Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
HIV and sexual behaviour among young South Africans: a national survey of 15-24 year olds.

South Africa is in the grips of a devastating HIV/AIDS epidemic in which the peak incidence occurs among 15-24 year olds. loveLife is the largest youth focused intervention aimed at HIV prevention in South Africa. It is a national initiative of unprecedented scale combining a sustained multi-media awareness and education campaign with comprehensive youth-friendly sexual health services in public clinics nationwide and countrywide outreach and support programmes. This joint initiative between government non-government organisations (NGOs) and academic institutions aims to reduce HIV other sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancy among South African youth. It is difficult to attribute the impact of loveLife as distinct from the effects of other national HIV prevention campaigns. For this reason there are two main objectives of this National Evaluation. The first objective is to identify trends in HIV infection and related determinants of infection among young people. The second objective is to try and gauge the relative impact of loveLife on HIV and related risk behaviours. This National Youth Survey is the first of three such studies to be conducted at approximately two year intervals over the expected duration of the loveLife initiative to track changes in HIV prevalence and sexual behaviour among South African youth. The aims of this initial study are to: 15- 24 years establish the prevalence of HIV and related behaviours among young people aged; assess young peoples sexual attitudes; examine the extent of young peoples exposure to loveLife; undertake this data collection with sufficient accuracy to permit monitoring of trends over time. (excerpt)
Dendrometric Analysis of Early Development of Eucalyptus urophylla x Eucalyptus grandis with Gypsum use Under Subtropical Conditions

Gypsum can be used as a source for calcium (Ca) and sulphurum (S) for plants, as well as an acid, that is, a natural soil conditioner. Aiming to determine the influence of gypsum on the development of Eucalyptus urograndis in Brazil, an experiment was conducted at two locations in Paraná State. Experiments were conducted with rates of 0, 0.3, 0.6, 1.2, 2.4, 4.8 and 9.6 Mg ha-1 to verify the method of broadcast planting in a randomized block design with four repetitions. Diameter and height of plants were measured every six months and volume was determined after 36 months. There was a difference in Eucalyptus growth between the two areas, possibly related to differences in planting season and climate. Gypsum did not influence on the dendrometric growth of Eucalyptus trees. The lack of a response to gypsum, as a source of Ca, S and soil conditioner, was discussed based on soil type, Eucalyptus tolerance to soil acidity, and climatic conditions in the period evaluated.
The Quality of Rainwater Collected from Roofs and the Possibility of Its Economic Use

The large temporal and spatial variability of rainwater quality, as well as the relatively small number of tests, makes the preliminary assessment of its economic exploitation difficult. Determining the relationship between the conditions and location of rainwater collection and rainwater quality would help indicate the range of options for rainwater use, as well as the parameters that require improvement. The aim of the presented article is to establish the physical, chemical, and microbiological parameters of different rainwater sources and, from the results obtained, determine the possibilities for its safe use in households. The research was carried out for two years. Samples of rainfall were collected from spring to fall from the following roofing materials: Concrete roof tiles, ceramic roof tiles, galvanized steel sheet, and epoxy-coated terrace. The physical, chemical, and microbiological quality were assessed on the basis of the pH, turbidity, electrical conductivity, the concentration of biogenic compounds, the concentration of chosen elements, the number of Escherichia coli, and the number of fecal streptococci. Significant bacterial contamination, decreased pH, and increased turbidity were identified in the water, depending on the parameters of the roofing washed by the rainfall and the intensity and frequency of precipitation.
Full-Endoscopic Interlaminar Versus Microsurgical Operations in Lumbar Compressive Lesions Surgery: Prospective Randomized Trial of Overall 570 Patients

Introduction: Full-endoscopic operations of lumbar spine are truly minimally invasive surgical procedures and they have become the standard because of their intraoperative and postoperative advantages.Aim: To compare clinical outcomes of full-endoscopic interlaminar technique to conventional microdiscectomy performed during 3 year period.Materials and Methods: A series of 350 patients underwent full-endoscopic interlaminar lumbar discectomy, comparing 220 patients with microdiscectomy and spinal canal decompression, during a 3-year period, is analysed. Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), visual analogue scores (VAS) of back and leg pain were measured preoperatively and at 1, 6, 12, 24 months.Results: All outcome measures improved significantly in both groups (p<0.001). In the full-endoscopic group 88% of the patients no longer had leg pain, and 7% had only occasional pain, postoperatively. In the microdiscectomy (MI) group 78.1% had significant improvement, 13.6% had improvement with occasional pain, and 8% had no improvement. The recurrence rate was 8%. Resection of the herniated disc and sufficient decompression was technically possible in all cases. The overall complication rate (16.4%), and recurrence-reoperation rate (11.8%) was significantly higher in the MI group.Conclusion: The clinical results of the full-endoscopic technique are at least equal to those of the conventional microsurgical discectomy with advantages such as reduced traumatization, improved patient mobility, and lower complication and recurrence rate. With the possibility of selecting the most adequate approach, lumbar disc herniations inside and outside the spinal canal, can be sufficiently removed using the full-endoscopic technique, when taking the appropriate indication criteria into account.
COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF THE EXTRACTION ABILITY OF SOME VEGETABLES FOR METALS IN CONTAMINATED SOILS OBTAINED FROM THE CHALLAWA INDUSTRIAL ESTATE, KANO, NIGERIA.

Pot experiments were conducted to examine phytoremediation abilities of leaves of cucumber ( cucumis sativus ) and lettuce (lactuca sativa ) for removal of some heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Zn, and Fe) in the industrially contaminated soils of Challawain Kano, Nigeria. The analysis was conducted using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. An experiment per species was designed with twenty replicas (ten each with polluted and control soils obtained from Modoji village in Katsina town). The mean concentrations of the metals range from 0.25 mg/kg Cd to 46.16 Fe and 0.011 mg/kg Cd to 13.61 mg/kg Fe for plants grown in the contaminated and control soils respectively. The bioaccumulation factors (BAC>1) indicates metal contamination of the soils and thus can be used for their phytoextraction. The result suggests that the investigated plants are potentially useful for remediating heavy metals from Challawa contanimated soils
Marketing Communication and Its Impact on Purchase Willingness and Unwillingness: A Case of a Boycotted Bread Brand

The Muslim consumers in Indonesia who involved in several political street protests, boycotted a bread brand as the producer of this bread refused to be associated with their activities. This study aims to examine the impact of animosity on boycott participation, boycott motivation, attitude towards marketing communication, and purchase willingness and unwillingness of this boycotted bread brand. The author chose participants of this current study conveniently, and in total, 266 participants took part consisting of 167 females and 99 males. The data were analysed using exploratory and structural equation model. This study tested eight hypotheses, and all of them were significant. As a result, animosity had a significant effect on boycott motivation, boycott participation intention, and attitude towards marketing communication. Further, attitude towards marketing communication and boycott participation intention had a significant impact on purchase unwillingness and purchase willingness. This study discusses recommendations for practitioners and future research. Keywords—animosity; marketing communication; purchase
Development and characterization of two new tools for plant genetic engineering: a crispr/cas12a-based mutagenesis system and a phic31-based gene switch

Plant breeding aims to provide plants with improved traits or novel features that could help to overcome sustainability goals. To this end, plant biotechnology needs to incorporate new genetic engineering tools that combine increased precision with higher breeding power. The recently discovered genome editing tools based on CRISPR/Cas9 technology have opened the way to modify plant? s genomes with unprecedented precision. On the other hand, new synthetic biology approaches based on modularity and standardization of genetic elements have enabled the construction of increasingly complex and refined genetic devices applied to plant breeding. With the ultimate goal of expanding the toolbox of plant breeding techniques, this thesis describes the development and adaptation to plant systems of two new breeding tools: a site-specific nuclease (SSNs), and a modular gene switch for the regulation of transgene expression. In a first part, this thesis describes the adoption of the SSN CRISPR/Cas12a for plant expression and compares the efficiency of Acidaminococcus (As) and Lachnospiraceae (Lb) Cas12a variants with the previously described Streptococcus pyogens Cas9 (SpCas9) in eight Nicotiana benthamiana loci using transient expression experiments. LbCas12a showed highest average mutagenesis activity in the loci assayed. This activity was also confirmed in stable genome editing experiments performed in three different model plants, namely N. benthamiana, Solanum lycopersicum and Arabidopsis thaliana. For the latter, off-target effects in Cas12a-free segregating lines were discarded at genomic level by deep sequencing. Collectively, the results show that LbCas12a is a viable alternative to SpCas9 for plant genome engineering. In a second part, this work describes the engineering of a new reversible genetic switch aimed at controlling gene expression in plants with higher precision than traditional inducible systems. This switch, based on the bacteriophage PhiC31 recombination system, was built as a modular device made of standard DNA parts and designed to control the transcriptional state (on or off) of two genes of interest by alternative inversion of a central DNA regulatory element. The state of the switch can be externally and reversibly operated by the action of the recombination actuators and its kinetics, memory, and reversibility were extensively characterized in N. benthamiana using both transient expression and stable transgenics. Altogether, this thesis shows the design and functional characterization of refined tools for genome engineering and synthetic biology in plants that now has been expanded with the CRISPR/Cas12a gene editing system and the phage PhiC31-based toggle switch.
Clinical and pathological comparison of proximal and distal colorectal adenocarcinoma

AIM: Colorectal cancer is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Recent studies suggest that proximal and distal colorectal cancers may represent different forms of the disease. The purpose of this study was to evaluate demographic, clinical and pathologic characteristics of colorectal cancer regarding the distribution within the colon and rectum. METHODS: One hundred fifty-five consecutive patients with primary colorectal carcinoma were analyzed. Proximal (up to the splenic flexure) and distal (splenic flexure to the rectum) colorectal cancers were compared regarding age, gender, stage, differentiation, mucinous content and the presence of distant metastases and peritoneal carcinosis. RESULTS: No significant difference in age and gender was observed between proximal and distal tumors. Proximal tumors were not significantly more advanced at the time of diagnosis compared to distal tumors according to tumor size, Dukes and Astler-Coller classification. However, proximal tumors had significantly higher frequency of pT4 stage, liver metastases, peritoneal carcinosis and poor differentiation. Mucinous carcinomas were found more often in the proximal colon, but not significantly. CONCLUSION: These results support the hypothesis that proximal and distal colorectal cancers may have different biological behavior. Further large studies should be performed to evaluate the clinical significance of differences found in this study, and possible impact on screening, diagnosis, therapy and survival.
Comparative Effectiveness of Chemical, Biological or Combination of Both Mosquito Larvicides for Dengue Control in George Town, Penang, Malaysia – A Field Trial

AR designed the study. WLC performed the statistical analysis, the and the first the WLC and SAA managed the analyses of the study as well as the literature searches. All the ABSTRACT Background: Tackling the increasing trend of the dengue menace remains one of the most challenging tasks in public health medicine. Extensive literature search revealed no previous community intervention trial done in Penang and Malaysia to compare effectiveness of the use of various mosquito larvicides based on container indices as the definitive measurable outcomes. The study aim was to identify the most effective mosquito larvicidal measure for dengue control in dengue-sensitive areas in George Town, Penang. Methods: A field trial was conducted in three localities randomly selected from a list of 33 dengue-sensitive areas. Area A was treated with both chemical and biological larvicide, Area B was treated with biological larvicide and Area C was treated with chemical larvicide as a standard preventive measure. Container indices (CI) were obtained weekly for eight consecutive weeks and data was analyzed using Repeated Measures ANOVA test in SPSS version 21. Results: Comparative effectiveness of larvicidal measures between the three areas remained inconclusive as the p-value could not be computed between the three areas due to termination of iteration on ‘between-areas’ factor, although descriptively, better vector control was achieved through monotherapy with biological larvicide alone. Area A’s CI showed a drastic drop from 1.79 to 1.05 for the first two weeks, zero for weeks 3-5, 1.67 at week 6 and reducing to zero for the last two weeks. Area B’s CI showed an initial increase from 1.05 to 1.43 for the first two weeks and subsequently reduced to zero and remained zero until week 8. Area C’s CI showed zero reading for the first two weeks and by week 3, it went up to 1.00 before it reduced to and remained zero until week 8. Conclusion: Monotherapy with biological larvicide alone seemed to offer better vector control, although statistical evidence of its superiority remained inconclusive. In view of this, integrated vector management should be enhanced by harnessing community participation to curtail dengue infections, irrespective of the choice of larvicide used for vector control.
Dermatoglyphics in infants with isolated, non-familial cleft lip palate- a case control study from Southern India

Background: The role of genetic factors may be established by study of dermatoglyphics, therefore, any genetic abnormality during the formation of cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) in the early trimester maybe reflected by altered dermatoglyphics. Aim: This study aims to assess altered dermatoglyphics in children with isolated, non-familial CL/P to understand the role of genetic factors in clefting. Methods: Case control study in a cranio-facial centre comprising of 40 infants (6-9 months) with CL/P and age and gender matched controls. Finger printing was done using black duplicating ink. A p-value of 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Majority (57.5%) had left sided clefting. Ulnar loops were the predominant digital pattern in the study group but there was no statistical difference with the controls, when all the finger patterns were considered together. There was significant difference in digital patterns in between the left thumb (p=0.033), ring (p=0.048) and little fingers (p=0.029) in the two groups. Comparison between the right and left hands within the study group showed significant difference in digital patterns in the thumb (p=0.047) and little finger (p<0.001). The study group also had a wider atd angle with significance (right hand p=0.038, left p=0.003) and a lower a-b ridge count with significance (right hand p= 0.045, left p=0.012). Conclusions: There was a definite dermatoglyphic difference specifically in the left hand, which was also the major side of clefting, within subjects as well as between subjects and controls.
Tax Buoyancy and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence of Bulgaria

The study analyzes the long-run and short-run tax buoyancies of Bulgaria and their relationship with Bulgaria’s economic growth. The buoyancy measures the response of tax revenue to changes in economic growth. The buoyancy indicates whether collectability of the tax on income, profit, and consumption increases. The object of this study is the collectability of aggregate tax revenues and of the revenues from different types of taxes – value added tax, personal income tax, corporate tax and social security contributions in Bulgaria. The subject of the study is the relationship of different tax revenues with economic growth. The research methods employed are the fully modified least squares (FMOLS) and autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL). The research covers the period from the first quarter of 1999 to the second quarter of 2017 and uses the Eurostat data (78 observations). The study aims to show which type of revenues (from direct or from indirect taxes) is more important for Bulgaria’s state budget. It is shown that the buoyancies of aggregate tax revenue, personal income tax and social security contributions significantly differ from one another in the long-run. The buoyancies of the value-added tax and the corporate tax are above one in the long run. In the short-run the buoyancy of the aggregate tax revenues, the corporate tax, the income tax and the social security contributions are different from one. The short-run buoyancy of VAT exceeds one, hence dynamics of VAT revenues is sustainable. The collectability of the aggregate tax revenue, personal income tax and social security contributions has increased neither in the long run nor in the short run. It is therefore recommended that inefficient taxes, whose collectability does not increase, be reformed. For citation Tanchev S. , Todorov I. Tax Buoyancy and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence of Bulgaria. Journal of Tax Reform . 2019;5(3):236–248. DOI: 10.15826/jtr.2019. 5.3. 070 Article info Received October 18, 2019 ; Revised November 20, 2019 ; Accepted December 3, 2019
CURRENT STATUS OF CLINICAL TRIALS IN ETHIOPIA:HOW MUCH IS DONE?

Introduction: Clinical trials are a cornerstone of modern evidence based medicine. They are an important step in discovering new treatments for certain diseases as well as new ways to detect, diagnose, and reduce the risk of disease. They also highly support the clinical practice by generating local evidence. The aim of this study is to evaluate the status and trend of clinical trials in Ethiopia from international trial registries. Material and Methods: We have searched WHO International Clinical Trial Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP) for all trials with at least one recruitment center in Ethiopia. The results were exported in XML format and a rational database was formed. Results: Up to November 15,2016; 145 clinical trials were found to be registered from Ethiopia. Majority of trials were design on infectious disease (n = 87, 60%) and the rest were done on NCD. The five most common infectious disease evaluated were Malaria (n=15; 10%), Tuberculosis (n=13; 9%), trachoma (n=12; 8%), HIV (n=11; 8%) and helminthiasis (n=6; 4%). The most common NCD was malnutrition (n = 19; 13%) and only one trial was on cancer, namely Wilms Tumor (1%). London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine was the sponsor with the highest number of registered trials (n=8, 6% of all trials), followed by Columbia, Jimma and Ghent University with 5 (3%) trials each. Conclusions: The clinical trials done in Ethiopia are very much limited in number and variety. To improve the situation the government, industry, academic institutions, patient advocacy groups, professional societies and other organizations should work together.
Comparison of two surfactant preparates derived from the same animal for the treatment of respiratory distress syndrome

Aim: Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) is a lung failure that starts after birth. Because of deficiency of surfactants in alveoli, this becomes one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in preterm neonates. In this study, we tried to compare the outcomes of two types of natural surfactant, derived from same animal and aimed to manage the anxiety of clinicians while they are choosing the most appropriate preparate for RDS treatment. Material and Methods: Newborns hospitalized in Baskent University Ankara Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit between January 2017 and August 2018 and administrated with calfactant and beractant for RDS treatment were retrospectively examined. Results: A total of 57 neonates were enrolled into the study. It was indicated that 38 (66.7%) of neonates were administered beractant and 19 (33.3%) were administered calfactant. We did not find any significant difference between beractant and calfactant groups, according to their genders, gestational weeks, their intubation situations, the duration of the oxygen requirement, antibiotic usages and the durations of mechanical ventilation. It was determined that calfactant-administered neonates needed statistically more repeat dose, than those in the beractant group (p= 0.029). Conclusions: We examined two natural surfactant preparates derived from same animal. Calfactant which has some conflicting reports was newly introduced to our unit for RDS treatment. This study aimed to identify the most appropriate treatment modality for RDS. It would be more instructive to plan larger and more creative studies to examine possible differences among natural surfactant preparates.