Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk Prediction Models for Long-Term Survival after Cardiac Surgery: A Systematic Review

Abstract Background The reporting of alternative postoperative measures of quality after cardiac surgery is becoming increasingly important as in-hospital mortality rates continue to decline. This study aims to systematically review and assess risk models designed to predict long-term outcomes after cardiac surgery. Methods The MEDLINE and Embase databases were searched for articles published between 1990 and 2020. Studies developing or validating risk prediction models for long-term outcomes after cardiac surgery were included. Data were extracted using checklists for critical appraisal and systematic review of prediction modeling studies. Results Eleven studies were identified for inclusion in the review, of which nine studies described the development of long-term risk prediction models after cardiac surgery and two were external validation studies. A total of 70 predictors were included across the nine models. The most frequently used predictors were age ( n = 9), peripheral vascular disease ( n = 8), renal disease ( n = 8), and pulmonary disease ( n = 8). Despite all models demonstrating acceptable performance on internal validation, only two models underwent external validation, both of which performed poorly. Conclusion Nine risk prediction models predicting long-term mortality after cardiac surgery have been identified in this review. Statistical issues with model development, limited inclusion of outcomes beyond 5 years of follow-up, and a lack of external validation studies means that none of the models identified can be recommended for use in contemporary cardiac surgery. Further work is needed either to successfully externally validate existing models or to develop new models. Newly developed models should aim to use standardized long-term specific reproducible outcome measures.
Integral equation solution of scattering from partially coated conducting bodies of revolution

A method of moments formulation for the scattering and radiation analysis of single or multiple bodies made of conducting and lossy dielectric materials or conducting and lossy magnetic materials is presented. Based on this formulation, a simulation code for the analysis of rotationally symmetric geometries has been developed. The numerical solution is obtained using an integral-equation formulation, for which several different forms can be selected. Numerical results for the scattering from conducting objects partially coated with a lossy dielectric material and conducting objects partially coated with a lossy magnetic material are presented. >
Limited Effectiveness of IT/IS Investments in an Emerging Economy

The business value of investments in information technology/information system (IT/IS) has been the subject of active research over several decades. Even though a plethora of similar studies analyzing the impact of promised IT/IS investments on firm performance exists, the results, largely inconclusive, mostly concentrate on the developed countries. In this backdrop, and with an expected manifold rise in IT/IS investments in India in the coming years, an assessment of the relationship between investments and firm performance can be noteworthy. The study explores this important issue by analyzing the impact of IT/IS investments on the firm's performance in India based on data of around 6500 IT/IS investments during 2000-2016. We deploy a series of univariate and multivariate analyses and complement those with several robustness tests. Our principal findings indicate that IT/IS investments on the average in India have been mostly unsuccessful in impacting firm performance positively, in line with "productivity paradox" phenomenon previously documented in the U.S. and other markets. We substantiate our principal results using several robustness tests. We offer several possible explanations of our results spanning across both IS as well as finance literature and discuss the implications of future investment prospects for firms. The results highlight the need for adoption of caution by firms operating in emerging economies like India while considering future IT/IS investment decisions. These suggestions are likely to serve as a good reference point in other emerging economies as well.
Hybrid Events in Education

Digital tools and streaming media enable new ways of including experts and peers from outside the university. In this paper we present three patterns that build on events that take place both on and off campus. The idea behind the patterns is to encourage discussion among students on-site and reach out to experts that would not be available otherwise. Inverted conferences are conference like settings on campus but the actual speakers are streamed from somewhere else. TED evenings or TED sessions are educational setups where docents are integrating TED talks into the course. And hackathons are events on campus that encourage students to tinker with technology and hack existing products in positive ways.
Design solutions for hybridised spaces in a learning and teaching context: seven patterns that address social practice, privacy, and participation

This paper outlines the development of a pattern language for design solutions to the emerging challenges of delivering learning and teaching in a hybridised setting. The term ‘hybrid learning spaces’ has become commonplace in recent years and has been loosely used to describe a fusion of learning opportunities and teaching approaches that span physical and virtual spaces. Yet, as others have noted, this is not an unproblematic concept as the evolving nature of hybrid learning spaces and now hyflex (hybrid and flexible) learning opportunities force continued redefinition and refinement of existing terminology. The paper identifies new and emerging challenges of space and place in a learning and teaching context and the effect of recognisable architectural motifs - both technological and physical - that provide affordances for certain types of behaviours. Three key areas are designed for across these patterns: social practice, privacy and participation, and their important relationship with effective pedagogy.
Proactive monitoring design patterns for cloud-native applications

The quality of the digital experiences delivered by engineers and their business success depends on empowering developers and operators with an effective method for continuously assessing a system’s health, diagnosing possible issues, and recovering from service outages. In other words, monitoring is essential to ensure the quality of an application. However, monitoring best practices may not be apparent to everyone and, most of the time, are not sufficiently explained or documented to be learned quickly and communicated effectively. Therefore, practices usually lack formalisation and a standard structure that would make all of them easy to communicate and share among practitioners. To tackle this issue, this paper describes three proactive monitoring practices as design patterns: Liveness Endpoint, Readiness Endpoint and Synthetic Testing. Design patterns provide enough structure and detail to be easily reused by practitioners and have space to accommodate different needs and quirks depending on the usage context. The proposed patterns are based on existing literature and tools, stemming from industry best practices that are further detailed and adapted to design patterns. Relations to existing monitoring patterns are also analysed to point the reader to more patterns that complement the ones proposed in this work.
Identifying and Involving the Real End User in Software Development: Towards a Pattern Language

Software development demand and identification of end users involvement have been increasing rapidly, but identifying the real end user and involving them in software development is challenging for software developers reported in the literature. One of the problems is the difficulty of designing the business domain. It takes longer to find the actual business domain when different and inexpert domain end users are engaged with developers. Another problem is the difficulty of incorporating all types of end users needs in software development. Several expectations and different information make the development process more complex and overload the project scope. Software development also takes more time, and the project goal is challenging. The above problems are the leading causes that create a complex process and difficulty in software development. To overcome these problems, we established a pattern language composed of eight organizational patterns observed and documented during in practical work on many projects. These patterns and other known organizational patterns relation are described in a patterns story of a real company.
Relevance of magnetostriction and forces for the generation of audible noise of transformer cores

Recently, the two most significant characteristics of power transformer cores, i.e., loss and noise, have been reduced considerably because of improved material and improved core design. An undisputed base value of noise results from magnetostriction (MS) due to the global magnetization of limbs and yokes, whereas excess values are attributed to different mechanisms, such as excess MS and magnetic forces (MF), in a controversial way. However, a multistep lap (MSL; number of overlap steps N>1) yields considerably lower noise than a single-step lap (SSL; N=1), indicating a specific role of joint design. The present work was aimed at a deeper understanding as a tool for further improvements. For a large number of differently built-up single-phase model cores, local distributions of surface displacements d/sub x/, d/sub y/, d/sub z/ and velocities v/sub x/, v/sub y/, v/sub z/ as well as the corresponding noise n were determined. As a major finding, MSL yielded weak reductions of in-plane vibrations v/sub x/ and V/sub y/, considerable reductions of v/sub z/, and strong reductions of n. Interpretations of results were based on numerical Spice modeling of linearized joint vibrations, which were also established experimentally. The results indicate high values of off-plane flux density B/sub z/ and the corresponding Maxwell stress arising at the outermost sheet ends for SSL, and considerably lower values for MSL, provided that B is below its critical value B/sub c/. MSL yielded reductions of d/sub z/, v/sub z/, and n in 80% of all cases. Three additional core parameters-small air gap lengths, high overlap lengths, and high lamination factors A-all lead to reduced n; the use of oil yielded strong reductions. It is concluded that joint designs actually play a predominant role in noise generation. Apart from some contribution from attractive in-plane forces due to B/sub z/, in air gaps, interlaminar flux B/sub z/ yields primary sources of vibrations that propagate to the entire core surface. In core regions of reduced /spl Lambda/, B/sub z/ yields vibrations of sheet ends due to MF according to an experimentally determined effective Young's modulus that considers practical conditions like waviness, burrs, and thickness variations of laminations. For high h, oscillations of the whole core thickness due to B/sub z/-caused MS will arise close to joints. For MSL, all of these mechanisms become less relevant: Gap regions show much lower B/sub x/ and, provided B<B/sub c/, also lower B/sub z/, apart from being regionally distributed. Further, imperfections of joint assembling are less critical. As a consequence, the noise level of modern MSL power transformer cores, as commercially assembled with homogeneous compression and high N, can be well predicted by mere consideration of MS resulting from global magnetization.
The ultraviolet absorption spectrum of the quasar H1821+643 (z = 0.297)

High resolution UV observations of the nearby luminous quasar H1821+643 are reported. A complete sample of 38 absorption lines has been constructed. There are five strong extragalactic Ly-alpha absorption lines in the spectrum, all with observed equivalent widths greater than 0.45 A. The local number density of Ly-alpha systems with rest equivalent widths larger than 0.32 A is estimated to be 13 +/- 5 Ly-alpha lines per unit redshift. Some of the Ly-alpha systems with redshifts significantly different from the quasar appear to be associated with galaxies or with clusters of galaxies. Two of the Ly-alpha lines have the same redshift within 400 km/s as that of an emission-line galaxy located at a projected separation from the quasar of about 90 kpc. One of the Ly-alpha systems in H1821+643 occurs at an a absorption redshift approximately equal to the emission-line redshift of the quasar and is accompanied by absorption from the C IV and of VI doublets; this is an example of associated absorption for large-redshift quasars.
Peer-provided psychological intervention for Syrian refugees: results of a randomised controlled trial on the effectiveness of Problem Management Plus

Background The mental health burden among refugees in high-income countries (HICs) is high, whereas access to mental healthcare can be limited. Objective To examine the effectiveness of a peer-provided psychological intervention (Problem Management Plus; PM+) in reducing symptoms of common mental disorders (CMDs) among Syrian refugees in the Netherlands. Methods We conducted a single-blind, randomised controlled trial among adult Syrian refugees recruited in March 2019–December 2021 (No. NTR7552). Individuals with psychological distress (Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) >15) and functional impairment (WHO Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS 2.0) >16) were allocated to PM+ in addition to care as usual (PM+/CAU) or CAU only. Participants were reassessed at 1-week and 3-month follow-up. Primary outcome was depression/anxiety combined (Hopkins Symptom Checklist; HSCL-25) at 3-month follow-up. Secondary outcomes included depression (HSCL-25), anxiety (HSCL-25), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (PTSD Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition; PCL-5), impairment (WHODAS 2.0) and self-identified problems (PSYCHLOPS; Psychological Outcomes Profiles). Primary analysis was intention-to-treat. Findings Participants (n=206; mean age=37 years, 62% men) were randomised into PM+/CAU (n=103) or CAU (n=103). At 3-month follow-up, PM+/CAU had greater reductions on depression/anxiety relative to CAU (mean difference −0.25; 95% CI −0.385 to −0.122; p=0.0001, Cohen’s d=0.41). PM+/CAU also showed greater reductions on depression (p=0.0002, Cohen’s d=0.42), anxiety (p=0.001, Cohen’s d=0.27), PTSD symptoms (p=0.0005, Cohen’s d=0.39) and self-identified problems (p=0.03, Cohen’s d=0.26), but not on impairment (p=0.084, Cohen’s d=0.21). Conclusions PM+ effectively reduces symptoms of CMDs among Syrian refugees. A strength was high retention at follow-up. Generalisability is limited by predominantly including refugees with a resident permit. Clinical implications Peer-provided psychological interventions should be considered for scale-up in HICs.
Introduction to the special issue: presenting marketing differently

Marketing concepts and theories used to be accessible and applicable to real-world issues (Tadajewski, 2017), so much so they were actually accessed and applied by powerful actors like governments (Jones & Tadajewski, 2018). Over the years, marketing scholarship has arguably grown arcane, its outputs seemingly predestined for the dusty shelves and disused digital archives of university libraries. Yet, it is well understood that academic contributions enter into a competitive marketplace of ideas (Brownlie & Saren, 1995; Hunt & Edison, 1995), with academics long encouraged to brand themselves as ‘thought leaders’ with intellectual products able to transform the world of business (Fincham, 1995). Today, many academics have left their ivory towers to deliver TED talks, appear on podcasts or YouTube channels, and contribute to local and national news stories. Many more maintain a more modest presence across all manner of social media platforms, lest their thoughts be excluded from the digitised din of discourse. Ideation and communication are lucrative skills, particularly in a higher education context where academics are asked to demonstrate the impact of their work. The politics of commodified marketing thought, from inception through review to publication, dissemination, and beyond, seemed relevant in the 1990s (Brown, 1995; McDonagh, 1995), but seems more so today. Increasingly, ideas must influence intrapreneurs, persuade policy-makers, and convince citizens to make a difference. Recently it has been noted that the marketing discipline – once a bastion for those with practical orientations – has come to fetishise theory, whilst lamenting the lack of (good) theorising in this field (Bajde et al., 2021). This ‘theoretical turn’ in marketing is a continuation of what Deleuze and Guattari (1991) describe in the epigraph. However, this turn by marketing towards theory is twined with the turn by social theory towards marketing, as more scholars become aware of (and accustomed to) the market-like logics at work in contemporary academia. Ideas and ideation continue to meet the market and meld with its ideology; Deleuze and Guattari may be turning in their graves. It could be countered that marketing academics are best placed to explore how ideas should be disseminated for maximum impact. Marketing is, at least in part, about the crafting of communicable ideas (‘viral’ marketing, anyone? ). As a result, it is perhaps unsurprising that there is a sizeable literature on the marketing of ideas (Fine, 1981; Peter & Olson, 1983), including many critical takes (e.g. Brownlie & Saren, 1995). Over the years JOURNAL OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT 2022, VOL. 38, NOS. 15–16, 1613–1632 https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2023. 2149947
Too Much Flexibility in a Dynamical Model of Repetitive Negative Thinking?

Abstract Iftach and Bernstein propose a dynamical system model of task-unrelated thought that is designed to explain how repetitive negative thinking (RNT) and maladaptive internally-directed cognition more generally arises from attentional biases, working memory, and negative affect. They show that specifically during a period of low task demands, it is easier for negative affect to grab resources and take over with RNT. They also postulate that for individuals with high cognitive reactivity, this tendency for RNT to take over is increased. We argue this paper is an important move forward toward understanding in what circumstances RNT takes over, but also that the model is not yet sufficiently “formalized. ” Specifically, we notice excessive levels of flexibility and redundancy that could undermine the explainability of the model. Moreover, the likelihood of negative thinking, as implemented in the proposed model, relies heavily on working memory capacity. In response to this observation, we give suggestions for how the parametrization of this model could be done in a more principled manner. We think such an analysis paves the way for more principled computational modeling of RNT which can be applied to describing empirical data and eventually, to inform decision-making in clinical settings.
Multi-Path Transformer is Better: A Case Study on Neural Machine Translation

For years the model performance in machine learning obeyed a power-law relationship with the model size. For the consideration of parameter efficiency, recent studies focus on increasing model depth rather than width to achieve better performance. In this paper, we study how model width affects the Transformer model through a parameter-efficient multi-path structure. To better fuse features extracted from different paths, we add three additional operations to each sublayer: a normalization at the end of each path, a cheap operation to produce more features, and a learnable weighted mechanism to fuse all features flexibly. Extensive experiments on 12 WMT machine translation tasks show that, with the same number of parameters, the shallower multi-path model can achieve similar or even better performance than the deeper model. It reveals that we should pay more attention to the multi-path structure, and there should be a balance between the model depth and width to train a better large-scale Transformer.
A POMDP Dialogue Policy with 3-way Grounding and Adaptive Sensing for Learning through Communication

Agents to assist with rescue, surgery, and similar activities could collaborate better with humans if they could learn new strategic behaviors through communication. We introduce a novel POMDP dialogue policy for learning from people. The policy has 3-way grounding of language in the shared physical context, the dialogue context, and persistent knowledge. It can learn distinct but related games, and can continue learning across dialogues for complex games. A novel sensing component supports adaptation to information-sharing differences across people. The single policy performs better than oracle policies customized to specific games and information behavior.
EphrinA4/EphA4 controls blood pressure via arterial sympathetic innervation

The autonomic sympathetic nervous system innervates peripheral resistance arteries, thereby controlling arterial diameter and modulating blood supply to organs and arterial tone. Despite its fundamental role in blood flow regulation and adaptive response of the cardiovascular system to challenging situations, how sympathetic arterial innervation develops remains poorly understood. We here show that sympathetic arterial innervation is regulated by the axonal guidance molecule EphrinA4 in arterial Smooth Muscle Cells (SMCs), which repels sympathetic axons via the EphA4 receptor. Specific inactivation of EphA4 in sympathetic axons induced a loss of repulsion and increased sympathetic innervation of peripheral arteries throughout life. Functional consequences were a significant increase in arterial tone (resistivity and vasoconstriction), leading to an elevated systemic arterial blood pressure that reached to hypertension under stressful circumstances. These findings identify a novel pathway that negatively regulates sympathetic arterial innervation, and could participate to the appearance of idiopathic resistant hypertension.
Assignment of molecular origins of NOE signal at −3.5 ppm in the brain

Purpose Nuclear Overhauser Enhancement mediated saturation transfer effect, termed NOE(−3.5 ppm), is a major source of chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) MRI contrasts at 3.5 ppm in the brain. Previous phantom experiments have demonstrated that both proteins and lipids, two major components in tissues, have substantial contributions to NOE(−3.5 ppm) signals. Their relative contributions in tissues are informative for the interpretation of NOE(−3.5 ppm) contrasts that could provide potential imaging biomarkers for relevant diseases, which remain incompletely understood. Methods Experiments on homogenates and supernatants of brain tissues collected from healthy rats, that could isolate proteins from lipids, were performed to evaluate the relative contribution of lipids to NOE(−3.5 ppm) signals. On the other hand, experiments on ghost membranes with varied pH, and reconstituted phospholipids with different chemical compositions were conducted to study the dependence of NOE(−3.5 ppm) on physiological conditions. Besides, CEST imaging on rat brains bearing 9L tumors and healthy rat brains was performed to analyze the causes of the NOE(−3.5 ppm) contrast variations between tumors and normal tissues, and between gray matter and white matter. Results Our experiments reveal that lipids have dominant contributions to the NOE (−3.5 ppm) signals. Further analysis suggests that decreased NOE(−3.5 ppm) signals in tumors and higher NOE(−3.5 ppm) signals in white matter than in gray matter are mainly explained by changes in membrane lipids, rather than proteins. Conclusion NOE(−3.5 ppm) could be exploited as a highly sensitive MRI contrast for imaging membrane lipids in the brain.