Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cross-sectional evaluation of noninvasively detected skin intrinsic fluorescence and mean hemoglobin a1c in type 1 diabetes.

BACKGROUND This study evaluated the relationship between skin intrinsic fluorescence (SIF) and long-term mean hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) in individuals with type 1 diabetes. SUBJECTS AND METHODS We undertook a cross-sectional analysis of 172 individuals with type 1 diabetes followed longitudinally with HbA1c data available over an average of 16.6 years. SIF was evaluated cross-sectionally using the SCOUT DS device (VeraLight Inc., Albuquerque, NM) and correlated with most recent HbA1c and long-term mean HbA1c. Potential determinants of this relationship, including age, gender, smoking status, duration of diabetes, and renal function, were also evaluated. RESULTS Age-adjusted skin intrinsic fluorescence significantly correlated with long-term mean HbA1c (R=0.44, P<0.0001). In contrast, there was no significant relationship between SIF and most recent HbA1c (R=0.14, P=0.075). The best-fit model describing the relationship between SIF and mean HbA1c controlled for factors of age, duration of disease, renal function, and site of study conduct. Controlling for these factors was also important in understanding the relationship between most recent HbA1c and SIF. Evaluating longer-term HbA1c data also strengthened the relationship between SIF and mean HbA1c. In the presence of renal dysfunction or damage, as indicated by an estimated glomerular filtration rate of <60 mL/min/1.73 m2 or presence of gross proteinuria, there was no significant correlation between SIF and mean HbA1c. CONCLUSIONS Noninvasive detection of SIF significantly correlates with long-term mean HbA1c, providing insight into long-term glycemic exposure. Age, duration of diabetes, and renal function are potential contributors to this relationship.
NK Cell Isolation from Liver Biopsies: Phenotypic and Functional Analysis of Low Cell Numbers by Flow Cytometry

Natural killer (NK) cells are considered to play a critical role in liver disease. However, the available numbers of intrahepatic lymphocytes (IHL) derived from liver biopsies (LB) for ex vivo analysis of intrahepatic NK cells is very limited; and the isolation method may hamper not only yields and viability, but also phenotype and function of IHL. The aim of the present study was therefore to (1) refine and evaluate the cell yields and viability of a modified isolation protocol from standard size needle LB; and (2) to test the effects of mechanical dissociation and enzymatic tissue digestion, as well as the analysis of very low cell numbers, on the phenotype and function of intrahepatic NK cells. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and IHL, freshly isolated from the peripheral blood, LB (n = 11) or partial liver resections (n = 5), were used for phenotypic analysis by flow cytometry. NK cell function, i.e., degranulation and cytokine production, was determined by staining of CD107a and intracellular IFN-γ following in vitro stimulation. The mean weight of the LB specimens was 9.1 mg, and a mean number of 7,364 IHL/mg were obtained with a viability of >90%. Exposure of IHL and PBMC to 0.5 mg/ml collagenase IV and 0.02 mg/ml DNase I for 30 min did affect neither the viability, NK cell function, nor the percentages of CD56+, NKp46+, and CD16+ NK cells, whereas the level of CD56 surface expression was reduced. The phenotype of LB-derived NK cells was reliably characterized by acquiring as few as 2,500 IHL per tube for flow cytometry. The functional assay of intrahepatic NK cells was miniaturized by culturing as few as 25,000 IHL in 25 μl (106/ml) using 96-well V-bottom plates with IL-2 and IL-12 overnight, followed by a 4 h stimulation with K562 cells at a NK:K562 ratio of 1:1. In summary, we report reliable phenotypic and functional analyses of small numbers of intrahepatic NK cells isolated from LB specimens providing us with a tool to better address the emerging role of human NK cell immunobiology in liver diseases.
PLDA-based diarization of telephone conversations

This paper investigates the application of the probabilistic linear discriminant analysis (PLDA) to speaker diarization of telephone conversations. We introduce using a variational Bayes (VB) approach for inference under a PLDA model for modelling segmental i-vectors in speaker diarization. Deterministic annealing (DA) algorithm is imposed in order to avoid local optimal solutions in VB iterations. We compare our proposed system with a well-known system that applies k-means clustering on principal component analysis (PCA) coefficients of segmental i-vectors. We used summed channel telephone data from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 2008 Speaker Recognition Evaluation (SRE) as the test set in order to evaluate the performance of the proposed system. We achieve about 20% relative improvement in Diarization Error Rate (DER) compared to the baseline system.
Observer-based control of piecewise-affine systems

Previous work by the authors presented a new synthesis method for both state and output feedback controller design for piecewise-affine systems. The control strategy was shown to perform. effectively in several examples. However, its theoretical properties were only investigated for a very specific case based on two implicit assumptions: (i) the absence of sliding modes at the hyperplane boundaries between regions with different affine dynamics; and (ii) the fact that both the plant and the controller started in the same region and always switched regions at the same time. The current paper addresses the problems that can arise when these assumptions are violated, and it presents, for the first time, a rigorous and general analysis of the stability of the closed-loop system when the assumptions are removed.
Pathophysiology of fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia (FM) is thought to occur because of the combination of interactions among neurotransmitters, such as neuropeptide Y (NPY), stressors, hormones, cytokines, and both the immune and sympathetic nervous systems. The aim of this study was to evaluate serum concentrations of cytokines, antipolymer antibodies (APA), and NPY in 51 patients with FM, 25 with tension‐type headache (TTH), and 15 healthy controls. Serum concentrations of eight different cytokines, APA and NPY, were measured. Interleukin (IL)‐1RA, IL‐6, IL‐10, and tumor necrosis factor‐alpha were higher in serum of FM patients compared with TTH patients and a significant correlation between IL‐10 and Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire score was observed. There was a significant difference between FM and TTH versus controls in NPY levels, but not in APA levels. Cytokines and NPY take part in pain modulation and even if they are altered in FM they cannot be considered as measurable biomarkers of disease.
Psychometric evaluation of the Swedish version of the Person-Centered Care Assessment Tool (P-CAT)

ABSTRACT Background: Person-centered care is a multidimensional concept describing good care, especially within aged care and care for people with dementia. Research studies evaluating person-centered care interventions seldom use direct measurement of levels of person-centeredness. Existing scales that measure person-centeredness need further testing. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Swedish version of the Person-Centered Care Assessment Tool (P-CAT). Methods: A cross-sectional sample of 1465 staff from 195 residential care units for older people in Sweden participated in the study. Validity, reliability, and discrimination ability of the scale were evaluated. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis, parallel analysis and exploratory factor analysis supported the construct validity of a two-factor solution. Reliability and homogeneity were satisfactory for the whole P-CAT as demonstrated by a Cronbach's α of 0.75. Test-retest reliability showed temporal stability of the scale, and the discrimination ability of the scale was satisfactory. Conclusion: The Swedish version of the P-CAT was found to be valid, reliable, and applicable for further use. Two subscales are recommended for the Swedish version.
Centralized parallel multi-path multi-slot allocation approach for TDM NoCs

The TDM-based NoC is an attractive technique for providing QoS in on-chip communication. However, fast, dynamic and robust path and slot allocation is still a challenging task particularly for networks with high connection request rates. A centralized resource allocation approach is presented in this paper, which enables multipath multislot allocation in parallelism at run-time. With full structured trellis graph that contains the full length stages, the allocation speed is ensured to be very fast. In contrast to previous works, the proposed method features: (1) high allocation speed requiring only two cycles for path searching; (2) improved success rate due to parallel multi-path search. Experimental results on real hardware models demonstrate two orders of magnitude improvement in allocation speed and ten times higher success rate against previous centralized solutions.
Turbulent Atmosphere-Based Dominant Management Behavior of the Head Nurses in Clinical Wards: A Qualitative Study

Background: Nursing management is the most important aspect for providing high-quality nursing care. Therefore, skillful nursing managers, such as head nurses, are required to accomplish this goal. High-quality nursing care is one of the most important principles of health organizations to ensure society’s health. Objectives: The goal of the conventional content analysis is to explain the dominant experienced-based behavior of the head nurses in clinical wards. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted by applying a quality study approach with a common content analysis model (Granheim and Lundmen). The participants were 25 head nurses who were working in the wards of various hospitals in Zahedan City. They were selected via the purposeful sampling method. The data were collected thoroughly and continued until a saturation stage was reached. Results: The result of data analysis was the theme “turbulent atmosphere-based management,” which consists of five categories as follows: the work culture of the ward, job burnout, negligent evaluation, job conflict, and decision making with limited effects. Conclusions: The analysis of the findings of the present study through considering the defined categories demonstrated that, to modify and correct the turbulent atmosphere-based management, several important measures are required and need to be continually monitored.
A Hybrid Continuous Max-Sum Algorithm for Decentralised Coordination

In this paper we tackle the problem of coordinating multiple decentralised agents with continuous state variables. Specifically we propose a hybrid approach, which combines the max-sum algorithm with continuous non-linear optimisation methods. We show that, for problems with acyclic factor graph representations, for suitable parameter choices and sufficiently fine state space discretisations, our proposed algorithm converges to a state with utility close to the global optimum. We empirically evaluate our approach for cyclic constraint graphs in a multi-sensor target classification problem, and compare its performance to the discrete max-sum algorithm, as well as a non-oordinated approach and the distributed stochastic algorithm (DSA). We show that our hybrid max-sum algorithm outperforms the non-coordinated algorithm, DSA and discrete max-sum by up to 40% in this problem domain. Furthermore, the improvements in outcome over discrete max-sum come without significant increases in running time nor communication cost.
Modeling Inequity Aversion in a Dictator Game with Production

We expand upon the previous models of inequity aversion of Fehr and Schmidt [1], and Frohlich et al. [2], which assume that dictators get disutility if the final allocation of surplus deviates from the equal split (egalitarian principle) or from the subjects' production (libertarian principle). In our model, dictators may also account for the way in which the surplus was generated. More precisely, our model incorporates the idea of liberal egalitarian ethics into the analysis, making it possible for dictators to divide the surplus according to the accountability principle, which states that subjects should only be rewarded for factors under their control. This fairness ideal does not hold subjects responsible for factors beyond their control in the production of the surplus, an idea that is absent in the models of inequity aversion cited above (JEL Codes: D3, D6, D63).
Seasonal abundance of the parasitoid complex associated with the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) in Hangzhou, China

Abstract An investigation of insect parasitoids of the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella(Linnaeus), in brassica vegetable crops in the suburbs of Hangzhou was conducted during five periods from 1989 to 1997. Eight species of primary parasitoids were recorded: Trichogramma chilonis Ishii, Cotesia plutellae Kurdjumov, Microplitis sp. , Oomyzus sokolowskii Kurdjumov, Diadromus collaris(Gravenhorst), Itoplectis naranyae (Ashmead), Exochus sp. and Brachymeria excarinata Gahan. Seven species of hyperparasitoids were also collected. Rates of parasitism of eggs of P. xylostella were usually very low. However, rates of parasitism of larvae and pupae were substantial and showed two peaks each year, around June–July and September–November respectively. Rates of parasitism during peaks were usually 10–60% and reached over 80% on a few occasions. Cotesia plutellae, O. sokolowskii and D. collaris were the major larval, larval-pupal and pupal parasitoids respectively. In the field, C. plutellae was active throughout the year. Oomyzus sokolowskii was active from May to October, entered a quiescent pupal stage in October–November to overwinter and did not emerge until next April–May. Diadromus collariswas recorded from April to July and October. Rates of parasitism of P. xylostellain radish and mustard fields were usually higher than those in cabbage and Chinese cabbage fields in the same locality. Negative correlations of parasitism rates between C. plutellae and O. sokolowskii indicate a competitive relationship for host larvae between these two larval parasitoids.
Silver Containing Stainless Steel as a New Outlook to Abate Bacterial Adhesion and Microbiologically Influenced Corrosion

Biofouling and microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) are alarming processes of material deterioration. The scenario originates from the attachment of microorganisms as quickly as a material is immersed in a non-sterile environment. Stainless steels, in spite of their wide use in different industries and as appliances and implant materials, do not possess inherent antibacterial properties. To make stainless steel antibacterial and thus to mitigate MIC and bacterial infection was the purpose of this study. AISI type 304 stainless steels containing silver as an alloying element and silver coated are tested for the antibacterial efficacy as well as MIC resistance keeping plain stainless steel as control. Experimental coupons were exposed to a dilute nutrient medium containing Pseudomonas sp. , isolated from a corrosive ground water environment. Coupons were exposed for varying duration (maximum 6 days), and bacterial adhesion was monitored by using epifluorescence microscope and quantified with the help of image processing software. In another experiment, free corrosion potential of these materials was monitored for 60 days. The area of bacterial adhesion was found to be significantly lesser in case of silver containing coupons compared to control. Silver alloyed coupons showed better antibacterial effect than the silver-coated coupons. Free corrosion potential showed ennoblement in the case of control coupons, while silver alloyed and silver coated coupons showed substantially lesser fluctuation. SEM observation showed pitting corrosion by 30 days in control coupons, whilst, pits were near nil on silver alloyed and very less on silver coated coupons. The results, thus suggest that silver containing stainless steels possess antibacterial properties and are resistant to MIC as compared to 304 SS. Furthermore, a field study, where the coupons were exposed to a freshwater pond showed that coupons containing silver possessed significant resistance to microfouling build-up until a period of 30 days, suggesting the possibility of using these materials in freshwater environments where microfouling is a persistent problem. As an attempt to investigate the actual damage the silver caused in the bacterium, cell walls and intracellular changes were observed under a transmission electron microscope (TEM).
Clues to the Metallicity Distribution in the Galactic Bulge: Abundances in OGLE-2007-BLG-349S

We present an abundance analysis based on high-dispersion and high signal-to-noise ratio Keck spectra of a very highly microlensed Galactic bulge dwarf, OGLE-2007-BLG-349S, with Teff ∼ 5400 K. The amplification at the time the spectra were taken ranged from 350 to 450. This bulge star is highly enhanced in metallicity with [Fe/H ] = + 0.51 ± 0.09 dex. The abundance ratios for the 28 species of 26 elements for which features could be detected in the spectra are almost all solar. In particular, there is no evidence for enhancement of any of the α-elements, including O and Mg. We conclude that the high [Fe/H] seen in this star, when combined with the equally high [Fe/H] derived in previous detailed abundance analysis of two other Galactic bulge dwarfs, both also highly magnified by microlensing, implies that the median metallicity in the Galactic bulge is very high. We thus infer that many previous estimates of the metallicity distribution in the Galactic bulge have substantially underestimated the mean Fe metallicity there due to sample bias, and suggest a candidate mechanism for such. If our conjecture proves valid, it may be necessary to update the calibrations for the algorithms used by many groups to interpret spectra and broadband photometry of the integrated light of very metal-rich old stellar populations, including luminous elliptical galaxies.
4661 - DURABILITY OF HYBRID FIBER METAL COMPOSITE LAMINATES

Fatigue damage growth has been studied experimentally in TiGr (Titanium alloy/graphite fiber-reinforced polymer matrix composite) and GLARE (Aluminum alloy/glass fiber reinforced polymer matrix composite). In both materials the key damage mechanism has been found to be fatigue crack growth in the metal plies accompanied by delamination between the metal and composite plies. A fracture-mechanics model has been developed and applied to fatigue damage propagation in hybrid metal-composite laminates. A 3-D finite element simulation was used to obtain stress-intensity factors using the virtual crack closure technique. Literature values for the dependence of the metal fatigue crack growth behavior and delamination behavior on the local stress-intensity factor were utilized. The model was effective in predicting the dependence of fatigue damage growth on stress-level, specimen stacking sequence, specimen size and temperature. Extensions of the model have been used to predict stiffness reduction and fatigue lifetime.
NEW DYNAMIC ROUTING AND ADAPTIVE SCHEDULING SCHEMES FOR BLUETOOTH RING SCATTERNETS

This paper presents a new ring topology for Bluetooth scatternets, ring of masters (ROM), and shows how this structure and its formation considerations contribute to the simplicity of routing and robustness of the scatternet. The scheduling scheme, ROM adaptive scheduling (RAS), dynamically allocates time slots at the intraand inter-piconet levels through a set of indicators that monitor node activity and packet accumulation at master node buffers. Simulations show that high throughput values are achieved with moderate packet delays and good percentages of delivery.
Blood sphingolipidomics in healthy humans: impact of sample collection methodology

We used a HPLC-MS/MS methodology for determination of a basic metabolomic profile (18:1,18:0 sphingoid backbone, C14-C26 N-acyl part) of “normal” sphingolipid levels in human serum and plasma. Blood was collected from healthy males and nonpregnant females under fasting and nonfasting conditions with and without anticoagulants. Sphingolipids analyzed included sphingoid bases, sphingosine and dihydrosphingosine, their 1-phosphates (S1P and dhS1P), molecular species (Cn-) of ceramide (Cer), sphingomyelin (SM), hexosylceramide (HexCer), lactosylceramide (LacCer), and Cer 1-phosphate (Cer1P). SM, LacCer, HexCer, Cer, and Cer1P constituted 87.7, 5.8, 3.4, 2.8, and 0.15% of total sphingolipids, respectively. The abundant circulating SM was C16-SM (64.0 µM), and it increased with fasting (100 µM). The abundant LacCer was C16-LacCer (10.0 µM) and the abundant HexCer was C24-HexCer (2.5 µM). The abundant Cer, C24-Cer (4.0 µM), was not influenced by fasting; however, levels of C16-C20 Cers were decreased in response to fasting. S1P levels were higher in serum than plasma (0.68 µM vs. 0.32 µM). We also determined levels of sphingoid bases and SM species in isolated lipoprotein classes. HDL3 was the major carrier of S1P, dhS1P, and Sph, and LDL was the major carrier of Cer and dhSph. Per particle, VLDL contained the highest levels of SM, Cer, and S1P. HPLC-MS/MS should provide a tool for clinical testing of circulating bioactive sphingolipids in human blood.
METODOLOGÍA Y APLICACION PRÁCTICA PARA LA DIGITALIZACIÓN DE PATRIMONIO COFRADE MEDIANTE LA FUSION DE DATOS DE LÁSER ESCANER Y FOTOGRAMÉTRICOS

results obtained in using free software and fusion of data from laser scanner and photographs. In this sense, one of the problems that can occur when Heritage documentation is made, is the impossibility of move the object of study from other places with appropriates environment conditions to capture data. This problem is especially important in the case of sculptures found upright with certain height, where many upper portions are hidden by the inability to locate safely locate the instruments. This paper show a case of study with this problem and provides the solution to capture data in cenital position with laser scanner. Finally, the overall results are showed and some considerations in terms of conservation and diffusion of the cultural heritage.
Reproducibility and responsiveness of quality of life assessment and six minute walk test in elderly heart failure patients

Objective To examine the reproducibility and responsiveness to change of a six minute walk test and a quality of life measure in elderly patients with heart failure. Design Longitudinal within patient study. Subjects 60 patients with heart failure (mean age 82 years) attending a geriatric outpatient clinic, 45 of whom underwent a repeat assessment three to eight weeks later. Main outcome measures Subjects underwent a standardised six minute walk test and completed the chronic heart failure questionnaire (CHQ), a heart failure specific quality of life questionnaire. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were calculated using a random effects one way analysis of variance as a measure of reproducibility. Guyatt’s responsiveness coefficient and effect sizes were calculated as measures of responsiveness to change. Results 24 patients reported no major change in cardiac status, while seven had deteriorated and 14 had improved between the two clinic visits. Reproducibility was satisfactory (ICC > 0.75) for the six minute walk test, for the total CHQ score, and for the dyspnoea, fatigue, and emotion domains of the CHQ. Effect sizes for all measures were large (> 0.8), and responsiveness coefficients were very satisfactory (> 0.7). Effect sizes for detecting deterioration were greater than those for detecting improvement. Conclusions Quality of life assessment and a six minute walk test are reproducible and responsive measures of cardiac status in frail, very elderly patients with heart failure.