Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Serum digoxin concentrations in dogs with atrial fibrillation under long term digoxin treatment

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia in dogs, most frequently diagnosed as chronic AF associated with a structural heart disease. The therapeutic strategy, in these cases, is based on the heart rate control and digoxin is one of the most used drugs. Aim: The aim of this work was to study the serum digoxin concentration changes in dogs with AF under long-term treatment with digoxin. Furthermore, the remission of clinical signs and the correlation between digoxinemia and other clinical and laboratory variables were retrospectively evaluated. Methods: The prospective study was conducted on seven large breed dogs from the time of reaching the definitive digoxin dosage. Digoxinemia was determined at month: 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, then twice a year. A post hoc statistical analysis investigated the influence of selected clinical and laboratory variables on the risk to develop spikes in digoxinemia. Clinical data, heart rate, digoxin dosage (mg/m2), and digoxinemia (ng/ml) at all available follow-ups were retrospectively evaluated from the medical records of 17 further dogs and a linear regression analysis was performed on the whole data set. The relation between the time of remission of AF clinical signs and variables was also investigated. Results: An unexpected increase in digoxin serum concentration was recorded in three dogs after one year monitoring, in absence of digoxin dosage changes. No statistical significance of all the studied variables on the risk to develop spikes of digoxinemia was registered. Two dogs, reaching digoxinemia 4.46 and 5.24 ng/ml, showed symptoms that reversed after digoxin withdrawal. From retrospective data, 88% of dogs reached complete reverse of AF clinical signs in 2.1 months from digoxin treatment starting, regardless of digoxin initial dosage, digoxinemia, and heart rate. Conclusion: Digoxin in monotherapy remain a good option to treat AF in dogs, anyway digoxin toxicity could emerge during long-term therapy, similarly to what happen in human medicine. Life-threatening spikes of digoxinemia could occur, especially after 1-year treatment with digoxin. It is very important that practitioners be aware of this possibility and encourage the owners to monitor digoxinemia during long-term treatment to avoid dangerous and toxic effects.
Longer Lag Time in Early-Stage Retinoblastoma

Highlights: Patients with IRSS I stage have the longest lag time than IVB stage. Lag time is no significant with stage retinoblastoma. Abstract: Retinoblastoma is a rare neoplasm disease that occurs in children, generally under the age of two. Retinoblastoma is more prevalent in developing countries and is often associated with a late diagnosis. Such delays can lead to a poor prognosis. The time from the appearance of symptoms of retinoblastoma (onset) to the time of diagnosis is called lag time. Early diagnosis of retinoblastoma by paying attention to factors such as age, clinical symptoms, and laterality can help improve retinoblastoma survival rates, especially in developing countries. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between the lag time to the stage of retinoblastoma patients at Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital, Surabaya, Indonesia. This study was a retrospective analytical observational study using secondary data from retinoblastoma patients at the Ophthalmology Outpatient Unit at Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital, Surabaya, from January 2014 to December 2018. The data were analyzed using Kendall's tau-C test. No significant correlation was found between lag time and stage (p = 0.339). Patients with International Retinoblastoma Staging System (IRSS) I stage had the longest lag time (on average 28 months), and patients with stage IVB had the shortest lag time (on average four months). There was no correlation between lag time and retinoblastoma stage. However, there was a trend of patients with early stages delaying hospital visits, while patients with advanced stages in earlier to the hospital.
Partitioning of beta‐diversity reveals distinct assembly mechanisms of plant and soil microbial communities in response to nitrogen enrichment

Abstract Nitrogen (N) deposition poses a serious threat to terrestrial biodiversity and alters plant and soil microbial community composition. Species turnover and nestedness reflect the underlying mechanisms of variations in community composition. However, it remains unclear how species turnover and nestedness contribute to different responses of taxonomic groups (plants and soil microbes) to N enrichment. Here, based on a 13‐year consecutive multi‐level N addition experiment in a semiarid steppe, we partitioned community β‐diversity into species turnover and nestedness components and explored how and why plant and microbial communities reorganize via these two processes following N enrichment. We found that plant, soil bacterial, and fungal β‐diversity increased, but their two components showed different patterns with increasing N input. Plant β‐diversity was mainly driven by species turnover under lower N input but by nestedness under higher N input, which may be due to a reduction in forb species, with low tolerance to soil Mn2+, with increasing N input. However, turnover was the main contributor to differences in soil bacterial and fungal communities with increasing N input, indicating the phenomenon of microbial taxa replacement. The turnover of bacteria increased greatly whereas that of fungi remained within a narrow range with increasing N input. We further found that the increased soil Mn2+ concentration was the best predictor for increasing nestedness of plant communities under higher N input, whereas increasing N availability and acidification together contributed to the turnover of bacterial communities. However, environmental factors could explain neither fungal turnover nor nestedness. Our findings reflect two different pathways of community changes in plants, soil bacteria, and fungi, as well as their distinct community assembly in response to N enrichment. Disentangling the turnover and nestedness of plant and microbial β‐diversity would have important implications for understanding plant–soil microbe interactions and seeking conservation strategies for maintaining regional diversity.
A Transcriptomic Response to Lactiplantibacillus plantarum-KCC48 against High-Fat Diet-Induced Fatty Liver Diseases in Mice

The most prevalent chronic liver disorder in the world is fatty liver disease caused by a high-fat diet. We examined the effects of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum-KCC48 on high-fat diet-induced (HFD) fatty liver disease in mice. We used the transcriptome tool to perform a systematic evaluation of hepatic mRNA transcripts changes in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed animals and high-fat diet with L. plantarum (HFLPD)-fed animals. HFD causes fatty liver diseases in animals, as evidenced by an increase in TG content in liver tissues compared to control animals. Based on transcriptome data, 145 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in the liver of HFD-fed mice compared to control mice. Moreover, 61 genes were differentially expressed in the liver of mice fed the HFLPD compared to mice fed the HFD. Additionally, 43 common DEGs were identified between HFD and HFLPD. These genes were enriched in metabolic processes, retinol metabolism, the PPAR signaling pathway, fatty acid degradation, arachidonic metabolism, and steroid hormone synthesis. Taking these data into consideration, it can be concluded that L. plantarum-KCC48 treatment significantly regulates the expression of genes involved in hepatosteatosis caused by HFD, which may prevent fatty liver disease.
Studying the Changes in the Hydro‐Meteorological Components of Water Budget in Lake Urmia

Abrupt changes in the Lake Urmia water level have been addressed in many studies, and yet the link between the water level decline and hydro‐meteorological variables in the basin is a major topic for debate between researchers. In this study, a set of data‐driven techniques is used to investigate the components of the water budget in Lake Urmia. Then, the rate of monthly depth differences (DD), precipitation (P), evaporation (E), potential groundwater head (G), and streamflow (Q) time series between 1974 and 2014 are used in the analysis. Several scenarios and strategies are developed by considering the major changes in the year‐2000, which is believed to be the initiation of the hydrological encroachment in the basin. Simple water budget (WB), dynamic regression (DR), and symbolic regression (SR) techniques are used to simulate the DD with consideration to P, E, G, and Q. Alternatively, the effect of the year 1997 as the potential base‐line for the initiation of significant meteorological trends in the basin is investigated. Conducted analysis showed that the DR models of an autoregressive moving average together with multiple exogenous inputs provide an approximate R2: 0.7 as the best alternative among the selected models. It is shown that the Q and G depict abrupt changes compared to the P and E, while either the year 1997 (climate effect) or the year 2000 (encroachment effect) is considered as the baseline in the study.
Effect of Tillage and Residue-Returning Mode on Soil Carbon Mineralizability and Accumulation in a Wheat–Maize System

Conservation tillage has been widely adopted to improve soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation. To assess the effects of different tillage and residue-returning modes on SOC mineralizability and accumulation, a field experiment was conducted in 2015, including two tillage modes, i.e., no-tillage (NT) and rotary-tillage (RT), as well as three straw-returning modes, i.e., no straw returning (N0), wheat straw returning (WR), and wheat–maize straw retuning (WM). Wheat–maize root, maize straw, and wheat straw were added to soil samples during laboratory incubation. The results showed that NT significantly increased SOC concentration by 26.75% at a depth of 0–10 cm (p < 0.01). Although NT significantly decreased SOC mineralizability at soil depths of 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm (p < 0.05), the residue did not significantly affect SOC mineralizability in the 0–20 cm layer. The potentially mineralized C (Cp) and organic labile C fraction (C1) increased with the increase of residue amount. A significant correlation (R2 = 0.662) was observed between C1 and SOC concentration. Notably, SOC concentration and mineralizability without straw returning were insignificant between N0 and WR in the 0–10 cm and 0–20 cm layers, respectively. This suggests that NT with WR is a promising strategy to increase SOC concentration and decrease mineralizability.
Infrared dispersion in SrTi O 3 at high temperature

Infrared reflection spectra of strontium titanate are reported as obtained with a scanning interferometer from room temperature up to 1200 K. A fit of the factorized form of the dielectric function to reflectivity data yields the temperature dependence of TO and LO frequencies, dampings, and TO oscillator strengths. The soft TO mode is found to be coupled with the next TO mode. A significant deviation of the soft-mode behavior from the Curie law is evidenced above 400 K. The temperature dependence of the soft-mode damping is discussed.
Implications for RDD design from an incentive experiment

This article describes a large-scale experiment in the use of monetary incentives in a random digit dial (RDD) telephone survey. The experiment tested providing incentives of different amounts of money and at different stages of the survey. The results show that sending incentives at the refusal conversion stage is about as effective as using them in the initial attempt. Alternative sample designs that incorporate the results of the experiment are evaluated to identify designs that achieve high response rates and are economical. As a result of this evaluation, the design for a future study will use monetary incentives and subsample households that refuse to participate at the refusal conversion stage.
Community-based survey on the myths and use of contraceptive methods among married adults in Calabar South, Nigeria

Background: Despite the enormous benefits associated with contraceptive use, only a few sexually active married adults in developing countries like Nigeria use contraceptive methods, this situation is even worst in rural areas across Nigeria. This study examines the influence of myths on the use of contraceptive methods in Calabar South Local Government Area, Cross River State, Nigeria. Methods: Using the mixed approach, data were obtained from 600 respondents, using a multi-stage sampling technique which in this study entails the selection of community clusters, streets, villages, housing units and respondents through simple random and purposive sampling techniques. In the analysis and interpretation of study findings, descriptive statistics were employed, and qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. Results: The study shows that fear of pregnancy-related complications and fear of infertility are significant determinants of contraceptive use in Calabar South LGA, Cross River State, Nigeria. Conclusion: The study, therefore, concludes that myths associated with contraceptive use are real and a strong factor that discourages most married adults from the use of contraceptive methods.
Reimbursed Medication Adherence Enhancing Interventions in European Countries: Results of the EUREcA Study

Introduction: Current literature lacks detailed understanding of the reimbursement framework of medication adherence enhancing interventions (MAEIs). As part of the ENABLE COST Action, the EUREcA (“EUropen REimbursement strategies for interventions targeting medication Adherence”) study aimed to provide an in-depth overview of reimbursed MAEIs currently available in European countries at national and regional levels and to pave the way for further MAEIs to be implemented in the future. Methods: A web-based, cross-sectional survey was performed across 38 European countries and Israel. The survey questionnaire was developed as a result of an iterative process of discussion informed by a desk review. The survey was performed among invited ENABLE collaborators from June to July 2021. Besides descriptive analysis, association between country income and health care expenditure, and the availability of reimbursed MAEIs were also assessed. Results: The survey identified 13 reimbursed MAEIs in nine countries: multi-dose drug dispensing (n = 5), medication review (n = 4), smart device (n = 2), mobile application (n = 1), and patient education (n = 1). The median GDP per capita of countries having ≥1 reimbursed MAEI was significantly higher compared to countries having no reimbursed adherence intervention (33,888 EUR vs 16,620 EUR, respectively; p = 0.05). Conclusions: Our findings highlight that to date only a small number of MAEIs have been reimbursed in European countries. Comprehensive health technology assessment recommendations and multi-stakeholder collaboration could help removing barriers related to the implementation and reimbursement of MAEIs.
Assessing the Validity of Survey Measures for News Exposure through Digital Footprints: Evidence from Spain and the UK

ABSTRACT This paper assesses the performance of three commonly used types of questions – open-ended, check-all and forced choice – for capturing retrospective online news exposure, combining both survey and web-tracking data. It examines the performance of these different survey questions considering both systematic and random error in two unexplored non-US contexts: Spain and the UK. Results show that the check-all question produces on average the most accurate – i.e. less biased – estimates of observed exposure. Some motivational and cognitive factors underlying bias in self-reports are explored. Findings reveal that the characteristics of outlets are associated with systematic error. Finally, we find that media systems matter for accuracy – where media fragmentation is high (Spain), accuracy is low across all questions; where it is low (UK), accuracy is high across all questions. In the final section, we highlight the methodological and theoretical contributions of our study and provide some recommendations.
Speaker Recognition on Mono-Channel Telephony Recordings

Conversations stored as mono data is a common problem in many real world speaker recognition applications. In this paper, we focus on investigative scenarios, where a number of mono telephone conversations are available for a speaker of interest. For example, a human operator may have verified that the speaker is present in these conversations. We propose several approaches for automatically creating enrollment models for the speaker of interest from such data. We then use the enrollment models to search for appearances of the speaker of interest in other calls. We analyze the performance of the different method on two dataset that matches our scenario, one is from a simulated case and one is from a real case.
Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Toward Service Robots in the Hospitality Industry: Gender Differences

The current study applies implicit theory as a theoretical lens to explore gender differences in explicit and implicit measures of robot attitudes, which in turn facilitates behavioral intention. In total, 108 participants assessed the modified Robot Implicit Association Test (RIAT) to complete both implicit measures of attitudes and explicit self-reported measures in randomized order. Our findings demonstrated that (a) implicit attitudes (RIAT D-scores) were significantly correlated with self-reported measures (explicit attitude, perceived technology innovativeness, and behavioral intention), (b) different patterns of explicit and implicit attitudes exist, and (c) males may have a more favorable preference toward service robots than females. These results help build theoretical and methodological foundations for service management innovation into the role of implicit attitude in hospitality firms.
Efficacy of vegetable oil extracts for control of insect pests of tomato in Southern Benin

Pests are a menace to production of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) in sub-Sahara Africa. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of oil extracts of selected common plants for control of pests of tomato in Benin. The study was carried out on the Togba market garden sites in Benin. The botanical pesticides (Tephrosia purpurea, Ricinus communis, Thevetia neriifolia and Cashew Nut Shell Cold Liquid (CNSL cold) were compared with a biological insecticide (Topbio), a synthetic insecticide (Lambda cyhalothrin) and an untreated negative control. The fish model and the generalised linear mixed or fixed effects model were used to explain the number of caterpillars per plot as a function of the products tested during the different plant phases. Tephrosia purpurea oil, cold CNSL, Topbio and lambda cyhalothrin treatments significantly reduced H. armigera, S. littoralis and T. absoluta populations. The average yields of marketable tomato ranged from 7.20 ± 0.89 t ha-1 for the controls and 21.14 ± 3.56 and 20.46±1.98 t ha-1 for the plots treated with Tephrosia purpurea and CNSL cold on tomato, respectively. Plots treated with the synthetic insecticide lambda cyhalothrin gave the best yields (31.15±3.20 t ha-1). Of all the extracts tested, cold extracted CNSL and T. purpurea oil showed very high larvicidal activity at doses of 10%, compared to R. communis and T. neriifolia oil on the farm. The larvicidal activity of the extracts observed at low doses on H. armigera and S. littoralis larvae seems to offer an alternative advantage for the control of tomato pests.
The Fall and Rise of Identified Reference Collection: It Is Possible and Necessary to Transition from a Typological Conceptualization of Variation to Effective Utilization of Collections

In some jurisdictions, race, ancestry or population affinity are part of the biological profile used in preliminary identification, for historical and political reasons. It is long overdue for forensic anthropologists to abandon this typological approach to human variation, regardless of the terms used. Using a sample (n = 105) selected from the Terry and Coimbra identified reference collections, a blind experimental approach is used to test several metric methods and versions of methods for group estimation (Fordisc 3.0 and 3.1, and AncesTrees), that rely on different statistical approaches (discriminant function analysis and random forest algorithms, respectively) derived from different reference samples (Howells’ data in AncesTrees and Fordisc 3.1, and different forensic subsamples in Fordisc 3.0 and 3.1). The accuracy for matching premortem documented group designation is consistently low (36 to 50%) across testing parameters and consistent with other independent tests. The results clearly show that a change in terminology, software updates, alternative statistics, expanded reference samples, and newer collections will not solve the underlying fundamental problems. It is possible and necessary to transition from a typological conceptualization of variation to the effective utilization of identified reference collections in Forensic Anthropology. In addition to the theoretical and methodological reasons, it is unethical for forensic anthropologists to continue to use on the deceased methods that do not work and that serve only to further exclude and marginalize the living.
Aerosols exposure and respiratory morbidity among dental health care Professionals of Lucknow

Introduction: Dentists use high-energy equipment, such as drills and scalers in the presence of bodily fluids such as blood and saliva, and dental plaque. This combined effect generates aerosols of oral micro-organisms, and blood. Objective: To determine the prevalence of respiratory morbidities and practices for protection against aerosols exposure at work place among dental health care professionals in District Lucknow. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved private dental practitioners registered with Indian Dental Association chosen by Simple Random Sampling. Dentists who gave consent and who were practicing for at least 1 year were included. Aerosol exposure and respiratory morbidity was assessed using a self-administered questionnaire. SPSS software version 16.0 was used for data analysis. Results: Total number of study participants were 0. Mean age in years of study subjects were 33.5 ±11.6. Their average years of involvement in clinical practice were 10.0 ±12.75. Majority of dental practitioners used hand scalers (70%) and power scalers (80%) on patients. A higher proportion changed their masks by the day (60%). Majority used protective eye goggles (70%). Only 30% used high efficiency particulate room filters while 20% used humidifiers and air purification systems. One fifth of respondents usually had cough. Conclusion: Respiratory morbidity is associated with workplace generated aerosol among dental health professionals. Awareness regarding occupational exposure and implementation of preventive strategies is required to provide a safe working environment.