Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring Young Peoples’ Sexual Behaviours and the Underlying Factors in East Africa: A Review of Literature from Four Countries

This study is an attempt to examine the patterns of sexual behaviours and the underlying factors among young people in East Africa aged between 10 and 24 years from four countries of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. The study reviewed 60 relevant pieces of literature from electronic databases that have examined the objective understudy from different regions. Out of 60 studies reviewed, 31 had specific information from four selected countries in East Africa. The studies were published in English and peer-reviewed journals covering from 2010 through 2021. The current study followed a five-stage methodological framework and the reviewed studies were grouped according to the specific objectives of the current study. The findings that emerged from the review were classified into five main themes which are age at first sex, forms of sexual practices, number of sexual partners and condom use during pre-marital partnerships. The reviewed studies revealed that initiation of sexual debut among young people in East Africa occurs at younger and slightly different ages. Studies have depicted that young people in the region are involved in a wider range of sexual practices ranging from non-coital to coital. Moreover, the reviewed studies have also documented a high level of knowledge about condom availability with low and inconsistent use among adolescents in the region. Furthermore, the reviewed studies have depicted that many adolescents in these countries are engaging in multiple sexual partnerships. A multitude of factors has been reported to influence the prevalence of observed sexual behaviours among adolescents. The study concludes that young East African adolescents are engaging in risky sexual behaviours. Given their numerical strength and indeed the understanding that they are the future of the nations, it is recommended that countries in the region have to invest fully in their education and health by providing comprehensive sexual health education. This should be accompanied by supplying effective reproductive health services at their disposal. Failure on that, many young people in this region will continue to be predisposed to several sexual and reproductive health problems that would negatively shutter not only their dreams but also cripple the family well being and the nation’s development.
A transformed random effects model with applications

This paper proposes a transformed random effects model for analyzing non-normal panel data where both the response and (some of) the covariates are subject to transformations for inducing flexible functional form, normality, homoscedasticity, and simple model structure. We develop a maximum likelihood procedure for model estimation and inference, along with a computational device which makes the estimation procedure feasible in cases of large panels. We provide model specification tests that take into account the fact that parameter values for error components cannot be negative. We illustrate the model and methods with two applications: state production and wage distribution. The empirical results strongly favor the new model to the standard ones where either linear or log-linear functional form is employed. Monte Carlo simulation shows that maximum likelihood inference is quite robust against mild departure from normality. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Spinning detonation, cross-currents, and the Chapman–Jouguet velocity

Abstract Interestingly, the Chapman–Jouguet detonation velocity ( $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}D_{CJ}$ ) based on a one-dimensional and steady model compares well with the measured data. For the spinning detonation, in particular, this agreement is particularly notable, since the flow is highly three-dimensional and unsteady; perpendicular to the leading shock front, a transverse detonation wave (TDW) spins periodically. In the wake of this TDW, a secondary flow, called here the cross-current, appears which is orthogonal to the leading shock. Despite the presence of these cross-currents, the $D_{CJ}$ agreement remains remarkably satisfactory, and we investigate the reason for this, for spinning detonation in a tube. First, we focus on the origin of the cross-current. The cross-current, driven by the shock pressure, arises initially across a warped shock frontal surface, and both its sign and magnitude depend on the local slopes of the shock surface. The cross-current undergoes further pressure-driven transitions, with its magnitude eventually diminishing downstream and reducing the flow to a quasi-one-dimensional one. Second, regarding the unsteadiness, under the assumptions that the TDW spins at constant angular wave speed and the flow is steady in the frame rotating with it, the unsteady energy equation becomes integrable, resulting in the invariance of the so-called rothalpy. Also, in the integral forms of the mass and momentum balance, the unsteady terms drop out. Taken together, in the far field the governing equations are reduced to being one-dimensional and steady. From these the $D_{CJ}$ follows immediately, which appears to be the reason for the enduring usefulness of the $D_{CJ}$ . The results of the analysis are confirmed with computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Additionally, the area-averaged flow profiles are found to display more than a passing resemblance to the Zeldovitch–Von Neumann–Doering (ZND) model.
Combined Toxic Effects of BPA and Its Two Analogues BPAP and BPC in a 3D HepG2 Cell Model

Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of the most commonly used substances in the manufacture of various everyday products. Growing concerns about its hazardous properties, including endocrine disruption and genotoxicity, have led to its gradual replacement by presumably safer analogues in manufacturing plastics. The widespread use of BPA and, more recently, its analogues has increased their residues in the environment. However, our knowledge of their toxicological profiles is limited and their combined effects are unknown. In the present study, we investigated the toxic effects caused by single bisphenols and by the combined exposure of BPA and its two analogues, BPAP and BPC, after short (24-h) and prolonged (96-h) exposure in HepG2 spheroids. The results showed that BPA did not reduce cell viability in HepG2 spheroids after 24-h exposure. In contrast, BPAP and BPC affected cell viability in HepG2 spheroids. Both binary mixtures (BPA/BPAP and BPA/BPC) decreased cell viability in a dose-dependent manner, but the significant difference was only observed for the combination of BPA/BPC (both at 40 µM). After 96-h exposure, none of the BPs studied affected cell viability in HepG2 spheroids. Only the combination of BPA/BPAP decreased cell viability in a dose-dependent manner that was significant for the combination of 4 µM BPA and 4 µM BPAP. None of the BPs and their binary mixtures studied affected the surface area and growth of spheroids as measured by planimetry. In addition, all BPs and their binary mixtures studied triggered oxidative stress, as measured by the production of reactive oxygen species and malondialdehyde, at both exposure times. Overall, the results suggest that it is important to study the effects of BPs as single compounds. It is even more important to study the effects of combined exposures, as the combined effects may differ from those induced by single compounds.
Inhibition Analysis and High-Resolution Crystal Structure of Mus musculus Glutathione Transferase P1-1

Multidrug resistance is a significant barrier that makes anticancer therapies less effective. Glutathione transferases (GSTs) are involved in multidrug resistance mechanisms and play a significant part in the metabolism of alkylating anticancer drugs. The purpose of this study was to screen and select a lead compound with high inhibitory potency against the isoenzyme GSTP1-1 from Mus musculus (MmGSTP1-1). The lead compound was selected following the screening of a library of currently approved and registered pesticides that belong to different chemical classes. The results showed that the fungicide iprodione [3-(3,5-dichlorophenyl)-2,4-dioxo-N-propan-2-ylimidazolidine-1-carboxamide] exhibited the highest inhibition potency (ΙC50 = 11.3 ± 0.5 μΜ) towards MmGSTP1-1. Kinetics analysis revealed that iprodione functions as a mixed-type inhibitor towards glutathione (GSH) and non-competitive inhibitor towards 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene (CDNB). X-ray crystallography was used to determine the crystal structure of MmGSTP1-1 at 1.28 Å resolution as a complex with S-(p-nitrobenzyl)glutathione (Nb-GSH). The crystal structure was used to map the ligand-binding site of MmGSTP1-1 and to provide structural data of the interaction of the enzyme with iprodione using molecular docking. The results of this study shed light on the inhibition mechanism of MmGSTP1-1 and provide a new compound as a potential lead structure for future drug/inhibitor development.
In-Depth Analysis of the Re-Emergence of Respiratory Syncytial Virus at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Germany in the Summer of 2021 after the Alleviation of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions Due to the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic

Following the extensive non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and behavioral changes in the wake of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, an interseasonal rise in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases was observed in Germany in 2021. The aim of this study was to characterize the local molecular epidemiology of RSV infections in comparison to the three pre-pandemic seasons. Additionally, clinical data were retrieved from patient charts to determine the clinical significance of RSV infections. RSV detections peaked in calendar week 40 of 2021, 18 weeks earlier than the usual peak observed in the three pre-pandemic seasons. Sequence analysis revealed a close phylogenetic relatedness regardless of the season of origin. A significantly higher amount of pediatric cases (88.9% of all cases, p < 0.001) was observed for season 2021/2022. For the pediatric cases, significant differences were observed for an increased number of siblings in the household (p = 0.004), a lower rate of fever (p = 0.007), and a reduced amount of co-infections (p = 0.001). Although the mean age of the adult patients was significantly younger (47.1 vs. 64.7, p < 0.001), high rates of comorbidities, lower respiratory tract infections and intensive care unit admissions prevailed. The NPIs in the wake of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic had a tremendous impact on the epidemiologic characteristics and seasonality of RSV and warrant further epidemiologic studies of this important pathogen.
Trend in high tropospheric ozone levels. Application to paris monitoring sites

This article describes the extreme value analysis of tropospheric ozone level exceedances collected at seven monitoring sites in the Paris metropolitan area during May–September over the 14-year period 1988–2001. The purpose of the study is to establish whether observed trends over time in ozone exceedances of a high threshold are real or if they are the result of meteorological changes affecting the conditions under which ozone is generated. A non-homogeneous Poisson process (NHPP), with parameters depending on meteorological covariates, temporal trend and sites factor, is used to model regionally the exceedance times and sizes of daily maxima of ozone over a high threshold. We highlight the importance of non-linear methods to detect the non-linearities. *E-mail: lise.bellanger@math.univ.nantes.fr
Time Hopping: An Efficient Technique for Reliable Coexistence of TSCH-Based IoT Networks

Escalation in the use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices gives rise to the number of networks operating in the license-free 2.4-GHz frequency band. This prepares the ground for networks to experience interference from coexisting networks and thus performance degradation. Time-slotted channel hopping (TSCH), as an operational medium access mode of the IEEE 802.15. 4 technology, was introduced to ensure the reliability of IoT networks when they undergo coexistence. It uses frequency hopping as a protective strategy against long-term packet losses due to interference. However, when several independent TSCH networks coexist, they are prone to interfere with one another. In extreme scenarios, coexisting TSCH networks may block links of one another for an extended duration of time, leading to application failure. In this article, we propose a novel technique called time hopping to secure the reliability of coexisting TSCH networks. The developed technique synchronously and periodically alters the timing of nodes within a TSCH network to avoid coexisting TSCH networks from getting stuck in extreme coexistence scenarios and long-term continuous collisions. We evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed technique through extensive simulations. The results clearly show that the proposed time hopping technique substantially improves the worst case internetwork collision ratio, with as much as 50% improvement in some tested scenarios. The implementation of the technique is very simple, with almost no communication or computation overhead for the constrained wireless nodes; it is done and tested on real nodes for proof of concept.
Liposomal Forms of Fluoroquinolones and Antifibrotics Decorated with Mannosylated Chitosan for Inhalation Drug Delivery

The severe course of COVID-19 leads to the long-terming pulmonary diseases, such as bacterial pneumonia and post-COVID-19 pulmonary fibrosis. Thus, the essential task of biomedicine is a design of new effective drug formulations, including those for inhalation administration. In this work, we propose an approach to the creation of lipid–polymer delivery systems for fluoroquinolones and pirfenidone based on liposomes of various compositions decorated with mucoadhesive mannosylated chitosan. A generalizing study on the physicochemical patterns of the interactions of drugs with bilayers of various compositions was carried out, and the main binding sites were identified. The role of the polymer shell in the stabilization of vesicles and the delayed release of the contents has been demonstrated. For the liquid–polymer formulation of moxifloxacin, a prolonged accumulation of the drug in lung tissues was found after a single endotracheal administration to mice, significantly exceeding the control intravenous and endotracheal administration of the drug.
Interannual and Interdecadal Variability of the Number of Cold Days in Hong Kong and Their Relationship with Large-Scale Circulation

During the past decade (2004/05‐2013/14), the number of cold days in Hong Kong (NCD), as a proxy of the temperature of southern China, appeared to have increased from the historical minimum, in contrast to a remarkable decline in the entire postwar period. This is related to the recent apparent changes in the largescale circulation upstream and downstream of the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) region: the increase in Ural blocking (UB) that enhances cold advection from the polar region and reinforces the Siberian high and the decrease in a western Pacific (WP)-like index that corresponds to increasing meridional gradient of geopotential height over the EAWM region. Overall, UB and WP account for 26.4% of the interannual (#8yr) variance and 83.7% of the decadal (.8yr) variance of NCD for the period 1948/49‐2013/14, indicating that further study could lead to improvement in the prediction of NCD.
Two-Dimensional Shape and Distal Force Estimation for the Continuum Robot Based on Learning From the Proximal Sensors

Accurate shape sensing and distal contact force estimation of the flexible continuum robots remains challenging due to critical hysteresis profiles for modeling and the difficulties on sensor integration at their distal ends. This article proposes a learning-based approach to predict distal-tip interaction information by solely utilizing the sensory measurements from the proximal end. A workflow including multilayer perception (MLP) and long short-term memory (LSTM) was investigated to simultaneously estimate and predict the whole shape and distal contact force. Experiments were carried out on a typical single-section continuum robot to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The proposed method could achieve high accuracy of root mean square error (RMSE) = 0.26 N for force prediction and a relative error of less than 1.2% for shape estimation. Notably, the LSTM-based method could precisely identify the force hysteresis profile. In summary, the proposed framework could be applied to the cable-drive continuum robotic systems for precise contact force and shape feedback without requiring sensors at the distal tip.
Machine Learning on Prediction of Relative Physical Activity Intensity Using Medical Radar Sensor and 3D Accelerometer

Background: One of the most critical topics in sports safety today is the reduction in injury risks through controlled fatigue using non-invasive athlete monitoring. Due to the risk of injuries, it is prohibited to use accelerometer-based smart trackers, activity measurement bracelets, and smart watches for recording health parameters during performance sports activities. This study analyzes the synergy feasibility of medical radar sensors and tri-axial acceleration sensor data to predict physical activity key performance indexes in performance sports by using machine learning (ML). The novelty of this method is that it uses a 24 GHz Doppler radar sensor to detect vital signs such as the heartbeat and breathing without touching the person and to predict the intensity of physical activity, combined with the acceleration data from 3D accelerometers. Methods: This study is based on the data collected from professional athletes and freely available datasets created for research purposes. A combination of sensor data management was used: a medical radar sensor with no-contact remote sensing to measure the heart rate (HR) and 3D acceleration to measure the velocity of the activity. Various advanced ML methods and models were employed on the top of sensors to analyze the vital parameters and predict the health activity key performance indexes. three-axial acceleration, heart rate data, age, as well as activity level variances. Results: The ML models recognized the physical activity intensity and estimated the energy expenditure on a realistic level. Leave-one-out (LOO) cross-validation (CV), as well as out-of-sample testing (OST) methods, have been used to evaluate the level of accuracy in activity intensity prediction. The energy expenditure prediction with three-axial accelerometer sensors by using linear regression provided 97–99% accuracy on selected sports (cycling, running, and soccer). The ML-based RPE results using medical radar sensors on a time-series heart rate (HR) dataset varied between 90 and 96% accuracy. The expected level of accuracy was examined with different models. The average accuracy for all the models (RPE and METs) and setups was higher than 90%. Conclusions: The ML models that classify the rating of the perceived exertion and the metabolic equivalent of tasks perform consistently.
SOLPS-ITER simulations of a vapour box design for the linear device Magnum-PSI

A vapour box (VB) is a physical device currently being considered to reduce the high heat and particle fluxes typically impacting the divertor in tokamaks. This system usually consists of a series of boxes that retains neutral particles to increase the amount of collision events with the impacting plasma. The neutral particles come from recycling and recombination of the plasma, gas puffing inside the box and by the evaporation of a liquid metal, typically Li or Sn. Currently, an VB is being constructed for testing in the linear plasma generator Magnum-PSI, operated at DIFFER. Its modular design will allow for open (not enclosing the target) and closed (enclosing the target) configurations, as well as evaporating a liquid metal to create a vapour cloud inside the box. The experiments carried out with this device will investigate its capabilities to reduce the plasma flux towards the target. This work presents a numerical study performed with SOLPS-ITER about the effectiveness of the current VB design in its open configuration to retain neutrals and its effect on the plasma beam properties. This is a first step before validation against experiments and studying closed configurations to ensure that the VB can successfully operate in a wide range of plasma parameters. Simulations show that the VB is capable of retaining neutrals and reducing fluxes to the target without requiring additional gas puffing in High and Low plasma flux scenarios. When lithium is evaporated from inside the box, the hydrogen plasma is completely extinguished and replaced by a low temperature Li plasma with lower flux. The fraction of Li and Li+ transported upstream the VB is three orders of magnitude below the amount evaporated form the central box, as most of the lithium is condensed in the side boxes and another small portion (two orders of magnitude below the amount evaporated) is deposited on the target. The VB design in its open configuration can mitigate incoming plasma peak heat flux by 0.6 MWm−2 , which represents a fraction of 75% and 81% for the High and Low flux scenarios. This effect is expected to be higher when a closed configuration is employed, which could result in a significant reduction of heat fluxes on the divertor of tokamaks once that this design is extrapolated to the toroidal geometry, with just a minimal amount of Li and Li+ reaching the core.
Analysis of co-occurrence networks with clique occurrence information

Most of co-occurrence networks only record co-occurrence relationships between two entities, and ignore the weights of co-occurrence cliques whose size is bigger than two. However, this ignored information may help us to gain insight into the co-occurrence phenomena of systems. In this paper, we analyze co-occurrence networks with clique occurrence information (CNCI) thoroughly. First, we describe the components of CNCIs and discuss the generation of clique occurrence information. And then, to illustrate the importance and usefulness of clique occurrence information, several metrics, i.e. single occurrence rate, average size of maximal co-occurrence cliques and four types of co-occurrence coefficients etc., are given. Moreover, some applications, such as combining co-occurrence frequency with structure-oriented centrality measures, are also discussed.
Modelling, Simulation and Visualization of Heat EquationDynamics

Aims/ objectives: To showmodelling, simulation and visualization of the dynamics of heat equation in a rod. Other PDE models and Numerical approaches are also discussed. Study design: This paper is simply about how to use MATLAB software to solve PDE model. Methodology: A Class of PDE was uniquely modelled, simulated, and visualized using certain algorithm and MATLAB routine for Elliptic/Hyperbolic PDE. Different diagrams showing the nature of the solution are discussed. Results:The nature of the PDE governing heat dynamic in a rod are shown in the figures. Other PDE models are also presented. Conclusion: A simple demostration of numerical simulation of PDE governing the popular heat equation is presented. Three other PDE models are considered. The results herein can be adapted and applied to other more complex PDE models.