Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Outcomes of “Complex” Cataract Surgeries Performed by Long-Term Glaucoma Fellows in a Tertiary Eye Centre from Eastern India

Purpose To evaluate the outcomes of operating on “complex cataracts” by the glaucoma fellows. Patients and Methods This was a retrospective study done at a tertiary referral eye care centre in eastern India. After obtaining IRB approval, a retrospective chart review of all patients who underwent “complex” cataract surgery by one of four long-term (2 years) glaucoma fellows between January 2016 and November 2020 was conducted. ‘Complex’ was defined as cataracts complicated with pseudoexfoliation syndrome, phacodonesis with or without blunt ocular trauma, posterior polar cataract, small pupil, co-existent corneal opacity or uveal coloboma, post-glaucoma filtering surgery, post-vitreoretinal surgery, co-existent glaucoma or post-laser iridotomy and monocular patients. Results Out of a total of 677 eyes done by the glaucoma fellows during the study period, 83 eyes had complex cataract surgery and completed the six-week post-operative follow-up. Intraoperative surgical complications like posterior capsular rent or vitreous loss were noted in 36 of the cases. Thirty of the eyes were left aphakic. Despite a high rate of complications, the LogMAR best-corrected visual acuity (mean ± standard deviation) improved from the preoperative level of 1.7 (±0.5) to 1.0 (± 0.8) at post-operative six weeks, significant at p < 0.001. As far as the surgeon’s experience was concerned—less than or more than a year since joining the fellowship—there was statistically no difference in the final visual acuity. The group with greater experience had shorter surgical time and lesser complications though this difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion This is the first study in the literature reporting the outcomes of “complex” cataract surgery performed by glaucoma fellows. Though high rates of postoperative complications were noted in this study, the mean best-corrected visual acuity improved significantly in all eyes after the surgery.
WHY CAN ORGANIZATIONAL RESILIENCE NOT BE MEASURED?

Our aim is to justify why organizational resilience cannot be measured in an ex-ante way and the consequences we can draw from it. To achieve this goal, we examine the relations between different approaches to organizational resilience and the tight interrelation between organizational resilience and organizational and dynamic capabilities. We argue that most proposals about organizational resilience conceptualization, and the metrics derived from them, are closely related. They represent the same core concepts, facts, and relations. Additionally, far from there being no consensus about organizational resilience, researchers are presenting the same ideas with different terms. This implies that there are no better or worse definitions or conceptualizations for organizational resilience, but models are more or less suitable depending on the approach to be established. We agree with the proposal that organizational resilience is a dynamic capability and, as such, it should be studied and considered. This review led us to conclude that because organizational resilience is a dynamic process, it cannot be measured or estimated in an ex-ante way. The fact that organizational resilience cannot be measured brings us to the question of how organizations can address organizational resilience improvement, evaluate their progress, and the tools they can use.
The 8 June 1995 McLean, Texas, Storm. Part I: Observations of Cyclic Tornadogenesis

Abstract On 8 June 1995 scientists participating in the Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment (VORTEX) collected airborne Doppler radar data in a storm that produced a family of tornadoes near McLean, Texas. The Electra Doppler Radar (ELDORA) scanned three significant tornadoes during their formative and mature stages; one of the tornadoes was of F4/F5 intensity. Evidence from pseudo-dual-Doppler analyses of the ELDORA data reveals a process of cyclic tornado formation qualitatively similar to that depicted in previous conceptual models. In particular, the rear-flank gust front appears to play a major role in determining the location of the next vortex in the series. When a tornado forms, a small region (3–5 km wide) of outflow surges ahead of the tornado, producing a local bulge in the gust front. A new vorticity maximum may form near the leading edge of the outflow. In contrast to what is suggested by earlier conceptual models, intersection of the rear-flank gust front with a w.
In Vivo and In Vitro Characterization of Close Analogs of Compound KA-11, a New Antiseizure Drug Candidate

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder involving a number of disease syndromes with a complex etiology. A properly matched antiseizure drug (ASD) gives remission in up to 70% of patients. Nevertheless, there is still a group of about 30% of patients suffering from drug-resistant epilepsy. Consequently, the development of new more effective and/or safer ASDs is still an unmet clinical need. Thus, our current studies were focused on the structural optimization/modifications of one of the leading compounds, KA-11, aiming at the improvement of its antiseizure activity. As a result, we designed and synthesized two close analogs with highly pronounced drug-like physicochemical properties according to in silico predictions, namely KA-228 and KA-232, which were subsequently tested in a panel of animal seizure models, i.e., MES, 6 Hz (32 mA), scPTZ and ivPTZ. Among these compounds, KA-232, which was designed as a water-soluble salt, was distinctly more effective than KA-228 and assured similar antiseizure protection as its chemical prototype KA-11. With the aim of a more detailed characterization of both new molecules, in vitro binding tests were performed to evaluate the potential mechanisms of action. Furthermore, KA-232 was also evaluated in several ADME-Tox studies, and the results obtained strongly supported its drug-like potential. The proposed chemical modification of KA-11 enabled the identification of new pharmacologically active chemotypes, particularly water-soluble KA-232, which, despite the lack of better efficacy than the leading compound, may be used as a chemical prototype for the development of new ASDs, as well as substances potentially active in other neurological or neurodegenerative conditions.
Tolerability and Effectiveness of Cathodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Children with Refractory Epilepsy: A Case Series

There are limited treatment options for drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) in children. We performed a pilot study to investigate the tolerability and effectiveness of cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in DRE. Twelve children with DRE of varied etiology underwent three to four daily sessions of cathodal tDCS. The seizure frequency at 2 weeks before and after tDCS was obtained from seizure diaries; clinic reviews at 3 and 6 months assessed any longer-term benefits or adverse effects. The spike wave index (SWI) was analyzed in the EEGs done immediately before and after tDCS on the first and last day of tDCS. One child remained seizure free for a year after tDCS. One child had reduced frequency of ICU admissions for status epilepticus for 2 weeks, likely due to reduced severity of seizures. In four children, an improvement in alertness and mood was reported for 2–4 weeks after tDCS. There was no benefit following tDCS in the other children. There were no unexpected or serious adverse effects in any child. Benefit was seen in two children, and the reasons for the lack of benefit in the other children need further study. It is likely that tDCS stimulus parameters will need to be tailored for different epilepsy syndromes and etiologies.
Multidrug Resistance Urinary Tract Infection in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients: An Observational Study

Objective: To determine the presence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) urinary tract infections (UTI) and the MDR pattern of the bacterial isolates causing MDR UTI in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 326 diagnosed CKD patients in the Department of Nephrology at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU). Purposive sampling technique was used, and data were collected from the respondents using a semi-structured questionnaire. From duly collected urine samples, identification of organisms and antibiotic susceptibility tests were done, maintaining proper procedure in the microbiology laboratory. Results: The study population was predominantly female (60.1%). The outpatient department provided the majority of the respondents (75.2%). A history of UTI within the last six months was present among 74.2% of the respondents, and 59.2% had a history of taking antibiotics. Bacterial isolates were predominantly gram-negative (79.4%). Escherichia coli was the most prevalent bacterial isolate, present in 55.5% of the study population. Among the respondents, 64.7% were found to have MDR UTI, and among them, 81.5% were gram-negative, and 18.5% were gram-positive isolates. Among all the antibiotics tested, Colistin Sulphate, Polymyxin B, Cefoxitin, Vancomycin, and Linezolid had the highest (100%) sensitivity, followed by Meropenem, with 94.9% sensitivity. Among the gram-negative isolates, Acinetobacter and Enterobacter were most resistant to aminoglycoside, at 70% and 91.7%, respectively. E. coli, Klebsiella, Proteus, and Pseudomonas were most resistant to quinolone at 76.8%, 76.9%, 83.3%, and 66.7%, respectively. Among the gram-positive isolates, Enterococci and Staphylococcus aureus were most resistant to aminoglycoside, 81.5% and 88.9%, respectively. Streptococcus was found to be most resistant to cephalosporin (75.0%). There was a statistically significant (p < 0.05) relationship between MDR UTI, history of UTI, and previous antibiotic intake, and diabetic CKD. Conclusions: The prevalence of MDR UTI among CKD patients is considerably high. When treating UTI, choosing an appropriate antibiotic by urine culture and implementing a guideline on the rational use of antibiotics are essential to managing and preventing the development of MDR UTI.
Embeddings of Topological Products of Circularly Chainable Continua

In a recent paper (5), the author has established the Euclidean spaces of least dimension in which the topological products of finite collections of k-cell-like continua can be embedded. Specifically, it was shown that, for each pair of positive integers k and n, the topological product of any collection of n k-cell-like continua can be embedded in Euclidean space of dimension k(n + 1). This result includes a theorem of Bennett (1) that the topological product of any finite collection of n snakelike continua can be embedded in Euclidean space of dimension n + 1.
Synergetic Photocatalytic Peroxymonosulfate Oxidation of Benzotriazole by Copper Ferrite Spinel: Factors and Mechanism Analysis

The development of oxidation processes with the efficient generation of powerful radicals is the most interesting and thought-provoking dimension of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation. This study reports the successful preparation of a magnetic spinel of CuFe2O4 using a facile, non-toxic, and cost-efficient co-precipitation method. The prepared material exhibited a synergetic effect with photocatalytic PMS oxidation, which was effective in degrading the recalcitrant benzotriazole (BTA). Moreover, central composite design (CCD) analysis confirmed that the highest BTA degradation rate reached 81.4% after 70 min of irradiation time under the optimum operating conditions of CuFe2O4 = 0.4 g L−1, PMS = 2 mM, and BTA = 20 mg L−1. Furthermore, the active species capture experiments conducted in this study revealed the influence of various species, including •OH, SO4•−, O2•−, and h+ in the CuFe2O4/UV/PMS system. The results showed that SO4•− played a predominant role in BTA photodegradation. The combination of photocatalysis and PMS activation enhanced the consumption of metal ions in the redox cycle reactions, thus minimizing metal ion leaching. Additionally, this maintained the reusability of the catalyst with reasonable mineralization efficiency, which reached more than 40% total organic carbon removal after four batch experiments. The presence of common inorganic anions was found to have a retardant effect on BTA oxidation, with the order of retardation following: HCO3− > Cl− > NO3− > SO42−. Overall, this work demonstrated a simple and environmentally benign strategy to exploit the synergy between the photocatalytic activity of CuFe2O4 and PMS activation for the treatment of wastewater contaminated with widely used industrial chemicals such as BTA.
Minimum-Time Transition of FWMAVs from Hovering to Forward Flight

Unlike conventional airplanes, flapping-wing micro-air-vehicles (FWMAVs) move their wings continuously with respect to the body. These new degrees of freedom for the wings (wing kinematics) provide more room for optimal design of these miniature vehicles that are prone to stringent weight and power constraints. However, very few attempts have aimed to provide maneuverability-optimum wing kinematics. In general, the shapes of the kinematic functions are assumed from the outset and their level of control authority is assessed at a later stage. In this work, we formulate a minimumtime optimal control problem to steer the FWMAV dynamical system from hovering configuration to forward flight with a prescribed forward speed. Assuming horizontal stroke plane and a piece-wise constant variation for the wing pitching angle, only the waveform of one degree-of-freedom for the wing is optimized (back and forth flapping). Since the flapping angle is periodic, we represent it via a truncated Fourier series. The number of Fourier terms is discussed. The optimal control problem is formulated such that the cost functional is the final time, the slowly time-varying Fourier coefficients of the flapping angle are the inputs to be optimized along with the angles of attack (i.e., design variables), and the goal is to steer the averaged dynamics from the hovering configuration (origin) to a prescribed forward speed.
The Relationship between Multicultural Effectiveness and Artistic Preferences

This research explored students’ artistic preferences for musical and visual arts (paintings) from different world cultures, outside the dominant Western European and Anglo-Saxon art field. The main goal of the research was to examine the possibility of predicting these preferences based on multicultural personality traits, within the concept of multicultural effectiveness. A total of 427 participants took part in the study. The following instruments were used: General Data Questionnaire, Multicultural Personality Inventory, Musical Preferences Questionnaire, and Painting Preferences Questionnaire. The results indicated a significant correlation between age and musical preferences, as well as between artistic experience (attending theatre productions and art exhibitions) and musical/painting preferences. Among the multicultural personality traits, only open-mindedness and cultural empathy positively correlated with artistic preferences. Results of regression analysis in which preferences were used as criteria showed that, after demographics of participants and their artistic experience have been controlled for, open-mindedness positively predicted musical and painting preferences, while both open-mindedness and cultural empathy proved to be significant positive predictors of painting preferences. Other significant predictor for both preferences was attending art exhibitions. Musical preferences were related with older age, while vocational high school education predicted higher preferences for paintings. Although predictors explained relatively small amount of criterion variance, the obtained results confirmed that multicultural personality dispositions have little, but significant contribution to world artistic preferences.
Fluctuating superconductivity in the strongly correlated two-dimensional organic superconductor κ-(BEDT-TTF) 2 Cu(NCS) 2 in an in-plane magnetic field

Satoshi Tsuchiya,1,* Jun-ichi Yamada,2 Satoshi Tanda,3,4 Koichi Ichimura,3,4 Taichi Terashima,1 Nobuyuki Kurita,1 Kota Kodama,1,5 and Shinya Uji1,5 1National Institute for Materials Science, Ibaraki 305-0003, Japan 2Graduate School of Material Science, University of Hyogo, Hyogo 650-004, Japan 3Department of Applied Physics, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8628, Japan 4Center of Education and Research for Topological Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8628, Japan 5Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan (Received 12 February 2012; revised manuscript received 29 May 2012; published 26 June 2012)
Likelihood, Quasi-likelihood and Pseudolikelihood: Some Comparisons

SUMMARY There is considerable interest in the fitting of models jointly to the mean and dispersion of a response. For the mean parameter, the Wedderburn estimating equations are widely accepted. However, there is some controversy about estimating the dispersion parameters. Finite sampling properties of several dispersion estimators are investigated for three models by simulation. We compare the maximum extended quasi-likelihood estimator, the maximum pseudolikelihood estimator and the maximum likelihood estimator, if it exists. Of these estimators, the maximum extended quasi-likelihood estimator is usually superior in minimizing the mean-squared error.
Review of IoT Sensor Systems Used for Monitoring the Road Infrastructure

An intelligent transportation system is one of the fundamental goals of the smart city concept. The Internet of Things (IoT) concept is a basic instrument to digitalize and automatize the process in the intelligent transportation system. Digitalization via the IoT concept enables the automatic collection of data usable for management in the transportation system. The IoT concept includes a system of sensors, actuators, control units and computational distribution among the edge, fog and cloud layers. The study proposes a taxonomy of sensors used for monitoring tasks based on motion detection and object tracking in intelligent transportation system tasks. The sensor’s taxonomy helps to categorize the sensors based on working principles, installation or maintenance methods and other categories. The sensor’s categorization enables us to compare the effectiveness of each sensor’s system. Monitoring tasks are analyzed, categorized, and solved in intelligent transportation systems based on a literature review and focusing on motion detection and object tracking methods. A literature survey of sensor systems used for monitoring tasks in the intelligent transportation system was performed according to sensor and monitoring task categorization. In this review, we analyzed the achieved results to measure, sense, or classify events in intelligent transportation system monitoring tasks. The review conclusions were used to propose an architecture of the universal sensor system for common monitoring tasks based on motion detection and object tracking methods in intelligent transportation tasks. The proposed architecture was built and tested for the first experimental results in the case study scenario. Finally, we propose methods that could significantly improve the results in the following research.
Stream Attention Based U-Net for L3DAS23 Challenge

Machine learning applications of 3D audio are gaining increasing interest in recent years. In this paper, we propose a stream attention based U-Net to remove background noise and reverberation based on ICASSP Signal Processing Grand Challenge 2023: L3DAS23 Challenge1 Audio-only track task1 3D Speech Enhancement. Results show that proposed method achieves superior performance than the official baseline model.
TTT (Tel2-Tti1-Tti2) Complex, the Co-Chaperone of PIKKs and a Potential Target for Cancer Chemotherapy

The heterotrimeric Tel2-Tti1-Tti2 or TTT complex is essential for cell viability and highly observed in eukaryotes. As the co-chaperone of ATR, ATM, DNA-PKcs, mTOR, SMG1, and TRRAP, the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-related kinases (PIKKs) and a group of large proteins of 300–500 kDa, the TTT plays crucial roles in genome stability, cell proliferation, telomere maintenance, and aging. Most of the protein kinases in the kinome are targeted by co-chaperone Cdc37 for proper folding and stability. Like Cdc37, accumulating evidence has established the mechanism by which the TTT interacts with chaperone Hsp90 via R2TP (Rvb1-Rvb2-Tah1-Pih1) complex or other proteins for co-translational maturation of the PIKKs. Recent structural studies have revealed the α-solenoid structure of the TTT and its interactions with the R2TP complex, which shed new light on the co-chaperone mechanism and provide new research opportunities. A series of mutations of the TTT have been identified that cause disease syndrome with neurodevelopmental defects, and misregulation of the TTT has been shown to contribute to myeloma, colorectal, and non-small-cell lung cancers. Surprisingly, Tel2 in the TTT complex has recently been found to be a target of ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug that has been used by millions of patients. This discovery provides mechanistic insight into the anti-cancer effect of ivermectin and thus promotes the repurposing of this Nobel-prize-winning medicine for cancer chemotherapy. Here, we briefly review the discovery of the TTT complex, discuss the recent studies, and describe the perspectives for future investigation.
Pericyte–Glioblastoma Cell Interaction: A Key Target to Prevent Glioblastoma Progression

Multiple biological processes rely on direct intercellular interactions to regulate cell proliferation and migration in embryonic development and cancer processes. Tumor development and growth depends on close interactions between cancer cells and cells in the tumor microenvironment. During embryonic development, morphogenetic signals and direct cell contacts control cell proliferation, polarity, and morphogenesis. Cancer cells communicate with cells in the tumor niche through molecular signals and intercellular contacts, thereby modifying the vascular architecture and antitumor surveillance processes and consequently enabling tumor growth and survival. While looking for cell-to-cell signaling mechanisms that are common to both brain development and cancer progression, we have studied the infiltration process in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), which is the most malignant primary brain tumor and with the worst prognosis. Cell-to-cell contacts, by means of filopodia-like structures, between GBM cells and brain pericytes (PCs) are necessary for adequate cell signaling during cancer infiltration; similarly, contacts between embryonic regions, via cytonemes, are required for embryo regionalization and development. This GBM–PC interaction provokes two important changes in the physiological function of these perivascular cells, namely, (i) vascular co-option with changes in cell contractility and vascular malformation, and (ii) changes in the PC transcriptome, modifying the microvesicles and protein secretome, which leads to the development of an immunosuppressive phenotype that promotes tumor immune tolerance. Moreover, the GTPase Cdc42 regulates cell polarity across organisms, from yeast to humans, playing a central role in GBM cell–PC interaction and maintaining vascular co-option. As such, a review of the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the development and maintenance of the physical interactions between cancer cells and PCs is of particular interest.