Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Use of medication and associated factors in adults living in Rio Branco, Acre

We analyzed use of medication and associated factors in adults aged 18–59 years living in Rio Branco, Acre. This is a cross-sectional and population-based study that used a probabilistic sample of the population from rural and urban areas of the city of Rio Branco, Acre. The Prevalence Ratio (PR) was calculated with 95% confidence intervals and associations were estimated by Poisson regression. This study found a 29.4% prevalence ratio of use of medication among individuals aged from 18 to 59 years (685 adults: 473 women and 212 men; producing estimates for 211,902 adults: 110,769 women and 101,133 men). After adjusted analysis, their use was associated with: age (50–59 years, PR: 2.36; 95%CI: 2.29–2.43); women (PR: 1.25; 95%CI: 1.23–1.27); up to elementary school (PR: 1.13; 95%CI: 1.11–1.15); and poor or very poor self-rated health (PR: 1.47; 95%CI: 1.43–1.51). The health conditions associated with use of medication were: number of comorbidities, hypertension, diabetes, insomnia, depression, number of health complaints and use of health services. The most frequently used drugs were those belonging to the following ATC categories: alimentary tract and metabolism, cardiovascular system, nervous system, and the musculoskeletal system.
Evaluating Locational Preference of Urban Activities with the Time-Dependent Accessibility Using Integrated Spatial Economic Models

In recent years, accessibility has been considered a vital policy objective in the development of a sustainable transportation system. Accessibility can make a significant contribution to quality of life. The accessibility of desirable locations, such as households and commercial locations, is usually underpinned by land use patterns and transportation infrastructure. The accessibility of different activities is largely determined by the spatial distribution of activities and associated transport networks in a metropolitan area. In order to examine how location choice behaviors of urban activities influence urban forms and land use patterns, accessibility has been used extensively to consider the impact of both the spatial distribution of opportunities (e.g., employment or services) and the transport cost of reaching them. However, in most cases, only those static/aggregate accessibility terms that are represented by the “logsum” of all available transport modes have traditionally been used in urban transport planning and modeling analysis. In this study, according to urban activities, several Integrated Spatial Economic (ISE) models i.e., PECAS (Production, Exchange, Consumption, Allocation, System) models were developed to study the relationship between dynamic, Time-Dependent Accessibility (TDA) and the location choice behavior of urban activities in the City of Wuhan, China. The developed models were then used as tools to investigate the impact of dynamic/disaggregate short-term TDA on location choice behaviors of various urban activities such as households and commercial. Regarding the household location choice, the ISE modeling results revealed that urban households living in the downtown area of the City of Wuhan were sensitive to TDA to employment centers, especially during the morning peak time. In addition, commercial services prefer locations that offer a high level of accessibility during off-peak times. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that planning exercises, such as the development of zoning and the allocation of urban activities and public facilities, pay more attention to dynamic, short-term TDA, which is essential for urban sectors to carry out daily activities, than their static, composite accessibility counterparts.
Development and Validation of the Italian “Brief Five-Item Chronic Pain Questionnaire” for Epidemiological Studies

Background Chronic pain (CP) prevalence estimates addressing a wide phenotype are still quite fragmented and may vary widely due to the lack of standardized tools of investigation. There is an urgent need to update general population CP estimates. Methods For this purpose, the Brief Five-item Chronic Pain Questionnaire was developed through experts’ consultations for design and content validity assessment; literature analysis of measures used to investigate CP for general population surveys; understandability evaluation through a survey on a convenience sample of affected and non-affected individuals; reliability assessment by means of two double-wave online surveys carried out by the Italian Twin Registry; criterion and construct validity assessment through the third wave of the 2019 European Health Interview Survey (Ehis). Results Key dimensions were defined to describe CP main aspects from a public health perspective. Literature analysis showed that validated questionnaires were rarely used to address important public health CP aspects. Understandability of the measure was good. Test-retest analyses showed adequate reliability of the measure: k values were at least “moderate” with highest values regarding CP “occurrence” and “intensity”. Correlations of CP with well-known comorbidities (cancer, depression), and specific traits (age, education) as well as of CP and its intensity with “physical pain occurrence and intensity” detected in the Ehis 2019, confirmed, respectively, a good construct and criterion validity. Construct validity was also evaluated through the correlation between “perceived treatment effectiveness” and “interference of pain in daily life activities” as recorded in the Ehis 2019. Conclusion The designed questionnaire is a brief self-administered measure, particularly suitable to detect persistent states of pain and related intensity in large-scale general population surveys by means of a first filtering item followed by four further items. It is, in fact, designed to detect CP possible underlying causes/triggers, drugs/treatments taking and frequency, and self-perceived effectiveness among CP sufferers. Further validation of the measure in different social and cultural contexts is desirable.
ICRP Publication 129: Radiological Protection in Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT)

The objective of this publication is to provide guidance on radiological protection in the new technology of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). Publications 87 and 102 dealt with patient dose management in computed tomography (CT) and multi-detector CT. The new applications of CBCT and the associated radiological protection issues are substantially different from those of conventional CT. The perception that CBCT involves lower doses was only true in initial applications. CBCT is now used widely by specialists who have little or no training in radiological protection. This publication provides recommendations on radiation dose management directed at different stakeholders, and covers principles of radiological protection, training, and quality assurance aspects. Advice on appropriate use of CBCT needs to be made widely available. Advice on optimisation of protection when using CBCT equipment needs to be strengthened, particularly with respect to the use of newer features of the equipment. Manufacturers should standardise radiation dose displays on CBCT equipment to assist users in optimisation of protection and comparisons of performance. Additional challenges to radiological protection are introduced when CBCT-capable equipment is used for both fluoroscopy and tomography during the same procedure. Standardised methods need to be established for tracking and reporting of patient radiation doses from these procedures. The recommendations provided in this publication may evolve in the future as CBCT equipment and applications evolve. As with previous ICRP publications, the Commission hopes that imaging professionals, medical physicists, and manufacturers will use the guidelines and recommendations provided in this publication for implementation of the Commission’s principle of optimisation of protection of patients and medical workers, with the objective of keeping exposures as low as reasonably achievable, taking into account economic and societal factors, and consistent with achieving the necessary medical outcomes. 2015 ICRP. Published by SAGE.
A Prospective Study of Etiology and Auditory Profiles in Infants with Congenital Unilateral Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Congenital unilateral sensorineural hearing loss (uSNHL) is associated with speech-language delays and academic difficulties. Yet, controversy exists in the choice of diagnosis and intervention methods. A cross-sectional prospective design was used to study hearing loss cause in twenty infants with congenital uSNHL consecutively recruited from a universal neonatal hearing-screening program. All normal-hearing ears showed ≤20 dB nHL auditory brainstem response (ABR) thresholds (ABRthrs). The impaired ear median ABRthr was 55 dB nHL, where 40% had no recordable ABRthr. None of the subjects tested positive for congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. Fourteen subjects agreed to participate in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Malformations were common for all degrees of uSNHL and found in 64% of all scans. Half of the MRIs demonstrated cochlear nerve aplasia or severe hypoplasia and 29% showed inner ear malformations. Impaired ear and normal-hearing ear ABR input/output functions on a group level for subjects with ABRthrs < 90 dB nHL were parallel shifted. A significant difference in interaural acoustic reflex thresholds (ARTs) existed. In congenital uSNHL, MRI is powerful in finding a possible hearing loss cause, while congenital CMV infection may be relatively uncommon. ABRs and ARTs indicated an absence of loudness recruitment, with implications for further research on hearing devices.
Third ventricle neuropeptide-Y infusion effect on metabolic parameters under different energy levels in diets

The goal of this study was to determine whether neuropeptide-Y affects the mean plasma concentrations of metabolic parameters such as thyroxine (T4), triiodothyronine (T3), growth hormone (GH), insulin, glucagon, glucose, fatty acid and urea in the goats fed different energy content in diets. 16 goats were randomly divided into four groups. Animals in groups 1 and 2 were fed 100% energy content in diet and animals in groups 3 and 4 were fed 50% energy content in diet for 20 days. After 20 days, animals in groups 1 and 3 received daily infusion of 1 μg neuropeptide-Y and groups 2 and 4 received daily infusion of 2 μg galanin into their third ventricle for 5 days. Blood samples were collected daily from the jugular veins before infusions on day 4 until 4 days after the last infusions of neuropeptide-Y. Samples were assayed for plasma T3, T4, GH, insulin and glucagon concentrations by double-antibody radioimmunoassay (RIA). Glucose, fatty acid and urea concentrations were also measured. Lower dietary energy intake and infusions of 1 and 2 μg neuropeptide-Y significantly (P<0.01) decreased the mean plasma concentrations of T3, T4, insulin and glucose and significantly (P<0.01) increased the mean plasma concentrations of GH, glucagon, fatty acid and urea of the animals in groups 3 and 4. Different dosages of the neuropeptide-Y infusions did not change the plasma concentrations of the metabolic parameters in the animals fed normal energy content in diets. The results of this experiment indicate that neuropeptide-Y may negatively affected T3, T4, insulin and glucose and increased GH, glucagon, fatty acid and urea in the goats with negative energy balance, but not in those with the positive energy balance.
Influence of Policy, Air Quality, and Local Attitudes toward Renewable Energy on the Adoption of Woody Biomass Heating Systems

Heat produced from woody biomass accounts for a significant portion of renewable energy in the United States. Economic and federal policy factors driving institutional adoption of woody biomass heating systems have been identified and examined in previous studies, as have the effects of state policies in support of biomass heating. However, plans for a number of mid- to large-scale biomass facilities have been abandoned after being proposed in communities with many of the factors and policies considered favorable to the adoption of such systems. In many of these cases, opponents cited potential negative impacts on local air quality, despite being generally in favor of renewable energy. This study employed a zero inflated negative binomial (ZINB) statistical model to determine if state policies, air quality, and local attitudes toward renewable energy have a significant effect on the adoption and retention of distributed-scale biomass combustion systems used for institutional heating. State policy appears to have a negligible effect, while the influences of historic and current air pollution and local emissions appear insignificant. However, local attitudes in favor of renewable energy are associated with the adoption and retention of distributed-scale woody biomass heating systems. This is an indication of the importance of local support in determining the fate of future biomass energy projects.
A Secure and Efficient Multiserver Authentication and Key Agreement Protocol for Internet of Vehicles

Internet of Vehicles (IoV) being a subdivided application of the Internet of Things, is considered as one of the most prominent and emerging technologies for model transportation systems. However, security and privacy remain two key requirements for IoV networks, as communications between vehicles and other Internet-connected things are generally carried out over public channels. Some of the most typical attack issues for the IoV networks include hardware tampering, unauthorized data access, message modification, tracking vehicle locations, etc. Although there have been a number of solutions (e.g., mutual authentication and key agreement protocols) proposed to ensure the secure communication for IoV, most of them still suffer from some vulnerabilities, such as linkability, server spoofing, and replay attacks, in violation of the security requirements of IoV. Hence, it remains challenging to design secure and efficient solutions. In this article, we first take a recently proposed authentication protocol as an example and analyze the weaknesses of it with simple mathematical analysis. We then propose an improved multiserver-based authentication and key agreement protocol for IoV (called SeMAV), which applies the password and smart card to hide the private keys. We also present both formal and informal security proofs to confirm the robustness against those commonly known attacks. The theoretical comparative summary and simulation results also show that SeMAV can achieve a good performance when compared with some other related protocols in the literature.
Anticipating Changes in Lifestyles That Shape Travel Behavior in an Autonomous Vehicle Era—A Method-Oriented Systematic Literature Review

This article proposes a systematic review of the recent literature on the impacts of the deployment of autonomous vehicles through the lens of lifestyle changes that will modify our mobility practices. It discusses the main findings of the studies, analyzes their links with the foresight methods used by their authors, and identifies research gaps. Four components of lifestyles are considered: residential location, car ownership, activity patterns, and tourism. Particular attention is given to the diversity of the reviewed foresight approaches, to the way they complement one another in the construction of knowledge, and to their influence on the forecasts and the lessons learned. Our work shows a convergence of results across methods, especially for expected impacts on household location and car ownership, and the influence of the way autonomous vehicles are deployed. Our analysis also makes it possible to draw up a more comprehensive and nuanced picture of the anticipated changes in lifestyles, and the main sources of uncertainty. Finally, our work identifies several research gaps and avenues for future studies such as the impacts on job choices and tourism, the need for a better understanding of the links between the different deployment models for autonomous vehicles, and the need to explore more scenarios that are compatible with environmentally- and socially-oriented goals.
Projects and Networks: Understanding Resource Flows and Governance of Temporary Organizations with Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods

Project-based organizing is becoming increasingly common, but projects are challenging for managers because they must coordinate resources, including people and information, under time pressure to achieve a one-off outcome. In this article, we suggest that a network lens is ideal for researching project coordination because it enables the interested party to study the flows of resources and the structures that allow the project to be effectively governed. Both qualitative and quantitative, including graph-theoretic methods for analyzing networks are suitable for examining project network governance and network resource flows. However, governance tends to be studied more with qualitative methods, and resource flows are more commonly researched with social network analysis. The article concludes with considerations regarding multi-method approaches to the study of project networks.
Direct and indirect impacts of urbanization on vegetation growth across the world’s cities

Urban environments, regarded as “harbingers” of future global change, may exert positive or negative impacts on urban vegetation growth. Because of limited ground-based experiments, the responses of vegetation to urbanization and its associated controlling factors at the global scale remain poorly understood. Here, we use satellite observations from 2001 to 2018 to quantify direct and indirect impacts of urbanization on vegetation growth in 672 worldwide cities. After controlling for the negative direct impact of urbanization on vegetation growth, we find a widespread positive indirect effect that has been increasing over time. These indirect effects depend on urban development intensity, population density, and background climate, with more pronounced positive effects in cities with cold and arid environments. We further show that vegetation responses to urbanization are modulated by a cities’ developmental status. Our findings have important implications for understanding urbanization-induced impacts on vegetation and future sustainable urban development.
Bipolar Junction Transistor Exhibiting Excellent Output Characteristics with a Prompt Response against the Selective Protein

Bipolar junction transistors (BJTs), the basic building blocks of integrated circuits, are deployed to control switching applications and logic operations. However, as the thickness of a conventional BJT device approaches a few atoms, its performance decreases substantially. The stacking of atomically thin 2D semiconductor materials is advantageous for manufacturing atomically thin BJT devices owing to the high carrier density of electrons and holes. Here, an atomically thin n–p–n BJT device composed of heavily doped molybdenum ditelluride (n‐MoTe2) and germanium selenide (p‐GeSe) sheets stacked over each other by van der Waals interactions is reported. In a common‐emitter configuration, MoTe2/GeSe/MoTe2 BJT devices exhibit a considerably high current gain (β = Ic /Ib = 29.3) at Vbe = 2.5 V. The MoTe2/GeSe/MoTe2 BJT device is employed to detect streptavidin biomolecules as analytes within <10 s. The real‐time response of the functionalized BJT device is examined at various concentrations of streptavidin biomolecules ranging from 250 to 5 pm. Such vdW BJT devices can trigger the development of state‐of‐the‐art electronic devices that can be used as biosensors to detect the various kinds of target DNA and proteins like spike protein of Covid‐19.
Leonurine Attenuates Obesity-Related Vascular Dysfunction and Inflammation

Oxidative stress in adipose tissue is a crucial pathogenic mechanism of obesity-associated cardiovascular diseases. Chronic low-grade inflammation caused by obesity increases ROS production and dysregulation of adipocytokines. Leonurine (LEO) is an active alkaloid extracted from Herba Leonuri and plays a protective role in the cardiovascular system. The present study tested whether LEO alleviates inflammation and oxidative stress, and improves vascular function in an obese mouse model. Here, we found that obesity leads to inflammation and oxidative stress in epididymal white adipose tissue (EWAT), as well as vascular dysfunction. LEO significantly improved inflammation and oxidative stress both in vivo and in vitro. Obesity-induced vascular dysfunction was also improved by LEO as evidenced by the ameliorated vascular tone and decreased mesenteric artery fibrosis. Using mass spectrometry, we identified YTHDF1 as the direct target of LEO. Taken together, we demonstrated that LEO improves oxidative stress and vascular remodeling induced by obesity and targets YTHDF1, raising the possibility of LEO treating other obesity-related metabolic syndromes.
Employment Industry and Occupational Class in Relation to Serious Psychological Distress in the United States

Occupational characteristics may influence serious psychological distress (SPD) and contribute to health inequities; yet, few studies have examined multiple employment industries and occupational classes in a large, racially diverse sample of the United States. Using data from the National Health Interview Survey, we investigated employment industry and occupational class in relation to SPD in the overall population and by race/ethnicity, gender, age, household income, and health status. We created eight employment industry categories: professional/administrative/management, agricultural/manufacturing/construction, retail trade, finance/information/real estate, educational services, health care/social assistance, accommodation/food services, and public administration/arts/other services. We also created three occupational class categories: professional/management, support services, and laborers. SPD was measured using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale and scores ≥13 indicated SPD. We adjusted for confounders and used Poisson regression to estimate prevalence ratios (PRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Among the 245,038 participants, the mean age was 41.7 ± 0.1 years, 73% were Non-Hispanic (NH)-White, and 1.5% were categorized as having SPD. Compared to the professional/administrative/management industry, working in other industries (e.g., manufacturing/construction (PR = 0.82 [95% CI: 0.70–0.95]) and educational services (PR = 0.79 [95% CI: 0.66–0.94])) was associated with lower SPD. Working in support services and laborer versus professional/management positions were both associated with 19% higher prevalence of SPD (95% CI: 1.04–1.35; 95% CI: 1.04–1.38, respectively). Furthermore, working in a support services or laborer versus professional/management position was associated with higher SPD in most employment industries. Industry-specific workplace interventions to equitably improve mental health are warranted.