Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring the Experiences of Iranian Women Regarding Obesity Self-Management: A Qualitative Study

BACKGROUND: Despite the high and growing prevalence of obesity in Iran and a variety of interventions by the healthcare providers control the problem, and it is still a prevalent health problem among Iranian women. AIM: The aim of this study is to explore the perspective of obese Iranian women in the process of self-management regarding the facilitating factor in self-management of obesity. METHODS: In a qualitative study, the participants were selected through purposeful sampling, and the data were collected using semi-structured interviews and focus group (n = 25) between July 2017 and September 2018. All the interviews were transcribed verbatim and the data were analysed using constant comparative method. RESULTS: Supporting the umbrella was the main category found in the present study. The participating obese individuals found “support” as the main factor with an outstanding effect on motivating, incentivising and keeping diet in long-term. This category contains subcategories: self-help; family, friends, and peers’ support; and medical team’s support. CONCLUSION: The findings suggested the critical role of support in obesity self-management process. This critical factor improves our perception of the multi-aspect and complicated nature of obesity self-management. Moreover, policymakers and providers of health services can utilise this finding in the design of care plans with higher chance of success.
The size of cell-free mitochondrial DNA in blood is inversely correlated with tumor burden in cancer patients

Abstract Circulating cell-free DNAs (cfDNAs) are fragmented DNA molecules released into the blood by cells. Previous studies have suggested that mitochondria-originated cfDNA fragments (mt-cfDNAs) in cancer patients are more fragmented than those from healthy controls. However, it is still unknown where these short mt-cfDNAs originate, and whether the length of mt-cfDNAs can be correlated with tumor burden and cancer progression. In this study, we first performed whole-genome sequencing analysis (WGS) of cfDNAs from a human tumor cell line-xenotransplantation mouse model and found that mt-cfDNAs released from transplanted tumor cells were shorter than the mouse counterpart. We next analyzed blood cfDNA samples from hepatocellular carcinoma and prostate cancer patients and found that mt-cfDNA lengths were inversely related to tumor size as well as the concentration of circulating tumor DNA. Our study suggested that monitoring the size of mt-cfDNAs in cancer patients would be a useful way to estimate tumor burden and cancer progression.
The development of Adobe Flash-based interactive multimedia to enhance students’ mathematical communication skills

The rapid development of technology in the community, and the lack of use of technology at schools. The research aims to develop adobe flash-based interactive learning media to improve students’ mathematical communication skill. The method was research and development with 4-D model design consisted of four stages, namely defining, designing, developing, and disseminating. The research was in the Junior High School of Al Ma’sum Bandung. The respondents involved were the expert of subject matter, the expert of media, the teacher of Mathematics, 64 students as the sample. Finding: The result indicated that the validation result from the expert of media and the expert of Mathematics was enhance. The overall activity of teacher and students reached in average. Meanwhile, students’ mathematical communication skill increased, experiment class higher than control class. The conclusion of the research is that the development of adobe flash-based multimedia version five has been feasible to use and it can enhance students’ mathematical communication skill as well as students’ interactivity. Moreover, the material delivery is easy to understand and interesting.
Knowledge Flow: Improve Upon Your Teachers

A zoo of deep nets is available these days for almost any given task, and it is increasingly unclear which net to start with when addressing a new task, or which net to use as an initialization for fine-tuning a new model. To address this issue, in this paper, we develop knowledge flow which moves 'knowledge' from multiple deep nets, referred to as teachers, to a new deep net model, called the student. The structure of the teachers and the student can differ arbitrarily and they can be trained on entirely different tasks with different output spaces too. Upon training with knowledge flow the student is independent of the teachers. We demonstrate our approach on a variety of supervised and reinforcement learning tasks, outperforming fine-tuning and other 'knowledge exchange' methods.
Optimizing rates and application time of potassium fertilizer for improving growth, grain nutrients content and yield of wheat crop

Abstract Nutrient management is a key component of best agronomic practices for optimal crop production. The continuous use of high yielding genotypes and exhaustive cropping systems has resulted in potassium deficiency. Furthermore, the imbalanced use of nutrients, particularly potassium (K), has resulted in persistent depletion from agricultural soils. To address this issue, a field experiment was conducted to determine the influence of different potassium levels under a split application on yield and yield attributes of wheat crops. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design replicated four times. Five K levels (0, 60, 80, 100 and 120 kg ha−1) and different K application timings (whole dose (Basal) at sowing, equal doses at sowing+ 30 DAS, half dose at sowing+ equal doses at 30 +60 DAS and equal doses at sowing+30+60+ 90 DAS). The findings of the study revealed that potassium levels and their application times substantially influenced yield and yield components of wheat. The application of K at 120 kg ha−1 delayed anthesis and maturity and enhanced chlorophyll content (53), tillers m−2 (293.4 m−2) and increased plant height (97.1cm). The application of K 80 kg ha−1 significantly increased grain protein, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content which resulted in a higher (4227 kg ha−1) grain yield. In the case of K timings application, the higher grain yield (3758 kg ha−1) was achieved when K was applied one time at sowing time. It is concluded that K at the rate of 80 kg ha−1 should be applied in full at sowing for achieving higher wheat production.
Chest Pain Characteristics in Cardiac Syndrome X Compared to Coronary Artery Disease

AIM: This study aimed to assess if clinical remarks gained by analysis of the present and past medical history of patients undergoing elective coronary angiography (ECA) due to typical chest pain can help to predict the outcome of ECA. MATERIAL AND METHODS: One hundred and fifty-four ECA candidates with a history of typical chest were seen on the same day intended for ECA in the cardiac centre of AlShaab Teaching Hospital, Khartoum, Sudan. The details of the present complaints, characteristics of chest pain, past medical and socioeconomic history were recorded from each subject guided by a questionnaire. ECA confirmed CAD in 112 of the studied patients and were considered as the test group. The remaining patients (N = 42) were diagnosed as CSX after exclusion of significant narrowing of the coronary vessels and were considered as the control group. RESULTS: Univariate analysis of pain characteristics among patients undergoing coronary angiography revealed that pain is less likely to radiate to the neck (OR = 0.44, 95% CI = 0.21 – 0.91, P = 0.027) and the back (OR = 0.48, 95% CI = 0.23 – 1.00, P = 0.049) in patients with CAD. Presence of shortness of breathing and/or dizziness significantly decrease the odds of having abnormal coronary angiography (OR = 0.30 and 0.48, 95% CI = 0.12 – 0.77 and 0.22 – 0.92, P = 0.013 and 0.030 respectively). Past history of diabetes mellitus significantly increases the odds of having abnormal coronary angiography (OR = 3.96, 95% CI = 1.68 – 9.30, P = 0.002). In contrast, past medical history of migraine decreases the odds of having positive finding in ECA (OR = 0.31, 95% CI = 0.13 – 0.72, P = 0.006). CONCLUSION: Characteristics of chest pain are comparable in CAD and CSX. However, pain is less likely to radiate to the neck and/or the back in the first group. Presence of dyspnea and dizziness during angina attacks as well as the history of migraine significantly decreases the odds of having abnormal coronary angiography.
New BSP/CGM algorithms for spanning trees

Computing a spanning tree (ST) and a minimum ST (MST) of a graph are fundamental problems in graph theory and arise as a subproblem in many applications. In this article, we propose parallel algorithms to these problems. One of the steps of previous parallel MST algorithms relies on the heavy use of parallel list ranking which, though efficient in theory, is very time-consuming in practice. Using a different approach with a graph decomposition, we devised new parallel algorithms that do not make use of the list ranking procedure. We proved that our algorithms are correct, and for a graph G = ( V , E ) , | V | = n , and | E | = m , the algorithms can be executed on a Bulk Synchronous Parallel/Coarse Grained Multicomputer (BSP/CGM) model using O ( log p ) communications rounds with O ( n + m p ) computation time for each round. To show that our algorithms have good performance on real parallel machines, we have implemented them on graphics processing unit. The obtained speedups are competitive and showed that the BSP/CGM model is suitable for designing general purpose parallel algorithms.
New Keynesian Liquidity Trap and Conventional Fiscal Stance: An Estimated DSGE Model

Abstract The study investigates the effect of New Keynesian liquidity trap on fiscal stance in the United States, United Kingdom and Japan economies. We developed our DSGE model in the context of an optimal and persistent interactive fiscal policy, which allows us to track the transmission channel through which shocks are distributed among real economic variables. The evidence suggests that zero lower bound mitigates the ability of monetary policy to absorb the effect of exogenous shock on the macroeconomic variables while expansionary fiscal policy was able to absorb the shock persistence transmitted from the nominal interest rate.
Labour Supply and Inequality Effects of In-Work Benefits: Evidence from Serbia

Abstract Low labour market participation, together with the high effective tax wedge at low wage levels, create a fertile ground for the introduction of the in-work benefits (IWB) in Serbia. Our paper provides an ex-ante evaluation of the two IWB schemes, directed at stimulating the labour supply and more equal income distribution. The methodological approach combines the tax-and-benefit microsimulation model with the discrete labour supply model. Our results show that both individual and family-based IWB schemes would considerably boost labour market participation, although family-based benefits would have disincentivizing effects for the secondary earners in couples. Most of the behavioural changes take place among the poorest individuals, with significant redistributive effects.
Successful primary percutaneous coronary intervention determines the very long-term prognosis in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction even in survivors of the acute phase. The ANIN Myocardial Infarction Registry

Introduction Successful primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) saves lives in the acute phase of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and improves the mid-term prognosis. Whether that benefit remains significant in very long-term follow-up and is associated with total ischaemic time (TIT), especially in survivors of the acute phase of STEMI, is unknown. Aim We sought to investigate the impact of initial and final thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) flow on long-term survival in a homogeneous, unselected group of patients with STEMI undergoing pPCI at a high-volume centre. Material and methods All consecutive STEMI patients treated with pPCI in our tertiary centre were enrolled in the ANIN Myocardial Infarction Registry. Results Among 1064 patients 871 (82%) had an occluded infarct artery (IRA) at baseline, while pPCI was successful in 885 (83%) patients. At 9 years all-cause and cardiovascular (CV) mortality were 28% (294 patients) and 19% (196 patients), respectively. Failure of pPCI was an independent predictor of long-term all-cause and CV mortality (OR = 1.5, 95% CI: 1.1–2.0, p = 0.03 and OR = 1.8, 95% CI: 1.3–2.7, p = 0.001, respectively). In survivors of the acute phase, occluded IRA at baseline was an independent predictor of all-cause mortality (OR = 1.5, 95% CI: 1.0–2.3, p = 0.04), while pPCI failure predicted CV mortality (OR = 1.8, 95% CI: 1.2–2.8, p = 0.005). Mortality rate increased with TIT even in patients with pPCI success. Conclusions Angiographic results of pPCI determine the very long-term survival of STEMI patients, even in survivors of the acute phase of STEMI. Shortening of TIT is crucial.
Baseline Requirements for Comparative Research on Cross-Platform Mobile Development

Technical implementations are common in computing research to objectively assess hypotheses. In mobile computing, and more specifically within research on cross-platform mobile development, such implementations are usually in the form of mobile apps. Due to the lack of a common ground for research on app development, studies tend to lack depth and miss out on possible contributions. In an attempt to better the situation, we propose a technical baseline for future research on cross-platform app development to draw from based on previous studies’ technical implementations. We assess and scrutinize existing literature to find trends, and use the generated knowledge to lay out the baseline proposal
Incidence and risk of dialysis therapy within 30 days after contrast enhanced computed tomography in patients coded with chronic kidney disease: a nation-wide, population-based study

Background Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are considered at risk of contrast-induced acute kidney injury and possible subsequent need for dialysis therapy. Computed tomography (CT) is the most commonly performed examination requiring intravenous iodinated contrast media (ICM) injection. The actual risk of dialysis in CKD patients undergoing CT with ICM remains controversial. Furthermore, it is also uncertain whether these at-risk patients can be identified by means of administrative data. Our study is conducted in order to determine the incidence and risk of dialysis within 30 days after undergoing contrast enhanced CT in CKD coded patients. Methods This longitudinal, nation-wide, populated-based study is carried out by analyzing the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database retrospectively. Patients coded under the diagnosis of CKD who underwent CT are identified within randomly selected one million subjects of the database. From January 2012 to December 2013, 487 patients had undergone CT with ICM. A total of 924 patients who underwent CT without ICM are selected as the control group. Patients with advanced CKD or intensive care unit (ICU) admissions are assigned to the subgroups for analysis. The primary outcome is measured by dialysis events within 30 days after undergoing CT scans. The cumulative incidence is assessed by the Kaplan–Meier method and log-rank test. The risk of 30-day dialysis relative to the control group is analyzed by the Cox proportional hazards model after adjusting for age, sex, and baseline comorbidities. Results The numbers and percentages of dialysis events within 30 days after undergoing CT scans are 20 (4.1%) in the CT with ICM group and 66 (7.1%) in the CT without ICM group (p = 0.03). However, the adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) for 30-day dialysis was 0.84 (95% CI [0.46–1.54], p = 0.57), which is statistically non-significant. In both advanced CKD and ICU admission subgroups, there are also no significant differences in 30-day dialysis risks with the aHR of 1.12 (95% CI [0.38–3.33], p = 0.83) and 0.95 (95% CI [0.44–2.05], p = 0.90), respectively. Conclusions Within 30 days of receiving contrast-enhanced CT scans, 4.1% of CKD coded patients required dialysis, which appear to be lower compared with subjects who received non-contrast CT scans. However, no statistically significant difference is observed after adjustments are made for other baseline conditions. Thereby, the application of administrative data to identify patients with CKD cannot be viewed as a risk factor for the necessity to undergo dialysis within 30 days of receiving contrast-enhanced CT scans.
Reference values of hematological and blood biochemical parameters for the Noma horse

ABSTRACT The Noma horse is a Japanese breed from the Noma region of Imabari City, Ehime Prefecture. To obtain reference hematological and biochemical values, we performed examinations in 39 clinically healthy, mature Noma horses managed at the Imabari public ranch. Hematological and biochemical results of Noma horses were close to the normal ranges of horses in the U.S.A. The erythrocyte parameters and hepatobiliary enzyme levels in Noma and Kiso horses were lower than those in Japanese racehorses. Noma horses showed higher erythrocyte parameters and triglyceride concentrations and a lower creatinine concentration compared with those in Kiso horses. These data represent the first report of reference values for Noma horses and may be useful to improve their management.
Cellular mechanisms mediating the stimulation of ovine endometrial secretion of prostaglandin F2α in response to oxytocin: role of phospholipase C and diacylglycerol

The first objective was to describe and evaluate the relationship between the ability of oxytocin to stimulate the activity of phospholipase (PL) C and its ability to stimulate the release of prostaglandin (PG) F2 alpha in ovine endometrial tissue. Caruncular endometrial tissue was collected from ovariectomized ewes after completion of an 11-day steroid replacement protocol. In experiment 1, explants were incubated either in the presence (10(-6) M) or absence of oxytocin for 0, 1, 3, 10, 30 or 100 min to examine the time-course for activation of PLC and release of PGF2 alpha in response to oxytocin. An increase in the activity of PLC was detected at 3 min while an increase in the release of PGF2 alpha was not detected until 10 min (P 0.1). Based on the results from these experiments, the role of PLC in mediating the stimulatory effect of oxytocin on the release of PGF2 alpha remains unclear. The second objective was to evaluate the role of diacylglycerol (DAG) in mediating the stimulatory effect of oxytocin on endometrial secretion of PGF2 alpha. In experiment 5, explants were incubated in vitro with varying doses of two DAG analogues. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Cerebellar contribution to emotional body language perception: a TMS study

Abstract Consistent evidence suggests that the cerebellum contributes to the processing of emotional facial expressions. However, it is not yet known whether the cerebellum is recruited when emotions are expressed by body postures or movements, or whether it is recruited differently for positive and negative emotions. In this study, we asked healthy participants to discriminate between body postures (with masked face) expressing emotions of opposite valence (happiness vs anger, Experiment 1), or of the same valence (negative: anger vs sadness; positive: happiness vs surprise, Experiment 2). While performing the task, participants received online transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over a region of the posterior left cerebellum and over two control sites (early visual cortex and vertex). We found that TMS over the cerebellum affected participants’ ability to discriminate emotional body postures, but only when one of the emotions was negatively valenced (i.e. anger). These findings suggest that the cerebellar region we stimulated is involved in processing the emotional content conveyed by body postures and gestures. Our findings complement prior evidence on the role of the cerebellum in emotional face processing and have important implications from a clinical perspective, where non-invasive cerebellar stimulation is a promising tool for the treatment of motor, cognitive and affective deficits.
Eribulin-induced Interstitial Pneumonia: A Case Series and Retrospective Cohort Study

Eribulin is a chemotherapeutic agent used for advanced breast cancer, but there are some reports of eribulin-induced lung injuries. Three of our patients experienced eribulin-related lung injuries. Radiology revealed organizing pneumonia in two cases and diffuse ground-glass shadows indicative of hypersensitivity pneumonitis in the third. A retrospective survey of patients treated with eribulin at our hospital identified no other cases of eribulin-induced lung injuries. Overall, drug-related lung injuries occurred in 2.8% of our eribulin-treated patients, which is similar to the rates reported for other anticancer drugs. The findings from these three cases provide guidance for the safe use of eribulin.
Carcinoembryonic Antigen Improves the Performance of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Prediction of Pathologic Response after Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation for Patients with Rectal Cancer

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels in improving the performance of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the prediction of pathologic response after the neoadjuvant chemoradiation (NCRT) for patients with rectalcancer. Materials and Methods We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 524 rectal cancer patients who underwent NCRT and total mesorectal excision between January 2009 and December 2014. The performances of MRI with or without CEA parameters (initial CEA and CEA dynamics) for prediction of pathologic tumor response grade (pTRG) were compared by receiver-operating characteristic analysis with DeLong’s method. Cox regression was used to identify the independent factors associated to pTRG and disease-free survival (DFS) after NCRT. Results The median follow-up was 64.0 months (range, 3.0 to 113.0 months). On multivariate analysis, poor tumor regression grade on MRI (mrTRG; p < 0.001), initial CEA (p < 0.001) and the mesorectal fascia involvement on MRI before NCRT (mrMFI; p=0.054) showed association with poor pTRG. The mrTRG plus CEA parameters showed significantly improved performances in the prediction of pTRG than mrTRG alone. All of mrTRG, mrMFI, and initial CEA were also identified as independent factors associated with DFS. The initial CEA further discriminated DFS in the subgroups with good mrTRG or that without mrMFI. Conclusion The CEA parameters significantly improved the performance of MRI in the prediction of pTRG after NCRT for patients with rectal cancer. The DFS was further discriminated by initial CEA level in the groups with favorable MRI parameters.