Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gut microbiome alpha-diversity is not a marker of Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis

Abstract The gut–brain axis may play a central role in the pathogenesis of neurological disorders. Dozens of case–control studies have been carried out to identify bacterial markers by the use of targeted metagenomics. Alterations of several taxonomic profiles have been confirmed across several populations, however, no consensus has been made regarding alpha-diversity. A recent publication has described and validated a novel method based on richness and evenness measures of the gut microbiome in order to reduce the complexity and multiplicity of alpha-diversity indices. We used these recently described richness and evenness composite measures to investigate the potential link between gut microbiome alpha-diversity and neurological disorders and to determine to what extent it could be used as a marker to diagnose neurological disorders from stool samples. We performed an exhaustive review of the literature to identify original published clinical studies including 16S rRNA gene sequencing on Parkinson’s disease, multiple Sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. Richness and evenness factors loadings were quantified from sequencing files in addition with the Shannon diversity index. For each disease, we performed a meta-analysis comparing the indices between patients and healthy controls. Seven studies were meta-analysed for Parkinson’s disease, corresponding to 1067 subjects (631 Parkinson’s Disease/436 healthy controls). Five studies were meta-analysed for multiple sclerosis, corresponding to 303 subjects (164 Multiple Sclerosis/139 healthy controls). For Alzheimer’s disease, the meta-analysis was not done as only two studies matched our criteria. Neither richness nor evenness was significantly altered in Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis patients in comparison to healthy controls (P-value > 0.05). Shannon index was neither associated with neurological disorders (P-value > 0.05). After adjusting for age and sex, none of the alpha-diversity measures were associated with Parkinson’s Disease. This is the first report investigating systematically alpha-diversity and its potential link to neurological disorders. Our study has demonstrated that unlike in other gastro-intestinal, immune and metabolic disorders, loss of bacterial diversity is not associated with Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis.
Temporal and Spatial Contiguity Are Necessary for Competition Between Events

Over the last 50 years, cue competition phenomena have shaped theoretical developments in animal and human learning. However, recent failures to observe competition effects in standard conditioning procedures, as well as the lengthy and ongoing debate surrounding cue competition in the spatial learning literature, have cast doubts on the generality of these phenomena. In the present study, we manipulated temporal contiguity between simultaneously trained predictors and outcomes (Experiments 1–4), and spatial contiguity between landmarks and goals in spatial learning (Supplemental Experiments 1 and 2; Experiment 5). Across different parametric variations, we observed overshadowing when temporal and spatial contiguity were strong, but no overshadowing when contiguity was weak. Thus, across temporal and spatial domains, we observed that contiguity is necessary for competition to occur, and that competition between cues presented simultaneously during learning is absent when these cues were either spatially or temporally discontiguous from the outcome. Consequently, we advance a model in which the contiguity between events is accounted for and which explains these results and reconciles the previously contradictory findings observed in spatial learning.
Mechanical Modifications of Paraffin-based Fuels and the Effects on Combustion Performance

In order to enhance the mechanical properties, 6 kinds of additives of stearic acid, polyethylene wax (A−C®6A), ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA), low density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) were blended in the paraffin fuel. Mechanical properties of paraffin-based fuels were investigated by mixing 5 % in mass of different additives and increasing the mass percent of A−C®6A and LDPE. In addition, the combustion performance of the so modified paraffin-based fuels were tested by a 2D-radial burner at Nanjing University of Science and Technology. The effects of additives on regression rate were analyzed by thermal performance test (melting point and DSC) and viscosity measurement. Overall, all the additives can improve mechanical properties and the mechanical properties are enhanced by increasing mass% of additives. A−C®6A revealed the best for improving compressive strength (64.0 % increase by blending 5 mass %), LDPE revealed the best for improving tensile strength (105.3 % increase by blending 5 mass %). For combustion performance, the regression rates of paraffin-based fuels blended with stearic acid increased owing to the decreased melting points while the regression rates of the other five formulations decreased due to the increased melted liquid viscosity. The relationship between regression rate and viscosity is a power function which is not affected by additives at high temperature, thereby it is convenient to predict the regression rate by measuring viscosity.
Evidence for a moderating effect of drinking severity but not HIV status on brain age in heavy episodic drinkers

Chronic HIV infection and alcohol use have been associated with brain changes and neurocognitive impairment. However, their combined effects are less well studied. We correlated measures of “brain age gap” (BAG) and neurocognitive impairment in participants with and without HIV/AIDS and heavy episodic drinking (HED). We predicted that BAG will be greater in PWH who engage in HED and that these effects will be particularly pronounced in frontoparietal and subcortical regions.69 participants were recruited from a community health centre in Cape Town: HIV-/HED-(N = 17), HIV+/HED- (N = 14), HIV-/HED+ (N = 21), and HIV+/HED+ (N = 17). Brain age gap (BAG) was derived from thickness, area and volumetric measurements from the whole brain or one of six brain regions. Linear regression models were employed to identify differences in BAG between patient groups and controls. Associations between BAG and clinical indicators of HIV and HED status were also tested using bivariate statistical methods.Compared to controls, greater whole brain BAG was observed in HIV-/HED+ (Cohen’s d = 1.61, p < 0.001), and HIV+/HED+ (d = 1.52, p = 0.005) participants. Differences in BAG between patients and controls were observed subcortically, as for the cingulate and the parietal cortex. An exploratory analysis revealed that higher relative brain ageing in HED participants with the highest drinking scores (W = 66, p = 0.036) but did not vary as a function of nadir CD4 count or current HIV viral load.The association between heavy episodic drinking and BAG, independent of HIV status, points to the importance of screening for and targeting alcohol use disorders in primary care. Our findings also point to the utility of assessing the contribution of brain regions to the BAG.
The Self Actuated Tenim Hand: The Conversion of a Body-Driven Prosthesis to an Electromechanically Actuated Device

Users of body-driven prostheses often abandon their prostheses due to overexertion of their shoulders and a lack of features. The aim of this study was thus to design an electromechanical hand prosthesis that meets the functional and grasping requirements of prosthesis users. To this end, the Self-Actuated Tenim Hand (SATH), a functional electromechanically actuated prosthesis, was developed. The SATH, based on the novel body-driven Tenim Hand, incorporated design refinements that improved on its predecessor’s grasping capabilities. An electromechanical actuator and a wrist supination and pronation mechanism were integrated into the SATH thereby improving its functional capabilities. The Anthropomorphic Hand Assessment Protocol (AHAP) was used as a design validation tool to assess the functional capabilities of the SATH. The SATH performed satisfactorily in AHAP and achieved results that are comparable to scores obtained by a more advanced prosthesis.
Review: Electromotive force in the solar wind

Abstract. The concept of electromotive force appears in various electromagnetic applications in geophysical and astrophysical fluids. An overview of the electromotive force and its applications to the solar wind are discussed such as the electromotive force profile during the shock crossings and the observational tests for the mean-field model against the solar wind data. The electromotive force is being recognized as serving as a useful tool to construct a more complete picture of space plasma turbulence when combined with the energy spectra and helicity profiles.
Combining goal setting and achievement with occupational therapy to improve pain, psychological factors and physical activity in patients after high tibial osteotomy: A non-randomized controlled study

Background Psychological factors contribute to chronic pain and may lead to physical inactivity and poor functional outcomes. Purpose We conducted a non-randomized controlled study to evaluate the effectiveness of goal setting and achievement following occupational therapy (OT) intervention to improve pain, psychological factors, and physical activity among patients after high tibial osteotomy (HTO). Method We analyzed the data of 31 patients who underwent HTO, allocated into OT intervention and control groups. Goal achievement was encouraged through OT in the intervention groups; the control groups did not receive OT intervention. Outcome measures included the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) score (before and after the OT intervention), walking pain, pain catastrophizing, anxiety, depression, pain self-efficacy, and physical activity level. Results OT significantly improved the COPM score, depression, and physical activity. At the final assessment, the depression score was lower while the step count and physical activity time were significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control group (p < 0.05). Conclusion Embedding goal setting and achievement as part of an OT intervention improved the outcomes after HTO.
Trees classification based on Fourier coefficients of the sapflow density flux

In this paper we study the possibility to use the artificial neural networks for trees classification based on real and approximated values of the sap flow density flux describing water transport in trees. The data sets were generated by means of a new tree monitoring system TreeTalker. The Fourier series-based model is used for fitting the data sets with periodic patterns. The multivariate regression model defines the functional dependencies between sap flow density and temperature time series. The paper shows that Fourier coefficients can be successfully used as elements of the feature vectors required to solve different classification problems. Here we train multilayer neural networks to classify the trees according to different types of classes. The quality of the developed model for prediction and classification is verified by numerous numerical examples.
Formation of dry granular fronts and watery tails in debris flows

Abstract Debris flows are particle–fluid mixtures that pose a significant hazard to many communities throughout the world. Bouldery debris flows are often characterised by a deep dry granular flow front, which is followed by a progressively thinner and increasingly watery tail. The formation of highly destructive bouldery wave fronts is usually attributed to particle-size segregation. However, the moving-bed flume experiments of Davies (N. Z. J. Hydrol., vol. 29, 1990, pp. 18–46) show that discrete surges with dry fronts and watery tails also form in monodisperse particle–fluid mixtures. These observations motivate the development of a new depth-averaged mixture theory for debris flows, which explicitly takes account of the differing granular and phreatic surfaces, velocity shear, and relative motion between grains and fluid to explain these phenomena. The theory consists of four coupled conservation laws that describe the spatial and temporal evolution of the grain and water thicknesses and depth-averaged velocities. This system enables travelling wave solutions to be constructed that consist of (i) a large amplitude dry flow front that smoothly transitions to (ii) an undersaturated body, (iii) an oversaturated region and then (iv) a pure water tail. It is shown that these solutions are in good quantitative agreement with Davies’ experiments at high bed speeds and slope inclinations. At lower bed speeds and inclinations, the theory produces travelling wave solutions that connect to a steady-uniform upstream flow, and may or may not have a bulbous flow front, consistent with Davies’ observations.
MICROWAVE ASSISTED SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF SCHIFF BASE OF 2-AMINO-6-NITROBENZOTHIAZOLE

The main aim of this work was to synthesise a new Schiff base (2,4-diiodo-6-{[(6-nitro-1,3-benzothiazol-2-yl) imino] methyl} phenol)derivative. The above mentioned derivative was prepared by performing microwave-induced condensation reactions of 2amino-6-nitro benzothiazole and 3,5diiodosalicylaldehyde.The method used in the study is eco friendly and provides many benefits such as to straightforward work-up procedure, short reaction times, non-hazardous and good yield of products. The newly synthesized compound has been characterized by elemental analysis, IR, 1H NMR, MS and MS-spectroscopy in the study.
Improving the Treatment of Subgrid Cloud Variability in Warm Rain Simulation in CESM2

Representing subgrid variability of cloud properties has always been a challenge in global climate models (GCMs). In many cloud microphysics schemes, the warm rain non‐linear process rates calculated based on grid‐mean cloud properties are usually scaled by an enhancement factor (EF) to account for the effects of subgrid cloud variability. In our study, we find that the EF derived from Cloud Layers Unified by Binormals in Community Atmosphere Model version 6 (CAM6) is severely overestimated in most of the cloudy oceanic areas, which leads to strong overestimation of the autoconversion rate. We improve the EF in warm rain simulation by developing a new formula for in‐cloud subgrid cloud water variance. With the updated subgrid cloud water variance and EF treatment, the liquid cloud fraction (LCF) and cloud optical thickness (COT) increases noticeably for marine stratocumulus, and the shortwave cloud forcing (SWCF) matches better with observations. The updated formula improves the relationship between autoconversion rate and cloud droplet number concentration, and it decreases the sensitivity of autoconversion rate to aerosols. The sensitivity of liquid water path to aerosols decreases noticeably and is in better agreement with that in MODIS. Although the sensitivity of COT is similar to that in MODIS, CAM6 underestimates the sensitivity of grid‐mean SWCF to aerosols because of the underestimation in the sensitivities of LCF and in‐cloud SWCF. Our results indicate the importance of representing reasonable subgrid cloud variability in the simulation of cloud properties and aerosol‐cloud interaction in GCMs.
Action and object representation in the ventral "what" stream

The ventral visual stream is conceived as a pathway for object recognition. However, we also recognize the actions an object can be involved in. Here, we show that action recognition relies on a pathway in lateral occipitotemporal cortex, partially overlapping and topographically aligned with object representations that are precursors for action recognition. By contrast, object features that are more relevant for object recognition, such as color and texture, are restricted to medial areas of the ventral stream. We argue that the ventral stream bifurcates into lateral and medial pathways for action and object recognition, respectively. This account explains a number of observed phenomena, such as the duplication of object domains and the specific representational profiles in lateral and medial areas.
Exploratory Factor Analysis of the Self-Compassion Scale-Malay Version: Its Reliability Among Adolescents

The purpose of this study is to determine the internal consistency reliability of SelfCompassion Scale-Malay Version (SCS-MV) and its subscale scores among non-clinical youth samples in Malaysia. The original Self Compassion Scale (SCS) comprises of 6 subscales which are self-kindness, self-judgement, common humanity, isolation, mindfulness and overidentification, this scale was translated into Bahasa Melayu (Malay Language) which is the primary language in Malaysia. The Bahasa Melayu translated version of SCS (SCS-MV) was administered on 377 adolescents aged 16 years old who attended secondary school. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was carried out and Cronbach alphas were used to estimate the reliability or internal consistency of the SCS-MV subscales. Results demonstrated that this study support the use of the six factors scoring method of the original SCS with the overall Cronbach’s alpha for SCS-MV ranging from 0.76 to 0.95. These results provided further psychometric evidence and lent a confirmatory support that SCS-MV can be used among Malay-speaking adolescent populations in Malaysia.
Synthesis of aryl α-O-L-rhamnopyranoside by two-step reaction in one pot

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT ABSTRACT The title compounds were conveniently synthesized by a phase transfer catalyzed approach in two steps and one pot using the rhamnopyranosyl chloride as key intermediate. The two-step one-pot procedure is more convenient and environmentally friendly, compared to the published synthetic routes. Besides, the structure-reactivity relationship and the plausible mechanism for this base-catalyzed glycosylation were discussed by means of the Hammett equation.
Compatibilizer Assistant SCF/ABS Composites with Improved Mechanical Properties Prepared by Fused Deposition Modeling

ABSTRACT A random terpolymer copolymer of styrene, acrylonitrile and glycidyl methacrylate (SAG) was used as compatibilizer to improve the interfacial adhesion of short carbon fiber (SCF)/acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) composites. Effects of SAG on the structural and mechanical properties of fused deposition modeling (FDM) printed composites were investigated. The results showed the addition of SAG could effectively improve the interfacial adhesion between SCF and ABS matrix, whereas slightly decrease average length of SCF and degrade the adhesion quality among deposited filaments. As a result, the tensile and flexural properties of FDM printed composites initially increased and then decreased with the SAG content. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
LCZ Generator: online tool to create Local Climate Zone maps

<p>Since their introduction in 2012, Local Climate Zones (LCZs) emerged as a new standard for characterising urban landscapes, providing a holistic classification approach that takes into account micro-scale land-cover and associated physical properties. In 2015, as part of the community-based World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) project, a protocol was developed that enables the mapping of cities into LCZs, using freely available data and software packages, yet performed on local computing facilities. The &#8216;LCZ Generator&#8217; described here further simplifies this process, providing an online platform that maps a city of interest into LCZs, solely expecting a valid training area file and some metadata as input. The tool integrates the state-of-the-art of LCZ mapping, and simultaneously provides an automated accuracy assessment, training data derivatives and a novel approach to identify suspicious training areas. In addition, this development will ease the dissemination of maps and metadata. We anticipate this development will significantly ease the accessibility and workflow of researchers and practitioners interested in using the LCZ framework for a variety of urban-induced human and environmental impacts. </p>
Distrustful Complacency and the COVID‐19 Vaccine: How Concern and Political Trust Interact to Affect Vaccine Hesitancy

We test the hypothesis that COVID‐19 vaccine hesitancy is attributable to distrustful complacency—an interactive combination of low concern and low trust. Across two studies, 9,695 respondents from different parts of Britain reported their level of concern about COVID‐19, trust in the UK government, and intention to accept or refuse the vaccine. Multilevel regression analysis, controlling for geographic area and relevant demographics, confirmed the predicted interactive effect of concern and trust. Across studies, respondents with both low trust and low concern were 10%–22% more vaccine hesitant than respondents with either high trust or high concern, and 26%–29% more hesitant than respondents with both high trust and high concern. Results hold equally among White, Black, and Muslim respondents, consistent with the view that regardless of mean‐level differences, a common process underlies vaccine hesitancy, underlining the importance of tackling distrustful complacency both generally and specifically among unvaccinated individuals and populations.
A Semantic Supervision Method for Abstractive Summarization

: In recent years, many text summarization models based on pre-training methods have achieved very good results. However, in these text summarization models, semantic deviations are easy to occur between the original input representation and the representation that passed multi-layer encoder, which may result in inconsistencies between the generated summary and the source text content. The Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) improves the performance of many tasks in Natural Language Processing (NLP). Although BERT has a strong capability to encode context, it lacks the fine-grained semantic representation. To solve these two problems, we proposed a semantic supervision method based on Capsule Network. Firstly, we extracted the fine-grained semantic representation of the input and encoded result in BERT by Capsule Network. Secondly, we used the fine-grained semantic representation of the input to supervise the fine-grained semantic representation of the encoded result. Then we evaluated our model on a popular Chinese social media dataset (LCSTS), and the result showed that our model achieved higher ROUGE scores (including R-1, R-2), and our model outperformed baseline systems. Finally, we conducted a comparative study on the stability of the model, and the experimental results showed that our model was more stable.
Chemometric analysis based on high-performance liquid chromatographic data in the fingerprint construction of selected Achillea species

ABSTRACT Fourteen Achillea species were collected, extracted using Soxhlet apparatus with dichloromethane and methanol as solvents. The obtained methanolic extracts were analyzed using the reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography–diode array detector (RP-HPLC-DAD) with the Kinetex C18 column and the mobile phase consisting of methanol–water–0.1% formic acid mixture (gradient 5–85% (v/v)) at 30°C with the run time of 45 min and the detection wavelength 320 nm. Next, the chromatograms were preliminarily processed with smoothing, noise reduction, background subtraction, and alignment in the SpecAlign program (version 2.4.1) to construct the fingerprints of studied extracts. Selected standards (phenolic acids and flavonoids) were analyzed in the same chromatographic conditions and its presence in extracts was confirmed based on their spectra and the retention time values. The chemical similarity between the samples was evaluated using the Pearson correlation coefficient as similarity parameter, Euclidean distance index, the principal component analysis, and cluster analysis (CA). GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT