Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for the treatment of long COVID: early evaluation of a highly promising intervention.

BACKGROUND Long COVID is a common occurrence following COVID-19 infection. The most common symptom reported is fatigue. Limited interventional treatment options exist. We report the first evaluation of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) for long COVID treatment. METHODS A total of 10 consecutive patients received 10 sessions of HBOT to 2.4 atmospheres over 12 days. Each treatment session lasted 105 minutes, consisting of three 30-minute exposures to 100% oxygen, interspersed with 5-minute air breaks. Validated fatigue and cognitive scoring assessments were performed at day 1 and 10. Statistical analysis was with Wilcoxon signed-rank testing reported alongside effect sizes. RESULTS HBOT yielded a statistically significant improvement in the Chalder fatigue scale (p=0.0059; d=1.75 (very large)), global cognition (p=0.0137; d=-1.07 (large)), executive function (p=0.0039; d=-1.06 (large)), attention (p=0.0020; d=-1.2 (very large)), information processing (p=0.0059; d=-1.25 (very large)) and verbal function (p=0.0098; d=-0.92 (large)). CONCLUSION Long COVID-related fatigue can be debilitating, and may affect young people who were previously in economic employment. The results presented here suggest potential benefits of HBOT, with statistically significant results following 10 sessions.
A Screening Model for Injection‐Extraction Treatment Well Recirculation System Design

Implementation of injection‐extraction treatment well pairs for in situ, in‐well, or on‐site remediation may be facilitated by development and application of modeling tools to aid in hydraulic design and remediation technology selection. In this study, complex potential theory was employed to derive a simple one‐step design equation and related type curves that permit the calculation of the extraction well capture zone and the hydraulic recirculation between an injection and extraction well pair oriented perpendicular to regional flow. This equation may be used to aid in the design of traditional fully screened injection‐extraction wells as well as innovative tandem recirculating wells when an adequate geologic barrier to vertical ground water flow exists. Simplified models describing in situ bioremediation, in‐well vapor stripping, and in‐well metal reactor treatment efficiency were adapted from the literature and coupled with the hydraulic design equation presented here. Equations and type curves that combine the remediation treatment efficiency with the hydraulic design equation are presented to simulate overall system treatment efficiency under various conditions. The combined model is applied to predict performance of in situ bioremediation and in‐well palladium reactor designs that were previously described in the literature. This model is expected to aid practitioners in treatment system screening and evaluation.
CMOS low-noise amplifier design optimization techniques

This paper reviews and analyzes four reported low-noise amplifier (LNA) design techniques applied to the cascode topology based on CMOS technology: classical noise matching, simultaneous noise and input matching (SNIM), power-constrained noise optimization, and power-constrained simultaneous noise and input matching (PCSNIM) techniques. Very simple and insightful sets of noise parameter expressions are newly introduced for the SNIM and PCSNIM techniques. Based on the noise parameter equations, this paper provides clear understanding of the design principles, fundamental limitations, and advantages of the four reported LNA design techniques so that the designers can get the overall LNA design perspective. As a demonstration for the proposed design principle of the PCSNIM technique, a very low-power folded-cascode LNA is implemented based on 0.25-/spl mu/m CMOS technology for 900-MHz Zigbee applications. Measurement results show the noise figure of 1.35 dB, power gain of 12 dB, and input third-order intermodulation product of -4dBm while dissipating 1.6 mA from a 1.25-V supply (0.7 mA for the input NMOS transistor only). The overall behavior of the implemented LNA shows good agreement with theoretical predictions.
Dynamic operation plan of a combined fuel cell cogeneration, solar module, and geo‐thermal heat pump system using Genetic Algorithm

A chromosome model that simulates the operation patterns of an energy system was introduced into a simple Genetic Algorithm, and a method of dynamic optimization was developed. This paper analyses the operation planning of an energy system that uses in combination a solar power module, proton‐exchange membrane fuel cell cogeneration (PEMFC‐CGS) with methanol steam reforming, a geo‐thermal heat pump, heat storage and battery, commercial power, and a kerosene boiler. The hours of operation of each energy device and the rate of the energy output were calculated by having introduced the analysis program developed by this study. Three objective functions: (a) minimization of operation cost; (b) minimization of the error of demand‐and‐supply balance; and (c) minimization of the amount of greenhouse gas discharge were given to the optimization analysis of the system. Furthermore, the characteristics of the system operation planning under each objective function are described. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The “vestibular neuromatrix”: A proposed, expanded vestibular network from graph theory in post‐concussive vestibular dysfunction

Convergent clinical and neuroimaging evidence suggests that higher vestibular function is subserved by a distributed network including visuospatial, cognitive–affective, proprioceptive, and integrative brain regions. Clinical vestibular syndromes may perturb this network, resulting in deficits across a variety of functional domains. Here, we leverage structural and functional neuroimaging to characterize this extended network in healthy control participants and patients with post‐concussive vestibular dysfunction (PCVD). Then, 27 healthy control subjects (15 females) and 18 patients with subacute PCVD (12 female) were selected for participation. Eighty‐two regions of interest (network nodes) were identified based on previous publications, group‐wise differences in BOLD signal amplitude and connectivity, and multivariate pattern analysis on affective tests. Group‐specific “core” networks, as well as a “consensus” network comprised of connections common to all participants, were then generated based on probabilistic tractography and functional connectivity between the 82 nodes and subjected to analyses of node centrality and community structure. Whereas the consensus network was comprised of affective, integrative, and vestibular nodes, PCVD participants exhibited diminished integration and centrality among vestibular and affective nodes and increased centrality of visual, supplementary motor, and frontal and cingulate eye field nodes. Clinical outcomes, derived from dynamic posturography, were associated with approximately 62% of all connections but best predicted by amygdalar, prefrontal, and cingulate connectivity. No group‐wise differences in diffusion metrics or tractography were noted. These findings indicate that cognitive, affective, and proprioceptive substrates contribute to vestibular processing and performance and highlight the need to consider these domains during clinical diagnosis and treatment planning.
Nonautoregressive Encoder–Decoder Neural Framework for End-to-End Aspect-Based Sentiment Triplet Extraction

Aspect-based sentiment triplet extraction (ASTE) aims at recognizing the joint triplets from texts, i.e., aspect terms, opinion expressions, and correlated sentiment polarities. As a newly proposed task, ASTE depicts the complete sentiment picture from different perspectives to better facilitate real-world applications. Unfortunately, several major challenges, such as the overlapping issue and long-distance dependency, have not been addressed effectively by the existing ASTE methods, which limits the performance of the task. In this article, we present an innovative encoder–decoder framework for end-to-end ASTE. Specifically, the ASTE task is first modeled as an unordered triplet set prediction problem, which is satisfied with a nonautoregressive decoding paradigm with a pointer network. Second, a novel high-order aggregation mechanism is proposed for fully integrating the underlying interactions between the overlapping structure of aspect and opinion terms. Third, a bipartite matching loss is introduced for facilitating the training of our nonautoregressive system. Experimental results on benchmark datasets show that our proposed framework significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods. Further analysis demonstrates the advantages of the proposed framework in handling the overlapping issue, relieving long-distance dependency and decoding efficiency.
Helping Relationships From Significant Others Scale: Chinese Version

Using the helping relationships from significant others (HRSO) scale assists patients, such as those with chronic kidney disease (CKD), in adopting a healthy lifestyle to decelerate disease progression, complications, and mortality. To study the efficacy of the scale, we recruited a convenience sample (n = 250) of patients with CKD from a nephrology clinic in southern Taiwan. Principal axis factor analysis and a promax rotation revealed a 15-item, three-factor explanation of 68.44 % of the total variance. The confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit. The Composite reliability was . 91, . 89, and . 92 in the same factors. Cronbach’s alpha was . 90 for the 15-item scale, with the 3 subscales ranging from . 86 to . 91. The split reliability was . 73. The HRSO is a valid and reliable scale to measure significant others’ support of patients with CKD in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Effects of AST‐120 on muscle health and quality of life in chronic kidney disease patients: results of RECOVERY study

The prevalence of sarcopenia is increased with declining renal function. Elevated serum indoxyl sulfate levels are associated with poor skeletal muscle conditions. We aimed to determine the effects of AST‐120, the oral adsorbent of indoxyl sulfate, on sarcopenia and sarcopenia‐associated factors in chronic kidney disease patients.
Validation of Genetic Markers Associated with Survival in Colorectal Cancer Patients Treated with Oxaliplatin-Based Chemotherapy

Background: Associations between candidate genetic variants and treatment outcomes of oxaliplatin, a drug commonly used for colorectal cancer patients, have been reported but not robustly established. This study aimed to validate previously reported prognostic and predictive genetic markers for oxaliplatin treatment outcomes and evaluate additional putative functional variants. Methods: Fifty-three SNPs were selected based on previous reports (40 SNPs) or putative function in candidate genes (13 SNPs). We used data from 1,502 patients with stage II–IV colorectal cancer who received primary adjuvant chemotherapy, 37% of whom received oxaliplatin treatment. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models for overall survival and progression-free survival were applied separately in stage II–III and stage IV patients. For predictive SNPs, differential outcomes according to the type of chemotherapy (oxaliplatin-based vs. others) were evaluated using an interaction term. For prognostic SNPs, the association was assessed solely in patients with oxaliplatin-based treatment. Results: Twelve SNPs were predictive and/or prognostic at P < 0.05 with differential survival based on the type of treatment, in patients with stage II–III (GSTM5-rs11807, ERCC2-rs13181, ERCC2-rs1799793, ERCC5-rs2016073, XPC-rs2228000, P2RX7-rs208294, HMGB1-rs1360485) and in patients with stage IV (GSTM5-rs11807, MNAT1-rs3783819, MNAT1-rs4151330, CXCR1-rs2234671, VEGFA-rs833061, P2RX7-rs2234671). In addition, five novel putative functional SNPs were identified to be predictive (ATP8B3-rs7250872, P2RX7-rs2230911, RPA1-rs5030755, MGMT-rs12917, P2RX7-rs2227963). Conclusions: Some SNPs yielded prognostic and/or predictive associations significant at P < 0.05, however, none of the associations remained significant after correction for multiple testing. Impact: We did not robustly confirm previously reported SNPs despite some suggestive findings but identified further potential predictive SNPs, which warrant further investigation in well-powered studies.
The Impact of Leadership Effectiveness and Team Processes on Team Performance in Construction

The ability of construction professionals to work effectively as part of interdisciplinary teams is vital as the delivery of projects moves away from the traditional design-bid-build approach. This study of 27 construction professionals participating in a leadership training institute used a competitive Request for Qualifications exercise to examine whether self-assessed leadership characteristics and satisfaction with team processes were predictive of team performance as assessed by a panel of industry experts. The individual participants' leadership characteristics and satisfaction with team processes were measured using standardized, validated assessment instruments. The results of the study show that team members' satisfaction with processes such as communications, trust, problem-solving, common goals, and effective utilization of team resources were important to team effectiveness, while leadership characteristics of the individual team members were not. These findings indicate that assembling project teams composed of people who have demonstrated the ability to work well with others may be more effective than assembling a group of individuals who all have strong leadership skills. The study has implications for construction professionals participating in interdisciplinary teams because it shows that the development of effective team processes and team member satisfaction with those processes are important for team performance.
Determination of parameters in interior permanent magnet synchronous motors with iron losses without torque measurement

This paper proposes systematic procedures to estimate the circuit parameters of an inverter-fed vector controlled interior permanent magnet synchronous motor when torque measurement is not available. The methodology presented here does not neglect iron losses. New procedures have been developed and justified, because international standard recommendations (IEC standards) cannot be applied. Experimental results from a test rig are presented in the paper to validate the most important contributions. Thanks to the procedures proposed, secondary effects on the motor parameters, like saturation or frequency dependency, have been evaluated.
of Network Traffic

This paper attempts to characterize and model backbone network traffic, using a small number of statistics. In order to reduce cost and processing power associated with traffic analysis. The parameters affecting the behavior of network traffic are investigated and the choice is that inter-arrival time, IP addresses, port numbers and transport protocol are the only necessary parameters to model network traffic behavior. In order to recreate this behavior, a complex model is needed which is able to recreate traffic behavior based on a set of statistics calculated from the parameters values. The model investigates the traffic generation mechanisms, and grouping traffic into flows and applications.
FLA11 and FLA12 glycoproteins fine‐tune stem secondary wall properties in response to mechanical stresses

Summary Secondary cell walls (SCWs) in stem xylem vessel and fibre cells enable plants to withstand the enormous compressive forces associated with upright growth. It remains unclear if xylem vessel and fibre cells can directly sense mechanical stimuli and modify their SCW during development. We provide evidence that Arabidopsis SCW‐specific Fasciclin‐Like Arabinogalactan‐proteins 11 (FLA11) and 12 (FLA12) are possible cell surface sensors regulating SCW development in response to mechanical stimuli. Plants overexpressing FLA11 (OE‐FLA11) showed earlier SCW development compared to the wild‐type (WT) and altered SCW properties that phenocopy WT plants under compression stress. By contrast, OE‐FLA12 stems showed higher cellulose content compared to WT plants, similar to plants experiencing tensile stress. fla11, OE‐FLA11, fla12, and OE‐FLA12 plants showed altered SCW responses to mechanical stress compared to the WT. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and RNA‐seq analysis revealed the up‐regulation of genes and pathways involved in stress responses and SCW synthesis and regulation. Analysis of OE‐FLA11 nst1 nst3 plants suggests that FLA11 regulation of SCWs is reliant on classical transcriptional networks. Our data support the involvement of FLA11 and FLA12 in SCW sensing complexes to fine‐tune both the initiation of SCW development and the balance of lignin and cellulose synthesis/deposition in SCWs during development and in response to mechanical stimuli.
Maximum-Likelihood State Estimators in Probabilistic Boolean Control Networks

This study addresses state estimation problems for probabilistic Boolean control networks (PBCNs). Compared with deterministic Boolean networks, PBCNs have the stochastic switching in logical update functions in the state equation. Consequently, statistical analysis is required to estimate unavailable states, which induces an optimization problem called maximum-likelihood estimation. This article mainly focuses on two scenarios: 1) state estimation from partially measured state and 2) state estimation from output data, meaning observer design. The resulting optimization problems are solved using efficient algorithms based on dynamic programming. Concurrently, Dijkstra-type algorithms, which solve equivalent shortest path problems, are also proposed using best-first search. Furthermore, both the proposed algorithms derive novel observer design methods for PBCNs. The proposed algorithms are evaluated with practical estimation problems aiming to the sensor reduction and applied to gene regulatory networks of apoptosis and Lac operon.
A Novel J-Shape Antenna Array for Simultaneous MR-PET or MR-SPECT Imaging

Simultaneous MR-PET/-SPECT is an emerging technology that capitalises on the invaluable advantages of both modalities, allowing access to numerous sensitive tracers and superior soft-tissue contrast alongside versatile functional imaging capabilities. However, to optimise these capabilities, concurrent acquisitions require the MRI antenna located inside the PET/SPECT field-of-view to be operated without compromising any aspects of system performance or image quality compared to the stand-alone instrumentation. Here, we report a novel gamma-radiation-transparent antenna concept. The end-fed J-shape antenna is particularly adept for hybrid ultra-high field MR-PET/-SPECT applications as it enables all highly attenuating materials to be placed outside the imaging field-of-view. Furthermore, this unique configuration also provides advantages in stand-alone MR applications by reducing the amount of coupling between the cables and the antenna elements, and by lowering the potential specific absorption rate burden. The use of this new design was experimentally verified according to the important features for both ultra-high field MRI and the 511 keV transmission scan. The reconstructed attenuation maps evidently showed much lower attenuation ( $\sim 15$ %) for the proposed array when compared to the conventional dipole antenna array since there were no high-density components. In MR, it was observed that the signal-to-noise ratio from the whole volume obtained using the proposed array was comparable to that acquired by the conventional array which was also in agreement with the simulation results. The unique feature, J-shape array, would enable simultaneous MR-PET/-SPECT experiments to be conducted without unduly compromising any aspects of system performance and image quality compared to the stand-alone instrumentation.
Numerical prediction of the viscoelastic deformation of seat foam in response to long-term driving

The aim of this paper is to carry out a quantitative evaluation of the time-dependent mechanical characteristics of seat foam and to suggest a process for predicting the viscoelastic deformation of the seat assembly in response to long-term driving. Several tests were conducted to obtain the mechanical properties of the seat components, and the test data were applied in the construction of the material models of the foam pad, the slab foam and the seat cover. An explicit solver (PAM-COMFORT® from ESI) was used to analyse and construct the seat assembly model, and we assumed that the time-dependent behaviour of the seat foam is based on degradation of the material. To describe the behaviour, we used time-dependent stress–strain relationships to account for the viscoelastic characteristics of the seat foam to enable the PAM-COMFORT solver to be used. On multiplying the normalized relaxation modulus by the stress–strain relation, the time-dependent stress–strain relationships can be obtained. In this approach, the material modelling is not a direct method to describe the viscoelasticity using a built-in material model in the commercial program. In order to verify the process, an indenter was used to apply a compressive load to the seat, and the time dependences of the applied load and the deformation were measured experimentally and compared with the results of the numerical analysis. There was good agreement between the experimental results and the numerical analysis results.
A Longitudinal Comparison of Telemedicine Versus In-Person Otolaryngology Clinic Efficiency and Patient Satisfaction During COVID-19

Objectives: Telemedicine was increasingly adopted in otolaryngology as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but how it compares to in-person visits over the longitudinal course of the pandemic has not been characterized. This study compares telemedicine visits to in-person visits on measures of clinical efficiency and patient satisfaction. Methods: We examined all in-person and telemedicine encounters that occurred during the 13-month period from April 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021 at a pediatric otolaryngology clinic associated with a large tertiary care children’s hospital. We compared patient demographics, primary encounter diagnoses, completions, cancellations, no-shows, cycle time, and patient satisfaction. Results: A total of 19 541 (90.5%) in-person visits and 2051 (9.5%) telemedicine visits were scheduled over the study period. There was no difference in patient age or gender between the visit types. There was a difference in race (75% White or Caucasian for in-person and 73% for telemedicine, P = .007) and average travel distance (53.3 miles for in-person vs 71.0 for telemedicine, P = .000). The most common primary diagnosis was Eustachian tube dysfunction for in-person visits (11.8%) and sleep disordered breathing for telemedicine visits (13.7%). Completion rate was greater for telemedicine visits (52.4% in-person vs 62.5% telemedicine). Cancellations were greater for in-person visits (42.6% in-person vs 24.2% telemedicine), but no-shows were greater for telemedicine (5.0% in-person vs 13.3% telemedicine, all P = .000). Average cycle time was shorter for telemedicine visits (56.5 minutes in-person vs 47.6 minutes telemedicine, P = .000). Patient satisfaction with provider interactions and overall care experience was high for both visit types. Conclusions: Telemedicine was utilized more during months of heightened COVID-19 cases, with higher completion rates, fewer cancellations, shorter cycle times, saved travel distance, and comparable patient satisfaction to in-person visits. Telemedicine has the potential to remain an efficient mode of care delivery in the post-pandemic era.