Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Association Between Monocyte Subsets and Cardiometabolic Disorders/Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Monocyte subsets in humans, i.e., classical (CM), intermediate (IM), and non-classical monocytes (NCM), are thought to differentially contribute to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, the leading cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, the association between monocyte subsets and cardiometabolic disorders and CVD is not well-understood. Thus, the aim of the current systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate recent findings from clinical studies that examined the association between the distribution of monocyte subsets in subjects with cardiometabolic disorders and CVD compared to healthy controls. Methods: Articles were systematically searched in CINAHL, PubMed and Cochrane Library. Articles were independently screened and selected by two reviewers. Studies that reported the percentage of each monocyte subset were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. For the meta-analysis, a random-effects model was used to generate pooled standardized mean differences (SMD) between subjects with cardiometabolic disorders and healthy controls. Results: A total of 1,693 articles were screened and 27 studies were selected for qualitative analyses. Among them, six studies were included in the meta-analysis. In total, sample size ranged from 22 to 135 and mean or median age from 22 to 70 years old. We found studies that reported higher percentage and number of IM and/or NCM in subjects with cardiometabolic disorders (9 out of 13 studies) and in subjects with CVD (11 out of 15 studies) compared to healthy controls. In the meta-analysis, the percentage of CM was lower [SMD = −1.21; 95% CI (−1.92, −0.50); P = 0.0009; I2 = 91%] and the percentage of IM [SMD = 0.56; 95% CI (0.23, 0.88); P = 0.0008; I2 = 65%] and NCM [SMD = 1.39; 95% CI (0.59, 2.19); P = 0.0007; I2 = 93%] were higher in subjects with cardiometabolic disorders compared to healthy controls. Conclusions: Individuals with cardiometabolic disorders and CVD may have a higher percentage of IM and NCM than healthy controls. Future studies are needed to evaluate the cause and biological significance of this potential altered distribution of monocyte subsets.
The Latest Overview of circRNA in the Progression, Diagnosis, Prognosis, Treatment, and Drug Resistance of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the main causes of tumor-related deaths worldwide. Due to the lack of obvious early symptoms and the lack of sensitive screening indicators in the early stage of HCC, the vast majority of patients are diagnosed with advanced or metastatic HCC, resulting in dissatisfactory treatment result. Therefore, it is urgent to determine effective and sensitive diagnostic and prognostic indicators and to determine new therapeutic targets. Circular RNA (circRNA) is a type of non-coding RNA that has been neglected for a long time. In recent years, it has been proved to play an important role in the development of many human diseases. Increasing evidence shows that change in circRNA expression has an extensive effect on the biological behavior of HCC. In this study, we comprehensively tracked the latest progress of circRNA in the pathogenesis of HCC, and reviewed its role as a biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis prediction in patients with HCC. In addition, we also summarized the potential of circRNA as therapeutic target in HCC and its relationship with HCC drug resistance, providing clues for the clinical development of circRNA-based therapeutic strategies.
Race and Genetics in Congenital Heart Disease: Application of iPSCs, Omics, and Machine Learning Technologies

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a multifaceted cardiovascular anomaly that occurs when there are structural abnormalities in the heart before birth. Although various risk factors are known to influence the development of this disease, a full comprehension of the etiology and treatment for different patient populations remains elusive. For instance, racial minorities are disproportionally affected by this disease and typically have worse prognosis, possibly due to environmental and genetic disparities. Although research into CHD has highlighted a wide range of causal factors, the reasons for these differences seen in different patient populations are not fully known. Cardiovascular disease modeling using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) is a novel approach for investigating possible genetic variants in CHD that may be race specific, making it a valuable tool to help solve the mystery of higher incidence and mortality rates among minorities. Herein, we first review the prevalence, risk factors, and genetics of CHD and then discuss the use of iPSCs, omics, and machine learning technologies to investigate the etiology of CHD and its connection to racial disparities. We also explore the translational potential of iPSC-based disease modeling combined with genome editing and high throughput drug screening platforms.
Combustion of Boron Particles at Atmospheric Pressure

Abstract Single particles of pure crystalline boron were injected into streams of hot oxidizing gases, generated by a gas-burner, at atmospheric pressure. Two powder samples, having average diameters of 34.5 and 44.2 μ respectively, were studied. Gas temperatures were varied from 1800 to 2900 °K, mole fractions of oxygen from 0.08 to 0.37, and mole fractions of water from 0 to 0.21. Qualitative photographic and spectroscopic observations of the panicle combustion process are described. Ignition temperatures of boron particles, 1850 to 2000 °K, were found to be independent of particle size and of gas temperature, but affected by the composition of ambient gases. Burning times, ranging from 10 to 40 msec, were found to be inversely proportional to the mole fraction of oxygen in the gas, to decrease slightly with increasing gas temperature, and to decrease substantially with addition of water vapor. Experimentally determined burning rates are correlated with diffusion rates of gaseous oxidants to the surface.
The semiconductor mechanism of dissolution and the pseudo-passivation of chalcopyrite

The dissolution of chalcopyrite has received a significant amount of attention. The predominant paradigm of investigation is that its rate of dissolution is limited or passivated by a surface coating or film of material. The common candidates for such a passivating coating are numerous: polysulphide coating, metal deficient layers, copper sulphide coating, bornite layers, jarosite precipitates, and elemental sulphur films. While this line of explanation, that is, the explanation based on passivation, seems to have won some form of consensus with researchers, there is another explanation for the results that can account for all the results observed. Crundwell1 proposed that the solid state properties of chalcopyrite, in particular, the semiconducting properties, are responsible for the observed behaviour of chalcopyrite. This paper outlines the semiconductor mechanism of dissolution, shows how this mechanism accounts for the dissolution behaviour of chalcopyrite, and provides clear reasoning for the slow dissolution kinetics of chalcopyrite. In particular, an explanation is provided for: (i) the shape of the current–voltage curve, (ii) for the flat region between 0·3 and 0·6 V v. SCE; (iii) the onset of the active region from 0·6 V v. SCE onwards; (iv) the reactivity of redox couples; and (v) for the preferential dissolution of iron. In addition, the explanation makes a prediction for the effect of light, for which results are presented.
Persister Cells Form in the Plant Pathogen Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri under Different Stress Conditions

Citrus canker disease, caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri is a constant threat to citrus-producing areas. Since it has no cure, agricultural practices to restrain its dissemination are essential to reduce the economic damage. Hence, increased knowledge of the basic aspects of X. citri biology could lead to more efficient management practices that can eliminate dormant bacteria in the field. The dormant cells, also referred to as persisters, are phenotypic variants with lowered metabolism, which in turn leads to tolerance to antimicrobials and undermines existing control approaches. We show here that X. citri forms persisters, identifying triggers for this phenotype, including antibiotics, high temperature, and metals (copper and zinc), which increase persistence rates by 10–100 times. The antioxidant N-acetylcysteine reduced copper and zinc-induced persisters, but not those induced by tetracycline, indicating that oxidative stress may be an important inducer of X. citri persistence. In addition, we found that metabolism-independent drugs like cisplatin and mitomycin C are able to eliminate X. citri persistent cells, as well as copper, at high concentrations. Specific amino acids like proline and isoleucine interfered with the physiological balance of the dormancy in X. citri, stimulating or preventing persister resuscitation. Taken together, we discover chemicals that can induce, wake, and kill X. citri persister cells; these results provide insights that should be considered for more efficient integrated control management in the field.
Irrigated Silage Maize Yield and Water Productivity Response to Deficit Irrigation in an Arid Region

Simulation models have proven to be useful. The AquaCrop model, which has been expanded by FAO, simulates crop yield based on the applied water under conditions of full and deficit irrigation levels. In this study, the AquaCrop model’s performance was tested using data for silage maize (Zea mays L.) under full (100% fulfillment of ETc) and deficit irrigation levels (90, 80, 70, and 60% of full irrigation) in the arid and semiarid environment of central Iran in the Gavkhuni River Basin (GRB). To calibrate this model, we used physiological measurement sets of cropping seasons 2000 to 2002. AquaCrop simulated well the decrease of the biomass yield (B-yield) of silage maize in response to drought as happened in the field. B-yield was decreased by 9.9% under deficit irrigation as compared to fully irrigated conditions. The coefficient of determination (R 2 ) for simulation of B-yield and water productivity (WP) was 0.95 and 0.99, respectively. But the R 2 =0.77 was not satisfactory for actual evapotranspiration (ETa). The results for all investigated parameters in the three years showed that RMSE, d, ME, CRM, and E values ranged from 0.90% to 3.85%, 0.98 to 1, 1.25% to 6.4%, -0.027 to 0.03, and 0.817 to 100%, respectively. At the end, a local second-degree polynomial crop water production function (CWPF) for silage maize is presented.
Metabolic response to cold air in men and women in relation to total body fat content

Eight healthy young men (ages 19–35), four older men (ages 38–42), three obese subjects (two women and one man, ages 20–34) were individually exposed on one or more occasions to 10 C (50 F) air in the Metabolic Chamber for periods of 2–4 hr. A minimal amount of clothing was worn: the males wore shorts and the females wore halters and shorts. Air movement was routinely less than 50 ft/min and relative humidity 50% or less. Body fatness among the subjects ranged from 13 to 45% of body weight. The metabolic response to cold determined from Vo2 and Vco2 was significantly and inversely related to per cent body fat according to the regression equation: kcal/(m2·hr) = 65.2 – 0.520 (% fat) ± 0.115. Total body insulation after 2 hr of exposure was significantly and directly related to per cent body fat and inversely related to the metabolic response. Despite these significant relationships, wide individual differences were observed in the metabolic response to cold between pairs of subjects of like age, previous history of cold exposure, and body fatness.
Behavioral effects of essential oil of Citrus aurantium L. inhalation in rats

The orange essential oil (OEO) and its components obtained from Citrus aurantium L. (Rutaceae) has been attracting interest due to its sedative and relaxing actions. In the present study, rats previously exposed to OEO at the concentrations of 1.0%; 2.5% and 5.0%, w/w, by inhalation during 7 minutes in acrylic boxes were evaluated in two anxiety models: elevated plus maze (EPM) and open-field. The OEO at the concentration of 2.5% increased both the time of the animals in the open arms of the EPM and the time of active social interaction in the open-field being longer than that of the diazepam group (1.5 mg/kg i.p). In conclusion, the decrease in the level of emotionality of the animals observed in the two experimental models suggests a possible central action, which is in agreement with the phytochemical profile of the oil under study, since it showed the presence of limonene (96.24%) and mircene (2.24%), components with a well-known depressant activity on the central nervous system.
Generation of Hematite Nanoparticles via Sol-Gel Method

Nanocrystalline �-Fe 2O3 (hematite) particles were successfully synthesized by sol-gel method using gelatin as a polymerizing agent. The main advantage of using gelatin is that it provides long-term stability for nanoparticles and by preventing the particles agglomeration. The precursor compound was calcined at a temperature of 600°C. The shape, size and chemical state of the synthesized powders were structurally characterized by TGA, SEM, TEM, powder XRD, FT-IR and UV–Vis spectral techniques. The thermal behavior of precursor compound was studied by using TGA results. Uniform spherical like morphology was confirmed by SEM photomicrographs and TEM result revealed the particle morphology was pseudo spherical in nature and particle sizes was around 30–40 nm. The UV–Visible spectrum was noticed the absorption and also the band gap is around 2.2 eV. The sol-gel synthesized �-Fe 2O3 powder was simple, cost effective and eco-friendly in nature and also can be extended to prepare nanosized particles of other interesting materials.
Biosynthesis of high concentration, stable aqueous dispersions of silver nanoparticles using Citrus limon extract

Stable aqueous dispersions with high concentration of silver nanoparticles were synthesized by a facile and green synthetic route by treating silver ions with aqueous Citrus limon extract, used as a reducing and capping agent. The formation and growth of silver nanoparticles, prepared by this simple and convenient method, was monitored using UV-visible absorption spectroscopy. The effects of Ag concentration, Citrus limon extract concentration, in-situ and ex-situ pH variations upon NaOH addition on the structural, optical and plasmonic properties of the synthesized Ag nanoparticles were investigated. X-ray diffraction studies revealed the formation of Ag nanoparticles, whose morphology was studied using atomic force microscopy. UV-visible absorption studies revealed surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peak around 465 nm, confirming the presence of Ag nanoparticles. The SPR peak blue shifted along with significant enhancement in intensity with increase in Ag concentration and pH, due to the growth and increased aggregation of Ag nanoparticles. We have shown that addition of NaOH is a key to rapid biosynthesis of stable aqueous dispersions of high concentration of silver nanoparticles. This green synthetic route provides faster synthesis of silver nanoparticles with improved colloidal stability, which can be used in foods, cosmetics and biomedical applications. Copyright © 2015 VBRI press.
Innovative solutions in the development of households’ financial awareness: A Hungarian example

DOI: 10.14254/2071789X.2020/13-3/2 ABSTRACT. Financial crises put stress on the society of the country of our investigation, whose financial vulnerability is raising from high indebtedness, a history of defaulted loans, and an insufficient level of financial literacy. In this context, financial awareness has been recognised as a means for decreasing households’ exposure to financial difficulties, bridging crisis periods with the substantial precautionary holding of liquid assets, and improving their well-being over longer periods of time. Raising financial awareness is a crucial policy aim, and has been investigated in this study as well. A questionnaire survey was completed by Hungarian university students across different majors, to assess the financial literacy level of the responders from their own perspective. In addition to this, we have investigated their e-banking habits. According to our findings, different student groups (clusters) have been identified by means of Ward analysis (where the significance of clusters were tested by ANOVA). Our results confirm that across all clusters the university students place their trust in non-governmental organisations and central bank foundations rather than those of the financial institutions in evolving financial literacy. This outcome of our study may provide an argument for designing policy incentives for raising financial awareness in an institutionalised way, relying on the role of the privately funded NGOs and on the central bank.
Effect of unsaturated fatty acid esters of biodiesel fuels on combustion, performance and emission characteristics of a DI diesel engine

Many studies have reported that exhaust from biodiesel fuel gives higher oxides of nitrogen or lower, while HC and smoke emissions are significantly lower than that of diesel fuel. Possible explanations are: the physical properties and fatty acid composition of biodiesel affecting the spray and the mixture formation with reduced heat losses. The aim of this present investigation is to study the effect of unsaturated fatty acid composition of biodiesel on combustion, performance and emissions characteristics of a diesel engine. For this experiment thirteen different biodiesel fuels with different fatty acid compositions were selected. The performance and emissions tests on a single cylinder DI diesel engine were conducted using same biodiesel fuels. The results showed that biodiesel having more unsaturated fatty acids emit more oxides of nitrogen and exhibit lower thermal efficiency compared to biodiesel having more saturated acids. No significant differences in HC and smoke emissions among the biodiesel fuels were noticed. Thermal efficiency and NOX emission of saturated biodiesel is comparatively better than other biodiesel. Combustion analysis results show that high unsaturated fatty acid biodiesel has longer premixed combustion and high peak pressure compared to that of high saturated fatty acid biodiesel. Copyright © 2010 International Energy and Environment Foundation All rights reserved.
A Study of the Effect of Dropout on Imbalanced Data Classification using Deep Neural Networks

— Learning from real-world data and classifying them according to their characteristics is an active area of research in machine learning. However, the imbalanced nature of the real-world data is still a challenging task whether it is a binary class or a multi-class problem. In recent years, the use of Deep Neural Network (DNN) for classification has been very popular among different fields. Although DNN is suitable to handle complex classification tasks, co-adaptation among the units of the DNN model leads to overfitting. Therefore, various regularization techniques have been introduced to reduce overfitting and improve generalization. In this paper, a study is conducted to investigate the impact of the Dropout rates of the DNN with imbalanced data. To our best knowledge, there is not much prior study on this. In this study, the imbalanced data is balanced using three popular techniques, and thereafter the Dropout regularization technique is applied. With the use of the evaluation metric ROC AUC (Receiver Operating Characteristic Area Under Curve), this study has identified the impact of the dropout rates for imbalanced data classification using DNNs.
Indications and technical details of sublobar resections for small-sized lung cancers based on tumor characteristics

With the recent increase in small-sized lung cancers, sublobar resection and minimally invasive surgeries are becoming preferred. In particular, the detection of ground-glass nodules (GGNs) on high-resolution computed tomography has increased. Although lobectomy has been considered a standard procedure for treating lung cancer, sublobar resections have been indicated for treating GGN-dominant small-sized lung cancers. Wedge resection and segmentectomy have generally been performed as sublobar resection; however, each procedure has some technical advantages and disadvantages. Although anatomical resection as a segmentectomy is a complicated procedure, it has recently been increasingly performed with the accurate anatomical grasp using three-dimensional computed tomography and the identification of the intersegmental plane. Other procedures involving the use of newer technologies can also be performed. Individualized sublobar resection might be a suitable procedure for small-sized lung cancer with the appropriate selection of procedures based on each tumor’s characteristics and improving the methods to overcome some technical difficulties.
SSW-GAN: SCALABLE STAGE-WISE TRAINING OF VIDEO GANS

Current state-of-the-art generative models for videos have high computational requirements that impede high resolution generations beyond a few frames. In this work we propose a stage-wise strategy to train Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) for videos. We decompose the generative process to ﬁrst produce a downsampled video that is then spatially upscaled and temporally interpolated by subsequent stages. Upsampling stages are applied locally on temporal chunks of previous outputs to manage the computational complexity. Stages are deﬁned as Generative Adversarial Networks, which are trained sequentially and independently. We validate our approach on Kinetics-600 and BDD100K, for which we train a three stage model capable of generating 128x128 videos with 100 frames
Disponibilidade de fósforo em solos cultivados com arroz irrigado por alagamento no Rio Grande do Sul

In the paddy rice soils in the of Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil, most inorganic P is bound to Fe oxides. It is expected that an extractant that has the capacity to extract P adsorbed to these oxides would be more efficient to evaluate the availabil-ity to rice plants. A study was carried out in a greenhouse, with five soils samples from the State of Rio Grande do Sul, to evaluate P availability to rice, extracted by the following methods: Mehlich-1, Mehlich-3, anion exchange resin, Olsen and P-oxalate. The soils were first incubated with three doses of triple superphosphate and then planted with rice, in under anaerobic conditions, during 38 days. The determination coefficient between P uptake by rice plants and soil-extracted P was: 0.83* for Mehlich-1, 0.81* for Mehlich-3, 0.88* for anion exchange resin, 0.85* for Olsen and 0.59* for P-oxalate. The efficiency of the tested methods to evaluate the availability of P to rice was improved by the separation of soils in two groups, according to the origin and contents of low-crystalline Fe oxides, extracted with oxalate at pH 6.