Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characteristics of Gut Microbiota in Patients With Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Different gut microbiota is implicated in different diseases, including cancer. However, gut microbiota differences between individuals with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) and healthy individuals are unclear. Here, we analyzed gut microbiota composition in 51 ccRCC patients and 40 healthy controls using 16S rRNA sequencing analysis. We observed that Blautia, Streptococcus, [Ruminococcus]_torques_group, Romboutsia, and [Eubacterium]_hallii_group were dominant and positively associated with ccRCC. We isolated and cultured Streptococcus lutetiensis to characterize specific gut microbiota that promotes ccRCC and found that it promoted in vitro ccRCC proliferation, migration, and invasion via the TGF-signaling pathway. Interactions identified between the gut microbiota and ccRCC suggest the gut microbiota could serve as a potential non-invasive tool for predicting ccRCC risk and also function as a cancer therapy target.
College Students’ Opinions About Coping Strategies for Mental Health Problems, Suicide Ideation, and Self-Harm During COVID-19

Background Mental health problems have emerged as a significant health complication in United States colleges during COVID-19, and as a result, they have been extensively investigated in the United States and internationally. In contrast, research on coping among the college population during the pandemic is scant. Hence, this study investigated coping strategies proposed by undergraduate students attending a Midwestern university. Objectives The purpose of this preliminary study was to obtain college students’ feedback/opinions about coping strategies for mental health problems, suicide ideation, and self-harm during COVID-19. Methods In December 2021, one-hundred and four undergraduate students (ages 18–22 years) completed an online survey on coping strategies using Qualtrics. Major topics included: (1) Types of coping strategies/styles expressed by students for general mental health problems, (2) Types of coping strategies for suicide ideation and self-harm behaviors, (3) Preferred platforms for receiving coping therapy, and (4) Reasons for accepting or refusing parent involvement with mental health problems. Results The most beneficial coping strategies for mental health were ranked by college students as follows: (1) a skills training development program (30%), (2) meditation (19%), and (3) mindfulness exercises (15%), and physical education (11%). The respondents’ best coping strategies for preventing self-harm and suicide ideation/behaviors during COVID-19 were ranked as: (1) improving support from friends (32%), (2) building self-esteem (29%), and (3) addressing anger, depression, stress, and loneliness (25%). Finally, a total of 50% of participants felt that parents should be involved in college student interventions. Students stated that the most important type of support that they received from their parents were: (1) emotional support (31%), (2) direction and/or assistance with solutions (27%), and problem-solving (16%). Conclusion This study identified potential avenues which could be implemented into action during future outbreaks. Specifically, employing interventions that: (i) train undergraduate students to employ more effective skills training coping strategies or practicing mindfulness or meditation; (ii) integrate mental health, suicide, and self-harm prevention into the curriculum; (iii) offer more in-person campus services targeted toward the psychological and emotional effects of a pandemic, and (iv) involve support persons (e.g., family) in students’ lives to enhance their well-being during and after COVID-19.
Benefits of Reiki in older individuals with chronic pain

Reiki se caracteriza por ser una terapia complementar llevado a cabo a traves de la imposicion de manos en el ser humano con la intencion de restablecer el equilibrio fisico, mental y espiritual. El objetivo de esta investigacion fue identificar y analizar los beneficios experimentados con la practica de Reiki, en sujetos ancianos con dolor cronico no oncologica. Se trata de un estudio cualitativo, descriptivo y exploratorio. Para la recoleccion se utilizo la entrevista semiestructurada, con cuestiones abiertas y cerradas. Los datos fueron recogidos entre julio y agosto de 2012. Los sujetos del estudio fueron diez ancianos con quejas de dolor cronico no oncologica, presento las cinco sesiones de Reiki. Evaluacion de resultados se considera el analisis del contenido propuesto por Bardin. Se concluyo que esta practica terapeutica mejora significativamente las quejas de dolor cronico, ademas de contribuir al equilibrio de las necesidades fisicas, mentales, emocionales y espirituales de los ancianos.
Movement disorders Prodromal symptoms of Parkinson ’ s disease : Implications for epidemiological studies of disease etiology Symptômes prodromiques dans la maladie de Parkinson : implications pour les études épidémiologiques de l ’ étiologie de la maladie

In recent years, there has been a major shift in our understanding of the course of Parkinson’s disease (PD) from a disease of the brain to a disease of long latency, characterized by the progressive emergence of multiple non-motor symptoms, including hyposmia, constipation, depression, anxiety, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder and excessive daytime sleepiness, as well as subtle motor signs, before the typical motor signs appear. Epidemiological studies have made major contributions by allowing better characterization of subsequent PD risk in relation to non-motor symptoms. Such findings have profound implications for the conduct of epidemiological studies examining risk and protective factors in PD, and the interpretation of their findings. Given the length of the prodromal period, reverse causation in particular is a major concern with many reported associations. One striking feature of PD etiology, compared with other diseases, is the presence of numerous inverse associations. If these associations are truly causal, they would have major implications for disease prevention and for slowing disease progression. However, whether these associations are truly causal remains to be demonstrated in future studies. Experimental studies play an important role by offering a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Well-designed epidemiological studies using innovative approaches will also be key in elucidating whether these intriguing associations are causal or a consequence of reverse causation. # 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. * Hô pital Paul-Brousse, Bâtiment 15/16, 16, avenue Paul-Vaillant-Couturier, 94807 Villejuif cedex, France. E-mail address: alexis.elbaz@inserm.fr. Available online at
El proceso de enfermar de mujeres y hombres con anemia falciforme: un estudio de Grounded Theory

Objetivo: comprender los significados atribuidos por mujeres y hombres con anemia de celulas falciformes a la experiencia del proceso de enfermar. Metodo : se trata de un estudio analitico, con un enfoque cualitativo y realizado con 17 adultos con anemia falciforme, basado en la Teoria Fundamentada en los Datos, la Grounded Theory, como referencia teorica y metodologica. Los datos fueron recogidos entre los anos 2012 y 2013 mediante una entrevista individual en profundidad. Todas las entrevistas fueron grabadas y analizadas segun la tecnica de analisis comparativo de la Grounded Theory. Resultados: los datos revelaron cuatro categorias que agrupan la experiencia de la enfermedad, los sentimientos vividos y la trayectoria de la convivencia con la anemia falciforme. Conclusiones: fue posible comprender que la experiencia se construye mediante un proceso en el que estas personas son capaces de replantear, imprimir nuevos rumbos a la vida y al cuidado en la experiencia de la enfermedad. La atencion de la enfermeria en el contexto de una enfermedad cronica tambien se observa en este estudio como base que da atencion, orienta y lleva a cabo las confrontaciones necesarias. La comprension de la experiencia vivida por estas personas hace posible ampliar las dimensiones y la esencia de los cuidados de enfermeria requeridos por toda la vida
International Journal of Phytopathology IDENTIFICATION OF HOST RESISTANCE TO BACTERIAL CANKER DISEASE ON APRICOT, PLUM AND PEACH GROWN IN PUNJAB AND KPK, PAKISTAN

Bacterial canker disease caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae (Pss) has expanded rapidly in Pakistan, notably on stone fruits. The present research aimed to determine peach, plum and apricot cultivars' resistance to Pss bacterial canker. During the 2014 – 2015 growing season, diseased samples exhibiting symptoms of bacterial canker were collected from peach, plum, and apricot trees in Punjab and KPK provinces, and 48 P. syringae isolates were recovered. In a pathogenicity test, three Pss isolates (PS3, PS9, and PS17) were found to be highly virulent on peach, plum, and apricot, and their resistance to Pss was evaluated. Leaves and shoots of five peach varieties; Early grand, Florida king, 4 ½, 5 ½, 6 ½, four plum varieties; Red beauty, Fazal-e-man ani, Stanley, Producer, and two apricot varieties; Chinese apricot and golden amber, were foliar sprayed with a mixed culture of Pss at a concentration of 10 -8 cfu ml- 1 . Sprayed cultivars were covered with plastic bags for three days to retain moisture and kept in a glass house, where they were closely monitored for the appearance of symptoms. 5 ½ peach, Fazal-e-Manani plum, and Chinese apricot were found resistant to Pss, 6 ½ peach, Stanley plum were susceptible while Golden amber apricot was found moderately susceptible to Pss. This is the first report of apricot, peach, and plum host resistance to Pss in Pakistan.
Mortalidade por acidentes de trabalho entre trabalhadores da agropecuária no Brasil, 2000-2010

This study estimated annual mortality from work-related injuries in agriculture in Brazil, 2000-2010. The Mortality Information System (SIM) was used to identify cases. Missing data for occupation and work-related injuries were retrieved through other available individual records and incorporated into total cases. Population data were obtained from the official censuses. A total of 8,923 deaths from work-related injuries were identified, of which 44.8% were located by data retrieval. In the year 2000, estimated crude mortality from work-related injuries was 6.4/100,000 workers, increasing to 8.1/100,000 in 2003 and declining to 7.3/100,000 in 2010. The leading circumstances of deaths in men involved "riding animals or using animal-drawn vehicles", whereas pesticide poisoning was the leading cause in women. Overall mortality from work-related injuries in agriculture was low when compared to that of other countries, suggesting residual under-recording despite data retrieval and thus calling for quality improvement in records. Gender-sensitive preventive measures are necessary.
Exploring the Transferability of Supervised Pretraining with an MLP Projector

We provide an intuitive understanding of the relation between Feature Mixtureness and the feature distribution distance by manually generating two sets of features with different distribution distance. We use red and blue to represent class centers from pre-D and eval-D, respectively. The visualization results are illustrated in Fig. 1. From (a) to (c), when the distribution distance between pre-D and eval-D increases, Feature Mixtureness decreases accordingly. When we fix the variance of features in pre-D and gradually enlarge the variance of features in eval-D (from (d) to (f)), Feature Mixtureness will decrease as well. Based on the observations above, we conclude that our Feature Mixtureness can empirically measure the feature distribution distance between pre-D and eval-D.
Increased medical and emergency department claims for asthma following wildfire smoke exposure in Washington state, 2014-2018.

Summary Health impacts from wildfire smoke are likely to become a growing public health concern in Washington state. We examined the short-term impact of wildfire smoke exposure on health care utilization for asthma from 2014-2018 using medical claims data from the Washington All-Payer Claims Database, and wildfire smoke data provided by the Washington State Department of Ecology. A 10 µg / m3 one-day increase in fine particulate matter from wildfire smoke was associated with a 3% increase in medical claims for asthma for the 10 days following exposure, and a 2% increase in emergency department claims on the day of exposure, with higher odds at higher exposure. Over 5 fire seasons from 2014 through 2018, increased healthcare utilization for asthma associated with the immediate effect of wildfire smoke cost $4.5 million. This analysis considers only the immediate increase in utilization for asthma within two weeks of an exposure event. In addition, a yearly fire season compounds the long-term impact of chronic conditions, which would lead to higher morbidity and cost.
Distributed Learning with Strategic Users: A Repeated Game Approach

We consider a distributed learning setting where strategic users are incentivized by a fusion center, to train a learning model based on local data. The users are not obliged to provide their true gradient updates and the fusion center is not capable of validating the authenticity of reported updates. Thus motivated, we formulate the interactions between the fusion center and the users as repeated games, manifesting an under-explored interplay between machine learning and game theory. We then develop an incentive mechanism for the fusion center based on a joint gradient estimation and user action classification scheme, and study its impact on the convergence performance of distributed learning. Further, we devise adaptive zero-determinant (ZD) strategies, thereby generalizing the classical ZD strategies to the repeated games with time-varying stochastic errors. Theoretical and empirical analysis show that the fusion center can incentivize the strategic users to cooperate and report informative gradient updates, thus ensuring the convergence.
Anti-Obesity Effect of Rice Bran Extract on High-Fat Diet-Induced Obese Mice

Obesity involving adipose tissue growth and development are associated with angiogenesis and extracellular matrix remodeling. Rice bran has antioxidant and cardioprotective properties, and can act as a food supplement with potential health benefits, such as lowering blood pressure, hepatic steatosis, and inflammation. Therefore, we hypothesized that rice bran extract (RBE) can regulate adipose tissue growth and obesity. Male Institute of Cancer Research mice were fed with a high-fat diet (HFD) for 8 weeks and then supplemented with 220 and 1,100 mg/kg/d RBE while the low-fat diet group (control) were not. In addition to body weight, adipose tissue mass, and vessel density, we evaluated the mRNA expression of angiogenic factors such as matrix metalloproteinases, Mmp-2, Mmp-9, and the vascular endothelial growth factor (Vegf) in visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissues using real-time polymerase chain reaction. Administration of RBE to HFD-induced obese mice reduced the body weight and adipose tissue mass compared with untreated mice. It also decreased blood vessel density in the adipose tissue. Furthermore, RBE downregulated Vegf and Mmp-2 mRNA levels in visceral fat tissue. These results demonstrate that RBE, at high concentrations, significantly reduces adipose tissue mass and prevents obesity development in HFD-induced obese mice, which might be partly mediated via an anti-angiogenic mechanism.
From Video to Images: Contrastive Pretraining for Emotion Recognition from Single Image (Student Abstract)

Emotion detection from face is an important problem and has received attention from industry and academia. Although emotion recognition from videos has a very high performance, emotion recognition from a single image stays a challenging task. In this paper, we try to use information from videos to do emotion recognition on a single image. More specifically, we leverage contrastive loss for pretraining the network on the videos and experiment with different sampling methods to select consistently hard triplets for continual learning of the network. Once the embeddings have been trained, we test them on a standard emotion classification task. Our method significantly improves the performance of the models and shows the efficacy of self-supervision in emotion recognition.
Attitudes and opinions towards Intelligent Speed Adaptation

This paper presents the results of the attitudinal and behavioural research undertaken as part of the NSW Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) Trial. Over 110 light vehicles from private and company fleets were fitted with an Advisory ISA device. In addition to the collection of speed records to measure compliance, drivers were asked to participate in quantitative and qualitative attitudinal research through focus groups, surveys and in-vehicle observations before, during and after their use of the device. Results from the attitudinal research indicated that a majority of participants reported a reduction in the margin by which they exceeded the speed limit. Some drivers reported speeding less frequently either because the ISA device made them more aware of the speed limit, or because they wanted to avoid the audible warnings. There were no widespread concerns about the technology being distracting. Participants also reported being more aware of exceeding the speed limit, therefore speeding became a conscious choice rather than an inadvertent action. The acceptability of the ISA technology was generally high, but most participants felt that there should be an element of choice for the driver on whether to install the ISA technology.
A QUANTITATIVE STUDY ON EVALUATION OF AN INTENSIVE ENGLISH COURSE: VOICES OF NON-ENGLISH-MAJOR STUDENTS

The preliminary purpose of this study was to investigate how non-English-major first-year students evaluated some aspects of an intensive English course that aimed to improve their English language knowledge and skills. After that course, a total of 453 students participated in the study and completed a self-reported survey questionnaire of 31 items in various types. The quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS version 24. The results revealed that most students who attended the intensive English course held positive views towards the course including content, duration, teachers, materials, teaching methods, and facilities. The students were most interested in some components of the course, such as the teachers, their teaching methods, and the classroom facilities. They thought that their vocabulary and grammar improved the most, whereas teamwork skill witnessed the least improvement. Finally, they expected listening, speaking skills, and pronunciation to be added and reinforced more in the next course. The study offered several implications for future courses and relevant stakeholders.
Parallel Measurements of Vibrational Modes in a Few-Layer Graphene Nanomechanical Resonator Using Software-Defined Radio Dongles

Software-defined radio dongles are small and inexpensive receivers well known to amateur radio enthusiasts. When connected to an antenna, they enable monitoring of a wide range of the radio spectrum by conditioning the input signal and transferring a downconverted version of it to a personal computer for software processing. Here, we employ a composite of two such dongles, interfaced with codes written in MATLAB and GNU Radio, as a measuring instrument to study the flexural vibrations of a few-layer graphene nanomechanical resonator. Instead of an antenna, we connect the dongles to the split output of a photodetector used to detect vibrations optically. We first perform a quantitative analysis of the dynamics of the first vibrational mode. We then measure the response of the first two vibrational modes in parallel. To illustrate our technique, we detect changes in the vibrational amplitude of both modes induced by periodic strain modulation with a delay of $\approx 1$ ms between measurements. Last, we show that our software-based instrument can be employed to demodulate human voice encoded in the vibrations of our resonator. For parallel measurements of several frequency channels, and provided that the input signal is not too weak, our composite system may offer an alternative to the use of multiple lock-in amplifiers or multiple spectrum analyzers, with the distinct advantage of being cost-effective per frequency channel.
Efficient Data-Driven Uncertainty Propagation in Power System Dynamics Using Low-Rank Randomized Koopman Operator Approximation

In this paper we propose an efficient model-free data-driven algorithm for propagating uncertainty through nonlinear power system dynamics. We characterize the uncertainty in terms of the moments of the probability distribution of the dynamic states. The proposed approach relies on efficiently learning a linear representation of the power system by using the Koopman operator for propagating the moments. We use a randomized singular value decomposition to accelerate the computation of the Koopman operator. The proposed approach is implemented in Julia for propagating initial condition uncertainties for multiple power systems. The results demonstrate that the speedup of the proposed approach compared with conventional approaches increases as the system size increases and reaches an acceleration of 6x for the New England test system with comparable accuracy.
RS Invariant Image Classification and Retrieval with Pretrained Deep Learning Models

—CBIR deals with seeking of related images from large dataset, like Internet is a demanding task. Since last two decades scientists are working in this area in various angles. Deep learning provided state-of-the art result for image categorization and recovery. But pre-trained deep learning models are not strong enough to rotation and scale variations. A technique is proposed in this work to improve the precision and recall of image retrieval. This method concentrates on the extraction of high-level features with rotation and scaling invariant from ResNet18 CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) model. These features used for segregation of images using VGG19 deep learning model. Finally, after classification if the class of given query image is correct, we will get the 100% results for both precision and recall as the ideal requirement of image retrieval technique. Our experimental results shows that not only our proposed technique outstrip current techniques for rotated and scaled query images but also it has preferable results for retrieval time requirements. The performance investigation exhibit that the presented method upgrades the average precision value from 76.50% for combined features DCD (Dominant Color Descriptor), wavelet and curvelet to 99.1% and average recall value from 14.21% to 19.82% for rotated and scaled images utilizing Corel dataset. Also, the average retrieval time required is 1.39 sec, which is lower than existing modern techniques.
Filling gaps in the ecological knowledge on Auchenipteridae catfishes (Ostariophysi: Siluriformes): first data for Trachelyichthys exilis

ABSTRACT The feeding habit of Trachelyichthys exilis is described for the first time, with additional comments on its growth type and size at sexual maturity. We analyzed 42 specimens from the Amanã Reserve (Amazonas state, Brazil) collected with a seine net amidst stands of floating herbaceous vegetation during the dry season of 2002. Stomach contents revealed a predominantly carnivorous habit (tending to piscivorous), an isometric growth type, and size at maturity around 5.5 cm standard length. Based on the biological characteristics of the consumed prey, we presume that T. exilis forage actively during the twilight/night around and among the root tangle of herbaceous vegetation, preying upon nocturnally active animals such as small fishes and aquatic invertebrates, and/or close to the water surface, where diurnally active prey usually rests. Our findings provide essential information to fill knowledge gaps on the natural history of auchenipterid catfishes, especially on trophic ecology.