Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A qualitative study exploring how Somali women exposed to female genital mutilation experience and perceive antenatal and intrapartum care in England

Objectives To explore how Somali women exposed to female genital mutilation experience and perceive antenatal and intrapartum care in England. We explored women's perceptions of deinfibulation, caesarean section and vaginal delivery; their experiences of care during pregnancy and labour; and factors that affect ability to access these services, in order to make recommendations about future practice. Design A descriptive, exploratory qualitative study using face-to-face semistructured interviews. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and data were analysed using a thematic approach. An interpreter was used when required (n=3). Setting Participants recruited from 2 community centres in Birmingham, England. Participants Convenience and snowball sample of 10 Somali women resident in Birmingham, who had accessed antenatal care services in England within the past 5 years. Results 3 core themes were interpreted: (1) Experiences of female genital mutilation during life, pregnancy and labour: Female genital mutilation had a significant physical and psychological impact, influencing decisions to undergo deinfibulation or caesarean section. Women delayed deinfibulation until labour to avoid undergoing multiple operations if an episiotomy was anticipated. (2) Experience of care from midwives: Awareness of female genital mutilation from midwives led to open communication and stronger relationships with women, resulting in more positive experiences. (3) Adaptation to English life: Good language skills and social support networks enabled women to access these services, while unfavourable social factors (eg, inability to drive) impeded. Conclusions Female genital mutilation impacts Somali women's experiences of antenatal and intrapartum care. This study suggests that midwives should routinely ask Somali women about female genital mutilation to encourage open communication and facilitate more positive experiences. As antenatal deinfibulation is unpopular, we should consider developing strategies to promote deinfibulation to non-pregnant women, to align with current guidelines. Women with unfavourable social factors may require additional support to improve access to English antenatal care services.
Molecular evolution and expression divergence of three key Met biosynthetic genes in plants: [i]CGS[i], [i]HMT[i] and [i]MMT[i]

Methionine (Met) is an essential sulfur-containing amino acid in animals. Cereal and legume crops with limiting levels of Met represent the major food and feed sources for animals. In plants, cystathionine γ-synthase (CGS), methionine methyltransferase (MMT) and homocysteine methyltransferase (HMT) are committing enzymes synergistically synthesizing Met through the aspartate (Asp) family pathway and the S-methylmethionine ( SMM) cycle. The biological functions of CGS, MMT and HMT genes have been respectively studied, whereas their evolution patterns and their contribution to the evolution of Met biosynthetic pathway in plants are unknown. In the present study, to reveal their evolution patterns and contribution, the evolutionary relationship of CGS, MMT and HMT gene families were reconstructed. The results showed that MMTs emerged since the ancestors of the land plants and kept conserved during evolution, while the CGSs and HMTs had diverged. The CGS genes were divided into two branches in the angiosperms, Class 1 and Class 2, of which Class 2 only contained the grasses. However, the HMT genes diverged into Class 1 and Class 2 in all of the seed plants. Further, the gene structure analysis revealed that the CGSs, MMTs and HMTs were relatively conserved except for the CGSs in Class 2. According to the expression of CGS, HMT and MMT genes in soybeans, as well as in the database of soybean, rice and Arabidopsis, the expression patterns of the MMTs are showed to be consistently higher in leaves than in seeds. However, the expression of CGSs and HMTs had diverged, either higher expressed in leaves or seeds, or showing the fluctuated expression. Besides, the functions of HMT genes had diverged into the repair of S-adenosylmethionine ((R,S)-AdoMet) and SMM catabolism during the evolution. The results indicated that the CGS and HMT genes have occurred partial subfunctionalization. Finally, given the evolution and expression of the CGS, HMT and MMT gene families, we built the evolutionary model of the Met biosynthetic pathways in plants. The model proposed that the Asp family pathway existed in all the plant lineages, while the SMM cycle emerged since the ancestor of land plants and then diverged since the ancestor of
strain measurement on four-dimensional dynamic-ventilation CT: quantitative analysis of abnormal respiratory deformation of the lung in COPD

Purpose: Strain measurement is frequently used to assess myocardial motion in cardiac imaging. This study aimed to apply strain measurement to pulmonary motion observed by four-dimensional dynamic-ventilation computed tomography (CT) and to clarify motion abnormality in COPD. Materials and methods: Thirty-two smokers, including ten with COPD, underwent dynamic-ventilation CT during spontaneous breathing. CT data were continuously reconstructed every 0.5 seconds. In the series of images obtained by dynamic-ventilation CT, five expiratory frames were identified starting from the peak inspiratory frame (first expiratory frame) and ending with the fifth expiratory frame. Strain measurement of the scanned lung was performed using research software that was originally developed for cardiac strain measurement and modified for assessing deformation of the lung. The measured strain values were divided by the change in mean lung density to adjust for the degree of expiration. Spearman’s rank correlation analysis was used to evaluate associations between the adjusted strain measurements and various spirometric values. Results: The adjusted strain measurement was negatively correlated with FEV 1 /FVC ( ρ=- 0.52, P , 0.01), maximum mid-expiratory flow ( ρ=- 0.59, P , 0.001), and peak expiratory flow ( ρ=- 0.48, P , 0.01), suggesting that abnormal deformation of lung motion is related to various patterns of expiratory airflow limitation. Conclusion: Abnormal deformation of lung motion exists in COPD patients and can be quantitatively assessed by strain measurement using dynamic-ventilation CT. This technique can be expanded to dynamic-ventilation CT in patients with various lung and airway diseases that cause abnormal pulmonary motion.
University of Birmingham Ordering Spatio-Temporal Sequences to Meet Transition Constraints: Complexity and Framework

Time and space are fundamental concepts of study in Arti-ﬁcial Intelligence and, in particular, Knowledge Representation. In this paper, we investigate the task of ordering a temporal sequence of qualitative spatial conﬁgurations to meet certain transition constraints. This ordering is constrained by the use of conceptual neighbourhood graphs deﬁned on qualitative spatial constraint languages. In particular, we show that the problem of ordering a sequence of qualitative spatial conﬁgura-tions to meet such transition constraints is NP -complete for the the well known languages of RCC -8, Interval Algebra, and Block Algebra. Based on this result, we also propose a framework where the temporal aspect of a sequence of qualitative spatial conﬁgurations is constrained by a Point Algebra network, and again show that the enhanced problem is in NP when considering the aforementioned languages. Our results lie within the area of Graph Traversal and allow for many practical and diverse applications, such as identifying optimal routes in mobile robot navigation, modelling changes of topology in biological processes, and computing sequences of segmentation steps used in image processing algorithms.
NOVA University of Newcastle Research Online nova.newcastle.edu.au

—This paper proposes a generalized false data injection attack (FDIA)-based cyber topology attack capable of disturbing conventional transactions in the electricity market. The proposed attack aims to mislead customers pay higher electricity bills in the wholesale market by making small, undetected price deviations during each attack interval over an extended period. In this paper, the Australian electricity market trading mechanism is considered, in which an extended attack over a single day is proposed, span-ning totally 288 5-minute dispatch (attack) intervals. The proposed attack poses no security threat to the power system, affecting only the economic costs borne by customers. A defining feature of the proposed model is the joint consideration of both topology error processing and bad data detection constraints in order to ensure validity of the proposed attack. The rolling horizon optimization (RHO) technique is used to make appropriate adjustment to the attacker’s strategy considering the practical operating condition. A new metaheuristic optimization algorithm previously proposed by the authors, Natural Aggregation Algorithm (NAA), is used to find the corresponding attack strategies in this paper. Case studies on the IEEE-118 benchmark system are conducted to validate the proposed attack methodology.
Resource Allocation for D2D Communication With Multiple D2D Pairs Reusing Multiple Channels

In this letter, the goal is to maximize sum capacity of device-to-device (D2D) communication through a reuse of each radio channel by multiple D2D pairs while each D2D pair can access multiple channels. Since existing approaches cannot be easily extended to enable reuse of multiple channels by multiple D2D pairs in scenario with a high interference among the D2D pairs, we propose a novel resource allocation consisting of two phases. In an initial phase, all available channels are assigned by the Hungarian algorithm so that each channel is occupied by just one D2D pair. In a reuse phase, multiple D2D pairs are sequentially added to the individual channels according to their priority expressed by channel quality and received interference from already added D2D pairs. The proposal significantly outperforms existing solutions and reaches close to theoretical upper bound capacity despite a very low complexity of the proposed algorithm.
Beraprost sodium preconditioning prevents inflammation, apoptosis, and autophagy during hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury in mice via the P38 and JnK pathways

Objective: The goal of this study was to determine the effects of beraprost sodium (BPS) preconditioning on hepatic ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury and its underlying mechanisms of action. Materials and methods: Mice were randomly divided into sham, IR, IR + BPS (50 µ g/kg), and IR + BPS (100 µ g/kg) groups. Saline or BPS was given to the mice by daily gavage for 1 week before the hepatic IR model was established. Liver tissues and orbital blood were collected at 2, 8, and 24 hours after reperfusion for the determination of liver enzymes, inflammatory mediators, apoptosis- and autophagy-related proteins, key proteins in P38 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) cascades, and evaluation of liver histopathology. Results: BPS preconditioning effectively reduced serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels, improved pathological damage, ameliorated production of tumor necrosis factor- α (TNF- α ) and interleukin-1 β (IL-1 β ), and affected expressions of Bax, Bcl-2, Caspase-3, Caspase-8, and Caspase-9, microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3), Beclin-1, and P62. The protective effects of BPS preconditioning were associated with reduced P38 and JNK phosphorylation. Conclusion: BPS preconditioning ameliorated hepatic IR injury by suppressing inflammation, apoptosis, and autophagy, partially via inhibiting activation of the P38 and JNK cascades.
Constraints to participation in an outdoor orientation program

Constraints to Participation in an Outdoor Orientation Program Madeleine Hoden Outdoor orientation programs have shown success in helping students transition to college life. Research has shown that outcomes for students participating in a first year seminar include achieving higher grade point averages, higher persistence, measured by completion of a degree, and taking less time to complete a degree program. This study used Crawford, Godbey, and Jackson’s hierarchical model of structural, interpersonal and intrapersonal constraints to leisure. An online survey was used to measure constraints to participation in Adventure WV. Students tended to perceive structural constraints as the most common constraints. Results indicated that female students tended to perceive intrapersonal constraints more so than males. Students from out of state perceived more structural constraints than students from West Virginia. The constraint items reveal significant findings for male and female students, students with different socio-demographic backgrounds, and students from different parts of the United States. Recommendations were made to Adventure West Virginia to increase participation in an outdoor orientation program.
Scene illuminant estimation with binocular stereo matching

Scene illuminant estimation is an important issue in both computer vision and computer graphics. For example, shape from shading and photometric stereo algorithms need the light source directions as prior knowledge, segmentation algorithms can be improved if we know the information about the illumination sources, and we can combine synthetic imagery with a real scene in a seamless manner if the illumination information is available. In this dissertation, we presents a novel framework which estimates the scene illuminants from a pair of stereo images. The main idea of the estimation framework is based on the properties of the specular reflections presented in the scene. Using the stereo images as the input, we first reconstruct the 3D structure of the scene, then the lighting information is estimated by a novel ray retracing and matching process through the automatically detected and shape recovered specular regions. The major contributions of this work are fivefold. First, unlike most existing illuminant estimation algorithms which work with the assumption of one specific traditional type of the light source (e.g. directional light source or point light source), this dissertation introduces a general light source model. This general source model can be used to model all different types of light sources, which makes it possible to estimate multiple illuminants of different types within a single unified framework. Second, this dissertation presents an automatic sphere detecting algorithm and a probe-sphere based illuminant estimation method. The main advantage of this method is that the knowledge of location and size of the sphere is not necessary, which gives more flexibility to apply it in practical situations. Third, this work proposes a novel ray retracing and matching method which estimates not only the positions but also the area sizes of the light sources. Fourth, this work presents a novel stereo matching metric which is robust to the presence of specular reflections. The specular reflections are automatically detected during the matching process, and the 3D structure of the specular region can be recovered effectively. This work generalizes our illuminant estimation framework to arbitrary scenes having specular reflections, without the aid of a probe sphere. Fifth, the whole framework is image-based, no prior knowledge of the 3D structure of the scene is necessary which makes our framework more flexible and useful in real applications.
Australasian Conference on Information Systems Sabani et al . 2018 , Sydney , Australia E-Government Adoption Framework 1 A Conceptual Framework for the Adoption of E-Government in Indonesia

The rapid development of e-government across the world has opened the discussion on how governments can improve citizens’ adoption of their online public services. As a result, the adoption of e-government has become a fundamental issue that needs to be adequately addressed. This paper presents a conceptual framework for examining the adoption of e-government from the perspective of citizens. Through semi-structured interviews conducted in Indonesia, the conceptual framework was validated using thematic analysis, which indicates that performance expectancy, effort expectancy and social influence are interrelated critical factors for the adoption of e-government. In terms of academic contribution, this research provides a better understanding of the critical factors for the adoption of egovernment from the perspective of citizens. With regards to practical implications, this research provides the Indonesian government and public organisations with relevant suggestions on how the adoption of e-government can be improved.
Enhancement of Visuospatial Working Memory by Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Prefrontal and Parietal Cortices

Introduction: Previous studies have reported dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC) activation during the performance of spatial working memory (SWM), therefore this study aims to compare the effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) between these two areas. Methods: Fifty-four healthy right-handed students (27 women, 27 men; age=24.3±0.2 years) were randomly assigned to an anodal group (n=27) and a sham group (n=27), each of these groups was divided into F4 (representing right DLPFC) or P4 (representing right PPC) subgroups, respectively. A computerized Corsi block tapping (CBT) task was used to measure SWM. The tDCS intervention consisted of five daily sessions with a direct current of 1.5 mA for 15 minutes on the F4 or P4 area of the brain at 24-hour intervals. Results: Significant enhancement of the SWM span as well as a faster response was observed after anodal tDCS in both the anterior and posterior direction. Moreover, stimulation of the left DLPFC induced a faster reaction time compared to the right PPC. Conclusion: Stimulation DLPFC and PPC, as an element of the frontoparietal network, showed SWM enhancement, with the DLPFC being more affected. Our finding provides new evidence to compare the effect of stimulation on the two main activated cortical areas during visual SWM.
Correlation of physical function with the thickness of multiple muscles of the quadriceps femoris in community-dwelling elderly individuals

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to clarify the reference values of muscle thicknesses by age and to elucidate the association of muscle thickness with physical function in a large group of community-dwelling elderly individuals. Participants and methods: The muscle thicknesses of the rectus femoris (RF), vastus intermedius (VI), and quadriceps femoris (QF) in 777 of 831 enrolled elderly individuals were measured by ultrasonography, and physical function was measured using knee extension strength (KES), one-legged stance, walking, Timed Up and Go, and grip strength tests. Muscle thickness data were divided by sex and categorized into 5-year age groups. Differences in muscle thickness and KES among the age groups were examined, and correlations between muscle thickness and physical function test results were compared by age. The non-parametric independent two-sample Mann–Whitney U-test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Spearman’s correlation coefficients were used in the statistical analysis. Results: Thickness of the RF showed fewer significant differences among all groups and less decreases compared to thickness of the VI in older age groups, especially in men. Thicknesses of the RF, VI, and QF correlated with KES in almost all the thicknesses of muscles in the 65–69 and 70–74 years age groups in men and in almost all age groups in women. The decrease in muscle thicknesses and degree of correlations with aging were different between men and women. Conclusions: Reductions in the thicknesses of the muscles and KES differed by age group and sex. Our results could be used for prescribing exercise in community-dwelling elderly individuals of varying ages.
Sample Size Estimation : A Glimpse beyond Simple Formulas 1

1 From the Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University, Central Radiology Viewing Area, Room 117, 600 N Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD 21287. Received February 21, 2003; revision requested April 10; revision received July 18; accepted July 21. Address correspondence to the author (e-mail: jeng@jhmi.edu). © RSNA, 2004 Sample Size Estimation: A Glimpse beyond Simple Formulas
Functional Connectivity Estimated from Intracranial EEG Predicts Surgical Outcome in Intractable Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

This project aimed to determine if a correlation-based measure of functional connectivity can identify epileptogenic zones from intracranial EEG signals, as well as to investigate the prognostic significance of such a measure on seizure outcome following temporal lobe lobectomy. To this end, we retrospectively analyzed 23 adult patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) who underwent an invasive stereo-EEG (SEEG) evaluation between January 2009 year and January 2012. A follow-up of at least one year was required. The primary outcome measure was complete seizure-freedom at last follow-up. Functional connectivity between two areas in the temporal lobe that were sampled by two SEEG electrode contacts was defined as Pearson’s correlation coefficient of interictal activity between those areas. SEEG signals were filtered between 5 and 50 Hz prior to computing this correlation. The mean and standard deviation of the off diagonal elements in the connectivity matrix were also calculated. Analysis of the mean and standard deviation of the functional connections for each patient reveals that 90% of the patients who had weak and homogenous connections were seizure free one year after temporal lobectomy, whereas 85% of the patients who had stronger and more heterogeneous connections within the temporal lobe had recurrence of seizures. This suggests that temporal lobectomy is ineffective in preventing seizure recurrence for patients in whom the temporal lobe is characterized by weakly connected, homogenous networks. This pilot study shows promising potential of a simple measure of functional brain connectivity to identify epileptogenicity and predict the outcome of epilepsy surgery.
Genetic linkage among human cytomegalovirus glycoprotein N ( gN ) and gO genes , with evidence for recombination from congenitally and post-natally infected Japanese infants

Correspondence Naoki Inoue ninoue@nih.go. jp Department of Virology I, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan Department of Developmental Medical Sciences, Institute of International Health, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan Department of Pediatrics, Asahikawa Medical College, Hokkaido, Japan Department of Microbiology, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan