Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Load validation and comparison versus certification approaches of the Risø Dynamic Wake Meandering model implementation in GH Bladed

The present paper outlines the Risø Dynamic Wake Meandering model (DWM) [1], that has been improved within the EU research project TOPFARM, its implementation into the wind turbine load calculation software GH Bladed and the subsequent load validation. The new Bladed DWM module is compared against two measurement campaigns. The first validation, against data from the EU project Dynamic Loads in Wind Farms [12], indicated quantitatively good agreements for blade root flapwise bending moment and yaw torsion. The second campaign referred to measurements from the Horns Rev offshore wind farm. The related validation indicated quantitatively good agreement for the blade root flapwise bending moment and the tower base overturning moment in the operational region below and above rated power. Discrepancies between measurement and simulation in the wake affected tower base overturning moment around rated power are deemed to be caused by free flow load differences, not by the wake model. A fatigue load comparison of the Bladed DWM model with the commonly used effective turbulence intensity approach from the IEC 61400-1 Standard was performed. The result suggested that the IEC approach is conservative at low turbine spacings but may under predict wake loads for spacings larger than 5 rotor diameters (D).
Investigation of the Performance of Hyperspectral Imaging by Principal Component Analysis in the Prediction of Healing of Diabetic Foot Ulcers

Diabetic foot ulcers are a major complication of diabetes and present a considerable burden for both patients and health care providers. As healing often takes many months, a method of determining which ulcers would be most likely to heal would be of great value in identifying patients who require further intervention at an early stage. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is a tool that has the potential to meet this clinical need. Due to the different absorption spectra of oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin, in biomedical HSI the majority of research has utilized reflectance spectra to estimate oxygen saturation (SpO2) values from peripheral tissue. In an earlier study, HSI of 43 patients with diabetic foot ulcers at the time of presentation revealed that ulcer healing by 12 weeks could be predicted by the assessment of SpO2 calculated from these images. Principal component analysis (PCA) is an alternative approach to analyzing HSI data. Although frequently applied in other fields, mapping of SpO2 is more common in biomedical HSI. It is therefore valuable to compare the performance of PCA with SpO2 measurement in the prediction of wound healing. Data from the same study group have now been used to examine the relationship between ulcer healing by 12 weeks when the results of the original HSI are analyzed using PCA. At the optimum thresholds, the sensitivity of prediction of healing by 12 weeks using PCA (87.5%) was greater than that of SpO2 (50.0%), with both approaches showing equal specificity (88.2%). The positive predictive value of PCA and oxygen saturation analysis was 0.91 and 0.86, respectively, and a comparison by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed an area under the curve of 0.88 for PCA compared with 0.66 using SpO2 analysis. It is concluded that HSI may be a better predictor of healing when analyzed by PCA than by SpO2.
Histological and Serological Epidemiology of Hepatitis Delta Virus Coinfection among Patients with Chronic Active Hepatitis B Virus in Razavi Khorasan Province, Northeastern Iran

Background: Hepatitis delta virus (HDV), as well as hepatitis B virus (HBV), are regarded as one of the main public health issues in developing countries. This retrospective study described histological and serological features of HDV coinfection patients with chronic active HBV in Northeastern Iran. Methods: The frequency of HDV seropositivity and its impact on serum liver enzyme levels and pathological features were investigated by reviewing clinical and laboratory data. This study contained chronic active HBV-infected patients having admitted the department during 2009 and 2014. Results: The rate of HDV coinfection in chronic active carriers was 21.84%, with a male predominance. HDV seropositive carriers showed significantly higher concentrations of liver enzyme than chronic active HBV monoinfection. Moreover, there was a strong association between degrees of inflammation with HDV-positive patients’ enzyme levels. Conclusion: The HDV seroprevalence in northeastern Iran was higher than that reported from elsewhere in Iran while comparable to some regions in Middle East, which, in turn, requires more comprehensive tools for diagnosing and screening the blood.
Some Facts on the Diabetes Surveillance in Rural Regions of Iran

Diabetes is one of the most important noncommunicable diseases, through its effects on many body organs. It is the major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, kidney failure, blindness and increases risk of death. Incidence and prevalence of this disease have risen at increasing rate during the past decades (1). The number of people with diabetes will increase from 415 million in 2015 to 642 million in 2040 (2). The maximum prevalence of diabetes occurred in countries with low and average income levels (3). Considering its increasing rate in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, it will rise from 9.7% in 2014 to 11.6% in 2040 (1, 4). The screening program for diabetes was implemented in the rural regions of Iran in 2005 and 2008 among the population aged over 30 years. Identification of patients has taken place opportunistically in rural regions since 2011 and the people with diabetes are entered into the country’s system of diabetes surveillance. In this program, patients were visited once every three months by a doctor and sent to laboratories for the HbA1c and fasting blood sugar tests. Results of the National Program for Prevention and Control of Diabetes in the Rural Regions in the second quarter of 2015 recorded in the portal of the Department of NonCommunicable Diseases at the Ministry of Health indicate that, among the 12 million rural population covered by these universities, at least 364,000 diabetes patients are under surveillance, and 67% of the male patients and 72% of the female patients have been taken care during this period. About 74% of these patients had HbA1c levels less than 8, while 37% of these patients had HbA1c levels less than 7, and 50% of these patients had ideal fasting blood sugar levels (70130) (Table 1).
Data collaboration analysis for distributed datasets

In this paper, we propose a data collaboration analysis method for distributed datasets. The proposed method is a centralized machine learning while training datasets and models remain distributed over some institutions. Recently, data became large and distributed with decreasing costs of data collection. If we can centralize these distributed datasets and analyse them as one dataset, we expect to obtain novel insight and achieve a higher prediction performance compared with individual analyses on each distributed dataset. However, it is generally difficult to centralize the original datasets due to their huge data size or regarding a privacy-preserving problem. To avoid these difficulties, we propose a data collaboration analysis method for distributed datasets without sharing the original datasets. The proposed method centralizes only intermediate representation constructed individually instead of the original dataset.
Blockchain Applications for Healthcare Data Management

Objectives This pilot study aimed to provide an overview of the potential for blockchain technology in the healthcare system. The review covers technological topics from storing medical records in blockchains through patient personal data ownership and mobile apps for patient outreach. Methods We performed a preliminary survey to fill the gap that exists between purely technically focused manuscripts about blockchains, on the one hand, and the literature that is mostly concerned with marketing discussions about their expected economic impact on the other hand. Results The findings show that new digital platforms based on blockchains are emerging to enabling fast, simple, and seamless interaction between data providers, including patients themselves. Conclusions We provide a conceptual understanding of the technical foundations of the potential for blockchain technology in healthcare, which is necessary to understand specific blockchain applications, evaluate business cases such as blockchain startups, or follow the discussion about its expected economic impacts.
The features of cerebral permeability and perfusion detected by dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging with Patlak model in relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis

Objective To investigate the features of cerebral permeability and perfusion detected by dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) with Patlak model in relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and their correlations with Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) scores and disease duration. Patients and methods Twenty-seven RRMS patients underwent conventional MRI and DCE-MRI with 3.0 T magnetic resonance scanner were enrolled in the study. A Patlak model was used to quantitatively measure MRI biomarkers, including volume transfer constant (Ktrans), fractional plasma volume (Vp), cerebral blood flow (CBF), and cerebral blood volume (CBV). The correlations of MRI biomarkers with EDSS scores and disease duration were analyzed. Results The MRI biomarkers Ktrans, Vp, CBF, and CBV of contrast-enhancing (CE) lesions were significantly higher (P<0.05) than those of non-enhancing (NE) lesions and normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) regions. The skewness and kurtosis of Ktrans values in CE lesions were significantly higher (P<0.05) than that of NE lesions. No significant correlation was found among the biomarkers with EDSS scores and disease duration (P>0.05). Conclusion Our study demonstrated the abnormalities of permeability and perfusion characteristics in multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions and NAWM regions by DCE-MRI with Patlak model. The Ktrans, Vp, CBF, and CBV of CE lesions were significantly higher than that of NE lesions, but these MRI biomarkers did not associate with the severity and duration of the disease. The skewness and kurtosis of Ktrans value in CE lesions were significantly higher than that in NE lesions, indicating that these parameters of Ktrans histogram can be used to distinguish the pathology of MS lesions.
CHALLENGES OF STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION AT TRANSNATIONAL BANK KENYA LIMITED BY CHEPKOSKEI SCOLASTICA A RESEARCH PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI

There is enough evidence and common consensus in literature that although strategy implementation is a challenge to many organizations, it is strategy formulation that continues to receive more attention . Strategy implementation is the process that turns plans and strategics into actions to accomplish objectives. It str.rts with strategy formulation which refers to the development of long term plans for effective management of opportunities and threats in light of organizational strengths and weaknesses. For effective strategy implementation, the strategy must be supported by decisions regarding the appropriate organization structure, reward system, organizations culture, resources and leadership. All interested parties should cooperate in the process since they play a leading role in the implementation of strategies in the organization. It is also evident that banks in Kenya experience certain barriers to strategy implementation. Given this situation, this study highlights the most frequent barriers to strategy implementation in general and attempts to identify and describe barriers that impede strategy implementation in the banking industry. The objectives of the study were to investigate the challenges of strategy implementation at Transnational Bank Kenya Limited and to establish how the bank has been able to overcome the challenges of strategy implementation. This was a case study design where primary data was collected using an interview guide. The data obtained was analyzed using content analysis. The findings from the study suggest that the organization had developed some strategies which were geared towards accomplishment of the organizations objectives. Employee participation in strategy formulation was the main reason that slowed down the process of strategy implementation, other contributors of the challenges on strategy implementation are inadequate analysis of progress being made as planned, financial constraints, change of strategy midstream to suite their focus, on commitment of senior staff and employees in general to support a new strategic plan given the start to its completion including review and supporting its recommendation, lack of implementation continuity if a staff leaves due to absence of project operational manuals, duplication of activities which calls for effective design programs.
The effect of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise training on metabolic syndrome factors and acylated ghrelin in middle- age women

Background: The results of the studies indicated that exercise training may decrease the metabolic syndrome factors. Hence, the present study conducted to evaluate the effect of moderateintensity aerobic exercise on metabolic syndrome risk factors and acylated ghrelin in middleage women. Methods: In a quasi-experimental design, twenty-four middle-aged women with metabolic syndrome that voluntarily participated in this research assigned into two control (n=12) and aerobic training (n=12) groups. Training group was participated in aerobic exercise program that including walking and jogging with 60-70% HRR intensity for 8 weeks (three times per week). Status appetite of subjects and venous blood samples were collected before and after training program. Data were analyzed by paired t-test and ANCOVA tests. Results: The results indicated that aerobic training caused a significant reduction in the MetS Z scores, waist circumference, triglyceride, blood pressure, satiety, total caloric intake and significant increase in the acylated ghrelin plasma concentrations, high density lipoprotein, amount of protein consumption and hunger sensations in the training group (p<0.05). While no significant changes were observed found of these parameters in the control group (p>0.05). Conclusion: Eight-week aerobic training can decrease the metabolic syndrome risk factors and increase satiety in middle-aged women. However, to understand the exact mechanism, further research is needed.
Nutritional Intervention for the Intestinal Development and Health of Weaned Pigs

Weaning imposes simultaneous stress, resulting in reduced feed intake, and growth rate, and increased morbidity and mortality of weaned pigs. Weaning impairs the intestinal integrity, disturbs digestive and absorptive capacity, and increases the intestinal oxidative stress, and susceptibility of diseases in piglets. The improvement of intestinal development and health is critically important for enhancing nutrient digestibility capacity and disease resistance of weaned pigs, therefore, increasing their survival rate at this most vulnerable stage, and overall productive performance during later stages. A healthy gut may include but not limited several important features: a healthy proliferation of intestinal epithelial cells, an integrated gut barrier function, a preferable or balanced gut microbiota, and a well-developed intestinal mucosa immunity. Burgeoning evidence suggested nutritional intervention are one of promising measures to enhance intestinal health of weaned pigs, although the exact protective mechanisms may vary and are still not completely understood. Previous research indicated that functional amino acids, such as arginine, cysteine, glutamine, or glutamate, may enhance intestinal mucosa immunity (i.e., increased sIgA secretion), reduce oxidative damage, stimulate proliferation of enterocytes, and enhance gut barrier function (i.e., enhanced expression of tight junction protein) of weaned pigs. A number of feed additives are marketed to assist in boosting intestinal immunity and regulating gut microbiota, therefore, reducing the negative impacts of weaning, and other environmental challenges on piglets. The promising results have been demonstrated in antimicrobial peptides, clays, direct-fed microbials, micro-minerals, milk components, oligosaccharides, organic acids, phytochemicals, and many other feed additives. This review summarizes our current understanding of nutritional intervention on intestinal health and development of weaned pigs and the importance of mechanistic studies focusing on this research area.
Bayesian Update with Information Quality under the Framework of Evidence Theory

Bayesian update is widely used in data fusion. However, the information quality is not taken into consideration in classical Bayesian update method. In this paper, a new Bayesian update with information quality under the framework of evidence theory is proposed. First, the discounting coefficient is determined by information quality. Second, the prior probability distribution is discounted as basic probability assignment. Third, the basic probability assignments from different sources can be combined with Dempster’s combination rule to obtain the fusion result. Finally, with the aid of pignistic probability transformation, the combination result is converted to posterior probability distribution. A numerical example and a real application in target recognition show the efficiency of the proposed method. The proposed method can be seen as the generalized Bayesian update. If the information quality is not considered, the proposed method degenerates to the classical Bayesian update.
ViReSt - Storytelling with Volumetric Videos

The aim of the project ViReSt is to explore the extent to which virtual reality, volumetric video and binaural audio can be utilized to create an immersive experience for museum visitors. Museum curators should be able to develop, test and create the story themselves without programming skills. Therefore, a workflow was developed and tested by creating a small prototype. This prototype was then tested with a group of 10 participants to assess immersion, reception of volumetric video and binaural audio.
The biochemical, physiological and therapeutic roles of ascorbic acid

Ascorbic acid is an important micronutrient necessary for a significant number of metabolic reactions in humans and other primates. It is a strong reducing agent involved in reduction reaction and it is structurally related to glucose. Experimental and epidemiological studies have documented the biochemical, physiological and therapeutic roles of ascorbic acid. It is an essential water-soluble antioxidant vitamin derived from exogenous source; thus its role in human health is worthy to be considered particularly because of the current global economic trend. The biochemical, physiological and therapeutic roles of ascorbic acid is reviewed, providing further insights into the role of ascorbic acid in biological functions.
Deep Temporal-Spatial Aggregation for Video-Based Facial Expression Recognition

The proposed method has 30 streams, i.e., 15 spatial streams and 15 temporal streams. Each spatial stream corresponds to each temporal stream. Therefore, this work correlates with the symmetry concept. It is a difficult task to classify video-based facial expression owing to the gap between the visual descriptors and the emotions. In order to bridge the gap, a new video descriptor for facial expression recognition is presented to aggregate spatial and temporal convolutional features across the entire extent of a video. The designed framework integrates a state-of-the-art 30 stream and has a trainable spatial–temporal feature aggregation layer. This framework is end-to-end trainable for video-based facial expression recognition. Thus, this framework can effectively avoid overfitting to the limited emotional video datasets, and the trainable strategy can learn to better represent an entire video. The different schemas for pooling spatial–temporal features are investigated, and the spatial and temporal streams are best aggregated by utilizing the proposed method. The extensive experiments on two public databases, BAUM-1s and eNTERFACE05, show that this framework has promising performance and outperforms the state-of-the-art strategies.
Predictable genome‐wide sorting of standing genetic variation during parallel adaptation to basic versus acidic environments in stickleback fish

Genomic studies of parallel (or convergent) evolution often compare multiple populations diverged into two ecologically different habitats to search for loci repeatedly involved in adaptation. Because the shared ancestor of these populations is generally unavailable, the source of the alleles at adaptation loci, and the direction in which their frequencies were shifted during evolution, remain elusive. To shed light on these issues, we here use multiple populations of threespine stickleback fish adapted to two different types of derived freshwater habitats—basic and acidic lakes on the island of North Uist, Outer Hebrides, Scotland—and the present‐day proxy of their marine ancestor. In a first step, we combine genome‐wide pooled sequencing and targeted individual‐level sequencing to demonstrate that ecological and phenotypic parallelism in basic‐acidic divergence is reflected by genomic parallelism in dozens of genome regions. Exploiting data from the ancestor, we next show that the acidic populations, residing in ecologically more extreme derived habitats, have adapted by accumulating alleles rare in the ancestor, whereas the basic populations have retained alleles common in the ancestor. Genomic responses to selection are thus predictable from the ecological difference of each derived habitat type from the ancestral one. This asymmetric sorting of standing genetic variation at loci important to basic‐acidic divergence has further resulted in more numerous selective sweeps in the acidic populations. Finally, our data suggest that the maintenance in marine fish of standing variation important to adaptive basic‐acidic differentiation does not require extensive hybridization between the marine and freshwater populations. Overall, our study reveals striking genome‐wide determinism in both the loci involved in parallel divergence, and in the direction in which alleles at these loci have been selected.