Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diversifying Zambia’s Copperbelt economy with post-copper era in mind: lessons from the case study of the Black Country in England (UK)’s West Midlands

Most developing countries that are rich in natural resources and are dependent on such resources have generally experienced poor economic performance. A strategy that has been useful in improving the economic performance of such economies is economic diversification. However, employing successful economic diversification strategies has been a challenge for many African Countries. Zambia is one of the African countries that have not been successful in diversifying their economies. In its case, Zambia has not satisfactorily diversified its economy from copper mining. With the conditions in the Copperbelt region indicating that the era of copper mining in this region is fast approaching its end, it has become even more urgent to identify and implement measures for diversifying this regional economy in preparation for this eventuality. This paper sets out by discussing Zambia’s economic diversification record at the national level since its independence in the early 1960s before it turns to discussing the diversification record of the Copperbelt region. The discussion reveals that on relative basis, Zambia’s diversification record at the national level is better, although it still needs improvement, and that at the Copperbelt regional level the record is poor and urgently needs improvement because of the nature of conditions prevailing in the region. The paper then uses a case study of the Black Country region in the United Kingdom to extract lessons for diversifying the Copperbelt region from its success record in economic diversification that saved the region from the depression that followed the collapse of coal mining on which its economy had depended for a long time.
Knee Osteoarthritis and Its Related Issues: Patients’ Perspective

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a common chronic joint disease that results in pain and disability in many people. Cultural practice may influence patients’ views about their condition, its related issues and management. The aim of our study was to explore the perspective about knee OA and its related issues among Malaysian patients with knee OA. Twelve patients diagnosed with knee OA (8 females and 4 males) attending physiotherapy sessions at a University Hospital, mean age (SD): 67.1(9.4) years and median visual analog scale score of 5/10 participated in this qualitative study. One to one indepth interviews were conducted, audio recorded and later transcribed verbatim. Three main themes were identified from the transcribed data; knee pain and its’ related issues (reason and aggravating factors of knee pain, coping strategies), impact of knee pain (impact on daily activities and emotions) and physiotherapy management (effects and expectations of physiotherapy, compliance and adherence towards home exercises). Most participants expressed that their knee pain was aggravated by certain movements that had an effect on their daily activities namely squatting. The findings also suggested that physiotherapy management was perceived as secondary prevention rather than a cure. Findings from this study provides information about the perceptions and related issues of patients with knee OA. This information may help health professionals in tailoring patient-centered care and provide better management. DOI : http://dx.doi. org. /10.17576/JSKM-2018-23
Social-Institutional Structures That Matter: An Exploratory Analysis of Sexual/Gender Minority Status and Income in Japan

While most previous studies examining the effect of sexual orientation on earnings rely on lesbian women, gay men, and their heterosexual counterparts in Western societies, this paper argues that focusing on income disparities within sexual and gender minorities as well as social-institutional structures of a society is indispensable to the study of sexuality and gender stratification. Using the Survey on LGBT Issues in the Workplace Environment 2015, one of the only existing large-scale surveys on sexual and gender minorities in Japan, this study explores the association between sexual and/or gender minority status and income in Japan. The results show that there is a negative association between being a sexual and/or gender minority and income among both designated females at birth and designated males at birth. The results suggesting the lesbian premium found in Western economies are not observed in Japan. In addition, the findings indicate that the processes through which sexuality and gender stratification operates depend on various categories of sexual and gender minorities.
DEPENDENCE OF YKL-40 mRNA TISSUE LEVELS ON KRAS MUTATION STATUS IN COLORECTAL CANCER - PRELIMINARY RESULTS

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most deadly cancers worldwide. Despite the introduction of targeted molecular therapies in the last 10 years, overall survival has not increased substantially. CRC progression is accompanied by numerous genetic and epigenetic alterations and dysregulation of several signaling pathways, among which activation of Wnt and inactivation of TGF-β signaling. The molecular heterogeneity of CRC, however, hinders the molecular subtyping of CRC and thus the identification of common biomarkers for this pathology. The only three well established biomarkers for advanced-colorectal-cancer drug treatment are negative biomarkers. These are mutations in the genes KRAS, NRAS and BRAF which determine resistance to therapy with anti-EGFR antibodies. YKL-40 is a chitin-binding glycoprotein that has been shown to play a role in extracellular tissue remodeling, angiogenesis, cell migration and inflammation. Increased serum levels of this protein have been detected in patients with CRC but the role of YKL-40 in this neoplastic disease has not been studied extensively and the precise function of YKL-40 in CRC progression is not known. In the present study we determined the KRAS mutation status and measured the mRNA levels of YKL-40 of 24 patients with sporadic CRC. In addition, we assessed the association between these two parameters by statistical analysis. We are the first to show that in CRC YKL-40 mRNA levels are dependent on the presence of KRAS mutations, being prominently elevated in the wild type background. Our results indicate the potential role of YKL-40 as a target molecule for CRC therapy.
Genetic relationship between clinical and environmental Vibrio cholerae isolates in Tanzania: A comparison using repetitive extragenic palindromic (REP) and enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC) fingerprinting approach

The bacterium causing cholera, Vibrio cholerae, is a marine organism and coastal waters are important reservoirs of the organism. There are more than 200 serogroups of V. cholerae, of which serogroups O1 and O139 are known to be the causative agent of the cholera. The main virulent factor in V. cholerae is cholera toxin gene (ctx) that is found from the epidemic O1 and O139 strains, but may also be found in some strains other than O1 and O139 (non-O1 and non-O139). In this study, 48 V. cholerae strains isolated from three estuaries of Tanzania and 20 stool isolates were characterized in terms of their serogroups and possession of ctx gene and then compared using two PCR based fingerprinting methods: Enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC) sequences and repetitive extragenic palindromic (REP) sequences. All the stool isolates and twelve of the environmental isolates belonged to serogroup O1 while the remaining 36 environmental isolates were defined as non-O1/O139. The entire stool isolates and 21 of the environmental isolates had the cholera toxin gene (ctxA). Both ERIC and REP methods gave almost unique fingerprints for each strain and confirmed high genetic heterogeneity among the different cholera strains. Higher similarity was observed in REP-PCR (70-100%) than in ERIC-PCR (62-100%), indicating different discriminative power of these methods. Environmental isolates clustered together with clinical isolates at ≥90% similarity level suggesting their great potential of producing pathogenic strains that may be the causative agents for the frequent observed cholera outbreaks particularly along the coast. Key words: Vibrio cholerae, enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC)-PCR, repetitive extragenic palindromic (REP)-PCR, estuaries of Tanzania.
Comparison of patient outcomes in academic medical centers with and without value analysis programs

Background: Value analysis is the science of balancing the mandate to deliver high-quality clinical outcomes with the necessity to drive down costs in order to thrive in the challenging economics of health care. This study compared average length of stay, direct cost, morbidity, and mortality across the cardiology, cardiovascular, neuroscience, and orthopedic service lines, in academic medical centers with and without value analysis programs (VAPs). The basic question was, “Do academic medical centers with VAPs have lower average length of stay, better morbidity and mortality rates, and lower overall supply costs? ” Methods and results: The clinical data base/resource manager (CDB/RM) of the University HealthSystem Consortium was utilized as secondary data for this study. Reports from the CDB/ RM were generated from 2006 to 2011. Continuous variable differences across VAP status were examined using Wilcoxon two-sample tests. Primary analyses used multilevel linear mixed model methods to estimate the effects of VAPs on primary outcomes (average length of stay, cost, morbidity, mortality). Association components of the linear mixed models incorporated random effects at the hospital level and robust, Huber-White, standard errors were calculated. There was no significant difference for average length of stay, direct cost, morbidity, and mortality between academic medical centers with and without VAPs. However, outcomes were not noted to be substantially worse. Conclusion: Numerous case studies reveal that aggressively active VAPs do decrease hospital cost. Also, this study did not find a negative impact on patient care. Further studies are needed to explore the benefits of value analysis and its effect on patient outcomes
Evaluation of atmospheric nitrogen inputs into marine ecosystems of the North Sea and Baltic Sea – part B: contribution by shipping and agricultural emissions

Abstract. Atmospheric nitrogen deposition constitutes 20 % to 40 % of the nitrogen input into the North Sea and the Baltic Sea contributing to phytoplankton growth and inducing eutrophication. Major contributors to the atmospheric nitrogen emissions in the vicinity of marine water bodies are shipping and agricultural activities. The contribution of individual emission sectors to the biogeochemical nitrogen cycle needs to be evaluated in order to assess improvement of marine water quality through emission reductions of these sectors. Hence, one focus of this modeling study was to evaluate the contribution of total, shipping-related, and agricultural-related nitrogen deposition to dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), particulate organic nitrogen (PON), chlorophyll-a. A second focus of this study was to compare both water bodies with respect to the accumulation and processing of nitrogen from the mentioned sources. These two research questions were evaluated by a modeling study with the coupled physical-biogeochemical model HBM-ERGOM. The fate of atmospheric deposition in total and of atmospheric nitrogen deposition from two individual sources – shipping and agricultural activities – was traced in the marine ecosystem by a tagging method. In the Baltic Sea it was found that the atmospheric nitrogen deposition contributes up to 50 % to the DIN pool at individual locations during summer. On annual average, 13 % are contributed. Approximately 5 % of DIN originated from agricultural activities and 2 % from the shipping sector. In the western and central Baltic Sea, the shipping sector contributed nearly 5 %. The pattern was similar for the agricultural share indicating that these two sources have a higher relevance in these regions. In the Baltic Sea, the atmospheric nitrogen shares of chlorophyll-a and bioavailable PON were 19 % and 18 %, respectively, and, hence, higher than of DIN. In contrast in offshore regions only, atmospheric nitrogen shares to DIN, PON, and chlorophyll-a were on a similar level compared to each other (20 % to 35 %). This difference is caused by high DIN loads and phosphorus limitation in coastal regions of the Baltic Sea. In the North Sea, the atmospheric contribution to DIN was on a similar level but showed considerable spatial variability caused by a north-south gradient. The shipping contribution to DIN was slightly lower (approximately 1.4 %) and the agricultural contribution higher (6 %) compared to the Baltic Sea. The atmospheric contribution to chlorophyll-a and bioavailable PON was considerably lower than in the Baltic Sea and on the level of the atmospheric DIN shares, which is a result of short residence times of nutrients in the North Sea compared to the Baltic Sea. The shipping and agricultural contributions to PON and chlorophyll-a were also lower.
Seismic structures of the 154–160 Ma oceanic crust and uppermost mantle in the Northwest Pacific Basin

We present detailed P-wave velocity models for the Northwest Pacific Basin which were produced in 154–160 Ma at a high seafloor spreading half-rate of >8 cm/yr and have not been appreciably deformed by tectonic or igneous activity since then. We carried out wide-angle seismic experiments on two crossing survey lines which are respectively parallel and perpendicular to paleomagnetic lineations. The seismic crustal models for both lines are almost identical and homogeneous along these lines. The crust consists of an upper layer (Layer 2) with a P-wave velocity Vp = 2.5–6.8 km/s and a thickness of 1.3–2.2 km, and a lower layer (Layer 3) with a velocity of 6.8–7.1 km/s and a thickness of 4.6–5.9 km. These characteristics indicate that the crust beneath the survey line has a standard oceanic crustal structure. The structure of the uppermost mantle of the line parallel to the seafloor spreading direction exhibits considerable Vp heterogeneity within 5 km immediately below the Moho and shows an unusually high Vp of 8.5–8.7 km/s. The Pn velocity for the perpendicular line is 7.9 km/s, and the magnitude of the velocity anisotropy for the uppermost mantle amounts to a large value of 7–10%.
Adapting to life: ocean biogeochemical modelling and adaptive remeshing

Abstract. An outstanding problem in biogeochemical modelling of the ocean is that many of the key processes occur intermittently at small scales, such as the sub-mesoscale, that are not well represented in global ocean models. This is partly due to their failure to resolve sub-mesoscale phenomena, which play a significant role in vertical nutrient supply. Simply increasing the resolution of the models may be an inefficient computational solution to this problem. An approach based on recent advances in adaptive mesh computational techniques may offer an alternative. Here the first steps in such an approach are described, using the example of a simple vertical column (quasi-1-D) ocean biogeochemical model. We present a novel method of simulating ocean biogeochemical behaviour on a vertically adaptive computational mesh, where the mesh changes in response to the biogeochemical and physical state of the system throughout the simulation. We show that the model reproduces the general physical and biological behaviour at three ocean stations (India, Papa and Bermuda) as compared to a high-resolution fixed mesh simulation and to observations. The use of an adaptive mesh does not increase the computational error, but reduces the number of mesh elements by a factor of 2–3. Unlike previous work the adaptivity metric used is flexible and we show that capturing the physical behaviour of the model is paramount to achieving a reasonable solution. Adding biological quantities to the adaptivity metric further refines the solution. We then show the potential of this method in two case studies where we change the adaptivity metric used to determine the varying mesh sizes in order to capture the dynamics of chlorophyll at Bermuda and sinking detritus at Papa. We therefore demonstrate that adaptive meshes may provide a suitable numerical technique for simulating seasonal or transient biogeochemical behaviour at high vertical resolution whilst minimising the number of elements in the mesh. More work is required to move this to fully 3-D simulations.
The Influence of Perceived Social Support on Self-Management and Wellbeing among (Type1) Diabetic Ado- lescent Females

Adolescents are struggling to find their own identity separate from their families. Many of the diabetic - related tasks can interfere with the adolescent's drive for independence and peer acceptance. Friends, families are an important source of support for adolescents with diabetes and can affect their wellbeing. This study aimed at eva- luating the influence of perceived social support on self-management and wellbeing among (type 1) diabetic adoles- cent females. Subject and methods: All adolescent females contact the diabetic clinic at Al Dawadmi , SHARQ primary health care center , Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , from the first of July to the end of September 2011 were included in the study . Their number were (106) diabetic females. An interview questionnaire sheet , perceived social support scale and self-management instrument as well as wellbeing scale were used to collect the required data . Results: the study revealed a correlation between perceived level of family social support and some biosocial va- riables including female over weight, ,family income ,positive family history, irregular follow-up and some asso- ciated symptoms(P<0.05). 60.4%, 81.1%, 43.4% of studied female diabetic adolescents were have low level of fami- ly's social support, low level of friend's social support and low level of wellbeing respectively. The frequency of self management adherence items among studied group was differ. Most of diabetic adolescents females, with low level of family social support were have incompliance related to diet regimen, medication, blood glucose testing and ex- ercise. But related to friend's, incompliance, it included diet, exercise and un-prescribed substances . There were a relationship between perceived family, friends social support of the studied (type I) diabetic adolescents female and their wellbeing measures as well as total wellbeing status. It is concluded that, diabetes mellitus needs continuing self management medical care to prevent long-term complications . Social support including family and friends play a major role in the compliance and self-management among diabetic female adolescent ,as well as wellbeing status. (Wafaa Hassan El-Soreety and Nabila El-sayed Saboula. The Influence of Perceived Social Support on Self- Management and Wellbeing among (Type1) Diabetic Adolescent Females) Journal of American Science 2011;
Interactions of Twisted Ω-loops in a Model Solar Convection Zone

This study aims at investigating the ability of strong interactions between magnetic field concentrations during their rise through the convection zone to produce complex active regions at the solar surface. To do so, we perform numerical simulations of buoyant magnetic structures evolving and interacting in a model solar convection zone. We first produce a 3D model of rotating convection and then introduce idealized magnetic structures close to the bottom of the computational domain. These structures possess a certain degree of field line twist and they are made buoyant on a particular extension in longitude. The resulting twisted Ω-loops will thus evolve inside a spherical convective shell possessing large-scale mean flows. We present results on the interaction between two such loops with various initial parameters (mainly buoyancy and twist) and on the complexity of the emerging magnetic field. In agreement with analytical predictions, we find that if the loops are introduced with opposite handedness and same axial field direction or the same handedness but opposite axial field, they bounce against each other. The emerging region is then constituted of two separated bipolar structures. On the contrary, if the loops are introduced with the same direction of axial and peripheral magnetic fields and are sufficiently close, they merge while rising. This more interesting case produces complex magnetic structures with a high degree of non-neutralized currents, especially when the convective motions act significantly on the magnetic field. This indicates that those interactions could be good candidates to produce eruptive events like flares or CMEs.
Advances in the studies of Arabidopsis thaliana vacuolar Na~+/H~+ antiporter

The Arabidopsis thaliana AtNHX1 gene encodes a vacuolar Na + /H + antiporter that is important in plant salt-tolerance. In this paper, the basic structure, function and mechanism of AtNHX1 were summarized, and it was expected to act as an effective salt-tolerance gene in plant engineering. The other family members of Arabidopsis thaliana vacuolar Na + /H + antiporters are also discussed here.
The light element abundance distribution in NGC 5128 from planetary nebulae

Context. Planetary nebulae in the nearest large elliptical galaxy provide light element abundances difficult or impossible to measure by other means in a stellar system very different from the galaxies in the Local Group. Aims. The light element abundance pattern from many planetary nebulae (PNe) at a range of radial distances was measured from optical spectroscopy in the elliptical galaxy NGC 5128, which hosts the radio source Centaurus A. The PN abundances, in particular for oxygen, and the PN progenitor properties are related to the galaxy stellar properties. Methods. PNe in NGC 5128 covering the upper 4 mag of the luminosity function were selected from a catalogue. VLT FORS1 multi-slit spectra in blue and red ranges were obtained over three fields at 3, 9 and 15 � projected radii (4, 8 and 17 kpc, for an adopted distance of 3.8 Mpc) and spectra were extracted for 51 PNe. Accurate electron temperature and density diagnostics are usually required for abundance determination, but were not available for most of the PNe. Cloudy photoionization models were run to match the spectra by a spherical, constant density nebula ionized by a black body central star. He, N, O and Ne abundances with respect to H were determined and, for brighter PN, S and Ar; central star luminosities and temperatures are also derived. Results. Emission line ratios for the 51 PNe are entirely typical of PN such as in the Milky Way. The temperature sensitive [O III]4363 A line was weakly detected in 10 PNe, both [O II] and [O III] lines were detected in 30 PNe, and only the bright [O III]5007 A line was detected in 7 PN. For 40 PNe with Cloudy models, from the upper 2 mag of the [O III] luminosity function, the most reliably estimated element, oxygen, has a mean 12 +log(O/H) of 8.52 with a narrow distribution. No obvious radial gradient is apparent in O/H over a range 2−20 kpc. Comparison of the PN abundances with the stellar population, from the spectra of the integrated stellar light on the multi-slits and existing photometric studies, suggests an average metallicity of [Fe/H] = −0. 4a nd [O/Fe] = 0.25. Conclusions. The masses of the PN central stars in NGC 5128 deduced from model tracks imply an epoch of formation even more recent than found for the minority young population from colour magnitude studies. The PN may belong to the young tail of a recent, minor, star formation episode or derive from other evolutionary channels, perhaps involving binary stars.