Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Thai Foot Massage on Balance Performance in Diabetic Patients with Peripheral Neuropathy: A Randomized Parallel-Controlled Trial

Background Peripheral neuropathy is the most common complications of diabetic patients and leads to loss of plantar cutaneous sensation, movement perception, and body balance. Thai foot massage is an alternative therapy to improve balance. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Thai foot massage on balance performance in diabetic patients with peripheral neuropathy. Material/Methods Sixty patients with type-2 diabetes were recruited and randomly assigned into either the Thai foot massage or control groups. The Thai foot massage group received a modified Thai traditional foot massage for 30 min, 3 days per week for 2 weeks. We measured timed up and go (TUG), one leg stance: OLS), the range of motion (ROM) of the foot, and foot sensation (SWMT) before treatment, after the first single session, and after the 2-week treatment. Results After the single treatment session, only the Thai foot massage group showed a significant improvement in TUG. After the 2-week treatment, both Thai foot massage and control groups showed a significant improvement of TUG and OLS (P<0.05); however, when comparing between 2 groups, the Thai foot massage group showed better improvement in TUG than the control group (p<0.05). The Thai foot massage group also showed significant improvements in ROM and SWMT after the 2-week treatment. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that Thai foot massage is a viable alternative treatment for balance performance, ROM of the foot, and the foot sensation in diabetic patients with peripheral neuropathy.
FINANCING RISK IN ISLAMIC BANKING BEFORE AND DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

This study aims to identify the risk of financing in Islamic Banks. Financing risk assessment is divided into two categories, financing based on contract and financing based on usage. This study uses a comparative analysis method to identify differences in financing risks in the period before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. The results of the study show that there are six differences in financing risks based on the contract period before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. The risk of financing based on use shows that there is no difference in the risk of financing investment for MSMEs before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the difference can be seen in the risk of working capital financing for MSMEs, working capital financing for Non-MSMEs, the risk of investment financing for Non-MSMEs and the risk of consumptive financing. These results indicate that Islamic bank financing is responding to the Covid-19 pandemic with changes in financing risk. Banks need to manage financing with the aim of increasing financing not increasing risk.
Microtubules Tethered at Epithelial Cell Junctions by Dynein Facilitate Efficient Junction Assembly

Efficient remodeling of cell–cell adhesions is critical during development and morphogenesis. Junctional components must be specifically and rapidly transported to sites of junction assembly. In this study, we show a mechanism by which this targeted trafficking may occur. Microtubules target epithelial adherens junctions, and the number of microtubules both projecting to and tethered at sites of contact is increased during junction assembly, consistent with an increased need for new material at the nascent junction. Cytoplasmic dynein is localized to sites of cell–cell contact, and microtubules project to dynein patches where they become tethered. Microinjection of anti‐dynein antibodies disrupts the tethering of microtubules, showing that the motor anchors them. Furthermore, disruption of dynein inhibits junction formation. Immunocytochemistry with antibodies to p120 catenin support the hypothesis that tethered microtubules serve as tracks for delivery of new components to forming junctions, suggesting a model in which material is targeted for delivery to sites of need through microtubules tethered by dynein.
Deriving Landscape-Scale Vegetation Cover and Aboveground Biomass in a Semi-Arid Ecosystem Using Imaging Spectroscopy

vi LIST OF TABLES . xi LIST OF FIGURES . xiii LIST OF EQUATIONS . xv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . xvi CHAPTER ONE: Introduction . 1 1. Importance of work . 1 2. The 2015 Soda Fire . 4 3. Reynolds Creek Experiment Watershed . 5 4. Thesis organization . 7 5. References . 7 CHAPTER TWO: BACKGROUND . 12 Imaging spectroscopy . 12 Spectral mixing . 13 Image classification . 14 References . 19 CHAPTER THREE: HYPERSPECTRAL DERIVED VEGETATION SPECIES AND COVER ACROSS LANDSCAPE GRADIENTS IN A SEMI-ARID ECOSYSTEM
Enhancements on Router-Assisted Congestion Control for Wireless Networks

This paper addresses two challenges that are encountered when applying router-assisted explicit-feedback congestion control to wireless networks. The first challenge is how to distinguish between the two kinds of packet loss (non- congestion loss and congestion loss) in wireless networks and how to react to them properly. The second challenge is how to probe the unknown bandwidth capacity of wireless links which is required in calculating the router feedback. Some practical and novel enhancements on router-assisted congestion control in such environments are introduced in this paper. We have implemented these enhancements in a router-assisted congestion control protocol termed QFCP. Extensive simulation experiments using ns-2 will demonstrate that QFCP can fairly and efficiently allocate wireless bandwidth resources among competing flows in heterogeneous networks.
Simultaneous Multi-Layer Access

3D-stacked DRAM alleviates the limited memory bandwidth bottleneck that exists in modern systems by leveraging through silicon vias (TSVs) to deliver higher external memory channel bandwidth. Today’s systems, however, cannot fully utilize the higher bandwidth offered by TSVs, due to the limited internal bandwidth within each layer of the 3D-stacked DRAM. We identify that the bottleneck to enabling higher bandwidth in 3D-stacked DRAM is now the global bitline interface, the connection between the DRAM row buffer and the peripheral IO circuits. The global bitline interface consists of a limited and expensive set of wires and structures, called global bitlines and global sense amplifiers, whose high cost makes it difficult to simply scale up the bandwidth of the interface within a single DRAM layer in the 3D stack. We alleviate this bandwidth bottleneck by exploiting the observation that several global bitline interfaces already exist across the multiple DRAM layers in current 3D-stacked designs, but only a fraction of them are enabled at the same time. We propose a new 3D-stacked DRAM architecture, called Simultaneous Multi-Layer Access (SMLA), which increases the internal DRAM bandwidth by accessing multiple DRAM layers concurrently, thus making much greater use of the bandwidth that the TSVs offer. To avoid channel contention, the DRAM layers must coordinate with each other when simultaneously transferring data. We propose two approaches to coordination, both of which deliver four times the bandwidth for a four-layer DRAM, over a baseline that accesses only one layer at a time. Our first approach, Dedicated-IO, statically partitions the TSVs by assigning each layer to a dedicated set of TSVs that operate at a higher frequency. Unfortunately, Dedicated-IO requires a nonuniform design for each layer (increasing manufacturing costs), and its DRAM energy consumption scales linearly with the number of layers. Our second approach, Cascaded-IO, solves both issues by instead time multiplexing all of the TSVs across layers. Cascaded-IO reduces DRAM energy consumption by lowering the operating frequency of higher layers. Our evaluations show that SMLA provides significant performance improvement and energy reduction across a variety of workloads (55%/18% on average for multiprogrammed workloads, respectively) over a baseline 3D-stacked DRAM, with low overhead.
Discovering classification rules for email spam filtering with an ant colony optimization algorithm

The cost estimates for receiving unsolicited commercial email messages, also known as spam, are threatening. Spam has serious negative impact on the usability of electronic mail and network resources. In addition, it provides a medium for distributing harmful code and/or offensive content. The work in this paper is motivated by the dramatic increase in the volume of spam traffic in recent years and the promising ability of ant colony optimization in data mining. Our goal is to develop an ant-colony based spam filter and to empirically evaluate its effectiveness in predicting spam messages. We also compare its performance to three other popular machine learning techniques: Multi-Layer Perceptron, Naïve Bayes and Ripper classifiers. The preliminary results show that the developed model can be a remarkable alternative tool in filtering spam; yielding better accuracy with considerably smaller rule sets which highlight the important features in identifying the email category.
Alterations in smoking habits are associated with acute eosinophilic pneumonia.

BACKGROUND Acute eosinophilic pneumonia (AEP) is characterized by a febrile illness, diffuse pulmonary infiltrates, and pulmonary eosinophilia. The etiology of AEP remains unknown, but several studies have proposed a relationship between cigarette smoking and AEP. However, most studies showing this possibility are single-case reports, and cigarette smoke has not been fully validated as a causative agent of AEP in a large series of patients. The present study was conducted to clarify the etiologic role of cigarette smoking in AEP, with special reference to alterations in smoking habits. METHODS We took a detailed history of smoking habits before AEP onset in 33 patients with AEP, and performed a cigarette smoke provocation test. RESULTS Of our AEP patients, all but one (97%) were current smokers. Interestingly, 21 of these were new-onset smokers, and 2 had restarted smoking after a 1- to 2-year cessation of smoking. The duration between starting smoking and AEP onset was within 1 month (0.67 +/- 0.53 months). Additionally, six of the remaining smokers had increased the quantity of cigarettes smoked daily, fourfold to fivefold, mostly within the month before AEP onset (0.81 +/- 0.58 months). Only three smokers had not changed their smoking habits before AEP onset. Cigarette smoke provocation tests revealed positive results in all nine patients tested. CONCLUSION These data suggest that recent alterations in smoking habits, not only beginning to smoke, but also restarting to smoke and increasing daily smoking doses, are associated with the development of AEP.
A Role for the Chemokine Receptor CCR6 in Mammalian Sperm Motility and Chemotaxis

Although recent evidence indicates that several chemokines and defensins, well‐known as inflammatory mediators, are expressed in the male and female reproductive tracts, the location and functional significance of chemokine networks in sperm physiology and sperm reproductive tract interactions are poorly understood. To address this deficiency in our knowledge, we examined the expression and function in sperm of CCR6, a receptor common to several chemoattractant peptides, and screened several reproductive tract fluids for the presence of specific ligands. CCR6 protein is present in mouse and human sperm and mainly localized in the sperm tail with other minor patterns in sperm from mice (neck and acrosomal region) and men (neck and midpiece regions). As expected from the protein immunoblotting and immunofluorescence results, mouse Ccr6 mRNA is expressed in the testis. Furthermore, the Defb29 mRNA encoding the CCR6 ligand, β‐defensin DEFB29, is expressed at high levels in the epididymis. As determined by protein chip analysis, several chemokines (including some that act through CCR6, such as CCL20/MIP‐3α (formerly macrophage inflammatory protein 3α) and protein hormones were present in human follicular fluid, endometrial secretions, and seminal plasma. In functional chemotaxis assays, capacitated human sperm exhibited a directional movement towards CCL20, and displayed modifications in motility parameters. Our data indicate that chemokine ligand/receptor interactions in the male and female genital tracts promote sperm motility and chemotaxis under non‐inflammatory conditions. Therefore, some of the physiological reactions mediated by CCR6 ligands in male reproduction extend beyond a pro‐inflammatory response and might find application in clinical reproduction and/or contraception. J. Cell. Physiol. 229: 68–78, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
HIV-1 RNA Levels and Antiretroviral Drug Resistance in Blood and Non-Blood Compartments from HIV-1–Infected Men and Women enrolled in AIDS Clinical Trials Group Study A5077

Background Detectable HIV-1 in body compartments can lead to transmission and antiretroviral resistance. Although sex differences in viral shedding have been demonstrated, mechanisms and magnitude are unclear. We compared RNA levels in blood, genital-secretions and saliva; and drug resistance in plasma and genital-secretions of men and women starting/changing antiretroviral therapy (ART) in the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) 5077 study. Methods Blood, saliva and genital-secretions (compartment fluids) were collected from HIV-infected adults (≥13 years) at 14 United-States sites, who were initiating or changing ART with plasma viral load (VL) ≥2,000 copies/mL. VL testing was performed on all compartment fluids and HIV resistance genotyping on plasma and genital-secretions. Spearman rank correlations were used to evaluate concordance and Fisher’s and McNemar’s exact tests to compare VL between sexes and among compartments. Results Samples were available for 143 subjects; 36% treated (23 men, 29 women) and 64% ‘untreated’ (40 men, 51 women). RNA detection was significantly more frequent in plasma (100%) than genital-secretions (57%) and saliva (64%) (P<0.001). A higher proportion of men had genital shedding versus women (78% versus 41%), and RNA detection was more frequent in saliva versus genital-secretions in women when adjusted for censoring at the limit of assay detection. Inter-compartment fluid VL concordance was low in both sexes. In 22 (13 men, 9 women) paired plasma-genital-secretion genotypes from treated subjects, most had detectable resistance in both plasma (77%) and genital-secretions (68%). Resistance discordance was observed between compartments in 14% of subjects. Conclusions HIV shedding and drug resistance detection prior to initiation/change of ART in ACTG 5077 subjects differed among tissues and between sexes, making the gold standard blood-plasma compartment assessment not fully representative of HIV at other tissue sites. Mechanisms of potential sex-dependent tissue compartmentalization should be further characterized to aid in optimizing treatment and prevention of HIV transmission. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00007488
Cerebrovascular carbon dioxide reactivity in children anaesthetized with sevoflurane.

BACKGROUND To determine the effects of sevoflurane on cerebrovascular carbon dioxide reactivity (CCO2R), middle cerebral artery blood flow velocity (CBFV) was measured at different levels of PE'CO2 by transcranial Doppler sonography in 16 ASA I or II children, aged 18 months to 7 yr undergoing elective urological surgery. METHODS Anaesthesia comprised 1.0 MAC sevoflurane and air in 30% oxygen delivered through an Ayre's T piece by intermittent positive-pressure ventilation, and a caudal epidural block with 0.25% bupivacaine 1.0 ml kg(-1) without epinephrine. PE'CO2 was randomly adjusted to 25, 35, 45 and 55 mm Hg (3.3, 4.6, 5.9 and 7.2 kPa) with an exogenous source of CO2, while maintaining ventilation variables constant. RESULTS CBFV increased as PE'CO2 increased from 25 to 35, and to 45 mm Hg (P<0.001), but did not increase significantly with an increase in PE'CO2 from 45 to 55 mm Hg. Mean heart rate and arterial pressure remained constant. CONCLUSION CCO2R is preserved in healthy children anaesthetized with 1.0 MAC sevoflurane.
Adjuvant therapy for stage II colon cancer: a systematic review from the Cancer Care Ontario Program in evidence-based care's gastrointestinal cancer disease site group.

PURPOSE To develop a systematic review that would address the following question: Should patients with stage II colon cancer receive adjuvant therapy? METHODS A systematic review was undertaken to locate randomized controlled trials comparing adjuvant therapy to observation. RESULTS Thirty-seven trials and 11 meta-analyses were included. The evidence for stage II colon cancer comes primarily from a trial of fluorouracil plus levamisole and a meta-analysis of 1,016 patients comparing fluorouracil plus folinic acid versus observation. Neither detected an improvement in disease-free or overall survival for adjuvant therapy. A recent pooled analysis of data from seven trials observed a benefit for adjuvant therapy in a multivariate analysis for both disease-free and overall survival. The disease-free survival benefits appeared to extend to stage II patients; however, no P values were provided. A meta-analysis of chemotherapy by portal vein infusion has also shown a benefit in disease-free and overall survival for stage II patients. A meta-analysis was conducted using data on stage II patients where data were available (n = 4,187). The mortality risk ratio was 0.87 (95% CI, 0.75 to 1.01; P =.07). CONCLUSION There is preliminary evidence indicating that adjuvant therapy is associated with a disease-free survival benefit for patients with stage II colon cancer. These benefits are small and not necessarily associated with improved overall survival. Patients should be made aware of these results and encouraged to participate in active clinical trials. Additional investigation of newer therapies and more mature data from the presently available trials should be pursued.
Hematological and productive Performance of male and female of three native geese in Kurdistan region of Iraq

This study was conducted to determine the live weight, carcass weight, blood characterization and the effects of feather colours and sex on these traits of three native geese in Kurdistan/Iraq. A total of 36 geese of the three feather colours (12 geese for each) which were 10-11 months of age were used. Results revealed that mean live weight, warm, cold carcass weights and cold dressing percentage were 2950, 2206, 2180 g and 73.87% respectively. The overall means of Hemoglobin (HB), Packed cell volume (PCV), Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR), Heterophil (H), Lymphocyte (L), Monocyte (M), Eosinophil(E), Basophile (B) and H/L ratio were 15.41gm/100cm3, 46.27%, 1.89 ml/h, 40.56%, 55.44%, 1.78%, 1.72%, 0.5% and 0.73 respectively. Significant differences were found among Gray, White and Piebald geese strains in live weight, carcasses components and blood traits. Live weight (3091.66 g), cold carcass weight (2248.00 g), legs (514.166 g), wings (385.83 g), neck (386.67 g) and heart (27.5 g) weight were highest in White geese while higher cold dressing percentage (75.40 %), breast (622.50 g), back (228.33 g), gizzard (88.33 g), liver (49.167 g) and total giblets weight (160 g) were highest in Gray geese. Results also revealed that significant difference among strains in Lymphocyte, Monocyte and H/L ratio with highest value 56.67% in White geese, 2.17% and 0.77 in Gray geese, respectively. Males geese surpass females significantly in live weight, warm carcass weight, cold carcass weight as well as most carcasses components and blood traits. Significant correlation coefficients were found between live weight, warm and cold carcass weight and primary carcass components. In conclusion, the results obtained in this study indicated that meat yield was good of the native Kurdish geese and that strains influenced live weight, carcass and blood traits and this study is the first paper on native geese in Kurdistan/Iraq; therefore, the data obtained can be used for the identification of native geese in this region. يف يلحملا زولا نم عاونأ ةثلاثل ثانأو روكذل مدلا تافصو يجاتنلأا ءادلأا ناتسدرك قا رعلا
Nucleotides Regulate Secretion of the Inflammatory Chemokine CCL2 from Human Macrophages and Monocytes

CCL2 is an important inflammatory chemokine involved in monocyte recruitment to inflamed tissues. The extracellular nucleotide signalling molecules UTP and ATP acting via the P2Y2 receptor are known to induce CCL2 secretion in macrophages. We confirmed this in the human THP-1 monocytic cell line showing that UTP is as efficient as LPS at inducing CCL2 at early time points (2–6 hours). Expression and calcium mobilisation experiments confirmed the presence of functional P2Y2 receptors on THP-1 cells. UTP stimulation of human peripheral CD14+ monocytes showed low responses to LPS (4-hour stimulation) but a significant increase above background following 6 hours of treatment. The response to UTP in human monocytes was variable and required stimulation >6 hours. With such variability in response we looked for single nucleotide polymorphisms in P2RY2 that could affect the functional response. Sequencing of P2RY2 from THP-1 cells revealed the presence of a single nucleotide polymorphism altering amino acid 312 from arginine to serine (rs3741156). This polymorphism is relatively common at a frequency of 0.276 (n = 404 subjects). Finally, we investigated CCL2 secretion in response to LPS or UTP in human macrophages expressing 312Arg-P2Y2 or 312Ser-P2Y2 where only the latter exhibited significant UTP-induced CCL2 secretion (n = 5 donors per group).
Intramuscular Botulinum Toxin-A Reduces Hemiplegic Shoulder Pain: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Comparative Study Versus Intraarticular Triamcinolone Acetonide

Background and Purpose— Shoulder pain is frequent after stroke and interferes with the rehabilitative process and outcome. However, treatments used for hemiplegic shoulder pain are limited and largely ineffective. This prospective, randomized, double-blind controlled study was conducted to compare the efficacies of botulinum toxin type A (BoNT-A) and triamcinolone acetonide (TA) on hemiplegic shoulder pain and their effects on arm function in patients with stroke. Methods— Twenty-nine hemiplegic stroke patients with shoulder pain (duration ≤24 months, pain on numeric rating scale ≥6/10) were randomized into 2 groups. One group received intramuscular injections of BoNT-A (BOTOX 100 U total) during one session to the infraspinatus, pectoralis and subscapularis muscles in conjunction with an intraarticular injection of normal saline to painful shoulder joint, whereas the other group received an intraarticular injection of TA (40 mg) and an intramuscular injection of normal saline to the same muscles. Outcome measures were pain (measured using a numeric rating scale), physician's global rating scale, shoulder range of motion (ROM) in 4 directions, arm function measured using Fugl-Meyer score, and spasticity measured using the modified Ashworth scale. Measurements were made at baseline and 2, 6, and 12 weeks after injection. Results— At 12 weeks after treatment mean decrease in pain was 4.2 in the BoNT-A–treated group versus 2.5 in the TA-treated group (P=0.051), and improvements in overall ROM were 82.9o versus 51.8o in these groups (P=0.059), showing a strong trend toward there being less pain and better ROM among those treated with BoNT-A than with TA. However, no significant differences were observed between the 2 groups in terms of improvement in physician global rating, Fugl-Meyer score or modified Ashworth scales. No adverse effect was observed in either group. Conclusions— Results from this study suggest that injection of BoNT-A into selected muscles of the shoulder girdle might provide more pain relief and ROM improvement than intraarticular steroid in patients with hemiplegic shoulder pain. A larger clinical trial needs to be undertaken to confirm the benefits of this approach.