Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Energy-Efficient Localization System for the Blind Based on an Awake/Sleep Scheduling Scheme

The mobility of blind individuals is restricted by their inability to perceive their surroundings. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 1 billion people suffer from blindness or poor vision that cannot be treated. Several techniques can use in the localization for the blind. Most localization system buildings use wireless sensor network (WSN) technology, but WSNs are a major source of energy consumption. Therefore, saving power in localization systems is a vital requirement. In this paper, a power-efficient portable localization system (PEPLS) based on WSN was implemented. In this system, location information was acquired via global positioning system (GPS) and transmitted via global system for mobile (GSM) and ZigBee protocols. These radio frequency modules increase power consumption. Therefore, an awake/sleep algorithm was used to decrease the power consumption of the PEPLS. The main components of the prototype PEPLS were GPS, GSM, ZigBee, and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) units as well as an Arduino Nano Microcontroller. The proposed awake/sleep algorithm reduced the current consumption of the PEPLS to about 25 mA relative to classical operation, which consumes 156 mA. Consequently, a power savings of 84% was accomplished. Moreover, comparisons with other related works demonstrated that high power savings were achieved.
New Dithiocarbamates as a Possible Human Serum Albumin Metal Carrier in Drug Delivery Systems and their Antioxidant and Antiproliferative Activities.

New mono- and bis-dithiocarbamates were prepared from the reaction of organic dihydrazides -NHNH-(C=O)(CH2)x-(C=O)NHNH- (where x = 0, 2, 4) and basic carbon disulfide with varying chain length 10-14 atom as a human serum metal carrier. The products were characterized by various spectrophotometric such as 1H and 13C NMR and elemental analysis. Their antiproliferative activities were examined on two species of the standard strains of the Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 and Gram-negative Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 by following the procedure of broth micro-dilution method (BMM), which was applied at the concentrations: 0.0, 100, 200, and 300 ppm for each compound. The antioxidant properties were investigated by following the DPPH method, which was applied for each of the above concentrations. All prepared compounds exhibited antiproliferative and antioxidant activity.
COMPOSITIONAL AND NUTRITIONAL EVALUATION OF QUINOA WHOLE GRAIN FLOUR AND MILL FRACTIONS

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) seeds were stone milled and the mill fractions separated and compositional differences evaluated. The bran contained most of the sapogenins, protein, fat, fiber and ash, while the perisperm was rich in starch. Different varieties of quinoa seed were analyzed for sapogenin content by HPLC
Simultaneous Determination of Nitrogen and Phosphorus in Sediments and Its Application in Jiaozhou Bay

Nitrogen and phosphorus in sediments play an important role in marine biogeochemical cycle.In order to study its potential function in matter cycling,the best conditions for simultaneous determination of nitrogen and phosphorus in natural grainy sediments were developed based on a series of experiments.Inorganic nitrogen and inorganic phosphorus were determined after extracted by 0.1 mol/L HCI.Total nitrogen and total phosphorus were determined after being extracted by NaOH-K_2S_2O_8 solution.The method has been used in the study on geo- chemical characteristics of nitrogen and phosphorus in sediments from Jiaozhou Bay.The results indicate that or- ganic nitrogen occupies 50%～70% of total nitrogen and organic phosphorus accounts for less than 40% of total phosphorus.Similar to other regions,the contents of inorganic nitrogen and inorganic phosphorus in surface sedi- ments of Jiaozhou Bay increase with depth,while tend to be stable or little change in sub-surface sediments.In reverse,the contents of organic nitrogen and organic phosphorus decrease with depth.All the results indicate that the method for simultaneous determination of nitrogen and phosphorus in natural grainy sediments provides the advantages of simplicity,good accuracy and precision.The method can be used in study on ecological function of nitrogen and phosphorus and ecological toxicology of excessive nitrogen and phosphorus in sediments.
MoS2 Nanosheets Vertically Aligned on Carbon Paper: A Freestanding Electrode for Highly Reversible Sodium‐Ion Batteries

The development of sodium‐ion batteries for large‐scale applications requires the synthesis of electrode materials with high capacity, high initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE), high rate performance, long cycle life, and low cost. A rational design of freestanding anode materials is reported for sodium‐ion batteries, consisting of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanosheets aligned vertically on carbon paper derived from paper towel. The hierarchical structure enables sufficient electrode/electrolyte interaction and fast electron transportation. Meanwhile, the unique architecture can minimize the excessive interface between carbon and electrolyte, enabling high ICE. The as‐prepared MoS2@carbon paper composites as freestanding electrodes for sodium‐ion batteries can liberate the traditional electrode manufacturing procedure, thereby reducing the cost of sodium‐ion batteries. The freestanding MoS2@carbon paper electrode exhibits a high reversible capacity, high ICE, good cycling performance, and excellent rate capability. By exploiting in situ Raman spectroscopy, the reversibility of the phase transition from 2H‐MoS2 to 1T‐MoS2 is observed during the sodium‐ion intercalation/deintercalation process. This work is expected to inspire the development of advanced electrode materials for high‐performance sodium‐ion batteries.
Pre-Morbid Risk Factors for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Prospective Cohort Study

Background: As a neurodegenerative disorder with high case-fatality, there is a need to identify primary, modifiable risk factors for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Their detection has, however, proved elusive and this may be ascribed to the scarcity of well-characterised, sufficiently-powered cohort studies necessary to explore the aetiology of this rare condition. Methods: UK Biobank is an on-going, closed, prospective cohort study in which 502,524 participants (273,420 women) have been linked to national hospital and mortality registries. Baseline data collection took place between 2006 and 2010 when a range of psychosocial, physiological, and demographic data were captured. Results: Approximately 11 years of event surveillance gave rise to 301 hospitalisations and 279 deaths ascribed to ALS. After left censoring to account for reverse causality and adjustment for confounding factors, being older (hazard ratio per 10 year increase; 95% confidence interval: 1.92; 1.58, 2.33) and male (1.37; 1.00, 1.87) were associated with elevated rates of hospitalisation for ALS. Similar effects were apparent when death due to the disorder was the outcome of interest. Of the remaining 23 potential risk indices, however, there was only a suggestion that taller people experienced an increased risk of hospitalisation (per SD increase: 1.31; 1.09, 1.59). Conclusions: In the present study, a comprehensive array of potential risk indices were essentially unrelated to later ALS.
Spatial frequency discrimination in patients with schizophrenia spectrum and bipolar disorders: Evidence of early visual processing deficits and associations with intellectual abilities

Objective: Low-level sensory disruption is hypothesized as a precursor to clinical and cognitive symptoms in severe mental disorders. We compared visual discrimination performance in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder or bipolar disorder with healthy controls, and investigated associations with clinical symptoms and IQ. Methods: Patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder (n=32), bipolar disorder (n=55) and healthy controls (n=152) completed a computerized visual discrimination task. Participants responded whether the latter of two consecutive grids had higher or lower spatial frequency, and discrimination thresholds were estimated using an adaptive maximum likelihood procedure. Case-control differences in threshold were assessed using linear regression, F-test and post-hoc pair-wise comparisons. Linear models were used to test for associations between visual discrimination threshold and psychotic symptoms derived from the PANSS and IQ assessed using the Matrix Reasoning and Vocabulary subtests from the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI). Results: Robust regression revealed a significant main effect of diagnosis on discrimination threshold (robust F=6.76, p=.001). Post-hoc comparisons revealed that patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (mean=14%, SD=0.08) had higher thresholds compared to healthy controls (mean=10.8%, SD = 0.07, {beta} = 0.35, t=3.4, p=0.002), as did patients with bipolar disorder (12.23%, SD=0.07, {beta}= 0.21, t=2.42, p=0.04). There was no significant difference between bipolar disorder and schizophrenia ({beta}=-0.14, t=-1.2, p=0.45). Linear models revealed negative associations between IQ and threshold across all participants when controlling for diagnostic group ({beta} = -0.3, t=-3.43, p=0.0007). This association was found within healthy controls (t=-3.72, p=.0003) and patients with bipolar disorder (t=-2.53, p=.015), and no significant group by IQ interaction on threshold (F=0.044, p=.97). There were no significant associations between PANSS domain scores and discrimination threshold. Conclusion: Patients with schizophrenia spectrum or bipolar disorders exhibited higher visual discrimination thresholds than healthy controls, supporting early visual deficits among patients with severe mental illness. Discrimination threshold was negatively associated with IQ among healthy controls and bipolar disorder patients. These findings elucidate perception-related disease mechanisms in severe mental illness, which warrants replication in independent samples.
Accuracy-time optimisation with cost-sensitive feature selection for Alzheimer's disease diagnosis

Objective: Despite the potential of machine learning techniques to improve dementia diagnostic processes, research outcomes are often not readily translated to or adopted in clinical practice. Importantly, the cost of assessment items, in terms of assessment time, has yet to be taken into account in feature-selection based optimisation for dementia diagnosis. We address these issues by considering the impact of assessment time as a practical constraint for feature selection of cognitive and functional assessments in Alzheimer's disease diagnosis. Methods: We use three different feature selection algorithms to select informative subsets of dementia assessment items from a large open source dementia dataset. We use cost cost-sensitive feature selection to optimise our feature selection results for assessment time as well as accuracy. To encourage the clinical adoption and further evaluation of our proposed accuracy-vs-time optimisation algorithms, we also implement a sandbox-like toolbox with graphical user interface to evaluate user-chosen subsets of assessment items. Results: We find that there are subsets of accuracy-time optimised assessment items that can perform better in terms of diagnostic accuracy and/or total assessment time than most other standard assessments. Discussion: Overall, the cost-benefit optimisation analysis and accompanying sandbox tool can facilitate clinical users and other stakeholders to apply their own domain knowledge to analyse and decide which dementia diagnostic assessment items are useful, and aid the redesigning of dementia diagnostic assessments. Clinical Impact (Clinical Research): By optimising diagnostic accuracy and assessment time, we redesign predictive and efficient dementia diagnostic assessments and develop a sandbox interface to facilitate evaluation and testing by clinicians and non-specialists.
Credit Beta

I propose a new daily measure of time-varying systematic credit risk directly estimated from the cross-section of CDS returns. I find that exposure to systematic credit risk, i.e., credit beta, has a strong relation to expected stock returns, while it is distinct from exposures to other equity, bond, and derivatives market risks. Consistent with theory, credit beta subsumes the abnormal returns of stocks with higher firm-level measures of observable default proxies such as credit risk premium and the distance-to-default. Credit betas also predict firms' cash flows, emphasizing a strong role of cash flow dynamics in a risk-based view of abnormal returns. The paper lends credence to the conjecture that the pricing in credit markets matters on the equity risk premium investors demand.
Therasiaite, (NH4)3KNa2Fe2+Fe3+(SO4)3Cl5, a new sulfate chloride from La Fossa Crater, Vulcano, Aeolian islands, Italy

Abstract The new mineral therasiaite, ideally (NH4)3KNa2Fe2+Fe3+(SO4)3Cl5, was found in a mediumtemperature (~250°C) intracrater active fumarole at La Fossa crater, Vulcano, Aeolian Islands, Sicily, Italy. It occurs on a pyroclastic breccia as brown to dark brown equant to short prismatic crystals up to 0.1 mm in length, in association with salammoniac, kremersite and adranosite. The mineral is monoclinic, space group: Cc (no. 9) with a = 18.284(4), b = 12.073(2), c = 9.535(2) Å , b = 108.10(3)°, V = 2000.6(7) Å3 and Z = 4. The six strongest reflections in the X-ray powder diffraction pattern are: [dobs in Å (I)(h k l)] 2.812(100)(2̄ 2 3), 2.664(77)(5̄ 1 3), 3.297(28)(3 3 1̄ ), 3.208(14)(5̄ 1̄ 2), 3.008(12)(0 4 0), 2.942(11)(3 3 1). The empirical formula (based on 17 anions per formula unit (p.f.u.)) is (NH4)2.68K1. 32Na2.04Fe1. 76Al0.12Mn0.12S2.98O11. 95Cl5.05. The measured density is 2.41(1) g cm-3, dcalc = 2.395 g cm-3. The mineral is biaxial (–) with a= 1.585(3) b = 1.615(3) and g = 1.630(3) (white light). Using single-crystal diffraction data, the structure was refined to a final R(F) = 0.0240 for 5574 independent observed reflections [I > 2σ(I)]. The structure of therasiaite displays a novel topology and contains two independent, distorted octahedral Fe sites, with the Fe atoms in oxidation state 3+ and 2+, respectively, each surrounded by three Cl atoms and three oxygens of the sulfate ions. The Fe octahedra and the three independent sulfate anions are connected to form chains running along [001]. Voids between the chains are occupied by three independent ammonium ions (partially replaced by K+), one K+ and two Na+ ions. The formula resulting from the structure refinement is [(NH4)2.25K0. 75]KNa2Fe2(SO4)3Cl5.
Optimism Gone Bad? The Persistent Effects of Traumatic Experiences on Investment Decisions

Do memories of highly emotional stock market crashes permanently affect the investment decisions of households? The Initial Public Offerings of Deutsche Telekom during 1996- 2000 provide an optimal base to address this question, as it is known for its emotional character and is reputedly “the last time Germans invested in stocks. ” Using Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) household survey data, I show that having experienced this event leads to persistently lower stock market participation in the future. In addition, this effect is greater for households that had directly invested in Telekom shares, those being more likely to have high emotional experiences. Finally, I also show that such traumatic experiences on investment decisions have intergenerational consequences, significantly affecting how the next generation invests in the financial market.
Early Exercise of American Call Options under Negative Interest Rates

Although negative interest rates have been a phenomenon observed in capital markets for years, little research has been done on the impact of negative interest rates on stock option valuations. This paper shows that the fundamental assumption of equivalence between American and European call options at negative riskless interest rates is no longer universal. The findings are illustrated by means of an example. Furthermore, there are implications for practical trading with options.
Human face synthesis for dataset augmentation

Training a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for the task of age prediction from face images requires large amounts of training data. As the freely available datasets are underrepresented for certain age categories, the CNNs cannot learn to recognize them well enough. We propose a solution to this problem by introducing a method for synthesis of new face images – of virtual identities. It creates new examples by merging appearance and shape of several compatible face parts together. Since the face parts always come from faces of the same age and gender, the synthetic example retains these attributes. We evaluate our method using a CNN and on the MORPH dataset. We try to find the best hyper-parameters of our method by performing an exhaustive search. Then, we train and evaluate the CNN in various settings, while measuring its performance using several metrics. Sadly, we observe no significant improvement using our augmentation method. We hypothesize that CNNs are able to learn themselves that the correlation between face parts can be safely ignored for the age recognition task. Hence synthetic examples obtained by permutation of face parts already contained in the training data do not improve generalization of the CNN.
Malignant Phyllodes Breast Tumor: A Rare Case of Metastasis in Skeletal Muscle Detected on 18-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography

Rapidly growing cystosarcoma phyllodes tumor (PT) of the breast are rarely encountered. Distant metastases are not uncommon in malignant PTs; however, rare sites of metastases are sometimes observed. Here, we present the case of a rapidly metastasizing malignant PT in which skeletal muscle metastasis was identified on 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-based positron emission tomography-computed tomography reflecting its aggressive course and poor prognosis.
APKASS Consensus Statement on Chronic Syndesmosis Injury, Part 1: Clinical Manifestation, Radiologic Examination, Diagnosis Criteria, Classification, and Nonoperative Treatment

Background: Clinical manifestation, radiologic examination, diagnostic criteria, classification, and nonoperative treatment strategies regarding chronic syndesmosis injury remain unclear. Purpose: An international group of experts representing the fields of sports injuries in the foot and ankle area were invited to collaboratively advance toward consensus opinions based on the best available evidence regarding chronic syndesmosis injuries. All were members of the Asia-Pacific Knee, Arthroscopy and Sports Medicine Society (APKASS). Study Design: Consensus statement. Methods: From November to December 2020, a total of 111 international experts on sports medicine or ankle surgery participated in a 2-stage Delphi process that included an anonymous online survey and an online meeting. A total of 13 items with 38 statements were drafted by 13 core authors. Of these, 4 items with 15 clinical questions and statements were related to the clinical manifestation, radiologic examination, diagnostic criteria, classification, and nonoperative treatment strategies for chronic syndesmosis injury and are presented here. Each statement was individually presented and discussed, followed by a general vote. The strength of consensus was characterized as follows: consensus, 51% to 74%; strong consensus, 75% to 99%; unanimous, 100%. Results: Of the 15 questions and statements, 5 reached unanimous support and 10 achieved strong consensus. Conclusion: This APKASS consensus statement, developed by international experts in the field, will assist surgeons and physical therapists with diagnosis, classification, and nonoperative treatment strategies for chronic syndesmosis injury.
Host migration and environmental temperature influence avian haemosporidians prevalence: a molecular survey in a Brazilian Atlantic rainforest

Avian haemosporidians are parasites with great capacity to spread to new environments and new hosts, being considered a good model to host-parasite interactions studies. Here, we examine avian haemosporidian parasites in a protected area covered by Restinga vegetation in northeastern Brazil, to test the hypothesis that haemosporidian prevalence is related to individual-level traits (age and breeding season), species-specific traits (diet, foraging strata, period of activity, species body weight, migratory status, and nest shape), and climate factors (temperature and rainfall). We screened DNA from 1,466 birds of 70 species captured monthly from April 2013 to March 2015. We detected an overall prevalence (Plasmodium/Haemoproteus infection) of 22% (44 host species) and parasite’s lineages were identified by mitochondrial cyt b gene. Our results showed that migration can be an important factor predicting the prevalence of Haemoproteus (Parahaemoproteus), but not Plasmodium, in hosts. Besides, the temperature, but not rainfall, seems to predict the prevalence of Plasmodium in this bird community. Neither individual-level traits analyzed nor the other species-specific traits tested were related to the probability of a bird becoming infected by haemosporidians. Our results point the importance of conducting local studies in particular environments to understand the degree of generality of factors impacting parasite prevalence in bird communities. Despite our attempts to find patterns of infection in this bird community, we should be aware that an avian haemosporidian community organization is highly complex and this complexity can be attributed to an intricate net of factors, some of which were not observed in this study and should be evaluated in future studies. We evidence the importance of looking to host-parasite relationships in a more close scale, to assure that some effects may not be obfuscated by differences in host life-history.
LianXia Formula Granule Attenuates Cardiac Sympathetic Remodeling in Rats with Myocardial Infarction via the NGF/TrKA/PI3K/AKT Signaling Pathway

Sympathetic remodeling may cause severe arrhythmia after myocardial infarction (MI). Thus, targeting this process may be an effective strategy for clinical prevention of arrhythmias. LianXia Formula Granule (LXFG) can effectively improve the symptoms of patients with arrhythmia after MI, and modern pharmacological studies have shown that Coptidis Rhizoma and Rhizoma Pinelliae Preparata, the components of LXFG, have antiarrhythmia effects. Here, we investigated whether LXFG can mitigate sympathetic remodeling and suppress arrhythmia and then elucidated its underlying mechanism of action in rats after MI. Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats that had undergone a myocardial infarction model were randomly divided into 6 groups, namely, sham, model, metoprolol, and LXFG groups, with high, medium, and low dosages. We exposed the animals to 30 days of treatment and then evaluated incidence of arrhythmia and arrhythmia scores in vivo using programmed electrical stimulation. Moreover, we determined plasma catecholamines contents via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and detected expression of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) at infarcted border zones via western blot, real-time PCR, and immunohistochemical analyses to assess sympathetic remodeling. Finally, we measured key molecules involved in the NGF/TrKA/PI3K/AKT pathways via western blot and real-time PCR. Compared with the model group, treatment with high dose of LXFG suppressed arrhythmia incidence and arrhythmia scores. In addition, all the LXFG groups significantly decreased protein and mRNA levels of TH, improved the average optical density of TH-positive nerve fibers, and reduced the levels of plasma catecholamines relative to the model group. Meanwhile, expression analysis revealed that key molecules in the NGF/TrKA/PI3K/AKT pathways were downregulated in the LXFG group when compared with model group. Overall, these findings indicate that LXFG suppresses arrhythmia and attenuates sympathetic remodeling in rats after MI. The mechanism is probably regulated by suppression of the NGF/TrKA/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.