Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A qualitative study of health care access among African American older adults in a socio-demographically under-resourced region during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background In the U.S., health inequities experienced by the African American community, specifically among those ages 65 and older, have been well-documented in research literature. Alongside the findings regarding disparities in disease prevalence and management, researchers have also highlighted disparities in health care access. Despite recent evidence of health inequities experienced by African Americans during the COVID pandemic, there is little research on the lived experience of this group in this critical time, health care access challenges that may be exacerbated by the pandemic, and the community's outlook for the future in addressing health disparities. Methods We conducted a qualitative study of African Americans to gather their perspectives about access to health care, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study participants consisted of African Americans, ages 50–85 years, who spoke English as their primary language, who resided in one of 17 counties in South Carolina that represent a region of the State known as the corridor of economic disadvantage. Results Forty-seven telephone interviews were conducted. While research has shown that certain populations experienced health care access disparities during the early COVID pandemic, these disparities did not appear to be exacerbated in our sample. However, participants noted an increase in the use of telehealth, and identified challenges to using this technology. Participants made recommendations about how to address disparities in health care access in their communities. Conclusion Our qualitative approach was useful in obtaining perspectives about access to health care during the COVID-19 pandemic from African American older adults. Continued research with older African Americans, particularly those in under-resourced communities are warranted to further elucidate these findings.
A SURVEY ON COLLEGE STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD ENGLISH E-TUTORING WEBSITES

Using the TAM Model to investigate college students' attitudes toward English e-tutoring websites has rarely been conducted from an information technology and global e-digital market perspective. The present study re-examined the utilization of self-paced e-learning websites for business English based on the assessments of university students. The findings were as follows: 1. Most users of English e-tutoring services believe that the use of such services in learning English provides greater value and convenience than non-online alternatives. This belief can assist the web designers of such websites in the maintenance and enhancement of users’ loyalty to the sites if the web designers take care to ensure the quality of the sites’ e-content. 2. Site designers should also endeavor to ensure that students’ requirements regarding functions relating to knowledge management and website interactions are met such that the students can operate the sites with greater ease as they engage in the learning process. 3. To provide a better understanding of the interface design quality.
Comparative efficacy and acceptability of pharmacotherapies for postpartum depression: A systematic review and network meta-analysis

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of pharmacotherapies for postpartum depression (PPD). Method: We performed a computerized search of MEDLINE (Ovid and PubMed), Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Google Scholar to identify eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs) before 31 March 2022. We calculated standardized mean differences (SMDs) for continuous outcomes and odds ratios (ORs) for dichotomous outcomes with the random-effects model. The tolerability of antidepressants in terms of early dropouts was investigated. The surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) was used for ranking the outcomes. Quality assessment of the included studies was performed using the Cochrane Collaboration’s tool. Results: A total of 11 studies with 944 participants were included in this network meta-analysis, involving nine antidepressants. With respect to efficacy, only estradiol and brexanolone were significantly more effective than the placebo (p < 0.05), and the calculated SUCRA indicated that estradiol (94.3%) had the highest probability ranking first for reducing the PPD, followed by paroxetine (64.3%) and zuranolone (58.8%). Regarding tolerability, a greater percentage of patients treated with brexanolone experienced early dropout as compared to those treated with most other antidepressants. Conclusion: Only estradiol and brexanolone showed significantly higher efficacy than the placebo. According to the SUCRA ranking, estradiol, paroxetine, and zuranolone were the three best antidepressants. Concerning acceptability in terms of early dropouts, brexanolone was less well-tolerated than other antidepressants.
Comparison of 10 obesity-related indices for predicting hypertension based on ROC analysis in Chinese adults

Objective To compare the predictive performance of the percentage body fat (PBF), body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), waist–hip ratio (WHR), waist–height ratio (WHtR), a body shape index (ABSI), body roundness index (BRI), abdominal volume index (AVI), and conicity index (CI) for identifying hypertension. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among 2,801 adults (1,499 men and 1,302 women) aged 18 to 81 in Ningbo, China. The receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis and multiple non-parametric Z tests were used to compare the areas under the curve (AUC). The maximum Youden's indices were used to determine the optimal cut-off points of 10 obesity-related indices (ORI) for hypertension risk. Results The AUC of all the indices were statistically significant (P < 0.05). The AUC of all the indices in men and women were 0.67–0.73 and 0.72–0.79, respectively. Further non-parametric Z tests showed that WHR had the highest AUC values in both men [0.73 (95% CI: 0.70, 0.76)] and women (0.79 (95% CI: 0.75, 0.83)], and several central ORI (men: WHR, WC, BRI, AVI, and CI, 0.71–0.73; women: WC, WHR, and AVI, 0.77–0.79) were higher than general ORI (PBF and BMI, 0.68 in men; 0.72–0.75 in women), with adjusted P < 0.05. The optimal cut-off points for identifying hypertension in men and women were as follows: PBF (23.55%, 32.55%), BMI (25.72 kg/m2, 23.46 kg/m2), HC (97.59 cm, 94.82 cm), WC (90.26 cm, 82.78 cm), WHR (0.91, 0.88), WHtR (0.51, 0.55), ABSI (0.08 m7/6/kg2/3, 0.08 m7/6/kg2/3), BRI (4.05, 4.32), AVI (16.31 cm2, 13.83 cm2), and CI (1.23 m2/3/kg1/2, 1.27 m2/3/kg1/2). Multivariate logistic regression models showed that all indices were statistically significant (P < 0.05) with the adjusted ORs (per 1-SD increase) at 1.39–2.06 and ORs (over the optimal cut-off points) at 1.80–2.64. Conclusions All 10 ORI (PBF, BMI, HC, WC, WHR, WHtR, ABSI, BRI, AVI, and CI) can effectively predict hypertension, among which WHR should be recommended as the best predictor. Central ORI (WHR, WC, and AVI) had a better predictive performance than general ORIs (PBF and BMI) when predicting the risk of hypertension.
Fitness of calves born from in vitro-produced fresh and cryopreserved embryos

In cattle, vitrified/warmed (V/W) and frozen/thawed (F/T), in vitro-produced (IVP) embryos, differ in their physiology and survival from fresh embryos. In this study, we analyzed the effects of embryo cryopreservation techniques on the offspring. IVP embryos cultured with albumin and with or without 0.1% serum until Day 6, and thereafter in single culture without protein, were transferred to recipients on Day 7 as F/T, V/W, or fresh, resulting in N = 24, 14, and 13 calves, respectively. Calves were clinically examined at birth, and blood was analyzed before and after colostrum intake (Day 0), and subsequently on Day 15 and Day 30. On Day 0, calves from V/W and F/T embryos showed increased creatinine and capillary refill time (CRT) and reduced heartbeats. Calves from F/T embryos showed lower PCO2, hemoglobin, and packed cell volume than calves from V/W embryos while V/W embryos led to calves with increased Na+ levels. Colostrum effects did not differ between calves from fresh and cryopreserved embryos, indicating similar adaptive ability among calves. However, PCO2 did not decrease in calves from V/W embryos after colostrum intake. Serum in culture led to calves with affected (P < 0.05) temperature, CRT, HCO3-, base excess (BE), TCO2, creatinine, urea, and anion gap. On Day 15, the effects of embryo cryopreservation disappeared among calves. In contrast, Day 30 values were influenced by diarrhea appearance, mainly in calves from V/W embryos (i.e., lower values of TCO2, HCO3-, and BE; and increased glucose, anion gap, and lactate), although with no more clinical compromise than calves from fresh and F/T embryos. Diarrhea affected PCO2 and Na+ in all groups. Embryo cryopreservation, and/or culture, yield metabolically different calves, including effects on protein and acid–base metabolism.
Soil carbon pools are affected by species identity and productivity in a tree common garden experiment

The formation and turnover of soil organic carbon (C), the largest terrestrial C pool, is strongly impacted by the ultimate source of that C: leaves, wood, roots, and root exudates. The quantity and quality of these inputs is determined by the identity of the plants involved. Yet substantial uncertainty surrounds the complex relationships among plant traits and soil C, precluding efforts to maximize whole-ecosystem C uptake in nature-based climate mitigation scenarios. In this study, we leveraged a biodiversity-ecosystem function experiment with trees (IDENT) to explore the effects of interspecific variation in plant traits on soil C dynamics in the very early stages of stand development (9 years since planting). Mineral soil C stocks to 5 cm depth were quantified in monospecific plots of 19 tree species planted on a former agricultural field, and analyzed in relation to tree growth and functional traits. We found that tree species identity affected soil bulk density and, to a lesser extent, the carbon content of the topsoil, and thereby total C pools. Among species and across plots, mineral soil C stocks were positively correlated with rates of tree growth and were significantly larger beneath broadleaf trees with “fast” functional traits vs. conifers with more conservative leaf traits, when comparisons were made over equivalent soil depth increments. Thus, plant functional traits mediate interspecific differences in productivity, which in turn influence the magnitude of belowground C stocks. These results highlight important linkages between above- and belowground carbon cycles in the earliest stages of afforestation.
Recent advances in engineering hydrogels for niche biomimicking and hematopoietic stem cell culturing

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) provide a life-long supply of haemopoietic cells and are indispensable for clinical transplantation in the treatment of malignant hematological diseases. Clinical applications require vast quantities of HSCs with maintained stemness characteristics. Meeting this demand poses often insurmountable challenges for traditional culture methods. Creating a supportive artificial microenvironment for the culture of HSCs, which allows the expansion of the cells while maintaining their stemness, is becoming a new solution for the provision of these rare multipotent HSCs. Hydrogels with good biocompatibility, excellent hydrophilicity, tunable biochemical and biophysical properties have been applied in mimicking the hematopoietic niche for the efficient expansion of HSCs. This review focuses on recent progress in the use of hydrogels in this specialized application. Advanced biomimetic strategies use for the creation of an artificial haemopoietic niche are discussed, advances in combined use of hydrogel matrices and microfluidics, including the emerging organ-on-a-chip technology, are summarized. We also provide a brief description of novel stimulus-responsive hydrogels that are used to establish an intelligent dynamic cell microenvironment. Finally, current challenges and future perspectives of engineering hydrogels for HSC biomedicine are explored.
Deep DoseNet: a deep neural network for accurate dosimetric transformation between different spatial resolutions and/or different dose calculation algorithms for precision radiation therapy

The purpose of this work is to introduce a novel deep learning strategy to obtain highly accurate dose plan by transforming from a dose distribution calculated using a low-cost algorithm (or algorithmic settings). 25 168 slices of dose distribution are calculated using Eclipse treatment planning system V15.6 (Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, CA) on ten patient CTs whose treatment sites ranging from lung, brain, abdomen and pelvis, with a grid size of 1.25 × 1.25 × 1.25 mm using both anisotropic analytical algorithm (AAA) in 5 mm resolution and Acuros XB algorithm (AXB) in 1.25 mm resolution. The AAA dose slices, and the corresponding down sampled CT slices are combined to form a tensor with a size of 2 × 64 × 64, working as the input to the deep learning-based dose calculation network (deep DoseNet), which outputs the calculated Acuros dose with a size of 256 × 256. The deep DoseNet (DDN) consists of a feature extraction component and an upscaling part. The DDN converges after ~100 epochs with a learning rate of , using ADAM. We compared up sampled AAA dose and DDN output with that of AXB. For the evaluation set, the average mean-square-error decreased from 4.7 × between AAA and AXB to 7.0 × 10−5 between DDN and AXB, with an average improvement of ~12 times. The average Gamma index passing rate at 3mm3% improved from 76% between AAA and AXB to 91% between DDN and AXB. The average calculation time is less than 1 ms for a single slice on a NVIDIA DGX workstation. DDN, trained with a large amount of dosimetric data, can be employed as a general-purpose dose calculation acceleration engine across various dose calculation algorithms.
Aquatic Elusimicrobia are metabolically diverse compared to gut microbiome Elusimicrobia and some have novel nitrogenase-like gene clusters

Currently described members of Elusimicrobia, a relatively recently defined phylum, are animal-associated and rely on fermentation. However, free-living Elusimicrobia have been detected in sediments, soils and groundwater, raising questions regarding their metabolic capacities and evolutionary relationship to animal-associated species. Here, we reconstructed 94 draft-quality, non-redundant genomes from diverse animal-associated and natural environments. Genomes group into 12 clades, 10 of which previously lacked reference genomes. Groundwater-associated Elusimicrobia are predicted to be capable of heterotrophic or autotrophic lifestyles, reliant on oxygen or nitrate/nitrite-dependent respiration of fatty acids, or a variety of organic compounds and Rnf-dependent acetogenesis with hydrogen and carbon dioxide as the substrates. Genomes from two clades of groundwater-associated Elusimicrobia often encode a new homologous group of nitrogenase-like proteins that co-occur with an extensive suite of radical SAM-based proteins. We identified similar genomic loci in genomes of bacteria from the Gracilibacteria and Myxococcus phyla and predict that the gene clusters reduce a tetrapyrrole, possibly to form a novel cofactor. The animal-associated Elusimicrobia clades nest phylogenetically within two groundwater-associated clades. Thus, we propose an evolutionary trajectory in which some Elusimicrobia adapted to animal-associated lifestyles from groundwater-associated species via genome reduction.
Increased interspecific aggression between Appalachian stream salamanders at elevated temperatures

Community dynamics are often determined by size-dependent interactions. These interactions in aquatic ectothermic assemblages may be disrupted as ecosystems get warmer and organisms adapt to their warming environment by becoming smaller. Species will respond differently to rising temperature, so outcomes of inter-species interactions may change unpredictably. Stream salamander assemblages in the eastern United States are spatially partitioned by individual size, such that all species would prefer to occupy streams but larger species exclude smaller species to stream margins. Aggression by the larger species is probably one mechanism that contributes to this pattern, but we do not understand how temperature mediates these interspecific interactions. At multiple temperatures, we observed short-term interspecific interactions among 3 stream salamander congeners that exist along a body size gradient. We predicted that temperature would change the frequency and type of interspecific interactions. At current temperatures, we predicted that the largest species would frequently exhibit aggression but rarely exhibit escape behavior, and that the smallest species would rarely exhibit aggression and frequently exhibit escape behavior. Overall, we observed 3.8× more aggression at the warmest temperature. We also found that the largest species exhibited aggression most often, particularly towards the smallest species. However, the moderately-sized species fled most often. These fine-scale behaviors are consistent with observations of spatial habitat-partitioning in this assemblage. Our result that temperature increases aggression may indicate that warmer future thermal regimes may disrupt the interspecific interactions that currently shape ecological communities.
Endangered but genetically stable—Erythrophleum fordii within Feng Shui woodlands in suburbanized villages

Abstract Feng Shui woodlands are naturally or artificially formed green areas in southern China. They are precious for maintaining ecosystem balance in modern semiurban environments. However, they are generally small and geographically isolated from each other, and the status of genetic diversity of the plant species within them has been almost neglected. Therefore, we studied the genetic diversity of the endangered Erythrophleum fordii in eight Feng Shui woodlands (a total of 1,061 individuals) in Guangzhou, a large city in southern China, using microsatellites. For comparison, one population with 33 individuals sampled in a nature reserve was also studied. Although our results indicate that significant demographic declines occurred historically in E. fordii, such declines have not resulted in consistent reductions in genetic variation over generations in Feng Shui populations in the recent past, and the levels of genetic variation in these populations were higher than or comparable to the genetic variation of the population in the nature reserve. In addition, our parentage and paternity analyses indicated widespread and potential long‐distance pollen flow within one Feng Shui woodland, indicating the presence of an unbroken pollination network, which would at least partially alleviate the genetic erosion due to habitat fragmentation and the unequal gene contributions of E. fordii parents to their progenies when favorable recruitment habitats are absent under most of the parent trees. Overall, our results suggest that E. fordii in Feng Shui woodlands may not be driven to extinction in the near future. Nevertheless, uncontrolled fast urban development with a lack of awareness of Feng Shui woodlands will cause the local extinction of E. fordii, which has already happened in some Feng Shui woodlands.
In vitro organogenesis and growth of Ocimum basilicum ‘Genovese’ (basil) cultivated with growth regulators

Genovese basil is a medicinal plant broadly used in medicine, perfumery, and cooking. In this study, the in vitro organogenesis and growth of Genovese basil seedlings are evaluated through the effect of growth regulators applied in different doses. Eight treatments were performed combining different concentrations of auxins and cytokinins, plus one control. At the end of the trial, growth characteristics of the seedlings were measured, and anatomical sections of the leaves and stems of the basil were prepared. The results demonstrated the need for cytokinins to increase the number and length of shoots and the length of roots. The treatment with 0.2 mgL-1 benzyl aminopurine (BAP) mgL-1 demonstrated the best result. The combined action of auxins and cytokinins increased fresh and dry masses of roots (0.3 mgL-1 BAP + 0.6 mgL-1naphthaleneacetic acid [NAA]). Partial changes in the leaf architecture as well as a reduction in the thickness of the palisade and lacunar parenchyma were observed, especially in treatment T8 (0.4 mgL-1 BAP+ 0.2 mgL-1NAA). In addition, all treatments with regulators presented adventitious roots in the stem, originating from inner-stem cells or vascular tissues. The formation of callus at the base of the plants and the occurrence of abnormal seedlings indicate that Genovese basil was responsive to the action of the growth regulators, although other factors regarding the medium could influence such responses. The growth regulators also function in the expression of genes linked to the stretching process (auxins) and cell proliferation (cytokinin).
Speech reception thresholds in noise with and without spectral and temporal dips for hearing‐impaired and normally hearing people

People with cochlear hearing loss often have considerable difficulty in understanding speech in the presence of background sounds. In this paper the relative importance of spectral and temporal dips in the background sounds is quantified by varying the degree to which they contain such dips. Speech reception thresholds in a 65-dB SPL noise were measured for four groups of subjects: (a) young with normal hearing; (b) elderly with near-normal hearing; (c) young with moderate to severe cochlear hearing loss; and (d) elderly with moderate to severe cochlear hearing loss. The results indicate that both spectral and temporal dips are important. In a background that contained both spectral and temporal dips, groups (c) and (d) performed much more poorly than group (a). The signal-to-background ratio required for 50% intelligibility was about 19 dB higher for group (d) than for group (a). Young hearing-impaired subjects showed a slightly smaller deficit, but still a substantial one. Linear amplification combined .
Correlation Between Family Functioning and Caregiver Burden among Family Caregivers of Patients with Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the most common chronic disease among Indonesian women. During treatment, patients require assistance with carrying out daily activities. Family members, as the basic unit, usually become caregivers for patients with breast cancer. As a caregiver, a family member must sometimes manage various problems, in particular, family functioning (Wozniak & Izycki, 2014). In addition, the changing or multiple roles the family member plays affect the caregiver burden for family caregivers. The purpose of this study is to investigate the correlation between family functioning and caregiver burden among family caregivers of patients with breast cancer who have been caregiving for at least 3 months. Family functioning is assessed using the Family Assessment Device (FAD) with (Epstein, Bishop, & Levin, 1978), and caregiver burden is assessed using the Zarit Interview Scale (ZBI) (Zarit, Reever, & Bach-Peterson, 1980). In this study, 35 participants are family caregivers for patients with breast cancer. This study found a significant negative correlation between family functioning and caregiver burden. That is, the higher FAD score, the lower ZBI score issued by a family caregiver of patients with breast cancer.