Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Combined Treatment with Micro-Focused Ultrasound with Visualization and Intradermal Incobotulinumtoxin-A for Enlarged Facial Pores: A Retrospective Study in Asians

Background Despite the increasing need for the improvement of enlarged facial pores, the treatment remains challenging. A few previous studies have reported the effects of micro-focused ultrasound with visualization (MFU-V) or intradermal incobotulinumtoxin-A (INCO) on enlarged facial pores. Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of combined treatment with superficial MFU-V and intradermal INCO for enlarged facial pores. Methods This single-center retrospective study included 20 patients treated with MFU-V and intradermal INCO to improve enlarged facial pores. Outcomes were evaluated 1, 4, 12, and 24 weeks after a single session of the combined procedure. Pore count and density were objectively quantitated using a three-dimensional scanner, and improvement was assessed using the physician and patient Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale (GAIS). Results The mean pore count and density decreased after one week and decreased by up to 62% until 24 weeks. After one week, almost all patients (100% in physician GAIS and 95% in patient GAIS) showed improvement with a grade 3 (much improved) or higher. All adverse events were transient. Conclusion Combined treatment with MFU-V and intradermal INCO could be effective and safe for reducing enlarged facial pores; the improvements can be sustained for up to 24 weeks.
Computational insights into the binding of pimodivir to the mutated PB2 subunit of the influenza A virus

ABSTRACT Influenza A virus (IAV) is reported to develop Pimodivir resistance because of multiple mutations within the Polymerase basic 2 protein (PB2) of IAV. The lack of a high-resolution structure of these PB2 mutants complexed with Pimodivir hinders efforts to understand the drug resistance. Here we decipher the binding differences of Pimodivir in the wild-type and mutant systems Q306H, S324I, S324N, S324R, F404Y, and N510 T of IVA PB2 using homology modelling, molecular dynamics, molecular docking, and density functional theory simulations. The key residues responsible for Pimodivir binding were identified as Glu361, Arg355, Arg332, His357, and Phe323. Those mutations, mainly N510 T, result in significant conformational changes of Pimodivir in the PB2 active site. As a result, the affinity of Pimodivir is significantly reduced in the N510 T system. The mutation effects are less pronounced in the other mutant systems. Dynamic cross-correlation matrix (DCCM) analyses suggest that the single-point mutation N510 T produces an allosteric effect on the ligand-binding domain, thus reducing ligand-binding affinity. The present study reveals how a single-point mutation modulates the Pimodivir binding in IAV PB2, which provides important insights into designing new Pimodivir analogues with better binding affinities.
Complex Facial Emotion Recognition -A systematic literature Review

This research paper aims to perform a critical literature review of complex face emotion recognition based on machine learning techniques. Literature has a number of techniques for complex facial emotion detection. The accuracy of prediction, latency of the algorithms are still a concern in the complex emotion detection. In addition, the constraints like available bandwidth, resolution of images also pose challenges. The proposed model provides a method of detecting complex face emotions. The model uses physiological and psychological concepts to determine complex emotions based on the seven classic emotions. The focus will also be in combining the required hardware and software in getting an accurate prediction with lesser latency.
Data-Driven Bandwidth Selection for Nonparametric Nonstationary Regressions

We provide a solution to the open problem of bandwidth selection for the nonparametric estimation of potentially non-stationary regressions, a setting in which the popular method of cross-validation has not been justified theoretically. Our procedure is based on minimizing moment conditions involving nonparametric residuals and applies to β-recurrent Markov chains, stationary processes being a special case, as well as nonlinear functions of integrated processes. Local and uniform versions of the criterion are proposed. The selected bandwidths are rate-optimal up to a logarithmic factor, a typical cost of adaptation in other contexts. We further show that the bias induced by (near-) minimax optimality can be removed by virtue of a simple randomized procedure. In a Monte Carlo exercise, we find that our proposed bandwidth selection method, and its subsequent bias correction, fare favorably relative to cross-validation, even in stationary environments.
AUTOMATIC IDENTIFICATION OF EPILEPTIC EEG SIGNALS USING NONLINEAR PARAMETERS

Epilepsy is a brain disorder causing people to have recurring seizures. Electroencephalogram (EEG) is the electrical activity of the brain signals that can be used to diagnose the epilepsy. The EEG signal is highly nonlinear and nonstationary in nature and may contain indicators of current disease, or warnings about impending diseases. The chaotic measures like correlation dimension (CD), Hurst exponent (H), and approximate entropy (ApEn) can be used to characterize the signal. These features extracted can be used for automatic diagnosis of seizure onsets which would help the patients to take appropriate precautions. These nonlinear features have been reported to be a promising approach to differentiate among normal, pre-ictal (background), and epileptic EEG signals. In this work, these features were used to train both Gaussian mixture model (GMM) and support vector machine (SVM) classifiers. The performance of the two classifiers were evaluated using the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves. Our results show that the GMM classifier performed better with average classification efficiency of 95%, sensitivity and specificity of 92.22% and 100%, respectively.
AEC and AFMSC Transplantation Preserves Fertility of Experimentally Induced Rat Varicocele by Expressing Differential Regenerative Mechanisms

Amniotic membrane and amniotic fluid derived cells are regarded as a promising stem cell source for developing regenerative medicine techniques, although they have never been tested on male infertility diseases such as varicocele (VAR). The current study aimed to examine the effects of two distinct cell sources, human Amniotic Fluid Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (hAFMSCs) and amniotic epithelial cells (hAECs), on male fertility outcomes in a rat induced VAR model. To explain cell-dependent enhancement of reproductive outcomes in rats transplanted with hAECs and hAFMSCs, insights on testis morphology, endocannabinoid system (ECS) expression and inflammatory tissue response have been carried out alongside cell homing assessment. Both cell types survived 120 days post-transplantation by modulating the ECS main components, promoting proregenerative M2 macrophages (Mφ) recruitment and a favorable anti-inflammatory IL10 expression pattern. Of note, hAECs resulted to be more effective in restoring rat fertility rate by enhancing both structural and immunoresponse mechanisms. Moreover, immunofluorescence analysis revealed that hAECs contributed to CYP11A1 expression after transplantation, whereas hAFMSCs moved towards the expression of Sertoli cell marker, SOX9, confirming a different contribution into the mechanisms leading to testis homeostasis. These findings highlight, for the first time, a distinct role of amniotic membrane and amniotic fluid derived cells in male reproduction, thus proposing innovative targeted stem-based regenerative medicine protocols for remedying high-prevalence male infertility conditions such as VAR.
Numerical Investigation of Highly Nonlinear and Low Confinement Loss Chalcogenide Photonic Crystal Fiber

In this paper, a high nonlinear GeSbS chalcogenide photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is designed and investigated numerically using COMSOL Multiphysics FEM software. PCFs are particularly appealing because they provide great opportunity to improve the bulk medium's nonlinearity by enclosing the electromagnetic field in a strong light confinement. Another benefit is the ability to tailor material dispersion by modifying the shape and dimension of the air holes in cladding. The numerical analysis demonstrates that the designed PCF provides the high nonlinearity of 3.5 W-1 km-1 and 4.122 W-1 km-1 in X and Y polarization mode, respectively at 1. 55μm wavelength. The designed chalcogenide-based PCF can be very useful in non-linear optical applications such as fiber sensors, mid-infrared supercontinuum generation, and other optics application.
Loop Optimizations for Acyclic Object-Oriented Queries

Nested loop execution of object-oriented queries retains the promise of maintaining the full generality of the object paradigm, independent of the specifics of any single object model. Thus, from this starting point we have developed an object-oriented query optimizer and execution engine. The methods, developed to date for only acyclic queries, augment nested loops structures with a simple marking mechanism such that unnecessary loop iterations are not repeated. In the case of acyclic queries, the executions are asymptotically optimal. In contrast to optimal query methods based on semijoin reductions our method involves no preprocessing step and thus avoids the extra I/O associated with semijoins and prevents the formal benefits of semijoin reduction from appearing as a practical improvement. Empirical results comparing our query environment with a commercially available product demonstrate significant performance improvement.
Intelligent Spectrum Allocation Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning for Power Emergency Communications

In order to improve system performance of power emergency communication systems, this paper studies an intelligent spectrum allocation scheme based on multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) to allocate limited spectrum resources to different users according to their spectrum requirements. When the users access communication channels, whether the communication is successful is judged according to the channel feedback information, which provides rewards for learning training process. A spectrum allocation scheme based on MARL is proposed to intelligently share the limited spectrum resources among different users. Simulation results show that the proposed MARL scheme can achieve better system performance compared to traditional reinforcement schemes such as Deep Q Network (DQN). The proposed scheme provides an efficient spectrum usage paradigm for power emergency communications.
Design Optimization for Bellow Soft Pneumatic Actuators in Shape-Matching

Design optimization of soft actuators is essential for task-oriented applications. Models derived from analytical solutions, the Finite Element Method (FEM), or empirical characterized datasets are widely used to estimate the response of the actuators during actuation, acting as the backbone for design optimization. Faced with the trade-off between speed and accuracy, substantial challenges occur when moving from simulation to optimization due to the compliant, high degree of freedom, and high-dimensional design space of the soft-bodied robot. FEM becomes increasingly computationally expensive with increased design complexity during optimization iterations, while the data-driven modeling approach (e.g., Artificial Neural Network) consumes significant resources prior to optimization. To address the challenge of highly nonlinear and non-convex design optimization in soft robots using the black box modeling, this paper compares of Bayesian optimization (BO) algorithm and genetic algorithm (GA) with FEM and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models. The shape-matching of a multi-legged robot (a starfish) is demonstrated as an example of a task-oriented design scenario that presents design optimization challenges of the design space scalability. The experimental results show that the bi-level BO outperforms BO with FEM by achieving 2.8 to 9.8 times smaller objective values within a certain time for low-dimensional design problems; GA with the ANN model can achieve lower objective values 3 to 18 times faster in high-dimensional design problems than bi-level BO with FEM in low-dimensional design problems.
REASON-RECOURSE Software for Science Operations of Autonomous Robotic Landers

Future planetary exploration missions on the surface of distant bodies such as Europa or Enceladus can't rely on human-in-the-loop operations due to time delays, dynamic environments, limited mission lifetimes, as well as the many unknown unknowns inherent in the exploration of such environments. Thus our robotic explorers must be capable of autonomous operations to ensure continued operations and to try to maximize the amount and quality of the scientific data gathered from each mission. To advance our technology toward this goal, we are developing a system to maximize the science obtained by a robotic lander and delivered to scientists on Earth with minimal asynchronous human interaction. The autonomy architecture consists of two main components: REASON (Robust Exploration with Autonomous Science on-board) and RECOURSE (Ranked Evaluation of Contingent Opportunities for Uninterrupted Remote Science Exploration) for efficient and useful scientific communication between scientists and robot. The key advantage to this design is in its ability to continuously operate and adapt despite the constraints of high-latency, low-bandwith communications and an uncertain environment which today would require ground-in-the-loop operations. This paper presents the initial version of the REASON-RECOURSE system. Details of the implementation of the scientist interface and interaction with the ground software - RECOURSE - and the on-board robotic planning software - REASON - are given. Demonstration of the operation using NASA's OceanWATERS testbed will be shown.
Optimisation of techniques for fabrication of nanopatterned substrates

Nanopatterned substrates have wide-ranging applications in fields stretching from the semiconductor industry to biomaterials. To improve the performance of these end-products, there is a need for scalable fabrication methods for these substrates with due consideration to their uniformity, yield and miniaturization. Here, we consider these substrates as seed layers on which nanomotors can be grown by glancing angle deposition. We discuss the requirements and consequent optimization of various methods and especially a soft lithography technique, which gives optimal outcomes.
An Efficient Framework for the Solution of Contact Mechanics Problems in Soft Robotics

Soft robots offer an exciting and novel alternative to traditional robots composed of rigid bodies. Many of the primary benefits soft robots have over more traditional robots result from their inherent compliance and their potential for low force interactions with their environments. Therefore, modeling soft robots requires the ability to accurately simulate contact mechanics. In this work, we present the solution of contact mechanics finite element problems specifically for soft robots in a MOOSE-based multiphysics simulation platform we developed, Kraken. The primary contributions of this work are threefold. Firstly, our implementations enable the modeling of additional types of contact critical to the simulation of soft robots. Next, we demonstrate how our new self contact method can be used to dramatically decrease the computational cost of contact modeling. Finally, we demonstrate the abilities of Kraken as a platform to simulate the complex interactions of soft robots and the environment.
Research landscape of 3D printing in bone regeneration and bone repair: A bibliometric and visualized analysis from 2012 to 2022

Three-dimensional printing (3DP) is a popular manufacturing technique with versatile potential for materials processing in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. In particular, the repair and regeneration of significant bone defects remain as substantial clinical challenges that require biomaterial implants to maintain mechanical strength and porosity, which may be realized using 3DP. The rapid progress in 3DP development in the past decade warrants a bibliometric analysis to gain insights into its applications in bone tissue engineering (BTE). Here, we performed a comparative study using bibliometric methods for 3DP in bone repair and regeneration. A total of 2,025 articles were included, and the results showed an increase in the number of publications and relative research interest on 3DP annually worldwide. China was the leader in international cooperation in this field and also the largest contributor to the number of citations. The majority of articles in this field were published in the journal Biofabrication. Chen Y was the author who made the highest contribution to the included studies. The keywords included in the publications were mainly related to BTE and regenerative medicine (including “3DP techniques,” “3DP materials,” “bone regeneration strategies,” and “bone disease therapeutics”) for bone regeneration and repair. This bibliometric and visualized analysis provides significant insights into the historical development of 3DP in BTE from 2012 to 2022, which will be beneficial for scientists to conduct further investigations into this dynamic field.
The effects of different repolishing procedures on the color change of bulk-fill resin composites

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of repolishing procedures on the color change of bulk-fill resin composites after being exposed to coffee. Materials and methods: Four bulk-fill resin composites (Filtek One bulk-fill, Tetric EvoCeram bulk-fill, Admira Fusion x-tra bulk-fill, Grandio SO x-tra bulk-fill) were tested. Sixty samples were prepared with each resin composite and were randomly divided into two groups: first one received the one-step polishing system (Optragloss) and the other group received the two-step polishing system (Nova Twist) (n=30). After being kept in coffee for 12 days, the samples were divided into three subgroups according to repolishing: one-step repolishing group, two-step repolishing group, and non-repolishing group (n=10 for each). Color measurements of the resin composite samples were determined with a spectrophotometer. The difference in color change was calculated using the CIEDE 2000 color formula. The data were analyzed using three-way ANOVA and Tukey test. Results: Among composite materials, Filtek One bulk-fill (1.84 ± 0.98) less color change was observed compared to others (p<0.001). In terms of polishing systems, Optragloss (2.96 ± 1.51) showed significantly greater color change than Nova Twist (2.21 ± 1.07) (p<0.001). The non-repolishing group (3.78 ± 1.25) presented significantly greater color change than the Nova Twist sytem (1.49 ± 0.61) and Optragloss system (2.50 ± 1.01) (p<0.001). Conclusion: The repolishing process reduced discoloration. A two-step repolishing system results in less color change compared to a one-step repolishing application. In polishing systems containing diamond particles, increasing the number of steps can contribute to color stability.
Biological Action of Singlet Molecular Oxygen from the Standpoint of Cell Signaling, Injury and Death

Energy transfer to ground state triplet molecular oxygen results in the generation of singlet molecular oxygen (1O2), which has potent oxidizing ability. Irradiation of light, notably ultraviolet A, to a photosensitizing molecule results in the generation of 1O2, which is thought to play a role in causing skin damage and aging. It should also be noted that 1O2 is a dominant tumoricidal component that is generated during the photodynamic therapy (PDT). While type II photodynamic action generates not only 1O2 but also other reactive species, endoperoxides release pure 1O2 upon mild exposure to heat and, hence, are considered to be beneficial compounds for research purposes. Concerning target molecules, 1O2 preferentially reacts with unsaturated fatty acids to produce lipid peroxidation. Enzymes that contain a reactive cysteine group at the catalytic center are vulnerable to 1O2 exposure. Guanine base in nucleic acids is also susceptible to oxidative modification, and cells carrying DNA with oxidized guanine units may experience mutations. Since 1O2 is produced in various physiological reactions in addition to photodynamic reactions, overcoming technical challenges related to its detection and methods used for its generation would allow its potential functions in biological systems to be better understood.
Separating hash families

In der vorliegenden Dissertation wird angestrebt, offene Probleme im Zusammenhang mit sogenannten "separating hash families" zu diskutieren und zu losen. Separating hash families (SHF) sind interessante kombinatorische Strukturen, die verschiedene bekannte Objekte als Spezialfalle einschliesen, wie z.B. perfect hash families (PHF), frameproof codes, secure frameproof codes und codes with identifiable parent property. Ferner finden SHFs zahlreiche kryptographische Anwendungen, z.B. in key distribution patterns, broadcast encryption, secret sharing schemes, visual cryptography und in den Codes fur den Urheberrechtsschutz. In dieser Dissertation konzentrieren wir uns auf die Herleitung oberer Schranken fur die Anzahl der Spalten einer SHF. Zuerst werden spezifische Typen von SHFs untersucht und einige ihrer Eigenschaften bewiesen. Basierend darauf erzielen wir neue obere Schranken fur die maximale Anzahl der Spalten bzw. untere Schranken fur die minimale Anzahl der Zeilen einer SHF. Fur bestimmte Parameter geben wir Konstruktionen von SHFs, so dass die erzielten Schranken mit Gleichheit erfullt sind. Damit sind die Schranken im oberen Fall optimal. Anschliesend untersuchen wir generelle SHFs und stellen drei neue obere Schranken vor, die scharfer als alle bisher bekannten Schranken sind.
Physical Characteristics and Biocompatibility of 3D-Printed Polylactic-Co-Glycolic Acid Membranes Used for Guided Bone Regeneration

Bioresorbable polymeric membranes for guided bone regeneration (GBR) were fabricated using the three-dimensional printing technique. Membranes made of polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA), which consist of lactic acid (LA) and glycolic acid in ratios of 10:90 (group A) and 70:30 (group B), were compared. Their physical characteristics including architecture, surface wettability, mechanical properties, and degradability were compared in vitro, and their biocompatibilities were compared in vitro and in vivo. The results demonstrated that the membranes of group B had mechanical strength and could support the proliferation of fibroblasts and osteoblasts significantly better than those of group A (p < 0.05). The degradation rate in Group B was significantly lower than that in Group A, but they significantly produced less acidic environment (p < 0.05). In vivo, the membranes of group B were compared with the commercially available collagen membranes (group C). The amount of newly formed bone of rat’s calvarial defects covered with the membranes of group C was stable after week 2, whereas that of group B increased over time. At week 8, the new bone volumes in group B were greater than those in group C (p > 0.05). In conclusion, the physical and biological properties of the PLGA membrane (LA:GA, 70:30) were suitable for GBR.