Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Relationship Between Internet Use and Mental Health Among Older Adults in China: The Mediating Role of Physical Exercise

Objective Affected by internet applications, mental health among older adults has become an important public health issue in China. This study aimed to use cross-sectional data to explore how internet use affects mental health among older adults in China, along with the moderating role of physical exercise in the above relationship. Methods This study employed data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) conducted in 2017. In addition, OLS regression was adopted to explore the impacts of internet use on the mental health of older adults in China. Results Results from the cross-sectional data model showed that internet use had a statistically significant and positive correlation with the mental health of older adults. The regression result of the full sample showed that the regression coefficient of the influence of internet use on the mental health of the elderly was 0.114, which was significant at the 1% level. Furthermore, this study used mediating analysis to explore the possible underlying mechanism by which internet use influenced mental health status through physical exercise. Physical exercise played a mediating role in the relationship between internet use and mental health; the ratio of the indirect effect to total effect mediated was 0.272. It is important to note that the effect size of the indirect effect through physical exercise was quite large. Conclusion Our findings suggested that internet use was significantly associated with better mental health status for older Chinese residents, mediated by higher physical exercise frequency, which was consistent with China’s recent efforts to promote health governance with the “Internet Plus Exercise” campaign. Consequently, the government must encourage the development of more internet applications suitable for the elderly to increase their exercise frequency and ultimately improve their mental health. These results also provided insights for clinical solutions.
COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptability Among Women Who are Pregnant or Planning for Pregnancy in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Purpose Few studies in the literature deal with the acceptance of being vaccinated while pregnant. This study aimed to investigate the acceptance rate of the COVID-19 vaccine among pregnant women and those who are planning for pregnancy in Saudi Arabia. Methods This cross-sectional study used an online self-administered questionnaire in Saudi Arabia between 12 June and 1 August 2021. The first section described the demographic characteristics of the study participants (five items), participants’ perceptions about COVID-19 (three items), participants’ hesitancy about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine (nine items), perceived benefits of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine (four items), and motivations and causes of action for receiving the COVID-19 vaccine (three items). Results A total of 431 women who met the inclusion criteria were involved in this study. The study participants showed moderate scores in terms of their COVID-19 vaccination perception, hesitancy, perceived benefits and causes of action that ranged between 53.3% and 65.0%. The mean perception score for all participants was 8.0 (standard deviation (SD): 2.8) out of 15. The mean hesitancy score for was 27.6 (SD: 7.3) out of 45. The mean perceived benefits score was 13.0 (SD: 4.5) out of 20. The mean causes of action score was 9.0 (SD: 3.7) out of 15. Pregnant women or those who are planning to be pregnant are more hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccination (p=0.001). Those aged below 29 years who reported receiving the COVID-19 vaccine showed higher levels of perceived benefits (p<0.05). Conclusion Pregnant women and those who are planning to be pregnant have a moderate score in terms of their COVID-19 vaccination perception, hesitancy, perceived benefits and causes of action regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. More public health awareness regarding the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine are needed to gain public trust in the vaccination and the healthcare system.
Use of heat pipes for avionics cooling

Experiments have been carried out in order to study the effectiveness of the heat pipe in cooling high dissipative components which are integrated in avionics electronic modules (AEM). The results show that heat pipes eliminate hot spots and spread the heat dissipated from the components very well. The experiments, which are carried out with a real AEM, allow for determination of the order of magnitude of heat-source/heat sink thermal resistances useful for heat pipe integration design and fabrication. The numerical tool developed on the basis of the experimental results allows for optimization and better integration of the heat pipe into the AEM.
Review of Soil Moisture Sensing Using Soil Electrical Conductivity

ABSTRACT Published attempts to measure soil moisture content using soil-implanted electrodes were reviewed. The literature review primarily covered domestic, agricultural-related research during the past century. The review indicated a general feeling of doubt about the accuracy and reliability of the resistance method to determine soil moisture. However, most researchers stated that the method showed promise and warranted further study. The reviewed literature proposed methods of eliminating changing probe-to-surface contact. Rather than eliminating this phenomenon, a resistance-based sensor presently under development utilized this trait as one variable in soil moisture determination.
An econometric analysis: Is there an optimal external debt threshold for Guinea?

This study aimed to determine the threshold level of public external debt-to-GDP ratio for Guinea and compared it with the current evolution of public debt. The authors used an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to test the hypothesis of long-term relationship among the variables of interest and the data used ranged from 1990 to 2018. The results revealed that External debt-to-GDP ratio and per capita GDP are positively related. Moreover, the null hypothesis of no co-integration was rejected. Thus, external debt-to-GDP ratio and economic growth as well as other variables are co-integrated. Moreover, the debt variable had significant non-linear effects on economic growth and indicated that there exists an optimal level of external debt-to-GDP ratio that stood at 25.2%. Compared to its current level which stood at 21.7%, the country still has some borrowing margin. In the short run external debt-to-GDP ratio has no significant effect on the country’s economic performance.
Selected Integrated Testing Strategies (ITS) for the risk assessment of chemicals

RIVM's investigation of integrated testing strategies (ITS) to reduce the use of experimental animals in the risk assessment of chemical substance focuses on the application of alternative and improved test methods. This research is highly desirable for the contribution it can make to the successful implementation of the new EU legislation for industrial chemicals, REACH, as of June 1, 2007. In this way RIVM will contribute to EU and OECD research into testing strategies. Integrated, or Intelligent, Testing Strategies (ITS) are strategies for the effective testing of the hazards of chemical substances. Such strategies show what tests or mathematical methods should be used for a particular substance, and in what order. ITS are intended as an answer to the ever-increasing demand for testing in regulations for a great number of substances with limited databases. The focus of ITS is especially on the development of strategies on the basis of test methods at cellular level (in vitro) and mathematical methods (in silico). The mathematical methods are needed for the assessment of exposure and of the relation between effects and chemical structure. Some tests with experimental animals (in vivo) will also remain necessary. Knowledge on the effects of chemical substances can be derived with sufficient certainty by smartly coupling these methods with each other. In this way, the expectation is that chemical substances will be assessed cheaper and faster, with less use of experimental animals. The report first describes how to deal with uncertainties in the results of tests and methods used in each step of a particular ITS. Next it focuses on testing strategies for the assessment of: 1) environmental degradation 2) sensitization and 3) adverse effects on fertility and progeny.
Active Yaw Relaxation For Improved Bogie Performance

SUMMARY The use of controlled traction rods to give active yaw relaxation of coned wheelsets is investigated, and is shown to give significant improvements in curving performance without compromising stability, even on curves for which there is flange contact. An assessment of practical implications such as power, actuator and control requirements is included.
Vibration Isolation and Noise Reduction Design of the AH20 Motor’s Lifting up Structure

Compared with sewing machine driven by traditional match motor, industry sewing machine driven by AH20 motor have economy energy, intelligent degree, install convenience, operation simple and ability completely etc. It has vast applied foreground and huge market potential. But the lifting up structure has problems of vibration and noises in use, and seriously obstructed the progress of its market expansion. The causes were found through theoretical calculation, modal analysis and experiment analysis, and the structure was improved. The experiment results confirmed the validity of the changes.
Photonic integrated circuits for the generation of coherent optical signals

Title Photonic integrated circuits for the generation of coherent optical signals Author(s) Morrissey, Padraic E. Publication date 2014 Original citation Morrissey, P. E. 2014. Photonic integrated circuits for the generation of coherent optical signals. PhD Thesis, University College Cork. Type of publication Doctoral thesis Rights © 2014, Padraic E. Morrissey http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Integrated management of neonatal and childhood illness strategy in Zimbabwe: An evaluation

More than five million children under the age of five die each year worldwide, primarily from preventable and treatable causes. In response, the World Health Organization’s Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMNCI) strategy has been adopted in more than 95 low- and middle-income countries, 41 of them from Africa. Despite IMNCI’s widespread implementation, evidence on its impact on child mortality and institutional deliveries is limited. This study examined the effect of IMNCI strategy in the context of Zimbabwe, where neonatal and infant mortality rates are among the highest in the world. We used binary logistic regression to analyze cross-sectional data from the 2015 Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey. Zimbabwe implemented the IMNCI strategy in 2012. Our empirical strategy involved comparing neonatal and infant mortality and institutional deliveries within the same geographic area before and after IMNCI implementation in a nationally representative sample of children born between 2010 and 2015. Exposure to IMNCI was significantly associated with a reduction in neonatal mortality (adjusted odds ratio (95% CI): 0.70 (0.50, 0.98)) and infant mortality (adjusted odds ratio (95% CI): 0.69 (0.54, 0.91)). The strategy also helped increase institutional deliveries significantly (adjusted odds ratio (95% CI): 1.95 (1.67, 2.28)). Further analyses revealed that these associations were concentrated among educated women and in rural areas.The IMNCI strategy in Zimbabwe seems to be successful in delivering its intended goals. Future programmatic and policy efforts should target women with low education and those residing in urban areas. Furthermore, sustaining the positive impact and achieving the child health-related Sustainable Development Goals will require continued political will in raising domestic financial investments to ensure the sustainability of maternal and child health programs.
Consumer Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Mud Crabs in Southeast Asian Countries: A Discrete Choice Experiment

The mud crab (Scylla serrata) is an economically important species found in the mangroves and estuaries of tropical countries and is a popular seafood product in the coastal areas of Southeast Asian markets. The aim of this study is to identify factors affecting consumer preference of mud crabs, and to understand consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for these factors in a Singapore market where imported mud crabs from other Asian countries are sold. The results showed that the country of origin matters to participants, affecting purchasing decisions, and consumers were willing to pay approximately 16.48 SGD (11.49 USD, the average price of four shops: 35.55 USD/kg for one mud crab) more if the mud crabs were from Sri Lanka if compared with Indonesian or Cambodian mud crabs. Moreover, consumers were willing to pay 25.08 SGD (17.48 USD) more if the mud crabs were alive and 13.40 SGD (9.34 USD) less if the mud crabs were frozen compared with fresh, but not alive, mud crabs. Furthermore, consumers’ preference in mud crab was associated with the consumers’ religion. Some groups of consumers preferred female mud crabs with eggs over male mud crabs, while other groups preferred male crabs. The results identified diverse consumer preference of mud crabs and, therefore, could provide new insights that are useful for sustainable consumption of mud crabs in the region.
Novel effects of the gastrointestinal hormone secretin on cardiac metabolism and renal function

The cardiac benefits of gastrointestinal hormones have been of interest in recent years. The aim of this study was to explore the myocardial and renal effects of the gastrointestinal hormone secretin in the GUTBAT trial (NCT03290846). A placebo-controlled crossover study was conducted on 15 healthy males in fasting conditions, where subjects were blinded to the intervention. Myocardial glucose uptake was measured with [18F]2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose ([18F]FDG) positron emission tomography. Kidney function was measured with [18F]FDG renal clearance and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Secretin increased myocardial glucose uptake compared to placebo (secretin vs. placebo, mean + standard deviation, 15.5 + 7.4 vs. 9.7 + 4.9 μmol/100g/min, 95% confidence interval (CI) [2.2, 9.4], p=0.004). Secretin also increased [18F]FDG renal clearance (44.5 + 5.4 vs. 39.5 + 8.5 ml/min, 95%CI[1.9, 8.1], p=0.004) and eGFR was significantly increased from baseline after secretin, compared to placebo (17.8 + 9.8 vs. 6.0 + 5.2 Δml/min/1.73m2, 95%CI[6.0, 17.6], p=0.001). Our results implicate that secretin increases heart work and renal filtration, making it an interesting drug candidate for future studies in heart and kidney failure.
Elderly Population with COVID-19 and the Accuracy of Clinical Scales and D-Dimer for Pulmonary Embolism: The OCTA-COVID Study

Background: Elderly COVID-19 patients have a high risk of pulmonary embolism (PE), but factors that predict PE are unknown in this population. This study assessed the Wells and revised Geneva scoring systems as predictors of PE and their relationships with D-dimer (DD) in this population. Methods: This was a longitudinal, observational study that included patients ≥75 years old with COVID-19 and suspected PE. The performances of the Wells score, revised Geneva score and DD levels were assessed. The combinations of the DD level and the clinical scales were evaluated using positive rules for higher specificity. Results: Among 305 patients included in the OCTA-COVID study cohort, 50 had suspected PE based on computed tomography pulmonary arteriography (CTPA), and the prevalence was 5.6%. The frequencies of PE in the low-, intermediate- and high-probability categories were 5.9%, 88.2% and 5.9% for the Geneva model and 35.3%, 58.8% and 5.9% for the Wells model, respectively. The DD median was higher in the PE group (4.33 mg/L; interquartile range (IQR) 2.40–7.17) than in the no PE group (1.39 mg/L; IQR 1.01–2.75) (p < 0.001). The area under the curve (AUC) for DD was 0.789 (0.652–0.927). After changing the cutoff point for DD to 4.33 mg/L, the specificity increased from 42.5% to 93.9%. Conclusions: The cutoff point DD > 4.33 mg/L has an increased specificity, which can discriminate false positives. The addition of the DD and the clinical probability scales increases the specificity and negative predictive value, which helps to avoid unnecessary invasive tests in this population.
Fibrinogen and Antifibrinolytic Proteins: Interactions and Future Therapeutics

Thrombus formation remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Current antiplatelet and anticoagulant therapies have been effective at reducing vascular events, but at the expense of increased bleeding risk. Targeting proteins that interact with fibrinogen and which are involved in hypofibrinolysis represents a more specific approach for the development of effective and safe therapeutic agents. The antifibrinolytic proteins alpha-2 antiplasmin (α2AP), thrombin activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor (TAFI), complement C3 and plasminogen activator inhibitor-2 (PAI-2), can be incorporated into the fibrin clot by FXIIIa and affect fibrinolysis by different mechanisms. Therefore, these antifibrinolytic proteins are attractive targets for the development of novel therapeutics, both for the modulation of thrombosis risk, but also for potentially improving clot instability in bleeding disorders. This review summarises the main properties of fibrinogen-bound antifibrinolytic proteins, their effect on clot lysis and association with thrombotic or bleeding conditions. The role of these proteins in therapeutic strategies targeting the fibrinolytic system for thrombotic diseases or bleeding disorders is also discussed.
Vehicle and Pedestrian Safety at Light Rail Stops in Mixed Traffic

A significant flaw in light rail safety research is the omission of mixed traffic (or streetcar) environments despite evidence that these are a major safety challenge. The safety impacts of new tram stop designs in Melbourne, Australia, with one of the world's largest streetcar systems, were reviewed. A major finding was that 82% of safety incidents associated with streetcars were auto–pedestrian conflicts. Previous research did not consider these conflicts accidents and identified poor monitoring of such incidents. Before-and-after analysis shows that new platform stops reduced collision rates: auto–pedestrian (62%) and auto–tram stop (12%). Tram–pedestrian collisions did not change except at the busiest stop, where total incidents were reduced by 53%, but tram–pedestrian rates increased. However, patronage growth increased exposure at this stop. An alternative, poorer quality, incident database also showed a decline in tram–pedestrian (10%) and auto–tram stop (25%) incident rates after platform stops were introduced. These findings also suggest that auto–pedestrian incidents may have increased; however, data quality and inconsistency with other findings suggest caution about this result. A road safety audit of tram stops showed that new designs have reduced intolerable safety risks, compared with older designs. The new, easy access stop is particularly attractive because of the reduced speed of passing autos. Ironically, the older and inappropriately named, safety zone stop had the largest number of serious safety risks. Overall findings suggest that the new tram stop designs have resulted in significant safety benefits. Implications for further planning and research are also suggested.
Operation sequencing optimization using a particle swarm optimization approach

Abstract Operation sequencing is one of the crucial tasks in process planning. However, it is an intractable process to identify an optimized operation sequence with minimal machining cost in a vast search space constrained by manufacturing conditions. In this paper, the complicated operation sequencing process has been modelled as a combinatorial optimization problem, and a modern evolutionary algorithm, i.e. the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, has been employed and modified to solve it effectively. Initial process plan solutions are formed and encoded into particles of the PSO algorithm. The particles ‘fly’ intelligently in the search space to achieve the best sequence according to the optimization strategies of the PSO algorithm. Meanwhile, to explore the search space comprehensively and to avoid being trapped into local optima, several new operators have been developed to improve the particles' movements, forming a modified PSO algorithm. A case study involving three prismatic parts has been used to verify the performance and efficiency of the modified PSO algorithm. A comparison has been made between the result of the modified PSO algorithm and the previous results using the genetic algorithm (GA) and the simulated annealing (SA) algorithm and the different characteristics of the three algorithms are indicated. Case studies show that the developed PSO can generate satisfactory results in optimizing the process planning problem.
Vegetative growth, yield, and fruit quality of guava (Psidium guajava L.) cv. Maamoura as affected by some biostimulants

The present study was performed during two successive seasons 2019 and 2020 to investigate the effect of the soil application of fulvic acid (FA), seaweed extract (SE), and their different combinations on vegetative growth, yield, and fruit quality of six-years-old guava (Psidium guajava L.) cv. ‘Maamoura’. The trees were planted 4 × 4 m2 apart in clay soil under a flood irrigation system. They were treated three times starting from mid-March with one-month intervals with the following treatments: Control (water only), 3 and 4 g/L FA, 3 and 4 g/L SE, and their different combinations; 3 g/L FA + 3 g/L SE, 3 g/L FA + 4 g/L SE, 4 g/L FA + 3 g/L SE, and 4 g/L FA + 4 g/L SE. The results clearly showed that the application of FA or SE solely or in combinations increased shoot length and diameter, as well as leaf chlorophyll compared with the control. The treatments also increased fruit set percentage, fruit yield, and fruit physical and chemical characteristics such as fruit weight, size, TSS%, total reduced and non-reduced sugars, as well as leaf mineral content, while they decreased the fruit acidity compared with the control in the two seasons.
Multiple shoot induction and regeneration of Vanilla borneensis Rolfe - a critically endangered orchid of Assam, India

In the present investigation, a micropropagation protocol has been developed for Vanilla borneensis Rolfe – a critically endangered orchid through multiple shoot regeneration. Through in vitro multiple shoot regeneration from both nodal and shoot tip explants, maximum (100%) shoot induction was observed. The minimum time required for shoot bud induction was observed from the shoot tip (5–7 days) on medium supplemented with BAP (4.44 mM) + KIN (2.32 mM) as compared to the nodal explants. Maximum multiple shoot regeneration was observed from nodal explants on the medium supplemented with BAP (4.44 mM) + TDZ (6.82 mM). However, maximum shoot length was observed on the medium supplemented with BAP (4.44 mM) + 15% CW and the number of nodes (5.27±0.33) per shoot after 90 days. Maximum (80-100%) of root initiation was observed in almost all the concentrations of NAA. The shortest time of root initiation was found on the medium supplemented with NAA (5.37 mM). Further, acclimatization period was found to be 15 days with 70% acclimatization while 60% of survivability was observed in the field condition. This efficient micropropagation method of V. borneensis could be successfully used for mass propagation as well as conservation of the critically endangered wild orchid.