Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Age-specific differences in the association between prediabetes and cardiovascular diseases in China: A national cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, the global burden of which is rising. It is still unclear the extent to which prediabetes contributes to the risk of CVD in various age brackets among adults. To develop a focused screening plan and treatment for Chinese adults with prediabetes, it is crucial to identify variations in the connection between prediabetes and the risk of CVD based on age. AIM To examine the clinical features of prediabetes and identify risk factors for CVD in different age groups in China. METHODS The cross-sectional study involved a total of 46239 participants from June 2007 through May 2008. A thorough evaluation was conducted. Individuals with prediabetes were categorized into two groups based on age. Chinese atherosclerotic CVD risk prediction model was employed to evaluate the risk of developing CVD over 10 years. Random forest was established in both age groups. SHapley Additive exPlanation method prioritized the importance of features from the perspective of assessment contribution. RESULTS In total, 6948 people were diagnosed with prediabetes in this study. In pre-diabetes, prevalences of CVD were 5 (0.29%) in the younger group and 148 (2.85%) in the older group. Overall, 11.11% of the younger group and 29.59% of the older group were intermediate/high-risk of CVD for prediabetes without CVD based on the Prediction for ASCVD Risk in China equation in ten years. In the younger age group, the 10-year risk of CVD was found to be more closely linked to family history of CVD rather than lifestyle, whereas in the older age group, resident status was more closely linked. CONCLUSION The susceptibility to CVD is age-specific in newly diagnosed prediabetes. It is necessary to develop targeted approaches for the prevention and management of CVD in adults across various age brackets.
Development and validation of self-report Mizaj identification questionnaire Based on Persian Medicine for the elders (age over 60)

Background: Introduction: Mizaj is the basis of attention to individual differences in Persian Medicine (PM). Regarding the importance of Mizaj for health preservation and treating diseases, it is necessary to achieve a standard tool for Mizaj identification. The purpose of this study was to design a standard self-reporting Mizaj identification questionnaire for elders. Methods: In this exploratory sequential study, criteria of Mizaj identification were extracted by reviewing PM literatures and interview with PM experts and elders. The primary questionnaire was designed and its validity and reliability were assessed, using weighted Kappa statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) assessment, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and determining the specificity and sensitivity of cut-off points. Results: Among the 101 items in the primary questionnaire, 73 items had acceptable reliability. The final 20-item questionnaire was obtained after the criterion validity and PCC assessment. The sensitivity and specificity of this questionnaire were 83% and 88% for warmness, 49% and 80% for moderate in warmness-coldness, 72% and 91% for coldness, 57% and 78% for wetness, 30% and 79% for moderate in wetness-dryness, and 81% and 67% for dryness, respectively. Conclusion: The standard Mizaj identification is recommended as a supplementary diagnostic tool for clinicians and researchers in PM. Also, the people with age over 60 can use it to identify their own Mizaj and then, choose the suitable PM or Unani medicine lifestyle recommendations based on their Mizaj.
Is There a Baseflow Budyko Curve?

There is no general theory to explain differences in baseflow between catchments, despite evidence that it is mainly controlled by climate and landscape. One hypothesis is that baseflow fraction (the ratio between baseflow and precipitation) can be primarily attributed to the aridity index (the ratio between potential evapotranspiration and precipitation), that is, that there is a “baseflow Budyko curve. ” Comparing catchment data from the United States and the United Kingdom shows, however, that aridity is not always a good predictor of baseflow fraction. We use the revised Ponce‐Shetty annual water balance model to show that there is no single “baseflow Budyko curve” but rather a continuum of curves emerging from a more universal model that incorporates both climate and landscape factors. In humid catchments, baseflow fraction is highly variable due to variations in a catchment's wetting potential, a parameter that describes catchment storage capacity. In arid catchments, vaporization limits baseflow generation, which leads to lower variability in baseflow fraction. Generally, when the magnitude of precipitation is important, the aridity index only partly explains baseflow response. Adapting the model to explain variability of the baseflow index (the ratio between baseflow and total streamflow) shows that the aridity index is generally a poor predictor of baseflow index. While the wetting potentials and other parameters are obtained by fitting the Ponce‐Shetty model to annual catchment data, their links to physical properties remain to be explored. This currently limits the model's applicability to gauged catchments with sufficiently long records.
Association of genetic variation on X chromosome with systemic lupus erythematosus in both Thai and Chinese populations

Objectives X chromosome has been considered as a risk factor for SLE, which is a prototype of autoimmune diseases with a significant sex difference (female:male ratio is around 9:1). Our study aimed at exploring the association of genetic variants in X chromosome and investigating the influence of trisomy X in the development of SLE. Methods X chromosome-wide association studies were conducted using data from both Thai (835 patients with SLE and 2995 controls) and Chinese populations (1604 patients with SLE and 3324 controls). Association analyses were performed separately in females and males, followed by a meta-analysis of the sex-specific results. In addition, the dosage of X chromosome in females with SLE were also examined. Results Our analyses replicated the association of TMEM187-IRAK1-MECP2, TLR7, PRPS2 and GPR173 loci with SLE. We also identified two loci suggestively associated with SLE. In addition, making use of the difference in linkage disequilibrium between Thai and Chinese populations, a synonymous variant in TMEM187 was prioritised as a likely causal variant. This variant located in an active enhancer of immune-related cells, with the risk allele associated with decreased expression level of TMEM187. More importantly, we identified trisomy X (47,XXX) in 5 of 2231 (0.22%) females with SLE. The frequency is significantly higher than that found in the female controls (0.08%; two-sided exact binomial test P=0.002). Conclusion Our study confirmed previous SLE associations in X chromosome, and identified two loci suggestively associated with SLE. More importantly, our study indicated a higher risk of SLE for females with trisomy X.
A narrative analysis of barriers encountered by a sample of immigrant entrepreneurs in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa

A growing movement of foreign nationals is settling and starting up businesses in South Africa. Given this fact, there is a need to understand those factors influencing the human capital side of being an immigrant entrepreneur as a basis for coming up with mechanisms to support such a sample group. The focus of this empirical investigation was to understand those barriers that are encountered by immigrant entrepreneurs in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. To fully experience this, there is a need to understand those factors that affect immigrant entrepreneurship as a practice and the entrepreneur as someone who seeks to enact this value. The narrative research paradigm was adopted to understand the main purpose of the study. Guided by the study objectives, semi-structured interviews were conducted using a sample of foreign immigrants operating businesses in the Eastern Cape ( n = 23). Individual stories and narratives highlighted the fact that immigrant entrepreneurs encountered the following challenges: financial resources, xenophobia and crime, legislation and finally lack of networks.
Comprehensive Attribute Prediction Learning for Person Search by Language

Person search by language refers to searching for the interested pedestrian images given natural language sentences, which requires capturing fine-grained differences to accurately distinguish different pedestrians, while still far from being well addressed by most of the current solutions. In this paper, we propose the Comprehensive Attribute Prediction Learning (CAPL) method, which explicitly carries out attribute prediction learning, for improving the modeling capabilities of fine-grained semantic attributes and obtaining more discriminative visual and textual representations. First, we construct the semantic ATTribute Vocabulary (ATT-Vocab) based on sentence analysis. Second, the complementary context-wise and attribute-wise attribute predictions are simultaneously conducted to better model the high-frequency in-vocab attributes in our In-vocab Attribute Prediction (IAP) module. Third, to additionally consider the out-of-vocab semantics, we present the Attribute Completeness Learning (ACL) module for better capturing the low-frequency attributes outside the ATT-Vocab, obtaining more comprehensive representations. Combining the IAP and ACL modules together, our CAPL method has obtained the currently state-of-the-art retrieval performance on two widely-used benchmarks, i.e., CUHK-PEDES and ICFG-PEDES datasets. Extensive experiments and analyses have been carried out to validate the effectiveness and generalization capacities of our CAPL method.
Traditional Reproductive Health Practices among Women in South-South Nigeria

Despite the development of orthodox health services in Nigeria, several traditional reproductive health practices for women still thrive in many indigenous populations. These practices relate to delayed menarche, delay in child bearing/infertility, during pregnancy and lactation. Mixed method design (descriptive and focused ethnographic) was utilized to explore and elicit traditional reproductive health practices for women of childbearing age, and perceptions about their use. Two hundred and fifty seven (257) women of child bearing age were purposively selected from four randomly selected communities in Southern Ijaw local government area of Bayelsa State and Akpabuyo local government area of Cross River State in South-South region of Nigeria. Results revealed that several traditional reproductive health practices were engaged in by women for several reasons for issues relating to menarche, pregnancy, childbirth, and infertility. Common practices include the use of enchanted amulets, traditional therapeutic massage, "womb setting", "womb massage", "womb locking", use of herbs (oral, enema), "sweat bath"/"steam bath" etc. One very popular practice was the utilization of the popular traditional midwives ("mamalettes" or "abia umaan"), who participants say are "experts at women matters", and "experts at womb setting and womb massage". Some of the traditional practices have scientific explanations and are beneficial while others may be harmful and have implications for community health education and reproductive health policy. However the participants stated that the benefits of the traditional reproductive health practices outweigh the harmful effects. ISSN 2639-9474 Research Article Citation: Mildred E. John, Ekpoanwan E. Esienumoh, Alberta D. Nsemo, et al. Traditional Reproductive Health Practices among Women in SouthSouth Nigeria. Nur Primary Care. 2017; 1(2): 1-6.
A Test of the Tropical 200‐ to 300‐hPa Warming Rate in Climate Models

Overall climate sensitivity to CO2 doubling in a general circulation model results from a complex system of parameterizations in combination with the underlying model structure. We refer to this as the model's major hypothesis, and we assume it to be testable. We explain four criteria that a valid test should meet: measurability, specificity, independence, and uniqueness. We argue that temperature change in the tropical 200‐ to 300‐hPa layer meets these criteria. Comparing modeled to observed trends over the past 60 years using a persistence‐robust variance estimator shows that all models warm more rapidly than observations and in the majority of individual cases the discrepancy is statistically significant. We argue that this provides informative evidence against the major hypothesis in most current climate models.
Elucidating the drought response of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) using stable isotopes

7 Zusammenfassung . 11 General Introduction . 15 Background . 15 Main Objectives . 19 Data and Methods . 19 Dissertation outline and specific research questions . 26 References . 28 1. Long-term effects of drought on tree-ring growth and carbon isotope variability in Scots pine in a dry environment . 35 Abstract . 36 Introduction . 37 Data and Methods . 40 Results . 45 Discussion . 48 Conclusions . 54 Acknowledgements . 54 Funding . 55 References . 55 Figures and Tables . 63 2. Can the two-pool model explain oxygen isotope variations in needles and tree rings of Scots pine exposed to varying water supply? 83 Abstract . 84 Introduction . 85 Data and Methods . 87 Results . 93 Discussion . 96 Acknowledgments . 101 Funding . 101 References . 101
Performance of Banana cv. Grand Naine (AAA) for Direct Bunch Feeding of Major and Micronutrients on Bunch Yield

Nutrients play a significant role in production of high yield of good quality fruits. Providing appropriate quantities of nutrients in the right proportion when needed most is the essence of management of nutrients in successful banana cultivation. Banana (Musa sps) is one of the major commercial fruit crops of many tropical and subtropical regions of India. It is cultivated in an area of 841.0 thousand ha with production of 29135.0 thousand MT and productivity of 35.6 MTha -1 (Annon, 2015). Banana is a nutrient loving crop especially potassium and micronutrients and high potassium availability is important at fruiting stage. Any limitation in the supply of nutrients at the shooting stage affects bunch size and quality in banana. Among the several factors affecting fruit quality, adequate nutrients specially nitrogen and potassium application is considered to be of utmost importance in banana cultivation. Potassium is known to influence fruit yield in general and fruit quality in particular (Tandon and Sekhon, 1988). Translocation of nutrients in the infructescence of banana cvs. Poovan, Monthan and Nendran has been reported by various scientists (Buragohain and Shanmugavelu, 1985; Sobhana and Aravindakshan, 1989). The beneficial effects of late application of fertilizer are evident International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 11 (2017) pp. 1577-1581 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com
Surgery Duration Prediction using Multitask Feature Selection.

Efficient optimization of operation room (OR) activity poses a significant challenge for hospital managers due to the complex and risky nature of the environment. The traditional "one size fits all" approach to OR scheduling is no longer practical, and personalized medicine is required to meet the diverse needs of patients, care providers, medical procedures, and system constraints within limited resources. This paper aims to introduce a scientific and practical tool for predicting surgery durations and improving OR performance for maximum benefit to patients and the hospital. Previous works used machine-learning models for surgery duration prediction based on preoperative data. The models consider covariates known to the medical staff at the time of scheduling the surgery. However, model selection becomes crucial, where the number of covariates used for prediction depend on the available sample size. Our proposed approach utilizes multitask regression to select a common subset of predicting covariates for all tasks with the same sample size while allowing the model's coefficients to vary between them. A regression task can refer to a single surgeon or operation type or the interaction between them. By considering these diverse factors, our method provides an overall more accurate estimation of the surgery durations, and the selected covariates that enter the model may help to identify the resources required for a specific surgery. We found that when the regression tasks were surgeon-based or based on the pair of operation type and surgeon, our suggested approach outperformed the compared baseline suggested in a previous study. However, our approach failed to reach the baseline for an operation type-based task. By accurately estimating surgery durations, hospital managers can provide care to a greater number of patients, optimize resource allocation and utilization, and reduce waste. This research contributes to the advancement of personalized medicine and provides a valuable tool for improving operational efficiency in the dynamic world of medicine.
Assessing the recovery of sublittoral macroinvertebrate communities of boreal lakes from the effects of acidic deposition and liming

To better understand how to manage, protect and restore the structure, function and biodiversity of aquatic habitats, more knowledge is needed on how organisms respond to human-induced as well as natural environmental changes. In Sweden, acidification is a serious threat to the biodiversity and functioning o f inland surface waters, and in the early 1990s it was estimated that some 14000, or 15%, of Swedish lakes with a surface area< l km2 and about one-fifth of all watercourses were adversely affected by acidification (BERNES 1991 ). Natural recovery o f water chemistry has been documented in a number of lake ecosystems in Sweden (WILANDER 1997) and across Europe (STODDARD et al. 1999), and changes in lake biology have recently been reported (RADDUM et al. 2001). In the late 1980s, Sweden initiated a long-term monitoring program of multiple habitat types and trophic levels to follow the effects of acidification and recovery of regionally representative lake ecosystems (WIEDERHOLM & JOHNSON 1997, JOHNSON 1999). Three lake categories were selected: (l) non-acidified "reference" lakes to monitor natural, among-year changes, (2) acidified lakes (> O exceedence of critical load of S) to monitor the "natural" effects of recovery following implementation of intemational agreements to reduce acidic emissions, and (3) limed lakes to follow the long-term effects of liming on community structure and function. The aim o f this study was to assess the 1ong-term effects of natural recovery (decreased S and N deposition) and 1iming activities on the recovery sublittoral benthic macroinvertebrate communities o f lakes.
The metabolic domestication syndrome of budding yeast

Significance Metabolic networks evolve through changes in enzyme content and activity states, but the latter aspect remains elusive. This is a major knowledge gap since differences in enzyme kinetic properties and regulation can lead to vastly different metabolic activities despite similar enzyme contents. Here, we profiled metabolite levels across several budding yeast species and populations to delineate the evolutionary dynamics of metabolic states at exceptional phylogenetic resolution. The approach allowed us to uncover a global signature of domestication that evolved convergently in independently domesticated groups of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and likely reflects adaptation to human-made niches. More broadly, our results show that studying metabolic evolution through metabolomics provides largely complementary information that cannot be obtained by studying enzyme content alone.
Lateral Connections Improve Generalizability of Learning in a Simple Neural Network

Abstract To navigate the world around us, neural circuits rapidly adapt to their environment learning generalizable strategies to decode information. When modeling these learning strategies, network models find the optimal solution to satisfy one task condition but fail when introduced to a novel task or even a different stimulus in the same space. In the experiments described in this letter, I investigate the role of lateral gap junctions in learning generalizable strategies to process information. Lateral gap junctions are formed by connexin proteins creating an open pore that allows for direct electrical signaling between two neurons. During neural development, the rate of gap junctions is high, and daughter cells that share similar tuning properties are more likely to be connected by these junctions. Gap junctions are highly plastic and get heavily pruned throughout development. I hypothesize that they mediate generalized learning by imprinting the weighting structure within a layer to avoid overfitting to one task condition. To test this hypothesis, I implemented a feedforward probabilistic neural network mimicking a cortical fast spiking neuron circuit that is heavily involved in movement. Many of these cells are tuned to speeds that I used as the input stimulus for the network to estimate. When training this network using a delta learning rule, both a laterally connected network and an unconnected network can estimate a single speed. However, when asking the network to estimate two or more speeds, alternated in training, an unconnected network either cannot learn speed or optimizes to a singular speed, while the laterally connected network learns the generalizable strategy and can estimate both speeds. These results suggest that lateral gap junctions between neurons enable generalized learning, which may help explain learning differences across life span.
Investigating the psychometric properties of PaRCADS—Parenting to Reduce Child Anxiety and Depression Scale in a Norwegian sample

Abstract Objectives Parents play a pivotal role in child development and several parental factors have been identified as risk or protective factors for childhood anxiety and depression. To assess and target these parental factors in interventions, there is a need for a comprehensive, easy‐to‐use instrument. Method This study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of an adapted version of the Parenting to Reduce Child Anxiety and Depression Scale, PaRCADS(N) in a Norwegian community sample (N = 163) of parents of children aged 8–12 years. Results Our findings indicate that PaRCADS(N) has acceptable psychometric properties. These results are comparable to those of the original study of the PaRCADS in Australia. Conclusion Based on these results, we recommend that PaRCADS(N) can be utilized by health care workers as a tool for assessment and identification of parental practices related to child anxiety and/or depression to target relevant risk and protective factors in treatment and prevention.