Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ultrasound Biometry of Nigerian Fetuses: 1. Estimated Fetal Weight

Fetal weight studies are few in Nigeria and the population used for these studies are too small to provide a meaningful statistical significant data for the relationship between it and age. In the developed countries, fetal weight reference values have been produced but there are no such in our environment. This study was designed to establish chart of fetal weight in Jos. A total of 12,080 pregnant women were scanned in a cross-sectional study at the Centre for Reproductive Health Research, Jos over a period of five years. The mean estimated weights and percentiles of 12,080 fetuses from 17-42 weeks are presented in a tabular form. Mathematical modeling of data demonstrated that the best-fitted regression model to describe the relationship between estimated fetal weight and gestational age was the power regression equation y = 0.038x 3.1347 where y is the fetal weight in grams and x is the fetal age in weeks with a correlation of determination R 2 = 0.9951 (p< 0.001). When fetal weight was plotted against symphysio-fundal height, it was found out that there is a positive correlation between fetal weight and symphysio-fundal height with a correlation of determination R 2 = 0.9951 (p< 0.001). The relationship is best described by the power regression equation y = 0.0409x 3.1217 where y is the fetal weight in grams and x is the symphysio-fundal height in centimeters. It is concluded that the estimated weight of fetuses in Jos correlated well with gestational age and symphysio-fundal height.
Flash Glucose Monitoring in Croatia: The Optimal Number of Scans per Day to Achieve Good Glycemic Control in Type 1 Diabetes

Background and Objectives: The purpose of this study is to determine the optimal number of scans per day required for attaining good glycemic regulation. Materials and Methods: The association of scanning frequency and glucometrics was analyzed according to bins of scanning frequency and bins of time in range (TIR) in the Croatian population of type 1 diabetes (T1DM) patients. Results: Intermittently scanned continuous glucose monitoring (isCGM) Libre users in Croatia performed on average 13 ± 7.4 scans per day. According to bins of scanning frequency, bin 5 with 11.2 ± 02 daily scans was sufficient for achieving meaningful improvements in glycemic regulation, while decreasing severe hypoglycemia required an increasing number of scans up to bin 10 (31 ± 0.9), yet with no effect on TIR improvement. When data were analyzed according to bins of TIR, an average of 16.3 ± 10.5 scans daily was associated with a TIR of 94.09 ± 3.49% and a coefficient of variation (CV) of 22.97 ± 4.94%. Improvement was shown between each successive bin of TIR but, of notice, the number of scans performed per day was 16.3 ± 10.5 according to TIR-based analysis and 31.9 ± 13.5 in bin 10 according to scan frequency analysis. Conclusions: In conclusion, an optimal average number of scans per day is 16.3 in order to achieve glucose stability and to minimize the burden associated with over-scanning.
Image Processing Based Low Cost Range Finder

Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging (Lidar) systems have started to be used more common in recent years. Lidar is used for surface and object detection, measuring distances and many other applications. In robotics and especially mobile robot applications Lidar plays a major role in obstacle detection, finding heading direction and path planning. The principle of Lidar is similar to radar systems. Different to radar, Lidar listens the response time of laser dots reflected from any surface. Lidar systems can reach high measurement resolution and frequency but these advantages cause a high cost. In this study, it is studied on an alternative system to Lidar. For this purpose, a mechanism which consists of a camera, a dot laser source, a controller and a servo motor was designed. Camera and laser source were mounted to each other and they were coupled to a servo motor which rotates 0 o -180 o range. Distance between focus of camera and objects were calculated by detecting laser point on physical environment. Physical distance between camera and laser dot is a function of the dot’s position on focal plane of the camera. In image processing step, RGB (Red Green Blue) and HSL (Hue Saturation Luminosity) color space filters were applied on image respectively. The algorithm was developed with image segmentation, median filter, thresholding methods and morphologic operations. Servo motor’s angular position and distance of related angle were matched via developed interface of image processing algorithm by transferring scanning angle to the controller in real time. By these operations, a simple and low cost Laser based range finder was realized. The algorithm was developed in Visual Studio 2010 Express Edition.
Quantifying Temporal Variance in High-Latitude Air–Sea Interactions

Abstract A novel way of quantifying the variance of a time series is presented. The method first involves filtering the time series using filters with different temporal characteristics, and then using a moving window to calculate the variances in each filtered time series. The use of a moving window allows the original temporal resolution to be retained, as well as allowing one to study how the variance changes with time. Air–sea interaction time series from Ocean Weather Station (OWS) Bravo in the Labrador Sea are analyzed as an example. High-pass, bandpass, and low-pass filters are used to isolate the diurnal signal, the storm/cyclone signature, and the weather regime transition signal, respectively. The variance during the winter months is found to be strongly influenced by weather systems in the bandpass and the low-pass frequency range. The variance during the summer months, on the other hand, is dominated by the shortwave radiation in the high-pass frequency range.
Modelling and forecasting of primary healthcare utilisation, perceived quality of care and non‐emergency referrals to hospitals in a national health insurance pilot district of South Africa

Background. The first phase of the National Health Insurance (NHI) pilot programme focusing on primary healthcare has been implemented in Tshwane and 10 other districts of South Africa since 2012. This was envisaged to improve the quality of healthcare at primary healthcare level, and offset the burden of non-emergency healthcare at hospital outpatient level. However, there are no population-level studies that have been done to determine the relationship and interdependence of primary healthcare and hospital outpatient-level indicators that are needed to forecast utilisation of health services. This information is key to plan for roll-out of NHI, in setting benchmarks to guide health policy and allocation of resources. Objectives. To determine the interdependence and relationships between primary healthcare and hospital outpatient-level indicators in a NHI pilot district, and forecast the utilisation of services to 2030.Methods. This was a quasi-experimental ecological study design, making use of selected primary healthcare and outpatient department indicators in the District Health Information System monthly reports between January 2010 and December 2019 for Tshwane district. We used the vector error correction model to determine the interdependence and relationships between these indicators, and used these to forecast utilisation of services to 2030. Results. The study found that most non-emergency care is provided at primary healthcare level by professional nurses. It confirmed the influence of selected primary healthcare and outpatient department headcounts on each other by finding the existence of four co-integration relationships between the variables. Both long-run and short-run causality exists between them. Based on these relationships, we forecasted that by the end of 2030, the outpatient department follow-up headcounts would have doubled, but both primary healthcare total and clients seen by a professional nurse will marginally decline. Conclusion. Our findings confirm that there is a relationship between primary healthcare and outpatient department indicators, which can be used to plan for provision of services in the future. Based on this relationship and current trends, we found that implementation of the NHI pilot programme will not attain the envisaged goal by 2030.
Gold and Trace Element Zonation in Pyrite Using a Laser Imaging Technique: Implications for the Timing of Gold in Orogenic and Carlin-Style Sediment-Hosted Deposits

Laser ablation ICP-MS imaging of gold and other trace elements in pyrite from four different sedimenthosted gold-arsenic deposits has revealed two distinct episodes of gold enrichment in each deposit: an early synsedimentary stage where invisible gold is concentrated in arsenian diagenetic pyrite along with other trace elements, in particular, As, Ni, Pb, Zn, Ag, Mo, Te, V, and Se; and a later hydrothermal stage where gold forms as either free gold grains in cracks in overgrowth metamorphic and/or hydrothermal pyrite or as narrow goldarsenic rims on the outermost parts of the overgrowth hydrothermal pyrite. Compared to the diagenetic pyrites, the hydrothermal pyrites are commonly depleted in Ni, V, Zn, Pb, and Ag with cyclic zones of Co, Ni, and As concentration. The outermost hydrothermal pyrite rims are either As-Au rich, as in moderate- to highgrade deposits such as Carlin and Bendigo, or Co-Ni rich and As-Au poor as in moderate- to low-grade deposits such as Sukhoi Log and Spanish Mountain. The early enrichment of gold in arsenic-bearing syngenetic to diagenetic pyrite, within black shale facies of sedimentary basins, is proposed as a critical requirement for the later development of Carlin-style and orogenic gold deposits in sedimentary environments. The best grade sediment- hosted deposits appear to have the gold climax event, toward the final stages of deformation-related hydrothermal pyrite growth and fluid flow.
Construction of small Zn-air batteries by dendrite-free Zn electrodeposition using renewable electricity

In this work, the possibility to make small, handy but efficient Zn-air batteries has been studied. Battery anode has been constructed by dendrite-free Zn electrodeposition on conductive substrates made of either carbon cloth or brass. Brass was an alloy containing 71% Cu and 21% Zn. Zn electrodeposition has been monitored by applying several (negative) electric potentials ranging between 0 and −0.5 V. Dendrite-free deposits were obtained for voltages ranging between 0 and −0.2 V while extensive dendrite formation was observed with voltages equal to −0.5 V. Uniform Zn deposits were obtained by using the brass substrate. Zn electrodeposition could be realized with a renewable electricity source, in particular by using a photocatalytic fuel cell or a photovoltaic cell. The substrate (electrode) with deposited Zn film was subsequently employed as anode electrode in a Zn-air battery and the battery characteristics have been monitored. The procedures followed in this work support solar energy conversion and storage in a Zn-air battery.
Sparsity-Oriented MRAM-Centric Computing for Efficient Neural Network Inference

Near-memory computing (NMC) and in- memory computing (IMC) paradigms show great importance in non-von Neumann architecture. Spin-transfer torque magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM) is considered as a promising candidate to realize both NMC and IMC for resource-constrained applications. In this work, two MRAM-centric computing frameworks are proposed: triple-skipping NMC (TS-NMC) and analog-multi-bit-sparsity IMC (AMS-IMC). The TS-NMC exploits the sparsity of activations and weights to implement a write-read-calculation triple skipping computing scheme by utilizing a sparse flag generator. The AMS-IMC with reconfigured computing bit-cell and flag generator accommodate bit-level activation sparsity in the computing. STT-MRAM array and its peripheral circuits are implemented with an industrial 28-nm CMOS design-kit and an MTJ compact model. The triple-skipping scheme can reduce memory access energy consumption by 51.5× when processing zero vectors, compared to processing non-zero vectors. The energy efficiency of AMS-IMC is improved by 5.9× and 1.5× (with 75% input sparsity) as compared to the conventional NMC framework and existing analog IMC framework. Verification results show that TS-NMC and AMS-IMC achieved 98.6% and 97.5% inference accuracy in MNIST classification, with energy consumption of 14.2 nJ/pattern and 12.7 nJ/pattern, respectively.
Internet utilization and Indonesian female entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract The spread of COVID-19 was a severe setback to the labour market in the globe, including Indonesia. The policies implemented to prevent the spread of the virus have compelled the society to shift towards digital and internet-based activities. The rapid growth of digital technology and internet utilization presents a new potential for women to participate more actively in the labour market, particularly in entrepreneurial activities. This study has two objectives. First, this study examines the effect of using the internet on the participation of female entrepreneurs during the pandemic. Second, this study examines the relationship between internet utilization and income among female entrepreneurs. The data used in this study are individual data sourced from the 2020 National Labour Force Survey (Sakernas). A probit regression model is used to answer the first objective, while the correction for Heckman selection bias has been made when estimating the income equation in the second objective. The results of the first objective show that women who use the internet have a greater chance of becoming entrepreneurs than women who do not use the internet. The impact is higher for women living in urban areas. The finding in this study also emphasizes several important aspects that can encourage the growth of female entrepreneurs, such as training, experience, age, and marital status. Second, this study shows that female entrepreneurs who use the internet tend to have higher incomes. Females that have potential to have higher incomes by using internet are working in trade, food and beverages, and industry sectors.
Iron in Multiple Sclerosis Cognitive Implications of Deep Gray Matter

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Deep gray matter iron accumulation is increasingly recognized in association with multiple sclerosis and can be measured in vivo with MR imaging. The cognitive implications of this pathology are not well-understood, especially vis-a`-vis deep gray matter atrophy. Our aim was to investigate the relationships between cognition and deep gray matter iron in MS by using 2 MR imaging–based iron-susceptibility measures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty patients with multiple sclerosis (relapsing-remitting, n (cid:2) 16; progressive, n (cid:2) 24) and 27 healthy controlswereimagedat4.7Tbyusingthetransverserelaxationrateandquantitativesusceptibilitymapping. Thetransverserelaxationrate and quantitative susceptibility mapping values and volumes (atrophy) of the caudate, putamen, globus pallidus, and thalamus were determined by multiatlas segmentation. Cognition was assessed with the Brief Repeatable Battery of Neuropsychological Tests. Relation-ships between cognition and deep gray matter iron were examined by hierarchic regressions. RESULTS: Comparedwithcontrols,patientsshowedreducedmemory( P (cid:3) . 001)andprocessingspeed( P (cid:2) . 02)andsmallerputamen( P (cid:3) . 001), globus pallidus ( P (cid:2) . 002), and thalamic volumes ( P (cid:3) . 001). Quantitative susceptibility mapping values were increased in patients compared with controls in the putamen ( P (cid:2) . 003) and globus pallidus ( P (cid:2) . 003). In patients only, thalamus ( P (cid:3) . 001) and putamen ( P (cid:2) . 04) volumes were related to cognitive performance. After we controlled for volume effects, quantitative susceptibility mapping values in the globus pallidus ( P (cid:2) . 03; trend for transverse relaxation rate, P (cid:2) . 10) were still related to cognition. CONCLUSIONS: Quantitative susceptibility mapping was more sensitive compared with the transverse relaxation rate in detecting deep gray matter iron accumulation in the current multiple sclerosis cohort. Atrophy and iron accumulation in deep gray matter both have negative but separable relationships to cognition in multiple sclerosis. ABBREVIATIONS
Efficacy of extracellular vesicles as a cell-free therapy in colitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of animal studies

Background: Extracellular vesicles (EVs) mediate inflammation, immune responses, gut barrier integrity, and intestinal homeostasis. Recently, the application of EVs in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been under intensive focus. Some studies have been conducted in animal models of colitis, while systematic reviews and meta-analyses are lacking. The current study aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies investigating the efficacy of EVs on IBD. Methods: A systematic retrieval of all studies in PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library reported the effects of EVs in the colitis model up to 22 June 2023. The methodological quality was assessed based on SYRCLE’s risk of bias (RoB) tool. Disease activity index (DAI), myeloperoxidase activity (MPO), histopathological score (HS), and inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, NF-κB, IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-10) were extracted as analysis indicators by Web Plot Digitizer 4.5. A meta-analysis was performed to calculate the standardized mean difference and 95% confidence interval using random-effect models by Review Manager 5.3 and STATA 14.0 software. Results: A total of 21 studies were included in this meta-analysis. Although the heterogeneity between studies and the potential publication bias limits confidence in the extent of the benefit, EV treatment was superior to the control in the colitis evaluation with reduced DAI, HS, MPO activity, and pro-inflammatory cytokines, including TNF-α, NF-κB, IL-1β, and IL-6, while increasing the content of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 (all p < 0.05). Conclusion: Our meta-analysis results supported the protective effect of EVs on colitis rodent models based on their potential role in IBD therapy and propelling the field toward clinical studies.
Healthcare Equipment and Personnel Reservoirs of Carbapenem-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii Epidemic Clones in Intensive Care Units in a Tunisian Hospital

Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) strains can cause severe and difficult-to-treat infections in patients with compromised general health. CRAB strains disseminate rapidly in nosocomial settings by patient-to-patient contact, through medical devices and inanimate reservoirs. The occurrence of CRAB in patients residing in the intensive care units (ICUs) of the Sahloul University hospital in Sousse, Tunisia is high. The objective of the current study was to determine whether the surfaces of items present in five ICU wards and the medical personnel there operating could serve as reservoirs for CRAB strains. Furthermore, CRAB isolates from patients residing in the ICUs during the sampling campaign were analyzed for genome comparison with isolates from the ICUs environment. Overall, 206 items were screened for CRAB presence and 27 (14%) were contaminated with a CRAB isolate. The items were located in several areas of three ICUs. Eight of the 54 (15%) screened people working in the wards were colonized by CRAB on the hands. Patients residing in the ICUs were infected with CRAB strains sharing extensive genomic similarity with strains recovered in the nosocomial environment. The strains belonged to three sub-clades of the internationally disseminated clone (ST2). A clone emerging in the Mediterranean basin (ST85) was detected as well. The strains were OXA-23 or NDM-1 producers and were also pan-aminoglycoside resistant due to the presence of the armA gene. Hygiene measures are urgent to be implemented in the Sahloul hospital to avoid further spread of difficult-to-treat CRAB strains and preserve health of patients and personnel operating in the ICU wards.
AMPHETAMINE-INDUCED DOPAMINE RELEASE IN PARKINSON'S DISEASE PATIENTS WITH DEPRESSION MEASURED USING HIGH-RESOLUTION POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY WITH [C]RACLOPRIDE by ELLIOTT ADAM BOGUSZ B.Sc. University of British of Columbia, 2005 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR T

Depression affects around 40% of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), which is nearly double the amount of severe depression seen in comparably disabled patients with other chronic illness. Mesocorticolimbic dopamine (DA) depletion has been implicated in the pathogenesis of depression, and thus may contribute to the high incidence of depression in PD. Amphetamine (AMPH)-induced striatal DA release was compared between depressed (n=3) and non-depressed (n=6) patients with PD using positron emission tomography. DA release was estimated by displacement of the D2/D3 receptor radiotracer [C]raclopride (RAC). Subjects completed three scans over two days within a three month period. The first scan was a baseline scan, followed by either blinded d-AMPH (0.3 mg/kg p.o.) or placebo administration, counterbalanced across subjects. Emission data were acquired for 60 minutes using a high resolution research tomograph, scans were reconstructed using Ordinary Poisson-OSEM3D including attenuation, scatter and random correction, and inter-frame realignment was performed to correct for motion. RAC binding potentials were estimated using regions of interest and a graphical tissue approach with the cerebellum as a reference region. Amphetamine induced DA release was observed at a significant level in the ventral striatum and with a strong trend in the caudate. Although amphetamine induced DA release has been observed in other studies, these PD patients exhibit a different amphetamine induced profile in which caudate and ventral DA release was greater than putamen DA release. No significant placebo effect was measured in this study but visual inspection suggests depressed patients may have a decrease in endogenous DA release with placebo. Other than this effect no difference was observed between depressed and non-depressed PD subjects. Ongoing work will attempt to extend these findings to a larger sample.