Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
TLEE: Temporal-Wise and Layer-Wise Early Exiting Network for Efficient Video Recognition on Edge Devices

With the explosive growth in video streaming comes a rising demand for efficient and scalable video understanding. State-of-the-art video recognition approaches based on convolutional neural network (CNN) have shown promising performance by adopting 2-D or 3-D CNN architectures. However, the large data volumes, high resource demands, and strict latency requirements have hindered the wide application of these solutions on resource-constrained Internet of Things (IoT) and edge devices. To address this issue, we propose a novel framework called TLEE that enables the input samples the abilities of both temporal-wise and layer-wise early exiting on 2-D CNN backbones for efficient video recognition. TLEE consists of three types of modules: 1) gating module (GM); 2) branch module (BM); and 3) feature reuse module (FRM). The GM determines for an input video from which frame of this video to exit the per-frame computation, while the BM determines for an input frame from which layer of the CNN backbone to exit the per-layer computation. Besides, based on the accumulated features of frame sequences from exit branches, the FRM generates effective video representations to enable more efficient predictions. Extensive experiments on benchmark data sets demonstrate that the proposed TLEE can significantly outperform the state-of-the-art approaches in terms of computational cost and inference latency, while maintaining competitive recognition accuracy. In addition, we verify the superiority of TLEE on the typical edge device NVIDIA Jetson Nano.
Exosomes derived from berberine-treated bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells ameliorate inflammatory arthritis in rats with collagen-induced rheumatoid arthritis

ABSTRACT To evaluate the effect of exosomes secreted by berberine-treated bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) on synovial inflammation in collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) model. Exosomes were isolated from berberine-treated BMSCs (Ber-BMSC-EXs) and untreated BMSCs (BMSC-EXs). CIA rats were developed and treated with Ber-BMSC-EXs or BMSC-EXs. Clinical arthritis index was measured, activation of fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLSs) were evaluated, and response and frequency of T helper 17 (Th17) and regulatory T (Treg) cells as well as cytokine levels in synovial fluid were determined. Ber-BMSC-EXs (with a superior effect than BMSC-EXs) significantly alleviated RA clinical score and paw inflammation, balanced Th17 and Treg cells’ responses and population, modulated levels of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines in joint synovial fluid, and inhibited FLS activation in CIA rats. Ber-BMSC-EXs (with a significantly greater effect than BMSC-EXs) could significantly ameliorate synovial joint inflammation and clinical symptoms of arthritis in CIA rats, showing that berberine can reinforce anti-arthritic effects of BMSC-EXs.
CAII lines in a quiet region on the Sun I. Dynamic processes in the solar atmosphere

We have studied oscillation processes in the quiet Sun outside a coronal hole at different levels of the solar chromosphere. The study was based on spectroscopic observations of ionized calcium lines (K, H, and 849.8 nm) obtained by the Sayan Solar Observatory’s Automated Solar Telescope (AST). Spectral analysis of time series for some parameters of the lines has been carried out. We have compared the results of this work with the results of our study of oscillation processes in quiet regions located at the base of a coronal hole. The oscillation power was found to be higher in the region of the quiet Sun outside a coronal hole. At the same time, for the regions under study there is a common tendency for the oscillation power to decrease with height for all frequency ranges, except for the low-frequency one, in most chromospheric structures. In structures with a weak magnetic field, the power increases with height to the lower chromosphere and decreases somewhat to the upper chromosphere.
A general(ized) local rheology for wet granular materials

We study the rheology of dry and wet granular materials in the steady quasistatic regime using the discrete element method in a split-bottom ring shear cell with focus on the macroscopic friction. The aim of our study is to understand the local rheology of bulk flow at various positions in the shear band, where the system is in critical state. We develop a general(ized) rheology, in which the macroscopic friction is factorized into a product of four functions, on top of the classical μ ( I ) rheology, each of which depends on exactly one dimensionless control parameter, quantifying the relative importance of different micro-mechanical machanisms. These four control parameters relate the time scales of shear rate t γ ˙ , particle stiffness tk, gravity tg and cohesion tc, respectively, with the governing time scale of confining pressure tp. While t γ ˙ is large and thus of little importance for most of the slow flow data studied, it increases the friction in critical state, where the shear rate is high and decreases friction by relaxation (creep) where the shear rate is low. tg and tk are comparable to tp in the bulk, but become more or less dominant relative to tp at the extremes of low pressure at the free surface and high pressure deep inside the bulk, respectively. The effect of wet cohesion on the flow rheology is quantified by tc decreasing with increasing cohesion. Furthermore, the proposed rheological model predicts well the shear thinning behavior both in the bulk and near the free surface; shear thinning rate becomes less near the free surface with increasing cohesion.
Kalman filtering for discrete‐time linear fractional‐order singular systems

This study considers the optimal linear estimation problem for the discrete-time stochastic fractional-order system in its more general formulation. The system is allowed to be in singular form, rectangular, with dynamical and measurement noises correlated. First, some new conditions for the solvability, regularity and causality to discrete-time linear stochastic fractional-order singular (FOS) systems are given, and then, a new Kalman filter (KF) fractional singular KF (FSKF) is designed for such systems. This general form of filter is derived using deterministic arguments in a completely self-contained way besides the stochastic reasoning and covers the nominal singular and fractional KFs. Instead of the standard stochastic formulation, the filter recursions are obtained as a solution of a convenient organisation of the deterministic data-fitting estimate of an entire state trajectory given the measurements for both time-invariant and time-varying cases. To present the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, results of numerical simulations are presented.
Dispersant and Protective Roles of Amphiphilic Poly(ethylene phosphate) Block Copolymers in Polyester/Bone Mineral Composites

Composites of synthetic bone mineral substitutes (BMS) and biodegradable polyesters are of particular interest for bone surgery and orthopedics. Manufacturing of composite scaffolds commonly uses mixing of the BMS with polymer melts. Melt processing requires a high homogeneity of the mixing, and is complicated by BMS-promoted thermal degradation of polymers. In our work, poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) and poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) composites reinforced by commercial β-tricalcium phosphate (βTCP) or synthesized carbonated hydroxyapatite with hexagonal and plate-like crystallite shapes (hCAp and pCAp, respectively) were fabricated using injection molding. pCAp-based composites showed advanced mechanical and thermal characteristics, and the best set of mechanical characteristics was observed for the PLLA-based composite containing 25 wt% of pCAp. To achieve compatibility of polyesters and pCAp, reactive block copolymers of PLLA or PCL with poly(tert-butyl ethylene phosphate) (C1 and C2, respectively) were introduced to the composite. The formation of a polyester-b-poly(ethylene phosphoric acid) (PEPA) compatibilizer during composite preparation, followed by chemical binding of PEPA with pCAp, have been proved experimentally. The presence of 5 wt% of the compatibilizer provided deeper homogenization of the composite, resulting in a marked increase in strength and moduli as well as a more pronounced nucleation effect during isothermal crystallization. The use of C1 increased the thermal stability of the PLLA-based composite, containing 25 wt% of pCAp. In view of positive impacts of polyester-b-PEPA on composite homogeneity, mechanical characteristics, and thermal stability, polyester-b-PEPA will find application in the further development of composite materials for bone surgery and orthopedics.
Analysis of dynamics, stability, and flow fields' structure of an accelerated hydrodynamic discontinuity with interfacial mass flux by a general matrix method

We develop a general matrix method to analyze from a far field the dynamics of an accelerated interface between incompressible ideal fluids of different densities with interfacial mass flux and with negligible density variations and stratification. We rigorously solve the linearized boundary value problem for the dynamics conserving mass, momentum, and energy in the bulk and at the interface. We find a new hydrodynamic instability that develops only when the acceleration magnitude exceeds a threshold. This critical threshold value depends on the magnitudes of the steady velocities of the fluids, the ratio of their densities, and the wavelength of the initial perturbation. The flow has potential velocity fields in the fluid bulk and is shear-free at the interface. The interface stability is set by the interplay of inertia and gravity. For weak acceleration, inertial effects dominate, and the flow fields experience stable oscillations. For strong acceleration, gravity effects dominate, and the dynamics is unstable. For strong accelerations, this new hydrodynamic instability grows faster than accelerated Landau-Darrieus and Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities. For given values of the fluids' densities and their steady bulk velocities, and for a given magnitude of acceleration, we find the critical and maximum values of the initial perturbation wavelength at which this new instability can be stabilized and at which its growth is the fastest. The quantitative, qualitative, and formal properties of the accelerated conservative dynamics depart from those of accelerated Landau-Darrieus and Rayleigh-Taylor dynamics. New diagnostic benchmarks are identified for experiments and simulations of unstable interfaces.We develop a general matrix method to analyze from a far field the dynamics of an accelerated interface between incompressible ideal fluids of different densities with interfacial mass flux and with negligible density variations and stratification. We rigorously solve the linearized boundary value problem for the dynamics conserving mass, momentum, and energy in the bulk and at the interface. We find a new hydrodynamic instability that develops only when the acceleration magnitude exceeds a threshold. This critical threshold value depends on the magnitudes of the steady velocities of the fluids, the ratio of their densities, and the wavelength of the initial perturbation. The flow has potential velocity fields in the fluid bulk and is shear-free at the interface. The interface stability is set by the interplay of inertia and gravity. For weak acceleration, inertial effects dominate, and the flow fields experience stable oscillations. For strong acceleration, gravity effects dominate, and the dynamics is u.
Planning a large‐scale tabletop exercise to test Qatar's healthcare system readiness to respond to a major incident during the 2022 FIFA World Cup

This article is an illustration of ‘ Lessons from the Field ’ . The Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management has begun to present lessons coming from professionals engaged in crisis management. ‘ Lessons for the Field ’ provides insights that can be useful to other professionals. Moreover, ‘ Lessons from the Field ’ can stimulate ideas for researchers and provide resources for educators. Hosting a mega ‐ sporting event such as the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) World Cup presents many healthcare challenges, especially when organized over a small geographical area with many international supporters potentially increasing the country's normal population by 50%. This article presents how a system ‐ wide tabletop simulation exercise was planned to test Qatar's healthcare system's readiness to respond to a potential major incident during the FIFA World Cup. The healthcare system ‐ wide tabletop exercise lasted about 4 h with participants engaging in all the various facilities as expected. It provided opportunities for everyone to put their knowledge of major incident response and mass casualty management into practice. The exercise preparation ensured it ran smoothly for all participants who quickly understood how to engage in the activity. It enabled organizers and participants to identify potential gaps in systems and processes, but also in their own ability to manage such situation.
Baroclinic, Kelvin and inertia-gravity waves in the barostrat instability experiment

Abstract The differentially heated rotating annulus is a laboratory experiment historically designed for modelling large-scale features of the mid-latitude atmosphere. In the present study, we investigate a modified version of the classic baroclinic experiment in which a juxtaposition of convective and motionless stratified layers is created by introducing a vertical salt stratification. The thermal convective motions are suppressed in a central region at mid-depth of the rotating tank, therefore double-diffusive convection rolls can develop only in thin layers located at top and bottom, where the salt stratification is weakest. For high enough rotation rates, the baroclinic instability destabilises the flow in the top and the bottom shallow convective layers, generating cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies separated by the stable stratified layer. Thanks to this alternation of layers resembling the convective and radiative layers of stars, the planetary’s atmospheric troposphere and stratosphere or turbulent layers at the sea surface above stratified waters, this new laboratory setup is of interest for both astrophysics and geophysical sciences. More specifically, it allows to study the exchange of momentum and energy between the layers, primarily by the propagation of internal gravity waves (IGW). PIV velocity maps are used to describe the wavy flow pattern at different heights. Using a co-rotating laser and camera, the wave field is well resolved and different wave types can be found: baroclinic waves, Kelvin and Poincaré type waves. The signature of small-scale IGW can also be observed attached to the baroclinic jet. The baroclinic waves occur at the thin convectively active layer at the surface and the bottom of the tank, though decoupled they show different manifestation of nonlinear interactions. The inertial Kelvin and Poincaré waves seem to be mechanically forced. The small-scale wave trains attached to the meandering jet point to an imbalance of the large-scale flow. For the first time, the simultaneous occurrence of different wave types is reported in detail for a differentially heated rotating annulus experiment.
Iron status and anemia control are related to peritoneal membrane properties in peritoneally dialyzed patients

Background Characteristics of peritoneal membrane is unique and individually different in peritoneal dialysis patients. Relationship between specific nature of peritoneal transport, anemia and inflammation has not yet been extensively studied. We attempted to outline the complex interplay of several biomarkers of iron status and their association with peritoneal transport, degree of inflammation and residual renal function. Methods A total of 58 patients treated with peritoneal dialysis either CAPD or APD for at least 3 months were enrolled in this study. Full blood count, traditional markers of iron status (transferrin saturation-TSAT and ferritin), serum erythroferrone-ERFE, soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR), hepcidin, zonulin, growth differentiation factor −15 (GDF15), IL-16, hsCRP and hypoxia-inducible factor—α (HIF-1-α; in serum and dialysate) were measured using commercially available tests. We also performed Peritoneal Equilibrium Test and assessed GFR level. Results Hb levels above 10 g/dL was found in 74% of patients. Hb levels positively correlated with residual renal function and nutritional status. Adequate iron status was diagnosed in 69% of subjects, only in 9% of patients, criteria for absolute iron deficiency were met. Serum ERFE correlated inversely with hepcidin levels but was not associated with erythropoietin stimulating agent dose. Peritoneal transport had strong correlation with dialysate sTfR (p < 0.05), dialysate hepcidin (p < 0.05), dialysate GDF15 (p < 0.01) and dialysate zonulin (p < 0.001) levels, as well as serum IL6 (p = 0.03), serum hs-CRP (p = 0.04) and dialysate hs-CRP (p = 0.04). Conclusion Residual kidney function contributes considerably to better control of anemia. Various degree of inflammation is inherent to PD patients. Additionally, fast-average peritoneal transport is associated with greater degree of inflammation and higher concentration of markers of iron status, GDF15 and zonulin in dialysate. This finding may indicate more effective clearance of higher-range middle molecules in fast-average transporters. The role of ERFE as a marker of erythropoiesis in PD patients requires further investigation.
Evidence Reasoning and Curriculum Learning for Document-Level Relation Extraction

Document-level Relation Extraction (RE) is a promising task aiming at identifying relations of multiple entity pairs in a document. Compared with the sentence-level counterpart, it has raised two significant challenges: a) In most cases, a relational fact can be adequately expressed via a small subset of sentences from the document, namely evidence. But the traditional method cannot model such strong semantic correlations between evidence sentences that collaborate to describe a specific relation; b) The data of this task is extremely long-tail in terms of too many NA instances and imbalanced relational types. Such data can mislead the tail prediction bias to the head categories in the RE model. In this paper, we present a novel Evidence reasoning and Curriculum learning method for DocRE (DRE-EC) to address these challenges. Particularly, we first formulate evidence extraction as a sequential decision problem through a crafted reinforcement learning mechanism with an efficient path searching strategy to reduce the action space. Providing the evidence for each entity pair as a customized-filtered document in advance helps infer the relations better. To address the long-tail issue, we further develop a hybrid curriculum learning method at the NA-level (NC) and relation-level (RC) with our customized difficulty measure score. In NC, the NA samples are scheduled in an easy-to-hard scheme and gradually added, resulting in the data distribution from ideal and balanced to real and unbalanced. In RC, the scheme is switched into hard-to-easy to enhance the hard and tail samples. In addition, we propose a new Equalization adaptive Focal Loss(EFLoss) that can adjust to the changing data distribution and focus more on the tail categories. We conduct various experiments on two document-level RE benchmarks and achieve a remarkable improvement over previous competitive baselines. Furthermore, we provide detailed analyses of the advantages and effectiveness of our method.
Spherically Confined Polymers: Monte Carlo Simulations with Expanded Ensemble Density-of-States Method

In this thesis, the Expanded Ensemble Density-of-States (EXEDOS) method a combination of the Wang-Landau and Expanded Ensemble Monte Carlo algorithms is employed to investigate spatial conformations of a polymer chain under spherical confinement. The study focuses on flexible chains up to 600 monomers and semi-flexible chains with various stiffnesses up to 300 monomers in length. Spatial conformations of the polymer are studied, using a simple pearl-necklace chain model of varied diameter and stiffness, as well as the model of fused-sphere chain. To test the applicability of the EXEDOS method, the confinement free energy was calculated for ideal and non-ideal flexible chains inside spheres of sizes smaller than their unconfined size. For ideal chains, the power-law dependence of the free energy on a confining radius is in excellent agreement with previous theoretical predictions. For self-avoiding chains at intermediate concentrations, the dependence of free energy on concentration deviates from that predicted by the blob scaling theory, most likely due to the finite size effects. At high concentrations, a stronger dependence of free energy on concentration is observed, compared to that obtained at intermediate concentrations. The density profile of a self-avoiding flexible chain was also studied, showing that at sufficiently high concentrations, excluded volume interactions push the chain close to the confining surface, leading to an oscillation in monomer number density near the surface. In semi-flexible chains, bending energy experiences largest changes at low densities as the polymer folds to conform the confining sphere, and at high density its growth slows down as the chain starts forming ordered layer near the surface. We observe isotropic-nematic (I-N) transition for all considered polymer chains. The I-N transition of more flexible chains happens at higher densities than that of stiff chains. All chains form disordered to imperfect helicoildal structures, and at densities above the I-N transition, the structure with four +1/2 defects is observed in all considered chains. However, the polymer spatial arrangement is far from an ideal tetrahedral and tennis ball structure. The EXEDOS algorithm is further extended to investigate the effects of steric hindrance on the structure in a semi-flexible chain, spherically confined at various concentrations. Semi-flexible chains modeled as pearl-necklace chains with ratio of diameter to bond length d/a 6 0.5 did not develop ordered structures at any
Access to Healthcare and Health Literacy in Croatia: Empirical Investigation

Health literacy is related to different health-related outcomes. However, the nature of the relationship between health literacy and health outcomes is not well understood. One pathway may lead from health literacy to health outcomes by means of access to healthcare. The goal of the current study is to explore the association between health literacy and the particular measure of access to healthcare—unmet medical need—for the first time in Croatia and, to the best of our knowledge, for the first time in the EU context. We use data obtained from face-to-face interviews in a large nationally representative sample of the Croatian population (n = 1000) to estimate the level of health literacy and self-reported access to care and investigate the association between health literacy and self-perceived barriers to access. Our study showed that limited and problematic health literacy is prevalent and associated with higher rates of unmet medical need. Unmet need is largely caused by long waiting lists. It is therefore essential to design health services fitting the needs of those who have limited and/or problematic health literacy as well as enhance health education with the potential of improving the access to care and health outcomes as well as design policies that reduce waiting times.