Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Polar stratospheric ice cloud above Spitsbergen

[1] Within the extremely cold and stable polar vortex of winter 2004–2005 a polar stratospheric ice cloud was observed from Ny-Alesund (Spitsbergen) on 26 January 2005. The observation of a cloud with backscatter ratios up to 23 and volume depolarization larger than 50% is unique in our 15 year ground-based lidar data record. Simultaneous balloon-borne water vapor measurements indicate the presence of mesoscale ice clouds nearby. Normally, low horizontal wind speeds inside the inner vortex prevent vertical wave propagation. However, the rare coincidence of different meteorological processes occurring during a poleward-breaking Rossby wave event caused favorable conditions for the vertical propagation of mountain waves excited by the flow past Spitsbergen. Detailed meteorological analysis shows that the ice particle formation processes on 26 January 2005 were most likely provoked by mesoscale stratospheric temperature anomalies, leading to a local reduction in water vapor.
STRATEGIC PLANNING AND PRODUCTIVITY IN ORGANIZATIONS: A STUDY OF SELECTED SMEs IN ANAMBRA STATE NIGERIA

This study reviewed strategic planning and productivity in business enterprises: A study of three selected SMEs in Anambra State, Nigeria. The importance of organization to proactively respond to environmental challenges was the motivating factor for the research. The objectives of the study were basically to find out the effect of strategic planning on productivity of the SMEs under study, and how and to what extent the mediating role of employee involvement and implementation incentives influences SMEs business performance. The study followed quantitative research using a survey research design. The target population included all employees of the SMEs under study, which was 1,100. A sample of 293 was drawn from the population using Taro Yamane’s formula. The reaction to the study was positive as a response rate of 98.98% (290) was obtained. The X2 {chi-square} test statistics at 0.05level of significance was used in testing the hypotheses. The study revealed that strategic planning positively influences the productivity of the SMEs under study; and that the mediating role of employee involvement/participation and implementation incentives positively influences SMEs productivity/business performance. Based on the findings, recommendations were made which include that the management of the SMEs are advised to adhere strictly to the processes of strategic planning, in addition to having a feedback on their strategic planning practices; so that they can position their organization to pursue growth opportunities. Moreover, managers and owners of SMEs should endeavor to make use of their employee participation and implementation incentives capabilities, which augment each other so that they would have successful business strategies.
A global database of sea surface dimethylsulfide (DMS) measurements and a procedure to predict sea surface DMS as a function of latitude, longitude, and month

A database of 15,617 point measurements of dimethylsulfide (DMS) in surface waters along with lesser amounts of data for aqueous and particulate dimethylsulfoniopropionate concentration, chlorophyll concentration, sea surface salinity and temperature, and wind speed has been assembled. The database was processed to create a series of climatological annual and monthly 1°×1° latitude‐longitude squares of data. The results were compared to published fields of geophysical and biological parameters. No significant correlation was found between DMS and these parameters, and no simple algorithm could be found to create monthly fields of sea surface DMS concentration based on these parameters. Instead, an annual map of sea surface DMS was produced using an algorithm similar to that employed by Conkright et al. [1994]. In this approach, a first‐guess field of DMS sea surface concentration measurements is created and then a correction to this field is generated based on actual measurements. Monthly sea surface grids of DMS were obtained using a similar scheme, but the sparsity of DMS measurements made the method difficult to implement. A scheme was used which projected actual data into months of the year where no data were otherwise present.
WATER QUALITY AND LAND USE: IMPLICATIONS FOR REGULATION AND URBAN PLANNING

Agricultural nonpoint pollution is diffcult to regulate for numerous reasons, including uncertainty regarding the relationship between farm practices and pollutant levels, stochastic weather patterns that affect pollution levels and yields, and inability to monitor the flow of pollutants from individual farms. Two commonly proposed regulatory mechanisms are uniform taxes and standards. Prior research in this literature assumes producers are risk neutral. However, empirical evidence suggests farmers are risk averse. To increase the model’s applicability to agricultural nonpoint pollution regulation we incorporate risk aversion into the model. An empirical application is used to illustrate how risk preferences might affect the regulatory mechanism choice. Because many of the urban sprawl externalities are nonpoint in nature, regulatory challenges are similar to those posed by agricultural nonpoint pollution. This suggests that regulations aimed at reducing sprawl may be an indirect means of mitigating the environmental impacts of urban sprawl. An econometric model is used to analyze and predict residential land use change patterns in Albuquerque, New Mexico and surrounding areas. Results are used to assess the effectiveness of zoning restrictions in controling sprawl, and to test whether there are signifcant differences in the parameter estimates for urban and sprawl residential development patterns.
exploring the link between depression and accelerated cellular aging: telomeres hold the key

: Accumulating evidence suggests that telomeres may be a marker for biological aging and telomere length may be affected by multifactorial influences, including cumulative exposure to depression. Associations with telomere length have been reported for major depressive disorder, lifetime duration of depression, higher depression severity, and history of depression. The exact underling mechanisms for these associations have yet to be fully elucidated; however, oxidative stress, chronic inflammation, dysregulated hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis, and altered cortisol levels may be important biochemical mediators. These mediators could also be influenced by psychological stress, unhealthy lifestyle behaviors, or other potential factors, such as childhood abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety that are commonly associated with depression. As such, stress reduction and lifestyle interventions that may affect the telomere maintenance system should be considered for individuals with depression.
Ciliary proteins Bbs8 and Ift20 promote planar cell polarity in the cochlea

Primary cilia have been implicated in the generation of planar cell polarity (PCP). However, variations in the severity of polarity defects in different cilia mutants, coupled with recent demonstrations of non-cilia-related actions of some cilia genes, make it difficult to determine the basis of these polarity defects. To address this issue, we evaluated PCP defects in cochlea from a selection of mice with mutations in cilia-related genes. Results indicated notable PCP defects, including mis-oriented hair cell stereociliary bundles, in Bbs8 and Ift20 single mutants that are more severe than in other cilia gene knockouts. In addition, deletion of either Bbs8 or Ift20 results in disruptions in asymmetric accumulation of the core PCP molecule Vangl2 in cochlear cells, suggesting a role for Bbs8 and/or Ift20, possibly upstream of core PCP asymmetry. Consistent with this, co-immunoprecipitation experiments indicate direct interactions of Bbs8 and Ift20 with Vangl2. We observed localization of Bbs and Ift proteins to filamentous actin as well as microtubules. This could implicate these molecules in selective trafficking of membrane proteins upstream of cytoskeletal reorganization, and identifies new roles for cilia-related proteins in cochlear PCP. Summary: A subset of cilia proteins are involved in intracellular trafficking of membrane-bound proteins, including planar cell polarity regulators, to non-ciliary locations.
Washington University Open Scholarship Washington University Open

Recent research suggests that schizophrenia is associated with reduced effort allocation. We examined willingness to expend effort, neural correlates of effort allocation, and the relationship of effort to daily motivational experience in schizophrenia. We recruited 28 individuals with schizophrenia and 30 controls to perform an effort task during fMRI. Individuals with schizophrenia also completed an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) protocol. Individuals with schizophrenia with high negative symptoms were less willing to expend effort for rewards. Daily EMA assessments of motivation were positively associated with effort allocation at a trend-level. Individuals with schizophrenia and controls displayed similar increases in BOLD activation in frontal, cingulate, parietal, and insular regions during effort-based decision-making. However, negative symptoms were associated with reduced BOLD activation in bilateral ventral striatum. These results replicate previous reports of reduced effort allocation in schizophrenia patients with severe negative symptoms, and provide evidence for the role of ventral striatum in effort impairment
Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics

Many feedforward neural networks (NNs) generate continuous and piecewise-linear (CPWL) mappings. Specifically, they partition the input domain into regions on which the mapping is affine. The number of these so-called linear regions offers a natural metric to characterize the expressiveness of CPWL NNs. The precise determination of this quantity is often out of reach in practice, and bounds have been proposed for specific architectures, including for ReLU and Maxout NNs. In this work, we generalize these bounds to NNs with arbitrary and possibly multivariate CPWL activation functions. We first provide upper and lower bounds on the maximal number of linear regions of a CPWL NN given its depth, width, and the number of linear regions of its activation functions. Our results rely on the combinatorial structure of convex partitions and confirm the distinctive role of depth which, on its own, is able to exponentially increase the number of regions. We then introduce a complementary stochastic framework to estimate the average number of linear regions produced by a CPWL NN. Under reasonable assumptions, the expected density of linear regions along any 1D path is bounded by the product of depth, width, and a measure of activation complexity (up to a scaling factor). This yields an identical role to the three sources of expressiveness: no exponential growth with depth is observed anymore.
Rhythmic Sedimentation in Glacial Lake Hitchcock, Massachusetts-Connecticut

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Hawai‘i Journal of Health & Social Welfare

There are very few studies examining the effects of sports-related concussion (SRC) on objective measures of school performance, such as grades or test scores. In this research, the grade point averages (GPAs) and scores of the Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) of athletes who sustained an SRC during the school year were compared with those of athletes who did not have an SRC. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed a significant linear decline in GPA of both groups across the school year, but indicated no difference in the GPA decline between the concussion and no concussion groups. The GPAs of the concussion and no concussion groups were not significantly different across the school year. Finally, no differences were found between the pre-and post-concussion ImPACT scores of the concussed athletes. This study found that an SRC during the school year did not affect the academic performance or neurocognitive test scores of high school athletes.
An Empirical Study on the Effect of Achievement Motivation and Self-Efficacy on Social Loafing

Reducing or even eliminating social loafing among college students in collaborative group learning has important implications for their future careers. Yet relatively few studies have considered the impact of individual differences on social loafing, such as achievement motivation and self-efficacy. The researchers developed a structural equation model and the research hypothesis using the achievement motivation scale, self-efficacy scale, and social loafing scale, and all scales were scored on a 5-point Likert-type scale. This study used purposive sampling to select Chinese vocational college students from four representative vocational colleges in Guizhou Province, China and distributed electronic questionnaires to them. A total of 1,080 valid responses were collected (404, 309, and 367 for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, respectively; 578 and 502 for males and females, respectively). According to the analysis, the Chinese vocational college students’ achievement motivation has a negative effect on their social loafing. Moreover, self-efficacy partially mediates the effect of achievement motivation on social loafing. Therefore, in order to reduce or even eliminate social loafing of Chinese vocational college students in collaborative group learning and strengthen their cooperative skills, we suggest that educators should focus on cultivating their achievement motivation and self-efficacy.
Ionospheric Super Bubbles Near Sunset and Sunrise During the 26–28 February 2023 Geomagnetic Storm

Ionospheric equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) are usually generated around sunset over equatorial to low latitudes. In this study, super EPBs extending to middle latitudes were observed, which were freshly generated at both post‐sunset and near‐sunrise periods over East/Southeast Asia during the geomagnetic storm on 26–28 February 2023. The post‐sunset (near‐sunrise) EPB persisted ∼4 (8) hours, drifting eastward (westward) and extending up to ∼35°N. Strong L‐band scintillations, deep total electron content (TEC) depletions and significant positioning errors were caused by the post‐sunset EPB. However, the scintillations and TEC depletions linked with the near‐sunrise EPB were relatively weaker, and no apparent positioning error was caused. Before the onsets of the post‐sunset EPBs, rapid upward vertical plasma drifts of ∼60 m/s, which could be linked with storm‐time prompt penetration electric fields, were observed at magnetic equator. The upward vertical drifts could amplify the F‐region bottomside perturbation via increasing the growth rate of Rayleigh‐Taylor (R‐T) instability and lead to the generation of post‐sunset EPBs. On the other hand, before the onset of near‐sunrise EPBs, the uplift of F layer was more significant at higher latitudes than that at magnetic equator, probably indicating the presence of equatorward neutral wind. Both the equatorial F layer uplift and equatorward neutral wind could contribute to the growth of R‐T instability and favor the generation of near‐sunrise EPBs.
Changes in the physical behaviour of older adults during the 13 weeks GOTO intervention explain a boost in immuno-metabolic health.

Background: The aging population faces numerous health challenges, with sedentary behavior and decreased physical activity being paramount. We explore the physical behaviour of older adults in the GOTO combined lifestyle intervention study and its related immuno-metabolic health effects. Methods: The research utilized accelerometers and machine learning to assess physical activity behaviours during a 13-week program of increased physical activity and decreased calorie intake. Subsequently, the association of variation in physical behaviour with immuno-metabolic health parameters is investigated cross-sectionally at baseline and longitudinally using sex-stratified linear regression and linear mixed regression respectively. Results: Participants exhibited physical behaviors similar to their age-matched peers from the UK-Biobank. Interestingly, gender-based differences were evident, with men and women showing distinct daily physical behavioural patterns. At baseline, a positive correlation was found between higher physical behavior and a healthier immune-metabolic profile, particularly in men. The longitudinal changes depict an overall boost in activity levels, predominantly among women. While increasing general activity and engaging in intense exercises proved advantageous for physical health, the immune-metabolic health benefits were more pronounced in men. Conclusion: The short-term GOTO intervention underscores the significance of regular physical activity in promoting healthy aging even in middle to older age. Gender differences in behavior and health benefits deserve much more attention though. Our results advocate the broader implementation of such programs and emphasize the utility of technology, like accelerometers and machine learning, in both monitoring and promoting active lifestyles among older adults.
Long-Term Outcome after Convergent Procedure for Atrial Fibrillation

Background: The aim of this single-center retrospective study is to evaluate the long-term outcome after convergent procedure (CP) for patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF), persistent AF and long-standing persistent AF. Methods and results: We analyzed outcomes of patients that underwent CP from January 2009 until July 2020. 119 patients with paroxysmal AF (23.5%), persistent AF (5.9%) or long-standing persistent AF (70.6%) that attended long-term follow up were included. The outcome was assessed at 1-year after CP and at long-term follow up. At 1-year follow up rhythm and daily AF burden were assessed for patients with implantable loop recorder (61.2%). For others rhythm was assessed by clinical presentation and 12-lead ECG recording. At long-term follow up patients having sinus rhythm or unclear history of AF were monitored with 7-day ECG Holter and AF burden was determined. Long-term success was defined as freedom from AF/atrial flutter (AFL) with sinus rhythm on 12-lead ECG recording and AF/AFL burden <1% on 7-day Holter ECG. Repeat catheter ablations (RFA) prior to long-term follow up were documented. At 1-year follow up 91.4% of patients had sinus rhythm and 76.1% of patients had AF/AFL burden <1%. At long-term follow up (8.3 {+/-} 2.8 years) 65.5% of patients had sinus rhythm and 53.8% patients had AF/AFL burden <1% on 7-day holter ECG. Additional RFAs were performed in 32.8% of patients who had AF or AFL burden <1%. At long-term follow up age, body mass index and left atrial volume index were associated with increased risk of AF recurrence. Conclusions: CP resulted in high long-term probability of sinus rhythm maintenance. During long-term follow-up additional RFAs were required to maintain sinus rhythm in a substantial number of patients.
Cytokeratin 7 Expression and Mismatch Repair Status for Survival Prediction in Patients With Low Rectal Cancer After Neoadjuvant Therapy

Background More than half of the patients with locally advanced low rectal cancer exhibit no or minor response to nCRT. It is important to investigate the predictive and prognostic values of potential biomarkers in patients with locally advanced low rectal cancer receiving nCRT. Materials and Methods This retrospective study included 162 patients with locally advanced low rectal cancer who underwent nCRT, followed by total mesorectal excision (TME) between 2016 and 2019. Cytokeratin 7 (CK7) expression and mismatch repair (MMR) status were determined by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Categorical variables were compared using the chi-square test. Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) curves were estimated using the Kaplan–Meier and Cox methods. Results There were predominance significant differences in distance from anus margin (P < .0001) and circumferential extent of the tumor (P < .0001). CK7 positive expression was detected in 21 of the 162 patients (13%). The univariate and multivariate analysis revealed that patients whose tumors had CK7 positive expression had significantly shorter OS (HR = 3.878, P = .038; HR = 1.677, P = .035) and DFS (HR = 3.055, P = .027;HR = 3.569, P = .038) than those with CK7 negative expression. While patients with CK7 positive expression had a higher proportion of worse TRG compared with CK7 negative patients (P = .001). Patients with deficient mismatch repair (dMMR) just occupied a small proportion (8.6%), but there was still a close connection between the MMR status and recurrence after TME (P = .045). MMR status was an independent risk factor affecting the OS (HR = .307, P < .0001; HR = .123, P < .0001) and DFS (HR = .288, P < .0001; HR = .286, P < .0001) by univariate and multivariate analysis. But no significant difference in the proportion of TRG was observed between patients with dMMR and pMMR (P = .920). Conclusions The result confirms negative prognostic role of CK7-positive and dMMR statuses, which have potential predictive value for neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy response. This provides opportunity to modify individualized treatment strategies for patients with different CK7 expression levels and dMMR statuses.
Locally acquired strongyloidiasis in remote Australia: why are there still cases?

In Australia, strongyloidiasis primarily affects returned travellers, Vietnam veterans and refugees or asylum seekers, and First Nations people. Non-overseas acquired cases are seen almost exclusively in Australian First Nations remote communities. Australian First Nations communities have one of the highest rates of strongyloidiasis in the world. Our work has shown that strongyloidiasis is a disease of poverty. Acknowledging this is important—we need to shift the lens to socioeconomic factors, particularly environmental health hardware such as working toilets and sewerage systems, showers and laundries, and effective wastewater and rubbish removal. The rates of strongyloidiasis in First Nations communities is a result of decades of inadequate, poorly constructed and/or poorly maintained housing, and poor environmental health hardware (hereafter hardware). The solution lies in adequate funding, resulting in well designed and maintained housing and appropriate hardware. Governments need to allow First Nations communities themselves to take the lead role in funding allocation, and design, construction and maintenance of their housing and hardware. This will ensure housing and hardware fulfils cultural and physical needs and desires, and protects health. Improving housing and hardware will also improve other health outcomes. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Strongyloides: omics to worm-free populations’.