Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sex-Specific Associations of Risks and Cardiac Structure and Function With Microalbumin/Creatinine Ratio in Diastolic Heart Failure

Background: Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) affects women more frequently than men. However, data on sex-specific associations of adverse health outcomes and left ventricular structure and function and with microalbuminuria in patients with HFpEF are scarce. Methods: In 1,334 participants enrolled in the Treatment of Preserved Cardiac Function Heart Failure with an Aldosterone Antagonist (TOPCAT) Trial, we estimated the sex-specific multivariable-adjusted risk and LV traits with urine microalbumin/creatine ratio (ACR), using Cox or linear regression. Results: In total, 604 (45.3%) were women. In multivariable-adjusted analyses, a doubling of ACR in both men and women was associated with higher posterior (+0.014 cm, p = 0.012/+0.012 cm, p = 0.033) wall thickness and left ventricular mass index (+2.55 mg/m2, p = 0.004/+2.45 mg/m2, p = 0.009), whereas was also associated with higher septal (+0.018 cm, p = 0.002) and left atrial volume index (+1.44 mL/m2, p = 0.001) in men. ACR was a key predictor of all-cause (HR, 1.11; p = 0.006) and cardiovascular (HR, 1.17; p = 0.002) death in women, whereas in men ACR was associated with HF hospitalization (HR, 1.23; p < 0.001), any hospitalization (HR, 1.06; p = 0.006), and myocardial infarction (HR, 1.19; p = 0.017). The interactions of sex with ACR were significant for hospitalization for heart failure and any hospitalization (p ≤ 0.034). Conclusions: Outcomes and cardiac structure and function in patients with HFpEF appear to be influenced by ACR that vary according to sex. In men, ACR was significant associated with LV diastolic function, hospitalization, and myocardial infarction, whereas in women was associated with mortality.
FinTech, economy and space: Introduction to the special issue

In the introduction to the first-ever special issue on the spatial dimensions of FinTech, we show that despite a FinTech fever in business and media, research on FinTech is still niche, particularly in social sciences. We describe FinTech as a research area full of controversies, ripe and in need of geographical research. As we outline, papers in this issue contribute to the debate primarily by examining the role of the state, financial centres and uneven development in FinTech.
Undiagnosed elevated blood pressure and its life style related risk factors among adults: Cross sectional survey

Background: Globally, high blood pressure (BP) is a main health problem among adult population. High BP is considered as a major risk factor which may lead to many cardiovascular diseases. Globally, it is also the leading cause of death. According to the American Heart Association, a BP of 120/80 mm of Hg is a normal range but when the systolic blood pressure ≥130 and diastolic blood pressure ≥80, it is always labeled as hypertension. Objectives: In the present study, the researchers wanted to identify the prevalence of undiagnosed elevated blood pressure in the adult population of Uttarakhand, India and also try to explore its lifestyle-related risk factors. Methods: This study was an exploratory survey with a cross-sectional design. Data were collected from 440 participants by using the cluster sampling technique. Results: The male:female ratio among participants was 1:4 and most of the participants were aged 25–30 years. The study found that the prevalence of high blood pressure was 26%, in which marginal elevated BP prevalence was 16%, hypertension stage I was 7%, and hypertension Stage II was 3% which is significantly higher in number at a young age. Lifestyle-related risk factors showed a significant association of hypertensive status with gender, consumption of balanced diet, and personal habits. This increases the chances of elevated blood pressure in young adults. Conclusion: All health professionals must be sensitized for elevated blood pressure problems among the young adult populations. Elevated blood pressure should be considered as a warning alarm at an early age when prescribing any medication and during any invasive procedure. Awareness should be created among public regarding elevated blood pressure issues at a younger age and motivate people to adopt a healthy and stress-free lifestyle.
Evaluation of Factors Affecting Awareness About Beta-Thalassemia in Western Rajasthan

Aims: To determine the factors influencing awareness about beta-thalassemia in the population. Settings and Design: A cross sectional study was conducted by the Department of Pathology, AIIMS, Jodhpur. Methods and Material: The study population included participants with medical as well as non-medical background, to ensure representation of all sections of the society. Data was collected in an objective survey form drafted in simple language. Statistical Analysis Used: The data was analysed using Microsoft Excel and Chi Square Test for Independence was performed. Results: The participants with a positive family history had significantly more knowledge compared to others, but even these participants didn't have complete knowledge about the disease. Age and gender had no significant impact on the results. The mode of occurrence of beta-thalassemia was known to less than half of the participants, with even less number being aware of the fact that diagnosis of beta-thalassemia can be made before birth. Participants with a medical background were aware that there were several forms of beta-thalassemia, but the knowledge about treatment options was limited. Conclusions: Various factors affect the awareness in the general population, which has an effect on the outcome of screening programmes. There is a need for successful implementation of a screening programme for beta-thalassemia in order to reduce the financial burden that it imposes on healthcare facilities and to lessen the emotional burden on relatives of patients with the disease.
Translocation and Efficacy of a Neem-Based Insecticide in Lodgepole Pine Using Ips pini (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) as an Indicator Species

Recent research suggests that mountain pine beetles, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins, may be controlled on pine using systemic applications of extracts from seeds of the neem tree, Azadirachta indica A. Jussieu. We investigated the extent of translocation of neem extracts in the bole of lodgepole pines, Pinus contora variety latifolia Engelmann. Because attacks by D. ponderosae do not always occur high on the bole of standing trees, the pine engraver, Ips pini Say, was used as an indicator species. A proprietary emulsifiable concentrate formulation of neem seed extract containing 20,000 ppm azadirachtin was applied into a basal axe frill around the root collar of lodgepole pines. After 1 wk the trees were felled and the logs were baited at 3, 9, and 15 m from the base with the pheromone ispdienol to induce attack by I. pini. Six weeks later, bolts were removed from the trees at the bait positions and held for a further 16 wk in rearing. At 3 and 9 m from the base, populations of I. pini (emerged and remaining under the bark) were significantly reduced by 87 and 77%, respectively, indicating that the active ingredients translocated at least 9 m up the bole and persisted for at least 6 wk. Numbers of emergence holes also were significantly reduced by 89, 88, and 63% at 3, 9, and 15 m, suggesting that the translocation extended beyond 9 m. Neem treatment had no impact on gallery construction and attack density, but significantly reduced the number of progeny per egg gallery. Unlike the currently used systemic arsenical, neem extracts would pose no toxicity to vertebrates and would have a short residual activity in the environment. There would be little chance of resistance developing because of neem's multiple modes of action and the fact that very few infested trees in a given year would ever be treated.
POLYPHENOL CONTENT AND DIFFERENTIAL EXPRESSION OF FLAVONOID BIOSYNTHETIC PATHWAY GENES OF FRAGARIA SPP. WITH WHITE FRUIT

OF DISSERTATION Strawberries are a rich source of polyphenols which contribute to berry color and plant disease resistance, and have been shown to lower the risk of many chronic when consumed. While a considerable body of work exists on the polyphenolic composition of commercial strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.), less information is available concerning polyphenols in Fragaria vesca, or Alpine strawberry, considered a model system for the Rosaceae family of crop species. The study of natural and genetically-engineered F. vesca mutants with white fruit can provide unique insight into regulation of metabolic flux through the complex branched phenylpropanoid/flavonoid biosynthetic pathway. Thus, the identity and quantity of major phenolic-derived anthocyanins, flavonols, flavan-3-ols, hydroxycinnamic acids, and ellagic acid (EA)-derived compounds, of red-fruited versus white-fruited genotypes of F. vesca and F. x ananassa were compared by high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Due to the unknown origin of all but one whitefruited mutant of F. vesca, it was assumed that each resulted from independent mutation events and would exhibit different flavonoid profiles. A total of 27 phenolic-derived compounds were identified. The white genotypes of both species had very low anthocyanin levels. Total content of free EA and its conjugated forms were generally higher in white than in red F. vesca, but were the opposite in F. x ananassa, more in red than in white berries. Differences in content of individual flavonoids and in group totals among the white F. vesca genotypes suggested that they may represent different mutations affecting flavonoid production. Polyphenol profiles of a red and a white cultivar of F. vesca during four fruit developmental stages were determined along with transcriptional analyses of key structural and regulatory genes of the phenylpropanoid/ flavonoid biosynthesis. The final concentration of polyphenolic groups in red versus white F. vesca was due to the differential expression patterns of key pathway genes, especially dihydroflavonol-4-reductase, anthocyanidin synthase, and UDP-glucose-flavonoid-3-O-glucosyltransferase. The efficacy of phenolic compounds were evaluated in an in vitro study for inhibiting growth of Colletotrichum spp. associated with anthracnose fruit rot of strawberry. Only transcinnamic, p-coumaric, and ferulic acid inhibited isolates of the pathogen.
Intramedullary spinal cord cavernous malformations in the pediatric population

Background: Intramedullary spinal cavernous malformations (ISCM) account for just 1% of all intramedullary pediatric spinal cord lesions. Pathologically, they are well-circumscribed vascular malformations that typically appear dark blue or reddish-brown, often coming to the spinal cord surface. With regard to the histopathology findings, ISCMs are comprised sinusoidal vascular spaces lined by a single layer of endothelial cells within a loose connective tissue stroma. As these lesions are often misdiagnosed in the pediatric population, appropriate treatment may be unduly delayed. Methods: The authors performed an extensive review of the published literature (PubMed) focusing on ISCM in the pediatric age group. Results: The search yielded 17 articles exclusively pertaining to ISCM affecting the pediatric population. Conclusion: Here, we reviewed the clinical, radiographic, surgical, and outcome data for the treatment of ISCM in the pediatric age groups. Notably, over 50% of pediatric patients with ISCM experienced an improvement in their neurological status after a mean postoperative follow-up duration of 4 years. Future meta-analyses are needed to highlight the potential presence of ISCM and, thereby, decrease the rate of misdiagnosis of these lesions in the pediatric population presenting with recurrent intramedullary spinal cord hemorrhages.
Substandard, falsified and unregistered medicines in Latin America, 2017-2018

ABSTRACT Objective. To assess all the incidents of substandard, falsified and unregistered medicines in 2017 and 2018 in Latin America, determining the types of products affected, stages of the supply chain in which incidents were detected, quality deviations identified in tested samples, and regulatory measures taken by authorities. Methods. A comprehensive search of the websites of the Latin American national regulatory authorities was conducted, identifying all eligible incidents during 2017-2018. Standardized values were collected from each incident for pre-determined variables: country, year, type of incident, therapeutic group, supply chain, regulatory measures and laboratory data. Results. A total of 596 incidents in 13 countries were included (236 substandard, 239 falsified, 116 unregistered and 5 stolen). The therapeutic categories with the highest incidents were: anti-infectives, medicines for pain/palliative care, hormones/contraceptives, medicines for the respiratory tract, and medicines for mental/behavioural disorders. The most common places where incidents were detected were commercial establishments, pharmacies, health services and manufacturers. The most recurrent quality deviations were failure in parameters (appearance or physicochemical), incorrect labelling, different quantity of active pharmaceutical ingredient, presence of unknown particles, and microbiological contamination. The most frequent regulatory measures identified were alerts, withdrawals, seizures, and prohibition of marketing/distribution/use. Conclusions. In Latin America, substandard, falsified and unregistered medicines persist as a highly prevalent problem. An advanced degree of regulatory development in countries is associated with higher incident detection/reporting rates and a more comprehensive set of measures. The pharmaceutical supply chain is more vulnerable in its final node. Quality deviations identified in tested samples pose serious risks to public health.
Two New Species of the Gobiid Fish Genus Trimma (Perciformes: Gobioidei) from Southern Japan

Two new species of the gobiid fish genus Trimma, T. yanagitai and T. nomurai, are de- scribed based on specimens from southern Japan. T. yanagitai is distinguished from all congeneric species by the following combination of characters: 10-12 predorsal scales; second spine of first dorsal fin elongate (but not filamentous) or not elongate; middle 6-11 (of 18-19) rays of pectoral fin branched; fifth pelvic-fin ray unbranched or branched, 49-57% of fourth ray in length; no con- necting membrane between innermost pelvic-fin rays; a deep interorbital trough, no postorbital trough; 24 longitudinal scales; cheek and opercle scaled; when fresh ground color of head and body grayish brown dorsally, dull yellow to pale ventrally, 7 grayish lavender saddles with broad pale pink margins on body. T. nomurai is distinguished from all congeneric species by the follow- ing combination of characters: 5 to 6 predorsal scales; second spine of first dorsal fin elongate and filamentous; middle 9-15 (of 19) rays of pectoral fin branched; fifth pelvic-fin ray branched, 72-90% of fourth ray in length; height of connecting membrane between innermost pelvic-fin rays 28% of length of fifth ray; interorbital and postorbital trenches deep; 22-23 longitudinal scales; opercle lacking scales; when fresh ground color of head and body pale lilac, 3 vivid yellow longi- tudinal stripes on body, and a large, rounded, dark brown blotch posterodorsally to base of pectoral fin.
Communication and Timing Issues with MPI Virtualization

Computation–communication overlap and good load balance are features central to high performance of parallel programs. Unfortunately, achieving them with MPI requires considerably increasing the complexity of user code. Our work contributes to the alternative solution to this problem: using a virtualized MPI implementation. Virtualized MPI implementations diverge from traditional MPI implementations in that they map MPI processes to user-level threads instead of operating-system processes and launch more of them than there are CPU cores in the system. They are capable of providing automatic computation–communication overlap and load balance with little to no changes to pre-existing MPI user code. Our work has uncovered new insights into MPI virtualization: Two new kinds of timers are needed: an MPI-process timer and a CPU-core timer, the same discussion also applies to performance counters and the MPI profiling interface. We also observe an interplay between the degree of CPU oversubscription and the rendezvous communication protocol: we find that the intuitive expectation of only two MPI processes per CPU core being enough to achieve full computation–communication overlap is wrong for the rendezvous protocol—instead, three MPI processes per CPU core are required in that case. Our findings are expected to be applicable to all virtualized MPI implementations as well as to general tasking runtime systems.
Truthful mobile crowd sensing with interdependent valuations

Mobile crowd sensing (MCS) has been used to enable a wide range of resource-discovery applications by exploiting the "wisdom" of many mobile users. However, in many applications, a user's valuation depends on other users' sensory data, which introduces the problem of interdependent valuations. This feature can encourage sensory data misreport, hence makes economic mechanisms challenging. While some work has been done to address this problem, the issues of private utility information and communication overheads remain unsolved. In this study, we formulate the first interdependent-valuation model for the resource-discovery MCS systems, aiming to elicit truthful sensory reports and utility information and to maximize expected social welfare. We design a Truthful Sense-And-Bid (T-SAB) Mechanism based on surrogate functions, which can reveal marginal utility information by only requiring each user to submit one-dimensional signaling per resource. We show that the surrogate function and a reward function can limit users' willingness to misreport, when users have small informational sizes, a reasonable condition in large-scale MCS systems. Consequently, our T-SAB Mechanism yields a Perfect Bayesian Equilibrium (PBE) with the efficient allocation outcome, approximate truthfulness, individual rationality, and approximate budget balance. To illustrate the effectiveness of the T-SAB Mechanism, we perform a case study of a cognitive radio network. We demonstrate that the social welfare gain of the T-SAB Mechanism can achieve up to 20% social welfare gain comparing with a benchmark.
Morphological and Rotation Structures of Circumgalactic Mg ii Gas in the EAGLE Simulation and the Dependence on Galaxy Properties

Low-ionization-state Mg ii gas has been extensively studied in quasar sightline observations to understand the cool, ∼104 K gas in the circumgalactic medium. Motivated by recent observations showing that the Mg ii gas around low-redshift galaxies has significant angular momentum, we use the high-resolution EAGLE cosmological simulation to analyze the morphological and rotation structures of the z ≈ 0.3 circumgalactic Mg ii gas and examine how they change with the host galaxy properties. Around star-forming galaxies, we find that the Mg ii gas has an axisymmetric instead of a spherical distribution, and the axis of symmetry aligns with that of the Mg ii gas rotation. A similar rotating structure is less commonly found in the small sample of simulated quiescent galaxies. We also examine how often Mg ii gas around galaxies selected using a line-of-sight velocity cut includes gas physically outside of the virial radius (rvir). For example, we show that at an impact parameter of 100 pkpc, a ±500 km s−1 velocity cut around galaxies with stellar masses of 109–109.5 M⊙ (1010–1010.5 M⊙) selects Mg ii gas beyond the virial radius 80% (6%) of the time. Because observers typically select Mg ii gas around target galaxies using such a velocity cut, we discuss how this issue affects the study of circumgalactic Mg ii gas properties, including the detection of corotation. While the corotating Mg ii gas generally extends beyond 0.5rvir, the Mg ii gas outside of the virial radius contaminates the corotation signal and makes observers less likely to conclude that gas at large impact parameters (e.g., ≳0.25rvir) is corotating.
Investigation of insert-hole interference fit influence on downhole drilling bit failure

Down-the-hole drilling is a reliable method for drilling in medium-to-hard geological structures. The insert-hole fitting interference value emerges as one of the most important factors of down-the-hole drilling bit life. In this study, fatigue tests were conducted using a tungsten carbide pin press-fitted into a hole in the specimens of DIN 1.6580 steel (which is used for manufacturing the bit body) to quantify the effect of interference value on the bit body failure. Then, the process of bit-rock collision was simulated using three-dimensional finite element method taking into account the residual stresses in the insert and bit body to determine the optimal interference value. Simulations were performed considering the rotary motion of the bit in addition to impact for a single-insert as well as a commercial 3.5 inch bit. Results showed that the interference value influences fatigue life significantly. Also, the velocity and angle of impact have considerable influence on body stresses. Results of this study can greatly assist the design of insert-hole manufacturing tolerances in down-the-hole bits.
Crimora papillata (Nudibranchia: Triophinae), a new record from the shallow marine waters of the Azores

A new opisthobranch gastropod is reported from the Azores resulting from fieldwork undertaken in the island of Sao Miguel (Western Group, Azores) during October–November 2009 and March–April 2010. Intertidal and subtidal areas down to 25 m deep were sampled. Thirteen species were collected one of which, Crimora papillata is recorded for the first time in the Azores, increasing the number of opisthobranchs in these islands to 142 (108 littoral species and 34 deep-water species).
Energy management scheme for wireless powered D2D users with NOMA underlaying full duplex UAV

Device-to-Device (D2D) communications underlaying Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with its mobility extend the coverage and improve the data rate. In this paper, we propose an energy management scheme for wireless powered D2D users with NOMA underlaying full-duplex (FD) UAV. Here, the cellular transmitters (CTs) and D2D transmitters (DDTs) first harvest energy from the radio frequency (RF) signals of the UAV. Then, the CT communicates with the cellular receivers (CRs) using the FD-UAV as a relay. On the other hand, DDT communicates with its two D2D receivers (DDRs) using the NOMA. We formulate the problem as a mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) form and then divide it into two sub-problems. In the first sub-problem, an optimal value of time allocation for energy harvesting (EH) for DMG is estimated, whereas, in the second subproblem, the power of DDT in each DMG is optimized using the variable changing technique. Finally, the joint time allocation and power control scheme is proposed to achieve the maximum energy-efficiency (EE). Numerical results demonstrated that the proposed scheme achieves better results as compared to the existing conventional NOMA and orthogonal multiple access (OMA) schemes.