Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of temperature on motor unit action potentials during isometric contraction

The effect of temperature on motor unit action potential (MUAP) configuration and recruitment was studied using automatic decomposition electromyography (ADEMG) recordings from a concentric needle electrode placed in the first dorsal interosseous (FDI) muscle of 10 normal adult subjects during isometric contraction. Focally cooling the FDI resulted in prolonged MUAP duration (P < 0.001, ANOVA), a finding congruent with those of Buchthal. Focal ulnar cooling at the elbow resulted in the increased MUAP frequency. In contrast to previous studies, there were no significant differences in amplitude or turns. Greater understanding of normal motor unit electrophysiology is necessary to improve diagnostic accuracy of EMG testing © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Universal Slepian-Wolf source codes using low-density parity-check matrices

Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes become very popular in channel coding, since they can achieve the performance close maximum-likelihood (ML) decoding with linear complexity of the block length. Muramatsu et al. proposed a code using LDPC matrices for Slepian-Wolf source coding. However, since they employed ML decoding, their code is not universal, that is their decoder needs to know the probability distribution of the source. On the other hand, if there exists a universal code using LDPC matrices, we can arbitrary decrease the error probability for all sources whose achievable rate region contains the rate pair of encoders even if the probability distribution of sources is unknown. To this end, we show the existence of a universal Slepian-Wolf source code using LDPC matrices in the case where the source is stationary memoryless.
Economic Evaluation of Individual School Closure Strategies: The Hong Kong 2009 H1N1 Pandemic

Background School closures as a means of containing the spread of disease have received considerable attention from the public health community. Although they have been implemented during previous pandemics, the epidemiological and economic effects of the closure of individual schools remain unclear. Methodology This study used data from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic in Hong Kong to develop a simulation model of an influenza pandemic with a localised population structure to provide scientific justifications for and economic evaluations of individual-level school closure strategies. Findings The estimated cost of the study’s baseline scenario was USD330 million. We found that the individual school closure strategies that involved all types of schools and those that used a lower threshold to trigger school closures had the best performance. The best scenario resulted in an 80% decrease in the number of cases (i.e., prevention of about 830,000 cases), and the cost per case prevented by this intervention was USD1,145; thus, the total cost was USD1.28 billion. Conclusion This study predicts the effects of individual school closure strategies on the 2009 H1N1 pandemic in Hong Kong. Further research could determine optimal strategies that combine various system-wide and district-wide school closures with individual school triggers across types of schools. The effects of different closure triggers at different phases of a pandemic should also be examined.
Feasibility Study Evaluating Four Weeks Stochastic Resonance Whole-Body Vibration Training with Healthy Female Students

This study assessed the feasibility of stochastic resonance whole-body vibration (SR-WBV) training and its impact on isometric maximal voluntary contraction (IMVC), isometric rate of force development (IRFD) and a drop jump test (DJ) in healthy female students. Twelve participants were randomised to static squats during SR-WBV 6 Hz, noise level 4, over 4 weeks or to a control group (no training). Feasibility outcomes included the number of students agreeing to participate, the number of drop-outs, the adherence to the SR-WBV and the evaluation of the protocol. Secondary outcomes were IMVC, IRFD and DJ. Results: Among 35 eligible students, 12 agreed to participate and two dropped out. The adherence was 41 of 60 possible sessions. There were moderate to large, but statistically non-significant, gains in the secondary outcomes. Conclusion: These results suggest that such a study would be feasible although with some modifications such as a better familiarisation to the DJ.
When is the Use of Race/Ethnicity Appropriate in Risk Assessment Tools for Preconceptual or Antenatal Genetic Screening and How Should it be Used?

In the UK a ‘Family Origin Questionnaire’ (FOQ) has been introduced as a decision-making tool primarily to identify partners of high risk status in ‘low prevalence’ areas in antenatal screening for haemoglobin variants. A ‘family origins’ laboratory form for Down’s syndrome antenatal screening has followed, with active consideration of Tay Sachs Disease antenatal/ pre-conception carrier screening for Ashkenazi Jewish women. Similar screening developments for the haemoglobinopathies and cystic fibrosis are occurring in other countries. It is timely to ask when and how categories based on family origin concepts should be operationalised and used to assess genetic risk, given the methodological uncertainties and potential risk of offence, essentialisation, discrimination and/or stigmatisation. The potential limitations of these tools are examined, including generic concepts, social sensitivities of language, issues of testing, implementation, and training, and time-limitedness of the categories, to assess where the balance lies between the benefits and disadvantages of such usage.
Scalp Acupuncture for Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Scalp acupuncture (SA) is a commonly used therapeutic approach for stroke throughout China and elsewhere in the world. The objective of this study was to assess clinical efficacy and safety of SA for acute ischemic stroke. A systematical literature search of 6 databases was conducted to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of SA for acute ischemic stroke compared with western conventional medicines (WCMs). All statistical analyses were performed by the Rev Man Version 5.0. Eight studies with 538 participants were included in the studies. The studies were deemed to have an unclear risk of bias based on the Cochrane Back Review Group. Compared with the WCM, 6 RCTs showed significant effects of SA for improving neurological deficit scores (P < 0.01); 4 RCTs showed significant effects of SA for favoring the clinical effective rate (P < 0.01) However, the adverse events have not been documented. In conclusion, SA appears to be able to improve neurological deficit score and the clinical effective rate when compared with WCM, though the beneficial effect from SA is possibly overvalued because of generally low methodology of the included trials. No evidence is available for adverse effects. Rigorous well-designed clinical trials are needed.
Mortality associated with sleep duration and insomnia.

BACKGROUND Patients often complain about insufficient sleep or chronic insomnia in the belief that they need 8 hours of sleep. Treatment strategies may be guided by what sleep durations predict optimal survival and whether insomnia might signal mortality risks. METHODS In 1982, the Cancer Prevention Study II of the American Cancer Society asked participants about their sleep duration and frequency of insomnia. Cox proportional hazards survival models were computed to determine whether sleep duration or frequency of insomnia was associated with excess mortality up to 1988, controlling simultaneously for demographics, habits, health factors, and use of various medications. RESULTS Participants were more than 1.1 million men and women from 30 to 102 years of age. The best survival was found among those who slept 7 hours per night. Participants who reported sleeping 8 hours or more experienced significantly increased mortality hazard, as did those who slept 6 hours or less. The increased risk exceeded 15% for those reporting more than 8.5 hours sleep or less than 3.5 or 4.5 hours. In contrast, reports of "insomnia" were not associated with excess mortality hazard. As previously described, prescription sleeping pill use was associated with significantly increased mortality after control for reported sleep durations and insomnia. CONCLUSIONS Patients can be reassured that short sleep and insomnia seem associated with little risk distinct from comorbidities. Slight risks associated with 8 or more hours of sleep and sleeping pill use need further study. Causality is unproven.
Determinants of the Travel Behavior of the Suburban Elderly

In recent years, a significant feature of population change in North American metropolitan areas has been the rapid suburbanization of elderly people. The ability to engage in routine activity may be a necessary condition for the maintenance of independent life styles and psychological well-being among older suburbanites. Using a conceptual framework based on Parmelee and Lawton's ecological model of aging, this article offers an exploratory investigation of the determinants of the travel of separate samples of elderly male and female suburbanites to each of five destination categories of key service/activity sites in a Canadian city. The results of the tests of ten multiple regression models disclose that the levels of explanation of trip frequency afforded by "autonomy components" (e.g. health-related characteristics, living arrangements, and income level) vary according to destination category. However, the explanatory power of "security components" (i.e. variables concerning access to destination categories) is generally low. Overall, the findings of the study provide a basis for developing a deeper understanding of the repetitive travel behavior of elderly suburbanites. Copyright 2001 Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky.
A Unified Model of War Onset and Outcome

Recent work regarding what influences the chances that states either win or lose wars focuses on two primary explanations. The first suggests that states win or lose largely on the merits of their war-fighting strategies and capabilities. The second explanation asserts that successful states simply choose their fights more carefully, thus selecting opponents they are more likely to defeat. Although these approaches are often perceived as contending theories, they actually are complementary in that both contribute to a unified explanation of why states win wars. This article provides a theoretical explanation of success in war by joining these two approaches and arguing that because the explanations are complementary, analyses ignoring one or the other are incomplete. We report a series of censored probit models that unify these explanations. The results of the unified model support the argument that the theories should be considered complementary. Our conclusions point to the importance of conceiving of international phenomena including conflict as processes rather than as discrete events.
Stable auto-tuning of adaptive fuzzy/neural controllers for nonlinear discrete-time systems

In direct adaptive control, the adaptation mechanism attempts to adjust a parameterized nonlinear controller to approximate an ideal controller. In the indirect case, however, we approximate parts of the plant dynamics that are used by a feedback controller to cancel the system nonlinearities. In both cases, "approximators" such as linear mappings, polynomials, fuzzy systems, or neural networks can be used as either the parameterized nonlinear controller or identifier model. In this paper, we present algorithms to tune some of the parameters (e.g., the adaptation gain and the direction of descent) for a gradient-based approximator parameter update law used for a class of nonlinear discrete-time systems in both direct and indirect cases. In our proposed algorithms, the adaptation gain and the direction of descent are obtained by minimizing the instantaneous control energy. We will show that updating the adaptation gain can be viewed as a special case of updating the direction of descent. We will also compare the direct and indirect adaptive control schemes and illustrate their performance via a simple surge tank example.
Off With the Old, On With the New

All good stories should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. The related pair of articles that earned me a place in this Special Section, ‘‘Masculine Instrumentality and Feminine Expressiveness: Their Relationships with Sex Role Attitudes and Behaviors’’ (Spence & Helmreich, 1980) and ‘‘Instrumental and Expressive Traits, Trait Stereotypes, and Sexist Attitudes: What Do They Signify? (Spence & Buckner, 2000), represent the middle and the end of a story—at least the end as far as my involvement is concerned. To tell this evolutionary tale, I must present its beginnings, so long ago, to explain how it came to be. But first I will provide a necessary preface about other changes, both societal and personal, that is, how it used to be. Please find the original articles at pwq.sagepub. com/ content/5/2/147 and pwq.sagepub. com/content/24/1/44.
Clinical significance of uterine scar dehiscence in women with previous cesarean delivery: prevalence and independent risk factors.

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence and risk factors for uterine scar dehiscence in women following cesarean delivery (CD). STUDY DESIGN Our computerized database was used to identify patients with recurrent CDs in the index pregnancy (1988-2002). Women with uterine dehiscence were compared to those without dehiscence. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to determine independent risk factors for dehiscence. RESULTS Of 7,833 women with at least 1 previous CD and a CD in the index pregnancy, 81 (1.03%) had uterine scar dehiscence. This finding was associated with nonprogress of labor during the first stage, number of previous CDs, parity, preterm delivery and low Apgar scores at 5 minutes. For patients with only 1 previous CD, failure to progress during the first stage of labor and lower parity were associated with uterine scar dehiscence. The numbers of previous CDs, gravidity and placenta previa rate were significantly higher in the group with dehiscence who delivered preterm. CONCLUSION Preterm delivery, nonprogress of labor during the first stage and number of previous CDs were found to be independent risk factors for uterine scar dehiscence. In contrast, parity had a protective effect against dehiscence.
Association of liver enzymes with metabolic syndrome and carotid atherosclerosis in young adults. The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study

Abstract Objective. We examined whether metabolic syndrome (MetS) predicts increased alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) levels in young adults, whether spontaneous recovery from MetS has a favorable effect on liver enzyme activities, and whether these enzymes contribute to the atherogenicity of MetS (assessed by carotid intima-media thickness (IMT)). Methods. The study included 1,553 subjects (base-line age 31.5 ± 5.0 years). ALT and GGT were measured in 2007. MetS was diagnosed by the new Joint Interim Societies definition. Results. ALT and GGT levels were higher in subjects with MetS compared to those without in 2007. The association was independent of alcohol intake and BMI. In multivariable models adjusted for base-line age, LDL cholesterol, CRP, alcohol intake, and adiponectin, MetS in 2001 predicted increased ALT (β ± SEM = 0.320 ± 0.062, P < 0.0001 in men; 0.134 ± 0.059, P = 0.02 in women) and GGT (β ± SEM = 0.222 ± 0.067, P < 0.0001 in men; 0.236 ± 0.060, P < 0.0001 in women) levels after 6 years. Subjects with MetS only at base-line (2001) had lower ALT levels after 6 years compared to subjects with persistent and incident MetS. No statistically significant interaction for MetS*ALT (P = 0.81) or MetS*GGT (P = 0.92) on IMT was observed. Conclusion. In young adults MetS may induce liver enzyme changes that indicate increased risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, but we found no evidence that increased enzyme levels would amplify the atherogenicity of MetS.
An Advanced Approach for Construction of Optimal Wind Power Prediction Intervals

High-quality wind power prediction intervals (PIs) are of utmost importance for system planning and operation. To improve the reliability and sharpness of PIs, this paper proposes a new approach in which the original wind power series is first decomposed and grouped into components of reduced order of complexity using ensemble empirical mode decomposition and sample entropy techniques. The methods for the prediction of these components with extreme learning machine technique and the formation of the overall optimal PIs are then described. The effectiveness of proposed approach is demonstrated by applying it to real wind farms from Australia and National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Compared to the existing methods without wind power series decomposition, the proposed approach is found to be more effective for wind power interval forecasts with higher reliability and sharpness.
Assessment of Functional Ability of People with Alzheimer's Disease

The aim of this study was to examine the sensitivity of the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS) in discriminating between independent people, those with dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT) requiring minimal assistance to live in the community (DAT-min) and those with DAT requiring moderate to maximal assistance (DAT-mod). The subjects comprised 329 non-disabled older adults, 167 people with DAT-min and 292 with DAT-mod. The AMPS was used to measure the subjects' ADL motor and ADL process abilities. Significant main effects were seen for ADL motor and ADL process abilities. All three groups differed significantly in both motor and process mean ability measures and the proportion of people with DAT with ability measures below AMPS cut-off measures increased significantly as the functional level decreased. The ADL process scale was a more discriminative measure of ability to function in the community than was the ADL motor scale.
Long-term immunologic and virologic responses in patients with highly resistant HIV infection who are treated with an incompletely suppressive antiretroviral regimen.

BACKGROUND Some treatment-experienced patients with highly drug-resistant human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection have no option but to continue to receive an incompletely suppressive regimen (ISR). We performed a study to determine their long-term immunologic and virologic responses to ISR, to investigate risks for immunologic or virologic failure, and to examine for the occurrence of new drug-resistance mutations. METHODS Antiretroviral treatment-experienced HIV-infected patients with a genotype sensitivity score < or = 1, an HIV load > 1000 copies/mL, and no available optimized regimen were included in the study. The proportion of patients treated with ISR who developed immunologic failure (defined as a 25% reduction in the CD4 cell count from the baseline level) and virologic failure (defined as a > or = 0.5-log10 increase in the HIV load from the baseline level) was determined. Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to investigate variables associated with immunologic or virologic failure. New drug-resistant mutations were calculated in 27 patients with sequential genotypes available. RESULTS Forty-seven patients (median duration of prior antiretroviral therapy, 89 months; median CD4 cell count, 277 cells/mm3; and median HIV load, 19,728 copies/mL) had multiple HIV mutations (a median of 5 nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor mutations, 1 nonnucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor mutation, and 6 protease inhibitor mutations; median genotype sensitivity score, 0) at baseline. By 48 months after ISR use, 43% had developed immunologic failure, and 22% had developed virologic failure. None of the studied variables (i.e., age, < 50 years; baseline HIV load, > 100,000 copies/mL; baseline CD4 cell count, < 200 cells/mm3; or inclusion of lamivudine in the treatment regimen) were associated with immunologic or virologic failure. New nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor mutations occurred in 63% of patients, and new primary protease inhibitor mutations occurred in 52.6% of protease inhibitor recipients. No deaths occurred. A total of 8.5% of patients experienced a new AIDS-defining event. CONCLUSIONS Most patients with highly drug-resistant HIV infection who were treated with an ISR maintain durable immunologic and virologic responses. New drug-resistant mutations occur frequently.
An algorithm for identification of bacterial selenocysteine insertion sequence elements and selenoprotein genes

MOTIVATION Incorporation of selenocysteine (Sec) into proteins in response to UGA codons requires a cis-acting RNA structure, Sec insertion sequence (SECIS) element. Whereas SECIS elements in Escherichia coli are well characterized, a bacterial SECIS consensus structure is lacking. RESULTS We developed a bacterial SECIS consensus model, the key feature of which is a conserved guanosine in a small apical loop of the properly positioned structure. This consensus was used to build a computational tool, bSECISearch, for detection of bacterial SECIS elements and selenoprotein genes in sequence databases. The program identified 96.5% of known selenoprotein genes in completely sequenced bacterial genomes and predicted several new selenoprotein genes. Further analysis revealed that the size of bacterial selenoproteomes varied from 1 to 11 selenoproteins. Formate dehydrogenase was present in most selenoproteomes, often as the only selenoprotein family, whereas the occurrence of other selenoproteins was limited. The availability of the bacterial SECIS consensus and the tool for identification of these structures should help in correct annotation of selenoprotein genes and characterization of bacterial selenoproteomes.
Child Domestic Labour: A Modern Form of Slavery

This article provides a global scene for the scope of child domestic labour and explores the inter-woven relationship between the practice and slavery, as well as the consequences for this uniquely vulnerable group of child workers. In doing so, it seeks to dispel the myths that child domestic work is a safe form of employment for girls (particularly those living with their employers), and that the practice offers any significant benefits for the majority of the children concerned. However, practitioners must avoid demonising employers if they are to assist child domestic workers (CDWs) more effectively, and should facilitate the empowerment of CDWs to protect themselves. Fundamentally, major changes are needed in societal attitudes which promote the continuance of the practice. For the sake of clarity, children and young persons under 18 years who are the subject of this study are referred to as ‘CDWs’ and the work they do as ‘child domestic labour’ (or occasionally as ‘domestic service’). The word ‘her’ in this study is shorthand for ‘his and her’ and is used because the large majority of CDWs are female.
A greedy perturbation approach to accelerating consensus algorithms and reducing its power consumption

The average consensus is part of a family of algorithms that are able to compute global statistics by only using local data. This capability makes these algorithms interesting for applications in which these distributed philosophy is necessary. However, its iterative nature usually leads to a large power consumption due to the repetitive communications among the iterations. This drawback highlights the necessity of minimizing the power consumption until consensus is reached. In this work, we propose a greedy approach to perturbing the connectivity graph, in order to improve the convergence time of the consensus algorithm while keeping bounded the power consumption per iteration step. These two achievements lead to a reduction in the total power consumption required until consensus is reached.