Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clostridium difficile Infection: Risk and Poor Prognostic Factors at a Tertiary Hospital in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia

Background: Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) is a common cause of hospital-acquired diarrhea. It is associated with significantly higher mortality and morbidity in addition to the cost-effectiveness burden on the healthcare system. The primary risk factors for C. difficile infection (CDI) are past C. difficile exposure, proton pump inhibitors, and antibiotic usage. These risk factors are also associated with poor prognosis. Objective: This study was performed in Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Tertiary Hospital in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia. The aim was to evaluate the risk and prognostic factors of CDI and their association with the outcomes of hospital stay, such as complications, length of stay (LOS), and treatment duration. Patients and methods: This is a retrospective cohort study for all patients who tested for C. difficile in the medical department. The target population was all adult patients ≥16 years with positive stool toxins for C. difficile between April 2019 and July 2022. The main outcome measures are risk and poor prognostic factors for CDI. Results: C. difficle infection patients were included in the study; 12 (52.2%) were female, and 11 (47.8%) were male. The mean age of the patients was 58.3 (SD: 21.5) years; 13 (56.5%) patients were below 65 years, and 10 were above 65 years. Only four patients were without comorbidities, and 19 (82.6%) patients had various comorbidities. Importantly, hypertension was the most common comorbidity in 47.8% of the patients. Furthermore, advanced age significantly impacted the hospital LOS as the mean age among patients who stayed at the hospital less than four days and those who stayed ≥4 days was 49.08 (19.7) and 68.36 (19.5), respectively (P = .028). Conclusion: Advanced age was the most frequent poor prognostic factor among our inpatient participants with positive CDI. It was significantly associated with longer hospital LOS, more complications, and longer treatment duration.
Experimental investigation on RFID-odometer-based localization of an automated shunting vehicle

Continuous information on the current location of a vehicle in its infrastructure is essential for automated driving. However, industrial railways and shunting operations may entail boundary conditions which are not suitable for widespread satellite-based positioning. Hence, this paper presents a positioning system, based on radio-frequency identification (RFID) and odometer, which was developed and tested on an automated road-rail vehicle for shunting at low velocities. The achieved accuracy for discrete positioning with RFID was estimated at 0.22 m. In quasi-continuous positioning between consecutive RFID tags, the odometer exhibited an error of −2.2% to 0.7% of travelled distance depending on the investigated stationary driving states and sensor data evaluation. Apart from enhancement potentials for the RFID system, the results also indicated the odometer to be prone to the shunting vehicle dynamics when the rotation of its rail wheels is measured. Furthermore, the shunting vehicle appears to run constantly with a notable lateral displacement even on straight tracks due to the property of its running gear, causing a systematic underestimation of the travelled distance.
Preoperative Right Ventricular Echocardiographic Parameters Preoperative Right Ventricular Echocardiographic Parameters Predict Perioperative Cardiovascular Complications in Patients Predict Perioperative Cardiovascular Complications in Patients Undergoing High risk Non-Cardiac Surgery Undergoing Hi

Background : Every year, 200 million people worldwide undergo major noncardiac surgery (NCS), and 10 million people experience a signi ﬁ cant cardiac problem during the ﬁ rst 30 days following NCS. Perioperative cardiovascular complications (PCCs) are extremely signi ﬁ cant as they contribute to at least one-third of perioperative mortality, lengthen hospital stays, and raise medical expenses. Objective : The aim was to investigate the importance of presurgical right ventricular (RV) echocardiographic parameters in the prediction of PCCs in individuals having high-risk NCS. Patients and methods : In this prospective cohort observational trial, 200 patients who were all potential candidates for high-risk, noncardiac operations between October 2020 and June 2021 were included. Patients were allocated preoperatively into one group and postoperatively into two groups according to the presence of postoperative cardiac complications. Results : The incidence of PPCs among the study population was about 36 patients of 200 patients with percentage of 18%. The results also revealed that signi ﬁ cant predictors of postoperative PCCs after major NCS arranged by descending manner according to their odds ratio are as follows: Tie index greater than 0.47, tricuspid valve E/A (TV E/A) less than or equal to 1.18, tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion less than or equal to 1.8, MV E/A less than or equal to 1.3, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) (%) less than or equal to 56, LVESDV (ml 3 ) greater than 35.6, HbA1C greater than 7.7, MV E/e ′ greater than 8.32, revised cardiac risk index, RV fractional area change (%) less than or equal to 35.6, mitral regurgitation (MR) up to moderate, serum creatinine (mg/dl) greater than 1.4, left atrial volume index (LAVI) greater than 22, and serum urea (mg/dl) greater than 34. By multivariate analysis, the authors found that the signi ﬁ cant risk factors for PCCs are LVEF (%) less than or equal to 56, TV E/A less than or equal to 1.18, and Tie index greater than 0.47. Conclusion : RV echocardiographic measures taken before surgery are independent risk factors for PCCs in individuals having major NCS.
Activation of Wnt/β‑Catenin‑p130/E2F4 promotes the differentiation of bone marrow‑derived mesenchymal stem cells into type II alveolar epithelial cells through cell cycle arrest

The results of our previous study demonstrated that activation of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway increased the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into type II alveolar epithelial (AT II) cells; however, the specific mechanisms remain unclear. The present study aimed to evaluate the role of Wnt/β-catenin-p130/E2F transcription factor 4 (E2F4) in regulating the differentiation of mouse MSCs (mMSCs) into AT II cells, and to determine the specific mechanisms. mMSCs with p130 or E2F4 overexpression were constructed using lentiviral vectors. Differentiation of mMSCs into AT II cells was promoted using a modified coculture system with murine lung epithelial-12 cells incubated in small airway growth medium for 7-14 days. The differentiation efficiency was detected using immunofluorescence, western blot analysis and transmission electron microscopy. To detect the association between the canonical Wnt pathway and p130/E2F4, 4 mmol/l lithium chloride (LiCl) or 200 ng/ml Dickkopf-related protein 1 (DKK-1) was also added to the coculture system. Following differentiation, the cell cycle of mMSCs was evaluated using flow cytometry. The results of the present study demonstrated that surfactant protein C (SP-C) protein expression was higher in the p130 overexpression (MSC-p130) and E2F4 overexpression (MSC-E2F4) groups compared with the normal control mMSCs group following differentiation into AT II cells. Similar results for SP-C protein expression and lamellar body-like structures were also observed using immunofluorescence analysis and electron microscopy. Following the addition of LiCl into the coculture system for activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, phosphorylated (p)-p130/p130 was slightly decreased at 7 days and E2F4 was increased both at 7 and 14 days in mMSCs. Furthermore, the p-p130/p130 ratio was significantly increased at 14 days and E2F4 was decreased both at 7 and 14 days following DKK-1-mediated inhibition of the Wnt pathway. The results of the present study demonstrated that the numbers of cells in G1 and S phases were increased following activation of the Wnt pathway and decreased following Wnt pathway inhibition. However, the number of cells in G1 phase was increased following the differentiation of mMSCs overexpressing p130 or E2F4. Therefore, the results of the present study revealed that the canonical Wnt signaling pathway may affect the differentiation of MSCs into AT II cells via regulation of downstream p130/E2F4. The specific mechanisms may be associated with G1 phase extension in the cell cycle of MSCs.
Probabilistic matching systems: stability, fluid and diffusion approximations and optimal control

In this work we introduce a novel queueing model with two classes of users in which, instead of accessing a resource, users wait in the system to match with a candidate from the other class. The users are selective and the matchings occur probabilistically. This new model is useful for analysing the traffic in web portals that match people who provide a service with people who demand the same service, e.g. employment portals, matrimonial and dating sites and rental portals. We first provide a Markov chain model for these systems and derive the probability distribution of the number of matches up to some finite time given the number of arrivals. We then prove that if no control mechanism is employed these systems are unstable for any set of parameters. We suggest four different classes of control policies to assure stability and conduct analysis on performance measures under the control policies. Contrary to the intuition that the rejection rate should decrease as the users become more likely to be matched, we show that for certain control policies the rejection rate is insensitive to the matching probability. Even more surprisingly, we show that for reasonable policies the rejection rate may be an increasing function of the matching probability. We also prove insensitivity results related to the average queue lengths and waiting times. Further, to gain more insight into the behaviour of probabilistic matching systems, we propose approximation methods based on fluid and diffusion limits using different scalings. We analyse the basic properties of these approximations and show that some performance measures are insensitive to the matching probability agreeing with the results found by the exact analysis. Finally we study the optimal control and revenue management for the systems with the objective of profit maximization. We formulate mathematical models for both unobservable and observable systems. For an unobservable system we suggest a deterministic optimal control, while for an observable system we develop an optimal myopic state dependent pricing.
A High-Flexibility CAN-TSN Gateway With a Low-Congestion TSN-to-CAN Scheduler

The network architecture with the controller area network (CAN) as the domain bus in most domains and time-sensitive networking (TSN) as the backbone network is called the CAN-TSN interconnection network architecture, which has been or will be employed in industrial embedded networks (e.g., automobiles, spacecraft, and factory automation). In this architecture, the CAN-TSN gateway acts as a transmission hub handling a large number of communications between the CAN domains and TSN. However, most commercial CAN-TSN gateways are highly integrated with low flexibility, such that they are hard to accommodate different time planning mechanisms from TSN. In addition, these CAN-TSN gateways suffer from high congestion when TSN frames are sent from the TSN side to a CAN domain (i.e., TSN-to-CAN transmission) because of at least 100 times in the transmission rate between CAN and TSN. In this study, we propose a high-flexibility CAN-TSN gateway, where the CAN side can be easily adapted to different bus protocols, and the TSN side can be easily adapted to different configurations. In the gateway, we develop a low-congestion TSN-to-CAN scheduler, which executes a maximum awaiting time (MAT)-based scheduling strategy to alleviate the congestion. Experiments on the prototype platform show the advantages of the proposed CAN-TSN gateway and the developed MAT-based scheduling strategy.
Association of Long Noncoding RNA Expression Signatures with Stress-Induced Myocardial Perfusion Defects

Stress-induced myocardial perfusion defects found in dipyridamole–thallium-201 single-photon emission computed tomography imaging may indicate vascular perfusion abnormalities and risk of obstructive or nonobstructive coronary heart disease. Besides nuclear imaging and subsequent coronary angiography (CAG), no blood test can indicate whether dysregulated homeostasis is associated with stress-induced myocardial perfusion defects. This study investigated the expression signature of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and genes involved in vascular inflammation and stress response in the blood of patients with stress-induced myocardial perfusion abnormalities (n = 27). The results revealed an expression signature consisting of the upregulation of RMRP (p < 0.01) and downregulations of THRIL (p < 0.01) and HIF1A (p < 0.01) among patients with a positive thallium stress test and no significant coronary artery stenosis within 6 months after baseline treatment. We developed a scoring system based on the expression signatures of RMRP, MIAT, NTT, MALAT1, HSPA1A, and NLRP3 to predict the need for further CAG among patients with moderate-to-significant stress-induced myocardial perfusion defects (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.963). Therefore, we identified a dysregulated expression profile of lncRNA-based genes in the blood that could be valuable for the early detection of vascular homeostasis imbalance and personalized therapy.
Foliar application of fish protein peptide improved the quality of deep-netted melon

Abstract To improve the fruit quality of deep-netted melon, fish protein peptide (FPP) with a total protein content greater than 90% at a concentration of 1 g·L−1 was sprayed on leaves after pollination, distilled water was sprayed on the control plants (CK). Field indices such as single melon fresh mass, commercial fruit rate, yield and fruit nutrient contents were evaluated. Soluble sugar, starch, organic acid and the activities of enzymes related to sugar metabolism in the inner, middle and outer layers of melon flesh were also determined. The results showed that the commercial fruit rate and yield per hectare increased by 8.96% and 5.98%, respectively. Nutrient contents increased, including the total amounts of 16 amino acids were 0.34 g/100 g higher than those of CK, and the mineral element contents increased by 15.79%, among which the contents of potassium, phosphorus, zinc, calcium, magnesium and molybdenum were significantly different from those of CK (p < 0.05). FPP treatment significantly increased the soluble sugar content in the outer layer of the mesocarp of deep-netted melon and the ascorbic acid contents in the inner and middle layers of the mesocarp of deep-netted melon. FPP increased sucrose accumulations in fruit by decreasing the activity of neutral invertase (NI), increasing the activity of sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS) and the synthesis direction of sucrose synthase (SS), and by increasing the glucose and fructose contents by enhancing the activity of acid invertase (AI). These findings suggest that exogenous FPP improves the commercial fruit rate, yield, and quality of deep-netted melon.
Reproductive biology, tadpole description, and natural history of Dendrophryniscus haddadi (Anura: Bufonidae)

ABSTRACT The genus Dendrophryniscus belongs to the family Bufonidae and includes 16 species of Neotropical frogs endemic to the Atlantic Forest. Most species of the genus have bromeligenous habits, while some species use temporary pools for reproduction. The genus has many similar species, making specific identification based solely on adult morphology difficult. Therefore, additional information such as natural history, larval morphology, and molecular and acoustic data would contribute to better diagnosis of congeneric species. We collected data on Dendrophryniscus haddadi during routine monitoring between January 2013 and March 2022 in the non-governmental organization (NGO) Projeto Dacnis private reserve in Ubatuba, São Paulo, Brazil. In this study, we present novel natural history information about the species, such as habitat and hydric resource use, colour patterns, a predation event, reproductive biology including visual display, amplexus, number of eggs, and parental care, along with a description of D. haddadi tadpoles, which will be helpful for diagnosing tadpoles of different species in the genus.
Seasonal Relationships between Australian Rainfall and the Southern Oscillation

Abstract Correlations between indices of the Southern Oscillation (SO) and areal average rainfall for 107 Australian rainfall districts for the period December 1932 to November 1974 have been calculated. Simultaneous correlations between the SO and rainfall show a clear annual cycle with the best relationship occurring in spring (September-November). The season with the weakest relationship is summer (December-February). In all seasons, seasonal rainfalls in some parts of Australia are significantly correlated with the SO in the preceding season. The strongest lag correlations occur with spring rainfall, which for some areas is also significantly correlated with the SO two seasons (six months) earlier. Correlations were also calculated with the data divided into two subseries from 1932 to 1953 and from 1954 to 1974. These calculations suggest a westward shift with time of the correlation pattern, associated with substantial changes in the magnitude of the correlations in some areas. Some speculations on t.
Development of Thermoresponsive Hydrogels with Mucoadhesion Properties Loaded with Metronidazole Gel-Flakes for Improved Bacterial Vaginosis Treatment

Bacterial vaginosis is an infectious disease that has significantly affected women’s health. Metronidazole has been widely used as a drug for treating bacterial vaginosis. Nevertheless, the currently available therapies have been found to be inefficient and inconvenient. Here, we developed the combination approach of gel flake and thermoresponsive hydrogel systems. The gel flakes were prepared using gellan gum and chitosan, showing that the incorporation of metronidazole was able to provide a sustained release pattern for 24 h with an entrapment efficiency of >90%. Moreover, the gel flakes were incorporated into Pluronics-based thermoresponsive hydrogel using the combination of Pluronic F127 and F68. The hydrogels were found to exhibit the desired thermoresponsive properties, showing sol-gel transition at vaginal temperature. Following the addition of sodium alginate as a mucoadhesive agent, the hydrogel was retained in the vaginal tissue for more than 8 h, with more than 5 mg of metronidazole retained in the ex vivo evaluation. Finally, using the bacterial vaginosis infection model in rats, this approach could decrease the viability of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus with reduction percentages of more than 95% after 3 days of treatment, with the healing ability similar to normal vaginal tissue. In conclusion, this study offers an effective approach for the treatment of bacterial vaginosis.
Tracking the Transition From a Gondwana LIP to the South Atlantic Ocean With Geochronological and Geochemical Indicators

Evidence of early oceanization during transition from large igneous provinces (LIPs) to new ocean crust is mostly missing in the geological record. Mafic dykes geochemically akin to mid‐ocean ridge basalts (MORBs) occur in late stages of LIPs, but their tectonic role during margin evolution remains poorly constrained. Here we use whole‐rock and high‐resolution clinopyroxene chemistry of two distinct types of mafic dykes from the southeastern Brazilian margin to show that a MORB‐like plumbing system became magmatically active in the central South Atlantic ∼2 Ma after the volcanic peak of the Paraná‐Etendeka Magmatic Province. The LIP basaltic dyke compositions resulted from the mixing between a highly metasomatized lithospheric mantle comprising enriched DMM and Archean contributions. The lack of elemental oscillatory zoning in clinopyroxene crystals suggests that they were produced by a single magma pulse, consistent with the strong magma fluxes in LIPs. In contrast, the MORB‐like dykes, which exhibit strong similarities with South Atlantic MORBs, are interpreted to represent early stages of oceanization deriving from the mixing of enriched asthenospheric melts either with ancient SCLM contributions or small crustal assimilation. The MORB‐like intrusions ascended and cooled rapidly along faults and were fed by numerous magma injections that suggest episodic decompression of the asthenospheric source ∼20 Ma before the birth of central South Atlantic. The combination of subduction‐influenced and MORB‐like dykes is recurrent in ancient and modern rifts globally, suggesting that thinned lithospheric blocks affected by ancient subduction events may become more susceptible to early oceanization in rifted margins.
Solar cycle variations in the electron heat flux: Ulysses observations

Solar wind observations by the Ulysses spacecraft now include nearly ten years of continuous ion and electron measurements. In this study, we report detailed measurements of the electron heat flux in the solar wind. In particular, we examine the heat flux measurements for long‐term correlations with wave activity and solar wind speed. We find that the average heat flux, when scaled by R2.9 to account for variations due to distance from the Sun, is constant and independent of heliographic latitude or solar cycle. We find that during both solar maximum and solar minimum, there is no significant correlation between the magnitude of the electron heat flux and the solar wind speed. Comparison of the electron heat flux data with wave activity indicates that the whistler heat flux instability does not play an important role in limiting the solar wind heat flux.
Wood Veneer Defect Detection Based on Multiscale DETR with Position Encoder Net

Wood is one of the main building materials. However, defects on veneers result in substantial waste of wood resources. Traditional veneer defect detection relies on manual experience or photoelectric-based methods, which are either subjective and inefficient or need substantial investment. Computer vision-based object detection methods have been used in many realistic areas. This paper proposes a new deep learning defect detection pipeline. First, an image collection device is constructed and a total of more than 16,380 defect images are collected coupled with a mixed data augmentation method. Then, a detection pipeline is designed based on DEtection TRansformer (DETR). The original DETR needs position encoding functions to be designed and is ineffective for small object detection. To solve these problems, a position encoding net is designed with multiscale feature maps. The loss function is also redefined for much more stable training. The results from the defect dataset show that using a light feature mapping network, the proposed method is much faster with similar accuracy. Using a complex feature mapping network, the proposed method is much more accurate with similar speed.