Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Altered emotional recognition and expression in patients with Parkinson’s disease

Background Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients exhibit deficits in emotional recognition and expression abilities, including emotional faces and voices. The aim of this study was to explore emotional processing in pre-deep brain stimulation (pre-DBS) PD patients using two sensory modalities (visual and auditory). Methods Fifteen PD patients who needed DBS surgery and 15 healthy, age- and gender-matched controls were recruited as participants. All participants were assessed by the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces database 50 Faces Recognition test. Vocal recognition was evaluated by the Montreal Affective Voices database 50 Voices Recognition test. For emotional facial expression, the participants were asked to imitate five basic emotions (neutral, happiness, anger, fear, and sadness). The subjects were required to express nonverbal vocalizations of the five basic emotions. Fifteen Chinese native speakers were recruited as decoders. We recorded the accuracy of the responses, reaction time, and confidence level. Results For emotional recognition and expression, the PD group scored lower on both facial and vocal emotional processing than did the healthy control group. There were significant differences between the two groups in both reaction time and confidence level. A significant relationship was also found between emotional recognition and emotional expression when considering all participants between the two groups together. Conclusion The PD group exhibited poorer performance on both the recognition and expression tasks. Facial emotion deficits and vocal emotion abnormalities were associated with each other. In addition, our data allow us to speculate that emotional recognition and expression may share a common system.
Low Testosterone, but Not Estradiol, Is Associated With Incident Falls in Older Men: The International MrOS Study

Fracture risk is determined by bone strength and the risk of falls. The relationship between serum sex steroids and bone strength parameters in men is well known, whereas the predictive value of sex steroids for falls is less studied. The aim of this study was to assess the associations between serum testosterone (T) and estradiol (E2) and the likelihood of falls. Older men (aged ≥65 years) from the United States (n = 1919), Sweden (n = 2495), and Hong Kong (n = 1469) participating in the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study had baseline T and E2 analyzed by mass spectrometry. Bioavailable (Bio) levels were calculated using mass action equations. Incident falls were ascertained every 4 months during a mean follow‐up of 5.7 years. Associations between sex steroids and falls were estimated by generalized estimating equations. Fall rate was highest in the US and lowest in Hong Kong (US 0.50, Sweden 0.31, Hong Kong 0.12 fall reports/person/year). In the combined cohort of 5883 men, total T (odds ratio [OR] per SD increase = 0.88, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.86–0.91) and BioT (OR = 0.86, 95% CI 0.83–0.88) were associated with incident falls in models adjusted for age and prevalent falls. These associations were only slightly attenuated after simultaneous adjustment for physical performance variables (total T: OR = 0.94, 95% CI 0.91–0.96; BioT: OR = 0.91, 95% CI 0.89–0.94). E2, BioE2, and sex hormone‐binding globulin (SHBG) were not significantly associated with falls. Analyses in the individual cohorts showed that both total T and BioT were associated with falls in MrOS US and Sweden. No association was found in MrOS Hong Kong, and this may be attributable to environmental factors rather than ethnic differences because total T and BioT predicted falls in MrOS US Asians. In conclusion, low total T and BioT levels, but not E2 or SHBG, are associated with increased falls in older men. © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Number and colour composition of nest lining feathers predict eggshell bacterial community in barn swallow nests: an experimental study

Summary 1. The use of feathers as nest lining material has traditionally been explained by the thermoregulatory properties of feathers. Feather nest lining could additionally affect nest detectability by predators, or play a role in a sexually selected context. Furthermore, feather nest lining harbours microorganisms that may influence environmental conditions where eggs and nestlings develop. 2. Microorganisms growing on nest lining feathers could affect the bacterial load of eggshells because they occupy space and/or produce antimicrobial substances against other bacteria, including egg pathogens. Feathers of different colours are known to differ in their bacterial community (i.e. feather degrading bacteria) and, thus, colour composition of nest lining feather could also affect the bacterial environment of avian nests. 3. Here we tested this hypothesis in the barn shallow (Hirundo rustica) by exploring the relationship between eggshell bacterial loads and number of feathers, and the effect of experimentally modified colour composition of nest lining feathers on eggshell bacterial load. 4. In agreement with the hypothesis we found that, before treatment, the number of nest lining feathers (mainly that of unpigmented-white colour) predicted eggshell bacterial load, and that, at the end of the incubation period, eggshells of experimental nests with white feathers had a lower bacterial density than those in experimental nests with black feathers. 5. We failed to detect a relationship between bacterial load and hatching success. However, since evidence of that relationship exists for other species, these results would explain the previously detected experimental effect of colour composition of nest lining feathers on hatching success of swallows. 6. Nest design in general, and the use of nest-lining white feathers in particular, may therefore have important consequences for reproductive success of birds. The reduced eggshell bacterial loads of experimental white nests would explain preferences by barn swallows for feathers of white colour.
Comparison of blueberry powder produced via foam-mat freeze-drying versus spray-drying: evaluation of foam and powder properties.

BACKGROUND Blueberry juice powder was developed via foam-mat freeze-drying (FMFD) and spray-drying (SD) via addition of maltodextrin (MD) and whey protein isolate (WPI) at weight ratios of MD/WPI = 0.4 to 3.2 (with a fixed solids content of 5 wt% for FMFD and 10 wt% for SD). Feed rates of 180 and 360 mL h-1 were tested in SD. The objective was to evaluate the effect of the drying methods and carrier agents on the physical properties of the corresponding blueberry powders and reconstituted products. RESULTS Ratios of MD/WPI = 0.4, 1.0 and 1.6 produced highly stable foams most suitable for FMFD. FMFD gave high yields and low bulk density powders with flake-like particles of large size that were also dark purple with high red values. SD gave low powder recoveries. The powders had higher bulk density and faster rehydration times, consisting of smooth, spherical and smaller particles than in FMFD powders. The SD powders were bright purple but less red than FMFD powders. Solubility was greater than 95% for both FMFD and SD powders. CONCLUSION The FMFD method is a feasible method of producing blueberry juice powder and gives products retaining more characteristics of the original juice than SD. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.
Determination of ground conductivity in Bahrain by the ground-wave attenuation method

The authors discusses the measurement of equivalent ground conductivity, which plays an important role in ground-wave radio transmission. The author concludes that the humidity (moisture content) of soils is a major factor in determining the conductivity values. Measurements of conductivity as a function of moisture content show very low values for dried samples, compared with moistened ones. There is no significant diurnal or seasonal variation. The author believes this is due to the fact that Bahrain is a sand dominated country, and sand is moisture-regain sensitive. >
Preparation of carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastics with high fiber volume fraction and high heat-resistant properties

In the present article, a highly heat-resistant composite with a high fiber volume fraction (Vf > 60%) was successfully manufactured using engineering plastic Nylon66 as matrix and carbon fabric as reinforcement by a solution impregnation molding method. The mechanical properties of the composite were investigated using a tensile measuring device. Mechanical analysis revealed the superior mechanical properties of the composite relative to those of previously reported carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastics (CFRTPs). The cross section and fracture surface of the composite were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. The resin successfully impregnated the fiber bundles and the bonding strength of the fiber–resin interface was excellent. Dynamic mechanical analysis was used to evaluate the heat-resistant property of the composite. The composite exhibited a better heat-resistant property relative to that of the carbon fiber-reinforced crystalline co-polyester composite. To further verify the versatility of this method, super engineering plastic polyetherimide with a higher molecular weight was successfully employed as matrix to prepare CFRTP.
Group-Based Trajectory of Body Shape From Ages 5 to 55 Years and Cardiometabolic Disease Risk in 2 US Cohorts

The association of adiposity across the life span with cardiometabolic risk is not completely delineated. We used a group-based modeling approach to identify distinct trajectories of body shape from ages 5 years to 55 years among 84,792 women from the Nurses' Health Study (1976-2010) and 37,706 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986-2010) and assessed the associations between these trajectories and incidence of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) during a 17-year follow-up period. Compared with those who maintained leanness throughout the life span ("lean-stable" trajectory), participants who maintained a medium body shape ("medium-stable" trajectory) had somewhat increased risk. Those who started lean but had a moderate or marked increase in adiposity ("lean-moderate increase" and "lean-marked increase" trajectories) had even higher risk (e.g., for a "lean-marked increase" trajectory, the hazard ratio for diabetes was 8.11 (95% confidence interval (95% CI): 7.10, 9.27) in women and 2.36 (95% CI: 2.04, 2.74) in men; for CVD, it was 1.38 (95% CI: 1.25, 1.52) in women and 1.28 (95% CI: 1.16, 1.41) in men). Participants who started heavy and became heavier (a "heavy-increase" trajectory) had substantially elevated risk (for diabetes, the hazard ratio was 7.34 (95% CI: 6.40, 8.42) in women and 2.80 (95% CI: 2.37, 3.31) in men; for CVD, it was 1.55 (95% CI: 1.40, 1.71) in women and 1.35 (95% CI: 1.20, 1.53) in men). Our data showed that trajectories of body shape from ages 5 to 55 years were associated with subsequent risk of developing type 2 diabetes and CVD.
Development of a novel closed EUV pellicle for EUVL manufacturing

As for the EUV pellicle, closed pellicle structure with the filters which has fundamentally no penetration path of particles is needed to keep the clean reliability level of photomask equivalent to the current photolithography. We proposed a novel closed EUV pellicle equipped with filters which has not only the particle intrusion prevention but also the ventilation performance. Full-size closed EUV pellicle was fabricated by forming the vent holes in the Si border part and putting the wide filters on the top side of Si border. As the result, we experimentally confirmed the suppression of the membrane deflection under the practical pumping down condition.
Antibacterial activity of ceftolozane/tazobactam alone and in combination with other antimicrobial agents against MDR Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Objectives Broad-spectrum antimicrobial resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PSA) isolates is a growing concern as our therapeutic options have become significantly limited. Although ceftolozane/tazobactam (C/T) has been shown to be highly active against MDR PSA pathogens, combination regimens are often employed in real-world settings. To assist the clinical decision-making process regarding the selection of combination antibiotics and dosages for this pathogen, we performed time-kill studies assessing clinical free peak and trough C/T concentrations alone and in combination with eight anti-pseudomonal agents against four clinical MDR PSA isolates. Methods Time-kill analyses were performed over 24 h in duplicate using C/T concentrations reflective of the free peak concentrations of a 3 g dose every 8 h (q8h; 120/25.2 mg/L) and the peak and trough of a 1.5 g q8h dose (60/12.6 and 7.5/1.6 mg/L) in humans. The activity of C/T 120, 60 and 7.5 mg/L alone and C/T 7.5 mg/L in combination with free peak and trough concentrations of clinical doses for cefepime, ciprofloxacin, colistin, aztreonam, meropenem, piperacillin/tazobactam, fosfomycin and amikacin was tested for all isolates. Results C/T 3 and 1.5 g q8h peak concentrations demonstrated killing against the MDR PSA. Colistin and fosfomycin were synergistic with C/T as dual therapy and triple therapy regimens. Conclusions As a result of escalating resistance, PSA is an increasingly challenging pathogen in the clinical setting. Our findings aid in the identification of novel treatment options using achievable drug exposures for the treatment of MDR PSA.
Development of blended cements for water proofing application

The application of mineral admixtures as partial cement replacement in concrete leads to a reduction in construction cost. Usually single mixture has limitation and some have contrasting influences on properties of concrete. The combination of more kinds of mineral admixtures is postulated to improve concrete properties. Since RHA is highly reactive pozzolan, it has led to the idea of focusing the study on the performance of Multi-blended pozzolan as partial cement replacement in mortar. Over 8 different mixes were produced in which four mixes contained varying percentages of admixtures (Multi Blended Cement, MBC) and the remainders were single mix (Binary Blended Cement, BBC) containing optimum percentages (based on literature study) of 20% PFA, 20% RHA, 50% SLAG, and 10% POFA. Three samples for each mix, curing period and parameter tests were prepared. This work initially deals with compressive strength characteristics, water absorption, and total porosity on mortar cured (standard curing) for 7, 28, 60 and 90 days. The performance of optimum MBC mortar was studied in terms of ultimate compressive strength, water absorption and total porosity. The strength properties of the optimum mixes of MBC mortars was also examined at different curing regimes. This research also focuses on studying some durability aspects of the optimum mix of MBC mortars namely acid attack, and carbonation. Besides, the effects of saline seawater were investigated for short term exposure. Finally attempt in brief study on suitability of the optimum mixes of MBC mortars as face sheets to produce lightweight non-load bearing sandwich block was conducted. From the results obtained, it was found that the strength of control and BBC mortars at early age on average were 20% higher than MBC mortars, and at final age both were comparable with MBC mortars. The strength of all mortars at 90 days on average was 59MPa. However, the MBC system produced low permeability mortar compared to control, and BBC mortars at all ages. The total porosity and water absorption of control and BBC were 28% and 21%, and 9% and 14%, respectively. The strength of MBC mortar after 45 cycles of wet and dry curing in seawater exhibited 24% higher than control mortar. The initial water curing for 7 and 14 days and continuous air curing also exhibited 13% and 19%, and 21% and 26%, higher early strength than continuous water and air curing, respectively. The strength and durability properties of MBC mortar are more pronounced than control when it is provided with adequate curing. After exposure to chemical attack, the MBC mortar exhibits better resistance than control mortar. With adequate curing the MBC mortar was higher in durability than control mortar when subjected to chemical attack.
DFT Predictions of Crystal Structure, Electronic Structure, Compressibility, and Elastic Properties of Hf–Al–C Carbides

To understand the potential for use of the Hf–Al–C ternary compounds, (HfC)nAl3C2 (Hf2Al3C4 and Hf3Al3C5) and (HfC)nAl4C3 (Hf2Al4C5 and Hf3Al4C6) were investigated using density functional theory, including crystal structure, electronic structure, compressibility, and elastic properties. The theoretical density of (HfC)nAl3C2 (4.10–4.16 g/cm3) is higher than that of (HfC)nAl4C3 (3.92–3.98 g/cm3), due to the smaller number of lighter Al–C layers. With increasing numbers of Hf–C layers, the Hf–C and Al–C bond lengths remain almost unchanged. In none of the compounds is there a gap around the Fermi energy (Ef), which implies they are metal-like conductors. With increasing pressure, there is greater shrinkage along the c axis than the a axis. The bond stiffness increases with increasing pressure. In general, (HfC)nAl3C2 has higher elastic stiffness than (HfC)nAl4C3, with the moduli increasing with the number of Hf–C layers. The Hf–Al–C compounds as well as the brittle Zr–Al–C compounds all have low shear moduli/bulk moduli ratio (G/B) from 0.71 to 0.78, suggesting that the G/B ratio is not always a suitable measure of ductility.
Effect of Hybrid Aromatherapy on Sleep Quality of Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome Admitted to Cardiac Care Unit

Background and objective: Sleep disorder and reduced rest during admission to hospital is a stimulating factor of heart attacks in coronary artery disease patients. There are different ways to improve sleep quality. Method: Aromatherapy is one of the methods used to improve sleep quality. This study determines the effects of hybrid aromatherapy on sleep quality of patients with ACS admitted to CCU. This clinical trial was conducted in 2016 on 60 patients diagnosed with ACS and admitted to CCU of the 22 Bahman Hospital, Gonabad. The patients were recruited by using convenient sampling and assigned randomly to control and experiment groups. Results: The experimental group received aromatherapy with a combination of essential oils of lavender, Matricaria recutita and neroli (6:2:0.5) for three consecutive nights; the control group received no intervention. At the beginning and the end of the study, visual VSH scale was filled out to assess sleep quality. The collected data was analyzed by using SPSS20, independent t-tests, Chi-square test and exact Fisher test (p 0.05). Conclusion: There was a significant difference in mean score of post-interventional and pre-interventional sleep quality, effectiveness and sleep supplementation (p<0.001). The mean score of sleep quality and sleep supplementation increased in the control group and decreased in the experiment group, while the mean score of sleep effectiveness decreased in the control group and increased in the experiment group. The results showed that hybrid aromatherapy as a cost effective and uncomplicated method can improve sleep quality of patients with ACS admitted to CCU.
Oral and Topical Antibiotics for Clinically Infected Eczema in Children: A Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial in Ambulatory Care

PURPOSE Eczema may flare because of bacterial infection, but evidence supporting antibiotic treatment is of low quality. We aimed to determine the effect of oral and topical antibiotics in addition to topical emollient and corticosteroids in children with clinically infected eczema. METHODS We employed a 3-arm, blinded, randomized controlled trial in UK ambulatory care. Children with clinical, non-severely infected eczema were randomized to receive oral and topical placebos (control), oral antibiotic (flucloxacillin) and topical placebo, or topical antibiotic (fusidic acid) and oral placebo, for 1 week. We compared Patient Oriented Eczema Measure (POEM) scores at 2 weeks using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). RESULTS We randomized 113 children (40 to control, 36 to oral antibiotic, and 37 to topical antibiotic). Mean (SD) baseline Patient Oriented Eczema Measure scores were 13.4 (5.1) for the control group, 14.6 (5.3) for the oral antibiotic group, and 16.9 (5.5) for the topical antibiotic group. At baseline, 104 children (93%) had 1 or more of the following findings: weeping, crusting, pustules, or painful skin. Mean (SD) POEM scores at 2 weeks were 6.2 (6.0) for control, 8.3 (7.3) for the oral antibiotic group, and 9.3 (6.2) for the topical antibiotic group. Controlling for baseline POEM score, neither oral nor topical antibiotics produced a significant difference in mean (95% CI) POEM scores (1.5 [−1.4 to 4.4] and 1.5 [−1.6 to 4.5] respectively). There were no significant differences in adverse effects and no serious adverse events. CONCLUSIONS We found rapid resolution in response to topical steroid and emollient treatment and ruled out a clinically meaningful benefit from the addition of either oral or topical antibiotics. Children seen in ambulatory care with mild clinically infected eczema do not need treatment with antibiotics.
Blind Insight: Metacognitive Discrimination Despite Chance Task Performance

Blindsight and other examples of unconscious knowledge and perception demonstrate dissociations between judgment accuracy and metacognition: Studies reveal that participants’ judgment accuracy can be above chance while their confidence ratings fail to discriminate right from wrong answers. Here, we demonstrated the opposite dissociation: a reliable relationship between confidence and judgment accuracy (demonstrating metacognition) despite judgment accuracy being no better than chance. We evaluated the judgments of 450 participants who completed an AGL task. For each trial, participants decided whether a stimulus conformed to a given set of rules and rated their confidence in that judgment. We identified participants who performed at chance on the discrimination task, utilizing a subset of their responses, and then assessed the accuracy and the confidence-accuracy relationship of their remaining responses. Analyses revealed above-chance metacognition among participants who did not exhibit decision accuracy. This important new phenomenon, which we term blind insight, poses critical challenges to prevailing models of metacognition grounded in signal detection theory.
Part-of-Speech Tagging of Dutch with MBT, a Memory-Based Tagger Generator

We present a part of speech tagger (morphosyntactic disambiguator) for Dutch, constructed by means of the Memory-Based Tagger generation method. In this approach, inductive learning methods are used to derive a tagger, lexicon and unknown word category guesser fully automatically from a tagged example corpus. Advantages of the approach are (i) fast tagger development time without linguistic engineering, (ii) accuracy better than or comparable to state of the art statistical and rule-based approaches, (iii) fast tagging speed, and (iv) reliable unknown word category guessing without the overhead of morphological analysis.