Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aspirin Use Is Associated with a Reduced Incidence of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Systematic Review and Meta‐analysis

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third‐leading cause of cancer‐related death worldwide, with a growing incidence and poor prognosis. While some recent studies suggest an inverse association between aspirin use and reduced HCC incidence, other data are conflicting. To date, the precise magnitude of risk reduction—and whether there are dose‐dependent and duration‐dependent associations—remains unclear. To provide an updated and comprehensive assessment of the association between aspirin use and incident HCC risk, we conducted a systematic review and meta‐analysis of all observational studies published through September 2020. Using random‐effects meta‐analysis, we calculated the pooled relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between aspirin use and incident HCC risk. Where data were available, we evaluated HCC risk according to the defined daily dose of aspirin use. Among 2,389,019 participants, and 20,479 cases of incident HCC, aspirin use was associated with significantly lower HCC risk (adjusted RR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.51‐0.73; P ≤ 0.001; I2 = 90.4%). In subgroup analyses, the magnitude of benefit associated with aspirin was significantly stronger in studies that adjusted for concurrent statin and/or metformin use (RR, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.28‐0.64) versus those that did not (Pheterogeneity = 0.02), studies that accounted for cirrhosis (RR, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.45‐0.52) versus those that did not (Pheterogeneity = 0.02), and studies that confirmed HCC through imaging/biopsy (RR, 0.30; 95% CI, 0.15‐0.58) compared with billing codes (Pheterogeneity < 0.001). In four studies, each defined daily dose was associated with significantly lower HCC risk (RR, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.97‐0.98), corresponding to an 8.4% risk reduction per year of aspirin use. Conclusion: In this comprehensive systematic review and meta‐analysis, aspirin use was associated with a significant reduction in HCC risk. These benefits appeared to increase with increasing dose and duration of aspirin use.
Impact of an 0.2 km3 Rock Avalanche on Lake Eibsee (Bavarian Alps, Germany) – Part II: Catchment Response to Consecutive Debris Avalanche and Debris Flow

The ~0.2 km3 Eibsee rock avalanche impacted Paleolake Eibsee and completely displaced its waters. This study analyses the lake impact and the consequences, and the catchment response to the landslide. A quasi‐3D seismic reflection survey, four sediment cores from modern Lake Eibsee, reaching far down into the rock avalanche mass, nine radiocarbon ages, and geomorphic analysis allow us to distinguish the main rock avalanche event from a secondary debris avalanche and debris flow. The highly fluidized debris avalanche formed a megaturbidite and multiple swashes that are recorded in the lake sediments. The new calibrated age for the Eibsee rock avalanche of ~4080–3970 cal yr BP indicates a coincidence with rockslides in the Fernpass cluster and subaquatic landslides in Lake Piburg and Lake Plansee, and raises the possibility that a large regional earthquake triggered these events. We document a complex history of erosion and sedimentation in Lake Eibsee, and demonstrate how the catchment response and rebirth of the lake are revealed through the complementary application of geophysics, sedimentology, radiocarbon dating, and geomorphology. © 2020 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Assessment of Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Clouds in Northeast Brazil (2000 -2019) using MODIS Data

The present study aims to assess the spatial and temporal distribution of cloud cover in Northeast region of Brazil, monthly and annually, from 2000 to 2019, in order to determine if there is a spatial and temporal pattern in the distribution of cloud cover and if there is a pattern between the distribution of cloud cover in relation to the amount of rainfall. For this, daily images for the analyzed period by the MODIS sensor were used, which include the quality assurance (QA) of the data produced (clear pixel, pixel with total cloud cover, or pixel mixed with clouds). For comparative purposes, QA data from OLI (Landsat-8) and MSI (Sentinel-2) sensors for 2019 were used. Besides that, rainfall data from TRMM satellite were used considering the Amazon, Atlantic Forest, Caatinga and Cerrado biomes. The results made possible to know the spatial and temporal distribution of the cloud free images and those with presence of cloud. In the Northeast region, the Amazon and Atlantic Forest biomes are strongly affected by the presence of clouds, while the Caatinga and Cerrado biomes are less affected. Annual observations did not indicate clear evidence about the reduction in the data quality in the wettest years. While monthly observations indicated that in the wettest months there was a ~50% reduction of cloud free images. So, the most favorable months for data acquisition by optical sensors are observed in the dry period, specifically between May and October, mainly in the Cerrado biome. The results point to the need to increase the availability of temporal orbital images in the region, especially in the Amazon and Atlantic Forest biomes, as it becomes a limiting factor for land use and land monitoring in that region mainly to the lower temporal resolution of the used sensor.
Avoidance of gender-ambiguous pronouns as a consequence of ambiguity-avoidance strategy

ABSTRACT It is well known that English speakers produce fewer pronouns when discourse contexts include more than one entity that matches the gender of the pronoun, i.e., gender effect. It is controversial, however, what causes the gender effect. Some suggest that it results from speakers’ avoidance of linguistic ambiguity, while others suggest that it results from the influence of non-linguistic conceptual similarity between discourse entities. To adjudicate between the two accounts, the present study investigates how Mandarin speakers choose referring expressions in written and spoken Mandarin. As written and spoken Mandarin differ in their referential ambiguity (the third-person singular pronoun is gender-ambiguous in spoken Mandarin but not in written Mandarin), it provides a good testing ground for evaluating the two accounts with the manipulation of gender similarity. We found that Mandarin speakers’ pronoun use was affected by pronoun ambiguity but not by conceptual similarity of discourse entities. In particular, in written Mandarin, where pronouns are gender-specific, Mandarin speakers produced fewer pronouns when there was more than one character that matched the gender of the pronoun. In spoken Mandarin where pronouns are gender-ambiguous, however, Mandarin speakers’ pronoun use was not influenced by gender of discourse characters. Our findings suggest that the gender effect is driven by an ambiguity-avoidance strategy rather than conceptual similarity between discourse characters.
Native Perennial Plants Colonizing Abandoned Arable Fields in a Desert Area: Population Structure and Community Assembly

In recent years, the phenomenon of abandonment of arable fields has increased in Saudi Arabia due to low soil fertility, drought, low rainfall, high levels of evapotranspiration, soil salinization, and low level of groundwater. We evaluated the effect of agricultural land abandonment on soil properties, perennial vegetation composition, and population structure in the Al-Kharj region, Saudi Arabia. A total of 11 perennial plant species belonging to 9 families and 11 genera were detected in the different abandoned fields of the study area. Four plant communities were identified after the application of the detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) ordination. The indicator species were (1) Seidlitzia rosmarinus—Zygophyllum hamiense, (2) Traganum nudatum—Seidlitzia rosmarinus, (3) Traganum nudatum—Prosopis farcta, and (4) Calligonum comosum—Pulicaria undulata. Results of the soil analysis showed significant differences in soil texture, pH, salinity, and nutrient content among the four recognized plant communities. Demographic analysis indicated that populations of Zygophyllum hamiense and Calligonum comosum tended to be either inverse J-shaped or positively skewed which may have indicated rapidly-growing populations with high reproductive capacity. Conversely, the size–frequency distribution of Traganum nudatum, S. Rosmarinus, and Prosopis farcta was approximately symmetrical (i.e., bell-shaped). The present study sheds light on the necessity of managing abandoned agricultural fields for restoring and improving rangelands with native species that are adapted to the local conditions such as low water demand.
GAS EXCHANGE AND ENZYMATIC METABOLISM IN GRAIN SORGHUM VARIETIES IRRIGATED WITH SALINE WATER

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of irrigation water salinity on gas exchange and antioxidative system responses of grain sorghum varieties. An experiment was conducted in a greenhouse located at the headquarters of Embrapa Semiarid Agriculture, Petrolina-PE, Brazil. The experimental design was randomized blocks, in a 6 x 5 factorial scheme. Six varieties of grain sorghum irrigated with saline water with five levels of salinity were evaluated. Photosynthesis and transpiration rate, stomatal conductance, leaf temperature, intrinsic and instantaneous water use efficiency, relative water content and leaf turgor potential were evaluated, as well as the activity of the enzymes catalase, ascorbate peroxidase and superoxide dismutase, and shoot biomass production. It was observed that irrigation with saline water causes reduction in the gas exchange and water status of grain sorghum varieties. The antioxidative system was activated in the six sorghum varieties to avoid the accumulation of reactive oxygen species, and the synchronism between the enzymes led to a better response of shoot dry mass production of the Ponta Negra variety.
An Introduction to Tissue Engineering and Orthopedic Applications

Nowadays, orthopedic-related pathologic conditions are considered as a growing concern. Also, the conventional treatments (grafting techniques) are not efficacious enough for the growing clinical needs. In the last decades, researches have been focused on finding more effective alternative treatments. Tissue engineering (TE) is a newly emerging field of science that has great potential to reduce these clinical issues. There are three main components in TE including cells, biomaterials, and signals. Choosing the best combination of these components is a vital decision in a TE process. In this review article, we are going to discuss TE and its components and also highlight some of the researches in the field of orthopedic TE by focusing on some tissues including bone, cartilage, skin, skeletal muscle, peripheral nervous system (PNS), tendon, and ligament. In the end, TE, as a new field of science, faces some major challenges that we will address some of them in this article.
Determinants of Surgical Case On-Time Start and On-Time Finish in Perioperative Services

Efficient use of the operating room (OR) is crucial for any hospital. One of the major inefficiencies in the OR is surgical cases not starting or finishing on time as scheduled. When a case is delayed, it affects all subsequent cases in that OR. This study uses discrete choice analysis to determine the significant factors, including team familiarity, that influence OR case on-time start and finish. A case is considered on-time if the documented procedure start and finish times are no more than 10 minutes after the scheduled start and finish times. The analysis uses surgical case data from a large tertiary referral hospital and academic center in Greenville, South Carolina. The case data includes all surgical cases (15,091) performed during regular workdays in 2013. Two binary logit models are developed: one for case on-time start and one for case on-time finish. Results indicate that higher team familiarity between surgeon and anesthesiologist, surgeon and circulating nurse, surgeon and scrub nurse, and surgeon and CRNA improve the likelihood of an OR case on-time start and on-time finish. This finding indicates that the OR scheduling staff in the study hospital make a concerted effort to schedule the surgical teams with members who have worked well together in the past.
Higher Order Haar Wavelet Method for Solving Differential Equations

The study is focused on the development, adaption and evaluation of the higher order Haar wavelet method (HOHWM) for solving differential equations. Accuracy and computational complexity are two measurable key characteristics of any numerical method. The HOHWM introduced recently by authors as an improvement of the widely used Haar wavelet method (HWM) has shown excellent accuracy and convergence results in the case of all model problems studied. The practical value of the proposed HOHWM approach is that it allows reduction of the computational cost by several magnitudes as compared to HWM, depending on the mesh and the method parameter values used.
Novel tunable composites based on bentonite and modified tragacanth gum for removal of acid dyes from aqueous solutions

A series of new adsorbents derived from tragacanth gum-graft-poly(methyl methacrylate) and bentonite (TG-g-PMMA/B) were synthesized. The developed composites were evaluated by removal of congo red (CR), methyl orange (MO), and acid blue 113 (AB-113) as model anionic azo dyes from aqueous solutions followed by UV-Vis spectrophotometric determination. It was revealed that the simultaneous introduction of inorganic bentonite clay into the TG-g-PMMA polymer matrix drastically improved capability of the adsorbent and surface morphology of the composites in comparison with TG, and TG graft copolymer and led to better dispersion in the polymeric matrix without agglomeration. Furthermore, the chemical structures of the adsorbate molecules affect the specific interactions of the adsorbents with adsorbates. The adsorbents were characterized by using FTIR, SEM, and TG/DTA analysis. The effect of various factors influence the dye adsorption including the adsorbent dose, sample pH, contact time, and dye concentration were investigated and optimized by response surface methodology (RSM) using central composite design. Under the optimum conditions, maximum adsorption of the CR, MO, and AB-113 dyes were observed at pH 8.5 with adsorbent dose of 5 mg mL−1, 30 mg mL−1, and 75 mg mL−1, respectively. The dye adsorption process was controlled by pseudo-second order and intraparticle diffusion kinetic models. The adsorption equilibrium data of the studied dyes well fitted with Langmuir isotherm with maximum adsorption capacity of 900, 750, and 8.5 mg g−1 for CR, MO, and AB-113, respectively.
A Machine Learning Model for Predicting Noise Limits of Motor Vehicles in UNECE R51 Regulations

It is vital to greatly reduce traffic noises emitted by motor vehicles during accelerating through determining limit values of noises and further improve technical specifications and comforts of these automobiles for automotive manufacturers. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) R51 regulations define the noise limits for all vehicle categories, which are kept updating, and these noise limits are implemented by governments all over the world; however, the automobile manufactures need to estimate future values of noise limits for developing their next-generation vehicles. In this study, a machine learning model using the back-propagation neural network (BPNN) approach is developed to determine noise limits of a vehicle during accelerating by using historic data and predict its noise limits for future revisions of the UNECE R51 regulations. The proposed prediction model adopts the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm which can automatically adapt its learning rate to train the model with input data, and at the same time randomly select the validation data and test data to verify the correlation and determine the accuracy of the prediction results. To showcase the proposed prediction model, acceleration noise limits from six historic data are used for training the model, and the noise limits at the seventh version can be predicted and validated. As the results achieve a required accuracy, vehicle noise limits in the next revision as the future eighth version can be predicted based on these data. It can be found that the obtained prediction results are much close to those noise limits defined in current regulations and negative error ratios are reduced significantly, compared to those values obtained using a quadratic regression model. As a result, the proposed BPNN model can predict future noise limits for the next revision of the UNECE R51automotive noise limit regulations.
A generalizable formalism for computing uncertainties in UTC

Algorithms to compute the statistical and systematic uncertainties in the difference between Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and individual laboratory UTC realizations were published in several different, but equivalent, forms the early twenty-first century, at a time when the UTC algorithm was based on a minimal network. In this paper we extend the theory to compute the uncertainties in a manner entirely consistent with the earlier work, but which enables application to UTC computations employing redundant links, and correlated calibrations.
Tell me what you are like and I will tell you what you believe in: Social representations of COVID-19 in the Americas, Europe and Asia

This study analyses the range and content of Social Representations (SSRRs) about the COVID-19 pandemic in 21 geographical zones from 17 countries of the Americas, Europe and Asia (N = 4430). Following the theoretical framework of Social Representations Theory, as well as psychosocial consequences of pandemics and crises, we evaluate the perceptions of severity and risks, the agreement with different SSRRs, and participants’ Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) and agreement with Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA). Different sets of beliefs as SSRRs are discussed and their prevalence and association with contextual variables (e.g., new contagions and deaths during data collection). Results show that severity and risk perceptions were associated with different SSRRs of the pandemics. In specific, to SSRRs focusing on Emerging Externalizing zoonotic and ecological factors, to Polemic Conspiracies, a view of Elite and Masses Villains, as well as Personal Responsibility in the pandemic. Further, these effects are replicated in most geographical areas. Additional meta-analyses and multi-level regressions show that Risk Perception was a consistent explanatory variable even after controlling demographics and ‘real risk’ (i.e., actual number of contagious and deaths), suggesting that, while coping and making sense of the pandemic, there is a shift to more authoritarian-alike responses.
Novel Modified Non-Isolated DC-DC Boost Converter Based on Voltage Lift Technique

In this paper, a novel DC-DC boost converter based on the voltage lift technique is manifested. It is firmly reasoned that, with a lesser number of elements, the proposed converter can yield analogously high voltage gain than that of the recently published DC-DC boost converters. The proposed converter is anticipated to provide higher efficiency due to its substantial voltage gain at a comparatively low duty cycle. Finally, to validate the acquired simulation results, a small-scale laboratory prototype is implemented and compared with the theoretical interpretation. Streszczenie. Przedstawiono nowy przekształtnik DC-DC typu boost bazujący na technice voltage lift. Przy mniejszej liczbie elementów yen przekształtnik ma on lepsze parametry niż przekształtniki opisywane w literaturze. Skonstruowano I zbadano prototyp przekształtnika. Nowy typ przekształtnika DC-DC typu boost bazujący na technice voltage lift.
Multiseason production planning under export quotas

An export quota is a direct restriction on the quantity of certain goods that can be exported and is an important instrument in international trade policy. In this study, we focus on an exporting firm and examine the implication of export quotas on its production and inventory policies. In particular, the firm applies for an exporting license every season (eg, year) and the amount it can sell is unknown for certainty in advance. The firm must determine its production quantity every period (eg, month) under a production capacity constraint. The presence of quotas decouples inventory from sales: the firm can sell its goods if and only if the quota permits, and this changes the way it manages its production and inventory. We show that the firm in general benefits from stockpiling—produce up to an inventory level higher than current quota. Stockpiling happens if and only if the remaining quota for the current season is smaller than a threshold value. It is more likely to happen when it is closer to the end of a season or when the quotas in future seasons are larger. Although the inventory in excess of current quota cannot be used to fill the demand in the current season, they will be needed in future seasons when new quotas are released and the firm cannot increase production quickly enough due to capacity constraints. Our numerical studies show that the cost of limiting production only to current quota can be substantial.
Unsteady Combustion in Gaseous Propellant Rocket Motors

Abstract : This research work was directed toward the development of a consistent experimental and theoretical description of the phenomenon of intrinsic unstable combustion in the gas rocket. A determination was achieved of the contribution of gas phase rate processes, (in particular, chemical kinetics) , to the coupling of a finite-dimensional unsteady turbulent combustion zone and finite amplitude (linear and nonlinear) longitudinal mode pressure oscillations.
Efficacy of increasing application rates and combination of herbicides and mowing at different growth stages of common teasel (Dipsacus fullonum)

Abstract Common teasel is a troublesome invasive weed in North and South America. Additional information on the efficacy of herbicide application and mowing at different growth stages will help in common teasel management. First, an outdoor pot experiment was performed to assess the effects of increasing application rates and combinations of glyphosate and 2,4-D amine when applied at the 4-leaf, rosette, and bolting stages. Second, field experiments were performed to evaluate the impact of time of cutting on invasive common teasel height, head number, and head length. Finally, germinability of seeds collected from naturally growing plants was determined to evaluate the feasibility of mowing invasive common teasel after flowering. Only glyphosate applied at 1.08 kg ae ha-1 at the 4-leaf stage provided adequate control (>90%). Although control was not satisfactory (<90%) when applying glyphosate at 2.16 kg ae ha-1 at the rosette and bolting stages, and 2,4-D at 1.75 kg ai ha-1 at 4-leaf stage, significant injury and biomass decline were observed. Glyphosate and 2,4-D combinations did not improve common teasel control compared with single applications of each. Cutting rosettes strongly reduced inflorescence production (34%–49%) and cutting flowering plants prevented total regrowth. Germination of seeds averaged 14% when harvested 10 d after flowering, and maximum seed germination (>90%) occurred 30 d after flowering. Glyphosate applied alone at the recommended commercial rate early in the growing season, together with cutting at the flowering stage, may be the most beneficial way of controlling invasive common teasel. Nomenclature: 2,4-D; glyphosate; common teasel; Dipsacus fullonum L. DIWSI