Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Available Global Runoff Datasets Through a River Model in Support of Transboundary Water Management in South and Southeast Asia

Numerical models have become essential tools for simulating and forecasting hydro-meteorological variability, and to help better understand the Earth’s water cycle across temporal and spatial scales. Hydrologic outputs from these numerical models are widely available and represent valuable alternatives for supporting water management in regions where observations are scarce, including in transboundary river basins where data sharing is limited. Yet, the wide range of existing Land Surface Model (LSM) outputs makes the choice of dataset challenging in the absence of detailed analysis of the hydrological variability and quantification of associated physical processes. Here we focus on two of the world’s most populated transboundary river basins – the combined Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) in South Asia and the Mekong in Southeast Asia – where downstream countries are particularly vulnerable to water related disasters in the absence of upstream hydro-meteorological information. In this study, several freely-available global LSM outputs are obtained from NASA’s Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) and from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Re-Analysis-interim/Land (ERA-interim/Land) and used to compute river discharge across these transboundary basins using a river network routing model. Simulations are then compared to historical discharge to assess runoff data quality and identify best-performing models with implications for the terrestrial water balance. This analysis examines the effects of meteorological inputs, land surface models and their spatio-temporal resolution, as well as river network fineness and routing model parameters on hydrologic modeling performance. Our results indicate that the most recent runoff datasets yield the most accurate simulations in most cases, and suggest that meteorological inputs and the selection of the LSM are together the most influential factors affecting discharge simulations. Conversely, the spatial and temporal resolution of the LSM and river model have the least impact on the quality of simulated discharge, although the routing model parameters affect the timing of hydrographs.
Hand hygiene compliance in intensive care units: An observational study

Abstract Aim Health care–associated infections along with antibiotic resistance are a leading risk for patient safety in intensive care units. Hygienic hand disinfection is still regarded as the most effective, simplest, and most cost‐effective measure to reduce health care–associated infections. To improve hand hygiene compliance and to prevent health care–associated infections, interventions of the “German Clean Hands Campaign” were implemented in a university hospital. Methods Observational single‐center study using direct observation and feedback. Hand hygiene performance was assessed in 12 intensive care units between 2013 and 2017. Linear mixed model regression analyses were used to estimate the compliance trend over time. Results In total, 10 315 “my five moments for hand hygiene” were observed. The mean hand hygiene compliance rates increased from 75.1% to 88.6% during the study period, yielding an estimated increase of about 4.5% per year. However, there are differences in compliance between occupational groups (physicians: between 61.2% and 77.1%; nurses: between 80.2% and 90.9%; others: between 61.3% and 82.4%). Conclusions After implementation of the “German Clean Hands Campaign” interventions, an overall significant improvement of hand hygiene was detected. Compliance measurements helped to raise awareness among health care professional groups.
Is Scapular Stabilization Exercise Effective for Managing Nonspecific Chronic Neck Pain?: A Systematic Review

Scapular stabilization is thought to have an important role in improving pain and dysfunction around the neck and shoulders, but evidence of this is lacking. We aim to systematically review the effect of a scapular stabilization exercise (SSE) on pain and dysfunction in patients with nonspecific chronic neck pain (NP). We searched the PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, and Cochrane Library databases using the terms (NP [MeSH] OR NP OR cervical pain OR neck ache OR cervicalgia) AND (scapular exercise OR periscapular exercise OR SSEs). We included suitable studies that met the study’s inclusion criteria. Among the 227 studies identified by our search strategy, a total of four (three randomized controlled studies and one prospective study) met the inclusion criteria. The SSE was intense. It included three sets of 10 repetitions. In most of the studies, the exercises were conducted 3 times per week. Most studies reported that the SSE improved pain and dysfunction in patients with nonspecific chronic NP; however, the reviewed articles did not use the same variables for measurement. Additionally, the sample size was small. Although several studies show that SSE might improve NP and dysfunction, the effects of SSE on pain and dysfunction in the neck region remain unclear because the number of studies was small. Further high-quality studies are necessary to identify the detailed effects of SSE in patients with NP.
Genome-Wide Analysis of Cotton miRNAs During Whitefly Infestation Offers New Insights into Plant-Herbivore Interaction

Although the regulatory function of miRNAs and their targets have been characterized in model plants, a possible underlying role in the cotton response to herbivore infestation has not been determined. To investigate this, we performed small RNA and degradome sequencing between resistant and susceptible cotton cultivar following infestation with the generalist herbivore whitefly. In total, the 260 miRNA families and 241 targets were identified. Quantitative-PCR analysis revealed that several miRNAs and their corresponding targets exhibited dynamic spatio-temporal expression patterns. Moreover, 17 miRNA precursors were generated from 29 long intergenic non-coding RNA (lincRNA) transcripts. The genome-wide analysis also led to the identification of 85 phased small interfering RNA (phasiRNA) loci. Among these, nine PHAS genes were triggered by miR167, miR390, miR482a, and two novel miRNAs, including those encoding a leucine-rich repeat (LRR) disease resistance protein, an auxin response factor (ARF) and MYB transcription factors. Through combined modeling and experimental data, we explored and expanded the miR390-tasiARF cascade during the cotton response to whitefly. Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) of ARF8 from miR390 target in whitefly-resistant cotton plants increased auxin and jasmonic acid (JA) accumulation, resulting in increased tolerance to whitefly infestation. These results highlight the provides a useful transcriptomic resource for plant-herbivore interaction.
Focal adhesion kinase promotes BMP2‐induced osteogenic differentiation of human urinary stem cells via AMPK and Wnt signaling pathways

Human urine‐derived stem cells (hUSCs) serve as favorable candidates for bone transplants due to their efficient proliferative and multipotent differentiation abilities, as well as the capacity to secrete a variety of vasoactive agents to facilitate tissue engineering. The present study aimed to explore the role of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) in bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2)‐induced osteogenic differentiation of hUSCs and to investigate the underlying mechanism. The degree of osteogenic differentiation and the correlated signals, following BMP2 overexpression and siRNA‐mediated silencing of FAK, were determined in vitro. Moreover, hUSCs induced bone formation in a rat model with cranial defects, in vivo. Our findings revealed that alkaline phosphatase production, calcium deposits, osteocalcin and osteopontin expression, and bone formation were upregulated in vitro and in vivo following BMP2‐induced osteogenic differentiation, and AMPK and Wnt signaling pathway activation by FAK could effectively regulate BMP2‐enhanced osteogenic differentiation of hUSCs. Taken together, these findings indicated that FAK could mediate BMP2‐enhanced osteogenic differentiation of hUSCs through activating adenosine 5’‐monophosphate‐activated protein kinase and Wnt signaling pathways.
Ozone Pollution: A Major Health Hazard Worldwide

Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released into the atmosphere can react in the presence of solar irradiation, leading to ozone formation in the troposphere. Historically, before clean air regulations were implemented to control NOx and VOCs, ozone concentrations were high enough to exert acute effects such as eye and nose irritation, respiratory disease emergencies, and lung function impairment. At or above current regulatory standards, day-to-day variations in ozone concentrations have been positively associated with asthma incidence and daily non-accidental mortality rate. Emerging evidence has shown that both short-term and long-term exposures to ozone, at concentrations below the current regulatory standards, were associated with increased mortality due to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The pathophysiology to support the epidemiologic associations between mortality and morbidity and ozone centers at the chemical and toxicological property of ozone as a strong oxidant, being able to induce oxidative damages to cells and the lining fluids of the airways, and immune-inflammatory responses within and beyond the lung. These new findings add substantially to the existing challenges in controlling ozone pollution. For example, in the United States in 2016, 90% of non-compliance to the national ambient air quality standards was due to ozone whereas only 10% was due to particulate matter and other regulated pollutants. Climate change, through creating atmospheric conditions favoring ozone formation, has been and will continue to increase ozone concentrations in many parts of world. Worldwide, ozone is responsible for several hundreds of thousands of premature deaths and tens of millions of asthma-related emergency room visits annually. To combat ozone pollution globally, more aggressive reductions in fossil fuel consumption are needed to cut NOx and VOCs as well as greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, preventive and therapeutic strategies are needed to alleviate the detrimental effects of ozone especially in more susceptible individuals. Interventional trials in humans are needed to evaluate the efficacy of antioxidants and ozone-scavenging compounds that have shown promising results in animal studies.
Acute deterioration of adults with Chiari I malformation associated with extensive syrinx

Abstract Background: Chiari I malformation (CMI) is usually a chronic disorder, although it may also present as a life-threatening condition with need for urgent decompression. Studies of acute deterioration of CMI are scarce. The identification of preoperative radiological factors that predict acute deterioration in adult patients with CMI facilitates planning of early decompression and decreases CMI-related morbidity. Patients and methods: This is a retrospective study of all adult patients with CMI who were referred to Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Sweden and underwent occipitocervical decompression in the period 2006–2016. In total, 65 consecutive patients were included and data regarding the preoperative degree of tonsillar herniation and syrinx (size, length and degree of rostral extension) were registered. Acute deterioration and the need for urgent surgical decompression within 24 h of hospitalisation were noted. Results: Three patients presented with acute deterioration of symptoms (4.6%) and showed an increased length and size of syrinx and more rostral extension of syrinx as compared to non-acute patients with CMI. Conclusion: Our study highlights the incidence of acute deterioration of CMI and shows the importance of assessing preoperative size, length and rostral extension of CMI-associated syrinx as indicators of acute deterioration so that CMI patients can be assigned to early surgical decompression.
Comparative Effectiveness of Two Interventions to Increase Colorectal Cancer Screening for Those at Increased Risk Based on Family History: Results of a Randomized Trial

Background: First-degree relatives (FDR) of patients with colorectal cancer are at risk for colorectal cancer, but may not be up to date with colorectal cancer screening. We sought to determine whether a one-time recommendation about needing colorectal cancer screening using patient navigation (PN) was better than just receiving the recommendation only. Methods: Participants were FDRs of patients with Lynch syndrome–negative colorectal cancer from participating Ohio hospitals. FDRs from 259 families were randomized to a website intervention (528 individuals), which included a survey and personal colorectal cancer screening recommendation, while those from 254 families were randomized to the website plus telephonic PN intervention (515 individuals). Primary outcome was adherence to the personal screening recommendation (to get screened or not to get screened) received from the website. Secondary outcomes examined who benefited from adding PN. Results: At the end of the 14-month follow-up, 78.6% of participants were adherent to their recommendation for colorectal cancer screening with adherence similar between arms (P = 0.14). Among those who received a recommendation to have a colonoscopy immediately, the website plus PN intervention significantly increased the odds of receiving screening, compared with the website intervention (OR: 2.98; 95% confidence interval, 1.68–5.28). Conclusions: Addition of PN to a website intervention did not improve adherence to a colorectal cancer screening recommendation overall; however, the addition of PN was more effective in increasing adherence among FDRs who needed screening immediately. Impact: These findings provide important information as to when the additional costs of PN are needed to assure colorectal cancer screening among those at high risk for colorectal cancer.
Electrocardiographic abnormalities in sickle cell disease patients in Kano, Northwest Nigeria

Background: Cardiovascular abnormalities are important causes of morbidity and mortality in sickle cell disease (SCD) patients. Data on electrocardiography (ECG) changes in SCD are lacking in Kano, Northwest Nigeria. This study, therefore, aimed to identify the pattern of ECG changes in steady state adult sickle cell patients. Methodology: A case–control cross-sectional study was conducted among SCD patients attending the sickle cell clinic in Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital, Kano. One hundred SCD patients were consecutively recruited and compared with 100 age- and sex-matched controls. All consenting participants had hemoglobin (Hb) electrophoresis and were subjected to electrocardiography. Results: The mean age of the cases is 20.98 ± 5.74 years, whereas that of the controls was 22.31 ± 3.27 years, P = 0.047. Among the cases, 57% were male, whereas in the control group, 55% were male (P = 0.443). The mean body mass index (BMI) for the cases was 18.14 ± 3.57 kg/m2, whereas that of the control was 22.74 ± 2.18 kg/m2, P < 0.001. The mean Hb concentration of the cases and the controls was 7.22 ± 0.94 g/dl and 12.00 ± 9.51 g/dl, respectively, P < 0.001. Nonspecific ST-T wave changes were the most common ECG abnormality detected in 76% of cases and 42% of controls, P < 0.0001. Other ECG abnormalities found among the SCD patients were right ventricular hypertrophy (64%), right atrial enlargement (24%), left atrial enlargement (4%), biatrial enlargement (8%), atrial ectopics (6%), premature ventricular contractions (1%), and prolonged PR interval (4%). An association was observed between low BMI and abnormal ECG findings among the cases (P = 0.006). Conclusion: ECG abnormalities are common in SCD patients and early identification would lead to early intervention to prevent cardiac events.
Efficacy of In Ovo Delivered Prebiotics on Growth Performance, Meat Quality and Gut Health of Kuroiler Chickens in the Face of a Natural Coccidiosis Challenge

Simple Summary The management of coccidiosis in poultry farms is mainly dependent on the use of anticoccidial drugs. Development of resistance to existing anticoccidial drugs coupled with restrictive use of antibiotics to control secondary bacterial infections following the ban on antibiotics, stresses the urgent need to explore alternative strategies for maintaining intestinal functionality in chickens for improved productivity. Prebiotics have been proposed as a solution to the intestinal problems of poultry. This study demonstrates that in ovo delivered prebiotics with or without antibiotics reduces severity of intestinal lesions and oocyst excretion induced by natural infection with Eimeria. Prebiotics protected Kuroiler chickens from coccidia in particular in the first 56 days of age and tended to have a synergistic effect with anticoccidial drug in the management of the disease post-infection in the field, with positive effects on performance and meat quality. Abstract A study was carried out to assess the efficacy of prebiotic delivered in ovo on performance, carcass traits, meat quality and gut health in the face of a natural coccidiosis infection in Kuroiler chickens. On d 12 of incubation, 150 fertile eggs were divided into a prebiotic group injected with trans-galactooligosaccharides (Bi2tos) and a control group uninjected. Hatched chicks from each group were further divided: One group received antibiotic chick formula while the other was left untreated, giving rise to 4 groups—Control (C), Antibiotic (A), Bi2tos (B), and Bi2tos + Antibiotic (AB). Prebiotic improved growth performance at six weeks of age, AB birds were the heaviest at the end of the rearing period. The highest intestinal lesion scores and oocyst counts were recorded in C birds. B group had a slightly higher carcass weight and cuts yields tended to be higher in treated groups compared to C. Meat from B group displayed a higher amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids compared to C and a positively lower n-6/n-3 ratio compared to C and A. In conclusion, prebiotics with or without antibiotics reduced severity of intestinal lesions and oocyst excretion induced by natural infection with Eimeria, with positive effects on Kuroiler chicken productive traits.
Activation of PKA/SIRT1 signaling pathway by photobiomodulation therapy reduces Aβ levels in Alzheimer's disease models

A hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the accumulation of amyloid‐β (Aβ), which correlates significantly with progressive cognitive deficits. Although photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT), as a novel noninvasive physiotherapy strategy, has been proposed to improve neuronal survival, decrease neuron loss, ameliorate dendritic atrophy, and provide overall AD improvement, it remains unknown whether and how this neuroprotective process affects Aβ levels. Here, we report that PBMT reduced Aβ production and plaque formation by shifting amyloid precursor protein (APP) processing toward the nonamyloidogenic pathway, thereby improving memory and cognitive ability in a mouse model of AD. More importantly, a pivotal protein, SIRT1, was involved in this process by specifically up‐regulating ADAM10 and down‐regulating BACE1, which is dependent on the cAMP/PKA pathway in APP/PS1 primary neurons and SH‐SY5Y cells stably expressing human APP Swedish mutation (APPswe). We further found that the activity of the mitochondrial photoacceptor cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) was responsible for PBMT‐induced activation of PKA and SIRT1. Together, our research suggests that PBMT as a viable therapeutic strategy has great potential value in improving cognitive ability and combatting AD.
Small mammal responses to long‐term large‐scale woodland creation: the influence of local and landscape‐level attributes

Abstract Habitat loss and fragmentation greatly affect biological diversity. Actions to counteract their negative effects include increasing the quality, amount and connectivity of seminatural habitats at the landscape scale. However, much of the scientific evidence underpinning landscape restoration comes from studies of habitat loss and fragmentation, and it is unclear whether the ecological principles derived from habitat removal investigations are applicable to habitat creation. In addition, the relative importance of local‐ (e.g., improving habitat quality) vs. landscape‐level (e.g., increasing habitat connectivity) actions to restore species is largely unknown, partly because studying species responses over sufficiently large spatial and temporal scales is challenging. We studied small mammal responses to large‐scale woodland creation spanning 150 yr, and assessed the influence of local‐ and landscape‐level characteristics on three small mammal species of varying woodland affinity. Woodland specialists, generalists, and grassland specialists were present in woodlands across a range of ages from 10 to 160 yr, demonstrating that these species can quickly colonize newly created woodlands. However, we found evidence that woodlands become gradually better over time for some species. The responses of individual species corresponded to their habitat specificity. A grassland specialist (Microtus agrestis) was influenced only by landscape attributes; a woodland generalist (Apodemus sylvaticus) and specialist (Myodes glareolus) were primarily influenced by local habitat attributes, and partially by landscape characteristics. At the local scale, high structural heterogeneity, large amounts of deadwood, and a relatively open understory positively influenced woodland species (both generalists and specialists); livestock grazing had strong negative effects on woodland species abundance. Actions to enhance habitat quality at the patch scale focusing on these attributes would benefit these species. Woodland creation in agricultural landscapes is also likely to benefit larger mammals and birds of prey feeding on small mammals and increase ecosystem processes such as seed dispersal.
BMAN: Bidirectional Multi-Scale Aggregation Networks for Abnormal Event Detection

Abnormal event detection is an important task in video surveillance systems. In this paper, we propose novel bidirectional multi-scale aggregation networks (BMAN) for abnormal event detection. The proposed BMAN learns spatio-temporal patterns of normal events to detect deviations from the learned normal patterns as abnormalities. The BMAN consists of two main parts: an inter-frame predictor and an appearance-motion joint detector. The inter-frame predictor is devised to encode normal patterns, which generates an inter-frame using bidirectional multi-scale aggregation based on attention. With the feature aggregation, robustness for object scale variations and complex motions is achieved in normal pattern encoding. Based on the encoded normal patterns, abnormal events are detected by the appearance-motion joint detector in which both appearance and motion characteristics of scenes are considered. Comprehensive experiments are performed, and the results show that the proposed method outperforms the existing state-of-the-art methods. The resulting abnormal event detection is interpretable on the visual basis of where the detected events occur. Further, we validate the effectiveness of the proposed network designs by conducting ablation study and feature visualization.