Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Serum Cholinesterase Level as a Marker of Systemic Low-Grade Inflammation in Isolated Systolic Hypertension: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Autonomic regulation of local and systemic inflammation through the ‘cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway’ may have role in persistence of low-grade systemic inflammation in isolated systolic hypertension (ISH). The augmented activity of the enzyme cholinesterase (ChE) leads to degradation of the main anti-inflammatory neurotransmitter ‘acetylcholine’ of this pathway. Despite the role of inflammation in hypertension, serum level of cholinesterase enzyme has not been determined till now in ISH. The study aimed to measure the serum levels of inflammatory marker ChE in comparison to high sensitivity Creactive protein (hsCRP) to predict the presence of low-grade systemic inflammation and their correlation with blood pressure in ISH patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in ISH patients (n=30; mean age, 51.00±1.24 years; male/female (M/F) number=18/12). Age and sex matched healthy subjects (n=30, mean age, 51.86±1.40 years; M/F=16/14) were taken as control. Subjects were divided into three groups based on hsCRP levels; group I (healthy: hsCRP≤1.0mg/L), group IIa (patients with mild inflammation: hsCRP≤1.0mg/L), group IIb (patients with moderate to severe inflammation: hsCRP 1.0-10.0mg/L). Overnight fasting blood samples were collected and ChE and hsCRP were assessed using Cholinesterase Liqui-Check and hsCRP turbi-latex diagnostic kits, respectively. Results: hsCRP and ChE levels were found significantly high in hypertensive patients than in healthy subjects (p<0.05). In patients at mild stage of inflammation, there was an increase in both ChE and hsCRP, but not linearly as they had no significant correlation with each other. But at moderate to severe inflammation stage, there was a linear rise in both hsCRP and ChE levels. SBP, DBP and PP were significantly correlated with both ChE and hsCRP in patients (p<0.01). Moreover, as the SBP was increased from grade I to II, both hsCRP and ChE levels were also increased. Conclusion: Many factors interplay in propagating inflammatory cascade in ISH and all biomarkers of inflammation may not elevate at same point in time and in linear manner. ChE may act as a marker of low-grade systemic inflammation but its comparison must be tested against a standard marker such as hsCRP in large scale studies for finding its true significance in predicting cardiovascular disease risk.
Technological Evolution Agility and Dynamic IT Capabilities: A Delphi Study

Robust information technology infrastructures (ITI) are essential for organizations since they are the heart of almost every organization and are considered as key assets that play strategic roles and affect organizational performance. To cope with the effects of technological evolution, IT managers must have an articulated vision of their ITI as well as the ability to acquire, deploy, combine and reconfigure their ITI, i.e. dynamic IT capabilities. However, the underlying organizational actions of dynamic IT capabilities are difficult to identify and to circumscribe. Drawing on a Delphi study involving 29 IT management experts, this study has identified key organizational actions deployed to overcome the challenges related to the constant and rapid technological evolution to be agile. Overall, the experts emphasized the importance of collaboration, open culture, competencies, roadmap, standardization and monitoring of ITI to overcome the challenges and exploit the opportunities related to the constant and rapid technological evolution while fostering organizational agility.
Investigation of the effect of angle beam transducer parameters on the lamb wave field in the three–layer plate by normal mode expansion method

The effect of angle beam transducer parameters such as wedge angle and width transducer on the Lamb wave field generated in the elastic-viscoelastic three-layer plate has been investigated using normal mode expansion method. At first, the propagation of Lamb wave in the three-layer plate has been investigated using global matrix method, and all the modes that are propagated in the three-layer plate have been specified. Then, the optimum parameters of angle beam transducer have been obtained to generate a mode with minimum attenuation at a specific frequency. In addition to this mode, other modes are also generated in the three-layer plate, but this mode has maximum energy in the three-layer plate. The results indicate that the energy contribution of the mode with minimum attenuation at a specific frequency is 99.9% of the total energy and this mode has the highest energy contribution.
Analysis of key parameters for molecular dynamics of pMHC molecules

Molecular dynamics (MD) studies of human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) HLAB*2705 complexing two different peptides were performed. During simulation one peptide partially detached from the MHC while the other peptide switched back and forth between several different configurations. These different configurations relate to conformational substates and can be assigned to different levels of chemical activity or even the molecular mechanisms of immunological signalling. To ensure reliable immunological conclusions from MD simulations we prepare the methodological tools by carefully evaluating initial conditions, system simplification, solvation shell thickness, water model/force field combination and simulation length. We also derive a guideline for appropriate model selection. This kind of quality assessment is seen a mandatory prerequisite for coming studies linking peptide-loaded MHC dynamics to T-cell activation.
DETECTION OF CLOSTRIDIUM BOLTEAE IN SAMPLES OF IRAQI AUTISTIC CHILDREN USING TRADITIONAL AND MOLECULAR METHODS

Clostridia are widely distributed in natural environments and are inhabitants of both human and animal gastrointestinal tract. These organisms are important pathogens that may cause pseudomembranous colitis, necrotizing enteritis, food poisoning and the other intestinal disorders, such as diarrhea. The objective of this study was to detect C. bolteae from samples of Iraqi autistic children. Stool samples were collected from children under ten years. The samples were subjected to culturing and DNA extraction. Three isolates were detected by traditional method and showed positive results, while in conventional PCR furthermore detection of target bacteria using RT-PCR that is more sensitive , more reliable and fast.
JURI SAYS: An Automatic Judgement Prediction System for the European Court of Human Rights

In this paper we present the web platform JURI SAYS that automatically predicts decisions of the European Court of Human Rights based on communicated cases, which are published by the court early in the proceedings and are often available many years before the final decision is made. Our system therefore predicts future judgements of the court. The platform is available at jurisays.com and shows the predictions compared to the actual decisions of the court. It is automatically updated every month by including the prediction for the new cases. Additionally, the system highlights the sentences and paragraphs that are most important for the prediction (i.e. violation vs. no violation of human rights).
Principal Leadership Styles as Perceived By Elementary School Teachers in Relation To Their Work Motivation

This paper presents the results obtained from a sample of 467 teachers from 25 elementary schools in the wider city area of Tuzla. The subject of the research was the relationship between principal leadership styles, as perceived by teachers, and the work motivation of teachers. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) and the Work Tasks Motivation Scale for Teachers (WTMST) were used to collect data. The obtained results showed a correlation between the perceived principal leadership style and teacher motivation, in a way that transformational leadership primarily contributes to intrinsic motivation, transactional leadership contributes to types of extrinsic motivation (introjected, identified, and external regulation), and laissez-faire contributes to motivation. At most 13% of the variance in teacher motivation can be explained by the principal leadership style. The probable reason for such results is the complexity of teacher motivation, which is influenced by numerous both hygiene and motivating factors.
Retrieval of Prior Court Cases Using Witness Testimonies

Witness testimonies are important constituents of a court case description and play a significant role in the final decision. We propose two techniques to identify sentences representing witness testimonies. The first technique employs linguistic rules whereas the second technique applies distant supervision where training set is constructed automatically using the output of the first technique. We then represent the identified witness testimonies in a more meaningful structure – event verb (predicate) along with its arguments corresponding to semantic roles A0 and A1 [1]. We demonstrate effectiveness of such representation in retrieving semantically similar prior relevant cases. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to apply NLP techniques to extract witness information from court judgements and use it for retrieving prior court cases.
Predictors of Suicidal Thoughts among Substance Abuse Patients: Problem-Solving Ability and Hopelessness

Background: Substance abuse has become a serious health issue. Ineffective problem solving among Substance abuser can lead to hopelessness and loss of control to commit suicide. This study was aimed to investigate the ability to solve problems and hopelessness as predictors of suicidal thoughts among patients with drug abuse. A descriptive research design was utilized in this study. A purposive sample of 162 patients with substance abuse disorder was selected from El-Azazi Hospital for Mental Health in Abo-Hamad City, Sharkia Governorate. Participants completed the Socio-demographic and clinical data sheet, Drug Abuse Screen Test, Problem-Solving Inventory, The Beck Hopelessness Scale, and Suicide Probability Scale. The results revealed that the majority of studied participants had suicidal thoughts. More than one-third of them had severe level of drug abuse, mild level of hopelessness and was unable to solve their problems. There were statistically significant positive correlations between suicidal thought, problem solving ability, and feeling of hopelessness. Hopelessness, drug abuse, patients' age, and monthly income were significant predictors for suicidal probability among drug abuse patients. Therefore, it is recommended to conduct an intervention programs for drug abuse patients to strengthen their problem solving ability and develop adaptive coping strategies.
Virtual resistance based control for Ultracapacitor based Bidirectional dc/dc Backup System

This paper presents the control of a Ultracapacitor based dc/dc power-supply which provides energy backup to critical loads either during momentary power main failures or during peak power demands. The conventional control techniques such as unified control strategy although ensures seam-less mode transition, does not offer complete flexibility in charging and discharging controls, which is required for any ride through power supply. On the other hand, other important controls such as independent switch control though allows great flexibility in control, will not ensure seam-less mode transition without appropriate mode-switch logic. This paper proposes a virtual resistance based mode switch logic for independent switch control which not only ensures smooth, seam-less transition between charging and discharging control modes but also ensures complete decoupling in closed loop control structures. The proposed mode switch logic is verified using simulation results and the proposed control is found to work well.
Impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the mental health of adolescents in India and their perceived causes of stress and anxiety

Background: Outbreak of the 2019 novel Corona virus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to unanticipated psychological impact globally. Mental health of adolescents also requires significant attention. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the psychological stress and anxiety among adolescents in India during the COVID-19 pandemic and identify the most important precursors.Methods: An online survey was undertaken where adolescents in the age group of 10 to 19 years were invited to participate with a self-administered questionnaire. A snowball sampling strategy was used, focusing on recruiting adolescents living in Bangalore, India. Perceived stress scale-4 (PSS-4) and Generalized anxiety disorder-2 (GAD-2) Scale were used. Questionnaires were anonymous to ensure confidentiality and reliability of data. Data collection took place over five daysResults: 156 (52.0%) had a high PSS-4 score of ≥8 and 132 (44.0%) respondents had a high GAD-2 score of ≥3. Female gender and age were found to be statistically significant detrimental factors of stress and anxiety respectively (p<0.05). Academic delay and uncertainty about the future were found to be the most significant causes of perceived psychological distress among adolescents.Conclusions: Majority of the adolescents experienced varying degrees of stress and anxiety due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Our findings have both clinical and policy implications. The findings of our study indicate the need to identify adolescents as high-risk groups to ensure timely targeted psychological interventions and stress mitigating measures.
Commodities are Not Industries! A Value Chain Example

Wassily Leontief received the 1973 Nobel Prize in Economics for his 1936 introduction input-output accounts and laying the foundations for decades of studies of economic structure and analyses of systemwide impacts of economic shocks (Leontief, 1936). In 1961, Richard Stone published “Input-Output and National Accounts,” which recognized and dealt explicitly with the realities of secondary production (? ), and for which he received the 1984 Nobel Prize in Economics. Despite these recognitions and widespread use and acceptance internationally and in other disciplines and public sector planning applications, the Leontief and Stone framework gained little traction in mainstream U.S. economics. However, inputoutput modeling frameworks have attracted new attention in a variety of problem domains, including environmental attribution, water use, life-cycle assessment, and supply and value chains. Yet many – if not most – contemporary economists continue founding their work directly the Leontief framework, eschewing the power and versatility of Stone’s enhancements. Moreover, many are failing to understand and appreciate the conceptual differences between the two frameworks and as a result are failing to match constructs to variables in their their newly developed analytical metrics, even in top economics journals. In this paper, we use an increasingly common approach to value chains analysis as one of many possible examples that demonstrate such conceptual misunderstandings, and by developing and implementing properly formulated value chain metrics, we demonstrate both the extent of the consequences of neglecting the Stone enhancements and the important role of reproducing results in advancing scientific knowledge. *Director, Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University, 886 Chestnut Ridge Rd, Morgantown WV, USA 26506, rwjackson@mail.wvu. edu. †CEPR, Business School, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Av. Padre Alberto Hurtado 750, Of. 207-C Vi na del Mar, Chile. , patricio.aroca@uai.cl
Clustering District Heat Exchange Stations

11 Contrary to electricity smart meter data analysis, little research regarding district heat smart meter data has 12 been published. Previous papers on smart meter data analytics have not investigated autocorrelation in smart 13 meter data. This paper examines district heat smart meter data from the largest district heat supplier in 14 Denmark and autocorrelation is identified in the data. The K-Means algorithm is not able to take 15 autocorrelation into account when clustering. We propose different data transformation methods to enable K16 Means to account for this autocorrelation information in the data by using wavelet transformation and 17 autocorrelation features. Our results show that the K-Means yield acceptable clustering results for district heat 18 data when clustering normalized data, inclusion of autocorrelation improves the clustering. The clusters on 19 normalized data are similar to the wavelet transformed clusters, where the autocorrelation has been 20 accounted for. The clustering achieved with the autocorrelation transformation yields finer clusters through 21 accounting for autocorrelation. We are not able to statistically show a difference between the transformations. 22 All transformations result in shadowing clusters, but the autocorrelation transformation generates fewer 23 shadow clusters and reduce the number of dimensions from 744 to 24, resulting in a dramatic reduction in K24 Means runtime. 25 Highlights 26 1. Existence of autocorrelation in the smart meter data is shown. 27 2. Preprocessing of data enables K-Means to account for autocorrelation. 28 3. Implementation of cross-validation for unsupervised learning. 29 4. Autocorrelation feature from input data enable finer clustering from K-Means. 30 5. Wavelets reduce data with ensuing faster runtime without notable change to clusters. 31
Study of effect of diabetes mellitus on classical risk factors for coronary artery disease

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is increasingly prevalent in general population and is associated with increased risk for coronary artery disease (CAD). DM both directly and indirectly increases risk of CAD. Quantum of DM associated increase in classical risk factor for CAD is not exactly described. In present study, association of traditional risk for CAD and DM was analyzed. Methods: Total 150 patients with CAD were enrolled and divided into two group: group 1 with DM (84 patients) and group 2 without DM (66 patients). These two were compared and analyzed for classical risk factors for DM. Results: CAD with DM group had higher prevalence for traditional risk for CAD than CAD alone group: for Hypertension relative prevalence was 67.8 and 36.3% respectively (p<0.05); for Obesity it was 79.7 and 40.9% respectively (p<0.05) and for Dyslipidemia relative prevalence was 75 and 37.8% respectively (p<0.05). Conclusions: DM is major risk for CAD and it is also associated with increased prevalence for hypertension, obesity and dyslipidemia in affected population.
Thoughts on Incivility: A Preliminary Study to Identify Uncivil Behavior in Indonesian Higher Education

This preliminary study aims to identify an item list of uncivil behaviors in the Indonesian educational environment. The study comprises three phases: first, a panel of experts assessed each item to ensure their content validity for items pool. The second phase used a cross-sectional design and convenience sampling to recruit 524 students and faculty members in seven provinces in Indonesia using an online survey. The third phase involved ten students from the second phase and several faculty representatives were randomly selected to complete the open-ended questionnaire. Principal component analysis (PCA) identified four factors, including disregard for instructors/annoyances, disrespect for others (verbal and non-verbal), misconduct and integrity violation, and use of cell phones. Furthermore, the results indicate that "getting up during a class,leaving and returning,” “arriving late and/or leaving early," “not paying attention in the class,” “texting,” “packing books before the class is dismissed,” “cheating during an exam,” and “sleeping during the class” were the top seven highest recurring behaviors. This study provides tentative support for a preliminary scale in identifying uncivil behavior among college populations in Indonesia.
Evaluation of Probiotic, Prebiotic, and Synbiotic on Performance, Immune Responses, and Gastrointestinal Health of Broiler Chickens

To investigate the effects of newly introduced probiotic, prebiotic, and synbiotic, 1080 d-old broiler chickens were used in a completely randomized design with six treatments and six replicates of 30 birds each. Dietary treatments were: basal diet (control), basal diet plus 500 g of probiotic/ton (Probiotic-500), basal diet plus 500 g and 300 g of probiotic/ton during days 0-24 and 25-42 of age, respectively (Probiotic-500-300), basal diet plus 300 g of probiotic/ton (Probiotic-300), basal diet plus 1 kg of prebiotic/ton (Prebiotic), basal diet plus 1 kg of synbiotic/ton (Synbiotic). Average daily weight gain and feed conversion ratio were only affected by dietary treatments during the starter period; the lowest average daily weight gain and the highest feed conversion ratio were recorded for the control treatments compared to the others. The antibodies titers (total, IgG, and IgA) against sheep red blood cells, and Newcastle and Influenza viruses were significantly (P < 0.05) increased by feeding diets containing all experimental additives compared with the control diet. The pH of the ileum decreased (P < 0.05) by using probiotic, prebiotic, and synbiotic in the diets. The highest number of lactobacillus and E. coli populations was observed in birds fed synbiotic and control diet, respectively. The height of villus in the jejunum and its ratio to crypt depth was higher in birds fed a symbiotic diet compared to birds fed probiotic or control diets (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the cecum concentration of short-chain fatty acids was greater in chickens fed diets containing probiotic, prebiotic, or synbiotic than the control chickens (P < 0.05). In conclusion, although dietary supplementation with probiotic, prebiotic, and synbiotic had no positive effect on growth performance parameters of broiler chickens, the use of these products could exert promising effects on poultry health.