Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Associations between paramedics' salutogenic health experience and the intention to stay in the profession: A cross‐sectional survey

Abstract Aim To investigate the association between paramedics' salutogenic health and their intentions to stay in their profession. Design A cross‐sectional survey. Methods Paramedics from eight purposively selected organizations participated in this study (n = 433). The data were collected in 2022 with the Salutogenic Health Indicator Scale and validated single questions that assessed work ability, recovery and self‐rated stress. Intention to stay was measured using two questions about the intention to leave prehospital emergency medical service work and leave the nursing sector completely during the next 2 years. Data were analysed using logistic regression and statistical significance tests. Results Men had higher mean salutogenic health scores than women. No significant differences in salutogenic health were observed across work experience or occupational groups. Paramedics intending to stay in their profession exhibited higher salutogenic health scores than those intending to leave. In the logistic regression models, increasing levels of salutogenic health and work ability were associated with intention to stay in the profession.
The Changes of Psychometric Profiles after Medical Treatment of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms Suggestive of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

Objective To investigate the relationship of somatization and depression with the degree of lower urinary tract symptoms suggestive of benign prostate hyperplasia (LUTS/BPH) and changes in psychometric profiles including somatization and depression after treatment of LUTS/BPH. Methods Subjects were evaluated at baseline and at week 12 following routine treatment for LUTS/BPH using the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) to measure the severity of LUTS/BPH, the Overactive Bladder Symptom Score (OABSS) to measure the severity of OAB, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) to assess depression, and the Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) to evaluate somatization. The correlation of somatization and depression with the degree of LUTS/BPH symptoms at baseline and changes in somatization and depression after LUTS/BPH treatment were assessed using relevant statistical analyses. Results One hundred and twenty patients agreed to participate in this study, and 101 (84.2%) completed the 12-week trial and responded to the study questionnaires. At baseline, total IPSS score was correlated with PHQ-9 (r=0.475, p=0.005) and PHQ-15 (r=0.596, p<0.001) scores. The results after the 12-week treatment clearly show significant improvement in both PHQ-9 (p <0.001) and PHQ-15 (p=0.019) scores, and the PHQ-9 (r=0.509, p=0.048) and PHQ-15 (r=0.541, p=0.016) scores were positively correlated with total IPSS. Conclusion Our preliminary results indicated that severity of LUTS is correlated with severity of somatization and depression. Further, the improvement of LUTS after treatment may have positive impacts on somatization and depression.
SU-8 surface-micromachining process utilizing PMGI as a sacrificial material

This work presents a novel surface micromachining process based on the SU-8 polymer that uses the resist PMGI as a sacrificial layer as well as a lift-off resist for metal patterning. The process is capable of independent patterning of the structural and metal layers which decouples the mechanical and electrical properties of the resulting structures. The process uses inexpensive equipment and materials and can be completed in a single day, making this process ideal for proof of concept prototyping.
Using Background Information for Multi-document Summarization and Summaries in Response to a Question

In our second participation to the DUC evaluation, we used the SumUM system for the multidocument summarization focused by events task and summaries in response to a question task. Our multi-document summarization algorithm is based on the use of background information gathered by summarizing previous texts, which is then combined with a new document of the cluster. For producing the summaries to answer a question, we used a similar technique applied on passages retrieval using Okapi.
2023 Diabetic Kidney Disease Fact Sheet in Korea.

Background To investigate the prevalence, incidence, comorbidities, and management status of diabetic kidney disease (DKD) and diabetes-related end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) in South Korea. Methods We used the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data (2019 to 2021, n=2,665) for the evaluation of prevalence, comorbidities, control rate of glycemia and comorbidities in DKD, and the Korean Health Insurance Service-customized database (2008 to 2019, n=3,950,857) for the evaluation of trends in the incidence and prevalence rate of diabetes-related ESKD, renin-angiotensin system (RAS) blockers and sodium glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors use for DKD, and the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and mortality according to DKD stages. DKD was defined as albuminuria or low estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) <60 mL/min/1.73 m2 in patients with diabetes mellitus. Results The prevalence of DKD was 25.4% (albuminuria, 22.0%; low eGFR, 6.73%) in patients with diabetes mellitus aged ≥30 years. Patients with DKD had a higher rate of comorbidities, including hypertension, dyslipidemia, and central obesity; however, their control rates were lower than those without DKD. Prescription rate of SGLT2 inhibitors with reduced eGFR increased steadily, reaching 5.94% in 2019. Approximately 70% of DKD patients were treated with RAS blockers. The prevalence rate of diabetesrelated ESKD has been steadily increasing, with a higher rate in older adults. ASCVD and mortality were significantly associated with an in increase in DKD stage. Conclusion DKD is prevalent among Korean patients with diabetes and is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, which requiring intensive management of diabetes and comorbidities. The prevalence of diabetes-related ESKD has been increasing, especially in the older adults, during past decade.
Perception of optical flow and geometric field of view

Gibson [1979] demonstrated a pattern of optical flow as an observer moves through an environment. The rate of this optical flow increases with offset from straight ahead and decreases with distance in front of the observer. The point of no optical flow has been called the “focus of expansion” and specifies the direction of travel. A recent study [Tan et al. 2003] found gender-specific navigation benefits come from the presence of optical flow cues. They found that the present of optical flow cues provided a performance advantage when navigating 3D environments. We will investigate optical flow on a standard monitor which is often used as a display for driving simulators. The Geometric Field of View (GFOV) of the 3D driving environment is specified in software. The GFOV is often larger than the observer’s display FOV. This results in image minification.
Immune Control of Hepatitis B Virus

Human hepatitis B virus (HBV) infects the liver of humans or humanoid primates. In humans, HBV infection often causes an inflammatory liver disease – hepatitis B. The virus is transmitted by perinatal, percutaneous and sexual exposure, as well as by close person-to-person contact. The latter occurs especially among young children, presumably by open cuts or sores. Vertical transmission from mothers to their neonates, or infection during the first year of life, results in persistent often lifelong infection in >90% of cases. In contrast, infection during adulthood is cleared in >95% of cases, and results in lifelong protective immunity. While a correlation between the strength of HBV-specific T cell responses and virus clearance has been established, factors determining the strength of a T cell response as well as factors shifting the balance from immune tolerance to immune clearance are hardly understood. The innate immune response, early adaptive B and T cell responses, regulatory T cells, the liver microenvironment, and the peculiar properties of hepatocytes and nonparenchymal liver cells to present antigen seem to play a role. Understanding this complex interplay requires systematic immune monitoring of well characterized human cohorts, but also experimental approaches using primary human cells and genetically modified mouse models. Using these models, we begin to understand the immune recognition of HBV and how it influences the outcome of HBV infection. In this paper we review the current knowledge about virus-host interactions and how it influences the outcome of HBV infection and describe the immune signatures associated with clinical recovery and/or persistent infection.
Transient luminous events above two mesoscale convective systems

[1] Two warm-season mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) were analyzed with respect to their production of transient luminous events (TLEs), mainly sprites. The 20 June 2007 symmetric MCS produced 282 observed TLEs over a 4 h period, during which the storm's intense convection weakened and its stratiform region strengthened. TLE production corresponded well to convective intensity. The convective elements of the MCS contained normal-polarity tripole charge structures with upper-level positive charge (<−40°C), midlevel negative charge (−20°C), and low-level positive charge near the melting level. In contrast to previous sprite studies, the stratiform charge layer involved in TLE production by parent positive cloud-to-ground (+CG) lightning resided at upper levels. This layer was physically connected to upper-level convective positive charge via a downward sloping pathway. The average altitude discharged by TLE-parent flashes during TLE activity was 8.2 km above mean sea level (MSL; −25°C). The 9 May 2007 asymmetric MCS produced 25 observed TLEs over a 2 h period, during which the storm's convection rapidly weakened before recovering later. Unlike 20 June, TLE production was approximately anticorrelated with convective intensity. The 9 May storm, which also had a normal tripole in its convection, best fit the conventional model of low-altitude positive charge playing the dominant role in sprite production; however, the average altitude discharged during the TLE phase of flashes still was higher than the melting level: 6.1 km MSL (−15°C). Based on these results, it is inferred that sprite production and sprite-parent positive charge altitude depend on MCS morphology.
Recognize Human Activities from Partially Observed Videos

Recognizing human activities in partially observed videos is a challenging problem and has many practical applications. When the unobserved subsequence is at the end of the video, the problem is reduced to activity prediction from unfinished activity streaming, which has been studied by many researchers. However, in the general case, an unobserved subsequence may occur at any time by yielding a temporal gap in the video. In this paper, we propose a new method that can recognize human activities from partially observed videos in the general case. Specifically, we formulate the problem into a probabilistic framework: 1) dividing each activity into multiple ordered temporal segments, 2) using spatiotemporal features of the training video samples in each segment as bases and applying sparse coding (SC) to derive the activity likelihood of the test video sample at each segment, and 3) finally combining the likelihood at each segment to achieve a global posterior for the activities. We further extend the proposed method to include more bases that correspond to a mixture of segments with different temporal lengths (MSSC), which can better represent the activities with large intra-class variations. We evaluate the proposed methods (SC and MSSC) on various real videos. We also evaluate the proposed methods on two special cases: 1) activity prediction where the unobserved subsequence is at the end of the video, and 2) human activity recognition on fully observed videos. Experimental results show that the proposed methods outperform existing state-of-the-art comparison methods.
The discrete diffraction transform

In this paper, we define a discrete analogue of the continuous diffracted projection. We define the discrete diffraction transform (DDT) as a collection of the discrete diffracted projections (DDPs) taken at specific set of angles along specific set of lines. The ‘DDP’ is defined to be a discrete transform that is similar in its properties to the continuous diffracted projection. We prove that when the DDT is applied to a set of samples of a continuous object, it approximates a set of continuous vertical diffracted projections of a horizontally sheared object and a set of continuous horizontal diffracted projections of a vertically sheared object. A similar statement, where diffracted projections are replaced by the X-ray projections, that holds for the 2D discrete Radon transform (DRT), is also proved. We prove that the DDT is rapidly computable and invertible.
Improving Persian Document Classification Using Semantic Relations between Words

With the increase of information, document classification as one of the methods of text mining, plays vital role in many management and organizing information. Document classification is the process of assigning a document to one or more predefined category labels. Document classification includes different parts such as text processing, term selection, term weighting and final classification. The accuracy of document classification is very important. Thus improvement in each part of classification should lead to better results and higher precision. Term weighting has a great impact on the accuracy of the classification. Most of the existing weighting methods exploit the statistical information of terms in documents and do not consider semantic relations between words. In this paper, an automated document classification system is presented that uses a novel term weighting method based on semantic relations between terms. To evaluate the proposed method, three standard Persian corpuses are used. Experiment results show 2 to 4 percent improvement in classification accuracy compared with the best previous designed system for Persian documents.
The interplay of learning and development in shaping neural organization.

A continuing challenge for pediatric neuroimaging is to unravel the multiple mechanisms that drive developmental change in brain activity. In this commentary, we consider some of the changes in neural and cognitive processes, occurring over multiple timescales, that may underlie cross‐sectional or longitudinal shifts in BOLD fMRI activation, such as those observed by Durston, Davidson, Tottenham, Galvan, Spicer, Fosella and Casey (this issue).
Association Between Plasma LDL Particle Size, Valvular Accumulation of Oxidized LDL, and Inflammation in Patients With Aortic Stenosis

Objective—In patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS), we examine the association between: (1) the content of oxidized LDL (oxLDL) in the aortic valve and the degree of inflammation and remodeling; (2) The proportion of small dense LDL particles in the plasma and the presence of oxLDL in the valve along with hemodynamic progression of valve stenosis. Methods and Results—We have examined 102 explanted AS valves. Tissue remodeling, inflammation, and accumulation of oxLDL were determined. A complete plasma lipid profile including the measurement of the relative proportion of small low-density lipoprotein (%LDL<255Å) was obtained. Valves with higher oxLDL content had a significantly higher density of inflammatory cells, expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-&agr;, and increased tissue remodeling score. The %LDL<255Å was significantly associated with oxLDL score within the aortic valve. In a subset of 59 patients in whom stenosis progression was measured, the %LDL<255Å correlated with the annualized peak gradient (r=0.29; P=0.04). Conclusion—Increased proportion of circulating small dense LDL particles is associated with faster progression rate of stenosis and greater accumulation of oxLDL in the aortic valve. These findings suggest that therapeutic interventions aimed at lowering the production of small dense LDL particles in patients with AS might represent a potentially interesting therapeutic avenue.
Self-Adaptation of Mobile Agent Population in Dynamic Networks: A Biologically Inspired Approach

In this paper, we consider the mobile agent population control problem in dynamic networks, and present biologically inspired solutions for the problem. The goal of this problem is to adjust the agent population a(t) at time i to a given constant fraction of the current network size n(t): a(t) = gamma middot n(t) for some constant gamma(0 < gamma les 1). To realize self-adaptation, we borrow an idea from the single species population model, which is a well-known population ecology model. This model shows that the population p(t) of a single species in an environment automatically converges to and stabilizes at fa(t)/f, where fa(t) is the amount of supplied food by the environment and f is the amount of food consumed by one individual to survive. In the proposed algorithms, agents are regarded as individuals of a single species, and nodes supply food for agents
DNA-binding domain mutations in SMAD genes yield dominant-negative proteins or a neomorphic protein that can activate WG target genes in Drosophila

Mutations in SMAD tumor suppressor genes are involved in approximately 140,000 new cancers in the USA each year. At this time, how the absence of a functional SMAD protein leads to a tumor is unknown. However, clinical and biochemical studies suggest that all SMAD mutations are loss-of-function mutations. One prediction of this hypothesis is that all SMAD mutations cause tumors via a single mechanism. To test this hypothesis, we expressed five tumor-derived alleles of human SMAD genes and five mutant alleles of Drosophila SMAD genes in flies. We found that all of the DNA-binding domain mutations conferred gain-of-function activity, thereby falsifying the hypothesis. Furthermore, two types of gain-of-function mutation were identified – dominant negative and neomorphic. In numerous assays, the neomorphic allele SMAD4100T appears to be capable of activating the expression of WG target genes. These results imply that SMAD4100T may induce tumor formation by a fundamentally different mechanism from other SMAD mutations, perhaps via the ectopic expression of WNT target genes – an oncogenic mechanism associated with mutations in Adenomatous Polyposis Coli. Our results are likely to have clinical implications, because gain-of-function mutations may cause tumors when heterozygous, and the life expectancy of individuals with SMAD4100T is likely to be different from those with other SMAD mutations. From a larger perspective, our study shows that the genetic characterization of missense mutations, particularly in modular proteins, requires experimental verification.
Web Mining Using Topic Sensitive Weighted PageRank

The World Wide Web contains the large amount of information sources. While searching the web for particular topics, users usually fetch irrelevant and redundant information causing a waste in user time and accessing time of the search engine. So narrowing dow n this problem, user’s interests and needs from their behavior have become increasingly important. Web structure mining plays an effective role in this approach. Some page ranking algorithms PageRank, Weighted PageRank are commonly used in w eb structure mining. The original PageRank algorithm search-query results independent of any particular search query. To yield more specif ic and accurate search results against a particular topic, we proposed a new algorithm Topic Sensitive Weighted PageRank based on web structure mining that w ill show the relevancy of the pages of a given topic is better determined, as compared to the existing PageRank, Topic sensitive PageRank and Weighted PageRank algorithms. For ordinary keyword search queries, Topic Sensitive Weigted PageRank scores will satisfy the topic of the query.
Morphological Effect of Pd Catalyst on Ethanol Electro-Oxidation Reaction

In the present study, three different structures with preferentially exposed crystal faces were supported on commercial carbon black by the polyol method (nanoparticles (NP/C), nanobars (NB/C) and nanorods (NR/C)). The electrocatalysts were characterized by XRD, TEM, TGA and cyclic voltammetry at three different ethanol concentrations. Considerable differences were found in terms of catalytic electroactivity. At all ethanol concentrations, the trend observed for the ethanol oxidation peak potential was preserved as follows: NB/C < NP/C< NR/C < commercial Pd/C. This result indicates that, from a thermodynamics point of view, the NB/C catalyst enclosed by Pd(100) facets presented the highest activity with respect to ethanol electro-oxidation among all of the catalysts studied.
Joint power and subcarrier allocation for multicarrier full-duplex systems

In this paper, we investigate resource allocation for multicarrier communication systems employing a full-duplex base station for serving multiple half-duplex downlink and uplink users simultaneously. We study the joint power and subcarrier allocation design for the maximization of the weighted sum throughput of the system. The algorithm design is formulated as a mixed combinatorial non-convex optimization problem and obtaining the globally optimal solution may require prohibitively high computational complexity. Therefore, a low computational complexity suboptimal iterative algorithm exploiting successive convex approximation is proposed to obtain a locally optimal solution. Simulation results confirm that the proposed suboptimal algorithm obtains a substantial improvement in system throughput compared to various existing baseline schemes.
Teaching the Conceptual Structure of Mathematics

Many students graduate from K–12 mathematics programs without flexible, conceptual mathematics knowledge. This article reviews psychological and educational research to propose that refining K–12 classroom instruction such that students draw connections through relational comparisons may enhance their long-term ability to transfer and engage with mathematics as a meaningful system. We begin by examining the mathematical knowledge of students in one community college, reviewing results that show even after completing a K–12 required mathematics sequence, these students were unlikely to flexibly reason about mathematics. Rather than drawing relationships between presented problems or inferences about the representations, students preferred to attempt previously memorized (often incorrect) procedures (Givvin, Stigler, & Thompson, 2011; Stigler, Givvin, & Thompson, 2010). We next describe the relations between the cognition of flexible, comparative reasoning and experimentally derived strategies for supporting students’ ability to make these connections. A cross-cultural study found that U.S. teachers currently use these strategies much less frequently than their international counterparts (Hiebert et al., 2003; Richland, Zur, & Holyoak, 2007), suggesting that these practices may be correlated with high student performance. Finally, we articulate a research agenda for improving and studying pedagogical practices for fostering students’ relational thinking about mathematics.