Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development and Evaluation of Novel Metformin Derivative Metformin Threonate for Brain Ischemia Treatment

Epidemiologic data reveal that diabetes patients taking metformin exhibit lower incidence of stroke and better functional outcomes during post-stroke neurologic recovery. We previously demonstrated that chronic post-ischemic administration of metformin improved functional recovery in experimental cerebral ischemia. However, few beneficial effects of metformin on the acute phase of cerebral ischemia were reported either in experimental animals or in stroke patients, which limits the application of metformin in stroke. We hypothesized that slow cellular uptake of metformin hydrochloride may contribute to the lack of efficacy in acute stroke. We recently developed and patented a novel metformin derivative, metformin threonate (SHY-01). Pharmacokinetic profile in vivo and in cultured cells revealed that metformin is more rapidly uptaken and accumulated from SHY-01 than metformin hydrochloride. Accordingly, SHY-01 treatment exhibited more potent and rapid activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). Furthermore, SHY-01 elicited a stronger inhibition of microglia activation and more potent neuroprotection when compared to metformin hydrochloride. SHY-01 administration also had superior beneficial effects on neurologic functional recovery in experimental stroke and offered strong protection against acute cerebral ischemia with reduced infarct volume and mortality, as well as the improved sensorimotor and cognitive functions in rats. Collectively, these results indicated that SHY-01 had an improved pharmacokinetic and pharmacological profile and produced more potent protective effects on acute stroke and long-term neurological damage. We propose that SHY-01 is a very promising therapeutic candidate for cerebral ischemic stroke.
Measurement Invariance of the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale Across Genders

Social media addiction has been a hot issue in scientific research in recent years, its antecedents and consequences have been extensively studied. Among these studies, Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) is one of the most commonly used instruments. However, little is known about whether this scale has the equivalent psychometric properties for men and women. The purpose of the current study is to examine the measurement invariance (including configural invariance, metric invariance, scalar invariance, and error variance invariance) of the BSMAS across genders. In total, 1,120 participants were recruited from 5 universities. R program was applied to conduct the single-group and multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) based on the social media addiction symptom ratings. The results demonstrated that BSMAS was a valid and psychometrically robust instrument for assessing the risk of social media addiction among university students, and that the four types of measurement invariance of the BSMAS across genders were confirmed. Consequently, gender differences in the BSMAS scores are likely to reflect the genuine differences between men and women, and comparisons on the level of social media addiction of university students between gender groups can be interpreted meaningfully.
Promotion of Meaning in Life and Wellbeing Among University Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic via a Service-Learning Subject

Utilizing the principle of “learning by doing,” service-learning (SL) course provides a platform for university students to apply academic knowledge in serving the community, reflecting on the serving experiences, deepening their understanding of the knowledge, and further improving their competence, responsibility, wellbeing, and meaning in life (MIL). This study reported university students' changes in psychological wellbeing (positive youth development attributes), subjective wellbeing (life satisfaction), and MIL after taking a SL subject during the COVID-19 pandemic through a one-group pretest-posttest design. Based on the data collected from 229 students (mean age = 20.86 ± 1.56 years, 48.0% females), repeated-measures multivariate general linear model (GLM) analyses revealed that students showed significant positive changes in wellbeing and MIL. In addition, pretest MIL scores positively predicted posttest scores of the two wellbeing measures but not vice versa. As predicted, improvement in MIL among students was closely associated with the positive changes in both psychological and subjective wellbeing measures. These findings suggest that SL participation during the pandemic may promote students' life meaning and foster their wellbeing. Furthermore, MIL and wellbeing may improve simultaneously, and MIL enhancement may further contribute to improvement in psychological and subjective wellbeing. The findings further prove that SL is an effective pedagogy in higher education settings in promoting youth positive development.
Evaluation of the Appearance, Location and Morphology of Lingual Foramens in Dentates and Edentulous Mandibles Using CBCT

Objective: The lingual foramen (LF) in the anterior mandibular region is important for surgical planning. Our aim was to assess the anatomical variations of the mandibular LF and canals using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). Materials and Methods: CBCT images of 148 patients were evaluated. The LF presence, number, position, diameter and trajectory was established. The relationship between the findings and gender, dental status was evaluated using Mann-Whitney U, independent samples t-test, and Spearman correlation. Results: Of 102 patients, 5.9% had the inferior foramen, 60.8% had the superior foramen, and 33.3% had two foramina. The average diameter of the inferior LF was 1.08 mm and superior LF was 1.21 mm. There is a statistical difference between genders according to the diameter of the inferior LF (p=0.031). Conclusion: Due to the prevalence of foramines of different sizes and locations, we recommend assessing with CBCT before surgical procedures.
“Hey! Whoa.”: Enhancing Dialectical Behavior Therapy with Drama Therapy for Patients on a Short-Term Inpatient Unit and Trauma/Dissociative Inpatient Unit: Development of a Method

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a widely used treatment approach for many different populations across an array of clinical settings. There is ample supporting evidence on its effectiveness, however there is also emerging literature on the barriers and challenges when engaging with this treatment modality. Drama therapy is an embodied treatment approach that uses theatre processes and techniques to achieve therapeutic goals. The aim of this thesis was to combine drama therapy and DBT into a proposed method to explore the impact of this infusion with clients on two inpatient units: a short-term unit and a trauma/dissociative unit. This method was implemented through created drama therapy-DBT groups, on both units, that address the DBT skills of mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance. The results of this process showed promising outcomes for anxiety management, enhanced confidence and self-acceptance, finding personal connection to the material, and relaxed defenses. This exploration suggests that the incorporation of drama therapy into DBT has the potential to have a positive impact on the noted DBT treatment barriers and challenges, thus making DBT more efficient and effective.
Automatic Polyp Segmentation Using Modified Recurrent Residual Unet Network

Colorectal cancer is a dangerous disease with a high mortality rate. To increase the likelihood of successful treatment, early detection of polyps is a useful solution. The Unet-architecture network model is showing success in medical image segmentation including analysis of polyps from colonoscopy images. Traditional Unet and Unet-based models are often huge, requiring training and deployment with a high-performance system. Designing models with compact size and high performance would be an important goal. In this study, we proposed to modify the Residual Recurrent Unet architecture to improve the size of the model while ensuring the model performance. The proposed model has flexibility in changing the number of filters in convolution units. By taking advantage of the strengths of residual and recurrent structures in terms of reuse of convolutional functions, the new model, therefore, was not only smaller in size but also has superior performance compared to the traditional Unet model and the others. The evaluations were performed on three public Colonoscopy image datasets: CVC-ClinicDB, ETIS-LaribPolypDB, and CVC-ColonDB. The Dice score on CVC-ClinicDB reached 94.59%, ETIS-LaribPolypDB reached 92.73% and 93.31% on CVC-ColonDB dataset. The experimental results obtained from the proposed network on datasets were better than those in recent related studies. The introduced model has a smaller size than the traditional model nevertheless has outstanding performance, therefore, it would be extremely productive for developing applications on low-performance devices.
Health-Promoting Behavior and Lifestyle Characteristics of Students as a Function of Sex and Academic Level

University students frequently engage in unhealthy behaviors. However, there is a lack of studies examining a wide range of their lifestyle characteristics by sex and academic level of study. This cross-sectional survey of students enrolled in BSc, MSc, or PhD programs at one university in Germany (N = 3389) assessed physical activity (PA), sedentary behavior (SB), nutrition, sleep quality, and alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use by sex and academic level and was conducted with EvaSys version 8.0. Chi-squared tests compared categorical variables by sex, and binary logistic regression analyses adjusted for sex with Bonferroni adjustments evaluated differences across academic level. Although 91% of students achieved the aerobic PA guidelines, only 30% achieved the muscle strengthening exercises (MSE) guidelines, and 44% had high SB. Likewise, <10% met the fruit and vegetable consumption (FVC) recommendations, >40% of students experienced impaired sleep, and >30% had hazardous alcohol consumption. Less than 20% of the sample achieved the guideline/recommendation of all three PA, MSE and SB. Some behaviors exhibited significant sex and academic level differences. The identified at-risk groups included males (lower FVC), females (eating more during stress), and BSc students (poorer nutrition/sleep quality, more ATOD use). Given the above findings, multipronged strategies are needed with an overarching focus highlighting the health–academic achievement links. Behavioral interventions and environmental policies are required to raise awareness and promote student health.
Sjögren’s Syndrome-Related Organs Fibrosis: Hypotheses and Realities

Sjögren’s syndrome (SS) is a systemic chronic autoimmune disorder characterized by lymphoplasmacytic infiltration of salivary glands (SGs) and lacrimal glands, causing glandular damage. The disease shows a combination of dryness symptoms found in the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, and vagina, representing a systemic disease. Recent advances link chronic inflammation with SG fibrosis, based on a molecular mechanism pointing to the epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). The continued activation of inflammatory-dependent fibrosis is highly detrimental and a common final pathway of numerous disease states. The important question of whether and how fibrosis contributes to SS pathogenesis is currently intensely debated. Here, we collect the recent findings on EMT-dependent fibrosis in SS SGs and explore clinical evidence of multi-organ fibrosis in SS to highlight potential avenues for therapeutic investigation.
Ergonomics in the Office Environment: A Review

Abstract — The evolution of “office ergonomics” has been largely due to rapid growth of information technology. Nowadays most of the offices are based on the concept of non-territorial or free address offices in which a given desk, office or workstation is intended to be used by different people at different times. Ergonomics in the office environment ranges from business process analysis to workplace design including furniture, equipment, computer systems and environmental factors. Recently in the office, there has been a significant increase in the number of injuries due to over-exertion and repetitive strain. In this paper an attempt has been made to give deep insight of office environment ergonomics and workstation design issues applicable to flexible office work. With the passage of time flexible office design, has improved to eliminate as far as possible the undesirable effects without compromising the benefits and furthermore, to extend the range of potential benefits afforded by the presence of flexibility in the office. The paper gives the readers a broad overview of the different aspects of ergonomic issues applicable to office work and discuses worker health and safety relating to work performed using a computer as a workstation. However, most requirements are applicable to any office environment, which is considered prudent practice for the avoidance of ergonomic related injuries and losses. These advances will create a new era of office ergonomics that will provide considerable health and cost benefits to computer users. Ergonomics work design is best done by assisting users in making informed decisions to enhance efficiency at work, safety, health, physical and psychological well being of people at work or using facilities or equipment. Intensive use of computer and information technology for long periods of time in the office workplace calls for an examination of employee performance and possible work-related health and stress problems. It also provides an overview of a systems analysis tool using a macro-ergonomic approach to understand and identify problems and probable casual factors related to such office environments. Flexible office also provides a process for developing strategic and systematic solutions for solving problems arising in a computer intensive office environment. Reductions in weight and size of computer display equipment, along with advances in lift technology will allow creation of optimized office computer work environments that are substantially lower in cost and easier to set up in the future. The paper contains useful information for workplace practices and may be referred to by inspectors with the Ministry of Labor in performing their duties in enforcing the Occupational Health and Safety Act
Deriving happiness through extraordinary or ordinary brand experiences in times of COVID‐19 threat

Abstract The authors examined how the joint effect of brand experience type (ordinary vs. extraordinary) and COVID‐19 threat on consumer happiness changed at different stages of the COVID‐19 pandemic. The findings from five studies, with the COVID‐19 threat and lockdown status measured as well as manipulated, suggest that COVID‐19 threat exerts converse moderating influences on the extraordinariness–happiness relationship under no lockdown and lockdown. Under lockdown, threat attenuates the effect of brand extraordinariness on happiness; extraordinary brand experiences bring more happiness than ordinary brand experiences when the perceived threat of COVID‐19 is low, but consumers derive comparable happiness from extraordinary and ordinary experiences when perceived threat is high. Under no lockdown, threat amplifies the positive effect of extraordinariness on happiness. Consumers rarely experience a large‐scale lockdown due to a pandemic, and this research advances understanding of how consumer happiness from a brand experience changes with the trajectory of a pandemic.
Review of Evaluation and Valuation Methods for Cetacean Regulation and Maintenance Ecosystem Services With the Joint Cetacean Protocol Data

Cetaceans provide a range of ecosystem services of value to anthropogenic interests. Following the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES) these are categorised as regulation and maintenance, provisioning, and cultural values. This study focuses on those of importance to climate change mitigation through regulation and maintenance. Under regulation and maintenance, cetaceans can store, transport, and influence stocks of carbon through: climate regulation through carbon sequestration, enhanced biodiversity and ecosystem potential, and enhanced primary productivity. ‘Climate regulation through carbon sequestration’ can be quantified as carbon fixation through living biomass and ‘whale-falls’. Cetacean populations store significant stocks of carbon in living biomass. After death, sinking whale carcasses, ‘whale-falls’, provide a significant transfer of biomass and nutrients to benthic sediments and support deep sea ecosystems. During their lifespan, cetaceans also disperse nutrients through feeding and excretion both horizontally through the ‘whale-conveyor’ and vertically through the ‘whale pump’. As nutrient limitations hinder phytoplankton growth, these processes can be quantified as the increased potential of phytoplankton carbon fixation from cetacean driven nutrient cycling. Enhanced biodiversity, ecosystem potential, and primary productivity can be quantified as carbon fixation through nutrient cycling. This study reviews the evaluative and valuative techniques used in cetacean ecosystem service research and adapts and applies them to the Joint Cetacean Protocol (JCP) data which details cetacean abundance and distribution in Europe. They are then reviewed with regards to their robustness, application in markets, and in decision making processes. Cetacean populations are estimated to contain 2 Mt C, cycle 60,000 t N yr-1, and impact carbon fluxes by as much as 22 Mt C yr-1 in the survey area. The values highlight key areas for cetacean conservation: the Outer Hebrides, west of south Wales, around the Isle of Man, to the east of England, and to the north-east of the Shetland Islands. There is, however, large uncertainty in the evaluative processes used; nutrient cycling models presented in this study don’t capture removal of excess nutrients, or the values of enhanced biodiversity and ecosystem potential. As such, they are not sufficiently robust to quantify market values but highlight key areas for future research on climate change mitigation through conservation. Key areas of future research include phytoplankton uptake rates of nitrogen and phosphorus in nutrient limited waters, quantification of ‘enhanced biodiversity and ecosystem potential’, and nutrient removal from coastal waters.
False Negative Results in Cervical Cancer Screening—Risks, Reasons and Implications for Clinical Practice and Public Health

False negative (FN) results in cervical cancer (CC) screening pose serious risks to women. We present a comprehensive literature review on the risks and reasons of obtaining the FN results of primary CC screening tests and triage methods and discuss their clinical and public health impact and implications. Misinterpretation or true lack of abnormalities on a slide are the reasons of FN results in cytology and p16/Ki-67 dual-staining. For high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) molecular tests, those include: truly non-HPV-associated tumors, lesions driven by low-risk HPV types, and clearance of HPV genetic material before sampling. Imprecise disease threshold definition lead to FN results in visual inspection with acetic acid. Lesions with a discrete colposcopic appearance are a source of FN in colposcopic procedures. For FAM19A4 and hsa-miR124-2 genes methylation, those may originate from borderline methylation levels. Histological misinterpretation, sampling, and laboratory errors also play a role in all types of CC screening, as well as reproducibility issue, especially in methods based on human-eye evaluation. Primary HPV-based screening combined with high quality-assured immunocytochemical and molecular triage methods seem to be an optimal approach. Colposcopy with histological evaluation remains the gold standard for diagnosis but requires quality protocols and assurance measures.
Evolution Characteristics and Mechanism of the Load/Unload Response Ratio Based on Strain Observation Before the Jiuzhaigou M S 7.0 Earthquake

Strain observation is the most intuitive observation equipment to monitor stress change in the crust. Strain equipment near the epicenter area of the Jiuzhaigou earthquake (JZGEQ) provides a lot of reliable pre-seismic and post-seismic data for the study of stress change. In this study, the load/unload response ratio (LURR) method is used to study the stress state of rocks by calculating the ratio of strain observation during the loading phase and unloading phase. Results show that the LURR method based on strain observation is an effective method to describe the dynamic change of the constitutive relationship of the rocks in the crust. Different from the strain observation, the LURR anomaly evolution process is more continuous regardless of the time series curve or spatial and temporal distribution characteristics. The LURR curves of different stations begin to increase above 1.0 gradually from 6 months to 1 year prior to the occurrence of the JZGEQ, reaching the maximum value in 1–3 months before the JZGEQ, and subsequently return to a low level. The maximum value of the LURR anomalies decreases with the distance from the epicenters. At the same time, the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of the LURR anomalies show us the process of “extension—enhance—weaken” in the epicenter of JZGEQ and its peripheral area prior to the earthquake. The concentration areas of the aforementioned LURR anomalies are all distributed in the pre-seismic normal stress-loading zone, which indicates that the faults are in the process of decoupling, and microfracture may exist in the stage of rock dilatancy.
Epidemiologic Features of Acute Pediatric Diarrhea in Managua, Nicaragua, from 2011 to 2019

ABSTRACT. Diarrhea remains a leading cause of death in children in developing countries, including Nicaragua, but little is known about patterns of diarrhea occurrence in Central America over long periods of time. The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence, risk factors, long-term trends, and seasonality of diarrhea in children age 2 to 14 years in Managua, Nicaragua. From 2011 to 2019, we examined episodes of diarrhea among 6,485 children who participated in a prospective cohort study and presented for care in a primary care facility. We performed a longitudinal analysis considering time-varying variables and the intra-subject correlation of outcomes. In addition, we analyzed the weekly incidence of diarrhea, applying seasonal trend decomposition to extract secular and seasonal patterns. The overall incidence rate of diarrhea was 133.4 episodes per 1,000 person-years (95% CI, 128.3–138.7). We observed a slight increase in the incidence of diarrhea from 2011 to 2019. Younger age was the strongest predictor of the risk of diarrhea, and incidence increased with every additional hour without running water in the household per day. Diarrhea incidence in Managua was seasonal, with high peaks each year between May and July. Despite reductions in childhood mortality since 1990 in Nicaragua, diarrheal morbidity remains a major problem in Managua.