Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Isoprene photo-oxidation products quantify the effect of pollution on hydroxyl radicals over Amazonia

Observational evidence of isoprene oxidation shows that nitrogen oxides amplify the OH concentrations over the Amazon forest. Nitrogen oxides (NOx) emitted from human activities are believed to regulate the atmospheric oxidation capacity of the troposphere. However, observational evidence is limited for the low-to-median NOx concentrations prevalent outside of polluted regions. Directly measuring oxidation capacity, represented primarily by hydroxyl radicals (OH), is challenging, and the span in NOx concentrations at a single observation site is often not wide. Concentrations of isoprene and its photo-oxidation products were used to infer the equivalent noontime OH concentrations. The fetch at an observation site in central Amazonia experienced varied contributions from background regional air, urban pollution, and biomass burning. The afternoon concentrations of reactive nitrogen oxides (NOy), indicative of NOx exposure during the preceding few hours, spanned from 0.3 to 3.5 parts per billion. Accompanying the increase of NOy concentration, the inferred equivalent noontime OH concentrations increased by at least 250% from 0.6 × 106 to 1.6 × 106 cm−3. The conclusion is that, compared to background conditions of low NOx concentrations over the Amazon forest, pollution increased NOx concentrations and amplified OH concentrations, indicating the susceptibility of the atmospheric oxidation capacity over the forest to anthropogenic influence and reinforcing the important role of NOx in sustaining OH concentrations.
MicroRNA Expression Analysis of In Vitro Dedifferentiated Human Pancreatic Islet Cells Reveals the Activation of the Pluripotency-Related MicroRNA Cluster miR-302s

β-cell dedifferentiation has been recently suggested as an additional mechanism contributing to type-1 and to type-2 diabetes pathogenesis. Moreover, several studies demonstrated that in vitro culture of native human pancreatic islets derived from non-diabetic donors resulted in the generation of an undifferentiated cell population. Additional evidence from in vitro human β-cell lineage tracing experiments, demonstrated that dedifferentiated cells derive from β-cells, thus representing a potential in vitro model of β-cell dedifferentiation. Here, we report the microRNA expression profiles analysis of in vitro dedifferentiated islet cells in comparison to mature human native pancreatic islets. We identified 13 microRNAs upregulated and 110 downregulated in islet cells upon in vitro dedifferentiation. Interestingly, among upregulated microRNAs, we observed the activation of microRNA miR-302s cluster, previously defined as pluripotency-associated. Bioinformatic analysis indicated that miR-302s are predicted to target several genes involved in the control of β-cell/epithelial phenotype maintenance; accordingly, such genes were downregulated upon human islet in vitro dedifferentiation. Moreover, we uncovered that cell–cell contacts are needed to maintain low/null expression levels of miR-302. In conclusion, we showed that miR-302 microRNA cluster genes are involved in in vitro dedifferentiation of human pancreatic islet cells and inhibits the expression of multiple genes involved in the maintenance of β-cell mature phenotype.
Dabigatran persistence and adherence in New Zealand: a nationwide retrospective observational study

Objective To determine the effect of age and gender on persistence and adherence in patients taking dabigatran for atrial fibrillation. Design A retrospective observational study over 4 years using refill prescription data from the National Pharmaceutical Database. Setting All patients in New Zealand who received dabigatran from July 2011 to September 2015. Population 43 339 people filled at least one prescription of dabigatran. Main outcome measures The proportion of patients with good adherence (treatment available at least 80% of the time), and the proportion at risk of thrombosis (a break in treatment of more than 2 days) measured 6-monthly for 3 years. Medication persistence recorded over 3 years. Results Persistence was highest in older patients and showed a significant correlation with age (p<0.001); 24% over 70 years had discontinued treatment by 6 months compared with 50% under 50 years. Adherence was highest in the elderly (p<0.001) with 90% of patients over 80 years with good adherence at 12 months compared with 70% in patients aged 50–60 years and less than 60% in those under 50 years. The time at risk of thrombosis showed a similar pattern with 25% below 60 years with inadequate anticoagulation more than 20% of the time. Adherence dropped during the first 18 months of treatment with the most marked fall in those under 50 years. Adherence shows that breaks in treatment are common with 30% of men under 60 years with a break in treatment of at least 28 days during the first 12 months. Conclusion Adherence and persistence correlate with the patient’s age. Those over 70 years have high adherence consistent over time whereas younger patients have significantly worse adherence which declines over the first 18 months, with the lowest rate in those under 50 years. Adherence in our study is lower than reported in clinical trials, therefore the benefit of dabigatran in stroke prevention may not be realised in clinical practice especially in younger patients.
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS: A MULTIDIMENSIONAL MODEL FOR CONTRACTING

This paper considers the relationships between public and private organisations entering into publicâ€“private partnerships within the context of NPM. After offering a brief discussion of similarities and differences between public and private organisations and their relationships, it provides a short overview of how PPPs are organised in practice. Through elaborating on three dimensions of differentiation between public and private organisations â€“ ownership, funding and control â€“ it proposes a matrix model for identifying suitable 'dimensional mix' for PPP contracts.
Defocus Blur Detection and Estimation from Imaging Sensors

Sparse representation has been proven to be a very effective technique for various image restoration applications. In this paper, an improved sparse representation based method is proposed to detect and estimate defocus blur of imaging sensors. Considering the fact that the patterns usually vary remarkably across different images or different patches in a single image, it is unstable and time-consuming for sparse representation over an over-complete dictionary. We propose an adaptive domain selection scheme to prelearn a set of compact dictionaries and adaptively select the optimal dictionary to each image patch. Then, with nonlocal structure similarity, the proposed method learns nonzero-mean coefficients’ distributions that are much more closer to the real ones. More accurate sparse coefficients can be obtained and further improve the performance of results. Experimental results validate that the proposed method outperforms existing defocus blur estimation approaches, both qualitatively and quantitatively.
[Chrysin inhibits lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammatory responses of macrophages via JAK-STATs signaling pathway].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the mechanism of chrysin in regulating lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammation in RAW264.7 cells. METHODS RAW264.7 cells were treated with different concentrations (0, 5, 10, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 150, and 200 µg/mL) of chrysin for 24 h, and the cell viability was measured using CCK-8. RAW264.7 cells were pre-treated with 10, 30, or 60 µg/mL chrysin for 2 h before stimulation with LPS for different times. The levels of TNF-α, IL-6 and MCP-1 were detected by ELISA, and Western blotting was used to detect the phosphorylation of JAK- 1, JAK-2, STAT-1 and STAT-3. The level of reactive oxygen species in RAW264.7 cells was detected by CM-H2DCFDA fluorescence probe. The effect of ROS on LPS-induced JAK-STATs signal and the inflammatory response of RAW264.7 cells was detected by ROS scavenger NAC. The transcription factors STAT-1 and STAT-3 nuclear translocation were observed by laser confocal microscopy. RESULTS Chrysin below 60 µg/mL did not significantly affect the viability of RAW264.7 cells. At 10, 30, and 60 µg/mL, chrysin dose-dependently inhibited the expression of iNOS induced by LPS. Chrysin treatment also inhibited LPS-induced phosphorylation of JAK-STATs, nuclear translocation of STAT1 and STAT3, release of TNF-α, IL-6 and MCP-1, and the production of ROS in RAW264.7 cells; ROS acted as an upstream signal to mediate the activation of JAK-STATs signaling pathway. CONCLUSION Chrysin blocks the activity of JAK-STATs mediated by ROS to inhibit LPS-induced inflammatory response in RAW264.7 cells.
Retinoic Acid-Treated Pluripotent Stem Cells Undergoing Neurogenesis Present Increased Aneuploidy and Micronuclei Formation

The existence of loss and gain of chromosomes, known as aneuploidy, has been previously described within the central nervous system. During development, at least one-third of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) are aneuploid. Notably, aneuploid NPCs may survive and functionally integrate into the mature neural circuitry. Given the unanswered significance of this phenomenon, we tested the hypothesis that neural differentiation induced by all-trans retinoic acid (RA) in pluripotent stem cells is accompanied by increased levels of aneuploidy, as previously described for cortical NPCs in vivo. In this work we used embryonal carcinoma (EC) cells, embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells undergoing differentiation into NPCs. Ploidy analysis revealed a 2-fold increase in the rate of aneuploidy, with the prevalence of chromosome loss in RA primed stem cells when compared to naïve cells. In an attempt to understand the basis of neurogenic aneuploidy, micronuclei formation and survivin expression was assessed in pluripotent stem cells exposed to RA. RA increased micronuclei occurrence by almost 2-fold while decreased survivin expression by 50%, indicating possible mechanisms by which stem cells lose their chromosomes during neural differentiation. DNA fragmentation analysis demonstrated no increase in apoptosis on embryoid bodies treated with RA, indicating that cell death is not the mandatory fate of aneuploid NPCs derived from pluripotent cells. In order to exclude that the increase in aneuploidy was a spurious consequence of RA treatment, not related to neurogenesis, mouse embryonic fibroblasts were treated with RA under the same conditions and no alterations in chromosome gain or loss were observed. These findings indicate a correlation amongst neural differentiation, aneuploidy, micronuclei formation and survivin downregulation in pluripotent stem cells exposed to RA, providing evidence that somatically generated chromosomal variation accompanies neurogenesis in vitro.
Megaschallunterstützter Stofftransport in LIGA-Mikrostrukturen

The manufacturing of high microstructures with high aspect ratios is a relevant task of LIGA-technology. In order to minimise processing time of wet chemical process steps such as developing and electroforming, and to provide the highest microstructure quality, the mass transfer conditions should be investigated and optimised. The aim of this work is to experimentally clarify the action mechanism of megasonics, in particular, its effect on mass transfer in LIGA-microstructures. The electrochemical limiting current method is chosen as an investigation method. This method is characterised by the possibility of direct mass transfer rate measuring in-situ. For the practical realisation of this method a new megasonic cell was designed and constructed. Rotating recessed microstructure electrodes (RME) were used for mass transfer investigation. A new rotating microstructure electrode was designed using LIGA-microstructures. A LIGA-based manufacturing technique for fabrication of RMEs was developed. In the experimental part of this work, possible influential parameters such as probe position in megasonic field, electrical power applied to megasonic transducer and microstructure geometry were varied and the limiting current as a measure of mass transfer rate was acquired. As a result of experiments carried out the following effects were observed: • Probe positioning relative to megasonic transducer has a substantial influence on mass transfer rate. There is a correlation between the spatial distribution of the sound pressure and that of the limiting current. • Mass transfer rate depends on electrical power applied to megasonic transducer. The form of this dependency is different for various structure geometries. • Exposure to megasonic causes the local heating of microstructures. • Degree of mass transfer improvement depends among other things on microstructure geometry and on their composition (material). These results were compared with literature data and from this a model for action mechanism of megasonic was derived. The mass transport rate of megasonic supported processes in microstructures is influenced by two effects, by local heating and by acoustic micro streaming formation within the microstructures. The thermal effect contributes for all structures, whereas the hydrodynamic effect is heavily dependent on structure geometry. The mass transfer rate enhancement due to thermal effects can reach 30 %. The amount of this contribution depends on resist thickness. The hydrodynamic effect can produce a multiple increase of mass transfer rate.
Enhanced functionality of cantilever based mass sensors using higher modes

By positioning a single gold particle at different locations along the length axis on a cantilever based mass sensor, we have investigated the effect of mass position on the mass responsivity and compared the results to simulations. A significant improvement in quality factor and responsivity was achieved by operating the cantilever in the fourth bending mode thereby increasing the intrinsic sensitivity. It is shown that the use of higher bending modes grants a spatial resolution and thereby enhances the functionality of the cantilever based mass sensor.
Genome Sequencing and Comparative Analysis of Klebsiella pneumoniae NTUH-K2044, a Strain Causing Liver Abscess and Meningitis

ABSTRACT Nosocomial infections caused by antibiotic-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae are emerging as a major health problem worldwide, while community-acquired K. pneumoniae infections present with a range of diverse clinical pictures in different geographic areas. In particular, an invasive form of K. pneumoniae that causes liver abscesses was first observed in Asia and then was found worldwide. We are interested in how differences in gene content of the same species result in different diseases. Thus, we sequenced the whole genome of K. pneumoniae NTUH-K2044, which was isolated from a patient with liver abscess and meningitis, and analyzed differences compared to strain MGH 78578, which was isolated from a patient with pneumonia. Six major types of differences were found in gene clusters that included an integrative and conjugative element, clusters involved in citrate fermentation, lipopolysaccharide synthesis, and capsular polysaccharide synthesis, phage-related insertions, and a cluster containing fimbria-related genes. We also conducted comparative genomic hybridization with 15 K. pneumoniae isolates obtained from community-acquired or nosocomial infections using tiling probes for the NTUH-K2044 genome. Hierarchical clustering revealed three major groups of genomic insertion-deletion patterns that correlate with the strains' clinical features, antimicrobial susceptibilities, and virulence phenotypes with mice. Here we report the whole-genome sequence of K. pneumoniae NTUH-K2044 and describe evidence showing significant genomic diversity and sequence acquisition among K. pneumoniae pathogenic strains. Our findings support the hypothesis that these factors are responsible for the changes that have occurred in the disease profile over time.
Polypharmacy and patterns of prescription medication use among cancer survivors

The population of cancer survivors is rapidly growing in the United States. Long‐term and late effects of cancer, combined with the ongoing management of other chronic conditions, make survivors particularly vulnerable to polypharmacy and its adverse effects. In the current study, the authors examined patterns of prescription medication use and polypharmacy in a population‐based sample of cancer survivors.
Use of vaccines and factors associated with their uptake variability in dogs, cats and rabbits attending a large sentinel network of veterinary practices across Great Britain

Abstract Vaccination remains a mainstay of companion animal population health. However, how vaccine use at a population level complies with existing guidelines is unknown. Here we use electronic health records to describe vaccination in dogs, cats and rabbits attending a large sentinel network of UK veterinary practices. In total, 77.9% (95% CI: 77.6–78.1) of animals had recorded vaccinations. The percentage of animals with recorded vaccinations was higher in dogs, neutered animals, in insured dogs and cats and in purebred dogs. Vaccination rates varied in different regions of Great Britain in all species. Dogs and cats belonging to owners living in less deprived areas of England and Scotland were more likely to be recorded as vaccinated. In the vaccinated population, cats received more core vaccines per year of life (0.86) than dogs (0.75), with feline leukaemia vaccines almost as frequent as core vaccines. In dogs, leptospira vaccines were more frequent than core vaccines. This descriptive study suggests a substantial proportion of animals are not benefiting from vaccine protection. For the first time, we identify potential factors associated with variations in recorded vaccination frequency, providing a critical baseline against which to monitor future changes in companion animal vaccination and evidence to inform future targeted health interventions.
View Extrapolation of Human Body from a Single Image

We study how to synthesize novel views of human body from a single image. Though recent deep learning based methods work well for rigid objects, they often fail on objects with large articulation, like human bodies. The core step of existing methods is to fit a map from the observable views to novel views by CNNs; however, the rich articulation modes of human body make it rather challenging for CNNs to memorize and interpolate the data well. To address the problem, we propose a novel deep learning based pipeline that explicitly estimates and leverages the geometry of the underlying human body. Our new pipeline is a composition of a shape estimation network and an image generation network, and at the interface a perspective transformation is applied to generate a forward flow for pixel value transportation. Our design is able to factor out the space of data variation and makes learning at each step much easier. Empirically, we show that the performance for pose-varying objects can be improved dramatically. Our method can also be applied on real data captured by 3D sensors, and the flow generated by our methods can be used for generating high quality results in higher resolution.
Cost of gastroenteritis in Australia: A healthcare perspective

Background Acute gastroenteritis illness is a common illness that causes considerable morbidity, but current estimates of the cost to the Australian healthcare system are unknown. Objective To estimate the current healthcare utilisation and direct public healthcare system costs attributable to acute gastroenteritis illness in Australia. Methods This is an incidence-based cost-of-illness study focused on quantifying direct health care costs using a bottom-up approach. Data on general practitioner consultations, prescribed medications, diagnostic tests, specialist consultations, emergency department visits and hospital admissions were collected from national reports. Results Using 2016 prices, the estimated annual direct per capita cost of acute gastroenteritis illness was AUD$14.87 (USD$10.71), equating to AUD$20.27 (USD$14.59) per case. The estimated overall economic burden in Australia was AUD$359 million (USD$258 million; AUD$1.5 million per 100,000 people). The major contributors to this cost were hospital admissions (57.1%), emergency department visits (17.7%), and general practitioner consultations (14.0%). Children under five years of age have the highest per capita rates of acute gastroenteritis illness; however, service utilisation rates vary by age group and both young children and older adults accounted for a substantial proportion of the overall economic burden attributable to acute gastroenteritis illness. Conclusions Although chronic diseases comprise a large cost burden on the healthcare system, acute illnesses, including acute gastroenteritis illness, also impose substantial direct healthcare system costs. Providing data on current cost estimates is useful for prioritizing public health interventions, with our findings suggesting that it would be ideal if targeted interventions to reduce hospitalisation rates among young children and older adults were available.
Audit of use of stiripentol in adults with Dravet syndrome

There are very few data available in the literature on the use of stiripentol in adults with Dravet syndrome (DS). DS cases are increasingly recognized in adulthood, and more children with DS now survive to adulthood. The aim of the study was to document the effectiveness and tolerability of stiripentol in adults with DS.
DiStRDF: Distributed Spatio-temporal RDF Queries on Spark

The ever-increasing size of data emanating from mobile devices and sensors, dictates the use of distributed systems for storing and querying the data. Typically, these data sources provide some spatio-temporal information, alongside other useful data. The task of interlinking and interchanging this kind of information is challenging in the case of large heterogeneity of data sources. This issue can be addressed by adopting the RDF data model, proposed by W3C. Hence, with respect to an application scenario which analyzes vast amount of spatio-temporal heterogeneous data, the task of efficiently evaluating spatio-temporal queries on RDF is crucial. In this paper, we address the problem of efficiently processing SPARQL spatio-temporal queries in parallel, by proposing the DiStRDF system. We use Spark, a well-known distributed in-memory processing framework, as the underlying processing engine. On top of it, we devise a set of query execution plans which exploit an 1D encoding scheme for improving the performance of our system. Our experimental evaluation demonstrates the efficiency of DiStRDF system.
Beyond shareholder primacy? Reflections on the trajectory of UK corporate governance.

Core institutions of UK corporate governance, in particular the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers, the Combined Code on Corporate Governance and the law on directors’ duties, are strongly orientated towards the norm of shareholder primacy. Beyond the core, however, stakeholder interests are better represented, in particular at the intersection of insolvency and employment law. This reflects the influence of European Community laws on information and consultation of employees. In addition, there are signs that some institutional shareholders are redirecting their investment strategies, under government encouragement, away from a focus on short-term returns, in such a way as to favour stakeholder-inclusive practices by firms. On this basis we suggest that the UK system is currently in a state of flux and that the debate over shareholder primacy has not been concluded.