Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determining whether age retirement for NBA players is associated with injuries and illnesses: A retrospective study

Background: The careers of professional sport players are usually influenced by injuries and skills. The careers of all-star MBA and regular players depend on their health and how rapidly their skills diminish with age, respectively. Whether the above phenomena are considered and supported in the National Basketball Association (NBA) requires verification.Methods: We downloaded injury data from the NBA website in 2010–2018 and extracted all injury events (=9,783) involving 779 NBA players. Among these players, 705 were retired, 236 possessed all-star titles (60 injured and 170 non-injured), and 466 were regular players (408 injured and 58 non-injured) from 2010 to 2018. Both samples of retired all-star (n = 236) and regular players (n = 466) were compared to verify the effect of injury and illness on the retirement age using the bootstrapping method to estimate 95% confidence intervals in medians. We hypothesized that injuries and illnesses are associated with the retirement age of all-star players and irrelative to that of regular NBA players. Social network analysis(SNA) was performed to highlight the top three injuries with the highest degree centralities in their respective clusters.Results: We observed that the top three degree centralities include (1) sprained a left ankle, (2) sprained a right ankle, and (3) illness. The top two most injured NBA teams in 2010-2018, as obtained by the metrics for measurement, were Timberwolves (x-index = 32.86) and Hornets (x-index = 31.42). Most of the careers of NBA all-star players were affected by injuries/illnesses. The NBA careers of regular players were terminated mostly according to their skill.Conclusion: Although a number of things can be debated with regard to NBA, everyone can agree on one thing: Injuries are the worst. We confirmed that injuries and illnesses exhibit significant associations with the retirement age of all-star players and are irrelative to that of regular NBA players. Sports medicine is urgently needed to help players in preventing possible injuries while in the court in the discernible future.
MALVA: FOOD, MEDICINE AND CHEMISTRY

Plants of the genus Malva (Malvacea) are used by humans for millenia. In addition to being an important nutritional source, they were used for various medicinal purposes. Modern research approves the ethnomedicinal uses of these plants and still discovering many others. Many review articles were published about the traditional uses of Malva , and some reviews were published about modern research findings of the medicinal and other properties of M. sylvestris , but no review article was published that contains both traditional and modern scientific knowledge about all plants of this genus. The present article is very comprehensive but its also "reader friendly", since it summarizes the information in clear tables. In addition, important natural products contained in Malva subspecies will be highlighted, and major cited information will be discussed. Future research possibilities will be suggested and conclusions will be drawn.
Bio-mediated synthesis and antibacterial activity against aquatic pathogens of silver nanoparticles decorated titania nanosheets in dark and under solar-light irradiation

ABSTRACT Antibacterial nanomaterials produced by sustainable or ‘green’ synthesis methods are very important. Moreover, combination of photocatalytic antibacterial materials and antiseptic inorganic nanoparticles still remains challenging. This work reports on the two-step, green biosynthesis, characterization and antibacterial activity against aquatic pathogens of a nanocomposite formed from titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanosheets decorated with silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs), in which the grape seeds extract is used as the reducing and stabilizing agent. The as-prepared Ag/TiO2 nanocomposites were characterized by various methods. The appearance of absorption peak at about 425 nm demonstrates the formation of Ag NPs due to the typical surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect of silver. The antibacterial activity of Ag/TiO2 nanocomposites against 6 kinds of common aquatic pathogens in the dark was tested. Furthermore, the bactericidal efficiency of the prepared nanocomposites with different contents of TiO2 nanosheets in the dark or under solar-light irradiation was compared.
Predation on Direct-developing Frogs (Eleutherodactylidae: Eleutherodactylus) in Cuba: New Cases and a Review

1Sociedad Cubana de Zoología, La Habana, Cuba (tomasmichel.rodriguez@gmail.com) 2Museo de Historia Natural “Tranquilino Sandalio de Noda,” Martí 202, Pinar del Río, Cuba (yusnaviel@gmail.com) 3Edificio 4, Apto 7, e/Oquendo y Silverio, Rpto Virginia, Santa Clara, Villa Clara 50100, Cuba (ernestomorell68@nauta.cu) 4Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA (javiertorres@ku.edu)
Influence of rigid body motion on the attachment of metallic droplets to solid particles in liquid slags — A phase field study

Metallic droplets can remain attached to solid particles within liquid slags, resulting in production losses in several pyrometallurgical industries. This study shows the extension of a recently developed phase field model to include the movement of solid particles in the liquid slag in a system, considering the attachment of liquid metal droplets to solid particles in slags. The influence of this movement on the wetting of the metal droplets to the solid particles in the slag and on the resulting microstructures is investigated as a function of the velocity of the particles. For all wetting regimes, the apparent contact angle in the final microstructures was clearly larger than without particle movement. For the amount of metal attached to the particle, a clear trade-off was found between the speed of motion of the solid particle and the wetting regime.
Transcriptome-wide isolation and expression profiles of NF-Y gene family in male cone development and hormone treatment of Chinese pine (Pinus tabuliformis)

Background Conifers and angiosperms have difference in reproductive development, especially for flowering. It is known that NUCLEAR FACTOR Y (NF-Y) transcription factor play an important role in flowering, drought stress and GA, ABA signaling, but, little known in auxin, salicylic acid, jasmonic acid, etc. Moreover, the NF-Y genes family has been mainly analyzed in angiosperms, but it has not been comprehensively reported in conifers. Results In this study, we identified 9 NF-YA, 9 NF-YB, and 10 NF-YC genes in Pinus tabuliformis using Arabidopsis NF-Y protein sequences as queries. Besides, by comparing conserved regions and phylogenetic relationships of the PtNF-Ys, we found that the NF-Ys were both conserved and altered during evolution. PtTFL2, PtCO, PtNF-YC1 and PtNF-YC4 were exploited by expression profile in male cone development and the correlation analysis. In addition, NF-YC1/4 can interact with DPL by yeast two-hybrid assays and BiFC. The multiple types of phytohormones-responsive cis-elements (ABA, JA, IAA, SA) were present and many NF-Y genes responded positively to SA and as opposed to IAA and JA. Conclusions Twenty-eight PtNF-Ys were identified and bioinformatic characterization of NF-Y genes including conserved regions, phylogenetic relationships, gene-motifs, was carried out. Two candidate genes (NF-YC1 and NF-YC4) were found to be involved in the regulation of conifer flowering and gibberellin signalling. The cis-elements and hormone transcriptome analysis revealed that the potential role of NF-Ys in conifers resistance. This study provides the basis for improved understanding of NF-Y genes function in conifers.
New arsenate minerals from the Arsenatnaya fumarole, Tolbachik volcano, Kamchatka, Russia. VII. Pharmazincite, KZnAsO4

Abstract The new mineral pharmazincite, KZnAsO4, was found in sublimates of the Arsenatnaya fumarole at the Second scoria cone of the Northern Breakthrough of the Great Tolbachik Fissure Eruption, Tolbachik volcano, Kamchatka, Russia. It is closely associated with shchurovskyite, dmisokolovite, bradaczekite, arsmirandite, tilasite, johillerite, tenorite, hematite, aphthitalite and As-bearing orthoclase. Pharmazincite occurs as prismatic to acicular crystals up to 1 mmlong and up to 0.03 mmthick typically combined in near-parallel, radial or chaotic intergrowths, open-work aggregates or crusts up to 2 mm across. Pharmazincite is colourless to white, transparent, with a vitreous lustre. It is brittle, with a stepped fracture and a perfect cleavage parallel to [001]. Dcalc is 4.75 g cm-3. Pharmazincite is optically uniaxial (-), ω = 1.649(2), ε = 1.642(2). The Raman spectrum is reported. The chemical composition (wt.%, electron-microprobe data) is: K2O 18.98, CaO 0.14, MgO 1.20, CuO 4.41, ZnO 27.58, Fe2O3 0.15, P2O5 0.50, As2O5 46.67, total 99.63. The empirical formula, calculated based on 4 O apfu, is: (K0.97Ca0.01)Σ0. 98(Zn0.82Cu0.13Mg0.07Fe3+0.01)Σ1. 03(As0.98P0.02)Σ1. 00O4. The strongest reflections of the powder X-ray diffraction pattern [d,Å(I )(hkl)] are: 6.36 (28)(111), 4.64(45)(220), 4.35(48)(002), 3.260(36)(411), 3.179(100)(222), 2.770(26)(113), 2.676(77) (600), 2.278(15)(602) and 1.710(15)(713, 115). Pharmazincite is hexagonal, a = 18.501(4), c = 8.7114(9) Å, V = 2582.4(8) Å3 and Z = 24 (single-crystal XRD data). Its space group is P63, by analogy with synthetic KZnAsO4 that has a crystal structure based upon a tetrahedral tridymite-type {ZnAsO4}- framework. It is isostructural with megakalsilite KAlSiO4. The new mineral is named for its chemical constituents.
Solvation thermodynamic properties from molecular dynamics on the terahertz time scale

The Two-Phase Thermodynamic (2PT) model describes an arbitrary system as a superpositon of a hard-sphere gas and a solid, enabling us to calculate the system's entropy, thereby making a connection from the dynamics to the thermodynamics. In this work the 2PT model is used to investigate effects of solutes on the dynamics and thermodynamics of water. The negative excess mixing entropy of water-methanol and water-ethanol mixtures are correctly predicted by the model and accounted to the lowered diffusion of the molecules in the mixture. Ethanol is found to lower the entropy of water more than methanol. A second system analyzed are aqueous solutions of sodium chloride. Increasing salt concentrations are shifting diffusional modes of water to oscillations and lower its entropy. Several problems of the 2PT model are pointed out which are related to the unphysical separation in two subsystems. Deviating separation schemes based on time separation, velocity separation and position separation are proposed and analyzed.
The Impact of Water Price on the Financial Sustainability of the Palestinian Water Service Providers

The impactof water sales price on the performance of water service providers is typically something of a mystery. High prices mean more revenue and profit; but it may lead to less bills collection and encourage the illegal connections. Yet, this argument has not been fully addressed in the Palestinian water sector; this research evaluates the effect of average water prices on the financial sustainability key indicators as collection efficiency, profit or loss percentage, non-revenue water, staff productivity, daily consumption, operating, and maintenance cost. The average price of cubic meter sold is segmented into low, medium, and high categories. Multivariate analysis shows that there are significant differences in profit or working ratio, daily consumption, and operating cost based on the different price categories. Further significant differences have been found in non-revenue water, collection efficiency, and water production based on low and high price categories. On the other hand, no significant difference has been found in staff productivity. The results show high price set by Palestinian water providers, leads to an increase in the bill collection rate and profit margin. However, negative relationship has been found between the price on one hand, and non-revenue water, average daily consumption, and water production on the other hand. The implication of these findings reveal that the Palestinian water providers should increase water prices gradually to cover operating and maintenance cost for better financial performance and sustainability.
An Ultrasensitive Immunoassay Strip for Simultaneously Detecting Cyproheptadinehydrochloride and Six Phenothiazinesin Feedstuffs Based on a Monoclonal Antibody

Background: An antihistamine cyproheptadine (CPH) and phenothiazines (PZs)sedative hypnoticshave a similar tricyclic structure, these drugs are often illegally added to food animal feedstuffs due to their price advantage and significant effect in promoting growth and improving meat quality. However, the abuse of these drugs may lead totheir residues in animal products, thereby causing harmful effects such as allergies and dermatological reactions on human health.To supervise the use of prohibited drugs and ensure food safety, it is necessary to establish a simple and effective screening method to detect CPH and PZs.In this research, an artificial antigen against cyproheptadine(CPH) was successfully synthesized by bromoacetic acid substitution method. An ultrasensitive and broad-specific monoclonal antibody (mAb) able to recognize CPH and six phenothiazines (PZs) was produced. Based on the gold-labeled mAb, an immunochromatographic strip (ICS) was established.Results:The 50% inhibition concentration (IC50) of the produced mAb against CPH was identified as 0.036 ng mL-1 by ELISA, and the cross-reactivities for six PZs were from 6.33% to 63.16%. The visual detection limits(cut-off values) of the developed ICS ranged from 5 to 100ngg-1 in feedstuffs. Take a reading by strip reader, the IC50 was from 0.570 to 7.750ng g-1. In addition,a recovery experiment was carried out to verify the reliability of the ICS. The intra-assay recoveries were from 79.83% to 103.38% with the highest coefficient of variation (CV) of 11.31%. The inter-assay recoveries were from 79.00% to 96.63% with the highest CV of 12.66%. Conclusions: We have successfully produced a broad-spectrum monoclonal antibody and established an ICS for simultaneouslydetecting CPH and six PZs drugs.In brief, the proposed ICS was considered suitable for qualitatively and quantitatively monitoring CPH and PZs in feedstuffs.
Impact of postoperative complications on long-term survival of gastric cancer patients: results from a high-volume institution in China

BackgroundThis study was aimed to evaluate the impact of postoperative complications (POCs) on long-term survival for gastric cancer (GC) patients with curative resection.MethodsFrom January 2009 to December 2014, a total of 1667 GC patients with curative gastrectomy were analyzed. Patients with any complications Clavien–Dindo (CD) grade II or higher were divided into complication group. Independent risk factors for the development of POCs and the relationship between POCs and long-term survival (excluding death within 90 days after surgery) were analyzed.ResultsOverall POCs CD ≥ 2 were diagnosed in 285 (17.10%) patients including infectious complications (ICs) in 231 (13.9%) and noninfectious complications (NICs) in 78 (4.68%) patients. Age ≥ 65 (P = 0.003), presence of comorbidity (P = 0.019), extensive lymphadenectomy (P = 0.027) and perioperative blood transfusion (P = 0.040) were independent risk factors of POCs. Multivariate analysis identified that presence of POCs (P < 0.001) was an independent prognostic factor and further analysis by complication type demonstrated that the deteriorated overall survival was mainly caused by ICs (P = 0.007) rather than NICs (P = 0.075), moreover, among all complications, pulmonary infection (P < 0.001) was the only significant prognostic factor.ConclusionPOCs may be an independent prognostic factor for long-term survival of GC patients and the risk is mainly driven by ICs, particular pulmonary infection.
Integrative functional analyses of the neurodegenerative disease-associated TECPR2 gene reveal its diverse roles

BackgroundLoss of tectonin β-propeller repeat-containing 2 (TECPR2) function has been implicated in an array of neurodegenerative disorders, yet its physiological function remains largely unknown. Understanding TECPR2 function is essential for developing much needed precision therapeutics for TECPR2-related diseases. MethodsWe leveraged the considerable amounts of functional data to obtain a comprehensive perspective of the role of TECPR2 in health and disease. We integrated expression patterns, population variation, phylogenetic profiling, protein-protein interactions, and regulatory network data for a minimally biased multimodal functional analysis. Genes and proteins linked to TECPR2 via multiple lines of evidence were subject to functional enrichment analyses to identify molecular mechanisms involving TECPR2.ResultsTECPR2 was found to be part of a tight neurodevelopmental gene expression program that includes KIF1A, ATXN1, TOM1L2, and FA2H, all implicated in neurological diseases. Functional enrichment analyses of TECPR2-related genes converged on a role in late autophagy and ribosomal processes. Large-scale population variation data demonstrated that this role is nonredundant. ConclusionsTECPR2 might serve as an indicator for the energy balance between protein synthesis and autophagy, and a marker for diseases associated with their imbalance, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and various cancers. Our work further suggests that TECPR2 plays a role as a synaptic proteostasis regulator during synaptogenesis, highlighting its importance in developing neurons. By advancing our understanding of TECPR2 function, this work provides an essential stepping stone towards the development of precision diagnostics and targeted treatment options for TECPR2-related disorders.
Agricultural by-products as important food sources of polyphenols

Polyphenols are secondary metabolites of plants. Dietary phenolics are not only classified as human nutrients, but play important roles in human health and are therefore called nutraceuticals. Both epidemiological studies and controlled human studies have shown that regular intakes of diets rich in phenolics are inversely related to some chronic diseases such as certain cancers and coronary heart diseases. Types and contents of phenolics in different food system vary greatly and foods of plant origin including fruits, vegetables, legumes and some beverages are good sources of bioactive phenolics. Beside the edible part of plant foods, some agricultural by-products usually contain higher levels of polyphenols, particularly, flavonoids than products themselves. This chapter describes the major classes of dietary phenolics, and their occurrence in the commercially important agricultural by-products including peanuts skin, grape pomace, apples pomace, citrus processing by-products, and cranberry pomace. The possible applications of the polyphenolics from these agricultural by-products in food system are also discussed.
Amino Acid Mutations in the Protein Sequences of Human SARS CoV-2 Indian Isolates Compared to Wuhan-Hu-1 Reference Isolate from China

We report here all amino acid residue mutations present among the proteins in 22 Indian isolates of the human SARS CoV-2 complete genomes analyzed from the public repository of the NCBI databank. The isolates analysed are from 4 States of India and the reference complete genome corresponds to the first isolated SARS CoV-2 genome from Wuhan-Hu-1, China, epicenter of the current COVID-19 pandemic.The 44 distinct mutations identified add to our growing knowledge on the emerging virus mutations in the global context.
Examining the association between HIV prevalence and socioeconomic factors among young people in Zambia: Do neighbourhood contextual effects play a role?

Background The study examined the association between HIV infection and individual and neighbourhood-level socioeconomic factors in Zambia. Methods We used multilevel mixed effects logistic regression to examine the association of individual and neighbourhood level variables on HIV prevalence based on data from the 2013–14 and 2018 Zambia Demographic and Health Surveys, population-based cross-sectional surveys. The analysis was restricted to young people (15–24 years) with HIV serostatus results (n = 11,751 and n = 10,154). HIV serostatus was the outcome variable and socioeconomic status was measured by wealth, education and employment. Results Overall, at individual level, education was associated with reduced odds of HIV infection among young women and men. Conversely, relative wealth was generally associated with increased odds of infection for both young women and men. Young, employed men were at reduced odds of HIV infection than the unemployed. Living in neighbourhoods with higher average level of education was associated with higher odds of HIV infection. In 2013–14, 13% and 11% of the variation in HIV infection among young men and women was attributed to neighbourhoods, while 20% and 11% variation was attributed to neighbourhoods in 2018. Inclusion of individual and neighbourhood variables in the full regression model accounted for 65.7% and 59.5% of explained variance in 2013–14 and 64.6% and 44.3% in 2018, for women and men, respectively. This reduced unexplained variance by an average of 56% in 2013–14 and 29% in 2018. Conclusion We found that HIV infection among young people in Zambia is more strongly associated with individual-level socioeconomic factors compared to neighbourhood factors. Individual-level education remains an important socioeconomic factor associated with reduced odds of HIV infection. This suggests that the HIV response in Zambia should still focus on individual level prevention strategies.
Limitations of Small-Signal Modeling of Grid-Connected VSCs under Phase Jumps and Frequency Deviations

The stability of grid-connected voltage source converters (VSCs) is commonly studied by the small-signal model in the synchronous reference (dq) frame. With phase-locked loop dynamic from VSCs, it is inevitable to convert the small-signal model to a common dq frame. When linearizing the frame transformation, the trigonometric functions of the angle are approximated by first-order terms. In this letter, the limitation of such linearization on the dq-transformation is discussed. The accuracy of the model, in presence of phase jumps and frequency variations, are examined. It is found that even under small phase jumps, mismatches are found between the small-signal model (SSM) and a nonlinear model (NM). It is further revealed that during the dynamics of frequency variation, significant mismatches can occur between the SSM and the NM.