Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Global work index by non-invasive pressure-strain loops: a novel parameter to assess left ventricular performance in the early stages of heart failure with preserved or mid-range ejection fraction after acute myocardial infarction.

AIM To determine the relationship between myocardial work (MW) indices derived from non-invasive pressure-strain loops (PSL) and established parameters of left ventricular (LV) performance in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and heart failure (HF) with preserved or mid-range ejection fraction (HFpEF/HFmrEF). MATERIAL AND METHODS Speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) was used to determine MW indices and global longitudinal strain (GLS) in the first 24-48 hours after admission in patients with AMI, HF symptoms, NT-proBNP >300 pg/mL and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) >40%. MW was calculated by using PSL, which combine strain and non-invasive blood pressure measurement. Global MW index (GWI) was defined as the work inside the area of the PSL. RESULTS Forty-nine patients (mean age 68±13 years) fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Both GWI (1057±338 mmHg%) and GLS (-10.4±3.3%) were reduced in the majority of the patients. However, a proportion of patients with abnormal GLS showed normal GWI. There was a strong inverse relationship between GWI and GLS (r=-0.81). GWI demonstrated a strong relationship with LVEF (r=0.69) and a moderate correlation to NT-proBNP (n=-0.29). NT-proBNP showed a tendency to higher values in patients with more reduced GWI (820 [590-2550] vs 707 [460-1335], p=0.17). Out of the diastolic dysfunction parameters, GWI showed moderate correlations to LA volume index (r-0.29), E/A (r=-0.23) and E/e' (r=-0.39), which were also significantly more impaired in patients with more reduced GWI. CONCLUSION Non-invasive PSL might bring further information to LVEF and GLS in patients AMI at the early stages of HFpEF/HFmrEF, since LV performance depends on both contractile properties and variations in load in the ischemic segments.
Polling place changes and political participation: evidence from North Carolina presidential elections, 2008–2016

Abstract How do changes in Election Day polling place locations affect voter turnout? We study the behavior of more than 2 million eligible voters across three closely-contested presidential elections (2008–2016) in the swing state of North Carolina. Leveraging within-voter variation in polling place location change over time, we demonstrate that polling place changes reduce Election Day voting on average statewide. However, this effect is almost completely offset by substitution into early voting, suggesting that voters, on average, respond to a change in their polling place by choosing to vote early. While there is heterogeneity in these effects by the distance of the polling place change and the race of the affected voter, the fully offsetting substitution into early voting still obtains. We theorize this is because voters whose polling places change location receive notification mailers, offsetting search costs and priming them to think about the election before election day, driving early voting.
The Blizzard Challenge 2020

The Blizzard Challenge 2020 is the sixteenth annual Blizzard Challenge. The challenge this year includes a hub task of synthesizing Mandarin speech and a spoke task of synthesizing Shanghainese speech. The speech data of these two Chinese dialects as well as corresponding text transcriptions were provided. Sixteen and eight teams participated in the two tasks respectively. Listening tests were conducted online to evaluate the performance of synthetic speech.
Automatic detection of rare observations during production tests using statistical models

Engines are verified through production tests before delivering them to customers. During those tests, lot of measures are taken on different parts of the engine, considering multiple physical parameters. Unexpected measures can be observed. For this very reason, it is important to assess if these unusual observations are statistically significant. However, anomaly detection is a difficult problem in unsupervised learning. The obvious reason is that, unlike supervised classification, there is no ground truth against which we could evaluate results. Therefore, we propose a methodology based on two independent statistical algorithms to double check our results. One approach is the Isolation Forest (IF) model which is specific to anomaly detection and able to handle a large number of variables. The goal of the algorithm is to find rare items, events or observations which raise suspicions by differing significantly from the majority of the data and, at the same time, it discriminates non-informative variables to improve. One main issue of IF is its lack of interpretability. Within this scope, we extend the shapley values, interpretation indicators, to the unsupervised context to interpret the model outputs. The second approach is the Self-Organizing Map (SOM) model which has nice properties for data mining by providing both clustering and visual representation. The performance of the method and its interpretability depends on the chosen subset of variables. In this respect, we first implement a sparse-weighted K-means to reduce the input space, allowing the SOM to give an interpretable discretized representation. We apply the two methodologies on data on aircraft engines measurements. Both approaches show similar results which are easily interpretable and exploitable by the experts.
High Proportion of School Aged Children Susceptible to Mumps Virus Infections in the City of Mwanza, Tanzania: Should It be Included in the National Immunization Programme?

Aim: This study for the first time in Mwanza, Tanzania aimed at determining seropositivity of mumps virus in school aged children who are targeted for vaccination. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of the Study: This study was conducted in the city of Mwanza from July to September 2018. Despite being common with reported associated complications in many resource limited countries, there is scarcity of information on its epidemiology in Tanzania. Methodology: We enrolled 440 school children aged 6-12 years. Data was collected using a pre-tested structured data collection tool. Blood samples were collected, and sera were used for detection of mumps virus antibodies by indirect enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Data was analyzed using STATA version 13, 2013. Results: The median age of enrolled children was 9(IQR: 8-11) years. The seropositivity of mumps IgG antibodies was found to be 94(21.4%, 95% CI: 17.5-25.1) while that of IgM was 1 (0.23%, 95% CI: 0.02-0.6). By multivariable logistic regression analysis, residing in rural areas (OR: 2.28, 95% 1.42-3.36, P=0.001) and age >10 years (OR: 1.67, 95% CI: 1.03-2.7, P=0.036) independently predicted mumps IgG seropositivity. Conclusion: A significant proportion of young children in urban areas of the city of Mwanza are susceptible to mumps virus infection indicating the need to generate more data across the country so as to institute appropriate control measures including measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination programme.
Characterisation of gut microbiota of obesity and type 2 diabetes in a rodent model

Various studies have suggested that the gut microbiome interacts with the host and may have a significant role in the aetiology of obesity and Type 2 Diabetes (T2D). It was hypothesised that bacterial communities in obesity and T2D differ from control and compromise normal interactions between host and microbiota. Obesity and T2D were developed in rats by feeding a high-fat diet or a high-fat diet plus a single low-dose streptozotocin administration, respectively. The microbiome profiles and their metabolic potentials were established by metagenomic 16S rRNA sequencing and bioinformatics. Taxonomy and predicted metabolism-related genes in obesity and T2D were markedly different from controls and indeed from each other. Diversity was reduced in T2D but not in Obese rats. Factors likely to compromise host intestinal, barrier integrity were found in Obese and T2D rats including predicted, decreased bacterial butyrate production. Capacity to increase energy extraction via ABC-transporters and carbohydrate metabolism were enhanced in Obese and T2D rats. T2D was characterized by increased proinflammatory molecules. While obesity and T2D show distinct differences, results suggest that in both conditions Bacteroides and Blautia species were increased indicating a possible mechanistic link.
Testing Waters, Sending Clues: Indirect Disclosures of Socially Stigmatized Experiences on Social Media

Indirect disclosure strategies include hinting about an experience or a facet of one’s identity or relaying information explicitly but through another person. These strategies lend themselves to sharing stigmatized or sensitive experiences such as a pregnancy loss, mental illness, or abuse. Drawing on interviews with women in the U.S. who use social media and experienced pregnancy loss, we investigated factors guiding indirect disclosure decisions on social media. Our findings include 1) a typology of indirect disclosure strategies based on content obviousness, original content creator, and content sharer, and 2) an examination of indirect disclosure decision factors related to the self, audience, platform affordances, and temporality. We identify how people intentionally adapt social media and indirect disclosures to meet psychological (e.g., keeping a personal record) and social (e.g., feeling out the audience) needs associated with loss. We discuss implications for design and research, including features that support disclosures through proxy, and relevance for algorithmic detection and intervention. CAUTION: This paper includes quotes about pregnancy loss.
Mechanism of anodic spark deposition

Coatings of Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ up to 12 mil thick were deposited on Al anodes from aqueous solutions of NaAlO/sub 2/ by anodic spark deposition. Although the applied potential ranged from 415 to 540V dc, >97 percent of the potential drop occurred within 2.8 x 10/sup 4/ A/cm/sup 2/. The lifetime of a single spark was approximately 0.17ms. The resulting energy dissipated at a single spark location was approximately 7 x 10/sup -4/cal. O/sub 2/ gas and water vapor were formed at the anode, while H/sub 2/ gas was evolved at the cathode. Anodic spark deposition is believed to be an avalanche process involving local dielectric breakdown of a barrier film and thermal stressing of the neighboring film. The process often involves local melting of the coating and always involves the rapid quenching of the deposition products.
In vivo anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive activities , and chemical constituents of essential oil from the leaf of Gardenia jasminoides J . Ellis ( Rubiaceae )

K E Y W O R D S In vivo anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive activities, and chemical constituents of essential oil from the leaf of Gardenia jasminoides J. Ellis (Rubiaceae) NUDEWHENU OPEYEMI AVOSEH1, OLADIPUPO ADEJUMOBI LAWAL1, ISIAKA AJANI OGUNWANDE2 *, ROBERTA ASCRIZZI3, GUIDO FLAMINI3 AND AMOO ELIZABETH1 1Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Lagos State University, Lagos, Nigeria 2Foresight Institute of Research and Translation, Nigeria 3Dipartimento di Farmacia, Università di Pisa, Italy Received: 21 May 2020 Revised: 16 August 2020 Accepted: 10 October 2020 ePublished: 06 December 2020 Corresponding author: Isiaka Ajani Ogunwande Tel: +234 8059929304; Fax: +234 8059929304 E-mail address: isiakaogunwande@gmail.com Anti-inflammatory activity Anti-nociceptive activity
Effectiveness of Ivermectin in SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 Patients

Background:The first case of Infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) were diagnosed in Wuhan, China in 2019. In the first half of 2020 this disease has already converted into a global pandemic. Objectives: To assess the efficacy of Ivermectin in mild cases of COVID-19 patients on the basis of predefined assessment criteria. Study Settings: Fatima Memorial Hospital, Lahore Study Design: Open label randomized control trial. Duration of Study: From 1st May, 2020 to 30th June, 2020.Patients & Methods: Sample size and technique: Sample size was 50 patients; 25 patients were kept in control group and 25 patients were kept in experimental group. Results: There were total 50 patients, divided into two groups case and control group.The mean age of the participants was 40.60 ± 17 and out of those 31 (62%) were male and 19 (38%) were females. Cough was observed more in case group (p= 0.049). Fever, myalgias and dyspnea were the commonest symptoms in both the groups (p= 1.000). Diarrhea and vomiting were more common in control group (p=0.0001, p= 0.042 respectively). On follow up at day 7, patients were stratified as asymptomatic and symptomatic. Amongst the case group, out of 25 patients, 16(64%) patients were asymptomatic and rest of the 9(36%) patients was asymptomatic. In control group, out of 25 patients, 15(60%) patients were asymptomatic and rest of the 10(40%) patients was asymptomatic. p-value (0.500). Statistically there was no significant difference between case group who were given ivermectin along with symptomatic treatment and control group who were only given symptomatic treatment without ivermectin, being asymptomatic on day 7 at follow up. p-value (0.500)
Sorption of Pu(IV) from nitric acid by bifunctional anion-exchange resins

Anion exchange is attractive for separating plutonium because the Pu(IV) nitrate complex is very strongly sorbed and few other metal ions form competing anionic nitrate complexes. The major disadvantage of this process has been the unusually slow rate at which the Pu(IV) nitrate complex is sorbed by the resin. The paper summarizes the concept of bifunctional anion-exchange resins, proposed mechanism for Pu(IV) sorption, synthesis of the alkylating agent, calculation of K{sub d} values from Pu(IV) sorption results, and conclusions from the study of Pu(IV) sorption from 7M nitric acid by macroporous anion-exchange resins including level of crosslinking, level of alkylation, length of spacer, and bifunctional vs. monofunctional anion-exchange resins.
Acoustic scene classification using multi-scale features

Convolutional neural networks(CNNs) has shown tremendous ability in many classification problems, because it could improve classification performance by extracting abstract features. In this paper, we use CNNs to calculate features layer by layer. With the layers deepen, the extracted features become more abstract, but the shallow features are also very useful for classification. So we propose a method that fuses features of different layers(it’s called multi-scale features), which can improve performance of acoustic scene classification. In our method, the logMel features of audio signal are used as the input of CNNs. In order to reduce the parameters’ number, we use Xception as the foundation network, which is a CNNs with depthwise separable convolution operation (a depthwise convolution followed by a pointwise convolution). And we modify Xception to fuse multi-scale features. We also introduce the focal loss, to further improve classification performance. This method can achieve commendable result, whether the audio recordings are collected by same device(subtask A) or by different devices (subtask B).
Optimal test-assisted quarantine strategies for COVID-19

Background: Until herd immunity occurs for COVID-19, quarantine will remain a pillar for disease mitigation. A 14-day quarantine, although widely recommended for self-quarantine after potential infections and mandated by many government agencies can be physically and mentally stressful for those under quarantine and leads to lost productivity. Testing during quarantine is currently implemented by businesses and governments as a promising method to shorten the duration of quarantine. However, to our knowledge, no study has been performed to evaluate the performance of test-assisted quarantines and to identify the most effective choices of testing schedule. Methods: Based on statistical models for the transmissibility and viral loads of SARS-CoV-2 infections and sensitivity of various SARS-CoV-2 tests, we performed extensive simulations to evaluate the performance of quarantine strategies with one or more tests administered during quarantine. Sensitivity analyses were performed to evaluate the impact of model assumptions on the selection of optimal strategies. Findings: We found that SARS-CoV-2 testing can effectively reduce the length of quarantine without compromising safety. Whereas a single RT-PCR test performed before the end of quarantine can reduce the duration of quarantine to 10 days, two tests can further reduce the duration to 8-days and three tests with a highly sensitive RT-PCR test can justify a 6-day quarantine. More strategic testing schedules and one more day of quarantine are needed if tests are administrated with a less sensitive but more cost-effective antigen test. Interpretation: Testing during quarantine could substantially reduce the length of quarantine, reducing the physical and mental stress caused by long quarantines. With increasing capacity and lowered costs of SARS-CoV-2 tests, testing-assisted quarantines could be safer and more cost-effective than 14-day quarantines and warrant more widespread use.
Divided by choice? For‐profit providers, patient choice and mechanisms of patient sorting in the English National Health Service

Abstract This paper studies patient choice of provider following government reforms in the 2000s, which allowed for‐profit surgical centers to compete with existing public National Health Service (NHS) hospitals in England. For‐profit providers offer significant benefits, notably shorter waiting times. We estimate the extent to which different types of patients benefit from the reforms, and we investigate mechanisms that cause differential benefits. Our counterfactual simulations show that, in terms of the value of access, entry of for‐profit providers benefitted the richest patients twice as much as the poorest, and white patients six times as much as ethnic minority patients. Half of these differences is explained by healthcare geography and patient health, while primary care referral practice plays a lesser, though non‐negligible role. We also show that, with capitated reimbursement, different compositions of patient risks between for‐profit surgical centers and existing public hospitals put public hospitals at a competitive disadvantage.
The Relationship Between Interleukin-4 Levels and Cardiovascular Events in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease

Background Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the main cause of death in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Interleukin-4 (IL-4) is considered an inflammatory cytokine. However, few studies have investigated the association between serum IL-4 and cardiovascular events in CKD. This study investigated whether serum IL-4 levels were associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular (CV) events in patients with CKD. Patients and Methods A total of 302 patients with stage 1–5 CKD were followed up for a mean of 32 (range=4–36) months for end points (CV events). Serum IL-4 levels were measured at baseline. The independent relationship between serum IL-4 and the risk of CV events was assessed with multivariate Cox regression analysis. Results The average age of this cohort (N=302) was 65.4 years. A total of 69.9% of them were male. CV events numbered 41 (13.6%) during the follow-up period. The Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that the rate of CV events was higher in patients with CKD with IL-4 levels above the mean (126.2 pg/mL) than in those with IL-4 levels below the mean. The multivariate Cox proportional hazard analysis revealed that serum IL-4 (HR=1.650, 95% CI 1.266–2.210, P<0.001) was associated with CV events in these patients with CKD. Sensitivity analysis showed that the association between serum IL-4 and CV events was not affected by the use of anti-inflammatory medication. The significant association between higher IL-4 levels and increased risk of CV events existed in patients with CKD3-5 but not in patients with CKD1-2 by using the stratified analysis. Conclusion Higher serum IL-4 levels were associated with an increased risk of CV events during follow-up. Elevated serum IL-4 levels may help clinicians predict early CV events in patients with CKD.
The Relationship Among Organizational Identity, Psychological Resilience and Work Engagement of the First-Line Nurses in the Prevention and Control of COVID-19 Based on Structural Equation Model

Purpose To explore how the organizational identity and psychological resilience affect work engagement of the front-line nurses in the prevention and control of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and to establish the relationship model based on these factors. Material and Methods Convenience sampling was applied to collect questionnaire samples from 216 nurses (from 12 cities in 6 provinces). General information questionnaires, organizational identity scale (OIQ), psychological resilience scale (CD-RISC), and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) were used as tools for data collection. Results Both organizational identification and psychological resilience had a positive impact on work engagement (r=0.457~0.669). The structural equation model indicated that psychological resilience had a significant partial mediating effect on the relationship between organizational identity and work engagement; the mediating effect value was 0.25, the overall effect value of work engagement was 0.73, and the mediating effect accounted for 34.2%. Conclusion Our results revealed that organizational identity could directly affect nursing. It can also indirectly affect nurses’ work engagement through the intermediary role of psychological resilience. In face of the COVID-19 epidemic, hospitals and nursing managers could improve the level of nurses’ job involvement by improving organizational identity, which in turn may have a positive effect on psychological resilience.
Ordinal Intensity-Efficient Allocations

We study the assignment problem in situations where, in addition to having ordinal preferences, agents also have *ordinal intensities*: they can make simple and internally consistent comparisons such as"I prefer $a$ to $b$ more than I prefer $c$ to $d$"without necessarily being able to quantify them. In this new informational social-choice environment we first introduce a rank-based criterion that enables interpersonal comparability of such ordinal intensities. Building on this criterion, we define an allocation to be *"intensity-efficient"* if it is Pareto efficient with respect to the preferences induced by the agents' intensities and also such that, when another allocation assigns the same pairs of items to the same pairs of agents but in a"flipped"way, the former allocation assigns the commonly preferred item in every such pair to the agent who prefers it more. We present some first results on the (non-)existence of such allocations without imposing restrictions on preferences or intensities other than strictness.