Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SOIL-TRASMITTED PARASITES IN VEGETABLES IRRIGATED WITH WASTE-WATER IN FAYOUM GOVERNORATE, EGYPT

No doubt, irrigation with waste water became a painful reality in villages in Fayoum Governorate mostly because of water scarcity and improper sewage disposal. Ingestion of raw vegetables particularly when fresh imposes a great risk on population. Protozoa cysts as Entamoeba, Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Cyclospora and helminthic eggs can readily be transmitted by contaminated water or vegetables. The study evaluated the contamination and infectivity of raw fresh vegetables in some Fayoum Governorate villages, which used waste water for irrigation This cross-sectional study microscopically evaluated 360 fresh vegetable samples from different areas in for parasitic infective stages and potential infectivity. Also, 400 native patients suffered from gastrointestinal manifestations were examined for parasitic infection(s). Morning stool samples were microscopically examined for parasitosis. direct microscopy, concentration methods, staining with trichrome and modified ZN stain, Rapid immune-chromatographic assay for Cryptosporidium , Giardia end Entamoeba spp. are done. The results showed that increased prevalence of parasitic contamination in villages of Fayoum Governorate, due to notorious of water shortage and use of untreated sewage water for irrigation, also there is corresponding increase in parasitic infection among population of the same locations.
Mathematical Models for Blood Flow Quantification in Dialysis Access Using Angiography: A Comparative Study

Blood flow rate in dialysis (vascular) access is the key parameter to examine patency and to evaluate the outcomes of various endovascular interve7ntions. While angiography is extensively used for dialysis access–salvage procedures, to date, there is no image-based blood flow measurement application commercially available in the angiography suite. We aim to calculate the blood flow rate in the dialysis access based on cine-angiographic and fluoroscopic image sequences. In this study, we discuss image-based methods to quantify access blood flow in a flow phantom model. Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and fluoroscopy were used to acquire images at various sampling rates (DSA—3 and 6 frames/s, fluoroscopy—4 and 10 pulses/s). Flow rates were computed based on two bolus tracking algorithms, peak-to-peak and cross-correlation, and modeled with three curve-fitting functions, gamma variate, lagged normal, and polynomial, to correct errors with transit time measurement. Dye propagation distance and the cross-sectional area were calculated by analyzing the contrast enhancement in the vessel. The calculated flow rates were correlated versus an in-line flow sensor measurement. The cross-correlation algorithm with gamma-variate curve fitting had the best accuracy and least variability in both imaging modes. The absolute percent error (mean ± SEM) of flow quantification in the DSA mode at 6 frames/s was 21.4 ± 1.9%, and in the fluoroscopic mode at 10 pulses/s was 37.4 ± 3.6%. The radiation dose varied linearly with the sampling rate in both imaging modes and was substantially low to invoke any tissue reactions or stochastic effects. The cross-correlation algorithm and gamma-variate curve fitting for DSA acquisition at 6 frames/s had the best correlation with the flow sensor measurements. These findings will be helpful to develop a software-based vascular access flow measurement tool for the angiography suite and to optimize the imaging protocol amenable for computational flow applications.
Altering CAR Construct Design to Ameliorate CAR-T Cell Therapy Associated Cytokine Release Syndrome

Cytokine release syndrome represents a significant barrier to the widespread application of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapies. We performed a broad analysis of preclinical and clinical studies that tested different designs of the CAR construct to tune CAR signaling, with an emphasis on effects of CAR designs on cytokine release from activated CAR-T cells. Evidence from these studies has shown that CAR signal strength and induced cytokine release can be effectively tuned by choosing different antigenbinding domains, hinge and transmembrane regions, costimulatory domains, and activation domains of a CAR construct. The detailed understanding in this aspect will pave the way to develop CAR-T cell products that exert robust anti-cancer function without the exceeding release of cytokines, thus fulfilling their promise in cancer therapy.
Communicative planning potentials of housing estate development process in England: a case study from Dickens Heath New Settlement

In the 21st century, societies are increasingly multi-sided with secular interests, making urban issues complex, dynamic and unable to be solved by a single institution. In this context, communicative planning propagates that the pathway to finding sustainable solutions for complex social problems would come from stakeholder participation and the identification of shared interests among such secular interests (consensus building). Rooted to Habermasian communicative rationality, communicative planning argues, stakeholder participation can ponder not only the scientific knowledge but also emotive and moral knowledge of lay actors such as local communities to inform planning better. In this respect, the paper explores the extent to which communicative planning works for the housing estate delivery process in England. With key pieces of planning legislation, mandating community engagement in all forms of physical development, England is considered one of the highest forms of legal backing for communicative planning. Meanwhile, housing provision is one of the complex and critical planning concerns of all cities. Dickens Heath New Settlement (DHNS) - a large scale housing estate development in the West Midlands of England, has been selected as the case study here to investigate this communicative planning potential in the context of housing estate development. Following qualitative methods, data were collected through sixty in-depth interviews with DHNS residents, community groups, master planners and local authority planners, and documentary evidence such as the DHNS master plan and local planning documents. The findings highlighted that communicative planning had a negligible effect at the conceptual planning stage of DHNS, but accrued relatively positive outcomes at the mature design, development and management phases of the estate development. These are valuable insights for housing development practice, communicative planning theory and practice, and reflect on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 - sustainable cities and communities in the context of England.
Dispersal of earthworms from the Rudny Altai (Kazakhstan) into Western Siberia

The aim of our study was to determine the current distribution, habitats, ecology, and possible dispersal routes of three species of the Rudny Altai (East Kazakhstan): Eisenia tracta, E. nana, and E. ventripapillata. We found that these species dispersed far beyond their original distribution into the flatland part of western Siberia (Russia) up to the central forest steppe of the Omsk oblast. E. tracta, E. nana, and E. ventripapillata were found in both floodplains and interfluvials. Hydrochory was the most plausible way of northward dispersal, while on interfluvials, they were probably introduced by humans. The studied species showed no preference for a particular habitat or river bank. The habitats were diverse and significantly different from the original ones in Rudny Altai. The factors that allowed E. tracta, E. nana, and E. ventripapillata to colonize western Siberia were probably their wide tolerance range to soil pH, temperature, density, and humidity, along with the decrease of winter soil freezing in recent decades. This is the first information about the occurrence of these species of earthworms in Siberia.
Cone-beam computed tomographic evaluation of dimensional hard tissue changes following alveolar ridge preservation techniques of different bone substitutes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose This study was conducted to evaluate and compare the effects of different graft materials used in alveolar ridge preservation on dimensional hard tissue changes of the alveolar ridge, assessed using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans. Methods A systematic electronic search of MEDLINE and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and a manual search were conducted from November 2019 until January 2020. Randomized controlled trials were included if they assessed at least 1 variable related to vertical or horizontal hard tissue changes measured using CBCT scans. After a qualitative analysis of the included studies, subgroups were formed according to the graft material used, and a quantitative analysis was performed for 5 outcome variables: changes in vertical alveolar bone height at 2 points (midbuccal and midpalatal/midlingual) and changes in horizontal (buccolingual) alveolar bone width at 3 different levels from the initial crest height (1, 3, and 5 mm). Results The search resulted in 1,582 studies, and after an independent 3-stage screening, 16 studies were selected for qualitative analysis and 9 for quantitative analysis. The meta-analysis showed a significantly (P<0.05) lower reduction of alveolar ridge dimensions for the xenogenic subgroup than in the allogenic subgroup, both vertically at the midbuccal aspect (weighted mean difference [WMD]=−0.20; standard error [SE]=0.26 vs. WMD=−0.90; SE=0.22) as well as horizontally at 1 mm (WMD=−1.32; SE=0.07 vs. WMD=−2.99; SE=0.96) and 3 mm (WMD=−0.78; SE=0.11 vs. WMD=−1.63; SE=0.40) from the initial crest height. No statistical analysis could be performed for the autogenic subgroup because it was not reported in sufficient numbers. Conclusions Less vertical and horizontal bone reduction was observed when xenogenic graft materials were used than when allogenic graft materials were used; however, the loss of alveolar ridge dimensions could not be completely prevented by any graft material.
Colonized Niche, Evolution and Function Signatures of Bifidobacterium pseudolongum within Bifidobacterial Genus

Background: Although genomic features of various bifidobacterial species have received much attention in the past decade, information on Bifidobacterium pseudolongum was limited. In this study, we retrieved 887 publicly available genomes of bifidobacterial species, and tried to elucidate phylogenetic and potential functional roles of B. pseudolongum within the Bifidobacterium genus. Results: The results indicated that B. pseudolongum formed a population structure with multiple monophyletic clades, and had established associations with different types of mammals. The abundance of B. pseudolongum was inversely correlated with that of the harmful gut bacterial taxa. We also found that B. pseudolongum showed a strictly host-adapted lifestyle with a relatively smaller genome size, and higher intra-species genetic diversity in comparison with the other tested bifidobacterial species. For functional aspects, B. pseudolongum showed paucity of specific metabolic functions, and enrichment of specific enzymes degrading complex plant carbohydrates and host glycans. In addition, B. pseudolongum possessed a unique signature of probiotic effector molecules compared with the other tested bifidobacterial species. The investigation on intra-species evolution of B. pseudolongum indicated a clear evolution trajectory in which considerable clade-specific genes, and variation on genomic diversity by clade were observed. Conclusions: These findings provide valuable information for explaining the host adaptability of B. pseudolongum, its evolutionary role, as well as its potential probiotic effects.
New Evidence on Redlining by Federal Housing Programs in the 1930s

We show that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), from its inception in the 1930s, did not insure mortgages in low income urban neighborhoods where the vast majority of urban Black Americans lived. The agency evaluated neighborhoods using block-level information collected by New Deal relief programs and the Census in many cities. The FHA’s exclusionary pattern predates the advent of the infamous maps later made by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) and shows little change after the drafting of those maps. In contrast, the HOLC itself broadly loaned to such neighborhoods and to Black homeowners. We conclude that the HOLC’s redlining maps had little effect on the geographic distribution of either program’s mortgage market activity, and that the FHA crafted and implemented its own redlining methodology prior to the HOLC. JEL codes: N22, G21, R38, J15
Konvergenz von Skalen zur Erfassung sozialer Ängste: Ein IRT-Linking Ansatz

Zusammenfassung Ziel der Studie Bei der Untersuchung von sozialer Ängstlichkeit haben sich die Fragebögen Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) und das Social Phobia-Inventory (SPIN) etabliert. Außerdem wird zum Screening sozialer Ängstlichkeit häufig die Subskala Unsicherheit im Sozialkontakt des Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI-53) eingesetzt. Alle drei Skalen geben vor dasselbe Konstrukt zu erfassen. Somit stellt sich die Frage der Konvergenz dieser Skalen. Um Forschungsergebnisse zu sozialer Ängstlichkeit, welche diese Instrumente nutzen, über einen fragebogenübergreifenden Faktor (Common-Faktor) vergleichbar zu machen, wird in der vorliegenden Studie ein Item Response Theorie (IRT) Linking Ansatz verwendet. Methodik 64 deutschsprachige psychiatrische Patienten und 295 Probanden aus der deutschen Normalbevölkerung füllten die drei Fragebögen aus. Verschiedene IRT-Modelle – darunter Graded Response Modelle (GRM) – wurden an die Daten angepasst und verglichen. Basierend auf dem Modell mit dem besten Fit wurden Regressionsanalysen durchgeführt. Der Common-Faktor wurde dabei jeweils von den Fragebogensummenwerten vorhergesagt. Ergebnisse Der Zusammenhang zwischen den verschiedenen Skalen wird am besten durch ein Bi-Faktor GRM erklärt (RMSEA=0,036; CFI=0,977; WRMR=1,061). Anhand der Ergebnisse der Regressionsanalysen lassen sich drei Gleichungen zur Transformation von Fragebogensummenwerten ableiten. Schlussfolgerung Durch den IRT Linking Ansatz konnte ein fragebogenübergreifender genereller Faktor Sozialer Ängstlichkeit abgeleitet werden. Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede wurden dabei berücksichtigt. Dies hat sowohl für die Forschung als auch für die Praxis Vorteile. Eine Replikation dieser Studie sowie die Implementierung weiterer Instrumente wird empfohlen, um die Gültigkeit dieses Ansatzes zu überprüfen und die Ergebnisse zu generalisieren.
Target Projection Feature Matching Based Deep ANN with LSTM for Lung Cancer Prediction

Prediction of lung cancer at early stages is essential for diagnosing and prescribing the correct treatment. With the continuous development of medical data in healthcare services, Lung cancer prediction is the most concerning area of interest. Therefore, early prediction of cancer helps in reducing the mortality rate of humans. The existing techniques are time-consuming and have very low accuracy. The proposed work introduces a novel technique called Target Projection Feature Matched Deep Artificial Neural Network with LSTM (TPFMDANNLSTM) for accurate lung cancer prediction with minimum time consumption. The proposed deep learning model consists of multiple layers to learn the given input patient data. Different processes are carried out at each layer to predict lung cancer at an earlier stage. The input layer of the deep neural network receives the data and associated features and sends them to the hidden layer. The first hidden layer performs the feature selection process using Target Projection matching to identify the relevant features for accurate disease prediction with minimum time consumption. Hidden layer 2 performs the patient Data Classification based on Czekanowski's dice similarity coefficient with the selected relevant features from the previous layer to predict lung cancer. The factors considered for performance evaluation of the proposed technique with the existing state of the art approaches include prediction accuracy, false-positive rate and prediction time. Lunar 16 Lung Cancer dataset consisting of patient data is used for evaluation. The obtained results show that the proposed TPFMDANN-LSTM technique achieves higher prediction accuracy with minimum time consumption and less false positive rate than the state-of-the-art methods. The experimental results reveal that the TPFMDANN-LSTM technique performs better with a 6% improvement in prediction accuracy, 36% reduction of false positives, and 16% faster prediction time for lung cancer detection compared to existing works.
LONGITUDINAL L2 DEVELOPMENT IN THE PROSODIC MARKING OF PRAGMATIC MEANING

Abstract This study investigated whether L2 English learners’ prosodic properties in speech acts change as they are immersed in the English-speaking academic community over time, and if so, what individual and contextual factors (proficiency, orientation to language study, and target language contact) potentially affect these changes. Forty-seven Japanese learners of English in an English-medium university in Japan completed a speaking task that elicited two speech acts (request and opinion) three times over one academic year (8 months). Their speech was analyzed for discourse intonational features (e.g., tone choices, prominence ratio, and pitch range). Results showed that all prosodic properties changed over time, although the pace and patterns of changes differed among the properties. Proficiency and language contact significantly affected the change in tone choice, but no other relationship was found between individual/contextual factors and changes in prominence ratio or pitch range.
Party’s presidential primaries and the consolidation of democracy in Ghana’s 4th Republic

Abstract Democracy under any system of rule is associated with vibrant political parties and credible elections. Both are indispensable in a representative democracy. The good conduct of elections within a political party promotes and consolidates democracy. Political parties in Ghana have suffered internal conflict resulting in factions, break-away, and the formation of new parties because of undemocratic party operations especially in the conduct of primaries. This act threatens the country’s attempt to consolidate its democracy. Internal party reforms are adopted to ensure democratic practices and operations. The reforms include widening the electoral base of the party in the selection of candidates, simultaneous conduction of polls across constituencies, and restriction of candidates eligible for elections. These reforms are to reduce vote-buying, intimidation, physical assault, and fierce competition to enhance legitimisation of election results and the acceptability of candidates. The paper assessed how the various reforms adopted by the two major political parties in Ghana have influenced and legitimised the conduct of presidential primaries. The paper adopted a qualitative research design through interviews and reviewed extant literature to set the theoretical basis of the study. It is realised that the operationalisation of the reforms in 2014 and 2019 of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), respectively, has reduced the rancour associated hitherto with primaries. This exercise has gone a long way in consolidating democracy with a peaceful conduct of presidential primaries notwithstanding vestiges of vote-buying, security breaches, party executive biases, and high party nomination fees.
The Pros and Cons: Rank-Aware Temporal Attention for Skill Determination in Long Videos

We present a new model to determine relative skill from long videos, through learnable temporal attention modules. Skill determination is formulated as a ranking problem, making it suitable for common and generic tasks. However, for long videos, parts of the video are irrelevant for assessing skill, and there may be variability in the skill exhibited throughout a video. We therefore propose a method which assesses the relative overall level of skill in a long video by attending to its skill-relevant parts. Our approach trains temporal attention modules, learned with only video-level supervision, using a novel rank-aware loss function. In addition to attending to task-relevant video parts, our proposed loss jointly trains two attention modules to separately attend to video parts which are indicative of higher (pros) and lower (cons) skill. We evaluate our approach on the EPIC-Skills dataset and additionally annotate a larger dataset from YouTube videos for skill determination with five previously unexplored tasks. Our method outperforms previous approaches and classic softmax attention on both datasets by over 4% pairwise accuracy, and as much as 12% on individual tasks. We also demonstrate our model’s ability to attend to rank-aware parts of the video.
Joint Sparsity for TomoSAR Imaging in Urban Areas Using Building POI and TerraSAR-X Staring Spotlight Data

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) tomography (TomoSAR) can obtain 3D imaging models of observed urban areas and can also discriminate different scatters in an azimuth–range pixel unit. Recently, compressive sensing (CS) has been applied to TomoSAR imaging with the use of very-high-resolution (VHR) SAR images delivered by modern SAR systems, such as TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X. Compared with the traditional Fourier transform and spectrum estimation methods, using sparse information for TomoSAR imaging can obtain super-resolution power and robustness and is only minorly impacted by the sidelobe effect. However, due to the tight control of SAR satellite orbit, the number of acquisitions is usually too low to form a synthetic aperture in the elevation direction, and the baseline distribution of acquisitions is also uneven. In addition, artificial outliers may easily be generated in later TomoSAR processing, leading to a poor mapping product. Focusing on these problems, by synthesizing the opinions of various experts and scholarly works, this paper briefly reviews the research status of sparse TomoSAR imaging. Then, a joint sparse imaging algorithm, based on the building points of interest (POIs) and maximum likelihood estimation, is proposed to reduce the number of acquisitions required and reject the scatterer outliers. Moreover, we adopted the proposed novel workflow in the TerraSAR-X datasets in staring spotlight (ST) work mode. The experiments on simulation data and TerraSAR-X data stacks not only indicated the effectiveness of the proposed approach, but also proved the great potential of producing a high-precision dense point cloud from staring spotlight (ST) data.
Success of the ‘first-time first-line manager’: model development and validation

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors involved in the success of a ‘first-time first-line Manager’ (FTFLM), and establish a model for the success of a FTFLM using these identified factors. Methods: Empirical factors influencing the success of a first-line manager were gathered through the literature review and an experience survey of managers. Based on these factors, a questionnaire for primary research was developed and used for the survey. An exploratory factor analysis of the collected data yielded a nine-factor model which was validated using confirmatory factor analysis. Findings: A major portion (74%) of the FTFLM’s success factors are under the direct control of the FTFLM. The remaining portion (26%) are influenced by the organization’s procedures and policies for grooming the FTFLM and the attitude and behaviour of management towards the FTFLM.