Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Opportunities to Improve Employee Satisfaction Within State and Local Public Health Agencies.

CONTEXT Public health agencies will likely struggle to staff at necessary levels, given ongoing workforce shortages, the potential for mass retirement, and expanding responsibility. Although the majority of public health workers are satisfied with their jobs overall, it is critical to understand the degree to which they are satisfied and identify factors that contribute to any dissatisfaction that occurs. OBJECTIVE This study identified opportunities for public health agencies to improve work environments and, in turn, improve employee satisfaction and retention. DESIGN Using data from the 2014 Public Health Workforce Interest and Needs Survey, we analyze responses to the survey question, "If you wish, you may provide comments below about your level of job satisfaction. " The 2966 responses (2389 from state and 542 from local public health agencies) that indicated a negative disposition were examined to understand employee dissatisfaction. SETTING The survey was administered to a representative sample of state health departments and convenience samples of local health departments. PARTICIPANTS Responses from employees of state and local health departments are considered. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The most frequently occurring themes overall were identified. In addition, responses describing weaknesses in organizational support (specifically training, communication, workload, and innovation) were summarized. RESULTS The most frequently occurring themes were as follows: (1) salary, specifically in relation to the merit system, performance evaluation, and workload; (2) job security with emphasis on funding, organizational transformation, and politics/government; and (3) career development related to the merit system, performance evaluation, and management. Respondents also reported opportunities in the areas of training, communication, workload, and innovation to improve satisfaction levels. CONCLUSIONS These findings serve as a call to action for leaders in health departments as well as national public health leaders to remedy the concerns raised in their responses. Some of the solutions are within the realm of public health agency leadership, but some may fall within the realm of governors and public health leaders at the federal level. It is important to share these findings so that appropriate decision makers can address public health workforce retention and recruitment issues in the interest of retaining valuable employees.
Benchmarking Cognitive Abilities of the Brain with Computer Games

Most of the players have experienced the feeling of temporarily losing their character in a given gameplay situation when they cannot control the character, simply because they temporarily cannot see it. The main reasons for this feeling may be due to the interplay of the following factors: (1) the visual complexity of the game is unexpectedly increased compared with the previous time period as more and more game objects and effects are rendered on the display; (2) and/or the game is lagging; (3) and finally, it is also possible that the players have no sufficient experience with controlling the character. This paper focuses on the first reason. We have developed a benchmark program which allows its user to experience the feeling of losing character. While the user can control the character well the benchmark program will increase the visual complexity of the display. Otherwise, if the user lost the character then the program will decrease the complexity until the user will find the character again, and so on. The complexity is measured based on the number of changed pixels between two consecutive display images. Our measurements show that the average of bit per second values of losing and finding pairs describes the user well. The final goal of this research is to further develop our benchmark to a standard psychological test.
Perioperative Complication Rates After Colpopexy in African American and Hispanic Women

Objectives The objective of this study was to determine if race affects complication rates after colpopexy. Methods This was an observational study exempt from institutional review board review. Data were obtained from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database from 2010 to 2015. Current Procedural Terminology codes were used to identify patients with a history of colpopexy. Patients were stratified into 3 groups: White, Hispanic, and African American. Descriptive statistics were reported as means with standard deviations. Three-group comparison was performed using Kruskal-Wallis or 1-way analysis of variance. Pairwise analysis was performed with Student t test, Wilcoxon rank sum test, χ2test, or Fisher exact test. Stepwise backward multivariable logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with the composite complication rate. Results A total of 13,206 patients met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Seven hundred thirty-eight patients (5.5%) were African American, and 1210 (9.2%) were Hispanic. The overall complication rate for African Americans, Hispanics, and Whites was 15.0%, 12.0%, and 11.5% (P = 0.006), respectively. The most common complication in the African American group was postoperative transfusion. Multivariable logistic regression found significant associations with perioperative complications and being African American (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.29), higher body mass index (aOR, 1.02), inpatient status (aOR, 1.45), coagulopathy (aOR, 2.77), preoperative transfusion (aOR, 5.09), American Society of Anesthesiologists class 3 or higher (aOR, 1.45), higher preoperative white blood cell count (aOR, 1.04), concomitant sling placement (aOR, 1.19), longer operating time (aOR, 1.003), and longer length of stay (aOR, 1.05). Conclusions African Americans are at an increased risk of perioperative complications after colpopexy, although the reason for this increase is unknown.
Ship Classification Using Deep Learning Techniques for Maritime Target Tracking

In the last five years, the state-of-the-art in computer vision has improved greatly thanks to an increased use of deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs), advances in graphical processing unit (GPU) acceleration and the availability of large labelled datasets such as ImageNet. Obtaining datasets as comprehensively labelled as ImageNet for ship classification remains a challenge. As a result, we experiment with pre-trained CNNs based on the Inception and ResNet architectures to perform ship classification. Instead of training a CNN using random parameter initialization, we use transfer learning. We fine-tune pre-trained CNNs to perform maritime vessel image classification on a limited ship image dataset. We achieve a significant improvement in classification accuracy compared to the previous state-of-the-art results for the Maritime Vessel (Marvel) dataset.
Study of an Optically Controlled Active Frequency Selective Surface

An optically controlled active frequency selective surface (OCAFSS) is proposed in this letter to mitigate the negative impact from the feed network of traditional electrically controlled active frequency selective surfaces. By employing silicon switches, the OCAFSS can manipulate electromagnetic waves through the excitation of light. The equivalent circuit model has been applied to analysis and has a great result. An OCAFSS prototype of the Jerusalem cross slot has been fabricated and measured in the parallel-plate waveguide. The technique of time-domain gating is used in data processing for the purpose of removing undesired signals. It can be observed from the measured results that the proposed OCAFSS exhibits good switching characteristics.
Supramalleolar Osteotomy Combined With an Intra-articular Osteotomy for the Reconstruction of Malunited Medial Impacted Ankle Fractures

Background: Malunion of a medial impacted ankle fracture may cause varus ankle deformity. This retrospective study examined the use of supramalleolar osteotomy combined with an intra-articular osteotomy in patients with malunited medial impacted ankle fractures. Methods: Twenty-four patients with malunited medial impacted ankle fracture were treated between January 2011 and December 2014. Using Weber’s classification, 10 had type A fractures and 14 had type B, and with the AO classification, 20 had 44A2 and 4 had 44B3. All of these patients had varus ankle deformity. Supramalleolar osteotomy combined with an intra-articular osteotomy was performed. The visual analog scale (VAS) for pain during daily activities, the Olerud and Molander Scale and the modified Takakura classification stage were used to determine the clinical outcomes and a radiographic analysis was performed. Results: The radiographic parameters, including the tibial ankle surface (TAS) angle and talar tilt angle (TTA), showed significant differences between the preoperative and follow-up assessments. The mean tibial lateral surface (TLS) did not show a significant change. The average Olerud and Molander Scale score improved significantly from 56.4 ± 6.21 preoperatively to 77.0 ± 6.11 at the latest follow-up (P < .01). The mean VAS decreased significantly from 6.7 ± 0.8 preoperatively to 3.1 ± 0.6 at the latest follow-up (P < .01). No significant difference in the modified Takakura classification stage was observed between the preoperative assessment and the last follow-up. Conclusions: The use of a supramalleolar osteotomy combined with an intra-articular osteotomy was an effective option for the treatment of malunited medial impacted ankle fractures associated with varus ankle deformity. Level of Evidence: Level IV, retrospective case series.
A Low-Voltage Low-Phase-Noise 25-GHz Two-Tank Transformer-Feedback VCO

This paper presents a low-voltage low-phase-noise LC voltage-controlled-oscillator (VCO) with a novel two-tank transformer-feedback topology. The flicker noise up-conversion is suppressed by making the drain impedance of the cross-coupled transistors to be a real number at the second harmonic of the oscillation. The loaded quality factor is boosted and the noise contribution from the transconductor of the VCO is reduced by introducing a negative source impedance. A prototype VCO based on this topology is demonstrated in a 65 nm digital CMOS process. The VCO is operated from 23.9 to 26.9 GHz at a low supply voltage of 0.6 V, while achieving an ultra-low 1/<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f^{3}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> phase noise corner from 170 to 240 kHz across the tuning range. The phase noise is −110 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz frequency offset. The power consumption is 4.8 mW. The measurement results demonstrate that the VCO achieves a state-of-the-art phase noise performance in both the 1/<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f^{2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> region and the 1/<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f^{3}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> region.
A simple method for data partitioning based on relative evolutionary rates

Background Multiple studies have demonstrated that partitioning of molecular datasets is important in model-based phylogenetic analyses. Commonly, partitioning is done a priori based on some known properties of sequence evolution, e.g. differences in rate of evolution among codon positions of a protein-coding gene. Here we propose a new method for data partitioning based on relative evolutionary rates of the sites in the alignment of the dataset being analysed. The rates are inferred using the previously published Tree Independent Generation of Evolutionary Rates (TIGER), and the partitioning is conducted using our novel python script RatePartitions. We conducted simulations to assess the performance of our new method, and we applied it to eight published multi-locus phylogenetic datasets, representing different taxonomic ranks within the insect order Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) and one phylogenomic dataset, which included ultra-conserved elements as well as introns. Methods We used TIGER-rates to generate relative evolutionary rates for all sites in the alignments. Then, using RatePartitions, we partitioned the data into partitions based on their relative evolutionary rate. RatePartitions applies a simple formula that ensures a distribution of sites into partitions following the distribution of rates of the characters from the full dataset. This ensures that the invariable sites are placed in a partition with slowly evolving sites, avoiding the pitfalls of previously used methods, such as k-means. Different partitioning strategies were evaluated using BIC scores as calculated by PartitionFinder. Results Simulations did not highlight any misbehaviour of our partitioning approach, even under difficult parameter conditions or missing data. In all eight phylogenetic datasets, partitioning using TIGER-rates and RatePartitions was significantly better as measured by the BIC scores than other partitioning strategies, such as the commonly used partitioning by gene and codon position. We compared the resulting topologies and node support for these eight datasets as well as for the phylogenomic dataset. Discussion We developed a new method of partitioning phylogenetic datasets without using any prior knowledge (e.g. DNA sequence evolution). This method is entirely based on the properties of the data being analysed and can be applied to DNA sequences (protein-coding, introns, ultra-conserved elements), protein sequences, as well as morphological characters. A likely explanation for why our method performs better than other tested partitioning strategies is that it accounts for the heterogeneity in the data to a much greater extent than when data are simply subdivided based on prior knowledge.
Effect of copper nanoparticles on the mineral content of tissues and droppings, and growth of chickens

ABSTRACT We hypothesised that copper nanoparticles (NanoCu), because of their high physicochemical reactivity and bioavailability, could be used in much smaller quantities than bulk Cu, consequently reducing excretion of Cu into the environment. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effects of various levels of NanoCu on the development and growth of broiler chickens, in order to establish an optimum level of NanoCu dietary supplementation. Broiler chickens were randomly divided into five groups of 10 birds each. The control group received 7.5 mg Cu/kg feed (standard level) as CuSO4, while groups fed with complexes of NanoCu and starch received 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of the standard level of Cu used in the control group. Chicken growth and excretion of Cu, Fe and Zn were measured during the growth period from d 7 to 42. At d 42, the slaughter characteristics, the content of Cu, Fe and Zn in the breast muscle and liver, and the oxidative status were analysed. The results indicate that using NanoCu can reduce the standard level of Cu from CuSO4 supplementation by 75% without jeopardising animal growth, and at the same time significantly decreasing Cu excretion into the environment.
A Web Service for Author Name Disambiguation in Scholarly Databases

Author Name Disambiguation (AND) is the task of clustering unique author names from publication records in scholarly or related databases. Although AND has been extensively studied and has served as an important preprocessing step for several tasks (e.g. calculating bibliometrics and scientometrics for authors), there are few publicly available tools for disambiguation in large-scale scholarly databases. Furthermore, most of the disambiguated data is embedded within the search engines of the scholarly databases, and existing application programming interfaces (APIs) have limited features and are often unavailable for users for various reasons. This makes it difficult for researchers and developers to use the data for various applications (e.g. author search) or research. Here, we design a novel, web-based, RESTful API for searching disambiguated authors, using the PubMed database as a sample application. We offer two type of queries, attribute-based queries and record-based queries which serve different purposes. Attribute-based queries retrieve authors with the attributes available in the database. We study different search engines to find the most appropriate one for processing attribute-based queries. Record-based queries retrieve authors that are most likely to have written a query publication provided by a user. To accelerate record-based queries, we develop a novel algorithm that has a fast record-to-cluster match. We show that our algorithm can accelerate the query by a factor of 4.01 compared to a baseline naive approach.
High-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy alone or with non-invasive ventilation during the weaning period after extubation in ICU: the prospective randomised controlled HIGH-WEAN protocol

Introduction Recent practice guidelines suggest applying non-invasive ventilation (NIV) to prevent postextubation respiratory failure in patients at high risk of extubation failure in intensive care unit (ICU). However, such prophylactic NIV has been only a conditional recommendation given the low certainty of evidence. Likewise, high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) oxygen therapy has been shown to reduce reintubation rates as compared with standard oxygen and to be as efficient as NIV in patients at high risk. Whereas HFNC may be considered as an optimal therapy during the postextubation period, HFNC associated with NIV could be an additional means of preventing postextubation respiratory failure. We are hypothesising that treatment associating NIV with HFNC between NIV sessions may be more effective than HFNC alone and may reduce the reintubation rate in patients at high risk. Methods and analysis This study is an investigator-initiated, multicentre randomised controlled trial comparing HFNC alone or with NIV sessions during the postextubation period in patients at high risk of extubation failure in the ICU. Six hundred patients will be randomised with a 1:1 ratio in two groups according to the strategy of oxygenation after extubation. The primary outcome is the reintubation rate within the 7 days following planned extubation. Secondary outcomes include the number of patients who meet the criteria for moderate/severe respiratory failure, ICU length of stay and mortality up to day 90. Ethics and dissemination The study has been approved by the ethics committee and patients will be included after informed consent. The results will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals. Trial registration number NCT03121482.
Role of ALK5/SMAD2/3 signaling in the regulation of NOX expression in cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase (NOX)-derived reactive oxygen species (ROS) serve an important role in cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. However, the mechanism by which ROS generation is regulated has not yet been fully elucidated. The present study aimed to explore the role of transforming growth factor-β signaling in ROS generation. Sprague Dawley rats were subjected to I/R injury and PC-12 cells were transfected with small interfering RNA against activin receptor-like kinase (ALK)5 or hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R). The results indicated that I/R or H/R significantly increased ALK5 expression, SMAD2/3 phosphorylation and NOX2/4 expression and activity, concomitant with ROS generation and apoptosis. In addition, ALK5 knockdown significantly reversed changes induced by H/R treatment in PC-12 cells. These results suggest that ALK5/SMAD2/3 signaling serves a key role in oxidative stress. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that ALK5/SMAD2/3 activation is associated with the regulation of NOX2/4 expression and exacerbates I/R injury.
A novel role for Lyl1 in primitive erythropoiesis

ABSTRACT Stem cell leukemia (Scl or Tal1) and lymphoblastic leukemia 1 (Lyl1) encode highly related members of the basic helix-loop-helix family of transcription factors that are co-expressed in the erythroid lineage. Previous studies have suggested that Scl is essential for primitive erythropoiesis. However, analysis of single-cell RNA-seq data of early embryos showed that primitive erythroid cells express both Scl and Lyl1. Therefore, to determine whether Lyl1 can function in primitive erythropoiesis, we crossed conditional Scl knockout mice with mice expressing a Cre recombinase under the control of the Epo receptor, active in erythroid progenitors. Embryos with 20% expression of Scl from E9.5 survived to adulthood. However, mice with reduced expression of Scl and absence of Lyl1 (double knockout; DKO) died at E10.5 because of progressive loss of erythropoiesis. Gene expression profiling of DKO yolk sacs revealed loss of Gata1 and many of the known target genes of the SCL-GATA1 complex. ChIP-seq analyses in a human erythroleukemia cell line showed that LYL1 exclusively bound a small subset of SCL targets including GATA1. Together, these data show for the first time that Lyl1 can maintain primitive erythropoiesis. Summary: Using an erythroid-specific knockout of Scl has shown that Lyl1 can maintain yolk sac erythropoiesis by activation of common target genes including Gata1.
Perceptions and Utilization of a Learning Management System: An Analysis from Two Perspectives

This explorative study captured the subjective experiences and perceptions of faculty members and students regarding to the implementation of a new technology enhanced learning program in one university. Strategies used in the data collection included a custom-made set of online surveys, followed by informal interviews with faculty members and students. The findings showed some disparity exists between the experiences and perceptions of faculty and students with regards to some of the factors of the blended learning implementation. Since these experiences and perceptions define the attitudes of these two stakeholders in using the learning management system (LMS), addressing the disparity will be beneficial to encourage the productive use of this technology and crucial in the sustainable integration of LMS into the curriculum of this higher education institution (HEI).
Type 1 Muscle Fiber Hypertrophy after Blood Flow–restricted Training in Powerlifters

Purpose To investigate the effects of blood flow–restricted resistance exercise (BFRRE) on myofiber areas (MFA), number of myonuclei and satellite cells (SC), muscle size and strength in powerlifters. Methods Seventeen national level powerlifters (25 ± 6 yr [mean ± SD], 15 men) were randomly assigned to either a BFRRE group (n = 9) performing two blocks (weeks 1 and 3) of five BFRRE front squat sessions within a 6.5-wk training period, or a conventional training group (Con; n = 8) performing front squats at 60%–85% of one-repetition maximum (1RM). The BFRRE consisted of four sets (first and last set to voluntary failure) at ~30% of 1RM. Muscle biopsies were obtained from m. vastus lateralis (VL) and analyzed for MFA, myonuclei, SC and capillaries. Cross-sectional areas (CSA) of VL and m. rectus femoris were measured by ultrasonography. Strength was evaluated by maximal voluntary isokinetic torque (MVIT) in knee extension and 1RM in front squat. Results BFRRE induced selective increases in type I MFA (BFRRE: 12% vs Con: 0%, P < 0.01) and myonuclear number (BFRRE: 18% vs Con: 0%, P = 0.02). Type II MFA was unaltered in both groups. BFRRE induced greater changes in VL CSA (7.7% vs 0.5%, P = 0.04), which correlated with the increases in MFA of type I fibers (r = 0.81, P = 0.02). No group differences were observed in SC and strength changes, although MVIT increased with BFRRE (P = 0.04), whereas 1RM increased in Con (P = 0.02). Conclusions Two blocks of low-load BFRRE in the front squat exercise resulted in increased quadriceps CSA associated with preferential hypertrophy and myonuclear addition in type 1 fibers of national level powerlifters.