Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nicotinamide mononucleotides alleviated neurological impairment via anti-neuroinflammation in traumatic brain injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the main factors of death and disability in adults with a high incidence worldwide. Nervous system injury, as the most common and serious secondary injury after TBI, determines the prognosis of TBI patients. NAD+ has been confirmed to have neuroprotective effects in neurodegenerative diseases, but its role in TBI remains to be explored. In our study, nicotinamide mononucleotides (NMN), a direct precursor of NAD+, was used to explore the specific role of NAD+ in rats with TBI. Our results showed that NMN administration markedly attenuated histological damages, neuronal death, brain edema, and improved neurological and cognitive deficits in TBI rats. Moreover, NMN treatment significantly suppressed activated astrocytes and microglia after TBI, and further inhibited the expressions of inflammatory factor. Besides, RNA sequencing was used to access the differently expressed genes (DEGs) and their enriched (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) KEGG pathways between Sham, TBI, and TBI+NMN. We found that 1589 genes were significantly changed in TBI and 792 genes were reversed by NMN administration. For example, inflammatory factor CCL2, toll like receptors TLR2 and TLR4, proinflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-11 and IL1rn which were activated after TBI and were decreased by NMN treatment. GO analysis also demonstrated that inflammatory response was the most significant biological process reversed by NMN treatment. Moreover, the reversed DEGs were typically enriched in NF-Kappa B signaling pathway, Jak-STAT signaling pathway and TNF signaling pathway. Taken together, our data showed that NMN alleviated neurological impairment via anti-neuroinflammation in traumatic brain injury and the mechanisms may involve TLR2/4-NF-κB signaling.
From “What Works” to “Why it Works” – From a Humean to an Aristotelian Understanding of Causality

Purpose: Authors of this theoretical article are questioning Hume's view on causality by arguing for Aristotle’s pluralistic view as an alternative strategy for social work research and practice. Methods: Aristotle's notion of causality is applied to discuss its relevance, and then tested on a real case, thereby illustrating how it can contribute to explain why something works. Results: Different types of causes can reveal characteristics that are preconditional for professional's and service user's mutual roles in enhancing outcomes. They can further reveal the architecture of the intervention; the underlying processes for actions to reach a desired goal. Discussion: To deliver knowledge of relevance in social work, one needs to explain the results of an intervention through causal analysis as well as understanding the content and processes of it. Aristotle's forms of causality make it possible to take the contextual historicism of social phenomenon into consideration and give knowledge beyond effects.
Clinical Factors to Predict Difficult Ureter during Ureteroscopic Lithotripsy

Objective To identify risk factors for difficult ureters during ureteroscopic lithotripsy and to determine the appropriate indications for preoperative stenting. Methods We retrospectively analyzed 156 ureteroscopic procedures for upper urinary tract stones after excluding those with preoperative stenting or percutaneous nephrostomy. Traceability of the ureter was assessed by two urologists. Traceability was defined as positive if either or both urologists discerned the ureter in all slices on preoperative plain computed tomography. Patients' backgrounds were compared between the nondifficult ureter and difficult ureter groups. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to evaluate the relationships between difficult ureters and other clinical factors. Results Of 156 patients, 31 (19.9%) were classified into the difficult ureter group. The positive traceability was higher in the nondifficult ureter group (48.3% vs. 83.2%, P < 0.001). The major axis was smaller in the difficult ureter group than in the nondifficult ureter group (8.8 ± 3.9 mm vs. 10.9 ± 4.5 mm, P < 0.018). A major axis <8 mm (odds ratio: 4.495, 95% confidence interval: 1.791–11.278, and P=0.001), negative traceability (odds ratio: 7.565, 95% confidence interval: 2.693–21.248, and P < 0.001), smoking status (odds ratio: 3.196, 95% confidence interval: 1.164–8.773, and P=0.024), and absence of diabetes mellitus (odds ratio: 5.813, 95% confidence interval: 1.121–30.142, and P=0.036) were identified as independent predictors of difficult ureters on multivariate logistic regression analysis. Conclusion Patients with smaller stones, negative traceability, ongoing tobacco consumption, and absence of diabetes mellitus were at higher risk of difficult ureters. In these patients, preoperative stenting may be considered.
On the number of branches of an 1-dimensional semianalytic set

Let F=(Flf •••, F n -i) : (R , 0)->(R-\ 0) be a germ of an analytic map, and let P: (B, O-KJB*", 0) be a representative mapping of F, where B is a small ball centered at the origin in R. Let us donote X=F~\0)Γ\B. Assume that 0<=R is an isolated singular point in X (i.e. 0(=R is an isolated point in {x^X\mnklDP(x)2<n-l}). If B is small enough, the set X-{0} is void or a finite disjoint union of analytic curves. Let G: (RJ, 0)->GR, 0) be an analytic germ. We may suppose that a representative G of G is defined in B,
Prevalence of Transient Hypothyroidism in Children Diagnosed with Congenital Hypothyroidism between 2000 and 2016

Newborn screening (NBS) for congenital hypothyroidism (CH) was introduced in Switzerland in 1977, which allowed for the preclinical, biochemical diagnosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of transient CH (tCH) in the canton of Zurich. In this analytical cohort study, all newborns born in the canton of Zurich, between the 1st of January 2000 and the 30st of June 2016, with a TSH value above 15 mU/L (whole blood) were included. There were 115 cases out of 247,918 babies born during the study period. However, 23 cases had to be excluded due to missing data. The definite diagnosis was made after a thyroxine withdrawal at 2 years of age. The total prevalence of confirmed CH and the female to male ratio (f/m) were 1:2695 and 2.17:1; for permanent CH (pCH), 1:3443 and 2.8:1; and for tCH, 1:12,396 and 1:1, respectively. The TSH value was significantly higher in pCH compared to tCH, at 130.3 (62.9–171.9) and 36.4 (26.5–53.3) (median and interquartile range), respectively (p < 0.001). The prevalences found for congenital hypothyroidism and its transient form are comparable to previous studies. TSH concentration at birth was predictive for the further course of the disease. Low birth weight correlated with a tCH, whereas low gestational age did not. The dominance of the female sex in congenital hypothyroidism is supported by a gender ratio of 2.17:1.
Intersection homology and torus actions

in the Bialynicki-Birula decomposition of X (see 15, 6, 10, 13]). The same formula holds for appropriate integers my when C* is replaced by a torus T=(C*)r. In [9] it is shown that the formula (0.1) is valid even when X is singular, provided that the Bialynicki-Birula decomposition is "good". The aim of this paper is to generalize (0.1) to the case when X is singular in a different way, which involves replacing ordinary homology by intersection homology (with respect to the middle perversity). However only rational coefficients are considered. When X is nonsingular its intersection homology and ordinary homology coincide, but when X is singular its intersection homology behaves better in many respects than its ordinary cohomology. It is shown that when X is singular, just as when X is nonsingular, the rational intersection homology of X is determined by the action of T on an arbitrarily small neighborhood of the fixed point set XT . As might be expected, the formula (0.1) does not carry over directly when intersection homology replaces ordinary homology. The terms Hi_2m (F ; Z) appearing in the right-hand side are replaced by hypercohomology groups of certain complexes of sheaves over the F which depend upon how the F meet the singularities of X (see They y orem 2.3). 1 of this paper contains a review of a proof of (0.1) for rational coefficients which uses equivariant Morse theory. In ? 2 it is shown how this proof can be extended to apply to singular varieties when intersection homology is used. The
MFA-UNet model research for license plate image segmentation

As an important part of license plate recognition system, research for the license plate detection has made great progress in recent years, it is still affected by complex environments such as weather, distance, angle and brightness. Therefore, a MFA-UNet model is proposed in this paper, which is based on the UNet model structure and combines the multi-scale convolution feature fusion module and the spatial attention mechanism. In the last two layers of the up-sampling stage, the multi-scale dilated convolution feature fusion module is used to cancel the pooling operation, which ensures that the receptive field can be increased without losing the image resolution, and the image features can be enhanced. The attention of the license plate area is increased by introducing a spatial attention mechanism; the learning and training process have been optimized by using the focal loss function. Based the experiments results, accuracy of the model algorithm mentioned in this paper is 4.5% higher than the original UNet in IoU (Intersection over union), and average detection accuracy of the MFA-UNet model on the Chinese City Parking Dataset (CCPD) dataset is 97.8%, which is a great improvement compared with the target detection algorithm.
High emission current density, vertically aligned carbon nanotube mesh, field emitter array

A vertically aligned carbon nanotube mesh emitter array has been fabricated and tested, giving a current density of up to 1.5 A/cm2, and a threshold field of 1.5 V/μm for a current density 1 mA/cm2. Low temperature carbon nanotube growth is used to fabricate the carbon nanotube mesh emitter arrays significantly reducing the cost of the fabrication of large area electron emitters. This system exhibits ultralong lifetime.
A model for a binary variable with time-censored observations

SUMMARY A binary variable can specify the incidence of a particular disease, Y = 1 or a lifetime free of the disease, Y = 0. In a study, some subjects have Y = 1 recorded at specified ages. For other subjects, with Y unknown due to incomplete follow-up, the observed follow-up time compared with the usual incidence pattern for the disease gives some information on the possibility that Y = 0. A model for this situation is proposed which combines a logistic relationship for the probability of incidence and an exponential distribution for the time of incidence. The efficiency of the model is compared with that of a logistic model with no time censoring. The behaviour of a logistic model applied without considering the time censoring is also examined.
Manipulating linearly polarized electromagnetic waves using the asymmetric transmission effect of planar chiral metamaterials

In this work, a kind of bilayered chiral metamaterial with double-T-shape combined structure is proposed to exhibit dual-band asymmetric transmission (AT) of linear polarization when the electromagnetic waves propagate forward and backward. Simulated and measured results demonstrate that the proposed metamaterial can rigorously satisfy the AT theorem. The cross-polarized conversion for the measurement reaches a maximum of 95%. In addition, a conspicuous broadband AT effect with the bandwidth of 2.32 GHz can be obtained by simply adjusting the thickness of the dielectric layer. Such a bilayered approach and adjustable property can be generalized to a wide variety of meta-dielectric metamaterial geometries, and the proposed metamaterial can effectually manipulate the linearly polarized electromagnetic waves.
Growth stresses and cracking in GaN films on (111) Si grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. II. Graded AlGaN buffer layers

Intrinsic stress evolution during the growth of GaN by metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition on (111) Si, using an AlN buffer layer, was monitored in situ with a multiple-beam optical stress sensor. Data show that stress evolution takes place in two stages: an initial compressive regime up to about 100nm in thickness followed by a transition to a constant tensile stress, ∼0.3GPa, in films up to 1μm thick. Correlation of the stress evolution with surface morphological evolution by sequential atomic force microscopy images clearly shows that the incremental stress remains compressive in spite of grain coalescence, which is generally considered to be the dominant source of tensile stress in GaN films on sapphire. Rather, the most dominant feature accompanying the transition in stress from compressive to tensile, which takes place after grain coalescence, is an increase in the lateral size of individual islands. It is shown that this incremental tensile stress accompanied by an increase in lateral grain siz.
The sungrazing comet group. II

Previous work is updated with the inclusion of data on the 15 sungrazing comets that appear to have been detected by the Solwind and SMM coronagraphs during 1979-1989. These objects are almost certainly Kreutz sungrazers, and the SMM objects belong a defined Subgroup I. A case is made for the association of the Solwind objects with this subgroup. It is shown that there is a prevailing direction to the orbital evolution, with nodal longitudes tending to increase and perihelion distances to decrease with time. Genetic relations are indicated and/or confirmed for various members of the comet group. It appears that all the observed Kreutz sungrazers originated in one or the other of two comets that must have appeared around the year 1100. 18 refs.
1/f noise characterization of Ir/p‐Si and Ir/p‐Si1−xGex low Schottky barrier junctions

The electrical noise properties of Ir/p‐Si and Ir/p‐Si1−xGex (x=0.14) Schottky junctions have been studied. The 1/f noise measurements were performed under forward bias over a wide temperature and frequency ranges. The effect of annealing on the noise properties of these junctions was also investigated. Annealed junction shows higher noise level. This was attributed to the defects formation at the metal/semiconductor interface. From the temperature dependence of the 1/f noise power density, an optimum operating temperature for as deposited and annealed junctions was found. The Hooge parameter, αH, is derived from the experimental data over a wide range of temperature for the deposited junctions. Values of 2.26×10−6 and 1.78×10−6 were obtained at room temperature for Ir/p‐Si and Ir/p‐Si1−xGex, respectively.
Comparative Transcriptome Profiles of Human HaCaT Cells in Response to Gynostemma pentaphyllum Extracts Obtained Using Three Independent Methods by RNA Sequencing

Gynostemma pentaphyllum (GP) is widely used in herbal medicine. In this study, we developed a method for the large-scale production of GP cells using plant tissue culture techniques combined with bioreactors. Six metabolites (uridine, adenosine, guanosine, tyrosine, phenylalanine, and tryptophan) were identified in GP extracts. Transcriptome analyses of HaCaT cells treated with GP extracts using three independent methods were conducted. Most differentially expressed genes (DEGs) from the GP-all condition (combination of three GP extracts) showed similar gene expression on treatment with the three individual GP extracts. The most significantly upregulated gene was LTBP1. Additionally, 125 and 51 genes were upregulated and downregulated, respectively, in response to the GP extracts. The upregulated genes were associated with the response to growth factors and heart development. Some of these genes encode components of elastic fibers and the extracellular matrix and are associated with many cancers. Genes related to folate biosynthesis and vitamin D metabolism were also upregulated. In contrast, many downregulated genes were associated with cell adhesion. Moreover, many DEGs were targeted to the synaptic and neuronal projections. Our study has revealed the functional mechanisms of GP extracts’ anti-aging and photoprotective effects on the skin using RNA sequencing.
A Fully Flexible Circuit Implementation of Clique-Based Neural Networks in 65-nm CMOS

Clique-based neural networks implement low-complexity functions working with a reduced connectivity between neurons. Thus, they address very specific applications operating with a very low-energy budget. However, the implementation in the state of the art is not flexible and a fabricated circuit is only usable in a unique use case. Besides, the silicon area of hardwired circuits grows exponentially with the number of implemented neurons that is prohibitive for embedded applications. This paper proposes a flexible and iterative neural architecture capable of implementing multiple types of clique-based neural networks of up to 3968 neurons. The circuit has been integrated in an ST 65-nm CMOS ASIC and occupies a 0.21-mm2 silicon surface area. The proper functioning of the circuit is illustrated using two application cases: a keyword recovery application and an electrocardiogram classification. The neurons outputs are updated 83 ns after a stimulation, and a neuron needs an energy of 115 fJ to propagate a change at the input to its output.
Field-emission sites on unpolished stainless steel

An electron-beam tracking technique has been used to locate the sources of field-emitted electrons for subsequent in situ examination with a scanning electron microscope. The electrical characteristics of individual emitters were measured and used to estimate their physical size assuming simple geometric models. Micrographs of two of the locations are shown both before and after the application of an electric field sufficiently large to destroy the emission source.
Precision Medicine in Glaucoma: Artificial Intelligence, Biomarkers, Genetics and Redox State

Glaucoma is a multifactorial neurodegenerative illness requiring early diagnosis and strict monitoring of the disease progression. Current exams for diagnosis and prognosis are based on clinical examination, intraocular pressure (IOP) measurements, visual field tests, and optical coherence tomography (OCT). In this scenario, there is a critical unmet demand for glaucoma-related biomarkers to enhance clinical testing for early diagnosis and tracking of the disease’s development. The introduction of validated biomarkers would allow for prompt intervention in the clinic to help with prognosis prediction and treatment response monitoring. This review aims to report the latest acquisitions on biomarkers in glaucoma, from imaging analysis to genetics and metabolic markers.
Harnessing Real-World Evidence to Advance Cancer Research

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) form a cornerstone of oncology research by generating evidence about the efficacy of therapies in selected patient populations. However, their implementation is often resource- and cost-intensive, and their generalisability to patients treated in routine practice may be limited. Real-world evidence leverages data collected about patients receiving clinical care in routine practice outside of clinical trial settings and provides opportunities to identify and address gaps in clinical trial evidence. This review outlines the strengths and limitations of real-world and RCT evidence and proposes a framework for the complementary use of the two bodies of evidence to advance cancer research. There are challenges to the implementation of real-world research in oncology, including heterogeneity of data sources, timely access to high-quality data, and concerns about the quality of methods leveraging real-world data, particularly causal inference. Improved understanding of the strengths and limitations of real-world data and ongoing efforts to optimise the conduct of real-world evidence research will improve its reliability, understanding and acceptance, and enable the full potential of real-world evidence to be realised in oncology practice.
Oxidised gold lode stains black: The historical Encardideira (Chico Rei) deposit, Ouro Preto, Brazil

The historical Encardideira gold mine, currently known as Chico Rei, represents a rare case of gold mine owned by a freed slave in Brazil's colonial times. The term ‘encardideira’ alludes to the property of ingraining dirt on the surface of something. Here, we provide chemical and mineralogical evidence that the Encardideira mine likely had its name from the begriming character of its ore shoots. Gold-mineralised samples are enriched in graphite C, identified as tourmaline-enclosed euhedral graphite, and Mn-oxide minerals, mostly pyrolusite and cryptomelane-like material. Measurements for Au by atomic absorption spectrometry returned Au values above 1 ppm only after cupellation, suggesting the existence of graphite-bound gold in pervasively oxidised rocks. It is hypothesised that graphite-rich ore shoots, with superposition of Mn-oxide minerals, could account for enough gold and softness for manual removal by enslaved miners and their characteristic begriming.
Arboviruses in Mammals in the Neotropics: A Systematic Review to Strengthen Epidemiological Monitoring Strategies and Conservation Medicine

Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) are a diverse group of ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses, with the exception of African swine fever virus, that are transmitted by hematophagous arthropods to a vertebrate host. They are the important cause of many diseases due to their ability to spread in different environments and their diversity of vectors. Currently, there is no information on the geographical distribution of the diseases because the routes of transmission and the mammals (wild or domestic) that act as potential hosts are poorly documented or unknown. We conducted a systematic review from 1967 to 2021 to identify the diversity of arboviruses, the areas, and taxonomic groups that have been monitored, the prevalence of positive records, and the associated risk factors. We identified forty-three arboviruses in nine mammalian orders distributed in eleven countries. In Brazil, the order primates harbor the highest number of arbovirus records. The three most recorded arboviruses were Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Saint Louis encephalitis and West Nile virus. Serum is the most used sample to obtain arbovirus records. Deforestation is identified as the main risk factor for arbovirus transmission between different species and environments (an odds ratio of 1.46 with a 95% confidence interval: 1.34–1.59). The results show an increase in the sampling effort over the years in the neotropical region. Despite the importance of arboviruses for public health, little is known about the interaction of arboviruses, their hosts, and vectors, as some countries and mammalian orders have not yet been monitored. Long-term and constant monitoring allows focusing research on the analysis of the interrelationships and characteristics of each component animal, human, and their environment to understand the dynamics of the diseases and guide epidemiological surveillance and vector control programs. The biodiversity of the Neotropics should be considered to support epidemiological monitoring strategies.