Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interleukin-8 concentrations in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACT Interleukin (IL)-8 has been shown to play an important role in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). However, its role in OSAS development is still controversial. This meta-analysis was to explore the correlation between interleukin (IL)-8 concentration and OSAS. Database (from the inception to July 2021) searches on PubMed, Web of Science, Medline, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library were conducted for studies analyzing the correlation between IL-8 concentration and OSAS, regardless of the language of publication. Standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used to analyze any prospective association between IL-8 concentration and OSAS. A total of 25 eligible studies, including 2301 participants and 1123 controls, were included in this meta-analysis. The included studies evaluating the association between serum IL-8 concentration and OSAS indicated that adults and children with OSAS had elevated serum concentrations of IL-8 compared with controls (SMD = 0.997, 95% CI = 0.437–1.517, P < 0.001; SMD = 0.431, 95% CI = 0.104–0.759, P = 0.01). Categorization of the study population into subgroups according to body mass index, apnea–hypopnea index (AHI), ethnicity, and sample size also showed that individuals with OSAS had elevated serum concentrations of IL-8 compared with controls. Additionally, the results demonstrated that the higher the AHI, higher was the IL-8 concentration. Similar results were observed in the literature on the association between plasma IL-8 concentration and OSAS. This meta-analysis verified that compared with controls, children and adults with OSAS have significantly elevated IL-8 concentrations.
Propagation Of Sound In The Vicinity Of Rigid Porous Interfaces

Tao, Hongdan Ph.D., Purdue University, December 2013. Propagation of Sound in the Vicinity of Rigid Porous Interfaces. Major Professor: Kai Ming Li, School of Mechanical Engineering. Propagation of sound in the vicinity of rigid porous interfaces is investigated systematically to facilitate the acoustical characterization of sound absorption materials for noise reduction applications. Various rigid porous interfaces are considered: (1) a semi-infinite porous layer; (2) a porous hard-backed surface; and (3) a porous impedancebacked layer. A closed-form solution and numerical methods are derived with respect to each rigid porous interface condition. A modified saddle-point method is exploited to investigate the sound field emanating from a monopole source above and below a rigid porous interface. The solutions can be expressed in a form that resembles the classical Weyl-Van der Pol formula. A heuristic method is then proposed to remove the singularity within the asymptotic solution via application of the double saddle-point method. Its relative simplicity and accuracy demonstrates the advantage of the double saddle-point method whenever the approximation is valid. Following this, the sound field within a hardbacked rigid porous medium due to an airborne source is examined. The accuracy of the proposed asymptotic solutions has been confirmed by comparison with benchmark numerical solutions and through indoor sound propagation experiments. Measurement
Investigating the Use of a Serious Game to Improve Opioid Safety Awareness Among Adolescents: Quantitative Study

Background The misuse of opioid medications among adolescents is a serious problem in the United States. Serious games (SGs) are a novel way to promote the safe and responsible management of opioid medications among adolescents, thereby reducing the number of adolescent opioid misuse cases reported annually. Objective This study aimed to examine the effect of the SG MedSMART: Adventures in PharmaCity on adolescents’ opioid safety knowledge, awareness, behavioral intent, and self-efficacy. Methods A nationally representative sample of adolescents aged 12 to 18 years were recruited online through Qualtrics panels from October to November 2020. Data collection consisted of a pregame survey, 30 minutes of gameplay, and a postgame survey. The pregame and postgame surveys included 66 items examining the participants’ baseline opioid knowledge, safety, use, and demographic information. The postgame survey had 25 additional questions regarding the MedSMART game. Gameplay scenarios included 5 levels intended to mimic adolescents’ daily life while educating the players about appropriate opioid storage and disposable practices, negative consequences of sharing opioid medications, and the use of Narcan. Survey questions were divided into 10 categories to represent key concepts and were summarized into concept scores. Differences in concept scores were described by overall mean (SD) when stratified by gender, race, school, grade, and age. Differences of change in concept score were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis and correlation tests. Results A total of 117 responses were analyzed. The results showed significant improvement on all concept scores except for Narcan knowledge (mean change -0.04, SD 0.29; P=.60) and safe storage (mean change 0.03, SD 0.20; P=.09). Female participants had greater improvement than males for safe disposal (female mean 0.12, SD 0.25 vs male mean 0.04, SD 0.17; P=.05). Male participants had higher improvement than female participants for misuse behavior (female mean 0.05, SD 0.28 vs male mean 0.14, SD 0.27; P=.04). Perceived knowledge for participants who had non-White or Hispanic racial backgrounds had higher improvement than for non-Hispanic White participants (non-White mean 1.10, SD 1.06 vs White mean 0.75, SD 0.91; P=.03). Older grades were associated with greater improvement in opioid knowledge (correlation coefficient -0.23, 95% CI -0.40 to -0.05; P=.01). There were 28 (23.9%) participants who played all 5 levels of the game and had better improvement in opioid use self-efficacy. Conclusions Our findings suggest MedSMART: Adventures in PharmaCity can be used as an effective tool to educate adolescents on the safe and responsible use of prescribed opioid medications. Future testing of the effectiveness of this SG should involve a randomized controlled trial. Additionally, the feasibility of implementing and disseminating MedSMART: Adventures in PharmaCity in schools and health care settings such as adolescent health or primary care clinics, emergency departments, and pharmacies should be investigated.
Non-conventional therapies for analgesia

Purpose: Third molar surgery is a quite common procedure. Some patients experience pain associated with this situation. The aim of this article aims to discuss non-conventional therapies for the management of postoperative pain associated with third molar surgery. Methods: An extensive literature search was conducted with the keywords “third molar” + “pain” and all articles that excluded already established drugs as analgesics, anti-inflammatories, or therapies such as laser therapy and ozone therapy whereas non-conventional drugs and therapies were retained. Results: The article rated bromelain, honey, hyaluronic acid, nicotine patches, Kinesio tape, TENS, anticonvulsants, curcumin, and melatonin. Some therapies are efficient and safe, while others have not shown promising results. Conclusions: Bromelain and Kinesio tape are considered the most effective non-conventional therapies for controlling postoperative pain, and even with few studies on them, they are therapies with promising results.
Assessing Porcine Iris Elasticity and Mechanical Anisotropy with Optical Coherence Elastography

The relaxation and contraction of the sphincter and dilator muscles of the iris play a critical role in vision, yet little is known about the biomechanical properties of these muscles. This study aimed to determine the elastic properties of the iris as a function of its anatomy and intraocular pressure. A high-resolution phase-sensitive OCE system was employed to detect acoustic radiation force induced propagation of elastic waves in the porcine iris in situ. Experiments were conducted at four different intraocular pressures (5, 10, 20, and 30 mmHg) with mechanical excitation at 1 kHz. We found that there was no significant difference in the wave speed at the different intraocular pressures. The results show that the stiffness of the iris was significantly higher in the semi-azimuthal orientation (mean wave speed of 2.5 m/s) than in the radial orientation (mean wave speed of 1.5 m/s). These measurements provide essential insights into the elastic properties of the iris, and they can be used for the characterization of eye conditions. © 2021 Journal of Biomedical Photonics & Engineering. non-natural modifications). These results suggest the potential use of
Prediction of peak flows for culvert design on small watersheds in Oregon

The work upon which this publication is based was supported in part by funds provided by the Office of Water Research and Technology (Project No. A-053-ORE), U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., as authorized by the Water Research and Development Act of 1978, P.L. 95-467.
Seasonal hydrological and water quality performance of individual and in-series stormwater infrastructures as treatment trains in cold climate

The performance of stormwater treatment trains and of their individual green infrastructure was evaluated near Montreal, Canada. Three treatment trains were studied: Train 1 – five bioretention cells in series with a wet retention pond; Train 2 – an infiltration trench in series with a dry detention pond and Train 3 – Train 2 in series with a wet retention pond. A total of 47 rain events were monitored to quantity the hydrological performance, while water quality samples were taken during 24 rainfall events. During the summer, the bioretention cells led to a reduction in runoff volumes varying from 8 to 100%. Overall, the three studied treatment trains and all of the individual infrastructures, except for the dry pond, provided reductions in the mean concentrations of total suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand, total nitrogen and total phosphorous. Results also showed that the use of a train of stormwater infrastructures can be more effective to reach Quebec's legislated targets than single infrastructures to remove those four contaminants, but only if the infrastructures are sequenced properly. Indeed, the addition of a dry basin at the end of Train 2 reduced the removal efficiency of the four studied contaminants.
A Novel technique to the solution of transient electromagnetic scattering from thin wires

Previous approaches to the problem of transient scattering by conducting bodies have utilized the well-known marching-on-in-time solution procedures. However, these procedures are very dependent on discretization techniques and in many cases lead to instabilities as time progresses. Moreover, the accuracy of the solution procedure cannot be verified easily and usually there is no error estimation. Recently an alternate approach to the solution of transient scattering by thin wires was presented based on the conjugate gradient (CG) method. In this procedure, space and time are discretized independently into subintervals and the error is minimized iteratively. Unfortunately, this procedure is very slow, not easily extendable to other geometries, and moreover, some of the advantages of marching-on-in-time are lost. In this paper, again the conjugate gradient method is applied to solve the above problem, but this time, reducing the error to a desired value at each time step. Since the error is reduced at each time step, marching-on-in-time can still be done without error accumulation as time progresses. Computationally, this procedure is as fast as conventional marching-on-in-time. Thus, this new method retains all the advantages of marching-on-in-time and yet does not introduce instabilities in the late time. It is also possible to apply this procedure to other geometries. Details of the solution procedure along with numerical results are also presented.
Role of Ultrasonography in Diagnosing Acute Cholecystitis and Correlation with Intra-operative Findings

Background: 90-95% of cases of acute cholecystitis are caused due to gall stones, i.e. calculous cholecystitis. Rest of the 5-10% cases are caused without the presence of stones, i.e. acalculous cholecystitis. Diagnosis of acute cholecystitis involves clinical, laboratory, and radiographic findings especially by ultrasonography. The aim of the study is to evaluate role of ultrasonography in diagnosing acute cholecystitis and correlation with intra-operative findings. Material and Methods: The present study was conducted in the Department of Surgery, Govt. Medical College, Amritsar. A sample size of 50 patients was taken who were diagnosed as cases of acute cholecystitis either clinically or radiologically referred to the department. Results: The mean age of presentation was 54.94 years. It was more common in females than males and more common among married females. On USG abdomen, 92% cases had calculous cholecystitis and 8% had acalculous cholecystitis. Intraoperatively, most common finding was adhesions. It was present in 40 patients (95.24%) and increased wall thickness was present in 37 cases (88.09%). The sensitivity and specificity of ultrasonography in our study was 97.62% and 62.5% respectively. Conclusion: The number of patients presenting with acute cholecystitis is increasing because of the increased awareness. With improved healthcare facilities and newer techniques, complications have declined substantially with reduced mortality and morbidity.
ELECTRIC POWER DEFICIT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA: A SECTORAL ANALYSIS

In addition to capital and labour, electricity supply is another important factor that promotes economic growth in an economy. Often times, economic resources are used to generate electricity for domestic consumption by different sectors of an economy. In Nigeria however, the generated KWh is far higher than what eventually gets to the final consumers due to technical inefficiencies associated with electric power transmission and distribution in the supply chain resulting in huge losses. Thus, this study investigated the effect of electric power deficit proxied by electric power transmission and distribution losses on economic growth (disaggregated into agricultural and industrial RGDP) in Nigeria. This study employed the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model and time series data from 1981 to 2017. The hypotheses tested in this study were done at 5 and 10% levels of significance. The result obtain revealed that a 1 percent increase in electric power transmission and distribution losses will decrease agricultural output by 3% in the long run but insignificant in the short run. Similarly, electric power transmission and distribution losses do not have significant effect on industrial output. It was therefore recommended that the government should construct energy farms to muster and store the electricity that is produced before they are transmitted to the final consumers.
Structural and Functional Changes in Bosnian Family - Disappearance of the “Sofra”

The ‘sofra’ and ‘me′edeba’ are places where not only physiological needs of food consumption which are necessary for physical life are fulfilled, but they are also places where we prepare on fundamental, intellectual, emotional and social levels for participation in the society, adoption of basic knowledge about ways to satisfy own and others’ needs for safety, belonging, recognition, love, (Self) respect, and living of aesthetic and intellectual values. Before we sit at the ‘sofra’, we participate in serving of the food, and we learn to listen to and look at each other, to educate all senses by exchanging impressions and opinions about tastes. If all meanings of ‘sofra’ and ‘me’edeba’ are satisfied, we always happily go back to that place, but we also know how to transfer that knowledge to the next generation. Therefore, we learn to adopt culture through enculturation processes. The most explicit changes in dimension of adaptability and cohesion suggest that Bosnian family, besides social, economy, and political changes, passes through unprecedented and unique transformation, which could be connected to far more complex cultural changes – what we assume to be – transformation of normative / relational collectivism and individualism, increased migrations, different / changed role of religion, and a new paradigm of identity definition. In that sense, this article represents an attempt to determine in what way different custom, forms and functions of Bosnian family, above all, the dominant structure and functions, changes throughout the past three decades.
Forecasting the demand for tourism using combinations of forecasts by neural network-based interval grey prediction models

ABSTRACT In contrast to point forecasting, interval forecasting provides the degree of variation associated with forecasts. Accurate forecasting can help governments formulate policies for tourism, but little attention has been paid to interval forecasting of tourism demand. This study contributes to apply neural networks to develop interval models for tourism demand forecasting. Since combined forecasts are likely to improve the accuracy of point forecasting, forecast combinations are used to construct the proposed models. Besides, grey prediction models without requiring that data follow any statistical assumption serve as constituent models. Empirical results show that the proposed models outperform other considered interval models.
Does Productive Mean Active? The Behavior of Occasional and Serial Academic Inventors in Patenting Processes

Previous literature has attributed differences in individuals’ inventive productivity to a range of environmental, organizational and individual traits. However, the behavior of individuals with different inventive productivity has not been empirically explored in detail. Based on interviews with twenty Swedish academic inventors of diverse patenting experience, this paper analyses how serial and occasional inventors acted in patent initiation, patent application and subsequent patent management for specific inventions. Two modes of behavior are identified: passive and active. Individuals’ inventive productivity was not aligned with behavioral mode, with both modes of behavior exhibited by occasional as well as serial academic inventors. Individual academic inventors also varied in mode of behavior across different patent processes. These findings suggest that commonly used volume-based classifications of academic inventors obscure potentially relevant behavioral differences. This insight has implications for contemporary policy and organizational practice. It also highlights the need for further investigation of when academic inventors assume an active or passive mode of behavior in processes of academic commercialization.
Uncertainty Analysis of Regional Rainfall Frequency Estimates in Northeast India

Estimation of rainfall quantile is an important step in regional frequency analysis for planning and design of any water resources project. Related evaluations of accuracy and uncertainty help to further assist in enhancing the reliability of design estimates. In this study, therefore, we investigate the accuracy and uncertainty of regional frequency analysis of extreme rainfall computed from genetic algorithm-based clustering. Uncertainty assessment is explored with prediction of quantiles with a new spatial Information Transfer Index (ITI) and Monte Carlo simulation framework. And, accuracy assessment is done with the comparison of regional growth curves to at-site analysis for each homogenous region. Further, uncertainty assessment with the ITI method is compared with Maximum Likelihood estimation (MLE) optimized by a genetic algorithm (GA) to check the suitability of the method. Results obtained suggest the ITI-based uncertainty assessment for regional estimates outperformed those of at-site estimates. The MLE-GA method based on at-site estimates was found to be better than at-site estimates based on L-moments, suggesting the former as a better alternative to compare with regional frequency estimates. Moreover, minimal bias and least deviation of the regional growth curve were obtained in the rainfall regions. The confidence intervals of regional estimates were seen to be well within the bounds of normality assumptions. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091762 Full Text: PDF
Effect of Juglan Regiaon Patients Having Metabolic Syndrome: A Controlled Feeding Trial

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of disorders diagnosed simultaneously in an individual. The percentage of individuals affected from this syndrome is escalating around the globe as well as in Pakistan mainly due to more consumption of energy dense foods and sedentary lifestyle. Dietary modification with nutrient dense foods is a globally adapted strategy to reduce the complexity of this issue. This present project has been designed to see the impact of nutrient dense walnuts consumption on selective biomarkers in human subjects. The screening of human subjects was done by taking the anthropometric measurements, lipid profile, blood glucose level and blood pressure whereas the dietary pattern of patients was collected by validated food frequency questionnaire. The proximate analysis of walnuts was also done. Twenty patients were selected and divided into two groups randomly. Experimental group consumed walnuts daily for 8 weeks and placebo group consumed the diet without walnut. Selective physical parameters included BMI was performed at the regular basis whereas, the blood samples were collected at 1st , 4th and 8th week of the study period followed by the evaluation of serum triglyceride and high density lipoprotein cholesterol level. Walnuts were found to be high in fat content i.e 64.6% and also contained all other important nutrients as moisture (3.9%), ash (1.5%), protein (15.3%), fiber (1.5%) and nitrogen free extract (10.7%). Walnuts reduced triglycerides significantly and HDL was also raised significantly. No significant change was observed in BMI. Statistical analysis was employed to draw the conclusive outcomes of the research studies.
Changes in arthropod communities mediate the effects of landscape composition and farm management on pest control ecosystem services in organically managed strawberry crops

1. Landscape composition and local diversification practices such as polyculture, cover cropping and hedgerows may promote natural pest control by benefiting natural enemy communities on farms. Our study employs piecewise structural equation modelling (PSEM) to test causal hypotheses regarding the effects of landscape composition and local diversification practices on arthropod communi - ties and pest control ecosystem services. 2. We sampled 27 organic strawberry fields in California's Central Coast region in 2015 and 2016 (17 repeated between years) for a total of 37 distinct sites across years. The sites were selected along orthogonal gradients of landscape composi - tion and local diversification practices. We also investigated the effects of two common pest management practices. At each site, we sampled arthropod com - munities using a handheld vacuum and performed sentinel prey experiments using the pest species Lygus hesperus to estimate pest control levels. 3. At