Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A MATHEMATICAL OPTIMIZATION APPROACH BASED ON LINEARIZED MIP MODELS FOR SOLVING FACILITY LAYOUT PROBLEMS

One of the strategies used to optimize production processes is to deﬁne the best layout. For this, the relative positioning of the various equipment, areas, or functional activities inside the company is studied. Proper arrangement of facilities will result in shorter process times and higher productivity. In general, the objective function of the facility layout problem (FLP) is to reduce the total material handling cost. Although over six decades have been passed since the ﬁrst work on FLP modeling was published, research on many aspects of this problem is still in an early stage and needs to be further explored, which motivated this study. In this paper, the unequal area of rectangular blocks with ﬁxed dimensions and input/output points are considered for FLPs. Four new mixed-integer programming (MIP) models based on previous research formulations are developed. Then, a mathematical optimization approach based on the linearization of the models is applied. An algorithm that solves the linearized MIP model by CPLEX setting a time limit for the solution obtained excellent results for different test problems when compared to those reported in the literature.
A Soft-Switched Current-Fed Dual-Input Isolated DC–DC Converter Topology

A soft-switched current-fed dual-input isolated dc–dc converter topology is proposed in this article. This converter integrates two low-voltage dc sources with similar transferred characteristics such as two PV panels or two batteries into a dc bus using a simple circuit topology and a minimum number of active and passive components. The energy transfer between the input and output ports is controlled by modulating the pulse-width of the control signals. Moreover, the soft-switching operations are discussed, and the smooth connection between the input-side inductor and the transformer leakage inductance is achieved. Furthermore, the operation of the converter in reverse power flow direction is presented to demonstrate the bidirectional operational capability of the converter. Finally, different operation modes of the proposed dual-input converter are verified by the experimental results obtained from a 250 W hardware prototype.
Dynamic relationship between Air pollution and Economic growth in Jordan: An Empirical Analysis

Apparently, throughout human history, pollution and the economy appear to have been inextricably linked. However, the relationship between environmental harm and economic development is complex, and disciplinary biases have splintered our understanding of it. This study applies Johansen cointegration which indicate that there exists a long-term relationship between air pollutants and economic growth. Multiple regression model indicates that there is a significant relationship between air pollution variables and the economic growth. The vector autoregressive model (Var) indicates a short run relationship between the variables. Then, Vector error correction model was fitted and the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) is supported. More so, the EKC shows that economic growth has both positive and negative significant impact on air pollution. Meanwhile, Granger causality test shows that economic growth has causal effect on air pollution. This indicates that Jordan has reduced CO2 emissions along with other pollutants and thereby contributed to environmental improvement in the country.
Muramyl Dipeptide Administration Delays Alzheimer’s Disease Physiopathology via NOD2 Receptors

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia in the world. The prevalence is steadily increasing due to an aging population and the lack of effective treatments. However, modulation of innate immune cells is a new therapeutic avenue, which is quite effective at delaying disease onset and improving cognitive decline. Methods: We studied the effect of the NOD2 receptor ligand muramyl dipeptide (MDP) on the modulation of the innate immune cells, namely patrolling monocytes and microglia. We administrated MDP once a week for 3 months in an APPswe/PS1 mouse model in both sexes. We started the treatment at 3 months before plaque formation and evaluated its effects at 6 months. Results: We showed that the MDP injections delay cognitive decline in both sexes via different mechanisms and protect the blood brain barrier (BBB). In males, MDP triggers the sink effect from the BBB, leading to a diminution in the amyloid load in the brain. This phenomenon is underlined by the increased expression of phagocytosis markers such as TREM2, CD68, and LAMP2 and a higher expression of ABCB1 and LRP1 at the BBB level. The beneficial effect seems more restricted to the brain in females treated with MDP, where microglia surround amyloid plaques and prevent the spreading of amyloid peptides. This phenomenon is also associated with an increase in TREM2 expression. Interestingly, both treated groups showed an increase in Arg-1 expression compared to controls, suggesting that MDP modulates the inflammatory response. Conclusion: These results indicate that stimulation of the NOD2 receptor in innate immune cells is a promising therapeutic avenue with potential different mechanisms between males and females.
Parents’ Trust in Their Child’s Preschool: Associations with Child and Family Characteristics and Aspects of Parent-Preschool Communication

ABSTRACT Research Findings: Trust is considered to be a crucial element of effective parent-preschool partnerships and an important prerequisite of parental involvement in their children’s educational processes. The present study examines the role of child and family characteristics and aspects of parent-preschool communication in parents’ trust. 735 families at 169 preschools participated in the study. All data were obtained in the context of the evaluation of a governmental preschool initiative in Germany. As well as trust, child and family characteristics were assessed using questionnaires. Aspects of parent-preschool communication were assessed with questionnaires and standardized observations. Structural equation modeling analyses indicate that a child’s behavioral disorder and their family’s language predict parents’ trust in their child’s preschool. In addition, the results highlight that the quality of informal communication during transition times is crucial in trusting relationships. Thus, all aspects of parent-preschool communication (parents’ perceived quality of communication, parents’ satisfaction with communication, and observed interaction quality between parents and professionals) are positively related to parental trust. Practice or Policy: Consequently, training programs should make use of these results to enhance professionals’ communication strategies and thereby to establish a trustful relationship with all parents.
Improving Legged Robot Hopping by Using Coupling-Based Series Elastic Actuation

This paper investigates the use of discrete couplings in series elastic actuation in order to increase variability of dynamic legged robot locomotion. The couplings are capable of engaging and disengaging the connection between an actuation element and a mechanical spring in real time such that the series elasticity could be used to load, store, and retain energy, and release it in the necessary timings. Such a mechanism is particularly beneficial for hopping or running locomotion, because it allows preloading of spring in flight phase. Through a series of simulated and physical robot experiments, this paper explains how such variability of actuation dynamics can improve performance of hopping locomotion under the limitation of actuator forces, as well as the controllability of behaviors. Compared to the conventional hopping robots, the proposed control strategy makes locomotion robots capable of higher hopping without larger actuation forces, and changing behaviors for more aggressive manoeuvres.
Bleeding and thrombotic complications in patients with severe COVID‐19: A prospective observational study

The hypercoagulable state plays an important role in the pathophysiology of Coronavirus disease‐2019 (COVID‐19). The clear association between COVID‐19 and hypercoagulable state resulted in extensive use of anticoagulant drugs worldwide. However, due to the frequent bleeding events with liberal doses, the current recommendations restrict anticoagulant drugs to the prophylactic dose when thrombotic events are not present. Yet the benefit of the use of anticoagulant drugs in doses higher than the ordinary prophylactic doses still shows conflicting evidence. Hence, reaching the appropriate anticoagulation regimen requires extensive reports for the prevalence of bleeding and thrombosis and identifying possible tools for risk stratification for bleeding. Furthermore, currently, there is no validated score to assess bleeding risk in patients with COVID‐19. We aimed in this study to evaluate the prevalence of thrombosis and bleeding in patients with severe COVID‐19 and to assess the ability of the International Medical Prevention Registry onVenousThromboembolism Bleeding risk assessment model (IMPROVE bleed RAM) to predict major bleeding in this population.
A High-Gain Endfire Periodic Leaky-Wave Antenna Using DSPSL-Based Rhombic Element

An endfire periodic leaky-wave antenna (LWA) with high gain is presented in this communication, which consists of a series of rhombic elements based on double-sided parallel stripline (DSPSL). The endfire mechanism of the proposed antenna is illustrated by the phase difference of the far field of each arm in the rhombic element. Meanwhile, a tradeoff between the tilted angle <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\theta _{0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and the width <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$w$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is found, which assures an optimum transverse aperture for achieving high-gain endfire radiation. Moreover, the improved Hansen–Woodyard (IHW) condition is applied to predict the optimum endfire phase constant. Finally, a prototype is fabricated and tested. The maximum endfire gain of 19.8 dBi is measured at 11.4 GHz, which is close to the simulated and predicted results. The proposed periodic rhombic antenna provides more choice for the modern communication system.
Real-Time Accident Detection in Traffic Surveillance Using Deep Learning

Automatic detection of traffic accidents is an important emerging topic in traffic monitoring systems. Nowadays many urban intersections are equipped with surveillance cameras connected to traffic management systems. Therefore, computer vision techniques can be viable tools for automatic accident detection. This paper presents a new efficient framework for accident detection at intersections for traffic surveillance applications. The proposed framework consists of three hierarchical steps, including efficient and accurate object detection based on the state-of-the-art YOLOv4 method, object tracking based on Kalman filter coupled with the Hungarian algorithm for association, and accident detection by trajectory conflict analysis. A new cost function is applied for object association to accommodate for occlusion, overlapping objects, and shape changes in the object tracking step. The object trajectories are analyzed in terms of velocity, angle, and distance in order to detect different types of trajectory conflicts including vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-pedestrian, and vehicle-to-bicycle. Experimental results using real traffic video data show the feasibility of the proposed method in real-time applications of traffic surveillance. In particular, trajec-tory conflicts, including near-accidents and accidents occurring at urban intersections are detected with a low false alarm rate and a high detection rate. The robustness of the proposed framework is evaluated using video sequences collected from YouTube with diverse illumination conditions. The dataset is publicly available at: http://github.com/hadi-ghnd/AccidentDetection.
Major basic protein deposited at intra mucosal epithelium with probable eosinophilic chronic rhinosinusitis

Background Eosinophilic chronic rhinosinusitis (ECRS) is diagnosed by Japanese Epidemiological Survey of Refractory Eosinophilic Chronic Rhinosinusitis (JESREC) scoring system and histopathological eosinophil counts of dissected nasal polyps. Patients with low JESREC score and small number of tissue eosinophils are diagnosed with non-ECRS (NECRS). Due to the 2 parameters of this diagnostic system, chronic rhinosinusitis is to be divided to 4 groups and some patients fall into the 2 groups other than ECRS and NECRS: probable ECRS (pECRS) and probable non-ECRS (pNECRS). We attempted to clarify clinical and histopathological similarities and differences, especially concerning major basic protein (MBP), among those groups. Methods One hundred twenty-eight patients treated by endoscopic sinus surgery was included. Clinical characteristics were compared among each group, and immunohistological analysis for MBP was performed to 35 randomly selected patients. MBP deposition at intra mucosal epithelium was evaluated by semiquantificational approach. Results ECRS patients showed significantly higher comorbidity rate with allergic rhinitis (36 patients, 78.3%), asthma (36 patients, 78.3%) compared with other groups. Also, percentage of the patients complaining olfactory dysfunction (42 patients, 91.3%) was significantly higher (p < 0.001). Lund-Mackay score (mean, 14.5; 6–24) and recurrence rate (27 patients, 61.4%) was the highest in ECRS patients. Regarding pECRS, the number of patients with olfactory dysfunction (5 patients, 55.6%) was higher than pNECRS and NECRS groups. Also, comorbidity of asthma and percentage of blood eosinophils tended to be higher than those 2 groups. MBP score of pECRS group was significantly higher than NECRS (p < 0.05), despite of smaller tissue eosinophil counts. Conclusion pECRS might share some characteristics with ECRS although tissue eosinophil count was significantly smaller compared with ECRS. The results of this study have shown that MBP score in pECRS nasal polyps was significantly higher than NECRS patients and close to ECRS. That might suggest that eosinophils have existed in the nasal polyps of pPECRS patients at some point before surgery.
Parental environment modulates offspring thermal tolerance in a foundational intertidal seaweed

Abstract Thermotolerance acquisition is an important ecophysiological trait under global warming scenarios because it can allow organisms and populations to adapt, particularly during the most sensitive early stages of a life cycle. Here we used seasonality as a natural scenario to explore whether parental thermal histories can modulate thermotolerance of recruits of a canopy-forming intertidal seaweed (Fucus guiryi) across an ecologically relevant thermal gradient (15–28°C). For this purpose, we harvested embryos from parents after the periods of maximum and minimum accumulated heat exposure (late summer and late winter), and at the onset of summer. During early ontogeny we followed initial embryo size, internal nutrient content, survival, growth and developmental stages as performance metrics to address whether parental acclimation modulates thermal tolerance via provisioning or parental effects. Late winter recruits of F. guiryi exhibited the greatest thermotolerance, showing a broader range of optimal temperatures and higher upper thermal limits for growth and survival, probably associated with better provisioning from parental thalli. Physiological fitness of recruits decreased above 25°C, showing arrested growth, impaired development and dropping survival rates, but functional loss was more abrupt in early summer. Late summer responses confirmed that heat hardening occurs in natural populations, but at the seasonal scale the adaptive significance of this increased thermotolerance is much lower than that induced by winter parental provisioning. Heat-induced thermotolerance occurred from early to late summer due to parental exposure to warming. However, winter provisioning promoted greater thermotolerance acquisition. Exposure to moderate thermal stress at the onset of summer without prior seasonal acclimation resulted in minimum levels of thermal tolerance and loss of offspring fitness. While warmer winters might be neutral or benefit early development, increasing temperatures and poor nutritional conditions at the onset of the summer season may reduce survival and hamper population recruitment. Highlights Thermotolerance of Fucus guiryi increased towards the late cold season. Early summer recruits had the lowest survival under warming. Seasonal performance of recruits might be driven by parental environment.
Inequities in Availability of Evidence-Based Birth Supports to Improve Perinatal Health for Socially Vulnerable Rural Residents

Rural residents in the United States (US) have disproportionately high rates of maternal and infant mortality. Rural residents who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) face multiple social risk factors and have some of the worst maternal and infant health outcomes in the U.S. The purpose of this study was to determine the rural availability of evidence-based supports and services that promote maternal and infant health. We developed and conducted a national survey of a sample of rural hospitals. We determined for each responding hospital the county-level scores on the 2018 CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI). The sample’s (n = 93) median SVI score [IQR] was 0.55 [0.25–0.88]; for majority-BIPOC counties (n = 29) the median SVI score was 0.93 [0.88–0.98] compared with 0.38 [0.19–0.64] for majority-White counties (n = 64). Among counties where responding hospitals were located, 86.2% located in majority-BIPOC counties ranked in the most socially vulnerable quartile of counties nationally (SVI ≥ 0.75), compared with 14.1% of majority-White counties. In analyses adjusted for geography and hospital size, certified lactation support (aOR 0.36, 95% CI 0.13–0.97), midwifery care (aOR 0.35, 95% CI 0.12–0.99), doula support (aOR 0.30, 95% CI 0.11–0.84), postpartum support groups (aOR 0.25, 95% CI 0.09–0.68), and childbirth education classes (aOR 0.08, 95% CI 0.01–0.69) were significantly less available in the most vulnerable counties compared with less vulnerable counties. Residents in the most socially vulnerable rural counties, many of whom are BIPOC and thus at higher risk for poor birth outcomes, are significantly less likely to have access to evidence-based supports for maternal and infant health.
Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles for Bone Defect Repair

The repair of critical bone defects is a hotspot of orthopedic research. With the development of bone tissue engineering (BTE), there is increasing evidence showing that the combined application of extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) (MSC-EVs), especially exosomes, with hydrogels, scaffolds, and other bioactive materials has made great progress, exhibiting a good potential for bone regeneration. Recent studies have found that miRNAs, proteins, and other cargo loaded in EVs are key factors in promoting osteogenesis and angiogenesis. In BTE, the expression profile of the intrinsic cargo of EVs can be changed by modifying the gene expression of MSCs to obtain EVs with enhanced osteogenic activity and ultimately enhance the osteoinductive ability of bone graft materials. However, the current research on MSC-EVs for repairing bone defects is still in its infancy, and the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Therefore, in this review, the effect of bioactive materials such as hydrogels and scaffolds combined with MSC-EVs in repairing bone defects is summarized, and the mechanism of MSC-EVs promoting bone defect repair by delivering active molecules such as internal miRNAs is further elucidated, which provides a theoretical basis and reference for the clinical application of MSC-EVs in repairing bone defects.
MicroRNAs as Innovative Biomarkers for Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Prediction of Colorectal Cancer

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) includes ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD). These are autoimmune diseases of the gastrointestinal tract with a chronic relapsing and remitting course. Due to complex interactions between multiple factors in the etiology of IBD, the discovery of new predictors of disease course and response to therapy, and the development of effective therapies is a significant challenge. The dysregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs), a class of conserved endogenous, small non-coding RNA molecules with a length of 18–25 nucleotides, that regulate gene expression by an RNA interference process, is implicated in the complex pathogenetic context of IBD. Both tissue-derived, circulating, and fecal microRNAs have been explored as promising biomarkers in the diagnosis and the prognosis of disease severity of IBD. In this review, we summarize the expressed miRNA profile in blood, mucosal tissue, and stool and highlight the role of miRNAs as biomarkers with potential diagnostic and therapeutic applications in ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Moreover, we discuss the new perspectives in developing a new screening model for the detection of colorectal cancer (CRC) based on fecal miRNAs.
Preoperative White Blood Cell-Related Indicators Can Predict the Prognosis of Patients with Transurethral Resection of Bladder Cancer

Introduction Numerous studies, including bladder cancer (BLCA), have confirmed the relationship between conventional systemic inflammatory biomarkers and the prognosis of tumors. Leukocytes, as the most common factor in inflammatory indicators, have been reported to predict prognosis in other tumors. However, we have not seen this research in BLCA. Therefore, we aim to find new blood markers to predict the prognosis of patients with transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT). Methods Two cohorts from the two different hospitals were used for the specific study. The best cutoff values of leukocytes-related indicators were determined according to the ROC curve. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis were used to explore the impact of indicators and clinical features on prognosis for patients with TURBT. The KM curve was used to show the impact of indicators on the prognosis. According to the consequence of multivariate method, a risk model was established to evaluate the prognosis of patients with bladder cancer. Results The white blood cell-to-lymphocyte ratio (WLR), the white blood cell-to-hemoglobin ratio (WHR), the white blood cell-to-neutrophil ratio (WNR), the white blood cell-to-monocyte ratio (WMR) and the white blood cell-to-erythrocyte ratio (WRR) are related to the prognosis of BLCA. The new risk model consisted of WHR, WMR and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and patients with TURBT in the high-risk group had a worse prognosis. Conclusions Leukocyte-related preoperative indicators could predict the prognosis of the patients with TURBT and provided some guidance for clinical workers.