Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Review Paper: Association between Social Network and Obesity among Adult Population

Objectives: Our main objective is to establish an association between obesity and social networks among the adult population as well as understanding the underlying mechanisms. We aim to provide suggestions for the development of future interventions to treat obesity. Methods: We carried out a literature search from 4 databases: PubMed, Embase, Scopus and Web of Science. We conducted a systematic search targeting on 3 main concept terms—“social net-work”, “obesity” and “adult”. A final pool of 11 articles best fitted for our topic was included. Results: We have established a clear association between obesity and social networks. Single women with the co-living arrangement have a higher waist circumference (WC), consistent with a higher predisposition to obesity seen among single individuals but lone living divorced men had lower WC compared to those with partners. Women with high incomes are less likely to be obese in comparison to highly social men with low income. The degree of the effect on social networks and obesity was inconclusive due to differences in the study population. Generally, women with low social participation tend to be obese. However, non-partnered women consistently showed a higher WC in comparison to their partnered counterparts regardless of participation rates except for divorced women. Living in a neighborhood with access to active transportation, high socioeconomic status, increased levels of social trust and social support reduces the prevalence of obesity. Mechanisms of cultural ideals, nature of employment, stress, gender, self-selection, network influence, social contagion and shared built environment may have contributed to the
Phase Transition Investigations of a Series of Aromatic Naphthalene-2-yl-4-(Alkoxy) Benzoate and Naphthalene-1-yl-4-(Alkoxy) Benzoate Materials

The mesogenic properties of a homologous series of aromatic ester materials are investigated. Single tail and double tail materials were synthesized to compare with other series we prepared and published earlier. The phase sequences and transition temperatures were obtained by polarized light microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. Only the single tail materials with the ester attached to naphthalene at position 2 display mesogenicbehavior. Two materials (ZH 29 & ZH 32) possess a monophasic nematic phase and another two materials (ZH 14 & ZH 35) display biphasic nematic and smectic (A) phases.
CONTROL OF NEOCLASSICAL TEARING MODES IN DIII-D

The development of techniques for neoclassical tearing mode (NTM) suppression or avoidance is crucial for successful high beta/high confinement tokamaks. Neoclassical tearing modes are islands destabilized and maintained by a helically perturbed bootstrap current and represent a significant limit to performance at higher poloidal beta. The confinement-degrading islands can be reduced or completely suppressed by precisely replacing the ''missing'' bootstrap current in the island O-point or by interfering with the fundamental helical harmonic of the pressure. Implementation of such techniques is being studied in the DIII-D tokamak [J.L. Luxon, et al., Plasma Phys. and Control. Fusion Research, Vol. 1 (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1987) p. 159] in the presence of periodic q = 1 sawtooth instabilities, a reactor relevant regime. Radially localized off-axis electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) must be precisely located on the island. In DIII-D the plasma control system is put into a ''search and suppress'' mode to make either small rigid radial position shifts of the entire plasma (and thus the island) or small changes in toroidal field (and thus, ECCD location) to find and lock onto the optimum position for complete island suppression by ECCD. This is based on real-time measurements of an m/n = 3/2 mode amplitude dB{sub {theta}}/dt. The experiment represents the first use of active feedback control to provide continuous, precise positioning. An alternative to ECCD makes use of the six toroidal section ''C-Coil'' on DIII-D to provide a large non-resonant static m = 1, n = 3 helical field to interfere with the fundamental harmonic of an m/n = 3/2 NTM. While experiments show success in inhibiting the NTM if a large enough n = 3 field is applied before the island onset, there is a considerable plasma rotation decrease due to n = 3 ''ripple''.
Unifying Evidence on Delay Discounting: Open Task, Analysis Tutorial, and Normative Data from an Italian Sample

Despite the widespread use of the delay discounting task in clinical and non-clinical contexts, several task versions are available in the literature, making it hard to compare results across studies. Moreover, normative data are not available to evaluate individual performances. The present study aims to propose a unified version of the delay discounting task based on monetary rewards and it provides normative values built on an Italian sample of 357 healthy participants. The most used parameters in the literature to assess the delay discount rate were compared to find the most valid index to discriminate between normative data and a clinical population who typically present impulsivity issues, i.e., patients with a lesion to the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC). In line with our hypothesis, mOFC patients showed higher delay discounting scores than the normative sample and the normative group. Based on this evidence, we propose that the task and indexes here provided can be used to identify extremely high (above the 90th percentile for hyperbolic k or below the 10th percentile for AUC) or low (below the 10th percentile for hyperbolic k or above the 90th percentile for AUC) delay discounting performances. The complete dataset, the R code used to perform all analyses, a free and modifiable version of the delay discounting task, as well as the R code that can be used to extract all indexes from such tasks and compare subjective performances with the normative data here presented are available as online materials.
Feasibility analysis of solar PV/biogas hybrid energy system for rural electrification in Ghana

Abstract Globally, reliable access to electricity improves people’s well-being, provides quality education, and promotes good health. Greenhouse gas emissions associated with fossil fuel combustion have incited an intense interest in low-carbon technologies for power generation. This study analyses the prospect of utilising a solar PV/biogas/battery hybrid energy system to provide electricity for Ghana’s remote communities. The study goal is to utilise locally available renewable energy resources to achieve a cost-effective levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Hybrid Optimisation of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) software was employed to model and analyse the hybrid energy system’s technical, economic, and environmental aspects. The findings indicate that PV/biogas/battery system perform better than PV/diesel/battery and diesel-only systems in terms of cost and emissions reductions. Also, the LCOE generated from the PV/biogas/battery system is around 0.256 $/kWh. However, this LCOE is only about 64% higher than the LCOE for Ghana’s household residents. The sensitivity test indicates that the PV/biogas/battery system is sensitive to discount rates and capital subsidies, making it attractive for future development. This attests that Ghanaian rural communities without electricity access and with substantial biomass potential are likely to be electrified when given the necessary attention. Moreover, this project could be a viable alternative to rural electrification in Ghana with proper investment support.
NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF COMPOUND OPEN CHANNEL FLOW ON TURBULENCE WITH A REYNOLDS STRESS MODEL

複断面開水路は, その断面にコーナ部とエッジ部とを有し, その特異な乱流構造より興味ある流れを形成する. その一つとして, 低水路と高水敷境界部からの斜昇流 (第二種二次流れ) の存在が実験より指摘されている. 本研究は, この複断面開水路流れをレイノルズ応力モデルを用いて解析することを目的とする. 同時に, 主流方向渦度輸送方程式の各項を検討することよりその生成機構についても検討を加えた. その結果, 本手法により複断面開水路流れに特徴的な現象を比較的良好に予測することができ, 同時に縦渦生成機構を定量的に解明した.
Effects of Grass Silage Additive Type and Barley Grain Preservation Method on Rumen Fermentation, Microbial Community and Milk Production of Dairy Cows

Grass was ensiled using an acid-based additive (AS) or homofermentative lactic acid bacteria (IS). In addition, barley grain was either dried (DB) or crimped and ensiled (EB). The feeds were fed as total mixed rations (TMR) in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement to 16 Nordic Red dairy cows in four replicated Latin squares. The differences in the fermentation quality of the two grass silages were unexpectedly small. Dry matter intake was higher (p < 0.01) for cows fed AS than those fed IS but was not affected by barley preservation method. Ruminal molar proportion of butyrate tended to be higher in cows fed AS rather than IS (p < 0.10) in expense of acetate (p < 0.05). Barley preservation method did not affect rumen fermentation but modulated rumen bacterial community composition. Milk production was not affected by silage additive but tended (p < 0.10) to be higher (39.6 vs. 39.0 kg/d) for cows fed DB rather than EB. However, barley type did not affect energy corrected milk yield due to a tendency (p < 0.10) for higher milk fat content of cows fed EB rather than DB. Milk fat yield tended (p < 0.10) to be higher for AS-fed cows than IS-fed cows, and milk protein yield was higher for cows receiving DB rather than EB. The AS resulted in more aerobically stable TMR than IS and a minor advantage was found for DB compared to EB.
Impact of Single and Combined Salinity and High-Temperature Stresses on Agro-Physiological, Biochemical, and Transcriptional Responses in Rice and Stress-Release

Here, for the first time, we aimed to identify in rice the key mechanisms and processes underlying tolerance to high-temperature (HT) or salt stress (SS) alone, the co-occurrence of both stresses, and recovery using physiological and biochemical measurements and gene expression analysis. We also investigated whether recovery from the two stressors depended on the relative intensities/relief of each stressor. Wild type (‘Yukinkomai’) rice plants were found to be more susceptible to salinity or heat applied individually. SS leads to a depletion of cellular water content, higher accumulation of Na+, and alterations in photosynthetic pigments. The stress-tolerant cultivar ‘YNU31-2-4’ (YNU) displayed a lower Na+/K+ ratio, higher water content in cells and improved photosynthetic traits, antioxidant system, and expression of defence genes. Strikingly, the SS + HT combination provided a significant level of protection to rice plants from the effects of SS alone. The expression pattern of a selected set of genes showed a specific response and dedicated pathways in plants subjected to each of the different stresses, while other genes were explicitly activated when the stresses were combined. Aquaporin genes were activated by SS, while stress-related (P5CS, MSD1, HSPs, and ions transporters) genes were shaped by HT. Hierarchical clustering and principal component analyses showed that several traits exhibited a gradually aggravating effect as plants were exposed to the combined stresses and identified heat as a mitigating factor, clearly separating heat + salt-stressed from salt-non-heat-stressed plants. Furthermore, seedling recovery was far more dependent on the relative intensities of stressors and cultivars, demonstrating the influence of one stressor over another upon stress-release. Taken together, our data show the uniqueness and complexity of the physiological and molecular network modules used by rice plants to respond to single and combined stresses and recovery.
Asymptotic normality of the regression mode in the nonparametric random design model for censored data

Abstract In the nonparametric regression model, where the regression function is given by for a measurable function estimation of the location (mode) of a unique maximum of by the location of a maximum of the Nadaraya-Watson kernel estimator for the curve is considered. Within the setting of the censored data, we obtain the consistency with rate and the asymptotic normality results for under mild local smoothness assumptions on the regression and the design density of Simulation results are performed to illustrate the performance of the procedure.
BRDF-based Irradiance Image Estimation to Remove Radiometric Differences for Stereo Matching

Existing stereo matching methods assume that the corresponding pixels between left and right views have similar intensity. However, in real situations, image intensity tends to be dissimilar because of the radiometric differences obtained due to change in light reflected. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for removing these radiometric differences to perform stereo matching effectively. The approach estimates irradiance images based on the Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) which describes the ratio of radiance to irradiance for a given image. We demonstrate that to compute an irradiance image we only need to estimate the light source direction and the object’s roughness. We consider an approximation that the dot product of the unknown light direction parameters follows a Gaussian distribution and we use that to estimate the light source direction. The object’s roughness is estimated by calculating the pixel intensity variance using a local window strategy. By applying the above steps independently on the original stereo images, we obtain the illumination invariant irradiance images that can be used as input to stereo matching methods. Experiments conducted on well-known stereo estimation datasets demonstrate that our proposed approach significantly reduces the error rate of stereo matching methods.
The Disordered Dehydrin and Its Role in Plant Protection: A Biochemical Perspective

Dehydrins are intrinsically disordered proteins composed of several well conserved sequence motifs known as the Y-, S-, F-, and K-segments, the latter of which is a defining feature of all dehydrins. These segments are interspersed by regions of low sequence conservation and are organized modularly, which results in seven different architectures: Kn, SKn, YnSKn, YnKn, KnS, FnK and FnSKn. Dehydrins are expressed ubiquitously throughout the plant kingdom during periods of low intracellular water content, and are capable of improving desiccation tolerance in plants. In vitro evidence of dehydrins shows that they are involved in the protection of membranes, proteins and DNA from abiotic stresses. However, the molecular mechanisms by which these actions are achieved are as of yet somewhat unclear. With regards to macromolecule cryoprotection, there is evidence to suggest that a molecular shield-like protective effect is primarily influenced by the hydrodynamic radius of the dehydrin and to a lesser extent by the charge and hydrophobicity. The interaction between dehydrins and membranes is thought to be a surface-level, charge-based interaction that may help to lower the transition temperature, allowing membranes to maintain fluidity at low temperatures and preventing membrane fusion. In addition, dehydrins are able to protect DNA from damage, showing that these abiotic stress protection proteins have multiple roles.
Budget of absolute angular momentum of monsoon depressions

Mean absolute angular momentum and its transport associated with monsoon depressions have been discussed in the paper. For the purpose of this study, depressions which formed in two representative monsoon months of July & August between 1961 & 1974 and moved In the customary west or westnorthwest direction have been pooled to obtain a generalised portrayal of the expected accumulation of the momentum throughout the troposphere, around 1000 km of the depression centre. Estimates have been made of the surface stress by means of which the angular momentum are transferred. Empirical relationship between the drag coefficients and the wind has been deduced. The study reveals that the air which penetrates deep inside the depression field loses maximum momentum in the lower levels while in the upper troposphere angular momentum is generally conserved. Maximum extraction of momentum is found to occur in the high velocity core of the depression. The nature of relationship between the surface drag and the wind is found to be quadratic. Relatively uniform angle of inflow is observed near the depression centre.
Pheochromocytomas and Abdominal Paragangliomas: A Practical Guidance

Simple Summary Pheochromocytomas and abdominal paragangliomas (PPGLs) are rare. They can be discovered incidentally by imaging with computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging and during hormonal surveillance in patients with known genetic variants that are associated with PPGLs. As most PPGLs are functioning, a hormonal work-up evaluating for catecholamine excess is recommended. Classical symptoms, such as tachycardia, hypertension and headache, can be present, but when the PPGL is discovered as an incidentaloma, symptoms may be lacking or be more discrete. PPGLs carry malignant potential, and patients should undergo close surveillance, as recurrence of disease or metastasis may develop. Genetic susceptibility for multifocal disease has gained more attention, and germline variants are commonly detected, thus facilitating detection of hereditary cases and afflicted family members. Any patient with a PPGL should be managed by an expert multidisciplinary team consisting of endocrinologists, radiologists, surgeons, pathologists and clinical geneticists. Abstract Pheochromocytomas and abdominal paragangliomas (PPGLs) are rare tumors arising from the adrenal medulla or the sympathetic nervous system. This review presents a practical guidance for clinicians dealing with PPGLs. The incidence of PPGLs has risen. Most cases are detected via imaging and less present with symptoms of catecholamine excess. Most PPGLs secrete catecholamines, with diffuse symptoms. Diagnosis is made by imaging and tests of catecholamines. Localized disease can be cured by surgery. PPGLs are the most heritable of all human tumors, and germline variants are found in approximately 30–50% of cases. Such variants can give information regarding the risk of developing recurrence or metastases as well as the risk of developing other tumors and may identify relatives at risk for disease. All PPGLs harbor malignant potential, and current histological and immunohistochemical algorithms can aid in the identification of indolent vs. aggressive tumors. While most patients with metastatic PPGL have slowly progressive disease, a proportion of patients present with an aggressive course, highlighting the need for more effective therapies in these cases. We conclude that PPGLs are rare but increasing in incidence and management should be guided by a multidisciplinary team.
Broadband Class-J GaN Doherty Power Amplifier

This paper presents a broadband 3 GHz–3.7 GHz class-J Doherty power amplifier exploiting second harmonic tuning in the output network. Furthermore, the output impedance inverter is eliminated and its effect is embedded in the main device’s output matching network, thus trading off among bandwidth, efficiency, and gain. The proposed amplifier adopts two 10 W packaged GaN transistors, and it achieves in measurement 60–74%, and 46–50% drain efficiency at saturation and 6 dB output back-off, respectively, with a saturated output power of 43 dBm–44.2 dBm and a small-signal gain of 10 dB–13 dB. The proposed DPA exhibits a simulated adjacent channel power ratio less than −30 dBc at 36 dBm average output power, when a 16-QAM modulation with 5 MHz bandwidth is applied to the 3.5 GHz carrier.
Bioefficacy of new insecticide molecules against cotton jassid, Amrasca biguttula biguttula and whitefly, Bemisia tabaci

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of few new groups of insecticides against two important sucking pests of cotton viz., cotton jassid (Amrasca biguttula biguttula) and whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) during the pre-Kharif season of 2011 and 2012. The insecticides viz., imidacloprid 17.8% SL @ 18, 27 & 36 g−ha, spiromesifen 24% SC @ 100, 150 & 200 g−ha and buprofezin 25% SC @ 150, 200 & 300 g−ha were applied two times at 15 days interval. Among the treatments, the most effective insecticide in controlling the jassid population was buprofezin @ 300 g−ha followed by imidacloprid @ 36 g−ha and least effective was spiromesifen @ 100 g−ha. The order of bioefficacy on the basis of per cent reduction of cotton jassid over control plot was: buprofezin > imidacloprid > spiromesifen. But in case of whitefly, the most effective insecticide was spiromesifen @ 150 g−ha followed by buprofezin @ 300 g−ha and least effective was buprofezin @ 150 g−ha. The order of bioefficacy on the basis of per cent reduction of cotton whitefly over control was, spiromesifen > buprofezin > imidacloprid.
Cultural Validation of the Chinese Central Sensitization Inventory in Patients with Chronic Pain and its Predictive Ability of Comorbid Central Sensitivity Syndromes

Background Central sensitization (CS) is frequently reported in chronic pain, and the central sensitization inventory (CSI) is popularly used to assess CS. However, a validated Chinese CSI is lacking and its predictive ability for the comorbidity of central sensitivity syndromes (CSSs) remains unclear. Hence, this study aimed to generate the Chinese CSI (CSI-C) with cultural adaptation and examine its psychometric properties. Methods The CSI-C was formulated through forward and backward translation, panel review and piloting and then validated among patients with chronic pain (n = 235). Its internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and concurrent validity were measured. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed for the construct validity. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was employed to determine the discriminative ability in the presence of comorbidity of CSSs. Results About 70% of the participants in the study experienced at least mild CS symptoms. CSI-C demonstrates a high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.896) and excellent test–retest reliability (ICC = 0.932). CSI-C scoring was significantly correlated with pain intensity (r = 0.188), EQ-5D index (r = −0.375), anxiety (r=0.525), and depression (r = 0.467). The EFA generated a 5-factor model, including physical symptoms, emotional distress, hypersensitivity syndromes and so on. An CSI cutoff of 42 had a sensitivity of 71.4% and a specificity of 70% for identifying chronic pain patients with ≥2 CSSs. Conclusion The CS manifestations are prevalent in those with persistent pain. CSI-C is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring CS. A CSI score ≥42 may predict the comorbidity of 2 or above CSSs in patients with chronic pain.