Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Efficacy of an Immersive Virtual Reality Exergame Incorporating an Adaptive Cable Resistance System on Fitness and Cardiometabolic Measures: A 12-Week Randomized Controlled Trial

Exergaming, combining elements of video game into the realm of exercise, has recently incorporated immersive virtual reality (IVR) with resistance training. Thirty-two participants (14 females, mean age = 24.3) were randomized to IVR or self-directed control group (SELF) and worked out thrice weekly for 12 weeks (for 36 sessions). The IVR group spent 14 fewer minutes per session (p < 0.001) while reporting the sessions “enjoyable’. Compared to SELF, the IVR group had significantly greater improvement in changes from baseline to post-training in upper-and-lower muscular strength (1-RM) and muscular endurance (85% 1-RM) (14.3 kg vs. 10.0 kg for 1-RM upper, 28.6 kg vs. 22.5 kg for 1-RM lower, 2.6 reps vs. 1.9 reps for 85% 1-RM of upper, 2.7 vs. 2.0 reps for 85% 1-RM of lower, all p < 0.001), peak leg power (1424 vs. 865 W, p < 0.001), body fat% (−3.7% vs. −1.9%, p < 0.001), heart rate variability (4.3 vs. 1.8 ms, p < 0.001), rVO2max (3.28 vs. 0.89 mL/min/kg, p < 0.001) with decreased systolic BP (−0.4 vs. −2.3 mmHg, p < 0.001), and level of perceived exertion during workouts (RPE 14 vs. 16, p < 0.001). With its high-paced and action-filled gaming coupled with superior fitness and cardiometabolic outcomes, this IVR exergaming platform should be considered as another exercise modality for performance and health-related training.
Spin and orbital occupation and phase transitions in V2O3

Polarization dependent x-ray-absorption measurements were performed on pure and Cr-doped ${\mathrm{V}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ single crystals in the antiferromagnetic insulating, paramagnetic insulating, and metallic phases. The orbital occupation of the V ${3d}^{2}$ ion is found to depend appreciably on the phase, but always with the $S=1$ character, requiring an explanation which is beyond the elegant simplicity of the pure one-band Hubbard model or of models in which the ${a}_{1g}$ orbital is projected out by means of a simple dimerization. The results reveal the critical role of the spin and orbital dependence of the on-site $3d\ensuremath{-}3d$ Coulomb energy, and a mechanism is proposed to explain the closing or opening of the band gaps which are of much higher energy scale than the transition temperatures.
Cyclospora cayetanensis comprises at least 3 species that cause human cyclosporiasis

Abstract Abstract The apicomplexan parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis causes seasonal foodborne outbreaks of the gastrointestinal illness cyclosporiasis. Prior to the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic, annually reported cases were increasing in the USA, leading the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop a genotyping tool to complement cyclosporiasis outbreak investigations. Thousands of US isolates and 1 from China (strain CHN_HEN01) were genotyped by Illumina amplicon sequencing, revealing 2 lineages (A and B). The allelic composition of isolates was examined at each locus. Two nuclear loci (CDS3 and 360i2) distinguished lineages A and B. CDS3 had 2 major alleles: 1 almost exclusive to lineage A and the other to lineage B. Six 360i2 alleles were observed – 2 exclusive to lineage A (alleles A1 and A2), 2 to lineage B (B1 and B2) and 1 (B4) was exclusive to CHN_HEN01 which shared allele B3 with lineage B. Examination of heterozygous genotypes revealed that mixtures of A- and B-type 360i2 alleles occurred rarely, suggesting a lack of gene flow between lineages. Phylogenetic analysis of loci from whole-genome shotgun sequences, mitochondrial and apicoplast genomes, revealed that CHN_HEN01 represents a distinct lineage (C). Retrospective examination of epidemiologic data revealed associations between lineage and the geographical distribution of US infections plus strong temporal associations. Given the multiple lines of evidence for speciation within human-infecting Cyclospora, we provide an updated taxonomic description of C. cayetanensis, and describe 2 novel species as aetiological agents of human cyclosporiasis: Cyclospora ashfordi sp. nov. and Cyclospora henanensis sp. nov. (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae).
Ger1 is a secreted aspartic acid protease essential for spore germination in Ustilago maydis

Ustilago maydis expresses a number of proteases during its pathogenic lifecycle. Some of the proteases including both intracellular and extracellular ones have previously been shown to influence the virulence of the pathogen. However, any role of secreted proteases in the sporulation process of U. maydis have not been explored earlier. In this study we have investigated the biological function of one such secreted protease, Ger1 belonging to aspartic protease A1 family. An assessment of the real time expression of ger1 revealed an infection specific expression of the protein especially during late phases of infection. We also evaluated any contribution of the protein in the pathogenicity of the fungus. Our data revealed an involvement of Ger1 in the sporulation and spore germination processes of U. maydis. Ger1 also showed positive influence on the pathogenicity of the fungus and accordingly the ger1 deletion mutant exhibited reduced pathogenicity. The study also demonstrated the protease activity associated with Ger1 to be essential for its biological function. Fluorescence microscopy of maize plants infected with U. maydis cells expressing Ger1‐mcherry‐HA also revealed that Ger1 is efficiently secreted within maize apoplast.
A comprehensive sounding of the ionospheric HF radio link from Antarctica to Spain

Since 2003, our group has been investigating the performance of different transmission techniques for low‐power low‐interference High Frequency (HF) ionospheric communication systems. Specifically, we have focused on the link between the Spanish Antarctic Station (SAS) Juan Carlos I in Livingston Island and Ebro Observatory (OE) in Spain, in order to transmit the data gathered from some geomagnetic sensors. These transmission techniques require a valuable knowledge of the channel behavior, thus a comprehensive narrowband and wideband sounding of the ionospheric channel is needed. Some significant improvements both in the system and in the signal processing have been done to achieve this goal. The analysis time and the frequency band have been extended to 24 hours per day and to the whole HF band (2‐30 MHz). Moreover, new measurements of the absolute propagation time and the Doppler frequency shift are introduced. In this paper, the sounding results obtained using the new system are presented.
G Protein-Coupled Receptor 15 Expression Is Associated with Myocardial Infarction

Beyond the influence of lifestyle-related risk factors for myocardial infarction (MI), the mechanisms of genetic predispositions for MI remain unclear. We sought to identify and characterize differentially expressed genes in early-onset MI in a translational approach. In an observational case–control study, transcriptomes from 112 early-onset MI individuals showed upregulated G protein-coupled receptor 15 (GPR15) expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells compared to controls (fold change = 1.4, p = 1.87 × 10−7). GPR15 expression correlated with intima-media thickness (β = 0.8498, p = 0.111), C-reactive protein (β = 0.2238, p = 0.0052), ejection fraction (β = −0.9991, p = 0.0281) and smoking (β = 0.7259, p = 2.79 × 10−10). The relation between smoking and MI was diminished after the inclusion of GPR15 expression as mediator in mediation analysis (from 1.27 (p = 1.9 × 10−5) to 0.46 (p = 0.21)). The DNA methylation of two GPR15 sites was 1%/5% lower in early-onset MI individuals versus controls (p = 2.37 × 10−6/p = 0.0123), with site CpG3.98251219 significantly predicting risk for incident MI (hazard ratio = 0.992, p = 0.0177). The nucleotide polymorphism rs2230344 (C/T) within GPR15 was associated with early-onset MI (odds ratio = 3.61, p = 0.044). Experimental validation showed 6.3-fold increased Gpr15 expression in an ischemic mouse model (p < 0.05) and 4-fold increased Gpr15 expression in cardiomyocytes under ischemic stress (p < 0.001). After the induction of MI, Gpr15gfp/gfp mice showed lower survival (p = 0.042) and deregulated gene expression for response to hypoxia and signaling pathways. Using a translational approach, our data provide evidence that GPR15 is linked to cardiovascular diseases, mediating the adverse effects of smoking.
A Novel Protein Complex Identification Algorithm Based on the Integration of Local Network Topology and Gene Ontology

The identification of protein complexes is an essential step to understand the principles of cellular organization and biochemical phenomena. A large dataset of experimentally detected protein-protein interactions (PPI) has been determined using high-throughput experimental techniques. However, these datasets usually contain spurious interactions, which complicate the accurate identification of protein complexes by using computational methods. In this study, a novel method is developed to predict protein complexes based on PPI network topology and gene ontology. A protein functional similarity is performed to estimate the reliability of this interaction. A minimum cut-based method is used to detect protein complexes in the weight network. Experimental results show that our method performs better than several efficient, existing clustering algorithms.
Octopus: Exploiting the Edge Intelligence for Accessible 5G Mobile Performance Enhancement

While 5G has rolled out since 2019 and exhibited versatile advantages, its performance under high/extreme mobility scenes (e.g., driving, high-speed railway or HSR) remains mysterious. In this work, we carry out a large-scale field-trial campaign, taking >13,000 Km round-trips on HSR moving at 250–350 Km/h, with operational 5G cellular coverage along the railway. Our empirical study reveals that coupling interaction among high mobility, 5G handover characteristics, and applications’ sluggish reaction to handover, results in catastrophic damage to user experience: low TCP bandwidth utilization of 26.6% and glitchy 4K VoD streaming. To solve the problem, we propose an edge-assisted mobility management framework called Octopus. Different from previous works, Octopus aims at a standard-compatible and easy-to-deploy solution, thus we take a new design paradigm of exploiting the edge intelligence on multi-access edge computing (MEC). We realize Octopus as a universal MEC service ready for benefiting any third-party mobile applications. We prototype, deploy, and evaluate Octopus in operational 5G, which demonstrates the significant performance gain across the full-range mobile scenarios, e.g., HSR, driving, and walking.
The reflectance of non-uniform thin films

A general formula for the reflectance of a thin film with non-uniform thickness is derived based on expressing its thickness distribution density. Examples of such thickness distribution densities, corresponding to various shapes of the thickness non-uniformity, are presented. In addition, a reflectance formula is derived as the second-order approximation of the general formula expanded into a power series in the root mean square (rms) value of the thickness distribution. By means of a numerical analysis, it is shown that for greater non-uniformities it is necessary to take into account their concrete shapes in the optical characterization, whereas for small non-uniformities the concrete shape is of no importance for the characterization. The theoretical results are applied to the complete optical characterization of a selected non-uniform carbon nitride film.
A review on regulatory control of chromium stress in plants

Chromium (Cr) is a non-biodegradable heavy metal that persists long in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and enters the food chain. It is cytotoxic even at low concentrations and reduces the yield of plants. Plants also have cellular mechanisms to manage the accumulation of metal ions inside the cell to diminish the possible injury from non-essential metal ions. This paper reviews current information on plant response to Cr, a key environmental pollutant. The harmful effects together with absorption, transfer, and aggregation of Cr are discussed. The roles of the cell wall, plasma membrane, and plant microbes as the primary hindrances for Cr ingression into the cell, along with sequestration and compartmentalization process, have also been discussed. Cr-generated oxidative injury is also regarded as the main deliberated effect of Cr toxicity. It interferes with NADPH oxidases (plasma membrane) and the electron transport chains, which develop electron leakage. Some genes related to Cr stress in plants get expressed, and suppression produces protective effects by activating the signal transduction pathways. The expression of genes like BnaCnng69940D and BnaC08g49360D is increased, which is involved in protein kinase activity, signal transduction, and oxidoreductase activity. The increased mRNA levels of Cr stress response proteins, including HSP90-1 and MT-1, have been reported in the Brassica napus plant. The stressed environment around the plants may stimulate the biosynthesis of phytochelatins and metal-binding proteins, which have a protective role in plant’s growth and development.
Association of Stool Frequency and Consistency with the Risk of All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality among U.S. Adults: Results from NHANES 2005–2010

Background: Prior studies on the relationship between bowel health and mortality have generally focused on the individual association of stool frequency or consistency with mortality but did not present a joint association. Therefore, we aimed to systematically evaluate the individual and joint associations of stool frequency and consistency with all-cause and cause-specific mortality in this study. Methods: A total of 14,574 participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005–2010 were incorporated in this analysis. Survey sample-weighted Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for potential confounders were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) between bowel health measures and mortality risks. Results: During a median of 7.6 years of follow-up, 1502 deaths occurred, including 357 cancer deaths and 284 cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths. The bowel habit of the most participants was 7 times/week (50.7%), and the most common type was “Like a sausage or snake, smooth and soft” (51.8%). Stool frequency displayed a parabolic relationship with all-cause mortality, and less than 7 times/week is a significant risk factor for mortality (HR for 1 time/week: 1.43, p-values = 0.04. HR for 6 times/week: 1.05, p-value = 0.03). Analyzing the joint association of stool frequency and consistency on mortality clarified the limitations of only inspecting the effects of either individual factor. Compared with 7 times/week of normal stool, infrequent soft stools at 4 times/week were associated with 1.78-, 2.42-, and 2.27-times higher risks of all-cause, cancer, and CVD mortality, respectively. Conclusion: Analyses of bowel health should consider the joint effects of stool frequency and stool consistency. Self-appraisal of stool frequency and consistency may be a simple but useful tool for informing about major chronic illnesses.
iLabel: Revealing Objects in Neural Fields

A neural field trained with self-supervision to efficiently represent the geometry and colour of a 3D scene tends to automatically decompose it into coherent and accurate object-like regions, which can be revealed with sparse labelling interactions to produce a 3D semantic scene segmentation. Our real-time iLabel system takes input from a hand-held RGB-D camera, requires zero prior training data, and works in an ‘open set’ manner, with semantic classes defined on the fly by the user. iLabel's underlying model is a simple multilayer perceptron (MLP), trained from scratch to learn a neural representation of a single 3D scene. The model is updated continually and visualised in real-time, allowing the user to focus interactions to achieve extremely efficient semantic segmentation. A room-scale scene can be accurately labelled into 10+ semantic categories with around 100 clicks, taking less than 5 minutes. Quantitative labelling accuracy scales powerfully with the number of clicks, and rapidly surpasses standard pre-trained semantic segmentation methods. We also demonstrate a hierarchical labelling variant of iLabel and a ‘hands-free’ mode where the user only needs to supply label names for automatically-generated locations.
Estimation of Parameters from Incomplete Data

THE present note is concerned with a special case of the general problem of obtaining efficient estimators for the parameters of a normal multivariate population when the available sample data are incomplete in the sense that measures on all variables are not available for all individuals in the sample. Such fragmentary data may arise because part of the data are irretrievably lost (e.g., in an archaeological find), or because certain data were purposely not collected. The decision not to measure all individuals in the sample on all variables may be reached because of the cost of measurement, because of limited time, because the measurement of a certain variable alters or destroys the individual measured (e.g., in mental testing, testing explosives), and so forth. The general problem for normal bivariate populations has been treated by Wilks [3]. This treatment has been further generalized to normal multivariate populations by Matthai [2], who deals explicitly with the trivariate case. Unfortunately, the general maximum likelihood equations have proved rather intractable, and no simple formulas for the maximum likelihood estimators are available in the general case, even for a sample from a bivariate population. In the present paper, the problem of estimating the parameters of a normal trivariate population from incomplete data is dealt with in a special case for which explicit solutions to the maximum likelihood equations are readily obtained. This special case is described in the following section. Formulas for the maximum likelihood estimators are given; their application is illustrated by a numerical example. The sampling variances and covariances of the maximum likelihood estimators are derived. An examination is made of the efficiency of the usual methods that utilize only that portion of the data that is complete. The foregoing results are specialized to apply to a commonly encountered bivariate (rather than trivariate) situation.
A comparison of two discrete mKdV equations

We consider here two discrete versions of the modified KdV equation. In one case, some solitary wave solutions, Backlund transformations and integrals of motion are known. In the other one, only solitary wave solutions were given, and we supply the corresponding results for this equation. We also derive the integrability of the second equation and give a transformation which links the two models.
Polycaprolactone (PCL)-Polylactic Acid (PLA)-Glycerol (Gly) Composites Incorporated with Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) and Tea Tree Essential Oil (TTEO) for Tissue Engineering Applications

The search for new biocompatible materials that can replace invasive materials in biomedical applications has increased due to the great demand derived from accidents and diseases such as cancer in various tissues. In this sense, four formulations based on polycaprolactone (PCL) and polylactic acid (PLA) incorporated with zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) and tea tree essential oil (TTEO) were prepared. The sol-gel method was used for zinc oxide nanoparticle synthesis with an average size of 11 ± 2 nm and spherical morphology. On the other hand, Fourier Transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) showed characteristic functional groups for each composite component. The TTEO incorporation in the formulations was related to the increased intensity of the C-O-C band. The thermal properties of the materials show that the degradative properties of the ZnO-NPs decrease the thermal stability. The morphological study by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the presence of TTEO and ZnO-NPs act synergistically, obtaining smooth surfaces, whereas membranes with the presence of ZnO-NPs or TTEO only show porous morphologies. Histological implantation of the membranes showed biocompatibility and biodegradability after 60 days of implantation. This degradation occurs through the fragmentation of the larger particles with the presence of connective tissue constituted by type III collagen fibers, blood vessels, and inflammatory cells, where the process of resorption of the implanted material continues.
Strain-Specificity of Probiotics in Pediatrics: A Rapid Review of the Clinical Evidence

Objective: The dogma of probiotic strain-specificity is widely accepted. However, only the genus- and species-specific effects of probiotics are supported by evidence from clinical trials. The aim of this rapid review was to assess clinical evidence supporting the claim that the efficacy of probiotics in the pediatric population is strain-specific. Methods: The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, and EMBASE databases were searched (up to August 2022) for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) conducted in children aged 0–18 years evaluating the effects of prophylactic or therapeutic administration of probiotics (well-characterized at the strain level) for conditions such as antibiotic-associated diarrhea, acute diarrhea, necrotizing enterocolitis, respiratory tract infections, Helicobacter pylori infection, and atopic dermatitis. To allow evaluation of strain-specificity, a trial could only be included in the review if at least one additional RCT assessed the effect of a different strain of the same species against the same comparator. RCTs without proper strain-level data were excluded. In the absence of identifying head-to-head strain versus strain RCTs, indirect comparisons were made between interventions. Results: Twenty-three RCTs were eligible for inclusion. Out of the 11 performed comparisons, with 1 exception (two Lacticaseibacillus paracasei strains in reducing atopic dermatitis symptoms), no significant differences between the clinical effects of different strains of the same probiotic species were found. Conclusions: Head-to-head comparison is an optimal study design to compare probiotic strains, but such comparisons are lacking. Based on indirect comparisons, this rapid review demonstrates insufficient clinical evidence to support or refute the claim that probiotic effects in children are strain-specific.
Novel cost-effective bifacial silicon solar cells with 19.4% front and 18.1% rear efficiency

Bifacial solar cells are a promising possibility to lower the costs of solar electricity compared to conventional monofacial solar cells. These devices utilize the sunlight more efficiently since they are able to convert light incident on both sides of the cell. In this letter, a novel, cost-effective bifacial silicon solar cell structure is presented. On float-zone silicon, the cells exhibit conversion efficiencies of 19.4% and 16.5% under 1-sun front and rear illumination, respectively. Furthermore, a “symmetrical” version of the cells is presented demonstrating front and rear efficiencies of 18.4% and 18.1%. In spite of the simplicity of the cell fabrication process, these are the highest independently confirmed efficiencies ever reported for bifacial silicon solar cells.