Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dosimetric Impact of Source Displacement in GammaTile Surgically Targeted Radiation Therapy for Gliomas

Background This study aims to evaluate dosimetric changes that happened during the first month after GammaTile surgically targeted radiation therapy (STaRT) for gliomas due to Cesium-131 (Cs-131) seed displacement caused by cavity shrinkage in brain brachytherapy. Methodology In this study, 10 glioma patients had 4-11 GammaTiles placed along the resection bed after maximal safe resection during craniotomy. Each GammaTile is composed of four Cs-131 seeds embedded in a biodegradable collagen sponge to minimize seed movement and maintain seed-to-cavity surface distance. The Cs-131 seed positions were identified using VariSeed on day one. On day 30, post-implant computed tomography (CT) images and dosimetry parameters were calculated. An iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm was used to compute rigid transformation between the day one and day 30 seed clouds. The seed displacement was calculated after registration. The volume receiving 100% of the prescription dose (V100), the dose received by 90% of the planning target volume (D90_PTV), the planning target volume receiving 100% of the prescription dose (V100_PTV), and the dose to organs at risk (OARs) were calculated for both CT images to determine the dosimetric changes from any seed displacement. Results The mean seed displacement of 1.8 ± 1.0 mm for all patients was observed between day one and day 30. The maximum seed displacement for each patient ranged from 2.3 mm to 7.3 mm. The mean V100 difference between day one and day 30 was 2.5 cc (range = 0.5-6.5 cc). The mean D90_PTVs were 95.5% (range = 69.0%-131.0%) and 98.1% (range = 19.9%-149.0%) on day one and day 30, respectively. The mean V100_PTVs were 88.4% (range = 81.3%-99.1%) and 87.9% (range = 47.0%-99.7%) on day one and day 30, respectively. On day one, the brainstem dose was 63.5 Gy for one case and 28.1 Gy for another case; while on day 30, the brainstem dose was 55.8 Gy and 20.6 Gy for the same patients, contributing to 7.7 Gy (12.8%) and 7.5 Gy (12.5%) dose reductions to brainstem for these patients, respectively. Only two patients received a dose to the optic nerves (34.1 Gy and 5.2 Gy). There were small changes (1.8 Gy and 0.5 Gy, respectively) in the dose to optic nerves when comparing the dose calculated on day one and the dose calculated on day 30 CT images. The same two patients received 30.4 Gy and 6.8 Gy to the chiasm, respectively. Small changes in the dose to the chiasm (≤1.1 Gy) were noted between day one and day 30. Conclusions A maximum seed displacement of up to 7.3 mm and a mean seed displacement of 1.8 mm caused by cavity shrinkage were observed during the first month after GammaTile STaRT for gliomas. There were noticeable changes in dosimetry parameters. Changes in the doses to OARs, particularly the brainstem, were large (up to 12.8% of the prescription dose). These changes in dosimetry should be considered when evaluating treatment outcomes and planning future GammaTile treatments.
On the superresolution identification of observables from swept-frequency scattering data

A superresolution signal processing algorithm is used for the identification of wavefronts from the fields scattered from several canonical targets. Particular wave objects that are examined are single and multiple edge diffraction, scattering from flat and curved surfaces, cone diffraction, and creeping waves. The scattering data are computed numerically via the method of moments (MoM) and are processed using a modified matrix-pencil algorithm. General properties of superresolution processing of such data-independent of the particular algorithm used-are assessed through an examination of the Cramer-Rao (C-R) bounds for basic scattering scenarios.
Uncertainty Decision Modeling Approach for Control Engineering Tools to Support Industrial Cyber-Physical Metaverse Smart Manufacturing Systems

The uncertainty decision modeling of control engineering tools to support industrial cyber-physical metaverse smart manufacturing systems (ICPMSMSs) falls under the multicriteria decision-making problem for three reasons: the presence of multiple industry cyber-physical system (ICPS) components, the importance degree of these components, and the variation in data. It is unfortunate that none of the control engineering tools developed to support ICPMSMS have been able to satisfy all ICPS components, despite the tremendous effort expended. Consequently, selecting the best control engineering tool to support ICPMSMS is a challenging task. Although literature reviews have evaluated control engineering tools, informational ambiguity and uncertainty remain open issues. This study extends fuzzy weighted with zero inconsistency (FWZIC) with interval-valued spherical fuzzy rough sets (IvSFRSs) to weight the components of the ICPS. Then, the developed IvSFRS-FWZIC method is integrated with the PROMETHEE II method to uncertain the modeling of control engineering tools. Results of the IvSFRS-FWZIC revealed that cybersecurity was the most influential component, whereas the digital twin component was the least influential. According to PROMETHEE II results, tool_1, tool_3, and tool_2 achieved the first model among the ten tools. Finally, the robustness of the proposed methods is evaluated by conducting sensitivity and comparative analysis.
Mechanical and physical properties and cyclic swell-shrink behaviour of expansive clay improved by recycled glass

ABSTRACT The stabilisation of expansive clay subgrades using recycled glass (RG) was proposed, as a sustainable ground improvement technique. Previous studies mainly focused on using RG powder with contents up to 10%, while the current study utilised sand-size particles and up to 40% RG content. Physical properties, compressibility, strength characteristics, and long-term climatic effects on the volumetric behaviour of stabilised clay were investigated. Volumetric responses of stabilised clay were analysed through a constitutive model developed for environmentally stabilised clay. The experimental results revealed that the plasticity of mixtures decreased by 30% as RG content increased to 40%. By using larger RG particles, the strength and bearing capacity increased by about 45% and 130% with the addition of 25% RG. However, adding about 6% of glass powder was sufficient to increase the strength and bearing capacity to about 100% and 200%, respectively. The swell-shrink results suggested that the maximum swelling was achieved in the second cycle in which the clay classification was converted from medium to high expansive clay. The experimental results were also compared and discussed with corresponding data collected from the literature. The outcomes of this study advance the prediction and understanding of the mechanical behaviour of RG-stabilised clay.
‘Big brothers and sisters have my back’: Benefits and risks of befriending older peers as a strategy to deal with school bullying

Befriending ‘ brothers ’ and ‘ sisters ’ from older year groups was a strategy used by children to gain protection against being bullied by same-age peers at school, especially in contexts, such as Chinese rural boarding schools, where children spend a long time with peers under limited adult supervision. However, it is alarming that such close connections with older children, in some cases, could give children a feeling of having power over their same-age peers, leading them to engage in bullying. In addition, since the roles as the provider and receiver of protection could cause an unbalanced power between the older ones and younger ones, younger children might have to experience a ‘ dark ’ side of such cross-age peer relationships, such as exploitation, in some cases. Such experiences could be further strengthened by the Chinese values of ‘ giving ’ and ‘ gaining ’ in relationships. Therefore, based on an ethnographic study in a rural primary boarding school in China, this article argues that befriending older peers could contribute to increasing the safety of children at school. However, it is also necessary to be aware of potential risks associated with such peer relationships, because of the unbalanced power relation amongst children caused by age.
Voiceless Youth – Reasons (Not) to Involve Minors in News Coverage

ABSTRACT Previous research has shown that young people’s voices are under- and misrepresented in the news. However, the editorial mechanisms behind this outcome remain largely unexplored. Drawing from the professional frame of media accountability, young people present journalism with a double challenge: to avoid harm while enabling participation. In this paper, we examine editorial mechanisms of including/excluding young people in the news in Sweden and Estonia through an overview of ethical breach cases affecting minors and a set of semi-structured interviews with editors. These investigations are set in the context of digital changes and from the perspectives of children's rights and childhood as a social construct. The interview study revealed that facilitating the freedom of expression might be an editorial ideal, but in practice, minors have limited value as news sources. While editors paid close attention to protective measures for underage interviewees, these measures were sometimes inconsistent and overly protective. Furthermore, the majority of ethical breach cases concerned children who were talked about, rather than with. Therefore, we argue that current editorial interpretations of media accountability limit young people’s voices in the news, while still failing to provide an effective remedy for harm.
It Was Not the Perfect Storm: The Social History of the HIV-2 Virus in Guinea-Bissau

The perfect storm model that was elaborated for the HIV-1M pandemic has also been used to explain the emergence of HIV-2, a second human immunodeficiency virus-acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV-AIDS) that became an epidemic in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. The use of this model creates epidemiological generalizations, ecological oversimplifications and historical misunderstandings as its assumptions—an urban center with explosive population growth, a high level of commercial sex and a surge in STDs, a network of mechanical transport and country-wide, en masse mobile campaigns—are absent from the historical record. This model fails to explain how the HIV-2 epidemic actually came about. This is the first study to conduct an exhaustive examination of sociohistorical contextual developments and align them with environmental, virological and epidemiological data. The interdisciplinary dialogue indicates that the emergence of the HIV-2 epidemic piggybacked on local sociopolitical transformations. The war’s indirect effects on ecological relations, mobility and sociability were acute in rural areas and are a key to the HIV-2 epidemic. This setting had the natural host of the virus, the population numbers, the mobility trends and the use of technology on a scale needed to foster viral adaptation and amplification. The present analysis suggests new reflections on the processes of zoonotic spillovers and disease emergence.
Comparative Analysis of Three Different Impression Techniques for Impression Defects and Dimensional Accuracy Using a Digital Intraoral Scanner for Fixed Partial Dentures: An In Vivo Study

Aim: To evaluate the impression defects and compare the dimensional accuracy of three different impression techniques (single-step, two-step without spacer, two-step with spacer) for fixed partial dentures using a digital intraoral scanner in the anterior maxillary region. Materials and methods: Thirty subjects, above the age of 18 years with maxillary central/lateral incisor requiring fixed prostheses were selected according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The impressions were rated and evaluated using Heine C2.3K Binocular loupes (Heine Ltd., Dover, NH, USA). An intraoral scanner and digital vernier calipers were used to study and compare the dimensional accuracy of all three impression techniques. Results: Statistical analysis using the chi-square test revealed that the single-step double mix technique showed the least number of defects (40%), followed by the two-step without spacer (56.7%) and then the two-step with spacer (80%) impression techniques. Using Kruskal Wallis and Mann Whitney U test for dimensional accuracy, it was found that the two-step with spacer impression technique was closer to the control group (intraoral scanner) followed by the two-step without spacer and then the single-step double mix impression techniques. Conclusion: All three impression techniques showed the presence of impression defects, mainly voids and bubbles. The single-step double mix and two-step without spacer techniques had more favourable outcomes compared to the two-step with spacer impression technique. The two-step with spacer impression technique was dimensionally more accurate compared to the two-step without spacer and single-step double mix techniques for fixed partial dentures.
Genetic variability studies in F2 segregating population of indeterminate tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) genotypes under protected conditions

A field study under protected conditions was conducted to assess genetic variability for yield and yield attributes in an F2 segregating population of tomato cross EC521069× EC362941. The experiment was carried out during 2021–2022 at the College of Horticulture, Mudigere, in an augmented block design. Analysis of variance showed highly significant differences among the traits. High values of PCV and GCV were registered for number of fruits per plant, fruit yield per plant, fruit volume and average fruit weight. Estimates of high heritability coupled with high genetic advance as per cent over mean recorded for plant height, number of flowers per cluster, days taken from first harvest to last harvest, fruits per cluster, fruits per plant, fruit yield per plant, fruit length, fruit diameter, fruit volume, average fruit weight and pericarp thickness which supports the notion that selection could actually improve these traits by highlighting the significance of additive gene action.
Force-induced diffusion in suspensions of hydrodynamically interacting colloids

We study the influence of hydrodynamic, thermodynamic and interparticle forces on the diffusive motion of a Brownian probe driven by a constant external force through a dilute colloidal dispersion. The influence of these microscopic forces on equilibrium self-diffusivity (passive microrheology) is well known: all three act to hinder the short- and long-time self-diffusion. Here, via pair-Smoluchowski theory, we explore their influence on self-diffusion in a flowing suspension, where particles and fluid have been set into motion by an externally forced probe (active microrheology), giving rise to non-equilibrium flow-induced diffusion. The probe’s motion entrains background particles as it travels through the bath, deforming the equilibrium suspension microstructure. The shape and extent of microstructural distortion is set by the relative strength of the external force $F^{\mathit{ext}}$ to the entropic restoring force $kT/a_{\mathit{th}}$ of the bath particles, defining a Péclet number $\mathit{Pe}\equiv F^{\mathit{ext}}/(2kT/a_{\mathit{th}})$ ; and also by the strength of hydrodynamic interactions, set by the range of interparticle repulsion ${\it\kappa}=(a_{\mathit{th}}-a)/a$ , where $kT$ is the thermal energy and $a_{\mathit{th}}$ and $a$ are the thermodynamic and hydrodynamic sizes of the particles, respectively. We find that in the presence of flow, the same forces that hinder equilibrium diffusion now enhance it, with diffusive anisotropy set by the range of interparticle repulsion ${\it\kappa}$ . A transition from hindered to enhanced diffusion occurs when diffusive and advective forces balance, $\mathit{Pe}\sim 1$ , where the exact value is a sensitive function of the strength of hydrodynamics, ${\it\kappa}$ . We find that the hindered to enhanced transition straddles two transport regimes: in hindered diffusion, stochastic forces in the presence of other bath particles produce deterministic displacements (Brownian drift) at the expense of a maximal random walk. In enhanced diffusion, driving the probe with a deterministic force through an initially random suspension leads to fluctuations in the duration of probe–bath particle entrainment, giving rise to enhanced, flow-induced diffusion. The force-induced diffusion is anisotropic for all $\mathit{Pe}$ , scaling as $D\sim \mathit{Pe}^{2}$ in all directions for weak forcing, regardless of the strength of hydrodynamic interactions. When probe forcing is strong, $D\sim \mathit{Pe}$ in all directions in the absence of hydrodynamic interactions, but the picture changes qualitatively as hydrodynamic interactions grow strong. In this nonlinear regime, microstructural asymmetry weakens while the anisotropy of the force-induced diffusion tensor increases dramatically. This behaviour owes its origins to the approach toward Stokes flow reversibility, where diffusion along the direction of probe force scales advectively while transverse diffusion must vanish.
Touching to connect, explore, and explain: how the human brain makes social touch meaningful

ABSTRACT Human touch has an enormous power to engender and mediate meaning in the human mind, from the emotional to the pragmatic, and from the linguistic to the symbolic. Can a functional-neuroanatomical perspective on social touch contribute to a general understanding of the biological workings of such meaning-making? I argue here that it can, and that the ways the brain accomplishes this are manifold. I identify and explore three main neural subsystems which operate in concert to generate the emotional and semantic complexion of social touch. These subsystems underlie how humans: 1) touch to connect with others; 2) explore the physical and social worlds; and 3) explain the significance of a touch within our own knowledge and experience, especially with regard to the way we interpret the world through language and culture. I therefore propose that what makes social touch meaningful has much to do with the functional and evolutionary roots of these brain subsystems. Although they can be distinguished and analyzed, in the “wild” human brain these subsystems are functionally intertwined, and their processes are integrated to generate a unified subjective experience of social touch. This view also acknowledges the intertwined nature of the embodied individual within society, thus carrying potential implications for theoretical analysis in such terms.
Systematic Literature Review: The Importance Of Work Motivation To Employee Performance

Work motivation is one of the crucial keys to improving employee performance. This study aims to describe the factors that affect work motivation and explain the influence of work motivation on employee performance. Through the systematic literature review approach, this study identified 34 articles with the publication year 2018 – 2022 that discussed work motivation. The results showed that the factors that affect work motivation include leadership, work environment, employee training, task characteristics, rewards for performance, career path, and commitment. Seventeen articles describe a significant influence of motivation on employee performance. In comparison, the other three articles show that there is an insignificant influence between work motivation and employee performance.
Cloud Droplet Size Distributions in Low-Level Stratiform Clouds

Abstract A database of stratus cloud droplet (diameter <50 μm) size distribution parameters, derived from in situ data reported in the existing literature, was created, facilitating intercomparison among datasets and quantifying typical values and their variability. From the datasets, which were divided into marine and continental groups, several parameters are presented, including the total number concentration, effective diameter, mean diameter, standard deviation of the droplet diameters about the mean diameter, and liquid water content, as well as the parameters of modified gamma and lognormal distributions. In light of these results, the appropriateness of common assumptions used in remote sensing of cloud droplet size distributions is discussed. For example, vertical profiles of mean diameter, effective diameter, and liquid water content agreed qualitatively with expectations based on the current paradigm of cloud formation. Whereas parcel theory predicts that the standard deviation about the mean d.
Dynamics of stochastic approximation with Markov iterate-dependent noise with the stability of the iterates not ensured

This paper compiles several aspects of the dynamics of stochastic approximation algorithms with Markov iterate-dependent noise when the iterates are not known to be stable beforehand. We achieve the same by extending the lock-in probability (i.e. the probability of convergence to a specific attractor of the limiting o.d.e. given that the iterates are in its domain of attraction after a sufficiently large number of iterations (say) n0) framework to such recursions. Specifically, with the more restrictive assumption of Markov iterate-dependent noise supported on a bounded subset of the Euclidean space we give a lower bound for the lock-in probability. We use these results to prove almost sure convergence of the iterates to the specified attractor when the iterates satisfy an asymptotic tightness condition. This, in turn, helps in analyzing the tracking ability of general adaptive algorithms. Additionally, we show that our results can be used to derive a \textit{sample complexity estimate} of such recursions, which then can be used for step-size selection.
Decentralized Configuration of TSCH-Based IoT Networks for Distinctive QoS: A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach

The IEEE 802.15. 4 time-slotted channel hopping (TSCH) is widely used as a reliable, low-power, and low-cost communication technology for many industrial Internet of Things (IoT) networks. In many applications, Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements are different for heterogeneous nodes, necessitating nonequal parameter settings per node. This results in a very large configuration space making space exploration complex and time consuming. Moreover, network state and QoS requirements may change over time. Thus, run-time configuration mechanisms are needed for making decisions about proper node settings to consistently satisfy diverse and dynamic QoS requirements. In this article, we propose a run-time decentralized self-optimization framework based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL) for parameter configuration of a multihop TSCH network. DRL adopts neural networks as approximate functions to speed up the process of converging to QoS-satisfying configurations. Simulation results show that our proposed framework enables the network to use the right configuration settings according to the diverse QoS demands of different nodes. Moreover, it is shown that the convergence time of the learning framework is in the order of a few minutes which is acceptable for many IoT applications.