Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Medical students’ perceptions of LGBTQ+ healthcare in Singapore and the United Kingdom

Introduction Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual and gender minority (LGBTQ+) individuals have an increased scope of healthcare needs and face many barriers to accessing healthcare. However, LGBTQ+ healthcare education remains scarce, and students’ understanding of LGBTQ+ healthcare remains largely uncharacterised. This study investigated the knowledge of and attitudes toward LGBTQ+ healthcare among medical students in Singapore and the United Kingdom (UK), two culturally different countries. Methods Medical students in two medical schools, one in Singapore and the other in the UK, completed self-administered cross-sectional surveys using multiple-choice, Likert scale, and free-text questions to explore their ideas, concerns, and expectations about LGBTQ+ healthcare education within their medical curricula. Results From 330 responses, students’ knowledge levels were moderate overall, with pronounced gaps in certain areas, including terminology, sexual health, and conversion therapy. Deficiencies in knowledge were significantly greater among students in Singapore compared to the UK (p < 0.001), whilst LGBTQ+ students and non-religious students had more positive knowledge and attitudes than students not identifying. At least 78% of students had positive attitudes towards LGBTQ+ individuals, but 84% had not received LGBTQ+-specific medical education. Although junior UK students were more satisfied with the adequacy of teaching by their medical school’s incorporation of LGBTQ+ inclusive teaching in a newer curriculum, qualitative analyses suggested that students in both countries wanted to receive more training. Students further suggested improvements to the medical curriculum to meet their needs. Conclusion Students in both schools lacked understanding of commonly-used terminology and topics such as sexual healthcare despite affirming attitudes towards LGBTQ+ healthcare. Although sociolegal contexts may affect students’ perspectives, differences were less than thought, and students were equally keen to provide affirmative care to their patients. They emphasised a need for more formal teaching of LGBTQ+ healthcare professions to overcome healthcare disparities in these communities.
Cellular Senescence in Cardiovascular Diseases: From Pathogenesis to Therapeutic Challenges

Cellular senescence (CS), classically considered a stable cell cycle withdrawal, is hallmarked by a progressive decrease in cell growth, differentiation, and biological activities. Senescent cells (SNCs) display a complicated senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), encompassing a variety of pro-inflammatory factors that exert influence on the biology of both the cell and surrounding tissue. Among global mortality causes, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) stand out, significantly impacting the living quality and functional abilities of patients. Recent data suggest the accumulation of SNCs in aged or diseased cardiovascular systems, suggesting their potential role in impairing cardiovascular function. CS operates as a double-edged sword: while it can stimulate the restoration of organs under physiological conditions, it can also participate in organ and tissue dysfunction and pave the way for multiple chronic diseases under pathological states. This review explores the mechanisms that underlie CS and delves into the distinctive features that characterize SNCs. Furthermore, we describe the involvement of SNCs in the progression of CVDs. Finally, the study provides a summary of emerging interventions that either promote or suppress senescence and discusses their therapeutic potential in CVDs.
Dénomination des oscillations würmiennes

This is an attempt to incite the different specialists to clarify the terms used for the wurmian oscillations. What we are intending to show out is the confusion caused by the numbering of Wurm and the numbering of loess, as well as the confusion araised by the use of the same terms for different periods. We have been highly particular about respecting the dates and correspondances proposed by the authors themselves, though we know how uncertain the correlations still are. We would like this table to be especially considered as a base for a discussion in establishing wurmian chronology.
Unsupervised Domain Adaptation of Universal Source Separation Based on Neural Full-Rank Spatial Covariance Analysis

This paper presents an unsupervised domain adaptation method of universal source separation (USS) using a neural blind source separation (BSS) technique. USS is a task of separating environmental sound mixtures and has been investigated by training a deep neural network in a supervised manner. This approach, however, suffers from the domain mismatch problem between training and test data. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised domain adaptation method based on neural full-rank spatial covariance analysis. In the (pre-)training phase, a neural separation model is trained to perform multichannel Wiener filtering in a supervised manner. In the test phase, on the other hand, the network is fine-tuned to fit the test mixtures in an unsupervised manner by maximizing a log-marginal likelihood of a nonlinear (neural) BSS model. Experimental results with simulated mixture signals show that our method successfully improves the separation performance for test sets without any additional supervision.
Spatial and Temporal Statistical Modeling of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease and its Characteristics in China: A Review

Background: Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) has been reported in all 31 provinces of mainland China and has become one of the most common infectious diseases in China. Here we review its spatial and temporal patterns in China and related statistical modeling. Methods: We systematically reviewed the literature on the epidemic characteristics and related models proposed to reveal its spatial and temporal patterns of HFMD in mainland China. Results: In mainland China, HFMD is usually caused by enterovirus 71 (EV71) and coxsackievirus A16 (Cox A16). The incidence of HFMD had one or two peaks in a year and presented obvious seasonality. The incidence rate of HFMD was associated with geographical factors, social factors and meteorological variables but it was different in some areas. In most regions of China, the incidence of HFMD was not a random distribution and presented a complex regularity. In this paper, we summarized the spatial autocorrelation analysis, spatial-temporal clustering analysis and time series analysis to the spatial and temporal distribution of HFMD.
Request Oriented Cache Update for Age of Information Minimization in Industrial Control Systems

In industrial control system, applications perform time-critical operations based on the observations of multiple processes. We consider a request-based scenario, where a cache-enabled base station (BS) stores the most recent status observed by energy harvesting (EH) sensors, and delivers the cached status to applications upon request. Due to the time-varying nature of processes, cached status may be outdated which affects the accuracy of operations. Frequent cache update improves the status freshness but leads to high energy consumption of EH sensors. Furthermore, the freshness on the application side is simultaneously determined by multiple status, which requires joint updating of multiple sensors to improve update efficiency. Age of Information (AoI) is employed to measure the freshness of status. We adopt the maximum AoI among the responded status as age of response (AoR). A long-term average AoR minimization problem is formulated, subject to the number of wireless channels and the energy constraint of each EH sensor. The problem is challenging due to the random arrivals of requests and energy harvesting as well as the random association between requests and sensors. By introducing AoR reduction as the reward of each schedule, the problem is decomposed into a per-slot reward maximization problem, and then transformed into a knapsack problem. Then, an online correlated cache update algorithm is proposed. Numerical experiments illustrate that our solution outperforms the traditional greedy policy and achieves 16% performance gains.
Association Between Visceral Fat Area and Glycated Hemoglobin in Type 2 Diabetics: A Retrospective Study

Introduction Obesity is a risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) as well as its associated metabolic complications. Central obesity, characterized by an increased visceral fat area (VFA), is contributed to the development of T2DM. However, the relationship between VFA and HbA1c is not particularly clear. Methods A total of 3173 patients with T2DM participated in the study at the Metabolic Management Center (MMC), with anthropometric and biochemical measurements recorded. To examine the association between HbA1c and VFA, fitting curves were plotted, facilitating a comprehensive observation of their relationship. Results HbA1c was inversely associated with VFA (β −1.79, 95% CI −2.34~−1.24, P < 0.001). The fitted curve shows that VFA increased with the increase of HbA1c when it was less than 8.62%. When it was greater than 8.62%, VFA decreased as HbA1c increased. Using linear inflection point analysis, we found that its inflection point interval falls within 8.36%~8.88%. Conclusion VFA was positively associated with HbA1c in individuals with T2DM. Furthermore, the relationship between the two variables was an inverted U-shaped association.
Novel Approach for Obtaining Variable Domain of New Antigen Receptor with Different Physicochemical Properties from Japanese Topeshark (Hemitriakis japanica)

Diverse candidate antibodies are needed to successfully identify therapeutic and diagnostic applications. The variable domain of IgNAR (VNAR), a shark single-domain antibody, has attracted attention owing to its favorable physicochemical properties. The phage display method used to screen for optimal VNARs loses sequence diversity because of the bias caused by the differential ease of protein expression in Escherichia coli. Here, we investigated a VNAR selection method that combined panning with various selection pressures and next-generation sequencing (NGS) analyses to obtain additional candidates. Drawing inspiration from the physiological conditions of sharks and the physicochemical properties of VNARs, we examined the effects of NaCl and urea concentrations, low temperature, and preheating at the binding step of panning. VNAR phage libraries generated from Japanese topeshark (Hemitriakis japanica) were enriched under these conditions. We then performed NGS analysis and attempted to select clones that were specifically enriched under each panning condition. The identified VNARs exhibited higher reactivity than those obtained by panning without selection pressure. Additionally, they possess physicochemical properties that reflect their respective selection pressures. These results can greatly enhance our understanding of VNAR properties and offer guidance for the screening of high-quality VNAR clones that are present at low frequencies.
Safety and efficacy of different doses of intrathecal magnesium sulfate on the acute and chronic postoperative pain in patient undergoing pelvic cancer surgeries - a randomized controlled dose finding clinical study

ABSTRACT Background and objectives Excision of tumors from pelvis causing severe pain postoperatively. Hemodynamic stability, and better analgesia were documented when MgSO4 was used as an adjuvant to local anesthesia. We aimed to investigate the effect of using intrathecal MgSO4 with different doses as an adjuvant to LAs on postoperative acute pain, hemodynamics, and chronic pain. Methods Ninety patients scheduled for pelvic surgery for excision of tumors have been included in this study and divided into three groups; all patient received general anesthesia (GA) plus intrathecal fentanyl (group A), while the second (group B) and the third (group C) received intrathecal magnesium sulfate 50 mg and 100 mg, respectively; intra- and postoperative outcomes such as hemodynamics, (LANSS) pain score, (NRS) and postoperative complications have been measured. Results The results revealed that MgSO4 in the (group B) had significant effect on decreasing the postoperative pain during the first 24 hours; the result of the three groups revealed that there was statistically significant difference between the group A and groups (B-C) (P-value >0.05), while there was insignificant statistical difference between the group B and group C. Patients in the fentanyl group requested analgesic after 6 to 8 hours (mean ±SD 8.4817 ± 0.819 mg), while patients in group B after 12 to 14 hours postoperatively (13.7450 ± 0.86477 mg) and patients in group C requested analgesia 16 hours postoperatively (13.7800 ± 1.00272 mg). LANSS score was significantly improved in groups B-C, but fewer complications such as itching, nausea and shorter time of recovery after the surgery in group B than other groups. Conclusion When comparing IT magnesium sulfate at doses of 50 and 100 to fentanyl 50 mg, we found superiority of MgSO4, in decreasing pain after surgery and ITMgSO4 50 mg achieved a reasonable balance between postoperative analgesia and side effects. In addition, ITMgSO4 has shown significant effect in decreasing the chronic pain postoperatively.
Modeling the Relation between Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Sea Level Rise for the Determination of Future (2100) Sea Level

This paper confirms that there is a strong relationship between global warming (CO2 emissions) and global mean sea level rise (GMSLR). We discussed some statistics and facts regarding to the history of CO2 emissions as well as the present situation and how do CO2 emissions play a key role in controlling Earth's temperature. A decent portion of this study covered valuable literature information on the topic of GMSLR which is a major global problem that resulted from climate change. The main two reasons for GMSLR are melting of glaciers or ice sheets and thermal expansion of seawater. Submerging coastal cities, soils' contamination and damaging animals' habitats are various consequences of GMSLR. The essential part in our study is to find the exact range of GMSLR by 2100 via establishing a model that is based on comparing previous increases in CO2 emissions with changes in sea level rise at the same time. Two scenarios of CO2 emissions are considered and they are the minimum (RCP2.6) and the maximum (RCP8.5) according to IPCC. Future GMSLR data for both scenarios are calculated for the overall rise, individual oceans and different seas. Rise in Earth's temperature and radiative forcing (heat flux) are investigated for both scenarios and a proportional correlation is approved. Moreover, temperature anomalies data are obtained to identify the future differences between both scenarios. Results showed that, by 2100, GMSLR would be between 0.2-1.6 meters with an annual increase rate of 2.35-18.8 mm/yr. It is worth mentioning that our calculations confirmed that by the end of 2015 the total rise in temperature, since 1880, was around 0.85°C. However, by the end of the twenty-first century, the total change in heat flux would be about 2.5 and 8 W/m 2 for RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 scenarios, respectively, and the accumulated temperature rise, since 1880, would be between 1.22°C and 4°C.
Studies of Volcanic Influence on Aerosols, Clouds and Climate

This thesis focuses on the influence of volcanism on the compositions of the aerosols in the upper troposphere (UT) and lowermost stratosphere (LMS), and their direct and indirect impact on climate. Aerosol data were obtained by aircraft-borne sampling, using the CARIBIC (Civil Aircraft for the Regular Investigation of the Atmosphere Based on an Instrument Container) platform, and laboratory-based ion beam analysis of aerosol samples at the Lund Ion Beam Analysis Facility (LIBAF). Aerosol composition data were compared to particle size distributions obtained from onboard optical particle counter (OPC) measurements, demonstrating good agreement between the two analysis systems. The impact on climate was investigated using satellite observations of aerosol and optical properties of cirrus clouds. These were provided by the CALIOP and MODIS instruments onboard the NASA satellites CALIPSO, Terra and Aqua. The aerosol load in the LMS has varied considerably since 2000, mainly due to volcanic injections of particles and particleforming gases. Tropical volcanoes affect the LMS for up to two years after eruption, through transport within the Brewer- Dobson circulation. In contrast, extra-tropical volcanoes inject aerosols directly into the LMS, which subside to the UT within months. The eruption of Kasatochi in August 2008 increased the aerosol load in the northern hemisphere LMS by a factor of ~10. Apart from sulfate and ash, both fresh and aged volcanic aerosols contain surprisingly large amounts of carbonaceous aerosols, and the value of the oxygen:carbon ratio (O/C) of ~2 indicates an organic origin. Entrainment of the organic aerosol present in the tropospheric background within volcanic jets and plumes was suggested to be the cause. Using CALIOP data, it was shown that the stratospheric aerosol at altitudes below 15 km constitutes a significant part of the volcanic forcing. During the period from 2008 to the middle of 2012, volcanic forcing in the LMS constituted 30% of that in the rest of the stratosphere. In addition, volcanism was found to have a significant influence on aerosol concentrations in the UT of the northern hemisphere. Comparison with cirrus reflectance (CR) data obtained using the MODIS instrument revealed a strong anti-correlation between the CR and particulate sulfur mass concentration, suggesting that the volcanic aerosol affected midlatitude cirrus clouds. In 2011, the CR was 8% lower than in 2001. Since cirrus clouds warm the Earth, this decrease is associated with regional cooling. The results of these studies show that previous estimates of the impact of volcanism on climate have been underestimated. The investigations of the direct and indirect radiative effects of volcanism on the UT and LMS presented here provide new information on the effect of volcanism on the Earth’s climate. This will allow more realistic estimates of the impact of volcanism on climate variability, and improve climate models providing more realistic projections of future global temperatures.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CHINESE TRADITIONAL OPERAS GEOGRAPHY

In China, there is a huge system of traditional operas. The reason why we have so many local operas is that China pocesses a vast territory, various nations, abundant folknays, complex dialects and a long-standing history. There were 360 genves throughout the country by the general survey in 1984. Among them, nine were big transregional genres. Most genres have their own ranges except that the Beijing Opera disperses all over the country. The major regional divergence of China's traditional operas is "gentle in the South while firm in the North. "The art of our traditional operas is complex as well as integrative. The indication of its integrity is the philosophy of "the integrity with being and nihility", the artistic connotation of high synthesis, and the rich performing technigue.
Delay and Energy Consumption Optimization Method for Dependent Task Unloading

By deploying sufficient resources at the edge, applications with low latency and high energy consumption can be offloaded to the edge server for execution, reducing the total application execution cost. The existing unload models usually assume that several tasks of the application are independent of each other, and they often have dependencies in the real world. In view of the contradiction between the above research and reality, firstly, considering the limited edge server resources and battery capacity, this paper establishes a joint optimization model of delay and energy consumption (total cost) for dependent task unloading. Secondly, to solve this model problem, a Modified Sparrow Search Algorithm (MSSA) is proposed. To solve the problems of premature convergence, easy to fall into local optimal and poor global search ability in SSA, reverse learning, neighborhood search and Wolf pack algorithm are introduced to improve the algorithm. Finally, simulation results show that compared with other algorithms, the total application execution cost of the proposed algorithm is reduced by 7%~18%.
GANGUBAI KATHIAWADI (2022): THE EMPOWERING RESISTANCE

The paper argues that we can view the filmic representation of Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022) as a symbolic 'empowering resistance' to injustice in forced prostitution in Asia. The analysis relies on an empowering feminist point of view throughout an investigation of film elements of narration, language use (as translated into English), and symbolization. The paper demonstrates that the resistance is based on three reasons: (1) Depictions of traumatic realities in prostitution with four factors related to India's prostitution, (2) Representation of the objectification of female bodies observed through Catherine Barry's four stages of dehumanization in prostitution, and (3) Portrayal of Gangubai as a moral character, being a virtuous leader and mother figure, which contradicts her conceived social stigmas as a 'devalued prostitute' and the underworld 'Mafia Queen of Mumbai. ' Adding to the study, the symbolic analysis reveals that the representation of the color 'white' signifies the character's morality and purity, highlighting her position as an alleged victim. Furthermore, the color endorses a resisting message against prejudice against women in prostitution. The study sheds light on the social conduct of female prostitution that traumatizes women. Most importantly, it offers an alternative interpretation of the representation of a prostitute character, not as a woman in vulnerability, but as a victorious powerful feminist figure.
University of Birmingham Eye movement accuracy determines natural interception strategies

Eye movements aid visual perception and guide actions such as reaching or grasping. Most previous work on eye-hand coordination has focused on saccadic eye movements. Here we show that smooth pursuit eye movement accuracy strongly predicts both interception accuracy and the strategy used to intercept a moving object. We developed a naturalistic task in which participants ( n ¼ 42 varsity baseball players) intercepted a moving dot (a ‘‘ 2D fly ball ’’ ) with their index finger in a designated ‘‘ hit zone. ’’ Participants were instructed to track the ball with their eyes, but were only shown its initial launch (100–300 ms). Better smooth pursuit resulted in more accurate interceptions and determined the strategy used for interception, i.e., whether interception was early or late in the hit zone. Even though early and late interceptors showed equally accurate interceptions, they may have relied on distinct tactics: early interceptors used cognitive heuristics, whereas late interceptors’ performance was best predicted by pursuit accuracy. Late interception may be beneficial in real-world tasks as it provides more time for decision and adjustment. Supporting this view, baseball players who were more senior were more likely to be late interceptors. Our findings suggest that interception strategies are optimally adapted to the proficiency of the pursuit system.