Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phytoremediation: an environmentally sound technology for pollution prevention, control and remediation in developing countries

The problem of environmental pollution has assumed an unprecedented proportion in many parts of the world especially in Nigeria and its Niger-Delta region in particular. This region is bedeviled with this problem perhaps owing to interplay of demographic and socio-economic forces coupled with the various activities that revolve round the exploration for and exploitation of large deposit of crude oil discovered there. Many methods and processes of preventing, removing and or correcting the negative effects of pollutants released into the environments exist but their application in this country for this purpose has either been poorly implemented or not at all, a situation that is worsening owing probably to claims of lack of virile regulatory bodies and overwhelming dependence of government on crude oil for income. Studies have shown that the livelihood of local inhabitants largely depend on renewable natural resources which is environment dependent, thus, it is imperative that the environment should be sustainably managed in order to continue serving this function through comparatively cheaper means, one of which phytoremediation is. The objective of this review is to discuss phytoremediation studies using in-situ techniques and their potentials as a remediation technique that utilizes the agelong inherent abilities of living plants to remove pollutants from the environment but which is yet to become a commercially available technology in many parts of the world including Nigeria.
Rest–grazing before soil thawing alters the below‐ground distribution and extent of rooting in Carex subalpine meadows

Livestock activities impact plant rhizomes and roots in the topsoil, particularly in the early stages of spring for a Carex subalpine meadow. Rest–grazing during critical periods can prevent harm to these roots and rhizomes caused by livestock, thereby enhancing the ecological performance of grasslands. In accordance with soil thawing and plant re‐greening, we designated five rest–grazing periods during the spring in a Carex subalpine meadows. The findings demonstrate that the topsoil of 0–10 cm, largely consisting of Carex roots, housed over 70% of root volume and root mass. After the plant had regained its greenery for a certain duration, rest–grazing resulted in higher vertical root length distribution index. With earlier rest–grazing, root growth in deeper soil was promoted, consequently transporting more organic material to the deeper soil. Deferred rest–grazing time has the potential to enhance lateral rooting extent, root resistance to vertical uprooting, and root accumulation in topsoil. It follows that increased root accumulation in the topsoil leads to greater loss of soil nutrients and carbon. Consequently, we recommend rest–grazing prior to soil thawing for Carex subalpine meadows, which encourages Carex root growth and fosters greater biomass accumulation in deeper soils. Avoiding “running for the green” and “trampling tillage” has a positive effect on both productivity and long‐term soil nutrients and carbon pool management in pastures.
Rb-Sr isotopic ages from late Palaeozoic metamorphic rocks of central Chile

Two metamorphic complexes of different lithology and structure crop out in the coast ranges of central Chile. The Tanumé metamorphics to the E, which belong to a low P/T series derived from a continental platform clastic sedimentary sequence, give a whole rock isochron age of 347 ± 32 (2σ) Ma and the accreted Pichilemu metamorphics to the W, an age of 311 ±10(2σ) Ma. The latter consist of stilpnomelane-bearing cherts, crossite-bearing metabasites and siliceous metapelites. An errorchron of c. 370 Ma was obtained from sillimanite-cordierite gneisses of the low P/T series. Different provenance of the protoliths is indicated by the higher Sr87/Sr86 initial ratios of the Tanumé rocks (0.7124 ± 0.0007 (2σ) relative to the Pichilemu rocks (0.7060 ± 0.0005 (2σ), which were more affected than the former by the main (D2) phase of deformation and metamorphism in the area.
Investigation of Subjective Well-Being Levels of Disabled Individuals Doing and Not Doing Sport

This study offers a comparative analysis of the subjective well-being of disabled individuals according to whether they do sport or not. The study was designed as a quantitative research. It is seen in the positive psychology literature that research on quality of life accelerate research on subjective well-being. Subjective well-being affects almost all aspects of life, and therefore, the fact that children, adolescents, adults and disabled people lead a healthy life is directly related to their level of well-being. The aim of this study is to investigate the subjective well-being levels of visually disabled individuals doing sport and not doing sport and to evaluate the differences between the subjective well-being of disabled individuals who do sport and those who do not. A total of 100 visually disabled individuals voluntarily participated in the study, including disabled individuals doing sport and not doing sport.The Turkish version of the PERMA measurement tool was used to evaluate the well-being of the participants. As a result of the research, disabled individuals who do sport had statistically significantly higher subjective well-being parameters compared to disabled individuals who do not do sport. The results showed that sport or physical activities have positive effects on the life quality of disabled individuals, in social life, in supporting psychological and social development and in maintaining a stable emotional life. Sustainable exercise or sportive social life is recommended for a healthier, dynamic and social life.Keywords: Sport, exercise, physical activity, disabled individuals, subjective well-being.
Right to Occupational Safety: Prevalence of Latent Tuberculosis Infection in Healthcare Workers. A 1-Year Retrospective Survey Carried out at Hospital of Lecce (Italy)

Background: Prevention of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in healthcare workers (HCWs) to ensure the “Right to Occupational Safety” is a special challenge globally, as HCWs have a higher risk of acquiring the infection in hospital settings because of frequent close exposure to patients suffering from tuberculosis (TB). Methods: Aretrospective study was performed with the aim of assessing the prevalence of LTBI related to demographical and occupational risk factors among HCWs employed in a large hospital in Italy. The study involved 1461 HCWs screened for LTBI by Mantoux tuberculin skin test (TST) and then confirmed with Interferon Gamma Release Assay (IGRA) test in case of positivity. Immunosuppressed and BGC-vaccinated workers were tested directly with IGRA. Results: LTBI was diagnosed in 4.1% of the HCWs and the prevalence resulted lower than other studies conducted in low TB incidence countries. The variables significantly linked with higher frequency of the infection were: age ≥40 years (OR = 3.14; 95% CI: 1.13–8.74; p < 0.05), length of service ≥15 years (OR = 4.11; 95% CI: 1.48–11.43; p < 0.05) and not being trained on TB prevention (OR = 3.46; 95% CI: 1.85–6.46; p < 0.05). Not trained HCWs presented a higher risk of LTBI also after adjustment for age and length of service, compared to trained HCWs. Conclusions: screening of HCWs for LTBI should be always considered in routinely occupational surveillance in order to early diagnose the infection and prevent its progression. Safety policies in hospital settings centered on workers’ training on TB prevention is crucial to minimize LTBI occurrence in HCWs.
The Effect of Myofascial Release Technique Applied with Foam Roller on Jumping, Flexibility and Short Distance Swimming Performance in Swimmers

Myofascial release techniques, particularly when applied using foam rollers, have gained prominence in sports science due to their potential benefits in enhancing athletic performance. This study delves into the impact of this technique on swimmers, a group where flexibility, jump capacity, and short-distance speed are paramount.The research engaged 12 male swimmers, all of whom had been active in the sport for a minimum of three years. Their average age stood at 19.58±. 66 years, with an average height of 176.83±8.49 cm and body weight of 75.43±6.62 kg. Following a 5-minute low-intensity warm-up run, participants underwent 10 minutes of dynamic stretching exercises targeting major muscle groups involved in swimming. This was followed by a self-myofascial release (SMR) protocol using foam rollers, focusing on muscle areas most prone to tension and strain in swimmers. These protocols were applied consecutively at 48-hour intervals and at consistent times of the day to ensure uniformity.Post-protocol assessments revealed varying impacts on performance metrics. While the countermovement jump measurements remained statistically unchanged (p0.05), significant improvements were observed in the 15 m swimming (t: 2,307, p: ,041), squat jump (t:,-2,541, p:,027), and flexibility (t:-2,491, p:,030) tests (p0.05). These findings underscore the potential of integrating myofascial release techniques with foam rollers into swimmers' training regimens. Not only does this approach enhance specific performance parameters like squat jump and flexibility, but it also offers broader implications for the athletic community, emphasizing the importance of muscle relaxation and flexibility in achieving peak performance. Future research could delve deeper into the long-term impacts of such techniques and explore their efficacy across different athletic disciplines.Keywords: Flexibility, Foam roller, Jumping, Myofascial Release, Swimming
Feature distillation from vision-language model for semisupervised action classification

: The training of supervised machine learning approaches is critically dependent on annotating large-scale datasets. Semisupervised learning approaches aim to achieve compatible performance with supervised methods using relatively less annotation without sacrificing good generalization capacity. In line with this objective, ways of leveraging unlabeled data have been the subject of intense research. However, semisupervised video action recognition has received relatively less attention compared to image domain implementations. Existing semisupervised video action recognition methods trained from scratch rely heavily on augmentation techniques, complex architectures, and/or the use of other modalities while distillation-based methods use models that have only been trained for 2D computer vision tasks. In another line of work, pretrained vision-language models have shown very promising results for generating general-purpose visual features with reports of high zero-shot performance for many downstream tasks. In this work, we exploit a language-supervised visual encoder for learning video representations for video action classification tasks. We propose a teacher-student learning paradigm through feature distillation and pseudo-labeling. Our experimental results are a proof-of-concept revealing that multimodal feature extractors can be utilized for spatiotemporal feature extraction in a semisupervised learning context and show compatible performance with SOTA methods, especially in a low-label regime.
Zircon as a Monitoring Tool for the Magmatic–Hydrothermal Process in the Granitic Bedrock of Shitouping Ion-Adsorption Heavy Rare Earth Element Deposit, South China

The Shitouping pluton in Jiangxi Province, southern China, hosts an ion-adsorption heavy rare earth element (HREE) deposit identified by a recent geological survey. This study reveals the HREE pre-enrichment mechanism during the magmatic–hydrothermal process of granitic bedrock based on the comprehensive study of zircon structure and composition. Zircon from the Shitouping pluton, composed of syenogranite and monzogranite, can be categorized into three types based on structure and compositions. The Type-1 zircons, the predominate type in monzogranite, are early magmatic zircons with prismatic crystals and bright oscillatory zoning in CL images. In contrast, the late magmatic-hydrothermal zircons (Type-2 and Type-3) mainly occur in the syenogranite. The Type-2 zircons occur as dark CL images and euhedral crystals crystallized during the late magmatic stage. The Type-3 zircons with irregular zoning and abundant mineral inclusions in BSE images are possibly formed via intense hydrothermal alteration during the hydrothermal stage. The increase in Y/Ho ratios from Type-1 to Type-3 zircon indicates that the Shitouping syenogranites underwent magmatic to hydrothermal evolution. Compared with Type-1 and Type-2 zircons, Type-3 zircons exhibit the highest concentrations of F and HREEs. The significant increase in HREE concentrations both in zircons and bulk-rock composition of syenogranite can be attributed to the introduction of HREE-rich fluids during magma evolution. Therefore, we propose that the increase in HREE contents in zircon reflect the exsolution of HREE-rich fluids during a late stage in the magma evolution, which is an important factor controlling HREE enrichment in Shitouping syenogranites and furthermore in the generation of ion-adsorption HREE deposits.
Genetic Basis of Asthma

There is no universally recognized definition of bronchial asthma. Although it is accepted that episodic wheezing and breathlessness are the cardinal symptoms of asthma, patients vary so widely in their clinical presentation that it is difficult to find a set of diagnostic criteria that is both comprehensive and exclusive. The diagnostic criterion most frequently encountered is that of an increase in airflow resistance that is reversible either spontaneously or with treatment. The problem is one of degree of reversibility, since, at one extreme, obstruction to airflow may become fixed when previously it was reversible, and, at the other extreme, a small degree of reversible obstruction may be found in disorders such as chronic bronchitis, whose etiology appears fundamentally different from that of asthma. Bronchial hyperreactivity is the abnormality most commonly ascribed to asthma. Compared with normal subjects, the bronchi of asthmatic individuals tend to have both a decreased stimulus threshold and an increased response for bronchoconstriction. Airflow obstruction arises from the increase in muscle bulk associated with bronchoconstriction together with mucous hypersecretion and edema of the respiratory mucosa. Bronchial hyperreactivity, as assessed by methacholine or histamine challenge, is demonstrable in virtually all patients with asthma, regardless of their sex, age, or atopic status. Therefore it seems probable that clinically different forms of asthma may share a common defect, although the way in which it is manifested may differ among patients.
Twenty Years of Managed Epilepsy for a Stranded Male Guadalupe Fur Seal (Arctocephalus townsendi) Secondary to Suspect Domoic Acid Toxicosis

Many wild otariids (sea lions and fur seals) strand along the California coast annually with seizures following presumed exposure to harmful algal blooms (HABs). This is a long-term case study of a stranded subadult male Guadalupe fur seal (Arctocephalus townsendi) that stranded in 2001 and within days after admission began demonstrating seizure activity. The epilepsy was stabilized with antiepileptic drug (AED) therapy and advanced imaging was performed. Magnetic resonance (MR) scans showed signs of encephalopathy consistent with domoic acid (DA) toxicosis. This fur seal was deemed “non-releasable” and over the following 19 years, he received supportive veterinary care and AED treatment at a permitted facility. In the summer of 2020, the fur seal showed progressive behavioral and functional deterioration whereupon humane euthanasia was performed. Post-mortem MR and diffusion tensor images (DTI) were acquired. A volumetric comparison with historic scans showed evidence of severe progressive unilateral right hippocampal atrophy. Histopathology confirmed severe chronic right and mild left hippocampal atrophy. The progressive degenerative brain changes demonstrate how adaptive brain function can be with neuronal atrophy secondary to DA exposure. This case highlights some considerations and decision-making processes needed for the rehabilitation and placement of wild stranded otariids with acquired epilepsy secondary to DA toxicity.
Nexus Between Monetary Instruments and Bank Credit Distribution: Evidence from ASEAN Countries

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between monetary indicators and bank credit distribution, including inflation, interest rate, and exchange rate in seven ASEAN countries namely Brunei, Indonesia, Philippine, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. This study applied a quantitative approach by engaging multiple regression analysis with panel data using cross-section data from 2012 to 2018. The data in this research was secondary data which gathered from the World Bank website. The findings of this study showed that inflation and interest rate had a negative influence on bank credit distribution, while the exchange rate had a positive effect on bank credit distribution. The study’s result also showed that variable inflation, interest rate, and the exchange rate had a simultaneous effect on bank credit distribution in seven ASEAN countries. These results suggest that for the policy makers in each ASEAN country should be able to consider a lending regulation.
A Study of LDL Status of Stroke Patient Admitted in Tertiary Care Hospital

Background: Stroke is the leading cause of morbidity globally and the second most frequent cause of mortality after ischemic heart disease. Previous findings regarding the relationship between lipids and stroke were debatable. Objective: To observe LDL status of stroke patients in tertiary care hospital. Method: This cross-sectional observational study was conducted in the Medicine Unit of Sir Salimullah Medical College Mitford Hospital, Dhaka from August 2011 to January 2012. A total of 104 patients of any sexes who were clinically present with features of stroke and then confirmed on CT scan were included. Patients were randomly enrolled according to the selection criteria. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Patients demographic profile, co-morbidities, history of TIA, and lipid profile were collected and recorded. Data were presented as frequency with percentage in case of categorical data and mean and standard deviation in case of numerical data. The Chi- Square test and unpaired t test was used to analyze categorical and numerical data respectively. A value of p <0.5 was considered statistically significant. Statistical software SPSS was used for data analysis. Result: The average age was 62.12±11.65 years. The majority of patients (61.5%) were men, while 38.5% were women. Out of 104 patients, 57.7% had high blood pressure, 33.7% had diabetes, 22.1% had IHD, and 26.0% had had a stroke or TIA in the past. 21.2% of the patients used smokeless tobacco, and about 41.3% smoked cigarettes. 73.1 percent of the patients had ischaemic strokes, and the remaining 26.9 percent had hemorrhagic strokes. It was found that dyslipidaemia was more frequently linked to ischaemic stroke than hemorrhagic stroke. Nearly 78.8% of stroke victims had high LDL levels, 44.2% had low HDL levels, 57.7% had high cholesterol, and 57.7% had high triglyceride levels. Patients who had ischaemic strokes were found to have higher levels of LDL than patients who had hemorrhagic strokes, but the difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion: Elevated LDL cholesterol was found higher in ischemic stroke patients than hemorrhagic stroke patients but there was no significant difference. Sir Salimullah Med Coll J 2023; 31: 53-59
Potential effects of regional pumpage on groundwater age distribution

Groundwater ages estimated from environmental tracers can help calibrate groundwater flow models. Groundwater age represents a mixture of traveltimes, with the distribution of ages determined by the detailed structure of the flow field, which can be prone to significant transient variability. Effects of pumping on age distribution were assessed using direct age simulation in a hypothetical layered aquifer system. A steady state predevelopment age distribution was computed first. A well field was then introduced, and pumpage caused leakage into the confined aquifer of older water from an overlying confining unit. Large changes in simulated groundwater ages occurred in both the aquifer and the confining unit at high pumping rates, and the effects propagated a substantial distance downgradient from the wells. The range and variance of ages contributing to the well increased substantially during pumping. The results suggest that the groundwater age distribution in developed aquifers may be affected by transient leakage from low‐permeability material, such as confining units, under certain hydrogeologic conditions.
Optimizing treatment persistence in epilepsy: a comparative analysis of combined antiseizure medications with different mechanisms of action

Background: Combination therapy with antiseizure medications (ASMs) is a rational strategy if monotherapy cannot effectively control seizures, thereby aiming to improve tolerance and treatment persistence. Objectives: To compare the efficacy of different ASM combinations among patients. Design: Patients with epilepsy on monotherapy who had a second ASM added as concomitant two-drug therapy from January 2009 to May 2019 in the Chang Gung Research Database, Taiwan, were included in the analysis. Methods: ASM combinations were compared based on their primary mechanism of action (MoA) which are as follows: gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor (G), sodium channel blocker (SC), synaptic vesicle protein 2A (SV2), calcium channel blocker (C), and multiple mechanisms (M). Treatment persistence was compared, and the predictors of persistence were analyzed. Results: In total, 3033 patients were enrolled in this study. Combined ASMs with different MoAs had significantly longer treatment persistence than ASMs with similar MoAs, specifically SC and M combinations. Patients receiving combined ASMs with different MoAs were less likely to discontinue treatment [adjusted hazards ratio: 0.83 (95% CI: 0.75–0.93), p < 0.001]. Among all combinations, the SC + SV2 combination had the longest treatment persistence (mean ± SD: 912.7 ± 841.6 days). Meanwhile, patients receiving the G combination had a higher risk of treatment discontinuation than those receiving the SC + SV2 combination. Underlying malignancies were associated with an increased risk of treatment discontinuation across all MoA categories. Male patients receiving the SC, SV2, and M combinations were more likely to discontinue treatment than female patients. Moreover, patients with renal disease were more likely to discontinue treatment with the SV2 combinations. Conclusion: ASM combinations with different MoAs had superior efficacy and tolerability to ASM combinations with similar MoAs, particularly SC and M combinations. In our cohort, factors associated with treatment discontinuation included underlying malignancy, male sex, and renal disease. These findings may provide valuable insights into the use of ASM combinations if monotherapy cannot adequately control seizures.