Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of the Economic Impacts of California's Drought on Urban Areas

PREFACE In late 1994, California adopted more-stringent water quality standards for the San Francisco Bay/Delta and the San Joaquin and Sacramento River System and is currently deciding how the water-use reductions necessary to meet these goals should be split between agricultural and urban users. There is substantial debate on what the effect of water supply reductions on agriculture might be. This report attempts to improve understanding of the likely effects by examining economic theory, past empirical work, new data on the response of San Joaquin Valley farmers to water supply cutbacks during the 1986–1992 drought, and two models that are commonly used to predict the effects of water supply reductions.
Pricing Decisions on Reward-Based Crowdfunding with Bayesian Review System Facing Strategic Consumers

Crowdfunding marks a popular and sustainable means by which small and microentrepreneurs obtain financial resources for their innovative project. Consumers increasingly rely on online reviews to make purchase decisions. However, the crowdfunding nowadays lacks a form type of review system. This paper is designed to extend research on the optimal pricing decision with review system for the reward-based crowdfunding. Firstly, a Bayesian analysis is established to construct consumers’ belief update process in presence of review system. Secondly, we take the strategies without the review system as a benchmark to explore the impacts of review system under preannounced pricing and responsive pricing. Finally, through the equilibrium analysis, we find that the review system has a positive impact on the creator under responsive pricing policy. The fraction of favorable review has a large effect on the profit of preannounced pricing. When the fraction is about 80%, the profit is the maximum. Generally speaking, the review system will make more profit for the creator.
Novel Long Non-Coding RNA (lncRNA) Transcript AL137782.1 Promotes the Migration of Normal Lung Epithelial Cells through Positively Regulating LMO7

The role of long non-coding RNA (lncRNAs) in biological processes remains poorly understood, despite their significant impact. Our previous research discovered that the expression of AL137782.1, a long transcript of the novel lncRNA ENSG00000261553, is upregulated in lung epithelial cells upon exposure to microbes. Furthermore, the expression of AL137782.1 exhibits variability between para-cancerous and lung adenocarcinoma samples. These findings imply that this lncRNA may play a role in both normal lung epithelial cellular processes and pathophysiology. To elucidate the function of AL137782.1 in lung epithelial cells, we utilized bioinformatics retrieval and analysis to examine its expression. We then analyzed its subcellular localization using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and subcellular fractionation. Through rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE), we confirmed the presence of a 4401 nt lncRNA AL137782.1 in lung epithelial cells. Moreover, we discovered that this lncRNA positively regulates both mRNA and the protein expression of LMO7, a protein that may regulate the cell migration of normal lung epithelial cells. Although the overexpression of AL137782.1 has been shown to enhance the migration of both normal lung epithelial cells and lung adenocarcinoma cells in vitro, our study revealed that the expression of this lncRNA was significantly decreased in lung cancers compared to adjacent tissues. This suggests that the cell migration pattern regulated by the AL137782.1–LMO7 axis is more likely to occur in normal lung epithelial cells, rather than being a pathway that promotes lung cancer cell migration. Therefore, our study provides new insights into the mechanism underlying cell migration in human lung epithelial cells. This finding may offer a potential strategy to enhance normal lung epithelial cell migration after lung injury.
Global exponential stability of 2D switched positive nonlinear systems described by the Roesser model

In this paper, we aim to investigate the stability of 2D switched positive nonlinear systems with time‐varying delays in the Roesser model, which includes 2D switched positive linear systems as a special case. By using the average dwell time approach, we give a sufficient condition for the exponential stability of 2D switched positive nonlinear systems. The difficulty caused by the delays is overcome by introducing a model transform and the method used in this paper is different from conventional Lyapunov‐Krasovskii functional method. An explicit exponential bound on the decay rate is presented. We also extend the result to the general 2D switched linear systems, not necessarily positive. Finally, an illustrative example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the obtained result.
Effect of Platelet Parameters on Linezolid-Related Thrombocytopenia in Hospitalized Patients

Background Linezolid-induced thrombocytopenia incidence varies considerably. Linezolid-related thrombocytopenia in patients has received few studies which have investigated risk factors including platelet parameters except for platelet counts. The study aims to analyze the effect of platelet parameters, including mean platelet volume and platelet large cell ratio, on linezolid-related thrombocytopenia in patients. Methods The effect of platelet parameters on linezolid-related thrombocytopenia was identified by univariate and multivariate logistic regressions. A Kaplan–Meier survival analysis was carried out to compare the survival of patients who developed linezolid-related thrombocytopenia with patients who did not. Results Thrombocytopenia occurred at a rate of 41.5% (66/159) after linezolid therapy in hospitalized patients. Platelet parameters, including the difference in mean platelet volume (MPV/fL=0.08 (−1.2–0.9)vs-0.5 (−1.5–0.3), (OR, 0.459; P = 0.001), the difference in platelet large cell ratio (PLCR/fL=0.9 (−5.1–6.2)vs-3.8 (−8.6–2.4), (OR, 1.156; P = 0.001), baseline platelet counts (OR, 0.995; P = 0.006) and duration of linezolid therapy≥10d (OR, 1.346; P = 0.007), were significantly associated with linezolid-related thrombocytopenia in hospitalized patients. In addition, other risk factors which also are associated with linezolid-related thrombocytopenia include baseline red blood cells, co-medication with parecoxib and co-medication with caspofungin. Accumulated in-hospital mortality of patients with thrombocytopenia was significantly higher than that of patients without thrombocytopenia during linezolid treatment (19.7% vs 8.6%, P = 0.003). Conclusion The difference in mean platelet volume, the difference in large platelet ratio, baseline platelet counts and duration of linezolid therapy≥10d significantly affected the development of linezolid-related thrombocytopenia in hospitalized patients.
Reproductive behavior of landless agricultural workers, small farmers, and the economic elite in the historical Krummhörn region [East Frisia, Germany, 1720-1870]

The historical population of the Krummhorn region [1720-1850] in the northwest of Germany can be characterized as a non-industrialized, pre-capitalist agricultural society. Around 70 percent of the families had either no land or owned farms too small to ensure subsistence, and therefore worked on the big farms owned by the families of the economic upper class. The economic elite made up around 15 percent of the population, but they owned 80 percent of the farm land. The remaining 15 percent of the population did not belong to the elite, but owned estates that were big enough to support their families, and were therefore economically independent. During the study period there were no famines or wars, and mortality, especially of infants, was very low compared to mortality in other German regions. Furthermore, the population was not naturally fertile. As there were on average only four to five births in complete families, the population was barely growing. In this paper, we investigate how the reproductive behavior of these families was affected by their social status and by short-term fluctuations in their socioeconomic conditions. Poisson and Cox regression models are used to analyze the age at first reproduction, fertility, the sex ratio of the offspring, sex-specific infant survival rates, and the number of children. In addition, we investigate how fluctuations in crop prices affected seasonal-specific infant mortality and fertility. We also include information about the seasonal climate that may had an effect on crop prices as well as on infant mortality via other pathways. In sum, we find that reproductive success (the number of children born and the number of children surviving to adulthood) was correlated with social rank. Individuals from high-ranking families had more births and a higher number of surviving children. We also find that social strata-specific constraints were important factors: birth rank and sex-specific reproductive values affected both infant mortality and the female age at first marriage differently in the different social strata. High crop prices were associated with a rise in infant mortality in the autumn and the winter, which may have been a reflection of a tense situation among the landless. Meanwhile, warm or hot weather was associated with an increase in child mortality in the summer, possibly because of the increased risk of infection with malaria, a common disease in the Krummhorn region at that time.
The Role of Tumour Necrosis Factor Receptor Family Members CD137 (4-1BB) and CD30 in Antiviral T Cell Responses

The tumour necrosis factor receptor (TNFR) superfamily is a collection of immunomodulatory molecules that aid in the fine-tuning and regulation of immunity through stimulatory or inhibitory signalling functions at various stages of the T cell response. In this thesis, I investigate the roles of TNFR family members CD137 (4-1BB) and CD30 in antiviral T cell responses, most notably during influenza virus infection. Using a prime-boost vaccine immunization regimen in which mice are infected with mild influenza and then boosted intranasally with a replication defective adenovirus containing the influenza nucleoprotein (NP) and CD137L (4-1BBL) (AdNP-4-1BBL), I find that this supraphysiological administration of 4-1BB signals induces a robust long-lived circulating effector memory (Tem) population and a persistent lung tissue-resident memory (Trm) population, providing protection against lethal heterotypic influenza challenge. Ad-NP-4-1BBL acts directly on 4-1BB expressed by CD8 T cells to induce this expansion, and accumulation of memory CD8 T cells in the lung is dependent on local immunization with both antigen and 4-1BBL, recruitment of circulating effector cells into the tissue, and mTOR signalling. Moreover, we find endogenous 4-1BB to be a critical regulator of effector CD8 T cell accumulation in the lung tissue after influenza infection, which correlates with Trm establishment. This implicates 4-1BB as a potent regulator of both local and systemic T cell responses to influenza and may be a potential therapeutic target in future vaccine design. On the other hand, CD30 has no discernable roles in CD4 or CD8 T cell responses during acute influenza or chronic lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) clone 13 infections. Rather, CD30 regulates the age-dependent expansion of the T memory compartment, which may have iii implications for the role of CD30 in human lymphoproliferative diseases. Taken together, we have identified novel functions of two TNFR members in regulating T cell responses during infection and at steady state. A better understanding of the post-priming mechanisms of these molecules can provide insight into future clinical interventions for viral infection and cancer malignancies.
Raman Oscillation Induced by Weak Internal Reflections of Fiber Devices in High-Power Fiber Amplifiers

Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is one of the dominant restrictions in power scaling of high-power fiber lasers with diffraction-limited beam quality. In this work, the phenomenon of Raman oscillation induced by weak internal reflections of fiber devices in high-power fiber amplifiers are demonstrated experimentally and theoretically. The experimental results show that layouts of the two fiber devices impact SRS in a high-power fiber amplifier. Further experimental measurements reveal that weak internal reflections of fiber devices are important sources of end-facet reflections. A spectral evolution model is proposed and verifies the impact of weak end-facet reflections on SRS in high-power fiber amplifiers. Further theoretical analysis confirms the phenomenon of Raman oscillation, which is a practical Raman threshold of high-power fiber amplifiers. The overall experimental and theoretical results could provide a well reference for the optimal design of SRS-limited high-power fiber amplifiers.
Influence of Symbiotic Fermentation Broth on Regulating Metabolism with Gut Microbiota and Metabolite Profiles Is Estimated Using a Third-Generation Sequencing Platform

Overnutrition with a high-fat or high-sugar diet is widely considered to be the risk factor for various metabolic, chronic, or malignant diseases that are accompanied by alterations in gut microbiota, metabolites, and downstream pathways. In this study, we investigated supplementation with soybean fermentation broth containing saponin (SFBS, also called SAPOZYME) in male C57BL/6 mice fed a high-fat-fructose diet or normal chaw. In addition to the lessening of weight gain, the influence of SFBS on reducing hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia associated with a high-fat-fructose diet was estimated using the results of related biological tests. The results of gut microbial profiling indicated that the high-fat-fructose diet mediated increases in opportunistic pathogens. In contrast, SFBS supplementation reprogrammed the high-fat-fructose diet-related microbial community with a relatively high abundance of potential probiotics, including Akkermansia and Lactobacillus genera. The metagenomic functions of differential microbial composition in a mouse model and enrolled participants were assessed using the PICRUSt2 algorithm coupled with the MetaCyc and the KEGG Orthology databases. SFBS supplementation exerted a similar influence on an increase in the level of 4-aminobutanoate (also called GABA) through the L-glutamate degradation pathway in the mouse model and the enrolled healthy population. These results suggest the beneficial influence of SFBS supplementation on metabolic disorders associated with a high-fat-fructose diet, and SFBS may function as a nutritional supplement for people with diverse requirements.
A Normalized Spatial–Spectral Supervoxel Segmentation Method for Multispectral Point Cloud Data

Airborne LiDAR point cloud segmentation (PCS) is often employed as a preprocessing step for the subsequent object recognition for scene interpretation. Current segmentation methods often aim at single-wavelength LiDAR data by fully exploiting the spatial information, which makes them unsuitable for multispectral point cloud (MPC) data due to ignoring the use of spectral signatures. In this article, a normalized spatial–spectral supervoxel segmentation method is proposed for MPC data. Specifically, a normalized spectral–spatial metric is developed to construct the ${k}$ -dimensional tree (KD tree) for MPC data clustering. Considering the uneven density distribution of MPC, an adaptive energy minimization principle based on the sum of the distance is devised to accurately select the seed points of voxels, solving the problem of undersegmentation. To reduce the cross-boundary points, the normalized spectral–spatial metric with the concave–convex judgment is extended to further optimize the edges between adjacent voxels. An important asset of our method is to segment MPC without the need for any manual annotation. Experiments on two MPC datasets show that the proposed method yields better performance compared to several comparative methods.
Fiber Optic-Based Durability Monitoring in Smart Concrete: A State-of-Art Review

Concrete is the most commonly used construction material nowadays. With emerging cutting-edge technologies such as nanomaterials (graphene, carbon nanotubes, etc.), advanced sensing (fiber optics, computer tomography, etc.), and artificial intelligence, concrete can now achieve self-sensing, self-healing, and ultrahigh performance. The concept and functions of smart concrete have thus been partially realized. However, due to the wider application location (coastal areas, cold regions, offshore, and deep ocean scenarios) and changing climate (temperature increase, more CO2 emissions, higher moisture, etc.), durability monitoring (pH, ion penetration, carbonation, corrosion, etc.) becomes an essential component for smart concrete. Fiber optic sensors (FOS) have been widely explored in recent years for concrete durability monitoring due to their advantages of high sensitivity, immunity to harsh environments, small size, and superior sensitivity. The purpose of this review is to summarize FOS development and its application in concrete durability monitoring in recent years. The objectives of this study are to (1) introduce the working principle of FOS, including fiber Bragg grating (FBG), long-period fiber grating (LPFG), surface plasmon resonance (SPR), fluorescence-based sensors, and distributed fiber optic sensors (DFOS); (2) compare the sensitivity, resolution, and application scenarios of each sensor; and (3) discuss the advantages and disadvantages of FOS in concrete durability monitoring. This review is expected to promote technical development and provide potential research paths in the future for FOS in durability monitoring in smart concrete.
Governance, Accountability and Performance Measurement: An Analysis of the Systems and Practices in the Malaysian Public Sector

Accountability is one of the elements of good governance in the public sector. Various countries, including Malaysia, have used performance measurement, especially the system of key performance indicators, as one of the ways to improve performance and subsequently show accountability to their citizens. As such, in this paper, an analysis of the performance measurement initiatives and practices of the Malaysian public sector are discussed with specific emphasis on the Government Transformation Program (GTP) which was introduced in 2009. As compared to the previous systems implemented in the Malaysian public sector, the GTP uses a more integrated performance measurement system. However, there are various issues pertaining to the new GTP program, which are also discussed and elaborated in this paper.
Moses Effect (Deformation of Diamagnetic Liquid/Vapor Interface by Magnetic Field): Physics and Applications

Deformation of the surface of diamagnetic liquid by magnetic field is called the “Moses Effect”. Physics and applications of the direct and inverse Moses effects are reviewed. Experimental techniques enabling visualization of the effects are surveyed. Impact of magnetic field on micro- and macroscopic properties of liquids is addressed. Influence of the surface tension on the shape of the near-surface dip formed in a diamagnetic liquid by magnetic field is reported. Floating of diamagnetic bodies driven by the Moses effect is treated. The effect of the “magnetic memory of water” in its relation to the Moses Effect is discussed. The dynamics of self-healing of near-surface dips due to the Moses Effect is considered.
Magnolol Supplementation Alters Serum Parameters, Immune Homeostasis, Amino Acid Profiles, and Gene Expression of Amino Acid Transporters in Growing Pigs

This study investigated whether dietary supplementation with magnolol affects growth performance, anti-inflammatory abilities, serum and muscle amino acid profiles, and metabolisms in growing pigs. A total of 42 seventy-days-old growing barrows (Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire) were randomly allocated into two dietary groups: Con, control group (basal diet); and Mag, magnolol group (basal diet supplemented with 400 mg/kg of magnolol). The results revealed that dietary supplementation with magnolol had no effect (p > 0.05) on growth performance. However, magnolol supplementation remarkably increased (p < 0.05) the serum content of albumin, total protein, immunoglobulin G, immunoglobulin M, and interleukin-22. In addition, dietary magnolol supplementation altered the amino acid (AA) profiles in serum and dorsal muscle and particularly increased (p < 0.05) the serum content of arginine and muscle glutamate. Simultaneously, the mRNA expression of genes associated with AA transport in jejunum (SLC38A2, SLC1A5, and SLC7A1) and ileum (SLC1A5 and SLC7A1) was higher (p < 0.05) in the Mag group than in the Con group. Additionally, the serum metabolomics analysis showed that the addition of magnolol significantly enhanced (p < 0.05) arginine biosynthesis, as well as D-glutamine and D-glutamate metabolism. Overall, these results suggested that dietary supplementation with magnolol has the potential to improve the accumulation of AAs, protein synthesis, immunity, and body health in growing pigs by increasing intestinal absorption and the transport of AAs.
Time-Efficient Trajectory Planning Algorithms for Multiple Mobile Robots in Nuclear/Chemical Reconnaissance System

Since nuclear and chemical materials could damage people and disturb battlefield missions in a wide region, nuclear/chemical reconnaissance systems utilizing multiple mobile robots are highly desirable for rapid and safe reconnaissance. In this paper, we design a nuclear/chemical reconnaissance system including mobile robots. Also we propose time-efficient trajectory planning algorithms using grid coverage and contour finding methods for reconnaissance operation. For grid coverage, we performed in analysis on time consumption for various trajectory patterns generated by straight lines and arcs. We proposed BCF (Bounded Contour Finding) and BCFEP (Bounded Contour Finding with Ellipse Prediction) algorithms for contour finding. With these grid coverage and contour finding algorithms, we suggest trajectory planning algorithms for single, two or four mobile robots. Various simulations reveal that the proposed algorithms improve time-efficiency in nuclear/chemical reconnaissance missions in the given area. Also we conduct basic experiments using a commercial mobile robot and verify the time efficiency of the proposed contour finding algorithms.
M3FPolypSegNet: Segmentation Network with Multi-Frequency Feature Fusion for Polyp Localization in Colonoscopy Images

Polyp segmentation is crucial for preventing colorectal cancer a common type of cancer. Deep learning has been used to segment polyps automatically, which reduces the risk of misdiagnosis. Localizing small polyps in colonoscopy images is challenging because of its complex characteristics, such as color, occlusion, and various shapes of polyps. To address this challenge, a novel frequency-based fully convolutional neural network, Multi-Frequency Feature Fusion Polyp Segmentation Network (M3FPolypSegNet) was proposed to decompose the input image into low/high/full-frequency components to use the characteristics of each component. We used three independent multi-frequency encoders to map multiple input images into a high-dimensional feature space. In the Frequency-ASPP Scalable Attention Module (F-ASPP SAM), ASPP was applied between each frequency component to preserve scale information. Subsequently, scalable attention was applied to emphasize polyp regions in a high-dimensional feature space. Finally, we designed three multi-task learning (i.e., region, edge, and distance) in four decoder blocks to learn the structural characteristics of the region. The proposed model outperformed various segmentation models with performance gains of 6.92% and 7.52% on average for all metrics on CVC-ClinicDB and BKAI-IGH-NeoPolyp, respectively.