Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The German version of the mHealth App Usability Questionnaire (GER-MAUQ): Translation and validation study in patients with cardiovascular disease

Objective In Germany, only a few standardized evaluation tools for assessing the usability of mobile Health apps exist so far. This study aimed to translate and validate the English patient version for standalone apps of the mHealth App Usability Questionnaire (MAUQ) into a German version. Methods Following scientific guidelines for translation and cross-cultural adaptation, the patient version for standalone apps was forward and back-translated from English into German by an expert panel. In total, 53 participants who were recruited as part of the beta testing process of the recently developed mHealth app HerzFit, answered the questions of the German version of the MAUQ (GER-MAUQ) and the System Usability Scale. Subsequently, a descriptive as well as a psychometric analysis was performed to test validity and reliability. Results After conducting three cognitive interviews, five items were modified. The values for Cronbach alpha for the entire questionnaire and the three subscales (0.966, 0.814, 0.910, and 0.909) indicate strong internal consistency. The correlation analysis revealed that the scores of the GER-MAUQ, the subscales and the SUS were strongly correlated with each other. The correlation coefficient of the SUS and the GER-MAUQ overall score was r = 0.854, P < 0.001 and the coefficients of the subscales and the SUS were r = 0.642, P < 0.001; r = 0.866, P < 0.001 and r = 0.643, P < 0.001. Conclusions We have developed a novel German version of the MAUQ and demonstrated it as a reliable and valid measurement tool for assessing the usability of standalone mHealth apps from the patients’ perspective. The GER-MAUQ allows a new form of standardized assessment of usability of mHealth apps for patients with cardiovascular disease in Germany. Further research with a larger sample and other samples is recommended.
Micronutrient Research in Autism Spectrum Disorder. A Clinical Study

Autistic spectrum disorders are part of the category of neurodevelopmental disorders, characterized by: difficulties in communication and social interaction, restrictive and repetitive patterns of behaviours and activities, which are present throughout the developmental period, and can be diagnosed in the first five years of life. Due to the increase in the incidence of this disorder in recent years, it has become a topic of great interest both to specialists in child and adolescent psychiatry and to researchers in the field. Given the polymorphism of Autism Spectrum Disorder and the need to discover factors that better explain the etiology of this disorder, studies related to biomarkers are extremely varied. One of the areas of study that have exercised particular interest is related to the involvement of metals in the pathology of autism spectrum disorder. Apart from the controversies related to heavy metals that according to studies affect the developmental process, there are studies that suggest that some micronutrients such as zinc, copper, selenium, iron, magnesium, may be involved in the etiology of autism spectrum disorder. Starting from these studies, we set out to investigate to what extent these essential metals for the body are involved in the etiology of autism spectrum disorder and how they influence the severity of symptoms.
Multiyear study of pollinator efficiency and importance of a wide array of pollinators in a field-cultivated strawberry plot

Using wild pollinators to pollinate crops without introducing human-managed pollinators is cost-effective and friendly to native ecosystems. To maintain stable, good-quality yields in crops that mainly use wild pollinators, it is essential to determine which flower visitors are important pollinators and their degree of importance. In this study, we observed flower-visiting insects for 5 years in outdoor cultivated strawberries surrounded by a semi-natural environment in central Japan. We estimated the pollination effectiveness and efficiency of the 10 main flower-visiting insect taxa on strawberries by examining the relationship between the number of visits per flower and subsequent achene fertilization rates per berry. Finally, the pollinator importance (%) to the total pollination service was estimated for each of the 10 main taxa and for all others. Among the 10 main insect taxa, 6 were effective pollinators, i.e., they significantly increased achene fertilization rates by increasing their number of visits to a flower. Considering the 5-year mean, these six taxa accounted for the top six important pollinators. Andrena (subgenus Micrandrena) spp. were the most important and three other bee taxa, including Apis mellifera and Ceratina spp. , were the next most important pollinators; one fly and one butterfly species were also important pollinators. This indicates that strawberry pollinators were diverse in the study area. The flower-visit frequency and importance of many pollinators fluctuated from year to year, implying that various pollinators pollinate strawberry flowers each year, and in field surveys of crop-pollinator communities multiyear investigations are needed to identify important pollinators and to estimate their importance. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to quantify the proportional importance of each pollinator to the total pollination service for a crop.
Alcohol’s contribution to climate change and other environmental degradation: a call for research

Abstract Climate change is the single biggest health threat facing humanity. The production, distribution and consumption of many fast-moving consumer goods contribute substantially to climate change, principally through releasing greenhouse gas emissions. Here we consider just some of the ways that alcohol—already a key contributor to an array of health, social and economic burdens—exacerbates environmental harms and climate change. We explore current evidence on alcohol production as a resource- and energy-intensive process, contributing to significant environmental degradation through water usage and other carbon emission costs. We argue that the impacts of alcohol production on climate change have been minimally explored by researchers. Yet the extent of the unfolding catastrophe beholds us to consider all available ways to mitigate unnecessary emissions, including from products such as alcohol. We then turn to suggestions for a research agenda on this topic, including investigations of commercial determinants, inequalities and product advice to help consumers choose lower-carbon options. We conclude by arguing that public health researchers already have an array of methodological expertise and experience that is well placed to produce the evidence needed to inform regulation and efforts by alcohol producers and consumers to minimize their contributions to environmental harms.
Fire history of the Appalachian region: a review and synthesis

The importance of fire in shaping Appalachian vegetation has become increasingly apparent over the last 25 years. This period has seen declines in oak (Quercus) and pine (Pinus) forests and other fire-dependent ecosystems, which in the near-exclusion of fire are being replaced by fire-sensitive mesophytic vegetation. These vegetation changes imply that Appalachian vegetation had developed under a history of burning before the fire-exclusion era, a possibility that has motivated investigations of Appalachian fire history using proxy evidence. Here we synthesize those investigations to obtain an up-to-date portrayal of Appalachian fire history. We organize the report by data type, beginning with studies of high-resolution data on recent fires to provide a context for interpreting the lower-resolution proxy data. Each proxy is addressed in a subsequent chapter, beginning with witness trees and continuing to fire-scarred trees, stand age structure, and soil and sediment charcoal. Taken together, these proxies portray frequent burning in the past. Fires had occurred at short intervals (a few years) for centuries before the fire-exclusion era. Indeed, burning has played an important ecological role for millennia. Fires were especially common and spatially extensive on landscapes with large expanses of oak and pine forest, notably in the Ridge and Valley province and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Burning favored oak and pine at the expense of mesophytic competitors, but fire exclusion has enabled mesophytic plants to expand from fire-sheltered sites onto dry slopes that formerly supported pyrogenic vegetation. These changes underscore the need to restore firedependent ecosystems.
OIL YIELD, FATTY ACID PROFILE, ACHENE YIELD AND YIELD ATTRIBUTES OF SUNFLOWER (HELIANTHUS ANNUUS L.) AS INFLUENCED BY AUTUMN PLANTING CONDITIONS IN ISLAMABAD

Field experiment was conducted at National Agricultural Research Center, Islamabad during autumn, 2009, to explore the role of temperature on oil contents, fatty acids composition and heat units accumulation of local sunflower hybrids. Fourteen sunflower hybrids (Hysun-33, SMH-9902, SMH-9903, SMH-9904, SMH-9905, SMH-9906, SMH-9908, SMH9909, SMH-9910, SMH-9911, SMH-9912, SMH-9913, SMH-9914, and SMH-9915 were sown in randomized complete block design with 4 replications under field conditions. Significant variation (p<0.05%) was found among the sunflower hybrids for oil contents, oil compositions, heat units accumulation, yield and yield components. Significantly highest oil contents and oil quality (highest linoleic acid %) were recorded by sunflower hybrid SMH-9914. On average Hysun-33, SMH-9910, SMH-9902 and SMH-9912 performed best for plant height, head diameter and achene yield Kg ha -1 . It was concluded from the above study that the hybrids which accumulated higher heat units were late maturing, but hybrids with lesser heat units were early maturing. It was also inferred that the temperature positively influence the oil quality of sunflower hybrids under autumn planting conditions.
Inferring soil salinity in a drip irrigation system from multi-configuration EMI measurements using adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo

A substantial interpretation of electromagnetic induction (EMI) measurements requires quantifying optimal model parameters and uncertainty of a nonlinear inverse problem. For this purpose, an adaptive Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm is used to assess multi-orientation and multi-offset EMI measurements in an agriculture field with non-saline and saline soil. In the MCMC simulations, posterior distribution was computed using Bayes rule. The electromagnetic forward model based on the full solution of Maxwell's equations was used to simulate the apparent electrical conductivity measured with the configurations of EMI instrument, the CMD mini-Explorer. The model parameters and uncertainty for the three-layered earth model are investigated by using synthetic data. Our results show that in the scenario of non-saline soil, the parameters of layer thickness are not well estimated as compared to layers electrical conductivity because layer thicknesses in the model exhibits a low sensitivity to the EMI measurements, and is hence difficult to resolve. Application of the proposed MCMC based inversion to the field measurements in a drip irrigation system demonstrate that the parameters of the model can be well estimated for the saline soil as compared to the non-saline soil, and provide useful insight about parameter uncertainty for the assessment of the model outputs.
Homogenization of Daily Temperature Data

AbstractThis paper develops a method for homogenizing daily temperature series. While daily temperatures are statistically more complex than annual or monthly temperatures, techniques and computational methods have been accumulating that can now model and analyze all salient statistical characteristics of daily temperature series. The goal here is to combine these techniques in an efficient manner for multiple changepoint identification in daily series; computational speed is critical as a century of daily data has over 36 500 data points. The method developed here takes into account 1) metadata, 2) reference series, 3) seasonal cycles, and 4) autocorrelation. Autocorrelation is especially important: ignoring it can degrade changepoint techniques, and sample autocorrelations of day-to-day temperature anomalies are often as large as 0.7. While daily homogenization is not conducted as commonly as monthly or annual homogenization, daily analyses provide greater detection precision as they are roughly 30 time.
Discovery and Characterization of VU0542270, the First Selective Inhibitor of Vascular Kir6.1/SUR2B KATP Channels

Vascular smooth muscle KATP channels critically regulate blood flow and blood pressure by modulating vascular tone and therefore represent attractive drug targets for treating several cardiovascular disorders. However, the lack of potent inhibitors that can selectively inhibit Kir6.1/SUR2B (vascular KATP) over Kir6.2/SUR1 (pancreatic KATP) has eluded discovery despite decades of intensive research. We therefore screened 47,872 chemically diverse compounds for novel inhibitors of heterologously expressed Kir6.1/SUR2B channels. The most potent inhibitor identified in the screen was an N-aryl-N’-benzyl urea compound termed VU0542270. VU0542270 inhibits Kir6.1/SUR2B with an IC50 of approximately 100 nM but has no apparent activity toward Kir6.2/SUR1 or several other members of the Kir channel family at doses up to 30 µM (>300-fold selectivity). By expressing different combinations of Kir6.1 or Kir6.2 with SUR1, SUR2A, or SUR2B, the VU0542270 binding site was localized to SUR2. Initial structure-activity relationship exploration around VU0542270 revealed basic texture related to structural elements that are required for Kir6.1/SUR2B inhibition. Analysis of the pharmacokinetic properties of VU0542270 showed that it has a short in vivo half-life due to extensive metabolism. In pressure myography experiments on isolated mouse ductus arteriosus vessels, VU0542270 induced ductus arteriosus constriction in a dose-dependent manner similar to that of the nonspecific KATP channel inhibitor glibenclamide. The discovery of VU0542270 provides conceptual proof that SUR2-specific KATP channel inhibitors can be developed using a molecular target-based approach and offers hope for developing cardiovascular therapeutics targeting Kir6.1/SUR2B. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Small-molecule inhibitors of vascular smooth muscle KATP channels might represent novel therapeutics for patent ductus arteriosus, migraine headache, and sepsis; however, the lack of selective channel inhibitors has slowed progress in these therapeutic areas. Here, this study describes the discovery and characterization of the first vascular-specific KATP channel inhibitor, VU0542270.
A review of deformation bands in reservoir sandstones: geometries, mechanisms and distribution

Abstract Deformation bands are common subseismic structures in porous sandstones that vary with respect to deformation mechanisms, geometries and distribution. The amount of cataclasis involved largely determines how they impact fluid flow, and cataclasis is generally promoted by coarse grain size, good sorting, high porosity and overburden (usually >500–1000 m). Most bands involve a combination of shear and compaction, and a distinction can be made between those where shear displacement greatly exceeds compaction (compactional shear bands or CSB), where the two are of similar magnitude (shear-enhanced compaction bands or SECB), and pure compaction bands (PCB). The latter two only occur in the contractional regime, are characterized by high (70–100°) dihedral angles (SECB) or perpendicularity (PCB) to σ1 (the maximum principal stress) and are restricted to layers with very high porosity. Contraction generally tends to produce populations of well-distributed deformation bands, whereas in the extensional regime the majority of bands are clustered around faults. Deformation bands also favour highly porous parts of a reservoir, which may result in a homogenization of the overall reservoir permeability and enhance sweep during hydrocarbon production. A number of intrinsic and external variables must therefore be considered when assessing the influence of deformation bands on reservoir performance.
A kinase to cytokine explorer to identify molecular regulators and potential therapeutic opportunities

Cytokines and chemokines are secreted proteins that regulate various biological processes, such as inflammation, immune response, and cell differentiation. Therefore, disruption of signaling pathways involving these proteins has been linked to a range of diseases, including cancer. However, targeting individual cytokines, chemokines, or their receptors is challenging due to their regulatory redundancy and incomplete understanding of their signaling networks. To transform these difficult-to-drug targets into a pharmacologically manageable class, we developed a web-based platform called KinCytE. This platform was designed to link the effects of kinase inhibitors, a well-established class of drugs, with cytokine and chemokine release and signaling networks. The resulting KinCytE platform enables users to investigate protein kinases that regulate specific cytokines or chemokines, generate a ranked list of FDA-approved kinase inhibitors that affect cytokine/chemokine activity, and explore and visualize cytokine signaling network thus facilitating drugging this challenging target class. KinCytE is freely accessible via https://atlas.fredhutch. org/kincyte.
Review of current and planned adaptation action in Ghana

iii Résumé . iv Synopsis . x Introduction . 1 1. Current climate and projected changes . 2 1.1 Current climate . 3 1.2 Observed climate trends . 4 1.3 Climate projections . 4 2. Vulnerability to climate change . 5 2.1 Current drivers of vulnerability . 5 2.2 Vulnerability of key sectors . 8 2.3 Vulnerable regions and groups . 11 3. Adaptation planning context . 11 3.1 National-level development policy context . 12 3.2 National-level climate policy context . 13 3.3 Institutional structure for climate governance . 16 3.4 National-level sectoral policies . 18 3.5 Sub-national policies . 19 4. Current and planned adaptation programs and projects . 20 4.1 Adaptation projects and programs . 20 4.2 Climate finance . 23 5. Networks and communities of practice . 25 6. Conclusions . 26 7. Annexes . 29 8. References . 45 CARIAA Working Paper #9
Perceptual transitions between object rigidity and non-rigidity: Competition and cooperation among motion energy, feature tracking, and shape-based priors

Why do moving objects appear rigid when projected retinal images are deformed non-rigidly? We used rotating rigid objects that can appear rigid or non-rigid to test whether shape features contribute to rigidity perception. When two circular rings were rigidly linked at an angle and jointly rotated at moderate speeds, observers reported that the rings wobbled and were not linked rigidly, but rigid rotation was reported at slow speeds. When gaps, paint, or vertices were added, the rings appeared rigidly rotating even at moderate speeds. At high speeds, all configurations appeared non-rigid. Salient features thus contribute to rigidity at slow and moderate speeds but not at high speeds. Simulated responses of arrays of motion-energy cells showed that motion flow vectors are predominantly orthogonal to the contours of the rings, not parallel to the rotation direction. A convolutional neural network trained to distinguish flow patterns for wobbling versus rotation gave a high probability of wobbling for the motion-energy flows. However, the convolutional neural network gave high probabilities of rotation for motion flows generated by tracking features with arrays of MT pattern-motion cells and corner detectors. In addition, circular rings can appear to spin and roll despite the absence of any sensory evidence, and this illusion is prevented by vertices, gaps, and painted segments, showing the effects of rotational symmetry and shape. Combining convolutional neural network outputs that give greater weight to motion energy at fast speeds and to feature tracking at slow speeds, with the shape-based priors for wobbling and rolling, explained rigid and non-rigid percepts across shapes and speeds (R2 = 0.95). The results demonstrate how cooperation and competition between different neuronal classes lead to specific states of visual perception and to transitions between the states.
Efficacy and clinical potential of phage therapy in treating methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections: A review

Abstract Staphylococcus aureus infections have already presented a substantial public health challenge, encompassing different clinical manifestations, ranging from bacteremia to sepsis and multi-organ failures. Among these infections, methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) is particularly alarming due to its well-documented resistance to multiple classes of antibiotics, contributing significantly to global mortality rates. Consequently, the urgent need for effective treatment options has prompted a growing interest in exploring phage therapy as a potential non-antibiotic treatment against MRSA infections. Phages represent a class of highly specific bacterial viruses known for their ability to infect certain bacterial strains. This review paper explores the clinical potential of phages as a treatment for MRSA infections due to their low toxicity and auto-dosing capabilities. The paper also discusses the synergistic effect of phage-antibiotic combination (PAC) and the promising results from in vitro and animal model studies, which could lead to extensive human clinical trials. However, clinicians need to establish and adhere to standard protocols governing phage administration and implementation. Prominent clinical trials are needed to develop and advance phage therapy as a non-antibiotic therapy intervention, meeting regulatory guidelines, logistical requirements, and ethical considerations, potentially revolutionizing the treatment of MRSA infections.
The crop model record: promise or poor show?

At a symposium held on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of agricultural research in Israel, Professor C.T. de Wit gave a survey of achievements in worldwide agricultural research. He maintained that 500 years was a more appropriate period to review, because the last major contribution was Liebig's Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology published in 1840. Many would contest this thesis, but whatever other minor achievements there may have been in the interim, can Theoretical Production Ecology be relegated to the same bleak category? Or should we regard de Wit's contribution as the remodelling and development of an age-old discipline traceable to Joseph's long-term yield predictions that were based on esoteric theory and flimsy data but were successfully applied to guide strategic food-security planning? More recently in 1735, Reaumur had the idea of relating day-degrees to phenological development and so conceived one of the more robust 'summary models' (or 'conservative relations' sensu Monteith, Chapter 1) that lives on to this day (Aim et al., 1988; Hesketh et al., 1988). Within this ancient discipline, the year 1958 could mark the beginning of the modern era (if not the revival) of theoretical production ecology when de Wit, in Transpiration and Crop Yields first defined the now well-known 'conservative relationship' underlying the mass of empirical data accumulated by Briggs & Shantz (1913) and others. This was soon followed by Photosynthesis of Leaf Canopies in 1965 which ushered in the computer as the instrument for simulating crop growth. In the following years, crop models proliferated in a worldwide endeavour to describe the growth processes and explain the behaviour and yield potential of crops. At first, the motivation was probably scientific curiosity and a desire to exploit the possibilities offered by the modern computer. This was soon followed by the expectation (or rationalization? ) that comprehensive explanatory analysis of growth processes would contribute to better research, plant breeding, crop