Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of common variants near INSIG2, in FTO, and near MC4R genes on overweight and the metabolic profile in adolescence: the TRAILS (TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey) Study.

BACKGROUND Overweight is a complex trait in which both environmental and genetic factors play a role. OBJECTIVE We aimed to evaluate the influence of common genetic variants identified by genome-wide association studies on overweight and the metabolic profile in adolescence. DESIGN In a population-based cohort of 663 girls and 612 boys aged 16 y, weight, height, skinfold thicknesses, percentage body fat, waist circumference, blood pressure, glucose, insulin, lipid profile, and DNA were obtained. We defined overweight according to international criteria. We performed multiple linear and logistic regression analyses to assess the influence of candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms near the INSIG2, in the FTO, and near the MC4R genes and repeated-measures analyses of available body mass index (BMI) and skinfold thickness data across 3 visits at ages 11, 13.5, and 16 y. RESULTS A total of 15.1% of participants were overweight or obese at age 16 y. No associations with INSIG2 were found. Common variation in the FTO gene was associated with sex-specific z scores of BMI (B: 0.11; 95% CI: 0.03, 0.19), sum of skinfold thicknesses (B: 0.12; 95% CI: 0.04, 0.20), percentage body fat (B: 0.11; 95% CI: 0.03, 0.19), waist circumference (B: 0.11; 95% CI: 0.03, 0.19), fasting glucose (B: 0.10; 95% CI: 0.00, 0.20), and overweight (odds ratio: 1.34; 95% CI: 1.06, 1.69) at age 16 y. Repeated-measures analyses confirmed the associations for BMI and sum of skinfold thicknesses, and physical activity did not modify these associations. Common variation near the MC4R gene was associated with BMI in cross-sectional (B: 0.11; 95% CI: 0.02, 0.20) and repeated-measures (B: 0.12; 95% CI: 0.03, 0.20) analyses. CONCLUSIONS Common variation in the FTO gene is associated with overall and abdominal adiposity. Variation near the MC4R gene is associated with BMI. These findings in adolescents strengthen and extend the results from previous research.
A single-step synthesis and the kinetic mechanism for monodisperse and hexagonal-phase NaYF4:Yb, Er upconversion nanophosphors

A single-step synthesis for monodisperse and hexagonal-phase (β) NaYF4:Yb, Er upconversion nanophosphors (UCNPs) with a consistent hexagonal prism shape in the size range from 18 to 200 nm was achieved. The kinetic mechanisms for the particle phase transition and growth were examined. The β-UCNPs were obtained via co-thermolysis of trifluoroacetate precursors in octadecene (ODE) with combined ligands of oleic acid (OA) and trioctylphosphine (TOP). The experimental results showed that the combined OA–TOP ligand was crucial for changing the surface energy and controlling the particle shape over a broad size range. It was found that the particle sizes could be controlled by varying the molar ratios of Na(CF3COO)/Re(CF3COO)3 (Re = Y, Yb, and Er). A high Na/Re ratio accelerated the cubic-phase transition and promoted the growth of smaller β-UCNPs. The formation of β-UCNPs was classified into kinetic and diffusion controlled stages, depending on the reaction temperature and the dominant crystalline phases formed in each stage. In stage I, 250–310 °C, NaF generation was the limiting step and α-UCNPs were formed via a ‘burst of nucleation’. In stage II, above 310 °C, the α-UCNPs formed were re-dissolved and the growth of β-UCNPs was a diffusion controlled process governed by the Gibbs–Thompson effect. A quasi-steady-state species assumption for NaF and a chemical potential equilibrium in the solution were introduced to explain the particle size dependence on Na/Re ratios. The study of UC luminescence showed that the UC intensity was proportional to the sizes of the β-UCNPs.
A Language and Preprocessor for User-Controlled Generation of Synthetic Programs

We describe Genesis, a language for the generation of synthetic programs. The language allows users to annotate a template program to customize its code using statistical distributions and to generate program instances based on those distributions. This effectively allows users to generate programs whose characteristics vary in a statistically controlled fashion, thus improving upon existing program generators and alleviating the difficulties associated with ad hoc methods of program generation. We describe the language constructs, a prototype preprocessor for the language, and five case studies that show the ability of Genesis to express a range of programs. We evaluate the preprocessor’s performance and the statistical quality of the samples it generates. We thereby show that Genesis is a useful tool that eases the expression and creation of large and diverse program sets.
Perspectives of geothermal water use in the Podhale Basin according to geothermal step distribution

At present, hydro-geothermal resources in which waters in bores are the carrier of heat energy have commercial importance in Poland. Geothermal waters should feature the highest possible temperature in the outflow, low mineral content, high capacity and low deposit depth. Even though geothermal energy is included in renewable sources of energy, complete depletion of the deposit is the largest risk in extracting geothermal waters. This is why these waters should also feature deposit renewability. There are currently several geothermal provinces with beneficial geothermal conditions in Poland, with the area of the Podhale Basin in the Inner Carpathians region being regarded as the most promising. The Podhale deposit also meets all of the above listed conditions. The possibility of using hydrothermal energy in Poland is practically available throughout the country, but operational use of hot groundwater must be profitable for investors. From another point of view, the environmental impact of such investments should be minimized. This paper is concerned with the special variety of temperature of geothermal waters extracted in the area of the Podhale Basin, which is the basic aspect in using deposits of this type.
Investigation of Water Losses in Water Supply System: Muscat as a Case Study

One of the problems affecting water supply systems in Oman is the problem of water loss and Non-Revenue Water (NRW). The aim of this research is to carry out water auditing for Al Seeb water distribution network as a case study to estimate the water losses, NRW, water balance, and the resulting financial and operational impacts. Annual data on water supplies, water consumption, system data, and cost data for the years from 2010 to 2014 was collected from the Public Authority for Electricity and Water (PAEW) and the analysis was done using the American Water Works Association (AWWA) audit software to determine water losses including real and apparent losses, NRW, water balance, and the cost. The results indicated that the average of apparent loss, real loss, and NRW from 2010 to 2014 was approximately 19.5%, 21%, and 40 % respectively. It was estimated that the average annual cost of NRW between the years 2010 and 2014 was approximately 9.4 million USD, which was approximately 33% of the total revenue budget. In conclusion, there is a need for the development of water management systems to provide the best management practice system to further minimize NRW problems in Oman.
Heuristics for Scenario Creation to Enable General Loop Transformations

Embedded system applications can have quite complex control flow graphs (CFGs). Often their control flow prohibits design time optimizations, like advanced global loop transformations. To solve this problem, and enable far more global optimizations, we could consider paths of the CFG in isolation. However coding all paths separately would cause a tremendous code copying. In practice we have to trade-off the extra optimization opportunities vs. the code size. To make this trade-off, in this paper we use so-called system scenarios. These scenarios bundle similar control paths, while still allowing sufficient optimizations. The problem treated in this paper is: what are the right scenarios; i.e., which paths should be grouped together. For complex CFGs the number of possible scenarios (ways of grouping CFG paths) is huge; it grows exponentially with the number of CFG paths. Therefore heuristics are needed to quickly discover reasonable groupings. The main contribution of this paper is that we propose and evaluate three of these heuristics on both synthetic benchmarks and on a real-life application.
Uncertainty Cost Functions for Renewable Generation: A Simplified Approach using a Mixture of Uniform Probability Distribution

Photovoltaic energy, wind energy, and plug-in electric/hybrid vehicles are being considered as sources and loads, reflecting the increasing importance of renewable energy resources in new microgrids. However, the stochastic behavior of variables such as wind turbine speed, solar irradiation intensity and, plugin electric vehicle dynamics, introduces uncertainties that could affect the economic dispatch of electric power. This paper employs a mixture of uniform probability distribution (UPDs) techniques to characterize the variability of the available power from renewable energy sources. We propose a new analytical expression derived from the mixture of UPDs to calculate Uncertainty Cost Functions (UCFs), thereby assessing their impact on the economic dispatch of power. Finally, we performed Montecarlo simulations to validate our UCF methodology and its potential applicability in economic dispatch of power. The results demonstrate that our methodology accurately calculates the underestimated and overestimated costs of uncertainty power generation. This methodology holds the potential to optimize economic dispatch, thereby reducing costs and maximizing power generation from the generators.
Effects of alternate representations of evidential relations on collaborative learning discourse

Over the past decade or so, a number of software environments have been created to support students engaged in collaborative investigations in science (e.g., Belvedere, CoVis, CSILE, SenseMaker, and WebCamile). These environments have used a variety of representations for recording information such as alternate hypotheses, empirical observations, and evidential relations (e.g., node-link graphs, structured lists, and containers). There are both empirical and theoretical reasons to believe that the expressive constraints imposed by a representation and the information (or lack of information) that a representation makes salient may have important effects on students' discourse during collaborative learning. However, to date no systematic study has been undertaken to explore possible effects. This paper outlines a research agenda to address this need; provides theoretically motivated predictions; and reports initial results from a pilot study. Students worked together in groups of two on hypertext-based "science challenge" problems. Two groups used each of free text (MS Word), matrix (Excel) or graph (Belvedere) representations of evidence, for a total of six groups. Analysis of discourse transcripts suggests that these representations have quite different effects on the extent to which students discuss evidential relations.
Collocation Extraction using Parallel Corpus

This paper presents a novel method to extract the collocations of the Persian language using a parallel corpus. The method is applicable having a parallel corpus between a target language and any other high-resource one. Without the need for an accurate parser for the target side, it aims to parse the sentences to capture long distance collocations and to generate more precise results. A training data built by bootstrapping is also used to rank the candidates with a log-linear model. The method improves the precision and recall of collocation extraction by 5 and 3 percent respectively in comparison with the window-based statistical method in terms of being a Persian multi-word expression.
An A14U Substitution in the 3′ Noncoding Region of the M Segment of Viral RNA Supports Replication of Influenza Virus with an NS1 Deletion by Modulating Alternative Splicing of M Segment mRNAs

ABSTRACT The NS1 protein of influenza virus has multiple functions and is a determinant of virulence. Influenza viruses with NS1 deletions (DelNS1 influenza viruses) are a useful tool for studying virus replication and can serve as effective live attenuated vaccines, but deletion of NS1 severely diminishes virus replication, hampering functional studies and vaccine production. We found that WSN-DelNS1 viruses passaged in cells consistently adapted to gain an A14U substitution in the 3′ noncoding region of the M segment of viral RNA (vRNA) which restored replicative ability. DelNS1-M-A14U viruses cannot inhibit interferon expression in virus infected-cells, providing an essential model for studying virus replication in the absence of the NS1 protein. Characterization of DelNS1-M-A14U virus showed that the lack of NS1 has no apparent effect on expression of other viral proteins, with the exception of M mRNAs. Expression of the M transcripts, M1, M2, mRNA3, and mRNA4, is regulated by alternative splicing. The A14U substitution changes the splicing donor site consensus sequence of mRNA3, altering expression of M transcripts, with M2 expression significantly increased and mRNA3 markedly suppressed in DelNS1-M-A14U, but not DelNS1-M-WT, virus-infected cells. Further analysis revealed that the A14U substitution also affects promoter function during replication of the viral genome. The M-A14U mutation increases M vRNA synthesis in DelNS1 virus infection and enhances alternative splicing of M2 mRNA in the absence of other viral proteins. The findings demonstrate that NS1 is directly involved in influenza virus replication through modulation of alternative splicing of M transcripts and provide strategic information important to construction of vaccine strains with NS1 deletions. IMPORTANCE Nonstructural protein (NS1) of influenza virus has multiple functions. Besides its role in antagonizing host antiviral activity, NS1 is also believed to be involved in regulating virus replication, but mechanistic details are not clear. The NS1 protein is a virulence determinant which inhibits both innate and adaptive immunity and live attenuated viruses with NS1 deletions show promise as effective vaccines. However, deletion of NS1 causes severe attenuation of virus replication during infection, impeding functional studies and vaccine development. We characterized a replication-competent DelNS1 virus which carries an A14U substitution in the 3′ noncoding region of the vRNA M segment. We found that M-A14U mutation supports virus replication through modulation of alternative splicing of mRNAs transcribed from the M segment. Our findings give insight into the role of NS1 in influenza virus replication and provide an approach for constructing replication-competent strains with NS1 deletions for use in functional and vaccine studies.
Stressors and Solutions: A Preliminary Examination of Acculturative Stress among International Students.

Despite ample literature regarding acculturative stress among international students, there is a gap in the literature synthesizing the sources of acculturative stress and the coping strategies that can help international students to deal with acculturative stress. In this systematic literature review, we aim to investigate the current state of acculturative stress among international students, through empirical research published in peer-reviewed journals between the years 2018 and 2022. Using a predetermined review protocol, this review analyzed 66 publications on acculturative stress for international students. These studies were mainly published in 2021 in the Journal of International Students. The preliminary findings provide a comprehensive range of sources for acculturative stress that can be broken down into four levels: Macro (socio-economic factors from both home and host countries or national level), Meso (institutional factors), Micro (individual, personal, or psychosocial factors). Drawn upon the sources of acculturative stress, international students are expected to reduce acculturative stress by improving their English proficiency, practicing self-compassion, adopting a positive perspective, adjusting expectations and perfectionism, attending serious leisure engagement, and seeking social support. The findings from this review will be used to help policy makers and university leaders and managers to better optimize their resources to improve international students’ acculturation experience and enhance the overall higher education system.
Pathogenesis of demyelination induced by a mouse hepatitis.

Demyelinative lesions were produced in mice by inoculation of JHM virus, a neurotropic strain of mouse hepatitis virus. The production of these lesions was dependent on dosage of virus, age of mice, and route of inoculation. In animals with demyelination, fluorescent antibody staining showed viral antigen was most prominent in the cells of the white matter. No immunopathologic mechanism for demyelination was apparent. No fixation of immunoglobulins in the lesions was seen, nor did immunosuppression with cyclophosphamide prevent demyelination. Focal hepatitis, usually a concomitant finding with white-matter disease, could be prevented without altering the demyelinative lesions. Demyelination in JHM virus-infected mice appeared to be the direct result of infection of glial cells of the white matter.
Brain‐Derived Neurotrophic Factor and Substrate Utilization Following Acute Aerobic Exercise in Obese Individuals

Brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) serves as a vital regulator of neuronal proliferation and survival, and has been shown to regulate energy homeostasis, glucose metabolism and body weight maintenance. Elevated concentrations of plasma BDNF have been associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Acute aerobic exercise transiently increases circulating BDNF, potentially correcting obesity‐related metabolic impairment. The present study aimed to compare acute aerobic exercise elicited BDNF responses in obese and normal‐weight subjects. Furthermore, we aimed to investigate whether acute exercise‐induced plasma BDNF elevations would be associated with improved indices of insulin resistance, as well as substrate utilization [carbohydrate oxidation (CHOoxi) and fat oxidation (FAToxi)]. Twenty‐two healthy, untrained subjects [11 obese (four men and seven women; age = 22.91 ± 4.44 years; body mass index = 35.72 ± 4.17 kg/m2) and 11 normal‐weight (five men and six women; age = 23.27 ± 2.24 years; body mass index = 21.89 ± 1.63 kg/m2)] performed 30 min of continuous submaximal aerobic exercise at 75% maximal oxygen consumption. Our analyses showed that the BDNF response to acute aerobic exercise was similar in obese and normal‐weight subjects across time (time: P = 0.015; group: P = not significant) and was not associated with indices of IR. Although no differences in the rates of CHOoxi and FAToxi were found between both groups, total relative energy expenditure was significantly lower in obese subjects compared to normal‐weight subjects (3.53 ± 0.25 versus 5.59 ± 0.85; P < 0.001). These findings suggest that acute exercise‐elicited BDNF elevation may not be sufficient to modulate indices of IR or the utilization of either carbohydrates or fats in obese individuals.
Overexpression Causes Growth Arrest and Multinuclearity and Is Associated with Aneuploidy in Human Breast Cancer 1

HET/SAF-B was originally cloned as a nuclear matrix protein that bound to matrix attachment regions and as a transcriptional repressor of the small heat shock protein hsp27. In addition, we have found recently that HET/SAF-B is also a corepressor of estrogen receptor activity. Estrogen receptor has a very well-described role in breast cancer, and aberrant expression of nuclear matrix and heat shock proteins has also been implicated in breast tumorigenesis. Therefore, we asked whether HET/SAF-B itself could be important in breast cancer. Toward this goal we examined its expression in breast cancer cell lines and asked whether HET/SAF-B can affect breast cancer cell proliferation. Finally, we studied HET/SAF-B expression in clinical breast cancer samples. HET/SAF-B protein and mRNA were detected at varying levels in all of the eight breast cancer cell lines examined. Using a number of different approaches to modulate the level of HET/SAF-B protein in the cell, we found that HET/ SAF-B levels are inversely correlated with cell proliferation. In addition, transfection of HET/SAF-B fused to the green fluorescent protein led to the formation of multinucleated cells not observed in cells transfected with green fluorescent protein alone, suggesting that this effect is a direct result of HET/SAF-B overexpression. Western blot analysis of HET/ SAF-B in 61 human breast tumors revealed widely varying levels of HET/SAF-B expression, with some tumors (16%) lacking any detectable HET/SAF-B. Statistical analysis showed that high HET/SAF-B expression in these tumors was associated with low S-phase fraction and with aneuploidy, consistent with our results from transfection experiments in tissue culture cells. We conclude that HET/SAF-B plays an important role in breast cancer, and we discuss possible mechanisms of the involvement of HET/SAF-B in cell proliferation and division.
A Reduction Method for Multiplication in Finite Fields

We propose a new table lookup based reduction method for performing the modular reduction operation, which can be used to obtain fast software implementations of the finite field multiplication and squaring operations. The reduction algorithm has both left-to-right and right-to-left versions, which respectively improve the standard and Montgomery multiplication methods in GF (2). We also treat in detail the case in which special irreducible polynomials, e.g., the trinomials and allone-polynomials, are used to generate the field. Furthermore, we show that the proposed reduction method also works in the integer case for the right-to-left reduction algorithm if the modulus n is an odd number. However, the table lookup based left-to-right reduction algorithm in the integer case is generally inefficient.
Hard times and European youth. The effect of economic insecurity on human values, social attitudes and well‐being

While economic downturns have adverse effects on young people's life chances, empirical studies examining whether and to what extent human values, social attitudes and well‐being indicators respond to sudden economic shocks are scarce. To assess the claim that human values are less affected by economic shocks than social attitudes and well‐being, two distinct yet related studies based on the European Social Survey (ESS) are conducted. The first employs a fixed effects pseudo‐panel analysis of the 2008–2014 ESS‐waves to detect whether changes over time in the socio‐demographic group's unemployment risk and national youth unemployment affect individual dispositions to varying degrees. The second study captures micro‐ and cross‐national effects in the 2010 ESS cross‐section. Unique for this set‐up is that we can test whether the findings hold for over‐time changes in youth unemployment within countries (pseudo‐panel), as well as for cross‐country differences in youth unemployment (multilevel). Both studies indicate that political trust, satisfaction with the economy and subjective well‐being are lowered by economic risk and hardship, while social trust and self‐rated health are less affected by changes in youth unemployment. Secondly, human values are immune to economic risk, underscoring that values transcend specific situations and are therefore resistant against sudden economic shocks.