Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Value of CT‑derived fractional flow reserve in identifying patients with acute myocardial infarction based on coronary computed tomography angiography

The aim of the present study was to determine whether coronary stenosis and computed tomography-derived fractional flow reserve (CT-FFR), detected by coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA), can potentially contribute to distinguish acute myocardial infarction (AMI) from unstable angina (UA). The study retrospectively collected data from consecutive patients who were admitted with obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) and who received CCTA and invasive coronary angiography (ICA) as part of their clinical workup. According to the inclusion criteria, the patients were divided into the AMI group and UA group, and the basic clinical data, CCTA stenosis degree and CT-FFR values were compared between the two groups. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression methods were used to analyze the association between ≥70% CCTA stenosis, ≤0.80 CT-FFR and AMI. A diagnostic model of AMI was established (model 1, ≤0.80 CT-FFR; model 2, ≥70% CCTA stenosis; and model 3, ≤0.80 CT-FFR combined with ≥70% CCTA stenosis), and the diagnostic efficacy of the three models for AMI was compared. The significance level was set at P<0.05. A total of 116 participants were finally enrolled in this study. There were 37 patients in the AMI group, with an average age of 62.06±7.74 years, and 79 patients in the UA group, with an average age of 58.11±10.0 years; there was no significant difference in age (P>0.05). The multivariate regression analysis revealed that ≤0.80 CT-FFR (HR=28.074; 95% CI: 5.712-137.973; P<0.001), and ≥70% CCTA stenosis (HR=10.796; 95% CI: 2.566-45.425; P=0.001) were independent risk factors for AMI. The diagnostic model of ≤0.80 CT-FFR combined with ≥70% CCTA stenosis (AUC=0.914; 95% CI: 0.847-0.958) exhibited increased diagnosis performance than the ≤0.80 CT-FFR model (AUC=0.865; 95% CI: 0.790-0.922; P=0.0060) and the ≥70% CCTA stenosis model (AUC=0.827; 95% CI: 0.745-0.891; P=0.0008). Collectively, it was demonstrated that ≤0.80 CT-FFR and ≥70% CCTA stenosis were independent risk factors for the diagnosis of AMI, and the combination of CT-FFR and CCTA stenosis further improved AMI diagnosis performance.
Primary versus Salvage Liver Transplantation after Curative-Intent Resection or Radiofrequency Ablation for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Long-Term Oncological Outcomes

Simple Summary This research aimed to compare the outcomes of primary liver transplantation (PLT) and salvage liver transplantation (SLT) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The aim was to determine which approach offers better oncological outcomes and whether SLT after previous curative treatments such as liver resection (LR) or radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is as effective as PLT. Data analyzed from 141 patients who underwent liver transplantation for HCC found that PLT resulted in significantly longer disease-free survival, overall survival, and cancer-specific survival (CSS) compared to SLT. However, within the SLT group, there was no significant difference in DFS between SLT-LR and SLT-RFA. These findings suggest that PLT may provide superior long-term oncological outcomes, and a shift towards PLT rather than SLT may be worth considering. Further research is needed to confirm these results, but this study provides valuable insights for the research community regarding optimal transplantation strategies for HCC patients. Abstract Liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) may be performed ab initio, primary liver transplantation (PLT), or for HCC recurrence after previous treatments such as liver resection (LR) or radiofrequency ablation (RFA), salvage liver transplantation (SLT). The aim of this study was to evaluate the oncological outcomes of SLT vs. PLT. For this, a retrospective study was carried out on patients undergoing liver transplantation for HCC. The outcomes of PLT were compared with those of SLT. The primary outcome was disease-free survival (DFS). The secondary outcomes included overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and major postoperative complications. A sub-analysis of SLT-LR and SLT-RFA was also performed. In total, 141 patients were included: 96 underwent PLT and 45 SLT. Among the SLT group, 25 patients had undergone previous LR while 20 had had RFA. There were no differences in the major postoperative complications. Unadjusted DFS was significantly longer in the PLT group (p = 0.02), as were OS (p = 0.025) and CSS (p = 0.001). There was no difference in DFS between PLT and SLT-LR groups, while a significant difference was found between the PLT and SLT-RFA groups (p = 0.035). Nonetheless, DFS was no different between the SLT-LR and SLT-RFA groups. PLT appears to offer superior long-term oncological outcomes to SLT. Both SLT-LR and SLT-RFA offer acceptable OS and CSS. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm these results, but the re-direction of grafts and transplant philosophy towards PLT rather than SLT may need to be considered.
Research on video target tracking algorithm based on deep neural network

: In the field of computer vision applications, visual object tracking is a widely researched and hot-topic area, finding extensive practical applications in many key visual domains and demonstrating promising real-world performance. However, due to various factors such as lighting variations, scale changes, background clutter, low resolution, and other interferences, visual object tracking requires improvements on multiple fronts. In this paper, a video object tracking algorithm based on deep neural networks is proposed while ensuring real-time tracking. Addressing the limitation of traditional visual object tracking algorithms based on correlation filtering theory, which rely on shallow handcrafted features, this algorithm first leverages a deep neural network model to extract deep features of the target to be tracked. Given that different convolutional layers encode different information in their deep feature representations, these distinct layer features are subsequently fused to enhance representation capability. Furthermore, a kernel correlation-based approach is employed to boost the tracking speed of the visual object tracking algorithm. The experimental results demonstrate that the method proposed in this paper achieves a balance between target tracking accuracy and speed, enhancing the robustness of visual object tracking algorithms in complex and noisy backgrounds.
The Certificate of Added Competence credentialling program in family medicine: a descriptive survey of the family physician perspective of enhanced skill practices in Canada

Introduction The College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) offers the Certificate of Added Competence (CAC) program to designate a family physician with enhanced skills. In 2015, the College expanded its program to introduce enhanced certification in four new domains: Palliative Care, Care of the Elderly, Sports and Exercise Medicine, and Family Practice Anesthesia. In this study, we elicited perceptions from Canadian family physicians with and without the CAC on practice impacts associated with the program. Methods Active family physicians in Canada with and without CACs were surveyed between November 2019 to January 2020. Descriptive statistics were generated to describe the perceptions of family physicians regarding the CAC program and its impacts on practice. Results Respondents agreed with several benefits of the program including enhancing the capacity to deliver comprehensive care, alleviating the burden of patient travel by increasing the availability of care in rural and remote communities, and providing opportunities to engage in various collaborative care models and new leadership roles. All respondents perceived CAC holders to pursue the certificate to meet both professional interests and community needs. Conclusions There is a need for strong and continued investment in systemic practice improvements that incentivize the delivery of comprehensive family medicine practice.
Determinants of Customer Loyalty: Empirical Study from Online Food Delivery Services

The rapid growth of information technology and communication today has disrupted various sectors, including the food sector. Consumers’ behavior in ordering food has shifted from offline to online with the presence of a number of food delivery service applications. This situation encourages the growth of online applications that provide food delivery services, so intense competition is unavoidable. The research aimed to investigate the role of e-service quality and sales promotion in influencing customer e-trust and e-satisfaction and its implications for customer loyalty. The research used a quantitative approach with the survey method. The population was online food delivery service application users who lived in the Jakarta area, with a sample of 250 respondents. The data were collected through a questionnaire designed with a 5-point Likert scale and analyzed using SEM-PLS. Research findings show that customer e-service quality and sales promotion significantly influence customers’ e-trust and e-satisfaction. Other findings show that customers’ e-trust and e-satisfaction significantly affect customer loyalty. The results also indicate that customers’ e-trust and e-satisfaction significantly mediate the effect of e-service quality and sales promotion on customer loyalty. In the era of the digital economy, good service and effective promotion still have an important role in increasing trust and satisfaction and a positive impact on increasing consumer loyalty ultimately.
A time-domain finite element method for seakeeping and wave resistance problems

El objetivo de la tesis es la investigacion de algoritmos numericos para el desarrollo de herramientas numericas para la simulacion de problemas tanto de comportamiento en la mar como de resistencia al avance de buques y estructuras flotantes. La primera herramienta desarrollada resuelve el problema de difraccion y radiacion de olas. Se basan en el metodo de los elementos finitos (MEF) para la resolucion de la ecuacion de Laplace, asi como en esquemas basados en MEF, integracion a lo largo de lineas de corriente, y en diferencias finitas desarrollados para la condicion de superficie libre. Se han desarrollado herramientas numericas para la resolucion de la dinamica de solido rigido en sistemas multicuerpos con ligaduras. Estas herramientas han sido integradas junto con la herramienta de resolucion de olas difractadas y radiadas para la resolucion de problemas de interaccion de cuerpos con olas. Tambien se han disenado algoritmos de acoplamientos con otras herramientas numericas para la resolucion de problemas multifisica. En particular, se han realizado acoplamientos con una herramienta numerica basada de calculo de estructuras con MEF para problemas de interaccion fluido-estructura, otra de calculo de lineas de fondeo, y con una herramienta numerica de calculo de flujos en tanques internos para problemas acoplados de comportamiento en la mar con “sloshing”. Se han realizado simulaciones numericas para la validacion y verificacion de los algoritmos desarrollados, asi como para el analisis de diferentes casos de estudio con aplicaciones diversas en los campos de la ingenieria naval, oceanica, y energias renovables marinas. ABSTRACT The objective of this thesis is the research on numerical algorithms to develop numerical tools to simulate seakeeping problems as well as wave resistance problems of ships and floating structures. The first tool developed is a wave diffraction-radiation solver. It is based on the finite element method (FEM) in order to solve the Laplace equation, as well as numerical schemes based on FEM, streamline integration, and finite difference method tailored for solving the free surface boundary condition. It has been developed numerical tools to solve solid body dynamics of multibody systems with body links across them. This tool has been integrated with the wave diffraction-radiation solver to solve wave-body interaction problems. Also it has been tailored coupling algorithms with other numerical tools in order to solve multi-physics problems. In particular, it has been performed coupling with a MEF structural solver to solve fluid-structure interaction problems, with a mooring solver, and with a solver capable of simulating internal flows in tanks to solve couple seakeeping-sloshing problems. Numerical simulations have been carried out to validate and verify the developed algorithms, as well as to analyze case studies in the areas of marine engineering, offshore engineering, and offshore renewable energy.
Exploring the underlying mechanisms of Ashitaba in the management of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease by integrating the analysis of transcriptomics and metabolomics

Ashitaba seems to improve glucose intolerance and decrease triglyceride (TG) and total cholesterol (TC), which contribute to the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, it remains to be explored the mechanism of Ashitaba in managing NAFLD. We determined the impact of Ashitaba on NAFLD, particularly its underlying mechanisms at the bioinformatic level. The established NAFLD mouse model was treated with or without Ashitaba, and the underlying mechanism was explored using transcriptomics paired with metabolomics. Ashitaba reduced obesity and liver steatosis in NAFLD mice. It identified 429 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and verified 45 differential metabolites, especially those that alleviate NAFLD via the FXR signaling pathway. Our data may provide insight into the therapeutic impact of Ashitaba in the management of NAFLD and may be useful in clinical interventions for NAFLD.
Findings from the expert-novice paradigm on differential response behavior among multiple-choice items of a pedagogical content knowledge test – implications for test development

Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is one core dimension of teachers’ professional knowledge and comprises knowledge about conceptual ideas of learners and appropriate instructions. However, several challenges regarding the assessment of PCK are discussed in the literature: For example, PCK is a topic-specific construct and contains differentiable subdomains, which must be considered during test development. In addition, the choice of test type needs to be considered. While open-ended instruments can capture a broader range of cognitions, they often require a high level of interpretation; in contrast, multiple-choice instruments have advantages in terms of objectivity and test economy. Some challenges of assessing PCK are particularly related to multiple-choice instruments, such as an insufficient focus on specific components or the accidental assessment of teachers’ beliefs instead of PCK. To better understand and explain these challenges in developing multiple-choice PCK instruments, we exemparly used an instrument to assess PCK about scientific reasoning and considered the assumptions of the expert-novice paradigm to analyze differential response behavior between n = 10 researchers in the field of biology education (experts) and n = 10 undergraduate pre-service biology teachers (novices). As expected, experts scored significantly higher than novices. At the same time, experts answered the items more consistently than novices, i.e., showed less variance. However, the difference found was statistically insignificant. Regarding the explanations for choosing a response option, experts more often correctly identified the quintessence of the items, which means that they more often understand the items as intended and argued based on their PCK. On the other hand, novices focused more on surface characteristics, i.e., they argued rather with surface knowledge like intuition or personal experience, than choosing the response option based on their PCK. These crucial differences in how experts and novices understand the items of the used PCK instrument and how they respond based on their understanding affect different test characteristics. In conclusion, we recommend ensuring that instruments address only a few, specific PCK aspects, considering the target group of a test, and take into account that target groups with larger variability among their responses require a higher number of items to achieve satisfactory discrimination and reliability indices.
Preliminary R-values for Seismic Design of Steel Stud Shear Walls

PRELIMINARY R-VALUES FOR SEISMIC DESIGN OF STEEL STUD SHEAR WALLS Y. Zhao! and C.A. Rogers! Design codes recognize the ability of some structllres to undergo significant inelastic deformation during a seismic event without reaching the point of collapse. In consideration of this behaviour, building codes provide force modification factors (R-values) to determine the reduced lateral loads that engineers may use in design. This paper presents an overview of the seismic requirements for various design standards and an explanation of how R-values may be determined from test results. The findings of an evaluation of existing steel stud shear wall test data, in addition to preliminary force modification factors for use in seismic design, are presented.
Historic variability of reconstructed precipitation with tree-rings for southwestern Coahuila

In Sierra de Arteaga, Coahuila, Mexico, five Douglas-fir chronologies of earlywood, latewood and total ring width were developed from five mountain ranges (La Viga, El Coahuilón, El Tarillal, Los Pilares, and El Morro). To determine a common response for the chronologies a Principal Component Analysis was used. The first Eigenvalue (PC1) explained 72% (p<0.001) of the variance. The El Morro chronology showed the lowest correlation and was discarded from further analysis. A regional chronology was developed with the remaining chronologies, extending for the last 302 years (1700 to 2001). The Response Function Analysis indicated that the earlywood and latewood chronologies responded to the seasonal winter-spring precipitation, explaining 75 and 50% of the variance, respectively, therefore, the earlywood chronology was used as the independent variable for a seasonal precipitation reconstruction. Drought episodes were detected in the reconstruction for the periods 1785-1815, 1853-1882, 19511963, and 1970-1985. Pluvials were less common but were present in the periods 1737-1747, 1824-1852, and 1935-1948. In this reconstruction droughts had a return interval of about 50 years, considering that dry periods occurred near by the end and middle of each century (1700, 1750, 1800, 1850, 1900, 1950, and 2000). A Coherence Wavelet Analysis involving the regional earlywood series and Tropical Rainfall Index annual values (TRI) indicated that the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has significantly influenced the climate variability of this region, particularly for the periods 1905-1930 and 1974-1988.
Availability and performance of sediment detachment and transport functions for overland flow conditions

Abstract Soil erosion is a global environmental problem. To quantify water erosion rates at the field, hillslope or catchment scale, several spatially-distributed soil erosion models have been developed. The accuracy of those models depends largely on the sediment detachment and transport functions used, many of which were developed from empirical research. In this paper, the physical basis of the available sediment detachment and transport functions is reviewed, and their application boundaries determined. Well-known and widely-used sediment detachment and transport functions are discussed on the basis of composite force predictors, i.e. shear stress, stream power, unit stream power and effective stream power, and their suitability is elucidated based on information in the literature. It was found that only a few sediment detachment functions are available, and those have been poorly tested. Most erosion models ignore direct calculation of sediment detachment, but use the sediment transport capacity deficit approach to estimate detachment rate. Many more sediment transport functions are available that also tested better for overland flow conditions. However, our tests did not result in a single function that appeared to perform best under a range of experimental conditions. The unit stream power-based functions developed by Govers seem to be the most promising ones for water erosion modelling. It is therefore recommended to evaluate the performance of existing sediment transport functions with more detailed field and laboratory datasets. Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz
Wideband Filtering Power Divider With Unequal Power Division Ratio and All-Frequency Input Absorptive Feature

In this brief, a wideband filtering power divider (FPD) with unequal power division ratio and all-frequency absorptive feature is presented. It is consisted of two transmission lines (TLs), two coupled lines (CLs), two stepped open-circuited stubs, an isolation resistor, and two absorptive branches. By setting different parameters for the TLs, the CLs and the absorptive branches, unequal power distribution with good filtering responses and input absorptive feature is obtained. Besides, with the insertion of one isolation resistor, good impedance matching and isolation between output ports are realized. Theoretical analysis of the proposed FPD is derived and parametric studies are also given. For demonstration, a prototype with 1:3 power division ratio was designed and fabricated. Measurement results show that for 10-dB return loss, the fractional bandwidths (FBWs) of 200%, 80% and 98% can be achieved for the input and output ports, respectively. While the 3-dB passband FBWs are 82.5% and 99.5% for the two output ports, separately. Besides, the rectangular coefficients of the two outputs are 1.38 and 1.22, respectively, which indicate high frequency selectivity.
A common garden experiment supports a genetic component underlying the increased resilience of common cockle (Cerastoderma edule) to the parasite Marteilia cochillia

The common cockle is a valuable bivalve species inhabiting the Atlantic European coasts. The parasite Marteilia cochillia has devastated cockle beds in the southern Galician (NW Spain) rias since 2012. Previous data suggested that cockles from Ría de Arousa acquired some resilience to this parasite through natural selection after consecutive annual marteiliosis outbreaks and candidate markers associated with marteiliosis resilience were identified using population genomics and transcriptomics approaches. Here, a common garden experiment was performed using a naïve stock (from Ría de Muros‐Noia) and an affected stock (from Ría de Arousa) to test this hypothesis. Breeders from both stocks were used to produce seed cohorts at hatchery, which were pre‐grown in a raft (outdoor nursery stage) and deployed in two shellfish beds affected by marteiliosis in Ría de Arousa (growing‐out stage). In both beds, the naïve stock showed high marteiliosis prevalence and was fully depleted in a short period, while the affected stock barely showed evidence of marteiliosis. A set of 45 SNPs putatively associated with marteiliosis resilience were fitted for MassARRAY genotyping to check their role in the differential resilience detected between both stocks. Though no significant differentiation was found between the naïve and the affected stocks with neutral markers, 28 SNPs showed significant divergence between them, suggesting that these SNPs were involved in directional selection during eight generations (to the most) of marteiliosis pressure (long‐term selection). Furthermore, signals of selection were also detected in the naïve stock along the marteiliosis outbreak in the growing‐out stage (short‐term selection) and six SNPs, all shared with the long‐term evaluation, showed consistent signals of differentiation according to the infection severity. Some of these SNPs were located within immune genes pertaining to families such as proteasome, ubiquitin, tumor necrosis factor, and glutathione S‐transferase. These resilience‐associated markers will be useful to recover cockle production in Galicia.