Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of Quality of Life (QoL) of Colorectal Cancer Patients using QLQ-30 and QLQ-CR 29 at King Abdulaziz Medical City, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Objective We aimed to assess the quality of life (QoL) and its predictors in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients at King Abdulaziz Medical City, Jeddah. Methods A total of 118 CRC patients at King Abdulaziz Medical City, a tertiary hospital in Jeddah, participated in this study. The participants were provided with the online questionnaire via WhatsApp by trained researchers and data collectors in February 2021. All participants were required to answer the three-section questionnaire comprising of (a) demographic data and a validated Arabic version of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) quality of life questionnaires, (b) a general version (QLQ-30), and (c) a CRC-specific version (QLQ-CR29). Results Statistical analysis revealed that the most common comorbidity among the participants was diabetes mellitus (42.4%). In addition, the mean global health status was 63.91 ± 24.75. For the global health tool QLQ-C30, results exhibited that physical functioning [62.94 (30.04)] and social functioning [63.56 (31.95)] scored below the threshold, while the cognitive functioning scale scored the highest [74.86 (25.11)]. In addition, on the QLQ-C30 scales, fatigue and insomnia were distressing, with fatigue scoring the highest. For the disease-specific tool QLQ-CR29, it was found that for the symptom scale, urinary frequency and embarrassment scored the highest. Conclusion. The participants reported high global quality of life on both the EORTC QLQ-30 and QLQ-CR29 scales. This study identifies the factors and predictors that affect the quality of life of CRC patients in Saudi Arabia. Recognizing these factors and predictors may empower those patients to maintain positive perception towards the impact of colorectal cancer and improve their survival.
The effects of hypoxia on motor output during a 60 minute lower limb cycling protocol

The muscles working together to produce motion around a joint is called muscle coordination, and there are specific recruitment patterns for every movement. Exposure to a lowered oxygen environment can cause an acceleration of locomotor muscle fatigue (Romer et al., 2007), and when the muscle becomes fatigued, a change in the pattern of activation may be induced (Gandevia, 2001). The objective of this study was to investigate changes in muscle activation patterns (a cause of central fatigue) during cycling between hypoxic (15% O2) and normoxic (20.93% O2) conditions, and whether they take place before, during, or after the development of peripheral fatigue. Ten endurance trained males participated in three laboratory sessions. The first session was an incremental ramp cycling test to determine VO2max and peak power output (PPO). In the second and third sessions, the participants randomly underwent an hour long cycling test in hypoxia or normoxia consisting of eight 3-minute work intervals (70% of PPO) and eight 4.5-minute active rest intervals (35% of PPO). Electromyography (EMG) was collected continuously throughout the test from the vastus lateralis (VL), biceps femoris (BF), tibialis anterior (TA) and lateral gastrocnemius (LG) muscles. Maximal Voluntary Isometric Contractions (MVICs) were performed after every work interval. Heart rate (HR) was significantly lower between conditions in the active rest intervals, while rate of perceived exertion (RPE) and arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2) were significantly higher throughout the full test in hypoxia. MVIC force values decreased throughout the test in both conditions. Muscle activation changes included a main effect for time in RMS amplitude measures of the VL, BF and LG. There was a main effect for condition for VL:BF coactivation and VL delta time (length of activity over one second). Due to technical difficulties with the experimental setup, peripheral indicators of fatigue could not be identified; however, indicators of central fatigue were present. No conclusive remarks can be made on whether the limiting factor in the cessation of exercise was related to central or peripheral fatigue.
Characterization of Microbial Shifts during the Production and Ripening of Raw Ewe Milk-Derived Idiazabal Cheese by High-Throughput Sequencing

Simple Summary Idiazabal is a traditional cheese produced from raw ewe milk in the Basque Country (Southwestern Europe). The sensory properties of raw milk cheeses have been attributed, among other factors, to microbial shifts that occur during the production and ripening processes. In this study, we used high-throughput sequencing technologies to investigate the microbiota of Latxa ewe raw milk and the dynamics during cheese production and ripening processes. The microbiota of raw milk was composed of lactic acid bacteria (LAB), environmental bacteria and non-desirable bacteria. Throughout the cheese making and ripening processes, the growth of LAB was promoted, whereas that of non-desirable and environmental bacteria was inhibited. Moreover, some genera not reported previously in raw ewe milk were detected and clear differences were observed in the bacterial composition of raw milk and cheese among producers, in relation to LAB and environmental or non-desirable bacteria, some of which could be attributed to the production of flavour related compounds. Abstract In this study, we used high-throughput sequencing technologies (sequencing of V3–V4 hypervariable regions of 16S rRNA gene) to investigate for the first time the microbiota of Latxa ewe raw milk and the bacterial shifts that occur during the production and ripening of Idiazabal cheese. Results revealed several bacterial genera not reported previously in raw ewe milk and cheese, such as Buttiauxella and Obesumbacterium. Both the cheese making and ripening processes had a significant impact on bacterial communities. Overall, the growth of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) (Lactococcus, Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, Enterococcus, Streptococcus and Carnobacterium) was promoted, whereas that of non-desirable and environmental bacteria was inhibited (such as Pseudomonas and Clostridium). However, considerable differences were observed among producers. It is noteworthy that the starter LAB (Lactococcus) predominated up to 30 or 60 days of ripening and then, the growth of non-starter LAB (Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, Enterococcus and Streptococcus) was promoted. Moreover, in some cases, bacteria related to the production of volatile compounds (such as Hafnia, Brevibacterium and Psychrobacter) also showed notable abundance during the first few weeks of ripening. Overall, the results of this study enhance our understanding of microbial shifts that occur during the production and ripening of a raw ewe milk-derived cheese (Idiazabal), and could indicate that the practices adopted by producers have a great impact on the microbiota and final quality of this cheese.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology and its Applications in the Commercial Construction Industry

This paper is a report of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology and its potential applications in the commercial construction industry. RFID technology offers wireless communication between RFID tags and readers with non line-of-sight readability. These fundamental properties eliminate manual data entry and introduce the potential for automated processes to increase project productivity, construction safety, and project cost efficiency. Construction contractors, owners, and material suppliers that believe technology can further develop methods and processes in construction should feel obligated to participate in RFID studies for the advancement of the construction industry as a whole.
Gender effects on perception of emotional speech- and visual-prosody in a second language: Emotion recognition in English-speaking films

Speakers use both speech prosody and visual prosody (facial expressions, gestures, body postures) to express emotion. Receivers register and recognise emotion via both types of prosodic cues. In this study, we examined gender differences in both recognition of type of emotion (e.g. anger vs. joy) and perceived emotionality (e.g. the degree of anger) expressed via speech prosody and visual prosody in a second language (L2). In a perception experiment using film scenes, proficient Dutch learners of English rated the emotionality of each protagonist and identified the specific type of emotion expressed by each protagonist in each scene in both the visual-only and audio-only modality. We have found no evidence for gender-related differences in perceived emotionality, possibly due to potential difficulty of participants in identifying with the protagonists portrayed in a different society. However, the female Dutch learners of English were more accurate in recognising type of emotion than the male Dutch learners of English from both speech prosody and visual prosody. These findings suggest that there is transfer of learners’ ability in recognising type of emotion in the native language to L2 and that female L2 learners may be better at learning cues in speech prosody to emotion in L2.
Determinants of Low-Income Women’s Participation in Self-Collected Samples for Cervical Cancer Detection: Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior

Background Low-income women (LIW) are underrepresented in physician-provided cervical cancer screening. Providing women with an option for Human Papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling would increase cervical cancer screening. However, little is known about LIW’s attitude towards self-sampling for cervical cancer. We determined the associations between the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) constructs and LIW intention for participation in the HPV self-sampling. Methods A 44-item survey was administered among women receiving food from a food pantry in central Texas. Independent variables included TPB constructs (i.e., attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived control). The outcome variables were intentions and preference for self-sampling. Both variables were measured on a 5-point scale. Hierarchical linear regression models were used to analyze the data. Results A sample of 241 participants (age 50.13 ± 9.60 years) comprising non-Hispanic White (40%), Black/African American (27%), and Hispanic (30%) participated in the study. The participants were current with a pap test (54.8%) and preferred self-sampling (42%). The participant’s attitudes and subjective norms were significantly associated with their intention for self-sampling, accounting for 38.7% of the variance (p < .001). Women who were overdue for pap testing versus current with pap testing had increased odds of preferring self-sampling (OR = 1.72, 95% CI: 1.27, 6.04). Conclusions The key predictors for LIW’s intention for self-sampling included attitudes and subjective norms. Future research should use the TPB as a framework to examine whether intention predicts self-sampling behavior among LIW.
Cross-Subject Activity Detection for COVID-19 Infection Avoidance Based on Automatically Annotated IMU Data

The World Health Organization reported that face touching is a primary source of infection transmission of viral diseases, including COVID-19, seasonal Influenza, Swine flu, Ebola virus, etc. Thus, people have been advised to avoid such activity to break the viral transmission chain. However, empirical studies showed that it is either impossible or difficult to avoid as it is unconsciously a human habit. This gives rise to the need to develop means enabling the automatic prediction of the occurrence of such activity. In this paper, we propose SafeSense, a cross-subject face-touch prediction system that combines the sensing capability of smartwatches and smartphones. The system includes innovative modules for automatically labeling the smartwatches’ sensor measurements using smartphones’ proximity sensors during normal phone use. Additionally, SafeSense uses a multi-task learning approach based on autoencoders for learning a subject-invariant representation without any assumptions about the target subjects. SafeSense also improves the deep model’s generalization ability and incorporates different modules to boost the per-subject system’s accuracy and robustness at run-time. We evaluated the proposed system on ten subjects using three different smartwatches and their connected phones. Results show that SafeSense can obtain as high as 97.9% prediction accuracy with a F1-score of 0.98. This outperforms the state-of-the-art techniques in all the considered scenarios without extra data collection overhead. These results highlight the feasibility of the proposed system for boosting public safety.
FLT3-ITD in Children with Early T-cell Precursor (ETP) Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: Incidence and Potential Target for Monitoring Minimal Residual Disease (MRD)

Simple Summary The prevalence of FLT3-ITD among children with ETP-ALL must be determined. MRD monitoring in ETPs is hampered by the lack of Immunoglobulin (IG) and T-cell receptor (TR) gene rearrangements. We determined the incidence of FLT3-ITD among children with ETP and performed MRD monitoring using FLT3-ITD sequences, successfully testing a new method of MRD detection. Moreover, we highlighted that the FLT3 pathway could represent a therapeutic target for precision therapy in patients with ETP. Abstract Early T-cell precursor (ETP) is an aggressive form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), associated with high risk of relapse. This leukemia subtype shows a higher prevalence of mutations, typically associated with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), including RAS and FLT3 mutations. FLT3-ITD was identified in 35% cases of adult ETP-ALL, but data in the pediatric counterpart are lacking. ETPs frequently lack immunoglobulin (IG) and T-cell receptor (TR) gene rearrangements, used for minimal residual disease (MRD) monitoring. Among 718 T-ALL enrolled in Italy into AIEOP-BFM-ALL2000, AIEOP-ALLR2006, and AIEOP-BFM-ALL2009 consecutive protocols, 86 patients (12%) were identified as ETP and 77 out of 86 children were studied for the presence of FLT3-ITD. A total of 10 out of 77 (13%) ETP cases were FLT3-ITD positive. IG/TR MRD monitoring was feasible only in four cases. FLT3-ITD MRD monitoring was performed using real-time PCR in all FLT3-ITD positive ETP cases. A comparison between IG/TR and FLT3-ITD resulted in comparable findings. Our study demonstrated that the FLT3-ITD prevalence in children was lower (13%) than that reported in adult ETP-ALL. FLT3-ITD can be used as a marker for sensitive molecular MRD monitoring in ETP-ALL when IG/TR markers are not available, potentially selecting those patients who should spare allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Finally, the FLT3 pathway is a robust druggable target in this aggressive form of leukemia.
A new species of Maomingosuchus from the Eocene of the Na Duong Basin (northern Vietnam) sheds new light on the phylogenetic relationship of tomistomine crocodylians and their dispersal from Europe to Asia

Maomingosuchus acutirostris sp. nov. is a new tomistomine crocodile from the middle–upper Eocene deposits (late Bartonian–Priabonian age, 39–35 Ma) of the Na Duong Basin in northern Vietnam. M. acutirostris can be differentiated from the type species Maomingosuchus petrolicus by having an acute anterior tip of the premaxilla. Both species differ from another Maomingosuchus from Krabi (Thailand) by differences in the surangular–dentary suture and maxillary alveoli. According to our phylogenetic results, M. acutirostris seems to be the sister species to the group M. petrolicus + Krabi-Maomingosuchus. The close relationship between those three tomistomines is supported in the present phylogenetic analysis by three synapomorphies. In our phylogenetic analysis, Maomingosuchus was retrieved in a basal position forming the sister group to Paratomistoma + Gavialosuchus + Melitosaurus + Tomistoma, including the extant Tomistoma schlegelii. This phylogeny indicates three different dispersal events of Tomistominae from Europe towards eastern Asia: 1) for the stem lineage of Maomingosuchus, no later than the late Eocene; 2) for the stem lineage of Penghusuchus pani + Toyotamaphimeia machikanensis, no later than the early–middle Miocene; and (3) for the stem lineage of T. schlegelii, during the Neogene. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:19B27C1E-0A3F-4425-AA8C-F904277DF327
Cascading Effects of Cumulative Trauma: Callous Traits Among Justice Involved Youth

Youth involved in the juvenile justice system (JJS) have high rates of trauma relative to youth in the general population. Criminological research has posited that callous traits are some of the most prominent risk factors associated with onset and recidivistic criminal behavior. It stands to reason that research should test intermediary variables explaining the connection between cumulative trauma and risks for criminal behavior to better isolate trauma-driven determinants of callous traits. This study employs a structural equation model to test the connections between cumulative trauma, trauma symptoms, behavioral regulation, and callous traits among a sample of JJS involved youth (N = 336). Results revealed there was not a direct relationship between cumulative trauma and callous traits, but there were mediated effects of the variables in portions of the model; the developmental risks resulting from cumulative trauma, specifically trauma symptoms and behavioral regulation increase the likelihood for callous traits. Implications are discussed.
How and Why Chromosomes Interact with the Cytoskeleton during Meiosis

During the early meiotic prophase, connections are established between chromosomes and cytoplasmic motors via a nuclear envelope bridge, known as a LINC (linker of nucleoskeleton and cytoskeleton) complex. These widely conserved links can promote both chromosome and nuclear motions. Studies in diverse organisms have illuminated the molecular architecture of these connections, but important questions remain regarding how they contribute to meiotic processes. Here, we summarize the current knowledge in the field, outline the challenges in studying these chromosome dynamics, and highlight distinctive features that have been characterized in major model systems.
Articulation rate in psychotherapeutic dialogues for depression: patients and therapists

Prosodic features anecdotally associated with the speech of people with clinical depression include slower rate, lower pitch range and reduced loudness, but there is a significant degree of contradiction in the literature regarding depressed prosody. This complex picture reflects the heterogeneity of depression aetiology, symptomatology and prognosis. It is also likely to be influenced by elicitation methods, in particular, whether natural dialogue contexts are employed and whether the interlocutor’s prosody is also considered. We analysed 40 patient-therapist dialogues from the first and last of 29 weekly sessions of a behavioural therapy for refractory depression, sampling early and late in both sessions. Across all dialogues, we found that therapists spoke faster than patients, as expected, but in female-female therapist-patient dialogues (the majority of our sample), patients’ articulation rate increased substantially over the first session. Moreover, and contrary to expectations, there was a positive correlation between articulation rate and assessed depression severity (PHQ-9 scale) in the final therapy session, also evident in therapists’ speech for female-female dialogues. We suggest that this may reflect features of anxiety in speakers with ongoing depression and possibly also personality characteristics. We also consider evidence for prosodic convergence between patients and therapists.
Size-related, seasonal and interdecadal changes in the diet of the Patagonian longfin squid Doryteuthis gahi in the South-western Atlantic

Abstract The Patagonian longfin squid Doryteuthis gahi has an annual life cycle with two seasonal cohorts (autumn and spring spawners). Earlier studies on the Patagonian shelf found a predominance of Euphausiacea in the D. gahi diet, but no studies to date have investigated differences between feeding spectra of the two cohorts or decadal diet shifts. The present study investigated differences in diet of D. gahi on the Patagonian shelf sampled two decades apart, and differences between seasonal cohorts. Classical stomach content analysis and generalized additive models were used to investigate and model the influence of mantle length, sampling period and spawning cohort on the diet. Results revealed an ontogenetic diet change from ~70% Frequency of Occurrence of Euphausiacea in small squid to more than 60% FO of fish and Cephalopoda at larger sizes. Cannibalism was also frequently observed. Euphausiacea were ingested more frequently and in higher amounts during the austral summer and therefore were consumed more by the autumn spawning cohort, whereas fish was more frequently fed upon during austral winter and also by the spring spawning cohort. Cannibalism was also recorded more in austral winter months but, contrary to feeding on fish, was more prevalent in the autumn spawning cohort. Increased predation of Munida gregaria was observed in 2020 compared with 2001. This study is an important step towards improving the knowledge of D. gahi's two seasonal cohorts, providing data that can be used for future ecosystem modelling.
‘It’s a giant faux pas’: exploring young trans people’s beliefs about deadnaming and the term deadname

Abstract Deadname is a term used to describe the name a trans person is given at birth and is a taboo topic in many trans communities. Research highlights the importance of using the chosen name of a trans person and the complex relationship young trans people have to their name(s). Drawing on interviews with young trans people in Canada and Australia, we explore the narratives they share about their relationship to their name given at birth. Through a theoretical framework that recognizes the importance of complex and even contradictory narratives in young trans people’s lives, we examine their narratives about their relationship to their name given at birth. We find that more nuance is needed to understand the significance of the words ‘deadname’ and ‘deadnaming’ in young trans people’s lives. We can all better support young trans people by recognizing they have diverse experiences and relationships to their name given at birth. We consider what this looks like when applied to educational and medical spaces.