Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recent Progress on Experimental and Theoretical Research of Soil Nail Pullout Mechanism

A brief description of the recent advances of the soil nailing technique in the world is given in this paper,and the development of this technique in some typical countries and regions are compared and summarized.Simultaneously,the common methods,devices and the principles of field and laboratory soil nail pullout tests are introduced,and the influence factors affecting the pullout test results are discussed.On this basis,some theoretical models,including the ideal elasto-plastic model,the bilinear model,and the hyperbolic model,are presented and evaluated. The research advances of numerical analysis methods that have been utilized for simulating soil nail pullout behavior,such as the finite element method(FEM),are summarized.Finally,some problems in the study on soil nail pullout performance and the new research trends are introduced.Detailed recommendations are provided for further study on soil nails made of new materials and their time dependent characteristics.
Inactivation of Invs/Nphp2 in renal epithelial cells drives infantile nephronophthisis like phenotypes in mouse

Background Nephronophthisis (NPHP) is a ciliopathy characterized by renal fibrosis and cyst formation, and accounts for a significant portion of end stage renal disease in children and young adults. Currently no targeted therapy is available for this disease. NPHP2 is one of the 25 NPHP genes identified to date. In mouse, global knockout of Nphp2 leads to renal fibrosis and cysts. However, the precise contribution of different cell types and the relationship between epithelial cysts and interstitial fibrosis remains undefined. Methods Here, we generated cell-type specific knockout mouse models of Nphp2 and characterized kidney morphology and phenotype. We additionally investigated the impact of removing cilia via deletion of the cilia biogenesis gene Ift88 on phenotype severity in Nphp2 mutants. Results Epithelial specific knockout of Nphp2 in Nphp2flox/flox; Ksp-Cre mutant mice resulted in renal cyst formation and severe fibrosis, while Nphp2flox/flox; Foxd1-Cre mice, where Nphp2 is deleted in stromal cells, displayed no observable phenotypes. Further, myofibroblast activation occurred early during disease progression and preceded detectable cyst formation in the Nphp2flox/flox; Ksp-Cre kidney. Moreover, concomitant removal of cilia partially suppressed the phenotypes of the Nphp2flox/flox; Ksp-Cre mutant kidney, supporting a significant role of cilia in Nphp2 function in vivo. Conclusions Our results highlight the critical role of renal epithelial cilia and epithelial-stromal communication in NPHP. Significance statement Nephronophthisis (NPHP) is a ciliopathy characterized by interstitial fibrosis and epithelial cysts in the kidney. A significant portion of end stage renal disease occurring before age 30 results from NPHP. However, the molecular etiology of NPHP remains to be elucidated. By generating and analyzing tissue specific knockout mouse models of Nphp2/Inversin, authors pinpoint defective epithelial cells as the driver for both epithelial cysts and interstitial fibrosis. Moreover, the profibrotic response is triggered before cyst formation in the epithelial-specific Nphp2 knockout model. Mechanistically, authors provide evidence that Nphp2 may function to inhibit a cilia-dependent pro-fibrotic and pro-cystic pathway.
Shape recovery of polymers with inclusions under multi-axial stress

This paper presents a two-phase composite model for predicting the shape memory and recovery behaviors of polymeric and particle-loaded polymeric composite parts. The shape recovery behavior is simulated using a homogenized material model with the matrix exhibiting the strain storage behavior and the inclusions adding to the stiffness and conductivity of the material. An electrically conductive reinforcement in the matrix enabled the activation of shape recovery with Joule heating. The shape recovery model for the matrix is adapted from literature and extended to include a three-dimensional stress state. Inclusions are assumed linearly elastic, and the matrix is elastic at the low-temperature glassy phase and elastic-incompressible at the high-temperature rubbery phase. The incompressibility is modeled using a temperature-dependent Poisson’s ratio that approaches close to 0.5 for the rubbery phase. A methodology for characterizing model parameters from experimental observations of shape recovery is also discussed. Correlations with experimental observations calibrate the model as well as validate it. The formulated two-phase shape recovery model was implemented into the 3D nonlinear finite element analysis. Simulations of shape recovery arbitrarily shaped 3D parts under multi-axial stress states and thermo-mechanical loading cycles are described.
Dramatic changes in atmospheric pollution source contributions for a coastal megacity in North China from 2011 to 2020

Abstract. Understanding the effectiveness of long-term air pollution regulatory measures is important for control policy formulation. Efforts have been made using chemical transport modelling and statistical approaches to evaluate the efficacy of the Clean Air Action Plan (2013–2017, CAAP) and the Blue Sky Protection Campaign (2018–2020, BSPC) enacted in China. Changes in air quality due to reduction in emissions can be masked by meteorology, making it highly challenging to reveal the real effects of control measures. Knowledge gap still existed with respect to how sources changed before and after the CAAP and BSPC implemented, respectively, particularly in coastal area where anthropogenic emissions mixed with additional natural sources (e.g., marine aerosol). This work applied a machine learning-based meteorological normalization approach to decouple the meteorological effects from air quality trend in a coastal city in northern China (Qingdao). Secondly, the relative changes in source contributions to ambient PM2.5 with a ~10-year observation interval (2011–2012, 2016, and 2019) were also investigated. We discovered that the largest emission reduction section was likely from coal combustions, as the meteorologically normalized SO2 dropped by ~15.5 % per year and dispersion normalized SO42− decreased by ~41.5 % for annual average. Change in the meteorologically normalized NO2 was relatively stable (~1.0 % yr−1), and NO3− changed inappreciable in 2016–2019 but significantly higher than that prior to the CAAP. Crustal dust decreased remarkably after the CAAP began. Industrial emissions, for example, steel-related smelting, decreased after 2016 due to the relocation of steelmaking enterprises. Note that vehicle emissions were increased in importance, as opposed to the other primary sources. Similar to other mega cities, Qingdao also risks increased ozone pollution that in turns facilitate secondary particles formation in the future. The policy assessment approaches applied in this work also work for other places where air quality management is highly in demand to reduce air pollution.
The Ecto-5′nucleotidase/CD73 Mediates Leishmania amazonensis Survival in Macrophages

Endogenous nucleotides produced by various group of cells under inflammatory conditions act as potential danger signals in vivo. Extracellularly released nucleotides such as ATP are rapidly hydrolyzed to adenosine by the coordinated ectonucleotidase activities of CD39 and CD73. Leishmania is an obligate intracellular parasite of macrophages and capable of modulating host immune response in order to survive and multiply within host cells. In this study, the activity of CD73 induced by Leishmania amazonensis in infected macrophages has been investigated and correlated with parasite survival and infection in vitro. For this, the expression of CD39 and CD73, by flow cytometry, in murine peritoneal macrophages infected with metacyclic promastigotes of L. amazonensis has been analyzed. Our results showed that L. amazonensis-infected macrophages, unlike LPS-treated macrophages, increased CD73 expression. It was also noted that when CD73 enzymatic activity was blocked by α, β-methyleneadenosine 5′-diphosphate sodium salt (APCP), macrophage parasitism was significantly decreased. Interestingly, these effects were not associated with the production of TNF-α, IL-10, or nitric oxide (NO). Together, these data demonstrate that L. amazonensis induces a regulatory phenotype in macrophages, which by activating the CD39/CD73 pathway allows parasite survival through the action of immunomodulatory adenosine receptors.
Direct Intercession Approach by Clinical Pharmacist to Manage Medication Related Problems for Enhanced Patient Care

Medication related problems (MRPs) are defined as any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm and such events may be related to professional practice, health care products, procedures and/or systems including; prescription writing and prescription order communication. [1] Due to vast quantity of drugs and their numerous guidelines related to administration, it become almost unfeasible for the any doctor to follow those guidelines as a near perfect manner while writing a drug for a particular patient condition. These circumstances give rise to development of frequent MRPs in general practice and also in hospital setup. [2] Furthermore to overcome such issues, few constructive steps can be adopted like; introducing automated systems or uniform prescribing charts in order to avoid transcription and omission errors. Along with this, feedback control system for each prescription and immediate review of prescriptions before dispensing or even before actual administration can be performed with the assistance of a clinical pharmacist, this process found to be beneficial for enhanced patient care in few institutions. Finally, prescription audits should be performed periodically to identify MRPs and suitable methods to overcome such issues. [2] To enhance the therapeutic outcome of each patient an active intercessions by clinical pharmacist who are trained to review the appropriateness of prescribed medicine with primary aim to reduction in prescription errors and prescribing faults are strongly recommended. Studies conducted earlier in abroad have shown that clinical pharmacist led medication chart review enhances the therapeutic outcome by identifying and resolve these errors by providing suitable therapeutic solutions. [3-6] Clinical Pharmacists are capable to play a significant role in identification and modification of MRPs by constant prescription review along with pharmacist’s intervention based on patient interview and follow-up. This practice can reduce the number of readmissions and emergency department visits also. [7] Similarly in India clinical pharmacist activities including MRP identification and reporting is well established but subsequent clinical pharmacist lead intercession of MRPs to modify the therapy are not much reported as the modification entirely lay in the hand of doctors only. Therefore, we have aimed to provide appropriate and referred alternative to identified MRPs so as to involve in direct patient care process. We have initiated this approach in different In-patient units of Gandhi hospital (a tertiary care multi super-specialty government medical college and hospital at Secunderabad) where MRPs was identified by the clinical pharmacist during medication chart review and same were reported instantaneously to the visiting doctor and subsequent modifications were suggested to resolve those errors as a clinical pharmacist intercession approach.
China’s outward FDI and environmental sustainability in belt and road countries: does the quality of institutions matter?

This study aims to unravel the environmental effects of institutional quality in relationship with China’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries. The empirical analysis is conducted over the period 2003–2018, using the System-GMM approach with the Windmeijer finite-sample correction. We infer that China’s FDI has a detrimental effect on environmental quality, which validates the ‘pollution haven hypothesis’ in the BRI region. Importantly, the interaction effect of China’s FDI with indicators of institutional quality yields negative and significant results. This entails that strong institutions can boost the quality of the environment through FDI attractiveness. In further assessment, the threshold levels of institutional quality are calculated, beyond which China’s FDI can reduce carbon emissions in the BRI region. This substantiates both the pollution haven and pollution halo hypotheses. The study underscores the importance of institutional reform in the quest for sustainable development, owing to the fact that most economies prioritize FDI-led growth strategies.
UAV Mapping of the Chlorophyll Content in a Tidal Flat Wetland Using a Combination of Spectral and Frequency Indices

The chlorophyll content of leaves is an important indicator of plant environmental stress, photosynthetic capacity, and is widely used to diagnose the growth and health status of vegetation. Traditional chlorophyll content inversion is based on the vegetation index under pure species, which rarely considers the impact of interspecific competition and species mixture on the inversion accuracy. To solve these limitations, the harmonic analysis (HA) and the Hilbert–Huang transform (HHT) were introduced to obtain the frequency index, which were combined with spectral index as the input parameters to estimate chlorophyll content based on the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) image. The research results indicated that: (1) Based on a comparison of the model accuracy for three different types of indices in the same period, the estimation accuracy of the pure spectral index was the lowest, followed by that of the frequency index, whereas the mixed index estimation effect was the best. (2) The estimation accuracy in November was lower than that in other months; the pure spectral index coefficient of determination (R2) was only 0.5208, and the root–mean–square error (RMSE) was 4.2144. The estimation effect in September was the best. The model R2 under the mixed index reached 0.8283, and the RMSE was 2.0907. (3) The canopy chlorophyll content (CCC) estimation under the frequency domain index was generally better than that of the pure spectral index, indicating that the frequency information was more sensitive to subtle differences in the spectrum of mixed vegetation. These research results show that the combination of spectral and frequency information can effectively improve the mapping accuracy of the chlorophyll content, and provid a theoretical basis and technology for monitoring the chlorophyll content of mixed vegetation in wetlands.
Convolutional Neural Networks for Segmenting Cerebellar Fissures from Magnetic Resonance Imaging

The human cerebellum plays an important role in coordination tasks. Diseases such as spinocerebellar ataxias tend to cause severe damage to the cerebellum, leading patients to a progressive loss of motor coordination. The detection of such damages can help specialists to approximate the state of the disease, as well as to perform statistical analysis, in order to propose treatment therapies for the patients. Manual segmentation of such patterns from magnetic resonance imaging is a very difficult and time-consuming task, and is not a viable solution if the number of images to process is relatively large. In recent years, deep learning techniques such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs or convnets) have experienced an increased development, and many researchers have used them to automatically segment medical images. In this research, we propose the use of convolutional neural networks for automatically segmenting the cerebellar fissures from brain magnetic resonance imaging. Three models are presented, based on the same CNN architecture, for obtaining three different binary masks: fissures, cerebellum with fissures, and cerebellum without fissures. The models perform well in terms of precision and efficiency. Evaluation results show that convnets can be trained for such purposes, and could be considered as additional tools in the diagnosis and characterization of neurodegenerative diseases.
Development of an Optimal Time for Learning Questionnaire in Chinese University Students

Background Autonomous learning is crucial for students’ academic achievements, however, there lacks a structure-validated questionnaire to measure the optimal time for autonomous learning with different learning contents. Methods Based on the previous investigations, we have designed a matrix of 49 items based on seven learning contents and seven time periods of a day to measure the optimal time for autonomous learning and invited 305 Chinese university students to answer the matrix. Results Through both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, we have developed an Optimal Time for Learning Questionnaire with a satisfactory model structure of five factors (7, 6, 6, 6, 5 items per factor respectively) namely Noon, Late Night, Nightfall, Morning and Afternoon. The internal reliabilities of these factors were acceptable, and their inter-correlations were significant, albeit in low or medium levels. Conclusions The Optimal time for Learning Questionnaire may help students find their optimal learning efficiency individually.
Vaccinium carmesinum (Ericaceae), a new species of blueberry from Mt. Tago Range, Mindanao Island, Philippines

Vaccinium carmesinum is described as a new species of Ericaceae from Mt. Tago Range, Mindanao Island, Philippines. It is similar to V. platyphyllum Merrill and V. luzoniense S.Vidal but is distinct from the former by longer and wider leaves, longer racemes, longer bracts, glabrous corollas, and glabrescent fruits, and from the latter by longer petioles, leaf glands distributed along the blade margin, glabrous rachis, and lanate filaments. Vaccinium carmesinum bears the widest leaves among Philippine Vaccinium. Its discovery increases the number of Vaccinium species recognized in the Philippines to 37.
Factors Predisposing the Response to Lumacaftor/Ivacaftor in People with Cystic Fibrosis

Lumacaftor/ivacaftor (LUMA-IVA) therapy is prescribed to people with cystic fibrosis (pwCF) homozygous for the Phe508del-CFTR variant to restore CFTR protein function. There is, however, large inter-individual variability in treatment response. Here, we seek to identify clinical and/or genetic factors that may modulate the response to this CFTR modulator therapy. A total of 765 pwCF older than 12 years under LUMA-IVA therapy and with lung function and nutritional measurements available before and after treatment initiation were included. Response to treatment was determined by the change in lung function and nutritional status, from baseline and over the first two years after initiation, and it was assessed by weighted generalized estimating equation models. Gains in lung function and nutritional status were observed after 6 months of treatment (on average 2.11 ± 7.81% for percent predicted FEV1 and 0.44 ± 0.77 kg/m2 for BMI) and sustained over the 2 years. We observed that the more severe patients gained the most in lung function and nutritional status. While females started with a nutritional status more impaired than males, they had a larger response and regained BMI Z-score values similar to men after 2 years of treatment. We observed no association between variants in solute carrier (SLC) genes and the respiratory function response to LUMA-IVA, but the SLC6A14 rs12839137 variant was associated with the nutritional response. Further investigations, including other genomic regions, will be needed to fully explore the inter-individual variability of the response to LUMA-IVA.
The BDNF Val66Met Polymorphism (rs6265) Modulates Inflammation and Neurodegeneration in the Early Phases of Multiple Sclerosis

The clinical course of multiple sclerosis (MS) is critically influenced by the interplay between inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes. The brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met polymorphism (rs6265), one of the most studied single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), influences brain functioning and neurodegenerative processes in healthy individuals and in several neuropsychiatric diseases. However, the role of this polymorphism in MS is still controversial. In 218 relapsing–remitting (RR)-MS patients, we explored, at the time of diagnosis, the associations between the Val66Met polymorphism, clinical characteristics, and the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of a large set of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory molecules. In addition, associations between Val66Met and structural MRI measures were assessed. We identified an association between the presence of Met and a combination of cytokines, identified by principal component analysis (PCA), including the pro-inflammatory molecules MCP-1, IL-8, TNF, Eotaxin, and MIP-1b. No significant associations emerged with clinical characteristics. Analysis of MRI measures evidenced reduced cortical thickness at the time of diagnosis in patients with Val66Met. We report for the first time an association between the Val66Met polymorphism and central inflammation in MS patients at the time of diagnosis. The role of this polymorphism in both inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes may explain its complex influence on the MS course.
Single-Molecule Detection of Nucleic Acids via Liposome Signal Amplification in Mass Spectrometry

A single-molecule detection method was developed for nucleic acids based on mass spectrometry counting single liposome particles. Before the appearance of symptoms, a negligible amount of nucleic acids and biomarkers for the clinical diagnosis of the disease were already present. However, it is difficult to detect extremely low concentrations of nucleic acids using the current methods. Hence, the establishment of an ultra-sensitive nucleic acid detection technique is urgently needed. Herein, magnetic beads were used to capture target nucleic acids, and liposome particles were employed as mass tags for single-particle measurements. Liposomes were released from magnetic beads via photocatalytic cleavage. Hence, one DNA molecule corresponded to one liposome particle, which could be counted using mass spectrometric measurement. The ultrasensitive detection of DNA (10–18 M) was achieved using this method.
Design and target decomposition of impact pulse of car frontal crashworthiness

In order to control and optimize the frontal crashworthiness of the passenger car in the conceptual design phase,taking a B-class car as an example,a method of setting the important parameters G1 and G2 for the target simplified 2-step impact pulse in the conceptual design phase was proposed.The sub-structure performance targets were decomposed effectively under the overall goal condition based on the energy management technique,providing a sufficient basis for further structure sections design and overall goal achievement.