Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of Antarctic residence on energy dynamics and aerobic fitness

Objective. To review the current literature that describes the effect of Antarctic residence on energy dynamics and aerobic fitness. Study design. Literature review. Methods. Published literature on energy dynamics and aerobic fitness in the polar environment was reviewed. Energy dynamics were represented by body weight, body fat, food intake and energy expenditure. Consideration was given to seasonal variation and possible explanations for the apparent high metabolic cost of Antarctic residence. The influence of cold exposure was discussed and comment was made on the differences between temperate and polar residence. Results. Food intake and energy expenditure are found to increase with Antarctic residence. There is often an associated increase in body weight and body fat. Seasonal variation is common but not universal, with an increase in body weight and body fat in winter. Variation in aerobic fitness appears to be related to the specific study sample rather than Antarctic residence per se. Conclusions. In most instances, Antarctic residence has effects on energy dynamics and aerobic fitness. Explanations for the observed changes may include physiological adaptations, such as a raised basal metabolic rate and increased thermogenesis. However, cold-induced changes are less likely when cold exposure is minimized by heated buildings and insulated clothing. Activity patterns related to work and leisure thus represent a more likely cause. The majority of the research is several decades old; further research would help to elucidate the patterns of energy dynamics of modern Antarctic workers.
Latent Low-Rank Representation for subspace segmentation and feature extraction

Low-Rank Representation (LRR) [16, 17] is an effective method for exploring the multiple subspace structures of data. Usually, the observed data matrix itself is chosen as the dictionary, which is a key aspect of LRR. However, such a strategy may depress the performance, especially when the observations are insufficient and/or grossly corrupted. In this paper we therefore propose to construct the dictionary by using both observed and unobserved, hidden data. We show that the effects of the hidden data can be approximately recovered by solving a nuclear norm minimization problem, which is convex and can be solved efficiently. The formulation of the proposed method, called Latent Low-Rank Representation (LatLRR), seamlessly integrates subspace segmentation and feature extraction into a unified framework, and thus provides us with a solution for both subspace segmentation and feature extraction. As a subspace segmentation algorithm, LatLRR is an enhanced version of LRR and outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms. Being an unsupervised feature extraction algorithm, LatLRR is able to robustly extract salient features from corrupted data, and thus can work much better than the benchmark that utilizes the original data vectors as features for classification. Compared to dimension reduction based methods, LatLRR is more robust to noise.
Supervised exercises for adults with acute lateral ankle sprain: a randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND During the recovery period after acute ankle sprain, it is unclear whether conventional treatment should be supported by supervised exercise. AIM To evaluate the short- and long-term effectiveness of conventional treatment combined with supervised exercises compared with conventional treatment alone in patients with an acute ankle sprain. DESIGN Randomised controlled clinical trial. SETTING A total of 32 Dutch general practices and the hospital emergency department. METHOD Adults with an acute lateral ankle sprain consulting general practices or the hospital emergency department were allocated to either conventional treatment combined with supervised exercises or conventional treatment alone. Primary outcomes were subjective recovery (0-10 point scale) and the occurrence of a resprain. Measurements were carried out at intake, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 3 months, and 1 year after injury. Data were analysed using intention-to-treat analyses. RESULTS A total of 102 patients were enrolled and randomised to either conventional treatment alone or conventional treatment combined with supervised exercise. There was no significant difference between treatment groups concerning subjective recovery or occurrence of resprains after 3 months and 1-year of follow-up. CONCLUSION Conventional treatment combined with supervised exercises compared to conventional treatment alone during the first year after an acute lateral ankle sprain does not lead to differences in the occurrence of resprains or in subjective recovery.
Secret handshakes from pairing-based key agreements

Consider a CIA agent who wants to authenticate herself to a server but does not want to reveal her CIA credentials unless the server is a genuine CIA outlet. Consider also that the CIA server does not want to reveal its CIA credentials to anyone but CIA agents - not even to other CIA servers. We first show how pairing-based cryptography can be used to implement such secret handshakes. We then propose a formal definition for secure secret handshakes, and prove that our pairing-based schemes are secure under the Bilinear Diffie-Hellman assumption. Our protocols support role-based group membership authentication, traceability, indistinguishability to eavesdroppers, unbounded collusion resistance, and forward repudiability. Our secret-handshake scheme can be implemented as a TLS cipher suite. We report on the performance of our preliminary Java implementation.
Towards Robust Pedestrian Detection in Crowded Image Sequences

Object class detection in scenes of realistic complexity remains a challenging task in computer vision. Most recent approaches focus on a single and general model for object class detection. However, in particular in the context of image sequences, it may be advantageous to adapt the general model to a more object-instance specific model in order to detect this particular object reliably within the image sequence. In this work we present a generative object model that is capable to scale from a general object class model to a more specific object-instance model. This allows to detect class instances as well as to distinguish between individual object instances reliably. We experimentally evaluate the performance of the proposed system on both still images and image sequences.
Natural extensions and entropy of α-continued fractions

We construct a natural extension for each of Nakada's α-continued fraction transformations and show the continuity as a function of α of both the entropy and the measure of the natural extension domain with respect to the density function (1 + xy)−2. For 0 < α ⩽ 1, we show that the product of the entropy with the measure of the domain equals π2/6. We show that the interval is a maximal interval upon which the entropy is constant. As a key step for all this, we give the explicit relationship between the α-expansion of α − 1 and of α.
Anterior Prefrontal Hemodynamic Connectivity in Conscious 3- to 7-Year-Old Children with Typical Development and Autism Spectrum Disorder

Socio-communicative impairments are salient features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from a young age. The anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC), or Brodmann area 10, is a key processing area for social function, and atypical development of this area is thought to play a role in the social deficits in ASD. It is important to understand these brain functions in developing children with ASD. However, these brain functions have not yet been well described under conscious conditions in young children with ASD. In the present study, we focused on the brain hemodynamic functional connectivity between the right and the left aPFC in children with ASD and typically developing (TD) children and investigated whether there was a correlation between this connectivity and social ability. Brain hemodynamic fluctuations were measured non-invasively by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in 3- to 7-year-old children with ASD (n = 15) and gender- and age-matched TD children (n = 15). The functional connectivity between the right and the left aPFC was assessed by measuring the coherence for low-frequency spontaneous fluctuations (0.01 – 0.10 Hz) during a narrated picture-card show. Coherence analysis demonstrated that children with ASD had a significantly higher inter-hemispheric connectivity with 0.02-Hz fluctuations, whereas a power analysis did not demonstrate significant differences between the two groups in terms of low frequency fluctuations (0.01 – 0.10 Hz). This aberrant higher connectivity in children with ASD was positively correlated with the severity of social deficit, as scored with the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule. This is the first study to demonstrate aberrant brain functional connectivity between the right and the left aPFC under conscious conditions in young children with ASD.
Orally Administered Eicosapentaenoic Acid Induces Rapid Regression of Atherosclerosis Via Modulating the Phenotype of Dendritic Cells in LDL Receptor-Deficient Mice

Objective— Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) has been shown to have beneficial effects on cardiovascular diseases, although the precise mechanism is unknown. We investigated the effect of EPA on the regression of atherosclerosis. Methods and Results— LDL-receptor–deficient mice were fed a high-cholesterol diet for 8 weeks to build up aortic sinus atherosclerotic lesions and then were fed a normal diet with or without 5% EPA for 4 weeks. Atherosclerotic lesions were histologically assessed, and immunologic assays were performed. EPA treatment significantly regressed atherosclerosis (−22.7%, P<0.05) and decreased the content of macrophages, CD4+ T cells, and dendritic cells (DCs) in atherosclerotic lesions, though only changing the chow never induced the regression. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that EPA increased immature DCs (CD11c+ CD80− CD86−), increased the indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) in DCs, and decreased the number of CD4+ T cells. In the presence of the IDO inhibitor, the beneficial effects of EPA on regression were inhibited, suggesting that the effect of EPA was mainly mediated through IDO. Conclusion— In addition to lowering plasma cholesterol, EPA regressed atherosclerosis probably due to modulation of DC phenotype and reduction in T cell numbers. The present findings might partly explain the beneficial effects of EPA in clinics and support clinical evidence.
Prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among farmers: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among farmers and to establish the most common regional MSDs reported. METHODS Comprehensive electronic searches of Pubmed, Web of Science, CINAHL, SCOPUS, EMBASE, Agris Database, and Cochrane Library were carried out using keywords for MSDs and farmers. Pooled estimates of prevalence with 95% confidence intervals were calculated for overall MSD prevalence and the most common regional MSDs reported. RESULTS Twenty-four studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were incorporated into this review. From these studies, life-time prevalence of any form of MSD among farmers was 90.6% while 1-year MSD prevalence was 76.9% (95% CI 69.8-82.7). The majority of studies focused on spinal MSDs with low back pain (LBP) the most frequently investigated. Life-time LBP prevalence was 75% (95% CI 67-81.5) while 1-year LBP prevalence was 47.8% (95% CI 40.2-55.5). The next most common regional MSDs reported were upper (range 3.6-71.4%) and lower extremities (range 10.4-41%). CONCLUSIONS The systematic review identified the prevalence of MSDs by body region in farmers and established that LBP was the most common MSD, followed by upper and then lower extremity MSDs. Reported trends suggest that the prevalence of MSDs in farmers is greater than in non-farmer populations. Case-definition uniformity among MSD researchers is warranted. More studies are needed regarding upper and lower extremity MSDs, gender, workplace, and task context of MSDs.
Aerosols and Ice Particle Size in Tropical Cumulonimbus

Abstract A retrieval of ice crystal size near the tops of active deep cumulonimbus clouds (Cb) throughout the Tropics over a 12-yr period is presented based on radiances from the 3.7-μm channel of the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). Effective diameters (De) are 10%–20% smaller over land than ocean. Downwind of continents, crystals are smallest when low-level, offshore transport is strongest. Other regional, seasonal, interannual, and long-term variations are also found. These are compared with variations of the Total Ozone Mapping Spectroradiometer (TOMS) retrieved tropospheric aerosol and with variations of convective intensity and amount in an effort to identify potential causes by statistical association. Ice particles prove to be smaller when aerosol amounts are greater and when convection is more intense, but appear unrelated to convective rate of occurrence. Aerosols appear to be the most important influence on seasonal and longer timescales, with a consistent ∼20% decrease in Cb c.
Kinetics and Steady State Dynamics of Tubulin Addition and Loss at Opposite Microtubule Ends: The Mechanism of Action of Colchicine a

During the past several years our laboratory has been investigating the dynamics of tubulin addition and loss a t the opposite ends of steady state microtubules in vitro. We have also been interested in understanding the mechanisms of action of chemical agents that alter the dynamics of tubulin addition and loss. Our approach has taken advantage of the fact that microtubules, when assembled to a plateau level in vitro, are not in simple equilibrium a t either end with the tubulin free in solution. Rather, a continuous net incorporation of tubulin into the polymer mass and a precisely balanced net loss of tubulin from the polymer mass occur a t apparent equilibrium (e.g., see reference 1) . Because the net uptake and loss of tubulin occurs a t microtubule ends and a t different locations, we have interpreted this behavior as indicating that there is a net gain of tubulin subunits a t one end of each microtubule (called the net assembly, or A end) and a balanced net loss of the tubulin a t the opposite end (the net disassembly or D end). We recently developed a double isotope procedure for labeling microtubule A and D ends differentially that has enabled us to study the net gain and loss of tubulin a t both microtubule ends simultaneously under a variety of conditions. **' The double label procedure has been coupled to a filtration-collection assay that involves rapid stabilization of microtubules and collection of the labeled polymers on glass fiber filters: These procedures have been used to analyze the net rates of tubulin addition and loss a t opposite microtubule ends under steady state and non-steady state conditions in control microtubule populations and after treatment with a number of drugs that affect microtubule assembly and disassembly dynamics. The purpose of this report is to describe a number of properties of the bovine brain microtubule protein system used in our laboratory, and to set forth the evidence that the isotope incorporation methods we use with the system reveal the dyamics of net tubulin addition and loss a t the two microtubule ends. We also describe the results of our studies on the action of one drug, colchicine, which slows the rates of tubulin addition and loss a t the two ends of the microtubules differentially.
Chapter 2 Inactivated Viral Vaccines

The first report of “virus” inactivation for vaccine purposes was described in 1886 when Daniel Elmer Salmon and Theobald Smith immunized pigeons with what they thought was a heat-killed hog cholera “virus” (Salmon and Smith 1886). Although in reality it was a cholera-like bacterium, it seeded the scientific community with evidence that immunization with inactivated pathogens can provide protection against infectious disease. Research continued for at least 15 years when at the beginning of the twentieth century the first killed (bacterial) vaccines for humans were developed for typhoid fever, cholera, and plague (Wright and Semple 1897; Haffkine 1899). The foundations of immunization with inactivated virus preparations were also laid at the end of the nineteenth century with Pasteur’s partially inactivated rabies virus (Pasteur et al. 1885), which was cultured in rabbit spinal cords. However, inactivated viral vaccine development was only truly launched with the discovery of cell culture procedures that supported the replication of viral pathogens in vitro, outside the host organism, thus allowing the large scale production of viruses as a source for whole inactivated vaccines. This breakthrough was attributed to Enders, Weller, and Robbins who received the Nobel Prize in 1954 for their discovery on how to cultivate poliovirus in fibroblasts in vitro (Enders et al. 1949; Weller et al. 1949). In general, all inactivated viral vaccines follow a similar production course in which the pathogen is first cultivated on a substrate to produce large quantities of antigen. Historically, vaccine manufacturers have been using primary cells, tissues,
A wide pulse response procedure for tuning of PD/PID controller for integrating processes

A simple wide pulse response procedure for tuning of PD/PID controller for integrating processes is proposed. It is based on the integrating first-order plus dead-time (IFOPDT) model, obtained from the wide step response by measuring the time to go to ten and sixty three percent of the maximum after wide pulse excitation of process. An adjustable parameter is provided to obtain adaptation of the closed-loop system performance and robustness. A comparison with tuned PIDs, done by simulations, and the experimental results obtained on a real two tank system, confirm that high performance and robustness are obtained.
THE EFFECTS OF CLUSTERING MULTIPLE HALL THRUSTERS ON PLASMA PLUME PROPERTIES

Clusters of Hall thrusters have been proposed as a means of achieving electric propulsion systems capable of operating at very high power levels. To facilitate testing in existing vacuum facilities, initial tests have focused on a cluster of low-power Busek BHT-200-X3 Hall thrusters. A combination of triple Langmuir probes and floating emissive probes is used to study the effects of multi-thruster operation on the electron number density, electron temperature, and plasma potential in the plasma plume. The resultant number density is shown to be a result of linear superposition of the plumes of individual thrusters, while the electron temperature in the cluster plume is measured to be slightly higher than that caused by operation of a single thruster. The plasma potential downstream of the cluster is shown to obey the Boltzmann relation. In the region between the thrusters, the plasma potential increases as a function of downstream distance and may result in reflection of some low-energy charge exchange ions back toward the cluster. A mechanism that may lead to slightly reduced ion beam divergence through focusing of ions directed toward the thruster centerline is discussed.
Estimates of the Skin Cancer Incidence in Zacatecas, México

In the State of Zacatecas, Mexico, 731 histopathologically confirmed cases of skin cancer were recorded: 62.1% (454) were basal cell carcinomas (BCC), 26.3% (191) were squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) and 11.8% (86) were melanomas (M). A significantly higher proportion was observed in women: 58.6%, compared to 41.4% in men. For the ensemble of pathologies, the highest frequency corresponded to the 70-79 age group, with 156 cases (21.4%); next highest was the 50-59 group with 95 cases (13%). However, this type of behavior was not identical for the three pathologies. In the case of melanoma a large number of cases was encountered in the 30-39 age group. With regard to anatomical loca- tion, for BCC the most common site was the face (55.66%), predominantly on the nose, while for SCC it was the lip. The location data indicate that solar UV radiation is a risk factor, since the head is the zone most exposed to solar radiation. Linear regression analysis showed that only the incidence of SCC is progressively increasing (at an annual rate on the or- der of 5%), while BCC and M were randomly distributed in time. Skin cancer incidence, determined by studies histopa- thologically confirmed, was in 2007 for all three pathologies 12 cases of cancer for each 100,000 inhabitants: 7.5 cases of BCC, 3.1 of SCC, and 1.4 of M.
Dietary intakes of children with Crohn's disease

Approximately 25 % of individuals with Crohn's disease (CD), a life-long relapsing-remitting disease, are diagnosed during childhood and adolescence. Symptoms of CD, including abdominal pain, nausea and diarrhoea, can lead to reduced food intake, which may negatively have an impact on nutritional status during this critical period of growth and development. The aims of the present study were to assess the growth and adequacy of dietary intakes of children with CD at Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick, and compare with healthy controls. Sixty-three subjects aged 10–16 years were recruited, including: children with active CD (n 18), children with CD in remission (n 23) and healthy controls (n 22). Dietary intake was assessed using a FFQ and compared with current Australian recommended dietary intakes (RDI). Growth and dietary intakes were compared between groups. Subjects with active CD had lower weight and BMI Z scores than children in remission and controls. The energy intakes of children with active CD and those in remission were significantly lower than estimated energy requirements (P = 0·001 and P = 0·03 respectively). Children with active CD did not meet the RDI for Fe and their Ca intake was lower than the RDI (P = 0·04). In conclusion, the dietary intake of children with active CD was impaired, with inadequate intakes of energy, Ca and Fe. Reduced energy intakes during active disease may contribute to poor weight gain and impaired growth. Quantifying nutrient intake and ascertaining requirements for nutritional supplementation are essential components of successful management in paediatric CD.
The Beauty and the Beast: Vulnerabilities in Red Hat's Packages

In an empirical study of 3241 Red Hat packages, we show that software vulnerabilities correlate with dependencies between packages. With formal concept analysis and statistical hypothesis testing, we identify dependencies that decrease the risk of vulnerabilities ("beauties") or increase the risk ("beasts"). Using support vector machines on dependency data, our prediction models successfully and consistently catch about two thirds of vulnerable packages (median recall of 0.65). When our models predict a package as vulnerable, it is correct more than eight times out of ten (median precision of 0.83). Our findings help developers to choose new dependencies wisely and make them aware of risky dependencies.
Ghost-free spectrum of a quantum string in SL(2,R) curved spacetime.

The unitarity problem in curved spacetime is solved for the string described by the SL(2,{ital R}) Wess-Zumino-Witten (WZW) model. The spectrum is computed exactly and demonstrated to be ghost-free. The new features include (i) SL(2,{ital R}) left-right symmetry currents that have logarithmic cuts on the world sheet but that satisfy the usual local operator products or commutation rules, (ii) physical states consistent with the monodromy condition of closed strings despite the logarithmic singularity in the currents, and (iii) a new free boson realization for these currents which render the SL(2,{ital R}) WZW model completely solvable. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society. }