Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integral non-local means algorithm for image noise suppression

The non-local means (NLM) algorithm computes the weighted average of the difference between two local patches centred at each neighbour and the centred pixel, which is adapted for the adaptive mean filter of noise suppression. However, computation of the weighted average of the local patch difference is very time consuming. To solve this problem, a fast weighted average computation using an integral image for the NLM, called integral NLM (INLM), is proposed. The performance of the INLM algorithm is estimated and the experimental results show that the outcomes of INLM are totally the same as those by the classical NLM, while the running time is reduced significantly.
Provider’s Perception of Parental Anxiety in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

Parents of critically ill children in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) commonly experience new or worsening anxiety, which can lead to long-term sequelae in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To investigate how well the PICU providers recognize and assess parental anxiety, we assessed the acute and baseline anxiety level of 30 parents in the PICU with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and compared the results with the PICU physician's and nurses' assessments. All but four parents experienced higher acute anxiety scores compared to baseline, with a 34% increase in the number of parents with moderate and high anxiety scores. All PICU providers performed poorly in recognizing and assessing parental anxiety, with a tendency to underestimate the level of anxiety. Proper screening tools and strategies are essential to recognize and help parents in distress and potentially prevent long-term psychological sequelae.
Crue du 23 novembre 2019 sur la Côte d’Azur : comparaison de débits estimés par analyse d’images et par modélisation hydrologique

RÉSUMÉ Les précipitations courtes et violentes observées sur la Côte d’Azur conduisent souvent à des crues-éclairs sur les bassins versants côtiers : lors de la crue du 2 octobre 2015, un débit de pointe compris entre 185 et 295 m3/s a été estimé sur la Brague à Biot vers 20h00, alors que le débit y était d’environ 1 m3/s à 17h30 . Si les mesures de tel débits sont très importantes (pour l’analyse statistique des crues, la modélisation des crues, la conception d’ouvrages hydrauliques), elles sont dangereuses lorsqu’elles nécessitent qu’un opérateur manipule un instrument dans ou à proximité de la rivière. Des méthodes alternatives peuvent être utilisées, comme l’analyse de vidéo. Dans ce travail, nous avons appliqué deux algorithmes différents de vélocimétrie d’images (LSPIV) (Fudaa-LSPIV et OpyFlow) à plusieurs vidéos des inondations du 23 novembre 2019 sur le bassin versant de la Brague, afin d’estimer les débits. Les valeurs de débit obtenues sont ensuite comparées aux débits mesurés, ainsi qu’aux résultats de la modélisation pluie-débit sur les mêmes sections. Les estimations LSPIV, les simulations de débits et les observations sont cohérentes sur les sections étudiées, montrant l’intérêt de combiner des techniques aussi différentes et indépendantes pour estimer les valeurs de débit de crue.
The origin of the Far-infrared continuum of z ~ 6 quasars: a radiative transfer model for SDSS J1148+5251

We investigate the origin of the FIR continuum of SDSS J1148+5251, using it as a prototype for the more general class of high-luminosity high-redshift QSOs. We run the radiative transfer code TRADING to follow the transfer of radiation from the central source and from stellar sources through the dusty environment of the host galaxy. The model is based on the output of the semi-analytical merger tree code, GAMETE/QSOdust, which enables to predict the evolution of the host galaxy and of its nuclear black hole, following the star formation history and chemical evolution -- including dust -- in all the progenitor galaxies of SDSS J1148+5251. We find that the radiation emitted by the central source can also provide an important source of heating for the dust distributed in the host galaxy, powering at least 30% and up to 70% of the observed far infrared emission at rest-frame wavelengths [20 - 1000]micron. The remaining fraction is contributed by stellar sources and can only be achieved if the host galaxy is able to sustain a star formation rate of ~ 900 Msun/yr at z=6.4. This points to a co-evolution scenario where, during their hierarchical assembly, the first SMBHs and their host galaxies first grow at the same pace until the black hole reaches a mass of ~ 2 10^8 Msun and starts growing faster than its host, reaching the bright quasar phase when the black hole and stellar mass fall within the scatter of the scaling relation observed in local galaxies. This same evolutionary scenario has been recently shown to explain the properties of a larger sample of 5 < z <6.4 QSOs, and imply that current dynamical mass measurements may have missed an important fraction of the host galaxy stellar mass. We conclude that the FIR luminosity of high-z quasars is a sensitive tracer of the rapidly changing physical conditions in the host galaxy.
Hybrid closed-loop controller for modular multilevel converter with optima number of sensor approach

ABSTRACT Model predictive control (MPC) is considered one of the best non-linear control methods for controlling the modular multilevel converter (MMC) due to various advantages, such as no need for direct modelling, high dynamic response, and the ability to manage multiple control targets simultaneously. In this paper, a current closed-loop controller (CCLC) based on the current predictive strategy (CPS) is used to control the circulating and output currents in an MMC. A bilinear mathematical model of the MMC is derived and discretized to predict the states of the MMC for one step ahead. In addition, to reduce the practical costs and reduce the converter sensors, a sensor reduction algorithm has been used to reduce the number of voltage sensors and increase the reliability of the system. The proposed method is implemented in a single-phase MMC with four sub-modules (SMs) in each arm. The accuracy and performance of the proposed method are evaluated with simulation and experimental results.
ESTUDOS EXPERIMENTAIS DESENVOLVIDOS POR ENFERMEIROS BRASILEIROS: REVISÃO INTEGRATIVA

Objetivo: identificar a produção nacional da enfermagem brasileira de estudos experimentais nos últimos cinco anos. Método: revisão integrativa realizada nas bases de dados, MEDLINE, BVS, Embase, CINAHL e Scopus. Para a estratégia de busca utilizou-se os descritores: “Ensaio Clínico Controlado”, “Ensaio Clínico”, “Ensaio Clínico Controlado Aleatório” e “Pesquisa em Enfermagem”. Como critérios de inclusão estabeleceu-se: artigos originais; entre os anos de 2015 a 2020; nos idiomas português, inglês e/ou espanhol e com pontuação cinco no escore de Jadad. Resultados: Foram analisados 16 artigos com escore cinco na escala de Jadad, que contemplam três premissas: randomização, cegamento e descrição de perdas adequadamente. Os estudos foram categorizados conforme enfoque das pesquisas. Identificou-se quatro grandes áreas de conhecimento: práticas integrativas, saúde do adulto-idoso, saúde materno-infantil e estomaterapia. Na temática de práticas integrativas os estudos demonstraram eficácia dessas práticas, enquanto na área de saúde adulto-idoso e materno-infantil prevaleceram estudos de intervenções educativas; estudos de estomaterapia abordaram terapias tópicas que auxiliam no processo de cicatrização tecidual/prevenção de lesões de pele. Conclusão: Identificou-se que o principal enfoque dos estudos com o método experimental por enfermeiros brasileiros pertencia a quatro grandes áreas de conhecimento da saúde e abordaram questões educativas e intervenções clínicas da prática da enfermagem.
Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on meat or equivalent consumption behavior among Sri Lankan adults: a cross-sectional study

Background: The COVID-19 lockdown severely affected dietary behaviors, particularly meat or equivalent consumption. This study aimed to understand the impact of COVID-19 confinement on meat or equivalent consumption pattern among Sri Lankans. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from 27th May to 2nd June 2021 as a national-level online survey in Sri Lanka using a self-administered questionnaire developed as Google forms. The questionnaire consisted of questions related to socio-demographics and dietary behaviors. Descriptive, univariate, and multinomial logistic regression was performed. The statistical significance is considered at less than 0.05. Results: A total of 3600 respondents were included, with the majority being women (60.1%). A higher proportion of the participants increased their consumption of eggs (53.7%), dhal (47.0%), and dry fish and sprats (36.3%). A big trend was observed in cutting down the fish (41.1%) and other seafood (52.0%) consumption. Nearly half of the respondents did not change their consumption of meat other than chicken (54.5%), pulses (52.6%), soya meat (52.1%), dry fish and sprats (48.9%), canned fish (47.6%), sausages and meatballs (45.1%), and chicken (43.7%). The males (odds ratio (OR) 0.852; 95% CI: 0.738 to 0.984, P = 0.029) and Tamil (OR = 1.605, 95% CI: 1.150 to 2.239, P = 0.005) showed a significant likelihood to increase egg consumption. Respondents with a lower income <25,000 LKR (OR 2.220; 95% CI 1.672-2.947, P = 0.000) were more than twice likely to report increased dhal consumption. The same income group (< 25,000 LKR) (OR = 2.752; 95% CI: 2.024-3.741, P = 0.000) reported more than twice reduction in fish consumption. Respondents in municipal area (OR = 1.523; 95% CI: 1.186 to 3.292, P = 0.009) showed a significantly higher likelihood to reduction in other seafood consumption. Conclusion: An overall change in meat or equivalent consumption behavior among Sri Lankan adults was evidenced. Furthermore, nutrition recommendations should be revised to avoid future long-term consequences. Fish and other seafood intake declined, while consumption of eggs, dhal, dry fish, and sprats increased.
A Classification Method for Electronic Components Based on Siamese Network

In the field of electronics manufacturing, electronic component classification facilitates the management and recycling of the functional and valuable electronic components in electronic waste. Current electronic component classification methods are mainly based on deep learning, which requires a large number of samples to train the model. Owing to the wide variety of electronic components, collecting datasets is a time-consuming and laborious process. This study proposed a Siamese network-based classification method to solve the electronic component classification problem for a few samples. First, an improved visual geometry group 16 (VGG-16) model was proposed as the feature extraction part of the Siamese neural network to improve the recognition performance of the model under small samples. Then, a novel channel correlation loss function that allows the model to learn the correlation between different channels in the feature map was designed to further improve the generalization performance of the model. Finally, the nearest neighbor algorithm was used to complete the classification work. The experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve high classification accuracy under small sample conditions and is robust for electronic components with similar appearances. This improves the classification quality of electronic components and reduces the training sample collection cost.
Downregulation of S100A9 Reverses Cisplatin-Resistance and Inhibits Proliferation and Migration in Hypopharyngeal Carcinoma

Purpose Patients with hypopharyngeal carcinoma (HPC) often progress to an advanced clinical stage at diagnosis. Cisplatin has been widely used in first-line chemotherapy for advanced HPC. However, acquired chemotherapeutic resistance leads to recurrence, metastasis, and a poor survival rate. Therefore, identifying new drug targets to improve treatment effects is still in need. Methods To screen the differential expression genes (DEGs) and proteins (DEPs), we conducted transcriptomic and proteomic analysis on cisplatin-sensitive cell lines (FaDu) and cisplatin-resistant cell lines (FaDu/DDP) of hypopharyngeal carcinoma. DEGs and DEPs, possibly the most associated with cisplatin-resistance, were verified by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western blot (WB), respectively, and the biological function of the screened S100A9 was further tested by CCK8, wound healing, and transwell assays. Results We identified S100A9 as a target for resensitizing the response to cisplatin in an acquired resistance model. S100A9 overexpression was significantly related to cisplatin resistance. Functional studies in vitro models demonstrated that downregulation of S100A9 overcame cisplatin-resistance and inhibited proliferation and migration. Later, we verified that downregulation of S100A9 suppressed the interleukin-6 (IL6) expression and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) pathway. Conclusion In all, S100A9 plays a crucial role in cisplatin-resistance, proliferation, and migration of HPC. Targeting S100A9 may become a novel strategy for the treatment of HPC.
Estimation of breeding value of blackcurrant genotypes for growth vigour, plant habit and their susceptibility to fungal diseases.

The study was conducted in 2012–2014 at the Experimental Orchard of the National Institute of Horticultural Research in Skierniewice, central Poland. The aim of the research was to assess the breeding value, based on the general combining abilities (GCA), specific combining abilities (SCA) and reciprocal (RE) effects, of six dessert parental forms of blackcurrant for plant growth vigour, plant habit and resistance to fungal diseases: Podosphaera mors-uvae (causal agent of powdery mildew of currant), Drepanopeziza ribis (leaf anthracnose) and Cronartium ribicola (white pine blister rust). The plant material consisted of seedlings of F1 generation obtained by crossing of six blackcurrant genotypes: ‘Bona’, ‘Ceres’, clone D13B/11, ‘Sofiivska’, ‘Vernisazh’ and ‘Big Ben’ in a diallel design according to Griffing’s Method III.It was shown that the cultivars ‘Big Ben’, ‘Sofiivska’ and ‘Vernisazh’ had significantly positive GCA effects for growth vigour and resistance of plants to powdery mildew, whereas ‘Ceres’ – for plant habit, which indicated their high breeding value for these traits. The significantly positive SCA values were estimated for the hybrid family: ‘Big Ben’ × ‘Ceres’ for low susceptibility of plants to powdery mildew and anthracnose. Statistically significant effects for reciprocal crosses (RE) were obtained only for few hybrid families.
A 40-nm low-power WiFi SoC with clock gating and power management strategy

ABSTRACT With the emerging of Internet of Things (IoT) industry, applications like smart power plugs, security ID tags, home automation and wearable electronic devices all make the demand for low-power WiFi chips impendency. In this paper, a low-power 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n WiFi system-on-chip (SoC) is designed and implemented with 40-nm CMOS process, with area of 8.1 mm2. The low-power SoC integrates 32-bit microcontroller, 802.11b/g/n WiFi baseband, 2.4 GHz RF transceiver, ample memory space, ADC, 6-channel PWM, flexible I/O interfaces, multi-stage power management module, etc. It has several sleep modes with extremely low leakage current as 0.8 mA/12 µA in light/deep sleep mode and 0.4 µA in shutdown mode to reduce the power consumption. High performance is demonstrated, including Pout (−28 dB/-30 dB EVM) of 20.1 dBm/19.1 dBm and RX sensitivity of −76 dBm/-74 dBm meanwhile the total current of 148.5 mA/146.5 mA (TX) for 54 Mbps OFDM/HT20 MCS7.
Appetite and Protein Intake Strata of Older Adults in the European Union: Socio-Demographic and Health Characteristics, Diet-Related and Physical Activity Behaviours

Considerable efforts have been directed towards stimulating healthy ageing regarding protein intake and malnutrition, yet large-scale consumer studies are scarce and fragmented. This study aims to profile older adults in the European Union (EU) according to appetite (poor/good) and protein intake (lower/higher) strata, and to identify dietary and physical activity behaviours. A survey with older (aged 65 years or above) adults (n = 1825) in five EU countries (Netherlands, United Kingdom, Finland, Spain and Poland) was conducted in June 2017. Four appetite and protein intake strata were identified based on simplified nutritional appetite questionnaire (SNAQ) scores (≤14 versus >14) and the probability of a protein intake below 1.0 g/kg adjusted BW/day (≥0.3 versus <0.3) based on the 14-item Pro55+ screener: “appi”—Poor appetite and lower level of protein intake (12.2%); “APpi”—Good appetite but lower level of protein intake (25.5%); “apPI”—Poor appetite but higher level of protein intake (14.8%); and “APPI”—Good appetite and higher level of protein intake (47.5%). The stratum of older adults with a poor appetite and lower level of protein intake (12.2%) is characterized by a larger share of people aged 70 years or above, living in the UK or Finland, having an education below tertiary level, who reported some or severe financial difficulties, having less knowledge about dietary protein and being fussier about food. This stratum also tends to have a higher risk of malnutrition in general, oral-health related problems, experience more difficulties in mobility and meal preparation, lower confidence in their ability to engage in physical activities in difficult situations, and a lower readiness to follow dietary advice. Two multivariate linear regression models were used to identify the behavioural determinants that might explain the probability of lower protein intake, stratified by appetite status. This study provides an overview and highlights the similarities and differences in the strata profiles. Recommendations for optimal dietary and physical activity strategies to prevent protein malnutrition were derived, discussed and tailored according to older adults’ profiles.
Impact of the Use of the Physics Crocodile Simulator in the Teaching and Learning of Electricity in High School (Morocco)

The integration of Information and Communication Technologies in education is no longer a "pedagogical luxury" also a search for human learning settings that are compatible with today's students' experiences. Computer animations and simulations are the most used technological tools for educational purposes, especially with the lack of experimental equipment in school laboratories, the use of interactive simulations has emerged as a real competitor to the real experience, and an effective alternative to traditional practices. This work aims to study the impact of the use of the simulator crocodile Physics 605, on the understanding and learning of students in the second year of the scientific baccalaureate option physical sciences at the high school Abdellah Laroui of the city of Fez. A comparative study was conducted between interactive simulations using the Physics crocodile simulator and the real experience, considering the acquisition and application of cognitive skills as a key performance indicator. The experiment took place with the adoption of a pre-test and post-test method with an experiment group (25 students) and a simulation group (25 students), the data were then analyzed using the statistical analysis program SPSS v 21, for the analysis of quantitative data, non-parametric Mann-Whitney U tests of independent samples were used. At the end of the session, we invited the students of the simulation group (25 students) to answer on the directive survey questions (closed questions). In addition, the directive type interview (open questions) was conducted with the teachers (10) of physical sciences of the high school Abdellah Laroui of the city of Fez, moreover the data were processed by the software SPHINX v5. The results of the descriptive statistics show that the Physics crocodile simulator has a remarkable effect on the acquisition and application of new knowledge in the lesson on the RC dipole (series association of an ohmic conductor of resistance R and a capacitor of capacitance C); these effects are comparable to those in the real experiment. In addition, the results obtained showed a considerable improvement in some other indicators such as motivation, engagement, and interaction among students compared to the classical method.
Weight Measurements of High‐Temperature Superconductors during Phase Transition in Stationary, Non‐Stationary Condition and under ELF Radiation

There have been a number of claims in the literature about gravity shielding effects of superconductors and more recently on the weight reduction of superconductors passing through their critical temperature. We report several experiments to test the weight of superconductors under various conditions. First, we report tests on the weight of YBCO and BSCCO high temperature superconductors passing through their critical temperature. No anomaly was found within the equipment accuracy ruling out claimed anomalies by Rounds and Reiss. Our experiments extend the accuracy of previous measurements by two orders of magnitude. In addition, for the first time, the weight of a rotating YBCO superconductor was measured. Also in this case, no weight anomaly could be seen within the accuracy of the equipment used. In addition, also weight measurements of a BSCCO superconductor subjected to extremely‐low‐frequency (ELF) radiation have been done to test a claim of weight reduction under these conditions by De Aquino, and .
Between simpatia and malandragem: Brazilian jeitinho as an individual difference variable

Culture-specific behaviour strategies provide an interesting window into individual differences research, producing a richer conceptualization of personality descriptions. Our aim is to describe the personality dimensions linked to a core socio-cultural behaviour pattern in Brazil: jeitinho. To reach this goal we conducted four studies. Our first set of studies (1a, 1b and 1c) examined the underlying structure of jeitinho as an individual difference variable and its nomological network with social values, the Big-Five, moral attitudes, and social dominance orientation. In Study 2, we confirm this structure and relate personal jeitinho to perceptions of jeitinho norms. Results demonstrated that personal jeitinho has two dimensions: Jeitinho Simpático is an individual’s tendency to seek positive social interactions, avoid conflict, and find creative solutions; and Jeitinho Malandro captures behaviours such as the use of deception and trickery. These two behaviours are rooted in the same dimensions of the integrated model of values and personality.