Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A randomized outcome evaluation of group exercise programs in long-term care institutions.

BACKGROUND Physical activity programs in nursing homes typically consist of seated, range of motion (ROM) exercises, regardless of resident abilities. The Functional Fitness for Long-Term Care (FFLTC) Program was designed not only to maintain ROM, but also to improve strength, balance, flexibility, mobility, and function. In addition, it was tailored to meet the needs of both high and low mobility residents. METHODS The feasibility and efficacy of the FFLTC Program were evaluated with 68 residents (mean age 80) from five institutions. Persons were classified as low or high mobility and randomized into either the FFLTC program or a seated ROM program. Classes were conducted in groups of 4 to 10 residents by trained facility staff for 45 minutes, three times per week. Assessments at baseline and 4 months consisted of mobility, balance, gait, flexibility, functional capacity, and several upper and lower extremity strength measures. RESULTS Attendance averaged 86% for the FFLTC and 79% for the ROM classes. Four months of exercise led to significant improvements in mobility (16%), balance (9%), flexibility (36%), knee (55%), and hip (12%) strength for the FFLTC group. Shoulder strength was the only improvement found for the ROM group. The ROM group significantly deteriorated in some areas, particularly hip strength, mobility, and functional ability. CONCLUSIONS Institutionalized seniors, even those who are physically frail, incontinent and/or have mild dementia, can respond positively to a challenging exercise program. The FFLTC program demonstrated clear benefits over typical, seated ROM exercises. Moreover, with minimal training, the program can be safely delivered at low cost by institutional staff and volunteers.
Convolutional Regression for Visual Tracking

Recently, discriminatively learned correlation filters (DCF) has attracted much attention in visual object tracking community. The success of DCF is potentially attributed to the fact that a large number of samples are utilized to train the ridge regression model and predict the location of an object. To solve the regression problem in an efficient way, these samples are all generated by circularly shifting from a searching patch. However, these synthetic samples also induce some negative effects that weaken the robustness of DCF-based trackers. In this paper, we propose a new approach to learn the regression model for visual tracking with single convolutional layer. Instead of learning the linear regression model in a closed form, we try to solve the regression problem by optimizing a one-channel-output convolution layer with gradient descent (GD). In particular, the kernel size of the convolution layer is set to the size of the object. Contrary to DCF, it is possible to incorporate all “real” samples clipped from the whole image. A critical issue of the GD approach is that most of the convolutional samples are negative and the contribution of positive samples will be suppressed. To address this problem, we propose a novel objective function to eliminate easy negatives and enhance positives. We perform extensive experiments on four widely used datasets: OTB-100, OTB-50, TempleColor, and VOT-2016. The results show that the proposed algorithm achieves outstanding performance and outperforms most of the existing DCF-based algorithms.
Pharmacological validation of a novel nonhuman primate measure of thermal responsivity with utility for predicting analgesic effects

Introduction The development of novel analgesics to treat acute or chronic pain has been a challenge due to a lack of translatable measurements. Preclinical end points with improved translatability are necessary to more accurately inform clinical testing paradigms, which may help guide selection of viable drug candidates. Methods In this study, a nonhuman primate biomarker which is sensitive to standard analgesics at clinically relevant plasma concentrations, can differentiate analgesia from sedation and utilizes a protocol very similar to that which can be employed in human clinical studies is described. Specifically, acute heat stimuli were delivered to the volar forearm using a contact heat thermode in the same manner as the clinical setting. Results Clinically efficacious exposures of morphine, fentanyl, and tramadol produced robust analgesic effects, whereas doses of diazepam that produce sedation had no effect. Conclusion We propose that this assay has predictive utility that can help improve the probability of success for developing novel analgesics.
The meaning of anti-Müllerian hormone levels in patients at a high risk of poor ovarian response

Measurements of ovarian reserve play an important role in predicting the clinical results of assisted reproductive technology (ART). The ideal markers of ovarian reserve for clinical applications should have high specificity in order to determine genuine poor responders. Basal follicle-stimulating hormone levels, antral follicle count, and serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels have been suggested as ovarian reserve tests that may fulfill this requirement, with serum AMH levels being the most promising parameter. Serum AMH levels have been suggested to be a predictor of clinical pregnancy in ART for older women, who are at a high risk for decreased ovarian response. We reviewed the prognostic significance of ovarian reserve tests for patients undergoing ART treatment, with a particular focus on the significance of serum AMH levels in patients at a high risk of poor ovarian response.
The Role of Gamification in Participatory Environmental Sensing: A Study In the Wild

Participatory sensing (PS) and citizen science hold promises for a genuinely interactive and inclusive citizen engagement in meaningful and sustained collection of data about social and environmental phenomena. Yet the underlying motivations for public engagement in PS remain still unclear particularly regarding the role of gamification, for which HCI research findings are often inconclusive. This paper reports the findings of an experimental study specifically designed to further understand the effects of gamification on citizen engagement. Our study involved the development and implementation of two versions (gamified and non-gamified) of a mobile application designed to capture lake ice coverage data in the sub-arctic region. Emerging findings indicate a statistically significant effect of gamification on participants' engagement levels in PS. The motivation, approach and results of our study are outlined and implications of the findings for future PS design are reflected.
The Water Circuit of the Plants - Do Plants have Hearts ?

There is a correspondence between the circulation of blood in all higher animals and the circulation of sap in all higher plants - up to heights h of 140 m - through the xylem and phloem vessels. Plants suck in water from the soil, osmotically through the roothair zone, and subsequently lift it osmotically again, and by capillary suction (via their buds, leaves, and fruits) into their crowns. In between happens a reverse osmosis - the endodermis jump - realized by two layers of subcellular mechanical pumps in the endodermis walls which are powered by ATP, or in addition by two analogous layers of such pumps in the exodermis. The thus established root pressure helps forcing the absorbed ground water upward, through the whole plant, and often out again, in the form of guttation, or exudation.
Compact Modeling of Drain Current, Charges, and Capacitances in Long-Channel Gate-All-Around Negative Capacitance MFIS Transistor

In this paper, we present a surface potential-based explicit continuous model for a metal-ferroelectric-insulator-semiconductor (MFIS) type gate-all-around negative capacitance transistor (GAA-NCFET). Unlike previously reported models, an explicit formulation to calculate the electrical characteristics of GAA-NCFET is proposed. Our model includes the radial dependence of the electric field in the ferroelectric, ignored in the previous works and accurately captures ferroelectric material parameter variations in the nonhysteretic regime. In contrast to bulk NCFETs, GAA-NCFET characteristics show different bias dependence due to the absence of bulk charge. We also present analytical expressions for the terminal charges which are essential to obtain the trans-capacitances for transient simulations. We find that, compared with conventional MOSFETs, the gate charge saturates to a different fraction of its maximum value. Furthermore, the modeling of quantum mechanical effect and overlap capacitances in an MFIS NCFET structure is discussed. Finally, the proposed model has been implemented in Verilog-A and tested for the transient response of ring oscillator in a commercial circuit simulator.
Seasonal bat activity related to insect emergence at three temperate lakes

Abstract Knowledge of aquatic food resources entering terrestrial systems is important for food web studies and conservation planning. Bats, among other terrestrial consumers, often profit from aquatic insect emergence and their activity might be closely related to such events. However, there is a lack of studies which monitor bat activity simultaneously with aquatic insect emergence, especially from lakes. Thus, our aim was to understand the relationship between insect emergence and bat activity, and investigate whether there is a general spatial or seasonal pattern at lakeshores. We assessed whole‐night bat activity using acoustic monitoring and caught emerging and aerial flying insects at three different lakes through three seasons. We predicted that insect availability and seasonality explain the variation in bat activity, independent of the lake size and characteristics. Spatial (between lakes) differences of bat activity were stronger than temporal (seasonal) differences. Bat activity did not always correlate to insect emergence, probably because other factors, such as habitat characteristics, or bats’ energy requirements, play an important role as well. Aerial flying insects explained bat activity better than the emerged aquatic insects in the lake with lowest insect emergence. Bats were active throughout the night with some activity peaks, and the pattern of their activity also differed among lakes and seasons. Lakes are important habitats for bats, as they support diverse bat communities and activity throughout the night and the year when bats are active. Our study highlights that there are spatial and temporal differences in bat activity and its hourly nocturnal pattern, that should be considered when investigating aquatic–terrestrial interactions or designing conservation and monitoring plans.
Physical Keyboards in Virtual Reality: Analysis of Typing Performance and Effects of Avatar Hands

Entering text is one of the most common tasks when interacting with computing systems. Virtual Reality (VR) presents a challenge as neither the user's hands nor the physical input devices are directly visible. Hence, conventional desktop peripherals are very slow, imprecise, and cumbersome. We developed a apparatus that tracks the user's hands, and a physical keyboard, and visualize them in VR. In a text input study with 32 participants, we investigated the achievable text entry speed and the effect of hand representations and transparency on typing performance, workload, and presence. With our apparatus, experienced typists benefited from seeing their hands, and reach almost outside-VR performance. Inexperienced typists profited from semi-transparent hands, which enabled them to type just 5.6 WPM slower than with a regular desktop setup. We conclude that optimizing the visualization of hands in VR is important, especially for inexperienced typists, to enable a high typing performance.
Modeling the Present and Future Incidence of Pediatric Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease Associated with Ambient Temperature in Mainland China

Background: There is limited evidence about the association between ambient temperature and the incidence of pediatric hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) nationwide in China. Objectives: We examined the childhood temperature-HFMD associations across mainland China, and we projected the change in HFMD cases due to projected temperature change by the 2090s. Methods: Data on daily HFMD (children 0–14 y old) counts and weather were collected from 362 sites during 2009–2014. Daily temperature by the 2090s was downscaled under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios. Temperature-HFMD associations were quantified using a two-stage Poisson regression with a distributed lag nonlinear model. The impact of changes in temperature on the incidence of HFMD was estimated by combining the fitted temperature-HFMD associations with projected temperatures under each scenario, assuming a constant population structure. Sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the influence of primary model assumptions. Results: During 2009–2014, >11 million HFMD cases were reported. In most regions, the temperature-HFMD association had an inverted U shape with a peak at approximately 20°C, but the association leveled off or continued to increase in the Inner Mongolia and Northeast regions. When estimates were pooled across all regions and the population size was held constant, the projected incidence of HFMD increased by 3.2% [95% empirical confidence interval (eCI): −13.5%, 20.0%] and 5.3% (95% eCI: −33.3%, 44.0%) by the 2090s under the RCP 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios, respectively. However, regional projections suggest that HFMD may decrease with climate change in temperate areas of central and eastern China. Conclusion: Our estimates suggest that the association between temperature and HFMD varies across China and that the future impact of climate change on HFMD incidence will vary as well. Other factors, including changes in the size of the population at risk (children 0–14 y old) will also influence future HFMD trends. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP3062
Accuracy Time User Preference Accuracy Time User Preference Find Anomalies Scatterplot

Visualizations of tabular data are widely used; understanding their effectiveness in different task and data contexts is fundamental to scaling their impact. However, little is known about how basic tabular data visualizations perform across varying data analysis tasks. In this paper, we report results from a crowdsourced experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of five small scale (5-34 data points) two-dimensional visualization types—Table, Line Chart, Bar Chart, Scatterplot, and Pie Chart—across ten common data analysis tasks using two datasets. We find the effectiveness of these visualization types significantly varies across task, suggesting that visualization design would benefit from considering context-dependent effectiveness. Based on our findings, we derive recommendations on which visualizations to choose based on different tasks. We finally train a decision tree on the data we collected to drive a recommender, showcasing how to effectively engineer experimental user data into practical visualization systems.
ClaimRank: Detecting Check-Worthy Claims in Arabic and English

We present ClaimRank, an online system for detecting check-worthy claims. While originally trained on political debates, the system can work for any kind of text, e.g., interviews or just regular news articles. Its aim is to facilitate manual fact-checking efforts by prioritizing the claims that fact-checkers should consider first. ClaimRank supports both Arabic and English, it is trained on actual annotations from nine reputable fact-checking organizations (PolitiFact, FactCheck, ABC, CNN, NPR, NYT, Chicago Tribune, The Guardian, and Washington Post), and thus it can mimic the claim selection strategies for each and any of them, as well as for the union of them all.
Massively Parallel Cross-Lingual Learning in Low-Resource Target Language Translation

We work on translation from rich-resource languages to low-resource languages. The main challenges we identify are the lack of low-resource language data, effective methods for cross-lingual transfer, and the variable-binding problem that is common in neural systems. We build a translation system that addresses these challenges using eight European language families as our test ground. Firstly, we add the source and the target family labels and study intra-family and inter-family influences for effective cross-lingual transfer. We achieve an improvement of +9.9 in BLEU score for English-Swedish translation using eight families compared to the single-family multi-source multi-target baseline. Moreover, we find that training on two neighboring families closest to the low-resource language is often enough. Secondly, we construct an ablation study and find that reasonably good results can be achieved even with considerably less target data. Thirdly, we address the variable-binding problem by building an order-preserving named entity translation model. We obtain 60.6% accuracy in qualitative evaluation where our translations are akin to human translations in a preliminary study.
The SelfReflector: Design, IoT and the High Street

We describe the design of SelfReflector an internet-connected mirror that uses online facial recognition to estimate your age and play music from when it thinks you were 14 years old. The mirror was created for a specific shop (SPeX PisTOls optical boutique), within a research through design project centered on the high street as a space of vital social, economic and environmental exchange that offers a myriad of psychosocial support for people beyond a place to purchase goods. We present in detail how the design emerged as our research interests developed related to IoT and how people use the high street to experiment with, and support sense of self. We discuss SelfReflector in relation to challenges for IoT, facial recognition and surveillance technologies, mirrorness and the values of a craft approach to designing technology centering on the nature of the bespoke and 'one-off'.
Methotrexate limits inflammation through an A20-dependent cross-tolerance mechanism

Objectives Methotrexate (MTX) is the anchor drug for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but the mechanism of its anti-inflammatory action is not fully understood. In RA, macrophages display a proinflammatory polarisation profile that resembles granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF)-differentiated macrophages and the response to MTX is only observed in thymidylate synthase+ GM-CSF-dependent macrophages. To determine the molecular basis for the MTX anti-inflammatory action, we explored toll-like receptor (TLR), RA synovial fluid (RASF) and tumour necrosis factor receptor (TNFR)-initiated signalling in MTX-exposed GM-CSF-primed macrophages. Methods Intracellular responses to TLR ligands, TNFα or RASF stimulation in long-term low-dose MTX-exposed human macrophages were determined through quantitative real-time PCR, western blot, ELISA and siRNA-mediated knockdown approaches. The role of MTX in vivo was assessed in patients with arthritis under MTX monotherapy and in a murine sepsis model. Results MTX conditioned macrophages towards a tolerant state, diminishing interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-1β production in LPS, LTA, TNFα or RASF-challenged macrophages. MTX attenuated LPS-induced MAPK and NF-κB activation, and toll/IL-1R domain-containing adaptor inducing IFN-beta (TRIF1)-dependent signalling. Conversely, MTX increased the expression of the NF-κB suppressor A20 (TNFAIP3), itself a RA-susceptibility gene. Mechanistically, MTX-induced macrophage tolerance was dependent on A20, as siRNA-mediated knockdown of A20 reversed the MTX-induced reduction of IL-6 expression. In vivo, TNFAIP3 expression was significantly higher in peripheral blood cells of MTX-responsive individuals from a cohort of patients with arthritis under MTX monotherapy, whereas MTX-treated mice exhibited reduced inflammatory responses to LPS. Conclusions MTX impairs macrophage proinflammatory responses through upregulation of A20 expression. The A20-mediated MTX-induced innate tolerance might limit inflammation in the RA synovial context, and positions A20 as a potential MTX-response biomarker.
Neural circuit mechanisms of post–traumatic epilepsy

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) greatly increases the risk for a number of mental health problems and is one of the most common causes of medically intractable epilepsy in humans. Several models of TBI have been developed to investigate the relationship between trauma, seizures, and epilepsy-related changes in neural circuit function. These studies have shown that the brain initiates immediate neuronal and glial responses following an injury, usually leading to significant cell loss in areas of the injured brain. Over time, long-term changes in the organization of neural circuits, particularly in neocortex and hippocampus, lead to an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission and increased risk for spontaneous seizures. These include alterations to inhibitory interneurons and formation of new, excessive recurrent excitatory synaptic connectivity. Here, we review in vivo models of TBI as well as key cellular mechanisms of synaptic reorganization associated with post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE). The potential role of inflammation and increased blood–brain barrier permeability in the pathophysiology of PTE is also discussed. A better understanding of mechanisms that promote the generation of epileptic activity versus those that promote compensatory brain repair and functional recovery should aid development of successful new therapies for PTE.
Observing Scattering Mechanisms of Bubbled Freshwater Lake Ice Using Polarimetric RADARSAT-2 (C-Band) and UW-Scat (X- and Ku-Bands)

A winter time series of ground-based (X- and Ku-bands) scatterometer and spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) (C-band) fully polarimetric observations coincident with in situ snow and ice measurements are used to identify the dominant scattering mechanism in bubbled freshwater lake ice in the Hudson Bay Lowlands near Churchill, Manitoba. Scatterometer observations identify two physical sources of backscatter from the ice cover: the snow–ice and ice–water interfaces. Backscatter time series at all frequencies show increases from the ice–water interface prior to the inclusion of tubular bubbles in the ice column based on in situ observations, indicating scattering mechanisms independent of double-bounce scatter. The co-polarized phase difference of interactions at the ice–water interface from both scatterometer and SAR observations is centered at 0° during the time series, also indicating a scattering regime other than double bounce. A Yamaguchi three-component decomposition of the RADARSAT-2 C-band time series is presented, which suggests the dominant scattering mechanism to be single-bounce off the ice–water interface with appreciable surface roughness or preferentially oriented facets, regardless of the presence, absence, or density of tubular bubble inclusions. This paper builds on newly established evidence of single-bounce scattering mechanism for freshwater lake ice and is the first to present a winter time series of ground-based and spaceborne fully polarimetric active microwave observations with polarimetric decompositions for bubbled freshwater lake ice.