Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A retrospective investigation of spatial clusters and determinants of diabetes prevalence: scan statistics and geographically weighted regression modeling approaches

Background Diabetes and its complications represent a significant public health burden in the United States. Some communities have disproportionately high risks of the disease. Identification of these disparities is critical for guiding policy and control efforts to reduce/eliminate the inequities and improve population health. Thus, the objectives of this study were to investigate geographic high-prevalence clusters, temporal changes, and predictors of diabetes prevalence in Florida. Methods Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data for 2013 and 2016 were provided by the Florida Department of Health. Tests for equality of proportions were used to identify counties with significant changes in the prevalence of diabetes between 2013 and 2016. The Simes method was used to adjust for multiple comparisons. Significant spatial clusters of counties with high diabetes prevalence were identified using Tango’s flexible spatial scan statistic. A global multivariable regression model was fit to identify predictors of diabetes prevalence. A geographically weighted regression model was fit to assess for spatial non-stationarity of the regression coefficients and fit a local model. Results There was a small but significant increase in the prevalence of diabetes in Florida (10.1% in 2013 to 10.4% in 2016), and statistically significant increases in prevalence occurred in 61% (41/67) of counties in the state. Significant, high-prevalence clusters of diabetes were identified. Counties with a high burden of the condition tended to have high proportions of the population that were non-Hispanic Black, had limited access to healthy foods, were unemployed, physically inactive, and had arthritis. Significant non-stationarity of regression coefficients was observed for the following variables: proportion of the population physically inactive, proportion with limited access to healthy foods, proportion unemployed, and proportion with arthritis. However, density of fitness and recreational facilities had a confounding effect on the association between diabetes prevalence and levels of unemployment, physical inactivity, and arthritis. Inclusion of this variable decreased the strength of these relationships in the global model, and reduced the number of counties with statistically significant associations in the local model. Conclusions The persistent geographic disparities of diabetes prevalence and temporal increases identified in this study are concerning. There is evidence that the impacts of the determinants on diabetes risk vary by geographical location. This implies that a one-size-fits-all approach to disease control/prevention would be inadequate to curb the problem. Therefore, health programs will need to use evidence-based approaches to guide health programs and resource allocation to reduce disparities and improve population health.
Algorithmic Aspects of Hyperelliptic Curves and their Jacobians

Ce travail se divise en deux parties. Dans la premiere partie, nous generalisons le travail de Khuri-Makdisi qui decrit des algorithmes pour l'arithmetique des diviseurs sur une courbe sur un corps. Nous montrons que les analogues naturelles de ses resultats se verifient pour les diviseurs de Cartier relatifs effectifs sur un schema projectif, lisse et de dimension relative un sur un schema affine noetherien quelconque, et que les analogues naturelles de ses algorithmes se verifient pour une certaine classe d'anneaux de base. Nous presentons un formalisme pour tels anneaux qui sont caracterises par l'existence d'un certain sous-ensemble des operations standards de l'algebre lineaire pour les modules projectifs sur ces anneaux.Dans la deuxieme partie de ce travail, nous considerons un type de probleme de Riemann-Roch pour les diviseurs sur certaines surfaces algebriques. Plus precisement, nous analysons les surfaces algebriques qui emanent d'un produit ou d'un produit symetrique d'une courbe hyperelliptique de genre superieur a un sur un corps (presque) arbitraire. Les resultats principaux sont une decomposition des espaces de sections globales de certains diviseurs sur telles surfaces et des formules explicites qui decrivent les dimensions des espaces de sections de ces diviseurs. Dans le dernier chapitre, nous presentons un algorithme qui produit une base pour l'espace de sections globales d'un tel diviseur.
Effects of production stage and fertility traits on milk production of pasture-grazed Holstein and Jersey cows in a Mediterranean-type climate region

The aim of this study was to compare the milk production of Holstein and Jersey cows on pasture as affected by parity, lactation stage, calving season, age at first calving, and calving interval. Test-day lactation records of 122 Holstein and 99 Jersey cows, varying from parities 1 to 6, were collected using standard milk recording procedures. Cows were managed and kept as one herd on kikuyu over-sown with ryegrass pasture and received 7 kg of concentrate (as fed) containing 170 g/kg crude protein per day. Across parities, the means for milk yield, milk fat, milk protein, dry matter intake, and body weight were 23.8 ± 6.2 and 17.9 ± 4.4 kg/day; 3.89 ± 0.03 and 4.66 ± 0.03%; 3.17 ± 0.02 and 3.59 ± 0.02%; 17.8 ± 2.6 and 14.4 ± 2.1 kg/day; and 567 ± 3.49 and 411 ± 3.84 kg for Holstein and Jersey cows, respectively. Milk yield increased by 26.5% in Holsteins and 23.7% in Jerseys from first to fourth lactation. Mean lactation number was 2.5 ± 0.15 and 3.0 ± 0.17; test-day milk yield for summer was 21.2 ± 0.28 and 16.5 ± 0.31 kg/day; and winter was 21.3 ± 0.28 and 16.4 ± 0.32 kg/day; age at first calving was 26.4 ± 0.3 and 26.2 ± 0.3; and inter-calving period was 13.9 ± 0.18 and 13.2 ± 0.17 months, for Holstein and Jersey cows, respectively. With inter-calving periods of 13 months, 13.1 to 15.0 and above 15 months, the 305-day Holstein cow milk yield was 7324 ± 181, 7768 ± 193, and 7927 ± 211 kg, whereas that of Jerseys was 5400 ± 135, 5621 ± 244, and 5724 ± 234 kg, respectively. In this study, Jerseys performed better than Holsteins in lactation number and calving interval. Holsteins, however, had a higher increase in milk yield from first to fourth lactation, whereas age at first calving did not differ.
Regularity of pullback random attractors for stochastic FitzHugh-Nagumo system on unbounded domains

The regularity of the pullback random attractor for a stochastic FitzHugh-Nagumo system on $\mathbb R^n$ driven by deterministic non-autonomous forcing is proved. More precisely, the pullback random attractor is shown to be compact in $H^1(\mathbb R^n)\times L^2(\mathbb R^n)$ and attract all tempered sets of $L^2(\mathbb R^n)\times L^2(\mathbb R^n)$ in the topology of $H^1(\mathbb R^n)\times L^2(\mathbb R^n)$. The proof is based on tail estimates technique, eigenvalues of the Laplace operator in bounded domains and some new estimates of solutions.
A critical discourse analysis of Al Jazeera’s online coverage of the war in Yemen before and after the 5 June 2017 Gulf crisis

In this study, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was utilised to examine the Al Jazeera Arabic news website with respect to its reports on the social actors in the Yemen war, particularly the KSA, UAE, Egypt and Bahrain coalition and the opposing Houthis, both before and after the Gulf crisis that occurred on 5 June 2017. The analysed data included a total of 32 news articles related to the war in Yemen, with 16 articles covering the period prior to the Crisis, from 2015 to 2017, and 16 covering the period following the onset of the crisis, from 2017 to 2019. The overall aim was to uncover the ideological implications of various linguistic elements, such as lexical choices, news headline creation, and de-legitimisation strategies, and the results revealed identifiable, distinct, and non-random changes in tone and angle of representation relating to the various social actors and their actions. Before the crisis, the coalition was represented positively while Houthis was presented negatively, while after the crisis, the tone towards these social actors was completely reversed. The various discursive strategies used in the articles across both periods thus show that the coverage of the Yemen crisis was intended to ideologically and politically guide readers’ understanding of the crisis.
Cannabis Use and Endocannabinoid Receptor Genes: A Pilot Study on Their Interaction on Brain Activity in First-Episode Psychosis

The role of both cannabis use and genetic background has been shown in the risk for psychosis. However, the effect of the interplay between cannabis and variability at the endocannabinoid receptor genes on the neurobiological underpinnings of psychosis remains inconclusive. Through a case-only design, including patients with a first-episode of psychosis (n = 40) classified as cannabis users (50%) and non-users (50%), we aimed to evaluate the interaction between cannabis use and common genetic variants at the endocannabinoid receptor genes on brain activity. Genetic variability was assessed by genotyping two Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) at the cannabinoid receptor type 1 gene (CNR1; rs1049353) and cannabinoid receptor type 2 gene (CNR2; rs2501431). Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data were obtained while performing the n-back task. Gene × cannabis interaction models evidenced a combined effect of CNR1 and CNR2 genotypes and cannabis use on brain activity in different brain areas, such as the caudate nucleus, the cingulate cortex and the orbitofrontal cortex. These findings suggest a joint role of cannabis use and cannabinoid receptor genetic background on brain function in first-episode psychosis, possibly through the impact on brain areas relevant to the reward circuit.
Physical Layer Security for Visible Light Communication in Reflected Indoor Environments With Inter-Symbol Interference

Visible light communication (VLC) is a promising technology for next-generation indoor wireless broadband communication systems. Physical layer security (PLS) is one proposed method to ensure data security for VLC in public areas. However, most PLS studies in the literature neglect the reflections in the VLC channel and do not consider inter-symbol interference (ISI). This paper investigates the ISI effects on the secrecy rate in multiple-input single-output VLC systems where the reflections are not neglected for the cases of perfect and imperfect knowledge of the eavesdropper’s channel state information. We aim to compensate for the ISI effects by designing zero-forcing (ZF) and artificial noise (AN) beamformers. In addition, we formulate optimization problems to maximize the secrecy rate resulting in non-convex and NP-hard problems. Thus, we utilize the particle swarm optimization algorithm for solutions and also convert non-convex optimization problems into easily solvable linear problems. Furthermore, robust ZF and AN beamformers for the worst-case scenario are considered for the cases of ISI and no ISI. The results reveal that ISI severely degrades the secrecy rate; however, well-designed beamformers can reverse the ISI effects.
A bibliometric review of World Leisure Journal: an analysis of research published between 2000 and 2022

ABSTRACT World Leisure Journal (WLJ) has consolidated its position as a prominent source to communicate innovative and interdisciplinary research concerning all forms of leisure. The study intends to provide a comprehensive overview of the academic structure of the WLJ based on articles published between 2000 and 2022 through bibliometric analysis to highlight its contribution and influence. A final data set of 535 articles were analyzed to highlight the journal’s impact, conceptual structure, and most prolific and influential authors, including the sources of knowledge inflow in WLJ. Moreover, the study also performed a collaboration analysis to understand the social structure of the journal. The findings of the thematic analysis revealed various themes studied in WLJ in the three different sub-periods. The USA emerged as a significant country in collaboration with Canada, South Africa, Israel, Brazil and China.
Perception of Quality of Life and Fatigue in Multiple Sclerosis Patients Treated with High-Dose Vitamin D

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, with symptoms that greatly affect quality of life (QoL). One of the most prevalent symptoms of MS is fatigue, also one of the main factors reducing QoL. Low levels of vitamin D (VD) are associated with worse QoL and with increased risk of developing more severe forms of the disease. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we compared perceptions of quality of life and fatigue in 324 patients, subdivided into four groups, according to their treatment: high-dose VD therapy only, disease-modifying therapy (DMT) only, both treatments, and no treatments. All subjects completed the MSQOL-54 and the FSS questionnaires via an online survey. Results: High-dose VD treatment was associated with an increased perception of physical QoL (83.60 vs. 66.92, p < 0.001), mental QoL (75.52 vs. 59.80, p < 0.001), and fatigue (1.89 vs. 2.98, p < 0.001), compared to the DMT-only group. Treatment with DMT was associated with a worse perception of physical QoL compared to no treatment (70.58 vs. 76.53, p = 0.024). Conclusions: high-dose VD treatment is well-tolerated and associated with an increased perception of QoL in people with MS.
An Empirical Investigation into Students’ Actual Use of MOOCs in Saudi Arabia Higher Education

Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, are a type of educational innovation where enrollment in the courses given is free and available online. The MOOCs course selection is extensive and may accommodate hundreds or thousands of students at once. The current study, however, aims to look into how the academic self-efficacy of real MOOC users affects learning engagement and perseverance in higher education in Saudi Arabia. This study added the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to social cognitive theory. Therefore, the primary goal is to create a new model by examining the variables that affect the perceived utility and perceived service quality, as well as the students’ general perceptions of MOOCs that are really used. Therefore, this research used a quantitative approach and distributed the questionnaire online through a Google Form. It collected data from 276 King Saud University students and used it to test the hypothesized correlations using structural equation modeling (SEM-PLS). The study’s findings showed that perceptions of perceived benefits and service quality consistently had a significant influence on social interaction, influence, networks of support, and social identity. A further finding was that reported utility and perceived service quality have always been significantly influenced by academic self-efficacy in actual MOOC use. Because of this, learning engagement and perseverance in Saudi Arabian higher education are significantly impacted by the academic self-efficacy of real MOOC users. According to the findings, MOOC programs generally have a positive influence on the kingdom’s higher education system. As a result, it is almost certain that this research model will assist university decision-makers in determining whether or not MOOC usage is prevalent at Saudi educational institutions.
Plasma model of discharge along a dielectric surface in N2/O2 mixtures

Surface discharge phenomena often occur across the insulator in power systems, damaging the electrical equipment, but the mechanism of the electron multiplication stage during surface discharge is not yet fully understood. As such, it is necessary to investigate the mechanism of discharge along a dielectric surface. In this paper, we develop a numerical fluid model, analyzing the dynamic characteristics of discharge including the electron density, electron temperature, surface charge density, and electric field. Our results show that the electron density peaks in the head of the streamer channel, at which time the electron temperature also reaches its maximum. A thin layer of plasma can be formed, filled with a mix of positive and negative charges, so the space normal electric field in the streamer channel can be positive or negative. In addition, the surface tangential electric field and electric potential are closely related, and the potential steadily increases because there is a steady tangential elec.
Changes in Clinical Manifestations and Course of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Secondary Antiphospholipid Syndrome over Three Decades

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is often associated with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), which potentially results in a more severe disease course and reduced life expectancy. Since the therapeutic guidelines have been refined in the last 15 years, we assumed that the diseases course has become more favorable. In order to shed light on these achievements, we compared the data of SLE patients diagnosed before and since 2004. In our retrospective study, we assessed a wide spectrum of clinical and laboratory data of 554 SLE patients who received regular follow-up care and therapy at our autoimmune center. Among these patients, 247 had antiphospholipid antibodies (APAs) without clinical signs of APS, and 113 had definitive APS. In the APS group, among patients diagnosed since 2004, deep vein thrombosis (p = 0.049) and lupus anticoagulant positivity (p = 0.045) were more frequent, while acute myocardial infarction was less frequent (p = 0.021) compared with patients diagnosed before 2004. Among the APA positive patients without definitive APS, anti-cardiolipin antibody positivity (p = 0.024) and development of chronic renal failure (p = 0.005) decreased in patients diagnosed since 2004. Our study demonstrates that the disease course has changed in recent years; however, in the presence of APS, we have to expect repeated thrombotic events despite adequate anticoagulant therapy.
Large-Scale Solar PV Converter Based Robust Wide-Area Damping Controller for Critical Low Frequency Oscillations in Power Systems

Integration of large-scale renewable energy sources in legacy power system has negative impact on inertia and low-frequency oscillations (LFOs). Critical LFO modes are the primary concern in system stability as they limit the power transfer capability in inter-region tie-lines. Therefore, to provide adequate damping to critical LFO modes, a robust wide-area damping controller (WADC) design is required. In this paper, time delayed feedback control (TDFC) based WADC design is carried out with large-scale solar photovoltaic (SPV). In the design process, geometric technique is used to determine the appropriate wide-area signals. Time delays and noises in feedback signals as well as different operating scenarios have severe implications on the damping performance of WADC. Hence, considering these uncertainties, the proposed WADC parameters are tuned by modified particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The performance of proposed WADC is demonstrated on SPV-integrated IEEE 4-machine 11-bus and 16-machine 68-bus systems. Critical modes of the system are damped by more than 10% damping ratio in both cases. Furthermore, nonlinear dynamic simulations demonstrate that the proposed WADC provides robust performance over wide operating scenarios. Finally, practical efficacy of the proposed method is established by experimental validation through real-time simulation using OPAL-RT.
Influence of Strict Lockdown on Vitamin D Deficiency in Pregnant Women: A Word of Caution

The main source of vitamin D results from skin sunlight exposure. Vitamin D deficiency (VDD) is linked to several adverse events during pregnancy. While performing a cross-sectional study with 886 pregnant women in Elda (Spain) from September 2019 to July 2020 to determine the association of VDD with gestational diabetes mellitus in relation to body mass index, a strict lockdown (SL) due to the COVID-19 pandemic was declared from 15 March 2020 to 15 May 2020. To determine if VDD prevalence in the local population of pregnant women was influenced by SL, a retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted to estimate the prevalence odds ratio (POR) for the association of VDD and SL. A crude logistic regression model was calculated, and then further adjusted by the biweekly measured vitamin D-specific UVB dose in our geographical area. The POR during SL was 4.0 (95%CI = 2.7–5.7), with a VDD prevalence of 77.8% in the quarantine period. Our results revealed that VDD prevalence in pregnant women was influenced by SL. This valuable information could guide us in future if public officials order the population to stay indoors for any given reason.
mHealth application as physical activity intervention: a case study on physical activity, emotional exhaustion, and work performance

ABSTRACT Physical activity interventions are proven to mitigate job stress and improve work performance. However, the recommended threshold of physical activity is rarely considered when evaluating the effect of physical activity. This study adopted case study approach to investigate the moderating effect of the threshold of physical activity on the relationship between emotional exhaustion and work performance, based on the conservation of resources theory. The research site was an Asian university wherein the university developed a mHealth application as a physical activity intervention to promote Exercise-is-Medicine® On Campus. A longitudinal survey was conducted to collect quantitative data for analysis, and interviews were conducted for further insights. The results supported the hypothesis that the threshold of physical activity was an effective moderator in the exhaustion-performance relationship. This study enriches the burnout literature and substantiates literature on technology-enabled solutions for improving work performance by engaging users to do regular and sufficient physical activity.
Performance of the thin film coating on the long and collimating BEaTriX parabolic mirror

Abstract. Long mirrors coated with thin films are used for a wide range of applications, e.g., focusing or collimating high-energy optics. Focusing of incident x-ray radiation is one of the major applications for high-energy astronomical telescopes, and collimation of divergent x-ray sources is used for experimental setups to confine or expand x-ray radiation. Both applications utilize grazing angle reflection, which is typically enhanced using x-ray reflective thin films. One of the challenges with thin film coatings is the deposition induced nonuniformities. For x-ray reflecting mirrors, nonuniformity in the thin film deposition influences the thickness, roughness, and density of the thin film, which affects the predicted performance of the mirror. As part of the thin film coating development for the 456-mm-long parabolic mirror used in the Beam Expander Testing X-ray facility, our work presents the challenge of coating long x-ray reflective mirrors. We used x-ray reflectometry to investigate the nonuniformity in platinum and chromium thin films deposited using direct current magnetron sputtering.