Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Non-compliance with building permit regulations in Accra-Tema city-region, Ghana: exploring the reasons from the perspective of multiple stakeholders

Abstract Non-compliance is a major urban planning challenge in Ghana. Based on in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, the paper examines the complex and multifaceted factors that contribute to low or non-compliance with building permit regulations and planning standards in Accra and its environs. The paper uses the interviews to assess potential responses to the problem of non-compliance and its negative impacts. In doing so the paper contributes to wider knowledge and debate about the challenges of planning enforcement in contexts where regulatory power is weak and variable. Suggestions are made for overcoming barriers to planning compliance in the Accra-Tema city-region. It is hoped that such an examination of the issues from multiple stakeholders’ perspectives will improve the knowledge of the dynamics of non-compliance so as to initiate effective planning strategies to address the problem. The paper makes specific recommendations to improve planning practices in the Accra-Tema city-region.
The Effect of Stretching Hamstring, Gastrocnemius, Iliopsoas and Back Muscles on Pain and Functional Activities in Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial

A back pain lasting more than 12 weeks has been defined as a chronic low back pain (LBP) [1]. More than half of people suffer from LBP [1]. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of gastrocnemius muscle stretching in the treatment of chronic low back pain. Methods: Forty patients with chronic low back pain, ages ranging from 25 to 40 years, were recruited and divided randomly into two groups. The control group followed a physical therapy program that included stretching exercises for back, hamstring and iliopsoas muscles. Strengthening exercises for abdominal muscle and postural instructions for activities of daily living were also performed. The experimental group followed the same control-group exercises with the addition of stretching exercises for gastrocnemius muscles. The interventions for both groups consisted of three sessions per week for six weeks, each session lasting for an hour. The outcome measures were visual analog scale (VAS) for pain severity, modified fingertip to floor (FTF) for range of motion (ROM) of trunk flexion, Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), and loading X-ray to detect lumbosacral angle. Results: There was no significant difference between groups at baseline characteristics. At final follow up, the two groups were significantly different in all outcome measures in terms of pain (p < 0.01), modified FTF (p < 0.01), disability questionnaire (p < 0.01), and lumbosacral angle (p < 0.01). Conclusion: Gastrocnemius manual stretching exercise is more beneficial in reducing pain and improving functions for patients with chronic low back pain when adding to stretching exercises for hamstring, iliopsoas, and back muscles, and strengthening exercise for abdominal muscles.
Individual and network factors associated with prevalent hepatitis C infection among rural Appalachian injection drug users.

OBJECTIVES We determined the factors associated with hepatitis C (HCV) infection among rural Appalachian drug users. METHODS This study included 394 injection drug users (IDUs) participating in a study of social networks and infectious disease risk in Appalachian Kentucky. Trained staff conducted HCV, HIV, and herpes simplex-2 virus (HSV-2) testing, and an interviewer-administered questionnaire measured self-reported risk behaviors and sociometric network characteristics. RESULTS The prevalence of HCV infection was 54.6% among rural IDUs. Lifetime factors independently associated with HCV infection included HSV-2, injecting for 5 or more years, posttraumatic stress disorder, injection of cocaine, and injection of prescription opioids. Recent (past-6-month) correlates of HCV infection included sharing of syringes (adjusted odds ratio = 2.24; 95% confidence interval = 1.32, 3.82) and greater levels of eigenvector centrality in the drug network. CONCLUSIONS One factor emerged that was potentially unique to rural IDUs: the association between injection of prescription opioids and HCV infection. Therefore, preventing transition to injection, especially among prescription opioid users, may curb transmission, as will increased access to opioid maintenance treatment, novel treatments for cocaine dependence, and syringe exchange.
The Characteristics of Teacher-Student Relationships and its Relationship with School Adjustment of Students

665 students from grade 5 to grade 9 participated the study.The results were as follows:(1) Three distinctive types of teacher-student relationship were identified: cohesive,average and conflict. (2) There are significant grade differences in each dimension of teacher-student relationship,and gender differences on conflict dimension.Students with cohesive teacher-student relationship had higher scores on school liking,learning interests,learning self-confidence and learning self-efficiency and lower scores on school avoiding than students the other two types. (3) Teacher-student relationship can significantly predicted students in their school liking and avoiding,learning behavior and prosocial behavior but the direct effect on learning behavior was lower than the indirect effect.It was suggested that school liking and avoiding had partial mediate effects on teacher-student relationship and students in their learning and social behaviors.
Partial Transfer Learning with Selective Adversarial Networks

Adversarial learning has been successfully embedded into deep networks to learn transferable features, which reduce distribution discrepancy between the source and target domains. Existing domain adversarial networks assume fully shared label space across domains. In the presence of big data, there is strong motivation of transferring both classification and representation models from existing large-scale domains to unknown small-scale domains. This paper introduces partial transfer learning, which relaxes the shared label space assumption to that the target label space is only a subspace of the source label space. Previous methods typically match the whole source domain to the target domain, which are prone to negative transfer for the partial transfer problem. We present Selective Adversarial Network (SAN), which simultaneously circumvents negative transfer by selecting out the outlier source classes and promotes positive transfer by maximally matching the data distributions in the shared label space. Experiments demonstrate that our models exceed state-of-the-art results for partial transfer learning tasks on several benchmark datasets.
MMP1/PAR1/SP/NK1R paracrine loop modulates early perineural invasion of pancreatic cancer cells

The molecular mechanism of perineural invasion (PNI) is unclear, and insufficient detection during early-stage PNI in vivo hampers its investigation. We aimed to identify a cytokine paracrine loop between pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cells and nerves and established a noninvasive method to monitor PNI in vivo. Methods: A Matrigel/ dorsal root ganglia (DRG) system was used to observe PNI in vitro, and a murine sciatic nerve invasion model was established to examine PNI in vivo. PNI was assessed by MRI with iron oxide nanoparticle labeling. We searched publicly available datasets as well as obtained PDAC tissues from 30 patients to examine MMP1 expression in human tumor and non-tumor tissues. Results: Our results showed that matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP1) activated AKT and induced protease-activated receptor-1 (PAR1)-expressing DRG to release substance P (SP), which, in turn, activated neurokinin 1 receptor (NK1R)-expressing PDAC cells and enhanced cellular migration, invasion, and PNI via SP/NK1R/ERK. In animals, hind limb paralysis and a decreased hind paw width were observed approximately 20 days after inoculation of cancer cells in the perineurium. MMP1 silencing with shRNA or treatment with either a PAR1 or an NK1R antagonist inhibited PNI. MRI detected PNI as early as 10 days after implantation of PDAC cells. PNI also induced PDAC liver metastasis. Bioinformatic analyses and pathological studies on patient tissues corroborated the clinical relevance of these findings. Conclusion: In this study, we provided evidence that the MMP1/PAR1/SP/NK1R paracrine loop contributes to PNI during the early stage of primary tumor formation. Furthermore, we established a sensitive and non-invasive method to detect nerve invasion using iron oxide nanoparticles and MRI.
Migraine attacks among medical students in Soochow University, Southeast China: a cross-sectional study

Purpose Migraine is one of the most common primary headache disorders and is burdensome to both the individual and society, influencing the academic performance and quality of daily lives of medical students worldwide. This study aimed to investigate the migraine prevalence in a sample of university medical students in China and to examine the features and typical trigger factors of migraine among these students. Patients and methods From May 2016 to August 2016, a total of 1,060 medical students who were enrolled in Soochow University in Jiangsu Province in China were chosen through stratified random sampling. A self-administered questionnaire that included the ID Migraine™ for screening of migraine cases was used to collect data. The frequency, severity, duration of migraine attacks, and relevant trigger factors were measured for migraine cases. In total, 986 students completed the questionnaire. Results The overall migraine prevalence among students was 7.91%, with 4.64% in male and 9.84% in female students. Junior-grade students had a higher migraine prevalence than senior students (prevalence of migraine of year 1 to year 5 undergraduates: 10.83%, 8.9% vs. 6.25%, 4.42%, 5.33%, P<0.05; prevalence of migraine of year 1 to year 3 graduates: 9.68%, 9.71% vs. 6.38%, P<0.05). Students with a positive family history were more likely to suffer migraine than those without (OR=8.48, 95% CI: 4.33–16.59). Stress (n=73, 93.59%), lack of sleep (n=72, 92.31%), and change of sleeping time (n=68, 87.18%) were the top three trigger factors among the students. Conclusion Migraine was common among medical students from a university in China, and especially higher in female and junior-grade students, and those with a family history of migraine. Reducing stress and improving sleep quality might be effective to reduce migraine attacks in this population.
Nonsense Mutation in Exon-19 of GPIIb Associated with Thrombasthenic Phenotype. Failure of GPIIb(Δ597-1008) to Form Stable Complexes with GPIIIa

Summary We report the molecular genetic analysis of a patient with thrombasthenic phenotype. The lack of surface platelet GPIIb-IIIa complexes and the presence of GPIIIa suggested it was a case of type I Glanzmann’s thrombasthenia due to a mutation in GPIIb. Single stranded conformational polymorphism analysis (SSCP) of exon-19 of GPIIb showed polymorphic DNA bands. The DNA sequence of exon-19 revealed the presence of a homozygous C1882T transition that changes residue R597 to STOP codon. Since no other mutations were found in either GPIIb or GPIIIa it is concluded that the C1882T substitution in GPIIb is responsible for the thrombasthenic phenotype of the patient. The lack of platelet GPIIb-mRNA in the proband indicates instability of the [C1882T]GPIIb-mRNA. Coexpression of normal GPIIIa and GPIIb(Δ597-1008) in CHO cells failed to show surface expression of GPIIb(Δ597-1008)-IIIa complexes. Immunoprecipitation analysis demonstrated that GPIIb(Δ597-1008) may indeed complex GPIIIa; however, the association is either unstable or incapable of progressing along the secretory pathway.
The Swarming Motility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Is Blocked by Cranberry Proanthocyanidins and Other Tannin-Containing Materials

ABSTRACT Bacterial motility plays a key role in the colonization of surfaces by bacteria and the subsequent formation of resistant communities of bacteria called biofilms. Derivatives of cranberry fruit, predominantly condensed tannins called proanthocyanidins (PACs) have been reported to interfere with bacterial adhesion, but the effects of PACs and other tannins on bacterial motilities remain largely unknown. In this study, we investigated whether cranberry PAC (CPAC) and the hydrolyzable tannin in pomegranate (PG; punicalagin) affected the levels of motilities exhibited by the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This bacterium utilizes flagellum-mediated swimming motility to approach a surface, attaches, and then further spreads via the surface-associated motilities designated swarming and twitching, mediated by multiple flagella and type IV pili, respectively. Under the conditions tested, both CPAC and PG completely blocked swarming motility but did not block swimming or twitching motilities. Other cranberry-containing materials and extracts of green tea (also rich in tannins) were also able to block or impair swarming motility. Moreover, swarming bacteria were repelled by filter paper discs impregnated with many tannin-containing materials. Growth experiments demonstrated that the majority of these compounds did not impair bacterial growth. When CPAC- or PG-containing medium was supplemented with surfactant (rhamnolipid), swarming motility was partially restored, suggesting that the effective tannins are in part acting by a rhamnolipid-related mechanism. Further support for this theory was provided by demonstrating that the agar surrounding tannin-induced nonswarming bacteria was considerably less hydrophilic than the agar area surrounding swarming bacteria. This is the first study to show that natural compounds containing tannins are able to block P. aeruginosa swarming motility and that swarming bacteria are repelled by such compounds.
Effect of Cadmium Chloride and / or Vitamin "C" on Metallothionein Gene Expression

Heavy metals including cadmium represent environmental hazards and a great problem as these heavy metals lead to a great public risks for human, animal and poultry health. Metallothionein (MT) is a low molecular weight metal binding protein; it plays an important role in providing protection from cadmium toxicity. Vitamin C is one of the most important antioxidants that is used for prophylaxis and treatment of cadmium toxicity. The current study included 24 Albino rats and divided into four groups, each one includes six rats . First group was kept as controls (CON). The second one was given only vitamin C (VIC). The third was given only cadmium chloride Cdcl 2 ( CAD). The last group was given both vitamin C and Cdcl 2 (VIC+CAD). Metallothionein 1 and 2 mRNA expressions were measured in liver and kidney tissues by SYBR green relative quantitative Real time PCR in all samples. The Cdcl 2 increases the expression of both MT1 and MT2 mRNA in liver by 4.421 and 3.827 fold and in kidney tissues by 1.095 and 1.203 respectively. The study also demonstrates that vitamin C decreases the expression of MT1 and MT2 in kidney tissues by 0.214 and 0.191 fold respectively and has no significant effect on liver tissues. It was suggested that MT and MT2 mRNA act as biomarkers of cadmium toxicity. Vitamin C had a protective role against cadmium through its antioxidant effect and that appeared through decreasing the expression of both MT1 and MT2 in liver and kidney tissues. (Olla Adel Khalifa, Naglaa Fathy Alhusseini, Gamal A. Sosa and Shabaan A. Hemeda. Effect of Cadmium Chloride and or Vitamin "C" on Metallothionein Gene Expression. J Am Sci 2012;8(10):198-203). (ISSN: 1545- 1003). http://www.jofamericanscience. org . 30
Vascular Adrenal Cysts

● Adrenal cysts are rare and form a heterogeneous group of lesions that includes (a) parasitic cysts, (b) epithelial cysts, (c) pseudocysts, and (d) endothelial cysts. There is evidence (immunohistochemical and ultrastructural) that both pseudocysts and endothelial cysts are variants of vascular cysts. Adrenal vascular cysts account for 84% of adrenal cysts. They are more common in women and present clinically with abdominal pain or are incidental findings. Their imaging features are not specific. Grossly, both types of adrenal vascular cysts are encapsulated. Pseudocysts are unilocular, thick-walled, and devoid of endothelial lining, whereas endothelial cysts are thin-walled, multilocular, and lined by endothelium. Adrenal vascular cysts probably originate from a preexisting vascular hamartoma. The treatment of choice is surgical excision. The prognosis is excellent. (Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2006;130:1722–1724)
Aggregate stability in organically and conventionally farmed soils

A range of factors that influence aggregate stability and soil erodibility were analysed for soils sampled from land managed under contrasting agricultural methods. These included: an organic farm; a conventional farm that incorporated organic fertilizers; a conventional farm that only used inorganic fertilizers; and a non‐cultivated control site. The stability of aggregates that compose the bulk soil structure (macroaggregates), and aggregates that were mobilized from the soil by simulated rainfall and surface runoff (microaggregates), were evaluated in terms of the soil fragmentation fractal dimension, organic carbon content and ATP (adenosine 5′‐triphosphate; a signature of live biomass) concentration. The results were used to interpret the existing physical condition of the soils, the (microbial) processes that contribute to that physical structure, and how both pedogenic processes and existing soil quality are influenced by agricultural methods. The soils sampled for this study were demonstrated to be multi‐fractal in nature: soils with greater bulk density were composed of more stable macro‐aggregates, which, in turn, fragmented into larger, more stable micro‐aggregates, rendering the entire soil structure less erodible. Soil erodibility and sustainable soil management should therefore be approached at multiple scales. The primary control on both macro‐ and micro‐aggregate stability was determined to be the organic matter input to the soil, as represented by measurements of organic carbon and ATP. Organic content was greatest for the non‐cultivated soil, which reflects the degradation of organic reserves in cultivated soils. For cultivated soils, it was not possible to differentiate aggregate stability for soils managed under organic or conventional (i.e. using biological and inorganic fertilizers) farming practices, but aggregates of soils that only received artificial fertilizers consistently exhibited less stability.
Leading public service organizations: how to obtain high employee self-efficacy and organizational performance

ABSTRACT Concerns are sometimes raised that transactional leadership harms public organizations’ performance because demands thwart employees’ self-efficacy. However, the opposite may be argued – conditional rewards strengthen feelings of competence because they provide positive feedback on performance. We study ninety-two high school principals’ reported use of contingent rewards and sanctions and self-efficacy among their 1,932 teachers. The results indicate that contingent rewards strengthen self-efficacy, and that sanctions are not negatively related with self-efficacy or performance. Furthermore, the teachers’ self-efficacy can be linked positively to organizational performance. This suggests that rewards can be an important tool for managers in the public sector.
Expertise screening in crowdsourcing image quality

We propose a screening approach to find reliable and effectively expert crowd workers in image quality assessment (IQA). Our method measures the users' ability to identify image degradations by using test questions, together with several relaxed reliability checks. We conduct multiple experiments, obtaining reproducible results with a high agreement between the expertise-screened crowd and the freelance experts of 0.95 Spearman rank order correlation (SROCC), with one restriction on the image type. Our contributions include a reliability screening method for uninformative users, a new type of test questions that rely on our proposed database1of pristine and artificially distorted images, a group agreement extrapolation method and an analysis of the crowdsourcing experiments.
CAPES: Unsupervised Storage Performance Tuning Using Neural Network-Based Deep Reinforcement Learning

Parameter tuning is an important task of storage performance optimization. Current practice usually involves numerous tweak-benchmark cycles that are slow and costly. To address this issue, we developed CAPES, a model-less deep reinforcement learning-based unsupervised parameter tuning system driven by a deep neural network (DNN). It is designed to find the optimal values of tunable parameters in computer systems, from a simple client-server system to a large data center, where human tuning can be costly and often cannot achieve optimal performance. CAPES takes periodic measurements of a target computer system’s state, and trains a DNN which uses Q-learning to suggest changes to the system’s current parameter values. CAPES is minimally intrusive, and can be deployed into a production system to collect training data and suggest tuning actions during the system’s daily operation. Evaluation of a prototype on a Lustre file system demonstrates an increase in I/O throughput up to 45% at saturation point. CCS CONCEPTS • Information systems → Storage management; Distributed storage; • Computing methodologies →Neural networks;
Design of Internalizing PSMA-specific Glu-ureido-based Radiotherapeuticals

Despite the progress in diagnosis and treatment, prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the main causes for cancer-associated deaths among men. Recently, prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) binding tracers have revolutionized the molecular imaging of this disease. The translation of these tracers into therapeutic applications is challenging because of high PSMA-associated kidney uptake. While both the tumor uptake and the uptake in the kidneys are PSMA-specific, the kidneys show a more rapid clearance than tumor lesions. Consequently, the potential of endoradiotherapeutic drugs targeting PSMA is highly dependent on a sustained retention in the tumor - ideally achieved by predominant internalization of the respective tracer. Previously, we were able to show that the pharmacokinetics of the tracers containing the Glu-urea-based binding motif can be further enhanced with a specifically designed linker. Here, we evaluate an eventual influence of the chelator moiety on the pharmacokinetics, including the tumor internalization. A series of tracers modified by different chelators were synthesized using solid phase chemistry. The conjugates were radiolabeled to evaluate the influence on the receptor binding affinity, the ligand-induced internalization and the biodistribution behavior. Competitive binding and internalization assays were performed on PSMA positive LNCaP cells and the biodistribution of the most promising compound was evaluated by positron emission tomography (PET) in LNCaP-tumor-bearing mice. Interestingly, conjugation of the different chelators did not cause significant differences: all compounds showed nanomolar binding affinities with only minor differences. PET imaging of the 68Ga-labeled CHX-A''-DTPA conjugate revealed that the chelator moiety does not impair the specificity of tumor uptake when compared to the gold standard PSMA-617. However, strong differences of the internalization ratios caused by the chelator moiety were observed: differences in internalization between 15% and 65% were observed, with the CHX-A''-DTPA conjugate displaying the highest internalization ratio. A first-in-man PET/CT study proved the high tumor uptake of this 68Ga-labeled PSMA-targeting compound. These data indicate that hydrophobic entities at the chelator mediate the internalization efficacy. Based on its specific tumor uptake in combination with its very high internalization ratio, the clinical performance of the chelator-conjugated Glu-urea-based PSMA inhibitors will be further elucidated.