Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Age and Sex Differences in the Levels of Muscular Activities during Daily Physical Actions

The present study aimed to clarify age and gender differences in the electromyographic (EMG) activity levels of lower limb muscles during daily physical actions. Forty young and 22 elderly individuals performed five physical actions, i.e. normal walking, ascending and descending stairs, standing up from and sitting onto a chair, and a calf raise exercise. The surface electromyograms (EMGs) during these actions were recorded from the vastus medialis, rectus femoris, vastus latelalis, lateral gastrocnemius, medial gastrocnemius, and soleus muscles using a portable EMG recording apparatus. For the prescribed actions, the mean activity levels of the quadriceps femoris (QF%EMG) and triceps surae (TS%EMG) muscles were quantified and expressed as the relative values (%EMG) to that during the maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVC). The %EMG values of QF and TS significantly differed among actions, with significant influences of age and gender. The %EMG of each of QF and TS was negatively correlated to MVC torque relative to body weight, developed in knee extension and ankle plantar flexion, suggesting that the observed age and gender differences in %EMG could be partially attributed to those in torque generation capabilities. Thus, the present findings indicate that the individuals with lower maximal isometric joint torque per body weight demonstrate higher muscular activity levels during daily physical actions. For these populations, the daily physical actions examined here may be resistance exercises for improving the torque generation capability of lower limb muscles.
Heritability of Risk-Taking in Adolescence: A Longitudinal Twin Study

Abstract Adolescents are prone to risk-taking behaviors leading to adverse consequences such as substance abuse, accidents, violence, and victimization. However, little is known about the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to individual differences in the propensity for risk-taking. This study investigated developmental changes, longitudinal stability, and heritability of risk-taking using data from 752 adolescent twins including 169 MZ and 203 DZ pairs. The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART), an experimental behavioral measure of risk taking, was administered to the twins at age 12 and then re-administered to a part of this sample at age 14. Risk-taking increased with age, but individual differences showed a significant longitudinal stability. Genetic model fitting showed that at age 12, heritability of risk-taking was modest but significant in both sexes, whereas at age 14, heritability increased to 55% in males and became nonsignificant in females. The findings suggest that propensity for risk-taking as measured by BART can be a useful endophenotype for genetic studies of adolescent externalizing psychopathology, however, the utility of this measure may be limited by sex differences in heritability.
Inflammatory Cells in Patients with Endstage Knee Osteoarthritis: A Comparison between the Synovium and the Infrapatellar Fat Pad

Objective. To get a better understanding of inflammatory pathways active in the osteoarthritic (OA) joint, we characterized and compared inflammatory cells in the synovium and the infrapatellar fat pad (IFP) of patients with knee OA. Methods. Infiltrating immune cells were characterized by flow cytometry in 76 patients with knee OA (mean age 63.3, 52% women, median body mass index 28.9) from whom synovial tissue (n = 40) and IFP (n = 68) samples were obtained. Pain was assessed by the visual analog scale (VAS; 0–100 mm). Spearman rank correlations and linear regression analyses adjusted for sex and age were performed. Results. Macrophages and T cells, followed by mast cells, were the most predominant immune cells in the synovium and IFP, and were equally abundant in these tissues. Macrophages and T cells secreted mostly proinflammatory cytokines even without additional stimulation, indicating their activated state. Accordingly, most CD4+ T cells had a memory phenotype and contained a significant population of cells expressing activation markers (CD25+, CD69+). Interestingly, the percent of CD69+ T cells was higher in synovial than IFP CD4+ T cells. Preliminary analyses indicated that the number of synovial CD4+ T cells were associated with VAS pain (β 0.51, 95% CI 0.09–1.02, p = 0.02). Conclusion. Our data suggest that the immune cell composition of the synovium and the IFP is similar, and includes activated cells that could contribute to inflammation through secretion of proinflammatory cytokines. Moreover, preliminary analyses indicate that synovial CD4+ T cells might associate with pain in patients with endstage OA of the knee.
Evaluation of a Configural Vital Signs Display for Intensive Care Unit Nurses

Objective: The objective was to evaluate a configural vital signs (CVS) display designed to support rapid detection and identification of physiological deterioration by graphically presenting patient vital signs data. Background: Current display technology in the intensive care unit (ICU) is not optimized for fast recognition and identification of physiological changes in patients. To support nurses more effectively, graphical or configural vital signs displays need to be developed and evaluated. Method: A CVS display was developed based on findings from studies of the cognitive work of ICU nurses during patient monitoring. A total of 42 ICU nurses interpreted data presented either in a traditional, numerical format (n = 21) or on the CVS display (n = 21). Response time and accuracy in clinical data interpretation (i.e., identification of patient status) were assessed across four scenarios. Results: Data interpretation speed and accuracy improved significantly in the CVS display condition; for example, in one scenario nurses required only half of the time for data interpretation and showed up to 1.9 times higher accuracy in identifying the patient state compared to the numerical display condition. Conclusion: Providing patient information in a configural display with readily visible trends and data variability can improve the speed and accuracy of data interpretation by ICU nurses. Application: Although many studies, including this one, support the use of configural displays, the vast majority of ICU monitoring displays still present clinical data in numerical format. The introduction of configural displays in clinical monitoring has potential to improve patient safety.
Women's Experience of Workplace Interactions in Male‐Dominated Work: The Intersections of Gender, Sexuality and Occupational Group

Informal workplace interactions are powerful organizational processes producing inequalities in male-dominated work, where sexuality is frequently employed as a means of control over women. The article considers whether women can derive support from interactions with male and female colleagues, drawing on qualitative research with women working in the UK construction and transport sectors. The article contributes an empirical application of McCall's intercategorical intersectional approach, examining gender, sexuality and occupational group. It highlights the benefits and challenges of extending McCall's multi-group method to qualitative analysis. Stereotypical associations of lesbians with ‘masculine’ work are challenged, showing how gendered and heterosexual norms constrain workplace interactions for both heterosexual women and lesbians. Therefore organizational measures should address not only formal workplace processes, but the informal interactions affecting women's survival in male-dominated work.
The Photometry of Undersampled Point‐Spread Functions

An undersampled point‐spread function (PSF) may interact with the microstructure of a solid‐state detector such that the total flux detected can depend sensitively on where the PSF center falls within a pixel. Such intrapixel sensitivity variations will not be corrected by flat‐field calibration and may limit the accuracy of stellar photometry conducted with undersampled images, as are typical for Hubble Space Telescope observations. The total flux in a stellar image can vary by up to 0.03 mag in F555W WFC images depending on how it is sampled, for example. For NIC3, these variations are especially strong, up to 0.39 mag, strongly limiting its use for stellar photometry. Intrapixel sensitivity variations can be corrected for, however, by constructing a well‐sampled PSF from a dithered data set. The reconstructed PSF is the convolution of the optical PSF with the pixel response. It can be evaluated at any desired fractional pixel location to generate a table of photometric corrections as a function of relative PSF centroid. A caveat is that the centroid of an undersampled PSF can also be affected by the pixel response function; thus sophisticated centroiding methods, such as cross‐correlating the observed PSF with its fully sampled counterpart, are required to derive the proper photometric correction.
Identification of cascaded systems with linear and quantized observations

This paper studies identification of systems which can be decomposed into cascaded subsystems. The benefits of using additional sensors for identifying subsystems are investigated in terms of identification accuracy and time complexity. Identification algorithms, input design, and time complexity are first developed for subsystems, under various sensor types and locations. Overall reduction in estimation errors and time complexity is then analyzed to understand optimal selection of sensor locations and impact of sensor types on identification accuracy and time complexity.
Theoretical evidence for low-spin ground states of early interstitial and late substitutional 3d transition-metal ions in silicon.

Ground-state total energies and spins have been calculated for all interstitial and substitutional $3d$ ions in crystalline Si by use of spin-unrestricted density-functional theory plus the linear muffintin-orbital Green's-function method. The calculated deep donor and acceptor levels reproduce for the first time all experimentally observed transitions. The early $3d$ interstitial ions and the late $3d$ substitutional ions are calculated to have low spin. This is in conflict with the generally accepted model due to Ludwig and Woodbury.
Using Computer-Assisted Instruction and Developmental Theory to Improve Argumentative Writing

A study is described in which the effectiveness of a computer program (Hermes) on improving argumentative writing is tested. One group of students was randomly assigned to a control group and the other was assigned to the experimental group where they are asked to use the Hermes program. All students were asked to write essays on controversial topics to an opposed audience. Their essays were content-analysed for dialectical traits. Based on this analysis, it was concluded that the experimental group wrote more dialectically effective essays than the control group, and the amount of difference between the control and experimental groups was related to the students' intellectual developmental level, as assessed by the Measure of Epistemological Reflection (MER). It is concluded that argumentative writing, operationalized here as dialectical writing, can be improved by computer-assisted instruction, but that attempts to teach such forms of thinking and writing need to take into account students' capacity to benefit from such instruction. Such capacity is defined here as intellectual development.
Targeting Bacterial Persistence to Develop Therapeutics Against Infectious Disease

The application of the prototype antibiotics penicillin and streptomycin to bacterial infection in the 1940’s marked a historic milestone in medicine and heralded a new era of antimicrobial therapy as the modern standard for infectious disease management. Yet, even in those early days of discovery, scientist Joseph Bigger noted an unexplained phenomenon. Although penicillin treatment of Staphylococcus aureus infection killed the great majority of the bacterial population, a small subset of cells (~1 in 105) continued to persist and remained recalcitrant to antibiotic-mediated killing. [1] When re-grown in the absence of antibiotic, the bacterial community once again became sensitive to antibiotic-mediated killing and resembled the original culture (~1 in 105 persisters), providing conclusive proof that these organisms were not drug-resistant strains that had evolved via genetic mutations (in which case all bacteria in the final population would be drug-resistant). (Fig. 1) Instead, persister cells are phenotypic variants that are genetically identical to the susceptible bacterial population, but have modified their physiology to survive environmental stress. These bacteria exhibit antibiotic tolerance that is non-heritable and reversible upon removal of the antibiotic, a completely different phenomenon than the more well-studied antibiotic resistance mechanisms mediated by genetic mutation. Persistence is akin to a community “insurance policy” in which surviving persister cells hedge against unlikely but catastrophic events, while still maintaining near optimal growth at the population level. [2, 3]
Pulmonary radioaerosol mucociliary clearance in diagnosis of primary ciliary dyskinesia.

BACKGROUND Methods relying on nasal ciliary motility for the diagnosis of primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) are often hampered by secondary ciliary dyskinesia. A functional test for pulmonary mucociliary clearance, which is not influenced by secondary nasal ciliary defects, would be a valuable tool in a PCD workup. METHODS The diagnostic validity and repeatability of a pulmonary radioaerosol mucociliary clearance (PRMC) test for the diagnosis of PCD was assessed in the following three sequentially performed substudies: (1) a preliminary cross-sectional study of PRMC in patients with known PCD; (2) a prospective blinded trial of patients referred for suspicion of PCD; and (3) an implementation study of PRMC as a routine method used in a PCD workup. PRMC was studied after (99m)Tc-albumin colloid aerosol inhalation, and the results were compared to (1) the results of nasal ciliary motility studies, (2) ciliary ultrastructure, and (3) the final clinical diagnosis. The repeatability of PRMC was assessed in 14 patients. RESULTS A total of 95 patients, 5 to 74 years of age, were included in the study (57 patients in whom PCD was diagnosed, 26 non-PCD patients, and 12 patients referred for PCD workup without a conclusive workup result). In substudy 1, 14 of 15 patients with known PCD showed impaired PRMC; the results were inconclusive in 1 patient. In substudy 2, among 59 patients referred for PCD workup PRMC test results, compared to nasal ciliary motility, showed a sensitivity of 88% and a specificity of 100%. In substudy 3, among 21 patients referred for PCD investigation who were included in a routine PCD workup after PRMC implementation, 71% of PRMC test results were in alignment with nasal ciliary motility. Repeatability of interpretation was seen in 13 of 14 cases. A conclusive PRMC after only one test was found in 81 of 95 patients (85%). CONCLUSION PRMC is a noninvasive functional test for total tracheobronchial mucociliary clearance with a high sensitivity and specificity for PCD, a high rate of conclusive results after only one test and a further ability to separate PCD from focal pulmonary mucociliary defects.
Gender, the Welfare State, and Public Employment: A Comparative Study of Seven Industrialized Countries

This paper explores the influence of government employment on the gender gap in earnings in seven countries, using data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS). The size of the public sector and womens concentration in government employment varies widely across industrialized countries. We develop and test predictions about how the public/private earnings differential varies across countries. The results indicate marked variation across liberal, conservative, and social democratic welfare states, but reveal a number of uniformities as well. We find that public-sector workers earn more, on average, than those working in the private sector in most countries in our sample. The smallest public-sector earnings premia are found in the social democratic countries and the largest are evident in the liberal welfare states. Thus, public employment provides relatively few but comparatively high-paying jobs for women in liberal welfare state, while the social democracies government positions are more numerous but comparatively low-paying. We discuss the implications of these results for theory and research on gender and the welfare state.
Level of acculturation, food intake, dietary changes, and health status of first‐generation Filipino Americans in Southern California

Purpose: This exploratory descriptive study investigates the acculturation level, food intake, dietary changes and practices, health status perceptions, and diet‐related health indicators—body mass index (BMI), waist and hip circumferences, and waist‐to‐hip ratio—of first‐generation Filipino Americans (FAs) in Southern California. Data sources: Healthy FA adults—20 women and 10 men—were interviewed. Acculturation level was obtained using A Short Acculturation Scale for Filipino Americans. A 24‐h dietary recall elicited their food intake. Survey questions revealed dietary changes and practices, health status perceptions, and sociodemographic characteristics. Height, weight, waist and hip circumferences were measured. Conclusions: FAs consider themselves more Filipino than American, but their acculturation level reflects transitioning into biculturalism. FAs relinquish, maintain, and adapt elements of both Philippine and U.S. cultures in food intake, dietary changes, and practices. Although FAs perceive their health status as very good to excellent, many exceed the cut‐off points for BMI, waist circumference, and waist‐to‐hip ratio. Implications for practice: This study underscores the importance of nurse practitioners and other healthcare givers conducting cultural dietary assessment as a basis for culturally appropriate dietary counseling. The inclusion of waist measurement to regularly monitor abdominal obesity—a predictor of cardiovascular disease and diabetes–is highly recommended.
Classification probability analysis of principal component null space analysis

In a previous paper, we have presented a new linear classification algorithm, principal component null space analysis (PCNSA) which is designed for problems like object recognition where different classes have unequal and non-white noise covariance matrices. PCNSA first obtains a principal components space (PCA space) for the entire data and in this PCA space, it finds for each class "i", an M/sub i/ dimensional subspace along which the class's intra-class variance is the smallest. We call this subspace an approximate null space (ANS) since the lowest variance is usually "much smaller" than the highest. A query is classified into class "i" if its distance from the class's mean in the class's ANS is a minimum. In this paper, we discuss the PCNSA algorithm more precisely and derive tight upper bounds on its classification error probability. We use these expressions to compare classification performance of PCNSA with that of subspace linear discriminant analysis (SLDA).
Wnt5a Mediates Nerve Growth Factor-Dependent Axonal Branching and Growth in Developing Sympathetic Neurons

Nerve growth factor (NGF) is a potent survival and axon growth factor for neuronal populations in the peripheral nervous system. Although the mechanisms by which target-derived NGF influences survival of innervating neurons have been extensively investigated, its regulation of axonal growth and target innervation are just being elucidated. Here, we identify Wnt5a, a member of the Wnt family of secreted growth factors, as a key downstream effector of NGF in mediating axonal branching and growth in developing sympathetic neurons. Wnt5a is robustly expressed in sympathetic neurons when their axons are innervating NGF-expressing targets. NGF:TrkA signaling enhances neuronal expression of Wnt5a. Wnt5a rapidly induces axon branching while it has a long-term effect on promoting axon extension. Loss of Wnt5a function revealed that it is necessary for NGF-dependent axonal branching and growth, but not survival, in vitro. Furthermore, Wnt5a−/− mice display reduced innervation of NGF-expressing target tissues, and a subsequent increase in neuronal apoptosis, in vivo. Wnt5a functions in developing sympathetic neurons by locally activating protein kinase C in axons. Together, our findings define a novel regulatory pathway in which Wnt5a, expressed in sympathetic neurons in response to target-derived NGF, regulates innervation of peripheral targets.
[The role of high-resolution CT in the preoperative assessment of chronic otitis media].

OBJECTIVE To assess the high-resolution CT scan in depicting the middle ear structures. METHOD The surgical findings of 51 ears operated on were retrospectively compared with the CT findings. The followings were analysed: diagnostic features of chronic otitis media (COM) on CT status of the middle ear structures (ossicles, facial nerve canal, semicircular canals and tegmen tympani), and anatomical variations. RESULT The radio-surgical agreement was excellent for the malleus (kappa statistics, k = 0.840) and tegmen (0.788), good for the incus (0.700) and semicircular canals (0.56), but poor for the stapes (0.366) and facial nerve dehiscence (0.310). Potential surgical hazards detected by the scans included: Low lying dura, high jugular bulb, anterior lying sigmoid sinus, facial nerve dehiscence and other situations brought about by the destructive nature of the lesion. CONCLUSION There is a good radio-surgical correlation in COM for most middle ear structures except for the integrity of the facial canal and stapes. The scan alerts the surgeon the potential surgical dangers and complications of disease. High-resolution CT scan should be a routine examination prior to middle ear and mastoid surgery.
Political Knowledge and Electoral Choice in the 1992–2004 United States Presidential Elections: Are More and Less Informed Citizens Distinguishable?

This study estimates an individual-level model of turnout and vote choice in United States presidential elections. Extending a methodology proposed by Bartels (1996), the model allows one to assess whether the electoral choices of citizens would change if they were more knowledgeable about politics, and if such changes have implications for aggregate election results. Simulations of hypothetical electorates under different assumptions about the distribution of political knowledge show that while some citizens would change their votes if more knowledgeable, the primary effects of increasing voter knowledge is to raise turnout levels and to solidify preexisting vote tendencies. The few vote changes that result from increased political knowledge largely average out in aggregation. Increased turnout resulting from a more informed electorate, however, favors Democratic candidates in two of the four studied elections. [A] people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.1 -James Madison