Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biostatistics: The Bare Essentials

Section 1: THE NATURE OF DATA AND STATISTICS 1. The Basics 2. Looking at the Data: A First Look at Graphing Data 3. Describing the Data with Numbers: Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion 4. The Normal Distribution 5. Probability 6. Elements of Statistical Inference C.R. A.P. Detectors Section 2: ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE 7. Comparing Two Groups: The t-Test 8. More than Two Groups: One-Way ANOVA 9. Factorial ANOVA 10. Two Repeated Observations: The Paired t-Test and Alternatives 11. Repeated Measures ANOVA 12. Multivariate ANOVA (MANOVA) C.R. A.P. Detectors Section 3: REGRESSION AND CORRELATION 13. Simple Regression and Correlation 14. Multiple Regression 15. Logistic Regression 16. Advanced Topics in Regression and ANOVA 17. Measuring Change 18. Principal Components and Factor Analysis: Fooling Around with Factors 19. Structural Equation Modeling C.R. A.P. Detectors Section 4: NONPARAMETRIC STATISTICS 20. Tests of Significance for Categorical Frequency Data 21. Measures of Association for Categorical Data 22. Tests of Significance for Ranked Data 23. Measures of Association for Ranked Data 24. Life Table (Survival) Analysis C.R. A.P. Detectors Section 5: REPRISE 25. Screwups, Oddballs, and other Vagaries of Science: Locating Outliers, Handling Missing Data, and Transformations 26. Putting It All Together Test Yourself (Being a Compendium of Questions and Answers) Answers to Chapter Exercises References and Further Readings Unabashed Glossary Appendices
Online Search Behavioural Intention: The Travel Information Seekers’ Perspective

Internet usage is becoming increasingly important to travellers due to colossal information available, including travel-related information such as accommodation, tourist attractions, transportation, and recreation activities. Due to internet technology, information seekers’ attitudes and behaviour toward the online search for travel information are crucial for tourism marketers. This study intends to identify the relationship between attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control of travel information seekers towards behavioural intention in online search for travel information. A sample of 338 university employees was taken from a public university in Malaysia to evaluate the relationships among the variables. Regression analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses. The findings show that travel information seeker attributes of attitude, subjective norm, and behavioural control predict behavioural intention. This research carries value to tourism marketers and travel-related authorities in targeting a specific group’s incentive for using online travel information. Future studies coul d expand the research scope to a different setting in validating the research model.
Effect of Acupuncture on Functional Capacity and Health-Related Quality of Life of Hemodialysis Patients: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

The proposed randomized controlled trial protocol will evaluate the effect of acupuncture treatment on the functional capacity (FC) and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in chronic kidney disease (CKD) with glomerular filtration rate (GFR) category 5 (CKG G5) patients receiving maintenance dialysis. Patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD) from a dialysis center will be randomly assigned to experimental, placebo and control groups. In order to determine the difference between the same number of treatments performed three times or one treatment a week, experimental (verum acupuncture) and placebo (sham acupuncture) groups will receive a total of nine acupuncture treatments; however, both groups will be divided into subgroups A and B. The same selection of acupuncture points will be applied to both experimental subgroups and the placebo subgroups will receive acupuncture on non-acupuncture points. The results will be assessed by the 6-min Walk Test, Handgrip Test, 30-sec Sit-to-Stand and Kidney Disease Quality of Life-Short Form and will be held at baseline, after treatment and 12 weeks post-treatment follow up. This paper describes the rationale and design for a randomized, patient-assessor blinded controlled trial, which may provide evidence for the clinical application of acupuncture in CKG G5 patients undergoing HD.
Chemical Overview of Gel Dosimetry Systems: A Comprehensive Review

Advances in radiotherapy technology during the last 25 years have significantly improved both dose conformation to tumors and the preservation of healthy tissues, achieving almost real-time feedback by means of high-precision treatments and theranostics. Owing to this, developing high-performance systems capable of coping with the challenging requirements of modern ionizing radiation is a key issue to overcome the limitations of traditional dosimeters. In this regard, a deep understanding of the physicochemical basis of gel dosimetry, as one of the most promising tools for the evaluation of 3D high-spatial-resolution dose distributions, represents the starting point for developing new and innovative systems. This review aims to contribute thorough descriptions of the chemical processes and interactions that condition gel dosimetry outputs, often phenomenologically addressed, and particularly formulations reported since 2017.
Analysis of the interaction and offensive network of the Portuguese national team at the 2016 European Football Championship

The aim of this study was to analyse the offensive actions preceding shots, using a combination of pass sequences and network analysis of the Portuguese national football team in the European Championships. The sample consisted in the observation and analysis of 118 collective offensive actions that ended in a shot based on seven European Championships matches (e.g., 3 x group stage matches, 1 x round of 16, 1 x quarter-finals, 1 x semi-finals and 1 x final). The results indicated that 488 intra-team interactions were performed, and the highest level of interactions occurred between player number 10 (midfielder) and player number 7 (forward), with a total of 11 interactions. More passes were made during the group phase (97.3 ± 50.1 passes), compared with the knockout phase (49 ± 23.6 passes), assuming that the team adapted to their rivals during the last phase of the competition. The InStat© platform was used to access the matches in a video file format and consequently coded through the VideObserver® and Upato® software’s. This study demonstrates important trends in relation to passing sequences and adds key insights into interactional context within and between players during a European Championships. On a practical level with this type of analysis, coaches can characterise the standard actions of a team, as well as identify key players. This may allow coaches to realize what players contribute in the dynamics of their team as well as the opponent. Keywords: Network, Football, Match Analysis, VideObserver®, UPato®.
Direct Laser Cooling Al{}^{+} Ion Optical Clocks

The Al ion optical clock is a very promising optical frequency standard candidate due to its extremely small black-body radiation shift. It has been successfully demonstrated with the indirect cooled, quantum-logic-based spectroscopy technique. Its accuracy is limited by second-order Doppler shift, and its stability is limited by the number of ions that can be probed in quantum logic processing. We propose a direct laser cooling scheme of Al ion optical clocks where both the stability and accuracy of the clocks are greatly improved. In the proposed scheme, two Al traps are utilized. The first trap is used to trap a large number of Al ions to improve the stability of the clock laser, while the second trap is used to trap a single Al ion to provide the ultimate accuracy. Both traps are cooled with a continuous wave 167 nm laser. The expected clock laser stability can reach . For the second trap, in addition to 167 nm laser Doppler cooling, a second stage pulsed 234 nm two-photon cooling laser is utilized to further improve the accuracy of the clock laser. The total systematic uncertainty can be reduced to about . The proposed Al ion optical clock has the potential to become the most accurate and stable optical clock.
On the Neutron Noise Diagnostics of Pressurized Water Reactor Control Rod Vibrations. III. Application at a Power Plant

In the first two papers of this series, a complete algorithm was elaborated and tested for the diagnostics of vibrating control rods in pressurized water reactors (PWRs). Although the method was thoroughly tested in numerical experiments where even the effects of background noise were accounted for, the influence of the several approximations regarding the underlying neutron physical and mechanical model of the applicability of the method in real applications could not be properly estimated. In August 1985, in-core self-powered neutron detector spectra taken at Paks-2, a PWR in Hungary, indicated the presence of an excessively vibrating control rod. With these measured noise data as input, the previously reported localization algorithm was applied in its original form. The algorithm singled out one control rod out of the possible seven, and independent investigations performed before and during the subsequent refueling showed the correctness of the localization results. It is therefore concluded that, at least in this particular application, the approximations used in the model were allowable in a case of practical interest. The algorithm was developed further to facilitate the automatization and reliability of the localization procedure. These developments and the experiences in the application of the algorithm are reported in thismore » paper. « less
Planning with Perspectives - Decomposing Epistemic Planning using Functional STRIPS

In this paper, we present a novel approach to epistemic planning called planning with perspectives (PWP) that is both more expressive and computationally more efficient than existing state-of-the-art epistemic planning tools. Epistemic planning — planning with knowledge and belief — is essential in many multi-agent and human-agent interaction domains. Most state-of-the-art epistemic planners solve epistemic planning problems by either compiling to propositional classical planning (for example, generating all possible knowledge atoms or compiling epistemic formulae to normal forms); or explicitly encoding Kripke-based semantics. However, these methods become computationally infeasible as problem sizes grow. In this paper, we decompose epistemic planning by delegating reasoning about epistemic formulae to an external solver. We do this by modelling the problem using Functional STRIPS, which is more expressive than standard STRIPS and supports the use of external, black-box functions within action models. Building on recent work that demonstrates the relationship between what an agent ‘sees’ and what it knows, we define the perspective of each agent using an external function, and build a solver for epistemic logic around this. Modellers can customise the perspective function of agents, allowing new epistemic logics to be defined without changing the planner. We ran evaluations on well-known epistemic planning benchmarks to compare an existing state-of-the-art planner, and on new scenarios that demonstrate the expressiveness of the PWP approach. The results show that our PWP planner scales significantly better than the state-of-the-art planner that we compared against, and can express problems more succinctly.
Downregulation of SEPTIN5 inhibits prostate cancer progression by increasing CD8+ T cell infiltration

Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common carcinomas in men, and aberrant expression of SEPTIN5 (SEPT5) has been detected in PCa tissues. However, the role of SEPT5 in PCa is still unclear. In this study, we attempted to explore the expression changes, clinical relevance and immunomodulatory function of SEPT5 in PCa. Methods: The expression and clinical significance of SEPT5 were evaluated based on bioinformatic analysis and were verified by western blotting, real time PCR and IHC. Allograft mouse models were used to assess the role of SEPT5 on PCa tumour formation and immunomodulatory function. Mass cytometry and IHC were used to determine the effects of SEPT5 on immune cell infiltration, especially CD8+ T cell infiltration. Correlations between SEPT5 expression and cytokine gene expression were analyzed based on TCGA and DKFZ datasets. RNA-seq and chemokine array were performed to confirm the effects of SEPT5 on cytokine production. Results: High SEPT5 expression was found in PCa and was associated with PCa prognosis. Importantly, downregulation of SEPT5 inhibited PCa progression in vivo. In addition, SEPT5 expression was negatively correlated with immune infiltrating cell levels, chemokine and cytokine gene expression associated with CD8+ T cell infiltration and activation. Downregulation of SEPT5 increased the proportion of immune cells, especially CD8+ T cells, in tumour tissue. Both the expression of CCL5, CXCL5, CXCL9, CXCL10 and INFGR1 were elevated in mRNA and protein levels after SEPT5 knockdown. Conclusions: In summary, downregulation of SEPT5 inhibited PCa progression, which may be mediated by increasing immune cell infiltration levels, especially CD8+ T cells, by promoting the production of IFNG-inducible chemokines and cytokines expression associated with immune cell infiltration. Our findings suggest that SEPT5 may serve as a prognostic biomarker of PCa and may be a target molecule to enhance the efficacy of immunotherapy for PCa in the future.
Fractal Geometry and Convolutional Neural Networks for the Characterization of Thermal Shock Resistances of Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics

The accurate characterization of the surface microstructure of ultra-high temperature ceramics after thermal shocks is of great practical significance for evaluating their thermal resistance properties. In this paper, a fractal reconstruction method for the surface image of Ultra-high temperature ceramics after repeated thermal shocks is proposed. The nonlinearity and spatial distribution characteristics of the oxidized surfaces of ceramics were extracted. A fractal convolutional neural network model based on deep learning was established to realize automatic recognition of the classification of thermal shock cycles of ultra-high temperature ceramics, obtaining a recognition accuracy of 93.74%. It provides a novel quantitative method for evaluating the surface character of ultra-high temperature ceramics, which contributes to understanding the influence of oxidation after thermal shocks.
The Association between Elevated Hematocrit and Retinal Artery Occlusion in Adult Patients

Retinal artery occlusion (RAO) is most commonly caused by embolism. Evidence showed that hematocrit (Hct) levels are often associated with embolic events. In this study, we aim to investigate the relationship between Hct levels and RAO. This retrospective study enrolled RAO patients between January 2011 and March 2020, who were 1:4 matched by age, gender, index date, and relevant comorbidities with the non-RAO group. Patient characteristics and laboratory data were collected. Univariate conditional logistic regression was applied by estimating crude matched odds ratios to determine the relevant factors for the occurrence of RAO. Furthermore, a narrative review of the relevant study was conducted to explore the association between Hct levels and embolism. Between January 2011 to March 2020, 82 RAO patients and 328 non-RAO patients matched with age, gender, index date, comorbidities of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, chronic kidney disease, stroke, and atrial fibrillation were enrolled after excluding ineligible individuals. Conditional logistic regression analysis showed that Hct level ≥ 40% was associated with developing RAO. A forest plot showed a trend of a non-linear dose-response association between Hct levels and ischemic vascular events in male patients. Hct levels ≥ 40% in patients older than 65 years with at least six comorbidities could be associated with RAO. We suggest that older patients who have multiple comorbidities, combined with elevated Hct levels, should be informed of the possible occurrence of RAO.
Exploration of different maximum power point tracking techniques for photovoltaic system

Maximum power point tracking has been a major topic among researchers due to how essential it is to solar photovoltaic systems. There have been several methods for tracking maximum power presented. Each method of tracking maximum power has its own set of rules, constraints, and computations. This review provides in-depth details on each approach and compares and contrasts many maximum power tracking techniques. Consequently, from 1996 to 2022, this will include the entirety of the literature on the significant contributions from the earliest and most recent approaches that are widely used by researchers. It also offers some suggestions for further research.
A new watermarking scheme, robust against JPEG compression and some asynchroneous attacks based on Hough transform

Because of the unavoidable need to Internet in data exchange and multimedia use, in addition to the expand of electronic commerce, digital watermarking has been presented as solution to the copy protection of multimedia against properties stealing. In the diffusion process, informations are subject to different malicious or unintended attacks. In the other hand, because of the need to reduce the amount of manipulated data, the jpeg lossy compression remains the more involuntary attack used with data manipulating. This paper proposes a novel method for image watermarking based on the parametric space of the mathematical Hough transform. This space is used as a transform domain to process the image and embed the watermark. Different attacks permitting to test the robustness of the proposed watermarking scheme are simulated by the STIRMARK tool. After different applied attacks, experimental results show that the proposed method is very robust against lossy compression, and some geometrical attacks without any need to use the transformed DCT or multi-resolution domains.
Green Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles (AgNPs) of Angelica Gigas Fabricated by Hot-Melt Extrusion Technology for Enhanced Antifungal Effects

Green synthesis for synthesizing silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) has been suggested as an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional physical/chemical methods. In this study, we report the green synthesis of AgNPs using a hot-melt extrusion-processed Angelica gigas Nakai (AGN) (HME-AGN) extract as a reducing agent to increase the water solubility of the active ingredient compared to the existing AGN. The mixture of the AGN extract and AgNO3 at about 420 nm could not confirm the formation of AgNPs. The synthesis of AgNPs was found to be most advantageous at 60 °C when the mixing ratio of the HME-AGN extract was 9:1 (AgNO3–extract, v/v) using 3 mM AgNO3. The physicochemical properties of the optimized AgNPs were characterized by UV–Vis spectrophotometer, dynamic light scattering (DLS), zeta potential, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray diffractometer (XRD). DLS showed the particle size average of 102.3 ± 1.35 nm and polydispersity index (PDI) value of 0.314 ± 0.01. The particle surface charge was −35 ± 0.79 mV, confirming the stability of the particles. The particle shape was spherical, as shown through TEM analysis, and the presence of silver ions was confirmed through the EDS results. FT-IR data showed functional groups of biomolecules of the extract involved in the synthesis of AgNPs. The face-centered cubic (FCC) lattice of AgNPs was confirmed in the XRD pattern. The AgNPs had an effective antifungal activity against Candida albicans (C. albicans) that was better than that of the HME-AGN extract. In conclusion, this study suggests that the synthesis of AgNPs was improved by using the HME-AGN extract with increased water solubility through HME. In addition, it was suggested that the synthesized AgNPs can be used as an improved antifungal agent compared with the HME-AGN extract with antifungal activity.
Narrow Linewidth Half-Open-Cavity Random Laser Assisted by a Three-Grating Ring Resonator for Strain Detection

A stabilized narrow-linewidth random fiber laser for strain detection, based on a three-grating ring (TGR) resonator and half-open-cavity structure, is proposed and investigated experimentally. The half-open-cavity structure proved to provide double optical gain of erbium-doped fiber, which was beneficial to increase the photon lifetime as well as further narrow the linewidth. Meanwhile, the stability and frequency noise of narrow lasing output was improved by suppressing the competition-induced undesired residual random lasing modes with the TGR resonator. The TGR resonator is composed of a double-cavity fiber Bragg grating Fabry–Perot (FBG-FP) interferometer, a section of single-mode fiber, and a circulator. The specially designed double-cavity FBG-FP interferometer embedded in the TGR resonator acted as the strain-sensing element and improved the resolution of the dynamic strain. A stable ultra-narrow linewidth of about 205 Hz was obtained. The frequency noise was reduced to about 2 Hz/√Hz. A high dynamic strain measuring resolution of 35 femto-strain (fε)/√Hz was achieved.
Saline‐alkali land amendment and value development: Microalgal biofertilizer for efficient production of a halophytic crop ‐ Chenopodium quinoa

Saline‐alkali land amendment and value development should be conducted simultaneously, and microalgal biofertilizer may provide an efficient solution. Here, a saline‐alkali tolerant algae was selected and applied to saline‐alkali land to reveal its effects on land amendment and quinoa production. The results showed that Chlorella pyrenoidosa showed best growth and photosynthetic characteristics with increasing saline‐alkali stress. Whether planting quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Longli No. 1) or not, the application of C. pyrenoidosa supplied soil available nutrients, held water retention, and notably the organic matter of saline‐alkali land with quinoa cultivation after algal maximum dose (OD680 = 2.0) showed 64.7% more content than the control. Saline‐alkali land caused 23.7% yield loss of quinoa, which was attributed to organic lack (3.093 g kg−1) and saline‐alkali conditions (pH 9.49 and 119.3 mS m−1 electrical conductivity). Algal addition improved the chlorophyll synthesis and effective quantum yield of quinoa, enhanced more absorbed light energy to involve in photosynthesis rather than heat dissipation, and promoted the synthesis of osmotic regulatory substances (soluble sugar and protein) and antioxidant (anthocyanin) to alleviated osmotic and oxidative stresses. The growth improvement of quinoa confirmed the greater effect of stress alleviation than growth stimulation that reflected 41.7% and 28.6% yield increases in saline‐alkali and nonsaline‐alkali lands. Overall, saline‐alkali tolerant alga adjusted overground and underground parts, including amending soil properties as organic addition and nutrient supply, and strengthening the tolerance of quinoa to saline‐alkali environment. This assessment supports a sustainable practice of applying stress tolerant alga for land amendment and halophytic crop production to develop saline‐alkali land value.