Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Medical social worker support for elderly patients in a tertiary care hospital in Japan

Summary When elderly patients are admitted to a hospital, they may require support from medical social workers during hospitalization. This study examined the association between patient characteristics and support provided by medical social workers in applications for social welfare benefits during hospitalization. We conducted a retrospective observational study of patients aged 65 years or older between October 2018 and September 2021 who had involvement by a medical social worker during their hospitalization at a tertiary care hospital in Japan. We evaluated associations between background factors and support in applying for social welfare benefits by medical social workers using logistic regression analysis. Findings Among 485 eligible patients, 79 (16.3%) received support from a medical social worker in an application for social welfare benefits. Early elderly age (65–74 years) and living alone were independently associated with receiving support from medical social workers (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.98, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.16–3.37, P = .012; 3.86, 95% CI 2.26–6.62, P < .001, respectively), regardless of sex, activities of daily living before admission, and presence of a regular doctor. Application The findings suggest that early elderly individuals who live alone may not be able to utilize the available welfare benefits and not have adequate support from family members when admitted to a tertiary care hospital, even if they have adequate activities of daily living and a regular doctor. Early intervention to improve social vulnerability may be required for early elderly individuals who live alone.
Emotion Classification with EEG Responses Evoked by Emotional Prosody of Speech

Emotion classification with EEG responses can be used in human-computer interaction, security, medical treatment, etc. Neural responses recorded via EEG can reflect more direct and objective emotional information than other behavioral signals (i.e., facial expression.). In most previous studies, only features of EEG were used as input for machine learning models. In this work, we assumed that the emotional features included in speech stimuli could assist in emotion recognition with EEG when the emotion is evoked by the emotional prosody of speech. An EEG data corpus was collected with specific speech stimuli, in which emotion was represented with only speech prosody and without semantic context. A novel EEG-Prosody CRNN model was proposed to classify four types of typical emotions. The classification accuracy can achieve at 82.85% when the prosody features of speech were integrated as input, which outperformed most audio-evoked EEG-based emotion classification methods.
Speech Emotion Recognition by Estimating Emotional Label Sequences with Phoneme Class Attribute

In recent years, much research has been into speech emotion recognition (SER) using deep learning to predict emotions conveyed by speech. We studied the method that detected the emotion for the whole utterance using the frame-based SER, which estimates emotions in each frame rather than in a whole utter-ance. One of the problems with this method is that the emotional label sequence, which is used in training the frame-based SER, does not sufﬁciently consider phonemic characteristics. To solve this problem, we propose new methods of recognizing the emotion for the whole utterance using frame-based SER that considers the phoneme class attribute such as vowels, voiced consonants, unvoiced consonants, and other symbols in training. As a result, we found that the proposed methods signiﬁ-cantly improve the performance of the result for the whole ut-terance compared to conventional methods.
BRCA2 Frameshift Mutation in de novo Small-Cell Neuroendocrine Carcinoma of the Prostate: A Case Report

A 66-year-old male was diagnosed with cT4N0M1b small-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the prostate. Four months after the administration of combined androgen blockade, multiple novel metastatic regions in the lung and liver and progression of bone metastasis were observed. The patient was referred to our hospital because of biochemical and radiographic progression after four cycles of docetaxel as a first-line therapy for castration-resistant prostate cancer. Transurethral resection of the prostate and hepatic biopsy revealed small-cell carcinoma with positive expression of neuroendocrine markers. The FoundationOne CDx next-generation sequencing test revealed several pathogenic variants, including BRCA2 (W1692fs*3), KEAP1 (R320W), and TP53 (C2385) mutation. After four cycles of chemotherapy with carboplatin plus etoposide (CE), the metastatic regions regressed markedly. The prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) level decreased by 96.9% and 91.6%, respectively. However, 2 months after the completion of four cycles of CE, elevation of tumor marker levels, and re-growth of the metastatic regions were observed. Although olaparib, a poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor (PARPi), achieved a 45.2% decrease in NSE, the patient rejected to continue therapy because of G2 adverse events. After receiving an additional two cycles of CE and one cycle of cabazitaxel, the patient died because of cancer progression 24 months after the initial treatment for prostate cancer. Here, we present a case of BRCA2-altered small-cell neuroendocrine prostate cancer treated with both platinum-containing chemotherapy and PARPi. Both therapies achieved an initial response; however, durable responses were not obtained. Additional discussion regarding the optimal treatment strategy for BRCA-altered small-cell/neuroendocrine prostate cancer is required.
C²A-SLU: Cross and Contrastive Attention for Improving ASR Robustness in Spoken Language Understanding

Spoken language understanding (SLU) is a critical task in task-oriented dialogue systems. However, automatic speech recognition (ASR) errors often impair the understanding performance. Despite many previous models have obtained promising results for improving ASR robustness in SLU, most of them treat clean manual transcripts and ASR transcripts equally during the fine-tuning stage. To tackle this issue, in this paper, we propose a novel method termed C 2 A-SLU. Specifically speaking, we add calculated cross attention to the original hidden states and apply contrastive attention to compare the input transcript with clean manual transcripts to distill the contrastive information, which can better capture distinctive features of ASR transcripts. Experiments on three datasets show that C 2 A-SLU surpasses existing models and achieves a new state-of-the-art performance, with a relative improvement of 3.4 % in terms of accuracy over the previous best model on SLURP dataset.
The Resource Potential and Zoning Evaluation for Deep Geothermal Resources of the Dongying Formation in Tianjin Binhai New Area

The Dongying geothermal resources are an important part of the deep geothermal resources in Tianjin Binhai New Area, and these resources will determine whether the demand target can be met. There is an urgent need to find favorable target areas for Dongying geothermal resources and to develop Dongying geothermal resources safely, stably and efficiently. The recoverable potential of the Dongying geothermal reservoir in different positions is calculated by simulating and predicting the water level, which is as an important index of zoning evaluation. By using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), the comprehensive indexes of geothermal exploration and development regionalization are quantified. A grade-two evaluation system, which considers the development constraints, has been established for the delineation of deep geothermal resources’ exploration and development prospect target areas. The zoning evaluation results show that the excellent prospect target area of Dongying geothermal resources, for their exploration and development, is 314.33 km2, the general prospect target area is 745.77 km2, and the bad prospect target area is 879.31 km2. The quantitative zoning evaluation method can provide references for the optimization of the exploration and development target area of deep geothermal resources with low prospecting accuracy in key areas of China.
Fixed Functional Appliance Therapy With and Without Skeletal Anchorage in Class II Malocclusion: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

Background: For its synergistic effects in producing skeletal changes as well as to lessen the proclination of the lower incisors, which is a common negative result of mandibular advancement, fixed functional appliances with skeletal anchorage have recently been used. Aim: Objective was to evaluate the skeletal and dentoalveolar effects with fixed functional appliances with and without skeletal anchorage. Methods: Electronic database search and manual search were performed up to 2021, April in four databases namely The Cochrane Library, PubMed, Lilac, and Google Scholar. RCTs that employed the use of fixed functional appliances in Class II malocclusion with and without skeletal anchoring were collected. Two co-authors independently extracted the data, and a pre-designed template was followed during the data extraction process. Data including inclusion and exclusion criteria; study design, the year of publication; age and gender of the patients; type of fixed functional device; stage of skeletal maturation; size and site of mini-implant or miniplate placement, amount of force applied in grams or Newtons; method of study outcome assessment (2D or 3D); and follow up were collected. The skeletal and dentoalveolar parameters were extracted. Results: The risk of bias was evaluated, and the SMD and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were also calculated. Four RCTs were evaluated for qualitative and quantitative analysis. The review involved data of 179 Class II individuals. The results of a random-effects meta-analysis showed that the SNB differed significantly from the control group (SMD = 0.50 (95% CI –1.55 to –0.10)). No significant differences noted between the two groups in terms of lower incisor inclination and mandibular length changes [SMD = –0.04 (95% CI −2.06 to 1.98) and –1.33 (95% CI −3.28 to 0.62), respectively]. The studies under this were not able to provide enough data to draw any conclusions about the effects of using skeletal anchorage with FFA. Conclusion: According to the evidence that is currently available, using FFA coupled with skeletal anchorage does not appear to have any superior skeletal effects than those without skeletal anchorage.
Modeling and Decision Support Tools Based on the Effects to Sediment Geochemistry and Microbial Populations on Contaminant Reactions in Sediments

Abstract : The proper management of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-contaminated sediment has proven to be a wide-spread, complex, and costly issue. PCBs are a primary contaminant driving risk at many Department of Defense facilities. There is a need for sound science and effective tools to characterize and manage these sites and their associated risks. The focus of this project was on the role of site-specific differences in geochemistry and microbial populations in the transformation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in sediments. Laboratory analysis of sediment samples and microcosm-based PCB dechlorination experimentation were used to enhance our understanding of microbial populations that are capable of dechlorinating PCBs. Undisturbed sediments from the Grasse River in Massena, New York, show extensive dechlorination and the presence of PCB dechlorinating bacteria throughout the sampled core, suggesting monitored natural attenuation has significant potential as a remediation strategy. Two rivers sediments (Grasse and Hudson) show significantly different native microbial populations and different concentrations of organic materials, iron and sulfate. Amended microcosm studies indicate the concentration of iron and sulfate affect rate, extent and pathways of dechlorination. The development of advanced modeling tools was used to enhance prediction of dechlorination and evaluate the likelihood of natural attenuation at specific sites. Classification trees were developed to predict PCB pathways that are likely to be observed when specific processes are active in contaminated sediments. A dechlorination process estimator was developed to enable more accurate identification of processes occurring in PCB-contaminated sediments.
Dietary Curcumin Supplementation Could Improve Muscle Quality, Antioxidant Enzyme Activities and the Gut Microbiota Structure of Pelodiscus sinensis

Simple Summary Curcumin (CM) is a hydrophobic polyphenolic compound derived from the rhizome of turmeric (Curcuma longa Linn.). It has been proven to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and nutritional metabolic regulatory functions in mammals. Currently, little is known about its effects on reptiles. In this study, dietary supplementation of 2–4 g/kg curcumin improved the antioxidant enzyme activities and muscle quality of Chinese soft-shelled turtles (Pelodiscus sinensis). Moreover, dietary curcumin supplementation increased the abundance of antioxidant bacteria (Lactobacillus and Flavobacterium) in the gut of turtles and affected hepatic metabolism-related pathways, reducing the crude lipid content of the body. These data could guide curcumin application to promote the health status of turtles. Abstract This experiment aimed to assess the impact of different dietary curcumin (CM) levels on growth, muscle quality, serum-biochemical parameters, antioxidant-enzyme activities, gut microbiome, and liver transcriptome in Chinese soft-shelled turtles (Pelodiscus sinensis). Five experimental diets were formulated to include graded levels of curcumin at 0 (control, CM0), 0.5 (CM0.5), 1 (CM1), 2 (CM2) and 4 g/kg (CM4). Each diet was randomly distributed to quadruplicate groups of turtles (164.33 ± 5.5 g) for 6 weeks. Our findings indicated that dietary curcumin supplementation did not have a significant influence on growth performance (p > 0.05); however, it significantly improved the muscular texture profiles (p < 0.05). Serum total superoxide dismutase (SOD), liver catalase (CAT), and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) activities increased significantly as dietary curcumin levels rose from 0.5 to 4 g/kg (p < 0.05). Dietary curcumin supplementation improved gut microbiota composition, as evidenced by an increase in the proportion of dominant bacteria such as Lactobacillus and Flavobacterium. Liver transcriptome analysis revealed that curcumin altered metabolic pathways in the liver. In conclusion, based on the evaluation of the activities of SOD in serum and CAT in liver under current experimental design, it was determined that the appropriate dietary curcumin supplementation for Chinese soft-shelled turtles is approximately 3.9 g/kg.
Remote mass facial temperature screening in varying ambient temperatures and distances

Remote body temperature measurement using infrared thermography has been widely deployed worldwide to detect feverish persons, but the measurement accuracy is affected by various factors including ambient temperature and sensor-subject distance. We present a novel compensation model to address the undesirable interacting influence of ambient temperature and sensor-subject distance during remote facial temperature screening in real-world setting. We derived our model on site-data collected over 12 months and demonstrated the significant linear relationship between ambient temperature and the measured temperature from a thermal camera. In addition, the interaction between the effects of sensor-subject distance and ambient temperature on the measured temperature is significant. Our model can significantly reduce the measurement error (MAE) by 23.5% and is better than the best existing models. The model can also extend the detection distance by up to 46% with sensitivity and specificity over 90%.
Prevalence and Risk Factors of Hyperuricemia in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease and Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver

Background/Aims: The number of patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) is on the rise. Epidemiological studies have shown the role of hyperuricemia in the development of NAFLD and CKD through oxidative stress and inflammatory mediators. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the prevalence and risk factors of hyperuricemia in patients with CKD and NAFLD in Iran. Patients and Methods: This study was conducted in 450 CKD patients. NAFLD was diagnosed by ultrasonography. According to the serum uric acid level, all CKD + NAFLD + patients were divided into non-hyperuricemia and hyperuricemia groups. The patients’ demographic and clinical data such as age, sex, abdominal obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, hypertension, CRP, hepatic steatosis, blood pressure, serum uric acid (UA), lipid and creatinine were collected for analysis. Results: A total of 279 cases (62%) were diagnosed with NAFLD. The prevalence rate of NFALD in CKD patients was significantly lower in normal UA level than hyperuricemia (42.7% vs 57.3%) (P=0.039). The prevalence of hyperuricemia was about 57.3% in patients with CKD and NAFLD. Accordingly, 279 CKD patients with NAFLD were enrolled and divided into hyperuricemia (n =160) and non-hyperuricemia groups (n =119). Patients with hyperuricemia showed higher creatinine and lipid levels, and a lower GFR compared to patients with normal uric acid levels (P< 0.05). However, no significant difference was observed in age, sex, abdominal obesity, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, CRP, and steatosis between hyperuricemia and non-hyperuricemia groups (P>0.05). Three factors, including type 2 diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and a low GFR, serve as independent risk factors for hyperuricemia (P<0.05). Conclusion: The results showed a high prevalence of hyperuricemia in patients with CKD and NAFLD. A more comprehensive strategic management is necessary to address the potential harmful effects of hyperuricemia on the health of CKD + NAFLD + cases.
Evaluating Headache and Facial Pain in a Headache Diagnostic Laboratory: Experiences from the Danish Headache Center

Background: Diagnostic tests are not routinely used for the diagnosis of primary headaches. It is possible that laboratory tests could be developed and implemented at tertiary headache centers to be an integrated part of the diagnosis and management of headache patients, and laboratory tests that can be used on-site at headache centers could help in evaluating patients with secondary headache disorders. Methods: In this narrative review, we present some of the studies that have been made so far at the Headache Diagnostic Laboratory at the Danish Headache Center that aim to investigate and phenotype primary headaches and investigate secondary headaches as well as improve management. Results: Semi-structured interviews and deep phenotyping, quantitative sensory testing, and provocation studies have been shown to be valuable in categorizing primary and secondary headache subtypes, possible pathophysiology, and defining needs for further research. In patients suspected of increased intracranial pressure, transorbital ultrasound with measurement of the optic sheath diameter may be useful in monitoring patients. The management of headache patients needs to be critically evaluated to optimize treatment continuously. Conclusion: A Headache Diagnostic Laboratory is very useful and should be an integrated part of headache care and management at tertiary headache centers.
Relayed Collective Perception Service With Redundancy Mitigation and Time Synchronization for V2X Communications Networks

The development of vehicular-to-everything (V2X) communications has led to the emergence of collective perception service (CPS), a concept that seeks to expand the limited horizon of individual vehicles’ perception. Through CPS, vehicles exchange their detected object’s information namely with the neigh-boring vehicles through collective perception messages (CPMs). However, conventional CPS approaches are limited in their ability to enhance perception, as they only allow for the sharing of CPMs among one-hop neighbor peers. To overcome this limitation, we propose a CPS scheme that employs a relay mechanism using an append-and-forward approach to improve perception beyond one-hop neighbors. For the resultant framework, to maintain the desired object redundancy and information freshness, we proposed solutions in terms of redundancy mitigation and time synchronization. Our numerical results demonstrate significant improvements in perception capabilities, with minimal impact on channel overheads.
Hematological and Hematopoietic Analysis in Fish Toxicology—A Review

Simple Summary Hematological analysis is one of the essential tools to assess the influence of organic and inorganic substances on fish. Thus, it is widely used in ecotoxicological and pharmacotoxicological studies. In this review, we demonstrate and discuss the use, strengths, and limitations of hematological as well as hematopoietic analysis in the context of fish toxicology. Since hematopoietic analysis can help to explain and understand the mechanisms of studied hematological changes, we highly recommend this method as a good complement to standard hematological tests. Abstract Hematological analysis is commonly used to assess the physiological state of fish. It includes red blood cell parameters, white blood cell parameters, and the number of thrombocytes per blood volume unit. Hematological analysis is one of the basic tools (often accompanied by biochemical and histopathological analyses) to assess the influence of organic and inorganic substances on fish. It is, therefore, applicable in both ecotoxicology and pharmacotoxicology. The advantages of this research method are the lack of need for specialized laboratory equipment and low costs, and the limitations are the need for extensive experience among the personnel performing the tests. One of the recommended methods of supplementing routinely determined hematological parameters is assessing the cellular composition and activity of hematopoietic tissue. As there is very little scientific data available on the issue of the effects of xenobiotics on the cellular structure of fish head kidney hematopoietic tissue, filling this gap should be considered an urgent need. Therefore, we recommend conducting research with the simultaneous use of hematological and hematopoietic analysis as reliable and complementary methods of assessing the impact of toxic substances on fish.
UNDERSTANDING HOW JOB STRESS, ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION, WORK DISCIPLINE, AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IMPACT EMPLOYEE JOB SATISFACTION

This research aims to explain the Job Stress, Achievement Motivation, Work Discipline and Emotional Intelligence on Employee Job Satisfaction at PT. Bank Maybank Indonesia Tbk. Diponegoro Center. A quantitative study using a saturation sample methodology was conducted on 56 employees, and multiple linear regression analysis and SEM PLS were used for data analysis. The results indicated that both emotional intelligence and job stress have an effect on job satisfaction, partially showing the same results, i.e., emotional intelligence partially has a positive and significant influence on job satisfaction and job stress has a positive and significant influence on job satisfaction. Using SEM-PLS produces the same result: emotional intelligence has a positive and significant influence on job satisfaction. Research results can be a company's input to improve performance with variables in research. Research only at PT. MayBank Indonesia Therefore, the data collected is limited to only one company.