Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Marine Chitosan-Oligosaccharide Ameliorated Plasma Cholesterol in Hypercholesterolemic Hamsters by Modifying the Gut Microflora, Bile Acids, and Short-Chain Fatty Acids

This study evaluated the cholesterol-alleviating effect and underlying mechanisms of chitosan-oligosaccharide (COS) in hypercholesterolemic hamsters. Male hamsters (n = 24) were divided into three groups in a random fashion, and each group was fed one particular diet, namely a non-cholesterol diet (NCD), a high-cholesterol diet (HCD), and an HCD diet substituting 5% of the COS diet for six weeks. Subsequently, alterations in fecal bile acids (BAs), short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), and gut microflora (GM) were investigated. COS intervention significantly reduced and increased the plasma total cholesterol (TC) and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) levels in hypercholesteremic hamsters. Furthermore, Non-HDL-C and total triacylglycerols (TG) levels were also reduced by COS supplementation. Additionally, COS could reduce and increase food intake and fecal SCFAs (acetate), respectively. Moreover, COS had beneficial effects on levels of BAs and GM related to cholesterol metabolism. This study provides novel evidence for the cholesterol-lowering activity of COS.
The Effect of Matrix Metalloproteinase Inhibitors on the Microtensile Bond Strength of Dentin Bonding Agents in Caries Affected Dentin: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACT Aims and Objectives: Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) cause degradation of the dentinal matrix, as they act actively on collagen fibrils, leading to their deterioration and collapse. MMP inhibitors are known to be used for the pre-treatment of human dentin before bonding. Most studies on the MMP inhibitors examined the effect of MMP inhibitors on bonding to sound dentin (SD), but few examine their effect on bonding to caries affected dentin (CAD). This systematic review aims to identify and summarize studies that have applied MMP inhibitors for pre-treatment of CAD, and examine the microtensile bond strength (µTBS), bond durability, and the mode of failure. Materials and Methods: A systematic review was performed using the PubMed database according to the PRISMA guidelines. A total of 785 original articles published between 2010 and 2022 were initially retrieved. Six studies were selected based on predefined inclusion–exclusion criteria, and their outcomes were extracted and analyzed. The methodological quality assessment was performed using a combined checklist that utilizes the reporting criteria mentioned in the checklist for reporting in-vitro studies guidelines and guidelines for reporting pre-clinical in vitro studies on dental materials. Results: All six studies included here showed a definitive increase of the µTBS when MMP inhibitors were applied to the CAD. The mode of failure was found to be predominantly adhesive in nature. The deviation in the values of µTBS was approximately 2–5 MPa on immediate and delayed testing. Conclusion: MMP-inhibiting agents could be considered for the pretreatment of teeth with CAD as a part of their tooth preparation area, thereby allowing the clinician to retain CAD and bond to the CAD without endangering the vital pulp.
Coupled CFD-Simulation of a Helicopter in Free-Flight Trim

This paper presents a feasibility study for trimming the computational fluid dynamics model of a complete helicopter to free flight conditions by coupling it to a comprehensive rotor code. Rotor controls and fuselage pitch and yaw attitude are set as free trim variables to realize load equilibrium for a steady cruise flight condition. Through weak fluid-structure coupling aeroelastic effects at the main rotor are accounted for, while fuselage loads are transferred in form of temporal mean values. Aerodynamic simulation of the Eurocopter EC145 helicopter fuselage is characterized by separated and partially irregular flow, and interference between rotor and fuselage renders flight mechanics rich in non-linearity. Special attention therefore is given to the convergence rate, precision and stability of the expanded trim scheme. The work is motivated by an expected gain in the prediction capability for helicopter performance and interactional loads from exploiting high-fidelity aerodynamic modeling simultaneously for flight attitude prediction.
Recirculation intervals of nutrient solution in hydroponic acclimatization of banana seedlings

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to evaluate the technical viability of using longer recirculation intervals of nutrient solution than those conventionally used for the acclimatization of Prata-Ana banana seedlings grown under hydroponic system. The experiment was carried out in a greenhouse of a banana plantlet production biofactory, in Cruz das Almas, Bahia, Brazil, in a randomized block design with four replications. The use of longer recirculation intervals of nutrient solution (0.75, 3.75, 5.75, 11.75, and 23.75 hours) than those commonly used for vegetables (0.25 hour) was evaluated in the present study in two seasons: winter and summer-autumn. The effect of increasing the interval of nutrient solution recirculation on plant growth was more pronounced when the temperature was higher, during the summer-autumn season. Considering the plant growth period between 15 and 20 days after transplanting, there was no effect of the recirculation frequency, showing the viability of using lower recirculation frequencies or only one recirculation per day in the first 15 days of plant growth. However, the use of shorter intervals after this period is needed because the use of intervals equal to or higher than 0.75 hour decreased plant growth in both seasons. Thus, the use of a 23.75-hour interval in the first 15 days and a 0.25-hour interval after this period allows a decrease in energy consumption, compared to the use of a 0.25-hour interval during the whole plant cycle.
Dietary Pattern, Nutrition-Related Knowledge and Attitudes of Working Women in Western Province, Sri Lanka

Healthy eating behaviour of women is critical not only for their health but also for their children’s health and well-being. The present study examined the dietary pattern, nutrition-related knowledge, and attitudes of working women in Western Province, Sri Lanka. In addition, this study identified the factors associated with dietary diversity score (DDS). A cross-sectional study was conducted among 300 working women, aged 20–60 years, in Western Province, Sri Lanka. The data on socio-demography, dietary patterns, and nutrition-related knowledge and attitudes were collected. Overall, 38% of the women were overweight and 13% were obese. The median frequency of intake of chicken, fish, eggs, milk and milk products, green leafy vegetables, and fruits were 2, 5, 2, 9, 5, and 10 respectively, per week. A large majority of the women (70%) had tea/coffee with sugar and snacks (60%) at least four times a week. Only a third of the women met the minimum DDS, while more than half of the women had good nutrition-related knowledge and attitudes. Women with good nutrition-related knowledge were more frequent consumers of roots/tubers, shellfish, vegetables, fruit, fruit juice, nuts and oils, and fast food. Women with good nutrition-related attitudes had a significantly lower frequency of consumption of soya meat, while having a higher frequency of consumption of fast food. Multiple regression analysis showed that age and household income were significantly independently related to DDS, while attitudes were negatively associated. While there was a trend, the association of nutrition-related knowledge with DDS was not statistically significant (p = 0.057). The overall F ratio (8.46) was highly significant (p = 0.001) and the adjusted R2 was 0.093. The results demonstrate that a significant proportion of working women have good basic nutrition-related knowledge and attitudes, while two-thirds of them do not meet the minimum DDS. Furthermore, age, family income, and knowledge were positively associated with DDS, while attitudes were negatively associated. Before designing any intervention, further research is needed using a qualitative approach to understand how nutrition knowledge and eating behaviour are related in this population group.
Structural Equation Models for Dealing With Spatial Confounding

ABSTRACT In regression analyses of spatially structured data, it is common practice to introduce spatially correlated random effects into the regression model to reduce or even avoid unobserved variable bias in the estimation of other covariate effects. If besides the response the covariates are also spatially correlated, the spatial effects may confound the effect of the covariates or vice versa. In this case, the model fails to identify the true covariate effect due to multicollinearity. For highly collinear continuous covariates, path analysis and structural equation modeling techniques prove to be helpful to disentangle direct covariate effects from indirect covariate effects arising from correlation with other variables. This work discusses the applicability of these techniques in regression setups, where spatial and covariate effects coincide at least partly and classical geoadditive models fail to separate these effects. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.
Spatio-Temporal Graph Neural Point Process for Traffic Congestion Event Prediction

Traffic congestion event prediction is an important yet challenging task in intelligent transportation systems. Many existing works about traffic prediction integrate various temporal encoders and graph convolution networks (GCNs), called spatio-temporal graph-based neural networks, which focus on predicting dense variables such as flow, speed and demand in time snapshots, but they can hardly forecast the traffic congestion events that are sparsely distributed on the continuous time axis. In recent years, neural point process (NPP) has emerged as an appropriate framework for event prediction in continuous time scenarios. However, most conventional works about NPP cannot model the complex spatio-temporal dependencies and congestion evolution patterns. To address these limitations, we propose a spatio-temporal graph neural point process framework, named STGNPP for traffic congestion event prediction. Specifically, we first design the spatio-temporal graph learning module to fully capture the long-range spatio-temporal dependencies from the historical traffic state data along with the road network. The extracted spatio-temporal hidden representation and congestion event information are then fed into a continuous gated recurrent unit to model the congestion evolution patterns. In particular, to fully exploit the periodic information, we also improve the intensity function calculation of the point process with a periodic gated mechanism. Finally, our model simultaneously predicts the occurrence time and duration of the next congestion. Extensive experiments on two real-world datasets demonstrate that our method achieves superior performance in comparison to existing state-of-the-art approaches.
Developing a detector model for the experiment for x-ray characterization and timing (EXACT) CubeSat

The Experiment for X-ray Characterization and Timing (EXACT) mission will be a CubeSat based, hard X-ray spectrometer for measuring high-energy emission from solar flares with high time precision. Solar flares and the related coronal mass ejections affect space weather and the near-Earth environment through emission of solar energetic particles. Hard X-rays (HXRs) are emitted from flare-accelerated electrons, which are energized at or near the time of energy release, and therefore serve to probe the timing of energy release and particle acceleration. EXACT will study the hard X-rays generated by the Sun in the declining phase of Solar Cycle 24 in order to probe electron acceleration in flares and solar eruptive events while also serving as a precursor to future hard X-ray spectrometers that could monitor the Sun continuously. EXACT’s secondary mission is to demonstrate a spacecraft ranging technique based on timing of astrophysical X-ray and gamma ray bursts. EXACT will be a 3U (10x10x30 cm3 ) CubeSat. This paper will discuss the scintillator detector under development for the mission, including the modeling of the detector response function, as well as expected observations of solar flares by EXACT.
From Citizenship Pressure to Pro-Group Unethical Behavior: The Dual-Stage Moderating Role of Self-Serving Political Will

Drawing upon social cognitive theory, our study proposes a dual-stage moderated mediation model that utilizes moral disengagement as the mediator and self-serving political will as the moderator to investigate whether, how, and when team-oriented citizenship pressure leads to pro-group unethical behavior. Data were collected through questionnaires from 527 Chinese employees in various industries. Amos and Process macro were used to test the model’s fit and hypotheses, respectively. The results showed that citizenship pressure has a positive effect on pro-group unethical behavior through moral disengagement. Moreover, self-serving political will is a positive moderator in both the first and second stages, as well as in the mediation effect. This study extends the related research field by linking citizenship pressure and political will with moral disengagement and pro-social unethical behavior, responding to some academic calls. When faced with team-oriented citizenship pressure, team members with high self-serving political will may become a sharp edge that stabs at other competing teams. Managers at the team and organizational levels can intervene in different ways depending on their constructive or destructive management goals.
Present‐Day Strike‐Slip Faulting and Intracontinental Deformation of North China: Constraints From Improved GPS Observations

We investigate the present‐day strike‐slip faulting and intracontinental deformation of North China using horizontal GPS velocities and a block modeling strategy. The data demonstrate that the fault slip rates and block rotations in North China can be better constrained using GPS velocities where the influence of groundwater extraction has been reduced by applying median spatial filtering of the velocity field. The modeled senses of motion and slip rates on active faults are generally in good agreement with the geological estimates. The left‐lateral slip rate along the boundary fault of Weihe Graben is apparently lower than the differential motion between the South China Block and Ordos Block. The missing left‐lateral slip is accommodated by the counterclockwise rotation of the Ordos Block. The sinistral slip rate along the eastern segment of the Altyn Tagh‐Haiyuan‐Qinling fault system decreases eastward from ∼1.0 to ∼0 mm/yr, much slower than that expected in the fast eastward extrusion hypothesis. We interpret the systematic counterclockwise rotation of blocks and left/right‐lateral faulting in North China to be driven both by the left‐lateral shear between the South China Block to the south and Yinshan‐Yanshan Block to the north and a push from the Tibetan Plateau on the southwestern margin of the Ordos Block.
Enhancing Middle School Learning about Geography and Topographic Maps Using Hands-on Play and Geospatial Technologies

Abstract The objective of this research was to determine if and to what extent students’ learning of geographic concepts can be improved through incorporation of hands-on play with Play-Doh® and LEGO® and geospatial technologies, specifically drones. The project team conducted six months of biweekly, collaborative instruction at Comstock Middle School in Michigan incorporating in-class activities such as drawing mental maps, creating contour lines of model landscapes in water boxes, constructing 3D landscapes from 2D topographic maps, building and operating small drones, and more. Compared pre- and post-tests reveal a 14% increase in overall scores, a statistically significant improvement in student performance.
SLC5A1 Variants in Turkish Patients with Congenital Glucose-Galactose Malabsorption

Congenital glucose-galactose malabsorption is a rare autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in SLC5A1 encoding the apical sodium/glucose cotransporter SGLT1. We present clinical and molecular data from eleven affected individuals with congenital glucose-galactose malabsorption from four unrelated, consanguineous Turkish families. Early recognition and timely management by eliminating glucose and galactose from the diet are fundamental for affected individuals to survive and develop normally. We identified novel SLC5A1 missense variants, p.Gly43Arg and p.Ala92Val, which were linked to disease in two families. Stable expression in CaCo-2 cells showed that the p.Ala92Val variant did not reach the plasma membrane, but was retained in the endoplasmic reticulum. The p.Gly43Arg variant, however, displayed processing and plasma membrane localization comparable to wild-type SGLT1. Glycine-43 displays nearly invariant conservation in the relevant structural family of cotransporters and exchangers, and localizes to SGLT1 transmembrane domain TM0. p.Gly43Arg represents the first disease-associated variant in TM0; however, the role of TM0 in the SGLT1 function has not been established. In summary, we are expanding the mutational spectrum of this rare disorder.
Lyapunov-Based Long Short-Term Memory (Lb-LSTM) Neural Network-Based Control

Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) are a dynamic mapping that can capture time-varying, accumulative effects in a sequence that static, feedforward neural networks (NNs) cannot. Long short-term memory (LSTM) NNs are a type of RNN that have gained recent popularity because the cell structure allows them to retain long-term information more efficiently than traditional RNNs. Existing results develop LSTM-based controllers to compensate for uncertainties in nonlinear systems. However, these results use discrete-time LSTMs with offline-trained weights. In this letter, a Lyapunov-based LSTM controller is developed for general Euler-Lagrange systems. Specifically, an Lb-LSTM is implemented in the control design to adaptively estimate uncertain model dynamics, where the weight estimates of the LSTM cell are updated using Lyapunov-based adaptation laws. This allows the LSTM cell to adapt to system uncertainties without requiring offline training. A Lyapunov-based stability analysis yields uniform ultimate boundedness (UUB) of the tracking errors and LSTM state and weight estimation errors. Simulations indicate the developed Lb-LSTM-based controller yielded significant improvement in tracking and function approximation performance when compared to several DNN examples.
Bayesian estimation based on summary statistics: Double asymptotics and practice

Ergodic theorem shows that ergodic averages of the posterior draws converge in probability to the posterior mean under the stationarity assumption. The literature also shows that the posterior distribution is asymptotically normal when the sample size of the original data considered goes to infinity. To the best of our knowledge, there is little discussion on the large sample behaviour of the posterior mean. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap. In particular, we extend the posterior mean idea to the conditional mean case, which is conditioning on given vector of summary statistics of the original data. We establish a new asymptotic theory for the conditional mean estimator when both the sample size of the original data concerned and the number of Markov chain Monte Carlo iterations go to infinity. Simulation studies show that this conditional mean estimator has very good finite sample performance. In addition, we employ the conditional mean estimator to estimate a GARCH(1,1) model for S&P 500 stock returns and find that the conditional mean estimator performs better than quasi{maximum likelihood estimation in terms of out-of-sample forecasting.
Modality-Specific Perceptual Learning of Vocoded Auditory versus Lipread Speech: Different Effects of Prior Information

Traditionally, speech perception training paradigms have not adequately taken into account the possibility that there may be modality-specific requirements for perceptual learning with auditory-only (AO) versus visual-only (VO) speech stimuli. The study reported here investigated the hypothesis that there are modality-specific differences in how prior information is used by normal-hearing participants during vocoded versus VO speech training. Two different experiments, one with vocoded AO speech (Experiment 1) and one with VO, lipread, speech (Experiment 2), investigated the effects of giving different types of prior information to trainees on each trial during training. The training was for four ~20 min sessions, during which participants learned to label novel visual images using novel spoken words. Participants were assigned to different types of prior information during training: Word Group trainees saw a printed version of each training word (e.g., “tethon”), and Consonant Group trainees saw only its consonants (e.g., “t_th_n”). Additional groups received no prior information (i.e., Experiment 1, AO Group; Experiment 2, VO Group) or a spoken version of the stimulus in a different modality from the training stimuli (Experiment 1, Lipread Group; Experiment 2, Vocoder Group). That is, in each experiment, there was a group that received prior information in the modality of the training stimuli from the other experiment. In both experiments, the Word Groups had difficulty retaining the novel words they attempted to learn during training. However, when the training stimuli were vocoded, the Word Group improved their phoneme identification. When the training stimuli were visual speech, the Consonant Group improved their phoneme identification and their open-set sentence lipreading. The results are considered in light of theoretical accounts of perceptual learning in relationship to perceptual modality.
• TILLICH-ZEMOR HASH FUNCTION WITH NEW GENERATORS AND ANALYSIS

A t CRYPTO ’94, Tillich and Zemor proposed a family of hash functions, based on computing a suitable matrix product in groups of the form SL 2 (F 2 n). Markus Grassl, Ivana Illich, Spyros Magliveras and Rainer Steinwandt constructed a collision between palindrome bit strings of length 2n+2 and Christophe Petit, Jean-Jacques Quisquater found the second preimage for Tillich and Zemor’s construction. In this paper we construct a hash function by using different matrices for the image of the bits 0 and 1 and found the collision and second preimage for the new construction.
Contrasting the drivers of Islamic bank adoption in Indonesia

This study aims to determine Indonesia's Islamic Bank Adoption drivers, especially in some customer groups. PLS-SEM is an analytical method used to test hypotheses. The analysis results show that the mediation type is partial mediation, but the mediation type for East Java customers and Generation Z is complete mediation. Based on the results, Islamic Banks must maintain their excellence to attract more customers. The sense of security in using Islamic Bank products and services is the primary indicator for East Java, generation Z, and non-generation Z customers. The reliability of Islamic Bank products and services is the primary indicator for non-East Java customers. Islamic Banks must also be able to build customer intentions to use Islamic Bank products and services, especially for Generation Z East Java customers. This study finds that intention needs to be built to increase the Adoption of Islamic banking products and services.