Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fast Time-Domain Super-Resolution for Single-Shot Multi- Path ToF Imaging

This paper presents a fast and simple multi-path depth retrieval method based on the Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) for Indirect Time of Flight (IToF) imaging capable of achieving super-resolution in the time domain from a limited number of samples in the frequency domain. To this aim, an ad hoc hardware architecture providing quasi-optimal Fourier measurements by means of a single-shot multifrequency ToF sensor concept is exploited. The proposed method has been validated for one and two bounces, showing that the system is able to recover the distance to both targets in one shot with 16 frequencies (2 -32 MHz).
Compressive Mechanical Behavior of Partially Oxidized Polyvinyl Alcohol Hydrogels for Cartilage Tissue Repair

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogels are extensively used as scaffolds for tissue engineering, although their biodegradation properties have not been optimized yet. To overcome this limitation, partially oxidized PVA has been developed by means of different oxidizing agents, obtaining scaffolds with improved biodegradability. The oxidation reaction also allows tuning the mechanical properties, which are essential for effective use in vivo. In this work, the compressive mechanical behavior of native and partially oxidized PVA hydrogels is investigated, to evaluate the effect of different oxidizing agents, i.e., potassium permanganate, bromine, and iodine. For this purpose, PVA hydrogels are tested by means of indentation tests, also considering the time-dependent mechanical response. Indentation results show that the oxidation reduces the compressive stiffness from about 2.3 N/mm for native PVA to 1.1 ÷ 1.4 N/mm for oxidized PVA. During the consolidation, PVA hydrogels exhibit a force reduction of about 40% and this behavior is unaffected by the oxidizing treatment. A poroviscoelastic constitutive model is developed to describe the time-dependent mechanical response, accounting for the viscoelastic polymer matrix properties and the flow of water molecules within the matrix during long-term compression. This model allows to estimate the long-term Young’s modulus of PVA hydrogels in drained conditions (66 kPa for native PVA and 34–42 kPa for oxidized PVA) and can be exploited to evaluate their performances under compressive stress in vivo, as in the case of cartilage tissue engineering.
Discussion and Visualization of Distinguished Hyperbolic Trajectories as a Generalization of Critical Points to 2D Time-dependent Flow

Classical vector field topology has proven to be a useful visualization technique for steady flow, but its straightforward application to time-dependent flows lacks physical meaning. Necessary requirements for physical meaningfulness include the results to be objective, i.e., independent of the frame of reference of the observer, and Lagrangian, i.e., that the generalized critical points are trajectories. We analyze whether the theoretical concept of distinguished hyperbolic trajectories provides a physically meaningful generalization to classical critical points and if the existing extraction algorithms correctly compute what has been defined mathematically. We show that both theory and algorithms constitute a significant improvement over previous methods.We further present a method to visualize a time-dependent flow field in the reference frames of distinguished trajectories. The result is easy to interpret because it makes these trajectories look like classical critical points for each instance in time, but it is meaningful because it is Lagrangian and objective.
A Dual-Mode 2:1 Switched Capacitor Converter with >65% Efficiency over 1000x Load Current Range and One Clock Cycle Transient Response

This work presents a fully-integrated switched-capacitor dc-dc design with consistent power conversion efficiency in wide-load current range and active transient response. A fully-integrated centralized dual-lower-bound hysteresis controller with delay compensation techniques is proposed and implemented in 180-nm technology to extend the maximum load current. A dual-mode design provides a flexible trade-off between ripple and speed reduced sampling frequency and more phases. With power-frequency scaling, a consistent efficiency overall > 1000x load-current range, which is measured to have >65% efficiency from $5.3\ \mu W$ to 6.9 mW, is guaranteed. Meanwhile, a 1 clock cycle transient response time is achieved by state-detection in frequency control, which can be further improved by providing external activation signal at system level. As power consumption decreases and capacitor density increases with advanced technology nodes, this approach is expected to provide a competitive approach with its consistent performance over wide load current range.
PIV measurements in the atmospheric boundary layer within and above a mature corn canopy. Part II Quadrant-hole analysis

Abstract Quadrant-hole (Q-H) analysis is applied to PIV data acquired just within and above a mature corn canopy. The Reynolds shear stresses, transverse components of vorticity, as well as turbulence production and cascading part of dissipation rates are conditionally sampled in each quadrant, based on stress and vorticity magnitudes. The stresses are representative of large-scale events, while the vorticity is dominated by small-scale shear. Dissipation rates (cascading energy fluxes) are evaluated by fitting −5/3 slope lines to the conditionally sampled and averaged spatial energy spectra, while the Reynolds stresses, vorticity, and production rates are calculated directly from the spatial distributions of two velocity components. The results demonstrate that sweep (quadrant 4) and ejection (quadrant 2) events are the dominant contributors to the Reynolds shear stress, consistent with previous observations. The analysis also shows a strong correlation between magnitudes of dissipation rate and vorticit.
Indentation plasticity and the ensuing fracture of glass

A systematic study of spherical indentations on various glasses has shown that for small indenters (<or approximately=1 mm) plastic flow as well as Hertzian cone cracking occurs. What is of more interest however, is that on unloading, a series of radial cracks forms about the area of contact. With continued unloading, these cracks grow and just before complete unloading, an entirely independent system of lateral cracks, which are responsible for material removal processes, occurs. The indentation process was followed using an inverted microscope and indentation stress-strain curves were produced. These curves were compared with recent indentation correlation expressions and found to fit reasonably well. The radial cracking about the contact site was analysed in terms of a stress field which was a composite of the normal Hertzian loading situation coupled with the expansion of a cavity adjacent to a free surface. This model agrees reasonably well with experiment and provides a qualitative treatment of lateral cracking phenomena.
POViT: Vision Transformer for Multi-Objective Design and Characterization of Photonic Crystal Nanocavities

We study a new technique for solving the fundamental challenge in nanophotonic design: fast and accurate characterization of nanoscale photonic devices with minimal human intervention. Much like the fusion between Artificial Intelligence and Electronic Design Automation (EDA), many efforts have been made to apply deep neural networks (DNN) such as convolutional neural networks to prototype and characterize next-gen optoelectronic devices commonly found in Photonic Integrated Circuits. However, state-of-the-art DNN models are still far from being directly applicable in the real world: e.g., DNN-produced correlation coefficients between target and predicted physical quantities are about 80%, which is much lower than what it takes to generate reliable and reproducible nanophotonic designs. Recently, attention-based transformer models have attracted extensive interests and been widely used in Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing. In this work, we for the first time propose a Transformer model (POViT) to efficiently design and simulate photonic crystal nanocavities with multiple objectives under consideration. Unlike the standard Vision Transformer, our model takes photonic crystals as input data and changes the activation layer from GELU to an absolute-value function. Extensive experiments show that POViT significantly improves results reported by previous models: correlation coefficients are increased by over 12% (i.e., to 92.0%) and prediction errors are reduced by an order of magnitude, among several key metric improvements. Our work has the potential to drive the expansion of EDA to fully automated photonic design (i.e., PDA). The complete dataset and code will be released to promote research in the interdisciplinary field of materials science/physics and computer science.
Improving measures of disease activity in systemic lupus erythematosus

ABSTRACT Introduction Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystem disease with varied manifestations and course. Variation in presentation among patients, and within the same patient, there may be varied manifestations over time. It has been difficult to measure the extent of disease activity accurately. Several investigators and groups have developed definitions of disease activity and methods to measure it. Consequently, there are currently several instruments to measure disease activity as well as damage in patients with SLE. Areas covered This review covers currently available evidence on measures of disease activity in SLE. It discusses potential avenues for further development of new measures and the refinement of existing tools to improve disease activity measures in research and clinical care settings. Expert opinion Given the complexity and heterogeneity of the disease, further work and tools are needed to assess disease activity better. Organ-specific measures for cutaneous, renal, and joint manifestations are needed for a detailed assessment of disease activity in conjunction with the use of disease generic tools (e.g. SLEDAI). New tools such as the SLE Disease Activity Index-Glucocorticoid Index (SLEDAI-2 KG) incorporating glucocorticoid doses to describe disease activity, SLE-DAS and SLEDAI-2 K RI-50 to record partial improvements could also be helpful.
Prevalence of Smartphone Addiction and Its Association with Sociodemographic, Physical and Mental Well-Being: A Cross-Sectional Study among the Young Adults of Bangladesh

Smartphones have made our lives easier and have become indispensable for everyday life; however, their uncontrolled and excessive use can trigger “smartphone addiction” (SA). SA is a rising public health issue, particularly among young people around the world. There is a dearth of empirical research about SA and its impacts on young adults, particularly in developing countries such as Bangladesh. This cross-sectional study is an attempt to fill this gap. The data were collected from 440 eligible young adults in Bangladesh using an online survey between July 2021 and February 2022. Study results revealed that 61.4% of the young adults were addicted to their smartphone. Logistic regression analysis showed that being male, aged ≤25, unemployed and living with a large family size (≥8) were the significant sociodemographic predictors of SA. Smartphone-addicted participants were more likely to be less physically active, suffer from insomnia, be overweight or obese and use their phones while driving, walking and eating. In addition, the SA group were more likely to have physical and mental well-being problems. This study brings to light significant implications for policy makers and indicates a need for an SA community awareness programme which aims to reduce SA at the societal level.
Cytology Smears: An Enhanced Alternative Method for Colorectal Cancer pN Stage—A Multicentre Study

Simple Summary Recurrence of stage II (pT3-T4 pN0) colorectal cancer (CRC) occurs in about 15% of patients and it is often due to undetected lymph node (LN) metastases with conventional pathology haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) LN analysis. Despite more sensitive molecular methods of LN staging having proved to have prognostic value in stage II CRC, we aimed at determining whether the pN stage could be better assessed with LN cytology smears. We analysed 3936 LNs from 217 CRC surgical resections, using three methods, H&E, cytology smears, and the One Step Nucleic Acid Amplification (OSNA) molecular assay. We compared the pN stages obtained from both H&E and cytology, as well as with the OSNA results. We concluded that LN analysis with cytology smears not only enables performing the pN stage, but detects more LN metastases than H&E, with a similar detection rate to molecular methods. Cytology LN analysis would allow a better patient therapeutic management. Abstract Stage II colorectal cancer (CRC) recurrence remains a clinical problem. Some of these patients are true stage III CRC with a pN0 pathology stage. This large prospective multicentre cohort study aimed at evaluating the diagnostic ability of lymph node (LN) cytology smears to perform the pN stage and compare it with the conventional haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) pathology pN stage. Additionally, we used the One-Step Nucleic Acid Amplification (OSNA), a high-sensitive molecular method of LN staging. A total of 3936 fresh LNs from 217 CRC surgical specimens were examined by three methods, H&E, LN cytology smears, and OSNA. H&E detected 29% of patients with positive LNs, cytology smears 35%, and OSNA 33.2% (p < 0.0001). H&E and cytology concordantly classified 92.2% of tumours, and 88.5% between OSNA and H&E. Cytology had 96.8% sensitivity and 90.3% specificity to discriminate positive/negative patients compared to H&E (p = 0.004), and 87.3% sensitivity and 89% specificity when compared to OSNA (p = 0.56). Patients with positive LNs detected by any of the three methods had significantly worse disease-free and overall survival. We conclude that pN stage accuracy for detecting positive LNs is superior with LN cytological smears than with conventional H&E, which would enable a better pN stage and management of early-stage CRC patients.
Association of Non-Insulin-Based Insulin Resistance Indices with Risk of Incident Prediabetes and Diabetes in a Chinese Rural Population: A 12-Year Prospective Study

Objective Three non-insulin-based insulin resistance (IR) indices, ie, triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index, triglyceride-to-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TG/HDL-C) ratio, and metabolic score for IR (METS-IR), were considered powerful and simplified alternatives for IR. However, evidence for the association between the three IR indices and incident type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), especially impaired fasting glucose (IFG), remains limited. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the association among IR indices, incident IFG, and T2DM in a rural population cohort. Methods We analyzed data from 2209 adults (aged 24–75 years) at baseline and from 1205 normoglycemic participants who were followed up. Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the associations between the three indices and IFG or T2DM. Restricted cubic spline curves based on the Cox regression model were used to examine the association between baseline indices and incident T2DM. Results For the baseline data, logistic analyses demonstrated that the TyG index, TG/HDL-C ratio, and METS-IR had a significantly positive correlation with IFG or T2DM after multivariable adjustment. During a median follow-up of 12.17 years, 157 incident cases of IFG and 97 incident cases of T2DM were noted. The risk of T2DM, but not IFG, was strongly associated with the baseline TyG index in the adjusted model, and participants with the TyG index in the third tertile had a higher risk of developing T2DM (adjusted hazards ratio, 2.84; 95% confidence intervals, 1.26–6.37; p for trend <0.001) than those in the lowest tertile (reference). Moreover, a linear relationship was observed between the TyG index and T2DM incidence. The TG/HDL-C ratio and METS-IR had no significant relationship with the risk of IFG or T2DM. Conclusion The TyG index is more useful than the TG/HDL-C ratio and METS-IR in predicting T2DM in the normoglycemic population.
Characteristics, Determinants, and Outcomes of Traumatic Vertebral and Spinal Injuries: A Retrospective Study in the Al-Qassim Region of Saudi Arabia

Background In Saudi Arabia, traumatic vertebral and spinal injuries (TVSIs) are well-recognized injuries with long-term morbidity and mortality. Al-Qassim is among the five regions in the kingdom with the highest number of TVSIs. Little is known about the characteristics of and outcomes for patients with a TVSI in the Al-Qassim region, and we aimed to explore these further. Methodology Electronic medical records of patients with a TVSI admitted to Buraidah Central Hospital between January 1, 2017, and December 31, 2019, were examined. Characteristics, outcomes, and length of stay (LOS) in the hospital acute care were reported for the patients, along with their scores (A through E) on the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) impairment scale at admission and at discharge. Results The sample included 243 patients with a TVSI (median age 35 years). The majority of the participants were Saudi (70%), admitted due to road traffic accidents (67%), and had an ASIA score of E at admission (83%). The median (interquartile range [IQR]) LOS in acute care was 10.0 (4-18) days. Determinants of a prolonged hospital stay included being non-Saudi, having an ASIA score of A through D at admission, and having associated orthopedic injuries. An ASIA score of A through D at admission was the only significant determinant of having an ASIA score of A through D at discharge. Conclusions Road traffic accidents accounted for the majority of TVSIs in Al-Qassim. Not having a normal and preserved function at admission (i.e., ASIA score of A through D) was associated with a prolonged hospital stay.
Combating propaganda texts using transfer learning

Recently, it has been observed that people are shifting away from traditional news media sources towards trusting social networks to gather news information. Social networks have become the primary news source, although the validity and reliability of the information provided are uncertain. Memes are crucial content types that are very popular among young people and play a vital role in social media. It spreads quickly and continues to spread rapidly among people in a peer-to-peer manner rather than a prescriptive. Unfortunately, promoters and propagandists have adopted memes to indirectly manipulate public opinion and influence their attitudes using psychological and rhetorical techniques. This type of content could lead to unpleasant consequences in communities. This paper introduces an ensemble model system that resolves one of the most recent natural language processing research topics; propaganda techniques detection in texts extracted from memes. The paper also explores state-of-the-art pretrained language models. The proposed model also uses different optimization techniques, such as data augmentation and model ensemble. It has been evaluated using a reference dataset from SemEval-2021 task 6. Our system outperforms the baseline and state-of-the-art results by achieving an F1-micro score of 0.604% on the test set.
The Combination of Panobinostat and Melphalan for the Treatment of Patients with Multiple Myeloma

Histone deacetylase inhibitors show synergy with several genotoxic drugs. Herein, we investigated the biological impact of the combined treatment of panobinostat and melphalan in multiple myeloma (MM). DNA damage response (DDR) parameters and the expression of DDR-associated genes were analyzed in bone marrow plasma cells (BMPCs) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 26 newly diagnosed MM patients. PBMCs from 25 healthy controls (HC) were examined in parallel. Compared with the ex vivo melphalan-only treatment, combined treatment with panobinostat and melphalan significantly reduced the efficiency of nucleotide excision repair (NER) and double-strand-break repair (DSB/R), enhanced the accumulation of DNA lesions (monoadducts and DSBs), and increased the apoptosis rate only in patients’ BMPCs (all p < 0.001); marginal changes were observed in PBMCs from the same patients or HC. Accordingly, panobinostat pre-treatment decreased the expression levels of critical NER (DDB2, XPC) and DSB/R (MRE11A, PRKDC/DNAPKc, RAD50, XRCC6/Ku70) genes only in patients’ BMPCs; no significant changes were observed in PBMCs from patients or HC. Together, our findings demonstrate that panobinostat significantly increased the melphalan sensitivity of malignant BMPCs without increasing the melphalan sensitivity of PBMCs from the same patients, thus paving the way for combination therapies in MM with improved anti-myeloma efficacy and lower side effects.
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Health in Rural Areas of Riyadh Province in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their consequences are a worldwide problem. ACEs are primary stressors that have a long-term impact on the body and mind during development. They are linked to a variety of chronic illnesses in adults. Information about ACEs and health and risk behaviors is scarce among rural populations. The study aimed to examine ACEs, chronic diseases, and risk behaviors, as well as to explore the relationship between them and number of sociodemographic factors among adults living in rural areas in Riyadh Province, Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional design and a convenience sampling method were utilized to collect information. A self-reported questionnaire, including an ACEs questionnaire as well as direct health and risk behaviors questions, was used. In total, 68.2% of the respondents reported at least one ACE, and 34.2% reported four or more ACEs. Emotional and physical abuse were the most reported forms. Hypertension and chronic respiratory disease were the most reported chronic diseases. Depression and anxiety were associated with ACEs, indicating that those who reported four or more ACEs were more likely to develop depression and anxiety. ACEs contribute to many negative health outcomes; thus, identifying the prevalence of ACEs among the rural population is essential for future health-related actions. It is also important that chronic diseases and risk behaviors be specifically identified among the rural population in order to prioritize these actions. Future research should further investigate ACEs and other determinants of health among the rural population, taking into consideration the inclusion of more diverse people, such as older adults and those from other rural areas.
Vowel onset marker based objective evaluation of Japanese phonemic length contrast produced by non-native speakers

Aiming at an objective evaluation of second language (L2) learner's Japanese timing control, this study proposes an objective measure to predict a subjective measure of L2 speakers' production given by Japanese native evaluators from the view point of goodness of production. The focus here is on phonemic length contrast, e.g., /kako/ "the past" versus /kakko/ "parentheses" and /kaze/ "wind" versus /kaze:/ "taxation" which is difficult for L2 learners particularly when incorporated with speaking rates. In this present study proposed an objective measure using a vowel onset time marker as a key perceptual and psychoacoustic marker to normalize speaking rate variations. The proposed new measure reflects tempo normalization between L2 learners by dividing the proficiency of mora-timing control in production. The experimental results show that both vowel length contrast and consonant length contrast have a significantly higher correlation with the subjective evaluation score in which the coefficient was stable.