Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Study on Health-Related Quality of Life in Bone Cancer Patients

Background and Objectives : Like any other cancers treatment, bone cancer patients undergo pain and suffering that may compromise their functional status, ability to adjust and subsequently quality of life. This study aimed to investigate the impact of bone cancer on quality of life among bone cancer patients. Materials : This cross-sectional study was conducted at Sarawak General Hospital, Kuching, Sarawak. Bone cancer patients were interviewed using a pretested 30-item questionnaire adopted from EORTC (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer). Data was analysed using SPSS software. Results : A total of 50 respondents was recruited during the two months data collection. Majority of the patients are aged 40 years and below, 54% were females, 28% were Malays, 60% were married. Majority of the respondents were studying or working, 54% had education up to secondary level and higher. The mean QoL score for global health status was 53.8 ± 14.6. The highest score on the functional scale was for Physical functioning (71.0 ± 20.5), followed by Cognitive functioning (70.3 ± 27.2). Under Symptom scales, the highest score was Financial difficulties (64.6 ± 28.0), followed by Appetite loss (51.3 ± 25.3), Insomnia (50.6 ± 23.5), and others with Dyspnoea having the lowest mean score (5.66 ± 9.88). Conclusion : Overall bone cancer patients perceived their quality of life to be lower. Sustained problems such as emotional functioning, social functioning, nausea and vomiting, appetite loss and financial difficulties were observed. Appropriate interventional programmes should be designed to help these patients to improve their overall quality of life.
The Promise of the #MeToo Movement for Preventing and Reporting Sexual Harassment

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the promise of #MeToo movement for reporting and preventing sexual harassment (SH). The article engages with definitions of SH and theories of whistleblowing dialogue with illustrative #MeToo narratives to discuss why reports of SH take long time to surface and why they may remain unreported and unaddressed. The empirical illustrations were gathered from Swedish newspaper articles, social media, radio, and television programs beginning autumn 2017. To set the stage, we begin with short presentations of sexual harassment and whistleblowing processes followed by three short illustrative cases. Our tentative findings show that when considering SH, organisation leaders have important roles in the whistleblowing process as they communicate organisational expectations, values and norms about acceptable behaviour. In the Swedish context, the explicit political stance to #MeToo taken by Swedish Government and Discrimination Ombudsman were crucial in starting and sustaining initiatives to support employees and their organisations in these efforts.
Extreme pressure forecasting methodology for the hydraulic jump downstream of a low head spillway

Extreme pressures in the hydraulic jump are associated with risk of damage to the flow discharge system of dams by a series of mechanisms. Therefore, understanding and predicting these efforts are crucial for the safe and economical design of discharge systems. Thus, this paper aims to validate an existing pressure forecasting methodology for estimating the extreme pressure in the hydraulic jump with low Froude number (below 4.5). Results have shown that the method may be used for this situation on a preliminary basis. Further studies are recommended to refine the technique and to achieve results that are more precise.
E-government-enabled transparency: The effect of electoral aspects and citizen’s access to Internet on information disclosure

ABSTRACT Recent literature on transparency claims that e-government-enabled transparency through websites may be conditioned by political and social factors. Being more transparent while conducting its activities and political responsibilities has been the response of governments to citizens’ demand for access to public information. This paper analyzes if political and social conditions influence transparency in Portuguese municipalities. The results show that political ideology, electoral turnout, proximity of elections, citizens’ access to Internet and geographic location influence municipalities’ transparency. The analyses are based on panel data from all 308 Portuguese municipalities.
Online Task Scheduling and Resource Allocation for Intelligent NOMA-Based Industrial Internet of Things

Fog computing (FC) has the potential to process computation-intensive tasks in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) systems. In parallel with the development of FC, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has been recognized as a promising technique to significantly improve the spectrum efficiency. In this paper, a NOMA-based FC framework for IIoT systems is considered, where multiple task nodes offload their tasks via NOMA to multiple nearby helper nodes for execution. We formulate a joint task scheduling and subcarrier allocation problem, with an objective to minimize the total cost in terms of the delay and energy consumption, while taking into account the practical communication and computation constraints. Note that the task scheduling includes task, computation resource, and power allocations. Since the task and subcarrier allocations involve binary variables, it is challenging to obtain an optimal solution for such a combinatorial problem. To this end, we solve the task scheduling and subcarrier allocation problem in an online learning fashion. During the online learning process, we propose an iterative algorithm to jointly optimize the subcarrier allocation and task scheduling in each time episode. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can significantly reduce the sum cost compared to the baseline schemes.
Influence of carbon nanotubes on the properties of friction composite materials

Carbon nanotubes have a lot of applications in mechanical fields. This is because nanomaterials have many superior mechanical properties such as very high strength-to-weight ratio, high modulus-to-weight ratio, high corrosion resistance, and super intelligence properties, which make them as smart materials. One of these attractive applications is the use of carbon nanotubes in vehicle brake friction material. Therefore, the fabrication and testing processes of these nanomaterials should be performed carefully to evaluate their mechanical, tribological, and noise properties. In this paper, friction material mixed with carbon nanotubes have been fabricated with different carbon nanotube contents and the same fabrication parameters. The carbon nanotubes have been produced using the conventional submerged arc discharge technique. The produced friction materials have been cut into pieces with standard sizes and then tested mechanically and tribologically. The results of tests have illustrated that the addition of carbon nanotubes into the friction materials could improve their mechanical properties (hardness, strength, and modulus) and also could enhance their tribological properties (wear rate and friction coefficient). Moreover, the tests showed that the presence of carbon nanotubes in friction materials could reduce the noise, vibration of the friction materials, and reduce the temperature rise due to the effect of friction, which means that the carbon nanotubes could raise the thermal conductivity of friction material, while the friction coefficient has stayed within the allowable standard limits (0.35–0.45). Surface morphology shows that the presence of carbon nanotubes in the friction materials could help to avoid surface friction cracks or fins within the normal operating conditions. The good combination of mechanical and tribological properties was obtained at 0.5% carbon nanotubes.
High-Dose Methotrexate and Early Intensification of Therapy Do Not Improve 3 Year EFS in Children and Adolescents with Disseminated Lymphoblastic Lymphoma. Results of the Randomized Arms of COG A5971

The treatment of pediatric lymphoblastic lymphoma (LL) has developed in parallel with treatment strategies for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia using a BFM backbone. The excellent results of the NHL/BFM 90 trial prompted us to design this randomized factorial study to determine whether a regimen without high dose methotrexate (HDMTX) the CCG BFM will result in the same outcome as NHL/BFM-90 and whether intensification with anthracycline and cyclophosphamide would further improve disease free survival. From June 2000 to October 2005, 257 patients with Murphy’s Stage III and IV (excluding CNS disease) LL were randomized to one of the four regimens. All regimens used the BFM/NHL95 backbone. The CCG BFM regimen had intrathecal (IT) methotrexate throughout interim maintenance and maintenance without IV methotrexate. The NHL BFM utilized I.V. Methotrexate 5 Gms/m2 and intrathecal MTX every 2 weeks for four doses during interim maintenance without further intrathecal MTX during maintenance. One of each backbone regimens was further intensified with anthracycline and cyclophosphamide early in induction and delayed intensification. The median age was 10.3 years, 195 (76%) were males; 43 (17%) had >5% bone marrow involvement. Twelve patients with CNS disease were not randomized and received intensification and HD HDMTX with delayed CNS radiation (data not reported here). Major toxicities have been related to bone marrow suppression with 4 toxic deaths, 3 due to sepsis and 1 from cerebral hemorrhage. The frequency of grade III/IV neutropenia (alone, with fever or with infection), anemia, and thrombocytopenia were higher in the intensified arms during induction. Three of the four toxic deaths occurred on the intensified arms. The three years EFS of the HDMTX vs. none is 84.5% ± . 3.5% vs. 82.7± 3.8 (ρ= 0.93) and the intensification vs. none is 83.4% ±3.7 vs 83.0% ± 3.6 (ρ= 0.66). Therefore, there was no significant difference between treatment arms. These results suggest that neither HDMTX nor early intensification improves EFS in LL. Future direction should focus on identifying biological factors early in therapy so alternative therapies may be investigated.
The use of xanthine oxidoreductase inhibitors in slowing the progression of renal and cardiovascular disease. A summary of available clinical trials

1 Preface – the work process . 3 Introduction . 4 Elevated serum uric acid and the epidemiological link to cardiovascular and renal disease . 4 Prevalence of hyperuricemia and serum uric acid reference values . 4 Current practice in treating hyperuricemia . 5 Uric acid metabolism, renal excretion and solubility . 5 Pharmacology of uric acid lowering drugs . 6 Allopurinol and oxypurinol . 6 Febuxostat . 6 Possible biological mechanism of the intervention . 6 The aim of the thesis . 7 Methods . 8 Criteria for considering studies for this review . 8 Outcomes . 8 Search methods for identification of studies . 9 Electronic searches . 9 Searching other resources . 9 Data collection and analysis . 9 Selection of studies . 9 Data extraction and management . 9 Assessment of risk of bias in the included studies . 10 Data synthesis . 10 Measures of treatment effect . 10 Assessment of reporting bias in clinical trials using xanthine oxidase inhibitors . 10 Results . 11 Results of the search and studies included and excluded . 11 Risk of bias in included studies . 13 Assessment of selective reporting . 13 Effect of interventions . 16 Studies assessing heart-related outcomes . 16 Studies reporting renal related outcomes . 17 Studies reporting blood pressure in adolescents as outcome . 17 Studies reporting measures of endothelial function and vascular function . 18 Studies reporting biochemical outcomes . 18 Adverse reactions . 19 Discussion . 32 Summary of main results . 32 Overall completeness and applicability of the evidence . 33 Quality of evidence . 33 Results from other reviews . 34 Strengths and limitations of this thesis . 35 Conclusion and directions for future research . 35 Appendix . 37 Bibliography . Feil! Bokmerke ikke definert.
The Impact of Personal Characteristics on Contraceptive Choices and Use Over 5 years

Worldwide, there is an unintended pregnancy rate of 40%. That rate is higher in some areas, such as in the United States—where it is nearly 50%. These pregnancies have potentially negative outcomes for the mother and child that include health, economic, social, and psychological aspects. Long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) are highly reliable methods for family planning. Identifying personal characteristics associated with choosing LARCs will better address the unintended pregnancy rates. The purpose of this research project was to evaluate characteristics of adolescents and women at high risk for unintended pregnancies by (a) describing the use of a LARC and selected personal characteristics for the years 2009 and 2014 and (b) exploring relationships among LARC choice and selected personal characteristics of clients seeking family planning services. A retrospective chart review was conducted on 268 randomly selected records, half of which were each from the years 2009 and 2014. One Midwestern U.S. family planning clinic was the site of the research. The characteristics used in the chart reviews were derived from the literature and Healthy People 2020 goals. Key differences between the years 2009 and 2014 included a significant increase in the number of LARCs prescribed to high-risk women. There was a significant relationship between the choice of a LARC and having used one in the past. Personal characteristics influencing LARC birth control choice included White, Hispanic females, those with a history of a teen pregnancy, those who experienced any previous pregnancy or live birth, and those below the poverty level. The findings indicate the importance of educating clients on LARC options. To foster initial use of a LARC, an application, based on the findings of this study, has been developed that provides individualized choices and education on contraceptive methods including LARCs.
Local Blockage Effects for Idealised Turbines in Tidal Channels

In this paper, idealised analytical and numerical models are used to explore the potential for local blockage effects to enhance the performance of turbines in tidal channels. Arrays of turbines modelled using the volume-flux-constrained actuator disc and blade element momentum theories are embedded within one-dimensional analytical and two-dimensional numerical channel domains. The effects of local blockage on the performance of arrays comprising one and five rows of actuator discs and tidal rotors operating in steady and oscillatory channel flow are then examined. In the case of steady flow, numerical results are found to agree very well with the two-scale actuator disc theory of Nishino & Willden [1]. In the case of oscillatory flow, however, numerical results show that the shorter and more highly blocked arrays produce considerably more power than predicted by the one-dimensional two-scale theory. These results support the findings of Bonar et al. [2], who showed that under certain oscillatory flow conditions, the power produced by a partial-width tidal turbine array can be much greater than predicted by two-scale theory. The departure from theory is most noticeable in the case of five turbine rows, where the two-scale theory predicts that the maximum available power should decrease with increasing local blockage but the numerical model shows the maximum available power to increase. The effects of local blockage are found to be less pronounced for the more realistic tidal rotor than for the highly idealised actuator disc but for both models, the results show that in oscillatory flow, considerably more power is available to the shorter and more highly blocked turbine arrays.
Adaptive Trading in Continuous Intraday Electricity Markets for a Storage Unit

The increasing integration of renewable resources in electricity markets has increased the need for producers to correct their trading position close to real time in order to avoid volatile real-time prices. The closest option to delivery time in European markets is to trade in the continuous intraday market. This market is therefore an attractive trading outlet for assets that target at extracting value from their flexibility. Trading in this market is challenging due to the multistage nature of the problem, its high uncertainty and the fact that decisions need to be reached rapidly, in order to lock in profitable trades. We model the trading problem of a storage unit in the Markov Decision Process framework. We present an approach based on policy function approximation for tackling the problem. We provide relevant parameters for defining our policy, and demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by comparing it to the rolling intrinsic policy on real historical data. Our proposed approach outperforms the rolling intrinsic policy, which is commonly employed in practice for storage units, by increasing profitability by <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{17.8}\%$</tex-math></inline-formula> on out-of-sample testing for a storage with perfect round-trip efficiency and by <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{13.6}\%$</tex-math></inline-formula> for a storage unit with a round-trip efficiency of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{81}\%$</tex-math></inline-formula>.
Health-Related Quality of Life of Patients with Spinal Cord Injury in Iran: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Context: Subjects with spinal cord injury (SCI) may experience a low quality of life due to struggling with sensory and motor impairments and various underlying illnesses. Objectives: The present study was conducted to investigate the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of Iranian patients with SCI. Methods: In the present study, a search was done in domestic and international databases including MagIran, Iran Medex, SID, Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus using specific keywords (“Quality of Life” OR “Health-Related Quality of Life” OR “Life Style” OR “QoL” OR “HRQoL”) AND (“Shortform questionnaire 36” OR “SF-36”) AND (“spinal cord injury” OR “SCI”) AND “Iran”, without time limitation. Observational studies evaluating HRQoL in patients with SCI were included. The HRQOL was assessed using the 36-item Short Form questionnaire (SF-36). The SF-36 has two main domains of Physical Component summary (PCS), and Mental Component summary (MCS). Based on the heterogeneity of the data, the data were analyzed by fixed and random effects models. Stata 14 was used to analyze the collected data. Results: Eight studies with a sample size of 848 SCI patients were included in the analysis. The mean scores of PCS and MCS of the subjects with SCI were 55.47% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 42.50 - 68.43) and 67.91% (95%CI: 59.18 - 76.64), respectively. The findings showed that the highest and the lowest scores of the subscales of HRQoL in both paraplegia and tetraplegia groups were related to physical functioning and social functioning, respectively. The mean score of eight subscales of HRQoL (except for social functioning) was higher in paraplegic patients than in those with tetraplegia. Conclusions: Individuals with SCI had half of the total score of the physical dimension of HRQoL. Providing strategies for improving the HRQoL of Iranian people with SCI, especially in the physical aspect, seems necessary.
Successful pregnancy outcome in grade IV lupus nephritis and secondary antiphospholipid antibody syndrome with recurrent pregnancy failures - challenging achievement of motherhood

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic multisystem autoimmune disease that occurs predominantly in women of childbearing age. The risk of complications and adverse fetal outcomes in pregnant women with lupus is high viz., increased risks of preterm birth, hypertensive diseases of pregnancy and lupus flares both during pregnancy and in the postpartum period. An additional association with Antiphospholipid antibody (APLA) syndrome is expected to multiply the pregnancy complications. Though improved understanding of the disease nature and greater number of therapeutic options in the treatment of SLE, made the medical community regard these patients with less trepidation, the risk of significant morbidity to both the mother and the fetus still exist. We report an interesting case of grade IV Lupus nephritis (LN) with secondary APLA syndrome and h/o recurrent pregnancy failures for twenty times but had a successful pregnancy and delivery in the 21st attempt though pregnancy was absolutely contraindicated in view of her medical illness. Many complications were encountered during her pregnancy which could be successfully tackled and a live male baby was delivered by Caesarean section.
Effect of an enamel matrix protein (Emdogain (R)) on ex vivo dental plaque vitality

Background: A common clinical observation following surgical periodontal therapy with an enamel matrix derivative (Emdogain((R))) is the improved healing of the Soft tissues and the limited inflammation of the operated areas. These clinical observations are empirical and difficult to explain. One of the factors influencing the early wound healing might be a potential antimicrobial effect of Emdogain((R)). Aim: To investigate the effect of Emdogain((R)) on the vitality of ex vivo supragingival dental plaque and to compare this effect to that of a standard 0.2% chlorhexidine solution.Materials and Methods: 24 patients suffering from adult periodontitis were included in the study. At the beginning of the experiment, all participants were given a professional tooth cleaning. For the following 4 days, they had to refrain from any kind of oral hygiene measures. At day 5, from each of the volunteers, a voluminous plaque biofilm sample was taken with a sterile curette from the vestibular surfaces of the Ist lower molars and divided into 5 equal parts. Each part was mounted with 5 pl of the following solutions: (1) NaCl, (2) enamel matrix derivative dissolved in water (EMD), (3) enamel matrix derivative dissolved in the vehicle (Emdogain((R))), (4) vehicle (propylene glycol alginate, PGA), (5) 0.2% chlorhexidine digluconate (CHX). After a reaction time of 2 min the test solutions were sucked off, and subsequently the biofilm was stained with a fluorescence dye. The vitality of the plaque flora after the treatments was evaluated under the fluorescence microscope (VF%). Results: Plaque samples treated with NaCl showed a mean vitality of 76.8 +/-8%. The EMD, Emdogain((R)), PGA and CHX showed VF values of 54.4 +/-9.2, 21.4 +/- 10.6%, 19.6 +/- 11.6% and 32.3 +/- 11.8%, respectively. Emdogain((R)), PGA and CHX showed statistically highly significant reductions (p <0.0001) in terms of bacteria vitality when compared to water (negative control) and EMD. Both Emdogain((R)) and PGA were found to be statistically significantly different compared to CHX (p <0.001) (positive control). Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that Emdogain((R)) might have an antibacterial effect on the vitality of the ex. vivo supragingival dental plaque flora.