Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A structured review of quality of life in advanced and high‐risk cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma shows the need for more studies and better measures

Abstract Background Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) accounts for nearly a quarter of non‐melanoma skin cancers. Studies reporting Quality of Life (QoL) in this group focus on early stage disease. A small proportion of cSCC patients have high‐risk or advanced disease, with potentially significant QoL impacts, yet are largely overlooked. Aims This structured review appraises measures and published QoL outcomes in this group. Materials & Methods We conducted searches in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHLplus and PsycInfo in June 2020 (updated in October) to identify publications specifically reporting QoL outcomes in this cohort. Returns were reviewed against a strict set of eligibility criteria. Results We identified seven publications for inclusion; three relating to high‐risk cSCC, three to metastatic disease and one to unresectable disease. Publications were appraised for quality using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Only one fulfilled more than two of the five quality criteria. Studies employed a range of patient reported outcome measures to assess QoL, both generic and disease specific. Discussion All studies with multiple time‐points reported stable or improving QoL, however extrapolation of these findings to the cSCC population is not warranted due to study limitations including mixed populations, incomplete data sets or single measurements. We set out to review the QoL literature for high‐risk and advanced cSCC and found a small and disparate body of evidence. Studies varied significantly in terms of study population, design and quality. While the identified studies suggested stable or improving QoL, we question the choice of measures used and highlight the need for further work in this area. Conclusion While there are some published reports about quality of life for patients with early stage cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, these impacts for the high‐risk or advanced cohort are largely unexplored. We conducted a structured review of published measures and outcomes used in this cohort and found a demonstrable need for further, targeted, exploration of patient needs in this area.
Disentangling the Impacts of Anthropogenic Aerosols on Terrestrial Carbon Cycle During 1850–2014

Aerosols have a dimming and cooling effect and change hydrological regimes, thus affecting carbon fluxes, which are sensitive to climate. Aerosols also scatter sunlight, which increases the fraction of diffuse radiation, increasing photosynthesis. There remains no clear conclusion whether the impact of aerosols on land carbon fluxes is larger through diffuse radiation change than through changes in other climate variables. In this study, we quantified the overall physical impacts of anthropogenic aerosols on land C fluxes and explored the contribution from each factor using a set of factorial simulations driven by climate and aerosol data from the IPSL‐CM6A‐LR experiments during 1850–2014. A newly developed land surface model which distinguishes diffuse and direct radiation in canopy radiation transmission, ORCHIDEE_DF, was used. Specifically, a subgrid scheme was developed to distinguish the cloudy and clear sky conditions. We found that anthropogenic aerosol emissions since 1850 cumulatively enhanced the land C sink by 22.6 PgC. Seventy‐eight percent of this C sink enhancement is contributed by aerosol‐induced increase in the diffuse radiation fraction, much larger than the effect of the aerosol‐induced dimming. The cooling of anthropogenic aerosols has different impacts in different latitudes but overall increases the global land C sink. The dominant role of diffuse radiation changes found in this study implies that future aerosol emissions may have a much stronger impacts on the C cycle through changing radiation quality than through changing climate alone. Earth system models need to consider the diffuse radiation fertilization effect to better evaluate the impacts of climate change mitigation scenarios.
Optimizing hatchery practices for genetic improvement of marine bivalves

Aquaculture currently accounts for approximately half of all seafood produced and is the fastest growing farmed food sector globally. Marine bivalve aquaculture, the farming of oysters, mussels and clams, represents a highly sustainable component of this industry and has major potential for global expansion via increased efﬁciency, and numbers of, production systems. Artiﬁcial spat propagation (i.e. settled juveniles) in hatcheries and selective breeding have the potential to offer rapid and widespread gains for molluscan aquaculture industry. However, bivalves have unique life-histories, genetic and genomic characteristics, which present signiﬁcant challenges to achieving such genetic improvement. Selection pressures experienced by bivalve larvae and spat in the wild contribute to drive population structure and animal ﬁtness. Similarly, domestication selection is likely to act on hatchery-produced spat, the full implications of which have not been fully explored. In this review, we outline the key features of these taxa and production practices applied in bivalve aquaculture, which have the potential to affect the genetic and phenotypic variability of hatchery-propagated stock. Along-side, we compare artiﬁcial and natural processes experienced by bivalves to inves-tigate the possible consequences of hatchery propagation on stock production. In addition, we identify key areas of investigation that need to be prioritized to con-tinue to the advancement of bivalve genetic improvement via selective breeding. The growing accessibility of next-generation sequencing technology and high-powered computational capabilities facilitate the implementation of novel genomic tools in breeding programmes of aquatic species. These emerging techniques represent an exciting opportunity for sustainably expanding the bivalve aquaculture sector.
Power Management of AC Islanded Microgrids using Fuzzy Logic

In an islanded AC microgrid consisting of renewable energy sources, battery, and load, the battery balances the difference between power generated by renewable sources and that consumed by the load. However, battery charging capacity is limited and its state of charge needs to be maintained within the safety limits. Furthermore, battery has limited maximum charging and discharging power. This paper proposes a controller based on fuzzy logic to prevent the battery state of charge and charging/discharging power from exceeding their limits regardless of variations in load and intermittent power of renewable sources. The microgrid considered in this paper consists of PV, battery, load and auxiliary supplementary unit. The fuzzy logic controller alters the AC bus frequency which is used by the local controllers of the parallel units to curtail the power generated by PV or to supplement power from the auxiliary unit. The main merits of the proposed controller are simplicity and easiness of implementation without the need for any communication links between the parallel units. Matlab/Simulink results are presented to validate the performance of the proposed controller.
Supplementary material to "Exploring how groundwater buffers the influence of heatwaves on vegetation function during multi-year droughts"

Abstract. The co-occurrence of droughts and heatwaves can have significant impacts on many socioeconomic and environmental systems. Groundwater has the potential to moderate the impact of droughts and heatwaves by moistening the soil and enabling vegetation to maintain higher evaporation, thereby cooling the canopy. We use the Community Atmosphere Biosphere Land Exchange (CABLE) land surface model, coupled to a groundwater scheme, to examine how groundwater influences ecosystems under conditions of co-occurring droughts and heatwaves. We focus specifically on South East Australia for the period 2000–2019 when two significant droughts and multiple extreme heatwave events occurred. We found groundwater plays an important role in helping vegetation maintain transpiration, particularly in the first 1–2 years of a multi-year drought. Groundwater impedes gravity-driven drainage and moistens the root zone via capillary rise. These mechanisms reduced forest canopy temperatures by up to 5 °C during individual heatwaves, particularly where the water table depth is shallow. The role of groundwater diminishes as the drought lengthens beyond 2 years and soil water reserves are depleted. Further, the lack of deep roots or stomatal closure caused by high vapour pressure deficit or high temperatures can reduce the additional transpiration induced by groundwater. The capacity of groundwater to moderate both water and heat stress on ecosystems during simultaneous droughts and heatwaves is not represented in most global climate models, suggesting model projections may overestimate the risk of these events in the future.
ZIP7 Maintains Colon Cancer Radioresistance by Regulating Zinc-dependent Epithelial-mesenchymal Transition

Background: Irradiation-induced radioresistance often leads to the therapeutic failure of colon cancer. By regulating the redistribution of intracellular zinc, ZIP7 plays a dominating role in the activation of many critical signaling pathways in the progression of tumors. However, the relationship between ZIP7 and radioresistance is still unclear. Methods: ZIP7 expression of colon cancer was evaluated by analyzing public data from the GEPIA and CPTAC databases and validated based on immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining. Clonogenic survival assay was employed to examine the influence of intracellular zinc interference and ZIP7 knockdown on radioresistance of colon cancer, based on radioresistant colon cancer cells. At last, Western blot was performed to preliminarily explore the potential mechanisms. Results: ZIP7 was significantly upregulated in human colon cancers compared with adjacent normal tissues. ZIP7 knockdown could significantly reduce the radioresistance of colon cancer cells, while transmembrane ionophore of zinc could partially reverse this effect. In terms of mechanisms, ZIP7 knockdown significantly reversed the radiation-induced expression of elevated ZEB1 and down-regulated E-cadherin through regulating zinc. Conclusion: ZIP7 is crucial to maintain radioresistance of colon cancer cells through regulation of zinc distribution, and at least partially by maintenance of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT).
The Impact of Tunneling Behavior on Equity Incentive Plan—Empirical Evidence of China’s Main Board from 2006 to 2013

Though the equity incentive plan was introduced into China just for a short time, the number of listed companies that implemented equity incentive plan was growing fast. In order to improve the effect of equity incentive plan on alleviating agent problem between the owners and managers, China Securities Regulatory Commission supports it by the developing the legislation and prefer-ential tax policies. In China, it is a general phenomenon of major shareholders’ tunneling behavior. However, there is little research focusing on the relationship between tunneling behavior and equity incentive plan. This paper mainly researched the effect of major shareholders’ tunneling behavior on the preference of equity incentive plan, using cross-sectional data of A-share listed companies in China security market from 2006 to 2013. Actually, the empirical result showed that, the major shareholders’ tunneling behavior has a negative effect on equity incentive plan. The major shareholders’ tunneling behavior affects the welfare tendency of equity incentive plan, and the companies with serious major shareholders’ tunneling behavior are more likely to choose the welfare-tendency equity incentive plan.
A counterexample to De Pierro's conjecture on the convergence of under-relaxed cyclic projections

ABSTRACT The convex feasibility problem consists in finding a point in the intersection of a finite family of closed convex sets. When the intersection is empty, a best compromise is to search for a point that minimizes the sum of the squared distances to the sets. In 2001, de Pierro conjectured that the limit cycles generated by the -under-relaxed cyclic projection method converge when towards a least squares solution. While the conjecture has been confirmed under fairly general conditions, we show that it is false in general by constructing a system of three compact convex sets in for which the -under-relaxed cycles do not converge.
A TEST FOR THE NULL OF MULTPLE COINTEGRATING VECTORS

This paper examines a test for the null of cointegration in a multivariate system based on the discrepancy between the OLS estimator of the full set of n cointegrating relationships in the n + k system and the OLS estimator of the corresponding relationships among first differences without making specific assumptions about the short-run dynamics of the multivariate data generating process. It is shown that the proposed test statistics are asymptotically distributed as standard chi-square with n + k degrees of freedom and are not affected by the inclusion of deterministic terms or dynamic regressors, thus offering a simple way of testing for cointegration under the null without the need of special tables. Small sample critical values for these statistics are tabulated using Monte Carlo simulation and it is shown that these non residual-based tests exhibit appropriate size and good power even for quite general error dynamics. In fact, simulation results suggest that they perform quite reasonably when compared to other tests of the null of cointegration.
Immune Cell Differentiation in Mammary Gland Tissues and Milk of Cows Chronically Infected with Staphylococcus aureus

This study identifies and compares the distribution of mononuclear cells in the mammary gland tissues and milk of healthy and chronically infected with Staphylococcus aureus cows. Somatic cell counts (SCCs) during the 3 months before the study were >1 · 10 cell/ml in the infected quarters and <1 · 10 cell/ml in the infection-free quarters. Immediately after slaughter, samples from the tissues above the gland cistern and supra-mammary lymph node were collected. No histological differences were found between the supra-mammary lymph nodes of the healthy and infected udders, and both appeared normal. In the milk of the healthy infection-free mammary glands, SCC was <50 000 cells/ml) while epithelial cells were the predominant type. The percentage of CD18 was low than 45%, of which over three-quarters were polymorphonuclear (PMN), and less than onequarter were mononuclear cells. The later comprised CD4 or CD8 T-lymphocytes, macrophages (Mo) but not B-cells. In the tissues, there were few CD18 leukocytes, and most of the cells were T-lymphocytes. The number of B-lymphocytes bearing CD21 was similar to that of CD8 and were localized in the connective tissue as clusters of 2–5 cells, mainly in areas with no alveoli, or as single cell having a dendritic like form. The number of Mos was negligible. In the milk of the infected glands, SCC exceeded 700 000 cells/ml, of which >95% were CD18 positive. The distribution of the leukocytes had two patterns: one presented (>80%) of PMN cells and a small number of mononuclear cells; the second had less than 50% PMN and many mononuclear cells. The CD8 cells in these infected sections were observed throughout the mammary epithelial cells (MEc) around the alveoli and in the alveolar lumen (AL). The numbers and the location of CD21 B-lymphocytes were similar to those in the infection-free mammary glands. The number of CD5 positive cells was lower than T and Bcells combined and were located throughout the mammary epithelial cells, around the alveoli and within the connective tissue. Mo numbers were high in most of those infected quarters, and were localized around the connective tissue and within the AL.
Unified representation of fixtures: clamping, locating and supporting elements in CNC manufacture

A CNC machining operation is the outcome of the application of the integrated capabilities of various resources within the CNC machining centre. Part fixtures, clamping and other location mechanisms are essential subsets of CNC machining resources. Today, various fixturing techniques and attachments available in the market allow manufacturers to enhance their production capability without buying expensive machine tools. This technology-rich fixturing domain is detached while representing and exchanging machine tool resource information for making manufacturing decisions. The research work in this article utilises the STEP-NC compliant unified manufacturing resource model (UMRM) for representing fixtures in conjunction with the parent CNC machining centre. Thus, UMRM is enhanced in this context to represent various fixtures such as universal vises, chucks, pallets and auxiliary rotary tables among others. The major contribution of this article is the application of the extension of the UMRM approach for representing fixturing domain, which allows generic modelling of fixtures and loading devices in addition to machine workpiece and process modelling. This would enable the stage of automated process planning and manufacturing. The universal approach in representing resource information allows the data to be utilised for making a wide variety of manufacturing decisions.
ANFIS-Based Peak Power Shaving/Curtailment in Microgrids Including PV Units and BESSs

One of the most crucial and economically-beneficial tasks for energy customers is peak load curtailment. On account of the fast response of renewable energy resources (RERs) such as photovoltaic (PV) units and battery energy storage system (BESS), this task is closer to be efficiently implemented. Depends on the customer peak load demand and energy characteristics, the feasibility of this strategy may vary. When adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is exploited for forecasting, it can provide many benefits to address the above-mentioned issues and facilitate its easy implementation, with short calculating time and re-trainability. This paper introduces a data-driven forecasting method based on fuzzy logic (FL) for optimized peak load reduction. First, the amount of energy generated by PV is forecasted using ANFIS which conducts output trend, and then, the BESS capacity is calculated according to the forecasted results. The trend of the load power is then decomposed in Cartesian plane into two parts, namely left and right from load peak, for the sake of searching for equal BESS capacity. Network switching sequence over consumption is provided by a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) considering BESS capacity and PV energy output. Finally, to prove the effectiveness of the proposed ANFIS-based peak power shaving/curtailment method, offline digital time-domain simulations have been performed on a test microgrid system using the data gathered from a real-life practical test microgrid system in the MATLAB/Simulink environment and the results have been experimentally verified by testing on a practical microgrid system with real-life data obtained from smart meters and also, compared with several previously-reported methods.
Optimization of a high-resolution collimator for a CdTe detector: Monte Carlo simulation studies

Photon counting detectors using cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) or cadmium telluride (CdTe) have benefits compared to conventional scintillation detectors, and CZT and CdTe have advantageous physical characteristics for nuclear medicine imaging. Recently, many studies have been conducted using these materials to improve the sensitivity and the spatial resolution of the photon counting detector. By using a pixelated parallel-hole collimator, we may be able to improve the sensitivity and the spatial resolution. The purpose of this study was to optimize the design of a collimator to achieve excellent resolution and high sensitivity for a gamma camera system based on the CdTe detector. In this study we simulated a gamma camera system with a photon counting detector based on CdTe and evaluated the system’s performance. We performed a simulation study of the PID 350 (Ajat Oy Ltd., Finland) CdTe detector by using a Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission (GATE) simulation. This detector consists of small pixels (0.35 × 0.35 mm2). We designed two parallel-hole collimators with different shapes and verified their usefulness. One was the proposed pixelated parallel-hole collimator in which the hole size and the pixel size are the same, and the other was the hexagonal parallel-hole collimator, which had a hole size similar to that of the pixelated parallel-hole collimator. We evaluated the sensitivity, spatial resolution, and contrast resolution to determine which parallel-hole collimator was best for the PID 350 CdTe detector. The average sensitivity was 22.65% higher for the pixelated parallel-hole collimator than for the hexagonal parallel-hole collimator. Also, the pixelated parallel-hole collimator provided 10.7% better spatial resolution than the hexagonal parallel-hole collimator, and the contrast resolution was improved by 8.93%. These results reflect an improvement in sensitivity and spatial resolution, and indicate that the imaging performance of the pixelated parallel-hole collimator is better than that of the hexagonal parallel-hole collimator. In conclusion, we successfully established a high resolution gamma camera system with a pixelated parallel-hole collimator, and based on our results, we recommend using the pixelated parallel-hole collimator to improve the sensitivity and the spatial resolution of gamma camera systems with semiconductor detectors such as CdTe.
Interferon-gamma Inducible Protein 10-biomarker for treatment outcome in chronic hepatitis C

The predictive value of two easy-to-determine serum biomarkers: IP-10 (Interferon-gamma inducible protein-10 kD) and sCD26 (soluble CD26) on the virological response of interferon-based therapy was assessed in 119 patients with chronic hepatitis C. Patients who obtained sustained virological response (SVR) had significantly decreased baseline IP-10 concentrations as compared to non-responders (mean IP-10 = 338 ± 200 pg/mL vs. 472.7 ± 254 g/mL; p=0.003). Correlation of this inexpensive serological marker with IL2B genotype and baseline HCV viral load can be used in the selection of patients who might benefit from interferon-based therapies, which are currently available in developing economies. On the contrary, there was no correlation between the baseline concentration of sCD26 and the outcome of treatment. IP-10 might be a suitable biomarker to predict virological success after pegylated interferon alpha and ribavirin treatment.