Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Extended-age Out-of-sample Validation of Risk Stratification Index 3.0 Models Using Commercial All-payer Claims

Background: The authors previously reported a broad suite of individualized Risk Stratification Index 3.0 (Health Data Analytics Institute, Inc., USA) models for various meaningful outcomes in patients admitted to a hospital for medical or surgical reasons. The models used International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, trajectories and were restricted to information available at hospital admission, including coding history in the previous year. The models were developed and validated in Medicare patients, mostly age 65 yr or older. The authors sought to determine how well their models predict utilization outcomes and adverse events in younger and healthier populations. Methods: The authors’ analysis was based on All Payer Claims for surgical and medical hospital admissions from Utah and Oregon. Endpoints included unplanned hospital admissions, in-hospital mortality, acute kidney injury, sepsis, pneumonia, respiratory failure, and a composite of major cardiac complications. They prospectively applied previously developed Risk Stratification Index 3.0 models to the younger and healthier 2017 Utah and Oregon state populations and compared the results to their previous out-of-sample Medicare validation analysis. Results: In the Utah dataset, there were 55,109 All Payer Claims admissions across 40,710 patients. In the Oregon dataset, there were 21,213 admissions from 16,951 patients. Model performance on the two state datasets was similar or better than in Medicare patients, with an average area under the curve of 0.83 (0.71 to 0.91). Model calibration was reasonable with an R2 of 0.93 (0.84 to 0.97) for Utah and 0.85 (0.71 to 0.91) for Oregon. The mean sensitivity for the highest 5% risk population was 28% (17 to 44) for Utah and 37% (20 to 56) for Oregon. Conclusions: Predictive analytical modeling based on administrative claims history provides individualized risk profiles at hospital admission that may help guide patient management. Similar predictive performance in Medicare and in younger and healthier populations indicates that Risk Stratification Index 3.0 models are valid across a broad range of adult hospital admissions. In two different statewide databases, Risk Stratification Index 3.0 models worked well in younger and healthier adults.
Canadian adolescents’ solitude experiences, self-perceptions, and well-being

This paper explores adolescents’ solitude activities, their reasons for choosing to be alone, and how they think and feel when they are away from others. Gender and age differences were also explored.ApproachWe looked at the links between solitary activities and emotional well-being and personal happiness. Sixty-one adolescents (68% female, Mage = 16.14 ± .50) completed self-report on-line measures assessing time alone, solitary activities, and indices of adjustment.FindingsMajority of participants reported that they were alone by choice, and that they were more often with others than alone. Age and gender differences emerged in time alone, feelings of self-worth, and emotional well-being.Research Limitations The demographics of participants was limited to English-speakers in Eastern Canada, and data collection was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.Practical Implications School programs could be developed to better equip adolescents with the skills necessary to be productive in, and feel positive about, time spent alone.
Outsourcing from the Perspectives of Competitive Capabilities and Supplier Innovation in the Hotel Sector

This study aims to identify the outsourcing levels of the main activities or processes carried out in a hotel and the main benefits perceived by hotel managers. It proposes a model that explores the impact of supplier innovation on the perceived benefits of outsourcing, the relationship between supplier innovation and outsourcing, and competitive capabilities related to cost, quality, flexibility, and delivery. A personal questionnaire was designed for the directors and managers of 114 hotels located in Egypt to achieve this objective. A structural model has been developed to test the hypotheses. The findings indicate that supplier innovation positively influences the perceived benefits of outsourcing. They also show that supplier innovation positively influences competitive capabilities related to quality, flexibility, and delivery. In contrast, outsourcing alone only influences the competitive capability related to cost, with no impact on other competitive capabilities. From a practical point of view, the study identified which activities are outsourced more often and which are not, as well as the main benefits of outsourcing perceived by managers. These results help managers determine which activities are outsourced in the hotel sector and how their hotel is positioned in outsourcing. This paper presents the first empirical study to analyse the relationship between supplier innovation's impact and outsourcing benefits. It is also the first empirical research to consider the relationship between outsourcing and supplier innovation and competitive capabilities.
Automatic generation of voiceless excitation in a vocal-cord/vocal-tract speech synthesizer

A vocal‐cord and vocal‐tract model, described earlier [Proc. 8th Int. Congr. Acoust. , London (1974)], synthesizes speech from physiologically based control parameters. The parameters represent subglottal (lung) pressure, vocal‐cord tension, vocal‐cord rest area, and vocal‐tract shape. Voiced sounds are generated from these controls by a dynamic model of the vocal cords. Voiceless sounds are generated from exactly the same input parameters by automatic computation of turbulent flow at constricted places in the vocal tract. The complete model is programmed on a laboratory computer and the automatic computation of voiceless excitation is demonstrated.
Plane-wave diffraction by a two-part impedance strip

A uniform asymptotic high-frequency solution is developed for the diffraction of (E-polarised) electromagnetic plane waves by a two-part impedance strip. Uniform expressions for the interactions up to third order between the edges of the strip, including the conversion of surface-wave fields into space-wave fields, and vice-versa, via edge or junction diffraction, are obtained. The solution is based on a spectral iteration technique consisting of taking the spectral representation of the n-tuply diffracted field by one edge as the incident held for a half-plane (or a two-part plane) associated with the other edge (or junction) where the (n+1)th diffraction will take place. The analysis is then performed through the Wiener-Hopf technique for the (n+1)th diffraction. Bistatic diffraction patterns are obtained for different values of the surface impedances of the strip.
Boundary Values of Cauchy Transforms in Weighted Spaces of Integrable Distributions

Let $ k \in {\shadN} $ , $ w(x) = (1+x^2)^{1/2} $ , $ V^{\prime} _k = w^{k+1} {\cal D}^{\prime} _{L^1} = \{{ \,f \in {\cal S}^{\prime}{:}\; w^{-k-1}f \in {\cal D}^{\prime} _{L^1}}\} $ . For $ f \in V^{\prime} _k $ , let $ C_{\eta ,k\,}f = C_0(\xi \,f) + z^k C_0(\eta \,f/t^k)$ where $ \xi \in {\cal D} $ , $ 0 \leq \xi (x) \leq 1 $ $ \xi (x) = 1 $ in a neighborhood of the origin, $ \eta = 1 - \xi $ , and $ C_0g(z) = \langle g, \fraca {1}{(2i \pi (\cdot - z))} \rangle $ for $ g \in V^{\,\prime} _0 $ , z = x + iy , y p 0 . Using a decomposition of C 0 in terms of Poisson operators, we prove that $ C_{\eta ,k,y} {:}\; f \,\mapsto\, C_{\eta ,k\,}f(\cdot + iy) $ , y p 0 , is a continuous mapping from $ V^{\,\prime} _k $ into $ w^{k+2} {\cal D}_{L^1}$ , where $ {\cal D}_{L^1} = \{ \varphi \in C^\infty {:}\; D^\alpha \varphi \in L^1\ \forall \alpha \in {\shadN} \} $ . Also, it is shown that for $ f \in V^{\,\prime} _k $ , $ C_{\eta ,k\,}f $ admits the following boundary values in the topology of $ V^{\,\prime} _{k+1} : C^+_{\eta ,k\,}f = \lim _{y \to 0+} C_{\eta ,k\,}f(\cdot + iy) = (1/2) (\,f + i S_{\eta ,k\,}f\,); C^-_{\eta ,k\,}f = \lim _{y \to 0-} C_{\eta ,k\,} f(\cdot + iy)= (1/2) (-f + i S_{\eta ,k\,}f ) $ , where $ S_{\eta ,k} $ is the Hilbert transform of index k introduced in a previous article by the first named author. Additional results are established for distributions in subspaces $ G^{\,\prime} _{\eta ,k} = \{ \,f \in V^{\,\prime} _k {:}S_{\eta ,k\,}f \in V^{\,\prime} _k \} $ , $ k \in {\shadN} $ . Algebraic properties are given too, for products of operators C + , C m , S , for suitable indices and topologies.
Short-term changes in solar oscillation frequencies and solar activity

It is shown that the frequencies of solar rho-mode oscillations change significantly over periods as short as one month. These changes correlate significantly with variations in the strength of surface solar activity as measured by the average, over the sun's visible surface, of the magnitude of the line-of-sight magnetic field component from magnetograms. The frequency and mean magnetic variations are found to obey a linear relationship. It is seen that the mean frequency shift at any time depends on the history of solar activity over an interval of, at most, several months prior to the measurement and conclude that the dominant mechanism of the frequency shift is correlated with surface magnetic activity.
Periodic Density Functional Theory Calculations of Uranyl Tetrachloride Compounds Engaged in Uranyl–Cation and Uranyl–Hydrogen Interactions: Electronic Structure, Vibrational, and Thermodynamic Analyses

Solid-state uranyl hybrid structures are often formed through unique intermolecular interactions occurring between a molecular uranyl anion and a charge-balancing cation. In this work, solid-state structures of the uranyl tetrachloride anion engaged in uranyl–cation and uranyl–hydrogen interactions were studied using density functional theory (DFT). As most first-principles methods used for systems of this type focus primarily on the molecular structure, we present an extensive benchmarking study to understand the methods needed to accurately model the geometric properties of these systems. From there, the electronic and vibrational structures of the compounds were investigated through projected density of states and phonon analysis and compared to the experiment. Lastly, we present a DFT + thermodynamics approach to calculate the formation enthalpies (ΔHf) of these systems to directly relate to experimental values. Through this methodology, we were able to accurately capture trends observed in experimental results and saw good quantitative agreement in predicted ΔHf compared to the value calculated through referencing each structure to its standard state. Overall, results from this work will be used for future combined experimental and computational studies on both uranyl and neptunyl hybrid structures to delineate how varying intermolecular interaction strengths relates to the overall values of ΔHf.
Functional Properties of the (1-x)BiFeO3—xBaTiO3 Solid Solutions

Solid solutions of (1-x)BiFeO 3 –xBaTiO 3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.30) were prepared by a two-step solid state reaction procedure. After pre-sintering and sintering at 800°C/1h and slow cooling, pure single phase compositions were obtained for all the analyzed mixtures in the limit of XRD accuracy, including for x = 0. A gradual attenuation of the rhombohedral distortion with the increase of BaTiO 3 content was found. Small dielectric losses (tan δ < 3 %) and permittivities in the range of (180, 240) were found for all the compositions at room temperatures. The magnetic investigations shown a composition-dependent ferromagnetism with a maximum magnetization and coercivity for the composition x = 0.05 and perfect antiferromagnetic behavior for the BiFeO 3 ceramics. The complex impedance is sensitive to the magnetic field at small temperatures below 300 K, with a stronger variation in the range of fields of (0, 2 T) and a tendency of saturation at higher fields, demonstrating a kind of magnetoelectric coupling, with both magnetocapacitance and magnetoresistence phenomena.
Do Structured Flowcharts Outperform Pseudocode? Evidence From Eye Movements

Computational thinking is a key universal competence, often taught using methods specific to computer science. One step towards achieving it is learning to analyse and create algorithms. Researchers have long been trying to establish how the form of representation of algorithms (pseudocode versus flowchart) affects its understanding and have reached varying, sometimes conflicting results. This article presents findings that provide objective new data on this topic. In our experiment, we used two different types of algorithmic tasks with three levels of complexity and a group of 114 research participants with varying programming skills. In addition, we used an eye tracking technique that allowed us to collect detailed information about the subjects’ attention distribution during analysis of algorithms. Our results show that subjects took significantly less time to analyse flowcharts (than they did with pseudocode), made much fewer errors, and had higher confidence in the correctness of their solution. Based on eye tracking data, a reduced number of both re-analyses of the algorithm and input data re-referencing was observed for graphically presented tasks. The difference in favour of flowcharts was revealed (with few exceptions) for all levels of algorithm complexity (simple, medium, complex), while regarding the duration of analysis the advantage of flowcharts increased with the growing complexity of algorithms. For complex algorithms, a significant relationship was observed between algorithm presentation and level of programming skills versus the duration of task solving and confidence level. Our study strongly supports the idea of using graphic representation of algorithms both when learning to code and in acquiring computational thinking skills.
Polydopamine-Coated Alginate Microgels: Process Optimization and In Vitro Validation

In the last decade, alginate-based microgels have gained relevant interest as three-dimensional analogues of extracellular matrix, being able to support cell growth and functions. In this study, core-shell microgels were fabricated by self-polymerization of dopamine (DA) molecules under mild oxidation and in situ precipitation of polydopamine (PDA) onto alginate microbeads, processed by electro fluid dynamic atomization. Morphological (optical, SEM) and chemical analyses (ATR-FTIR, XPS) confirmed the presence of PDA macromolecules, distributed onto the microgel surface. Nanoindentation tests also indicated that the PDA coating can influence the biomechanical properties of the microgel surfaces—i.e., σmaxALG = 0.45 mN vs. σmaxALG@PDA = 0.30 mN—thus improving the interface with hMSCs as confirmed by in vitro tests; in particular, protein adsorption and viability tests show a significant increase in adhesion and cell proliferation, strictly related to the presence of PDA. Hence, we concluded that PDA coating contributes to the formation of a friendly interface able to efficiently support cells’ activities. In this perspective, core-shell microgels may be suggested as a novel symmetric 3D model to study in vitro cell interactions.
Anchoring strength of a nematic liquid crystal on 2D materials

ABSTRACT The anchoring strength of a nematic liquid crystal, 4-cyano-4’-pentylbiphenyl, is estimated on two-dimensional materials such as graphene, MoS2, and hBN. The changes in brightness attributed to the director rotation at the outer boundary or at the boundary of the orientation domains in the two-dimensional materials are optically observed. Anchoring energy coefficients in the polar and azimuthal directions are estimated by comparing the brightness profile between the experimental observations and numerical calculations. The azimuthal anchoring coefficient is larger than that of polar anchoring for all cases. The polar anchoring of graphite increases with the layer number within 10 layers. The anchoring of graphite is larger than that of MoS2 and hBN flakes. Although restricted results were obtained due to the limitations of the measurement, these results may give hints for understanding the interaction between liquid crystals and two-dimensional materials and can be used for applications. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
From Microwave Acoustic Filters to Millimeter-Wave Operation and New Applications

This paper reviews the latest developments in microwave acoustic wave devices. After an introduction and brief history of bulk acoustic wave (BAW) and surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices, a review is given for guided SAWs and XBARs - two new technologies, which are promising for future 5G applications. Following this, we discuss recent simulation techniques, such as 3D finite element method (3D FEM) and simulation of nonlinearities, as well as filter synthesis. Next, a review on tunable and reconfigurable acoustics is given. Finally, we present the latest developments in microwave acoustics for millimeter-wave (mm-wave) operation as well as BAW oscillators.
Linear Stochastic Analysis of the Partial Reversibility of Ensemble and Effective Dispersion in Heterogeneous Porous Media

Macrodispersion in heterogeneous formations is caused by spatial variability of the velocity field, making different parts of a plume experience different advective displacements. Differential advection interacts with diffusion, which hardly affects longitudinal ensemble dispersion (i.e., the spread of the ensemble‐averaged concentration) but determines effective dispersion, that is, the expected spread of individual plumes for point injections. The latter has been suggested as metric of solute mixing. Pure advection is fully reversible, whereas diffusion is completely irreversible. We quantify the partial reversibility of macrodispersion by analyzing the second central ensemble and effective spatial moments for advective‐diffusive transport in heterogeneous domains with flow reversal, applying linear stochastic theory to approximate the corresponding moments and comparing them to particle‐tracking random‐walk simulations in periodic media. Diffusion causes solute particles to deviate from their forward trajectories when flow is reversed. As long as advective memory dominates, both types of second central moments decrease during backward motion, then reach a minimum, and increase again. The reversibility is considerably bigger for ensemble than effective dispersion but the latter also shows partial reversibility, challenging its use as metric of mixing. The stronger diffusion is in comparison to advection, the less reversible dispersion becomes. After equally long times of forward and backward motion, the two types of second central moments differ, but to a much smaller extent than in pure forward motion. In realistic settings, the advective memory affects dispersion so strongly that the asymptotic regime is not reached before the plume center has returned to its origin.
AR/VR Spectrum Requirement for Wi-Fi 6E and Beyond

Wi-Fi spectrum scarcity is a challenge for popular wireless applications that require a high data rate, low latency, and high reliability in different environments. AR/VR applications for e-education in a school is a good example of a challenging scenario where a large number of AR/VR devices have high data rate and latency-sensitive traffic, and require reliable wireless connectivity. In order to accommodate such emerging applications, several leading countries including the USA, South-Korea, Brazil and Canada released 1200 MHz of the spectrum in the 6 GHz band for the unlicensed use cases. Other countries, including European Union member states, only released the lower 500 MHz of the 6 GHz band and have yet to decide on the future use of the upper 6 GHz band. In this paper, we quantify the impact of spectrum scarcity on the feasibility of the AR/VR applications for e-education. Practically, we compare the maximum number of AR/VR devices supported in each classroom of a given school, depending on whether 500 MHz or 1200 MHz are available for unlicensed use cases.
Does Digital Finance Promote Green Economic Growth?

This paper constructs a balanced panel model of 285 cities in China to study the impact of digital finance on green economic growth. It is found that digital finance has a significant contribution to green economic growth. Green finance can increase green economic growth by promoting industrial structure upgrading. The contribution of green finance to green economic growth is higher in eastern cities and western cities than in the east. Digital finance has a significant threshold effect on green economic growth, and when the depth of digital finance exceeds the threshold value, the promotion effect of digital finance on green economic growth is greater.
Smoothest reflectance functions. I. Definition and main results

A reflectance function occurring in practice is usually smooth. The square of its derivative, integrated over the entire visual range, is defined as a measure of its smoothness. The problem (to determine for given tristimulus values under a given illuminant the smoothest reflectance function in this sense) has 16 types of solution, each valid in a certain domain of the object color solid. The four simplest solutions, which are also those of most practical importance, are studied in this paper, together with their domains of validity. A simple algorithm for their generation is described.
The detection of interstellar methyldiacetylene (CH3C4H)

Une nouvelle molecule interstellaire, CH 3 C 4 H, a ete detectee dans le nuage moleculaire TMC-1. Les transitions J=6→5 et J=5→4 ont ete observees dans leurs composantes K=0 et K=1. On obtient des constantes rotationnelles moleculaires en bon accord avec les valeurs de laboratoire. Les abondances relatives [HC 2 H]/[H 2 ] et [HC 4 H]/[H 2 ] sont respectivement de 0,5×10 − 6 et 0,2×10 −6 pour TMC-1
Electro-optical response of ion-irradiated 4H-SiC Schottky ultraviolet photodetectors

Visible blind 4H-SiC UV detectors were investigated with respect to radiation hardness since they can find applications in the aerospace field. Effects of ion irradiation on their response were studied by monitoring the spectral response as a function of irradiation beam energy and dose. The devices irradiated by 1, 4, and 10MeV Si+-ion beam show a change of the response depending on the ion irradiation energy. The unexpected huge optical effect, compared to the negligible influence on reverse bias leakage current, was correlated to the nature of irradiation induced damage and to its location inside the optical active device layer.
Spherical stereoscopic sensor for 3D color imaging

This paper describes the development of an original stereoscopic sensor suitable for cylindrical and spherical 3D imaging. Its principle is based on the rotation of two linear CCD cameras with their optical center on the rotation axis of a stepper motor. The architecture of the sensor allows us to obtain panoramic images with a cylindrical geometry. By adding a second rotation axis orthogonal to the first rotation axis, color stereoscopic spherical images are obtained. This second axis gets through the middle of the two cameras. Due to the geometrical precision acquisition of the color pixels and the faithful restitution of the colors, high quality color images are obtained. The concept of this sensor simplifies calibration and feature matching by reducing classical 2D matching problem to 1D. This original sensor is dedicated to real scenes acquisition for multimedia and motion pictures applications over 360 X 360 degrees.