Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
COVID deaths in South Africa: 99 days since South Africa's first death.

BACKGROUND Understanding the pattern of deaths from COVID-19 in South Africa (SA) is critical to identifying individuals at high risk of dying from the disease. The Minister of Health set up a daily reporting mechanism to obtain timeous details of COVID-19 deaths from the provinces to track mortality patterns. OBJECTIVES To provide an epidemiological analysis of the first COVID-19 deaths in SA. METHODS Provincial deaths data from 28 March to 3 July 2020 were cleaned, information on comorbidities was standardised, and data were aggregated into a single data set. Analysis was performed by age, sex, province, date of death and comorbidities. RESULTS SA reported 3 088 deaths from COVID-19, i.e. an age-standardised death rate of 64.5 (95% confidence interval (CI) 62.3 - 66.8) deaths per million population. Most deaths occurred in Western Cape (65.5%) followed by Eastern Cape (16.8%) and Gauteng (11.3%). The median age of death was 61 years (interquartile range 52 - 71). Males had a 1.5 times higher death rate compared with females. Individuals with two or more comorbidities accounted for 58.6% (95% CI 56.6 - 60.5) of deaths. Hypertension and diabetes were the most common comorbidities reported, and HIV and tuberculosis were more common in individuals aged <50 years. CONCLUSIONS Data collection for COVID-19 deaths in provinces must be standardised. Even though the data had limitations, these findings can be used by the SA government to manage the pandemic and identify individuals who are at high risk of dying from COVID-19.
Protein Association Pathways and Dynamics with Improved Potential Functions in all atom MD Simulations

Characterizing the features that are important for protein-protein interactions is the cornerstone for understanding the structure, dynamics and function of protein complexes. In this study, we investigate the heterodimer association of SAM domains of the EphA2 receptor and SHIP2 enzyme by performing a combined total of 60 μs of all atom molecular dynamics simulations. In the native complex, the two SAM domains interact using charged surfaces which are highly complementary. However, in simulations of 250 ns, many of the initial protein complexes are trapped into non-native configurations. A few SAM domains associate to form heterodimers through pre-orientation towards positions that are close to those in the native-complex. In this case, only small adjustments are needed, but in other trajectories, following protein association, large configurational movements (sliding and pivoting) of one SAM domain on the protein surface of the other are seen. As part of this mechanism, dissociation-(re-)association events are observed as well, helping the formation of native-like complexes. We tested a set of potential functions, by slightly weakening the interaction between guanidinium and carboxylate (applied in the most recently released CHARMM36m), or by slightly increasing the solvation of protein polar sidechain groups (5% scaling of the vdW interaction energy) in the CHARMM36 potential function. In both cases the prediction of native-like SAM complexes is significantly enhanced from a 10% yield of native complexes with the original potential function to 18%-25% with the modified parameters. Native-like protein complexes are formed by more easily allowing conformational transitions as well as dissociation events. These observations point to a way for the improvement of computational predictions of protein-protein interactions and complexes in general, where – analogously to protein folding-trapped intermediate states are considered as detrimental kinetically to the protein association process.
CFD Analysis of an Automobile Catalytic Converter to Obtain Flow Uniformity and to Minimize Pressure Drop Across the Monolith

The catalytic converter is a device which converts harmful exhaust gases from internal combustion engine into harmless gases. Global warming and air pollution are a buzz in today’s scenario. Greenhouse gasses are responsible for global warming. Carbon dioxide, which contributes to being the single most significant greenhouse gasses emission, comes from the exhaust of an automobile. Catalytic converter plays a vital role in the reduction of such greenhouse gasses. The objective of the present study is to examine an automobile catalytic convertor to present a detail and comprehensive report on the key parameters affecting the flow uniformity inside the converter and thus attempting to achieve minimum pressure drop across the converter to reduce the backpressure. The catalytic converter geometry is modified to increase the conversion efficiency of the converter. The results reported in the latter part of this paper gives a good insight about the recirculation zones created in the base and also velocity and pressure plots to find a solution for uniform flow within the monolith and also achieved a reduction in pressure drop of 3.7 Pa.
Neuroprotective effects of methanol extract of Terminalia macroptera leaf in mice

The plant Terminalia macroptera has been reported to possess many pharmacological activities. The aim of the present study was to screen the effect of the methanol extract of T. macroptera against ketamine-induced mice model of psychosis and the apomorphine climbing test. The behavioural studies entailed an evaluation of locomotor activity, stereotypic behaviours in the open field and stereotypic climbing behaviour, immobility duration in the forced swim test, memory retention using the Y- maze and descent latency effects on catalepsy in the woodblock of methanol extract of T. macroptera (100-400 mg/kg) administered orally. The acute toxicity study as well as the phytochemical study was also carried out. Animals treated with the methanol extract of T. macroptera demonstrated significant reduction in locomotor activity, stereotypic behaviours, immobility duration, and increase in memory retention and decreased descent latency. The LD50 was found to be greater than 5000 mg/kg indicating that the extract is safe for consumption and phytochemical studies revealed the presence of flavonoids, tannins, saponins, cardiac glycosides and alkaloids which might be responsible for its pharmacological activity. This study concluded that methanol extract of T. macroptera could ameliorate ketamine-induced behavioural abnormalities in mice indicating its promising effect as a neuroprotective agent in the management of psychotic symptoms. Key words: Behaviours, ketamine, neuroprotection, psychosis, stereotype, Terminalia macroptera.
Rapid, noninvasive, and unsupervised detection of sleep/wake using piezoelectric monitoring for pharmacological studies in narcoleptic mice

Background Assessment of sleep/wake by electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) is invasive, resource intensive, and not amenable to rapid screening at scale for drug discovery. In the preclinical development of therapeutics for narcolepsy, efficacy tests are hindered by the lack of a non-EEG/EMG based translational test of symptom severity. The current methods study offers proof-of-principle that PiezoSleep (noninvasive, unsupervised piezoelectric monitoring of gross body movement, together with respiration patterns during behavioral quiescence), can be used to determine sleep/wake as applicable to the development of wake-promoting therapeutics. First, the translational wake-maintenance score (WMS, the ratio of time during the first half of the dark period spent in long wake bouts to short sleep bouts) of the PiezoSleep narcolepsy screen was introduced as a means by which to rank narcoleptic orexin/ataxin-3 mice and wild type mice by sleep/wake fragmentation severity. Accuracy of the WMS to detect narcoleptic phenotypes were determined in genotype-confirmed orexin/ataxin-3 mice and wild type colony mates. The WMS was used to identify the most highly symptomatic mice for resource-intensive EEG/EMG studies for further analysis of specific arousal states. Second, PiezoSleep was demonstrated for use in high-throughput screening of wake-promoting compounds using modafinil in orexin/ataxin-3 and wild type mice. Results The WMS detected a narcoleptic phenotype with 89% sensitivity, 92% specificity and 98% positive predictive value. A 15-fold difference in WMS differentiated wild type littermates from the most severely affected orexin/ataxin-3 mice. Follow-up EEG/EMG study indicated 82% of the orexin/ataxin-3 mice with the lowest wake-maintenance scores met or exceeded the cataplexy-occurrence threshold (≥ 3 bouts) for inclusion in therapeutic efficacy studies. In the PiezoSleep dose-response study, the ED50 for wake-promotion by modafinil was approximately 50 mg/kg in both genotypes. Using unsupervised piezoelectric monitoring, the efficacy of wake-promoting compounds can be determined in a 5-arm study with 60 mice in less than one week—a fraction of the time compared to EEG/EMG studies. Conclusions The WMS on the PiezoSleep narcolepsy screen quantifies the inability to sustain wakefulness and provides an accurate measure of the narcoleptic phenotype in mice. PiezoSleep offers rapid, scalable assessment of sleep/wake for high-throughput screening in drug discovery.
Riparian buffers act as microclimatic refugia in oil palm landscapes

1School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK; 2Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore City, Singapore; 3Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK; 4Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; 5Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute, Cambridge, UK; 6Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia; 7Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia; 8School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK and 9Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Changes in Acceptance of Evolution and Associated Factors during a Year of Introductory Biology: The Shifting Impacts of Biology Knowledge, Politics, Religion, Demographics, and Understandings of the Nature of Science

Recent research has identified many factors influencing student acceptance of biological evolution, but few of these factors have been measured in a longitudinal context of changing knowledge and acceptance of evolution over a period of instruction. This study investigates factors previously associated with evolution acceptance as well as other potential factors among students over the course of a year-long majors and non-majors introductory biology sequence at a private, research-intensive university in the northeastern United States. Acceptance of evolution was measured using the Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) instrument, and other factors were measured using well-established instruments and a demographic survey. As expected given the context, evolution was widely accepted among the population (71% of our sample scored in the “high” or “very high” acceptance range), but 160 students were in the very low to moderate acceptance range. Over the course of the academic year, regressions on measures of normalized change revealed that as knowledge of the Nature of Science (NOS) increased, evolution acceptance increased (R2 = .378, p << 0.001). Increasing levels of genetic literacy (R2 = .214, p << 0.001) and Evolutionary Knowledge (R2 = .177, p << 0.001) were also significantly associated with increases in acceptance of evolution. We also examined the longitudinal effect of combining various factors into unified working models of acceptance of evolution, and this is the first study by our knowledge to do so. From fall to spring, the influence of student knowledge of NOS on evolution acceptance increased, as did the influence of genetic literacy. Conversely, the influence of religious variables decreased, as did the influence of political inclinations and race/ethnicity. Our results indicate that as students learn more about the nature of science, they may rely more on scientific explanations for natural phenomena. This study also underscores the importance of using longitudinal, multifactorial analyses to understand acceptance of evolution.
A Genre and Collocational Analysis of Consequence, Result, and Outcome

This corpus-based study examines genres and collocation patterns in which the three synonyms ‘consequence’, ‘result’, and ‘outcome’ usually occur. The data on which the study is based is derived from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). Of all the eight genres currently available in COCA, the three synonyms appear with the highest frequency in academic texts, whereas frequencies are lowest in informal genres, i.e. TV and movie subtitles and fiction. Of pedagogical concern is the fact that the common verb and adjective collocates repeatedly co-occur with the synonymous nouns. Determined by the COCA frequency and the MI value (≥ 3), ‘consequence’ is often used with verbs and adjectives conveying negative senses, and the typical collocates of ‘result’ has a clear association with research-oriented contexts. The collocates of ‘outcome’ have the broadest variety of semantic properties but are not directly related to any specific contexts. It is highly recommended that EFL teachers apply this genre and collocational information to synonym development lessons. Keywords: synonym; genre; distribution across genres; collocation; adjective and verb collocates
Metagenomics of a nickel-resistant bacterial community in an anthropogenic nickel-contaminated soil in southwest Slovakia

Abstract The sampling sites situated in southwest Slovakia are according to environmental monitoring of Slovakia a part of strongly disturbed environment by heavy metals, mainly by high nickel concentrations. The aim of the present study was to characterise a complete microbial assemblage from a dump containing heavy-metal-contaminated waste as well as from farmland situated nearby this dump by using shotgun sequencing of 16S rDNA amplicons. It was found that nickel influenced both species richness and diversity and that microbiota of both samples differed significantly (Bray-Curtis dissimilarity 0.73) at genus level mainly by abundances of sequences from particular genera and occurrences of the unique genera in individual bacterial communities. In spite of these differences between microbial assemblages, both samples shared many bacterial genera that might constitute the specific nickel-resistant bacterial niche, and it was possible to delineate the core microbiome of our two samples at species level. The core set of 30 species, represented by the phyla Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Cyanobacteria, suggest that these species might form a “core microbiome” of the specific nickel-resistant bacterial niche.
Analysis and potential use of Google Trends as a monitoring tool for risk communication during COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 Pandemic has become a major problem in various infected countries, including Indonesia. The proper risk communication strategy during this outbreak was important to reduce the impact. Therefore, this research was intended to assess the potential use of Google Trends as a tool to monitor risk communication during COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. Search patterns were analyzed using the terminology used to identify COVID-19 in Indonesia, followed by information-finding keywords 'gejala (symptoms)', 'mencegah (preventing)', and 'obat (drug)' keywords compared to the number of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in Indonesia using time-lagged correlation analysis from December 31th, 2019 to April 20th, 2020. Peaks within respective timelines were qualitatively described according to current COVID-19 related events. ”Corona” was the terminology mostly used in Indonesia to identify COVID-19. There were five spikes observed from “corona” keyword timeline, which each spike was dependent on the media coverage and regulation by the Government. Validation using time-lagged correlation yields significant results between corona, corona symptoms, preventing corona and corona drugs compared to newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in Indonesia. Google Trends can potentially be used to maximize the improvement of risk communication and as a tool to monitor public restlessness during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia by Government.
Calling song maturity in two-spotted cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus: its patterns and a possible physical explanation

Males of Gryllus bimaculatus (two-spotted cricket) emit acoustic signals by stridulating two forewings. One of their songs, calling song, plays a role in attracting females to mate, yet the significance of each song trait in attracting conspecific females remains unclear. Among such traits, the relevance of frequency component (i.e. song pitch) has been underestimated, as orthopterans had long been believed incapable of song pitch recognition. However, recent literatures suggested that ears of orthopteran species are capable of frequency recognition as mammalians do. My previous report demonstrated that their calling song recorded from mature adults has constant and pure peak frequency component around 5.7 kHz, further supporting a biological significance of the frequency component. In this study, I tracked its change over time in sexual maturity phase (i.e. from early adult phase). 300 calling songs were recorded over time from a pool of 122 adult crickets, as it required large number of animals because the crickets rarely sing at very early adult stage. A maturation process of calling song was observed, where the peak frequency distributed lower and more variable frequency in early adult phase (e.g. mean peak value was 4.9 kHz on day 3), then it gradually increased and converged to 5.8 kHz with two weeks. The coefficient of variance also decreased over the process, showing minimum around day 20. Also, I found that the young crickets (supposed to emit immature song), emit perfectly tuned calling song with 5.8 kHz peak in helium-substituted (80% Helium and 20% Oxygen) environment. These findings suggest that the robustly regulated frequency of the calling song is acquired during the early-to-mid adult stage, and it may be associated with sexual maturity of males. Also, the helium-substitution experiment suggests that physical resistance from surrounding gas molecules negatively impacts stability of calling songs of young males, implying that a muscle development and/or forewing hardening may help song maturation. This study highlights a biological significance of the frequency component, such that females may adaptively select sexually mature males based on the song trait.
Factors Affecting Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence on Tay Ninh Province

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of consumer price index, infrastructure, human resources, trade openness, and private credit on the attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Tay Ninh province as well as to emphasize the important role of FDI in economic growth of developing areas. The research data was collected from Tay Ninh Statistical Office with 80 samples of a 20-year period from 2000 to 2019. Also, OLS regression method using Eviews software was employed to analyze the data obtained. The findings revealed that human resources, infrastructure and private credit have a positive and significant impact on FDI attraction in Tay Ninh province, while consumer price index was proven to affect FDI attraction negatively. Accordingly, competent authorities of Tay Ninh province should focus on stabilizing prices as well as implementing policies for developing local human resources and attracting high-quality personnel from foreign countries. Tay Ninh province also needs to pay more attention to information technology investment for synchronous development of infrastructure. Moreover, the State Bank of Tay Ninh branch needs to consider more credit sources to provide support packages for businesses, creating a strong basis for establishments to attract FDI for the province’s economic development.
Prevalence of Adverse Drug Events in Severely Obese Adults and Associated Factors: Clinical Trial Baseline Results

Drugs are the most widely used therapeutic tool for treatment of diseases. However, misuse can lead to an adverse drug event (ADE) in susceptible individuals such as those that are severely obese. This study aimed to describe the frequency of ADEs, the associations of ADEs with anatomical therapeutic chemical classes and their respective frequency, estimate the prevalence of ADEs, and analyse factors associated with ADE in adults with severe obesity. Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from a randomized clinical trial in the central-western region of Brazil. A total of 150 individuals aged 18–65 years with a Body Mass Index of 35 kg/m2 were included. The outcome variable was the presence of ADE and the explanatory variables were socio-demographic factors, lifestyle, health, and medication use. ADEs were associated with use of drugs for the digestive tract and metabolism (p < 0.001) and the cardiovascular system (p < 0.001). The prevalence of ADEs was 32.67% (n = 49) and associated with the age range 40 to 49 years (p = 0.033), diabetes (p = 0.004), multimorbidities ≥ 4 (p = 0.009), self-medication (0.031), and presence of potential drug interactions (0.017). The prevalence of ADEs was high and was associated with drugs commonly used in treatment of obesity-related morbidities and self-medication. The introduction of a pharmacist to multi-professional teams can improve medication safety for severely obese patients.
Local and Remote Drivers of Southeast Australian Drought

Droughts are associated with large‐scale modes of variability, synoptic‐scale systems, and terrestrial processes. Quantifying their relative roles in influencing drought guides process understanding, helps identify weaknesses in climate models, and focuses model improvements. Using a Lagrangian back‐trajectory approach we provide the first quantification of the change in moisture supply during major droughts in southeast Australia, including the causes of the changes. Drought onset and intensification were driven by reduced moisture supply from the ocean, as moisture was circulated away from the region, combined with an absence of precipitation‐generating mechanisms over land. During termination, strengthened moist easterly flows from the Tasman and Coral Seas promoted anomalously high rainfall. Our approach reveals terrestrial moisture sources played a secondary role, amplifying rainfall anomalies by less than 6%. Simulating droughts therefore requires deeper understanding of the relationship between moisture advection and synoptic‐scale circulation and how large‐scale climate variability and terrestrial processes modify these relationships.
Institutional ownership, environmental, social, and governance performance and disclosure – a review on empirical quantitative research

Since the financial crisis of 2008–2009, nonfinancial-related shareholder activism increased, as public interest entities (PIEs) should strengthen their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities. This study aims to determine whether institutional ownership (IO) impacts ESG performance and disclosure and vice versa. Moreover, IO’s moderating and mediating influence on the relationship between ESG and firms’ financial consequences is included. This is the first literature review focusing on IO and ESG, describing IO as independent, dependent, moderator, and mediator variable. A structured literature review with 81 empirical-quantitative (archival) studies on that topic is presented based on an agency theoretical framework. Regarding the main results, long-term IO leads to increased ESG performance. Moreover, ESG performance promotes the ratio of institutional investors. Other relationships are rather heterogeneous and too low in an amount yet, stressing major research gaps.