Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of Spirometrically Confirmed Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease on Arterial Stiffness and Surfactant Protein D After Percutaneous Coronary Intervention. The CATEPOC Study

Background Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain why chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) impairs the prognosis of coronary events. We aimed to explore COPD variables related to a worse prognosis in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods Patients with an acute coronary event treated by PCI were prospectively included. One month after discharge, clinical characteristics, comorbidities measured with the Charlson index, and prognostic coronary scales (logistic EuroSCORE; GRACE 2.0) were collected. Post-bronchodilator spirometry, arterial stiffness, and serum inflammatory and myocardial biomarkers were measured. Lung plasmatic biomarkers (Surfactant protein D, desmosine, and Clara cell secretory protein-16) were determined with ELISA. COPD was defined by the fixed ratio (FEV1/FVC <70%). Spirometric values were also analyzed as continuous variables using adjusted and non-adjusted ANCOVA analysis. Finally, we evaluated the presence of a respiratory pattern defined by non-stratified spirometric values and pulmonary biomarkers. Results A total of 164 patients with a mean age of 65 (±10) years (79% males) were included. COPD was diagnosed in 56 (34%) patients (68% previously undiagnosed). COPD patients had a longer smoking history, higher scores on the EuroSCORE (p < 0.0001) and GRACE 2.0 (p < 0.001) scales, and more comorbidities (p = 0.006). Arterial stiffness determined by pulse wave velocity was increased in COPD patients (7.35 m/s vs 6.60 m/s; p = 0.006). Serum values of high sensitive T troponin (p = 0.007) and surfactant protein D (p = 0.003) were also higher in COPD patients. FEV1% remained significantly associated with arterial stiffness and surfactant protein D in the adjusted ANCOVA analysis. In the cluster exploration, 53% of the patients had a respiratory pattern. Conclusion COPD affects one-third of patients with an acute coronary event and frequently remains undiagnosed. Several mechanisms, including arterial stiffness and SPD, were increased in COPD patients. Their relationship with the prognosis should be confirmed with longitudinal follow-up of the cohort.
Wakasagi in the San Francisco Bay Delta Watershed: Comparative Trends in Distribution and Life-History Traits with Native Delta Smelt

Intentional introductions of non-native fishes can severely affect native communities. Wakasagi (Hypomesus nipponensis, referred to as Japanese Pond Smelt) are native to Japan and were once separated from their non-native congener the endangered Delta Smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) of the San Francisco Estuary (hereon “estuary”) of California. Wakasagi were introduced into California reservoirs in the 20th century as forage fish. Wakasagi have since expanded their distribution downstream to the estuary, but less is known about Wakasagi’s current distribution status, biology in the estuary, and negative influences on Delta Smelt. In this study, we took a comparative approach by synthesizing long-term field monitoring surveys, modeling environmental associations, and quantifying phenology, growth, and diets of Wakasagi and Delta Smelt to describe abundance and range, trends of co-occurrence, and shared ecological roles between smelt species. We found Wakasagi in greatest abundance in the upper watershed below source reservoirs, and in the northern regions of the estuary with the most co-occurrence with Delta Smelt; however, their range extends to western regions of the estuary, and we found evidence of an established population that annually spawns and rears in the estuary. We found these smelt species have similar ecological roles demonstrated by overlaps in habitat use (e.g., an association with higher turbidities and higher outflow), phenology, growth, and diets. Despite similarities, earlier hatching and rearing of Wakasagi during cooler months and reduced growth during warmer drought years suggest this species is unlike typical non-natives (e.g., Centrarchids), and they exhibit a similar sensitivity to environmental variability as Delta Smelt. This sensitivity may be why Wakasagi abundance remains relatively low in the estuary.
The relationship between shoulder pain and shoulder disability in women: The mediating role of sleep quality and psychological disorders

The number of patients complaining of shoulder pain is gradually increasing, and women with shoulder pain in particular tend to present with psychological disorders and poor sleep quality. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether psychological disorder and poor sleep quality mediated the relationship between shoulder pain and shoulder disability in women. This is a descriptive survey study of 222 women from 3 community centers in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do regions in South Korea. Data about shoulder pain, shoulder disability, sleep quality, depression, anxiety, and stress were collected using structured questionnaires between May 10 and June 7, 2021, and were analyzed by serial mediation analysis. The direct effect of shoulder pain on shoulder disability was statistically significant. Serial mediation model showed that sleep quality and psychological disorders (depression, anxiety, and stress) were sequential mediators between shoulder pain and shoulder disability among women. The relationship between shoulder pain and shoulder disability among women was partially mediated by sleep quality and psychological disorders (depression, anxiety, and stress). The results emphasize the importance of sleep quality and psychological factors in shoulder disability and suggest the use of strategies to improve sleep quality and alleviate psychological factors when developing an intervention program to mitigate shoulder disability in women with shoulder pain.
Physical Quality of Fresh Cayenne Pepper (Capsicum frutescens L.) with Different Types of Packaging during Low Temperature Storage

Cayenne pepper (Capsicum frutescens L.) is classified as a horticulture product that easly damaged and it can only survive for 2-3 days in room temperature conditions. In maintaining the quality and self life time of fresh cayenne pepper during storage it is recommended to use the packaging and storage at low temperature. The purpose of this study is to analize the effect of packaging type and storage length on the physical quality of fresh cayenne pepper during low temperature storage (5°C). This study used a complete randomized design method with two factors, each of which consisted of 3 levels, namely storage time (4, 8, and 12 days) and type of packaging (vacuum pack, perforated polypropyline plastic, and wrap plastic). The data were analized by using factorial Anova two mix factors test (α= 5%) and was followed up by Tukey test. The results showed that the best packaging was found in perforated polypropylene plastic with the lowest moisture content 76.45%, the lowest weight loss 3.87%, the highest texture (hardness) 0.027 N/mm², the highest lightness (L*) 44.52, the lowest redness (a*) 26.7, the lowest yellowness (b*) 10.97, the lowest ΔE 23.47, and the lowest water activity 0.889. Physical quality of fresh cayenne pepper can last up to 12 days at low temperature storage (5°C) using perforated polypropylene plastic. Keywords: Cayenne pepper, packaging, storage, low temperature, physical quality.
Construction stakeholders’ perception on sustainable housing development in Anambra State, Nigeria

The concept of sustainable development (SD) has been widely discussed and has gained theoretical importance over the years. Housing is an integral part of human development and as an important part of the built environment; it is therefore an important aspect of SD. However, it appears that the concept of SD in housing is misunderstood and neglected in practice, especially in developing countries, of which Nigeria is not exempt. Therefore, the study examined the perceptions of stakeholders in the construction industry on sustainable housing development (SHD) in Anambra State, Nigeria. The study was based on a survey using a questionnaire. A total of 372 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents out of which 283 were returned and found suitable for the study. The data collected was analyzed using the simple percentage and relative importance index. Hypothesis testing was done using the Kruskal-Wallis test. The study revealed that more than 90% of the respondents were aware of the concept of SD and SHD. However, the result of the hypothesis test shows that there is a significant difference between the responses of the project participants in terms of awareness and perception of the concept of SHD. This is because the concept is perceived as subjective, normative, and ambiguous and therefore neglected. It is therefore recommended that more education (in the form of sensitization, training, retraining and information) about SHD should be done by all stakeholders. This would help to improve existing knowledge about SHD in the implementation of housing projects.
Energy Performance Evaluation of Historical Building

Retrofitting measures in old buildings aimed at reducing energy usage have become important procedures meant to counteract the effects of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of this study is to evaluate energy usage, thermal comfort, and CO2 emissions of an old building by changing parameters such as building orientation, shading systems, location, low energy film application, and alternative energy supply in the form of a geothermal heat pump. When evaluating the buildings in terms of geographical location with or without applying the low energy film, the results show that the city of Gävle in Sweden requires the most heating energy, 150.3 kWh/m2∙year (B0) compared to Jakarta (L0), which requires 23.8 kWh/m2∙year. When examining the thermal comfort, cases B4 and L4 demonstrate the best results in their respective categories (B0–B4 are cases without low energy film and L0–L4 are cases with applied low energy film). The results for the CO2 emissions levels for B0–B4 and L0–L4 indicate that B4 has the highest value, 400 kg CO2 eq/year higher than B0, and L1 has the lowest value, 731 kg CO2 eq/year lower than B0. The economic feasibility study illustrates that the installation of a geothermal heat pump with at least a coefficient of performance of 4.0 leads to a shorter payback period than solely applying LEF.
Structural parameters and blue stragglers in Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy globular clusters

We present BV photometry of four Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy globular clusters: Arp 2, NGC 5634, Palomar 12 and Terzan 8, obtained with the Danish Telescope at ESO La Silla. We measure the structural parameters of the clusters using a King profile fitting, obtaining the first reliable measurements of the tidal radius of Arp 2 and Terzan 8. These two clusters are remarkably extended and with low concentrations, with a concentration of only c=0.41+/-0.02, Terzan 8 is less concentrated than any cluster in our Galaxy.
OBSERVATIONAL CONSTRAINTS ON FIRST-STAR NUCLEOSYNTHESIS. I. EVIDENCE FOR MULTIPLE PROGENITORS OF CEMP-NO STARS

We investigate anew the distribution of absolute carbon abundance, A(C) = log ϵ(C), for carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars in the halo of the Milky Way, based on high-resolution spectroscopic data for a total sample of 305 CEMP stars. The sample includes 147 CEMP-s (and CEMP-r/s) stars, 127 CEMP-no stars, and 31 CEMP stars that are unclassified, based on the currently employed [Ba/Fe] criterion. We confirm previous claims that the distribution of A(C) for CEMP stars is (at least) bimodal, with newly determined peaks centered on A(C) = 7.96 (the high-C region) and A(C) = 6.28 (the low-C region). A very high fraction of CEMP-s (and CEMP-r/s) stars belongs to the high-C region, while the great majority of CEMP-no stars resides in the low-C region. However, there exists complexity in the morphology of the A(C)-[Fe/H] space for the CEMP-no stars, a first indication that more than one class of first-generation stellar progenitors may be required to account for their observed abundances. The two groups of CEMP-no stars we identify exhibit clearly different locations in the A(Na)-A(C) and A(Mg)-A(C) spaces, also suggesting multiple progenitors. The clear distinction in A(C) between the CEMP-s (and CEMP-r/s) stars and the CEMP-no stars appears to be as successful, and likely more astrophysically fundamental, for the separation of these sub-classes as the previously recommended criterion based on [Ba/Fe] (and [Ba/Eu]) abundance ratios. This result opens the window for its application to present and future large-scale low- and medium-resolution spectroscopic surveys.
Paleogeographic Reconstructions of an Ocean Margin on Mars Based on Deltaic Sedimentology at Aeolis Dorsa

The evidence for an ancient ocean in Mars' northern hemispheric basin during the Noachian/Hesperian is contentious. Much of the work is based on the modern topography by assuming that erosion has not significantly reshaped the Martian surface over the last 3.5 billion years, despite evidence to the contrary. Here, we provide new evidence for a northern ocean or large sea based on stratigraphic analysis of sedimentary basin fill exposed at Aeolis Dorsa. We mapped over 6,500 km of fluvial ridges, grouped them into 20 systems, and present evidence that they are the eroded remnants of river deltas or submarine‐channel belts, together defining the stratigraphy of an ancient ocean margin. We used Context Camera stereo‐pair elevation models to measure the stratigraphic positions of each system and used branching directions to determine paleoflow directions. By grouping landforms based on stratigraphic position and paleoflow directions, we reconstructed the paleogeography at Aeolis Dorsa over 5 timesteps; all cases differ from the modern topography. We tracked the initial regression and later transgression of a shoreline during at least 900 m of sea‐level rise, a scale consistent with a northern ocean on a warm and wet early Mars.
Quality of Life in Adult Patients With Epilepsy in Lebanon: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Epilepsy is a chronic and heterogeneous neurological disorder that impairs the quality of life (QOL) of sufferers and affects their mental health in many aspects. Few studies have been conducted in the Middle East, especially in Lebanon, on the QOL of patients with epilepsy. The aim of our study is to assess the burden of epilepsy on the life of adult patients in Lebanon and measure the impact of sociodemographic and clinical factors on the QOL. Materials and Methods: A total of 47 patients from several neurology clinics were included in our study and asked to fill out a questionnaire including the sociodemographic variables and epilepsy-related factors. We used the Quality of Life in Epilepsy Scale-31 (QOLIE-31), which is a 31-question form covering seven attributes of the QOL; overall QOL, emotional wellbeing, social functioning, cognition, energy, seizure worry and medication effects, to assess the QOL of adult patients with epilepsy. Analysis was conducted using SPSS program version 23. Results: The mean age of our sample was 37.54 years, 53.2% of which were males. The majority were unemployed, educated, and belonging to the medium socioeconomic level. The highest subscale score was for the social functioning subscale with a mean of 74.49±25.89 and the lowest subscale score was for seizure worry with a mean of 55.81±27.14. Employment status, nationality, and socioeconomic level were shown to be associated with the QOL scores. There were no correlations between the clinical factors and the QOL scores. Conclusion: Sociodemographic factors, namely Lebanese nationality, employment status, and socioeconomic level, were associated with better QOL, reflected by the significant associations between the following parameters and the QOL scores (p-value<0.05), highlighting the positive influence of social support on the outcome of the disease. However, epilepsy-related clinical features did not show any correlation with the QOL and its subscales.
Organic production of lavender in Serbia: Economic and financial analysis

The main aim of this study is to access possibilities of organic production of lavender in Serbia. As a result that 1999 and 2020 have been dubbed the "Year of Lavender" in the US, researchers and practitioners focused various aspects lavender production and cultivation. Lavender is an aromatic-medicinal plant, cultivated in Mediterranean region. The plants have used twofold: as an essential oil as well as a flower. In this study, the authors use a comparative analysis and feasibility study as research methods. The results of comparative analysis revealed that the main countries in organic production of lavender were Bulgaria, France, China, Ukraine, Spain and Morocco. Also, the feasibility study in Serbia showed positive effect on organic lavender production in Serbia. This can be the case study for organic production of lavender to other farmers in Serbia. The limitations and future research agenda will be presented, too.
Anisotropic Extra Dimensions

We consider the scenario where in a five-dimensional theory, the extra spatial dimension has different scaling than the other four dimensions. We find background maximally symmetric solutions, when the bulk is filled with a cosmological constant and at the same time it has a three-brane embedded in it. These background solutions are reminiscent of Randall-Sundrum warped metrics, with bulk curvature depending on the parameters of the breaking of diffeomorphism invariance. Subsequently, we consider the scalar perturbation sector of the theory and show that it has certain pathologies and the striking feature that in the limit where the diffeomorphism invariance is restored, there remain ghost scalar mode(s) in the spectrum.
Reconstruction of piecewise constant layered conductivities in electrical impedance tomography

Abstract This work presents a new constructive uniqueness proof for Calderón’s inverse problem of electrical impedance tomography, subject to local Cauchy data, for a large class of piecewise constant conductivities that we call piecewise constant layered conductivities (PCLC). The resulting reconstruction method only relies on the physically intuitive monotonicity principles of the local Neumann-to-Dirichlet map, and therefore the method lends itself well to efficient numerical implementation and generalization to electrode models. Several direct reconstruction methods exist for the related problem of inclusion detection, however they share the property that “holes in inclusions” or “inclusions-within-inclusions” cannot be determined. One such method is the monotonicity method of Harrach, Seo, and Ullrich, and in fact the method presented here is a modified variant of the monotonicity method which overcomes this problem. More precisely, the presented method abuses that a PCLC type conductivity can be decomposed into nested layers of positive and/or negative perturbations that, layer-by-layer, can be determined via the monotonicity method. The conductivity values on each layer are found via basic one-dimensional optimization problems constrained by monotonicity relations.
The Stria Vascularis in Mice and Humans Is an Early Site of Age-Related Cochlear Degeneration, Macrophage Dysfunction, and Inflammation

Age-related hearing loss, or presbyacusis, is a common degenerative disorder affecting communication and quality of life for millions of older adults. Multiple pathophysiologic manifestations, along with many cellular and molecular alterations, have been linked to presbyacusis; however, the initial events and causal factors have not been clearly established. Comparisons of the transcriptome in the lateral wall (LW) with other cochlear regions in a mouse model (of both sexes) of “normal” age-related hearing loss revealed that early pathophysiological alterations in the stria vascularis (SV) are associated with increased macrophage activation and a molecular signature indicative of inflammaging, a common form of immune dysfunction. Structure-function correlation analyses in mice across the lifespan showed that the age-dependent increase in macrophage activation in the stria vascularis is associated with a decline in auditory sensitivity. High-resolution imaging analysis of macrophage activation in middle-aged and aged mouse and human cochleas, along with transcriptomic analysis of age-dependent changes in mouse cochlear macrophage gene expression, support the hypothesis that aberrant macrophage activity is an important contributor to age-dependent strial dysfunction, cochlear pathology, and hearing loss. Thus, this study highlights the SV as a primary site of age-related cochlear degeneration and aberrant macrophage activity and dysregulation of the immune system as early indicators of age-related cochlear pathology and hearing loss. Importantly, novel new imaging methods described here now provide a means to analyze human temporal bones in a way that had not previously been feasible and thereby represent a significant new tool for otopathological evaluation. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Age-related hearing loss is a common neurodegenerative disorder affecting communication and quality of life. Current interventions (primarily hearing aids and cochlear implants) offer imperfect and often unsuccessful therapeutic outcomes. Identification of early pathology and causal factors is crucial for the development of new treatments and early diagnostic tests. Here, we find that the SV, a nonsensory component of the cochlea, is an early site of structural and functional pathology in mice and humans that is characterized by aberrant immune cell activity. We also establish a new technique for evaluating cochleas from human temporal bones, an important but understudied area of research because of a lack of well-preserved human specimens and difficult tissue preparation and processing approaches.
Benefits, co-operation and development—The relationship between a music academy and four amateur symphony orchestras

The focus in this study is the relationships between one tertiary music academy and four amateur orchestras. In this study the kinds of cooperation that exist, how students benefit from participating in amateur orchestras, and how cooperation can be further developed is identified. Four administrators from the academy and four conductors were interviewed. The study shows that the bases for cooperation are informal arrangements and personal contacts between individuals. What the interviewees considered as the main benefit for students was that participating in amateur orchestras provided opportunities for orchestral playing that were lacking within their formal education. Policy decisions were based on the interviewees ideas about students’ benefits, which could be social, musical and professional. The interviewees also respected the students’, and teachers’, autonomy in choosing their own musical and professional paths. Both the academy administrators and the amateur orchestra conductors value the cooperative relationships between academy and amateur orchestras.