Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pregnancy‐related pelvic girdle pain in the Netherlands

Objective. In this longitudinal cohort study, we assessed the prevalence, associated delivery‐related and psychosocial factors and consequences of self‐reported pelvic girdle pain during and after pregnancy in the Netherlands. Methods. A total of 412 women, expecting their first child, answered questionnaires regarding back and pelvic girdle pain, habits, and biomedical, sociodemographic and psychosocial factors, at 12 and 36 weeks gestation, and 3 and 12 months after delivery. In addition, birth records were obtained. Possible associations were studied using non‐parametric tests. Results. The prevalence of self‐reported pelvic girdle pain was at its peak in late pregnancy (7.3%). One out of 7 women suffering from pelvic girdle pain at 36 weeks gestation, and almost half of the women suffering from pelvic girdle pain 3 months after delivery, continued to report symptoms 1 year after delivery. Women reporting pelvic girdle pain are less mobile than women without pain or women with back pain only, and more frequently have to use a wheelchair or crutches. No association was found between obstetric factors and pelvic girdle pain. Women with pelvic girdle pain report more co‐morbidity and depressive symptoms. Recommendations. Normal obstetric procedures can be followed in women reporting pregnancy‐related pelvic girdle pain. Prognosis is generally good, however, women reporting pelvic girdle pain 3 months after delivery need extra consideration. Attention needs to be given to psychosocial factors, in particular depressive symptoms.
Fault diagnosis in analog circuits using multiclass Relevance Vector Machine

In this paper the capability of Relevance Vector Machines to perform multiclass classification has been illustrated. It has been demonstrated how faults in an analog circuit can be diagnosed by analyzing these faults as a multiclass machine learning problem. A simple first order Op-amp RC circuit validates our methodology which can be further applied to more complex analog circuits employing a larger number of electronic components.
Detection of multidecadal oceanic variability by ocean data assimilation in the context of a “perfect” coupled model

[1] The impact of oceanic observing systems, external radiative forcings due to greenhouse gas and natural aerosol (GHGNA), and oceanic initial conditions on long time variability of oceanic heat content and salinity is assessed by the assimilation of oceanic “observations” in the context of a “perfect” Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report model. According to times and locations at which observations are available, the 20th century expendable bathythermograph (XBT) temperature and 21st century Argo temperature and salinity observations are drawn from a model simulation (set as the “truth”) with historical GHGNA radiative forcings. These model observations are assimilated into another coupled model simulation based on temporally varying or fixed year GHGNA values and different oceanic initial conditions. The degree to which the assimilation recovers the truth variability of oceanic heat content and salinity is an assessment of the impact of each factor on the detection of the oceanic “climate. ” Results show that both the 20th century XBT and 21st century Argo observations adequately capture the basin-scale variability of heat content. The Argo salinity observations appear to be necessary to reproduce the North Atlantic thermohaline structure and variability. The addition of historical radiative forcings does not make a significant contribution to the detection skill. The initial conditions spun up by historical GHGNA produce better detection skill than the initial conditions spun up by preindustrial fixed year GHGNA due to reduced assimilation shocks. While the 20th century XBT temperature observations alone capture some basic features of salinity variations of the tropical ocean due to the strong T-S relationship from tropical air-sea interactions, the Argo salinity observations are important for global state estimation, particularly in high latitudes where haline effects on ocean density are greater.
Molecular Dynamics Simulations of the Nanoparticle-Protein Corona

When a nanoparticle (NP) is introduced in a biological fluid, which is composed of several types of proteins, the system formed by the NP and proteins corresponds to a transitory regime characterised by complex behaviours such as competition between proteins and cooperative adsorption. The NP surface rapidly gets covered by some of these biomolecules, whose combination forms a corona around the NP called “protein corona” (PC), which can be categorised into two principal layers with different features. Here, we consider a silica NP in a model plasma made of three blood proteins: Human serum albumin (HSA), Transferrin (Transf) and Fibrinogen (Fibr). We study the adsorption process of these proteins that eventually leads to the formation of the “Hard Corona” (HC) using molecular dynamics simulations of a coarse-grained model. In particular, we notice that for a given biologically relevant time, the corona composition is different depending on the NP radius. This “size-effect” can prove to be of great importance when dealing with biomedical applications of nanotechnology. Furthermore, we study how the composition and structure of the corona changes with the introduction of a 3-body interaction between two proteins and the NP, which accounts for the formation of the more dynamic outer layer of the corona referred to as the “Soft Corona” (SC).
The spectrum of neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with early untreated Parkinson’s disease

Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and have important clinical consequences for patients, caregivers and society. Few studies of neuropsychiatric symptoms in early untreated PD exist. Objective: To explore the range, clustering and correlates of neuropsychiatric symptoms in an incidence cohort of untreated subjects with PD. Methods: All cases with incident PD identified during a 22 month period in four counties of Western and Southern Norway were included. Standardised criteria were used to diagnose PD. The Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) was administered to 175 PD and 166 healthy control subjects with similar age and sex distributions. Cluster analysis was used to investigate the interrelationship of NPI items. Results: The proportion with any NPI symptoms was higher in PD (56%) than in controls (22%) (p<0.001). Depression (37%), apathy (27%), sleep disturbance (18%) and anxiety (17%) were the most common symptoms. Clinically significant symptoms occurred in 27% of the PD group compared with only 3% in the control group (p<.001). Subjects with clinically significant neuropsychiatric symptoms had more severe parkinsonism than those without. Two neuropsychiatric clusters were identified, one characterised by mood symptoms and one by apathy. Conclusions: Although the majority of patients with early untreated PD do not have clinical significant neuropsychiatric symptoms, these symptoms are more common in patients than in people without PD. Both psychological stress and brain changes associated with PD are likely to contribute to the higher frequencies.
Incremental Latent Semantic Indexing for Effective , Automatic Traceability Link Evolution Management

Maintaining traceability links among software artifacts is particularly important for many software engineering tasks. Even though automatic traceability link recovery tools are successful in identifying the semantic connections among software artifacts produced during software development, no existing traceability link management approach can effectively and automatically deal with software evolution. We propose a technique to automatically manage traceability link evolution and update the links in evolving software. Our novel technique, called incremental Latent Semantic Indexing (iLSI), allows the fast and low-cost LSI computation for the update of traceability links by analyzing the changes to software artifacts and by re-using the results from previous LSI computation before the changes. We present our iLSI technique, and describe a complete automatic traceability link evolution management tool, TLEM, that is capable of interactively and quickly updating traceability links in the presence of evolving software artifacts. We report on our empirical evaluation with various experimental studies to assess the performance and usefulness of our approach.
A functional MRI study of face recognition in patients with prosopagnosia

An fMRI investigation was conducted to determine whether patients with impaired face recognition, a deficit known as prosopagnosia, would show functional activation in the fusiform gyrus, the neural substrate for face processing, when viewing faces. While the patients did show activation in the fusiform gyrus, with significantly more voxels in posterior areas than their control subjects, this activation was not sufficient for face processing. In one of the patients, the posterior activation was particularly evident in the left hemisphere, which is thought to be involved in feature-based strategies of face perception. We conclude that an increased reliance on feature-based processing in prosopagnosia leads to a recruitment of neurons in posterior regions of the fusiform gyrus, regions that are not ideally suited for processing faces.
Oral iron chelating therapy. A single center interim report on deferiprone (L1) in thalassemia.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Deferiprone (L1) is a largely studied oral chelator in clinical setting, however, no definite conclusions concerning efficacy and toxicity still could be drawn. In an ongoing prospective trial with L1, we evaluated the efficacy and tolerance-toxicity in patients with thalassemia major previously treated by desferrioxamine (DFO); the specific aim of the study is to demonstrate that L1 could be an alternative to DFO in some patients with an acceptable toxicity. DESIGN AND METHODS Sixty-nine patients over 13 years of age with poor compliance to DFO were considered for the study. The design included a liver biopsy before starting L1 in all patients in order to define liver siderosis either by histologic grading or by hepatic iron concentration (HIC); only patients with a minimum HIC of 4 mg/g dry weight entered the study. A repetition of the liver biopsy after one year of L1 was planned; further evaluations included serum ferritin, plasma iron, transferrin TIBC and iron urine excretion. L1 was given at 70 mg/kg/day in three divided doses. Toxicity was monitored either clinically or by controlling liver, kidney and marrow function by specific tests. Concerning clinical characteristics 52 patients showed hypogonadism (78%), 39 growth retardation (58%), 6 diabetes (9%), 4 cardiomyopathy (6%), 9 hypothyroidism (12%); 45 patients had chronic liver damage (65%). RESULTS We focus this report on data collected in a group of 29 patients with a minimum follow-up of one year (14-33 months). The mean ferritin value was 3748 ng/mL (range: 200-10,000) and 2550 ng/mL (range: 80-14,500), before and while on L1 therapy, respectively (p = 0.001); the mean sideruria changed from 17.25 mg/dL (range: 5.4-50) to 20.98 mg/dL (range: 10-40), on DFO and L1, respectively (p = 0.078); the ratio between plasma iron (sideremia) and transferrin TIBC changed from 0.96 with DFO to 0.86 with L1 (0.014). A correlation with grade of liver siderosis and serum ferritin (p = 0.069) and iron urine excretion (p = 0.008) was recorded. The judgement of efficacy showed that L1 was effective (EF) in 9 patients, no assessable (UN) in 11 patients, not effective (NE) in 2 patients and with no advantages with respect to DFO in 7 patients. Liver biopsy was repeated in 20 patients showing a reduction of grade of liver siderosis and iron content in 7 patients. Clinical toxic effects of L1 were gastric intolerance (one patient), joint pain (three patients) and mild and temporary neutropenia (one patient). INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS This preliminary experience shows that L1 is effective in several patients with thalassemia with poor compliance to DFO and to improve iron burden and iron excretion with generally minor side effects. L1 could be an alternative to DFO in some patients, however the recognition of neutropenia warrants a careful evaluation of patients and efforts finalized to early recognition of those to be addressed with this new and still experimental therapy.
Could a nearby supernova explosion have caused a mass extinction?

We examine the possibility that a nearby supernova explosion could have caused one or more of the mass extinctions identified by paleontologists. We discuss the possible rate of such events in the light of the recent suggested identification of Geminga as a supernova remnant less than 100 parsec (pc) away and the discovery of a millisecond pulsar about 150 pc away and observations of SN 1987A. The fluxes of gamma-radiation and charged cosmic rays on the Earth are estimated, and their effects on the Earth's ozone layer are discussed. A supernova explosion of the order of 10 pc away could be expected as often as every few hundred million years and could destroy the ozone layer for hundreds of years, letting in potentially lethal solar ultraviolet radiation. In addition to effects on land ecology, this could entail mass destruction of plankton and reef communities, with disastrous consequences for marine life as well. A supernova extinction should be distinguishable from a meteorite impact such as the one that presumably killed the dinosaurs at the "KT boundary. " The recent argument that the KT event was exceedingly large and thus quite rare supports the need for other catastrophic events.
Two-Parameter Gamma Drop Size Distribution Models for Singapore

Gamma model is fitted using the second, fourth, and sixth moments to model the rain drop size distribution (DSD) of Singapore. As the Joss distrometer measures the number of rain drops between the drop diameters from 0.3 to 5 mm, the truncated moment fitting between these drop diameter ranges is also used for modeling the DSD. Gamma DSD requires three-parameter estimation:N0, the intercept parameter; μ, the shape parameter; and Λ, the slope parameter. The aim of this paper is to find a suitable fixed μ and derive an appropriate μ-Λ relation for the tropical region in order to form a two-parameter gamma model. To find an appropriate μ value, observed DSDs are fitted with different μ values to estimate the rain rates, which are assessed by rain rate observations of the distrometer. Shape-slope relationships are fitted for different categories according to the rain rate and the number of drops. The derived μ-Λ relationships for the Singapore region are compared to the published results from two other regions, and the analysis is presented. Two-parameter gamma models are compared by retrieving the rain rate using the polarimetric radar variables. The effect of truncation on rain rate retrieval is also studied, and the use of the μ-Λ relationship for rain retrieval is recommended for the tropical region. The μ-Λ relation using the truncated moment method for the rain category R ≥ 5 mm/hr and rain counts ≥ 1000 drops retrieves the rain rates well compared to other μ-Λ relations.
Merging two gene-expression studies via cross-platform normalization

MOTIVATION Gene-expression microarrays are currently being applied in a variety of biomedical applications. This article considers the problem of how to merge datasets arising from different gene-expression studies of a common organism and phenotype. Of particular interest is how to merge data from different technological platforms. RESULTS The article makes two contributions to the problem. The first is a simple cross-study normalization method, which is based on linked gene/sample clustering of the given datasets. The second is the introduction and description of several general validation measures that can be used to assess and compare cross-study normalization methods. The proposed normalization method is applied to three existing breast cancer datasets, and is compared to several competing normalization methods using the proposed validation measures. AVAILABILITY The supplementary materials and XPN Matlab code are publicly available at website: https://genome.unc. edu/xpn
Proper Incentives for Proper IT Security Management - A System Dynamics Approach

It has been known for many years that security failures are caused at least as often by bad incentives as by bad design. However, the regulatory correction of bad incentives is not easy in practice and it is still lacking. In the meantime, system dynamics models of security systems can improve the situation by increasing the awareness that misaligned incentives can backfire as long-term consequences of security failures hit back the principal. We illustrate our argument using system archetypes and concept simulation models revealing the impact of two different security strategies, viz. misaligned incentives (the customer having the burden of proof in case of alleged fraud) vs the bank having the burden of proof. From this we argue that online system dynamics could be used in eGovernment to educate principals and the public. Also, legal measures could become more effective when supported with forensic evidence from simulation models.
Design of a multiband internal antenna for mobile application

The multiband internal antenna for mobile application is proposed. The proposed antenna has wide bandwidth of about 400 MHz (2.3 GHz ∼ 2.69 GHz) for MIMO antenna. The return loss(S<inf>11</inf> and S<inf>22</inf>) is higher than 10 dB and isolation characteristic(S<inf>12</inf> and S<inf>21</inf>) is less than −20 dB over the frequency band of interest. The separate monopole antenna has return loss of higher than 10 dB over WCDMA band. The measured antenna gain is higher than 0 dBi and measured efficiency is greater than 60 %.
Unsupported standing with minimized ankle muscle fatigue

In the past, limited unsupported standing has been restored in patients with thoracic spinal cord injury through open-loop functional electrical stimulation of paralyzed knee extensor muscles and the support of intact arm musculature. Here an optimal control system for paralyzed ankle muscles was designed that enables the subject to stand without hand support in a sagittal plane. The paraplegic subject was conceptualized as an underactuated double inverted pendulum structure with an active degree of freedom in the upper trunk and a passive degree of freedom in the paralyzed ankle joints. Control system design is based on the minimization of a cost function that estimates the effort of ankle joint muscles via observation of the ground reaction force position, relative to ankle joint axis. Furthermore, such a control system integrates voluntary upper trunk activity and artificial control of ankle joint muscles, resulting in a robust standing posture. Figures are shown for the initial simulation study, followed by disturbance tests on an intact volunteer and several laboratory trials with a paraplegic person. Benefits of the presented methodology are prolonged standing sessions and in the fact that the subject is able to maintain voluntary control over upper body orientation in space, enabling simple functional standing.
Treating Prejudice With Imagery

Exposure therapy, a commonly used treatment for anxiety disorders and phobias, involves exposing the patient to a fear-eliciting stimulus in the context of a safe and supportive environment (Foa & Kozak, 1986). Birtel and Crisp (2012) used this framework to develop a novel “treatment” for prejudice based on the idea that outgroup members are an anxiety-provoking stimulus. Across three studies, anticipatory anxiety about interacting with a stigmatized out-group member (i.e., a person with schizophrenia, a gay man, or a British Muslim) was reduced if participants first imagined a negative interaction followed by a positive interaction, relative to when participants imagined only positive interactions. These results suggest that guided imagery might be a useful tool to reduce prejudice. These findings are also compelling in light of research in neuroscience demonstrating that conditioned fear may not follow the typical pattern of spontaneous recovery after extinction if extinction occurs shortly after reactivation of the fear memory (Schiller et al., 2010). This work suggests that the activation of emotional memories produces a reconsolidation window in which stored memories are capable of being updated with new information. Given this convergence of theory and empirical findings, as well as the societal importance of reducing prejudice, we attempted to independently replicate Birtel and Crisp’s findings from Studies 1 and 2a. Moreover, it is critically important to replicate and establish precise effect-size estimates when research findings may be used as treatment interventions. The effect sizes obtained by Birtel and Crisp for Studies 1 and 2a (ds = 0.76–1.08; see Table 1) are larger than those reported in other prejudice-reduction studies (e.g., r = .215, d = 0.43; Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). Precise estimates require large sample sizes (Cumming, 2012), but Birtel and Crisp recruited small samples of 29 participants (Study 1) and 32 participants (Study 2a). Therefore, we followed Simonsohn’s (2013) recommendation that replication studies use samples that are at least 2.5 times the size of the original samples.
Electrical and optical characterization of AlxNy thin films

We report the deposition and characterization of 𝐴𝑙𝑥𝑁𝑦 thin films to use them as pyroelectric detector. 𝐴𝑙𝑥𝑁𝑦 thin films were deposited using a direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering from an Al target with varying concentrations of Ar:N2 at constant pressure and substrate temperature. The film thickness' were varied between 100-200 nm with varying atomic composition based on Ar:N2 during deposition. The nitrogen content in the films varied from 39.0% to 44.7% as found by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Each of the thin films was annealed at a different temperature between 400 to 800 °C with 100 °C increment in N2 environment and X-ray diffraction (XRD) was performed to analyze the annealed films crystallinity. From the XRD data and by using Scherrer equation, we found that for samples annealed at 600 °C for fifteen minutes has the grain size of 12.28 nm. Optical properties of the films were measured with varying wavelengths which include transmission, reflection, absorption, refraction coefficient, extinction coefficient and the optical bandgap. We also determined the electrical properties of thin films’ which include the pyroelectric coefficient, pyroelectric current, dielectric constant, and film permittivity between the temperature range 270 K to 310 K. As the temperature is increased, the pyroelectric coefficient also increased almost linearly. The pyroelectric coefficient of annealed 𝐴𝑙𝑥𝑁𝑦 films found to be varied between 4.86 × 10-5 C/m2K to 1.32 × 10-4 C/m2K. The optical transmittance through the as grown non-annealed thin films was found to be varied between 35 to 78%, while the reflectance was found to be below 25%. Because of low absorption in the thin films the extinction coefficient was found to be near zero. The refractive index was varied between 1.7 and 2.2 for the 𝐴𝑙𝑥𝑁𝑦 thin films. The optical bandgap was found to be 1.40 eV for non-annealed 𝐴𝑙𝑥𝑁𝑦 thin film which was deposited on cover glass. The dielectric constant was varied between 30-1200000 depending on the annealing temperature of the film, while the film permittivity ranges between 0-1.25×10-5 F/m.