Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mismatches in Suppliers’ and Demanders’ Cognition, Willingness and Behavior with Respect to Ecological Protection of Cultivated Land: Evidence from Caidian District, Wuhan, China

Cultivated land systems have an enormous ecological function value with respect to water conversation, nutrient circulation and climate regulation. The people’s cognition, willingness and behavior may prove to be pivotal in ecologically protecting cultivated land. The purpose of this paper is to explore suppliers’ and demanders’ cognition, willingness and behavior with respect to the ecological protection of cultivated land. The second-order structural equation model was employed, and a five-point Likert scale was designed. Based on data obtained from a questionnaire surveyed on a sample of 460 (farming and no-farming households) from Caidian district, Wuhan, China, the results show that within/between suppliers and demanders, there are mismatches in willingness as well as behavior to ecologically protect cultivated land. In the suppliers group and in the demanders group, there are mismatches with respect to the interactive mechanism of cognition, willingness and behavior in the ecological protection of cultivated land. Three factors, subjective norms, attitude toward behavior, and perceived behavior control, affect willingness and behavior with respect to protection differently between the suppliers and the demanders. The “intermediary” effects of willingness and behavior in the ecological protection of cultivated land only appear in the demanders model, and are not significant in the suppliers model. In addition, another finding was that farmers’ behavior as suppliers and demanders of ecological protection of cultivated land were mismatched. The article contributes firstly to exploring the ecological protection of cultivated land from the perspective of suppliers’ and demanders’ subjective psychology. Farmers with “dual roles” as suppliers and demanders should pay more attention to the ecological protection of cultivated land. Their cognition and skills in the ecological protection of cultivated land are in need of improvement. It is also necessary to bridge the gap between suppliers and demanders; access to the knowledge of the ecological value of cultivated land will incentivize their behavior with respect to the ecological protection of cultivated land.
α‐Lipoic acid protects against microcystin‐LR induced hepatotoxicity through regeneration of glutathione via activation of Nrf2

Microcystins (MCs), as the most dominant bloom‐forming strains in eutrophic surface water, can induce hepatotoxicity by oxidative stress. Alpha‐lipoic acid (α‐LA) is a super antioxidant that can induce the synthesis of antioxidants, such as glutathione (GSH), by nuclear factor erythroid 2‐related factor 2 (Nrf2). However, the potential molecular mechanism of α‐LA regeneration of GSH remains unclear. The present study aimed to investigate whether α‐LA could reduce the toxicity of MCs induced in human hepatoma (HepG2), Bel7420 cells, and BALB/c mice by activating Nrf2 to regenerate GSH. Results showed that exposure to 10 μM microcystin‐leucine arginine (MC‐LR) reduced viability of HepG2 and Bel7402 cells and promoted the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) compared with untreated cells. Moreover, the protection of α‐LA included reducing the level of ROS, increasing superoxide dismutase activity, and decreasing malondialdehyde. Levels of reduced glutathione (rGSH) and rGSH/oxidized glutathione were significantly increased in cells cotreated with α‐LA and MC‐LR compared to those treated with MC‐LR alone, indicating an ability of α‐LA to attenuate oxidative stress and MC‐LR‐induced cytotoxicity by increasing the amount of rGSH. α‐LA can mediate GSH regeneration through the Nrf2 pathway under the action of glutathione reductase in MC‐LR cell lines. Furthermore, the data also showed that α‐LA‐induced cytoprotection against MC‐LR is associated with Nrf2 mediate pathway in vivo. These findings demonstrated the potential of α‐LA to resist MC‐LR‐induced oxidative damage of liver.
Association between dyslipidemia and serum uric acid levels in Korean adults: Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2016-2017

Objectives Despite the growing pieces of evidence linking hyperuricemia with metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease, the relationship between dyslipidemia and serum uric acid has not yet been established. This study aimed to investigate the association between individual components of dyslipidemia and serum uric acid by using the nationally representative Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2016–2017. Methods A total of 8,722 participants (age ≥ 19 years) without missing values were analyzed for this study. Serum uric acid levels according to the presence of individual dyslipidemia components were calculated using multivariable-adjusted general linear models (GLM). Odds ratios of individual dyslipidemia components to hyperuricemia were calculated using unadjusted and multivariable-adjusted logistic regression analysis. Results A total of 1,061 participants were identified as having hyperuricemia, with a prevalence of 12.2%. Multivariable-adjusted GLM demonstrated a significant trend between individual dyslipidemia components and serum uric acid levels (P < 0.05). A positive association between the numbers of dyslipidemia components and the increments of serum uric acid levels was also observed (P < 0.001). In multivariable-adjusted logistic regression analysis, odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of all dyslipidemia components to hyperuricemia were shown to be statistically significant (P < 0.05). When further adjusted for the combined components themselves, each 10 mg/dL increments of total cholesterol (OR 1.053; 95% CI 1.028–1.079), triglycerides (OR 1.017; 95% CI 1.009–1.026) and HDL-C (OR 0.804; 95% CI 0.729–0.887), retained significant correlation with hyperuricemia. Conclusion Our study demonstrated that the dyslipidemia components of serum total cholesterol, triglycerides and LDL-C levels are positively associated with serum uric acid levels, whereas serum HDL-C levels are inversely related. Further complementary studies regarding other lipid parameters are needed to confirm the accurate association between dyslipidemia and serum uric acid levels.
ABAS1 from soybean is a 1R-subtype MYB transcriptional repressor that enhances ABA sensitivity

Abstract Transcription factors (TFs) help plants respond to environmental stresses by regulating gene expression. Up till now, studies on the MYB family of TFs have mainly focused on the highly abundant R2R3-subtype. While the less well-known 1R-subtype has been generally shown to enhance abscisic acid (ABA) sensitivity by acting as transcriptional activators, the mechanisms of their functions are unclear. Here we identified an ABA sensitivity-associated gene from soybean, ABA-Sensitive 1 (GmABAS1), of the 1R-subtype of MYB. Using the GFP-GmABAS1 fusion protein, we demonstrated that GmABAS1 is localized in the nucleus, and with yeast reporter systems, we showed that it is a transcriptional repressor. We then identified the target gene of GmABAS1 to be Glyma.01G060300, an annotated ABI five-binding protein 3 and showed that GmABAS1 binds to the promoter of Glyma.01G060300 both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, Glyma.01G060300 and GmABAS1 exhibited reciprocal expression patterns under osmotic stress, inferring that GmABAS1 is a transcriptional repressor of Glyma.01G060300. As a further confirmation, AtAFP2, an orthologue of Glyma.01G060300, was down-regulated in GmABAS1-transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana, enhancing the plant’s sensitivity to ABA. This is the first time a 1R-subtype of MYB from soybean has been reported to enhance ABA sensitivity by acting as a transcriptional repressor.
Introduction to Radiomics

Radiomics is a rapidly evolving field of research concerned with the extraction of quantitative metrics—the so-called radiomic features—within medical images. Radiomic features capture tissue and lesion characteristics such as heterogeneity and shape and may, alone or in combination with demographic, histologic, genomic, or proteomic data, be used for clinical problem solving. The goal of this continuing education article is to provide an introduction to the field, covering the basic radiomics workflow: feature calculation and selection, dimensionality reduction, and data processing. Potential clinical applications in nuclear medicine that include PET radiomics-based prediction of treatment response and survival will be discussed. Current limitations of radiomics, such as sensitivity to acquisition parameter variations, and common pitfalls will also be covered.
Exploring sexual dimorphism of the modern human talus through geometric morphometric methods

Sex determination is a pivotal step in forensic and bioarchaeological fields. Generally, scholars focus on metric or qualitative morphological features, but in the last few years several contributions have applied geometric-morphometric (GM) techniques to overcome limitations of traditional approaches. In this study, we explore sexual dimorphism in modern human tali from three early 20th century populations (Sassari and Bologna, Italy; New York, USA) at intra- and interspecific population levels using geometric morphometric (GM) methods. Statistical analyses were performed using shape, form, and size variables. Our results do not show significant differences in shape between males and females, either considering the pooled sample or the individual populations. Differences in talar morphology due to sexual dimorphism are mainly related to allometry, i.e. size-related changes of morphological traits. Discriminant function analysis using form space Principal Components and centroid size correctly classify between 87.7% and 97.2% of the individuals. The result is similar using the pooled sample or the individual population, except for a diminished outcome for the New York group (from 73.9% to 78.2%). Finally, a talus from the Bologna sample (not included in the previous analysis) with known sex was selected to run a virtual resection, followed by two digital reconstructions based on the mean shape of both the pooled sample and the Bologna sample, respectively. The reconstructed talus was correctly classified with a Ppost between 99.9% and 100%, demonstrating that GM is a valuable tool to cope with fragmentary tali, which is a common occurrence in forensic and bioarchaeological contexts.
Graph Traversal Edit Distance and Extensions

Many problems in applied machine learning deal with graphs (also called networks), including social networks, security, web data mining, protein function prediction, and genome informatics. The kernel paradigm beautifully decouples the learning algorithm from the underlying geometric space, which renders graph kernels important for the aforementioned applications. In this article, we give a new graph kernel, which we call graph traversal edit distance (GTED). We introduce the GTED problem and give the first polynomial time algorithm for it. Informally, the GTED is the minimum edit distance between two strings formed by the edge labels of respective Eulerian traversals of the two graphs. Also, GTED is motivated by and provides the first mathematical formalism for sequence co-assembly and de novo variation detection in bioinformatics. We demonstrate that GTED admits a polynomial time algorithm using a linear program in the graph product space that is guaranteed to yield an integer solution. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first approach to this problem. We also give a linear programming relaxation algorithm for a lower bound on GTED. We use GTED as a graph kernel and evaluate it by computing the accuracy of a support vector machine (SVM) classifier on a few data sets in the literature. Our results suggest that our kernel outperforms many of the common graph kernels in the tested data sets. As a second set of experiments, we successfully cluster viral genomes using GTED on their assembly graphs obtained from de novo assembly of next-generation sequencing reads.
Global Diversification Dynamics Since the Jurassic: Low Dispersal and Habitat-Dependent Evolution Explain Hotspots of Diversity and Shell Disparity in River Snails (Viviparidae).

The Viviparidae, commonly known as River Snails, is a dominant group of freshwater snails with a nearly worldwide distribution that reaches its highest taxonomic and morphological diversity in Southeast Asia. The rich fossil record is indicative of a probable Middle Jurassic origin on the Laurasian supercontinent where the group started to diversify during the Cretaceous. However, it remains uncertain when and how the biodiversity hotspot in Southeast Asia was formed. Here, we used a comprehensive genetic dataset containing both mitochondrial and nuclear markers and comprising species representing 24 out of 28 genera from throughout the range of the family. To reconstruct the spatiotemporal evolution of viviparids on a global scale, we reconstructed a fossil-calibrated phylogeny. We further assessed the roles of cladogenetic and anagenetic events in range evolution. Finally, we reconstructed the evolution of shell features by estimating ancestral character states to assess whether the appearance of sculptured shell morphologies was driven by major habitat shifts. The molecular phylogeny supports the monophyly of the three subfamilies, the Bellamyinae, Lioplacinae, and Viviparinae, but challenges the currently accepted genus-level classification in several cases. The almost global distribution of River Snails has been influenced both by comparatively ancient vicariance and more recent founder events. In Southeast Asia, Miocene dispersal was a main factor in shaping the modern species distributions. A recurrent theme across different viviparid taxa is that many species living in lentic waters exhibit sculptured shells, whereas only one strongly sculptured species is known from lotic environments. We show that such shell sculpture is habitat-dependent and indeed evolved several times independently in lentic River Snails. Considerably high transition rates between shell types in lentic habitats probably caused the co-occurrence of morphologically distinct shell types in several lakes. In contrast, directional evolution towards smooth shells in lotic habitats, as identified in the present analyses, explains why sculptured shells are rarely found in these habitats. However, the specific factors that promoted changes in shell morphology require further work.
Oxidative stress accelerates synaptic glutamate dyshomeostasis and NMDARs disorder during methylmercury‐induced neuronal apoptosis in rat cerebral cortex

Methylmercury (MeHg) is a potent neurotoxin,which leads to a wide range of intracellular effects. The molecular mechanismsassociated to MeHg‐induced neurotoxicity have not been fully understood.Oxidative stress, as well as synaptic glutamate (Glu) dyshomeostasis have beenidentified as two critical mechanisms during MeHg‐mediated cytotoxicity. Here,we developed a rat model of MeHg poisoning to evaluate its neurotoxic effectsby focusing on cellular oxidative stress and synaptic Glu disruption. Inaddition, we investigated the neuroprotective role of alpha‐lipoic acid (α‐LA), a natural antioxidant, todeeply explore the underlying interaction between them. Fifty‐six rats wererandomly divided into four groups: saline control, MeHg treatment (4 or 12μmol/kg MeHg), and α‐LApre‐treatment (35 μmol/kg α‐LA+12μmol/kg MeHg). Rats exposed to 12 μmol/kg MeHg induced neuronal oxidativestress, with ROS accumulation and cellular antioxidant system impairment. Nrf2 andxCT pathways were activated with MeHg treatment. The enzymatic or non‐enzymaticof cellular GSH synthesis were also disrupted by MeHg. On the other hand, the abnormalactivities of GS and PAG disturbed the “Glu‐Gln cycle”, leading to NMDARsover‐activation, Ca2+ overload, and the calpain activation, which acceleratedNMDARs degradation. Meanwhile, the high expressions of phospho‐p44/42 MAPK,phospho‐p38 MAPK, phospho‐CREB, and the high levels of caspase 3 and Bax/Bcl‐2 finallyindicated the neuronal apoptosis after MeHg exposure. Pre‐treatment with α‐LA significantly preventedMeHg‐induced neurotoxicity. In conclusion, the oxidative stress and synapticGlu dyshomeostasis contributed to MeHg‐induced neuronal apoptosis. Alpha‐LAattenuated these toxic effects through mechanisms of anti‐oxidation andindirect Glu dyshomeostasis prevention
Distinct Regulation of σ1 Receptor Multimerization by Its Agonists and Antagonists in Transfected Cells and Rat Liver Membranes

Extensive studies have shown that the σ1 receptor (σ1R) interacts with and modulates the activity of multiple proteins with important biological functions. Recent crystal structures of σ1R as a homotrimer differ from a dimer-tetramer model postulated earlier. It remains inconclusive whether ligand binding regulates σ1R oligomerization. Here, novel nondenaturing gel methods and mutational analysis were used to examine σ1R oligomerization. In transfected cells, σ1R exhibited as multimers, dimers, and monomers. Overall, σ1R agonists decreased, whereas σ1R antagonists increased σ1R multimers, suggesting that agonists and antagonists differentially affect the stability of σ1R multimers. Endogenous σ1R in rat liver membranes also showed similar regulation of oligomerization as in cells. Mutations at key residues lining the trimerization interface (Arg119, Asp195, Phe191, Trp136, and Gly91) abolished multimerization without disrupting dimerization. Intriguingly, truncation of the N terminus reduced σ1R to apparent monomer. These results demonstrate that multiple domains play crucial roles in coordinating high-order quaternary organization of σ1R. The E102Q σ1R mutant implicated in juvenile amyotrophic lateral sclerosis formed dimers only, suggesting that dysregulation of σ1R multimeric assembly may impair its function. Interestingly, oligomerization of σ1R was pH-dependent and correlated with changes in [3H](+)-pentazocine binding affinity and Bmax. Combined with mutational analysis, it is reasoned that σ1R multimers possess high-affinity and high-capacity [3H](+)-pentazocine binding, whereas monomers likely lack binding. These results suggest that σ1R may exist in interconvertible oligomeric states in a dynamic equilibrium. Further exploration of ligand-regulated σ1R multimerization may provide novel approaches to modulate the function of σ1R and its interacting proteins. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The σ1 receptor (σ1R) modulates the activities of various partner proteins. Recently, crystal structures of σ1R were elucidated as homotrimers. This study used novel nondenaturing gel methods to examine σ1R oligomerization in transfected cells and rat liver membranes. Overall, agonist binding decreased, whereas antagonist binding increased σ1R multimers, which comprised trimers and larger units. σ1R multimers were shown to bind [3H](+)-pentazocine with high affinity and high capacity. Furthermore, mutational analysis revealed a crucial role of its N-terminal domain in σ1R multimerization.
Optimization of Total Phenolic and Flavonoid Contents of Defatted Pitaya (Hylocereus polyrhizus) Seed Extract and Its Antioxidant Properties

The present study was conducted to optimize extraction process for defatted pitaya seed extract (DPSE) adopting response surface methodology (RSM). A five-level central composite design was used to optimize total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and 2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothizoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) activities. The independent variables included extraction time (30–60 min), extraction temperature (40–80 °C) and ethanol concentration (60%–80%). Results showed that the quadratic polynomial equations for all models were significant at (p < 0.05), with non-significant lack of fit at p > 0.05 and R2 of more than 0.90. The optimized extraction parameters were established as follows: extraction time of 45 min, extraction temperature of 70 °C and ethanol concentration of 80%. Under these conditions, the recovery of TPC, TFC, and antioxidant activity based on FRAP and ABTS were 128.58 ± 1.61 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g sample, 9.805 ± 0.69 mg quercetin equivalent (QE)/g sample, 1.23 ± 0.03 mM Fe2+/g sample, and 91.62% ± 0.15, respectively. Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF/MS) analysis identified seven chemical compounds with flavonoids constituting major composition of the DPSE.
Integrating M-Learning in Teaching ECG Reading and Arrhythmia Management for Undergraduate Nursing Students

Use of mobile devices among nursing students is recently a widespread approach. Integrating mobile devices in education can improve the quality of nursing education by engaging students in learning experience. The present study aims at investigating theeffect of using Mobile Learning (M-learning) on students’ academicachievements and satisfaction. Therefore, quasi-experimental design was used. The study included 104 students who were enrolled in a critical care course at the faculty of Nursing. During the study, the participant were divided into control and experimental groups. The experimental group 52 students were able to use a developed mobile application, which includes learning materials and multimedia resources, dedicated to critical care course. On the other hand, control group 52 students were able to explore the classical learning materials form the course. The study included students’ attitudes, students’ satisfaction, and students’ academic achievements. Differences between the two groups were considered significant as the result was p < 0.05. The obtained results showed significance difference between pre-post quizzes achievements between the experimental and control group (p<0.000). Additionally, 76% of the students were satisfied with using M-learning. The study revealed that there was improvement in the student academic achievements and satisfaction when integrating mobile learning into nursing education.
RNN-Based Alzheimer's Disease Prediction from Prodromal Stage using Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Alzheimer's Disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys cognitive abilities. In recent years, the relationship between the prodromal Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) stage and the Alzheimer's Disease (AD) stage has been extensively researched in hopes of finding a path towards early diagnosis. Early detection at the MCI stage can help determine appropriate treatment plans as well as assist in clinical trial enrollment as 32% of individuals with MCI will develop AD within 5 years. Computer vision studies leveraging Magnetic Resonance Imaging (sMRI, fMRI), Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) have led to encouraging results in classifying the different stages of AD. Studies around DTI specifically have shown that structural differences in white matter are prevalent between these stages. Rather than classification between stages, we propose a recurrent neural network model (RNN) based on the DTI modality for identifying the subset (32%) of individuals with Early Mild Cognitive Impairment (EMCI) that will develop AD. Our results are state-of-the-art and demonstrate high accuracy in determining which individuals will develop AD within the next 5-7 years. Additionally, we propose our augmentation methods for DTI data as well as our classification accuracy across the traditional AD stage categories.
Advancing closures for stably stratified turbulence in global atmospheric models

Atmospheric turbulent motion under stable stratification c tinues to fascinate with its richness of structure, variability and phenomena, while seriously challenging our und erstanding of fluid mechanics and ability to predict weather and climate change. In this proceeding I will presen t nothing new most of it is based on my doctoral thesis and work by others. Rather, I will take this opportuni ty to express my views on how I believe we can best pursue the challenge of representing stably stratified turb ulence in large-scale atmospheric models in the shortand longer term.