Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electronically monitored medication adherence in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: prevalence, predictors and outcomes

Medication adherence studies in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) are limited, use cross-sectional designs and report discontinuation rates. We prospectively investigated adherence to pirfenidone in IPF patients using electronic monitoring, which provides insights on whether and when the medication was taken on a day-by-day basis. We investigated the impact of nonadherence on lung function and selected predictors for nonadherence based on the COM-B behavioural model. The longitudinal statistical analyses included generalised estimation equations and linear mixed effects models. 55 patients initiating pirfenidone were followed-up for 2 years after diagnosis (76.4% men, mean age 71.1 years (range 50–87 years), mean forced vital capacity (FVC) 88% predicted (sd 18.3), mean diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (DLCO) 58.1% predicted (sd 14.7)). Our data showed an association (p=0.03) between the proportion of days with three pirfenidone intakes (i.e. dosing adherence) and FVC % predicted, whereby a high dosing adherence seemed necessary to maintain stable or improving FVC % predicted values. 58.2% of the participants were able to implement at least 90% correct dosing days, yet adherence significantly decreased over time. Too short dosing intervals had negative effects on lung function outcomes. Knowledge on IPF and self-reported adherence were significantly associated with electronically measured adherence. In conclusion, nonadherence is prevalent and might negatively affect lung function. Further research is needed on the impact of nonadherence on outcomes and its predictors, so that tailored interventions can be developed. Meanwhile, a self-report questionnaire could be used to identify adherence issues and teams should equip patients with knowledge about their treatment and how to take it. This study used electronic monitoring systems for the first time in IPF patients to assess taking and timing of pirfenidone. Medication nonadherence is a prevalent issue that increases over time and is associated with patients’ lung function outcomes. https://bit.ly/3wEFUlq
A glance at the application of CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology in cardiovascular diseases

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain major causes of global mortality in the world. Genetic approaches have succeeded in discovery of the molecular basis of an increasing number of cardiac diseases. Genome editing strategies are one of the most effective methods for assisting therapeutic approaches. Potential therapeutic methods of correcting disease-causing mutations or of knocking out specific genes as approaches for the prevention of CVDs have gained substantial attention using genome editing techniques. Recently, the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) system has become the most widely used genome-editing technology in molecular biology due to its benefits such as simple design, high efficiency, good repeatability, short-cycle, and costeffectiveness. In the present review, we discuss on the possibilities of applying the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing tool in the CVDs.
Waypoint and autonomous flying control of an indoor drone for GPS-denied environments

In this study, we propose a method for recognizing the self-location of a drone flying in an indoor environment and introduce the flying performance using it. DWM1000, which is an ultra-wide band communication module, was used for accurate indoor self-location recognition. The self-localization algorithm constructs a formula using trilateration and finds the solution using the gradient descent method. Using the measured values of the distance between the modules in the room, it is found that the error stays within 10-20 cm when the newly proposed trilateration method is applied. We confirmed that the 3D position information of the drone can be obtained in real-time, and it can be controlled to move to a specific location. We proposed a drone control scheme to enable autonomous flight indoors based on deep learning. In particular, to improve the conventional convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm that uses images from three video cameras, we designed a distinguished CNN structure with deeper layers and appropriate dropouts to use the input data set provided by only one camera.
The Influence of Compensation on Employee's Work Productivity at a Retail Company in Sidoarjo, Indonesia

The current study determines the effect of leadership, work discipline, and compensation on employee productivity at PT. Trans Retail Indonesia. The study was conducted using a quantitative survey with explanations. The survey was conducted on 65 employees as a sample of the entire population. The instruments used were questionnaires, interviews, and documentation that have been declared valid and reliable. The results were analyzed using multiple analysis with classical assumption test and supported by hypothesis testing using partial t-test, simultaneous f-test, multiple analysis, and multiple determination analysis. The results show that leadership, work discipline, and compensation have a simultaneous and partial effect on work productivity, however, the magnitude varies depending upon the level of the variables. keywords: compensation, leadership, productivity, work discipline
Influence of the Electron Beam and the Choice of Heating Membrane on the Evolution of Si Nanowires’ Morphology in In Situ TEM

We used in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to observe the dynamic changes of Si nanowires under electron beam irradiation. We found evidence of structural evolutions under TEM observation due to a combination of electron beam and thermal effects. Two types of heating holders were used: a carbon membrane, and a silicon nitride membrane. Different evolution of Si nanowires on these membranes was observed. Regarding the heating of Si nanowires on a C membrane at 800 °C and above, a serious degradation dependent on the diameter of the Si nanowire was observed under the electron beam, with the formation of Si carbide. When the membrane was changed to Si nitride, a reversible sectioning and welding of the Si nanowire was observed.
A reaction and movement of vacancy and solute atom in metals under elastic tensile stress

OPEN ACCESS In the 17th century, Robert Hooke, an English physicist, proposed Hooke’s law. Since then, the theory of elastic deformation in metals has been restricted to a macroscopic frame that is normalized by Hooke’s law. From the start of the 21st century, Xu has established a microscopic theory of elastic deformation based on Hooke’s law to describe the reaction and movement of vacancy and solute atom in metals under elastic tensile stress [1,2].
Introducing the Scale of Perceived Affect Response to Online Worship (SPAROW): a psychometric assessment of ritual innovation during the pandemic

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in the use of online platforms for Christian worship and emphasised the need for a simple psychometric instrument that is sufficiently general to assess affect responses to a range worship services. This paper reports on the development of the six-item Scale of Perceived Affect Response to Online Worship (SPAROW) during the third UK pandemic lockdown in 2021. The scale items were included in an online survey completed from January to July 2021 by 2,017 Anglicans living in England and 1713 Roman Catholics from the UK or the Republic of Ireland. Exploratory Factor Analysis (principal components extraction and varimax rotation) in the Anglican sample indicated a single-dimensional scale that had excellent internal consistency reliability for those who accessed pre-recorded services (α = .90, n = 1238) and live-streamed services (α = .91, n = 1492). Confirmatory Factor Analysis on the Roman Catholic sample using a Structural Equation Model showed a good fit to a single-dimensional scale.
Diversity and Distribution of Calonectria Species from Plantation and Forest Soils in Fujian Province, China

To meet the growing demand for wood and pulp products, Eucalyptus plantations have expanded rapidly during the past two decades, becoming an integral part of the southern China landscape. Leaf blight caused by various Calonectria spp. , is a serious threat to these plantations. In order to explore the diversity and distribution of Calonectria spp. in Fujian Province soils, samples were collected in Eucalyptus plantations and adjacent plantings of Cunninghamia lanceolata, Phyllostachys heterocycle and Pinus massoniana as well as in natural forests. Three hundred and fifty-three Calonectria isolates were recovered from soil samples and they were identified based on a comparison of multilocus DNA sequence data for the act (actin), cmdA (calmodulin), his3 (histone H3), rpb2 (the second largest subunit of RNA polymerase), tef1 (translation elongation factor 1-alpha) and tub2 (β-tubulin) gene regions, as well as morphological characteristics. Six known taxa including Calonectria aconidialis, Ca. hongkongensis, Ca. ilicicola, Ca. kyotensis, Ca. pacifica, Ca. pseudoreteaudii and one novel species described here as Ca. minensis sp. nov. were identified. Of these, Ca. aconidialis and Ca. kyotensis were the most prevalent species, and found in eight and seven sites, and four and five forest types, respectively. Calonectria spp. were most abundant in soils from Eucalyptus stands, followed by P. heterocycle and natural forests. Relatively few species were found in the soils associated with Cunninghamia lanceolata and Pinus massoniana. The abundance of known Calonectria spp. suggests that these fungi have been relatively well sampled in Fujian. The results are also consistent with the fact that most Calonectria diseases are found on Angiosperm as opposed to Gymnosperm plants.
Community events as part of age-friendly community practice

ABSTRACT As the number of localities committing to age-friendly progress increases worldwide, there is growing interest in the processes and contexts that lead to systemic and long-term age-friendly community (AFC) impact. Our study aimed to advance research in this area by exploring community events as a mechanism through which practitioners work toward AFC goals. We used semi-structured interview data with core teams that participated in a multi-year developmental evaluation of eight grant-funded AFC initiatives in New Jersey. We employed a constructivist grounded theory approach to analyze the data, focusing on how AFC leaders facilitate events and what they perceive as the value of events. Findings highlighted the centrality of an inter-organizational context for event planning and implementation, as well as the unique positioning of AFC leaders relative to other community actors. Results further indicated that AFC leaders view events as immediately benefiting older adults and local organizational partners, while also having longer-term strategic value, including by deepening older adults’ engagement with the AFC initiative, providing opportunities for core teams to learn about aging in community, and expanding the AFC initiative’s community presence. We interpret these findings within a community-building framework, theorizing that events can strategically build relational capacity to sustain age-friendly progress within broader community systems.
A New Species of Baurubatrachus (Anura, Neobatrachia) from the Late Cretaceous Adamantina Formation of Brazil Furnishes Evidence on the Diversity of this Bizarre Genus

Abstract. In the present paper, we report new anuran remains recovered from strata referred to the Adamantina Formation (Upper Cretaceous) cropping out near Catanduva city, São Paulo, Brazil. The remains represent two individuals, one of which bears a set of peculiar characteristics, both cranial and postcranial, that allows us to assign them to the already known genus Baurubatrachus. To date, the genus was only represented by the holotype of Baurubatrachus pricei, recovered from the Upper Cretaceous Serra da Galga Formation (which is younger than the Adamantina Formation), near Peirópolis (Minas Gerais, Brazil), 200 km north of Catanduva City. The lesser ossification as well as the slender configuration of the scapula and ilia of the new remains, relative to B. pricei, points to the identification of a new species, Baurubatrachus santosdoroi sp. nov. The detailed study of the peculiar anatomy of these specimens provides new osteological features for the genus, such as the presence of a subtympanic foramen, as well as new character states for other traits to be considered in future systematic studies. Resumen. El presente trabajo reporta nuevos restos de anuros hallados en estratos referidos a la Formación Adamantina (Cretácico Superior) aflorantes en las proximidades de la ciudad de Catanduva, San Pablo, Brasil. Los restos representan dos individuos, uno de ellos portador de una cantidad de características particulares, cranianas y postcranianas que permite asignarlo al género ya conocido Baurubatrachus. Hasta la fecha, el género estaba únicamente representado por el holotipo de Baurubatrachus pricei, recuperado de la Formación Serra da Galga del Cretácico Superior (que es más joven que la Formación Adamantina), cerca de la ciudad de Peirópolis (Minas Gerais, Brasil), 200 km al norte de la ciudad de Catanduva. La menor osificación, así como la condición más esbelta de las cinturas pectoral y pélvica de estos restos respecto de B. pricei, indica la presencia de una especie diferente, Baurubatrachus santosdoroi sp. nov. El estudio detallado de la anatomía particular de estos especímenes permitió identificar nuevos caracteres como la presencia de un foramen subtimpánico y, a su vez, nuevos estados de carácter para otras características, las cuales son plausibles de ser utilizadas en futuros estudios sistemáticos.
A Perspective of Molecular Cytogenomics, Toxicology, and Epigenetics for the Increase of Heterochromatic Regions and Retrotransposable Elements in Tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) Exposed to the Parasiticide Trichlorfon

Simple Summary The aim of the present study was to evaluate the Trichlorfon effects on the retrotransposable elements in tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) genome, which is a highly popular and well-known fish in the Amazon with a large reproduction number mediated by pisciculture. Thereby, tambaqui specimens were submitted to two different Trichlorfon concentrations (30% and 50% of LC50–96 h) under experimental conditions. The retrotransposons were analyzed using the FISH technique and the heterochromatin standard with the C-band technique. The retrotransposons studied presented a dispersed distribution profile in the tambaqui karyotype with Rex3 being more prominent than the others, showing the greatest increase in markings. Furthermore, the heterochromatin profile showed that these retrotransposons can be found in the heterochromatic portions of the chromosomes. Thus, it was observed that Trichlorfon has an activation mechanism for these retroelements, especially Rex3. Abstract Rex retroelements are the best-known transposable elements class and are broadly distributed through fish and also individual genomes, playing an important role in their evolutionary dynamics. Several agents can stress these elements; among them, there are some parasitic compounds such as the organochlorophosphate Trichlorfon. Consequently, knowing that the organochlorophosphate Trichlorfon is indiscriminately used as an antiparasitic in aquaculture, the current study aimed to analyze the effects of this compound on the activation of the Transposable Elements (TEs) Rex1, Rex3, and Rex6 and the structure of heterochromatin in the mitotic chromosomes of the tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum). For this, two concentrations of the pesticide were used: 30% (0.261 mg/L) and 50% (0.435 mg/L) of the recommended LC50–96 h concentration (0.87 mg/L) for this fish species. The results revealed a dispersed distribution for Rex1 and Rex6 retroelements. Rex3 showed an increase in both marking intensity and distribution, as well as enhanced chromosomal heterochromatinization. This probably happened by the mediation of epigenetic adaptive mechanisms, causing the retroelement mobilization to be repressed. However, this behavior was most evident when Trichlorfon concentrations and exposure times were the greatest, reflecting the genetic flexibility necessary for this species to successfully adapt to environmental changes.
pyAudioProcessing: Audio Processing, Feature Extraction, and Machine Learning Modeling

—pyAudioProcessing is a Python based library for processing audio data, constructing and extracting numerical features from audio, building and testing machine learning models, and classifying data with existing pre-trained audio classiﬁcation models or custom user-built models. MATLAB is a popular language of choice for a vast amount of research in the audio and speech processing domain. On the contrary, Python remains the language of choice for a vast majority of machine learning research and functionality. This library contains features built in Python that were originally published in MATLAB. pyAudioProcessing allows the user to compute various features from audio ﬁles including Gammatone Frequency Cepstral Coefﬁcients (GFCC), Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefﬁcients (MFCC), spectral features, chroma features, and others such as beat-based and cepstrum-based features from audio. One can use these features along with one’s own classiﬁcation backend or any of the popular scikit-learn classiﬁers that have been integrated into pyAudioProcessing. Cleaning functions to strip unwanted portions from the audio are another offering of the library. It further contains integrations with other audio functionalities such as frequency and time-series visualizations and audio format conversions. This software aims to provide machine learning engineers, data scientists, researchers, and students with a set of baseline models to classify audio. The library is available at https://github.com/jsingh811/pyAudioProcessing and is under GPL-3.0 license.
Remote Sensing Prescription for Rice Nitrogen Fertilizer Recommendation Based on Improved NFOA Model

Precise fertilization of rice depends on the timely and effective acquisition of fertilizer application recommended by prescription maps in large-scale cropland, which can provide fertilization spatial information reference. In this paper, the prescription map was discussed based on the improved nitrogen fertilizer optimization algorithm (NFOA), using satellite and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery, and supplemented by meteorological data. Based on the principles of NFOA, firstly, remote sensing data and meteorological data were collected from 2019 to 2021 to construct a prediction model for the potential yield of rice based on the in-season estimated yield index (INSEY). Secondly, based on remote sensing vegetation indices (VIs) and spectral features of bands, the grain nitrogen content (GNC) prediction model constructed using the random forest (RF) algorithm was used to improve the values of GNC taken in the NFOA. The nitrogen demand for rice was calculated according to the improved NFOA. Finally, the nitrogen fertilizer application recommended prescription map of rice in large-scale cropland was generated based on UAV multispectral images, and the economic cost-effectiveness of the prescription map was analyzed. The analysis results showed that the potential yield prediction model of rice based on the improved INSEY had a high fitting accuracy (R2 = 0.62). The accuracy of GNC estimated with the RF algorithm reached 96.3% (RMSE = 0.07). The study shows that, compared with the non-directional and non-quantitative conventional tracking of N fertilizer, the recommended prescription map based on the improved NFOA algorithm in large-scale cropland can provide accurate information for crop N fertilizer variable tracking and provide effective positive references for the economic benefits of rice and ecological benefits of the field environment.
Stack decoding of polar codes

A successive cancellation stack (SCS) decoding algorithm is proposed to improve the performance of polar codes. Unlike the conventional successive cancellation decoder which determines the bits successively with a local optimal strategy, the SCS algorithm stores a number of candidate partial paths in an ordered stack and tries to find the global optimal estimation by searching along the best path in the stack. Simulation results in the binary-input additive white Gaussian noise channel show that the SCS algorithm has the same performance as the successive cancellation list (SCL) algorithm and can approach that of the maximum likelihood algorithm. Moreover, the time complexity of the SCS decoder is much lower than that of the SCL and can be very close to that of the SC in the high SNR regime.
Enhanced Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy for Heavy Metal Detection in Agriculture: A Review

Heavy metal pollution in agriculture is a significant problem that endangers human health. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an emerging technique for material and elemental analysis, especially heavy metals, based on atomic emission spectroscopy. The LIBS technique has been widely used for rapid detection of heavy metals with its advantages of convenient operation, simultaneous detection of multi-elements, wide range of elements, and no requirement for the state and quantity of samples. However, the development of LIBS is limited by its detection sensitivity and limit of detection (LOD). Therefore, in order to improve the detection sensitivity and LOD of LIBS, it is necessary to enhance the LIBS signal to achieve the purpose of detecting heavy metal elements in agriculture. This review mainly introduces the basic instruments and principles of LIBS and summarizes the methods of enhanced LIBS signal detection of heavy metal elements in agriculture over the past 10 years. The three main approaches to enhancing LIBS are sample pretreatment, adding laser pulses, and using auxiliary devices. An enhanced LIBS signal may improve the LOD of heavy metal elements in agriculture and the sensitivity and stability of the LIBS technique. The enhanced LIBS technique will have a broader prospect in agricultural heavy metal monitoring and can provide technical support for developing heavy metal detection instruments.
Large aortic pseudoaneurysm after fusion surgery for hyperextension-type lumbar fracture in diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis: illustrative case

BACKGROUND This study aimed to report an aortic pseudoaneurysm, a rare but lethal complication, after a spinal fracture in ankylosing spine. OBSERVATIONS An 83-year-old obese woman presented with dementia and was nonambulatory after a fall. She was transported to the hospital, and imaging showed a hyperextension-type L1 fracture with diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH). After posterior fusion surgery using percutaneous pedicle screws, screw loosening was detected 10 days postoperatively. Fracture dislocation was reduced by changing to transdiscal screws and rodding while in the lateral position. However, the anterior opening persisted. Enhanced computed tomography performed at 6 weeks postoperatively showed a large aortic pseudoaneurysm extending into the vertebral fracture site without screw loosening. Neither endovascular aortic repair nor open surgery was applicable. The patient was transferred to a sanatorium and died of pneumonia 5 months postoperatively without aortic aneurysm rupture. LESSONS An aortic pseudoaneurysm can occur in hyperextension-type spinal fractures in DISH, even after fusion surgery, when the edge of the fracture is in contact with the aortic wall. The anterior opening dislocation should be reduced as much as possible.