Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Associations Between Racially/Ethnically Stratified COVID-19 Tweets and COVID-19 Cases and Deaths: Cross-sectional Study

Background The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing racial/ethnic health disparities in the United States. Monitoring nationwide Twitter conversations about COVID-19 and race/ethnicity could shed light on the impact of the pandemic on racial/ethnic minorities and help address health disparities. Objective This paper aims to examine the association between COVID-19 tweet volume and COVID-19 cases and deaths, stratified by race/ethnicity, in the early onset of the pandemic. Methods This cross-sectional study used geotagged COVID-19 tweets from within the United States posted in April 2020 on Twitter to examine the association between tweet volume, COVID-19 surveillance data (total cases and deaths in April), and population size. The studied time frame was limited to April 2020 because April was the earliest month when COVID-19 surveillance data on racial/ethnic groups were collected. Racially/ethnically stratified tweets were extracted using racial/ethnic group–related keywords (Asian, Black, Latino, and White) from COVID-19 tweets. Racially/ethnically stratified tweets, COVID-19 cases, and COVID-19 deaths were mapped to reveal their spatial distribution patterns. An ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model was applied to each stratified dataset. Results The racially/ethnically stratified tweet volume was associated with surveillance data. Specifically, an increase of 1 Asian tweet was correlated with 288 Asian cases (P<.001) and 93.4 Asian deaths (P<.001); an increase of 1 Black tweet was linked to 47.6 Black deaths (P<.001); an increase of 1 Latino tweet was linked to 719 Latino deaths (P<.001); and an increase of 1 White tweet was linked to 60.2 White deaths (P<.001). Conclusions Using racially/ethnically stratified Twitter data as a surveillance indicator could inform epidemiologic trends to help estimate future surges of COVID-19 cases and potential future outbreaks of a pandemic among racial/ethnic groups.
Cardiac PET: Interventional Physiology to Guide PCI

Currently most stable patients referred for invasive angiography do not have obstructive disease, implying an enormous opportunity to avoid unnecessary, invasive, and expensive procedures. Cardiac positron emission tomography (PET) offers a robust and non-invasive tool for quantifying absolute blood flow as a “gatekeeper” to cardiac catheterization. It images the entire left ventricle down to branch vessels, permitting a “physiologic angiogram” while normalizing flow values for the amount of supplied myocardium. Flow imaging has been demonstrated to be accurate compared to invasive measurements, precise to 20% on test/retest assessment, and routinely achievable in > 99% of daily clinical cases. Coronary flow capacity (CFC) integrates both resting and hyperemic flow together along the continuum from infarction to ischemia to normal levels. CFC predicts prognosis and identifies which patients benefit from revascularization. Emerging work allows cardiac PET to make an assessment of subendocardial hypoperfusion, relevant since this layer of the myocardium suffers “first and worst” from epicardial disease. A case example highlights many of the aspects of cardiac PET described in this review article.
Closed Incision Negative Pressure Therapy vs Standard of Care Dressing in Breast Surgery: A Systematic Review

The implementation of closed incision negative pressure therapy (CINPT) is widely seen in many surgical subspecialties including orthopaedics, vascular surgery, and abdominal surgery. However, research on its use in breast surgery is still in its infancy. We conducted a systematic review on the use of CINPT vs standard of care dressings (SOC) in wound management of post-operative breast surgery. A literature search was conducted on PubMed, MedLine, and Google Scholar for studies that compared CINPT against SOC. Seven studies were included in this systematic review. The results of our systematic review have shown that CINPT has a positive outcome in reducing post-operative wound complication rates as compared to SOC dressings (commonly Steri-Strips and waterproof dressings), which was 1-8% vs 1-30% in CINPT and SOC, respectively. Furthermore, CINPT has the potential to confer additional cost-savings of up to USD218 per patient for a health institution with regards to reduced complications rates that might have required extended management. The use of CINPT in breast surgery remains highly promising. It has many advantages over SOC, including better wound outcomes and added cost savings. Further studies are required to delineate the potential benefits in different sub-sets of patients.
dETErmiNANTS OF EmpLOyEES’ iNvOLvEmENT ANd THE rOLE OF THE LEAdErSHip STyLES iN OrgANiSATiONAL COmmiTmENT: EmpiriCAL FiNdiNgS FrOm

Background. The article points out those traits of character which should be found in good leaders, as well as the appropriate attitudes and actions taken by them, which are likely to be expected by their employees. Presently, with companies achieving more ambitious goals than ever, accompanied by rapidly developing technology and high demands from the specialist staff, the role of a good leader becomes crucial in building the social potential of any company. Undeniably, it is imperative in building the human factor in any company these days. Research aims. The article studies leadership as the relationship between the situation model and the actual techniques applied in practice. The objective of the paper in this context is to emphasise those traits of character which should be found in good leaders and which make them more efficient. Methodology. In order to identify the key traits a leader should have, a factual study was conducted among 156 employees working for different businesses. The study was conducted using an anonymous questionnaire. The second research technique was a direct individual interview with the CEOs from 5 different companies. Key findings. The study identified a group of key conditions that significantly influenced the building of the degree of employees’ involvement and contributed to enhancing the body of knowledge in the companies. The study indicated the following subjects: the employer-employee relationship, the role of employees in the decision-making process, their expectations, and the adopted style of leadership in the company. The obtained study results allowed to form a more practical view of the concept of leadership. According to the company’s CEO, the effectiveness of leadership largely depends on the adopted managerial style.
Electron Microscopic Study of Lymphatic Tissues of Mice Inoculated with a Leukemogenic Extract from Radiation-induced Tumors1

SUMMARY Macroscopic, histolÃ³gica! , and ultrastructural changes in lymphatic tissues, particularly that of the spleen, were studied in C57BL mice inoculated i.p. with a cell-free extract (Passage D from Dr. Duplan) of lymphatic tissues from mice in which leukemia was originally radiation in duced.Splenomegaly was observed macroscopically, followed by hypertrophy of lymph nodes. But no change of the thymus was apparent throughout the course of this in fection. The histolÃ³gica! appearance of the spleen showed hyperplasia of the germinal centers within the lymphatic nodules. The lymphoid cells were replaced progressively by proliferation of the reticular cells and, to a lesser ex tent, by cells of the plasmocytic line. Typical type C particles were found in the splenic white pulp. During the early stages of this disease, the particles were concentrated in the extracellular spaces within the germinal centers. The infected cells were predominantly immunoblasts, plasmoblasts, plasmocytes, and to a lesser extent lymphoblasts, lymphocytes, and reticular cells. Viral particles could not be detected within megakaryocytes or erythrocytic precursor cells. A few intracisternal type A particles were observed in both plasmocytes and reticular cells. The characteristics of this leukemia are discussed in relation to those described by Kaplan and Rauscher.
DIURON SORPTION , DESORPTION AND DEGRADATION IN ANTHROPOGENIC SOILS COMPARED

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to evaluate diuron sorption, desorption and degradation in two anthropogenic soils (Terra Preta de Índio TPI) in contrast to a sandy soil (Quartzarenic Neosol NQo). Sorption-desorption studies were performed by the batch equilibrium method and biodegradation in biometric bottles using radiolabeled diuron in 14C. Freundlich coefficient (Kf) values ranged from 13.50 to 50.41 μmol(1-1/n) L1/n kg-1 in TPI-2 and TPI-1, respectively, indicating very high diuron sorption in anthropogenic soils, following the order: TPI-1 ≥ TPI-2 > NQo (99.10, 98.95 and 60.8%, respectively). Diuron desorption was very low in anthropogenic soils, ranging from 1.36 (TPI-1) to 1.70% (TPI-2), and 24% to NQo. Accumulated diuron mineralization to C-CO2 was < 3% at 70 days after herbicide application, regardless of the assessed soil. Formation of 35 and 44% residue bound to TPI-2 and TPI-1 was observed, higher than to NQo (17%). In contrast, the residue extracted from NQo varied from 72 to 91%, ranging from 48 to 83% for TPI-1 and TPI-2 during the incubation period. The degradation half-life (DT50) of diuron in anthropogenic soils was of 66.65 and 68.63 days for TPI-1 and TPI-2, respectively, while a period of 88.86 days was observed for NQo. The formation of only one herbicide metabolite in all soils was evidenced. The application of diuron in arable areas in the presence of anthropogenic Amazonian soils may lead to inefficient chemical weed control, since these soils may reduce herbicide soil bioavailability due to high OC contents, where high sorption and low herbicide desorption are noted, as well as faster degradation compared to sandy soil.
Enabling MOOCs' Usage to Mild and Moderate Intellectual Disabled Users: An Approach to Enhance Mobile Interfaces

The intention of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is to extend online learning worldwide and to the most users as possible. Nowadays MOOCs have been used not only by undergraduate and hig-school students, but also by the elderly and the children. MOOCs have the potential to change the education in a better way to all people, including off course, the cognitive disabled people. From basic mathematics to specialized technical courses, MOOCs may enhance the opportunity to have better educational programs for cognitive disabled users, nevertheless, there are many things to do, about accessibility to guarantee a delightful user experience. This chapter introduces a new perspective to design inclusive MOOCs’ interfaces.
The Service Ouroboros: Designing Persona Service Cycles

Many companies investigate new business opportunities in a turn from product to service design. As service offerings expand over time and space, such notions as ‘customer journey’ or ‘service blueprint’ have been suggested to grasp and design the nature of the emergent services. However, we find that there is room for improvement on two levels. First, customer journeys and service blueprint tools could benefit from an empathic customer understanding; that is the design of customer-specific services. Secondly, the existing customer journey and service blueprint tools are less concerned with the cyclic nature of services, by which we mean the dynamics of a customer relationship and its development over time. We report findings from collaborative workshops, in which we challenged two companies to try a new concept and tool we call ‘The service Ouroboros’. We suggest it as a more appropriate way to design various customers’ service cycles.
Toward automated forensic fracture matching of snap-off blade knives

An interesting problem that has concerned forensic scientist for many years, is their need for accurate, reliable and objective methods for performing fracture matching examinations. The aim of these fracture matching methods is to determine if two broken object halves can be matched together, e.g., when one half is recovered at a crime scene, while the other half is found in the possession of a suspect. In this paper we discuss the use of a commercial white-light profilometer system for obtaining 2D/3D image surface scans of multiple fractured objects. More specifically, we explain the use of this system for digitizing the fracture surface of multiple facing halves of several snap-off blade knives. Next, we discuss the realization and evaluation of several image processing methods for trying to match the obtained image scans corresponding to each of the broken off blade elements used in our experiments. The algorithms that were tested and evaluated include: global template matching based on image correlation and multiple template matching based on local image correlation, using so-called "vote-map" computation. Although many avenues for further research still remain possible, we show that the second method yields very good results for allowing automated searching and matching of the imaged fracture surfaces for each of the examined blade elements.
The Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

Scattered among human and animal genomes are a class of repetitive genetic elements called endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), which are generally considered remnants of ancient viral infections. Because humans and chimpanzees share ERVs at similar genomic positions, evolutionists use these elements as another argument for common ancestry. From a creationist perspective, ERVs may have been created in strategic locations of the genome to perform essential functions, such as synchronized regulation of interspersed genetic elements. Since some human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) contain putative steroid hormone-response elements, it would be reasonable that expression of such HERVs would be controlled by sex hormones, and might even demonstrate temporal patterns during the female menstrual cycle. Accordingly, we quantified the transcription dynamics of multiple HERV elements in peripheral blood leukocytes using SYBR Green-based RT-PCR in male and female human subjects. Preliminary data indicated that expression of HERVs indeed followed a temporal pattern in females. Moreover, transcription activity of ERV genes was strongly correlated with blood levels of progesterone. The same pattern was demonstrated for HERV-K elements and the syncytin-1 gene encoded by ERVWE1. These results suggest coordinated regulation of some ERV elements by progesterone in the female.
The MapReduce based statistical model on maritime location big data

With the development of information technology, maritime location data shows big data trend. The analysis and research on maritime location big data can capture its hidden location characteristics, movement regularity and behavior pattern. Based on the Hadoop[1] architecture, a spatio-temporal statistical model is proposed. Then the statistics and visualization of essential information on maritime location data is carried out, which can display the situation of maritime moving objects,including the scale, the trend of change and the spatial distribution situation.
Пути модернизации крупнопанельных жилых зданий г. Еревана

The present article discusses some problems of renovation and modernization of large-panel residential buildings built in the postwar period in Yerevan. The analysis of the current situation showed that today these buildings have many problems related to their functional and aesthetic aspects of quality and become obsolete. The floor plans don’t satisfy modern functional requirements of inhabitants: similar and repeatable types of buildings became the reason of large arrays of monotonously built up districts with low indicators of quality. Furthermore, there are many low quality extensions and add-ins to the buildings made by inhabitants without control, which destroy the architectural appearance of habitat. Yard places of large-panel residential buildings are occupied by car parks and road travel, buildings are cut off from courtyard areas, which as a consequence don’t meet tsocial and functional requirements of the people. The consideration of the international experience of large-panel old housing renovation in European countries has shown that the main activities include improving the energy efficiency of residential buildings with removing heat loss and using solar panels, contrast changes in architectural appearance with large terraces, loggias, using wide range of colors, add-in attics and enlarging the height and the use of space-planning decisions to increase the living space. Analyzing the current situation of the housing and the international experience of modernization the concept of complex modernization of large-panel buildings was offered, which suggested bringing it to life on three main levels of habitat: apartments, building shapes, residential environment and areas. The main goals of the concept are increasing the comfort of planning decisions as well as the total size of the apartment, improving architectural appearance of the building and introducing areas for public services to housing, increasing energy efficiency and creating green areas at all floor levels, achievement of individual style of the buildings and the possibility of an easy transformation, increasing the effective use and the ecological status of a yard.
Reading Predictors in Croatian: Contribution of (Meta)Phonological Variables

Phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatised naming (RAN) and working memory (WM) are considered to be the most important factors supporting reading development. However, their relative importance varies across orthographies and age. The goal of this study was to examine reading predictors in Croatian, a language with highly transparent orthography, after three years of formal reading instruction. The study included 80 participants (mean age: 10.07 years). Reading rate and accuracy were measured using lists of words and pseudowords, and PA was measured using phoneme deletion, phoneme addition and spoonerism tasks. RAN was measured using naming of colours, and WM was measured using the WM standardised measure of digit span (WISC-IV-HR) and pseudoword repetition. In order to find the best predictors of reading rate and accuracy for both words and pseudowords, three-stage hierarchical multiple regression was conducted. The results showed that in highly transparent language when reading is automatised, RAN is the most significant predictor of both reading rate and accuracy. Although this study did not show dissociation between the predictors supporting reading speed and reading accuracy, it confirmed the importance of PA as a suppressor variable for RAN in predicting pseudowords reading time.
The Human gp39 Promoter TWO DISTINCT NUCLEAR FACTORS OF ACTIVATED T CELL PROTEIN-BINDING ELEMENTS CONTRIBUTE INDEPENDENTLY TO TRANSCRIPTIONAL ACTIVATION*

gp39, a cytokine expressed on the surface of activated T cells, is essential for T cell-dependent antibody re-sponses in vivo . We cloned and sequenced 1.2 kilobases of the 5 (cid:42) flank region of the human gp39 gene promoter and determined its transcription start site. When used in reporter gene assays, this DNA segment conferred promoter activity in response to T cell activation. gp39 promoter function in transfectants was inhibited by cyclosporin A, as is expression of the endogenous gp39 gene in T-lineage cells. At least 0.5 kilobase of the 5 (cid:42) flank region was required for promoter activity. Two putative binding sites for the NF-AT family of transcriptional activator proteins were identified at (cid:50) 259 to (cid:50) 265 and (cid:50) 62 to (cid:50) 69 with respect to the transcription start site. Both sites contributed significantly and independ- ently to promoter activity in response to T cell activation. Additionally, when incubated in vitro with nuclear protein purified from activated human CD4 T cells, both of these sites preferentially bound the NF-AT family member, NF-ATp. These results suggest that NF-ATp, via binding to at least two cis -elements, is essential for the induction of gp39 gene expression in response to T cell activation. NF-AT
Sketch-based image retrieval via CAT loss with elastic net regularization

Fine-grained sketch-based image retrieval (FG-SBIR) is an important problem that uses free-hand human sketch as queries to perform instance-level retrieval of photos. Human sketches are generally highly abstract and iconic, which makes FG-SBIR a challenging task. Existing FG-SBIR approaches using triplet loss with \begin{document}$ \ell_2 $\end{document} regularization or higher-order energy function to conduct retrieval performance, which neglect the feature gap between different domains (sketches, photos) and need to select the weight layer matrix. This yields high computational complexity. In this paper, we define a new CAT loss function with elastic net regularization based on attention model. It can close the feature gap between different subnetworks and embody the sparsity of the sketches. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed approach is competitive with state-of-the-art methods.
3.5 Phi29 DNA Polymerase Based Rolling Circle Ampli ﬁ cation of Templates for DNA Sequencing

The generation of DNA sequencing templates is typically an inconsistent and labor-intensive procedure, especially in a high-throughput facility. Puri ﬁ cation of recombinant plasmids from E. coli and PCR ampli ﬁ cation of inserts have generally been employed, but require many laborious/time-consuming steps and do not always yield suitable amounts of high-quality templates to be used in downstream applications. Replication by a rolling-circle mechanism is common among bacteriophages in nature. Recently, rolling-circle ampli ﬁ cation (RCA) with Phi29 DNA polymerase has been applied in vitro to marker DNA sequences (using speci ﬁ c primers) and to circular cloning vectors (using random hexamer primers) to achieve their exponential ampli ﬁ cation via DNA strand displacement. The US DOE Joint Genome Institute has successfully implemented random-Detter
Influence of turbulence modelling on cross-shore suspended sediment transport

Turbulence modelling is of primary interest when computing the hydrodynamics and sediment transport in the surf zone. The authors use a stationary 2DV model to compute velocity and concentration fields as well as sediment flux and sea-bed evolution. The authors analyse the results obtained using three different turbulent viscosity models. The simulations are compared with laboratory experimental data. The best turbulent viscosity parameterisation, which takes into account the turbulent energy transfer from the wave motion to the mean flow, gives good results.
Mid-latitude e’ects of the May 15, 1997 magnetic storm

We investigate the May 15, 1997 magnetic storm e’ects on the mid- and low-latitude ionosphere. The study is based on using the data from three chains of ionospheric stations located approximately along the meridians 20 ◦ , 140 ◦ and 280 ◦ E in the geomagnetic latitude range 13–65 ◦ N. Variations in f 0 F2 are considered. Estimates of the zonal electric >elds are made. Results of our analysis show that the main ionospheric e’ects of the storm under consideration are: (1) long-lasting intense negative disturbances during the storm main and recovery phases at subauroral and mid-latitudes; (2) positive disturbances at stations of the European and American chains observed prior to the storm, regardless of the local time; (3) a positive peak of @ f 0 F2 at stations of the Asian chain during the storm main phase in the evening hours; (4) a similarity of the form of the @ f 0 F2-variations at di’erent latitudes and (5) the largest e’ect on the F region is observed at the Asian chain. The resulting di’erences of the @ f 0 F2-variations can be driven both by the local time of the sudden storm commencement and by magnetic dip. It is not mere chance that the largest di’erences are observed along the meridian 140 ◦ E where the di’erence between the geographic and magnetic poles is the largest.