Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Finite element methods for parameter dependent problems

This thesis develops finite element methods for parameter dependent equations. The interest lies in cases where the nature of the problem and the numerical methods used change with the parameters. The studied examples are the reaction-diffusion problem, the Robin boundary condition, which generalizes the Dirichlet and Neumann conditions, and the Brinkman equation, which generalizes the Stokes and the Darcy equations. The developed methods depend continuously on the problem parameters and work even for the limiting values. A posteriori estimates are derived for all the proposed methods, taking into account the parameters. Significant parts of this work are the implementation of the proposed methods and the numerical verfication of the developed theory. AMS subject classifications: 65N30
Automatic Knee Osteoarthritis Severity Grading using Deep Neural Networks: Comparative Analysis of Network Architectures and Optimization Functions

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a prevalent degenerative joint disease that requires accurate assessment of its severity for effective treatment planning. In this study, we propose an automatic knee OA severity-grading system based on deep neural networks. Specifically, we explore various network architectures, including VGG-16, VGG-19, ResNet-101, EfficientNet-B7, and EfficientNet-B6, along with different optimization functions such as SGD, ADAM, Nadam, AdamW, and AdaDelta. Furthermore, we investigate two loss functions, namely, the novel ordinal loss and the cross-entropy loss. The proposed system is evaluated on a carefully curated dataset, and comprehensive experimental settings are employed to ensure reliable results. Our findings indicate that the combination of the EfficientNet-B7 network with the Nadam optimizer yields the best performance, achieving an accuracy of 70.1% in knee OA severity grading. These results demonstrate the potential of deep neural networks in automating the grading process, offering a valuable tool for clinicians and researchers in the field of knee osteoarthritis management.
Distribution of Long-tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis) in Deli Island, Pandeglang, Banten

Deli Island is one of the habitats for the long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis) outside its natural distribution. Not much is known about the existence of Deli Island, included information on habitat use. This study was conducted to determine the distribution and distribution pattern of long-tailed Macaques in utilizing Deli Island as their habitat. The study was conducted in June-July 2022. The study used the transect method and the determination of the waypoint using GPS. Data were analyzed using ArcMap GIS 10.3 program to describe the presence and distribution of long-tailed macaques. The results showed that 27 groups of long-tailed macaques were identified on Deli island spread over several points, large groups were found in fishermen's huts with a total of 42 individuals. This condition illustrates that the distribution pattern of groups of long-tailed macaques on Deli Island is in the random category with nearest neighbor ratio 1,089431.
• A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON ZERO-TRUNCATED GENERALIZED POISSON-LINDLEY AND ZERO-TRUNCATED POISSON-LINDLEY DISTRIBUTIONS

I n this paper, the zero-truncated generalized Poisson-Lindley (ZTGPL) distribution has been proposed and its properties studied. The maximum likelihood method is used to obtain the estimators of its parameters through R-software. The comparative study with zero-truncated Poisson (ZTP) and zero-truncated Poisson-Lindley (ZTPL) distributions is done with two datasets. The proposed distribution is characterized by two parameters and flexible to account for both over- and under-dispersion in structurally non-zero count data. The statistic (chi square) is used to check its goodness-of-fit.
A Systematic Review of Telemedicine-Driven Pulmonary Rehabilitation after the Acute Phase of COVID-19

The acute phase of COVID-19 often leaves patients with persistent pulmonary deficits. Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) has been recommended as an essential part of post-acute COVID-19 management. In light of the global pandemic, telerehabilitation has been increasingly employed to deliver PR. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of telemedicine-driven PR in patients recovering from the acute phase of COVID-19, assessing variations in telerehabilitation practices and identifying the degree of change in mental health, physical health, quality of life, and lung function. A systematic search was conducted across PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane, and Scopus up until April 2023. Studies focusing on telerehabilitation in PR for post-acute COVID-19 patients with outcomes including pulmonary function, exercise capacity, and quality of life were included after careful assessment of this study’s protocol. The selection process involved careful scrutiny of abstracts and full texts, and the quality assessment was performed using the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) tool. Seven studies, published between 2021 and 2022, involving a total of 412 patients, were included. The evaluated telerehabilitation programs stretched between 4 and 10 weeks, involving a mobile app or video connection with the patient, integrating a mix of aerobic and resistance training, breathing exercises, functional activities, and muscle strengthening. Findings revealed that telemedicine-driven PR significantly improved physical health, measured by the step test score (73 vs. 71), 6MWD (30.2 vs. 17.1) and BPAQ, mental health evaluated by SF-12 (6.15 vs. 4.17) and PHQ-4, quality of life measured by the SF-12 (7.81 vs. 3.84), SGRQ (31.5 vs. 16.9), and CAT scores, and some parameters of pulmonary function in post-acute COVID-19 patients (mMRC, STST, and MVV). This review substantiates the potential of telemedicine-driven PR to improve various health outcomes in post-acute COVID-19 patients. The findings underscore the importance of integrating telerehabilitation into the management of post-acute COVID-19 and call for further exploration of its long-term effects, cost-effectiveness, and best practices.
Evolutionary Many-Objective Optimization Based on Dynamical Decomposition

Decomposition-based many-objective evolutionary algorithms generally decompose the objective space into multiple subregions with the help of a set of reference vectors. The resulting subregions are fixed since the reference vectors are usually predefined. When the optimization problem has a complicated Pareto front (PF), this decomposition may decrease the algorithm performance. To deal with this problem, this paper proposes a dynamical decomposition strategy. Instead of using predefined reference vectors, solution themselves are used as reference vectors. Thus, they are adapted to the shape of PF automatically. Besides, the subregions are produced one by one through successively bipartitioning the objective space. The resulting subregions are not fixed but dynamically determined by the population solutions as well as the subregions produced previously. Based on this strategy, a solution ranking method, named dynamical-decomposition-based ranking method (DDR), is proposed which can be employed in the mating selection and environmental selection in commonly used algorithm frameworks. Compared with those in the other decomposition-based algorithms, DDR has the following properties: 1) no predefined reference vectors are required; 2) less parameters are involved; and 3) the ranking results can not only be utilized directly to select solutions but also serve as a secondary criterion in traditional Pareto-based algorithms. In this paper, DDR is equipped in two algorithm frameworks for handling many-objective optimization problems. Comparisons with five state-of-the-art algorithms on 31 widely used test problems are carried out to test the performance of the proposed approach. The experimental results have shown the effectiveness of the proposed approach in keeping a good tradeoff between convergence and diversity.
The Role of Matrix Metalloproteinases in Hemorrhagic Transformation in the Treatment of Stroke with Tissue Plasminogen Activator

Ischemic stroke is a leading cause of disability and mortality worldwide. The only approved treatment for ischemic stroke is thrombolytic therapy with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), though this approach often leads to a severe complication: hemorrhagic transformation (HT). The pathophysiology of HT in response to tPA is complex and not fully understood. However, numerous scientific findings suggest that the enzymatic activity and expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in brain tissue play a crucial role. In this review article, we summarize the current knowledge of the functioning of various MMPs at different stages of ischemic stroke development and their association with HT. We also discuss the mechanisms that underlie the effect of tPA on MMPs as the main cause of the adverse effects of thrombolytic therapy. Finally, we describe recent research that aimed to develop new strategies to modulate MMP activity to improve the efficacy of thrombolytic therapy. The ultimate goal is to provide more targeted and personalized treatment options for patients with ischemic stroke to minimize complications and improve clinical outcomes.
Energy Management and Power Quality Improvement of Hybrid Renewable Energy Generation System Using Coordinated Control Scheme

Nowadays, renewable energy sources such as solar Photovoltaic (PV) and wind power systems play a significant part in the process of generating electricity. These systems are tremendously reliant on the present and forecasted weather conditions. The inconsistent behavior of the system has an impact on the production as well as the variances in the output. As a result, the requirement for energy transmission and distribution systems to compensate promptly is becoming crucial. This paper proposes a new smart grid application for power system operation. A Static Compensator (STATCOM) device is utilized to improve the power quality and power flow in the distribution system, reduce unwanted harmonics and compensate for reactive power in the power sources. A quasi-Z-Source Inverter (qZSI) based STATCOM is constructed in connection with a Three-Phase Four-Wire (3P4W) distribution system. The combination of a q Z-source and a PV system makes up the suggested compensator circuit that is employed here for switching. To control the suggested compensator, an Adaptive Frequency Fixed (AFF) - Second Order Generalized Integrator (SOGI) has been implemented. The Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) is used to optimize the parameters of the Proportional Integral (PI) controller, such as $K\text{p}$ and $K\text{i}$ . The experimental results demonstrate that the system effectively reduces the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of the source current, decreasing it from 25.5% to 1.3%. Moreover, the system has demonstrated its ability to supply active power to the load.
Control of particulate manganese (Mn) cycling in halocline Arctic Ocean waters by putative Mn‐oxidizing bacterial dynamics

Particulate Mn, given its high adsorptive capacity and oxidation potential, has profound impacts on the cycling of various trace elements and organic matter in the ocean. Moreover, particulate Mn acts as a sink (via oxidation and adsorption) or as a source (via remineralization and photoreduction) term of bioactive dissolved Mn(II). In the Canadian Arctic Ocean, particulate Mn distributions in the water column revealed the presence of distinctively high particulate Mn concentrations and an overwhelming dominance of the non‐lithogenic component to the bulk particulate Mn pool. This phenomenon is of particular importance in halocline waters in the Canada Basin, the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Baffin Bay, and near‐bottom samples in Baffin Bay. Enhanced microbially‐mediated Mn oxidation in the water column is suggested as the main mechanism driving the non‐lithogenic dominance. Indeed, the microbial community composition data associated with high non‐lithogenic particulate Mn (i.e., Mn oxides) display a high relative abundance of taxa (e.g., f.Pirellulaceae, o.Phycisphaerales, f.Cryomorphaceae, g. Moritella) that have been identified in Mn oxide enriched environments. Furthermore, numerous taxa identified in the Canada Basin halocline water, where non‐lithogenic particulate Mn peaked, are phylogenetically related to known (cultured) Mn‐oxidizing bacteria (MnOB; e.g., Rhodobacteraceae, Oceanospirillaceae, Rhizobiaceae, and other Alphaproteobacteria). Putative MnOB appears to proliferate in certain water masses having a unique set of environmental conditions: low light intensity—alleviating photoinhibition—and high dissolved Mn concentrations, the main drivers known to influence MnOB dynamic, and hence, Mn oxidation.
Compact water pump and its application to self-contained soft robot hand for vegetable factory

As the number of agricultural workers is decreasing, there are a lot of demands on the robotics automation of agricultural tasks, including the automation of repacking and shipping in vegetable factories. A soft robot hand is suitable for such tasks because of its less damaging to vegetables and adaptability to variety in size and weight of vegetables. However, most of soft robotic hands are actuated by the air pressure, and the output force is not sufficient for heavy vegetables that are often dealt with in a vegetable factory. To solve this problem, we developed a prototype of a hydraulic soft robot hand in our previous research. Selecting an oil as the hydraulic source, the prototype was actuated by a compact built-in pump, we showed that the prototype could hold 2 or cabbage with pressure control. In this paper, we develop a compact water pump that can generate maximum , and update the prototype selecting the water as the hydraulic source. We experimentally show that the soft hand can grasp and hold a cabbages, assuming a real situation in a vegetable factory. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
A greedy approach for correlation-aware sparse support recovery

The problem of sparse support recovery in Multiple Measurement Vector (MMV) models is considered, where the support size (K) can be larger than the dimension (M) of each measurement vector. Most results in literature address the case where K < M. We propose a sequential detector for the MMV problem, which despite its simplicity, it can recover supports of size K = O(M2), for suitable measurement matrices, with a probability of error decaying to zero exponentially fast as the number of independent measurement vectors (L) goes to infinity. By exactly characterizing the distribution of the detection statistic, we derive explicit forms for the error exponent. We show that the required conditions on the measurement matrix can be met for equiangular tight frames. Although certain constructive methods show existence of equiangular tight frames of size N > M (N being the number of columns), the question of existence of equiangular tight frames of size N = O(M2), for arbitrarily large M, is still an open problem. We review some of the well-known results on this topic, and make connections to the support recovery problem when K > M.
Quality of life assessment in the first episode of acute coronary syndrome

Background: Assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important measure of a patient’s recovery after an illness. However, HRQoL among acute coronary syndrome (ACS) survivors has not been extensively studied following cardiac management. Aim: The purpose of this study was to assess the quality of life (QoL) among ACS patients who have undergone percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods: This cohort study included 145 consecutive male ACS patients between March 2021 and May 2022. Of these patients, 138 (mean age 54.3 ± 10.7 years) completed the QoL assessment using the short form-12 (SF-12) health survey questionnaire. Seventy (51%) of them presented with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), 18 (13%) had non-STEMI, 39 (28%) had evolved MI, and 11 (8%) had unstable angina. Recruited patients’ QoL data were assessed at various time points post-PCI. Results: At the end of the 12 months of follow-up, major clinical events (MCE) defined as death, sudden death, or re-acute myocardial infarction occurred in 54.9% of patients. Out of 7 MCE, four deaths and three re-AMIs had occurred. SF-12 physical component score was found to be significantly improved when compared to the mental component score, which seems to improve without reaching statistical significance over time. Among event-free ACS patients, we found a significant positive correlation between left ventricular ejection fraction and HRQoL. Conclusion: Improvement in HRQoL (physical component) was seen among ACS patients post-PCI. Relevance for Patients: QoL assessment outcomes should be considered in clinical settings, practice guidelines, and treatment modality post-PCI to improve QoL in post-ACS survivors.
Ultrasonic-assisted green synthesis of silver nanoparticles through cinnamon extract: biochemical, structural, and antimicrobial properties

ABSTRACT Ultrasonic-assisted green synthesis of silver nanoparticles is gaining more attention owing to its benefits over conventional synthesis process. The main objective of this study was to synthesize silver nanoparticles with aqueous cinnamon extract using ultrasound-assisted extraction and their physico-chemical characterization. Total phenolic content, DPPH, FRAP of cinnamon aqueous extract were 315 mg GAE/g, 89% scavenging activity and 9.5 mmol Trolox eq/100 g reducing power respectively. The synthesized silver nanoparticles were characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, X-rays Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with Energy Dispersive X-rays (EDX), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). XRD spectra depicted that the nanoparticles were crystallite in structure and 50 nm in size. SEM micrographs showed that nanoparticles were spherical in shape. EDX, FTIR and NMR spectra indicated that the phenolic compounds present in cinnamon aqueous extract played their role in capping and reducing the silver ions. Cinnamon-based silver nanoparticles showed potential antimicrobial activity against Gram negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Thus, cinnamon extract obtained through ultrasonic-assisted extraction could be a valuable source of polyphenols, which actively participated in the reduction and stabilization of silver nanoparticles.
A multi-signature approach to low-scale sterile neutrino phenomenology

Since the discovery of non-zero neutrino masses, through the observation of neutrino flavour oscillations, we had a plethora of successful experiments which have made increasingly precise measurements of the mixing angles and mass-differences that drive the phenomena. In this thesis we highlight the fact that there is still significant room for new physics, however, when one removes the assumption of unitarity of the 3x3 neutrino mixing matrix, an assumption inherent in the 3ν paradigm. We refit all global data to show just how much non-unitarity is currently allowed. The canonical way that such a non-unitarity is introduced to the 3x3 neutrino mixing matrix is by the addition of additional neutral fermions, singlets under the Standard Model gauge group. These “Sterile Neutrinos” have a wide range of the- oretical and phenomenological implications. Alongside the sensitivity non-unitarity measurements have to sterile neutrinos, in this thesis we will study in detail two additional signatures of low-scale sterile neutrinos; the case of one or more light O(1eV) sterile neutrinos detected by their effect on neutrino flavour oscillations, and heavier O(100 MeV) detected via their subsequent decay to Standard Model particles. These two regimes have markedly different phenomenology, but are both measurable at terrestrial short-baseline experiments. We consistently use the Fermilab Short-Baseline Neutrino program as a concrete example which would produce world-leading bounds in both scenarios.
Impact of BMI z-score on left ventricular mechanics in adolescent girls

Background Adolescent weight disorders ranging from anorexia nervosa (AN) to obesity (OB) can impact the heart by causing opposite alterations in its morphology, suggesting a direct impact of body mass index (BMI) on the heart. Cardiac function is relatively preserved as assessed by standard echocardiography. However, few studies have used 2D speckle-tracking echocardiography (2D-STE), which can detect subtle alterations of left ventricular (LV) function by evaluating deformations. This study aimed to assess the link between the BMI z-score of adolescent girls and myocardial function. Methods Ninety-one adolescent girls comprising 26 AN patients (age 14.6 ± 1.9 years), 28 OB patients (age 13.2 ± 1.4 years), and 37 controls (age 14.0 ± 2.0 years) underwent 2D-STE to assess LV morphology and myocardial global and regional deformations. Results The BMI z-score of our population ranged from −4.6 to 5.2. LV morphological remodeling was significantly and positively correlated with the BMI z-score (R2 = 0.456, p < 0.0001 for LV mass). Global longitudinal strain (LS) and regional LS recorded at the mid and apical levels were significantly correlated with the BMI z-score (R2 = 0.196, p = 0.0001 and R2 = 0.274, p < 0.0001, respectively, for apical and medial LS). Circumferential strains and twisting mechanics were not correlated with the BMI z-score. Fibrinogen and systolic blood pressure were the main variables explaining the alteration of LS. Conclusion We observed that the BMI z-score had an impact on LV mechanics, especially on medial and apical LS. Neither circumferential nor twisting mechanics were altered by the BMI z-score in adolescent girls.
Structural Insight into the Amino Acid Environment of the Two-Domain Laccase’s Trinuclear Copper Cluster

Laccases are industrially relevant enzymes. However, their range of applications is limited by their functioning and stability. Most of the currently known laccases function in acidic conditions at temperatures below 60 °C, but two-domain laccases (2D) oxidize some substrates in alkaline conditions and above 70 °C. In this study, we aim to establish the structural factors affecting the alkaline activity of the 2D laccase from Streptomyces griseoflavus (SgfSL). The range of methods used allowed us to show that the alkaline activity of SgfSL is influenced by the polar residues located close to the trinuclear center (TNC). Structural and functional studies of the SgfSL mutants Met199Ala/Asp268Asn and Met199Gly/Asp268Asn revealed that the substitution Asp268Asn (11 Å from the TNC) affects the orientation of the Asn261 (the second coordination sphere of the TNC), resulting in hydrogen-bond-network reorganization, which leads to a change in the SgfSL-activity pH profile. The combination of the Met199Gly/Arg240His and Asp268Asn substitutions increased the efficiency (kcat/KM) of the 2,6-DMP oxidation by 34-fold compared with the SgfSL. Our results extend the knowledge about the structure and functioning of 2D laccases’ TNC active sites and open up new possibilities for the directed engineering of laccases.