Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Science organisations and Coca-Cola’s ‘war’ with the public health community: insights from an internal industry document

Critics have long accused food and beverage companies of trying to exonerate their products from blame for obesity by funding organisations that highlight alternative causes. Yet, conclusions about the intentions of food and beverage companies in funding scientific organisations have been prevented by limited access to industry’s internal documents. Here we allow the words of Coca-Cola employees to speak about how the corporation intended to advance its interests by funding the Global Energy Balance Network (GEBN). The documents reveal that Coca-Cola funded and supported the GEBN because it would serve as a ‘weapon’ to ‘change the conversation’ about obesity amidst a ‘growing war between the public health community and private industry’. Despite its close links to the Coca-Cola company, the GEBN was to be portrayed as an ‘honest broker’ in this ‘war’. The GEBN’s message was to be promoted via an extensive advocacy campaign linking researchers, policy-makers, health professionals, journalists and the general public. Ultimately, these activities were intended to advance Coca-Cola’s corporate interests: as they note, their purpose was to ‘promote practices that are effective in terms of both policy and profit’. Coca-Cola’s proposal for establishing the GEBN corroborates concerns about food and beverage corporations’ involvement in scientific organisations and their similarities with Big Tobacco.
Design and Construction of Electronic Aid for Visually Impaired People

The NavGuide is a novel electronic device to assist visually impaired people with obstacle free path-finding. The highlight of the NavGuide system is that it provides simplified information on the surrounding environment and deduces priority information without causing information overload. The priority information is provided to the user through vibration and audio feedback mechanisms. The proof-of-concept device consists of a low power embedded system with ultrasonic sensors, vibration motors, and a battery. To test the effectiveness of the NavGuide system in daily-life mobility of visually impaired people, we performed an evaluation using 70 blind people of the “school & home for the blind. ” All evaluations were performed in controlled, real-world test environments with the NavGuide and traditional white cane. The evaluation results show that NavGuide is a useful aid in the detection of obstacles, wet floors, and ascending staircases and its performance is better than that of a white cane.
Long-Term Outcomes of Using Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection to Treat Early Gastric Cancer

Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is becoming the main procedure for the resection of early gastric cancer (EGC). The absolute indications for treating EGC with endoscopic resection were established by the Japanese Gastric Cancer Association and have been generally accepted. However, the absolute indications for treating EGC are rather strict, and expanded indications have been developed. Many studies have reported favorable long-term outcomes for patients who received curative resection for the expanded indication. ESD preserves the stomach, thereby improving patients’ quality of life compared to surgery; however, a generally higher incidence of metachronous gastric cancer has been reported after ESD for EGC. Therefore, clinicians must pay careful attention during surveillance endoscopy, even after a curative ESD.
The COMPLETE Nature of the Warm Dust Shell in Perseus

The Perseus molecular cloud complex is a ≳30 pc long chain of molecular clouds most well known for the two star-forming clusters NGC 1333 and IC 348 and the well-studied outflow source in B5. However, when studied at mid- to far-infrared wavelengths, the region is dominated by a ~10 pc diameter shell of warm dust, likely generated by an H II region caused by the early-B star HD 278942. Using a revised calibration technique the COMPLETE team has produced high-sensitivity temperature and column density maps of the Perseus region from IRAS Sky Survey Atlas (ISSA) 60 and 100 μm data. In this paper, we combine the ISSA-based dust-emission maps with other observations collected as part of the COMPLETE Survey, along with archival Hα and MSX observations. Molecular line observations from FCRAO and extinction maps constructed by applying the NICER method to the 2MASS catalog provide independent estimates of the "true" column density of the shell. Hα emission in the region of the shell confirms that it is most likely an H II region located behind the cloud complex, and 8 μm data from MSX indicate that the shell may be interacting with the cloud. Finally, the two polarization components seen toward background stars in the region by Goodman et al. can be explained by the association of the stronger component with the shell. If confirmed, this would be the first observation of a parsec-scale swept-up magnetic field.
The role of the dorsal anterior insula in sexual risk: Evidence from an erotic Go/NoGo task and real‐world risk‐taking

The insula plays an important role in response inhibition. Most relevant here, it has been proposed that the dorsal anterior insular cortex (dAIC) plays a central role in a salience network that is responsible for switching between the default mode network and the executive control network. However, the insula's role in sexually motivated response inhibition has not yet been studied. In this study, eighty‐five 18‐ to 30‐year‐old sexually active men who have sex with men (MSM) performed an erotic Go/NoGo task while in an MRI scanner. Participants' real‐world sexual risk‐taking (frequency of condomless anal intercourse over the past 90 days) was then correlated with their neural activity during the task. We found greater activity in bilateral anterior insular cortex (both dorsal and ventral) on contrasts with stronger motivational information (attractive naked male pictures versus pictures of clothed, middle‐aged females) and on contrasts requiring greater response inhibition (NoGo versus Go). We also found that activity in the right dAIC was negatively correlated with participants' real‐world sexual risk‐taking. Our results confirmed the involvement of the insular cortex in motivated response inhibition. Especially, the decreased right dAIC activity may reduce the likelihood that the executive control network will come online when individuals are faced with situations requiring inhibitory control and thus lead them to make more risky choices.
Toll-like receptor 9 controls anti-DNA autoantibody production in murine lupus

Systemic autoimmune disease in humans and mice is characterized by loss of immunologic tolerance to a restricted set of self-nuclear antigens. Autoantigens, such as double-stranded (ds) DNA and the RNA-containing Smith antigen (Sm), may be selectively targeted in systemic lupus erythematosus because of their ability to activate a putative common receptor. Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), a receptor for CpG DNA, has been implicated in the activation of autoreactive B cells in vitro, but its role in promoting autoantibody production and disease in vivo has not been determined. We show that in TLR9-deficient lupus-prone mice, the generation of anti-dsDNA and antichromatin autoantibodies is specifically inhibited. Other autoantibodies, such as anti-Sm, are maintained and even increased in TLR9-deficient mice. In contrast, ablation of TLR3, a receptor for dsRNA, did not inhibit the formation of autoantibodies to either RNA- or DNA-containing antigens. Surprisingly, we found that despite the lack of anti-dsDNA autoantibodies in TLR9-deficient mice, there was no effect on the development of clinical autoimmune disease or nephritis. These results demonstrate a specific requirement for TLR9 in autoantibody formation in vivo and indicate a critical role for innate immune activation in autoimmunity.
Factorial-Quality Scalar and an Extension of ELECTRE in Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets

A great number of real-world problems can be associated with multi-criteria decision-making. These problems are often characterized by a high degree of uncertainty. Intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs) are a generalized form of an ordinal fuzzy set to deal with this natural uncertainty. In this paper, we propose a hybrid version of the intuitionistic fuzzy ELECTRE based on VIKOR method, which was never considered before. The advantage and strengths of the intuitionistic fuzzy ELECTRE based on VIKOR method as decision aid technique and IFS as an uncertain framework make the proposed method a suitable choice in solving practical problems. Finally, a numerical example for engineering manager choice is given to illustrate the application of proposed method. The paper also gives a special view of point to the research along IFSs: It can be viewed as a kind of factorial scalar theory in factor space, which helps the authors to complete the paper with clear ideas.
An Empirical Study on Online Price Differentiation

Price differentiation describes a marketing strategy to determine the price of goods on the basis of a potential customer's attributes like location, financial status, possessions, or behavior. Several cases of online price differentiation have been revealed in recent years. For example, different pricing based on a user's location was discovered for online office supply chain stores and there were indications that offers for hotel rooms are priced higher for Apple users compared to Windows users at certain online booking websites. One potential source for & relevant distinctive features are system fingerprints, i.e., a technique to recognize users' systems by identifying unique attributes such as the source IP address or system configuration. In this paper, we shed light on the ecosystem of pricing at online platforms and aim to detect if and how such platform providers make use of price differentiation based on digital system fingerprints. We designed and implemented an automated price scanner capable of disguising itself as an arbitrary system, leveraging real-world system fingerprints, and searched for price differences related to different features (e.g., user location, language setting, or operating system). This system allows us to explore price differentiation cases and identify those characteristic features of a system that may influence a product's price.
Evaluation of sentiment polarity prediction using a dimensional and a categorical approach

In this paper we evaluate two approaches for predicting the sentiment polarity of an utterance. The first method is based on a 3-dimensional model which takes into account text expressiveness in terms of valence, arousal and dominance. The second one determines the word's semantic orientation according to Chi-square and Relevance factor statistic metrics. We describe the general flow of the methods and their extracted features, as well as their predictability potential using different machine learning algorithms, Naïve Bayes, SVM and C4.5. The evaluation is performed on four emotional datasets: Semeval 2007 “Affective Text”, ISEAR (International Survey on Emotional Antecedents and Reactions), children's fairy-tales and a movie review dataset. The results show a high correlation of the prediction performance with the database content, as well as to the average number of words within the classified text instances.
Multiple-Human Parsing in the Wild

Human parsing is attracting increasing research attention. In this work, we aim to push the frontier of human parsing by introducing the problem of multi-human parsing in the wild. Existing works on human parsing mainly tackle single-person scenarios, which deviates from real-world applications where multiple persons are present simultaneously with interaction and occlusion. To address the multi-human parsing problem, we introduce a new multi-human parsing (MHP) dataset and a novel multi-human parsing model named MH-Parser. The MHP dataset contains multiple persons captured in real-world scenes with pixel-level fine-grained semantic annotations in an instance-aware setting. The MH-Parser generates global parsing maps and person instance masks simultaneously in a bottom-up fashion with the help of a new Graph-GAN model. We envision that the MHP dataset will serve as a valuable data resource to develop new multi-human parsing models, and the MH-Parser offers a strong baseline to drive future research for multi-human parsing in the wild.
Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) for adaptive image guided head and neck radiation therapy

Abstract Background: Adaptive (ART) and image guided radiation therapy (IGRT) can improve target coverage and reduce unnecessary irradiation of organs at risk (OAR). The purpose of this study is to report the results of using mid-course imaging and a novel workflow with cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) surveillance of dose to OAR to trigger adaptive replanning in head and neck radiotherapy. Material and methods: Impact of radiation therapist (RTT) managed match protocol and mid-course imaging was assessed in two cohorts of consecutive patients receiving RT to the head and neck region, using computed tomography (CT) and CBCT-based dose verification respectively. In the CBCT cohort, patients at high risk of xerostomia received weekly dose surveillance, while low-risk patients received a mid-course CBCT review. For weekly surveillance, predicted total doses to parotid glands, spinal cord and brainstem were calculated. If predicted mean dose to parotid glands increased by >2 Gy or constraints to brainstem or spinal cord were exceeded, replanning was performed. Results: None had replanning triggered by mid-course imaging. In the CBCT cohort, weekly surveillance of 40 patients yielded minimal reduction in mean dose to parotid glands of 0.65 Gy (range0.4–1 Gy ) for three patients. Patients were surveilled averagely 4.5 times during treatment. Time consumption per CBCT/week was 22 min (range 17–38). Number of patients needed to see to achieve any dose reduction to parotid glands was 13 or the equivalent of 22 working-hours. Conclusion: The tested dose surveillance algorithm resulted in a minimal dose reduction ( ≤1 Gy) to parotid glands for three of 40 patients. The proposed algorithm and workflow is thus not sustainable. Mid-course dose verification did not provide added benefit and can be safely omitted in the presence of closely monitored daily IGRT. Daily image guidance and match protocol is a safe and efficient method for identifying patients requiring adaptive replanning.
Reassessing the Determinants of Breeding Synchrony in Ungulates

Predicting the consequences of climate change is a major challenge in ecology and wildlife management. While the impact of changes in climatic conditions on distribution ranges has been documented for many organisms, the consequences of changes in resource dynamics for species' overall performance have seldom been investigated. This study addresses this gap by identifying the factors shaping the reproductive synchrony of ungulates. In temporally-variable environments, reproductive phenology of individuals is a key determinant of fitness, with the timing of reproduction affecting their reproductive output and future performance. We used a satellite-based index of resource availability to explore how the level of seasonality and inter-annual variability in resource dynamics affect birth season length of ungulate populations. Contrary to what was previously thought, we found that both the degree of seasonal fluctuation in resource dynamics and inter-annual changes in resource availability influence the degree of birth synchrony within wild ungulate populations. Our results highlight how conclusions from previous interspecific analyses, which did not consider the existence of shared life-history among species, should be treated with caution. They also support the existence of a multi-faceted link between temporal variation in resource availability and breeding synchrony in terrestrial mammals, and increase our understanding of the mechanisms shaping reproductive synchrony in large herbivores, thus enhancing our ability to predict the potential impacts of climate change on biodiversity.
Antiviral screen identi fi es EV 71 inhibitors and reveals camptothecin-target , DNA topoisomerase 1 as a novel EV 71 host factor

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) is one of the causative agents of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) associated with severe neurological disease. EV71's pathogenesis remains poorly understood and the lack of approved antiviral has led to its emergence as a clinically important neurotropic virus. The goals of this study were to: (i) identify novel anti-EV71 compounds that may serve as lead molecules for therapeutics; and (ii) investigate their targets in downstream studies. We screened a 502-compound library of highly purified natural products for anti-EV71 activities in a cell-based immunofluorescence assay that were then confirmed in viral plaque reduction assays. Along with known antivirals, novel inhibitors of EV71 were also identified. We selected camptothecin for downstream studies and found that it is a limited spectrum enterovirus inhibitor that inhibits coxsackievirus A16 but not ECHOvirus 7. Camptothecin, a DNA topoisomerase 1 (TOP1) inhibitor, inhibits both viral RNA replication and translation based on luciferase replicon studies. Depletion of TOP1 using siRNA was then able to rescue EV71 infection from camptothecin inhibition. Interestingly, EV71 viral RNA replication and translation were also in TOP1 depleted cells. We found that nuclear TOP1 was relocalized to cytoplasmic replication vesicles during EV71 infection and localized with viral 3CD using confocal microscopy and proximity-ligation assays. Our findings reveal camptothecin to be a limited spectrum antiviral against enteroviruses that functions in a TOP1-dependent but cytotoxicity-independent manner. TOP1 is in turn needed for maximal EV71 viral RNA replication and viral protein synthesis. © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Properties and applications of superhydrophobic coatings in high voltage outdoor insulation: A review

The deposition of ice, snow, pollution or their mixtures on the surface of outdoor insulators may severely affect their performance, resulting in electrical and or mechanical failures. Various preventative methods are used to minimize the problems of ice and pollution build up on the surface of outdoor insulators. In the last few decades, advanced coatings have been developed for better performance of outdoor insulators in contaminated and freezing environments. These advanced coatings offer the advantage of low wettability, high thermal and ultraviolet resistance, self-cleaning, self-healing, low ice adhesion strength and delayed freezing time. It is believed that these benefits will not only increase the reliability of transmission systems but may also reduce the capital cost of transmission infrastructure. This paper presents a detailed review on the properties and applications of superhydrophobic coatings in outdoor high voltage insulation. This review can be beneficial to scientists and engineers in evaluating the performance and durability of superhydrophobic coatings in polluted and freezing conditions. It also highlights the need for standardized tests and procedures for better understanding the behavior of superhydrophobic coatings in different environments and their long-term durability.
Site selection and characterization at Uyuni desert for the calibration and validation of GOES-16 ABI solar reflective bands

Uyuni desert (-20.8° to -19.6° in latitude, -68.2° to -66.8° in longitude) covered by a few meters of salt can be a good target for Earth observation satellite with its flatness, brightness, and high altitude. We can validate the accuracy of GOES-16 Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) visible and near-IR (VNIR) channels using the Uyuni desert as a reference. A selection and reflectance monitoring of uniform scenes over the Uyuni desert using a number of space-borne observational datasets is a main objective of this study. It is critical to identify the geospatially, temporally, and spectrally uniform area with at least 3 km x 3 km in size for the ABI Band 2 and 7 km x 7 km for the ABI Band 1, 3, 5, and 6. For radiometric and temporal stability, GOES-13 Imager visible (0.65 μm) data obtained near the satellite noon time is used. In terms of spatial stability, Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) data onboard Suomi-National Polar-orbiting Partnership spacecraft (SNPP) is compared to find the uniform scenes with low covariance of reflectance over the radiometric and temporal stable areas. We selected two candidate targets over the Uyuni desert and conducted monitoring of the reflectance trending for the two targets from both the ABI and VIIRS data.
The human gut microbiome in health: establishment and resilience of microbiota over a lifetime

Summary With technological advances in culture-independent molecular methods, we are uncovering a new facet of our natural history by accounting for the vast diversity of microbial life which colonizes the human body. The human microbiome contributes functional genes and metabolites which affect human physiology and are, therefore, considered an important factor for maintaining health. Much has been described in the past decade based primarily on 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing regarding the diversity, structure, stability and dynamics of human microbiota in their various body habitats, most notably within the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Relatively high levels of variation have been described across different stages of life and geographical locations for the GIT microbiome. These observations may prove helpful for the future contextualization of patterns in other body habitats especially in relation to identifying generalizable trends over human lifetime. Given the large degree of complexity and variability, a key challenge will be how to define baseline healthy microbiomes and how to identify features which reflect deviations therefrom in the future. In this context, metagenomics and functional omics will likely play a central role as they will allow resolution of microbiome-conferred functionalities associated with health. Such information will be vital for formulating therapeutic interventions aimed at managing microbiota-mediated health particularly in the GIT over the course of a human lifetime.