Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Usefulness of Mean and Median Frequencies in Electromyography Analysis

Rich useful information can be obtained from the muscles and researchers can use such information in a wide class of clinical and engineering applications by measuring surface electromyography (EMG) signals (Merletti & Parker, 2004). Normally, EMG signals are acquired by surface electrodes that are placed on the skin superimposed on the targeted muscle. In order to use the EMG signal as a diagnosis signal or a control signal, a feature is often extracted before performing analysis or classification stage (Phinyomark et al., 2012a) because a lot of information, both useful information and noise (Phinyomark et al., 2012b), is contained in the raw EMG data. An EMG feature is a distinct characteristic of the signal that can be described or observed quantitatively, such as being large or small, spiky or smooth, and fast or slow. Generally, EMG features can be computed in numerical form from a finite length time interval and can change as a function of time, i.e. a voltage or a frequency. They can be computed in several domains, such as time domain, frequency domain, timefrequency and time-scale representations (Boostani & Moradi, 2003). However, frequencydomain features show the better performance than other-domain features in case of the assessing muscle fatigue (Al-Mulla et al., 2012). Mean frequency (MNF) and median frequency (MDF) are the most useful and popular frequency-domain features (Phinyomark et al., 2009) and frequently used for the assessment of muscle fatigue in surface EMG signals (Cifrek et al., 2009).
Impact of renal impairment on platelet reactivity and clinical outcomes during chronic dual antiplatelet therapy following coronary stenting.

AIMS Clinical utilization of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) in patients with renal impairment (RI) following percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) represents an urgent, unmet need choosing optimal agents, duration of treatment, and potential dose/regimen adjustment. The lack of any large randomized trials specifically in RI patients, and the absence of the uniformed clinical data reporting policy, clouds the reality. Moreover, triaging RI patients is problematic due to ongoing kidney deterioration, and the fact that RI patients are prone to both vascular occlusions and bleeding. METHODS AND RESULTS Seven hundred and one Korean patients receiving DAPT with aspirin 100 mg/daily and clopidogrel 75 mg/daily after PCI were prospectively enrolled in the study. Patients were dichotomized into five groups according to RI: estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) >90 mL/min/1.73 m(2) (RI1), 60-89 mL/min/1.73 m(2) (RI2), 30-59 mL/min/1.73 m(2) (RI3), <30 mL/min/1.73 m(2) (RI4), and undergoing dialysis (RI5). Major adverse clinical events (MACEs; cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, stent thrombosis, and stroke) were collected for 1 year. Platelet reactivity by VerifyNow™ assay and eGFR were simultaneously assessed at 1 month after maintenance DAPT. Patients with RI exhibited a gradual significant increase of residual platelet reactivity during DAPT, dependent on eGFR deterioration [191 ± 72 PRU (RI1) vs. 216 ± 78 PRU (RI2) vs. 248 ± 80 PRU (RI3) vs. 264 ± 70 PRU (RI4) vs. 317 ± 96 PRU (RI5), P < 0.001] being the highest in the dialyses group. Declined eGFR has been gradually associated with advancing age (OR = 1.03, 95% CI = 1.00-1.05; P = 0.032), female gender (OR = 1.7, 95% CI = 1.1-2.5; P = 0.01), diminished smoking rates (OR = 0.6, 95% CI = 0.37-1.00; P = 0.05), hypertension (OR = 1.8, 95% CI = 1.3-2.5; P < 0.001); diabetes (OR = 1.5, 95% CI = 1.1-2.1; P = 0.007), and MACE (HR = 13.9; 95% CI = 1.6-124.3; P = 0.02 for RI4; and HR = 31.9; 95% CI = 2.9-351.9; P = 0.005 for dialysis), but not for bleeding (P = 0.143). Major adverse clinical event risks still remained significant for RI4 (P = 0.027) and RI5 (P = 0.002) by multivariate Cox hazard regression estimates. CONCLUSION Renal impairment is associated with gradual elevation of residual platelet reactivity while on DAPT, enhancing MACE risks, but not bleeding events. These data should be confirmed in a large randomized outcome-driven trial, and may justify future maintenance-phase DAPT regimen/dose adjustment in RI patients.
The Response of Aboveground Net Primary Productivity of Desert Vegetation to Rainfall Pulse in the Temperate Desert Region of Northwest China

Rainfall events can be characterized as “pulses”, which are discrete and variable episodes that can significantly influence the structure and function of desert ecosystems, including shifts in aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP). To determine the threshold and hierarchical response of rainfall event size on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI, a proxy for ANPP) and the difference across a desert area in northwestern China with two habitats – dune and desert – we selected 17 independent summer rainfall events from 2005 to 2012, and obtained a corresponding NDVI dataset extracted from MODIS images. Based on the threshold-delay model and statistical analysis, the results showed that the response of NDVI to rainfall pulses began at about a 5 mm event size. Furthermore, when the rainfall event size was more than 30 mm, NDVI rapidly increased 3- to 6-fold compared with the response to events of less than 30 mm, suggesting that 30 mm was the threshold for a large NDVI response. These results revealed the importance of the 5 mm and 30 mm rainfall events for plant survival and growth in desert regions. There was an 8- to 16-day lag time between the rainfall event and the NDVI response, and the response duration varied with rainfall event size, reaching a maximum of 32 days. Due to differences in soil physical and mineralogical properties, and to biodiversity structure and the root systems' abilities to exploit moisture, dune and desert areas differed in precipitation responses: dune habitats were characterized by a single, late summer productivity peak; in contrast, deserts showed a multi-peak pattern throughout the growing season.
Dietary patterns and bone mineral status in young adults : the Northern Ireland

Studies of individual nutrients or foods have revealed much about dietary influences on bone. Multiple food or nutrient approaches, such as dietary pattern analysis, could offer further insight but research is limited and largely confined to older adults. We examined the relationship between dietary patterns, obtained by a posteriori and a priori methods, and bone mineral status (BMS; collective term for bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD)) in young adults (20–25 years; n 489). Diet was assessed by 7 d diet history and BMD and BMC were determined at the lumbar spine and femoral neck (FN). A posteriori dietary patterns were derived using principal component analysis (PCA) and three a priori dietary quality scores were applied (dietary diversity score (DDS), nutritional risk score and Mediterranean diet score). For the PCA-derived dietary patterns, women in the top compared to the bottom fifth of the ‘Nuts and Meat’ pattern had greater FN BMD by 0·074 g/cm (P1⁄40·049) and FN BMC by 0·40 g (P1⁄40·034) after adjustment for confounders. Similarly, men in the top compared to the bottom fifth of the ‘Refined’ pattern had lower FN BMC by 0·41 g (P1⁄40·049). For the a priori DDS, women in the top compared to the bottom third had lower FN BMD by 0·05 g/cm after adjustments (P1⁄40·052), but no other relationships with BMS were identified. In conclusion, adherence to a ‘Nuts and Meat’ dietary pattern may be associated with greater BMS in young women and a ‘Refined’ dietary pattern may be detrimental for bone health in young men.
Hype and Heavy Tails: A Closer Look at Data Breaches

Recent widely publicized data breaches have exposed thepersonal information of hundreds of millions of people. Somereports point to alarming increases in both the size and fre-quency of data breaches, spurring institutions around theworld to address what appears to be a worsening situation.But, is the problem actually growing worse? In this paper,we study a popular public dataset and develop BayesianGeneralized Linear Models to investigate trends in databreaches. Analysis of the model shows that neither sizenor frequency of data breaches has increased over the pastdecade. We nd that the increases that have attracted at-tention can be explained by the heavy-tailed statistical dis-tributions underlying the dataset. Speci cally, we nd thatdata breach size is log-normally distributed and that thedaily frequency of breaches is described by a negative bi-nomial distribution. These distributions may provide cluesto the generative mechanisms that are responsible for thebreaches. Additionally, our model predicts the likelihood ofbreaches of a particular size in the future. For example, we nd that in the next year there is only a 31% chance of abreach of 10 million records or more in the US. Regardlessof any trend, data breaches are costly, and we combine themodel with two di erent cost models to project that in thenext three years breaches could cost up to $55 billion.
Self microemulsefying and non-self microemulsefying liquisolid tablet of felodipine -

Liquisolid formulation involves dissolution or dispersion of the drug in a liquid before formulation of solid dosage form using solid adsorbent as a carrier. The liquid component usually utilizes simple solvent system. Self emulsifying liquids can provide another alternative liquid for enhanced dissolution. The objective of this work was to develop and evaluate non-self emulsifying and self emulsifying liquisolid tablet for enhanced dissolution rate of felodipine. The former utilized polyethylene glycol 400 which was the best solvent and the later employed a mixture of castor oil with labrasol and transcutol as self emulsifying system. A mixture of avicel PH 102 and aerosil 200 was used as solid adsorbent with croscarmellose being used as superdisintegrent. Formulation of the drug as liquisolid tablets enhanced the dissolution rate compared with the standard tablet prepared using the unprocessed drug powder with the same tablet excipients. The self emulsifying tablet showed faster release pattern compared with the non-self emulsifying tablet. The thermal analysis studies indicated the presence of the drug in a solution form in the tablet formulations. In conclusion liquisolid tablet formulation can enhance the dissolution rate of felodipine with self emulsifying liquid system being more efficient.
Cellular and Site-Specific Mitochondrial Characterization of Vital Human Amniotic Membrane

Over a century ago, clinicians started to use the human amniotic membrane for coverage of wounds and burn injuries. To date, literally thousands of different clinical applications exist for this biomaterial almost exclusively in a decellularized or denuded form. Recent reconsiderations for the use of vital human amniotic membrane for clinical applications would take advantage of the versatile cells of embryonic origin including the entirety of their cell organelles. Recently, more and more evidence was found, showing mitochondria to be involved in most fundamental cellular processes, such as differentiation and cell death. In this study, we focused on specific properties of mitochondria of vital human amniotic membrane and characterized bioenergetical parameters of 2 subregions of the human amniotic membrane, the placental and reflected amnion. We found significantly different levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and extracellular reactive oxygen species, concentrations of succinate dehydrogenase, and lactate upon inhibition of ATP synthase in placental and reflected amnion. We also found significantly different rates of mitochondrial respiration in isolated human amniotic epithelial cells and human amniotic mesenchymal stromal cells, according to the subregions. Differences in metabolic activities were inversely related to mitochondrial DNA copy numbers in isolated cells of placental and reflected amnion. Based on significant differences of several key parameters of energy metabolism in 2 subregions of vital amnion, we propose that these metabolic differences of vital placental and reflected amnion could have critical impact on therapeutic applications. Inclusion of region-specific metabolic properties could optimize and fine-tune the clinical application of the human amniotic membrane and improve the outcome significantly.
Integrating the Automatic and the Controlled: Strategies in Semantic Priming in an Attractor Network With Latching Dynamics

Semantic priming has long been recognized to reflect, along with automatic semantic mechanisms, the contribution of controlled strategies. However, previous theories of controlled priming were mostly qualitative, lacking common grounds with modern mathematical models of automatic priming based on neural networks. Recently, we introduced a novel attractor network model of automatic semantic priming with latching dynamics. Here, we extend this work to show how the same model can also account for important findings regarding controlled processes. Assuming the rate of semantic transitions in the network can be adapted using simple reinforcement learning, we show how basic findings attributed to controlled processes in priming can be achieved, including their dependency on stimulus onset asynchrony and relatedness proportion and their unique effect on associative, category-exemplar, mediated and backward prime-target relations. We discuss how our mechanism relates to the classic expectancy theory and how it can be further extended in future developments of the model.
In vitro pharmacodynamic evaluation of antiviral medicinal plants using a vector‐based assay technique

Aims: Medicinal plants are increasingly being projected as suitable alternative sources of antiviral agents. The development of a suitable in vitro pharmacodynamic screening technique could contribute to rapid identification of potential bioactive plants and also to the standardization and/or pharmacokinetic–pharmacodynamic profiling of the bioactive components.
Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy in Compared to Traditional Therapy in Chronic Post-stroke patients

Introduction: Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) forces the use of the affected side by restraining the unaffected side. The purpose of this article is to explore the changes of motor and functional performance after modified CIMT (mCIMT) in comparison with traditional rehabilitation (TR) in chronic post-stroke patients. Material and Methods: A total of 12 patients randomly assigned into two treatment groups. Six patients in the mCIMT group received intensive training in a more affected limb for 2 hours daily, 5 days/week using shaping method over a period of 21 days. Participants less affected limb were restrained in arm - hand splint with a target of wearing it for 5 hours daily. The patients in TR group received bimanual and unilateral activities, stretching, strengthening and coordination exercises of the impaired side, tone modification and coordination exercises of the affected side. The focus was to increase independence in activities of daily living activities using affected side. The motor activity log (MAL), wolf motor function test (WMFT), and modified ashworth scale were measured at pre-test (1 day before training), post- test (1 day after training) and follow-up in 3 weeks after training. Results: The Friedman test found significant differences between pre-test, post-test, and follow-up in MAL and WMFT in mCIMT group. Furthermore, mCIMT group showed significant decreased spasticity (P = 0.030) that measured by ash worth scale. The effect sizes between post-test and pre-test in the above-mentioned outcome measures were moderate to large in mCIMT, ranging from 0.3 to 0.76, but in TR group the effect size were small, ranging from 0 to 0.2. Conclusion: Therefore, it seems that the mCIMT treatment was more effective than TR in improving some parameters.
Crater Lake Apoyo Revisited - Population Genetics of an Emerging Species Flock

The polytypic Nicaraguan Midas cichlids ( Amphilophus cf. citrinellus) have been established as a model system for studying the mechanisms of speciation and patterns of diversification in allopatry and sympatry. The species assemblage in Crater Lake Apoyo has been accepted as a textbook example for sympatric speciation. Here, we present a first comprehensive data set of population genetic (mtDNA & AFLPs) proxies of species level differentiation for a representative set of individuals of all six endemic Amphilophus species occurring in Crater Lake Apoyo. AFLP genetic differentiation was partitioned into a neutral and non-neutral component based on outlier-loci detection approaches, and patterns of species divergence were explored with Bayesian clustering methods. Substantial levels of admixture between species were detected, indicating different levels of reproductive isolation between the six species. Analysis of neutral genetic variation revealed several A . zaliosus as being introgressed by an unknown contributor, hereby rendering the sympatrically evolving L. Apoyo flock polyphyletic. This is contrasted by the mtDNA analysis delivering a clear monophyly signal with Crater Lake Apoyo private haplotypes characterising all six described species, but also demonstrating different demographic histories as inferred from pairwise mismatch distributions.
Aspirin reduces lipopolysaccharide-induced pulmonary inflammation in human models of ARDS

Rationale Platelets play an active role in the pathogenesis of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Animal and observational studies have shown aspirin's antiplatelet and immunomodulatory effects may be beneficial in ARDS. Objective To test the hypothesis that aspirin reduces inflammation in clinically relevant human models that recapitulate pathophysiological mechanisms implicated in the development of ARDS. Methods Healthy volunteers were randomised to receive placebo or aspirin 75 or 1200 mg (1:1:1) for seven days prior to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) inhalation, in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, allocation-concealed study. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) was performed 6 hours after inhaling 50 µg of LPS. The primary outcome measure was BAL IL-8. Secondary outcome measures included markers of alveolar inflammation (BAL neutrophils, cytokines, neutrophil proteases), alveolar epithelial cell injury, systemic inflammation (neutrophils and plasma C-reactive protein (CRP)) and platelet activation (thromboxane B2, TXB2). Human lungs, perfused and ventilated ex vivo (EVLP) were randomised to placebo or 24 mg aspirin and injured with LPS. BAL was carried out 4 hours later. Inflammation was assessed by BAL differential cell counts and histological changes. Results In the healthy volunteer (n=33) model, data for the aspirin groups were combined. Aspirin did not reduce BAL IL-8. However, aspirin reduced pulmonary neutrophilia and tissue damaging neutrophil proteases (Matrix Metalloproteinase (MMP)-8/-9), reduced BAL concentrations of tumour necrosis factor α and reduced systemic and pulmonary TXB2. There was no difference between high-dose and low-dose aspirin. In the EVLP model, aspirin reduced BAL neutrophilia and alveolar injury as measured by histological damage. Conclusions These are the first prospective human data indicating that aspirin inhibits pulmonary neutrophilic inflammation, at both low and high doses. Further clinical studies are indicated to assess the role of aspirin in the prevention and treatment of ARDS. Trial registration number NCT01659307 Results.
The accuracy and acceptability of performing capillary blood glucose measurements at the earlobe.

AIMS To examine the accuracy and acceptability of capillary blood glucose monitoring using the earlobe. BACKGROUND In current practice, blood samples for capillary blood glucose monitoring are obtained from the fingertip. Because obtaining blood samples from the fingertip is sometimes contraindicated, it is necessary to identify an alternative site for the procedure. DESIGN A single-patient design with repeated measurements. METHODS Patients from an outpatient clinic and four medical wards were recruited to the study, in 2014, if they met one of the following criteria: (i) were in a relatively stable glycaemic state; (ii) were currently receiving intravenous infusion; (iii) had been diagnosed with chronic renal impairment or (iv) were aged 65 years or above and bedbound. Blood samples were obtained from the fingertip and the earlobe consecutively for blood glucose monitoring. Participants were asked to rate the respective pain level caused by the procedures. Intra-class correlation coefficient was calculated to demonstrate the level of absolute agreement between the two blood glucose readings. The Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to compare the pain levels. RESULTS A total of 120 patients participated in the study between February - December 2014. The intra-class correlation coefficient between the readings at the two sampling sites was significantly high, except in a hypoglycaemic state. Participants generally reported a significantly lower level of pain when the earlobe rather than fingertip was pricked. CONCLUSION The earlobe is to be recommended as a safe alternative site for capillary blood glucose monitoring unless the patient is in a suspected hypoglycaemic state.
Assessing the Goodness of Fit of Phylogenetic Comparative Methods: A Meta-Analysis and Simulation Study

Background Phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs) have been applied widely in analyzing data from related species but their fit to data is rarely assessed. Question Can one determine whether any particular comparative method is typically more appropriate than others by examining comparative data sets? Data I conducted a meta-analysis of 122 phylogenetic data sets found by searching all papers in JEB, Blackwell Synergy and JSTOR published in 2002–2005 for the purpose of assessing the fit of PCMs. The number of species in these data sets ranged from 9 to 117. Analysis Method I used the Akaike information criterion to compare PCMs, and then fit PCMs to bivariate data sets through REML analysis. Correlation estimates between two traits and bootstrapped confidence intervals of correlations from each model were also compared. Conclusions For phylogenies of less than one hundred taxa, the Independent Contrast method and the independent, non-phylogenetic models provide the best fit.For bivariate analysis, correlations from different PCMs are qualitatively similar so that actual correlations from real data seem to be robust to the PCM chosen for the analysis. Therefore, researchers might apply the PCM they believe best describes the evolutionary mechanisms underlying their data.