Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coaxial Electrospinning with Triton X‐100 Solutions as Sheath Fluids for Preparing PAN Nanofibers

Coaxial electrospinning using surfactants as sheath fluid for preparing high-quality polymer nanofibers is studied. PAN nanofibers are fabricated using this process with Triton X-100 solutions in DMF. FESEM demonstrates that the Triton X-100 solution has a significant influence on the quality of the nanofibers. The nanofiber diameters can be controlled by adjusting the concentration of Triton X-100 in the sheath fluids with a scaling law D = 640 C -0.32 . The mechanism of the influence of Triton X-100 solutions on the formation of PAN fibers is discussed and it is demonstrated that coaxial electrospinning with surfactant solution is a facile method for achieving high-quality polymer nanofibers.
Algebraic K-theory of rings from a topological viewpoint

Because of its strong interaction with almost every part of pure mathematics, algebraic K-theory has had a spectacular development since its origin in the late fifties. The objective of this paper is to provide the basic definitions of the algebraic K-theory of rings and an overview of the main classical theorems. Since the algebraic K-groups of a ring R are the homotopy groups of a topological space associated with the general linear group over R, it is obvious that many general results follow from arguments from homotopy theory. This paper is essentially devoted to some of them: it explains in particular how methods from stable homotopy theory, group cohomology and Postnikov theory can be used in algebraic K-theory.
Prevalence and Predictors of Prehospital Pain Assessment and Analgesic Use in Military Trauma Patients, 2010–2013

Abstract Introduction: Pain is the most common symptom in patients presenting for prehospital (PH) care. Research in civilian emergency medical systems has shown wide variability in PH pain assessment and analgesic practices, yet a minimal amount is known about pain assessment and analgesic intervention practices in the military, particularly when PH care is delivered in a combat zone. Objective: To describe prehospital (PH) pain care practices for U.S. military personnel injured in Iraq and Afghanistan 2010–2013 and explore potential relationships to explain variation. Methods: An exploratory retrospective, cross-sectional study of Department of Defense Trauma Registry data from 2010 to 2013 was performed. Demographic, clinical, or health system variables for associations with three outcomes: 1) pain assessment documentation; 2) pain severity (0–10 scale); and 3) analgesic administration (yes/no). Including only variables with significant associations, backward stepwise regression was used to develop explanatory models for each outcome. Results: Patient records (n = 3,317) were evaluated for documentation of PH pain assessment and analgesic administration. The prevalence of PH pain score documentation was 37.8% (n = 1,253). Overall, the proportion of records with PH pain scores increased over time: 19.8% (2010), 35.1% (2011), 58.2% (2012), and 62.2% (2013). Severity of pain scores ranged 0–10; mean = 5.5 (SD = 3.1); median = 6 (IQR = 3–8). Analgesics were reported for 50.8% (n = 1,684), of whom 38.3% had a pain severity score documented. The pain assessment documentation model included any documented vital signs, injury year, and mechanism of injury and explained 19.3% of the variance in documentation. The pain severity model included vital signs and injury severity score (ISS) and explained 5.0% of the variance in severity. The analgesic model included any vital signs, pain severity, trauma type, mechanism of injury, ISS, and year. Conclusions: Pain assessment and treatment documentation improved each year, but remain suboptimal. Available data yielded poor prediction of the outcomes of interest, emphasizing the importance of individual assessment. Analgesic effectiveness could not be evaluated.
Adolescent and young adult women’s opinions of common eating disorder prevention messages

ABSTRACT We examined young women’s opinions of five common eating disorder (ED) prevention themes in terms of persuasiveness and impact on behavioral intentions. Video-taped prevention themes were rated by female adolescents and young adults (ages 13–25) with and without eating disorders. Overall, younger participants found the prevention messages less persuasive than older participants. Controlling for age, clinical participants found the messages to be less persuasive than did non-clinical participants. Clinical participants reported no change in their behavioral intentions after watching the videos, whereas non-clinical participants reported a lower intention to diet and make body comparisons after viewing the messages. Presenter ratings (attractiveness, credibility, thinness) also positively predicted individuals’ opinions of the messages. The findings suggest that younger adolescents and women who already display signs of disordered eating may be hard to persuade through ED prevention messages, and further research is needed to improve their impact among these groups.
A distribution of AFM pull-off forces for glass microspheres on a symmetrically structured rough surface

The adhesional contact between a particle and a substrate is a fundamental parameter for analyzing pull-off force data generated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Roughness, present at some scale for all real materials, complicates this task by introducing asperity-controlled contact. Roughness also causes pull-off force data scatter, a well-known phenomenon that is usually neglected in analysis of the AFM pull-off results. This paper presents the first systematic study of roughness effect on the pull-off force magnitude and its distribution characteristics. The results indicate that the scatter in the data decreases with increasing diameter of the probe as compared to the dimension of surface irregularities, but the magnitude of the pull-off force is more severely altered by roughness. The results also show that when particle size is at the same scale as surface roughness, multiple contact points may be made yielding increased adhesion.
Human visual exploration reduces uncertainty about the sensed world

In previous papers, we introduced a normative scheme for scene construction and epistemic (visual) searches based upon active inference. This scheme provides a principled account of how people decide where to look, when categorising a visual scene based on its contents. In this paper, we use active inference to explain the visual searches of normal human subjects; enabling us to answer some key questions about visual foraging and salience attribution. First, we asked whether there is any evidence for ‘epistemic foraging’; i.e. exploration that resolves uncertainty about a scene. In brief, we used Bayesian model comparison to compare Markov decision process (MDP) models of scan-paths that did–and did not–contain the epistemic, uncertainty-resolving imperatives for action selection. In the course of this model comparison, we discovered that it was necessary to include non-epistemic (heuristic) policies to explain observed behaviour (e.g., a reading-like strategy that involved scanning from left to right). Despite this use of heuristic policies, model comparison showed that there is substantial evidence for epistemic foraging in the visual exploration of even simple scenes. Second, we compared MDP models that did–and did not–allow for changes in prior expectations over successive blocks of the visual search paradigm. We found that implicit prior beliefs about the speed and accuracy of visual searches changed systematically with experience. Finally, we characterised intersubject variability in terms of subject-specific prior beliefs. Specifically, we used canonical correlation analysis to see if there were any mixtures of prior expectations that could predict between-subject differences in performance; thereby establishing a quantitative link between different behavioural phenotypes and Bayesian belief updating. We demonstrated that better scene categorisation performance is consistently associated with lower reliance on heuristics; i.e., a greater use of a generative model of the scene to direct its exploration.
Multiploid Inheritance of HIV-1 during Cell-to-Cell Infection

ABSTRACT During cell-to-cell transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), many viral particles can be simultaneously transferred from infected to uninfected CD4 T cells through structures called virological synapses (VS). Here we directly examine how cell-free and cell-to-cell infections differ from infections initiated with cell-free virus in the number of genetic copies that are transmitted from one generation to the next, i.e., the genetic inheritance. Following exposure to HIV-1-expressing cells, we show that target cells with high viral uptake are much more likely to become infected. Using T cells that coexpress distinct fluorescent HIV-1 variants, we show that multiple copies of HIV-1 can be cotransmitted across a single VS. In contrast to cell-free HIV-1 infection, which titrates with Poisson statistics, the titration of cell-associated HIV-1 to low rates of overall infection generates a constant fraction of the newly infected cells that are cofluorescent. Triple infection was also readily detected when cells expressing three fluorescent viruses were used as donor cells. A computational model and a statistical model are presented to estimate the degree to which cofluorescence underestimates coinfection frequency. Lastly, direct detection of HIV-1 proviruses using fluorescence in situ hybridization confirmed that significantly more HIV-1 DNA copies are found in primary T cells infected with cell-associated virus than in those infected with cell-free virus. Together, the data suggest that multiploid inheritance is common during cell-to-cell HIV-1 infection. From this study, we suggest that cell-to-cell infection may explain the high copy numbers of proviruses found in infected cells in vivo and may provide a mechanism through which HIV preserves sequence heterogeneity in viral quasispecies through genetic complementation.
Towards RSA-based HA configuration in Cloud

High availability (HA) is a crucial concern in cloud systems. However, guaranteeing HA is challenging because of the complex runtime cloud environment, large number of HA mechanisms available, error-prone HA configuration, and ever-needed dynamic adjustment. In this study, we leverage runtime system architecture (RSA) for automatic configuration of HA in a cloud. With a causal connection between RSA and its corresponding cloud system, our approach has the following advantages. 1) The runtime changes of the system are abstracted, collected, and reflected on the RSA continuously, simplifying HA information collection. 2) With a model-based HA analyzer working on the collected HA-related information, an appropriate HA style (HAS) can be automatically selected for application to the current system. 3) Changing a HAS on RSA at runtime changes the system HA mechanism, which is suitable for the complex and ever-changing cloud environment. We implemented a prototype of our approach and evaluated it using our model-driven Yan-cloud platform.
Association Between Socioeconomic Status and Mortality, Cardiovascular Disease, and Cancer in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes.

IMPORTANCE The association between socioeconomic status and survival based on all-cause, cardiovascular (CV), diabetes-related, and cancer mortality in type 2 diabetes has not been examined in a setting of persons with equitable access to health care with adjustment for important confounders. OBJECTIVE To determine whether income, educational level, marital status, and country of birth are independently associated with all-cause, CV, diabetes-related, and cancer mortality in persons with type 2 diabetes. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS A study including all 217 364 individuals younger than 70 years with type 2 diabetes in the Sweden National Diabetes Register (January 1, 2003, to December 31, 2010) who were monitored through December 31, 2012, was conducted. A Cox proportional hazards regression model with up to 17 covariates was used for analysis. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES All-cause, CV, diabetes-related, and cancer mortality. RESULTS Of the 217 364 persons included in the study, mean (SD) age was 58.3 (9.3) years and 130 839 of the population (60.2%) was male. There were a total of 19 105 all-cause deaths with 11 423 (59.8%), 6984 (36.6%), and 6438 (33.7%) CV, diabetes-related, or cancer deaths, respectively. Compared with being single, hazard ratios (HRs) for married individuals, determined using fully adjusted models, for all-cause, CV, and diabetes-related mortality were 0.73 (95% CI, 0.70-0.77), 0.67 (95% CI, 0.63-0.71), and 0.62 (95% CI, 0.57-0.67), respectively. Marital status was not associated with overall cancer mortality, but married men had a 33% lower risk of prostate cancer mortality compared with single men, with an HR of 0.67 (95% CI, 0.50-0.90). Comparison of HRs for the lowest vs highest income quintiles for all-cause, CV, diabetes-related, and cancer mortality were 1.71 (95% CI, 1.60-1.83), 1.87 (95% CI, 1.72-2.05), 1.80 (95% CI, 1.61-2.01), and 1.28 (95% CI, 1.14-1.44), respectively. Compared with native Swedes, HRs for all-cause, CV, diabetes-related, and cancer mortality for non-Western immigrants were 0.55 (95% CI, 0.48-0.63), 0.46 (95% CI, 0.38-0.56), 0.38 (95% CI, 0.29-0.49), and 0.72 (95% CI, 0.58-0.88), respectively, and these HRs were virtually unaffected by covariate adjustment. Hazard ratios for those with a college/university degree compared with 9 years or less of education were 0.85 (95% CI, 0.80-0.90), 0.84 (95% CI, 0.78-0.91), and 0.84 (95% CI, 0.76-0.93) for all-cause, CV, and cancer mortality, respectively. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Independent of risk factors, access to health care, and use of health care, socioeconomic status is a powerful predictor of all-cause and CV mortality but was not as strong as a predictor of death from cancer.
Note on Large Subsets of Binary Vectors with Similar Distances

We consider vectors from $\{0,1\}^n$. The weight of such a vector $v$ is the sum of the coordinates of $v$. The distance ratio of a set $L$ of vectors is ${\rm dr}(L):=\max \{\rho(x,y):\ x,y \in L\}/ \min \{\rho(x,y):\ x,y \in L,\ x\neq y\},$ where $\rho(x,y)$ is the Hamming distance between $x$ and $y$. We prove that (a) for every constant $\lambda>1$ there are no positive constants $\alpha$ and $C$ such that every set $K$ of at least $\lambda^p$ vectors with weight $p$ contains a subset $K'$ with $|K'|\ge |K|^{\alpha}$ and ${\rm dr}(K')\le C$; and (b) for a set $K$ of vectors with weight $p$, and a constant $C>2$, there exists $K'\subseteq K$ such that ${\rm dr}(K')\le C$ and $|K'| \ge |K|^\alpha$, where $\alpha = 1/ \lceil \log(p/2)/\log(C/2) \rceil$.
Reflectance-based surface saliency

In this paper, we propose an original methodology allowing the computation of the saliency maps for high dimensional RTI data (Reflectance Transformation Imaging). Unlike most of the classical methods, our approach aims at devising an intrinsic visual saliency of the surface, independent of the sensor (image) and the geometry of the scene (light-object-camera). From RTI data, we use the DMD (Discrete Modal Decomposition) technique for the angular reflectance reconstruction, which we extend by a new transformation on the modal basis enabling a rotation-invariant representation of reconstructed reflectances. This orientation-invariance of the resulting reflectance shapes fosters a robust estimation of saliency maps linked to the local visual appearance behaviour of surfaces on the scene. The proposed methodology has been tested and validated on real surfaces with controlled singularities, and the results demonstrated its efficiency since the estimated saliency maps show strong correlation with sensorial visual assessments.
Improved Massively Parallel Computation Algorithms for MIS, Matching, and Vertex Cover

We present O(loglog n) -round algorithms in the Massively Parallel Computation (MPC) model, with Õ (n) memory per machine, that compute a maximal independent set, a 1+ε approximation of maximum matching, and a 2+εapproximation of minimum vertex cover, for any n-vertex graph and any constant \eps>0. These improve the state of the art as follows: Our MIS algorithm leads to a simple O(loglog Δ)-round MIS algorithm in the CONGESTED-CLIQUE model of distributed computing, which improves on the Õ (√log Δ )-round algorithm of Ghaffari [PODC'17]. Our O(loglog n)-round (1+ε)-approximate maximum matching algorithm simplifies or improves on the following prior work: O(log^2log n)-round (1+\eps)-approximation algorithm of Czumaj et al. [STOC'18] and $O(loglog n)-round (1+ε)-approximation algorithm of Assadi et al. [arXiv'17]. Our O(loglog n)-round (2+ε)-approximate minimum vertex cover algorithm improves on an O(loglog n)-round O(1)-approximation of Assadi et al. [arXiv'17].
Platelets at the vascular interface

Essentials Part 1 of this review summarizes recent findings on the exquisite balance between activating and inhibitory mechanisms that control platelet adhesiveness in the circulation and at sites of vascular injury. Part 2 of this review discusses molecular differences and similarities for how platelets secure vascular integrity at sites of inflammation and at sites of mechanical trauma.
Uptake and Outcomes of Laparoscopically Assisted Resection for Colon and Rectal Cancer in Australia: A Population-Based Study

BACKGROUND: Meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials support the use of laparoscopically assisted resection for colon cancer. The evidence supporting its use in rectal cancer is weak. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this work was to investigate the uptake of laparoscopically assisted resection for colon and rectal cancer and to compare short- and long-term outcomes using population data. DESIGN: This was a retrospective cohort study using linked administrative health data. SETTINGS: The study encompassed all of the public and private hospitals in New South Wales, Australia, between 2000 and 2008. PATIENTS: A total of 27,947 patients with colon or rectal cancer undergoing surgery with curative intent were included in the study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We summarized the proportion of resections performed laparoscopically. Short-term outcomes were extended stay, 28-day readmission, 28-day emergency readmission, 30- and 90-day mortality, and 90-day readmission with pulmonary embolism or deep-vein thrombosis. Long-term outcomes were all-cause and cancer-specific death and admission with obstruction or incisional hernia repair. RESULTS: Laparoscopic procedures increased between 2000 and 2008 for colon (1.5%–20.7%) and rectal cancer (0.6%–15.5%). Laparoscopic procedures reduced rates of extended stay (OR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.49–0.72) and 28-day readmission (OR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.74–0.99) for colon cancer. For rectal cancer, laparoscopic procedures had lower rates of 28-day readmission (OR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.42–0.78) and 28-day emergency readmission (OR, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.34–0.85). Laparoscopic procedures improved cancer-specific survival for rectal cancer (HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.51–1.00). Survival benefits were observed for laparoscopically assisted colon resection in higher-caseload hospitals but not lower-caseload hospitals. LIMITATIONS: It was not possible to identify laparoscopically assisted resections converted to open procedures because of the claims-based nature of the data. CONCLUSIONS: Despite increases in laparoscopically assisted resections for colon and rectal cancer, the majority of resections are still treated by open procedures. Our data suggest that laparoscopic resection reduces the lengths of stay and rates of readmission and may result in improved cancer-specific survival for both colon and rectal resections.
Nursing documentation in inpatient psychiatry: The relevance of nurse–patient interactions in progress notes—A focus group study with mental health staff

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To gain insight into mental health staff's perception of writing progress notes in an acute and subacute psychiatric ward context. BACKGROUND The nursing process structures nursing documentation. Progress notes are intended to be an evaluation of a patient's nursing diagnoses, interventions and outcomes. Within this template, a patient's status and the care provided are to be recorded. The therapeutic nurse-patient relationship is recognised as a key component of psychiatric care today. At the same time, the biomedical model remains strong. Research literature exploring nursing staff's experiences with writing progress notes in psychiatric contexts, and especially the space given to staff-patient relations, is sparse. DESIGN Qualitative design. METHODS Focus group interviews with mental health staff working in one acute and one subacute psychiatric ward were conducted. Systematic text condensation, a method for transverse thematic analysis, was used. RESULTS Two main categories emerged from the analysis: the position of the professional as an expert and distant observer in the progress notes, and the weak position of professional-patient interactions in progress notes. CONCLUSIONS The participants did not perceive that the current recording model, which is based on the nursing process, supported a focus on patients' resources or reporting professional-patient interactions. This model appeared to put ward staff in an expert position in relation to patients, which made it challenging to involve patients in the recording process. Essential aspects of nursing care related to recovery and person-centred care were not prioritised for documentation. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE This study contributes to the critical examination of the documentation praxis, as well as to the critical examination of the documentation tool as to what is considered important to document.
Energy Consumption Analysis of Edge Orchestrated Virtualized Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks

Virtualization enabled by container-based technologies is a recently emerging concept in the integration of Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing. Due of their lightweight nature, container-based virtualization tools improve manageability of cloud-based IoT solutions by making it possible to update application software on the fly. Although different studies have demonstrated the feasibility of efficiently running container-based virtualization on low-power IoT nodes, the implication of doing so on battery-powered nodes has been overlooked. In this paper, we investigate how much energy overhead is generated by Docker-based virtualization on battery powered camera sensor nodes. In our scenario, camera nodes are most of the time in “power off” state to save energy. They are switched on for streaming video only when activity is detected by motion sensor nodes. By means of empirical measurement and subsequent analysis, we found that starting and closing of containers in the Docker platform adds-up roughly 13 percent power consumption overhead during the boot-up and shutdown of the camera nodes. Furthermore, the fixed overhead occurring from boot-up and shutdown procedures become negligible with longer video stream sessions.
Gradient Descent Can Take Exponential Time to Escape Saddle Points

Although gradient descent (GD) almost always escapes saddle points asymptotically [Lee et al., 2016], this paper shows that even with fairly natural random initialization schemes and non-pathological functions, GD can be significantly slowed down by saddle points, taking exponential time to escape. On the other hand, gradient descent with perturbations [Ge et al., 2015, Jin et al., 2017] is not slowed down by saddle points - it can find an approximate local minimizer in polynomial time. This result implies that GD is inherently slower than perturbed GD, and justifies the importance of adding perturbations for efficient non-convex optimization. While our focus is theoretical, we also present experiments that illustrate our theoretical findings.