Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effectiveness of child restraint and seat belt legislation in reducing child injuries: The case of Serbia

ABSTRACT Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the short- and long-term impacts of Serbia's 2009 update of child restraint and seat belt legislation on the incidence of pediatric motor vehicle–related injury. With this new law, the use of child restraints in children age 0–3 became mandatory, and children 4–12 had to wear seat belts in the rear seats. Methods: A unique data set with assembled information from public institutions of the Republic of Serbia from January 2004 to December 2014 and analyses based on interrupted time series were carried out. Eight outcome variables were assessed: monthly rate of injured children for 2 age groups 0–3 and 4–12 per child population, number of registered motor vehicles, number of passengers transported, and number of passengers' kilometers traveled. Independent variables were short- and long-term impacts of Serbia's legislation update (June 2009). Data on injuries were obtained from Serbia's Road Traffic Safety Agency. Child population and other transport-related data were obtained from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia. We excluded fatalities from the analysis. Results: In the first year of the updated legislation there was a reduction of 2.0% (confidence interval [CI], 0.1; 3.9) of injured children aged 0–3 and a reduction of 2.5% (CI, 0.6; 4.3) of injured children aged 4–12. Six years after enactment of the legislation, a significant reduction of 8.2% (CI, 3.5; 13.0) of injured children aged 4–12 was observed, but a nonsignificant reduction of 1.1% (CI, −5.8; 3.5) was found for injured children aged 0–3. By December 2014, 369 (CI, 186; 555) injuries among children aged 4–12 were avoided. Conclusions: The case of Serbia suggests that the new law was effective in reducing injuries among children aged 0–3 in the short term and injuries among children aged 4–12 in both the short term and long term. To understand these results, we suggest 2 hypotheses. First, low proper usage of child restraint and weak police enforcement were likely to explain the short-term effect among children aged 0–3. Second, access to seat belts in rear seats was probably a condition that facilitated the use of these devices among children aged 4–12, protecting them during the period of the study.
ANALYSIS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF BAMBOO FABRICS

This paper presents a study on physical properties of bamboo & bamboo-cotton(50:50) blended yarn fabrics which are commonly used for apparel production. Yarns of 4 different counts such as 20, 24, 30 & 40Ne were used as warp & Weft in bamboo & bamboo-cotton blended yarn fabric. All fabrics were produced in plain weave with 50 ppi. Various test such as breaking strength, elongation, fabric weight, thickness and abrasion resistance have been carried out to study the performance of bamboo & bamboo-cotton(50:50) blended yarn fabrics. The experimental result indicates that 100% bamboo fabric exhibits higher breaking strength than bamboo-cotton (50:50) blended yarn fabric. Higher elongation values are noticed in the case of 100% bamboo fabric than bamboo-cotton (50:50) blended yarn fabrics. It is also found that 100% bamboo fabric exhibits higher tearing strength than bamboo-cotton (50:50) blended yarn fabric of similar specifications. The 100% bamboo fabric exhibits higher thickness than bamboo-cotton (50:50) blended yarn fabric of similar specifications. The cover factor of bamboo-cotton (50:50) blended yarn fabric is higher than bamboo fabric. It is found that 100% bamboo fabric exhibits better performance than bamboocotton (50:50) blended yarn fabrics.
Comparing of melt blending and solution mixing methods on the physical properties of thermoplastic polyurethane/organoclay nanocomposite films

In this study, microstructural features and physical properties of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU)/organoclay nanocomposites films prepared via melt blending (MB) and solution mixing (SM) methods were investigated in detail. Amount of organoclay into the composition varied in the range of 2 and 8 wt%. Microstructural properties of samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) methods. It was found that the organoclay layers exhibited better dispersion, exfoliated, and semi-exfoliated structure in the MB samples than the SM counterparts. Viscoelastic properties of samples were also studied by measuring the rheological behaviors of bulk samples in an oscillatory rheometer in the melt state and measuring of the time-dependent nonlinear creep behaviors of film samples in a dynamic mechanical analyzer in the solid state. Gas and water vapor permeability (WVP) values of nanocomposite films were measured. Based on the melt rheology measurements, it was found that the MB samples showed characteristic solid-like behavior and higher improvement in storage modulus at low-frequency region. Creep behaviors of samples were also quantified with the four-element Burger model. It was found that the introducing of organoclay into the composition via MB method yielded more improvement in the creep resistance, gas, and WVP values of films than the SM counterparts, possibly due to the better dispersion of organoclay layers into the TPU structure. Based on the improvement in permeability and mechanical properties of the samples and also SEM and TEM observations, the average aspect ratio value (A f) of organoclay stacks was estimated in the range of 15–20 for the MB samples.
Adaptive Robust Repetitive Control of an Industrial Biaxial Precision Gantry for Contouring Tasks

The periodicity of repetitive contouring tasks is utilized in this paper to synthesize an adaptive robust repetitive contouring controller (ARRC) for an industrial biaxial precision gantry to further improve the achievable contouring performance in practice. Specifically, repetitive-control-input-like terms are introduced to learn unknown but periodic nonlinearities when performing repetitive tasks. Physically, intuitive discontinuous projection modifications to the adaptation law are used to ensure all the on-line estimates within their known bounds. Robust control terms are also constructed to effectively attenuate the effect of model compensation errors due to various uncertainties including nonperiodic disturbances for a theoretically guaranteed transient performance and steady-state tracking accuracy in general. Comparative experiments are carried out on an industrial linear-motor-driven biaxial precision gantry. The experimental results show that the proposed ARRC controller not only achieves the best nominal contouring performance but also possesses strong performance robustness to large disturbances, which confirms the effectiveness of the proposed ARRC scheme in practical contouring applications.
Evaluation of a System-Specific Function To Describe the Pharmacokinetics of Benzylpenicillin in Term Neonates Undergoing Moderate Hypothermia

ABSTRACT The pharmacokinetic (PK) properties of intravenous (i.v.) benzylpenicillin in term neonates undergoing moderate hypothermia after perinatal asphyxia were evaluated, as they have been unknown until now. A system-specific modeling approach was applied, in which our recently developed covariate model describing developmental and temperature-induced changes in amoxicillin clearance (CL) in the same patient study population was incorporated into a population PK model of benzylpenicillin with a priori birthweight (BW)-based allometric scaling. Pediatric population covariate models describing the developmental changes in drug elimination may constitute system-specific information and may therefore be incorporated into PK models of drugs cleared through the same pathway. The performance of this system-specific model was compared to that of a reference model. Furthermore, Monte-Carlo simulations were performed to evaluate the optimal dose. The system-specific model performed as well as the reference model. Significant correlations were found between CL and postnatal age (PNA), gestational age (GA), body temperature (TEMP), urine output (UO; system-specific model), and multiorgan failure (reference model). For a typical patient with a GA of 40 weeks, BW of 3,000 g, PNA of 2 days (TEMP, 33.5°C), and normal UO (2 ml/kg/h), benzylpenicillin CL was 0.48 liter/h (interindividual variability [IIV] of 49%) and the volume of distribution of the central compartment was 0.62 liter/kg (IIV of 53%) in the system-specific model. Based on simulations, we advise a benzylpenicillin i.v. dose regimen of 75,000 IU/kg/day every 8 h (q8h), 150,000 IU/kg/day q8h, and 200,000 IU/kg/day q6h for patients with GAs of 36 to 37 weeks, 38 to 41 weeks, and ≥42 weeks, respectively. The system-specific model may be used for other drugs cleared through the same pathway accelerating model development.
Endothelial dysfunction in human hand veins is rapidly reversible after smoking cessation.

Cigarette smoking has been shown to impair endothelium-dependent dilation in arteries. We tested the hypothesis that cigarette smoking also impairs endothelium-dependent venodilation and evaluated changes in this response after smoking cessation in a time-course study using the dorsal hand vein technique. Dose-response curves were constructed in smokers and nonsmokers by infusing bradykinin (1-278 ng/min), an endothelium-dependent vasodilator, and nitroglycerin (0.006-1,583 ng/min), an endothelium-independent vasodilator, into hand veins preconstricted with the selective α1-adrenergic agonist phenylephrine. The maximal venodilation induced by bradykinin was 89 ± 5% in controls ( n = 16) and 61 ± 7% in smokers ( n = 18; P = 0.02). No difference in nitroglycerin-induced venodilation was observed between the two groups. Coinfusion of l-arginine (0.33 mg/min) markedly improved the bradykinin-induced venodilation in smokers (52 ± 7 to 90 ± 9%; P < 0.01). After acute smoking cessation ( n = 7), restoration to normal bradykinin-induced venodilation was observed within 24 h, whereas no change in the response to a maximally effective dose of nitroglycerin (1,583 ng/min) was detected. In a human vein model appropriate for testing vascular functional alterations, this study demonstrates that smoking impairs endothelium-dependent venodilation in heavy smokers. Moreover, this endothelial dysfunction appears to be rapidly reversible after smoking cessation. This model may be useful in studies evaluating mechanisms of endothelial dysfunction and interventions to modify it.
Instagram addiction and the Big Five of personality: The mediating role of self-liking

Background and aims Recent research has suggested that social networking site use can be addictive. Although extensive research has been carried out on potential addiction to social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Tinder, only one very small study has previously examined potential addiction to Instagram. Consequently, the objectives of this study were to examine the relationships between personality, self-liking, daily Internet use, and Instagram addiction, as well as exploring the mediating role of self-liking between personality and Instagram addiction using path analysis. Methods A total of 752 university students completed a self-report survey, including the Instagram Addiction Scale (IAS), the Big Five Inventory (BFI), and the Self-Liking Scale. Results Results indicated that agreeableness, conscientiousness, and self-liking were negatively associated with Instagram addiction, whereas daily Internet use was positively associated with Instagram addiction. The results also showed that self-liking partially mediated the relationship of Instagram addiction with agreeableness and fully mediated the relationship between Instagram addiction with conscientiousness. Discussion and conclusions This study contributes to the small body of literature that has examined the relationship between personality and social networking site addiction and is one of only two studies to examine the addictive use of Instagram and the underlying factors related to it.
Scalable Dense Non-rigid Structure-from-Motion: A Grassmannian Perspective

This paper addresses the task of dense non-rigid structure-front-motion (NRSfM) using multiple images. State-of-the-art methods to this problem are often hurdled by scalability, expensive computations, and noisy measurements. Further, recent methods to NRSfM usually either assume a small number of sparse feature points or ignore local non-linearities of shape deformations, and thus cannot reliably model complex non-rigid deformations. To address these issues, in this paper, we propose a new approach for dense NRSfM by modeling the problem on a Grassmann manifold. Specifically, we assume the complex non-rigid deformations lie on a union of local linear subspaces both spatially and temporally. This naturally allows for a compact representation of the complex non-rigid deformation over frames. We provide experimental results on several synthetic and real benchmark datasets. The procured results clearly demonstrate that our method, apart from being scalable and more accurate than state-of-the-art methods, is also more robust to noise and generalizes to highly nonlinear deformations.
Unsupervised Learning and Segmentation of Complex Activities from Video

This paper presents a new method for unsupervised segmentation of complex activities from video into multiple steps, or sub-activities, without any textual input. We propose an iterative discriminative-generative approach which alternates between discriminatively learning the appearance of sub-activities from the videos' visual features to sub-activity labels and generatively modelling the temporal structure of sub-activities using a Generalized Mallows Model. In addition, we introduce a model for background to account for frames unrelated to the actual activities. Our approach is validated on the challenging Breakfast Actions and Inria Instructional Videos datasets and outperforms both unsupervised and weakly-supervised state of the art.
Atrial, B-type, and C-type natriuretic peptides cause mesenteric vasoconstriction in conscious dogs.

Cardiovascular responses were compared with equimolar infusions of B-type (BNP) and C-type (CNP) with atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) in conscious, instrumented dogs. On separate days, each natriuretic peptide or vehicle was infused (intravenously) at step-up doses of 2, 5, 10, and 20 pmol ⋅ kg-1 ⋅ min-1(20 min each dose) to increase circulating levels of the infused peptide from ∼2- to 20-fold. Like ANP, infusions of BNP caused dose-related increases ( P < 0.05) in mesenteric vascular resistance, urine flow, natriuresis, and hematocrit (changes at highest doses were 60 ± 9, 334 ± 113, 313 ± 173, and 12 ± 2%, respectively). BNP also lowered ( P < 0.05) plasma renin activity (-43 ± 11%) and arterial pressure (-10 ± 3%). Effects of BNP were independent of reflex sympathetic activation, since autonomic ganglion blockade did not attenuate the responses. CNP infusions had little effect except to increase ( P < 0.05) mesenteric vascular resistance (27 ± 10%) and plasma ANP (41 ± 7%). Cardiovascular actions of BNP, like those of ANP, counteract the renin-ANG system and may protect the heart by lowering cardiac preload (venous return) and afterload (arterial pressure) while maintaining blood flow to extrasplanchnic regions.
Using educational prescriptions to teach medical students evidence-based medicine

Abstract Purpose: To evaluate feasibility and impact of evidence-based medicine (EBM) educational prescriptions (EPs) in medical student clerkships. Methods: Students answered clinical questions during clerkships using EPs, which guide learners through the “four As” of EBM. Epidemiology fellows graded EPs using a rubric. Feasibility was assessed using descriptive statistics and student and fellow end-of-study questionnaires, which also measured impact. In addition, for each EP, students reported patient impact. Impact on EBM skills was assessed by change in EP scores over time and scores on an EBM objective structured clinical exam (OSCE) that were compared to controls from the prior year. Results: 117 students completed 402 EPs evaluated by 24 fellows. Average score was 7.34/9.00 (SD 1.58). 69 students (59%) and 21 fellows (88%) completed questionnaires. Most students thought EPs improved “Acquiring” and “Appraising”. Almost half thought EPs improved “Asking” and “Applying”. Fellows did not value grading EPs. For 18% of EPs, students reported a “change” or “potential change” in treatment. 56% “confirmed” treatment. EP scores increased by 1.27 (95% CI: 0.81–1.72). There were no differences in OSCE scores between cohorts. Conclusions: Integrating EPs into clerkships is feasible and has impact, yet OSCEs were unchanged, and research fellows had limitations as evaluators.
Incidence and risk factors for cervical lesions in patients with rheumatoid arthritis under the current pharmacologic treatment paradigm

Abstract Objective: To elucidate the incidence and risk factors for cervical lesions in patients with rheumatic arthritis (RA) under the current pharmacologic treatment paradigm. Methods: Of patients with RA onset after 2000, 151 who introduced biologic agents (BAs) because of high disease activity and underwent cervical radiography more than 5 years after onset were included. Incidence of those with cervical lesions and predictors of cervical lesions were analyzed. Mean disease duration was 8.5 years. The radiographic definitions of cervical lesions were as follows: atlantoaxial subluxation (AAS), atlantodental interval >3 mm; vertical subluxation (VS), Ranawat value <13 mm; and subaxial subluxation (SS), and listhesis >2 mm. Results: Radiographic evaluation indicated AAS in 43 cases (28%), VS in 10 (7%), and SS in 6 (4%). The incidence of those with any cervical lesion was 32% (48/151). Univariate analysis showed that disease duration, time from onset to BA use, and onset before 2005 were significant predictors of cervical lesions, while multivariate regression analysis showed that disease duration and Steinbrocker stage were predictors. Conclusion: The incidence of cervical lesions in patients with RA onset after 2000 was still high (32%). In addition, disease duration and Steinbrocker stage were predictors of cervical lesions.
Opinion strength influences the spatial dynamics of opinion formation

ABSTRACT Opinions are rarely binary; they can be held with different degrees of conviction, and this expanded attitude spectrum can affect the influence one opinion has on others. Our goal is to understand how different aspects of influence lead to recognizable spatio-temporal patterns of opinions and their strengths. To do this, we introduce a stochastic spatial agent-based model of opinion dynamics that includes a spectrum of opinion strengths and various possible rules for how the opinion strength of one individual affects the influence that this individual has on others. Through simulations, we find that even a small amount of amplification of opinion strength through interaction with like-minded neighbors can tip the scales in favor of polarization and deadlock.
The long-range interaction map of ribosomal DNA arrays

The repeated rDNA array gives rise to the nucleolus, an organelle that is central to cellular processes as varied as stress response, cell cycle regulation, RNA modification, cell metabolism, and genome stability. The rDNA array is also responsible for the production of more than 70% of all cellular RNAs (the ribosomal RNAs). The rRNAs are produced from two sets of loci: the 5S rDNA array resides exclusively on human chromosome 1 while the 45S rDNA arrays reside on the short arm of five human acrocentric chromosomes. These critical genome elements have remained unassembled and have been excluded from all Hi-C analyses to date. Here we built the first high resolution map of 5S and 45S rDNA array contacts with the rest of the genome combining over 15 billion Hi-C reads from several experiments. The data enabled sufficiently high coverage to map rDNA-genome interactions with 1MB resolution and identify rDNA-gene contacts. The map showed that the 5S and 45S arrays display preferential contact at common sites along the genome but are not themselves sufficiently close to yield 5S-45S Hi-C contacts. Ribosomal DNA contacts are enriched in segments of closed, repressed, and late replicating chromatin, as well as CTCF binding sites. Finally, we identified functional categories whose dispersed genes coalesced in proximity to the rDNA arrays or instead avoided proximity with the rDNA arrays. The observations further our understanding of the spatial localization of rDNA arrays and their contribution to the architecture of the cell nucleus.
PU-Net: Point Cloud Upsampling Network

Learning and analyzing 3D point clouds with deep networks is challenging due to the sparseness and irregularity of the data. In this paper, we present a data-driven point cloud upsampling technique. The key idea is to learn multi-level features per point and expand the point set via a multi-branch convolution unit implicitly in feature space. The expanded feature is then split to a multitude of features, which are then reconstructed to an upsampled point set. Our network is applied at a patch-level, with a joint loss function that encourages the upsampled points to remain on the underlying surface with a uniform distribution. We conduct various experiments using synthesis and scan data to evaluate our method and demonstrate its superiority over some baseline methods and an optimization-based method. Results show that our upsampled points have better uniformity and are located closer to the underlying surfaces.
Hyperglycemia-induced inhibition of splanchnic fatty acid oxidation increases hepatic triacylglycerol secretion.

The effect of hyperglycemia (∼8 mmol/l) on splanchnic fatty acid oxidation and triacylglycerol (TG) secretion rates was investigated in five healthy men. U-13C-labeled fatty acids were infused to estimate fatty acid kinetics and oxidation across the splanchnic region, and in vivo labeled very low density lipoprotein (VLDL)-TG was infused to estimate TG secretion rate. Plasma fatty acid carbon enrichment and concentration were maintained constant by infusion of lipids and heparin in the hyperglycemia experiments. Fatty acid uptake by the splanchnic region was 1.4 ± 0.2 and 2.2 ± 0.9 μmol ⋅ kg-1 ⋅ min-1in the basal and clamp experiments, respectively, whereas fatty acid oxidation decreased from 0.4 ± 0.04 to 0.2 ± 0.05 μmol ⋅ kg-1 ⋅ min-1( P < 0.05). Hepatic TG secretion increased from 0.35 ± 0.07 μmol ⋅ kg-1 ⋅ min-1in the basal state to 0.53 ± 0.11 μmol ⋅ kg-1 ⋅ min-1after 15 h of hyperglycemia ( P< 0.05). Similarly, plasma VLDL-TG concentration increased from 0.28 ± 0.06 to 0.43 ± 0.05 mmol/l during the clamp ( P < 0.05). In summary, hyperglycemia attenuates fatty acid oxidation in the splanchnic region in human volunteers, even when fatty acid availability is constant. This adaptation results in a significant increase in the VLDL-TG secretion rate and concentration in plasma.