Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Data-driven analysis and prediction of COVID-19 infection in Southeast Asia by using a phenomenological model

COVID-19 has spread throughout the world, including in Southeast Asia. Many studies have made predictions using various models. However, very few are data-driven based. Meanwhile for the COVID-19 case, which is still ongoing, it is very suitable to use data-driven approach with phenomenological models. This paper aimed to obtain effective forecasting models and then predict when COVID-19 in Southeast Asia will peak and end using daily cumulative case data. The research applied the Richards curve and the logistic growth model, combining the two models to make prediction of the COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia, both the countries with one pandemic wave or those with more than one pandemic wave. The best prediction results were obtained using the Richards curve with the logistic growth model parameters used as the initial values. In the best scenario, the Southeast Asia region is expected to be free from the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of 2021. These modeling results are expected to provide information about the provision of health facilities and how to handle infectious disease outbreaks in the future.
Virtual Planning and Simulation of Coarctation Repair in Hypoplastic Aortic Arches: Is Fixing the Coarctation Alone Enough?

Coarctation of aorta (CoA) is a congenital heart disease that may coexist with transverse arch hypoplasia (TAH). Infants who suffer from both conditions are often treated only for CoA at the initial repair if the degree of TAH is diagnosed as mild. In this study, we investigated the effect of virtually repairing the CoA of three patients (n=3) who also suffer from TAH. We repaired the CoA by using virtual stents that were modeled based on descending aorta diameters of the patients. Using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, we investigated the changes in time-averaged wall shear stress (TAWSS) after the virtual repair and calculated the peak systolic pressure drop (PSPD), which is the indicator of the performance of the repair. The magnitude of TAWSS was reduced in the repaired CoA regions in all the patients. The PSPD was improved in two patients, remaining above 20 mmHg in one of them. There was no significant change in PSPD for one patient after the virtual repair. The results may potentially help clinicians to gain better insights into whether the CoA repair alone in patients with existing TAH is sufficient.
Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth in South Africa: On Direction of Causality

The foundation of this paper is built on the premise that foreign direct investment (FDI) follows economic growth and development as opposed to the narrative that argues otherwise. Considering that background, this paper pursued finding the direction of causality and the kind of relationship that exists between the two main variables of interest (FDI and Economic growth) using time series data spanning 1980–2018. Using the vector-autoregressive error correction mechanism and the autoregressive distributive lag, our paper found neither uni nor bidirectional causality between economic growth and FDI in South Africa. The findings support the notion that FDI follows growth and development as opposed to the current policy stance that seeks to attract more FDI without exhausting the potential carried by domestic firms in stimulating economic growth. The results from Granger causality tests, however, could not reject the null hypothesis of the causality that runs from unemployment to economic growth. The study found that unemployment in South Africa Granger causes economic growth significantly. Recommendations arising from our findings are that South African policymakers may need to consider paying more attention to inward-looking policies. More efforts if possible should be put toward making sure that domestic investment is stimulated through making it cheaper especially for small businesses to secure funding as well as making the investment environment small business-friendly to improve their success and contribution toward sustainable economic growth.
An investigation on the relationship between slowness level of Cittaslow perceived by tourists, voluntary simplicity lifestyle and environmental sensitivity: the case of Cittaslow Seferihisar

ABSTRACT Urban and town life, which has begun to disappear due to globalization, has been replaced by megacities, people's lifestyles are changing day by day, food culture, daily social activities, and many other areas are under the influence of speed. The slow city movement has emerged as a new movement against this speed and uniformity. The primary purpose of this research is to develop a scale to determine the perceived slowness level of slow cities from the tourist perspective. It is also aimed to analyze the level of slowness perceived by tourists regarding slow cities and the variance of these evaluations according to their willingness to adopt a voluntarily simple life and environmental sensitivities, in the case of Seferihisar, Turkey. It has been revealed that the perceived slowness level of Seferihisar is high, and there is a positive relationship between the slowness perceptions of the tourists and their voluntary simplicity (VS) lifestyles and environmental sensitivities. Also, it has been determined that the profiles of people who have different perceptions of slowness levels differ in their VS levels, environmental sensitivity, and socio-demographic characteristics. Determining the slowness levels of slow cities from the tourists’ eyes will help reveal the cities’ deficiencies and successes.
A New Router Architecture for High-Performance Intrachip Networks

For almost a decade now, Network on Chip (NoC) concepts have evolved to provide an interesting alternative to more traditional intrachip communication architectures (e.g. shared busses) for the design of complex Systems on Chip (SoCs). A considerable number of NoC proposals are available, focusing on different sets of optimization aspects, related to specific classes of applications. Each such application employs a NoC as part of its underlying implementation infrastructure. Many of the mentioned optimization aspects target results such as Quality of Service (QoS) achievement and/or power consumption reduction. On the other hand, the use of NoCs brings about the solution of new design problems, such to the choice of synchronization method to employ between NoC routers and application modules mapping. Although the availability of NoC structures is already rather ample, some design choices are at base of many, if not most, NoC proposals. These include the use of wormhole packet switching and virtual channels. This work pledges against this practice. It discusses trade-offs of using circuit or packet switching, arguing in favor the use of the former with fixed size packets (cells). Quantitative data supports the argumentation. Also, the work proposes and justifies replacing the use of virtual channels by replicated channels, based on the abundance of wires in current and expected deep sub-micron technologies. Finally, the work proposes a transmission method coupling the use of session layer structures to circuit switching to better support application implementation. The main reported result is the availability of a router with reduced latency and area, a communication architecture adapted for high-performance applications.
Vitamin D Deficiency and Its Associated Factors among Female Migrants in the United Arab Emirates

Vitamin D is important for bone health, and vitamin D deficiency could be linked to noncommunicable diseases, including cardiovascular disease. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and its associated risk factors among female migrants from Philippines, Arab, and South Asian countries residing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). We used a cross-sectional study to recruit a random sample (N = 550) of female migrants aged 18 years and over in the city of Al Ain, UAE. Vitamin D deficiency was defined as serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations ≤20 ng/mL (50 nmol/L). We used multivariable logistic regression analysis to identify risk factors associated with vitamin D deficiency. The mean age of participants was 35 years (SD ± 10). The overall prevalence rate of vitamin D deficiency was 67% (95% CI 60–73%), with the highest rate seen in Arabs (87%), followed by South Asians (83%) and the lowest in Filipinas (15%). Multivariate analyses showed that low physical activity (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 4.59; 95% CI 1.98, 10.63), having more than 5 years duration of residence in the UAE (aOR = 4.65; 95% CI: 1.31, 16.53) and being obese (aOR = 3.56; 95% CI 1.04, 12.20) were independently associated with vitamin D deficiency, after controlling for age and nationality. In summary, vitamin D deficiency was highly prevalent among female migrants, especially Arabs and South Asians. It is crucial that health professionals in the UAE become aware of this situation among this vulnerable subpopulation and provide intervention strategies aiming to rectify vitamin D deficiency by focusing more on sun exposure, physical activity, and supplementation.
Three new species of European Coletinia Wygodzinsky (Zygentoma, Nicoletiidae), with additional records and an updated identification key

We describe three new species of the genus Coletinia Wygodzinsky, 1980, the most diverse of the family Nicoletiidae (order Zygentoma = Thysanura s. str.) in Europe: C. dalmatica Molero-Baltanás, Fišer, Bach de Roca & Gaju-Ricart sp. nov. from Croatia, C. dextra Molero-Baltanás, Bach de Roca & Gaju-Ricart sp. nov. from Spain and C. serrata Mendes, Molero-Baltanás, Bach de Roca & Gaju-Ricart sp. nov. from Portugal. Coletinia dalmatica sp. nov. seems to be related with C. maggi (Grassi, 1887) and both Iberian species belong to the asymetrica species group. New material of some previously recognized species (C. diania Molero, Bach & Gaju, 2013, C. intermedia Molero, Bach & Gaju, 2013, C. mendesi Wygodzinsky, 1980, C. redetecta Molero, Bach & Gaju, 2013 and C. tinauti Molero-Baltanás, Gaju-Ricart & Bach de Roca, 1997) is reported, enlarging in most cases their geographic distribution, and including some new data on their intraspecific variability. Finally, an updated identification key to all known species of the genus Coletinia is given.
Development and Large-Scale Testing of a Novel One-Step Triplex RT-qPCR Assay for Simultaneous Detection of “Neurotropic” Porcine Sapeloviruses, Teschoviruses (Picornaviridae) and Type 3 Porcine Astroviruses (Astroviridae) in Various Samples including Nasal Swabs

Porcine sapeloviruses, teschoviruses of family Picornaviridae and type 3 porcine astroviruses of family Astroviridae are (re-)emerging enteric pathogens that could be associated with severe, disseminated infections in swine, affecting multiple organs including the central nervous system (CNS). Furthermore, small-scale pioneer studies indicate the presence of these viruses in porcine nasal samples to various extents. The laboratory diagnostics are predominantly based on the detection of the viral RNA from faecal and tissue samples using different nucleic-acid-based techniques such as RT-qPCR. In this study, a novel highly sensitive one-step triplex RT-qPCR assay was introduced which can detect all known types of neurotropic sapelo-, tescho- and type 3 astroviruses in multiple types of samples of swine. The assay was evaluated using in vitro synthesized RNA standards and a total of 142 archived RNA samples including known sapelo-, tescho- and type 3 astrovirus positive and negative CNS, enteric and nasal specimens. The results of a large-scale epidemiological investigation of these viruses on n = 473 nasal swab samples from n = 28 industrial-type swine farms in Hungary indicate that all three neurotropic viruses, especially type 3 astroviruses, are widespread and endemically present on most of the investigated farms.
One-Month versus Three-Month Formulation of Paliperidone Palmitate Treatment in Psychotic Disorders: Patients’, Relatives’, and Mental Health Professionals’ Perspectives

Purpose Paliperidone palmitate is the only available long acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotic with a monthly and three-monthly formulation. LAIs may help battle non-adherence. Studies about the experiences of switching from the monthly (PP1M) to the three-monthly formulation (PP3M) of paliperidone are scarce. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the perspectives of patients, relatives, and mental health professionals on PP3M compared with PP1M. Material and Methods This was a multicenter, retrospective, non-interventional one-time questionnaire survey among patients with psychotic disorders who switched from PP1M to PP3M (n = 38), their relatives (n = 13) and mental health professionals (n = 38). General satisfaction and (un)desired effects were measured using the Medication Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) and the Subjects’ Reaction to Antipsychotics (SRA), respectively. Additional questionnaires assessed socio-demographic variables, preference, effectiveness, side-effects, and confidence in PP3M compared to PP1M. Results Mean number of received PP3M injections was 4.2 (SD 2.5). The three study groups reported a high level of confidence in PP3M. High general satisfaction rates about PP3M among patients (69%) and mental health professionals (95%) were reported. The majority of patients, relatives, and mental health professionals reported similar or in some cases even greater effectiveness and similar or in some cases even less side-effects of PP3M compared to PP1M. Sixty-seven percent of the relatives reported less concerns about non-adherence after switching to PP3M. Conclusion Most patients, relatives, and mental health professionals prefer PP3M over PP1M. The positive attitudes of all parties may facilitate the more frequent use of PP3M and potentially the clinical outcomes.
Clinico-investigative Study of Facial Acanthosis Nigricans

Background: Facial acanthosis nigricans (FAN) is an underrecognized and underdiagnosed entity. The typical presentation of acanthosis nigricans (AN) seen elsewhere on the body like axillae and groins is not seen on the face, making it mimic other pigmentary disorders. Moreover, FAN is seldom not accompanied with AN on the classical sites making the diagnosis challenging. The aims of this study were to determine clinical, dermoscopic, and histopathological features of FAN and to estimate the prevalence of obesity and insulin resistance (IR) in FAN. Methods: Forty cases of FAN and forty healthy nonobese individuals with comparable ages and gender were included in the study. Body mass index, waist circumference, hip circumference, waist to hip ratio, and serum fasting lipid levels were used to evaluate obesity, whereas serum fasting insulin and Homeostatic Model of Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) were used to evaluate IR. Dermoscopy was performed in all cases. Histopathological features of the skin biopsies were reviewed. Results: Out of the 40 cases, 24 were male and 16 were female. The patterns of facial pigmentation in addition to the classic pattern were a hyperpigmented band over forehead (55%), periorbital darkening (25%), perioral (10%), and generalized darkening (10%). Dermoscopy in all cases revealed linear crista cutis, sulcus cutis, and hyperpigmented dots in crista cutis. Biopsy of 20 cases showed mild hyperkeratosis, acanthosis, papillomatosis, and increase in basal melanin. Clinico-dermoscopic-histological correlation showed that milder (light brown) variants of FAN had follicular plugging and subtle sulci pattern with irregular brown globules and perifollicular pigmentation on dermoscopy and mild hyperkeratosis and hypermelanization of the basal layer with minimal acanthosis and papillomatosis on histopathology. On the other hand, chronic variants (dark brown and black) showed prominent sulci, larger brown globules, and perifollicular hyperpigmentation on dermoscopy and moderate hyperkeratosis and hypermelanization of the basal layer with moderate to severe acanthosis and papillomatosis on histopathology. Fasting blood glucose, insulin, HOMA-IR, fasting serum triglyceride, and total cholesterol were statistically significantly high in cases in comparison with controls (P-value <0.05). Conclusions: Varied clinical presentations of FAN were observed. Dermoscopy and histopathology provide a good aid. FAN may be considered as a cutaneous marker of obesity and IR. Thus, FAN should be suspected in patients presenting with facial melanosis who are obese and have AN over other sites, although FAN can also present de novo.
Trends in Publication of Oncologic Abstracts Presented at the American Urological Association Annual Meeting: 1997–2017

Abstract: Introduction: Our primary aim was to characterize eventual publication of presented American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting oncology abstracts from 1997 to 2017. We hypothesized that the percentage of abstracts presented at the AUA Annual Meeting that became published peer-reviewed manuscripts increased over time. Methods: AUA Annual Meeting abstracts in “oncology” categories from 1997 to 2017 were identified. A random sample of 100 abstracts per year were assessed for publication. An abstract was considered “published” if 1) first and last author of the abstract were included on publication, 2) abstract and publication shared 1 conclusion, and 3) publication occurred from 1 year prior to the AUA Annual Meeting up to 10 years after. The search was conducted on PubMed® utilizing the MEDLINE® database. Results: Over the 20-year observation period, 2,100 abstracts were reviewed and 56.3% were published. The number of journals in which manuscripts were published increased from 1997 to 2017 (R2=0.58, p <0.001), although here wasn’t an increased publication rate for AUA Annual Meeting abstracts. Median time to publication was 1.1 years (IQR: 0.6–2.2). Median impact factor (IF) of publications was 3.3 (IQR 2.4–4.7). There was a decrease in median IF with longer interval to publication, from 3.6 within 1 year to 2.8 at more than 3 years (p=0.0003). Publications from multi-institutional abstracts had a higher mean IF (3.7 vs 3.1, p <0.0001). Conclusions: The majority of oncology abstracts presented at the AUA Annual Meeting are published. Despite growth in the number of journals and rise in IF among top urology journals, the rate of publication and IF were stable over time.
TiO2-Modified Magnetic Nanoparticles (Fe3O4) with Antibacterial Properties

This paper presents the synthesis and characteristics of Fe3O4/C/TiO2 hybrid magnetic nanomaterials with antibacterial properties. The materials used were obtained using a microwave-assisted two-stage precipitation method. In the first stage, magnetite nanoparticles (Fe3O4) were prepared with the precipitation method, during which an additional glucose layer was placed on them. Next, the surface of Fe3O4 nanoparticles was covered by TiO2. It was observed that the addition of carbon and titanium dioxide caused a decrease in the average size of magnetite crystallites from 15.6 to 9.2 nm. Materials with varying contents of anatase phase were obtained. They were characterized in terms of phase composition, crystallite size, specific surface area, surface charge and the kinds of function groups on the surface. The results show a successful method of synthesizing hybrid magnetic nanoparticles, stable in a solution, with antibacterial properties under direct solar light irradiation. Compared to classical materials based on TiO2 and used for water disinfection, the obtained photocatalytic nanomaterials have magnetic properties. Owing to this fact, they can be easily removed from water once their activity under direct irradiance in a given process has completed.
Multi-modality Reconstruction Attention and Difference Enhancement Network for Brain MRI Image Segmentation

An important prerequisite for brain disease diagnosis is to segment brain tissues of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) into white matter (WM), gray matter (GM), and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). To improve performance, we propose a Multi-modality Reconstruction Attention and Difference Enhancement Network (MRADE-Net). We first stack three inputs of multiple MRI modalities along axial, sagittal, and coronal axes to form three enlarged volumes. Then we adopt global average pooling along each axis, fully connected layers, and activation functions to produce three orthogonal 2D coefficient maps, which are used to reconstruct a 3D attention map for weighting the three inputs. These weighted inputs are added together to generate a feature map of Multi-modality Reconstruction Attention (MRA). Similarly, we present Single-modality Reconstruction Attention (SRA) for improving feature representation abilities in middle stages. In addition, the difference of encoding features between adjacent layers is used to compensate the loss of spatial information caused by down-sampling. Experimental results show that the proposed approach is more effective than the existing state-of-the-art segmentation methods and its performance is verified on several datasets.
The Legacy of Willem Beurs ‒ Bridging the Gap between Art and Material Perception

Dutch Golden Age painters could convincingly depict all sorts of materials. How did they do it and how do we perceive them as such, are questions that only recently have started to be addressed by art historians and vision scientists, respectively. This paper aims to discuss how a booklet of pictorial recipes written by the Dutch painter Willem Beurs in 1692 constitutes an index of key image features for material depiction and perception. Beurs’ recipes connect different materials according to their shared visual features, and offer the profiles, i.e., the optimal combinations, of these features to render a wide range of materials. By combining representation and perception, the knowledge of painters about the depiction of materials can help to understand the mechanisms of the visual system for material perception, and these in turn can explain the pictorial features that make the pictorial representation of materials so convincing.
Electroencephalography complexity in resting and task states in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Abstract Analysing EEG complexity could provide insight into neural connectivity underlying attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms. EEG complexity was calculated through multiscale entropy and compared between adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and their peers during resting and go/nogo task states. Multiscale entropy change from the resting state to the task state was also examined as an index of the brain’s ability to change from a resting to an active state. Thirty unmedicated adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder were compared with 30 match-paired healthy peers on the multiscale entropy in the resting and task states as well as their multiscale entropy change. Results showed differences in multiscale entropy between individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and their peers during the resting state as well as the task state. The multiscale entropy measured from the comparison group was larger than that from the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder group in the resting state, whereas the reverse pattern was found during the task state. Our most robust finding showed that the multiscale entropy change from individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder was smaller than that from their peers, specifically at frontal sites. Interestingly, individuals without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder performed better with decreasing multiscale entropy changes, demonstrating higher accuracy, faster reaction time and less variability in their reaction times. These data suggest that multiscale entropy could not only provide insight into neural connectivity differences between adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and their peers but also into their behavioural performance.