Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lung Ultrasonography Beyond the Diagnosis of Pediatrics Pneumonia

Pneumonia is a prevalent disease with considerable morbidity and mortality among the pediatric population. Early diagnosis and swift commencement of the correct treatment are vital for a favorable clinical outcome. Along with history-taking and clinical examination, imaging modalities commonly used, lung ultrasound provides a bedside, less invasive, radiation-free alternative to diagnose pneumonia when compared with other images such as chest x-ray (CXR) and computed tomography (CT) scan. It is therefore of the utmost magnitude to inspect the evidence of its accuracy and reliability in the diagnosis of this condition. The goal of this study is to look into the available data supporting the use of lung ultrasound in the diagnosis of juvenile pneumonia, its relevance in distinguishing between viral and bacterial diseases, and its superiority as compared to other diagnostic methods. As mentioned, early detection and differentiation of the type of pneumonia can reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions and provide patients with a better prognosis, as well as the ability to predict the course of the disease and the need for advanced care or the development of complications. An extensive literature search of two popular online medical websites (PubMed and Embase) was conducted in this review, concentrating on studies that examined the role of lung ultrasound in the diagnosis of pediatric pneumonia published in the last five years. Only studies published in the English language were included in this review. With high sensitivity and specificity, lung ultrasound appeared to be a promising tool not only for pediatric pneumonia diagnosis, but also for treatment guidance and disease follow-up, especially when combined with clinical presentation and laboratory findings.
Assessment of Native Aortic Stenosis Hemodynamics and Clinical Evaluation Methods Using Steady State Computational Fluid Dynamics and Computed Tomography-Derived Geometry

Aortic stenosis is the most common valvular heart disease with a prevalence of 2% among individuals over 65 years and 4% over 80, in developed countries. Accurate valve assessment for intervention timing is critical. Using only routinely obtained clinical data, this research aims to present accurate recreations of in vivo transvalvular hemodynamics using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and validate Gorlin formula and Doppler Echocardiography (echo)/continuity techniques. The in vivo valve was compared to simplified and idealized geometries. Instantaneous anatomic orifice area (AOAmax) was underestimated by about 40% by Gorlins formula and (dPmean). Time-averaged orifice area (EOAmean), by an echo/continuity, was about 40% smaller than the AOAmax. The Gorlin formula better assesses AOAmax using (dPmean eff ). dPmean eff is required for Gorlin formula approximation ofAOAmax and echo/continuity overestimates EOAmean with increasing error for lower flow rates. Correlations between Effective Orifice Area (EOA) and Anatomic Orifice Area (AOA) should only be made as instantaneous or only time-averaged comparisons.
Perceived COVID-19 Threat and Reactions to Noncompliant Health-Protective Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Desired Cultural Tightness and the Moderating Role of Age

The COVID-19 pandemic is a health crisis that requires individuals to comply with many health-protective behaviors. Following the previous literature, cultural tightness has been found to be a key mechanism to increase coordination in order to mitigate collective threats (e.g., COVID-19). In this study, we test a moderated mediation model to examine whether the perceived COVID-19 threat could intensify the extent of desired tightness (i.e., a personal desire for cultural tightness), moderated by age. Subsequently, we test whether this could intensify individuals’ emotional reactions to non-compliance with COVID-19 health protective behaviors. The study relies on a cross-sectional design, with a sample of 624 participants residing in central Italy (i.e., Lazio). The data were collected from February to October 2021. Questionnaires contained self-reporting measures of the perceived COVID-19 threat, desired tightness, and personal emotional reactions to non-compliance with COVID-19 preventive measures (e.g., wearing a mask). The results confirm that the perceived COVID-19 threat is associated with an increase in the desire for cultural tightness—and that this relationship was moderated by age—and, consequently, with intolerance for noncompliance with preventive behaviors. Additionally, both direct and indirect effects of the perceived COVID-19 threat on negative emotional reactions to noncompliance were significant; this indirect effect was larger at high (+1 SD) age than at low (−1 SD) age. Overall, this research provides some insight into how people can respond to the current pandemic threat, and how this may have implications for violating rules and regulations to keep contagion under control.
Associação entre as cargas de treino impostas a jogadores amadores de rugby sevens e a síndrome de burnout Association between the training loads imposed to amateur rugby sevens players and burnout syndrome

Burnout syndrome has been shown to be increasingly prevalent in athletes, since it is related to factors that influence levels of stress during the preparation of sports. Therefore, it has been studied in several sports, but not in Rugby Seven. The aim of this study was to correlate the effects of training loads imposed on amateur Rugby Sevens players with the burnout questionnaire. Nine players (25 ± 5 yearsold) were evaluated before the preparatory period. Assessment included the measurement of the % fat percentage; nutritional status, stress, and aerobic power. During the preparatory period, once again, it was assessed the state of stress, aerobic power, and intensity of the training program. It was observed that there is no significant correlation between the intensity of the workout and Burnout scores (p> 0.05), nor between Burnout scores and aerobic capacity. However, there was significant a correlation between the intensity of training performed with aerobic power (p< 0.01). Therefore, it is concluded that a training program prescribed properly, prevents the onset of burnout syndrome in Rugby Sevens players.
Geotextile Encased Columns (GEC): Load Capacity, Geotextile Selection and Pre-Design Graphs

Embankments over soft subsoils supported by piles or stone columns have several advantages over the classical unsupported embankment foundation when compared in terms of bearing capacity, serviceability, and duration of construction. In extremely soft soil conditions, lateral support can be problematic for stone columns. An alternative system, which can both provide the required lateral support and increase bearing capacity, is the Geosynthetic Encased Columns (GECs). This system includes a high-modulus, creep resistant geotextile encasement called Ringtrac® that confines the compacted sand or gravel column thereby providing constructability and bearing capacity even in extremely soft soil. The following describes the design principles, technologies and procedures developed over the past ten years and the importance of the geotextile encasement's tensile modulus. Also presented are graphs showing the influence of different factors on settlement. They could be also used in preliminary designs for orientation and proper encasement selection.
Applications of Muscle Oxygen Saturation Analysis in Cycling Performance Assessment: A Systematic Review

Purposeː Cycling performance is the results of the interplay among a wide range of variables. Different methodological approaches have been described during last 50 years in order to evaluate and understand cycling performance. Our main aim was to systematically review the applications of muscle oximetry in cycling performance assessment. Methods: A structured search was carried out following the PRISMA guidelines in MEDLINE®/PubMed and Scopus databases were searched with additional integration from external sources, between 1 February and 31 March 2020. To meet the inclusion criteria studies published from 2000 to 2020 and that applied muscle oxygen saturation analysis to investigate cyclists’ performance were selected. This review included studies with experimental designs. There were no filters applied to the cyclists’ level, sex, ray or age. Results: Starting from the 955 identified records, 21 items were finally included for the review. Three main investigation topics, related to application of muscle oximetry in cycling science, emerged: cycling performance analysis protocols (n=8); training response and adaptations evaluation (n=8) and impact of different pedaling cadences on cycling performance (n=6). From the studies analyzing performance assessment protocols (38%), emerged how only one threshold, also named breakpoint, seems to be recognizable through NIRS during cycling tests. Studies that focused on training metabolic adaptations (38%) and cadence analysis (25.6%) evidenced how NIRS device may represent a valid tool to analyze cyclists’ metabolic adaptations and optimize pedaling cadence strategy. Conclusionː Despite the wide range of applications and promising data emerging from NIRS studies, further investigations evaluating cycling performance are needed to better delineate possible, laboratory and field, applications, and methodologies.
Interleukin-6 as Predictor of One-Year Cognitive Function After Ischemic Stroke or TIA

Background and Purpose The relationship between inflammatory markers and cognitive decline in a poststroke setting is still unclear. We aimed to investigate the association between interleukin-6 (IL-6) and cognitive decline after acute ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA). Methods In this prespecified prospective substudy of the Impairment of CognitiON and Sleep after acute ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack in Chinese patients (ICONS) study, a total of 1003 patients with baseline IL-6 levels and completed standard 3-month and 1-year cognitive function evaluation were included. Cognitive decline was defined according to a reduction of Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) ≥2 between 3 months and one year. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to determine the association. Results Totally, 238 (23.73%) patients had post-stroke cognitive decline at one year. IL-6 levels were classified into four groups according to their quartile. Patients in the highest quartile of IL-6 level had higher risk of cognitive decline than those in the first quartile (25.90% vs 16.80%, adjusted OR, 1.95; 95% CI, 1.13–3.38, P = 0.0167), after adjusting for potential risk factors. Conclusion Elevated IL-6 levels were independently associated with reduction of Montreal Cognitive Assessment after ischemic stroke and TIA.
Analysis of Relationship between Character Strength and Religiosity of University and Madrassa Students

This study explores the religiosity and character strength amongst university and madrassa students in Punjab, Pakistan. Additionally, the study determined the relationship between character strength and religiosity of madrassa and university students. The convergent mixed-method research design was applied for the study. The survey sample consists of 896 respondents selected through a multi-stage sampling technique. This sample includes 640 students (320 from universities and 320 from madrassas) and 256 teachers/heads of institutions (128 from universities and 128 from madrassas). The researcher used two instruments to gather data from the participants. Two research questionnaires were developed that included sixty items in a survey format. At the same pattern, the semi-structured interview schedule contains 14 open-ended questions regarding character strength/religiosity was composed. The views of teachers and heads of departments/institutions were acquired through a semi-structured interview schedule to determine the role of these institutions in developing religiosity and promoting character strength among students. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical procedures i.e. Pearson correlation coefficient, regression analysis and mean scores. A significant and strong relationship between character strength and religiosity is reported, which leads to the fact that an increase in students’ religiosity may increase their character strength and vice versa. Religiosity was significantly associated with a large number of character strengths of students. The present study found a positive and statistically strong relationship between the character strength and religiosity of students. The study recommends extensive and comprehensive research covering public and private universities and madrassas.
Scientific Challenges to Characterizing the Wind Resource in the Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer

Abstract. With the increasing level of offshore wind energy investment, it is correspondingly important to be able to accurately characterize the wind resource in terms of energy potential as well as operating conditions affecting wind plant performance, maintenance, and lifespan. Accurate resource assessment at a particular site supports investment decisions. Post-construction, accurate wind forecasts are needed to support efficient power markets and integration of wind power with the electrical grid. To optimize the design of wind turbines, it is necessary to accurately describe the environmental characteristics, such as precipitation and waves, that erode turbine surfaces and generate structural loads as a complicated response to the combined impact of shear, atmospheric turbulence, and wave stresses. Despite recent considerable progress both in improvements to numerical weather prediction models and in coupling these models to turbulent flows within wind plants, major challenges remain, especially in the offshore environment. Accurately simulating the interactions among winds, waves, wakes, and their structural interactions with offshore wind turbines requires accounting for spatial (and associated time) scales from O(1 m) to O(100 km). Computing capabilities for the foreseeable future will not be able to resolve all of these scales simultaneously, necessitating continuing improvement in subgrid-scale parameterizations within highly non-linear models. In addition, observations to constrain and validate these models, especially in the rotor-swept area of turbines over the ocean, remains largely absent. Thus, gaining sufficient understanding of the physics of atmospheric flow within and around wind plants remains one of the grand challenges of wind energy, particularly in the offshore environment. This paper provides a review of prominent scientific challenges to characterizing the offshore wind resource using as examples phenomena that occur in the rapidly developing wind energy areas off the United States. Such phenomena include horizontal temperature gradients that lead to strong vertical stratification; consequent features such as low-level jets and internal boundary layers; highly non-stationary conditions, which occur with both extratropical storms (e.g., nor’easters) and tropical storms; air-sea interaction, including deformation of conventional wind profiles by the wave boundary layer; and precipitation with its contributions to leading-edge erosion of wind turbine blades. The paper also describes the current state of modeling and observations in the marine atmospheric boundary layer and provides specific recommendations for filling key current knowledge gaps
The dynamic relationship between economic globalisation, institutional quality, and ecological footprint: Evidence from Ghana

Research on the relationship between globalisation and the environment tends to focus on the direct effect of globalisation, rarely considering the role of institutions. This paper introduces insights from political economy, which suggests that environmental sustainability models would be greatly improved if institutions are considered. We test this hypothesis by estimating the relationship between economic globalisation, bureaucratic quality, and ecological footprint in Ghana for the period 1984–2016. The long-run analysis is based on the autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) bound testing approach to cointegration. The result supports the hypothesis that expansion in economic globalisation has a reducing effect on environmental quality. Bureaucratic quality appears to exert a significant positive effect on ecological footprint. Furthermore, the estimation shows that the quality of institutions is critical for environmental quality. Based on the results the paper presents some policy recommendations.
Analysis of the Influence of the International Journal of Electrical Engineering Education on Electrical Engineering and Electrical Engineering Education

This article researches the influence of IJEEE on electrical engineering and electrical engineering education as a discipline. For this purpose, the history of this journal has been presented from a citation perspective. To identify leading and evolving research areas within IJEEE the authors conducted keyword analysis, which additionally showed how IJEEE contains both educational and technical contributions. The authors also studied the temporal evolution and distribution of keywords. Word co-occurrence was analysed to discover the main context in which the keywords have been used. The analysis also revealed the prominent contributors within the community of IJEEE based on various authorship and citation criteria. It was observed that the influential authors appear in multiple ways, i.e. most of the authors who were influential by one criterion also made to the top list of other criteria. The authors concluded that the single-author pattern is quite prominent within this community, and very little work has been done between the same co-authors. Therefore, there is a need to encourage IJEEE authors to write more collaborative publications so that the authorship/co-authorship network may grow.
Trivial Tripwires?: Military Capabilities and Alliance Reassurance

Abstract How can states most effectively reassure their allies? Existing studies assessing signals of commitment focus on the role of resolve in making assurances credible. This sidelines important questions about the role of capability. We argue that reassurance effectiveness is the product of both capability and resolve, and suggest that high resolve cannot offset low capability. We introduce a new typology of reassurance measures based on the interaction of military capability and resolve, and test which types of measures are most reassuring using an original survey fielded on European foreign policy experts and a case study of US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization reassurance initiatives in the Baltics. We find that high-resolve, low-capability signals such as tripwire forces in allied territory are not viewed as any more reassuring than high-capability, low-resolve signals such as forces stationed offshore. Our study casts doubt on the reassurance value of tripwires and contributes to scholarship on interstate signaling.
Assessing the Wall-to-Wall Spatial and Qualitative Dynamics of the Brazilian Pasturelands 2010-2018, Based on the Analysis of the Landsat Data Archive

Brazilian livestock is predominantly extensive, with approximately 90% of the production being sustained on pasture, which occupies around 20% of the territory. It is estimated that more than half of Brazilian pastures have some level of degradation. In this study, we mapped and evaluated the spatiotemporal dynamics of pasture quality in Brazil, between 2010 and 2018, considering three classes of degradation: Absent (D0), Intermediate (D1), and Severe (D2). There was no variation in the total area occupied by pastures in the evaluated period, in spite of the accentuated spatial dynamics. The percentage of non-degraded pastures increased by ~12%, due to the recovery of degraded areas and the emergence of new pasture areas. However, about 44 Mha of the pasture area is currently severely degraded. The dynamics in pasture quality were not homogeneous in property size classes. We observed that in the approximately 2.68 million properties with livestock activity, the proportion with quality gains was twice as low in small properties compared with large ones, and the proportion with losses was three times greater, showing an increase in inequality between properties with more and fewer resources (large and small properties, respectively). The areas occupied by pastures in Brazil present a unique opportunity to increase livestock production and make areas available for agriculture, without the need for new deforestation in the coming decades.
Recent significant decline of strong carbon peat accumulation rates in tropical Andes related to climate change and glacier retreat

Abstract. Climate change has altered precipitation and temperature patterns in the tropical Andes. As a result, tropical glaciers have retreated significantly over the past 50 years and have even disappeared in some areas. Andean peatlands, one of the most important Andean carbon reservoirs, also seem to be affected by these climate changes, since glaciers have been recognized as one of their vital water sources. Here, we point out the important role of Andean peatlands on carbon accumulation rates (CAR), one of the highest in the world, and the impact of climate on carbon storage over the last 65 years, using four peat cores. The peat cores were radiocarbon-dated and ages were post-bomb calibrated and chronological models indicated basal ages (30 cm depth) ranging from 1957 to 1972 CE, where accumulation rates reached up 1.7 cm yr−1. For both peatlands, carbon accumulation rates are high (mean of 470 and 220 g C m−2 yr−1 at APA 1 and APA 2 sites, respectively) and can reach up to 1010 g C m−2 yr−1. Distichia muscoides is the dominant species in the Peruvian Central Andes peatlands and the high CAR, among other factors, is a characteristic of this species. Our results point out that a marked decrease of CAR after the early 1980s at both peatlands is likely related to an increase in annual temperature, which is responsible for the retreat of glaciers. We use a new high-resolution proxy (Skrzypek et al., 2011) based on the δ13C of Distichia along the cores to evaluate the temperature variability at the site. We observed a general trend of increase in the reconstructed temperature from both studied peatlands from 1.9 to 2 ºC for the period 1970–2015 CE. Comparison with air temperature data from the NCEP-NCAR reanalysis for the higher resolution cores shows a good relationship and an increase of 2.15 °C for the same period. Temperature increase may directly affect CAR by an increase in organic matter degradation rates. The decrease in CAR during the period of study may also be due to a decrease in melt water inflow generated by the retreat of glaciers that have almost disappeared today in the catchments as a consequence of regional warming. Our findings emphasize that marked changes in carbon accumulation rates demonstrate the high ecological sensitivity of tropical high-Andean peatlands, endangering their outstanding role in the regional (and even global) C cycle as large C sinks that contribute to the mitigation of global climate change.