Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Establishment and validation of surface model for biodosimetry based on γ-H2AX foci detection

Abstract Introduction In the event of a radiation accident detecting γ-H2AX foci is being accepted as fast method for triage and dose assessment. However, due to their disappearance kinetics, published calibrations have been constructed at specific post-irradiation times. Objectives To develop a surface, or tridimensional, model to estimate doses at times not included in the calibration analysis, and to validate it. Materials and methods Calibration data was obtained irradiating peripheral mononucleated cells from one donor with radiation doses ranging from 0 to 3 Gy, and γ -H2AX foci were detected microscopically using a semi-automatic method, at different post-irradiation times from 0.5 to 24 h. For validation, in addition to the above-mentioned donor, blood samples from another donor were also used. Validation was done within the range of doses and post-irradiation times used in the calibration. Results The calibration data clearly shows that at each analyzed time, the γ-H2AX foci frequency increases as dose increases, and for each dose this frequency decreases with post-irradiation time. The γ-H2AX foci nucleus distribution was clearly overdispersed, for this reason to obtain bidimensional and tridimensional dose-effect relationships no probability distribution was assumed, and linear and non-linear least squares weighted regression was used. In the two validation exercises for most evaluated samples, the 95% confidence limits of the estimated dose were between ±0.5 Gy of the real dose. No major differences were observed between donors. Conclusion In case of a suspected overexposure to radiation, the surface model here presented allows a correct dose estimation using γ-H2AX foci as biomarker. The advantage of this surface model is that it can be used at any post-irradiation time, in our model between 0.5 and 24 h.
The effects of phosphatidic acid on performance and body composition - a scoping review

ABSTRACT Phosphatidic acid (PA) is a lipid mediator proposed to increase muscle protein synthesis via direct stimulation of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and may act as an anabolic supplemental aid. Evidence on the effectiveness of PA as an anabolic supplement is equivocal. We aimed to systematically assess the effect of PA on performance and body composition. Due to the small number of studies, this is a scoping review. A comprehensive search was performed in Pubmed, SPORTDiscus and Web of Science, from the 1 January 2010 to the 31 August 2020. Our search retrieved 2009 articles, which when filtered, resulted in six studies, published between 2012 and 2019, which were analysed further. Five studies were performed in adult male populations and one in an elderly male population. From these, three studies suggested no effect of PA on lean body mass , while the remaining showed a possible positive effect (body composition and performance improvements). In one of these, the supplement included other potentially anabolic substances, precluding an isolated effect of PA. After a thorough analysis of the studies included, the evidence does not support the supplementation with PA to increase performance or improve body composition in young or elderly men.
Intrafascicular peripheral nerve stimulation produces fine functional hand movements in primates

Description Intrafascicular stimulation evokes precise and functional hand movements in monkeys, suggesting clinical opportunities for people with hand paralysis. It is TIME to move your hand Upper limb paralysis can develop after spinal cord injury or stroke. Electrical stimulation has been used to partially restore hand movements; however, current approaches using surface or intramuscular stimulation require challenging surgeries and/or have limited efficacy and are associated with important adverse effects. Here, Badi et al. developed an intraneural transverse intrafascicular multichannel electrode (TIME) system, composed of two electrodes for stimulation of the median and radial nerve, that was able to restore hand movements in primates. In a proof-of-principle experiment, one paralyzed monkey was able to perform hand movements using a brain-controlled TIME. Intrafascicular stimulation might be used for generating and allowing fine hand movements in paralyzed patients. Restoring dexterous hand control is critical for people with paralysis. Approaches based on surface or intramuscular stimulation provide limited finger control, generate insufficient force to recover functional movements, and require numerous electrodes. Here, we show that intrafascicular peripheral electrodes could produce functional grasps and sustained forces in three monkeys. We designed an intrafascicular implantable electrode targeting the motor fibers of the median and radial nerves. Our interface selectively and reliably activated extrinsic and intrinsic hand muscles, generating multiple functional grips, hand opening, and sustained contraction forces for up to 2 months. We extended those results to a behaving monkey with transient hand paralysis and used intracortical signals to control simple stimulation protocols that enabled this animal to perform a functional grasping task. Our findings show that just two intrafascicular electrodes can generate a rich portfolio of dexterous and functional hand movements with important implications for clinical applicability.
Early Treatment for Covid-19 with SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Antibody Sotrovimab.

BACKGROUND Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) disproportionately results in hospitalization or death in older patients and those with underlying conditions. Sotrovimab is a pan-sarbecovirus monoclonal antibody that was designed to prevent progression of Covid-19 in high-risk patients early in the course of disease. METHODS In this ongoing, multicenter, double-blind, phase 3 trial, we randomly assigned, in a 1:1 ratio, nonhospitalized patients with symptomatic Covid-19 (≤5 days after the onset of symptoms) and at least one risk factor for disease progression to receive a single infusion of sotrovimab at a dose of 500 mg or placebo. The primary efficacy outcome was hospitalization (for >24 hours) for any cause or death within 29 days after randomization. RESULTS In this prespecified interim analysis, which included an intention-to-treat population of 583 patients (291 in the sotrovimab group and 292 in the placebo group), 3 patients (1%) in the sotrovimab group, as compared with 21 patients (7%) in the placebo group, had disease progression leading to hospitalization or death (relative risk reduction, 85%; 97.24% confidence interval, 44 to 96; P = 0.002). In the placebo group, 5 patients were admitted to the intensive care unit, including 1 who died by day 29. Safety was assessed in 868 patients (430 in the sotrovimab group and 438 in the placebo group). Adverse events were reported by 17% of the patients in the sotrovimab group and 19% of those in the placebo group; serious adverse events were less common with sotrovimab than with placebo (in 2% and 6% of the patients, respectively). CONCLUSIONS Among high-risk patients with mild-to-moderate Covid-19, sotrovimab reduced the risk of disease progression. No safety signals were identified. (Funded by Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKline; COMET-ICE ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04545060.).
History of Sexual Assault Perpetration and Violence-Related Prosocial Tendencies Among Men by Fraternity Affiliation Status

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine self-reported sexual assault perpetration history, as well as violence prevention-related prosocial tendencies, among fraternity men, unaffiliated men with membership intentions, and unaffiliated men without membership intentions with data from 262,634 college men in the United States. Results indicate that fraternity status was related to sexual assault perpetration, both prior to and while at their current institution of higher education; both perpetration history and fraternity status significantly related to diminished violence prevention-related prosocial tendencies. The findings have important implications for future research and practice to reduce the incidents of sexual assault on college campuses.
Impact of age-related macular degeneration on diabetic retinopathy: An electronic health record based big data analysis from a tertiary eye centre in South India

Purpose: To determine whether the presence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) decreases the risk of diabetic retinopathy. Methods: This was a retrospective, case-cohort study performed in patients with a systemic diagnosis of diabetes at a tertiary health care center from May 2011 to April 2020. A total of 43,153 patients (1,024 AMD patients and 42,129 non-AMD patients) were included in the analysis. A total of 1,024 age and diabetes mellitus (DM) duration-matched controls were chosen from the non-AMD group for risk factor analysis. The severity of diabetic retinopathy was compared between the patients with AMD and the patients without AMD. Results: Out of the enrolled 43,153 diabetic patients, 26,906 were males and 16,247 were females. A total of 1,024 patients had AMD and 42,129 had no AMD. The mean age of the cohort was 58.60 ± 0.09 years. The overall prevalence of DR was noted to be 22.8% (9,825 out of 43,153 eyes). A significantly lower prevalence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) (23% in non-AMD, 11.4% in AMD, OR = −0.43, P < 0.001), non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) (12% in non-AMD, 8.2% in AMD, OR = −0.66, P < 0.001), and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) (11% in non-AMD, 3.2% in AMD, OR = −0.27, P < 0.001) was seen in the AMD patients. No significant difference was seen between the dry and wet AMD. On multivariate logistic regression analysis, the lower age, absence of AMD, and male gender were associated with a higher risk of PDR. Conclusion: The presence of AMD was noted to statistically reduce the risk of DR. Our results may be useful in the field of resource allocation and awareness of DR.
Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity on the Basis of the Incretin System: The 2021 Banting Medal for Scientific Achievement Award Lecture

In my lecture given on the occasion of the 2021 Banting Medal for Scientific Achievement, I briefly described the history of the incretin effect and summarized some of the developments leading to current therapies of obesity and diabetes based on the incretin hormones, glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP). In the text below, I discuss in further detail the role of these two hormones for postprandial insulin secretion in humans on the basis of recent studies with antagonists. Their direct and indirect actions on the β-cells are discussed next as well as their contrasting actions on glucagon secretion. After a brief discussion of their effect on insulin sensitivity, I describe their immediate actions in patients with type 2 diabetes and emphasize the actions of GLP-1 on β-cell glucose sensitivity, followed by a discussion of their extrapancreatic actions, including effects on appetite and food intake in humans. Finally, possible mechanisms of action of GIP–GLP-1 coagonists are discussed, and it is concluded that therapies based on incretin actions are likely to change the current hesitant therapy of both obesity and diabetes.
Coupling physically-based modeling and deep learning for long-term global freshwater availability monitoring and prediction

Long-term reconstruction or prediction of spatial and temporal information on land or terrestrial water storage (TWS) dynamics globally is critical and highly challenging. A hybrid approach was proposed to combine the strengths of physically-based modeling and deep learning for estimating global TWS anomalies (TWSA). Specifically, we developed a spatiotemporal attention-based deep learning model (STAU-Net), integrating the U-Net architecture with ConvLSTM layer and convolutional block attention module (CBAM) to learn the spatiotemporal patterns of TWSA observed by GRACE, driven under different predictor combinations, e.g., meteorological forcings, soil properties, and modeled TWSA. Once trained and validated, the model can estimate long-term global TWS dynamics without requiring GRACE TWSA as inputs. The evaluation results suggest that the hybrid approach can provide improved predictions of global TWSA compared to others. This study demonstrates the unique ability of the hybrid approach in global freshwater availability monitoring and prediction.
Estimation of olive groves cover crops net primary productivity using remote sensing data

Cover crop in olive orchards is an increasingly applied soil and water conservation strategy, supported by European policies due to its multiple environmental benefits. To quantify these benefits, supervise and encourage the adoption of this practice, robust and affordable monitoring indicators of the cover crop dynamic and its biomass are required. This work represents the first attempt to estimate the biomass produced by olive grove cover crops based on remotely sensed data and an adaptation of the Monteith efficiencies approach. Ten olive tree fields were selected, distributed in three zones of Southern Spain. They comprised a high environmental variability and differed in the herbaceous layer management: cover crop in strips; non-tillage without strips (full coverage); and conventional tillage. An adaptation of the LUE (Light Use Efficiency)- model was applied to estimate Net Primary Production (NPP) using meteorological and Sentinel-2 data and subtracting the contribution of the wooded vegetation from the ground spectral response. The results showed an uneven adjustment in different fields. RMSD was equal to 650 kg ha-1, with an MBD of -17 kg ha-1, indicating a moderately high error (around 39%) but not too much bias. This error suggests that the model requires further refining, including the adjustment of model parameters to better represent this agrosystem. However, the evolution of biomass accumulation throughout the cover crop growing season and the behaviour of the daily biomass production provided interesting keys about the cover crops’ phenology and management, supporting the discrimination between management practices.
A personal view on pore network models in drying technology

Abstract After 15 years of activity in pore network modeling, the author recalls previously published individual research results and puts them in a broader context. The evolution from a merely academic drying model for fundamental investigations to recent studies of industrial relevance is tracked. The article also recalls the important role of sophisticated experiments with micromodels and real porous materials to validate the theoretical work. Altogether, strong emphasis is put on past and remaining challenges in pore network modeling; and insight is given in the decisions concerning development and use of the various model versions.
Functional Response of Coccinella septempunctata (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) to Different Species of Aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae)

ABSTRACT: Stage-specific functional response of Coccinella septempunctata L. was evaluated under laboratory conditions to varying densities (10, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 150 and 200) of Lipaphis erysimi (Kaltenbach). , Diuraphis noxia Kurdjumov. and Aphis nerii Fonscolombe. Logistic regression analysis of all life stages of C. septempunctata exhibited negative linear-coefficient (P1), confirming a curvilinear type II functional response against all the tested aphid species. The fourth instar of C. septempunctata, in comparison to other stages, exhibited the highest predation activity against D. noxia and A. nerii, with an attack rate (a) of 7.31 h-1, 5.79 h-1 and handling time (Th) of 0.0106 h, 0.0092 h, respectively. Under different densities of L. erysimi, adult females of C. septempunctata exhibited the highest predation activity with an a of 7.58 h-1, followed by the fourth instar with a of 7.31 h-1 and adult male 6.60 h-1 and Th of 0.0066 h, 0.0079 h and 0.0092 h, respectively. The attack rate and handling time estimated for different stages of C. septempunctata showed that the fourth instar of C. septempunctata had the highest attack rate, whereas handling time was variable. Adult females of C. septempunctata showed minimum handling time (0.00013 h) in most of the cases. Our results suggest that the fourth instar larvae and adult female of C. septempunctata are efficient predator for the biological control of L. erysimi, D. noxia and A. nerii. Further field-based studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis.
Upper-Secondary Students’ Strategies for Spatial Tasks

Abstract Spatial thinking is a crucial aspect of geography education with which all citizens should be equipped. This study employs eye-tracking technology to research strategies (their repertoire, distribution, effectiveness, and adaptiveness) used by upper-secondary students when analyzing spatial patterns with thematic maps. The results show that students have a broad repertoire of strategies and are mostly able to adapt them to the specific task demands. Moreover, the efficiency of students’ strategies gradually increases as they get familiar with the task type and the maps analyzed. Based on the findings, how to appropriately develop students’ strategies in geography lessons is suggested.
Nonlocal Concentration, Multimarket Linkages, and Interstate Banking

A variety of forces have combined to encourage large numbers of mergers in the commercial banking industry over the past decade. More frequently, these transactions are combinations of large holding company organizations, with operations in multiple states. Because of the appreciable number of mergers and the large size of the merging organizations, some observers worry that mergerrelated increases in concentration will lead to a reduction in competition. One way this could occur is if these mergers signifi-
What Do Interest Rate Data Say about the Geography of Retail Banking Markets?

Geographic market definitions play a central role in banking antitrust analysis where they provide a starting point for determining whether proposed mergers may lead to substantial increases in market power. Seemingly small differences in market definitions can have dramatic effects on policy outcomes. For example, consider the 1992 merger of Society Corporation and Ameritrust Corporation. The Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the Department of Justice have overlapping responsibilities for evaluating proposed mergers involving bank holding companies. In
Experimental investigation on the performance of composite electrostatic spraying milling using different inner/outer fluid combinations

Abstract Electrostatic spraying (ES) can improve the machining and environmental effects of minimum quantity lubrication (MQL). Compared with ES, composite electrostatic spraying (CES) presents better results because of excellent charging and cooling/lubrication performances. This article investigated the performance of CES milling using different inner/outer fluid combinations in terms of milling force, tool wear and oil mist concentration. Four inner/outer fluid combinations were employed in the study, namely, water/LB2000, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)-water nanofluid/LB2000, water/MWCNTs-LB2000 nanofluid and MWCNTs-water nanofluid/MWCNTs-LB2000 nanofluid. For the analysis of the performance of CES milling, the charging property and atomization stability of CES and the electrowetting performance of composite droplet were measured. The results show that MWCNTs-water nanofluid/LB2000 was the optimal inner/outer fluid combination for CES milling from the view point of machining and environmental performances because of superior charging property, atomization stability and friction-reducing effect of nanoparticles. Highlights The performance of CES milling using different inner/outer fluid combinations was studied in terms of milling force, tool wear and oil mist concentration. The charging property and atomization stability of CES and the electrowetting performance of composite droplet were measured. MWCNTs-water nanofluid/LB2000 was the optimal inner/outer fluid combination for CES milling.
Competition and Bank Mergers: Directions for Analysis from Available Evidence

This article pulls together data and research on consumer and bank behavior, market imperfections, and emerging developments that are relevant to analyzing the competitive effects of bank mergers and antitrust policy toward bank mergers. The competitive effects of bank mergers are currently attracting considerable attention because the industry is undergoing a major merger movement that is likely to continue as a result of recent legislation allowing full nationwide banking. I From 1980-1994, over
A double-averaged Navier-Stokes k – ω turbulence model for wall flows over rough surfaces with heat transfer

The discrete element (roughness) method developed a few decades ago is revisited using the double-averaging technique applied to the Navier-Stokes equation. A -based DANS turbulence model is thus derived to be able to account for roughness effects. Several closure relations are proposed to model all terms induced by the use of the double averaging. The momentum and energy equations are considered in their simplified forms adapted to a 1D channel code in accordance with the DNS results used for the validation. To reconcile the discrete element (roughness) method with the double-averaged Navier-Stokes equations the notion of representative elementary roughness is introduced. A large validation dataset coming from various DNS configurations is then used to assess the predictions of the proposed DANS model. Yet not fully complete, especially regarding the dispersive terms due to a lack of data, the performed validation already proves the overall excellent behaviour of the DANS model and demonstrates the relevance of the present methodology based on the representative elementary roughness.
Enhancing Student Support via the Application of a Voice User Interface System: Insights on User Experience

Within higher education, student support is essential to enhance student learning experiences in order to improve academic success. Key struggles that Computer Science students face during their studies at university include academic writing and programming. As such, many students find these topics challenging whereby even reducing interest in the subject. With the significant growth of technology during recent years to bridge the gap of human computer interaction with the real world, Voice User Interfaces (VUI) can potentially be used as solution within student support systems. This paper investigates the application of a VUI system aimed at providing student support and derives insights on user experience. As part of this study, a VUI prototype was designed and implemented to help Computer Science students in their studies by providing academic guides notably on academic writing, referencing, and programming. Evaluation involved the application of the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) to assess three constructs notably, response behavior, response quality and compensability.
New results on perturbation-based copulas

Abstract A prominent example of a perturbation of the bivariate product copula (which characterizes stochastic independence) is the parametric family of Eyraud-Farlie-Gumbel-Morgenstern copulas which allows small dependencies to be modeled. We introduce and discuss several perturbations, some of them perturbing the product copula, while others perturb general copulas. A particularly interesting case is the perturbation of the product based on two functions in one variable where we highlight several special phenomena, e.g., extremal perturbed copulas. The constructions of the perturbations in this paper include three different types of ordinal sums as well as flippings and the survival copula. Some particular relationships to the Markov product and several dependence parameters for the perturbed copulas considered here are also given.