Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Demographic, psychosocial, and medical correlates ofpsychological morbidity after intensive care unit stay

BACKGROUND Psychological morbidity [post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, depressive, and anxiety symptoms] and a decline in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) are common after treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU). The aims of this article are: (a) to report psychological morbidity and HRQoL status three months after the ICU stay; (b) to report psychological morbidity correlates [demographic factors, social constraint (SC) regarding the ICU experience, negative ICU-related memories (NIM), and medical factors]; (c) to examine the hypothesis that SC would be a predictor of psychological morbidity after the ICU stay. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE Seventy-two Greek patients filled in the following questionnaires: the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the EuroQoL-5D-5L, and five questions regarding SC. RESULTS In total, 47% of participants had symptoms of psychological morbidity at a moderate to high level and 94% reported that they had at least a problem regarding HRQoL. Predictors of PTSD symptoms were NIM, SC, female gender, and haloperidol dose. Predictors of anxiety symptoms were SC, the reporting of another stressor after the ICU stay, and low income. Predictors of depressive symptoms were SC, remifentanil dose (negative), and the reporting of another stressor. CONCLUSIONS Participants experienced elevated levels of psychological symptoms and SC emerged as a consistent predictor of psychological morbidity three months after the ICU stay.
Case Studies: Using Moodle for Collaborative Learning with University and Senior Secondary Students

The recently developed Australian Curriculum recognises the global changes that impact on the learning programs for all education institutions. We are now a globalised society, where the challenge of an economic crisis in one part of the world has widespread implications. Civil wars and famines lead to humanitarian crises and refugee migration that have an international impact. The Centre for Integrated Human Studies at the University of Western Australia recognises that the 21st Century provides humankind with significant global challenges on a number of fronts – social, economic and ecological. Providing students with the knowledge and skills to connect with members of the global community will ensure our future citizens are well equipped to contribute to meeting these tests. Learning management systems such as Moodle are seen as key strategies to enable education which prepares students for a challenging future. Since 2009, The Centre for Integrated Human Studies has developed post-graduate programs using Moodle as their learning management system. During this period a unique senior secondary program in regional Western Australia that incorporates the use of high definition IP video conferencing also has been developed with Moodle. This combination of Moodle and regular video conferencing enables a high degree of class engagement and collaboration from students across up to five schools. The post- graduate program currently has 40 off-campus national and international enrolments and the secondary program about 80 students over seven courses. In reporting on these two case studies, this paper will describe how these programs have developed and the school-based research undertaken. The next phase of the development will be using Moodle to support collaboration between the university and secondary schools.
Watershed-Based Attribute Profiles With Semantic Prior Knowledge for Remote Sensing Image Analysis

In this article, we develop a novel feature extraction method that combines two well-established mathematical morphology concepts: watersheds and morphological attribute profiles (APs). In order to extract spatial-spectral features from remote sensing data, APs were originally defined as sequences of filtering operators on inclusion trees, i.e., the max- and min-trees, computed from the input image. In this study, we extend the AP paradigm to the more general framework of hierarchical watersheds. Moreover, we explore the semantic knowledge provided by labeled training pixels during different phases of the watershed-AP construction, namely within the construction of hierarchical watersheds from the raw image and later within the filtering of the resulting hierarchy. We illustrate the relevance of the proposed method with two applications including land cover classification and building extraction using optical remote sensing images. Experimental results show that the new profiles outperform various existing features using two public datasets (Zurich and Vaihingen), thus providing another high potential feature extraction method within the AP family.
Redescription of Tylosmaindroni Giordani Soika, 1954 (Crustacea, Isopoda, Oniscidea) based on SEM and molecular data

﻿Abstract The woodlouse species Tylosmaindroni Giordani Soika, 1954 (Crustacea, Isopoda, Oniscidea) is redescribed from the Persian Gulf based on light and scanning electron microscopy. This species differs from the closely related T.exiguus Stebbing, 1910, from the Red Sea (coasts of Sudan and Eritrea), and Socotra Island, by pereopod 1 superior margin without a prominent projection and pleopod 2 endopod 2.3 times as long as exopod, vs. 3.6 in T.exiguus. A distribution map for T.maindroni is provided. In addition, we studied the molecular differentiation of five populations of T.maindroni from the Persian Gulf, based on partial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene sequences. The results revealed low levels of population structuring between the analyzed populations.
Radiation protection: Are pediatrics health care providers up to date?

Objectives: To assess the knowledge and level of awareness of practitioners who provide pediatric care on radiation risks in pediatric computed tomography (CT) examinations. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from July 2020 to January 2021 at King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The sample comprised pediatric radiologists, pediatric surgeons, emergency pediatricians, general pediatricians, and radiographers. A three-part questionnaire consisting of 46 questions was used for data collection; correct responses were given a score of 1, and incorrect or incomplete answers were given 0. The maximum possible score was 40.Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA) was used for all analyses. Statistical significance was set at p <0.05. Results: A total of 34 participants completed the questionnaire, and the mean±standard deviation score was 17.5±8.97. More than half of pediatricians (63.2%) and radiographers (52%) estimated the radiation dose incorrectly. Conclusion: The pediatric CT practice in our hospital was suboptimal. Practitioners must be continuously educated and updated on radiation protection. Further studies from different regions of Saudi Arabia are needed to avoid this bias.
Advanced Stability Conditions for TS Fuzzy Systems via Minimum-Type Multiple Switching Lyapunov Function

This article deals with the stability analysis of TS fuzzy models using the novel minimum-type multiple switching Lyapunov function. A method is presented to investigate the stability of the model which consists of three separate steps; mesh the space of the model using the Delaunay method, considering a quadratic function for each vertex of the mesh, proposing a set of conditions based on the declared quadratic functions. The proposed conditions can be categorized into two sets; local and discontinuity conditions. The local conditions exploit the local stability in each simplex of the mesh which have minimum-type multiple forms. The discontinuity conditions force the global Lyapunov function to decrement in the switching points (boundary of the neighbor simplexes). To validate the result of the proposed approach, comparative simulation examples are given to illustrate the performance of the design methodology as compared to those of previous approaches.
The Risk of Clostridioides difficile Recurrence after Initial Treatment with Vancomycin or Fidaxomicin Utilizing Cerner Health Facts

(1) Background: Fidaxomicin has been shown to significantly reduce Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) recurrences rates in randomized, controlled trials. However, national data from the Veterans Affairs has called the real-world applicability of these findings into question. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients receiving fidaxomicin or vancomycin as initial therapy for an index case of CDI in the hospital to evaluate the relative rates CDI recurrence within 90 days of an index case. (2) Methods: We retrieved patients 18 years and older who were admitted between July 2011 through June 2018 and diagnosed and treated for CDI with vancomycin or fidaxomicin. The first occurrence of CDI with treatment was designated as the index case. Patients with CDI within 1 year prior to index case were excluded. From the remaining index cases (vancomycin = 14,785; fidaxomicin = 889) the primary outcome (a recurrence of CDI within 90 days of the index case) was determined. The CDI recurrence rates for fidaxomicin and vancomyicn were evaluated using a Cox Proportional Hazards model on a propensity score matched cohort. (3) Results: A statistically significantly lower risk of CDI recurrence was observed with fidaxomicin use in the matched cohort (889 patients per treatment) using a Cox Proportional Hazards model (HR 0.67, 95% CI 0.50–0.90). (4) Conclusions: Fidaxomicin was independently associated with a decreased CDI recurrence, as defined by readmission for CDI within 90 days.
An Investigation on the Oral Microbiota in Plaque Samples during Orthodontic Treatment

Malocclusion can be corrected by fixed orthodontic appliance therapy. However, ‌the‌ ‌complex‌ ‌appliance design‌‌ ‌and ‌‌the‌ ‌material‌ surface ‌characteristics of the appliance make mechanical debriding difficult, enabling biofilm formation. This‌ ‌study‌ ‌was performed‌ ‌to‌ investigate‌ the‌ ‌microbial‌ ‌load‌ ‌in‌ ‌‌plaque‌ at‌ ‌different‌ time ‌periods‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌orthodontic‌ ‌therapy in participants with professionally well-maintained oral hygiene. ‌ ‌This‌ ‌prospective‌ ‌study‌ was ‌conducted‌ ‌among‌ ‌12‌ ‌adult‌ ‌‌male‌ ‌participants. Six control (C batch) and six under orthodontic treatment (T batches). Simplified oral hygiene index OHI (S), Plaque index (PlI) and Russell’s Periodontal index (PI) scoring was performed for all subjects prior to sample collection. Plaque‌ ‌samples‌ ‌were‌ ‌collected‌ from both batch T,. and C at similar multiple intervals, corresponding with the sequential archwires for group T in regular use. ‌Six‌ ‌bacterial‌ ‌phyla‌‌ and‌ one‌ ‌fungal‌ ‌phyla ‌examined by subculture. ‌ ‌Index scoring revealed that hygiene was maintained throughout study in both the control and treatment batches. A general increase in the microorganisms‌ was noticed,‌ in treatment group ‌reaching‌ ‌a‌ ‌peak‌ ‌at‌ ‌18th ‌month‌ ‌of‌ ‌treatment at T4 and reduced to pretreatment‌ ‌levels on debonding. Though, the microorganisms count increased during treatment, it was not exponential and can be considered favourable flora which matched with the good clinical oral health.
The Biogeochemical Legacy of Arctic Subglacial Sediments Exposed by Glacier Retreat

During past periods of advance, Arctic glaciers and ice sheets overrode soil, sediments, and vegetation and buried significant stores of organic matter (OM); these glaciers are now shrinking rapidly due to climate warming. Little is known about the biogeochemical processing of the OM buried beneath glacier ice which makes the processes associated with deglaciation difficult to predict. Subglacial sediments exposed at receding glacier fronts may represent a legacy of past biogeochemical processes. Here, we analyzed sediments from retreating fronts of 19 Arctic glaciers for their mineralogical and elemental composition, contents of major nutrients, OM biomarkers (aliphatic lipids and lignin‐derived phenols), 14C age, and microbial community structure. We show the character of the sediments is mostly determined by local glaciation history and bedrock lithology. Most subglacial sediments offer high amounts of readily bioavailable phosphorus (i.e., loose, labile, and Fe/Al P fractions) but lack readily accessible carbon substrates. The subglacial OM originated mainly from overridden terrestrial vascular plants. The results of OM biomarker analysis and 14C dating suggest the OM substrates degrade in the subglacial environment and are reworked by the resident microbial communities. We argue the biogeochemical legacy of the perishing subglacial environments is an important determinant for the early processes of proglacial ecological succession.
A General Framework for Decentralized Safe Optimal Control of Connected and Automated Vehicles in Multi-Lane Signal-Free Intersections

We address the problem of optimally controlling Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) arriving from four multi-lane roads at a signal-free intersection where they conflict in terms of safely crossing (including turns) with no collision. The objective is to jointly minimize the travel time and energy consumption of each CAV while ensuring safety. This problem was solved in prior work for single-lane roads. A direct extension to multiple lanes on each road is limited by the computational complexity required to obtain an explicit optimal control solution. Instead, we propose a general framework that first converts a multi-lane intersection problem into a decentralized optimal control problem for each CAV with less conservative safety constraints than prior work. We then employ a method combining optimal control and control barrier functions, which has been shown to efficiently track tractable unconstrained optimal CAV trajectories while also guaranteeing the satisfaction of all constraints. Simulation examples are included to show the effectiveness of the proposed framework under symmetric and asymmetric intersection geometries and different CAV sequencing policies.
Disinformation Sharing Thrives with Fear of Missing Out among Low Cognitive News Users: A Cross-national Examination of Intentional Sharing of Deep Fakes

ABSTRACT This study investigates the antecedents of advertent (intentional) deepfakes sharing behavior. Data from two countries (US and Singapore) reveal that social media news use and FOMO are positively associated with intentional deep fakes sharing. Those with lower cognitive ability exhibit higher levels of FOMO and increased sharing behavior. FOMO also has a positive mediation effect on the association among citizens’ news use and sharing of deep fakes. Moderated mediation suggests that the indirect effects of social media news use on advertent sharing through FOMO are more substantial for low than high cognitive individuals. Theoretical implications of the results are discussed.
Study on Fiber Clogging Mechanism in Sewage Pump Based on CFD–DEM Simulation

A large number of solid particles and fibrous impurities are always entrained in the fluid transported by a sewage pump, which can easily lead to the blockage of the sewage pump. In view of this, CFD–DEM simulations were conducted in this paper to reveal the fiber clogging mechanism in the sewage pump. A CFD–DEM coupling method with a fiber model was established and verified by an experimental benchmark, i.e., the rectangular flow channel. The method was then applied to a model sewage pump to, after mesh independence tests, analyze the effects of flow rate and fiber length on fiber motion and clogging. The results showed that the position of fiber retention coincides with the position of the vortex, mainly located at the inlet of the impeller, the head of the blade, the middle of the blade, and the tongue in the pump. In the case of a low flow rate, the fiber was more likely to cause blockage in the head of the blade, and in the case of a large flow rate, the fiber would wind around the tongue in the pump. At the same flow rate, long fiber was more likely to stay on the blade’s suction surface.
Prevalence and Factors Associated with Low Birth Weight and Preterm Delivery in the Ho Municipality of Ghana

Background. Low birth weight and preterm delivery are birth outcomes that can predict newborns’ survival, development, and long-term health outcomes. This study assessed the prevalence and factors associated with low birth weight and preterm delivery in the Ho Municipality of Ghana. Methods. This retrospective, cross-sectional study analysed data from 680 birth records between October and December 2018. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models predicted low birth weight and preterm delivery factors. Results. The prevalence of low birth weight and preterm delivery was 12.9% and 14.1%, respectively. Increasing maternal age (AOR: 0.52; 95% CI: 0.28–0.98), multiparity (AOR: 0.54; 95% CI: 0.30–0.94) and increasing doses of sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (AOR: 0.43; 95% CI: 0.22–0.84) significantly reduced the odds of low birth weight. However, caesarean section (AOR: 1.94; 95% CI: 0.1.16–3.27) and hypertension (AOR: 2.06; 95% CI: 1.27–03.33) significantly increased the likelihood of low birth weight. An increasing number of antenatal care visits (AOR: 0.38; 95% CI: 0.18–0.80) and doses of sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (AOR: 0.43; 95% CI: 0.19–0.97) were significantly associated with decreased odds of preterm delivery, while caesarean section increased the odds of preterm delivery by two folds (AOR: 2.14; 95% CI: 1.15–3.99). Conclusion. This study shows that maternal age, parity, number of antenatal care visits, hypertension, SP/IPTp, and caesarean section were independently associated with low birth weight and preterm delivery. Education and interventions should be prioritised as vitally important on these factors to reduce the risk and complications associated with these birth outcomes.
Animal trait variation at the within-individual level: erythrocyte size variation and malaria infection in a tropical lizard

High levels of within-individual variation (WIV) in reiterative components in plants such as leaves, flowers, and fruits have been shown to increase individual fitness by multiple mechanisms including mediating interactions with natural enemies. This relationship between WIV and fitness has been studied almost exclusively in plant systems. While animals do not exhibit conspicuous reiterative components, they have traits that can vary at the individual level such as erythrocyte size. It is currently unknown if WIV in animals can influence individual fitness by mediating the outcome of interactions with natural enemies as it has been shown in plants. To address this issue, we tested for a relationship between WIV in erythrocyte size, hemoparasite infection status, and body condition (a proxy for fitness) in a Caribbean anole lizard. We quantified the coefficient of variation of adult erythrocytes size in $n = 95$ infected and $n = 107$ non-infected lizards. We found higher degrees of erythrocyte size variation in infected lizards than in non-infected individuals. However, we found no significant relationship between infection status or erythrocyte size variation, and lizard body condition. These results suggest that higher WIV in erythrocyte size in infected lizards is not necessarily adaptive but likely a consequence of the host response to infection. Many hemoparasites destroy their host cells as part of their life cycle. To compensate, the host lizard may respond by increasing production of erythrocytes resulting in higher WIV. Our results emphasize the need to better understand the role of within-animal variation as a neglected driver or consequence of ecological and evolutionary interactions.
Redox-Related Proteins in Melanoma Progression

Melanoma is the most aggressive type of skin cancer. Despite the available therapies, the minimum residual disease is still refractory. Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS and RNS) play a dual role in melanoma, where redox imbalance is involved from initiation to metastasis and resistance. Redox proteins modulate the disease by controlling ROS/RNS levels in immune response, proliferation, invasion, and relapse. Chemotherapeutics such as BRAF and MEK inhibitors promote oxidative stress, but high ROS/RNS amounts with a robust antioxidant system allow cells to be adaptive and cooperate to non-toxic levels. These proteins could act as biomarkers and possible targets. By understanding the complex mechanisms involved in adaptation and searching for new targets to make cells more susceptible to treatment, the disease might be overcome. Therefore, exploring the role of redox-sensitive proteins and the modulation of redox homeostasis may provide clues to new therapies. This study analyzes information obtained from a public cohort of melanoma patients about the expression of redox-generating and detoxifying proteins in melanoma during the disease stages, genetic alterations, and overall patient survival status. According to our analysis, 66% of the isoforms presented differential expression on melanoma progression: NOS2, SOD1, NOX4, PRX3, PXDN and GPX1 are increased during melanoma progression, while CAT, GPX3, TXNIP, and PRX2 are decreased. Besides, the stage of the disease could influence the result as well. The levels of PRX1, PRX5 and PRX6 can be increased or decreased depending on the stage. We showed that all analyzed isoforms presented some genetic alteration on the gene, most of them (78%) for increased mRNA expression. Interestingly, 34% of all melanoma patients showed genetic alterations on TRX1, most for decreased mRNA expression. Additionally, 15% of the isoforms showed a significant reduction in overall patient survival status for an altered group (PRX3, PRX5, TR2, and GR) and the unaltered group (NOX4). Although no such specific antioxidant therapy is approved for melanoma yet, inhibitors or mimetics of these redox-sensitive proteins have achieved very promising results. We foresee that forthcoming investigations on the modulation of these proteins will bring significant advances for cancer therapy.
Lightweight Polyethylene/Hexagonal Boron Nitride Hybrid Thermal Conductor Fabricated by Melt Compounding Plus Salt Leaching

Application of porous polymeric materials is severely limited by their ultralow thermal conductivities. Herein, by promoting the formation of thermal conduction pathways, we fabricated open-cellular structured polyethylene/hexagonal boron nitride hybrid thermal conductors via melt compounding plus salt leaching. The structural analyses indicate that the inclusion of hBN can enhance the open-cell level of resultant materials. X-ray diffractions confirm the high in-plane alignments of hBN in each sample. Consequently, the test results evidence the superior thermal conductivities of our samples, and the thermal conductivities of each sample are characterized as functions of hBN loadings. Ultimately, our advanced porous thermal conductor with a low hBN loading of 3.1 vol% exhibits a high specific thermal conductivity of 0.75 (W/mk)/(g/cm3), which is 82.9% higher than virgin PE and far higher than bulk PE/hBN composites. Our work also intends to reveal the architectural advantages of open-cellular, as compared with the close-one, in fabricating porous materials with highly interconnected fillers.