Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
n-6 Fatty acid-specific and mixed polyunsaturate dietary interventions have different effects on CHD risk: a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

Randomised controlled trials (RCT) of mixed n-6 and n-3 PUFA diets, and meta-analyses of their CHD outcomes, have been considered decisive evidence in specifically advising consumption of ‘at least 5–10 % of energy as n-6 PUFA’. Here we (1) performed an extensive literature search and extracted detailed dietary and outcome data enabling a critical examination of all RCT that increased PUFA and reported relevant CHD outcomes; (2) determined if dietary interventions increased n-6 PUFA with specificity, or increased both n-3 and n-6 PUFA (i.e. mixed n-3/n-6 PUFA diets); (3) compared mixed n-3/n-6 PUFA to n-6 specific PUFA diets on relevant CHD outcomes in meta-analyses; (4) evaluated the potential confounding role of trans-fatty acids (TFA). n-3 PUFA intakes were increased substantially in four of eight datasets, and the n-6 PUFA linoleic acid was raised with specificity in four datasets. n-3 and n-6 PUFA replaced a combination of TFA and SFA in all eight datasets. For non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI)+CHD death, the pooled risk reduction for mixed n-3/n-6 PUFA diets was 22 % (risk ratio (RR) 0·78; 95 % CI 0·65, 0·93) compared to an increased risk of 13 % for n-6 specific PUFA diets (RR 1·13; 95 % CI 0·84, 1·53). Risk of non-fatal MI+CHD death was significantly higher in n-6 specific PUFA diets compared to mixed n-3/n-6 PUFA diets (P = 0·02). RCT that substituted n-6 PUFA for TFA and SFA without simultaneously increasing n-3 PUFA produced an increase in risk of death that approached statistical significance (RR 1·16; 95 % CI 0·95, 1·42). Advice to specifically increase n-6 PUFA intake, based on mixed n-3/n-6 RCT data, is unlikely to provide the intended benefits, and may actually increase the risks of CHD and death.
Timing and Predictors of Mild and Severe Heat Illness among New Military Enlistees

Purpose Heat illnesses are important and potentially fatal conditions among physically active individuals. We determined predictors of heat illness among enlistees in a large military population experiencing common physical activity patterns. Methods We estimated the adjusted odds of mild (MHI) and severe (SHI) heat illness associated with demographic, health-related, and geographic factors among active-duty, US Army soldiers enlisting between January 2011 and December 2014 (N = 238,168) using discrete-time multivariable logistic regression analyses. Results We observed 2612 incident cases of MHI and 732 incident cases of SHI during 427,922 person-years of follow-up, with a mean and median of 21.6 and 21 months per subject. During the first 6 duty months, 71.3% of the MHIs and 60.2% of the SHIs occurred, peaking at month 2. The odds of MHI quadrupled among those with prior SHI (odds ratio [OR], 4.02; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.67–6.03). Body mass index (BMI) extremes increased the odds substantially (OR at BMI ≥30 kg·m−2: for MHI, 1.41 (CI, 1.19–1.67); for SHI, 1.94 (CI, 1.47–2.56); OR at BMI <18.5 kg·m−2: for MHI, 1.50 (CI, 1.01–2.21); for SHI, 2.26 (CI, 1.16–4.39)). Tobacco use was associated with a 55% increase (CI, 1.37–1.77) in MHI odds. The odds of MHI increased if taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, opioids, or methylphenidate stimulants. Lower age and lower entry aptitude scores were associated with progressively increased MHI odds. Conclusions Most heat illnesses occurred at the outset of service, indicating the need for focused prevention methods at the initiation of military duty. Prior heat illness, BMI extremes, medications, and tobacco use represent potentially actionable risk factors to address by education, policy, and/or clinician intervention.
Multimodal Haptic Perception within Granular Media via Recurrent Neural Networks

The sense of touch is essential for locating, identifying, and grasping buried objects when vision-based approaches are limited. In this work, we introduce an approach for haptic perception within granular media that leverages three different tactile sensor modalities (vibration, internal fluid pressure, fingerpad deformation). Online dictionary learning was used to pretrain inputs to recurrent neural networks that were trained to classify the contact state of sensorized fingertips as a robot hand was moved through opaque granular media. Temporal dependencies in the tactile data were captured by Long Short-Term Memory units. The trained multimodal model achieved predictions with accuracy of 98.69% for a preliminary set of hand-object-media interactions. A model based on a multimodal feature space outperformed that based on a unimodal vibration-only space with respect to accuracy and robustness. The methods described could enable the advancement of haptics-enabled capabilities for robots that interact with granular media with limited visual feedback, such as teleoperated robots for explosive ordnance disposal. Keywords-Haptic perception; Multimodal sensory fusion; Recurrent neural networks
Influence of organically modified clay mineral on domain structure and properties of segmented thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer

Segmented polyether–urethane/organically modified montmorillonite (O-MMT) nanocomposites were synthesized with poly(tetramethylene glycol) (PTMG), 4,4′-diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI), butane diol (BD), and a commercially available clay Cloisite-30B® (O-MMT). The state of dispersion of the clay crystals in the thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer (TPU) matrix was studied by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The phase-separated morphology of the TPU was revealed by high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). O-MMT caused a marginal increase in the glass transition temperature of the soft segments of the TPU and this increase is proportional to the amount of O-MMT in the nanocomposites. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was employed to study the effect of O-MMT on the extent of phase separation in the TPU in these nanocomposites. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results indicate a substantial improvement in the thermal stability of TPU by the addition of O-MMT. Tensile strength and elastic modulus are dramatically decreased by the incorporation of O-MMT into TPU, which is due to the hindrance of the phase-separation process by the exfoliated clay-layered crystals.
ERUCA: Efficient DRAM Resource Utilization and Resource Conflict Avoidance for Memory System Parallelism

Memory system performance is measured by access latency and bandwidth, and DRAM access parallelism critically impacts for both. To improve DRAM parallelism, previous research focused on increasing the number of effective banks by sub-dividing one physical bank. We find that without avoiding conflicts on the shared resources among (sub)banks, the benefits are limited. We propose mechanisms for efficient DRAM resource utilization and resource-conflict avoidance (ERUCA). ERUCA reduces conflicts on shared (sub)bank resources utilizing row address locality between sub-banks and improving the DRAM chip-level data bus. Area overhead for ERUCA is kept near zero with a unique implementation that exploits under-utilized resources available in commercial DRAM chips. Overall ERUCA provides 15% speedup while incurring <0.3% DRAM die area overhead.
Factors that Predict Parental Willingness to Have Their Children Vaccinated against HPV in a Country with Low HPV Vaccination Coverage

Background: Adolescent HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) vaccination is yet to be introduced as a mandatory program in Poland. Polish literature on factors associated with adolescent HPV vaccination is scant, despite the fact that uptake is one of the poorest in the European Union. Objectives: To assess HPV awareness and identify independent predictors for parental willingness to have their children vaccinated against HPV. Methods: All parents of first grade students from three selected high schools in Zgorzelec, Poland, who participated in parent–teacher meetings at the time the study was conducted, had their children unvaccinated regarding HPV, and who gave informed consent to participate were included. There were 600 first grade students; 9 were vaccinated against HPV. This left 591 parents who met the eligibility criteria; the response rate was 76.1%. Results: Awareness of HPV was reported by 55.3% of 450 parents (mean age 42 years, 70.9% females); 85.1% expressed their willingness to vaccinate their children against HPV; 31.3% identified HPV as a sexually transmitted pathogen, and 36.2% identified it as a risk factor of cervical cancer. Multivariable logistic regression analyses indicated that being employed (OR 2.09; 95% CI: 1.10–3.86), having positive attitudes toward vaccines (OR 3.02; 95% CI: 1.34–6.49), previous information about HPV (OR 2.02; 95% CI: 1.17–3.51), and concerns about the side effects of the HPV vaccine (OR 0.60; 95% CI: 0.35–0.99) were independent predictors of parents’ willingness to vaccinate. Conclusions: Attitudes regarding their child being vaccinated against HPV were positive among Polish parents, even though awareness and knowledge of HPV in this group were low. Most of the significant factors that influenced their willingness were modifiable, such as being informed about HPV and having positive attitudes toward vaccines. Future interventions should focus specifically on vulnerable subgroups, such as unemployed parents.
Development and Evaluation of Ibuprofen Pellets Based on Sodium Alginate and Hydroxy Propyl Methyl Cellulose Blends

Pellets which are agglomerates of fine powders or granules of drugs with spherical or semi-spherical shape, generally aimed for oral use, range from about 0.5 mm to 1.5 mm. The study was performed to microencapsulate Ibuprofen, which is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) through extrusion technique with the aid of sodium alginate and HPMC K100 LV in different proportions. After formulation physicochemical parameters like mean particle size, contraction ratio, surface morphology, moisture content, buoyancy test, swelling index, angle of repose, percent yield, drug entrapment efficiency and drug release potential of the formulated preparation were investigated. From results, it is clear that with the increasing sodium alginate concentration, mean particle size enhances and a poor size distribution in the range of 1.258 mm to 1.783 mm existed among the batches and similar characteristics also appeared for angle of repose and swelling index. In contrary, relationship between contraction ratio, percent yield, drug content, concentration on loose surface, and drug entrapment efficiency value with sodium alginate concentration is erratic rather than linear and formulated microspheres floated in the simulated gastric fluid, water, 0.9 % NaCl solution. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) provides information about the surface morphology and drug distribution on the surface. The formulated pellets showed drug release in the range of 8.67 – 35.4 % mg/hr and release kinetics shows maximum resemblance with Higuchi model. Finally, through the overview of the physiochemical parameters performed on the current study sable Ibuprofen pellets could be synthesized.
Yoga as a Therapeutic Intervention in the Management of Dysfunctional Uterine Bleeding: A Controlled Pilot Study

Background: Dysfunctional uterine bleeding (DUB) is one of the most common gynecological disorders encountered in women during the reproductive age. Yoga therapy has shown promising benefits in several gynecological disorders. Methods: Thirty women between the ages of 20 and 40 years with primary DUB were randomly assigned to a yoga (n = 15) and a waitlist control group (n = 15). Participants in the yoga group received a 3-month yoga module and were assessed for hemoglobin values, endometrial thickness (ET), pictorial blood loss assessment chart (PBAC), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, perceived stress scale, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) before and after a 3-month follow-up period. Results: At the end of 3 months of intervention, the yoga group, unlike the control group, reported a significant reduction in the anxiety scores (P < 0.05) and perceived stress (P < 0.05). The PSQI scores indicated a reduction in sleep disturbances (P < 0.001) and the need for sleep medications (P < 0.01) and higher global scores (P < 0.001). However, there were no changes in PBAC and ET in both the groups. Conclusion: The results indicate that yoga therapy positively impacts the outcome of DUB by reducing the perceived stress and state anxiety and improving the quality of sleep. This warrants larger clinical trials to validate the findings of this pilot study.
Analysis of Motion-dependent Clinical Outcome of Tumor Tracking Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy for Prostate Cancer

Background To analyze clinical outcome of CyberKnife (CK) tumor-tracking stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for prostate cancer (Pca) according to the magnitude of intra-fractional prostate motion. Methods Medical records and daily treatment logs for 71 patients who received CK tumor-tracking SBRT were retrospectively analyzed. Statistical relationships between prostate motion and various outcome results, including local recurrence (LR), biochemical failure (BF), and treatment-related toxicity, were investigated in order to evaluate motion-dependent efficacy of tumor-tracking SBRT for Pca. Results In a total 71 patients, 3 (4.2%) patients with LR, 12 (16.9%) patients with BF, and 22 (31%) patients with grade-II or worse toxicities to rectal or bladder (22 to rectal, 22 to bladder and 8 patients to both) were observed in a median follow-up of 47 months. Magnitudes of intra-fractional tumor motion along superior-inferior, right-left, and anterior-posterior (AP) axes were 0.15 ± 0.31, 0.12 ± 0.19, and 0.73 ± 0.32 mm, respectively. Radial magnitude was estimated to be 1.0 ± 0.35 mm. Intra-fractional movement was not significantly correlated with tumor control. However, it was significant correlated with the incidence of grade-II or worse toxicity to rectum or bladder particularly when tumor motion was in the AP axis. Conclusion Our quantitative results revealed that toxicity related to SBRT treatment was highly sensitive to intra-fractional prostate movements, although local-tumor control was not affected by such movements. Our results demonstrate that precise motion correction is essential in prostate SBRT, even if it seems to be small.
Scheduling Single-Armed Cluster Tools With Chamber Cleaning Operations

As wafer circuit widths shrink down, wafer fabrication processes require stringent quality control. Therefore, fabs recently tend to clean a chamber after processing each wafer, in order to remove chemical residuals within the chamber. Such chamber cleaning, called purge operation, increases scheduling complexity in robotized cluster tools. In this paper, we examine scheduling problems of single-armed cluster tools with purge operations for series–parallel chambers. By extending the well-known backward sequence, we propose a backward(<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ {\boldsymbol {z}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) sequence that allows partial loading for parallel chambers, where vector <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ {\boldsymbol {z}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> specifies how many chambers <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$z_{i}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of each process step <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$i$ </tex-math></inline-formula> are kept empty for cleaning. We then propose a way of finding optimal vector <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ {\boldsymbol {z}}^{*}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and identify when backward(<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ {\boldsymbol {z}}^{*}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) achieves the minimum cycle time among all possible sequences. We present experimental results on the accuracy of backward(<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ {\boldsymbol {z}}^{*}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>). </p><p><italic>Note to Practitioners</italic>—Wafer processing of circuits with extremely small circuit widths is subject to contamination by residual chemicals within chambers. Therefore, in leading fabs, 50%~80% of cluster tools for etching, wafer cleaning, chemical vapor deposition, and physical vapor deposition processes clean chambers each time a wafer is processed. Such cleaning operation complicates tool operation and hence makes conventional scheduling rules inefficient. Our proposed simple modifications of the conventional backward sequence significantly improve the throughput rate of cluster tools. They are easy to implement.
Primary percutaneous coronary intervention for ST elevation myocardial infarction in octogenarians: trends and outcomes

Objective The general population is gradually ageing in the western world. Therefore, the number of octogenarians undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is increasing. We aim to provide insight into temporal trends in the annual proportions of octogenarians among STEMI patients undergoing primary PCI and their clinical characteristics and outcomes over an 11-year observational period. Design Single-centre observational study. Patients Between 1997 and 2007, 4506 STEMI patients were treated with primary PCI at the authors' institution. Patients aged over 80 years were identified. Main outcome measures Temporal trends in the annual proportion of octogenarian STEMI patients and their baseline characteristics, 30-day and 1-year mortality were analysed. Results A total of 379 octogenarians (8.4% of the total population) was treated with primary PCI between 1997 and 2007. Over time, the annual proportion of octogenarians gradually increased from four of 113 (3.5%) in 1997 to 51 of 579 (8.8%) in 2007 (p for trend <0.01). In the total cohort of 379 patients, 30-day mortality was 21% (81 patients) and 1-year mortality was 28% (107 patients). There was no improvement in survival among octogenarian STEMI patients over the 11-year study period. Conclusion The annual proportion of octogenarian STEMI patients increased significantly over the 11-year study period. Mortality among these high-risk patients was high and did not improve during the study period. Unfortunately, little is known about the optimal treatment of the elderly as they are underrepresented in many randomised clinical trials. Further studies into the optimal STEMI management strategy for the elderly are warranted.
Investigations on the Performance of Concrete Made with Blended Finely Milled Waste Glass

Non-recyclable waste glass, which is produced from fluorescent lamps factories, constitutes a problem for solid waste disposal in various countries worldwide. Thereby, the accumulation of waste glass in the plants, not being used, represents not only a significant loss of money and energy by occupying a big area from plants but also a negative impact on the environment. This study is considered of significant interest in the development of environmentally friendly concrete containing waste glass. Using waste glass as a construction material is a good way to help the environment following grinding and its use in concrete as a partial replacement for cement by weight. Five different concrete mixes with various percentages of finely milled waste glass (FMWG) were prepared. The test results showed that the FMWG has pozzolanic characteristics and using it as a mineral admixture in concrete, had a bad effect on workability, but improved considerably the mechanical properties of concrete at later ages. The optimum percentage of FMWG that gives the maximum values of compressive, splitting tensile and bond strengths is 10%. Results also showed that expansion due to alkali-silica reaction was minimized obviously by increase in the FMWG content.
Perceived Effectiveness of Pictorial versus Textual Health Warning Labels on Waterpipe Tobacco Packages

It is known that pictorial Health Warning Labels (HWLs) on cigarette packages outperform text-only HWLs on a range of outcomes; nothing is known about waterpipe in this regard. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the perceived effectiveness of shocking pictures versus textual HWLs in Lebanon on quitting waterpipe smoking and on reducing the number of waterpipe smoked weekly; a secondary objective was to assess waterpipe smoking cessation motivation factors. Two different types of warnings were shown to the smokers during the interview: only text versus graphic warnings on waterpipe tumbac packages. The group more motivated to stop smoking considered that the warnings with graphic shocking images have significantly greater effect than simple text currently used (84%, p=0.001). Furthermore, we noticed that quitting the waterpipe smoking and the perception of shocking pictures are inversely influenced by most of the chronic health symptoms (OR ˂ 1). Indeed, smokers who had chronic cough are highly motivated to quit waterpipe smoking (OR=7.24, p=0.03). Thus, our study provides further reasons to the policymakers in Lebanon to incorporate more tobacco labeling policies in order to reduce the widespread of waterpipe smoking.
Behavioral Responses by Migratory Chum Salmon to Amino Acids in Natal Stream Water

We propose that amino acids in natal stream water have important roles in Pacific salmon homing. This study hypothesized that amino acids found in natal stream water have a role in the ability of mature male chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) to home to the Osaru River (OR), Hokkaido, Japan. Behavioral experiments were conducted in a two-choice test tank using various combinations of control water (natural Toya Lake water; NLW and three artificial stream waters using amino acids: 1) artificial OR water (AOR); 2) AOR without L-glutamic acid, the major amino acid in OR water (AOR-E); and 3) artificial water matching another stream (ALS) that had much higher amino acid concentrations than OR. In behavioral tests, the fish did not select between AOR and AOR-E, but still chose AOR over NLW, AOR-E over NLW, and AOR over ALS. These results suggest that migratory male chum salmon respond to amino acid mixtures in their natal stream water and appear to be affected by multiple amino acids.
Coordination of Protein Kinase and Phosphoprotein Phosphatase Activities in Mitosis

Dynamic changes in protein phosphorylation govern the transitions between different phases of the cell division cycle. A “tug of war” between highly conserved protein kinases and the family of phosphoprotein phosphatases (PPP) establishes the phosphorylation state of proteins, which controls their function. More than three-quarters of all proteins are phosphorylated at one or more sites in human cells, with the highest occupancy of phosphorylation sites seen in mitosis. Spatial and temporal regulation of opposing kinase and PPP activities is crucial for accurate execution of the mitotic program. The role of mitotic kinases has been the focus of many studies, while the contribution of PPPs was for a long time underappreciated and is just emerging. Misconceptions regarding the specificity and activity of protein phosphatases led to the belief that protein kinases are the primary determinants of mitotic regulation, leaving PPPs out of the limelight. Recent studies have shown that protein phosphatases are specific and selective enzymes, and that their activity is tightly regulated. In this review, we discuss the emerging roles of PPPs in mitosis and their regulation of and by mitotic kinases, as well as mechanisms that determine PPP substrate recognition and specificity.