Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cohorts of premedication for endoscopy of the upper gastrointestinal tract with simethicone, N-acetylcysteine, Hedera helix and visual scale validation

Quality parameters for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy have introduced intraprocedural indicators, including adequate mucosal visualization free of saliva, mucus, or bubbles, which may increase the possibility of early-stage injury detection. The use of mucolytics and anti-foaming agents has shown great efficiency variability depending on the type of solution, concentrations, exposure times and vi sibility scale applied. Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of different premedication solutions for cleaning the digestive mucosa; to validate, by means of an interobserver concordance test, a new scale for the adequate visualization of the mucosa (TVMS) for the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum; and to report adverse events or complications associated with the solutions used and the procedures performed. Material and methods: Prospective, comparative cohort study. 412 adult patients, ASA I and ASA II, were included for diagnostic endoscopy under conscious sedation. They were distributed in 6 similar cohorts and divided into two groups: non-premedication, 2 in C1 (fasting 6 to 8 hours) and C2 (water 100 mL) cohorts; premedication, 4 C3 to C6 cohorts (C3: water 100 mL + simethicone 1000 mg; C4: water 100 ml + simethicone 200 mg + N-acetylcysteine 600 mg; C5: water 100 ml + simethicone 200 mg + N-acetylcysteine 1000 mg; C6: water 100 ml + simethicone 200 mg + Hedera helix 70 mg). The solution was swallowed 15 to 30 minutes passing through the cricopharyngeus muscle. The Kappa test was performed to measure interobserver concordance of the TVMS scale. Results: Of 412 patients, 58 % were female; 23 % (136) were included in the C1 and C2 cohorts; and 67 % (276) were in the C3 to C6 cohorts. The average exposure time to each solution was 24.4 minutes. The wash volume for proper visualization was significantly different between the two groups. In premedicated patients, 75.6 mL of so lution were used, while in patients without premedication, 124 mL were used ( p = 0.000), with an excellent quality of TVMS of 88.7% versus 41.4%, respectively. The C4 cohort (water 100 mL + simethicone 200 mg + N-acetylcysteine 600 mg) was the most effective with a significant difference ( p = 0.001) compared with the C1 (fasting) and C2 (placebo with water 100 mL) cohorts. It also had better efficiency compared to the C3, C5 and C6 cohorts in that order. There were no adverse events or complications associated with endoscopy, sedation, or premedication products. Conclusions: The most effective solution as a premedication to achieve excellent visibility of the digestive mucosa was that used in the C4 cohort (SIM 200 + NAC 600 + H 2 OR 100 mL). The proposed TVMS scale is a very complete and easy tool to apply by more than one observer. Premedication ingested, with anti-foam, mucolytic and water up to 100 mL, between 15 and 30 minutes before endoscopy, is safe under the conditions described in this study.
Learning from the Limitations of Deterrence Research Learning from the Limitations of Deterrence Research

Public policy and scientific knowledge concerning deterrence have long been marching in different directions. Despite the proliferation of three-strikes, mandatory minimum, and concealed weapons laws and retention of capital punishment in 37 states, there is little credible evidence that changes in sanctions affect crime rates, and there is no credible evidence that capital punishment deters better than life sentences or that allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons deters at all. There is evidence that changes in enforcement and sanctions can affect some kinds of behavior-for example, tax compliance, speeding, illegal parking-and there are plausible grounds for believing that other deterrable behaviors can be identi-fied. Doing so will require fine-grained studies that take account of offender characteristics and perceptions, offending situations, and whether and how new enforcement strategies and sanctions systems are implemented.
Investigating the interplay of death anxiety, health anxiety and mental well-being during COVID-19 in young adults

This study was conducted with the aim of investigating the interplay of Death Anxiety, Health Anxiety and Mental Wellbeing in the ongoing COVID - 19 pandemic. Cross sectional research design has been used in the study. Owing to the stringent lockdown situation, snowball sampling technique was used. The sample size was 65 participants (39 women and 26 men) comprising young adults who are university students falling in the age group of 22 to 28 years. The data was collected in virtual mode, by using Google forms. The researchers obtained a voluntary, prior written consent from them. It was ensured that their confidential information would be taken utmost care of and not be disclosed. The tools employed for the study were: Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale [55]. Death Anxiety Questionnaire [13] and Health Anxiety Inventory. [45]. the data was analyzed by using One-way ANOVA and Pearson Correlation. No significant relationship was found in the variables under study. However, there exists a weak positive relationship between Death Anxiety and Health Anxiety that came out to be 0.139. The relationship between Health anxiety and Mental wellbeing was also found to have a positive weak correlation (r=0.03). The results, along with the limitations and suggestions for future research have been elaborated in the paper.
A Pain Free Nociceptor: Predicting Football Injuries with Machine Learning A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Bachelor of Arts / Science in Department from William & Mary by

Injuries are a significant aspect of every sport, with the ability to impact a player’s career and the success of a team in their season. As sensor data is able to pick up on a player’s physical state, recently it has been analyzed for its ability to predict player injuries. We inspect the predictive power of player stats, subjective player responses, GPS data, and training load data in forecasting game injuries from an NCAA American football team during the 2019 season. Data processing techniques are used to remove noise and decrease correlated data, and as large portions of the data is missing, multiple methods of data interpolation are tested. Survey data and player stats have the most predictive power for injuries with GPS and training load data performing at near-random levels. Overall, when modeling player stats and survey data together, injury predictions had a precision of . 47, recall of . 74, and an F1 score of . 52 significantly outperforming random guessing.
Designing and Implementing a Descriptive User Dashboard as a Basis for Reﬂective Learning

Physicians tend to be occupied throughout their work days and have little time to reﬂect on events that occur throughout the day. During the process of reﬂection one thinks deeply about previous experiences and from this de-liberation extract new insights and ideas which could lead to a change, for example in behavior or thought process. The scenario in which this thesis paper is based on is that assistant physicians ask the DocTalk chatbot questions as needed, usually pertaining to diseases and symptoms. Their speciﬁc questions are then taken and visualizations are created and put within a user dashboard using Grafana to aid in their reﬂection over their personal questions. The goal is to ﬁnd out the extent to which the dashboard motivated reﬂective learning through reaching the diﬀerent levels of reﬂection based on Fleck and Fitzpatricks framework [15]. The Human Centered Design process was used to collect information and create the dashboard prototype using expert interviews, researching similar software, electronic journals, and creating design rationales. The resulting user dashboard is then evaluated using synchronous remote usability testing with user participation in a controlled setting. The participants were not interested in the visualizations pertaining to the timing of their questions, but instead preferred visualizations related to the content of their questions and found the user dashboard to be overall favorable. The R0 level of reﬂection was met, along with signs of R1 as well. The dashboard supports the foundation for further reﬂection levels and can be expanded on in the future.
Analysing COVID treatment outcomes in dedicated wards at a large university hospital in northern Poland. A result-based observational study.

Introduction Presenting outcomes of patients hospitalised for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) should be put in context and comparison with other facilities. Number of statistical parameters can be used to compare effectiveness of treatment, however varied methodology applied in studies can impede or hinder a reliable comparison. The aim of this study is to present outcomes of COVID-19 treatment in our facility using simplest parameters allowing for intercenter comparison - case fatality ratio (CFR), length of stay (LOS) and transparent patients characteristics, and to discuss factors affecting mortality in COVID-19. Methods The data were collected from patients hospitalized in COVID-19 general and ICU isolation wards in the University Clinical Centre (UCC) in Gdansk, Poland, from November 2020 to June 2021, using a computer-based patient record system. The group consisted of 642 patients - 144 (39,1 %) were women and 391 (60,9 %) were men, with a median age of 69 (IQR 59-78) years. Values of LOS and CFR were calculated and analysed. Results Overall CFR for the analysed period was 24,8 %, varying from 19,9 % in January to May 2021 to 33,8 % in November to December 2020. CFR was 18,9 % in general ward and 70,7 % in ICU. All ICU patients required intubation and mechanical ventilation, and forty-four (75,9 %) of them developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Average length of stay was 13,1 ({+/-} 7,1) days. Conclusion CFR in the general ward in UCC was analogous to published outcomes, but higher in our ICU ward. It resulted from more rigorous ICU admittance criteria in UCC compared to other facilities, which corresponds with patients severe clinical condition and unfavourable prognosis. Heterogeneity of methods assessing initial clinical condition in different facilities makes a meaningful intercenter comparison challenging. In this study, we propose simple and transparent statistical and clinical parameters applicable in an intercenter analysis.
Numeral-source, high-resolution, staircase multi-level inverter with low number of conducting switches

Abstract A high-resolution, staircase-output multi-level inverter is proposed in this paper. The topology can provide high number of levels with low number of sources and conducting switches. A 1-2-7 source version of the proposed topology can generate 21 levels with 3 DC sources, 11 total bidirectional switches, and 3 conducting switches plus 3 conducting diodes. The topology can also be expanded horizontally to achieve higher resolution; a 1-2-7-14-source version of this new topology can generate 49 levels with 4 DC sources, 15 total bidirectional switches, and 3 conducting switches plus 3 conducting diodes. Providing modularity also leads to easy maintenance in the proposed topology. The feasibility of the inverter is investigated through experimental results. In comparison with other inverters, the proposed inverter can function with 25% fewer conducting switches while providing the same resolution. A stand-alone application under renewables with low output voltage is the goal application.
Automated and computationally efficient joint motion analysis using low quality fluoroscopy images

OF THE DISSERTATION Automated and Computationally Efficient Joint Motion Analysis Using Low Quality Fluoroscopy Images by Soheil Ghafurian Dissertation Director: Kang Li The kinematic analysis of joint motion has proven to significantly improve orthopedic surgeries by enhancing surgery assessment, prosthesis design, and pathology diagnosis. This analysis is usually performed by a three to two dimensional (3D/2D) registration of the 3D bone model to a 2D radiographic video from C-arm fluoroscopy imaging machines. However, the practicality of such analysis is undermined due to lengthy and user-dependent 3D/2D image registration algorithms and the high cost of C-arm fluoroscopy imaging machines. Mini C-arm fluoroscopic machines are a more affordable alternative, but the low quality of their images has hindered their use in this application. In this thesis, we propose a novel 3D/2D image registration algorithm for the kinematic analysis of joint bones using mini C-arm fluoroscopy machines with significantly improved speed, despite their low quality images. This method performs a fast registration through a novel algorithm for quick and high-quality generation of digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRR), which is the bottleneck in such processes. Moreover, the dependency of the results on the user has been reduced as a new feature-based registration algorithm replaced the previously manual initialization phase of the process. This algorithm is able to reach the true registration from within 90 degrees of it, which is a substantial improvement over the existing methods. In
Fe b 20 03 Weak Values and Consistent Histories in Quantum Theory December 5 , 2002

A relation is obtained between weak values of quantum observables and the consistency criterion for histories of quantum events. It is shown that “strange” weak values for projection operators (such as values less than zero) always correspond to inconsistent families of histories. It is argued that using the ABL rule to obtain probabilities for counterfactual measurements corresponding to those strange weak values gives inconsistent results. This problem is shown to be remedied by using the conditional weight, or pseudo-probability, obtained from the multiple-time application of Luders’ Rule. It is argued that an assumption of reverse causality (a form of time symmetry) implies that weak values obtain, in a restricted sense, at the time of the weak measurement as well as at the time of post-selection. Finally, it is argued that weak values are more appropriately characterised as multiple-time amplitudes than expectation values, and as such can have little to say about counterfactual questions.
Designing and Running Super-Efficient Experiments: Optimum Blocking With One Hard-to-Change Factor

This paper discusses how to run 2k experiments for process improvement when there is one hard-to-change factor. The paper studies the different ways of running these experiments and gives practical recommendations. It shows how to block designs to get small prediction variance and low cost. It presents an algorithm to allow the selection of efficient blocking relations, in 2k designs, where there is one hard-to-change factor and tabulates the results for 23 to 27 designs, in various block sizes. It presents methods for calculating the prediction variance and G-efficiency when there are hard-to-change factors. The calculations are demonstrated by applying them to 2k designs, and results are tabulated for various block sizes. We show that optimally blocked split-plot designs dominate randomized designs. A blocked split-plot design is both less expensive to run, because it requires fewer resets of the hard-to-change factor, and more precise, as it gives a lower variance of prediction than a completely randomized design.
Kualitas Produk, Citra Merek dan Persepsi Harga Terhadap Proses Keputusan Pembelian Konsumen Sepeda Motor Matic “Honda”

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of product quality, brand image and perception of the price of the consumer buying decision process matic Honda motorcycles. The population in this study were matic Honda motorcycle users. The samples in this study using purposive sampling, which means that sample based on specific criteria, namely: those who are older and those who use and have matic Honda motorcycles. The analytical tool used is multiple linear regression analysis. The results of the analysis can be concluded that: product quality, positive influence on consumer buying decision process matic Honda motorcycles. Brand image positive influence on consumer buying decision process matic Honda motorcycles. Perception price positive influence on consumer buying decision process matic Honda motorcycles.
86 GHz SiO maser survey of late-type stars in the Inner Galaxy II. Infrared photometry of the SiO Target Stars

We present a compilation and study of DENIS, 2MASS, ISOGAL, MSX and IRAS 1-25 µm photometry for a sample of 441 late-type stars in the inner Galaxy, which we previously searched for 86 GHz SiO maser emission (Messineo et al. 2002). The comparison of the DENIS and 2MASS J and KS magnitudes shows that most of the SiO targets are indeed variable stars. The MSX colours and the IRAS (12)−(25) colour of our SiO targets are consistent with those of Mira type stars with dust silicate feature at 9.7 µm feature in emission, indicating only a moderate mass-loss rate.
System Level Energy Optimization Techniques for a Digital Load Supplied with a DC-DC Converter

The demand to integrate more features has significantly increased the complexity and power consumption of smart portable devices. Therefore extending the battery life-time has become a major challenge and new approaches are required to decrease the power consumed from the source. Traditionally the focus has been on reducing the dynamic power consumption of the digital circuits used in these devices. However as process technologies scale, reducing the dynamic power has become less effective due to the increased impact of the leakage power. Alternatively, a more effective approach to minimize the power consumption is to continuously optimize the ratio of the dynamic and leakage power while delivering the required performance. This works presents a novel power-aware system for dynamic minimum power point tracking of digital loads in portable applications. The system integrates a dc-dc converter power-stage and the supplied digital circuit. The integrated dc-dc converter IC utilizes a mixed-signal current program mode (CPM) controller to regulate the supply voltage of the digital load IC. This embedded converter inherently measures the power consumption of the load in real-time, eliminating the need for additional power sensing circuitry. Based on the information available in
Pain assessment in postoperative cardiac surgery

Objectives: To evaluate the intensity of pain in patients after cardiac surgery; the study aimed to: 1identify possible associations between physiological alterations (tachycardia, tachypnea, increased blood pressure, sweating, paleness, nausea and vomiting) and postoperative pain, and 2describe the used analgesia. Methods: This prospective study evaluated 30 patients in a public teaching hospital, from the immediately postoperative period till the 4th postoperative day. To analyze the data was used the software Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Results: Most (26/86.7%) patients had pain, being 19 (63.3%) in the 1st postoperative day. It was found a predominance of mild pain during all occasions of evaluation. Also was found a correlation (p<0.001) between pain and the presence of physiological alterations, most frequently, tachypnea and increased blood pressure. The analgesia was treated with drugs, being the opiates and simple analgesics the most prescribed. Conclusion: A mild pain was present during all periods which influenced mainly the occurrence of tachypnea and high blood pressure. Only drugs were used for analgesia.
Non-Classical HLA Determinants of the Clinical Response after Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation for Systemic Sclerosis

Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic autoimmune disease with high morbidity and mortality. Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (AHSCT) is the best therapeutic option for rapidly progressive SSc, allowing increased survival with regression of skin and lung fibrosis. The immune determinants of the clinical response after AHSCT have yet to be well characterized. In particular, the pivotal role of the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) system is not well understood, including the role of non-classical immuno-modulatory HLA-E and HLA-G molecules in developing tolerance and the role of Natural Killer cells (NK) in the immunomodulation processes. We retrospectively tested whether the genetic and/or circulating expression of the non-classical HLA-E and HLA-G loci, as well as the imputed classical HLA determinants of HLA-E expression, influence the observed clinical response to AHSCT at 12- and 24-month follow-up. In a phenotypically well-defined sample of 46 SSc patients classified as clinical responders or non-responders, we performed HLA genotyping using next-generation sequencing and circulating levels of HLA-G and quantified HLA-E soluble isoforms by ELISA. The -21HLA-B leader peptide dimorphism and the differential expression level of HLA-A and HLA-C alleles were imputed. We observed a strong trend towards better clinical response in HLA-E*01:03 or HLA-G 14bp Del allele carriers, which are known to be associated with high expression of the corresponding molecules. At 12-month post-AHSCT follow-up, higher circulating levels of soluble HLA-E were associated with higher values of modified Rodnan Skin Score (mRSS) (p = 0.0275), a proxy of disease severity. In the non-responder group, the majority of patients carried a double dose of the HLA-B Threonine leader peptide, suggesting a non-efficient inhibitory effect of the HLA-E molecules. We did not find any correlation between the soluble HLA-G levels and the observed clinical response after AHSCT. High imputed expression levels of HLA-C alleles, reflecting more efficient NK cell inhibition, correlated with low values of the mRSS 3 months after AHSCT (p = 0.0087). This first pilot analysis of HLA-E and HLA-G immuno-modulatory molecules suggests that efficient inhibition of NK cells contributes to clinical response after AHSCT for SSc. Further studies are warranted in larger patient cohorts to confirm our results.
E-Learning Satisfaction, Stress, Quality of Life, and Coping: A Cross-Sectional Study in Italian University Students a Year after the COVID-19 Pandemic Began

(1) Background: The objective was to investigate e-learning satisfaction in a sample of university students by evaluating quality of life, stress sociality, and coping. (2) Methods: This was an online survey involved 471 students attending the University of L′Aquila from June to July 2021. The primary goal was estimating the e-learning satisfaction as measured by the E-learning Satisfaction Scale, while the secondary outcomes were studying its relationship with demographic factors, the perception of quality of life, sociality, stress, and coping strategies using a hierarchical regression model. (3) Results: A total of 136 participants were males (29%); the mean age was 25 years. The results revealed that the satisfaction score was 30.6, and the mean stress level was 19.4. Students suffered psychologically and physically for 14 days a month. The sociality score was 36. With respect to coping strategies, students reported higher scores for “Acceptance” (6.0), “Active coping” (6.2), and “Planning” (6.4). E-learning satisfaction was significantly related to age and course attendance. It was positively associated with the social presence score and coping strategies such as self-blame and religion, while it was inversely related to stress and unhealthy days. (4) Conclusions: The students revealed a positive propensity to use e-learning despite the end of quarantine. Sociality, stress, quality of life, and coping seemed to play an important role in student′s e-learning satisfaction.