Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Digital health technologies to support access to medicines and pharmaceutical services in the achievement of sustainable development goals

Objectives The objective of this study was to describe the conceptual and implementation approach of selected digital health technologies that were tailored in various resource-constrained countries. To provide insights from a donor-funded project implementer perspective on the practical aspects based on local context and recommendations on future directions. Methods Drawing from our multi-year institutional experience in more than 20 high disease-burden countries that aspire to meet the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3, we screened internal project documentation on various digital health tools that provide clarity in the conceptual and implementation approach. Taking into account geographic diversity, we provide a descriptive review of five selected case studies from Bangladesh (Asia), Mali (Francophone Africa), Uganda (East Africa), Mozambique (Lusophone Africa), and Namibia (Southern Africa). Findings A key lesson learned is to harness and build on existing governance structures. The use of data for decision-making at all levels needs to be cultivated and sustained through multi-stakeholder partnerships. The next phase of information management development is to build systems for triangulation of data from patients, commodities, geomapping, and other parameters of the pharmaceutical system. A well-defined research agenda must be developed to determine the effectiveness of the country- and regional-level dashboards as an early warning system to mitigate stock-outs and wastage of medicines and commodities. Conclusion The level of engagement with users and stakeholders was resource-intensive and required an iterative process to ensure successful implementation. Ensuring user acceptance, ownership, and a culture of data use for decision-making takes time and effort to build human resource capacity. For future United Nations voluntary national reviews, countries and global stakeholders must establish appropriate measurement frameworks to enable the compilation of disaggregated data on Sustainable Development Goal 3 indicators as a precondition to fully realize the potential of digital health technologies.
Polyacanthoside A, a new oleanane-type triterpenoid saponin with cytotoxic effects from the leaves of Acacia polyacantha (Fabaceae)

Abstract The chemical investigation of the leaves and stem bark of Acacia polyacantha (Fabaceae) led to the isolation of a new oleanane-type triterpenoid saponin named polyacanthoside A 1 together with fifteen known compounds. Their structures were established from spectral , mainly HRESIMS, 1D NMR and 2D NMR and by comparison with literature data. The cytotoxicity of compound 1 and the analogues 8 as well as doxorubicin was determined in a panel of 9 cancer cell lines including sensitive and drug resistant phenotypes. Unlike the analogue 8, compound 1 as well as doxorubicin displayed cytotoxic effects in all the 9 tested cancer cell lines with IC50 values ranged from 8.90 μM (towards CCRF-CEM leukemia cells) to 35.21 μM (towards HepG2 hepatocarcinoma cells) for compound 1 and from 0.02 μM (towards CCRF-CEM leukemia cells) to 66.83 μM (against CEM/ADR5000 leukemia cells) for doxorubicin.
Effects of new n-3 fatty acid sources on milk fatty acid profile and milk fat properties in dairy cows

Feeding livestock with n-3 fatty acid (FA) sources (linseed, for example) is a common strategy to improve lipid quality of meat and milk products. However, in monogastric animals, linseed tegument decreases digestibility and alphalinolenic acid (ALA) uptake, while the whole linseed is well used by ruminants. In a context of increasing sustainability of feeding systems, providing monogastric animals and ruminants with linseed products adapted to their digestive systems is an important issue. This research paper addresses the hypotheses: (i) sieved extruded linseed (SEL) specific for ruminants is as or more effective than standard extruded linseed (ii) microalgae DHA Gold® is an interesting source of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in feedstuff and (iii) the effects of SEL and microalgae on milk characteristics are complementary and additive. Thirty-two cows were divided into 4 groups with different dietary n-3 fatty acid sources using a continuous design. All the diets were fed as mixed rations based on maize silage, energy concentrate and soybean meal. The first group received a control diet (CTRL) with no additional fat. The 3 other groups received SEL, microalgae DHA Gold® (ALG) and a mixture of microalgae DHA Gold® and SEL (SEL/ALG). Milk was collected from morning milkings after six weeks of dietary treatment. In SEL and SEL/ALG, ALA increased (+0·32 and +0·26% unit, respectively), and DHA increased in ALG and SEL/ALG (+0·43 and +0·15% unit, respectively) compared to CTRL, as a consequence of the initial composition of the n-3 FA sources. In SEL, milk yield, fat and protein contents, milk fat globule size and spontaneous lipolysis (measured to evaluate suitability for milk processing) were not different compared with CTRL. In ALG and SEL/ALG, milk yield decreased (−2·8 and −6·0 kg/d, respectively), fat content was halved, and fat globule size was reduced (−1·46 and −1·31 µm, respectively) compared to CTRL. Spontaneous lipolysis increased in ALG (+0·12 mEq/kg of milk) compared to CTRL. Protected microalgae and the doses of microalgae in the diet need further investigation to prevent FA modification in the rumen and the consequent deleterious effects on milk fat.
The role of personal and social characteristics on acceptance of new telephone banking services

Article history: Received May 12, 2013 Received in revised format 12 August 2013 Accepted 28 September 2013 Available online October 2 2013 For over two decades, telephone banking has steadily become a useful feature and all banks have tried to provide this feature as part of their services. In this paper, we present an empirical investigation to study the role of personal and social characteristics on acceptance of new telephone banking services. The proposed study designs two questionnaires and distributes them among 384 randomly selected people who use telephone banking in city of Tehran, Iran. Using structural equation modeling, the study examines various hypotheses and the results of our survey indicate that there were some positive and meaningful relationships between perception usefulness and users’ attitude, perception and ease of use, perception and intention to use as well as perception and intention to use. In addition, the study has detected a negative and meaningful relationship between personal risk and intention to use and perception of personal time and intention to use among mobile users. © 2013 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
JR-GAN: Jacobian Regularization for Generative Adversarial Networks

Generative adversarial networks (GANs) are notoriously difficult to train and the reasons for their (non-)convergence behaviors are still not completely understood. Using a simple GAN example, we mathematically analyze the local convergence behavior of its training dynamics in a non-asymptotic way. We find that in order to ensure a good convergence rate two factors of the Jacobian should be \textit{simultaneously} avoided, which are (1) Phase Factor: the Jacobian has complex eigenvalues with a large imaginary-to-real ratio, (2) Conditioning Factor: the Jacobian is ill-conditioned. Previous methods of regularizing the Jacobian can only alleviate one of these two factors, while making the other more severe. From our theoretical analysis, we propose the Jacobian Regularized GANs (JR-GANs), which insure the two factors are alleviated by construction. With extensive experiments on several popular datasets, we show that the JR-GAN training is highly stable and achieves near state-of-the-art results both qualitatively and quantitatively.
Ion-dependent metabolic responses of Vicia faba L. to salt stress.

Salt-affected farmlands are increasingly burdened by chlorides, carbonates, and sulfates of sodium, calcium, and magnesium. Intriguingly, the underlying physiological processes are studied almost always under NaCl stress. Two faba bean cultivars were subjected to low- and high-salt treatments of NaCl, Na2 SO4 , and KCl. Assimilation rate and leaf water vapor conductance were reduced to approximately 25-30% without biomass reduction after 7 days salt stress, but this did not cause severe carbon shortage. The equimolar treatments of Na+ , K+ , and Cl- showed comparable accumulation patterns in leaves and roots, except for SO4 2- which did not accumulate. To gain a detailed understanding of the effects caused by the tested ion combinations, we performed nontargeted gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-based metabolite profiling. Metabolic responses to various salts were in part highly linearly correlated, but only a few metabolite responses were common to all salts and in both cultivars. At high salt concentrations, only myo-inositol, allantoin, and glycerophosphoglycerol were highly significantly increased in roots under all tested conditions. We discovered several metabolic responses that were preferentially associated with the presence of Na+ , K+ , or Cl- . For example, increases of leaf proline and decreases of leaf fumaric acid and malic acid were apparently associated with Cl- accumulation.
Dynamic Subtitles in Cinematic Virtual Reality

Cinematic Virtual Reality has been increasing in popularity in recent years. Watching 360° movies with a Head Mounted Display, the viewer can freely choose the direction of view, and thus the visible section of the movie. Therefore, a new approach for the placements of subtitles is needed. There are three main issues which have to be considered: the position of the subtitles, the speaker identification and the influence for the VR experience. In our study we compared a static method, where the subtitles are placed at the bottom of the field of view, with dynamic subtitles 1, where the position of the subtitles depends on the scene and is close to the speaking person. This work-in-progress describes first results of the study which point out that dynamic subtitles can lead to a higher score of presence, less sickness and lower workload.
Investigations on fine fraction of aged municipal solid waste recovered through landfill mining: Case study of three dumpsites from India

Reclamation of the dumps/landfills having huge quantities of decades-old garbage (aged waste or legacy waste) in an environmentally sound manner is one of the major challenges faced by the developing nations in general and in particular by urban local bodies in India. The article presents the feasibility of landfill mining operation specifically to recover soil-like material at old dumpsites of India for re-use in geotechnical applications. Aged municipal solid waste was collected from three dumpsites of India and initial tests were conducted on the soil-like material of the municipal solid waste. Initial tests results of grain size distribution, compositional analysis, organic content, total dissolved solids, elemental analysis, heavy metal analysis and colour of the leached water from finer fraction of aged municipal solid waste are presented. From the preliminary investigation, it was found that organic content in 15–20-year-old dumpsites varies between 5%–12%. The total dissolved solids ranges between 1.2%–1.5%. The dark coloured water leaching out from aged waste, with reference to local soil, is one of the objectionable parameters and depends on the organic content. The concentration of heavy metals of the finer fraction were compared with the standards. It was found that copper, chromium and cadmium are present at elevated levels in all the three dumpsites. The study concluded that the bulk of the soil-like material from aged municipal solid waste landfills can be used as cover material for landfills at the same site. However, some treatment in terms of washing, thermal treatment, blending with local soil, biological treatment, etc., is required before it can be re-used in other geotechnical applications.
A Behavioral Economic Analysis of Marijuana and Other Drug Use Among Heavy Drinking Young Adults

Behavioral economic models predict that deficits in substance-free reward and future time orientation are associated with greater drug involvement, but this hypothesis has not been systematically investigated among young adult heavy drinkers. This study evaluated the association between drug use levels (heavy drinking [HD] only, HD + marijuana use, and HD + polysubstance use) and substance-free activity engagement, future orientation, and reward deprivation (comprised of reward experience and environmental suppressors of reward) among heavy drinkers. Participants were 358 college students who reported two or more past-month heavy drinking episodes (5/4 or more drinks in one occasion for a man/woman). The sample was 60% women, 79% Caucasian, and the average age was 18.76 (SD = 1.07) years. Participants completed measures of alcohol and drug use, weekly time allocation to various activities, future time orientation, and reward deprivation. Overall, any drug use was associated with less time spent engaged in academics and exercise, and lower future time orientation compared to HD only. Any drug use was associated with reward deprivation and HD + polysubstance use was associated with lower reward experience and environmental suppressors. Drug use among heavy drinkers is associated with lower academic engagement and exercise, future orientation, and reward deprivation. These results provide support for behavioral economic models of drug abuse and suggest that prevention approaches should attempt to increase future orientation and availability of drug-free reward.
Predicting PISA Scores from Students' Digital Traces

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an influential worldwide study that tests the skills and knowledge in mathematics, reading, and science of 15-year-old students. In this paper, we show that PISA scores of individual students can be predicted from their digital traces. We use data from the nationwide Russian panel study that tracks 4,400 participants of PISA and includes information about their activity on a popular social networking site. We build a simple model that predicts PISA scores based on students' subscriptions to various public pages on the social network. The resulting model can successfully discriminate between low- and high-performing students (AUC = 0.9). We find that top-performing students are interested in pages related to science and art, while pages preferred by low-performing students typically concern humor and horoscopes. The difference in academic performance between subscribers to such public pages could be equivalent to several years of formal schooling, indicating the presence of a strong digital divide. The ability to predict academic outcomes of students from their digital traces might unlock the potential of social media data for large-scale education research.
Ship Wake Components: Isolation, Reconstruction, and Characteristics Analysis in Spectral, Spatial, and TerraSAR-X Image Domains

Based on a joint analysis of linear Kelvin wake kinematics and water dispersion relation, the features of several components of ship wake are identified in the spectral domain, such as the “X”-shaped Kelvin wake, the narrow “X”-shaped solitary wave packets, and the cross-shaped turbulent and near-field waves. Alternatively, these components can be separately reconstructed in spatial domain using the inverse Fourier transformation. These relations are verified through numerical simulation of the wakes of a ship moving at different speeds. This wake decomposition is now extended to wake feature analysis of real synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image. It reveals that although the images of ship wake have been modulated by SAR imaging mechanisms in various aspects, their spectral characteristics are closely analogous to that of wake surface elevation. Taking advantage of the loci and shape of the wake spectrum, the transverse wave, the divergent wave, the turbulent wave, and the solitary wave packets can be isolated from the original SAR image with full wake appearance. The reconstructed images of wake components facilitate the further estimation of the direction, speed, length, hull geometry, and propulsion system of the ship. This decomposition can also recover wake components from multiple ship wakes and provide an understanding of their roles on SAR image.
40 V to 100 V NLDMOS built on thin BOX SOI with high energy capability, state of the art Rdson/BVdss and robust performance

We report in this paper for the first time that power LDMOS transistors integrated in thin BOX SOI can achieve high energy capabilities comparable to bulk BCD technologies and almost identical breakdown voltages for both high and low side applications. With proper top silicon thickness consideration, NLDMOS transistors for a voltage range from 40V to 100V with state of the art Rdson/BVdss trade-off and robust device performance are successfully constructed via a simple design concept.
Mental Well-Being of Older People in Finland during the First Year in Senior Housing and Its Association with Physical Performance

Growing numbers of older people relocate to senior housing, when their physical or mental performance declines. The relocation is known to be one of the most stressful events in the life of older people and affect their mental and physical well-being. More information about the relationships between mental and physical parameters is required. We examined self-reported mental well-being of 81 older people (aged 59–93, living in northern Finland), and changes in it 3 and 12 months after relocation to senior housing. The first measurement was 3 months and the second measurement 12 months after relocation. Most participants were female (70%). Their physical performance was also measured, and associations between these two were analyzed. After 12 months, mental capability was very good or quite good in 38% of participants, however 22% of participants felt depressive symptoms daily or weekly. Moreover, 39% of participants reported daily or weekly loneliness. After 12 months participants reported a significant increase in forgetting appointments, losing items and difficulties in learn new things. They felt that opportunities to make decisions concerning their own life significantly decreased. Furthermore, their instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), dominant hand’s grip strength and walking speed decreased significantly. Opportunities to make decisions concerning their life, feeling safe, loneliness, sleeping problems, negative thoughts as well as fear of falling or having an accident outdoors were associated with these physical parameters. In addition to assessing physical performance and regular exercise, the various components of mental well-being and their interactions with physical performance should be considered during adjustment to senior housing.
Making the most of the waiting room: Electronic patient engagement, a mixed methods study

Objective The purpose of this study was to explore whether patients with musculoskeletal conditions would agree to use digital technologies to learn about research registries and make a decision about signing up whilst in the clinic waiting room. Methods Patients were recruited from four hospital clinics across Oxfordshire. We used an explanatory mixed methods design with two sequential phases comprising an exploratory, cross-sectional questionnaire (n = 84), followed by focus group interviews (n = 8) to provide context for the findings from the questionnaire. Multivariate ordinal logistic regression models were used to explore relationships between patient preferences and characteristics. Thematic analysis was used to understand the reasons for patient preferences regarding digital technologies and research registries. Results As participants' age increased, they were more likely to report a preference for face-to-face recruitment methods compared to those using digital technologies. Findings from the focus groups indicated this was primarily due to a fear of technology and physical limitations associated with a patient's condition. Patients also reported a preference for making a decision about signing up at a later date, which was attributed to patients feeling distracted whilst in the waiting room due to anxieties related to their upcoming appointment. Conclusions Many patients with musculoskeletal conditions in the UK may be interested in learning about opportunities to participate in research whilst using digital technologies within the waiting room. The results suggest the need for choice regarding the presentation and format of information and whether it can be accessed at a later date at home.
A data selection framework for k-means algorithm to mine high precision clusters

Traditional clustering algorithms employ all the data items to learn the cluster patterns. However, in real-world applications, some data show clear coherent behaviour and can be summarized well, while some data present weak tendencies to be assigned to any particular pattern. For such situation, this paper presents a data selection framework for K-Means algorithm to get high precision clusters from the data collection. It differs from traditional k-means-type algorithms in three respects. First, in the cluster learning process, we take the changed value of cluster's Bregman Information, which is generated by merging one data item into the potential clusters, as the measure of data item's clustering tendency. Second, only data items with strong clustering tendencies, that is the changed value of cluster's Bregman Information is less than the predefined radius, are selected to learn the cluster patterns, while the remaining data points are ignored and belong to no cluster. The clustering is non-exhaustive. Third, the radius of the clusters can be changed in the learning process. It is a dynamic learning framework. Experiments on synthetic, document and image data show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
The resilient brain: psychological resilience mediates the effect of amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations in orbitofrontal cortex on subjective well-being in young healthy adults

Abstract Psychological resilience reflects the capacity to bounce back from stress, which plays an important role in health and well-being. However, less is known about the neural substrate for psychological resilience and the underlying mechanism for how psychological resilience enhances subjective well-being in the healthy brain. To investigate these issues, we employed fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) measured with resting-state fMRI in 100 young healthy adults. The correlation analysis found that higher psychological resilience was related to lower fALFF in the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), which is involved in reward-related processing and emotion regulation. Furthermore, the mediation analysis indicated that psychological resilience acted as a full mediator of the association between the fALFF in left OFC and subjective well-being indicators (i.e. life satisfaction and hedonic balance). Importantly, these results remained significant after controlling for the effect of gray matter volume and regional homogeneity in the region. Overall, the present study provides the further evidence for functional neural substrates of psychological resilience and reveals a potential mechanism that psychological resilience mediates the effect of spontaneous brain activity on subjective well-being.