Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Liquidity Connectedness in the Foreign Exchange Market

We estimate the liquidity connectedness in the spot foreign exchange (FX) market based on an empirical network model. We find that the liquidity connectedness reflects the dynamic market uncertainties around the world. Supply- and demand-side factors are important drivers of liquidity connectedness, especially for the fear sentiment of investors and economic policy uncertainty. The relation between liquidity connectedness on the subsequent carry-trade return in the FX market is nonlinear and V-shaped. Overall, our research indicates that liquidity connectedness is a good measure of currency risk and can reflect the fragility of the FX market.
Simultaneous Enhancement of Tensile Strength and Ductility in Commercial-Purity Aluminum (A1050) by Accumulative Roll Bonding (ARB)

This study presents that A1050 commercial-purity aluminum increases the tensile strength and ductility using the process of accumulative roll bonding (ARB). Although the ductility is rather low after lower numbers of ARB cycles, it increases with increasing numbers of the cycles particularly when the strain rate is lower. The stress-strain behavior is evaluated through microstructure observations and measurements of strain hardening rates. Significant grain refinement with well-defined grain boundaries is responsible for the strength increase. The grain refinement also leads to an increase in strain hardening rate and thus an increase in the ductility.
Medical treatment of pouchitis: a guide for the clinician

Pouchitis is the most common complication in patients who have undergone restorative proctocolectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA). Up to 81% of IPAA patients experience pouchitis, with 40% of patients presenting within the first year of surgery. Common risk factors include genetic mutations, extensive colitis, rheumatologic disorders, and primary sclerosing cholangitis. Currently, there are no medications with approved indications for pouchitis. As such, the conventional treatment of pouchitis is entirely off-label. This paper is intended to be a practical and up-to-date review of available therapies used for the management of pouchitis. The mainstay of treatment for acute pouchitis remains antibiotics, but newer therapeutics have also shown promise in the treatment of chronic pouchitis. Common lifestyle considerations that may play a role in pouchitis are also reviewed. Plain language summary Medical treatment of pouchitis: a guide for the clinician The ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (“pouch”) is the most common way patients who require surgery to remove their colon are able to avoid a permanent ileostomy (“ostomy”). This pouch, created from the small intestines, serves as a reservoir to hold stool. The most common complication after pouch surgery is pouchitis. Pouchitis symptoms include more frequent bowel movements, urgency to defecate, blood in the stool, incontinence, and abdominal pain. This paper is intended to be a practical review of available therapies including medications and lifestyle changes that can be considered for the management of acute pouchitis, chronic pouchitis, and cuffitis.
A Missense POU4F3 Variant Associated with Autosomal Dominant Midfrequency Hearing Loss Alters Subnuclear Localization and Transcriptional Capabilities

Background The pathogenic variant, POU class 4 transcription factor 3 (POU4F3), is reported to cause autosomal dominant nonsyndromic hearing loss (ADNSHL). Previously, we have examined a four-generation midfrequency sensorineural hearing loss (MFSNHL) family (no. 6126) and established POU4F3 c.602T>C (p.Leu201Pro) as a potential disease-causing variant. Objectives We explored the structural and functional alterations that the c.602T>C (p.Leu201Pro) variant enforces on the POU4F3 protein. Methods We utilized wild-type (WT) and mutant (MUT) POU4F3 c.602T>C plasmid incorporation into HeLa cells to assess functional changes, by immunofluorescence and luciferase assays. To predict protein structural alterations in the MUT versus WT POU4F3, we also generated 3D structures to compare both types of POU4F3 proteins. Results The WT POU4F3 is ubiquitously present in the nucleus, whereas the MUT form of POU4F3 exhibits a more restricted nuclear presence. This finding is different from other publications, which report a cytoplasmic localization of the MUT POU4F3. We also demonstrated that, as opposed to WT POU4F3, the MUT POU4F3 had 40% reduced luciferase activity. Conclusions The reduced nuclear presence, combined with reduced transcriptional activity, suggests that the POU4F3 c.602T>C variant alters cellular activity and may contribute to the pathogenicity of POU4F3-related hearing loss. It, also, provides more evidence of the pathophysiological characteristics of MFSNHL.
LasR-regulated proteases in acute vs. chronic lung infection: a double-edged sword

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a gram-negative opportunistic pathogen capable of causing both acute and chronic infections, particularly in individuals with compromised host defenses. The quorum sensing transcriptional activator LasR is widely recognized for its role in regulating the expression of acute virulence factors, notably several secreted proteases which cause direct host damage and subvert host immunity in acute infections. Paradoxically, lung infections caused by LasR-deficient variants, which are found in at least a third of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with chronic P. aeruginosa infections, are associated with accelerated lung disease and increased markers of inflammation compared to infections caused by strains with a functional LasR system. While the loss of LasR function often (although not always) results in impaired production of LasR-controlled acute virulence factors, the implication of this pathoadaptation on host-pathogen interactions and chronic disease pathology is less well recognized. We recently observed that loss of LasR function in lasR variants, which results in impaired secreted protease production, led to increased expression of the membrane-bound surface adhesion molecule mICAM-1 in the airway epithelium, and increased neutrophilic inflammation. Specifically, human airway epithelial cells stimulated with lasR variants had higher mICAM-1 expression and greater neutrophil binding in vitro compared to stimulation with wild-type P. aeruginosa. In a subacute non-lethal P. aeruginosa lung infection model, lasR variant infection also induced higher mICAM-1 expression in the murine airway epithelium and was associated with increased neutrophilic pulmonary inflammation in vivo. Here, we discuss how (loss of) LasR function and LasR-regulated proteases affect host immunity, inflammation and tissue pathology in acute vs. chronic P. aeruginosa lung infection.
Impact of Varying Light and Dew on Ground Cover Estimates from Active NDVI, RGB, and LiDAR

Canopy ground cover (GC) is an important agronomic measure for evaluating crop establishment and early growth. This study evaluates the reliability of GC estimates, in the presence of varying light and dew on leaves, from three different ground-based sensors: (1) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from the commercially available GreenSeeker®; (2) RGB images from a digital camera, where GC was determined as the portion of pixels from each image meeting a greenness criterion (i.e., (Green − Red)/(Green + Red) > 0); and (3) LiDAR using two separate approaches: (a) GC from LiDAR red reflectance (whereby red reflectance less than five was classified as vegetation) and (b) GC from LiDAR height (whereby height greater than 10 cm was classified as vegetation). Hourly measurements were made early in the season at two different growth stages (tillering and stem elongation), among wheat genotypes highly diverse for canopy characteristics. The active NDVI showed the least variation through time and was particularly stable, regardless of the available light or the presence of dew. In addition, between-sample-time Pearson correlations for NDVI were consistently high and significant (P < 0.0001), ranging from 0.89 to 0.98. In comparison, GC from LiDAR and RGB showed greater variation across sampling times, and LiDAR red reflectance was strongly influenced by the presence of dew. Excluding times when the light was exceedingly low, correlations between GC from RGB and NDVI were consistently high (ranging from 0.79 to 0.92). The high reliability of the active NDVI sensor potentially affords a high degree of flexibility for users by enabling sampling across a broad range of acceptable light conditions.
Entry of antiepileptic drugs (valproate and lamotrigine) into the developing rat brain.

Background: Women with epilepsy face difficult choices whether to continue antiepileptic drug treatment during pregnancy, as uncontrolled seizures carry great risk to mother and fetus but continuing treatment may have adverse effects on baby's development. This study aimed at evaluating antiepileptic drug entry into developing brain. Methods: Anaesthetised pregnant, non-pregnant adult females, postnatal and fetal rats were injected intraperitoneally with different doses, single or in combinations, of valproate and lamotrigine, all within clinical range. Injectate included 3H-labelled drug. After 30min, CSF, blood and brain samples were obtained; radioactivity was measured using liquid scintillation counting. Some animals were also exposed to valproate in feed throughout pregnancy and into neonatal period. Drug levels were measured by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Results are given as CSF or tissue/plasma% as index of drug entry. Results: Entry of valproate into brain and CSF was higher at E19 and P4 compared to adult but was not dose-dependent; placental transfer increased significantly at highest dose of 100mg/Kg. Lamotrigine entry into the brain was dose dependent only at E19. Chronic valproate treatment, or combination of valproate and lamotrigine had little effect on either drug entry, except for reduced valproate brain entry in adult brain with chronic treatment. Placental transfer decreased significantly after chronic valproate treatment. LC-MS measurement of valproate in adults confirmed that rat plasma values were within the clinical range and CSF/plasma and brain/plasma ratios for LC-MS and 3H-valproate were similar. Conclusion: Results suggest that entry of valproate may be higher in developing brain, the capacity of barrier mechanism is mostly unaffected by doses within the clinical range, with or without addition of lamotrigine. Chronic valproate exposure may result in upregulation in cellular mechanisms restricting its entry into the brain. Entry of lamotrigine was little different at different ages and was not dose dependent.
Service Migration Policy Optimization considering User Mobility for E-Healthcare Applications

Mobile edge computing (MEC) is an emerging technology that provides cloud services at the edge of network to enable latency-critical and resource-intensive E-healthcare applications. User mobility is common in MEC. User mobility can result in an interruption of ongoing edge services and a dramatic drop in quality of service. Service migration has a great potential to address the issues and brings inevitable cost for the system. In this paper, we propose a service migration solution based on migration zone and formulate service migration cost with a comprehensive model that captures the key challenges. Then, we formulate service migration problem into Markov decision process to obtain optimal service migration policies that decide where to migrate in a limited area. We propose three algorithms to resolve the optimization problem given by the formulated model. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of our proposed algorithms by carrying out extensive experiments. We show that the proposed service migration approach reduces the total cost by up to 3 times compared to no migration and outperforms the general solution in terms of the total expected reward.
Antibacterial Activity and Stability of Half-Fin Anchovy (Setipinna taty) Protein Hydrolysate

Half-fin anchovy (Setipinna taty) was determine for its amino acid composition. The antibacterial activities of half- fin anchovy hydrolysates separately derived from flavor protease, trypsin, pepsin, alkaline protease and papain digestion were evaluated using Escherichia coli. Half-fin anchovy was rich in essential amino acids. The pepsin hydrolysate exhibited the highest antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and its relative molecular mass ranged from 3000 to 1000. In addition, pepsin hydrolyzed half-fin anchovy also exhibited high thermal stability and enhanced antibacterial activity at lower acidic pH values. Moreover, pepsin hydrolyzed half-fin anchovy exhibited high tolerance to trypsin and β-lactamase. Therefore, pepsin hydrolyzed half-fin anchovy appears to be a promising natural antibacterial agent.
Aorta-on-a-chip reveals impaired mitochondrial dynamics as a therapeutic target for aortic aneurysm in bicuspid aortic valve disease

Background: Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) is the most common congenital cardiovascular disease in general population and is frequently associated with the development of thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA). There is no effective strategy to intervene with TAA progression due to an incomplete understanding of the pathogenesis. Insufficiency of NOTCH1 expression is highly related to BAV-TAA, but the underlying mechanism remains to be clarified. Methods: A comparative proteomics analysis was used to explore the biological differences between non-diseased and BAV-TAA aortic tissues. A microfluidics-based aorta-on-a-chip model was constructed to evaluate the effect of NOTCH1 deficiency on contractile phenotype and mitochondrial dynamics of human aortic smooth muscle cells (HAoSMCs). Results: Protein analyses of human aortic tissues showed the insufficient expression of NOTCH1 and impaired mitochondrial dynamics in BAV-TAA. HAoSMCs with NOTCH1-knockdown exhibited reduced contractile phenotype and were accompanied by attenuated mitochondrial fusion. Furthermore, we identified that mitochondrial fusion activators (leflunomide and teriflunomide) or mitochondrial fission inhibitor (Mdivi-1) partially rescued the disorders of mitochondrial dynamics in HAoSMCs derived from BAV-TAA patients. Conclusions: The aorta-on-a-chip model simulates the human pathophysiological parameters of aorta biomechanics and provides a platform for molecular mechanism studies of aortic disease and related drug screening. This aorta-on-a-chip model and human tissue proteomic analysis revealed that impaired mitochondrial dynamics could be a potential therapeutic target for BAV-TAA. Funding: National Key R&D Program of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project, Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, and Shanghai Municipal Education Commission.
Clinical utilisation of the Infant Monitor of vocal Production (IMP) for early identification of communication impairment in young infants at-risk of cerebral palsy: a prospective cohort study

ABSTRACT Aim To report prospective longitudinal data of early vocaliszations of infants identified “at-risk” of cerebral palsy (CP) for early identification of communication impairment. Method This case-control longitudinal prospective cohort study reports on the assessment of 36 infants, 18 identified as at-risk of CP at the time of enrolment and 18 typically developing (TD) children, at three time points: 6 months, 9 months and 12 months of age, Data were obtained through criterion and norm referenced assessments of vocaliszation behaviors. Results Early vocal behaviors of infants identified as at-risk of CP did not differ from their age matched peers at 6 months of age, however, significant group differences emerged at 9 and 12 months when pre-canonical and canonical babble typically emerge. Generalized linear mixed models analysis showed that the rate of development of early language ability and more complex speech-related vocal behaviors was slower for infants at risk of CP when compared to TD infants, with over 75% of infants with CP showing below normal vocal production and impaired language by 12 months of age. Interpretation Our data suggest characteristics of infant vocalizations associated with pre-canonical and canonical babbling provide a strong evidence base for predicting communication outcomes in infants at risk of CP.
[Role of long noncoding RNA SNHG3 in regulating proliferation, migration and invasion of cervical cancer SiHa cells].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the regulatory role of the long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) small nucleolar host gene 3 (SNHG3) in proliferation, migration and invasion of human cervical cancer cell line SiHa. OBJECTIVE Array data were retrieved from GEO database to analyze the expression levels of SNHG3 in cervical cancer and adjacent normal tissues. SiHa cells were transfected with a small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting SNHG3, and the changes in the transcriptional levels of lncRNA SNHG3 and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers N-cadherin, Snail, vimentin and E-cadherin were detected using real-time quantitative PCR; the protein expressions of N-cadherin, Snail, vimentin and E-cadherin were determined using Western blotting. Cell counting kit-8 (CCK8) assay was utilized to assess the proliferation capacity of the transfected cells. Wound healing assay and Transwell assay were performed to evaluate the transversal and longitudinal migration and invasion abilities of the cells. OBJECTIVE SNHG3 was over-expressed in cervical cancer tissues and SiHa cells. In SiHa cells, knocking down SNHG3 significantly inhibited the proliferation (P < 0.001), migration (P < 0.01) and invasion abilities (P < 0.001) of the cells, down-regulated the expression levels of N-cadherin, Snail and vimentin (P < 0.001) and up-regulated the expression of E-cadherin (P < 0.001). OBJECTIVE SNHG3 may promote the proliferation, migration and invasion of SiHa cells by activating the EMT signaling pathway.
Engaging family members in maternal, infant and young child nutrition activities in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A systematic scoping review

Abstract The influence of fathers, grandmothers and other family members on maternal, infant and young child nutrition practices has been well documented for decades, yet many social and behavioural interventions continue to reach only mothers. While recent guidelines recommend involving fathers, grandmothers and other family members in maternal and child nutrition, we lack a comprehensive review of interventions that have engaged them. This scoping review aimed to address this gap by describing social and behavioural interventions to engage family members in maternal and child nutrition in low‐ and middle‐income countries. We systematically searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Global Health and CINAHL for peer‐reviewed studies meeting inclusion criteria. We screened 6,570 abstracts, evaluated 179 full‐text articles, and included 87 articles from 63 studies. Studies reported a broad range of approaches to engage fathers, grandmothers and other family members to support maternal nutrition (n = 6); breastfeeding (n = 32); complementary feeding (n = 6) and multiple maternal and child nutrition practices (n = 19). Interventions were facility and community based; included individual and group‐based interpersonal communication, community mobilization, mass media and mHealth; and reached mothers and family members together or separately. Most interventions were located within the health sector; rare exceptions included nutrition‐sensitive agriculture, social protection, early child development and community development interventions. Few interventions addressed gender norms, decision‐making, and family dynamics or described formative research or theories informing intervention design. These diverse studies can shed light on innovative programme approaches to increase family support for maternal and child nutrition.
Neural-Network-Based Adaptive Tracking Control for Nonlinear Multiagent Systems: The Observer Case

This article focuses on the neural-network (NN)-based adaptive tracking control issue for a class of high-order nonlinear multiagent systems both subjected to the immeasurable state variables and unknown external disturbance. Combining with the radial basis function NNs (RBF NNs), the composite disturbance observer and state observer for each follower are established, respectively. The purpose of this work is to develop NN-based adaptive tracking control schemes such that the output of each follower ultimately tracks that of the leader and all the signals of the closed-loop systems are semiglobally uniformly ultimately bounded by utilizing the backstepping technique. Furthermore, so as to cope with the sparsity of the control resources, the proposed method is extended to the event-triggered case and the adaptive event-triggered tracking control protocol is formulated for nonlinear multiagent systems. Finally, the numerical example is performed to verify the efficacy of the proposed approach.
A Broadly Applicable Method for Characterizing the Slope of the Electrically Evoked Compound Action Potential Amplitude Growth Function

Objectives: Amplitudes of electrically evoked compound action potentials (eCAPs) as a function of the stimulation level constitute the eCAP amplitude growth function (AGF). The slope of the eCAP AGF (i.e., rate of growth of eCAP amplitude as a function of stimulation level), recorded from subjects with cochlear implants (CIs), has been widely used as an indicator of survival of cochlear nerve fibers. However, substantial variation in the approach used to calculate the slope of the eCAP AGF makes it difficult to compare results across studies. In this study, we developed an improved slope-fitting method by addressing the limitations of previously used approaches and ensuring its application for the estimation of the maximum slopes of the eCAP AGFs recorded in both animal models and human listeners with various etiologies. Design: The new eCAP AGF fitting method was designed based on sliding window linear regression. Slopes of the eCAP AGF estimated using this new fitting method were calculated and compared with those estimated using four other fitting methods reported in the literature. These four methods were nonlinear regression with a sigmoid function, linear regression, gradient calculation, and boxcar smoothing. The comparison was based on the fitting results of 72 eCAP AGFs recorded from 18 acutely implanted guinea pigs, 46 eCAP AGFs recorded from 23 chronically implanted guinea pigs, and 2094 eCAP AGFs recorded from 200 human CI users from 4 patient populations. The effect of the choice of input units of the eCAP AGF (linear versus logarithmic) on fitting results was also evaluated. Results: The slope of the eCAP AGF was significantly influenced by the slope-fitting method and by the choice of input units. Overall, slopes estimated using all five fitting methods reflected known patterns of neural survival in human patient populations and were significantly correlated with speech perception scores. However, slopes estimated using the newly developed method showed the highest correlation with spiral ganglion neuron density among all five fitting methods for animal models. In addition, this new method could reliably and accurately estimate the slope for 4 human patient populations, while the performance of the other methods was highly influenced by the morphology of the eCAP AGF. Conclusions: The novel slope-fitting method presented in this study addressed the limitations of the other methods reported in the literature and successfully characterized the slope of the eCAP AGF for various animal models and CI patient populations. This method may be useful for researchers in conducting scientific studies and for clinicians in providing clinical care for CI users.