Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CT findings of severe novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19): A case report of Heilongjiang Province, China

Abstract 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19, previously known as novel coronavirus pneumonia) was first discovered in December 2019 and spread widely in China and all over the world in 2020. The initial symptoms of most patients include fever, cough, and fatigue. Dyspnea may occur with the progress of the disease, and acute respiratory distress syndrome may occur in severe cases. The CT manifestations of this disease are mainly ground-glass opacity (GGO) in the lung, which may be accompanied by patchy consolidation, and fibrous changes may appear in the lung at the later stage of the disease. Combined with typical clinical and imaging findings and positive nucleic acid test results, the disease can be diagnosed. We report the first case of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Heilongjiang Province, China. The patient was seriously ill, who felt that he suffered from fever, fatigue, cough, and expectoration and sought medical treatment, with a history of contact with Wuhan. The leukocyte count was normal, and the lymphocyte count was decreased. CT imaging showed large GGO and partial patchy consolidation in both lungs. The patient recovered and was discharged after 26 days of treatment. This study is helpful for early diagnosis and timely clinical management by mastering the typical imaging of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Studies on the cloacal flora of three species of free‐living British reptile

Cloacal swabs from seven free-living Grass snakes (Nutrix natrix), six adders (Vipera berus) and 17 slow-worms (Anguis fragilis) were cultured for aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. The number of species isolated was 18, 16 and 29, respectively, and the most prevalent organisms were entero-cocci (Grass snakes) and Escherichia coli (adders and slow-worms). There were surprisingly few anaerobes. Bacteria with zoonotic potential included Arizona (Salmonella) arizonae from four slow-worms and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis from an adder.
Conceptualising and testing the relationship between actual and perceived motor performance: A cross-cultural comparison in children from Australia and Germany

ABSTRACT Previous studies investigating the relationship between motor skill, physical activity and fitness in children have not thoroughly considered the role of self-perception. Therefore, the study aim was to test a theoretical framework, which considered both actual and perceived motor skill as well as actual and perceived fitness. Potential moderating effects of sex and country were considered. Data on motor skill, fitness, as well as self-perception of motor skill and fitness were collected from 145 Australian children and 214 German children (age range 7 to 10 years). For actual motor skill and fitness, mean differences for sex, age and country were found. For perceived motor performance (perceived motor skill and perceived fitness) no mean differences were found for age. Path analyses were performed. The final model showed significant relations between actual performance (object control skill, fitness) and perceived performance (object control skill, fitness). All model paths had low to moderate regression weights with the lowest relationship reported between actual and perceived fitness. Sex and country showed no effects. This integrated approach has led to a better understanding of the relationship between children’s perceived and objective performance, and cultural differences within them.
DYNAMICS OF SHORT-TERM VARIATION IN POLLEN FORAGING BY HONEY BEES

A pollen trap was placed at the entrance of two bee colonies on 10 days during a 25 days period in Lazarim, 10 km south of Lisbon, Portugal. On each day, pollen samples were collected from 9.30 to 11.30 h (morning sample) and 11.30 to 13.30 h (midday sample). A total of 49 pollen types were identified in 31 pollen samples, but only the 20 most abundant pollen types were included in the ordination analysis with the software package, CANOCO. There was significant difference between the number of pollen types encountered in morning samples and midday samples. Abundance of each pollen type per sample was transformed into proportional pollen volume. Three significant trends were outlined in the ordination analysis of the qualitative composition of pollen samples: (1) a gradual change in the importance of pollen types over time, (2) a significant difference between morning and midday samples, (3) a significant difference between colonies. Ambient temperature, relative air humidity, size of the pollen sample, and number of pollen types in the pollen samples did not explain a significant part of the total variance among pollen samples. The conducted ordination analysis allowed us to outline temporal patterns in the pollen foraging behavior on colony level.
A Bayesian method to estimate variant-induced disease penetrance

A major challenge emerging in genomic medicine is how to assess best disease risk from rare or novel variants found in disease-related genes. The expanding volume of data generated by very large phenotyping efforts coupled to DNA sequence data presents an opportunity to reinterpret genetic liability of disease risk. Here we propose a framework to estimate the probability of disease given the presence of a genetic variant conditioned on features of that variant. We refer to this as the penetrance, the fraction of all variant heterozygotes that will present with disease. We demonstrate this methodology using a well-established disease-gene pair, the cardiac sodium channel gene SCN5A and the heart arrhythmia Brugada syndrome. From a review of 756 publications, we developed a pattern mixture algorithm, based on a Bayesian Beta-Binomial model, to generate SCN5A penetrance probabilities for the Brugada syndrome conditioned on variant-specific attributes. These probabilities are determined from variant-specific features (e.g. function, structural context, and sequence conservation) and from observations of affected and unaffected heterozygotes. Variant functional perturbation and structural context prove most predictive of Brugada syndrome penetrance.
Students’ Occupational Aspirations: Can Family Relationships Account for Differences Between Immigrant and Socioeconomic Groups?

Immigrant background and disadvantaged socioeconomic background are two key predictors of poorer school achievement in Europe. However, the former is associated with higher while the latter is associated with lower aspirations. This study asks whether family relationships account for this difference. Data come from 5,926 students in Germany and Sweden, eliciting indicators of family background and relationships at age 14–15 years (2011) and occupational aspirations 1 year later. High aspirations were found among students of non‐European background and students with higher parental occupational status. Structural equation models showed that while immigrant families had greater parental aspirations and encouragement, family cohesion, and parental monitoring, only parental aspirations mediated the effects of family background.
Interaction with Medical Venues in Megacities

With the vast amounts of data that is being generated today, come new possibilities of understanding patient mobility. In this study, of urban mobility in ten mega cities worldwide, we try to understand the relationship between patients' environment and behaviour with regards to venues that provide some kind of medical care. We analyze longitudinal mobility data set from ten of the world's megacities and investigate urban dynamics and travel patterns in terms of interaction with medical centers. Our goal is to investigate universal patterns and gain an understanding of where people are coming from when they visit such venues and where they go afterwards as well how travel patterns progress throughout the day.
Walking in the Light: How History of Physical Activity, Sunlight, and Vitamin D Account for Body Fat—A UK Biobank Study

The high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and obesity drives the need for successful strategies that elevate vitamin D levels, prevent adipogenesis, and stimulate lipolysis. This study provides a theoretical model to evaluate how physical activity (PA) and sunlight exposure influence serum vitamin D levels and regional adiposity. This study hypothesized a posteriori that sunlight is associated with undifferentiated visceral adiposity by increasing the ratio of brown to white adipose tissue.
Modificación de los parámetros inmunitarios hemolinfáticos en el ostión del norte (Argopecten purpuratus Lamarck, 1819) afectados por el cuadro de retracción del manto

The scallop Argopecten purpuratus is characterized by variations in some immunity parameters of the hemolymph when faced with the pathology known as mantle retraction. A relationship between the hemocytic reaction of encapsulation and this pathology was established with light and electronic transmission microscopy. The quantita- tive comparison of the number of hemocytes, the phagocytic capacity of these cells in the presence of yeasts, and the cytotoxicity of the hemolymph in specimens with and without mantle retraction showed that the hemocytes and serum of scallops with mantle retraction respond differently. When mantle retraction is observed, the number of circular he- mocytes decreases. In exchange, the serum increases its cytotoxic capacity when faced with erythrocytes. On the other hand, when the yeasts were previously incubated in this serum, the phagocytic capacity of the hemocytes decreased. The results show that the pathology known as mantle retraction in the scallop determines a significant variation in cellular immunity and the humoral components of the hemolymph, and an encapsulation response in the presence of coalescent bodies in the mantle.
Cultural Differences in Bias? Origin and Gender Bias in Pre-Trained German and French Word Embeddings

Smart applications often rely on training data in form of text. If there is a bias in that training data, the decision of the applications might not be fair. Common training data has been shown to be biased towards different groups of minorities. However, there is no generic algorithm to determine the fairness of training data. One existing approach is to measure gender bias using word embeddings. Most research in this field has been dedicated to the English language. In this work, we identified that there is a bias towards gender and origin in both German and French word embeddings. In particular, we found that real-world bias and stereotypes from the 18th century are still included in today’s word embeddings. Furthermore, we show that the gender bias in German has a different form from English and there is indication that bias has cultural differences that need to be considered when analyzing texts and word embeddings in different languages.
Quantification of internal dosimetry in PET patients: individualized Monte Carlo vs generic phantom‐based calculations

Purpose The purpose of this work is to calculate individualized dose distributions in patients undergoing 18F‐FDG PET/CT studies through a methodology based on full Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and PET/CT patient images, and to compare such values with those obtained by employing nonindividualized phantom‐based methods. Methods We developed a MC‐based methodology for individualized internal dose calculations, which relies on CT images (for organ segmentation and dose deposition), PET images (for organ segmentation and distributions of activities), and a biokinetic model (which works with information provided by PET and CT images) to obtain cumulated activities. The software vGATE version 8.1. was employed to carry out the Monte Carlo calculations. We also calculated deposited doses with nonindividualized phantom‐based methods (Cristy–Eckerman, Stabin, and ICRP‐133). Results Median MC‐calculated dose/activity values are within 0.01–0.03 mGy/MBq for most organs, with higher doses delivered especially to the bladder wall, major vessels, and brain (medians of 0.058, 0.060, 0.066 mGy/MBq, respectively). Comparison with values obtained with nonindividualized phantom‐based methods has shown important differences in many cases (ranging from −80% to + 260%). These differences are significant (p < 0.05) for several organs/tissues, namely, remaining tissues, adrenals, bladder wall, bones, upper large intestine, heart, pancreas, skin, and stomach wall. Conclusions The methodology presented in this work is a viable and useful method to calculate internal dose distributions in patients undergoing medical procedures involving radiopharmaceuticals, individually, with higher accuracy than phantom‐based methods, fulfilling the guidelines provided by the European Council directive 2013/59/Euratom.
The forkhead box transcription factor-2 (Foxa2) and lung disease

Foxa2 [The forkhead box transcription factor-2; also known as HNF3B(hepatocyte nuclear factors-3), or TCF3B(transcription factor-3b) ] [Costa, 1989 #64], is a member of the Forkhead family of nuclear transcription factors that is highly expressed in respiratory epithelial cells lining conducting airways and in alveolar type Ⅱ cells in the development and mature lung. Foxa2 plays critical roles in lung development, which is required for normal lung maturation, surfactant protein and lipid synthesis, epithelial differentiation, and cross talking between epithelium and innate immune. Foxa2 can determine gene expression and cell fate in the lung, and is required for the suppression of Th2 immunity, mucus production, and goblet cell metaplasia in the developing lung in a process determined in part by its regulation of the Cysteinyl leukotriene (CysLT) pathway. Recent studies have implicated that Foxa2 is a suppressor of lung cancer. This review will summarize the role of Foxa2 in lung development, pulmonary diseases, and also the possible signaling pathways regulated by Foxa2.
Influencing Factors of the Informal Investment in Central Europe

Abstract This paper examines the influencing factors of becoming informal investors in two groups of Central European countries: the innovation-driven (Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia and Slovakia) and efficiency-driven economies (Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Romania), based on the GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) database from 2014. According to the results, in the studied innovation-driven economies of Central Europe the probability of becoming an informal investor is higher for those, who know other entrepreneurs, who are confident in their own entrepreneurial skills, who are in the higher percentile of the household income, who are older and male. The results also suggest that in the studied efficiency-driven economies of Central Europe the probability of becoming an informal investor is higher for those who are confident in the own entrepreneurial skills, who know other entrepreneurs, who are in the higher percentile of the household income, who are older and male. The probability is decreased, if somebody is employed full-time. The study emphasises similarities instead of differences regarding the analysed aspect between the two groups of countries.
Antifungal Susceptibility of Clinical Yeast Isolates from a Large Canadian Reference Laboratory and Application of Whole-Genome Sequence Analysis To Elucidate Mechanisms of Acquired Resistance

To understand the epidemiology and susceptibility patterns of yeast infections in Ontario, Canada, we examined 4,715 clinical yeast isolates submitted to our laboratory for antifungal susceptibility testing from 2014 to 2018. Candida albicans was the most frequently submitted species (43.0%), followed by C. glabrata (21.1%), C. parapsilosis (15.0%), and C. tropicalis (6.2%). Twenty-three other Candida spp. ABSTRACT To understand the epidemiology and susceptibility patterns of yeast infections in Ontario, Canada, we examined 4,715 clinical yeast isolates submitted to our laboratory for antifungal susceptibility testing from 2014 to 2018. Candida albicans was the most frequently submitted species (43.0%), followed by C. glabrata (21.1%), C. parapsilosis (15.0%), and C. tropicalis (6.2%). Twenty-three other Candida spp. (11.6%) and 4 non-Candida species (3.1%) were also identified. Few changes in species distribution were observed from 2014 to 2018, but the total numbers of yeast isolates sent for testing increased, with an annual 7.4% change. According to CLSI clinical breakpoints, resistance rates remained low overall. Moderate fluconazole resistance was noted among C. glabrata (9%), C. parapsilosis (9%), and C. tropicalis (12%) isolates. Only 1% of C. glabrata isolates were resistant to caspofungin, micafungin, and anidulafungin. Whole-genome sequence analysis confirmed 11 cases of acquired resistance to azoles or echinocandins via in-host evolution. There were mutations in the gene for the catalytic subunit of 1,3-beta-glucan synthase-mediated echinocandin resistance in 3 of 3 C. albicans strains, 3 of 4 C. glabrata strains, and 1 strain of C. tropicalis. Azole resistance was likely caused by a homozygous ERG3 mutation in 1 C. albicans strain and a previously undescribed chromosomal-duplication event involving ERG11 and TAC1 orthologs in 1 C. tropicalis strain. While antifungal resistance rates remain low among yeast isolates in Ontario, ongoing surveillance is necessary to inform empirical therapy for optimal patient management and to guide antifungal stewardship.
Towards the Optimization of Process Parameters for Impact Strength of Natural Fiber Reinforced Composites: Taguchi Method

Abstract This paper presents an investigation of impact strength of sponge gourd, coir, and jute fibers reinforced epoxy resin-based composites. Impact strength of specimens, made of composites with various proportions of wt% ratio of resin and hardener, wt% of resin and hardener, wt% ratio of sponge gourd and jute, wt% ratio of sponge gourd and coir, was measured. Design of experiment was done by Taguchi method using four control factors with three levels. Effect of the above control factors on impact strength was examined and the best combinations of control factors are advised. Confirmation test was performed by using this combination and the percentage of contribution of the above factors on impact strength was investigated by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Contour and interaction plots provide helpfully examines to explore the combined influences of different control factors on output characteristics. The regression equation represents a mathematical model that relates control factors with impact strength.
Changes in stand structure in uneven-aged lodgepole pine stands impacted by mountain pine beetle epidemics and fires in central British Columbia

We examined the development of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl.) in uneven-aged stands in the Interior Douglasfir (IDF) biogeoclimatic zone of central of British Columbia (B.C.), which are currently undergoing a massive outbreak of the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins; MPB). Using historical ecological approaches, dendrochronology, and stand measurement data, we determined the roles MPB and fire disturbances have played in the ecological processes of lodgepole pine in an Interior Douglas-fir zone. We found that multiple mixed-severity fires created patchy uneven-aged stands dominated by lodgepole pine. Since fire suppression in the 20 th century, multiple MPB disturbances have maintained the structural complexity of the stands and favoured regeneration of lodgepole pine in the understory despite the absence of fire, resulting in self-perpetuating multi-age lodgepole pine stands. Analysis of the stand structures remaining after multiple MPB outbreaks showed that, even with high overstory mortality, the sample stands contained several MPB-initiated cohorts, consisting of younger and smaller-diameter lodgepole pine. These surviving lodgepole pine layers, which are less susceptible to beetle, will provide important ecological legacies, and could play an important role in the mid-term timber supply chain. We concluded that, in the absence of fire, the MPB plays a more frequent role in directing stand dynamics and structure in uneven-aged lodgepole pine stands resulting in selfperpetuating complex stands in the central interior. We compared and contrasted these findings with those obtained in “even-aged” lodgepole pine stands, also in the Interior Douglas-fir zone in the southern interior, which were investigated in an earlier study.
The effect of phytase and carbohydrase on ileal amino acid digestibility in monogastric diets: complimentary mode of action?

As the simultaneous use of carbohydrases and phytases gains momentum it is imperative that formulators understand the magnitude of additivity of effect to allow for appropriate modification to diet nutrient balance. Though carbohydrases and phytases are often thought of as pronutrients with energy, calcium and phosphorus value, within the scientific literature there are dozens of papers on the effect of these enzymes on ileal amino acid digestibility coefficients. The effect of enzymes on ileal amino acid digestibility is instructive as patterns of response allow speculation as to mode of action and likely additivity of admixtures. A review of the scientific literature has revealed that whilst xylanases and phytases may be considered to be broadly additive in effect, on an individual amino acid basis this effect ranges from sub-additive (e.g. threonine) to synergistic (e.g. arginine). Importantly, the mean response to both xylanase and phytase for ileal amino acid digestibility can be predicted (R2=0.65 and 0.56 respectively) by polynomial equations based only on the nutritional value of the control diet. The fact that control diets with an inherently high digestibility respond poorly to enzymes explains why the use of a second enzyme will likely yield a lesser response when used on top of another, since the former has already improved digestibility characteristics. The implications of these responses, as well as suggested mechanisms of action, are discussed within practical diet formulation constraints.