Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Onset, Cessation, and Seasonality of Rainfall during Monsoon in Gujarat State of India

Rainfall onset, cessation and its temporal rainfall distribution is very important for monsoon based crop production. Climatic timeseries data of 26 stations of Gujarat state were chosen for the study. Year wise agroclimatic onset, cessation, length, and seasonality of rainy season were determined. Long term average over the timeseries were considered as climatic normals to characterize rainfall pattern to support kharif crop production. Onset starts in South Gujarat from 8th June and it cover the entire state by 6th July at Kutch, with large variation. Cessation of rainy season ranges from 6th September to 21st September in Gujarat. Length of active rainy season prevails from 66 days (at Bhachau) to 96 days (at Ubharat) with state mean of 81 days. Most part of the state has seasonal rainfall regime with dry periods. Rainfall seasonality monsoon season in Gujarat has not changed significantly during recent past.
Mediating role of employee commitment in the relationship between transactional leadership and employee performance

For any organization to accomplish its key goals and survive in the aggressive market, employees’ job performance plays a fundamental role (Falola, Osibanjo, & Ojo, 2014). The type of leadership style affects the level of employees’ commitment. Besides, employee commitment is extremely important for leaders to keep their workers driven and satisfied (Riaz et al., 2017). This study intends to examine the significance of employee commitment as a mediator in the relationship between transactional leadership style and employee performance among Malaysian construction sector employees. Using the simple random sampling technique, this target population completed a self-administered questionnaire which was assessed using structural equation modelling (SEM) through IBM-SPSS-AMOS 24.0. Resultantly, transactional leadership style proved insignificant in forecasting employee performance while employee commitment substantially affected employee performance. Meanwhile, transactional leadership significantly impacted employee commitment while employee commitment fully mediated the relationship between transactional leadership and employee performance. The research’s implications are furthermore reviewed.
Effect of Ethephon Application on Fruit Quality at Harvest and Post-harvest Storage of Japanese Plum (Prunus salicina) cv. Fortune

: The objective of this work was to evaluate different concentrations of ethephon on Fortune plum ripening, also observing the effect of ethephon concentration on the fruit parameters of yield, soluble solids (SS), titratable acidity (TA), SS/TA ratio, firmness, wooliness, diameter, length, and average fruit mass at harvest and post-harvest. The experimental design was completely randomized with five treatments and four replications, each experimental unit consisting of wooliness, titratable acidity, and soluble solids content. The parameters of soluble solids and titratable acidity presented a significant negative correlation, whereas the SS/TA ratio was positively correlated with the ethephon dose.
Evidence of horizontal urban heat advection in London using six years of data from a citizen weather station network

Recent advances in citizen weather station (CWS) networks, with data accessible via crowd-sourcing, provide relevant climatic information to urban scientists and decision makers. In particular, CWS can provide long-term measurements of urban heat and valuable information on spatio-temporal heterogeneity related to horizontal heat advection. In this study, we make the first compilation of a quasi-climatologic dataset covering six years (2015–2020) of hourly near-surface air temperature measurements obtained via 1560 suitable CWS in a domain covering south-east England and Greater London. We investigated the spatio-temporal distribution of urban heat and the influences of local environments on climate, captured by CWS through the scope of Local Climate Zones (LCZ)—a land-use land-cover classification specifically designed for urban climate studies. We further calculate, for the first time, the amount of advected heat captured by CWS located in Greater London and the wider south east England region. We find that London is on average warmer by about 1.0 ∘C–1.5 ∘C than the rest of south-east England. Characteristics of the southern coastal climate are also captured in the analysis. We find that on average, urban heat advection (UHA) contributes to 0.22 ± 0.96 ∘C of the total urban heat in Greater London. Certain areas, mostly in the centre of London are deprived of urban heat through advection since heat is transferred more to downwind suburban areas. UHA can positively contribute to urban heat by up to 1.57 ∘C, on average and negatively by down to −1.21 ∘C. Our results also show an important degree of inter- and intra-LCZ variability in UHA, calling for more research in the future. Nevertheless, we already find that UHA can impact green areas and reduce their cooling benefit. Such outcomes show the added value of CWS when considering future urban design.
Analysis of Hypergraph Signals via High-Order Total Variation

Beyond pairwise relationships, interactions among groups of agents do exist in many real-world applications, but they are difficult to capture by conventional graph models. Generalized from graphs, hypergraphs have been introduced to describe such high-order group interactions. Inspired by graph signal processing (GSP) theory, an existing hypergraph signal processing (HGSP) method presented a spectral analysis framework relying on the orthogonal CP decomposition of adjacency tensors. However, such decomposition may not exist even for supersymmetric tensors. In this paper, we propose a high-order total variation (HOTV) form of a hypergraph signal (HGS) as its smoothness measure, which is a hyperedge-wise measure aggregating all signal values in each hyperedge instead of a pairwise one in most existing work. Further, we propose an HGS analysis framework based on the Tucker decomposition of the hypergraph Laplacian induced by the aforementioned HOTV. We construct an orthonormal basis from the HOTV, by which a new spectral transformation of the HGS is introduced. Then, we design hypergraph filters in both vertex and spectral domains correspondingly. Finally, we illustrate the advantages of the proposed framework by applications in label learning.
Fluid Flow in a 180 Deg Sharp Turning Duct With Different Divider Thicknesses

The effect of divider thickness on fluid flows in a two-pass smooth square duct with a 180 deg straight-corner turn is an important issue to the turbine blade internal cooling but has not been explored in the past. Laser-Doppler velocimetry measurements are thus presented for such a study at a Reynolds number of 1.2 × 104 and dimensionless divider thicknesses (Wd*) of 0.10, 0.25, 0.50. Results are presented in terms of various mean velocity components in two orthogonal streamwise planes and three cross-sectional planes, the local and regional averaged turbulent kinetic energy and resultant mean velocity distributions, and complemented by the liquid crystal measured heat transfer coefficient contours. The measured velocity data are able to reasonably explain published and present measured heat transfer results. Wd* is found to have profound effects on the flow features inside and immediately after the turn. The turbulence level and uniformity in the region immediately after the turn respectively decrease and increase with increasing Wd*. © 1998 ASME
The Prognostic Role of Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) in Testicular Germ Cell Tumor (GCT)

Highlights:Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been reported by several studies for its role as a biomarker in various diseases, however, the role of NLR in testicular GCT is still unclear.The characteristics and responses of testicular GCT patients among Indonesian men show similarity to other reports worldwide.As a parameter, NLR shows promise to be used as a potential biomarker for prognosis in testicular GCT.Abstract:The global incidence of testicular cancer is 1-2% from all cancers. The attempts to maintain high therapeutic rates while decreasing the treatment-related side effects and toxicity have become the current concern. However, the reports regarding testicular germ cell tumors (GCT) in Indonesia are limited. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the clinical characteristics of testicular GCT patients undergoing bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatin (BEP) chemotherapy, as well as their chemotherapy response and side effects. We reported the data of patients with Testicular Germ Cell Tumor from January 2015 to December 2019. Several data were retrieved, including patient demographics, tumor characteristics, treatment, and prognosis outcome. A total of 67 patients with testicular germ cell tumors were included in this study. The mean age was 28.9 years old. The chemotherapy regimens used were four cycles of (BEP) in 36 patients (53.7%), followed by three cycles of BEP in 22 patients (32.8%). Patients with seminoma GCT mostly had a complete response (54.1%), whereas most patients with non-seminoma GCT had progressive disease (47.8%). The multiple logistic regression analysis showed that NLR and S staging were independently associated with the patient’s response to chemotherapy (OR 2.14, 95% CI 1.22, 3.78, p <0.01,OR 9.43, 95% CI 1.81, 49.14, p < 0.01). The clinical characteristics and response of testicular GCT patients among Indonesian men showed similarity with the current worldwide data. The NLR could be used as a potential biomarker for prognosis.
Benchmark studies on pixel-level spectral unmixing of multi-resolution hyperspectral imagery

ABSTRACT Spectral unmixing-based estimation of material abundances in hyperspectral imagery has a variety of applications in mineralogy, environmental monitoring, agriculture, food processing, pharmacy, etc. A substantial body of literature is available on different inversion algorithms, optional pre-processing such as dimensionality reduction, and algorithms for endmembers extraction. The quality of abundance estimation depends on the number of materials, size, the geometrical orientation of materials, the source of endmembers, and the inversion algorithm used. However, there is a lack of studies on one-to-one assessment of the retrieval of abundances under various scenarios of spectral material distributions, the spatial resolution of the imagery, and the potential of in-situ reflectance measurements as candidate endmembers. The unavailability of comprehensive benchmark data coupled with pixel-to-pixel ground truth data has impeded comprehensive assessment of the first principles of spectral unmixing from a verifiable experimental perspective. The objective of this research is assessing the dynamics of material abundance as a function of the source of endmembers, spatial resolution, number of materials, and the size of materials. Linear and its sparse-based spectral unmixing algorithms were implemented on the datasets acquired for the estimation of abundances, considering the different scenarios of material distributions, spatial resolution, and the source of endmembers. We validated the results using pixel-to-pixel ground truth maps prepared for the different cases of spectral unmixing. The results provide answers to some critical open challenges in spectral unmixing, such as, (i) for an unambiguous detection, the fractional distribution of material has to be at least 1% of the pixel, (ii) endmembers from the in-situ spectra based on the external spectral library can offer reasonably good abundance estimates (an error of up to 20% compared to the image-based endmembers), and (iii) geometric orientations of materials in the ground sampling distance influence the abundance estimations. The benchmark dataset generated in this work is a valuable resource for addressing intriguing questions in spectral unmixing using hyperspectral imagery from a multi-resolution perspective.
Inhibition of Protease Activated Receptor 2 Attenuates HBx-Induced Inflammation and Mitochondria Oxidative Stress

Background Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is one of the global public problems. Among the known infection cases, HBV X protein (HBx) is one of the key inducements of viral replication and host infection. This study was aimed to uncover the role of protease activated receptor 2 (PAR2) on HBx-induced liver injury. Methods A PAR2-KO mouse model expressing HBx was constructed using hydrodynamics-based in vivo gene transfection method. In addition, pcDNA3.1-HBx was used to over-express HBx in LO2 cells. The effects of HBx overexpression on inflammation and mitochondria oxidative stress were evaluated. Results We found that PAR2 protein level was increased by HBx overexpression. The enforced HBx inhibited LO2 cells apoptosis. Meanwhile, HBx induced inflammation reactions through promoting the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL-6, and CXCL-2. Overexpressed HBx also resulted in mitochondria oxidative stress by upregulation of ROS level and downregulation of MMP and ATP. However, in FSLLRY-NH2 (PAR2 antagonist) treated LO2 cells or PAR2-KO mice, PAR2 blockade reversed the above adverse effects of HBx on liver cells or tissues. Conclusion Inhibition of PAR2 may suppress inflammation and mitochondria oxidative stress caused by HBx, pointing out the potential application values of PAR2 antagonist on the treatment of HBV infection in clinic.
Feasibility of a Randomized Controlled Mixed Methods Trial to Address Health Literacy, Beliefs, Medication Adherence, and Self-Efficacy (ADHERE) in a Clinical Pharmacist-Led Clinic

Purpose To assess the feasibility and acceptability of a health literacy-psychosocial support intervention – ADHERE and explore changes in glycemic values and medication adherence. Patients and Methods Thirty-one participants with hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) ≥ 8% were randomly allocated to control (usual care) or intervention groups (receiving usual care plus a 6-session pharmacist-led intervention focusing on the modifiable psychosocial factors that may influence medication adherence). Feasibility metrics evaluated recruitment, retention, and intervention adherence. Questionnaires were administered to collect psychosocial factors and self-reported medication adherence at baseline, the end of the intervention, 3 months, and 6 months post intervention. HbA1c values were extracted from electronic medical records. Repeated measures analysis of variance was used to compare differences in mean outcomes between the control and intervention groups. To assess intervention acceptability, eleven individuals participated in semi-structured interviews about their intervention experiences. Qualitative content analysis was used for analyzing the interviews. Results Thirty participants completed the study. Overall, the findings support the feasibility of the intervention. There were significant differences in HbA1c values. Participants in the intervention group had lower A1C (8.3 ± 1.4) than in the control group (9.2 ± 1.3) at the time of 6-month follow-up (p = 0.003). In addition, the participants in the intervention group showed improved HbA1c at 6-month follow-up (8.3 ± 1.4), compared to baseline (9.4 ± 1.5, p = 0.011) and after 6-session intervention (8.9 ± 1.6, p = 0.046). However, there were no significant differences in medication adherence between groups over time. Qualitative themes suggest participants liked the intervention and perceived the additional support from the pharmacist as beneficial. Conclusion A pharmacist-led intervention to provide additional health literacy-psychosocial support may contribute to long-term improvements in HbA1c. Equipping pharmacists with patient-specific diabetes medication adherence information and building in additional follow-up support for patients may improve patient health outcomes.
Growing Up as Rents Rise: How Housing Affordability Impacts Children

Over the past several decades, housing costs have risen sharply, and as a result, an increasing number of families have become “housing cost burdened,” paying more than one third of their income toward rent and utilities. This integrative literature synthesis considers the known and potential impacts of families’ housing affordability problems on child development and schooling outcomes through a review of 64 studies published between 2000 and 2020. The synthesis proceeds in three sections: the first section examines research on the direct connection between affordability and child outcomes. The second section considers the empirical evidence on four pathways through which affordability problems are theorized to affect child outcomes: the residential mobility pathway (by causing residential mobility, school mobility, eviction, or homelessness), the living environment pathway (by reducing the quality of housing or living conditions), the neighborhood and school opportunity pathway (by restricting access to high-opportunity neighborhoods and schools), and the parental resources pathway (by reducing financial resources that could be invested in children and increasing parental stress). The third section of the synthesis considers affordability’s impact on children through an examination of the research literature on the impact of federal housing assistance. Future directions for policy are considered, including the expansion of housing assistance for families, and additional research is urged on the impacts of housing affordability on children by scholars within the field of education.
Deliberate practice of spreadsheet skills when using copiable, randomized, and auto-graded questions within an interactive textbook

Spreadsheets are a core computational tool for practicing engineers and engineering students. While Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, and other spreadsheet tools have some differences, numerous formulas, functions, and other tasks are common across versions and platforms. Building upon learning science frameworks showing that interactive activities are advantageous, an interactive textbook from zyBooks was created to provide students the opportunity to acquire spreadsheet skills by doing. Interactive components include stepping through animations, completing multiple choice and matching questions, and evaluating spreadsheet formulas and functions using 100+ auto-graded, randomized questions. While the interactive reading participation was discussed in previous work, the focus here is on auto-graded questions, sometimes called online homework. Fraction correct regardless of attempts, number of attempts before correct, and number of attempts after correct provided metrics to examine deliberate practice across three cohorts encompassing over 250 students. Sections grouped as General spreadsheet skills or Functions generally showed greater median correct, ranging from 76 to 90%, than sections categorized as Advanced spreadsheet skills, which led to median correct of 68 to 81%. Median correct also varied between different question types and decreased with question order, which aligns with questions being scaffolded. Finally, a hypothesis was tested: Adding a Copy sheet feature to the auto-graded questions would encourage deliberate practice and improve fraction correct between cohorts. Over 80% of students used the new Copy sheet button, and a statistically significant increase with large effect size in fraction correct between cohorts was found, which supports the hypothesis.
Introducing Virtual Prehabilitation to a UK Elective Total Hip Replacement service to improve patient outcomes: An overview of the literature and proposed implementation plan

Elective Total Hip Replacement (THR) surgery is one of the most common elective surgeries in the UK, costing the National Health Service (NHS) over £300,000,000 annually. A review of the literature identified preoperative rehabilitation, known as ‘prehabilitation’, improves patient outcomes and decreases Length Of hospital Stay (LOS). This approach follows NICE guidelines which recommend prehabilitation for all patients undergoing joint replacement surgery. Challenges accessing prehabilitation classes at UK hospitals due to inadequate transport and COVID-19 restrictions present an opportunity to provide prehabilitation virtually. Physiotherapy services are increasingly utilising technology, in line with The NHS Long Term Plan to increase service accessibility. A review of the literature has established virtual prehabilitation is effective, feasible, and preferable for patients. Quality Improvement methodology has been used to propose an implementation plan for a virtual prehabilitation service. Further research is required to create a standardised prehabilitation protocol, and to assess the long-term effects and sustainability of virtual prehabilitation.
Increased One-Year Mortality Among Elderly Patients After Radical Cystectomy for Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer: A Retrospective, Observational Comparative Study

Introduction Muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) is a common malignancy amongst elderly. Increasing life expectancy, prevalence of smoking, lifelong exposure to environmental pollutants and immunosenescence contribute to growing number of cases. Traditionally, radical cystectomy (RC) with pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND) constituted the mainstay of treatment for MIBC, but despite proven feasibility in elderly population, it has been associated with significant burden of morbidity, mortality, and complications. Study Objective We aimed to re-evaluate the safety and efficacy of RC amongst the elderly patients with MIBC. Material and Methods This single-center, retrospective, observational comparative study was conducted among 568 patients who underwent RC due to MIBC between 2003 and 2021. We evaluated the influence of chronological age (<70 vs ≥70 years) on clinical, demographic, and pathological variables related to MIBC and RC. Results Elderly patients had similar clinical and pathological features of disease compared to their younger counterparts; nonetheless, they more often received simplified urinary diversion, ie ureterostomy (60.25% vs 39.33%, p<0.001) and had no PLND (15.76% vs 8.5%, p=0.01) during RC. Furthermore, more elderly patients were treated for secondary MIBCs and fewer had history of smoking. Severe complication and 90-day mortality rates were comparable between groups; however, the elderly had significantly higher all-cause mortality at one year post RC (46.67% vs 33.25%, p=0.003). On multivariate analysis, one-year mortality risk was independently associated with elderly age (HR=2.119, 95% CI: 1.227–3.660, p=0.007), rural residency (HR=1.760, 95% CI: 1.043–2.968, p=0.034), extravesical extension of tumor (HR=2.109, 95% CI: 1.155–3.850, p=0.015), lymph node metastasis (HR=2.268, 95% CI: 1.290–3.987, p=0.004) and omission of PLND (HR=6.064, 95% CI: 2.926–12.568, p<0.001). Conclusion Radical cystectomy in elderly patients is associated with significant one-year mortality. Our study emphasizes the unmet need for considerate planning of treatment for MIBC in potentially vulnerable groups of elderly patients. Efforts are needed to reliably identify those unlikely to benefit from surgery and facilitate patient-centered choice of alternative therapies.