Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of Aortic Stiffness and Cognitive Decline: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Increased aortic stiffness has been found to be associated with cognitive function decline, but the evidence is still under debate. It is of great significance to elucidate the evidence in this debate to help make primary prevention decisions to slow cognitive decline in our routine clinical practice. Methods: Electronic databases of PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library were systematically searched to identify peer-reviewed articles published in English from January 1, 1986, to March 16, 2020, that reported the association between aortic stiffness and cognitive function. Studies that reported the association between aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) and cognitive function, cognitive impairment, and dementia were included in the analysis. Results: Thirty-nine studies were included in the qualitative analysis, and 29 studies were included in the quantitative analysis. The aortic PWV was inversely associated with memory and processing speed in the cross-sectional analysis. In the longitudinal analysis, the high category of aortic PWV was 44% increased risk of cognitive impairment (OR 1.44; 95% CI 1.24–1.85) compared with low PWV, and the risk of cognitive impairment increased 3.9% (OR 1.039; 95% CI 1.005–1.073) per 1 m/s increase in aortic PWV. Besides, meta-regression analysis showed that age significantly increased the association between high aortic PWV and cognitive impairment risk. Conclusion: Aortic stiffness measured by aortic PWV was inversely associated with memory and processing speed and could be an independent predictor for cognitive impairment, especially for older individuals.
Case Report: Paclitaxel-Induced Pneumonitis in Early Breast Cancer: A Single Institution Experience and Review

Taxane-based chemotherapy regimens are in widespread use as standard of care treatment for patients with early breast cancer, though rarely its use can be complicated by taxane-induced pneumonitis (TIP). While breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer in women worldwide, TIP remains under-described in this setting. Key questions relate to its incidence, diagnosis and management, potential predictive biomarkers, and the balance between this life-threatening toxicity and curatively intended treatment. At a single Australian institution, 6 cases of TIP are identified among 132 patients treated with a paclitaxel-containing regimen for early breast cancer (4.55%, 95% confidence interval 1.69-9.63%). This review first outlines the presentation, management, and outcomes for these cases, then answers these questions and proposes an approach to suspected TIP in patients with breast cancer.
Quantum Probability Oracles & Multidimensional Amplitude Estimation

We give a multidimensional version of amplitude estimation. Let p be an n -dimensional probability distribution which can be sampled from using a quantum circuit U p . We show that all coordinates of p can be estimated up to error ε per coordinate using e O (cid:0) 1 ε (cid:1) applications of U p and its inverse. This generalizes the normal amplitude estimation algorithm, which solves the problem for n = 2. Our results also imply a e O ( n/ε ) query algorithm for ℓ 1 -norm (the total variation distance) estimation and a e O (cid:0) √ n/ε (cid:1) query algorithm for ℓ 2 -norm. We also show that these results are optimal up to logarithmic factors.
Radboud University at TREC 2020

The IR research group from the Radboud University (RUIR) has an interest in creating graph-based solutions for domain specific challenges. We aim to increase effectiveness by incorporating domain knowledge into graph development. This work was developed as part of a Master’s thesis project about graph representations for news articles of TREC’s background linking task [1]. The introduced work explores the use of named entities, novelty scores and diversification of background documents.
The Effect of Race on the Social-Cognitive-Beliefs of Observers of Behavior Models

During this current COVID-19 pandemic, video-based behavior modeling has become a popular persuasive technique to motivate exercise performance in most fitness apps. However, there is limited research on the effectiveness of race-based tailoring. To bridge this gap, we investigated users’ social-cognitive-belief profile when observing behavior models performing bodyweight exercises and the moderating effect of race. We based our study on 567 participants (50 blacks and 517 whites) recruited from Canada and United States. We asked the participants to watch a video modeling a bodyweight exercise and answer questions on three social-cognitive beliefs: perceived self-efficacy, perceived self-regulation, and outcome expectation. The results of a three-way repeated-measure analysis of variance showed that there is an interaction between the race of the observer and the race of the behavior model. Among white observers, there is no significant difference between their overall social-cognitive belief when observing white models and that when observing black models. However, among black observers, there is an effect of the race of the behavior model. They have a significantly higher overall social-cognitive belief when observing white models than when observing black models. We discuss our findings in the context of tailoring behavior models to users of different races.
TAMNet: two attention modules-based network on facial expression recognition under uncertainty

Abstract. Facial expression recognition (FER) has applications in many scenarios, making it a valuable research direction. However, due to the uncertainty of real-world images, their recognition accuracy is not satisfying. To deal with this problem, we propose a two attention modules-based network that uses two different attention modules to extract features. The main classifier uses the self-attention module (SAM), and the auxiliary classifier uses the channel enhancement module. At the same time, the classification results of the two classifiers are constrained by variance regularization to suppress uncertainty. In addition, we use knowledge distillation to further optimize the predicted results using the mutual information between the teacher network and the student network. Our model achieves an optimal accuracy rate of 88.75% in the RAF-DB dataset and 80.59% in the FERPlus dataset, which is occluded with the lower half being visible.
Flexibility Disaggregation under Forecast Conditions

Stationary battery energy storage systems and electric vehicles become more and more popular at households with local photovoltaic generation. Besides improving self-consumption and autarchy, these batteries can provide flexibility to an external utility. Thereby, generation and demand uncertainty, as well as cost optimality, need to be considered when utilizing distributed flexibility. This paper discusses long short-term memory neural networks for photovoltaic generation forecast and persistence models for household load forecast with respect to their applicability in local energy management system optimization. Furthermore, a mixed-integer linear program is proposed to optimally utilize local flexible loads and storage systems. Its solution space yields the flexibility potential, which can be aggregated at flexibility pools. In order to disaggregate flexibility requests to a pool of distributed energy management systems, we propose a heuristic algorithm that can among others minimize the overall flexibility cost or maximize probability of flexibility delivery. The forecast models, the mixed integer linear program and the flexibility disaggregation are evaluated on realistic household photovoltaic and load profiles to demonstrate the full chain from local forecast to flexibility disaggregation under forecast conditions. Our experiments with flexibility disaggregation show that the probability to provide flexibility should not be neglected when it comes to distributed energy management optimization based on forecast models.
Role of capping agents in controlling silver nanoparticles size, antibacterial activity and potential application as optical hydrogen peroxide sensor

The influence of capping agents on silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) was investigated through a rapid and single-pot chemical reduction method. Four capping agents were tested: polyethylene glycol (PEG), ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). FTIR studies demonstrated that the formed AgNPs were properly encapsulated by their respective capping agents. Structural and morphological studies confirmed the following relative average particle sizes: PEG-AgNPs > EDTA-AgNPs > PVP-AgNPs > PVA-AgNPs. Optical absorption and photoluminescence studies showed, respectively, a greater absorption blue shift and greater emission intensity for the smaller capped particles. Zeta potential analysis of the PVA-AgNPs showed a value of −46.6 mV, indicating their high stability. The PVA-AgNPs were thus not only observed to be the smallest, most blue-shifted and most stable of the tested AgNPs, but also they displayed the highest antibacterial activity. The PVA-AgNPs were therefore applied as a localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR)-based H2O2 sensor, which is important because the detection of reactive oxygen species such as H2O2 is of significance in the medical and environmental fields. The sensor based on the PVA-AgNPs successfully detected H2O2 at concentrations as low as 10−7 M. New biosensors using these NPs should thus find promising opportunities in a variety of fields.
A Look into COVID-19 Vaccination Debate on Twitter

Twitter is one of the most popular social media applications used by the general public to debate a wide range of topics. It is not surprising that the platform has become an effervescent channel where people are talking about the COVID-19 pandemic. After one year of a severe pandemic, we are now giving the first steps towards its ending: the production and distribution of vaccines as well as the start of vaccination campaigns in several countries worldwide. However, the relatively quick emergence of alternative vaccines raised several concerns and doubts among the general people, leading to lively online and offline debates. In this paper, we investigate the public perception of this topic as it unrolls in the real world, analyzing over 12 million tweets during two months corresponding to the early stages of vaccination in the world. Our investigation includes the analyses of user engagement as well as content properties, including sentiment and psycholinguistic characteristics. In broad terms, our findings offer a first look into the dynamics of the online debate around a topic – COVID-19 vaccination – at its early stages of development, evidencing how people use the online world, notably Twitter, to share their impressions and concerns about it. As a means to allow reproducibility and foster follow-up studies, we release our collected dataset for public use.
Strain-Induced Ferromagnetism and Magnetoresistance in Epitaxial Thin Films of LaCoO3 Prepared by Polymer-Assisted Deposition

High quality epitaxial thin films of LaCoO3 on SrTiO3 have been prepared by spin-coating of a metal/polymeric aqueous solution. The films (≈ 17 nm) are homogeneous and smooth over large areas. The characteristic low-spin (LS) state is replaced by a higher spin configuration of Co(III), due to strain-induced distortions of the CoO6 octahedra, introducing a ferromagnetic interaction and negative magnetoresistance below TC = 85 K. This simple chemical method produces the high-quality films required for either fundamental studies or applications, similar to physical deposition techniques.
R A ] 2 J ul 2 01 5 Canonical forms for matrices of Saletan contractions

We show that each Saletan (linear) contraction can be realized, up to change of bases of the initial and the target Lie algebras, by a matrix-function that is completely defined by a partition of the dimension of Fitting component of its value at the limit value of the contraction parameter. The codimension of the Fitting component and this partition constitute the signature of the Saletan contraction. We study Saletan contractions with Fitting component of maximal dimension and trivial one-part partition. All contractions of such kind in dimension three are completely classified.
2 0 A pr 2 00 5 SEMISTABILITY VS . NEFNESS FOR ( HIGGS ) VECTOR

Generalizing a result of Miyaoka, we prove that the semistability of a vector bundle E on a smooth projective curve over a field of characteristic zero is equivalent to the nefness of any of certain divisorial classes θs, λs in the Grassmannians Grs(E) of locally-free quotients of E and in the projective bundles PQs, respectively (here 0 < s < rkE and Qs is the universal quotient bundle on Grs(E)). The result is extended to Higgs bundles. In that case a necessary and sufficient condition for semistability is that all classes λs are nef. We also extend this result to higher-dimensional complex projective varieties by showing that the nefness of the classes λs is equivalent to the semistability of the bundle E together with the vanishing of the characteristic class ∆(E) = c2(E)− r−1 2r c1(E) 2. Date: 7 June 2004, revised 18 March 2005. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. 14D20, 14F05, 14H60.
Evaluation of the emergency medical system in an area following lifting of the mandatory evacuation order after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text Abstract Following the lifting of the evacuation order due to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, the medical demand and emergency medical system (EMS) in the area where the evacuation orders were lifted have not been well-investigated. This study aimed to evaluate the emergency transportation in such areas and compare the differences with areas that had minimal impact. Using the local EMS transport records, the characteristics of patients who were transferred by an EMS vehicle in Minamisoma City were collected between July 12, 2016 and July 31, 2018, and were compared between former evacuation zones and outside the evacuation zones in the city. The number of emergency transports in the study period in Minamisoma City were 325 cases in the area where the evacuation orders were lifted and 4307 cases in the other areas. The total EMS time was significantly longer in the area where the evacuation order was lifted (48 ± 16 minutes) than in the other areas (40 ± 15 minutes) (P < .001). In the analysis of each component of EMS times, the transport time, which is the time from departure from the patient's location to arrival at a hospital, was significantly longer in the former evacuation zone than in the other areas (16 ± 9 vs 9 ± 9 minutes, P < .001), suggesting that transport time contributed to the longer EMS response times. In areas where the evacuation orders were lifted, the EMS transport time was significantly longer than that in the area outside the former evacuation zone; correspondingly, the total EMS time significantly increased in the former evacuation zone. A plausible reason for this may be the closure of local medical facilities following the evacuation order after the nuclear accident.
Anesthetic management of lung transplantation in a patient with end-stage COVID-19 pneumonia

Abstract Rationale: The COVID-19 pandemic is spreading around the world and the leading cause of death is rapidly progressive respiratory failure because of lung damage and consolidation. Lung transplantation is the last line of treatment for chronic end-stage lung diseases. There were several cases of lung transplantation reported in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. However, anesthetic management of lung transplantation in this subpopulation is rare. We report the anesthetic and perioperative management of lung transplantation in a patient with COVID-19 pneumonia. Patient concerns: A 70-year-old man with a 7-day history of fever was diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia. His throat swab was positive for COVID-19, but negative for other common viruses. Chest radiography showed multiple inflammatory foci in both lungs. By day 5, he presented respiratory distress. Computed tomography (CT) scan showed progressive deterioration of both lungs. Starting on day 7, SARS-CoV-2 RNA in bronchoalveolar lavage samples were continuously negative. However, his lung condition deteriorated. By day 17, a veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) was initiated. After 10 days of ECMO support, the patient's lung condition did not improve. CT scan revealed bilateral parenchymal consolidation with pulmonary fibrosis and hydrothorax. Diagnosis: Irreversible lung function loss induced by COVID-19 pneumonia. Interventions: Bilateral transplantation was performed because the patient's lung condition did not improve and CT scan revealed parenchymal consolidation with pulmonary fibrosis after 10 days of ECMO support. Thirty-six hours after the surgery, ECMO was discontinued. A percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty and a stent implantation were performed because of acute coronary syndrome and myocardial ischemia 4 days postoperatively. Outcomes: The patient remained hospitalized because of requirements for intermittent assisted ventilation via tracheostomy. Lessons: This case further supports the consideration that lung transplantation can potentially be the successful therapy for these patients who have developed irreversible lung function lose due to COVID-19 pneumonia. However, most critical patients with COVID-19 are older individuals with various comorbidities, which present new anesthetic challenges.
The prognostic value of inflammation markers in postoperative gliomas with or without adjuvant treatments

Abstract Recent studies have shown that some inflammatory markers are associated with the prognosis of solid tumors. This study aims to evaluate the prognosis of glioma patients with or without adjuvant treatment using the systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR). All patients who were diagnosed with gliomas at the first and second affiliated hospital of Guangxi Medical University between 2011 and 2020 were included in this study. The optimal cutoff value of SII, NLR, and PLR was determined by X-tile software program. We stratified patients into several groups and evaluated the progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of SII, NLR, and PLR during the period of pre-surgical, con-chemoradiotherapy, and post-treatments. Multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to detect the relationships between OS, PFS, and prognostic variables. A total of 67 gliomas patients were enrolled in the study. The cutoff values of SII, NLR, and PLR were 781.5 × 109/L, 2.9 × 109/L, and 123.2 × 109/L, respectively. Patients who are pre-SII < 781.5 × 109/L had better PFS (P = .027), but no difference in OS. In addition, patients who had low pre-NLR (<2.9 × 109/L) meant better OS and PFS. PLR after adjuvant treatments (post-PLR) was significantly higher than pre-PLR (P = .035). Multivariate analyses revealed that pre-SII, pre-NLR were independent prognostic factors for OS (pre-SII: HR 1.002, 95% CI: 1.000–1.005, P = .030 and pre-PLR: HR 0.983, 95% CI: 0.973–0.994, P = .001), while pre-PLR was an independent factor for PFS (HR 0.989, 95% CI: 0.979–1.000, P = .041). High pre-SII or high pre-NLR could be prognostic markers to identify glioma patients who had a poor prognosis.
The Push-pull Model of International Student Motivation

The number of international students in Turkish universities was increased in recent years. Despite the increasing number of international students in Turkey, it is still below from the other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. To understand the reasons of this situation, it is crucial to examine the selection criteria of international students. The main objective of this study was to examine the most important factors that affect students’ choice to study abroad. The study was designed as quantitative research. A correspondence analysis was conducted to identify the information from international students who chose Turkey for higher education. As a multivariate analysis technique, correspondence analysis graphically portrays the choice criteria of international students and their country of residence in a single joint space. A survey was developed by the researchers and distributed to the international students at two public universities in Turkey and the data were collected from 281 international students. The results revealed that the two-dimensional solution was accepted with a significant chi-square value and variances accounted for 99% of the total variance explained. Specifically, the selection criteria for an institution in Turkey and Eskişehir differ with international students’ home country.
Studies on Fungal Pathogens Isolated from Oral Cavity of Camel (Camelus dromedarius) on Bordered Local Government Areas of Sokoto State

This study was carried out to determine the fungal pathogens which isolated from oral cavity of camel in bordered Local Government Areas of Sokoto State. Fourty (40) samples of camel oral cavity were collected from camel herds in Illela, Gada, Gudu and Sabon Birni Local Government Areas in Sokoto and were analyzed using microbial culture, fungal staining and microscopic features. The results of the study revealed that all the fourty samples of camel oral swab collected and analyzed were positive for fungal growth. The fungal pathogens isolated from the oral swab samples were Aspergillus flavus (20), Mucor spp. (12) and Candida tropicalis (08), which is classified in to (30) species of mould and (10) species of yeast. The study shows that fungal pathogens present in the oral cavity of camel were mainly mould with least occurrence of yeast. Consequently, is recommended that public and National awareness campaign that involves the raising of standard of living and hygiene mostly in the rural areas can help to educate the herders on the dangers associated with Oro-fungal thrush of camels.
New fixed point on the basis of In-Bi eutectic system for perspective space-borne standard low-temperature fixed-point blackbodies

Reliable climate change monitoring requires highquality long-term time series of atmospheric and surface remote temperature measured with spaceborne radiometric IR instruments. This task can be solved through the development of incorporating the phase transition phenomenon space-borne blackbodies with an increased stability intended for IR instruments in-flight calibration. For the said purpose a number of phase-change materials (PCMs) with melt-freeze temperatures/fixed points located in the dynamic temperature range of Earth observation systems (~ 230÷350 K) are potentially applicable [1, 2]. Space-flight experiments on the melt-freeze transition in zero gravity of potentially applicable PCMs ‒ individual substances and eutectic alloys ‒ are absolutely necessary in the sequence of works on developing the novel space-borne standard fixed-point blackbodies.