Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Validity and reliability of the Danish version of the Ice Expressive Family Functioning and Ice Family Perceived Support questionnaires

AIM International research has only rarely examined the functioning of families experiencing chronic illness and the perception of nurses towards involving families in patient care. This has also been the case in Denmark. To undertake this kind of research, carefully translated questionnaires are needed. The purpose of this study was therefore to translate the Ice Expressive Family Functioning (ICE-EFFQ) and the Ice Family Perceived Support (ICE-FPSQ) into Danish, and to test the validity and reliability of the Danish versions. METHODS The study had a cross-sectional design. The questionnaires were translated into Danish using forward-backward translation. Then, they were tested empirically among adult patients with chronic diseases and their family members in three different settings. A total of 81 patients were included in the testing of ICE-EFFQ and 70 patients were included in the testing of ICE-FPSQ. Internal consistency reliability was assessed followed by confirmatory factor analysis. RESULTS Both questionnaires showed acceptable construct validity, reliability (Cronbach's alpha 0.93 and 0.94), internal consistency were confirmed, and there was good reproducibility (Cronbach's alpha 0.76 and 0.77). Furthermore, confirmatory factor analysis showed acceptable to good fit for both questionnaires. CONCLUSIONS The ICE-EFFQ and the ICE-FPSQ were both found to be valid and reliable instruments to measure family functioning and perceived support among families experiencing chronic illness in a Danish context.
Older adults’ dependence in activities of daily living: Implications for oral health

OBJECTIVE To assess the relationship between ADL and oral health status in older adults. DESIGN AND SAMPLE Quantitative, analytical, cross-sectional research with 280 people aged ≥60 in public primary health care centers in the city of Fortaleza, Northeastern Brazil. MEASURES Collection of sociodemographic data, oral discomfort data, and general health data and application of the Community Oral Health Indicator-COHI and the activities of daily living scale. RESULTS Significant differences in functional dependence were found between age groups (p < .001), incomes (p = .034), and levels of education (p = .003). Tooth loss (OR = 2.13; p = 0.025), having no teeth (OR = 2.97), difficulties in chewing and swallowing food (OR = 2.56; p = 0.003), problems with taste of food (OR = 2.06; p = .044), poor self-rated general health (OR = 3.7; p = .001), hearing problems (OR = 2.23; p = .009) and speech problems (OR = 3.15; p = .002) increased chances for functional dependence. Dependent individuals were less likely to use toothpaste, thereby increasing the potential for caries (p = .013). Age 80 or older (p < .001), ages 70-79 (p < .001), three or more visible dental cavities (p = .030) and difficulty chewing and swallowing food (p = .027) remained associated with dependence in ADL in the logistic regression model. CONCLUSION Functional dependence in activities of daily living has implications for the oral health status of older people.
Bimetallic NiMoN Nanowires with a Preferential Reactive Facet: An Ultraefficient Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Overall Water Splitting.

Faceted nanomaterials with highly reactive exposed facets have been the target of intense researches owing to their significantly enhanced catalytic performance. NiMoN nanowires with the (100) facet preferentially exposed were prepared by an in situ N/O exchange and the morphology tuned by using a rationally designed NiMoO4 precursor. The facet-tuned NiMoN nanowires exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) under both alkaline and acidic conditions that was comparable to that of noble metal platinum. DFT calculations further revealed that the catalytic activity of NiMoN nanowires towards HER on the (100) reactive facet is significantly greater than that on the (001) or (101) facets, owing to the low adsorption free energy of H* (ΔGH* ) on the (100) facet. The NiMoN nanowires also demonstrated outstanding activity towards the alkaline oxygen evolution reaction and an excellent durable activity for overall water splitting, with a cell potential as low as 1.498 V at 20 mA cm-2 . This work provides insights into improving electrocatalytic activity and developing advanced non-noble metal bifunctional electrocatalysts.
Topologically protected edge transport of sound in coupled cavities of a modified honeycomb lattice

In this work, we investigate comprehensively the unidirectional transport of sound in coupled cavities of a modified honeycomb lattice. The results clearly show that a pair of topological states carrying opposite pseudospins can be constructed at the edge of truncated lattices of non-trivial band gaps, which is different from previous schemes where topological states with opposite pseudospins were constructed at the interface of modified honeycomb lattices of trivial and non-trivial band gaps. Our work paves the way to exploring unidirectional edge transport of sound with topological protection in closed systems that are beneficial in large-scale device integration and low-loss operation.
Hepatitis B Virus Infection Among Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease Who Attended an Educational Program in Japan

The rate of hepatitis B infection among hemodialysis patients is high. However, it is not clear if this rate reflects the infection rate among patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Therefore, we evaluated the rate of hepatitis B infection among patients with CKD. This is an important clinical issue when considering the risk of infection to medical staff when performing invasive procedures in this clinical population. A retrospective, observational study was conducted among stable, non‐dialysis patients with CKD who attended a CKD educational program at our hospital, between August 2012 and October 2017. We collected patients’ background and markers of hepatitis infection (HBsAg, HBcAb and HBsAb, as well as HBV‐DNA when available) from medical records. The data from 496 patients (373 men and 123 women, with a mean age of 69.3 ± 13.0 years and mean level of creatinine of 3.15 ± 1.72 mg/dL, AST of 21.6 ± 10.5 IU/L, and ALT of 17.3 ± 12.5 IU/L), were included in the analysis. The rate of positive testing for hepatitis B virus infection was as follows: HBsAg, 1.6%; HBsAb, 16.5%; and HBcAb, 21.4%. Of the patients with a negative HBsAg test, 20.1% tested positive for HBcAb. Of the 66 patients in whom HBV‐DNA testing was performed, 10.6% tested positive. The rate of hepatitis B virus infection was specifically higher among patients ≥71‐years‐old. In patients with CKD, the rate of HBsAg positivity is high. Rate of HBcAb positivity is higher particularly in older individuals.
Mathematical Modeling of EEG Signals-Based Brain-Control Behavior

Brain-control behaviors (BCBs) are behaviors of humans that communicate with external devices by means of the human brain rather than peripheral nerves or muscles. In this paper, to understand and simulate such behaviors, we propose a mathematical model by combining a queuing network-based encoding model with a brain-computer interface model. Experimental results under the static tests show the effectiveness of the proposed model in simulating real BCBs. Furthermore, we verify the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed model through the dynamic experimental tests in a simulated vehicle. This paper not only promotes the understanding and prediction of BCBs, but also provides some insights into assistive technology on brain-controlled systems and extends the scope of research on human behavior modeling.
TeleFace: Serial Reproduction of Faces Reveals a Whiteward Bias in Race Memory

How is race encoded into memory when viewing faces? Here we demonstrate a novel systematic bias in which our memories of faces converge on certain prioritized regions in our underlying “face space,” as they relate to perceived race. This convergence was made especially salient using a new visual variant of the method of serial reproduction: “TeleFace. ” A single face was briefly presented, with its race selected from a smooth continuum between White and Black (matched for mean luminance). The observer then reproduced that face, using a slider to morph a test face along this continuum. Their response was then used as the face initially presented to the next observer, and so on down the line in each reproduction chain. White observers’ chains consistently and steadily converged onto faces significantly Whiter than they had initially encountered—Whiter than both the original face in the chain and the continuum’s midpoint—regardless of where chains began. Indeed, even chains beginning near the Black end of the continuum inevitably ended up well into White space. Very different patterns resulted when the same method was applied to other arbitrary face stimuli. These results highlight a systematic bias in memory for race in White observers, perhaps contributing to the more general notion in social cognition research of a ‘White default. ’
Design and Implementation of a Transmit/Receive Ultrasound Phased Array for Brain Applications

Focused ultrasound phased array systems have attracted increased attention for brain therapy applications. However, such systems currently lack a direct and real-time method to intraoperatively monitor ultrasound pressure distribution for securing treatment. This study proposes a dual-mode ultrasound phased array system design to support transmit/receive operations for concurrent ultrasound exposure and backscattered focal beam reconstruction through a spherically focused ultrasound array. A 256-channel ultrasound transmission system was used to transmit focused ultrasonic energy (full 256 channels), with an extended implementation of multiple-channel receiving function (up to 64 channels) using the same 256-channel ultrasound array. A coherent backscatter-received beam formation algorithm was implemented to map the point spread function (PSF) and focal beam distribution under a free-field/transcranial environment setup, with the backscattering generated from a strong scatterer (a point reflector or a microbubble-perfused tube) or a weakly scattered tissue-mimicking graphite phantom. Our results showed that PSF and focal beam can be successfully reconstructed and visualized in free-field conditions and can also be transcranially reconstructed following skull-induced aberration correction. In vivo experiments were conducted to demonstrate its capability to preoperatively and semiquantitatively map a focal beam to guide blood–brain barrier opening. The proposed system may have potential for real-time guidance of ultrasound brain intervention, and may facilitate the design of a dual-mode ultrasound phased array for brain therapeutic applications.
A PRRT2 variant in a Chinese family with paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia and benign familial infantile seizures results in loss of interaction with STX1B

To identify the causative gene of autosomal dominant paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia and benign familial infantile seizures (PKD/BFIS) in a large Chinese family and explore the potential pathogenic mechanism of a PRRT2 (proline‐rich transmembrane protein 2) variant.
Multi-Oriented and Multi-Lingual Scene Text Detection With Direct Regression

Multi-oriented and multi-lingual scene text detection plays an important role in computer vision area and is challenging due to the wide variety of text and background. In this paper, first, we point out the two key tasks when extending convolutional neural network (CNN)-based object detection frameworks to scene text detection. The first task is to localize the text region by a downsampled segmentation-based module, and the second task is to regress the boundaries of text region determined by the first task. Second, we propose a scene text detection framework based on fully convolutional network with a bi-task prediction module, in which one is a pixel-wise classification between the text and non-text and the other is pixel-wise regression to determine the vertex coordinates of quadrilateral text boundaries. Post-processing for word-level detection is based on non-maximum suppression, and for the line-level detection, we design a heuristic line segments grouping method to localize long text lines. We evaluated the proposed framework on various benchmarks, including multi-oriented and multi-lingual scene text data sets, and achieved the state-of-the-art performance on most of them. We also provide abundant ablation experiments to analyze several key factors in building high performance CNN-based scene text detection systems.
Biocrusts benefit from plant removal.

PREMISE OF THE STUDY Productivity in drylands may depend on the sensitivity of interactions between plants and biocrusts. Given future climate variability, it is essential to understand how interactions may be context-dependent with precipitation regime. Furthermore, little is known about the additional interactions of these producers with the belowground biota (e.g., roots, fungi, microarthropods). We evaluated the effect of removal (such as could occur following disturbance) and net interaction of plants and biocrusts and additionally manipulated the abiotic and biotic context. METHODS We established field mesocosms containing grass (Bouteloua gracilis) and surrounding biocrusts, then clipped the plant or heat-sterilized the biocrust to simulate the loss of dryland producers. To test for context-dependency on the precipitation pattern, we imposed a large, infrequent or small, frequent precipitation regime. A mesh barrier was used to impede belowground connections that may couple the dynamics of producers. Productivity was assessed by plant biomass and biocrust chlorophyll content. KEY RESULTS Biocrusts increased chlorophyll content more when plants were removed than when they were present in the first year, but only in the small, frequent precipitation regime. In contrast, plant growth slightly declined with biocrust removal. Plant biomass and biocrust chlorophyll content were negatively correlated in the second year, suggesting net competition. Belowground connectivity weakly promoted overall biocrust relative productivity, but was generally weakly detrimental to plant relative productivity. CONCLUSIONS Altered precipitation patterns can amplify positive effects of plant removal on biocrust producers. Furthermore, we discovered that belowground networks contributed to dryland productivity by promoting biocrust performance.
Structurally Incoherent Low-Rank Nonnegative Matrix Factorization for Image Classification

As a popular dimensionality reduction method, nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) has been widely used in image classification. However, the NMF does not consider discriminant information from the data themselves. In addition, most NMF-based methods use the Euclidean distance as a metric, which is sensitive to noise or outliers in data. To solve these problems, in this paper, we introduce structural incoherence and low-rank to NMF and propose a novel nonnegative factorization method, called structurally incoherent low-rank NMF (SILR-NMF), in which we jointly consider structural incoherence and low-rank properties of data for image classification. For the corrupted data, we use the $L_{1}$ norm as a constraint to ensure the noise is sparse. SILR-NMF learns a clean data matrix from the noisy data by low-rank learning. As a result, the SILR-NMF can capture the global structure information of the data, which is more robust than local information to noise. By introducing the structural incoherence of the learned clean data, SILR-NMF ensures the clean data points from different classes are as independent as possible. To verify the performance of the proposed method, extensive experiments are conducted on six image databases. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method has substantial gain over existing NMF approaches.
The Comparative Efficacy and Tolerability of Diclofenac 0.1% and Bromfenac 0.09% Ophthalmic Solutions after Cataract Surgery

ABSTRACT Purpose To compare the efficacy and tolerability of diclofenac and bromfenac ophthalmic solutions as adjunctive therapy after cataract surgery. Materials and Methods This prospective randomized controlled study included 130 patients who underwent cataract surgery. One hundred patients were randomized to receive postoperatively diclofenac 0.1% (four times daily for 28 days, Group 1) or bromfenac 0.09% (twice daily for 14 days, Group 2) ophthalmic solutions in addition to steroid-antibiotic combination. Thirty patients instilled only steroid-antibiotic combination (Control Group 3). Laser flare-cell photometry and optical coherence tomography scans with central foveal thickness (CFT) measurement were performed before (V0) and 7 (V1), 14 (V2) and 28 days (V3) after surgery. Treatment tolerability was scored using the Ocular Comfort Grading Assessment. Results Laser flare-cell photometry values were significantly higher at V1, V2 and V3 compared to V0 in all the groups (respectively 13.3 ± 1.0, 12.7 ± 0.9 and 9.6 ± 0.9 vs 8.4 ± 0.6 ph/ms for Group 1; 13.4 ± 1.0, 12.7 ± 0.9 and 12.7 ± 1.0 vs 8.1 ± 0.6 for Group 2; 15.9 ± 0.8, 15.4 ± 0.7 and 14.5 ± 0.7 vs 7.5 ± 0.5 for Group 3) (p < 0.001); flare increase was significantly lower in Group 1 compared to Groups 2 and 3 (p < 0.001). CFT values were higher after surgery in all the three groups; the increase was significantly lower in Group 1 compared to Groups 2 and 3 (p < 0.0002). The percentage of symptoms-free patients after study treatment was significantly higher in Group 2 compared to Group 1 (respectively 74% vs 14% of the total; p < 0.001). Conclusion The addition of diclofenac or bromfenac ophthalmic solutions contributed to further reduce both inflammation and cystoid macular edema after cataract surgery compared to steroid-antibiotic combination alone. Diclofenac appeared to be more effective in reducing postoperative intraocular inflammation with a more intense and prolonged regimen, while bromfenac more tolerated with lower daily dose and treatment duration.
Fracture Risk After Gastric Bypass Surgery: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Gastric bypass surgery constitutes the most common and effective bariatric surgery to treat obesity. Gastric bypass leads to bone loss, but fracture risk following surgery has been insufficiently studied. Furthermore, the association between gastric bypass and fracture risk has not been studied in patients with diabetes, which is a risk factor for fracture and affected by surgery. In this retrospective cohort study using Swedish national databases, 38,971 obese patients undergoing gastric bypass were identified, 7758 with diabetes and 31,213 without. An equal amount of well‐balanced controls were identified through multivariable 1:1 propensity score matching. The risk of fracture and fall injury was investigated using Cox proportional hazards and flexible parameter models. Fracture risk according to weight loss and degree of calcium and vitamin D supplementation 1‐year postsurgery was investigated. During a median follow‐up time of 3.1 (interquartile range [IQR], 1.7 to 4.6) years, gastric bypass was associated with increased risk of any fracture, in patients with and without diabetes using a multivariable Cox model (hazard ratio [HR] 1.26; 95% CI, 1.05 to 1.53; and HR 1.32; 95% CI, 1.18 to 1.47; respectively). Using flexible parameter models, the fracture risk appeared to increase with time. The risk of fall injury without fracture was also increased after gastric bypass. Larger weight loss or poor calcium and vitamin D supplementation after surgery were not associated with increased fracture risk. In conclusion, gastric bypass surgery is associated with an increased fracture risk, which appears to be increasing with time and not associated with degree of weight loss or calcium and vitamin D supplementation following surgery. An increased risk of fall injury was seen after surgery, which could contribute to the increased fracture risk. © 2018 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Low-Rank Matrix Recovery Via Robust Outlier Estimation

In practice, high-dimensional data are typically sampled from low-dimensional subspaces, but with an intrusion of outliers and/or noises. Recovering the underlying structure and the pollution from the observations is of utmost importance to understanding the data. Besides properly modeling the subspace structure, how to handle the pollution is a core question regarding the recovery quality, the main origins of which include small dense noises and gross sparse outliers. Compared with the small noises, the outliers more likely ruin the recovery, as their arbitrary magnitudes can dominate the fidelity, and thus lead to misleading/erroneous results. Concerning the above, this paper concentrates on robust outlier estimate for low-rank matrix recovery, termed ROUTE. The principle is to classify each entry as an outlier or an inlier (with confidence). We formulate the outlier screening and the recovery into a unified framework. To seek the optimal solution to the problem, we first introduce a block coordinate descent-based optimizer (ROUTE-BCD) and then customize an alternating direction method of multipliers based one (ROUTE-ADMM). Through analyzing theoretical properties and practical behaviors, ROUTE-ADMM shows its superiority over ROUTE-BCD in terms of computational complexity, initialization insensitivity, and recovery accuracy. Extensive experiments on both synthetic and real data are conducted to show the efficacy of our strategy and reveal its significant improvement over other state-of-the-art alternatives. Our code is publicly available at https://sites.google. com/view/xjguo/route.
Broom: Application for non-redundant storage of High Throughput Sequencing data

Motivation The data generation capabilities of High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) instruments have exponentially increased over the last few years, while the cost of sequencing has dramatically decreased allowing this technology to become widely used in biomedical studies. For small labs and individual researchers, however, storage and transfer of large amounts of HTS data present a significant challenge. The recent trends in increased sequencing quality and genome coverage can be used to reconsider HTS data storage strategies. Results We present Broom, a stand-alone application designed to select and store only high-quality sequencing reads at extremely high compression rates. Written in C++, the application accepts single and paired-end reads in FASTQ and FASTA formats and decompresses data in FASTA format. Availability C++ code available at https://scsb.utmb.edu/labgroups/fofanov/broom.asp Contact lealbayr@utmb.edu