Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Health promotion in young people: Identifying the predisposing factors of self-care health habits

Unhealthy behaviors are strongly associated with chronic diseases, disabilities, or mortality. Identifying the predisposing factors that influence on self-care healthy habits will improve an early detection of high-risk groups. Four hundred and sixty-six Spanish young people aged 18–25 years were assessed. Global perceived health self-care was predicted by Value of health and Conscientiousness, both in females (R2 = 0.185; F = 29.661; p < 0.001) and males (R2 = 0.154; F = 17.849; p < 0.001). The results have shown gender differences in health self-care habits. Health promotion policies should include specific health consciousness-based strategies.
Landscape legacies of the African diaspora in Brazil

Geographers have been reticent on the role of the African diaspora in the contouring of Brazil's biological and cultural landscapes. Whereas paradigm shifts have occurred in regards to environmental stability in the tropical realm and the pristine nature of pre-Columbian landscapes, these have not translated to a rigorous reassessment of the geographical position of Africans and their descendants as active agents in landscape evolution. In this article, we briefly examine the historical development of black diaspora scholarship outside of geography. We review the contributions of geographers and others to understanding the floristic homogenization of the Atlantic world set in motion by European exploration and colonization. Finally, by highlighting recent findings on the dynamic role of forced African immigrants in the process of landscape transformation, we hope to stimulate further geographical inquiry, improve pedagogical materials and advance in a modest way a recovery of the African contribution to the making of the Americas.
A Miniature Sensor System for Precise Hand Position Monitoring

This paper presents a sensor system to estimate wrist and elbow positions developing two wearable miniature motion sensors. The developed sensors consist of a processor, a motion sensor, which comprise a 3-D accelerometer, a 3-D gyroscope, a 3-D magnetometer, as well as a transceiver operating at industrial, scientific, and medical band frequency of 2.4 GHz. By proposing a modified complementary filter alongside employing hand kinematic problem, wrist and elbow positions for three different exercises are estimated. In order to determine the accuracy and precision of the developed system, the estimated positions are compared to an optical tracking system. The obtained results illustrate root-mean-square error (RMSE) of these two exercises for positions of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$x$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$y$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-, and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$z$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-axes less than 0.4, 0.59, and 0.29 cm, respectively. Also, the RMSEs of joint angles are obtained less than 1.64° in these exercises. These results show a 11%–23% improvement for estimating these positions than Madgwick filter and prove that the proposed system can be used as an accurate position feedback for monitoring hand joint movement in rehabilitation exercises.
Assessment and Analysis of the Bellows Ventilation of Clothing

A methodical approach is described, attempting to separate the loss of heat and moisture due to forced exchange of air inside clothing, when walking, from the loss caused by gradients between the body and the environment. Temperature, heat flow, and relative humidity were recorded on the skin of the back and inside the respective clothing (shirt only, vest and shirt, or vest, shirt and anorak) in 12 experiments performed in a climatic chamber at 4-11°C and 35-70% RH, The subject walked on a treadmill with 5% grade at 7.2 km/hr until a new steady state of higher tempera ture and heat flow, as well as humidity, resulting from evaporation of sweat, was reached. When the motion was suddenly stopped, both the temperature and humidity increased steeply, while the heat flow decreased, showing levels which would have been attained, theoretically, if the transfer of heat and water vapor along gradients was not assisted by forced exchange of air when walking. When walking was resumed after a pause, all recorded parameters changed in the opposite direction. Continuous recording of temperature next to skin showed temperature oscillations synchronous either with every step or with every other step. The results are considered as evidence of the effect of forced ventilation on the microclimate. Calculated from changes in water-vapor pressure, the magnitude of forced ventilation corresponded, approximately, to dilution of the air layer next to skin, with atmospheric air, by one-half of its volume. It was demonstrated, in addition, that the heat of sorption, arising from transient increases of humidity in the clothing, had a marked effect on temperature of the micro-climate. The term "bellows ventilation" is thought to express best the mechanism of exchange of air resulting from rhythmical movements of limbs and body at physical activity.
The influence of renal transplantation on retained microbial-human co-metabolites.

BACKGROUND Colonic microbial metabolism contributes substantially to uraemic retention solutes accumulating in chronic kidney disease (CKD) and various microbial-human co-metabolites relate to adverse outcomes. The influence of renal transplantation on these solutes is largely unexplored. METHODS We prospectively followed 51 renal transplant recipients at the time of transplantation, Day 7 and Months 3 and 12 post-transplantation. Serum levels of p-cresyl sulphate (PCS), p-cresyl glucuronide (PCG), indoxyl sulphate (IS), trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) and phenylacetylglutamine (PAG) were determined with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. At each time point, transplant recipients were compared with CKD control patients matched for age, gender, diabetes mellitus and renal function. Determinants of serum levels were also compared between an unrelated cohort of 65 transplant recipients at Month 3 post-transplantation and CKD patients with 24-h urinary collection. RESULTS Serum levels of the tested microbial-human co-metabolites significantly decreased following renal transplantation (P < 0.001). At each time point post-transplantation, serum levels of PCS, PCG, PAG and, to a lesser extent, IS, but not TMAO, were significantly lower in transplant recipients when compared with CKD control patients. Further analysis demonstrated significantly lower 24-h urinary excretion of these solutes in transplant recipients (P < 0.001). Also, renal clearances of PCG, IS, TMAO and PAG were significantly lower in transplant recipients without differences in estimated glomerular filtration rate. CONCLUSIONS Colonic microbiota-derived uraemic retention solutes substantially decrease following renal transplantation. The 24-h urinary excretion of these microbial-human co-metabolites is lower when compared with CKD patients, suggesting an independent influence of transplantation on intestinal uptake, a composite of colonic microbial metabolism and intestinal absorption. Renal solute handling may differ between transplant recipients and CKD patients.
SmartTunnel: Achieving Reliability in the Internet

Reliability is critical to a variety of network applications. Unfortunately, due to lack of QoS support across ISP boundaries, it is difficult to achieve even two 9s (99%) reliability in toadyism Internet. In this paper, we propose SmartTunnel, an end-to-end approach to achieving reliability. A SmartTunnel is a logical point-to-point tunnel between two end points that spans multiple physical network paths. It achieves reliability by strategically allocating traffic onto multiple paths and performing FEC coding. Such an end-to-end approach requires no explicit QoS support from intermediate ISPs, and is therefore easy to deploy in today's Internet. To fully realize the potential of SmartTunnel, we analytically derive near-optimal traffic allocation schemes that minimize loss rates. We extensively evaluate our approach using trace-driven simulations, ns-2 simulations, and experiments on PlanetLab. Our results clearly demonstrate that SmartTunnel is effective in achieving high reliability.
Clinico-pathological profile of colorectal cancer in first two decades of life: A retrospective analysis from tertiary health center.

AIM This retrospective observational study was done to analyze age, gender, site of primary tumor and histological characterstics in patients of colorectal carcinoma in the first two decades of life. MATERIAL AND METHOD A total of 373 patients of colorectal patients were registered in the Department of Radiation Oncology from January 2010 to December 2015. Patients who were <20 years of age were analyzed for clinicopathological characteristic. RESULTS In our study, a total of 29 out of 373 patients (7.75%) were ≤20 years. Male to female distribution was 2.2:1. Younger age group presented with advanced Stage III and IV 58.62% and 10.34% patients, respectively. Only 9 (30.5%) patients were of Stage I and II. The most common involved site was rectum in 21 (72.41%) patients, followed by rectosigmoid involvement in 5 (17.24%). CONCLUSIONS Colorectal carcinoma in young adults is usually locally advanced or metastatic. Therefore, the diagnosis of CRC should be done at early and curable stage. Bleeding per rectum in a younger age group should not be ignored but must be properly evaluated.
Childhood leukaemia near nuclear sites in Belgium, 2002–2008

This paper describes an ecological study investigating whether there is an excess incidence of acute leukaemia among children aged 0–14 years living in the vicinity of the nuclear sites in Belgium. Poisson regression modelling was carried out for proximity areas of varying sizes. In addition, the hypothesis of a gradient in leukaemia incidence with increasing levels of surrogate exposures was explored by means of focused hypothesis tests and generalized additive models. For the surrogate exposures, three proxies were used, that is, residential proximity to the nuclear site, prevailing winds and simulated radioactive discharges, on the basis of mathematical dispersion modelling. No excess incidence of acute leukaemia was observed around the nuclear power plants of Doel or Tihange nor around the nuclear site of Fleurus, which is a major manufacturer of radioactive isotopes in Europe. Around the site of Mol-Dessel, however, two- to three-fold increased leukaemia incidence rates were found in children aged 0–14 years living in the 0–5, 0–10 and the 0–15 km proximity areas. For this site, there was evidence for a gradient in leukaemia incidence with increased proximity, prevailing winds and simulated radioactive discharges, suggesting a potential link with the site that needs further investigation. An increased incidence of acute leukaemia in children aged 0–14 years was observed around one nuclear site that hosted reprocessing activities in the past and where nuclear research activities and radioactive waste treatment are ongoing.
Redefining Early Cervical Neoplasia: Recent Progress

The classification of cervical precancers has evolved over the past 40 years as knowledge concerning the pathogenesis of these human papillomavirus-related lesions has expanded. This commentary reviews the current classification scheme in light of (1) the historical classification systems and (2) the ability of the target epithelium, that is the transformation zone to exhibit varied morphology depending on the cell type that is infected with human papillomavirus. The evolution in our understanding of preinvasive glandular neoplasia is also summarized, with particular attention to so-called superficial (or early) adenocarcinoma in situ. In addition, practical issues in the diagnosis and management of squamous epithelial lesions, particularly the recognition of nonconventional variants and the application of biomarkers, are discussed.
Laparoscopic Approach for Intravesical Surgery Using Pneumovesicum in Urology: Literature Review

Minimally invasive laparoscopic surgical procedures are increasingly being used in the management of various urological diseases. In particular, the laparoscopic approach for intravesical surgery using pneumovesicum (LPV) is a minimally invasive alternative with potential advantages including decreased morbidity, shorter hospital stays, and improved cosmesis. We review the applications of LPV in urology, summarize data for different surgical approaches, and provide an overview of patient management, as well as other considerations. This narrative review focused primarily on articles indexed in PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Embase databases. No formal search strategy was used, and no meta-analysis of data was performed.
Removal of Dissolved Copper and Zinc from Highway Runoff via Adsorption

AbstractDissolved copper and zinc are commonly observed in highway runoff at concentrations that have been shown to exert toxic effects on aquatic microbiota and macrobiota. Dissolved copper in particular has been shown to disrupt the olfactory nervous system of salmon species at concentrations as low as 3 μg/L. To reduce concentrations to below this threshold, treatment of highway runoff for the removal of copper and zinc is necessary. This study developed a column testing protocol that can be used to quickly and reliably evaluate adsorptive removal of dissolved heavy metals from highway runoff. The protocol is demonstrated in an evaluation of iron oxide, manganese oxide, crab shell, concrete, and bone meal media for removing dissolved copper and zinc as a function of runoff characteristics, including pH, ionic strength, alkalinity, and total organic carbon. The results indicate that iron oxide media in combination with crab shell or concrete media is the most effective adsorptive technique for the remo.
On the complex dynamics of savanna landscapes

Significance This paper makes a significant contribution both to ecological theory and to an understanding more generally regarding how complex dynamics can emerge in mathematical models from quite simple underlying assumptions. Empirical and theoretical work has suggested that savanna–forest systems exhibit bistability, potentially flipping from one state to another in the face of environmental change. Here, we show that the dynamics of those systems may be much more complicated (periodic and endogenously driven) and present surprising responses to environmental variability. From a mathematical point of view, the models that we explore exhibit a rich array of behaviors and responses to random perturbations, and we suggest that such dynamics may arise in a variety of contexts. Simple mathematical models can exhibit rich and complex behaviors. Prototypical examples of these drawn from biology and other disciplines have provided insights that extend well beyond the situations that inspired them. Here, we explore a set of simple, yet realistic, models for savanna–forest vegetation dynamics based on minimal ecological assumptions. These models are aimed at understanding how vegetation interacts with both climate (a primary global determinant of vegetation structure) and feedbacks with chronic disturbances from fire. The model includes three plant functional types—grasses, savanna trees, and forest trees. Grass and (when they allow grass to persist in their subcanopy) savanna trees promote the spread of fires, which in turn, demographically limit trees. The model exhibits a spectacular range of behaviors. In addition to bistability, analysis reveals (i) that diverse cyclic behaviors (including limit and homo- and heteroclinic cycles) occur for broad ranges of parameter space, (ii) that large shifts in landscape structure can result from endogenous dynamics and not just from external drivers or from noise, and (iii) that introducing noise into this system induces resonant and inverse resonant phenomena, some of which have never been previously observed in ecological models. Ecologically, these results raise questions about how to evaluate complicated dynamics with data. Mathematically, they lead to classes of behaviors that are likely to occur in other models with similar structure.
FeEval A Dataset for Evaluation of Spatio-temporal Local Features

The most successful approaches to video understanding and video matching use local spatio-temporal features as a sparse representation for video content. Until now, no principled evaluation of these features has been done. We present FeEval, a dataset for the evaluation of such features. For the first time, this dataset allows for a systematic measurement of the stability and the invariance of local features in videos. FeEval consists of 30 original videos from a great variety of different sources, including HDTV shows, 1080p HD movies and surveillance cameras. The videos are iteratively varied by increasing blur, noise, increasing or decreasing light, median filter, compression quality, scale and rotation leading to a total of 1710 video clips. Homography matrices are provided for geometric transformations. The surveillance videos are taken from 4 different angles in a calibrated environment. Similar to prior work on 2D images, this leads to a repeatability and matching measurement in videos for spatio-temporal features estimating the overlap of features under increasing changes in the data.
Clinicopathological significance of WIF1 hypermethylation in NSCLC, a meta-analysis and literature review

Methylation of the WIF-1 gene can lead to the loss of WIF-1 expression which has been observed in numerous types of cancer including NSCLC. However, the association and clinicopathological significance between WIF-1 promoter hypermethylation and NSCLC remains unclear. In the present study, we performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the clinicopathological significance of WIF-1 hypermethylation in NSCLC. A systematic literature search was carried out using Pubmed, EMBASE, Web of Science and CNKI. The Cochrane software Review manager 5.2 was used. The frequency of WIF-1 hypermethylation was significantly increased in NSCLC compared with normal lung tissue; the pooled OR was 8.67 with 95% CI 1.64-45.88, p = 0.01. The rate of WIF-1 hypermethylation was higher in SCC than in AC, OR was 1.74 with 95% CI 0.97-3.11, p = 0.06. In addition, WIF-1 loss was correlated with low 5-year survival rate. In summary, WIF-1 hypermethylation is a potential biomarker for diagnosis of NSCLC. WIF-1 hypermethylation is predominant in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), suggesting that WIF-1 methylation contributes to the development of NSCLC, especially SCC.
Color correction of underwater images based on multi-illuminant estimation with exposure bracketing imaging

We propose a method for color correction of underwater images based on multi-illuminant estimation. We regard the color distortion of underwater images as the color cast that is illuminated by multiple light sources. In order to effectively remove the color distortions from the underwater image, we capture underwater scenes by exposure bracketing imaging. Using multiple images taken with different exposure times, we fuse an image where the attenuation differences in the spectra information of the incoming light are mitigated. We apply a multi-illuminant estimation to the fused image to reconstruct the underwater images so as to be those in a canonical (white) illumination environment. Our experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.
Mediterranean diet and bone mineral density in two age groups of women

We hypothesized that adherence to the Mediterranean diet measured as a Mediterranean diet score (MDS) has a beneficial effect on bone mineral density (BMD). For the purposes of this study, a sample of healthy women from Southern Spain was chosen. Subjects were grouped into two major groups: a first group consisted of women of reproductive age (premenopausal, pre-M) and a second group consisted of postmenopausal women (pos-M). The consumption of vegetables and fruit was found to be significantly related to BMD in both groups of subjects studied. In the pre-M group, the lipid ratio was positively associated with BMD and in pos-M women nuts intake was also associated with BMD. After implementing the analysis of covariance analysis, significant linear trends between the MDS and BMD were observed in all subjects studied. Our results indicate that a varied diet based on Mediterranean diet patterns may be beneficial in the prevention of osteoporosis.
Differential Settlement Monitoring System Using Inverse Perspective Mapping

Digital measurement of differential settlement is crucial in the structural health assessment. A new differential settlement monitoring system using inverse perspective mapping (IPM) technique is proposed to measure the relative displacement of pillars. First, the displacement of adjacent pillars is indicated by a point of laser beam. Subsequently, camera module attached perpendicularly to the wall captures an image centroid of laser point. As the camera has the image perspective effect, IPM is used to transform the image coordinate of laser point into actual ground plane for vertical displacement measurement in millimeter. A relative displacement graph is plotted onto a Web-base for differential settlement monitoring. The proposed system allows camera to be set up closer to the laser projected wall. Hence, no camera holder is required and no gap is inserted between the camera and targeted screen for laser projection. As a result, the construction of the proposed system is relatively less complex and bulky. A test rig is built to evaluate the proposed differential settlement system. Empirical results showed that the proposed system obtains an accuracy of measurement up to 1 mm ± 0.1 mm. The test results also verify the performance of the system and its applicability to real structures.
The D0-14/D ratio: A new paleodemographic index and equation for estimating total fertility rates.

OBJECTIVES The objectives of this study were to develop a new subadult-adult ratio for application to sites with good infant representation and to produce an equation to estimate the total fertility rate for a population based on the age-at-death ratio. A new approach is required as current methods exclude the 0-4 years age category due to presumed underenumeration of infants. While this is true for some skeletal samples, others experience good infant representation. MATERIALS AND METHODS Using age-at-death data and total fertility rates for 52 countries from the United Nations database for the year 1960, we examined the correlation between three age-at-death ratios and the fertility rate. We also utilized linear regression to determine an equation for calculating total fertility rate from the ratio. RESULTS We achieved a correlation of 0.848 between our D0-14/D Ratio and actual fertility rates. This correlation was significantly higher (p < .05) than the other ratios examined, including the d5-14/d20+ by Bocquet-Appel and Masset () and the 15 P5 index by Bocquet-Appel (). DISCUSSION The exclusion of infants can result in inaccurate demographic measures, particularly where subadults aged over 5 years of age experience robust survivorship. In addition to providing a solution for sites with good infant representation, this study indicates that the 0-4 years of age category possesses great predictive power when compared to other age categories. The regression equation provides a total fertility rate which is comparable with data regardless of their temporal origin. This method will provide more accurate demographic measures for bioarcheological sites with good infant preservation.