Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
eCommons@AKU eCommons@AKU

Introduction: Globally, Sierra Leone has some of the worst maternal and child health indicators. The situation is worsened by a dearth of evidence about the level of continuum of care, an evidence-based intervention aimed at reducing maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. Hence this study aimed to assess the level of and factors associated with continuum of maternal and newborn care in Sierra Leone. Method: This study analyzed secondary data from the 2019 Sierra Leone Demographic Health Survey. Analysis was restricted to women who had a live birth in the 5 years preceding the survey ( n = 7326). Complete continuum of care was considered when a woman reported having had at least eight antenatal care contacts, skilled birth attendance and mother and baby had at least one postnatal check-up. Bi-variable and multivariable logistic regression were performed using the statistical package for the social sciences software version 25. Results: Only 17.9% (95% CI: 17.4–19.1) of the women utilized complete continuum of care for maternal and newborn health services in Sierra Leone. About 22% (95% CI: 21.3–23.1) utilized 8 or more antenatal care contacts, 88% (95% CI: 87.9–89.4) had skilled birth attendance while 90.7% (95% CI: 90.2–91.5) and 90.4% (95% CI: 89.9–91.2) of mothers and neonates utilized postnatal care respectively. Having started antenatal care within the first trimester (aOR 1.71, 95% CI: 1.46–2.00), being resident in the Southern region (aOR 1.85, 95% CI: 1.23–2.80), belonging to richer wealth quintile (aOR 1.76, 95% CI: 1.27–2.44), using internet (aOR 1.49, 95% CI: 1.12–1.98) and having no big problems seeking permission to access healthcare (aOR 1.34, 95% CI: 1.06–1.69) were significantly associated with utilization of continuum of care. Conclusion: The overall completion of continuum of maternal care is low, with ANC being the lowest utilized component of continuum of care. These findings call for urgent attention for maternal health stakeholders to develop and implement tailored interventions prioritizing women empowerment, access to affordable internet services, timely initiation of ANC contacts, women in developed regions such as the Western and those from poor households.
The spectrum of central serous chorioretinopathy: clinical characteristics, genetic associations and outcome of treatment

Purpose: To investigate whether patients who developed chronic central serous chorioretinopathy (cCSC) in association with corticosteroid treatment respond differently to photodynamic therapy (PDT) as compared to patients who have not used corticosteroids. Methods: Clinical evaluation included visual acuity (VA), fundoscopy, optical coherence tomography (OCT), fluorescein and indocyanine green angiography. The main outcome measure was a complete resolution of subretinal fluid (SRF) on OCT after PDT. Results: One hundred and twenty-three eyes (117 patients), including 35 steroid associated cases (29%), who received PDT treatment with reduced settings for active cCSC were included. Complete resolution of SRF on OCT was seen in 69% of the steroid-associated cases and in 50% of the controls after PDT treatment ( p = 0.062). At the final follow-up moment, 74% of the cases had a complete resolution of SRF compared to 60% in the control group ( p = 0.142). The VA at the first visit after therapy showed an increase in both groups (mean VA before treatment; cases: 69±14 Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) letters, controls: 74±13 ETDRS letters, mean VA first visit after treatment; cases: 76±13 ETDRS letters, controls: 75±13 ETDRS letters). No significant differences were seen in response to PDT between the patients who continued corticosteroid treatment and those who ceased the use of corticosteroids. Conclusions: Photodynamic therapy appears to be equally effective in patients suffering from steroid-associated cCSC as compared to patients with cCSC who do not use corticosteroids. Continuation of corticosteroids at the time of PDT treatment does not seem to adversely affect PDT response.
Impacts of iron and manganese on arsenic speciation and bioaccessibility in contaminated floodplain soil

Poorly crystalline Fe(III)-As(V) mineraloids are common initial products of oxidative As-bearing sulfide weathering, and they often control As solubility in mining wastes. In mining impacted soils, micro-environments around weathering grains of primary minerals may lead to the formation and stabilization of Fe(III)-As(V) mineraloids under pH conditions significantly different from the bulk soil. The formation conditions of Fe(III)-As(V) coprecipitates may exert a major control on the mineralogy and hence the stability of these solids towards As release after incidental soil ingestion by humans. A set of Fe(III)-As(V) coprecipitates was synthesized at pH values ranging from 1.5-8 and molar Fe(III)/As(V) ratios of 0.8-8. They were physico-chemically characterized by XRD, transmission FT-IR, and electrophoretic mobility measurements, and the bioaccessibility of As was determined using an in vitro assay. The coprecipitates were comprised of varying proportions of amorphous ferric arsenate (AFA)-like solids and As-loaded ferrihydrite. The formation of AFA-like materials was detected in all precipitates up to pH 4. Coprecipitates formed at pH 6-8 were dominated by ferrihydrite. The bioaccessibility of As in the precipitates formed at pH≤4 was controlled by the intrinsic solubility of the AFA-like solids and the presence of sulfate and was highest at formation pH 3-4 (5.8±1.3 %), while the bioaccessibility of As was generally lower in coprecipitates where As(V) was present adsorbed to ferrihydrite (3.7±0.5 %). Overall, the bioaccessibility of As in the gastric solution was ≤7.1 % in the 1:100 solid-to-liquid extracts, but significantly increased with lower solid-to-liquid ratios. We conclude that Fe(III)-As(V) mineraloids exhibit the highest risk for As bioaccessibility when formed at pH 3-4 in sulfate-rich environments.
Effects of endosperm type and storage length of whole-plant corn silage on nitrogen fraction, fermentation products, zein profile, and starch digestibility

Zeins are commercially important proteins found in corn endosperms. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of altering zein levels in corn inbred lines carrying endosperm mutations with differential allelic dosage and analyze the effects on the composition, nutritive value, and starch digestibility of whole-plant corn silage (WPCS) at 5 storage lengths. Three inbred lines carrying 3 different endosperm modifiers ( opaque-2 [ o2 ], floury-2 [ fl2 ], and soft endosperm-1 [ h1 ]) were pollinated with 2 pollen sources to form pairs of near-isogenic lines with either 2 or 3 doses of the mutant allele for each endosperm modifier. The experiment was designed as a split-plot design with 3 replications. Pol-linated genotype was the main plot factor, and storage length was the subplot-level factor. Agronomic precautions were taken to mimic hybrid WPCS to the extent possible. Samples were collected at approximately 30% dry matter (DM) using a forage harvester and ensiled in heat-sealed plastic bags for 0, 30, 60, 120, and 240 d. Thus, the experiment consisted of 30 treatments (6 genotypes × 5 storage lengths) and 90 ensiling units (3 replications per treatment). Measurements included nutrient analysis, including crude protein, soluble crude protein, amylase-treated neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, lignin, starch, fermentation end products, zein concentration, and in vitro starch digestibility (ivSD). The nutritional profile of the inbred-based silage samples was similar to hybrid values reported in literature. Significant differences were found in fresh (unfer-mented) sample kernels for endosperm vitreousness and zein profiles between and within isogenic pairs. The o2 homozygous (3 doses of mutant allele) had the highest reduction in vitreousness level (74.5 to 38%) and zein concentration (6.2 to 4.7% of DM) compared with the heterozygous counterpart (2 doses of mutant allele). All genotypes showed significant reduction of total zeins and α-zeins during progressive storage length. In vitro starch digestibility increased with storage length and had significant effects of genotype and storage length but not for genotype by storage length interaction, which suggests that the storage period did not attenuate the difference in ivSD between near-isogenic pairs caused by zeins in WPCS. Both total zeins and α-zeins showed a strong negative correlation with ivSD, which agrees with the general hypothesis that the degradation of zeins increases ruminal starch degradability. Homo-zygous o2 was the only mutant with significantly higher ivSD compared with the heterozygous version, which suggests that, if all other conditions remain constant in a WPCS systems, substantial reductions in endosperm α-zeins are required to significantly improve ivSD in the silo.
Protocol-based veriﬁcation of MPI programs

We present a methodology for the veriﬁcation of Message Passing Interface (MPI) programs written in C. The aim is to statically verify programs against protocol speciﬁcations, enforcing properties such as ﬁdelity and absence of deadlocks. We make use of a protocol language based on a dependent type system for message-passing parallel programs. For the veriﬁcation of a program against a given protocol, the protocol is ﬁrst translated into a representation read by VCC, a software veriﬁer for the C programming language. The program is then annotated with speciﬁc assertions that, together with a pre-established set of contracts for MPI primitives, guide the veriﬁer to either prove or disprove the program’s conformance to the protocol. We successfully veriﬁed MPI programs in a running time that is independent of the number of processes or other input parameters. This contrasts with other techniques, notably model checking and symbolic execution, that suffer from the state-explosion problem. We experimentally evaluated our approach against TASS, a state-of-the-art tool for MPI program veriﬁcation.
Chaotic and regular dynamics of a morphing shell with a vanishing-stiffness mode

Thin elastic shells are almost inextensible but easy to bend. In the presence of prestresses, geometric frustrations can produce complex elastic energetic landscapes, which have been tailored for the design of morphing structures with multiple stable equilibria or neutrally stable manifolds. We show that the co-existence of stiﬀ and ﬂoppy modes leads to unexploited dynamical features. We build a neutrally stable cylindrical shell that under dynamical excitation alternates a chaotic behaviour with a surprisingly regular regimes with a continuous precession of the curvature axis at a constant speed. We explain the experimental ﬁndings with a minimal model, showing how the intriguing dynamics is due to the subtle coupling between the prestress, geometrical nonlinearity, material anisotropy and inertial eﬀects. Our results shed a new light on morphing structures dynamics and can be exploited in engineering applications such as energy harvesting.
COVID-19 and Mental Health/Substance Use Disorders on Reddit: COVID-19 and Mental Health/Substance Use Disorders on Reddit: A Longitudinal Study A Longitudinal Study

—Dementia is a group of irreversible, chronic, and progressive neurodegenerative disorders resulting in impaired memory, communication, and thought processes. In recent years, clinical research advances in brain aging have focused on the earliest clinically detectable stage of incipient dementia, commonly known as mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Currently, these disorders are diagnosed using a manual analysis of neuropsychological examinations. We measure the feasibility of using the linguistic characteristics of verbal utterances elicited during neuropsychological exams of elderly subjects to distinguish between elderly control groups, people with MCI, people diagnosed with possible Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and probable AD. We investigated the performance of both theory-driven psycholinguistic features and data-driven contextual language embeddings in identifying different clinically diagnosed groups. Our experiments show that a combination of contextual and psycholinguistic features extracted by a Support Vector Machine improved distinguishing the verbal utterances of elderly controls, people with MCI, possible AD, and probable AD. This is the ﬁrst work to identify four clinical diagnosis groups of dementia in a highly imbalanced dataset. Our work shows that machine learning algorithms built on contextual and psycholinguistic features can learn the linguistic biomarkers from verbal utterances and assist clinical diagnosis of different stages and types of dementia, even with limited data
The emission of CO from tropical rain forest soils

Soil CO fluxes represent a net balance between biological soil CO uptake and abiotic soil and (senescent) plant CO production. Studies largely from temperate and boreal forests indicate that soils serve as a net sink for CO , but to date uncertainty remains about the role of tropical rain forest soils. Here we report the first direct measurements of soil CO fluxes in a tropical rain forest. We compare with estimates of net ecosystem CO fluxes derived from accumulation of CO at night under stable atmospheric conditions. Further, we used laboratory experiments to demonstrate the importance of temperature 5 on net soil CO fluxes. Net soil surface CO fluxes ranged from -0.19 to 3.36 nmol m − 2 s − 1 , averaging ∼ 1 nmol CO m − 2 s − 1 . Fluxes varied with season and topographic location, with highest fluxes measured in the dry season in a seasonally inundated valley. Ecosystem CO fluxes estimated from nocturnal canopy air profiles, which showed CO mixing ratios that consistently decreased with height, ranged between 0.3 and 2.0 nmol CO m − 2 s − 1 . A canopy layer budget method, using the nocturnal increase in CO , estimated similar flux magnitudes (1.1 to 2.3 nmol CO m − 2 s − 1 ). In the wet season, a greater valley ecosystem 10 CO production was observed in comparison to measured soil valley CO fluxes, suggesting a contribution of the valley stream to overall CO emissions. Laboratory incubations demonstrated a clear increase in CO production with temperature that was also observed in field fluxes, though high correlations between soil temperature and moisture limit our ability to interpret the field relationship. At a common temperature (25 ◦ C), expected plateau and valley senescent leaf CO production was small (0.012 and 0.002 nmol CO m − 2 s − 1 ) in comparison to expected soil material CO emission ( ∼ 0.9 nmol CO m − 2 s − 1 ). Based 15 on our field and laboratory observations, we expect that tropical rain forest ecosystems are a net source of CO , with thermal degradation-induced soil emissions likely being the main contributor to ecosystem CO emissions. Extrapolating our first observation-based tropical rain forest soil emission estimate of ∼ 1 nmol m − 2 s − 1 , a global tropical rain forest soil emission of
MONOTONICITY PRESERVING AND TOTAL VARIATION DIMINISHING MULTIGRID TIME STEPPING METHODS

We propose a fast multiplicative and additive multigrid time stepping schemes for solving linear and nonlinear wave equations in one dimension. The idea is based on an upwind biased interpolation and residual restriction operators, and a nonstandard coarse grid update formula for linear equations. We prove that the two-level schemes preserve monotonicity and are total variation diminishing, and the same results hold for the multilevel additive scheme. We generalize the idea to nonlinear equations by solving local Riemann problems. We demonstrate numerically that these schemes are essentially nonoscillatory, and that the optimal speed of wave propagation of 2 M (cid:0) 1 is achieved, where M is the number of grids
LDAT: A LIDAR Data Analysis and Visualization Tool

—Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors have been employed in many different ways over time and continue to be utilized today. These sensors produce point clouds which are large and complex data sets that are a collection of position points across a 3D space. As LiDAR point cloud data can be highly complex, it can often be difﬁcult to conduct analysis and visualization of the data sets. A web tool was developed to analyze and visualize this type of data, ensuing in an interactive and readable representation of the data. The data obtained for this tool is from LiDAR sensors located on street lights directly adjacent to the University of Nevada, Reno to analyze trafﬁc information. In order to ensure the effectiveness of the tool, a user study was conducted to test the functionality and assess possible improvements.
Synthesis and characterization of a greener poly(vinyl acetate) adhesive

i To produce a greener adhesive is always an issue of concern to the commercial market and global environment. The environmental request for producing greener and bio-based adhesives leads to an increased awareness of replacing fossil-based components in adhesives with bio-based alternatives. Consequently, many researchers try to graft polymers from natural materials and some achievements have been made. In this work, an improved procedure to graft vinyl acetate (VAc) from chitosan (CS) is proposed and significant improvements were made regarding the increased T g and water resistance. The achieved monomer conversion of VAc was ~97 %, and it was confirmed that chitosan-graft - poly(vinyl acetate) (CS-g -PVAc) could be used as a wood adhesive. The adhesive exhibited competitive properties to commercial PVAc wood adhesive. In the produced CS-g -PVAc, ~17 % of the fossil-based content of VAc could be replaced with bio-based chitosan, indicating an increased sustainability. At the same time there is no residual monomer during pressing, which avoid to pollute environment and hurt human. Compared to commercial PVAc, which has T g at ~28 ℃, the T g of CS-g -PVAc is ~42 ℃ At the same time, the water resistance of PVAc adhesive was successfully increased.
Effect of Aloe Vera Gel on the Physical Properties of Vegan Ice Cream Bar

Aloe vera is a type of crop that is easy to cultivate and highly popular in Vietnam, with a unique nutritional composition and functional characteristics that are increasingly applied in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and especially food. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of aloe vera gel on the physical properties of plant-based cream such as viscosity, melting point, and structural properties. With water as the main component, accounting for 98.05 ± 0.01 %, the aloe vera gel was added to the formula of plant-based cream with mung beans and coconut milk at 0, 100, 150, 200, 250, and 300 (g). A total of 6 ice cream bar samples were studied and 1 control sample (Wall’s Seru ice cream) was determined for TPA structural properties including hardness (kg), cohesion, resilience (kg), and chewiness (mJ). The results showed that the cream with 250 g of added aloe vera gel had suitable and comparable properties to Seru cream. As the proportion of aloe vera gel increased, the viscosity of the cream decreased, and conversely, the melting rate of the cream increased. Importantly, when the highest level of aloe vera gel liquid (300 g) was added, the obtained plant-based cream still had high viscosity and a slower melting time compared to the control sample of the control ice cream bar. The results of this study can be applied to the development of plant-based creams, without milk, to serve the diverse needs of customers, while reducing the adverse environmental impacts in the current global situation
University of Birmingham Human sperm accumulation near surfaces: a simulation study

A hybrid boundary integral/slender body algorithm for modelling ﬂagellar cell motility is presented. The algorithm uses the boundary element method to represent the ‘wedge-shaped’ head of the human sperm cell and a slender body theory representation of the ﬂagellum. The head morphology is speciﬁed carefully due to its signiﬁcant eﬀect on the force and torque balance and hence movement of the free-swimming cell. The technique is used to investigate the mechanisms for the accumulation of human spermatozoa near surfaces. Sperm swimming in an inﬁnite ﬂuid, and near a plane boundary, with prescribed planar and three-dimensional ﬂagellar waveforms are simulated. Both planar and ‘elliptical helicoid’ beating cells are predicted to accumulate at distances of approximately 8 . 5 − 22 μ m from surfaces, for ﬂagellar beating with angular wavenumber of 3 π to 4 π . Planar beating cells with wavenumber of approximately 2 . 4 π or greater are predicted to accumulate at a ﬁnite distance, while cells with wavenumber of approximately 2 π or less are predicted to escape from the surface, likely due to the breakdown of the stable swimming conﬁguration
ScholarWorks@BGSU ScholarWorks@BGSU

Population-level disparities in lat er-life cog ni tive health point to the im por-tance of fam ily re sources. Although the bulk of prior work on the topic has established the di rec tional flow of re sources from par ents to off spring, the linked lives per spec tive raises the ques tion of how off spring re sources could af fect pa ren tal health as well. This study ex am ines whether adult chil dren’s ed u ca tion in flu ences older par ents’ (aged 50 + ) cog ni tive health in Mexico, where school ing re forms have con trib uted to sig nif cant gains in the ed u ca tional achieve ments of re cent birth co horts. Harnessing a change in com pul sory school laws and ap ply ing an in stru men tal var i ables ap proach, we found that each year of off spring school ing was as so ci ated with higher over all cog ni tion among par ents but was less pre dic tive across dif fer ent cog ni tive func tion ing do mains. More off spring school ing im proved par ents’ cog ni tive abil i ties in ver bal learn ing, ver­ bal flu en cy, and ori en ta tion, but not in vi sual scan ning, visuospatial abil i ty, or vi sual mem o ry. The ben e f cial ef fects of off spring school ing on those cog ni tive do mains are more sa lient for moth ers than for fa thers, suggesting po ten tial gen dered ef fects in the in flu ence of off spring school ing. The re sults remained ro bust to con trols for par­ ent­child con tact and geo graphic prox im i ty, suggesting other av e nues through which off spring ed u ca tion could af fect pa ren tal health and a path way for fu ture re search. Our fnd ings con trib ute to grow ing re search stressing the causal in flu ence of fa mil ial ed u­ ca tional at tain ment on pop u la tion health.
Rhabdomyolysis following electrical injury without acute kidney injury

infection and acetaminophen for pain control were administered. Urine output was around 4000-5000 cc per day. The patient’s daily creatine kinase (CK) values were monitored as shown in Figure 2. Compartment syndrome did not develop. In the follow-up, the patient whose CK values progressively decreased and urine