Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Influence of Washing Cycles on the Conductive Threads Used in E-textiles

E-textiles and smart textiles have already reached a certain stage of development. Nowadays, smart textiles designed for medicine or sports have been developed to be worn directly on the body, just like conventional textiles. This is the reason, why e-textiles and smart textiles should be able to withstand mechanical and chemical stresses during washing cycles. It is therefore essential to focus on their durability through repeated wash cycles. This paper focuses on the effect of washing cycles on the conductive fibers used in E-textiles. Two commercial conductive threads (Madeira HC12, SilverTech + 100) and two hybrid threads (T1, T2) were developed at the Faculty of electrical engineering at the University of West Bohemia and were selected for the experiment. The threads T1 and T2 consist of silver-plated copper microwires plied with PES multifilament threads. The commercial threads are based on silver-plated polyamide filaments. These filaments have an order of magnitude lower resistance than hybrid filaments. This paper investigates the change in electrical resistance of the four above-mentioned embroidered conductive threads due to their exposure to 30 washing cycles. The results of this experiment are presented in the paper, which shows that the coated commercial threads show better results after 30 wash cycles but are not suitable for all applications compared to the hybrid threads because of their higher electrical resistance. The wash resistance of hybrid threads can be increased by isolating individual microwires, which is not possible with plated yarns.
Prophylactic Cavotricuspid Isthmus Ablation in Atrial Fibrillation without Documented Typical Atrial Flutter: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Background: The advantage of prophylactic cavotricuspid isthmus (CTI) ablation for AF patients without documented atrial flutter is still unclear. The present study aimed to evaluate the role of prophylactic CTI ablation in this population. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis study was conducted. The overall effects estimation was conducted using random effects models. The pooled effects were presented as the risk difference and standardised mean difference for dichotomous and continuous outcomes, respectively. Results: A total of 1,476 patients from four studies were included. The risk of atrial tachyarrhythmias following a successful catheter ablation procedure was greater in the pulmonary vein isolation + CTI ablation group than pulmonary vein isolation alone group (34.8% versus 28.2%; risk difference 0.08; 95% CI [0.00–0.17]; p=0.04). Prophylactic CTI ablation was associated with a higher recurrent AF rate (33.8% versus 27.1%; risk difference 0.07; 95% CI [0.01–0.13]; p=0.02). Additional prophylactic CTI ablation to pulmonary vein isolation significantly increased the radio frequency application time (standardised mean difference 0.52; 95% CI [0.04–1.01]; p=0.03). Conclusion: This study suggested that prophylactic CTI ablation was an ineffective and inefficient approach in AF without documented typical atrial flutter patients.
How regulatory focus shapes pro-environmental behaviour: evidence from Portugal

ABSTRACT This study predicts an indirect relationship between regulatory focus and pro-environmental behaviour. In doing so we advance the incipient and conflicting literature on the relationship between regulatory focus and pro-environmental behaviour, predicting both positive and negative channels for the dissemination of regulatory focus effects on environmentally-friendly behaviour. The results, based on data collected from 925 individuals, show that the effects of both regulatory orientations on pro-environmental behaviour are completely mediated by the predicted mechanisms. Both promotion and prevention show an indirect positive relationship with environmentally-friendly behaviour, but this depends on the specific type of environmental behaviour. Moreover, the results suggest that both promotion and prevention affect pro-environmental behaviour through positive and negative channels.
QueryProp: Object Query Propagation for High-Performance Video Object Detection

Video object detection has been an important yet challenging topic in computer vision. Traditional methods mainly focus on designing the image-level or box-level feature propagation strategies to exploit temporal information. This paper argues that with a more effective and efficient feature propagation framework, video object detectors can gain improvement in terms of both accuracy and speed. For this purpose, this paper studies object-level feature propagation, and proposes an object query propagation (QueryProp) framework for high-performance video object detection. The proposed QueryProp contains two propagation strategies: 1) query propagation is performed from sparse key frames to dense non-key frames to reduce the redundant computation on non-key frames; 2) query propagation is performed from previous key frames to the current key frame to improve feature representation by temporal context modeling. To further facilitate query propagation, an adaptive propagation gate is designed to achieve flexible key frame selection. We conduct extensive experiments on the ImageNet VID dataset. QueryProp achieves comparable accuracy with state-of-the-art methods and strikes a decent accuracy/speed trade-off.
Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning for Joint Decoupled User Association and Trajectory Design in Full-Duplex Multi-UAV Networks

In multi-UAV networks, the downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) associations between a UAV and a user equipment (UE) is typically coupled, which restricts each UE to associate to the same UAV for both DL and UL. However, this mode may not be efficient since UAV networks can be heterogeneous (e.g., multi-tier UAV networks) and can experience high link uncertainty due to the mobility of UAVs. The introduction of full-duplex communication in a multi-UAV network further complicates the UE-UAV association. For this reason, the idea of DL-UL decoupling (DUDe) is introduced in this work, with which each UE is allowed to associate with separate UAVs for UL and DL transmissions. Besides, the UE-UAV association depends on the flight trajectory of the UAVs, which makes the DUDe design challenging. In this article, we study the joint decoupled UL-DL association and trajectory design problem for full-duplex multi-UAV networks. A joint optimization problem is formulated with the objective of maximizing the UEs’ sum-rate in both UL and DL. Since the problem is non-convex with sophisticated states and an individual UAV may not know the reward functions of other UAVs, a robust partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) model is proposed to characterize the model uncertainty. A multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (MADRL) approach is proposed which enables each UAV to select its policy in a distributed manner. To train the actor-critic neural networks in the MADRL approach, an improved clip and count-based proximal policy optimization (PPO) algorithm is developed. In particular, a modified clip distribution is designed to deal with the hard restrictions between current and old policies, and an intrinsic reward is introduced to enhance the exploration capability. Simulation results illustrate the superiority of our proposed schemes when compared to the benchmarks. The codes are made publicly available in GitHub (https://github.com/isdai/MADRL-PPO).
Reinforcement Learning Augmented Asymptotically Optimal Index Policy for Finite-Horizon Restless Bandits

We study a finite-horizon restless multi-armed bandit problem with multiple actions, dubbed as R(MA)^2B. The state of each arm evolves according to a controlled Markov decision process (MDP), and the reward of pulling an arm depends on both the current state and action of the corresponding MDP. Since finding the optimal policy is typically intractable, we propose a computationally appealing index policy entitled Occupancy-Measured-Reward Index Policy for the finite-horizon R(MA)^2B. Our index policy is well-defined without the requirement of indexability condition and is provably asymptotically optimal as the number of arms tends to infinity. We then adopt a learning perspective where the system parameters are unknown, and propose R(MA)^2B-UCB, a generative model based reinforcement learning augmented algorithm that can fully exploit the structure of Occupancy-Measured-Reward Index Policy. Compared to existing algorithms, R(MA)^2B-UCB performs close to offline optimum, and achieves a sub-linear regret and a low computational complexity all at once. Experimental results show that R(MA)^2B-UCB outperforms existing algorithms in both regret and running time.
What do we know about small and medium enterprises’ survival in a post-global economic crisis context?

Considering the impacts of the most recent global economic crisis in 2008/2009, this paper explores how firm size, type of business activity and approach to internationalisation influence SMEs’ survival. Based on the literature in the field, we developed three hypotheses regarding determinants of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) survival. We tested these hypotheses in a 7-year quantitative study and a survey of 344 SMEs in Poland – the seventh largest market in the European Union. Our findings reveal that, in the context of crisis, internationalisation acts as a stimulus for SMEs and influences their long-term sustainability, with businesses operating in foreign markets being more likely to survive after a global crisis. However, neither business size nor the type of business activity appears to have an impact on SMEs’ survival in a post-global economic crisis environment. Our paper extends knowledge about factors influencing a firm’s post-crisis survival and proposes a new framework for understanding characteristics of SMEs and their propensity to survive in a post-crisis context. In our conclusions, we discuss implications for SME entrepreneurs showing that, in order to enhance chances of survival, even small and medium enterprises should consider expanding business activities beyond their national markets.
CULTURAL TERMS IN EFL TEXTBOOKS FOR YOUNG LEARNERS

This paper analyses the Festival/Cultural section of the four most used 6th Primary EFL textbooks in La Rioja (North of Spain) to examine whether (i) festivals is a topic covered in the syllabi of these four materials, (ii) the topics and terms refer to British and American celebrations, represent festivals in other English-speaking communities or allude to students’ own culture, and (iii) songs and rhymes are included in the materials and related to the celebrations represented in them. Our findings show that the most recurrent cultural topics are everyday living, values, beliefs and attitudes and ritual behaviour. As for the cultural terms, our sample mostly portrays references to the target culture. Songs and rhymes are part of the teaching materials, but are barely related to the festivals. These data seem to show that sociocultural aspects are gaining importance in ELT primary materials, but they mostly focus on the target culture and omit references to students’ own culture.
The Relationship Between Chronotype and Impulsivity, Attention-Deficit Disorder, Internet, Social Media, and Smartphone Addiction

Background: The aim of our study is to investigate the relationship between chronotypes and impulsivity, attention-deficit disorder and smartphone, social media, and internet addiction in a sample of university students. Method: The study was conducted at our university from May to July 2021. A total of 255 subjects were recruited in the study among the students from the medical faculty and the faculty of health sciences (departments of nutrition and dietetics, nursing, and physiotherapy and rehabilitation) of our university who received face-to-face education in 2020-2021. Sociodemographic data form, the Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Self-Report Scale, Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire, Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 Short Form, Young’s Internet Addiction Scale, Social Media Addiction Scale-Adult Form, and Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version were administered by the study investigators through face-to-face interviews. Results: Among the students, the intermediate type was most common (n = 157) and the evening type was least common (n = 44). The chronotypes differed in terms of the time spent daily on smartphone and internet (P = .001 and P < .001). The evening types showed significantly higher mean scores on the Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Self-Report Scale, Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire, Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 Short Form, Young’s Internet Addiction Scale, Social Media Addiction Scale-Adult Form, and Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version when compared with other chronotypes. Female and male students showed comparable scores on all scales. Chronotypes were not different between genders. Conclusions: The results of our study showed a greater frequency of smartphone, internet, and social media addiction among the evening types than in the other chronotypes. Greater impulsivity and attention problems as observed in the evening types may be predisposing these individuals to develop addiction to smartphone, internet, and social media.
The effect of interferon beta-1 b treatment on MRI measures of cerebral atrophy in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis

The recently completed European trial of interferon betahad a greater reduction of cerebral volume in the placebo group (mean reduction at month 36: placebo 5.1%, IFNβ1b (IFNβ-1b) in patients with secondary progressive 1b 1.8%, P < 0.05) whereas those with Gd-enhancing multiple sclerosis (SP multiple sclerosis) has given an lesions showed a trend to greater reduction of cerebral opportunity to assess the impact of treatment on cerebral volume if the patient was on IFNβ-1b (placebo 2.6%, atrophy using serial MRI. Unenhanced T1-weighted brain IFNβ-1b 3.7%; P > 0.05). These results are consistent imaging was acquired in a subgroup of 95 patients from with ongoing tissue loss in both arms of this study of five of the European centres; imaging was performed at secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. This finding 6-month intervals from month 0 to month 36. A blinded is concordant with previous observations that disease observer measured cerebral volume on four contiguous progression, although delayed, is not halted by IFNβ. The 5 mm cerebral hemisphere slices at each time point, using different pattern seen in patients with and without baseline an algorithm with a high level of reproducibility and gadolinium enhancement suggests that part of the cerebral automation. There was a significant and progressive volume reduction observed in IFNβ-treated patients may reduction in cerebral volume in both placebo and treated be due to the anti-inflammatory/antioedematous effect of groups, with a mean reduction of 3.9 and 2.9%, the drug. Longer periods of observation and larger groups respectively, by month 36 (P 0.34 between groups). of patients may be needed to detect the effects of treatment Exploratory subgroup analyses indicated that patients on cerebral atrophy in this population of patients with advanced disease without gadolinium (Gd) enhancement at the baseline
Hedgehog-Induced Skin Tumors Derived Cells Prevents − Signaling in Bone Marrow β Defective TGF-Updated

Hedgehog signaling in cancer cells drives changes in the tumor microenvironment that are incompletely understood. Here, we report that hedgehog-driven tumors exhibit an increase in myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) and a decrease in T cells, indicative of an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. This change was associated with activated TGF-b signaling in several cell types in basal cell carcinomas. We determined that TGF-b signaling in bone marrow–derived cells, not keratinocytes, regulates MDSC and promotes tumor development. Tgfbr2 deficiency in the bone marrow–derived cells also reduced the size of previously developed tumors in mice. We identified CCL2 as the major chemokine attracting MDSCs to tumor, whose expression was Tgfbr2-dependent, whereas its receptor CCR2 was highly expressed in MDSC population. CCL2 alone was sufficient to induce migration of MDSCs. Moreover, the CCR2 inhibitors prevented MDSC migration toward skin cells in vitro, and reduced MDSC accumulation and hedgehog signaling–driven tumor development in mice. Our results reveal a signaling network critical for hedgehog signaling in cancer cells to establish an effective immunosuppressive microenvironment during tumor development. Cancer Res; 74(2); 471–83. 2013 AACR.
Tentando readquirir o controle: a vivência do pré-escolar no pós-operatório de postectomia

Este estudo foi realizado com meninos de 3 a 6 anos de idade, submetidos a cirurgia de postectomia, com os objetivos de compreender o significado das interacoes vivenciadas por eles ante o pos-operatorio de postectomia e identificar as suas estrategias enquanto vivenciam a experiencia cirurgica. O referencial teorico utilizado foi o Interacionismo Simbolico e, o metodologico, a Teoria Fundamentada nos Dados. Devido as caracteristicas de desenvolvimento verbal desses meninos, a entrevista com eles foi intermediada pelo brinquedo terapeutico; suas maes tambem foram entrevistadas na qualidade de informantes da experiencia de seus filhos. Os dados foram analisados ate a fase de categorizacao dos significados, permitindo a emergencia da categoria conceitual: Tentando Readquirir o Controle. A compreensao dessa experiencia oferece subsidios importantes para o repensar a assistencia de enfermagem ao menino que vivencia a postectomia e a sua familia.
Review of Empirical Research on Leadership and Firm Performance

This review aims to present a systematic review of empirical research on leadership and firm performance (FP) in order to synthesize the fragmented knowledge and propose a unifying framework for future research. To achieve this purpose, this research adopts systematic literature review methodology. A total of 60 empirical papers published during the period 2002 to 2021 was retrieved through exhaustive manual searches of online databases. A matrix table was developed to extract and organize information from the retrieved articles. The findings revealed four main key themes. First, the topic of leadership and FP has been mostly quantitatively examined in many countries and industries. Second, different leadership approaches have been found to ameliorate FP and transformational leadership remains the most commonly used approach. Third, innovation, learning, and culture were the most common mediators of the leadership-FP relationship. Fourth, support for innovation, competitive intensity, firm size, leaders’ trust, and justice orientation have been found to moderate the effect of leadership on FP.
Classificação de risco em pronto-socorro: concordância entre um protocolo institucional Brasileiro e Manchester

Este estudo teve por objetivo verificar o grau de concordância entre um protocolo institucional e o protocolo de Manchester, para a classificacao de risco de pacientes atendidos no pronto-socorro de um hospital publico de Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil. Trata-se de estudo descritivo comparativo, no qual 382 prontuarios foram avaliados e realizada a classificacao de risco, utilizando os protocolos mencionados acima, a partir do registro realizado pelos enfermeiros. Indices Kappa ponderado e nao ponderado foram calculados para determinar o grau de concordância entre os protocolos. Os resultados mostraram que a concordância entre os protocolos e media, quando considerados os erros de classificacao, ocorridos entre cores vizinhas (Kappa=0,48) e boa, quando considerados os erros de classificacao, ocorridos entre cores extremas (Kappa=0,61). Conclui-se que o protocolo de Manchester aumentou o nivel de prioridade dos pacientes, demonstrando ser protocolo mais inclusivo.
Antibiotic Susceptibility and Resistance Genes in Oral Clinical Isolates of Prevotella intermedia, Prevotella nigrescens, and Prevotella melaninogenica

The Prevotella genus is a normal constituent of the oral microbiota, and is commonly isolated from mechanically treated polymicrobial infections. However, antibiotic treatment is necessary for some patients. This study compared the antibiotic susceptibility and the presence of resistance genes in clinical oral isolates of P. intermedia, P. nigrescens, and P. melaninogenica. Antibiotic susceptibility was assessed using the agar dilution method. PCR confirmed the species and resistance gene frequency in the Prevotella species. The frequencies of species P. intermedia, P. nigrescens, and P. melaninogenica were 30.2%, 45.7%, and 24.1%, respectively. No isolates of P. intermedia were resistant to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, tetracycline, or clindamycin. P. nigrescens and P. melaninogenica were resistant to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid and tetracycline at frequencies of 40% and 20%, respectively. P. intermedia was resistant to metronidazole at a frequency of 30%, P. nigrescens at 20%, and P. melaninogenica at 40%. P. nigrescens and P. melaninogenica were resistant to 50% and 10% clindamycin, respectively. The gene most frequently detected was tetQ, at 43.3%, followed by tetM at 36.6%, blaTEM at 26.6%, ermF at 20%, cfxA, cfxA2, and nimAB at 16.6%, and nimAEFI at 3.3%. P. nigrescens was the species with the highest resistance to antibiotics such as amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, amoxicillin, and clindamycin, in addition to being the species with the largest number of genes compared to P. intermedia and P. melaninogenica.
Matrix support, individual therapeutic project and prodution in mental health care

O estudo objetivou compreender como se conformam o apoio matricial, projeto terapeutico singular, e sua interface com a producao do cuidado em saude mental. Trata-se de uma investigacao qualitativa, realizada em Fortaleza-CE, no Centro de Atencao Psicossocial e no Centro de Saude da Familia. Participaram 17 sujeitos, entre profissionais e usuarios. Utilizou-se a entrevista semiestruturada e a observacao sistematica. A analise envolveu compreensao de narrativas, embasada pela teoria de Ricoeur. Os resultados evidenciaram o acolhimento, o vinculo e a corresponsabilizacao no cotidiano assistencial, promovendo cuidado. Desvelaram-se, contudo, excessivos encaminhamentos, atendimento medico-centrado, dependencia do Centro de Saude ao suporte da atencao especializada, deficiencia de espaco fisico, desarticulacao da rede, terceirizacao e despreparo dos profissionais do Centro de Saude, como dificuldades com a producao do cuidado. O apoio matricial e o projeto terapeutico singular, portanto, acontecem no cotidiano dos servicos, porem com dificuldades que incidem na organizacao e producao do cuidado.