Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Essay 5 Expansion of the tropics - evidence and implications

[Extract] There is accumulating evidence that the tropical zone is expanding poleward in both hemispheres, and that the subtropics are also expanding into regions which have previously enjoyed a more Mediterranean climate. This essay is a follow-up to an initial report by the same authors conducted in 2009; there has been considerable further work in this field since 2009 and so we include up-to-date research, investigate how thinking has changed, or not, and whether predictions from five years ago still hold true. A poleward expansion of the tropical and subtropical zones is likely have significant consequences for a number of the issues raised in the State of the Tropics Report (2014), including the peoples of the Tropics, and for ecosystems and biodiversity. For example, The State of the Tropics report highlights that the resources required to sustain larger populations and economic growth are putting significant pressures on the natural environment in tropical regions. An expansion of tropical regions will only increase these demands further, and may also cause a shift in ecosystems as some regions will become drier, and others may see more frequent heavy rain events. The Report also highlights the fact that almost half the human population of the Tropics is vulnerable to water stress – a shift in climatic zones, and potentially drying in regions currently neighbouring the subtropics could increase the number of people who are at risk. Furthermore, the State of the Tropics report finds that despite improvements in health and nutrition over the past 50 years, the Tropics still bears a 'disproportionate share of the global burden of many communicable and preventable diseases. ' An expansion of the tropical zone could increase the prevalence of many diseases, particularly vector-borne diseases, as more areas become climatically suitable for insect vectors.
Ultra-Fast Vitrification: Minimizing the Toxicity of Cryoprotective Agents and Osmotic Stress in Mouse Oocyte Cryopreservation

Globally, women have been adopting oocyte cryopreservation (OC) for fertility preservation for various reasons, such as inevitable gonadotoxic treatment for specific pathologic states and social preferences. While conventional vitrification (C-VIT) has improved the success rate of OC, challenges of possible toxicities of high-concentration cryoprotective agents and osmotic stress persist. To overcome these challenges, we evaluated the ultra-fast vitrification (UF-VIT) method, which reduces the equilibration solution stage exposure time compared to C-VIT by observing mouse oocyte intracellular organelles and embryonic development. Consequently, compared to fresh mouse oocytes, UF-VIT presented significant differences only in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) intensity and mitochondrial (MT) distribution. Meanwhile, C-VIT showed substantial differences in the survival rate, key ER and MT parameters, and embryonic development rate. UF-VIT exhibited considerably fewer negative effects on key MT parameters and resulted in a notably higher blastocyst formation rate than C-VIT. Meiotic spindle (spindle and chromosomes) morphology showed no significant changes between the groups during vitrification/warming (VW), suggesting that VW did not negatively affect the meiotic spindle of the oocytes. In conclusion, UF-VIT seems more effective in OC owing to efficient cytoplasmic water molecule extraction, osmotic stress reduction, and minimization of cell contraction and expansion amplitude, thus compensating for the drawbacks of C-VIT.
Session-based Interactive Recommendation via Deep Reinforcement Learning

Deep reinforcement learning (DRL), has shown promise in solving intractable challenges in interactive recommendation systems. In DRL-based interactive recommendation, state modeling is crucial for well-capturing users’ continuous interaction behaviors with shopping systems. A user’s multiple continuous interactions in a given time period (e.g., the time from login to log out) naturally constitute a session. However, existing studies often overlook such valuable session structure and characteristics and instead simply treat them as sequences. As a result, they are not able to capture the complex transitions over users’ interactions within or between sessions, leading to significant information loss. To bridge this significant gap, in this paper, we propose Session-based Interactive Recommendation with Graph Neural Networks (SIR-GNN). SIR-GNN models interaction data as sessions and employs novel graph neural networks to capture rich transition patterns among interactions. Specifically, a novel 3-level transition module is well designed to effectively capture common patterns from all sessions, intra-session transitions, and adjacent-item transitions respectively, followed by an attention-based gated graph neural network to model the state representation for SIR well. Extensive experiments on 3 real-world benchmark datasets demonstrate the superiority of SIR-GNN over state-of-the-art baselines and the rationality of our design in SIR-GNN.
Integrated Analysis of Gut Microbiome and Adipose Transcriptome Reveals Beneficial Effects of Resistant Dextrin from Wheat Starch on Insulin Resistance in Kunming Mice

Systemic chronic inflammation is recognized as a significant contributor to the development of obesity-related insulin resistance. Previous studies have revealed the physiological benefits of resistant dextrin (RD), including obesity reduction, lower fasting glucose levels, and anti-inflammation. The present study investigated the effects of RD intervention on insulin resistance (IR) in Kunming mice, expounding the mechanisms through the gut microbiome and transcriptome of white adipose. In this eight-week study, we investigated changes in tissue weight, glucose–lipid metabolism levels, serum inflammation levels, and lesions of epididymal white adipose tissue (eWAT) evaluated via Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining. Moreover, we analyzed the gut microbiota composition and transcriptome of eWAT to assess the potential protective effects of RD intervention. Compared with a high-fat, high-sugar diet (HFHSD) group, the RD intervention significantly enhanced glucose homeostasis (e.g., AUC-OGTT, HOMA-IR, p < 0.001), and reduced lipid metabolism (e.g., TG, LDL-C, p < 0.001) and serum inflammation levels (e.g., IL-1β, IL-6, p < 0.001). The RD intervention also led to changes in the gut microbiota composition, with an increase in the abundance of probiotics (e.g., Parabacteroides, Faecalibaculum, and Muribaculum, p < 0.05) and a decrease in harmful bacteria (Colidextribacter, p < 0.05). Moreover, the RD intervention had a noticeable effect on the gene transcription profile of eWAT, and KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that differential genes were enriched in PI3K/AKT, AMPK, in glucose-lipid metabolism, and in the regulation of lipolysis in adipocytes signaling pathways. The findings demonstrated that RD not only ameliorated IR, but also remodeled the gut microbiota and modified the transcriptome profile of eWAT.
A Fusion Algorithm for Real-Time Temperature Compensation and Noise Suppression With a Double U-Beam Vibration Ring Gyroscope

With the rapid advancements in inertial technology and micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) fabrication, MEMS gyroscopes have gained widespread use across various industries. To address the problems of bad temperature stability and high noise in MEMS gyroscopes, this article proposes a novel fusion algorithm based on the double U-beam vibration ring gyroscope (DUVRG), which incorporates temperature compensation and noise suppression. The proposed algorithm constructs a gyro temperature error model using a signal extraction method based on quantized temperature. Noise suppression is achieved by integrating a Kalman filter (KF) and a statistical calibration filter (SCF) based on an adaptive sliding window (ASW). After three sets of temperature experiments with different temperature change rates, the compensated experimental results show that the gyro angular random walk (ARW) is reduced to 0.58°/ $\surd \text{h}$ and the bias instability (BI) is reduced to 1.10°/h in the range of −40 °C–60 °C. Compared with the original signals, the ARW and BI are reduced by 71.8% and 98.8%, respectively. The proposed novel temperature compensation and noise suppression method effectively enhances the temperature stability and noise performance of the gyroscope. Furthermore, this fusion algorithm requires less computational resources and satisfies the requirements of real-time signal processing, distinguishing it from conventional algorithms.
Symptomatic dry eye disease among university students

Background: Dry eye disease (DED) is a multifactorial condition often characterized by a reduction in tear film quantity or quality. This study aimed to determine the frequency of DED and its associated subjective symptoms among students of Mu’tah University. Methods: In this cross-sectional study conducted at Mu’tah University, Mu’tah, Jordan, from January to April 2022, 489 students completed an online patient-reported DED symptom questionnaire and the ocular surface disease index (OSDI) questionnaire. Moreover, 106 participants underwent clinical examinations using the Schirmer test I and fluorescein tear breakup time (TBUT). Results: Approximately 74.6% of the students self-reported experiencing DED symptoms, and 72.6% had an OSDI score > 12, which is considered the threshold for an abnormal ocular surface. Clinical examinations revealed low Schirmer test scores ( < 10 mm) in 26.4% (n = 28) and 25.5% (n = 27) of the right and left eyes, respectively. We observed low TBUT scores ( < 5 s) in 19.8% (n = 21) and 18.9% (n = 20) of the right and left eyes, respectively. We noted significant differences between the self-reported DED symptoms and the Schirmer test scores (P = 0.003 for both right and left eyes), TBUT (P < 0.001 for both right and left eyes), and OSDI score (P < 0.001 for each self-reported DED symptom). We observed a weak significant positive correlation between Schirmer test scores and TBUT in the right (r = + 0.30; P = 0.002) and left (r = + 0.34; P < 0.001) eyes; a negligible significant inverse correlation between OSDI scores and Schirmer test scores in the right (r = - 0.24; P = 0.013) and left (r = - 0.23; P = 0.019) eyes; and a negligible significant inverse correlation between the OSDI score and TBUT of the left eye (r = - 0.25; P = 0.011) but not of the right eye (r = - 0.17; P = 0.077). Conclusions: The frequency of DED symptoms in this study was higher than that previously reported based on foreign statistics. The presence of self-reported DED symptoms was significantly associated with higher OSDI scores. Self-reported DED symptoms were more frequent than the abnormalities detected using objective methods. Therefore, a combination of subjective and objective measures may provide higher diagnostic yield for DED. Further studies are required to confirm this hypothesis.
Diagnosis and Current Treatment of Aneurysmal Bone Cysts

The purpose of this review is to increase awareness about the evolution and development of current trends in the diagnosis and treatment of aneurysmal bone cysts (ABCs). ABCs are benign, but locally aggressive bone tumors that mainly affect children. ABCs comprise 1% of all primary bone tumors and occur most frequently during the first two decades of life. The diagnosis is made using a variety of imaging modalities and has the characteristic features of an expansile, radiolucent lesion that is often seen in the metaphyseal region of the bone and has fluid-fluid levels that are apparent on MRI. In the pediatric population, telangiectatic osteosarcoma and unicameral bone cyst (UBC) are the main differential diagnoses of an ABC. Giant cell tumors (GCTs) also include in differential diagnosis, which often manifest in patients older than 15 and do not penetrate the open physis although they develop after the physeal closure. Imaging alone cannot rule out telangiectatic osteosarcoma; therefore, a biopsy is recommended. A variety of treatment options have been described; traditionally, most patients are treated with curettage and bone grafting. Curettage alone, however, usually results in tumor recurrence following excision. A variety of adjuvants have been utilized with varying degrees of effectiveness to reduce the risk of local recurrence. When a cyst is in the pelvis, its location and size are such that surgery is a very risky option. Selective arterial embolization has significantly contributed to the development of effective treatments for these situations. Embolization or radiation, as well as denosumab therapy, are widely used as therapies for ABCs in anatomic locations where surgery would significantly increase morbidity.
An Investigation of BIM Advantages in Analysing Claims Procedures Related to the Extension of Time and Money in the KSA Construction Industry

The construction industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is a significant sector in the Middle East, with annual expenditures exceeding USD 120 billion. It employs 15% of the workforce and consumes more than 14% of the country’s energy resources. Despite the significant growth in the Saudi construction sector, it faces various challenges due to the rapid launch of mega projects, such as the Line project engaged with the NEOM project, as well as other new projects as part of the Saudi Vision 2030. The challenges might be limited to a shortage of skilled labourers, rising costs, construction disputes, and material shortages. This study aims to investigate claims management procedures under traditional practice and compare them with a proposed BIM package as an alternative solution to mitigate construction disputes. The objective of the study focuses on reducing the time consumed when analysing claims against the level of accuracy of claims values. The proposed BIM model improves and streamlines the claims process through automation. This study presents prospective and retrospective methods in delay analysis under an accepted programme. A questionnaire survey was conducted, and out of a total of 123 practitioners, 79 replied. The findings in tables in this article reveal that there are demands and a growing awareness of BIM in the KSA construction industry. The results reveal that BIM can help to reduce potential disputes and can reduce overall project cost overruns.
SGD Biased towards Early Important Samples for Efficient Training

In deep learning, using larger training datasets usually leads to more accurate models. However, simply adding more but redundant data may be inefficient, as some training samples may be more informative than others. We propose to bias SGD (Stochastic Gradient Descent) towards samples that are found to be more important after a few training epochs, by sampling them more often for the rest of training.In contrast to state-of-the-art, our approach requires less computational overhead to estimate sample importance, as it computes estimates once during training using the prediction probabilities, and does not require that training be restarted.In the experimental evaluation, we see that our learning technique trains faster than state-of-the-art and can achieve higher test accuracy, especially when datasets are not well balanced. Lastly, results suggest that our approach has intrinsic balancing properties. Code is available at https://github.com/AlessioQuercia/sgd_biased.
The Synergistic Effect of Compound Sugar with Different Glycemic Indices Combined with Creatine on Exercise-Related Fatigue in Mice

In this study, a compound sugar (CS) with different glycemic index sugars was formulated via hydrolysis characteristics and postprandial glycemic response, and the impact of CS and creatine emulsion on exercise-related fatigue in mice was investigated. Thirty-five C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into five groups to supply different emulsions for 4 weeks: initial emulsion (Con), glucose emulsion (62 mg/10 g MW glucose; Glu), CS emulsion (62 mg/10 g MW compound sugar; CS), creatine emulsion (6 mg/10 g MW creatine; Cr), and CS and creatine emulsion (62 mg/10 g MW compound sugar, 6 mg/10 g MW creatine, CS-Cr). Then, the exhaustion time of weight-bearing swimming and forelimb grip strength were measured to evaluate the exercise capacity of mice, and some fatigue-related biochemical indexes of blood were determined. The results demonstrated that the ingestion of CS significantly reduced the peak of postprandial blood glucose levels and prolonged the energy supply of mice compared to ingesting an equal amount of glucose. Mouse exhaustion time was 1.22-fold longer in the CS group than in the glucose group. Additionally, the supplementation of CS increased the liver glycogen content and total antioxidant capacity of mice. Moreover, the combined supplementation of CS and creatine increased relative forelimb grip strength and decreased blood creatine kinase activity. The findings suggested that the intake of CS could enhance exercise capacity, and the combined supplementation of CS and creatine has a synergistic effect in improving performance.
Significance of Fungal Species Isolated from Blue Nile River and Tuti Island on Drinking Water Quality

Aims: This study has been carried out with the following objectives: Assessment of contamination of water in Blue Nile through fungi of different water samples collected and Identify, as far as possible, the species responsible for contamination and, to a diver these problems. Study respectively. While the isolated genera from Blue Nile water that inoculated in PDA + Chloramphenicol were three as Fusarium spp. , Aspergillus niger and Candida albicans with percentage of 70%, 20%, and 10% respectively. Also three genera were isolated from tap water that inoculated in PDA + Chloramphenicol and Rose Bengal as Mucor spp. , Aspergillus fumigatus , and Rhizopus spp. and the frequencies are (72.73%, 18.2%, and 9.1%) respectively. The isolated genera from tap water which inoculated in PDA + Chloramphenicol show Mucor spp. (57.14%), Rhizopus spp. , Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus terrus with frequency of 14.29% for all three lateral genera. Most genera were shown sensitive when subjected to the different concentrations of chlorine (0.2, 0.5, and 0.7 g/ 50 ml) except Candida albicans , Fusarium species, and Aspergillus niger were shown resist to chlorine concentration 0.5 g/ 50 ml. Conclusion: The recovers of fungi from drinking water indicates low levels of quality and need intensive treatment.
Prevalence and Factors Contributing to Fear of Recurrence in Breast Cancer Patients and Their Partners: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective The fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is a generalized psychological problem among cancer patients and their spouses. The purpose of this study is to investigate the current status of cancer recurrence fear among breast cancer patients and their spouses, as well as its predictive factors. Methods A total of 155 breast cancer patients and their partners between March 2022 to Feb 2023 were selected from Affiliated Hospital of Jiangnan University. The survey was investigated by fear of progression questionnaire-short form (FoP‑Q‑SF), fear of progression questionnaire‐short form for partners (FoP‐Q‐SF/P), family resilience questionnaire (FaRE), and health literacy management scale (HeLMS). Predictors were assessed using univariate and multivariable regression analyses. Results 52.9% (n=82) of breast cancer patients and 51.6% (n=80) of their spouses experienced high levels of fear of cancer recurrence (FCR). There was a positive correlation between the FCR of the patients and their spouses, while family resilience and health literacy were statistically significant negative predictive factors for breast cancer patients’ fear of cancer recurrence. Conclusion In summary, the study found that the partner’s FCR, health literacy and family resilience were closely related to the FCR in breast cancer patients. Therefore, healthcare workers can reduce the patient’s FCR by reducing the FCR in spouses, improving patients’ health literacy and family resilience in the future. In practical application, these findings hold significant implications for developing comprehensive care plans and interventions targeting FCR in breast cancer patients. By focusing on patients’ partners and providing appropriate support and resources, healthcare professionals can promote patients’ psychological well-being and overall health, leading to improved quality of life.
Comparative analysis of research on controlling in Croatia

Kontroling je suvremena filozofija i poslovna funkcija, strucna podrska menadžmentu ; on pridonosi transparentnosti te koordinaciji i integraciji poslovanja organizacije. Postoje brojna istraživanja o realnosti kontrolinga u organizacijama razvijenih tržisnih gospodarstava kojima se dokazuju njegova važnost i „ samorazumljivost“ . U ovom radu se istražuje realnost kontrolinga u organizacijama u Hrvatskoj te iznose najznacajniji rezultati komparativne analize istraživanja provedenih 2001. i 2007. godine. Zakljucuje se kako i u nasim organizacijama rastu uloga i važnost kontrolinga i u institucionalnom smislu, a njegova osnovna funkcionalna i instrumentalna obilježja jacaju i odražavaju ne samo porast stupnja prihvacenosti ove nove funkcije vec i porast stupnja njegove korisnosti.
Longitudinal changes in peri-papillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness in patients with unilateral branch retinal vein occlusion

Background: Associations between retinal venous occlusion (RVO), elevated intraocular pressure, and glaucoma have been reported. Further investigations into structural alterations in the fellow eyes of individuals with unilateral RVO have revealed that the peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer is thinner than in healthy eyes, suggesting that there may be systemic risk factors common to both RVO and glaucoma. We aimed to evaluate changes in peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness (pRNFLT) among individuals with unilateral branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO). Methods: This prospective observational study recruited 30 individuals (60 eyes) with newly diagnosed unilateral BRVO and macular edema, and a control group of 30 healthy individuals (30 eyes) with no abnormalities on fundus examination or concurrent systemic comorbidities. After baseline measurements, the participants were reassessed at 6, 12, and 24 months by measuring global and sectoral pRNFLT using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. Results: The mean age and sex distributions were comparable between the patient and control groups (both P > 0.05). When compared to fellow eyes, global and sectoral pRNFLT in eyes with BRVO were significantly higher at baseline (all P < 0.05). Over time, pRNFLT decreased dramatically, and by the conclusion of the two-year follow-up, there was a significant reduction from baseline in the affected eyes (all P < 0.05). Likewise, affected eyes experienced a significant improvement in best-corrected distance visual acuity and central macular thickness over the two-year follow-up (both P ≤ 0.001). Comparing the global and all-sector pRNFLT of fellow eyes in the patient group with those of normal eyes in the control group, there were no significant differences at any visit, except in the temporal sector, which revealed a significant reduction in pRNFLT at 24 months in the fellow eyes of patients with unilateral BRVO (P = 0.02). Conclusions: Patients with unilateral BRVO experienced a significant reduction in pRNFLT in the affected eyes and, to a lesser extent, in the fellow eyes, compared with that of the control arm, suggesting that they are prone to retinal nerve fiber layer damage. The reduction in pRNFLT in the normal fellow eyes of patients with BRVO may be attributed to age or concurrent systemic comorbidities. Further studies with long follow-up periods are required to shed light on the etiology of functional and structural changes in both the retinal nerve fiber layer and ganglion cell complex in the normal and affected eyes of patients with unilateral BRVO.