Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical Course and Outcomes of COVID-19 Infection in Patients Treated with Rituximab: A Tertiary Care Center Experience

Introduction Patients receiving rituximab (RTX) may be at increased risk for severe Coronavirus infections and worse outcomes compared with the general population. Because of the conflicting results concerning the effect of RTX on the clinical course and outcomes of COVID-19 infection, we aimed to share our experience with 35 patients infected with COVID-19 while treated with RTX for a variety of clinical indications. Methods This was a single-centre retrospective cohort study that included 35 patients. All patients aged ≥14 years who were treated with RTX for various conditions and were found to have COVID-19 infection were included. Patients with poor outcomes or patients with suspected COVID-19 infection were excluded. Results The patients’ mean age was 42.8 ± 16.3 years with an average BMI of 29.9 ± 11.4 kg/m2. Over half (51.4%, n = 18) of the patients received RTX at a dose of 375 mg/m2 with a median frequency of 4 doses. More than a third (37.1%, n = 13) of the patients had hypogammaglobulinemia and 25.7% had low CD19. Over a third (42.9%, n= 15) of the patients required hospitalization and almost a third (25.7%, n = 9) required treatment in the intensive care unit. There was a statistically significant association between intensive care unit admission and age, steroid use, and low CD19. The mortality rate was 25.7%, and it was significantly higher in elderly, diabetics, corticosteroid users, patients who were hospitalized, treated in the intensive care unit, and had low immunoglobin or CD19. Conclusion Treatment with RTX seems to be a potential risk factor for unfavorable outcomes in COVID-19 patients. RTX should be used with caution or avoided unless the benefit clearly outweighs the risk.
National Accounts in a World of Naturally Occurring Data: A Proof of Concept for Consumption

This paper provides a first proof of concept that naturally occurring transaction data, arising from the decentralized activity of millions of economic agents, can be harnessed to produce both traditional national accounts-like objects and novel representative economic statistics. We deploy comprehensive transaction-level data and its associated metadata arising from the universe of Spanish retail accounts of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA). We first organize the resulting 3 billion individual transactions by 1.8 million bank customers in a large and highly detailed representative consumption panel. Based on this, we then show that the aggregation of such data, once organized according to national accounting principles, can reproduce current official statistics on aggregate consumption in the national accounts with a high degree of precision. As a result of the richness of the transaction data, we additionally show that such data can produce novel, highly detailed distributional accounts for consumption which show larger consumption inequality than surveys suggest, particularly in the right tail. Finally, we use the panel nature of the data to offer a non-parametric analysis of individual consumption dynamics which feature a significant degree of mean reversion. Moreover, the distribution of consumption growth has thick tails. JEL Codes: D30, E01, E21
Genetic enhancers of partial PLK1 inhibition reveal hypersensitivity to kinetochore perturbations

Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) is a serine/threonine kinase required for mitosis and cytokinesis. As cancer cells are often hypersensitive to partial PLK1 inactivation, chemical inhibitors of PLK1 have been developed and tested in clinical trials. However, these small molecule inhibitors alone are not completely effective. PLK1 promotes numerous molecular and cellular events in the cell division cycle and it is unclear which of these events most crucially depend on PLK1 activity. We used a CRISPR-based genome-wide screening strategy to identify genes whose inactivation enhances cell proliferation defects upon partial chemical inhibition of PLK1. Genes identified encode proteins that are functionally linked to PLK1 in multiple ways, most notably factors that promote centromere and kinetochore function. Loss of the kinesin KIF18A or the outer kinetochore protein SKA1 in PLK1-compromised cells resulted in mitotic defects, activation of the spindle assembly checkpoint and nuclear reassembly defects. We also show that PLK1-dependent CENP-A loading at centromeres is extremely sensitive to partial PLK1 inhibition. Our results suggest that partial inhibition of PLK1 compromises the integrity and function of the centromere/kinetochore complex, rendering cells hypersensitive to different kinetochore perturbations. We propose that KIF18A is a promising target for combinatorial therapies with PLK1 inhibitors.
Auditory Working Memory Explains Variance in Speech Recognition in Older Listeners Under Adverse Listening Conditions

c auditory working memory speech recognition performance in adverse listening the contribution of auditory working memory to Seventy-six completed four kinds of auditory working memory tasks, including digit and speech span tasks, and sentence recognition tasks in four different listening conditions having multi-talker noise and time-compression. For older listeners, cognitive function was screened using the Mini-Mental Status Examination, and audibility was assured. Results: Auditory working memory, as measured by listening span, signi ﬁ cantly predicted speech recognition performance in adverse listening conditions for older listeners. A linear regression model showed speech recognition performance for older listeners could be explained by auditory working memory whilst controlling for the impact of age and hearing sensitivity. in explaining the variance in speech recognition in listening conditions for older listeners. The linguistic features and the complexity of the auditory stimuli may affect the association between working memory and speech recognition performance. Conclusion: We demonstrated the contribution of auditory working memory to speech recognition in unfavorable listening conditions in older populations. Taking the modality-speci ﬁ c characteristics of working memory into account may be a key to better understand the dif ﬁ culty in speech recognition in daily listening conditions for older listeners.
Repeated Cocaine Intake Differentially Impacts Striatal D2/3 Receptor Availability, Psychostimulant-Induced Dopamine Release, and Trait Behavioral Markers of Drug Abuse

Current research indicates that altered dopamine (DA) transmission in the striatum contributes to impulsivity and novelty-seeking, and it may mediate a link concerning a higher susceptibility to drug abuse. Whether increased susceptibility to drug abuse results from a hyperdopaminergic or hypodopaminergic state is still debated. Here, we simultaneously tracked changes in DA D2/3 receptor (D2/3R) availability and amphetamine-(AMPH)-induced DA release in relation to impulsivity and novelty-seeking prior to, and following, cocaine self-administration (SA) in Roman high- (RHA) and low- (RLA) avoidance rats. We found that high-impulsive/high novelty-seeking RHA rats exhibited lower D2/3R availabilities and higher AMPH-induced DA release in the striatum that predicted higher levels of cocaine intake compared with RLAs. Cocaine SA did not alter striatal D2/3R availability or impulsivity in RHA or RLA rats. Critically, cocaine exposure led to a baseline-dependent blunting of stimulated DA release in high-impulsive/high novelty-seeking RHA rats only, and to a baseline-dependent increase in novelty-seeking in low-impulsive/low novelty-seeking RLA rats only. Altogether, we propose that susceptibility to drug abuse results from an innate hyper-responsive DA system, promoting impulsive action and novelty-seeking, and producing stronger initial drug-reinforcing effects that contribute to the initiation and perpetuation of drug use. However, with repeated cocaine use, a tolerance to drug-induced striatal DA elevations develops, leading to a compensatory increase in drug consumption to overcome the reduced reward effects.
Association between Islamic religiosity, social support, marriage satisfaction, and postpartum depression in teenage mothers in West Java, Indonesia: A cross-sectional study

Background Postpartum depression is a prevalent mental health issue among mothers after giving birth. Adolescent mothers are believed to have a higher rate of postpartum depression than adult mothers. However, research on postpartum depression among teenage mothers in Indonesia remains limited. This research gap emphasizes the need for more comprehensive studies to address the mental health and well-being of postpartum mothers in Indonesia, especially among adolescents. Objective This study aimed to investigate the correlations between Islamic religiosity, social support, marital satisfaction, and postpartum depression in teenage mothers in Indonesia. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 203 adolescent postpartum mothers selected through cluster sampling. Data were collected using validated questionnaires from July to August 2020 in Cianjur and Sukabumi districts, West Java Province, Indonesia. Descriptive statistics, chi-square, and multiple logistic regression were employed for data analysis. Results The study revealed that 35.96% of teenage mothers experienced symptoms of postpartum depression. Among the variables studied, marriage satisfaction (p = 0.002), education level (p = 0.012), family income (p = 0.003), number of children (p = 0.044), and baby weight at birth (p = 0.0001) were significantly associated with postpartum depression. However, social support (p = 0.688) and religiosity (p = 0.788) showed no significant association with postpartum depression. Multiple logistic regression analysis further confirmed that marriage satisfaction (p = 0.001; OR = 0.365; 95% CI 0.197 - 0.676), family income (p = 0.001; OR = 0.326; 95% CI = 0.165 - 0.644), and the number of children (p = 0.026; OR = 3.68; 95% CI = 1.173 – 11.547) were the most significant factors associated with postpartum depression. Conclusion The study highlighted a high prevalence of postpartum depression among adolescent mothers. Marital satisfaction, family income, and the number of children were identified as key factors associated with postpartum depression in this population. These findings emphasize the importance of considering these factors in nursing and midwifery practice to provide targeted support and interventions, ultimately improving the mental health outcomes for teenage mothers during the postpartum period.
Identifying and Managing Areas under Threat in the Iberian Peninsula: An Invasion Risk Atlas for Non-Native Aquatic Plant Species as a Potential Tool

Predicting the likelihood that non-native species will be introduced into new areas remains one of conservation’s greatest challenges and, consequently, it is necessary to adopt adequate management measures to mitigate the effects of future biological invasions. At present, not much information is available on the areas in which non-native aquatic plant species could establish themselves in the Iberian Peninsula. Species distribution models were used to predict the potential invasion risk of (1) non-native aquatic plant species already established in the peninsula (32 species) and (2) those with the potential to invade the peninsula (40 species). The results revealed that the Iberian Peninsula contains a number of areas capable of hosting non-native aquatic plant species. Areas under anthropogenic pressure are at the greatest risk of invasion, and the variable most related to invasion risk is temperature. The results of this work were used to create the Invasion Risk Atlas for Alien Aquatic Plants in the Iberian Peninsula, a novel online resource that provides information about the potential distribution of non-native aquatic plant species. The atlas and this article are intended to serve as reference tools for the development of public policies, management regimes, and control strategies aimed at the prevention, mitigation, and eradication of non-native aquatic plant species.
Targeting the Gut–Eye Axis: An Emerging Strategy to Face Ocular Diseases

The human microbiota refers to a large variety of microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, and fungi) that live in different human body sites, including the gut, oral cavity, skin, and eyes. In particular, the presence of an ocular surface microbiota with a crucial role in maintaining ocular surface homeostasis by preventing colonization from pathogen species has been recently demonstrated. Moreover, recent studies underline a potential association between gut microbiota (GM) and ocular health. In this respect, some evidence supports the existence of a gut–eye axis involved in the pathogenesis of several ocular diseases, including age-related macular degeneration, uveitis, diabetic retinopathy, dry eye, and glaucoma. Therefore, understanding the link between the GM and these ocular disorders might be useful for the development of new therapeutic approaches, such as probiotics, prebiotics, symbiotics, or faecal microbiota transplantation through which the GM could be modulated, thus allowing better management of these diseases.
Deacetylated Sialic Acid Sensitizes Lung and Colon Cancers to Novel Cucurbitacin-Inspired Estrone Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) Inhibitor Analogs

Cancers utilize sugar residues such as sialic acids (Sia) to improve their ability to survive. Sia presents a variety of functional group alterations, including O-acetylation on the C6 hydroxylated tail. Previously, sialylation has been reported to suppress EGFR activation and increase cancer cell sensitivity to Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors (TKIs). In this study, we report on the effect of deacetylated Sia on the activity of three novel EGFR-targeting Cucurbitacin-inspired estrone analogs (CIEAs), MMA 294, MMA 321, and MMA 320, in lung and colon cancer cells. Acetylation was modulated by the removal of Sialate O-Acetyltransferase, also known as CAS1 Domain-containing protein (CASD1) gene via CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing. Using a variety of cell-based approaches including MTT cell viability assay, flow cytometry, immunofluorescence assay and in-cell ELISA we observed that deacetylated Sia-expressing knockout cells (1.24–6.49 μM) were highly sensitive to all CIEAs compared with the control cells (8.82–20.97 μM). Apoptosis and varied stage cell cycle arrest (G0/G1 and G2/M) were elucidated as mechanistic modes of action of the CIEAs. Further studies implicated overexpression of CIEAs’ cognate protein target, phosphorylated EGFR, in the chemosensitivity of the deacetylated Sia-expressing knockout cells. This observation correlated with significantly decreased levels of key downstream proteins (phosphorylated ERK and mTOR) of the EGFR pathway in knockout cells compared with controls when treated with CIEAs. Collectively, our findings indicate that Sia deacetylation renders lung and colon cancer cells susceptible to EGFR therapeutics and provide insights for future therapeutic interventions.
The Great Reversals: The Politics of Financial Development in the 20th Century

Indicators of the development of the financial sector do not improve monotonically over time. In particular, we find that by most measures, countries were more financially developed in 1913 than in 1980 and only recently have they surpassed their 1913 levels. This pattern cannot be explained by structural theories that attribute cross-country differences in financial development to time-invariant factors, such as a country's legal origin or culture. We propose an "interest group" theory of financial development where incumbents oppose financial development because it breeds competition. The theory predicts that incumbents' opposition will be weaker when an economy allows both cross-border trade and capital flows. This theory can go some way in accounting for the cross-country differences and the time series variation of financial development. When we recognize that different kinds of institutional heritages afford different scope for private interests to express themselves, we obtain a synthesis between the structural theories and private interest theory, which is supported by the data.
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

The present study examined the effects of reward and need for achleveaent (nAch) on goal setting and perforaance in a series of trials with repeated success, fros a control systeas perspective. Carver A Scheier (1981) and Powers (1973a) proposed a hierarchical aotivatlonal aodel incorporating cybernetic systeas at each level of increasing abstraction. This hierarchy constitutes the conceptual fraaework in which extrinsic and Intrinsic rewards and aultiple goals can be placed. NAch, viewed as a special case of the intrinsic sotive for feelings of coapetence and self-deterainisa (Decl, 1975) was proposed as a moderator of goal setting and subsequent perforaance. This study postulated that with repeated success, subjects would increase goals and exhibit inproved perforaance; nAch and reward would aoderate the effect of success on self-set goal levels; and reward would aoderate the nAch differences in perforaance. Eighty freshaan aales were assigned to one of two conditions: reward contingent on self-set goal attalnaent or no reward. Subjects then participated in a monotonous, laboratory task, with an objectively easy initial goal, and were allowed to alter goal level for subsequent trials. It was found that reward for goal attalnaent exerted a direct influence on self-set goals over trials, with subjects in the reward condition setting consistently lower goals than in the no reward condition. In the no reward condition, no nAch differences were found over trials. Perforaance trends did not confora to hypotheses. The results suggest the power of distal goals on proxiaal goal setting and the need for exaalnation of the choice between behavior change vtrsua goal level change. In addition, goals aay Increase without an accoapanylng increase in perforaance.
Body composition , energy expenditure and physical activity Total energy expenditure assessed by doubly labeled water technique and estimates of physical activity in Mauritian children : analysis by gender and ethnicity

Background/objectives In the tropical island of Mauritius, the rise in obesity has accelerated in the past decades, and could be contributed by low physical activity and increased sedentary behavior. The study objectives were to generate the first dataset of total energy expenditure (TEE), to estimate physical activity in Mauritian children, and to explore differences due to gender and ethnicity. Subjects/methods The doubly labeled water (DLW) technique was used to evaluate TEE over 14 days in 56 Mauritian school children (aged 7–11 years) belonging to the two main ethnic groups: Indian (South Asian descent) and Creole (African/Malagasy descent). Physical activity level (PAL) was calculated as the ratio of TEE and resting energy expenditure (using Schofield equations), and daily step counts were measured by accelerometry. Anthropometry and body composition were also assessed. Results TEE measured by DLW was lower in Mauritian children (by ~155 kcal/d) than that predicted using FAO/WHO/ UNU equations for children of the same sex, age, and body size. Furthermore, TEE, as well as PAL and step counts, also differed according to gender (lower in girls than in boys) and to ethnicity (lower in Indians than in Creoles) even after adjusting for differences in body weight and body composition. Conclusion These results in Mauritian children provide the first dataset of objectively measured TEE, from which physical activity is estimated as PAL, and complemented by step counts measurements. They suggest potential gender and ethnic differences in TEE and physical activity that need consideration in developing strategies to counter sedentary behavior and obesity.
Application of the compressible $I$ -dependent rheology to chute and shear flow instabilities

We consider the instability properties of dense granular flow in inclined plane and plane shear geometries as tests for the compressible inertial-dependent rheology. The model, which is a recent generalisation of the incompressible $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}(I)$ rheology, constitutes a hydrodynamical description of dense granular flow which allows for variability in the solids volume fraction. We perform a full linear stability analysis of the model and compare its predictions to existing experimental data for glass beads on an inclined plane and discrete element simulations of plane shear in the absence of gravity. In the case of the former, we demonstrate that the compressible model can quantitatively predict the instability properties observed experimentally, and, in particular, we find that it performs better than its incompressible counterpart. For the latter, the qualitative behaviour of the plane shear instability is also well captured by the compressible model.
A Computer Vision-Based Respiratory Rate Monitoring and Alarm System

Breathing rate is one of the most important vital signals for monitoring health status and reflecting conditions of dangerous diseases. Previous contactless breath monitoring methods were more convenient than contact methods, but they were not suitable for the actual sleeping environment because of the narrow field of vision (FoV). This study proposed a breathing rate monitoring strategy using a mono camera to track and detect sleep apnea phenomena. Breathing rates were first tracked among consecutive image frames. The human body area was then isolated and magnified using a deep neural network (DNN) model before applying the optical flow algorithm to extract and monitor the up and down changes caused by respiration. The most variated directions of the body feature’s motions were detected based on the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method. Breathing rate was the number of times the signal amplitude peaks per minute. The comparison between predicted values and manually estimated was used for evaluating the accuracy of the method. The accuracy of our method in various light, position, and distance conditions is 2 breaths/minute (<10%) for children and less than 1 breath/minute (<5%) for adults. The study has two main contributions: (1) monitoring breathing rate at home gives comfortable feelings to patients and caregivers, expanding the potential of applying modern technology to clinics, (2) the study has solved the problem of tracking small movements in videos with relatively large FoV in real-time. Perspectively, we will be employed the method in a home-based respiratory rate monitoring system.
Citizens’ perspectives on the form, contributory factors and impacts of white-collar crimes on local authorities in Zimbabwe

Abstract Despite their instrumental role in the provision of a conducive environment for socio-economic development, local authorities across the globe have been riddled with a myriad of criminal activities, negatively impacting on service to their communities. On numerous occasions, local authorities in Zimbabwe have had to contend with widespread allegations of corruption and a host of other white-collar crimes. This study sought to explore citizens’ perspectives on the scourge of white-collar crime in Zimbabwe’s local authorities, with a particular focus on the trends, causes and impacts. Data were collected from purposely sampled 315 rate payers. Findings revealed that corruption, embezzlement and fraud are the major types of white-collar crime prevalent in local authorities. Poverty, poor internal controls and greediness were found to be the major drivers of white-collar crime. Poor service delivery, reduced revenues and increased expenditure were found to be the major impacts of white collar-crime. The study recommends whistleblowing, sound internal control mechanisms and regular audits as the major strategies to deal with white-collar crime in local authorities.