Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Abnormal cortisol levels in pediatric patients treated with glucocorticosteroids for acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common pediatric malignancy. Although in the past ALL was incurable, today’s survival rate is as high as 80–90%. The most important drugs in its treatment are glucocorticosteroids (GCS). This study focuses on exogenous GCS — dexamethasone and prednisolone, which suppress the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. The main objective of this study was to analyze articles about steroid side effects in ALL therapy, factors contributing to the frequency of HPA axis suppression, and possible methods for its assessment. According to research, abnormal cortisol values have been observed in almost every patient treated for ALL. This means it is important to perform HPA axis stimulation tests. In the reviewed studies, adrenal crisis, hyperglycemia, obesity, iatrogenic Cushing’s disease, growth failure, increased risk of infection, and a high mortality rate have been reported to be the most important complications of this therapy. It is important to note that some authors classify patients in terms of cortisol level disorder predispositions. These include the age and sex of the patient, the type of glucocorticoid used in ALL therapy, and the duration of the therapy.
Storm Tracking for TDWR: A Correlation Algorithm Design and Evaluation

Abstract : Storm Movement Prediction (SMP) is a proposed (future) product for Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR), aiding controllers by tracking storms approaching and passing through the terminal environment. Because the scan strategy (data acquisition) of TDWR has been critically designed to meet the needs of its primary function, which is the detection of hazardous low-altitude wind shear, there is the question of whether reliable storm tracking can be obtained from the TDWR data set. The objectives of storm tracking involve a scope (spatial range) much larger than that required for the wind-shear algorithms where volume coverage is confined (in off-airport sited radars) to a sector covering the important approach and departure corridors and the only 360- degree scans are near-surface scans for gust-front detection. This report examines the application of a correlation based method of detecting storm motion, testing the notion that reliable storm motion can be inferred from existing TDWR data. In particular, storm motion derived from an analysis of the TDWR Precipitation product (PCP) is studied. A summary description of the algorithm is presented along with an analysis of its performance using data from MIT Lincoln Laboratory's TDWR testbed operations in Denver (1988) and Kansas City (1989).
Exploring the Influence of Context on Emotional Mimicry and Intention: An Affirmation of the Correction Hypothesis

Background: Emotional mimicry, a phenomenon frequently observed in our everyday interactions, is the act of replicating another individual’s facial expression. The Emotion Mimicry in Context View and the Correction Hypothesis underscore the critical role of context and intention within emotional mimicry. Methods: In two distinct studies, participants were presented with facial expressions of models (happiness and anger) within various contexts (affiliative, distancing, and neutral). Concurrently, we recorded electromyography (EMG) to index emotional mimicry, while participants explicitly rated the models’ intentions. Results: We observed context swiftly influences emotional mimicry within 500 ms, notably when the intentions of contexts are opposing to the intentions of facial expressions, leading to weakened muscle responses and diminished perceived intention. Furthermore, a notable correlation was discovered in the mimicry of angry faces; the more distancing the context, the stronger the corrugator supercilii (CS) muscle activity after context processing. Conclusions: First, emotional mimicry should not be simply viewed as an output corresponding to the expresser’s facial expressions but the dynamic process involving the active participation of the observer. Second, intention serves as a pivotal anchor, effectively integrating facial and contextual information. As such, we provided empirical support for the Correction Hypothesis.
Identification of Novel Intronic SNPs in Transporter Genes Associated with Metformin Side Effects

Metformin is a widely used and effective medication in type 2 diabetes (T2DM) as well as in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) contribute to the occurrence of metformin side effects. The aim of the present study was to identify intronic genetic variants modifying the occurrence of metformin side effects and to replicate them in individuals with T2DM and in women with PCOS. We performed Next Generation Sequencing (Illumina Next Seq) of 115 SNPs in a discovery cohort of 120 metformin users and conducted a systematic literature review. Selected SNPs were analysed in two independent cohorts of individuals with either T2DM or PCOS, using 5′-3′exonucleaseassay. A total of 14 SNPs in the organic cation transporters (OCTs) showed associations with side effects in an unadjusted binary logistic regression model, with eight SNPs remaining significantly associated after appropriate adjustment in the discovery cohort. Five SNPs were confirmed in a combined analysis of both replication cohorts but showed different association patterns in subgroup analyses. In an unweighted polygenic risk score (PRS), the risk for metformin side effects increased with the number of risk alleles. Intronic SNPs in the OCT cluster contribute to the development of metformin side effects in individuals with T2DM and in women with PCOS and are therefore of interest for personalized therapy options.
Balanced Edge-Colorings Avoiding Rainbow Cliques of Size Four

A balanced edge-coloring of the complete graph is an edge-coloring such that every vertex is incident to each color the same number of times. In this short note, we present a construction of a balanced edge-coloring with six colors of the complete graph on $n=13^k$ vertices, for every positive integer $k$, with no rainbow $K_4$. This solves a problem by Erdős and Tuza.
Errors in Long Distance Kinematic GPS

An attempt is made to quantify the contribution of tropospheric refraction, GPS ephemerides errors, and unresolved ambiguities to the overall error in the use of differential GPS to estimate aircraft position over very long distances. The extent to which such errors can be filtered out when estimating a trajectory, and how efficiently this may be done, are addressed.
Activating Change: The Role of Information and Beliefs in Social Activism

IZA DP No. 16358 JULY 2023 Activating Change: The Role of Information and Beliefs in Social Activism* What motivates individuals to participate in social activism? Do awareness campaigns and information about others’ willingness to act play a role? We conduct an online experiment within a survey of nearly 2000 Indian men, focusing on activism to combat health sector fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic. In different treatment groups, we either provide information about the social problem, correct misaligned beliefs about others’ willingness to act, or both. Participants are then cross-randomized to engage in one of three forms of activism: signing a petition, making a donation to an NGO fighting for the cause, or watching a video on ways to support the cause. We also experimentally examine the impact of allowing subjects to choose between the three forms of activism. Providing information and correcting downward biased beliefs about others increases petition signing, but has no impact on donations and video viewing. Giving participants a choice of actions decreases the probability of any single action being taken up. Our comprehensive examination of the factors influencing engagement in different forms of activism within a unified framework generates insights on the motivations behind participation in collective efforts for social change. JEL Classification: D73, D83, I15, P0
A Comparative Assessment of Homomorphic Encryption Algorithms Applied to Biometric Information

This paper provides preliminary research regarding the implementation and evaluation of a hybrid mechanism of authentication based on fingerprint recognition interconnected with RFID technology, using Arduino modules, that can be deployed in different scenarios, including secret classified networks. To improve security, increase efficiency, and enhance convenience in the process of authentication, we perform a comparative assessment between two homomorphic encryption algorithms, the Paillier partial homomorphic algorithm and the Brakerski–Gentry–Vaikuntanathan fully homomorphic encryption scheme, applied to biometric templates extracted from the device mentioned above, by analyzing factors such as a histogram analysis, mean squared error (MSE), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), the structural similarity index measure (SSIM), the number of pixel change rate (NPCR), the unified average changing intensity (UACI), the correlation coefficient, and average encryption time and dimension. From security and privacy perspectives, the present findings suggest that the designed mechanism represents a reliable and low-cost authentication alternative that can facilitate secure access to computer systems and networks and minimize the risk of unauthorized access.
The Janus face of proliferating plasmablasts in dengue and COVID-19 infections

Introduction B cells play an integral role in the immune response to both dengue fever and COVID-19. Prior scRNAseq analyses of peripheral plasmablasts in COVID-19 have revealed a heterogeneous population with distinct cell subsets associated with proliferation; prior studies in patients with dengue fever have likewise shown the presence of proliferative pre-plasmablasts in the circulation. These findings may have implications for disease severity. In this study, we sought to gain a mechanistic understanding of the intracellular processes in naive and memory B cells that are associated with and may lead to an expanded proliferative plasmablast population in the circulation. Methods We analyzed age-controlled (pediatric and adult), peripheral blood mononuclear cell scRNAseq datasets from patients infected with either dengue (primary or secondary) or COVID-19 (non-severe or severe) from previously published studies. Our preliminary analysis showed that pediatric patients with dengue and adults with COVID-19 had an expanded proliferative plasmablast (p-PB) population. By contrast, neither the adults with dengue nor the children with COVID-19 in our dataset had p-PBs. We used this distinctive preliminary signature to guide our analyses design and expanded our analyses to naive and memory B cells. Results In age/disease conditions with and without p-PBs, we found differences in cell sensing and activation, including via the B cell receptor and downstream signal transduction. Likewise, inflammation was mediated differently: relative to groups without p-PBs, those with p-PBs had increased expression of interferon response and S100 genes (particularly severe COVID-19). Furthermore, several transcription factors at the nexus of activation, inflammation, and cell fate decisions were expressed differently in groups with and without p-PBs. Discussion We used dengue and COVID-19 infections in adult and pediatric patients (focusing on naive B, memory B, and plasmablast cells) as a model to better understand the mechanisms that may give rise to p-PB populations in the circulation. Our results indicate that a more pro-inflammatory state in naive and memory B cells correlated with - and could influence the generation of- proliferating plasmablasts. Further exploration of these mechanisms will have implications for immune memory, vaccine development, and post-viral autoimmune syndromes.
Resonating across an Anglican-Xhosa mission soundscape: a case study of instruments, bells, and processions

ABSTRACT What might the study of soundscapes bring to postcolonial understandings of past musical practices? In this article, I explore this question with reference to archives documenting that nineteenth-century mission activities are full of auditory information. Accounts of hymn singing, printed artefacts, and methods of musical pedagogy are a few examples of the evidence we find in the mission archive that indicates the part that music and sound played in the life of mission stations around the world. This evidence raises critical questions about the ways in which the soundscape featured in the encounter between missionaries and Indigenous peoples. For instance, how did Indigenous people interpret and refashion musical forms introduced by missionaries? And how did Indigenous musicality and understandings of sounds impact the musical culture of missions? I address these and other questions by examining three key elements of the soundscape—instruments, bells, and processions—found on the Anglican-Xhosa missions, established in the Eastern Cape, South Africa in 1855, in an attempt to articulate how music and sound mediated religious experience, and how this experience was contested by missionaries and Indigenous peoples.
Colorimetric fusion of attenuation and birefringence in OCT signatures: a screening tool for evaluating muscular degradation in alpha-sarcoglican deficit murine models

In this work, intensity and polarization OCT were applied, simultaneously, to alpha-sarcoglycan deficit mice models, and a new visualization technique was implemented, based on encoding the attenuation and birefringence values in the HSV color space. Our samples consisted of 14 ex-vivo mice quadriceps at different disease stages (one, three, and six-month-old mice) and four healthy ones for reference. The healthy muscles present a different birefringence distribution to the dystrophic ones, while attenuation values for both kinds of samples lay in the same range. Nevertheless, the attenuation provides an increase in contrast and textural features that are not visible by only using birefringence, while the latter, encoded in the H coordinate, helps to easily identify damage inside the samples by color.
Enhancing drought resistance in Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Benth. through overexpression of ACC deaminase gene using thin cell layer regeneration system

Pogostemon cablin cultivation faces massive constraints because of its susceptability to drought stress that reduces patchouli propagation and oil yield. The present study has achieved an efficient and rapid direct regeneration system for the transgenic production of P. cablin using Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation. To establish an efficient regeneration protocol for fast in-vitro multiplication of patchouli plants, leaf, petiole, and transverse thin cell layer (tTCL) explants were used and inoculated on an MS medium supplemented with different combinations of phytohormones. A comparative study showed a maximum regeneration frequency of 93.30 ± 0.56% per explant was obtained from leaf segments on optimal MS medium fortified with 0.2mg/L BAP and 0.1mg/L NAA. Leaf and petiole explants took 25-35 days to regenerate while tTCL section showed regeneration in just 15-20 days on the same medium. Subsequently, productive genetic transformation protocol OD600 0.6, AS 200µM, 30mg/L kanamycin, and infection time 5 min. was standardized and best-suited explants were infected at optimum conditions from the Agrobacterium tumefaciens (LBA 4404) strain harboring ACC deaminase to generate transgenic P. cablin Benth. (CIM-Samarth) plants. The investigation suggested that the optimized protocol provides a maximum transformation frequency of 42 ± 1.9% in 15-20 days from tTCL. The transgenic plants were shifted to the greenhouse with a 52.0 ± 0.8% survival frequency. A molecular docking study confirmed significant binding affinity of ligand ACC with ACC deaminase at the catalytic site, and ligand interactions showed four H-bonds at the binding pocket with amino acids Cys-196, Val-198, Thr-199, and Gly-200 that validate gene relative expression in transgenic plants. Among all transgenic acclimatized greenhouse-grown patchouli plants, line PT4 showed improved drought resistance under severe water stress as its RWC was 71.7 ± 2.3% to 75.7 ± 2.1% which is greater than the RWC of the control plant, 58.30 ± 0.21%. Analysis of the other physiological indicators, H2O2, chlorophyll content, and ROS result support drought resistance ability. Our study concluded that the first report on P. cablin, tTCL direct regeneration, and standardized transformation protocol created a new opportunity for genetic manipulation to achieve drought-resistant patchouli plants for cultivation in all seasons at the commercial level.
El contacto con la naturaleza y su relación con la vitalidad y el afecto negativo en deportistas de surf: el rol mediador de las necesidades psicológicas básicas

La literatura científica muestra consistentemente los beneficios para la salud física y mental que se obtienen de las actividades en entornos naturales, a diferencia de entornos urbanos. Tal es el caso del surf, un deporte que se realiza en contacto con la naturaleza. Para explicar por qué resulta beneficioso practicar surf, se utilizó la teoría de necesidades psicológicas planteada por la teoría de la autodeterminación (Ryan & Deci, 2017). Así se estudió la relación entre el contacto con la naturaleza, las necesidades psicológicas básicas (satisfacción y frustración), la vitalidad subjetiva y el afecto negativo en una muestra que estuvo conformada por 236 deportistas aficionados a diversas modalidades de surf (bodyboard, longboard, surfing, paddleboard, bodysurf). Para ello, primero se examinaron las propiedades psicométricas de los instrumentos aplicados y se encontraron adecuadas evidencias de validez y confiabilidad. Los resultados del análisis de senderos mostraron que el aumento en el contacto con la naturaleza por parte de los deportistas de surf se relacionaba positivamente con un aumento en la vitalidad y con la disminución del afecto negativo, y que estas relaciones estaban mediadas por la satisfacción de las necesidades psicológicas básicas. Los resultados se discuten en términos de la teoría de la autodeterminación y su relación con el bienestar y la vitalidad.
The safety and effectiveness of open-label extended-release carbamazepine in the treatment of children and adolescents with bipolar i disorder suffering from a manic or mixed episode

Objective: To assess the safety and effectiveness of open-label treatment with extended-release carbamazepine (ERC) in pediatric subjects suffering from bipolar I disorder. Method: Medically healthy youths aged 10–17 years suffering from an acute manic or mixed episode were eligible. After screening for study eligibility, the youths began a 5-week titration period in which doses of ERC were adjusted in order to optimize benefit whilst minimizing adverse events, at doses between 200–1,200 mg/day. Thereafter, subjects could continue to receive treatment during a subsequent 21-week period. Safety measures included spontaneously reported adverse events (AEs) and laboratory assessments. The primary efficacy measure was the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS). Results: A total of 60 children (ages 10–12) and 97 adolescents (ages 13–17), with an overall average age of 13.4 years (standard deviation [SD] 2.0 years) received ERC. The mean duration of study participation was 109.6 days (SD 70.2 days), with 66 (42%) completing the entire study. At end of study participation (end point), the most prevalent dose of ERC was 1,200 mg: 31.7% of children and 24.7% of adolescents reached the 1,200 mg dose. The YMRS decreased from a mean of 28.6 (SD 6.2) at baseline to a mean of 13.8 (SD 9.4) ( P  0.0001) at end point. A total of 26 subjects discontinued study participation because of AEs, the most common of which were rash (n = 6), white blood cell count decreased (n = 5), nausea (n = 3), and vomiting (n = 3). No deaths were reported. The most commonly reported AEs were headache (n = 41), somnolence (n = 30), nausea (n = 22), dizziness (n = 21), and fatigue (n = 19). Conclusions: Open-label administration of ERC might be a safe and effective intervention in this subject population. More definitive studies are
Communicating effectively with patients about vaccination: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials

Background Good communication between healthcare professionals and their patients is essential to enlighten the benefits and risks of vaccination. Despite the availability of effective vaccines, reluctance prevails, sometimes fuelled by sub-optimal communication leading to a lack of trust. An evaluation of the effectiveness of a communication strategy for which healthcare professionals are trained has yet to be carried out. Objective Systematic review of studies with a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to define and evaluate the impact of healthcare professionals’ communication on patients’ vaccine adherence. Methods We performed a structured search on Medline, Embase, CENTRAL, PsycINFO and CINAHL. The studies selected include those involving healthcare professionals authorized to administer vaccines according to Canadian guidelines. Primary outcomes include vaccination rate or vaccine hesitancy rate. Results Nine articles were included. Five studies (n=5) reported intervention effectiveness according to vaccine adherence. The results are largely represented by parental vaccine hesitancy for human papillomavirus (HPV) or childhood vaccination, while three studies (n=3) target the general population. The risk of bias relative to the studies is either low (n=7) or of some concern (n=2). Conclusion The effectiveness of communication varies according to the studies and knowledge acquired through training. Future studies will need to examine communication with healthcare professionals in order to establish a consensus on optimal and appropriate training.
Development and Validation

Information fluency is generally defined as an ability to express oneself creatively, reformulate knowledge, and synthesize information regarding new information technology. The term has recently gained popularity over experience, expertise, competence, knowledge, and literacy. As with other related concepts, there is a great need to accurately assess "information fluency" for research and pragmatic purposes. This study seeks to remedy this need by developing a self report instrument to tap this theoretical concept. The paper explores existing computer competence scales (very few of which even include email or Internet components) , review the emerging literature on information fluency, and report about the development of a new Computer-Email-Web Fluency instrument. Evidence of the reliability and validity of the instrument is presented, based on data from students enrolled in Basic Public Speaking courses. (Contains 85 references and 6 tables of data. The survey instrument is attached.) (Author/RS) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
The disability employment paradox in developing countries: recent evidence from Lebanon

ABSTRACT The degree and nature of participation of disabled persons in the labor market have many direct and indirect effects on their living standards and quality of life. Therefore, this is a critical area for investigation and policy concern. This paper seeks to quantify the relationship between disability and labor force participation in Lebanon, a topic that has not received much attention in the literature. The empirical analysis is performed using an individual-level data set obtained from the Lebanese Labor Force and Household Conditions Survey (2019). A firthlogit model was estimated in order to capture the relationship between disability and employment status. The empirical findings reveal that people who report a disability condition have a much lower likelihood of participating in the labor force. This finding is robust even after controlling for other characteristics such as age, marital status and education. We propose several policy recommendations based on our findings that might be helpful to the inclusion of disabled people in the labor market.