Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The impact of the COVID-19 restrictions on women’s responsibility for domestic food provision: The Case of Marondera Urban in Zimbabwe

When pandemics hit communities, women are bound to suffer as most of the responsibilities of ensuring food security lie on them. This article assesses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the role that church-going women play in food provision. The qualitative study used interviews and focus group discussions to examine the toll of the pandemic-induced restrictions, especially with regard to their disruption of activities that ensure the provision of food for the family. They sought to identify how an environment as restrictive as the one that was imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic affects those largely responsible for food provision in urban Marondera – the women, in this case. The focus was extended to factor in how disasters and pandemics affect women and detract from their normative food procurement and provision roles in marginal societies and how these effects can be mitigated to allow women to carry on with their roles even in restrictive environments. This research was motivated by the recent COVID-19-imposed regulations that restricted the movement of people, restrictions that have only recently been relaxed and (in some cases) removed. We also sought to establish how gender roles are played out, together with whether they are exacerbated by pandemics, and in what ways these pandemics result in higher workloads on women. By utilising the Africana womanist theory, the study analysed women roles in food provision and food security in their societies within the restrictive environments of the pandemics. Contribution: This study concluded that there are gender inequalities that are exacerbated by these pandemics that result in higher workloads for women. It foregrounded how existing gender inequalities were exacerbated by the pandemic, resulting in higher workloads on women. It therefore recommended that women should form empowerment groups to help focus attention on food provision to mitigate challenges women face in this role. Finally, we averred that there ought to be consultation and participation of women on issues to do with pandemics to allow for their full and productive participation in critical roles of providing food. © 2023. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
An Interpretable Aerodynamic Identification Model for Hypersonic Wind Tunnels

Aerodynamic identification accuracy is one of the key factors determining the success or failure of hypersonic aircraft development. However, the inertial force (mid-frequency) generated by the shock flow and the instrument noise (high-frequency) introduced by the acquisition equipment seriously affect the identification accuracy. To address this challenge, first, a convolutional neural network is introduced to filter out high-frequency noise, and the influence of kernel size on feature extraction ability is discussed. Second, a dense block with adaptive empirical mode decomposition, which filters out inertial force component, alleviates the dependence of the model on the number of samples, and gives a distinct physical meaning to the output of each layer, is proposed. Based on the above-mentioned research, an aerodynamic identification model based on a large convolutional kernel and dense block (AI-LSK&DB) is proposed. Wind tunnel experimental results show that the identification accuracy, robustness, and stability of AI-LSK&DB are significantly improved compared with those of frequency domain models and deep learning models.
Compliance With the Royal College of Radiologists Guideline for Actionable Reporting and Its Impact on Patient Care: A Retrospective Analysis of Reporting Practices From a Major Trauma Center

Introduction Prompt diagnosis forms the mainstay of management of any patient arriving at the hospital. In developed settings, apart from clinical assessment, imaging in the form of computed tomography (CT) scan plays a vital role in arriving at the patient diagnosis. The reporting should follow pre-defined Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) standards to improve the quality of the diagnostic process. Objectives To identify the compliance of reporting as per the RCR standards for the communication of radiological reports and fail-safe alert notification. Materials and methods A retrospective review of body CT scans was done in two cycles within a span of three months. A total of 100 randomized scans were assessed in each cycle, both from the A&E (accident and emergency) and inpatients. Normal scans and outpatient scans were excluded from the study. Data were collected using the online portal (CRIS) and statistical analysis was performed. Results After the first cycle of the audit, 95 reports out of 100 met the standard RCR criteria. After the second cycle, 97 reports met the criteria of the audit. One inpatient scan and two A&E reports did not meet the specified criteria in the second cycle. Conclusion After the two cycles of the audit carried out over three months, we were able to achieve almost 97% of reporting standards as compared to 95% obtained previously through a quality improvement project and create awareness.
Lacticaseibacilli attenuated fecal dysbiosis and metabolome changes in Candida-administered bilateral nephrectomy mice

The impacts of metabolomic changes (reduced short-chain-fatty acids; SCFAs) in uremic condition is not fully understood. Once daily Candida gavage with or without probiotics (different times of administration) for 1 week prior to bilateral nephrectomy (Bil Nep) in 8-week-old C57BL6 mice as the possible models more resemble human conditions were performed. Candida-administered Bil Nep mice demonstrated more severe conditions than Bil Nep alone as indicated by mortality (n = 10/group) and other 48 h parameters (n = 6-8/group), including serum cytokines, leaky gut (FITC-dextran assay, endotoxemia, serum beta-glucan, and loss of Zona-occludens-1), and dysbiosis (increased Enterobacteriaceae with decreased diversity in microbiome analysis) (n = 3/group for fecal microbiome) without the difference in uremia (serum creatinine). With nuclear magnetic resonance metabolome analysis (n = 3-5/group), Bil Nep reduced fecal butyric (and propionic) acid and blood 3-hydroxy butyrate compared with sham and Candida-Bil Nep altered metabolomic patterns compared with Bil Nep alone. Then, Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus dfa1 (SCFA-producing Lacticaseibacilli) (n = 8/group) attenuated the model severity (mortality, leaky gut, serum cytokines, and increased fecal butyrate) of Bil Nep mice (n = 6/group) (regardless of Candida). In enterocytes (Caco-2 cells), butyrate attenuated injury induced by indoxyl sulfate (a gut-derived uremic toxin) as indicated by transepithelial electrical resistance, supernatant IL-8, NFκB expression, and cell energy status (mitochondria and glycolysis activities by extracellular flux analysis). In conclusion, the reduced butyrate by uremia was not enhanced by Candida administration; however, the presence of Candida in the gut induced a leaky gut that was attenuated by SCFA-producing probiotics. Our data support the use of probiotics in uremia.
Magnetism and Phase Transition in Two-Dimensional Lattices; M(HCOO)2·2H2O (M; Mn, Fe, Ni, Co)

The heat capacities of Fe 2+ and Ni 2+ formate dihydrates were measured. Fe 2+ salt showed a sharp peak at T N =3.75±0.05 K with total magnetic entropy N k /2(ln 5+ln 2). Ni 2+ salt exhibited a distinct peak at T N =15.5±0.2 K and a Schottky type maximum around 3.1 K. It was discussed that M 2+ ions in (200) layer in this series of compounds were magnetically free and that M 2+ ions in (100) layer behaved as magnetically two-dimensional spin system which ordered at T N . It was concluded theoretically, using R. P. A. method, that the broad shoulder generally found in the specific heat curve just above T N was characteristic to the low dimensional spin system. This tendency was remarkable in the system with isotropic coupling such as Mn 2+ ions and not so distinct in the case of anisotropic Co 2+ ions. The present cases of Fe 2+ and Ni 2+ ions gave the examples of those with intermediate anisotropy.
Development and Validation of a HPLC-UV Method for Simultaneous Determination of Strobilurin Fungicide Residues in Tomato Fruits Followed by Matrix Solid-Phase Dispersion (MSPD)

A simple, sensitive and inexpensive method was developed using matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD), together with high performance liquid chromatographic method for determination of strobilurin fungicide residues (Azoxystrobin, Picoxystrobin, Pyraclostrobin and Trifloxystrobin) in tomatoes. The evaluated parameters included the type and amount of sorbent (silica gel, C18 and Florisil) and the nature of eluent (ethyl acetate, dichloromethane and acetonitrile). The best results were obtained using 1.0 g of tomato sample, 1.0 g of C18 as sorbent and 20ml of ethyl acetate-dichloromethane (1:1, (v/v)). The method was validated using tomato samples spiked with fungicides at different concentration levels (0.05 and 0.5 µg/mL). Average recoveries (using each concentration six replicates) ranged 90-97%, with relative standard deviations less than 3%, calibration solutions concentration in the range 0.01-2.0 mg/L and limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were 0.01 mg/L and 0.05 mg/L respectively.
Learning-Based Motion-Intention Prediction for End-Point Control of Upper-Limb-Assistive Robots

The lack of intuitive and active human–robot interaction makes it difficult to use upper-limb-assistive devices. In this paper, we propose a novel learning-based controller that intuitively uses onset motion to predict the desired end-point position for an assistive robot. A multi-modal sensing system comprising inertial measurement units (IMUs), electromyographic (EMG) sensors, and mechanomyography (MMG) sensors was implemented. This system was used to acquire kinematic and physiological signals during reaching and placing tasks performed by five healthy subjects. The onset motion data of each motion trial were extracted to input into traditional regression models and deep learning models for training and testing. The models can predict the position of the hand in planar space, which is the reference position for low-level position controllers. The results show that using IMU sensor with the proposed prediction model is sufficient for motion intention detection, which can provide almost the same prediction performance compared with adding EMG or MMG. Additionally, recurrent neural network (RNN)-based models can predict target positions over a short onset time window for reaching motions and are suitable for predicting targets over a longer horizon for placing tasks. This study’s detailed analysis can improve the usability of the assistive/rehabilitation robots.
Identification of immune-related genes in diagnosing atherosclerosis with rheumatoid arthritis through bioinformatics analysis and machine learning

Background Increasing evidence has proven that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can aggravate atherosclerosis (AS), and we aimed to explore potential diagnostic genes for patients with AS and RA. Methods We obtained the data from public databases, including Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and STRING, and obtained the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and module genes with Limma and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis, the protein–protein interaction (PPI) network, and machine learning algorithms [least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression and random forest] were performed to explore the immune-related hub genes. We used a nomogram and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve to assess the diagnostic efficacy, which has been validated with GSE55235 and GSE73754. Finally, immune infiltration was developed in AS. Results The AS dataset included 5,322 DEGs, while there were 1,439 DEGs and 206 module genes in RA. The intersection of DEGs for AS and crucial genes for RA was 53, which were involved in immunity. After the PPI network and machine learning construction, six hub genes were used for the construction of a nomogram and for diagnostic efficacy assessment, which showed great diagnostic value (area under the curve from 0.723 to 1). Immune infiltration also revealed the disorder of immunocytes. Conclusion Six immune-related hub genes (NFIL3, EED, GRK2, MAP3K11, RMI1, and TPST1) were recognized, and the nomogram was developed for AS with RA diagnosis.
An Improved Back-Projection Algorithm for Magnetic Induction Tomography Image Reconstruction

Magnetic induction tomography (MIT) acted as a contactless and non-invasive medical imaging technology has aroused wide concern, while a large amount of calculation and a series of convergence problems in the solution of the inverse problem become technical difficulties for MIT. In order to solve these problems, an improved back-projection image reconstruction algorithm based on the magnetic field lines distribution is presented in this paper. Firstly, the eddy current problem of MIT was solved by the finite element method to obtain the magnetic field distribution. Secondly, the back-projection areas were divided according to the magnetic field lines distribution in the homogeneous field. Finally, image reconstruction was realized by projecting the phase shifts back along the corresponding projection area. The reconstruction results for perturbations with different conductivities appearing at different locations reveal that the improved back-projection algorithm for MIT owning the character of high speed performs well in reflecting location and shape information of the perturbation.
Labour-Market Characteristics and Self-Rated Health: Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study

In the face of labour-force ageing, understanding labour-market characteristics and the health status of middle-aged and older workers is important for sustainable social and economic development. Self-rated health (SRH) is a widely-used instrument to detect health problems and predict mortality. This study investigated labour-market characteristics that may have an impact on the SRH among Chinese middle-aged and older workers, using data from the national baseline wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. The analytical sample included 3864 individuals who at the time held at least one non-agricultural job. Fourteen labour-market characteristics were clearly defined and investigated. Multiple logistic regression models of the associations of each labour-market characteristic with SRH were estimated. Seven labour-market characteristics were associated with higher odds of poor SRH when controlled for age and sex. Employment status and earned income remained significantly associated with poor SRH, when controlling for all the sociodemographic factors and health behaviours. Doing unpaid work in family businesses is associated with 2.07 (95% CI, 1.51–2.84) times probability of poor SRH, compared with employed individuals. Compared with more affluent individuals (highest quintile of earned income), people in the fourth and fifth quintiles had 1.92 (95% CI, 1.29–2.86) times and 2.72 (95% CI, 1.83–4.02) times higher chance, respectively, of poor SRH. In addition, residence type and region were important confounders. Measures improving adverse working conditions should be taken to prevent future risk of impaired health among the Chinese middle-aged and older workforce.
Analysis of efficiency differentials in Fadama III programme areas in Kogi State, Central Nigeria

Introduction: The impact of Fadama III programme on the efficiency levels of farmers in Kogi state, Nigeria was investigated. Materials and methods: Primary data were obtained with a questionnaire administered to 382 respondents selected through a stratified random sampling procedure. The Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier production and cost functions were employed in the analyses. The resulting efficiency estimates for beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries were compared using the t-test. Major findings: Efficiency analyses indicate that the quantities of Seed, fertilizer and agrochemicals used were the drivers of technical efficiency among both categories of farmers, while costs of land, fertilizer and family labour were the drivers of allocative efficiency. Technical efficiency estimates for both categories of farmers were 0.79 and 0.71 respectively and respective allocative efficiency estimates were 1.22 and 1.44. Mean comparison of the technical efficiency levels indicated a t-estimate of 2.52 (α= 0.0124) in favour of the beneficiaries while a t-estimate of -24.56 (α= 0.000) indicated that beneficiaries were also more allocatively efficient. Conclusion: The beneficiaries, by acquiring skills and supports from Fadama III, became were more efficient than their non-benefiting counterparts. Continuous training will assist farmers to improve their efficiencies and reduce the noticed deficits.
State of Charge Estimation Model Based on Genetic Algorithms and Multivariate Linear Regression with Applications in Electric Vehicles

Nowadays, the use of renewable, green/eco-friendly technologies is attracting the attention of researchers, with a view to overcoming recent challenges that must be faced to guarantee the availability of Electric Vehicles (EVs). Therefore, this work proposes a methodology based on Genetic Algorithms (GA) and multivariate regression for estimating and modeling the State of Charge (SOC) in Electric Vehicles. Indeed, the proposal considers the continuous monitoring of six load-related variables that have an influence on the SOC (State of Charge), specifically, the vehicle acceleration, vehicle speed, battery bank temperature, motor RPM, motor current, and motor temperature. Thus, these measurements are evaluated in a structure comprised of a Genetic Algorithm and a multivariate regression model in order to find those relevant signals that better model the State of Charge, as well as the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). The proposed approach is validated under a real set of data acquired from a self-assembly Electric Vehicle, and the obtained results show a maximum accuracy of approximately 95.5%; thus, this proposed method can be applied as a reliable diagnostic tool in the automotive industry.
A Feasibility Study Investigating Mechanisms of Change in Public Mental Health Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Programmes

Abstract Few studies have investigated the feasibility of researching brief forms of dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) for borderline personality disorder (BPD) in public mental health settings. This study aimed to provide preliminary evidence for the feasibility of implementing DBT over a 6-month period for BPD symptoms within Australian public mental health services. Of the 79 participants with BPD recruited, 62 commenced and 24 participants completed the therapy. The participants attended one of three outpatient DBT programmes and completed measures of BPD symptoms, DBT skills-use, and difficulties with emotion regulation at baseline and after 6 months of treatment. A major challenge with feasibility identified was the high attrition rate (61%). However, for completers there were significant improvements in BPD symptoms, DBT skills-use, and difficulties with emotion regulation. These effect sizes were used to estimate the sample sizes needed by future larger trials of brief DBT for BPD in public health settings. The implementation of brief DBT for BPD patients within a public mental health outpatient setting, appears to result in significant reductions in BPD symptoms. However, further exploration of strategies to reduce drop-out rates are required.
Modeling the EUV multilayer deposition process on EUV blanks

Extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) is the leading next generation lithography (NGL) technology to succeed optical lithography at the 22 nm node and beyond. EUVL requires a low defect density reflective mask blank, which is considered to be the most critical technology gap for commercialization of the technology. At the SEMATECH Mask Blank Development Center (MBDC), research on defect reduction of EUV mask blanks is being pursued using the Veeco Nexus deposition tool. Its defect performance is one of the factors limiting the availability of defect-free EUVL mask blanks. SEMATECH has identified better understanding of the physics of the deposition process as one of the keys to improving the defect performance of Nexus tools. SEMATECH is therefore undertaking an effort to model the physics of the tool backed with an experimental program to characterize the process. The goal is to be able to predict defect performance and defect improvement to direct new tool design. In this paper, we present the results of simulating the deposition rate and uniformity of deposited multilayers and growth of the multilayer on a given defect profile.
The impact of rumination on life satisfaction of hotel employees during the COVID-19 pandemic: the mediating role of fear of COVID-19 and the moderating role of sedentary lifestyle

BACKGROUND It is important to determine the individual factors that cause the differentiation of negative reactions of individuals due to epidemics. The purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating role of a sedentary lifestyle and the mediating role of fear of COVID-19 on the relationship between rumination and life satisfaction. Intense rumination is known to have a negative impact on individuals’ life satisfaction levels. Very little is known about variables that may mediate and moderate this relationship. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE The study was conducted with staff members of five-star accommodation establishments in Turkey. Data were collected with a quantitative research method via questionnaires, completed by 386 full-time employees. RESULTS The results show that rumination negatively affects life satisfaction, and fear of COVID-19 has a mediating role between rumination and life satisfaction. In addition, the study concluded that a sedentary lifestyle moderated the indirect effect of rumination on life satisfaction through fear of COVID-19. This finding indicates that the negative impact of rumination on life satisfaction, mediated by fear of COVID-19, decreased, as the active lifestyle level of employees increased. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate the importance of active lifestyles in reducing negative impacts of the fear of being infected with a disease during times of crisis such as outbreaks and ruminative thoughts on lifestyle. The findings of this study provide substantial contributions with respect to how outbreak-related negative reactions occur and differ.
Molecular dynamics study of the finite-size effect in 2D nanoribbon silicene

ABSTRACT We present the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of the finite-size effect in 2D silicene nanoribbons (SiNRs). Five silicene nanoribbon structures were modelled with the same length and buckling, but different width sizes. All models were melted from the perfect honeycomb silicene structure and then cooled from the disordered liquid state. Structural properties such as ring sizes, radial distribution function, coordination numbers, and interatomic distances have been carefully analysed. All models’ critical melting and cooling temperature were determined via total energy per atom. We found that 2D SiNRs transition temperature is lower than the pristine silicene. Particularly, the SiNRs present a noticeable finite-size effect on nanoribbons, resulting in a domain-type structure of 4, 5, and 6-fold rings.