Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Bacterial Cellulose Dressing versus Vaseline Gauze in Partial Thickness Burn Wounds and Skin Graft Donor Sites: A Two-Center Randomized Controlled Clinical Study

Objective Bacterial cellulose (BC) dressing, which can maintain a moist environment and prevent the invasion of pathogens, has become a competitive dressing material for burn wound treatment. This study was conducted to evaluate the treatment efficacy of a novel China-made BC dressing for the treatment of second-degree burn wounds and skin graft donor sites. Methods 212 patients with second-degree burn wounds or skin graft donor sites were enrolled from two research centers. They were randomly assigned to the BC dressing group (study group) or the Vaseline gauze (VG) dressing group (control group). Wound conditions were assessed before and after treatment. Dressings were changed according to the condition of the wound bed. Healing rate and healing time were recorded as primary endpoints to evaluate the efficacy of BC dressing against VG dressing. Erythema, swelling, exudation, bleeding, subeschar purulence, and pain were assessed as secondary endpoints. Results 207 participants completed the trial and their wounds all healed within 28 days. The average healing times for superficial and deep secondary burn wounds and skin graft donor sites in the BC group were 8.12, 15.77, and 10.55 days, respectively. In the VG group, the average healing times for superficial and deep secondary burn wounds and skin graft donor sites were 9.30, 15.27, and 11.19 days, respectively. The healing time of superficial burn wounds in the BC group was statistically shorter than that in the VG group. There was no difference in the frequency of dressing changing between two groups. The BC dressing showed equal efficacy with the VG dressing at all secondary endpoints. Conclusion The novel BC dressing could be used for the management of second-degree burn wounds and skin graft donor sites. With a shorter healing time in superficial secondary burn wound than that of the VG dressing, the BC dressing showed noninferiority in the treatment of superficial and deep secondary burn wounds and skin graft donor sites versus the VG dressing. This study is registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (registry number: ChiCTR1800014377 (http://www.chictr.org.cn)).
Inhibition of NF- к B Expression in LPS-Induced RAW264.7 Macrophage Cells by a Thiazolidinone Derivative (TZD-OCH 2 CH 3 )

To date, various derivatives of thiazolidinone in a variety of cell lines have been investigated. The present study aimed to evaluate the toxicity and inhibitory effects of a thiazolidinone derivative called 5-(2,4-bis-4-ethoxy-phenyl azo)-3-hydroxy-benzylidine)-2,4-thiazolidinone (TZD-OCH 2 CH 3 ) on the expression of NF- к B in LPS-induced RAW264.7 macrophage cell lines. Different concentrations of the MTT assay (0-120 μg/mL) were performed to estimate the biological rate of the cells. The half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC 50 ) of TZD-OCH 2 CH 3 -treated RAW264.7 cells was found to be 115 μg/mL. To determine the inhibitory effect of the synthesized compound on the expression changes of NF- к B, the RAW264.7 cells were initially induced with LPS and then treated by 15, 30 and 60 µg/mL of TZD-OCH 2 CH 3 . Real-time PCR results confirmed a strong inhibitory effect of TZD-OCH 2 CH 3 on the expression of NF- к B in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells (IC 50 = 48 μg/mL). Overall, these findings suggested that the derivative TZD-OCH 2 CH 3 had a significant anti-inflammatory effect.
Risk Factors of Infection of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) in the Lekoumou and Niari Departments (Congo Brazzaville)

Objective: To determine the prevalence of risk factors of infection of human papillomavirus (HPV) in women in Lekoumou and Niari departments. Patients and Methods: We conducted a descriptive and cross-sectional study over a period of 7 months from January to July 2019 in the Lekoumou department. 100 women whose ages ranged from 16 to 73 years old. The variables studied were as follows: age, marital status, level of education, age of first intercourse, number of sexual partners, parity, The bivariate analysis was done between age, number of level of instruction, parity, age of first sexual intercourse and number of sexual Partners. The statistical analysis and the data processing were carried out by the Excel 2016 software and the graphpad prism version 5 software. The statistical test used was the chi-square test. Results: During this study we collected 100 women. The mean age of the patients was 34.6 ± 11.9 with ranges ranging from 16 to 73 years. The most represented age groups were 20-29 years old (31%) and 30-39 years old (29%). The highest level of education was college level in 53% of cases followed by primary level in 25% of cases. Almost ¾ of our study population were married women (74%), single people made up only 22% of the study population. The mean age at first intercourse was 16.4 ± 2.3 with extremes ranging from 12 to 25 years. Almost all of the women (97%) had had their first sexual intercourse before the age of 20. The average number of sexual partners was 5.3 ± 3.2 with extremes ranging from 1 to 15 partners, 53% of women had at least 5 sexual partners. The mean number of deliveries (parity) was 3.6 ± 2.4 with extremes ranging from 0 to 12 deliveries. 36% of our study population had between 4 and 7 deliveries. Bivariate analysis found a statistically significant difference between age and number of sexual partners, between age of first intercourse and level of education, but also between age and number of children. Conclusion: Cervical cancer is a public health problem. Apart from HPV infection, several cofactors have shown an associative link for its occurrence. It can be in our context mainly the number of children, parity and the number of sexual partners and the age at first intercourse.
Algorithms for Fast Computation of Matrix Profiles of Time Series Under Unnormalized Euclidean Distances /Author=Zhang, Jing; Nikovski, Daniel N. /CreationDate=May 19, 2022 /Subject=Data Analytics

We propose a novel algorithm to compute the Matrix Profile (MP) under the unnormalized distance (useful for value-based similarity search) using two suitable data structures (doubleended queue and segment tree). The algorithm has the same time/space complexity as the state-of-the-art algorithm for typical MP computation under the normalized ‘2 distance (useful for shape-based similarity search). We validate its efficiency and effectiveness through extensive numerical experiments and two real-world applications – anomaly detection in the NYC taxi data, as well as in a simulated communication network. Depending on data and applications, we show that the valuebased similarity search could perform almost equally well as the shape-based similarity search, and sometimes outperform the latter significantly.
Neural Layered BRDFs

Bidirectional reflectance distribution functions (BRDFs) are pervasively used in computer graphics to produce realistic physically-based appearance. Many common materials in the real world have more than one layer, like wood, skin, car paint, and many decorative materials. However, precise simulation of layered material optics is non-trivial. The most accurate approaches rely on Monte Carlo random walks to simulate the light transport within the layers, leading to high variance and cost. Other approaches are efficient, but less accurate. In this paper, we propose to perform layering in the neural space, by compressing BRDFs into latent codes via a proposed representation neural network, and performing a learned layering operation on these latent vectors via a layering network. Our BRDF evaluation is noise-free and computationally efficient, compared to the state-of-the-art approach; it is also a first step towards a “neural algebra” of operations on BRDFs in a latent space.
against Lethal West Nile Virus Responses in Old Mice Generates Protective Repeated In Vivo Stimulation of T and B Cell

Older adults exhibit higher morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases compared with those of the general population. The introduction and rapid spread of West Nile virus (WNV) throughout the continental United States since 1999 has highlighted the challenge of protecting older adults against emerging pathogens: to this day there is no therapy or vaccine approved for human use against West Nile encephalitis. In this study, we describe the characterization of Tand B cell responses in old mice after vaccination with RepliVAX WN, a novel West Nile encephalitis vaccine based on single-cycle ﬂavivirus particles. In adult mice, RepliVAX WN induced robust and long-lasting CD4 + and CD8 + T cell and Ab (B cell) responses against natural WNV epitopes, similar to those elicited by primary WNV infection. Primary and memory T and B cell responses in old mice against RepliVAX WN vaccination were signiﬁcantly lower than those seen in younger mice, similar to the response of old mice to infection with WNV. Surprisingly, both the quality and the quantity of the recall Ab and T cell responses in vaccinated old mice were improved to equal or exceed those in adult animals. Moreover, these responses together (but not individually) were sufﬁcient to protect both old and adult mice from severe WNV disease upon challenge. Therefore, at least two cycles of in vivo restimulation are needed for selection and expansion of protective lymphocytes in older populations, and live, single-cycle virus vaccines that stimulate both cellular and humoral immunity can protect older individuals against severe viral disease. The Journal of Immunology , 2011, 186: 000–000.
Navigating Underactuated Agents by Hitchhiking Forecast Flows

In dynamic flow fields such as winds and ocean currents an agent can navigate by going with the flow, only using minimal propulsion to nudge itself into beneficial flows. This navigation paradigm of hitchhiking flows is highly energy-efficient. However, reliable navigation in this setting remains challenging as typically only forecasts are available which differ significantly from the true currents and the forecast error can be larger than can be handled by the actuation of the agent. In this paper, we propose a novel control method for reliable navigation of underactuated agents hitchhiking flows based on imperfect forecasts. In the spirit of Model Predictive Control our method allows for time-optimal replanning at every time step with only one computation per forecast. Using the recent Multi-Time Hamilton-Jacobi Reachability formulation we obtain a value function which is then used for closed-loop control. We evaluate the reliability of our method empirically over a large set of multi-day start-target missions in the ocean currents of the Gulf of Mexico with realistic forecast errors. Our method outperforms the baselines significantly, achieving high reliability, measured as the success rate of navigating from start to target, at low computational cost.
Elaboration of a data basis on greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater management Final report N2OklimARA

The currently applied approaches to estimate direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of nitrous oxide (N 2 O) and methane (CH 4 ) from wastewater treatment (sector 5D) in the national greenhouse gas inventories of Switzerland are based on the IPCC guidelines (IPCC 2006). A review of the Swiss application of guidelines showed that the guidelines are only partly representative for Switzerland (Eawag 2018). Hence, an extended study was performed including extensive monitoring campaigns on Swiss wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), analysis of existing data sets and literature reviews. The present document summarizes the study and suggests an improved methodology for an assessment of the GHG emissions of sector 5D.
Team performance in the high-tech industry:a case study at Applied Micro Electronics AME B.V.

This Masters thesis describes the results of a six-month graduation project at the R&D department of Applied Micro Electronics AME B.V. (AME), a high-tech company situated in Eindhoven. The main objective of this study was to determine which antecedents influence the performance of R&D teams in the high-tech sector. During the first months, antecedents that were expected to have an influence on the performance of the R&D teams within AME were identified. Next, a set of selected antecedents were tested for their influence using 5 R&D teams. Results showed that the antecedents team cohesiveness, goal clarity and performance feedback have a significant positive influence on the team performance of these project teams. Based on these results, a list of practical recommendations was created, including tips on how management can influence the level of these antecedents, but also on how performance of a team can be monitored actively.
Provenance-based Model Maintenance: Implications for Privacy

With the increasing need for Machine-learning-as-a-service (MaaS) online systems, effectively maintaining and reusing machine learning models in light of changes to the underlying data has become a big concern. In particular, it is extremely challenging to refresh existing models after the removal of training samples, which is called “machine unlearning”. Addressing this challenge not only requires an efﬁcient solution, but must comply with emerging privacy issues, e.g. GDPR, which implies that the removed samples must be fully erased from the models so that they cannot be leaked to an adversary. We review two provenance-based solutions, PrIU and DeltaGrad, and show how they can guard against “model inversion attacks", which reconstruct the removed training samples from the updated models after the unlearning process. Since PrIU and DeltaGrad support a limited class of models, we envision a system that can unlearn general models in an efﬁcient and secure manner and outline possible technical challenges for building this system.
Contribution of gravity anomalies interpretation to the geology of the Jbel Saghro (eastern Anti-Atlas, Morocco): implications for the impact of structural control on sedimentation distribution

The objective of the gravity investigation in Saghro is to follow the depth of the causative sources and to examine the continuity of the geological formation boundaries. To achieve these objectives, the Bouguer anomaly data was subjected to a subtraction of the regional component and, then, interpreted in the light of three mathematical transformations. The upward-continuation enabled classifying the causative features to deep and shallow sources. Source-Parameter-Imaging allowed us to determine the depth and distribution of the basement uplifts, while the horizontal gradient was used to detect subsurface linear discontinuities, which correspond to geological lineaments. The horizontal gradient enabled revealing several faults trending mainly E-W, NE-SW, and NW-SE; these lineaments are linked to the Anti-Atlas tectonic events. The gravity analysis outcomes were validated by field investigations and interpreted in the light of the previous geological studies carried out in Saghro. The distribution of the basement uplifts is related to tectonics, which transformed the basement into high and low areas, and subsequently influenced posterior sediments distribution. The Saghro southern flank registers a thick and complete sedimentary sequence, whereas the sequence on its northern flank is thin, indicating relatively higher subsidence on the southern flank due to various faulting systems.
Drug-coated Balloon Angioplasty Versus Drug-eluting Stenting for Femoropopliteal Arterial Disease: A Review of the Current Status

Endovascular procedures are frequently performed for symptomatic femoropopliteal disease. Drug-eluting stents (DES) and drug-coated balloons (DCB) were introduced to improve long-term outcomes and demonstrated superior outcomes to percutaneous transluminal angioplasty in randomised clinical trials. Femoropopliteal disease, however, can be challenging to treat using an endovascular approach as this segment suffers increased biomechanical stress during extremity movements, which may lead to chronic vascular injury or even stent fracture. The advantages of DCB include the direct and homogeneous delivery of an antiproliferative agent to the arterial wall, and the ability to reach tortuous and longer lesions without a vascular implant; however, the lack of scaffold makes the intervention prone to significant recoil. Even though the use of DCB, a leave-nothing-behind strategy, may appear desirable, the need for bailout stenting will increase as lesions become more complex. This review summarises and compares the currently available evidence regarding the use of DCB and DES in the treatment of femoropopliteal disease.
Naringin Regulates Microglia BV-2 Activation and Inflammation via the JAK/STAT3 Pathway

Objective Microglial BV-2 cells are activated in the brain following insomnia. Naringin (NAR) is a polymethoxylated flavonoid that is also commonly found in citrus fruits and is known for its antioxidant potential. However, the effect of NAR on microglial cells has rarely been studied in the brain of an organism after insomnia. This study aimed to investigate the effects and potential mechanisms of action of NAR on microglial cell activation and inflammation. Methods BV-2 cells were obtained from the China Center for Type Culture Collection and randomly divided into five treatment groups: control, model, NAR (10 μM), WP1066 (5 μM), and NAR + WP1066. With the exception of the control group, all groups were stimulated with LPS (1 μg/mL) for 6 h. CCK8 was used to quantify cell viability and a scratch test was performed to detect cell migration. The expression levels of interleukin 6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β), nterleukin 10 (IL-10), and insulin like growth factor (1IGF-1) were measured by ELISA. Western blotting was performed to determine the levels of p-STAT3 and p-JAK. The Focalcheck™ Thin-Ring Fluorescent Microspheres kit was used to detect cell phagocytosis. Immunofluorescence was used to observe the expression of iNOS and arginase1 in BV-2 cells. Results Compared with the control group, cell migration, cell viability, and the expression of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, and iNOS were significantly increased in the model group, whereas the expression levels of IL-10, IGF-1, and arginase 1, as well as cell phagocytosis were reduced. With the increase in NAR concentration, cell migration, cell viability, the expression levels of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, and iNOS decreased, while the expression of IL-10, IGF-1, and arginase 1 increased. Compared with the control group, p-STAT3, and p-JAK expression in the model group were significantly increased (P<0.05). Compared with the model group, the expression of p-STAT3 and p-JAK in the NAR, NAR + WP1066, and WP1066 groups was significantly decreased (P < 0.05). Conclusion NAR treatment inhibited the proliferation, migration, and inflammation of BV-2 cells as well as the activation of microglia to the M1 phenotype. Conversely, NAR treatment promoted the activation of microglia to the M2 phenotype and enhanced the phagocytic function of BV-2 cells by regulating the activity of the JAK/STAT3 pathway.
Dimensioning methodology for energy storage devices and wave energy converters supplying isolated loads

One of the big issues ocean-wave energy faces nowadays is the oscillation of the generated power. Among others, energy storage is a solution that has been widely proposed and validated for an adequate grid or isolated load integration. However, the unpredictability of ocean waves may pose a challenge when specifying the energy storage system (ESS) technology and specifications, especially in the case of stand-alone operation. This study presents a suitable methodology for the design of a certain wave energy converter (WEC) and the calculation of a certain stochastic model of the latter necessary for the subsequent sizing of the ESS. As a result, the storage system is defined in terms of energy, power and type of technology for the specific WEC and chosen location. The problem is accomplished in this study describing systematically the method and solving a particular example of the design of a wave converter in the Gulf of Mexico.
Endogenous Popularity: How Perceptions of Support Affect the Popularity of Authoritarian Regimes

Being popular makes it easier for dictators to govern. A growing body of scholarship therefore focuses on the factors that influence authoritarian popularity. However, it is possible that the perception of popularity itself affects incumbent approval in autocracies. We use framing experiments embedded in four surveys in Russia to examine this phenomenon. These experiments reveal that manipulating information—and thereby perceptions—about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s popularity can significantly affect respondents’ support for him. Additional analyses, which rely on a novel combination of framing and list experiments, indicate that these changes in support are not due to preference falsification, but are in fact genuine. This study has implications for research on support for authoritarian leaders and defection cascades in nondemocratic regimes.
Improved Intra Prediction Algorithm for HEVC with Conventional and Convolutional Neural Network Approach

Video compression has evolved since last decade and has extended its employability to many applications such as high definition televisions, video conferencing etc. High definition videos have nearly two times of bit rate than standard definition videos. Hence, video compression is an important approach to obtain information with lesser data size. The paper proposes an improved approach for intra-prediction in HEVC with modified resolution enhancement approach and intra prediction is considered for all 35 modes. The obtained results shows that the similarity between input and output is nearly same and PSNR average is around 42. Further, a deep learning approach has also been incorporated and coding unit depth is predicted for intra prediction. The developed model has provided 85% accuracy maintaining the similar PSNR.
CFD analysis of flow through Venturi tube and its discharge coefficient

Venturi tube plays a very important role in different fields of engineering. It has a number of industrial applications in which its design is an essential factor. Venturi tube used in gas measurement applications provides an accurate critical gas flow measurement. There is a need to design Venturi tube with an effective analytical tool or software. In this work, two parameters: pressure drop and velocity discharge nozzle were analyzed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The results obtained were then analyzed for accurate determination of the Venturi tube's discharge coefficient, Cd. It was found that there is less than 1% difference between the average values of the discharge coefficient obtained from the numerical analysis and experimental results.