Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Different Exercise Types on Chrna7 and Chrfam7a Expression in Healthy Normal Weight and Overweight Type 2 Diabetic Adults

Abstract Purpose: Considering that the CHRNA7 and CHRFAM7A genes can be modulated by acute or chronic inflammation, and exercise modulates inflammatory responses, the question that arises is whether physical exercise could exert any effect on the expression of these genes. Thus, the aim of this work is to identify the effects of different types of exercises on the expression of the CHRNA7, CHRFAM7A and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in leukocytes of healthy normal weight (HNW), and overweight with type 2 diabetes (OT2D) individuals. Methods: 15 OT2D and 13 HNW participants (men and women, from 40 to 60 years old) performed in a randomized crossover design three exercise sessions: aerobic exercise (AE), resistance exercise (RE) and combined exercise (CE). Blood samples were collected at rest and post-60-min of the exercise sessions. The leukocytes were the analysis of the CHRNA7, CHRFAM7A and (TNF-α) gene expression. Results: At baseline, OT2D had higher CHRFAM7A and TNF-α expression compared to HNW. No statistical differences were observed between groups for CHRNA7; however, the HNW group presented almost twice as many subjects with the expression of this gene (24% vs. 49%). Post exercise, the CHRFAM7A increased in AE, RE and CE for HNW, and in AE and CE for OT2D. There was no significant difference for TNF-α and CHRNA7 expression between any type of exercise and group. Conclusions: Our study shows that OT2D individuals presented higher baseline expression of TNF-α and CHRFAM7A, besides evidence of decreased CHRNA7A expression in leukocytes when compared with HNW. On the other hand, acutely physical exercise induces increased CHRFAM7A expression, especially when the aerobic component is present.
Anemia is independently associated with mortality in people living with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome: A propensity score matching-based retrospective cohort study in China

Although previous studies have suggested that hemoglobin is related to the health status of people living with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) (PLWHA), the role of anemia in mortality remains unclear. This study aimed to comprehensively quantify the effect of anemia on the mortality risk of PLWHA. In this retrospective cohort study, we thoroughly estimated the effect of anemia on PLWHA mortality, using data collected from January 2005 to June 2022 in the Huzhou area, in 450 subjects extracted from the database of the China Disease Prevention and Control Information System and matched them using a propensity score matching approach to balance potential confounding bias. The potential exposure–response relationship between anemia, hemoglobin concentration, and the mortality of PLWHA was also carefully estimated. A series of subgroup analyses, including interaction analysis, was further conducted to validate the robustness of the effect of anemia on PLWHA death risk. Anemia was significantly associated with an elevated death risk in PLWHA, with an increase of 74% (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR]: 1.74; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03–2.93; p = 0.038) in those with anemia after adjusting for potential confounders. PLWHA with moderate or severe anemia had a higher risk of death, with an 86% increase (AHR = 1.86; 95% CI: 1.01–3.42; p = 0.045). Meanwhile, the AHR tended to increase by 85% on average (AHR = 1.85, 95% CI: 1.37–2.50; p < 0.001) with a per standard deviation (SD) decrease in plasma hemoglobin. Consistent relationships between plasma hemoglobin and the risk of death were further observed in the results from multiple quantile regression models, restricted cubic spline regression models, and a series of subgroup analyses. Anemia is an independent risk factor for HIV/AIDS-related mortality. Our findings may provide new insights into the relevance of PLWHA administration to public health policy, which demonstrate that this low-cost and routinely measured marker (hemoglobin) can be a marker of poor prognosis even before the start of HAART.
Impact of erector spinae plane block on the quality of recovery after lumbar spine decompression surgery: A comparative study between addicts and non-addicts

Background and Aims: Acute pain management in drug addicts is a critical yet understudied topic. Drug addicts have a decreased pain threshold, impairing anaesthetic pain control. This study aimed to evaluate the postoperative quality of recovery in addicts and non-addicts after receiving erector spinae plane block (ESPB) with general anaesthesia. Methods: Sixty males, aged 18-60 years, with an American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status I/II, scheduled for elective lumbar decompression surgery, were divided into two equal groups. Group A included 30 addicts and group N included 30 non-addicts. Both groups received bilateral ultrasound-guided ESPB with 20 mL bupivacaine (0.25%) before induction of general anaesthesia. The primary outcome was comparison of the 24-hour postoperative quality of recovery (QoR-15) score. The secondary outcomes were time to first analgesic requirement, postoperative pain scores, morphine consumption, and adverse events. Results: The QoR-15 score was higher in group N (median = 128.5, interquartile range = 107-136) than in group A (118 [99-130]), indicating a better recovery in group N. The visual analogue scale pain score was lower in group N than in group A, especially in the first 12 hours postoperatively. Time to first analgesic request was significantly longer in group N than in group A (mean ± standard deviation: 8.67 ± 2.74 and 5.53 ± 1.64 hours, respectively, P =0.001), Morphine consumption was significantly higher in group A than in group N (9.62 ± 3.2 and 7.08 ± 2.57 mg, respectively, P =0.041). Conclusion: Drug addicts experienced decreased analgesic efficacy of ESPB compared to non-addicts, with comparable postoperative QoR-15 score following lumbar decompression surgery.
Array antenna pattern modeling methods that include mutual coupling effects

Results from an investigation into methods of modeling the radiation patterns of phased arrays that include the effects of radiative mutual coupling are presented. The approaches are based on either the principle of pattern multiplication or the use of active element patterns. Theoretical derivations of the various active element pattern methods are presented. A new method, the hybrid active element pattern method, is introduced. It accurately predicts the patterns of small and medium-size arrays of equally spaced elements. Example arrays of center-fed dipoles are analyzed to verify and illustrate the representations. The results are general and can be applied to arrays of any type of element. The array patterns computed using both the classical pattern multiplication approach and the methods based on active element patterns are compared to those computed using accurate numerical codes based on the method of moments. >
Temporal Changes and Spatial Driving Mechanisms of Water Ecological Footprints in the Context of Urbanization: Taking Three Major Urban Agglomerations in China’s Yangtze River Economic Belt as an Example

Urbanization, which is accompanied by the flow of various production factors, leads to increasingly close spatial linkages between cities, and exerts profound influences on water resource use. This study focuses on the three major urban agglomerations in China’s Yangtze River Economic Belt, and examines the temporal changes and spatial variations of its water resource use based on an improved water ecological footprints (WEFs) model that uses city-level data to calculate yield factors and considers the recycling of water resources. Moreover, this study investigates the spatial autocorrelation of WEFs and explores the spatial correlations between WEFs and three dimensions of urbanization (population, economy, land) in three urban agglomerations. The results show that the WEF is the highest in the downstream of the Yangtze River and the lowest in the upper stream. City-level WEFs have significant spatial autocorrelations, and cities with high water use are often concentrated. In some regions, urbanization and WEFs have significant spatial correlations, indicating the environmental externality of urbanization on water resource use. This study contributes to the methodology of developing localized water use evaluation indices, and provides insights into the driving factors of WEFs and the environmental externality of urbanization at different spatial scales. Its findings provide empirical support for formulating and implementing more targeted water resources protection measures in the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
“Mars Bar and a Tin of Red Bull Kept Me and My Patients Alive”: Exploring Barriers to Healthy Eating through Facebook Comments of Shiftworkers

The negative impact of an unhealthy diet on the shiftworker population has been well-documented. However, little evidence exists on the underlying reasons for unhealthy eating behaviours and the existing barriers to healthy eating withinshiftwork environments. This qualitative study investigated the dietary behaviours reported by shiftworkers through Facebook comments. Comments were collected if they were on public shiftworker-relevant posts pertaining to dietary news or dietary information on Facebook and were posted by self-identified shiftworkers, relatives of shiftworkers, or partners of shiftworkers. A thematic analysis of the 144 comments collected generated four categories that can be used to understand the motivations for eating behaviour on-shift: what shiftworkers eat, where food is sourced from, when food is eaten, and why certain foods are chosen. Results reveal motivations, attitudes, and both internal and external barriers to healthy eating behaviours, as well as similarities and differences across shiftwork industries. Recommendations for future research include further explorations on the link between scheduled eating (e.g., time-restricted eating) and shiftwork, the impact of a rotating shift arrangements on dietary health behaviours, and the impact of interpersonal relationships on shiftworker dietary choices. Understanding these motivations will inform strategies to promote healthy eating and help understand barriers for shiftworkers.
Image registration using redundant wavelet transforms

Imagery is collected much faster and in significantly greater quantities today compared to a few years ago. Accurate registration of this imagery is vital for comparing the similarities and differences between multiple images. Image registration is a significant component in computer vision and other pattern recognition problems, medical applications such as Medical Resonance Images (MRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET), remotely sensed data for target location and identification, and super-resolution algorithms. Since human analysis is tedious and error prone for large data sets, we require an automatic, efficient, robust, and accurate method to register images. Wavelet transforms have proven useful for a variety of signal and image processing tasks. In our research, we present a fundamentally new wavelet-based registration algorithm utilizing redundant transforms and a masking process to suppress the adverse effects of noise and improve processing efficiency. The shift-invariant wavelet transform is applied in translation estimation and a new rotation-invariant polar wavelet transform is effectively utilized in rotation estimation. We demonstrate the robustness of these redundant wavelet transforms for the registration of two images (i.e., translating or rotating an input image to a reference image), but extensions to larger data sets are feasible. We compare the registration accuracy of our redundant wavelet transforms to the critically sampled discrete wavelet transform using the Daubechies wavelet to illustrate the power of our algorithm in the presence of significant additive white Gaussian noise and strongly translated or rotated images.
Simultaneous controller design for linear time-invariant systems

The use of generalized sampled-data hold functions (GSHF) in the problem of simultaneous controller design for linear time-invariant plants is discussed. This problem can be stated as follows: given plants P/sub 1/, P/sub 2/, . , P/sub N/, find a controller C which achieves not only simultaneous stability, but also simultaneous optimal performance in the N given systems. By this, it is meant that C must optimize an overall cost function reflecting the closed-loop performance of each plant when it is regulated by C. The problem is solved in three aspects: simultaneous stabilization, simultaneous optimal quadratic performance, and simultaneous pole assignment in combination with simultaneous intersampling performance. >
Constrained clustering of irregularly sampled spatial data

Many spatial data such as those in climatology or environmental monitoring are collected over irregular geographical locations. Furthermore, it is common to have multivariate observations at each location. We propose a method of segmentation of a region of interest based on such data that can be carried out in two steps: (1) clustering or classification of irregularly sample points and (2) segmentation of the region based on the classified points. We develop a spatially-constrained clustering algorithm for segmentation of the sample points by incorporating a geographical-constraint into the standard clustering methods. Both hierarchical and nonhierarchical methods are considered. The latter is a modification of the seeded region growing method known in image analysis. Both algorithms work on a suitable neighbourhood structure, which can for example be defined by the Delaunay triangulation of the sample points. The number of clusters is estimated by testing the significance of successive change in the within-cluster sum-of-squares relative to a null permutation distribution. The methodology is validated on simulated data and used in construction of a climatology map of Ireland based on meteorological data of daily rainfall records from 1294 stations over the period of 37 years.
Key comparison BIPM.RI(I)-K6 of the standards for absorbed dose to water of the NIST, USA and the BIPM in accelerator photon beams

A comparison of the dosimetry for accelerator photon beams was carried out between the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) in September and October 2010. The comparison was based on the determination of absorbed dose to water for two radiation qualities at NIST. The comparison result, reported as a ratio of the NIST and the BIPM evaluations, is 1.004 at 6 MV and 0.996 at 18 MV, each with a combined standard uncertainty of 6 parts in 103. This result is the third in the on-going BIPM.RI(I)-K6 series of comparisons. Main text. To reach the main text of this paper, click on Final Report. Note that this text is that which appears in Appendix B of the BIPM key comparison database kcdb.bipm. org/. The final report has been peer-reviewed and approved for publication by the CCRI, according to the provisions of the CIPM Mutual Recognition Arrangement (CIPM MRA).
SOLUTIONS FOR MHD NATURAL CONVECTION FLOW OF A PARTICULATE SUSPENSION THROUGH A VERTICAL CHANNEL WITH ASYMMETRIC THERMAL BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

A continuum model for two-phase (fluid/particle) flow induced by natural convection is developed and applied to the problem of steady natural convection MHD flow of a particulate suspension through an infinitely long vertical channel in the presence of heat generation or absorption effects. The walls of the channel are heated asymmetrically such that one of the channel walls is maintained at a constant heat flux, while the other is maintained at a constant temperature. The boundary conditions borrowed from the rarefied gas dynamics are employed for the particle-phase wall velocity conditions. Various closed-form solutions for different special cases are obtained. A parametric study of some physical parameters involved in the problem is done to illustrate the influence of these parameters on the flow and thermal aspects of the problem.
6-dimensional manifolds without totally algebraic homology

We construct 6-dimensional manifolds for which not all codimension 2 homology classes (with Z/2-coefficients) are realized by algebraic subvarieties in any real algebraic structure on the manifold. It was known that such examples exist in dimension 11 and higher, and that dimension 6 is the best possible. We also give an elementary algebraic topological proof of a connection between codimension 2 submanifolds and vector bundles which was previously proven only by algebraic geometrical methods.
Computing a robust D-stability bound using a parameter-dependent Lyapunov approach

The problem of robust matrix root-clustering against additive structured uncertainty is addressed. A bound on the size of the uncertainty domain preserving matrix D-stability is derived from an LMI approach. A recently proposed sufficient condition for robust matrix D-stability with respect to convex polytopic uncertainty is used. It is relevant to the framework dealing with parameter-dependent Lyapunov functions. Using this condition, the problem of computing the robustness bound is formulated as a generalised eigenvalue problem, that enables the bound value to be maximised.
Real forms of cusp singularities

Cusp singularities were introduced and described in detail in Hirzebruch's fundamental paper [3] (se recall some of the basic results in § 1 below). They form a natural and well-behaved class, included in Laufer's ‘minimally elliptic’ singularities [5]. Those which occur on hypersurfaces appear also as hyperbolic singularities in Arnold's [1] classification of 1-modal singularities.
Causation of the heavy rainfall in Kyushu in early July 2020: A perspective of the depression that originated over the Tibetan Plateau

Heavy rain fell in Kyushu, Japan, in early July 2020, which caused huge life and economic losses. The present work reports that a Tibetan Plateau vortex (TPV) generated over the Tibetan Plateau transformed into a trough at the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, and the trough continued to move eastward and was responsible for the heavy rainfall in Kyushu. Accordingly, the maintenance and eastward movement of the trough and the influencing mechanism of the trough on the rainfall in Kyushu are explored based on the final analysis data (FNL) from NCEP and the JRA-55 reanalysis from JMA. Diagnoses of the potential vorticity (PV) tendency equation indicate that the horizontal PV flux convergence east of the trough is the primary contributor to the eastward movement and maintenance of the trough. Furthermore, the trough is proved to have important effects on the moisture condition and the ascending motion around Kyushu. That is, the trough increases the moisture in Kyushu by intensifying the eastward moisture transportation to Kyushu; the positive vorticity and warm center, as well as the wind perturbation related to the trough, are in favor of stronger ascending motion in Kyushu. The findings in this work provide extended knowledge on the causation of rainfall in Japan, which is beneficial for further precipitation prediction.
Exact controllability in viscoelasticity of fading memory type

Distributed load control of motions governed by an abstract partial integrodifferential equation is studied. First a new system-theoretic approach to a mild solution theory of equations arising in viscoelasticity of fading memory type is developed. Then it is shown that control results for the damped abstract wave equation devolve to a special class of “virgin” material with fading memory.
Multifixed-beam satellite antenna with full area coverage and a rain-tolerant polarization distribution

Two problems of multifixed-beam satellite antennas have been 1) gaps in coverage in a given field of view, and 2) use of polarizations which are sensitive to cross coupling caused by precipitation in the earth's atmosphere. These problems can be solved, and in addition, large frequency reuse can be achieved, by application of cluster feeds to an offset Cassegrainian antenna. New features described here include a) interleaving of cluster feeds, b) use of linear orthogonal polarizations distributed to lie in local vertical and local horizontal planes on the earth's surface, c) clusters of keystone-shaped feed elements, d) a system for interconnecting uplink and downlink beams, and e) a method for evaluating aberration-sensitive antenna parameters. It is found that aberrations are negligible for beams aimed within the contiguous United States.
Endocannabinoid System and Exogenous Cannabinoids in Depression and Anxiety: A Review

Background: There is a growing liberalization of cannabis-based preparations for medical and recreational use. In multiple instances, anxiety and depression are cited as either a primary or a secondary reason for the use of cannabinoids. Aim: The purpose of this review is to explore the association between depression or anxiety and the dysregulation of the endogenous endocannabinoid system (ECS), as well as the use of phytocannabinoids and synthetic cannabinoids in the remediation of depression/anxiety symptoms. After a brief description of the constituents of cannabis, cannabinoid receptors and the endocannabinoid system, the most important evidence is presented for the involvement of cannabinoids in depression and anxiety both in human and from animal models of depression and anxiety. Finally, evidence is presented for the clinical use of cannabinoids to treat depression and anxiety. Conclusions: Although the common belief that cannabinoids, including cannabis, its main studied components—tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD)—or other synthetic derivatives have been suggested to have a therapeutic role for certain mental health conditions, all recent systematic reviews that we report have concluded that the evidence that cannabinoids improve depressive and anxiety disorders is weak, of very-low-quality, and offers no guidance on the use of cannabinoids for mental health conditions within a regulatory framework. There is an urgent need for high-quality studies examining the effects of cannabinoids on mental disorders in general and depression/anxiety in particular, as well as the consequences of long-term use of these preparations due to possible risks such as addiction and even reversal of improvement.
Recent Developments in Photocatalytic Nanotechnology for Purifying Air Polluted with Volatile Organic Compounds: Effect of Operating Parameters and Catalyst Deactivation

Photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) is a successful method for indoor air purification, especially for removing low-concentration pollutants. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) form a class of organic pollutants that are released into the atmosphere by consumer goods or via human activities. Once they enter the atmosphere, some might combine with other gases to create new air pollutants, which can have a detrimental effect on the health of living beings. This review focuses on current developments in the degradation of indoor pollutants, with an emphasis on two aspects of PCO: (i) influence of environmental (external) conditions; and (ii) catalyst deactivation and possible solutions. TiO2 is widely used as a photocatalyst in PCO because of its unique properties. Here, the potential effects of the operating parameters, such as the nature of the reactant, catalyst support, light intensity, and relative humidity, are extensively investigated. Then the developments and limitations of the PCO technique are highlighted, especially photocatalyst deactivation. Furthermore, the nature and deactivation mechanisms of photocatalysts are discussed, with possible solutions for reducing catalyst deactivation. Finally, the challenges and future directions of PCO technology for the elimination of indoor pollutants are compared and summarized.