Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Oral conditions in hepatitis C virus‐infected Egyptian patients: a case‐control study

Introduction: One of the serious public health problems nowadays is the hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Hepatitis C virus infection morbidity is associated with a diversity of extrahepatic disorders counting the oral cavity. Some of the oral manifestations are oral diseases like lichen planus and xerostomia and side effects of the virus therapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the oral health status, of patients with and without virus C in a sample of the Egyptian population. Methods: Data were collected from the Gastroenterology department at Benha University. The study was designed as a case-control study; 39 Egyptian hepatitis C patients (Cases) and 75 Egyptian non-hepatitis C patients (Control). Oral examinations were done according to the modified WHO oral health survey 2013 criteria. Results: The prevalence of xerostomia was 69.2 % and 69.3% in cases and controls respectively, with no statistically significant difference between the two groups. Skin hyperpigmentation was 46.2%, 16% in cases, and control groups respectively with a statistically significant difference between the two groups. The least manifestation was lichen planus, recurrent aphthous ulcer (RAU), and candidal infection. Conclusions: Many changes in the oral cavity were found higher at the control group as compared to the case group except for the skin hyperpigmentation that was higher among the hepatitis C patients. Our findings reinforce other regional studies with a bigger sample in hepatitis C patients.
Density functional theory calculation of propane cracking mechanism over chromium (III) oxide by cluster approach

The catalyst coking and production of undesired products during the transformation of propane into propylene have been the critical challenges in the on purpose approach of propylene production. The mechanism contributing to this challenge was theoretically investigated through the analysis of cracking reaction routes. The study carried out employed the use of a density functional theory and cluster approach in order to understand the reactions that promote coking of the catalyst and in the search for the kinetic and thermodynamic data of the reaction mechanism involved in the process over Cr2O3. The ratedetermining step and feasible route that easily promote the production of small hydrocarbons like ethylene, methane, and many others were identified. The study suggests Cr-site substitution or co-feeding of oxygen can aid in preventing deep dehydrogenation in the conversion of propane to propylene. This information will help in improving the Cr2O3 catalyst performance and further increase the production yield.
Spatial distribution, abundance and habitat use of the endemic Mediterranean fan mussel Pinna nobilis in Gera Gulf, Lesvos (Greece): comparison of design-based and model-based approaches

An important population of the endemic Mediterranean fan mussel Pinna nobilis thrives in the marine protected area of Gera Gulf (Lesvos island, north-eastern Aegean Sea, Greece), and was assessed for the first time. To estimate the abundance, spatial distribution and habitat use of fan mussels in Gera Gulf, a distance sampling underwater survey was conducted. Detectability was modelled to secure unbiased estimates of population density. Two approaches were applied to analyze survey data, a design-based and a model-based approach using generalized additive models. The first approach was based on stratified random sampling on two strata, an assumed ‘preferable’ zone close to the coastline and an assumed unsuitable habitat, with predominantly muddy sediments, in which low sampling effort was applied. For the needs of the model-based approach, a dedicated cruise was conducted to collect bathymetric data with a single-beam echo-sounder and map the bathymetry of the study area. A very high-resolution image from the Worldview-3 satellite was processed, based on an object-based image analysis, for mapping all main habitat types in the study area. The estimated abundance using the design-based approach was low-biased as the stratum of pre-assumed unsuitable habitat proved to include patches of suitable habitats with high population densities that were missed by sampling. The model-based approach provided an abundance estimate of 213300 individuals (95% confidence interval between 97600-466000 individuals), which renders the fan mussel population of Gera Gulf the largest recorded population in Greece. Population density peaked between 1.5-8 m depth and became practically zero at depths >15 m. A bathymetric segregation of fan mussel size classes was noted, with the density of small individuals peaking in shallow waters, while that of large individuals peaked deeper. The highest population densities were observed in Posidonia oceanica meadows, followed by mixed bottoms (with reefs, rocks and sandy patches), while densities were very low on sandy and zero on muddy sediments. The current assessment provides a baseline for future monitoring of the fan mussel population in Gera Gulf. In view of the current (2017-2018) ongoing mass mortality of the species in the western Mediterranean, continuous monitoring of the main fan mussel populations, such as the one in Gera Gulf, is of utmost importance.
Bank Cleanups, Capitalization and Lending: Evidence from India

We examine the Indian bank asset quality review, which doubled the declared loan delinquency rate. Relative economic stability during the exercise and the absence of a capital backstop together make it unique. We find that the expected reduction in information asymmetry does not automatically lead to the recapitalization of banks by markets. The consequent undercapitalization leads to underinvestment and risk-shifting through zombie lending. The impact flows to the real economy through borrowers, including shadow banks, and adversely impacts growth. These findings show that bank cleanup exercises not accompanied by policies aimed at recapitalization may be insufficient even during normal times.
Proline-106 EPSPS Mutation Imparting Glyphosate Resistance in Goosegrass (Eleusine indica) Emerges in South America

Abstract Glyphosate-resistant (GR) goosegrass [Eleusine indica (L.) Gaertn. ] was recently identified in Brazil, but its resistance mechanism was unknown. This study elucidated the resistance mechanism in this species and developed a molecular marker for rapid detection of this target-site resistance trait. The resistance factor for the resistant biotype was 4.4-fold compared with the glyphosate-susceptible (GS) in greenhouse dose–response experiments. This was accompanied by a similar (4-fold) difference in the levels of in vitro and in planta shikimate accumulation in these biotypes. However, there was no difference in uptake, translocation, or metabolism of glyphosate between the GS and GR biotypes. Moreover, both biotypes showed similar values for 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) copy number and transcription. Sequencing of a 330-bp fragment of the EPSPS gene identified a single-nucleotide polymorphism that led to a Pro-106-Ser amino acid substitution in the enzyme from the GR biotype. This mutation imparted a 3.8-fold increase in the amount of glyphosate required to inhibit 50% of EPSPS activity, confirming the role of this amino acid substitution in resistance to glyphosate. A quantitative PCR–based genotyping assay was developed for the rapid detection of resistant plants containing this Pro-106-Ser mutation.
Brunei Publications in the Science Citation Index Expanded (1973-2016): Bibliometrics and comparison with other tropical countries

Brunei is a small tropical country located in southeast Asia for which there are no previous bibliometric studies. Here we analyze papers published by Brunei scientists from 1973 to 2016 in the Science Citation Index Expanded and compare results with other tropical countries. We identified 1 547 publications and 11 document types. The most productive categories were ecology, multidisciplinary geosciences, inorganic and nuclear chemistry, and environmental sciences. Singapore Medical Journal published most of these papers, and the three most productive institutions were Universiti Brunei Darussalam, RIPAS Hospital, and Universiti Teknologi Brunei. UK and Malaysia were the most frequent collaborating countries. M.A. Ali from the Universiti Brunei Darussalam was the most prolific author and a Brunei independent article written by C.K. Morley from the Universiti Brunei Darussalam in 2002 had the highest number of citations of the whole period and the highest number in 2016. The tropical countries of Central America and Asia have a few similarities but also important differences, and both are highly heterogeneous in scientific organization and productivity.
Numeracy Level, Mathematics Problem Skills, and Financial Literacy

The study aimed to identify the correlation of numeracy level and mathematics problem solving ability to the respondents' financial literacy. The correlational research design was used in the study with the scores on the numeracy level and mathematics problem solving skills of the respondents, which were correlated to the scores on financial knowledge, financial behavior, and financial attitude as the domains of financial literacy. There were 563 grade 9 and 10 respondents from Masaya Integrated National High School (MINHS) and Laguna Science Integrated High School (LSIHS). Data were collected using the validated instrument to measure the given variables. This instrument reported an overall reliability index of α = 0.94. The statistical tools applied for the treatment of data gathered were frequency, percent, mean, and Pearson Product Moment of Correlation Coefficient. The study found out that the respondents have an average level of numeracy, problem solving ability, and financial literacy. The findings revealed that there is a significant and positive correlation between numeracy and financial literacy. Similarly, it was revealed that a substantial and direct relationship between problem-solving ability and financial literacy exists. Based on the results of the study, it is recommended that financial literacy may complement mathematics subject. The school and stakeholders may collaborate in providing number of training for teachers to help sustain student numeracy, problem-solving ability, and financial literacy.
Changes of Sugar and Starch Levels in Ambient Stored Potato Derived from TPS

The experiment was conducted at the Laboratory of Agronomy Department, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh during March to August 2013 to study the influence of variety and date of harvesting on changes of sugar and starch levels of potato derived from TPS at ambient storage condition. Potato variety and time of harvest had significant effect on nutritional aspects. Reducing sugar, total sugar increased with advancing storage period, whereas specific gravity, non-reducing sugar and starch content decreased with increasing storage period. Among the varieties HPS 364/67 was the best in respect of nutritional aspects. At harvest and 100 days after storage, the highest total sugar (0.61% and 0.82%) was observed from Lady Rosetta and harvest at 110 days after planting, while the lowest total sugar from HPS-364/67 and harvest at 80 days after planting. The results revealed that HPS 364/67 showed superior nutritional quality than other varieties when harvested at 100 days after planting.
Bayesian inference of metabolic kinetics from genome-scale multiomics data

Modern biological tools generate a wealth of data on metabolite and protein concentrations that can be used to help inform new strain designs. However, integrating these data sources to generate predictions of steady-state metabolism typically requires a kinetic description of the enzymatic reactions that occur within a cell. Parameterizing these kinetic models from biological data can be computationally difficult, especially as the amount of data increases. Robust methods must also be able to quantify the uncertainty in model parameters as a function of the available data, which can be particularly computationally intensive. The field of Bayesian inference offers a wide range of methods for estimating distributions in parameter uncertainty. However, these techniques are poorly suited to kinetic metabolic modeling due to the complex kinetic rate laws typically employed and the resulting dynamic system that must be solved. In this paper, we employ linear-logarithmic kinetics to simplify the calculation of steady-state flux distributions and enable efficient sampling and variational inference methods. We demonstrate that detailed information on the posterior distribution of kinetic model parameters can be obtained efficiently at a variety of different problem scales, including large-scale kinetic models trained on multiomics datasets. These results allow modern Bayesian machine learning tools to be leveraged in understanding biological data and developing new, efficient strain designs.
Tidal and Storm Impacts on Hydrodynamics and Sediment Dynamics in an Energetic Ebb Tidal Delta

Bottom-mounted instrumentation was deployed at two sites on a large sandy shoal of an ebb tidal delta offshore of the Port Royal Sound of South Carolina of USA to collect hydrodynamics and sediment dynamics data. One site (“borrow site”) was 2 km offshore in a dredge pit for nearby beach nourishment and the other site (“reference site”) was 10 km offshore. In situ time-series data were collected during two periods after the dredging: 15 March–12 June (spring) and 18 August–18 November (fall) of 2012. Data at the reference site indicated active migrating bedforms from centimeters to decimeters tall, and sediment concentrations were highly associated with semidiurnal and fortnightly tidal cycles. In the fall deployment, waves at the reference site were higher than those at the shallow borrow site. Both Tropical Storm Beryl and Hurricane Sandy formed high waves and strong currents but did not generate the greatest sediment fluxes. The two sites were at different depths and distances offshore, and waves contributed more to sediment mobility at the reference site whereas tidal forcing was the key controlling factor at the borrow site. This study provides valuable datasets for the selection of sites, prediction of pit infilling, and the modeling of storm impact in future beach nourishment and coastal restoration projects.
Interacting forces of predation and fishing affect species’ maturation size

Abstract Fishing is a strong selective force and is supposed to select for earlier maturation at smaller body size. However, the extent to which fishing‐induced evolution is shaping ecosystems remains debated. This is in part because it is challenging to disentangle fishing from other selective forces (e.g., size‐structured predation and cannibalism) in complex ecosystems undergoing rapid change. Changes in maturation size from fishing and predation have previously been explored with multi‐species physiologically structured models but assumed separation of ecological and evolutionary timescales. To assess the eco‐evolutionary impact of fishing and predation at the same timescale, we developed a stochastic physiologically size‐structured food‐web model, where new phenotypes are introduced randomly through time enabling dynamic simulation of species' relative maturation sizes under different types of selection pressures. Using the model, we carried out a fully factorial in silico experiment to assess how maturation size would change in the absence and presence of both fishing and predation (including cannibalism). We carried out ten replicate stochastic simulations exposed to all combinations of fishing and predation in a model community of nine interacting fish species ranging in their maximum sizes from 10 g to 100 kg. We visualized and statistically analyzed the results using linear models. The effects of fishing on maturation size depended on whether or not predation was enabled and differed substantially across species. Fishing consistently reduced the maturation sizes of two largest species whether or not predation was enabled and this decrease was seen even at low fishing intensities (F = 0.2 per year). In contrast, the maturation sizes of the three smallest species evolved to become smaller through time but this happened regardless of the levels of predation or fishing. For the four medium‐size species, the effect of fishing was highly variable with more species showing significant and larger fishing effects in the presence of predation. Ultimately our results suggest that the interactive effects of predation and fishing can have marked effects on species' maturation sizes, but that, at least for the largest species, predation does not counterbalance the evolutionary effect of fishing. Our model also produced relative maturation sizes that are broadly consistent with empirical estimates for many fish species.
Market Power, Growth, and Inclusion: The South African Experience

Before the pandemic, the South African economy remained stuck in low gear, with anemic growth, stagnant private investment, and a shrinking tradable sector. Subdued growth has raised unemployment, poverty, and inequality, hindering inclusion efforts. The pandemic has worsened economic and social vulnerabilities. Economic recovery and social inclusion hinge critically on structural reforms to boost competiveness and growth. Product markets represent a cornerstone of the reform strategy. Firms have used their market power to drive up prices and limit competition. Important state-owned monopolies provide low-quality services, while representing a fiscal drag. Existing regulations inhibit the entry of both domestic and foreign firms. Addressing product markets constraints could boost per capita growth by 1 percentage point—adding about 2½ percentage points to headline growth—and foster greater inclusion.
Occupancy of freshwater turtles across a gradient of altered landscapes

Turtles are one of the most threatened groups of vertebrates worldwide. In the 19 northeastern United States, a legacy of centuries of dramatic landscape alteration has affected 20 freshwater turtle populations, but the relationships between the current landscape and 21 distributions and abundances of freshwater turtles remain poorly understood. We used a stratified 22 random approach to select 88 small, isolated wetlands across a gradient of forest cover 23 throughout Rhode Island, USA, and systematically sampled freshwater turtles in these wetlands. 24 We report estimates of relative abundance and used a canonical correspondence analysis to 25 investigate relationships between species relative abundance and environmental covariates. We also investigated which environmental covariates affect the occurrence and detection 27 probabilities of each species. Eastern painted turtles ( Chrysemys picta picta ) and common 28 snapping turtles ( Chelydra serpentina ) were widespread (occurring in 83% and 63% of wetlands, 29 respectively) and relatively abundant. Spotted turtles ( Clemmys guttata ) were far less common, 30 occurring in 8% of wetlands, and exhibited a positive association with shallow wetlands 31 surrounded by forest. Non-native red-eared sliders ( Trachemys scripta elegans ) occurred in 10% 32 of wetlands and exhibited a positive association with road density, likely reflecting a positive 33 relationship between slider occurrence and human population density. Identifying landscape- 34 scale habitat features that are associated with the occurrence of sensitive species can improve the 35 ability of biologists to identify and protect turtle populations.
Preferensi konsumen dalam menggunakan quick response code indonesia standard (qris) sebagai alat pembayaran digital

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui preferensi atau minat masyarakat terhadap pemberlakuan Quick Response Code Indonesia Standard (QRIS) oleh Bank Indonesia pada tanggal 1 Januari 2020 sebagai alat transaksi pembayaran digital. Pengukuran preferensi tersebut menggunakan beberapa faktor yang mempengaruhi persepsi individu dalam pengambilan keputusan, yaitu persepsi kemudahan, persepsi kepercayaan, persepsi kemanfaatan dan persepsi risiko. Metode yang digunakan dalam pengumpulan data adalah kuesioner dengan skala Likert dan pengolahan data menggunakan regresi logistik biner (regresi logit). Berdasarkan pengumpulan data yang dilakukan diperoleh total responden sebanyak empat puluh enam orang yang mewakili beberapa kalangan masyarakat. Dari hasil pengolahan data diperoleh bahwa secara simultan seluruh faktor persepsi memiliki pengaruh terhadap preferensi konsumen menggunakan QRIS sebagai alat transaksi pembayaran digital, sedangkan berdasarkan hasil pengujian individual, faktor persepsi kemanfaatan memiliki pengaruh signifikan terhadap minat penggunaan QRIS, sedangkan faktor persepsi lainnya diperoleh hasil berpengaruh tidak signifikan terhadap minat konsumen dalam menggunakan QRIS. Hal ini sesuai dengan hasil odd ratio bahwa kecenderungan atau peluang persepsi kemanfaatan mempengaruhi minat konsumen dalam menggunakan QRIS sebesar 99,549 kali.
Two Spatially Distinct Posterior Alpha Sources Fulfill Different Functional Roles in Attention

Directing attention helps to extract relevant information and suppress distracters. Alpha brain oscillations (8–12 Hz) are crucial for this process, with power decreases facilitating processing of important information and power increases inhibiting brain regions processing irrelevant information. Evidence for this phenomenon arises from visual attention studies (Worden et al., 2000); however, the effect also exists in other modalities, including the somatosensory system (Haegens et al., 2011) and intersensory attention tasks (Foxe and Snyder, 2011). We investigated in human participants (10 females, 10 males) the role of alpha oscillations in focused (0/100%) versus divided (40/60%) attention, both across modalities (visual/somatosensory; Experiment 1) and within the same modality (visual domain: across hemifields; Experiment 2) while recording EEG over 128 scalp electrodes. In Experiment 1, participants divided their attention between visual and somatosensory modality to determine the temporal/spatial frequency of a target stimulus (vibrotactile stimulus/Gabor grating). In Experiment 2, participants divided attention between two visual hemifields to identify the orientation of a Gabor grating. In both experiments, prestimulus alpha power in visual areas decreased linearly with increasing attention to visual stimuli. In contrast, prestimulus alpha power in parietal areas was lower when attention was divided between modalities/hemifields compared with focused attention. These results suggest there are two alpha sources, one of which reflects the “visual spotlight of attention” and the other reflects attentional effort. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show that attention recruits two spatially distinct alpha sources in occipital and parietal brain regions, acting simultaneously but serving different functions in attention. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Attention to one spatial location/sensory modality leads to power changes of alpha oscillations (∼10 Hz) with decreased power over regions processing relevant information and power increases to actively inhibit areas processing “to-be-ignored” information. Here, we used detailed source modeling to investigate EEG data recorded during separate unimodal (visual) and multimodal (visual and somatosensory) attention tasks. Participants either focused their attention on one modality/spatial location or directed it to both. We show for the first time two distinct alpha sources are active simultaneously but play different roles. A sensory (visual) alpha source was linearly modulated by attention representing the “visual spotlight of attention. ” By contrast, a parietal alpha source was modulated by attentional effort, showing lowest alpha power when attention was divided.