Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Proliferation and apoptosis regulation by G protein-coupled estrogen receptor in glioblastoma C6 cells

Glioblastoma is the most frequent primary tumor in the human brain. Glioblastoma cells express aromatase and the classic estrogen receptors ERα and ERβ and can produce estrogens that promote tumor growth. The membrane G protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER) also plays a significant role in numerous types of cancer; its participation in glioblastoma tumor development is not entirely known. The present study investigated the effect of the agonists [17β-estradiol (E2) and G1] and antagonist (G15) of GPER on proliferation and apoptosis of C6 glioblastoma cells. GPER expression was evaluated by immunofluorescence, western blotting and reverse transcription-quantitative PCR. Cell proliferation was determined using Ki67 immunopositivity. Cell viability was examined using the MTT assay and apoptosis using caspase-3 immunostaining and ELISA. C6 cells express GPER, and the immunopositivity increased after exposure to E2, G1, or their combination. GPER protein expression increased after treatment with E2 combined with G1. However, GPER mRNA expression decreased in treated cells compared with control. The percentage of Ki67 immunopositive C6 cells increased under the effect of E2 in combination with G1 or G1 alone. G15 significantly reduced Ki67 immunopositivity. Pearson's correlation analysis revealed a positive relationship between GPER and Ki67 immunopositivity across the study conditions. Additionally, the MTT assay showed a significant reduction in C6 cell viability after G15 treatment, alone or in combination with G1. The exposure to G15 increased the percentage of caspase-3 immunopositivity cells and caspase-3 levels. Pearson's correlation analysis demonstrated a negative correlation between GPER and caspase-3 immunopositivity across the study conditions. Glioblastoma C6 cells express GPER, and this receptor modulates cell proliferation and apoptosis. The GPER agonists E2 and G1 favored cell proliferation; meanwhile, the antagonist G15 reduced cell proliferation, viability and favored apoptosis. Therefore, GPER may be used as a biomarker of glioblastoma and as a target to develop new therapeutic strategies for glioblastoma treatment.
Comparing Outlier Detection Methods using Boxplot Generalized Extreme Studentized Deviate and Sequential Fences

Outliers identification is essential in data analysis since it can make wrong inferential statistics. This study aimed to compare the performance of Boxplot, Generalized Extreme Studentized Deviate (Generalized ESD), and Sequential Fences method in identifying outliers. A published dataset was used in the study. Based on preliminary outlier identification, the data did not contain outliers. Each outlier detection method's performance was evaluated by contaminating the original data with few outliers. The contaminations were conducted by replacing the two smallest and largest observations with outliers. The analysis was conducted using SAS version 9.2 for both original and contaminated data. We found that Sequential Fences have outstanding performance in identifying outliers compared to Boxplot and Generalized ESD.
Lessons We Have Learned Regarding Seroprevalence in High and Low SARS-CoV-2 Contexts in Greece before the Omicron Pandemic Wave

Background: Antibody seroprevalence in rural communities remains poorly investigated. We compared the SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in two Greek communities in June and July 2021 after the end of the Delta-driven pandemic wave that started in November 2020. One community was affected worse than the other. Methods: The SARS-CoV-2 IgG II Quant method (Architect, Abbott, IL, USA) was used for antibody testing. Results: We found a high rate of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity in both communities, approaching 77.5%. In the area with a higher burden of COVID-19, Malesina, seropositivity was achieved with vaccine-acquired and naturally acquired immunity, whereas in the low-burden context of Domokos, the high rates of seropositivity were achieved mainly with vaccination. Previously infected individuals were less likely to be vaccinated than previously uninfected adults. The antibody titers were significantly higher in previously infected, vaccinated participants than in unvaccinated ones. In total, 4% and 10% of the unvaccinated population were diagnosed seropositive for the first time while not knowing about the previous infection. Age and gender did not impact antibody titers in high- or low-burden contexts. Conclusions: Before the Omicron pandemic wave, herd immunity was reached in different contexts in Greece. Higher antibody titers were measured in infected vaccinated individuals than in infected unvaccinated ones.
MULTIRESOLUTION SEGMENTATION FOR EXTRACTING PLASTIC GREENHOUSES FROM DEIMOS-2 IMAGERY

Abstract. Accurate greenhouse mapping can support environment monitoring and resource management. In an object-based image analysis (OBIA) approach focused on plastic covered greenhouses (PCG) classification, the segmentation is a crucial step for the goodness of the final results. Multiresolution segmentation (MRS) is one of the most used algorithms in OBIA approaches, being greatly enabled by the advent of the commercial software eCognition. Therefore, in addition to the segmentation algorithm used, it is very important to count on tools to assess the quality of segmentation results from digital images in order to obtain the most similar segments to the real PCG objects. In this work, several factors affecting MRS such as the type of input image and the best MRS parameters (i.e., scale, compactness and shape), have been analysed. In this regard, more than 2800 segmentations focused on PCG land cover were conducted from four pre-processed Deimos-2 very high-resolution (VHR) satellite orthoimages taken in the Southeast of Spain (Almería). Specifically, one multispectral and one pansharpened Deimos-2 orthoimages, both with and without atmospheric correction were tested in this work. The free access AssesSeg command line tool, based on a modified version of the supervised discrepancy measure named Euclidean Distance 2 (ED2), was used to determine the best MRS parameters for all the VHR satellite images. According to both the supervised discrepancy measure ED2 and visual perception, the best segmentation on PCG was obtained over the atmospherically corrected pansharpened Deimos-2 orthoimage, achieving very good results.
Forest management under uncertainty: the influence of management versus climate change and wildfire in the Lake Tahoe Basin, USA.

Climate change will accelerate forest mortality due to insects, disease, and wildfire. As a result, substantial resources will be necessary where and when forest managers seek to maintain multiple management objectives. Because of the increasing managerial requirements to offset climate change and related disturbances, the uncertainty about future forest conditions is magnified relative to climate change alone. We provide an analytical approach that quantifies the key drivers of forest change—climate, disturbance, and forest management—using scenarios paired with simulation modeling to forecast and quantify uncertainties in the Lake Tahoe Basin of California and Nevada (USA), a montane seasonally dry conifer forest. We partitioned uncertainty among climate change (including associated changes to wildfire and insect outbreaks), forest management (including thinning, prescribed fire, and fire suppression), and other sources using a fully factorial experimental design and analysis of variance. We focused on three metrics that are important for forest management objectives for the area: forest carbon storage, area burned at high severity, and total area burned by wildfire. Management explained a substantial amount of variance in the short term for area burned at high severity and longer term carbon storage, while climate explained the most variance in total area burned. Our results suggest that simulated extensive management activities will not meet all the desired management objectives. Both the extent and intensity of forest management will need to increase significantly to keep pace with predicted climate and wildfire conditions.
Fitting the Longitudinal Actor-Partner Interdependence Model as a Dynamic Structural Equation Model in Mplus

Abstract Though the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) has been extended to accommodate longitudinal data in the multilevel modeling (MLM) and structural equation modeling (SEM) frameworks, intensive longitudinal dyadic data with many (20+) timepoints provide technical challenges for researchers that neither framework fully addresses. We provide an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of MLM and SEM for intensive longitudinal APIMs, then discuss how dynamic structural equation models (DSEMs) are a more general form of both methods and can address their weaknesses in longitudinal APIM analyses. We illustrate how to fit a longitudinal APIM as a DSEM in Mplus with three examples from a daily diary study of heterosexual couples. Specifically, we show (1) when the MLM, SEM, and DSEM will produce similar results, (2) how DSEM can address research questions that traditional MLM and SEM cannot accommodate, and (3) how to specify increasingly complex longitudinal APIMs as DSEMs in Mplus.
“That's where you start to think like, does anyone actually listen to or watch women's sport?” Gender Regimes and Students Experiences on Higher Education Sport Courses

In this article we apply theoretical tools from the work of Elias and Connell to critically discuss the ways in which gender relations on Higher Education sport courses are manifested and experienced by students. Drawing on data from an analysis of curriculum, as well as interviews, surveys and workshops with students across a range of sport courses at one university, we explore curriculum design and the ways in which knowledge is presented which both marginalises and compartmentalises issues of gender, as well as presenting knowledge as gender neutral. This article provides a critical understanding of how knowledge about gender and women's sport features and is taught in UK Higher Education sport courses, alongside how students experiences in the classroom to provide an understanding which reinforces existing gender regimes and gender relations.
Review and Perspectives of Micro/Nano Technologies as Key-Enablers of 6G

To date, 5G (5th generation of mobile communications) roll out has been going on for more than two years, and the most of it has still to come. Meanwhile, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) of Beyond-5G (B5G) and 6G (6th generation of mobile communications) are already at stake, looking at 2030. Future networks will leverage autonomous and evolutionary characteristics, triggered by the cornerstone of Artificial Intelligence (AI), falling well-beyond the scopes of 5G. Besides, seamless increase of KPIs, across the transition from 5G to 6G, with 100-1000 times higher data rate per user, latency reduction and reliability improvement, also stepping into the domain of (sub-)THz and optical communications, will set unparalleled demands for Hardware (HW) systems and components. This work focuses on the envisaged gap existing between currently in use strategies for design of Hardware-Software (HW-SW) systems and what the AI-driven 6G will demand, in terms of adaptivity, flexibility and evolution. An important part is forecasted for Micro/Nano technologies, devices and systems, in enabling 6G functionalities, especially at the network edge, stimulating partial reconceptualization of the classical idea of HW, in fact, rising its level of abstraction.
A Review on Flame-Retardant Polyvinyl Alcohol: Additives and Technologies

Abstract The output of bio-based polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) has been growing rapidly with a substantial increase of developments both in academic and industrial research areas in the past decade, which is due to its water solubility, plasticity, and degradability. However, PVA is highly flammable with a limiting oxygen index of only 19% owning to its inherent macromolecular structure composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms. The demand for flame retardancy of PVA has been increased rapidly and is generally satisfied by introducing flame retardants via chemical grafting, physical blending, and coating. This review summarizes the flame retardants applied in PVA and their influence on the flammability and mechanical properties of PVA materials. The type of flame retardant additives and their application technologies for various PVA products are presented in terms of various PVA products, such as films, aerogel, fibers, foams, and bulk composites. The films dominate the whole research of flame retardant PVA materials owing to their widespread application. The fire performance and flame retardant mechanism are compared and discussed. Additionally, PVA acted as an assistant agent in some polymeric flame-retardant formulations is also discussed and reviewed.
Understanding open source software peer review: Review processes, parameters and statistical models, and underlying behaviours and mechanisms

Peer review is seen as an important quality assurance mechanism in both industrial development and the open source software (OSS) community. The techniques for performing inspections have been well studied in industry; in OSS development, peer review practices are less well understood. In contrast to industry, where reviews are typically assigned to specific individuals, in OSS, changes are broadcast to hundreds of potentially interested stakeholders. What is surprising is that this approach works very well, despite concerns that reviews may be ignored, or that discussions will deadlock because too many uninformed stakeholders are involved. In this work we use a multi-case study methodology to develop a theory of OSS peer review. There are three research stages. In the first stage, we examine the policies of 25 OSS projects to understand the review processes used on successful OSS projects. We also select six projects for further analysis: Apache, Subversion, Linux, FreeBSD, KDE, and Gnome. In the second stage, using archival records from the six projects, we construct a series of metrics that produces measures similar to those used in traditional inspection experiments. We measure the frequency of review, the size and complexity of the contribution under review, the level of participation during review, the experience and expertise of the individuals involved in the review, the review interval, and number of issues discussed during review. We create statistical models of the review efficiency, review interval, and effectiveness, the issues discussed during review, to determine which measures have the largest impact on review efficacy. In the third stage, we use grounded theory to analyze 500 instances of peer review and interview ten core developers across the six projects. This approach allows us to understand why developers decide to perform reviews, what happens when reviews are ignored, how developers interact during a review, what happens when too many stakeholders are involved during review, and the effect of project size on the review techniques. Our findings provide insights into the simple, community-wide mechanisms and behaviours that developers use to effectively manage large quantities of reviews and other development discussions. The primary contribution of this work is a theory of OSS peer review. We find that OSS reviews can be described as (1) early, frequent reviews (2) of small, independent, complete contributions (3) that, despite being asynchronously broadcast to a large group of stakeholders, are reviewed by a small group of self-selected experts (4) resulting in an efficient and effective peer review technique.
Maternal Social Risk, Gestational Age at Delivery, and Cognitive Outcomes among Adolescents Born Extremely Preterm.

Background Children born extremely preterm (EP) are at increased risk of cognitive deficits that persist into adulthood. Few large cohort studies have examined differential impairment of cognitive function in EP-born adolescents in relation to early life risk factors, including maternal social disadvantage, gestational age at delivery, and neonatal morbidities prevalent among EP neonates. Objectives To assess cognitive abilities in relation to early life risk factors in an EP-born cohort at 15 years of age. Methods 681 of 1198 surviving participants (57%) enrolled from 2002 to 2004 in the Extremely Low Gestational Age Newborn Study returned at age 15 years for an assessment of cognitive abilities with the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence-II and the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery (NTCB) verbal cognition and fluid processing composites, the latter of which measured executive functions and processing speed. Three cognitive outcomes, WASI-II IQ, NTCB verbal cognition, and NTCB fluid processing, were analyzed for associations with maternal social disadvantage and gestational age. Mediation of maternal social disadvantage by gestational age and mediation of gestational age by neonatal morbidities were also examined. Results Test scores were lower for NTCB fluid processing relative to IQ and NTCB verbal abilities. Social disadvantage and gestational age were associated with all three cognitive outcomes. Mediation analyses indicated partial mediation of gestational age associations with all three outcomes by neonatal morbidities but did not support mediation by gestational age of social risk associations with cognitive outcomes. Conclusions Greater maternal social disadvantage and lower gestational age are associated with less favorable cognitive outcomes among EP-born adolescents at 15 years of age. Neonatal morbidities partially mediate associations between lower gestational age and cognitive outcomes. These findings highlight the need for improved medical and remedial interventions to mitigate risk of poor cognitive outcomes among EP-born adolescents.
Role of Media Creating Awareness with respect to Climate Change

By stabilizing and lowering the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, many of the negative effects of climate change may be reduced. Human greenhouse gas emissions have already permeated the ecosystem despite all mitigation attempts. In Pakistan, illiteracy and ignorance are still common among the general public, educated groups, and key players (Jan et al., 2020). It's one of the main reasons our response to climate change is so off the mark. This research looked into the role of the media in raising climate change awareness in Pakistan by using the primary qualitative methods and determined the findings with the help of an integrated literature review. This study's analysis concluded that the media should create more campaigns to accelerate awareness regarding climate change among the masses and that the media should make dedicated segments for climate awareness. In contrast, most of the respondents believed that media should not cover more and more news on climate change, as it may lead to over-saturation of certain types of news.
Investigation on aerodynamic noise generated from the simplified high-speed train leading cars

The aerodynamic noise behavior of flow passing the simplified leading car and nose car scale models of a high-speed train is investigated through the vortex sound theory and acoustic analogy approach. The unsteady flow developed around the geometries is solved numerically and the data are applied to study the near-field quadrupole sound source and calculate the far-field noise radiated. It is found that the turbulent flow developed around the leading car is characterized by multi-scale vortices separated from the geometries. The intensity of volume dipole source is much larger than that of volume quadrupole source and the volume dipole source becomes the predominate source of the near-field quadrupole noise. The flow is separated noticeably in the regions of the nose, bogies, bogie cavities, and train tail of the leading car where the pressure fluctuations are generated largely upon the solid surfaces and correspondingly a dipole noise of high level is produced. By comparison, the noise contribution from the leading bogie and bogie cavity is larger than that from the other components. Moreover, the numerical and experimental results of train nose car model demonstrate that the flow around the bogie region is the dominant aerodynamic sound source. Therefore, the flow-induced noise generated from the leading cars may be reduced efficiently within a certain frequency range and specific direction by mitigating the flow interactions around the areas of leading bogie and bogie cavity.
Self-Reported Sleep Characteristics Associated with Cardiovascular Disease Among Older Adults Living in Rural Eastern China: A Population-Based Study

Purpose To investigate the cross-sectional associations of self-reported sleep characteristics with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and cardiovascular multimorbidity in older adults living in rural Eastern China. Patients and Methods This population-based study included 4618 participants (age ≥65 years; 56.5% women) living in rural Eastern China. In March–September 2018, data were collected through interviews, clinical examinations, neuropsychological testing, and laboratory tests. Sleep parameters were assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Epworth Sleepiness Score, and Berlin questionnaire. Coronary heart disease (CHD), heart failure (HF), and stroke were defined according to in-person interviews, clinical and neurological examinations, and electrocardiogram examination. Data were analyzed using logistic regression and restricted cubic spline regression. Results CHD was diagnosed in 991 participants, HF in 135 participants, and stroke in 696 participants. The multivariable-adjusted odds ratio (OR) of CHD was 1.27 (95% CI, 1.09–1.49) for sleep duration ≤6 hours/night (vs >6–8 hours/night), 1.40 (1.20–1.62) for poor sleep quality, and 1.22 (1.04–1.43) for high risk for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The OR of HF was 2.16 (1.38–3.39) for sleep duration >8 hours/night, and 1.76 (1.22–2.54) for high risk for OSA. In addition, the OR of stroke was 1.23 (1.04–1.46) for poor sleep quality, 1.32 (1.01–1.72) for excessive daytime sleepiness, and 1.42 (1.19–1.70) for high risk for OSA. The associations of poor sleep with cardiovascular multimorbidity (≥2 CVDs) were stronger than that of sleep problems with a single CVD. Conclusion Extreme sleep duration, high risk for OSA, and other sleep problems were associated with CVDs, especially cardiovascular multimorbidity.
CAR T Cell Therapy for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: Successes and Shortcomings

Chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cell therapy achieved remarkable success in B-cell leukemia and lymphoma which led to its incorporation in treatment protocols for these diseases. CAR T cell therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients showed less success compared to other malignant tumors. In this review, we discuss the published results regarding CAR T cell therapy of CLL, possible mechanisms of failures and expected developments.