Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developing a Holistic-Comprehensive Assessment Model: Factors Contributing to Personal Protective Equipment Compliance among Indonesian Cement Workers

Context: Noncompliance with personal protective equipment (PPE) in industrial workers results in increased injury or illness and is commonly reported worldwide. Numerous guidelines and management policies are employed to prevent work-related health hazards, yet industrial workers still exhibit low rates of PPE compliance, especially in outsourced workers. Aims: The aim of this study was to develop a holistic-comprehensive assessment framework model summarizing the key factors in achieving the stated goals of interventions targeting PPE compliance in Indonesian cement workers. Settings and Design: An analytic observational study was conducted among 183 Indonesian cement workers from a simple random sampling technique. Methods and Material: A self-designed questionnaire was used to investigate factors influencing PPE compliance among cement workers as well as management policies in place. Statistical Analysis Used: Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS version 24. Results were tabulated using frequency distribution and mean with a standard deviation. The logistic regression model was developed to identify the factors that affect PPE compliance. Results: The highest rate of compliance was 43.7%, a still low figure. Using correlation coefficients and logistic regression, both the behavior of the workers and the existing management policies were found to be significant contributing factors (P < 0.05). Punitive management policies were also found to be a determining factor (OR 5.22; 95% CI 1.01–1.07). Conclusions: Management policy, specifical punishment for noncompliance, was shown to be the strongest influence on PPE compliance in Indonesian cement workers.
Web-Portal-Based Repurposing of VR Scenarios for TEFL Applications

While there has been a dramatic uptick in the availability of VR games and scenario-based activities, there is a concurrent dearth of specialized content for relatively niche areas such as TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language). This paper explores the repurposing of existing VR content to meet the needs of TEFL-centric learning plans. Using a specialized web portal overlaying an off-the shelf scenario developed for HMDs, content can be added and experiences more tightly controlled, creating improved interactions and learning outcomes for students in certain skill brackets. In an interdisciplinary manner, this research tackles questions from both the VR and TEFL fields, while also tapping into a pressing issue from disability studies.
Brain and Behavioral Asymmetry: A Lesson From Fish

It is widely acknowledged that the left and right hemispheres of human brains display both anatomical and functional asymmetries. For more than a century, brain and behavioral lateralization have been considered a uniquely human feature linked to language and handedness. However, over the past decades this idea has been challenged by an increasing number of studies describing structural asymmetries and lateralized behaviors in non-human species extending from primates to fish. Evidence suggesting that a similar pattern of brain lateralization occurs in all vertebrates, humans included, has allowed the emergence of different model systems to investigate the development of brain asymmetries and their impact on behavior. Among animal models, fish have contributed much to the research on lateralization as several fish species exhibit lateralized behaviors. For instance, behavioral studies have shown that the advantages of having an asymmetric brain, such as the ability of simultaneously processing different information and perform parallel tasks compensate the potential costs associated with poor integration of information between the two hemispheres thus helping to better understand the possible evolutionary significance of lateralization. However, these studies inferred how the two sides of the brains are differentially specialized by measuring the differences in the behavioral responses but did not allow to directly investigate the relation between anatomical and functional asymmetries. With respect to this issue, in recent years zebrafish has become a powerful model to address lateralization at different level of complexity, from genes to neural circuitry and behavior. The possibility of combining genetic manipulation of brain asymmetries with cutting-edge in vivo imaging technique and behavioral tests makes the zebrafish a valuable model to investigate the phylogeny and ontogeny of brain lateralization and its relevance for normal brain function and behavior.
The correlation between total immunoglobulin-E levels and interleukin-13 gene polymorphism in asthmatic children treated with inhaled corticosteroids or montelukast

Background: The aim of this research was to study the possible correlation between single-nucleotide polymorphism of interleukin (IL)-13-1112 C/T with specific parameters in asthmatic children (total serum immunoglobulin-E [TSIgE] levels and asthma severity) treated with montelukast or inhaled corticosteroid. Methods: The study included one hundred asthmatic patients attending Karbala Teaching Hospital for children and similar numbers of healthy unrelated age-matched controls from the same locality of Iraq. TSIgE levels were determined by ELISA technique. DNA was extracted and processed by the allele-specific polymerase chain reaction technique for characterization of genetic variants of IL-13-1112 C/T gene polymorphisms. Results: Iraqi children with asthma showed a lower frequency of the IL-13-1112 CC genotype (13% vs. 16%) for control cases with a higher frequency of the heterozygous IL-13-1112 CT genotype (78% vs. 75%). IL-13-1112 showed significantly negative association with asthma in the dominant, codominant, and overdominant models of inheritance. On the other hand, comparing genotypes of subgroups related to gender, asthma severity, and asthma control showed a nonsignificant difference (P > 0.05). Homozygous wild types of IL-13-1112 TT might be considered protective to Iraqi asthma children. Conclusion: The IL-13 gene may be associated with the level of control in treated asthmatic patients. There is no correlation between TSIgE and the SNP.
Living in a Disadvantaged Neighborhood Affects Neural Processing of Facial Trustworthiness

Neighborhood disorder (i.e., physical or social decay) is associated with decreased trust, which reinforces criminal behavior among some individuals in these communities. However, past research largely is descriptive and has not measured processes underlying trust. Using behavioral and neural indices [the late positive potential (LPP), a marker of salience elaboration] in a sample of adults (N = 55), we examined the association between perceived neighborhood disorder and facial trustworthiness perception as well as the potential moderating role of trustworthiness perception on the association between PND and criminal behavior. Individuals with higher perceived neighborhood disorder displayed less LPP differentiation between untrustworthy and trustworthy faces. Moreover, individuals with higher perceived neighborhood disorder and less LPP differentiation were less likely to commit a variety of crimes, whereas those with higher perceptions of neighborhood disorder and high LPP differentiation were more likely to commit a variety of crimes. Combined, these findings suggest that similarly processing trustworthy and untrustworthy faces, as indexed by less LPP differentiation, may reflect an adaptation among those with higher perceived neighborhood disorder that mitigates against deviant behavior and contacts with the law. Understanding the intersection between neighborhood characteristics and individual-level cognitive-affective processing may provide insight into what shapes beliefs and behaviors about important social information.
Fabrication and Characterization of Calcium-Phosphate Lipid System for Potential Dental Application

Lipid has been widely studied as a vehicle and loading vector, but there have been no reports of any such related application in the dental field. The purpose of this research was to fabricate and characterize a nano-size calcium-phosphate lipid (CL) system as a potential vehicle in dental regeneration study, wherein the biocompatibility with dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) was evaluated. The effect of CL on DPSCs proliferation was analyzed by a CCK-8 assay, and the anti-inflammatory effect was investigated by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Moreover, the effect of CL on odontogenic differentiation of inflamed DPSCs (iDPSCs) was studied by Alizarin red staining, tissue-non-specific alkaline phosphatase (TNAP) staining, qPCR, and western blot analyses. The results of this study showed that CL did not affect the proliferation of DPSCs, it down-regulated the inflammatory-associated markers (IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, COX-2) of DPSCs treated with Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and enhanced the in-vitro odontogenic differentiation potential of iDPSCs. This novel biomaterial has a broad application prospect for its bioactivity and flexible physical property, and thus represents a promising pulpal regeneration material.
Examining Frailty Phenotype Dimensions in the Oldest Old

Introduction Frailty has been studied among the old population due to its association with negative outcomes. Presently there is no gold standard for measuring frailty, but several studies have used the frailty phenotype of Fried consisting of five components (weakness, slowness, unintentional weight loss, exhaustion, and low physical activity) that classify individuals as robust, pre-frail, or frail, depending on the number of components affected, respectively, zero, one or two, and three or more. This study aims to explore the specific contribution of each of these components to the frailty phenotype in a sample of oldest old community-dwelling individuals. Materials and Methods Individuals aged 80+ years old living in the community (N = 142) participated in this study. Sociodemographic data (age, sex, educational level, and marital status) and Fried’s frailty phenotype were collected. Descriptive analysis summarized sociodemographic information and the frailty components. Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) was performed to detect and explore relationships between frailty’s five components. Results Participants had a mean age of 88.07 years (SD = 5.30 years) and were mainly women (73.9%). The majority of the sample were considered frail (71.8%) and pre-frail (24.7%), and the most recurrent component for both groups was slowness. From the MCA analysis, a two-dimension solution was considered the most adequate, with 53.47% of variance explained. Dimension 1 (32.21% of variance explained) showed weakness as the most discriminant component; dimension 2 (21.26% of variance explained) showed unintentional weight loss as the most discriminant component. Discussion Results revealed a high number of pre-frail and frail participants. MCA proved to add an important understanding in examining the frailty phenotype; it revealed weakness as the most discriminant component for dimension 1, suggesting a high association with the frailty phenotype. MCA also identified two main features of frailty: one related with physical features (motor behavioral and grip strength) including weakness, low physical activity, and slowness; and the second related with intrinsic conditions (unintentional weight loss and exhaustion). Conclusion This study corroborates the need of a differentiated approach to the frailty phenotype among very old individuals, bringing for consideration the specific influence of its components.
Genetic Consequences of Acute/Chronic Gamma and Carbon Ion Irradiation of Arabidopsis thaliana

Gamma rays are the most frequently used ionizing radiation in plant mutagenesis; however, few studies are available on the characteristics of mutations at a genome-wide level. Here, we quantitatively and qualitatively characterized the mutations induced by acute/chronic gamma ray irradiation in Arabidopsis. The data were then compared with those previously obtained for carbon ion irradiation. In the acute irradiation of dry seeds at the same effective survival dose, gamma rays and carbon ions differed substantially, with the former inducing a significantly greater number of total mutation events, while the number of gene-affecting mutation events did not differ between the treatments. This may result from the gamma rays predominantly inducing single-base substitutions, while carbon ions frequently induced deletions ≥2 bp. Mutation accumulation lines prepared by chronic gamma irradiation with 100–500 mGy/h in five successive generations showed higher mutation frequencies per dose compared with acute irradiation of dry seeds. Chronic gamma ray irradiation may induce larger genetic changes compared with acute gamma ray irradiation. In addition, the transition/transversion ratio decreased as the dose rate increased, suggesting that plants responded to very low dose rates of gamma rays (∼1 mGy/h), even though the overall mutation frequency did not increase. These data will aid our understanding of the effects of radiation types and be useful in selecting suitable radiation treatments for mutagenesis.
Origins of Parkinson’s Disease in Brain Development: Insights From Early and Persistent Effects of LRRK2-G2019S on Striatal Circuits

Late-onset Parkinson’s disease (PD) is dominated clinically and experimentally by a focus on dopamine neuron degeneration and ensuing motor system abnormalities. There are, additionally, a number of non-motor symptoms – including cognitive and psychiatric – that can appear much earlier in the course of the disease and also significantly impair quality of life. The neurobiology of such cognitive and psychiatric non-motor symptoms is poorly understood. The recognition of genetic forms of late-onset PD, which are clinically similar to idiopathic forms in both motor and non-motor symptoms, raises the perspective that brain cells and circuits – and the behaviors they support – differ in significant ways from normal by virtue of the fact that these mutations are carried throughout life, including especially early developmental critical periods where circuit structure and function is particularly susceptible to the influence of experience-dependent activity. In this focused review, we support this central thesis by highlighting studies of LRRK2-G2019S mouse models. We describe work that shows that in G2019S mutants, corticostriatal activity and plasticity are abnormal by P21, the end of a period of excitatory synaptogenesis in striatum. Moreover, by young adulthood, impaired striatal synaptic and non-synaptic forms of plasticity likely underlie altered and variable performance by mutant mice in validated tasks that test for depression-like and anhedonia-like behaviors. Mechanistically, deficits in cellular, synaptic and behavioral plasticity may be unified by mutation-linked defects in trafficking of AMPAR subunits and other membrane channels, which in turn may reflect impairment in the function of the Rab family of GTPases, a major target of LRRK2 phosphorylation. These findings underscore the need to better understand how PD-related mutant proteins influence brain structure and function during an extended period of brain development, and offer new clues for future therapeutic strategies to target non-motor cognitive or psychiatric symptoms of PD.
Human Obesity Induces Dysfunction and Early Senescence in Adipose Tissue-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal/Stem Cells

Background Chronic inflammatory conditions like obesity may adversely impact the biological functions underlying the regenerative potential of mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSC). Obesity can impair MSC function by inducing cellular senescence, a growth-arrest program that transitions cells to a pro-inflammatory state. However, the effect of obesity on adipose tissue-derived MSC in human subjects remains unclear. We tested the hypothesis that obesity induces senescence and dysfunction in human MSC. Methods MSC were harvested from abdominal subcutaneous fat collected from obese and age-matched non-obese subjects (n = 40) during bariatric or kidney donation surgeries, respectively. MSC were characterized, their migration and proliferation assessed, and cellular senescence evaluated by gene expression of cell-cycle arrest and senescence-associated secretory phenotype markers. In vitro studies tested MSC effect on injured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) function. Results Mean age was 59 ± 8 years, 66% were females. Obese subjects had higher body-mass index (BMI) than non-obese. MSC from obese subjects exhibited lower proliferative capacities than non-obese-MSC, suggesting decreased function, whereas their migration remained unchanged. Senescent cell burden and phenotype, manifested as p16, p53, IL-6, and MCP-1 gene expression, were significantly upregulated in obese subjects’ MSC. BMI correlated directly with expression of p16, p21, and IL-6. Furthermore, co-incubation with non-obese, but not with obese-MSC, restored VEGF expression and tube formation that were blunted in injured HUVEC. Conclusion Human obesity triggers an early senescence program in adipose tissue-derived MSC. Thus, obesity-induced cellular injury may alter efficacy of this endogenous repair system and hamper the feasibility of autologous transplantation in obese individuals.
Alleviation of Salt Stress in Upland Rice (Oryza sativa L. ssp. indica cv. Leum Pua) Using Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Inoculation

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) symbionts not only promote the growth of host plant but also alleviate abiotic stresses. This study aimed to investigate the putative role of AMF in salt stress regulation of upland pigmented rice cv. Leum Pua (LP) comparing with Pokkali salt tolerant (positive check). In general, LP is a variety of glutinous rice that contains anthocyanin pigment in the black pericarp, due to which it possesses high antioxidant activities compared to non-pigmented rice. Pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the impact of inoculated AMF, Glomus etunicatum (GE), Glomus geosporum (GG), and Glomus mosseae (GM) strains, in the LP plantlets subjected to 0 (control) or 150 mM NaCl (salt stress) for 2 weeks in comparison with Pokkali (a salt tolerant rice cultivar), which was maintained as a positive check. Root colonization percentage under NaCl conditions ranged from 23 to 30%. Na+ content in the flag leaf tissues was increased to 18–35 mg g–1 DW after exposure to 150 mM NaCl for 14 days in both inoculated and un-inoculated LP plants, whereas Na:K ratio was very low in cv. Pokkali. Interestingly, sucrose content in the flag leaf tissues of un-inoculated LP plants under salt stress was increased significantly by 50 folds over the control as an indicator of salt stress response, whereas it was unchanged in all AMF treatments. Fructose and free proline in GE inoculated plants under salt stress were accumulated over control by 5.75 and 13.59 folds, respectively, for osmotic adjustment of the cell, thereby maintaining the structure and functions of chlorophyll pigments, Fv/Fm, ΦPSII, and stomatal function. Shoot height, flag leaf length, number of panicles, panicle length, panicle weight, and 100-grain weight in GE inoculated plants of cv. LP under salt stress were maintained similar to cv. Pokkali. Interestingly, cyanidin-3-glucoside (C3G) and peonidin-3-glucoside (P3G) in the pericarp of cv. LP were regulated by GE inoculation under salt stress conditions. In summary, AMF-inoculation in rice crop is a successful alternative approach to reduce salt toxicity, maintain the yield attributes, and regulate anthocyanins enrichment in the pericarp of grains.
Using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks for Neonatal Brain Image Segmentation

Introduction Deep learning neural networks are especially potent at dealing with structured data, such as images and volumes. Both modified LiviaNET and HyperDense-Net performed well at a prior competition segmenting 6-month-old infant magnetic resonance images, but neonatal cerebral tissue type identification is challenging given its uniquely inverted tissue contrasts. The current study aims to evaluate the two architectures to segment neonatal brain tissue types at term equivalent age. Methods Both networks were retrained over 24 pairs of neonatal T1 and T2 data from the Developing Human Connectome Project public data set and validated on another eight pairs against ground truth. We then reported the best-performing model from training and its performance by computing the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) for each tissue type against eight test subjects. Results During the testing phase, among the segmentation approaches tested, the dual-modality HyperDense-Net achieved the best statistically significantly test mean DSC values, obtaining 0.94/0.95/0.92 for the tissue types and took 80 h to train and 10 min to segment, including preprocessing. The single-modality LiviaNET was better at processing T2-weighted images than processing T1-weighted images across all tissue types, achieving mean DSC values of 0.90/0.90/0.88 for gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid, respectively, while requiring 30 h to train and 8 min to segment each brain, including preprocessing. Discussion Our evaluation demonstrates that both neural networks can segment neonatal brains, achieving previously reported performance. Both networks will be continuously retrained over an increasingly larger repertoire of neonatal brain data and be made available through the Canadian Neonatal Brain Platform to better serve the neonatal brain imaging research community.
The relationship between journal citation impact and citation sentiment: A study of 32 million citances in PubMed Central

Citation sentiment plays an important role in citation analysis and scholarly communication research, but prior citation sentiment studies have used small data sets and relied largely on manual annotation. This paper uses a large data set of PubMed Central (PMC) full-text publications and analyzes citation sentiment in more than 32 million citances within PMC, revealing citation sentiment patterns at the journal and discipline levels. This paper finds a weak relationship between a journal’s citation impact (as measured by CiteScore) and the average sentiment score of citances to its publications. When journals are aggregated into quartiles based on citation impact, we find that journals in higher quartiles are cited more favorably than those in the lower quartiles. Further, social science journals are found to be cited with higher sentiment, followed by engineering and natural science and biomedical journals, respectively. This result may be attributed to disciplinary discourse patterns in which social science researchers tend to use more subjective terms to describe others’ work than do natural science or biomedical researchers.