Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring the Relationship between Green Space in a Neighbourhood and Cardiovascular Health in the Winter City of China: A Study Using a Health Survey for Harbin

A severely cold climate has a significant impact on cardiovascular health, involving temperature, air environment, exercise and diet. Existing studies have revealed that green space, as an important health resource, may play a positive role in promoting cardiovascular health through the air environment and exercise. Studies focusing on the correlation between green space and cardiovascular health are rarely carried out in winter cities. The purpose of this paper is to take a winter city in China as an empirical case to explore the correlation between green space in a neighbourhood and cardiovascular health in a representative sample at the neighbourhood level, combining the results with Urban Residential Area Planning and Design Standards (GB50180-2018) in China and the existing research. The results showed that green space characteristics of a neighbourhood were related to cardiovascular disease and some of its risk factors. In neighbourhoods with a Green Space Ratio lower than 28%, residents had a higher risk of physical inactivity, overweight or obesity, hypertension and stroke. In neighbourhoods with a Green View Index lower than 15%, residents had a higher risk of physical inactivity, overweight/obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia and stroke. A correlation was found between evergreen tree configuration type and the prevalence of overweight/obesity and hypertension. No correlation was found between the type of sports field and cardiovascular disease and its risk factors, except for hypertension. Residents’ cardiovascular health scores also showed significant differences among neighbourhoods with different green space characteristics. Intervention efforts may benefit from emphasising the importance of improving the Green Space Ratio and Green View Index effectively in a neighbourhood to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
GMD-Based Hybrid Beamforming for Large Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Assisted Millimeter-Wave Massive MIMO

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is considered to be an energy-efficient approach to reshape the wireless environment for improved throughput. Its passive feature greatly reduces the energy consumption, which makes RIS a promising technique for enabling the future smart city. Existing beamforming designs for RIS mainly focus on optimizing the spectral efficiency for single carrier systems. Meanwhile, complicated bit/power allocation on different spatial domain subchannels needs to be designed for better bit error rate (BER) performance in conventional singular value decomposition-based beamforming. To avoid this, in this paper, we propose a geometric mean decomposition-based beamforming for RIS-assisted millimeter wave (mmWave) hybrid MIMO systems. In this way, multiple parallel data streams in the spatial domain can be considered to have the same channel gain, so that the better BER can be achieved without sophisticated bit/power allocation. Moreover, by exploiting the common angular-domain sparsity of mmWave massive MIMO channels over different subcarriers, a simultaneous orthogonal matching pursuit algorithm is utilized to obtain the optimal multiple beams from an oversampling 2D-DFT codebook. Besides, by only leveraging the angle of arrival and angle of departure associated with the line of sight (LoS) channels, we further design the phase shifters for RIS by maximizing the array gain for LoS channel. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can achieve better BER performance than conventional approaches. Our work is an initial attempt to discuss the broadband beamforming for RIS-assisted mmWave massive MIMO with the hybrid architecture.
Sea Surface Wind Speed Retrieval from the First Chinese GNSS-R Mission: Technique and Preliminary Results

Launched on 5 June 2019, the BuFeng-1 A/B twin satellites were part of the first Chinese global navigation satellite system reflectometry (GNSS-R) satellite mission. In this letter, a brief introduction of the BF-1 mission and its preliminary results of sea surface wind retrieval are presented. Empirical fully developed sea (FDS) geophysical model functions (GMFs) relating the normalized bistatic radar cross-section to the sea surface wind speed are proposed for the BF-1 GNSS-R instruments. The FDS GMFs are derived from the collocated BF-1 observations, the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis data, and the advanced scatterometer (ASCAT) satellite observations. The preliminary tests reveal that the root-mean-square error (RMSE) between the derived wind speed and the reanalysis is 2.63 m/s for wind speeds in the range of 0.5–40.5 m/s. Further comparisons with the ASCAT observations and mooring buoys show that the RMSEs are 2.04 m/s and 1.77 m/s, respectively, at low-to-moderate wind speeds. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of BF-1 and provides a basis for the future GMF development of the BF-1 A/B mission.
Mutations Within the Transcription Factor PROP1 in a Cohort of Turkish Patients with Combined Pituitary Hormone Deficiency

Objective: Mutations of the genes encoding transcription factors which play important roles in pituitary morphogenesis, differentiation and maturation may lead to combined pituitary hormone deficiency (CPHD). PROP1 gene mutations are reported as the most frequent genetic aetiology of CHPD. The aim of this study was to describe the phenotypes of Turkish CPHD patients and define the frequency of PROP1 mutations. Methods: Fifty-seven CPHD patients from 50 families were screened for PROP1 mutations. The patients were affected by growth hormone (GH) and additional anterior pituitary hormone deficiencies. Results: All patients had GH deficiency. In addition, 98.2% had central hypothyroidism, 45.6% had hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, 43.8% had adrenocorticotropic hormone deficiency and 7.1% had prolactin deficiency. Parental consanguinity rate was 50.9% and 14 cases were familial. Mean height standard deviation score (SDS) and weight SDS were -3.8±1.4 and -3.1±2.0, respectively. Of 53 patients with available pituitary imaging, 32 (60.4%) showed abnormalities. None had extra-pituitary abnormalities. Eight index patients had PROP1 gene mutations. Five sporadic patients were homozygous for c. 301_302delAG (p.Leu102CysfsTer8) mutation, two siblings had exon 2 deletion, two siblings had complete gene deletion and two siblings were homozygous for the novel c.353A>G (p.Q118R) mutation. The frequency of the PROP1 mutations was 16% in our cohort. Mutation rate was significantly higher in familial cases compared to sporadic cases (42.8% vs 11.6%; p<0.01). Conclusion: Phenotype of patients regarding hormonal deficiencies, pituitary morphology, presence of extra-pituitary findings, family history of CPHD and parental consanguinity are important for deciding which pituitary transcription factor deficiency should be investigated. PROP1 mutation frequencies vary in different populations and its prevalence is high in Turkish CPHD patients.
Fabrication and Characterization of Thiolated Chitosan Microneedle Patch for Transdermal Delivery of Tacrolimus

Microneedle patch is a prominent strategy with minimal invasion and painless application to improve skin penetration of drug molecules. Herein, we report microneedle patch (MNP) as an alternative to the oral route for the systemic delivery of tacrolimus (TM), an immunosuppressant drug. Thiolated chitosan (TCS) based microneedle patch was fabricated and characterized in vitro and in vivo for its mechanical strength, skin penetration, drug release, and skin irritation. The MNP having 225 needles with 575 μm showed good mechanical properties in terms of tensile strength and percentage elongation. The skin penetration showed 84% penetration with no breakage. Histology of the mice skin after insertion showed the penetration of needles into the dermis. In vitro release and ex vivo permeation studies through Franz diffusion cell showed the sustained release (82.5%) of TM from the MNP with significantly higher (p < 0.05) skin permeation as compared with controls, respectively. Moreover, in vivo biocompatibility in rats showed the safety of the material and patch. Thus, the TCS microneedle patch has the potential to be developed as a transdermal delivery system for tacrolimus with improved bioavailability and sustained release over a longer period.
EU-Net: An Efficient Fully Convolutional Network for Building Extraction from Optical Remote Sensing Images

Automatic building extraction from high-resolution remote sensing images has many practical applications, such as urban planning and supervision. However, fine details and various scales of building structures in high-resolution images bring new challenges to building extraction. An increasing number of neural network-based models have been proposed to handle these issues, while they are not efficient enough, and still suffer from the error ground truth labels. To this end, we propose an efficient end-to-end model, EU-Net, in this paper. We first design the dense spatial pyramid pooling (DSPP) to extract dense and multi-scale features simultaneously, which facilitate the extraction of buildings at all scales. Then, the focal loss is used in reverse to suppress the impact of the error labels in ground truth, making the training stage more stable. To assess the universality of the proposed model, we tested it on three public aerial remote sensing datasets: WHU aerial imagery dataset, Massachusetts buildings dataset, and Inria aerial image labeling dataset. Experimental results show that the proposed EU-Net is superior to the state-of-the-art models of all three datasets and increases the prediction efficiency by two to four times.
The Generation of the Oxidant Agent of a Mononuclear Nonheme Fe(II) Biomimetic Complex by Oxidative Decarboxylation. A DFT Investigation

The oxidative decarboxylation of the iron(II) α-hydroxy acid (mandelic acid) complex model, biomimetic of Rieske dioxygenase, has been investigated at the density functional level. The explored mechanism sheds light on the role of the α-hydroxyl group on the dioxygen activation. The potential energy surfaces have been explored in different electronic spin states. The rate-determining step of the process is the proton transfer. The oxidative decarboxylation preferentially takes place on the quintet state.
Development and Disease-Dependent Dynamics of Spermatogonial Subpopulations in Human Testicular Tissues

Cancer therapy and conditioning treatments of non-malignant diseases affect spermatogonial function and may lead to male infertility. Data on the molecular properties of spermatogonia and the influence of disease and/or treatment on spermatogonial subpopulations remain limited. Here, we assessed if the density and percentage of spermatogonial subpopulation changes during development (n = 13) and due to disease and/or treatment (n = 18) in tissues stored in fertility preservation programs, using markers for spermatogonia (MAGEA4), undifferentiated spermatogonia (UTF1), proliferation (PCNA), and global DNA methylation (5mC). Throughout normal prepubertal testicular development, only the density of 5mC-positive spermatogonia significantly increased with age. In comparison, patients affected by disease and/or treatment showed a reduced density of UTF1-, PCNA- and 5mC-positive spermatogonia, whereas the percentage of spermatogonial subpopulations remained unchanged. As an exception, sickle cell disease patients treated with hydroxyurea displayed a reduction in both density and percentage of 5mC- positive spermatogonia. Our results demonstrate that, in general, a reduction in spermatogonial density does not alter the percentages of undifferentiated and proliferating spermatogonia, nor the establishment of global methylation. However, in sickle cell disease patients’, establishment of spermatogonial DNA methylation is impaired, which may be of importance for the potential use of this tissues in fertility preservation programs.
Melting Layer Detection and Characterization based on Range Height Indicator-Quasi Vertical Profiles

The melting layer (ML) is an important region used to describe the transition of hydrometeors from the solid to the liquid phase. It is a typical feature used to characterize the vertical structure of the stratiform precipitation. The present study implements a new automatic melting-layer detection algorithm based on the range-height-indicator–quasi-vertical profile (R-QVP) in the X-band dual-polarization radars. The algorithm uses the gradients of the polarimetric radar variables reflectivity factor at horizontal polarization (Zh), differential reflectivity (Zdr), and copolar correlation coefficient (ρhv), and their combinations to describe the ML characteristics. The melting layer heights derived from the radar were compared and validated with the heights of the 0 °C wet-bulb temperature derived from the Modern-Era retrospective analysis for research and applications (MERRA) reanalysis datasets and obtained high correlation coefficient 0.96. The R-QVP combined with this algorithm led to spatial and temporal variabilities of the melting layer thickness. The thickness of the melting layer was independent of the seasonal, spatial, and temporal variabilities of the precipitations. Intriguing polarimetric signatures have been observed inside, above, and below the ML, based on the phase of the precipitation particles. The statistics of the polarimetric variables were evaluated for ML, rain, and snow. Further, the linkage between enhanced specific differential phase shift (Kdp) and Zdr in the dendritic growth layer (DGL) and surface precipitation was also described.
Role of Structural Marginalization, HIV Stigma, and Mistrust on HIV Prevention and Treatment Among Young Black Latinx Men Who Have Sex with Men and Transgender Women: Perspectives from Youth Service Providers.

Young black and Latinx men who have sex with men (YBLMSM) and transgender women (YBLTW) are disproportionately impacted by HIV. Structural and social marginalization, the social barriers, and structures that unevenly distribute benefits and burdens to different groups, may contribute to inability for youth to access prevention and treatment care services. Yet, few reports have examined the community and health care experiences of social marginalization among youth service providers who have multiple roles in the community (i.e., serve as a service provider and are a member or prior member of the YBLMSM and YBLTW population). Eighteen key informants (KIs), defined as youth, young adults, or adults who were members of or connected to the YBLMSM and young black and Latinx transgender (YBLTG) community, participated in a one-time, face-to-face, or telephone key informant interview (KII) lasting ∼45 min. KIs were defined as youth service providers because they described working with the target population and either being a member of or closely connected to the target population. KIs described key themes related to marginalization: lack of competent care among health care providers and both clinical and community spaces that left out key populations. HIV stigma and medical mistrust continues to create a barrier to care in this population and for interventions to be effective interventions will need to use an intersectional approach that simultaneously address all identities, and the social and structural needs of youth.
Mentha Rhizomes as an Alternative Source of Natural Antioxidants

Unlike its aerial parts, the underground parts of Mentha have so far been studied only marginally. By examining the polyphenolic fingerprint, the antioxidant efficacy and the mutual antioxidant behaviour of mixtures of mint rhizomes, our study presents a modest contribution to addressing this gap. Firstly, we examined the composition of the mint rhizomes: Mentha × piperita cv. ‘Perpeta’ (MPP), M. longifolia (ML), and M. × villosa cv. ‘Snežna’ (MVS). Our LC-MS-DAD analysis revealed the presence of ten compounds belonging to groups of phenolic acids and flavonoids, of which the rosmarinic acid (RA) and lithospermic were most strongly represented. Secondly, we evaluated the antioxidant activity of rhizome infusions by DPPH and ABTS and on NIH/3T3 cell lines by DCFH-DA. Thirdly, we determined, examined, and explained the mutual interactions of rhizome infusions mixtures. While most of the combinations acted additive, synergy was observed in ternary infusion mixtures. The synergic action was also detected in the combination of MPP rhizome infusion and RA in the DCFH-DA test. The combinations of mint rhizomes and rosmarinic acid displayed a high dose-reduction index. This leads to beneficial dose reduction at a given antioxidant effect level in mixtures, compared to the dose of the parts used alone. So far, the pharmaceutical and food industry has not used mint rhizomes in commercial products. Hence, our study draws attention to further applications of the Mentha rhizomes as a valuable alternative source of natural antioxidants.
Expression of PERK-eIF2α-ATF4 pathway signaling protein in the progression of hepatic fibrosis in rats.

OBJECTIVE This study aims to observe changes in the expression of the hepatic endoplasmic reticulum stress PERK-eIF2α-ATF4 signaling pathway protein in the progression of CCl4-induced hepatic fibrosis in rats. METHODS Male Wistar rats were sacrificed at the end of the 2nd, 4th, 8th and 12th weeks, respectively. A specific test was performed to compare the pathological changes of hepatic tissues in the model and normal groups. Immunohistochemical staining and Western blot were carried out to detect the expression of p-PERK, p-eIF2α and ATF4 proteins in the hepatic tissue group. Furthermore, real-time PCR was used to detect changes in the expression of ATF4 mRNA in hepatic tissues. RESULTS In the eight-week and twelve-week hepatic fibrosis group, significant fibrosis hyperplasia was identified in the livers of rats, and pseudo-lobules were also formed in the livers of rats in the twelve-week hepatic fibrosis group. Immunohistochemical staining and Western blot results indicated that the expression levels of p-PERK, p-eIF2α and the ATF4 protein in the livers of rats were significantly increased from the 8th week compared with the normal group (P<0.05). Real-time PCR results revealed that the expression of ATF4 mRNA was significantly increased in hepatic tissues in the hepatic fibrosis group compared with the normal group (P<0.05), and this was gradually enhanced as hepatic fibrosis progressed. CONCLUSIONS CCl4 can induce an increase in the expression of the PERK-eIF2α-ATF4 signaling protein in the development of hepatic fibrosis along with phosphorylation-mediated activation, indicating that the activation of the PERK-eIF2α-ATF4 signaling pathway may contribute to the onset and development of hepatic fibrosis by regulating downstream target genes.
Muscle Synergies Extracted Using Principal Activations: Improvement of Robustness and Interpretability

The muscle synergy theory has been widely used to assess the modular organization of the central nervous system (CNS) during human locomotion. The pre-processing approach applied to the surface electromyographic (sEMG) signals influences the extraction of muscle synergies. The aim of this contribution is to assess the improvements in muscle synergy extraction obtained by using an innovative pre-processing approach. We evaluate the improvement in terms of the possible variation in the number of muscle synergies, of the intra-subject consistency, of the robustness, and of the interpretability of the results. The pre-processing approach presented in this paper is based on the extraction of the muscle principal activations (muscle activations strictly necessary to accomplish a specific biomechanical task) from the original sEMG signals, to then obtain muscle synergies using principal activations only. The results herein presented show that the application of this novel approach for the extraction of the muscle synergies provides a more robust and easily interpretable description of the modular organization of the CNS with respect to the standard pre-processing approach.
Clinicopathological features and survival of gallbladder squamous cell carcinoma: analysis of 121 cases.

PURPOSE The aim of the present study is to promote deeper pathological and clinical understanding of gallbladder squamous cell carcinoma (GBSCC) and provide new evidence for its diagnosis and treatment. METHODS Two cases of GBSCC from the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University were collected. A comprehensive analysis was conducted based upon these 2 cases and another 119 GBSCC cases from the literature. Survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS Among all the patients, GBSCC was frequently diagnosed in older women with a mean age of 62.8 years old. Abdominal pain was the most common symptom. The majority of GBSCC cases were combined with cholelithiasis. Keratinization was frequently observed microscopically. Among 90 cases with histology data, most showed high or, high-moderate differentiation (60%, 54/90). More cases were diagnosed in advanced TNM stages (85.4%, 82/96). In 73 cases, the follow-up time was 0.5-125 months, with a mean survival time 47.3 months and a median survival time of 12 months. Survival analysis indicated that patients with polypoid lesions (P = 0.047) and receiving R0 radical operation (P < 0.001) had better prognoses. CONCLUSION Given the scarcity and implicit clinical manifestations of GBSCC, early diagnosis is challenging. The key to better survival is a radical operation with no remaining lesion.