Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nexus between Financial Development, Renewable Energy Consumption, Technological Innovations and CO2 Emissions: The Case of India

Concerns regarding environmental sustainability have generally been an important element in achieving long-term development objectives. However, developing countries struggle to deal with these concerns, which all require specific treatment. As a result, this study explores the interaction between financial development, renewable energy consumption, technological innovations, and CO2 emissions in India from 1980 to 2019, taking into account the critical role of economic progress and urbanization. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model is used to quantify long-run dynamics, while the Vector Error Correction Model is used to identify causal direction (VECM). According to the study’s conclusions, financial development has a considerable positive impact on CO2 emissions. The coefficient of renewable energy consumption and technical innovations, on the other hand, is strongly negative in both the short and long run, indicating that increasing these measures will reduce CO2 emissions. Furthermore, economic expansion and urbanization have a negative impact on environmental quality since they emit a significant amount of CO2 into the atmosphere. The results of the robustness checks were obtained using the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS), the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS), and the Canonical Cointegration Regression (CCR) approaches to verify the findings. The VECM results reveal that there is long-run causality in CO2 emissions, financial development, renewable energy utilization, and urbanization. A range of diagnostic tests were also used to confirm the validity and reliability. This study delivers new findings that contribute to the existing literature and may be of particular interest to the country’s policymakers in light of the financial system and its role in environmental issues.
Low-Pressure Discharge Plasma Inactivation of Salmonella Typhymurium and Sanitation of Egg

Low-pressure discharge plasmas (LPDP) using different gases were compared for their microbial inactivation effects against Salmonella Typhimurium, and their potentialities as a non-thermal sanitation technology of eggs were evaluated. The inactivation was highest in air LPDP followed by oxygen and nitrogen. The reductions in S. Typhimurium by air LPDP were 4 and 6 log by 2 and 5 min treatments, respectively. The inactivation effect against S. Typhimurium was somewhat retarded on the egg shell surface compared to glass surface showing 3 log reductions by 5 min treatment. The increase in surface temperature of egg shell was less than 10C and no denaturation in both egg white and yolk was induced by the LPDP treatment. The results supported the possibility of the technology for the non-thermal egg sanitation.
Comparisons between retinal vessel calibers and various optic disc morphologic parameters with different optic disc appearances: The Glaucoma Stereo Analysis Study

The Glaucoma Stereo Analysis Study (GSAS) is a multicenter collaborative study of the characteristics of glaucomatous optic disc morphology using a stereo fundus camera. This study evaluated the retinal vessel calibers and correlations using GSAS fundus photographs between retinal vessels and 38 optic nerve head (ONH) morphologic parameters comprehensively. In all 240 eyes, the mean central retinal arteriolar equivalent (CRAE) and central retinal venular equivalent (CRVE) were 138.4 and 216.5 μm, respectively; the CRAE correlated with age, visual field scores and 19 ONH parameters and CRVE correlated with age, intraocular pressure, visual field scores and 11 ONH parameters. Among the different optic disc appearances including focal ischemia (FI) (n = 53, 22%), generalized enlargement (GE) (n = 53, 22%), myopic glaucoma (MY) (n = 112, 47%), and senile sclerosis (SS) (n = 22, 9%), the CRAE did not differ significantly; CRVE was significantly narrower in SS than in FI and MY. In FI, GE, MY, and SS disc types, CRAE correlated with 3, 14, 9, and 2 ONH parameters, respectively, and CRVE corelated with 9, 0, 12, and 6 ONH parameters, respectively. We confirmed previous observations on the effect of retinal vessel narrowing on glaucomatous changes in the ONH and visual field. The associations between retinal vessel caliber and ONH morphologic parameters vary among different optic disc appearances, suggesting different effects of vascular changes in each disc type.
Creating stem cell‐derived neuromuscular junctions in vitro

Recent development of novel therapies has improved mobility and quality of life for people suffering from inheritable neuromuscular disorders. Despite this progress, the majority of neuromuscular disorders are still incurable, in part due to a lack of predictive models of neuromuscular junction (NMJ) breakdown. Improvement of predictive models of a human NMJ would be transformative in terms of expanding our understanding of the mechanisms that underpin development, maintenance, and disease, and as a testbed with which to evaluate novel therapeutics. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are emerging as a clinically relevant and non‐invasive cell source to create human NMJs to study synaptic development and maturation, as well as disease modeling and drug discovery. This review will highlight the recent advances and remaining challenges to generating an NMJ capable of eliciting contraction of stem cell‐derived skeletal muscle in vitro. We explore the advantages and shortcomings of traditional NMJ culturing platforms, as well as the pioneering technologies and novel, biomimetic culturing systems currently in use to guide development and maturation of the neuromuscular synapse and extracellular microenvironment. Then, we will explore how this NMJ‐in‐a‐dish can be used to study normal assembly and function of the efferent portion of the neuromuscular arc, and how neuromuscular disease‐causing mutations disrupt structure, signaling, and function.
Consumption of cruciferous vegetables and the risk of bladder cancer in a prospective US cohort: data from the NIH-AARP diet and health study.

BACKGROUND Abundant pre-clinical data suggest that consumption of cruciferous vegetables might protect against bladder cancer. While small-scale clinical evidence supports this hypothesis, population-level data is lacking. We tested the hypothesis that consumption of cruciferous vegetables is associated with a lower risk of bladder cancer in a large population-based study. METHODS We investigated the association between dietary consumption of cruciferous vegetables and the risk of bladder cancer in the NIH-American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Diet and Health Study. Diet at baseline was collected with self-administered food-frequency questionnaires. Bladder cancer diagnoses were identified through linkage with state cancer registries. Hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated with Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS Our analysis included 515,628 individuals. Higher intake of cruciferous vegetables, both overall and when stratified by variety (broccoli vs. brussels sprouts vs. cauliflower), were not associated with bladder cancer risk for men or women. A history of smoking did not affect the results. CONCLUSIONS Our study shows no association between dietary consumption of cruciferous vegetables and incident bladder cancer.
Diversity and origin of carotenoid biosynthesis: its history of co-evolution towards plant photosynthesis.

The development of photosynthesis is a highlight in the progression of bacteria. In addition to the photosystems with their structural proteins, the photosynthesis apparatus consists of different co-factors including essential carotenoids. Thus, the evolution of the carotenoid pathways in relation to the functionality of the resulting structures in photosynthesis is the focus of this review. Analysis of carotenoid pathway genes indicates early evolutionary roots in prokaryotes. The pathway complexity leading to a multitude of structures is a result of gene acquisition including their functional modifications, emergence of novel genes and gene exchange between species. Along with the progression of photosynthesis, pathways of carotenoid co-evolved with photosynthesis according to their advancing functionality. Cyanobacteria with their oxygenic photosynthesis became a landmark for evolutionary events including carotenogenesis. Concurrent with endosymbiosis, the cyanobacterial carotenoid pathways were inherited into algal plastids. In the lineage to Chlorophyta and plants, carotenoids evolved to their prominent role in protection and regulation of light energy input as constituents of a highly-efficient light-harvesting complex.
Diagnostic role of urine cytology and ureteroscopic biopsies in detection of high grade upper tract urothelial carcinoma.

INTRODUCTION To explore the efficacy of urine cytology, ureteroscopic biopsy, and a combination of both in detecting HG UTUC. METHODS We searched our institutional pathology database for cases (2008-2018) with urine cytology and subsequent histologic follow-up based on ureteroscopic biopsy and extirpative resection performed within 6 months of the urine cytology. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were calculated for the specific diagnostic categories. RESULTS A cohort of 226 cases with both urine cytology and histologic follow-up based on ureteroscopic biopsies and/or surgical resection were included in the study. 144/226 cases (64%) had both urine cytology and extirpative resection, among which 57 (25%) cases also have ureteroscopic biopsy preoperatively. The sensitivities for urine cytology or ureteroscopic biopsy alone for a surgically confirmed HG UTUC were 64.7% and 59.2% respectively. Among 49 cases diagnosed as HG-UTUC by extirpative resection, 42 cases were diagnosed as HG-UTUC by either urine or biopsy diagnosis. The sensitivity of combining urine cytology and ureteroscopic biopsy was 85.7%, which was significantly higher than either method alone (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION Our findings show urine cytology and ureteroscopic biopsy have comparable sensitivity in diagnosing HG UTUC. However, by combining urine cytology with ureteroscopic biopsy, there is a significant increase in the sensitivity for detecting HG UTUC and should therefore be incorporated into routine clinical practice.
Suitability for e-health of non-pharmacological interventions in connective tissue diseases: scoping review with a descriptive analysis

Objective Non-pharmacological interventions support patients with connective tissue diseases to better cope with and self-manage their diseases. This study aimed to map existing evidence on non-pharmacological interventions in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), systemic sclerosis (SSc) and mixed connective tissue diseases regarding content, feasibility and potential suitability in an e-health setting. Methods A literature search was performed in eight different databases in July 2020. The intervention’s content was extracted using the ‘Better reporting of interventions: template for intervention description and replication (TIDieR) checklist and guide’. A Sankey diagram and descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data and illustrate the relationships between the interventions. Results Of 8198 identified records, 119 papers were eligible. One hundred and four of them (87.4%) were conducted between 2000 and 2020, mainly in the USA (SLE n=24 (21.2%), SSc n=16 (14.2%)), Brazil (SLE n=8 (7.1%), SSc n=5 (4.4%)) and Italy (SLE n=0 (0%), SSc n=12 (10.6%)). Fifty-two studies (SLE n=24 (21.2%), SSc n=28 (24.8%)) used multicomponent interventions. The single interventions were physical exercises (SLE n=16 (14.2%), SSc n=17 (15.0%)), coaching/counselling (SLE n=11 (18.0%), SSc n=0 (0%)) and education (SLE n=2 (1.8%), SSc n=3 (2.7%)). Primary outcomes focused on physical function (SLE n=1 (0.9%), SSc n=15 (13.3%)), mouth opening in SSc (n=4 (5.9%)) and physical capacity (SLE n=2 (1.8%), SSc n=1 (0.9%)). No interventions for mixed connective tissue disease were found. Conclusion There was a great variety in the intervention’s content due to differences in body structure, activity limitations and participation restrictions in SLE and SSc. These results highlight the need for personalised, multicomponent, non-pharmacological interventions, which could be delivered as e-health interventions.
Socio-Demographic and Coping Correlates and Predictors of Depressive Symptoms Among Low-Income and Ethnic Minority Mothers At-Risk

This study identified coping and sociodemographic correlates and predictors of depressive symptoms in mothers at risk for clinical depression. A descriptive, cross-sectional design was employed. A convenience sample of 88 low-income or ethnic-minority mothers aged 21 to 45 completed a depression scale, demographic data sheet, and responded to an open-ended question. Content analysis, descriptive, and inferential statistics was used for data analysis. Exactly 42.5% of mothers reported high depressive symptoms (>16). Lower income levels (r = .342, p = .01) and head-of-household status (r = .220, p = .04) were significantly associated with higher depressive symptoms. Those who used social support coping had lower depressive symptoms than those who did not (t = 2.50, p = .014). Those using emotion-focused coping only had higher depressive symptoms than those using a mix of coping strategies (t = 2.60, p = .011). Healthcare providers can employ vigilant depression screening and encourage utilization of a mix of problem and emotion-focused coping strategies to reduce depressive symptoms and prevent clinical depression.
Hypoxia-inducible factors individually facilitate inflammatory myeloid metabolism and inefficient cardiac repair

Following myocardial infarction, tissue ischemia leads to activation of hypoxia-inducible factors. DeBerge et al. demonstrate that HIF-1α and HIF-2α activation in myeloid cells antagonizes cardiac repair pathways through cleavage of cardioprotective MerTK and suppression of anti-inflammatory mitochondrial metabolism, respectively.
Solid Solubility of SnO2 in In2O3

Solid solubility of SnO2 in In2O3 was investigated in the interval between 1000 to 1500°C. Samples were prepared using In2O3 powder and tin alkoxide solution, as well as mixed solution of indium and tin alkoxides. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed a solubility limit of SnO2 in In2O3 0.5, 2, 3.5, and 5% at 1000, 1300, 1400 and 1500°C, respectively. The densities of the solid solutions agreed with calculations based on interstitial oxide ions as a resultant defect. Rietveld analysis revealed that the low solubility of SnO2 was due to the smaller size of the interstitial sites compared to the ionic radius of the oxide ion.
Molecular and Crystalline Microstructure of Ferroelectric Poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) Ultrathin Films on Bare and Self-Assembled Monolayer-Modified Au Substrates

We investigate the molecular and microdomain structure of ferroelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) P(VDF−TrFE) copolymer thin films spin-coated on bare and self-assembled monolayers (SAMs)-modified Au substrates. The two types of films display similar crystal morphologies with edge-on needlelike shaped crystalline microdomains. They have, however, a different structure depending on the substrate. When the P(VDF−TrFE) films are deposited on a bare, unmodified Au surface, the P(VDF-TrFE) films preferentially have a (110) contact plane with the substrate but a (100) contact plane when deposited on the Au surface modified by SAMs. The polar b-axis, along which the ferroelectric polarization is oriented, is therefore tilted to the film (and substrate) surface normal at 30 and 90°, respectively. In particular, the orientation of the polar b-axis tilted at some 90° to the normal of the polymer films on a CH3 terminated SAM modified Au surface explains the smaller remanent polarization at low .
Anxiety, PTSD, and stressors in medical students during the initial peak of the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose To assess psychological effects of the initial peak phase of the COVID-19 pandemic on United States (US) medical students in clinical training to anticipate sequelae and prepare for future outbreaks. Methods Authors emailed a cross-sectional survey in April-May, 2020 to students in clinical training years at six US medical schools which included validated General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) and Primary Care-PTSD (PC-PTSD-5) screening tools, and asked students about pandemic-related stress and specific concerns. Authors used quantitative and thematic analysis to present results. Results Of 2511 eligible students, 741 responded (29.5%). Most students (84.1%) reported at least “somewhat” increased levels of stress and anxiety related to the pandemic. On the GAD-7, 34.3% showed mild, 16.1% moderate, and 9.5% severe anxiety symptoms, with 39.6% demonstrating no/minimal symptoms. One quarter (25.4%) screened positive for PTSD risk symptoms. Top concerns of students chosen from a pre-populated list included inadequate COVID-19 testing, undiagnosed or asymptomatic spread and racial or other disparities in the pandemic. In thematic analysis, students’ reactions to removal from clinical learning included: understanding the need to conserve PPE (32.2%), a desire to help (27.7%), worry over infectious risk to others (25.4%) and self (21.2%), and lost learning opportunities (22.5%). Female students were significantly more likely to report anxiety and PTSD risk symptoms. Asian students had a greater risk of moderate anxiety and those underrepresented in medicine (UIM) had greater risk of moderate and severe anxiety symptoms compared to white students. Conclusions During the initial peak phase of COVID-19, over 60% of US medical students screened positive for pandemic-related anxiety and one quarter were at risk for PTSD. Female and UIM students were significantly more affected. Medical schools should consider broad support of students, and targeted outreach to female and UIM students.
Is autism stigma higher in South Korea than the United States? Examining cultural tightness, intergroup bias, and concerns about heredity as contributors to heightened autism stigma

South Korea, a relatively collectivistic and homogeneous country with heightened cultural tightness, is believed to have particularly high levels of stigma toward autistic individuals, who sometimes engage in behaviors that diverge from social norms. This study investigated cross-cultural differences in autism stigma (assessed with a Social Distance Scale) in the United States and South Korea. Two-hundred and seventy-six American and 494 Korean participants who completed an online survey were included in the analysis. We conducted a multiple regression predicting autism stigma with variables that were correlated with stigma. Koreans reported greater autism stigma than Americans. Greater vertical individualism, lesser horizontal collectivism, less accurate autism knowledge, less pleasant and frequent previous contact with autism, concerns about the marriageability of family members, and higher cultural tightness predicted greater stigma. Cultural tightness, or an emphasis on social norms, which was heightened among Korean participants, contributed to greater autism stigma in South Korea. Findings highlight the need to increase autism knowledge and foster pleasant and frequent contact with autistic individuals, especially for those who accept inequality as a part of human interactions in both South Korea and the United States. Moreover, interventions that help Koreans understand the relativeness of social appropriateness may reduce autism stigma in South Korea. Lay abstract Misunderstandings about autism may be more common in South Korea than the United States. Koreans often have clear ideas about how people should act. Another way of saying this is that Korea has a tight culture. Americans are looser, meaning people are freer to act as they like. Autistic people often do not act as people expect them to. This makes autistic people stand out. Autistic people may stand out more in tight cultures like South Korea. We studied how people in South Korea and the United States feel about autism. We wanted to see why Korean people might reject autistic people more than people in the United States do. American and Korean people did online surveys. Koreans said they did not want to get close to autistic people more than Americans did. People who understood autism and had met and liked autistic people wanted to get closer to autistic people. We were surprised to learn that Americans said having an autistic brother or sister makes it harder to find a romantic partner more than Korean people did. People who believed that autism makes it harder for family members to find love did not want to get very close to autistic people. Koreans said people should act as expected more than Americans did. People who believed that acting as expected was important did not want to get very close to autistic people. Teaching people that there are many ways of being a good person may help them understand and appreciate autistic people.
A Study on Income as a Determinant of Buying Decision-making Styles

The following paper attempts to understand if income determines the buying decision-making styles of consumers in Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha, a state located on eastern India. A total of 103 respondents of Bhubaneswar were chosen by using the Mall intercept method. The samples were classified into three groups based on their average annual family income such as High Income, Middle Income and Low Income groups. Exploratory Factor Analysis was carried to identify the decisionmaking styles. ANOVA was employed to compare the shopping styles of these three income sub-groups. Results indicate that differences in consumer shopping styles exist among the income sub-groups. Findings of the study can be used by marketers for segmentation, targeting and positioning of retail shoppers which may facilitate them to compete efficiently. It is recommended that different income sub-groups should be viewed as distinct consumer segments and strategies should be formulated to cater each segment effectively.