Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficiently Archiving Photos under Storage Constraints

Our ability to collect data is rapidly outstripping our ability to effectively store and use it. Organizations are therefore facing tough decisions of what data to archive (or dispose of) to effectively meet their business goals. We address this general problem in the context of image data (photos) by proposing which photos to archive to meet an online storage budget. The decision is based on factors such as usage patterns and their relative importance, the quality and size of a photo, the relevance of a photo for a usage pattern, the similarity between different photos, as well as policy requirements of what photos must be retained. We formalize the photo archival problem, analyze its complexity, and give two approximation algorithms. One algorithm comes with an optimal approximation guarantee and another, more scalable, algorithm that comes with both worst-case and data-dependent guarantees. Based on these algorithms we implemented an end-to-end system, PHOcus, and discuss how to automatically derive the inputs for this system in many settings. An extensive experimental study based on public as well as private datasets demonstrates the effectiveness and efficiency of PHOcus. Furthermore, a user study using business analysts in a real e-commerce application shows that it can save a tremendous amount of human effort and yield unexpected insights.
Demonstrating Interactive SPARQL Formulation through Positive and Negative Examples and Feedback

The formulation of structured queries in Knowledge Graphs is a challenging task since it presupposes familiarity with the syntax of the query language and the contents of the knowledge graph. To alleviate this problem, for enabling plain users to formulate SPARQL queries, and advanced users to formulate queries with less effort, in this paper we introduce a novel method for “SPARQL by Example". According to this method the user points to positive/negative entities, the system computes one query that describes these entities, and then the user refines the query interactively by providing positive/negative feedback on entities and suggested constraints. We shall demonstrate SPARQL-QBE , a tool that implements this approach, and we will briefly refer to the results of a task-based evaluation with users that provided positive evidence about the usability of the approach.
ExtremeEarth: Managing Water Availability for Crops Using Earth Observation and Machine Learning

Food security, especially in a changing Earth environment, is one of the most challenging issues of this century. Population growth, increased food consumption and the challenges of climate change will extend over the next decades. To deal with these, both regional and global measures are necessary. Biomass production and thus yield will need to be increased in a sustainable way. It is important to minimize the risks of yield loss even under more extreme environmental conditions, while making sure not to deplete or damage the available resources. Two measures are most important for this: irrigation and fertilization. While fertilization relies mainly on industrial goods, irrigation requires reliable water resources in the area that is being farmed, either from groundwater or surface water. Regarding surface water, a large portion of the world’s fresh-water is linked to snowfall, snow storage and seasonal release of the water. All these components are subject to increased variability due to climate change and the
Tagger: A Tool for the Discovery of Tagged Unions in JSON Schema Extraction

This tool demo features an original approach to model inference or schema extraction from collections of JSON documents: We automatically detect tagged unions, an established design pattern in hand-crafted schemas for conditionally declaring subtypes. Our “Tagger” approach is based on the discovery of conditional functional dependencies in a relational encoding of JSON objects. We have integrated our prototype implementation in an open source tool for managing data models in schema-flexible NoSQL data stores. Demo participants can interactively apply different schema extraction algorithms to real-world inputs, and compare the extracted schemas with those produced by “Tagger”.
Time from sudden sensory neural hearing loss to treatment as a prognostic factor

Introduction The widely accepted treatment for sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) is corticosteroid treatment (oral or intratympanic). The main goal of this work is to define the significance of the time between symptom onset and treatment initiation, as well as other prognostic factors, for hearing improvement. Methods This retrospective study included 666 patients treated for SSNHL. Demographic data, audiometry, treatment method, time since symptom onset, and associated symptoms were recorded for each patient. The patients were divided into five groups according to the treatment initiation time—half a week, one week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, or 4 weeks and over—after symptom onset. The degree of improvement was assessed by comparing the audiometry at the beginning and the end of the treatment. Results The average period of hearing loss from symptom onset to treatment initiation was 10.8 days. Significant differences were found between the groups of half a week, one week, and 2 weeks and the groups of 3 weeks and 4 weeks and over (each separately, p < 0.001). No difference was found between the half-week, one-week, and two-week groups, nor was there a difference between the three-week and four-week-and-over groups. A correlation was found between the treatment initiation time in days and the degree of improvement in hearing for both speech recognition threshold (SRT) and discrimination, R = 0.26 p < 0.001 and R = 0.17 p < 0.001, respectively. No correlation was found for gender, age of the patients, comorbidities, or associated symptoms. Conclusion The threshold for treatment initiation time is up to 2 weeks, after which the amplitude of hearing improvement decreases significantly. The other prognostic factors measured were not found to be statistically significant predictors.
Identification of a novel peptide targeting TIGIT to evaluate immunomodulation of 125I seed brachytherapy in HCC by near-infrared fluorescence

Introduction Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has very poor prognosis due to its immunosuppressive properties. An effective measure to regulate tumor immunity is brachytherapy, which uses 125I seeds planted into tumor. T cell immune receptors with immunoglobulin and ITIM domains (TIGIT) is highly expressed in HCC. The TIGIT-targeted probe is expected to be an effective tool for indicating immunomodulation of 125I seed brachytherapy in HCC. In this study, We constructed a novel peptide targeting TIGIT to evaluate the immune regulation of 125I seed brachytherapy for HCC by near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF). Methods Expression of TIGIT by immunofluorescence (IF) and flow cytometry (FCM) in different part and different differentiated human liver cancer tissues was verified. An optical fluorescence probe (Po-12) containing a NIRF dye and TIGIT peptide was synthesized for evaluating the modulatory effect of 125I seed brachytherapy. Lymphocytes uptake by Po-12 were detected by FCM and confocal microscopy. The distribution and accumulation of Po-12 in vivo were explored by NIRF imaging in subcutaneous and orthotopic tumors. IHC and IF staining were used to verify the expression of TIGIT in the tumors. Results TIGIT was highly expressed in HCC and increased with tumor differentiation. The dye-labeled peptide (Po-12) retained a stable binding affinity for the TIGIT protein in vitro. Accumulation of fluorescence intensity (FI) increased with time extended in subcutaneous H22 tumors, and the optimal point is 1 h. TIGIT was highly expressed on lymphocytes infiltrated in tumors and could be suppressed by 125I seed brachytherapy. Accumulation of Po-12-Cy5 was increased in tumor-bearing groups while declined in 125I radiation group.
Microfluidic approach for parallel capture and isolation of single cells

Standard molecular-analysis techniques provide averaged results from ensemble measurements based on large numbers of cells. With increasing evidence of variations among cells within the same population,1, 2 it is imperative to develop technologies for analysis at the single-cell level. We can only identify unique cells by understanding the variation inherent to normal cells. Such technologies will have implications for drug development, clinical diagnosis, cancer development, and stem-cell differentiation. The first step toward developing high-throughput, single-cell analysis methods requires mechanisms to capture and fully isolate large numbers of individual cells. Most approaches employ microfluidic techniques, because microfluidic-device dimensions are of the same order as those of cells, and they can integrate cell capture, destruction (lysis), and detection. A number of recent studies have achieved isolation and analysis of single cells,3–6 but these methods assess only one or a few cells at a time. They have demonstrated the importance of single-cell studies, but do not enable collecting the large amounts of data necessary to generate a proper statistical distribution. Others have demonstrated capturing large numbers of single cells,7–10 but without the capacity to isolate individual cells. Here, we describe a microfluidic device that is capable of parallel capture and isolation of single cells and in which downstream molecular analyses can be performed in situ. Our device incorporates a series of microfabricated metal electrodes to capture and lyse single cells using electric fields, combined with a network of fluidic channels and valves in polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) layers to compartmentalize each cell (see Figure 1). Dielectrophoresis (DEP), i.e., manipulation of particles and cells Figure 1. Microfluidic device for capture and isolation of single cells, showing the polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) valve and channel layers on top of the microfabricated electrode substrate.
Grapevine double cropping: a magic technology

Grapevine is one of the most important fruit trees in the world, but it is often threatened by various biotic and abiotic stresses in production, resulting in decreased yield and quality. Grapevine double cropping in one year is a kind of preparatory and artificial control technology, which can not only save the loss of natural disasters, but also plays an important role in staggering the peak to market, thus increasing yield and improving the quality of grape fruit. This perspective provides a concise discussion of the physiological basis, the main determinants, and their impacts on yield and fruit quality of grapevine double cropping. We also highlight the current challenges around this theme and prospect its application in the future.
Non-inhibitory levels of oxygen during cultivation increase freeze-drying stress tolerance in Limosilactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938

The physiological effects of oxygen on Limosilactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938 during cultivation and the ensuing properties of the freeze-dried probiotic product was investigated. On-line flow cytometry and k-means clustering gating was used to follow growth and viability in real time during cultivation. The bacterium tolerated aeration at 500 mL/min, with a growth rate of 0.74 ± 0.13 h−1 which demonstrated that low levels of oxygen did not influence the growth kinetics of the bacterium. Modulation of the redox metabolism was, however, seen already at non-inhibitory oxygen levels by 1.5-fold higher production of acetate and 1.5-fold lower ethanol production. A significantly higher survival rate in the freeze-dried product was observed for cells cultivated in presence of oxygen compared to absence of oxygen (61.8% ± 2.4% vs. 11.5% ± 4.3%), coinciding with a higher degree of unsaturated fatty acids (UFA:SFA ratio of 10 for air sparged vs. 3.59 for N2 sparged conditions.). Oxygen also resulted in improved bile tolerance and boosted 5′nucleotidase activity (370 U/L vs. 240 U/L in N2 sparged conditions) but lower tolerance to acidic conditions compared bacteria grown under complete anaerobic conditions which survived up to 90 min of exposure at pH 2. Overall, our results indicate the controlled supply of oxygen during production may be used as means for probiotic activity optimization of L. reuteri DSM 17938.
Integrated multi-locus genome-wide association studies and transcriptome analysis for seed yield and yield-related traits in Brassica napus

Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.), the third largest oil crop, is an important source of vegetable oil and biofuel for the world. Although the breeding and yield has been improved, rapeseed still has the lowest yield compared with other major crops. Thus, increasing rapeseed yield is essential for the high demand of vegetable oil and high-quality protein for live stocks. Silique number per plant (SN), seed per pod (SP), and 1000-seed weight (SW) are the three important factors for seed yield in rapeseed. Some yield-related traits, including plant height (PH), flowering time (FT), primary branch number (BN) and silique number per inflorescence (SI) also affect the yield per plant (YP). Using six multi-locus genome-wide association study (ML-GWAS) approaches, a total of 908 yield-related quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) were identified in a panel consisting of 403 rapeseed core accessions based on whole-genome sequencing. Integration of ML-GWAS with transcriptome analysis, 79 candidate genes, including BnaA09g39790D (RNA helicase), BnaA09g39950D (Lipase) and BnaC09g25980D (SWEET7), were further identified and twelve genes were validated by qRT-PCRs to affect the SW or SP in rapeseed. The distribution of superior alleles from nineteen stable QTNs in 20 elite rapeseed accessions suggested that the high-yielding accessions contained more superior alleles. These results would contribute to a further understanding of the genetic basis of yield-related traits and could be used for crop improvement in B. napus.
Impact of three intense winter cyclones on the sea ice cover in the Barents Sea: A case study with a coupled regional climate model

We utilize a nudged simulation with the coupled regional atmosphere-ocean-sea ice model HIRHAM–NAOSIM over the Arctic to conduct an in-depth analysis of the impact of a sequence of three intense cyclones on the sea ice cover in the Barents and Kara Seas in February 2020. To clarify the underlying mechanisms we decompose changes in sea ice concentration (SIC) and thickness (SIT) into their dynamic and thermodynamic contributions and analyze them in concert with simulated changes in the wind forcing and the surface energy budget. Our findings reveal that changes in SIT during and after the cyclone passages are mostly driven by dynamic processes such as increased ice drift and deformation. With respect to SIC, the relative importance of dynamics and thermodynamics depends on the considered time scale and on the general conditions of the cyclone passages. If cyclones follow on each other in rapid succession, dynamic mechanisms dominate the SIC response for time scales of more than 2 weeks and thermodynamic effects via advection of warm-moist/cold-dry air masses on the cyclone’s front/back side only play a secondary role. However, if sufficiently long time elapses until the arrival of the next storm, thermodynamic SIC increase due to refreezing under the influence of cold and dry air at the backside of the cyclone becomes the dominating mechanism during the days following the cyclone passage.
Editorial: The neuroscience of advancing age

COPYRIGHT © 2023 Vallence, Seidler, Goldsworthy, Semmler and Opie. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Editorial: The neuroscience of advancing age
Nutritional, functional, and bioactive properties of african underutilized legumes

Globally, legumes are vital constituents of diet and perform critical roles in maintaining well-being owing to the dense nutritional contents and functional properties of their seeds. While much emphasis has been placed on the major grain legumes over the years, the neglected and underutilized legumes (NULs) are gaining significant recognition as probable crops to alleviate malnutrition and give a boost to food security in Africa. Consumption of these underutilized legumes has been associated with several health-promoting benefits and can be utilized as functional foods due to their rich dietary fibers, vitamins, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), proteins/essential amino acids, micro-nutrients, and bioactive compounds. Despite the plethora of nutritional benefits, the underutilized legumes have not received much research attention compared to common mainstream grain legumes, thus hindering their adoption and utilization. Consequently, research efforts geared toward improvement, utilization, and incorporation into mainstream agriculture in Africa are more convincing than ever. This work reviews some selected NULs of Africa (Adzuki beans (Vigna angularis), African yam bean (Sphenostylis stenocarpa), Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea), Jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis), Kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), Lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus), Marama bean (Tylosema esculentum), Mung bean, (Vigna radiata), Rice bean (Vigna Umbellata), and Winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus)), and their nutritional, and functional properties. Furthermore, we highlight the prospects and current challenges associated with the utilization of the NULs and discusses the strategies to facilitate their exploitation as not only sources of vital nutrients, but also their integration for the development of cheap and accessible functional foods.
Eating more sardines instead of fish oil supplementation: Beyond omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, a matrix of nutrients with cardiovascular benefits

Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) play a significant role in the prevention and management of cardiometabolic diseases associated with a mild chronic pro-inflammatory background, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, hypertriglyceridaemia, and fatty liver disease. The effects of n-3 PUFA supplements specifically, remain controversial regarding reducing risks of cardiovascular events. n-3 PUFA supplements come at a cost for the consumer and can result in polypharmacy for patients on pharmacotherapy. Sardines are a well-known, inexpensive source of n-3 PUFA and their consumption could reduce the need for n-3 PUFA supplementation. Moreover, sardines contain other cardioprotective nutrients, although further insights are crucial to translate a recommendation for sardine consumption into clinical practice. The present review discusses the matrix of nutrients contained in sardines which confer health benefits for cardiometabolism, beyond n-3 PUFA. Sardines contain calcium, potassium, magnesium, zinc, iron, taurine, arginine and other nutrients which together modulate mild inflammation and exacerbated oxidative stress observed in cardiovascular disease and in haemodynamic dysfunction. In a common serving of sardines, calcium, potassium, and magnesium are the minerals at higher amounts to elicit clinical benefits, whilst other nutrients are present in lower but valuable amounts. A pragmatic approach towards the consumption of such nutrients in the clinical scenario should be adopted to consider the dose–response relationship effects on physiological interactions. As most recommendations currently available are based on an indirect rationale of the physiological actions of the nutrients found in sardines, randomised clinical trials are warranted to expand the evidence on the benefits of sardine consumption. Graphical Abstract
Analysis of sperm chromatin packaging and reproductive biomarker to evaluate the consequence of advanced male age

In this study, the semen parameters, sperm chromatin integrity, antioxidant enzyme levels, and reproductive hormone levels of subfertile male subjects from Pakistan were assessed in relation to their age. Data on the demographic characteristics of the 750 study participants, including their general health, body mass index (BMI), and reproductive status, were collected from subfertile men from Pakistan. Semen and blood were collected to determine standard semen parameters, sperm chromatin dispersion (Halosperm-SCD), sperm chromatin integrity using toluidine blue (TB) staining, sperm chromatin maturity using chromomycin A3 (CMA3+) staining, and reproductive hormone (FSH, LH, prolactin and testosterone levels). The patients were divided into three groups according to their age: Group 1 included male subjects aged 30 years or less (n = 90), Group 2 included male subjects between the ages of 31 and 40 years (n = 330), and Group 3 included male subjects over 40 years of age (n = 330). Conventional semen parameters, reactive oxygen species (ROS), superoxide dismutase (SOD), guaiacol peroxidase (GPX), catalase (CAT), and lipid peroxidation (MDA) did not statistically (p > 0.05) differ with increasing male age or between different age groups. When compared to younger men (<30 years), sperm SCD (23.2 ± 0.88%) was significantly (p = 0.01) lower as compared to male patients aged >40 years (26.6 ± 0.6%). The concentration of LH, FSH, and testosterone levels were comparable between the groups (p > 0.05), while a significant (p = 0.04) increase in sperm chromatin immaturity CMA3+ (30 ± 0.71%) was observed in the old age group (>40 years) compared to the <30-year group (26.6 ± 1.03%). A positive association was observed between advanced male age and sperm chromatin dispersion (SCD) (r = 0.124, p = 0.001) and decondensation (CMA3+) (r = 0.1, p = 0.009). Despite potential limitations, this study has been carried out with extensive information on the potential risk of male age on sperm integrity. The present study demonstrated the impact of male age on male reproductive health, as these patients had a higher percentage of sperm chromatin damage (SCD) in their semen. Sperm DNA damage assessment will help in the evaluation and diagnosis of the underlying cause of poor fertility and can help clinicians in selecting the right treatment options. Male age is one of the factors that have an impact on the decline in male fertility. As a result, it is preferable for patients receiving assisted reproductive technology to be younger.
Performance of Satellite Rainfall Estimation Algorithms during TOGA COARE.

Abstract Over 50 satellite rainfall algorithms were evaluated for a 5° square region in the equatorial western Pacific Ocean during TOGA COARE, November 1992–February 1993. These satellite algorithms used GMS VIS/IR, AVHRR, and SSM/I data to estimate rainfall on both instantaneous and monthly timescales. Validation data came from two calibrated shipboard Doppler radars measuring rainfall every 10 min. There was large variation among algorithms in the magnitude of the satellite-estimated rainfall, but the patterns of rainfall were similar among algorithm types. Compared to the radar observations, most of the satellite algorithms overestimated the amount of rain falling in the region, typically by about 30%. Patterns of monthly observed rainfall were well represented by the satellite algorithms, with correlation coefficients with the observations ranging from 0.86 to 0.90 for algorithms using geostationary data and 0.69 to 0.86 for AVHRR and SSM/I algorithms when validated on a 0.5° grid. Patterns of instan.