Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
All Stressors Are Not Equal: The Salience of Racial Discrimination and Appraisal for Blood Pressure in African American Women

ABSTRACT Objective Psychosocial stress is a major predictor of chronic disease among African American (AA) women. Stress is a process involving exposure, appraisal of threat, coping, and psychobiologic adaptation. However, many studies focus on the frequency of stress events and/or coping; few explicitly study stress events and their appraisals; and AA women experience high levels of racial discrimination, a well-known form of social identity threat (i.e., negative experiences due to judgment based on identity). Stressors related to social identity threat may be differentially appraised and associated with divergent physiologic outcomes. This study examined the differences in the frequency and stressfulness associated with general stressors and racial discrimination in relation to blood pressure (BP) among AA women. Methods Multivariable regression was used on cross-sectional data from 208 middle-aged AA women residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. Results AA women reported less frequency of racial discrimination compared with general stressors, but were more likely to appraise racial discrimination events as stressful. Racial discrimination stressfulness was more strongly associated with systolic BP (SBP) than the number of racial discrimination events. There was a U-shaped association between racial discrimination stress and SBP, with those reporting “none” and “high/very high” distress having the highest SBP (b = 12.2 [2.7 to 21.8] and b = 15.7 [1.5–29.8], respectively, versus moderate stress). Conversely, those reporting “very low” general stressfulness had the lowest SBP (b = −7.9 [−15.8 to −0.1], versus moderate stress). Diastolic BP followed a similar pattern, although results were nonsignificant. Conclusions This study highlights the importance of stress appraisal measures and adds to the body of evidence documenting racial discrimination as a salient psychosocial stressor for AA women.
Unsaturated flow in spatially variable fields: 1. Derivation of models of infiltration and redistribution

Models of water flow in the upper soil layer of spatially variable fields are developed. Field variability is assumed to take place in the horizontal plane. The saturated hydraulic conductivity is assumed to be a random variable of lognormal distribution, and head suction and moisture content are related to it by simple analytical relationships. The aim of the study is to derive the expectation and variances of the moisture content, suction heads, hydraulic conductivity, and water flux as functions of depth and time for infiltration and redistribution. Toward this aim a simplified solution of vertical flow in a homogeneous column, based on the concept of moving front, is developed. The statistical procedure for using this solution in a spatially variable field is outlined.
A dislocation model of strain accumulation and release at a subduction zone

Strain accumulation and release at a subduction zone are attributed to stick slip on the main thrust zone and steady aseismic slip on the remainder of the plate interface. This process can be described as a superposition of steady state subduction and a repetitive cycle of slip on the main thrust zone, consisting of steady normal slip at the plate convergence rate plus occasional thrust events that recover the accumulated normal slip. Because steady state subduction does not contribute to the deformation at the free surface, deformation observed there is completely equivalent to that produced by the slip cycle alone. The response to that slip is simply the response of a particular earth model to embedded dislocations. For a purely elastic earth model, the deformation cycle consists of a coseismic offset followed by a linear-in-time recovery to the initial value during the interval between earthquakes. For an elastic-viscoelastic earth model (elastic lithosphere over a viscoelastic asthenosphere), the postearthquake recovery is not linear in time. Records of local uplift as a function of time indicate that the long-term postseimic recovery is approximately linear, suggesting that elastic earth models are adequate to describe the deformation cycle. However, the deformation predicted for amore » simple elastic half-space earth does not reproduce the deformation observed along the subduction zones in Japna at all well if stick slip is restricted to the main thrust zone. As recognized earlier by Shimazaki, Seno, and Kato, the uplift profiles could be explained if stick slips were postulated to extend along the plate interface beyond the main thrust zone to a depth of perhaps 100 km, but independent evidence suggests that stick slip at such depths if unlikely. « less
Is the current flood of data enough? A treatise on research needs for the improvement of flood modelling

Flood disasters account for more than 40% of all natural hazardsworldwide and about half of all deaths caused by natural catastrophes(Ohl and Tapsell, 2000). For instance, in 2010, according to theEmergency Events Database (EM-DAT, 2011) floods were responsible forthe loss of more than 8000 human lives and affected about 180 millionpeople. The catastrophic floods in Pakistan and Australia are the mostrecent examples of a worldwide increasing human exposure to flood risk.Figure 1 reports the number of fatalities caused by floods in Africa inthe period 1950–2009 (EM-DAT, 2011). The diagram shows that the number of flood fatalities in Africa hasdramatically increased by more than an order of magnitude in the last60 years (Figure 1). These dramatic figures indicate a need for urgentactions to decrease these staggering numbers (Di Baldassarreet al.,2010a). The flood risk is likely to grow further because of many factors,such as changing demographics, land use changes, climate variabilityand change, technological and socio-economic conditions, industrialdevelopment, urban expansion and infrastructure construction in flood-prone areas as well as unplanned human settlement in floodplains(UN-ISDR Scientific and Technical Committee, 2009). To mitigate thecontinuously increasing flood risk the currently proposed approach isintegrated flood management (more towards ‘living with floods’) that hasreplaced the more traditional flood defense approach (‘fighting floods’). This approach aims to minimize the human, economic and ecologicallosses from extreme floods while at the same time maximising the social,economic and ecological benefits of ordinary floods (e.g. UNESCO-IFI:International Flood Initiative). In this context, the aim of this commentary is twofold. First, to criti-cally discuss the current opportunities for improving flood modelling,which are offered by the increased availability of new data sources,such as the utilisation of remote sensing data of higher resolution andthe increasing availability of globally and freely accessible space-bornedata. Second, to discuss knowledge gaps and research needs to fullyand properly exploit this current ‘flood of data’ (Lincoln, 2007) andimprove flood modelling. This leads to the proposed elements of a futureresearch agenda to support the scientific basis of integrated flood management.
Unveiling of incubation and absorption-enhanced effects occurring during multi-shot femtosecond laser ablation of aluminum and steel surfaces

Interactions between ultrafast lasers and metal targets are crucial in various laser micro/nano-machinings. However, the underlying incubation and absorption-enhancement mechanisms remain elusive, which hinders the quality control of laser processing. Herein, we studied the incubation effect and absorption enhancement during multi-shot femtosecond-laser ablations via combining experiments and hydrodynamic simulations, taking aluminum alloy and stainless steels as paradigm materials. Accumulation effects of heat and damage-induced deformation were revealed by the evolutions of microstructures induced by low-energy femtosecond lasers. The calculated ablation thresholds were reduced with shot number, demonstrating the incubation effect. Calculation of threshold fluence via crater diameter is better than ablation depth, because that the latter is determined by different parameters at low- and high-energy conditions. Experimental observations and hydrodynamic simulations indicated that the enhanced absorption could be attributed to several factors, including laser-induced surface micro/sub-micro structures, photoionization, and plasma evolutions.
Back acupoint location method based on prior information and deep learning

Acupuncture points have a positive effect on the auxiliary prevention and treatment of diseases, so medical devices such as acupuncture robots often need to combine acupuncture points to improve the treatment effect when working, however, intelligent acupoint selection technology is not yet mature, the automatic rapid and accurate positioning of acupoints is still challenging. Therefore, this paper proposes a method of back acupoint location and an evaluation index of acupoint location. First, we propose an improved Keypoint RCNN network for the preliminary location of back acupoints and introduce a channel and spatial attention mechanism module (CBAM) to improve the performance of the model. Then, we set up a posterior median line positioning method to improve the accuracy of acupoint positioning. Finally, expand and locate other acupoints according to the prior information of acupoints. According to the experimental results, the accuracy of acupoint positioning was 87.32%. After the correction of acupoint positioning, the accuracy was increased by 2.8%, which was 90.12%. In this paper, the application of depth learning in automatic location of back acupoints is realized for the first time. Only one image can be used to locate the back acupoints, with an accuracy of 90.12%.
A pilot study of stereotactic body radiotherapy combined with pelvic radiotherapy and GTVp boost based on multiparameter magnetic resonance image in patients with high-risk prostate cancer

This pilot study aimed to explore the preliminary effects and safety of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) combined with preventive pelvic radiotherapy and primary gross tumor volumes (GTVp) boost in patients with high-risk prostate cancer based on multiparameter magnetic resonance image (mpMRI). Tumors were contoured as GTVp based on mpMRI. The prostate and proximal seminal vesicles were considered as the clinical target volume1. The pelvic lymphatic drainage area constituted clinical target volume 2. Radiation doses were 40Gy or 45Gy/5fractions to planning target volume of primary tumor, 37.5Gy/5f to prostate, seminal vesicle, and positive pelvic lymph nodes, and 25Gy/5f to pelvic synchronously. The treatment was delivered 3 times per week. Volumetric modulated arc radiotherapy and intensity-modulated radiotherapy were used to complete SBRT. The genitourinary (GU) and gastrointestinal (GI) toxicities were evaluated. Quality of life data was also captured. A total of 15 patients were enrolled in this study with a median age of 78 (56–87) from 2017 to 2020. All patients received SBRT. At 3 months after radiotherapy, the proportion of PSA < 0.006 ng/mL was 66.7% (10/15). The 2-year biochemical relapse-free survival was 93.3%. The incidence of grade 1 acute GU side effects was 80% (12/15); the incidence of acute grade 1 GI toxicity was 66.7% (10/15); and no grade 2 or higher acute GU and GI side effects was observed. Two patients presented with temporary late grade 2 GI toxicity. International Prostatic System Score increased rapidly after a transient increase at 1 week (P = .001). There were no significant differences in EORTC quality of life scores in all domains except global health status. In this pilot study, it was revealed that SBRT combined with preventive pelvic radiotherapy and GTVp boost based on mpMRI image was effective and well tolerated for patients with high-risk prostate cancer.
Anatomical Connectivity of the Intercalated Cells of the Amygdala

Abstract The intercalated cells of the amygdala (ITCs) are a fundamental processing structure in the amygdala that remain relatively understudied. They are phylogenetically conserved from insectivores through primates, inhibitory, and project to several of the main processing and output stations of the amygdala and basal forebrain. Through these connections, the ITCs are best known for their role in conditioned fear, where they are required for fear extinction learning and recall. Prior work on ITC connectivity is limited, and thus holistic characterization of their afferent and efferent connectivity in a genetically defined manner is incomplete. The ITCs express the FoxP2 transcription factor, affording genetic access to these neurons for viral input-output mapping. To fully characterize the anatomic connectivity of the ITCs, we used cre-dependent viral strategies in FoxP2-cre mice to reveal the projections of the main (mITC), caudal (cITC), and lateral (lITC) clusters along with their presynaptic sources of innervation. Broadly, the results confirm many known pathways, reveal previously unknown ones, and demonstrate important novel insights about each nucleus’s unique connectivity profile and relative distributions. We show that the ITCs receive information from a wide range of cortical, subcortical, basal, amygdalar, hippocampal, and thalamic structures, and project broadly to areas of the basal forebrain, hypothalamus, and entire extent of the amygdala. The results provide a comprehensive map of their connectivity and suggest that the ITCs could potentially influence a broad range of behaviors by integrating information from a wide array of sources throughout the brain.
A “sufficient” condition combination for rapid intensifications of tropical cyclones

Rapid Intensifications (RI) of tropical cyclones (TCs) provide major error sources in the challenging task of TC intensity forecasting. There are many factors that affect the RI processes of TCs, and identifying the combination of conditions most favorable to RI development is very time consuming when using traditional statistical data analysis methods. Data mining techniques are implemented to the data for SHIPS (Statistical Hurricane Intensity Prediction Scheme), an operational hurricane intensity forecasting model, to identify the “optimal” RI condition combinations when the number of affecting factors is given. One such combination (high latitude, low longitude, the TC being in an intensification phase, an initial intensity far away from the maximum potential intensity, high steering layer value, and low relative eddy flux convergence) gives such a high RI probability that the combination can be considered as a sufficient condition for RI, which almost guarantees that an RI will take place.
Chinese mini percutaneous nephrolithotomy for upper urinary calculi under local infiltration anesthesia

Percutaneous nephrolithotomy is generally performed under general or regional anesthesia; however, it is rarely performed under local infiltration anesthesia (LIA). This study aimed to assess the safety and effectiveness of Chinese mini percutaneous nephrolithotomy (MPCNL) for upper urinary calculi under LIA. A retrospective analysis of 52 patients with upper urinary stones who underwent MPCNL under LIA from April 2019 to May 2022 was performed. Pethidine and Phenergan were intramuscularly injected 30 minutes preoperatively. Oxybuprocaine hydrochloride gel was applied to the urethra for lubricating and mucosal anesthesia. Ropivacaine hydrochloride and lidocaine were injected into the whole percutaneous channel for local anesthesia. An 8/9.8F ureteroscope and an 18F vacuum-assisted access sheath were applied in MPCNL. All 52 patients tolerated procedures and underwent operations successfully; none of them converted the anesthesia method or required additional analgesia. The mean visual analogue scale scores intraoperatively and at 6 hours, 24 hours, and 48 hours after surgery were 3.25 ± 0.52, 3.13 ± 0.69, 2.25 ± 0.56, and 1.58 ± 0.50, respectively. The stone free rate was 84.6%. Complications were seen in 6 (11.5%) patients, including fever in 2 patients (Clavien I), renal colic in 1 patient (Clavien I), clinically insignificant bleeding in 2 patients (Clavien I), and urinary tract infection in 1 patient (Clavien II). No severe complications were observed in any patients. Chinese MPCNL under LIA was a feasible option and achieved good outcomes in appropriately selected patients, and it may become the routine procedure for general patients.
Cleft palate and minor metabolic disturbances in a mouse global Arl15 gene knockout

ARL15, a small GTPase protein, was linked to metabolic traits in association studies. We aimed to test the Arl15 gene as a functional candidate for metabolic traits in the mouse. CRISPR/Cas9 germline knockout (KO) of Arl15 showed that homozygotes were postnatal lethal and exhibited a complete cleft palate (CP). Also, decreased cell migration was observed from Arl15 KO mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs). Metabolic phenotyping of heterozygotes showed that females had reduced fat mass on a chow diet from 14 weeks of age. Mild body composition phenotypes were also observed in heterozygous mice on a high‐fat diet (HFD)/low‐fat diet (LFD). Females on a HFD showed reduced body weight, gonadal fat depot weight and brown adipose tissue (BAT) weight. In contrast, in the LFD group, females showed increased bone mineral density (BMD), while males showed a trend toward reduced BMD. Clinical biochemistry analysis of plasma on HFD showed transient lower adiponectin at 20 weeks of age in females. Urinary and plasma Mg2+ concentrations were not significantly different. Our phenotyping data showed that Arl15 is essential for craniofacial development. Adult metabolic phenotyping revealed potential roles in brown adipose tissue and bone development.
Revised Chronology of the Sulmona Lacustrine Succession, Central Italy

We present new stratigraphic, palaeomagnetic, 87Sr/86Sr and 40Ar/39Ar data from a lacustrine succession of the Sulmona basin, central Italy, which, according to an early study, included six unconformity‐bounded lacustrine units (from SUL6, oldest, to SUL1, youngest) spanning the interval >600 to 2 ka. The results of the present study, on the one hand confirm some of the previous conclusions, but by contrast reveal that units SUL2 and SUL1, previously attributed to the Holocene, are actually equivalent to the older SUL6 and SUL5 units – here dated to ∼814–>530 ka and ∼530–<457 ka, respectively – and that the U‐series dates previously published for both former SUL2 and SUL1 units yielded abnormally young ages. In light of the present results, a reassessment of the chronology of the Sulmona basin succession and a revision of the tephrostratigraphy of the SUL2/SUL6 and SUL1/SUL5 units is in order. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Epigenetic dynamics during capacitation of naïve human pluripotent stem cells

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) are of fundamental relevance in regenerative medicine. Naïve hPSCs hold promise to overcome some of the limitations of conventional (primed) hPSCs, including recurrent epigenetic anomalies. Naïve-to-primed transition (capacitation) follows transcriptional dynamics of human embryonic epiblast and is necessary for somatic differentiation from naïve hPSCs. We found that capacitated hPSCs are transcriptionally closer to postimplantation epiblast than conventional hPSCs. This prompted us to comprehensively study epigenetic and related transcriptional changes during capacitation. Our results show that CpG islands, gene regulatory elements, and retrotransposons are hotspots of epigenetic dynamics during capacitation and indicate possible distinct roles of specific epigenetic modifications in gene expression control between naïve and primed hPSCs. Unexpectedly, PRC2 activity appeared to be dispensable for the capacitation. We find that capacitated hPSCs acquire an epigenetic state similar to conventional hPSCs. Significantly, however, the X chromosome erosion frequently observed in conventional female hPSCs is reversed by resetting and subsequent capacitation.
Hyperlipidemia in children and adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukemia: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

The established association between acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and hyperlipidemia has, in some studies, been linked to toxicities such as pancreatitis, thrombosis, and osteonecrosis. However, a systematic review investigating the incidence, management, and clinical implications of hyperlipidemia during childhood ALL treatment is lacking.
Locomotion performance of an axisymmetric ‘flapping fin’

Inspired by the jet-propulsion mechanism of aquatic creatures such as sea salps, a novel locomotion system based on an axisymmetric body design is proposed. This system consists of an empty tube with two ends open. When the diameters of the front and back openings are changed periodically, the forward-backward symmetry is broken so that the system starts swimming. Viewed within a cross section, this system resembles a two-dimensional flapping fin with its leading edge located at the front opening and the trailing edge at the back opening. The feasibility of this system has been proven via numerical simulations using a fluid-structure interaction model based on the immersed-boundary framework. According to the results, at relatively low Reynolds number (O(102)), this simple locomotion method can easily achieve a mean swimming speed of 2 to 3 body lengths per deformation period. Further simulations illustrate the following characteristics: (1) within the chamber, the hydrodynamic interactions among different parts of the body leads to a performance-enhancing mechanism similar to the ground effect; (2) reducing the diameter of the body can strengthen this effect so that both the swimming speed and the energy efficiency are improved; (3) for better performance the amplitude of diameter oscillation at the trailing edge should be larger or at least equal to the one at the leading edge.
Cross-dataset transfer learning for motor imagery signal classification via multi-task learning and pre-training

Objective. Deep learning (DL) models have been proven to be effective in decoding motor imagery (MI) signals in Electroencephalogram (EEG) data. However, DL models’ success relies heavily on large amounts of training data, whereas EEG data collection is laborious and time-consuming. Recently, cross-dataset transfer learning has emerged as a promising approach to meet the data requirements of DL models. Nevertheless, transferring knowledge across datasets involving different MI tasks remains a significant challenge in cross-dataset transfer learning, limiting the full utilization of valuable data resources. Approach: This study proposes a pre-training-based cross-dataset transfer learning method inspired by Hard Parameter Sharing in multi-task learning. Different datasets with distinct MI paradigms are considered as different tasks, classified with shared feature extraction layers and individual task-specific layers to allow cross-dataset classification with one unified model. Then, Pre-training and fine-tuning are employed to transfer knowledge across datasets. We also designed four fine-tuning schemes and conducted extensive experiments on them. Main results: The results showed that compared to models without pre-training, models with pre-training achieved a maximum increase in accuracy of 7.76%. Moreover, when limited training data were available, the pre-training method significantly improved DL model’s accuracy by 27.34% at most. The experiments also revealed that pre-trained models exhibit faster convergence and remarkable robustness. The training time per subject could be reduced by up to 102.83 s, and the variance of classification accuracy decreased by 75.22% at best. Significance: This study represents the first comprehensive investigation of the cross-dataset transfer learning method between two datasets with different MI tasks. The proposed pre-training method requires only minimal fine-tuning data when applying DL models to new MI paradigms, making MI-Brain–computer interface more practical and user-friendly.