Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Method for Rapid Determination of Re and Os Isotope Compositions Using ID‐MC‐ICP‐MS Combined with the Sparging Method

A simple, rapid method for the determination of Re and Os concentrations and isotope compositions using isotope dilution multi‐collector inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry (ID‐MC‐ICP‐MS) combined with Carius tube digestion and sparging introduction of Os was developed. For Os measurement, four channeltron ion counters to detect different Os isotopes were used simultaneously, which led to a drastic reduction in the measurement time. Rhenium isotopes were measured by means of eight Faraday cups with solution nebulisation and an ultrasonic membrane desolvator. The representative 188Os count rate of an Os standard solution containing 50 pg of total Os was approximately 110000–120000 cps at the onset of measurement; the Re intensity of our in‐house 10 pg g−1 standard solution reached 1820 V/μg g−1 with a sample uptake rate of 95–99 μl min−1. These values indicate that the sensitivity of the method was sufficient even for samples with low Re and Os concentrations, such as chert. As the temporal variations of the amplification efficiency of the ion counters differed from one another, we adopted a sample‐calibrator bracketing method to correct the measured Re and Os isotope ratios. The Re and Os concentrations via the isotope dilution method and the 187Os/188Os ratios of two sedimentary rock reference materials (JMS‐2 and JCh‐1) on the basis of the isotope ratios determined by the MC‐ICP‐MS and by negative thermal ionisation mass spectrometry (N‐TIMS) were comparable within their ranges. Based on Os isotope measurement of the IAG reference material [Durham Romil Os (DROsS)], the average difference from the recommended value and precision of Os isotope measurements by the sparging method in combination with multi‐ion‐counters were 0.72% and 0.76% [1RSD (%), n = 29], respectively. The precisions in the 187Os/188Os ratios [1RSD (%)] of JMS‐2, JCh‐1 and DROsS were 0.35–0.71, 1.56–3.31 and 0.99–1.28%, respectively, which depended on their Os ion intensities. No systematic difference was observed between the Re and Os geochemical compositions of JCh‐1 and JMS‐2 obtained by means of digestion with inverse aqua regia and CrO3‐H2SO4 solutions, suggesting that either acid solution can be used for the sparging method of sedimentary rock samples. As CrO3‐H2SO4 solution is believed to liberate predominantly the hydrogenous Re and Os fraction from organic‐rich sediment, the sparging method combined with CrO3‐H2SO4 digestion and multi‐ion‐counters in the mass spectrometry is expected to be a powerful tool for reconstructing the secular change in marine Os isotope compositions with high sample throughput.
Learning theory from ﬁrst principles Lecture 8: Neural networks

The class of functions we have considered so far were: • Linear functions in some explicit features: given a feature map φ : X → Rd, we consider f(x) = θ⊤φ(x), with parameters θ ∈ Rd, as analyzed in Lecture 2 (for least-squares) and Lecture 3. Pros: simple to implement, convex optimization (gradient descent). Complexity in O(nd). Cons: only applies to linear functions on explicit (and fixed feature spaces).
Detecting Pneumonia from Chest X-Ray Images using Committee Machine

---------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract - The medical field is the most sensitive of all the domains ever known, for a simple reason that it deals with humans and advances in this field is a matter of pride for the entire human race. The system designed in this research paper is one such attempt. Pneumonia is most important cause of death worldwide even though it is a vaccine preventable disease. It can be detected by analysing chest x-rays. Analysing chest x-rays is a difficult task and requires precision. We aim at designing a highly efficient system to predict if a user suffers from Pneumonia by analysing the patient’s chest X-ray images and increasing the accuracy of the system by use of Committee Machine.
Thermo-nociceptive interaction : inter-channel pain modulation occurs 1 before intra-channel convergence of warmth 2

1. Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, Alexandra House 17 Queen 4 Square, London WC1N 3AZ, UK 5 2. Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, Alma Mater Studiorum University 6 of Bologna, Viale Europa 980, 47521 Cesena, Italy 7 3. Institute of Philosophy, University of London, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU, 8 UK 9 4. Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, 10 UK 11
Why Sesamia nonagrioides (Lefèbvre) (Lepidoptera : Noctuidae) is a pest only in portions of its geographic range: the influence of climate.

The stem borer Sesamia nonagrioides (Lefèbvre) (Lepidoptera : Noctuidae) is a major pest of maize in Mediterranean Europe and in several countries of sub-Saharan West Africa but not in East Africa where it lives on wild host plants along wet places. Sampling of Sesamia species in maize fields in Côte d’Ivoire during five years revealed high densities of S . nonagrioides in the southern forest regions, and showed that it was absent in crops in the northern half of the country, a savannah region where Sesamia calamistis was the major pest. A regression analysis showed that rainfall and temperature explained 81% of the variation of the density of S. nonagrioides in maize crops. The model predicts no infestation in the cool and dry conditions of East Africa. This conclusion is in agreement with the results of the study of migration from mitochondrial genes that showed that the species moved highly only along wet places in East Africa. In southern France, where S . nonagrioides is a pest of maize, the model predicts no infestation. This contradiction may be explained by (i) the selection of individuals adapted to cold and dry climate, (ii) The diapause, that occurs only in the palearctic region and (iii) the possible diffusion by humans. Heavy damage in maize crops by this pest in France are mentioned only from 1836, and were not mentioned in a comprehensive book on maize by Parmentier in the late eighteenth century. The colder temperatures of the little ice age may explain that no infestation occurred in maize fields at that time. In West Africa, S . nonagrioides is absent in the countries East of Togo in spite of favourable climate, which is likely due to the Dahomey gap, a dry region that splits the forest.
Visible-Light Photodegradation of Rhodamine B on Carbon Doped Titanium Oxide Thin Film Prepared by Atmospheric MOCVD

Carbon doped TiO2 and pure TiO2 thin films were prepared by atmospheric metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) method. Both pure TiO2 and carbon doped TiO2 films are in anatase structure. X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) of the carbon doped TiO2 film indicate carbon atoms occupy oxygen sites and form Ti-C bonds in TiO2 lattice. In UV-VIS absorption spectra, it can be found that the carbon doped TiO2 film has a red-shifted absorption edge compared with the pure TiO2 film. In the photocatalytic decomposition experiment of Rh.B, carbon doped TiO2 exhibited remarkably visible light activity.
A MULTI-MINERAL INTERVENTION TO MODULATE COLONIC MUCOSAL PROTEIN PROFILE: Results from a 90-day trial in healthy human subjects

The overall goal of this study was to determine if Aquamin(R), a calcium- and magnesium-rich natural product, would alter the expression of proteins involved in growth-regulation, differentiation and barrier formation in the colon. Thirty healthy human subjects were enrolled in a three-arm, 90-day interventional trial in which Aquamin(R) (provided daily to deliver 800-mg of calcium per day) was compared to calcium alone and placebo. Before and after the 90-day interventional period, colonic biopsies were obtained. Biopsies were evaluated by immunohistology for expression of Ki67 (a proliferation marker) and for CK20 and p21 (differentiation markers). Tandem mass tag-mass spectrometry-based detection was used to assess levels of multiple proteins. As compared to placebo or calcium, Aquamin(R) reduced the level of Ki67 expression (20%). Neither intervention altered CK20 expression, while a trend toward increased p21 was observed with calcium and Aquamin(R) (117% and 99% respectively). In the proteomic screen, Aquamin(R) treatment resulted in many more proteins being upregulated or downregulated (1.5 fold-change with [≤]2% false-discovery rate) than placebo. Included among the upregulated proteins were cytokeratins, cell-cell adhesion molecules and components of the basement membrane. Many of the downregulated proteins were those involved in proliferation and nucleic acid metabolism. Calcium alone also altered the expression of many of the same proteins but not to the same extent as Aquamin(R). We conclude that daily Aquamin(R) ingestion alters protein expression profile in the colon that could be beneficial to colonic health. These data warrant additional studies with a larger sample size to validate these findings.
Autoimmune anti-DNA antibodies predict disease severity in COVID-19 patients

Infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can lead to severe disease and death, however the mechanisms of pathogenesis in these patients remain poorly understood. High levels of autoimmune antibodies have been observed frequently in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients but their specific contribution to disease severity and clinical manifestations remain unknown. We performed a retrospective study of 115 COVID-19 hospitalized patients with different degrees of severity to analyze the generation of autoimmune antibodies to common antigens: a lysate of erythrocytes, the lipid phosphatidylserine (PS) and DNA. The statistical relation of autoantibody levels to death, disease severity and specific pathologies was determined using high-throughput data analysis of 118 clinical parameters for all patients. High levels of IgG autoantibodies against erythrocyte lysates were observed in a large percentage (up to 41%) of patients with COVID-19 compared to uninfected controls. Anti-DNA antibodies determined upon hospital admission were high in 16% of patients and correlated strongly with later development of severe disease, showing a positive predictive value of 89.5% and accounting for 22% of total severe cases. Statistical analysis identified strong correlations between anti-DNA antibodies and markers of cell injury, coagulation, neutrophil levels and erythrocyte size. Anti-DNA autoantibodies may play an important role in the pathogenesis of COVID-19 and could be developed as a predictive biomarker for disease severity and specific clinical manifestations.
An Intrinsic and Extrinsic Evaluation of Learned COVID-19 Concepts using Open-Source Word Embedding Sources

Introduction: Scientists are developing new computational methods and prediction models to better clinically understand COVID-19 prevalence, treatment efficacy, and patient outcomes. These efforts could be improved by leveraging documented, COVID-19-related symptoms, findings, and disorders from clinical text sources in the electronic health record. Word embeddings can identify terms related to these clinical concepts from both the biomedical and non-biomedical domains and are being shared with the open-source community at large. However, it's unclear how useful openly-available word embeddings are for developing lexicons for COVID-19-related concepts. Objective: Given an initial lexicon of COVID-19-related terms, characterize the returned terms by similarity across various, open-source word embeddings and determine common semantic and syntactic patterns between the COVID-19 queried terms and returned terms specific to word embedding source. Materials and Methods: We compared 7 openly-available word embedding sources. Using a series of COVID-19-related terms for associated symptoms, findings, and disorders, we conducted an inter-annotator agreement study to determine how accurately the most semantically similar returned terms could be classified according to semantic types by three annotators. We conducted a qualitative study of COVID-19 queried terms and their returned terms to identify useful patterns for constructing lexicons. We demonstrated the utility of applying such terms to discharge summaries by reporting the proportion of patients identified by concept for pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and COVID-19 cohorts. Results: We observed high, pairwise inter-annotator agreement (Cohen's Kappa) for symptoms (0.86 to 0.99), findings (0.93 to 0.99), and disorders (0.93 to 0.99). Word embedding sources generated based on characters tend to return more lexical variants and synonyms; in contrast, embeddings based on tokens more often return a variety of semantic types. Word embedding sources queried using an adjective phrase compared to a single term (e.g., dry cough vs. cough; muscle pain vs. pain) are more likely to return qualifiers of the same semantic type (e.g., "dry" returns consistency qualifiers like "wet", "runny"). Terms for fever, cough, shortness of breath, and hypoxia retrieved a higher proportion of patients than other clinical features. Terms for dry cough returned a higher proportion of COVID-19 patients than pneumonia and ARDS populations. Discussion: Word embeddings are a valuable technology for learning terms, including synonyms. When leveraging openly-available word embedding sources, choices made for the construction of the word embeddings can significantly influence the phrases returned.
Insights into the molecular mechanism of anticancer drug ruxolitinib repurposable in COVID-19 therapy

Due to non-availability of specific therapeutics against COVID-19, repurposing of approved drugs is a reasonable option. Cytokines imbalance in COVID-19 resembles cancer; exploration of anti-inflammatory agents, might reduce COVID-19 mortality. The current study investigates the effect of ruxolitinib treatment in SARS-CoV-2 infected alveolar cells compared to the uninfected one from the GSE5147507 dataset. The protein-protein interaction network, biological process and functional enrichment of differentially expressed genes were studied using STRING App of the Cytoscape software and R programming tools. The present study indicated that ruxolitinib treatment elicited similar response equivalent to that of SARS-CoV-2 uninfected situation by inducing defense response in host against virus infection by RLR and NOD like receptor pathways. Further, the effect of ruxolitinib in SARS-CoV-2 infection was mainly caused by significant suppression of IFIH1, IRF7 and MX1 genes as well as inhibition of DDX58/IFIH1-mediated induction of interferon- I and -II signalling.
Implementation science protocol for a participatory, theory-informed implementation research programme in the context of health system strengthening in sub-Saharan Africa (ASSET-ImplementER)

Objectives ASSET (Health System Strengthening in sub-Saharan Africa) is a health system strengthening (HSS) programme involving eight work-packages (ie, a research study that addresses a specific need for HSS) that aims to develop solutions that support high-quality care. Here we present the protocol for the implementation science (IS) theme within ASSET (ASSET-ImplmentER) that aims to understand what HSS interventions work, for whom and how, and how IS methodologies can be adapted to improve the HSS interventions within resource-poor contexts. Settings Publicly funded health facilities in rural and urban areas in in Ethiopia, South Africa, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe. Participants Research staff including principal investigators, coinvestigators, field staff, PhD students, and research assistants. Interventions Work-packages use a mixed-methods effectiveness–effectiveness hybrid designs. At the end of the pre-implementation phase, a workshop is held whereby the IS theme, jointly with ASSET work-packages apply IS determinant frameworks to research findings to identify factors that influence the effectiveness of delivering evidence-informed care. Determinants are used to select a set of HSS interventions for further evaluation, where work-packages also theorise selective mechanisms. In the piloting and rolling implementation phase, work-packages pilot the HSS interventions. An iterative process then begins involving evaluation, reflection and adaptation. Throughout this phase, IS determinant frameworks are applied to monitor and identify barriers/enablers to implementation. Selective mechanisms of action are also investigated. Implementation outcomes are evaluated using qualitative and quantitative methods. The psychometric properties of outcome measures including acceptability, appropriateness and feasibility are also evaluated. In a final workshop, work-packages come together, to reflect and explore the utility of the selected IS methods and provide suggestions for future use. Structured templates are used to organise and analyse common and heterogeneous patterns across work-packages. Qualitative data are analysed using thematic analysis and quantitative data are analysed using means and proportions. Conclusions We use a novel combination of IS methods at a programmatic level to facilitate comparisons of determinants and mechanisms that influence the effectiveness of HSS interventions in achieving implementation outcomes across different contexts. The study also contributes conceptual development and clarification at the underdeveloped interface of IS, HSS and global health. The ASSET-ImplementER theme is considered minimal risk as we only interview researchers involved in the different work-packages. To this effect we have received approval from King’s College London Ethics Committee for research that is considered minimal risk (Reference number: MRA-20/21-21772).
Do improved biomass cookstove interventions improve indoor air quality and blood pressure? A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Household air pollution (HAP) kills 4 million annually, with access to clean cooking being a challenge for 37% of the world population. Whilst there have been advancements in improved biomass cookstove (ICS) technologies, reviews on the impact of these ICS on HAP are now more than three years old. Objectives: This review and meta-analysis examines the most recent evidence on the impact of ICS on HAP and blood pressure (BP). Methods: A literature search was conducted using scientific literature databases and grey literature. Studies were included if they were published between January 2012 and June 2020, reported impact of ICS interventions in non-pregnant adults in low/middle-income countries, and reported post-intervention results along with baseline of traditional cookstoves. Outcomes included 24- or 48-hour averages of kitchen area fine particulate matter (PM2.5), carbon monoxide (CO), mean systolic BP (SBP) and mean diastolic BP (DBP). Meta-analyses estimated weighted mean differences between baseline and post-intervention values for all outcome measures. Results: Nine studies were included; eight contributed estimates for HAP and three for BP. Interventions lead to significant reductions in PM2.5 (-0.28 mg/m3, 95% CI: -0.46, -0.10), CO (-6.59ppm, 95%CI: -10.73, -2.46) and SBP (-2.82mmHg, 95% CI: -5.53, -0.11); and a non-significant reduction in DBP (-0.80 mmHg, 95%CI: -2.33, 0.73), when compared to baseline of traditional cookstoves. Except for DBP, greatest reductions in all outcomes came from standard combustion ICS with a chimney, compared to ICS without a chimney and advanced combustion ICS. WHO air quality targets were met by post-intervention values for CO but not for PM2.5. Conclusion: Our review suggests that ICS with a chimney results in the greatest reductions in HAP and BP. Further research on qualitative impact of such ICS on end-users is required to understand feasibility of adoption at scale.
Expectancy-Value-Cost motivational theory to explore final year medical students' research intentions and past research experience: a multicentre cross-sectional questionnaire study

Objectives Conducting research during medical school is a commonly described way to strengthen the physician-scientists workforce. The aim of this study is to compare the strength of association of Expectancy, Value and Cost regarding a research activity with future research intentions, and to explore differences between students with or without research experience during medical school. Design, setting and participants An online questionnaire was sent to final-year medical students - who had already chosen their specialty - in three French-speaking Belgian universities with non-mandatory research programmes. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and multiple regression analysis were conducted. Main measures Research intention (outcome measure) was assessed using a 3-item scale. The motivational beliefs were assessed using a 10-item scale adapted from a validated scale based on the Expectancy-Value-Cost theory. Responses were recorded on a 6-point Likert scale. Results Participation rate was 28% (n=237). EFA revealed 4 factors with high internal consistency. 21.5% of students had positive research intentions (score 5 or above). Our model explained 82.8% of research intention variance (p < 0.001), of which three motivational beliefs had statistically significant coefficients: i) Value given to a research activity (Beta = 0.72, p < 0.001); ii) perceived Cost of a research activity (Beta = -0.11, p < 0.01); iii) Expectancy of success (Beta = 0.10, p < 0.05). Students with a positive research experience or students without research experience but who had strongly considered achieving one were 11.5 times more likely (95% CI, 5.0 - 26.2) to have positive research intentions at the end of medical school than other students. Conclusions Value given to a research activity is the key factor regarding students' motivation to undertake research. Our study confirms the positive relationship between non-mandatory research and future research intentions, although some students without a research experience showed high motivation as well.
Controlled Radical Polymerization of Styrene by Reverse Iodine Transfer Polymerization (RITP) in Miniemulsion: Use of Hydrogen Peroxide as Oxidant

The use of molecular iodine I2 in controlled radical polymerization, called reverse iodine transfer polymerization, represents a new, straightforward way to prepare controlled macromolecular architectures. Herein, miniemulsion polymerization of styrene in the presence of molecular iodine has been successfully performed. The polymerization of styrene was initiated by bis(4-tert-butylcyclohexyl) peroxydicarbonate at T = 60 °C with dodecyl sulfate sodium salt as surfactant and hexadecane as hydrophobe, yielding a stable and uncolored latex. A certain amount of iodine reacted with water to form hydroiodic acid, leading to an upward deviation of the experimental molecular weight from the theoretical value. However, when the iodine lost by hydrolysis was regenerated by continuous addition of hydrogen peroxide in acidic conditions, it led to the expected molecular weight (e.g., Mn,SEC = 7900 g mol-1, Mw/Mn = 1.46, styrene conversion = 78%, Mn,theoretical = 7900 g mol-1). Hence, the molecular weight of the polyme.