Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Low Dose of Emodin Inhibits Hypercholesterolemia in a Rat Model of High Cholesterol

Background Emodin has been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine, but few studies have tried to understand the mechanism of its anti-hypercholesterolemic effect. Material/Methods To delineate the underlying pathways, high-cholesterol diet (HCD)-fed Sprague-Dawley rats were orally administrated emodin or the lipid-lowering medicine simvastatin. Emodin was administered at 10, 30, or 100 mg/kg, while simvastatin was administered at 10 mg/kg. Parameters measured included lipid profiles (serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, aorta endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation in response to acetylcholine, and nitric oxide (NO) production. RT-qPCR and western blotting were performed to evaluate aortic endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), phosphorylated eNOS (p-eNOS), and hepatic LDL receptor (LDLR). Indices of liver and serum oxidation were also measured. Results The atherogenic index was increased by the HCD but significantly reduced in all treatment groups. The HCD-fed experimental group treated with emodin at 10 mg/kg had significantly lower serum total-C and LDL-C and improved aorta vasorelaxation and enhanced NO production. Also, emodin significantly attenuated the lipid profiles and restored endothelial function, as reflected by upregulated expression of hepatic LDLR and p-eNOS, respectively. Furthermore, emodin at 10 mg/kg significantly enhanced superoxide dismutase activity, lowered the malondialdehyde level in both liver and serum, and enhanced catalase activity in serum. Conclusions The ability of emodin to inhibit hypercholesterolemia in HCD-fed rats was associated with lower serum total-C and LDL-C, restoration of aortic endothelial function, and improved antioxidant capacity. Low-dose emodin showed better protection of aortic endothelium and better antioxidant activity than did higher doses.
Investigating the employee–customer relationship in a utilitarian context

ABSTRACT This research, drawing on dyadic data, is one of the first to assess the significance of employee satisfaction in driving customer satisfaction and service quality within a utilitarian context. Multi-level structural equation modelling is employed to analyse 974 customers directly matched to 95 employees across 15 retail grocery stores. Our key empirical finding is that within a utilitarian context, and using a multi-level approach, employee satisfaction does not have a significant direct effect on either customer satisfaction or customer service quality perceptions. Perceptions of price competitiveness assume a more significant role in both customer satisfaction and service quality perceptions than employee satisfaction. Utilitarian store managers should focus their efforts on appropriate service strategies where employee satisfaction still plays a key role.
Characteristics of bioplastics based on sago starch contain betel (piper betle) leaf extract: Effect of glycerol as plasticizer

The presence of glycerol as plasticizer can improve elasticity of bioplastic. Betel (Piper betle) leaf extract contains tannin and flavonoid which both of them take a role in antioxidant, antibacterial, and antifungal. This study aims to investigate the effect of various glycerol as addition in bioplastic based on sago starch (Metroxylon sp.) which includes density, water absorption, and antimicrobial activity. The betel leaf extract is also added in the bioplastic to help the antimicrobial activity. The betel leaf extraction process used the ultrasonication method for 30 minutes using ethanol as a solvent. The betel leaf concentrated extract then is diluted using aquadest with a concentration of 2 g/100 mL (2%) to be applied as an antimicrobial agent in bioplastics. The results show the highest density was 1.515 g/cm3 indicated by the variation of 30% glycerol. The highest water absorption percentage was shown by samples with 30% glycerol addition which was 75,62%. The antibacterial activity showed that the addition of glycerol to bioplastics was able to inhibit the activity of bacteria (Bacillus cereus) with the best inhibition results were shown in variation with 20% glycerol. However, all variation did not show their inhibition with fungal activity (Aspergillus niger).
A tutorial in photoacoustic microscopy and tomography signal processing methods

Over the last two and a half decades, photoacoustic (PA) imaging has become an important area of research in biomedical optics. Combining the high contrast of optical imaging with the high spatial resolution of ultrasound (US) imaging, PA imaging can simultaneously visualize anatomical structures while interrogating their functionality through multiwavelength optical spectroscopy. Alongside technological developments and imaging applications in optical and acoustic resolution PA imaging, a family of PA signal analysis techniques can extract additional information about the sample being imaged. This Tutorial focuses on techniques that rely on the analysis of PA signals in a manner similar to that in the complimentary field of quantitative ultrasound (QUS) imaging of soft tissues. In QUS, signal analysis techniques have been developed to analyze the US signals resulting from the scattering of many unresolved scatterers within the resolution volume of the imaging device. The implementation of these US techniques in PA can enable new applications in biomedicine beyond traditional anatomical PA imaging, further increasing the utilization and impact of this promising modality.
Highly anisotropic resonant dynamics in the aligned-aligned scattering of cold diatoms

The dynamics of a resonant oriented scattering process dominated by a single partial wave provide the most sensitive probe of the long-range anisotropic forces important to chemical reactions. Here, we control the collision temperature and geometry to probe the dynamics of the cold (<2 K) rotationally inelastic scattering of a pair of optically state-prepared D2 molecules. The collision temperature is manipulated by combining the strobing action of laser state preparation and detection with the velocity dispersion of the molecular beam. When the bond axes are aligned parallel to the collision velocity, the scattering rate drops by nearly an order of magnitude when collision energies >1 K are removed, demonstrating a clear geometry-dependent resonance. Using partial wave analysis of the measured scattering angular distribution, we determine that an l = 2 shape resonance originates from the collisions between a pair of aligned D2 molecules. Our experiment illustrates the strong anisotropy of the long-range quadrupole-quadrupole interaction that controls the dynamic resonance for diatom-diatom collisions.
A Detailed Analysis of Benchmark Datasets for Network Intrusion Detection System

The enormous increase in the use of the Internet in daily life has provided an opportunity for the intruder attempt to compromise the security principles of availability, confidentiality, and integrity. As a result, organizations are working to increase the level of security by using attack detection techniques such as Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS), which monitors and analyzes network flow and attacks detection. There are a lot of researches proposed to develop the NIDS and depend on the dataset for the evaluation. Datasets allow evaluating the ability in detecting intrusion behavior. This paper introduces a detailed analysis of benchmark and recent datasets for NIDS. Specifically, we describe eight well-known datasets that include: KDD99, NSL-KDD, KYOTO 2006+, ISCX2012, UNSW-NB 15, CIDDS-001, CICIDS2017, and CSE-CIC-IDS2018. For each dataset, we provide a detailed analysis of its instances, features, classes, and the nature of the features. The main objective of this paper is to offer overviews of the datasets are available for the NIDS and what each dataset is comprised of. Furthermore, some recommendations were made to use network-based datasets.
A metallic 3D printed miniaturized circularly polarized log periodic Koch‐dipole array antenna

A miniaturized circularly polarized (CP) log periodic Koch‐dipole array antenna (LPKDA) is proposed. Two pairs of dipoles are orthogonally deployed along the feeding line to generate the CP EM wave. The antenna's size is miniaturized by the T‐shaped top loading and the Koch fractal structure, which also helps to widened the antenna's axial ratio bandwidth. Compared with the conventional LPDA of the same impedance bandwidth, the proposed miniaturized CPLPKDA features 42%‐dimensional reduction. Taking the advantage of 3D printing technology to fabricate complex structures, the proposed CPLPKDA is fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM) using aluminum alloy. Measurement shows that the antenna has the average gain of 5.1 dBi from 2.1 to 3.0 GHz. It has impendence bandwidth (IBW) from 1.65 to 3.73 GHz (77.3%) and axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW) from 2.1 to 2.95 GHz (33.6%). Desirable radiation patterns are achieved. This letter proves the feasibility of antenna optimization by using both innovative design and advanced fabrication process.
Influence Without Metrics: Analyzing the Impact of Far-Right Users in an Online Discussion Forum

The study presented in this article explores the processes through which influence takes shape in eclectic online forums with few vanity metrics. Using a dataset of 7.5 million posts in the large Swedish online discussion forum Flashback, it explores who becomes influential, their strategies for appealing to the community, and others’ support of them. While it has been known that Flashback hosts far-right users and content, the current study shows that these sentiments are not fringe or obscure, but instead seemingly widely supported and influential in the forum. It illustrates that the influential users—those who are supported and acknowledged by others as important—exclusively and continuously expressed far-right ideas and displayed an embeddedness within the far-right, as well as in the forum’s culture. The study finds that despite few visible markers, many users learned to recognize influential users and their far-right content as worthy of support. In the absence of built-in functions, some users engaged in manual “liking” and “sharing” of influential users’ content via their replies, acknowledging it as a way to legitimize them. At the same time, the analysis showcased how a lack of vanity metrics countered potential echo chamber effects in the forum as disliked users—advocating progressive gender and immigration ideas—were unintentionally amplified by those who attempted to silence them. The article also discusses the role of Flashback as a platform in the proliferation of hate.
Segregation of neuronal-vascular components in a retinal nerve fiber layer for thickness measurement using OCT and OCT angiography.

Assessment of the circumpapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) provides crucial knowledge on the status of the optic nerve. Current circumpapillary RNFL measurements consider only thickness, but an accurate evaluation should also consider blood vessel contribution. Previous studies considered the presence of major vessels in RNFL thickness measurements from optical coherence tomography (OCT). However, such quantitative measurements do not account for smaller vessels, which could also affect circumpapillary RNFL measurements. We present an approach to automatically segregate the neuronal and vascular components in circumpapillary RNFL by combining vascular information from OCT angiography (OCTA) and structural data from OCT. Automated segmentation of the circumpapillary RNFL using a state-of-the-art deep learning network is first performed and followed by the lateral and depth-resolved localization of the vascular component by vertically projecting the vessels along the circular scan from OCTA vessels map onto the segmented RNFL. Using this proposed approach, we compare the correlations of circumpapillary RNFL thicknesses with age at different levels of vessel exclusion (exclusion of major vessels only vs both major- and micro-vessels) and also evaluate the thickness variability in 75 healthy eyes. Our results show that the ratio of major- and micro-vessels to circumpapillary RNFL achieved a stronger correlation with aging (r = 0.478, P < .001) than the ratio with only major vessels to circumpapillary RNFL (r = 0.027, P = .820). Exclusion of blood vessels from circumpapillary RNFL thickness using OCTA imaging provides a better measure of the neuronal components and could potentially improve the diagnostic performance for disease detection.
3D simulation and scenario for AI research in multi-domain and coalition operations

We provide a description of the DAIS-ITA experimentation environment with accompanying scenario. These were created to aid our research by providing a common platform upon which different projects can build. The purpose is to speed up the innovation pipeline by more closely linking research with impact. The experimentation environment is based on a 3d virtual world. We provide a variety of options for displaying, moving and interacting with objects within the world. Our focus for these interactions is interactivity, either manual or programmatic, such that DAIS research, experiments, simulations and demonstrations can be accurately modelled. There is an interface, based upon the MQTT messaging protocol, that allows input to and output from the world. The world we have created is mapped to the same location as the Anglova Scenario. We are able to use and extend the Anglova Scenario and it’s experimentation data within the world for conducting DAIS research.
Self-Rated Health Among Patients With Severe Traumatic Brain Injury and Their Close Relatives: The Role of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms

ABSTRACT Objective Severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) is accompanied by significant declines in self-rated health (SRH). Although such deteriorations in SRH are related to various consequences of sTBI, the effect of posttraumatic reactions (i.e., posttraumatic stress [PTS] symptoms) has been tested insufficiently to date, especially among civilians. The present investigation is based on Trajectories of Recovery After Severe Traumatic brain injury—Matters In families (TRAST-MI), a unique study among civilians with sTBI and their families. Previous research revealed that civilian sTBI has effects beyond the injured patient, influencing their close relatives as well. The aim of this study was to assess the association between PTS symptoms and SRH among patients with civilian sTBI and their close relatives. Methods Patients with sTBI (assessed by an Abbreviated Injury Scale of the head region score >3) and their close relatives participated in TRAST-MI. One hundred twenty-six patient-relative dyads were assessed at 3, 6, and 12 months after the injury. Results Multilevel modeling revealed that patients’ PTS symptoms were associated with consequent SRH (slope = 0.42; p < .001), and relatives’ PTS symptoms were associated with their respective SRH (slope = 0.2; p = .012). Conclusions The findings of this study reveal that SRH of both patients with sTBI and their relatives are negatively affected by their own PTS symptoms. These findings underline the understanding that sTBI is not merely a medical trauma but rather a comprehensive psychosocial trauma, which has consequences for the whole family system.
Deep Learning Based Sea Ice Classification with Gaofen-3 Fully Polarimetric SAR Data

In this paper, the performance of C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Gaofen-3 (GF-3) quad-polarization Stripmap (QPS) data is assessed for classifying late spring and summer sea ice types. The investigation is based on 18 scenes of GF-3 QPS data acquired in the Arctic Ocean in 2017. In this study, floe ice (FI), brash ice (BI) between floes and open water (OW, ice-free area) were classified based on a mini sea ice residual convolutional network, which we call MSI-ResNet. While investigating the optimal patch size for MSI-ResNet, we found that, as the patch size continues to grow, the classification accuracy first increases and then decreases. A patch size of 31 × 31 was found to achieve the best performance. The performance of classification using different polarization combinations from the QPS data was also assessed. The vertical-vertical (VV) polarization input overestimates the FI category while incorrectly identifying most of the BI as FI. The VH polarization produces a synchronous improvement in FI, BI, and OW discrimination, with a higher overall accuracy and kappa coefficient (91.09% and 0.85, respectively) than the VV polarization (83.37% and 0.70, respectively). The combination of VV and vertical-horizontal (VH) polarizations presents a modest precision improvement for BI and OW together with a slight overestimation for FI. With VV, VH, and horizontal-horizontal (HH) polarization data as the inputs, the user’s accuracy improves to 95.12%, 93.42%, and 95.17% for FI, BI, and OW, respectively. The accuracy was assessed against visual interpretation of the sea ice classes in the images using a stratified sampling method. The application of the MSI-ResNet method to data covering the Beaufort Sea and the north of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago was found to achieve a high overall accuracy (kappa) of 94.62% (±0.92) and 94.23% (±0.90), respectively. This is similar to the classification accuracy obtained in the Fram Strait. From the results of this study, it is shown that the MSI-ResNet method performs better than the classical support vector machine (SVM) classifier for sea ice discrimination. The GF-3 QPS mode data also show more details in discriminating scattered sea ice floes than the coincident Sentinel-1A Extra Wide (EW) swath mode data.
Three-year-olds’ Perspective-taking in Social Interactions: Relations with Socio-cognitive Skills

ABSTRACT Understanding others’ perspectives and integrating this knowledge in social interactions is challenging for young children; even adults struggle with this skill. While young children show the capacity to understand what others can and cannot see under supportive laboratory conditions, more research is necessary to understand how children implement their perspective-taking (PT) skill during interactions and which socio-cognitive skills support their ability to do so. This preregistered study examined children’s Level 1 visual PT in a real-time social interaction and tested whether social-cognitive skills (focusing on inhibition of imitation) predicted PT. Thirty-six 3-year-old children (mean age: 37.3 months) participated in a PT task and responded implicitly (via eye gaze) and explicitly (via toy choice) to situations where their communicative partner could see some objects but not others. Three-year-olds demonstrated sensitivity to another’s perspective via implicit responses, but did not consistently take their partner’s perspective into account in their actions when considering objects their partner could not see. Contrary to adult findings, children who struggled to inhibit imitating (those more affected by another’s actions) demonstrated better PT, again when considering objects outside their partner’s sight. Thus, 3-year-olds’ sensitivity to others’ perspectives was robust, while acting on PT knowledge may still be developing; further, children more affected by another’s actions demonstrated improved PT skills.
Estimations of the Erythemal UV Doses and the Amount of the Sun-Synthesized Vitamin D by Adults during the Cruise to Spitsbergen–Polar Measurement Campaign (2–21 July 2017)

UV index (UVI) measurements were carried out by the hand-held instrument Solarmeter 6.5 onboard of MS Horyzont II during the cruise from Poland (Gdynia) to Spitsbergen (and back) in the period from 2 to 21 July 2017. A method is proposed to estimate the erythemal doses and sun-synthesized amount of vitamin D from a limited number of daily UVI observations. This study shows that the erythema could appear in a person with Caucasian type of skin characterized by Minimum Erythema Dose (MED) ~250 J m−2 after ~1 h exposure near the polar circle and up to few hours in the Svalbard. During this time, it was possible to get the dose of vitamin D3 equivalent to ~1000 IU of oral intake. The protection against UV overexposure should be applied even if UVI values during the cruise in the Arctic were always below the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warning threshold of 3. To provide adequate amount of vitamin D, the exposure should be continued until getting 1 MED, after which the vitamin supplementation (or a diet rich in vitamin D) is necessary.
Considering Catholics: an exploration of the literature available on religious identity development

ABSTRACT Identity development is an important developmental task impacted by many facets of a person’s life, including ethnic background, abilities, and religion. Notwithstanding its decisive role in identity development, however, religious identity research has been rather sparse. Religious identity refers to how the person uses religion to answers the question “who am I? ” or “who are we? ” Research that focuses on the religious identity development of particular groups is more scarce. This review article intends to synthesize the current state of the research in regard to religious identity development, especially as it relates to emerging adult Catholic religious identity development. A brief consideration of theories that may aid in understanding religious identity will be undertaken, followed by a review of empirical literature that suggests possible influences on religious identity. The methods, strengths and weaknesses of current research will be considered with implications for future research. It is hoped that through a better understanding of the current research on religious identity development a clearer path forward may be paved in research development.
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Modulates Connectivity of Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex with Distributed Cortical Networks

Abstract Studies have shown that transcranial direct current stimulation increases neuronal excitability of the targeted region and general connectivity of relevant functional networks. However, relatively little is understood of how the stimulation affects the connectivity relationship of the target with regions across the network structure of the brain. Here, we investigated the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on the functional connectivity of the targeted region using resting-state fMRI scans of the human brain. Anodal direct current stimulation was applied to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (lDLPFC; cathode on the right bicep), which belongs to the frontoparietal control network (FPCN) and is commonly targeted for neuromodulation of various cognitive functions including short-term memory, long-term memory, and cognitive control. lDLPFC's connectivity characteristics were quantified as graph theory measures, from the resting-state fMRI scans obtained prior to and following the stimulation. Critically, we tested pre- to poststimulation changes of the lDLPFC connectivity metrics following an active versus sham stimulation. We found that the stimulation had two distinct effects on the connectivity of lDLPFC: for Brodmann's area (BA) 9, it increased the functional connectivity between BA 9 and other nodes within the FPCN; for BA 46, net connectivity strength was not altered within FPCN, but connectivity distribution across networks (participation coefficient) was decreased. These findings provide insights that the behavioral changes as the functional consequences of stimulation may come about because of the increased role of lDLPFC in the FPCN.