Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phagocytic Activity, Oxygen Metabolism and Serum Amyloid a Concentration in Peripheral Blood of Mink with Subclinical Aleutian Virus Infection

Simple Summary Aleutian disease (AD) is a chronic disease of mink caused by the Aleutian Mink Disease Virus (AMDV) that results in dysfunction of the immune system. The prevalence of asymptomatic AMDV infections suggests a necessity to explore their effects on the cellular mechanisms of non-specific immunity in farmed mink. In the present study, the phagocytic activity and oxygen metabolism of peripheral blood granulocytes and monocytes in mink with chronic subclinical AMDV infection was assessed. Serum amyloid A (SAA) concentrations were investigated to measure the intensity of inflammatory processes. There was a significant decrease in the phagocytic activity and oxygen metabolism of granulocytes and monocytes in the AMDV-infected mink. SAA value was significantly higher in the group of infected minks compared to the control group. The significant decline in the mean values of the phagocytic activity and oxygen metabolism indicators observed in the minks with chronic AMDV infection, compared with the values noted in the healthy animals, may be a result of immunosuppression of non-specific cellular immunity. Monitoring of serum SAA levels in mink with asymptomatic inflammation may help assess the health of mink and detect asymptomatic inflammation caused by AMDV infection. Abstract Aleutian disease (AD) is a chronic disease of mink caused by the Aleutian Mink Disease Virus (AMDV) that results in dysfunction of the immune system. The prevalence of asymptomatic AMDV infections suggests a necessity to explore their effects on the cellular mechanisms of non-specific immunity in farmed mink. The study evaluated the phagocytic activity and oxygen metabolism of peripheral blood granulocytes and monocytes in mink with chronic subclinical AMDV infection. Moreover, the intensity of inflammatory processes was assessed based on the serum amyloid A (SAA) concentration. The analyses involved 24 brown mink females aged 12–24 months. The experimental group (group I) consisted of mink with chronic subclinical AMDV infections, and the control group (group II) included healthy animals. The statistical analysis was performed using the Mann-Whitney U rank test. Phagocytic activity of granulocytes and monocytes was carried out using flow cytometry, and SAA concentration was determined with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Compared with the control group, there was a significant decrease in the phagocytic activity and oxygen metabolism of granulocytes and monocytes in the AMDV-infected mink (p < 0.05). Additionally, it was found that the mean SAA value was significantly higher in the group infected with AMDV than in the control group (p < 0.05). The obtained data indicate that monitoring the serum SAA levels in mink with asymptomatic inflammation may help assess the health of mink and detect asymptomatic inflammation caused by AMDV infection.
Concordance of self-reported sexual intercourse frequency between members of mixed-sex couples attempting conception

Abstract:Studies about sexual health require accurate information on sexual behaviours, yet there is no gold standard for assessing sexual behaviour. Concordance of partner reports is one way to estimate the reliability and, indirectly, the validity of such data. We aimed to evaluate the inter-partner concordance of self-reported intercourse frequency among mixed-sex couples attempting conception. We analyzed data from Pregnancy Study Online (PRESTO), a North American prospective preconception cohort study. During 2013–2021, self-reported intercourse frequency at baseline was ascertained using the same question for both partners: “In the past month, about how often did you have sexual intercourse with your partner? ” with categorical response options. We used unweighted and linear-weight weighted kappas to assess inter-partner concordance of reported intercourse frequency and log-binomial regression to estimate unadjusted and adjusted prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for predictors of discordance. Among 3,015 couples, 1,927 (63.9%) reported exactly concordant categories of intercourse frequency, while the female partner reported more frequent intercourse in 715 (23.7%) couples and the male partner reported more frequent intercourse in 373 (12.4%) couples. Unweighted and weighted kappas were 0.50 (95% CI 0.48, 0.53) and 0.63 (95% CI 0.61, 0.65), respectively. Predictors of discordance included marital status (unmarried versus married: PR = 1.61 [95% CI 1.11, 2.29] for the male partner reporting more frequent intercourse) and longer relationship length (5–9 years, PR = 1.14 [95% CI 0.96, 1.34]; ≥ 10 years, PR = 1.14 [95% CI 0.92, 1.42], respectively, compared with < 5 years) for the female partner reporting more frequent intercourse.
Screening Children for Autism Spectrum Disorders in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Experiences from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Screening tools for the early identification of developmental disabilities are strongly advised, yet culturally valid tools are not readily available for use in low- and middle-income countries. The present study describes the context and the processes used to develop a suitable screening procedure for use in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. This was based on an autism rating scale—GARS-3—developed in the USA for use primarily with children’s parents. It was administered to three groups of children: those with a pre-existing diagnosis of ASD; those with a confirmed diagnosis of a developmental disability; and those who were typically developing—735 participants in all. The 10 items from the 58 items in the full GARS-3 scale that best discriminated the three groups of children were identified. Subsequent analysis confirmed that the ten-item summary scores had reasonable internal reliabilities, with a good specificity and sensitivity in distinguishing children with ASD from those that were typically developing but less so for children with other developmental disabilities. The study confirms the universality of autism symptoms but also the different emphasis Kurdish parents may place on them. Nevertheless, screening procedures need to be developed in the context of support services that can undertake follow-up diagnostic assessments and provide suitable interventions for use by parents to promote their child’s development. The study provides an example of how this can be possible in low- and middle-income countries.
On strong summability of sequences

We extend the notion of strong summability of sequences by matrix methods. Combining the notions of strong summability given by D. Borwein and I. J. Maddox we come to a more general notion. The properties of the extended strong summability are characterized and relations between strong and ordinary summabilities are described. The defined notion of strong summability is applied to certain families of summability methods, including some families of generalized Nörlund methods. Partial cases are the families of Cesàro and Euler-Knopp methods.
Computational Modeling of the Thermodynamics of the Mesophilic and Thermophilic Mutants of Trp-Cage Miniprotein

We characterize the folding–unfolding thermodynamics of two mutants of the miniprotein Trp-cage by combining extended molecular dynamics simulations and an advanced statistical–mechanical-based approach. From a set of molecular dynamics simulations in an explicit solvent performed along a reference isobar, we evaluated the structural and thermodynamic behaviors of a mesophilic and a thermophilic mutant of the Trp-cage and their temperature dependence. In the case of the thermophilic mutant, computational data confirm that our theoretical–computational approach is able to reproduce the available experimental estimate with rather good accuracy. On the other hand, the mesophilic mutant does not show a clear two-state (folded and unfolded) behavior, preventing us from reconstructing its thermodynamics; thus, an analysis of its structural behavior along a reference isobar is presented. Our results show that an extended sampling of these kinds of systems coupled to an advanced statistical–mechanical-based treatment of the data can provide an accurate description of the folding–unfolding thermodynamics along a reference isobar, rationalizing the discrepancies between the simulated and experimental systems.
Enrichment and context-based analytics of Electric Vehicle charging transaction data

Acceptance of electric mobility is hampered by an insufficient charging infrastructure as investors refrain from investing into additional charging stations while potential buyers of electric vehicles wait for a more advanced charging infrastructure to be established. The optimal siting and sizing of charging infrastructure is a major issue of electric mobility. In this context, the analysis of charging transaction data is a promising means to identify regions with lacking charging infrastructure as well as to learn about utilization and patterns in the charging behavior. Additionally, charging transaction data yields potential to learn about battery degradation when combined with state-of-health readings. To exploit the full potential of analytical assessment of charging transaction data, the enrichment of the data to integrate background as well as environmental information from various sources, e.g., weather and location data, is discussed. Different perspectives for analytics of charging transactions are motivated and preliminary findings are presented that motivate further research in this area.
Power electronic interfaces for piezoelectric energy harvesters

Motion-driven energy harvesters can replace batteries in low power wireless sensors, however selection of the optimal type of transducer for a given situation is difficult as the performance of the complete system must be taken into account in the optimisation. In this thesis, a complete piezoelectric energy harvester system model including a piezoelectric transducer, a power conditioning circuit, and a battery, is presented allowing for the first time a complete optimisation of such a system to be performed. Combined with previous work on modelling an electrostatic energy harvesting system, a comparison of the two transduction methods was performed. The results at 100 Hz indicate that for small MEMS devices at low accelerations, electrostatic harvesting systems outperform piezoelectric but the opposite is true as the size and acceleration increases. Thus the transducer type which achieves the best power density in an energy harvesting system for a given size, acceleration and operating frequency can be chosen. For resonant vibrational energy harvesting, piezoelectric transducers have received a lot of attention due to their MEMS manufacturing compatibility with research focused on the transduction method but less attention has been paid to the output power electronics. Detailed design considerations for a piezoelectric harvester interface circuit, known as single-supply prebiasing (SSPB), are developed which experimentally demonstrate the circuit outperforming the next best known interface’s theoretical limit. A new mode of operation for the SSPB circuit is developed which improves the power generation performance when the piezoelectric material properties have degraded. A solution for tracking the maximum power point as the excitation changes is also presented.
RegGAN: An End-to-End Network for Building Footprint Generation with Boundary Regularization

Accurate and reliable building footprint maps are of great interest in many applications, e.g., urban monitoring, 3D building modeling, and geographical database updating. When compared to traditional methods, the deep-learning-based semantic segmentation networks have largely boosted the performance of building footprint generation. However, they still are not capable of delineating structured building footprints. Most existing studies dealing with this issue are based on two steps, which regularize building boundaries after the semantic segmentation networks are implemented, making the whole pipeline inefficient. To address this, we propose an end-to-end network for the building footprint generation with boundary regularization, which is termed RegGAN. Our method is based on a generative adversarial network (GAN). Specifically, a multiscale discriminator is proposed to distinguish the input between false and true, and a generator is utilized to learn from the discriminator’s response to generate more realistic building footprints. We propose to incorporate regularized loss in the objective function of RegGAN, in order to further enhance sharp building boundaries. The proposed method is evaluated on two datasets with varying spatial resolutions: the INRIA dataset (30 cm/pixel) and the ISPRS dataset (5 cm/pixel). Experimental results show that RegGAN is able to well preserve regular shapes and sharp building boundaries, which outperforms other competitors.
The Study of Mangrove Ecotourism at Sei Nagalawan Village, Perbaungan Sub-district, Serdang Bedagai Regency, North Sumatera Province

The objective of the research is to analyze the mangrove ecotourism at Sei Nagalawan Village, Perbaungan Sub-district, Serdang Bedagai Regency. The research employs qualitative approach. The data are collected by conducting in-depth interviews with informants, especially with the owner and the tourists of Sei Nagalawan mangrove ecotourism, and observations on the condition of the mangrove ecotourism. The result of the research shows that Sei Nagalawan mangrove ecotourism has provided ecological, economic, and social benefits for the manager of mangrove ecotourism and the people at the village. The economic benefit is concerned with the increase in income through wages so that they could join Savings and Loan cooperative. They are also able to sell food made of mangrove such as keripik (chips), dodol (a confection made of glutinous rice with coconut milk and palm sugar), and tea in the food stalls. They are also allowed to rent their boat to the tourists. The ecological benefit is concerned with fishery and guarded off sea abrasion. The social benefit is concerned with capacity to manage mangrove forest, coastal tourism, provision of trainings for the local people about mangrove ecotourism management, helping lecturers, students, and researchers in doing researches, an increase in solidarity among members of Muara Baimbai cooperative, becoming known by many people, and having network with institutions and related people in mangrove and coastal area.
Structural Optimization of Heat Sink for Thermoelectric Conversion Unit in Personal Comfort System

Based on the research background of improving personal thermal comfort and promoting building energy efficiency, personal comfort systems (PCSs) have recently received considerable attention. The thermoelectric conversion unit (TECU) has great potential in PCSs as it is compact in size, environmentally friendly and highly reliable. Aiming to improve heat exchange efficiency, this paper investigates the structural optimization of heat sink for the TECU used in PCSs. Firstly, the heat exchange mechanism of the thermoelectric module is analyzed. The structural design of the cold-side heat sink in the TECU is summarized as a multiobjective optimization problem in which four structural parameters (number of fin rows, fin thickness, fin height and thickness of base) of the heat sink are selected as the adjusting variables. Then, based on the establishment of the cold-side computational fluid dynamics simulation model, a multiobjective genetic algorithm is utilized for the optimization task. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates that the number of rows and the fin thickness have significant influence on the optimization objectives. Taking both the outlet airflow temperature and the velocity into consideration, five representative heat sinks involving two different materials are customized. A testing platform is built for performance comparison. Results show that the proposed optimization method can effectively improve the heat exchange efficiency of a TECU, which provides a reference for the TECU-based PCS design.
Functional, Aromatic, and Fluorinated Monothiosemicarbazones: Investigations into Their Structures and Activity toward the Gallium-68 Incorporation by Microwave Irradiation

We report on the synthesis and spectroscopic characterization of a new series of coordinating monothiosemicarbazones incorporating aromatic backbones, featuring O/N/S donor centers monosubstituted with different aliphatic, aromatic, fluorinated, and amine-functionalized groups at their N centers. Their ability to bind metal ions such as Zn(II) and Ga(III) was explored, and the formation of two different coordination isomers of the Zn(II) complex was demonstrated by X-ray diffraction studies using synchrotron radiation. These studies showed the planar geometry for the coordinated mono(thiosemicarbazone) ligand and that the metal center can adopt either a heavily distorted tetrahedral Zn center (placed in an N/S/S/N environment, with CN = 4) or a pseudo-octahedral geometry, where the Zn(II) center is in the O/N/S/S/N/O environment, and CN = 6. Furthermore, 2-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-3,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assays and cellular imaging in living cells were subsequently performed in two different cancer cell lines: PC-3 (a standard cell line derived from a bone metastasis of a stage IV prostate cancer) and EMT6 (a commercial murine mammary carcinoma cell line). The radiolabeling of new functional and aromatic monothiosemicarbazones with either gallium-68 (under pH control) or fluorine-18 is discussed. The potential of this class of compounds to act as synthetic scaffolds for molecular imaging agents of relevance to positron emission tomography was evaluated in vitro, and the cellular uptake of a simultaneously fluorinated and [68Ga]-labeled mono(thiosemicarbazone) was investigated and is reported here.
A Systematic Review on the Effect of Common Medications on Platelet Count and Function: Which Medications Should Be Stopped Before Getting a Platelet-Rich Plasma Injection?

Background: Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) exerts its effect through the release of growth factors and cytokines from the platelet concentrate. Certain medications may affect platelet count or function, resulting in decreased efficacy of PRP injections. Purpose: To systematically review the literature regarding common medications and their effects on platelets to establish guidelines for which medications should be stopped before obtaining a PRP injection. Study Design: Systematic review; Level of evidence, 2. Methods: This review was performed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. A search for studies assessing the effect of common medications on platelet count or platelet function was performed of the PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and OpenGrey databases. Inclusion criteria were as follows: drug studied was aspirin, acetaminophen, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), a statin, or gabapentin; human participants; and article in the English language. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool and the Risk of Bias in Non-randomised Studies—of Interventions tool. Results: A total of 1711 studies were identified through the initial search, with 20 studies meeting all inclusion criteria. No studies involving gabapentin met all inclusion criteria. Patients treated with aspirin (268 patients) or acetaminophen (13 patients) showed a significant decrease in platelet aggregation. Statin therapy (73 patients) did not result in a significant decrease in platelet aggregation. Patients who took NSAIDs (172 patients) demonstrated significantly decreased platelet aggregation only when treated with nonselective formulations. Those treated with cyclooxygenase (COX)-2–selective NSAIDs showed no significant difference in platelet aggregation. Treatment with aspirin, acetaminophen, statins, or NSAIDs did not lead to a significant decrease in platelet count. Conclusion: Aspirin, acetaminophen, and nonselective NSAIDs should be considered for suspension before a PRP injection because of their potential to diminish the effects of the injection. COX-2–selective NSAIDs and statins do not need to be withheld before a PRP injection.
Robustness of Learning in Games With Heterogeneous Players

We consider stochastic learning dynamics in games and present a novel notion of robustness to heterogeneous players for a stochastically stable action profile. A standard assumption in these dynamics is that all the players are homogeneous, and their decision strategies can be modeled as perturbed versions of myopic best or better response strategies. We relax this assumption and propose a robustness criteria, which characterizes a stochastically stable action profile as robust to heterogeneous behaviors if a small fraction of heterogeneous players cannot alter the long-run behavior of the rest of the population. In particular, we consider confused players who randomly update their actions, stubborn players who never update their actions, and strategic players who attempt to manipulate the population behavior. We establish that radius–coradius based analysis can provide valuable insights into the robustness properties of stochastic learning dynamics for various game settings. We derive sufficient conditions for a stochastically stable profile to be robust to a confused, stubborn, or strategic player and elaborate these conditions through carefully designed examples. Then we explore the role of network structure in our proposed notion of robustness by considering graphical coordination games and identifying network topologies in which a single heterogeneous player is sufficient to alter the population’s behavior. Our results will provide foundations for future research on designing networked systems that are robust to players with heterogeneous decision strategies.
Linear Six-Carbon Sugar Alcohols Induce Lysis of Microcystis aeruginosa NIES-298 Cells

Cyanobacterial blooms are a global concern due to their adverse effects on water quality and human health. Therefore, we examined the effects of various compounds on Microcystis aeruginosa growth. We found that Microcystis aeruginosa NIES-298 cells were lysed rapidly by linear six-carbon sugar alcohols including mannitol, galactitol, iditol, fucitol, and sorbitol, but not by other sugar alcohols. Microscopic observations revealed that mannitol treatment induced crumpled inner membrane, an increase in periplasmic space, uneven cell surface with outer membrane vesicles, disruption of membrane structures, release of intracellular matter including chlorophylls, and eventual cell lysis in strain NIES-298, which differed from the previously proposed cell death modes. Mannitol metabolism, antioxidant-mediated protection of mannitol-induced cell lysis by, and caspase-3 induction in strain NIES-298 were not observed, suggesting that mannitol may not cause organic matter accumulation, oxidative stress, and programmed cell death in M. aeruginosa. No significant transcriptional expression was induced in strain NIES-298 by mannitol treatment, indicating that cell lysis is not induced through transcriptional responses. Mannitol-induced cell lysis may be specific to strain NIES-298 and target a specific component of strain NIES-298. This study will provide a basis for controlling M. aeruginosa growth specifically by non-toxic substances.