Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical performance validation of the STANDARD G6PD Test: A multi-country pooled analysis

Introduction: Screening for G6PD deficiency can inform disease management including malaria. Treatment with the antimalarial drugs primaquine and tafenoquine can be guided by point-of-care testing for G6PD deficiency. Methods and Findings: Data from similar clinical studies evaluating the performance of the STANDARDTM G6PD Test (SD Biosensor, South Korea) conducted in Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States were pooled. Test performance was assessed in a retrospective analysis on capillary and venous specimens. All study sites used spectrophotometry for reference G6PD testing, and either the HemoCue or complete blood count for reference hemoglobin measurement. The sensitivity of the STANDARDTM G6PD Test using the manufacturer thresholds for G6PD deficient and intermediate cases in capillary specimens from 4212 study participants was 100% (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 97.5%-100%) for G6PD deficient cases with <30% activity and 77% (95% CI 66.8%-85.4%) for females with intermediate activity between 30%-70%. Specificity was 98.1% (95% CI 97.6%-98.5%) and 92.8% (95% CI 91.6%-93.9%) for G6PD deficient individuals and intermediate females, respectively. The majority (12/20) of G6PD intermediate females with false normal results had activity levels >60% on the reference assay. Negative predictive values for females with G6PD activity >60% was 99.6% (95% CI 99.1%-99.8%) on capillary specimens. Test sensitivity among 396 P. vivax malaria cases was 100% (69.2%-100.0%) for both deficient and intermediate cases. In the study population, a high proportion of those classified as G6PD deficient or intermediate resulted from true normal cases. Despite this, the majority cases would receive the correct medication and no true G6PD deficient cases would be treated inappropriately. Conclusions: The STANDARD G6PD Test enables safe access to drugs which are contraindicated for individuals with G6PD deficiency. Operational considerations will inform test uptake in specific settings.
Exploring the use of social media and online methods to engage knowledge users in creating research agendas: Lessons from a pediatric cancer research priority-setting partnership

While social media is increasingly leveraged to engage knowledge users in research priority-setting, there remains sparse explicit descriptions on how to implement it to build knowledge user-led research agendas. The aim of this study was to review a case study where social media was utilized to engage Canadians within the pediatric cancer community in a research priority-setting exercise; specifically highlighting the social media-based recruitment process, including recommendations on how to optimally engage key potential participants. A priority-setting partnership was launched to develop a stakeholder-driven research agenda in pediatric cancer in Canada. Social -media-based strategies were implemented for participant recruitment, developing a website, launching graphics and advertisements, and engaging internal and external stakeholders. These strategies incorporated the use of various social media platforms. We used descriptive statistics to analyze the data, in addition to the analytics provided by the platforms mentioned. Throughout the duration of the PSP, we garnered 870 Instagram followers, 450 Twitter followers, 69 Facebook page likes, 27 TikTok followers, 20 LinkedIn followers and 789 unique visitors to our website. Our Facebook page reached 28,641 people, while our Instagram profile reached 2,954 people. This social media campaign resulted in 330 individuals completing the initial survey of the PSP, and 197 individuals completing the interim prioritization survey. Social media is a novel approach to engage stakeholders in the development of a research agenda. Our study identified the following strategies as effective in increasing participation in our PSP: (1) creating a unified brand, (2) prioritizing accessibility (e.g., providing alternative text for all images), (3) ensuring social media campaign is reflective of the target audience by diversifying platforms and intermittently tailoring content to specific populations, (4) optimizing campaigns reach via paid advertisements and circulating promotional material to partner organizations and individuals for them to subsequently share with their networks.
Probing the effect of elevated cholesterol on the mechanical properties of membrane-cytoskeleton by optical tweezers

The composition of the cell membrane and the surrounding physiological factors determine the nature and dynamics of membrane-cytoskeleton coupling. Mechanical strength of a cell is mainly derived from such coupling. In this article, we investigate the effect of extra cellular cholesterol on the membrane-cytoskelaton connectivity of single cell endothelium and consequent remodeling of its mechanical properties. Using optical tweezers as a force probe, we have measured membrane stiffness (km), membrane microviscosity (ηeff ) and the two-dimensional shear modulus (G′(f)) as a function of extracellular cholesterol in the range of 0.1mM to 6mM. We find that membrane stiffness and shear modulus are dependent on cholesterol-induced membrane-cytoskeletal organization. Further, by disrupting the membranecytoskeletal connectivity with Cytochalasin D, an actin delpolymerizing molecule, we recover pure membrane behaviour devoid of any cytoskeleton attachment. However, behaviour of ηeff was found to be unaffected by disruption of membrane-cytoskeleton organization. We infer that cholesterol is playing a distinct role in modulating membrane organization and membrane-cytoskeleton connectivity independently. We further discuss implications of our approach in characterizing cellular mechanics.
Experimental study of the production of vortex rings using a variable diameter orifice

A method for producing a vortex ring with an apparatus that utilizes a time varying aperture that closes during ring production is shown to have the capability for the production of rings of low nondimensional energy similar to a Hill’s spherical vortex. This represents a difference of more than 50%, in terms of the nondimensional energy, of those which have been produced with fixed diameter generators. Experiments show that modulation of the rate at which the vortex ring generator produces kinetic energy, circulation, and impulse is the critical factor in determining what type of ring is formed.
Exploring the determinants of mental health, wellbeing, and lifestyle in 8–11 year old children with type 1 diabetes and their healthy counterparts in Kuwait

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic disease with an early onset, but little is known about its psychological effects in middle childhood. The present study was the first to explore the relationship between mental health, wellbeing, and lifestyle of 8–11 years old children with Type 1 diabetes and their parents, and a healthy comparison group. A total of 200 parent-child dyads were recruited in diabetic clinics and from primary schools in Kuwait. Both groups completed a series of behavioural and physical assessments relating to health, wellbeing, and lifestyle. A significant relationship was found between higher Body Mass Index (BMI) and poorer mental health, including low academic self-esteem, depression, and anxiety, in the diabetes group. This group had significantly higher mean scores in mental health problems, and lower scores in wellbeing, compared with control group. Both groups had poor dietary habits and low levels of physical activity. Unlike previous studies, no differences were found between parents’ mental health for children with Type 1 diabetes and parents of the control group. Although elevated problem scores on a variety of indices remained within normal range, the pattern of results indicates that children with diabetes would profit from early screening and preventative intervention to reduce the likelihood of psychological and behavioural difficulties later on.
Author-suggested reviewers rate manuscripts much more favorably: A cross-sectional analysis of the neuroscience section of PLOS ONE

Peer review is an important part of science, aimed at providing expert and objective assessment of a manuscript. Because of many factors, including time constraints, unique expertise needs, and deference, many journals ask authors to suggest peer reviewers for their own manuscript. Previous researchers have found differing effects about this practice that might be inconclusive due to sample sizes. In this article, we analyze the association between author-suggested reviewers and review invitation, review scores, acceptance rates, and subjective review quality using a large dataset of close to 8K manuscripts from 46K authors and 21K reviewers from the journal PLOS ONE’s Neuroscience section. We found that all-author-suggested review panels increase the chances of acceptance by 20 percent points vs all-editor-suggested panels while agreeing to review less often. While PLOS ONE has since ended the practice of asking for suggested reviewers, many others still use them and perhaps should consider the results presented here.
Rainfall Measurements During Hurricane Agnes by Three Overlapping Radars

Abstract As part of the International Field Year for the Great Lakes, rainfall measurements were made for hurricane Agnes over the Lake Ontario watershed by two C-band radars and one S-band radar. Two dense networks of raingages were located in radar overlap areas. One of the networks contained a raindrop disdrometer for measuring the number and size of drops. Comparison between radar and gage rainfall measurements show there is considerable time and space variability in the accuracy of the radar rainfall estimates. Because of the high correlation between radars measuring rain over the same area, it is concluded that this observed variability is due to meteorological causes rather than radar measurement errors. The Z-R relationship as measured by the disdrometer remained constant throughout the storm; thus, it is improbable that the variability in the radar accuracies resulted from changes in the Z-R relationship. Some of the larger radar overestimates could be attributed to evaporation below the radar be.
Assessment of the rabies education among middle secondary school students of southeastern Bhutan

Rabies is one of the most important zoonotic diseases that mostly affect children. We conducted a rabies education among 129 secondary school children (intervention group = 94 students, control group = 35 students) in two schools in southeast Bhutan and evaluated the effectiveness of the lesson by comparing the knowledge, perception and safety behaviour score about rabies before and after education. We also assessed the knowledge retention capacity of the students at three months post intervention. Our findings indicated that short rabies lesson significantly (P<0.001) improved the mean knowledge score from 19.98(±2.72) to 26.96(±2.24) in the intervention group. Similarly, mean scores for perception and safety behaviour improved significantly (P<0.001) from 10.77 (±1.89) to 13.95 (±1.36) and 9.809 (±1.85) to 12.97 (±1.54), respectively. Although the scores have reduced significantly (P<0.001) at three months post intervention, most of the rabies information was largely retained by the students. In control group, significant increase in mean scores were also observed for perception from 10.17 (±2.38) to 11.2 (±2.44) and safety behaviour from 9.14(±1.44) to 10.74 (±1.95) after 3 months of education. The finding demonstrate that a short rabies lesson is effective in improving knowledge, perceptions and understanding of dog bites safety behaviour among the school children. However, there is a need for a frequent awareness program, at least quarterly or half yearly. Rabies education should focus on critical points such as dog bites being the main source of rabies and the importance washing a dog/animal bite wound with soap and water, and visiting the hospital for medical advice following animal bites.
The Summer Wind Field Between 80 and 93 km Observed by the MST Radar at Poker Flat, Alaska (65°N)

Abstract Results of an analysis of the summertime wind field between 80–93 km over Poker Flat, Alaska are presented. The data were obtained using the large, but as yet incomplete, MST radar at Poker Flat, and cover the periods 17 June–13 July 1979, and 22 June–22 July 1980. Zonal and meridional mean wind profiles and “tidal” components during these periods are examined and are compared with other observations at comparable latitudes as well as with current theoretical profiles. While our results agree reasonably closely with other observations and theory, some discrepancies exist and are discussed. In addition to the expected 8, 12 and 24 h components of atmospheric motions, we find strong evidence for a 16 h component, particularly during the 1979 data period. In addition, we show examples of the average power spectrum of wind fluctuations from 3 min to 8 days. These spectra not only show the expected “tidal” peaks, but show also that the spectral energy density is continuous between the shortest (8 h) t.
Dynamic base stations selection method for passive location based on GDOP

For the problem of passive location in mobile cellular network, base stations (BSs) selection can improve positioning accuracy. Through the analysis of base station layout in cellular networks, using Geometric Dilution of Precision (GDOP) as the optimization objective, we propose a Dynamic Base Stations Selection (DBSS) method in a cellular unit. This method enables the system to dynamically select the positioning base station when positioning target in the detection area. DBSS mainly include three steps: nearest base station calculation, layout of base stations analysis, and base station selection based on the target location. We mainly focus on the derivation of four-base station dynamic selection (DBSS4) and five-base station dynamic selection (DBSS5) algorithms. In simulation experiments, DBSS4 algorithm and DBSS5algorithm were compared with the state-of-the-art of BSs selection methods. The results show that our proposed method can achieve the exhaustive search in cellular cells and reduce more than 20% of the GDOP cumulative positioning error compared with the fixed four-base station selection algorithm. Meanwhile, the proposed method is more efficient, requires less running time and floating-point operations (FLOPs) than other comparison algorithm, and is independent of localization algorithms.
Anthrax outbreak investigation in Tengwe, Mashonaland West Province, Zimbabwe, 2022

Background Anthrax continues to be a disease of public health concern in Zimbabwe. Between December 2021 and February 2022, Tengwe reported 36 cases of human anthrax. Gastrointestinal anthrax has the potential to cause serious outbreaks leading to loss of human life. We investigated the outbreak, identified the risk factors using one health approach to inform outbreak control. Materials and methods We conducted descriptive analysis of the outbreak and a 1:2 unmatched case control study to identify risk factors for anthrax. A case was any Tengwe resident who developed an ulcer and/or abdominal symptoms and epidemiologically linked to a confirmed environmental exposure. Validated, structured interviewer-administered questionnaires were used to collect data from the cases and neighbourhood controls. Soil and dried meat samples were collected for laboratory investigations. District preparedness and response was assessed using a checklist. Data was analysed using Epi Info version 7.2. 5. The odds of exposure were calculated for each risk factor examined. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the independent factors associated with contracting anthrax. Results Through active case finding we identified 36 cases, 31 were interviewed. Twenty-one (67.7%) were males. The median age was 33 years (Inter quartile range: 22–54). Nineteen (61.2%) cases presented with abdominal symptoms with zero deaths reported. The independent risk factor for contracting anthrax was eating under-cooked meat (aOR = 12.2, 95% CI: 1.41–105.74, p = 0.023). All samples collected tested positive for anthrax. No livestock vaccinations or zoonotic meetings were being conducted prior to the outbreak. Notification of the outbreak was done 11 days after index case presentation however one health response was instituted within 24 hours. Conclusion The anthrax was confirmed in Tengwe. Consumption of under-cooked meat was associated with gastrointestinal anthrax. The timely one health response resulted in excellent outcomes. Using one health approach in managing zoonotic threats is encouraged.
On the Polyak momentum variants of the greedy deterministic single and multiple row-action methods

For solving a consistent system of linear equations, the classical row‐action method, such as Kaczmarz method, is a simple while really effective iteration solver. Based on the greedy index selection strategy and Polyak's heavy‐ball momentum acceleration technique, we propose two deterministic row‐action methods and establish the corresponding convergence theory. We show that our algorithm can linearly converge to a least‐squares solution with minimum Euclidean norm. Several numerical studies have been presented to corroborate our theoretical findings. Real‐world applications, such as data fitting in computer‐aided geometry design, are also presented for illustrative purposes.
Does the virial mass drive the intra-cluster light? Relationship between the ICL and Mvir from VEGAS

In this Letter we revisit the relationship between the fraction of the intra-cluster light (ICL) and both the virial mass and the fraction of Early Type Galaxies in the host halo. This is based on a statistically significant and homogeneous sample of 22 groups and clusters of galaxies in the local Universe ($z \leq 0.05$), obtained with the VST Early-type GAlaxy Survey (VEGAS). Taking advantage of the long integration time and large area of the VEGAS images, we are able to map the galaxy outskirts and ICL down to $\mu_g$ $\geq$ 29-30 mag/arcsec$^2$ and out to hundreds of kpc. With this data-set, we have expanded the sample of ICL measurements, doubling the previous measures available from the literature for z $\leq$ 0.05. The main result of this work is the lack of any significant trend between the fraction of ICL and the virial mass of the host environment, covering a wide range of virial masses ( $\sim$ $10^{12.5} \leq M_{vir} \leq 10^{15.5} M_{\odot}$), in agreement with some theoretical studies. Since the new data points are all derived with the same methodology and from the same observational setup, and all have comparable depth, the large observed scatter indicates an intrinsic variation in the ICL fraction.On the other hand, there is a weak relation between the fraction of ICL and the fraction of Early Type Galaxies in the host halo, where a larger fraction of ICL is found in groups and clusters of galaxies dominated by earlier morphological types, indicating a connection between the ICL and the dynamical state of the host system.
The two sides of the Environmental Kuznets Curve: a socio-semantic analysis

Since the 1990s, the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis posits an inverted U-shaped relationship between pollutants and economic development. The hypothesis has attracted a lot of research. We provide here a review of more than 2000 articles that have been published on the EKC. We aim at mapping the development of this specialized research, both in term of actors and of content, and to trace the transformation it has undergone from its beginning to the present. To that end, we combine traditional bibliometric analysis and semantic analysis with a novel method, that enables us to recover the type of pollutants that are studied and the empirical claims made on EKC (whether the hypothesis is invalidated or not). We principally exhibit the existence of a few epistemic communities that are related to distinct time periods, topics and, to some extent, proportion of positive results on EKC.
Exploring Fake News Detection with Heterogeneous Social Media Context Graphs

Fake news detection has become a research area that goes way beyond a purely academic interest as it has direct implications on our society as a whole. Recent advances have primarily focused on textbased approaches. However, it has become clear that to be effective one needs to incorporate additional, contextual information such as spreading behaviour of news articles and user interaction patterns on social media. We propose to construct heterogeneous social context graphs around news articles and reformulate the problem as a graph classification task. Exploring the incorporation of different types of information (to get an idea as to what level of social context is most effective) and using different graph neural network architectures indicates that this approach is highly effective with robust results on a common benchmark dataset.
Percolation for 2D classical Heisenberg model and exit sets of vector valued GFF

Our motivation in this paper is twofold. First, we study the geometry of a class of exploration sets, called exit sets, which are naturally associated with a 2D vector-valued GFF : $\phi : Z^2 \to R^N, N\geq 1$. We prove that, somewhat surprisingly, these sets are a.s. degenerate as long as $N\geq 2$, while they are conjectured to be macroscopic and fractal when $N=1$. This analysis allows us, when $N\geq 2$, to understand the percolation properties of the level sets of $\{\|\phi(x)\|, x\in Z^2\}$ and leads us to our second main motivation in this work: if one projects a spin $O(N+1)$ model (classical Heisenberg model is $N=2$) down to a spin $O(N)$ model, we end up with a spin $O(N)$ in a quenched disorder given by random conductances on $Z^2$. Using the exit sets of the $N$-vector-valued GFF, we obtain a local and geometric description of this random disorder in the limit $\beta\to \infty$. This allows us to revisit a series of celebrated works by Patrascioiu and Seiler ([PS92, PS93, PS02]) which argued against Polyakov's prediction that spin $O(N+1)$ model is massive at all temperatures when $N\geq 2$ ([Pol75]). We make part of their arguments rigorous and more importantly we provide the following counter-example: we build ergodic environments of (arbitrary) high conductances with (arbitrary) small and disconnected regions of low conductances in which, despite the predominance of high conductances, the $XY$ model remains massive. Of independent interest, we prove that at high $\beta$, the transverse fluctuations of a classical Heisenberg model are given by a $N=2$ vectorial GFF. This is implicit in [Pol75] but we give here the first (non-trivial) rigorous proof. Also, independently of the recent work [DF22], we show that two-point correlation functions of the spin $O(N)$ model are given in terms of certain percolation events in the cable graph for any $N\geq 1$.