Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preoperative Phase Angle as a Risk Indicator in Cardiac Surgery—A Prospective Observational Study

Background: The phase angle (PhA) can be used for prognostic assessments in critically ill patients. This study describes the perioperative course of PhA and associated risk indicators in a cohort of elective cardiac surgical patients. Methods: The PhA was measured in 168 patients once daily until postoperative day (POD) seven. Patients were split into two groups depending on their median preoperative PhA and analyzed for several clinical outcomes; logistic regression models were used. Results: The PhA decreased from preoperative (6.1° ± 1.9°) to a nadir on POD 2 (3.5° ± 2.5°, mean difference −2.6° (95% CI, −3.0°; −2.1°; p < 0.0001)). Patients with lower preoperative PhA were older (71.0 ± 9.1 vs. 60.9 ± 12.0 years; p < 0.0001) and frailer (3.1 ± 1.3 vs. 2.3 ± 1.1; p < 0.0001), needed more fluids (8388 ± 3168 vs. 7417 ± 2459 mL, p = 0.0287), and stayed longer in the ICU (3.7 ± 4.5 vs. 2.6 ± 3.8 days, p = 0.0182). Preoperative PhA was independently influenced by frailty (OR 0.77; 95% CI 0.61; 0.98; p = 0.0344) and cardiac function (OR 1.85; 95%CI 1.07; 3.19; p = 0.028), whereas the postoperative PhA decline was independently influenced by higher fluid balances (OR 0.86; 95% CI 0.75; 0.99; p = 0.0371) and longer cardiopulmonary bypass times (OR 0.99; 95% CI 0.98; 0.99; p = 0.0344). Conclusion: Perioperative PhA measurement is an easy-to-use bedside method that may critically influence risk evaluation for the outcome of cardiac surgery patients.
The Walls Are Closing in: Postural Responses to a Virtual Reality Claustrophobic Simulation

Background: Changes in the visual environment and thereby, the spatial orientation, can induce postural instability leading to falls. Virtual reality (VR) has been used to expose individuals to virtual environments (VE) that increase postural threats. Claustrophobia is an anxiety disorder categorized under situational phobias and can induce such postural threats in a VE. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate if VR-generated claustrophobic simulation has any impact on postural threats that might lead to postural instability. Methods: Thirty healthy men and women (age: 20.7 ± 1.2 years; height: 166.5 ± 7.3 cm; mass: 71.7 ± 16.2 kg) were tested for postural stability while standing on a force platform, upon exposure to five different testing trials, including a normal stance (NoVR), in stationary VE (VR), and three consecutive, randomly initiated, unexpected claustrophobia trials (VR CP1, VR CP2, VR CP3). The claustrophobia trials involved all four walls closing in towards the center of the room. Center of pressure (COP)-derived postural sway variables were analyzed with a one-way repeated measures analysis of variance at an alpha level of 0.05. Results: Significant main effect differences existed in all but one dependent COP-derived postural sway variables, at p < 0.05. Post-hoc pairwise comparisons with a Bonferroni correction revealed that, predominantly, postural sway excursions were significantly lower in claustrophobia trials compared to NoVR and VR, but only accomplished with significantly increased sway velocity. Conclusion: The VR CP trials induced lower postural sway magnitude, but with increased velocity, suggesting a bracing and co-contraction strategy when exposed to virtual claustrophobic postural threats. Additionally, postural sway decreased with subsequent claustrophobia trials, suggesting potential motor learning effects. Findings from the study offer insights to postural control behavior under virtual claustrophobic simulations and can aid in VR exposure therapy for claustrophobia.
Predictors of children's emotion regulation outcomes during COVID‐19: Role of conflict within the family

Abstract Objective This work aimed to analyze the role of family conflict on children's emotion regulation and stress outcomes during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Background The COVID‐19 pandemic brought novel stress to families. The stress experienced could impact family relationships—specifically, perceptions of closeness and patterns of conflict. Positive family environment and high‐quality family relationships are associated with adaptive coping and lower levels of stress among children. Method Data were collected online from 110 participants at baseline and again 30 days later. Associations between parent–child relationship, sibling relationships, and child stress and emotion regulation outcomes 30 days later were tested through multiple stepwise regression. Results Both significant regression models suggest that parent–child conflict is the strongest predictor of child stress and negativity over the 30‐day assessment period. Sibling conflict predicted child stress but not negativity. Conclusion Family conflict during the COVID‐19 pandemic influenced children's emotion regulation outcomes as seen through significant associations between child–parent conflict, sibling conflict, perceived child stress, and children's negativity. Implications Family scientists and practitioners should consider interventions that help parents teach their children how to cope with their own stresses and emotions after conflict.
The pattern of body growth and intestinal development of female Chinese native geese from 1 to 10 weeks of age

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to investigate the pattern of body growth and intestinal development of female Chinese native geese from 1 to 10 weeks of age. At weekly intervals, from hatch through 10 weeks of age, ten geese were sampled to measure the absolute and relative weight and length of the intestinal segments and overall intestine of geese. The body weight of Bertalanffy (R 2 = 0.989), Gompertz (R 2 = 0.990), Logistic (R 2 = 0.980) and Richards (R 2 = 0.982) models showed an increase in the asymptotes at 1–10 weeks old, while the inflection points were at 30.53, 28.56, and 25.59 d, respectively. The relative weight and length of the intestinal segments and overall intestine were decreased linearly (P < 0.01), while the absolute weight and length of the intestinal segments and overall intestine were increased linearly (P < 0.01) during 1–7 weeks old, but significantly decreased (P < 0.01) during 8–10 weeks old, suggesting that the intestinal system was developing rapidly at the starter period based on the intestinal weight and length, but was declining at the later period. The knowledge of growth curve and intestinal development pattern could provide some useful information on the optimum management practices and breeding strategies in geese production.
Obstacles to mental health treatment: Similarities and differences among first responder groups

First responders have been shown to be at risk for several negative mental health outcomes. However, it is not always clear how to intervene to prevent these outcomes. One approach has been to try to reduce the obstacles to care that might be imposed by the profession or the organization. In this paper, we investigate whether the nature of these obstacles varies as a function of the type of job. A group of 1,485 first responders were studied. The results indicate a number of important specialty-related differences. The results are discussed in terms of how to tailor prevention programs to confront obstacles to care.
The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Government Bond Yields

The COVID-19 pandemic is a real shock to society and business and financial markets. The government bond market is an essential part of financial markets, especially in difficult times, because it is a source of government funding. The majority of existing ESG studies report positive impacts on corporate financial performance regarding environmental, social, and governance. Thus, understanding governments’ financial practices and their relevant ESG implications is insufficient. This research aims to value the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on different government bond curve sectors. We try to identify the reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic in the government bond market and analyze separate tenors of government bond yields in different regions. We have chosen Germany and the United States government bond yields of 10, 5, and 3 years tenor for the analysis. As independent variables, we have chosen daily cases of COVID-19 and daily deaths from COVID-19 at the country and global levels. We used daily data from 02 January 2020–19 March 2021, and divided this period into three stages depending on the COVID-19 pandemic data. We employed the methods of correlation-regression analysis (ordinary least squares and least squares with breakpoints) and VAR-based impulse response functions to evaluate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on government bond yields both in the long and short run. Our analysis revealed the impact of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic on government bond yields differs depending on the country and the assessment period. The short-term responses vary in direction, strength, and duration; the long-term response of Germany’s yields appeared to be more negative (indicating the decrease of the yields), while the response of the United States yields appeared to be more positive (i.e., increase of yields).
Immunoinformatic Approaches to Identify Immune Epitopes and Design an Epitope-Based Subunit Vaccine against Emerging Tilapia Lake Virus (TiLV)

Tilapia tilapinevirus, known worldwide as tilapia lake virus (TiLV), is a single-stranded RNA virus that belongs to the Amnoonviridae family. The virus attacks the fish species’ external and internal organs, such as the eyes, brain, and liver. Syncytial cells develop in the liver cells of infected fish, which are characterized by widespread hepatocellular necrosis and karyolytic nuclei. It is a highly infectious virus that spreads both horizontally and vertically. Despite these devastating complications, there is still no cure or vaccine for the virus. Therefore, a vaccine based on epitopes developed using immunoinformatics methods was developed against TiLV in fish. The putative polymerase basic 1 (PB1) gene was used to identify immunodominant T- and B-cell epitopes. Three probable epitopes were used to design the vaccine: CTL, HTL, and LBL. Testing of the final vaccine revealed that it was antigenic, non-allergenic, and has improved solubility. Molecular dynamics simulation revealed significant structural compactness and binding stability. Furthermore, the computer-generated immunological simulation indicated that immunization might stimulate real-life immune responses following injection. Overall, the findings of the study imply that the designed epitope vaccine might be a good option for prophylaxis for TiLV.
Foundations of Human-Aware Planning - A Tale of Three Models

A critical challenge in the design of AI systems that operate with humans in the loop is to be able to model the intentions and capabilities of the humans, as well as their beliefs and expectations of the AI system itself. This allows the AI system to be “humanaware” – i.e. the human task model enables it to envisage desired roles of the human in joint action, while the human mental model allows it to anticipate how its own actions are perceived from the point of view of the human. In my research, I explore how these concepts of human-awareness manifest themselves in the scope of planning or sequential decision making with humans in the loop. To this end, I will show (1) how the AI agent can leverage the human task model to generate symbiotic behavior; and (2) how the introduction of the human mental model in the deliberative process of the AI agent allows it to generate explanations for a plan or resort to explicable plans when explanations are not desired. The latter is in addition to traditional notions of human-aware planning which typically use the human task model alone and thus enables a new suite of capabilities of a human-aware AI agent. Finally, I will explore how the AI agent can leverage emerging mixed-reality interfaces to realize effective channels of communication with the human in the loop.
Optimal Resource Management for NOMA-Based Visible Light Communication Systems With Shot Noise

In this paper, the problem of power allocation is investigated for downlink visible light communication (VLC) systems with non-orthogonal multiple access. In the system, both input-dependent shot noise and input-independent Gaussian noise are considered due to the properties of practical VLC channels. We consider two scenarios for the transmitter with a single light emitting diode (LED) and multiple LEDs, respectively. For single-LED scenarios, the problem is posed as a joint optimization problem of alternating current and direct current power control, whose goal is to maximize the minimum signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR) of all users. Although the original problem is non-convex, a geometric programming based algorithm is proposed to acquire the global optimal solution. For multi-LED scenarios, the transmit and dimming beamforming vectors are jointly optimized to maximize the minimum SINR of all users. A joint optimization algorithm that alternately optimizes transmit and dimming beamforming vectors is proposed. Particularly, the transmit beamforming problem is converted into a second-order cone programming problem through the successive convex approximation method. The dimming beamforming problem is transformed into a feasibility problem utilizing a low-complexity bisection algorithm. Numerical results reveal the superior performance of the proposed algorithm compared with its orthogonal multiple access counterpart and conventional schemes without shot noise.
Analyzing higher education performance by entropy - TOPSIS method: A case study in Viet Nam private universities

The development in both quantity and quality of the system of private universities over the past time has created great opportunities for people to study and improve their qualifications and working skills. It is also challenging for educational managers to find the right university development strategy in today's competitive environment. Therefore, evaluating the effectiveness of using private universities resource to analyze training performance is considered one of the issues. In this study, the Entropy method is used to determine the weight of the criteria. Then the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is used to determine the ranking order of the private universities. Next, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was applied to evaluate the correlation between rank-ordered variables over the 2 years of analysis selection. Finally, ANOVA was used to compare the criteria between groups of universities. The combination of methods contributes to creating an objective environment in assessing the performance of each university. Thereby, universities can see the important criteria to pay attention to, creating a premise for universities to establish strategies for development and competition. At the same time, educational leaders have the right perspective in choosing key universities to invest in finance and facilities.
Controllable electromechanical stability of a torsional micromirror actuator with piezoelectric composite structure under capillary force

Cited as: Liu, M. , Chen, Y. , Cheng, W. , Chen, S. , Yu, T. , Yang, W. Controllable electromechanical stability of a torsional micromirror actuator with piezoelectric composite structure under capillary force. Capillarity, 2022, 5(3): 51-64. https://doi.org/10.46690/capi.2022. 03.02 Abstract: Various types of micro/nano functional devices are being widely designed as optical switches, micro scanners, micromirrors and other core optical devices. The continuing miniaturization of the functional devices makes the size dependence of electromechanical property significant in micro/nano scale due to the sharp increase of surface interactions such as capillary force from liquid bridge, van der Waals and Casimir forces from quantum fluctuations. The surface interactions can cause the pull-in instability, adhesion between parts, and even failure of device. This work provides an active control method to avoid the pull-in instability of an electrostatically driven circular micromirror by applying voltage on a torsional piezoelectric composite structure. The influences of the three types are compared of dispersion forces on the electromechanical stability of the micromirror actuator. A comprehensive electromechanical model of a torsional piezoelectric beam was established to numerically investigate the electromechanical coupling of the micromirror. The results show that the influence of capillary force on the stability of the micromirror is as significant as van der Waals force and Casimir force. By introducing piezoelectric nanoplates into the laminated torsional structure, the micromirror stability can be controlled based on the piezoelectric effect of the torsional piezoelectric composite structure. This work can contribute to the structural optimization design and manufacture of micromirror systems.
Antecedents of absorptive capacity: context of companies' incubators in Northeastern Brazil

PurposeThis research aims at analyzing the antecedents of absorptive capacity (ACAP) in the companies incubated in the State of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. In this context, 111 incubated companies took part in the research.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology used the confirmatory factor analysis and the multiple linear regression to analyze the relationship of the dependent variables (ACAP) with the dependent variables (interaction with other companies, professionals' knowledge (PK), knowledge use (KU) and knowledge acquisition). FindingsThe results highlight that external KU was the construct that most influences the ACAP. Among the dependent variables suggested, only the construct concerning the incubators' PK presented no model significance, which shows that the PK is not an antecedent of ACAP in the incubated companies.Originality/valueThis study is relevant due to pointing out that the incubators may not be providing their professionals with knowledge properly, or that this knowledge is not being accessed by the incubated companies, which allows actions turned to encouraging businesses in this context.
Teneurin and TCAP Phylogeny and Physiology: Molecular Analysis, Immune Activity, and Transcriptomic Analysis of the Stress Response in the Sydney Rock Oyster (Saccostrea glomerata) Hemocytes

Teneurin C-terminal associated peptide (TCAP) is an ancient bioactive peptide that is highly conserved in metazoans. TCAP administration reduces cellular and behavioral stress in vertebrate and urochordate models. There is little information for invertebrates regarding the existence or function of a TCAP. This study used the Sydney rock oyster (SRO) as a molluscan model to characterize an invertebrate TCAP, from molecular gene analysis to its physiological effects associated with hemocyte phagocytosis. We report a single teneurin gene (and 4 teneurin splice variants), which encodes a precursor with TCAP that shares a vertebrate-like motif, and is similar to that of other molluscan classes (gastropod, cephalopod), arthropods and echinoderms. TCAP was identified in all SRO tissues using western blotting at 1-2 different molecular weights (~22 kDa and ~37kDa), supporting precursor cleavage variation. In SRO hemolymph, TCAP was spatially localized to the cytosol of hemocytes, and with particularly high density immunoreactivity in granules. Based on ‘pull-down’ assays, the SRO TCAP binds to GAPDH, suggesting that TCAP may protect cells from apoptosis under oxidative stress. Compared to sham injection, the intramuscular administration of TCAP (5 pmol) into oysters modulated their immune system by significantly reducing hemocyte phagocytosis under stress conditions (low salinity and high temperature). TCAP administration also significantly reduced hemocyte reactive oxygen species production at ambient conditions and after 48 h stress, compared to sham injection. Transcriptomic hemocyte analysis of stressed oysters administered with TCAP demonstrated significant changes in expression of genes associated with key metabolic, protective and immune functions. In summary, this study established a role for TCAP in oysters through modulation of physiological and molecular functions associated with energy conservation, stress and cellular defense.
A Review of Vision-Based Traffic Semantic Understanding in ITSs

A semantic understanding of road traffic can help people understand road traffic flow situations and emergencies more accurately and provide a more accurate basis for anomaly detection and traffic prediction. At present, the overview of computer vision in traffic mainly focuses on the static detection of vehicles and pedestrians. There are few in-depth studies on the semantic understanding of road traffic using visual methods. This paper aims to review recent approaches to the semantic understanding of road traffic using vision sensors to bridge this gap. First, this paper classifies all kinds of traffic monitoring analysis methods from the two perspectives of macro traffic flow and micro road behavior. Next, the techniques for each class of methods are reviewed and discussed in detail. Finally, we analyze the existing traffic monitoring challenges and corresponding solutions.
Development of Formulas for Calculating L3 Skeletal Muscle Mass Index and Visceral Fat Area Based on Anthropometric Parameters

Background The anthropometric index is not accurate but shows a great advantage in accessibility. Simple body composition formulas should be investigated before proceeding with the universal nutrition screening. Materials and Methods Clinical data of patients with a malignant tumor of the digestive system were collected. SliceOmatic 5.0 software (TOMOVISION, Canada) was used to analyze abdominal CT images and taken as references. A linear regression analysis was adopted to establish the formula for calculating skeletal muscle index (SMI) and visceral fat area (VFA). In addition, the relweights function was adopted to measure the contribution of each variable. Results In total, 344 patients were divided into the training set and 134 patients into the validation set. The selected formulas were SMI.pre = 0.540 × weight (kg) – 0.559 × height (cm) – 13.877 × sex (male = 1, female = 2) + 123.583, and VFA.pre = 5.146 × weight (kg) – 2.666 × height (cm) + 1.436 × age (year) + 134.096, of which the adjusted R2 were 0.597 and 0.581, respectively. The “weight” explained more than 80% of R2 in the prediction of VFA. In addition, “sex” occupied approximately 40% of R2 in the prediction of SMI. The paired t-test showed no significant difference between the real measured indices and the predicting ones (p = 0.123 for SMI and p = 0.299 for VFA). The logistic regression analysis exhibited similar diagnostic efficacy of the real measured parameters and formulas. Conclusion The SMI and VFA formulas were developed through basic indices, such as weight, height, sex, and age. According to the contribution of each variable, weight should always be focused on preserving appropriate muscle and adipose tissue.