Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sensitivity of headwater streamflow to thawing permafrost and vegetation change in a warming Arctic

Climate change has the potential to impact headwater streams in the Arctic by thawing permafrost and subsequently altering hydrologic regimes and vegetation distribution, physiognomy and productivity. Permafrost thaw and increased subsurface flow have been inferred from the chemistry of large rivers, but there is limited empirical evidence of the impacts to headwater streams. Here we demonstrate how changing vegetation cover and soil thaw may alter headwater catchment hydrology using water budgets, stream discharge trends, and chemistry across a gradient of ground temperature in northwestern Alaska. Colder, tundra-dominated catchments shed precipitation through stream discharge, whereas in warmer catchments with greater forest extent, evapotranspiration (ET) and infiltration are substantial fluxes. Forest soils thaw earlier, remain thawed longer, and display seasonal water content declines, consistent with greater ET and infiltration. Streambed infiltration and water chemistry indicate that even minor warming can lead to increased infiltration and subsurface flow. Additional warming, permafrost loss, and vegetation shifts in the Arctic will deliver water back to the atmosphere and to subsurface aquifers in many regions, with the potential to substantially reduce discharge in headwater streams, if not compensated by increasing precipitation. Decreasing discharge in headwater streams will have important implications for aquatic and riparian ecosystems.
Green synthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles using Euphorbia hirta leaves extract and its biological applications

Abstract The synthesis of metal nanoparticles by a green method is eco-friendly, nontoxic and few benefits to the growing fields of research used inhibit bacteria and cancer growth over the recent years. In this study, CuO NPs are synthesized through Euphorbia hirta leaf extract. Formation of CuO NPs was confirmed by SPR peak at UV spectrum. FTIR identified functional groups are responsible for reduction and stabilization, GC–MS, phytochemicals present in the Euphorbia hirta extract accountable for synthesizing CuO NPs. XRD confirmed crystalline nature, SEM and TEM confirmed size and spherical morphology. Furthermore, CuO NPs effective antibacterial activity to inhibit pathogens, strong biological activities regarding antioxidant activity and anti-inflammatory activity and excellent anticancer activity against the Ht-29 cell line. Also, good catalyst for the effective degradation of methylene blue. The present study suggests that biosynthesized CuO NPs through an extract from Euphorbia hirta may be used for therapeutic application in future clinical studies.
One pot synthesis of bis (dihydropyrimidinone) and tetrahydro-4H-chromenes derivatives using Ag2O/GO/TiO2 composite nanostructure

Abstract In this study, a simple and efficient synthesis reaction was used to prepare Bis (dihydropyrimidinone) derivatives through Biginelli condensation reaction of terephthalic aldehyde, 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds and (thio) urea or guanidine and tetrahydro-4H-chromenes via one pot condensation of aromatic aldehydes, malononitrile, and dimedone with Ag2O/GO/TiO2 composite nanostructures as the catalyst. The structural functionalities and morphological observations of catalyst were obtained using characterization techniques of field emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transfer infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and transmission electron microscope. The structures of Bis (dihydropyrimidinone) and tetrahydro-4H-chromenes were confirmed by FT-IR, NMR, and mass spectroscopy. Excellent yields of products, simple reaction process and simple work-up are attractive features of these effective synthesis methods.
Development and Validation of a Necroptosis-Related Prognostic Signature for Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Necroptosis is a form of cell death, this study aimed to explore and verify the relationship between clear cell renal cell carcinoma and necroptosis, and to construct a necroptosis-related prognostic signature for diagnosis and treatment of clear cell renal cell carcinoma. 159 necroptosis-related genes were screened from the Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes database of which 51 were differentially expressed in clear cell renal cell carcinoma, which included 16 prognosis-associated genes. Enrichment analysis showed that most of the 16 genes were related to necroptosis, autophagy and the Wingless-related integration site signaling pathway. From the 16 genes, 11 independent necroptosis-related genes associated with clear cell renal cell carcinoma prognosis were screened by least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression and multivariate Cox regression. These genes (BH3 interacting domain death agonist, Janus kinase 3, RANBP2-type and C3HC4type zinc finger containing 1, solute carrier family 25 member 4, interferon gamma receptor 2, phospholipase A2 group IVD, toll-like receptor 3, H2A clustered histone 7, interferon regulatory factor 9, phospholipase A2 group IVB and H2A clustered histone 17) were used to construct a prognostic signature which was assessed by multivariate Cox regression analysis. Also, the relationship between the risk score and the stage and grade was determined. Receiver operating characteristic analysis and the decision curve analysis demonstrated the validity and clinical value of the prediction model which was internally validated. In this study, we explored the potential link between clear cell renal cell carcinoma and necroptosis to establish and validate an 11 gene prognostic signature that can effectively predict clear cell renal cell carcinoma prognosis.
Diagnosis and management strategies for urospermia in stallions

Urospermia is the contamination of semen with urine during ejaculation. Urospermia is the second most frequent ejaculatory dysfunction of stallions. It can drastically affect fertility mediated by alkaline pH, the high osmolarity of urine, and presumably excessive post-breeding inflammatory response. This condition can be associated with many other diseases (i.e., cystitis, equine herpesvirus-1, and hyperkalemic periodic paralysis); however, idiopathic causes appear to be predominant. For this reason, the treatment of urospermia can be frustrating, and the prognosis for complete resolution of this condition is often poor. Stallions suffering from urospermia are usually diagnosed after poor semen quality and fertility results. Diagnosis of urospermia is based on the yellow appearance, urine smell, urine crystal, alkaline pH, increased creatinine, and urea nitrogen levels. The treatment for urospermia is challenging. Most cases are idiopathic, thereby limiting therapeutic options. However, when a primary condition is diagnosed, it should be treated to solve the cause of urospermia. In most cases, therapies directed at reducing urine contamination include reducing the amount of urine in the bladder before breeding, pharmacological treatments to enhance bladder neck closure during ejaculation, or collecting only the sperm-rich portion of the ejaculate using an open-ended artificial vagina are used to manage stallions with urospermia. The simplest and most established method for managing urospermia is to encourage the stallion to urinate before semen collection or natural breeding. However, when the Canisso e Segabinazzil. Diagnosis and management strategies for urospermia in stallions. Rev Bras Reprod Anim, v.45, n.4, p.443-452, out. /dez. 2021 444 collection of semen free from urine is not possible, urine-contaminated semen can be processed to minimize the adverse effects of pH and osmolarity on the sperm. Semen contaminated with urine should be immediately extended with a milk-based extender to mitigate the deleterious effects of urine on the sperm. Single-layer gradient centrifugation can also be used to select sperm with superior traits for low urine contamination. In addition, semen cryopreservation can be performed in stallion semen with a low level of urine contamination.
Research on Rutting Prediction of Asphalt Pavement

Based on a study of the rutting distress of asphalt pavement on semi-rigid base and an analysis of the rutting formation and factors that influence the rut,a rutting prediction model for semi-rigid base asphalt pavement in China is established by means of semi-theory and semi-experiment and a lot of rutting tests conducted under the condition of different temperatures,stresses and depths.The model parameters are derived by minimal squares method.The study is of great significance to the design and prevention of the rutting damage of asphalt pavement.
Study of porous silicon substrates for the monolithic integration of radiofrequency circuits

The silicon/porous silicon (PS) hybrid substrate is an interesting candidate for the monolithic integration of radiofrequency (RF) circuits. Thus, passive components can be integrated on the insulating PS regions close to the active devices integrated on silicon. Regarding silicon, hybrid substrates allow the improvement of RF circuits performances. To demonstrate it, coplanar waveguides have been integrated on glass, silicon, and localized PS substrates. The characterization results show that the substrate losses are reduced with PS.
Deep-learning-based markerless tumor localization using 2D KV/MV image

Deep inspiration breath-hold (DIBH) is a motion management technique that is commonly used in lung radiotherapy (RT) for patients with large tumor motion. Cone beam CT (CBCT) scan with DIBH is commonly used for treatment setup, and the acquisition of a CBCT scan (typically ~1 minute) requires multiple DIBHs. If a large shift of treatment couch is needed, a second CBCT scan is often acquired after the shift for verification purpose. However, the more DIBH occurred during treatment setup, the higher probability that patient may become tired and hence less able to reproduce consistent DIBH during treatment delivery, which would degrade the target coverage and deliver more dose to critical organs and normal tissues. To reduce the number of DIBHs required for treatment setup, we propose a deep learning method to locate tumor 3D location from two orthogonal and simultaneously acquired 2D projections (one is kV and the other is MV) for fast verification, which will eliminate the need for the second CBCT scan. Our proposed method, named center-ness matching network, is capable of collecting feature map that represent the probability distribution of tumor, called center-ness map, from 2D projections and re-aligning them to their projections’ angle in the Cartesian coordinate system. The tumor depth information is also collected. The center-ness matching network then re-transforms the 2D center-ness maps to the 3D center-ness map via depth learning. Finally, the 3D location of tumor is estimated from the 3D center-ness map. We conducted a retrospective study on 10 patient cases, who had undergone 4D-CT scans for motion evaluation at CT simulation and received lung RT treatments in our institution. For each 3D CT image set of a breathing phase, we simulated its 2D kV projection at gantry angle 0° and 2D MV projection at 90°. Patient specific 3D CT images of 9 phases and the corresponding 2D projections data were used for training, with the remaining phase used for testing. The target error (TE), which is of the difference in distance between the center-of-mass of ground truth tumor of 3D CT and the predicted tumor 3D location, achieved by our method was 2.6±0.7 mm. These results demonstrated the feasibility and efficacy of our proposed method, which provides a potential solution for fast verification of treatment setup of DIBH lung RT.
The use of electromyography and kinematic measurements of the lumbar spine during ergonomic intervention among workers of the production line of a foundry

Purpose Workers who perform repetitive movements are exposed to many risk factors leading to the occurrence of lumbar back pain. The aim of the research was to answer the question whether the ergonomic instruction conducted by a physiotherapist would change the tested range of motion of the segments of lumbar spine and the symmetry of the work of the torso and upper limbs muscles during work performed by foundry employees. Methods The study included 12 foundry production line workers with musculoskeletal pain. The workstation was built in the laboratory that perfectly simulates work on the production line. The workers performed two activities from their daily work, i.e. transferring and moving a casting. They were then given ergonomic instruction by a physiotherapist and performed the assigned tasks again. During the activities, the electromyographic signal from five muscles was recorded in terms of symmetry of their work. The maximum angular ranges of the motor segments of the lumbar spine were measured using gyroscopes. Results After the ergonomic instruction, the contralateral imbalance of muscle activity decreased statistically significantly during the first phase (p = 0.0004), second phase (p = 0.0002) and the third phase (p = 0.0069) of transferring the casting. While moving the casting , only erector spinae showed statistically significantly (p = 0.0131) more symmetrical work after the ergonomic instruction. During the transfer of the casting, statistically significantly lower values of the ranges of motion between the segments were obtained after carrying out the ergonomic instruction for the left (p = 0.0231) and right (p = 0.0032) lateral flexion. The ranges of movement between the segments differed statistically significantly for the flexion (p = 0.0117), extension (p = 0.0469) and left (p = 0.0031) and right lateral flexion movements (p = 0.0012). Conclusion Conducting ergonomic instruction consisting in teaching the correct performance of a movement task reduced the contralateral imbalance of muscle activity and changes the ranges of movement of L1-S1 segments. The task of optimizing the load on the musculoskeletal system, including the lumbar spine, should be carried out by means of appropriate ergonomic instruction and multi-pronged measures, including analysis of the health of employees, their working environment and physical activity outside the workplace. Electromyography and measurements of the range of movement of the lumbar spine appear to be good tools for the evaluation of workplace ergonomics.
Adaptive control of mechanical systems

Nonholonomic underactuated mechanical systems are special systems full of research interest and practical sense. Referring to those mechanical systems whose number of control variables is less then the degrees of freedom, the underactuated systems are abundant in real life, ranging from landing vehicles, surface ships, underwater vehicles to spacecrafts. Mobile robots and surface vessels are two typical nonholonomic underactuated systems that receive tremendous consideration in literature. For the tracking and stabilization control of underactuated mechanical systems, many methodologies have been proposed for controlling these systems by researchers. However, there are still a lot of open problems in this area. Among them the tracking control with input saturation and output-feedback control in the presence of parametric uncertainties are two important problems to be solved in this thesis. For tracking and stabilization control of nonholonomic mobile robots with input saturation, a new adaptive scheme is proposed to ensure that the bounds of the control torques are functions of only design parameters and reference trajectory. Thus suitable design parameters can be chosen so that such bounds are within the given saturation limits. For adaptive output-feedback tracking control of nonholonomic mobile robots, a new adaptive control scheme is proposed including designing a new adaptive state feedback controller and two high-gain observers to estimate the unknown linear and angular velocities respectively. For tracking control of underactuated ships we design the yaw axis torque in such a way that its corresponding subsystem is finite time stable, which makes it be decoupled from the second subsystem after a finite time. This enables us to design the torque in the surge axis independently. For adaptive output-feedback trackNanyang Technological University Nanyang Technological University
Morphological processing is gradient not discrete in L1 and L2 English masked priming

In recent years, evidence has emerged that readers may have access to the meaning of complex words even in the early stages of processing, suggesting that phenomena previously attributed to morphological decomposition may actually emerge from an interplay between formal and semantic effects. The present study adds to this line of work by deploying a forward masked priming experiment with both L1 (Experiment 1) and L2 (Experiment 2) speakers of English. Following recent research trends, we view morphological processing as a gradient process emerging over time. In order to model this, we used a large within-item stimulus design combined with advanced statistical methods such as generalised mixed models (GAMM) and quantile regression (QGAM). L1 GAMM analyses only showed priming for true morpho-semantic relations (the identity ‘bull’, inflected ‘bulls’ and derived conditions ‘bullish’), with no priming observed in the case of other relations (the pseudo-complex ‘bully’ or the stem-embedded ‘bullet’ conditions). Furthermore, with respect to the time-course of effects, we found significant differences between conditions were present from very early on as revealed by the QGAM analyses. In contrast, L2 speakers showed significant facilitation across all five conditions compared to the baseline condition, including the stem-embedded condition, suggesting early L2 processing is only dependant on the form.
Application of artificial intelligence in intervention of autistic children

Artificial intelligence not only brings great convenience to the life and study of ordinary people, but also brings hope to special groups such as autism patients. Computers can process digital signals and images to present idealized intervention facilities in the treatment and rehabilitation assistance of special populations. At present, robot has been applied in the field of early diagnosis and monitoring of children with autism spectrum disorder and guiding situational game interaction in foreign countries, and its effects are very significant, providing choice and reference for the future application of artificial intelligence to special groups.
Federated Learning for Medical Imaging: An Updated State of the Art

Deep Neural networks algorithms are recently used to solve problems in medical imaging like no time ever. However, one of the main challenges for training robust and accurate machine learning algorithms, such as Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) is to find a large dataset, which is, unfortunately, not available for public usage, or it is not available when it comes to a rare disease. Federated Learning (FL) could be a solution to data lack. It can make training and validation through multicenter datasets possible, without compromising the privacy and data protection. In this paper we summarize, discuss, and present an UpToDate overview of FL for medical image analysis solutions and related approaches.
The Severity of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Increases the Risk of Arteriosclerosis.

BACKGROUND Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common disorder worldwide. It is associated with myocardial remodeling and arteriosclerosis in patients with hypertension. Our study investigated the relationship between OSA severity and arteriosclerosis and blood pressure in an Asian population. METHODS We enrolled 365 subjects from July 2018 to December 2020 at Ruijin Hospital. We recorded data from the medical history and collected blood samples from all participants. We performed 24-hour ambulatory Blood Pressure (BP) monitoring and Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV) measurements. Overnight polysomnography (PSG) was performed using Respironics Alice PDxSleepware. RESULTS PSG was performed in a total of 365 subjects; mean age of 49.1 ± 12.8 years and Body Mass Index (BMI) 28.1 ± 3.8 kg/m2. The majority (89.3%) were male. The office systolic BP was significantly higher in the moderate to severe group than mild OSA group (148 ± 21 mmHg vs 139 ± 19 mmHg, p < 0.01). The subjects with moderate to severe OSA presented higher cf-PWV values than those in the mild group (10.03 ± 3.67 m/s vs 7.62 ± 1.48 m/s, p < 0.01). BMI was significantly higher in the moderate to severe than the mild OSA groups (28.3 ± 4.0 kg/m2 vs 27.5 ± 3.2 kg/m2, p < 0.05). The Pearson correlation showed that the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) was significantly and positively correlated with cf-PWV (r = 0.217, p < 0.01), Age (r = 0.148, p < 0.01), BMI (r = 0.228, p < 0.01) and HbA1c (r = 0.172, p < 0.01). After adjusting for age, BMI, low density lipoprotein cholesterin (LDL-c), FGB, AHI, estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR), Night BP, office diastolic BP and Day BP in Logistic regression model, AHI (OR = 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01-1.05) and office diastolic pressure (OR = 1.04, 95% CI: 1.00-1.08) and age (OR = 1.12, 95% CI: 1.06-1.19) were independent risk factors for arteriosclerosis. CONCLUSIONS The severity of OSA was positively correlated with pulse wave velocity. AHI, office BP and age were independent risk factors for arteriosclerosis.
The complete chloroplast genome of a karst-dwelling plant Primulina tenuituba (Gesneriaceae)

Abstract Primulina tenuituba is a species in the Gesneriaceae family that is widely distributed in China. It is a karst-dwelling species with an enormous tolerance for extreme drought and high temperatures. The species is also used in traditional Chinese medicine. In this study, the complete chloroplast genome of P. tenuituba was assembled and characterized for the first time. The complete chloroplast genome exhibited a typical quadripartite cycle of 153,236 bp in length, including a pair of inverted repeats (IRs) of 25,494 bp, which were separated by a large single-copy (LSC) region of 84,364 bp and a small single copy (SSC) region of 17,884 bp. The GC content was 37.6%. The complete chloroplast genome of P. tenuituba contains 114 genes, including 80 protein-coding genes, 30 tRNAs genes, and four rRNAs. The phylogenetic analysis showed that P. tenuituba is closely related to P. eburnea. The newly reported chloroplast genome of P. tenuituba would provide valuable data for further studies on its evolution and adaptation mechanism.
Smart-Approach Based Internet of Things and Skyline Query for Multicriteria Decisions for Travel Services

The Internet of Things (IoT) and the recent advancements in cloud computing have gained importance with the surge in the amount of data generated globally. Moreover, the rapidly increasing applications of the Internet in many scientific and real-time practical applications have ushered in a new era of complex applications of data flow. Tourism and related services are routinely accessed by millions of customers worldwide. Furthermore, with newer, attractive, rapidly growing services, it has become essential for dealers to promote their services using up-to-date technological tools. The major challenge is to efficiently determine and select the best travel options conforming to the needs and financial requirements of the customers. In this study, the use of a dynamic skyline operator for multicriteria decisions is examined using a time-dependent database to select the best services. Moreover, the impact of implementing the operator on optimizing resource consumption is explored. Results indicate that the implementation of this operator is more efficient than the existing techniques.