Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Do Muscle Strength Deficits of the Uninvolved Hip and Knee Exist in Young Athletes Before Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction?

Background: Muscle strength of the involved limb is known to be decreased after injury. Comparison with the uninvolved limb has become standard of practice to measure progress and for calculation of limb symmetry indices (LSIs) to determine readiness to return to sport. However, some literature suggests strength changes in the uninvolved limb also are present after lower extremity injury. Purpose: To examine the uninvolved limb strength in a population of adolescent athletes after an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury and compare strength values with those of the dominant limb in a healthy control group. Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: A total of 64 athletes were enrolled in this study, including 31with injured ACLs (mean age, 15.6 ± 1.4 years) and 33 healthy controls (mean age, 14.9 ± 1.9 years). The median time from injury to testing was 23 days for the ACL-injured group. Participants underwent Biodex isokinetic strength testing at 60 deg/s to assess quadriceps and hamstring strength. Isometric hip strength (abduction, extension, external rotation) was measured using a handheld dynamometer. The muscle strength of the uninvolved limb of the ACL-injured group was compared with that of the dominant limb of the healthy control group. Results: The results showed a significant difference in quadriceps muscle strength between the 2 study groups (P < .001). Isokinetic quadriceps strength of the uninvolved limb in the ACL group was significantly decreased by 25.5% (P < .001) when compared with the dominant limb of the control group. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate a decreased isokinetic strength of the quadriceps muscle in the uninvolved limb after ACL injury as compared with healthy controls. Consideration should be taken when using the uninvolved limb for comparison when assessing quadriceps strength in a population with an ACL injury.
Paramyotonia congenita mutations reveal different roles for segments S3 and S4 of domain D4 in hSkM1 sodium channel gating

Mutations in the gene encoding the voltage-gated sodium channel of skeletal muscle (SkMl) have been identified in a group of autosomal dominant diseases, characterized by abnormalities of the sarcolemmal excitability, that include paramyotonia congenita (PC) and hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HYPP). We previously reported that PC mutations cause in common a slowing of inactivation in the human SkMl sodium channel. In this investigation, we examined the molecular mechanisms responsible for the effects of L1433R, located in D4/S3, on channel gating by creating a series of additional mutations at the 1433 site. Unlike the R1448C mutation, found in D4/S4, which produces its effects largely due to the loss of the positive charge, change of the hydropathy of the side chain rather than charge is the primary factor mediating the effects of L1433R. These two mutations also differ in their effects on recovery from inactivation, conditioned inactivation, and steady state inactivation of the hSkMl channels. We constructed a double mutation containing both L1433R and R1448C. The double mutation closely resembled R1448C with respect to alterations in the kinetics of inactivation during depolarization and voltage dependence, but was indistinguishable from L1433R in the kinetics of recovery from inactivation and steady state inactivation. No additive effects were seen, suggesting that these two segments interact during gating. In addition, we found that these mutations have different effects on the delay of recovery from inactivation and the kinetics of the tail currents, raising a question whether this delay is a reflection of the deactivation process. These results suggest that the S3 and S4 segments play distinct roles in different processes of hSkM1 channel gating: D4/S4 is critical for the deactivation and inactivation of the open channel while D4/S3 has a dominant role in the recovery of inactivated channels. However, these two segments interact during the entry to, and exit from, inactivation states.
On automatic drum transcription using non-negative matrix deconvolution and itakura saito divergence

This paper presents an investigation into the detection and classification of drum sounds in polyphonic music and drum loops using non-negative matrix deconvolution (NMD) and the Itakura Saito divergence. The Itakura Saito divergence has recently been proposed as especially appropriate for decomposing audio spectra due to the fact that it is scale invariant, but it has not yet been widely adopted. The article studies new contributions for audio event detection methods using the Itakura Saito divergence that improve efficiency and numerical stability, and simplify the generation of target pattern sets. A new approach for handling background sounds is proposed and moreover, a new detection criteria based on estimating the perceptual presence of the target class sources is introduced. Experimental results obtained for drum detection in polyphonic music and drum soli demonstrate the beneficial effects of the proposed extensions.
Dynamic group behaviors for interactive crowd simulation

We present a new algorithm to simulate dynamic group behaviors for interactive multi-agent crowd simulation. Our approach is general and makes no assumption about the environment, shape, or size of the groups. We use the least effort principle to perform coherent group navigation and present efficient inter-group and intra-group maintenance techniques. We extend the reciprocal collision avoidance scheme to perform agent-group and group-group collision avoidance that can generate collision-free and coherent trajectories. The additional overhead of dynamic group simulation is relatively small. We highlight its interactive performance in complex scenarios with hundreds of agents and highlight its benefits over prior methods.
Macrophages and Systemic Iron Homeostasis

As a principal aspect of their scavenging function, splenic and hepatic macrophages phagocytize and degrade senescent and damaged erythrocytes to recover iron, mainly for the production of hemoglobin in new erythrocytes but also for other carriers and enzymes requiring iron. Splenic red pulp macrophages are specialized for iron recycling with increased expression of proteins for the uptake of hemoglobin, breakdown of heme and the export of iron. In humans, recycling macrophages contribute the majority of the iron flux into extracellular fluid, exceeding the contribution of dietary iron absorption and release of stored iron from hepatocytes. Iron release from macrophages is closely regulated by the interaction of hepcidin, a peptide hormone produced by hepatocytes, with the macrophage iron exporter ferroportin. In addition to their homeostatic role, macrophages employ multiple mechanisms to contain microbial infections by depriving microbes of iron. This review discusses the iron-scavenging function of macrophages in the context of iron homeostasis and host defense.
The Distribution of Time to Recovery of Enterprise IT Services

The context of this article is the availability of enterprise IT services, a key concern for many enterprises. While there is a plethora of literature concerned with service availability, there is no previous systematic empirical study on IT service time to recovery following outages. The existing literature typically assumes a distribution, or builds on analogies to related areas such as software engineering. Therefore, our objective is to find the statistical distribution of IT service time to recovery. Method-wise, this investigation is based on logs of more than 1800 incidents in a large Nordic bank, corresponding to more than 11000 hours of recorded downtime. Five possible distributions of time to recovery from the literature were investigated using the Akaike Information Criterion to find the distribution offering the best fit. The results show that the log-normal distribution outperformed the others for all tested service channels (collections of IT services). It is concluded that the log-normal distribution offers the best fit of IT service time to recovery. Using this distribution in simulation and decision-support tools offers the prospect of better predictions of downtime and downtime costs to the practitioner community.
Effects of daily and acute restraint stress during lactation on maternal aggression and behavior in mice

A decreased reactivity to stressors during lactation might heighten the expression of maternal care (including defense of offspring) by minimizing the extent to which stress can impact maternal care. Although stressors applied during pregnancy have variable effects on maternal aggression (or defense of offspring), to date no study has examined the effects of stress applied during the postpartum period on maternal aggression. In this study, we examined the effects of both daily and acute restraint stress (30 min) applied postpartum on maternal aggression and other maternal behaviors. Daily restraint (ending 2 h before testing) did not alter any measure of maternal behavior, including nursing, licking and grooming of pups and pup retrieval, or any measure of maternal aggression. In contrast, acute stress significantly impaired total time aggressive and number of attacks, but pup retrieval was normal. c-Fos levels were significantly elevated in a number of brain regions in association with acute stress, including lateral septum (LS), caudal periaqueductal gray and medial amygdala (MeA), suggesting possible sites where stress reactivity could alter aggression. Together, the results indicate that acute restraint stress impairs maternal aggression and provide a starting point for future studies examining how stress reactivity pathways may intersect with maternal aggression pathways.
An overview of patients' preference for, and satisfaction with, care provided by general practitioners and nurse practitioners.

AIM AND OBJECTIVES To assess patients' views on the care provided by nurse practitioners compared with that provided by general practitioners and to determine factors influencing these views. BACKGROUND Many countries have sought to shift aspects of primary care provision from doctors to nurses. It is unclear how patients view these skill mix changes. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. METHOD Patients (n = 235) who received care from both nurse and doctor were sent a self-administered questionnaire. The main outcome measures were patient preferences, satisfaction with the nurses and doctors and factors influencing patients' preference and satisfaction. RESULTS Patients preferred the doctor for medical aspects of care, whereas for educational and routine aspects of care half of the patients preferred the nurse or had no preference for either the nurse or doctor. Patients were generally very satisfied with both nurse and doctor. Patients were significantly more satisfied with the nurse for those aspects of care related to the support provided to patients and families and to the time made available to patients. However, variations in preference and satisfaction were mostly attributable to variation in individual patient characteristics, not doctor, nurse or practice characteristics. CONCLUSION Patient preference for nurse or doctor and patient satisfaction both vary with the type of care required and reflect usual work demarcations between nurses and doctors. In general, patients are very satisfied with the care they receive. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE In many countries, different aspects of primary care provision have shifted from doctors to nurses. Our study suggests that these skill mix changes meet the needs of patients and that patients are very satisfied with the care they receive. However, to implement skill mix change in general practice it is important to consider usual work demarcations between nurses and doctors.
Mamestra brassicae Nucleopolyhedrovirus Infection and Enhancing Effect of Proteins Derived from Xestia c-nigrum granulovirus in Larvae of Mamestra brassicae and Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) on Cabbage

ABSTRACT The insecticidal effect of Mamestra brassicae nucleopolyhedrovirus (MabrNPV) T5 against Mamestra brassicae (L.) and Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), important pests of various vegetables and ornamental crops in Japan as well as many other countries, and the enhancing activity of proteins derived from occlusion bodies of Xestia c-nigrum granulovirus (XecnGV) &agr;-4, which was named GVPs, on the infectivity of MabrNPV were evaluated in a bioassay with second-instar larvae fed on virus-applied cabbage, Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata, plants. The lethal concentrations of MabrNPV achieving 95% mortality (LC95) were estimated to be 7.7 × 105 and 1.8 × 105 OBs per ml for M. brassicae and H. armigera, respectively, with MabrNPV-alone treatment. Because the mean areas of cabbage leaf consumed by one larva in 60 h were not significantly different between M. brassicae and H. armigera, we conclude that MabrNPV is more infectious to H. armigera than to M. brassicae. When larvae were fed on cabbage plants treated with 104 OBs per ml MabrNPV and various concentrations of the GVPs, the mortality of the two noctuid larvae increased in relation to GVP concentration. The requisite concentrations of the GVPs achieving 95% mortality with the MabrNPV for M. brassicae and H. armigera were estimated to be 5.93–8.30 and 1.94–3,48 µg/ml, respectively, In a comparison of the MabrNPV-alone treatment with equivalent 95% mortality, addition of GVPs increased the rate of larval death at younger instars, especially in M. brassicae. Our results indicate that GVPs are a potentially useful additive for improving the insecticidal efficacy of MabrNPV.
The C. elegans G-protein-coupled receptor SRA-13 inhibits RAS/MAPK signalling during olfaction and vulval development

In C. elegans, the RAS/MAPK pathway is used in different tissues to regulate various cell fate decisions. Several positive and negative regulators tightly control the activity of the RAS/MAPK pathway at different steps. We demonstrate a link between a G-protein-coupled receptor signalling pathway and the RAS/MAPK cascade. SRA-13, a member of the SRA family of chemosensory receptors, negatively regulates RAS/MAPK signalling during vulval induction and the olfaction of volatile attractants. Epistasis analysis indicates that SRA-13 inhibits the RAS/MAPK pathway at the level or upstream of MAPK. In both tissues, the vulval precursor cells and the chemosensory neurones, SRA-13 acts through the GPA-5 Gα protein subunit, suggesting a common mechanism of crosstalk. Moreover, we find that vulval induction is repressed by food withdrawal during larval development and that SRA-13 activity is required for the suppression of vulval induction in response to food starvation. Thus, SRA-13 may serve to adapt the activity of the RAS/MAPK pathway to environmental conditions.
TAX AVOIDANCE IN THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY: THE EFFECTS OF CSR DISCLOSURE AND EARNINGS MANAGEMENT

Abstract— Tax avoidance in Indonesia must be considered due to the trend of tax avoidance carried out by taxpayers, which causes the state to experience losses. Based on data from the Directorate General of Taxes of the Ministry of Finance, due to tax avoidance, it can cost Indonesia up to 4.86 billion U.S. dollars, equivalent to Rp 68.7 trillion if exchanged into Rupiah per year. This study aims to determine the effect of disclosure of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and earnings management on tax avoidance, with financial performance as an intervening variable. This research includes quantitative research with secondary data. The population in this study are companies registered at Jakarta Islamic Index 70, and the samples used are manufacturing companies registered at Jakarta Islamic Index 2018–2022. The method used is Path Analysis by using the software eviews10. The results of this study show that Corporate Social Responsibility and earnings management have no significant positive effect on tax avoidance. Financial performance has a significant negative effect on tax avoidance. CSR has a significant positive effect on financial performance, and earnings management has a significant negative effect on financial performance. Meanwhile, financial performance cannot mediate CSR and earnings management for tax avoidance. Keywords: : CSR; Earnings Management; Tax Avoidance; Financial Performance
Enhancing human action recognition through spatio-temporal feature learning and semantic rules

In this paper, we present a two-stage framework that deal with the problem of automatically extract human activities from videos. First, for action recognition we employ an unsupervised state-of-the-art learning algorithm based on Independent Subspace Analysis (ISA). This learning algorithm extracts spatio-temporal features directly from video data and it is computationally more efficient and robust than other unsupervised methods. Nevertheless, when applying this one-stage state-of-the-art action recognition technique on the observations of human everyday activities, it can only reach an accuracy rate of approximately 25%. Hence, we propose to enhance this process with a second stage, which define a new method to automatically generate semantic rules that can reason about human activities. The obtained semantic rules enhance the human activity recognition by reducing the complexity of the perception system and they allow the possibility of domain change, which can great improve the synthesis of robot behaviors. The proposed method was evaluated under two complex and challenging scenarios: making a pancake and making a sandwich. The difficulty of these scenarios is that they contain finer and more complex activities than the well known data sets (Hollywood2, KTH, etc). The results show benefits of two stages method, the accuracy of action recognition was significantly improved compared to a single-stage method (above 87% compared to human expert). This indicates the improvement of the framework using the reasoning engine for the automatic extraction of human activities from observations, thus, providing a rich mechanism for transferring a wide range of human skills to humanoid robots.
RTP Profile for Audio and Video Conferences with Minimal Control

This document describes a profile called "RTP/AVP" for the use of the real-time transport protocol (RTP), version 2, and the associated control protocol, RTCP, within audio and video multiparticipant conferences with minimal control. It provides interpretations of generic fields within the RTP specification suitable for audio and video conferences. In particular, this document defines a set of default mappings from payload type numbers to encodings.
Cytokeratins 7 and 20, Dpc4, and MUC5AC in the Distinction of Metastatic Mucinous Carcinomas in the Ovary From Primary Ovarian Mucinous Tumors: Dpc4 Assists in Identifying Metastatic Pancreatic Carcinomas

The distinction of metastatic mucinous carcinomas in the ovary from primary ovarian mucinous tumors (atypical proliferative/borderline and carcinoma) can be difficult because of similarities in morphology. We evaluated the immunohistochemical expression of cytokeratins 7 and 20 (CK 7, CK 20), Dpc4 (nuclear transcription factor inactivated in 55% of pancreatic carcinomas), and MUC5AC (a gastric mucin gene) in 57 primary ovarian mucinous tumors (41 atypical proliferative tumors and 16 carcinomas) and 46 metastatic mucinous carcinomas in the ovary. Primary ovarian mucinous tumors were virtually always diffusely positive for CK 7 (98%), Dpc4 (100%), and MUC5AC (98%) and often focally to diffusely positive for CK 20 (68%). Colorectal mucinous carcinomas were diffusely positive for CK 20 (100%) and Dpc4 (89%) and were distinguished from primary ovarian mucinous tumors by their frequent lack of expression of CK 7 and MUC5AC (67% were negative for each marker). Appendiceal carcinomas were diffusely positive for CK 20 (100%) and often negative for CK 7 (71%) but were often positive for MUC5AC (86%) and Dpc4 (100%). When primary ovarian and metastatic colorectal or appendiceal carcinomas shared expression of both CK 7 and CK 20, they could usually be distinguished by the pattern of positivity (diffuse CK 7 and patchy CK 20 in ovarian tumors and patchy CK 7 and diffuse CK 20 in colorectal and appendiceal tumors). Pancreatic carcinomas shared the same pattern of diffuse positivity for CK 7 (100%) and MUC5AC (92%) and focal to diffuse positivity for CK 20 (71%) as primary ovarian mucinous tumors but were negative for Dpc4 in 46%. Loss of Dpc4 expression is useful for distinguishing metastatic pancreatic carcinomas in the ovary from both primary ovarian mucinous tumors and metastatic mucinous carcinomas derived from other sites.
Fatigue Crack Detection Using Piezoelectric Elements

Crack detection using piezoelectric sensors have widely been reported in many research papers. In most of these studies, the cracks considered are generally artificially induced and the piezoelectric sensors are not subjected to fatigue loading. This paper presents a set of fatigue tests results demonstrating the effectiveness of piezoelectric elements in crack detection. The results presented were obtained from a series of high frequency fatigue experiments. The crack lengths were measured using an eddy current crack detector. These were compared with the results obtained from the piezoelectric sensors located on the test specimen.
Influence of different degrees of head elevation on respiratory mechanics in mechanically ventilated patients

Objective The positioning of a patient in bed may directly affect their respiratory mechanics. The objective of this study was to evaluate the respiratory mechanics of mechanically ventilated patients positioned with different head angles hospitalized in an intensive care unit. Methods This was a prospective physiological study in which static and dynamic compliance, resistive airway pressure, and peripheral oxygen saturation were measured with the head at four different positions (0° = P1, 30° = P2, 45° = P3, and 60° = P4). Repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a Bonferroni post-test and Friedman analysis were used to compare the values obtained at the different positions. Results A comparison of the 35 evaluated patients revealed that the resistive airway pressure values in the 0° position were higher than those obtained when patients were positioned at greater angles. The elastic pressure analysis revealed that the 60° position produced the highest value relative to the other positions. Regarding static compliance, a reduction in values was observed from the 0° position to the 60° position. The dynamic compliance analysis revealed that the 30° angle produced the greatest value compared to the other positions. The peripheral oxygen saturation showed little variation, with the highest value obtained at the 0° position. Conclusion The highest dynamic compliance value was observed at the 30° position, and the highest oxygenation value was observed at the 0° position.