Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Why Not Travel to Malaysia? Perspectives of Future Senior Tourists toward Senior-Friendly Destination Attributes

ABSTRACT The push-pull motivation theory was applied to examine the role of travel motivation in the relationship between senior-friendly destination attributes and future seniors’ travel intention to a senior-friendly destination. A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 209 future senior tourists in Malaysia. Hierarchical multiple regression and factor analysis results revealed four important attribute dimensions of a senior-friendly destination from the perspective of future senior tourists, i.e., ‘senior-friendly facilities and accessibility,’ ‘tourism resources and attractions,’ ‘complementary services,’ and ‘safety and security services. ’ ‘Tourism resources and attractions’ was found to be the only destination attribute that significantly predicts future seniors’ travel intention. Travel motivation was tested to determine its effect on travel intention, however the findings indicated that future senior tourists’ travel motivation has no moderating role in the relationship between senior-friendly destination attributes and travel intention. Implications and suggestions are provided for tourism researchers, destination managers, and travel service providers.
Changing Threshold-Based Segmentation Has No Relevant Impact on Semi-Quantification in the Context of Structured Reporting for PSMA-PET/CT

Simple Summary Molecular imaging of patients with prostate cancer is widely utilized. We aimed to determine whether changes in post-processing parameters, such as maximum intensity thresholds, can significantly alter results. We investigated 623 lesions that were positive on a molecular imaging scan and could not find any relevant impact on results when certain parameters were changed, in particular in lesions indicative for metastases of prostate cancer. Abstract Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-directed positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is increasingly utilized for staging of men with prostate cancer (PC). To increase interpretive certainty, the standardized PSMA reporting and data system (RADS) has been proposed. Using PSMA-RADS, we characterized lesions in 18 patients imaged with 18F-PSMA-1007 PET/CT for primary staging and determined the stability of semi-quantitative parameters. Six hundred twenty-three lesions were categorized according to PSMA-RADS and manually segmented. In this context, PSMA-RADS-3A (soft-tissue) or -3B (bone) lesions are defined as being indeterminate for the presence of PC. For PMSA-RADS-4 and -5 lesions; however, PC is highly likely or almost certainly present [with further distinction based on absence (PSMA-RADS-4) or presence (PSMA-RADS-5) of correlative findings on CT]. Standardized uptake values (SUVmax, SUVpeak, SUVmean) were recorded, and volumetric parameters [PSMA-derived tumor volume (PSMA-TV); total lesion PSMA (TL-PSMA)] were determined using different maximum intensity thresholds (MIT) (40 vs. 45 vs. 50%). SUVmax was significantly higher in PSMA-RADS-5 lesions compared to all other PSMA-RADS categories (p ≤ 0.0322). In particular, the clinically challenging PSMA-RADS-3A lesions showed significantly lower SUVmax and SUVpeak compared to the entire PSMA-RADS-4 or -5 cohort (p < 0.0001), while for PSMA-RADS-3B this only applies when compared to the entire PSMA-RADS-5 cohort (p < 0.0001), but not to the PSMA-RADS-4 cohort (SUVmax, p = 0.07; SUVpeak, p = 0.08). SUVmean (p = 0.30) and TL-PSMA (p = 0.16) in PSMA-RADS-5 lesions were not influenced by changing the MIT, while PSMA-TV showed significant differences when comparing 40 vs. 50% MIT (p = 0.0066), which was driven by lymph nodes (p = 0.0239), but not bone lesions (p = 0.15). SUVmax was significantly higher in PSMA-RADS-5 lesions compared to all other PSMA-RADS categories in 18F-PSMA-1007 PET/CT. As such, the latter parameter may assist the interpreting molecular imaging specialist in assigning the correct PSMA-RADS score to sites of disease, thereby increasing diagnostic certainty. In addition, changes of the MIT in PSMA-RADS-5 lesions had no significant impact on SUVmean and TL-PSMA in contrast to PSMA-TV.
Multielectrode Spectroscopy Enables Rapid and Sensitive Molecular Profiling of Extracellular Vesicles

Detecting protein markers in extracellular vesicles (EVs) is becoming a useful tool for basic research and clinical diagnoses. Most EV protein assays, however, require lengthy processes—conjugating affinity ligands onto sensing substrates and affixing EVs with additional labels to maximize signal generation. Here, we present an iPEX (impedance profiling of extracellular vesicles) system, an all-electrical strategy toward fast, multiplexed EV profiling. iPEX adopts one-step electropolymerization to rapidly functionalize sensor electrodes with antibodies; it then detects EV proteins in a label-free manner through impedance spectroscopy. The approach streamlines the entire EV assay, from sensor preparation to signal measurements. We achieved (i) fast immobilization of antibodies (<3 min) per electrode; (ii) high sensitivity (500 EVs/mL) without secondary labeling; and (iii) parallel detection (quadruple) in a single chip. A potential clinical utility was demonstrated by directly analyzing plasma samples from glioblastoma multiforme patients.
Wild relatives of potato may bolster its adaptation to new niches under future climate scenarios

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri bution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2022 The Authors. Food and Energy Security published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Science, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA 2Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, UK 3Department of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA 4International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Cali, Colombia 5San Diego Botanic Garden, Encinitas, California, USA 6Plant Breeding and Genetics Section, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
Models and Theories of Executive Leadership: A Conceptual/Empirical Review and Integration.

Abstract : Executive leadership has been a long-standing concern of the U.S. Army. However, prior to 1980, much of the military research focused on generic dimensions of leadership or were specifically concerned with leadership at lower grades. Accordingly, in the early 1980s, the Army recognized a need for greater and more focused research on the nature of leadership at the brigade command level and higher. This interest parallels the increasing focus on top organizational leadership in the nonmilitary literature. As a consequence of this increased attention and interest, the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI) started a program of research, under the direction of T. Owen Jacobs, that focused on the nature and determinants of effective military executive leadership. The mission of this research was to develop and test concept materials for doctrine development at the executive level, formulate an executive development system, and formulate and test methodology for restructuring Army organizations to achieve gains in productivity, effectiveness, and esprit.
Mitigation of Multipath Errors Using the Iterative Least Absolute Deviation Approach

The least squares (LS) approach has been widely used for solving the GPS navigation solution. Despite its many superior properties, however, the LS estimate can be sensitive to outliers and its performance in terms of accuracy and statistical inferences may be compromised when the errors are large and heterogeneous. The GPS signal is strongly affected by the multipath propagation errors. The LS is not able to cope with the above condition to provide a useful and plausible solution. In this paper, an alternative approach based on the least absolute deviation (LAD) criterion for estimating the navigation solution is carried out. The LAD method, which is also known as the L1 method, provides a useful and plausible solution. Unlike the LS method, the LAD method is not as sensitive to the outliers and so as to provide more robust estimates. Simulation results show that the method can effectively mitigate the GPS multipath errors.
Alternative Nesting Strategies of Polistine Wasps in a Subtropical Locale

Simple Summary Paper wasps are eusocial insects which serve as excellent models for studying the evolution of sociality. In this study we provide a new and unique view of the nesting biology of social wasps by comparing and contrasting the phenology of species in two genera, Polistes and Mischocyttarus, in a context that sheds light on the life history and evolution of this group. Over the course of one year in subtropical Baton Rouge, USA, we found two nesting strategies, with Polistes having a second nesting cycle characterized by an abbreviated colony duration and smaller nests, and Mischocyttarus mexicanus having one nesting cycle characterized by long colony duration and few late season nests. Our results highlight phenological differences in the life history of an assemblage of social wasps in a subtropical locale, and support previous foundational works concerning the ancestral origins of the Polistinae. Abstract Phylogenetic studies suggest that historically all paper wasps (Vespidae: Polistinae) in North America have tropical origins, but some species have adapted to survive temperate conditions. Subtropical climates, which are intermediate between temperate and tropical, allow a unique opportunity to study ancestral traits which can be retained or lost within populations, and ultimately elucidate the process of social wasp evolution. We investigated the phenology of paper wasps at study sites in subtropical Baton Rouge, USA, through nest searching and monitoring of nest parameters throughout the warm season (March–October). Across the year, two periods of nest initiation occurred: from March–May (early season nests, i.e., before the summer solstice), and from July–September (late season nests, after the solstice). We observed 240 Polistes nests from six species, of which 50.8% were initiated in early season and 49.2% in late season. In contrast, Mischocyttarus mexicanus rarely built late season nests and had longer early season colony duration than Polistes bellicosus and P. dorsalis, which built more nests in the late season than early. Across all species, late season nests had significantly shorter colony duration (~87.6 days) than early season nests (~166 days), and only P. bellicosus had fewer adults at peak population in late season nests than in early season nests. Results indicate both a bivoltine colony cycle in Polistes of subtropical climates, as well as differences in nesting strategies between genera.
Scientific Note: Loblolly Pine Traumatic Resin Ducts Serve as Indicators of Cool-Season Weather Events at Nags Head, North Carolina

ABSTRACT We present a method for recording cool-season (mid-October–May) weather events near Nags Head, North Carolina. Standardized traumatic resin duct frequency (TRDsf) formations in loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) were determined from earlywood radial growth samples using the number of traumatic resin ducts that occur in response to stressful weather events. Based on a sample of 39 cores collected at Nags Head Woods Ecological Preserve during summer 2020, we tested if the occurrence of traumatic resin ducts in the earlywood was caused by late-season tropical cyclones, mid-latitude windstorms, and snow/ice storms and served as a proxy for extreme weather frequency during 1950–2019. TRDsf was significantly related to years that had at least one documented cool-season weather event. The average TRDsf in a non-storm year was 1.95 while the average for a storm year was 2.99. Further, TRDsf was correlated with the number of cool-season weather events and there was no tree age-related bias to storm-event detection. These results support using TRD frequency to reconstruct cool-season storm history beyond current climate records at locations where older (150+ years) stands of loblolly pine forests exist along coastal North Carolina.
A Review of the Biology, Ecology, and Management of the South American Locust, Schistocerca cancellata (Serville, 1838), and Future Prospects

In the first half of the twentieth century, the South American Locust (SAL), Schistocerca cancellata (Serville, 1838), was a major pest of agriculture in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Brazil. From 1954–2014, a preventive management program appeared to limit SAL populations, with only small- to moderate-scale treatments required, limited to outbreak areas in northwest Argentina. However, the lack of major locust outbreaks led to a gradual reduction in resources, and in 2015, the sudden appearance of swarms marked the beginning of a substantial upsurge, with many swarms reported initially in Argentina in 2015, followed by expansion into neighboring countries over the next few years. The upsurge required a rapid allocation of resources for management of SAL and a detailed examination of the improvements needed for the successful management of this species. This paper provides a review of SAL biology, management history, and perspectives on navigating a plague period after a 60-year recession.
A Method for Determining the Credibility of Intrusion Detection based on a Probabilistic Graph Model in the Proactive Protection Subsystem of the Operational Cybersecurity Center

: The threat landscape is expanding rapidly, which has a number of consequences for most organizations and individuals. This is evidenced by a large number of cyber attacks which constantly occur in cyberspace. Although several defensive approaches have recently been proposed and implemented, the most of them are entirely theoretical. Others remain unfeasible due to the computational requirements of their implementation. The issue of computational complexity becomes extremely significant for methods which have proven to be implementable, because they often tend to consume a large amount of computational resources. Also most of these methods are reactive which means that they can only be initiated after an incident has already occurred. Moving from reactive approach to proactive one is currently one of the greatest challenges in the sphere of cybersecurity research.
Clinical Characteristics and Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Mycobacterium intracellulare and Mycobacterium abscessus Pulmonary Diseases: A Retrospective Study

The incidence of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) diseases is increasing every year. The present study was performed to investigate the clinical characteristics, CT findings, and drug susceptibility test (DST) results of patients diagnosed with M. intracellulare or M. abscessus nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease (NTMPD). This retrospective study included patients diagnosed with NTMPD due to M. intracellulare or M. abscessus for the first time at Anhui Chest Hospital between 01/2019 and 12/2021. The patients were grouped as M. intracellulare-NTMPD group or M. abscessus-NTMPD group. Clinical features, imaging data and DST data, were collected. Patients with M. intracellulare infection had a higher rate of acid-fast smears (66.1% vs. 45.2%, P=0.032) and a higher rate of cavitation based on pulmonary imaging (49.6% vs. 19.4%, P=0.002) than patients with M. abscessus infection, but both groups had negative TB-RNA and GeneXpert results, with no other characteristics significant differences. The results of DST showed that M. intracellulare had high susceptibility rate to moxifloxacin (95.9%), amikacin (90.1%), clarithromycin (91.7%), and rifabutin (90.1%). M. abscessus had the highest susceptibility rate to amikacin (71.0%) and clarithromycin (71.0%). The clinical features of M. intracellulare pneumopathy and M. abscessus pneumopathy are highly similar. It may be easily misdiagnosed, and therefore, early strain identification is necessary. M. intracellulare has a high susceptibility rate to moxifloxacin, amikacin, clarithromycin, and rifabutin, while M. abscessus has the highest susceptibility rate to amikacin and clarithromycin. This study provides an important clinical basis for improving the management of NTMPD.
Multi-scale 3D-convolutional neural network for hyperspectral image classification

Deep Learning methods are state-of-the-art approaches for pixel-based hyperspectral images (HSI) classification. High classification accuracy has been achieved by extracting deep features from both spatial-spectral channels. However, the efficiency of such spatial-spectral approaches depends on the spatial dimension of each patch and there is no theoretically valid approach to find the optimum spatial dimension to be considered. It is more valid to extract spatial features by considering varying neighborhood scales in spatial dimensions. In this regard, this article proposes a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) model wherein three different multi-scale spatial-spectral patches are used to extract the features in both the spatial and spectral channels. In order to extract these potential features, the proposed deep learning architecture takes three patches various scales in spatial dimension. 3D convolution is performed on each selected patch and the process runs through entire image. The proposed is named as multi-scale three-dimensional convolutional neural network (MS-3DCNN). The efficiency of the proposed model is being verified through the experimental studies on three publicly available benchmark datasets including Pavia University, Indian Pines, and Salinas. It is empirically proved that the classification accuracy of the proposed model is improved when compared with the remaining state-of-the-art methods.
Stirling Engine Technology for Parabolic Dish-Stirling System Based on Concentrating Solar Power (CSP)

Solar energy is one of the more attractive renewable energy sources that can be used as an input energy source for heat engines. In fact, any heat energy sources can be used with the Stirling engine. Stirling engines are mechanical devices working theoretically on the Stirling cycle, or its modifications, in which compressible fluids, such as air, hydrogen, helium, nitrogen or even vapors, are used as working fluids. When comparing with the internal combustion engine, the Stirling engine offers possibility for having high efficiency engine with less exhaust emissions. However, this paper analyzes the basic background of Stirling engine and reviews its existing literature pertaining to dynamic model and control system for parabolic dish-stirling (PD) system.
Risk of Adverse Financial Events in Patients With Cancer: Evidence From a Novel Linkage Between Cancer Registry and Credit Records

PURPOSE Although financial toxicity is a growing cancer survivorship issue, no studies have used credit data to estimate the relative risk of financial hardship in patients with cancer versus individuals without cancer. We conducted a population-based retrospective matched cohort study using credit reports to investigate the impact of a cancer diagnosis on the risk of adverse financial events (AFEs). METHODS Western Washington SEER cancer registry (cases) and voter registry (controls) records from 2013 to 2018 were linked to quarterly credit records from TransUnion. Controls were age-, sex-, and zip code–matched to cancer cases and assigned an index date corresponding to the case's diagnosis date. Cases and controls experiencing past-due credit card payments and any of the following AFEs at 24 months from diagnosis or index were compared, using two-sample z tests: third-party collections, charge-offs, tax liens, delinquent mortgage payments, foreclosures, and repossessions. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association of cancer diagnosis with AFEs and past-due credit payments. RESULTS A total of 190,722 individuals (63,574 cases and 127,148 controls, mean age 66 years) were included. AFEs (4.3% v 2.4%, P < .0001) and past-due credit payments (2.6% v 1.9%, P < .0001) were more common in cases than in controls. After adjusting for age, sex, average baseline credit line, area deprivation index, and index/diagnosis year, patients with cancer had a higher risk of AFEs (odds ratio 1.71; 95% CI, 1.61 to 1.81; P < .0001) and past-due credit payments (odds ratio 1.28; 95% CI, 1.19 to 1.37; P < .0001) than controls. CONCLUSION Patients with cancer were at significantly increased risk of experiencing AFEs and past-due credit card payments relative to controls. Studies are needed to investigate the impact of these events on treatment decisions, quality of life, and clinical outcomes.
Electrochemical Devices to Monitor Ionic Analytes for Healthcare and Industrial Applications

Recent advances in electrochemical devices have sparked exciting opportunities in the healthcare, environment, and food industries. These devices can be fabricated at low costs and are capable of multiplex monitoring. This overcomes challenges presnted in traditional sensors for biomolecules and provides us a unique gateway toward comprehensive analyses. The advantages of electrochemical sensors are derived from their direct integration with electronics and their high selectivity along with sensitivity to sense a wide range of ionic analytes at an economical cost. This review paper aims to summarize recent innovations of a wide variety of electrochemical sensors for ionic analytes for health care and industrial applications. Many of these ionic analytes are important biomarkers to target for new diagnostic tools for medicine, food quality monitoring, and pollution detection. In this paper, we will examine various fabrication techniques, sensing mechanisms, and will also discuss various future opportunities in this research direction.
Nitric Oxide Induced stx2 Expression Is Inhibited by the Nitric Oxide Reductase, NorV, in a Clade 8 Escherichia coli O157:H7 Outbreak Strain

Escherichia coli O157:H7 pathogenesis is due to Shiga toxin (Stx) production, though variation in virulence has been observed. Clade 8 strains, for instance, were shown to overproduce Stx and were more common among hemolytic uremic syndrome cases. One candidate gene, norV, which encodes a nitric oxide (NO) reductase found in a clade 8 O157:H7 outbreak strain (TW14359), was thought to impact virulence. Hence, we screened for norV in 303 O157 isolates representing multiple clades, examined stx2 expression following NO exposure in TW14359 for comparison to an isogenic mutant (ΔnorV), and evaluated survival in THP-1 derived macrophages. norV was intact in strains representing clades 6–9, whereas a 204 bp deletion was found in clades 2 and 3. During anaerobic growth, NO induced stx2 expression in TW14359. A similar increase in stx2 expression was observed for the ΔnorV mutant in anaerobiosis, though it was not impaired in its ability to survive within macrophages relative to TW14359. Altogether, these data suggest that NO enhances virulence by inducing Stx2 production in TW14359, and that toxin production is inhibited by NorV encoded by a gene found in most clade 8 strains. The mechanism linked to these responses, however, remains unclear and likely varies across genotypes.