Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Changes in lung cancer-related serum tumor markers in patients with chronic kidney disease and determination of upper reference limit

Aims To investigate the changes in lung cancer-related serum tumor markers in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and determine the upper reference limit for patients with different stages. Methods Included inpatients diagnosed with CKD who did not receive dialysis temporarily in our hospital from March to September 2020. Changes in serum CA125, HE4, CYFRA21-1, SCCA, NSE and ProGRP in CKD patients were analyzed. The non-parametric method was used to estimate the upper reference limit of the above indicators in patients with CKD stages 2-5. Results The serum levels of HE4, CYFRA21-1, SCCA, and ProGRP in the CKD group were significantly higher than those in the healthy control group; CA125 and NSE levels were not statistically different. The false positives of SCC, CYFRA21-1, ProGRP, and HE4 increased significantly with the CKD stage. Still, NSE and CA125 did not show a significant increasing trend. Both HE4 and ProGRP have independent upper reference limits from CKD2 to CKD5 stage, namely 220.8 pmol/l and 101.4 pg/ml in the CKD2 stage, 496.7 pmol/l and 168.63 pg/ml in CKD3 stage, 4592.4 pmol/l and 272.8 pmol/l for CKD4 stage, CKD5 stage was 4778.2 pmol/l and 491.6 pmol/l. Conclusion This study preliminarily determined the upper reference limits of Lung cancer-related tumor markers in patients with different CKD stages and provided laboratory support for the rational use and interpretation of Lung cancer-related tumor markers in special populations.
Integrated single-cell and bulk RNA sequencing analyses reveal a prognostic signature of cancer-associated fibroblasts in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Objectives: To identify a prognosis-related subtype of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and comprehend its contributions to molecular characteristics, immune characteristics, and their potential benefits in immunotherapy and chemotherapy for HNSCC. Materials and Methods: We performed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis of CAFs from the samples of HNSCC patients derived from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), to identify the prognosis-related subtype of CAFs. CAFs were clustered into five subtypes, and a prognosis-related subtype was identified. Univariate and multivariate cox regression analyses were performed on the cohort selected from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to determine signature construction, which was validated in GSE65858 and GSE42743. A prognostic signature based on 4 genes was constructed, which were derived from prognosis-related CAFs. The molecular characteristics, immune characteristics as well as the predicted chemosensitivity and immunotherapeutic response in the signature-defined subgroups were analyzed subsequently. Results: The patients with higher CAF scores correlated with poor survival outcomes. Additionally, a high CAF score correlated with lower infiltration levels of many immune cells including M1 macrophages, CD8+ T cells, follicular T helper cells, monocytes, and naïve B cells. High CAF score also demonstrated different enrichment pathways, mutation genes and copy number variated genes. Furthermore, patients with high CAF scores showed lower sensitivity for chemotherapy and immunotherapy than those with low CAF scores. Conclusion: The results of our study indicate the potential of the CAF signature as a biomarker for the prognosis of HNSCC patients. Furthermore, the signature could be a prospective therapeutic target in HNSCC.
Role of the right anterior insula for the emergence of flow—A combined task-based fMRI activation and connectivity study

The emergence of flow is a situation of high salience because externally oriented attention on the task and access to resources for goal-directed behavior are enhanced, while internally oriented or self-related cognition is decreased. The right anterior insula has been reported as a causal out-flow hub of the salience resting-state network, orchestrating the engagement of the central executive network (CEN) and the disengagement of the default-mode network (DMN) during a functional challenge. In the present study, we employed a combined task-based activation and connectivity analysis to investigate the role of the right anterior insula during the emergence of flow. A sample of 41 healthy male subjects was confronted with a functional challenge that permitted the emergence of flow during BOLD-based functional magnetic resonance imaging. Comparing connectivity changes in the right anterior insula during the flow condition against connectivity changes associated with control conditions of boredom and overload, relatively increased couplings were observed with the left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Activation data for these regions did, however, not show the flow-typical inverted U-shaped (invU) response pattern. Relatively decreased functional couplings encompassed ventral aspects of the striatum, but neither the amygdala nor the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). For the ventral striatum, activation data were consistent with the flow-typical U-shaped activation pattern, which supports the notion that under the high salience of autotelic situations, the anterior insula is much less positively coupled with the ventral striatum than under boundary conditions of boredom and overload. Taken together, present functional connectivity results were in alignment with the assumed role of the right anterior insula under conditions of different salience. However, this particular region does not appear to mediate the most typical flow-associated activation patterns.
Spillover effect of workplace democracy: A conceptual revision

The so-called “spillover thesis” by Pateman is one of the prominent theoretical explanations for why workplace-based participation and democracy could induce stronger political participation. By this thesis, Pateman underscored the relevance of industrial workplaces as relevant places where citizens can be socialized regarding democratic attitudes while proposing the educative effect of workplace democracy and assuming a strong linkage between workplace-based and political participation as moderated by self-efficacy. The spillover thesis has received a controversial consideration as previous empirical studies have provided inconsistent evidence. Some empirical undertakings support the assumption by Pateman and indicate a positive relationship between workplace democracy and societal effects, like increased moral and community orientation or higher levels of political participation among employees from companies with higher degrees of workplace democracy. Other empirical studies yield results that do not confirm the thesis. Scholars have discussed method-based shortcomings of the previous empirical research while pointing to the inconsistency of definitions and operationalizations as the main shortcoming. In contrast to that, systematic conceptual consideration of the spillover thesis and the accompanying scholarship are still lacking. The present article addresses this shortcoming and provides a critical reflection on the spillover thesis and corresponding research. It aims at identifying the main conceptual shortcomings and providing avenues for future theoretical undertakings in analyzing whether and how participation at the workplace is related to participation in political domains.
Vaginal neutrophil infiltration is contingent on ovarian cycle phase and independent of pathogen infection

The mucosa of the female reproductive tract must reconcile the presence of commensal microbiota and the transit of exogenous spermatozoa with the elimination of sexually transmitted pathogens. In the vagina, neutrophils are the principal cellular arm of innate immunity and constitute the first line of protection in response to infections or injury. Neutrophils are absent from the vaginal lumen during the ovulatory phase, probably to allow sperm to fertilize; however, the mechanisms that regulate neutrophil influx to the vagina in response to aggressions remain controversial. We have used mouse inseminations and infections of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Candida albicans, Trichomonas vaginalis, and HSV-2 models. We demonstrate that neutrophil infiltration of the vaginal mucosa is distinctively contingent on the ovarian cycle phase and independent of the sperm and pathogen challenge, probably to prevent sperm from being attacked by neutrophils. Neutrophils extravasation is a multi-step cascade of events, which includes their adhesion through selectins (E, P and L) and integrins of the endothelial cells. We have discovered that cervical endothelial cells expressed selectin-E (SELE, CD62E) to favor neutrophils recruitment and estradiol down-regulated SELE expression during ovulation, which impaired neutrophil transendothelial migration and orchestrated sperm tolerance. Progesterone up-regulated SELE to restore surveillance after ovulation. Graphical Abstract (A) Neutrophils infiltrate tissues following circadian rhythms as part of normal repair, as microbiota regulation or as immune-surveillance in the absence of inflammatory stimuli. (B) Some tissue infiltration is independent of circadian rhythms like intestine, liver and white adipose tissue. However, inflammatory signals up-regulate neutrophil extravasation in the tissues. Cervical tissue mediates an exceptionally high and continuous neutrophil infiltration in absence of inflammatory stimuli (diestrus 2 to 4 days) to maintain constant neutrophil immune-surveillance and control of commensal microbiota balance. However, during proestrus (12 to 20h) and ovulation (12 to 20h dark period), estradiol (C) induces neutrophil withdraw from the vaginal mucosa (D) defense to favor reproduction at the cost of a potential impact in the onset of STIs. Surprisingly, vaginal challenges do not induce increase neutrophil infiltration neither during the high number of neutrophil (metestrus) nor the low neutrophil (estrus) content stages in the vaginal lumen.
Pulse Oximetry in the Physics Lab: A Colorful Alternative to Traditional Optics Curricula.

We designed a physics laboratory exercise around pulse oximetry, a noninvasive medical technique used to assess a patient's blood oxygen saturation. An alternative to a traditional optics and light lab, this exercise teaches the principles of light absorption, spectroscopy, and the properties of light, while simultaneously studying a common medical device. Pulse oximeters are ubiquitous in clinical environments; many people who have undergone surgery or visited a hospital environment have experienced the use of this device, making it a good candidate for an investigative lab. The experiment elicits the creative process of device development from students as they conduct measurements using a blood analog that reconstructs the principles of pulse oximetry.
On the relationship between perception and production of American English vowels by native speakers of Japanese: A pair of case studies

In a previous study, 15 American English (AE) vowels in /hVd/ words recorded by native speakers of Japanese (J) were presented in pairs to native speakers of AE. From these data, native‐perceived vowel spaces of J‐accented AE were obtained (Nishi, 2001). In the present study, two male native speakers of Japanese who had served as speakers in the previous study listened to the 15 AE vowels produced by two male native speakers of AE in a similarity rating task. Their perceptual data were analyzed using multidimensional scaling. J‐perceived vowel spaces of AE vowels produced by AE speakers were compared to AE‐perceived vowel spaces of J‐produced AE vowels. Vowels produced by both AE and J speakers were also subjected to acoustic analysis. The acoustic vowel spaces obtained were then compared to the AE and J perceptual vowel spaces. Results revealed considerable differences between the two J speakers in terms of their perception of AE vowels. These differences were found to be strongly correlated with the spe.
Meridional heat transport by the atmosphere and the ocean: analysis of FGGE data

The annual mean meridional heat transport by the atmosphere is evaluated by using FGGE (First GARP Global Experiment) level IIIb data. The transport by the atmosphere-ocean system is estimated using satellite radiation observations from the Nimbus 7 ERB (Earth Radiation Budget) experiment. The annual mean transport by the ocean is obtained as the difference between the two values. The latitudinal distribution of transport by the total system exhibits good symmetry between the two hemispheres, with maximum poleward transport of 5.9 times 10 15 W around 35° latitude N and S. Atmospheric and oceanic contributions to the transport exhibit large differences between the two hemispheres. In particular, in the subtropics of the northern hemisphere, the ocean carries more heat poleward than in the same latitude of the southern hemisphere. The poleward transport by the ocean at 20°–30°N evaluated in this study is about 3 times 10 15 W, which is smaller by 0.5–1 times 10 15 W than that found by Carissimo et al. but larger by 1–2 times 10 15 W than recent estimates based on surface heat balance. The difference between the results of this study and Carissimo et al. comes from differences in estimates of the heat and moisture transport by mid-latitude atmospheric transient eddies. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0870.1988. tb00348.x
A kernel fuzzy classifier with ellipsoidal regions

In this paper, we discuss a kernel version of fuzzy classifiers with ellipsoidal regions to improve generalization ability. First, we map the input space into the implicit feature space induced by a kernel function. Then we generate a fuzzy rules in the feature space and tune the slopes of membership functions successively until there is no improvement in the recognition rate of the training data. We evaluate our method using numeral and hiragana data of vehicle license plates, and blood cell data. Except for the numeral data, the generalization ability is improved against that of the conventional fuzzy classifier with ellipsoidal regions, and is comparable to that of support vector machines.
Computer Simulation of Liquid Wetting Dynamics in Fiber Structures Using the Ising Model

We present in this paper a method which applies the so-called Ising model and Kawasaki thermodynamics, combined with the Monte Carlo computer simulation technique to study the liquid-fiber interaction and the wetting behavior of fiber networks. The various types of interactions occurring during a wetting process in a fiber mass are analyzed, and their individual contributions towards the Hamiltonian system are derived. The criterion for energy state exchange between the Ising spin variables is given as the critical step for the wetting simulation. The procedures of the simulation algorithm are provided. Various predictions of the wetting process including wetting of a fiber network, the spreading of a liquid drop on a single fiber as well as a brief parametric study are included in this paper.
A Note on a Statistical Hypothesis Testing for Removing Noise by the Random Matrix Theory, and Its Application to Co-Volatility Matrices

It is well known that the bias called market microstructure noise will arise, when estimating realized co-volatility matrix which is calculated as a sum of cross products of intraday high-frequency returns. An existing conventional technique for removing such a market microstructure noise is to perform eigenvalue decomposition of the sum of cross products matrix and to identify the elements corresponding to the decomposed values which are smaller than the maximum eigenvalue of the random matrix as noises. Although the maximum eigenvalue of a random matrix follows asymptotically Tracy-Widom distribution, the existing technique does not take this asymptotic nature into consideration, but only the convergence value is used for it. Therefore, it cannot evaluate quantitatively such a risk that regards accidentally essential volatility as a noise. In this paper, we propose a statistical hypothesis test for removing noise in co-volatility matrix based on the nature in which the maximum eigenvalue of a random matrix follows Tracy-Widom distribution asymptotically.
Open-set HRRP recognition method based on joint sparse representation

Aiming at the problem of multi-view high-resolution range profile (HRRP) target recognition under open set conditions, we proposed an open set recognition method based on joint sparse representation (JSR), which solves the problem of low recognition rate of traditional methods under open set conditions. This method is applied to the background of radar single-station observation. JSR is used to solve the reconstruction error of multi-view HRRP by the over-complete dictionary, while extreme value theory (EVT) is used to model the reconstruction error tailing of matching and non-matching categories and transform the open set identification problem into a hypothesis testing problem. During recognition, we use the reconstruction error to determine the candidate class, the scores of the matching class and non-matching class are obtained according to the confidence of tail distribution, and the weighted sum of the two is used as the category criterion to finally determine the target or candidate class outside the library. This method can effectively use the relevant information between multi-view HRRPs to improve the performance of HRRP recognition under open set conditions. The algorithm is tested with HRRP data generated from MSTAR inversion, and the results show that the performance of the proposed method is better than the mainstream open set recognition method.
A Method of Making DEM by Data Fusion of Multi-Device Point Cloud

When planning to build greenways in jungles, accurate topographic information of the target area is significant. The traditional topographic survey is usually manually conducted with several tools, which is not only labour-intensive and time-consuming, but also has limitations in accuracy and efficiency. Therefore, this paper presents a method to generate a digital elevation model based on unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and ground equipment supplements the ground area covered by vegetation where UAV-based equipment cannot reach. Iterated Closest Point (ICP) is first used to register the point cloud data from UAV and ground mobile equipment. Then, point cloud classification is used to non-ground point cloud. Finally, the digital elevation model and contour line are obtained. A real experiment is conducted to validate the presented method. The results show that this method not only overcomes the UAV’s limitation of having difficulty in collecting point cloud data from the covered area, but also realizes large-area point cloud data collection that ground mobile equipment cannot. Compared with the traditional base station and multi-person assistance measurement, the presented method is more efficient and effective.
Multi-stakeholder partnership in the context of responsible shrimp farming in Indonesia: a systematic review

Shrimp farming is an aquaculture activity with complex environmental and social issues that must be solved in cooperation with relevant stakeholders. This study aims to review the concept of multi-stakeholder partnership in the context of shrimp farming. In this study, a qualitative literature review was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyse (PRISMA) framework within the scientific literature. Based on the defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, 4 of 17 studies published between 2010 and 2020 were selected to review further, referring to the concept of multi-stakeholder partnership in aquaculture, taking into account social-ecological system framework management. Our review revealed that multi-stakeholder partnerships allegedly become the problem solver since the complex problem can be neither understood nor addressed by only a single organization or actor involved in shrimp farming. Multi-stakeholder partnership, in which government – business – public (including farmers) are involved, will have an essential meaning in solving complex problems in shrimp farming through sharing in planning, decision making, and activities goals among them.
Prediction Sufficiency When the Loss Function Does Not Depend on The Unknown Parameter

It is shown by Takeuchi and Akahira, 1974, that conditional independence together with a condition of "partial sufficiency" imply "prediction sufficiency" for loss functions not depending on the unknown parameter. We shall here prove that these conditions are necessary as well and thereby obtain a complete description, in terms of conditional expectations, of "prediction sufficiency" for loss functions not depending on the unknown parameter. It turns out that these conditions may be replaced by a condition of conditional independence for prior distributions.
Evaluating the need for recovery from work for site-based construction practitioners in Australia

Site-based construction practitioners face high levels of job stress and need to recuperate from work-induced fatigue. Insufficient recovery from work will lead to work fatigue and health problems. While need for recovery (NFR) is an important concept to the wellbeing of construction practitioners, there is limited study in this area. Thus, this study aims to evaluate NFR for site-based construction practitioners in Australia and identify patterns of NFR as a function of demographics and work characteristics. A survey was conducted with site-based construction practitioners in Australia. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were employed to analyse collected data. Results showed that the mean NFR of site-based construction practitioners in Australia was 17.96 (range = 6 – 30, 6 items). Age and work hours explained differences in NFR mean scores according to both the one-way ANOVA and correlations. NFR increased with work hours and decreased with age, with r = 0.19 and r = -0.24 respectively. The correlation analysis also indicated the negative relationship between work experience and NFR (r = -0.21). Work experience and work hours interacted to influence NFR according to the two-way ANOVA. The positive relationship between work hours (≤ 60 hours) and NFR was weaker in those with more work experience while this moderating effect of work experience did not apply to people working more than 60 hours. The significance of the study lies in providing insights to increase the work capacity of construction practitioners and help them to recover from job stress.
Visibility and the Selection of Galaxies

The visibility of inclined, two-component bulge/disk galaxies is considered. It is found that the visibility function is a sharply peaked function of the intrinsic central surface brightness of the disk, the peak of the distribution closely corresponding with the peak predicted for a face-on disk. It is shown that a characteristic surface brightness can be defined for a given catalog. Sample visibility curves are given for various galaxy selection criteria, galaxy parameters, and detector dynamic ranges. The visibility of early-type galaxies is found to be less than that of late types, so the bulge/elliptical luminosity of the universe may have been underestimated previously. The strong influence of even a small bulge component on the extrapolated value of the disk central surface brightness, along with arguments about visibility, are shown to produce a very narrow surface brightness distribution in close agreement with observational data.