Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preoperative incremental shuttle walk test for morbidity and mortality prediction in elective major colorectal surgery

Background and Aims: The incremental shuttle walk test (ISWT) is a simple reproducible and non-invasive test for assessing cardiopulmonary function. The maximum oxygen consumption is less than 10 ml/kg/min for ISWT distance of less than 250 m. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of ISWT in predicting morbidity and mortality in elective colorectal oncosurgery and to find the correlation of ISWT with the Duke Activity Status Index (DASI), Borg dyspnoea score, and peak oxygen uptake (VO2 max). Methods: This prospective study involved 46 patients aged more than 60 years with American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status I and II undergoing elective colorectal surgery under general anaesthesia with an epidural block. ISWT was conducted preoperatively and patients were monitored for 30 days postoperatively. For a comparative analysis, patients were divided into two groups: group 1– who could walk 250 m and group 2 – could not walk 250m. Categorical data were evaluated using the Chi-square test, while continuous data were evaluated using the Student's t-test. The strength of correlation was determined using Pearson's correlation coefficient. Results: Postoperative complications (P = 0.001) and lengthy stay in hospital and intensive care unit (P = 0.001) were experienced by all patients who were unable to complete the ISWT distance of 250 m. ISWT distance of 250 m corresponds to a DASI score of 10.5, which is equivalent to a calculated VO2 max of 14.1ml/kg/min. Conclusion: The ISWT with a cutoff distance of 250 m is a reliable predictor of postoperative morbidity in patients undergoing colorectal oncosurgery.
Glycine Improved Cryopreserved Spermatozoa Quality in Achai Bull

Achai is a small size cattle breed, resilient to harsh and cold environment. Cryopreservation of Achai bull semen may help to improve its genetics and preserve the germplasm. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) affects the structural and functional integrity of the spermatozoa. During freezing and thawing processes, the ROS make changes in the spermatozoa quality parameters and reduce total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) of semen that is considered as marker of oxidative stress. This study was designed to determine the effect of glycine along with vitamin E on post-thawed spermatozoa quality and total antioxidant capacity in Achai cattle. The semen collection was done twice a week from four mature fertile Achai cattle bulls (n = 4). The glycine was utilized as 0 mM, 5 mM, 10 mM, 15 mM, and 20 mM along with vitamin E @ 2.3 mM added constantly in each concentration. The control group contained all extenders except glycine. The results revealed that post-thawed spermatozoa motility was found significantly higher (P < 0.05) at 10 mM as compared to 5 mM, 15 mM, and 20 mM. Compared with control group, glycine concentration at 10 mM and other concentrations increased progressive and fast motility (%), curvilinear, straight line, and average path velocity (μm/s). Moreover, beat cross frequency (Hz) was higher (P < 0.05), and post-thaw viability (%), plasma membrane integrity, and mitochondrial membrane potential were significantly higher (P < 0.05) at 10 mM of glycine concentration in comparison to control and other glycine concentrations. Besides, acrosome integrity (%) and DNA integrity (%) as well as post-thawed T-AOC were also significantly higher (P < 0.05) at 10 mM of glycine concentration as compared to other glycine concentrations and control group. It is concluded that 10 mM of glycine along with vitamin E @ 2.3 mM improved cryopreserved semen quality of Achai bull.
Fog–Haze Transition and Drivers in the Coastal Region of the Yangtze River Delta

Low-visibility events (LVEs) are severe weather phenomena that are closely linked with anthropogenic pollution, which negatively affects traffic, air quality, human health, and the environment. This study conducted a two-month (from October to December 2019) continuous measurement campaign on Chongming Island in Shanghai to characterize the LVEs transition and its drivers. The LVEs accounted for 38% of the time during the campaign, of which mist accounted for 14%, fog–haze for 13%, haze for 6%, and fog for 5%. The fog and mist mainly occurred from midnight to early morning, while haze mostly occurred during the daytime. Different LVEs were interdependent and transitioned from one to another. Fog generally turned into haze after sunrise, while haze turned into fog after sunset. Their formation and evolution were caused by the combined impacts of meteorological conditions and aerosol particles. It was found that temperature difference was the dominant meteorological factor driving the evolution of LVEs. Within the short term, cooling led to a greater increase in relative humidity than humidification. Radiative cooling during the night promoted the formation of fog and mist. During fog and mist events, cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) were mainly internally mixed due to the impact of fog droplet removal and aqueous/heterogeneous aerosol reactions occurring under high humidity. Increased CCN concentration appeared to increase the fog droplet number and liquid water content in fog events. Overall, conditions of high humidity and high particle loading were conducive to LVEs, whereas conditions of sufficient water vapor at a low particle level and sufficient particles at a low humidity level also caused LVEs. This study provided insights into LVEs classification, evolution scheme, and aerosol roles from a micro point of view. The findings could be useful for improving forecasts of local radiative fog and other LVEs.
Similar citizen portrayals? Converging media-based othering in tabloids and broadsheets

Political communication researchers studying the news media coverage often distinguish between broadsheets and tabloids when sampling relevant news outlets. But recent work has pointed towards a ‘tabloidization’ of news coverage, complicating the empirical distinction between the two. Computational methods for text analysis can help us better understand how distinct the news coverage between these two types of news outlets is. We take the Brexit referendum as a case study illustrating various aspects in which broadsheets and tabloids cover an issue permeated by othering and divisive rhetoric. We focus on Brexit-related news coverage before and after the referendum (N = 32,946) and use word embeddings to analyze the portrayal of different groups of citizens that can generate an in- and outgroup divide. First, we document the presence of media-based othering in the form of overly similar migrant and European Union citizen representations that are, in turn, very dissimilar to the UK citizen representation. Second, we show partial convergence between tabloid and broadsheet newspapers, as differences in the degree and characteristics of media coverage are rather small and specific.
Local Community Perceptions and Attitudes Towards Biodiversity Conservation: In the Case of Arjo Diga Forest Ecosystem, Western Ethiopia

: The study looked at how residents in the Arjo Diga forest, East Wollega Zone of Western Ethiopia felt about biodiversity conservation. The Arjo Diga Forest ecosystem is home to a great variety of animals and plants; this area may be a major contributor to the country's conservation strategy. However, over the past three decades, the realm round the forest ecosystem has seen significant anthropogenic pressures. Additionally, identifying the assorted factors that influence the attitudes and perceptions of local communities about protected areas and therefore the value of biodiversity is very important for local people to support conservation efforts. Purposive sampling was employed to collect data from three kebeles, which were chosen based on their level interaction, community distribution within or near the conservation forest and forest dependency. A household survey, key informant interview, field observation and focus group discussion were used to gather data. The questionnaire study included 222 households in total. SPSS version 26 was used to analyze the data. To explore the important contributing elements for local community impression and attitude, the Chi-square test and descriptive statistics were used. According to the study, the majority of local household heads (48.6%) are unaware of the importance of biodiversity conservation. There was a significant difference in age (x 2 =36.216, DF = 3 and p<0.05), education level (x 2 =73.021, DF=3 and p<0.05), and annual income (x 2 =90.75, DF=3 and p<0.05) in the view and attitude of the local residents toward the conservation values of Arjo Diga forest. As a result, it can be stated that age, education level, and income were the primary determinants of local community perspective and attitude. Furthermore, respondents report that farmland expansion (29.7%), charcoal production, and firewood production (21.6%) are intensifying, and that (55.86%) of respondents were not involved in the decision-making process, which could have a significant impact on biodiversity conservation sustainability. Soil and water conservation, as well as fencing, were among the important mitigation techniques approaches discovered in this study and used by local populations to conserve and develop the natural resource. As a result, urgent cooperation measures between biodiversity conservation management and stakeholders, as well as environmental education, should be addressed as part of a plan to protect Arjo Diga forest, taking into account these elements that influence attitudes and perceptions.
Directionality and variability of energetic neutral hydrogen fluxes observed by Mars Express

Using data collected by the neutral particle detector of the analyzer of space plasmas and energetic atoms on board Mars Express, we establish the global morphology of hydrogen energetic neutral atom (ENA) fluxes. The observations were conducted in March–July 2004 and reveal that low flux ENAs (<5×105cm−2s−1sr−1) are emitted roughly isotropically from the dayside of the planet. These ENA emissions originate from the backscattering of the hydrogen ENAs produced by the charge exchange of the upstream solar wind in the extended Martian exosphere. ENAs of higher fluxes are emitted preferentially in the directions perpendicular to the undisturbed solar wind velocity. This population is due to the charge exchange of the magnetosheath plasma. At a great distance, these ENA emissions resemble a thick layer or a wall. The emissions are enhanced in the direction opposite to the convective electric field (Ec). This enhancement reflects the asymmetric shape of the induced magnetic boundary that is close to the planet hemisphere where the Ec points toward the Sun‐Mars line (−Ec hemisphere). The ENA flux shows a positive correlation with the solar wind dynamic pressure. The asymmetry in the ENA emissions is modest during quiet solar wind conditions but becomes more pronounced when the solar wind dynamic pressure increases.
Differences in functional trait responses to elevation among feeding guilds of Aculeata community

Abstract The response of communities to environmental change is expected to vary among feeding guilds. To evaluate the response of guilds to environmental factors without considering the taxonomic specificities, it is useful to examine Aculeata bees and wasps, which consist of closely related taxa including different guilds, pollinators, predators, and parasitoids. In this study, we evaluated changes in species diversity (SD) and functional traits of each feeding guild along an elevational gradient in a boreal forest in northern Japan. We used yellow pan traps to collect Aculeata bees and wasps at 200–1600 m above sea level. We investigated six functional traits (trophic level, seasonal duration, body size, elevational range, nesting position, and soil dependency) and the horizontal distribution of the species. The SD of all Aculeata, predators, and parasitoids decreased with an increase in elevation; however, the SD of pollinators did not show any specific trend. Although the functional trait composition of all Aculeata species did not show any trend, that of each feeding guild responded to elevation in different ways. Pollinators increased in body size and showed a decrease in seasonal duration with increasing elevation, suggesting that tolerance and seasonal escape from physical stress at high elevations are important for shaping pollinator communities. Predators increased their elevational range and the proportion of above‐ground nesting species increased with increasing elevation, suggesting that the ability to live in a wider range of environments and avoid unsuitable soil environments at high elevations might be important. Parasitoids changed their hosts and displayed variable traits with increasing elevation, suggesting that brood parasitoids have difficulty in surviving at high elevation. The traits for each guild responded in different ways, even if they were dominated by the same environmental factors. Our findings imply that differences in the responses of functional traits would produce different community assembly patterns in different guilds during further climate change.
Microbiota of the sheep's maxillary sinus as an experimental model

Objective. The aim of the study is to analyze the microbiota of the maxillary sinus of sheep as a viable biome to carry out experimental studies of biomaterials. Materials-Methods. 13 sheep (eight in isolation and five loose created) were used, making 26 maxillary sinuses, where swabs were performed by an extra-oral approach for microbiological analysis. Statistical tests such as Fisher's exact test, Mann Whitney U test, chi-square test, and proportional means were used in the experiment. Results. Only eight maxillary sinuses had positive bacterial growth. The presence of Staphylococcus aureus was statistically significant relative to other microorganisms found. On the other hand, among the animals in isolation and those raised loose, there was no statistically significant difference in the presence of Staphylococcus aureus. Conclusion. Staphylococcus aureus is the predominant bacteria in the maxillary sinus of this experimental model. The difference in environment and feeding did not influence the microbiota of the maxillary sinus.
Intertrochanteric Fracture Surgery Patients with Diabetes Mellitus are Prone to Suffer Perioperative Neurological and Endocrine/Metabolic Complications: A Propensity-Score Matched Analysis

Background In older adults, the recovery after hip fracture surgery is not always to be well expected due to high risks of adverse outcomes including perioperative complications and mortality. We aimed to evaluate the intertrochanteric fracture (IF) patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and receiving surgical fixation with intramedullary nail on the perioperative complications, total hospital costs (THC), length of hospital stay (LOS), and mortality. Methods In this retrospective cohort study, among 487 consecutive intertrochanteric fracture patients with age over 65 years and treated surgically by using intramedullary nail between Jan. 2015 and Mar. 2020, 353 patients were included, including 81 with DM and 272 without DM. After using propensity-score matched (PSM) analysis, 80 patients remained in each group. The perioperative complications, 30-day, 90-day, 1-year, and 2-year survival rates, THC, and LOS were observed and compared between two groups. Overall survival was compared by Kaplan–Meier method. Results No significant between-group differences were found in 30-day, 90-day, 1-year, and 2-year mortality rates, THC, LOS, and other perioperative complications after PSM and McNemar’s tests (all p>0.05), except for neurological complications (p<0.004) and endocrine/metabolic complications (p<0.001). At a mean follow-up time of 36.2 months, there were no statistically significant differences between the groups based on the Kaplan–Meier survival curve (p=0.171, log-rank). Conclusion IF surgery patients with DM are more prone to suffer perioperative neurological and endocrine/metabolic complications and they should be managed individually while being aware of these risks henceforth. Further high evidence clinical trials are needed to expand in DM patients with IF.
Rural Infrastructure Access and Household Welfare in Ogun State

The study was carried out to determine the effect of access to rural infrastructure on household welfare in Ogun State. A three-stage sampling procedure was used to collect data from 442 selected respondents. The study was based on primary data obtained through questionnaires. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and ordered logit regression. The study revealed that majority of the respondents were male (62.3%), married (80.1%), aged 48.1±11.5 years, with years of formal education, household size and farming experience of 7.3±4.7 years, 7.2±2.8 persons and 13.7±10.4 years, respectively. The MPCHHE was ₦7,152.10. The proportion of households with access to potable water, primary school, health centre, market and agro-centre were 89.1%, 88.5%, 43.9%, 64.5% and 33.7%, respectively. More households had high access to infrastructure (52.8%). Many of the households had high welfare (43.9%), while 24.4% had medium welfare and 31.7% had low welfare. High household welfare was explained by age (β=-0.32), male-headed households (β=0.51), non-farm income (β=0.20), ARI (β=-0.49), access to credit (β=0.39), educational level (β=0.25) and labour size (β=0.34), while age (β=0.15), male-headed households (β=- 0.12) and ARI (β=0.18) explained low household welfare. Based on these findings, it was recommended that policies that would increase public investment in functional rural infrastructure must be given high priority by the government.
Profiles of Chinese secondary students’ L2 writing motivation and engagement

Abstract While the importance of motivation and engagement in L2 writing in higher education is well documented, research on L2 secondary students’ English writing motivation and engagement remains scanty. This study used the adapted English Writing Motivation and Engagement Scale for High School (EW-MES-HS) and explored Chinese secondary students’ motivation and engagement in English writing. A total of 2,205 students from 55 secondary schools across China participated in the study. The results revealed a multi-dimensional perspective of students’ L2 writing motivation and engagement. Four distinct profiles of secondary L2 students’ motivation and engagement were specified: the ‘Unmotivated and disengaged’, the ‘Motivated and engaged’, the ‘Ambiguously motivated and engaged’, and the “Ambivalently motivated and engaged. ” These findings argue against a dichotomous portrait of Chinese secondary EFL students as being either demotivated/disengaged or motivated/engaged in writing and shed new light on the nature of writing motivation and engagement in L2 writing contexts.
Quadrirational Yang-Baxter maps and the affine-E8 Painleve lattice

We establish that the quadrirational Yang-Baxter maps, considered on their symmetry-complete lattice, give an un-normalized form of the Painleve systems associated with affine-E8 symmetry. This is a unified representation bringing KdV-type and Painleve-type systems together outside of the usual paradigm of reductions. Our approach exploits the geometric characterisation of the Painleve equations and the formulation of both kinds of systems in terms of birational groups.
Not all temporal shift modules are profitable

Abstract. With the increasing coverage of video surveillance systems in modern society, demand for using artificial intelligence algorithm to replace humans in violent behavior recognition has also become stronger. By moving some channels in the temporal dimension, temporary shift module (TSM) can achieve the performance of three-dimensional convolution neural network (CNN) with the complexity of two-dimensional CNN, and extract the temporal and spatial information at the same time. Our intuition is that too many temporary shift modules may fuse too much action information in each frame, which weakens the capability of CNN on spatiotemporal information extraction. To verify the aforementioned conjecture, we adjusted the network structure based on TSM, proposed partial TSM, selected the optimal model through experiments, and verified the performance of the algorithm on multiple datasets and our expanded datasets. The proposed optimal model not only reduced the memory usage of hardware but also achieved higher accuracy on multiple datasets with 77.3% running time. Meanwhile, we achieved state-of-the-art performance of 91% on RWF-2000 dataset.
Numerical modeling of the dissolution of drug nanocrystals and its application to industrial product development

The apparent solubility of drug nanocrystals in equilibrium was experimentally determined for a drug-stabilizer system with different particle size distributions. True supersaturation was identified for ultrafine drug nanocrystals with an almost 2-fold increase compared to the thermodynamic solubility of related coarse drug crystals, highlighting their enabling potential to enhance bioavailability. The experimental results were applied to investigate in silico the associated dissolution behavior in a closed system by numerical modeling according to the Ostwald-Freundlich and Noyes-Whitney / Nernst-Brunner equations. Calculated results were found to be in agreement with the experimental results only when the entire particle size distribution of drug nanocrystals was considered. In silico dissolution, studies were conducted to simulate the complex interplay between drug nanocrystals, dissolution conditions and resulting temporal progression during dissolution up to the equilibrium state. Calculations were performed for selected in vivo and in vitro scenarios considering different drug nanocrystal particle size distributions, drug amount, dissolution media and volume. The achieved results demonstrated the importance of ultrafine drug nanocrystals for potential bioavailability improvement and the functional applicability of the modeling approach to investigate their dissolution behavior for configurable formulation variables in product development in terms of in vivo and in vitro relevant conditions.
Development and Application of a Global Ocean Wave Prediction Model Including Nonlinear Interactions and Dissipation

報告番号: 乙12566 ; 学位授与年月日: 1995-11-27 ; 学位の種別: 論文博士 ; 学位の種類: 博士(理学) ; 学位記番号: 第12566号 ; 研究科・専攻: 理学系研究科
Managed retreat from high-risk flood areas: exploring public attitudes and expectations about property buyouts

ABSTRACT Increasing flood risk requires governments to develop innovative solutions for flood risk management. The effectiveness of these solutions depends, in part, on their social acceptability. This paper presents the findings of a national survey to explore the social acceptability of property buyouts as a form of managed retreat from flood risk in Canada. It discusses public attitudes and expectations towards property buyout programmes in high-risk flood zones, including their salience, essential design elements, and factors that would influence household acceptance of a property buyout offer. The results show there is an appetite for property buyout programmes to reduce flood risk in high-risk zones. Moreover, the social acceptability of such programmes is highest when participation is voluntary, flexible pricing options are combined with financial incentives, and programme design and implementation are transparent. Participants indicated costs for these programmes should be borne primarily by governments and shared between governments at different levels. The findings suggest that although property buyouts—and managed retreat more generally—are considered a socially acceptable approach to flood risk management, their efficacy will depend on programme design, stakeholder collaboration, and effective communication of risk to vulnerable populations. Policy recommendations are discussed in response to these findings.