Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of parent‐based social media and moderate exercise on the adherence and pulmonary functions among asthmatic children

Our previous study showed Tai‐Chi‐Chuan (TCC) training, a moderate exercise, at school improved pulmonary function and inflammation profiles in children with mild asthma. However, habitual practice is hard to maintain with the lack of continuous family and peer support. We investigated whether parental intervention with social media could enhance children's adherence to exercise at home and improve asthmatic outcome measures. Parents were opted to attend a 12‐week TCC classroom training, supervise home practice, and report to a four‐step web‐based social media platform to stay updated and motivated through logging activity and tracking competition. Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), FEV1/FVC and peak expiratory flow (PEF) were measured before and after 12 weeks of training. Fifty‐three asthmatic children were allocated into non‐TCC (control, n = 12), TCC groups with moderate‐to‐severe (TCC‐S, n = 26) and mild‐to‐moderate (TCC‐M, n = 15) asthma. We found both TCC groups exhibited better pulmonary function than the non‐TCC control. TCC increased FVC in mild‐to‐moderate asthma children while more pronounced improvement in FEV1, FEV1/FVC, PEF and FeNO was noticed in moderate‐to‐severe asthmatic children. All TCC subjects retained greater participation and better interaction online except for low‐ranking families who dramatically dropped their practice 9 weeks later. For asthmatic children, moderate exercise improves pulmonary functions in a severity‐dependent fashion. Parent‐based Learn‐Practice‐Persuade‐Award wheel is a useful platform to motivate children engagement in physical activity. Classical social persuasive skills could enhance general parent‐child relationship but tend to decrease in persuasiveness over time in low‐ranking families.
Frequency of the TREM2 R47H Variant in Various Neurodegenerative Disorders

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Objective: A rare variant in TREM2 (p.R47H, rs75932628) has been consistently reported to increase the risk for Alzheimer disease (AD), while mixed evidence has been reported for association of the variant with other neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we investigated the frequency of the R47H variant in a diverse and well-characterized multicenter neurodegenerative disease cohort. Methods: We examined the frequency of the R47H variant in a diverse neurodegenerative disease cohort, including a total of 3058 patients clinically diagnosed with AD, frontotemporal dementia spectrum syndromes, mild cognitive impairment, progressive supranuclear palsy syndrome, corticobasal syndrome, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and 5089 control subjects. Results: We observed a significant association between the R47H variant and AD, while no association was observed with any other neurodegenerative disease included in this study. Conclusions: Our results support the consensus that the R47H variant is significantly associated with AD. However, we did not find evidence for association of the R47H variant with other neurodegenerative diseases.
Orofacial pain and its relationship with oral health-related quality of life and psychological distress in middle-aged women

Abstract Objective: To investigate the relationship between subjective symptoms of orofacial pain and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL), as well as psychological distress in population-based middle-aged women. Material and methods: The two study samples comprised 1059 women, 38 and 50 years old, in representative cross-sectional studies. Women with long-lasting, frequent pain or headaches, related to temporomandibular disorders (TMD), with moderate-to-high estimates were analysed in relation to the non-case group. OHRQoL was measured using the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-5). Psychological distress was measured using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Sense of Coherence (SOC-13). Results: Women with orofacial pain (n = 82, 7.7%) had a significantly higher mean score on the OHIP-5, HADS-A and HADS-D and a lower mean score for SOC-13. In a multivariable logistic regression, orofacial pain was statistically significantly associated with poorer OHRQoL (OR = 1.2) and signs of depression (HADS-D) (OR = 2.0). A higher score for SOC-13 protected from the experience of orofacial pain (OR = 0.95). Conclusion: Orofacial pain was associated with poorer OHRQoL and signs of psychological distress. In interpreting the value of SOC, women with orofacial pain also appear to have a poorer adaptive capacity.
Red Sea corals under Artificial Light Pollution at Night (ALAN) undergo oxidative stress and photosynthetic impairment

Coral reefs represent the most diverse marine ecosystem on the planet, yet they are undergoing an unprecedented decline due to a combination of increasing global and local stressors. Despite the wealth of research investigating these stressors, Artificial Light Pollution at Night (ALAN) or “ecological light pollution” represents an emerging threat that has received little attention in the context of coral reefs, despite the potential of disrupting the chronobiology, physiology, behavior, and other biological processes of coral reef organisms. Scleractinian corals, the framework builders of coral reefs, depend on lunar illumination cues to synchronize their biological rhythms such as behavior, reproduction and physiology. While, light pollution (POL) may mask and lead de‐synchronization of these biological rhythms process. To reveal if ALAN impacts coral physiology, we have studied two coral species, Acropora eurystoma and Pocillopora damicornis, from the Gulf of Eilat/Aqaba, Red Sea, which is undergoing urban development that has led to severe POL at night. Our two experimental design data revealed that corals exposed to ALAN face an oxidative stress condition, show lower photosynthesis performances measured by electron transport rate (ETR), as well as changes in chlorophyll and algae density parameters. Testing different lights such as Blue LED and White LED spectrum showed more extreme impact in comparison to Yellow LEDs on coral physiology. The finding of this work sheds light on the emerging threat of POL and the impacts on the biology and ecology of Scleractinian corals, and will help to formulate specific management implementations to mitigate its potentially harmful impacts.
What Has Been the Focus of Sugarcane Research? A Bibliometric Overview

Sugarcane is one of the main crops worldwide, and it has an important impact on environmental issues. A bibliometric mapping analysis of the research on sugarcane was carried out, using data on the titles, abstracts, and keywords of articles published in leading journals and other peer-reviewed documents available in the SCOPUS database from 1858 to 2019 (27 August), and this was subsequently analyzed with the software VOSviewer. The three most important countries that publish research and were most-cited regarding sugarcane were Brazil, the USA, and India. The analysis of the co-occurrence of terms shows that the main research areas were sugarcane bagasse and terms related to bioenergy, and on a second level of relevance agronomy topics related to increasing crop yields. This first attempt to visualize the abundance of publications regarding sugarcane in their totality is in itself a good starting point for further scientific discussion.
Cavoportal Hemitransposition in Liver Transplantation: Toward a More Safe and Efficient Technique

Extended splanchnic venous thrombosis represents a challenge for the liver transplantation (LT) surgeon. In the absence of large venous tributaries, the cavoportal hemitransposition (CPHTr) and the combined liver‐intestinal or multivisceral transplantation are the only technical solutions. Because of the reported high morbidity and mortality rates due to infrequent use and a lack of standardization, the former technique has been almost abandoned by the transplant community. A newly designed technique of CPHTr is presented that is based on the combination of an inferior vena cava (IVC)–sparing hepatectomy and large laterolateral cavocaval and end‐to‐side cavoportal anastomoses separated only by a double vascular stapler line. This technique allows the splanchnic blood to be completely diverted toward the allograft and to eliminate low‐flow IVC areas, which possibly lead to complications. The modified CPHTr technique proposed here offers a valuable alternative to much more complex and invasive intestinal transplantation procedures.
Inhalation of titanium dioxide (P25) nanoparticles to rats and changes in surfactant protein (SP-D) levels in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and serum

Abstract Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles are typical and widely used nanomaterials, and there are many studies on the inflammatory responses induced by their inhalation. In this study, we conducted a 4-week inhalation exposure study of aerosolized TiO2> nanoparticles (P25) to male Wistar rats. The mean aerosol concentration measured at each day was 4.1 mg/m3 by dry powder dispersion of TiO2 nanoparticles. Control and exposure groups of rats were killed at 3 and 30 days after the termination of exposure, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and serum were collected for analysis of total cell count, neutrophil count, and surfactant protein (SP-D) in BALF and SP-D in serum, as well as other serum biomarkers. SP-D is a component of lung surfactants produced in type II alveolar epithelial cells and Clara cells and secreted into the alveolar space and blood. The neutrophil count in the BALF was significantly elevated at 3 and 30 days. The levels of SP-D in the BALF were also elevated at 3 and 30 days, while the serum SP-D levels were elevated at 3 days only. We determined the amounts of TiO2 in the rat lungs in the exposure group at 3, 30, and 73 days to analyze the lung deposition fraction (10.2%) and the biological half-life time (72.4 days) of inhaled TiO2 nanoparticles. Histopathological analysis revealed mild pulmonary inflammation in lung tissue at 3 days. Serum SP-D was found to be a potential biomarker for exposure to TiO2 nanoparticles in this study.
Scalable Production of Monodisperse Functional Microspheres by Multilayer Parallelization of High Aspect Ratio Microfluidic Channels

Droplet microfluidics enables the generation of highly uniform emulsions with excellent stability, precise control over droplet volume, and morphology, which offer superior platforms over conventional technologies for material synthesis and biological assays. However, it remains a challenge to scale up the production of the microfluidic devices due to their complicated geometry and long-term reliability. In this study, we present a high-throughput droplet generator by parallelization of high aspect ratio rectangular structures, which enables facile and scalable generation of uniform droplets without the need to precisely control external flow conditions. A multilayer device is formed by stacking layer-by-layer of the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) replica patterned with parallelized generators. By feeding the sample fluid into the device immersed in the carrying fluid, we used the multilayer device with 1200 parallelized generators to generate monodisperse droplets (~45 μm in diameter with a coefficient of variation <3%) at a frequency of 25 kHz. We demonstrate this approach is versatile for a wide range of materials by synthesis of polyacrylamide hydrogel and Poly (l-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) through water-in-oil (W/O) and oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion templates, respectively. The combined scalability and robustness of such droplet emulsion technology is promising for production of monodisperse functional materials for large-scale applications.
Effects of Vitamin D Deficiency on Proliferation and Autophagy of Ovarian and Liver Tissues in a Rat Model of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Aim: We aimed to examine the alterations of the insulin signaling pathway, autophagy, nitrative stress and the effect of vitamin D supplementation in the liver and ovaries of vitamin D deficient hyperandrogenic rats. Methods: Female Wistar rats received eight weeks of transdermal testosterone treatment and lived on a low vitamin D diet (D–T+). Vitamin D supplementation was achieved by oral administration of vitamin D3 (D+T+). Sham-treated (D+T–) and vitamin D deficient animals (D–T–) served as controls. (N = 10–12 per group). Results: D–T+ animals showed decreased LC3 II levels in the liver and increased p-Akt/Akt and p-eNOS/eNOS ratios with decreased insulin receptor staining in the ovaries. Vitamin D supplementation prevented the increase of Akt phosphorylation in the ovaries. Vitamin D deficiency itself also led to decreased LC3 II levels in the liver and decreased insulin receptor staining in the ovaries. D–T+ group showed no increase in nitrotyrosine staining; however, the ovaries of D–T– rats and the liver of D+T+ animals showed increased staining intensity. Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency itself might lead to disrupted ovarian maturation and autophagy malfunction in the liver. Preventing Akt phosphorylation may contribute to the beneficial effect of vitamin D treatment on ovarian function in hyperandrogenism.
[Effect of mindfulness meditation training on anxiety, depression and sleep quality in perimenopausal women].

OBJECTIVE To explore the effect of mindfulness meditation training for improving anxiety, depression and sleep disorders in perimenopausal women. METHODS Intervention by menopause meditation training was delivered in 121 perimenopausal women with anxiety, depression or sleep disorders in Baiyun District, Guangzhou. Before and after the intervention, the Self-rating Anxiety Scale, Self-rating Depression Scale and Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index were used for assessment of changes in the conditions of the women. RESULTS After menopausal meditation training, the perimenopausal women showed significant improvement in the mean scores of Self-rating Anxiety Scale (48.26 ± 6.47; t=3.865, P < 0.01), Selfrating Depression Scale (50.27 ± 6.54; t=4.541, P < 0.01) and Pittsburgh Sleep Questionnaire (10.64 ± 4.38; t=5.596, P < 0.01). The symptom remission rates differed significantly among the women with different self-practice frequencies (P < 0.01). The remission rates of anxiety, depression and sleep disorder increased significantly with the frequency of self-exercise (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS Mindfulness meditation training can effectively alleviate the symptoms of anxiety and depression and improve the quality of sleep in perimenopausal women, and the frequency of the exercise is positively correlated with the improvements. Mindfulness meditation training can be an effective intervention for improving the mental health of perimenopausal women.
Professionalism inside-out: expanding the interface between professionalism and learning

As University-based teacher educators, we are interested in the growing importance of the interface between the professional practices of HE (Higher Education) and non-HE partners in the wider Lifelong Learning sector. While welcoming the opportunity for collaboration, we are critical of many of the assumptions and practices which it risks perpetuating, in particular the focus on standardization and its negative impact on professional practice. Our empirical work with Police Firearms trainers is used to shed a critical light on practices at this interface and to undertake a critical analysis of trends in current discourses of professionalism in this context. Initially, we problematize views of professionalism by suggesting that a “hidden binary” exists in some professional contexts. This binary, we suggest, reinforces an “inside/outside” logic which contributes to a lack of effectiveness in some collaborative contexts. We draw our assertions from our empirical findings and then develop a theoretical analysis of our own attempts to contribute to effective professional practice in this context. Briefly put, our position is that: 1. Professional practice is currently over-regulated in a double sense: it is excessively codified from above and outside by a hierarchy of organizations, and this hierarchy also ensures insufficient contact with the professional practices it claims to regulate. 2. One reason for this is the mechanics of a three-tier implementation scheme: on top, high level policy attempts to instrumentalize professionalism for political gain: at the bottom, low level practices struggle to develop coherence; in between, a “buffer zone” consists of intermediaries which form a necessary but sometimes opaque contact zone between the two. 3. Although necessarily compliant with their image in policy circles, bottom-up practices do not correspond to it, providing examples of expansive learning
Analysis of RF losses and material characterization of samples removed from a Nb3Sn-coated superconducting RF cavity

Nb3Sn (TC ≈ 18 K and HSh ≈ 400 mT) is a prospective material to replace Nb (TC ≈ 9 K and Hsh ≈ 200 mT) in SRF accelerator cavities for significant cost reduction and performance enhancement. Because of its material properties, Nb3Sn is best employed as a thin film (coating) inside an already built RF cavity structure. A particular test cavity noted as C3C4 was a 1.5 GHz single-cell Nb cavity, coated with Nb3Sn using Sn vapor diffusion process at Jefferson Lab. Cold measurements of the coated cavity indicated the superconducting transition temperature of about 18 K. Subsequent RF measurements indicated field-dependent surface resistance both at 4.3 and 2.0 K. After initial cold measurements, the cavity RF loss distribution was studied with a thermometry mapping system. Loss regions were identified with thermometry and were cut out for material analysis. The presence of significantly thin patchy regions and other carbon-rich defects is associated with strong local field-dependent surface resistance. This paper summarizes RF and thermometry results correlated with material science findings.
On the spectral radius and the energy of eccentricity matrix of a graph

The eccentricity matrix $\varepsilon(G)$ of a graph $G$ is obtained from the distance matrix by retaining the eccentricities (the largest distance) in each row and each column. In this paper, we give a characterization of the star graph, among the trees, in terms of invertibility of the associated eccentricity matrix. The largest eigenvalue of $\varepsilon(G)$ is called the $\varepsilon$-spectral radius, and the eccentricity energy (or the $\varepsilon$-energy) of $G$ is the sum of the absolute values of the eigenvalues of $\varepsilon(G)$. We establish some bounds for the $\varepsilon$-spectral radius and characterize the extreme graphs. Two graphs are said to be $\varepsilon$-equienergetic if they have the same $\varepsilon$-energy. For any $n \geq 5$, we construct a pair of $\varepsilon$-equienergetic graphs on $n$ vertices, which are not $\varepsilon$-cospectral.
De-biased Machine Learning for Compliers

Instrumental variable identification is a concept in causal statistics for estimating the counterfactual effect of treatment D on output Y controlling for covariates X using observational data. Even when measurements of (Y,D) are confounded, the treatment effect on the subpopulation of compliers can nonetheless be identified if an instrumental variable Z is available, which is independent of (Y,D) conditional on X and the unmeasured confounder. We introduce a de-biased machine learning (DML) approach to estimating complier parameters with high-dimensional data. Complier parameters include local average treatment effect, average complier characteristics, and complier counterfactual outcome distributions. In our approach, the de-biasing is itself performed by machine learning, a variant called de-biased machine learning via regularized Riesz representers (DML-RRR). We prove our estimator is consistent, asymptotically normal, and semi-parametrically efficient. In experiments, our estimator outperforms state of the art alternatives. We use it to estimate the effect of 401(k) participation on the distribution of net financial assets.
A Photometric Analysis of the Relationship between the UV flux of Type Ia Supernovae and Host-galaxy Metallicity

The effect of progenitor metallicity on Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) has important cosmological implications due to the need for these standardizable candles to be compared across large spans of cosmic time in which the progenitor stars might have different properties. Theoretical models have come to different conclusions as to the wavelength range impacted by metallicity differences, leading to differing interpretations of the growing sample of UV observations. Recent work has claimed a correlation between the mid-UV flux of SNe Ia measured from Swift grism spectra and the gas-phase metallicities measured for their host galaxies. Here we examine UV photometry for the same objects. We find no significant correlations between the UV–optical colors (or UV/optical count rate ratios) of the SNe Ia and the host-galaxy properties of mass or metallicity. The lack of a significant correlation with host-galaxy metallicity implies that a physical difference other than progenitor metallicity dominates the UV flux differences. Understanding the existing observations requires improved theoretical models and a larger parameter space of physical differences.
Detecting Parking Spaces in a Parcel using Satellite Images

Remote Sensing Images from satellites have been used in various domains for detecting and understanding structures on the ground surface. In this work, satellite images were used for localizing parking spaces and vehicles in parking lots for a given parcel using an RCNN based Neural Network Architectures. Parcel shapefiles and raster images from USGS image archive were used for developing images for both training and testing. Feature Pyramid based Mask RCNN yields average class accuracy of 97.56% for both parking spaces and vehicles
Late fusion of deep learning and hand-crafted features for Achilles tendon healing monitoring

Healing process assessment of the Achilles tendon is usually a complex procedure that relies on a combination of biomechanical and medical imaging tests. As a result, diagnostics remains a tedious and long-lasting task. Recently, a novel method for the automatic assessment of tendon healing based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging and deep learning was introduced. The method assesses six parameters related to the treatment progress utilizing a modified pre-trained network, PCA-reduced space, and linear regression. In this paper, we propose to improve this approach by incorporating hand-crafted features. We first perform a feature selection in order to obtain optimal sets of mixed hand-crafted and deep learning predictors. With the use of approx. 20,000 MRI slices, we then train a meta-regression algorithm that performs the tendon healing assessment. Finally, we evaluate the method against scores given by an experienced radiologist. In comparison with the previous baseline method, our approach significantly improves correlation in all of the six parameters assessed. Furthermore, our method uses only one MRI protocol and saves up to 60\% of the time needed for data acquisition.
Optimal choice of $k$ for $k$-nearest neighbor regression

The $k$-nearest neighbor algorithm ($k$-NN) is a widely used non-parametric method for classification and regression. We study the mean squared error of the $k$-NN estimator when $k$ is chosen by leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV). Although it was known that this choice of $k$ is asymptotically consistent, it was not known previously that it is an optimal $k$. We show, with high probability, the mean squared error of this estimator is close to the minimum mean squared error using the $k$-NN estimate, where the minimum is over all choices of $k$.