Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Preinjury Use of Antiplatelet Drugs on Outcomes of Traumatic Brain Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objective The study aimed to compare outcomes of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in patients on pre-injury antiplatelet drugs vs. those, not on any antiplatelet or anticoagulant drugs. Methods PubMed, Embase, and Google Scholar databases were searched up to 15th May 2021. All cohort studies comparing outcomes of TBI between antiplatelet users vs. non-users were included. Results Twenty studies were included. On comparison of data of 2,447 patients on pre-injury antiplatelet drugs with 4,814 controls, our analysis revealed no statistically significant difference in early mortality between the two groups (OR: 1.30 95% CI: 0.85, 1.98 I2 = 80% p = 0.23). Meta-analysis of adjusted data also revealed no statistically significant difference in early mortality between antiplatelet users vs. controls (OR: 1.24 95% CI: 0.93, 1.65 I2 = 41% p = 0.14). Results were similar for subgroup analysis of aspirin users and clopidogrel users. Data on functional outcomes was scarce and only descriptive analysis could be carried out. For the need for surgical intervention, pooled analysis did not demonstrate any statistically significant difference between the two groups (OR: 1.11 95% CI: 0.83, 1.48 I2 = 55% p = 0.50). Length of hospital stay (LOS) was also not found to be significantly different between antiplatelet users vs. non-users (MD: −1.00 95% CI: −2.17, 0.17 I2 = 97% p = 0.09). Conclusion Our results demonstrate that patients on pre-injury antiplatelet drugs do not have worse early mortality rates as compared to patients, not on any antiplatelet or anticoagulant drugs. The use of antiplatelets is not associated with an increased need for neurosurgical intervention and prolonged LOS.
Exercise-induced Laryngeal Obstruction: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Treatment Trial

Background Exercise-induced laryngeal obstruction (EILO) is a common cause of exertional breathing problems in young individuals, caused by paradoxical inspiratory adduction of laryngeal structures, and diagnosed by continuous visualization of the larynx during high-intensity exercise. Empirical data suggest that EILO consists of different subtypes, possibly requiring different therapeutic approaches. Currently applied treatments do not rest on randomized controlled trials, and international guidelines based on good evidence can therefore not be established. This study aims to provide evidence-based information on treatment schemes commonly applied in patients with EILO. Methods and Analysis Consenting patients consecutively diagnosed with EILO at Haukeland University Hospital will be randomized into four non-invasive treatment arms, based on promising reports from non-randomized studies: (A) standardized information and breathing advice only (IBA), (B) IBA plus inspiratory muscle training, (C) IBA plus speech therapy, and (D) IBA plus inspiratory muscle training and speech therapy. Differential effects in predefined EILO subtypes will be addressed. Patients failing the non-invasive approach and otherwise qualifying for surgical treatment by current department policy will be considered for randomization into (E) standard or (F) minimally invasive laser supraglottoplasty or (G) no surgery. Power calculations are based on the main outcomes, laryngeal adduction during peak exercise, rated by a validated scoring system before and after the interventions. Ethics and Dissemination The study will assess approaches to EILO treatments that despite widespread use, are insufficiently tested in structured, verifiable, randomized, controlled studies, and is therefore considered ethically sound. The study will provide knowledge listed as a priority in a recent statement issued by the European Respiratory Society, requested by clinicians and researchers engaged in this area, and relevant to 5–7% of young people. Dissemination will occur in peer-reviewed journals, at relevant media platforms and conferences, and by engaging with patient organizations and the healthcare bureaucracy.
Energy Efficiency in the Post-COVID-19 Era: Exploring the Determinants of Energy-Saving Intentions and Behaviors

The COVID-19 pandemic has a long-lasting influence on global economies. Households are expected to consume more electricity for their usual routine activities due to mandatory stay-at-home restrictions, resulting in greater energy utilization. The proposed study seeks to investigate the most relevant energy consumption factors amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The study employs a structural equation modeling approach to evaluate the responses from 511 Pakistani residents. Empirical results report a positive and significant association among perceived behavioral control (PBC), perceived environmental concern (PEC), perceived monitory benefits (PMB), and intention to save energy (ISE). Positive anticipated emotions (PAE) is found to be a significant predictor of ISE and energy-saving behavior (ESB). As a step further, we extend the analysis to find the moderating effect of perceived COVID-19 disruptiveness (PCD) between the relationship of ISE and ESB. Results reveal that PCD positively moderates this relationship. Based on research findings, policy implications and future research directions are provided for practitioners, researchers, and academicians to fulfill the country’s energy needs on its way to a future of sustainable development.
Using Carbohydrate-Binding Modules as tools for in vivo visualization/modulation of plant cell wall polysaccharides

Carbohydrate-Binding Modules (CBMs) are a diverse set of non-catalytic protein domains that are present in diverse microbial glycoside hydrolases. CBMs are particularly attractive as cell wall probes because of their individual, intrinsic specificities toward polysaccharides, ease of heterologous expression, and convenience of modification with peptide and small molecule detection tags. We have developed fluorescent protein tagged CBMs and expressed those constructs in Arabidopsis. Before transferring the fluorescent protein tagged CBMs to Arabidopsis, the binding specificities of the fluorescent CBM fusion proteins were examined by ELISA against cell wall glycans and labeling of fixed Arabidopsis stem sections. The variations in CBM specificity depend on the target configuration of cell wall polymers, and points to the utility of these modules in further studies.
VMRR_A_346806 47..58

Background: Households consider their dogs and cats as their close friends. They act as companion animals. The contact between pets and their owners results in transmission of zoonotic disease. In Ethiopia, dogs and cats are the most abundant carnivores, and diseases associated with them affect wide parts of the community. There is limited knowledge, practice, and attitude within the communities toward pet contact associated zoonotic disease. Methods: A community-based semi-structured questionnaire complemented with an interview was delivered to 633 household pets’ owners in Sibu Sire, Jimaa Arjo, and Wayu Tuqa districts in Western Ethiopia to evaluate knowledge, attitude, and practices toward pet contact associated zoonotic disease. Results: Socio-demographically, 54.6% of the study participants were female. According to this finding concerning common pet contact zoonotic disease, 70% of the respondents had knowledge about rabies, with Echinococcosis, toxoplasmosis, and ring worm also being commonly heard of. Contamination of feed and water (21.71%) and animal bites (21.01%) are the predominant modes of transmission, whereas animal waste, fecal oral route, and touching pets are also common ways for disseminating zoonotic disease. The dominant symptoms noted by respondents were behavioral change, depression, lack of appetite, itching, and diarrhea. In all attitude-related responses, there was a significant association (p<0.05) between the number of respondents and the variable studied. There was also a statistically significant association of KAP score (p<0.05) with educational rank and the work of respondents. Conclusion: This study indicates the importance of pet ownership to the community, which is also associated with transmitting different zoonotic diseases. Moreover, there are inconsistencies on regular veterinary use, pet management, and proper prevention and treatment measures of the disease. Coordinated efforts are expected from different stakeholders in enhancing community KAP level towards pet contact associated zoonosis.
Small Firm Growth

We review and discuss the literature on small firm growth with an intention to provide a useful vantage point for new research studies regarding this important phenomenon. We first discuss conceptual and methodological issues that represent critical choices for those who research growth and which make it challenging to compare results from previous studies. The substantial review of past research is organized into four sections representing two smaller and two larger literatures. The first of the latter focuses on internal and external drivers of small firm growth. Here we find that much has been learnt and that many valuable generalizations can be made. However, we also conclude that more research of the same kind is unlikely to yield much. While interactive and non-linear effects may be worth pursuing it is unlikely that any new and important growth drivers or strong, linear main effects would be found. The second large literature deals with organizational life-cycles or stages of development. While deservedly criticized for unwarranted determinism and weak empirics this type of approach addresses problems of high practical and also theoretical relevance, and should not be shunned by researchers. We argue that with a change in the fundamental assumptions and improved empirical design, research on the organizational and managerial consequences of growth is an important line of inquiry. With this, we overlap with one of the smaller literatures, namely studies focusing on the effects of growth. We argue that studies too often assume that growth equals success. We advocate instead the use of growth as an intermediary variable that influences more fundamental goals in ways that should be carefully examined rather than assumed. The second small literature distinguishes between different modes or forms of growth, including, e.g., organic vs. acquisition-based growth, and international expansion. We note that modes of growth is an important topic that has been under studied in the growth literature, whereas in other branches of research aspects of it may have been studied intensely, but not primarily from a growth perspective. In the final section we elaborate on ways forward for research on small firm growth. We point at rich opportunities for researchers who look beyond drivers of growth, where growth is viewed as a homogenous phenomenon assumed to unambiguously reflect success, and instead focus on growth as a process and a multi-dimensional phenomenon, as well as on how growth relates to more fundamental outcomes.
The Link between Fibromyalgia Syndrome and Anger: A Systematic Review Revealing Research Gaps

Anger has been associated with increased pain perception, but its specific connection with Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) has not yet been established in an integrated approach. Therefore, the present systematic review focuses on exploring this connection, and based on this connection, delimiting possible gaps in the research, altogether aimed at improving FMS clinical intervention and guiding future research lines. Anger is considered a basic negative emotion that can be divided into two dimensions: anger-in (the tendency to repress anger when it is experienced) and anger-out (the leaning to express anger through verbal or physical means). The current systematic review was performed based on the guidelines of the PRISMA and Cochrane Collaborations. The Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) international database was forehand used to register the review protocol. The quality of chosen articles was assessed and the main limitations and research gaps resulting from each scientific article were discussed. The search included PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. The literature search identified 13 studies eligible for the systematic review. Levels of anger-in have been shown to be higher in FMS patients compared to healthy participants, as well as patients suffering from other pain conditions (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis). FMS patients had also showed higher levels of state and trait anxiety, worry and angry rumination than other chronic pain patients. Anger seems to amplify pain especially in women regardless FMS condition but with a particularly greater health-related quality of life´s impact in FMS patients. In spite of the relevance of emotions in the treatment of chronic pain, including FMS, only two studies have proposed intervention programs focus on anger treatment. These two studies have observed a positive reduction in anger levels through mindfulness and a strength training program. In conclusion, anger might be a meaningful therapeutic target in the attenuation of pain sensitivity, and the improvement of the general treatment effects and health-related quality of life in FMS patients. More intervention programs directed to reduce anger and contribute to improve well-being in FMS patients are needed.
“Neurotic Styles”

becomes more general in that the negative loadings are reduced from four to two, and the second factor becomes more bipolar, or differentiating, the negative loadings being increased from io to i8 out of 30. The four highest positive loadings on the rotated second factor are associated with the following features in order: â€ ̃¿ self-pity, reactivity of depression, hypochondriasis, demanding'. The four highest nega tive loadings on the same factor in order are: â€ ̃¿ retarda tion, guilt, worthlessness, suicidal symptoms'. Thus, by a suitable rotation, their two descriptive factors produce a factor clearly differentiating neurotic from endogenous depression. Perhaps Rosenthal and Gudeman could be persuaded to rotate their factors, as I have done, and publish the distribution of patients' scores on the rotated second differentiating factor. Is this distribution bimodal?
Internal Force Analysis of Continuous Bridge due to Different Loads

This paper is about the analysis of continuous bridge due to The General Design Standard of Highway and Bri- dge (JTJ021-89 and JTG D60-2004). By using the Midas/Civil software; we get the internal force and displacement. Comparing the results due to the two standards, we found the rule of the change: contrast to the JTJ021-89, the loadings of the JTG D60-2001 cause the moment loads increasing in the mid of span and reducing in the footstep; and the deflection in the mid of span having minimal change. This result has valuable reference to the bridge design.
Relaying and scheduling in interference limited wireless networks

OF THE DISSERTATION Relaying and Scheduling in Interference Limited Wireless Networks By Chandrasekharan Raman Dissertation Directors: Prof. Roy D. Yates, Prof. Narayan B. Mandayam and Dr. Gerard J. Foschini In this dissertation, we address two issues related to communication in interferencelimited wireless networks. In the first part of the thesis, we study benefits of deploying inexpensive half-duplex relays in interference-limited cellular system. We study two relaying schemes in a downlink system, users sharing the same frequency band. In the first collaborative relaying scheme, relays help users after they decode the message intended for the user by a collaborative power addition scheme. We evaluate power savings and rate improvement for delivering a common rate for 90% of users in the system. We then consider power control at the base stations and relays in order to manage the interference. In both cases, the ability of relays to reduce the peak base station transmit power while delivering the baseline rate or alternately to increase the user rate is computed. When power control is employed, the peak power saving is 2.6 dB and the average total power in the system can be reduced by 3 dB. We also observe a 34% improvement over the baseline in the users common rate. In the second orthogonal relaying scheme, we study a simple scheme where the base station and relays transmit in orthogonal time slots. We find that the performance of the simple orthogonal relaying scheme comes very close to that of the collaborative power addition scheme.
Fairness of Exposure under Incomplete Exposure Estimation

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 Fairness of Exposure under Incomplete Exposure Estimation Anonymous Author(s) Submission Id: xxx ABSTRACT Fairness of exposure is a commonly used notion of fairness for ranking systems. It is based on the idea that all items or item groups should get an amount of exposure that is proportional to the merit of the item or to the collective merit of the items in the group. Often, stochastic ranking policies are used to ensure fairness of exposure. Previous work unrealistically assumes that for each ranking that the stochastic policy might produce, we can reliably estimate the expected exposure for all its items. In this work we discuss how to approach fairness of exposure in cases where the policy contains rankings of which, due to inter-item dependencies, we cannot reliably estimate the exposure distribution. In such cases we cannot determine whether the policy can be considered fair. In this paper, we make two main contributions. First, we define a method called FELIX for finding stochastic policies that avoid showing such rankings to the user, while not having to compromise user utility or item fairness. Second, we extend the study of fairness of exposure to the top-k setting and also assess FELIX in this setting. We find that FELIX is able to significantly reduce the number of rankings with unknown exposure distribution without any drop in user utility of fairness, compared to previous fair ranking methods, both for full-length rankings and for top-k rankings. This is an important first step in developing fair ranking methods in cases where we have incomplete knowledge about the user’s behaviour.
Investigating The Issue Of Project Progress Performance And Proposing Prototype Software - A Case Study Of Malaysian Construction Industry

Real-time monitoring and control on site construction is a growing field and still in its infancy. A persistent problem in construction is to develop the as-built actual physical progress schedule of construction scene. The primary aim of this study is to propose prototype software for monitoring project progress automatically. Consequently, this study addresses Digitalizing Construction Monitoring (DCM) model for monitoring the physical progress of the project. A questionnaire survey form designed and conducted in the Malaysian Construction Industry to investigate the existing practice for evaluating and monitoring the construction site progress and utilization of computer based application system for monitoring project progress performances. The respondents were asked to indicate their view using a five-point scale. This paper discusses the initial results of a pilot survey and proposing and developing prototype software for improving the construction project progress monitoring. User can retrieves the project information in form of images and by using photogrammetry techniques every detail of building should be precisely documented to obtain reliable measurement from photographs and simulated with CAD drawings to develop the physical progress report. The integration of photos and drawings will enable construction manager to develop progress reports in a more consistent and accurate way and more accurate as-built project schedule can be transferred to facility manager. This system bridges the gap for monitoring and controlling the construction work by implementing the information technology techniques.
The unsteady aerodynamics of insect wings with rotational stroke accelerations, a systematic numerical study

Abstract To generate aerodynamic forces required for flight, two-winged insects (Diptera) move their wings back and forth at high wing-beat frequencies. This results in exceptionally high wing-stroke accelerations, and consequently relatively high acceleration-dependent fluid forces. Quasi-steady fluid force models have reasonable success in relating the generated aerodynamic forces to the instantaneous wing motion kinematics. However, existing approaches model the stroke-rate and stroke-acceleration effects independently from each other, which might be too simplified for capturing the complex unsteady aerodynamics of accelerating wings. Here, we use computational-fluid-dynamics simulations to systematically explore how aerodynamic forces and flow dynamics depend on wing-stroke rate, wing-stroke acceleration and wing-planform geometry. Based on this, we developed and calibrated a novel unsteady aerodynamic force model for insect wings with stroke accelerations. This includes improved versions of the translational-force model and the added-mass force model, and we identify a third novel component generated by the interaction of the two. This term reflects the delay in bound-circulation build-up as the wing accelerates. The physical interpretation of this effect is analogous to the Wagner effect experienced by a wing starting from rest. Here, we show that this effect can be modelled in the context of flapping wings as a stroke-acceleration-dependent correction on the translational-force model. Our revised added-mass model includes a viscous force component, which is relatively small but not negligible. We subsequently applied our new model to realistic wing-beat kinematics of hovering Dipteran insects, in a quasi-steady approach. This revealed that stroke-acceleration-related aerodynamic forces contribute substantially to lift and drag production, particularly for high-frequency flapping mosquito wings.
Determinants of Physical Processes and Their Contributions for Uncertainties in Simulated Evapotranspiration Over the Tibetan Plateau

Estimation of the Evapotranspiration (ET) over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) still keeps uncertain due to inaccurate physical parameters and processes in numerical models. In this study, the simulated ET is evaluated for 13 sites over the TP during the period of 2001–2017 using the conditional nonlinear optimal perturbation related to parameters (CNOP‐P) approach. To find key physical parameters and processes, the sensitivity analysis (SA) method based on the CNOP‐P is employed. The traditional SA method (one‐at‐a‐time, OAT) is also employed to compare to the SA method based on the CNOP‐P for the identification of the key parameters and parameters subset. The numerical results show that the average estimation of the ET for 13 sites could be improved by 37.7 mm year−1 and 62.5 mm year−1 for two data sets using the CNOP‐P‐type parameters perturbations, respectively. Further, the sensitive physical parameters subset includes more vegetation parameters using the SA method based on the CNOP‐P method, which are different to those using the OAT method. This implies that the vegetation transpiration plays a vital role for simulation of the ET over the TP. It is found that the improvement degree (24.6%) of simulation ability of the ET over the TP by reducing more sensitive vegetation parameters identified by the CNOP‐P sensitivity analysis method is larger than that employing the OAT method (21.9%).