Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ten Days Storage of Platelets: Analysis of Quality and Safety

Aims: The necessity for Platelet Concentrates (PCs) in transfusion has increased, and several measures have been undertaken to try and increase the shelf-life of this product. Increasing the shelf-life to 10 days from the current 5 days will increase availability and reduce waste and cost. However, the PCs need to maintain their safety and therapeutic efficacy over the extended storage time. To ensure the safety of this product, the bag should be sterile, with low concentrations of cytokines to prevent transfusion reactions, and the platelet indices should be within the therapeutic range to ensure efficacy. The aim of this study is to determine whether PCs retain quality standards and thus, remain fit for transfusion after being stored for 10 days in SSP+ at 22±2°C with constant agitation. Study Design: Qualitative study. Place and Duration of Study: National Blood Transfusion Service Malta, between March 2021 and June 2022. Methodology: In this study, 20 PCs were analysed by sampling on Day 5 and Day 10 of storage and tested for platelet count and indices, pH, sterility of the product and cytokine concentrations. Results: The results obtained showed a significant differences in the platelet count and platelet indices and pH. The difference in cytokine concentration of Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF—α) and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) were not found to be statistically different between Day 5 and Day 10. Furthermore, 1 PC unit was positive during testing for bacteria detection. Conclusion: These results showed that the difference between Day 5 and Day 10 is not alarming, and further studies should be made to prolong the storage life to 10 days.
Diagnosing-Based Mixed /Sources Localization With Unknown Sensor Defect Arrays

In this paper, localization of mixed far-field and near-field sources in uniform linear arrays (ULAs) with unknown sensor defects is addressed. The existing methods regarding localization of mixed sources are generally based on the assumption of ideal array manifold, which does not take the sensor defects into account. However in practice, sensor arrays may have unknown sensor defects, i.e., some elements of arrays have errors of phase and gain, or are broken-down, and the performance of these algorithms may decay in this case. To this end, we propose a new method for localization of mixed far-field and near-field sources based on sensor diagnosis in ULAs with unknown sensor defects. The proposed method can be divided into two stages. First, we design a spatial sliding window for constructing subcovariance matrices, which are utilized to identify the defective sensors. Then, based on sensor diagnosis of the previous step, we can avoid the negative influence of defective sensors and construct a special covariance matrix in order to estimate the DOAs for both far-field and near-field sources. Based on the estimated DOAs, the corresponding ranges of near-field sources can be estimated by the (1-D) range function. By eliminating the disadvantage effect of sensor defects, the proposed algorithm can obtain good estimation performance with respect to the DOAs and the ranges of mixed sources. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by some numerical simulation results.
NEW ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THE VOLE MICROTUS CALIFORNICUS (RODENTIA: CRICETIDAE) AND THE FLEA STENISTOMERA ALPINA (SIPHONAPTERA: HYSTRICHOPSYLLIDAE)

Abstract During mammal surveys at China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station in the Mojave Desert, we found California voles (Microtus californicus) infested with three flea species including the flea Stenistomera alpina. Collected near the eastern edge of the distribution of the vole and the western edge of the distribution of the flea, this is the first record of S. alpina on California voles, indeed on any Microtus species. Resumen Durante muestreos de mamíferos realizados en la Estación China Lake Naval Air Weapons ubicada en el desierto de Mojave, encontramos ratones de campo Microtus californicus infestados con tres especies de pulgas, incluyendo la especie Stenistomera alpina. Al haber sido colectados cerca del límite este del área de distribución de M. californicus y el límite oeste del área de distribución de S. alpina, este es el primer registro de S. alpina en M. californicus y en cualquier especie de Microtus.
Intelligent Video Surveillance based on Mobile Edge Networks

Video surveillance systems or Internet of Multimedia Things (IoMT) are playing a more and more important role in our daily life. To obtain useful surveillance information timely and accurately, not only image recognition algorithm but also computing and communication resources can be bottlenecks of the whole system. In this work, taking face recognition application as an example, we study how to build video surveillance systems by utilizing mobile edge computing (MEC), one of the 5G’s key technologies. Specifically, to achieve high recognition accuracy and low recognition time, we design image recognition algorithms for both the camera sensor and MEC server, and utilize Q-learning based approach to train actions of the system by jointly optimizing offloading decision and image compression parameter. Experiment results show the advantages of the proposed system design for enabling network-adaptive, efficient, and intelligent video surveillance.
Reliable Quantification of Ultratrace Selenium in Food, Beverages, and Water Samples by Cloud Point Extraction and Spectrometric Analysis

Selenium is a trace element essential for the proper functioning of human body. Since it can only be obtained through our diet, knowing its concentrations in different food products is of particular importance. The measurement of selenium content in complex food matrices has traditionally been a challenge due to the very low concentrations involved. Some of the difficulties may arise from the abundance of various compounds, which are additionally present in examined material at different concentration levels. The solution to this problem is the efficient separation/preconcentration of selenium from the analyzed matrix, followed by its reliable quantification. This review offers an insight into cloud point extraction, a separation technique that is often used in conjunction with spectrometric analysis. The method allows for collecting information on selenium levels in waters of different complexity (drinking water, river and lake waters), beverages (wine, juices), and a broad range of food (cereals, legumes, fresh fruits and vegetables, tea, mushrooms, nuts, etc.).
Frequency-domain acoustic full waveform inversion with an embedded boundary method for irregular topography

In the implementation of full waveform inversion (FWI) to identify subsurface velocity distributions with land seismic data, which are often acquired in regions with irregular topography, wave equation-based modelling requires caution. In particular, when using the finite difference method (FDM), unwanted scattered waves are generated because irregular surfaces crossing a rectangular grid are discretized via a staircase approximation; hence, if the problems caused by this staircase approximation are disregarded, FDM-based FWI may fail due to the presence of undesirable wavefields. To resolve this problem, this study develops a 2D frequency-domain acoustic FWI technique using a 9-point FDM-based modelling scheme that includes an embedded boundary method (EBM). This study suggests a workflow for the whole EBM-based FWI process from the calculation of coefficients for the EBM-based 9-point FDM modelling to applying it to FWI for proper velocity updates. In numerical examples, using velocity models with a tilted surface and an arbitrarily fluctuating surface, we synthesize seismic data and verify the accuracy of EBM-based 9-point FDM modelling and its superiority over the conventional FDM by comparing it with wavefields derived from the spectral element method. Then, we show that our EBM-based FWI is able to estimate subsurface velocity distributions even though the model has irregular topography, which spoils the result of the conventional FWI.
Efficient numerical evaluation of the scattering of acoustic waves by arrays of cylinders and bodies of revolution of arbitrary cross section

Wave scattering from periodic arrays is ubiquitous in applied mathematics, and has received a great deal of attention over the past century, not least due to the physical significance of understanding the reflection and transmission of plane waves from such arrays in the contexts of electromagnetic waves, acoustics, water waves and elasticity. The aim of the thesis is to develop an accurate and efficient numerical method to solve for the reflection and transmission of an acoustic plane wave from arrays of arbitrary shaped obstacles that have an axis of symmetry aligned in a direction perpendicular to the array. We are particularly interested in the difficult case when the characteristic length scale of the scatterers, and the periodic spacing of the array are of the same order of magnitude as the wavelength of the incident wave.It is shown that the boundary value problem for the infinite array can be reduced to an integral equation over a central representative cell containing a single scatterer, which can then be solved using the boundary element method. Particular attention is paid to the convergence of the resulting periodic Green's function. Using established methods to calculate the reflection and transmission coefficients, we develop a new method to increase the rate of convergence of the periodic Green's function in both two and three dimensions.
National Consensus for the Management of Acute Gastroenteritis in Jordanian Children: Consensus Recommendations Endorsed by the Jordanian Paediatric Society

Diarrhoeal diseases are one of the leading worldwide preventable causes of death among children under 5 years of age. Almost half of children do not receive optimal acute gastroenteritis (AGE) treatment in Jordan. With neither regional nor local guidelines available for AGE, consensus recommendations on the management of paediatric AGE in Jordan were developed by a panel of senior paediatricians and paediatric gastroenterologists and are endorsed by the Jordanian Paediatric Society. Recommendations are based on international guidelines and available relevant literature in relation to the AGE landscape and the healthcare system in Jordan. The prevention of diarrhoeal diseases should focus on the improvement of nutrition, hygiene, and sanitation, the introduction of routine vaccination against rotavirus, and the adoption of a standardised approach for AGE management (oral rehydration solution (ORS) use±adjunct therapies, continued feeding, and avoiding routine antibiotic use). Ondansetron, diosmectite, racecadotril, probiotics, and zinc can be considered adjunct to ORS, if needed. Local data gaps should be addressed. The clinical algorithm for the management of paediatric AGE could promote adherence to practice recommendations and by extension improve health outcomes in children.
Lithography-free fabrication and optical characterizations of nanotextured nickel dewetting thin film for broadband absorbers

Plasmonic structures based on metamaterials are widely studied and have been extensively researched in various applications. However, the fabrication of regular nanostructures always requires expensive equipment and a strict working environment, lacking the ability for large-scale fabrication. In this study, we propose and demonstrate simple nanotextured nickel (Ni) dewetting thin films on silicon (Si) and quartz substrates by using different thermal annealing temperatures. They achieve a broadband absorption range with near zero reflectivity due to the standing-wave resonances of surface plasmon polariton, and the resonance is relative to the material of the substrate. The topographies of the nanotextured Ni dewetting thin films vary with thermal annealing temperatures at different dewetting stages. The corresponding reflection and absorption resonant wavelengths of the devices are redshifted by increasing the thermal annealing temperatures. The main absorption resonances are at wavelengths of 610 nm, 580 nm, 625 nm, and 660 nm on the Si substrate. While the reflectivity of the sample around the visible range is lower than 40%, it is suitable for broadband absorption for green and yellow spectra. Moreover, the resonant wavelengths are blueshifted by increasing the incident angles. The demonstrated devices are also sensitive to the ambient media. The reflection resonant wavelengths are redshifted by increasing the environmental refraction indexes. The corresponding reflected colors are changed from green to yellow . These devices exhibit a highest sensitivity of 500 nm RIU−1 and can be used for color sensors. This proposed approach has large-scale fabrication capacity and provides promising applications for broadband absorbers, reflective displays, environmental sensors, and other optoelectronic fields.
The Peak/Dip Picture of the Cosmic Web

Abstract The initial shear field plays a central role in the formation of large-scale structures, and in shaping the geometry, morphology, and topology of the cosmic web. We discuss a recent theoretical framework for the shear tensor, termed the ‘peak/dip picture’, which accounts for the fact that halos/voids may form from local extrema of the density field – rather than from random spatial positions; the standard Doroshkevich's formalism is generalized, to include correlations between the density Hessian and shear field at special points in space around which halos/voids may form. We then present the ‘peak/dip excursion-set-based’ algorithm, along with its most recent applications – merging peaks theory with the standard excursion set approach.
Soft robotic glove system controlled with amplitude independent muscle activity detection algorithm by using single sEMG channel

Arthritis, Parkinson's disease, Cerebral Palsy, natural aging and stroke are the main causes of arm impairment for an increasing part of the population. For instance, stroke affects 15 million people annually in the world causing upper limb disability, also about 78 million arthritis cases with grasping impairment are expected yearly in US by the year of 2040. Therefore, hand robotic devices can be essential tools to help individuals afflicted with hand deficit to perform activities of daily living in addition to the possibility of restoring hand functions by home rehabilitation. In this paper, a real time muscle activity detection algorithm has been developed to control a pneumatic actuated soft robotic glove intended for patients with grasping impairment. The algorithm employs two amplitude independent and computations efficient methods to detect weak and noisy muscle activities from surface electromyography (sEMG) signal obtained by a single channel located on the forearm. These methods are the first lag autocorrelation of the normalized sEMG signal and the modified SampEn method. The algorithm is also insensitive to the spurious background spikes that may contaminate the sEMG signal and deteriorate the performance of amplitude dependent detection methods. The merging of these two methods enables the algorithm to distinguish between hand open and hand close activities by using sEMG signal collected by only one channel. The efficacy of the algorithm has been evaluated on a healthy subject wearing the soft robotic glove, where the algorithm has recognized the hand close and hand open muscle activities with high accuracy. Employing single sEMG channel with computation efficient control algorithm leads to reducing the cost and the size of the soft robotic glove system and make it more practical for utilization in daily basis.
Classification of Energy Consumption in the Balkans using Ensemble Learning Methods

This paper explores the use of ensemble learning methods for classifying the energy consumption from (i) gross domestic product, (ii) CO2 emissions, and (iii) total number of population. The proposed analysis extends the previous research where prediction of the energy consumption values was performed using regression strategies. The experiment involves energy use data from five different Balkan countries, which is collected in the period 1995-2014. The energy consumption classes are obtained from the energy use values by K-Medians and analysed. Then, multiclass ensembles of support vector machine and linear discriminant analysis are used for classification of the energy consumption given the gross domestic product, the CO2 emissions, and the total number of population. The classification task is compared with a traditional multiclass support vector machine approach. The obtained results are very promising.
The Spin Structure of 3He and the Neutron at Low Q2: A Measurement of the Generalized GDH Integrand

Since the 1980's, the study of nucleon (proton or neutron) spin structure has been an active field both experimentally and theoretically. One of the primary goals of this work is to test our understanding of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the fundamental theory of the strong interaction. In the high energy region of asymptotically free quarks, QCD has been verified. However, verifiable predictions in the low energy region are harder to obtain due to the complex interactions between the nucleon's constituents: quarks and gluons. In the non-pertubative regime, low-energy effective field theories such as chiral perturbation theory provide predictions for the spin structure functions in the form of sum rules. Spin-dependent sum rules such as the Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn (GDH) sum rule are important tools available to study nucleon spin structure. Originally derived for real photon absorption, the Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn (GDH) sum rule was first extended for virtual photon absorption in 1989. The extension of the sum rule provides a unique relation, valid at any momentum transfer ($$Q^{2}$$), that can be used to study the nucleon spin structure and make comparisons between theoretical predictions and experimental data. Experiment E97-110 was performed at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) to examine the spin structure of the neutron and $$^{3}$$He. The Jefferson Lab longitudinally-polarized electron beam with incident energies between 1.1 and 4.4 GeV was scattered from a longitudinally or transversely polarized $$^{3}$$He gas target in the Hall A end station. Asymmetries and polarized cross-section differences were measured in the quasielastic and resonance regions to extract the spin structure functions $$g_{1}(x,Q^{2})$$ and $$g_{2}(x,Q^{2})$$ at low momentum transfers (0.02 $$< Q^{2} <$$ 0.3 GeV$$^{2}$$). The goal of the experiment was to perform a precise measurement of the $$Q^{2}$$ dependence of the extended GDH integral and of the moments of the neutron and $$^{3}$$He spin structure functions at low $$Q^{2}$$. This $$Q^{2}$$ range allows us to test predictions of chiral perturbation theory and check the GDH sum rule by extrapolating the integral to the real photon point. This thesis will discuss preliminary results from the E97-110 data analysis.
Morphological and Molecular Responses of Lateolabrax maculatus Skeletal Muscle Cells to Different Temperatures

Temperature strongly modulates muscle development and growth in ectothermic teleosts; however, the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. In this study, primary cultures of skeletal muscle cells of Lateolabrax maculatus were conducted and reared at different temperatures (21, 25, and 28 °C) in both the proliferation and differentiation stages. CCK-8, EdU, wound scratch and nuclear fusion index assays revealed that the proliferation, myogenic differentiation, and migration processes of skeletal muscle cells were significantly accelerated as the temperature raises. Based on the GO, GSEA, and WGCNA, higher temperature (28 °C) induced genes involved in HSF1 activation, DNA replication, and ECM organization processes at the proliferation stage, as well as HSF1 activation, calcium activity regulation, myogenic differentiation, and myoblast fusion, and sarcomere assembly processes at the differentiation stage. In contrast, lower temperature (21 °C) increased the expression levels of genes associated with DNA damage, DNA repair and apoptosis processes at the proliferation stage, and cytokine signaling and neutrophil degranulation processes at the differentiation stage. Additionally, we screened several hub genes regulating myogenesis processes. Our results could facilitate the understanding of the regulatory mechanism of temperature on fish skeletal muscle growth and further contribute to utilizing rational management strategies and promoting organism growth and development.
The MEC-Based Architecture Design for Low-Latency and Fast Hand-Off Vehicular Networking

Vehicular Cloud and autonomous vehicles require a scalable and reliable mobile communication network. LTE and Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) have been trying to fit for such role, yet neither can satisfy all requirement due to inherent architectural limitations. Fortunately the fifth generation mobile network, 5G and Mobile Edge Cloud/Computing (MEC) is around the corner, targeting ultra low packet delay, high reliability, and Gigabit level wireless bandwidth. This paper introduces a unique vehicular MEC architecture where instead of simply off-loading application service to the edge servers on MEC, vehicular communication packets are routed through the MEC network. We discuss in detail how it accommodates vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communication with high scalability and guaranteed low packet delay. We also provide an in depth analysis of the pros and cons of our MEC vehicle network design, and address the mobility management issue on edge cloud. Applying distributed mobility management (DMM) operations we are able to make edge cloud IP handoff seamless and transparent. Proof of concept simulations are conducted using NS3.
Magnetic field measurement based on a stimulated two-photon Raman transition

The magnetic field in the microwave interaction zone of the fountain atomic clock was measured by stimulated Raman transitions. By measuring the two-photon transition frequency between the Zeeman levels of the two ground states, we achieved a magnetic field measurement accuracy of the order of 0.28 nT. This method is immune to the Doppler shift and the AC Stark shift. The second order Zeeman shift of the fountain clock is 170.7 × 10−15, with the uncertainty of 7.2 × 10−16.
Fabrication of Gold Nanostructures on Quartz Crystal Microbalance Surface Using Nanoimprint Lithography for Sensing Applications

A quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) is a sensor that uses the piezoelectric properties of quartz crystals sandwiched between conductive electrodes. Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) is an analytical technique that uses the collective vibration of free electrons on metal surfaces. These measurements are known as analysis techniques that use metal surfaces and have been applied as biosensors because they allow for the label-free monitoring of biomolecular binding reactions. These measurements can be used in combination to analyze the reactions that occur on metal surfaces because different types of information can be obtained from them. However, as different devices are used for these measurements, the results often contain device-to-device errors and are not accurately evaluated. In this study, we directly fabricated gold nanostructures on the surface of a QCM to create a device that can simultaneously measure the mass and refractive index information of the analyte. In addition, the device could be easily fabricated because nanoimprint lithography was used to fabricate gold nanostructures. As a proof of concept, the nanoparticle adsorption on gold nanostructures was evaluated, and it was observed that mass and refractive index information were successfully obtained without device-to-device errors.