Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does the Magnetic Field Suppress Fragmentation in Massive Dense Cores?

Theoretical and numerical works indicate that a strong magnetic field should suppress fragmentation in dense cores. However, this has never been tested observationally in a relatively large sample of fragmenting massive dense cores. Here, we use the polarization data obtained in the Submillimeter Array Legacy Survey of Zhang et al. to build a sample of 18 massive dense cores where both fragmentation and magnetic field properties are studied in a uniform way. We measured the fragmentation level, N mm, within the field of view common to all regions of ∼0.15 pc, with a mass sensitivity of ∼0.5 M ☉, and a spatial resolution of ∼1000 au. In order to obtain the magnetic field strength using the Davis–Chandrasekhar–Fermi method, we estimated the dispersion of the polarization position angles, the velocity dispersion of the H13CO+(4–3) gas, and the density of each core, all averaged within 0.15 pc. A strong correlation is found between N mm and the average density of the parental core, although with significant scatter. When large-scale systematic motions are separated from the velocity dispersion and only the small-scale (turbulent) contribution is taken into account, a tentative correlation is found between N mm and the mass-to-flux ratio, as suggested by numerical and theoretical works.
Learn to Predict Vertical Track Irregularity with Extremely Imbalanced Data

Railway systems require regular manual maintenance, a large part of which is dedicated to inspecting track deformation. Such deformation might severely impact trains' runtime security, whereas such inspections remain costly for both finance and human resources. Therefore, a more precise and efficient approach to detect railway track deformation is in urgent need. In this paper, we showcase an application framework for predicting vertical track irregularity, based on a real-world, large-scale dataset produced by several operating railways in China. We have conducted extensive experiments on various machine learning&ensemble learning algorithms in an effort to maximize the model's capability in capturing any irregularity. We also proposed a novel approach for handling imbalanced data in multivariate time series prediction tasks with adaptive data sampling and penalized loss. Such an approach has proven to reduce models' sensitivity to the imbalanced target domain, thus improving its performance in predicting rare extreme values.
How Gamification Affects Software Developers: Cautionary Evidence from a Natural Experiment on GitHub

We examine how the behavior of software developers changes in response to removing gamification elements from GitHub, an online platform for collaborative programming and software development. We find that the unannounced removal of daily activity streak counters from the user interface (from user profile pages) was followed by significant changes in behavior. Long-running streaks of activity were abandoned and became less common. Weekend activity decreased and days in which developers made a single contribution became less common. Synchronization of streaking behavior in the platform's social network also decreased, suggesting that gamification is a powerful channel for social influence. Focusing on a set of software developers that were publicly pursuing a goal to make contributions for 100 days in a row, we find that some of these developers abandon this quest following the removal of the public streak counter. Our findings provide evidence for the significant impact of gamification on the behavior of developers on large collaborative programming and software development platforms. They urge caution: gamification can steer the behavior of software developers in unexpected and unwanted directions.
Towards improving discriminative reconstruction via simultaneous dense and sparse coding

Discriminative features extracted from the sparse coding model have been shown to perform well for classiﬁcation and reconstruction. Recent deep learning architectures have further improved reconstruction in inverse problems by considering new dense priors learned from data. We propose a novel dense and sparse coding model that integrates both representation capability and discriminative features. The model considers the problem of recovering a dense vector x and a sparse vector u given measurements of the form y = Ax + Bu . Our ﬁrst analysis proposes a natural geometric condition based on the minimal angle between spanning subspaces corresponding to the measurement matrices A and B to establish the uniqueness of solutions to the linear system. The second analysis shows that, under mild assumptions, a convex program recovers the dense and sparse components. We validate the eﬀectiveness of the proposed model on simulated data and propose a dense and sparse autoencoder (DenSaE) tailored to learning the dictionaries from the dense and sparse model. We demonstrate that a) DenSaE denoises natural images better than architectures derived from the sparse coding model ( Bu ), b) in the presence of noise, training the biases in the latter amounts to implicitly learning the Ax + Bu model, c) A and B capture low-and high-frequency contents, respectively, and d) compared to the sparse coding model, DenSaE oﬀers a balance between discriminative power and representation.
Emerging Roles of Impaired Autophagy in Fatty Liver Disease and Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Autophagy is a conserved catabolic process that eliminates dysfunctional cytosolic biomolecules through vacuole-mediated sequestration and lysosomal degradation. Although the molecular mechanisms that regulate autophagy are not fully understood, recent work indicates that dysfunctional/impaired autophagic functions are associated with the development and progression of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), alcoholic fatty liver disease (AFLD), and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Autophagy prevents NAFLD and AFLD progression through enhanced lipid catabolism and decreasing hepatic steatosis, which is characterized by the accumulation of triglycerides and increased inflammation. However, as both diseases progress, autophagy can become impaired leading to exacerbation of both pathological conditions and progression into HCC. Due to the significance of impaired autophagy in these diseases, there is increased interest in studying pathways and targets involved in maintaining efficient autophagic functions as potential therapeutic targets. In this review, we summarize how impaired autophagy affects liver function and contributes to NAFLD, AFLD, and HCC progression. We will also explore how recent discoveries could provide novel therapeutic opportunities to effectively treat these diseases.
Effects of Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation on Postoperative Cognitive Decline in Elderly Patients: A Pilot Study

Background Postoperative cognitive decline (POCD) in the old ages seriously delays the rapid recovery. Here, we aimed to investigate the effects of transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) against POCD in elderly patients undergoing laparoscopic radical colon cancer surgery, as well as the potential mechanism. Methods A prospective, single-center, parallel-group, randomized trial was designed. A total of 100 patients (age ≥65 years) undergoing laparoscopic radical resection of colon cancer were involved and randomly divided into TEAS (Group T) and control (Group C) groups. The patients in Group T were performed with percutaneous acupoint electrical stimulation in bilateral Hegu, Neiguan and Zusanli points from 30 minutes before anesthesia induction to the end of surgery. A Z-score based on Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) was used to assess the incidence of POCD. The levels of serum IL-6, hs-CRP, CGRP at 0 min before TEAS (T0), 1 h after beginning of surgery (T1) and the end of surgery (T2) were evaluated. Results Our data showed that the cumulative duration of POCD on postoperative day 2 and 3 in Group T was significantly decreased compared to Group C (P < 0.05). Compared with T0, the levels of serum IL-6, hs-CRP, and CGRP in both Group T and C were statistically elevated at T1 and T2 (P < 0.05). Moreover, the levels of serum IL-6 and hs-CRP were decreased, but the level of CGRP was increased in Group T compared to Group C at T1 and T2 (P < 0.05). Conclusion TEAS is associated with a lower cumulative duration of POCD in elderly patients undergoing laparoscopic radical colon cancer surgery, which may be related to the regulation of inflammatory factors and neuropeptides interacted with gut–brain axis.
Discordant Quantitative and Visual CT Assessments in the Diagnosis of Emphysema

Purpose Visual assessment of computed tomography (CT) of the lung is routinely employed in the diagnosis of emphysema. Quantitative CT (QCT) can complement visual CT but must be well validated. QCT emphysema is defined as ≥5% of lung volume occupied by low attenuation areas ≤−950 Hounsfield units (LAA-950). Discordant visual and QCT assessments are not uncommon. We examined the association between visual and quantitative chest CT evaluation within a large cohort of subjects to identify variables that may explain discordant visual and QCT findings. Materials and Methods Volumetric inspiratory CT scans of 1221 subjects enrolled in phase 1 of the COPDGene study conducted at the University of Iowa were reviewed. Participants included never smokers, smokers with normal spirometry, preserved ratio impaired spirometry, and Global Initiative for Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) stages I–IV. CT scans were quantitatively scored and visually interpreted by both the COPDGene Imaging Center and the University of Iowa radiologists. Individual-level visual assessments were compared with QCT measurements. Agreement between the two sets of radiologists was calculated using kappa statistic. We assessed variables associated with discordant results using regression methods. Results There was a fair agreement for the presence or absence of emphysema between our center’s radiologists and QCT (61% concordance, kappa 0.22 [0.17–0.28]). Similar comparisons showed a slight agreement between the COPDGene Imaging Center and QCT (56% concordance, kappa 0.16 [0.11–0.21]), and a moderate agreement between both sets of visual assessments (80% concordance, kappa 0.60 [0.54–0.65]). Current smoking and female gender were significantly associated with QCT-negative but visually detectable emphysema. Conclusion The slight-to-fair agreement between visual and quantitative CT assessment of emphysema highlights the need to utilize both modalities for a comprehensive radiologic evaluation. Discordant results may be attributable to one or more factors that warrant further exploration in larger studies. Clinical Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT000608764.
Malware homology determination using visualized images and feature fusion

The family homology determination of malware has become a research hotspot as the number of malware variants are on the rise. However, existing studies on malware visualization only determines homology based on the global structure features of executable, which leads creators of some malware variants with the same structure intentionally set to misclassify them as the same family. We sought to develop a homology determination method using the fusion of global structure features and local fine-grained features based on malware visualization. Specifically, the global structural information of the malware executable file was converted into a bytecode image, and the opcode semantic information of the code segment was extracted by the n-gram feature model to generate an opcode image. We also propose a dual-branch convolutional neural network, which features the opcode image and bytecode image as the final family classification basis. Our results demonstrate that the accuracy and F-measure of family homology classification based on the proposed scheme are 99.05% and 98.52% accurate, respectively, which is better than the results from a single image feature or other major schemes.
Identification and comparison of circular RNAs in preeclampsia

Background Preeclampsia (PE) is a pregnancy-specific syndrome, belongs to the gestational hypertension diseases category and is considered among the causes of maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity. However, the pathogenesis of PE is still vague. Methods In the present study, the circular RNA (circRNA) expression patterns of normal pregnant women and PE patients were investigated using whole RNA sequencing. Results A total of 151 differential expressed circRNAs were identified including 121 upregulated and 30 downregulated ones. Functional and pathway enrichment analysis was conducted on the differentially expressed circRNAs using Gene Ontology and KEGG databases. The results of this analysis indicated that several crucial biological processes and pathways were enriched in PE patients. circRNA–microRNA (miRNA) interaction analysis indicated that the reported differentially expresse circRNAs may be associated with some regulatory functions through miRNAs in PE patients. Two ceRNAs networks were constructed according to the targeting relationship between circRNAs/miRNAs and miRNAs/mRNAs. One sub-network contained one upregulated circRNA, four downregulated miRNAs and five upregulated mRNAs, and another sub-network contained 10 downregulated circRNAs, 21 upregulated miRNAs and 15 downregulated mRNAs. Conclusion CircRNA expression patterns have been investigated and this analysis revealed their potential regulatory mechanisms in PE patients. We constructed the ceRNAs (competing endogenous RNA) to reveal the potential molecular roles of dysregulated circRNAs in the PE patients using RNA sequencing data. circRNA_13301 was the only one upregulated circRNA in ceRNA being targeted by four miRNAs.
Genetic Diversity of Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.)Trotter] as Revealed by Microsatellite Markers

Genetic variability is the fundamental prerequisite of any crop-breeding program to develop superior cultivars. There are about 350 Eragrostis1 species, of which, tef is the only species cultivated for human consumption. Currently, the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute (EBI) collected over five thousand tef accessions from different geographical regions, diverse in terms of climate and elevation, which are uncharacterized yet. The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic diversity among 64 tef accessions using 10 selected polymorphic simple sequence repeats (SSRs) markers. A total of 314 alleles were detected with an average of 14.5 alleles per locus and amplicon size ranged from 90 bp–320 bp. The mean value of polymorphic information content (PIC) was 0.87, appearing polymorphic for all loci. The lowest Fst value (0.05) was recorded among the studied tef populations. The mean value of major allele frequency and the number of effective alleles were 0.33 and 3.32, respectively. The mean value of gene flow (Nm) and Shannon's information index (I) was 4.74 and 1.65, respectively. The observed (Ho) and expected (He) heterozygosities varied from 0.34 to 0.56 and from 0.58 to 0.76, respectively. The cluster analysis has grouped the 64 tef accessions into three distinct clusters based on their similarity. The PCoA analysis showed that clustering is basing on the geographical origin of accessions. Analysis of molecular variance revealed 56%, 39% and 5% of the total variation due to variation within populations, among individuals and among populations, respectively. Structure bar-plot also inferred three gene pools, but with high level of admixtures. Thus, the present study shows that the identified tef accessions could be of great interest for the initiation of a planned breeding and conservation programs.
Tumor Mutation Burden and Differentially Mutated Genes Among Immune Phenotypes in Patients with Lung Adenocarcinoma

Introduction Nowadays, immune checkpoint blockades (ICBs) have been extensively applied in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treatment. However, the outcome of anti-program death-1/program death ligand-1 (anti-PD-1/PD-L1) therapy is not satisfying in EGFR-mutant lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) patients and its exact mechanisms have not been fully understood. Since tumor mutation burden (TMB) and tumor immune phenotype had been thought as potential predictors for efficacy of ICBs, we further studied the TMB and immune phenotype in LUAD patients to explore potential mechanisms for poor efficacy of ICBs in EGFR positive mutated patients and to find possible factors that could impact the tumor immune phenotype which might uncover some new therapeutic strategies or combination therapies. Methods We enrolled 223 LUAD patients who underwent surgery in our hospital. We evaluated TMB through targeted panel sequencing. The tumor immune phenotype, which could be divided into non-inflamed, intermediate and inflamed, was determined through immunohistochemistry using formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples. Enumeration data were analyzed by Chi-square test or Fisher exact test and shown as number (proportion). Logistic regression model was employed for univariate and multivariate analysis of the association between TMB levels and clinical characteristics. Results The median TMB level was 4.0445 mutations/Mb. Multivariate analysis showed the TMB level was significantly associated with age (P=0.026), gender (P=0.041) and EGFR mutation status (P=0.015), and in EGFR-mutant patients we found a lower proportion of patients with mutated KRAS and BRCA2. Furthermore, we found patients with or without metastatic lesions would have different immune phenotype (P=0.007). And the mutational frequencies of ALK, CDKN2A, MAP2K1, IDH2 and PTEN were significantly different among three immune phenotypes. Conclusion Low TMB level could be the reason for the poor efficacy of ICBs in patients having EGFR mutation. And mutational frequencies of KRAS and BRCA2 were lower in EGFR-mutant patients. Furthermore, ALK, CDKN2A, MAP2K1, IDH2 and PTEN might involve in the formation of immune phenotypes.
FoBSim: an extensible open-source simulation tool for integrated fog-blockchain systems

A lot of hard work and years of research are still needed for developing successful Blockchain (BC) applications. Although it is not yet standardized, BC technology was proven as to be an enhancement factor for security, decentralization, and reliability, leading to be successfully implemented in cryptocurrency industries. Fog computing (FC) is one of the recently emerged paradigms that needs to be improved to serve Internet of Things (IoT) environments of the future. As hundreds of projects, ideas, and systems were proposed, one can find a great R&D potential for integrating BC and FC technologies. Examples of organizations contributing to the R&D of these two technologies, and their integration, include Linux, IBM, Google, Microsoft, and others. To validate an integrated Fog-Blockchain protocol or method implementation, before the deployment phase, a suitable and accurate simulation environment is needed. Such validation should save a great deal of costs and efforts on researchers and companies adopting this integration. Current available simulation environments facilitate Fog simulation, or BC simulation, but not both. In this paper, we introduce a Fog-Blockchain simulator, namely FoBSim, with the main goal to ease the experimentation and validation of integrated Fog-Blockchain approaches. According to our proposed workflow of simulation, we implement different Consensus Algorithms (CA), different deployment options of the BC in the FC architecture, and different functionalities of the BC in the simulation. Furthermore, technical details and algorithms on the simulated integration are provided. We validate FoBSim by describing the technologies used within FoBSim, highlighting FoBSim’s novelty compared to the state-of-the-art, discussing the event validity in FoBSim, and providing a clear walk-through validation. Finally, we simulate case studies, then present and analyze the obtained results, where deploying the BC network in the fog layer shows enhanced efficiency in terms of total run time and total storage cost.
Cytoreductive Surgery may be beneficial for highly selected patients with Metastatic Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors receiving Regorafenib facing Local Progression: A Case Controlled Study

Background: Current evidence have shown surgery may provide progression-free survival (PFS) benefit for selected patients with metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) who received first line imatinib and second line sunitinib. However, impact of cytoreductive surgery for GIST patients receiving third line regorafenib facing progression is not yet reported. Methods: Between 2014 and 2019, 41 patients with metastatic GIST received regorafenib and 37 of them facing progression. Results: 37 of 41 (90.2%) pre-treated GIST patients receiving regorafenib who experienced progression of disease after a median follow-up of 12.42 months after regorafenib use and 15 out of 37 (40.5%) patients with local progression underwent cytoreductive surgery (local progression and operation, LPOP). All the patients facing local progression (LP) were significantly younger with more exon 17 mutation than diffuse progression (DP). The complication rate for cytoreductive surgery was 33.3% (5/15). Cytoreductive surgery provided PFS prolongation of 5.52 months. Patients underwent cytoreductive surgery, compared with control group (local progression and no operation (LPNOP) and DP), may gain a significant PFS (12.91 versus 2.33 versus 5.29 months, p = 0.0001) and overall survival (OS) benefit (32.33 versus 5.26 versus 12.42 months, p = 0.004). Conclusions: Cytoreductive surgery might be feasible in highly selected patients with pre-treated GIST who are being treated with regorafenib experiencing LP.
Cardiovascular Organ Damage in Clinical Subtypes of Systemic Sclerosis: Arterial Stiffness and Echocardiography Might Not Be the Ideal Tools for Patient Risk Stratification

Background Vascular damage is recognized as a diagnostic landmark in systemic sclerosis (SSc), both in its limited and diffuse subtypes. Early detection at a subclinical stage with transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and carotid femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) may be helpful in therapeutic planning and management. Aim of the Study. The aim of the study was to evaluate presence of subclinical cardiovascular damage in patients with limited and diffuse SSc in comparison with a cohort of healthy individuals. Methods Consecutive patients with limited and diffuse SSc underwent complete TTE and cfPWV and a complete review of clinical data. As controls, 23 healthy subjects with similar hemodynamic profiles were selected. Results 41 patients (35 female, aged 56.9 years), 21 with diffuse and 20 with limited SSc, were recruited. Past medical history, cardiovascular risk factors, gender distribution, and disease duration were similar in the two groups as well as TTE parameters and hemodynamic indexes—cfPWV (6.5 [6–6.8] vs. 7.0 [6.2–8.5], p=0.24) and augmentation index (145.6 ± 14.2 vs. 149 ± 20.6, p=0.52). Patients with limited SSc were 10 years older than patients with diffuse SSc. In the multiple regression analysis, only age (p=0.0154) and disease duration (p=0.0467) resulted as the significant determinant of cfPWV. When compared to healthy controls, no significant difference emerged in TTE or hemodynamic indexes. Conclusion In SSc, cfPWV increases with age, with no additional impact of pathology or subtype. Vascular damage in the SSc population is not accurately reflected in increased arterial stiffness, as evaluated with cfPWV, or classically defined echocardiographic findings of organ damage (i.e., left ventricular concentric remodelling and increased filling pressures).