Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of Underlying Diseases and Clinical Characteristics with Mortality in Patients with 2019 Novel Coronavirus in Iran

Objectives: The first case of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was reported in Iran in February 2020. Here, we report the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19 and factors associated with mortality in these patients. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted from February 22, 2020, to March 24, 2020, in Golestan Hospital in Kermanshah, Iran. Demographic data including underlying diseases and clinical data including the presenting symptoms, chest computed tomography (CT) scan, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results, and outcomes were extracted from electronic medical records. Simple and multiple logistic regression methods were used to explore the factors associated with mortality. Results: Of 245 patients admitted with COVID-19, 155 (63.30%) were male. The mean age of the subjects was 54.68 ± 19.21. Forty-five (18.48%) patients had underlying diseases. Common symptoms were dyspnea (n = 137; 55.9%), cough (n = 93; 38.0%), and fever (n = 78; 31.8%). All patients had pneumonia with abnormal findings on chest CT scan (100%), and RT-PCR test results were positive in 87 (35.50%) patients. Of the total admitted cases, 38 (15.5%) patients died during hospitalization. An old age (OR = 1.09; 95% CI: 1.02 to 1.06), history of heart disease (OR = 5.07; 95% CI: 1.46 to 17.58), hypertension (OR = 5.82; 95% CI: 1.13 to 30.04), smoking (OR = 11.44; 95% CI: 1.01 to 29.53), history of at least one underlying disease (OR = 3.31; 95%CI: 1.54 to 7.09), and symptoms of decreased consciousness at the time of admission (OR = 24.23; 95% CI: 2.62 to 223.39) were associated with mortality. Also, the symptoms of cough (OR = 0.383; 95% CI: 0.17 to 0.88) and fever (OR = 0.278; 95% CI: 0.10 to 0.74) had a negative association with mortality. Conclusions: In the current study, factors including old age, smoking, symptoms of decreased consciousness, and underlying diseases such as heart disease, hypertension, and history of at least one underlying disease were associated with mortality. Factors associated with mortality should be considered so that we can better manage patients with COVID-19.
Boundaries of Hate: Ethical Implications of the Discursive Construction of Hate Speech in U.S. Opinion Journalism

ABSTRACT In the United States, hate speech sits at the intersection of ethical and legal debates and has a complex relationship with journalism. The First Amendment provides broad legal protections for hate speech, and U.S. journalists have historically been known for their advocacy for speech freedoms. However, ethical debate persists about the extent to which hate speech should be used within U.S. public discourse. At the nexus of this debate are journalists with intersecting and – possibly – competing duties. This study examines the discursive construction of hate speech in U.S. opinion journalism, analyzing journalistic discourse published in U.S. editorials and opinion columns between 1998 and 2019. The study finds five key themes that, together, indicate the use of hate speech as a means to articulate a libertarian interpretation of public discourse, facilitating a reductionist conception of freedom of expression that does not live up to journalism’s duties to democracy.
Anthropometric and physical fitness profiles of Tunisian female soccer players: Associations with field position

Background: There is a lack of descriptive data available regarding the characteristics of female soccer players from the African continent or the Arab world. Objective: This study investigated the anthropometric and physical fitness profiles of Tunisian female soccer players in relation to field position. Methods: In all, 75 Tunisian sub-elite female soccer players, with an average of 4.3 ± 1.6 years of playing experience, including goalkeepers (GK; n = 11), central defenders (CD; n = 13), external defenders (ED; n = 15), central midfielders (CM; n = 10), external midfielders (EM; n = 14), and attackers (AT; n = 12), underwent anthropometric evaluations (body height, body mass, and body fat percentage) and physical fitness tests (flexibility, countermovement jump [CMJ], 20-m sprint, and Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test level 1 [YoYoIR1]). Results: GK had significantly higher body mass (67.3 ± 2.4 kg), body height (169.3 ± 1.7 m) and fat percentage (24 ± 2.6%) compared to all field positions. AT were significantly faster (3.64 ± 0.10 s) than GK (3.75 ± 0.09 s) in the 20-m sprint (p < .01), but there were no significant differences among the other field positions. GK had a significantly lower Yo-YoIR1 performance (625 ± 84 m) than other field position players (p < .001), but no significant difference was found among other field positions. GK and AT showed significantly better CMJ performance (GK: 31.3 ± 2.6 cm, AT: 30.4 ± 2.4 cm) compared to other groups. GK had higher flexibility (21.6 ± 2.7 cm in the the sit-and-reach test) than all other positions (p < .05), but no significant difference was observed among players in the field. Conclusions: Overall, we can conclude that, in a north African sample of female soccer players, anthropometric profiles vary by playing position. As well, positional differences can be found when testing physical fitness components. This information could help coaches design more effective training programs to achieve success in modern soccer.
Organic carbon sequestration in mineral soil layers of cold-temperate mixed forests

The aim of this study is to analyze the concentration of soil organic carbon (SOC) and C stocks in cold-temperate mixed forests in southern Quebec, Canada. More specifically, the analysis deals with SOC concentrations and C stocks with respect to other key soil properties and environmental factors (such as soil pH, nitrogen, texture, structure, bulk density, litter thickness, drainage), including vegetation data (such as stems density, tree diameter and basal area). There are a total of 68 sampling sites across the various study sectors, including the collection of 109 soil mineral samples. The results indicate that SOC concentration and soil C stocks are high on average, ranging from 3.31 ±1.49 to 5.88 ±3.95% (SOC) and 70 to 114 t ha-1 C stocks, respectively. The results of the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) reveals that the texture of soils is the variable with the greatest differentiation among the sites, as well as soil acidity, nitrogen, litter thickness and topography. According to the multiple linear regression analysis, the two variables that result from the model are soil acidity (pH) and sand (%), which account for 33.2% of C stock variance. Key words: Soil Organic Carbon (SOC), C stocks, soil properties, environmental factors.
Persistent Link Between Caribbean Precipitation and Atlantic Ocean Circulation During the Last Glacial Revealed by a Speleothem Record From Puerto Rico

The sensitivity of tropical Atlantic precipitation patterns to the mean position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) at different time scales is well‐known. However, recent research suggests a more complex behavior of the northern hemispheric tropical rain belt related to the ITCZ in the western tropical Atlantic. Here we present a precisely dated speleothem multi‐proxy record from a well‐monitored cave in Puerto Rico, covering the period between 46.2 and 15.3 ka. The stable isotope and trace element records document a pronounced response of regional rainfall to abrupt climatic excursions in the North Atlantic across the Last Glacial such as Heinrich stadials and Dansgaard/Oeschger events. The annual to multidecadal resolution of the proxy time series allows substructural investigations of the recorded events. Spectral analysis suggests that multidecadal to centennial variability persisted in the regional hydroclimate mainly during interstadial conditions but also during the Last Glacial Maximum. In particular, we observe a strong agreement between the speleothem proxy data and the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, supporting a persistent link of oceanic forcing to regional precipitation. Comparison to other paleo‐precipitation records enables the reconstruction of past changes in position, strength, and extent of the ITCZ in the western tropical Atlantic in response to millennial‐ and orbital‐scale global climate change.
Integrating fall-planted cereal cover crops and preplant herbicides for glyphosate-resistant horseweed (Conyza canadensis) management in soybean

Abstract Glyphosate-resistant horseweed is difficult to manage in no-tillage crop production fields and new strategies are needed. Cover crops may provide an additional management tool but narrow establishment windows and colder growing conditions in northern climates may limit the cover crop biomass required to suppress horseweed. Field experiments were conducted in 3 site-years in Michigan to investigate the effects of two fall-planted cover crops, cereal rye and winter wheat, seeded at 67 or 135 kg ha–1, to suppress horseweed when integrated with three preplant herbicide strategies in no-tillage soybean. The preplant strategies were control (glyphosate only), preplant herbicide without residuals (glyphosate + 2,4-D), and preplant herbicide with residuals (glyphosate + 2,4-D + flumioxazin + metribuzin). Cereal rye produced 79% more biomass and provided 12% more ground cover than winter wheat in 2 site-years. Increasing seeding rate provided 41% more cover biomass in 1 site-year. Cover crops reduced horseweed density 47% to 96% and horseweed biomass by 59% to 70% compared with no cover at the time of cover crop termination. Cover crops provided no additional horseweed suppression 5 wk after soybean planting if a preplant herbicide with or without residuals was applied, but reduced horseweed biomass greater than 33% in the absence of preplant herbicides. Cover crops did not affect horseweed suppression at the time of soybean harvest or influence soybean yield. Preplant herbicide with residuals and without residuals provided at least 52% and 20% greater soybean yield compared with the control at 2 site-years, respectively. Cereal rye and winter wheat provided early-season horseweed suppression at biomass levels below 1,500 kg ha–1, lower than previously reported. This could give growers in northern climates an effective strategy for suppressing horseweed through the time of POST herbicide application while reducing selection pressure for horseweed that is resistant to more herbicide sites of action. Nomenclature: horseweed; Conyza canadensis L. Cronq. ; winter wheat; Triticum aestivum L. ; cereal rye; Secale cereale L. ; soybean; Glycine max (L.) Merr.
A Field-validated Multi-objective Optimization of the Shape and Size of Windows Based on Daylighting Metrics in Hot-summer Mediterranean and Dry Summer Continental Climates

This study aims to determine the optimum size of windows based on the window-to-floor ratio (WFR) for the main cardinal directions in Hot-summer Mediterranean (Csa) and Dry Summer Continental (Dsa) climates (Köppen–Geiger classification system) by carrying out a multi-objective optimization that relies on three dynamic metrics of Useful Daylight Illuminance (UDI-a (autonomous)), Daylight Autonomy (DA), and Annual Sunlight Exposure (ASE1000,250) in Radiance version 5.1. A validation against field measurements is conducted under an overcast sky with an illuminance of 11000 lux. The Pareto front is used to pick the best solutions for evaluating the most optimized solutions. Accordingly, the minimum standards for cardinal directions in each climate are defined. The minimum suggested WFR for the Dsa and Csa climates for the south-, east-, north-, and west-facing windows are 20%, 15%, 20%, and 15% (Dsa) and 20%, 20%, 25%, and 20% (Csa), respectively. Furthermore, the results show the shape and relative proportions of windows (vertical/horizontal) have a significant effect on the metrics. As a result, this paper introduces the “Proportion Ratio” as a new indicator for designing windows. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by solarlits.com. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Dynamics of an elastoviscoplastic droplet in a Newtonian medium under shear flow

A numerical study of an elastoviscoplastic (EVP) drop in Newtonian shear flow is presented. The three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations are combined with the level-set method and the Saramito EVP model to study the yielding process under various nondimensional parameters. A regime map is obtained for the prediction of the yielded, unyielded, and partly yielded modes. It is shown that yielding is suppressed by a higher Bingham number but, surprisingly, also by a higher Weissenberg number.
Human Resource Management Practices and Service Provider Commitment of Green Hotel Service Providers: Mediating Role of Resilience and Work Engagement

Although research on human resource management practices (HRMPs) has been ongoing for many years, studies have actually paid little attention to HRMPs and their contribution to the emotional side of the bottom line or commitment to the external environment, particularly the serial mediation of HRMPs. Hence, to fill this research void, this study extends social exchange theory, broaden-and-build theory and the conservation of resources (COR) theory in the context of green hospitality by proposing a novel conceptual model to test the mediating effects of resilience and commitment between HRMPs (training, empowerment, and rewards) and service providers’ environmental commitment. A quantitative study was performed involving 557 participants at green hotels. The findings show that the components of HRMPs (training, rewards, and empowerment) were found to be crucial tools in encouraging service providers to engage in environmental tasks while green training, empowerment and reward systems can unlock environmental commitment (EEC) for the setting. In addition, environmental commitment increased by the contribution of two mediators, resilience and engagement; and interestingly, rewards did not contribute to the environmental resilience of service providers, while all three HRMPs had a positive influence on work engagement of service providers in the research context.
The Impact of Debt on Corporate Profitability: Evidence from Vietnam

The study aims to investigate the impact of debt on corporate profitability in the context of Vietnam. The paper investigates the impact of debt on corporate profitability in non-finance listed companies on the Vietnam stock market. The panel data of the research sample includes 118 non-financial listed companies on the Vietnam stock market for a period of nine years, from 2009 to 2017. The Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) is employed to address econometric issues and to improve the accuracy of the regression coefficients. In this research, corporate profitability is measured as the return of EBIT on total assets. The debt ratio is a ratio that indicates the proportion of a company’s debt to its total assets. Firm sizes, tangible assets, growth rate, and taxes are control variables in the study. The empirical results show that debt has a statistically significant negative effect on corporate profitability. The result also shows this effect is stronger in a non-linear (concave) way, we show that the debt ratio has nonlinear effects on corporate profitability. From this, experimental evidence shows that the optimal debt ratio is 38.87%. This evidence provides a new insight to managers of the non-finance companies on how to improve the firm’s profitability with debt.
Effects of Integrating CSR Information in Financial Reports on Investors’ Firm Value Estimates

Using an experiment, we find that corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance measures have a greater impact on investors’ firm value estimates when reported in a separate report than when integrated into a financial report. We also find that more investors misclassified CSR information as assured when integrated into financial reports than when reported in separate reports. Investors who misclassified CSR information rated its credibility higher and derived higher firm value estimates compared to investors who correctly classified this information as non-assured. Overall, our results identify potential costs of integrating CSR measures in financial reports, and inform global regulators considering alternative CSR reporting frameworks.
COVID-19 memes going viral: On the multiple multimodal voices behind face masks

Advancing the concept of multimodal voicing as a tool for describing user-generated online humour, this paper reports a study on humorous COVID-19 mask memes. The corpus is drawn from four popular social media platforms and examined through a multimodal discourse analytic lens. The dominant memetic trends are elucidated and shown to rely programmatically on nested (multimodal) voices, whether compatible or divergent, as is the case with the dissociative echoing of individuals wearing peculiar masks or the dissociative parodic echoing of their collective voice. The theoretical thrust of this analysis is that, as some memes are (re)posted across social media (sometimes going viral), the previous voice(s) – of the meme subject/author/poster – can be re-purposed (e.g. ridiculed) or unwittingly distorted. Overall, this investigation offers new theoretical and methodological implications for the study of memes: it indicates the usefulness of the notions of multimodal voicing, intertextuality and echoing as research apparatus; and it brings to light the epistemological ambiguity in lay and academic understandings of memes, the voices behind which cannot always be categorically known.
MORPHOMETRIC STUDY OF PLANTAR ARCH INDEX AND THE PREVALENCE OF FLATFOOT AMONG TRIBES

Corresponding Author: Prof. Chrissie Stansie Abaidoo, Vice Dean of School of Medicine and Dentistry and Head of Department of Anatomy, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. +233 208 126 817 E-Mail: knustsmsanat1@gmail.com Flatfoot (pes planus), commonest foot deformity caused by the absence or collapse of the medial longitudinal arch. Flatfoot results in serious health problems and postural defects. It is highly variable in different populations with many factors associated. This study was conducted to find the plantar arch index and the prevalence of flatfoot and its relationship with tribes in Ghana. A total of 278 participants (172 males and 106 females) with ages ranging from 16 to 34 years were recruited for the study. Ethical approval and participants’ informed consent were sought prior to the study. Participants were drawn from the Akan, Ewe, Ga-Dangbe and other tribes (Dagomba, Dagabaa, Frafra, Gonja, Wale Wale etc). Foot imprints were taken from each participant using the ink method. The plantar arch index was calculated using the ratio of the width of the central and the heel region of the footprint. The mean right plantar arch index was higher than the left. The prevalence of flatfoot was 15.1% (6.1% unilateral left, 5.8% unilateral right and 3.2% bilateral). The prevalence rate was 15.7% in males and 14.1% in females. The prevalence rates reported for the Ga-Dangbes and Ewes were 30.8% and 23.6% respectively. On the other hand, both Akans and individuals belonging to the other tribes recorded the same prevalence rate of 13.7%. Flatfoot was found to be high among the Ga-Dangbes. Ethnicity as an external factor has a great role in influencing foot arch structure. Also, sex has an influence on the morphology of an individual’s foot.
Serious antimalaria resistance, genetic markers of Kelch 13, plasmepsine 2 CNV associated with dihydroartemisinine-piperaquine phosphate resistance in Plasmodium falciparum population in malaria hyperendemic zone of Dak Lak Province (2019-2020)

Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DHA-PPQ) is a current frontline drug recommended in global by WHO for the treatment of Plasmodium falciparum malaria (WHO, 2015), but is now failing in Vietnam’s provinces where border Cambodia, and has emerged and spread. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and molecular markers of DHA-PPQ failures in Dak Lak province. Methods: A study design of non-randomized controlled study design for the 42 day-course follow-up in vivo test, and the molecular markers analysis. Findings: The data showed that adequate clinical and parasitological response was sharply declined to 12,1%, the proportion of late clinical failure was 51.5%, and 36.4% of patients had late parasitological. The proportion of positive parasitemia at D3 was 37%, the slope half-life was 5.36 hrs, and the progressive parasite clearance (PC) PC50, PC75, PC 90, PC95, and PC99 were 13.24; 19.29; 25.69; 29.97 and 39.15 hours, respectively. Molecular markers of C580Y Kelch mutation were observed in 100% (50/50) of the patients, the increased of Plasmepsine 2 copy number variation (CNV) was 72% (36/50), and the proportion of patients who had both K13 and increased Plasmepsine 2 CNV was 72% (36/50). Conclusions: The DHA-PPQ efficacy severely decreased to 12.1%, overall treatment failure was 87.9% with the prominent C580Y mutant plus increased Plasmepsine 2 CNV in delayed asexual P. falciparum parasite clearance. These obvious data suggest the urgency to change antimalarial policy in DHA-PPQ resistance zones, especially in Dak Lak province.
Relative humidity is not a direct factor to influence adhesion force between two silica surfaces

ABSTRACT The dependence of adhesion force on relative humidity (RH) is ambiguous and demands clarification. The adhesion force behaviors between two silica surfaces were investigated with the continuous change of RH on an atomic force microscope. Results show that the variation of adhesion force is directly related to water-thin film and chemical properties of surfaces, instead of RH itself. With the continuous change of RH in a short duration, the adhesion force usually changes slightly without a characteristic trend. However, with a long duration at a new RH, the force magnitude can ultimately be changed effectively due to the variation of water-thin film thickness and chemical properties of surfaces. Especially, with a low new RH for some time, the adhesion force can become unusually large due to the bond-rupture of siloxane bonds. The unusually large force lasts for some time with the constant low RH, and then suddenly drops to a small force. Therefore, the duration at a new desired RH does matter in the investigation of RH dependence of adhesion force. The results may be useful for the investigation of the RH dependence and the anti-adhesion design of small-scale components.