Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Surface Modification of Fumed Silica by Plasma Polymerization of Acetylene for PP/POE Blends Dielectric Nanocomposites

Novel nanocomposites for dielectric applications-based polypropylene/poly(ethylene-co-octene) (PP/POE) blends filled with nano silica are developed in the framework of the European ‘GRIDABLE’ project. A tailor-made low-pressure-plasma reactor was applied in this study for an organic surface modification of silica. Acetylene gas was used as the monomer for plasma polymerization in order to deposit a hydrocarbon layer onto the silica surface. The aim of this modification is to increase the compatibility between silica and the PP/POE blends matrix in order to improve the dispersion of the filler in the polymer matrix and to suppress the space charge accumulation by altering the charge trapping properties of these silica/PP/POE blends composites. The conditions for the deposition of the acetylene plasma-polymer onto the silica surface were optimized by analyzing the modification in terms of weight loss by thermogravimetry (TGA). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (EDX) measurements confirmed the presence of hydrocarbon compounds on the silica surface after plasma modification. The acetylene plasma modified silica with the highest deposition level was selected to be incorporated into the PP/POE blends matrix. X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that there is no new crystal phase formation in the PP/POE blends nanocomposites after addition of the acetylene plasma modified silica. Differential scanning calorimetry results (DSC) show two melting peaks and two crystallization peaks of the PP/POE blends nanocomposites corresponding to the PP and POE domains. The improved dispersion of the silica after acetylene plasma modification in the PP/POE blends matrix was shown by means of SEM–EDX mapping. Thermally stimulated depolarization current (TSDC) measurements confirm that addition of the acetylene plasma modified silica affects the charge trapping density and decreases the amount of injected charges into PP/POE blends nanocomposites. This work shows that acetylene plasma modification of the silica surface is a promising route to tune charge trapping properties of PP/POE blend-based nanocomposites.
Treatment of Metastatic or High-Risk Solid Cancer Patients by Targeting the Immune System and/or Tumor Burden: Six Cases Reports

This article summarizes the histories of six patients with different solid tumors treated with a new strategy based on tumor burden reduction and immune evasion as potential targets. All six patients were at a high risk of relapse and were likely to have a minimal residual disease following conventional therapy: biochemical recurrence (BCR) following radical prostatectomy (RP) (two prostate cancers patients), removal of distant metastases (one colorectal and one breast cancer), and complete response (CR) of distant metastases to conventional therapy (one breast cancer and one esophageal–gastric junction cancer). Four of the patients, two after RP and BCR, one after removal of a single pulmonary metastasis from breast cancer, and one after CR to chemotherapy of peritoneal metastases and ascites from an esophageal–gastric junction primary cancer, regularly received cycles of a new drug schedule with the aim of inhibiting immune suppression (IT). In these four patients, preliminary laboratory tests of peripheral blood suggested an interleukin (IL)-2/IL-12 mediated stimulation of cellular immune response with a concomitant decrease in vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) immune suppression. The fifth case was a breast cancer patient with distant metastases in CR, while receiving beta-interferon and interleukin-2 in addition to conventional hormone therapy. To date, all five patients are alive and doing well and they have been unexpectedly disease-free for 201 and 78 months following BCR, 28 months following the removal of a single pulmonary metastases, 32 months following CR to chemotherapy of peritoneal metastases and ascites, and 140 months following diagnosis of multiple bone metastases, respectively. The sixth patient, who had colorectal cancer and multiple synchronous liver metastases and underwent nine surgical interventions for metastatic disease, although not disease-free, is doing well 98 months after primary surgery. Our six cases reports can be interpreted with the hypothesis that immune manipulation and/or a concomitant low tumor burden favored their clinical outcome.
Novel Platform for Droplet Detection and Size Measurement Using Microstrip Transmission Lines

We propose a novel platform for detecting as well as measuring the size of individual droplets in microfluidic channels using microstrip transmission lines. The most outstanding feature of our platform is that, as opposed to previous related works, its design allows for the droplet to flow in a microfluidic channel fabricated between the top strip and the ground plane of a microstrip transmission line. This provides enhanced interaction of the electromagnetic field with the detected droplets. The proposed design allows us to measure droplet size directly from the phase of the microwave signal, without the need for a resonator. The platform is based on low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC), which makes it more compatible with Radiofrequency (RF) and microwave technology than platforms used in previous works. With this platform, we are able to measure droplets as small as 150 µm in radius. It is worth pointing out that our device could also be used for detection, counting and measurement of other microscopic objects.
Risk factors for readmission among a cohort of psychiatric inpatients in Lilongwe, Malawi

Abstract Objectives: Inpatient psychiatric capacity is limited in Malawi and no published studies have assessed psychiatric readmissions there. Information about factors associated with readmission may help guide strategies to reduce readmission rates and keep patients stabilised in the community. Our goal was to determine factors associated with readmission among a cohort of psychiatric inpatients in Lilongwe, Malawi. Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of all patients admitted to an inpatient psychiatric unit in Lilongwe, Malawi from January 1 to December 31, 2011. We used logistic regression to test for associations between readmissions during the study period and patient variables. Results: 419 patients were hospitalised during the study period. Twenty-nine patients (6.9%) were readmitted at least once during the study period. Readmission was associated only with intentional medication non-adherence at home (aOR: 3.33, p = 0.02). Conclusions: Intentional medication non-adherence is a potentially modifiable behaviour associated with psychiatric readmission. Efforts to improve medication adherence among patients following hospital discharge may help decrease the risk of readmission. KEY POINTS The prevalence of readmission among psychiatric inpatients in Lilongwe, Malawi was 6.9% during the 1-year study period. Readmission was associated with intentional medication non-adherence at home. Future research efforts in Malawi should focus on improving medication adherence among psychiatric patients in the community to help decrease rates of readmission.
EEG-Based Multi-Modal Emotion Recognition using Bag of Deep Features: An Optimal Feature Selection Approach

Much attention has been paid to the recognition of human emotions with the help of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals based on machine learning technology. Recognizing emotions is a challenging task due to the non-linear property of the EEG signal. This paper presents an advanced signal processing method using the deep neural network (DNN) for emotion recognition based on EEG signals. The spectral and temporal components of the raw EEG signal are first retained in the 2D Spectrogram before the extraction of features. The pre-trained AlexNet model is used to extract the raw features from the 2D Spectrogram for each channel. To reduce the feature dimensionality, spatial, and temporal based, bag of deep features (BoDF) model is proposed. A series of vocabularies consisting of 10 cluster centers of each class is calculated using the k-means cluster algorithm. Lastly, the emotion of each subject is represented using the histogram of the vocabulary set collected from the raw-feature of a single channel. Features extracted from the proposed BoDF model have considerably smaller dimensions. The proposed model achieves better classification accuracy compared to the recently reported work when validated on SJTU SEED and DEAP data sets. For optimal classification performance, we use a support vector machine (SVM) and k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) to classify the extracted features for the different emotional states of the two data sets. The BoDF model achieves 93.8% accuracy in the SEED data set and 77.4% accuracy in the DEAP data set, which is more accurate compared to other state-of-the-art methods of human emotion recognition.
Color Stability of Microhybrid and Nanofilled Composite Resins: Effect of Surface Sealant Agents Containing Different Filler Content.

AIM To evaluate the effect of surface sealants containing different filler content on the color stability of microhybrid and nanofilled composite resins. MATERIALS AND METHODS The materials evaluated as study groups were comprised a nanofilled composite resin (Filtek Ultimate, 3M ESPE) and a microhybrid composite resin (Filtek Z250, 3M ESPE). Forty-five disc-shaped specimens (10 mm × 2 mm) were prepared from each composite resin. Each study group was divided into three subgroups: control, G-Coat Plus, and Fortify Plus (n = 15). The baseline color values (L*a*b*) of each specimen were measured using a spectrophotometer according to the CIE L*a*b* color scale. Then, the specimens were immersed in red wine for a period of 3 hours per day for 15 days (3 hours/day × 15 days). After the immersion period, the color values (L*a*b*) of each specimen were measured again. The ΔL*, Δa*, and Δb* values and the color change value (ΔE) were calculated. The data were statistically analyzed with two-way ANOVA and Duncan tests (p = 0.05). RESULTS All the composite resin groups demonstrated/indicated much more color changes after immersion in red wine (ΔE > 3.3). The greater ΔE values were observed with the groups applied surface sealants than the control groups (p < 0.05). Fortify Plus further increased the ΔE values of both composite resins than G Coat Plus (p < 0.05). Filtek Ultimate showed higher ΔE values than Filtek Z250 in all the subgroups (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION The surface sealants regardless of the filler content negatively influenced the color change of the composite resins after immersed in red wine. The microhybrid composite resin had better color stability than the nanofilled composite resin. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE There is no favorable effect of using surface sealants on composite resins to prevent discoloration; besides, the sealants can also increase the color alteration.
Association of HDL cholesterol and triglycerides with mortality in patients with heart failure

It has been demonstrated that there is an association between serum lipoproteins and survival rate in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy, as well as in patients with non-ischemic causes of heart failure. We tested the hypothesis of an association between serum lipoprotein levels and prognosis in a cohort of outpatients with heart failure, including Chagas’ heart disease. The lipid profile of 833 outpatients with heart failure in functional classes III and IV of the New York Heart Association, with a mean age of 46.9 ± 10.6 years, 655 (78.6%) men and 178 (21.4%) women, was studied from April 1991 to June 2003. The survival rate was estimated by the Kaplan-Meyer’s method and the Cox proportional hazards models. Etiology of heart failure was ischemic cardiomyopathy in 171 (21%) patients, Chagas’ heart disease in 144 (17%), hypertensive cardiomyopathy in 136 (16%), and other etiologies in 83 (10%). In 299 (36%) patients, heart failure was ascribed to idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. Variables significantly associated with mortality were age (hazard ratio, HR = 1.02; 95%CI = 1.01-1.03; P = 0.0074), male gender (HR = 1.77; 95%CI = 1.2-2.62; P = 0.004), idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (HR = 1.81; 95%CI = 1.16-2.82; P = 0.0085), serum triglycerides (HR = 0.97; 95%CI = 0.96-0.98; P < 0.0001), and HDL cholesterol (HR = 0.99; 95%CI = 0.99-1.0; P = 0.0280). Therefore, higher serum HDL cholesterol and higher serum triglycerides were associated with lower mortality in this cohort of outpatients with heart failure.
Applied nutritional investigation Energy metabolism in infants with congenital heart disease

Failure to thrive is common in children with congenital heart disease and influences the metabolic response to injury and outcome after corrective cardiac surgery. Energy imbalance is a major contributing factor. However, the published literature is difficult to interpret as studies generally involve small patient numbers with a diverse range of types and severity of cardiac lesions and genetic and/or prenatal factors. The age and time of corrective surgery affects the potential for nutritional recovery. Although the immediate postoperative period is characterized by a hypermeta- bolic state, low total and resting energy expenditure are reported within 24 h of surgery. After 5 d, resting energy expenditure returns to preoperative levels. Significant improvements in weight and growth occur within months after corrective surgery. However, limited postoperative recovery in nutritional status and growth occurs in infants with a low birth weight, intellectual deficit, or residual malformation. Further studies are needed to inform the timing of corrective cardiac surgery to maximize nutritional outcomes and to identify those infants who may benefit from aggressive
Influence of Adaptation and Adhesion on the Retention of Computer-aided Design/Computer-aided Manufacturing Glass Fiber Posts to Root Canal.

AIM The study aimed to assess the effect of friction and adhesion on the pushout bond strength of CAD/CAM fiber-reinforced composite (FRC) post and cores in comparison to prefabricated fiber posts. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty extracted single-rooted premolars were divided into three groups (N = 10): CP: CAD/CAM FRC posts (Trilor, Bioloren) cemented with self-adhesive resin cement (Rely X U200, 3M) as control group. CPL: CAD/CAM FRC composite posts cemented with the same self-adhesive resin cement after lubricating the root canal with petroleum jelly (Vaseline, Unilever) to prevent adhesion. RXP: prefabricated posts cemented with self-adhesive resin cement. Specimens were subjected to thermal cycling and then to pushout tests. The mode of failure was observed using a stereomicroscope. Results were analyzed by two-way ANOVA followed by a Tukey's post hoc test for comparison, p = 0.05. RESULTS Push-out bond strength was significantly lower in the RXP group (8.54 ± 3.35 MPa) in comparison to CP (12.10 ± 1.38 MPa), while no significant differences were concluded between the other groups. Failure was mostly adhesive for CPL and RXP and adhesive and mixed for CP. CONCLUSION Custom made CAD/CAM posts have a positive effect on the retention of FRC posts to root canal walls while adhesion between self-adhesive cement and root dentin did not influence significantly the pushout bond strength of CAD/CAM posts to root canal. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE The friction of well-adapted CAD/CAM fiber post and cores plays a predominant role in the success of post restorations of endodontically treated teeth.
Circulating levels of inflammatory parameters pentraxin-3, cyclophilin and heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction

Abstract Inflammatory biomarkers – pentraxin-3 (PTX3), cyclophilin A (CypA) and heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor (HB-EGF) were examined in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing revascularization with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) and stent implanting. Investigated parameters were compared between patients with and without obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). In addition, their changes were tested in circulation before and immediately after pPCI. The study group consisted of 81 STEMI patients. Patients were classified in the STEMI-CAD group if they had significant obstructive CAD or in MINOCA group if they had no significant stenosis. In STEMI-CAD patients inflammatory parameters were determined prior to and after pPCI intervention. Immediately after pPCI, in STEMI-CAD patients levels of PTX3 were significantly lower (1.52 vs. 2.17 μg/L, p < .001), while the levels of HB-EGF (14.61 vs. 12.03 pg/L, p < .001) and CyPA (15.95 vs. 8.62 μg/L, p < .001) were significantly higher compared to levels before pPCI. STEMI–CAD patients had lower PTX3 values 2.17 μg/L (1.55–5.10 μg/L) than MINOCA patients 5.06 μg/L (2.77–6.7 μg/L), p = . 046. Diagnostic accuracy of PTX3 for discrimination MINOCA from STEMI-CAD patients was low (area under receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.770). Evaluation of PTX3 values may be helpful in the understanding of MINOCA aetiology but they couldn’t distinguish stenosis severity in STEMI patients. Inflammatory biomarkers significantly changed after pPCI but the possibility of clinical use of these biomarkers needs to be evaluated in a larger prospective study.
Arbitrarily Shaped Scene Text Detection With a Mask Tightness Text Detector

Scene text in the environment is complicated. It can exist in arbitrary text fonts, sizes or shapes. Although scene text detection has witnessed considerable progress in recent years, the detection of text with complex shapes, especially curved text, remains challenging. Datasets with adequate samples to overcome the problem presented by curved text (or other irregularly shaped text) have been introduced only recently; however, the performance of the reported methods on these datasets is unsatisfactory. Therefore, detecting arbitrarily shaped text remains a challenging. This motivated us to propose the Mask Tightness Text Detector (Mask TTD) to improve text detection performance. Mask TTD uses a tightness prior and text frontier learning to enhance pixel-wise mask prediction. In addition, it achieves mutual promotion by integrating a branch for the polygonal boundary of each text region, which significantly improves the detection performance of arbitrarily shaped text. Experiments demonstrate that Mask TTD can achieve state-of-the-art performance on existing curved text datasets (CTW1500, Total-text, and CUTE80) and three common benchmark datasets (RCTW-17, MSRA-TD500, and ICDAR 2015). It is worth mentioning that on CTW1500, our method can outperform previous methods, especially at higher intersection over union (IoU) thresholds (16% higher than the next-best method with an IoU threshold of 0.8), which demonstrates its potential for tight text detection. Moreover, on the largest Chinese-based dataset RCTW-17, Mask TTD outperforms other methods by a large margin in terms of both the Average Precision and F-measure, showing its powerful generalization ability.
PENGAWASAN, STRATEGI ANTI FRAUD, DAN AUDIT KEPATUHAN SYARIAH SEBAGAI UPAYA FRAUD PREVENTIVE PADA LEMBAGA KEUANGAN SYARIAH

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk membahas beberapa konsep penting, yaitu kemungkinan adanya kecenderungan tindakan fraud pada lembaga keuangan syariah, strategi anti fraud , sistem pengawasan pada lembaga keuangan syariah, serta bagaimana standar audit kepatuhan syariah yang dapat digunakan sebagai salah satu upaya untuk fraud preventive. Fokus dalam kajian ini lebih ditekankan pada lembaga keuangan perbankan syariah, dimana kajian yang dilakukan menggunakan studi pustaka yang mengacu pada penelitian terdahulu dan diakhiri dengan analisis kritis dan solusi praktis terkait permasalahan yang diangkat.
Salivary microR‐153 and microR‐223 Levels as Potential Diagnostic Biomarkers of Idiopathic Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the most common movement disorder among adults, affecting 2% of the world population older than 65 years of age. No diagnostic biomarker for routine use in clinical settings currently exists. Dysregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) has been implicated in various neurodegenerative conditions, including PD. Distinct miRNAs have been demonstrated to be involved in the regulation of α‐synuclein, a key player in PD pathogenesis; miR‐153 and miR‐223 are downregulated in the brain and serum of parkinsonian GFAP.HMOX1 transgenic mice where they directly regulate α‐synuclein.
Educating children through their parents to prevent child sexual abuse in Turkey.

PURPOSE The aims of this study were to train parents to recognize and prevent child sexual abuse (CSA); evaluate the problems encountered by parents; and evaluate the overall effectiveness of the CSA training program. DESIGN AND METHODS The study used a pretest/posttest design. The study was conducted with a sample of 58 children (aged 3-6 years) and 64 parents. FINDINGS Children who received CSA prevention education from their parents demonstrated improved knowledge about private parts and about what they should do if they suspect sexual abuse. The parents stated that they encountered some problems (other family members objected to the child being given such training). PRACTISE IMPLICATIONS Children's risk of abuse may be reduced if their parents teach them about CSA correctly.
A PROSPECTIVE CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY OF JOINT MOTION IN HEALTHY ADULT SUBJECTS

Normal range of joint motion is an important factor in joint examination in clinical practice which is related to factors such as age, sex and geographic region. There is no data in the literature on the range of joint motions in healthy Iranian adults. We studied joint motions in 100 healthy volunteer subjects, 49 men and 51 women, from 19 and 58 years of age. The joint mobility was examined in saggital, frontal, transversal and rotating levels (SFTR). The normal range of motion of all peripheral and axial joint was examined using the standard goniometric technique. There were no significant difference in elbow flexion, shoulder adduction, inward rotation of shoulder and inward and outward rotation of hip, in relation to the age and gender of the studied subjects. There was inverse relationship between joint motion indices and age.
Orem’s Self-Care Model with Multiple Sclerosis Patients’ Balance and Motor Function

Orem’s self-care model has been introduced as a nursing model to empower participants with chronic diseases. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of nursing interventions using Orem’s self-care model with multiple sclerosis participants’ balance and motor function. Sixty-three participants with multiple sclerosis were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The nursing intervention using Orem’s self-care model was performed for eight sessions of 45–60 minutes in the intervention group. In the intervention group, a significant increase (improvement) was observed in the mean scores of balance before (17.09 ± 1.97) and after the intervention (33.75 ± 6.01). A significant decrease (improvement) was observed in the mean of motor functions before (4.12 ± 0.34) and after the intervention (1.59 ± 0.71) (p = 0.001). However, no significant difference existed in the mean scores of balance (p = 0.10) and motor function in the control group (p = 0.20). The nursing intervention using Orem’s self-care model improved balance and motor function of participants with multiple sclerosis.