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The integration of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) with Machine Learning (ML) models has become imperative in examining patient outcomes due to the vast amounts of clinical data they provide. However, critical information regarding social and behavioral factors that affect health, such as social isolation, stress, and mental health complexities, is often recorded in unstructured clinical notes, hindering its accessibility. This has resulted in an over-reliance on clinical data in current EHR-based research, potentially leading to disparities in health outcomes. This study aims to evaluate the impact of incorporating patient-specific context from unstructured EHR data on the accuracy and... 

Background: Recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA), defined as two or more succeeding abortions during 20 weeks of gestation, affects 3–5% of pregnancies. Several studies have found that most women with RSA had at least one (and sometimes two copies) of the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T variant. Materials and Methods: The study involved 118 women who had two or more spontaneous abortions (SAs) as the case group and 118 women who had at least one live birth but no SA as the control group. Clinical features such as age, body mass index (BMI), medication received, family history of abortion, and thrombophilia were investigated. Real-time PCR was used for genotyping subjects... 

Travel time is an uncertain variable with inherited uncertainty for many reasons, such as measurement error, perception error, and temporal aggregation variation impacts. Many researchers have considered travel time as an exact value for different limitations, including models’ restrictions and being unaware of the travel time distribution. However, previous studies have shown that standard logit and probit models can result in biased estimations with uncertain variables or variables with errors (EIV). Nevertheless, limited evidence is available on the magnitude of this bias and the impact of the uncertain variable distribution on the estimated parameters. In this paper, we use a... 

Curcumin (Cur) is a traditional herb with known anticancer properties against various malignancies such as breast cancer. In this study, a metal-organic framework (MOF) based on UIO-66 with excellent water stability was prepared to deliver Cur into MDA-MB-231 and SKBR3 human breast cancer cell lines. The size of the fabricated UIO-66 ranged from 100 to 150 nm with a spherical shape and triangular base pyramid morphology. Favorable adsorption of Cur on the UIO-66 was approved by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The release profile exhibited a slow pH-dependent release of Cur from UIO-66 with significant enhancement in the acidic microenvironment (50, 55, and 70% Cur release... 

Task scheduling is a significant challenge in the cloud environment as it affects the network's performance regarding the workload of the cloud machines. It also directly impacts the consumed energy, therefore the profit of the cloud provider. This paper proposed an algorithm that prioritizes the tasks regarding their execution deadline. We also categorize the physical machines considering their configuration status. Henceforth, the proposed method assigns the jobs to the physical machines with the same priority class close to the user. Furthermore, we reduce the consumed energy of the machines processing the low-priority tasks using the DVFS method. The proposed method migrates the jobs to... 

In this paper, we find a sample complexity bound for learning a simplex from noisy samples. Assume a dataset of size n is given which includes i.i.d. samples drawn from a uniform distribution over an unknown simplex in RK, where samples are assumed to be corrupted by a multi-variate additive Gaussian noise of an arbitrary magnitude. We prove the existence of an algorithm that with high probability outputs a simplex having a ℓ2distance of at most ε from the true simplex (for any ε > 0). Also, we theoretically show that in order to achieve this bound, it is sufficient to have n ≥ (K eΩ(K/SNR2) samples, where SNR stands for the signal-to-noise ratio. This result solves an open problem in this... 

In this research paper, the authors present a comprehensive overview of three key elements of Metaverse-as-a-service (MaaS) platforms: privacy and security, edge computing, and blockchain technology. The study begins by examining security concerns for wireless access to the Metaverse. It then delves into privacy and security issues within the Metaverse from data-centric, learning-centric, and human-centric perspectives. The authors propose novel and less-explored methods to aid mobile network operators and Metaverse service providers in creating secure and private MaaS platforms across various layers of the Metaverse, from access to social interactions. The article also explores the... 

Wireless secret key generation (WSKG) facilitates efficient key agreement protocols for securing the sixth generation (6G) wireless networks thanks to its inherently lightweight functionality. Nevertheless, with the existence of adversarial attacks or internal impairments, WSKG can be negatively affected during the randomness distillation, where the legitimate parties measure a source of common randomness. In this article, we propose a learning-aided approach for cooperative WSKG under man-in-the-middle (MitM) adversarial attack, while the legitimate nodes suffer from hardware impairments (HIs). The key idea is to process the PHY-attribute data on the application layer via deploying a deep... 

In this paper, a generalization of deep learning-aided joint source channel coding (Deep-JSCC) approach to secure communications is studied. We propose an end-to-end (E2E) learning-based approach for secure communication against multiple eavesdroppers over complex-valued fading channels. Both scenarios of colluding and non-colluding eavesdroppers are studied. For the colluding strategy, eavesdroppers share their logits to collaboratively infer private attributes based on ensemble learning method, while for the non-colluding setup they act alone. The goal is to prevent eavesdroppers from inferring private (sensitive) information about the transmitted images, while delivering the images to a... 

Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is considered one of the most efficient orthopedic operations. Patients with symptomatic hip osteoarthritis, hip osteonecrosis, congenital hip dysplasia, inflammatory arthritis, and femoral head fracture can benefit from THA through pain relief and functional restoration. Various articles have analyzed acoustic features during broaching and stem insertion. Still, they could not provide a conclusive and clinically usable approach to ensure the success of the surgery. In this study, we aimed to investigate sound characteristics with a musical approach using a chromatic tuner. Surgeries were performed by two experienced orthopedic hip fellowship surgeons via the... 

The emergence of synchronization among a set of individual oscillators that are coupled in a network is an amazing physical phenomenon that appears in many different systems, from natural sciences to even human behavior. The phenomenon has attracted the attention of many researchers in many fields of science and engineering by the science behind its unique collective behavior without some kind of external organization. One of the most popular models for the dynamical evolution of coupled phase oscillators is the Kuramoto model, which gives a simple yet powerful formalization together with a numerical measure called the degree of synchronization. The crucial role of structural properties of... 

Optimal planning of residential complex energy systems requires thorough mathematical modelling to address the interconnections between all the energy installations from the largest ones, shared by all the residents, to the smallest ones in each distinct unit. Besides, conflicting desires of investors and residents in various aspects such as reliability index make this problem more challenging. In response, this paper presents a thorough framework to obtain the optimum design and operation of a residential complex energy system from scratch. To address the appropriate interconnection between various components of such an energy system, a multi-layer energy hub structure is proposed. Besides,... 

Introduction: B lymphocyte-induced maturation protein 1 (BLIMP1) encoded by the positive regulatory domain 1 gene (PRDM1), is a key regulator in T cell differentiation in mouse models. BLIMP1-deficiency results in a lower effector phenotype and a higher memory phenotype. Methods: In this study, we aimed to determine the role of transcription factor BLIMP1 in human T cell differentiation. Specifically, we investigated the role of BLIMP1 in memory differentiation and exhaustion of human T cells. We used CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) to knock-down BLIMP1 and investigated the differential expressions of T cell memory and exhaustion markers in BLIMP1-deficient T cells in comparison with... 

Finding the optimized set of manufacturing parameters to produce strong solder-copper connections requires investigating the main and interaction effects of processing variables on the joint strength and microstructure. In this study, solder joint specimens were prepared at different levels of cooling rate, time above liquidus (TAL), and soldering temperature. Mode I fracture experiments were designed and performed at a strain rate of 0.5 s−1. The fracture load remained constant from the cooling rate of 0.1 to 1.4 °C/s and then decreased by almost 34% with further increase in the cooling rate to 34 °C/s. Increasing TAL from 60 to 120 s reduced the fracture load by almost 27%, while it was... 

The article was originally published with the splitting of the corresponding author name into two author names. The original article has been corrected. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022  

In this paper, a learning-aided content-based image transmission scheme is proposed, where a multi-antenna source wishes to securely deliver an image to a legitimate destination in the presence of randomly-distributed passive eavesdroppers (Eves). We take into account the fact that not all regions of an image have the same importance from the security perspective. Hence, we employ a hybrid method to realize both the error-free data delivery of public regions - containing less-important pixels; and an artificial noise (AN)-aided transmission scheme for securing the confidential packets. To reinforce system's security, fountain-based packet delivery is also adopted, where the source node... 

Cancer is a deadly disease that has long plagued humans and has become more prevalent in recent years. The common treatment modalities for this disease have always faced many problems and complications, and this has led to the discovery of strategies for cancer diagnosis and treatment. The use of magnetic nanoparticles in the past two decades has had a significant impact on this. One of the objectives of the present study is to introduce the special properties of these nanoparticles and how they are structured to load and transport drugs to tumors. In this study, iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles with 6 nm sizes were coated with hyperbranched polyglycerol (HPG) and folic acid (FA). The... 

In this letter, we examine the PHY layer secret key generation (PHY-SKG) scheme in the presence of man-in-the-middle (MiM) adversary, while legitimate parties suffer from hardware impairments (HIs). Different from previous works on PHY-SKG that consider adversaries who simply try to make an interference in the communication link, the MiM aims to deceive legitimate entities about the source of common randomness. To conquer the MiM attack, legitimate parties utilize randomized pilots (RPs) in our proposed scheme. We analyze the effect of HIs on the performance of system by deriving the achievable secret key rate (SKR). Our results highlight a fundamental limit, as a ceiling phenomena, on the... 

Introduction: The application of doxorubicin (DOX) in cancer therapy has been limited due to its drug resistance and poor internalization. Graphene oxide (GO) nanostructures have the capacity for DOX delivery while promoting its cytotoxicity in cancer. Areas covered: The favorable characteristics of GO nanocomposites, preparation method, and application in cancer therapy are described. Then, DOX resistance in cancer, GO-mediated photothermal therapy, and DOX delivery for cancer suppression are described. Preparation of stimuli-responsive GO nanocomposites, surface functionalization, hybrid nanoparticles, and theranostic applications are emphasized in DOX chemotherapy. Expert opinion: GO... 

Network function virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) are two promising technologies to enable 5G and 6G services and achieve cost reduction, network scalability, and deployment flexibility. However, migration to full SDN/NFV networks in order to serve these services is a time-consuming process and costly for mobile operators. This paper focuses on energy efficiency during the transition of mobile core networks (MCN) to full SDN/NFV networks and explores how energy efficiency can be addressed during such migration. We propose a general system model containing a combination of legacy nodes and links, in addition to newly introduced NFV and SDN nodes. We refer to this...