Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects on Clinical Outcomes of a 5-Year Surgical Safety Checklist Implementation Experience: A Large-scale Population-Based Difference-in-Differences Study

The adoption of a surgical checklist is strongly recommended worldwide as an effective practice to improve patient safety; however, several studies have reported mixed results and a number of issues are still unresolved. The main objective of this study was to explore the impact of the first 5-year period of a surgical checklist-based intervention in a large regional health care system in Italy (4 500 000 inhabitants). We conducted a retrospective longitudinal study on 1 166 424 patients who underwent surgery in 48 public hospitals between 2006 and 2014. The adherence to the checklist was measured between 2011 and 2013 through a computerized database. The effects of the intervention were explored through multivariable logistic regression and difference-in-differences (DID) approaches, based on current administrative data sources. In-hospital and 30-days mortality, 30-days readmissions and length-of-stay (LOS) ⩾8 days were the observed outcomes. Adherence to the checklist showed marked variations across hospitals (0%-93.3%). A pre/post analysis detected statistically significant differences between surgical interventions performed in hospitals with higher adherence to the checklist (⩾75% of the surgeries) and those performed in other hospitals, as for the 30-days readmissions rate (odds ratio [OR]: 0.96; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.94-0.98) and LOS ⩾ 8 days rate (OR: 0.88; 95% CI: 0.87-0.89). These findings were confirmed after risk adjustment and DID analysis. No association was observed with mortality outcomes. On the whole, our study attained mixed results. Although a protective effect of the surgical checklist use could not be proved over the first 5 years of this regional implementation experience, our research offers some methodological insights for practical use in the evaluation process of large-scale implementation projects.
Photoresponse of a Highly-Rectifying 3C-SiC/Si Heterostructure Under UV and Visible Illuminations

In this letter, we report the photo-characteristics of an n-3C-Silicon carbide (SiC)/p-Si heterojunction under ultraviolet (UV) and visible illuminations. The 3C-SiC thin film has been grown on Si (100) substrate by a low pressure chemical vapor deposition technique at 1000 °C. The as-grown structure shows an excellent rectification ratio (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${I}_{F}/{I}_{R}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1.8\times 10^{6}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> at ±2 V and a reverse bias current of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${5.5}\times {10}^{-9}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> A at 2V in dark conditions. The heterojunction exhibits good sensitivity simultaneously to both UV (375 nm) and visible (637 nm) illuminations. The results indicate that the fabricated structure could be an excellent platform where detection of a wide spectral illumination is vital. The insight of electron-hole pairs generation and carrier transport mechanism at different illumination conditions is explained in detail via an anisotype heterojunction energy band diagram.
Impact of Orifice Location on the Mechanical Response of Side and Central Orifice Synthetic Jets

Synthetic jets have been at the focus of a number applications including flow control and thermal management of microelectronics due to their unique characteristics of transferring linear momentum through a flow structure without causing a change in net mass flux. Even though there has been extensive research on central orifice synthetic jets in recent years, side slotted synthetic jets have not yet been fully explored in terms of their mechanical and heat transfer properties. The objective of this paper is to gain more insight on the mechanical properties of the side slotted synthetic jets and to compare them with previously published data on central orifice jets. Three different types of rectangular orifice synthetic jets with 10°, 30° and 60° orifice have been designed and manufactured. The orifices represent the measure of the angular portion occupied by the orifice. Analytical and numerical analyses of those synthetic jets have been performed in terms of the modal characteristics of the diagram and the fluid cavity. Results have been compared with the actuator deflection tests using a laser Vibrometer. It was found out that side slotted synthetic jets lead to a higher actuator deflection and consequently may lead to higher heat transfer enhancement than central orifice jets. Results also demonstrate that 60° orifice has the highest actuator deflection, while 10° orifice results in the smallest actuator deflection and lower heat transfer due to high internal resistance in the cavity.
Utility of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto C6 Peptide for Serologic Confirmation of Erythema-Free Ixodid Tick-Borne Borrelioses in Russia

We evaluated the utility of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto (Bb) peptide C6 for serologic confirmation of Ixodid Tick-Borne Borrelioses (ITBB) in Russia. Serum samples (N = 1089) were from erythema migrans (EM) (N = 327) and the EM-free (EMF) patients (N = 115); in some patients, the disease was accompanied by human granulocytic anaplasmosis or tick-borne encephalitis. The sera were investigated by multiplex phosphorescence analysis (PHOSPHAN) for IgM to Bb C6, recombinant OspC and VlsE proteins, and IgG to C6 from Bb, B. garinii (Bg), and B. afzelii (Ba). Detection of Bb C6 IgM/IgG provided effective serologic confirmation of ITBB in both EM and EMF patients early after disease onset. In the EM-free patients, however, this test needed to be supplemented with detection of VlsE IgM in convalescent-phase sera due to delay in development of the antibody responses for C6 IgG. In general, positive PHOSPHAN reactions were observed in 81.9% and 86.7% of the EM and EMF patients, respectively, as well as in 59 of 65 (90.8%) patients, whose blood contained B. burgdorferi sensu lato DNA. Additional detection of IgG to Bg C6 or Ba C6 had no significant contribution to serologic diagnosis of ITBB in both patient groups.
Smoking Is Associated With Low Levels of Soluble PD-L1 in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Background Smoking is a risk factor for developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but the mechanism remains uncertain. We previously demonstrated that smoking lowers the T cell activation threshold by limiting programmed death protein 1 (PD-1) expression. Aim To investigate how smoking influence the levels of soluble PD-1 ligand (sPD-L1). Method Serum levels of sPD-L1 were measured in 246 RA patients and in 168 healthy subjects. The analysis was done with respect to inflammation, smoking, treatments, and autoantibody status. The effect of therapeutic TNF-inhibiting antibodies (TNFi) on sPD-L1 was studied in 16 RA patients at their first infliximab infusion. The expression of Fcγ-receptor (FcγR) subclass IIB and IIIA was analyzed with quantitative polymerase chain reaction in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 12 RA patients and 15 healthy controls, and in healthy PBMC exposed to IgG containing antibodies to cyclic citrullinated peptides (aCCP). Results The negative association between smoking and sPD-L1 in RA patients was established by multiple logistic regression (OR = 0.52, p = 0.038). Other covariates in the regression model were serum levels of IL-1β representing inflammation (OR = 1.6, p = 0.0076) and aCCP positivity (OR = 1.9, p = 0.047). First infliximab infusion repressed sPD-L1 (p = 0.023) in patients, and low levels of sPD-L1 were found in patients with early RA treated with TNFi (p = 0.018). Treatment with TNFi was associated with higher sPD-L1 in patients with long disease duration (p = 0.041) and restored levels in smokers. In vitro exposure to aCCP+ IgG suppressed sPD-L1 (p = 0.036), but aCCP+ patients with long disease duration had higher sPD-L1 (p = 0.016). High ratio of the inhibitory FcγR subclass IIB over the stimulatory IIIA resulted in low sPD-L1 release (p = 0.029). Smoking was associated with a higher FcγR IIB/IIIA ratio (p = 0.00062) and lower levels of sPD-L1 (p = 0.013). Conclusion In RA, serum sPD-L1 was related to systemic inflammation and aCCP positivity. Smoking altered the expression of FcγRs and limited sPD-L1 in RA patients, permitting inappropriate T cell responses. Differential regulation of sPD-L1 during the early and late RA may indicate transposition from acute to chronic inflammation.
Preparation of chitin-amphipathic anion/quaternary ammonium salt ecofriendly dressing and its effect on wound healing in mice

Objective This study aimed to prepare an eco-friendly dressing using a chitin-derived membrane with amphipathic anion/quaternary ammonium salt designed for antibacterial purposes. Methods Four dressings were prepared and group A was chitin, group B was chitin + amphiphilic ion, group C was chitin + quaternary ammonium salt, group D was chitin + amphiphilic ion + quaternary ammonium salt. Results In the group D material, precipitation of adherent composite ions was observed. The contact angle test showed that the material was hydrophilic. The drug loading rate in groups B, C, and D was 40–50 (ug:mg), the entrapment efficiency was 70%–75% (P>0.05), and the cumulative release percentages were 87.3%, 88.7%, and 90.2% after 72h for group B, C, and D, respectively. The anti-bacterial activity in vitro was in the order D>C>B>A> control (P>0.05). The anti-pollution activity in vitro was in the order D>B>C>A (P<0.05). The cell proliferation inhibition test showed slight proliferation inhibition (P<0.05) only on the seventh day for group D. Seven days after injury, the wound healing rate was in the order D>C> commercial chitin dressing >B>A> control (P<0.05), and the length of the neonatal epithelium also showed the same trend. Additionally, PCNA and CD31 expression indicated that cell proliferation and angiogenesis were enhanced when skin defects were covered with the D group material (P<0.05). Conclusion chitin-amphiphilic ion/quaternary ammonium salt dressing was successfully prepared. The antibacterial and antipollution effects of the prepared material (group D) were both very good, acting to promote wound healing.
A low mutual coupling MIMO antenna using 3-D electromagnetic isolation wall structures

A MIMO antenna with 3-D electromagnetic isolation wall structure is proposed to obtain a low mutual coupling. The MIMO antenna operates at a center frequency of 2.55GHz and the array element distance is 0. 13λ. To reduce the mutual coupling of the MIMO antenna array, five 3-D electromagnetic isolation walls is designed and integrated into the middle of the MIMO antenna. The simulated results show that the mutual coupling is reduced to be −44 dB, which achieves a mutual coupling reduction of 29dB isolation in comparison with the MIMO antenna without the 3-D electromagnetic isolation wall structure. Moreover, the proposed isolation structure does not give any effects on the radiation patterns of the MIMO antenna.
Precoder Design for Cooperative Multi-User Downlink MISO Channels with Finite Side-Link Capacity

For a pair of closely located and cooperating user equipments (UEs), a precoder is designed at the base station (BS) which considers the UE cooperation. The UEs collaborate over an out-of-band side-link with a finite capacity. The side-link may be used for interference cancellation (IC) or for relaying decoded symbols. The precoder has two parts, a cooperative part based on channel inversion and a non- cooperative part based on the minimum mean squared error (MMSE) metric. It is the interference from the former part which is managed at the UEs in the cooperative IC phase. The latter part is included at the BS to further improve the performance if there is transmit power remaining at the BS after the cooperative phase; this due to the assumption of finite capacity side-link. To study the performance of the precoder design, various joint optimization problems that maximize a sum-rate objective are considered. The effects of power imbalance and correlation between the UEs are included into the problems. From the numerical results it is observed that the sum-rate increases with cooperation. Further, with an increase in the side-link capacity the objective value approaches the single-user water-filling capacity limit. By modifying the precoder structure and the user cooperation mechanism, a unidirectional side-link case, where only one of the users accesses the side-link, is also discussed.
The Influence of BuqiHuoxueTongluo Formula on Histopathology and Pulmonary Function Test in Bleomycin-Induced Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis in Rats

BuqiHuoxueTongluo Formula (BHTF) is an effective herbal prescription based on traditional Chinese medicine for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The aim of this study was to elucidate the influence of BHTF on induced IPF model through the aspect of histopathology and pulmonary function test. Wistar rats with bleomycin-induced IPF were given BHTF via intragastric gavage. After 14 days and 28 days of treatment, respectively, on these two time points, we first performed pulmonary function test, performed ventilation measure, and traced the Pressure-Volume Loop under anesthesia. Then, rats were sacrificed for hematoxylin-eosin and Masson's trichrome staining, immunohistochemistry staining of TGF-β1 and α-SMA, and observation through transmission electron microscope. BHTF reduced infiltration of inflammation cells, collagen deposition, and fibrosis proliferation in pulmonary mesenchyme, inhibited the expression of TGF-β1 and α-SMA, and avoided the abnormality of ultrastructure and quantities of lamellar bodies. It also ameliorated the parameters of FVC, MVV, PEF, FEF25, and Cdyn, maintained the shape of the Pressure-Volume Loop, and improved hysteresis. BHFT relieved the histopathologic changes, improved ventilation function, compliance, and work of breathing, meliorated the capacity and elasticity of the lungs, and stabilized the alveolar surface tension. Further speaking, it had a potential impact on the secretion of pulmonary surfactant.
sEMG Bias-Driven Functional Electrical Stimulation System for Upper-Limb Stroke Rehabilitation

It is evident that the dominant therapy of functional electrical stimulation (FES) for stroke rehabilitation suffers from heavy dependency on therapists experience and lack of feedback from patients’ status, which decrease the patients’ voluntary participation, reducing the rehabilitation efficacy. This paper proposes a closed loop FES system using surface electromyography (sEMG) bias feedback from bilateral arms for enhancing upper-limb stroke rehabilitation. This wireless portable system consists of sEMG data acquisition and FES modules, the former is used to measure and analyze the subject’s bilateral arm motion intention and neuromuscular states in terms of their sEMG, the latter of multi-channel FES output is controlled via the sEMG bias of the bilateral arms. The system has been evaluated with experiments proving that the system can achieve 39.9 dB signal-to-noise ratio in the lab environment, outperforming existing similar systems. The results also show that voluntary and active participation can be effectively employed to achieve different FES intensity for FES-assisted hand motions, demonstrating the potential for active stroke rehabilitation.
Video Sending Rate Prediction Based on Communication Logging Database for 5G HetNet

Recently research and development on the 5th generation mobile communication system (5G) is actively carried out to launch commercial service in 2020. In 5G, Super high frequency (SHF) band and extremely high frequency (EHF) band are used for realizing high speed and large capacity communication. Furthermore, 5G network will include many wireless LANs (Local Area Networks) as well as cellular network. Therefore, 5G network is composed as the heterogeneous network (HetNet). In 5G HetNet, a user equipment (UE) connects various base stations (BS) according to its movement. Accordingly, it is assumed that the throughput suddenly fluctuates due to the change of radio links. By the way, 5G is expected as a communication means for large capacity video contents such as 4K/8K video and omnidirectional video. However there is a problem that the conventional video transmission technology cannot effectively utilize the 5G throughput according to an environment. In this paper, we propose a method to predict the video transmission throughput by using the location information and the communication logging information. The logging information including past throughput with the location is created by a UE. A UE refer to the logging information for prediction when the BS which is attached to the UE is changed or the radio quality is declined. We developed a video transceiver implemented the proposed method and evaluated its performance. We show that the proposed method can stably transmit high resolution video compared to the conventional method.
Coverage Expansion through Dynamic Relay Vehicle Deployment in mmWave V2I Communications

In millimeter wave (mmWave) vehicle-toinfrastructure (V2I) communications for autonomous vehicles, the small coverage of road side units (RSUs) is an open problem. We propose a multi-hop relaying method using dynamic vehicle deployment in order to increase the coverage of RSUs. The key idea of our method is to leverage the movement controllability of autonomous vehicles to extend the multi- hop relay distance. The proposed deployment method considers blockage because it is a crucial problem in mmWave communications, although it is not a crucial problem in microwave communications. We formulate the deployment problem as an optimization problem and obtain its lower and upper bounds performances. We also introduce a mmWave connectivity graph, from which the vehicle position that achieves the lower bound performance can be obtained by solving a shortest-path problem. Simulation results demonstrate that even when only 7.5% of all vehicles'' positions are controllable, the proposed deployment method can achieve a coverage of 80%, which is more than twice the coverage achieved by the relaying without deployment.
Cetirizine-Induced Fixed Drug Eruption

Cetirizine, a piperazine-derivative second-generation antihistaminic, is used for a wide variety of disorders such as urticaria, eczema, and allergies. Adverse reactions due to this drug are usually rare, especially fixed drug eruption (FDE), a delayed cell-mediated hypersensitivity reaction, is scarce. Here, we report a case of cetirizine-induced FDE. A 34-year-old female developed hyperpigmented, itchy patches over both forearms, legs, feet, and right side of the chest after taking tablet cetirizine for dry cough with similar episode 2 years back on the same sites. The patient responded slowly with conservative treatment and the lesions disappeared after 10 days. She was advised to avoid the causative in near future. This case report highlighted FDE due to an antihistaminic which themselves will be prescribed to treat allergies.
Multichannel Surface EMG Decomposition Based on Measurement Correlation and LMMSE

A method based on measurement correlation (MC) and linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) for multichannel surface electromyography (sEMG) signal decomposition was developed in this study. This MC-LMMSE method gradually and iteratively increases the correlation between an optimized vector and a reconstructed matrix that is correlated with the measurement matrix. The performance of the proposed MC-LMMSE method was evaluated with both simulated and experimental sEMG signals. Simulation results show that the MC-LMMSE method can successfully reconstruct up to 53 innervation pulse trains with a true positive rate greater than 95%. The performance of the MC-LMMSE method was also evaluated using experimental sEMG signals collected with a 64-channel electrode array from the first dorsal interosseous muscles of three subjects at different contraction levels. A maximum of 16 motor units were successfully extracted from these multichannel experimental sEMG signals. The performance of the MC-LMMSE method was further evaluated with multichannel experimental sEMG data by using the “two sources” method. The large population of common MUs extracted from the two independent subgroups of sEMG signals demonstrates the reliability of the MC-LMMSE method in multichannel sEMG decomposition.
A c-band low phase-noise oscillator using complementary split-ring resonators

In this letter, a C-band low phase noise oscillator based on circular complementary split-ring resonators (CSRRs) is presented. As a frequency stabilizer in the feedback loop, a pair of identical circular CSRRs are adopted to realize a miniaturized resonator. Two transmission zeros and a group delay peak (8.17 ns) in upper band are attained to improve the phase noise performance. A C-band oscillator with an oscillation frequency of 5.613 GHz has been fabricated and demonstrated. The measured results show that the phase noise is −115.3 and −135.2 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz and 1 MHz frequency offset, respectively, the figure of merit (FOM) is −198.1 dBc/Hz@1 MHz, and the RF output power is 1.67 dBm.
Autonomous Power Line Inspection Based on Industrial Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: An Energy Efficiency Perspective

In this paper, we investigate how to apply industrial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for autonomous power line inspection in smart grid from an energy efficiency perspective. Firstly, the energy consumption minimization problem is formulated as a joint optimization problem, which involves both the large-timescale optimization and the small-timescale optimization. Then, the NP-hard joint optimization problem is transformed to a two- stage optimization problem based on energy consumption magnitude and optimization timescale differences. Next, the first-stage and second-stage problems are solved by exploring dynamic programming (DP) and auction matching, respectively. Finally, the proposed algorithm is verified based on realistic power grid topology. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves significant energy consumption reduction.
Impacts of seed priming with salicylic acid and sodium hydrosulfide on possible metabolic pathway of two amino acids in maize plant under lead stress

Heavy metals pollution is one of the key environmental problems. In this research, the effect of seed priming with salicylic acid and sodium hydrosulfide was investigated on methionine and arginine amino acids contents and some compounds derived from their metabolism as well as ZmACS6 and ZmSAMD transcripts levels in maize plants under lead stress. For this purpose, maize seeds were soaked in salicylic acid (0.5 mM) and sodium hydrosulfide (0.5 mM) for 12 hours and then exposed to lead (2.5 mM) for 9 days. The results showed that lead stress reduced nitric oxide content and shoot ZmACS6 and ZmSAMD transcript levels while increased glycine betaine, methionine, arginine and proline amino acids contents as well as root ZmACS6 and ZmSAMD transcript levels. Salicylic acid and sodium hydrosulfide pretreatments reduced methionine, arginine and proline accumulation and increased glycine betaine and nitric oxide contents and regulated the expression of ZmACS6 and ZmSAMD genes (genes participating in methionine metabolism) under lead stress. Our data suggest that salicylic acid and hydrogen sulfide play role in regulating the methionine and arginine metabolism in maize under lead stress condition.