Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The association between daytime sleep and general obesity risk differs by sleep duration in Iranian adults

Abstract Background Sleep duration and daytime napping and obesity are related to adiposity; however, it is not clear whether the association between daytime napping and adiposity measures can differ by sleep duration. Aim To clarify the association between daytime napping and general and abdominal obesity based on sleep duration of participants. Subjects and methods This cross-sectional study was conducted on 1,683 individuals (837 men and 846 women) aged ≥ 35 years. Height, weight and waist circumference (WC) were measured according to the standard protocols. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated. Self-reported sleep duration (in a 24-hour cycle) was recorded. The odds of general and abdominal obesity were compared between nappers and non-nappers, stratified by their sleep duration (≤ 6 h, 6–8 h, ≥ 8 h). Results The mean (SD) age of participants was 47.48 ± 9.35 years. Nappers with a short sleep duration (≤ 6 h) had greater BMI and higher risk for overweight/obesity compared with counterpart non-nappers after adjustment for potential confounders (OR = 1.61, 95% CI = 1.07–2.41). In subjects with moderate sleep duration (6–8 h), nappers had a tendency towards higher BMI in comparison with non-nappers (28.04 ± 0.25 vs. 26.93 ± 0.51 kg/m2; p = 0.05), however, no significant difference was observed for the risk of obesity. Daytime napping was not related to the risk of obesity in long sleepers. No significant association was observed for abdominal obesity measures. Conclusions Daytime napping is associated with increased risk of overweight/obesity in short sleepers. However, in subjects with longer sleep duration, it is not related to the risk of overweight/obesity.
Experience of mental health in women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: a descriptive phenomenological study

Abstract Purpose: This study aims to investigate the experiences, emotional coping strategies, and help-seeking needs of women with PCOS from their perspective, considering common psychological issues such as stress, anxiety, and depression that are prevalent among individuals with PCOS. Materials and Methods: The study recruited 14 women with PCOS for semi-structured interviews between October and November 2022, using a descriptive phenomenology method design. The interviews were analyzed using NVivo 12 software. Results: Four themes and eleven subthemes were derived from the semi-structured interviews: (1) Negative Mental Health Status; (2) Four Patterns of Emotion Regulation; (3) The Psychological Double-Edged Sword: Family Social Network; (4) Strong Demands for Psychological Counseling and Lifestyle Guidance. Conclusion: The study suggests that interventions should focus on fostering internalized self-efficacy and emotional expression, promoting constructive familial support, and providing psychological counseling and lifestyle recommendations to alleviate psychological distress experienced by women with PCOS.
Comparison of Antibiotic Resistance Profiles of Salmonella Isolates from Retail Meats in Nanchang, China, in Two Periods.

Salmonella is one of the most important foodborne pathogens. In this article, a total of 160 Salmonella isolates recovered from retail meats in June-July 2018 (before COVID-19 outbreak) and December 2020-April 2021 (after COVID-19 outbreak) in Nanchang, China, were characterized for serotyping, antimicrobial susceptibility, and specific resistance gene screening. The prevalence of Salmonella Typhimurium increased from 5.4% in 2018 to 19.1% in 2021, and Salmonella Enteritidis increased from 3.3% in 2018 to 8.8% in 2021. Compared with those in June-July 2018, Salmonella isolates in December 2020-April 2021 demonstrated a significant increase in resistance to 13 tested antibiotics except for doxycycline and nitrofurantoin (p < 0.05). The Salmonella isolates in December 2020-April 2021 showed a higher presence of plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance genes (qnrA, qnrB, and qnrS), and mutations in the quinolone resistance-determining region (gyrA Asp87Asn, gyrA Asp87Tyr, parC Thr57Ser, and parC Ser80Ile). Whole-genome sequencing was used to analyze four polymyxin B-resistant strains. Some common mutation sites in eptC and micA were found in the four strains. Based on the data in this article, it indicated that antibiotic resistance was facilitated and more gene mutations related to quinolone resistance were developed.
Plasma extracellular vesicle synaptic proteins as biomarkers of clinical progression in patients with Parkinson disease: A follow-up study

Synaptic dysfunction plays a key role in Parkinson disease (PD), and plasma extracellular vesicle (EV) synaptic proteins are emerging as biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases. This study assessed the efficacy of plasma EV synaptic proteins as biomarkers in PD and their association with disease progression. In total, 144 participants were enrolled, including 101 people with PD (PwP) and 43 healthy controls (HCs). The changes in plasma EV synaptic protein levels between baseline and 1-year follow-up did not differ significantly in both PwP and HCs. In PwP, the changes in plasma EV synaptic protein levels were significantly associated with the changes in unified PD rating scale (UPDRS) part II and III scores. Moreover, PwP with elevated levels (first quartile) of any one plasma EV synaptic proteins (synaptosome-associated protein 25, growth-associated protein 43 or synaptotagmin-1) had significantly greater disease progression in UPDRS part II score and the postural instability and gait disturbance subscore in UPDRS part III than did the other PwP after adjustment for age, sex, and disease duration. These results indicate the promising potential of plasma EV synaptic proteins as clinical biomarkers of disease progression in PD. However, a longer follow-up period is warranted to confirm their role as prognostic biomarkers.
Prevalence and distribution of urinary schistosomiasis among senior primary school pupils of Siphofaneni area in the low veld of Eswatini: A cross-sectional study

Summary A cross-sectional survey of Schistosoma haematobium prevalence was conducted among senior primary school pupils of Siphofaneni area, Eswatini. This area is devoid of potable water, with a newly constructed Lubovane dam and an LUSIP irrigation scheme. The objective of the study was to investigate the distribution of urinary schistosomiasis among Siphofaneni senior primary school pupils. Using simple random sampling, 200 partcipants were enroled from four of six schools in the area. Ten millimetres (10 ml) of urine samples were obtained from each participant and examined for S. haematobium eggs. The intensity of the infection was estimated by calculating the total number of S. haematobium eggs present in 10 ml urine. Out of 200 participants, 45% (n = 91) were males, and 55% (n = 109) were females. The mean age for participants was 13 years, and almost half (47%, n = 94) were in Grade 5. Overall, the prevalence of S. haematobium infection was 16% (32/200). More than half (59%, 19/32) of the Schistosomiasis cases were from females. Positive and significant associations were observed between the number of eggs (χ2=170.9) and the presence of red blood cells (χ2=49.2) at p = 0.001. In conclusion, the prevalence of Schistosomiasis is high among pupils enrolled in Siphofaneni area primary schools that needs comprehensive treatment and education to prevent from S. haematobium infection.
Abnormality Detection for Medical Images Using Self-Supervision and Negative Samples

Recent progress in computer-aided technologies has had a considerable impact on helping experts with a reliable and fast diagnosis of abnormal samples. In particular, self-supervised and self-distillation techniques have advanced automated out-of-distribution (OOD) detection in the image domain. Further improvements in OOD detection have been observed by including negative samples derived from shifting transformations of real images. In this work, we study different ways of creating negative samples for medical images and how effective they are when leveraging them in a self-supervised self-distillation framework. We investigate the impact of various types of negative examples by applying different shifting transformations on samples when they are derived from in-distribution training data, from an auxiliary dataset, or a combination of both. For the case of the auxiliary dataset, we compare the OOD detection performance when auxiliary samples are extracted from an indomain or an out-domain. Our approach uses only data belonging to healthy people during the training procedure and does not require any additional information from labels. We demonstrate the efficiency of our technique by comparing abnormality detection performance on diverse medical datasets, setting new benchmarks for pneumonia, polyp, and glaucoma detection from X-ray, colonoscopy, and ophthalmology images.
Invasion of spontaneous germinal centers by naive B cells is rapid and persistent

In autoreactive germinal centers (GC) initiated by a single rogue B cell clone, wild-type B cells expand and give rise to clones that target other autoantigens, known as epitope spreading. The chronic, progressive nature of epitope spreading calls for early interventions, but the kinetics and molecular requirements for wild-type B cell invasion and participation in GC remain largely unknown. With parabiosis and adoptive transfer approaches in a murine model of systemic lupus erythematosus, we demonstrate that wild-type B cells join existing GCs rapidly, clonally expand, persist, and contribute to autoantibody production and diversification. The invasion of autoreactive GCs required TLR7, B cell receptor specificity, antigen presentation, and type I interferon signaling. The adoptive transfer model provides a novel tool for identifying early events in the breaking of B cell tolerance in autoimmunity. One Sentence Summary The autoreactive germinal center is an open structure that is susceptible to rapid and persistent naive B cell invasion, with clonal expansion and auto-antibody induction and diversification.
Numerical Investigation of Fluid In 2D and 3D Lid-Driven Cavity at Different Reynolds Numbers

The lid-driven cavity is an important fluid mechanical system that serves as a benchmark for testing numerical methods and for studying fundamental aspects of incompressible flow in a confined volume. This paper is concerned with the numerical calculation of the LDC on the 2-D and 3-D model. The commercial software ANSYS Fluent was used for the simulation. In these models of the simulated cases, the lid moves in the x-direction. The 2-D solutions for the driven cavity are calculated for 10 ≤ Re ≤ 35,000 with a 501 × 501 and 601 × 601 grid. The driven 3-D cavity is calculated with a 75 × 75 × 75 grid. The steady flow inside the cavity consists of the velocity distributions at different Reynolds numbers. The present numerical results agree well with the literature analytical solutions.
Covid or not Covid? Psychological Distress and Entrepreneurial Intentions among Canadian Workers during the Pandemic

Triggering events can be associated with entrepreneurial intentions. Using data from a survey on the mental health of Canadian workers carried out in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, we specifically test the association between entrepreneurial intentions and psychological distress, along with other individual demographic and personal-level measurements such as risk-aversion, and financial concern. Our results substantiate a positive relationship between entrepreneurial intention and individual psychological distress, as well as financial deterioration measured at the household level. Taken as a whole, our contribution helps to feed a discussion on the links between mental health and entrepreneurship as part of a process of personal resilience and, more generally, on well-being as a motivational factor in the entrepreneurial process.
Hose instability of a beam with the Bennett profile

The hose i n s t a b i l i t y i s examined . for . an . ~ n m o d u l a t e d beam w i t h t h e Bennett c u r r e n t p r o f i l e J ( r ) a (1 + rZ/a2)-2 . The channel c o n d u c t i v i t y a ( r ) i s also assumed t o be o f t h i s form. To model p a r t i c l e o r b i t e f f e c t s t h e beam i s represented as a c o l l e c t i o n o f independent disks w i t h d i s t r i b u t i o n o f response frequency appropriate f o r t h e Bennett e q u i l i b r i u m . An e f f e c t i v e decay l e n g t h f o r d i p o l e currents i s determined by r e q u i r i n g t h a t the well-known low frequency dispersion formula be recovered. The maximum growth r a t e f o r a disturbance propagating back-wards i n t h e beam frame i s found t o be s k i n length.
Minimally Invasive Staging of Early-Stage Epithelial Ovarian Cancer versus Open Surgery in Terms of Feasibility and Safety: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Epithelial ovarian cancer is women’s fourth most common oncological cause of death. One of the main prognostic factors in ovarian cancer is the tumor stage. For instance, surgical staging of the disease is focal when choosing the best therapeutic option for each case. Although open surgery is the prevalent approach for staging and treating ovarian cancer, the use of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has found recent application in staging or restaging cases of early disease. Our work compares oncological outcomes after MIS staging for FIGO I epithelial ovarian cancer with the laparotomic approach. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement recommendations, we systematically searched the Pub Med and Scopus databases in February 2023. No temporal nor geographical limitation was made. We included the articles containing data about Disease-Free Survival (DFS) and Overall Survival (OS), Recurrence Rates (RR), and Upstaging Rates (UpR). We used comparative studies for the meta-analysis. After the database search and article selection, 19 works matched the inclusion criteria for the systematic review. Eleven of these were comparative studies between MIS and Open Surgical Staging (OSS) approaches for ovarian cancer staging and were included in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis did not show a statistically significant difference between the MIS and the OSS group concerning DFS, OS, and RR. Only Upstaging Rate ≥ FIGO Stage II was statistically significative higher in the OSS group. Likewise, MIS is confirmed to be an approach with a lower profile of surgical complications. In conclusion, our study did not show one approach to be safer than the other. However, the lack of dedicated studies limits the evidence of our study. For instance, we recommend adequately selecting the specimen, minimizing the risk of spillage, and optimizing surgical staging.
Research on Multiphase Flow and Nozzle Wear in a High-Pressure Abrasive Water Jet Cutting Head

Research on the mixing process of gas–liquid–solid multiphase flow in a high-pressure abrasive water jet (HP-AWJ) is of great significance in improving the performance of water jet cutting. In this paper, the Euler method-VOF model, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation method, is used to solve the multiphase flow of air–water in an abrasive water jet (AWJ). The Euler–Lagrange method is further used to study the multiphase flow of abrasive particles. The method considers the shape factor of the particle, uses the Rosin–Rammler function, and defines an effective model for the particle-to-wall wear model. By solving the velocity of the continuous phase and particulate phase in the AWJ cutting head, the problem of nozzle wear caused by particles is studied. Finally, the exit velocity of the AWJ and particle wear are investigated by varying the model’s parameters. The results show that the double abrasive tube model effectively improved the problem of one-sided wear inside the nozzle, and the tangential velocity of the air affected the acceleration process of the abrasive inside the nozzle, with smaller abrasive velocity resulting in less wear on the model. Simultaneously, the effects of the abrasive inlet tube and mixing chamber size on abrasive exit velocity and nozzle wear are analyzed. The results obtained provide valuable guidance for addressing the multiphase flow mixing issues in the AWJ, improving the abrasive acceleration process and extending the nozzle’s lifetime.
Morphological Effects on Orthographic Learning in Monolingual English-Speaking and Bilingual Chinese-English-Speaking Children

ABSTRACT Morphological knowledge is known to be positively associated with reading ability. However, whether morphological knowledge affects children’s learning of new orthographic representations is less clear. Purpose This study aimed to investigate morphological effects on orthographic learning in English, and whether this effect, if any, is different for monolingual compared to Chinese-English-speaking bilingual children, who often have difficulty acquiring English inflectional morphology. Method 59 Year 2 children, including 29 English-speaking monolinguals and 30 Chinese-English-speaking bilinguals participated. We assessed children’s preexisting English inflectional morphological knowledge. The children learned twelve novel words that were either presented with morphological variation (e.g., vack, vacks, vacking, vacked) or pure repetition (e.g., vack x 4). Orthographic learning was measured by orthographic choice and spelling tasks. Results 1) orthographic learning from the spelling task showed better performance in the repetition condition, 2) there were no differences in orthographic learning between the monolinguals and bilinguals, despite the fact that the monolinguals had better inflectional morphological knowledge than the bilinguals. Conclusion Children learned novel written words better when they are presented without morphological variation, supporting the item-based feature of the self-teaching hypothesis. Chinese-English-speaking bilinguals’ weaker English morphological knowledge does not seem to hinder their orthographic learning ability.
Composite likelihood inference for space-time covariance models

Modelisation and prediction of environmental phenomena, which typically show dependence in space and time, has been one of the most important challenges over the last years. The classical steps of the spatial modeling approach can be resumed as follows: (1) a model-oriented step, in which a random fields assumption is considered; (2) estimation of the objects defining homogeneity and variability of the random field (i.e the trend and the covariance structure); (3) prediction, which is classically implemented through universal or ordinary kriging procedures. This thesis focuses on the first and second steps. Specifically, it consists of three major parts. First part consists in spatio-temporal covariance modeling. In the geostatistical approach spatial and temporal structure are entangled in the covariance structures and it is not easy to model these two parts simultaneously. The classical kriging predictor, depends crucially on the chosen parametric covariance function. This fact motivates the request for more candidate models of co-variance functions that can be used for space-time data. In particular, the wide variety of practical situations that one may face in the space-time domain motivates the request for flexible models of space-time covariance functions, in order to cover several settings such as non-separability or asymmetry in time. We introduce a new class of stationary space-time covariance model which allows for zonal spatial anisotropies. Second part consists in space and space time covariance models estimation. Maximum likelihood and related techniques are generally considered the best method for estimating the parameters of space-time covariance models. For a spatial Gaussian random field with a given parametric covariance function, exact computation of the likelihood requires calculation of the inverse and determinant of the covariance matrix, and this evaluation is slow when the number of observations is large. The problem increases dramatically in a space-time setting. This fact motivates the search for approximations to the likelihood function that require smaller computational burden and that perform better than classical least square estimation. We introduce a weighted composite likelihood estimation (WCL) for space and space time covariance model estimation. The method induces gains in statistical efficiency with respect to the least squares estimation and from the computational point of view with respect to maximum likelihood estimation. Third part consists in a set of application of WCL. Specifically we apply the method in the estimation of particular spatial covariance functions which allow for negative values and in the estimation of covariance function describing residuals dependence in dynamic life tables. A simulation based test to verify separability of some parametric covariance models in a space time setting is proposed.
Shaping of the Stoicheiometry Concept in Secondary Education: Greek Minor Urban Area High Schools

A study is carried out by means of distributing a pair of questionnaires to secondary education students in minor urban areas of Northern Greece. The content of the questions is related to the concept of stoicheiometry (Note 1) as it is presented in the textbooks and described in the Greek chemistry curriculum for secondary education. The two questionnaires were distributed in the beginning and in towards the end of the school year with the scope of mapping the degree of assimilation of the stoicheiometry related concepts by the students. The concept is not introduced to a considerable extent in junior high-school while it is among the main topics addressed in the second grade of senior high-school, when Organic Chemistry is explicitly discussed. The target group therefore, was students of second grade of senior high-schools. The first questionnaire, therefore, serves as exploratory in the determination of the starting point of overall understanding of chemical concepts by the students. The validity of the questionnaires and their efficiency in fulfilling the scope of the current research was carried out by the application of certain post-statistical indices with the final goal being their utilization as a diagnostic tool for probing student understanding of chemical concepts.
Updates in the Systemic Therapy Options for Clear Cell and Non–Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

At the NCCN 2023 Annual Conference, experts reviewed clinical data on established therapies for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma and discussed strategies to effectively manage both clear cell and non–clear cell tumor histologies in the setting of advanced stages. Depicted through 3 separate case studies, they strategized the selection of optimal first-line and subsequent-line therapies based on the individual case study and the tumor characteristics in each.