Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical and epidemiological characteristics and outcomes of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in Douala, Cameroon

Introduction the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a disease that originated from Wuhan in December 2019. It rapidly spread across the globe causing high mortality especially among the elderly. Africa though not spared has limited studies regarding its effects on its population. We therefore sought to describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 in Douala, Cameroon. Methods we conducted a single-centre, retrospective, and observational study by reviewing records of patients managed for COVID-19 between the 8th March 2020 and 31st, May 2020. Cases were confirmed by real-time reverse transcriptase - polymerase chain reaction and were analysed for epidemiological, demographic, clinical, and radiological features. Outcomes were either clinical improvement by Day-28 or in-hospital mortality. Results we analyzed 282 case files, 192 were males (M: F=2: 1). The mean age was 52 (+/- 15) years. Hypertension and diabetes accounted for 75% of the chronic medical conditions identified. Main presenting complaints were dyspnea, cough, asthenia, and fever (55-60%). Radiographic analysis showed a ground-glass appearance in 85% of cases. Chloroquine/Hydroxychloroquine was the most (91.8%) frequently used drug in management protocols, 35% needed oxygen supplementation while 6 patients were intubated. Severe pneumonia (11.3%) was the commonest complication. They were 91 admissions in the intensive care unit. The average length of hospital stay was 10 (+/- 5) days. The mortality rate was 32%. Conclusion our findings are concordant with universally reported data of COVID-19 hospitalised patients. These parameters are essential in designing effective prevention and control programs aimed at reducing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic particularly in countries with limited resources.
Decomposition Characteristics of SF6 under Arc Discharge and the Effects of Trace H2O, O2, and PTFE Vapour on Its By-Products

The research on decomposition characteristics of SF6 and its by-products have great significance to the operation, maintenance, condition assessment and fault diagnosis of power equipment. In this paper, the particle composition models of SF6, SF6/polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), SF6/PTFE/O2, SF6/PTFE/H2O, and SF6/PTFE/O2/H2O were established by using Gibbs free energy minimization method, and the effects of trace H2O and O2 impurities and PTFE vapour on SF6 by-products were studied by the models. In order to verify the correctness of the simulation results, a series of breaking experiments were carried out on a 40.5 kV SF6 circuit breaker, and a gas chromatograph was used to detect and analyse the SF6 by-products. It was found that when PTFE vapour is involved in the arc plasma, the main by-product after arc quenching is CF4, and the molar fractions of C2F6 and C3F8 are very low. When O2 is involved, the main by-products are SOF2, SO2 and SO2F2, and a small amount of CO and CO2 was also produced. When H2O is involved, the main by-products in simulation are SOF2, SO2 and HF, and a small amount of SO2, CO2, CO, SO2F2 and H2 was also produced. The experimental results are in good agreement with the above results.
Study on Separation and Purification, Physico-chemical Properties and Immunological Activity of Two Fractions of Water-soluble Polysaccharides of Artemisia sphaerocephala Krasch Seed

To investigate the components of water-soluble polysaccharides of Artemisia sphaerocephala Krasch seed gum, crude Artemisia sphaerocephala Krasch seed gum polysaccharides (CASP) were isolated through hot water extraction, ethanol precipitation and deproteinazation, and then were fractionated into ASPI, ASPII, ASPIII and ASPIV by DEAE-cellulose column chromatography. ASPI was purified by Bio-Gel P-150 column chromatography and one fraction (ASPI-A) was obtained. ASPIII was fractionated into ASPⅢ-A, ASPⅢ-B and ASPⅢ-C by Sephadex G-75 column chromatography. Monosaccha- ride analysis by GC showed that the ASPI-A is composed of arabinose, mannose, glucose and galactose with a molar ratio of 1: 2.84:4.89:1.92; The ASPIII-A is composed of xylose and slight rhamnose arabinose, glucose, galactose, glucuronic acid and galacturonic acid. High performance gel permeation chromatography (HPGPC) showed that the ASPI-A is homogeneous polysaccharide with an average relative molecular mass of 5.42×104 D and the relative molecular mass of ASPIII-A is more than 4×105 D. The immunological activity assay revealed that in the presence of Con A , ASPI-A and ASPIII-A can increase the splenocyte proliferation in mice in a certain range of concentration; ASPIII-A may have a certain immunosuppression activity in higher concentration.
Genome-Wide Expression and Alternative Splicing in Domesticated Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus L.) under Flooding Stress

Approximately 10% of agricultural land is subject to periodic flooding, which reduces the growth, survivorship, and yield of most crops, reinforcing the need to understand and enhance flooding resistance in our crops. Here, we generated RNA-Seq data from leaf and root tissue of domesticated sunflower to explore differences in gene expression and alternative splicing (AS) between a resistant and susceptible cultivar under both flooding and control conditions and at three time points. Using a combination of mixed model and gene co-expression analyses, we were able to separate general responses of sunflower to flooding stress from those that contribute to the greater tolerance of the resistant line. Both cultivars responded to flooding stress by upregulating expression levels of known submergence responsive genes, such as alcohol dehydrogenases, and slowing metabolism-related activities. Differential AS reinforced expression differences, with reduced AS frequencies typically observed for genes with upregulated expression. Significant differences were found between the genotypes, including earlier and stronger upregulation of the alcohol fermentation pathway and a more rapid return to pre-flooding gene expression levels in the resistant genotype. Our results show how changes in the timing of gene expression following both the induction of flooding and release from flooding stress contribute to increased flooding tolerance.
Tecnologic Development on Pleurotus Cultivation: Specific Practices Used in Brazil

: In Brazil, Pleurotus is the most important mushroom produced especially P. ostreatus var. Florida. In this country as in many others, the great potential for mushroom cultivation remains unexplored. Therefore, it is very important to develop new studies that allow optimizing its production. The aims of the manuscript
Factors Associated with Post-Natal Care (PNC) Services Utilization among Adolescent Mothers in Rural Northern Malawi

World Health Organization (WHO) statistics indicate that Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for the vast majority of global maternal deaths. Specifically, maternal deaths among adolescent mothers in rural settings contribute significantly to high maternal mortality. Among others, adolescent mothers’ susceptibility to maternal deaths has been attributed to utilization of post-natal care (PNC) services. Using the Andersen Behavioral Model of Health Services Use, our study sought to examine factors associated with PNC utilization among adolescent mothers in a northern rural district of Malawi. A structured questionnaire was used to conduct interviews among adolescent mothers. A hierarchical logistic regression analysis was carried out using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). Results show that need factors (severe abdominal pains, vaginal bleeding and obstetric complications) was the most significant factor associated with PNC utilization. Further, the study shows that predisposing factors such as age, educational level, marital status had considerable influence on PNC utilization. Lastly, enabling factors such as family income, adolescent mothers’ occupation, distance to health facility positively influenced mothers’ utilization of postnatal health care. The study recommends to health sector practitioners to use the need factors as the baseline in initiating postnatal health care policies and programs for adolescent mothers, while also paying attention to other factors such as predisposing and enabling because they all have the specific role they play in influencing adolescent mothers’ behavior in accessing postnatal health care.
You Won’t Believe Our Results! But They Might: Heterogeneity in Beliefs About the Accuracy of Online Media

Abstract “Clickbait” media has long been espoused as an unfortunate consequence of the rise of digital journalism. But little is known about why readers choose to read clickbait stories. Is it merely curiosity, or might voters think such stories are more likely to provide useful information? We conduct a survey experiment in Italy, where a major political party enthusiastically embraced the esthetics of new media and encouraged their supporters to distrust legacy outlets in favor of online news. We offer respondents a monetary incentive for correct answers to manipulate the relative salience of the motivation for accurate information. This incentive increases differences in the preference for clickbait; older and less educated subjects become even more likely to opt to read a story with a clickbait headline when the incentive to produce a factually correct answer is higher. Our model suggests that a politically relevant subset of the population prefers Clickbait Media because they trust it more.
Coordinating Electric Vehicle Flow Distribution and Charger Allocation by Joint Optimization

A two-stage stochastic programming model is established to minimize EV's expected total journey time under stochastic traffic conditions, by jointly optimizing the allocation of chargers and the distribution of EV flows. Based on sample average approximation, a feasible deterministic equivalent of the original stochastic problem is obtained. Then, a hybrid solution method, composing of a Tabu-based search and sequential quadratic programming (SQP), is proposed. The Tabu heuristic manages the charger allocation problem, where each solution candidate undergoes a second-stage EV flow optimization. SQP is applied to optimally distribute the EV flows, which is proved to be a convex problem. Extensive simulations are carried out using the eastern Massachusetts highway network. Results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms existing approaches by finding high-quality charger allocation and optimal flow distribution policies under different traffic conditions. Additionally, the two-stage model designates charging resource sufficiency by statistically estimating a lower bound for the number of chargers to allocate, which in practice helps to prevent over-investment on charging resources.
Bio-mediated silver nanoparticle synthesis: mechanism and microbial inactivation

ABSTRACT Even though plenty of literature is available on the biosynthesis of metal nanoparticles, there are serious lacunae on the mechanisms of their formation. In the present study, the mechanism of formation of mono-crystalline silver nanoparticles using a fruit extract of the ornamental tree Thevetia peruviana is emphasized, i.e. how the pH of the reaction mixture affected reaction kinetics and size of the nanoparticles. The facilitation of formation of Ag2O at higher pH resulted in a faster rate of particle formation. The diameter of the bare particles at neutral pH determined by field emission scanning electron microscopy and the hydrodynamic diameter determined by dynamic light scattering were 53 and 104 nm, respectively. The silver nanoparticles exhibited good inactivation of Escherichia coli due to participation of free radicals as evidenced by electron spin resonance spectroscopy.
Genetic Differentiation of Ukrainian Populations of Eusomus ovulum (Coleoptera, Curculionidae): Evidence of Multiple Hybrid Speciation

Th e clonal structure of populations of the weevil Eusomus ovulum Germar, 1824 (Coleoptera, Curculionidae) from several regions of Ukraine was analyzed. Th e signifi cant diff erentiation between populations from dif-ferent region was demonstrated. Th e hypothesis of multiple origins of the hybrid form E. ovulum from several parental species is proposed.
COVID-19 pandemic exposes the vulnerability of the sharing economy: a novel accounting framework

Abstract The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a global economic recession, but little is known about the impact it has had on the informal economy, including the peer-to-peer rental market. This study assessed the financial loss of Airbnb listings for its hosts in Greater Sydney, Australia. Findings show that comparing August 2020 to January 2020, the pandemic resulted in 89.5 per cent income loss for Airbnb hosts (about 14 million) with hosts suffering about 6.5 times more than the Airbnb platform itself. However, many Airbnb hosts are not eligible for the financial aid being offered by the NSW State Government or the Australian Federal Government. The study further demonstrates the vulnerability of the sharing economy during a time of crisis. It contributes empirical evidence to the widening public debate on the sharing economy’s contribution to sustainable tourism and decent work (SDG 8), and reduced inequalities (SDG 10), and, most importantly, it raises concerns over taxation and social protections for informal employees. Methodologically, this study contributes to the literature by presenting a comprehensive income accounting framework to analyse this segment of the workforce’s financial performance, which can serve as benchmark for tax estimation and financial aids. Video abstract Read the transcript Watch the video on Vimeo
Correlation of 24-hour urinary protein excretion and spot urine protein-creatinine ratio in women with preeclampsia: A cross sectional study

Objective: To examine the correlation between spot urine PCR and 24-hour urine protein excretion in patients being evaluated for preeclampsia. Material and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted on 100 patients at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Chalmeda Anand Rao Institute of Medical Sciences, Karimnagar, Telangana State for a period from December 2019 to August 2020, with inclusion of singleton viable pregnancy, Gestational age between 24 and 38 weeks, Confirmed by last menstrual period and early ultrasound. Result: Among 100 patient’s patients having mean age of 25 ± 3.266 years, among the patients 19% percent of the patients had past history of preeclampsia. Mean gestational age for the patients was 32.39 ± 3.42 weeks. Study showed 62 % of moderate urinary protein levels. There was significant correlation between spot PCR and 24 hour urine protein collection (spearman’s rho=0.7, P<0.0001). Conclusion: Urine protein: creatine ratio is one of the important investigation in hypertensive disorder of the pregnancy. Spot Urine protein: creatine ratio can reliably be taken as a simple, accurate, and convenient replacement for tedious, time consuming 24 hour urine protein estimation, especially in countries like India where hospitals are flooded with a large number of in-patients. Therefore Urine protein: creatine ratio estimation should be introduced and adopted in practice in testing for proteinuria.
The Role of Communities in the Transmission of Political Values: Evidence from Forced Population Transfers

This article evaluates the role of community bonds in the long-term transmission of political values. At the end of World War II, Poland's borders shifted westward, and the population from the historical region of Galicia (now partly in Ukraine) was displaced to the territory that Poland acquired from Germany. In a quasi-random process, some migrants settled in their new villages as a majority group, preserving communal ties, while others ended up in the minority. The study leverages this natural experiment of history by surveying the descendants of these Galician migrants. The research design provides an important empirical test of the theorized effect of communities on long-term value transmission, which separates the influence of family and community as two competing and complementary mechanisms. The study finds that respondents in Galicia-majority settlements are now more likely to embrace values associated with Austrian imperial rule and are more similar to respondents whose families avoided displacement.
Estimating the Natural Cubic Spline Volatilities of the ASEAN-5 Exchange Rates

This study examines the dynamic pattern of the exchange rate volatilities of the ASEAN-5 currencies from January 2006 to August 2020. The exchange rates applied in this study comprise bilateral and effective exchange rates in order to investigate the influence of the US dollar on the stability of the ASEAN-5 currencies. Since a volatility model employed in this study is a natural cubic spline volatility model, the Monte Carlo simulation is consequently conducted to determine an appropriate criterion to select a number of quantile knots for this model. The simulation results reveal that, among four candidate criteria, Generalized Cross-Validation is a suitable criterion for modeling the ASEAN-5 exchange rate volatilities. The estimated volatilities showed the inconstant dynamic patterns reflecting the uncertain exchange rate risk arising in international transactions. The bilateral exchange rate volatilities of the ASEAN-5 currencies to the US dollar are more variable than their corresponding effective exchange rate volatilities, indicating the influence of the US dollar on the stability of the ASEAN-5 currencies. The findings of this study suggest that the natural cubic spline volatility model with the quantile knots selected by Generalized Cross-Validation is practical and can be used to examine the dynamic patterns of the financial volatility.
Role of Fuzzy Approach towards Fault Detection for Distributed Components

Component-based software development is rapidly introducing numerous new paradigms and possibilities to deliver highly customized software in a distributed environment. Among other communication, teamwork, and coordination problems in global software development, the detection of faults is seen as the key challenge. Thus, there is a need to ensure the reliability of component-based applications requirements. Distributed device detection faults applied to tracked components from various sources and failed to keep track of all the large number of components from different locations. In this study, we propose an approach for fault detection from componentbased systems requirements using the fuzzy logic approach and historical information during acceptance testing. This approach identified error-prone components selection for test case extraction and for prioritization of test cases to validate components in acceptance testing. For the evaluation,we used empirical study, and results depicted that the proposed approach significantly outperforms in component selection and acceptance testing. The comparison to the conventional procedures, i.e., requirement criteria, and communication coverage criteria without irrelevancy and redundancy successfully outperform other procedures. Consequently, the F-measures of the proposed approach define the accurate selection of components, and faults identification increases in components using the proposed approach were higher (i.e., more than 80 percent) than requirement criteria, and code coverage criteria procedures (i.e., less than 80 percent), respectively. Similarly, the rate of fault detection in the proposed approach increases, i.e., 92.80 compared to existing methods i.e., less than 80 percent. The proposed approach will provide a comprehensive guideline and roadmap for practitioners and researchers.
Influence of ursodeoxycholic acid therapy on levels of fibroblast growth factor 21, adiponectin and biochemical parameters in intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy

The aim was to assess whether fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF-21) and adiponectin influence intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) pathogenesis and whether ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) has an impact on their levels. 50 pregnant women with ICP (ICP PW), 50 with uncomplicated pregnancy (HPW) and 50 healthy nonpregnant women (HW) were included. In ICP PW the first blood sample was drawn at the time of diagnosis, while in HPW it was drawn in the 28th week of pregnancy. The next blood samples were drawn in the 32nd and 36th week of pregnancy and one day after delivery. UDCA was administered when ICP was diagnosed. In ICP PW serum FGF-21 concentration was the lowest at the time of diagnosis with an evident increase after UDCA administration. Serum FGF-21 levels were significantly higher in ICP PW than in HPW from the first to the last measurement. There was a negative association between adiponectin and bile acids (BAs) levels in the later stage of pregnancy in ICP PW. Up-regulated FGF-21 serum levels in ICP patients compared to HPW persisted after delivery, suggesting its role in disease pathophysiology. The negative association between serum adiponectin and BAs of the later stage of pregnancy may suggest its role in regulation of BAs concentration. UDCA exerts a beneficial effect on insulin sensitivity and up-regulates FGF-21 in ICP.
Consumer ethnocentrism and purchasing behavior: moderating effect of demographics

Purpose This study aims to investigate consumer ethnocentrism and determine its impact on actual purchasing behavior in relation to six product categories. It also examines the role of demographic variables as moderators in the relationship between ethnocentric tendencies and purchasing behavior. Design/methodology/approach A total of 467 completed questionnaires were obtained through convenience and snowball sampling. Data were analyzed using SPSS-24 and AMOS-23 software: SPSS to conduct the exploratory factor analysis and AMOS for the confirmatory factor analysis. Regression analysis was performed to determine the effect of ethnocentrism on purchasing behaviors; the SPSS process was used to test the moderating effects. Findings The consumer ethnocentric tendencies scale was collected in two dimensions: hard ethnocentrism, which influences actual purchasing behavior in five product categories; and soft ethnocentrism, which influences actual purchasing behavior in only two product categories. The results show that the effect of consumer ethnocentrism on purchasing behavior differs across product categories. Further, gender, marital status and personal income moderate this relationship. Originality/value Few studies investigate purchasing behavior across several product categories and the literature on consumer ethnocentrism does not address the impact of demographic variables as moderators in consumer behavior. This study contributes to the existing literature in four ways. First, it was conducted in Azerbaijan, a country with specific characteristics. Second, it examines the impact of ethnocentric tendencies on actual purchasing behavior. Third, it examines purchasing behavior in relation to six different product categories. Fourth, the moderating effect of demographic variables was tested.