Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A geometric assessment method for estimating dimensional change of retrieved dual mobility liners for total hip arthroplasty

Despite their emerging use, the current understanding of the in-vivo functional mechanisms of Dual Mobility (DM) Total Hip Replacements (THRs) is poor, and current characterisation methodologies are not suitable for the unique function and design of these types of devices. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a geometric characterisation methodology to estimate dimensional change across the articulating surfaces of retrieved DM polyethylene liners so that their invivo function may be better understood. The method involves the acquisition of three-dimensional coordinate data from the internal and external surfaces of DM liners. The data is processed using a bespoke MATLAB script which approximates the unworn reference geometry of each surface, calculates geometric variance at each point and produces surface deviation heatmaps so that areas of wear and/or deformation may be visualised across the implant. One as-manufactured and five retrieved DM liners were assessed, which demonstrated the efficacy, repeatability and sensitivity of the developed method. This study describes an automated and non-destructive approach for assessing retrieved DM liners of any size and from any manufacturer, which may be used in future research to improve our understanding of their in-vivo function and failure mechanisms.
A Chromosome-Level Genome Assembly for Yamadazyma tenuis ATCC 10573

Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) long-read sequencing was used to generate a chromosome-level genome assembly for Yamadazyma tenuis strain ATCC 10573. The assembly featured 7 chromosomes that matched the electrophoretic karyotype and a 26.5-kb circular mitochondrial genome. The nuclear genome was 10.8 Mb, with a GC content of 43%, and 5,340 predicted genes. ABSTRACT Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) long-read sequencing was used to generate a chromosome-level genome assembly for Yamadazyma tenuis strain ATCC 10573. The assembly featured 7 chromosomes that matched the electrophoretic karyotype and a 26.5-kb circular mitochondrial genome. The nuclear genome was 10.8 Mb, with a GC content of 43%, and 5,340 predicted genes.
Anything You Do Not Say Can Be Used against You: Volitional Refusal to Engage in Decisional Capacity Assessment

The most widely accepted model of decisional capacity assessment requires that a patient communicate a clear and consistent choice to the evaluator. This approach works effectively when patients prove unable to express a choice owing to physical, psychological, or cognitive limitations. In contrast, the approach raises ethics concerns when applied to patients who volitionally refuse to communicate a choice. This article examines the ethical issues that arise in such cases and offers a rubric for addressing decisional capacity under such circumstances.
Plant defence traits among discrete vegetation assemblages in a mesic savanna landscape in Kenya

Abstract A trade-off between structural and chemical defences against herbivory in woody plants is alleged to depend on edaphic factors in African savannas. We studied anti-herbivory traits, in an edaphic mosaic of fertile and infertile soils within a savanna landscape in East Africa, towards elucidating herbivory defence traits expressions in woody plants of African savannas. We used data of 81 plants for 8 species from 8 sites — four sites from fertile soils (42 plants) and another four sites from infertile soils (39 plants). We did not find a general divide between structural and chemical strategies in our data. Instead, we found a range of defence traits combinations. Our results highlight that in woody plants of African savannas, chemical and structural defences can augment each other, and not necessarily trade-off. The diversity of herbivores, ranging from insects to mesobrowsers, may have driven the evolution of multiple defence strategies within the African savannas.
MRSA in bulk tank milk of dairy herds in Germany – changes over time

Abstract Objective Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have repeatedly been isolated from dairy herds. It was the purpose of this study to compare the results of 3 subsequent national scale cross-sectional investigations in dairy herds in Germany on the prevalence of MRSA in bulk tank milk and the characteristics of the isolates. Material and Methods The investigations were carried out in 2010, 2014 and 2019, respectively. MRSA were isolated from 25 ml of bulk tank milk using a double selective enrichment protocol. Samples were distributed across the country according to the regional dairy cattle population. Results The prevalence of MRSA in bulk tank milk samples was lower in 2010 than in 2014 and tended to decrease until 2019. Prevalence was higher in samples from conventional than from organic herds and increased with herd size. Most isolates (75/78) were assigned to the clonal complex 398 and the spa -types t011 and t034. Resistance of the isolates to other antimicrobials than beta-lactams decreased over time. Conclusions MRSA remain present in the German dairy population and are found more frequently in larger vs. smaller herds and in conventional vs. organic herds. Clinical relevance MRSA should be considered in biosecurity protocols and with respect to occupational health of farm staff. Presence of MRSA in raw milk supports the recommendation not to drink unpasteurized raw milk.
A vision-based approach to mapping flexible objects for garment development

For variable and flexible objects, there is no appropriate intelligent method to quantitatively characterize the three-dimensional (3D) form, especially for garment development. To address the problem, we proposed a novel approach to mapping 3D flexible objects with the coded graphic as a medium. Two-dimensional mapping patterns were used to characterize the 3D form and extract metric information. The proposed graphic code is small in size and it is easy to demonstrate position. With different fabrication techniques, various coding materials are available. With only a monocular image, the method shows high accuracy and low cost without the need for camera calibration in advance. Specifically, the processes of the method, including the algorithm of feature extraction, decoding, mapping position calculation, and pattern generation, are discussed. Two tests were implemented, and the results showed that the method was accurate and simplified the process of made-to-measure garment development. The proposed method has great application potential in the manufacturing of labor-intensive and experience-dependent flexible industries, such as apparel, home decoration, shoes, and other related areas. It also sets the stage for further artificial intelligence research of flexible objects.
Protocol for Creating a Single, Holistic and Digitally Implementable Consensus Clinical Guideline for Multiple Multi-morbid Conditions

Delivery of future healthcare information systems requires systems to support patients with multi-morbidity. Current approaches to computer interoperable guidelines typically consider only a single clinical guideline for a single condition. There is a need to establish a robust protocolized approach to the development of holistic consensus computer interoperable guidelines in the context of multi-morbidity. The presence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia adds an additional challenge to the delivery of effective digital health solutions. CAREPATH proposes an ICT-based solution for the optimization of clinical practice in the treatment and management of multi-morbid older adults with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia. In this manuscript, we present an evidence-based protocol for the development of a single computer interoperable holistic guideline for a collection of multi-morbid conditions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first published protocol for the production of a consensus interoperable clinical guideline for people with multi-morbidity, with special focus on older adults with MCI or mild dementia. This addresses a still unmet need for such processes which are expected to play a central role for future integrated healthcare information systems.
Virtual Reality as a solution for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: a state of the art systematic review

The evolution of virtual reality (VR) technologies has been notorious, both for leisure activities and for activities related to education. The efficiency of this technology in education leads us to point out several benefits and strengths, for students with specific educational needs (SEN), especially for those with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In this sense, the growing number of students with ASD requires us to innovate so that we can rehabilitate this group of students, giving them a better quality of life. We can improve their skills: social, behavioural, emotional, cognitive; and even their daily tasks. VR offers a panoply of tools, such as interactive three-dimensional simulations of scenarios that can be used with students with ASD. In this literature review several studies were identified, where they differ in the type of applications developed and the technology used by the students. Although optimism prevails, we need more studies on the use of this technology in educational settings. Thus, this article presents a systematic review of the state of the art on VR perspectives and case studies applied to students with ASD. Case studies are presented where VR technology has been successfully applied and with results that demonstrate the effectiveness of the technology in students with ASD. We are aware that much has to be done still to make the potential of VR an effective reality in the educational context and to allow a better quality of life for students with autism spectrum disorders. Also, we believe that in the next years teachers will be ever more capable of creating specific VR experiences. However, it is essential to have a solid theoretical basis to support the correct use of VR regarding students with ASD. This is our goal with this contribution.
GraphTune: An Efficient Dependency-Aware Substrate to Alleviate Irregularity in Concurrent Graph Processing

With the increasing need for graph analysis, massive Concurrent iterative Graph Processing (CGP) jobs are usually performed on the common large-scale real-world graph. Although several solutions have been proposed, these CGP jobs are not coordinated with the consideration of the inherent dependencies in graph data driven by graph topology. As a result, they suffer from redundant and fragmented accesses of the same underlying graph dispersed over distributed platform, because the same graph is typically irregularly traversed by these jobs along different paths at the same time. In this work, we develop GraphTune, which can be integrated into existing distributed graph processing systems, such as D-Galois, Gemini, PowerGraph, and Chaos, to efficiently perform CGP jobs and enhance system throughput. The key component of GraphTune is a dependency-aware synchronous execution engine in conjunction with several optimization strategies based on the constructed cross-iteration dependency graph of chunks. Specifically, GraphTune transparently regularizes the processing behavior of the CGP jobs in a novel synchronous way and assigns the chunks of graph data to be handled by them based on the topological order of the dependency graph so as to maximize the performance. In this way, it can transform the irregular accesses of the chunks into more regular ones so that as many CGP jobs as possible can fully share the data accesses to the common graph. Meanwhile, it also efficiently synchronizes the communications launched by different CGP jobs based on the dependency graph to minimize the communication cost. We integrate it into four cutting-edge distributed graph processing systems and a popular out-of-core graph processing system to demonstrate the efficiency of GraphTune. Experimental results show that GraphTune improves the throughput of CGP jobs by 3.1∼6.2, 3.8∼8.5, 3.5∼10.8, 4.3∼12.4, and 3.8∼6.9 times over D-Galois, Gemini, PowerGraph, Chaos, and GraphChi, respectively.
Revealing the role of values in developing a garden data ecosystem through a reflective participatory design approach

Data-driven domains such as public administration, health or mobility have adopted a so-called ‘data ecosystem’ perspective to unify the socio-technical aspects fostering data-driven collaboration. While a data ecosystem is technically able to collect and merge their different datasets, it is yet relatively unable to facilitate meaningful forms of collaboration between actors. Based on previous research on value creation in data ecosystems, we hypothesize that this inability is mainly due to ecosystems not reflecting actor values, i.e. aspects which are important and imply a desirable behavior, often related to goals, objectives, motivations and decision making. This paper therefore proposes a reflective approach to reveal the values in data-driven collaboration by answering the following research questions: What role do values play in the process of developing a data ecosystem? And how can value-led participatory design support data-driven collaboration? We attempt to answer these questions through an exploratory study based on 5 interviews with consortium members of a garden data ecosystem currently in development around a citizen science initiative in Flanders, Belgium. We discovered that the explicit use of values and frictions has the potential to augment the collaboration between actors. This approach can thus be useful to future practitioners who aim to expand the societal impact of their work.
Citizens’ Participation in the Co-Design of Smart Cities’ Applications, a Scoping Review

The scoping review reported by this article aimed to provide a comprehensive view of (i) the state-of-the-art of the citizens’ participation in the co-design of smart cities’ applications, (ii) the use of information technologies to facilitate the participation of the citizens in the development of smart cities’ applications, and (iii) strategies to assure the citizens’ engagement. An electronic search was conducted on (i) Scopus, (ii) Web of Science, and (iii) IEEE Xplore databases, combining relevant keywords. After the studies’ selection, 20 studies were included. The results show a current interest in (i) developing methodological frameworks; (ii) supporting platforms; (iii) supporting tools, as well as (iv) presenting case studies. However, the results also show (i) lack of consolidated evidence about the effectiveness of the methodological frameworks, platforms and supporting tools being reported, (ii) difficulties in using information technologies (e.g., distributed crowdsourcing mechanisms) to optimize the citizens’ participation, and (iii) lack of strategies aiming to guarantee the citizens’ engagement.
Involving end-users in the design of a digital platform for Including People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Higher Education and Employment: preliminary findings

Although the inclusion of People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) is a current issue, it is still something that faces many challenges, since not all the population understands this need and not all institutions are prepared to welcome them. Therefore, it is essential to understand the needs of individuals with IDD when they wish to enter the Higher Education Institution or the job market, as well as access to digital platforms. Designing such a platform is considered a challenge, in this sense, it becomes crucial to involve end-users in this process. This paper portrays the experience of involving People with IDD, as well as other stakeholders, in gathering requirements and design for the prototype of a digital platform "Hilives". A digital resource that can recommend connections between different stakeholders (in a dynamic way) and that can play a crucial role in networking opportunities that allow people with IDD to attend Higher Education and find a job. Preliminary findings are presented highlighting the benefits of using a person-centred approach when developing research involving people with IDD and surveying different types of stakeholders.
Accessibility and readability compliance in Spanish public hospital websites

The number of e-health websites has increased significantly over the past few years. The Internet is used in many ways, from carrying out searches on a wide variety of topics to accessing online services such as those offered by hospitals. Thus, the need for these websites to be accessible to all individuals, including those with some sort of disability, is essential. The goal of the present research has been to analyze 48 of the leading Spanish public hospitals’ website homepages to assess their levels of compliance with accessibility and readability guidelines. This perspective has allowed us to determine exactly how accessible health information and hospital services are for citizens. In order to analyze accessibility, a qualitative method based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 standard was used. This method combined manual code inspections with the use of both accessibility tools and automatic tools as validators. Furthermore, a quantitative method, by means of a readability metric, was used to analyze readability of the texts of the analyzed websites. The findings revealed that many of the analyzed websites violated critical accessibility guidelines. In addition, several accessibility errors were identified, such as images without any textual description and a lack of information regarding the purpose of the links. These deficiencies have the greatest impact on accessing websites by people with disabilities. Related to the results of the readability of the texts on hospital webpages, it was found that, in general, they are somewhat difficult to understand by most people.
Supporting innovation in a context of uncertainty: the role of design and technology

Within the context of Lebanon, certain youth-led and grassroots organizations are fertile spaces of social innovation. Through a participatory action research (PAR) approach and using participatory design (PD) methods, we explore the possibility of creating the conditions for technology-supported social innovation within such a contested context. We present the case of our long-term engagement with “4-all-causes,” a youth-led group that aims to challenge existing hierarchical organizational structures and redefine health service provision in the country. Our observations and participatory workshops led to insights concerning the application of PD in such contested and uncertain spaces. In addition, we discuss the roles that we, as design researchers and digital technologists, can play in creating conditions for social transformation and a new health narrative through the infrastructuring of social innovation.
Convex Combination Spherical Parameterization Using Spherical Coordinates

Parameterization is the key step in digital geometry processing. And spherical parameterization is an important parameterization approach with broad application. The solution cost of convex combination spherical parameterization using Cartesian coordinates is very expensive because it needs to solve a high nonlinear equation group. In this paper, a new spherical parameterization method for closed and genus zero mesh is presented. By importing several spherical coordinates cover, convex combination under spherical coordinates is used to calculate spherical parameterization, which only needs to solve a quasi linear equation group. Compared to other convex combination spherical parameterization method using Cartesian coordinates, this approach lowers the nonlinear extent, and the solution time decreases greatly. Moreover, several degenerate cases under Cartesian coordinates are avoided, such as point lies in the opposite side of the sphere, since there is no quadratic term using spherical coordinates. The shortcoming brought by this method is that the result is a little un uniform along longitude. The mesh near the equation is apt to be denser than the mesh near the poles. At the end of this paper, several problems in convex combination spherical parameterization are discussed and experiment results are given. This spherical parameterization method can be used in the consistent mesh construction.
Application of soft X-ray microspectroscopic analyses to architectural structures – a case study on ceramic-tile/adhesive/mortar-structured composite materials

Abstract Synchrotron radiation (SR)-based soft X-ray (SX) microspectroscopy has been applied as a promising analytical method to investigate architectural structures that comprise ceramic-tile/adhesive/mortar-structured composite materials. Microprobe X-ray fluorescence (µXRF) spectra, elemental distribution maps and microprobe near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (µNEXAFS) spectra were observed near each interface in the composite materials using an SX-beam with a beam size of 1–2 µm full-width at half-maximum (FWHM). Elemental distribution maps for O, Na, Mg, Al, and Si were obtained to clearly visualize the interfaces of the composite materials with pixel sizes of 10 and 1 µm with the aid of line profile analyses. When the photon flux of the focused SX-beam reached approximately 8 × 108 ph/s, the critical dose time ( ) for the adhesive was estimated to be 30 min ( is the time at which the peak intensity of a specific chemical state in the µNEXAFS spectrum decreases to 1/e of the initial undamaged state due to radiation damage). We demonstrated the capability of the proposed method to survey local information regarding element-specific chemical states at the ceramic-tile/adhesive and adhesive/mortar interfaces before the adhesive is severely damaged due to the intense SX-beam.
An empirical study of community cohesiveness, community attachment, and their roles in virtual community participation

ABSTRACT Although active participation of members is a critical success factor for virtual communities, few members actively participate in activities in virtual communities (e.g., posting, commenting, sharing, etc.). This study explores the differences between passive and active community participation from community cohesiveness and community attachment perspectives. Drawing upon a context-specific cohesiveness-attachment-participation framework based on cognition-affection-conation traits of human psychology, we propose a research model and empirically test the roles of community cohesiveness and attachment in virtual community participation. The results suggest that community members’ active participation is positively influenced by both community cohesiveness and community attachment. Visitation, as the passive mode of participation, is influenced by community attachment only. The findings not only inspire future IS research to consider community cohesiveness, attachment, and participation as vital research constructs in other social contexts, but it also helps managers build managerial actions, such as prioritising their limited business resources to increase community members’ active participation, for the success of virtual communities.