Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative study on quality management in the Brazilian and the Scottish Prison Service

This study identifies and compares quality perceptions and initiatives between the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) and the Brazilian Prison Service Santa Catarina State (BPS-SC). The two organisations have specific approaches towards quality management. The SPS is involved in a formal quality management programme, whereas in the BPS-SC quality is determined at a more abstract level. In the case of the SPS the impact of the quality management programme on the job structure (design and satisfaction) in different organisational levels, and in organisational control, is analysed in depth. In the case of the BPS-SC, significant structural aspects that determine quality perceptions and initiatives are identified and discussed. The study also considers the influences of the institutional environments in which each organisation operates in the shaping of quality perceptions and initiatives. Four case studies were conducted: two in Scotland and two in Brazil. The research strategy adopted is mostly qualitative, although some basic quantitative analysis is used. The case studies conducted were exploratory and descriptive. Data was collected by means of open-ended interviews, documentary analysis, informal interviews and participation in training sessions. The analysis of the data was conducted on a qualitative basis, and subjected to triangulation techniques. Clustering process techniques for qualitative data were also used in some cases. The results indicate that quality cannot be regarded as an universal concept. Quality definition and initiatives vary among and within organisational groups in the same context, as well as within the same organisational groups in different institutional contexts. In terms of the impact of the introduction of a formal quality programme on the job structure and control process of the SPS, the results demonstrate that quality management can provide a degree of job enrichment and can also contribute to a re-skilling process. Although this contributes to the increase in job satisfaction, the general work
The role of IL-1β in the development of diabetes mellitus

Background. Currently, diabetes mellitus is the most common of all endocrine diseases with increasing tendency. The purpose of our research was to study the dynamics of serum levels of proinflammatory cytokine-IL-1β in streptozotocin-induced diabetes. Materials and methods. The experiments were performed on 88 white male Wistar rats weighing 170-210 g. Animals were divided into three groups: 1 - intact; 2 - control; 3 - experimental with a model of diabetes mellitus, which was reproduced by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin by “Sigma" company (USA), diluted in 0.1 M citrate buffer with a pH of 4.5, at a rate of 60 mg/kg body weight. The control group of animals received an intraperitoneal injection with an equivalent dose of 0.1 M citrate buffer solution with a pH of 4.5. All studies were performed under thiopental-sodium anesthesia at a rate of 60 mg/kg body weight. Serum levels of IL-1β were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit (Elabscience, USA) according to the manufacturer's instructions 14, 28, 42 and 70 days after streptozotocin injection. The STATISTICA 10 program was used for statistical processing of the obtained results. Results. Conducted biochemical analysis showed that in animals with streptozotocin-induced diabetes there was an increase in the content of proinflammatory cytokine IL-1β compared with similar indicators in the control group of animals at all stages of the experiment: after 14 days by 22.5%, after 28 days by 40.2%, after 42 days by 72.8% and after 70 days by 107.2%. Conclusion. The obtained results suggest that pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β plays one of the leading roles in the pathogenesis of streptozotocin-induced diabetes, as indicated by a significant increase in serum of this cytokine at all stages of the experiment.
When the Heart is Stilled: Adolescent Jewish Lives Interrupted by COVID-19

ABSTRACT This study explored the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Jewish lives of teenagers in Jewish schools in the UK. We found that young people have been thrown back on the resources they locate under their own roofs. For some, it has resulted in a thin version of Jewish life and a sense of disappointment. For others, the Jewish resources at home have been sufficient. While, generally, the tempo of their public Jewish lives has been disrupted, the Jewish rhythm of their lives at home have continued, if more muted than usual.
Sociodemographic Influences on Perceived Stress during Pregnancy: Results from the CCREOH Environmental Epidemiologic Study, Suriname

Screening for prenatal stress is not routine in Suriname, despite its significant impact on maternal and newborn health. This study assessed the prevalence of high perceived prenatal stress and its sociodemographic predictors in three geographic areas in Suriname. In this cross-sectional study, data from 1190 participants of the Caribbean Consortium for Research in Environmental and Occupational Health cohort study were analyzed. Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale was completed during pregnancy to ascertain high perceived stress (cut-off score 20). The association between maternal sociodemographic factors and high perceived stress was examined using the chi-square test and logistic regression models; 27.5% of all participants had high perceived stress with statistically significant lower rates in Nickerie (18.8%) compared with Paramaribo (29.8%; p = 0.001) and the Interior (28.6%; p = 0.019). Maternal sociodemographic factors moderated the difference between the Interior and Nickerie. Participants from Paramaribo had statistically significant higher odds of high perceived stress compared to those from Nickerie, independent of their age and educational level (adjusted OR = 1.94; 95% confidence interval 1.32–2.86). Perceived stress during pregnancy is predicted by sociodemographic factors. These findings identified target groups for interventions in Suriname. Policy makers should consider integrating perceived stress assessment as a routine part of prenatal care.
Fluoxetine Treatment Decreases Cardiac Vagal Input and Alters the Serotonergic Modulation of the Parasympathetic Outflow in Diabetic Rats

Comorbid diabetes and depression constitutes a major health problem, worsening associated cardiovascular diseases. Fluoxetine’s (antidepressant) role on cardiac diabetic complications remains unknown. We determined whether fluoxetine modifies cardiac vagal input and its serotonergic modulation in male Wistar diabetic rats. Diabetes was induced by alloxan and maintained for 28 days. Fluoxetine was administered the last 14 days (10 mg/kg/day; p.o). Bradycardia was obtained by vagal stimulation (3, 6 and 9 Hz) or i.v. acetylcholine administrations (1, 5 and 10 μg/kg). Fluoxetine treatment diminished vagally-induced bradycardia. Administration of 5-HT originated a dual action on the bradycardia, augmenting it at low doses and diminishing it at high doses, reproduced by 5-CT (5-HT1/7 agonist). 5-CT did not alter the bradycardia induced by exogenous acetylcholine. Decrease of the vagally-induced bradycardia evoked by high doses of 5-HT and 5-CT was reproduced by L-694,247 (5-HT1D agonist) and blocked by prior administration of LY310762 (5-HT1D antagonist). Enhancement of the electrical-induced bradycardia by 5-CT (10 μg/kg) was abolished by pretreatment with SB269970 (5-HT7 receptor antagonist). Thus, oral fluoxetine treatment originates a decrease in cardiac cholinergic activity and changes 5-HT modulation of bradycardic responses in diabetes: prejunctional 5-HT7 receptors augment cholinergic-evoked bradycardic responses, whereas prejunctional 5-HT1D receptors inhibit vagally-induced bradycardia.
A conceptual study on generic end users adoption of e-government services

This study proposes a conceptual model for examining factors affecting e-government adoption in developing countries. It includes evaluating the existing adoption model studies of e-government adoption. Preexisting theoretical model and comprehensive analysis of the various resources was chosen to guide this work, and the result revealed that additional external factors were also important for explaining the e-government adoption in developing countries. Hence, external factors such as trust, national culture, knowledge of e-government services and DeLone and McLean information system (D&M IS) success model also considered relevant were integrated with the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) constructs as examining factors affecting e-government adoption. Finally, this study finds a formulation of the conceptual model and their relationship with all variables for explaining e-government adoption through a systematic justification of the proposed integrated model.
Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy Provides Limited Therapeutic Effects on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Night wrist splinting has been a conservative treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome. The addition of extracorporeal shock wave therapy provides an alternative treatment. However, strong evidence on the clinical effectiveness of extracorporeal shock wave therapy for carpal tunnel syndrome is still lacking. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness and safety of extracorporeal shock wave therapy compared with treatments of night wrist splints alone for patients with carpal tunnel syndrome. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, no limitation criteria were used for study selection. All available articles that compare the effectiveness between extracorporeal shock wave therapy combined with night wrist splint and night wrist splint alone for treating carpal tunnel syndrome published up to 20 January 2022 were identified from the databases of PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials Central. The primary outcomes were a standard mean difference with a 95% confidence interval on the improvement of symptom severity and functional impairment between the two groups. In an attempt to analyze trends over time in studies that report repeated measurements, an all time-points meta-analysis (ATM) was undertaken. Seven randomized controlled trials with a total of 376 participants were included in this study. Significant improvements in functional impairment and symptom remission were only observed in the extracorporeal shock wave group at four weeks post-treatment. Extracorporeal shock wave therapy did not demonstrate superior efficacy compared to treatment with night wrist splint alone at 8–10 and 12–14 weeks post-treatment, or through the ATM approach. In conclusion, the therapeutic effect of extracorporeal shock wave therapy is transient and mostly nonsignificant compared with using night wrist splint alone. No serious side effects were reported in all included studies. Other conservative treatments to ameliorate carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms are warranted.
Reliable Sarcoidosis Detection Using Chest X-rays with EfficientNets and Stain-Normalization Techniques

Sarcoidosis is frequently misdiagnosed as tuberculosis (TB) and consequently mistreated due to inherent limitations in radiological presentations. Clinically, to distinguish sarcoidosis from TB, physicians usually employ biopsy tissue diagnosis and blood tests; this approach is painful for patients, time-consuming, expensive, and relies on techniques prone to human error. This study proposes a computer-aided diagnosis method to address these issues. This method examines seven EfficientNet designs that were fine-tuned and compared for their abilities to categorize X-ray images into three categories: normal, TB-infected, and sarcoidosis-infected. Furthermore, the effects of stain normalization on performance were investigated using Reinhard’s and Macenko’s conventional stain normalization procedures. This procedure aids in improving diagnostic efficiency and accuracy while cutting diagnostic costs. A database of 231 sarcoidosis-infected, 563 TB-infected, and 1010 normal chest X-ray images was created using public databases and information from several national hospitals. The EfficientNet-B4 model attained accuracy, sensitivity, and precision rates of 98.56%, 98.36%, and 98.67%, respectively, when the training X-ray images were normalized by the Reinhard stain approach, and 97.21%, 96.9%, and 97.11%, respectively, when normalized by Macenko’s approach. Results demonstrate that Reinhard stain normalization can improve the performance of EfficientNet -B4 X-ray image classification. The proposed framework for identifying pulmonary sarcoidosis may prove valuable in clinical use.
Vocabulary and reading speed in the majority language are affected by maternal language proficiency and language exposure at home: a study of language minority bilingual children in Italy

ABSTRACT Environmental sources of variance in the Italian vocabulary and reading skills of bilingual primary school children from immigrant families (or language minority bilingual children (LMBC)) in Italy were investigated, and the LMBC’s skill levels were compared to those of their monolingual classmates. A total of 140 children from the first, third, and fifth grades were administered standardized tests of receptive vocabulary, word reading, and nonword reading skills. LMBC’s exposure to Italian at home and their mothers’ Italian proficiency were reported by mothers. Immigrant mothers’ Italian proficiency was a significant predictor of vocabulary and word reading speed but not of word accuracy or nonword reading. High levels of Italian exposure at home in combination with low levels of maternal Italian proficiency was a negative predictor of vocabulary; high exposure to Italian at home was positively associated with word reading speed and negatively associated with nonword reading speed. LMBC had lower vocabulary scores but did not differ from monolingual children in measures of reading skill. The findings underscore the importance of the quality of language exposure for language development and replicate findings that bilingual children show decoding skills on a par with monolingual children despite smaller vocabularies.
A Panel Data Approach towards the Effectiveness of Energy Policies in Fostering the Implementation of Solar Photovoltaic Technology: Empirical Evidence for Asia-Pacific

Today, the growing Asia-Pacific population causes a dramatic growth in energy supply to meet energy demand. The rapid rise in energy demand is causing concern in the region. Thus, the present study scrutinizes the effect of energy policy involvement in steering-up renewable energy development by empirically assessing the role of policy instruments in encouraging residential-scale and commercial-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems. The analysis is performed using a fixed effects estimator on a selected range of policy approaches (market-pull policies and tax incentives) and a technology-push policy (capital grants) in selected Asia-Pacific countries between 1998 and 2015. The return on investment is estimated to measure the incentives of feed-in tariff (FIT) tariff policies for both residential-scale and commercial-scale PV systems. This study has shown the importance of a strategic combination between technology-push and market-pull policies as complementary to adopting technology and increasing renewable energy utilization for solar PV systems on a residential scale. Investigations into the effectiveness of regulatory support policies for solar PV systems indicate that energy policies are necessary to facilitate solar PV growth on a residential scale in the Asia-Pacific.
Effective Method for Multi-Probe Electrical Measurements of Organic Single Crystals: Four-Terminal Natural Adhesion Contact

A technique to establish electrical contact and perform multi-probe electrical measurements (e.g., four-probe measurements), even at low temperatures, is presented in this work. The natural adhesion contact (NAC) is applicable to the wide range of dimensions of organic crystals. Furthermore, the precise electrode patterns required to carry out multi-probe measurements are guaranteed, in contrast to fine conductive paste painting methods. We demonstrate four-probe electrical measurements of α-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 (where BEDT-TTF = bis(ethylenedithio) tetrathiafulvalene) at temperatures down to 100 K. The obtained temperature dependence showed a steep meta l–insulator transition and exhibited zero hysteresis throughout several measurement sequences.
The Value of SII in Predicting the Mortality of Patients with Heart Failure

Background The main purpose of this study was to explore the predictive value of the systemic immune inflammation index (SII), a novel clinical marker, in heart failure (HF) patients. Methods Critically ill patients with HF were identified from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III (MIMIC III) database. Patients were divided into three groups according to tertiles of SII (group 1, group 2, group 3). We used Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards regression models to evaluate the association between the SII and all-cause mortality in HF. Subgroup analysis was used to verify the predictive effect of the SII on mortality. Results This study included 9107 patients with a diagnosis of HF from the MIMIC III database. After 30, 60, 180, and 365 days of follow-up, 25.60%, 32.10%, 41.30%, and 47.50% of the patients in group 3 had died. Using the Kaplan-Meier curve, we observed that patients with higher SII values had a shorter survival time (log rank p < 0.001). The Cox proportional hazards regression model adjusted for all possible confounders and indicated that the higher SII group had a higher mortality (30-day: HR = 1.304, 95%CI = 1.161 − 1.465, 60-day: HR = 1.266, 95% CI = 1.120 − 1.418, 180-day: HR = 1.274, 95%CI = 1.163 − 1.395, and 365-day: HR = 1.255, 95%CI = 1.155 − 1.364). Conclusions SII values could be used as a predictor of prognosis in critically ill patients with HF.
Effect of High-Voltage Additives on Formation of Solid Electrolyte Interphases in Lithium-Ion Batteries

Solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) formed at the interface in lithium-ion batteries plays an important role in isolating electrons and permeating ions during charging/discharging processes. Therefore, the formation of a good interface is crucial for better battery performance. In this study, additives based on adiponitrile (ADN) and trimethyl borate (TMB) were employed to broaden the electrochemical window and form a good SEI layer. Electrochemical Atomic force microscopy (EC-AFM) was used for in situ studies of film-formation mechanisms in high-voltage electrolytes on high-temperature pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), as well as Li- and Mn-rich (LMR) materials. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) combined with electrochemical methods revealed a synergistic reaction between the two additives to form a more stable interfacial film during charging/discharging processes to yield assembled batteries with improved cycle performance, its capacity increased from below 100 mAh/g to 200 mAh/g after 50 cycles. In sum, these findings would have great significance for the development of high voltage lithium-ion batteries with enhanced performance.
Ulam-Hyers Stability Results of 
 λ
 -Quadratic Functional Equation with Three Variables in Non-Archimedean Banach Space and Non-Archimedean Random Normed Space

In this paper, we introduce the λ -quadratic functional equation with three variables and obtain its general solution. The main aim of this work is to examine the Ulam-Hyers stability of this functional equation in non-Archimedean Banach space by using direct and fixed point techniques and examine the stability results in non-Archimedean random normed space.
Alkaline Phosphatase: An Old Friend as Treatment Target for Cardiovascular and Mineral Bone Disorders in Chronic Kidney Disease

Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) is an evolutionary conserved enzyme and widely used biomarker in clinical practice. Tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (TNALP) is one of four human isozymes that are expressed as distinct TNALP isoforms after posttranslational modifications, mainly in bone, liver, and kidney tissues. Beyond the well-known effects on bone mineralization, the bone ALP (BALP) isoforms (B/I, B1, B1x, and B2) are also involved in the pathogenesis of ectopic calcification. This narrative review summarizes the recent clinical investigations and mechanisms that link ALP and BALP to inflammation, metabolic syndrome, vascular calcification, endothelial dysfunction, fibrosis, cardiovascular disease, and mortality. The association between ALP, vitamin K, bone metabolism, and fracture risk in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is also discussed. Recent advances in different pharmacological strategies are highlighted, with the potential to modulate the expression of ALP directly and indirectly in CKD–mineral and bone disorder (CKD-MBD), e.g., epigenetic modulation, phosphate binders, calcimimetics, vitamin D, and other anti-fracture treatments. We conclude that the significant evidence for ALP as a pathogenic factor and risk marker in CKD-MBD supports the inclusion of concrete treatment targets for ALP in clinical guidelines. While a target value below 120 U/L is associated with improved survival, further experimental and clinical research should explore interventional strategies with optimal risk–benefit profiles. The future holds great promise for novel drug therapies modulating ALP.
Bias-compensated robust set-membership NLMS algorithm against impulsive noises and noisy inputs

By minimising a new cost function that contains robust set-membership error bound, a bias-compensated robust set-membership normalised least mean square (NLMS) algorithm is proposed, which is characterised by its robustness against impulsive noises and noisy inputs. To estimate the input noise variance in impulsive noise environments, a new estimation method is proposed in which there is no need to know the input–output noise variance ratio in advance. Simulations in a system identification context demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves improved robustness and better performance than the existing algorithms.