Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Climate Change on Outdoor Skating in the Bei Hai Park of Beijing and Related Adaptive Strategies

This paper reports findings derived from a study of the impacts of climate change on winter outdoor skating activities in the Chinese park of Bei Hai from 1989 to 2015. Based on field observation data and in-depth interviews, it was concluded that the outdoor skating activities, with a history of more than 1000 years, are being threatened by the warming climate. The opening dates and duration times of skating over the last 26 years showed periodic variations over three-year cycles. Increases of temperatures by 1 °C in December were associated with a 3.80-day delay in the skating-field opening dates and a 4.49-day decrease in the operation duration times. In particular, climate change has resulted in a loss of the skating field area and a reduction in the operation duration times, and tourists are moving north for skating-related recreation or conducting alternative activities. The current adaptive strategies are not very effective.
Neuron-Specific Deletion of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Delta (PPARδ) in Mice Leads to Increased Susceptibility to Diet-Induced Obesity

Central nervous system (CNS) lipid accumulation, inflammation and resistance to adipo-regulatory hormones, such as insulin and leptin, are implicated in the pathogenesis of diet-induced obesity (DIO). Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR α, δ, γ) are nuclear transcription factors that act as environmental fatty acid sensors and regulate genes involved in lipid metabolism and inflammation in response to dietary and endogenous fatty acid ligands. All three PPAR isoforms are expressed in the CNS at different levels. Recent evidence suggests that activation of CNS PPARα and/or PPARγ may contribute to weight gain and obesity. PPARδ is the most abundant isoform in the CNS and is enriched in the hypothalamus, a region of the brain involved in energy homeostasis regulation. Because in peripheral tissues, expression of PPARδ increases lipid oxidative genes and opposes inflammation, we hypothesized that CNS PPARδ protects against the development of DIO. Indeed, genetic neuronal deletion using Nes-Cre loxP technology led to elevated fat mass and decreased lean mass on low-fat diet (LFD), accompanied by leptin resistance and hypothalamic inflammation. Impaired regulation of neuropeptide expression, as well as uncoupling protein 2, and abnormal responses to a metabolic challenge, such as fasting, also occur in the absence of neuronal PPARδ. Consistent with our hypothesis, KO mice gain significantly more fat mass on a high-fat diet (HFD), yet are surprisingly resistant to diet-induced elevations in CNS inflammation and lipid accumulation. We detected evidence of upregulation of PPARγ and target genes of both PPARα and PPARγ, as well as genes of fatty acid oxidation. Thus, our data reveal a previously underappreciated role for neuronal PPARδ in the regulation of body composition, feeding responses, and in the regulation of hypothalamic gene expression.
Assessment of in vitro prophylactic and therapeutic efficacy of chloroquine against chikungunya virus in vero cells

The resurgence of Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) in the form of unprecedented and explosive epidemics in India and the Indian Ocean islands after a gap of 32 years is a major public health concern. Currently, there is no specific therapy available to treat CHIKV infection. In the present study, the in vitro prophylactic and therapeutic effects of chloroquine on CHIKV replication in Vero cells were investigated. Inhibitory effects were observed when chloroquine was administered pre‐infection, post‐infection, and concurrent with infection, suggesting that chloroquine has prophylactic and therapeutic potential. The inhibitory effects were confirmed by performing a plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT), real‐time reverse transcriptase (RT)‐PCR analysis of viral RNA levels, and cell viability assays. Chloroquine diminished CHIKV infection in a dose‐dependent manner, with an effective concentration range of 5–20 µM. Concurrent addition of drug with virus, or treatment of cells prior to infection drastically reduced virus infectivity and viral genome copy number by ≥99.99%. The maximum inhibitory effect of chloroquine was observed within 1–3 hr post‐infection (hpi), and treatment was ineffective once the virus successfully passed through the early stages of infection. The mechanism of inhibition of virus activity by chloroquine involved impaired endosomal‐mediated virus entry during early stages of virus replication, most likely through the prevention of endocytosis and/or endosomal acidification, based on a comparative evaluation using ammonium chloride, a known lysosomotropic agent. J. Med. Virol. 82: 817–824, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Developing the “next generation” of genetic association databases for complex diseases

Tens of thousands of genetic association studies investigating the influence of common polymorphisms on disease susceptibility have been published to date. These include ∼1,000 genome‐wide association studies (GWAS). This vast amount of data in the field of complex genetics is becoming increasingly difficult to follow and interpret. It can be expected that the situation will become even more complex with the advent of association projects using “next‐generation” technologies. One of the aims of the Human Variome Project is to concatenate such data in meaningful ways, for example, within the context of publicly available field synopses. Here, we present various examples of online genetic association databases developed by our group for neuropsychiatric disorders. One integral part of this model is the systematic inclusion of data from large‐scale genotyping projects, for example, GWAS, while respecting the privacy of data contributors. We believe that our database approach may serve as a viable model that can be readily applied to other fields and ultimately improve our understanding of the genetic forces driving common human conditions. Hum Mutat 33:1366–1372, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The road to developing clinical trials: The Barcelona Liver Unit's experience and the dedication to the dream

few months ago I was approached by the editorial team of HEPATOLOGY to contribute a piece to the Master’s section, and considering the others who have contributed previously, I was honored to be invited but also rather daunted by the idea. Rarely do we have time to reflect over a period of 40 years in such a chronological way, but in doing so it has made me realize how much the field of hepatology and research has changed, especially in Spain. Although this article is my personal perspective of the development of hepatology and the Liver Unit at Hospital Clinic in Barcelona, Spain, the road to creating the Unit was not a journey I undertook alone; I was accompanied in the effort by Miquel Bruguera, Josep Maria Bordas, Vicente Arroyo, Josep Maria Sanchez Tapias, and Josep Teres.
Structural and electronic properties of C and BN nanotubes based on periodic fullerenes: A density functional theory study

ABSTRACT The structural and electronic properties of C and BN nanotubes based on periodic fullerenes were studied using density functional theory. It was shown that these tubular structures are stable. The electronic band structures and density of states indicated that the C nanotubes based on periodic fullerenes are metals. The energy band gap was appeared by substitution of C atoms with B and N atoms. The BN nanotubes based on periodic fullerenes show semiconducting properties. Our results suggest that the nanotubes based on periodic fullerenes can be used to design of nanoelectronic devices.
Utility of Functional Hemodynamics and Echocardiography to Aid Diagnosis and Management of Shock

ABSTRACT The utility of functional hemodynamics and bedside ultrasonography is increasingly recognized as advantageous for both improved diagnosis and management of shock states. In contrast to conventional “static” measures, “dynamic” hemodynamic measures and bedside imaging modalities enhance pathophysiology-based comprehensive understanding of shock states and the response to therapy. The current editions of major textbooks in the primary specialties – in which clinicians routinely encounter patients in shock – including surgery, anesthesia, emergency medicine, and internal medicine continue to incorporate traditional (conventional) descriptions of shock that use well-described (but potentially misleading) intravascular pressures to classify shock states. Reliance on such intravascular pressure measurements is not as helpful as newer “dynamic” functional measures including ultrasonography to both better assess volume responsiveness and biventricular cardiac function. This review thus emphasizes the application of current functional hemodynamics and ultrasonography to the diagnosis and management of shock as a contrast to conventional “static” pressure-based measures.
Software Defect Prediction Based on Conditional Random Field in Imbalance Distribution

To contribute software testing, and save testing costs, a wide range of machine learning approachs have been studied to predict defects in software modules. Unfortunately, the imbalanced nature of this type of data increases the learning difficulty of such a task. In this paper, we present UCRF, a method based on undersampling technique and conditional random field (CRF) for software defect prediction in imbalance distribution. In our proposed method, firstly, we leverage meanshift clustering method to reduce the samples of majority class for balancing the train data set. Secondly, we propose to apply CRF model in the above balanced train data set because the CRF model can handle complex features without any change in training procedure. Interestingly, we find that the UCRF method achieves much better final results than the other approach as shown in the software defect data classification task.
Computational Intelligence Techniques of Long-Term Electric Power Load Forecasting on Iraqi National Grid

Load forecasting has played an important role in generation, transmission and distribution system planning. In general, the objective of high-precision load forecasting is difficult to achieve due to complex effects on load by a variety of factors. This paper focuses on study of long term load forecasting by using multiple linear regression (MLR) method and using different types of computational intelligence methods such as feed foreword Neural Network with back-propagation (BP) turning algorithm (FNN-BP), feed foreword Neural Network with particle swarm optimization (PSO) turning algorithm (FNN-PSO), Elman Neural Network with back-propagation (BP) turning algorithm (ENN-BP), Elman Neural Network with particle swarm optimization (PSO) turning algorithm (ENN-PSO) methods. The usefulness of the five forecasting techniques has been tested on test system data for a Big Utility Company (Egyptian Unified Network). The obtained results show that the ENNPSO method takes advantages of accuracy and efficiency in prediction. The ENN-PSO method has been performed using population growth data on Iraqi National Grid, for the duration from 2014 to 2030.
Transcriptomic and Metabolomic Studies Disclose Key Metabolism Pathways Contributing to Well-maintained Photosynthesis under the Drought and the Consequent Drought-Tolerance in Rice

In contrast to wild species, drought-tolerance in crops requires a fully functional metabolism during drought (particularly photosynthetic processes). However, the link between drought-tolerance, photosynthetic regulation during drought, and the associated transcript and metabolic foundation, remains largely unknown. For this study, we used two rice cultivars with contrasting drought-tolerance (the drought-intolerant cultivar IRAT109 and the drought-tolerant cultivar IAC1246) to explore transcript and metabolic responses to long-term drought. The drought-tolerant cultivar represented higher osmotic adjustment and antioxidant capacity, as well as higher relative photosynthesis rate under a progressive drought stress occurred in a modified field with shallow soil-layers. A total of 4059 and 2677 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in IRAT109 and IAC1246 between the drought and well-watered conditions, respectively. A total of 69 and 47 differential metabolites (DMs) were identified between the two treatments in IRAT109 and IAC1246, respectively. Compared to IRAT109, the DEGs of IAC1246 displayed enhanced regulatory amplitude during drought. We found significant correlations between DEGs and the osmolality and total antioxidant capacity (AOC) of both cultivars. During the early stages of drought, we detected up-regulation of DEGs in IAC1246 related to photosynthesis, in accordance with its higher relative photosynthesis rate. The contents of six differential metabolites were correlated with the osmotic potential and AOC. Moreover, they were differently regulated between the two cultivars. Particularly, up-regulations of 4-hydroxycinnamic acid and ferulic acid were consistent with the performance of photosynthesis-related DEGs at the early stages of drought in IAC1246. Therefore, 4-hydroxycinnamic acid and ferulic acid were considered as key metabolites for rice drought-tolerance. DEGs involved in pathways of these metabolites are expected to be good candidate genes to improve drought-tolerance. In conclusion, well-maintained photosynthesis under drought should contribute to improved drought-tolerance in rice. Metabolites play vital roles in protecting photosynthesis under dehydration via osmotic adjustments and/or antioxidant mechanisms. A metabolite-based method was thus an effective way to explore drought candidate genes. Metabolic accompanied by transcript responses to drought stress should be further studied to find more useful metabolites, pathways, and genes.
Activation of AMP-Activated Protein Kinase Inhibits Oxidized LDL-Triggered Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress In Vivo

OBJECTIVE The oxidation of LDLs is considered a key step in the development of atherosclerosis. How LDL oxidation contributes to atherosclerosis remains poorly defined. Here we report that oxidized and glycated LDL (HOG-LDL) causes aberrant endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and that the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) suppressed HOG-LDL–triggered ER stress in vivo. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS ER stress markers, sarcoplasmic/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPase (SERCA) activity and oxidation, and AMPK activity were monitored in cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs) exposed to HOG-LDL or in isolated aortae from mice fed an atherogenic diet. RESULTS Exposure of BAECs to clinically relevant concentrations of HOG-LDL induced prolonged ER stress and reduced SERCA activity but increased SERCA oxidation. Chronic administration of Tempol (a potent antioxidant) attenuated both SERCA oxidation and aberrant ER stress in mice fed a high-fat diet in vivo. Likewise, AMPK activation by pharmacological (5′-aminoimidazole-4-carboxymide-1-β-d-ribofuranoside, metformin, and statin) or genetic means (adenoviral overexpression of constitutively active AMPK mutants) significantly mitigated ER stress and SERCA oxidation and improved the endothelium-dependent relaxation in isolated mouse aortae. Finally, Tempol administration markedly attenuated impaired endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation, SERCA oxidation, ER stress, and atherosclerosis in ApoE−/− and ApoE−/−/AMPKα2−/− fed a high-fat diet. CONCLUSION We conclude that HOG-LDL, via enhanced SERCA oxidation, causes aberrant ER stress, endothelial dysfunction, and atherosclerosis in vivo, all of which are inhibited by AMPK activation.
Mechanical and micro-structural modeling of trabecular bone by in vivo imaging

Osteoporosis is a bone disease associated with fracture risk. Accurate assessments of fracture risk, guidelines to initiate preventive intervention, and monitoring treatment response are of paramount importance in public health. Clinically, osteoporosis is defined by low bone mineral density, which explains 65-75% of the variance in bone stiffness. The remaining variability is due to the cumulative and synergistic effects of various factors, including trabecular bone micro-architecture. Osteoporostic imaging is critically important in identifying fracture risks for planning of therapeutic intervention and monitoring response to treatments. In this work, quantitative analysis of trabecular bone micro-architecture using volumetric imaging techniques and computational biomechanical simulation through finite element modeling (FEM) are applied on in vivo imaging for various human studies. The ability of imaging methods in characterizing trabecular bone micro-architecture was experimentally examined using MRI and multi-row detector CT. They were found suitable for cross-sectional and longitudinal studies in monitoring changes of trabecular micro-architectural quality in clinical research. A framework which consists of robust segmentation of in vivo images and quality mesh generator, was constructed for FEM analysis. The framework was experimentally demonstrated efficient and effective to predict bone strength under limited spatial resolution. The ability of distinguishing bone strengths of different groups were evaluated on various human studies. And the relation between FEM and image-based micro-architectural measures was explored. Quantitative analysis
Is it all about size? Comparing organisational and environmental antecedents of IT assimilation in small and medium-sized enterprises

Although small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) adopt different organisational models and strategy types, previous research has studied information technology (IT) adoption dynamics in these two firm types in a similar manner. This paper investigates how the influence of organisational and environmental preconditions on IT adoption varies in SMEs. Survey data from a sample of 316 Italian SMEs are used for this purpose. The study shows that industry growth and turbulence have distinct influences on the pace with which these firms develop or improve their organisational capabilities through IT use, depending on the SME’s size. In particular, medium firms are more likely to use IT to improve their product development capabilities and to scale up their business under periods of turbulence and considerable industry growth. On the other hand, small firms may benefit from pressures by strategic customers demanding more supply chain integration, which results in positive consequences for their ability to use I.
Fidelity, Soundness, and Efficiency of Interleaved Comparison Methods

Ranker evaluation is central to the research into search engines, be it to compare rankers or to provide feedback for learning to rank. Traditional evaluation approaches do not scale well because they require explicit relevance judgments of document-query pairs, which are expensive to obtain. A promising alternative is the use of interleaved comparison methods, which compare rankers using click data obtained when interleaving their rankings. In this article, we propose a framework for analyzing interleaved comparison methods. An interleaved comparison method has fidelity if the expected outcome of ranker comparisons properly corresponds to the true relevance of the ranked documents. It is sound if its estimates of that expected outcome are unbiased and consistent. It is efficient if those estimates are accurate with only little data. We analyze existing interleaved comparison methods and find that, while sound, none meet our criteria for fidelity. We propose a probabilistic interleave method, which is sound and has fidelity. We show empirically that, by marginalizing out variables that are known, it is more efficient than existing interleaved comparison methods. Using importance sampling we derive a sound extension that is able to reuse historical data collected in previous comparisons of other ranker pairs.
Culture and Coworker Relations: Interpersonal Patterns in American, Chinese, German, and Spanish Divisions of a Global Retail Bank

This paper examines coworker networks in the American, Chinese, German, and Spanish divisions of a global retail bank. Because the bank has standardized structure and policies across countries, it is possible to examine how norms rooted in national culture impact on various features of informal ties. We propose that cultures vary in the models on which coworker interaction norms are based, with market, family, law, and friendship relations serving as alternative templates. In elucidating these templates, we generate hypotheses about how each culture's norms influence the content and structure of employees' interactions with coworkers. Results from an egocentric network survey largely support the hypotheses. We discuss implications for organizational behavior research on culture as well as practical implications for multinational firms.
Validation of drop plate technique for bacterial enumeration by parametric and nonparametric tests

Drop plate technique has a priority and preference compared with the spread plate procedure, because of less time, quantity of media, effort requirement, little incubator space, and less labor intensive. The objective of this research was to compare the accuracy and fidelity of drop plate method vs. spread plate method by parametric and nonparametric statistical tests. For bacterial enumeration by drop and spread plate methods, successive dilutions of second subculture of Lactobacillus casei and Salmonella Typhimurium were transferred to selective agar. The correlation of agreement between both methods was evaluated by using statistical proofs. Results showed that mean value (parametric unpaired t-test) comparison at 95 percent confidence level did not reject null hypothesis, which it meant that the equality of the mean data could not be ruled out. Nonparametric method was used because of approximately Gaussian pattern of data distribution. For this purpose, Mann-Whitney test (equivalent nonparametric t-test) was used. It meant that the equality of medians obtained from two methods were similar. Spearman’s rho correlation coefficient (r) via both methods due to data distribution patterns for enumeration of S. Typhimurium and L. casei were 0.62 and 0.87, respectively; which represented moderately strong and strong relationship between two methods, respectively. Besides, there was a significant and strong positive correlation (p < 0.001) between spread and drop plate procedures. Because of aforementioned reasons, the spread plate method can be replaced by drop plate method.
Expectation consistent approximate inference: Generalizations and convergence

Approximations of loopy belief propagation, including expectation propagation and approximate message passing, have attracted considerable attention for probabilistic inference problems. This paper proposes and analyzes a generalization of Opper and Winther's expectation consistent (EC) approximate inference method. The proposed method, called Generalized Expectation Consistency (GEC), can be applied to both maximum a posteriori (MAP) and minimum mean squared error (MMSE) estimation. Here we characterize its fixed points, convergence, and performance relative to the replica prediction of optimality.