Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Broken Ring enVision Search (BReViS): A New Clinical Test of Attention to Assess the Effect of Layout and Crowding on Visual Search

The assessment of attention in neuropsychological patients could be performed with visual search tests. The Broken Rings enVision Search test (BReViS) here proposed represents a novel open access paper-and-pencil tool in which layout and crowding are varied among four cards. These manipulations allow the assessment of different components of attention: a selective component, the visuo-spatial orientation of attention, and the focal attention, involved in a crowding phenomenon. Our purpose was to determine the characteristics of the BReViS test, provide specific normative data, and assess these components across the lifespan. The test was administered to a sample of 550 participants aged between 20 and 79 years old and to a series of patients. Three indexes targeting different components of visuo-spatial attention (selective attention, strategic orientation of visual attention, focal attention) were obtained by combining execution times and accuracy together with the total errors. The results showed that age, education and gender influenced, in different combinations, the four indexes, for which specific norms were developed. Regression-based norms were provided in percentiles and equivalent scores. All patients showed pathological scores and specific patterns of attentional deficits. The BreViS test proved to be a free and easy valuable tool which can be used in the clinical environment to assess attentional deficits in neuropsychological patients.
An improved fuzzy support vector machine method

A design that improves the classifying ability of an SVM by improving the assignment of fuzzy membership is an important step in solving the fuzzy SVM problem. In this paper, a radius controlling factor is introduced to assign sample membership more accurately. This technique can distinguish noise and outliers and increase accuracy of membership in support vectors, compensating for the disadvantages of assigning fuzzy membership based on the distance between a sample and its cluster center proposed by Lin and Wang. Experimental results verify the effectiveness of this method .
The Availability, Cost, Limitations, Learning Curve and Future of Robotic Systems in Urology and Prostate Cancer Surgery

Robot-assisted surgical systems (RASS) have revolutionised the management of many urological conditions over the last two decades with robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) now being considered by many to be the preferred surgical approach. Intuitive Surgical has dominated the market during this time period with successive iterations of the da Vinci model. The expiration of patents has opened the RASS market and several new contenders have become available or are currently in development. This comprehensive narrative review aims to explore the merits of each robotic system as well as the evidence and barriers to their use. The newly developed RASS have increased the versality of robotic surgical systems to a wider range of settings through advancement in technology. The increased competition may result in an overall reduction in cost, broadening the accessibility of RASS. Learning curves and training remain a barrier to their use, but the situation appears to be improving through dedicated training programmes. Outcomes for RARP have been well investigated and tend to support improved early functional outcomes. Overall, the rapid developments in the field of robot-assisted surgery indicate the beginning of a promising new era to further enhance urological surgery.
Additive Manufacturing and Combustion Characteristics of Polyethylene Oxide/Aluminum/Copper Oxide-Based Energetic Nanocomposites for Enhancing the Propulsion of Small Projectiles

The application of nanoscale energetic materials (nEMs) composed of metal and oxidizer nanoparticles (NPs) in thermal engineering systems is limited by their relatively high sensitivity and complex three-dimensional (3D) formability. Polymers can be added to nEMs to lower the sensitivity and improve the formability of 3D structures. In this study, the effect of the addition of polyethylene oxide (PEO; polymer) on the combustion characteristics of aluminum (Al; fuel)/copper oxide (CuO; oxidizer)-based nEMs is investigated. With an increase in the PEO content, the resulting PEO/nEM composites are desensitized to relatively high electrical spark discharges. However, the maximum explosion-induced pressure decreases significantly, and the combustion flame fails to propagate when the PEO content exceeds 15 wt. %. Therefore, the optimal PEO content in a nEM matrix must be accurately determined to achieve a compromise between sensitivity and reactivity. To demonstrate their potential application as composite solid propellants (CSPs), 3D-printed disks composed of PEO/nEM composites were assembled using additive manufacturing. They were cross-stacked with conventional potassium nitrate (KNO3)/sucrose (C12H22O11)-based disk-shaped CSPs in a combustion chamber of small rocket motors. Propulsion tests indicated that the specific impulse of KNSU/PEO/nEM (nEMs: 3.4 wt.%)-based CSPs was at a maximum value, which is approximately three times higher than that of KNSU CSPs without nEMs. This suggests that the addition of an optimized amount of polymer to nEMs is beneficial for various CSPs with compromised sensitivity and reactivity and excellent 3D formability, which can significantly enhance the propulsion of small projectiles.
GRID-SCALE AND SUBGRID-SCALE EDDIES IN TURBULENT FLOWS ∼ A PRIORI TEST

Grid-scale (GS) and subgrid-scale (SGS) eddies in homogeneous isotropic turbulence are identified by a priori test. GS and SGS velocity fields are obtained by filtering the DNS velocity field for different Reλ using three classical filters for LES: Gaussian filter, tophat filter and sharp cutoff filter, and the most important filter width is considered as the length of Kolmogorov microscale in the DNS field with a constant multiplication. Eddies in the GS field, i.e., eddies larger than filter width are considered as grid-scale eddies and others are subgrid-scale eddies. Second invariant Q of the velocity gradient tensor is used for identification of these structures in GS and SGS fields. By visualizing the contour surfaces of second invariant Q, it is shown that GS and SGS fields itself contain lots of distinct tube-like eddies in homogeneous isotropic turbulence, which indicates that the DNS field may contain multi-scale structures in turbulent flow.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions of the Poultry Sector in Greece and Mitigation Potential Strategies

The poultry sector is considered to be one of the most industrialized sectors of livestock production. Although the livestock sector contributes the 14.5% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, less attention has been paid in the respective emissions of the poultry sector compared to other farmed animals such as ruminants. The aim of the study was to estimate the carbon footprint of the poultry sector (layers, broilers, and backyards) in the Greek territory during the last 60 years as a means of exploring further mitigation strategies. Tier 2 methodology was used to estimate GHG emissions. Different mitigation scenarios related to changes in herd population, feeds, and manure management were examined. GHG emissions showed an increased trend over time. The different scenarios explored showed moderate to high mitigating potential depending on the parameters that were changed. Changes in manure management or diet revealed to have a higher potential to eliminate GHG emissions. Changes in population numbers showed a low mitigating potential. However, if mortality could be improved within industrialized farming systems, then it could be an indirect increase in product quantities with a slight increase in emissions. Therefore, depending on national priorities, the sector could improve its environmental impact by targeting aspects related to husbandry/management practices.
A new species of Tasmanian mountain shrimp, Anaspides driesseni sp. nov. (Malacostraca, Anaspidacea, Anaspidesidae)

Species of the genus Anaspides, known as mountain shrimps, are endemic to Tasmania and inhabit a variety of freshwater habitats such as mountain tarns, pools, creeks and runnels, as well as caves. Until 2015 only two species of Tasmanian mountain shrimps were recognized, A. tasmaniae (Thomson, 1893), which was believed to be widespread all over the island and A. spinulae from Lake St. Clair. Revision of the genus by Ahyong in 2016 recognized 7 species, most having narrow geographic distributions. Only two widespread species remained: A. richardsoni, occurring mainly on the Central Plateau and its margins, and A. swaini, occurring largely in south-western Tasmania. Notably, within A. swaini, three geographically correlated morphological forms were observed. We re-evaluated all three forms of A. swaini and herein describe one of the forms as a new species, A. driesseni, on the basis of morphological and molecular data. Anaspides driesseni corresponds to A. swaini form 3 and occurs mainly in south-eastern Tasmania from the Hartz Mountains over the Snowy Mountains to the Wellington Range. Telson structure, spination and male secondary sexual characters proved taxonomically instrumental.
Sport event travel intentions during times of crisis: the role of life goals, risk and emotions

ABSTRACT Sport consumers may respond to times of crisis (e.g. pandemic) in different ways depending on a number of factors related to their decision-making. When it comes to decisions related to traveling to attend or participate in sport events, some of these factors include life goals, emotions, and related risk-seeking attitudes that permeate the psychology of the consumer. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to examine the influence of emotions formed during a crisis, risk-seeking attitudes and relevant life goals on intentions to travel to attend or participate in sport events during times of crisis (i.e. pandemic). Survey data were collected from 412 Amazon M-Turk respondents in May 2020 using the web survey platform Qualtrics. The results revealed that positive and negative emotions, along with risk-seeking attitudes and the goals to be healthy and have a rich social life explained 41.8% of variance in intentions to travel to attend or participate in a sport event. The goal to be healthy had a significant negative influence on intentions to travel to attend or participate in sport events while the goal to have a rich social life had a significant positive influence on intentions. Positive and negative emotions and risk-seeking attitudes were also found to significantly influence intentions.
An LMI approach to fuzzy controller designs based on relaxed stability conditions

New stability conditions satisfying decay rate are derived for both continuous and discrete fuzzy control systems. LMI (linear matrix inequality) based design procedures that consider decay rate and constraints on control input and output are constructed using the concept of parallel distributed compensation (PDC). To design fuzzy control systems, nonlinear systems are represented by Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy models. The PDC is employed to design fuzzy controllers from the Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy models. The stability analysis discussed is reduced to a problem of finding a common Lyapunov function for a set of linear matrix inequalities. Convex optimization techniques involving LMIs are utilized to find a common Lyapunov function and stable feedback gains satisfying decay rate and constraints on control input and output. Design examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the LMI-based designs proposed in this paper.
Bounded Target Cascading in Hierarchical Design Optimization

For large scale systems, as a hierarchical multilevel decomposed design optimization method, analytical target cascading coordinates the inconsistency between the assigned targets and response in each level by a weighted-sum formulation. To avoid the problems associated with the weighting coefficients, single objective functions in the hierarchical design optimization are formulated by a bounded target cascading method in this paper. In the BTC method, a single objective optimization problem is formulated in the system level, and two kinds of coordination constraints are added: one is bound constraint for the design points based on the response from each subsystem level and the other is linear equality constraint for the common variables based on their sensitivities with respect to each subsystem. In each subsystem level, the deviation with target for design point is minimized in the objective function, and the common variables are constrained by target bounds. Therefore, in the BTC method, the targets are coordinated based on the optimization iteration information in the hierarchical design problem and the performance of the subsystems, and BTC method will converge to the global optimum efficiently. Finally, comparisons of the results from BTC method and the weighted-sum analytical target cascading method are presented and discussed.
Ultrasound holographic Q imaging

Q imaging refers to a new 2-D echosonography reconstruction algorithm in which the imaging process for a circular (or a sector) area using a circular (or a circular arc) array is the same as that for a rectangular area using a linear array when the holographic back propagation principle is applied. Some explanations about the circular-to-rectangular geometrical transform are given and possible geometrical presentations are discussed. <<ETX>>
Glow-in-the-Dark Infectious Disease Diagnostics Using CRISPR-Cas9-Based Split Luciferase Complementation

Nucleic acid detection methods based on CRISPR and isothermal amplification techniques show great potential for point-of-care diagnostic applications. However, most current methods rely on fluorescent or lateral flow assay readout, requiring external excitation or postamplification reaction transfer. Here, we developed a bioluminescent nucleic acid sensor (LUNAS) platform in which target dsDNA is sequence-specifically detected by a pair of dCas9-based probes mediating split NanoLuc luciferase complementation. LUNAS is easily integrated with recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA), providing attomolar sensitivity in a rapid one-pot assay. A calibrator luciferase is included for a robust ratiometric readout, enabling real-time monitoring of the RPA reaction using a simple digital camera. We designed an RT-RPA-LUNAS assay that allows SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection without the need for cumbersome RNA isolation and demonstrated its diagnostic performance for COVID-19 patient nasopharyngeal swab samples. Detection of SARS-CoV-2 from samples with viral RNA loads of ∼200 cp/μL was achieved within ∼20 min, showing that RPA-LUNAS is attractive for point-of-care infectious disease testing.
Speech Emotion Recognition Using Attention Model

Speech emotion recognition is an important research topic that can help to maintain and improve public health and contribute towards the ongoing progress of healthcare technology. There have been several advancements in the field of speech emotion recognition systems including the use of deep learning models and new acoustic and temporal features. This paper proposes a self-attention-based deep learning model that was created by combining a two-dimensional Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and a long short-term memory (LSTM) network. This research builds on the existing literature to identify the best-performing features for this task with extensive experiments on different combinations of spectral and rhythmic information. Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) emerged as the best performing features for this task. The experiments were performed on a customised dataset that was developed as a combination of RAVDESS, SAVEE, and TESS datasets. Eight states of emotions (happy, sad, angry, surprise, disgust, calm, fearful, and neutral) were detected. The proposed attention-based deep learning model achieved an average test accuracy rate of 90%, which is a substantial improvement over established models. Hence, this emotion detection model has the potential to improve automated mental health monitoring.
Effects of vitamin A on intramuscular fat development in beef cattle: A meta-analysis

Vitamin A, a fat-soluble vitamin, is the basic substance required to maintain healthy vision and the main physiological functions of cattle. The results from previous studies regarding the effect of vitamin A on intramuscular fat varied. This meta-analysis aimed to generate a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between vitamin A and intramuscular fat content and to provide potential clues for future research and commercial practice. Electronic databases such as MEDLINE and Ovid were systematically searched, and studies investigating the relationship between vitamin A and intramuscular fat content were included. Standardized mean differences (SMDs) in intramuscular fat percentage and intramuscular fat score, with their respective 95% confidence intervals (CIs), were calculated. The heterogeneity and publication bias were evaluated. A total of 152 articles were identified through searches of databases. Seven articles were confirmed for inclusion in this meta-analysis. The SMD of IMF percentage derived from the analysis was−0.78 (-2.68, 1.12) (Q = 246.84, p < 0.01). The SMD of the IMF score was 1.25 (-2.75, 5.25) (Q = 87.20, p < 0.01). Our meta-analysis indicates that the addition of vitamin A could decrease intramuscular fat in cattle steers.
Proinflammatory Responses in SARS-CoV-2 and Soluble Spike Glycoprotein S1 Subunit Activated Human Macrophages

Critically ill COVID-19 patients display signs of generalized hyperinflammation. Macrophages trigger inflammation to eliminate pathogens and repair tissue, but this process can also lead to hyperinflammation and resulting exaggerated disease. The role of macrophages in dysregulated inflammation during SARS-CoV-2 infection is poorly understood. We inoculated and treated human macrophage cell line THP-1 with SARS-CoV-2 and purified, glycosylated, soluble SARS-CoV-2 spike protein S1 subunit (S1) to clarify the role of macrophages in pro-inflammatory responses. Soluble S1 upregulated TNF-α and CXCL10 mRNAs, and induced secretion of TNF-α from THP-1 macrophages. While THP-1 macrophages did not support productive SARS-CoV-2 replication or viral entry, virus exposure resulted in upregulation of both TNF-α and CXCL10 genes. Our study shows that extracellular soluble S1 protein is a key viral component inducing pro-inflammatory responses in macrophages, independent of virus replication. Thus, virus- or soluble S1-activated macrophages may become sources of pro-inflammatory mediators contributing to hyperinflammation in COVID-19 patients.
Mesh Truncation in Finite Element Modal Analysis of Dielectric Waveguides

Anisotropic layers with real permittivity and permeability tensors are used to enclose the computational domain for vectorial modal analysis of dielectric waveguides through the finite element method. The approach does not require any iterative procedure. It is computationally efficient and reliable, it can directly calculate many modes at the same time, and it is very accurate in providing both the vectorial field distribution and the propagation constant. Analysis of performances is provided for different dielectric waveguides by varying the constituent parameters of the layers.
Use of Caudoventral-Craniodorsal and Cranioventral-Caudodorsal Oblique Radiographic Views made at 45° to the Frontal Plane for the Evaluation of Pelvic Girdles in Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta)

Abstract Turtles often present to wildlife rehabilitation centers for trauma secondary to motor vehicle collisions. Injuries to the pelvic girdles in turtles are challenging to assess on standard radiographic views due to the superimposition of bones. Pelvic trauma may have long-term consequences for ambulation and reproduction. The novel use of caudoventral-craniodorsal and cranioventral-caudodorsal 45° oblique radiographic views in western painted turtles (Chrysemys picta bellii) at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota has improved differentiation of bones in the pelvic girdle. Using dorsoventral radiographs, 45% of western painted turtles with caudal carapace fractures had suspected injuries to the pelvis. After using oblique views, 98% of western painted turtles with caudal carapace fractures were found to have pelvic involvement. These radiographic views improve diagnostic ability, facilitate medical and surgical interventions, and aid in monitoring the healing process.
Robust fault-tolerant control of uncertain fractional-order systems against actuator faults

This study investigates the problem of robust fault-tolerant control for uncertain fractional-order (FO) systems against actuator faults, whose commensurate order α is assumed to be 1 ≤ α < 2. By using reciprocal projection lemma and some properties of Kronecker product, the authors present a sufficient condition for the existence of fault-tolerant FO dynamic output feedback controllers for the FO systems with polytope-type uncertainty. The controller designed here takes the possible actuator faults into consideration and ensures the resulting closed-loop system is robustly stable. Finally, a numerical example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design method.
XXIV. Quantal aspects of scientific information

Summary This paper relates to the borderline linking experimental and theoretical physics with mathematical logic, and covers at several points ground which is common to the theory of communication. Its purpose is, therefore, to introduce in language as far as possible common to workers in all these fields, a quantitative approach to the analysis of scientific concepts and the design of experiments.
Simulations of ion cyclotron anisotropy instabilities in the terrestrial magnetosheath

Enhanced transverse magnetic fluctuations observed below the proton cyclotron frequency in the terrestrial magnetosheath have been identified as due to the proton cyclotron and helium cyclotron instabilities driven by the T⊥ > T∥ condition of the sheath ions. One-dimensional hybrid computer simulations are used here to examine the nonlinear properties of these two growing modes at relatively weak fluctuation energies and for wave vectors parallel to the background magnetic field. Second-order theory predicts fluctuating magnetic field energies at saturation of the proton cyclotron anisotropy instability in semiquantitative agreement with the simulation results. In particular, introduction of the helium component enhances the wave-particle exchange rate for proton anisotropy reduction by that instability, thereby reducing the saturation energy of that mode. The simulations demonstrate that wave-particle interactions by the proton cyclotron and helium cyclotron instabilities lead to the anticorrelation of T⊥p/T∥p and β∥p, a result observed by Anderson and Fuselier (1993).
A comparative study of light scattering from liquid crystal droplets

Light scattering from electrically small nematic liquid crystal droplets is routinely studied by methods based on the Rayleigh–Gans (RG) approximation. The error introduced by the Rayleigh–Gans approximation is critically assessed for radial, bipolar, and aligned spherical droplets. Comparisons are made with respect to the prediction of the finite‐difference time‐domain (FDTD) method for the above droplet configurations. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 35: 437–441, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.10632