Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Thyroid profile in perimenopausal women: A study to rule out hypothyroidism in the subclinical stage and its relationship to cholesterol levels

Background: One of the most frequent problems affecting perimenopausal women is thyroid dysfunction, symptoms of which might be so subtle that they go unrecognized for a long time. In older women, subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) is frequent. A significant percentage of individuals are at risk of developing primary hypothyroidism as a result of their SCH. Aim and Objectives: The goal of this study is to know the incidence of thyroid dysfunction and its clinical manifestations, to determine thyroid profile the incidence of SCH, and its relation with the cholesterol levels in perimenopausal women in patients who visit gynecology outpatient department. Materials and Methods: The present study is a descriptive cross-sectional research undertaken in the department of the research comprised 100 women between the ages of 40 and 55 Patients were assessed using a complete history, clinical examination, and laboratory tests such as ELISA was used to test thyroid function in the serum of all patients diagnosed with SCH and also assessed serum cholesterol in patients with SCH. Results: There were 100 patients in the present study and all were women were between the ages of 40 and 55. Menorrhagia was the most common menstrual disorder seen in the study group, with 56% of patients experiencing it. 32% of patients developed oligomenorrhea, which is one of the most common perimenopausal symptoms. Menstrual irregularities (88%) and weight increase were common symptoms in thyroid insufficiency individuals. (65%), irritation and mood changes (74%) Anxiety and sadness (61%) are the most common symptoms, followed by loss of employment. Sexual libido (5%) Subjects with normal free t3 and t4 but increased serum thyroid-stimulating hormone were classified as SCH. 20 of the patients had SCH, 4 had overt hypothyroidism, and the other 76 were euthyroid. Seventy-five percent of the patients with SCH had hypercholesterolemia when they were diagnosed. Conclusion: We propose that perimenopausal women with or without symptoms be routinely screened based on the findings of this study. Early diagnosis and treatment of these issues will aid in lowering morbidity and preventing subsequent consequences.
Exercise mediates ubiquitin signalling in human skeletal muscle

Physical activity or regular exercise provides many beneficial effects towards human health, helping prevent and ameliorate metabolic diseases. However, certain molecular mechanisms that mediate these health benefits remain poorly understood. Parker et al. provided the first global analysis of exercise‐regulated ubiquitin signalling in human skeletal muscle, revealing post‐translational modification cross‐talk. As a result of their analysis, NEDDylation is thought to promote ubiquitin signalling for the removal of damaged proteins following exercise. The proteomic dataset generated from their study is invaluable for researchers in this field to validate new mechanistic hypotheses. To further reveal molecular mechanisms regulated by exercise, future research could employ more sensitive mass spectrometry‐based workflows that increase the detection of both ubiquitylated sites and peptides and subsequently identify more exercise‐regulated ubiquitin signalling pathways.
Carboxylated nanocrystalline cellulose from Salix psammophila prepared by sulfuric acid hydrolysis combined with 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO)-oxidation

Salix psammophila (SP) is an important sand plant, and could be utilized to develop high-value products. In this work, SP was used as raw material and cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) were prepared by hydrolysis in 64 wt% sulfuric acid (H2SO4) solution, and then, TEMPO/NaBr/NaClO system was used to oxidize CNC to obtain TEMPO-oxidation-cellulose nanocrystals (TOCNC). Fourier transform infrared analysis (FTIR) revealed that after oxidation, there were obvious carboxyl functional groups. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that both CNC and TOCNC were agglomerated. Under atomic force microscope (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), CNC and TOCNC presented short rod fibers, average diameters of 23 nm and 21 nm and average lengths of 213 nm and 165 nm, respectively. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis (XPS) showed that TOCNC generated a new energy spectrum peak at 289.06 eV, which was the peak of C=O in the carboxyl group. The crystallinity of the CNC and TOCNC were 70.8% and 26.9%, respectively.
Eriodictyol suppresses the malignant progression of colorectal cancer by downregulating tissue specific transplantation antigen P35B (TSTA3) expression to restrain fucosylation

ABSTRACT Eriodictyol is a natural flavonoid with many pharmacological effects, such as anti-oxidation, anti-inflammation, anti-tumor, and neuroprotection. Besides, it has been reported that flavonoids play an important role in protein glycosylation. The fucosylation structure is closely associated with processes of various tumor metastases. TSTA3 is involved in the de novo synthesis and can convert cellular GDP-D-mannose into GDP-L-fucose. It was predicted on the STITCH database that eriodictyol interacted with TSTA3. In addition, literature has confirmed that TSTA3 is upregulated in CRC and can regulate the proliferation and migration of breast cancer cells. Herein, the precise effects of eriodictyol on the clone-forming, proliferative, migratory and invasive abilities of CRC cells as well as EMT process were assessed. Moreover, the correlation among eriodictyol, TSTA3, and fucosylation in these malignant behaviors of CRC cells was evaluated, in order to elucidate the underlying mechanism. The current work discovered that eriodictyol inhibited the viability, clone-formation, proliferation, migration, invasion, and EMT of CRC cells, and that these inhibitory effects of eriodictyol on the malignant behavior of CRC cells were reversed by TSTA3 overexpression. Additionally, eriodictyol suppresses fucosylation by downregulating the TSTA3 expression. Results confirmed that fucosylation inhibitor (2-F-Fuc) inhibited clone formation, proliferation, migration, invasion, as well as EMT of CRC cells and eriodictyol treatment further reinforced the suppressing effects of 2-F-Fuc on the malignant behavior of CRC cells. We conclude that eriodictyol suppresses the clone-forming, proliferative, migrative and invasive abilities of CRC cells as well as represses the EMT process by downregulating TSTA3 expression to restrain fucosylation. Graphical Abstract
A Kernel Entropy Method and its Application in Monitoring and Assessment of Wind Turbine Degradation Performance

: To overcome the problems of wind turbine (WT) degradation assessment, a new kernel entropy method based on supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) was proposed. This approach can be used to effectively monitor and assess WT performance degradation. First, a new condition monitoring method based on a kernel entropy component analysis ( KECA ) was developed for nonlinear data. Then, the squared prediction error ( SPE ) was used to monitor the WT health state. Due to the diversity and nonlinearity of SCADA data, fault features are easily overwhelmed by other vibration signals. To address this, a new kernel entropy partial least squares ( KEPLS ) algorithm was introduced. The proposed kernel entropy method improves the performance prediction by considering higher order information. Furthermore, changes in the prediction residual can be used to define certain limits to realize early warning of WT faults. Finally, the method was applied to actual SCADA data of a wind farm. The results show that the method can accurately evaluate the health state of WTs, thus verifying the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method.
Short-term wind power prediction based onprincipal component analysis and genetic neural network

Short-term wind power prediction is important to the operation of power system with comparatively large amount of wind power, a short-circiut wind power predicting model based on principal component analysis (PCA) method and genetic neural network is proposed. PCA is applied to process original input data, the principal components are used as input data for neural network. In order to solve the problems of slow convergence speed and being easy to fall into local minimum of BP neural network, genetic algorithm(GA) is used to make a thorough searching for the initial weights and thresholds, and the Levenberg-Marquardt (L-M) method is used to finely train the network. Based on the actual data of a wind farm, the forecasting results by the proposed method is more precise than those by GA neural network model and PCA-LM neural network model, providing an effective way to forecast short-term wind power.
Use and Effect of Embodied Conversational Agents for Improving Eating Behavior and Decreasing Loneliness Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults: Randomized Controlled Trial

Background Embodied conversational agents (ECAs) have been proposed as a promising interaction modality for the delivery of programs focused on promoting lifestyle changes. However, it is not understood what factors influence the health effects of ECAs or their use. Objective We aimed to (1) identify whether ECAs could persuade community-dwelling older adults to change their dietary behavior and whether ECA use could decrease loneliness, (2) test the pathways to these effects, and (3) understand factors influencing the use of ECAs. Methods A randomized controlled trial was conducted. The intervention group received access to the PACO service for 8 weeks. The waitlist group started PACO use after waiting for 4 weeks. Two primary outcomes (eating behavior and loneliness) were assessed via online questionnaires at intake, upon joining the waitlist, after 4 weeks, and after 8 weeks. The third primary outcome (use) was assessed via data logs. Secondary outcomes were measured at the same time points, via questionnaires or an optional interview. Results In total, 32 participants completed the intervention. We found a significant correlation between use in minutes on the one hand, and perceived usefulness (r=0.39, P=.03) and enjoyment on the other (r=0.38, P=.03). However, these did not predict use in the full regression model (F2,29=1.98, P=.16, R2=0.12). Additionally, PACO use did not lead to improvement in eating behavior (χ22=0.34, P=.85) or a decrease in loneliness (χ22=0.02, P=.99). Conclusions Our study did not provide any concluding evidence about factors that are linked to the use or health effects of ECAs. Future service design could benefit from either creating a functional design catering to the predominant stage in the precaution adoption process model of the targeted population, or by personalizing the service based on an intake in which the end user’s stage is determined. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04510883; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04510883 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) RR2-10.2196/22186
Innovative techniques for sport turf managing: Agronomic and phyisiological implications

The growing substrate of the putting greens is considered a key factor for a healthy turf ecosystem. Actually detailed study on the effects of growth promoting bacteria and biostimulants on a professional sport turf are very limited. This thesis aimed to study the effectiveness of different microorganisms and biostimulants in order to improve the knowledge relative to the relationship between the beneficial microflora and root apparatus of sport turfs. The research project was divided in three principal steps: Initially, commercial products based on biostimulants and microorganisms were tested on a Lolium perenne L. essence grown in a controlled-environment. The principal evaluations were the study of the habitus of plants, biomass production and length of leaves and roots. Were studied the capacity of colonization of microorganisms within root tissues and rhizosphere. In the second step were developed two different biostimulant solutions based on effective microorganisms, mycorrhizae and humic acids. This test was conducted both on an Agrostis stolonifera putting green (Modena Golf & Country Club) in a semi-field condition and within a growth chamber on a Lolium perenne L. essence. Fungicide and chemicals applications were suspended in order to assess the effectiveness of the inoculants for nutrition and control of pests. In the last step, different microorganism mixes and biostimulants were tested on an experimental putting green in the Turf Research Center (TRC) (Virginia Tech, United States) in a real managing situation. The effects of different treatments were studied maintaining all chemicals and mechanicals managements scheduled during a sport season. Both growth-chamber and field results confirmed the capacity of microorganisms based biostimulants to promote the physiologic conditions of the plants, improve the growth of the roots and enhance the aesthetic performance of the turf. Molecular analysis confirmed the capacity of microorganisms to colonize the root tissues.
Relationships between daily physical activity combinations and psychophysical health status of Italian breast cancer survivors

ABSTRACT In breast cancer survivors (BCS), the contemporaneous increase of sedentary time and reduction of physical activity (PA) requires early attention because it has negative consequences for their health. Aims of the study were to investigate: a) the correlations between PA, sedentarism, and health-related measures; b) the association between different patterns of daily activity and health-related outcomes. Two hundred and nineteen BCS (50.98 ± 6.28) were selected for this study. Psychological, anthropometric, endocrine, sleeping, and both daily sedentary time and PA variables were considered. Sedentarism and PA have opposite correlations with anthropometric variables, anxiety, depression, morning salivary cortisol, and sleeping characteristics. The first favors pathological values and the latter favors normal values. Regression tree analysis showed the impact of different daily sedentary time and PA combinations on the investigated variables and allowed the individualization of their optimal combination for health. Our results could be useful to healthcare providers and BCS.
A method of hydrophobically modifying paper with a trace reagent

It is of great importance to protect paper cultural relics, especially in terms of making them waterproof. One of the important ways to protect paper cultural relics is by hydrophobic modification treatment. However, most of the existing hydrophobic modification methods rely on a great deal of organic solvents, which poses greater risks to safety and pollution. In this work, a simple, green, and effective method for paper hydrophobic treatment was proposed and evaluated. The vapor of a fluorinated triethoxysilane was reacted with the active hydroxyl group on the paper in a closed space, which realized the hydrophobic modification of the paper in one step. The contact angle of the hydrophobic paper prepared by this method was 148.4° under optimal experimental conditions. In addition, this method did not damage the paper, based on the results of the scanning electron microscopy of the paper before and after hydrophobic treatment. The generality of this method was verified by using other substrates and hydrophobic reagents. This method is simple to operate and does not require the usage of a large amount of organic reagent. It is expected to receive widespread attention in the field of the protection of paper and wooden cultural relics.
Fiscal Behaviour of Subnational Governments in Nigeria: An Augmented Autoregressive Distributed LAG (ARDL) Approach

Purpose: The paper examined the determinants of fiscal behavior of subnational governments in Nigeria between 1981 and 2020. Approach/Methodology/Design: An Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test for cointegration which involves an extra F-test on the lagged level variables in the ARDL equation was employed. Findings: The results reveal that finances of the lower level of governments in Nigeria have not been managed optimally as there appeared a misplaced priority in terms of government outlay. Practical Implications: The implication presented in this paper is meant for the concerned authorities. The results indicate the need for the subnational governments in Nigeria to cut the overhead costs of governance by reducing the frivolous expenditures in order to curtail the incessant borrowing habit of these tiers of government locally and internationally. Originality/value: Despite the fact that factors determining subnational fiscal behavior have been approached from diverse ideological and methodological perspectives, yet, the challenges linger on, the paper, therefore, employed sophisticated econometric technique to examine why the finances of the lower level of governments in Nigeria have not been managed optimally.
Antimicrobial resistance management in Pacific Island countries: Current status, challenges, and strategic solutions

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is currently recognized as a major emerging threat to human and animal health. The burden of antimicrobial-resistant infections affects the economy in developed and developing countries. There is a rapid rise in AMR in human and veterinary medicine globally. AMR profiles are poorly documented in Fiji, and limited data are accessible. Fiji currently has no national veterinary antibiotic resistance surveillance network or regulations and guidelines on veterinary drug use. However, available literature shows that although human drugs are better managed than veterinary drugs, the knowledge is still constrained and dispersed. Furthermore, Fiji was chosen as a case study to develop a prototype AMR surveillance and control in the Pacific region. Pacific Island countries share similar geographic and climatic conditions. Currently, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research has funded an AMR project that addresses some gaps in managing AMR in the region. The project is the first to adopt the One Health approach to research the AMR in humans, animals, and the Pacific region's environment. Combating AMR needs human health and veterinary personnel to work with all other stakeholders. Continuous surveillance for resistant clinical isolates in humans and animals and the development of appropriate policy intervention measures in human and veterinary drug use are necessary to alleviate AMR burden. Therefore, there is a need to educate farmers, human patients, and the public on the fight against AMR. In addition, AMR data are necessary to develop effective AMR control strategies. This review gives a comprehensive information assessment on AMR in Fiji and the other South Pacific Islands in relation to global trends. Suggestions on the most appropriate ways of effectively managing AMR in Fiji have been made.
Estimation of compression and shrinkage properties of Brazilian tropical timber through porosimetry analysis by mercury intrusion

Wood is a natural material with properties that are strongly influenced by anatomical characteristics, so studies that aim to correlate properties through empirical equations in search of simplification to obtain the values of their characteristics are essential. In this context, this work aims to generate multiple regression models to estimate the properties of shrinkage and compression parallel and normal to the grain of Brazilian tropical woods as a function of the values of porosity, density, and for both properties, with porosity being obtained by mercury intrusion porosimetry. As a result, the radial (RRT) and total tangential (RTT) shrinkage could be estimated through porosity. However, it was not possible to estimate them considering only density as an independent variable. All the models that were used were able to accurately estimate the modulus of resistance and modulus of elasticity values (fc,0, Ec,0, fc,90, and Ec,90).
Simulation and verification of grain size prediction on SS316L GMAW process

This fundamental research aims to apply a numerical model of free grain growth theory using a self-developed algorithm. The algorithm will incorporate the free grain growth formula with significant parameters such as activation energy (Qa) and kinetic grain growth constant (K) selected from various sources specifically for austenitic stainless steel SS316L. The initial grain size (D0) parameter was validated experimentally. The predicted and verified final average grain sizes were compared at the heat-affected zone after welding with an acceptable error percentage of up to 6%, according to the findings.
An Empirical Study on Similarity Functions: Parameter Estimation for the Information Contrast Model

Computing Textual Similarity implies, at least, two aspects: howto represent items, and how to compare item representations (similarityfunctions). In this paper, we focus on the second problem, andwe discuss the empirical properties of general similarity functions. Wefocus on the Information Contrast Model (ICM), a parameterized generalizationof Pointwise Mutual Information (PMI) which has optimaltheoretical properties but has not been thoroughly tested empiricallyyet. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised parameter estimationcriterion for ICM, and we study the empirical behavior of ICM withrespect to traditional similarity functions over different representationmodels (bag of words and word embeddings) and a diverse set of textualsimilarity problems, including lexical similarity, sentence similarity andshort texts similarity. Our empirical results show that (i) the optimalvalues for the ICM β always lie within the range predicted by the theory,1 < β < 2, regardless of the task and the representation methodchosen; (ii) our proposed estimator ˆ β closely matches the optimal empiricalβ value. In the experiments, our unsupervised method to fixICM parameters efficiently predicts the optimal values, and ICM outperformsor at least matches the performance of traditional similarityfunctions.