Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Standardization of SYBR Green-Based Real-Time PCR Through the Evaluation of Different Thresholds for Different Skin Layers: An Accuracy Study and Track of the Transmission Potential of Multibacillary and Paucibacillary Leprosy Patients

The development of new molecular techniques is essential for the early diagnosis of leprosy. Studies in the field have failed to elucidate the performance of these tests in clinical practice. We aimed to design a new primer pair for the repetitive element (RLEP) target of Mycobacterium leprae and to test the accuracy of SYBR green-based real-time PCR through the evaluation of different thresholds for different skin layers. We also aimed to track the transmission potential of multibacillary and paucibacillary leprosy patients. The in vitro validation of our reaction resulted in a quantification limit of 0.03 bacilli. We then conducted a cross-sectional/cohort-based study of diagnostic accuracy. Patients were included, and skin samples were divided into four layers: epidermis, superior dermis, inferior dermis, and hypodermis. We also quantified M. leprae in nasal swabs of the included patients and compared the results to the number of household contacts also diagnosed with leprosy. One hundred patients with a clinical presentation compatible with leprosy were allocated to the leprosy or control group. Although the parasite load was greater in the superior and inferior dermis, M. leprae DNA was found in all skin layers. The best sensitivity was observed for the superior dermis using the presence of any quantifiable bacillus DNA as the threshold [sensitivity=59.26% (95% CI=45.97–71.32)]. In the epidermis, setting 1 quantifiable bacillus as the threshold resulted in 100% specificity (95% CI=92.29–100). The number of bacilli found in nasal swabs was not significantly related to the number of household contacts also diagnosed with leprosy. Paucibacillary patients tested positive only for bacillus fragments in nasal swabs but not for the entire bacilli. We can conclude that superficial biopsies might result in sensitivity loss, although different skin sample types will have little influence on the final accuracy. In contrast, threshold changes greatly influence these properties. Paucibacillary patients may not be a relevant source of disease transmission.
Cross-Lagged Analysis of COVID-19-Related Worry and Media Consumption in a Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Sample of Community Adults

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in an array of mental health problems. Previous research has shown that media exposure to stressful situations is often related to anxiety and stress. However, given that most existing work has used cross-sectional designs, less is known about the interplay of media exposure and worry as they unfold during sustained exposure to a collective stressor. The current study examined bidirectional associations between COVID-related worry and media consumption over a three-month period. Participants were 87 community adults, the majority of whom were recruited from communities heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. For three consecutive months, participants asked to indicate how much time they spent worrying and consuming news about the COVID-19 pandemic on a scale from 1 (“never”) to 5 (“most of the day”). Cross-lagged analyses revealed that Pandemic Worry at Month 1 predicted increases in Pandemic Media Consumption at Month 2, which in turn predicted increases in Pandemic Worry at Month 3. Findings suggest that media consumption may be a maladaptive coping strategy that has the iatrogenic effect of increasing worry. Clarifying the causal associations between anxiety-perpetuating processes and media consumption may have important clinical implications for understanding and treating mental health during health pandemics.
Success factors of open‐source enterprise information systems development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the success factors of open‐source software in the enterprise level. It expands the application of the information systems (IS) success model in the literature to enterprise information systems (EIS). The paper presents a simplified open‐source EIS success model by removing several constructs in the existing open‐source software models.Design/methodology/approach – To test the research model, a survey questionnaire was developed based on previous studies dealing with IS success models and adapting them to the open‐source EIS context. The research instrument contained 30 items that represent seven constructs in the research model. Data were collected from 250 open‐source enterprise software end‐users. Due to its confirmatory nature, this study applied the structural equation model.Findings – The results of the study indicate that only community service quality has a positive direct effect on open‐source EIS use, while information quality, EIS quality, and .
The Cross-Section of Expected Returns: A Non-Parametric Approach∗

To which extent are financial market returns predictable? Standard approaches to asset pricing make strong parametric assumptions that undermine their return predicting ability. We employ tree-based methods to overcome these limitations and attempt to approximate an upper bound for the predictability of returns in commodities futures markets. Out-of-sample, we find that up to 3.74% of one-month returns are predictable — more than a 10-fold increase from standard approaches. Our findings hint at the importance multi-way interactions and non-linearities acquire in the data. They imply that new factors should be tested on their ability to add explanatory power to an ensemble of existing factors. JEL: G11, G12, G13, G14
First Line Drug Resistance Study in Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients from Mayurbhanj District of Odisha, India

The study was conducted at Mayurbhanj district of Odisha, India, among pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) patients to determine the resistance pattern to first-line drugs. Sputum samples were collected from 56 (42 new and 14 previously treated) patients and were tested at Regional Medical Research Centre, Bhubaneswar. Resistance to any anti-tubercular drug was observed to be 2.18% among new cases and 7.14% among previously treated patients, while multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) was found to be 0% in new as well as in previously treated cases. The study reports an unchanged low level of MDR-TB prevalence among new cases in the district over a decade. Such a low level of resistance may be due to good adherence to the basic DOTS plus strategy and limited use of TB drugs outside the ongoing program.
Effects of COVID -19 Pandemic Lock Down on Posture in Physiotherapy Students: A Cross- Sectional Study

Highlights The current lifestyle, with its increased use of modern technologies, has determined modifications in people’s behavior, making individuals more and more sedentary and with inappropriate body habits. Posture is one of the most important factors affecting the physical and mental status of an individual. Purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on relative changes in postural habits, patterns and associated problems among Physiotherapy students, correlating it with the increased technology use and a reduction in levels of physical activity. It was a cross-sectional online survey conducted during COVID-19 lockdown period (June to July 2020). Participants were 223 college students (mean age 20.65 ± 2.86) years recruited from undergraduate (I–IV year), internship, and postgraduate programs under Maharashtra University of Health Sciences. This was a qualitative study in which perspectives of students were obtained through a self-reported questionnaire. The results of this study revealed that the majority of the students have inefficient posture patterns and inadequate postural habits. Dominant inappropriate postural patterns were those of established low back pain, followed by neck pain, upper back pain, and shoulder pain (these being most prominent). This was majorly seen in participants who assumed awkward postures, owing to postural habits, increased use of digital devices, inappropriate ergonomics and also emotional stress. However, a significant number have also attempted to correct the same. The levels of physical activity before and during lockdown was either ‘considerably’ or ‘minimally reduced’ with the majority engaging in only light to moderate physical activity. The acquisition of adequate body behaviors and postural habits must be shaped during early adult age, minimizing postural disorders in later adult life and their consequences. Thus, early detection of postural changes and musculoskeletal risks is essential for the application of a preventive and educational protocol.
Social Networks and Informal Insurance

VERY PRELIMINARY DRAFT. This paper studies networks of informal insurance, and builds a model of risksharing which captures two basic characteristics. First, informal insurance is fundamentally bilateral, and rarely consists of an explicit arrangement across several people. Second, insurance is often based on norms. In the model studied here, only directly linked agents make transfers to each other, though they are aware of the (aggregate) transfers each makes to others. A bilateral transfer arrangement between two linked agents is viewed as a norm determining agent consumptions given their income realizations and the transfers made to or received from other agents. Based on these bilateral transfer arrangements between all pairs of agents, a bilateral insurance scheme is viewed as a fixed point of the resulting mapping. With this setup as background, the paper then studies the stability of insurance networks, explicitly recognizing the possibility that the lack of commitment may destabilize insurance arrangements among the network. [These are the familiar selfenforcement constraints much studied in the literature, though not for networks. ] We look at different punishment structures that determine the severance of links to a deviant. The weakest punishment scheme is one in which individuals break direct links only to agents who do not fulfill their obligations with respect to them. One can strengthen such schemes by asking that individuals who are connected directly to a deviant and are less than n links away from her victim, but not via the deviant, to also break links with the deviant, where n can be made progressively larger to capture wider information flows. In such a framework, the density of links (as well as their specific placement in the network) has important consequences for network stability. In the equal sharing case, under strong punishment, we show that adding links always makes the network more stable, and that all decomposable networks have the same stability properties. However, when punishment is weaker, all fully decomposable networks continue to have the same stability properties, but adding new links can destabilize the network. Indeed, for high values of the discount factor, trees are the only stable network structures under weak punishment. JEL Classification Numbers: D85, D80, 012, Z13
Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals a pro-invasive cancer-associated fibroblast subgroup associated with poor clinical outcomes in patients with gastric cancer

Background: The protumor activities of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) suggest that they are potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of cancer. The mechanism of CAF heterogeneity in gastric cancer (GC) remains unclear and has slowed translational advances in targeting CAFs. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of the classification, function, activation stage, and spatial distribution of the CAF subsets in GC is urgently needed. Methods: In this study, the characteristics of the CAF subsets and the dynamic communication among the tumor microenvironment (TME) components regulated by the CAF subsets were analyzed by performing single-cell RNA sequencing of eight pairs of GC and adjacent mucosal (AM) samples. The spatial distribution of the CAF subsets in different Lauren subtypes of GC, as well as the neighborhood relations between these CAF subsets and the protumor immune cell subsets were evaluated by performing multistaining registration. Results: Tumor epithelial cells exhibited significant intratumor and intertumor variabilities, while CAFs mainly exhibited intratumor variability. Moreover, we identified four CAF subsets with different properties in GC. These four CAF subsets shared similar properties with their resident fibroblast counterparts in the adjacent mucosa but also exhibited enhanced protumor activities. Additionally, two CAF subsets, inflammatory CAFs (iCAFs) and extracellular matrix CAFs (eCAFs), communicated with adjacent immune cell subsets in the GC TME. iCAFs interacted with T cells by secreting interleukin (IL)-6 and C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 12 (CXCL12), while eCAFs correlated with M2 macrophages via the expression of periostin (POSTN). eCAFs, which function as a pro-invasive CAF subset, decreased the overall survival time of patients with GC. Conclusions: iCAFs and eCAFs not only exhibited enhanced pro-invasive activities but also mobilized the surrounding immune cells to construct a tumor-favorable microenvironment. Therefore, inhibiting their activation restrains the GC 'seed' and simultaneously improves the 'GC' soil, suggesting that it represents a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of GC.
A physics‐based model of DC and microwave characteristics of GaN/AlGaN HEMTs

A physics‐based model of AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) is developed for the analysis of DC and microwave characteristics. Large‐ and small‐signal parameters are calculated for a given device dimensions and operating conditions. Spontaneous and piezoelectric polarizations at the heterointerface and finite effective width of the 2DEG gas have been incorporated in the analysis. The model predicts a maximum drain current of 523 mA/mm and transconductance of 138 mS/mm for a 1 μm × 75 μm device, which are in agreement with the experimental data. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2007.
Study of Intercity Travel Based on GIS Spatial Analysis

It take 4010 samples which have intercity travel between Guangzhou and Foshan under the background of urban integration as studying object and acquire travel information from internet investigation. It cross analyze the intercity travel characteristics which contain travel purpose, mode, frequency and cost and the travelers social attributes which include the career, age and revenue through the methods of Social Statistics and GIS spatial analysis. It also studies the changing of Guang-Fo intercity travel and the distributing characteristics of travel origins.
A Novel Approach for Path Planning Based on Reactive Behavior-Artificial Potential Filed

The main objective of this paper is to focus on the local minima and the GNRON issues encountered in path planning by the artificial potential field (APF) method, and propose a novel approach to plan a trajectory adaptive for the environment that the obstacles are randomly distributed. By introducing the ideas of reactive behaviors (RB), the RB-APF method is presented, which combines the efficiency of the APF with the simplicity of the RB, so it can be suitable for real-time application in mobile robots. In this algorithm (RB-APF), the switch conditions and optimal selection equations are reasonably designed with the consideration of the different circumstances of the robot located in. Simulations are presented and the results further demonstrate that the proposed approach is applicable for the environment that obstacles are randomly distributed.
Fluid-Solid Interaction Simulation Methodology for Coriolis Flowmeter Operation Analysis

Numerical simulation is a widely used tool for Coriolis flowmeter (CFM) operation analysis. However, there is a lack of experimentally validated methodologies for the CFM simulation. Moreover, there is no consensus on suitable turbulence models and configuration simplifications. The present study intends to address these questions in a framework of a fluid-solid interaction simulation methodology by coupling the finite volume method and finite element method for fluid and solid domains, respectively. The Reynolds stresses (RSM) and eddy viscosity-based turbulence models are explored and compared for CFM simulations. The effects of different configuration simplifications are investigated. It is demonstrated that the RSM model is favorable for the CFM operation simulations. It is also shown that the configuration simplifications should not include the braces neglect or the equivalent flowmeter tube length assumption. The simulation results are validated by earlier experimental data, showing a less than 5% discrepancy. The proposed methodology will increase the confidence in CFM operation simulations and consequently provide the foundation for further studies of flowmeter usage in various fields.
Associations between Multimorbidity Patterns and Subsequent Labor Market Marginalization among Refugees and Swedish-Born Young Adults—A Nationwide Registered-Based Cohort Study

Background: Young refugees are at increased risk of labor market marginalization (LMM). We sought to examine whether the association of multimorbidity patterns and LMM differs in refugee youth compared to Swedish-born youth and identify the diagnostic groups driving this association. Methodology: We analyzed 249,245 individuals between 20–25 years, on 31 December 2011, from a combined Swedish registry. Refugees were matched 1:5 to Swedish-born youth. A multimorbidity score was computed from a network of disease co-occurrences in 2009–2011. LMM was defined as disability pension (DP) or >180 days of unemployment during 2012–2016. Relative risks (RR) of LMM were calculated for 114 diagnostic groups (2009–2011). The odds of LMM as a function of multimorbidity score were estimated using logistic regression. Results: 2841 (1.1%) individuals received DP and 16,323 (6.5%) experienced >180 annual days of unemployment during follow-up. Refugee youth had a marginally higher risk of DP (OR (95% CI): 1.59 (1.52, 1.67)) depending on their multimorbidity score compared to Swedish-born youth (OR (95% CI): 1.51 (1.48, 1.54)); no differences were found for unemployment (OR (95% CI): 1.15 (1.12, 1.17), 1.12 (1.10, 1.14), respectively). Diabetes mellitus and influenza/pneumonia elevated RR of DP in refugees (RRs (95% CI) 2.4 (1.02, 5.6) and 1.75 (0.88, 3.45), respectively); most diagnostic groups were associated with a higher risk for unemployment in refugees. Conclusion: Multimorbidity related similarly to LMM in refugees and Swedish-born youth, but different diagnoses drove these associations. Targeted prevention, screening, and early intervention strategies towards specific diagnoses may effectively reduce LMM in young adult refugees.
Status of Dairy Cattle Production in Borena and Guji Zone, Ethiopia

This survey was aimed to ascertain the status of dairy cattle production from selected towns of Borena and Guji Zone, Ethiopia. A purposive survey of households was conducted from selected towns during the study period. Overall mean cattle herd size of the study area was (16.4), and of this (63%) are female. Natural pastures, crop residue, concentrate feed (wheat bran), Non conventional feeds and hay was the major feed sources in the area respectively. About 98.6% of surveyed households use bull as natural sources of services and 1.4% uses Artificial Insemination. Majority of dairy cow owners (77.8%) select best dairy cow from available stock; based on family back ground (79.2%), Breed of animal (61.7%), Physical appearance (38.9%) and Tail length (27.8%). Overall average daily milk yield per cow was 2.08 Litre/day and (55.6%) female are responsible for milking operation. 98.6% of households sell milk informally, with average price ranges from 1.83 to 2.75, 7 to 9.5 and 14.92 to 16 ETB per Liter; ten years back, five years back and at 2014 G.C, respectively. Majority (90.3%) of households use open burn while 9.7% uses traditional free stall type of house. Only 65.3% of farmers; vaccinate their livestock within six months interval. Majority of respondents (68.1%) have interest and potential to buy and adopt dairy technology in the area. And because of feed shortage, lack of training, less access to AI, lack of formal milk market structure and lack of improved forage cultivation practices livestock production in the study area was majorly constrained. Therefore, appropriate technical support and capacity enhancement require instantaneous action.
High-Brightness, High-Speed, and Low-Noise VCSEL Arrays for Optical Wireless Communication

The development of high-speed and high-brightness vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), which can serve as an efficient light source for optical wireless communication (OWC), play a crucial role in growth of the next generation of wireless communication networks, e.g., 6 G and satellite communications. In this work, by optimizing the size of the Zn-diffusion and oxide-relief apertures in a high-speed 850 nm VCSEL, we obtain record-high brightness (2.9 MW<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\mathrm {cm}}^{-2}{\mathrm {sr}}^{-1}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> at 10 mW output) with single polarized and (quasi-) single-mode (SM) outputs under continuous wave (CW) operation. However, such high brightness output comes at the cost of spatial hole burning (SHB) effect and degraded quality of 25 Gbit/sec eye patterns. In addition, an SM VSCEL array structure is usually needed to further boost the total available optical power for long-reach OWC. Here, a novel (quasi-) SM VCSEL array structure is demonstrated which releases the trade-off between the performances of brightness and eye-pattern quality. Our demonstrated array has a special crisscross mesa connecting neighboring VCSEL units and an extra electroplated copper substrate integrated on the backside of the chip. Compared to the reference array without the copper substrate and connected active mesas, the demonstrated array exhibits a higher (quasi-) SM output power, narrower divergence angle, larger orthogonal polarization mode suppression ratio (OPSR), and flatter E-O response. This in turn leads to smaller jitter and less noise in the measured 12.5 Gbit/sec eye-patterns. The demonstrated <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$7\times 7$ </tex-math></inline-formula> array exhibits a maximum SM power of around 90 mW with a 1/<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{e}^{2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> divergence angle as narrow as 7<sup>o</sup> (FWHM: 5<sup>o</sup>), single polarized output (10 dB OPSR), decent relative intensity noise performance (<−130 dB/Hz) and clear 12.5 Gbit/sec eye-opening. Such new device with remarkable static/dynamic performances has strong potential to further improve the product of the linking distance and data rate in the next generation of OWC channels.