Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spectroscopic measurements of tropospheric CO, C2H6, C2H2, and HCN in northern Japan

[1] Tropospheric column amounts and mixing ratios of CO, C2H6, C2H2, and HCN were retrieved from ground-based infrared solar spectra using a vertical profile retrieval algorithm (SFIT2). The spectra were recorded with high spectral resolution Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometers at Moshiri (44.4°N) and Rikubetsu (43.5°N) in northern Japan from May 1995 to June 2000. The retrievals show significant seasonal variations in the tropospheric content of the four molecules over northern Japan with maxima in winter-spring (February–April) for CO, C2H6, and C2H2 and in summer (May–July) for HCN. Good correlations between CO, C2H6, and C2H2 indicated that they had similar sources and underwent similar dilution processes. Deviation of HCN relative to its seasonal mean value (ΔHCN) is correlated with the similar deviation of CO (ΔCO), indicating that enhancements of CO and HCN above the mean levels were probably due to the same sources. Linear trends in tropospheric CO, C2H6, and C2H2 from May 1995 to June 2000 (excluding 1998) were (−2.10 ± 0.30), (−2.53 ± 0.30), and (−3.99 ± 0.57)%/yr, respectively, while the trend of (−0.93 ± 0.49)%/yr in HCN was relatively small. Abnormally high tropospheric amounts of the four molecules were recorded in 1998. HCN amounts were found to be much higher than its seasonal mean value throughout 1998 with a 65% maximum increase in August 1998. Significant increases of CO, C2H6, and C2H2 took place in August–October 1998. Trajectory calculations, global fire maps, and satellite smoke images revealed that biomass burning in eastern Siberia from mid-July to early October 1998 was the major cause of the elevated levels in tropospheric CO, C2H6, C2H2, and HCN observed in northern Japan in 1998.
Construction of computer visual dataset for autonomous driving in sand-dust weather

With the wide application of vision-based autonomous driving and mobile robots, the impact of frequent sand-dust weather on computer vision applications in landlocked countries during spring and autumn has also attracted more and more attention. Although there has been a lot of research on sand-dust image enhancement, no research has been conducted on how to improve the positioning accuracy of vision-based autonomous driving or mobile robots in sand-dust environments, especially because there is currently a lack of data sets to evaluate visual positioning in sand-dust weather. Therefore, we propose a complete set of visual positioning data set construction methods in sand-dust weather to ﬁll the gap in the evaluation data set of application ﬁelds such as autonomous driving or mobile robot attitude estimation in sand-dust weather. At the same time, this method is also suitable for the construction of visual positioning data sets under haze and other similar weather. In addition, this paper further demonstrates to readers how to use the converted dust visual positioning data set to conduct positioning evaluation experiment of automatic driving in sand-dust weather.
Farmers Perception and

: Strong evidence exists for long-term negative health outcomes from pesticide exposure including birth defects, fetal death, neurodevelopmental disorder, cancer, and neurologic illness including Parkinson's disease. This paper therefore examined the smallholder farmers' perception and awareness of public health effects of pesticide use in Edo Central, Nigeria. Data from 400 farmers were collected through questionnaires. Results revealed that most farmers relied on fellow farmers for information on pesticides (65.3%) rather than trained extension services (7.3%). Moderate toxic pesticides (WHO Class II) were commonly used, with a few cases of highly toxic pesticides (WHO Ib). Affordability (53.3%) and efficacy (41.8%) were the main factors driving pesticide purchases. The majority of farmers (63.9%) did not read pesticide labels before use, especially those with no formal education (77.2%) or basic education (57.8%) and those with less than 5 years of experience (54.6%). Reasons for not reading labels included reliance on success stories of other farmers (30.3%) and lack of clarity on labels (23.5%). Pesticides were often stored inside homes (43.3%), and used cans were disposed of with household waste (37%). Overall, farmers demonstrated a moderate level of awareness regarding public health effects of pesticide use. The relationship between farmers’ awareness level of public health effects of pesticides use and socio-economic variables shows that level of awareness is not dependent on age (ρ>0.05, d=0.35), educational background (ρ>0.05, d=0.27) and years of farming experience (ρ>0.05, d=0.41). The study highlights the importance of training farmers on safe and proper pesticide use to reduce risks to human health.
Commitment to Meaning: A Reframing of Agency in Games

paper examines the concept of agency within games and proposes a shift from the notion of agency as representing choice or freedom to one of agency as representing commitment to meaning. This conception of agency is aimed at understanding the pleasures of engaging with narratively rich games, and helps to address the tension between player choice and authorial intent. We draw on what speech act theory says about how trust, meaning and communication are achieved in human conversation, applying these notions to interactive storytelling. This new perspective on agency provides us with a better analytical tool for understanding the relationship between interaction and narrative pleasure, and provides a useful metric for designers of story-rich games.
On the Mechanisms of Paciﬁc Decadal Oscillation Modulation in a Warming Climate

Changes of the Paciﬁc decadal oscillation (PDO) under global warming are investigated by using outputs from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) and a theoretical midlatitude air–sea coupled model. In a warming climate, the decadal variability of the PDO is found to be signiﬁcantly suppressed, with the amplitude reduced and the decadal cycle shifted toward a higher-frequency band. We used the theoretical model put forward by Goodman and Marshall (herein the GM model) to underpin the potential mechanisms. The GM model exhibits a growing coupled mode that resembles the simulated PDO. It is found that the suppression of the PDO appears to be associated with the acceleration of Rossby waves due to the enhanced oceanic stratiﬁcation under global warming. This shortens the PDO period and reduces PDO amplitude by limiting the growth time of the coupled mode. The GM model also suggests that the increase of growth rate due to strengthening of oceanic stratiﬁcation tends to magnify the PDO amplitude, counteracting the Rossby wave effect. This growth rate inﬂuence, however, plays a secondary role.
Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review (Oman Chapter)

Adolescents need relevant an accurate information for different aspects of their lives. In particular, they seek for credible and available information on sexual issues that would answer their many questions. Sources of information that adolescents consult have been found to play a critical role in their decision making processes. The paper explored the preferred sources of information that adolescents consult and its implication on their decision making about sexual issues. Survey Research design was used in the study. A sample size of 400 respondents were randomly selected from a population of 127, 021 senior Secondary School Students in Ogun Central Senatorial District. Multistage sampling technique was used to select the participants for the study. Findings showed that the preferred sources of information on sexual issues were Parents (f = 320), health professionals (f = 140), mass media (f = 86) and teachers (f = 86) among the 400 participants. Information equips individuals for decision making. The information sources that adolescents consult is reflective of the kind of choices or decision they make. Accurate and correct information from an appropriate source of information, will encourage them to make the right decision on sexual issues.
Climate and atmospheric circulation changes over the past 1000 years reconstructed from oxygen isotopes in lake-sediment carbonate from Ireland

A 1000 year long subdecadal-resolution record of carbonate oxygen isotopes (δ18Oc) from Lough-na-Shade, Ireland, provides evidence for changing atmospheric circulation over northwest Europe. The total range of δ18Oc values (>5‰) is too large to be explained by changes in water temperature. Moreover, good correlation between the lake record and a previously published δ18O time series from an Irish speleothem indicates that the changes in oxygen isotopes are best explained by variations in the isotopic composition of precipitation. The amplitude of change during this period is too large to be explained by shifts in condensation temperature. Instead we suggest that there have been changes in vapour source and transport paths connected with shifts in atmospheric circulation. Changes from a source area from further south within the North Atlantic to one further to the north could explain the prominent positive shift in oxygen-isotope values between the early eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, for example. Our results also demonstrate the value of a ‘multiple-archive’ approach to deconvolving lake-based carbonate isotope profiles, which are often complex.
Effect of menstrual cycle and contraceptive pill phase on aspects of exercise physiology and athletic performance in female athletes: protocol for the Feminae international multisite innovative project

The idiom ‘more high-quality research is needed’ has become the slogan for sport and exercise physiology-based research in female athletes. However, in most instances, it is challenging to address this gap of high-quality research in elite female athletes at a single study site due to challenges in recruiting enough participants with numerous menstrual cycle and contraceptive pill permutations. Accordingly, we have assembled an international multisite team to undertake an innovative project for female athletes, which investigates the effects of changes in endogenous and exogenous oestrogen and progesterone/progestins across the menstrual cycle and in response to second-generation combined monophasic contraceptive pill use, on aspects of exercise physiology and athletic performance. This project will employ the current gold-standard methodologies in this area, resulting in an adequately powered dataset. This protocol paper describes the consortium-based approach we will undertake during this study.
Comparison of the income and expenditure patterns of selected rural communities in the Nwanedi River Basin with poor townships in Soweto

The aim of this article is to determine the income and expenditure patterns of the employed, unemployed and not economically active populations of selected rural communities in the Nwanedi River Basin and to compare them with poor townships in Soweto. The article analyses the poverty gap of every household. Due to the sensitivity of households about their income, the questionnaire surveys the expenditure in great detail to determine monthly expenditure. Not surprisingly, many households have a higher expenditure per month than their income. Some respondents refused to divulge their income and in other cases it is obvious that the income is too low to afford the expenditure per month. These and other problems create the opportunity to solve these issues in this article. The selected villages form part of the Vhembe District Municipality of Limpopo and are arguably the poorest area in South Africa. Soweto is a world-renowned city with many suburbs and large differences in income. A poorer suburb in Soweto with similar income and size is selected for the comparison. Calculating the income according to employment status shows that many households are dependent on pensions and child grants. Although research has been done in urban areas such as Soweto, very little empirical research has been done in rural areas in South Africa.
Exposure to bullying between medical and non-medical university students in Bahrain

PurposeBullying negatively affects victims’ mental health and has been shown to be associated with anxiety and depression. Moreover, many studies have reported the prevalence of mistreatment among medical students (MS), interns and junior physicians. However, there are limited studies on bullying in the Middle East, and no studies on higher education in Bahrain. The authors’ aim was to investigate and compare the prevalence of bullying between MS at a major public university and non-medical students (NMS) at a private university in Bahrain. The authors also sought to explore the associations between bullying, depression and anxiety.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a survey-based cross-sectional study from October 1 to December 31, 2018, using convenient sampling method. A total of 300 students (150 MS and 150 NMS) participated in the study by answering a questionnaire that explored exposure to different types of bullying. In addition, standard anxiety and depression instruments were distributed to students.FindingsThe results showed that MS were more exposed to bullying than NMS, with a significant number (41%) reporting mistreatment from multiple sources, including teachers, consultants and peers. Furthermore, the authors found that bullying was significantly correlated with psychological health, anxiety and depression.Originality/valueThere are limited studies on bullying in the Middle East and no studies on the topic of higher education in Bahrain. Furthermore, the learning environment of tertiary education institutions can be improved by addressing the concerns associated with bullying identified in this study.
Monitoring misinformation related interventions by Facebook, Twitter and YouTube: methods and illustration

There is growing pressure for mainstream platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, to ﬁght misinformation by moderating the content that spreads on their site. We investigated the interventions of the platforms by collecting social media data via APIs and scraping. These interventions can be classiﬁed into three broad categories: (i) temporary or permanent suspension of users, (ii) displaying ﬂags and information panels, and (iii) reducing the visibility of some content. We provide examples illustrating how researchers can monitor the interventions within each of the three categories for each platform. Finally, we discuss the restrictions to access data and the lack of transparency regarding misinformation related interventions, and how to help the academic community, NGOs and data journalists to successfully study online misinformation
Predicting postoperative delirium assessed by the Nursing Screening Delirium Scale in the recovery room for non-cardiac surgeries without craniotomy: A retrospective study using a machine learning approach

Background Postoperative delirium (POD) contributes to severe outcomes such as death or development of dementia. Thus, it is desirable to identify vulnerable patients in advance during the perioperative phase. Previous studies mainly investigated risk factors for delirium during hospitalization and further used a linear logistic regression (LR) approach with time-invariant data. Studies have not investigated patients fluctuating conditions to support POD precautions. Objective In this single-center study, we aimed to predict POD in a recovery room setting with a non-linear machine learning (ML) technique using pre-, intra-, and postoperative data. Methods The target variable POD was defined with the Nursing Screening Delirium Scale (Nu-DESC) [≥] 1. Feature selection was conducted based on robust univariate test statistics and L1 regularization. Non-linear multi-layer perceptron (MLP) as well as tree-based models were trained and evaluated - with the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUROC), the area under precision recall curve (AUPRC), and additional metrics - against LR and published models on bootstrapped testing data. Results The prevalence of POD was 8.2% in a sample of 73,181 surgeries performed between 2017 and 2020. Significant univariate impact factors were the preoperative ASA status, the intraoperative amount of given remifentanil, and the postoperative Aldrete score. The best model used pre-, intra-, and postoperative data. The tree-based model achieved a mean AUROC of 0.854 and a mean AUPRC of 0.418 outperforming linear LR, well as best applied and retrained baseline models. Conclusions Overall, non-linear machine learning models using data from multiple perioperative time phases were superior to traditional ones in predicting POD in the recovery room. Class imbalance was seen as a main impediment for model application in clinical practice.
The Impact of Group II Pulmonary Hypertension on Congestive Heart Failure Patients Admitted with ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction, A Nationwide Study

Objective: To study the impact of group II pulmonary hypertension (PH) on the outcomes of patients admitted with ST-elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI), we conducted a nationwide retrospective cohort study. Patients and Methods: Using the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) Database from 2017 to 2020, a retrospective study of adult patients with a principal diagnosis of STEMI with a secondary diagnosis with or without group II PH according to ICD-10 codes. Several demographics, including age, race, and gender, were analyzed. The primary endpoint was mortality, while the secondary endpoints included cardiogenic shock, mechanical intubation, length of stay in days, and patient charge in dollars. Multivariate logistic regression model analysis was used to adjust for confounders, with a p-value less than 0.05 considered statistically significant. Results: The study included 27,020 patients admitted with a STEMI, 95 of whom had group II PH. The mean age for patients with and without PH was 66 and 67, respectively. In the PH group, 37% were females compared to 34% in the non-PH group. The in-hospital mortality rate was higher in the PH group (31.5% vs. 9.5%, P <.001, aOR 3.25, P <.023). The rates and adjusted odds of cardiogenic shock and mechanical ventilation were higher in the PH groups (aOR 1.12 aOR 2.16, respectively) but not statistically significant. Patients with PH had a longer length of stay and a higher total charge. Conclusion: Group II PH was associated with worse clinical and economic outcomes in heart failure patients admitted with STEMI.
Designing individually randomized group treatment trials with repeated outcome measurements using generalized estimating equations

Individually randomized group treatment (IRGT) trials, in which the clustering of outcome is induced by group‐based treatment delivery, are increasingly popular in public health research. IRGT trials frequently incorporate longitudinal measurements, of which the proper sample size calculations should account for correlation structures reflecting both the treatment‐induced clustering and repeated outcome measurements. Given the relatively sparse literature on designing longitudinal IRGT trials, we propose sample size procedures for continuous and binary outcomes based on the generalized estimating equations approach, employing the block exchangeable correlation structures with different correlation parameters for the treatment arm and for the control arm, and surveying five marginal mean models with different assumptions of time effect: no‐time constant treatment effect, linear‐time constant treatment effect, categorical‐time constant treatment effect, linear time by treatment interaction, and categorical time by treatment interaction. Closed‐form sample size formulas are derived for continuous outcomes, which depends on the eigenvalues of the correlation matrices; detailed numerical sample size procedures are proposed for binary outcomes. Through simulations, we demonstrate that the empirical power agrees well with the predicted power, for as few as eight groups formed in the treatment arm, when data are analyzed using the matrix‐adjusted estimating equations for the correlation parameters with a bias‐corrected sandwich variance estimator.
A standard workflow for community-driven manual curation of Strongyloides genome annotations

Advances in the functional genomics and bioinformatics toolkits for Strongyloides species have positioned these species as genetically tractable model systems for gastrointestinal parasitic nematodes. As community interest in mechanistic studies of Strongyloides species continues to grow, publicly accessible reference genomes and associated genome annotations are critical resources for researchers. Genome annotations for multiple Strongyloides species are broadly available via the WormBase and WormBase ParaSite online repositories. However, a recent phylogenetic analysis of the receptor-type guanylate cyclase (rGC) gene family in two Strongyloides species highlights the potential for errors in a large percentage of current Strongyloides gene models. Here, we present three examples of gene annotation updates within the Strongyloides rGC gene family; each example illustrates a type of error that may occur frequently within the annotation data for Strongyloides genomes. We also extend our analysis to 405 previously curated Strongyloides genes to confirm that gene model errors are found at high rates across gene families. Finally, we introduce a standard manual curation workflow for assessing gene annotation quality and generating corrections, and we discuss how it may be used to facilitate community-driven curation of parasitic nematode biodata. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Strongyloides: omics to worm-free populations’.
Molecular imaging of PARP in cancer: state-of-the-art

ABSTRACT Introduction Poly-ADP-ribose-polymerase inhibitors (PARPi), which exploit the processes of so-called ‘synthetic lethality,’ have been successfully implemented in oncological practice. However, not all patients respond to PARPi, and there is an unmet need for noninvasive biomarkers suitable for patient selection and monitoring during PARPi therapy. Areas covered The first clinical applications of molecular imaging with positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) with [18F]-FluorThanatrace ([18F]-FTT) and [18F]-PARPi, highly effective PARP-ligands, in patients with several malignancies (head and neck, ovarian, prostate, and breast cancer) are covered, with a particular focus on its potential for pre-treatment selection and follow-up. Expert opinion By a search made on the most common database, such as PubMed and Google Scholar in a period from January 2010 and 2023, first clinical evidence suggests that PET/CT with [18F]-FTT and [18F]-PARPi might represent a reliable tool for in vivo imaging and quantification of PARP-1 expression in ovarian, prostate, breast, head, and neck cancer, supporting their potential usefulness for patient selection before PARPi-therapies. In addition, a reduction in [18F]-FTT uptake has been registered after therapy initiation and seems to be correlated with patient outcome after PARPi-based regimens. Further studies are needed to better address the value of PARPI-radiolabeled PET imaging in these clinical settings, especially as it concerns technical features such as optimal scan modality (dynamic vs. static) and timing.