-Frequency Array the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) Data Release II observations of 20 bent AGNs in clusters and 15 not in clusters from the high-z Clusters Occupied by Bent Radio AGN (COBRA) survey (0.35 < z < 2.35). We measure the impact of environment on size, lobe symmetry, and radio luminosity. We find that the most asymmetric radio lobes lie outside of clusters, and we uncover a tentative anticorrelation between the total projected physical area and cluster overdensity. Additionally, we, for the first time, present spectral index measurements of a large sample of high-z bent sources using LoTSS and Very Large Array Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-centimeters (VLA FIRST) observations. We find that the median spectral index for the cluster sample is −0.76 ± 0.01, while the median spectral index for the noncluster sample is −0.81 ± 0.02. Furthermore, 13 of 20 cluster bent AGNs have flat cores (α ≥ −0.6) compared to 4 of 15 of noncluster bent AGNs, indicating a key environmental signature. Beyond core spectral index, bent AGNs inside and outside clusters are remarkably similar. We conclude that the noncluster sample may be more representative of bent AGNs at large offsets from the cluster center (> 1.2 Mpc) or bent AGNs in weaker groups rather than the field.
River water quality modelling in developing a catchment water safety plan

The primary aim of a catchment water safety plan is to reduce risks within the catchment to protect the quality of drinking water sources at the intake point. Even where effective arrangements for catchment management and control have been implemented, unexpected deterioration in raw water quality can pose a risk to treated drinking water quality. Thus potential sources of pollution impacting the area of influence of the intake should be identified and monitored. An important part of any catchment management strategy includes implementation of raw water monitoring programmes, targeted at the most likely microbiological threats to water treatment. When combined with good monitoring datasets, properly calibrated, tested and verified surface water models can be used to forecast or estimate risks under various scenarios. This allows a good insight into impacts associated with known and anticipated land use activities within the catchment. In this work a hybrid methodology based on river water quality data analysis and hydrodynamic and water quality modelling was developed to assess the surface water quality in the Portuguese river Cavado. This component constitutes the base for developing a catchment water safety plan at this river basin.
Coping with crisis: an introduction

On 18 June 2015, the Vatican published Pope Francis’ second encyclical, Laudato si’. 1 The document, entitled after Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Sun, called for a more careful approach to the environment. It was an appeal to repent of humanity’s sins against the earth: the gluttony, sloth and greed with which the developed world had abused its natural resources. It called for a reversal of the current breakdown of global society through increasing social inequality and the exploitation of the poor. And it supported scientific evidence of climate change and its catastrophic consequences. The warming of the planet was, so Pope Francis argued, a symptom of a greater problem: the developed world’s indifference to the destruction of the earth in its pursuit of short-term economic gain. The encyclical was hailed by many members of the scientific community as a milestone in the recognition of man-induced climate change and as a powerful call for sustainable energy.2 The arguments of the papal appeal, however, were not new. They resonated with medieval and early modern debates on natural disasters. Its key aspects: the reminder of the sins of mankind and their effect on nature as well as on social order and stability had been rehearsed in many premodern tracts, sermons and images. Expert discourses by specialists – astronomers, doctors and engineers – were, likewise, part of the early modern explanatory repertoire to come to terms with natural disasters. Surveying recent literature, we can now state that research into ‘disaster management’ of early modern societies is no longer in its infancy. It has developed as a mature (albeit small), multi-headed field of research, which is nourished by various strands of historical investigation and interdisciplinary approaches. The research programmes under the umbrella Historical Disaster Studies proposed by scholars such as Frank Mauelshagen, Gerrit Caspar Schenk and Monica Juneja are vivid evidence of this maturation.3 It seems fair to say, that much of the scholarship relating to early modern disaster research has been undertaken in the German-speaking (but English-publishing) academic community. Research into (nature-induced) disasters has been fed from many angles: it is, perhaps, no coincidence that one of the first research centres devoted to the topic, the Graduiertenkolleg Interdisziplinäre Umweltgeschichte. Naturale Umwelt und gesellschaftliches Handeln in Mitteleuropa (2004–2013) was established at the