Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Compassion practice as an antidote for compassion fatigue in the era of COVID‐19

Abstract Empathy is a critical factor in counseling, yet the process of empathizing with suffering can have a detrimental impact on counselor well‐being. In the wake of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19), the need for strategies to ameliorate this potential negative impact is even more apparent. This article explores compassion practices to meet that need.
Intracranial pressure management: moving beyond guidelines

Purpose of review The aim of this study was to provide an overview on advances in intracranial pressure (ICP) protocols for care, moving from traditional to more recent concepts. Recent findings Deep understanding of mechanics and dynamics of fluids and solids have been introduced for intracranial physiology. The amplitude or the harmonics of the cerebral-spinal fluid and the cerebral blood waves shows more information about ICP than just a numeric threshold. When the ICP overcome the compensatory mechanisms that maintain the compliance within the skull, an intracranial compartment syndrome (ICCS) is defined. Autoregulation monitoring emerge as critical tool to recognize CPP management. Measurement of brain tissue oxygen will be a critical intervention for diagnosing an ICCS. Surgical procedures focused on increasing the physiological compliance and increasing the volume of the compartments of the skull. Summary ICP management is a complex task, moving far than numeric thresholds for activation of interventions. The interactions of intracranial elements requires new interpretations moving beyond classical theories. Most of the traditional clinical studies supporting ICP management are not generating high class evidence. Recommendations for ICP management requires better designed clinical studies using new concepts to generate interventions according to the new era of personalized medicine.
Gaussian Process Surrogates for Modeling Uncertainties in a Use Case of Forging Superalloys

The avoidance of scrap and the adherence to tolerances is an important goal in manufacturing. This requires a good engineering understanding of the underlying process. To achieve this, real physical experiments can be conducted. However, they are expensive in time and resources, and can slow down production. A promising way to overcome these drawbacks is process exploration through simulation, where the finite element method (FEM) is a well-established and robust simulation method. While FEM simulation can provide high-resolution results, it requires extensive computing resources to do so. In addition, the simulation design often depends on unknown process properties. To circumvent these drawbacks, we present a Gaussian Process surrogate model approach that accounts for real physical manufacturing process uncertainties and acts as a substitute for expensive FEM simulation, resulting in a fast and robust method that adequately depicts reality. We demonstrate that active learning can be easily applied with our surrogate model to improve computational resources. On top of that, we present a novel optimization method that treats aleatoric and epistemic uncertainties separately, allowing for greater flexibility in solving inverse problems. We evaluate our model using a typical manufacturing use case, the preforming of an Inconel 625 superalloy billet on a forging press.
Effect of Low-Frequency Non-Invasive Therapeutic Ultrasound on Attenuation of Cardiac Fibrosis Early After Myocardial Infarction in Rats

Background: Myocardial infarction (MI) results in collagen deposition leading to left ventricular dysfunction. Therapeutic ultrasound (TUS) has proven anti-fibrotic effects on various tissues. We hypothesized that non-invasive TUS will attenuate fibrosis by downregulation of the transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1)/ small mother against decapentaplegic 3 (smad3) pathway in a rat model of MI. Methods: Rats underwent MI induction procedure after performing baseline cardiac echocardiography. Subsequently, we treated the rats with either daily spironolactone (a known anti-fibrotic agent), TUS (at 1 MHz frequency and 0.5 W/cm2 intensity, 3 times a week) or their combination (spironolactone + TUS). Control rats were not treated. We re-evaluated cardiac function at 2 and 4 weeks after treatment initiation (before sacrifice), then performed histological and biochemical evaluation of fibrosis. Results: Any treatment combination attenuated fibrosis, as seen in histology and by chemical analysis, and reduced TGF-β1 expression. Specifically, collagen volume fractions were 16.0±9.6%, 5.0±3.2%, 7.2±1.0% and 1.6±0.9%, and TGF-β1 expression were 3.34±0.36%, 0.77±0.37%, 0.59±0.25% and 0.39±0.16%, in the control (untreated group), spironolactone. TUS and spironolactone + TUS groups, respectively (P<0.05 vs. control for all). Yet, only spironolactone treatments affected also smad3 expression, and cardiac physiology, i.e., final ejection fraction were 36.0±2.5%, 50.1±2.3%, 45.2±2.5% and 54.0±2.7% in the control (untreated group), spironolactone. TUS and spironolactone + TUS groups, respectively (P<0.05 vs. control for spironolactone and spironolactone + TUS only). Conclusion: Post MI, TUS reduces myocardial collagen, fibrosis and TGF-β1 content. Only with the addition of spironolactone cardiac function was preserved. Further research is needed in order to refine and upgrade TUS to affect cardiac physiology early post MI.
Assimilation Control of a Robotic Exoskeleton for Physical Human-Robot Interaction

The ability of human operators in estimating the partners’ motion intention and utilizing it for collaboration brings valuable enlightenment to human-robot systems. Motivated by these observations, this letter introduces an assimilation control method that reshapes the physical interaction trajectory in the interaction task, which enables the exoskeleton robot to estimate the subject’s virtual target from the interaction force and adapt its own behavior. Under the assumption that the virtual target is determined by the control gains, the stability of the human-robot system is guaranteed, and the proposed scheme realizes continuous interaction behaviors from cooperation to competition. Then an adaptive controller is designed to enable the robot to directly deal with uncertain dynamics and joint space constraints. The experiment verifies how the assimilation control method assists the subjects in a collaborative execution or gradually competes with them to avoid collisions. Compared with related literature, our approach is able to realize safe manipulation (e.g., obstacle avoidance) and broader interaction behaviors by reshaping the interactive trajectory using force feedback only, without continuous manual guidance as in many existing methods.
Efficient Stochastic Computing FIR Filtering Using Sigma-Delta Modulated Signals

This work presents a soft-filtering digital signal processing architecture based on sigma-delta modulators and stochastic computing. A sigma-delta modulator converts the input high-resolution signal to a single-bit stream enabling filtering structures to be realized using stochastic computing’s negligible-area multipliers. Simulation in the spectral domain demonstrates the filter’s proper operation and its roll-off behavior, as well as the signal-to-noise ratio improvement using the sigma-delta modulator, compared to typical stochastic computing filter realizations. The proposed architecture’s hardware advantages are showcased with synthesis results for two FIR filters using FPGA and synopsys tools, while comparisons with standard stochastic computing-based hardware realizations, as well as with conventional binary ones, demonstrate its efficacy.
INTERDEPENDENCE OF FOREIGN TRADE AND THE ECONOMIC GROWTH OF SERBIA

From the 1990s to this day, taking into account the increasing volume of international trade around the world, a large number of studies have emerged with the relationship between economic growth and foreign trade as their research subject. Most of these studies have shown that trade liberalization positively correlates with economic growth and productivity growth in developing countries. The aim of this research is to determine the interdependence between the changes of the gross domestic product and the foreign trade of Serbia in the period from 2000 to 2019. A vector autoregressive (VAR) econometric model and a vector model with error correction (VECM) were used in the research. Additionally, the paper tested the causality between the observed variables, performed an innovative analysis, together with an analysis of the variance decomposition. The results of the research showed the existence of a long-term connection between the changes in the share of imports and exports in the GDP and the development of the GDP in Serbia. In the long run, the share of imports correlates negatively with the GDP, while the share of exports positively correlates with GDP trends.
An Optimized MRM-Based Workflow of the l-Arginine/Nitric Oxide Pathway Metabolites Revealed Disease- and Sex-Related Differences in the Cardiovascular Field

Clinical data indicate that low circulating l-homoarginine (HArg) concentrations are associated with cardiovascular (CV) disease, CV mortality, and all-cause mortality. A high number of LC-based analytical methods for the quantification of HArg, in combination with the l-arginine (Arg)-related pathway metabolites, have been reported. However, these methods usually consider a limited panel of analytes. Thus, in order to achieve a comprehensive picture of the Arg metabolism, we described an improved targeted metabolomic approach based on a multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mass spectrometry method for the simultaneous quantification of the Arg/nitric oxide (NO) pathway metabolites. This methodology was then employed to quantify the plasma concentrations of these analytes in a cohort of individuals with different grades/types of coronary artery disease (CAD) in order to increase knowledge about the role of HArg and its associated metabolites in the CV field. Our results showed that the MRM method here implemented is suitable for the simultaneous assessment of a wide panel of amino acids involved in the Arg/NO metabolic pathway in plasma samples from patients with CV disease. Further, our findings highlighted an impairment of the Arg/NO metabolic pathway, and suggest a sex-dependent regulation of this metabolic route.
Investigation of Granulomatous Inflammations in Terms of Tuberculosis Diagnosis: A 5-Year Multi-center Laboratory Study

OBJECTIVE Granulomatous inflammation showing “caseification necrosis” is considered pathognomonic for tuberculosis. This study aimed to evaluate patients with granulomatous inflammation and some characteristics to diagnose tuberculosis. MATERIAL AND Methods This is a cross-sectional descriptive study. The study includes all pathology laboratories in Samsun between the years 2012 and 2017. Pathology reports that contained the term granulomatous were selected between all patient reports of these laboratories. The patient reports were examined by comparing the dispensary records and the presence of a diagnosis of tuberculosis. Results In the 703 pathology reports, it was found that 38% were only granulomatous and 33% were caseous granulomatosis lesions. When the prevalence of tuberculosis according to the presence of microscopic necrosis was observed in granulomatous tissue samples, 85% tuberculosis was found in patients with necrotic granulomatous tissue and 14% tuberculosis was found with non-necrotic lesions. The presence of tuberculosis in necrotic granulomatous tissues was statistically significantly higher (P < .00001). Conclusion As a result, when examining a pathology report for the presence of tuberculosis, the existence of a granulomatous reaction should be considered first. Getting stuck on the definition of caseification necrosis will cause the case to be skipped. An indication of necrosis in the pathologic evaluation will guide the diagnosis of tuberculosis.
The Historical Development of Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment

Constructed wetlands (CWs) for wastewater treatment are engineered systems that are designed and operated in order to use all natural processes involved in the removal of pollutants from wastewaters. CWs are designed to take advantage of many of the same processes that occur in natural wetlands, but do so within a more controlled environment. The basic classification is based on the presence/absence of wastewater on the wetland surface. The subsurface flow of CWs can be classified according to the direction of the flow to horizontal and vertical. The combination of various types of CWs is called hybrid CW. The CWs technology began in the 1950s in Germany, but the major extension across the world occurred during the 1990s and early 2000s. The early CWs in Germany were designed as hybrid CWs; however, during the 1970s and 1980s, horizontal subsurface flow CWs were mostly designed. The stricter limits for nitrogen, and especially ammonia, applied in Europe during the 1990s, brought more attention to vertical subsurface flow and hybrid systems. Constructed wetlands have been used to treat various types of wastewater, including sewage, industrial and agricultural wastewaters, various drainage and runoff waters and landfill leachate. Recently, more attention has also been paid to constructed treatment wetlands as part of a circular economy in the urban environments: it is clear that CWs are a good fit for the new concept of sponge cities.
Artificial Intelligence, Robots and Unemployment: Evidence from OECD Countries

Investigating the relation between artificial intelligence, robots and unemployment on a panel of 33 OECD countries covering the 2005—2017 period, we find that a 10% increase in the stock of industrial robots is associated with a 0.42 point increase in the unemployment rate. For artificial intelligence (AI), we use patents as a proxy of AI-related technological capabilities and find a positive correlation with the aggregated unemployment rate, albeit statistically weaker than the one found for robots. We then run the regressions on unemployment rates differentiated by education and age, and observe highly heterogeneous effects between groups. For example, the effect of robots is 2.5 times greater for 25-34 year-olds below upper secondary education levels than for the 55-64 year-olds with a tertiary degree. Lastly, the effect of robots is strongest on the unemployment rate of people with a medium level of education, providing some evidence that robots could contribute to the polarization of the labor market. A similar effect is found with AI, but the results are less robust than for robots.
Value of combined lactate and central venous oxygen saturation measurement in patients with sepsis: a retrospective cohort study

Introduction. Lactate and central venous oxygen saturation (ScvO2) reflect tissue hypoperfusion but each measure is confounded by many additional factors. These confounding factors differ between lactate and ScvO2. Objectives. We postulated that combined assessment of lactate and ScvO2 may yield information beyond that of each measure alone. Specifically we sought to determine whether lactate has different characteristics and predictive value at different levels of ScvO2. Material and methods. We conducted a retrospective analysis of a Derivation cohort and a Validation Cohort of sepsis patients with lactate and ScvO2 measured within the first 4 hours of intensive care unit admission and 12 hours after resuscitation. Patients were grouped according to: 1) ScvO2 < 60 %; 2) 60 % < ScvO2 < 80 %; 3) ScvO2 > 80 %. Results. Lactate was negatively correlated with ScvO2 in the ScvO2 < 60 % group in both cohorts but was not correlated with ScvO2 in the other ScvO2 groups. Using receiver operator characteristic analysis in the Derivation Cohort, in the ScvO2 > 80 % group lactate was predictive of 28-day mortality with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.94 and an optimal threshold lactate of 3.0 mmol/L. Using this threshold in the ScvO2 > 80 % groups, 28-day mortality was 32.7 %. Conclusions. Lactate has different characteristics and predictive value at different levels of ScvO2. When ScvO2 < 60 % correlation between lactate and ScvO2 is consistent with a degree of oxygen supply limitation. When ScvO2 > 80 % lactate > 3.0 mmol/L is predictive of mortality.
Efficient Irrigation Methods and Optimal Nitrogen Dose to Enhance Wheat yield, Inputs Efficiency and Economic Benefits in the North China Plain

Nitrogen (N) and water irrigation are two vital factors influencing the agriculture sustainability in various regions across the world, such as the North China Plain (NCP). Exploring optimal N application and water-efficient irrigation methods are needed for achieving greater crop productivity benefits and increasing the efficiency of inputs (N and water) in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production in the NCP. For this reason, we conducted a two-year field experiment with four N application rates interacting with three irrigation methods to examine the effects of N fertilization and water-efficient irrigation on grain yield, biomass production, economic benefits, and N- and water-use efficiencies of winter wheat in the NCP. The optimal N fertilization rate was ≈200 kg N ha−1, achieving a high grain yield of winter wheat (≈6000 kg ha−1). At this N dose, the highest net economic benefit was also achieved by the local farmer due to the increased grain yield, which was accompanied by more water-efficient irrigation. N recovery efficiency, agronomy efficiency, and the partial factor productivity of wheat decreased sharply with the N application rate. Water-use efficiency was significantly increased through drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation. Considering the wheat productivity, input (N and water) efficiencies, and economic performance, water-efficient irrigation accompanied with an N application rate of 200 kg N ha−1 is optimal for achieving high economic returns for local farmers in the NCP.
Algorithms For Preventive Measures For Disease Prevention And Antioxidant Protection

The worsening, every year, the ecological situation in the world leads to the effect of various toxicants on a person, the formation of free radicals in his body and the development of diseases, including cancer. With their high chemical activity, free radicals form oxidative stress, which leads to intoxication, damage and cell death. One of the main tools in removing toxins from the body is not only enzymes of the cytochrome P450 family, but also the human antioxidant system. Various gene polymorphisms responsible for protecting the body from toxins can lead not only to a decrease in the production of enzymes that carry out the oxidative biotransformation of toxins, but also to a decrease in the protective function of antioxidant system. For 30 patients suffering from chronic and dangerous diseases, molecular genetic studies were carried out and gene polymorphisms responsible for antioxidant system. The genetic characteristics of the antioxidant status described in the article, a prophylactic doctor should recommend a detoxification program, individual nutrition, taking into account the necessary nutritional supplements. 2672-8575 © 2022 Published by European Publisher.
Engineering realization of calibrating FOG’s scale factor in segments

For the nonlinearity and unsymmetry of FOG’s scale factor, an implementation method of calibrating FOG’s scale factors segment by segment is presented from the view of engineering application. The way of selecting angular rate point to group test data optimally is introduced. The solution to turning discontinuous gyro model into continuous one is described. The calibration result of several FOGs shows that the nonlinearity of FOG’s scale factor reduced considerably when calibrated in segments. Off-line simulation using measured data of sea trial also shows that navigation errors caused by the error of FOGs’ scale factor decreased while the FOG’s scale factor calibrated segment by segment. It is concluded that the method presented is feasible.
Multi-group analysis of the effects of coping with mathematics on math anxiety and achievement

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the strategy of coping with mathematics on math anxiety and achievement. From the population of teacher candidates in Turkey, a total of 255 students from one state university were recruited through a combination of convenience and purposive sampling and willingness to participate in the present study. Data were collected from the participants using Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale-Short Version (MARS-SV) and Coping with Mathematics Scale-Short Version (CMS-SV). MANOVA results showed differences on the levels of math anxiety depending on the participants' coping strategies. For example; Those using the coping focused on solving the problem strategy were less anxious in mathematics. In addition, women experienced more mathematics test anxiety than men. Finally, a negative significant correlation was found between mathematics course anxiety and calculation anxiety and GPA score.
Integrated in silico – in vitro strategy for the discovery of potential xanthine oxidase inhibitors from Egyptian propolis and their synergistic effect with allopurinol and febuxostat

Xanthine oxidase (XO) has been well-recognized as a validated target for the treatment of hyperuricemia and gout. Currently, there are two drugs in clinical use that shut down XO overactivity, allopurinol and febuxostat; however, detrimental side effects restrict their applications. Propolis is a unique natural adhesive biomass of structurally variable and biologically active metabolites that exert remarkable health benefits. Moreover, combination drug therapy has become a promising pharmacotherapeutic strategy directed for reformulating existing drugs into new combination entities with potentiating therapeutic impacts. In this study, computer-aided molecular docking and MD simulations accompanied by biochemical testing were used for mining novel pharmacologically active chemical entities from Egyptian propolis to combat hyperuricemia. Further, with a view to decrease the potential toxicity of synthetic drugs and enhance efficacy, propolis hits were subjected to combination analysis with each of allopurinol and febuxostat. More specifically, Glide docking was utilized for a structure-based virtual screening of in-house datasets comprising various Egyptian propolis metabolites. Rosmarinic acid, luteolin, techtochrysin and isoferulic acid were the most promising virtual hits. In vitro XO inhibitory assays demonstrated the ability of these hits to significantly inhibit XO in a dose-dependent manner. Molecular docking and MD simulations revealed a cooperative binding mode between the discovered hits and standard XO inhibitors within the active site. Subsequently, the most promising hits were tested in a fixed-ratio combination setting with allopurinol and febuxostat separately to assess their combined effects on XO catalytic inhibition. The binary combination of each techtochrysin and rosmarinic acid with febuxostat displayed maximal synergy at lower effect levels. In contrast, individually, techtochrysin and rosmarinic acid with allopurinol cooperated synergistically at high dose levels. Taken together, the suggested strategy seems imperative to ensure a steady supply of new therapeutic options sourced from Egyptian propolis to regress the development of hyperuricemia.