Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The development of an Internet-based mechatronic system for remote diagnostic of machinery using embedded sensors

This paper describes the utilisation of embedded sensors for the development of intelligent mail processing machines. Low-cost Infrared imagers are used to monitor the health of machines. The machines are linked through the Internet, via standard protocols, to maintenance centres where the embedded intelligence is linked with remote surveillance and autonomous agents for predicting and requesting maintenance. The results described in this paper demonstrate that utilising embedded mechatronic systems with IT components leads to greater flexibility and higher machine intelligence for remote diagnostic systems
IMPORTANCE OF CROWDSOURCING IN SOCIAL INNOVATIONS: EVIDENCE FROM POLAND

This article covers the problems connected with creating open social innovations using crowdsourcing. In this work the importance of crowdsourcing in the context of creating open social innovations, which serve the realisation and solving of social needs, was presented. This elaboration is divided into three parts. Following a short introduction, the essence of open social innovations, including the notion of innovation and social innovations, was presented. In the second part, the essence of crowdsourcing and its potential, were presented. The subject of the final, third part is showing the possibilities of using crowdsourcing to create open social innovations. Theoretical considerations were supported by three examples. Three examples from Poland were purposefully chosen. It is worth underlining that the obtained results confirm the demands made in the subject literature connected with the importance of crowdsourcing in creating open social innovations since this phenomenon contributes to obtain and generate new ideas and ways of solving problems including social ones. --------------------------- A cikk a nyitott tarsadalmi innovaciok letrehozasanak kerdeset veti fel a crowdsourcing alkalmazasa altal. A tanulmany bemutatja a crowdsourcing jelenteset, tarsadalmi igenyek megvalositasara es megoldasara szolgalo nyitott tarsadalmi innovaciok letrehozasanak kontextusaban. Az ertekezes harom reszből all. A rovid bevezetes utan, az első reszben a nyitott tarsadalmi innovaciok lenyege kerul bemutatasra, tekintettel az innovacio es a tarsadalmi innovacio fogalmara. A masodik reszben a crowdsourcing lenyege valamint annak potencialja kerul bemutatasra. Az utolso, harmadik resz targya a crowdsourcing alkalmazasanak lehetősegenek bemutatasa, uj nyitott tarsadalmi innovaciok letrehozasaban. Az elmeleti feltevesek harom peldaval lettek alatamasztva. Szandekosan harom lengyelorszagi pelda lett kivalasztva. Erdemes kiemelni, hogy az elert eredmenyek alatamasztjak a szakirodalomban a crowdsourcing jelentősegeről felallitott felteveseket a nyitott tarsadalmi innovaciok kialakitasaban. Ez a jelenseg hozzajarul az uj otletek kialakitasahoz es generalasahoz, valamint problemak - koztuk tarsadalmi problemak megoldasahoz is.
Energy-Aware Hybrid RF-VLC Multiband Selection in D2D Communication: A Stochastic Multiarmed Bandit Approach

To handle the exponentially growing service expectations from mobile users and circumvent the band switching slow rate, device-to-device (D2D) communication is receiving much research attention in the Internet of Things (IoT). While the emerging D2D nodes can support heterogeneous frequency bands [radio frequency (RF) including 2.4 GHz/5 GHz wireless local area network (WLAN), 38-GHz millimeter wave (mmWave), and visible light communication (VLC)], the physical constraints (e.g., blocking) require the user devices to dynamically switch between the bands in order to avoid the loss of connectivity and throughput degradation. In this article, we investigate an effective online link selection in hybrid RF-VLC scenarios for direct user data handling. First, we model the multiband selection issue as a multiarmed bandit (MAB) problem. The source/relay node acts as a player who gambles to maximize its long-term feedback/reward via selecting suitable arms, i.e., available bands (WLAN, mmWave, or VLC). Then, we propose an online, energy-aware band selection (EABS) methodology by leveraging three theoretically guaranteed MAB techniques [upper confidence bound (UCB), Thompson sampling (TS), and minimax optimal stochastic strategy (MOSS)] to derive optimal band selection policies. Based on these adopted policies, we propose three algorithms, namely, EABS-UCB, EABS-TS, and EABS-MOSS, to implement the EABS strategy, respectively. Extensive simulations demonstrate our proposed algorithms’ superior performance compared to the traditional link selection schemes regarding energy efficiency, average throughput, and convergence rate. In particular, EABS-MOSS emerges as the best algorithm as it exhibits near-optimal performance due to its flexibility to both stochastic and adversarial environments.
Satisfaction and Concerns with Telemedicine Endocrine Care of Patients with Cystic Fibrosis

Introduction: Patients with chronic health conditions are at high risk for severe COVID-19 infections, making telemedicine for patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) and cystic fibrosis-related diabetes (CFRD) particularly relevant. There are limited data regarding provider perspectives on caring for patients with CF using telemedicine, particularly for those with CFRD. Methods: Surveys were administered to patients with CF (with and without CFRD) and to adult and pediatric endocrinologists who specialize in CF. Data were collected using Research Electronic Data Capture; t-tests were used to compare total mean scores of Likert scale questions. The differences in responses were performed using one-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey's Honest Significant Difference test. Variables were assessed for normality and we performed the Mann–Whitney test. No change in the results of the hypothesis test was found. All results were analyzed using SPSS version 27. Results: Eighteen patients (n = 9 CFRD) and 21 providers responded. Both groups reported high satisfaction with telemedicine overall (83.3%; 71.4%), convenience (94.4%; 85.7%), and adequate time during the visit (94.4%; 76.2%), and the majority would recommend telemedicine to others (94.4%; 95.2%). Lack of in-person examination components was of more concern to providers than patients: height/weight (p < 0.001), vitals (p < 0.001), and glycated hemoglobin (p < 0.001). There was no difference in provider perception in treatment of CFRD compared to type 1 diabetes (T1D). Common themes of open-ended questions included ease in attending telemedicine appointments (patients) and decrease in “no shows” (providers). Discussion: Patient and provider satisfaction with telemedicine was high. The lack of typical components of face-to-face visits was more concerning for providers when compared to patients. Provider concern regarding lack of components specific to diabetes was similar regarding CFRD and T1D.
A quantitative framework to infer the effect of traits, diversity and environment on dispersal and extinction rates from fossils

Speciation, dispersal and extinction govern the spatial and temporal dynamics of biodiversity. The fossil record offers the opportunity to directly estimate range expansion and contraction via dispersal and extinction, respectively. However, due to the incomplete occurrence record, determining the dynamics of these processes and the biotic and abiotic factors influencing them remains challenging. The dispersal–extinction–sampling (DES) model infers dispersal and extinction rates from present and past geographical ranges of taxa while accounting for the incompleteness of the fossil record via jointly estimated sampling rates. Here, we expand the DES framework to a new suite of models that (a) incorporate heterogeneity in fossil sampling across taxa, (b) reconstruct diversity trajectories through time and across regions, and (c) link rates of range evolution with biotic and abiotic covariates. These models integrate the effects of competitive interaction, traits and environmental change on dispersal and extinction while controlling for phylogenetic effects through higher level taxonomy. We validate our framework through simulations and find that likelihood‐based model testing has the power to discriminate among models with or without biotic and abiotic effects on dispersal and extinction. Among the tested models, we found that trait‐dependent models yielded the most accurate parameter estimates. We then assess the factors influencing geographical range evolution for Eurasian and North American terrestrial carnivores. We identify substantial variation in the fossil sampling rates of carnivore genera and find that global cooling increased their extinction risk while their dispersal rate varied among families and increased with larger body size. The expanded suite of DES models for fossil biogeography is a powerful tool to test hypotheses about the factors influencing geographical range evolution using fossil data.
The interchangeability of liking and friend nominations to measure peer acceptance and friendship

Two studies examine the convergence between measures of friendship and measures of liking in the assessment of friendship and peer acceptance. In the first study, 551 (301 boys and 250 girls) Canadian primary school children (ages 8–11) nominated friends and liked-most classmates. In the second study, 282 (127 boys and 155 girls) US primary school children (ages 9–11) nominated friends and rated classmates on a sociometric preference scale. The results revealed considerable convergence in the assessment of friendship. Most first, second, and third ranked friends were also nominated and rated as liked-peers, suggesting that when measures of liking are used to identify friends, few top-ranked friendships are overlooked. There was less convergence in assessments of peer acceptance. Peer acceptance scores derived from friend nominations were more strongly correlated with peer acceptance scores derived from liking nominations than with those derived from sociometric preference ratings. We conclude that liking nominations accurately capture friendships, particularly best friendships. Friend nominations may be a suitable substitute for assessments of liking, but they are a poor substitute for assessments of sociometric preference.
Human–Robot Shared Control Based on Locally Weighted Intent Prediction for a Teleoperated Hydraulic Manipulator System

Human–robot shared control provides a promising opportunity to improve operational safety and efficiency for a teleoperated hydraulic manipulator system that works in unstructured environments, such as rescue response and underwater exploration. However, the poor dynamic of the heavy-duty manipulator (e.g., oscillation tendency and response delay) brings a challenging problem on intent prediction and effective assistance. To overcome this problem, a blended shared control method is proposed via locally weighted intent prediction. First, a task learning method from demonstration is presented by task-based action primitives with the Bayesian nonparametric clustering to extract subgoals of the remote arm trajectory, especially a locally weighted chattering cancellation method is proposed to reduce unintended action primitives due to velocity fluctuations. A dynamic intent prediction method is presented based on the empirical and real-time motion information by introducing an iterative transition matrix and a locally weighted dynamic angle, respectively. A prediction-based arbitration rule is finally established to blend the controllers of the human and robot seamlessly. Comparative tests in two typical scenes were carried out on a teleoperated hydraulic manipulator system. The results validate the proposed shared control method with fewer collision accidents and reduced task completion time, and subjective feelings on operation are also improved.
Inhibition of Quorum Sensing Regulated Virulence Factors and Biofilm Formation by Eucalyptus globulus against Multidrug-Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Objectives The quorum-sensing–inhibitory and anti-biofilm activities of the methanol extract of E. globulus leaves were determined against clinically isolated multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Methods The preliminary anti-quorum–sensing (AQS) activity of eucalyptus was investigated against a biosensor strain Chromobacterium violaceum ATCC 12472 (CV12472) by using the agar well diffusion method. The effect of sub-minimum inhibitory concentrations (sub-MICs) of the methanol extract of eucalyptus on different quorum-sensing–regulated virulence factors, such as swarming motility, pyocyanin pigment, exopolysaccharide (EPS), and biofilm formation, against clinical isolates (CIs 2, 3, and 4) and reference PA01 of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were determined using the swarm diameter (mm)-measurement method, chloroform extraction method, phenol (5%)-sulphuric acid (concentrated) method, and the microtiter plate assay respectively, and the inhibition (%) in formation were calculated. Results The preliminary AQS activity (violacein pigment inhibition) of eucalyptus was confirmed against Chromobacterium violaceum ATCC 12472 (CV12472). The eucalyptus extract also showed concentration-dependent inhibition (%) of swarming motility, pyocyanin pigment, EPS, and biofilm formation in different CIs and PA01 of P. aeruginosa. Conclusion Our results revealed the effectiveness of the E. globulus extract for the regulation of quorum-sensing–dependent virulence factors and biofilm formation at a reduced dose (sub-MICs) and suggest that E. globulus may be a therapeutic agent for curing and controlling bacterial infection and thereby reducing the possibility of resistance development in pathogenic strains.
Ensemble Tree-Based Approach towards Flexural Strength Prediction of FRP Reinforced Concrete Beams

Due to rise in infrastructure development and demand for seawater and sea sand concrete, fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) rebars are widely used in the construction industry. Flexural strength is an important component of reinforced concrete structural design. Therefore, this research focuses on estimating the flexural capacity of FRP-reinforced concrete beams using novel artificial intelligence (AI) decision tree (DT) and gradient boosting tree (GBT) approaches. For this purpose, six input parameters, namely the area of bottom flexural reinforcement, depth of the beam, width of the beam, concrete compressive strength, the elastic modulus of FRP rebar, and the tensile strength of rebar at failure, are considered to predict the moment bearing capacity of the beam under bending loads. The models were trained using 60% of the database and were validated first-hand on the remaining 40% database employing the correlation coefficient (R), error indices namely, mean absolute error, root mean square error (MAE, RMSE) and slope of the regression line between observed and predicted results. The developed models were further validated using sensitivity and parametric analysis. Both models revealed comparable performance; however, based on the comparison of the slope of the validation data (0.83 for GBT model against 0.75 for the DT model) and higher R for the validation phase in case of the GBT model in comparison to the DT, the GBT model can be considered more accurate and robust. The sensitivity analysis yielded depth of the beam as the most influential parameter in contributing flexural strength of the beam, followed by the area of flexural reinforcement. The developed GBT model surpasses the existing gene expression programming (GEP) model in terms of accuracy; however, the current American Concrete Institute (ACI) model equations are more reliable than AI models in predicting the flexural strength of FRP-reinforced concrete beams.
The Use of Metamodel-based Approach for Designing Healthcare Applications

Recently, the use of Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) via metamodeling approach is gaining more attention for software applications development. The community from the healthcare domain also attempts to employ the metamodel approach for producing quality healthcare applications. Healthcare applications have become an imperative in every attempt to improve healthcare management. Numerous studies reported that the healthcare domain is seen as a complex and unique domain, which involves dynamic characteristics. In addition, it is widely recognized that the increase of information exchange in the healthcare domain is caused by the diversity of healthcare data. This has led to the increase use of information technologies in the healthcare industry so as to enhance the healthcare delivery process via healthcare applications. However, the complexity of healthcare information leads to ineffective models and design of healthcare applications. Modeling the healthcare processes and developing healthcare applications are challenging tasks. Hence, the advances of MDE have influenced the use of the metamodeling technique in the development of healthcare applications. Various metamodels are developed as a solution to provide a clear healthcare process model and a correct healthcare application. The aim of this paper is to analyse the use of the metamodel-based approach in designing healthcare applications. We believe that the metamodel-based approach would improve the development of healthcare applications.
Electrical-optical converter using electric-field-coupled metamaterial antennas on electro-optic modulator

We propose an electrical-optical converter using electric-field-coupled metamaterial antennas on an electro-optic (EO) modulator for wireless millimeter-wave/terra-hertz applications. By wireless signal irradiation to the proposed device, strong millimeter-wave/terra-hertz electric field can be induced on the electric-field-coupled metamaterial antennas. The induced electric field can be used for optical modulation through EO effects when a lightwave propagates into an optical waveguide located under regions of the induced millimeter-wave/terra-hertz electric field. Analysis in millimeter-wave and optical modulation of the proposed device are discussed in detail for operational frequency of 100GHz. Device experiment in fabrication and preliminary measurement are also reported.
Effects of alternating injection-interruption periods on the fine particle transport and retention in granular media

Abstract This study investigates the impact of interruption of injections on the transfer and retention of suspended particles (SP) in granular media. Columns packed with sand were operated in the laboratory, and a series of experiments of SP injections were conducted: the first by injecting SP without interrupting injection, the second and third experiments with 3 pauses of injection of 24 h and 48 h, respectively. Results showed that interrupted injections induced a significant release of particles showing peaks of concentration in the effluent immediately after the pause periods. These peaks increase with pause durations. Interruption of injections allowed the transport of coarser particles deeper into the columns. For all experiments carried out, the hydraulic conductivity, measured during injection, decreased with the number of pore volumes injected. This decrease is almost linear for continuous injection experiments. Whereas, the hydraulic conductivity decreased brutally when reinjecting SP, after pauses, highlighting the desaturation of the porous medium during pause periods. The results obtained show that all the phenomena (hydraulic conductivity drop, SP transport, and deeper transfer of coarser particles) occurred during the dynamic phase of the experiments for the first 75% of pore volumes injected. Beyond that, the porous medium is completely clogged.
What is the relation between crashes from crash databases and near crashes from naturalistic data?

Abstract Naturalistic cycling data are increasingly available worldwide and promise ground-breaking insights into road-user behavior and crash-causation mechanisms. Because few, low-severity crashes are available, safety analyses of naturalistic data often rely on near crashes. Nevertheless, the relation between near crashes and crashes is still unknown, and the debate on whether it is legitimate to use near crashes as a proxy for crashes is still open. This paper exemplifies a methodology that combines crashes from a crash database and near crashes from naturalistic studies to explore their potential relation. Using exposure to attribute a risk level to individual crashes and near crashes depending on their temporal and spatial distribution, this methodology proposes an alternative to blackspots for crash analysis and compares crash risk with near-crash risk. The novelty of this methodology is to use exposure with high time and space resolution to estimate the risk for specific crashes and near crashes.
Aggressive Primary Cutaneous Anaplastic T-Cell Lymphoma Successfully Treated with Autologous Stem Cell Transplant and Brentuximab Vedotin Consolidation: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Primary cutaneous CD30+ lymphoproliferative disorders include primary cutaneous anaplastic large cell lymphoma (pcALCL) and lymphomatoid papulosis. The prognosis of the disease is usually excellent but, in a minority of cases, it presents with extracutaneous involvement and aggressive behavior. The case we present—relapsed after surgical excision, immunosuppressive therapy, and conventional chemotherapy—is the first one treated with Autologous Stem Cell transplant followed by Brentuximab Vedotin consolidation, a scheme already used for high risk Hodgkin Lymphoma.
Structural and Functional Analyses of Motile Fauna Associated with Cystoseira brachycarpa along a Gradient of Ocean Acidification in a CO2-Vent System off Panarea (Aeolian Islands, Italy)

Ocean acidification (OA), one of the main climate-change-related stressors linked to increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, is considered an important threat to marine biodiversity and habitats. Studies on CO2-vents systems, naturally acidified environments that mimic future ocean scenarios, help to explore the sensitivity of species and to understand how benthic communities rearrange their structure and functioning under the pressure of OA. We addressed this problem by studying the benthic invertebrates associated with a habitat-forming brown alga (Cystoseira brachycarpa) in the Bottaro crater vents system off Panarea island (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy), by sampling along an OA gradient from the proximity of the main venting area (station B3, pH 7.9) to a control zone (B1 station, pH 8.1). Samples were collected in September 2016 and 2018. A total of 184 taxa and 23 different functional traits have been identified, considering feeding habit, motility, size, reproductive and developmental biology, and occurrence of calcareous structures. Invertebrates are distributed according to the distance from the high venting zone and low pH levels and results very consistent between the two investigated years. In the low-pH area (B3), 43% of the species are selected. The functional traits of the fauna mirror this zonation pattern, mainly changing the relative proportion of the number of individuals of the various functional guilds along the OA gradient. Invertebrates inhabiting the low-pH zone are mainly composed of weakly or non-calcified species, with small size, burrower/tubicolous habit, omnivorous or suspension feeders, and with direct development and brooding habit. In the other stations, heavily calcified forms, herbivore and herbivore/detritivore, and with medium (1–5 cm) and large (>5 cm) sizes prevail, showing indirect benthic and planktic development. The taxonomic analysis, coupled with functional aspects, increases our prediction of which traits could be potentially more advantageous for species to adapt to the hypothesized scenarios of OA, and identify present and future winner and/or loser organisms in the future ocean of the Anthropocene.