input: Write a Python function that receives a list of integers and counts how many of them have a digit sum greater than zero. If an integer is negative, the first digit should be considered negative (e.g., for -123, the digits are -1, 2, and 3).
  
  assert count_elements([]) == 0
  assert count_elements([-1, -2, 0]) == 0
  assert count_elements([1, 1, 2, -2, 3, 4, 5]) == 6
  assert count_elements([1, 6, 9, -6, 0, 1, 5]) == 5
  assert count_elements([1, 100, 98, -7, 1, -1]) == 4
  assert count_elements([12, 23, 34, -45, -56, 0]) == 5
  assert count_elements([-0, 1**0]) == 1
  assert count_elements([1]) == 1
output: 
  def count_elements(lst):
      def digit_sum(n):
          digits = str(abs(n))
          total = sum(int(d) for d in digits)
          return total if n >= 0 else total - 2 * int(digits[0])
      
      return sum(1 for x in lst if digit_sum(x) > 0)
  