Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictors of successful outcome after adrenalectomy for unilateral primary aldosteronism

Introduction Unilateral primary aldosteronism (UPA) is the most frequent surgically curable form of endocrine hypertension. Adrenalectomy is the cornerstone of treatment for UPA, but outcomes after surgery are variable. The cause of resistant hypertension after surgery is still a matter of debate. Our aim was to investigate cure rates after surgery and to evaluate preoperative factors that might influence the surgical outcome. Methods Between 2000 and 2021, the charts of 71 Tunisian patients who underwent laparoscopic adrenalectomy for UPA were retrospectively reviewed. Preoperative medical records were collected and follow-up data (1-158 months) were registered. Antihypertensive medication doses were calculated using defined daily doses (DDD) and postoperative outcomes were assessed using the Primary Aldosteronism Surgical Outcome (PASO) criterion. Results Of 91 enrolled patients, 71 (59% women, mean age 46 years, median length of follow-up 21 months) were suitable for evaluation. Thirty-four patients (48%) had complete clinical success according to the PASO criteria. The most relevant factors associated with complete clinical success on univariate analysis were: absence of diabetes (p= 0.007), low body mass index (BMI) (p= 0.001), lower preoperative DDD (p= 0.01), preoperatively controlled blood pressure (p= 0.024), higher plasma aldosterone to renin ratio (ARR) (p= 0.001), adenoma subtyping (p <0.001) and aldosteronoma resolution score (ARS) (p= 0.002). Multivariate regression analysis showed that the major predictors of complete clinical success were absence of diabetes (OR: 5.205), a BMI < 30 (OR: 4.930), a plasma ARR > 332 (OR: 4.554) and an ARS ≥ 3 (OR: 2.056). Conclusion Complete and partial clinical response rates were achieved in respectively 48 and 43% of cases. The main predictors of complete resolution of hypertension were absence of diabetes, low BMI, high plasma ARR and high ARS. Taking these factors into account may help identify patients at risk of persistent postoperative hypertension who may require long-term surveillance and medication.
The program for introduction of basic mathematical knowledge: the effects in six years old Mexican children

Introduction The process of teaching and learning mathematics in primary school represents an obstacle for both teachers and pupils. According to the historical-cultural conception of development and education, the way how intellectual concepts are initially introduced may radically affect a student’s success in learning. The historical-cultural conception of development, together with activity theory, may serve as the basis for creating a novel methodology for pedagogical work on mathematical concepts with pre-school and school children. Methods The goal of the present study was to show the effects of work with an original program for the initial introduction of mathematical concepts to young school children. The program included reflexive symbolic and logical actions on the materialized and perceptual level, which were introduced and performed collectively by six-year-old children under the guidance and assistance of a teacher. The pupils were tested before and after their work with the program. Results The results showed important qualitative and quantitative progress by the children in solving the tasks of the assessment, together with an increment of reflection on their intellectual actions. Discussion The study points to the necessity for more intensive and extensive research, involving specialists in psychology and pedagogy trained in cultural-historical methodology.
Exploring the Five Influential Action Factors to Unravel Procrastination

The voluntary delaying of work completion in the face of potential drawbacks is known as procrastination. It has substantial effects on personal, academic, and professional spheres. In order to better comprehend procrastination's underlying mechanisms, contributory elements, and potential mitigation measures, this paper aims to present a thorough and multifaceted investigation of the procrastinatory behaviour. This paper highlights a detailed examination of the cognitive, affective, and motivational elements of procrastination by synthesising the available literature from the psychology and cognitive science domains. There are five potential reasons as to why people procrastinate: when goals are too big, when goals are too small, and issues with respect to belief, attitude, as well as skill deficits. The paper also highlights a mitigation model basing analysis of chunking and Neuro-Linguistic Programming to end the vicious cycle with respect to procrastinatory behaviour.
Trillium™-Coated Oxygenators in Adult Open-Heart Surgery: A Prospective Randomized Trial

This randomized, prospective clinical trial examines the impact of the use of Trillium™ biopassive surface coating on clinical outcomes after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) that may be induced by contact of blood elements with foreign surfaces. The study consisted of 98 consecutive patients randomly assigned to either a CPB circuit that consisted of a Trillium-coated Affinity open reservoir oxygenator or a CPB circuit with an uncoated Affinity open reservoir oxygenator. The operative procedure performed on all 98 patients consisted of either coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), valve, or a combination of the two. Exclusion criteria consisted of patients who presented to the operating room in circulatory arrest. Trillium biopassive surface coating resulted in improved clinical outcomes and fewer adverse events when compared to the control group. Significantly, fewer patients required no blood products (18.3% in the control group vs. 32.7% in the treatment group), even though the control group had a significantly higher pre-bypass hematocrit. Postoperative atrial fibrillation (24.5% vs. 16.3%) and reoperation for bleeding (10.2% vs. 4.1%) showed a much lower incidence in the Trillium group. Significance was not reached because of the small sample size resulting in low power. Trillium circuits result in improved patient outcomes in the treatment group when compared to the control circuit group.
Effect of fuzzy logic controller on voltage stability of parallel boost converter configuration

An increase in electricity load causes a change in grid voltage and current, causing losses to customers. In addition, the source of electricity from fossil energy has also decreased. Therefore this study aims to provide a stable DC voltage source from solar panels, with a Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC). The proposed method is to design a boost converter in parallel with its output. The boost converter is used to increase the DC voltage from 24 V to 48 V. In this study, FLC is used to adjust the output voltage of each boost converter. This is so that if one of the boost converters fluctuates, the other boost converters will supply a voltage according to the load voltage. The results showed that the FLC can adjust the boost converter output voltage changes. Whereas when using the PI (Integral Proportional) controller, a voltage spike occurs in the range of 0 seconds to 0.6 seconds and the voltage stabilizes within 0.6 seconds to 1 second.
The regional state in the era of Smart Specialisation

Smart specialisation signals a new era of regional innovation policy in the EU and constitutes a major challenge to regions, member states and the European Commission. This article explores the challenge in the context of a critical review of regional innovation policy repertoires in the Basque Country and Wales, where active industrial policies have been pursued for thirty years. What a region is capable of doing in the future, the article suggests, partly depends on what it has done in the past and what it has learned from the past. Policy path dependence implies that regions will not be designing their smart specialisation strategies in a vacuum, starting from scratch, and therefore the recent past may be a guide to the near future.
Lipopolysaccharides from Ralstonia solanacearum induce a broad metabolomic response in Solanum lycopersicum

Ralstonia solanacearum, one of the most destructive crop pathogens worldwide, causes bacterial wilt disease in a wide range of host plants. The major component of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, lipopolysaccharides (LPS), has been shown to function as elicitors of plant defense leading to the activation of signaling and defense pathways in several plant species. LPS from a R. solanacearum strain virulent on tomato (LPS R. sol.), were purified, chemically characterized, and structurally elucidated. The lipid A moiety consisted of tetra- to hexa-acylated bis-phosphorylated disaccharide backbone, also decorated by aminoarabinose residues in minor species, while the O-polysaccharide chain consisted of either linear tetrasaccharide or branched pentasaccharide repeating units containing α-L-rhamnose, N-acetyl-β-D-glucosamine, and β-L-xylose. These properties might be associated with the evasion of host surveillance, aiding the establishment of the infection. Using untargeted metabolomics, the effect of LPS R. sol. elicitation on the metabolome of Solanum lycopersicum leaves was investigated across three incubation time intervals with the application of UHPLC-MS for metabolic profiling. The results revealed the production of oxylipins, e.g., trihydroxy octadecenoic acid and trihydroxy octadecadienoic acid, as well as several hydroxycinnamic acid amide derivatives, e.g., coumaroyl tyramine and feruloyl tyramine, as phytochemicals that exhibit a positive correlation to LPS R. sol. treatment. Although the chemical properties of these metabolite classes have been studied, the functional roles of these compounds have not been fully elucidated. Overall, the results suggest that the features of the LPS R. sol. chemotype aid in limiting or attenuating the full deployment of small molecular host defenses and contribute to the understanding of the perturbation and reprogramming of host metabolism during biotic immune responses.
Adapting to Unprecedented Times: Community Clinician Modifications to Parent–Child Interaction Therapy During COVID-19

ABSTRACT Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an evidence-based practice that effectively prevents and treats child disruptive behaviors and child physical maltreatment and reduces parenting stress. PCIT was adapted for telehealth delivery, internet-delivered PCIT (iPCIT), before the COVID-19 pandemic but was not widely implemented until the rapid transition to telehealth during stay-at-home orders. To understand how clinicians adapted PCIT during COVID-19, we followed up on a previous study investigating community clinician adaptations of PCIT pre-COVID-19 using the Augmenting and Reducing Framework. Clinicians (N = 179) who responded to the follow-up survey and reported delivering PCIT remotely completed a quantitative measure of adaptations at both time points (Fall 2019; Summer 2020) to assess how adaptations to PCIT changed following lockdown measures. Clinicians (n = 135) also provided qualitative descriptions of adaptations made early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinicians in the full sample were 74.3% Non-Hispanic White and 14% Latinx. Most clinicians had a master’s degree (66.5%), were licensed (80.4%), and were PCIT-certified (70.4%). Paired sample t-tests showed that clinicians reported similar levels of augmenting (t(179) = -0.09, p = . 926) and reducing adaptations (t(179) = -0.77, p = . 442) at both time points. Unlike quantitative findings, qualitative findings indicated that clinicians described engaging in many types of adaptations in response to the pandemic. Clinicians discussed engaging in augmenting adaptations by extending treatment length and integrating other practices into treatment. Clinicians also discussed engaging in reducing adaptations. Implications and future directions will be discussed.
Proportionality Guarantees in Elections with Interdependent Issues

We consider a multi-issue election setting over a set of possibly interdependent issues with the goal of achieving proportional representation of the views of the electorate. To this end, we employ a proportionality criterion suggested recently in the literature, that guarantees fair representation for all groups of voters of sufficient size. For this criterion, there exist rules that perform well in the case where all the issues have a binary domain and are independent of each other. In particular, this has been shown for Proportional Approval Voting (PAV) and for the Method of Equal Shares (MES). In this paper, we go two steps further: we generalize these guarantees for issues with a non-binary domain, and, most importantly, we consider extensions to elections with dependencies among issues, where we identify restrictions that lead to analogous results. To achieve this, we define appropriate generalizations of PAV and MES to handle conditional ballots. In addition to proportionality considerations, we also examine the computational properties of the conditional version of MES. Our findings indicate that the conditional case poses additional challenges and differs significantly from the unconditional one, both in terms of proportionality guarantees and computational complexity.
Wind Wave Growth and Dissipation in a Narrow, Fetch-Limited Estuary: Long Island Sound

The geometry of the Long Island Sound (LIS) renders the wave field fetch-limited and leads to marked differences between western and eastern areas. The mechanisms that contribute to the formation and dissipation of waves in the LIS are not well understood. We evaluated the ability of the wave module of a wave-coupled hydrodynamic model to simulate different wind–wave scenarios. We were unable to capture wave statistics correctly using existing meteorological model results for wind forcing due to the low resolution of the models and their inability to resolve the LIS coastline sufficiently. To solve this problem, we modified the wind fields using in situ wind observations from buoys. We optimized both the Komen and Jansen parameterizations for the LIS to better present the peak winds during storms. Waves in the LIS develop more quickly than simple theory predicts due to quadruplet nonlinear wave–wave interaction effects. Removing quadruplet nonlinear wave–wave interaction increases the time to full saturation by 50%. The spatial distribution of wave energy density input reveals the complex interaction between wind and waves in the LIS, with the area of greatest exposure receiving higher wave energy density. The interaction of nonlinear wave–wave interaction and whitecapping dissipation defines the shape of the directional spectrum along the LIS. Dissipation due to whitecapping and shoaling are the main parameters modulating a fully developed wave field.
Conducted and Radiated Interference on Interconnection’s Lines

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: Received: 28 November, 2018 Accepted: 12 January, 2019 Online : 29 January, 2019 There exists a profound difficulty of communication between the people that works in the EMC area in circuit terms and the people that works in field terms. In this paper we show that when the matter is predominantly distributed along a certain direction in space, as for transmission lines, the electromagnetic field can be divided in two modes, each of them with two degrees of freedom, that are practically independent: a longitudinal TM (transverse magnetic) mode and a transversal TE (transverse electric) mode. We also show that two degrees of freedom of the longitudinal mode are the ones that are described by circuit’s theory. This formulation is based on the observation that, when the matter is macroscopically described by constitutive laws, the electromagnetic field within the matter can be fully characterized in terms of the potential fields, in total four degrees of freedom. Using the above formulation, we put forward a generalized formulation of the coupling of an external electromagnetic field to a transmission line, valid in any time scale. We apply the above concepts to study, in a common theoretical framework, the iconic case of the conducted and radiated interferences on a transmission line, and we show that: 1-Differently than what is normally assumed in standard transmission-line theory, the normal operation mode and the internally-produced electromagnetic field are predominantly a longitudinal TM mode; 2-The longitudinal mode is affected by both the conducted disturbances and the radiated disturbances; while 3The transverse mode is affected only by the radiated disturbances. Then, only for systems where the longitudinal mode is predominant, and, the longitudinal and the transversal modes are practically decoupled, EMI can be simulated using circuit simulation software’s. Also, to further illustrate the interpretation power of this formulation, we present some other application examples.
Relations between early childhood educators’ qualifications and experience and their beliefs about mathematics education for babies and toddlers

Cognition research has demonstrated that babies, from birth, can detect numerical correspondences and abstract properties of objects and events. However, this limited existing research is often distant from educational practice, and thus, this information may be inaccessible to early childhood educators; most of whom hold pre-Bachelor level qualifications. This quantitative study reports on a survey of 466 Australian early childhood educators to examine what relationships may exist between educators’ qualifications and experience in the profession, and their beliefs about mathematics education for babies and toddlers. Findings show that although most educators have strong, positive beliefs about mathematics education for very young children, there are significant differences in beliefs about when mathematical ideas develop in children found between educators without Bachelor level qualifications and those with Bachelor and post-graduate qualifications. Our findings lend support to Australia’s sustained quality improvement agenda for the early childhood educator sector and point to the benefits of Bachelor level teaching qualifications for establishing strong foundations in mathematics education.
Cellular heterogeneity and plasticity during NAFLD progression

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a progressive liver disease that can progress to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), NASH-related cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). NAFLD ranges from simple steatosis (or nonalcoholic fatty liver [NAFL]) to NASH as a progressive form of NAFL, which is characterized by steatosis, lobular inflammation, and hepatocellular ballooning with or without fibrosis. Because of the complex pathophysiological mechanism and the heterogeneity of NAFLD, including its wide spectrum of clinical and histological characteristics, no specific therapeutic drugs have been approved for NAFLD. The heterogeneity of NAFLD is closely associated with cellular plasticity, which describes the ability of cells to acquire new identities or change their phenotypes in response to environmental stimuli. The liver consists of parenchymal cells including hepatocytes and cholangiocytes and nonparenchymal cells including Kupffer cells, hepatic stellate cells, and endothelial cells, all of which have specialized functions. This heterogeneous cell population has cellular plasticity to adapt to environmental changes. During NAFLD progression, these cells can exert diverse and complex responses at multiple levels following exposure to a variety of stimuli, including fatty acids, inflammation, and oxidative stress. Therefore, this review provides insights into NAFLD heterogeneity by addressing the cellular plasticity and metabolic adaptation of hepatocytes, cholangiocytes, hepatic stellate cells, and Kupffer cells during NAFLD progression.
The basque population and ancient migrations in Europe

Basques have a unique position in Europe not only because of their language but also because of some genetic differences with their neighbors. One of the most characteristic ones is the relatively high frequency of Rh-negative genes. The simplest interpretation of the origin of Basques is that they were in their present location already in upper paleolithic and mesolithic times, when they probably occupied o wider area than now. They may represent the most direct descendants of Cro-Magnon people. Early neolithic farmers began expanding in all directions from the Middle East or Asia Minor around 9000 years ago or earlier; they mixed with local mesolithic huntergatherers. Those who came to Europe may have spoken Indoeuropean languages. If this is correct, the Basque language may be the only one that survived among those spoken earlier. Other non-lndoeuropean languages spoken in Europe came later from the outside. The reasons for conservation of the Basque language and culture and their interaction are discussed.
THE EFFECT OF ROSEMARY (SALVIA ROSMARINUS) SUPPLEMENTED DIET ON REPRODUCTIVE AND PRODUCTIVE TRAITS OF LIBYAN LOCAL PIGEON

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of rosemary leaves powder supplement on reproductive and productive performance of local pigeon. Thirty pairs of Libyan local pigeons were randomly allocated into three groups, each with 10 replicates. Rosemary leaves powder (RLP) was added to isonitrogenous and isoenergetic ration at 0 % (control, C), 0.5 % (T1) or 1 % (T2). The experiment lasted for a complete breeding cycle. RLP did not affect egg weight, egg number or incubation period. Egg volume (13.82, 10.73 and 11.42 cm3), egg hatchability (100, 55.56 and 50.00 %) and hatching weight (16.63, 14.91 and 14.89 g) were higher in C group in comparison with T1 and T2, respectively (p < 0.05). Egg surface area (30.25, 26.30 and 27.74 cm2) and egg width (2.67, 2.44 and 2.53 cm) were higher in C than in T1 (p < 0.05) and tended to be higher than T2 (p > 0.05). Egg length, egg shape index, fertility rate and pre-weaning survival rate tended to decrease with the increased RLP inclusion rate; however, these differences were not significant (p > 0.05). Squab weight at weaning was lower in C than in T2 group, (310.35, 312.08, 337.98 g for C, T1, and T2, respectively) (p < 0.05). Peroxide value of fresh meat tended to decrease in T2 compared to T1 or C groups (0.6, 0.49, 0.37 meq/kg for C, T1 and T2, respectively) (p > 0.05). Malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration in fresh meat (0.16, 0.16, 0.09 mg MDA/kg) and blood (1.66, 0.83, 0.61 mg MDA/L) for C, T1 and T2, respectively, was lower in T2 compared to C group (p < 0.05). In conclusion, adding RLP to feed negatively affected the reproductive performance despite expected improvement of the productive performance and oxidative status in pigeons.