Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Co-design, co-learning, and co-production of an app for pancreatic cancer patients—the “Pancreas Plus” study protocol

Background Pancreatic cancer is a malignant and complex tumor that often leads to an adverse prognosis. Patients need to face a challenging treatment path, which involves highly-specialized multidisciplinary professionals. The complexity of the disease requires the development of dedicated tools to support patients in their care journey. Co-production stands as a valuable strategy in oncological care to engage patients in understanding their care journey and behaving accordingly to get the best possible clinical outcome. Methods The non-profit association Unipancreas, active in promoting the latest advances in pancreatic cancer care and in supporting pancreatic cancer patients, has partnered with a multidisciplinary group of professionals to conceive the brand new program “Pancreas Plus” to employ a co-design, co-learning, and co-production path to design an app devoted to pancreatic cancer patients to assist them during their treatment and follow-up journey. The app, which is the outcome of a multi-stakeholder engagement project, offers health information and medical advice specifically tailored on the pancreatic cancer disease. The article reports the research protocol, which may be replicated for the design of other e-health tools focusing on different conditions. Discussion The study’s output will be an app that sees the pancreatic cancer patient as the main beneficiary but which can gather and address the interests and needs of all meaningful stakeholders, including clinicians, researchers, healthcare and educational institutions, and non-profit associations. Registration Given the type of study, no registration is required.
Spectral/hp penalty least‐squares finite element formulation for unsteady incompressible flows

In this paper, we present spectral/hp penalty least‐squares finite element formulation for the numerical solution of unsteady incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. Pressure is eliminated from Navier–Stokes equations using penalty method, and finite element model is developed in terms of velocity, vorticity and dilatation. High‐order element expansions are used to construct discrete form. Unlike other penalty finite element formulations, equal‐order Gauss integration is used for both viscous and penalty terms of the coefficient matrix. For time integration, space–time decoupled schemes are implemented. Second‐order accuracy of the time integration scheme is established using the method of manufactured solution. Numerical results are presented for impulsively started lid‐driven cavity flow at Reynolds number of 5000 and transient flow over a backward‐facing step. The effect of penalty parameter on the accuracy is investigated thoroughly in this paper and results are presented for a range of penalty parameter. Present formulation produces very accurate results for even very low penalty parameters (10–50). Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Detection of a 'rotating' gas cloud 100 kiloparsecs in diameter surrounding 3C 275.1, a quasar at the center of a rich cluster of galaxies

The distorted radio quasar 3C 275.1 (z = 0.55) is the first QSO found to lie at the center of a rich cluster of galaxies. The quasar is surrounded by an extremely large elliptical nebulosity whose major axis exceeds 100 kpc. Spectroscopic observations of this nebulosity were obtained, with the spectrograph slit aligned along the nebulosity's major axis. The spectrum of the nebulosity in the visible is dominated by O II and O III forbidden emission lines, which yield a well-defined 'solid-body rotation curve' extending 40 kpc from the quasar nucleus, a rotation curve very different from those of normal spiral galaxies. The 3C 275.1 nebulosity is both the largest yet discovered around a quasar and the first in which organized large-scale motions (rotation? ) have been identified. The nebulosity may be residue from multiple tidal interactions with cluster members, or it may be accumulated material from a 'cooling flow' of the type seen in low-redshift clusters which are X-ray sources.
Impact of ethylene glycol on ions influencing corrosion in pores between iron oxide and calcium carbonate

ABSTRACT Injection wells for carbon capture and storage are made of iron casings supported by cement. Cement can transform into calcium carbonate and iron into iron oxide. Thus, these wells are subject to corrosion. Monoethylene glycol (MEG), used for hydrate prevention and natural gas dehydration, can adsorb both to calcium carbonate and iron oxide. As a first step towards an atomistic understanding of effects caused by adsorbed MEG, molecular dynamics simulations were applied to estimate free energy changes to hydronium and bicarbonate as MEG was adsorbed to the surface. We found that the global free energy minimum of both hydronium and bicarbonate was moved closer to the surfaces, due to adsorbed MEG, which may be caused by MEG replacing water molecules within the first water layers. This could have an effect on chemical reactions involving hydronium and bicarbonate. Minima in the free energy profiles other than the global one was found to originate from adsorbed water combined with interactions from the surfaces.
Associations between media use, self-efficacy, and health literacy among Chinese rural and urban elderly: A moderated mediation model

Objectives The influence of media use on health literacy among urban and rural elderly has been unknown in China. This study aims to examine the association between media use and health literacy and to explore the mediating role of self-efficacy and the moderating role of urban-rural residency. Methods Based on the cross-sectional study of the Psychology and Behavior Investigation of Chinese Residents (PBICR) in 2022, a total of 4,070 Chinese old people aged 60 years and above were included. We adopted the simplified New General Self-Efficacy Scale (NGSES) and the simplified Health Literacy Scale-Short Form (HLS-SF) to measure self-efficacy and health literacy. Media use was measured using a self-administrated questionnaire. Results Results showed that Chinese urban elderly had a higher frequency of media use than rural ones in the aspects of social activities, self-presentation, social action, leisure and entertainment, information acquisition, and business transactions through media (P < 0.001). Among all participants, self-presentation (B = 0.217, 95% CI: 0.040, 0.394), leisure and entertainment (B = 0.345, 95% CI: 0.189, 0.502), and information acquisition (B = 0.918, 95% CI: 0.761, 1.076) were significantly associated with health literacy. Self-efficacy partially mediated the effect of media use on health literacy (Bindirect = 0.045, 95% CI: 0.032, 0.058), accounting for 18.37% of the total effect. Urban-rural residency (B = 0.049, 95% CI: 0.024, 0.075) moderated the relationship between media use and self-efficacy significantly. Conclusion The urban-rural gap in health literacy requires more attention. The promotion of media use and self-efficacy may play a role in eliminating health disparities. Limitations As a cross-sectional study, it could not establish cause-effect relationships.
CW lasing of current injection blue GaN-based vertical cavity surface emitting laser

Here, we report the cw laser operation of electrically pumped GaN-based vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL). The GaN-based VCSEL has a ten-pair InGaN∕GaN multiple quantum well active layer embedded in a GaN hybrid microcavity of 5λ optical thickness with two high reflectivity mirrors provided by an epitaxially grown AlN∕GaN distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) and a Ta2O5∕SiO2 dielectric DBR. cw laser action was achieved at a threshold injection current of 1.4mA at 77K. The laser emitted a blue wavelength at 462nm with a narrow linewidth of about 0.15nm. The laser beam has a divergence angle of about 11.7° with a polarization ratio of 80%. A very strong spontaneous coupling efficiency of 7.5×10−2 was measured.
Observations on distorted turbulent wakes

The question considered here is whether turbulent wakes can undergo a simple self-preserving development when convected through a duct of varying crosssection. A flow is described as self-preserving if the distributions of its mean-value properties at successive sections have the same basic shape, differing only in magnitude and lateral extent. In such flows the scales of the mean velocity variation and turbulence have been found to be proportional. The wakes studied are concentrated near a plane of symmetry through a duct of changing rectangular section but constant area; the portion of the wake near the other plane of symmetry is considered. Measurements in the flows behind three circular cylinders reveal a lack of universality of the scales associated with self-preserving solutions of the momentum equation. The wakes of the smaller cylinders adopt the predicted form, but that of the largest does not. As it moves through the channel, this wake is compressed less rapidly by the imposed lateral strain than is predicted. Interest is then concentrated on the equation governing the kinetic energy of the turbulence and in particular on the relative size of its two production terms, that representing the action of the mean wake shear and that representing the effect of the distortion applied by the duct. It is found that self-preserving wakes can form only in a few kinds of distorting convecting flow. In the experimental duct, which has exponentially varying walls, one of these is set up. Attention is concentrated on this case. A stability analysis (based on the criterion that a stable wake is one in which the total turbulence production decreases as a result of more rapid wake expansion) suggests that, when production by wake shear is greater than that by distortion, a stable self-preserving development is possible in which the turbulence scale and the velocity defect scale remain proportional. But in the alternative, distortion-dominated, case the velocity defect decreases continually relatively to the turbulence. The experimental results are in accord with these predictions. The transition from shear-dominated to distortion-dominated wakes appears to take place when the production terms are about equal. The failure of the one experimental wake to adopt a simple self-preserving form can be attributed to the relatively slight organization of its turbulence when distortion is begun.
Development of a simple test method for inhibitory effect of gall formation on Meloidogyne incognita and its application to nematicide screening

For a screening test to discover nematicide candidates to control Meloidogyne incognita, a potted plant-based assay to observe gall formation on the root is realistic because it can cover the nematode life-cycle period and a broad range of mode of actions of tested compounds. However, both time and labour are needed for its operation. The objective of this study was to develop a plant-based screening method enabling easy periodical observation of the progress of root gall formation under almost no soil adsorption conditions of tested compounds. As an alternative material for soil, rockwool substrate for growing vegetable seedlings was used with a nutrient solution. Observation of gall formation on the same substrates was possible for 3-4 weeks. With this method, standard nematicides, e.g., fosthiazate and fluopyram, provided clear inhibitory effect on gall formation. Their ED50 values at 21 days after inoculation of 300 second-stage juveniles (substrate)−1 were 0.0034 mg (substrate)−1 and 0.0035 mg (substrate)−1, respectively. Furthermore, conventional fungicides and insecticides were screened with the method. Activities were observed in some products like polyoxins, which showed 100% control at 25 mg (substrate)−1, a considerably higher dose than that in standard nematicides. This study developed a simple test method for evaluating inhibitory effect on gall formation by M. incognita and proved its usefulness by applying it to nematicide screening.
Event-Triggered Hierarchical Multi-Mode Management Strategy for Source-Load-Storage in Microgrids

In the multi-microgrid system, once a microgrid is severely disturbed into the alert or emergency state, the effective multi-mode management method is necessary to make the system restore the balance of supply and demand rapidly. Therefore, a hierarchical multi-mode management strategy is proposed in this study, which includes three steps:1. The first step is to predict and fit the support capacity of the neighbor microgrids and to determine whether these microgrids need to participate in the support, which constitutes the upper layer. To this end, an event-triggered mode management strategy is proposed considering the multi-source fitting and line loss factor, etc. 2. When the support of neighbor microgrids is not required, the second step is to manage local source-storage-load to restore the balance of supply and demand rapidly, which constitutes the lower layer. To this end, another event-triggered management strategy is designed to generate management commands without pre-processing data; 3. To establish the mathematical models of a microgrid in hybrid mode consisting of continuous operation status and discrete management commands, the related small signal model is designed as the third step, which can analyze the system stability conveniently. Finally, the effectiveness of methods is verified by case studies.
MashFormer: A Novel Multiscale Aware Hybrid Detector for Remote Sensing Object Detection

Object detection is a critical and demanding topic in the subject of processing satellite and airborne images. The targets acquired in remote sensing imagery are at various sizes, and the backgrounds are complicated, which makes object detection extremely challenging. We address these aforementioned issues in this article by introducing the MashFormer, an innovative multiscale aware convolutional neural network (CNN) and transformer integrated hybrid detector. Specifically, MashFormer employs the transformer block to complement the CNN-based feature extraction backbone, which could obtain the relationships between long-range features and enhance the representative ability in complex background scenarios. With the intention of improving the detection performance for objects with multiscale characteristic, since in remote sensing scenarios, the size of object varies greatly. A multilevel feature aggregation component, incorporate with a cross-level feature alignment module is designed to alleviate the semantic discrepancy between features from shallow and deep layers. To verify the effectiveness of the suggested MashFormer, comparative experiments are carried out with other cutting-edge methodologies using the publicly available high resolution remote sensing detection and Northwestern Polytechnical University VHR-10 datasets. The experimental findings confirm the effectiveness and superiority of our suggested model by indicating that our approach has greater mean average precision than the other methodologies.
Transcriptomic Profile of Canine Mammary Ductal Carcinoma

Dogs can be excellent models for spontaneous studies about breast cancers, presenting similarities in clinical behavior and molecular pathways of the disease. Thus, analyses of the canine transcriptome can identify deregulated genes and pathways, contributing to the identification of biomarkers and new therapeutic targets, benefiting humans and animals. In this context, this study aimed to determine the transcriptional profile of canine mammary ductal carcinoma and contribute to the clarification of the importance of deregulated molecules in the molecular pathways involved in the disease. Therefore, we used mammary ductal carcinoma tissue samples and non-tumor mammary tissue from the radical mastectomy of six female dogs. Sequencing was performed on the NextSeq-500 System platform. A comparison of carcinoma tissue and normal tissue revealed 633 downregulated and 573 upregulated genes, which were able to differentiate the groups by principal component analysis. Gene ontology analysis indicated that inflammatory, cell differentiation and adhesion, and extracellular matrix maintenance pathways were mainly deregulated in this series. The main differentially expressed genes observed in this research can indicate greater disease aggressiveness and worse prognosis. Finally, the study of the canine transcriptome indicates that it is an excellent model to generate information relevant to oncology in both species.
Impact of gate resistance in graphene radio frequency transistors

The effect of gate resistance on the high frequency device properties of graphene transistors is explored. Decreasing this resistance does not alter the current gain cutoff frequency (fT), but it does allow for the power gain cutoff frequency (fmax) to be increased. Analysis of this effect reveals that the relative rate of change between fT and fmax is most sensitive to the relationship between the parasitic resistance in the device channel and the output conductance, a manifestation of device scaling in the triode regime. This result underlies the importance of a small output conductance in the scaling of graphene transistors.
Psychometric properties of the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 among Hong Kong young adults in 2021: Associations with meaning in life and suicidal ideation

Background Young adults in Hong Kong are subject to elevated psychological distress given the societal stressors such as civil unrest and COVID-19 pandemic and suicide is a leading cause of death among them. The present study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the 4-item Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4) as a brief measure of psychological distress and its associations with meaning in life and suicidal ideation (SI) in young adults. Materials and methods A mobile survey recruited a large and random sample of 1,472 young adults (Mean age = 26.3 years, 51.8% males) in Hong Kong in 2021. The participants completed the PHQ-4 and Meaning in Life Questionnaire–short form (MLQ-SF) for presence of meaning in life (MIL), SI, COVID-19 impact, and exposure to suicide. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to examine the factorial validity, reliability, and measurement invariance of PHQ-4 and MLQ-SF across gender, age, and distress subgroups. Multigroup structural equation model evaluated and compared the direct and indirect effects of latent MIL factor on SI via latent PHQ-4 factor across distress groups. Results Both MIL and PHQ-4 supported a 1-factor model with good composite reliability (Ω = 0.80–0.86) and strong factor loadings (λ = 0.65–0.88). Both factors showed scalar invariance across gender, age, and distress groups. MIL showed significant and negative indirect effects (αβ = −0.196, 95% CI = −0.254 to −0.144) on SI via PHQ-4. PHQ-4 showed a stronger mediating role between MIL and SI in the distress group (Δ = −0.146, 95% CI = −0.252 to −0.049) than the non-distress group. Higher MIL predicted higher likelihoods of help-seeking (Odds ratios = 1.46, 95% CI = 1.14–1.88). Conclusion The present results support adequate psychometric properties in terms of factorial validity, reliability, convergent validity, and measurement invariance for the PHQ-4 in young adults in Hong Kong. The PHQ-4 demonstrated a substantial mediating role in the relationship between meaning in life and SI in the distress group. These findings support clinical relevance for using the PHQ-4 as a brief and valid measure of psychological distress in the Chinese context.
Relationship between social support and fear of cancer recurrence among Chinese cancer patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background To quantitatively analyze the association between social support (SS) and fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) by reviewing current evidence from observational studies. Methods A comprehensive literature search was performed in nine databases from inception to May 2022. Observational studies that used both SS and FCR as study variables were included. Regression coefficient (β’) and correlation coefficient (r) were calculated with R software. Subgroup analysis was utilized to investigate the degree of the relationship between SS and FCR as well as the impact of various forms of SS on FCR in cancer patients. Results Thirty-seven studies involving 8,190 participants were identified. SS significantly reduced FCR risk [pooled β’ = –0.27, 95% confidence interval (CI) = –0.364 to –0.172], with moderate negative correlations (summary r = –0.52, 95% CI = –0.592 to –0.438). Meta-regression and subgroup analysis showed that types of cancer and study type were the source of heterogeneity. However, types of SS [actual SS, perceived social support (PSS), and others], source of actual SS, and source of PSS were not significant moderators. Conclusion To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic review and meta-analysis to quantitatively investigate the association between SS and FCR in Chinese cancer patients using β’ and r coefficients. The results re-emphasized that social workers should enhance the use of SS by cancer patients and establish a sound SS system by either implementing more relevant research or developing targeted policies. Based on meta-regression and subgroup analyses, moderators of the association between SS and FCR should also be studied closely as they may help identify patients in need. In addition, longitudinal research, as well as mixed research, should be conducted to more comprehensively explore the relationship between SS and FCR. Systematic review registration https://www.crd. york.ac. uk/prospero, identifier CRD42022332718.
Mentha rotundifolia (L.) Huds. aqueous extract attenuates H2O2 induced oxidative stress and neurotoxicity

Introduction Oxidative stress plays a causal role in neurodegenerative diseases. The aim of this study is to evaluate the antioxidant and neuroprotective effects of Mentha rotundifolia (L.) Huds (M. rotundifolia), a widely used Moroccan plant in traditional medicine. Methods The chemical composition of M. rotundifolia aqueous extract was analyzed by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS). 2,2-diphenyl 1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2′-azino-bis 3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS+) assays were used to assess its in vitro antioxidant activity. H2O2 was utilized to induce oxidative stress and neurotoxicity in vivo. Behavioral changes were evaluated using Open Field, Y-maze and Rotarod tests. Hyperalgesia was assessed using the tail immersion test. Results and discussion The LC-MS/MS analysis revealed high content of kaempferol glucuronide (85%) at the extract. IC50 values of the DPPH and ABTS were 26.47 and 41.21 μg/mL, respectively. Pre-treatments with M. rotundifolia extract attenuated the behavioral changes induced by H2O2. In addition, the latency of tail withdrawal increased significantly in the treated groups suggesting central analgesic effect of M. rotundifolia extract. Moreover, the extract attenuated the deleterious effects of H2O2 and improved all liver biomarkers. The obtained results suggested that M. rotundifolia had remarkable antioxidant and neuroprotective effects and may prevent oxidative stress related disorders.
Stability, convergence, and performance of an adaptive control algorithm applied to a randomly varying system

The stability and performance of a stochastic adaptive control algorithm applied to a randomly varying linear system is investigated. Using techniques from the theory of Markov chains, it is shown that loss functions on the input-output process converge to their expectation with respect to an invariant probability. It is shown that the convergence is geometric, establishing a form of stochastic exponential asymptotic stability for the closed-loop system. Further results include central limit theorems and the law of large numbers for the input-output and parameter processes and near consistency and optimality in the case where the disturbances are small. <<ETX>>