Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
RISK FACTORS AND CLINICAL PRESENTATION OF SEPTIC ARTHRITIS OF HIP IN INFANTS: A PROSPECTIVE STUDY

Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the risk factors and clinical presentation of septic arthritis of hip in infants. Methods: Thirty infants with unilateral septic arthritis of hip were included in this study on the basis of a pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The study was conducted in PIOS Medilinks Pvt. Limited, Jaysingpur, Kolhapur, India. The duration of the study was 18 months from June 2021 to December 2022. The institutional ethical committee approved the study. The diagnosis of septic arthritis was made on the basis of Morrey’s criteria. Risk factors associated with septic arthritis and clinical presentation were studied. Results: Out of the total 30 infants diagnosed to be having septic arthritis of unilateral hip, 17 (57.67%) were males and 13 (43.33%) were females. In our study, an overwhelming majority of the patients belonged to neonatal age group (80%) followed by 1 month–2 months (10%). Only 3 infants were between 2 months and 1 year of age (10%). Low birth weight and prematurity or a combination of these two factors was the most common risk factor in neonates with septic hip arthritis and was seen in 7 (23.33%) patients. All infants having septic arthritis had increased local temperature (100%) and reduced joint movements (100%). Erythema (86.67%), swelling (73.33%), and irritability (60%) were other common clinical features associated with septic arthritis. The most common offending organism was Staphylococcus aureus (33.33%) followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (13.33%). The analysis of outcome at the end of 3-month follow-up showed that out of 30 studied cases, 28 (93.33%) infants had a painless hip with normal range of motion. Conclusion: Septic arthritis of hip in infants is an emergency and requires prompt treatment. Any delay in diagnosis can have catastrophic consequences. However, in majority of appropriately managed infants, there is no residual damage to the affected joint.
Measurements and Analysis of a High-Brightness Electron Beam Collimated in a Magnetic Bunch Compressor

A collimator located in a magnetic bunch compressor of a linear accelerator driven x-ray free electron laser has many potential applications, such as the removal of horns in the current distribution, the generation of ultrashort beams, and as a diagnostic of the beam slice emittance. Collective effects, however, are a major concern in applying the technique. Systematic measurements of emittance and analysis were performed using a collimator in the first bunch compressor of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). In the nominal, undercompressed configuration using the collimator we find that the y emittance (nonbending plane) is not increased, and the x emittance (in the bending plane) is increased by about 25%, in comparison to the injector emittance. From the analysis we conclude that the parasitic effects associated with this method are dominated by coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR), which causes a “systematic error” for measuring slice emittance at the bending plane using the collimation method. In general, we find good agreement between the measurements and simulations including CSR. However, for overcompressed beams at smaller collimator gaps, an extra emittance increase is found that does not agree with 1D simulations and is not understood.
SYSTEMIC AND STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF INVESTMENT ACTIVITY IN UKRAINE

Investment activity is an important component of the financial and economic mechanism of the national economy. In the socio-economic turbulence inherent in Ukraine, significant challenges for the development of the state and its national economy, the role of investment activity in supporting socio-economic development at both the micro and macro levels is growing significantly. In this context, special attention is paid to the main characteristics of investment activity, and the subject of study is revealed in its systemic and structural features. The purpose of the article is to determine the systemic and structural aspects of investment activity in Ukraine, taking into account the influence of exogenous and endogenous drivers both at the level of enterprises and the state. The methodology used in this article consists of a systemic and structural analysis of investment activity in Ukraine, including the study of key components and factors, comparative analysis with other regions, and sectoral analysis. This comprehensive approach makes it possible to identify challenges and opportunities in the investment climate, which ultimately leads to the formulation of practical recommendations for improving investment activity in the country. The article examines the nature of investment activity in Ukraine at the current stage, emphasizing its systemic and structural aspects. The main risks and limiting factors for the adequate development of investment activities in Ukraine were identified both at the micro- and macro-levels. The main challenges to investment activity in Ukraine were studied with a focus on the main groups of stakeholders. Within the framework of the study, the main trends of investment activity in Ukraine were analyzed from the point of view of its system and structural architecture. The trends in the sectoral structure of foreign direct investments, as well as in the leading countries of their receipt are highlighted. The structure of the development of capital investments by spheres of economic activity, as well as the peculiarities of the financing of capital investments in their structural aspects were studied. In conclusion, based on the results of the research, scientific and practical proposals were made to support the development of investment activity in Ukraine in financial and economic, regulatory and legal, communication and promotion aspects. The conducted research can be useful for professional researchers, experts in financial and investment sphere, professional investors, business associations, financial institutions and state authorities. Prospects for future research are an extended analysis of the issues of the essence of investment activity from the point of view of its critical challenges for the creation of added value for stakeholders of different levels in a turbulent environment.
Physician Views on the Provision of Information on Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy to Patients with Cancer and Pre-Existing Autoimmune Disease: A Qualitative Study

Simple Summary This study provides physicians’ perspectives on the information cancer patients with autoimmune diseases should learn when considering ICI. This information can be incorporated into patient–doctor discussions and educational tools to improve shared decision-making in this patient population. Abstract Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have improved cancer outcomes but can cause severe immune-related adverse events (irAEs) and flares of autoimmune conditions in cancer patients with pre-existing autoimmune disease. The objective of this study was to identify the information physicians perceived as most useful for these patients when discussing treatment initiation with ICIs. Twenty physicians at a cancer institution with experience in the treatment of irAEs were interviewed. Qualitative thematic analysis was performed to organize and interpret data. The physicians were 11 medical oncologists and 9 non-oncology specialists. The following themes were identified: (1) current methods used by physicians to provide information to patients and delivery options; (2) factors to make decisions about whether or not to start ICIs in patients who have cancer and pre-existing autoimmune conditions; (3) learning points for patients to understand; (4) preferences for the delivery of ICI information; and (5) barriers to the implementation of ICI information in clinics. Regarding points to discuss with patients, physicians agreed that the benefits of ICIs, the probability of irAEs, and risks of underlying autoimmune condition flares with the use of ICIs were most important. Non-oncologists were additionally concerned about how ICIs affect the autoimmune disease (e.g., impact on disease activity, need for changes in medications for the autoimmune disease, and monitoring of autoimmune conditions).
Direct numerical simulation of particle behaviour in a gas-solid three dimensional plane jet

In this paper, direct numerical simulations (DNS) of a three-dimensional (3D), non-reacting, temporally evolving planar jet laden with mono-dispersed solid particles in the two-way coupling (TWC) regime are performed. Three different particles Stokes numbers (St = 0.1, 1, 10) have been considered. This has been achieved by varying the particle diameter while keeping the particle mass loading (fm = 1) and the jet Reynolds number (Rejet = 2000) unchanged. The objective is to study the effect of the particle Stokes number TWC regime on the temporal development of the planar jet. Two-way coupled momentum and heat transfer has been studied by investigating mean relative velocity and temperature. Results indicate that the relative parameters are more pronounced on the edges of the jet and decrease in time in general. At the center of the jet however, the mean value first increases and then decreases again. Additionally, lighter particles spread farther than heavier particles from the center of the jet. Furthermore, the heavier particles delay the development of the jet due to TWC effects.
Massive and Irreparable Rotator Cuff Tears: A Review of Current Definitions and Concepts

Background: While massive and irreparable rotator cuff tears (MIRCTs) have been abundantly studied, inconsistent definitions in the literature and theories about pain and dysfunction related to them can be difficult to navigate when considering an individual patient. Purpose: To review the current literature for definitions and critical concepts that drive decision-making for MIRCTs. Study Design: Narrative review. Methods: A search of the PubMed database was performed to conduct a comprehensive literature review on MIRCTs. A total of 97 studies were included. Results: Recent literature reflects added attention to clarifying the definitions of “massive, “irreparable,” and “pseudoparalysis. ” In addition, numerous recent studies have added to the understanding of what generates pain and dysfunction from this condition and have reported on new techniques for addressing them. Conclusion: The current literature provides a nuanced set of definitions and conceptual foundations on MIRCTs. These can be used to better define these complex conditions in patients when comparing current surgical techniques to address MIRCTs, as well as when interpreting the results of new techniques. While the number of effective treatment options has increased, high-quality and comparative evidence on treatments for MIRCTs is lacking.
Human Resource Management across Generations within the Context of World of Work 4.0

The aim of the paper is to evaluate the expectations of cohorts of workers from Generations X, Y, and Z with regards to their perceptions of what a "good workplace" is. Two research questions were formulated accordingly. Respondents representing workers from Generations X, Y, and Z, from Italy and Austria, were asked to consider and rate (on a 1-5 scale) eighteen criteria on work environment and managerial approach. Multi-sample testing was applied during processing with the ANOVA and Shapiro-Wilk and the Kruskal-Wallis test was subsequently used for multi-sample testing. The findings show that the most popular criterion for all three generational cohorts is "good work atmosphere", followed by "all employees are valued, treated, and rewarded fairly". Interestingly, generational differences were observed for "customer orientation", which was more important for Generation X, and "autonomous organization of work (time)", which was more important for Generations Y and Z. The most surprising result was the significance of corporate image, with less than 4% identifying this as an important issue across all three generations. These findings can help human resource managers create appropriate working environments and motivational tools that meet the real expectations of employees. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2023-07-03-013 Full Text: PDF
High-Intensity Interval Training Induces Protein Lactylation in Different Tissues of Mice with Specificity and Time Dependence

Protein lysine lactylation (Kla) is a novel protein acylation reported in recent years, which plays an important role in the development of several diseases with pathologically elevated lactate levels, such as tumors. The concentration of lactate as a donor is directly related to the Kla level. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a workout pattern that has positive effects in many metabolic diseases, but the mechanisms by which HIIT promotes health are not yet clear. Lactate is the main metabolite of HIIT, and it is unknown as to whether high lactate during HIIT can induce changes in Kla levels, as well as whether Kla levels differ in different tissues and how time-dependent Kla levels are. In this study, we observed the specificity and time-dependent effects of a single HIIT on the regulation of Kla in mouse tissues. In addition, we aimed to select tissues with high Kla specificity and obvious time dependence for lactylation quantitative omics and analyze the possible biological targets of HIIT-induced Kla regulation. A single HIIT induces Kla in tissues with high lactate uptake and metabolism, such as iWAT, BAT, soleus muscle and liver proteins, and Kla levels peak at 24 h after HIIT and return to steady state at 72 h. Kla proteins in iWAT may affect pathways related to glycolipid metabolism and are highly associated with de novo synthesis. It is speculated that the changes in energy expenditure, lipolytic effects and metabolic characteristics during the recovery period after HIIT may be related to the regulation of Kla in iWAT.
Early Exotic Vegetation Development Is Affected by Vine Plants and Bird Activity at Rapidly Exposed Floodplains in South Korea

Simple Summary In a river system where material flow is dynamic, the expansion of exotic plants through seed dispersion is affected by physical and biological factors, such as water, wind, and animal activities. In this study, the relationship between the life forms of plants and terrestrial birds that carry plant seeds in the establishment of exotic plants in exposed areas that were originally submerged and exposed to a drop in water level was analyzed. As a result, the development of exotic plants was promoted in proportion to the area of vine plants and the population of small terrestrial birds. This provides insight not only about the life forms of existing plants, but also the landscape of potential bird habitats, including vegetation patches; these should be considered for the effective management of exotic plants along rivers. Abstract For the study on the relationships between the seed dispersal of exotic plants and bird population, flora, avifauna, vegetation patches, and the dynamics of seed banks were investigated in and around the exposed floodplains of the large rivers, and the causes of exotic vegetation development were determined with respect to plant life form, bird population characteristics, and landscape using multivariate analysis. The number of dominant exotic plant species observed in exposed areas was higher than that observed in an abandoned field and paddy field undergoing secondary succession. Additionally, the area occupied by exotic vegetation in exposed areas increased with the increase in number of vine plants and small terrestrial birds, whereas the relationship between vine and runner plants was inversely proportional. Therefore, to control exotic plants in exposed floodplains surrounding large rivers, it is necessary to remove vines and shrubs along the waterfront where small resident birds carrying plant seeds live and to maintain and manage runner plant populations. Furthermore, implementing an ecological landscape management strategy, such as afforestation through the planting of trees, may also be effective.
Unmasking a New Type of Gastrointestinal Foreign Body in the COVID-19 Era

The incidence of foreign body ingestion has increased during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. As face masks became increasingly available, we report a case of accidental ingestion of the metal strip insert of a surgical mask. After initially progressing, its progress halted after 24 hours. This case highlights the challenges of timing the endoscopic removal of long objects, especially considering the reduced endoscopic availability during the pandemic. Despite only causing local trauma, the strip was impacted at the duodenojejunal flexure with the potential to cause obstruction. Limiting morbidity relies on urgent removal and prevention of similar ingestions by emphasizing the safe use and storage of masks.
In Situ Synthesis of Bi2MoO6/Bi2SiO5 Heterojunction for Efficient Degrading of Persistent Pollutants

Photocatalytic degradation is an environmentally friendly way to eliminate environmental pollution. Exploring a photocatalyst with high efficiency is essential. In the present study, we fabricated a Bi2MoO6/Bi2SiO5 heterojunction (BMOS) with intimate interfaces via a facile in situ synthesis method. The BMOS had much better photocatalytic performance than pure Bi2MoO6 and Bi2SiO5. The sample of BMOS-3 (3:1 molar ratio of Mo:Si) had the highest removal efficiency by the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) up to 75% and tetracycline (TC) up to 62% within 180 min. The increase in photocatalytic activity can be attributed to constructing high-energy electron orbitals in Bi2MoO6 to form a type II heterojunction, which increases the separation efficiencies of photogenerated carriers and transfer between the interface of Bi2MoO6 and Bi2SiO5. Moreover, electron spin resonance analysis and trapping experiments showed that the main active species were h+ and •O2− during photodegradation. BMOS-3 maintained a stable degradation capacity of 65% (RhB) and 49% (TC) after three stability experiments. This work offers a rational strategy to build Bi-based type II heterojunctions for the efficient photodegradation of persistent pollutants.
Dimensionality Reduction for Sparse Subspace Clustering

Subspace clustering addresses the problem of clustering a set of unlabeled high-dimensional data points lying near a union of low-dimensional subspaces according to their subspace membership. The number and dimensions of the subspaces, as well as their orientations, are all unknown. Since the computational cost of subspace clustering algorithms crucially depends on the ambient space dimension, it is desirable to reduce the dimensionality of the data before clustering. Even when computational cost is not an issue, dimensionality reduction is advantageous because it leads to reduced storage and transmission capacity requirements, and enhances privacy. It is thus important to understand the impact of dimensionality reduction on the performance of subspace clustering algorithms. In this work, we investigate this question analytically by deriving performance guarantees for sparse subspace clustering (SSC) [1–3] applied to data whose dimensionality was reduced using random projections. SSC relies on computing a sparse linear representation of each data point in terms of all other data points. The versions of SSC we consider are basis pursuit (BP)-, Lassoand orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP)-SSC, owing their names to the methods they use to find sparse representations. Our analytical results show that the dimensionality of the data can be reduced to the order of the dimensions of the subspaces without compromising the clustering performance, and reveal a tradeoff between the amount of dimensionality reduction tolerated and the affinities between the subspaces. Also, we numerically compare the effect of random projections and principal component analysis (PCA) on the clustering performance of SSC. In addition, we present a novel probabilistic performance guarantee for clustering the original data via OMP-SSC, ensuring correct clustering under very general conditions on the relative orientations of the subspaces. Finally, we numerically study a modification of Lasso-SSC aimed at accelerating the algorithm. This modification is based on Lasso screening [4] and does not substantially reduce the processing time of Lasso-SSC in our experiments.
Tumor–Stroma Ratio in Colorectal Cancer—Comparison between Human Estimation and Automated Assessment

Simple Summary A lower tumor–stroma ratio within a tumor correlates with a poorer outcome, i.e., with a higher risk of death. The assessment of this ratio by humans is prone to errors, and when presented the same case, the ratios reported by multiple pathologists will oftentimes deviate significantly. The aim of our work was to predict the tumor–stroma ratio automatically using deep neural segmentation networks. The assessment comprises two steps: recognizing the different tissue types and estimating their ratio. We compared both steps individually to human observers and showed that (i) the outlined automatic method yields good segmentation results and (ii) that human estimations are consistently higher than the automated estimation and deviate significantly for a hand-annotated ground truth. We showed that including an additional evaluation step for our segmentation results and relating the segmentation quality to deviations in tumor–stroma assessment provides helpful insights. Abstract The tumor–stroma ratio (TSR) has been repeatedly shown to be a prognostic factor for survival prediction of different cancer types. However, an objective and reliable determination of the tumor–stroma ratio remains challenging. We present an easily adaptable deep learning model for accurately segmenting tumor regions in hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained whole slide images (WSIs) of colon cancer patients into five distinct classes (tumor, stroma, necrosis, mucus, and background). The tumor–stroma ratio can be determined in the presence of necrotic or mucinous areas. We employ a few-shot model, eventually aiming for the easy adaptability of our approach to related segmentation tasks or other primaries, and compare the results to a well-established state-of-the art approach (U-Net). Both models achieve similar results with an overall accuracy of 86.5% and 86.7%, respectively, indicating that the adaptability does not lead to a significant decrease in accuracy. Moreover, we comprehensively compare with TSR estimates of human observers and examine in detail discrepancies and inter-rater reliability. Adding a second survey for segmentation quality on top of a first survey for TSR estimation, we found that TSR estimations of human observers are not as reliable a ground truth as previously thought.
Practical Quadrupole Theory: Graphical Theory

Traditional treatments of how quadrupoles work rely heavily on complex equations, both empirically and analytically derived. Newcomers to the field are often overwhelmed by the abstract nature of such purely theoretical treatments, often requiring in depth study to reach an intuitive understanding of how quadrupoles work, and more importantly, how to optimize performance in experiments involving quadrupoles.