Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New insights into the control of visible gold fineness and deposition: A case study of the Sanshandao gold deposit, Jiaodong, China

Abstract Mineralogical distribution, textures, electron probe microanalysis of visible gold, laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) trace element analysis of pyrite, and LA-multicollector (MC-)ICP-MS sulfur isotope analysis of sulfide minerals are examined in an ore zone extending obliquely to –4 km depth in the Sanshandao gold deposit Jiaodong, China. We relate these results to the temporal and spatial ore-forming processes in the deposit to further elucidate the controls on the deposition of visible Au and fineness variation. Two generations of Au mineralization are identified. The early generation is represented by beresitization and quartz-pyrite veins in which visible Au grains are associated with pyrite (Py1 and Py2) and are characterized by high fineness [729–961; fineness = 1000×Au/(Au+Ag)]. Py1 and Py2 are both enriched in Co, Ni, and Bi and depleted in As and Au. Texturally, gold and pyrite are pristine crystals, homogeneous in composition. These features are attributed to the sulfidation of the granitic wallrock (fluid/rock interaction) that effectively destabilizes Au in the ore-forming fluids during pyrite deposition. Fineness decreases continuously from 870 at –2650 m depth to 752 at –420 m depth. The Co and Ni contents of Py1 and Py2 decrease significantly from –4000 m to –420 m depth, whereas the As contents increase. The mean δ34S values of Py1 increase from 10.5 to 11.8‰. The spatial variations are interpreted to be related to gradual cooling, decompression, and an enhanced degree of fluid/rock interaction with decreasing depth, which facilitated the initiation of visible gold mineralization at ca. –2700 m depth. The late generation of Au mineralization is represented by quartz-polysulfide veins in which visible Au grains are associated with multiple sulfide minerals (Py3, galena, chalcopyrite, arsenopyrite, and sphalerite). It is characterized by low fineness (549–719), and heterogeneous textures with Ag-rich parts (218–421). Py3, occurring as the rim of pyrite grain, is interpreted to form by replacement via a dissolution-reprecipitation reaction. Py3 is distinctly enriched in As (median of 10 000 ppm) and Au (2.2 ppm), but depleted in Co, Ni, and Bi. The δ34S values of the polysulfide minerals decrease sharply by 4 to 5‰ at depths from –1909 to –1450 m. These features are interpreted to be generated by significant decompression and phase separation of fluid, where most ore elements (e.g., Au, Ag, As, and base metal elements) are destabilized. Our study suggests that remobilization did not affect the generation of visible Au mineralization at Sanshandao.
Correlation of Body Mass Index and Lung Volume in 3–7 Year-Old Children in Rīga Pre-School Educational Institutions

Abstract The number of people with excess weight increases every year. Overweight and obesity in childhood can cause several chronic diseases in adulthood. Children with excess body mass develop more morphological and functional changes, including pulmonary functions. One of the common methods to assess lung function is spirometry. This method is a challenge in assessing lung function for pre-school age children. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between lung vital capacity and body mass index for the pre-school children aged 3–7 years in Rīga. In total 995 pre-school children were included in the study. An informative consent and questionnaire about the development of each individual child was filled in by parents. Several measurements were performed, including height, body mass, and lung vital capacity. This is the first study in Latvia where several morphologic and somatometric measurements were determined in children of pre-school age. There was a positive and statistically significant correlation between lung vital capacity and body height, mass, and chest circumference. The correlation between lung vital capacity and body mass index was not statistically significant. The main results do not differ from the results of similar studies in other countries. The obtained results will help to create a standard of morphological and somatometric parameters in pre-school aged children in Rīga region.
‘Cittaslow’: An Alternative Model for Local Sustainable Development or Just a Myth? Empirical Evidence in the Case of Tarakli (Turkey)

Abstract This research attempts to answer whether Cittaslow is a myth or an effective model for development for Taraklı, a small town in the Sakarya province of Turkey. The study was designed and analysed using the mixed method research model. The results are as follows. Since Taraklı became a Cittaslow, the number of tourists increased which ultimately helped to fight against unemployment and also increased income of people. Women's participation in the labour force had increased and their representation in public places was enhanced. Important steps were taken towards the preservation of cultural heritage. Along with quantitative and qualitative improvements in green areas, the local people's awareness of environmental protection has increased.
Precipitation of low-temperature disordered dolomite induced by extracellular polymeric substances of methanogenic Archaea Methanosarcina barkeri: Implications for sedimentary dolomite formation

Abstract A correlation between methanogenesis and dolomite formation has been reported; however, the mechanism underlying this association is not fully understood. In this study, we conducted forced carbonate precipitation experiments at room temperature in calcite-seeded Ca/Mg carbonate solutions containing either purified non-living biomass or bound extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) of the methanogen Methanosarcina barkeri. Purified non-living biomass and bound EPS was used so as to avoid the possible influence of the complex components of the growing microbial culture on carbonate crystallization. Our results demonstrated that non-living biomass of M. Barkeri can enhance the Mg incorporation into calcitic structure and induce the crystallization of disordered dolomite. In the presence of ~113 mg L–1 of non-living biomass, disordered dolomite with ~41 and 45 mol% of MgCO3 was precipitated in solutions with initial Mg:Ca ratios of 5:1 and 8:1, respectively. A systematic increase in the MgCO3 contents of the precipitated Ca-Mg carbonates was also observed with the increased non-living biomass concentration. Bound EPS was shown to be the component of non-living biomass that catalyzed the precipitation of disordered dolomite. At only ~25 mg L–1 of bound EPS, disordered dolomite with ~47 and 48 mol% of MgCO3 was precipitated in solutions with initial Mg:Ca ratios of 5:1 and 8:1, respectively. We propose that adsorption of bound EPS to growing carbonate surfaces through hydrogen bonding is the key to catalyzing disordered dolomite crystallization, and that this mechanism is also applicable to natural EPS-induced dolomite formation. This study provides significant insight into the formation mechanism of microbial-induced dolomite with high δ13C values.
Continuous bioaerosol monitoring using UV excitation fluorescence

We describe an instrument developed to monitor the biological fraction of ambient aerosol. This device simultaneously sizes individual particles in an air stream, and measures their total fluorescence following excitation at 266 nm. Recent results of single blind outdoor tests carried out in Alberta, Canada are described. In these, aerosols were generated containing four different types of biological material: ova albumin, MS-2 phage, Erwinia herbicola vegetative cells and Bacillus subtilis spores. Results indicate a probability of detection of 87% was achieved for target aerosol concentrations as low as a few (1-5) P particles/liter. Absolute quantitative detection efficiencies for individual bioaerosols were at least 70%. During the tests, nonbiological aerosols were also released and found not to generate any significant fluorescent signals.
Über die elastischen Konstanten kubischer Materialien mit beliebiger Textur

Die elastische Anisotropie von Blechen kubischer Materialien mit beliebiger Textur wird in der Voigt-Reuss-Hill-Naherung berechnet. Sie hangt nur von den ersten drei Koeffizienten der Reihenentwicklung der Orientierungsverteilungsfunktion ab. Die Konstanten fur die Berechnung der Mittelwerte werden angegeben. Die berechnete Anisotropie des E-Moduls eines kaltgewalzten Kupferbleches stimmt befriedigend mit dem Messungen von Weerts uberein. The elastic anisotropy of a sheet of cubic material with any texture was calculated in the Voigt-Reuss-Hill-approximation. It depends only on the first three coefficients of an expansion of the orientation distribution function into a series. The constants needed for the calculation of the mean values are given. The calculated anisotropy of Young's Modulus of a cold rolled copper sheet agrees reasonably well with the measurements by Weerts.
Identification, Gene Structure, and Expression of BnMicEmUP: A Gene Upregulated in Embryogenic Brassica napus Microspores

Microspores of Brassica napus can be diverted from normal pollen development into embryogenesis by treating them with a mild heat shock. As microspore embryogenesis closely resembles zygotic embryogenesis, it is used as model for studying the molecular mechanisms controlling embryo formation. A previous study comparing the transcriptomes of three-day-old sorted embryogenic and pollen-like (non-embryogenic) microspores identified a gene homologous to AT1G74730 of unknown function that was upregulated 8-fold in the embryogenic cells. In the current study, the gene was isolated and sequenced from B. napus and named BnMicEmUP (B. napus microspore embryogenesis upregulated gene). Four forms of BnMicEmUP mRNA and three forms of genomic DNA were identified. BnMicEmUP2,3 was upregulated more than 7-fold by day 3 in embryogenic microspore cultures compared to non-induced cultures. BnMicEmUP1,4 was highly expressed in leaves. Transient expression studies of BnMicEmUP3::GFP fusion protein in Nicotiana benthamiana and in stable Arabidopsis transgenics showed that it accumulates in chloroplasts. The features of the BnMicEmUP protein, which include a chloroplast targeting region, a basic region, and a large region containing 11 complete leucine-rich repeats, suggest that it is similar to a bZIP PEND (plastid envelope DNA-binding protein) protein, a DNA binding protein found in the inner envelope membrane of developing chloroplasts. Here, we report that the BnMicEmUP3 overexpression in Arabidopsis increases the sensitivity of seedlings to exogenous abscisic acid (ABA). The BnMicEmUP proteins appear to be transcription factors that are localized in plastids and are involved in plant responses to biotic and abiotic environmental stresses; as well as the results obtained from this study can be used to improve crop yield.
Sense of Ethnic Belonging: Relation With Well-Being and Psychological Distress in Inhabitants of the Mapuche Conflict Area, Chile

Research has shown that experiences of discrimination cause harm to the health and well-being of people. In terms of the identity of members of a group, a positive evaluation of that group might involve devaluing the out-group as a way of raising the endo-group, causing discrimination toward the out-group. In the Chilean context, the Mapuche people have historically suffered discrimination and violations of their rights. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between Collective Identity, perceived experiences of discrimination, psychological well-being and distress in the inhabitants of the Mapuche conflict zone according to their sense of belonging to their ethnic group (Mapuche, Mestizo, Caucasian). This descriptive, correlative, and cross-sectional study involved 200 participants, including 94 men (47%), and 106 women (53%), between the ages of 18 and 83 years old (M = 39.02; SD = 13.45), who had lived for at least 1 year in communities in the Araucanía Region. The sample was stratified according their sense of ethnic identity, including 30% Mapuche, 33.5% Caucasian, and 36.5% Mestizo. The results show that participants with a sense of Mapuche ethnicity experienced more instances of discrimination, had a greater sense of collective identity, and that they also supported the Mapuche social movement and its methods. Based on evidence that well-being is directly related to collective identity, the study undertook a regression analysis of emotional distress and the psychological well-being of participants. The interaction between experiences of discrimination and collective identity has a significant influence. Collective identity and experiences of discrimination in themselves as well as the interaction between them, predict psychological well-being. The results suggest that the importance of the Mapuche group’s identity phenomena are related to a broad socio-historical context that leads them to identify themselves as a collective in conditions of inequality. This relationship between well-being and collective identity could be explained by their sense of cultural belonging, which can be a factor in protecting mental health.
Hoxb3 Regulates Jag1 Expression in Pharyngeal Epithelium and Affects Interaction With Neural Crest Cells

Craniofacial morphogenesis depends on proper migration of neural crest cells and their interactions with placodes and other cell types. Hox genes provide positional information and are important in patterning the neural crest and pharyngeal arches (PAs) for coordinated formation of craniofacial structures. Hox genes are expressed in the surface ectoderm and epibranchial placodes, their roles in the pharyngeal epithelium and their downstream targets in regulating PA morphogenesis have not been established. We altered the Hox code in the pharyngeal region of the Hoxb3Tg/+ mutant, in which Hoxb3 is driven to ectopically expressed in Hoxb2 domain in the second pharyngeal arch (PA2). In the transgenic mutant, ectopic Hoxb3 expression was restricted to the surface ectoderm, including the proximal epibranchial placodal region and the distal pharyngeal epithelium. The Hoxb3Tg/+ mutants displayed hypoplasia of PA2, multiple neural crest-derived facial skeletal and nerve defects. Interestingly, we found that in the Hoxb3Tg/+ mutant, expression of the Notch ligand Jag1 was specifically up-regulated in the ectodermal pharyngeal epithelial cells of PA2. By molecular experiments, we demonstrated that Hoxb3 could bind to an upstream genomic site S2 and directly regulate Jag1 expression. In the Hoxb3Tg/+ mutant, elevated expression of Jag1 in the pharyngeal epithelium led to abnormal cellular interaction and deficiency of neural crest cells migrating into PA2. In summary, we showed that Hoxb3 regulates Jag1 expression and proposed a model of pharyngeal epithelium and neural crest interaction during pharyngeal arch development.
Automatic Recognition of Auditory Brainstem Response Characteristic Waveform Based on Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory

Background: Auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing is an invasive electrophysiological auditory function test. Its waveforms and threshold can reflect auditory functional changes in the auditory centers in the brainstem and are widely used in the clinic to diagnose dysfunction in hearing. However, identifying its waveforms and threshold is mainly dependent on manual recognition by experimental persons, which could be primarily influenced by individual experiences. This is also a heavy job in clinical practice. Methods: In this work, human ABR was recorded. First, binarization is created to mark 1,024 sampling points accordingly. The selected characteristic area of ABR data is 0–8 ms. The marking area is enlarged to expand feature information and reduce marking error. Second, a bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) network structure is established to improve relevance of sampling points, and an ABR sampling point classifier is obtained by training. Finally, mark points are obtained through thresholding. Results: The specific structure, related parameters, recognition effect, and noise resistance of the network were explored in 614 sets of ABR clinical data. The results show that the average detection time for each data was 0.05 s, and recognition accuracy reached 92.91%. Discussion: The study proposed an automatic recognition of ABR waveforms by using the BiLSTM-based machine learning technique. The results demonstrated that the proposed methods could reduce recording time and help doctors in making diagnosis, suggesting that the proposed method has the potential to be used in the clinic in the future.
Constructing Dynamic Functional Networks via Weighted Regularization and Tensor Low-Rank Approximation for Early Mild Cognitive Impairment Classification

Brain functional networks constructed via regularization has been widely used in early mild cognitive impairment (eMCI) classification. However, few methods can properly reflect the similarities and differences of functional connections among different people. Most methods ignore some topological attributes, such as connection strength, which may delete strong functional connections in brain functional networks. To overcome these limitations, we propose a novel method to construct dynamic functional networks (DFN) based on weighted regularization (WR) and tensor low-rank approximation (TLA), and apply it to identify eMCI subjects from normal subjects. First, we introduce the WR term into the DFN construction and obtain WR-based DFNs (WRDFN). Then, we combine the WRDFNs of all subjects into a third-order tensor for TLA processing, and obtain the DFN based on WR and TLA (WRTDFN) of each subject in the tensor. We calculate the weighted-graph local clustering coefficient of each region in each WRTDFN as the effective feature, and use the t-test for feature selection. Finally, we train a linear support vector machine (SVM) classifier to classify the WRTDFNs of all subjects. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can obtain DFNs with the scale-free property, and that the classification accuracy (ACC), the sensitivity (SEN), the specificity (SPE), and the area under curve (AUC) reach 87.0662% ± 0.3202%, 83.4363% ± 0.5076%, 90.6961% ± 0.3250% and 0.9431 ± 0.0023, respectively. We also achieve the best classification results compared with other comparable methods. This work can effectively improve the classification performance of DFNs constructed by existing methods for eMCI and has certain reference value for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Identification of MicroRNA-92a-3p as an Essential Regulator of Tubular Epithelial Cell Pyroptosis by Targeting Nrf1 via HO-1

Renal ischemia–reperfusion injury (IRI) is a major cause of acute kidney injury (AKI) and has no effective treatment. Exploring the molecular mechanisms of renal IRI is critical for the prevention of AKI and its evolution to chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease. The aim of the present study was to determine the biological function and molecular mechanism of action of miR-92a-3p in tubular epithelial cell (TEC) pyroptosis. We investigated the relationship between nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 1 (Nrf1) and TEC pyroptosis induced by ischemia–reperfusion in vivo and oxygen–glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) in vitro. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are regulators of gene expression and play a role in the progression of renal IRI. Nrf1 was confirmed as a potential target for miRNA miR-92a-3p. In addition, the inhibition of miR-92a-3p alleviated oxidative stress in vitro and decreased the expression levels of NLRP3, caspase-1, GSDMD-N, IL-1β, and IL-18 in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, Zn-protoporphyrin-IX, an inhibitor of heme oxygenase-1, reduced the protective effect of Nrf1 overexpression on OGD/R-induced TEC oxidative stress and pyroptosis. The results of this study suggest that the inhibition of miR-92a-3p can alleviate TEC oxidative stress and pyroptosis by targeting Nrf1 in renal IRI.
Modulating Microglial Cells for Promoting Brain Recovery and Repair

Representing the brain’s innate immune cells that interact vividly with blood-derived immune cells and brain parenchymal cells, microglia set the stage for successful brain remodeling and repair in the aftermath of brain damage. With the development of pharmacological colony-stimulating factor-1 receptor inhibitors, which allow inhibiting or depleting microglial cells, and of transgenic mice, allowing the inducible depletion of microglial cells, experimental tools have become available for studying roles of microglia in neurodegenerative and neurorestorative processes. These models open fundamental insights into roles of microglia in controlling synaptic plasticity in the healthy and the injured brain. Acting as a switch from injury to repair, microglial cells might open opportunities for promoting neurological recovery in human patients upon brain injury.
Contamination of Aflatoxins Induces Severe Hepatotoxicity Through Multiple Mechanisms

Aflatoxins (AFs) are commonly contaminating mycotoxins in foods and medicinal materials. Since they were first discovered to cause “turkey X” disease in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s, the extreme toxicity of AFs in the human liver received serious attention. The liver is the major target organ where AFs are metabolized and converted into extremely toxic forms to engender hepatotoxicity. AFs influence mitochondrial respiratory function and destroy normal mitochondrial structure. AFs initiate damage to mitochondria and subsequent oxidative stress. AFs block cellular survival pathways, such as autophagy that eliminates impaired cellular structures and the antioxidant system that copes with oxidative stress, which may underlie their high toxicities. AFs induce cell death via intrinsic and extrinsic apoptosis pathways and influence the cell cycle and growth via microribonucleic acids (miRNAs). Furthermore, AFs induce the hepatic local inflammatory microenvironment to exacerbate hepatotoxicity via upregulation of NF-κB signaling pathway and inflammasome assembly in the presence of Kupffer cells (liver innate immunocytes). This review addresses the mechanisms of AFs-induced hepatotoxicity from various aspects and provides background knowledge to better understand AFs-related hepatoxic diseases.