Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Associations of Dietary Antioxidants with Glycated Hemoglobin and Insulin Sensitivity in Adults with and without Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) has been associated with increased risks of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, and poor glycemic control and oxidative stress play a major role in its pathology. There is a lack of data on the role of dietary antioxidant micronutrients, including vitamins and trace elements, in glycemic control in T1D. The aim of this study is to examine associations of dietary intakes of micronutrients with glycemic status. We report data from a cross-sectional analysis from the coronary artery calcification in type 1 diabetes (CACTI) study (n = 1257; T1D: n = 568; nondiabetic controls: n = 689) collected between the years 2000 and 2002. Participants completed a validated food frequency questionnaire, a physical examination, and biochemical analyses. Linear regression was used to examine the associations of dietary antioxidant micronutrients with HbA1c and estimated insulin sensitivity (eIS) in models adjusted for relevant covariates and stratified by diabetes status. In adults with T1D, we observed higher dietary manganese intake associated with higher eIS in the model adjusted for age, sex, diabetes duration, and total calories. In nondiabetic controls, higher intake of manganese associated with lower HbA1c and higher eIS values that persisted in models adjusted for all relevant covariates. On the other hand, dietary copper revealed a positive association with HbA1c in models adjusted for all covariates, except BMI and plasma lipids. No associations were noted for vitamins C and E and dietary carotenoids in either group. These findings reveal dietary antioxidant micronutrients, especially trace elements such as copper and manganese deserve special attention in glycemic control in adults with T1D as well as in nondiabetic controls.This trial is register with NCT00005754.
The Role of the Immune System in the Development of Endometriosis

Endometriosis is a chronic disease that affects about 10% of women of reproductive age. It can contribute to pelvic pain, infertility or other conditions such as asthma, cardiovascular disease, breast or ovarian cancer. Research has shown that one of the conditions for the development of endometrial lesions is the dysfunction of the immune system. It appears that immune cells, such as neutrophils, macrophages, NK cells and dendritic cells, may play a specific role in the angiogenesis, growth and invasion of endometriosis cells. Immune cells secrete cytokines and defensins that also affect the endometriosis environment. This review discusses the various components of the immune system that are involved in the formation of endometrial lesions in women.
A case study in the wintertime Vaal Triangle Air-Shed Priority Area on the utility of the nitrogen stable isotopic composition of aerosol nitrate to identify NOx sources

In South Africa, the Highveld region and the Johannesburg-Pretoria megacity are known as global NOx (NOx = NO + NO2) “hotspots” identified by satellite-based instruments. The ultimate sink for atmospheric NOx is conversion to aerosol nitrate. However, measurements of aerosol nitrate concentrations do not provide information on which NOx sources served as nitrate precursors at that location. This complicates efforts to reduce concentrations of particulate matter (PM) in these air quality priority areas. Here, we measured the nitrogen stable isotopic composition of nitrate from daily wintertime collections of coarse mode PM2.5-10 (PM ≤ 10 and >2.5 µm in diameter) at three air quality monitoring stations located in the Vaal Triangle Air-Shed Priority Area (VTAPA). The overall aim of this case study was to evaluate the use of the distinct stable isotopic signatures of various NOx sources to identify their relative contribution to aerosol nitrate across the Highveld. The nitrogen isotopic ratios of aerosol nitrate were similar across the three sites, with greater day-to-day variability than site to site variability. Air mass history was the main driver of the variability in the nitrogen isotopic ratios of aerosol nitrate, with significantly higher isotopic ratios observed for air masses originating from the southwest. Using an isotope mixing model we determined that NOx from coal-burning is the dominant contributor to aerosol nitrate (66%), followed by biomass burning (16%), vehicles (12%), and soil emissions (6%).
Comprehensive study of fast load modulation with volt‐second balance in a dual‐active‐bridge converter

The procedure of load transition in a dual-active-bridge converter is expected to be fast and spike free. To achieve such a goal, the total required adjustment of phase-shift angles should be assigned to different switch arms properly. This study discusses all possible combinations of two switch arms and their related phase-shifts, which could result in several different solutions. By forcing a zero algebraic variation of the volt-second product, all solutions can keep the volt-second balance of the power inductor so that no risk of magnetic saturation in the transient state exists. The possibility of temporal overshoot current can be checked by verifying the monotonicity of the intermediate volt-second product. A comparison of all solutions is made to give a suggestion for their feasibility. Experimental tests are included at last which validated the theoretical analysis.
Comment on the quantum modes of the scalar field on AdS_{d+1} spacetime

The problem of the quantum modes of the scalar free ﬁeld on anti-de Sitter backgrounds with an arbitrary number of space dimensions is considered. It is shown that this problem can be solved by using the same quantum numbers as those of the nonrelativistic oscillator and two parameters which give the energy quanta and respectively the ground state energy. This last one is known to be just the conformal dimension of the boundary ﬁeld theory of the AdS/CFT conjecture.
Two-way wireless-over-fibre and FSO-over-fibre communication systems with an optical carrier transmission

Two-way wireless-over-fiber and free-space optical (FSO)-over-fiber communication systems, with an optical carrier transmission for a hybrid 10 Gbps baseband data stream, are proposed and practically demonstrated. 10 Gbps/50 GHz and 10 Gbps/100 GHz millimeter-wave data signal transmissions are also proposed and practically demonstrated. An optical carrier with a 10 Gbps baseband data stream is delivered via a 50 km single-mode fiber transportation to effectively lower dispersion-induced limitation due to fiber links and distortion produced by beating among multiple optical sidebands. To our understanding, this experiment is foremost in employing an optical carrier transmission approach to a two-way wireless-over-fiber and FSO-over-fiber communication system to suppress fiber dispersion and distortion effectively. Bit error rate performs well for downlink and uplink deliveries via a 50 km single-mode fiber transportation with a 100 m FSO link/5 m RF wireless delivery. The offered two-way wireless-over-fiber and FSO-over-fiber communication system with an optical carrier transmission is a promising option. It should be interesting for signifying the progress in the integration of long-haul fiber-based trunks and short-range RF/optical wireless link-based branches.
​Symptoms, Biology and Management of Ascochyta Blight (Phoma exigua) of French Beans: A Review

French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is a major export vegetable crop that is experiencing severe production problems because of the disease Ascochyta blight (Phoma exigua). The crop can be consumed as a green-pods, dry (mature) beans and shell beans. This is one of the major crops that can be grown all over the world. The most damaging disease of this pulse crop occurring worldwide is Ascochyta blight, attracts a lot of attention from researchers. The pathogen has the ability to significantly reduce yields. In certain parts of the world, it is thus known as a major economically significant disease of the common bean. Understanding the Ascochyta blight of French bean pathogen, disease growth, disease cycle and management strategies for efficient disease control will be the subject of this review. This pathogen first infects the foliage and then on peduncle, petiole, node, on pods and even cause stem girdling also. And there will be formation of clearly visible concentric rings of the fruiting bodies in symptoms. The disease is seed-borne and short distance spread will be with the help of wind and rain-splashes.
Instrumental Texture Differentiation of Channel (Ictalurus punctatus) and Hybrid (Channel × Blue, Ictalurus furcatus) Catfish Fillets

An analysis of instrumental texture differences between channel (Ictalurus punctatus) and hybrid (female channel × male blue, I. furcatus) catfish fillets is presented. Factors including cold-storage type (fresh, frozen, or individually quick frozen (IQF)) and gender were included in the comparisons. Texture was measured at eight positions per fillet by a texture profile analysis (TPA) method that provided seven texture attributes: firmness, toughness, cohesiveness, adhesiveness, chewiness, resilience, and springiness, plus the thickness of the fillets (238 total). All attributes except adhesiveness were found to be statistically different (p < 0.05) between channel and hybrid fillets, with channels having the highest value in each attribute. When cold-storage type was included in the analysis, channels still produced the highest attribute values, but the number of attributes differed with firmness, toughness, and chewiness most associated with the differences in the type of catfish, while the other attributes were affected by cold-storage type. Thickness was found to be a strong covariant to some of the texture attributes, especially toughness, but the determination of difference between channels and hybrids was not affected and TPA profiles provided high levels of differentiation between catfish types.
From one to five stars: An exploratory study of how consumer reviews and digital brand identity shape maternal pediatrician selection

Abstract Digital media initiated a paradigm shift of the doctor-patient relationship in which prospective patients “shop” for physicians as they do other goods and services: using search engines’ results, aggregated review websites, and star ratings as cues. These are processed centrally or peripherally in accordance with the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM). Electronic word of mouth (EWOM) in conjunction with a pediatrician’s digital brand management strategy impacts practice revenue through patient recruitment and retention. This exploratory study found that a pediatrician’s placement on a review website and overall digital brand image leads to increased or decreased trust in expertise, competence, and likability.
Predictors of Successful Memory Aging in Older Mexican Adults

Background Research suggests a significant association between increasing age and memory impairments. Nevertheless, for some individuals, memory performance stays within or above the normative values of younger subjects. This is known as successful memory aging and is associated with specific neurophysiological features and psychological and lifestyle-related variables. To date, little is known about the association between successful memory aging and intrinsic capacity (IC) defined as “the composite of all the physical and mental (including psychosocial) capacities that an individual can draw on at any point in time” and resilience. Hence, the aim of this study was to determine if longitudinal associations between IC and successful memory aging and resilience exist and to find differences in cognitive performance between Mexican older adults with successful memory aging, older adults with average memory, and older adults with memory impairment. Methods Longitudinal data from 590 individuals from the third wave (2012) and the Mex-Cog subsample (2016) of the Mexican Health and Aging Study was analysed. Subjects were classified into 3 groups: (1) older adults with successful memory aging (SUMA), (2) older adults with average memory (AVMA), and (3) older adults with memory impairment (IMA). Cognitive domains of orientation, language, attention, constructional praxis, and executive function were evaluated. IC and resilience were measured using items from the MHAS battery. Analysis of variance and multinomial logistic regressions were used to find differences in IC and resilience across the memory aging groups. Results ANOVAs showed significant differences across the three cognitive performance groups in all cognitive domains. Multinomial logistic regression analyses revealed that respondents with higher scores in the psychological and cognitive domains of IC at baseline were more likely to have successful memory aging in the subsequent wave of the study. More resilient subjects in 2012 were not more likely to become a SUMA in 2016. However, this could be a result of the way resilience was measured. Conclusion Our main findings suggest that intrinsic capacity could be used as a predictor of successful memory aging specifically in the psychological and the cognitive domains. More longitudinal studies are needed to further examine these associations.
The analysis of discontinuities in cylindrical tubes propagating sound waves

The effect of a plane discontinuity on a plane wave propagated in a cylindrical tube is calculated by variational methods. In carrying out the calculations a transmission line analogy is used and the effect of the discontinuity at a distance is represented by a capacitance placed at the discontinuity. In section 1 the equations of motion for the propagation of a small disturbance in a cylindrical tube are established, culminating in the tyro-dimensional wave equation, while the solutions to the equations are discussed in section 2. These solutions constitute an infinite set of modes, in addition to the plane wave usually treated in the literature. In section 3 the analogy between propagation of sound and an electrical transmission line is established, and it is shown that each mode requires a separate transmission line. In section 4 it is shown that the effect of the higher modes excited by a plane discontinuity may be represented by a lumped capacitance, and this capacitance is given by a variational expression which gives a systematic method of calculation yielding an upper bound to the true answer. For the case of a window, a variational principle is produced inihich gives a lower bound to the true answer. In section B this method is applied to a window in a rectangular tube in some detail, in section 7 it is applied to a change of cross section in a rectangular tube, and in section 8 it is applied to windows and changes of cross section in circular tubes. In section 9 the reflection and transmission factors are calculated, and in section 10 the resonant frequency of certain types of resonators is calculated. To the authors's knowledge this is the first rigorous treatment of the above problems with the exception of an earlier paper calculating the reflection due to a change of cross section in a circular tube.
Antibiotic (Mis)Use in COVID-19 Patients before and after Admission to a Tertiary Hospital in Serbia

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global concern, and antibiotic use has risen throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Up to 75% of COVID-19 patients are treated with antibiotics despite little evidence for their use. A retrospective study from 6 March 2020 (the start of the pandemic in Serbia) to 31 December 2021 was conducted at the Clinic for Infectious and Tropical Diseases, University Clinical Centre of Serbia. In total, 523 patients with a microbiological diagnosis of COVID-19 were included. Patient data were analysed, including antibiotic use before and after admission. Pre-admission use of antibiotics for COVID-19 treatment was documented in more than half of patients (58.1%), of which a third (34.1%) used more than one antibiotic. Macrolides, cephalosporins, and fluoroquinolones were mainly used, most frequently among patients aged between 31–45 years (75.2%). Prior antibiotic use was associated with a longer duration of illness at admission (8.8 vs. 5.7, p < 0.001), oxygen therapy upon admission (27.6% vs. 16.0%, p = 0.002), and a lower vaccination rate (60.7% vs. 50.7%, p = 0.04). When hospitalised, 72.1% of patients received antibiotics, primarily cephalosporins (71.9%). Significant efforts are needed to reduce antibiotic use in the community and improve prescribing rates by healthcare professionals.
Generalized Information Extraction for Thai Web Boards

—Web content extraction is a process to extract user specified information from web pages. Traditionally, the main approaches of web content extraction have been performed via rule based or pattern based. Typically, rule or pattern set is manually prepared by hand-engineering and can only be applied to each individual web site. To increase the efficiency, we have proposed a machine learning based approach by applying Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) which is a sequence to sequence learning for dynamic extraction of title and content from web pages. Based on our error analysis, misclassified tokens are considered minority among the total correct sequence. To improve the performance, in this paper we propose a post processing technique by merging predicted tokens with minority tags into the majority one in the token sequence. To evaluate the performance, we use the same data set from our previous work which is a collection of web pages from 10 different Thai web boards such as Dek-D , MThai , Sanook and Pantip . The results of our post processing technique helps improve the accuracy up to 99.53%, an improvement of 0.11% from the previous proposed model. The overall improvement may seem little, however, for Title extraction, the accuracy is significantly improved from 88.04% to 100%.
Does Learning Occur In One-Shot, Non-Cooperative Games?

Learning to learn is a basic foundation of life and necessary for evolution. The ability to show the existence of learning can at times be difficult in one-shot, non-cooperative games. The ability to transfer knowledge from one situation to another is an indication of how much one actually learns and how it is applied. The purpose of this paper is to show the existence of learning in this type of game by using the vertical checkers game â€œConnect 4â€. By looking at the difference in won-loss records between two tournaments and the distribution of the scores, we can show that learning has occurred when teams have a greater degree of parity and that average number of wins increases as the range of wins decreases.
Cuantificación de cadmio en suelos de cultivo de cacao en el cantón Arenillas, provincia de el Oro, Ecuador

El aumento de la contaminación por cadmio con el paso del tiempo es resultado de un desbalanceadoproceso de fertilización. La finalidad del presente estudio fue cuantificar la concentración decadmio en suelos agrícolas destinado a la producción de cacao en el cantón Arenillas, provincia deEl Oro, al suroccidente de Ecuador. Para el estudio se seleccionaron 4 puntos de muestreo, tomandomuestras triplicadas por cada punto a profundidades de 0-10, 10-20, 20-30 cm. Para cuantificar elcadmio se utilizó el método de espectrofotometría de absorción atómica con llama (AAS). Además,se realizaron análisis de los parámetros fisicoquímicos del suelo y de los fertilizantes más usadospara conocer su influencia con el Cd del suelo. Se demostró que existe una mayor presencia decadmio a profundidades de 20-30 cm, variando las concentraciones entre 0.40-0.52 mg/kg de Cd,concluyendo que esto se debía mayormente al aporte de cadmio por parte de los fertilizantesutilizados.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MOBILE PHONE ABUSE, ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND ANXIETY AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS

Mobile phones life favor personal autonomy and status an individual. prolonged use of these smartphones social isolation excessive dependency. only interferes with their personal and professional life but also takes a toll on their academic performance and mental health in Present study aims to investigate the relationship between mobile phone abuse, academic performance (GPA), and anxiety in college students. The sample consisted of a total of 160 college students from colleges of Delhi and NCR (N=160). This sample was selected using a purposive random sampling technique. For data collection, questionnaires of The Mobile Phone Abuse (ATeMO) and Beck's Anxiety Inventory were used. Besides, academic performance was measured using each participant's minimum of 2 years of actual cumulative grade point average (GPA). The quantitative analysis was done using t-test and Pearsons product- moment correlation. The ndings revealed no signicant difference across gender in dimensions of mobile phone abuse. In addition to this, there is no signicant gender difference in anxiety in the sample of 160 college students. We also found that, there is a signicant positive correlation between all the dimensions of mobile phone abuse with anxiety among college students. Lastly, there is no correlation between anxiety and academic performance (GPA) of college students. These ndings add to the debate about student's mobile phone use, and how increased use may negatively impact their academic performance and mental health. ABSTRACT
Spectra of random graphs

In questa tesi si introducono due principali tipologie di grafi random, in grafi di Erdős-Reniy e il modello configurazionale. Dopo aver introdotto la legge di Wigner, si studia lo spettro della matrice di adiacenza del modello configurazionale. Si studia infine il modello dei grafi bipartiti, e si trova che la matrice di adiacenza devia dalla legge di Marchenko-Pastur.
Identification and Assessment of Uncertainty Factors that Influence the Transaction Cost in Public Sector Construction Projects in Pakistan

Like other kinds of projects, construction projects are exposed to uncertainty, which plays a critical role in determining the transaction cost (TC). This study explores the uncertainty factors that are associated with construction projects that substantially influence the TC. To obtain the opinions of construction professionals, a survey questionnaire was developed after identifying 30 relevant causes of uncertainty from the literature. A survey of 216 professionals was conducted in Pakistan, and the relative importance index (RII) was used to prioritize the significant uncertainty factors that escalate the TC. Based on the responses from various construction professionals, this study determined that the most significant uncertainty factors that influence TC are: competitive tendering, incomplete design and specifications, late payments, conflict management, delayed possession of sites, force majeure, and work acceleration. This study also compared and analyzed the views of project managers and consultants and found that uncertainty from internal sources has a more significant influence on TC than that from external sources. The political and environmental groups do not contribute much escalating the TC. However, uncertainties that arise from the commercial, project site, and technical groups are more of an influence on TC. This research helps practitioners and professionals to adopt integrative systems in most uncertain situations proactively to find opportunities in volatile markets to reduce the impact of uncertainty on the total project cost.