Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Development and Investigation of an IAT for Workplace Integrity

The Implicit Association Test was used to develop an implicit measure of workplace integrity. The measure’s reliability (internal consistency and temporal stability) and its relationships with theoretically relevant measures (both explicit and implicit) were examined. Results raise questions about the measure’s reliability but provide some support for its construct validity. PRESS PARAGRAPH The assessment of integrity and character is of interest, especially in the wake of an endless litany of scandals involving criminal conduct by those in leadership roles in both corporate and governmental organizations. A recently developed procedure – the Implicit Association Test – was used to create a measure of workplace integrity and examine some of its psychometric properties. While the results raise some questions about the measure’s reliability, they provide some support for the construct validity of the measure and its potential as a tool for those interested in managing risks related to character failure in organizations.
An Exposure Appraisal of Outdoor Air Pollution on the Respiratory Well-being of a Developing City Population

Zaria is the educational hub of northern Nigeria. It is a developing city with a pollution level high enough to be ranked amongst the World Health Organization’s (WHO) most polluted cities. The study appraised the influence of outdoor air pollution on the respiratory well-being of a population in a limited resource environment. With the approved ethics, the techniques utilized were: portable pollutant monitors, respiratory health records, WHO AirQ+ software, and the American Thoracic Society (ATS) questionnaire. They were utilized to acquire day-time weighted outdoor pollution levels, health respiratory cases, assumed baseline incidence (BI), and exposure respiratory symptoms among selected study participants respectively. The study revealed an average respiratory illness incidence rate of 607 per 100,000 cases. Findings showed that an average of 2648 cases could have been avoided if the theoretical WHO threshold limit for the particulate matter with diameter of <2.5/10 micron (PM2.5/PM10) were adhered to. Using the questionnaire survey, phlegm was identified as the predominant respiratory symptom. A regression analysis showed that the criteria pollutant PM2.5, was the most predominant cause of respiratory symptoms among interviewed respondents. The study logistics revealed that outdoor pollution is significantly associated with respiratory well-being of the study population in Zaria, Nigeria.
A Study of Acquisition of Yi and Mandarin by Bilingual Preschoolers in Yunnan Province, China: A Case Study of Children in a Yi Village1 บทคัดย่อ

This study investigated how ethnic preschoolers acquire bilingual competence in an ethnic minority concentrated community in Yunnan Province of China. It mainly examined the influence of bilingual environment, specifically, amount of language exposure and input on bilingual competence of ethnic preschoolers. Through using ethnographic methods in this study, the issue of how the informants simultaneously acquire bilingual competence at home, school and community was carefully observed. The results of the study indicated that bilingual environment, especially, amount of exposure and input were significant predictors of bilingual competence. It was found that interlocutors' positive attitudes toward bilingual teaching could influence bilingual acquisition of the children. The results from this study suggested that parents should follow one person one language strategy and create favorable bilingual environment for the children. Also, both parents and teachers were advised to highlight the quality of language exposure and input. Furthermore, the language policy makers were suggested to stipulate relative language policies in favor of both the minority language and majority language and consider equal status of both languages.
Metabolic mechanism of ceftazidime resistance in Vibrio alginolyticus

Background Microbial metabolism confounds antibiotic efficacy. However, information regarding effect of metabolism on cephalosporin antibiotics-mediated killing and Vibrio spp is largely absence, although the drugs are widely used in clinic and the bacteria are pathogens to both human and aquaculture animals. Purpose This study explores the metabolome of cephalosporin antibiotic-resistant Vibrio alginolyticus and analyzes the role of bacterial metabolism in drug and multidrug-resistance. Results The metabolomes of isogenic ceftazidime-resistant V. alginolyticus (VA-RCAZ) and ceftazidime-sensitive V. alginolyticus (VA-S) were analyzed using gas chromatography -mass spectrometry. The metabolome of VA-RCAZ is characterized by inefficient respiration, an inefficient pyruvate cycle (P cycle), increased biosynthesis of fatty acids and decreased membrane proton motive force. This hypothesis was confirmed by the fact that furfural and malonate, inhibitors of pyruvate dehydrogenase and succinate dehydrogenase (P cycle enzymes), respectively, increased resistance of VA-RCAZ to antibiotics, while exposure to triclosan, to inhibit biosynthesis of fatty acids, decreased resistance. Conclusion These results contribute to our understanding of mechanisms of bacterial antibiotic-resistance and may lead to more effective approaches to treat, manage or prevent infections caused by antibiotic-resistant pathogens including those of the Vibrio species.
Reengineering and Automation of Business Processes: A Case Study with Universities Travel Request Business Process

The acceleration evolution in the business world makes the traditional business process that focuses on the success of each department individually, ignoring the organization vision and its success, not feasible. Therefore, business process management started to transform their business processes to be more automated which increase the productivity and achieve the business goal. This transformation leads the business processes to be reengineered to meet the new vision. This paper addressed the travel request at universities and how its cost influence universities budget as well as that create a bias between employees and their managers as there are no limitations for the travel approval. In this paper, an implementation of a business process reengineering using Bizagi platform is presented, to enhance the travel request business process. The reengineering involved specifying entitlement to reduce travel costs and increase the transparency between employees and their managers. A simulation to the new business process is then performed to analyze different benefits by the new To-Be Model.
Effects of Simulation-Based Education in Nursing Care for Stroke Patients

This study was conducted to examine the effects of simulation-based education (SBE) on nursing students' clinical performance, knowledge, and learner satisfaction in nursing care for stroke patients. The randomized controlled study involved 61 students who were enrolled in a geriatric nursing education course for a major at S university. Students in the simulation group received stroke patient care training by using a high-fidelity simulator, while those in the control group participated only in lectures. Collected data were analyzed using Chi-square, t-test, and independent t-test with the SPSS 24.0 for Windows program. The experimental group which had SIM-PBL showed significantly higher knowledge (t = 16.152, p< .001), learner satisfaction (t =7.358, p<.001), and clinical performance ability (t = 5.252, p <.001) for stroke patient care, compared with the control group. The results suggest that SIM-PBL is an effective teaching method to increase knowledge and clinical performance ability for nursing students. Therefore, it is necessary to develop simulation-based educational programs for clinical practicum, while further study is needed to determine the effects of diverse debriefing methods on student learning findings.
Transformation of Corn Stalk Residue to Humus-Like Substances during Solid-State Fermentation

Lignocellulase production from straw fermentation has been widely investigated but the research has neglected to quantify fermentation-derived residue transformation to the humus-like substance (HULIS). To investigate the conversion efficacy of corn stalk residue to HULIS, the amount of HULIS associated with chemical composition and structural changes of humic acid-like substances (HAL) was investigated in a 30 L solid-state fermentation tank during a short period of eight days. The results show that the highest decomposition rate of corn stalk and the highest activity of cellulase, xylanase, and β-glucosidase appeared at the fourth day. At the end of fermenting process, the amount of humic acid-like substances (HAL) and the percentage of HAL in humus acid (PQ value) increased 17.5% and 8.9%, respectively, indicating Trichoderma reesei facilitates the transformation of corn stalk residue to HAL. Fatty acids decreased while aromatic carbon and carboxyl content significantly increased during the ongoing fermentation, which had a positive impact on the HAL thermal stability. The FTIR spectral and thermal analysis revealed an improvement in HAL degrees of condensation, oxidation, and aromatization. The present study suggests that the residue of corn stalks fermented with T. reesei might be a good fertilizer to improve soil characteristics.
Associations between obesity and cognitive impairment in the Chinese elderly: an observational study

Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between obesity and cognitive impairment in the Chinese elderly. Patients and methods Patients aged 60 years or above were enrolled from the Department of Geriatrics of The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University from March 2013 to May 2017. Mini-Mental State Examination scale was used to assess the cognitive function. Body mass index (BMI) and waist–hip ratio were used to classify obesity. Student’s t-test, Mann–Whitney U-test, or chi-squared test was used to compare the data between participants with normal cognition and participants with cognitive impairment as appropriate. Univariate logistic regression models and multivariate logistic regression models were performed to explore the relationship between BMI or abdominal obesity and cognitive impairment. Results A total of 1,100 patients including 568 men and 532 women aged 60–98 years (median age 79 years) were enrolled. After adjusting for age, gender, smoking, drinking, education level, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, and diabetes, overweight was significantly associated with a decreased risk of cognitive impairment (OR=0.458, 95% CI=0.298–0.703, P<0.001). After adjustment for age, education level, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, and diabetes, abdominal obesity remained significantly associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment (OR=1.532, 95% CI=1.037–2.263, P=0.032). Conclusion Overweight is associated with a decreased risk of cognitive impairment in the Chinese elderly, while abdominal obesity is associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment independent of conventional sociodemographic, lifestyle, and health-related comorbid factors.
Development of blast resistant versions of improved samba Mahsuri variety of rice (Oryza sativa L.) through marker assisted breeding

Globally, blast incited by Magnaporthe oryzae forms major fungal diseases that can cause severe loss in yield to the extent of 70-80% in various rice ecosystems. Marker assisted backcross breeding approach was employed to incorporate blast resistance genes viz., Pi1, Pi2 and Pi54, from the donor lines BPT/lac/tetep and B95-1/A51 into blast susceptible otherwise superior cultivar Improved Samba Mahsuri. Foreground selection coupled with stringent phenotypic selection lead to the identification of 15 superior BC2F2 plants homozygous for three genes. Agro-morphological evaluation of the pyramided lines revealed that three of the selections viz., ISM10-15-101, ISM10-15-119 and ISM10-15-154 showed significant increase in no. of filled grains per panicle (30.22%) and yield (24.23%). BC2F2:3 derived lines, varied in their disease reaction to DRR isolates. Three of the Pi1+Pi2+Pi54 pyramided lines showed complete resistance to mixture of virulent races under artificial inoculation as well as in UBN test locations.
Nutrition transition profiles and obesity burden in Argentina

Abstract Objective The present study aimed to identify nutrition transition (NT) profiles in Argentina (2005–2013) and assess their association with obesity in the adult population. Design A large cross-sectional study was performed considering data sets of nationally representative surveys. A multiple correspondence analysis coupled with hierarchical clustering was conducted to detect geographical clusters of association among sociodemographic and NT indicators. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to assess the effect of NT profile (proxy variable of contextual order) on obesity occurrence. Setting First, we used geographically aggregated data about the adult and child populations in Argentina. Second, we defined the population of adults who participated in the National Survey of Chronic Disease Risk Factors (2013) as the study population. Participants Twenty-four geographical units that make up the territory of Argentina and 32 365 individuals over 18 years old living in towns of at least 5000 people. Results Three NT profiles were identified: ‘Socionutritional lag’ (characterized by undernutrition and socio-economically disadvantaged conditions; profile 1); ‘Double burden of malnutrition’ (undernutrition and overweight in highly urbanized scenarios; profile 2); and ‘Incipient socionutritional improvement’ (low prevalence of malnutrition and more favourable poverty indicator values; profile 3). Profiles 1 and 2 were significantly associated (OR; 95 % CI) with a higher risk of obesity occurrence in adults (1·17; 1·02, 1·32 and 1·44; 1·26, 1·64, respectively) compared with profile 3. Conclusions Argentina is facing different NT processes, where sociodemographic factors play a major role in shaping diverse NT profiles. Most of the identified profiles were linked to obesity burden in adults.
Latest Geodetic Changes of Austre Lovénbreen and Pedersenbreen, Svalbard

Geodetic mass changes in the Svalbard glaciers Austre Lovénbreen and Pedersenbreen were studied via high-precision real-time kinematic (RTK)-global positioning system (GPS) measurements from 2013 to 2015. To evaluate the elevation changes of the two Svalbard glaciers, more than 10,000 GPS records for each glacier surface were collected every year from 2013 to 2015. The results of several widely used interpolation methods (i.e., inverse distance weighting (IDW), ordinary kriging (OK), universal kriging (UK), natural neighbor (NN), spline interpolation, and Topo to Raster (TTR) interpolation) were compared. Considering the smoothness and accuracy of the glacier surface, NN interpolation was selected as the most suitable interpolation method to generate a surface digital elevation model (DEM). In addition, we compared two procedures for calculating elevation changes: using DEMs generated from the direct interpolation of the RTK-GPS points and using the elevation bias of crossover points from the RTK-GPS tracks in different years. Then, the geodetic mass balances were calculated by converting the elevation changes to their water equivalents. Comparing the geodetic mass balances calculated with and without considering snow depth revealed that ignoring the effect of snow depth, which differs greatly over a short time interval, might lead to bias in mass balance investigation. In summary, there was a positive correlation between the geodetic mass balance and the corresponding elevation. The mass loss increased with decreasing elevation, and the mean annual gradients of the geodetic mass balance along the elevation of Austre Lovénbreen and Pedersenbreen in 2013–2015 were approximately 2.60‰ and 2.35‰, respectively. The gradients at the glacier snouts were three times larger than those over the whole glaciers. Additionally, some mass gain occurred in certain high-elevation regions. Compared with a 2019 DEM generated from unmanned aerial vehicle measurement, the glacier snout areas presented an accelerating thinning situation in 2015–2019.
THE ROLE OF HONEY IN THE MANAGEMENT OF DIABETIC FOOT ULCERS

Objective: This study was performed to compare dressings with honey/normal saline to povidone iodine/hydrogen peroxide in the management of diabetic foot ulcers. Methods: Two hundred patients with diabetic foot ulcers were allocated randomly to two groups according to the dressing material used. The study was performed between 1996-2001 in four district hospitals in Jordan. Results: The study showed that introducing honey/normal saline as a method of dressing reduced time of the healing, hospital stay and cost by 34%, 43%, 50%, respectively. The need for amputations was also reduced by 50%. The dressing material irritation and allergy were markedly reduced in comparison with povidone iodine/ hydrogen peroxide. Conclusion: The use of honey and normal saline protocol appeared to reduce the time of healing, hospital stay and the need for amputation. It is non-irritant, has antimicrobial effect and a debriding action. It also promotes healing, and is cost effective in the management of diabetic foot ulcers.
Treatment of late bacterial infections resulting from soft-tissue filler injections

Purpose Late bacterial infections (LBIs) after esthetic facial augmentation using hyaluronic acid (HA) fillers are relatively rare yet severe complications that are difficult to treat. No adequate treatment standards have hitherto been formulated. We have bridged this gap by formulating a treatment scheme based on the principles of treating foreign-body implantation-related infections and treating bacterial growth in the form of biofilm. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a comprehensive scheme for treating LBI complications after facial augmentation using cross-linked HA fillers. Methods A total of 22 patients with LBI symptoms at a site of cross-linked HA injection underwent treatment and observation. The comprehensive treatment scheme formulated by Marusza and Netsvyetayeva (M&N scheme) comprised draining the lesion, dissolution of cross-linked HA with hyaluronidase, broad-spectrum antibiotic combination therapy, and use of probiotics. While 17 patients underwent the M&N scheme, the remaining five were treated with other schemes. Statistical analysis of the data was performed using Mann–Whitney U and χ2 nonparametric tests with SAS 9.4 software. Results All 17 patients who underwent the M&N scheme experienced resolution of symptoms, with no recurrence of infection at the HA-injection sites. Conclusion To treat LBI at a site of cross-linked HA administration, the principles applicable to infections resulting from implantation of a foreign body must be followed. The treatment period should be sufficiently long for complete resolution of symptoms. The efficacy of treatment is considered proven if 2 months have elapsed without recurrence since the symptoms resolved. The M&N scheme is recommended for use as the first therapeutic option for treating LBI related to soft-tissue fillers.
Opposite responses to aversive stimuli in lateral habenula neurons

Appropriate behavioural strategies to cope with unexpected salient stimuli require synergistic neuronal responses in diverse brain regions. Among them, the epithalamic lateral habenula (LHb) plays a pivotal role in processing salient stimuli of aversive valence. Integrated in the complex motivational circuit, LHb neurons are indeed excited by aversive stimuli, including footshock (Fs). However, whether such excitation is a common feature represented throughout the LHb remains unclear. Here, we combined single‐unit extracellular recordings in anaesthetized mice with juxtacellular labelling to describe the nature, location and pharmacological properties of Fs‐driven responses within the LHb. We find that, along with Fs‐excited cells, about 10% of LHb neurons display Fs‐mediated inhibitory responses. Such inhibited neuronal population, in contrast to Fs‐excited neurons, display regular and high frequency activity at baseline and is clustered in the medial portion of the LHb. Juxtacellular labelling of Fs‐excited and inhibited neurons unravels that both populations are of glutamatergic type, as they co‐localized with the EAAC1 glutamatergic transporter but not with the GAD67 GABAergic marker. Moreover, while the excitatory responses to Fs require both AMPA and NMDA receptors, the inhibitory responses rely instead on GABAA channels. Taken together, our results indicate that two functionally and partly segregated LHb neuronal ensembles encode Fs in an opposite fashion. This highlights the neuronal complexity in the LHb for processing aversive external stimuli.
Quantifying the Distribution and Diversity of Fish Species Along Elevational Gradients in the Weihe River Basin, Northwest China

In this study, species compositions, distributions, and diversity patterns of fish assemblages were investigated at 50 sampling sites in the Weihe River and its two largest tributaries, the Jinghe River and the Beiluo River, under high- and low-flow conditions in 2017. For every condition tested and in the all rivers tested, Cyprinidae was the richest family, containing 17 of the 39 identified fish species. Carassius auratus was the most common species, accounting for 11.3% of the total individuals. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS), analysis of similarities (ANOSIM), and similarity percentage analysis (SIMPER) revealed that fish species composition differed significantly among rivers (p < 0.05), with dissimilar species assemblages found in the different rivers. Variation was influenced by a combined effect of habitat conditions, environmental factors, and human impact. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) identified variables explaining the variation in fish species (p < 0.05), and elevation contributed the most under both flow conditions. Alpha diversity decreased with increasing elevation within rivers as a result of changing environmental conditions, especially for wetted width. Alpha and beta diversities of rivers increased with increasing drainage area, which is related to habitat heterogeneity. The decrease in alpha diversity and the increase in beta diversity with increasing elevation can be explained by variations in habitat and geographic features.
Clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction after total knee arthroplasty: a follow-up of the first 50 cases by a single surgeon

Objective To examine the association between single-surgeon learning curve and clinical outcomes following total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Methods This prospective study included the first consecutive patients undergoing TKA conducted by the same surgeon using the JOURNEY II Bi-Cruciate Stabilized Knee System (Smith & Nephew, Andover, MA, USA). Patients were assessed preoperatively, and at three months and one year postoperatively using Oxford Knee Score (OKS), Knee Society Score (KSS) and Knee Function Score (KFS). Outcomes were statistically analysed using sequential patient cohorts. Results Fifty patients were grouped into five sequential cohorts of 10 patients each. All patients showed significant improvement in postoperative knee scores following TKA. There was a trend toward increased improvement in knee scores in the later patient cohorts, at the three-month and 1-year follow-up. Conclusions The single-surgeon learning curve for minimally invasive TKA had a small effect on knee satisfaction scores at 3 months and 1 year following surgery in the first 50 consecutive cases, and only minor complications were encountered. A larger trial is necessary to draw generalizable conclusions regarding patient outcomes during surgeon learning.