Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Independent and Combined Association of Muscle Strength and Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Youth With Insulin Resistance and β-Cell Function in Young Adulthood

OBJECTIVE To examine the independent and combined association of isometric muscle strength of the abdomen and back and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in youth with indices of glucose metabolism in young adulthood among boys and girls from the European Youth Heart Study. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We used data from a population-based prospective cohort study among youth followed up for up to 12 years (n = 317). In youth, maximal voluntary contractions during isometric back extension and abdominal flexion were determined using a strain-gauge dynamometer and CRF was obtained from a maximal cycle ergometer test. Insulin resistance (homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance [HOMA-IR]) and β-cell function (homeostasis model assessment of β-cell function [HOMA-B]) were estimated from fasting serum insulin and glucose that were obtained in youth and at follow-up in young adulthood. RESULTS For each 1-SD difference in isometric muscle strength (0.16 N/kg) in youth, fasting insulin, HOMA-IR, and HOMA-B in young adulthood changed by −11.3% (95% CI −17.0 to −5.2), −12.2% (−18.2 to −5.7), and −8.9% (−14.4 to −3.0), respectively, in young adulthood after adjustment for CRF and personal lifestyle and demographic factors. Results for CRF were very similar in magnitude, and the magnitude of associations for both exposures was unchanged with additional adjustment for general or abdominal adiposity in youth. Combined associations of muscle strength and CRF with fasting insulin, HOMA-IR, and HOMA-B were additive, and adolescents in the highest sex-specific tertile for both isometric muscle strength and CRF had the lowest levels of these glucose metabolism outcomes. CONCLUSIONS Increasing muscle strength and CRF should be targets in youth primordial prevention strategies of insulin resistance and β-cell dysfunction.
Hybrid fuzzy proportional-integral plus conventional derivative control of linear and nonlinear systems

This paper presents a new approach toward the optimal design of a hybrid proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller applicable for controlling linear as well as nonlinear systems using genetic algorithms (GAs). The proposed hybrid PID controller is derived by replacing the conventional PI controller by a two-input normalized linear fuzzy logic controller (FLC) and executing the conventional D controller in an incremental form. The salient features of the proposed controller are as follows: (1) the linearly defined FLC can generate nonlinear output so that high nonlinearities of complex systems can be handled; (2) only one well-defined linear fuzzy control space is required for both linear and nonlinear systems; (3) optimal tuning of the controller gains is carried out by using a GA; and (4) it is simple and easy to implement. Simulation results on a temperature control system (linear system) and a missile model (nonlinear system) demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed controller.
Recent Trends in Latin American Urbanization

The swelling populations and sweeping social and economic trans formations which are now working themselves out in Latin America cannot fail to be reflected in those sensitive barometers of change, cities. More than one quarter of the total population now lives in cities of 20,000 or more and the present surge of urban growth shows little sign of having run its course. The traditional pattern of first-city supremacy has intensified rather than weakened with modernization. Despite programs of economic development, urban areas still have a low level of industrialization.
The Effect of Using Item Parcels on Ad Hoc Goodness-of-Fit Indexes in Confirmatory Factor Analysis: An Example Using Sarason's Reactions to Tests

The impact of using item parcels on ad hoc goodness-of-fit indexes in confirmatory factor analysis was examined using the Arabic version of Sarason's Reactions to Tests scale. Different numbers of parcels per factor and different numbers of items per parcel were used. Data were collected from a sample of 421 Arabic-speaking students from 2 similar high schools. Model fit in terms of the goodness-of-fit index, the comparative fit index, the Tucker-Lewis index, and the single-sample expected cross-validation index systematically improved as the number of items per parcel increased. However, the c2:degrees of freedom ratio and the root-mean-square error of approximation did not change systematically. The results were replicated with another sample of 374 students drawn from the same 2 schools.
Announcing Change: Discourse, Uncertainty, and Organizational Control

Abstract Embracing a meso-level approach to discourse and change, I examine relationships among organizational-level discourses in the days following a formal change announcement at an international data services organization. The findings of this study show how particular articulations of the future aligned with existing organizational meanings to constitute a discursive constellation that maintained – rather than changed – organizational meaning systems. These findings reimagine organizational control as a process of organizational-level discursive alignments that further naturalize organizational understandings by suppressing alternative ways to know an uncertain future. Conceptualizing organizational control in terms of meso-level discursive alignments has potential implications for both scholars and practitioners of organizational change by refocusing attention on the ways participants talk about change while remaining sensitive to how announcing change might enable discourses of ‘sameness’ rather than promote discourses of ‘change’.
Pharmacokinetics of Clonidine after Rectal Administration in Children

Backgroundα2 Agonists have been shown to produce desirable effects when used as premedication or as an adjunct to general anesthesia in adult patients. Several of these beneficial effects (e.g., reduced anesthetic requirements and analgesia without respiratory depression) would be of great benefit in pediatric anesthesia. Information regarding the use of α2 agonists in children is largely lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate the pharmacokinetics of clonidine after rectal administration in children. MethodsTen ASA physical status 1 pediatric patients (age 14–48 months, weight 10–20 kg) received 2.5 μg·kg-1 of clonidine by the rectal route. Blood samples were taken during a 24-h period after the administration. Plasma levels of clonidine were analyzed by radioimmunoassay and subjected to a computer-aided curve-fitting program (PC Nonlin). To estimate the bioavailability of clonidine the results from the current study were compared with data from a previous study in which the same dose of clonidine was given to a similar patient population by the Intravenous route. ResultsMaximum plasma concentration was 0.77 ng· ml-1(0.62–0.88), time to maximum plasma concentration 51 min (29–70), terminal half-life 12.5 h (8.7–19.5), and bioavailability 95% (73–119) (medians [95% confidence interval]). Plasma concentrations within the adult clinically effective range (0.2–2.0 ng·ml-1) were obtained within 10 min of administration. ConclusionsRectal administration of 2.5 μg· kg-1 of clonidine in children, approximately 20 min before induction of anesthesia, achieves plasma concentrations within the range known to be clinically effective in adults.
Simulating the power consumption of large-scale sensor network applications

Developing sensor network applications demands a new set of tools to aid programmers. A number of simulation environments have been developed that provide varying degrees of scalability, realism, and detail for understanding the behavior of sensor networks. To date, however, none of these tools have addressed one of the most important aspects of sensor application design: that of power consumption. While simple approximations of overall power usage can be derived from estimates of node duty cycle and communication rates, these techniques often fail to capture the detailed, low-level energy requirements of the CPU, radio, sensors, and other peripherals. In this paper, we present, a scalable simulation environment for wireless sensor networks that provides an accurate, per-node estimate of power consumption. PowerTOSSIM is an extension to TOSSIM, an event-driven simulation environment for TinyOS applications. In PowerTOSSIM, TinyOS components corresponding to specific hardware peripherals (such as the radio, EEPROM, LEDs, and so forth) are instrumented to obtain a trace of each device's activity during the simulation runPowerTOSSIM employs a novel code-transformation technique to estimate the number of CPU cycles executed by each node, eliminating the need for expensive instruction-level simulation of sensor nodes. PowerTOSSIM includes a detailed model of hardware energy consumption based on the Mica2 sensor node platform. Through instrumentation of actual sensor nodes, we demonstrate that PowerTOSSIM provides accurate estimation of power consumption for a range of applications and scales to support very large simulations.
Increase Information Transfer Rates in BCI by CSP Extension to Multi-class

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) are an interesting emerging technology that is driven by the motivation to develop an effective communication interface translating human intentions into a control signal for devices like computers or neuroprostheses. If this can be done bypassing the usual human output pathways like peripheral nerves and muscles it can ultimately become a valuable tool for paralyzed patients. Most activity in BCI research is devoted to finding suitable features and algorithms to increase information transfer rates (ITRs). The present paper studies the implications of using more classes, e.g., left vs. right hand vs. foot, for operating a BCI. We contribute by (1) a theoretical study showing under some mild assumptions that it is practically not useful to employ more than three or four classes, (2) two extensions of the common spatial pattern (CSP) algorithm, one interestingly based on simultaneous diagonalization, and (3) controlled EEG experiments that underline our theoretical findings and show excellent improved ITRs.
Persistent mechanical allodynia positively correlates with an increase in activated microglia and increased P‐p38 mitogen‐activated protein kinase activation in streptozotocin‐induced diabetic rats

In experimental early painful diabetic neuropathy, persistent hyperglycaemia induces dys‐regulated sodium channel (Navs) expression in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) and activates microglia in the spinal dorsal horn (SDH). However, information on diabetes‐induced chronic neuropathic pain is limited. Therefore, we investigated abnormal Navs in the DRG and activated glial cells in the SDH of diabetic rats with chronic neuropathic pain.
Human Pose Estimation from Video and IMUs

In this work, we present an approach to fuse video with sparse orientation data obtained from inertial sensors to improve and stabilize full-body human motion capture. Even though video data is a strong cue for motion analysis, tracking artifacts occur frequently due to ambiguities in the images, rapid motions, occlusions or noise. As a complementary data source, inertial sensors allow for accurate estimation of limb orientations even under fast motions. However, accurate position information cannot be obtained in continuous operation. Therefore, we propose a hybrid tracker that combines video with a small number of inertial units to compensate for the drawbacks of each sensor type: on the one hand, we obtain drift-free and accurate position information from video data and, on the other hand, we obtain accurate limb orientations and good performance under fast motions from inertial sensors. In several experiments we demonstrate the increased performance and stability of our human motion tracker.
Antioxidant capacity of leafy vegetables as affected by high tunnel environment, fertilisation and growth stage.

BACKGROUND This study was conducted to evaluate the influences of protected environment, organic fertilisation and growth stage on the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) values of leafy vegetables. RESULTS In a first experiment, pac choi grown in high tunnels had significantly lower ORAC than field-grown plants. Organic fertiliser markedly increased the antioxidant capacity of pac choi compared with conventional treatment, especially in the open field. However, both open field and organic production resulted in significantly lower yield and more severe leaf damage due to insect attack. In a second study, spinach showed the highest ORAC, followed by pac choi, red leaf lettuce and romaine lettuce. A significant decline in ORAC under high tunnel production was observed only in spinach. In contrast to the first trial, organic fertilisation did not cause an increase in antioxidant capacity of the leafy vegetables. The ORAC values of spinach from the open field and pac choi from high tunnels were significantly higher when harvested at the mature head stage than at the baby size stage. CONCLUSION Further studies will help to elucidate effects of genotype, growth stage, and production environment on antioxidant capacities of vegetables and may lead to recommended practices to maximise antioxidant capacity of vegetable crops. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry.
Politicians Interviewed on Television News

The power relationships and discursive strategies inherent in the interview as a mode of conversation, production and presentation are fundamental conditions for politics in the mediated public sphere. The journalistic interview sets the terms for politicians' public communication and appearances. This article is based on analyses of 124 broadcast news items which included interviews with Swedish politicians. The analyses are inspired by conversation analysis of news interviews. Discourse analysis, particularly the concepts of decontextualization and recontextualization, has also contributed to this study. The results show that it is a widespread practice in television news to divorce answers from the preceding question. In news stories, political interviews are presented in a fragmentary form. This article focuses on four discursive strategies in the recontextualization of interview answers, whereby the original question is removed and substituted by something else. The analyses show how the recontextualization influences the meaning of both the answers and the interviewee's actions and character.
The Practical Contradictions of Marxism

For more than a century proletarian socialism privileged the working class and its welfare, while simultaneously reaching out to the exploited and oppressed of all races and creeds. ’ This is no longer the case. The privileging of working class interests is now challenged from within the ranks of proletarian socialism itself. For a generation many of the left’s most gifted spokespeople have urged the abandonment of its traditional commitments in favor of a &dquo;decentered alliance&dquo; of nar-
Describing the Brain in Autism in Five Dimensions—Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Assisted Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder Using a Multiparameter Classification Approach

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition with multiple causes, comorbid conditions, and a wide range in the type and severity of symptoms expressed by different individuals. This makes the neuroanatomy of autism inherently difficult to describe. Here, we demonstrate how a multiparameter classification approach can be used to characterize the complex and subtle structural pattern of gray matter anatomy implicated in adults with ASD, and to reveal spatially distributed patterns of discriminating regions for a variety of parameters describing brain anatomy. A set of five morphological parameters including volumetric and geometric features at each spatial location on the cortical surface was used to discriminate between people with ASD and controls using a support vector machine (SVM) analytic approach, and to find a spatially distributed pattern of regions with maximal classification weights. On the basis of these patterns, SVM was able to identify individuals with ASD at a sensitivity and specificity of up to 90% and 80%, respectively. However, the ability of individual cortical features to discriminate between groups was highly variable, and the discriminating patterns of regions varied across parameters. The classification was specific to ASD rather than neurodevelopmental conditions in general (e.g., attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Our results confirm the hypothesis that the neuroanatomy of autism is truly multidimensional, and affects multiple and most likely independent cortical features. The spatial patterns detected using SVM may help further exploration of the specific genetic and neuropathological underpinnings of ASD, and provide new insights into the most likely multifactorial etiology of the condition.
The Spectrum of Cancers in West Africa: Associations with Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Background Cancer is a growing co-morbidity among HIV-infected patients worldwide. With the scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in developing countries, cancer will contribute more and more to the HIV/AIDS disease burden. Our objective was to estimate the association between HIV infection and selected types of cancers among patients hospitalized for diagnosis or treatment of cancer in West Africa. Methods A case-referent study was conducted in referral hospitals in Côte d’Ivoire and Benin. Each participating clinical ward enrolled all adult patients seeking care for a confirmed diagnosis of cancer and clinicians systematically proposed an HIV test. HIV prevalence was compared between AIDS-defining cancers and a subset of selected non-AIDS defining cancers to a referent group of non-AIDS defining cancers not reported in the literature to be positively or inversely associated with HIV. An unconditional logistic model was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) of the risk of being HIV-infected for selected cancers sites compared to a referent group of other cancers. Results The HIV overall prevalence was 12.3% (CI 10.3–14.4) among the 1,017 cancer cases included. A total of 442 patients constituted the referent group with an HIV prevalence of 4.7% (CI 2.8–6.7). In multivariate analysis, Kaposi sarcoma (OR 62.2 [CI 22.1–175.5]), non-Hodgkin lymphoma (4.0 [CI 2.0–8.0]), cervical cancer (OR 7.9 [CI 3.8–16.7]), anogenital cancer (OR 11.6 [CI 2.9–46.3]) and liver cancer (OR 2.7 [CI 1.1–7.7]) were all associated with HIV infection. Conclusions In a time of expanding access to ART, AIDS-defining cancers remain highly associated with HIV infection. This is to our knowledge, the first study reporting a significant association between HIV infection and liver cancer in sub-Saharan Africa.
The role of Notch and gamma-secretase inhibition in an ovarian cancer model.

BACKGROUND The Notch pathway is dysregulated in ovarian cancer. We sought to examine the role of Notch and gamma-secretase (GS) inhibition in ovarian cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS Established ovarian cancer cell lines were used. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used to determine the relative expression of Notch receptor and ligands. Effects of GS inhibition on proliferation, colony formation, and downstream effectors were examined via methylthiazole tetrazolium (MTT) and Matrigel assays, and qPCR, respectively. In vivo experiments with a GS inhibitor and cisplatin were conducted on nude mice. Tumors were examined for differences in microvessel density, proliferation, and apoptosis. RESULTS Notch3 was the most up-regulated receptor. The ligands JAGGED1 and DELTA-LIKE4 were both up-regulated. GS inhibition did not affect cellular proliferation or anchorage-independent cell growth over placebo. The GS inhibitor Compound-E reduced microvessel density in vivo. CONCLUSION GS inhibition does not directly affect cellular proliferation in ovarian carcinoma, but Notch pathway blockade may result in angiogenic alterations that may be therapeutically important.
Saturated Fatty Acids Do Not Directly Stimulate Toll-Like Receptor Signaling

Objective—Toll-like receptors (TLRs) initiate inflammatory signaling in response to conserved microbial molecules. It has been proposed that dietary saturated fatty acids (SFAs) may also serve as endogenous ligands of TLR2 or TLR4, thereby promoting diseases associated with inflammation and dyslipidemia, including atherosclerosis and insulin resistance. Methods and Results—We investigated the effects of SFAs on TLR-dependent signaling using a broad range of cell types and readouts. In HEK-293 cells transfected with TLR2, TLR4, or TLR5, SFAs complexed with fatty-acid-free bovine serum albumin (BSA)-stimulated TLR-dependent signaling. However, SFAs alone did not elicit a similar response. Further analysis showed that the effect seen with the complexed SFAs was attributable to LPS and lipopeptide contamination of fatty-acid-free BSA. Additional studies in macrophages, endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, adipocytes, skeletal muscle cells, and human peripheral blood mononuclear cells confirmed the lack of stimulation of TLR-dependent signaling pathways or expression of TLR-target genes by SFAs. Conclusions—SFAs do not directly stimulate TLR-dependent signaling, suggesting that alternative mechanisms link dietary fat intake with TLR-associated pathologies. LPS and lipopeptide contamination of the widely used reagent fatty-acid-free BSA explains the previously reported stimulation of TLR2 and TLR4 by SFAs.
The effect of language on the performance of second-language students in science examinations

It has been established by previous researchers that changes in the wording of multiple‐choice examination questions can significantly affect pupil performance. In this study recent ‘home’ General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and ‘overseas’ General Certificate of Education (GCE) papers were examined for questions in which the language could be simplified, and modified questions were prepared. When performance on the original and modified forms of the questions was compared for a sample of British school pupils, no statistically significant difference emerged. When performance on the same questions was examined for a sample of pupils for whom English was the second (or third) language, there were significant differences in their performance on modified and unmodified versions of the questions.
Power Allocation and Performance Analysis in Spectrum Sharing Systems with Statistical CSI

\boldmath This paper investigates power allocation strategies for secondary users (SUs) in cross-interfering spectrum sharing systems. Addressing limited cooperation between primary users (PUs) and SUs, only instantaneous channel state information (CSI) of the secondary link and statistical CSI of the other links is assumed to be available at the secondary transmitters (STs). We aim at maximizing the secondary achievable rate subject to both a peak power constraint at the ST and an average interference power constraint at the primary receiver. First, the optimal power control strategy is developed. In order to reduce the complexity, two suboptimal optimization strategies are proposed. The first one, named double threshold waterfilling (DT-WF), is based on an approximation of the optimal solution. The second strategy, named double threshold constant-power waterfilling (DTCP-WF), further simplifies DT-WF. Additionally, the achievable performance is derived in closed form for both suboptimal strategies. We also discuss the algorithm design in the multiple primary links scenario. Numerical results show the effectiveness of the proposed strategies and validate the accuracy of the closed-form analysis.