Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hierarchical and Mediation Analysis of Disparities in Very Short Sleep among Sexual Minority Youth in the U.S., 2015

ABSTRACT Background Insufficient sleep is associated with increased risk of chronic diseases, substance use, and unintentional injuries. Little is known about the disparities in short sleep among sexual minority youth. Methods A nationally representative sample of U.S. students in grades 9–12 (n = 14,703) from the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey was analyzed to examine the prevalence and risk factors of short sleep. Self-reported sleep duration (very short: ≤5 h, short: 6–7 h, normal: ≥8 h per day) were compared by sex group (male vs. female) and sexual orientation (heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and unsure). Results Of all respondents, 88.8% were heterosexual/straight, 2.0% were lesbian or gay, 6.0% were bisexual, and 3.2% were unsure about their sexual identity. Bisexual and unsure girls (36.2%, 95% CI [31.3–41.0] and 33.7%, CI [25.6–41.8], respectively) had a higher prevalence of very short sleep duration than straight girls (19.8%, CI [18.3–21.4]). Gay and unsure boys (38.5%, CI [25.6–51.5] and 33.3%, CI [23.5–32.1], respectively) had a higher prevalence of very short sleep duration than straight boys (16.5%, CI [15.1–17.9]). The effects of sexual minority status on very short sleep duration attenuated when incrementally adjusting for influencing factors, and further analysis identified that feeling sad/hopeless had the largest standardized mediation effect. Conclusions and Relevance Sexual minority adolescents had a higher prevalence of reporting very short sleep duration as compared to their straight peers, and the effects were mediated by influencing variables including demographic factors, substance use, excessive media use, and experiences of victimization/mental health problems.
Phase I/II clinical trial of modulated electro-hyperthermia treatment in patients with relapsed, refractory or progressive heavily treated ovarian cancer.

OBJECTIVE To determine the maximal tolerated dose (MTD) of modulated electro-hyperthermia (mEHT) treatment and to reveal whether mEHT treatment is feasible and effective as second-line therapy in recurrent and progressive ovarian cancer. METHODS Patients were treated with mEHT with dose escalation during the first cycle (two sessions each week for three weeks) to determine the MTD. Additional cycles were carried out with the determined dose. Dose limiting toxicity (DLT) was defined grade ≥ 2: skin burns and inability to endure the hyperthermic state of the study. The Fact-O quality of life scale was used to assess health-related well-being. RESULTS Nineteen patients with recurrent and progressive ovarian cancer were enrolled. In the first cycle of mEHT treatment, no patient developed DLT with applied power up to 110 W, 130 W, and 150 W/day; the 150 W was the maximal applied power. Stable disease was observed in only one patient (12.5%). With median progression of 4.0 months (range, 2-17 months), 18 patients (95%) demonstrated disease progression. With median overall survival of 8.0 months (range, 2-32 months), 18 patients (95%) had died. Physical well-being scores were significantly decreased over the study period, although social, emotional, and functional well-being scores did not significantly change. CONCLUSIONS The mEHT treatment was feasible in patients with recurrent or progressive ovarian cancer without any complication and optimal dose of mEHT treatment was up to 150 W for 1 hour/day.
Hippocampal alterations and functional correlates in adolescents and young adults with congenital heart disease

There is a high prevalence of neurodevelopmental impairments in individuals living with congenital heart disease (CHD) and the neural correlates of these impairments are not yet fully understood. Recent studies have shown that hippocampal volume and shape differences may provide unique biomarkers for neurodevelopmental disorders. The hippocampus is vulnerable to early life injury, especially in populations at risk for hypoxemia or hemodynamic instability such as in neonates with CHD. We compared hippocampal gray and white matter volume and morphometry between youth born with CHD (n = 50) aged 16–24 years and healthy peers (n = 48). We also explored whether hippocampal gray and white matter volume and morphometry are associated with executive function and self‐regulation deficits. To do so, participants underwent 3T brain magnetic resonance imaging and completed the self‐reported Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function—Adult version. We found that youth with CHD had smaller hippocampal volumes (all statistics corrected for false discovery rate; q < 0.05) as compared to controls. We also observed significant smaller surface area bilaterally and inward displacement on the left hippocampus predominantly on the ventral side (q < 0.10) in the CHD group that were not present in the controls. Left CA1 and CA2/3 were negatively associated with working memory (p < .05). Here, we report, for the first‐time, hippocampal morphometric alterations in youth born with CHD when compared to healthy peers, as well as, structure–function relationships between hippocampal volumes and executive function. These differences may reflect long lasting alterations in brain development specific to individual with CHD.
Aquifer Potential Assessment in Termites Manifested Locales Using Geo-Electrical and Surface Hydraulic Measurement Parameters

In some parts of tropical Africa, termite mound locations are traditionally used to site groundwater structures mainly in the form of hand-dug wells with high success rates. However, the scientific rationale behind the use of mounds as prospective sites for locating groundwater structures has not been thoroughly investigated. In this paper, locations and structural features of termite mounds were mapped with the aim of determining the aquifer potential beneath termite mounds and comparing the same with adjacent areas, 10 m away. Soil and species sampling, field surveys and laboratory analyses to obtain data on physical, hydraulic and geo-electrical parameters from termite mounds and adjacent control areas followed. The physical and hydraulic measurements demonstrated relatively higher infiltration rates and lower soil water content on mound soils compared with the surrounding areas. To assess the aquifer potential, vertical electrical soundings were conducted on 28 termite mounds sites and adjacent control areas. Three (3) important parameters were assessed to compute potential weights for each Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) point: Depth to bedrock, aquifer layer resistivity and fresh/fractured bedrock resistivity. These weights were then compared between those of termite mound sites and those from control areas. The result revealed that about 43% of mound sites have greater aquifer potential compared to the surrounding areas, whereas 28.5% of mounds have equal and lower potentials compared with the surrounding areas. The study concludes that termite mounds locations are suitable spots for groundwater prospecting owing to the deeper regolith layer beneath them which suggests that termites either have the ability to locate places with a deeper weathering horizon or are themselves agents of biological weathering. Further studies to check how representative our study area is of other areas with similar termite activities are recommended.
Distressing encounters in the context of climate change: Idioms of distress, determinants, and responses to distress in Tuvalu

Across the globe there is a critical need for culturally informed and locally valid approaches to mental health assessment and intervention, particularly among disadvantaged and marginalized populations. To be optimally effective, such approaches must be informed by a sound understanding of locally relevant idioms of distress and its determinants, including those caused or exacerbated by global power disparities and structural inequities. Climate change, arising due to anthropogenic sources located predominantly in industrialized nations, is one potential determinant of distress having disproportionate adverse impacts on already marginalized populations. The present study formed part of a broader project examining the intersections of culture, climate change, and distress in the Polynesian nation of Tuvalu – a focal point of global concern over the human costs of climate change. The study explored determinants and idioms of distress and culturally prescribed responses to coping with distress. Results are based on fieldwork conducted in 2015 entailing semi-structured interviews with 16 key informants and 23 lay residents of Funafuti atoll, recruited using maximal variation purposive sampling. Findings are examined in consideration of the unfolding impacts of climate change and the threat it portends for the future, both of which were identified as salient determinants of distress, in keeping with theorized relationships between climate change and mental health. The study underscores the necessity of attending to the relationships between global forces, local cultures, and individual experiences of distress, as efforts to provide access to culturally informed social and mental health services expand globally.
Optimizing Query Planning with Limited Source Capabilities in the Presence of Inclusion and Functional Dependencies

Information Integration is the problem of providing a uniform access to multiple and heterogeneous data sources. The most common approach to this problem, called Globalas-View, consists in providing a global schema of data in which each relation of such a schema is defined as a view over a set of data sources. Recent works deal with this problem in the case of limited source capabilities, where in general sources can only be accessed respecting certain binding patterns for their attributes. In this case, computing the answer to a query over the global schema cannot be done by simply unfolding the global relations with their definitions. Instead, it may require the evaluation of a suitable recursive datalog program. In this paper we study query evaluation in the Global-as-View approach with limited source capabilities in the presence of full inclusion and functional dependencies between sources. We present a polynomial time algorithm for implication of such kind of dependencies and we study how the presence of such dependencies enables one to minimize the number of accesses to the sources. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for determining whether, during query evaluation, a given source has to be accessed or not.
MULTIGRID SOLUTION OFTHE

Galerkin coarse grid approximation (GCA) in multigrid methods is investigated for the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in general coordinates. An eecient algorithm performing GCA is presented. The behavior of coarse grid matrices is studied under GCA with diierent transfer operators. For square and L-shaped driven cavity problems, the performance of the multigrid method using diierent combinations of transfer operators for the computation of coarse grid matrices and of coarse grid correction is investigated. Further computations are carried out in general coordinates for a channel ow problem with backward facing step in three dimensions.
On impact and evaluation in computational creativity: a discussion of the Turing Test and an alternative proposal

Computational Creativity is the AI subﬁeld in which we study how to build computational models of creative thought in science and the arts. From an engineering perspective, it is desirable to have concrete measures for assessing the progress made from one version of a program to another, or for comparing and contrasting different software systems for the same creative task. We describe the Turing Test and versions of it which have been used in order to measure progress in Computational Creativity. We show that the versions proposed thus far lack the important aspect of interaction, without which much of the power of the Turing Test is lost. We argue that the Turing Test is largely inappropriate for the purposes of evaluation in Computational Creativity, since it attempts to homogenise creativity into a single (human) style, does not take into account the importance of background and contextual information for a creative act, encourages superﬁcial, uninteresting advances in front-ends, and rewards creativity which adheres to a certain style over that which creates something which is genuinely novel. We further argue that although there may be some place for Turing-style tests for Computational Creativity at some point in the future, it is currently untenable to apply any defensible version of the Turing Test. As an alternative to Turing-style tests, we introduce two descriptive models for evaluating creative software, the FACE model which describes creative acts performed by software in terms of tuples of generative acts, and the IDEA model which describes how such creative acts can have an impact upon an ideal audience, given ideal information about background knowledge and the software development process. While these models require further study and elaboration, we believe that they can be usefully applied to current systems as well as guiding further development of creative systems.
Comparison of the Effectiveness of Surgical Versus Nonsurgical Treatment for Multiple Rib Fractures Accompanied with Pulmonary Contusion

Objective: To compare the effectiveness of surgical versus nonsurgical treatment for multiple rib fractures accompanied with pulmonary contusion. Methods: The clinical records of consecutive 167 patients with multiple rib fractures accompanied with pulmonary contusion, who were treated from June 2014 to June 2017, were retrospectively analyzed. Of them, 75 and 92 underwent surgery (surgery group) and non-surgical treatment (non-surgery group), respectively. Patient pain score, complications, length of hospital stay, cost of hospitalization, and post-treatment 3-month follow-up results were compared. Results: The mean number of days and moderate pain in the surgery group was significantly lower than that of the non-surgery group (p <0.01). The incidence of post-treatment complications was significantly lower in the surgery group than in the non-surgery group. The length of hospital stay of the surgery group was also significantly shorter than that of the non-surgery group (p <0.01). The cost of hospitalization was significantly higher in the surgery group than in the non-surgery group (p <0.01). The chest computed tomography (CT) scan which was performed 3 months after the treatment revealed that the surgery group had a better recovery than the non-surgery group. Physical recovery of the surgery group was also significantly better than that of the non-surgery group. Conclusion: Surgery to treat multiple rib fractures (≥ 4 fractures) accompanied with pulmonary contusion is safe and effective.
Microencapsulated iNOS‐expressing cells cause tumor suppression in mice

Macrophages can kill tumor cells by releasing high levels of nitric oxide (NO) and related reactive nitrogen species such as nitroxyl and peroxynitrite, after up‐regulation of expression of the inducible nitric oxide synthase gene (iNOS). In this paper we describe two novel human cell lines that are capable of expressing high levels of iNOS under the control of analogues of either the insect hormone ecdysone or tetracycline. We have entrapped these iNOS‐expressing cells within a semipermeable alginate‐poly‐L‐lysine membrane as a means of delivery to tumor sites in a nude mouse model. These encapsulated cells can be induced to generate sustainable high concentrations NO and reactive nitrogen species at tumor sites after treatment either with ponasterone A or muristerone A or with doxycycline. Delivery of these iNOS‐expressing cells to tumors formed from human ovarian cancer SKOV‐3 cells results in 100% killing, whereas treatment of tumors formed from human colon cancer DLD‐1 cells results in 54% killing. We show that in these iNOS‐expressing cells, tumor killing is associated with concomitant up‐regulation of the Fas/FasL proteins.
A Scoping Review of Epidemiological, Ergonomic, and Longitudinal Cohort Studies Examining the Links between Stair and Bathroom Falls and the Built Environment

Stair and bathroom falls contribute to injuries among older adults. This review examined which features of stairs and bathrooms have been assessed in epidemiological, ergonomic, and national aging studies on falls or their risk factors. Epidemiological and ergonomic studies were eligible if published from 2006–2017, written in English, included older persons, and reported built environment measures. The data extracted included the following: study population and design, outcome measures, and stair and bathroom features. National aging studies were eligible if English questionnaires were available, and if data were collected within the last 10 years. Sample characteristics; data collection methods; and data about falls, the environment, and assistive device use were extracted. There were 114 eligible articles assessed—38 epidemiologic and 76 ergonomic. Among epidemiological studies, 2 assessed stair falls only, 4 assessed bathroom falls only, and 32 assessed falls in both locations. Among ergonomic studies, 67 simulated stairs and 9 simulated bathrooms. Specific environmental features were described in 14 (36.8%) epidemiological studies and 73 (96%) ergonomic studies. Thirteen national aging studies were identified—four had stair data and six had bathroom data. Most epidemiologic and national aging studies did not include specific measures of stairs or bathrooms; the built environment descriptions in ergonomic studies were more detailed. More consistent and detailed environmental measures in epidemiologic and national aging studies would better inform fall prevention approaches targeting the built environment.
Optimization-based Robot Compliance Control: Geometric and Linear Quadratic Approaches

Impedance control is a compliance control strategy capable of accommodating both unconstrained and constrained motions. The performance of impedance controllers depends heavily upon environment dynamics and the choice of target impedance. To maintain performance for a wide range of environments, target impedance needs to be adjusted adaptively. In this paper, a geometric view on impedance control is developed for stiff environments, resulting in a “static-optimized” controller that minimizes a combined generalized position and force trajectory error metric. To incorporate the dynamic nature of the manipulator-environment system, a new cost function is considered. A classic quadratic optimal control strategy is employed to design a novel adaptive compliance controller with control parameters adjusted based upon environment stiffness and damping. In steady state, the proposed controller ultimately implements the static-optimized impedance controller. Simulation and experimental results indicate that the proposed optimal controller offers smoother transient response and a better trade-off between position and force regulation.
Independent Component Analysis of Gait-Related Movement Artifact Recorded using EEG Electrodes during Treadmill Walking

There has been a recent surge in the use of electroencephalography (EEG) as a tool for mobile brain imaging due to its portability and fine time resolution. When EEG is combined with independent component analysis (ICA) and source localization techniques, it can model electrocortical activity as arising from temporally independent signals located in spatially distinct cortical areas. However, for mobile tasks, it is not clear how movement artifacts influence ICA and source localization. We devised a novel method to collect pure movement artifact data (devoid of any electrophysiological signals) with a 256-channel EEG system. We first blocked true electrocortical activity using a silicone swim cap. Over the silicone layer, we placed a simulated scalp with electrical properties similar to real human scalp. We collected EEG movement artifact signals from ten healthy, young subjects wearing this setup as they walked on a treadmill at speeds from 0.4–1.6 m/s. We performed ICA and dipole fitting on the EEG movement artifact data to quantify how accurately these methods would identify the artifact signals as non-neural. ICA and dipole fitting accurately localized 99% of the independent components in non-neural locations or lacked dipolar characteristics. The remaining 1% of sources had locations within the brain volume and low residual variances, but had topographical maps, power spectra, time courses, and event related spectral perturbations typical of non-neural sources. Caution should be exercised when interpreting ICA for data that includes semi-periodic artifacts including artifact arising from human walking. Alternative methods are needed for the identification and separation of movement artifact in mobile EEG signals, especially methods that can be performed in real time. Separating true brain signals from motion artifact could clear the way for EEG brain computer interfaces for assistance during mobile activities, such as walking.
Pomegranate peel polyphenols inhibits inflammation in LPS-induced RAW264.7 macrophages via the suppression of TLR4/NF-κB pathway activation

Backgrounds Inflammatory response mediated by activated immune cells is a vital process in host defense system while responding to various stresses. Our previous studies have indicated that pomegranate peel polyphenols (PPPs) and their main components punicalagin (PC) and ellagic acid (EA) decreased pro-inflammatory cytokines and inflammatory mediators by regulating the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) pathway, but whether these tested polyphenols play an important role in NF-κB signaling pathway, another crucial pathway of inflammation, remains unclear. Objective In this study, we analyzed the anti-inflammatory effect of these polyphenols via TLR4-NF-κB pathway in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW264.7 macrophages. Methods Different concentrations of PPPs, PC, and EA were pre-incubated with RAW264.7 macrophages and then stimulated with LPS (1 μg/mL), and the effects of reactive oxygen species and TLR4 were investigated. Moreover, NF-κB p65 nuclear translocation and phosphorylation, and degradation of IκB were measured by Western blot. Furthermore, the influence of pro-inflammatory cytokines was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results Our data showed that PPPs, PC, and EA inhibited LPS-induced intracellular ROS production and suppressed the mRNA and protein expression levels of TLR4 in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, the anti-inflammatory mechanism was involved in blocking LPS-induced phosphorylation, degradation of IκB, and nuclear translocation of p65. Additionally, PPPs and PC exhibited a stronger anti-inflammatory effect than that of EA. Conclusion The results indicated that PPPs possess potent anti-inflammatory effect, and PC was the main effective component in PPPs, which provided new insights into the utilization of PPPs to prevent inflammation-associated disorders.