Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors Influencing Health Impacts among Smartphone Users in New Normal Situation: A Case Study among University Students in Thailand

Abstract Background: Nowadays, smartphone users are increasing across the world. Smartphones have become a necessary thing in people's life. Using smartphones have both benefits and health effects. Therefore, this study mainly aims to develop an appropriate mobile application to be the tool for health effects and finding factors associated with a health risk from smartphone usage. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study. The data was conducted in Thailand. The sample size was 500 university students. The Smartphone U Health mobile application was developed and shown in the Play Store and App Store. The self-administration was used for data collection throughout the Smart U Health. Data were entered and analyzed with licensed SPSS version 22. Results: The participants, including 328 females (65.6%) and 172 males (34.4%) with an average age was 20.3{+/-}1.5 years old. The average period of using smartphones was 7.9{+/-}2.0 years. The average time spent was 8.6{+/-}3.4 hours/day. The primary physical, mental, and social health effects from smartphone usage over three months were eye pain (93.8%), feeling bored (90.4%), the participants had a communication problem with other people (84.0%), respectively. In the multivariate analysis, the significant factors associated with a health risk from smartphone usage were faculty, income, using smartphones in the classroom, experience of resting their eyes before continuing. Moreover, knowledge and practice levels were significantly associated with health risk levels from smartphone usage. Conclusion: Overuse of smartphones had many health effects. The Smart U Health mobile application might be the appropriate tool to assess smartphone users' health risk levels. In the future, it may consider an intervention study to reduce health risks from smartphone usage. Keywords: Smartphone, University students, mHealth, Mobile application, Health effects
b Requires TGF-Independent of a Type 2 Immune Shift and Diabetes in Nonobese Diabetic Mice Is Helminth Protection against Autoimmune

Leading hypotheses to explain helminth-mediated protection against autoimmunity postulate that type 2 or regulatory immune responses induced by helminth infections in the host limit pathogenic Th1-driven autoimmune responses. We tested these hypotheses by investigating whether infection with the ﬁlarial nematode Litomosoides sigmodontis prevents diabetes onset in IL-4–deﬁcient NOD mice and whether depletion or absence of regulatory T cells, IL-10, or TGF- b alters helminth-mediated protection. In contrast to IL-4–competent NOD mice, IL-4–deﬁcient NOD mice failed to develop a type 2 shift in either cytokine or Ab production during L. sigmodontis infection. Despite the absence of a type 2 immune shift, infection of IL-4–deﬁcient NOD mice with L. sigmodontis prevented diabetes onset in all mice studied. Infections in immunocompetent and IL-4–deﬁcient NOD mice were accompanied by increases in CD4 + CD25 + Foxp3 + regulatory T cell frequencies and numbers, respectively, and helminth infection increased the proliferation of CD4 + Foxp3 + cells. However, depletion of CD25 + cells in NOD mice or Foxp3 + T cells from splenocytes transferred into NOD.scid mice did not decrease helminth-mediated protection against diabetes onset. Continuous depletion of the anti-inﬂammatory cytokine TGF- b , but not blockade of IL-10 signaling, prevented the beneﬁcial effect of helminth infection on diabetes. Changes in Th17 responses did not seem to play an important role in helminth-mediated against autoimmunity, helminth was not associated with a decreased Th17 immune response. This study demonstrates that L. sigmodontis -mediated protection against diabetes in NOD mice is not dependent on the induction of a type 2 immune shift but does require TGF- b
Recycling of industrial and urban wastes in brick production: A review (part 2)

The following paper provides an overview of the current status of knowledge about the recycling of industrial and urban wastes in brick production based on studies of literature from the last 20 years. The experiments were made by authors from Italy, Russia, Great Britain, Spain, Germany and the USA. Waste materials fuel waste (53 publications), fly-ash (16 publications), fluxing wastes (10 publications) and plasticity reducing and plastifiying wastes (12 publications) are dealt with.
COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT : A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW Music Therapy for Older Adults Living with Physical and Cognitive Impairment:

Music therapy is considered as an effective intervention for older adults. However, there are few studies that summarize and evaluate the effect of music therapy intervention on older adults living with physical or cognitive impairment. Physical impairments include Parkinson’s disease, stroke, and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Cognitive impairments include dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and mild cognitive impairments. The purpose of this systematic review was to explore the role of music therapy for older adults living with the mentioned physical and cognitive impairments. This includes examining common music therapy goals and activities, comparing the most effective music therapy activities; and summarize the effects of music therapy interventions. This systematic review was conducted in the following databases: MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Academic Search Complete. After searching from these three databases, 7 studies out of 166 studies met the inclusion criteria. The results showed that music therapy intervention has positive effects on physical and cognitive functioning of older adults.
A meta-analysis of impacts of immune response and infection on oxidative status in vertebrates

Abstract Inferring from patterns observed in biomedical research, ecoimmunological theory predicts that oxidative stress is a ubiquitous physiological cost that contributes to generating variation in immune function between individuals or species. This prediction is, however, often challenged by empirical studies testing the relationship between immune response or infection and oxidative status markers. This points out the importance of combining ecological immunology and oxidative stress ecology to further our understanding of the proximate causes and fitness consequences of individual variation in health, and adaptability to natural and anthropogenic environmental changes. I reviewed evidence and performed phylogenetic meta-analyses of changes in oxidative status markers owing to either injection of an antigen or infection in captive and free-living vertebrates (141 studies, 1262 effect sizes, 97 species). The dataset was dominated by studies on fish, birds and mammals, which provided 95.8% of effect sizes. Both antigen injection and parasite exposure were associated with changes of oxidative status. There were significant effects of taxonomic class and experimental environment (captivity vs. wild). In contrast with my predictions, age category (young vs. adult), study design (correlational vs. experimental) and proxies of pace of life (clutch size, litter size, and body mass; for birds and mammals only) were negligible in this dataset. Several methodological aspects (type of immunostimulant, laboratory assay, tissue analysed) showed significant effects on both strength and direction of effect. My results suggest that alterations of oxidative status are a widespread consequence of immune function across vertebrates. However, this work also identified heterogeneity in strength and direction of effect sizes, which suggests that immune function does not necessarily result in oxidative stress. Finally, this work identifies methodological caveats that might be relevant for the interpretation and comparability of results and for the application in conservation programs.
Phone ladies - change agents to shape the bottom of the pyramid: experience of Bangladesh

If we stop thinking of the poor as victims of as a burden and start recognizing them as resilient and creative entrepreneurs and value -conscious consumers, a whole new world of opportunity will open up"(Prahalad, 2005). 'Village phone' is such a weapon of social revolution in rural Bangladesh that fights against poverty by facilitating entrepreneurship , reducing transaction costs, and substituting for slow, unreliable transport and postal systems. It is a tool to empower the nation's rural women with earnings, information, dignity and status. The women are now acting as change agents in rural Bangladesh by serving the community as an umbrella of information to solve all the problems at the robust pace. This paper seeks to determine the factors that are influencing the growth of village phone in Bangladesh. Our findings suggest the role of personal characteristics and social factors as crucial determinants for playing the role of change agents in the society. Disciplines Business Publication Details Akter, S. & Hani, U. (2007). Phone ladies change agents to shape the bottom of the pyramid: experience of Bangladesh. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of the Society for Global Business and Economic Development (SGBED) (pp. 2738-2751). Society for Global Business and Economic Developmen. This conference paper is available at Research Online: http://ro.uow. edu.au/buspapers/1022 2738 Phone LadiesChange Agents to Shape the Bottom of the Pyramid: Experience of Bangladesh Md. Shahriar Akter, shahriar@iuj.ac. jp International university of Japan, Japan Umme Hani , snigdha_hani@yahoo.com The University of Asia Pacific, Bangladesh
Decellularization of tumours: A new frontier in tissue engineering

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. The tumour extracellular matrix (ECM) has unique features in terms of composition and mechanical properties, resulting in a structurally and chemically different ECM to that of native, healthy tissues. This paper reviews to date the efforts into decellularization of tumours, which in the authors’ view represents a new frontier in the ever evolving field of tumour tissue engineering. An overview of the ECM and its importance in cancer is given, ending with examples of research using decellularized tumours, which has already indicated potential therapeutic targets, unravelled malignancy mechanisms or response to chemotherapy agents. The review highlights that more research is needed in this area, which can answer important questions related to tumour formation and progression to ultimately identify new and effective therapeutic targets. Within the near-future of personalized medicine, this research can create patient-specific tumour models and therapeutic regimes.
Effects of oral glutamine supplementation on jejunal morphology, development, and amino acid profiles in male low birth weight suckling piglets

Background It has been shown that small intestine development in low birth weight (LBW) piglets is impaired. Glutamine (Gln) has been reported to improve piglet health and intestinal function in weaned piglets, but data is scarce in suckling piglets. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of oral Gln supplementation compared to Alanine (Ala) on jejunal development and function in 5 and 12 d old male LBW and normal birth weight (NBW) suckling piglets. Results Gln had no effect on the jejunal morphology, development, tissue and digesta amino acid profiles and mRNA abundance of genes involved in amino acid transport, metabolism, glutathione synthesis in LBW piglets when compared to Ala supplementation and birth weight controls at 5 and 12 d. Only the concentration of Gln in jejunal tissue was higher in NBW piglets supplemented with Gln compared to Ala at 5 d (P < 0.05). A comparison of the birth weight groups showed no differences between LBW and NBW piglets at 5 and 12 d in any parameter. Jejunal crypt depth, villus height / width, tunica muscularis thickness, number of goblet and IgA positive cells, the ratio of jejunal RNA to DNA and the concentration of DNA, protein and RNA changed (P < 0.05) from 5 compared to 12 d. The concentrations of several free, and protein bound amino acids as well as amino metabolites differed between age groups in jejunal tissue but the digesta concentrations were affected to a lesser extent. Conclusions Oral Gln supplementation to suckling male piglets over the first 12 d of life was not associated with changes in jejunal parameters measured in this study. The absence of effects may indicate that Gln is absorbed as well as metabolized in the upper intestinal tract and thus could benefit intestinal development at a more proximal location.
Derivation of clinical prediction rules for identifying patients with non-acute low back pain who respond best to a lumbar stabilization exercise program at post-treatment and six-month follow-up

Low back pain (LBP) remains one of the most common and incapacitating health conditions worldwide. Clinical guidelines recommend exercise programs after the acute phase, but clinical effects are modest when assessed at a population level. Research needs to determine who is likely to benefit from specific exercise interventions, based on clinical presentation. This study aimed to derive clinical prediction rules (CPRs) for treatment success, using a lumbar stabilization exercise program (LSEP), at the end of treatment and at six-month follow-up. The eight-week LSEP, including clinical sessions and home exercises, was completed by 110 participants with non-acute LBP, with 100 retained at the six-month follow-up. Physical (lumbar segmental instability, motor control impairments, posture and range of motion, trunk muscle endurance and physical performance tests) and psychological (related to fear-avoidance and home-exercise adherence) measures were collected at a baseline clinical exam. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to predict clinical success, as defined by ≥50% decrease in the Oswestry Disability Index. CPRs were derived for success at program completion (T8) and six-month follow-up (T34), negotiating between predictive ability and clinical usability. The chosen CPRs contained four (T8) and three (T34) clinical tests, all theoretically related to spinal instability, making these CPRs specific to the treatment provided (LSEP). The chosen CPRs provided a positive likelihood ratio of 17.9 (T8) and 8.2 (T34), when two or more tests were positive. When applying these CPRs, the probability of treatment success rose from 49% to 96% at T8 and from 53% to 92% at T34. These results support the further development of these CPRs by proceeding to the validation stage.
Novel Terahertz Devices Based on Tunable 2DEG Systems

by Berardi Sensale Rodríguez Promising applications in many diverse areas of human endeavor, including medicine, communications, security, and so on, terahertz (THz) technology has recently turned into a very active area of scientific research. The THz frequency band, usually defined in the 0.3-30 THz range, was for decades one of the least explored regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, mainly due to the lack of materials and devices responding to these frequencies in a controllable manner. This work presents a study of tunable two-dimensional electron-gas (2DEG) systems and how their unique physical properties can be harnessed to develop novel high-performance active THz devices and systems. First, a new class of highly efficient THz reconfigurable devices based on graphene is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. By employing graphene, an intrinsically 2D semiconductor as the active material, device design with unprecedented degrees of freedom, low-cost, and ease of fabrication is possible thus leading to a Berardi Sensale Rodríguez substantial improvement with respect to the existing art in terms of controllability of THz waves. Although in the infrared/visible range the optical absorption of graphene is only a few percent and scarcely controllable, its optical conductivity dramatically increases at THz leading to the possibility of electrical control of THz absorption. Moreover, by combining graphene layers with other passive structures augmenting the electric field intensity in the graphene, the control over THz waves can be greatly enhanced. By employing this approach THz electro-absorption modulators exhibiting better modulation-depth versus insertion-loss tradeoff than the prior art are demonstrated. These devices can be employed as the building blocks for novel THz systems; for instance a prototype single-detector THz camera was developed employing graphene electro-absorption modulator arrays. But 2DEG systems exhibit further interesting properties which may be exploitable in the THz range such as collective electron transport, i.e. electron-plasma waves, whose group-velocity can be more than one order of magnitude larger than the electron-drift velocity. Based on this phenomenon, novel device concepts for THz detectors and amplifiers are proposed. These devices, named RTD-gated plasma wave HEMTs promise operation at frequencies >> 1 THz, which has been shown to be very difficult to obtain in conventional high-speed transistors.
A risk assessment of equine piroplasmosis entry, exposure and consequences in the UK

Abstract Background Equine piroplasmosis (EP) is currently not endemic in the UK, despite a lack of formal surveillance and the presence of carrier horses in the equine population. Pathogen establishment would have significant welfare and economic impacts on the national equine industry, but the disease is often overlooked by UK practitioners. Objectives To assess the risk of disease entry, exposure and consequences to the UK equine population. Study design Qualitative risk assessment. Methods A qualitative risk assessment was constructed utilising the current World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) published framework for importation risk assessment, assessing the key areas of disease entry, exposure and consequences to the UK equine population. Results The overall risk of EP entry to the UK via importation of infected equidae with acute disease is very low but considered medium with subclinical carrier animals. Entry via importation of ticks or the importation of blood is considered very low. The risk of EP exposure to susceptible equidae in the UK is considered low by the infection routes of tick‐bites, contaminated needles and contaminated blood, but very high via transplacental transfer. However, the consequences of EP endemic establishment are considered of high significance to the UK equine industry. Main limitations A lack of available numerical data for events and variables in disease import risk meant a qualitative assessment was the most practical method for this scenario. Conclusions This risk assessment highlights that EP positive animals are able to enter and are currently present in the UK, and that conditions do exist that could allow forward transmission of the disease. It has highlighted a gap in existing policy where the UK falls behind OIE guidelines and has suggested steps to correct this discrepancy and improve national biosecurity.
The peak of China's oil production forecasting and strategies research

About the projections for China's oil production and peak,previous scholars are mostly based on data from 2000 years ago.The predicted results has already not be accurate.This article will predict China's oil production and peak on the basis of the latest data from 1990 to 2013 by Hubbert model,generalized WengShi model and HCZ model.Most foreign experts think the Hubbert model is most suitable model for the projections of oil production and peak.But the comparison results of three models predicted values and actual values in this paper show that the predicted results of generalized WengShi model are more close to the actual value and more suitable for China's oil production foresting.Facing to the upcoming peak of oil production,China adopted a variety of strategies,such as reducing domestic oil production,investment overseas resources and alternative energy,etc.
Factors related to the use of computer technologies for professional tasks by business and administration teachers at saudi technical colleges

Computer technologies are fundamental components of today's business world, and business education teachers should stand at the forefront of those who understand and employ it. Computer technologies are important tools for improving instructional design and effectiveness. The technologies also empower learners to become life-long masters of their own learning. Integrating computer technologies into the teaching and learning transaction has been found to transform the teacher's role of “knowledge dispenser” to “learning facilitator” and make learning more relevant and stimulating. The purpose of this study was to identify the extent to which business-education teachers at Saudi technical colleges have adopted computer technologies into their instructional and related professional tasks. In addition, this study was performed to examine the relationships between computer-adoption factors and the level of computer use in instructional and related professional tasks. Five statistical techniques were used to analyze data collected from 168 responses. Findings indicate that there is a low level of use and integration of computer technologies into professional tasks by business education teachers at the nine Saudi technical colleges. In addition, the findings of this study show that the factors most influencing the low level of use are teacher perceived proficiency with computer technologies, administrative support for teachers wanting to use computer technologies, and the teachers' previous experience with computers.
Vaccination against misinformation: The inoculation technique reduces the continued influence effect

The continued influence effect of misinformation (CIE) is a phenomenon in which certain information, although retracted and corrected, still has an impact on event reporting, reasoning, inference, and decisions. The main goal of this paper is to investigate to what extent this effect can be reduced using the procedure of inoculation and how it can be moderated by the reliability of corrections’ sources. The results show that the reliability of corrections’ sources did not affect their processing when participants were not inoculated. However, inoculated participants relied on misinformation less when the correction came from a highly credible source. For this source condition, as a result of inoculation, a significant increase in belief in retraction, as well as a decrease in belief in misinformation was also found. Contrary to previous reports, belief in misinformation rather than belief in retraction predicted reliance on misinformation. These findings are of both great practical importance as certain boundary conditions for inoculation efficiency have been discovered to reduce the impact of the continued influence of misinformation, and theoretical, as they provide insight into the mechanisms behind CIE. The results were interpreted in terms of existing CIE theories as well as within the remembering framework, which describes the conversion from memory traces to behavioral manifestations of memory.