Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Asymptotic stationarity of multichannel queues

The paper deals with asymptotic stationarity of the process where is a vector in with non-negative coordinates, is an -valued process, S is a separable metric space and all operations in are meant in the coordinate-wise sense. It is shown that a type of asymptotic stationarity of (X, Y), together with some conditions, implies the same type of asymptotic stationarity of (w, X, Y). This result is applied to analyze asymptotic stationarity of multichannel queues. It may also be used to analyze asymptotic stationarity of series of multichannel queues.
Efficacy and Safety of Axiostat® Hemostatic Dressing in Aiding Manual Compression Closure of the Femoral Arterial Access Site in Patients Undergoing Endovascular Treatments: A Preliminary Clinical Experience in Two Centers

Background: Hemostasis of the femoral arterial access site by manual compression or a vascular closure device is critical to the safe completion of any endovascular procedure. Previous investigations evaluated the hemostatic efficacy at the radial access site of some chitosan-based hemostatic pads. This study aims to assess the efficacy and safety of a new chitosan-based hemostatic dressing, namely Axiostat®, in aiding manual compression closure of the femoral arterial access site in patients undergoing endovascular treatments. Furthermore, the outcomes were compared with evidence on manual compression alone and vascular closure devices. Methods: This investigation is a two-center retrospective analysis of 120 consecutive patients who had undergone, from July 2022 to February 2023, manual compression closure of the femoral arterial access site aided by the Axiostat® hemostatic dressing. Endovascular procedures performed with introducer sheaths ranging from 4 Fr to 8 Fr were evaluated. Results: Primary technical success was achieved in 110 (91.7%) patients, with adequate hemostasis obtained in all cases of prolonged manual compression requirements. The mean time-to-hemostasis and time-to-ambulation were 8.9 (±3.9) and 462 (±199) minutes, respectively. Clinical success was achieved in 113 (94.2%) patients, with bleeding-related complications noted in 7 (5.8%) patients. Conclusions: Manual compression aided by the Axiostat® hemostatic dressing is effective and safe in achieving hemostasis of the femoral arterial access site in patients undergoing endovascular treatment with a 4–8 Fr introducer sheath.
Genome-Wide Analysis of the BBX Genes in Platanus × acerifolia and Their Relationship with Flowering and/or Dormancy

The B-BOX (BBX) gene family is widely distributed in animals and plants and is involved in the regulation of their growth and development. In plants, BBX genes play important roles in hormone signaling, biotic and abiotic stress, light-regulated photomorphogenesis, flowering, shade response, and pigment accumulation. However, there has been no systematic analysis of the BBX family in Platanus × acerifolia. In this study, we identified 39 BBX genes from the P. × acerifolia genome, and used TBtools, MEGA, MEME, NCBI CCD, PLANTCARE and other tools for gene collinearity analysis, phylogenetic analysis, gene structure, conserved domain analysis, and promoter cis-element analysis, and used the qRT-PCR and transcriptome data for analyzing expression pattern of the PaBBX genes. Collinearity analysis indicated segmental duplication was the main driver of the BBX family in P. × acerifolia, and phylogenetic analysis showed that the PaBBX family was divided into five subfamilies: I, II, III, IV and V. Gene structure analysis showed that some PaBBX genes contained super-long introns that may regulate their own expression. Moreover, the promoter of PaBBX genes contained a significant number of cis-acting elements that are associated with plant growth and development, as well as hormone and stress responses. The qRT-PCR results and transcriptome data indicated that certain PaBBX genes exhibited tissue-specific and stage-specific expression patterns, suggesting that these genes may have distinct regulatory roles in P. × acerifolia growth and development. In addition, some PaBBX genes were regularly expressed during the annual growth of P. × acerifolia, corresponding to different stages of flower transition, dormancy, and bud break, indicating that these genes may be involved in the regulation of flowering and/or dormancy of P. × acerifolia. This article provided new ideas for the study of dormancy regulation and annual growth patterns in perennial deciduous plants.
Comprehensive Analysis of m7G-Related Genes and Chronic Hepatitis B: Diagnostic Markers, Immune Microenvironment Regulation, Disease Progression

Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is a major public health problem in the world. It is the main cause of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Although many important roles of RNA modification in stem cells or tumor diseases have been identified, the role of N7-methylguanosine (m7G) modification in the process of chronic HBV infection has not been clearly defined. Therefore, we conducted a systematic analysis on the process of chronic HBV infection. We found that a total of 18 m7G-related genes were altered in chronic HBV infection, and then we screened out CHB potential diagnostic biomarkers using machine learning and random forest methods. RT-qPCR was performed on the samples of healthy people and CHB, which further verified the possibility of being a diagnostic marker. Then, we typed CHB patients based on these 18 genes. We found that the immune microenvironment of different subtypes was different. Among them, patients with subtype-Ⅰ had severe immune response, that is, relatively serious immune cell infiltration, rich immune pathways, relatively many HLA genes, and immune checkpoints. Finally, we conducted an in-depth discussion on our m7G-related genes, and found that m7G gene related to immune cell infiltration may be involved in the disease progression of CHB patients, which was also confirmed in the GSE84044 dataset. In conclusion, m7G-related genes can not only serve as diagnostic markers of CHB, but also participate in the regulation of immune microenvironment and play an important role in the progression of CHB.
Mobilising towards environmental sustainability – challenges and chances for churches in Germany

, the concept of sustainable development and how it has been taken up by Christian churches. The current ecological crisis is considered a major challenge for humanity. Various scholars suggest that Christian congregations may contribute to the changes of mind-set and behaviour necessary to meet this challenge. The article presents the results of an empirical study on how Protestant congregations in Germany deal with this issue. Data were collected in an online survey and group discussions with members of the Evangelical Church of Germany (EKD), the Free Evangelical Church (FeG) and the Gnadau movement. The study showed that the environmental awareness of church members is similar to the population in general. Major pragmatic obstacles to mobilise congregations for environmental sustainability were the (1) views that it may compete with other tasks of the congregation, (2) that church members may feel excluded and (3) the lack of knowledge and competence regarding this topic. However, creation care was seen as a bridge to the community which allows the congregation to engage with people outside the church. The study shows which issues need to be addressed for Christian congregations to play a more active role in creation care. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The research is concerned with church management fostering ecologically sustainable practices and is situated in the discipline of practical theology. As church management is based on the understanding of the mission of the church it is linked to ecclesiology. The practice of local congregations may have effects on the general public and can therefore be studied from a sociological perspective as well as in development studies.
What Are the Roles of Pericytes in the Neurovascular Unit and Its Disorders?

Pericytes are fundamental components of the neurovascular unit (NVU). They interact with endothelial cells, basal lamina (basement membrane), and glial cells and have a critical role in maintenance of blood-brain barrier (BBB) stability, local control of capillary blood flow, angiogenesis, and immune responses. Pericytes may also function as stem cells with potential to differentiate to into smooth muscle, glial cells, or neurons. A wide range on neurologic disorders, including vascular disorders, neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer disease (AD), traumatic injury, and multiple sclerosis (MS) are associated with changes in pericyte structure and function affecting the NVU. Dysfunctional pericyte signaling may be a potential biomarker of NVU pathology and provides therapeutic targets for neuroprotection. The functions of pericytes and their role in neurologic disorders have been the subject of several comprehensive reviews.1-13
The Emergence of the Marked: Tone in some African Reduplicative Systems

The defining hallmark of the process of reduplication is that the Base and the reduplicated portion (RED) of the word should have identical pronunciations (Wilbur 1973). As argued in work like Alderete et al (1999) and Niepokuj (1991), deviations from perfect identity typically involve phonological reduction (in the size or featural markedness) of the RED compared to the Base. In one current model of phonological theory, Optimality Theory (OT), these reductions are explained in terms of two morphologically-based asymmetries (McCarthy & Prince 1999, etc.). First, the Base and RED have an asymmetrical relation to the input. The Base – arguably the head of the reduplicative construction – has a direct relation (through I-O correspondence) while the RED has an indirect relationship, via the Base (B-R correspondence). As Alderete et al. (1999) argue, this asymmetrical relationship predicts that the RED can have less marked phonological structure than the Base but not the reverse. (This is what they term the emergence of the unmarked – TETU – effect.) A second source of reduplicative reduction is the morphological category assigned to RED. As argued by Niepokuj (1991), if RED is a major morphological category like Word or Stem, forming a compound with the Base, it is predicted to meet the bisyllabic minimality requirement on these categories. However, if RED is a bound category like Root or Affix, it can be subminimal. Further, as Urbanczyk (1996, 2000) argues, Affixes should be smaller than Roots, containing less marked prosodic and featural structure than Words, Stems or Roots. (This is consistent with other work on Root-Affix markedness asymmetries like Beckman (1998). ) Recent work on tone in reduplication proposes that these two asymmetries also account well for many tonal mismatches between the RED and Base. The RED typically has the unmarked tone (Akinlabi 1997; Alderete et al. 1999), while the Base has the marked tone. And it falls out that the RED has the unmarked tone, if it has the morphological status of Affix, rather than Word, Stem or Root (Myers & Carleton 1996; Hyman & Mtenje 1999). These points are illustrated in the Nupe data in (1), where the reduplicated form is a deverbal noun. As we can see, the RED is always a single CV syllable (no matter how long the Base is) with a fixed high vowel (no matter what height the corresponding Base vowel is) and a Mid tone (no matter the tone of the corresponding Base vowel is):
Optimization of physical properties and protein to produce functional extruded snack concocted with composite flour using RSM

Currently, snack market is predominantly fat and calorie rich and deficient in nutrition, thus selling obesity, aiming children in particular. To counter this subject palatably, an effort was ventured by implementing extrusion cooking for designing a crisp snack by utilizing adjoined benefits of sweet potato flour (SPF; high carotene), rennet casein (RC; milk protein), barley flour (BF; fibre source) and rice flour (RF), as ingredients. The ingredient levels; treated as factors; were modulated using Central Composite Rotatable Design model with Response Surface Methodology approach. The level selection, rested on the model, was drawn from the fed range of 20 – 35 SPF, 15 – 30 BF, 10 – 30 RC and 30 – 40 RF; all being in parts. The recorded responses against the independent variables were bulk density, expansion index, hardness and protein. Polynomial equations and regression coefficients were obtained for each factor. The analyses by StatEase DesignExpert TM software, v7.0, revealed statistically prominent positive and negative significances and non-significant effects of each independent variable over individual responses thru linear, interaction and quadratic levels at either p 0.05. Maximization of protein was accounted for optimization criteria whilst rest responses were kept in-range. One out of three obtained optimized formulations was subjected to reproducibility validation (SPF 20, BF 15, RF 40 and RC 30 parts), leveling the selection on highest desirability quotient. A fairly palatable extruded snack was developed returning non-significant variance (p<0.01) over predicted scores. The optimized product had bulk density 0.098 g/cm 3 , expansion index 3.34, hardness 21.32 N and protein 27.5%.
The Stochastic Kortewegde Vries Equation in L 2 (R)

We present here two results of global existence and uniqueness of the Cauchy problem concerning the Korteweg de Vries equation forced by a random term of white noise type in the functional framework of weighted spaces on L (R). This work is motivated by both physical experiments where a forced generation of weakly nonlinear waves by localized disturbances was observed [1, 15] and a result of uniqueness in weighted space in the homogeneous case [8, 14]. 1999 Academic Press
What Triggers You to Buy Green Products? Explaining Through an Extended TPB Model

This study aimed to identify the significant factors that affect a consumer’s decision to purchase green products by employing an extended theory of planned behavior model that includes attitude towards brand, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, digital communication, and environmental concern. Using a quantitative approach with a sample size of 441 urban residents of Bangladesh, the study utilized Structural Equation Modeling technique for data analysis. The findings revealed that purchase intention of green products is dependent on attitude towards brand, perceived behavioral control, environmental concern, and digital communication. Notably, digital communication was found to have both active and passive influences on attitude towards brand and subjective norms, while environmental concern had a passive influence on attitude towards brand and perceived behavioral control. The study concludes that digital communication is the strongest predictor of purchase intention, whereas subject norm was found statistically insignificant in generating purchase intention of green products. This study contributes to the literature by providing evidence of the usefulness of digital communication in establishing a favorable purchase intention of green products and proposes a novel approach for understanding consumer green purchases.
Four-Stream Spherical Harmonic Expansion Approximation for Solar Radiative Transfer

Abstract This paper presents a four-stream extension of the δ-Eddington approximation by considering the higher-order spherical harmonic expansion in radiative intensity. By using the orthogonality relation of the spherical harmonic functions, the derivation of the solution is fairly straightforward. Calculations show that the δ-four-stream spherical harmonic expansion approximation can reduce the errors in reflection, transmission, and absorption substantially in comparison with the δ-Eddington approximation. For the conservative scattering case, the error of the new model is generally less than 1% for optical thickness greater than unity except for gracing incident solar beam. For nonconservative scattering cases (single scattering albedo ω=0.9), the error is less than 5% for optical thickness greater than unity, in contrast to errors of up to 20% or more under the δ-Eddington approximation. This model can also predict the azimuthally averaged intensity to a good degree of accuracy. The computational ti.
Relationship between mechanical load and surface erosion degradation of a shape memory elastomer poly(glycerol-dodecanoate) for soft tissue implant

Abstract Poly(glycerol-dodecanoate) (PGD) has aroused increasing attention in biomedical engineering for its degradability, shape memory and rubber-like mechanical properties, giving it potential to fabricate intelligent implants for soft tissues. Adjustable degradation is important for biodegradable implants and is affected by various factors. The mechanical load has been shown to play an important role in regulating polymer degradation in vivo. An in-depth investigation of PGD degradation under mechanical load is essential for adjusting its degradation behavior after implantation, further guiding to regulate degradation behavior of soft tissue implants made by PGD. In vitro degradation of PGD under different compressive and tensile load has proceeded in this study and describes the relationships by empirical equations. Based on the equations, a continuum damage model is designed to simulate surface erosion degradation of PGD under stress through finite element analysis, which provides a protocol for PGD implants with different geometric structures at varied mechanical conditions and provides solutions for predicting in vivo degradation processes, stress distribution during degradation and optimization of the loaded drug release.
Book Review: Online Collaborative Translation in China and Beyond: Community, Practice and Identity

onstrate the significance of both personalized and institutionalized authority to the political participation of the three leaders. Chapter 6 illustrates Megawati, Risma, and Susi’s link with authority portrayed in the discourse of Kompas.com, specifically how they are depicted in the middle of political conflict. This representation places women in active roles, both as individuals and in relation to other public players and assemblies, in settings involving contravention, struggle, and polemic. The chapter also examines the causes and effects of such representations, highlighting power hierarchy, women’s political controversy, and commercial journalism. In Chapter 7, female political leaders in the discourse of Kompas.com are analyzed in terms of their respective positions of authority. In particular, it discusses women’s political empowerment, the political climate in Indonesia, and the function of online news media. The analysis’ central concerns are discussed again, along with their connections to the existing literature. The volume wraps up with a discussion of the study’s implications and suggestions for future study. Beyond the time period of this book, it also provides an update on the political careers of Megawati, Risma, and Susi. Every piece of writing contains both strengths and limitations, and this one is no exception. In term of the strengths, the volume raises the issue of women in politics in which they are still a minority. Also, the book provides valuable insight to gain new knowledge of women’s leadership in political roles. Regarding the shortcomings, the author relied solely on sources gathered from a single Internet media platform for her study, namely Kompas.com. Consequently, the perspectives on how media portrays the women serving in positions of political leadership would likely be limited. In addition, the data from Kompas.com that were used for the analysis is fairly old; the data are from 2014, which may be less relevant to the current situation of women’s leadership as more time passes. Despite the limitations of the book, Ahlstrand’s book will be particularly useful and will be of considerable interest to scholars working in political contexts, undergraduate students, researchers, and teacher educators with an interest in gender, politics, and media studies.
Harmonic-Net: Fundamental Frequency and Speech Rate Controllable Fast Neural Vocoder

There is a need to improve the synthesis quality of HiFi-GAN-based real-time neural speech waveform generative models on CPUs while preserving the controllability of fundamental frequency (<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f_{\mathrm{o}}$</tex-math></inline-formula>) and speech rate (SR). For this purpose, we propose Harmonic-Net and Harmonic-Net+, which introduce two extended functions into the HiFi-GAN generator. The first extension is a downsampling network, named the excitation signal network, that hierarchically receives multi-channel excitation signals corresponding to <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f_{\mathrm{o}}$</tex-math></inline-formula>. The second extension is the layerwise pitch-dependent dilated convolutional network (LW-PDCNN), which can flexibly change its receptive fields depending on the input <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f_{\mathrm{o}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> to handle large fluctuations in <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f_{\mathrm{o}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> for the upsampling-based HiFi-GAN generator. The proposed explicit input of excitation signals and LW-PDCNNs corresponding to <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f_{\mathrm{o}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> are expected to realize high-quality synthesis for the normal and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f_{\mathrm{o}}$</tex-math></inline-formula>-conversion conditions and for the SR-conversion condition. The results of experiments for unseen speaker synthesis, full-band singing voice synthesis, and text-to-speech synthesis show that the proposed method with harmonic waves corresponding to <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f_{\mathrm{o}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> can achieve higher synthesis quality than conventional methods in all (i.e., normal, <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f_{\mathrm{o}}$</tex-math></inline-formula>-conversion, and SR-conversion) conditions.
Predictive Biomarkers of Thyroid Dysfunctions Associated with the Treatment of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and Cervical Cancer with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

BACKGROUND: Treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) for advanced malignancies has been associated with developing immune-related adverse events (irAEs) severe enough to require the cessation of life-saving tumor immunotherapy. OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to identify predictive inflammatory markers of the development of immune-related thyroid dysfunctions in patients with cervical cancer (CC) and non – small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated by ICIs. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted on twenty-seven patients with CC and NSCLC treated by ICIs. The data were collected before and 12 weeks after treatment. Complete blood count-derived inflammatory markers: dNLR (derived neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio), NLR (neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio), SSI (systemic inflammation index), PLR (platelet to lymphocyte ratio), WHR (white blood cells to hemoglobin ratio) were calculated. In addition, thyroid functional tests were collected. Data statistical analysis was performed by STATISTICA (Stat soft, Inc, USA). RESULTS: Five patients out of twenty-seven with CC treated by PD-1 and CTLA-4 inhibitors who developed hypothyroidism showed significantly high baseline PLR and low WHR compared to patients without clinical symptoms of hypothyroidism and reference levels TSH and FT4. Association between NLR, dNLR, SSI, and thyroid dysfunction was not observed. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show a strong correlation between hypothyroidism and WHR and PLR biomarkers. As a result, using these biomarkers for early identification of hypothyroidism helps treat thyroid dysfunction and improves cancer immunotherapy outcomes.