Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Postharvest losses of highland vegetables in Thailand

Vegetables are important cash crops in the highlands of Northern Thailand. There are many kind of vegetables which are important crops to replace opium poppy which has been grown in these areas. Postharvest losses of these vegetables were examined at the Royal Project packing house which is located in Chiang Mai. The packing house was about 30-100 km away from most of the production sites. Bruising of head lettuce, red leaf lettuce, butterhead lettuce, cos lettuce, and red cabbage were higher in winter than in summer. On the other hand, losses from pest and disorders of most vegetables were higher in summer than in winter. Salable weight of head lettuce and celery was higher in winter and rainy season than in summer. In other vegetables, salable weight tended to be higher in winter but there was no significant difference among seasons.
Azimuth-Only Estimation for TDOA-Based Direction Finding With 3-D Acoustic Array

This paper focuses on the time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA)-based direction finding for a low-altitude source with an acoustic sensor array. The source bearing in space must be estimated by the joint azimuth-elevation estimation. The azimuth may be the only concern for some scenarios, where the elevation is trivial; however, an extra parameter about elevation needs to be estimated in the joint estimation. When a planar array is introduced to replace the spatial array, the azimuth-only estimation solution with the original TDOA measurements is proposed. This solution is simpler than the joint estimation by excluding the elevation calculation. The mathematical relation between the TDOAs of spatial and planar arrays is derived, and their azimuth Cramer–Rao lower bounds (CRLBs) are compared. The CRLBs together with the pseudo-linear estimation and Taylor series least squares method are evaluated for estimating the source azimuth by simulations as well as real-life data. The results demonstrate that the azimuth-only estimation would create a modest precision improvement over the joint azimuth-elevation estimation. The effect of array altitude variation is also examined, suggesting that the relative heights among sensors have little influence on the estimation of source azimuth.
CODA: an open-source platform for federated analysis and machine learning on distributed healthcare data

Abstract Objectives Distributed computations facilitate multi-institutional data analysis while avoiding the costs and complexity of data pooling. Existing approaches lack crucial features, such as built-in medical standards and terminologies, no-code data visualizations, explicit disclosure control mechanisms, and support for basic statistical computations, in addition to gradient-based optimization capabilities. Materials and methods We describe the development of the Collaborative Data Analysis (CODA) platform, and the design choices undertaken to address the key needs identified during our survey of stakeholders. We use a public dataset (MIMIC-IV) to demonstrate end-to-end multi-modal FL using CODA. We assessed the technical feasibility of deploying the CODA platform at 9 hospitals in Canada, describe implementation challenges, and evaluate its scalability on large patient populations. Results The CODA platform was designed, developed, and deployed between January 2020 and January 2023. Software code, documentation, and technical documents were released under an open-source license. Multi-modal federated averaging is illustrated using the MIMIC-IV and MIMIC-CXR datasets. To date, 8 out of the 9 participating sites have successfully deployed the platform, with a total enrolment of >1M patients. Mapping data from legacy systems to FHIR was the biggest barrier to implementation. Discussion and conclusion The CODA platform was developed and successfully deployed in a public healthcare setting in Canada, with heterogeneous information technology systems and capabilities. Ongoing efforts will use the platform to develop and prospectively validate models for risk assessment, proactive monitoring, and resource usage. Further work will also make tools available to facilitate migration from legacy formats to FHIR and DICOM.
AN ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACTS OF FUTURE CO 2 AND CLIMATE ON CALIFORNIAN AGRICULTURE

DISCLAIMER This report was prepared as the result of work sponsored by the California Energy Commission (Energy Commission) and the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA). It does not necessarily represent the views of the Energy Commission, Cal/EPA, their employees, or the State of California. The Energy Commission, Cal/EPA, the State of California, their employees, contractors, and subcontractors make no warrant, express or implied, and assume no legal liability for the information in this report; nor does any party represent that the uses of this information will not infringe upon privately owned rights. This report has not been approved or disapproved by the California Energy Commission or Cal/EPA, nor has the California Energy Commission or Cal/EPA passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of the information in this report.
Association of hypertension with the triglyceride–glucose index and its associated indices in the Chinese population: A 6‐year prospective cohort study

Abstract The authors aim to assess the correlation between hypertension and the triglyceride‐glucose (TyG) index and its associated indices, and to compare their abilities to identify hypertension. Four thousand eight hundred and sixty‐six non‐hypertensive participants were enrolled from the China National Health Survey in 2009. The data on new‐onset hypertension were gathered in both 2011 and 2015. The TyG index and its associated indices were derived from the fasting triglyceride, blood glucose levels, and anthropometric parameters. Multivariate logistic regression analyses and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis were used. The adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for the new‐onset hypertension for the TyG‐waist‐to‐height ratio (TyG‐WHtR), TyG‐waist circumference (TyG‐WC), TyG‐waist‐to‐hip ratio (TyG‐WHR), TyG‐body mass index (TyG‐BMI), and TyG index were 1.379 (1.230–1.546), 1.002 (1.001–1.003), 1.156 (1.069–1.251), 1.007 (1.005–1.009), and 1.187 (1.051–1.341), respectively. In addition, comparing the lowest quartile (Q1) group with the highest quartile (Q4), the adjusted OR and 95% CI for the new‐onset hypertension were found to be 1.86 (1.48–2.35), 1.93 (1.53–2.43), 1.71 (1.36–2.16), 2.00 (1.60–2.50), and 1.49 (1.19–1.88) for TyG‐WHtR, TyG‐WC, TyG‐WHR, TyG‐BMI, and TyG index, respectively, among all participants. The TyG‐WHtR had the largest area under the curve (AUC) for hypertension (AUC, 0.628; 95% CI, 0.614–0.641) in all participants. Stratified analysis also indicated that the TyG‐WHtR exhibited the greatest AUC in both males (AUC, 0.608; 95% CI, 0.587–0.629) and females (AUC, 0.648; 95% CI, 0.629–0.666). In conclusions, the TyG index and its associated indices were positively associated with hypertension. Among these indices, TyG‐WHtR was the most valuable indicator for predicting hypertension.
Adaptive Fixed-Time Control for High-Order Stochastic Nonlinear Time-Delay Systems: An Improved Lyapunov–Krasovskii Function

In this article, the adaptive tracking control problem is considered for high-order stochastic nonlinear time-delay systems in fixed-time. Being different from existing results, an improved Lyapunov–Krasovskii function is designed, which can not only compensate for the time-delay term but also remove the obstacle from the high-order term. Due to the introduction of the Lyapunov–Krasovskii function into the total Lyapunov function, it makes it difficult to stabilize the controlled system within a fixed-time interval. L’Hopital’s rule is used to determine the boundedness of the Lyapunov–Krasovskii function, and the fixed-time boundedness of the integral functions can be inferred. By utilizing the fixed-time Lyapunov stability theorem, it is proved that the controlled system is semi-globally practical fixed-time stable (SGPFS), all the closed-loop signals (CLSs) are bounded within the fixed-time interval, and the tracking error converges into a small region around zero. The validity of the designed scheme is substantiated via simulation results.
Apicomplexan phosphodiesterases in cyclic nucleotide turnover: conservation, function, and therapeutic potential

ABSTRACT Apicomplexa encompasses a large number of intracellular parasites infecting a wide range of animals. Cyclic nucleotide signaling is crucial for a variety of apicomplexan life stages and cellular processes. The cyclases and kinases that synthesize and respond to cyclic nucleotides (i.e., 3′,5′-cyclic guanosine monophosphate and 3′,5′-cyclic adenosine monophosphate) are highly conserved and essential throughout the parasite phylum. Growing evidence indicates that phosphodiesterases (PDEs) are also critical for regulating cyclic nucleotide signaling via cyclic nucleotide hydrolysis. Here, we discuss recent advances in apicomplexan PDE biology and opportunities for therapeutic interventions, with special emphasis on the major human apicomplexan parasite genera Plasmodium, Toxoplasma, Cryptosporidium, and Babesia. In particular, we show a highly flexible repertoire of apicomplexan PDEs associated with a wide range of cellular requirements across parasites and lifecycle stages. Despite this phylogenetic diversity, cellular requirements of apicomplexan PDEs for motility, host cell egress, or invasion are conserved. However, the molecular wiring of associated PDEs is extremely malleable suggesting that PDE diversity and redundancy are key for the optimization of cyclic nucleotide turnover to respond to the various environments encountered by each parasite and life stage. Understanding how apicomplexan PDEs are regulated and integrating multiple signaling systems into a unified response represent an untapped avenue for future exploration.
Towards system genetics analysis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma using the mouse model, cellular platform, and clinical human data

Head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) is a leading global malignancy. Every year, More than 830 000 people are diagnosed with HNSCC globally, with more than 430 000 fatalities. HNSCC is a deadly diverse malignancy with many tumor locations and biological characteristics. It originates from the squamous epithelium of the oral cavity, oropharynx, nasopharynx, larynx, and hypopharynx. The most frequently impacted regions are the tongue and larynx. Previous investigations have demonstrated the critical role of host genetic susceptibility in the progression of HNSCC. Despite the advances in our knowledge, the improved survival rate of HNSCC patients over the last 40 years has been limited. Failure to identify the molecular origins of development of HNSCC and the genetic basis of the disease and its biological heterogeneity impedes the development of new therapeutic methods. These results indicate a need to identify more genetic factors underlying this complex disease, which can be better used in early detection and prevention strategies. The lack of reliable animal models to investigate the underlying molecular processes is one of the most significant barriers to understanding HNSCC tumors. In this report, we explore and discuss potential research prospects utilizing the Collaborative Cross mouse model and crossing it to mice carrying single or double knockout genes (e.g. Smad4 and P53 genes) to identify genetic factors affecting the development of this complex disease using genome‐wide association studies, epigenetics, microRNA, long noncoding RNA, lncRNA, histone modifications, methylation, phosphorylation, and proteomics.
Self-Management Analysis in Chronic Conditions (SMACC) checklist: an international consensus-based tool to develop, compare and evaluate self-management support programmes

Objectives The Self-Management Analysis in Chronic Conditions (SMACC) checklist was developed as a guidance tool to support the development, comparison and evaluation of self-management support programmes for persons with a chronic condition. The checklist was based on a previously performed concept analysis of self-management. The aim of this study was to validate its content using an international Delphi study and to deliver a final version. Design A two-round Delphi study was conducted between October 2022 and January 2023. Using the researchers’ networks, professionals with research or clinical expertise in self-management support and chronic conditions were recruited via online purposive snowball sampling. Participants were asked to score each item of the checklist (16 items total) on 3 content validity indicators: (1) clarity and comprehensibility, (2) relevance and importance and (3) degree of alignment with the overall goal of the checklist to promote adequate and comprehensive self-management support programmes. A consensus threshold of 75% agreement was used. The participants were also asked general questions about the checklist as a whole and were asked to provide feedback considering its refinement. Results Fifty-four professionals with an average 14.5 years of experience participated in round 1, 48 with an average 12.5 years of experience participated in round 2. The majority of professionals were from Western Europe. For the majority of items consensus was reached after round 1. In round 2, 3 of the 4 remaining items reached consensus, 1 last item was retained based on highly recurring feedback. Conclusions The SMACC checklist was considered a valid and comprehensive tool to aid the development, evaluation and comparison of self-management support programmes. It was acknowledged as a useful instrument to supplement existing frameworks and was seen as feasible to implement in both research and clinical settings. Further validation in the field, with input from patients and peer experts, will be valuable.
Real-world experience of brolucizumab in nAMD

Purpose: To evaluate real-world outcomes with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) in relation to anatomical success, visual outcomes, and safety of intravitreal brolucizumab (IVBr) injection at 1.5 years. Methods: Prospective, randomized, single-center study between December 2020 and December 2022 that included 71 eyes of 62 patients with nAMD, who received IVBr. Patients were divided into three groups, i.e., naïve choroidal neovascular membrane (CNVM), switched therapy (st) CNVM, and st polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (stPCV). They were subdivided into dry, minimal fluid (fluid <50 microns)/pigment epithelial detachment (PED) and persistent fluid (fluid >100 microns)/PED subgroups depending upon the fluid level at the end of 1.5 years. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central macular thickness (CMT), status of fluid, and number of injections at 1.5 years were evaluated. From the beginning, patients were treated on pro re nata (PRN) basis. Results: Of the 71 eyes, 27 eyes (38%) were naïve CNVM, 35 eyes (49.3%) were stCNVM, and 9 (12.7%) were stPCV cases. Significant vision improvement after 1.5 years was seen in the stCNVM category (P = 0.001), while CMT reduction was significant in all three groups (P < 0.05). The mean number of injections required in naïve CNVM and stCNVM groups was significantly less as compared to the stPCV group (P = 0.017). Further, vision improvement was significant in the “Minimal fluid” subgroup (P = 0.002), while the CMT improvement was significant in the “Minimal fluid” and “Dry” subgroups each with P < 0.0001. No ocular/systemic adverse events including intraocular inflammation (IOI) were noted. Conclusion: In a real-world scenario, with 203 procedures and 1.5-year follow-up, brolucizumab is found to be efficacious and safe with the need for a lesser number of injections and more interval-free period in the management of naïve CNVM, stCNVM, and stPCV patients.
Degree of differentiation impacts neurobiological signature and resistance to hypoxia of SH-SY5Y cells

Objective. SH-SY5Y cells are valuable neuronal in vitro models for studying patho-mechanisms and treatment targets in brain disorders due to their easy maintenance, rapid expansion, and low costs. However, the use of various degrees of differentiation hampers appreciation of results and may limit the translation of findings to neurons or the brain. Here, we studied the neurobiological signatures of SH-SY5Y cells in terms of morphology, expression of neuronal markers, and functionality at various degrees of differentiation, as well as their resistance to hypoxia. We compared these to neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), a well-characterized neuronal in vitro model. Approach. We cultured SH-SY5Y cells and neurons derived from hiPSCs on glass coverslips or micro-electrode arrays. We studied expression of mature neuronal markers, electrophysiological activity, and sensitivity to hypoxia at various degrees of differentiation (one day up to three weeks) in SH-SY5Y cells. We used hiPSC derived neurons as a reference. Main results. Undifferentiated and shortly differentiated SH-SY5Y cells lacked neuronal characteristics. Expression of neuronal markers and formation of synaptic puncta increased during differentiation. Longer differentiation was associated with lower resistance to hypoxia. At three weeks of differentiation, MAP2 expression and vulnerability to hypoxia were similar to hiPSC-derived neurons, while the number of synaptic puncta and detected events were significantly lower. Our results show that at least three weeks of differentiation are necessary to obtain neurobiological signatures that are comparable to those of hiPSC-derived neurons, as well as similar sensitivities to metabolic stress. Significance. This indicates that extended differentiation protocols should be used to study neuronal characteristics and to model brain disorders with SH-SY5Y cells. We provided insights that may offer the basis for the utilization of SH-SY5Y cells as a more relevant neuronal model in the study of brain disorders.
Sclareol ameliorates liver injury by inhibiting nuclear factor-kappa B/NOD-like receptor protein 3-mediated inflammation and lipid metabolism disorder in diabetic mice

Objectives: Sclareol (SCL) is a natural diterpene with anti-inflammation and antioxidant properties. This study aimed to assess the hepatoprotective effects of SCL in diabetic mice. Methods: SCL (10 mg/kg) was administered intragastrically to C57BL/6 mice with streptozotocin-induced diabetes daily for 5 weeks to evaluate its beneficial effects in liver injury. Body and liver weight and blood glucose levels were measured. Liver histopathology, fibrosis, and lipid accumulation were evaluated using hematoxylin and eosin, Masson's trichrome, and Oil Red O staining, respectively. Serum hepatic enzyme and lipid levels were measured using an automatic biochemical analyzer. Hepatocellular apoptosis was measured using the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling assay. Oxidative stress markers and reactive oxygen species (ROS) were measured using appropriate assay kits. The effects of sclareol on inflammation and lipid metabolism was evaluated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), immunohistochemical analysis, and Western blot assays. Results: SCL significantly decreased serum liver enzymes and lipids levels, and alleviated adipogenesis and fibrosis. Moreover, the protein levels of acetyl-CoA carboxylase and sterol response element-binding protein 1 were downregulated, whereas the expression of carnitine palmitoyl transferase 1 was upregulated. SCL increased the antioxidant activity, and decreased ROS levels. SCL alleviated hepatic mitochondrial damage. Furthermore, SCL inhibited Kupffer cell infiltration and reduced serum inflammatory cytokine levels. SCL significantly downregulated the protein expression of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) P65, NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3), caspase 1, and interleukin-1β. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that SCL improves diabetes-induced liver injury by alleviating the NF-κB/NLRP3-mediated inflammation and lipid metabolism disorder.
ViT-MVT: A Unified Vision Transformer Network for Multiple Vision Tasks.

In this work, we seek to learn multiple mainstream vision tasks concurrently using a unified network, which is storage-efficient as numerous networks with task-shared parameters can be implanted into a single consolidated network. Our framework, vision transformer (ViT)-MVT, built on a plain and nonhierarchical ViT, incorporates numerous visual tasks into a modest supernet and optimizes them jointly across various dataset domains. For the design of ViT-MVT, we augment the ViT with a multihead self-attention (MHSE) to offer complementary cues in the channel and spatial dimension, as well as a local perception unit (LPU) and locality feed-forward network (locality FFN) for information exchange in the local region, thus endowing ViT-MVT with the ability to effectively optimize multiple tasks. Besides, we construct a search space comprising potential architectures with a broad spectrum of model sizes to offer various optimum candidates for diverse tasks. After that, we design a layer-adaptive sharing technique that automatically determines whether each layer of the transformer block is shared or not for all tasks, enabling ViT-MVT to obtain task-shared parameters for a reduction of storage and task-specific parameters to learn task-related features such that boosting performance. Finally, we introduce a joint-task evolutionary search algorithm to discover an optimal backbone for all tasks under total model size constraint, which challenges the conventional wisdom that visual tasks are typically supplied with backbone networks developed for image classification. Extensive experiments reveal that ViT-MVT delivers exceptional performances for multiple visual tasks over state-of-the-art methods while necessitating considerably fewer total storage costs. We further demonstrate that once ViT-MVT has been trained, ViT-MVT is capable of incremental learning when generalized to new tasks while retaining identical performances for trained tasks. The code is available at https://github.com/XT-1997/vitmvt.
Retinal microvascular differences after successful macular hole surgery by using the superior and temporal inverted flap technique

Purpose: To evaluate the retinal microvascular differences after successful macular hole surgery by using the superior and temporal inverted flap technique. Methods: In this retrospective study, patients with idiopathic macular holes with a horizontal diameter of 250–400 μm at the narrowest point, and who have a follow-up of 6 months were included in the study. Group 1 included 14 patients' 14 eyes that have been treated using the superior inverted flap technique. Group 2 included 15 patients' 15 eyes that have been treated using the temporal inverted flap technique. The vessel density (VD) ratios in the superficial capillary plexus (SCP) and the deep capillary plexus (DCP) at the central area and the four parafoveal quadrants were compared between the groups at baseline and postoperative month 6. Results: The mean baseline BCVA improved significantly in both groups at postoperative month 6 (1.21 to 0.50 and 1.32 to 0.52 logMAR, respectively; P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in mean BCVA between the two groups at postoperative month 6 (P < 0.05). The mean VD in SCP in the center area increased significantly in both groups at month 6 postoperatively (P = 0.011 and 0.020, respectively); however, the mean VD in DCP in the center area did not significantly change in both groups (P = 0.079 and 0.078, respectively). The mean VD ratios in SCP and DCP at the four parafoveal quadrants did not change significantly in both groups at month 6 (P < 0.05 for both). Conclusions: Both techniques are safe for retinal microvasculature at postoperative month 6.