Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of ketorolac tromethamine loaded biocompatible polymeric microspheres and matrix films: designing for topical application

Abstract Ketorolac Tromethamine (KT) is a powerful and important active ingredient in the pyrropyrrole group of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs). In this study, microspheres of sodium carboxymethylcellulose (NaCMC) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) were prepared by crosslinking with FeCl3. KT-loaded microspheres were coated with ethyl cellulose (EC) film to obtain transdermal patches. The cumulative release ranged between 22 and 82%. Moreover, equilibrium swelling values, entrapment efficiency, drug loading capacity, crosslinking density, and film thickness were examined. Microspheres and EC films were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Graphical Abstract
Risk factors, complications and costs of prolonged air leak after video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for primary lung cancer

Background Prolonged air leak (PAL) represents a common complication after lung resection. This study aims to analyze the risk factors for the development of a PAL, its impact on the postoperative outcome and to estimate additional treatment costs. Methods A single center database was queried for all patients scheduled for video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for primary lung cancer. In total, 957 patients between 2009 and 2021 were analyzed. Exclusion criteria was pneumonectomy. Collected data included demographics and perioperative data (e.g., duration of surgery, postoperative infections, air leak duration etc.). PAL was defined as an air leak lasting for 5 days or longer. The PAL cohort included 103 patients, the non-PAL included 854 patients. Univariate analysis and binomial logistic regression were performed. Cost calculation was performed using available data from prior publications to estimate treatment costs. Results Male sex, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and low body mass index (BMI) showed to be risk factors for the development of postoperative PAL (P<0.001). Using these risk factors, a risk prediction score for PAL has been established. A subgroup analysis showed a significantly higher rate of sarcopenia in patients with PAL (P<0.001). The mean duration until removal of chest drains and length of stay (LOS) was significantly longer in the PAL cohort (14.2 vs. 4.4 days, P<0.001; 19.8 vs. 9.3 days, P<0.001). Also, the duration of the operation was longer in PAL patients (179.1 vs. 161.2 minutes, P=0.001). Patients with PAL had an elevated risk for postoperative infections [odds ratio (OR) 3.211, 31.1% vs. 12.3%, P<0.001]. As a result of a prolonged LOS, estimated treatment costs were significantly higher for PAL, ranging from 2,888.2 to 12,342.8 € depending on available cost bases compared to the non-PAL cohort, which ranged from 1,370.5 to 5,856.8 € (P<0.001). Conclusions PAL is a frequent complication that prolongs the LOS after thoracic surgery and, according to the literature, results in elevated readmission rates, leading to excess health care costs. Risk factors for PAL are well established. Preoperative treatment of sarcopenia and dismal nutritional status might alter the risk. As measures to prevent PAL are otherwise limited, guidelines for effective management of PAL need to be established.
Settling velocity and pollination dynamics in Diarrhena obovata, a grass of temperate forest edges and understories

Pollen from a naturally occurring population of the forest grass species Diarrhena obovata was successfully captured in a series of pollen traps to understand the timing of anthesis and the dispersal mechanics of wind pollination in an example of the flowering plant family Poaceae. Scanning electron microscopy was used to identify the pollen surface ornamentation as microechinate-areolate. The spherical grains have a diameter of 38.74 μm. The settling velocity calculated by Stoke’s Law was 4.48 cm s-1, but physical measurement by drop tower experiments resulted in 3.77 ± 0.15 cm s-1 (sd). The surface ornamentation observed in D. obovata pollen is not expected to alter drag forces considerably but the reduction of settling velocity may be a result of species-specific pollen grain density. In forest grasses an improvement in settling velocity may be adaptive in overcoming dispersal constraints in an environment where trees obstruct wind speeds and create more turbulence.
Conocimientos previos acerca de métodos anticonceptivos y su relación con conocimientos adquiridos después de una intervención educativa con simulador

Introduccion. El objetivo de este trabajo es relacionar conocimientos previos (pre-saberes) acerca de metodos anticonceptivos con los conocimientos adquiridos (saberes), despues una intervencion educativa con simulador. Metodo . Es un estudio realizado con 295 adolescentes escolarizados que cursan noveno, decimo y undecimo en una institucion educativa publica. Es de tipo descriptivo. El proceso estuvo compuesto por tres fases; en la primera se midio conocimientos o saberes previos acerca de metodos anticonceptivos, mediante un cuestionario auto-informado; en la segunda se definio los contenidos y actividades de intervencion para mejorar los conocimientos previos, y en la tercera fase de post-intervencion educativa, se reevaluo los saberes adquiridos con el simulador . Resultados. Se detecto que los pre-saberes en metodos anticonceptivos son deficientes independientemente de la edad y la escolaridad, lo cual requiere planeacion, desarrollo y evaluacion de la estrategia de aprendizaje colectivo y cooperativo mediante talleres. En cuanto a los post-saberes, se obtuvo una calificacion de deficientes a regulares, en el caso del condon masculino, mientras que el reconocimiento de metodos modernos como parche, anillo vaginal, dispositivo intrauterino, entre otros, se dio gracias al contacto directo con el simulador. Conclusiones. Se recalca que a pesar de las diferencias de edad y escolaridad, no hubo hallazgos relevantes que demostraran diferencias de conocimiento. En los pre-saberes, se encontro niveles de conocimiento deficientes sobre metodos anticonceptivos. El uso de simuladores como herramienta de aprendizaje demostro eficacia en los talleres; en cuanto a los simuladores posibilitan la ruptura de la barrera cognitiva, dado que el adolescente, en este caso, puede explorar y adquirir conocimiento al interaccionar con el objeto de aprendizaje.
Using Minimum Redundancy Maximum Relevance Algorithm to Select Minimal Sets of Heart Rate Variability Parameters for Atrial Fibrillation Detection

Heart rate is quite regular during sinus (normal) rhythm (SR) originating from the sinus node. In contrast, heart rate is usually irregular during atrial fibrillation (AF). Complete atrioventricular block with an escape rhythm, ventricular pacing, or ventricular tachycardia are the most common exceptions when heart rate may be regular in AF. Heart rate variability (HRV) is the variation in the duration of consecutive cardiac cycles (RR intervals). We investigated the utility of HRV parameters for automated detection of AF with machine learning (ML) classifiers. The minimum redundancy maximum relevance (MRMR) algorithm, one of the most effective algorithms for feature selection, helped select the HRV parameters (including five original), best suited for distinguishing AF from SR in a database of over 53,000 60 s separate electrocardiogram (ECG) segments cut from longer (up to 24 h) ECG recordings. HRV parameters entered the ML-based classifiers as features. Seven different, commonly used classifiers were trained with one to six HRV-based features with the highest scores resulting from the MRMR algorithm and tested using the 5-fold cross-validation and blindfold validation. The best ML classifier in the blindfold validation achieved an accuracy of 97.2% and diagnostic odds ratio of 1566. From all studied HRV features, the top three HRV parameters distinguishing AF from SR were: the percentage of successive RR intervals differing by at least 50 ms (pRR50), the ratio of standard deviations of points along and across the identity line of the Poincare plots, respectively (SD2/SD1), and coefficient of variation—standard deviation of RR intervals divided by their mean duration (CV). The proposed methodology and the presented results of the selection of HRV parameters have the potential to develop practical solutions and devices for automatic AF detection with minimal sets of simple HRV parameters. Using straightforward ML classifiers and the extremely small sets of simple HRV features, always with pRR50 included, the differentiation of AF from sinus rhythms in the 60 s ECGs is very effective.
Membrane Fouling Mitigation in MBR via the Feast–Famine Strategy to Enhance PHA Production by Activated Sludge

Fouling is considered one of the main drawbacks of membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology. Among the main fouling agents, extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) are considered one of the most impactful since they cause the decrease of sludge filterability and decline of membrane flux in the long term. The present study investigated a biological strategy to reduce the membrane-fouling tendency in MBR systems. This consisted of seeding the reactor with activated sludge enriched in microorganisms with polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) storage ability and by imposing proper operating conditions to drive the carbon toward intracellular (PHA) rather than extracellular (EPS) accumulation. For that purpose, an MBR lab-scale plant was operated for 175 days, divided into four periods (1–4) according to different food to microorganisms’ ratios (F/M) (0.80 kg COD kg TSS−1 d−1 (Period 1), 0.13 kg COD kg TSS−1 d−1 (Period 2), 0.28 kg COD kg TSS−1 d−1 (Period 3), and 0.38 kg COD kg TSS−1 d−1 (Period 4)). The application of the feast/famine strategy favored the accumulation of intracellular polymers by bacteria. The increase of the PHA accumulation inside the cells corresponded to the decrease of EPS and an F/M of 0.40–0.50 kg COD kg TSS−1 d−1 was found as optimum to maximize the PHA production, while minimizing EPS. The lowest EPS content in the sludge (18% of total suspended solids) that corresponded to the maximum content of PHA (9.3%) was found in Period 4 and determined significant mitigation of the fouling rate, whose value was close to 0.10 × 1011 m−1 h−1. Thus, by imposing proper operating conditions, it was possible to drive the organic matter toward PHA accumulation. Moreover, a lower EPS content corresponded to a decrease in the irreversible fouling mechanism, which would imply a lower frequency of the extraordinary cleaning operations. This study highlighted the possibility of obtaining a double benefit by applying an MBR system in the frame of wastewater valorization: minimizing the fouling tendency of the membrane and recovery precursors of bioplastics from wastewater in line with the circular economy model.
Development of Novel Bio-mulberry-Reinforced Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) Fibre Organic Brake Friction Composite Materials

Natural fibre reinforcement is used in important sectors such as medical, aerospace, automobile, and many other fields. Many articles have reported that natural fibre has the potential to replace synthetic fibres. Natural fibre reinforcement has given good results as a brake friction material. It has already been proven that asbestos causes lung cancer and mesothelioma in brakes. Many people died from the effects of asbestos. According to the World Health Organization's trending brake report, this material leads to serious health issues. This work is going on for the replacement of these materials. Mulberry fibre is a unique material, and PAN fibre is combined with mulberry fibre and used as a brake reinforcement material to replace Kevlar fibre. The brake pads were fabricated with the various wt% of mulberry fibres and PAN fibre [3–12%] with an equal ratio and aramid fibre [3–6%] in the hydraulic hind brake moulding machine. The mechanical, chemical, physical, tribological, and thermal properties were evaluated. MF-2 [6 wt%] mulberry-PAN-fibre-based brake pad composites have shown better results for ultimate shear strength and proof stress, tensile strength, compressive strength, and impact energy.
Package Design and Measurements for Radar Emulator using Accelerators and Photonics

Real-time radar emulators require high-speed computing operations where large amounts of data need to be stored and processed. This requires a high-speed computer architecture consisting of multiple CPU nodes networked to each other through optical fibers, to ensure that each node can communicate with every other node. Each CPU node consists of an accelerator IC (ACC) for matrix multiplications and multiple photonic ICs (PIC) for data transmission. The focus of this paper is on the electrical characterization of interconnects in an organic package that establishes communication between the ACC and PIC at a speed of 16 Gbps.Custom integration of photonics with electronics in a single module is required for supporting the required bandwidth, speed, and energy efficiency. In this paper, we explore several variations of the interconnect technology placing emphasis on the importance of impedance matching between the electronic drivers and the photonic modulators. To enable the implementation of these interconnects we have designed a test vehicle (TV) with varying topologies for electrical characterization up to 110 GHz. In addition to the design, this paper presents the characterization of interconnects in the fabricated TV, of varying impedances, lengths, and spacing on multilayer organic substrates with very low loss-high frequency dielectric materials. The losses are characterized up to 110 GHz for microstrip lines, striplines, vias, microstrip, and ring resonators, along with a full channel characterization with an impedance range of 50 ~ 80 Ohm and short interconnect lengths in the range 1 ~ 5 mm, respectively. This paper includes model to hardware correlation studies.
At the intersection of two countries: A comparative critical analysis of COVID-19 communication in Australia and New Zealand

This research provides critical, comparative insights into the public communication responses employed by Australia and New Zealand during the first twelve months following the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 a global pandemic. The two nations share a similar socio-political and cultural context, but despite being highlighted by the international media as early success stories, their public communication responses to the pandemic showed noteworthy differences. Borrowing from cultural studies, this paper applies the circuit of culture model and offers a snapshot in time that reinforces the importance of socio-cultural awareness when communicating intricate and challenging information. It supports the idea that a range of effective solutions to complex communication challenges are possible and may result in a similar outcome, including strengthened identities and national pride during uncertain times.
Sorting of Odor Dilutions Is a Meaningful Addition to Assessments of Olfactory Function as Suggested by Machine-Learning-Based Analyses

Background: The categorization of individuals as normosmic, hyposmic, or anosmic from test results of odor threshold, discrimination, and identification may provide a limited view of the sense of smell. The purpose of this study was to expand the clinical diagnostic repertoire by including additional tests. Methods: A random cohort of n = 135 individuals (83 women and 52 men, aged 21 to 94 years) was tested for odor threshold, discrimination, and identification, plus a distance test, in which the odor of peanut butter is perceived, a sorting task of odor dilutions for phenylethyl alcohol and eugenol, a discrimination test for odorant enantiomers, a lateralization test with eucalyptol, a threshold assessment after 10 min of exposure to phenylethyl alcohol, and a questionnaire on the importance of olfaction. Unsupervised methods were used to detect structure in the olfaction-related data, followed by supervised feature selection methods from statistics and machine learning to identify relevant variables. Results: The structure in the olfaction-related data divided the cohort into two distinct clusters with n = 80 and 55 subjects. Odor threshold, discrimination, and identification did not play a relevant role for cluster assignment, which, on the other hand, depended on performance in the two odor dilution sorting tasks, from which cluster assignment was possible with a median 100-fold cross-validated balanced accuracy of 77–88%. Conclusions: The addition of an odor sorting task with the two proposed odor dilutions to the odor test battery expands the phenotype of olfaction and fits seamlessly into the sensory focus of standard test batteries.
Comparative Harvesting and Threshing Cost of Paddy by Combine Harvester and Self-propelled Reaper and Thresher

Harvesting is one of the major costs for rice production. Although the use of machine for harvesting rice in Bangladesh is increasing day by day and the machines are either combine harvester or reaper and thresher. Farmers of Bangladesh don’t have specific information to the choice of these machines. So to determine the cost of use of each machine, a study was conducted in Doyalsara, Bogra and Mymensingh region. Data were collected for rice in the Aman and Boro season of 2015 to determine the cost of harvesting by combine harvester and reaping and threshing by reaper and thresher. It was found for combine harvester operational cost and for carrying rice bag and straw to the plot side was Tk.10,447/ha. On the other hand, for reaper and thresher, the reaping, binding, carrying the rice to the plot side, threshing and cleaning required Tk.6,940/ha. The percentage of cost of combine harvester in relation to reaper and thresher for the same work is higher by 50.53%. In the socio-economic condition of Bangladeshi farmers, harvesting and threshing operations done by using self-propelled reaper and close drum thresher is cost effective and reasonable. J. Environ. Sci. & Natural Resources, 10(1): 133-136 2017
Automated detection of over- and under-dispersion in baseline tables in randomised controlled trials

Background: Papers describing the results of a randomised trial should include a baseline table that compares the characteristics of randomised groups. Researchers who fraudulently generate trials often unwittingly create baseline tables that are implausibly similar (under-dispersed) or have large differences between groups (over-dispersed). I aimed to create an automated algorithm to screen for under- and over-dispersion in the baseline tables of randomised trials. Methods: Using a cross-sectional study I examined 2,245 randomised controlled trials published in health and medical journals on PubMed Central. I estimated the probability that a trial's baseline summary statistics were under- or over-dispersed using a Bayesian model that examined the distribution of t-statistics for the between-group differences, and compared this with an expected distribution without dispersion. I used a simulation study to test the ability of the model to find under- or over-dispersion and compared its performance with an existing test of dispersion based on a uniform test of p-values. My model combined categorical and continuous summary statistics, whereas the uniform test used only continuous statistics. Results: The algorithm had a relatively good accuracy for extracting the data from baseline tables, matching well on the size of the tables and sample size. Using t-statistics in the Bayesian model out-performed the uniform test of p-values, which had many false positives for skewed, categorical and rounded data that were not under- or over-dispersed. For trials published on PubMed Central, some tables appeared under- or over-dispersed because they had an atypical presentation or had reporting errors. Some trials flagged as under-dispersed had groups with strikingly similar summary statistics. Conclusions: Automated screening for fraud of all submitted trials is challenging due to the widely varying presentation of baseline tables. The Bayesian model could be useful in targeted checks of suspected trials or authors.
Assessing the Spatiotemporal Variability of SMAP Soil Moisture Accuracy in a Deciduous Forest Region

The goal of this study is to assess the temporal variability of the performance of the Soil Moisture Active Passive, SMAP, soil moisture retrievals throughout the seasons as surface conditions change. In-situ soil moisture observations from a network deployed in Millbrook, New York, between 2019 and 2021 are used. The network comprises 25 stations distributed across a 33-km SMAP pixel with a predominantly forest land cover. The in-situ soil moisture observations were collected between 6 and 7 a.m., local time. This article covers the assessment of the temporal accuracy of SMAP soil moisture by incorporating various upscaling methods. Four upscaling methods are used in this study: arithmetic average, Voronoi diagram, topographic wetness index, and land cover weighted average. The agreement between SMAP soil moisture and the upscaled in-situ measurements was gauged using the root-mean-squared difference, the mean difference, and the unbiased root-mean-squared difference. The consistency of the temporal variability of SMAP soil moisture data resulting from the four upscaling methods was analyzed. The results revealed that SMAP retrievals (soil moisture data) are systematically higher than in situ observations during the different seasons. The results indicate that the highest performance of SMAP soil moisture retrievals is in September with an ubRMSD value of 0.03 m3.m−3 for the morning and evening overpasses, which can be attributed to a lower vegetation density during the seasonal transition. The agreement with in-situ observations degrades during March–April with ubRMSD values above 0.04 m3.m−3, reaching ~0.06 m3.m−3 in April, which can be attributed to the non-reliability of in-situ measurements due to freeze\thaw transition and the challenging determination of the soil effective temperature. The ubRMSD is also higher than 0.04 m3.m−3 in the months of May–June, which could be due to the introduced vegetation effect during the growth season. These findings are consistent across all the upscaling methods. The average ubRMSD over the study period is 0.055 m3.m−3, which falls short of meeting the mission’s performance target. This study proves the need to enhance SMAP retrieval over forest sites.