Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical Nurse Specialists’ Perceptions of a Mental Health Patient Portal

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to explore clinical nurse specialists’ views of the potential influence of a mental health portal on nursing practice and to identify portal implementation strategies. Methods: A qualitative descriptive approach was used. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 5 clinical nurse specialists. Two independent coders conducted an inductive content analysis of the transcribed interviews to generate codes describing patterns in the data to identify originating themes. Results: The content analysis uncovered the following 4 themes: (1) implementation strategies, (2) nurse likelihood to recommend, (3) impact on nursing practice, and (4) perceived influence on patients. Conclusion: Direct care nurses may benefit from education and coaching on how to document in the record using patient-centered language that is understandable to patients who may be reading it. In addition, the use of patient portals should be designed to fit into nurses’ existing clinical workflows. Finally, more research is needed to identify the benefits and unintended consequences of patient portals within a mental health context.
Profibrotic, Electrical, and Calcium-Handling Remodeling of the Atria in Heart Failure Patients With and Without Atrial Fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure (HF) are common cardiovascular diseases that often co-exist. Animal models have suggested complex AF-promoting atrial structural, electrical, and Ca2+-handling remodeling in the setting of HF, but data in human samples are scarce, particularly regarding Ca2+-handling remodeling. Here, we evaluated atrial remodeling in patients with severe left ventricular (LV) dysfunction (HFrEF), long-standing persistent (‘chronic’) AF (cAF) or both (HFrEF-cAF), and sinus rhythm controls with normal LV function (Ctl) using western blot in right-atrial tissue, sharp-electrode action potential (AP) measurements in atrial trabeculae and voltage-clamp experiments in isolated right-atrial cardiomyocytes. Compared to Ctl, expression of profibrotic markers (collagen-1a, fibronectin, periostin) was higher in HFrEF and HFrEF-cAF patients, indicative of structural remodeling. Connexin-43 expression was reduced in HFrEF patients, but not HFrEF-cAF patients. AP characteristics were unchanged in HFrEF, but showed classical indices of electrical remodeling in cAF and HFrEF-cAF (prolonged AP duration at 20% and shorter AP duration at 50% and 90% repolarization). L-type Ca2+ current (ICa,L) was significantly reduced in HFrEF, cAF and HFrEF-cAF, without changes in voltage-dependence. Potentially proarrhythmic spontaneous transient-inward currents were significantly more frequent in HFrEF and HFrEF-cAF compared to Ctl, likely resulting from increased sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ load (integrated caffeine-induced current) in HFrEF and increased ryanodine-receptor (RyR2) single-channel open probability in HFrEF and HFrEF-cAF. Although expression and phosphorylation of the SR Ca2+-ATPase type-2a (SERCA2a) regulator phospholamban were unchanged in HFrEF and HFrEF-cAF patients, protein levels of SERCA2a were increased in HFrEF-cAF and sarcolipin expression was decreased in both HFrEF and HFrEF-cAF, likely increasing SR Ca2+ uptake and load. RyR2 protein levels were decreased in HFrEF and HFrEF-cAF patients, but junctin levels were higher in HFrEF and relative Ser2814-RyR2 phosphorylation levels were increased in HFrEF-cAF, both potentially contributing to the greater RyR2 open probability. These novel insights into the molecular substrate for atrial arrhythmias in HF-patients position Ca2+-handling abnormalities as a likely trigger of AF in HF patients, which subsequently produces electrical remodeling that promotes the maintenance of the arrhythmia. Our new findings may have important implications for the development of novel treatment options for AF in the context of HF.
NSGA-NET: A Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm for Neural Architecture Search

This paper introduces NSGA-Net, an evolutionary approach for neural architecture search (NAS). NSGA-Net is designed with three goals in mind: (1) a NAS procedure for multiple, possibly conflicting, objectives, (2) efficient exploration and exploitation of the space of potential neural network architectures, and (3) output of a diverse set of network architectures spanning a trade-off frontier of the objectives in a single run. NSGA-Net is a population-based search algorithm that explores a space of potential neural network architectures in three steps, namely, a population initialization step that is based on prior-knowledge from hand-crafted architectures, an exploration step comprising crossover and mutation of architectures and finally an exploitation step that applies the entire history of evaluated neural architectures in the form of a Bayesian Network prior. Experimental results suggest that combining the objectives of minimizing both an error metric and computational complexity, as measured by FLOPS, allows NSGA-Net to find competitive neural architectures near the Pareto front of both objectives on two different tasks, object classification and object alignment. NSGA-Net obtains networks that achieve 3.72% (at 4.5 million FLOP) error on CIFAR-10 classification and 8.64% (at 26.6 million FLOP) error on the CMU-Car alignment task. Code available at: this https URL
Candida rugosa lipase encapsulated with magnetic sporopollenin: design and enantioselective hydrolysis of racemic arylpropanoic acid esters

Abstract The aim of this study was to prepare the encapsulation of Candida rugosa lipase (CRL) with magnetic sporopollenin. The sporopollenin was covalent immobilized onto magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4), grafted amino (APTES), or epoxy groups (EPPTMS). CRL was sol-gel encapsulated in the presence of magnetic sporopollenin/Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The influence of activation agents ([3-(2,3-epoxypropoxy) propyl] trimethoxysilane (EPPTMS), (3-Aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) and pH and thermal stabilities of the biocatalyst were assessed. Experimental data showed the improved catalytic activity at different pH and temperature values. At 60 °C, free lipase lost its initial activity within 80 min of time, although the encapsulated lipases retained their initial activities of about 65% by APTES and 60% by EPPTMS after 120 min of heat treatment at 60 °C. The catalytic properties of the encapsulated lipases were utilized to hydrolysis of racemic aromatic carboxylic acid methyl esters (Naproxen and 2-phenoxypropionic acid). The results show that the sporopollenin-based encapsulated lipase (Fe-A-Spo-E) has greater enantioselectivity and conversion in comparison with the encapsulated lipase without supports (lipase-enc).
A dietary carbohydrase blend improved intestinal barrier function and growth rate in weaned pigs fed higher fiber diets1

Abstract The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of dietary xylanase (X) and a carbohydrase enzyme blend (EB: cellulase, β-glucanase, and xylanase) on nutrient digestibility, intestinal barrier integrity, inflammatory status, and growth performance in weaned piglets fed higher fiber diets. A total of 460 pigs (6.43 ± 0.06 kg BW; F25 × 6.0 Genetiporc) were blocked by initial BW and pens (n = 12 per treatment) were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 dietary treatments. The diets included a higher fiber unsupplemented control diet (CON) and the CON supplemented with 0.01% X, 0.01% EB, or both enzymes, arranged in a 2 × 2 factorial. The diets were based on corn, soybean meal, corn distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), and wheat middlings. Pigs had 7 d to adapt to the environment and consumed the same commercial diet. Pigs were fed the experimental diets for 28 d with free access to feed and water. Body weight and feed disappearance were recorded weekly. One pig with BW closest to the pen average from each pen was selected and moved to metabolism crates on day 16 and intragastric gavaged a solution of lactulose and mannitol on day 22 followed by 12-h urine collection. Feces were collected from day 23 to 25. Intestinal tissues and mucosal scrapings were collected on day 28. Data were analyzed using PROC MIXED of SAS (9.4). Xylanase, EB, and their interaction were fixed effects and block was a random effect. The EB, but not X, increased pig BW and improved ADG over 28 d (P < 0.05). Neither carbohydrase impacted ADFI, G:F, or apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of DM, GE, or CP. The EB improved ATTD of ADF (32.45 vs. 26.57%; P < 0.01), but had no effect on NDF. Unexpectedly, X reduced ATTD of NDF and ADF (P < 0.01). The EB reduced urinary lactulose:mannitol and increased ileal claudin-3 mRNA abundance (P < 0.05), indicating improved small intestinal barrier integrity. There was a X × EB interaction on ileal secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) concentration (P < 0.05); in the absence of X, EB decreased sIgA compared to CON, but this effect disappeared in the presence of X. The EB also reduced ileal IL-22 mRNA abundance (P < 0.05), probably indicating decreased immune activation. In conclusion, EB but not X enhanced growth rate of weaned pigs fed higher fiber diets, which may be partly explained by the improved small intestinal barrier integrity and reduced immune activation, rather than improvement in nutrient digestibility.
Early Life Professional and Layperson Support Reduce Poor Oral Hygiene Habits in Toddlers—A Prospective Birth Cohort Study

Oral health behaviours of children are formulated from a very young age. Formation of those behaviours among very young children is dependent on their mothers/caregivers who may themselves require support from the health profession or laypersons. The study aimed to investigate if early life visits for check-up and dental advice and perceived support improved oral health behaviours as practiced by mothers of toddlers aged 24–30 months old. Data from a population-base birth cohort study in South Australia was used. The study recruited and followed mothers of newborn children from birth to age 24–30 months. Parental questionnaires collected information about socioeconomic factors, dental visiting patterns, and oral health behaviours as practiced by the mothers for their child. Self-reported putting a child to bed with a bottle and brushing a child’s teeth were the outcome variables. The two main exposures of this study were (1) early visiting for a dental advice, and (2) layperson support that a mother received in the first two years of having the child. Data were analysed progressively from bivariate to multivariable regression models. A total of 1183 mother/child dyads had complete data. The retained sample was representative of the population. Approximately 36% of mothers put their child to bed with a bottle and 26% of mothers did not brush their child’s teeth the night before. Around 29% of children had a visit for dental check-up and 80% of mothers reported having lay support. There were gradients in the outcome variables by socioeconomic factors and the main exposures. Multivariable regression models reported that having no dental visit for advice and having no lay support were associated with 1.30 and 1.21 imes higher rates of putting a child to bed with a bottle, respectively. Having no dental visit for advice was associated with a 1.37-times higher rate of not brushing a child’s teeth, controlling for other factors. This population-based birth cohort study confirmed importance of early life dental visit for check-up and support for mothers of young children in establishing oral health behaviours of young children.
Understanding the software development practices of blockchain projects: a survey

Background: The application of the blockchain technology has shown promises in various areas, such as smart-contracts, Internet of Things, land registry management, identity management, etc. Although Github currently hosts more than three thousand active blockchain software (BCS) projects, a few software engineering research has been conducted on their software engineering practices. Aims: To bridge this gap, we aim to carry out the first formal survey to explore the software engineering practices including requirement analysis, task assignment, testing, and verification of blockchain software projects. Method: We sent an online survey to 1,604 active BCS developers identified via mining the Github repositories of 145 popular BCS projects. The survey received 156 responses that met our criteria for analysis. Results: We found that code review and unit testing are the two most effective software development practices among BCS developers. The results suggest that the requirements of BCS projects are mostly identified and selected by community discussion and project owners which is different from requirement collection of general OSS projects. The results also reveal that the development tasks in BCS projects are primarily assigned on voluntary basis, which is the usual task assignment practice for OSS projects. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that standard software engineering methods including testing and security best practices need to be adapted with more seriousness to address unique characteristics of blockchain and mitigate potential threats.
A Framework for One-Bit and Constant-Envelope Precoding Over Multiuser Massive MISO Channels

Consider the following problem: A multi-antenna base station (BS) sends multiple symbol streams to multiple single-antenna users via precoding. However, unlike conventional multiuser precoding, the transmitted signals are subjected to binary, unit-modulus, or even discrete unit-modulus constraints. Such constraints arise in the one-bit and constant-envelope (CE) massive MIMO scenarios, wherein high-resolution digital-toanalog converters (DACs) are replaced by one-bit DACs and phase shifters, respectively, for cutting down hardware cost and energy consumption. Multiuser precoding under one-bit and CE restrictions poses significant design difficulty. In this paper we establish a framework for designing multiuser precoding under the one-bit, continuous CE and discrete CE scenarios all within one theme. We first formulate a precoding design that focuses on minimization of the symbol-error probabilities (SEPs), assuming quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) symbol constellations. We then devise an algorithm for our SEP-based design. The algorithm combines i) a novel penalty method for handling binary, unit-modulus and discrete unit-modulus constraints; and ii) a first-order non-convex optimization recipe custom-built for the design. Specifically, the latter is an inexact majorizationminimization method via accelerated projected gradient, which, as shown by simulations, runs very fast and can handle a large number of decision variables. Simulation results indicate that the proposed design offers significantly better bit-error rate performance than the existing designs.
h-detach: Modifying the LSTM Gradient Towards Better Optimization

Recurrent neural networks are known for their notorious exploding and vanishing gradient problem (EVGP). This problem becomes more evident in tasks where the information needed to correctly solve them exist over long time scales, because EVGP prevents important gradient components from being back-propagated adequately over a large number of steps. We introduce a simple stochastic algorithm (\textit{h}-detach) that is specific to LSTM optimization and targeted towards addressing this problem. Specifically, we show that when the LSTM weights are large, the gradient components through the linear path (cell state) in the LSTM computational graph get suppressed. Based on the hypothesis that these components carry information about long term dependencies (which we show empirically), their suppression can prevent LSTMs from capturing them. Our algorithm\footnote{Our code is available at this https URL. } prevents gradients flowing through this path from getting suppressed, thus allowing the LSTM to capture such dependencies better. We show significant improvements over vanilla LSTM gradient based training in terms of convergence speed, robustness to seed and learning rate, and generalization using our modification of LSTM gradient on various benchmark datasets.
Engineering of the upper hinge region of human IgG1 Fc enhances the binding affinity to Fc&ggr;IIIa (CD16a) receptor isoform

The interaction between antibodies and Immune cells surface FcγRIIIa (CD16a) receptor triggers a variety of immune responses including antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity, antibody neutralization, phagocytosis, inflammation and tissue injury. Recent studies showed that IgG1 upper hinge region and FcγRs polymorphism play a major role in the interaction with Fcγ receptors and in the stability of the immune complex hence, in mounting strong inflammatory response. To further investigate this issue, we developed a tool box of IgG1 Fc isoforms to depict the affinity between mutated IgG1 Fc regions and extracellular domain variants (V158F) of CD16a. Our strategy consisted of designing different random upper-hinge mutated variants of IgG1 Fc domain, reproducing the naturally occurring two variants of CD16a and producing all of them as recombinant fusion proteins in Pichia Pastoris. The interactions were assayed using the Surface Plasmon Resonance (Biacore) method along with an in silico analysis to identify the major interaction and key residues that underline the affinity between the Fc region and CD16a variants. Our data showed that the affinity of the Fc region to the CD16a is strongly correlated to polar interactions. This molecular engineering approach yielded an IgG1Fc mutant with enhanced binding affinity to CD16a F158 variant.
Results of an internal audit on the survival of patients with uterine sarcoma

Objective: In the last 5 years there has been much discussion about the surgical procedure for uterine fibroids, and essentially, also uterine sarcoma. Still there exists no reliable presurgical diagnostic tool to differentiate between benign fibroids and uterine sarcomas. The aim of this study was to confirm the suspected association between intraoperative spread of tumor by morcellation and impaired outcomes in patients with sarcoma. Material and Methods: After the local ethics commission positively reviewed the study protocol, the oncologic database of our university hospital was retrospectively reviewed for patients with uterine sarcomas over a time period of 13 years (2002-2015). Data was extracted from the medical files and survival information was collected by contacting the patient’s general practitioners if last follow-up-status was older than 6 months. For the analysis, patients were split into two groups with either intrasurgical morcellation (M+) or no morcellation (M-) regarding information provided by the surgical report. Results: Data on 57 patients with uterine sarcoma were available for further analysis. The median age and body mass index of the patients was 63 years and 27 kg/m², respectively. The sarcoma subtypes were 25 leiomyosarcoma, 19 carcinosarcoma, 9 endometrioid stroma sarcoma, 3 adenosarcoma, and one case without further differentiation. In the majority, no morcellation was performed (M- group, n=44) and 51 patients received open surgery (3 laparoscopic, 1 vaginal, and 2 incomplete surgeries). The median time of follow-up was 31 months. The disease-free survival was 50.5 months and the Cox regression analysis showed a hazard ratio of 3.06 [no significant difference between the two subgroups (p=0.079; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.9-10.6)]. The overall survival was found as 62.2 months and the Cox regression analysis showed a hazard ratio of 3.216 with a statistically significant difference between the two subgroups (p=0.013; 95% CI: 1.3-8.1). Conclusion: Despite the efforts to find a pre-surgical diagnostic tool, the clinical situation remains unsatisfactory. Overall sarcoma prevalence is low during the last 13 years at our university center, but morcellation occurred in a relevant portion of patients (13 of 57). If sarcoma is suspected or diagnosed then en-bloc resection of the uterus can prolong survival. Thus, morcellation of the uterus and not the surgical technique (en-bloc resection) is the prognostic factor and should be avoided in any suspicious case.
Stabilization period before capturing an ultra-short vagal index can be shortened to 60 s in endurance athletes and to 90 s in university students

Purpose To find the shortest, acceptable stabilization period before recording resting, supine ultra-short-term Ln RMSSD and heart rate (HR). Method Thirty endurance-trained male athletes (age 24.1 ± 2.3 years, maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) 64.1 ± 6.6 ml·kg-1·min-1) and 30 male students (age 23.3 ± 1.8 years, VO2max 52.8 ± 5.1 ml·kg-1·min-1) were recruited. Upon awaking at home, resting, supine RR intervals were measured continuously for 10 min using a Polar V800 HR monitor. Ultra-short-term Ln RMSSD and HR values were calculated from 1-min RR interval segments after stabilization periods from 0 to 4 min in 0.5 min increments and were compared with reference values calculated from 5-min segment after 5-min stabilization. Systematic bias and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) including 90% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated and magnitude based inference was conducted. Results The stabilization periods of up to 30 s for athletes and up to 60 s for students showed positive (possibly to most likely) biases for ultra-short-term Ln RMSSD compared with reference values. Stabilization periods of 60 s for athletes and 90 s for students showed trivial biases and ICCs were 0.84; 90% CI 0.72 to 0.91, and 0.88; 0.79 to 0.94, respectively. For HR, biases were trivial and ICCs were 0.93; 0.88 to 0.96, and 0.93; 0.88 to 0.96, respectively. Conclusion The shortest stabilization period required to stabilize Ln RMSSD and HR was set at 60 s for endurance-trained athletes and 90 s for university students.
The Influence of Canyon Shadowing on Device-to-Device Connectivity in Urban Scenario

In this work, we use percolation theory to study the feasibility of large-scale connectivity of relay-augmented device-to-device (D2D) networks in an urban scenario featuring a haphazard system of streets and canyon shadowing allowing only for line-of-sight (LOS) communications in a finite range. We use a homogeneous Poisson-Voronoi tessellation (PVT) model of streets with homogeneous Poisson users (devices) on its edges and independent Bernoulli relays on the vertices. Using this model, we demonstrate the existence of a minimal threshold for relays below which large-scale connectivity of the network is not possible, regardless of all other network parameters. Through simulations, we estimate this threshold to 71.3%. Moreover, if the mean street length is not larger than some threshold (predicted to 74.3% of the communication range; which might be the case in a typical urban scenario) then any (whatever small) density of users can be compensated by equipping more crossroads with relays. Above this latter threshold, good connectivity requires some minimal density of users, compensated by the relays in a way we make explicit. The existence of the above regimes brings interesting qualitative arguments to the discussion on the possible D2D deployment scenarios.