Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Scholarship@Western A Visual Analytics System for Investigating Multimorbidity Using A Visual Analytics System for Investigating Multimorbidity Using Supervised Machine Learning Supervised Machine Learning Lay

Patterns of multimorbidity are complex and difficult to summarise using static visualization techniques like tables and charts. We present a visual analytics system with the goal of facilitating the process of making sense of data collected from patients with multimorbidity. The system reveals underlying patterns in the data visually and interactively, which enables users to easily assess both prevalence and correlation estimates of different chronic diseases among multimorbid patients with varying characteristics. To do so, the system uses count-based conditional probability, binary logistic regression, softmax regression and decision tree models to dynamically compute and visualize prevalence and correlation estimates for subsets of the data characterized by a user-selected set of pre-existing chronic conditions. The system also allows the user to examine the impact of adjusting for characteristics like age and gender on both the prevalence estimates and on correlations among diseases. By dynamically changing patient characteristics of interest and examining the resulting visualizations, the user can explore how prevalence and correlation estimates change with disease diagnosis and with other patient characteristics. This thesis is therefore a significant effort in understanding high-dimensional joint distributions of random variables and the created system can be used in any domain, such as economics, politics or social sciences, in which investigating the relationships between several random variables is vital to drawing the right conclusion.
First insight into the spatial and foraging ecology of the critically endangered Balkan lynx (Lynx lynx balcanicus,

Spatial and foraging ecology of the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) has been well recognized, however due to the distinct taxonomic position and geographic isolation of its Balkan population, it is important to learn and compare its ecology to other populations of this felid. Therefore, the paper offers the first ever investigation into the spatial and foraging ecology of this predator. To that aim, we used modern GPS/GSM telemetry methods, allowing proper research of animal spatial requirements and diet preferences. Individuals were captured using walk-through, double-door box-traps and foot-snares placed on fresh lynx kills. Average home range size of males is 373 km2 (95% MCP) and 400 km2 (0.7 Kernel), while the female’s home range is 119 km2 (95% MCP) and 108 km2 (0.7 Kernel). GPS clusters showed prey remains of 153 kills from five different species: roe deer, chamois, brown hare, red fox and marten. Data collected for the Balkan lynx suggest lower kill rates, probably associated with lower ungulate densities in the study area compared to most of Central Europe, also indicated by the relatively long search time. Although Eurasian lynx can adapt to lower ungulate prey densities by increasing hunting effort, changing spatial organisation or switching to smaller prey, this, in turn, can have adverse demographic effects on the critically endangered Balkan population. Using GPS telemetry, we provided first insight into the space use of this small population, and show that the spatial and foraging ecology of the Balkan lynx appear similar to other European populations of this species, especially those from Central Europe with similar home range size and principal prey preference.
The Antinociceptive Effects of Central and Peripheral Administration of Peganum harmala L. Extracts in Animal Models

Corresponding Author: Abderrahman Chait Laboratory of Pharmacology, Neurobiology, Anthropobiology and Environnement, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, University Cadi Ayyad, Marrakech, Morocco Email: chait@uca.ac. ma Abstract: The medicinal plant Peganum harmala has been used in traditional Moroccan medicine to accelerate the healing process of various diseases and to relieve the pain. The antinociceptive effect of the Aqueous (AE), Dichloromethane (DE) and Butanolic (BE) extracts of the Peganum harmala L. was tested in mice and rats by chemical and thermal models. Plant seed extracts were given intraperitoneally 30 min before the 0.6% acetic acid injection. Dichloromethane (DE) at doses of 25 mg/kg (68.4%; p<0.001), 50 mg/kg (79.75%; p<0.001), AE in doses 25 mg/kg (2.65%; p>0.05), 50 mg/kg (24.39%; p<0.05) and BE in doses 25 mg/kg (36.82%; p<0.001), 50 mg/kg (74.26%; p<0.001) induced decrease in torsional reaction relative to control group. The DE, BE and AE (25, 50 mg/kg, intraperitoneally injection (i.p.,); 60 μg/kg, intracerebroventricular injection (i.c.v.,)) extracts of P. harmala generated a significant latency increase in the tail-flick response to thermal stimulation and generated a significant increase in the reaction time in the hot plate test. Whereas in formalin test, DE, BE and AE revealed a significant impact on both phases when given by intraperitoneal route. The antinociceptive effect of extracts was lower than morphine (10 mg/kg, i.p.,) in the hot-plate test and in both the phases of formalin test. Data suggest that extracts of P. harmala have inhibitory activity on the mechanisms of peripheral and central pain. Analgesic activity of this plant could potentially be associated with the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, saponins and steroids in all P. harmala (Linn) seed extracts. It seems that the reason of popular use to relieve some pains.
High-Frequency and High-Voltage Asymmetric Bipolar Pulse Generator for Electroporation Based Technologies and Therapies

Currently, in high-frequency electroporation, much progress has been made but limited to research groups with custom-made laboratory prototype electroporators. According to the review of electroporators and economic evaluations, there is still an area of pulse parameters that needs to be investigated. The development of an asymmetric bipolar pulse generator with a maximum voltage of 4 kV and minimum duration time of a few hundred nanoseconds, would enable in vivo evaluation of biological effects of high-frequency electroporation pulses. Herein, from a series of most commonly used drivers and optical isolations in high-voltage pulse generators the one with optimal characteristics was used. In addition, the circuit topology of the developed device is described in detail. The developed device is able to generate 4 kV pulses, with theoretical 131 A maximal current and 200 ns minimal pulse duration, the maximal pulse repetition rate is 2 MHz and the burst maximal repetition rate is 1 MHz. The device was tested in vivo. The effectiveness of electrochemotherapy of high-frequency electroporation pulses is compared to “classical” electrochemotherapy pulses. In vivo electrochemotherapy with high-frequency electroporation pulses was at least as effective as with “classical” well-established electric pulses, resulting in 86% and 50% complete responses, respectively. In contrast to previous reports, however, muscle contractions were comparable between the two protocols.
A Halfedge Refinement Rule for Parallel Catmull‐Clark Subdivision

We show that Catmull‐Clark subdivision induces an invariant one‐to‐four refinement rule for halfedges that reduces to simple algebraic expressions. This has two important consequences. First, it allows to refine the halfedges of the input mesh, which completely describe its topology, concurrently in breadth‐first order. Second, it makes the computation of the vertex points straightforward as the halfedges provide all the information that is needed. We leverage these results to derive a novel parallel implementation of Catmull‐Clark subdivision suitable for the GPU. Our implementation supports non‐quad faces, extraordinary vertices, boundaries and semi‐sharp creases seamlessly. Moreover, we show that its speed scales linearly with the number of processors, and yields state‐of‐the‐art performances on modern GPUs.
Appendix F: the role of data in digital advertising

• Data gives platforms a competitive advantage in the provision of digital advertising. Platforms provide targeting capabilities which allow advertisers to retarget their current customers and also to target potential new customers. For these purposes, detailed data on consumers’ demographics, interests, preferences and behaviours is most valuable in terms of profiling consumers, predicting consumers’ potential response to advertising and tailoring advertising messages.
Totoshka, we're not in Kansas anymore: Translating American-Soviet cold war tension through the wonderful wizard of Oz

A principal concern of the Soviet Union in its formative years was, quite fittingly, the formative years: childhood. Adults had lived through the Revolution and thus could never be fully sheared of their former prejudices. Children were the freshly minted citizens of the future and it was to these youngest members of society that the leaders of the fledgling nation directed their full attention. The cultural engineers of the Soviet Union had two things to address in their construction of the new Soviet citizen: the values he would possess and the vehicles through which he would acquire them. The values themselves were at times ambiguous, but their preferred methods of transmission involved mass production and distribution. Books held a particularly special status in the Soviet Union despite its initially largely illiterate population. New cultural ideals had to be disseminated, and books were “one of the mightiest weapons in socialist education of the new generation. ”[1]
Preparation and Quality Evaluation of Brucine Long-Circulating Liposomes

OBJECTIVE To determine optimized prescription and technique for preparing brucine long-circulating liposomes(BLCL) by means of optimization screening,and to evaluate its quality.METHODS BLCL were prepared by the technique of ammonium sulphate gradients with ethanol injection.The poly(ethylene glycol)(PEG) was added to modify the membrane of the liposomes.The shape of BLCL is surveyed under the microscope.The size of BLCL was investigated by laser particle analyzer.The pH,the entrapment efficiency and the result of stability experiment were examined.The in vitro release of brucine from long-circulating liposomes in PBS(pH 7.4) was determined by HPLC.RESULTS BLCL were round,regular in morphology with mean particle size of 120 nm,and its average pH of 6.655. The entrapment efficiency of BLCL was up to 93.72%. The stability was good in 4 ℃ and BLCL had better sustained-released effect than brucine phosphoric acid buffer solution. CONCLUSION This preparation of BLCL is practicable and the pharmaceutical characterization showed stable.
CFD and Experimental Evaluation of R744 Transcritical Gas Cooler Used in Solar Assisted Heat Pump System

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, International Islamic University Malaysia, Malaysia. 2 Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. 3 Gävle University, Kungsbäcksvägen 47, 801 76 GävleSweden. 4 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Palestine Polytechnic University, West Bank. Mechanical Engineering
No-Regret Safe Learning for Online Nonlinear Control with Control Barrier Functions

—Reinforcement Learning (RL) and continuous nonlinear control has been successfully deployed in multiple domains of complicated sequential decision making tasks. However, given the exploration nature of the learning process and the presence of model uncertainty, it is challenging to apply them on safety-critical control tasks due to the lack of safety guarantee. On the other hand, while combining control-theoretical approaches with learning algorithms have shown promise in safe RL applications, the sample efﬁciency of safe data collection process for control is not well addressed. In this paper, we propose a provably sample efﬁcient episodic safe learning framework for online control tasks that leverages safe exploration and exploitation in an unknown, nonlinear dynamical system. In particular, the framework 1) extends control barrier functions (CBFs) in a stochastic setting to achieve provable safety under uncertainty during model learning and 2) integrates an optimism-based exploration strategy to efﬁciently guide the safe exploration process with learned dynamics for near optimal control performance. We provide formal analysis on the episodic regret bound against the optimal controller and probabilistic safety with theoretical guarantee. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness and efﬁciency of the proposed algorithm.
Research and prospect of post-peak strain-softening characteristics of rocks

The current research status and development trends are summarized in order to analyze the strain softening deformation characteristics of post-peak of rocks, and the corresponding key problems are found, the key issues included the influence of strain softening on tunnel engineering and the research status of strain softening in hydraulic engineering. Based on the existing researches, it is found that there are few studies on the deformation characteristics of post-peak of rocks, and there is a lack of damage constitutive model which can better describe the post-peak mechanical properties. At present, it is impossible to simulate the influence of rock softening on stiffness degradation in indoor tests, and there is also a lack of on-site construction measured data as support; at the same time, the surrounding rock control and protection technology under loading and unloading also urgently needs to be improved; in addition, the interaction mechanism between water and structure during rock softening with water needs to be further explored.
Liquid Crystals 2

Das vorliegende Buch mit dem Titel „Liquid Crystals 2", Teil 2, beinhaltet den größten Teil der auf dem 2. Internationalen Kongreß über flüssige Kristalle im Jahre 1968 gehaltenen Vorträge. Während der Band 1 die Plenarund Übersichtsvorträge enthält, sind im Band 2, der hier besprochen werden soll, 65 Kurzbeiträge zusammengestellt, die sich mit überraschend vielfältigen theoretischen wie experimentellen Problemen des kristallinflüssigen Zustandes auseinandersetzen. Unter den theoretisch orientierten Aufsätzen dürften die Ausführungen zur Kontinuumstheorie, die heute als durchaus brauchbares physikalisches Modell
Wrinkles-assisted nanocrystalline formation and mechanical properties of wrinkled graphene/aluminum matrix composites

The graphene-reinforced metal matrix composites (Gr/MMCs), prepared by additive manufacturing technology, render a wide range of promising applications. The graphene sheets in Gr/MMCs may get wrinkled during preparation, which renders a significant influence on crystalline texture and deformation behavior. Herein, molecular dynamics models of wrinkled graphene/aluminum (W-Gr/Al) composites are established to study the effect of graphene wrinkle angle on crystal texture of the metallic matrix during the sintering process and mechanical properties of the resulting composites. The results indicate that the sintering temperature significantly affects the molding quality of W-Gr/Al composites, promoting the transformation of sintering mechanism. Furthermore, new wrinkles appear on initially-wrinkled graphene surfaces during the sintering process, resulting in grain boundaries and twin boundaries (TBs), which facilitate the refinement of Al grains. Moreover, uniaxial compression tests reveal that the W-Gr/Al composites sintered at 900 K exhibit the highest Young’s modulus and yield strength. It has been demonstrated that the enhancement effect of composite originates from the skeleton network, consisting of wrinkled graphene and TBs. These results provide significant guidance for the design and development of Gr/MMCs.
Titan in Transit: Ultraviolet Stellar Occultation Observations Reveal a Complex Atmospheric Structure

Transit spectroscopy is a key tool for exoplanet atmospheric characterization. However, transit spectrum observations can be limited by aerosol extinction when gas opacities are weak. The ultraviolet wavelength range contains a variety of strong molecular and atomic features, potentially enabling gas species detection even when atmospheric hazes are present. To understand the interplay between aerosol extinction and ultraviolet molecular opacities, we investigate transmission through the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan during an occultation observed with the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (UVIS) on board NASA’s Cassini orbiter. We analyze the derived ultraviolet transit spectrum of Titan using exoplanet-relevant atmospheric retrieval models that both include and exclude treatments for hazes. Our retrieved gas column densities are consistent with previous studies analyzing UVIS occultation data. Despite the apparent haze impact on the underlying occultation data, our treatments fail to correctly characterize the haze in fits derived from simulated transit observations. This suggests that oversimplified haze parameterizations can hinder detection of atmospheric hazes in transit. Our work indicates that continued characterization of exoplanets in the ultraviolet wavelength regime can provide novel atmospheric constraints even if transit spectra are dominated by haze extinction at longer wavelengths.
Institutional Investors, Corporate Environmental Performance, and Corporate Financial Performance

We propose a conceptual framework to illustrate that when three conditions hold, institutional investors moderate a positive relation between corporate financial performance (CFP) and corporate environmental performance (CEP). We explore heterogeneities across institution types to demonstrate the importance of each condition. We hypothesize and test that the moderating effect works through the channels of expert consulting and effective monitoring. Our results have important policy and practical implications given the global trend of ownership concentration in institutional investors and that one out of four dollars under professional management was invested in funds with a CSR orientation by the start of 2018.
Optimizing hyperparameters of deep reinforcement learning for autonomous driving based on whale optimization algorithm

Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) enables agents to make decisions based on a well-designed reward function that suites a particular environment without any prior knowledge related to a given environment. The adaptation of hyperparameters has a great impact on the overall learning process and the learning processing times. Hyperparameters should be accurately estimated while training DRL algorithms, which is one of the key challenges that we attempt to address. This paper employs a swarm-based optimization algorithm, namely the Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA), for optimizing the hyperparameters of the Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) algorithm to achieve the optimum control strategy in an autonomous driving control problem. DDPG is capable of handling complex environments, which contain continuous spaces for actions. To evaluate the proposed algorithm, the Open Racing Car Simulator (TORCS), a realistic autonomous driving simulation environment, was chosen to its ease of design and implementation. Using TORCS, the DDPG agent with optimized hyperparameters was compared with a DDPG agent with reference hyperparameters. The experimental results showed that the DDPG’s hyperparameters optimization leads to maximizing the total rewards, along with testing episodes and maintaining a stable driving policy.
Accuracy of Tissue and Sonication Fluid Sampling for the Diagnosis of Fracture-Related Infection: Diagnostic Meta-Analysis

Evidence shows that tissue sample culturing is the gold standard approach for diagnosing fracture-related infection (FRI). Sonication fluid sampling has also been reported to be efficacious and superior to tissue sample culturing with prosthetic joint infection. However, data from the current literature are not enough to validate this hypothesis for FRI. We conducted a meta-analysis to validate the diagnostic accuracy of tissue sample culturing and sonication fluid aspiration and to find which one is superior to the other. An extensive search through the relevant databases was conducted to obtain all the relevant studies. We have included 13 relevant studies, including nine retrospective cohorts and four prospective ones. The overall pooled estimates of sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) of tissue sampling culture in diagnosing fracture-related infections were 98% (95% CI, 92% to 99%), 38% (95% CI, 23% to 56%), and 25 (4 to 154), respectively. The overall pooled estimates of sensitivity, specificity, and DOR of sonication fluid sample culture in diagnosing fracture-related infections were 86% (95% CI, 79% to 92%), 98% (95% CI, 93% to 100%), and 353 (78 to 1598), respectively. No significant risk of bias was found regarding the sensitivity and specificity among studies investigating both modalities, however, significant heterogeneity was noticed. Sonication fluid sampling can be used to confirm FRI while tissue sampling can be used to exclude it and both modalities should be combined for obtaining the most accurate outcome.
Do oral contraceptives affect young women’s memory? Dopamine-dependent working memory is influenced by COMT genotype, but not time of pill ingestion

Background Despite the widespread use of oral contraceptives (OCs), and the well-documented influence of estrogens, notably 17β-estradiol (E2), on cognition, research relating OCs to working memory is limited and mixed. Two factors may contribute to these mixed findings: 1) pharmacokinetics of oral contraceptives, which drive fluctuations in synthetic hormone levels; and 2) genetic polymorphisms related to dopamine degradation and working memory, which interact with E2. This research investigated whether the pharmacokinetics of oral contraceptives, in concert with the single nucleotide polymorphism (Val158Met; rs4680) of the catechol-o-methyltransferase gene (COMT), influence working memory performance. Methods University-age women taking and not taking OCs were tested for working memory and genotyped for COMT. If they were not taking OCs (n = 62), sessions occurred in the early follicular (low E2) and late follicular (high E2) phase. If they were taking OCs (n = 52), sessions occurred 1–2 hours after (high ethinyl estradiol, EE) and ~24 hours after (low EE) pill ingestion. Working memory was tested using the N-back, AX-CPT, Digit Span, and Digit Ordering Tasks. Data were analyzed using multilevel models with estrogen condition, COMT, and group as predictors, controlling for mood and practice effects. Results For women taking OCs, time of pill ingestion did not influence performance. However, the subgroup with COMT val/val (low dopamine) were less accurate on 2-back lure trials than those with COMT met/met (high dopamine). For women not taking OCs, cycle phase moderated COMT’s influence on lure accuracy. When compared, women taking OCs had higher AX-CPT proactive control indices than those not taking OCs. Conclusion These findings suggest that oral contraceptives are not detrimental for young women’s working memory and that they may increase proactive control. The more pronounced effects of COMT in women taking OCs suggests that, in women taking OCs, suppressed endogenous E2–not fluctuating EE levels–may be more relevant for working memory. Future studies are needed to differentiate effects of endogenous versus synthetic estrogens on working memory.