Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of the Protein Concentration and Quality in a Canned Diet on the Fecal Microbiota of Healthy Adult Cats

Feline diets can markedly differ in their protein concentration and quality, which might also affect the intestinal microbiota of cats. In the present study, 6 canned diets, differing in their protein quality (high/low, achieved by varying amounts of meat and collagen-rich ingredients) and concentration (high quality/low quality: 36.2/36.7% in dry matter (DM), 43.3/45.0% in DM and 54.9/56.1% in DM), were fed to 10 healthy adult cats for 6 weeks each. At the end of the feeding periods, fecal samples were collected to analyze the microbiota (16S rDNA sequencing) and bacterial metabolites. Increasing dietary protein concentrations increased the relative abundance of Fusobacterium and Bacteroides as well as the concentrations of ammonium and n-valerate in the feces of the cats, independently of the dietary protein quality. A lower dietary protein quality was accompanied by a higher evenness index and a higher relative abundance of Fusobacteria and Bacteroidetes in the feces when compared to the feeding of the high protein quality diets. A promotion of bacterial proteolytic activity and, in particular, increased intestinal ammonium concentrations might be undesired effects of high protein intakes in cats. Whether the long-term feeding of those diets could be critical for feline health requires further investigation.
Nurses’ feeling facing patient in an intensive care unit / Sentimentos de enfermeiros frente ao paciente em unidade de terapia intensiva

Objetivo: identificar os sentimentos dos enfermeiros frente ao paciente sem possibilidades de cura, suas maiores dificuldades e discutir aspectos relevantes ao preparo dos enfermeiros no processo morte/morrer em Unidades de Terapia Intensiva. Método: pesquisa descritiva, qualitativa em três hospitais públicos e privados no interior do Maranhão com 33 enfermeiros atuantes em Unidades de Terapia Intensiva. Dados coletados entre agosto e setembro de 2015 com entrevista semiestruturada e analisados por meio da análise temática. Resultados: organizados em três categorias temáticas principais: Sentimentos que envolvem enfermeiros frente ao óbito do paciente; A morte na rotina de trabalho que influencia na vida pessoal dos enfermeiros e Preparo do enfermeiro da graduação para lidar com o processo de morte. Conclusão: o enfrentamento da morte é um desafio para os enfermeiros visto que nem todas as instituições de ensino oferecem abordagem aprofundada relacionada ao processo de morte/morrer.
The Value of Procurement to an Organisation

As the strategic potential of procurement has been explored by academics and professionals, there has been increasing discussion surrounding the ways that procurement can be of value to an organisation. Theories of competitive advantage are discussed as one method for procurement to add value. In this paper the major types of competitive advantage - cost leadership and differentiation - are outlined and the importance of procurement's alignment with overall corporate strategy for achieving a competitive advantage is stressed. Three procurement strategies - operational improvement, supply chain collaboration and sustainable purchasing - are discussed as further examples of how procurement can create a competitive advantage for an organisation. The discussion highlights three complications that surround determining the value of the competitive advantage: indirect relationships, implementation gaps and measurement. Conclusions drawn from this discussion indicate that these complications are common to all strategies discussed. Despite the complications in determining the value of competitive advantage, it is shown to be an important way that procurement can be valuable to an organisation.
Correlation between Immunohistochemical Markers in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells and In Vitro High-Throughput Drug Sensitivity Screening

Aim This study analyzed the correlation between immunohistochemical markers in hepatocellular carcinoma cells and the results of in vitro high-throughput drug sensitivity screening, to provide a reference for individualized drug treatment in patients with liver cancer. Methods Seventy-four patients with hepatocellular carcinoma were included in this study from December 2019 to June 2021, and their liver cancer cells were used for in vitro high-throughput drug sensitivity screening. According to the screening results, the patients were divided into relatively sensitive and insensitive groups, and the correlations between sensitivity and immunohistochemistry results were analyzed statistically. Results Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)-positive liver cancer cells were significantly more sensitive to gemcitabine than AFP-negative cells (χ2 = 6.102, P=0.014). AFP was also positively correlated with sensitivity of liver cancer cells to three combined regimens containing oxaliplatin (L-OHP) and epirubicin (EPI) : L-OHP + EPI + irinotecan + 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), L-OHP + irinotecan + EPI, and L-OHP + EPI (χ2 = 8.168, P=0.004, χ2 = 5.705, P=0.017, and χ2 = 8.275, P=0.004, respectively). Conclusion Gemcitabine and L-OHP + EPI + irinotecan + 5-FU, L-OHP + EPI, and L-OHP + irinotecan + EPI were more effective against AFP-positive compared with AFP-negative liver cancer cells according to in vitro high-throughput drug sensitivity screening. These results may guide the selection of personalized drug treatments for patients with advanced liver cancer in the future but still need further clinical studies to confirm.
The Photocatalytic Performance of Ag-Decorated SiO2 Nanoparticles (NPs) and Binding Ability between Ag NPs and Modifiers

This study demonstrates a method for synthesizing Ag-decorated SiO2 NPs, which combined surface modification and electroless plating. The binding ability between the Ag NPs and modifiers was also investigated for the first time. The resulting products were characterized by electron microscopy and a UV–Visible spectrophotometer, which confirmed that OH− modified composite has the most uniform coating of Ag NPs and the largest Ag elemental composition. The efficiency of degrading methylene blue (MB) under visible light for 60 min was above 99%. The normalized reaction constant also confirmed the experimental results. In brief, this study verifies an optimal surface modifier of the binding ability with Ag NPs and the feasibility of this structure to effectively absorb the solar spectrum and further apply it to the photodegradation reaction.
Content-Aware SLIC Super-Pixels for Semi-Dark Images (SLIC++)

Super-pixels represent perceptually similar visual feature vectors of the image. Super-pixels are the meaningful group of pixels of the image, bunched together based on the color and proximity of singular pixel. Computation of super-pixels is highly affected in terms of accuracy if the image has high pixel intensities, i.e., a semi-dark image is observed. For computation of super-pixels, a widely used method is SLIC (Simple Linear Iterative Clustering), due to its simplistic approach. The SLIC is considerably faster than other state-of-the-art methods. However, it lacks in functionality to retain the content-aware information of the image due to constrained underlying clustering technique. Moreover, the efficiency of SLIC on semi-dark images is lower than bright images. We extend the functionality of SLIC to several computational distance measures to identify potential substitutes resulting in regular and accurate image segments. We propose a novel SLIC extension, namely, SLIC++ based on hybrid distance measure to retain content-aware information (lacking in SLIC). This makes SLIC++ more efficient than SLIC. The proposed SLIC++ does not only hold efficiency for normal images but also for semi-dark images. The hybrid content-aware distance measure effectively integrates the Euclidean super-pixel calculation features with Geodesic distance calculations to retain the angular movements of the components present in the visual image exclusively targeting semi-dark images. The proposed method is quantitively and qualitatively analyzed using the Berkeley dataset. We not only visually illustrate the benchmarking results, but also report on the associated accuracies against the ground-truth image segments in terms of boundary precision. SLIC++ attains high accuracy and creates content-aware super-pixels even if the images are semi-dark in nature. Our findings show that SLIC++ achieves precision of 39.7%, outperforming the precision of SLIC by a substantial margin of up to 8.1%.
Sustentabilidad económica a nivel de empresa: aplicación a unidades familiares de producción de leche en México Economic sustainability at the farm level: a study on family milk production enterprises in Mexico

The objective of this study was to assess economic sustainability of family milk production systems in Mexico. The sustainability indicators were estimated through a weak sustainability model. Ecological net added value was calculated for four family systems: milk in backyard (MinB), milk in grazing (MinG), dual purpose cattle private ownership (DPP) and dual purpose cattle communal ownership (DPC) and for two technology levels: traditional and improved. Data on beef and milk production, costs, investment and income were captured in farms in the States of Guanajuato, Tabasco and Veracruz. Secondary data referred to natural resources degradation and exhaustion was used. Sustainability indicators obtained for MinB, MinG, DPP and DPC were 486, 870, 678 y 633 pesos respectively, for farms applying improved technology and 289, 215, -2 y 74 pesos respectively, for farms using traditional technology. This study indicates that milk production in family enterprises is economically sustainable when improved technology is applied.
Dynamic Modelling of Wind Farms: A Contribution towards Large-Scale Wind Integration into the New Zealand Power System

ii Finally, an important contribution on model validat ion using naturally occurring power system disturbances is demonstrated. It is found th at the generic models in their present form are capable of capturing the main dynamic resp on es and control features of the wind generators. It is also observed that the specific c ontrol/protection functions of the detailed models require additional verification if these mod els are to be used for actual wind integration studies.
Impact of Thyroid Incidentaloma on Liver Transplant: A Study of 1010 Recipients at a Single Center

Background Thyroid incidentalomas are typically nonpalpable thyroid nodules discovered during radiographic evaluation for a non-thyroid issue. Thyroid incidentalomas visualized by computed tomography (CT) and 18F-flurodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) before living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) are rare. The aim of the study was to analyze the clinical impact of thyroid incidentalomas discovered prior to transplantation. Material/Methods This retrospective study recruited 1010 patients undergoing LDLT between 2010 and 2019. CT was performed on each patient, whereas PET was performed on randomized patients (n=498). Results The prevalence and malignant risk of thyroid incidentaloma on CT was 2.3% (23/1010) and 13.0% (3/23), respectively. The prevalence of thyroid incidentaloma on PET was 3.0% (15/498). Approximately half of the FDG uptake on PET was diffuse uptake (n=7), whereas the other half was focal uptake (n=8). The malignant risk of PET incidentaloma with focal FDG uptake was 37.5% (3/8). Four asymptomatic thyroid cancers were identified incidentally. After total thyroidectomy followed by LDLT, these patients maintained cancer-free status. Conclusions Thyroid incidentalomas occurred at a rate of 2–3% in LDLT candidates. The malignant risk was 13.0% on CT incidentaloma, and 37.5% on PET incidentaloma with focal FDG uptake. Curative treatment of incidental thyroid cancer followed by LDLT without delay can achieve a favorable prognosis.
AC-Electroosmosis-Assisted Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensing for Enhancing Protein Signals with a Simple Kretschmann Configuration

A surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor chip fabricated with a comb-shaped microelectrode array to supply alternating current (AC) voltage is reported. The chip induces circulating flow near the surface (i.e., AC electroosmosis). The circulating flow provides a mixing effect, which enhances the binding of the analyte molecules. We evaluated the SPR characteristics of the chip and demonstrated an improvement in protein binding to the chip surface. SPR sensor chips with comb-shaped microelectrodes were fabricated using standard UV lithography. Sensing experiments were conducted using a standard Kretschmann-type SPR measurement system. To demonstrate the mixing effect of AC electroosmosis, we evaluated the binding of immunoglobulin G molecules onto the sensor surface where anti-immunoglobulin G antibodies were covalently immobilized. The result indicates that the amount of binding increases by a factor of 1.7 above that achieved by using a conventional chip, suggesting enhancement of the protein signal.
In Vitro Accuracy of Digital and Conventional Impressions for Full-Arch Implant-Supported Prostheses

The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of full-arch digital impressions when compared to conventional impressions, when performed on the abutment or implant level. Methods: One resin cast with six implants and another cast with six abutments were scanned with Primescan v5.1 (PS51), Primescan v5.2 (PS52), Trios 3 (T3), and Trios 4 (T4). Additionally, conventional impressions (A) were made, poured in gypsum, and digitized using a lab scanner (IScan D104i). A coordinate machine (Atos, GOM, Braunschweig, Germany) was used to generate the reference scan of both casts. For all scans, the position of the implants was calculated and matched with the reference scan. Angular and coronal measurements per implant were considered for trueness and precision. Results: For the implant-level model, PS52 performed significantly better in terms of trueness and precision compared to all other impressions, except for the angular trueness of A (p = 0.072) and the coronal trueness of PS51 (p = 1.000). For the abutment-level model, PS52 also performed significantly better than all other impressions, except for the coronal trueness and precision of A (p = 1.000). Conclusions: Digital impressions for full-arch implant supported prostheses can be as accurate as conventional impressions, depending on the intra-oral scanner and software. Overall, abutment level impressions were more accurate compared to implant level impressions.
Evaluating a Deep Learning Diabetic Retinopathy Grading System Developed on Mydriatic Retinal Images When Applied to Non-Mydriatic Community Screening

Artificial Intelligence has showcased clear capabilities to automatically grade diabetic retinopathy (DR) on mydriatic retinal images captured by clinical experts on fixed table-top retinal cameras within hospital settings. However, in many low- and middle-income countries, screening for DR revolves around minimally trained field workers using handheld non-mydriatic cameras in community settings. This prospective study evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of a deep learning algorithm developed using mydriatic retinal images by the Singapore Eye Research Institute, commercially available as Zeiss VISUHEALTH-AI DR, on images captured by field workers on a Zeiss Visuscout® 100 non-mydriatic handheld camera from people with diabetes in a house-to-house cross-sectional study across 20 regions in India. A total of 20,489 patient eyes from 11,199 patients were used to evaluate algorithm performance in identifying referable DR, non-referable DR, and gradability. For each category, the algorithm achieved precision values of 29.60 (95% CI 27.40, 31.88), 92.56 (92.13, 92.97), and 58.58 (56.97, 60.19), recall values of 62.69 (59.17, 66.12), 85.65 (85.11, 86.18), and 65.06 (63.40, 66.69), and F-score values of 40.22 (38.25, 42.21), 88.97 (88.62, 89.31), and 61.65 (60.50, 62.80), respectively. Model performance reached 91.22 (90.79, 91.64) sensitivity and 65.06 (63.40, 66.69) specificity at detecting gradability and 72.08 (70.68, 73.46) sensitivity and 85.65 (85.11, 86.18) specificity for the detection of all referable eyes. Algorithm accuracy is dependent on the quality of acquired retinal images, and this is a major limiting step for its global implementation in community non-mydriatic DR screening using handheld cameras. This study highlights the need to develop and train deep learning-based screening tools in such conditions before implementation.
Clinical In-Hospital Outcomes of Acute Myocardial Infarction in Patients With Hematological Malignancies

Introduction The purpose of our study is to determine in-hospital outcomes of acute myocardial infarction in patients with hematological malignancies and their subtypes. Method Patient data were obtained from the nationwide inpatient sample (NIS) database between the years 2009-2014. Patients with hematological cancer subtypes and acute MI (non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction and ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI/STEMI) were identified using validated international classification of diseases (ninth revision) and clinical modification (ICD-9-CM) codes. Statistical analysis using the chi-square test was performed to determine the hospital outcomes of acute MI in patients with hematological cancers and subtypes. Results The prevalence of acute myocardial infarction was 2.4% in patients with hematological neoplasms (N=3,027,800). Amongst the subtypes of blood cancers, the highest prevalence of acute MI was seen in lymphocytic leukemia (2.9%). The mortality of MI in patients with hematological malignancies was 16.8% vs 8.8% in patients with non-hematological malignancies, in-hospital costs were $25469 ± 36763 vs. $20534 ± 24767, and length of in-hospital stay was 8.3 ± 10 vs 6.3 ± 7.8 days. Amongst the hematological cancer subtypes, the highest mortality of acute MI was found in myeloid leukemia (23%) followed by multiple myeloma (MM) (17.9%), lymphocytic leukemia (15.9%), and lymphoma (14.4%). The length of stay and hospitalization cost was highest for myeloid leukemia, followed by MM, lymphocytic leukemia, and lymphoma. Conclusion This study showed that acute MI in patients with hematological malignancies has higher in-hospital mortality, length of stay, and cost. Amongst the blood neoplasm subtypes the highest mortality, length of hospital stay, and hospitalization cost were found in myeloid leukemia.
The application of dielectrophoresis in cell cycle studies

The cell cycle is the process of tightly integrated events leading to cell growth, DNA replication and cell division. Cell cycle dysregulation is the common reason for abnormal cell growth (cancer) and therefore, scientists are interested in determining the proportion of cells in each cell cycle phase for effective targeting of cancerous cells at a specific phase. Knowledge of cells’ electrophysiological properties can provide new insights in cell cycle events studies. Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is a technique that can be used to obtain these properties for cell characterisation. DEP is a fast, label-free, high-throughput, and cost-effective micro-engineered technology that reduces the sample volume and provides automated real-time analysis. This thesis explores the application of the DEP-microwell electrode system (both the serial design and the parallel integrated system) in cell cycle analysis. It also investigates the variation of cellular electrophysiological properties (particularly the effective membrane capacitance (ceff), the effective membrane conductance (geff) and the cytoplasmic conductivity (σ_CP)) during different phases through the cell cycle, in vitro. In addition, this work assesses the relation between the intracellular DNA percentage in each phase and the acquired DEP data to find out the possible correlation between cell cycle phases and cellular electrophysiological properties. For the purpose of having the cells at different stages of the cycle, a K562 cell line was synchronised at G0/G1, late G1/S and early S-phase, using serum starvation (SS), hydroxyurea (HU) and aphidicolin (APH). DEP measurements were carried out for cells before treatment (control cells), immediately after treatment (0h-study) and at 2, 4 and 24 hours after releasing the cells back to the culture medium for each synchronisation method. Due to improved time resolution and frequency range in the parallel design of DEP-microwell electrode, acquired results of this method showed more accurate data. The obtained results demonstrated significant difference of electrophysiological properties through different phases of K562 cell cycle. Using the parallel design: σ_CP at 0h-study: σ_CP (SS) greater than σ_CP (HU) and σ_CP (APH) by ~50% and ~60%, respectively geff at 0h-study: geff (HU) greater than geff (APH) and geff (SS) by ~90% and ~65%, respectively ceff at 0h-study: ceff (HU) ≈ ceff (APH), both greater than ceff (SS) by ~22% In summary, results showed that a rising pattern for cell radii, a downward followed by an upward trend in σ_CP values, a falling followed by a rising pattern for ceff value, and a rising pattern for geff values were observed during the cell cycle. Furthermore, the change of these electrophysiological properties correlated with the proposed trends at different phases of the cell cycle. This suggests that the DEP-microwell electrode system can be used as an innovative, real-time, portable, cost-effective and high-throughput approach for cell characterisation at particular stages of the cell cycle.
Late Fusion-Based Video Transformer for Facial Micro-Expression Recognition

In this article, we propose a novel model for facial micro-expression (FME) recognition. The proposed model basically comprises a transformer, which is recently used for computer vision and has never been used for FME recognition. A transformer requires a huge amount of data compared to a convolution neural network. Then, we use motion features, such as optical flow and late fusion to complement the lack of FME dataset. The proposed method was verified and evaluated using the SMIC and CASME II datasets. Our approach achieved state-of-the-art (SOTA) performance of 0.7447 and 73.17% in SMIC in terms of unweighted F1 score (UF1) and accuracy (Acc.), respectively, which are 0.31 and 1.8% higher than previous SOTA. Furthermore, UF1 of 0.7106 and Acc. of 70.68% were shown in the CASME II experiment, which are comparable with SOTA.