Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characteristics of Severe Asthma Patients and Predictors of Asthma Control in the Swiss Severe Asthma Registry

Background: Asthma is a chronic airway disease, affecting over 300 million people worldwide. 5–10% of patients suffer from severe asthma and account for 50% of asthma-related financial burden. Availability of real-life data about the clinical course of severe asthma is insufficient. Objectives: The aims of this study were to characterize patients with severe asthma in Switzerland, enrolled in the Swiss Severe Asthma Registry (SSAR), and evaluate predictors for asthma control. Method: A descriptive characterisation of 278 patients was performed, who were prospectively enrolled in the registry until January 2022. Socio-demographic variables, comorbidities, diagnostic values, asthma treatment, and healthcare utilisation were evaluated. Groups of controlled and uncontrolled asthma according to the asthma control test were compared. Results: Forty-eight percent of patients were female and the mean age was 55.8 years (range 13–87). The mean body mass index (BMI) was 27.4 kg/m2 (±6). 10.8% of patients were current smokers. Allergic comorbidities occurred in 54.3% of patients, followed by chronic rhinosinusitis (46.4%) and nasal polyps (34.1%). According to the ACT score, 54.7% had well controlled, 16.2% partly controlled and 25.9% uncontrolled asthma. The most common inhalation therapy was combined inhaled corticosteroids/long-acting β2-agonists (78.8%). Biologics were administered to 81.7% of patients and 19.1% received oral steroids. The multivariable analysis indicated that treatment with biologics was positively associated with asthma control whereas higher BMI, oral steroids, exacerbations, and COPD were negative predictors for asthma control. Conclusion: Biologics are associated with improved control in severe asthma. Further studies are required to complete the picture of severe asthma in order to provide improved care for those patients.
Exploration of spatial morphometry and socioeconomic variables in modelling urban land use change

The incorporation of land use (LU) data with socioeconomic data is a main issue in modelling. This is as a result of difference in data model and scale. This study proposed and tested the change–pattern approach, which allows the incorporation of these data sets in modelling LU change. Focusing on LU dynamics for a selected part of the Thames Gateway within the City of London, the approach tested two different methods of input selection for the modelling operations. Variables selected from these two methods serve as inputs into several neural networks tested in order to identify the direction of change for each of the LU types within the study area. The result shows that direction of LU change across the study area could be identified when spatial morphology of the area and socioeconomic variables are considered. Some classes of change could be identified fairly accurately using landscape metrics indicating level of fragmentation, extent of LU patches, shape complexity of LU patches in combination with some socioeconomic variables.
Evolution of the Mutation Spectrum Across a Mammalian Phylogeny

Abstract Although evolutionary biologists have long theorized that variation in DNA repair efficacy might explain some of the diversity of lifespan and cancer incidence across species, we have little data on the variability of normal germline mutagenesis outside of humans. Here, we shed light on the spectrum and etiology of mutagenesis across mammals by quantifying mutational sequence context biases using polymorphism data from thirteen species of mice, apes, bears, wolves, and cetaceans. After normalizing the mutation spectrum for reference genome accessibility and k-mer content, we use the Mantel test to deduce that mutation spectrum divergence is highly correlated with genetic divergence between species, whereas life history traits like reproductive age are weaker predictors of mutation spectrum divergence. Potential bioinformatic confounders are only weakly related to a small set of mutation spectrum features. We find that clock-like mutational signatures previously inferred from human cancers cannot explain the phylogenetic signal exhibited by the mammalian mutation spectrum, despite the ability of these signatures to fit each species’ 3-mer spectrum with high cosine similarity. In contrast, parental aging signatures inferred from human de novo mutation data appear to explain much of the 1-mer spectrum's phylogenetic signal in combination with a novel mutational signature. We posit that future models purporting to explain the etiology of mammalian mutagenesis need to capture the fact that more closely related species have more similar mutation spectra; a model that fits each marginal spectrum with high cosine similarity is not guaranteed to capture this hierarchy of mutation spectrum variation among species.
Comparison of current paediatric contrast sensitivity assessments using simulated reduced contrast thresholds

ABSTRACT Purpose There are limited tests of contrast sensitivity (CS) for use in children. The Hiding Heidi (HH) is suitable for all cognitive abilities, but has a ceiling effect. The Double Happy (DH) test has comparable thresholds to the Pelli Robson (PR), however the ability to detect changes in contrast has not been established. This study aims to compare contrast thresholds and agreement between HH and the DH, comparing to the PR chart in normal conditions and under reduced visual and lighting conditions. Methods Tests were repeated under different conditions to reduce the contrast. Room illumination was 20,900{plus minus}2% lux in bright conditions and 2,000{plus minus}2% lux in dim conditions, both conditions were repeated with the addition of simulation spectacles to reduce the clarity of vision. Participants’ CS was measured uniocularly using the PR, HH and DH tests. Results 50 participants, age 18–62 years (mean{plus minus}standard deviation: 24.5{plus minus}7.98), were assessed. On HH 94% (n = 47) reached the maximum score, with the DH it was 18% (n = 9). The difference in reduction between conditions was smaller with HH in comparison to PR and DH, but significantly different from baseline conditions. Under dim conditions the reduction in PR and DH was −0.21 logCS units, but only −0.04 logCS for HH. Conclusion The DH test has better agreement with PR than HH and is better at detecting CS changes, highlighting the advantages of use in clinical practice.
Cannabis Policy and Consumption: Taking into account Substitution Effects

Abstract Background : Previous studies examining the cannabis-alcohol substitution effect have found that medical cannabis policies may result in substituting the use of cannabis in place of alcohol use. Objectives : This study adds to the literature on cannabis-alcohol substitution by analyzing the effect of decriminalization, medicinal cannabis, and adult-use legalization cannabis policies (2002-2019) on cannabis and alcohol use and substance substitution for all 50 states and the District of Columbia (N=867). Results : Results support the notion that liberalized cannabis policies can increase the prevalence of cannabis use. An adult-use legalization specific analysis yielded findings suggesting a complex and heterogenous effect of such laws on cannabis-alcohol complementation. Conclusion : Given the lack of clarity and heterogenous effects of cannabis laws, policy makers should carefully take into consideration the benefits of medical cannabis laws, along with the risks of decriminalization and adult-use legalization.
Validation of ERS-2 SAR offshore wind-speed maps in the North Sea

Wind maps are retrieved from ERS-2 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) scenes by the CMOD-IFR2 and CMOD4 algorithms for 61 cases at the Horns Rev site in the North Sea and compared to meteorological in situ observations from a mast located 14 km offshore. The in situ data are corrected for flow distortion and sea-level changes prior to validating the SAR wind maps. The SAR wind maps are area-averaged by a simple footprint method assuming neutral stability and with three nonlinear weighting footprint methods including correction for stability. From a physical point of view, the latter is more correct. However, between in situ and SAR-derived wind-speed estimates comparison results of the nonlinear footprint values are statistically less correlated (R 2=0.73–0.77) and the standard error (SE) is larger (>1.5 m s−1) than results from the simple footprint (R 2=0.78–0.80 and SE=1.3 m s−1). The results are found with wind direction determined from wind streaks in the SAR images by Fast Fourier Transform. Using in situ wind direction as input to the CMOD-IFR2 and CMOD4 algorithms yields even better linear regression results, e.g. for the simple footprint method R 2=0.88 and SE=0.9 m s−1. SAR wind maps may be useful for mapping of future offshore wind resources.
Simulated Multiscale Variations in the Western Tropical Pacific: The Mindanao Dome Revisited

Abstract Using a high-resolution OGCM result, multiscale variations of the Mindanao Dome (MD) are discussed. The MD is generated by local Ekman upwelling as the positive curl of the Asian winter monsoon increases over the western tropical Pacific, as discussed in the literature. It is shown, however, that the MD decays owing to the Pacific basinwide annual cycle; the warm anomaly that propagates from the eastern tropical Pacific plays an important role in the attenuation of the MD. Also, the negative wind stress curl associated with the northward shift of the ITCZ in the eastern Pacific and the easterly component of the trade winds in the central Pacific strengthens the warm anomaly. The interannual variation of the MD is governed by variations in both the Ekman upwelling forced locally and the downwelling forced remotely in the east. At its northern fringe, the MD is attenuated by the westward propagating warm eddies on the North Equatorial Current, which are triggered by a negative wind stress curl and .
Calibration of the solar reflective channels in an integrated operational weather satellite system in the era of NPOESS and GOES-R

The Visible/Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) will be the operational imaging instrument on three NPOESS satellites, in Sun-synchronous orbits at altitudes of 833 km. The VIIRS is presently planned to have a total of 14 solar reflective spectral bands, with central wavelengths ranging from 412nm to 2250nm. The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) will be the operational imaging instrument on two GOES-R satellites in geostationary orbits. The ABI is presently planned to have a total of 6 solar reflective spectral bands, with central wavelengths ranging from 470nm to 2260nm. Some of the ABI’s spectral bands are similar, but not identical to, those of the VIIRS. Each VIIRS instrument and each ABI instrument will be equipped with a solar diffuser for on-board, end-to-end calibration of its reflective channels. Due to the high scan rates of both instruments and the flexible scheduling of the ABI, there will be several opportunities each day for the two instruments to simultaneously view the same area on Earth's surface along nearly identical lines of sight. It should be possible to cross-calibrate the ABI and the VIIRS instruments to far greater precision than has been achieved before, and to merge data from multiple platforms into fused data products. The utility of the combined VIIRS/ABI weather imagery can be improved still more if the ABI's reflective spectral bands are changed to match corresponding bands of the VIIRS.
Non-Hypertensives and Those with Normal Cholesterol Are More Likely to Have Concomitant Cancer amongst Patients with Ischemic Stroke: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Registry-Based Study

Introduction: Patients with cancer are known to have an increased risk of ischemic stroke (IS) around the time of their diagnosis. However, there is a paucity of data in Asian populations, and as such, we aimed to determine cancer incidence rates and patterns in Asian IS patients as well as investigate the differences in vascular risk profile of IS patients with and without concomitant cancer. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study using data from the Singapore Stroke and Cancer registries. We defined cases as patients with IS and a cancer diagnosis 2 years before or after the index IS. Cancer incidence was determined using the same direct age-standardization method performed for the Singapore general population in the 2015 Singapore cancer report. Multivariable logistic regression was used to analyze differences in vascular risk factors. Results: Among 21,068 IS patients (mean age, 67.9 ± 13.3 years), 6.3% (1,330) were found to have concomitant cancer; 4.4% (935) had prior cancer while 1.8% (395) had cancer diagnoses within 2 years following IS. The cancer incidence among IS patients was 3,393 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1,937–4,849) per 100,000 person-years compared to 219–231 per 100,000 person-years in the general population. Older age (odds ratio [OR], 1.02 [95% CI, 1.01–1.02] per year), males (OR, 1.25 [95% CI, 1.11–1.41), Chinese ethnicity (OR, 1.61 [95% CI, 1.37–1.89]) and a lower prevalence of hypertension (OR, 0.84 [95% CI, 0.73–0.97)]), and hyperlipidemia (OR, 0.53 [95% CI, 0.45–0.62]) were independently associated with cancer-related IS. Conclusions: The age-standardized cancer incidence was 15 times higher in IS patients than the general population. IS patients with concomitant cancer were older and had a lower prevalence of vascular risk factors.
Disulfiram ameliorates bleomycin induced pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis in rats

ABSTRACT Bleomycin (BL) is a widely used anticancer drug that can cause pulmonary fibrosis due to increased fibroblast proliferation and increased secretion of extracellular matrix. RASSF1A is a tumor suppressor gene that is down-regulated by DNA methylation during fibrosis. Disulfiram (DSF), a noncytosine DNA methyltransferase inhibitor, can revert epigenetic biomarkers and re-express silenced genes. We investigated anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic effects of DSF on regulation of epigenetic molecules and histopathology in a rat model of BL induced pulmonary fibrosis. We used six groups of rats: sesame oil (SO) control (Co) group, BL group, BL + SO group and three BL + DSF groups administered 1 mg/kg DSF (BL + DSF), 10 mg/kg DSF (BL + DSF10) or 100 mg/kg DSF (BL + DSF100), respectively. BL was administered intratracheally to induce pulmonary fibrosis. DSF and SO were injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) 2 days before BL administration; these injections were continued for 3 weeks. At the end of the study, lung tissues were removed for molecular and histopathologic studies. Administration of 10 or 100 mg/kg DSF after BL induced pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis, and up-regulated RASSF1A and down-regulated TNF-α and IL-1 β compared to the BL and BL + SO groups. A RASSF1A unmethylated band was observed using the methylation-specific PCR technique in rats that had been administered 10 and 100 mg/kg DSF, which indicated partial DNA demethylation. Histopathologic evaluation revealed that fibrosis and all inflammatory scores were decreased significantly in the BL + DSF10 and BL + DSF100 groups compared to the BL group. Our findings indicate that DSF modified DNA methylation by up-regulating RASSF1A, which reduced inflammation and fibrosis in BL induced pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis.
Systemic inflammation response index is associated MACE in patients with NSTEMI.

OBJECTIVE Non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) poses a significant health concern. The systemic inflammation response index (SIRI), an emerging inflammatory marker linked to conditions like stroke and cancer, has shown potential relevance. Inflammation's pivotal role in acute coronary syndromes is well-established, yet its specific association with NSTEMI and SIRI remains unexplored. This study aims to elucidate the correlation between SIRI and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients with NSTEMI. PATIENTS AND METHODS A cohort of 935 consecutive NSTEMI patients who underwent percutaneous intervention was recruited. MACE was defined to encompass all-cause death, malignant arrhythmia, and unplanned percutaneous coronary intervention. The systemic inflammation response index, a composite metric involving three distinct inflammatory cell counts, was computed as the product of neutrophil count and monocyte count divided by lymphocyte count. A receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to define a cut-off level of SIRI to predict MACE. Then, the study population was divided into two groups according to the cut-off SIRI level in ROC curve analysis. The 12-month follow-up results of the patients were recorded retrospectively. RESULTS The participants exhibited a mean age of 64.12. Notably, the mean SIRI level registered at 1.98 among patients experiencing MACE and 4.97 among others. Through rigorous multivariate logistic regression analysis, SIRI emerged as an independent predictor of MACE. Further analysis via ROC curve yielded a sensitivity of 68% and specificity of 76% for MACE detection, with a SIRI cut-off of 2.3. CONCLUSIONS In the context of NSTEMI, SIRI emerges as a robust independent predictor of MACE. These findings underscore the potential utility of SIRI as a prognostic indicator for adverse cardiovascular events, enhancing our understanding of the disease's pathophysiological mechanisms and potential avenues for improved clinical management.
Variability of magnetospheric storms driven by different solar wind perturbations

[1] We have investigated the solar wind drivers of magnetic storms during the rising phase of solar cycle 23 from January 1996 to December 1999. We used observations of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) by the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph instrument on SOHO and in situ solar wind observations by Wind, IMP 8, and ACE spacecraft. The storms were determined from both the Dst and Kp indices, and the study was limited to storms with Dst ≤ −50 nT or Kp ≥ 5. We show examples of different behavior of Dst and Kp indices during magnetic storms caused by different types of solar wind drivers. Furthermore, we have investigated cross-correlation between peak Dst and Kp values of storms organized according to the associated solar wind driver. It makes a difference whether a sheath region or the following ejecta causes the storm. We found that almost all intense and stronger magnetic storms (Dst ≤ −100 nT, or Kp ≥ 7−) were associated with shocks and CMEs, but for moderate storms, driver statistics were different in different phases of the solar cycle. We found different behavior of the Kp and Dst indices during different types of solar wind drivers. Intense and short-time disturbances, like postshock streams and sheath regions, generated more Kp storms, and ejecta generated more Dst storms. Thus one should be careful when comparing studies based on any single activity index.
Fuse feeds as one: cross-modal framework for general identification of AMPs

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are promising candidates for the development of new antibiotics due to their broad-spectrum activity against a range of pathogens. However, identifying AMPs through a huge bunch of candidates is challenging due to their complex structures and diverse sequences. In this study, we propose SenseXAMP, a cross-modal framework that leverages semantic embeddings of and protein descriptors (PDs) of input sequences to improve the identification performance of AMPs. SenseXAMP includes a multi-input alignment module and cross-representation fusion module to explore the hidden information between the two input features and better leverage the fusion feature. To better address the AMPs identification task, we accumulate the latest annotated AMPs data to form more generous benchmark datasets. Additionally, we expand the existing AMPs identification task settings by adding an AMPs regression task to meet more specific requirements like antimicrobial activity prediction. The experimental results indicated that SenseXAMP outperformed existing state-of-the-art models on multiple AMP-related datasets including commonly used AMPs classification datasets and our proposed benchmark datasets. Furthermore, we conducted a series of experiments to demonstrate the complementary nature of traditional PDs and protein pre-training models in AMPs tasks. Our experiments reveal that SenseXAMP can effectively combine the advantages of PDs to improve the performance of protein pre-training models in AMPs tasks.
Event-Triggered Control of Neuron Growth with Actuation at Soma

We introduce a dynamic event-triggering mechanism for regulating the axonal growth of a neuron. We apply boundary actuation at the soma (the part of a neuron that contains the nucleus) and regulate the dynamics of tubulin concentration and axon length. The control law is formulated by applying a Zero-Order Hold (ZOH) to a continuous-time controller which guides the axon to reach the desired length. The proposed dynamic event-triggering mechanism determines the specific time instants at which control inputs are sampled from the continuous-time control law. We establish the existence of a minimum dwell-time between two triggering times that ensures avoidance of Zeno behavior. Through employing the Lyapunov analysis with PDE backstepping, we prove the local stability of the closed-loop system in $L_2$-norm, initially for the target system, and subsequently for the original system. The effectiveness of the proposed method is showcased through numerical simulations.
Consistent Aggregation of Objectives with Diverse Time Preferences Requires Non-Markovian Rewards

As the capabilities of artificial agents improve, they are being increasingly deployed to service multiple diverse objectives and stakeholders. However, the composition of these objectives is often performed ad hoc, with no clear justification. This paper takes a normative approach to multi-objective agency: from a set of intuitively appealing axioms, it is shown that Markovian aggregation of Markovian reward functions is not possible when the time preference (discount factor) for each objective may vary. It follows that optimal multi-objective agents must admit rewards that are non-Markovian with respect to the individual objectives. To this end, a practical non-Markovian aggregation scheme is proposed, which overcomes the impossibility with only one additional parameter for each objective. This work offers new insights into sequential, multi-objective agency and intertemporal choice, and has practical implications for the design of AI systems deployed to serve multiple generations of principals with varying time preference.
Atomistic study on cooling rate induced nanoindentation properties of Additively Manufactured Inconel-718

Inconel-718's compatibility with additive manufacturing (AM) has made it a center of attention for researchers. This paper focuses on how cooling rates affect the hardness of AM Inconel-718. To study the AM process, monocrystalline and polycrystalline Inconel-718 layers were added to a pristine substrate and equilibrated at 2000 K before being cooled to 300 K using cooling rates ranging from 5 K/ps to 100 K/ps, as well as an exponential cooling rate. The layers were then subjected to atomistic nanoindentation simulation to analyze the nanomechanical response, including hardness, dislocation density, microstructure, and surface imprints, at different cooling rates. Load-displacement (P-h) curves were plotted for each cooling rate. The findings of this study provide crucial insights into the effect of cooling rate on the nanoindentation-based response of additively manufactured Inconel-718. These insights can aid in the design of high-performance components for various applications