Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electrochemical Behavior of Biodegradable FeMnSi–MgCa Alloy

Nowadays, alongside metallic biomaterials, there is increasing interest in using degradable metals in an appreciable number of medical applications. There are new kinds of metallic biomaterials for medical applications and many new findings have been reported over the past few years. Iron-based materials are a solution for biodegradable applications based on their mechanical and chemical properties. In order to control the corrosion rate of the Fe10Mn6Si alloy, we proposed the use of two additional elements, Ca and Mg, as corrosion promoters. The new material was obtained in an air-controlled atmosphere furnace after five melting operations. The material was in vitro analyzed from a corrosion resistance point of view. The experiments were realized by immersion (7, 14, and 30 days) in simulated body fluid (SBF) solution at 37 °C and a constant pH, and by electrochemical tests (electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), linear polarization (LP), cyclic polarization (CP)). Material surfaces before and after corrosion tests were analyzed through scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. A discussion on the degradation rate of the material was realized from a comparison of the results. The results presented good composition homogeneity after the re-melting stages, with low percentages of Ca and Mg in the material, but with an adequate spread in the alloy.
How Firms Respond To Mandatory Information Disclosure 1211 behavior

Mandatory information disclosure regulations seek to create institutional pressure to spur performance improvement. By examining how organizational characteristics moderate establishments’ responses to a prominent environmental information disclosure program, we provide among the first empirical evidence characterizing heterogeneous responses by those mandated to disclose information. We find particularly rapid improvement among establishments located close to their headquarters and among establishments with proximate siblings, especially when the proximate siblings are in the same industry. Large establishments improve more slowly than small establishments in sparse regions, but both groups perform similarly in dense regions, suggesting that density mitigates the power of large establishments to resist institutional pressures. Finally, establishments owned by private firms outperform those owned by public firms. We highlight implications for institutional theory, managers, and policymakers. Copyright  2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Integrated Design and Manufacturing Approach for a Faster and Easier Production of Rotor Blade Molds—Direct Tooling by BladeMaker

Blade mold production is a fairly standardized process in the wind turbine industry. Nevertheless, a significant reduction of production costs can be obtained through a novel process, greatly reducing the time-to-market of new rotor blades. Current mold production processes are based on the production of a positive master plug. The negative mold itself is then built up on the master plug. After lifting the mold off the master plug, the mold is mounted to a steel framework and equipped with a heating system. The novel direct tooling approach of BladeMaker tackles three domains: mold design with integrated functionalities, integration of the mold manufacturing preparation process into the mold design and the manufacturing process itself. Fraunhofer IWES has set up an integrated digital tool chain, spanning from blade design down onto the shop floor. The blade geometry, generated in CAD, is directly employed for the mold design mold and the mold geometry is transferred to the CADCAM- solution for the automated 5-axis-milling of the mold. The mold geometry is e.g. milled out of polyurethane foam blocks used as the core of the mold sandwich shell. In the next step, carbon fiber fabrics are laid on the core for the structural stiffness and as the heating system. This carbon fiber based electric heating can be used for high process temperatures well above 100°C and achieves high heat-up rates and a constant temperature across the entire surface. The drafted mold making process can also be conducted with different materials, e.g. additively manufactured foam components. Fraunhofer IWES has executed and evaluated this process in their BladeMaker Demo-Center with its CNC-equipped multi-functional lightweight carbon fiber gantry robot and will present the results for all affected domains of mold making.
Wearable kinesthetic systems and emerging technologies in actuation for upperlimb neurorehabilitation

Kinesthetic and haptic interfaces between humans and machines are currently under development in a truly wearable form, using innovative technologies based on electroactive polymers. The integration of electroactive polymeric materials into wearable garments is becoming a viable mean to confer the garment strain sensing and actuation properties. In this paper, the implementation and testing of fabric-based wearable interfaces for the upper limb endowed with spatially redundant strain sensing are reported. Electroactive polymer actuators, which we are currently investigating, are discussed with emphasis given to their unique capabilities in the phenomenological mimicking of skeletal muscle actuation and control. Finally, current work in preliminary evaluation of prototypes in the field of post-stroke rehabilitation is also briefly presented.
Correlates of Dietary Intake Among Men Involved in the MAN for Health Study

The clustering of diet and other lifestyle behaviors and their psychosocial correlates were examined among 455 Latino and African American men in the U.S. Southeast. Men were recruited by male community health workers and surveys were self-administered in a group format. Latino men were younger, less educated, and more likely to be employed than African American men and reported a lower household income and larger household size. Fruit and vegetable consumption was associated with physical activity (p ≤ .001). A more positive attitude toward health was associated with meeting vegetable dietary guidelines (p ≤ .05) and consuming fast food less frequently (p ≤ .01). Active coping was associated with meeting fruit and vegetable dietary guidelines (p ≤ .01 and p ≤ .001, respectively), and avoidant coping was associated with greater fast-food consumption (p ≤ .001). Latino fast-food consumption was associated with binge drinking (p ≤ .001). This research provides evidence for tailoring dietary intervention for men of color.
Statestream: A toolbox to explore layerwise-parallel deep neural networks

Building deep neural networks to control autonomous agents which have to interact in real-time with the physical world, such as robots or automotive vehicles, requires a seamless integration of time into a network’s architecture. The central question of this work is, how the temporal nature of reality should be reflected in the execution of a deep neural network and its components. Most artificial deep neural networks are partitioned into a directed graph of connected modules or layers and the layers themselves consist of elemental building blocks, such as single units. For most deep neural networks, all units of a layer are processed synchronously and in parallel, but layers themselves are processed in a sequential manner. In contrast, all elements of a biological neural network are processed in parallel. In this paper, we define a class of networks between these two extreme cases. These networks are executed in a streaming or synchronous layerwise-parallel manner, unlocking the layers of such networks for parallel processing. Compared to the standard layerwise-sequential deep networks, these new layerwise-parallel networks show a fundamentally different temporal behavior and flow of information, especially for networks with skip or recurrent connections. We argue that layerwise-parallel deep networks are better suited for future challenges of deep neural network design, such as large functional modularized and/or recurrent architectures as well as networks allocating different network capacities dependent on current stimulus and/or task complexity. We layout basic properties and discuss major challenges for layerwise-parallel networks. Additionally, we provide a toolbox to design, train, evaluate, and online-interact with layerwise-parallel networks.
Does a More Specified Version of the HoNOS (Health of the Nation Outcome Scales) Increase Psychometric Properties of the Inventory?

Background: The Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS) is a clinician-rated instrument for the differentiated measurement of severity in patients with mental disorder. Item 8 of the instrument, assessing ‘Other mental and behavioral problems’, is particularly relevant for patients with affective disorders, anxiety disorders, and eating and personality disorders. However, some studies have shown that the scale possesses unsatisfactory psychometric properties. The objective of the present study was therefore to validate the psychometric properties of a more specified version of the HoNOS-D item 8. Methods: The instrument’s reliability and validity were tested using a large, representative, clinical sample of patients with mental disorders (study 1: n = 1,918 and n = 1,357). Additional tests of reliability and criterion validity were performed using a further clinical sample of patients with mental disorders (study 2: N = 55). Results: The extended version of the HoNOS provides a differentiated picture of additional problem areas for the patient. Although inter-rater reliability indicates a need for more detailed instructions, the problem areas of item 8 proved on the whole to be suitable for measuring the extent and severity of mental problems that are present in addition to the primary problem. Conclusion: In order to make the extended assessment of the HoNOS useful for clinical routine practice, a supplemental glossary is needed.
Iterative detection and decoding to approach MIMO capacity

In this term project, I studied on MIMO receiver techniques which can achieve near-capacity performance by applying an iterative detection and decoding (IDD) process. This report will provide the brief summary on what I have learned in this project, which will supplement the presentation material. The responses to the list of questions made during the presentation were also included in this report.
Temperature Effect on the Elasticity of Acrylamide-n-Isopropylacrylamide Copolymers

ABSTRACT Acrylamide (AAm) – N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPA) copolymers were prepared via free radical crosslinking copolymerization with various weight percentages (wt%) of AAm and NIPA. The temperature dependence of the compressive elastic modulus, G, and toughness, UT, of the PAAm- NIPA copolymers due to a volume phase transition was found using a compressive testing technique. It was observed that the compressive elastic modulus increased comprehensively when the temperature was increased between 30°C and 60°C. The PAAm- NIPA copolymers presented higher values of the compressive elastic modulus than pure NIPA above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) (NIPA exhibits a volume phase transition from hydrophilic to hydrophobic in water at 31°C) and their compressive elastic modulus and toughness had a strong temperature dependence.
Colon-targeted delivery of live bacterial cell biotherapeutics including microencapsulated live bacterial cells

There has been an ample interest in delivery of therapeutic molecules using live cells. Oral delivery has been stipulated as best way to deliver live cells to humans for therapy. Colon, in particular, is a part of gastrointestinal (GI) tract that has been proposed to be an oral targeted site. The main objective of these oral therapy procedures is to deliver live cells not only to treat diseases like colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and other GI tract diseases like intestinal obstruction and gastritis, but also to deliver therapeutic molecules for overall therapy in various diseases such as renal failure, coronary heart disease, hypertension, and others. This review provides a comprehensive summary of recent advancement in colon targeted live bacterial cell biotherapeutics. Current status of bacterial cell therapy, principles of artificial cells and its potentials in oral delivery of live bacterial cell biotherapeutics for clinical applications as well as biotherapeutic future perspectives are also discussed in our review.
Evaluation of body image in cancer patients and its association with clinical variables

BACKGROUND: Cancer and its treatments have been shown to have a negative psychological effect on many cancer patients. One of these effects is often described as body image disturbance. Due to the limited number of studies in this area, this study was performed to assess body image in cancer patients and its association with clinical variables. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a descriptive and correlational research that was designed in Sayyed-Al-Shohda Hospital affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran in 2013. Two hundred and ten adult patients who had been suffering from cancer were selected and completed the personal/demographic/illness questionnaire and the multi-dimensional body-self relations questionnaire that contained 64-items with appearance orientation, appearance evaluation, fitness evaluation, fitness orientation, health evaluation, health orientation, illness orientation, body areas satisfaction, self-classified weight and overweight preoccupation sub-scales. Data were analyzed by ANOVA and Pearson correlation with a significance level of P < 0.05. RESULTS: The mean (standard deviation (scores of body image in cancer patients was 184.40 (43.68) indicating that 58.3% of them had negative body image. In addition, most of patients had negative health evaluation (60.2%), negative appearance evaluation (63%), negative illness orientation (61%), and negative fitness orientation (56%). Furthermore, there were no significant correlations between type of cancer (P = 0.5, f = 0.3), kind of treatment (P = 0.8, f = 5.2) and duration of illness with body image (P = 0.6, r = −0.2). CONCLUSION: In this study most of the cancer patients had body image disturbances. Also, body image in this group wasn’t associated with the type of cancer, kind of treatment and duration of illness. Totally, these results underscore the importance of assessing and treating body image disturbance in cancer patients.
Use of an Intervention Bundle to Eliminate Pressure Ulcers in Critical Care

Nursing staff chose to eliminate hospital-acquired pressure ulcers in their intensive care unit through implementation of an intervention bundle. A bundle of 7 interventions (pressure ulcer bundle, PUB) was developed through review of current evidence. After implementation, quarterly hospital-acquired pressure ulcer rates decreased and continued to remain below 1% throughout the year, and the goal of no pressure ulcers was met for 2 months. The PUB interventions have potential for use in a variety of settings where there are bed-bound patients.
Characterization of Polypropylene Composite Reinforced with Wood Flour or Cellulose Fiber

The use of lignocellulosic materials as reinforced polymer composite has been in great demand during the last decade due to some of its advantages. The lignocellulosic material may be in the form of wood flour or cellulose fiber, both of which have different properties and structures due to effects of the resulting composite product. This study aims was to compare lignocellulosic materials as reinforcing agent in polypropylene composite, i.e in the form of wood flour or cellulose fibers. The characterization conducted were the physical and mechanical properties of the composite. The characteristics of lignocellulose materials were investigated using FTIR and XRD analysis. Cellulose fibers were obtained by pulping with an alkaline solution, followed by bleaching treatment. The results showed that the chemical treatments could increased the crystallinity of the fibers, therefore resulted in an increase of physical and mechanical properties of polypropylene composites.
Cassette incubation followed by bioanalysis using high-resolution MS for in vitro ADME screening assays.

BACKGROUND High-resolution MS (HRMS) has recently received a considerable interest in quantitative bioanalysis using full-scan acquisition mode. The benefits include complete elimination of compound-specific MS method development, and simultaneous collection of mass spectral data on both targeted and non-targeted components. One additional advantage that has not been widely discussed is its suitability for simultaneous quantitation of, theoretically, an unlimited number of compounds, which is not possible with selected reaction monitoring (SRM) on a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. MATERIALS & METHODS We took advantage of this unique bioanalytical capability of HRMS and developed a novel in vitro ADME workflow of cassette incubation of as many as 32 compounds, followed by quantitative bioanalysis using full-scan acquisition on an Orbitrap HRMS. The workflow was evaluated for a serum protein-binding assay and a parallel artificial membrane permeability (PAMPA) assay. RESULTS The bioanalytical assay displayed acceptable sensitivity, selectivity and linearity for all compounds in the cassettes, and the biological results obtained using this approach were similar to those from discrete incubation and analysis, demonstrating the feasibility of the workflow. Additional benefits of this platform include a saving of analysis time due to the reduced sample numbers from the cassette approach, as well as cost saving due to the reduction in the required assay reagents. CONCLUSION Cassette incubation with bioanalysis using HRMS is a feasible approach for high-throughput in vitro ADME assays evaluated in this study.
The Importance of Case-Mix Adjustment for Infection Rates and the Need for More Research

18, After years of discussion, hospitals in many countries are now being required to publicly report healthcare-associated infection rates. For example, in the United States, legislation to this effect is pending or has been approved in 32 states.1 The impetus for the public reporting movement is complex, but important driving goals are providing information to patients, health insurance carriers, and health maintenance organizations about hospital performance data and better informing consumers about healthcare services. Indeed, these efforts have been driven not only by consumers but also by entities as diverse as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state and federal legislators. However, for the reported data on healthcare-associated infection rates to be meaningful, the rates need to be properly risk adjusted to account for the differences in patient populations that lead to inherently different baseline risks. At present, many groups, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, conclude that the use of infection rates for interhospital comparisons is crude, inaccurate, and potentially flawed because of the inability to effectively riskadjust rates using scientifically validated methods.2,3 Thus, the problem is that for most healthcare-associated infections, there are no validated and optimal methods of risk adjustment. We believe that properly risk-adjusted healthcare-associated infection rates can serve a number of very important purposes, and thus we are not against the reporting of these rates if they are properly risk adjusted. However, until validated methods of risk adjustment exist for each outcome measure, we favor the reporting of process measures. Properly risk-adjusted healthcare-associated infection rates are critical to the achievement of the following goals: (1) allowing consumers and healthcare maintenance orga-
Classifying cellular automata automatically: Finding gliders, filtering, and relating space-time patterns, attractor basins, and the Z parameter

"Glider" dynamics in cellular automata (CA), where coherent configurations emerge and interact, provide a stark instance of self-organization in a simple system. Such behaviour was classified as class 4 or complex (as opposed to ordered or chaotic) by Wolfram, and was one of the original motivations for Artificial Life. Because glider dynamics is relatively rare in CA rule spaces, much study has focused on the few known complex rules. However, a more general theory would benefit from many examples, which are now available for 1d CA found by the methods described. Cellular automata rules can be classified automatically for a spectrum of ordered, complex, and chaotic dynamics, by a measure of the variance of input-entropy over time. The method allows screening out rules that display glider dynamics and related complex rules, giving an unlimited source for further study. The method also shows the distribution of rule classes in the rule-spaces of varying neighbourhood sizes. The classification produced seems to correspond to our subjective view of space-time dynamics, and to global measures on the ``bushiness'' of typical sub-trees in attractor basins, characterized by the distribution of in-degree sizes in their branching structure. The paper explains the methods and presents results for 1d CA.
An Efficient SIFT-Based Mode-Seeking Algorithm for Sub-Pixel Registration of Remotely Sensed Images

Several image registration methods, based on the scaled-invariant feature transform (SIFT) technique, have appeared recently in the remote sensing literature. All of these methods attempt to overcome problems encountered by SIFT in multimodal remotely sensed imagery, in terms of the quality of its feature correspondences. The deterministic method presented in this letter exploits the fact that each SIFT feature is associated with a scale, orientation, and position to perform mode seeking (in transformation space) to eliminate outlying corresponding key points (i.e, features) and improve the overall match obtained. We also present an exhaustive empirical study on a variety of test cases, which demonstrates that our method is highly accurate and rather fast. The algorithm is capable of automatically detecting whether it succeeded or failed.
Connected contours: A new contour completion model that respects the closure effect

Contour Completion plays an important role in visual perception, where the goal is to group fragmented low-level edge elements into perceptually coherent and salient contours. This process is often considered as guided by some middle-level Gestalt principles. Most existing methods for contour completion have focused on utilizing rather local Gestalt laws such as good-continuity and proximity. In contrast, much fewer methods have addressed the global contour closure effect, despite that many psychological evidences have shown the usefulness of closure in perceptual grouping. This paper proposes a novel higher-order CRF model to address the contour closure effect, through local connectedness approximation. This leads to a simplified problem structure, where the higher-order inference can be formulated as an integer linear program (ILP) and solved by an efficient cutting-plane variant. Tested on the BSDS benchmark, our method achieves a comparable precision-recall performance, a superior contour grouping ability (measured by Rand index), and more visually pleasing results, compared with existing methods.