Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
RT-PCR Detection of SARS-CoV-2 among Individuals from the Upper Silesian Region—Analysis of 108,516 Tests

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic triggered by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has left a huge mark on everyday lives, introducing restrictions and plunging the global economy. This study aimed to analyze the available epidemiological data from the register of one of the largest laboratories testing for SARS-CoV-2 in the Silesian voivodship of Poland. Methods: This analysis is based upon the epidemiological records collected between 30 March 2020, and 30 April 2021, by the Silesian Park of Medical Technology Kardio-Med Silesia (Zabrze, Poland). In addition, we performed SARS-CoV-2 variant detection in samples from patients reinfected with SARS-CoV-2. Results: Our results confirm that SARS-CoV-2 infections are more common in urban areas. Laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases represent 13.21% of all RT-PCR test results during the 13 months of our laboratory diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2 infections. Detection of SARS-CoV-2 variants in samples of potentially reinfected patients showed discrepancies in the results. Conclusions: Due to the higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection among the Upper Silesian population, the region is at greater risk of deteriorating economic situation and healthcare as compared to other areas of Poland. RT-PCR methods are inexpensive and suitable for large-scale screening, but they can be untrustworthy so detection of SARS-CoV-2 variants in samples should be confirmed by sequencing.
Guidelines for Timing Yellow and Red Intervals at Signalized Intersections

The lack of a national standard, recommended practice, or set of guidelines for determining the duration of the yellow change and red clearance intervals for the timing of traffic signals has left each transportation agency to determine its own practices. The objective of NCHRP Project 03–95 was to develop a comprehensive and uniform set of recommended guidelines for determining safe and operationally efficient yellow and red intervals at signalized intersections. To accomplish this objective, the study established a state of knowledge and a state of practice through a review of existing guidelines and various literature sources and a survey of transportation agency practitioners. The research also conducted a comprehensive national investigation of driver behavioral characteristics through an extensive field data collection and analysis effort. These efforts confirmed the accepted values for perception–reaction time (1.0 s) and deceleration rate (10 ft/s2) and established 85th percentile speed estimations for through and left-turning vehicles. Justification was also provided for accounting for start-up delay. From the findings, a succinct recommended guideline for the timing of yellow change and red clearance intervals was formulated on the basis of a kinematic equation and its associated variable values. The recommended guideline encourages a uniform practical application that provides a framework that can be easily adopted into transportation agency practice.
Flight Testing of the T-Wing Tail-Sitter Unmanned Air Vehicle

Since October 2005, the T-wing tail-sitter unmanned air vehicle has undergone an extensive program of flight tests, resulting in a total of more than 50 flights, many under autonomous control from takeoff to landing. Starting in August 2006, free flights with conversion between vertical and horizontal flight modes have also been undertaken. Although the latter flights have required some guidance-level ground-pilot input, significant portions of them were performed in autonomous mode, including the transitions between horizontal and vertical flight. This paper considers the overall control architecture of the vehicle, including the different control modes that the vehicle was flown under during the recent series of tests. Although the individual controllers for each flight mode are unremarkable in themselves, it is notable that the aggregate system allows the vehicle to fly throughout its entire flight envelope, which is considerably broader than that of conventional fixed- or rotary-wing vehicles. The performance of the controllers for the different flight modes will also be considered, with a particular focus on hover dispersion results, in differing wind conditions. The majority of these flights were performed on a tether test rig during autonomous control development, to ensure vehicle safety with minimal impact on vehicle dynamics. The demonstration of autonomous flight under the constraints imposed by the tether system in winds up to 18 kt is a significant achievement Results from the more recent horizontal flight tests with conversions between vertical and horizontal flight are also presented. Most important, these results confirm the basic feasibility of tail-sitter vehicles that use control surfaces submerged in propeller wash for vertical flight control.
Toward both larger and smaller scintispheres

High-resolution scintillation spectrometers based on the use of large-volume spherical CsI(Tl) spectrometers viewed by conventional 1 cm/sup 2/ PIN diode have been shown to have excellent performance characteristics. In particular, their unique geometry, the small area of contact between the diode and the crystal's surface, and the high reflectivity of the packing material combine to provide a detector in which there is a very small variance in the signal generated by energy deposits in different regions of the crystal. In view of the unique spectral-resolution achieved using the first prototype Scintispheres (S100-PIN and S300-PIN) to be manufactured, it was natural to explore the boundaries within which this technology might be useful. This paper presents the results of a series of modeling exercises and experimental investigations aimed at finding the range of detector volumes that can usefully be constructed based on the use of PIN photodiodes. For a given amplifier performance, the predicted spectra-resolution of a range of Scintisphere volumes has been estimated as a function of energy. This study was made both for the CsI(Tl) material used in the original devices and for other materials which may be important when the speed of operation and stopping power are important design parameters. These studies also considered the performance limits that might be achievable in small volume Scintispheres. This paper also presents the results obtained when our deconvolution algorithm is applied to a wide range of standard scintillation spectrometers. These demonstrate the high spectra-resolution and sensitivity that can be achieved using this technique.
Microbiological biostimulant promotes rooting of olive cuttings

The most widely used method of olive propagation is cutting, although for some cultivars the technique is still limited. The objective of this work was to evaluate the use of plant growth promoter bacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in the rooting of olive cuttings. Two experiments were conducted from October 2017 to January 2018 with cuttings from 4 olive cultivars (Ascolano 315, Koroneiki, Maria da Fé and Picual) from four-year-old plants. The first experiment consisted of 4 olive cultivars and 3 mycorrhizal species plus the control and the second experiment of 3 concentrations of commercial inoculant (Nitro1000), containing Azospirillum brasilense plus control. The cuttings were treated with 3000 mg/L of indolebutyric acid (IBA). The experimental design used in the two experiments was randomized blocks, in a 4 × 4 factorial scheme, containing 25 stakes per replicate and 3 replicates. The cuttings were kept under weaver conditions and within a low rooting tunnel. After 75 d, the percentage of rooted cuttings, callus and sprouts, length of the largest root, number and length of shoots were evaluated. The use of FMA in Maria da Fé and Picual has a positive response to cutting rooting and the fungi benefit the quality of the seedlings by the higher number of shoots and larger root length. The relation of Azospirillum brasilense cultivar is specific, being that, the cultivar Picual does not respond to inoculation of the bacterium having less viability in the propagation by cutting. Maria da Fé and Koroneiki have the best percentages of rooting with the use of 75.00 and 52.00 mL/L of inoculant, respectively.
Looking beyond the obvious to figure out the Entry Points of Racial Awareness and Bias in Children: A Commentary of Waxman (2021)

In “Racial Awareness and Bias Begin Early: Developmental Entry Points, Challenges, and a Call to Action”, Waxman (2021) argues that there is a dramatic overestimation by the community when it comes to evidence of the time-frame when it should be discussed with children (p. 898). To counter this problem, they promote the intention of identifying “the developmental roots of these prejudices, forces that sustain them, and pathways to reduce them” (p. 893). The goal of Waxman is to advance the entry points of this bias, especially in our infants and children, as there are obvious and apparent damaging consequences to the children, their communities and the society as a whole. They advocate the use of a more “comprehensive research agenda”, specifically the use of larger empirical base, methodological tool-kit, and psychological-science framework to identify the preliminary stages of the acquisition of racial bias. They look back into the large body of experimental and empirical evidence to provide an overview of the development of racial bias in young children and infants. They then provide a substantially comprehensive framework to tackle this issue. Finally, Waxman argues that the strongest tool to advance the understanding and tackling of early racial bias is by arming the parents, teachers, and other policymakers with strong empirical evidence and evidence-based recommendations, which would allow for better conversations within the families and classrooms.
Determinants of Motor Vehicle Fatalities: A Kansas Case Study

This paper analyzes the determinants of motor vehicle fatalities in Kansas. The objectives of the study include the following: * Conduct a literature review of motor vehicle safety studies. * Formulate a theoretical model of the determinants of motor vehicle fatalities. * Estimate the statistical significance of the various determinants. * Compare the empirical results of the study to other recent state studies of motor vehicle fatalities. The unemployment rate had the expected inverse relationship to fatalities but was statistically significant in only two of seven estimated models. Alcohol consumption and the speed limit on rural interstate highways had the expected positive relationship to fatalities. Other variables that were statistically significant included Kansas seat belt law dummy, the proportion of young and old drivers to the rest of the Kansas population, and the ratio of rural to urban driving. The study measured the effect of three measures of highway safety law enforcement on fatalities: Kansas police per 10,000 population, Kansas police per 100 miles of road, and Kansas per capita expenditure for police protection. All three had the expected negative sign and were highly significant.
Kinematic Comparisons of Throwing Different Types of Baseball Pitches

The purpose of this study was to establish and compare kinematic data among fourgroups of collegiate pitchers who threw the fastball (FA), change-up (CH), curveball(CU), and slider (SL). Twenty-six kinematic parameters at lead foot contact, duringthe arm-cocking and arm acceleration phases, and at ball release were measured for 16collegiate baseball pitchers. Approximately 60% of these parameters showed signifi-cant differences among the four pitch variations. The greatest number of differences(14 of 26) occurred between the FA and CH groups, while the fewest differences (2 of26) occurred between the FA and SL groups. The CH group had the smallest knee andelbow flexion at lead foot contact and the greatest knee and elbow flexion at ballrelease. During the arm-cocking and arm acceleration phases, peak shoulder, elbow,and trunk angular velocities were generally greatest in the FA and SL groups andsmallest in the CH group. At ball release the CH group had the most upright trunk andthe greatest horizontal shoulder adduction, while the CU group had the most lateraltrunk tilt. Understanding kinematic differences can help a pitcher select and learndifferent pitches and can help a batter learn how to identify different pitches.Key Words: biomechanics, fastball, change-up, curveball, slider
Analysing the prospect of the maritime common information sharing environment’s implementation and feasibility in Montenegro

This paper outlines an extensive analysis of the case of Montenegro’s maritime surveillance system becoming integrated within the European Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE). Threats to secure maritime borders across Europe are ever-present and regularly demand coordinated efforts between the member states to tackle and prevent them, e.g. illegal immigration across the Mediterranean. Administration for Maritime Safety and Port Management (AMSPM) in Montenegro is a member of the ANDROMEDA EU project that seeks to facilitate deployments and demonstrations of CISE trials across the European regions, towards their endorsement readiness. AMSPM is now at the forefront of assessing and deploying the CISE components in Montenegro. It thus appropriately evaluates the operational aspects, observes the CISE implementations in some European states, formulates the impact for other national stakeholders, as well as the very prospect of the resulting augmented maritime surveillance in the country. This substantiates the content of this paper as the feasibility of the CISE deployment in Montenegro, supported by a snapshot of the cost-benefit analysis. We aspire to offer novel perspectives and insights that could be a universally useful experience to different CISE implementation initiatives, especially for countries or regions of similar smaller sizes and coastal area.
Control of laminar breakdown in a supersonic boundary layer employing streaks

In this study direct numerical simulations are employed to investigate the effects of various parameters on the laminar-flow-control capabilities of narrowly spaced streaks in a supersonic boundary layer at Mach $2.0$ . Previous work by Sharma et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 873, 2019, pp. 1072–1089) has found these streak modes, excited by a spanwise blowing-and-suction strip, to be highly effective at delaying pure oblique-type breakdown. In the present work it is shown that spectrum-enriching subharmonic modes, relevant with increasing running-length Reynolds number, do not destroy the controlling mechanism, and also a complex breakdown scenario, triggered by a multi-frequency point source, is found to be effectively controlled. Moreover, the control-streak excitation by roughness elements is compared in detail with the blowing-and-suction method, revealing relevant differing features.
Prediction of Static Characteristic Parameters of an Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor Using Artificial Neural Network

Breakdown voltage (BV), on-state voltage (Von), static latch-up voltage (Vlu), static latch-up current density (Jlu), and threshold voltage (Vth), etc., are critical static characteristic parameters of an IGBT for researchers. Von and Vth can characterize the conduction capability of the device, while BV, Vlu, and Jlu can help designers analyze the safe operating area (SOA) of the device and its reliability. In this paper, we propose a multi-layer artificial neural network (ANN) framework to predict these characteristic parameters. The proposed scheme can accurately fit the relationship between structural parameters and static characteristic parameters. Given the structural parameters of the device, characteristic parameters can be generated accurately and efficiently. Compared with technology computer-aided design (TCAD) simulation, the average errors of our scheme for each characteristic parameter are within 8%, especially for BV and Vth, while the errors are controlled within 1%, and the evaluation speed is improved more than 107 times. In addition, since the prediction process is mathematically a matrix operation process, there is no convergence problem, which there is in a TCAD simulation.
Cumulative Absolute Velocity (CAV) and Seismic Intensity Based on the PEER-NGA Database

Cumulative absolute velocity (CAV) has been proposed as an instrumental index to quantify the potential earthquake damage to structures. We explore this idea further by developing a relationship between the standardized version of CAV and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and modified Mercalli (MMI) instrumental seismic intensities in order to correlate standardized CAV with the qualitative descriptions of damage in the corresponding macroseismic intensity scales. Such an analysis statistically identifies the threshold values of standardized CAV associated with the onset of damage to buildings of good design and construction inherent in these scales. Based on these results, we suggest that CAV might be used to rapidly assess the potential damage to a general class of conventional structures after an earthquake. However, other ground motion or damage-related parameters might be better suited to quantifying the potential damage to structures of a specific type and size.
Effect of addition of dry distilled rose petals in the diet on the meat quality in entire male pigs

The objective of this study was to assess the effect of addition of phytonutrients from dry distilled rose petals (DDRP) in the feed on the meat quality and boar taint of entire male pigs. A total of 30 male 146 days old pigs from Danube white breed with an average body weight of 67 kg were allocated to one of the three groups – control (castrated male pigs -C), entire male pigs (EM), and EM fed with addition of 5 g of DDRP in 1 kg of feed (EM+R). At the age of 186 days and average live weight of 109 kg, the pigs were slaughtered and samples of m. Longissimus lumborum (LL) were subjected to analysis of meat quality characteristics (pH 45 min, pH 24 h, water holding capacity (WHC), L*a*b*c* colour space), proximate composition of the meat, fatty acid composition, androstenon and skatole content. The results showed that sex category had much more influence on the investigated traits than DDRP. The two groups ЕМ pigs presented lower backfat content (P<0.001), lower intramuscular fat content (P<0.001) and higher lean meat percentage (P<0.01) in LL muscle, compared to C group. An increase in the n-6 and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids proportion and especially the content of alpha-linolenic acid, and intensity of meat colouring in the intact males, in comparison to castrated males, were found. The boar taint detected in the meat showed a trend of decreasing in the group consuming dry distilled rose petals.
A bayesian framework for online parameter learning in pomdps

Decision-making under uncertainty has become critical as autonomous and semi-autonomous agents become more ubiquitious in our society. These agents must deal with uncertainty and ambiguity from the environment and still perform desired tasks robustly. Partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) provide a principled mathematical framework for modelling agents operating in such an environment. These models are able to capture the uncertainty from noisy sensors, inaccurate actuators, and perform decision-making in light of the agent's incomplete knowledge of the world. POMDPs have been applied successfully in domains ranging from robotics to dialogue management to medical systems. Extensive research has been conducted on methods for optimizing policies for POMDPs. However, these methods typically assume a model of the environment is known. This thesis presents a Bayesian reinforcement learning framework for learning POMDP parameters during execution. This framework takes advantage of agents which work alongside an operator who can provide optimal policy information to help direct the learning. By using Bayesian reinforcement learning, the agent can perform learning concurrently with execution, incorporate incoming data immediately, and take advantage of prior knowledge of the world. By using such a framework, an agent is able to adapt its policy to that of the operator. This framework is validated on data collected from the interaction manager of an autonomous wheelchair. The interaction manager acts as an intelligent interface between the user and the robot, allowing the user to issue high-level commands through natural interface such as speech. This interaction manager is controlled using a POMDP and acts as a rich scenario for learning in which the agent must adjust to the needs of the user over time.
Post–Intensive Care Unit Syndrome in a Cohort of COVID-19 Survivors in New York City

Rationale The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a dramatic increase in the number of survivors of critical illness. These survivors are at increased risk for physical, psychological, and cognitive impairments known collectively as post–intensive care syndrome (PICS). Little is known about the prevalence of PICS in COVID-19 survivors. Objectives To report the prevalence of physical, psychological, and cognitive impairment among COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) survivors receiving follow-up care in an ICU recovery clinic, to assess for associations between PICS and ICU-related factors, and to compare the cohort of ICU survivors who attended a post-ICU clinic with a cohort of ICU survivors who did not. Methods We performed a retrospective cohort study of COVID-19 ICU survivors admitted from March to May 2020 who were subsequently seen in a post-ICU recovery clinic in New York City. We abstracted medical chart data on available clinical screening instruments for physical, psychological, and cognitive impairment. Associations between these outcomes and care-related variables were tested. Baseline characteristics and in-hospital treatments of the post-ICU clinic cohort were compared with those of COVID-19 ICU survivors from the same institution who were not seen in the post-ICU clinic. Results Eighty-seven COVID-19 ICU survivors were seen in our post-ICU recovery clinic. The median age was 62 years, and 74% were male. The median length of hospitalization was 51 days, and the median length of ICU stay was 22 days. At the post-ICU follow-up visit, 29%, 21%, and 13% of patients reported clinically significant levels of depressive symptoms, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, respectively. Twenty-five percent had cognitive impairment. The overall prevalence of PICS was 90%. There were no associations between length of ICU stay, delirium, and exposure to benzodiazepines, steroids, or systemic paralytics with positive screening results for physical, psychological, or cognitive impairment. Baseline characteristics and ICU-related factors were similar in the cohort of COVID-19 ICU survivors who attended the ICU recovery clinic and those who did not. Conclusions PICS is common in COVID-19 survivors. We did not find any association with length of ICU stay or the use of benzodiazepines, steroids, or paralytics.