Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A comparison of C-MAC videolaryngoscope and Macintosh laryngoscope in intraocular pressure changes, throat pain, intubation time and hemodynamic variables

Objectives: The aim of the current study was to compare intraocular pressure (IOP), hemodynamic parameters and throat pain in the use of C-MAC videolaryngoscope and the Macintosh laryngoscope under general anesthesia requiring endotracheal intubation. Methods: Seventy- eight patients aged 18-65 years, ASA ( American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status). I-II, who underwent elective surgery under general anesthesia were scheduled in the study. The groups were allocated as Group M (Macintosh laryngoscope) and Group VL (videolaryngoscope). Standard anesthesia technique was used in both groups. To assess the depth of anesthesia which was kept between 40 and 60, a Bispectral Index Monitor Model 2000 (Aspect Medical Systems, Inc, Newton, MA) was used throughout the study. We recorded hemodynamic variables, oxygen saturation before induction, at the 3rd and at the 10th minutes after intubation. The duration of intubation was recorded as the time from the laryngoscope entering the mouth to removal with end-tidal carbon dioxide on the monitor. IOP was measured before induction, and at the 3rd and 10th minutes after intubation. Inhalation agent was given after intubation. 78 patients were included in the study. We recorded cough after extubation, and postoperative sore throat was evaluated by an anesthesiologist who was blinded to the group allocations at 10 minutes and at 24 hours postoperatively. Results: There was no significant difference between the groups regarding age ( p > 0.05), mean b ody mass index ( p = 0.157), mean ASA ( p = 0.475), mean b ispectral index values ( p = 0.084) and mean operating time ( p = 0.068). The mean duration of intubation was determined to be statistically significantly longer in Group M than in Group VL ( p = 0.0001). There was no statistically significant difference between the groups regarding Modified Mallampati Score ( p = 0.571) and Cormack Lehane Score ( p = 0.819). The mean IOP at 3rd minute after intubation was determined to be statistically significantly higher in Group M ( p = 0.0001). There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in regarding cough after extubation ( p = 0.549), throat pain at 10 minutes ( p = 0.662) and at 24 hours postoperatively. Conclusions: C-MAC videolaryngoscope can be recommended as the first choice in patients with high IOP requiring general anesthesia with endotracheal intubation.
Design and Implementation of a Caterpillar Robot

This paper proposed a low cost worm-shape robot that can mimic the locomotion of a caterpillar to crawl by arching and stretching its body. Based on the process of implementing the caterpillar robot, the participated students can built up their interdisciplinary skills. Students have to integrate the technologies of micro-controllers, sensors, materials and mechanisms. We used a Motoduino U1 module to drive 4 servomotors and Bluetooth module to communicate between robot and users. In order to imitate gaits of caterpillars, the body of the robot was made by using discrete PVC rings to flexibly arch. The robot also can be remotely controlled to crawl forward/back or right/left, and change its height of arched back. The weight and total length of the robot were bout 470g and 65cm, respectively. The experiment shows that when the caterpillar robot moves in line, the averaged speed of robot can be 25m/hr. The maximum rotating angle is 30° and the minimum rotating diameter is 120cm.
Short-Term Effects of Suspension Training on Strength and Power Performances

Suspension Training (ST) workouts include a variety of movements requiring the individual to maintain balance while performing various resistance exercises in an interval fashion. Although ST is thought to elicit higher muscle activations than traditional exercises, only limited information is available on its acute effects on strength and power performances, especially in relation to gender. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the strength and power acute responses after ST, also in relation to gender. Eighty-eight (46 males, 42 females) participants were administered countermovement jumps (CMJ), squat jumps (SJ), lower limb Maximum Voluntary Contraction (MVC) at 90° angle knee extension, and grip strength (handgrip) before (PRE) and after (POST) a 50 min ST session involving upper, lower body and core exercises. ANOVA for repeated measures was used to evaluate the differences (p < 0.05) in relation to gender and experimental session. After ST session, significantly higher values emerged in males, whereas no significant changes were found in females. Findings indicate that ST as a form of exercise is useful to maintain and improve acute strength and power performances, especially in male participants. Future studies should be carried out to explore the gender-related differences in response to acute bout of ST exercises.
Dynamical speedup of a two-level system induced by coupling in the hierarchical environment.

We investigate the dynamics of a two-level system in the presence of an overall environment composed of two layers. The first layer is just one single-mode cavity which decays to memoryless reservoir while the second layer is the two coupled single-mode cavities which decay to memoryless or memory-keeping reservoirs. In the weak-coupling regime between the qubit and the first-layer environment, our attention is focused on the effects of the coupling in the hierarchical environment on the non-Markovian speedup dynamics behavior of the system. We show that, by controlling the coupling in the second-layer environment, the multiple dynamics crossovers from Markovian to non-Markovian and from no-speedup to speedup can be realized. This results hold independently on the nature of the second-layer environment. Differently, we find that how the coupling between the two layers affects the non-Markovian speedup dynamics behavior depends on the nature of the second-layer environment.
Lobster trap video: in situ video surveillance of the behaviour of Homarus americanus in and around traps

A lobster-trap video (LTV) system was developed to determine how lobster traps fish for Homarus americanus and how behavioural interactions in and around traps influence catch. LTV consists of a low-light camera and time-lapse video cassette recorder (VCR) mounted to a standard trap with optional red LED arrays for night observations. This self-contained system is deployed like a standard lobster trap and can collect continuous video recordings for >24 h. Data are presented for 13 daytime deployments of LTV (114 h of observation) and 4 day and night deployments (89 h of observation) in a sandy habitat off the coast of New Hampshire, USA. Analyses of videotapes revealed that traps caught only 6% of the lobsters that entered while allowing 94% to escape. Of those that escaped, 72% left through the entrance and 28% through the escape vent. Lobsters entered the trap at similar rates during the day and night and in sandy and rocky habitats. Lobsters generally began to approach the trap very shortly after deployment, and many appeared to approach several times before entering. These data confirm the results of previous laboratory-based studies in demonstrating that behavioural interactions in and around traps strongly influence the ultimate catch.
Photonic skin-depth engineering

Recently, we proposed a paradigm shift in light confinement strategy showing how relaxed total internal reflection and photonic skin-depth engineering can lead to sub-diffraction waveguides without metal [Optica1, 96 (2014)10.1364/OPTICA.1. 000096OPTIC82334-2536]. Here, we show that such extreme-skin-depth (e-skid) waveguides can counterintuitively confine light better than the best-case all-dielectric design of high index silicon waveguides surrounded by vacuum. We also establish analytically that figures of merit related to light confinement in dielectric waveguides are fundamentally tied to the skin depth of waves in the cladding, a quantity surprisingly overlooked in dielectric photonics. We contrast the propagation characteristics of the fundamental mode of e-skid waveguides and conventional waveguides to show that the decay constant in the cladding is dramatically larger in e-skid waveguides, which is the origin of sub-diffraction confinement. We also propose an approach to verify the reduced photonic skin depth in experiment using the decrease in the Goos–Hanschen phase shift. Finally, we provide a generalization of our work using concepts of transformation optics where the photonic skin-depth engineering can be interpreted as a transformation on the momentum of evanescent waves.
Cycle-Consistent GAN Front-End to Improve ASR Robustness to Perturbed Speech

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems, which perform well on regular 1 speech, are found to be vulnerable to adversarial examples generated by small 2 perturbations in the audio signal. Even naturally introduced perturbations in audio 3 signal, caused by emotional and physical states of the speaker, can significantly 4 degrade the ASR performance. In this paper, we propose a front-end based on 5 Cycle-Consistent Generative Adversarial Network (CycleGAN) to reduce the 6 perturbations, and hence add robustness to ASR performance. CycleGAN is 7 trained using non-parallel examples of perturbed and normal speech. Experiments 8 on spontaneously generated laughter-speech and creaky voice datasets tested with 9 Google cloud ASR show absolute improvements in WER of 14.9% and 11%, 10 respectively, on speech converted using the CycleGAN based front-end as compared 11 to the original perturbed speech. 12
Genetic polymorphism and population structure analysis of blue mussels ( Mytilus spp . ) in the north-western Mediterranean coasts of Morocco

Genetic polymorphism and population structure of blue mussels (Mytilus spp.) from five locations (Cap Spartel, Belyounesh, M’diq, Martil and Azla) in the north-western coasts of Morocco were analyzed using partial DNA sequences from the F and Mtypes mitochondrial control regions. All genetic diversity parameters revealed higher variability in the M than in the F type. The negative values of neutrality tests suggest that the five studied populations could be in a recent expansion process. Moreover, genetic differentiation statistics supported by AMOVA analyses demonstrated that mussel populations from the north-western coasts of Morocco are genetically undifferentiated.
Associative Skill Memory Models

Associative Skill Memories (ASMs) were formulated to encode stereotypical movements along with their stereotypical sensory events to increase the robustness of underlying dynamic movement primitives (DMPs) against noisy perception and perturbations. In ASMs, the stored sensory trajectories, such as the haptic and tactile measurements, are used to compute how much a perturbed movement deviates from the desired one, and to correct the movement if possible. In our work, we extend ASMs: rather than using stored single sensory trajectory instances, our system generates sensory event models and exploits those models to correct the perturbed movements during executions with the aim of generalizing to novel configurations. In particular, measured force and the torque trajectories are modelled using Parametric Hidden Markov Models, and then reproduced by Gaussian Mixture Regression. With Baxter robot, we demonstrate that our proposed force feedback model can be used to correct a trajectory while pushing an object with a mass never experienced before, and which otherwise slips away from the gripper because of noise. In the end, we discuss how far this skill can be generalized using the force model and possible future improvements.
Dynamic optimisation of an industrial web process

An industrial web process has been studied and it is shown that theunderlying physics of such processes governs by the Navier-Stokes partialdifferential equations with moving boundary conditions, which in turn have tobe determined by the solution of the thermodynamics equations. Thedevelopment of a two-dimensional continuous-discrete model structurebased on this study is presented. Other models are constructed based onthis model for better identification and optimisation purposes. Theparameters of the proposed models are then estimated using real dataobtained from the identification experiments with the process plant. Varioussimulation tests for validation are accompanied with the design, developmentand real-time industrial implementation of an optimal controller for dynamicoptimisation of this web process. It is shown that in comparison with thetraditional controller, the new controller resulted in a better performance, animprovement in film quality and saving in raw materials. This demonstrates theefficiency and validation of the developed models.
Characterization of Different Floral Origins Honey Samples from Santa Fe ( Argentine ) by Palynological , Physicochemical and Sensory data

The aim of the present work was to describe honey from Argentina, in order to contribute to their characterization for commercial purposes. Samples were physicochemical and sensory examined using a quantitative descriptive analysis method. Fifty samples analyzed with 54.8% characterized as monofloral, mostly clover (60.9%) and eucalyptus (26.1%) honey. Clover honey had a weak and nonpersistent fruity and floral odour. Eucalyptus samples had a vegetable odour and intense sweetness; the ones from the islands had a ripe fruit and transformed sugar flavor. The moisture content varied from 16.5 to 20.5% and acidity from 8.6 to 45.9%. Island samples showed darker Pfund’s colour values than those coming from other regions. Principal component analysis was performed on sensory and physicochemical variables for grouping the samples in the multidimensional space. Honeys were correctly classified according to its floral origin. Further studies are needed in order to investigate other floral origins to provide a robust model to classify honey samples from this region.
Complexities of coastal shark movements and their implications for management

Global declines of shark populations are of concern because of their largely assumed role as moderators of ecosystem function. Without long-term data on movement patterns for many species, it is impossible to infer relative extinction risk, which varies as a function of range, dispersal and habitat specificity and use. The past 50 yr of research on coastal sharks has revealed common movement patterns among species. In the horizontal plane, measured home range size generally increases with body size. We demonstrate meta-analytically the effects of increasing body size and monitoring time on home range size. Changes in the extent of horizontal movement might arise from ontogeny, predator avoidance or environmental tolerances. In the vertical plane, movement patterns include oscillatory vertical displacement, surface swimming, diel vertical migration and swimming at depth. These vertical movements are often attributed to foraging or navigation, but have been quan- tified less than horizontal patterns. Habitat specificity is often correlated with environmental condi- tions such as depth, salinity, substratum, and in some cases, prey availability. Site fidelity is common in species that use nursery areas. However, fidelity to mating, pupping, feeding and natal sites has only been observed in a few species. To date, few studies have examined habitat partitioning, although some general patterns have emerged: habitats appear to be subdivided by benthos type, prey availability and depth. The conservation of coastal sharks can be facilitated in some cases by the use of marine protected areas, especially for coastal resident species using specific nursery, repro- duction or feeding areas. Partial protected-area closures might be effective during aggregation or migration periods to protect older size classes, but these must be applied with other management strategies such as reduced fishing and size or bag limits to protect individuals throughout different life history phases. More long-term research on habitat use, migration patterns and habitat partition- ing is essential for developing successful management initiatives for coastal shark populations.
Bias in Judicial Citations: A New Window into the Behavior of Judges?

Abstract This article tests for the presence of bias in judicial citations within federal circuit court opinions. Our findings suggest bias along three dimensions. First, judges base outside‐circuit citation decisions in part on the political party of the cited judge. Judges tend to cite judges of the opposite political party less often than would be expected considering the fraction of the total pool of opinions attributable to judges of the opposite political party. Second, judges are more likely to engage in biased citation practices in certain high‐stakes situations. These high‐stakes situations include opinions dealing with certain subject matters (such as individual rights and campaign finance) as well as opinions in which another judge is in active opposition. Third, judges more often cite those judges who cite them frequently, which suggests the presence of mutual citation clubs.
Reconstruction of quantum states of spin systems via the Jaynes principle of maximum entropy

We apply the Jaynes principle of maximum entropy for the partial reconstruction of correlated spin states. We determine the minimum set of observables which is necessary for the complete reconstruction of the most correlated states of systems composed of spins 1/2 (e.g. the Bell and the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states). We investigate to what extent an incomplete measurement can reveal non-classical features of correlated spin states.
Acquired Demyelinating Disorders of the CNS in Children

Acquired Demyelinating disorders of the central nervous system in children span a wide spectrum. These conditions may be mono-phasic and self limiting or multi-phasic. Children may present with mono-focal (optic neuritis) or multi-focal (Acquired demyelinating encephalomyelitis) clinical findings. These demyelinating disorders also share many common clinical, radiological and laboratory features. Early classification of whether the disease is either monoor multiphasic has diagnostic and therapeutic implications. Identification of patients who present with a first demyelinating event and are at risk for evolution to multiple sclerosis, allows disease modifying therapeutic agents to be initiated early and thus preserve brain function. The aetiology of acquired demyelinating conditions is multi-factorial namely – genetic, postinfectious, post-immunization and possibly due to a T-cell mediated auto-immune response to myelin basic protein triggered by an infection or immunization. This chapter will cover the aetiologies, consensus definitions, clinical presentation, neuroimaging, evolution and therapeutic advances in acquired demyelinating disorders in children. The pivotal role of neuro-imaging in unraveling the pathology, aetiology and diagnosis of these disorders is also highlighted. Clinical and neuro-imaging features of other acquired white matter lesions (via infections, toxins, nutritional deficiencies, and osmotic myelinolysis) disease are also discussed.
Tree canopy displacement at forest gap edges

Although plants are sessile organisms, they can forage for resources and avoid neighbors by growing towards areas with high resource availability and reduced competition. Apparently because of this morphological flexibility, tree canopies are rarely positioned directly above their stem bases and are often displaced. To determine if contrasts in light availability lead to the development of canopy displacement, we investigated the responses of tree canopies to the het - erogeneous light environments at the edges of six experimental gaps. Canopies and trunks of gap edge trees were mapped, and their spatial distributions were analyzed. We found that tree canopies were displaced towards gap centers. The magnitude and precision of canopy displacement were greater for subcanopy trees than for canopy trees. The mag- nitude and precision of canopy displacement were generally greater for earlier successional trees and hardwoods than for later successional trees and conifers. Canopy depth was significantly greater on gap-facing sides of trees than on forest-facing sides of trees. Thus, trees along gap edges foraged for light by occupying both horizontal and vertical gap space. This morphological flexibility has implications for individual plant success, as well as forest structure and dy - namics.
A Formal Approach for Instructional Design Integrated with Data Visualization for Learning Analytics

 Abstract — Most Virtual Learning Environments do not provide support mechanisms for the integrated planning, construction and follow-up of Instructional Design supported by Learning Analytic results. The present work aims to present an authoring tool that will be responsible for constructing the structure of an Instructional Design (ID), without the data being altered during the execution of the course. The visual interface aims to present the critical situations present in this ID, serving as a support tool for the course follow-up and possible improvements, which can be made during its execution or in the planning of a new edition of this course. The model for the ID is based on High-Level Petri Nets and the visualization forms are determined by the specific kind of the data generated by an e-course, a population of students generating sequentially dependent data.
A Scanning Probe Microscopy experimental component designed for early graduate/postgraduates students

[Extract] The emergence of courses, subjects and dedicated degree programmes in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology has flourished in recent years with an ever growing number of institutions incorporating such components into their undergraduate and more recently graduate/postgraduate programmes. An important aspect in relation to the study of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology is the emergence of relatively new instruments/techniques such as Scanning Probe Microscope/y (SPM) and particularly Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Indeed most general Materials/Surface Science and associated books will now include mention of SPM or present dedicated chapters on this subject reflecting the current and predicted prominence of this form of microscopy. Here we present a laboratory component incorporating a number of key principles and attributes of the SPM system. These can be easily modified to allow addition of new or different aspects related to SPM or simplification for lower level courses or instrumentation with restricted capabilities. The SPM experimental component has been successfully implemented and refined over a 3 year period. This experimental component includes the following: • Hands on operation and familiarity of a Scanning Probe Microscope instrument. • Fabrication of Micro/Nano structures using SPM lithography (e.g., using a Diamond–Like–Carbon (DLC) film). • Topographical characterisation of the lithographic outcomes. • Fabrication of polymeric structures (e.g., Polydimethylsiloxane) based on the lithographic outcomes (moulds) produced. • AFM characterisation of the fabricated polymer structures in terms of topography, mechanical and adhesive properties and evaluation of the fabrication efficiency from the original lithographic outcomes.