Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aerobic Interval Training Versus Continuous Moderate Exercise as a Treatment for the Metabolic Syndrome: A Pilot Study

Background— Individuals with the metabolic syndrome are 3 times more likely to die of heart disease than healthy counterparts. Exercise training reduces several of the symptoms of the syndrome, but the exercise intensity that yields the maximal beneficial adaptations is in dispute. We compared moderate and high exercise intensity with regard to variables associated with cardiovascular function and prognosis in patients with the metabolic syndrome. Methods and Results— Thirty-two metabolic syndrome patients (age, 52.3±3.7 years; maximal oxygen uptake [&OV0312;o2max], 34 mL · kg−1 · min−1) were randomized to equal volumes of either moderate continuous moderate exercise (CME; 70% of highest measured heart rate [Hfmax]) or aerobic interval training (AIT; 90% of Hfmax) 3 times a week for 16 weeks or to a control group. &OV0312;o2max increased more after AIT than CME (35% versus 16%; P<0.01) and was associated with removal of more risk factors that constitute the metabolic syndrome (number of factors: AIT, 5.9 before versus 4.0 after; P<0.01; CME, 5.7 before versus 5.0 after; group difference, P<0.05). AIT was superior to CME in enhancing endothelial function (9% versus 5%; P<0.001), insulin signaling in fat and skeletal muscle, skeletal muscle biogenesis, and excitation-contraction coupling and in reducing blood glucose and lipogenesis in adipose tissue. The 2 exercise programs were equally effective at lowering mean arterial blood pressure and reducing body weight (−2.3 and −3.6 kg in AIT and CME, respectively) and fat. Conclusions— Exercise intensity was an important factor for improving aerobic capacity and reversing the risk factors of the metabolic syndrome. These findings may have important implications for exercise training in rehabilitation programs and future studies.
Analysis of Balance during Functional Walking in Stroke Survivors

Background An important objective of rehabilitation care is to regain adequate balance function to safely ambulate in community. However, in rehabilitation practice, it remains unclear if a stroke survivor functionally recovers by restitution or by learning to compensate for the lack of restoration of body function. Aim of this study is to propose and evaluate methods for the objective evaluation of balance during functional walking in stroke survivors. Methods Stroke survivors performed twice a Timed “Up & Go” (TUG) test. Ground reaction forces and position changes of both feet were measured using instrumented shoes and used to estimate the position of the center of mass (CoM). Balance control and efficiency metrics were defined to evaluate functional walking under variable conditions. Metrics were corrected based on the instantaneous velocity direction of CoM. Intra- and inter-participant variations for different phases of the TUG test were examined. Metrics were related to the Berg balance scale (BBS). Results Participants with higher BBS scores show a more efficient walking pattern. Their walking velocity and walking direction is less variable and they are more frequently unstable when walking in a straight line or when turning. Furthermore, the less affected participants are able to move their CoM more towards their affected side. Discussion We developed and demonstrated a method to assess walking balance of stroke survivors. System design and evaluation methods allow balance evaluation during functional walking in daily life. Some presented metrics show correlations with BBS scores. Clear inter- and intra-patient variations in metric values are present that cannot be explained by BBS scores, which supports the additional value of the presented system. Presented methods may be used for objective evaluation of restitution and compensation of walking balance and have a potential application in individual evidence-based therapy.
Filesystems for Network-Attached Secure Disks (CMU-CS-97-118)

Network-attached storage enables network-striped data transfers directly between client and storage to provide clients with scalable bandwidth on large transfers. Network-attached storage also decouples policy and enforcement of access control, avoiding unnecessary reverification of protection checks, reducing file manager work and increasing scalability. It eliminates the expense of a server computer devoted to copying data between peripheral network and client network. This architecture better matches storage technology’s sustained data rates, now 80 Mb/s and growing at 40% per year. Finally, it enables self-managing storage to counter the increasing cost of data management. The availability of cost-effective network-attached storage depends on it becoming a storage commodity, which in turn depends on its utility to a broad segment of the storage market. Specifically, multiple distributed and parallel filesystems must benefit from network-attached storage’s requirement for secure, direct access between client and storage, for reusable, asynchronous access protection checks, and for increased license to efficiently manage underlying storage media. In this paper, we describe a prototype network-attached secure disk interface and filesystems adapted to network-attached storage implementing Sun’s NFS, Transarc’s AFS, a network-striped NFS variant, and an informed prefetching NFS variant. Our experimental implementations demonstrate bandwidth and workload scaling and aggressive optimization of application access patterns. Our experience with applications and filesystems adapted to run on network-attached secure disks emphasizes the much greater cost of client network messaging relative to peripheral bus messaging, which offsets some of the expected scaling results. Filesystems for Network-Attached Secure Disks Garth A. Gibson, David F. Nagle, Khalil Amiri, Fay W. Chang, Howard Gobioff, Erik Riedel, David Rochberg, and Jim Zelenka July1997 CMU-CS-97-118 This research is sponsored by DARPA/ITO through ARPA Order D306, and issued by Indian Head Division, NSWC under contract N00174-96-0002. Additional support was provided by NSF and ONR graduate fellowships. The project team is indebted to generous contributions from the member companies of the Parallel Data Consortium. At the time of this writing, these companies include Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Symbios Logic Inc., Data General, Compaq, IBM Corporation, Seagate Technology, and Storage Technology Corporation. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of any supporting organization or the U.S. Government. ACM Computing Reviews
The comparison of spinal anesthesia with general anesthesia on the postoperative pain scores and analgesic requirements after elective lower abdominal surgery: A randomized, double-blinded study

Background: The aim of this study was to compare the postoperative pain scores and morphine requirements between spinal anesthesia (SA) with hyperbaric bupivacaine 0.5% and general anesthesia (GA) with 1 Minimal alveolar concentration minimal alveolar concentration (MAC) of isoflurane in 50% N2O and O2 after elective lower abdominal surgery. Materials and Methods: In this randomized clinical trial, 68 patients with American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) I or II undergoing lower abdominal surgery were randomly assigned to have elective lower abdominal surgery under SA (n = 34) or GA (n = 34). The SA group received 3 cc of 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine (15 mg), at L3–L4 interspace intrathecally and also 2 mic/kg fentanyl and 0.15 mg/kg morphine intravenously for intraoperative analgesia. In the GA group, induction of anesthesia was carried out with Na thiopental 6 mg/kg body weight, fentanyl 2 mic/kg body weight, morphine 0.15 mg/kg, and atracurium 0.6 mg/kg body weight, and then, trachea was intubated. The primary outcome was postoperative pain scores at rest and under stress on a visual analog scale and the secondary outcome was morphine requirement by the patients. Outcome measures were recorded at 2, 4, 6, 12, and 24 h postoperatively. The duration of postanesthesia care unit (PACU) and hospital stay were recorded. Intraoperative parameters, postoperative pain scores, complications, recovery time, and the duration of hospital stay at follow up were compared between the two groups. Results: Patients in SA group had significantly lower scores of a postoperative pain at rest (3.4 ± 1.6 and 4.1 ± 1.2 at 2 and 4 h postoperatively vs. 5.2 ± 1.5 and 5.8 ± 0.9 in the GA group with P < 0.05), but there were no significant differences between both groups for scores of postoperative pain at 6, 12, and 24 h. The amount of morphine requirement in 6 h postoperatively was significantly lower in the SA group (10.2 ± 4.3 mg vs. 15.6 ± 5.6 mg in the GA group with P < 0.05), but there were not significant differences between the two groups after 6 h postoperatively. The duration of PACU stay was shorter for the GA group than the SA group (75 ± 6 vs. 126 ± 12 min, P < 0.001), but there was no significant differences between the duration of hospital stay between the two groups (1.8 ± 0.6 vs. 2.1 ± 0.8 days). Conclusion: Although in patients undergoing elective lower abdominal surgery with SA may have lower pain scores and also lower morphine requirement in the first 6 h postoperatively, but after that there were no significant differences between SA and GA regarding postoperative pain scores and analgesic requirements and so more attention should be given to their postoperation pain relief.
Proliferation, differentiation and degeneration in the spinal ganglia of the chick embryo under normal and experimental conditions.

In this paper Viktor Hamburger [5] and Rita Levi-Montalcini [6] collaborated to examine the effects of limb transplantation [7] and explantation on neural development [8]. In 1947 Hamburger invited Levi-Montalcini to his lab at Washington University [9] in St. Louis to examine this question. Independently, each had previously arrived at opposing conclusions based on the same data. Hamburger concluded that limb transplantations caused the ganglia to develop more connections and grow larger while LeviMontalcini concluded that the ganglia first produce a large amount of neurons, then degenerate the unsuccessful neurons. She concluded that larger ganglia must be due to the increase in successful connections. This joint paper, published in the Journal of Experimental Zoology [10] in 1949, corroborated the findings reported by Levi-Montalcini and established that nerve degeneration is an integral part of development.
A Fast and Numerically Robust Method for Exact Multinomial Goodness-of-Fit Test

Evaluating the significance of goodness-of-fits tests for multinomial data in general, and estimating the p value of the log-likelihood ratio statistic G2 in particular, have been studied extensively in the statistical literature. The methods for computing the latter can be broadly divided into two categories: asymptotic approximations and exact methods. In many applications in bioinformatics one needs a fast algorithm to estimate vanishingly small p values which led to a renewed interest in exact methods. We introduce a new algorithm (bagFFT) for computing the p value of G2 which is based on the algorithm by Baglivo, Olivier, and Pagano. The original algorithm tends to suffer from large numerical errors, rendering it inappropriate for our purposes. We give theoretical and empirical evidence that by applying appropriate exponential shifts we obtain an algorithm that is: (a) as stable numerically as Hirji's network algorithm, and (b) asymptotically faster than both Baglivo et al.'s and Hirji's algorithm: O(Q K N log N) versus O(Q K N2), where Q is the size of the lattice, K is the number of categories, and N is the size of the sample. We conclude by showing how bagFFT can be combined with our earlier work to obtain a fast and accurate algorithm to compute the significance of biological sequence motifs.
Effects of bevacizumab (Avastin) on retinal cells in organotypic culture.

PURPOSE Repetitive intravitreal injections of bevacizumab are a successful treatment option for exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The aim of this study was to evaluate the toxicity of bevacizumab in the adult mammalian neurosensory retina in culture. METHODS Adult porcine neurosensory retinas were cultured adjoined to the retinal pigment epithelium-choroid layer (retina-RPE-choroid complex) in static culture for 3 days, whereas neural retinas alone were cultured in a perfusion chamber for 3 days. Bevacizumab was added to the culture and perfusion medium at three concentrations (0.25 mg/mL [n = 6], 0.5 mg/mL [n = 6], and 1.25 mg/mL [n = 6]). Retina-RPE-choroid complex and neural retinas alone cultured without bevacizumab were used as controls. After 3 days in culture, the neural retinas alone and the retina-RPE-choroid complexes were analyzed histologically and immunohistochemically for the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), vimentin, glutamine synthetase, rhodopsin, smooth muscle actin (SMA), and apoptosis. RESULTS No toxic effects on ganglion or photoreceptor cells were observed at any concentration of bevacizumab. The expression of GFAP and vimentin was slightly increased in Müller cells, whereas glutamine synthetase and rhodopsin were unaffected by bevacizumab. However, significantly enhanced SMA expression in retina blood vessels was observed in retinas cultured in the presence of bevacizumab. CONCLUSIONS Bevacizumab was well tolerated by ganglion and photoreceptor cells even at concentrations fivefold higher than those used clinically. The increased expression of SMA is an indication of the loss of functional VEGF modulating smooth muscle cells in mature vessels.
SNAP-25 Is a Target of Protein Kinase C Phosphorylation Critical to NMDA Receptor Trafficking

Protein kinase C (PKC) enhances NMDA receptor (NMDAR)-mediated currents and promotes NMDAR delivery to the cell surface via SNARE-dependent exocytosis. Although the mechanisms of PKC potentiation are established, the molecular target of PKC is unclear. Here we show that synaptosomal-associated protein of 25 kDa (SNAP-25), a SNARE protein, is functionally relevant to PKC-dependent NMDAR insertion, and identify serine residue-187 as the molecular target of PKC phosphorylation. Constitutively active PKC delivered via the patch pipette potentiated NMDA (but not AMPA) whole-cell currents in hippocampal neurons. Expression of RNAi targeting SNAP-25 or mutant SNAP-25(S187A) and/or acute disruption of the SNARE complex by treatment with BoNT A, BoNT B or SNAP-25 C-terminal blocking peptide abolished NMDAR potentiation. A SNAP-25 peptide and function-blocking antibody suppressed PKC potentiation of NMDA EPSCs at mossy fiber-CA3 synapses. These findings identify SNAP-25 as the target of PKC phosphorylation critical to PKC-dependent incorporation of synaptic NMDARs and document a postsynaptic action of this major SNARE protein relevant to synaptic plasticity.
DNA Damage Induces a Novel p53-Survivin Signaling Pathway Regulating Cell Cycle and Apoptosis in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Cells

Survivin is a novel member of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) family. Here we report that the chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin, a DNA-damaging agent, activates a p53-survivin signaling pathway inducing cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Treatment of wild-type (wt) p53 ALL cells (EU-3 cell line) with doxorubicin caused accumulation of p53, resulting in dramatic down-regulation of survivin, depletion of cells in G2/M, and apoptosis (increased sub-G1compartment). In contrast, doxorubicin treatment of mutant (mut) p53 cells (EU-6/ALL line) up-regulated survivin and induced G2/M arrest without inducing apoptosis. However, treating EU-6 with anti-survivin antisense resensitized these cells to doxorubicin, resulting in apoptosis. With a p53-null cell line (EU-4), although doxorubicin treatment arrested cells in G2/M, survivin expression was unchanged, and cells underwent only limited apoptosis. However, re-expression of wt-p53 in EU-4 cells could restore the doxorubicin-p53-survivin pathway, resulting in significantly decreased survivin expression and increased apoptosis in these cells after doxorubicin treatment. Following cotransfection of p53-null EU-4 cells with survivin promoter-luciferase constructs and either wt-p53 or different mut-p53 expression vectors, wt-p53 inhibited survivin promoter activity; p53-mediated inhibition could be abrogated by overexpression of murine double minute2 (MDM2) protein. Together, these studies define a novel p53-survivin signaling pathway activated by DNA damage that results in down-regulation of survivin, cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis. Furthermore, our data indicate that loss of wt-p53 function in tumor cells may contribute to up-regulation of survivin and resistance to DNA-damaging agents.
Algebro-geometric Schrödinger operators in many dimensions

We collect known results about the Schrödinger operators L=−Δ+u(x), generalizing to higher dimension those algebro-geometric operators L=−d2/dx2+u(x) with rational, trigonometric and elliptic potential which appear in the finite-gap theory.
Lithium in the Globular Cluster NGC 6397: Evidence for dependence on evolutionary status

Most Globular Clusters are believed to host a single stellar populations. They can thus be considered a good place to study the Spite plateau and probe for possible evolutionary modifications of the Li content. We want to determine the Li content of subgiant (SG) and Main Sequence (MS) stars of the old, metal-poor globular cluster NGC 6397. This work was aimed not only at studying possible Li abundance variations but to investigate the cosmological Li discrepancy. Here, we present FLAMES/GIRAFFE observations of a sample of 84 SG and 79 MS stars in NGC 6397 selected in a narrow range of B-V colour and, therefore, effective temperatures. We determine both Teff and A(Li) using 3D hydrodynamical model atmospheres for all the MS and SG stars of the sample. We find a significant difference in the Li abundance between SG stars and MS stars, the SG stars having an A(Li) higher by almost 0.1 dex on average. We also find a decrease in the A(Li) with decreasing Teff, both in MS and SG stars, albeit with a significantly different slope for the two classes of stars. This suggests that the lithium abundance in these stars is, indeed, altered by some process, which is Teff-dependent. The Li abundance pattern observed in NGC 6397 is different from what is found among field stars, casting some doubt on the use of Globular Cluster stars as representative of Population II with respect to the Li abundance. None of the available theories of Li depletion appears to satisfactorily describe our observations.
Effect of S-glass fabric on the mechanical characteristics of a hybrid carbon/aramid fabric reinforced epoxy composites

The aim of this study is to investigate the hybridization effects of intraply carbon/aramid fabric layers with S-glass fabric layers on the tensile and flexural behavior of asymmetric and symmetric arrangements of hybrid composite laminates. The results revealed that the replacement of some carbon/aramid fiber layers with S-glass fiber layers in the composite laminate can provide enhancements in tensile strain, tensile modulus and flexural properties while the tensile strength results were slightly degraded. Three-point bending test results indicated a significant improvement in flexural properties when S-glass fibers employed in compressive side across the depth of composite laminates. The maximum increment in tensile modulus, flexural modulus and flexural strength of hybrid composite laminates were 19.7%, 50.0% and 42.3%, respectively compared to carbon/aramid fiber reinforced epoxy composite.
National Approaches to Monitoring Population Salt Intake: A Trade-Off between Accuracy and Practicality?

Aims There is strong evidence that diets high in salt are bad for health and that salt reduction strategies are cost effective. However, whilst it is clear that most people are eating too much salt, obtaining an accurate assessment of population salt intake is not straightforward, particularly in resource poor settings. The objective of this study is to identify what approaches governments are taking to monitoring salt intake, with the ultimate goal of identifying what actions are needed to address challenges to monitoring salt intake, especially in low and middle-income countries. Methods and Results A written survey was issued to governments to establish the details of their monitoring methods. Of the 30 countries that reported conducting formal government salt monitoring activities, 73% were high income countries. Less than half of the 30 countries, used the most accurate assessment of salt through 24 hour urine, and only two of these were developing countries. The remainder mainly relied on estimates through dietary surveys. Conclusions The study identified a strong need to establish more practical ways of assessing salt intake as well as technical support and advice to ensure that low and middle income countries can implement salt monitoring activities effectively.
Design of a Small-Scale Prototype for Research in Airborne Wind Energy

Airborne wind energy is a new renewable technology that promises to deliver electricity at low costs and in large quantities. Despite the steadily growing interest in this field, few results with real-world data have been reported so far, due to the difficulty faced by researchers when realizing an experimental setup. Indeed airborne wind energy prototypes are mechatronic devices involving many multidisciplinary aspects, for which there are currently no established design guidelines. With the aim of making research in airborne wind energy accessible to a larger number of researchers, this paper provides such guidelines for a small-scale prototype. The considered system has no energy generation capabilities, but it can be realized at low costs, used with little restrictions and it allows one to test many aspects of the technology, from sensors to actuators to wing design and materials. In addition to the guidelines, the paper provides the details of the design and costs of an actual experimental setup which has been successfully used to develop and test sensor fusion and automatic control solutions.
On-Ground Characterization of the SMOS Payload

The on-ground characterization of the synthetic aperture radiometer onboard the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity mission is described. Characterization includes basic functionality, internal calibration, thermal cycling, response to point and flat sources, self-radio-frequency interference, and others. The description of the different tests performed as well as the detailed results are provided. The results show that the instrument is very stable and has all gains and offsets consistent with the ones obtained at subsystem level. On the other hand, the phase of the visibility has a larger variation with temperature than expected, a small signal leakage from the local oscillators is present, and a small interference from the X-band transmitter during short periods of time has been detected. The implementation of internal-calibration procedures, along with the accurate thermal characterization performed, have been used to produce highly accurate brightness-temperature values well within specifications.