Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Consumption of Sugar-Sweetened or Artiﬁcially Sweetened Beverages and Semen Quality in Young Men: A Cross-Sectional Study

: Background: Existing literature suggests that frequent consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks may be associated with lower semen quality. Studies performed in mice suggest a dose-response relationship between intake of saccharin or aspartame, two artiﬁcial sweeteners, and sperm and testis function. Methods: A cross-sectional study based on data from The Fetal Programming of Semen Quality (FEPOS) Cohort, including 1047 young men (mean age = 19 years) was performed. Each male participant completed an online questionnaire on health, health behavior and diet, and provided a semen sample. The associations between consumption of sugar-sweetened or artiﬁcially sweetened beverages (moderate ≥ 3 days/week; infrequent < 3 days/week) and semen quality were analyzed using a multivariable, negative, binomial regression model. Results: Sugar-sweetened or artiﬁcially sweetened beverage consumption was not strongly associated with either semen volume, sperm concentration, total sperm count or total motility in young men. The proportion of morphologically normal sperm was 11% lower (0.89 (95% CI 0.76, 1.04)) for moderate ( ≥ 3 days/week) consumption of artiﬁcially sweetened beverages relative to infrequent (<3 days/week). Conclusion: Consumption of sugar-sweetened or artiﬁcially sweetened beverages, at the levels present in this study had limited effect on the measured markers of semen quality in young men.
Strategy Synthesis in POMDPs via Game-Based Abstractions

We study synthesis problems with constraints in partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs), where the objective is to compute a strategy for an agent that is guaranteed to satisfy certain safety and performance specifications. Verification and strategy synthesis for POMDPs are, however, computationally intractable in general. We alleviate this difficulty by focusing on planning applications and exploiting typical structural properties of such scenarios; for instance, we assume that the agent has the ability to observe its own position inside an environment. We propose an abstraction refinement framework which turns such a POMDP model into a (fully observable) probabilistic two-player game (PG). For the obtained PGs, efficient verification and synthesis tools allow to determine strategies with optimal safety and performance measures, which approximate optimal schedulers on the POMDP. If the approximation is too coarse to satisfy the given specifications, an refinement scheme improves the computed strategies. As a running example, we use planning problems where an agent moves inside an environment with randomly moving obstacles and restricted observability. We demonstrate that the proposed method advances the state of the art by solving problems several orders-of-magnitude larger than those that can be handled by existing POMDP solvers. Furthermore, this method gives guarantees on safety constraints, which is not supported by the majority of the existing solvers.
Copper stress perturbs zinc and manganese homeostasis in Streptococcus pyogenes .

All bacteria possess homeostastic mechanisms that control the availability of micronutrient 19 metals within the cell. Regulatory cross-talks between different metal homeostasis pathways within 20 the same bacterial organism have been reported widely. In addition, there have been previous 21 suggestions that some metal uptake transporters can promote adventitious uptake of the wrong 22 metal. This work describes the cross-talk between the Cu homeostasis pathway and the Zn, Mn, and 23 Fe pathways in Group A Streptococcus (GAS). Using a ∆ copA mutant strain that lacks the primary Cu 24 efflux pump and thus traps excess Cu in the cytoplasm, we show that Cu stress leads to strong 25 downregulation of Zn and Mn uptake genes, and mild downregulation of Fe uptake genes. This effect 26 is associated with depletion of cellular Zn levels, but not those of Mn or Fe. Co-supplementation of the 27 culture medium with Zn and, to a lesser extent, Mn, but not Fe alleviates key Cu stress phenotypes, 28 namely bacterial growth and production of the fermentation end-product lactate. However, neither Zn 29 nor Mn treatment influences cellular Cu levels or Cu availability in Cu-stressed cells. In addition, we 30 show that the Zn and Mn uptake transporters in GAS do not promote Cu uptake. Taken together, the 31 results strengthen and extend our previous proposal that mis-repression of Zn uptake genes and 32 cellular Zn depletion are key mechanisms of Cu stress in GAS. By comparison, although Mn 33 homeostasis in GAS is perturbed during Cu stress, the relationship between the two metals is yet to 34 be defined. Our previous work showed that growth in a metal-limited, chemically defined medium in the presence of supplemental Cu led to aberrant regulation of metal homeostasis in the GAS 5448 ∆ copA mutant strain 18 . Specifically, Cu supplementation led to downregulation of genes under the control of 183 AdcR and MtsR. This effect appeared in the late exponential growth phase (after 4 h of growth) and 184 coincided with cessation of bacterial growth ( i.e. Cu stress). This work confirmed that the AdcR-regulated gene adcAI and the MtsR-regulated gene mtsC 186 are strongly downregulated in Cu-stressed ∆ copA mutant cells, i.e. after 6 and 8 h of growth in the 187 presence of supplemental Cu (Figures 2A-B). As observed previously, the MtsR-regulated gene siaA 188 control, cells.
BIOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL CONTROLS OF CO 2 FLUX THROUGH SNOW IN A FORESTED ECOSYSTEM

Soil CO2 efflux is the dominant component of carbon loss in many temperate forests. Wintertime respiration accounts for a significant contribution of the annual carbon loss to the atmosphere from terrestrial ecosystems, but the magnitude of this flux and physical transport mechanisms through snow are unclear. This research examines wintertime CO2 flux in a lodgepole pine forest in the Upper Stringer Creek catchment at the Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest, Montana, USA. I hypothesized that: CO2 production and efflux during the winter contributes a significant amount (10-20%)of CO2 efflux to the atmosphere in the Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest; 2) Snow properties, i.e. depth and density, and thereby porosity and tortuosity vary during the winter via snow metamorphosis, thus changing the impediment to flux through the snow medium and CO2 production increases when the snowpack becomes isothermal during melt due to increased soil moisture and soil temperature. A micrometeorological stations was installed to measure soil water content, soil temperature, incoming and outgoing radiation, albedo, snow depth, snow/soil interface CO2 concentration, atmospheric CO2 concentration, threedimensional wind speed, and above snow/sub-canopy CO2 flux on a half-hourly basis. In addition, throughout the winters of 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 snow pit analyses was performed in triplicate approximately once monthly and snow depth, density, and temperature were measured in 10-centimeter increments. Three methodological approaches were used to analyze CO2 flux through the snow pack: Chamber on snow, two-point Fick’s law based diffusivity modeling, and snow-surface/subcanopy eddy covariance. The results of the comparison show a significant difference in measured and estimated flux between methodologies during early and late winter, while demonstrating the Fick’s based model is can accurately estimate up 75% of measured flux during mid-winter. Observations are consistent with advection, in addition to diffusion, as a mechanism of CO2 transport through snow such that observation strategies that do not account for advection may underestimate wintertime efflux. Furthermore, all three methodologies indicate that wintertime respiration is a major contributor to the annual carbon budget when mean flux rates are compared to growing season flux rates.
Bioturbation in near-surface sediments from the COMRA Polymetallic Nodule Area：evidence from excess ^210Pb measurements

In order to evaluate bioturbation in sediments from the COMRA Polymetailic Nodule Area in the northeast tropical Pacific, excess ^210Pb profiles in sediments cores collected with multiple corers during R/V DAYANGYIHAO Environmental Program Cruise in 1998 were measured by direct gamma assay using Ortec HPGe GWL series well-type coaxial low background intrinsic germanium detectors. A steady-state diffusion model of excess ^210Pb profiles suggests that bioturbation mixing depths and biodiffusion coefficients are 16 cm and 2.75 cm2/a in East Zone, and 6 cm and 0.26cm^2/a in West Zone, respectively. Furthermore, the observations of macrofauna and measurements of total organic carbon (TOC) content in sediments suggest that bioturbation is directly controlled by species and abundance of benthic fauna, such as polychaete, and the bioturbation mixing depth and intensity are positively correlated with the organic matter content.
Assimilation of Simulated Polarimetric Radar Data for a Convective Storm Using Ensemble Kalman Filter. Part Ii: Impact of Polarimetric Data on Storm Analysis

i Abstract A data assimilation system based on the ensemble square-root Kalman filter (EnSRF) is extended to include the additional capability of assimilating polarimetric radar variables. It is used to assess the impact of simulating additional polarimetric observations on convective storm analysis in an OSSE (Observing System Simulation Experiment) framework. The polarimetric variables considered include differential reflectivity Z DR , reflectivity difference Z dp , and specific differential phase K DP. To simulate the observational data more realistically, a new error model is introduced for characterizing the errors of the non-polarimetric and polarimetric radar variables. The error model includes both correlated and uncorrelated error components for reflectivities at horizontal and vertical polarizations (Z H and Z V). It is shown that the storm analysis is improved when polarimetric variables are assimilated in addition to Z H or in addition to both Z H and radial velocity V r. Positive impact is largest when Z DR , Z dp , and K DP are assimilated all together. Improvement is generally larger in vertical velocity, water vapor and rainwater mixing ratios. The rain water field benefits the most while the impacts on horizontal wind components and snow mixing ratio are smaller. Improvement is found at all model levels even though the polarimetric data, after the application of thresholds, are mostly limited to the lower levels. Among Z DR , Z dp , and K DP , Z DR is found to produce the largest positive impact on the analysis. It is suggested that Z DR provides more independent information than the other variables. The impact of polarimetric data is also expected to be larger when they are used to retrieve drop size distribution parameters. The polarimetric radar data thresholding prior to assimilation is found to be necessary to minimize the impact of noise. This study is believed to be the first to directly assimilate (simulated) polarimetric data into a numerical model.
Emerging trends in heavy precipitation and hot temperature extremes in Switzerland

Changes in intensity and frequency of daily heavy precipitation and hot temperature extremes are analyzed in Swiss observations for the years 1901–2014/2015. A spatial pooling of temperature and precipitation stations is applied to analyze the emergence of trends. Over 90% of the series show increases in heavy precipitation intensity, expressed as annual maximum daily precipitation (mean change: +10.4% 100 years−1; 31% significant, p < 0.05) and in heavy precipitation frequency, expressed as the number of events greater than the 99th percentile of daily precipitation (mean change: +26.5% 100 years−1; 35% significant, p < 0.05). The intensity of heavy precipitation increases on average by 7.7% K−1 smoothed Swiss annual mean temperature, a value close to the Clausius‐Clapeyron scaling. The hottest day and week of the year have warmed by 1.6 K to 2.3 K depending on the region, while the Swiss annual mean temperature increased by 1.9 K. The frequency of very hot days exceeding the 99th percentile of daily maximum temperature has more than tripled. Despite considerable local internal variability, increasing trends in heavy precipitation and hot temperature extremes are now found at most Swiss stations. The identified trends are unlikely to be random and are consistent with climate model projections, with theoretical understanding of a human‐induced change in the energy budget and water cycle and with detection and attribution studies of extremes on larger scales.
Multi‐sensors study of precipitable water vapour over mainland China

Water vapour, an important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, is crucial for hydrological, atmospheric, and meteorological processes. This study first compared five precipitable water vapour (PWV) products from multi‐sensors including radiosonde, AERosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) sunphotometer, Global Positioning System (GPS) and MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and then characterized the spatial and temporal trends of PWV in mainland China. Intercomparison results indicate good agreements among PWV products with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.775 to 0.937. As for spatial analysis, 13 years of MODIS MOD05 products were investigated and the spatial distribution of PWV is closely correlated with the topography, e.g. latitude and altitude, in mainland China. A monotonically increasing annual trend was detected in some radiosonde sites in China between 1976 and 1999, but a decreasing trend was observed between 2000 and 2012. Analysis of the differences in PWV between weekdays and weekends indicated a marked weekend effect, suggesting the influence of anthropogenic activities. Diurnal variations in PWV were also studied from 1999 to 2009 using GPS data. A pronounced diurnal cycle of PWV was observed in most of the sites during summer and spring seasons.
DetecDiv, a generalist deep-learning platform for automated cell division tracking and survival analysis

Automating the extraction of meaningful temporal information from sequences of microscopy images represents a major challenge to characterize dynamical biological processes. So far, strong limitations in the ability to quantitatively analyze single-cell trajectories have prevented large-scale investigations to assess the dynamics of entry into replicative senescence in yeast. Here, we have developed DetecDiv, a microfluidic-based image acquisition platform combined with deep learning-based software for high-throughput single-cell division tracking. We show that DetecDiv can automatically reconstruct cellular replicative lifespans with high accuracy and performs similarly with various imaging platforms and geometries of microfluidic traps. In addition, this methodology provides comprehensive temporal cellular metrics using time-series classification and image semantic segmentation. Last, we show that this method can be further applied to automatically quantify the dynamics of cellular adaptation and real-time cell survival upon exposure to environmental stress. Hence, this methodology provides an all-in-one toolbox for high-throughput phenotyping for cell cycle, stress response, and replicative lifespan assays.
Upper tropospheric relative humidity from the GOES 6.7 μm channel: method and climatology for July 1987

This paper presents an analysis of upper tropospheric relative humidity and clouds determined from geostationary satellite observations of the upwelling infrared radiation. The 6.7-μm channel is located near the center of a strong water vapor absorption band and under clear sky conditions is primarily sensitive to the relative humidity averaged over a depth of atmosphere extending from 200 to 500 mbar. Estimates of the clear sky radiance at 6.7-μm are obtained by utilizing the local spatial structure of the radiance field at 11-μm and the correlation between 11-μm and 6.7-μm, to discriminate between clear and cloudy pixels. This approach is demonstrated to be more reliable than cloud clearance based solely upon the local spatial structure of the 6.7-μm channel alone and provides estimates of the clear sky 6.7-μm brightness temperature for areas 2° × 2° of latitude and longitude which are repeatable from successive images 30 min apart to within approximately 1 K. To facilitate the interpretation of the clear sky brightness temperatures, a simplified model of the radiative transfer at 6.7-μm is presented. This model, based upon a set of irregularly spaced, strongly absorbing, pressure-broadened lines, demonstrates that accurate to within approximately 1 K or 10% of the actual relative humidity, the brightness temperature at 6.7-μm is proportional to the natural logarithm of the appropriate vertical average of the relative humidity divided by the cosine of the viewing zenith angle. Estimates of upper tropospheric water vapor inferred in this way from GOES E observations are presented for July 1987. The geographic distribution reflects many well-known features of the large-scale atmospheric circulation. A clear dependence of the greenhouse effect of upper tropospheric water vapor upon the large-scale dynamics is also demonstrated. Finally, the observed relationship between the upper tropospheric relative humidity and the occurrence of upper tropospheric cloud cover is presented and its implications for the parameterization of clouds in general circulation models are discussed.
Distribution, territorial limitations, and patch colonization dynamics of bird species in a fragmented temperate-zone woodland landscape

Forest area is known to be correlated to bird species diversity. Most researchers of riparian forest avifauna have used riparian woodland width as an index of forest area. However, along Big and Little Darby Creeks, Ohio, woodland area appeared to better predict bird species presence than woodland width. We conducted point counts at 135 locations along Big and Little Darby Creeks. Landsat Thematic Mapper data were used to determine woodland area and width surrounding each point count station. Probability of detection was positively correlated with area for 11 bird species and negatively correlated with area for 8 species. The proposed Little Darby National Wildlife Refuge located
Effect of education on attitude towards domestic violence in Nigeria:

26 Background: Experimental studies remain the gold standard in making causal inference. 27 However, using experimental studies to estimate the effect of education on attitude towards 28 domestic violence (ATDV) is not feasible due to ethical issues. Propensity Score Methodology 29 (PSM) can be used to overcome this challenge. PSM is a statistical technique used in 30 observational studies to estimate the effect of interventions by accounting for covariates that 31 predicts the treatment. Therefore, PSM was used to investigate the effect of education on ATDV 32 among men and women in Nigeria. 33 Methods: A total of 14,495 and 33,419 records were extracted for men and women respectively 34 from the 2016-2017 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) in Nigeria. The outcome variable 35 was ATDV. The treatment variable was education while the covariates were age, residence, 36 geopolitical zones, marital status, ethnicity, parity, wealth index, alcohol use and media exposure 37
Brachial Plexus Palsy MR Myelography, and Both in Neonatal The Diagnostic Value of CT Myelography,

BACKGROUNDANDPURPOSE: Althoughmostinfantswithbrachialplexuspalsyrecoverfunctionspontaneously,approximately10–30% beneﬁt from surgical treatment. Pre-operative screening for nerve root avulsions is helpful in planning reconstruction. Our aim was to compare the diagnostic value of CT myelography, MR myelography, and both against a surgical criterion standard for detection of complete nerve root avulsions in birth brachial plexus palsy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Nineteen patients who underwent a preoperative CT and/or MR myelography and subsequent brachial plexus exploration were included. Imaging studies were analyzed for the presence of abnormalities potentially predictive of nerve root avulsion. Findings of nerve root avulsion on surgical exploration were used as the criterion standard to assess the predictive value of imaging ﬁndings. RESULTS: Ninety-ﬁve root levels were examined. When the presence of any pseudomeningocele was used as a predictor, the sensitivity was 0.73 for CT and 0.68 for MR imaging and the speciﬁcity was 0.96 for CT and 0.97 for MR imaging. When presence of pseudomenin-gocele with absent rootlets was used as the predictor, the sensitivity was 0.68 for CT and 0.68 for MR imaging and the speciﬁcity was 0.96 for CT and 0.97 for MR imaging. The use of both CT and MR imaging did not increase diagnostic accuracy. Rootlet ﬁndings in the absence of pseudomeningocele were not helpful in predicting complete nerve root avulsion. CONCLUSIONS: Findings of CT and MR myelography were highly correlated. Given the advantages of MR myelography, it is now the single technique for preoperative evaluation of nerve root avulsion at our institution.
Temperatureafter Stroke Noninvasive Measurement of Brain

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Brain temperature may be an important factor governing the extent of neuronal injury associated with stroke. The goal of this study was to develop a noninvasive method for measuring brain temperature, both to characterize the extent to which temperature changes after stroke and to test protocols designed to reduce brain temperature. We used an animal model to test the ability of 1 H MR spectroscopy to measure temperature from infarcted brain tissue at 24 hours after insult. METHODS: Unilateral permanent focal ischemia in the middle cerebral artery territory was induced in adult dogs by intravascular delivery of microﬁbrillar collagen. MR imaging performed at 24 hours after insult was used to guide the implantation of temperature probes into the basal ganglia infarct and into the same anatomic location on the contralateral side. Serial non-water-suppressed 1 H MR spectra were obtained from 1.3-cm 3 voxels using an echo time of 136 and 272 ms, alternately, from the infarcted and contralateral non-infarcted tissue during a period when brain temperature was raised and lowered by whole-body heating and cooling. RESULTS: The chemical shift difference between the 1 H MR spectroscopy signal of water and N -acetylaspartate or water and trimethylamines was plotted against brain temperature for two voxel locations. The slope and intercept of the plots obtained for infarcted and non-in-farcted brain were not signiﬁcantly different ( P (cid:44) . 05, t test), and there was no difference between the slope and intercept of plots made from data collected with an echo time of 136 or 272 ms. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that brain temperature can be measured from regions of brain containing infarcted tissue, at least up to 24 hours after ischemia. It should be possible to apply the 1 H MR spectroscopy method used in the present study to measure brain temperature after stroke. During the ﬁrst week after stroke, there is a correlation between increased