Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using Haptic Feedback in a Virtual Reality Bone Drilling Simulation to Reduce Plunge Distance

Background Bone drilling is a procedure that demands a high level of dexterity, fine motor skills and spatial awareness from the operating surgeon. An important consideration when drilling bone is minimising soft tissue damage. There are numerous causes of drilling associated soft tissue injury, of which most concerning is drilling into the tissue beyond the far cortex as unseen injury can occur. This is known as plunging. Objectives The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of haptic feedback in virtual reality (VR) simulation-based training. The acquisition of drilling skill was assessed by changes to their drill plunge depth. Study Design & Methods The participants in the study were medical students, doctors and biomedical scientists. Participants were randomly allocated into two groups. One group had simulation with haptic feedback as part of their VR simulated learning, whereas the second group undertook the same VR simulation but did not receive haptic feedback during the simulation. Following completion of the simulated bone drilling protocol, a bone drilling exercise took place. Each participant was allowed to drill a synthetic tibia bone five times and then the plunge depth was measured. We quantified outcome in the form of plunge depth. Results There were four participants in each group. The average plunge distance in the group who were able to practice with haptic assisted VR simulation was 46mm (range: 37-56mm), the average plunge distance in the non-haptic group was 79mm (range: 44-136mm). Results showed an average reduction of 33mm in plunge depth from users in the haptic group compared to the non-haptic group. Conclusion Bone drilling simulation with haptic feedback may be an effective simulator of the motor skills that would be required to perform this action on a live patient. The study results suggest that there could be a reduction in soft tissue damage for users trained in VR simulations with haptic feedback.
Construction Rubble, Foundry Sand and Marble Waste Powder; as Raw Materials on Concrete Bricks Production

The construction wastes is one of the environmental problem not only in Egypt but also in the whole world. The main objective of this paper to evaluated the fully replacing of natural aggregate (NA) by construction wastes (CW), full replace of natural sand (NS) by foundry sand (FS) and partially replaced of Portland cement (OPC) by marble fine waste (MFW) on the compressive strength was found out at 7, 28 days and 90 days and explained if these trials could be used in bricks manufacturing so Concrete cubes of size 150*150*150 mm were prepared in this paper with a different replacement ratio of Portland cement (PC) by marble fine waste (MFW) were 0%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 50% by weight of cement. Results show that the compressive strength by 0%,10% 20%, 30% and 50% at 7, and 28 days which the cement was replace ratio of marble fine waste (MFW) (140-141,92-91,90-86,82-80,and 73-76 kg/cm2) respectively. The compressive strength of sample 50% replacement gives compressive strength (73 – 76 kg/cm2) which consider as lowest compressive strength of these trials however it utilized maximum amount of marble dust which contributed to the elimination of the largest amount of wastes and also can be used successfully in the concrete bricks manufacturing as Egyptian standard No. 1292 and Egyptian code ECP 204 which give the compressive strength is 70 kg/cm2. The present study demostrated that, the mixture can used in brick manufacturing as shipper and green method to utilize the different waste and make new sustainability products.
Chemoenzymatic conversion of furfural to methyl‐2‐furotate

Furfural (FF) is an important bio‐based platform compound derived from lignocellulose. It can be converted into many industrially valuable chemicals, a typical one being methyl‐2‐furoate (MF). At present, MF production depends largely on vigorous one‐step chemical catalysis (oxidative esterification), in which expensive catalysts (precious metals) and a high temperature (60–120 °C) are required. To reduce the costs of this procedure, a mild, green, and cheap chemoenzymatic process is proposed where FF is initially chemically oxidized to furoic acid (FA), and then FA is enzymatically esterified to MF. Neither step requires an expensive catalyst, and both occur at low temperatures (30–50 °C). For the chemical oxidation process, the optimized FA yield of 83.7% was obtained at 40 °C with an FF/BTIC (1,3‐bis(2,4,6‐trimethylphenyl) imidazolium chloride) molar ratio of 0.18, 10 mL N‐methyl pyrrolidone, and 0.1 MPa oxygen pressure. For the enzymatic esterification, the optimized MF yield reached 80.6% at 50 °C with 50 mg•mL−1 enzyme loading and an alcohol/acid ratio of 7:1. Kinetic studies demonstrated the oxidation to be a sixth‐order reaction, and the esterification to be an endothermic reaction. For both oxidation and esterification reactions, the relationship between the rate constant and temperature agreed well with the Arrhenius equation. For esterification, the relationship between the equilibrium constant and the temperature also agreed with the Van't Hoff equation. A 67.5% MF yield was obtained when sequential oxidation and esterification were initiated from FF. The development of chemoenzymatic processes for MF production from FF is effective and has potential value in decreasing the production cost of MF. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
[Lymphadenectomy in the treatment of colon cancer].

Lymph node metastasis carries enormous prognostic weight in the evaluation of colon cancer and raises the question of how extensive a lymph node dissection should be. Lymph node dissection has several goals: 1) staging of the cancer at the time of intervention; 2) improving the chances for complete resection and cure; 3) evaluating the thoroughness and quality of a particular surgical procedure. The prognostic value of lymphadenectomy is evident from the direct practical decisions it entails: evidence-based recommendations (Level A) have proposed adjuvant chemotherapy for all patients with Stage III colon cancer since 1990. Studies have shown a statistically significant correlation between the number of nodes examined in an operative specimen and long-term survival in patients with Stage II disease. The more closely lymph nodes are examined, the more metastasis is found; one can then see the aberrations of stage migration described as the "Will Rogers Phenomenon. " Without randomized studies, it is impossible to say whether resection of a larger number of lymph nodes actually improves the prognosis or whether that number is simply a marker of better surgical management including the quality of the surgical gesture, the careful pathologic examination of the specimen, and subsequent choices for adjuvant chemotherapy. The recovery of 12 lymph nodes correlates with a better global prognosis. At the very least, it is an effective marker for the quality of the surgical resection and can be used in the evaluation of professional practice.
Vanda Station, Antarctica: a biography of the Anthropocene

This article uses the history of New Zealand�s Vanda Station in Antarctica as a case study of the inseparability of human history and environmental change in the age of the Anthropocene. Vanda Station was built in the late 1960s to promote New Zealand�s sovereignty claims to Antarctica and to promote scientific research in the predominantly ice-free McMurdo Dry Valleys region. Over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, the levels of the nearby Lake Vanda rose dramatically, and in the early 1990s the decision was taken to close the station. Rather than seeing the closure of Vanda simply as a consequence of the rising lake levels, this article suggests instead that it was the result of a number of interconnected social, political, scientific, and environmental factors. Although the concept of the Anthropocene is not unproblematic, a biographical approach to the history of Vanda Station can add depth and nuance to our understanding of the geological age of humans. In the McMurdo Dry Valleys, the �birth�, �life� and �death� of Vanda Station helps to demonstrate how the political status quo maintained itself through a partial adaptation to the new realities of the Anthropocene. This political adaptation, however, relies on maintaining human-nature dichotomies and resisting the full implications of viewing the region as an eco-social system.
A review of distributed statistical inference

The rapid emergence of massive datasets in various fields poses a serious challenge to traditional statistical methods. Meanwhile, it provides opportunities for researchers to develop novel algorithms. Inspired by the idea of divide-and-conquer, various distributed frameworks for statistical estimation and inference have been proposed. They were developed to deal with large-scale statistical optimization problems. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review for related literature. It includes parametric models, nonparametric models, and other frequently used models. Their key ideas and theoretical properties are summarized. The trade-off between communication cost and estimate precision together with other concerns is discussed.
Starch behaviour in potato at temperatures close to cellular membrane breakdown

Abstract A combined thermal analysis (including a dynamic mechanical analysis and a dielectric thermal analysis) was applied to the cortex tissues of long-stored potatoes in the temperature range of 30-90°C, with the constant air relative humidity of 90%. Two heating rates, i.e. 1°C min−1 and 0.5°C min−1, were used for temperature scanning. The obtained results were found to differ in the inspected temperature range, indicating either a different mode of drying or differences in the starch gelatinization mechanism, the latter being usually controlled by water availability in contact with starch in both tests. The observed results indicate new possibilities in the cooking strategies that are usually applied to potatoes.
Mapping Computations in Heterogeneous Multicore Systems with Statistical Regression on Program Inputs

A hardware configuration is a set of processors and their frequency levels in a multicore heterogeneous system. This article presents a compiler-based technique to match functions with hardware configurations. Such a technique consists of using multivariate linear regression to associate function arguments with particular hardware configurations. By showing that this classification space tends to be convex in practice, this article demonstrates that linear regression is not only an efficient tool to map computations to heterogeneous hardware, but also an effective one. To demonstrate the viability of multivariate linear regression as a way to perform adaptive compilation for heterogeneous architectures, we have implemented our ideas onto the Soot Java bytecode analyzer. Code that we produce can predict the best configuration for a large class of Java and Scala benchmarks running on an Odroid XU4 big.LITTLE board; hence, outperforming prior techniques such as ARM’s GTS and CHOAMP, a recently released static program scheduler.
When a threatened species becomes a threat: a key to reading the Habitats Directive based on occurrence and distribution of Cerambyx cerdo L. in Mediterranean urban and peri‐urban areas

Cerambyx cerdo is a large saproxylic species included in the Annex IV of the European Habitats Directive as a ‘priority species’. Although C. cerdo populations have shown a significant decline in size and distribution in central and northern European forests, in the Mediterranean basin it is often considered as a pest in urban and peri‐urban areas. Based on European legislations currently in use, we propose a simplified decision‐making flowchart that should be followed regarding the adoption of different control measures against severe C. cerdo infestations.
Metal (liod)s levels of commercially green tea (camellia sinensis) and salt in Germany and their non-carcinogenic risks

Abstract In this study the metal (liod)s (MLs) contents of Ti, V, Co, As, Mo, Sb, Pb, Al, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Sn, Se, Sr, Zn, and Ba, and their non-carcinogenic risks in the samples of green tea and salt in Germany were determined. Zn (3.86 ± 4.62 µg/g) and Mo (0.0005 ± 0.129 µg/g) had the highest and lowest levels in green tea samples. While Zn (2.87 ± 2.49 µg/g) and Ba (not detected) had the highest and lowest levels in salt samples. Also, the estimated daily intake (EDI), target hazard quotient (THQ), and hazard index (HI) values in men was less than women.
Community Participation in Decision Making and Sustainability of Primary Schools in Uganda

The study investigated the relationship between community participation in decision making and sustainability of private primary schools in Uganda. Specifically, the study examined the relationship between community t participation in: decision making and sustainability of selected primary schools in four districts, Uganda. The study was a crosssectional survey that adopted both quantitative and qualitative approaches to observe a sample of 269 respondents using Questionnaires and interview guides. used in the study. Whereas qualitative data was analyzed using content and thematic analysis, quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study found a positive significant relationship between community participation in decision making and sustainability of private primary schools in Uganda. The study recommended that communities should be mobilized and empowered through community representatives to be more involved in management and monitoring of private undertaking like school.
Diet of the Semiaquatic Snake Erythrolamprus miliaris (Dipsadidae, Xenodontinae) in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Abstract. The semiaquatic snake Erythrolamprus miliaris has a wide distribution in cis-Andean South America and is often locally abundant. Nevertheless, there is still comparatively limited information available on its ecology. In the present study, we analyzed the diet of E. miliaris in five different regions along the Atlantic Forest domain in eastern Brazil, based on the stomach contents of specimens deposited in scientific collections. Overall, only 10.2% of the stomachs contained identifiable food items, the most frequent of which were fishes and postmetamorphic anuran amphibians (present in 41.8% and 53.7% of adult stomachs, and 17.9% and 75.0% of juvenile stomachs, respectively). Diet composition was fairly similar among populations, indicating a low geographic variability in the species feeding habits. Our data suggest that younger snakes feed mainly on anurans, tending to consume more fishes as they grow larger. Consumption of toads of the genus Rhinella indicate that E. miliaris is resistant to bufonid toxins, as are other members of the tribe Xenodontini.
Examining reasons undergraduate women join physics

This study examines survey data from 2,129 undergraduate women at the 2015 and 2019 American Physical Society Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) in order to classify what led them to study physics. We use expectancy-value and self-efficacy theory to create a coding framework based on different types of value and efficacy expectations in order to group responses. We find that the most common attractions are social persuasion, which is due to pressure or persuasion from people around the students, and intrinsic value, which is related to the inherent value of engaging in physics.
What Can Brinley Plots Tell Us About Cognitive Aging? Exploring Simulated Data and Modified Brinley Plots

Cognitive aging researchers have been challenged with demonstrating age-related effects above and beyond global slowing ever since Cerella raised this issue in 1990. As the literature has made clear, this has indeed proved to be a difficult task and continues to plague the field. One way that researchers have attempted to test for disproportionate age differences across task conditions is by using Brinley plots, or plotting the mean response latencies of older adults against the mean latencies for younger adults. The simplicity and large proportion of variance accounted for by these models has led to the widespread use of Brinley plots over the years. However, as systematically tested here through eight cases of simulated data, it is clear that the Brinley technique is not well suited to either identify or display the underlying structure of datasets examining age-related differences in attentional control. Some of the problems with conventional Brinley plots can be resolved by using a modified Brinley plot that includes study-specific slopes linking trial types and a no-age-difference reference line. Multilevel models find all of the relevant effects, especially if applied to trial-level data, and have the advantage of incorporating study-level moderators that might account for slope heterogeneity. Ultimately, we encourage fellow cognitive aging researchers to access the code and data for this project on OSF (https://osf.io/zxus8/) and employ the use of multilevel models over Brinley plots.
Longitudinal Vehicle Motion Prediction in Urban Settings With Traffic Light Interaction

Predictive cruise control functions designed to reduce the energy consumption of intelligent and automated vehicles require an accurate prediction of the upcoming traffic situation in general and the preceding vehicle in particular. This article presents the implementation of prediction models which do not rely on explicit information of the entire preceding vehicle queue. Using this assumption, prediction algorithms based on Conditional Linear Gauss (CLG) models and Deep Neural Network (DNNs) were trained using real-world measurements in an urban setting. The training was conducted with 6.6 hours of driving data specifically collected for this study. The results show that both approaches can provide accurate estimates of a preceding vehicle’s motion. For the CLG models, a queue-estimation logic was implemented to improve the prediction accuracy. The most accurate prediction could be obtained when DNNs are set up with Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) layers, capable of modeling time dependencies. The results also show that accurate short and mid term predictions of a vehicle’s trajectory can be made based primarily on sensor data, even when no or only little data from vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication is available.
An Idealized 3D Model of Interfacial Instability of Aeolian Bedform

An idealized morphodynamic model is constructed for formation of the aeolian sand ripples from small bottom perturbations of a two-dimensional sand bed. The main goal of the analysis is to evaluate the influence of the gravity flow (including “impact-induced gravity flow” in the reptation flux and “topography-induced gravity flow” in the creep flux) on the formation of the aeolian sand ripples and to clarify the relative contribution of various factors to the bed instability. A 3D linear stability analysis reveals that gravity flow appreciably affects the dynamics behaviors of aeolian sand ripples, which decreases the growth rate of sand ripples, tends to stabilize the sand bed, and leads to longer wavelength. We found that the competition between the destabilizing effect of reptation flow and the stabilizing effects of gravity flow leads to pattern selection. The along-crest diffusion of topography driven by impact and gravity is beneficial to the transverse stability of sand ripples, producing sand ripples with straighter and more continuous crests. For moderate values of D, the most unstable mode has zero value of the transverse wavenumber (ky = 0), thus corresponding to aeolian ripples with crests perpendicular to the wind. Moreover, when the impact angle is 9–16°, it has little effect on the characteristics of sand ripples for the initial stage of ripple development. For every increase of the impact angle by 1°, the initial wavelength only increases by about 1.5%. In conclusion, the influence of the gravity flow on the dynamics of sand ripples formation stage cannot be neglected.
Specific rumen microbiome traits predict average daily gain in beef cattle under different backgrounding systems

Background Backgrounding (BKG), the stage between weaning and finishing, significantly impacts feedlot performance in beef cattle; however, the contributions of the rumen microbiome to this growth stage remain unexplored. A longitudinal study was designed to assess how BKG affects rumen bacterial communities and average daily gain (ADG) in beef cattle. At weaning, 38 calves were randomly assigned to three BKG systems for 55 days (d): a high roughage diet within a dry lot ( DL, n=13); annual cover crop within a strip plot ( CC, n=13); and perennial pasture vegetation within rotational paddocks ( PP, n=12), as before weaning. After BKG, all calves were placed in a feedlot for 142 d and finished with a high energy ration. Calves were weighed periodically from weaning to finishing to determine ADG. Rumen bacterial communities were profiled by collecting fluid samples via oral probe and sequencing the V4 region of the 16S rRNA bacterial gene, at weaning, during BKG and finishing.Results Rumen bacterial communities diverged drastically among calves once they were placed in each BKG system, including sharp decreases in alpha diversity for CC and DL calves only ( P < 0.001). During BKG, DL calves showed a substantial increase of Proteobacteria, Succinivibrionaceae family ( Ruminobacter, Succinimonas ) (P<0.001), which also corresponded with greater ADG ( P < 0.05). At the finishing stage, alpha diversity decreased dramatically and Proteobacteria bloomed for all calves, with no previous alpha or beta diversity differences being retained between groups. However, at finishing, PP calves showed compensatory ADG, particularly greater than that in calves coming from DL BKG, who showed the lowest ADG ( P = 0.02). Microbe network dynamics and network traits related to centrality, connectivity, degree, number and strength of microbe-microbe interactions in the rumen were predictive of ADG during BKG and finishing.Conclusions Assessing rumen bacterial community composition, and particularly microbemicrobe interactions under different BKG systems may be useful in predicting growth performance in beef cattle. These findings underscore the importance of early post weaning stages as potential targets for feeding interventions that can modulate the rumen microbiome to enhance life-long productive performance in beef cattle.
Performance analysis of unpowered lower limb exoskeleton during sit down and stand up

ABSTRACT Conventional unpowered lower limb exoskeleton paid little attention to the metabolic cost of body during sit down (SD)/stand up (SU). The SD motion model and the motion characteristics of lower extremity are analyzed; then, a novel unpowered lower limb exoskeleton is proposed, and the contribution degree of muscles and stiffness of joints are used for determining the location and stiffness of energy storage element. The metabolic cost of relevant muscles in joints of the left leg is obtained based on Opensim software. The results show that metabolic cost of the gracilis, rectus femoris (RF), and long head of the biceps femoris decreased about 13%, 9%, and 68%, respectively. The total metabolic cost of body decreased about 14% during SD. However, the metabolic cost of the gracilis, RF, and long/short head of the biceps femoris increased about 22%, 33%, 208%, and 46%, respectively. And the metabolic cost of sartorius reduces about 39%, the total metabolic cost of body increased about 25.6% during SU, under the exoskeleton conditions. The results of this study can provide a theoretical basis for the optimal design of unpowered lower limb exoskeleton.