Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimization of Ultrasonic Extraction of Phenolic Compounds from Epimedium brevicornum Maxim Using Response Surface Methodology and Evaluation of Its Antioxidant Activities In Vitro

The ultrasound-assisted extraction of phenolic compounds from Epimedium brevicornu Maxim was modeled using response surface methodology. A Central Composite Design (CCD) was employed to optimize three extraction variables, including ethanol concentration (X 1), extraction time (X 2), and ratio of aqueous ethanol to raw material (X 3), for the achievement of high extraction yield of the phenolic compounds. The optimized conditions are X 1 of 50% (v/v), X 2 of 27.5 min, and X 3 of 250 mL/g. Under these conditions, the experimental yield is 4.29 ± 0.033% (n = 3). The antioxidant activity was evaluated using the DPPH assay and ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP). And it indicates that the phenolic compounds from Epimedium brevicornu Maxim possess significant antioxidant activity. HPLC analysis reveals that the main phenolic compound in the extract product was identified as gallic acid, catechin (Cianidanol), p-hydroxybenzoic acid, vanillic acid, caffeic acid, ferulaic acid, rutin, benzoic acid, and quercetin.
Time characteristics in wheelchair tennis played on hard surfaces

The aim of this study was to analyse time characteristics in wheelchair tennis. In 2006 data was obtained from 22 singles tennis matches, played on a hard surface. With computer-vision-based software application called the SAGIT/TENNIS tracking system which had been developed at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Ljubljana, time characteristics were analysed accordingly. This programme was used to obtain automatically players’ motion data from the digitized video recordings of a tennis match. Within the time characteristics it has been established that the active part represented 19.68% of the playing time, while the passive one represented 80.32%. The average time of an individual rally lasted 4.16 seconds and in each rally 2.23 strokes were played. 70% of all the rallies was finished in the first time class. Each half of the tennis court was divided into 14 regions in order to measure the average time spent in each region. It was discovered that most of the active time was spent in regions 1 and 4, representing the base position in wheelchair tennis. There were no statistically significant differences between the winners and the losers in the percentage of the time spent in a particular region.
Whole-body vibration training improves the walking ability of a moderately impaired child with cerebral palsy: a case study

[Purpose] Strength training is recommended for children with cerebral palsy. However, it is difficult for moderately impaired children with cerebral palsy, who require crutches for ambulation, to participate in this type of training. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether whole-body vibration training is an effective method of strengthening in a moderately impaired child with cerebral palsy. [Subject and Methods] This report describes an 8-year-old Japanese boy with cerebral palsy, who was ambulatory with crutches. The subject participated in physical therapy twice a week for 5 weeks. Whole-body vibration training was selected to complement the standing practice. The patient’s crutch-walking ability, gross motor function, and spasticity were evaluated. [Results] The number of steps and walking duration were reduced in a 5-m walk test with crutches and gross motor function was improved. Further, the spasticity was reduced. [Conclusion] Whole-body vibration training is an effective physical therapy intervention in moderately impaired children with cerebral palsy, who are unable to walk without crutches.
Models for predicting extinction times: shall we dance (or walk or jump)?

Measures of the risk of extinction, such as the expected time to extinction, are often used in population viability analysis (PVA) and in subsequent decision-making procedures, to gauge the impact of various management actions. Since PVA results are often used in the allocation of conservation funding, which in turn has a major impact on the future persistence of populations, the calculation of quantities such as the expected time to extinction is of great importance. These quantities are typically calculated by assuming a specific model for changes in the population over time. In particular, diffusion models are often used because they are simple to analyse and often give rise to explicit formulæ for most quantities of interest. However, while they are widely used, they frequently lead to inaccurate predictions of critical quantities such as the expected time to extinction. Hence, management decisions based on these predictions may be similarly flawed.
The Rising Skill Premium, Technological Change and Appropriability

In the US the skill premium and the nonproduction/production wage differential increased strongly from the late 1970s onwards. Skillbiased technological change, trade with unskilledabundant countries and changes in the (domestic) supply of skilled workers have been proposed as explanatory factors. By the method of eliminating the impossible, skillbiased technological change is argued to be the dominant explanation. This paper shows that the dismissal of the increased supply of skill which is argued to be countervailing rising skill premiums is premature. In a simple model, well embedded in the literature on R&D, knowledge accumulation and (semi)endogenous growth, it is shown that the demand curve for skilled labour might well be upward sloping. Our key assumption is that skilled labour is employed in nonproduction activities that both generate and use knowledge inputs. It is shown that the tension between nonrivalness and appropriability of R&D output is crucial for the sign of the slope of the skilldemand curve. A necessary condition for an upward sloping demand curve is the ability of firms to appropriate the intertemporal returns from nonproduction activities.
Repetition of Ischemic Preconditioning Augments Endothelium-Dependent Vasodilation in Humans: Role of Endothelium-Derived Nitric Oxide and Endothelial Progenitor Cells

Background—Several studies have shown that both early and late effects of ischemic preconditioning (IPC) protect against myocardial injury after ischemic reperfusion. Methods and Results—The purpose of this study was to evaluate the late effects of IPC on endothelial function in humans. Late phase of IPC was induced by upper limb ischemia (cuff inflation of over 200 mm Hg for 5 minutes) 6 times a day for 1 month. We evaluated forearm blood flow (FBF) responses to acetylcholine (ACh) and to sodium nitroprusside (SNP) before and after IPC stimulus in 30 young healthy men. FBF was measured using a strain-gauge plethysmograph. The IPC stimulus significantly increased plasma concentration of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), circulating level of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), and FBF responses to ACh, but these did not change in the control group. The FBF responses to SNP were similar before and after the IPC stimulus. Infusion of NG-monomethyl-L-arginine, a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, completely eliminated the IPC stimulus-induced augmentation of FBF responses to ACh. In the cotralateral arms of subjects that received the IPC stimulus, FBF responses to ACh did not change, but levels of VEGF and circulating EPCs increased. Conclusions—These findings suggest that repetition of late IPC stimulus augments endothelium-dependent vasodilation in humans through increases in nitric oxide production and number of EPCs under a local condition. Repetition of IPC stimulus may be a simple, safe, and feasible therapeutic technique for endothelial protection of peripheral vessels.
Characterizing Censorship of Web Content Worldwide Another Look at the OpenNet Initiative Data

In this study, we take another look at five years worth of Web censorship data gathered by the OpenNet Initiative in 77 countries using user-based testing with locally-relevant content. Prior to our work, this data had only been analyzed with limited automation, with a focus on what content had been blocked, rather than how blocking was carried out. In this study, we use more rigorous automation to obtain a longitudinal, global view of the technical means used for Web censorship. We also identify blocking that had been missed in prior analyses. Our results point to considerable variability in the technologies used for Web censorship, across countries, time, types of content and even across ISPs in the same country. In addition to characterizing Web censorship in countries that, thus far, have eluded technical analysis, we also discuss the implications of our observations on the design of future network measurement platforms and circumvention technologies.
Assessing the value of coding standards: An empirical study

In spite of the widespread use of coding standards and tools enforcing their rules, there is little empirical evidence supporting the intuition that they prevent the introduction of faults in software. Not only can compliance with a set of rules having little impact on the number of faults be considered wasted effort, but it can actually result in an increase in faults, as any modification has a non-zero probability of introducing a fault or triggering a previously concealed one. Therefore, it is important to build a body of empirical knowledge, helping us understand which rules are worthwhile enforcing, and which ones should be ignored in the context of fault reduction. In this paper, we describe two approaches to quantify the relation between rule violations and actual faults, and present empirical data on this relation for the MISRA C 2004 standard on an industrial case study.
Leadership for Increasing the Participation and Success of Students in High School Advanced Courses: Implications for Rural Educational Settings.

Leadership to reverse rigid tracking practices can make a difference for student success. Through transformational leadership, administrators, teachers, and counselors can serve as catalysts for change from restrictive to inclusive advanced high school classes. Steps are underway by some states and districts to change past grouping practices that have served as restrictive factors for student motivation and success. Interviews were conducted with administrators of six Texas high schools that had beeft successf',1 1.1:---adtrang_g! fff-71-a and encouraaing greater student participation and success in advanced high school courses. ResultS indicate that the practices and processes in educational leadership for detracking are vision, clear communication of the policy change, implementation over time, proactive leadership, and celebration of student accomplishments. The primary benefits relative to increasing high school student participation in advanced level courses are that all teachers teach all levels, and more students are preparing for college. Challenges include: helping students recognize their potential; changing educators' past ideas concerning ability grouping; keeping people talking; and helping students with the cost of advanced placement tests. Effective professional development practices in this area are training all faculty in gifted and talented strategies, offering principals professional developu=ilt and making professional development an ongoing process. Contains 64 references. (Author/TD) ********************************************************************. ************ Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** Leadership for Increasing the Participation and Success of Students in High School Advanced Courses: Implications for Rural Educational Settings
Effects of Single Pill-Based Combination Therapy of Amlodipine and Atorvastatin on Within-Visit Blood Pressure Variability and Parameters of Renal and Vascular Function in Hypertensive Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease

Both strict blood pressure (BP) control and improvements in BP profile such as BP variability are important for suppression of renal deterioration and cardiovascular complication in hypertension and chronic kidney disease (CKD). In the present study, we examined the beneficial effects of the single pill-based combination therapy of amlodipine and atorvastatin on achievement of the target BP and clinic BP profile, as well as markers of vascular and renal damages in twenty hypertensive CKD patients. The combination therapy with amlodipine and atorvastatin for 16 weeks significantly decreased clinic BP, and achievement of target BP control was attained in an average of 45% after the combination therapy in spite of the presence of no achievement at baseline. In addition, the combination therapy significantly decreased the within-visit BP variability. With respect to the effects on renal damage markers, combination therapy with amlodipine and atorvastatin for 16 weeks significantly decreased albuminuria (urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio, 1034 ± 1480 versus 733 ± 1218 mg/g-Cr, P < 0.05) without decline in estimated glomerular filtration rate. Concerning parameters of vascular function, the combination therapy significantly improved both brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) and central systolic BP (cSBP) (baPWV, 1903 ± 353 versus 1786 ± 382 cm/s, P < 0.05; cSBP, 148 ± 19 versus 129 ± 23 mmHg, P < 0.01). Collectively, these results suggest that the combination therapy with amlodipine and atorvastatin may exert additional beneficial effects on renal and vascular damages as well as BP profile in addition to BP lowering in hypertension with CKD.
An inquiry into the role of adverse childhood experiences in teaching and learning in social work

The impetus for this study is contextualised within social work teaching and learning and arose from the emergence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) of social work students. The researcher had become increasingly interested in the ways in which these ACEs impacted on students in social work classrooms and felt compelled to enquire what the responses of teaching and learning in social work should be. The rationale for the study was further established by the dearth of research in this focal area. The research goal was to gain an understanding of the experiences of third-year students and the perspectives of social work teachers with regard to the role of adverse childhood experiences during teaching and learning activities and to recommend meaningful teaching practices. There were seven research objectives that focused on obtaining theoretical perspectives from the literature and on exploring and describing the adverse childhood experiences of students within the context of teaching and learning in social work. The research objectives generated the central research question: What are the learning experiences of third-year social work students at a South African university with regard to the role of their own adverse childhood experiences? A qualitative approach and case study design was deemed the most appropriate research philosophy and method to address the study’s objectives and central research question. The case study design was used to explore how individuals (third-year social work students at the University of the Western Cape) experienced a particular phenomenon (in this case adverse childhood experiences) in relation to teaching and learning within a social work context. To provide credence to the two purposes of this research, namely exploring and describing, two methods and two sources of data were utilised: (i) a reflective assignment in a specific social work third-year module from which 20 assignments were selected using purposive sampling; and (ii) individual interviews with ten student participants (derived from the sample of assignments) and two teaching staff participants. Three overarching topics emerged from the findings, namely the adverse childhood experiences of student participants; the after-effects of adverse childhood experiences in the context of Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za
Stability of Higher-Dimensional Schwarzschild Black Holes

We investigate the classical stability of higher-dimensional Schwarzschild black holes with respect to linear perturbations in the framework of a gauge-invariant formalism for gravitational perturbations of maximally symmetric black holes. This formalism was recently developed by the present authors. The perturbations are classified into three types, those of tensor, vector and scalar modes, according to their tensorial behaviour on the spherical section of the background metric. The vector- and scalar-type modes correspond, respectively, to the axial and polar modes in the four-dimensional case. We show that for each mode of the perturbations, the spatial derivative part of the master equation is a positive, self-adjoint operator in the L 2 -Hilbert space, and hence that the master equation for each type of perturbation has no normalisable negative modes that would correspond to unstable solutions. In the same Schwarzschild background, we also analyse static perturbations of the scalar mode and show that there exists no static perturbation that is regular everywhere outside the event horizon and is well behaved at the spatial infinity. This confirms the uniqueness of the higher-dimensional spherically symmetric, static vacuum black hole, within the perturbation framework. Our strategy for treating the stability problem is also applicable to other higherdimensional maximally symmetric black holes with a non-vanishing cosmological constant. We show that all possible types of maximally symmetric black holes (including the higherdimensional Schwarzschild-de Sitter and Schwarzschild-anti-de Sitter black holes) are stable with respect to tensor and vector perturbations.
Broad-Line Emission in Low-Metallicity Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies: Evidence for Stellar Wind, Supernova, and Possible AGN Activity

We present spectra of a large sample of low-metallicity blue compact dwarf galaxies which exhibit broad components in their strong emission lines, mainly in Hβ, [O III] λλ4959, 5007, and Hα. Twenty-three spectra have been obtained with the MMT, 14 of which show broad emission. The remaining 21 spectra with broad emission have been selected from Data Release 5 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The most plausible origin of broad-line emission is the evolution of massive stars and their interaction with the circumstellar and interstellar medium. The broad emission with the lowest Hα luminosities (1036-1039 ergs s−1) is likely produced in circumstellar envelopes around hot Ofp/WN9 and/or LBV stars. The broad emission with the highest Hα luminosities (1040-1042 ergs s−1) probably arises from Type IIp or IIn supernovae (SNe). It can also come from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) containing intermediate-mass black holes, although we find no strong evidence for hard nonthermal radiation in our sample galaxies. The oxygen abundance in the host galaxies with SN candidates is low and varies in the range 12 + log O/H = 7.36-8.31. However, Type IIn SN/AGN candidates are found only in galaxies with 12 + log O/H ≲ 7.99. Spectroscopic monitoring of these Type IIn SN/AGN candidates over a timescale of several years is necessary to distinguish between the two possibilities.
Voice Conversion Using Dynamic Kernel Partial Least Squares Regression

A drawback of many voice conversion algorithms is that they rely on linear models and/or require a lot of tuning. In addition, many of them ignore the inherent time-dependency between speech features. To address these issues, we propose to use dynamic kernel partial least squares (DKPLS) technique to model nonlinearities as well as to capture the dynamics in the data. The method is based on a kernel transformation of the source features to allow non-linear modeling and concatenation of previous and next frames to model the dynamics. Partial least squares regression is used to find a conversion function that does not overfit to the data. The resulting DKPLS algorithm is a simple and efficient algorithm and does not require massive tuning. Existing statistical methods proposed for voice conversion are able to produce good similarity between the original and the converted target voices but the quality is usually degraded. The experiments conducted on a variety of conversion pairs show that DKPLS, being a statistical method, enables successful identity conversion while achieving a major improvement in the quality scores compared to the state-of-the-art Gaussian mixture-based model. In addition to enabling better spectral feature transformation, quality is further improved when aperiodicity and binary voicing values are converted using DKPLS with auxiliary information from spectral features.
Leisure Characteristics of Adults with Physical Disabilities

This study reports the demographic and leisure profiles of790 adults with physical disabilities participating in personal interviews. The sample was comprised of individuals with a wide variety of physical disabilities. Individuals with acquired disabilities reported lower levels of leisure satisfaction than those with congenital disabilities. Significant associations between leisure satisfaction and degree of functional impairment were also reported. Discussion focuses on the implications of the findings in terms of the provision of therapeutic recreation services.
Transthyretin Cerebrospinal Fluid Levels in Alzheimer's Disease – Is This a Biomarker for Disease Severity?

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), described for the first time in 1906 by Alois Alzheimer, is a neurodegenerative disease and the most frequent cause of dementia worldwide. The major neuropathological hallmarks of the disease are loss of neurons and synapses, and senile plaques (extracellular aggregates primarily composed of β-amyloid; Aβ) and neurofibrillary tangles (aggregates of hyperphosphorylated forms of the microtubule-associated tau protein) throughout cortical and limbic regions of the brain. Definite diagnosis still requires pathology according to these criteria; however, in recent years substantial progress has been made in the area of early clinical biomarker development. The use of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) as a testing platform seems to be very promising because the CSF protein composition reflects the pathological processes of the brain and because it is easily accessible by lumbar puncture. Some proteins have been reported to meet the criteria for a biomarker, such as Aβ1–42, Aβ1–40, total tau, and hyperphosphorylated tau (p-tau). Another series reported transthyretin (TTR) as a potential biomarker in AD. Whereas the aforementioned biomarkers have been studied extensively and were suggested to be included into clinical AD criteria, less information is available on TTR. This article focuses on the importance of TTR in AD, summarizes the information on the potential involvement of TTR in AD pathogenesis, and highlights its role in the differential diagnosis of dementia.
Mental Health Service Use among Asian Americans Five to Six Years after Exposure to the World Trade Center Attack

This study uses World Trade Center Health Registry data, based on Andersen’s health-care model, to investigate 2,557 Asians’ mental health service use and associated factors 5–6 years after the World Trade Center attack, compared against 32,111 non-Hispanic white participants. We find that Asians had a lower proportion of service use (15.76 vs. 26.60 percent) than white people. A previous mental health diagnosis and perceived and evaluated mental health needs strongly predicted Asians’ mental health service use, as did having routine medical checkups, being female, and being married or cohabiting. These factors, in addition to other socioeconomic predictors that were nonsignificant among Asians, were significant among white people, as well. Our findings suggest that service providers need to provide clear diagnoses to service users, explore mental health needs during medical checkups, and provide postdisaster mental health education and free treatment.