Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Associations of genetic and infectious risk factors with coronary heart disease

Background and Purpose. Coronary heart disease (CHD) is one of the most pressing health problems of our time and a major cause of preventable death. CHD results from complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors. Using multiplex serological testing for persistent or frequently recurring infections and genome-wide analysis in a prospective population study, we delineate the respective and combined influences of genetic variation, infections, and low-grade inflammation on the risk of incident CHD. Participants and Methods. Study participants are enrolled in the CoLaus|PsyCoLaus study, a longitudinal, population-based cohort with baseline assessments from 2003 through 2008 and follow-up visits every five years. We analyzed a subgroup of 3'459 individuals with available genome-wide genotyping data and immunoglobulin G levels for 22 persistent or frequently recurring pathogens. All reported CHD events were evaluated by a panel of specialists. We identified independent associations with incident CHD using univariable and multi-variable stepwise Cox proportional hazards regression analyses. Results. Of the 3'459 study participants, 210 (6.07%) had at least one CHD event during the 12 years of follow-up. Multivariable stepwise Cox regression analysis, adjusted for known cardiovascular risk factors, socioeconomic status and statin intake, revealed that high polygenic risk (hazard ratio (HR) 1.31, 95% CI 1.10-156, P = 2.64e-03) and infection with Fusobacterium nucleatum (HR 1.63, 95% CI 1.08-2.45, P = 1.99e-02) were independently associated with incident CHD. Conclusion. In a prospective, population-based cohort, high polygenic risk and infection with Fusobacterium nucleatum have a small, yet independent impact on CHD risk.
Persistent Racial Disparities in Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson's Disease

We sought to determine whether racial and socioeconomic disparities in the utilization of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson's disease (PD) have improved over time. We examined DBS utilization and analyzed factors associated with placement of DBS. The odds of DBS placement increased across the study period, whereas White patients with PD were 5 times more likely than Black patients to undergo DBS. Individuals, regardless of racial background, with 2 or more comorbidities were 14 times less likely to undergo DBS. Privately insured patients were 1.6 times more likely to undergo DBS. Despite increasing DBS utilization, significant disparities persist in access to DBS. ANN NEUROL 2022;92:246–254
Influence of Diaphragm Flexibility on Seismic Response of Unreinforced Masonry Buildings

The effects of diaphragm flexibility on the seismic response of low-rise unreinforced masonry buildings are examined using one-way stiffness- and strength-eccentric single-story systems subjected to unidirectional ground excitation. A wide range of diaphragm stiffnesses are considered. Results show that diaphragm flexibility can induce different effects depending on the configuration of the system and the level of diaphragm flexibility. When diaphragm is relatively stiff, amplified displacement demands can be imposed on the flexible side of the structure. When diaphragm is relatively flexible, peak displacements of in-plane loaded walls generally reduce. A diaphragm classification is developed to capture these salient effects.
Adoption of Life Cycle Cost Analysis in Early Design Phases of Road Bridges

The last years, the concern of life cycle cost of new bridges has increased. The Swedish Transport Administration has introduced the idea of using life cycle cost as a decisive factor in their procurement of bridges in order to use resources in the most efficient way, which is both economically and environmentally preferable. A full life cycle cost analysis requires large amounts of data and knowledge in order to be thoroughly performed. The aim of this thesis was to construct a tool to perform a simplified life cycle cost analysis of Swedish bridges. To be able to meet the aim, a literature study concerning bridges, life cycle cost analysis and procurement of infrastructure in Sweden, was carried out. Further, investment costs of existing bridges in Sweden were gathered and analysed together with data of performed maintenance measures, also from existing records. The result was an Excel-based program, SimpleBridgeLCC, that consisted of two parts. The first part calculated the investment cost, based on cost records of already built bridges. The second part calculated the total maintenance cost as net present value based on maintenance performance intervals and the cost of maintenance measures. The main outcome of the thesis was an indicative LCCA-program, SimpleBridgeLCC, specified for road bridges in Sweden, which was easy to use for a person with basic bridge knowledge.
Fuzzy logic based rotor resistance estimator of an indirect vector controlled induction motor drive

A simple method for estimating rotor resistance in an indirect vector-controlled induction motor drive is proposed in this paper. The proposed rotor resistance estimator which uses fuzzy logic principle is based on the improvement of control performance when mismatch between estimated rotor resistance and actual one occurs. Analysis, design, and digital simulations are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed estimator. Moreover, simplicity and direct approach for estimating the rotor resistance are other significant features for the described method.
Thermoelastic influence on the performance of film bulk acoustic wave resonators

Film Bulk Acoustic wave Resonators (FBAR’s) are a promising new technology for high performance resonators in the GHz-range. FBAR’s can provide higher Q-factors and higher coupling efficency than the typical high performance resonators, such as SAW-resonators and similar technologies. To achieve the highest possible performance for these devices, the losses needs to be minimalized. At such high frequencies, the loss effects can have a huge influence on the total performance, and it is very useful to gain better knowledge about these loss effects. This thesis’ main goal is to investigate the thermoelastic loss effects in the metal contacts on the FBAR structure. Due to this metallization of the FBAR’s, thermal losses can occur in the metal layer which can cause a degrading of the performance. An analytical model will be developed for both thermal and non-thermal influence. The model will then be realized in Matlab, in order to quantify the performance of the FBAR with the different contact materials. The Qfactor and effective coupling factor are important parameters which will be used to compare the performance. Due to finding an important error in the Matlab code, most of the results has proven to be wrong. Unfortunately, the lack of time at the end of the project didn’t give me any chance to reproduce all the plots. Nevertheless I’ve done calculations on Aluminium at 5 GHz, aluminium is widely used as a contact material in RF-Mems. The correct results will be shown at the presentation of the thesis.
Modeling and correction of soil penetration resistance for variations in soil moisture and soil bulk density

This study aimed to describe the behavior of models for adjusting data of soil penetration resistance for variations in soil moisture and soil bulk density. The study was carried out in Lucas do Rio Verde, MT, Brazil in a typic dystrophic red-yellow Latosol (Oxisol) containing 0.366 kg kg−1 of clay. Soil penetration resistance measurements were conducted in the soil moistures of 0.33 kg kg−1, 0.28 kg kg−1, 0.25 kg kg−1 and 0.22 kg kg−1. Soil penetration resistance behavior due to variations in soil moisture and soil bulk density was assessed by estimating the soil resistance values by non-linear models. There was an increase of the soil penetration resistance values as soil was losing moisture. For the same edaphic condition studied, small differences in the data of soil bulk density affect differently the response of soil resistance as a function of moisture. Both soil bulk density and soil moisture are essential attributes to explain the variations in soil penetration resistance in the field. The good representation of the critical soil bulk density curve as a limiting compression indicator requires the proper choice of the restrictive soil resistance value for each crop.
Factors associated with health insurance ownership among women of reproductive age: A multicountry study in sub-Saharan Africa

Background Promoting the coverage and ownership of health insurance constitutes a key strategy to achieving universal healthcare, thereby meeting the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 3.8) of safeguarding the vulnerable population from financial risk resulting from catastrophic health expenditures. In sub-Saharan Africa, accessing medical services is particularly challenging among women due to inadequate opportunities for socio-economic empowerment and meeting their unique healthcare needs. The present study aimed to explore the sociodemographic factors associated with health insurance ownership among women in selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods We extracted cross-sectional data on health insurance ownership and conceptually relevant sociodemographic variables on women aged 15–49 years from Demographic and Health Surveys on five selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa (n = 55,438), including Burkina Faso, DR Congo, Cameroon, Gabon and Kenya. Data were analyzed using descriptive and multivariate regression analysis, and the associations were reported in terms of average marginal effects. Results Data revealed considerable cross-country variation in health insurance ownership: Gabon (57.9%), Kenya (6.1%), DR Congo (2.8%), Cameroon (1.1%), Burkina Faso (0.4%). In the multivariate regression analysis, women’s age, marital status, place of residency, educational level, household wealth status, employment, and media access were significant predictors of insurance ownership. The associations were generally similar across the five countries, with higher age, better educational level and wealth status showing a consistently positive relationship with insurance ownership. Conclusion Our findings revealed striking inequality in health insurance ownership among the studied countries, which should be given due attention to achieving universal healthcare-related goals. There also exist considerable sociodemographic disparities in health insurance ownership among women that should be addressed using context-specific programmatic interventions. Our findings revealed striking inequality in health insurance ownership among the studied countries, which should be given due attention to achieving universal healthcare-related goals. There also exist considerable sociodemographic disparities in health insurance ownership among women that should be addressed using context-specific programmatic interventions.
Low levels of soluble DPP4 among Saudis may have constituted a risk factor for MERS endemicity

Most of the cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) were reported in Saudi Arabia. Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4) was identified as the receptor for the virus. The level of soluble DPP4 (sDPP4) was found to be reduced in MERS-CoV infected patients while high levels of sDPP4 were suggested to be protective against MERS-CoV in animal models. We investigated whether the Saudi population has lower levels of sDPP4 which makes them more susceptible to MERS-CoV infection and, therefore, could explain the larger number of cases from the country. Blood samples were collected from 219 Saudi blood donors and 200 blood donors from other ethnic groups. The plasma level of sDPP4 was measured by ELISA and the following SNPs in the DPP4 gene; rs35128070, rs1861978, rs79700168, and rs17574, were genotyped by TaqMan SNP genotyping assay. The average level of plasma sDDP4 was significantly lower in Saudis than other Arabs and non-Arabs (P value 0.0003 and 0.012, respectively). The genotypes AG of rs35128070 and GT of rs1861978 were significantly associated with lower sDPP4 among Saudis (P value 0.002 for each). While both genotypes AA and AG of rs79700168 and rs17574 were associated with significantly lower average sDPP4 level in Saudis compared to other ethnic groups (P value 0.031 and 0.032, and 0.027 and 0.014, respectively). Herein, we report that the Saudi population has lower levels of plasma sDPP4 than other ethnic groups, which is associated with genetic variants in the DPP4 gene. This may have contributed to increase the susceptibility of the Saudi population to MERS-CoV infection and could be a factor in the long-lasting persistence of the virus in the country.
Does GPA matter for university graduates’ wages? New evidence revisited

This paper examines the effect of GPA on graduating students’ wages using a data set from an elite university in China. Students are homogenous since their majors are closely related to economics and business The OLS regression results indicate that GPA has positive and significant impacts on wages on average. As GPA increases by 1 unit, the starting monthly wage increases by 29.6 percent on average, and the wage in the survey year that is 3–5 years after graduation (current wage) soars by 25 percent. Theoretically, the GPA matters for the wages due to both the human capital or signaling effect. Given that the signaling effect should diminish over time, and the effect on starting wage is a little larger than that on current wage, it is suggested that signaling effect of GPA should be trivial, and high GPA is associated with high wage should be mainly due to the human capital effect. These results are robust to different model specifications. The distributional analysis suggest that the effects are positive for both wages and significant for almost all quantiles. In addition, the effect is basically the same from the 0.05th to 0.80th quantiles, and then rises as the starting wage increases. The effect on current wage is a U shape from the 0.05th to 0.60th quantile, and then becomes an inverse-U shape with peaks at the 0.75th and 0.80th quantiles where the effect is 82.2 percent when GPA increases by one unit.
Soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor 2 is associated with progressive diabetic kidney disease in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Background Chronic low-grade inflammation is considered one of the major mechanisms for the progression of diabetic kidney disease. We investigated the prognostic value of circulating soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor 2 (sTNFR2) for early nephropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes. Materials and methods A total of 364 patients with type 2 diabetes and an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ≥30 mL/min/1.73m2 were followed up for a median of 4 years. Renal outcomes were defined as a composite of either or both a >30% decline in the eGFR and/or albuminuria stage progression determined with consecutive tests. Results Seventy-three patients developed renal composite events. Serum concentrations of sTNFR2 were strongly associated with the risk of renal function decline and progressive changes in albuminuria. Through a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, a serum sTNFR2 level of 1.608 ng/mL was adopted as the discriminator value for predicting renal outcomes (area under the curve 0.63, 95% confidence interval 0.57–0.70, p < 0.001), yielding a sensitivity of 75.3% and a specificity of 51.2%. The association of sTNFR2 levels ≥1.608 ng/mL to renal outcomes was significant after adjusting for relevant variables (hazard ratio 2.27, 95% confidence interval 1.23–4.20, p = 0.009) and remained consistent across subgroups stratified by age, sex, systolic blood pressure, eGFR, albuminuria, and the use of renin-angiotensin system blockers. Conclusions Higher circulating levels of sTNFR2 are independently associated with an eGFR decline and progressive albuminuria in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Alzheimer disease stages identification based on correlation transfer function system using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects the quality of life as it causes; memory loss, difficulty in thinking, learning, and performing familiar tasks. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) has been widely used to investigate and analyze different brain regions for AD identification. This study investigates the effectiveness of using correlated transfer function (CorrTF) as a new biomarker to extract the essential features from rs-fMRI, along with support vector machine (SVM) ordered hierarchically, in order to distinguish between the different AD stages. Additionally, we explored the regions, showing significant changes based on the CorrTF extracted features’ strength among different AD stages. First, the process was initialized by applying the preprocessing on rs-fMRI data samples to reduce noise and retain the essential information. Then, the automated anatomical labeling (AAL) atlas was employed to divide the brain into 116 regions, where the intensity time series was calculated, and the CorrTF features were extracted for each region. The proposed framework employed the SVM classifier in two different methodologies, hierarchical and flat multi-classification schemes, to differentiate between the different AD stages for early detection purposes. The ADNI rs-fMRI dataset, employed in this study, consists of 167, 102, 129, and 114 normal, early, late mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and AD subjects, respectively. The proposed schemes achieved an average accuracy of 98.2% and 95.5% for hierarchical and flat multi-classification tasks, respectively, calculated using ten folds cross-validation. Therefore, CorrTF is considered a promising biomarker for AD early-stage identification. Moreover, the significant changes in the strengths of CorrTF connections among the different AD stages can help us identify and explore the affected brain regions and their latent associations during the progression of AD.
Ratings of the Effectiveness of Warnings on Consumer Paint Stripper Products

Accidental inhalation of vapors from paint stripper products containing methylene chloride has resulted in injuries and deaths. Warnings on paint stripper products may play a role in reducing the number and severity of injuries resulting from using them. Warning labels consistent with Federal Hazardous Substances Act (FHSA) and American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Z535.4 formatting were evaluated by 159 university students and by 173 Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers. Results indicated that both groups rated the ANSI-formatted warnings as more effective (more likely to be noticed, read, understood, and followed) than the FHSA-formatted warnings, providing support for both use of crowdsourcing as a reliable and valid source for study participants to evaluate warnings, as well as for updating FHSA labeling requirements to include evidence-based guidelines on warning effectiveness. Implications for future research are discussed.
Temperature-driven selection on metabolic traits increases the strength of an algal-grazer interaction in naturally warmed streams

Trophic interactions are important determinants of the structure and functioning of ecosystems. As the metabolism and consumption rates of ectotherms increase sharply with temperature, there are major concerns that global warming will increase the strength of trophic interactions, destabilizing food webs, and altering ecosystem structure and function. We used geothermally warmed streams that span a ∼10°C temperature gradient to investigate the interplay between temperature-driven selection on traits related to metabolism and resource acquisition, and the interaction strength between the keystone gastropod grazer, the wandering snail Radix balthica, and a common algal resource. Populations from a warm stream (∼28°C) had higher maximal metabolic rates and optimal temperatures than their counterparts from a cold stream (∼17°C). We found that metabolic rates of the population originating from a warmer stream were higher across all measurement temperatures. A reciprocal transplant experiment demonstrated that the interaction strengths between the grazer and its algal resource were highest for both populations when transplanted into the warm stream. In line with the thermal dependence of respiration, interaction strengths of grazers from the warm stream were always higher than those of grazers from the cold stream. These findings suggest that warming can increase the strength of algal-grazer interactions through the thermodynamic effects of higher temperatures on physiological rates as well as through correlated increases in per capita metabolism and consumption.
The favorable prognostic value of the loss of sex chromosomes in patients with t(8;21) acute myeloid leukemia: an exploratory study

ABSTRACT Background Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with t(8;21) is generally associated with a favorable clinical course. Loss of sex chromosome (LOS) are frequently observed in t (8;21) AML, but the prognostic value of LOS remains uncertain. Methods A total of 73 patients with AML with t(8;21) were studied and divided into t(8;21) with LOS group (n = 36) and t(8;21) alone group (n = 37). The patients with t(8;21) AML with ACAs other than LOS were excluded. The clinical characteristics of these two groups were compared, and the prognostic value of LOS was evaluated based on disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Results The clinical characteristics (except for gender) were found to have no significant difference between these two groups, and the male patients tended to account for a larger proportion in the former group (P = .001). The OS of the t(8;21) AML with LOS group was significantly longer than that of the t(8;21) AML alone group (P = .005). While not obvious, the patients with LOS seemed to have longer DFS (P = .061). The multivariable analysis also showed LOS to be an independent favorable prognostic factor of t(8;21) AML (P = .022). Conclusions Our results suggested that LOS could be associated with a favorable prognosis in t(8;21) AML patients without other ACAs, and for this subtype of AML, longer DFS and a satisfactory and stable survival can be achieved with high-dose cytarabine (HDAC) consolidation treatment.
Using Technology Tools to Innovate Assessment, Reporting, and Teaching Practices in Engineering Education

Dr. Firoz Alam is an Associate Professor and Deputy Head of School for Teaching & Learning in the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at RMIT University. He completed his PhD in road vehicle aerodynamics and aero-acoustics from the same university in 2000. He completed his Masters degree combined with Bachelors degree in aeronautical engineering with 1st class honours from Riga Civil Aviation Engineers Institute, Latvia in 1991. Dr. Alam’s research interest is in road vehicle aerodynamics, train aerodynamics, sports aerodynamics, HVAC, noise and vibration. He has also strong interest in continuous improvement of teaching and learning methodology and offshore learning in engineering education. Associate Professor Alam has developed “a there step teaching and learning method for thermo-fluid labs” for undergraduate engineering students. He was a recipient of 2004 RMIT University Teaching Award. He has over 150 peer reviewed publications that include scholarly book, book chapters, journal articles and conference papers. • Educational Technologies • Curriculum Development • Best Practices in Educational Technology • Collaborative Software • Course Material Development • Transnational Education Many can now conclude that utilizing educational technologies can be considered the primary tools to inspire stu-