Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Medication Adherence and Its Associated Determinants in Older Adults with Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Comorbidities

Aims of the Study To evaluate medication adherence level and identify predictors of poor medication adherence in elderly patients with Cardiovascular (CVS) diseases and type 2 diabetes in Jordan. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted on elderly patients who attended King Abdullah University Hospital (KAUH) outpatient diabetes and cardiology clinics from March 6, 2023, to July 6, 2023. Data on age, sex, socio-demographics, biological variables, medication characteristics, and chronic comorbidities were obtained from electronic patients’ medical records and a validated questionnaire. Medication adherence levels (low, moderate, and high) were assessed using the Arabic version of the 4-item Morisky, Green, and Levine Medication Adherence Scale-Medication Assessment Questionnaire. Results Data from 506 elderly patients were analyzed. The average age of the participants was 67.93 years (SD = 6.22). 7.9% of patients showed low adherence levels, 33.6% showed moderate adherence level, and 58.5% of patients showed a high level of adherence toward their prescribed medications. Multivariable ordinal logistic regression analysis revealed that single/currently unmarried patients and patients who were living with others were more likely to have a higher adherence level; Odd Ratios (ORs) were 4.75 and 4.10, respectively. Patients who took their medications ≥ 3 and 2 times a day showed higher adherence to their medications than those who only took them once a day. ; ORs were 2.15 and 2.36, respectively. Conclusion This study indicated an inadequate level of adherence among patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular comorbidities. This study revealed the necessity of implementing programs to help in raising the awareness among elderly patients with type 2 diabetes and CVDs of the importance of adherence to prescribed long-term medication regimens.
The impact of watershed development on food security status of farm households: Evidence from Northwest Ethiopia

Abstract Watershed development is part of a poverty reduction and environmental conservation initiative in Ethiopia. The study evaluates the impact of project-supported and community-based watershed development (WSD) interventions on households’ food security status and identifies the factors that affect WSD participants. A propensity score matching (PSM), a household food balance model (HFBM), a geographic information system (GIS), and a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) were employed to analyze data. The PSM model result revealed that participation in a project-supported WSD had a more significant effect on household food security than the community-based WSD. The average treatment effect for the treated (ATT) was 3845.02 Kcal, while the average treatment effect for the control group (ATE) was 3037.85 Kcal, depicting a significant difference between them. Changes in land use and land cover in the study watersheds imply that agricultural and degraded land patterns decreased, whereas grazing land, bushland, wetland, and plantation land patterns have increased in project-supported watersheds over the study period. On one hand, the main socio-economic drivers that positively impacted the food security status of the WSD participation were land size, credit access, livestock ownership, and training. On the other hand, market distance and distance from farmers’ training centers have a significant and negative impact on the status of the households’ food security. The study concludes that project-initiated WSD intervention has a crucial impact on achieving household food security. Priority should be also given to increasing the productivity of land, increasing access to credit services, improving livestock ownership, and providing veterinary services.
Multiple Source Domain Adaptation for Multiple Object Tracking in Satellite Video

Satellite videos capture the dynamic changes in a large observed sense, which provides an opportunity to track the object trajectories. However, existing multiple object tracking (MOT) methods require massive video annotations, which is time-consuming and fallible. To alleviate this problem, this article proposes a cross-domain multiple object tracker (CDTrack) to learn knowledge from multiple source domains. First, a cross-domain object detector with multilevel domain alignment is constructed to learn domain-invariant knowledge between remote sensing images and satellite videos. Second, the proposed method adopts a bidirectional teacher–student framework to fuse multiple source domains. Two teacher–student models learn different domain knowledge and teach mutually each other. With mutual learning, the proposed method alleviates the discrepancies between different domains. Finally, a simple weakly supervised Re-IDentification (Re-ID) model is proposed for long-term association. Experimental results on the satellite video datasets demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve great performance without satellite video annotations. The code is available at https://github.com/XiangtaoZheng/CDTrack.
Diagnostic Utility of pH-MII Monitoring in Preschool Children with Recurrent Wheeze and Suspected Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease: A Prospective Study

Background: Recurrent wheezing and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) are common in young children, with a suggested but challenging link between them. This study aimed to investigate the diagnostic value of pH-MII monitoring in preschool children with recurrent wheezing and evaluate GERD-related therapy effects. Methods: Children under 6 years with recurrent wheeze were eligible. The pH-MII monitoring was conducted in those clinically suspected of GERD’s involvement. Flexible bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) was performed in severe cases. The primary outcome was the difference in wheezing episodes between proven GERD and non-GERD groups. Secondary outcomes included GERD therapy impact and predictive factors for wheezing reduction. Results: Of 66 children (mean age 3.9 years), 71% had proven GERD on pH-MII. Compared to the non-GERD group, the GERD group had higher total, liquid, mixed, and gas reflux episodes, as well as more acidic and weakly acidic episodes. GERD treatment significantly reduced wheezing episodes. PPI (proton pump inhibitor) introduction was associated with ≥50% wheezing reduction. Children with GERD showed ≥50% wheezing reduction more frequently than those without GERD. PPI usage, higher total GER episodes, acidic episodes, and liquid and proximal episodes on MII predicted ≥50% wheezing reduction. No significant BAL differences were observed between GERD and non-GERD groups. Conclusions: The pH-MII monitoring is valuable in diagnosing GERD-related wheezing in preschool children. GERD therapy, particularly PPI usage, was associated with reduced wheezing episodes. The pH-MII parameters correlated with wheezing reduction, suggesting their potential predictive role. BAL did not differentiate between GERD and non-GERD cases.
Modeling the Effect on a Novel Fungal Peptaibol Placed in an All-Atom Bacterial Membrane Mimicking System via Accelerated Molecular Dynamics Simulations

We previously reported on a novel peptaibol, named Tripleurin XIIc (TPN), an 18-residue long sequence produced by the fungus Trichoderma pleuroti. We elucidated its 3D structure via classical and accelerated molecular dynamics simulation (aMD) methods and reported the folding dynamics of TPN in water and chloroform solvents. Peptaibols, in general, are insoluble in water, as they are amphipathic and may prefer hydrophobic environments like transmembrane regions. In this study, we attempted to use aMD simulations to model an all-atom bacterial membrane system while placing a TPN molecule in its vicinity. The results highlighted that TPN was able to introduce some disorder into the membrane and caused lipid clustering. It could also enter the transmembrane region from the water-bilayer interface. The structural dynamics of TPN in the transmembrane region revealed a single energetically stable conformation similar to the one obtained from water and chloroform solvent simulations reported by us previously. However, this linear structure was found to be at the local energy minimum (stable) in water but at a metastable intermediate state (higher energy) in chloroform. Therefore, it could be said that the water solvent can be successfully used for folding simulations of peptaibols.
PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF FLY ASH ADDITIVE MODIFIED POLIESTER BASED MEMBRANE

Recently, Polyethersulfone (PES) polymer material based on flat sheet membranes reached much attention in membrane technology. However, PES polymer has low hydrophilicity. This study describes PES-based membranes incorporating fly ash as an additive. The first analysis was conducted by Fourier Transform Infrared, Scanning Electron Microscope, tensile strength, and porosity tests. Four membranes, including pure PES membranes, were prepared via the phase inversion process, namely MA–0, MA–0.1, MA–1, and MS–1. The characteristics of the membrane samples were analyzed in terms of chemical group, morphology, mechanical and membrane surface hydrophilicity. The characterization results show that additive incorporation increased pure water flux performance, and the highest pure water permeability increased up to 70% by the MA–1 membrane. Moreover, it increased by 19% compared to pure silica-modified PES membrane (MS–1). In addition, the MA-1 membrane at a pressure of 3 bar reached significant performance in the trend of pure water flux values because of these improvements in membrane characteristics. The membrane also shows a higher tensile strength with adding additives to the membrane prepared.
Changeability of the Ice Cover on the Lakes of Northern Poland in the Light of Climatic Changes

Abstract The study is based upon instrumental observations of ice covers which formed on the lakes in northern Poland in the period 1956-2005 and records of air temperature measured at 9 meteorological stations in the period 1960-2005. Relations between mean dates of ice cover freeze-up, ice cover duration, maximum ice thickness, and also other properties of ice regime indicate obvious dependency upon air temperatures in winter months (December-February). Both air temperatures and main properties of ice covers revealed definite trends, showing the increase in air temperature in winter (0.04-0.06°C year-1), earlier disappearance of ice cover (0.5-0.6 day year-1), its shorter duration (0.6-0.7 day year-1), and decreases in maximum thickness of the ice cover (0.2-0.25 cm year-1). The author shows considerable statistical relations between main properties of the course of the ice cover, air temperatures in winter and the NAO winter indexes. Therefore, changeability of the ice covers on the lakes in northern Poland in the latter half of the twentieth century may be treated as another proof and an indirect indicator of climatic changes undergoing in this part of Europe.
Deep-Brain Subthalamic Nucleus Stimulation Enhances Food-Related Motivation by Influencing Neuroinflammation and Anxiety Levels in a Rat Model of Early-Stage Parkinson’s Disease

Deep-brain subthalamic nucleus stimulation (DBS-STN) has become a well-established therapeutic option for advanced Parkinson’s disease (PD). While the motor benefits of DBS-STN are widely acknowledged, the neuropsychiatric effects are still being investigated. Beyond its immediate effects on neuronal circuits, emerging research suggests that DBS-STN might also modulate the peripheral inflammation and neuroinflammation. In this work, we assessed the effects of DBS-STN on food-related motivation, food intake pattern, and the level of anxiety and compared them with markers of cellular and immune activation in nigrostriatal and mesolimbic areas in rats with the 6-OHDA model of early PD. To evaluate the potential mechanism of observed effects, we also measured corticosterone concentration in plasma and leukocyte distribution in peripheral blood. We found that DBS-STN applied during neurodegeneration has beneficial effects on food intake pattern and motivation and reduces anxiety. These behavioral effects occur with reduced percentages of IL-6-labeled cells in the ventral tegmental area and substantia nigra pars compacta in the stimulated brain hemisphere. At the same brain structures, the cFos cell activations were confirmed. Simultaneously, the corticosterone plasma concentration was elevated, and the peripheral blood lymphocytes were reduced after DBS-STN. We believe that comprehending the relationship between the effects of DBS-STN on inflammation and its therapeutic results is essential for optimizing DBS therapy in PD.
Hong Kong veterinarians’ encounters with client-related stress – a qualitative study

Aims Limited research has explored the stressors experienced by veterinarians in East Asia. Metropolitan cities like Hong Kong may have overlooked factors that significantly contribute to veterinarians’ stress. This paper examines how client-related stressors and contextual factors contribute to the stress levels of Hong Kong-based veterinarians. Methods Veterinarians from small domestic animal practices in Hong Kong were recruited using purposive and targeted snowball samplings until thematic saturation was achieved. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted, audio-recorded, transcribed, coded, and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis with an interpretivist paradigm based on Heidegger’s phenomenological approach. Results A total of 18 participating veterinarians described the expectations of and communication with the animal-health enthusiast (AHE) community, including clients, pet owners, and animal lovers, as their primary source of stress. Discrepant expectations and miscommunication between the AHE and veterinary communities, along with contextual factors, such as convenience in clinic switching, negative online reviews, and the relatively short history of the veterinary profession in the multilingual city, were identified as contributing factors to their stress. Recent socio-political events and the pandemic further intensified societal emotions, leading some clients to project frustrations onto perceived authority figures, including health professionals. Conclusion The study highlights that client-related stress extends beyond the health of animal patients, encompassing the expectations of the AHE community, which requires professional-level communication skills to build a mutually respectful three-party relationship. Besides, Hong Kong’s unique contextual and historical factors subtly but chronically impact veterinary practices, which can be easily overlooked. Recognising these influences and how they interact is crucial for collaboration, within and beyond the profession, at the policy level to improve veterinary training and practices. Implications Our findings highlight the importance of expectation management and improving communication quality to foster healthy relationships among animals, the AHE community, and veterinary professionals. These efforts are believed to alleviate veterinarians’ stress and enhance the well-being of all parties involved. We recommend incorporating effective communication and self-care discussions into the veterinary curriculum and advocating ongoing training for practising veterinarians. At the community level, encouraging open dialogues between animal caregivers and veterinary professionals can help address expectation discrepancies.
Liming and Integrated Nutrient Management for Enhancing Maize Productivity on Acidic Soils of Northeast India

Lime application and integrated nutrient management is often recommended to increase the crop productivity on acidic soils. To ascertain the individual and synergistic effects of lime, NPK and farm yard manure (FYM) application on maize productivity, a field experiment was undertaken on an acid Alfisol (pH 4.6) of Meghalaya, Northeast India. Application of recommended NPK dose (80, 60 and 40 kg/ha of N, P 2 O 5 and K 2 O) resulted in 53% yield improvement, while liming @ 300 kg/ha (furrow application) caused 32 % yield increase over control. Combined application of NPK + lime resulted in 147% yield increase while application of FYM @ 5 t/ha along with NPK + lime further boosted the yield improvement up to 291% over control. Results of this study suggest that liming along with integrated nutrient management practices, if adopted properly, can lead to more than three-fold increase in maize productivity on acidic soils of Meghalaya and other north-eastern states of India with similar soils.
Styles of rifting and fault spacing in numerical models of crustal extension

Extension of the Earth's crust can result in differing styles of rifting, such as horst‐and‐graben, half‐graben, metamorphic core complexes and areas of distributed crustal thinning. Faulting patterns can range from either being distributed to highly localized. Observations indicate that the factors controlling the extensional deformation, symmetry, and fault spacing include rheological aspects such as the yielding mechanism and strain softening, and physical aspects such as initial heterogeneities and the strength of the lower crust compared to the upper crust. Time‐dependent numerical models of extension are presented, which investigate the influence of the yielding mechanism, lower crust strength, strain weakening, and initial heterogeneity in the crust have on (a) the style of rifting, (b) fault spacing, and (c) integrated strength in the upper crust. Models with an anisotropic yielding mechanism result in more realistic lithospheric strength profiles, slip plane angle distributions, and fault interaction than models with an isotropic yielding mechanism. Heterogeneity type and yielding mechanisms have the largest effect on the resulting symmetry of deformation, whereas the amount of strain weakening has the greatest influence on asymmetry. The likelihood of the metamorphic core complex mode occurring is primarily controlled by lower crust strength. Crustal thinning is encouraged by both low amounts of strain weakening and a strong lower crust. Lower crust viscosity exerts the primary control on whether the resulting deformation is distributed or localized. The degree of strain weakening has the largest influence on the average strength of the upper crust and the slope of the strength profile in the upper crust.
Chemical composition of natural gases from oil and gas fields in the Niigata basin.

The natural gases collected during production testing from nine oil and gas fields in the Niigata basin were characterized using parameters such as C2+, C2/C3, iC4/nC4, iC5/nC5, N2 and CO2. The chemical compositions of gases are related to the temperatures of the reservoirs from which the gases are produced.Chemical composition together with isotopic composition of methane suggests that the natural gases in the area are of thermogenic and mixed thermogenic/bacterial origins. The iC4/nC4 ratio is considered to reflect both the type of source rock and its degree of thermal maturation.In the Hirakida gas field the gases from the Nishiyama and Shiiya Formations may have undergone bacterial alteration.
Advances in pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modelling for pediatric drug development: extrapolations and exposure-response analyses

ABSTRACT Introduction Pharmacokinetic (PK)-Pharmacodynamic (PD) and exposure-response (E-R) modeling are critical parts of pediatric drug development. By integrating available knowledge and supportive data to support the design of future studies and pediatric dose selection, these techniques increase the efficiency of pediatric drug development and lowers the risk of exposing pediatric study participants to suboptimal or unsafe dose regimens. Areas covered The role of PK, PK-PD and E-R modeling within pediatric drug development and pediatric dose selection is discussed. These models allow investigation of the impact of age and bodyweight on PK and PD in children, despite the often sparse data on the pediatric population. Also discussed is how E-R analyses strengthen the evidence basis to support (full or partial) extrapolation of drug efficacy from adults to children, and between different pediatric age groups. Expert opinion Accelerated pediatric drug development and optimized pediatric dosing guidelines are expected from three future developments: (1) Increased focus on E-R modeling of currently approved drugs in children resulting in (novel) E-R modeling techniques and best practices, (2) increased use of real-world data for E-R (3) increased implementation of available population PK and E-R information in pediatric drug dosing guidelines.
Evolution of the Rio Grande rift in the Socorro and Las Cruces areas

and widespread basalt and local silicic alkali rhyolite flows were emplaced. The oldest of these rocks constitute the Hinsdale Formation, which consists mainly of alkalic olivine basalt and basaltic andesite with small scattered rhyolite plug domes and one small rhyolite ash-flow sheet. "
Formulation and Comprehensive Evaluation of Biohybrid Hydrogel Membranes Containing Doxycycline or Silver Nanoparticles

Complicated wounds often require specialized medical treatments, and hydrogels have emerged as a popular choice for wound dressings in such cases due to their unique properties and the ability to incorporate and release therapeutic agents. Our focus was to develop and characterize a new optimized formula for biohybrid hydrogel membranes, which combine natural and synthetic polymers, bioactive natural compounds, like collagen and hyaluronic acid, and pharmacologically active substances (doxycycline or npAg). Dynamic (oscillatory) rheometry confirmed the strong gel-like properties of the obtained hydrogel membranes. Samples containing low-dose DOXY showed a swelling index of 285.68 ± 6.99%, a degradation rate of 71.6 ± 0.91% at 20 h, and achieved a cumulative drug release of approximately 90% at pH 7.4 and 80% at pH 8.3 within 12 h. The addition of npAg influenced the physical properties of the hydrogel membranes. Furthermore, the samples containing DOXY demonstrated exceptional antimicrobial efficacy against seven selected bacterial strains commonly associated with wound infections and complications. Biocompatibility assessments revealed that the samples exhibited over 80% cell viability. However, the addition of smaller-sized nanoparticles led to decreased cellular viability. The obtained biohybrid hydrogel membranes show favorable properties that render them suitable for application as wound dressings.
BNT162b2 Booster Dose Elicits a Robust Antibody Response in Subjects with Abdominal Obesity and Previous SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Little is known about the long-term durability of the induced immune response in subjects with obesity, particularly in those with an abdominal distribution of adipose tissue. We evaluated SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody responses after BNT162b2 vaccine booster dose, comparing individuals with and without abdominal obesity (AO), discerning between individuals previously infected or not. IgG-TrimericS were measured in 511 subjects at baseline, on the 21st day after vaccine dose 1, and at 1, 3, 6, and 9 months from dose 2, and at 1 and 3 months following the booster dose. To detect SARS-CoV-2 infection, nucleocapsid antibodies were measured at baseline and at the end of the study. Multivariable linear regression evaluated the three-month difference in the absolute variation in IgG-TrimericS levels from booster dose, showing AO and SARS-CoV-2 infection status interactions (p = 0.016). Regardless of possible confounding factors and IgG-TrimericS levels at the booster dose, AO is associated with a higher absolute change in IgG-TrimericS in prior infected individuals (p = 0.0125). In the same regression model, no interaction is highlighted using BMI (p = 0.418). The robust response in the development of antibodies after booster dose, observed in people with AO and previous infection, may support the recommendations to administer a booster dose in this population group.