Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How COVID-19 Triggers Our Herding Behavior? Risk Perception, State Anxiety, and Trust

People have felt afraid during the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), because a virus is an invisible enemy. During the pandemic outbreak, society has become worried about the spread of infections and the shortage of protective equipment. This common fear among the public subsequently deepens each person's fear, increasing their belief in the content reported by the media and thus actively compelling these individuals to engage in the behavior of panic buying. In this study, we explored the effects of the public's risk perception, state anxiety, and trust in social media on the herding effect among individuals. The study was based on an online questionnaire survey and convenience sampling. The results showed that the public's risk perception increased their state anxiety and then deepened their willingness to wait in line for a purchase. In addition, the more people that trust the message delivered by the media, the more actively they will join the queue to buy goods. This study also found that anxiety had a greater impact on the public's willingness to wait for a purchase than trust in social media. Therefore, the top priority for the government should be to reduce the public's state anxiety and then reduce the herding effect.
Seedmarkers: Embeddable Markers for Physical Objects

We present Seedmarkers, shape-independent topological markers that can be embedded in physical objects manufactured with common rapid-prototyping techniques. Many markers are optimized for technical performance while visual appearance or the feasibility of permanently merging marker and physical object is not considered. We give an overview of the aesthetic properties of a wide range of existing markers and conducted a short online survey to assess the perception of popular marker designs. Based on our findings we introduce our generation algorithm making use of weighted Voronoi diagrams for topological optimization. With our generator, Seedmarkers can be created from technical drawings during the design process to fill arbitrary shapes on any surface. Given dimensions and manufacturing constraints, different configurations for 3 or 6 degrees of freedom tracking are possible. We propose a set of application examples for shape-independent markers, including 3D printed tangibles, laser cut plates and functional markers on printed circuit boards.
StringTouch - From String Instruments towards new Interface Morphologies

We present StringTouch, a user interface design exploration translating the expressive resource of string instruments to a new interface morphology. StringTouch transfers the string as a tactile element of interaction to the touch surface, resulting in a tactilely experienceable interface. In this paper we discuss our research through design centered approach, which focused on the exploration of musical string instruments and their translation to the UI context. To investigate this specific design space, we analyzed the systematic and handling of string instruments as well as common HCI principles to develop the interaction concept. The resulting experience prototype demonstrates the idea’s potential for haptic UI design and provides insights into the prototyping process. We present: (1) the investigation of string instruments as a resource for TUI design and (2) the transfer to a generic UI context to inform new hybrid interface morphologies that combine features of tangible, touch, and flexible interaction.
Tangible Signals - Prototyping Interactive Physical Sound Displays

This work-in-progress paper presents three tangible user interface prototypes that use sensor technology in combination with mechanical actuators to provide an interactive physical display of sound and music data for people with visual impairments. The prototypes can be used either separately or combined as input and output devices utilizing pin-based, string-based and wheel-based interaction elements. They were developed as part of the research project Tangible Signals. In the paper, each prototype will be presented separately, including discussion of concept, interaction modalities, hardware design and possible use cases.
Upper Motor Neuron Signs in the Cervical Region of Patients With Flail Arm Syndrome

Objective: We investigated upper motor neuron (UMN) signs in the cervical region in a Chinese clinic-based cohort of patients with flail arm syndrome (FAS) by clinical examination and neurophysiological tests such as triple stimulation technique (TST) and pectoralis tendon reflex testing. Methods: A total of 130 consecutive FAS patients from Peking University Third Hospital underwent physical examination and neurophysiological tests at baseline and 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and 12 months later. Pyramidal signs, pectoralis tendon reflex and TST results were evaluated to estimate the function of cervical spinal UMNs. Results: At the first visit, weakness of the bilateral proximal upper limbs was found in 99 patients, while weakness of a single proximal upper limb was found in 31 patients. There were 49 patients with tendon hyperreflexia, 42 patients with tendon hyporeflexia and 39 patients with tendon areflexia. All except 4 of the patients had brisk pectoralis tendon reflex. The UMN score of the cervical region was 1.7 ± 0.4, and the lower motor neuron score of that region was 3.5 ± 0.3. The TSTtest/TSTcontrol amplitude ratio was 65.7 ± 7.5%. The latency of quantitative detection of the pectoralis tendon reflex was 7.7 ± 1.2 ms. In the follow-up study, the UMN score and the TSTtest/TSTcontrol amplitude ratio decreased, while the lower motor neuron score increased, and the latency of quantitative detection of the pectoralis tendon reflex remained steady. Conclusion: Although the signs of cervical spinal UMN dysfunction in patients with FAS were often concealed by muscle atrophy in the progression of the disease, TST and pectoralis tendon reflex could reveal it.
An Anti-Tumor Vaccine Against Marek's Disease Virus Induces Differential Activation and Memory Response of γδ T Cells and CD8 T Cells in Chickens

Marek's disease virus (MDV) is a highly oncogenic alphaherpesvirus that causes deadly T-cell lymphomas and serves as a natural virus-induced tumor model in chickens. The most efficacious vaccine, CVI988/Rispens (CVI988), against MD has been used for several decades. However, the mechanisms leading to protective immunity following vaccination are not fully understood. In this study, employing multi-parameter flow cytometry, we performed a comprehensive analysis of T cell responses in CVI988-vaccinated chickens. CVI988 vaccination induced significant expansion of γδ T cells and CD8α+ T cells but not CD4+ T cells in spleen, lung and blood at early time-points. The expansion of these cells was CVI988-specific as infection with very virulent MDV RB1B did not elicit expansion of either γδ or CD8α+ T cells. Phenotypic analysis showed that CVI988 vaccination elicited preferential proliferation of CD8α+ γδ T cells and CD8αα co-receptor expression was upregulated on γδ T cells and CD8α+ T cells after immunization. Additionally, cell sorting and quantitative RT-PCR showed that CVI988 vaccination activated γδ T cells and CD8α+ T cells which exhibited differential expression of cytotoxic and T cell-related cytokines. Lastly, secondary immunization with CVI988 induced the expansion of CD8+ T cells but not γδ T cells at higher magnitude, compared to primary immunization, suggesting CVI988 did induce memory CD8+ T cells but not γδ T cells in chickens. Our results, for the first time, reveal a potential role of γδ T cells in CVI988-induced immune protection and provide new insights into the mechanism of immune protection against oncogenic MDV.
Using a Riboswitch Sensor to Detect Co2+/Ni2+ Transport in E. coli

Intracellular concentrations of essential mental ions must be tightly maintained to avoid metal deprivation and toxicity. However, their levels in cells are still difficult to monitor. In this report, the combination of a Co2+Ni2+-specific riboswitch and an engineered downstream mCherry fluorescent protein allowed a highly sensitive and selective whole-cell Co2+/Ni2+ detection process. The sensors were applied to examine the resistance system of Co2+/Ni2+ in E. coli, and the sensors were able to monitor the effects of genetic deletions. These results indicate that riboswitch-based sensors can be employed in the study of related cellular processes.
miR-103a-3p and miR-22-5p Are Reliable Reference Genes in Extracellular Vesicles From Cartilage, Adipose Tissue, and Bone Marrow Cells

Cartilage cells (CCs), adipose tissue (ASC)- and bone marrow (BMSC)-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have been shown as promising candidates for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA). Despite their adaptive ability, exposure to chronic catabolic and inflammatory processes can limit their survival and healing potential. An attractive cell-free alternative or complementary strategy is represented by their secreted extracellular vesicles (EVs), having homeostatic properties on OA chondrocytes and synovial cells. In view of clinical translation, a thorough characterization of the shuttled therapeutic molecules, like miRNAs, is greatly needed to fingerprint and develop the most effective EV formulation for OA treatment. To date, a crucial pitfall is given by the lack of EV-miRNA-associated reference genes (RGs) for the reliable quantification and comparison among different therapeutic EV-based therapeutic products. In this study, the stability of 12 putative miRNA RGs (let-7a-5p, miR-16-5p, miR-22-5p, miR-23a-3p, miR-26a-5p, miR-29a-5p, miR-101-3p, miR-103a-3p, miR-221-3p, miR-423-5p, miR-425-5p and miR-660-5p), already proposed by literature in EV products from alternative sources, was assessed in EVs isolated from three donor-matched ASCs, BMSCs, and CCs through geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper, and ΔCt algorithms and the geometric mean of rankings. ASC-EVs and BMSC-EVs shared more similar molecular signatures than cartilage-derived EVs, although overall miR-103a-3p consistently ranked as the first and miR-22-5p as the second most stable EV-miRNA RG, whereas miR-221-3p behaved poorly. Further, to emphasize the impact of incorrect RG choice, the abundance of four OA-therapeutic miRNAs (miR-93-5p, miR-125b-5p, miR-455-3p, and miR-27b-3p) was compared. The use of miR-221-3p led to less accurate EV fingerprinting and, when applied to sift therapeutic potency prediction, to misleading indication of the most appropriate clinical product. In conclusion, miR-103a-3p and miR-22-5p will represent reliable RGs for the quantification of miRNAs embedded in MSC- and CC-EVs, a mandatory step for the molecular definition and comparison of the clinical potency of these innovative cell-free-based therapeutic products for OA in particular, as well as for a wider array of regenerative-medicine-based approaches.
Diffusion Tensor Imaging of Skeletal Muscle Contraction Using Oscillating Gradient Spin Echo

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures water diffusion in skeletal muscle tissue and allows for muscle assessment in a broad range of neuromuscular diseases. However, current DTI measurements, typically performed using pulsed gradient spin echo (PGSE) diffusion encoding, are limited to the assessment of non-contracted musculature, therefore providing limited insight into muscle contraction mechanisms and contraction abnormalities. In this study, we propose the use of an oscillating gradient spin echo (OGSE) diffusion encoding strategy for DTI measurements to mitigate the effect of signal voids in contracted muscle and to obtain reliable diffusivity values. Two OGSE sequences with encoding frequencies of 25 and 50 Hz were tested in the lower leg of five healthy volunteers with relaxed musculature and during active dorsiflexion and plantarflexion, and compared with a conventional PGSE approach. A significant reduction of areas of signal voids using OGSE compared with PGSE was observed in the tibialis anterior for the scans obtained in active dorsiflexion and in the soleus during active plantarflexion. The use of PGSE sequences led to unrealistically elevated axial diffusivity values in the tibialis anterior during dorsiflexion and in the soleus during plantarflexion, while the corresponding values obtained using the OGSE sequences were significantly reduced. Similar findings were seen for radial diffusivity, with significantly higher diffusivity measured in plantarflexion in the soleus muscle using the PGSE sequence. Our preliminary results indicate that DTI with OGSE diffusion encoding is feasible in human musculature and allows to quantitatively assess diffusion properties in actively contracting skeletal muscle. OGSE holds great potential to assess microstructural changes occurring in the skeletal muscle during contraction, and for non-invasive assessment of contraction abnormalities in patients with muscle diseases.
A Chlorophyll-a Algorithm for Landsat-8 Based on Mixture Density Networks

Retrieval of aquatic biogeochemical variables, such as the near-surface concentration of chlorophyll-a (Chla) in inland and coastal waters via remote observations, has long been regarded as a challenging task. This manuscript applies Mixture Density Networks (MDN) that use the visible spectral bands available by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) aboard Landsat-8 to estimate Chla. We utilize a database of co-located in situ radiometric and Chla measurements (N = 4,354), referred to as Type A data, to train and test an MDN model (MDNA). This algorithm’s performance, having been proven for other satellite missions, is further evaluated against other widely used machine learning models (e.g., support vector machines), as well as other domain-specific solutions (OC3), and shown to offer significant advancements in the field. Our performance assessment using a held-out test data set suggests that a 49% (median) accuracy with near-zero bias can be achieved via the MDNA model, offering improvements of 20 to 100% in retrievals with respect to other models. The sensitivity of the MDNA model and benchmarking methods to uncertainties from atmospheric correction (AC) methods, is further quantified through a semi-global matchup dataset (N = 3,337), referred to as Type B data. To tackle the increased uncertainties, alternative MDN models (MDNB) are developed through various features of the Type B data (e.g., Rayleigh-corrected reflectance spectra ρ s ). Using held-out data, along with spatial and temporal analyses, we demonstrate that these alternative models show promise in enhancing the retrieval accuracy adversely influenced by the AC process. Results lend support for the adoption of MDNB models for regional and potentially global processing of OLI imagery, until a more robust AC method is developed. Index Terms—Chlorophyll-a, coastal water, inland water, Landsat-8, machine learning, ocean color, aquatic remote sensing.
Social functioning and emotion recognition in adults with triple X syndrome

Background Triple X syndrome (TXS) is caused by aneuploidy of the X chromosome and is associated with impaired social functioning in children; however, its effect on social functioning and emotion recognition in adults is poorly understood. Aims The aim of this study was to investigate social functioning and emotion recognition in adults with TXS. Method This cross-sectional cohort study was designed to compare social functioning and emotion recognition between adults with TXS (n = 34) and an age-matched control group (n = 31). Social functioning was assessed with the Adult Behavior Checklist and Social Responsiveness Scale for Adults. Emotion recognition was assessed with the Emotion Recognition Task in the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery. Differences were analysed by Mann-Whitney U-test. Results Compared with controls, women with TXS scored higher on the Adult Behavior Checklist, including the Withdrawn scale (P < 0.001, effect size 0.4) and Thought Problems scale (P < 0.001, effect size 0.4); and higher on the Social Responsiveness Scale for Adults, indicating impaired social functioning (P < 0.001, effect size 0.5). In addition, women with TXS performed worse on the Emotion Recognition Task, particularly with respect to recognising sadness (P < 0.005, effect size 0.4), fear (P < 0.01, effect size 0.4) and disgust (P < 0.02, effect size 0.3). Conclusions Our findings indicate that adults with TXS have a higher prevalence of impaired social functioning and emotion recognition. These results highlight the relevance of sex chromosome aneuploidy as a potential model for studying disorders characterised by social impairments such as autism spectrum disorder, particularly among women.
Ammonium Dinitramide (ADN)–Prilling, Coating, and Characterization

Ammonium dinitramide (ADN) is the promising oxidizer, which is expected to be applied, e.g., in solid rocket propellants. The manufacturing of spherical ADN particles (the so-called ADN-Prills) with useful morphology and reproducible quality is realized by means of the emulsion crystallization process.
A Populist Monster and the future of Constitutional Democracy

Abstract The central objective of the post-socialist European countries which are also Member States of the EU and Council of Europe, as proclaimed and enshrined in their constitutions before their official independence, is the establishment of a democracy based on the rule of law and effective legal protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms. In this article the author explains what, in his opinion, is the main problem and why these goals are still not sufficiently achieved: the ruthless simplification of the understanding of the social function and functioning of constitutional courts, which is narrow, rigid and holistically focused primarily or exclusively on the question of whether the judges of these courts are “left or right” in purely daily-political sense, and consequently, whether constitutional court decisions are taken (described, understood) as either “left or right” in purely and shallow daily-party-political sense/manner. With nothing else between and no other foundation. The author describes such rhetoric, this kind of superficial labeling/marking, such an approach towards constitutional law-making as a matter of unbearable and unthinking simplicity, and introduces the term A Populist Monster. The reasons that have led to the problem of this kind of populism and its devastating effects on the quality and development of constitutional democracy and the rule of law are analyzed clearly and critically.
EHANet: Efficient Hybrid Attention Network towards Real-time Semantic Segmentation

Semantic segmentation suffers from the contradiction between inference speed and model accuracy. State-of-the-art real-time methods improve inference rapidity by sacrificing feature representation and model capacity. This paper proposes a novel Efficient Hybrid Attention Network (EHANet) to remedy this dilemma. The EHANet follows an encoder-decoder structure, where the encoder is composed of Reduced Basic-Block (RBB) with very few parameters. At decoding stages, a hybrid attention mechanism is designed to re-weight the feature map. The attention mechanism employs contextual attention for deep features and spatial attention for shallow features. The proposed architecture makes a trade off between inference speed and segmentation performance. As a result, the proposed model achieves 66.1% mIoU on the Cityscapes validation set. Meanwhile, it can operate at a speed of 113 FPS on one NVIDIA Titan XP GPU for an input image with size of $1024\times 512$.
Low Mass Stars or Intermediate Mass Stars? The Stellar Origin of Presolar Oxide Grains Revealed by Their Isotopic Composition

Among presolar grains, oxide ones are made of oxygen, aluminum, and a small fraction of magnesium, produced by the 26Al decay. The largest part of presolar oxide grains belong to the so-called group 1 and 2, which have been suggested to form in Red Giant Branch (RGB) and Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars, respectively. However, standard stellar nucleosynthesis models cannot account for the 17O/16O, 18O/16O, and 26Al/27Al values recorded in those grains. Hence, for more than 20 years, the occurrence of mixing phenomena coupled with stellar nucleosynthesis have been suggested to account for this peculiar isotopic mix. Nowadays, models of massive AGB stars experiencing Hot Bottom Burning or low mass AGB stars where Cool Bottom Process, or another kind of extra-mixing, is at play, nicely fit the oxygen isotopic mix of group 2 oxide grains. The largest values of the 26Al/27Al ratio seem somewhat more difficult to account for.
Scheduling and Relay Selection for Full-Duplex Wireless Powered Cooperative Communication Networks

In this manuscript, we consider a full-duplex wireless powered cooperative communication system where the users communicate with a hybrid access point through relays. We formulate an optimization problem with the objective to minimize the total transmission time through user scheduling and relay selection while considering the traffic demand, energy causality and initial battery levels of the users. The formulated optimization problem is a mixed integer non-linear programming problem, hence difficult to solve for the global optimal solution. As a solution strategy, we decompose the problem into sub problems: time allocation, scheduling and relay selection. In the time allocation problem; the schedule and relays are assumed to be pre-known, we derive the optimal solution by using the optimality analysis. For the scheduling problem; we assume that users know their relays, we determine the optimal schedule. For the relay selection problem; users transmit their information in a pre-determined order, we determine the optimal relays for each user. For the overall scheduling and relay selection problem, we propose a heuristic algorithm which iteratively determines the scheduling and relay selection in polynomial time by using the optimal solutions of the individual relay selection and scheduling problems. Through simulations, we demonstrate that the scheduling length can be significantly reduced through proper scheduling and relay selection. The proposed algorithm performs very close to the optimal solution for different maximum user transmit power, network densities, initial battery levels and hybrid access point power levels.
Effectiveness of Improved Use of Chewing Gum During Capsule Endoscopy in Decreasing Gastric Transit Time: A Prospective Randomized Controlled Study

Background/Aim: Chewing gum throughout small bowel capsule endoscopy (SBCE) increases completion rates (CRs) but decreases small bowel transit time (SBTT) and diagnostic yield (DY). We determined the effects of chewing gum early during SBCE on gastric transit time (GTT), SBTT, CR, DY, and gastroscopy intervention. Methods: We prospectively enrolled patients (ages 16–80 years) undergoing SBCE between January and June 2019. Patients were randomized to a chewing gum group (103 patients) and a control group (102 patients). Patients in the former group chewed one piece of gum for ~15 min every 30 min during the first hour of SBCE. Two gastroenterologists blinded to the study group examined the data. Results: GTT was shorter in the chewing gum group (19.0 min, interquartile range: 17.0–52.0 min) than in the control group [42.5 min (23.25–60 min); P = 0.01]. SBTT was similar in the two groups [318.5 min (239.5–421.3 min) vs. 287.0 min (216.0–386.0 min); P = 0.08]. Gastroscopy rate was lower in the chewing gum group (15.53 vs. 32.35%, P = 0.005). CR (95.15 vs. 89.22%, P = 0.114) and DY (66.02 vs. 59.80%, P = 0.359) did not differ between the groups. The number of abnormal-lesion types detected per patient was higher in the chewing gum group [1.0 (0.0–2.0) vs. 2.0 (0.0–2.0); P = 0.049]. Conclusions: Chewing gum early during SBCE significantly reduced GTT and gastroscopy intervention, with no influence on SBTT (Trial number: NCT03815136).