Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Acute Myocardial Infarction Readmission Risk Prediction Models: A Systematic Review of Model Performance

Background: Hospitals are subject to federal financial penalties for excessive 30-day hospital readmissions for acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Prospectively identifying patients hospitalized with AMI at high risk for readmission could help prevent 30-day readmissions by enabling targeted interventions. However, the performance of AMI-specific readmission risk prediction models is unknown. Methods and Results: We systematically searched the published literature through March 2017 for studies of risk prediction models for 30-day hospital readmission among adults with AMI. We identified 11 studies of 18 unique risk prediction models across diverse settings primarily in the United States, of which 16 models were specific to AMI. The median overall observed all-cause 30-day readmission rate across studies was 16.3% (range, 10.6%–21.0%). Six models were based on administrative data; 4 on electronic health record data; 3 on clinical hospital data; and 5 on cardiac registry data. Models included 7 to 37 predictors, of which demographics, comorbidities, and utilization metrics were the most frequently included domains. Most models, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services AMI administrative model, had modest discrimination (median C statistic, 0.65; range, 0.53–0.79). Of the 16 reported AMI-specific models, only 8 models were assessed in a validation cohort, limiting generalizability. Observed risk-stratified readmission rates ranged from 3.0% among the lowest-risk individuals to 43.0% among the highest-risk individuals, suggesting good risk stratification across all models. Conclusions: Current AMI-specific readmission risk prediction models have modest predictive ability and uncertain generalizability given methodological limitations. No existing models provide actionable information in real time to enable early identification and risk-stratification of patients with AMI before hospital discharge, a functionality needed to optimize the potential effectiveness of readmission reduction interventions.
Sculpting Soft Machines

Abstract This article describes an easily accessed manufacturing process for soft actuators. It does not require molds and uses safe, readily available materials: table salt and rubber molding compounds. This process involves sculpting or casting uncured rubber compounds and results in soft, open-cell foam structures, which can be sealed to form actuators. The foams have low elastic moduli ranging from 20 to 30 kPa, large ultimate strains over 3.5, and rapid fluid transport rates up to 30 L min−1 cm−2. To demonstrate the capabilities of this process, we sculpted a simple bending actuator, a gripper, and many other 3D shapes. Blocked-force measurements demonstrated that the simple bending actuator can exert up to 5 N of force at its tip, and the gripper picked up a 200 g object. This technique could enable engineers of all ages and skill levels to engage in soft robot fabrication, contributing to K-12 STEM education. In addition, the proposed manufacturing technique could be also interesting for the STEAM .
Genome-Wide Characterization of DNA Methylation in an Invasive Lepidopteran Pest, the Cotton Bollworm Helicoverpa armigera

The genes and genomes of insect pests are shaped by the wide array of selective forces encountered in their environments. While the molecular adaptations that evolve are beginning to be understood at the genomic and transcriptomic level, they have been less well characterized at an epigenetic level. Here, we present a genome-wide map of DNA methylation at single-nucleotide resolution for the cotton bollworm moth, Helicoverpa armigera, a globally invasive pest of agriculture. We show that methylation is almost identical in the larvae and adults of H. armigera and that, through whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS), at the most ∼0.9% of CpG sites in this species are methylated. We find that DNA methylation occurs primarily in exons, is positively correlated with gene expression, and that methylated genes are enriched for cellular “housekeeping” roles. H. armigera has an exceptional capacity for long-range migration. To explore the role of methylation in influencing the migratory phenotype of H. armigera, we performed targeted bisulfite sequencing on selected loci from 16 genes that were differentially expressed between adult moths exhibiting distinct flight performance in behavioral assays. While most CpG sites in these genes were not methylated between flight phenotypes, we identified hypermethylation in a demethylase (KDM4) that targets lysine-specific histone modifications, which are strongly associated with transcription and methylation. The H. armigera methylome provides new insights into the role of DNA methylation in a noctuid moth and is a valuable resource for further research into the epigenetic control of adaptive traits in this important pest.
Tensile and Compressive Strength Characteristics of Aluminized Paraffin Wax Fuel for Various Particle Size and Contents

Tensile and compressive strength tests were conducted to investigate the mechanical characteristics of aluminized paraffin wax fuel for hybrid gas generator applications. Mixtures of 0 wt%, 10 wt% and 30 wt% nano aluminum paraffin coupons as well as 5 wt%, 10 wt% and 15 wt% micro aluminum paraffin coupons were used. The average particle size of 100nm and of 8  m mixed each with microcrystalline paraffin wax(Sasol 0907) were chosen for the base specimens where the tensile strength test followed the ASTM-D638 specimen standard while the compressive strength test followed the ASTM D575-91. It was found that nano based specimens increased both the tensile and compressive
Effects of High-intensity Warm-ups on Running Performance

Abstract The objective of this study was to determine the effects of high-intensity warm-ups (WUs) on performance, physiological, neuromuscular and biomechanical parameters. Three randomized cross-over 105%vVO2max time limit trials (TLimT) were performed by 11 well-trained runners following three different WU protocols. These included two experimental high-intensity variants and one control WU variant: (i) 9x20-sec level strides (105%vVO2max; 1% gradient) with 60 s of recovery (level); (ii) 6x6-sec uphill strides (105%vVO2max; 5% gradient), with the same recovery (uphill) and (iii) 7 min at 60%vVO2max as control condition (control). The uphill and level WUs resulted in a greater performance during TLimT (160.0±6.62 s and 152.64±10.88 s, respectively) compared to control WUs (144.82±6.60 s). All WU conditions reduced the energy cost (EC) of running, respiratory exchange ratio, and step frequency (SF) after the experimental and control phases of WU, while blood lactate (BLC) increased in uphill and level WUs and decreased in control WUs. Changes in kinematic variables were found without differences between WU conditions during TLimT. BLC rose at conclusion of TLimT without differences between WU conditions. Both high-intensity WUs show a longer TLimT. EC is deteriorated after the high-intensity WU exercise due to a change of substrate utilization, increase of BLC and SF. A long transient phase (18 min) is necessary to avoid impairing the performance.
American Foreign Policy

This course examines the politics and economics of American foreign policy from World War II to the present. Using historical, theoretical and chronological approaches, we will examine major transitions in foreign policymaking, including the U.S. role in establishing global institutions after World War II; the escalation of the Cold War with the Soviet Union in 1949; the origins of the Korean and Vietnam Wars and their long-term implications for American Foreign Policy; the escalation of the Cold War during the 1980s and the ensuing transition to a post-Cold War period; and the impact of 9/11 on U.S. foreign policymaking in the post-Cold War period. The course will compare and contrast the U.S. war in Vietnam with the U.S. war in Iraq in order to provide a broader understanding of historical and contemporary themes.
Processing and properties of TiB2 with MoSi2 sinter-additive : A first report

The densification of non-oxide ceramics like titanium boride (TiB2) has always been a major challenge. The use of metallic binders to obtain a high density in liquid phase-sintered borides is investigated and reported. However, a non-metallic sintering additive needs to be used to obtain dense borides for high-temperature applications. This contribution, for the first time, reports the sintering, microstructure, and properties of TiB2 materials densified using a MoSi2 sinter-additive. The densification experiments were carried out using a hot-pressing and pressureless sintering route. The binderless densification of monolithic TiB2 to 98% theoretical density with 2–5 μm grain size was achieved by hot pressing at 1800°C for 1 h in vacuum. The addition of 10–20 wt% MoSi2 enables us to achieve 97%–99%ρth in the composites at 1700°C under similar hot-pressing conditions. The densification mechanism is dominated by liquid-phase sintering in the presence of TiSi2. In the pressureless sintering route, a maximum of 90%ρth is achieved after sintering at 1900°C for 2 h in an (Ar+H2) atmosphere. The hot-pressed TiB2–10 wt% MoSi2 composites exhibit high Vickers hardness (∼26–27 GPa) and modest indentation toughness (∼4–5 MPa·m1/2).
Airborne Dioxins, Furans, and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Exposure to Military Personnel in Iraq

Objectives: The objective of this study was to use ambient polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD), and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDF) concentrations measured at Joint Base Balad in Iraq in 2007 to identify the sources of these species and their spatial patterns. Methods: The ratios of the measured species were compared with literature data for likely emission sources. Using the multiple site measurements on specific days, contour maps have been drawn using inverse distance weighting (IDW). Results: These analyses suggest multiple sources, including the burn pit (primarily a source of PCDD/PCDFs), the transportation field (primarily as source of PAHs), and other sources of PAHs that include aircraft, space heating, and diesel power generation. Conclusions: The nature and locations of the sources were identified. PCDD/PCDFs were emitted by the burn pit. Multiple PAH sources exist across the base.
An UAV precision landing method based on virtual control point on the high voltage transmission line

A method for UAV landing precisely on ground wire of high voltage transmission line is proposed based-on virtual control points. It solves the problem of high complexity and low computational efficiency of traditional attitude estimation algorithm. Firstly, the iterative algorithm based on spatial collinearity error is used to improve the pose estimation velocity. Then, according to the idea of virtual control point in EPnP algorithm, the pose estimation accuracy of the iterative solution is improved without increasing the computational complexity. Finally, the performance of the algorithm is tested by simulation and unmanned aerial vehicle experiments. The results show that the algorithm not only maintains the pose estimation accuracy, but also can obtain the pose estimation speed better than the orthogonal iterative algorithm which has a broader application prospects.
Chemical changes occurring during the weathering of two coating-grade asphalts

The chemical chan~es that occulTed during t he weath erin g of two coatin g-grade asphalts JI1 accelerated wcathenn g m~chJl1 es an d outdoors were studied. Asphaltenes and waterso lu ble a l.ld volatile degradatIOn p roducts :vere pl:oduced from the oi ls in t he asphalt. The In crease In asp.haltenes dUl'lng exposure IS attnbutable to t he formation of oxygenated group~ In the OIl components rather t han to polymerization of the oils . Some of t he sulfur a nd I1ltrogen compou nds o ri gin ally in t he oil fraction s underwen t chemical changes that made them insolubl e in n-penta ne. The ilsphalts lost wei.ght duri ng th.e e xposure. Roughly two-thi rds of t he material lost, Jncludlll g s~1furand 11. 'trogen-contall1lng mol ecule~, became water-soluble degradation ploducls. 1he other thll' ~1 became volatI le degradatlOl1 products, probably CO2 and H 20. An lI1termedlate degra datIOn product was separated with t he asphaltenes. This ma terial could be extracted from t he asphaltene fract ion with ethanol. The reported observations were mad e 011 aspha lts exposed in accel eratcd weather in g mach In es. Outdoor exposul'es of the sa me aspha lt s were of too short durat ion to produce SIgnIfi cant t rends, but th e general res ults were in agreem ent with the accelerated exposures.
Integration mapping rules: Transforming relational database to semantic web ontology

Semantic integration became an attractive area of research in several disciplines, such as information integration, d atabases and ontologies. Huge amount of data is still stored in relati onal databases (RDBs) that can be used to build ontology, and the atabase cannot be used directly by the semantic web. Therefore, one o f th main challenges of the semantic web is mapping relation l databases to ontologies (RDF(S)-OWL). Moreover, the use of manual wor k in the mapping of web contents to ontologies is impractical because it contains billions of pages and the most of these contents a re generated from relational databases. Hence, we propose a new pproach, which enables semantic web applications to access relation al databases and their contents by semantic methods. Domain ontologies can be used to formulate relational database schema and data in order to simplify the mapping (transformation) of the und erlying data sources. Our method consists of two main phases: building on tology from an RDB schema and the generation of ontology inst ances from an RDB data automatically. In the first phase, we studied fferent cases of RDB schema to be mapped into ontology repr es nted in RDF(S)-OWL, while in the second phase, the mapping rules a r used to transform RDB data to ontological instances repre s nt d in RDF triples. Our approach is demonstrated with examples, va lidated by ontology validator and implemented using Apache Jena in Java Language and MYSQL. This approach is effective for building ontology and important for mining semantic information fro m huge web resources.
Characterization of EEG signals revealing covert cognition in the injured brain

See Boly and Laureys (doi:10.1093/brain/awy080) for a scientific commentary on this article.Patients with severe brain injury are difficult to assess and frequently subject to misdiagnosis. 'Cognitive motor dissociation' is a term used to describe a subset of such patients with preserved cognition as detected with neuroimaging methods but not evident in behavioural assessments. Unlike the locked-in state, cognitive motor dissociation after severe brain injury is prominently marked by concomitant injuries across the cerebrum in addition to limited or no motoric function. In the present study, we sought to characterize the EEG signals used as indicators of cognition in patients with disorders of consciousness and examine their reliability for potential future use to re-establish communication. We compared EEG-based assessments to the results of using similar methods with functional MRI. Using power spectral density analysis to detect EEG evidence of task performance (Two Group Test, P ≤ 0.05, with false discovery rate correction), we found evidence of the capacity to follow commands in 21 of 28 patients with severe brain injury and all 15 healthy individuals studied. We found substantial variability in the temporal and spatial characteristics of significant EEG signals among the patients in contrast to only modest variation in these domains across healthy controls; the majority of healthy controls showed suppression of either 8-12 Hz 'alpha' or 13-40 Hz 'beta' power during task performance, or both. Nine of the 21 patients with EEG evidence of command-following also demonstrated functional MRI evidence of command-following. Nine of the patients with command-following capacity demonstrated by EEG showed no behavioural evidence of a communication channel as detected by a standardized behavioural assessment, the Coma Recovery Scale - Revised. We further examined the potential contributions of fluctuations in arousal that appeared to co-vary with some patients' ability to reliably generate EEG signals in response to command. Five of nine patients with statistically indeterminate responses to one task tested showed a positive response after accounting for variations in overall background state (as visualized in the qualitative shape of the power spectrum) and grouping of trial runs with similar background state characteristics. Our findings reveal signal variations of EEG responses in patients with severe brain injuries and provide insight into the underlying physiology of cognitive motor dissociation. These results can help guide future efforts aimed at re-establishment of communication in such patients who will need customization for brain-computer interfaces.
Incremental Color Quantization for Color-Vision-Deficient Observers Using Mobile Gaming Data

The sizes of compressed images depend on their spatial resolution (number of pixels) and on their color resolution (number of color quantization levels). We introduce DaltonQuant, a new color quantization technique for image compression that cloud services can apply to images destined for a specific user with known color vision deficiencies. DaltonQuant improves compression in a user-specific but reversible manner thereby improving a user's network bandwidth and data storage efficiency. DaltonQuant quantizes image data to account for user-specific color perception anomalies, using a new method for incremental color quantization based on a large corpus of color vision acuity data obtained from a popular mobile game. Servers that host images can revert DaltonQuant's image requantization and compression when those images must be transmitted to a different user, making the technique practical to deploy on a large scale. We evaluate DaltonQuant's compression performance on the Kodak PC reference image set and show that it improves compression by an additional 22%-29% over the state-of-the-art compressors TinyPNG and pngquant.
Regional variability in diving physiology and behavior in a widely distributed air-breathing marine predator, the South American sea lion (Otaria byronia)

ABSTRACT Our understanding of how air-breathing marine predators cope with environmental variability is limited by our inadequate knowledge of their ecological and physiological parameters. Because of their wide distribution along both coasts of the sub-continent, South American sea lions (Otaria byronia) provide a valuable opportunity to study the behavioral and physiological plasticity of a marine predator in different environments. We measured the oxygen stores and diving behavior of South American sea lions throughout most of its range, allowing us to demonstrate that diving ability and behavior vary across its range. We found no significant differences in mass-specific blood volumes of sea lions among field sites and a negative relationship between mass-specific oxygen storage and size, which suggests that exposure to different habitats and geographical locations better explains oxygen storage capacities and diving capability in South American sea lions than body size alone. The largest animals in our study (individuals from Uruguay) were the shallowest and shortest duration divers, and had the lowest mass-specific total body oxygen stores, while the deepest and longest duration divers (individuals from southern Chile) had significantly larger mass-specific oxygen stores, despite being much smaller animals. Our study suggests that the physiology of air-breathing diving predators is not fixed, but that it can be adjusted, to a certain extent, depending on the ecological setting and or habitat. These adjustments can be thought of as a ‘training effect’: as the animal continues to push its physiological capacity through greater hypoxic exposure, its breath-holding capacity increases. Summary: Regional variation in diving ability and behavior of the South American sea lion suggests that exposure to different habitats and geographical locations better explains oxygen storage capacities and diving capability than body size alone.
Studies on the thermal and mechanical behavior of PLA‐PET blends

The increasing use of bio-sourced and biodegradable polymers such as poly(lactic acid) (PLA) in bottle packaging presents an increasing challenge to the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling process. Despite advanced separation technologies to remove PLA from PET recyclate, PLA may still be found in rPET process streams. This study explores the effects of PLA on the mechanical properties and crystallization behavior of blends of PET containing 0.5–20% PLA produced by injection molding. SEM indicates an immiscible blend of the two polymers and TGA confirms the independent behavior of the two polymers under thermal degradation conditions. Temperature-modulated DSC studies indicate that adding PLA to PET increases the rigid amorphous fraction of the PET moiety. Critical amounts of PLA induce stress oscillation behavior during mechanical testing. The mechanical behavior of the samples is explained by antagonistic interaction between increased rigid amorphous fraction and decreased fracture strength arising from an increased population of PLA microparticles. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 44147.
A Study towards the evaluation of leaching behavior of zineb fungicide

The evaluation of leaching behavior of pesticides is one of the major steps to control environmental and health hazards associated with their uses. The pesticide leaching is operative only on unadsorbed fraction of the pesticide and influence the extent of surface and ground water contamination. In the present manuscript, leaching behavior of zineb fungicide in terms of ground ubiquity score (GUS) has been evaluated based on its adsorption on soils of different characteristics. To accomplish the above objective, a spectrophotometric methodology has been developed which is based on the measurement of yellow copper(I) bis-dithiocarbamate complex at 354 nm formed from the reaction of zineb with copper(I) perchlorate. The GUS values in the range 1.2–1.4 classify it as non-leacher fungicide. If used in recommended dose, it does not represent hazard to ground water contamination.
Mobile Subscriber WiFi Privacy

This paper investigates and analyses the insufficient protections afforded to mobile identities when using today's operator backed WiFi services. Specifically we detail a range of attacks, on a set of widely deployed authentication protocols, that enable a malicious user to obtain and track a user's International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) over WiFi. These attacks are possible due to a lack of sufficient privacy protection measures, which are exacerbated by preconfigured device profiles. We provide a formal analysis of the protocols involved, examine their associated configuration profiles, and document our experiences with reporting the issues to the relevant stakeholders. We detail a range of potential countermeasures to tackle these issues to ensure that privacy is better protected in the future.