Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Variations in treatment of an anastomotic leakage after Ivor Lewis Esophagectomy

Background: Anastomotic Leakage (AL) after Ivor Lewis Esophagectomy (ILE) is a severe complication that often needs immediate treatment. However, there is no consensus on the optimal treatment. The aim of this study was to describe the outcomes of the different treatment options in patients with either contained or uncontained AL after ILE. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on patients that developed AL after ILE in three high volume hospitals. Treatment was based on local preference. Endoscopic and surgical treatment were compared for patients with either contained (leakage confined to the mediastinum) or uncontained AL (leakage with intrapleural manifestations). Results: In total, 73 patients with an AL were included. A contained leak was observed in 39 patients. Twenty-five patients (64%) underwent an endoscopic approach that was successful in 19 patients (76%); fourteen patients (36%) underwent a surgical approach that was successful in 11 patients (79%). Significantly more patients were (re)admitted to the ICU in the surgical group; other outcomes were similar. An uncontained leak was observed in 34 patients. Endoscopic treatment was chosen in 14 patients (41%) and was successful in 10 patients (71%). A surgical approach was performed in 20 patients (59%) and was successful in 12 patients (60%). (Re) admission rate to the ICU was significantly higher in the surgical group, other outcomes were similar. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that there is high variability in the treatment of AL after esophagectomy. Surgical and endoscopic techniques are both successfully used for patients with either contained or uncontained leakages. However, more research is necessary before a treatment algorithm can be developed. Keywords: esophageal cancer; esophageal surgery; minimally invasive surgery; anastomotic leakage; endoscopic procedures.
Exercise and the brain: a mechanical model for pulsation on flow of cerebrospinal fluid

Exchange of molecules between cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and brain cells contributes to brain function and protection from dementia, but the route by which CSF is brought close enough to the neural tissue to be exchanged by extracellular diffusion is not clear. Exogenous molecules injected into CSF are carried along channels outside arteries and reach the basement lamina that surrounds the dense capillary network. Transport of solutes by diffusion along the basement lamina, a gel of macromolcules about 100 nm thick, would be too slow; bulk flow in a static geometry would require unphysiologically high pressures. However, it is known that the pulsation of blood aids transport of CSF, and we hypothesized that this is because the pulsation intermittently squeezes the pericapillary lamina. In a primitive mimicry, we have tested whether intermittent squeezing increases flow through an agar gel. In all but one of 216 tests, pulsation caused a reversible increase, sometimes by a factor of 100 or more. The enhancement was greatest for frequencies 5-11 Hz and, over the tested range of pressure heads (20 - 50 cmH2O), was greatest for the lowest pressure. The results suggest one reason why exercise slows the aging of the brain.
Design and performance characterization of high power density air-cooled compact condenser heat exchangers

The current investigation reports the design, fabrication, and characterization of ultracompact air-cooled condenser heat exchangers with exceptional power density performance in excess of 100 W/cm3. This exceptional heat exchanger performance is attributed to the implementation of high-speed compressible air flow in circular microchannels and two-phase condensation flow of refrigerant in rectangular minichannels to achieve high heat transfer performance in a compact design. These advancements are enabled by recent developments in micro-electric discharge machining to produce very high surface area compact heat exchanger devices. Air-cooled heat sinks have been identified as pivotal to the future of thermal management of microelectronics in the 21st century. Air-cooling systems provide clear advantages in overall ease of integration due to its availability and abundance over forced liquid cooling systems. The enhancement of forced air flow is especially important because it generally represents the dominant thermal resistance of the condenser. The implementation of high-speed compressible air flow in microchannels permits investigation of flow conditions with exceptionally high heat transfer coefficients. This investigation explores turbulent flow regime conditions for air-side Reynolds numbers 8,000 < Re < 20,000, in high-density parallel arrangements of circular copper microchannels, 355 and 520 μm in diameter. Two-phase heat transfer technology is one of the most efficient methods of waste heat removal in high power electronics cooling. It is especially advantageous in applications where size, weight, and efficiency are important factors. Two-phase active cooling systems consist of an evaporator and a condenser. Heat transfer performance in the evaporator is typically much higher than in the condenser; consequently the condenser is the limiting component of the entire cooling system. Improvements in condenser technology enable electronics systems to operate at a higher power while reducing the overall cooling system size and weight. The condensation phase change process in microchannels with high aspect ratios yields the formation of a thin film condensation layer on the heat transfer wall, resulting in high heat transfer coefficients with little pressure drop penalty. It is therefore of utmost importance that condensation phenomena, especially in high aspect-ratio microchannels be experimentally investigated. This investigation employs condensation in a parallel array of high-aspect ratio, 0.5 mm x 2 mm, rectangular minichannels.
MaNIAC-UAV - a methodology for automatic pavement defects detection using images obtained by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Intelligent Transportation Systems - ITS is a set of integrated technologies (Remote Sensing, Image Processing, Communications Systems and others) that aim to offer services and advanced traffic management for the several transportation modes (road, air and rail). Collect data on the characteristics and conditions of the road surface and keep them update is an important and difficult task that needs to be currently managed in order to reduce accidents and vehicle maintenance costs. Nowadays several roads and highways are paved, but usually there is insufficient updated data about current condition and status. There are different types of pavement defects on the roads and to keep them in good condition they should be constantly monitored and maintained according to pavement management strategy. This paper presents a methodology to obtain, automatically, information about the conditions of the highway asphalt pavement. Data collection was done through remote sensing using an UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) and the image processing and pattern recognition techniques through Geographic Information System.
Static Analysis of Single-Input/Multiple-Output Tendon-Driven Underactuated Mechanisms for Robotic Hands

Considering the many advantages of underactuation in anthropomorphic hands, such as lightness, ease of control and compactness, it is of interest to develop mechanisms that aim at achieving underactuation between the fingers. This paper presents several tendon-driven underactuated mechanisms that can drive four outputs from one input. These mechanisms could typically be used to drive four fingers of an underactuated hand from a single input. Among these mechanisms, some are built by combining one-input/two-output differential mechanisms, while others are fully integrated systems of pulleys. For each mechanism, a static analysis is presented. Then, a discussion based on the static analysis and experimentation on models highlights their strengths and weaknesses. Finally a new anthropomorphic hand used as an experimental platform to test these mechanisms is introduced. © 2010 ASME
Twosome Modelling based Emotion Recognition in Videos

The work presented in this paper introduces a new model for emotion recognition from videos, Twosome Modeling (TM). The core of the proposed system consists of a hybrid Neural Network model that joins two feed-forward neural net models with a bottle-neck connection layer (BNL). Specifically, appearance and motion of each video sequence are encoded using a hand-crafted time-space descriptor. The obtained features are propagated through a not fully connected neural net (NFCN) and a new Twosome features are generated and the dimensionality reduction is performed at the BNL. In a second level, a fully connected network (FCN) is trained to encode one of the six basic emotional states (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise) with the neutral state. The classification results reached by the proposed TM show superiority over state-of-the-art approaches.
Deep Convolutional Networks For Snapshot Hypercpectral Demosaicking

In this paper we introduce a novel demosaicking algorithm for snashot hyperspectral images. Snapshot cameras allow real-time hyper spectral imaging in uncontrolled environments. However, snapshot cameras with K bands capture only a single frequency band per pixel leaving the rest, K – 1 values, at the mercy of demosaicking algorithms. Demosaicking is a very challenging problem as interpolating unknown values in a highly under-sampled cube of radiances is likely to lead to aliasing artifacts in the interpolated output values. Most of the existing demosaicking approaches are hand crafted interpolation based methods. Inspired by the Deep Learning based breakthroughs in various areas of computer vision, we propose a snapshot hyperspectral demosaicking approach based on deep convolutinal networks. Experiments on the CAVE and Hytexila datasets show that our proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.
Vocal traits of shorebird chicks are related to body mass and sex

Acoustic communication is critical during early life phases in precocial birds. For example, adult alarm calls can elicit antipredator behaviour in young, and chick vocalisations can communicate information to parents about chick identity, condition, location, sex, or age. We investigated whether chick calls of two species of Australian Charadriidae vary with sex or body mass. We handled Red-capped Plover Charadrius ruficapillus and Southern Masked Lapwing Vanellus miles novaehollandiae chicks for purposes of measurement, blood sampling, and banding. We opportunistically recorded their distress calls while in the hand, and analysed the calls to determine whether call structure is related to sex or body mass (a proxy for age). We measured five traits per call, plus time intervals between successive calls, for 26 plover chicks (2600 calls) and 95 lapwing chicks (6835 calls). In plovers, inter-call intervals were shorter in males and both inter-call interval and the dominant frequency range of calls decreased with increasing body mass. In lapwings, frequency modulation (computed as the range in the rate of change of the dominant frequency) was lower in male calls. The dominant frequency range of lapwing calls decreased with mass in both sexes, but the decline was greater in males, resulting in a lower dominant frequency range in males. Frequency modulation and entropy of lapwing calls also decreased with increasing body mass. Minimum dominant frequency did not change with body mass or sex in either species. Our study provides the first evidence for charadriid chicks of (a) a sexual difference in call structure and rate and (b) gradual growth-related changes in call structure and rate, across chicks. Studies on calls from a greater range of chick ages and from more species within this large and diverse family would be valuable. We provide a foundation for further studies of shorebird vocalisations during growth, which may elucidate the development and functional significance of such vocalisations.
FUZZY PROBABILISTIC ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF CORROSION ON FATIGUE OF AIRCRAFT STRUCTURES

A strategy for fuzzy-probabilistic assessment of the impact of corrosion on fatigue of aging aircraft structures is developed. Depending on the level of subjectivity and degree of belief with which they are known, corrosion-assisted fatigue crack growth parameters may be represented as either purely random variables or fuzzy random variables. The membership functions of the probabilistic characteristics of fuzzy random variables, namely mean values and coefficients of variation are developed. Probabilistic models for corrosion-assisted fatigue crack growth are also presented. First order reliability method (FORM) is employed to compute the discrete values of reliability indices and probabilities of failure for components subjected to corrosion-assisted fatigue cracking. A fuzzy modeling strategy is then used to compute the possibility distributions of the probabilistic response quantities, namely reliability index and probability of failure. Rather than providing a crisp value for the reliability of aging aircraft, as is conventionally done, the merit of the present formulation lies in its ability to combine experimental data with expert knowledge to provide confidence bounds on aging aircraft structural integrity. The predicted bounds are dependent on the level of knowledge regarding the input parameters, with a high degree of knowledge resulting in narrow bounds. An example problem is used to demonstrate the proposed methodology.
Silicon photonics for 100 Gbit/s intra-data center optical interconnects

We report on an ultra-compact co-integrated transmitter and receiver in SiGe BiCMOS technology for short reach optical interconnects. A fully integrated EPIC transceiver chip on silicon photonics technology is described. The chip integrates all photonic and electronic devices for an electro-optic transceiver and has been designed to be testable on wafer-scale. A node-matched diode modulator based on carrier injection is a key building block in the chip design. Its operation performance is presented with respect to insertion loss, signal-to-noise-ratio and power consumption at a 25.78125 Gbit/s in NRZ operation. A novel SiGe based photodetector exhibits a -3 dB bandwidth of up to 70 GHz and a responsivity of >1 A/W. Details are given about the process technology of co-integration of photonic and electronic integrated circuits using both silicon-on-insulator and bulk silicon. The implemented co-integration process requires only few additional process steps, leading to only a slight increase in complexity compared to conventional CMOS and BiCMOS baselines.
Evaluating eWALL : assessing and enhancing older adults’ acceptance of a prototype smart home technology

The study assesses of the current acceptance of the eWALL, a prototype smart home technology, and identifies factors to enhance the acceptance. Orientating at the four key determinants of use behavior of the UTAUT model, an usability testing with 11 participants was conducted and the UEQ was filled in. Perceived usability was low for daily activity monitoring functions and high for sleep monitoring. Effort expectancy was low for all monitoing functions. What concern the Social Influence, many participants declined to share the data of the Daily Activity Monitoring, and more willing to share the Daily Sleep Monitoring data. As Facilitating Conditions, the physical appearance was perceived as a barrier. To enhance acceptance, more privacy control should be given and it should be assessed which information is really relevant for patients to be monitored. Futhermore, both the content and the appearance of the eWALL should be made more flexible to customization.
Electro-Thermal Modeling of Solar Photovoltaic Arrays

The objective of the present work is to develop a dynamic electro-thermal model for photovoltaic cells to optimize both electrical and thermal performance of such systems. The thermal model is developed by generating the equivalent RC network (resistance-capacitance) parameters. Then, the thermal model is combined with electrical model and implemented by PSIM simulation program to evaluate performance parameters for any predefined operating condition. The electro-thermal model predicts instantaneous temperature of photovoltaic device at the actual circuit working conditions. Consequently, the temperature rise during the system startup and during load transient is investigated. The thermal model predicts the junction temperature based on transient heat dissipation calculated from the electrical model. The calculated junction temperature is used as an input to the electrical model. The factors that control the junction temperature are module reaching irradiance, optical properties of the photovoltaic cell, photovoltaic conversion efficiency, heat transfer and electrical characteristic of the load. If the junction temperature exceeds a certain limit, it causes hotspot on the photovoltaic module surface. Consequently, the formed hotspots result in reducing the system efficiency and life time. The predicted dynamic behavior of photovoltaic cell is compared with theoretical predictions and other reported data in order to validate the developed model. The obtained results show a good concurrence with the predictions of other works. Detailed comparisons between predicted and measured results are reported and discussed.Copyright © 2011 by ASME
Effect of Shared Decision-making on Decisional Conflict and Uptake of First-trimester Screening Tests

Introduction: Several factors influence women’s decision to take First Trimester Screening (FTS) tests. These factors are associated with the ambivalence of women toward undergoing screening tests. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effect of Shared Decision-Making (SDM) about undergoing FTS on Decisional Conflict (DC) immediately after consultation and uptake of FTS. Materials and Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 200 pregnant women (100 women in the intervention and 100 in the control groups) referred to health centers for prenatal care in 2019. They were selected by the block randomization sampling method. The control group received the routine care and the intervention group, in addition to routine care, attended a 90-min long consultation session based on SDM. The women were contacted via phone at 14 weeks of pregnancy to collect data on their undertaking prenatal screening tests. The demographic characteristics form and O’Conner’s decisional conflict scale were filled out immediately after the consultation session for the intervention group. The obtained data were analyzed by the Chi-square, Fisher exact-test, Mann-Whitney U, and linear regression tests. The P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups regarding women’s demographic characteristics, except for education level, job, and insurance coverage. The Mean±SD DC score was significantly lower in the intervention group (7.35±8.55) compared to the control group (27.32±13.81) (95%CI; 16.80-24.19, P=0.001). In addition, there was a significant difference between the two groups in terms of undergoing the offered FTS (P=0.04). The DC scores ≥25 were associated with a decreased chance of undergoing FTS (P=0.02). Women were less likely to undergo FTS when they were self-employed (OR=0.15, 95%CI; 0.03-0.71, P=0.01). Conclusion: The SDM consultation can help women experience significantly lower levels of DC. Furthermore, factors such as self-employment can prevent women from undergoing FTS despite lower levels of DC.
Genome-scale CRISPR screening reveals that C3aR signaling is critical for rapid capture of fungi by macrophages

The fungal pathogen Histoplasma capsulatum (Hc) invades, replicates within, and destroys macrophages. To interrogate the molecular mechanisms underlying this interaction, we conducted a host-directed CRISPR-Cas9 screen and identified 361 genes that modify macrophage susceptibility to Hc infection, greatly expanding our understanding of host gene networks targeted by Hc. We identified pathways that have not been previously implicated in Hc interaction with macrophages, including the ragulator complex (involved in nutrient stress sensing), glycosylation enzymes, protein degradation machinery, mitochondrial respiration genes, solute transporters, and the ER membrane complex (EMC). The highest scoring protective hits included the complement C3a receptor (C3aR), a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) that recognizes the complement fragment C3a. Although it is known that the complement system reacts with the fungal surface, leading to opsonization and release of small peptide fragments such as C3a, a role for C3aR in macrophage susceptibility to fungi has not been elucidated. We demonstrated that whereas C3aR is dispensable for macrophage phagocytosis of bacteria and latex beads, it is critical for optimal macrophage capture of pathogenic fungi, including Hc, the ubiquitous fungal pathogen Candida albicans, and the causative agent of Valley Fever Coccidioides posadasii. We showed that C3aR localizes to the early phagosome during H. capsulatum infection where it coordinates the formation of actin-rich membrane protrusions that promote Hc capture. We also showed that the EMC promotes surface expression of C3aR, likely explaining its identification in our screen. Taken together, our results provide new insight into host processes that affect Hc-macrophage interactions and uncover a novel and specific role for C3aR in macrophage recognition of fungi.
Evaluation of pharmacy students’ knowledge and perceptions of transitions of care services

Introduction: Studies support incorporation of pharmacists and pharmacy students to improve health and financial outcomes during transition of care (TOC). Standardisation of TOC educational training is currently lacking in pharmacy curricula. Methods: This study employed a cross-sectional, descriptive study with a convenience sample at one college of pharmacy. Students participated in an anonymous Qualtrics survey including items on TOC service understanding and educational training. Results are reported as means and standard deviation for continuous data; frequencies and percentages for categorical data. Results: Of 116 survey responses, 112 provided informed consent. Seventy-eight percent of respondents stated they have learned about TOC and 66% felt they understood what TOC entails. When asked to identify disease states commonly targeted for TOC, 77% responded incorrectly to this item. When asked to select TOC clinical activities, 66% incorrectly selected medication dispensing. Ninety-six percent of respondents replied that additional educational training on TOC would be beneficial. Conclusion: There is a discrepancy in students’ perception of TOC services with their actual knowledge of TOC services based on survey responses.
The impact of demographic factors on work-family conflict and turnover intentions in the hotel industry

Family and work are the most important aspects in an individual"s life, and the primary goal is to find a balance between these two. Given the characteristics of working in the hotel industry, employees in this industry very often face a conflict between family and work. This study aims to measure the impact of socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, education and marital status) on work-family conflict (WFC) and turnover intentions (TI). On the sample of 1.100 employees in different hotel facilities by applying t -test and analysis of variance ANOVA, it was found that tested socio-demographic characteristics are not significant indicators of experiencing WFC, but age and marital status are proven to be significant determinants of turnover intentions. Results obtained in this study can help managers to understand antecedents and consequences of experiencing work-family conflict and to undertake activities to reduce these conflicts and turnover intentions of employees.