Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of Preoperative Anxiety in Reconstructive and Cosmetic Surgery Patients

Surgery is a serious stressor and a cause of anxiety for the patients. Reconstructive surgery patients are mostly operated on because of certain functional impairment or disability; on the contrary, cosmetic surgery patients do not have any physical impairment and they are operated on because of mostly psychologic reasons. The aim of this study was to compare the anxiety levels in the reconstructive surgery patients and cosmetic surgery patients preoperatively. Thirty-two patients in the reconstructive surgery group and 30 patients in the cosmetic surgery group were included in the study. State Trait Anxiety Inventory was used to measure the anxiety levels in these 2 groups preoperatively. The 2 groups were similar in characteristics such as age, gender distribution, number of previous operations, and trait anxiety scores. Mean state anxiety scores obtained for the reconstructive surgery group was 38.0 ± 8.7, while it was 44.2 ± 10.79 for the cosmetic surgery group (t test, degrees of freedom = 60, P = 0.015). This study reveals that preoperative anxiety levels in the cosmetic surgery patients are higher than those of the reconstructive surgery patients. Therefore, adequate preoperative preparation for cosmetic surgery should include attempts to cope with anxiety. Anxiolytics may be used more liberally and professional psychologic assistance may be required.
Accelerated Outpatient Individual Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder: A Preliminary Pilot Study

Background: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a common and chronic mental health condition. Given the significant prevalence and impairment caused by SAD, it is important to investigate novel ways to improve the efficacy of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for SAD. One approach may be to provide CBT in an accelerated fashion, which involves multiple sessions per week. Such accelerated treatments have been shown to be effective in other anxiety disorders, but in SAD this accelerated treatment has only been studied in a group treatment format. Aims: The aim of this study was to provide a preliminary investigation of the efficacy of individual accelerated CBT (aCBT) in the treatment of SAD. Method: The studied utilized an open trial design. Seventeen participants commenced the treatment, which consisted of 12 sessions delivered over 4 weeks. Results: The results indicated that participants obtained moderate to large effect sizes on measures of SAD at post-treatment (range d = 0.76–0.92) and 3-month follow-up (range d = 1.31–1.79). In addition, at post-treatment, 59% of participants no longer met criteria for SAD, and this number increased to 71% at 3-month follow-up. Conclusions: The results provide preliminary evidence to suggest that individual aCBT may be an important treatment option for individuals with SAD.
Single-cell sequencing deciphers a convergent evolution of copy number alterations from primary to circulating tumor cells

Copy number alteration (CNA) is a major contributor to genome instability, a hallmark of cancer. Here, we studied genomic alterations in single primary tumor cells and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from the same patient. Single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) in single cells from both samples occurred sporadically, whereas CNAs among primary tumor cells emerged accumulatively rather than abruptly, converging toward the CNA in CTCs. Focal CNAs affecting the MYC gene and the PTEN gene were observed only in a minor portion of primary tumor cells but were present in all CTCs, suggesting a strong selection toward metastasis. Single-cell structural variant (SV) analyses revealed a two-step mechanism, a complex rearrangement followed by gene amplification, for the simultaneous formation of anomalous CNAs in multiple chromosome regions. Integrative CNA analyses of 97 CTCs from 23 patients confirmed the convergence of CNAs and revealed single, concurrent, and mutually exclusive CNAs that could be the driving events in cancer metastasis.
The Team Charter Assignment: Improving The Effectiveness of Classroom Teams

With the trend in recent years for business decisions to be made by teams rather than by individuals, many instructors have incorporated team learning into their classes. While the use of classroom teams has increased, few instructors have focused attention on improving their functioning. The "Team Charter Assignment" is one vehicle the authors have found useful for increasing classroom team effectiveness.
Marked self-exciting point process modelling of information diffusion on Twitter

Information diffusion occurs on microblogging platforms like Twitter as retweet cascades. When a tweet is posted, it may be retweeted and henceforth further retweeted, and the retweeting process continues iteratively and indefinitely. A natural measure of the popularity of a tweet is the number of retweets it generates. Accurate predictions of tweet popularity can assist Twitter to rank contents more effectively and facilitate the assessment of potential for marketing and campaigning strategies. In this paper, we propose a model called the Marked Self-Exciting Process with Time-Dependent Excitation Function, or MaSEPTiDE for short, to model the retweeting dynamics and to predict the tweet popularity. Our model does not require expensive feature engineering but is capable of leveraging the observed dynamics to accurately predict the future evolution of retweet cascades. We apply our proposed methodology on a large amount of Twitter data and report substantial improvement in prediction performance over existing approaches in the literature.
Boundary EEG Asymmetry Is Associated to Linguistic Competence in Vascular Cognitive Impairments

Background and Purpose: We recently noted a gradual change in the boundary electroencephalography (EEG) oscillation of 7.8 Hz between theta (θ) and alpha (α) bands in response to increased atherosclerosis levels in the elderly. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of boundary EEG oscillations of θ-α bands on cognitive functions in vascular cognitive impairments (VCI) patients. Materials and Methods: We examined 55 patients with VCI in carotid stenosis, and underwent EEG in a resting state with closed eyes for 5 min. The asymmetry index (AI) along homologous channel pairs (e.g., F7-8) was assessed using neuronal activity topography (NAT). AI referring to 10 frequency components ranging from 4 to 20 Hz and neuropsychological assessments including linguistic competence were analyzed. Results: The main findings was that the language score had a positive association with AI in 7.8 Hz at F7-8 and a negative association with AI in 6.3 Hz at C3-4 and 14.1 Hz at F3-4. Conclusion: EEG asymmetry in a boundary range might have a special role in linguistic competence, suggesting the application of neural oscillation on the cognitive function evaluation and neurorehabilition induced by a frequency-specific transcranial alternating current stimulation.
Automatic people density maps generation with use of movement detection analysis

The paper presents technical aspects related to the video computer analysis of people movement in the sales rooms. Automatic generation of the people density maps (also referred to as the “heat maps”) is helpful for the analysis of customers' and employees' behavior in sale and office rooms advertising effectiveness research or tracking movements. Generation of the density maps was realized with the video recordings acquired by typical video surveillance cameras. Data processing was done off-line but the achieved processing time allows the real-time implementation. Experimental tests were carried out at several points of the customer services.
Impact of Visual-Haptic Spatial Discrepancy on Targeting Performance

This paper presents a comprehensive study of the impact of visual-haptic spatial discrepancies on human performance in a targeting task conducted in a visual-haptic virtual and augmented environment. Moreover, it explores whether the impact of this effect varies with two additional variables: 1) haptic wall stiffness and 2) visual cursor diameter. Finally, we discuss the relative dominance of visual and haptic cues during a targeting task. The results indicate that while the spatial discrepancies studied exerted a small effect on the time required to perform targeting, they impacted the absolute errors considerably. Additionally, we report that haptic wall stiffness has a significant effect on absolute errors while the visual cursor diameter has a significant effect on movement time. Finally, we conclude that while both visual and haptic cues are important during targeting tasks, haptic cues played a more dominant role than visual cues. The results of this paper can be used to predict how human targeting performance will vary between systems, such as those using haptically enabled virtual reality or augmented reality technologies that feature visual-haptic spatial discrepancies.
USAR: An Interactive User-specific Aesthetic Ranking Framework for Images

When assessing whether an image is of high or low quality, it is indispensable to take personal preference into account. Existing aesthetic models lay emphasis on hand-crafted features or deep features commonly shared by high quality images, but with limited or no consideration for personal preference and user interaction. To that end, we propose a novel and user-friendly aesthetic ranking framework via powerful deep neural network and a small amount of user interaction, which can automatically estimate and rank the aesthetic characteristics of images in accordance with users' preference. Our framework takes as input a series of photos that users prefer, and produces as output a reliable, user-specific aesthetic ranking model matching with users' preference. Considering the subjectivity of personal preference and the uncertainty of user's single selection, a unique and exclusive dataset will be constructed interactively to describe the preference of one individual by retrieving the most similar images with regard to those specified by users. Based on this unique user-specific dataset and sufficient well-designed aesthetic attributes, a customized aesthetic distribution model can be learned, which concatenates both personalized preference and aesthetic rules. We conduct extensive experiments and user studies on two large-scale public datasets, and demonstrate that our framework outperforms those work based on conventional aesthetic assessment or ranking model.
PERTUSSIS VACCINE EFFECTIVENESS IN REDUCING CLINICAL DISEASE, TRANSMISSIBILITY AND PROPORTION OF CASES WITH A POSITIVE CULTURE AFTER HOUSEHOLD EXPOSURE IN BRAZIL

In household outbreaks of pertussis, children <5 years of age who received at least 3 doses of vaccine had 12% less clinical disease; vaccinated cases were 63% less culture-confirmed and transmitted infection to 62% fewer contacts. Three doses of pertussis vaccine are likely to decrease circulation of Bordetella pertussis by reducing the proportion of bacteriologically positive cases and transmissibility.
Formal Specification for Online Food Ordering System Using Z Language

Natural Language Processing (NLP) directed to ambiguous representation for software requirements. Ambiguity at different levels creates different representation and meaning. This paper reduces the issues of ambiguity levels for the Software Requirements Specification (SRS) using formal methods. The end result shows the effectiveness in specifications through Z language. The Z specification is created for the commercial application of online food ordering system to improve the order details accuracy and efficiency. The stakeholder needs for food ordering system are gathered from the project goal. The system is designed using Unified Modeling Language (UML) illustration of use case diagram. The specification is created for the system behavior to remove the ambiguity. Along with this, Z/EVES tool is used for the evaluation of Z specifications for the demonstration.
Determinants of early atherosclerosis in obese children and adolescents.

CONTEXT Obesity in childhood is associated with an increased mortality due to cardiovascular (CV) diseases in adulthood, independent of adult weight. Recent studies in children indicate that the atherosclerosis process starts at an early age and is linked to obesity. OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to investigate determinants of increased carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), an early marker of atherosclerosis, in obese children. DESIGN A total of 104 obese children [age, 12.7 +/- 0.2 yr; body mass index (BMI)-z-score, 2.8 +/- 0.7] underwent an oral glucose tolerance test. Fasting levels of glucose, insulin, C-reactive protein and adhesion molecules (sICAM, sVCAM, sE-selectin), lipid profile, adiponectin, and resistin were determined. IMT was measured by ultrasound. Insulin resistance was estimated by the homeostatic model assessment index. Baseline measurements of blood parameters were obtained from 93 nonobese children (age, 13.0 +/- 0.2 yr; BMI-z-score, -0.2 +/- 0.9), and IMT was measured in 23 other control children with similar characteristics. RESULTS Univariate analysis showed a significant positive correlation between IMT and relative BMI, the degree of systolic hypertension, fasting insulin levels, homeostatic model assessment-R index, and resistin concentrations, whereas an inverse correlation with adiponectin levels was found. No correlation was obtained between IMT and classical CV risk factors such as positive familial history of type 2 diabetes or precocious CV disease, visceral obesity, or the lipid profile. C-reactive protein and adhesion molecule levels were not associated with IMT in our obese population. When controlled for sex, Tanner stage, and relative BMI, only adiponectin levels remained an independent determinant of IMT. CONCLUSION Adiponectin more than conventional CV risk factors and inflammation status may be related to early atherosclerosis in obese children.
Powering smart wearable systems with flexible solar energy harvesting

Recent advances in electrical sensing and flexible devices have demonstrated great potential in a wide range of applications including wearable devices for fitness and health care. Flexible plastic substrates, such as polyimide, or transparent conductive polyester are used to fabricate flexible devices that increase the comfort when they are worn by users or patients. However, one challenge that still limits the success of wearable devices is the limited lifetime especially in biomedical applications. Energy harvesting technology is one of the most promising approaches to address the short lifetime of wearable devices. However, harvesting energy for powering wearable devices is more challenging due to strict constraints in terms of size, weight and cost. In this work, we present the design of a wearable smart bracelet that uses thin-film small form factor flexible photovoltaic panels as energy source. The solar energy harvesting subsystem has been designed to maximize the energy conversion efficiency (up to 90%) to achieve a self-sustainable wireless wearable system. The full-system integration has been developed and assembled using polyamide film to realize a fully flexible smart bracelet for long term monitoring of patients or elderly people in healthcare applications. Preliminary in-field experiments show that a single flexible solar panel can harvest up to 16mW of power in outdoor and 0.21mW in indoor scenarios. We demonstrate that, the developed device, combining low power design and flexible energy harvesting, achieves perpetual work, acquiring one blood oxygenation measurement per minute and sending data via Bluetooth.
The effect of nursing interventions on the intracranial pressure in paediatric traumatic brain injury.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of five selected intensive care nursing interventions on the intracranial pressure (ICP) of moderate to severe traumatic brain-injured children in intensive care. BACKGROUND The physiological effects of many nursing interventions in paediatric intensive care (PIC) are not known. This results in the lack of an evidence base for many PIC nursing practices. DESIGN Prospective observational cohort study conducted over 3 years in a single tertiary referral paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) in the North West of England. METHODS Five selected commonly performed nursing interventions were studied: endotracheal suctioning and manual ventilation (ETSMV), turning via a log-rolling (LR) approach, eye care, oral care and washing. These were studied in the first 72 h after injury. RESULTS A total of 25 children with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury and intraparenchymal ICP monitoring in intensive care (aged 2-17 years) were enrolled. Both ETSMV and LR were associated with clinically and statistically significant changes in ICP from baseline to maximal ICP (p = 0·001 ETSMV; p = < 0·001 LR) and from maximal post-ICP (p = < 0·001 ETSMV; p = < 0.001 LR). Eye care, oral care or washing did not cause any clinically significant change in ICP from baseline. After decompressive craniectomy, none of the interventions caused significant changes in ICP. CONCLUSIONS Only two of the five nursing interventions, endotracheal suctioning and LR, caused intracranial hypertension in moderate to severe traumatic brain-injured children, and after craniectomy, no care interventions caused any significant change in ICP. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Knowledge about the physiological effects of many intensive care nursing interventions is lacking and this is magnified in paediatrics. This study provides a significant addition to the evidence base in this area and allows intensive care nurses to plan, implement and evaluate more effectively their nursing care for brain-injured children.
Depth inpainting scheme based on edge guided non local means

The acquisition process of depth image usually produces noise and holes. This kind of defect can reduce the quality of depth image especially the existence of small or large holes which cause great loss of depth information. In this research, the depth inpainting scheme based on edge guided non local means is proposed to restore the missing depth information. Non local means (NL-means) uses similar patches within search window to recover the missing depth pixel by averaging the weighted Euclidean distance from the similar patches. The inpainting scheme iterates through boundaries of missing depth pixels. Depth image edges will act as guidance to limit the search region by using Breadth First Search (BFS). The distance calculation is performed on valid depth pixels and ignore the missing depth parts from both patches to avoid false depth information. The experiment on the depth image dataset shows that the proposed scheme can fill small to large holes on depth image with low MSE value.
Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy for Liver Lesions. A Single-institution Experience.

AIM To evaluate survival and toxicity in a cohort of patients treated with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for unresectable intrahepatic malignancies. PATIENTS AND METHODS From 2007 to 2014, 23 patients with 34 lesions (three primary and 31 metastatic liver tumors) were treated with SBRT. RESULTS The median follow-up was 9 months (range=1-76) for all patients. Local control was reached in 27 out of 34 (79%) treated lesions, with 1 and 2 years rates of 93% and 73%, respectively. The progression-free survival at 1-year and 2-year was 50% and 25%, respectively. Median overall survival was 16 months (95% confidence interval=8-24 months), with 1-year and 2-year rates of 58% and 41%, respectively. Toxicity was very low consisting mainly of grade 1 and 2 events. CONCLUSION SBRT provides good local control for both primary and metastatic liver lesions, with minimal toxicity.
Efficient development of highly polymorphic microsatellite markers based on polymorphic repeats in transcriptome sequences of multiple individuals

The first hurdle in developing microsatellite markers, cloning, has been overcome by next‐generation sequencing. The second hurdle is testing to differentiate polymorphic from nonpolymorphic loci. The third hurdle, somewhat hidden, is that only polymorphic markers with a large effective number of alleles are sufficiently informative to be deployed in multiple studies. Both steps are laborious and still performed manually. We have developed a strategy in which we first screen reads from multiple genotypes for repeats that show the most length variants, and only these are subsequently developed into markers. We validated our strategy in tetraploid garden rose using Illumina paired‐end transcriptome sequences of 11 roses. Of 48 tested two markers failed to amplify, but all others were polymorphic. Ten loci amplified more than one locus, indicating duplicated genes or gene families. Completely avoiding duplicated loci will be difficult because the range of numbers of predicted alleles of highly polymorphic single‐ and multilocus markers largely overlapped. Of the remainder, half were replicate markers (i.e. multiple primer pairs for one locus), indicating the difficulty of correctly filtering short reads containing repeat sequences. We subsequently refined the approach to eliminate multiple primer sets to the same loci. The remaining 18 markers were all highly polymorphic, amplifying on average 11.7 alleles per marker (range = 6–20) in 11 tetraploid roses, exceeding the 8.2 alleles per marker of the 24 most polymorphic markers genotyped previously. This strategy therefore represents a major step forward in the development of highly polymorphic microsatellite markers.
On a Bio-inspired Amphibious Robot Capable of Multimodal Motion

This paper addresses the system design and locomotion control for a versatile amphibious robot, AmphiRobot-II, inspired by various amphibian principles in the animal kingdom. In terms of the propulsion features of existing amphibians, a novel hybrid propulsive mechanism coupled with wheel-propeller-fin movements is proposed that integrates fish- or dolphin-like swimming and wheel-based crawling. The robot is able not only to implement flexible wheel-based movements on land, but also to perform steady and efficient fish- or dolphin-like swimming under water and can further switch between these two patterns via a specialized swivel device. To achieve multimodal motions, a body deformation steering approach is proposed for the turning locomotion on land with minimum turning radius obtained accordingly. A central pattern generator inspired underwater locomotion control is also implemented and tested on the physical robot. Based on the aforementioned design, the AmphiRobot-II prototype has been built and has successfully demonstrated to confirm the effectiveness of the hybrid propulsive scheme and the amphibious control approaches.
Excitable behavior can explain the “ping‐pong” mode of communication between cells using the same chemoattractant

Here we elucidate a paradox: how a single chemoattractant‐receptor system in two individuals is used for communication despite the seeming inevitability of self‐excitation. In the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa, genetically identical cells that produce the same chemoattractant fuse via the homing of individual cell protrusions toward each other. This is achieved via a recently described “ping‐pong” pulsatile communication. Using a generic activator‐inhibitor model of excitable behavior, we demonstrate that the pulse exchange can be fully understood in terms of two excitable systems locked into a stable oscillatory pattern of mutual excitation. The most puzzling properties of this communication are the sudden onset of oscillations with final amplitude, and the absence of seemingly inevitable self‐excitation. We show that these properties result directly from both the excitability threshold and refractory period characteristic of excitable systems. Our model suggests possible molecular mechanisms for the ping‐pong communication.