Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
From margarine to butter: predictors of changing bread spread in an 11-year population follow-up

Abstract Objective Finland is known for a sharp decrease in the intake of saturated fat and cardiovascular mortality. Since 2000, however, the consumption of butter-containing spreads – an important source of saturated fats – has increased. We examined social and health-related predictors of the increase among Finnish men and women. Design An 11-year population follow-up. Setting A representative random sample of adult Finns, invited to a health survey in 2000. Subjects Altogether 5414 persons aged 30–64 years at baseline in 2000 were re-invited in 2011. Of men 1529 (59 %) and of women 1853 (66 %) answered the questions on bread spreads at both time points. Respondents reported the use of bread spreads by choosing one of the following alternatives: no fat, soft margarine, butter–vegetable oil mixture and butter, which were later categorized into margarine/no spread and butter/butter–vegetable oil mixture (= butter). The predictors included gender, age, marital status, education, employment status, place of residence, health behaviours, BMI and health. Multinomial regression models were fitted. Results Of the 2582 baseline margarine/no spread users, 24.6% shifted to butter. Only a few of the baseline sociodemographic or health-related determinants predicted the change. Finnish women were more likely to change to butter than men. Living with a spouse predicted the change among men. Conclusions The change from margarine to butter between 2000 and 2011 seemed not to be a matter of compliance with official nutrition recommendations. Further longitudinal studies on social, behavioural and motivational predictors of dietary changes are needed.
Electrical impedance spectroscopy for detection of cells in suspensions using microfluidic device with integrated microneedles

In this study, we introduce novel method of flow cytometry for cell detection based on impedance measurements. The state of the art method for impedance flow cytometry detection utilizes an embedded electrode in the microfluidic to perform measurement of electrical impedance of the presence of cells at the sensing area. Nonetheless, this method requires an expensive and complicated electrode fabrication process. Furthermore, reuse of the fabricated electrode also requires an intensive and tedious cleaning process. Due to that, we present a microfluidic device with integrated microneedles. The two microneedles are placed at the half height of the microchannel for cell detection and electrical measurement. A commercially-available Tungsten needle was utilized for the microneedles. The microneedles are easily removed from the disposable PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) microchannel and can be reused with a simple cleaning process, such as washing by ultrasonic cleaning. Although this device was low cost, it preserves the core functionality of the sensor, which is capable of detecting passing cells at the sensing area. Therefore, this device is suitable for low-cost medical and food safety screening and testing process in developing countries.
A parameter optimization algorithm for intensity‐modulated radiotherapy prostate treatment planning*

An iterative algorithm has been developed to analytically determine patient specific input parameters for intensity‐modulated radiotherapy prostate treatment planning. The algorithm starts with a generic set of inverse planning parameters that include dose and volume constraints for the target and surrounding critical structures. The overlap region between the target volume and the rectum is used to determine the optimized target volume coverage goal. Sequential iterations are performed to vary the numerous parameters individually or in sets while other parameters remain fixed. A coarse grid search is first used to avoid convergence on a local maximum. Linear interpolation is then used to define a region for a fine grid search. Selected parameters are also tested for possible improvements in target coverage. In several representative test cases investigated the coverage of the planning target volume improved with the use of the algorithm while still meeting the clinical acceptability criteria for critical structures. The algorithm avoids time‐consuming random trial and error variations that are often associated with difficult cases and also eliminates lengthy user learning curves. The methodology described in this paper can be applied to any treatment planning system that requires the user to select the input optimization parameters. PACS number(s): 87.53. –j, 87.90. +y
ECSP : An Efficient Clustered Super-Peer Architecture

Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing has become increasingly popular in recent years. It offers many attractive features, such as self-organization, load-balancing, availability, fault tolerance, and anonymity. However, it also faces some serious challenges. In this thesis, we propose an Efficient Clustered Super-Peer P2P architecture (ECSP) to overcome the scalability and efficiency problems of existing unstructured P2P systems, using a semi-centralized hierarchical structure: With ECSP, peers are grouped into clusters according to their topological proximity, and super-peers are selected from regular peers to act as cluster leaders and service providers. These super-peers are also connected to each other, forming a backbone overlay network operating as a distinct, yet integrated, application. To maintain the dynamically adaptive overlay network and to manage the routing on it, we propose an application level broadcasting protocol: Efa. Applying only a small amount of information about the topology of a network, Efa is as simple as flooding, a conventional method used in unstructured P2P systems. By eliminating many duplicated messages, Efa is much more efficient and scalable than flooding, and furthermore, it is completely decentralized and self-organized. Our experimental results prove that ESCP architecture, combined with the super-peer backbone protocol, can generate impressive levels of performance and scalability.
Long‐term evaluation and cross‐checking of two geometric calibrations of kV and MV imaging systems for Linacs

Geometric or mechanical accuracy of kV and MV imaging systems of two Varian TrueBeam linacs have been monitored by two geomertirc calibration systems, Varian IsoCal geometric calibration system and home‐developed gQA system. Results of both systems are cross‐checked and the long‐term geometric stabilities of linacs are evaluated. Two geometric calibration methodologies have been used to assess kV and MV imaging systems and their coincidence periodically on two TrueBeam linacs for about one year. Both systems analyze kV or MV projection images of special designed phantoms to retrieve geometric parameters of the imaging systems. The isocenters — laser isocenter and centers of rotations of kV imager and EPID — are then calculated, based on results of multiple projections from different angles. Long‐term calibration results from both systems are compared for cross‐checking. There are 24 sessions of side‐by‐side calibrations performed by both systems on two TrueBeam linacs. All the disagreements of isocenters between two calibrations systems are less than 1 mm with ± 0.1 mm SD. Most of the large disagreements occurred in vertical direction (AP direction), with an averaged disagreement of 0.45 mm. The average disagreements of isocenters are 0.09 mm in other directions. Additional to long‐term calibration monitoring, for the accuracy test, special tests were performed by misaligning QA phantoms on purpose (5 mm away from setup isocenter in AP, SI, and lateral directions) to test the liability performance of both systems with the known deviations. The errors are within 0.5 mm. Both geometric calibration systems, IsoCal and gQA, are capable of detecting geometric deviations of kV and MV imaging systems of linacs. The long‐term evaluation also shows that the deviations of geometric parameters and the geometric accuracies of both linacs are small and very consistent during the one‐year study period. PACS number: 87.56. Fc
Team Process Variation Across Diabetes Quality of Care Trajectories

Conceptual frameworks in health care do not address mechanisms whereby teamwork processes affect quality of care. We seek to fill this gap by applying a framework of teamwork processes to compare different patterns of primary care performance over time. We thematically analyzed 114 primary care staff interviews across 17 primary care clinics. We purposefully selected clinics using diabetes quality of care over 3 years using four categories: consistently high, improving, worsening, and consistently low. Analyses compared participant responses within and between performance categories. Differences were observed among performance categories for action processes (monitoring progress and coordination), transition processes (goal specification and strategy formulation), and interpersonal processes (conflict management and affect management). Analyses also revealed emergent concepts related to psychological and organizational context that were reported to affect team processes. This study is a first step toward a comprehensive model of how teamwork processes might affect quality of care.
Cloning and Expression Analysis of Vv-lac3, A Novel Functional Laccase Gene Involved in Stipe Elongation, Based on the Genomic Sequence of Volvariella volvacea

Fungal laccases always play important roles in various physiological and developmental processes. Here, we cloned a laccase gene, and named Vv-lac3, cDNA from the Volvariella volvacea, and expressed the cDNA in Pichia pastoris. The Vv-lac3 cDNA consisted of 1599 bp containing an open reading frame (ORF) encoding a 532 amino acids. The analysis of the deduced amino acids revealed that Vv-lac3 possessed a 19-amino acids signal peptide at the N-terminal end and a 513-amino acid mature protein. The Vv-lac3 contained four conserved copper-binding sites that which is the typical structure of fungal laccases. Phylogenetic analysis showed that Vv-lac3 had a high degree of identity with other basidiomycete laccases. Native-PAGE and SDS-PAGE analysis demonstrated that the product of Vvlac3 cDNA from P. pastoris was a functional laccase with a molecular mass of 65 kDa. The expression of the Vv-lac3 gene in V. volvacea increased during button stage to the elongation stage; it reached peaked in the elongation stage, and then decreased in the maturation stage, which suggests that this gene plays a regulatory role in stipe elongation in V. volvacea.
A Novel Composite Material-based Computational Model for Left Ventricle Biomechanics Simulation

To model cardiac mechanics effectively, various mechanical characteristics of cardiac muscle tissue including anisotropy, hyperelasticity, and tissue active contraction characteristics must be considered. Some of these features cannot be implemented using commercial finite element (FE) solvers unless additional custom-developed computer codes/subroutines are appended. Such codes/subroutines are unavailable for the research community. Accordingly, the overarching objective of this research is to develop a novel LV mechanics model which is implementable in commercial FE solvers and can be used effectively within inverse FE frameworks towards cardiac disease diagnosis and therapy. This was broken down into a number of objectives. The first objective is to develop a novel cardiac tissue mechanical model. This model was constructed of microstructural cardiac tissue constituents while their associated volume contributions and mechanical properties were incorporated into the model. These constituents were organized in small FE tissue specimen models consistent with the normal/pathological cardiac tissue microstructure. In silico biaxial/uniaxial mechanical tests were conducted on the specimen models and corresponding stress-strain data were validated by comparing them with cardiac tissue data reported in the literature. Another objective of this research is developing a novel FE-based mechanical model of the LV which is fully implementable using commercial FE solvers without requiring further coding, potentially leading to a computationally efficient model which is easily adaptable to diverse pathological conditions. This was achieved through considering a novel composite material model of the cardiac tissue while all aspects of the cardiac mechanics including hyperelasticity, anisotropy, and active tissue responses were preserved. The model was applied to an in silico geometry of a canine LV under both normal and pathological conditions and systolic/diastolic responses of the model were compared with corresponding data of other LV mechanical models and LV contraction measurements. To test the suitability of the proposed cardiac model for FE inversion-based algorithms, the model was utilized for LV diastolic mechanical simulation to estimate the tissue stiffness and blood pressure using an ad-hoc optimization scheme. This led to reasonable tissue stiffness and blood pressure values falling within the range of LV measurements of healthy subjects, confirming the efficacy of this model for inversion-based diagnosis applications.
Robust iso-surface tracking for interactive character skinning

We present a novel approach to interactive character skinning, which is robust to extreme character movements, handles skin contacts and produces the effect of skin elasticity (sliding). Our approach builds on the idea of implicit skinning in which the character is approximated by a 3D scalar field and mesh-vertices are appropriately re-projected. Instead of being bound by an initial skinning solution used to initialize the shape at each time step, we use the skin mesh to directly track iso-surfaces of the field over time. Technical problems are two-fold: firstly, all contact surfaces generated between skin parts should be captured as iso-surfaces of the implicit field; secondly, the tracking method should capture elastic skin effects when the joints bend, and as the character returns to its rest shape, so the skin must follow. Our solutions include: new composition operators enabling blending effects and local self-contact between implicit surfaces, as well as a tangential relaxation scheme derived from the as-rigid-as possible energy to solve the tracking problem.
An Instance-Oriented Approach to Constructing Product Lines from Layers

The Model/View/Controller (MVC) paradigm, and its many variants, is a cornerstone of decoupling within object-oriented design. MVC leads to clear reuse benefits regarding the class hierarchies for the model and view elements. In practice, however, the controllers appear to defy reuse, most likely because they encapsulate specialized business logic. Within an effective product line, however, such specialized logic must be reused. We combine the MVC paradigm with feature-oriented programming (FOP) to produce a novel instance-oriented design pattern for layers that brings reusability back to controllers. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach using a product-line example of a solitaire game engine.
Multisensory integration of speech sounds with letters vs. visual speech: only visual speech induces the mismatch negativity

Numerous studies have demonstrated that the vision of lip movements can alter the perception of auditory speech syllables (McGurk effect). While there is ample evidence for integration of text and auditory speech, there are only a few studies on the orthographic equivalent of the McGurk effect. Here, we examined whether written text, like visual speech, can induce an illusory change in the perception of speech sounds on both the behavioural and neural levels. In a sound categorization task, we found that both text and visual speech changed the identity of speech sounds from an /aba/‐/ada/ continuum, but the size of this audiovisual effect was considerably smaller for text than visual speech. To examine at which level in the information processing hierarchy these multisensory interactions occur, we recorded electroencephalography in an audiovisual mismatch negativity (MMN, a component of the event‐related potential reflecting preattentive auditory change detection) paradigm in which deviant text or visual speech was used to induce an illusory change in a sequence of ambiguous sounds halfway between /aba/ and /ada/. We found that only deviant visual speech induced an MMN, but not deviant text, which induced a late P3‐like positive potential. These results demonstrate that text has much weaker effects on sound processing than visual speech does, possibly because text has different biological roots than visual speech.
Novel fine pitch interconnection methods using metallised polymer spheres

There is an ongoing demand for electronics devices with more functionality while reducing size and cost, for example smart phones and tablet personal computers. This requirement has led to significantly higher integrated circuit input/output densities and therefore the need for off-chip interconnection pitch reduction. Flip-chip processes utilising anisotropic conductive adhesives anisotropic conductive films (ACAs/ACFs) have been successfully applied in liquid crystal display (LCD) interconnection for more than two decades. However the conflict between the need for a high particle density, to ensure sufficient the conductivity, without increasing the probability of short circuits has remained an issue since the initial utilization of ACAs/ACFs for interconnection. But this issue has become even more severe with the challenge of ultra-fine pitch interconnection. This thesis advances a potential solution to this challenge where the conductive particles typically used in ACAs are selectively deposited onto the connections ensuring conductivity without bridging. The research presented in this thesis work has been undertaken to advance the fundamental understanding of the mechanical characteristics of micro-sized metal coated polymer particles (MCPs) and their application in fine or ultra-fine pitch interconnections. This included use of a new technique based on an in-situ nanomechanical system within SEM which was utilised to study MCP fracture and failure when undergoing deformation. Different loading conditions were applied to both uncoated polymer particles and MCPs, and the in-situ system enables their observation throughout compression. The results showed that both the polymer particles and MCP display viscoelastic characteristics with clear strain-rate hardening behaviour, and that the rate of compression therefore influences the initiation of cracks and their propagation direction. Selective particle deposition using electrophoretic deposition (EPD) and magnetic deposition (MD) of Ni/Au-MCPs have been evaluated and a fine or ultra-fine pitch deposition has been demonstrated, followed by a subsequent assembly process. The MCPs were successfully positively charged using metal cations and this charging mechanism was analysed. A new theory has been proposed to explain the assembly mechanism of EPD of Ni/Au coated particles using this metal cation based charging method. The magnetic deposition experiments showed that sufficient magnetostatic interaction force between the magnetized particles and pads enables a highly selective dense deposition of particles. Successful bonding to form conductive interconnections with pre-deposited particles have been demonstrated using a thermocompression flip-chip bonder, which illustrates the applicable capability of EPD of MCPs for fine or ultra-fine pitch interconnection.
Modeling of Electrokinetic Mixing in Lab on Chip Microfluidic Devices

This dissertation summarize a modeling of electrokinetic mixing employing electro-osmotic stationary and time-dependent micropumps via alternate zeta potential patches on the lower surface of the mixing chamber in lab on chip microfluidic device. Electro-osmotic flow is augmented using different model designs with alternate zeta potential values such as 25mV, 50mV and 100mV respectively to achieve high mixing efficiency in electrokinetically driven microfluidic system. The enhancement of mixing via alternate opposing zeta potentials is studied using Finite Element Modeling. Simulation 2D and 3D workflow involves designated steps such as setting up the model environment, creating geometric objects, stipulating materials and boundary conditions, meshing and post analyzing the results. An electric contours and concentration gradients are derived using a Navier-Stokes for incompressible flow, convection-diffusion equation and Helmholtz-Smoluchowski slip velocity respectively. The effect of magnitude of zeta potential, number of alternate patches etc. are studied in detail. In addition, 2D results are compared with 3D results to demonstrate the significance of 3D model in microfluidic design process.
Maximizing Health or Sufficient Capability in Economic Evaluation? A Methodological Experiment of Treatment for Drug Addiction

Conventional practice within the United Kingdom and beyond is to conduct economic evaluations with “health” as evaluative space and “health maximization” as the decision-making rule. However, there is increasing recognition that this evaluative framework may not always be appropriate, and this is particularly the case within public health and social care contexts. This article presents a methodological case study designed to explore the impact of changing the evaluative space within an economic evaluation from health to capability well-being and the decision-making rule from health maximization to the maximization of sufficient capability. Capability well-being is an evaluative space grounded on Amartya Sen’s capability approach and assesses well-being based on individuals’ ability to do and be the things they value in life. Sufficient capability is an egalitarian approach to decision making that aims to ensure everyone in society achieves a normatively sufficient level of capability well-being. The case study is treatment for drug addiction, and the cost-effectiveness of 2 psychological interventions relative to usual care is assessed using data from a pilot trial. Analyses are undertaken from a health care and a government perspective. For the purpose of the study, quality-adjusted life years (measured using the EQ-5D-5L) and years of full capability equivalent and years of sufficient capability equivalent (both measured using the ICECAP-A [ICEpop CAPability measure for Adults]) are estimated. The study concludes that different evaluative spaces and decision-making rules have the potential to offer opposing treatment recommendations. The implications for policy makers are discussed.
Quantitative Analysis of Infrared Thermal Image Defect Based on Mathematical Morphology

Infrared thermal wave testing technology was a kind of infrared thermal technology which heats the sample and detects the surface temperature.The infrared thermal image which had low contrast degree and high background noise was difficult to be analyzed quantitatively by inspector.In order to solve thermal image problem,the Watershed method based on mathematical morphology was presented.The method was an efficient gray level segmentation way which had strongly eliminated noise.Therefore,the Watershed method based on mathematical morphology which segmented defects and extracted the image feature was adopted.The result showed that the Watershed method had eliminated noise effectively,and had computed the defect locations and areas with quantitative analysis and had an engineering applied value.