Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Depression, Anxiety and Stress among COPD Patients: A Comparative Cross Sectional Study

Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is associated with depression, anxiety and stress, which are the commonest disorders resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. There is paucity of information regarding the association between depression, anxiety, and stress and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the present setup. This comparative cross-sectional study was designed to determine the magnitude of Depression, Anxiety and Stress and associated factors among COPD patients. Methods: Sixty five COPD patients and equal number of age and sex matched healthy individuals were included in the study. The study was conducted at Jimma University Specialized Hospital JUSH), from March 01 to April 30/2016. Spirometric assessment was done to evaluate severity of COPD. Depression, anxiety and stress scale (DASS 21) was used for the assessment of severity of depression, anxiety and stress. Chi-square test, independent t-test, Fisher’s exact test, one way ANOVA and linear regression were carried out to determine the association between independent and outcome variables and variables with p<0.05 were considered as significant. Results: Statistically significant difference between COPD patient and healthy controls was recorded on the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress (47.7%, 49.2 %, and 56.9% respectively, p< 0.001). Depression score was significantly associated with severity of COPD (p<0.01). Duration of hospital admission was a common positive predictor for depression, anxiety and stress scores (β =0.156, 0.144 and 0.123 respectively, p<0.001), while FEV1 was a negative predictor of depression (β =-4.209) and stress score (β =-3.003), p <0.001. Higher educational level was a negative predictor of depression (β=-7.100) and anxiety scores (β = -5.15, p<0.05). Income was a negative predictor of stress score (β = -0.002, p <0.05). Cigarette smoking was a positive predictor of both depression (β=13.39, p<0.01) and anxiety scores (β=6.75, p <0.05), while khat chewing was positive predictor of only depression score (β=5.28, p<0.05). Conclusion: The present study showed that the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress among COPD patients were significantly high. Educational status, duration of admission, FEV1, current khat chewing and cigarette smoking were predictors of depression score. At the same time educational status, cigarette smoking, history and duration of admission were predictors of anxiety score. The severity of depression, anxiety and stress was correlated with the severity of COPD. Therefore, appropriate intervention should be given by the concerned body to treat DAS among COPD patients.
Amantadine for the Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease and its Associated Dyskinesias

Disturbances of motor function characteristic of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) are commonly treated with L-Dopa. However, prolonged treatment commonly results in L-Dopa-Induced Dyskinesias (LIDs) with high negative impact on patient’s quality of life that seriously limits the use of L-Dopa. Amantadine, like L-Dopa, is effective for the replenishment of defective dopamine production in PD by mechanisms involving increased synthesis and decreased synaptic reuptake with consequent improvements of the patient’s motor symptoms. Results of RCTs and meta-analyses continue to support the claim that amantadine is effective for the treatment of early or stable PD. Preclinical and clinical studies reveal that LIDs result from modifications of corticostriatal (glutamatergic) and nigrostrial (dopaminergic) connectivity resulting from the relative over-activation of NMDA receptors, a phenomenon shown to occur in patients with LIDs using Positron Emission Tomography. In addition to its beneficial actions in restoring dopaminergic function, amantadine is a potent non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist and, as such, affords a potentially effective agent for the treatment for LIDs. Indeed, beneficial effects of amantadine for the treatment of LIDs have been described in multiple Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) using a range of wellestablished dyskinesia rating scales over the last two decades and extended-release formulations of amantadine have also been found to be effective. Confirmation of clinical efficacy of amantadine for the treatment of LIDs has been complemented by the results of systematic reviews and meta-analyses that include a Movement Disease Society (MDS)-commissioned evidence-based update of treatment options. Treatment of PD patients with amantadine during the COVID-19 pandemic could be advantageous since, in addition to its ability to correct the movement disorder and dyskinesias, amantadine has the potential to limit replication of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19.
Reconstruction Cost and Insurance Refunding Empirical Evidences for Long-span-beam Buildings Struck by the 2012 Emilia-Romagna Earthquake

From the 2012 Emilia-Romagna earthquake much can be learnt in terms of seismic economic consequences. The public institutions’ need for comparable and accessible data, to be used within the reconstruction process, is the reason why researchers can finally put their hands on a vast, consistent and reliable seismic damage and loss database. In particular, after the 2012 seismic sequence, the local administrative authority, Regione Emilia-Romagna, started collecting relevant information regarding consequences occurred to structures and infrastructures, public housing, cultural heritage and business facilities. For what concerns the latter, the so-called SFINGE database was assembled in more than 6 years of reconstruction process. In SFINGE, among other things, reconstruction costs and insurance refunding were documented. In this paper, the author presents some results obtained by exploring such database, processing and checking data on thousands of buildings. In particular, long-span-beam structures were taken into consideration: for them, empirical evidences are plotted and summarized. Study results can be included within the state of the art of seismic performance assessment tools.
ABA dependent candidate gene identification and diversity analysis through SSR in sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) under salinity stress

Eleven (11) abscisic acid (ABA) dependent gene specific primer and twenty five (25) simple sequence repeats (SSR) primer pairs were chosen to detect the presence of gene responding under salinity stress and polymorphism to the 10 sugarcane accessions respectively. Out of 11 only 6 ABA denendent gene primer got amplified. The highest PIC (polymorphism information content) 0.764 for the primer RGS1 and lowest PIC for primer CDPK 0.22 was recorded. The resolving power were obtained in the range of 0.80 to 1.60. In case of SSR out of 25 primer only 19 were got amplified and generated 67 reproducible bands, to which 52 were polymorphic and 13 were monomorphic. The average number of polymorphic bands was 2.73 per primer, polymorphism range from 66.67% to 100%. The highest PIC 0.99 was recorded for the primer UGSM507 while lowest PIC 0.16 was recorded for the primer UGSM695, with resolving power ranging from 0.20 to 1.80. Similarity value for all the 10 genotypes ranged from 0.58 to 1.00. The minimum similarity exhibited by genotype Co 0238, Co 8279 and Co 0118, whereas the maximum similarity was shown by the genotype Co 5011 and CoS 7250.
University of Birmingham Robust visual tracking using template anchors

Deformable part models exhibit excellent performance in tracking non-rigidly deforming targets, but are usually outperformed by holistic models when the target does not deform or in the presence of uncertain visual data. The reason is that part-based models require estimation of a larger number of parameters compared to holistic models and since the updating process is self-supervised, the errors in parameter estimation are ampliﬁed with time, leading to a faster accuracy reduction than in holistic models. On the other hand, the robustness of part-based trackers is generally greater than in holistic trackers. We address the problem of self-supervised estimation of a large number of parameters by introducing controlled graduation in estimation of the free parameters. We propose decomposing the visual model into several sub-models, each describing the target at a different level of detail. The sub-models interact during target localization and, depending on the visual uncertainty, serve for cross-sub-model supervised updating. A new tracker is proposed based on this model which exhibits the qualities of part-based as well as holistic models. The tracker is tested on the highly-challenging VOT2013 and VOT2014 benchmarks, outperforming the state-of-the-art.
Applications of Mathematics

We study new a posteriori error estimates of the mixed finite element methods for general optimal control problems governed by nonlinear parabolic equations. The state and the co-state are discretized by the high order Raviart-Thomas mixed finite element spaces and the control is approximated by piecewise constant functions. We derive a posteriori error estimates in L(J ;L(Ω))-norm and L(J ;L(Ω))-norm for both the state, the co-state and the control approximation. Such estimates, which seem to be new, are an important step towards developing a reliable adaptive mixed finite element approximation for optimal control problems. Finally, the performance of the posteriori error estimators is assessed by two numerical examples.
Competitive Advantage and its Supply Chain Strategy for Performance of Shipping Agents at Penang Port, Malaysia

The management of arrival and departure of ships at Penang Port needs the shipping agent for increasing global competitiveness and a source of income for developed countries. Of these, the primary purpose of this study is to analyse the relationship between competitive advantage, management knowledge, social networking and performance mediated by internationalization. A self-administered questionnaire was adopted to perform a systematic collection of data from shipping agents and shipping organisations in Penang Port. The partial least squares method was used for the conceptual framework of the study. In conclusion, the competitive advantage and performance of international shipping agents in Penang wellbeing at workplace and environment around. The presented research carefully developed and designed to fulfil the proposed objectives, but this study still has certain limitations. These limitations should be considered to accomplish practical research in the future. As mentioned, this study shipping agent a cross-sectional design. The authors believe that competitive advantage and performance of international shipping agents using empirical data from the port at Penang, as well as that this research is an important emerging topic for researchers, academicians and practitioners. Keywords—Competitive advantage, supply chain strategy, management knowledge, social networking, internationalization, government initiative and performance
Playing position specifics of associations between running performance during the training and match in male soccer players

Background: The relationship between the training load and game load considering soccer playing positions has not been sufficiently examined. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the position-specific associations between running performance (RP) during the training and match in professional-level male soccer. Methods: The RPs of 15 players (age 23.57 ± 2.84 years, body height 181.9 ± 5.17 cm, body mass 78.36 ± 4.18 kg) were measured by the Global Positioning System over one half-season of the highest-level Croatian soccer competition and assessed according to their playing positions: central defenders (n = 22), fullbacks (n = 23), wide midfielders (n = 29), wingers (n = 6), and forwards (n = 12). Variables included the total distance covered; the distance covered by low intensity running, running, high-speed running, sprinting, and high intensity running; and the number of accelerations, high-intensity accelerations (HIA), decelerations, and high-intensity decelerations (HID). Results: Analysis of variance revealed significant differences in high-speed running, HID, and HIA (p = .01, all highest in forwards), and sprinting (p = .01, highest in the wide midfielders). The HIA and HID at training were significantly (p = .04 and .01, respectively) correlated (r = .42 and .52) with the corresponding match RP in fullbacks. The high-intensity running (high-speed running + sprinting), running, HIA and HID performance values were significantly correlated (r = .64, .52, .59, and .52, respectively; all p = .01) with the corresponding running performances from matches in central midfielders. Conclusions: Structure-specific training is highly recommended for some playing positions. The information obtained can be used to improve soccer training programs.
A Spatially Continuous Driving Rain Map of India at 0.5°×0.5° Gridded Scale

Driving rain is one of the most critical sources of moisture affecting the hygrothermal and durability performance of building envelopes. The estimation of severity in terms of annual driving rain indices using annual and monthly weather data (aaDRI and maDRI respectively) aids towards contemplating potential moisture loads, and hence in the efficient design of buildings in the geographical area of interest. In this study, monthly and annual gridded datasets of wind and rainfall, pertaining to the thirty-year period of 1988-2017 have been used to design a spatially continuous driving rain map for India at 0.5°×0.5° (lat./long.) resolution. The observations reveal that the use of annually averaged data leads to underestimation of the driving rain severity thereby highlighting the inefficiency of a coarser temporal scale. A linear relationship has subsequently been developed to enable refinement of aaDRI into maDRI. The analysis of the monthly driving rain map reveals that the entire western coastal belt and a few regions in the north-eastern part of the country observe high to severe exposure conditions. Furthermore, a trend analysis of the yearly driving rain index values reveals statistically significant decreasing trends over the northern and eastern regions of the country, whereas increasing trends in the shielded regions surrounding central India is observed.
The quantum Hall effect

Modern electronics is being transformed as device size decreases to a size where the dimensions are significantly smaller than the constituent electron's mean free path. In such systems the electron motion is strongly confined resulting in dramatic changes of behaviour compared to the bulk. This book introduces the physics and applications of transport in such mesoscopic and nanoscale electronic systems and devices. The behaviour of these novel devices is influenced by numerous effects not seen in bulk semiconductors, such as the Aharonov–Bohm Effect, disorder and localization, energy quantization, electron wave interference, spin splitting, tunnelling and the quantum Hall effect to name a few. Including coverage of recent developments, and with a chapter on carbon‐based nanoelectronics, this book will provide a good course text for advanced students or as a handy reference for researchers or those entering this interdisciplinary area.
Establishment of the relationship among the three morphotypes of cape gooseberry (Physalis peruviana L.)

Cape gooseberry is a minor fruit crop and considerable variations have been recorded from the morphotypes collected from seven different districts of Uttar Pradesh, where Cape gooseberry is grown on a commercial level, based on the vegetative parameters and physico-chemical analysis of fruits of Cape gooseberry morphotypes collected from different districts of Uttar Pradesh. However, there was no any research available regarding the molecular level electrophoresis separation of macro molecule of Cape gooseberry leaves, it was the first time when research on Cape gooseberry at molecular level done. Hence, in order to analyse the variability among different morphotypes of Cape gooseberry at the molecular level the three morphotype of Cape gooseberry are grown together at different plots in the field and experiment conducted. After analysis of the photographed gel it was reported that most of the bands were similar and specific bands were rare. High molecular weight proteins were located at the upper portion of the gel; while low molecular weight proteins were located in lower side of the gel. The protein pattern of the three morphotypes (morphotype-1, morphotype-2, morphotype-3) when studied under electrophoresis it was observed that at different kDa the density of bands was found different, it indicates that at particular molecular weight the level of a particular protein of a morphotype may be increases or decreases. The variation was also recorded that at different doses of protein the level of protein among three morphotypes were found different.
Augmenting Software Documentation through Crowd-sourcing Annotations with ADAMITE

Modern software development requires developers to find and effectively utilize new software libraries and APIs. In learning these new APIs, developers typically need to familiarize themselves with documentation, but documentation has many well-known issues. We have developed the Adamite browser plugin to investigate crowd-sourcing annotations as a way of mitigating these issues. Adamite provides multiple annotations types such as question-answer, to-do, issues and highlights which help the annotation authors organize their information finding. Saving the annotations helps later developers to find answers to their questions and confusions in context in the documentation. Our user studies showed that developers were able to effectively utilize annotated documentation when completing an API learning task and created significantly higher quality code (18% more accurate than code made without using Adamite), and that developers also created high-quality annotations that were helpful to themselves and could help future users.
Investigation of activated sludge in different wastewater treatment systems

The overall aim of this study was to investigate the activated sludge by using sludge activity (TTC) screening and microscopic method in determining the differences in the activated sludge of different wastewater treatment systems. The study presented the use of two methods to investigate the state of activated sludge in the wastewater. The first method was to use the Sludge activity (TTC) Screening method I to investigate the sludge activity respiration and the activity of the hydrogenase in the activated sludge. The method evaluated different setbacks and advantages that were incurred in the wastewater treatment plants. It encouraged the use of biological treatment of wastewater since it is the currently most used method in wastewater treatment systems worldwide. The biological wastewater treatment limited the naturally occurring bacteria in a very high concentration in the treatment works. Henceforth the need to understand the composition of activated sludge in the wastewater works remained vital and significant. The outcome of the microscopic investigation indicated that some samples did not meet the minimum acceptable sludge activity measurement range. It also indicated that Nocardia bacterial species were present in this system in large numbers, which indicated unfavorable conditions. This study emphasized the importance of biological treatment in wastewater treatment works.
The biofilm-forming potential of Staphylococcus aureus isolates from various sources using phenotypic and genotypic assays

Staphylococcus aureus is an important bacterial agent causing variety of infections in humans and animals. This organism causes diseases like skin infections, meningitis, endocarditis, septicemia, and toxic shock syndrome. Biofilm production is considered one of the critical virulent factors which enhance survival of the organism and hence contributes to the pathogenic capabilities of this organism. In our study, a total of 40 Staphylococcus aureus isolates were obtained from different sources like pus and skin of humans and animals and unprocessed meat samples. The isolates were obtained by conventional microbiological methods, confirmed genotypically by 23S rRNA ribotyping and Maldi-Tof MS. The confirmed S. aureus isolates were screened for detection biofilm formation by Congo red agar method and for the detection of two genes responsible for biofilm production, namely icaA and icaD by a simplex polymerase chain reaction. Out of 42.50% and 32.50% isolates were detected as healthy and intermediate biofilm produce by the CRA method, and 100% and 97.56% isolates were exposed to possess icaA and icaD gene respectively by PCR. The very high prevalence of two genes in the isolates indicates the high pathogenic ability of these organisms as these genes are responsible for intracellular adhesions.
GIS-Based Spatial Analysis for the Integrated Transport-Land Use-Energy Planning: An Application to the Greater London

This work focuses on examining the possible advantages for the urban sustainability, derived from the integration of transport, land use and energy systems. The main aim is to develop a GIS-based method that can help decision makers, either public or private, improve the economic, social and environmental sustainability of urban areas through an integrated transformation approach. As a result, it was possible to provide a spatial analysis technique based on seven synthetic variables and on the application of a cluster method able to identify the portions of urban areas where investments and urban integrated transformation processes can be more suitable, according to the dynamic relationships among transport, land use and energy systems. The methodology was applied to the Greater London area and led to significant results: the cluster classes follow the transport railway network evolution within the study area boundary. The paper is organized as follows: in Section 1 the integration of transport, land use and energy planning is investigated; following the introduction, in Section 2, the GIS-based method is presented, followed by a description of the application to the Greater London area; in Section 4, findings of the methodology are explained. In the last section, results and future developments are discussed.