Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A prospective cohort for the investigation of alteration in temporal transcriptional and microbiome trajectories preceding preterm birth: a study protocol

Introduction Preterm birth (PTB) results from heterogeneous influences and is a major contributor to neonatal mortality and morbidity that continues to have adverse effects on infants beyond the neonatal period. This protocol describes the procedures to determine molecular signatures predictive of PTB through high-frequency sampling during pregnancy, at delivery and the postpartum period. Methods and analysis Four hundred first trimester pregnant women from either Myanmar or Thailand of either Karen or Burman ethnicity, with a viable, singleton pregnancy will be enrolled in this non-interventional, prospective pregnancy birth cohort study and will be followed through to the postpartum period. Fortnightly finger prick capillary blood sampling will allow the monitoring of genome-wide transcript abundance in whole blood. Collection of stool samples and vaginal swabs each trimester, at delivery and postpartum will allow monitoring of intestinal and vaginal microbial composition. In a nested case–control analysis, perturbations of transcript abundance in capillary blood as well as longitudinal changes of the gut, vaginal and oral microbiome will be compared between mothers giving birth to preterm and matched cases giving birth to term neonates. Placenta tissue of preterm and term neonates will be used to determine bacterial colonisation as well as for the establishment of coding and non-coding RNA profiles. In addition, RNA profiles of circulating, non-coding RNA in cord blood serum will be compared with those of maternal peripheral blood serum at time of delivery. Ethics and dissemination This research protocol that aims to detect perturbations in molecular trajectories preceding adverse pregnancy outcomes was approved by the ethics committee of the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand (Ethics Reference: TMEC 15–062), the Oxford Tropical Research Ethics Committee (Ethics Reference: OxTREC: 33–15) and the local Tak Province Community Ethics Advisory Board. The results of this cooperative project will be disseminated in multiple publications staggered over time in international peer-reviewed scientific journals. Trial registration number NCT02797327; Pre-results.
A Clustered-Based Categorization of Millennials in their Technology Behavior

ABSTRACT There is an increasing interest for millennials; however, to date, millennials’ segmentations regarding their technology behavior are scarce. This study addresses the following questions: “Are there segments within this generation group regarding their digital technology behavior? ”. And if so: “Are there variances in the way that millennial segments use digital technology? ”; and further: “What are the main differences among millennial segments regarding their technology behavior? ”. Data from a sample of 707 millennials were analyzed through principal components and cluster analysis. Then, millennials’ segments were profiled using a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) analysis. Findings revealed that not every millennial has the same technology use and behavior. Moreover, there are five clustered-based segments of millennials regarding their technology behavior: technology devotees, technology spectators, circumspects, technology adverse users, and productivity enhancers. This study contributes with a detailed perspective of how different millennial segments use digital technology.
Acceptability and feasibility pilot randomised controlled trial of medical skin camouflage for recovery of women prisoners with self-harm scarring (COVER): the study protocol

Introduction Self-harm in prison is a major public health concern. Less than 5% of UK prisoners are women, but they carry out more than a fifth of prison self-harm. Scars resulting from self-harm can be traumatising and stigmatising, yet there has been little focus on recovery of women prisoners with self-harm scarring. Medical skin camouflage (MSC) clinics treat individuals with disfiguring skin conditions, with evidence of improved well-being, self-esteem and social interactions. Only one community study has piloted the use of MSC for self-harm scarring. Methods and analysis We describe an acceptability and feasibility pilot randomised controlled trial; the first to examine MSC for women prisoners who self-harm. We aim to randomise 20–25 women prisoners to a 6-week MSC intervention and 20–25 to a waitlist control (to receive the MSC after the study period). We aim to train at least 6–10 long-term prisoners with personal experience of self-harm to deliver the intervention. Before and after intervention, we will pilot collection of women-centred outcomes, including quality of life, well-being and self-esteem. We will pilot collection of self-harm incidents during the intervention, resources used to manage/treat self-harm and follow-up of women at 12 weeks from baseline. Data on recruitment, retention and dropout will be recorded. We aim for the acceptability of the intervention to prison staff and women prisoners to be explored in qualitative interviews and focus groups. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval for COVER has been granted by the North East–York Research Ethics Committee (REC) for phases 1 and 2 (reference: 16/NE/0030) and West of Scotland REC 3 for phases 3 and 4 (reference: 16/WS/0155). Informed consent will be the primary consideration; it will be made clear that participation will have no effect on life in prison or eligibility for parole. Due to the nature of the study, disclosures of serious self-harm may need to be reported to prison officials. We aim for findings to be disseminated via events at the study prison, presentations at national/international conferences, journal publications, prison governor meetings and university/National Health Service trust communications. Trial registration number NCT02638974; Pre-results.
Association between hepatitis C virus infection and osteoporotic fracture risk among postmenopausal women: a cross-sectional investigation in Taiwan

Purpose Early low bone mass is a risk factor for osteoporotic fractures associated with multiple factors, including menopause and chronic liver diseases. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) also plays a major role in chronic liver disease and has many extrahepatic consequences, such as decreased bone mineral density (BMD). This study aimed to examine the hypothesis that HCV seropositivity is independently associated with menopausal BMD loss. Methods This community-based, cross-sectional study was based in two rural townships in Yunlin County, Taiwan. A total of 636 menopausal women aged 45–80 years who underwent annual health checks were included. Viral markers of HCV, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and fracture risk assessment tool (FRAX) scores were measured. Logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the association between various predictors and the presence of low BMD. Results The participants (median age: 65 years) had a HCV seropositivity rate of 32.2%. BMD was significantly lower in the HCV-seropositive participants in different anatomic locations than in the seronegative individuals (lumbar spine: −1.5 vs −1.1; total hip: −0.9 vs −0.6; femoral neck: −1.2 vs −1.0; p<0.05). HCV-seropositive subjects had higher rates of major osteoporotic fractures (11.3%±7.6%vs 9.0±6.8%; p<0.001) and hip fractures (3.4%±4.7%vs 2.3±4.9%; p=0.006) and a higher risk of lower BMD (osteopenia and osteoporosis) based on a multivariable regression analysis (adjusted OR: 1.8; 95% CI 1.16 to 2.81; p=0.009). Conclusions HCV infection may be an independent risk factor for menopausal BMD loss and fractures predicted by FRAX.
The Impact of Geographic Location on the Subjective Assessment of System Usability

ABSTRACT Marketing researchers use geography to identify specific user groups for studies to more effectively describe their potential customer base. Since usability professionals often recruit users employing similar selection criteria as their marketing peers, the use of geographic information might also be relevant when selecting usability test participants. In total, 3,168 participants from across the United States rated the usability of different hardware, software, and web-based products using the System Usability Scale (SUS). SUS scores were compared across geographic divisions to determine if usability assessments differ by location. SUS scores were also compared across rural and urban areas to determine if usability assessment scores change with population density. There was a lack of evidence to support significant differences in usability scores across both US geographic areas and zones of population density. The findings suggest that people make similar system usability assessments regardless of the area of the United States in which they live.
Software-Defined Networking Switches for Fast Single-Link Failure Recovery

In this paper, we consider IP fast recovery from single-link failures in a given network topology. The basic idea is to replace some existing routers with a designated switch. When a link fails, the affected router will send all the affected traffic to the designated switch (through pre-configured IP tunnels), which will deliver the affected traffic to its destination without using the failed link. The goal of the approach is to achieve faster failure recovery than traditional routing protocols that employ reactive computing upon link failures. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) switches can serve as the designated switches because they can flexibly redirect affected traffic to other routes, instead of only to the shortest paths in the network. However, SDN switches are very expensive. Our objective is to minimize the number of SDN switches needed and to guarantee that the network can still recover from any single-link failure. For networks with uniform link costs, we show that using normal non-SDN switches with IP tunneling capability as designated switches can guarantee recovery from any single-link failure. For networks with general link costs, we find that not all single-link failures can be recovered by using non-SDN switches as designated switches; by using SDN switches only when necessary, we can reduce the total number of SDN switches needed compared to an existing work. We conduct extensive simulations to verify our proposed approaches.
A multi-scale VR navigation method for VR globes

ABSTRACT The combination of virtual reality (VR) and virtual globes – VR globes – enables users to not only view virtual scenes in an immersive manner at any location on Earth but also directly interact with multi-scale spatial data using natural behaviors. It is an important direction for the future development of 3D GIS and geovisualization. However, current VR navigation are primarily based on small real spaces. For virtual globes, which are 3D multi-scale globe environment, the realization of VR navigation in the multi-scale virtual globe space within a limited real space is the first problem that needs to be addressed. A multi-scale VR navigation method that consists of two algorithms is proposed in this study. The first algorithm maps the real space to the virtual globe space and connects the VR user with the VR viewpoint. The second algorithm is an octree structure-based viewpoint correction algorithm that is proposed to correct the location of the moving VR viewpoint in real time. The proposed method is validated by experimentation. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method enables a VR user to interactively view the 3D multi-scale globe environment and lays a foundation for human–computer interaction in VR globes.
The Negative Effect of Product Image Inconsistency on Product Overviews During the Online Product Search

ABSTRACT During the product search phase in online retail, consumers typically review product overviews, where they must decide whether to further investigate a product from the assortment and which products to assess. These product overviews are in practice frequently inconsistent in their image characteristics, that is, in terms of their product background (on white background vs. with contextual background) and/or product orientation (differing presentation angles of the products). Four studies in an e-commerce setting establish the negative effect of inconsistent product presentation in product overviews on assortment evaluations and choice satisfaction, a result of decreased fluency. In contrast, the present investigation also offers initial evidence refuting the idea that inconsistency in presentation of single products increases their choice for closer inspection through increased salience. This implies that online retailers should present their product assortments within each category as consistently as possible, specifically in terms of product background, as the negative effect of background inconsistency is larger (–6 percent to –19 percent) than of product orientation inconsistency (–3 percent to –6 percent). Further, we establish consistency as another antecedent of fluency.
The Impact of Interrupting Nurses on Mental Workload in Emergency Departments

ABSTRACT The primary objective of this study was to investigate the impact of interrupting nurses on mental workload in emergency departments by using a Natural Goals Operators Methods and Selection rules Language (NGOMSL) simulation model. The model advanced our understanding of how interrupting nurses influenced their mental workload. A time study was conducted to collect emergency nurses’ behaviors related to clinical activities at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. After that, the NGOMSL simulation model was developed based on the time study data. Compared to the non-interruption scenario, the result showed that the nurse’s mental workload was 2.04 times higher during patient care activities and 4.72 times higher during EMR charting in the interruption scenario. The simulation results indicated that the NGOMSL model could demonstrate the impact on mental workload caused by interruptions in emergency departments. The findings of this study will contribute to developing a new way to measure nursing mental workload caused by the interruptions.
Longitudinal associations of gross motor development, motor milestone achievement and weight-for-length z score in a racially diverse cohort of US infants

Objectives To investigate longitudinal associations between gross motor development, motor milestone achievement and weight-for-length z scores in a sample of infants. In a secondary aim, we explored potential bidirectional relationships, as higher weight-for-length z scores may impede motor development, and poor motor development may lead to obesity. Design The design was an observational birth cohort. Setting We used data from the Nurture study, a birth cohort of predominately black women and their infants residing in the Southeastern USA. Participants 666 women enrolled their infants in Nurture. We excluded infants with missing data on exposure, outcome or main covariates, leaving a total analytic sample of 425 infants. Primary outcome The outcome was weight-for-length z score, measured when infants were 3, 6, 9 12 months. Results Among infants, 64.7% were black, 18.8% were white and 16.9% were other/multiple race. Mean (SD) breastfeeding duration was 17.6 (19.7) weeks. Just over one-third (38.5%) had an annual household income of < $20 000. After adjusting for potential confounders, higher motor development score was associated with lower weight-for-length z score (−0.004; 95% CI −0.001 to –0.007; p=0.01), mainly driven by associations among boys (−0.007; 95% CI −0.014 to –0.001; p=0.03) and not girls (0.001; 95% CI −0.005 to 0.008; p=0.62). Earlier crawling was the only milestone associated with a lower weight-for-length z score at 12 months (−0.328; 95% CI −0.585 to 0.072; p=0.012). However, this association appeared to be driven by male infants only (−0.461; 95% CI −0.825 to −0.096; p=0.01). Weight-for-length z score was unrelated to subsequent motor development score and was thus not bidirectional in our sample. Conclusions Higher motor development score and earlier crawling were associated with lower subsequent weight-for-length z score. However, this was primary true for male infants only. These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence suggesting that delayed motor development may be associated with later obesity.
Effects of Children’s Trait Emotional Intelligence on Digital Game-Based Learning

ABSTRACT Previous studies have shown that trait emotional intelligence (EI) is an important factor affecting children’s learning performance in physical instruction settings. However, there have been very few studies exploring the effects of children’s high- or low-trait EI levels on both gaming performance and learning performance in digital game-based learning environments. Therefore, in this study, we developed a game-based English learning environment to investigate how different levels of trait EI would affect children’s gaming performance and learning performance. A total of 51 third-grade elementary school students participated in this study. The students’ trait EI was measured by a modified version of the Trait EI Questionnaire-Child Form. The students’ gaming performance was evaluated by the achievement of badges, and their learning performance was assessed by a paper-based examination after playing the game. The collected data were analyzed using Pearson correlation analysis and independent samples t tests. The results showed that there were significant correlations between trait EI, gaming performance, and learning performance; this implies that trait EI had a significant relationship with both gaming performance and learning performance. Moreover, the results showed that there was a significant correlation between the gaming performance and learning performance for those students with low-trait EI. However, the results showed that gaming performance and learning performance were not significantly correlated for the high-trait EI students. A subsequent analysis showed that the high-trait EI students’ gaming performance and learning performance were significantly better than those with low-trait EI.
Optimized Adaptive Local Iterative Filtering Algorithm Based on Permutation Entropy for Rolling Bearing Fault Diagnosis

The characteristics of the early fault signal of the rolling bearing are weak and this leads to difficulties in feature extraction. In order to diagnose and identify the fault feature from the bearing vibration signal, an adaptive local iterative filter decomposition method based on permutation entropy is proposed in this paper. As a new time-frequency analysis method, the adaptive local iterative filtering overcomes two main problems of mode decomposition, comparing traditional methods: modal aliasing and the number of components is uncertain. However, there are still some problems in adaptive local iterative filtering, mainly the selection of threshold parameters and the number of components. In this paper, an improved adaptive local iterative filtering algorithm based on particle swarm optimization and permutation entropy is proposed. Firstly, particle swarm optimization is applied to select threshold parameters and the number of components in ALIF. Then, permutation entropy is used to evaluate the mode components we desire. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, the numerical simulation and experimental data of bearing failure are analyzed.
A New Entropy-Based Atrial Fibrillation Detection Method for Scanning Wearable ECG Recordings

Entropy-based atrial fibrillation (AF) detectors have been applied for short-term electrocardiogram (ECG) analysis. However, existing methods suffer from several limitations. To enhance the performance of entropy-based AF detectors, we have developed a new entropy measure, named EntropyAF, which includes the following improvements: (1) use of a ranged function rather than the Chebyshev function to define vector distance, (2) use of a fuzzy function to determine vector similarity, (3) replacement of the probability estimation with density estimation for entropy calculation, (4) use of a flexible distance threshold parameter, and (5) use of adjusted entropy results for the heart rate effect. EntropyAF was trained using the MIT-BIH Atrial Fibrillation (AF) database, and tested on the clinical wearable long-term AF recordings. Three previous entropy-based AF detectors were used for comparison: sample entropy (SampEn), fuzzy measure entropy (FuzzyMEn) and coefficient of sample entropy (COSEn). For classifying AF and non-AF rhythms in the MIT-BIH AF database, EntropyAF achieved the highest area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) values of 98.15% when using a 30-beat time window, which was higher than COSEn with AUC of 91.86%. SampEn and FuzzyMEn resulted in much lower AUCs of 74.68% and 79.24% respectively. For classifying AF and non-AF rhythms in the clinical wearable AF database, EntropyAF also generated the largest values of Youden index (77.94%), sensitivity (92.77%), specificity (85.17%), accuracy (87.10%), positive predictivity (68.09%) and negative predictivity (97.18%). COSEn had the second-best accuracy of 78.63%, followed by an accuracy of 65.08% in FuzzyMEn and an accuracy of 59.91% in SampEn. The new proposed EntropyAF also generated highest classification accuracy when using a 12-beat time window. In addition, the results from time cost analysis verified the efficiency of the new EntropyAF. This study showed the better discrimination ability for identifying AF when using EntropyAF method, indicating that it would be useful for the practical clinical wearable AF scanning.
The Development of In-Service Mathematics Teachers' Integration of ICT in a Community of Practice: Teaching-in-Context Theory

The goal of the present research is to describe five lower-secondary in-service mathematics teachers' development of ICT (Information Communication Tech-nology) integration in their teaching as a result of mentoring pre-service teachers who practiced the integration of technology in their mathematics teaching. This is done through the combination of Schoenfeld's Teaching-in-Context theory and Goos' community of practice framework. To collect the research data, the re-searchers used semi-structured interviews with the in-service teachers at the be-ginning and end of the academic year. In addition, several observations of lessons taught by the in-service teachers with the assist of pre-service teachers were rec-orded towards the end of the intervention. The research findings indicate that the community of practice context can serve as an escalator that supports the decision of in-service mathematics teachers to integrate ICT in their mathematics teaching. However, these decisions were conditioned by taking care of the students' formal procedural mathematical knowledge.
Use of Gamification Applications in Science Education

In this research, the impact of gamification applications in science education on the science learning motivation of students has been determined and the opinions of students and parents on applications have been discussed. A total of 16 students and their parents partic-ipated in the study. The research was conducted on 4th grade primary students and em-ployed a mixed method consisting of both qualitative and quantitative elements. The moti-vation of students for learning science was obtained through quantitative data, whereas the opinions of students and parents on the usage of gamification applications were gathered through qualitative data. In the study, it was found that applications in science education created a positive impact on the learning motivation of students for science. Additionally, the research results also displayed that students and parents have positive opinions on the usage of gamification in science education.