Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gastrointestinal Manifestations of COVID-19 Infection: Clinicopathologic Findings in Intestinal Resections Performed at Single Institution

It is now known that COVID-19 not only involves the lungs, but other organs as well including the gastrointestinal tract. Although clinic-pathological features are well-described in lungs, the histopathologic features of gastrointestinal involvement in resection specimens are not well characterized. Herein, we describe in detail the clinicopathologic features of intestinal resection specimens in four patients with COVID-19 infection. COVID-19 viral particles by in situ hybridization and immunofluorescence studies are also demonstrated. All four patients were males, aged 28–46 years, with comorbidities. They initially presented with a severe form of pulmonary COVID-19 and showed gastrointestinal symptoms, requiring surgical intervention. Histopathologic examination of resected GI specimens, mostly right colectomies, revealed a spectrum of disease, from superficial mucosal ischemic colitis to frank transmural ischemic colitis and associated changes consistent with pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis. Three patients were African American (75%), and one was Caucasian (25%); three patients died due to complications of their COVID-19 infection (75%), while one ultimately recovered from their GI complications (25%), but experienced prolonged sequela of COVID-19 infection including erectile dysfunction. In conclusion, COVID-19 infection, directly or indirectly, can cause ischemic gastrointestinal complications, with predilection for the right colon.
Immunological Evidence of Variation in Exposure and Immune Response to Bacillus anthracis in Herbivores of Kruger and Etosha National Parks

Exposure and immunity to generalist pathogens differ among host species and vary across spatial scales. Anthrax, caused by a multi-host bacterial pathogen, Bacillus anthracis, is enzootic in Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa and Etosha National Park (ENP), Namibia. These parks share many of the same potential host species, yet the main anthrax host in one (greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) in KNP and plains zebra (Equus quagga) in ENP) is only a minor host in the other. We investigated species and spatial patterns in anthrax mortalities, B. anthracis exposure, and the ability to neutralize the anthrax lethal toxin to determine if observed host mortality differences between locations could be attributed to population-level variation in pathogen exposure and/or immune response. Using serum collected from zebra and kudu in high and low incidence areas of each park (18- 20 samples/species/area), we estimated pathogen exposure from anti-protective antigen (PA) antibody response using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and lethal toxin neutralization with a toxin neutralization assay (TNA). Serological evidence of pathogen exposure followed mortality patterns within each system (kudus: 95% positive in KNP versus 40% in ENP; zebras: 83% positive in ENP versus 63% in KNP). Animals in the high-incidence area of KNP had higher anti-PA responses than those in the low-incidence area, but there were no significant differences in exposure by area within ENP. Toxin neutralizing ability was higher for host populations with lower exposure prevalence, i.e., higher in ENP kudus and KNP zebras than their conspecifics in the other park. These results indicate that host species differ in their exposure to and adaptive immunity against B. anthracis in the two parks. These patterns may be due to environmental differences such as vegetation, rainfall patterns, landscape or forage availability between these systems and their interplay with host behavior (foraging or other risky behaviors), resulting in differences in exposure frequency and dose, and hence immune response.
Knowledge and practice of airborne and droplet precautions among healthcare students during COVID-19 pandemic

Background: Health-care workers are at risk of contracting and transmitting infections. Few studies have assessed knowledge of transmission-based precautions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study is to estimate the students' knowledge and practice of airborne and droplet precautions as well as knowledge of COVID-19 measures among medical, dental, and nursing students at King Saud University (KSU) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subjects and Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey-based study conducted from August 2020 to October 2020 at KSU. Students that met the inclusion criteria were contacted and given questionnaires through social media; a convenience sampling technique was implemented due to limitations of contact during the pandemic. Results: 435 students were included in the study. Most of them were females (61.4%), and the distribution was 31.7%, 25.5%, and 42.8% for medical, dentistry, and nursing students, respectively. The mean knowledge of airborne and droplet precautions was 56.6%. Nursing and dentistry students displayed significantly lower knowledge of isolation precautions compared to medical students (P < 0.001). Knowledge of isolation precautions had correlated significantly and positively with self-rated better hygienic practices, r = 0.340, P < 0.010. The students' average knowledge score about COVID-19 was 81.37%. Moreover, results showed that students' overall mean willingness to take the vaccine for COVID-19 was 81%. Students' mean self-rated willingness to undergo COVID-19 vaccination correlated significantly and positively with their knowledge of infection control (r = 0.162, P < 0.010). Conclusion: Based on our study, the overall mean knowledge and practice of KSU health students were satisfactory, and their willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19 is acceptable. The study took place while students were learning online hence, we suggest future research to examine the practice of infection control measures after the pandemic.
Comparing headwater stream thermal sensitivity across two distinct regions in Northern California

Thermal regimes in headwater streams are critical for freshwater ecological condition and habitat resilience to disturbance, and to inform sustainable forest management. However, stream temperatures vary depending on characteristics of the stream, catchment, or region. To improve our knowledge of stream thermal regimes, we collected stream and air temperature data along eight headwater streams in two regions in Northern California. Five streams were in the Coast Range, which is characterized by permeable sandstone lithology, rain dominated precipitation regime, and dense coast redwood forests. Three streams were in the Cascade Range, which is characterized by fractured and resistant basalt lithology, snow dominated precipitation, and low to moderate density pine forests. We instrumented each stream with 12 stream temperature and four air temperature sensors during summer 2018. We compared stream thermal regimes and thermal sensitivity—slope of the linear regression between daily stream and air temperature—within and between study regions. Mean daily stream temperatures were ~4.7°C warmer in the Coast Range but were less variable (SD = 0.7°C) compared to the Cascade Range (SD = 2.3°C). Median thermal sensitivity was 0.33°C °C−1 in the Coast Range and 0.23°C °C−1 in the Cascade Range. We posit that the volcanic lithology underlying the Cascade streams likely supported discrete groundwater discharge locations of cold snowmelt water, which dampened thermal sensitivity. At locations of apparent groundwater discharge in these streams, median stream temperatures rapidly decreased by 2.0–7.0°C relative to locations 70–90 m upstream. In contrast, thin friable soils in the Coast Range likely contributed warmer, rain dominated baseflow from shallow subsurface sources, which strongly co‐varied with air temperature and generally warmed downstream (up to 2.1°C km−1). Our study revealed distinct longitudinal thermal regimes in streams with contrasting lithology, precipitation regimes, and stand densities suggesting that streams in these different regions may respond differentially to forest disturbances or climate change.
A Study on Short Segment Fixation for Thoracolumbar Fractures

Background: Spine injury is being one of the commonest injuries which pose challenges to the patients and treating clinicians as well. Despite so much research and recent advances, there has not been unanimous consensus regarding the management of spinal injuries. However, the treatment aim of every injury to the spine is to restore of max possible function in patients. This study was conducted to assess the outcome of short segment fixation in fractures of the thoracolumbar spine. Methods and Materials: This is a prospective cohort study done at our Tertiary Center during the period from April 2018 To September 2020. Patients with thoracolumbar spine injuries were, included in the study. Study on short-segment pedicle screw fixation and inter- transverse fusion for single-level acute thoracolumbar fracture. Results: Mean age of the sample size was 40.58 years with male preponderance. The FRANKEL SCALE was used to grade the pre-op neurology; 17.2% were graded as E, 24.1% as D, 31% as C, 13.8 % as B, and 13.8% A. ASIA motor and sensory score preoperative and postoperative at one year follow up was compared was found to be significant (p<0.05). Preoperative VAS and Functional independent measures also showed significant improvement. Conclusion: Surgical stabilization and decompression are essential strategies for further neuroprotection and recovery after a spine injury. Short segment fixation can be an option for thoracolumbar fracture. However, an unstable fracture may require extended fixation.
Hand Surgery as Subspecialty of Plastic Surgery Among Saudi Medical Students: Is It Recognized Well?

Background: Plastic surgery has multiple sub-specialties, with hand surgeries being one of them. Medical students must recognize hand surgery as a subspecialty to understand the full scope of the discipline and improve their future referral patterns. This is the first study in Saudi Arabia to assess medical students’ perception of the role of plastic surgeons in hand surgeries. Methods: TThe study is cross-sectional, with an online questionnaire distributed among medical students in a local medical institute. The data were collected between January and February 2021. The data were analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences version 21. Results: Three hundred and one student participated. There were 198 males and 103 females. Students most commonly chose plastic surgery to treat the burn of the hand scenario (67.8%), while the most commonly chose orthopedic surgery to treat a severed finger extensor tendon (71.1%), fracture scaphoid (89.4%), and rheumatoid arthritis deformity (63.8%). The most commonly chosen general surgery was to treat a severed finger. The most common sources of information were the teaching sessions, the internet, and personal experience. Conclusion: Medical students were found to have insufficient perception that hand surgery is a plastic surgery specialty. Improving students’ perception is possible through problem based learning sessions led by doctors and increasing the number and length of plastic surgery clinical rotations.
Perception of Health Sciences Students about Impact of Hidden Curriculum on Burnout and Empathy

Objective: The main objectives of this study were to investigate how the implicit curricular aspects such as the hidden curriculum affect student empathy and burnout and we sought to describe the link between them.Methodology: This mixed methods study included validated measures of both empathy and burnout which were distributed in three institutes of three different cities in Pakistan followed by focus group interviews. The study cohort included students of health sciences. 2000 questionnaires were distributed of which complete data of 1100 (55%) were retrieved. The second part of the study included formation of two focus groups of 15 students each per campus for in-depth discussion of aspects relating to the hidden curriculum, burnout and empathy. Descriptive statistics, correlations and frequencies were analyzed by SPSS 22 and focus group discussions underwent thematic analysis after transcription.Results: Medical students followed by and physical therapy students experienced the greatest amount of burnout syndrome (p-value0.02 and p-value0.04, respectively) as compared to the other disciplines Final year students of each discipline reported higher rates of burnout as compared to all other years (p-value0.01). Medical students had lesser empathy as compared to other disciplines of health sciences. This finding showed statistical significance (F=4.66.p-value0.03). Furthermore, results shows females (5.56±0.72) had statistically significant higher empathy scores than male students (4.46±0.65) (p-value 0.04). The focus groups established that the hidden curriculum was a key player in student wellbeing and not just limited to subconscious attributes of the teacher but it also includes administrative issues, patient behavior, peer interaction, sociodemographic and national policy issues.Conclusion: Medical students experienced the greatest amount of burnout and subsequently reported lesser empathy reflecting the negative relation between them. Burnout and hidden curriculum are important factors in determining empathy in health care students. More positive role modeling, better understanding of the surrounding and a good distribution of work load will help the students handle burnout and act as positive factors of the hidden curriculum, hence increasing empathy.
Effects of stepping-in-place tempo and type of roundhouse kick on coincidence-anticipation timing in Taekwondo

ABSTRACT The aims of this study were to examine the effects of stepping-in-place tempo on coincidence-anticipation timing (CAT) performance of roundhouse kick and to determine whether the CAT performance was the same according to types of roundhouse kick. Fifteen Taekwondo experts performed four different type of roundhouse kicks at three different stepping-in-place tempos (120, 140, and 160 bpm) in two stimulus speeds conditions for CAT performance. Raw scores were transformed to three error scores; constant, absolute, and variable errors and were analysed using separate 2 (stimulus speeds) x 4 (kick types) x 3 (tempos) repeated measures of analyses of variance. In the results, error scores (CE and AE) were significantly lower at 140 and 160 bpm compared to that at 120 bpm. Significant differences according to stepping-in-place tempo were also evident in the type of kicks (front leg < rear leg and body < head). The error scores were found to increase as the stimulus speed increased (10 mph < 20 mph) and were lower at 140 bpm compared to 120 and 160 bpm at both stimulus speed. Regardless of the type of kicks and stimulus speed, the lowest variable error was found at 140 bpm.
Towards Efficient and Stable K-Asynchronous Federated Learning with Unbounded Stale Gradients on Non-IID Data

Federated learning (FL) is an emerging privacy-preserving paradigm that enables multiple participants collaboratively to train a global model without uploading raw data. Considering heterogeneous computing and communication capabilities of different participants, asynchronous FL can avoid the stragglers effect in synchronous FL and adapts to scenarios with vast participants. Both staleness and non-IID data in asynchronous FL would reduce the model utility. However, there exists an inherent contradiction between the solutions to the two problems. That is, mitigating the staleness requires selecting less but consistent gradients while coping with non-IID data demands more comprehensive gradients. To address the dilemma, we propose a two-stage weighted K asynchronous FL with adaptive learning rate (WKAFL). By selecting consistent gradients and adjusting learning rate adaptively, WKAFL utilizes stale gradients and mitigates the impact of non-IID data, which can achieve multifaceted enhancement in training speed, prediction accuracy and training stability. We also present the convergence results for WKAFL under the assumption of unbounded staleness to understand the impact of staleness and non-IID data. Experiments implemented on two benchmark FL datasets and two synthetic FL datasets show that WKAFL has the best overall performance compared with existing algorithms.
Associations between cardiovascular risk factors, biomarkers, and left ventricular mechanical dispersion: insights from the ACE 1950 Study

Abstract Aims Mechanical dispersion measures left ventricular contraction heterogeneity and is associated with the risk of sudden cardiac death. However, the associations between mechanical dispersion and cardiovascular risk factors in early mid-life, and established biomarkers of sub-clinical myocardial injury and dysfunction are not known. We aimed to examine this in the general population. Methods and results During 2012–15, we included 2527 Norwegian individuals from the general population born in 1950, with measurements of mechanical dispersion by 2D speckle tracking echocardiography and concentrations of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) available. Mechanical dispersion was calculated as the standard deviation of the contraction duration of 17 strain segments. We assessed the associations between mechanical dispersion, concentrations of hs-cTnT and NT-proBNP, and cardiovascular risk factors collected at a national health screening survey two decades earlier. At echocardiography baseline, median age was 64 (interquartile range 63.5–64.5) years, 49.8% were women, 59.1% had hypertension, and 5.9% reported established coronary artery disease. Median mechanical dispersion was 38.0 (29.5–47.0) ms, median hs-cTnT concentration 6 (4–8) ng/L, and the median NT-proBNP concentration 54 (34–93) ng/L. Mechanical dispersion was associated with both hs-cTnT and NT-proBNP concentrations in multivariable models adjusted for clinical and echocardiographic variables. High body mass index, serum triglyceride concentrations, and low resting heart rate at Age 40 were independently associated with increased mechanical dispersion two decades later. Conclusion Established risk factors at Age 40 are associated with mechanical dispersion two decades later, and mechanical dispersion is cross-sectionally associated with biomarkers of subclinical myocardial injury and dysfunction.
Rising risks of compound extreme heat‐precipitation events in China

While the changes of extreme weather and climate events have been well investigated, the change of compound events (i.e., combinations of multiple weather/climate extremes and/or hazards), which severely affect the biophysical and human systems, remains poorly understood. Here, we examine the decadal trends of subsequently (or “preconditioned”) compound extreme heat‐precipitation events (i.e., extreme precipitation events preceded by an extreme heat) across China during 1961–2016. We find that, on average, around one‐quarter of summer precipitation extremes over China (especially western China) are preceded by an extreme heat event. In most areas of China, the fraction of the compound precipitation events preceded by heat extremes exhibits significant increases since the 1960s, with a national mean increasing tendency of 2.51%·decade−1. Furthermore, the rising trends in the fractional contribution of hot weather to extreme precipitation events over most parts of China have accelerated in more recent decades.
A Phenomenological Investigation of Trauma in 18 Adults Living With Inflammatory Bowel Disease

While trauma is recognized as being common in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) cohorts, limited research has explored how trauma impacts the lived experience of IBD. The aim of this study was to develop an understanding of how trauma impacts the experience of living with IBD and its subsequent management. An interpretative phenomenological analysis with thematic analysis was conducted. Eighteen adults with IBD participated in this qualitative research study. Key themes identified included: (1) Trauma was associated with the journey of IBD; (2) the impact of IBD and trauma, and (3) coping strategies. Pre-existing non-IBD trauma was prevalent, with several participants reporting links between traumatic events and their IBD diagnosis. Experiences of IBD trauma were described by participants across all stages of their illness journey. The study can assist healthcare professionals to better understand the experience of living with IBD and trauma and the factors that can contribute to traumatic responses.
Outcome-Based Imitation in Family Firms’ International Market Entry Decisions

This study examines the effects of family involvement on international market entry. Bridging theories of interorganizational imitation with the notion of socioemotional wealth protection, we argue that family-managed firms are more likely to act as “intuitive statisticians,” using the internationalization outcomes of industry peers to determine when to internationalize. An event history analysis of 2427 manufacturing firms supports this position. Family-managed firms’ likelihood to internationalize increases as prior entrants’ performance mean and variance increase. Ultimately, our study demonstrates that this imitation strategy enables family-managed firms to reduce risk and endure longer in broached international markets.
Screening of Barbers for Hepatitis B and C in Faisalabad

Objective: To screen the barbers for Hepatitis B and hepatitis C in Faisalabad. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was performed by the forensic medicine department of private medical college of Faisalabad after approval from institutional ethical committee. The camp for screening barbers was arranged in September 2019 at Sargodha road, Faisalabad. Barbers from different Hair Saloons of the city were invited 2-3 days before arranging the camp. Fifty-five barbers joined the camp for screening. All relevant information was noted on predesigned pro forma. Informed consent was taken and blood samples were drawn from each participant for qualitative detection of hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBs Ag) and antibodies to HCV (anti-HCV) using one step rapid test devices (Accurate) that are based on a lateral flow chromatographic immunoassay technique. Statistical analysis was done on SPSS 21. Percentages and frequencies for Reactive and Non- Reactive tests HBs Ag and anti-HCV were determined. Results: During this study 55 barbers were screened for hepatitis C and hepatitis B. The age range of the screened barbers was 18-35 years. We found that 3 (5.4%) of the barbers were seropositive for hepatitis C and 1 (1.8%) barber was co- infected with hepatitis C and hepatitis B, In contrast to this none of the barbers was found to have hepatitis B only. Conclusion: HCV infection is an occupational hazard for barbers, while HBV infection is not found in barbers despite low infectious dose.