Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Heat Wave Intensity Drives Sublethal Reproductive Costs in a Tidepool Copepod

Synopsis Physiological stress may induce sublethal effects on fitness by limiting energy availability and shifting energy allocation, which can incur reproductive costs. Sublethal reproductive costs may affect vital rates, linking stress events such as heat waves to population demography. Here, we test the hypothesis that heat wave intensity and consecutive days of exposure to heat wave temperatures impact survival and individual reproductive success. We subjected groups of the marine harpacticoid copepod, Tigriopus californicus, to 6 heat wave regimes that differed in maximum exposure temperature, 26°C or 32°C, and number of consecutive exposure days (1, 2, or 7), and predicted that survival and reproductive costs would increase with heat wave intensity and duration. We measured individual survival and offspring production during the heat waves and for 2 weeks following the last day of each experimental heat wave. Despite similar survivorship between the 2 maximum temperature treatments, sublethal effects of heat wave intensity were observed. Consistent with our predictions, individuals that experienced the higher maximum temperature 32°C heat waves produced fewer offspring overall than those that experienced the 26°C heat wave. Furthermore, the number of naupliar larvae (nauplii) per clutch was lower in the 32°C group for egg clutches produced immediately after the final day of exposure. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that increasing thermal stress can lead to sublethal costs, even with no discernible effects on mortality. Heat waves may not always have lethal effects on individuals, especially for individuals that are adapted to routine exposures to high temperatures, such as those occupying the high intertidal. Costs, however, associated with stress and/or reduced performance due to non-linearities, can affect short-term demographic rates. The effect of these short-term sublethal perturbations is needed to fully understand the potential for population rescue and evolution in the face of rapid climate change.
Obesity and lifestyle behaviours among in-school children in Oman.

Background Many countries are experiencing an increasing prevalence of childhood obesity and this needs to be carefully addressed. Aims To determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity and the sociodemographic factors and lifestyle risk behaviours associated with obesity among in-school children in Al Buraimi Governorate, Oman. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study among 714 male and female in-school children aged 6-17 years in 14 government schools in Al Buraimi Governorate, Oman, from April to July 2019. Data were collected on the sociodemographic characteristics and lifestyle of the students using a self-administered questionnaire. The students' height, weight and waist circumference were also measured. The BMI-for-age growth charts cutoff reference standards of the WHO were used to determine weight category. Central obesity was assessed by calculating the waist-to-height ratio, and the waist-toheight ratio cutoff of 0.50 was used to identify central obesity in both boys and girls. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS version 21, involving both descriptive and inferential statistics. Results A total of 714 students were included. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was 12.3% and 16.3% respectively, and 21.4% of the students had central obesity. Lifestyle risk behaviours were significantly associated with student's age, sex and mother's education (P < 0.05). Predictors of obesity were: unhealthy eating habits (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 5.20; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.50-10.70), sedentary screen-based activities (AOR = 1.54; 95% CI: 1.05-2.26), inadequate night-time sleep duration (AOR = 0.60; 95% CI: 0.34-1.00), sibling obesity (AOR = 2.24; 95% CI: 1.55-3.25), paternal obesity (AOR = 1.66; 95% CI: 1.10-2.50) and maternal obesity (AOR = 1.64; 95% CI: 1.10-2.45). Conclusion There is a need for effective health promotion programmes targeting in-school children in Oman, as well as regular monitoring of lifestyle behaviours associated with overweight and obesity among the younger populations. Larger studies are needed to understand the predictors of overweight and obesity among in-school children in Oman and to design relevant school-based interventions to prevent obesity among young Omanis.
KJR Honors Most Impactful Article and Distinguished Reviewers for 2023

Copyright © 2023 The Korean Society of Radiology At the annual Korean Congress of Radiology (KCR), it is a tradition upheld by the Korean Journal of Radiology (KJR) to honor the authors of the most impactful original research article and, occasionally, the most impactful review article. Another longstanding custom at KCR is the Editor's Recognition Award for Distinguished Reviewers, which serves to acknowledge select KJR reviewers who have exhibited exceptional review performance. Since 2021, KJR has also started publishing the names of award recipients in an editorial as a way to more effectively recognize their contributions to the journal [1]. The recipient of the 2023 Most Impactful KJR Article Award is Joo Hee Kim (ORCID 0000-0002-0200-5628; Department of Radiology, Veterans Health Service Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea; currently at Severance Hospital) for the paper titled, “Validation of Deep-Learning Image Reconstruction for Low-Dose Chest Computed Tomography Scan: Emphasis on Image Quality and Noise” [2]. This paper was chosen from among the original research articles published in the journal over the past three years. The study focuses on deep learning-based denoising in computed tomography (CT) imaging, which stands as one of the most promising and practical applications of artificial intelligence in radiology. The study is of significant clinical relevance and importance, as the technology it discusses KJR Honors Most Impactful Article and Distinguished Reviewers for 2023
An Action Research on Cl2 Writing Instruction

: Writing instruction is a challenge, esp. for teaching Chinese as a second language. During the writing instruction for international students in China, the research team conducted two rounds of action research in 12 weeks. It was found that: 1) Oral output exercises on the writing topics can significantly improve learners' composition performance and writing skills; 2) Cultivating learners’ observing, reasoning and imagining ability through Q & A tasks can effectively improve their writing ability; 3) Decomposition of writing tasks, providing “vocabulary chains” for learners, and laying “small steps” as “scaffolding” for learners can enhance their writing confidence and strengthen their learning motivation; 4) Oral fluency practice is still indispensable in teaching international students Chinese writing.
Analyse diachronique des changements floristiques sur un archipel méditerranéen péri-urbain (îles du Frioul, Marseille)

Les systemes insulaires constituent des systemes tres sensibles aux perturbations. Celles-ci peuvent, en effet, y provoquer des modifications flonstiques plus ou moins importantes. La presente etude vise a analyser les changements subis par la flore de l'archipel mediterraneen du Frioul (Marseille) en l'espace de 60 ans. Pour cela a ete realisee une comparaison des corteges floristiques, entre 1938 et 1997, sur les deux principales iles de l'archipel : Ratonneau et Pomegues. Les donnees ont ete traitees au niveau fonctionnel, en attribuant, a chaque espece vegetale, son type biologiquc, son mode de dissemination, sa strategie demographique et son type biogeographique. Les especes nouvellement implantees sur l'archipel ont servi de descripteur privilegie. Ainsi, nous avons constate : i) une preponderance des therophytcs dans les taxons nouvellement implantes, ii)une relative constancc dans les pourcentages des differents types de dissemination, avec une predominance des taxons anemochores, iii) une tendance a l'augmentation des taxons ruderaux, plus marquee sur Ratonneau que sur Pomegues, iv) une legere diminution des taxons de type mediterraneen sur Ratonneau. Ces changements des caracteristiques fonctionnelles des corteges floristiques sont dus a un faisceau de perturbations, affectant surtout Ratonneau, et principalement lie a l'activite humaine importante autour de la zone d'habitations de Port-Frioul.
Acoustic Reflex Latency (ARL) Assessment in Malaysian Adults: The Effects of Age, Gender and Stimulus Frequency

In the field of auditory neuroscience, acoustic reflex is a useful clinical test for hearing diagnosis and site of lesion assessment. Nevertheless, the latency measurement of acoustic reflex has not been widely studied and more research efforts are warranted. The present study aimed to determine the influences age, gender and stimulus frequency on acoustic reflex latency (ARL) among healthy adults. Seventy-two Malaysian adults (35 males and 37 females) participated in this prospective comparative study. They were categorized into three age groups: young adults (n = 30, mean age of 26.6 Â± 4.3 years), middle-aged adults (n = 21, mean age of 45.8 Â± 5.7 years) and older adults (n = 21, mean age of 58.2 Â± 1.2 years). They underwent the standard ipsilateral acoustic reflex testing and ARL results were analyzed at 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz. The mean ARL values obtained are in line with the previous reports. While no significant influences of gender and stimulus frequency were found on ARL results, the mean ARL values were statistically higher in the older adults than in the other age groups. To conclude, a notable effect of age was found on the latency of acoustic reflex. In contrast, the ARL results do not appear to be influenced by either gender or stimulus frequency. The age-specific normative data for ARL gathered from the present study (n = 144) are useful for clinical and future research applications, particularly among Malaysian population.
ceRNA networks in gynecological cancers progression and resistance

Abstract Gynecological cancers are the second most common types of cancer in women. Clinical diagnosis of these cancers is often delayed or misdiagnosed due to lack of insight into their tumorigenesis mechanism and specific diagnostic biomarkers. Many studies have demonstrated that competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) modulate the progression and resistance of gynecological cancer through microRNA (miRNA)-mediated mechanisms, which affect gene expression in multiple cancer-related pathways. Here we review studies on the involvement of the ceRNA hypothesis in the progression and resistance of gynaecological cancers to validate some ceRNAs as therapeutic targets and predictive biomarkers.
THE QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF THE LABORATORY OF COMPARATIVE HUMAN COGNITION Reasoning in Trobriand Discourse

Introduction: The question of the nature of reasoning among socalled 'primitive' peoples has a long history in anthropology and philosophy. In the years since the publication of Malinowski's ethnographies of the Trobriand Islands [2], the Trobriand people have appeared several times in the literature of primitive thought as an example of a people whose mode of reasoning is in some fundamental way different from that of Western civilization. Trobriand thinking has been characterized as being irrational, concrete rather than abstract, and dominated by right hemisphere (affective/integrative) rather than left hemisphere (rational/analytic) processes. The strongest and most detailed claims have been made by D. D. Lee (1940, 1949). Working exclusively from Malinowski's published materials, Lee asserts that, "To the Trobriander, events do not fall of themselves into a pattern of causal relationships, as they do for us. " (1949:406) She contends that the language of the Trobriands lacks terms which posit relations among propositions and claims, This does not mean that the Trobrianders are incapable of explaining a sequence in terms of cause and effect, but rather that this relationship is of no significance. (1949:407) Lee's denial of the concept of causal relations leads her to assert, with regard to motivation, that the Trobrianders not only do not interpret acts in terms of intents, but that they do not in fact even have intents. "The Trobriander performs an act because of the act itself, not for its effects. " (1949:408) Lee concludes her 1949 paper as follows: Whether they are given or read into reality by us, temporality, causation, teleology, and relationship in general have neither meaning nor relevance for Trobriand behavior. (1949:4 I 5) Such claims may seem credible when evaluated only in the light of the limited data Lee presents, and, in fact, many anthropologists are impressed by her arguments. For one who has lived in the Trobriands, learned the
Retrolental cohesive ophthalmic viscoelastic injection in severely subluxated cataracts: The “Viscolift technique”

Introduction To describe a novel surgical approach in the management of subluxated cataracts. Methods A 70-year-old Caucasian male with a subluxated cataract in the left eye was referred to our clinic at the Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna- Ophthalmology Unit. The ophthalmic examination revealed a best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of 20/200 in the left eye with monocular diplopia and a severely subluxated NO6/NC6 cataract and the fundus examination did not reveal any vitreoretinal abnormalities. The right eye had 20/20 BCVA and was pseudophakic. After a 300° conjunctival peritomy, a single 25-gauge valved trocar 4 mm was inserted from the limbus in the inferotemporal quadrant, where the cataract was mainly dislocated and a corneal paracentesis to reduce the anterior chamber intraocular pressure was performed. Subsequently cohesive viscoelastic was progressively injected in the retrolental space through the trocar, to recenter and elevate the subluxated cataract. Thereafter, a complete centered capsulorhexis was performed, four capsular hooks were inserted to stabilize the bag, and complete phacoemulsification was performed with intact posterior capsular support. In the end, given the lack of capsular support elements such as the Cionni ring or Ahmed segment, a sutureless scleral fixated intraocular lens was implanted. Results One week after surgery, the BCVA was 20/25, and the final BCVA at 6 months was 20/20, without any complications. Conclusions Retrolental cohesive ophthalmic viscoelastic injection could represent a novel effective surgical approach in recentering and elevating subluxated cataracts, facilitating the capsulorhexis, and reducing the risk of a pars plana approach.
Three-qubit parity gate via simultaneous cross-resonance drives

Native multi-qubit parity gates have various potential quantum computing applications, such as entanglement creation, logical state encoding and parity measurement in quantum error correction. Here, using simultaneous cross-resonance drives on two control qubits with a common target, we demonstrate an efficient implementation of a three-qubit parity gate. We have developed a calibration procedure based on the one for the echoed cross-resonance gate. We confirm that our use of simultaneous drives leads to higher interleaved randomized benchmarking fidelities than a naive implementation with two consecutive CNOT gates. We also demonstrate that our simultaneous parity gates can significantly improve the parity measurement error probability for the heavy-hexagon code on an IBM Quantum processor using seven superconducting qubits with all-microwave control.
Policy Options for Reducing Natural Gas Leaks in Massachusetts

Massachusetts’ natural gas distribution systems – pipes delivering gas for fuel into homes and businesses – are leaking large quantities of gas due to aging and crumbling infrastructure – primarily pipes made of the outdated materials cast iron and unprotected steel. This is problematic in several ways. First, public safety is at risk from explosions and fires from the leaked gas; second, uncombusted methane in natural gas is a more potent global warming gas than carbon dioxide – contributing to climate change; and third, ratepayers bear the cost of the lost gas, as well as the costs of publiclyand privately-owned trees and shrubs that are harmed by soil health damage near the leaks. This master’s project explores actions being taken or considered in Massachusetts and in states with similar gas infrastructure to reduce natural gas leaks, and includes recommendations to achieve further reductions. A comparative case study approach was used to examine Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, and federal policy activity. Methods for the case studies included examination of publiclyavailable materials as well as interviews with individuals from different areas of expertise or leadership with respect to gas distribution systems. Findings indicate that there is no single, simple, or inexpensive solution to eliminating gas leaks from old, leak-prone infrastructure, but that a combination of approaches from the multiple states studied may lead to reductions in gas loss if implemented in Massachusetts. Recommendations include: adoption of consistent measurement and reporting criteria for lost gas from all utilities as modeled by Pennsylvania’s 2013 regulations revisions; creation or expansion of incentives for utilities to reduce leakage such as New York’s innovative benchmark and profit incentive for utilities alongside the federally proposed state revolving loan fund model for capital investments in system upgrade costs; and incorporation of the value of avoided environmental damage into all cost benefit analyses for aging pipeline repair and replacement. Finally, caution is needed in any new regulation or practice adopted to be assured that repair and replacement investments are served, and funding not redirected for additional natural gas capacity, keeping in mind that overreliance on any single fuel could prove a foolish gamble.
Endoplasmic reticulum stress impairs trophoblast syncytialization through upregulation of HtrA4 and causes early-onset preeclampsia

Objective: Syncytiotrophoblasts form via mononuclear cytotrophoblast fusion during placentation and play a critical role in maternal–fetal communication. Impaired syncytialization inevitably leads to pregnancy-associated complications, including preeclampsia. Endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) is reportedly linked with preeclampsia, but little is known about its association with syncytialization. High temperature requirement factor A4 (HtrA4), a placental-specific protease, is responsible for protein quality control and placental syncytialization. This study aimed to investigate the relationship among HtrA4, ERS, and trophoblast syncytialization in the development of early-onset preeclampsia (EO-PE). Methods: HtrA4 expression and ERS in preeclamptic placentas and control placentas were analyzed by Western blotting and qRT-PCR. HtrA4 and ERS localization in placentas was determined by immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence. BeWo cells were used to stimulate the effects of HtrA4 and ERS on syncytialization. Results: HtrA4 expression was upregulated in EO-PE and positively correlated with ERS. HtrA4 activity was increased in preeclampsia. Under normoxia, HtrA4 overexpression in BeWo cells did not alter the ERS level. In addition, treatment with hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) or an ERS inducer increased HtrA4 expression. HtrA4 upregulation suppressed the levels of syncytin-2 and β-HCG in the presence of forskolin (FSK), and this change was exaggerated after ERS activation. In addition, treatment with an ERS inhibitor markedly suppressed FSK-treated cell fusion in a manner related to downregulation of HtrA4 expression. Conclusion: Our results suggest that ERS enables syncytialization of placental development by upregulating HtrA4, but that excessive HtrA4 expression and preexisting ERS impair syncytialization and cause EO-PE.
Manipulating the Fourier spectra of stimuli comprising a two-frame kinematogram to study early visual motion-detecting mechanisms: Perception versus short latency ocular-following responses

Two-frame kinematograms have been extensively used to study motion perception in human vision. Measurements of the direction-discrimination performance limits (Dmax) have been the primary subject of such studies, whereas surprisingly little research has asked how the variability in the spatial frequency content of individual frames affects motion processing. Here, we used two-frame one-dimensional vertical pink noise kinematograms, in which images in both frames were bandpass filtered, with the central spatial frequency of the filter manipulated independently for each image. To avoid spatial aliasing, there was no actual leftward-rightward shift of the image: instead, the phases of all Fourier components of the second image were shifted by ±¼ wavelength with respect to those of the first. We recorded ocular-following responses (OFRs) and perceptual direction discrimination in human subjects. OFRs were in the direction of the Fourier components’ shift and showed a smooth decline in amplitude, well fit by Gaussian functions, as the difference between the central spatial frequencies of the first and second images increased. In sharp contrast, 100% correct perceptual direction-discrimination performance was observed when the difference between the central spatial frequencies of the first and second images was small, deteriorating rapidly to chance when increased further. Perceptual dependencies moved closer to the OFR ones when subjects were allowed to grade the strength of perceived motion. Response asymmetries common for perceptual judgments and the OFRs suggest that they rely on the same early visual processing mechanisms. The OFR data were quantitatively well described by a model which combined two factors: (1) an excitatory drive determined by a power law sum of stimulus Fourier components’ contributions, scaled by (2) a contrast normalization mechanism. Thus, in addition to traditional studies relying on perceptual reports, the OFRs represent a valuable behavioral tool for studying early motion processing on a fine scale.
Bayesian model discovery for reverse-engineering biochemical networks from data

The reverse engineering of gene regulatory networks based on gene expression data is a challenging inference task. A related problem in computational systems biology lies in identifying signalling networks that perform particular functions, such as adaptation. Indeed, for many research questions, there is an ongoing search for efficient inference algorithms that can identify the simplest model among a larger set of related models. To this end, in this paper, we introduce SLInG, a Bayesian sparse likelihood-free inference method using Gibbs sampling. We demonstrate that SLInG can reverse engineer stochastic gene regulatory networks from single-cell data with high accuracy, outperforming state-of-the-art correlation-based methods. Furthermore, we show that SLInG can successfully identify signalling networks that execute adaptation. Sparse hierarchical Bayesian inference thus provides a versatile tool for model discovery in systems biology and beyond.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory

The technical definition of a community greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) inventory is an accounting of GHGs emitted by a community to (and in some cases, removed from) the atmosphere over a period of time, usually a calendar year. The inventory provides the baseline or existing condition from which to measure progress toward a GHG reduction target. This approach of quantifying a problem is not novel for most communities. Transportation studies that quantify the amount of traffic on roadways or housing studies that quantify the housing stock and assess its affordability are just two examples of gathering quantitative data in support of planning.