Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigation and Optimization of Protective Properties of Metal Multi-Layered Shields: A Review

Effort to enhance protective properties of shields against high speed impact triggered investigations of the ballistic performance of multilayer barriers having different structure, their comparison with each other and with the monolithic barriers. In spite of a large number of publications on these topics there are no comprehensive surveys of this field. The goal of the present review is to close this gap. This review includes analytical, numerical and experimental investigations which can be useful for elucidating general properties of multi-layered metallic shields, e.g. effect of layering, spacing and change of the order of the plates on the protective performance of shields, and also studies which suggested analytical methods for optimization of multi-layered shields.
Validation of a New Device for Measuring Isolated Gastrocnemius Contracture and Evaluation of the Reliability of the Silfverskiöld Test

Background: Important aspects on the diagnostics of isolated gastrocnemius contractures (IGCs) have been poorly described. This study was designed to validate a new ankle range of motion (ROM) measuring device for diagnosing an IGC. In addition, we wanted to investigate the reliability of the clinical Silfverskiöld test. Methods: Twelve health care personnel (24 feet) were examined by 4 testers on 3 different occasions for the reliability testing of the new ankle ROM measuring device. The same participants were examined using the Silfverskiöld test to examine the reliability of the clinical test. Eleven patients (15 feet) with IGC were examined before gastrocnemius recession, immediately after surgery, and 3 months after surgery to examine the validity and responsiveness of the ankle ROM device. Results: An intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) >0.85 was found for both inter- and intrarater reliability for the new ankle ROM device. The device confirmed an IGC in 13 of 15 feet before surgery and 3 of 13 feet at 3-month follow-up. At baseline, the measured ankle dorsiflexion was median 3 degrees with the knee in extension, which increased to 10 degrees (P < .001) immediately after surgery and 12 degrees (P = .003) at 3-month follow-up. ICC values of 0.230 to 0.791 were observed for the inter- and intrarater reliability testing of the clinical Silfverskiöld test. Conclusion: The new ankle ROM measuring device was reliable and responsive for detecting IGC. The Silfverskiöld test had poor inter- and intrarater reliability. Level of evidence Level II, prospective cohort study.
Mechanisms of neural reorganization in chronic stroke subjects after virtual reality training

This study investigates patterns of brain reorganization in chronic stroke subjects after two weeks of robot-assisted arm and hand training in virtual reality (VR). Four subjects were studied with event-related fMRI while doing simple paretic hand finger movements before (double baseline) and after training. Bilateral hand movements were recorded and used to provide real-time feedback to subjects during scanning to eliminate performance confounds on fMRI results. The kinematic parameters of each movement were also used in the general linear model with the BOLD signal to investigate training-induced changes in neuromotor coupling. Univariate analysis showed an increase in BOLD signal in the ipsilesional hemisphere in two subjects and a decrease in activity in the other two subjects. Seed voxel based functional connectivity analysis revealed an increase in connectivity between ipsilesional motor cortex and bilateral sensorimotor cortex during finger movements in all four subjects. Hemispheric laterality index values showed a tendency to decrease reflecting a reduction in the over-dominance of the contralesional hemisphere. The study is novel in terms of 1) tracking finger movement during a motor task in the scanner, 2) monitoring motor performance during the experiment and 3) giving online visual feedback of subjects' movement. This pilot study introduces a novel approach to study neural plasticity by combining measures of regional intensity, interregional interactions (using functional connectivity analysis and hemispheric laterality index), and modulation in the strength of neuromotor coupling.
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE CETACEAN STOMACHS , WITH SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE FEEDING HABITS OF WHALES

Macroand microscopical observations on the sei, fin, blue and sperm whale stomachs are described and discussed on the base of comparative-anatomical and functional viewpoint. The compartmentalization of the cetacean stomach is a unique character in the animal kingdom and it must be attributed to the aquatic life of the group. An attempt has been made to establish the relationship between the anatomical features of the cetacean stomach and its physiological function.
Estimation of genetic parameters and genetic change for stillbirth in Iranian Holstein cows: a comparison between linear and threshold models

0.08 to 2.0%, respectively, using linear and threshold animal models. The threshold sire model estimates of heritabilities for stillbirth in this study were 0.021 to 0.071, while the linear sire model estimates of heritabilities for stillbirth in the current study were from 0.003 to 0.021 over the parities. There was a slightly increasing genetic trend for stillbirth rate in parities 1 and 2 over time with the analysis of linear animal and linear sire models. There was a significant decreasing genetic trend for stillbirth rate in parity 1 and 3 over time with the analysis of threshold animal and threshold sire models, but the genetic trend for stillbirth rate in parity 2 with these models of analysis was significantly positive. The low estimates of heritability obtained in this study implied that much of the improvement in stillbirth could be attained by improvement of production environment rather than genetic selection.
Sexual dimorphism in the association between gestational diabetes mellitus and overweight in offspring at 5-7 years: The OBEGEST cohort study

Evidence from literature is mixed regarding a possible association of maternal gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and overweight in the offspring. Sexual dimorphism, or sex disparities in the pathogenesis linking GDM exposure to overweight, could be at play. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between GDM and child overweight at 5–7 years. Six hundred pairs (1:1) of Reunionese liveborn singletons selected from a hospital-based birth registry, matched for sex, gestational age, and birth period, underwent a prospective in-home follow-up and were analyzed with respect to their exposure to GDM. The primary outcome was child overweight at 5–7 years, as defined by the International Obesity Task Force. The association between GDM exposure and child overweight was estimated by the odds ratio (OR) using conditional logistic regression models. For the subset of children exposed to GDM with available maternal glycemic data, we analyzed the relationship between maternal glycemic levels during pregnancy and child body mass index (BMI) at 5–7 years with a linear regression model. In light of the significant interaction between sex and GDM, all statistical analyses were then stratified by sex. After controlling for pre-pregnancy BMI and maternal sociodemographic characteristics, the risk of overweight increased with exposure to GDM for boys (adjusted OR: 2.34; 95% confidence interval = 1.26–4.34, P = 0.007) but not for girls (adjusted OR: 0.56; 95%CI = 0.28–1.10, P = 0.093). Consistent with this, the linear increase of boys’ BMI at 5–7 years with maternal blood glucose levels during pregnancy, in the exposed group, displayed a dose-response relationship. Our findings indicate that exposure to GDM is a risk factor for childhood overweight in boys but not in girls, which adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting greater sensitivity of male offspring to intrauterine hyperglycemia.
Elevated striatal and decreased dorsolateral prefrontal cortical activity in response to emotional stimuli in euthymic bipolar disorder: no associations with psychotropic medication load.

OBJECTIVE To examine abnormal patterns of frontal cortical-subcortical activity in response to emotional stimuli in euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder type I in order to identify trait-like, pathophysiologic mechanisms of the disorder. We examined potential confounding effects of total psychotropic medication load and illness variables upon neural abnormalities. METHOD We analyzed neural activity in 19 euthymic bipolar and 24 healthy individuals to mild and intense happy, fearful and neutral faces. RESULTS Relative to healthy individuals, bipolar subjects had significantly increased left striatal activity in response to mild happy faces (p < 0.05, corrected), decreased right dorsolateral prefrontal cortical (DLPFC) activity in response to neutral, mild and intense happy faces, and decreased left DLPFC activity in response to neutral, mild and intense fearful faces (p < 0.05, corrected). Bipolar and healthy individuals did not differ in amygdala activity in response to either emotion. In bipolar individuals, there was no significant association between medication load and abnormal activity in these regions, but a negative relationship between age of illness onset and amygdala activity in response to mild fearful faces (p = 0.007). Relative to those without comorbidities, bipolar individuals with comorbidities showed a trend increase in left striatal activity in response to mild happy faces. CONCLUSIONS Abnormally increased striatal activity in response to potentially rewarding stimuli and decreased DLPFC activity in response to other emotionally salient stimuli may underlie mood instabilities in euthymic bipolar individuals, and are more apparent in those with comorbid diagnoses. No relationship between medication load and abnormal neural activity in bipolar individuals suggests that our findings may reflect pathophysiologic mechanisms of the illness rather than medication confounds. Future studies should examine whether this pattern of abnormal neural activity could distinguish bipolar from unipolar depression.
Expressive feature characterization for ultrascale data visualization

The grand challenge for visualization is to cast information into insightful content so scientists can test hypotheses and ﬁnd phenomena not possible otherwise. This challenge is faced with a critical gap in the scientists’ abilities to succinctly characterize phenomena of interest in their datasets. Furthermore, as applications generate larger and more complex datasets, eﬃciently retrieving the features of interest becomes a signiﬁcant problem. In this paper we discuss recent achievements and new capabilities in the characterization and extraction of qualitative features. We also outline the necessary components needed by a backend system to use this new capability and operate in the same environment as the scientiﬁc applications. Our methods have allowed us to scale to high process counts on leadership computing resources and have also allowed us to keep pace with the growing size of scientiﬁc datasets. We discuss our eﬀorts of examining qualitative events in cutting-edge climate data.
A BLE-based probabilistic room-level localization method

During the last decades, location based services have become very popular and the developed indoor positioning systems have achieved an impressive accuracy. The problem though is that even if the only requirement is room-level localization, those systems are most of the times not cost-efficient and not easy to set-up, since they often require time-consuming calibration procedures. This paper presents a low-cost, threshold-based approach and introduces an algorithm that takes into account both the Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) of the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons and the geometry of the rooms the beacons are placed in. Performance evaluation was done via measurements in an office environment composed of three rooms and in a house environment composed of six rooms. The experimental results show an improved accuracy in room detection when using the proposed algorithm, compared to when only considering the RSSI readings. This method was developed to provide context awareness to the international research project named SmartHeat. The projects aims to provide a system that efficiently heats a house, room by room, based on the habitants' habits and preferences.
The future starts today, not tomorrow: How future focus promotes organizational citizenship behaviors

Future-oriented cognition has been shown to be an important driver of several functional behaviors. In the present article, we build and test theory empirically on the influence of dispositional future focus on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). We integrate future focus research with regulatory focus theory to examine the two regulatory foci (i.e. promotion and prevention focus) as mediating mechanisms through which future focus influences five distinct organizational citizenship behaviors (i.e. altruism, civic virtue, conscientiousness, courtesy, and sportsmanship). In line with our hypotheses, results from a study of 845 employees show that future focus has a positive influence on altruism, civic virtue, and courtesy over and above important predictors of OCB identified in previous research. Mediation analyses support our theoretical model, indicating that different OCBs are influenced by future focus through either promotion or prevention focus at work.
Effect of mixed macromolecular crowding agents on protein folding

In cells, proteins fold and unfold in the presence of macromolecules with various sizes and shapes. Recent experiments by Liang and coworkers (J Biol Chem 2004;279:55109–55116; J Mol Biol 2006;364:469–482) show that protein refolding is enhanced by a mixture of two different crowding agents relative to the individual crowding agents and an optimal mixing ratio exists. Here, we present a theory that predicts the existence of an optimal mixing ratio. The theory is based on models for calculating the changes in the chemical potentials of the folded and unfolded states by a mixture of crowders. The existence of an optimal mixing ratio results from the dependences of these chemical‐potential changes on crowder sizes and concentrations, which can be argued to be quite general. We further predict that, for any crowding agent, the stabilizing effect can be optimized both by varying the molecular weight and the mixing ratio of two species with different molecular weights. Proteins 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Serum paraoxonase 1 activity in patients with iron deficiency anemia

Introduction In this study we aimed to detect paraoxonase 1 (PON-1) activity in iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and to compare it with healthy controls by observing the change after iron therapy. Material and methods In this study, 50 adult patients with IDA and 40 healthy subjects were enrolled. All patients were analyzed at the beginning and after treatment according to laboratory assessments. Results Mean paraoxonase and arylesterase activities in the iron deficiency anemia group were significantly lower than mean activities of the control group (102.4 ±19.2 U/l and 163.3 ±13.68 U/l, respectively and 157.3 ±26.4 U/l and 256.1 ±24.6 U/l, respectively; p = 0.0001 for both). Paraoxonase and arylesterase activities significantly increased after treatment for IDA (143.2 ±13.9 and 197.6 ±27.9 U/l, respectively, p = 0.0001). Mean activities after treatment with iron were significantly lower than mean activities in the control group (p = 0.002; p = 0.0001 respectively). Conclusions Paraoxonase and arylesterase activities in patients with IDA significantly increased after treatment with iron therapy. In adults IDA may also be one of the factors associated with increased risk of atherosclerosis.
Equivalency of In vitro fertilization Success Rates in Elective Single Blastocyst Transfer and Elective Double Blastocyst Transfer: An Example of Equivalence Methodology in Clinical Reproductive Health

Context: When comparing success rates between treatments, it is more appropriate to structure analyses in terms of equivalence rather than traditional analyses that assess differences. Unfortunately, no studies of elective single blastocyst transfer (eSBT) have been conducted in this manner. Aims: The objective of this study was to assess clinical equivalence of in vitro fertilization success rates among patients undergoing eSBT. Settings and Design: A historical prospective study was conducted at a private fertility center. Methods: Medical records were reviewed to identify patients eligible for eSBT. Equivalency of success rates, defined as no more than a 10% difference based on 95% confidence intervals (CIs), was compared between eSBT (n = 125) and eDBT (n = 213) groups. Results: Using traditional analysis techniques, no differences in pregnancy or live-birth rates were seen (eSBT: 84.6% vs. eDBT: 84.5%, P = 0.99; eSBT: 65.3% vs. eDBT: 72.3%, P = 0.23). The 95% CI around the difference in pregnancy rates ranged from -7.9 to 8.1, suggesting clinically equivalent pregnancy rates. Clinical equivalence was not established for live-births (95% CI = −18.5–4.5). Conclusions: Findings suggest comparable pregnancy rates can be achieved in a clinical setting when utilizing eSBT in good-prognosis patients. Although live-birth rate equivalence was not demonstrated, it is thought the additional complications associated with multiple gestations outweigh the potentially higher live-birth rate. The present study highlights the importance of utilizing equivalence analyses when making statements regarding the similarity of two treatments in reproductive health, rather than relying on superiority analyses alone.
Tracking of Physical Activity from Childhood to Adulthood: A Review

The aim of the article was to review studies on the tracking of physical activity in all phases of life from childhood to late adulthood. The majority of the studies have been published since 2000. The follow-up time in most studies was short, the median being 9 years. In men, the stability of physical activity was significant but low or moderate during all life phases and also in longterm follow-ups. In women, the tracking was lower and in many cases non-significant. Among both sexes, stability seems to be lower in early childhood than in adolescence or in adulthood and lower in transitional phases, such as from childhood to adolescence or from adolescence to adulthood, than in adulthood. However, the differences in the stability of physical activity between age groups and between different phases of life were small. The number of tracking studies utilising objective methods to measure physical activity was so small that systematic differences in stability between self-report and objective methods could not be determined. A factor which caused differences in tracking results was the adjustment of correlations for measurement error and other error variance. Adjusted coefficients were clearly higher than unadjusted ones. However, adjustment was done only in very few studies. If the different methods used for estimating habitual physical activity and the failure to control for important covariates in studies of tracking are taken into account, physical activity appears to track reasonably well also in the longer term, for example from adolescence to adulthood. The results of the tracking studies support the idea that the enhancement of physical activity in children and adolescents is of great importance for the promotion of public health.
Dividing network externality into the number of peers and users: Focusing on sociability and enjoyment in online games

Even though network externality plays an important role in users’ motivations to use services or products, the implications of this are not clear because previous studies did not distinguish between the number of peers and the number of total users. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that there is a difference between the two network externalities, i.e., the number of peers and the total number of users. To accomplish this, the perception of quality of life is considered to have an impact on the effects of the two different network externalities. ,Data were collected from a survey that covered 508 online game players in South Korea, and the two hypotheses of “player experience of need satisfaction” from self-determination theory as well as user gratification theory (UGT) were assessed using structural equation modeling. ,The results indicate that people consider the total number of users and the number of peers differently. In addition, the effects of the total number of users and the number of peers vary according to respondents’ perceived life quality in four dimensions: loneliness, happiness, satisfaction with life (SWL), and escapism. In particular, people’s offline tendencies are reflected online in terms of loneliness, whereas online life compensates for a lack of enjoyment offline. ,The authors verify that UGT can affect the network externality by considering perceived quality of life (loneliness, SWL, happiness, and escapism) as a moderating effect.
Relationship between Hexokinase and the Aquaporin PIP1 in the Regulation of Photosynthesis and Plant Growth

Increased expression of the aquaporin NtAQP1, which is known to function as a plasmalemma channel for CO2 and water, increases the rate of both photosynthesis and transpiration. In contrast, increased expression of Arabidopsis hexokinase1 (AtHXK1), a dual-function enzyme that mediates sugar sensing, decreases the expression of photosynthetic genes and the rate of transpiration and inhibits growth. Here, we show that AtHXK1 also decreases root and stem hydraulic conductivity and leaf mesophyll CO2 conductance (g m). Due to their opposite effects on plant development and physiology, we examined the relationship between NtAQP1 and AtHXK1 at the whole-plant level using transgenic tomato plants expressing both genes simultaneously. NtAQP1 significantly improved growth and increased the transpiration rates of AtHXK1-expressing plants. Reciprocal grafting experiments indicated that this complementation occurs when both genes are expressed simultaneously in the shoot. Yet, NtAQP1 had only a marginal effect on the hydraulic conductivity of the double-transgenic plants, suggesting that the complementary effect of NtAQP1 is unrelated to shoot water transport. Rather, NtAQP1 significantly increased leaf mesophyll CO2 conductance and enhanced the rate of photosynthesis, suggesting that NtAQP1 facilitated the growth of the double-transgenic plants by enhancing mesophyll conductance of CO2.