Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Large-Scale J = 3 → 2 and J = 2 → 1 CO Emission from M17 and Its Implications for Extragalactic CO Observations

We observed a 10 × 20 pc region of the molecular cloud M17 in the 12CO and 13CO J=3→2 and J=2→1 transitions at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope to determine their global behavior and to assess the reliability of using ratios of CO line intensities integrated over an entire cloud to determine the physical conditions within the cloud. Both the 12CO/13CO J=2→1 and J=3→2 line ratios correlate with the 13CO integrated intensity, with smaller line ratios observed at locations with large integrated intensities. This correlation is likely due to variations in the column density from one position to another within M17. The 12CO and 13CO (J=3→2)/(J=2→1) line ratios show no significant variation from place to place within M17, even on the peak of the photon-dominated region. A large velocity gradient analysis of globally averaged line ratios gives a kinetic temperature of 30 K, a density of 0.2-5 × 105 cm-3, and a 12CO column density of 1 × 1018 cm-2. This result is in reasonable agreement with the results obtained for individual lines of sight through the cloud, which suggests that the typical physical conditions in a molecular cloud can be determined using CO line ratios integrated over the entire cloud. We estimate the global CO line ratios for M17 to be 12CO/13CO J=2→1: 4.5 ± 0.7; 12CO/13CO J=3→2: 3.7 ± 0.9; 12CO (J=3→2)/(J=2→1): 0.76 ± 0.19; 13CO (J=3→2)/(J=2→1): 1.3 ± 0.3. These line ratios generally agree quite well with previous measurements of individual Galactic molecular clouds. There appears to be a clear trend of increasing 12CO/13CO J=2→1 and J=3→2 line ratios as one moves from Galactic molecular cloud cores to entire Galactic molecular clouds to normal galaxies, similar to the trend seen previously for the 12CO/13CO J=1→0 line. These new observations of M17 show that the difference between the 12CO/13CO line ratios for Galactic molecular clouds and the disks of spiral galaxies occurs for all three of the lowest rotational transitions. The most likely explanation of the high line ratios for normal galaxies is a significant contribution to the CO emission by low column density material, such as diffuse molecular clouds or the outer envelopes of giant molecular clouds. Radial gradients in the relative contribution of low and high column density material in galaxies could be a significant source of uncertainty in derivations of the physical properties of molecular gas in external galaxies.
Learners' Perceptions of Interaction in Chinese as a Second Language Classes

Interaction plays an important role in L2 teaching and learning. However, learners’ perceptions of interaction may vary in different contexts. This study drew on an open-ended survey to examine learners’ perceptions of interaction in Chinese as a second language classes. The results showed that CSL learners perceived interaction conducive to their learning and emphasized the important role of the teacher during interaction, however, they held mixed perceptions about participation in interaction, which was related to different factors such as the quality of the teacher’s instruction, student group dynamics, individual learner differences, and the topic of interaction. Moreover, improvements for interaction were suggested in terms of providing learners with more opportunities to speak, transforming the role of the teacher, and diversifying classroom interactive activities. Implications for CSL teaching and learning were also discussed.
Influence of Adiposity on the Gut Microbiota Composition of Arab Women: A Case-Control Study

Simple Summary Obesity is a global health problem associated with increased mortality and morbidity rates. Concurrently, with important advances in therapeutic options for obesity, the global prevalence of obesity has not decreased, and the burden of obesity has become a concerning issue of our times. In addition, the mechanisms underlying this pathology and the etiological factors are incompletely understood. Thus, understanding and clarifying the possible etiological factors for obesity is essential. Over the last decade, researchers have been focusing on the gut microbiota as an element that is implicated in the aetiology of obesity. However, there is limited available epidemiologic evidence in the Middle East, especially in Saudi Arabia. In addition, very little evidence exists elsewhere on the association between the gut microbiota composition and obesity markers in young women of childbearing age. In light of this, we designed a case-control study that explored the gut microbiota composition of Saudi Arabian women with obesity compared with healthy controls using whole-genome shotgun sequencing. Our findings highlight the role of the gut microbiota in obesity and provide significant insight into creating modulation strategies for obesity management through fecal microbiota transfer, antibiotics, probiotics, and prebiotics, offering potential targets for guiding the choice of strain probiotics for gut microbiota modulation in the treatment of obesity. Abstract Recent evidence has suggested that the gut microbiota is a possible risk factor for obesity. However, limited evidence is available on the association between the gut microbiota composition and obesity markers in the Middle-Eastern region. We aimed to investigate the association between gut microbiota and obesity markers in a case-control study including 92 Saudi women aged 18–25 years, including participants with obesity (case, n = 44) and with normal weight (control, n = 48). Anthropometric, body composition, and biochemical data were collected. The whole-genome shotgun technique was used to analyze the gut microbiota. The Shannon alpha and Bray–Curtis beta diversity were determined. The microbial alpha diversity was significantly associated with only the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) (p-value = 0.04), while the microbial beta diversity was significantly associated with body mass index (p-value = 0.048), %body fat (p-value = 0.018), and WHR (p-value = 0.050). Specific bacteria at different taxonomic levels, such as Bacteroidetes and Synergistetes, were positively associated with different obesity markers. Alistipes was higher in the control group compared with the case group. The results highlight the association of the gut microbiota with obesity and suggest that the gut microbiota of Saudi women is associated with specific obesity markers. Future studies are needed to determine the role of the identified strains in the metabolism of individuals with obesity.
Identification, Classification and Characterization of LBD Transcription Factor Family Genes in Pinus massoniana

Transcription factors (TFs) are a class of proteins that play an important regulatory role in controlling the expression of plant target genes by interacting with downstream regulatory genes. The lateral organ boundary (LOB) structural domain (LBD) genes are a family of genes encoding plant-specific transcription factors that play important roles in regulating plant growth and development, nutrient metabolism, and environmental stresses. However, the LBD gene family has not been systematically identified in Pinus massoniana, one of the most important conifers in southern China. Therefore, in this study, we combined cell biology and bioinformatics approaches to identify the LBD gene family of P. massoniana by systematic gene structure and functional evolutionary analysis. We obtained 47 LBD gene family members, and all PmLBD members can be divided into two subfamilies, (Class I and Class II). By treating the plants with abiotic stress and growth hormone, etc., under qPCR-based analysis, we found that the expression of PmLBD genes was regulated by growth hormone and abiotic stress treatments, and thus this gene family in growth and development may be actively involved in plant growth and development and responses to adversity stress, etc. By subcellular localization analysis, PmLBD is a nuclear protein, and two of the genes, PmLBD44 and PmLBD45, were selected for functional characterization; secondly, yeast self-activation analysis showed that PmLBD44, PmLBD45, PmLBD46 and PmLBD47 had no self-activating activity. This study lays the foundation for an in-depth study of the role of the LBD gene family in other physiological activities of P. massoniana.
The Theory of Turbulent Jets

This chapter contains sections titled: Fundamental Concepts, Submerged Jet, Velocity Profiles in a Submerged Jet, Spread of a Turbulent Submerged Jet, Lines of Constant Velocity in a Submerged Jet, Velocity Variation Along the Axis of a Submerged Jet, Heat Transfer in a Submerged Jet, Diffusion of Constituents in a Submerged Jet, Velocity, Temperature, and Concentration Profiles in a Turbulent Jet Spreading into an External Stream of Fluid, Spread of a Turbulent Jet into a Coflowing or Counterflowing External Stream, Turbulence Characteristics in a Free Jet
A Consistency Test of Spectroscopic Gravities for Late-Type Stars

Chemical analyses of late-type stars are usually carried out following the classical recipe: LTE line formation and homogeneous, plane-parallel, flux-constant, and LTE model atmospheres. We review different results in the literature that have suggested significant inconsistencies in the spectroscopic analyses, pointing out the difficulties in deriving independent estimates of the stellar fundamental parameters and hence, detecting systematic errors. The trigonometric parallaxes measured by the Hipparcos mission provide accurate appraisals of the stellar surface gravity for nearby stars, which are used here to check the gravities obtained from the photospheric iron ionization balance. We find an approximate agreement for stars in the metallicity range -1.0 ≤ [Fe/H] ≤ 0, but the comparison shows that the differences between the spectroscopic and trigonometric gravities decrease toward lower metallicities for more metal-deficient dwarfs (-2.5 ≤ [Fe/H] ≤ -1.0), which casts a shadow upon the abundance analyses for extreme metal-poor stars that make use of the ionization equilibrium to constrain the gravity. The comparison with the strong-line gravities derived by Edvardsson and Fuhrmann confirms that this method provide systematically larger gravities than the ionization balance. The strong-line gravities get closer to the physical ones for the stars analyzed by Fuhrmann, but they are even further away than the iron ionization gravities for the stars of lower gravities in Edvardsson's sample. The confrontation of the deviations of the iron ionization gravities in metal-poor stars, reported here with departures from the excitation balance found in the literature, show that they are likely to be induced by the same physical mechanism.
Monte Carlo transient phonon transport in silicon and germanium at nanoscales

Heat transport at nanoscales in semiconductors is investigated with a statistical method. The Boltzmann transport equation (BTE), which characterizes phonon motion and interaction within the crystal lattice, has been simulated with a Monte Carlo technique. Our model takes into account media frequency properties through the dispersion curves for longitudinal and transverse acoustic branches. The BTE collisional term involving phonon scattering processes is simulated with the relaxation times approximation theory. A new distribution function accounting for the collisional processes has been developed in order to respect energy conservation during phonons scattering events. This nondeterministic approach provides satisfactory results in what concerns phonon transport in both ballistic and diffusion regimes. The simulation code has been tested with silicon and germanium thin films; temperature propagation within samples is presented and compared to analytical solutions (in the diffusion regime). The two-material bulk thermal conductivity is retrieved for temperature ranging between 100 K and 500 K. Heat transfer within a plane wall with a large thermal gradient (250 K to 500 K) is proposed in order to expose the model ability to simulate conductivity thermal dependence on heat exchange at nanoscales. Finally, size effects and validity of heat conduction law are investigated for several slab thicknesses.
Interpretation of increased energetic particle flux measurements by SEPT aboard the STEREO spacecraft and contamination

Context. Interplanetary (IP) shocks are known to be accelerators of energetic charged particles observed in-situ in the heliosphere. However, the acceleration of near-relativistic electrons by shocks in the interplanetary medium is often questioned. On 9 August 2011 a Corotating Interaction Region (CIR) passed STEREO B (STB) that resulted in a flux increase in the electron and ion channels of the Solar Electron and Proton Telescope (SEPT). Because electron measurements in the few keV to several 100 keV range rely on the so-called magnet foil technique, which is utilized by SEPT, ions can contribute to the electron channels. Aims. We aim to investigate whether the flux increase in the electron channels of SEPT during the CIR event on 9 August 2011 is caused by ion contamination only. Methods. We compute the SEPT response functions for protons and helium utilizing an updated GEANT4 model of SEPT. The CIR energetic particle ion spectra for protons and helium are assumed to follow a Band function in energy per nucleon with a constant helium to proton ratio. Results. Our analysis leads to a helium to proton ratio of 16.9% and a proton flux following a Band function with the parameters $I_0 = 1.24 \cdot 10^4$ / (cm2 s sr MeV/nuc.), $E_c = 79$ keV/nuc. and spectral indices of $\gamma_1 = -0.94$ and $\gamma_2 = -3.80$ which are in good agreement with measurements by the Suprathermal Ion Telescope (SIT) aboard STB. Conclusions. Since our results explain the SEPT measurements, we conclude that no significant amount of electrons were accelerated between $55$ keV and $425$ keV by the CIR.
Search for Exotic S=-2 Baryons in proton-antiproton Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV

A search for a manifestly exotic S=-2 baryon state decaying to Xi- pi-, and its neutral partner decaying to Xi- pi+, has been performed using 220 pb^(-1) of pp= collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. The Xi trajectories were measured in a silicon tracker before their decay, resulting in a sample with low background and excellent position resolution. No evidence was found for S=-2 pentaquark candidates in the invariant mass range of 1600--2100 MeV/c^2 Upper limits on the product of pentaquark production cross section times its branching fraction to Xi- pi^{+,-}, relative to the cross section of the well established Xi(1530) resonance, are presented for neutral and doubly negative candidates with pT>2 GeV/c and |y|<1 as a function of pentaquark mass. At 1862 MeV/c^2, these upper limits for neutral and doubly negative final states were found to be 3.2% and 1.7% at the 90% confidence level, respectively.
Incidence of Osteoporosis in Primary Care Patients with Atrial Fibrillation Receiving Different Oral Anticoagulants

Background: Studies investigating the association between the use of oral anticoagulants (OACs) and osteoporosis are limited. We aimed to determine the risk of osteoporosis in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and receiving different OACs. Methods: We performed a population-based cohort study using a nationwide primary care dataset, MedicineInsight. Patients aged between 18 and 111 years with AF and newly recorded OAC prescriptions between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2017 were included and followed until 31 December 2018. We applied propensity score matching to control for patients’ baseline characteristic differences before calculating adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) for a new diagnosis of osteoporosis, using Cox proportional hazard models. Results: A total of 18,454 patients (1714 prescribed dabigatran, 5871 rivaroxaban, 5248 apixaban and 5621 warfarin) were included. Of these, 39.5% were females, and the overall mean age (standard deviation [SD] was 73.2(10.3) years. Over a mean follow-up of 841 days, 1627 patients (1028 receiving direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOACs) and 599 warfarin) had a newly recorded diagnosis of osteoporosis. The weighted incidence rates (95% confidence interval; CI) per 100 person-years of treatment were 5.0 (4.7–5.2) for warfarin, 4.3 (3.8–4.8) for dabigatran, 3.6 (3.3–3.8) for rivaroxaban, and 4.4 (4.0–4.7) for apixaban. Overall, DOAC use was associated with a significantly lower risk of a new diagnosis of osteoporosis than warfarin use (aHR, 0.79, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.74–0.85; p < 0.001). Use of each individual DOAC was associated with a significantly lower risk of osteoporosis compared with warfarin (aHRs, 0.75, 95% CI 0.69–0.82 for rivaroxaban; 0.78, 95% CI 0.71–0.86 for apixaban; 0.88, 95% CI 0.77–0.99 for dabigatran). Conclusion: Compared with warfarin, the use of DOACs was associated with a significantly lower risk of developing osteoporosis in patients with AF. This association remained significant when individual DOACs were compared with warfarin.
Rotating magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

Decaying turbulence in rotating Magneto-hydrodynamic systems is studied theoretically and numerically. In the linear limit, when the velocity and magnetic perturbations are small, the system supports two types of waves. When the rotation effects are stronger than the ones of the external magnetic field, one of these waves contains most of the kinetic energy (inertial wave) and the other—most of the magnetic energy (magnetostrophic wave). The weak wave turbulence (WWT) theory for decoupled inertial and magnetospheric wave systems was previously derived in Galtier (2014 J. Fluid Mech. 757 114–54). In the present paper, we suggest theory of strong turbulence for such waves based on the critical balance (CB) approach conjecturing that the linear and nonlinear timescales are of similar magnitudes in a wide range of turbulent scales. Regimes of weak and strong wave turbulence are simulated numerically. The results appear to be in good agreement with the WWT and CB predictions, particularly for the exponents of the kinetic and magnetic energy spectra.
Assessing the Effectiveness of Type 2 Diabetes Screening in the Republic of Uzbekistan

Background Type 2 diabetes (T2D) screening should be performed continuously at the primary care level in order to prevent disabling complications. Due to the high prevalence of undiagnosed T2D in the Republic of Uzbekistan, a decision was made to implement a nationwide screening program for T2D. Objectives The current study, taking into account the limited resources of Uzbekistan's health care system, aimed to offer the most effective, simple, and economical option required for the actual implementation of regular T2D screening in the country’s primary care. Methods The screening was conducted from December 2018 to March 2019. There were four different scenarios, which differed in terms of eligibility criteria and the methodology adopted for detecting dysglycemia. Results A total of 2,430 patients were examined in four months. The T2D diagnosis was established by an endocrinologist in 9.3% of the cases with one eligibility criterion and 15.9% of the cases with three eligibility criteria. The diagnosis of T2D was established by an endocrinologist in 11.7% of the cases with HbA1c screening and 13.5% of the cases with glucose screening. Conclusions The screening was feasible in Uzbekistan only in limited conditions. The reasonable strategy was found to be the screening for incidental glycemia in all patients with at least one T2D risk factor. It was recommended that patients with incidental glycemia ≥ 7.8 mmol/L should be tested for fasting glycemia.
Genome-Wide Identification, Expression and Interaction Analysis of GmSnRK2 and Type A PP2C Genes in Response to Abscisic Acid Treatment and Drought Stress in Soybean Plant

As a typical ancient tetraploid, soybean (Glycine max) is an important oil crop species and plays a crucial role in supplying edible oil, plant protein and animal fodder worldwide. As global warming intensifies, the yield of soybean in the field is often strongly restricted by drought stress. SNF1-related protein kinase 2 (SnRK2) and type A protein phosphatase 2C (PP2C-A) family members are core components of the abscisic acid (ABA) signal transduction pathway in plants and have been suggested to play important roles in increasing plant tolerance to drought stress, but genetic information supporting this idea is still lacking in soybean. Here, we cloned the GmSnRK2s and GmPP2C-A family genes from the reference genome of Williams 82 soybean. The results showed that the expression patterns of GmSnRK2s and GmPP2C-As are spatiotemporally distinct. The expression of GmSnRK2s in response to ABA and drought signals is not strictly the same as that of Arabidopsis SnRK2 homologous genes. Moreover, our results indicated that the duplicate pairs of GmSnRK2s and GmPP2C-As have similar expression patterns, cis-elements and relationships. GmSnRK2.2 may have a distinct function in the drought-mediated ABA signaling pathway. Furthermore, the results of yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) assays between GmSnRK2s and GmPP2C-As revealed that GmSnRK2.17, GmSnRK2.18, GmSnRK2.22, GmPP2C5, GmPP2C7, GmPP2C10 and GmPP2C17 may play central roles in the crosstalk among ABA signals in response to drought stress. Furthermore, GmPP2C-As and GmSnRKs were targeted by miRNA and validated by degradome sequencing, which may play multiple roles in the crosstalk between ABA and drought signals and other stress signals. Taken together, these results indicate that GmSnRK2s and GmPP2C-As may play a variety of roles in the drought-mediated ABA signaling pathway.
The spin glass-like dynamics of gelatin gels

We show that there are several striking parallels between the dynamics of gelatin gels and spin glasses. In general, glassy systems retain a memory of their past history. A key characteristic differentiating spin glasses from most other glassy systems is that on cooling they appear to "forget" what happened just below the glass transition temperature, but the memory is recovered on heating. We show that gelatin gels also behave in this way. Both systems show critical scaling of the kinetics with temperature and undergo physical aging, that is they never reach equilibrium, but continue to harden indefinitely at a rate which is linear in log(time). The parallels between the dynamics of these two completely different kinds of condensed matter strongly suggest that they share an underlying theory.
Sex Specific Differences in Response to Calorie Restriction in Skeletal Muscle of Young Rats

Calorie restriction (CR), defined as a reduction of the total calorie intake of 30% to 60% without malnutrition, is the only nutritional strategy that has been shown to extend lifespan, prevent or delay the onset of age-associated diseases, and delay the functional decline in a wide range of species. However, little is known about the effects of CR when started early in life. We sought to analyze the effects of CR in the skeletal muscle of young Wistar rats. For this, 3-month-old male and female rats were subjected to 40% CR or fed ad libitum for 3 months. Gastrocnemius muscles were used to extract RNA and total protein. Western blot and RT-qPCR were performed to evaluate the expression of key markers/pathways modulated by CR and affected by aging. CR decreased body and skeletal muscle weight in both sexes. No differences were found in most senescence, antioxidant, and nutrient sensing pathways analyzed. However, we found a sexual dimorphism in markers of oxidative stress, inflammation, apoptosis, and mitochondrial function in response to CR. Our data show that young female rats treated with CR exhibit similar expression patterns of key genes/pathways associated with healthy aging when compared to old animals treated with CR, while in male rats these effects are reduced. Additional studies are needed to understand how early or later life CR exerts positive effects on healthspan and lifespan.