Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Poor Physical Function as a Marker of Sarcopenia in Adults with Class II/III Obesity

Abstract Background Adults with class II/III obesity [body mass index (in kg/m2) ≥35] may present with a phenotype characterized by low lean mass and excess fat mass, a condition known as sarcopenic obesity (SO). Little is known about the prevalence and relevance of SO in these individuals, primarily due to a lack of relevant diagnostic criteria. Objective Here, we explored the definition of SO based on physical function as an outcome of interest in adults with class II/III obesity and applied this definition to compare clinical characteristics between SO and non-SO patients. Methods In this cross-sectional analysis, patients’ demographic, anthropometric, and biochemical characteristics, as well as comorbidities and physical activity levels, were collected at an obesity specialty clinic prior to any treatment. Body composition was assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Physical function was assessed by self-reported difficulties with activities of daily living (ADLs) from an 11-item questionnaire. Five SO definitions were tested against reported difficulty with ADLs with the use of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Results A total of 120 subjects (86% women) aged 46 ± 11 y were included. Based on ROC analysis, SO was best defined by an appendicular skeletal mass (ASM)/weight x 100 (%) <19.35% for women and <24.33% for men, resulting in a prevalence of 25% (n = 30, women 22.3%, men 41.2%). SO was significantly associated with older age, higher waist circumference, higher triglycerides, greater use of antihypertensive medications, and lower physical activity. Conclusions In this sample of adults with class II/III obesity, difficulties with ADLs were best associated with measures of ASM in relation to total body weight. Patients identified with SO using this criterion presented with poorer clinical outcomes such as factors of elevated cardiometabolic risk.
The Malevolent Side of Human Nature: A Meta-Analysis and Critical Review of the Literature on the Dark Triad (Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy)

The term dark triad refers to the constellation of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Over the past few years, the concept has gained momentum, with many researchers assuming that the dark triad is a prominent antecedent of transgressive and norm-violating behavior. Our purpose in this meta-analytic review was to evaluate (a) interrelations among narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy; (b) gender differences in these traits; (c) how these traits are linked to normal personality factors; and (d) the psychosocial correlates of the dark triad. Our findings show that dark triad traits are substantially intercorrelated, somewhat more prevalent among men than women, predominantly related to the Big Five personality factor of agreeableness and the HEXACO factor of honesty-humility, and generally associated with various types of negative psychosocial outcomes. We question whether dark triad traits are sufficiently distinct and argue that the way they are currently measured is too simple to capture the malevolent sides of personality. Because most research in this domain is cross-sectional and based on self-reports, we recommend using a cross-informant approach and prospective, longitudinal research designs for studying the predictive value of dark triad features.
Analysis of the use of a four-factor model as a tool to help manage portfolios based on the IBrX

† Masters in business administration from Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RIO). Institution: Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RIO). Address: Rua Marques de Sao Vicente, 225, Gavea Rio de Janeiro, CEP: 22453-900, RJ Brasil. E-mail: ado_rj@yahoo.com. br Telephone: (21) 21389201 Ω Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (EUA). Institution: Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RIO). Address: Rua Marques de Sao Vicente, 225, Gavea Rio de Janeiro, CEP: 22453-900, RJ Brasil. E-mail: ness@iag.puc-rio.br Telephone: (21) 2138-9201 ¥ Ph.D. in economics from Katholische Universitat Eichstatt (Germany). Institution: Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RIO). Address: Rua Marques de Sao Vicente, 225, Gavea Rio de Janeiro, CEP: 22453-900, RJ Brasil. Email: klotzle@iag.puc-rio.br Telephone: (21) 2138-9310 £ Ph.D. in economics from Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV/RIO) Institution: Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RIO). Address: Rua Marques de Sao Vicente, 225, Gavea Rio de Janeiro, CEP: 22453-900, RJ Brasil. E-mail: figueiredo@iag.puc-rio.br Telephone: (21) 2138-9201
What to Expect from Expected Kneser-Ney Smoothing

Kneser-Ney smoothing on expected counts was proposed recently in Zhang et al. 2014. In this paper we revisit this technique and suggest a number of optimizations and extensions. We then analyze its performance in several practical speech recognition scenarios that depend on fractional sample counts, such as training on uncertain data, language model adaptation and Word-Phrase-Entity models. We show that the proposed approach to smoothing outperforms known alternatives by a significant margin.
Buff-breasted Sandpiper stopover duration in the Rainwater Basin, Nebraska, in relation to the temporal and spatial migration patterns in the Great Plains of North America

Buff-breasted Sandpipers Calidris subruficollis are a species of significant conservation concern because of low population size and possible long-term declines in numbers, and are classified as ‘highly imperiled’ by the U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan (U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan 2004, Lanctot et al. 2010). This species migrates from wintering areas in southern South America, through the North American Great Plains to its Arctic breeding range, which extends from northern Alaska and Yukon, through the Northwest Territories, to Nunavut (Lanctot & Laredo 1994, Lanctot et al. 2002). Buff-breasted Sandpipers’ long migrations present an array of traditional risks throughout the annual cycle. Human alterations to the environment during recent decades have added a number of novel hazards, including recent and projected future climate change (Robinson et al. 2009, Galbraith et al. 2014, Urban 2015), development of both conventional and renewable research paper Wader Study 122(3): 243–254. doi: 10.18194/ws.00021
Evaluation of the MODIS Retrievals of Dust Aerosol over the Ocean during PRIDE

The Puerto Rico Dust Experiment (PRIDE) took place in Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico from June 26 to July 24,2000 to study the radiative and physical properties of African dust aerosol transported into the region. PRIDE had the unique distinction of being the first major field experiment to allow direct comparison of aerosol retrievals from the MODerate Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) with sunphotometer and in-situ aerosol measurements. Over the ocean, the MODIS algorithm retrieves aerosol optical depth (AOD) as well as information about the aerosols size distribution. During PRIDE, MODIS derived AODs in the red wavelengths (0.66 micrometers) compare closely with AODs measured from sunphotometers, but, are too large at blue and green wavelengths (0.47 and 0.55 micrometers) and too small in the infrared (0.87 micrometers). This discrepancy of spectral slope results in particle size distributions retrieved by MODIS that are small compared to in-situ measurements, and smaller still when compared to sunphotometer sky radiance inversions. The differences in size distributions are, at least in part, associated with MODIS simplification of dust as spherical particles. Analysis of this PRIDE data set is a first step towards derivation of realistic non-spherical models for future MODIS retrievals.
Aging aggravates hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury in mice by impairing mitophagy with the involvement of the EIF2α-parkin pathway

Hepatic ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury fundamentally influences the performance of aged liver grafts. The significance of mitophagy in the age dependence of sensitivity to I/R injury remains poorly understood. Here, we show that aging aggravated hepatic I/R injury with decreased mitophagy in mice. The enhancement of mitophagy resulted in significant protection against hepatic I/R injury. Parkin, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, was found depleted by I/R in aged livers. In oxygen-glucose deprivation reperfusion (OGD-Rep.)-treated L02 cells, parkin silencing impaired mitophagy and aggravated cell damage through a relative large mitochondrial membrane potential transition. The phosphorylation of the endoplasmic reticulum stress response protein EIF2α, which was also reduced in the aged liver, induced parkin expression both in vivo and vitro. Forty-six hepatic biopsy specimens from liver graft were collected 2 hours after complete revascularization, followed by immunohistochemical analyses. Parkin expression was negatively correlated to donor age and the peak level of aspartate aminotransferase within first week after liver transplantation. Our translational study demonstrates that aging aggravated hepatic I/R injury by impairing the age-dependent mitophagy function via an insufficient parkin expression and identifies a new strategy to evaluate the capacity of an aged liver graft in the process of I/R through the parkin expression.
When context modulates the influence of action observation on language processing

Numerous studies in the field of embodied cognition have shown a crosstalk between language and sensorimotor processes. In particular, it has been demonstrated that perceiving an action influences subsequent language processing. However, when studying the effect of action observation on language processing it has not been considered whether the context of action presentation could modulate this influence. To test this assumption, the participants in our study observed a prime, specifically a cartoon picture of a person performing an action in either a usual or an unusual context, and then had to perform a semantic decision task involving action verbs that could be congruent or incongruent with the action in the prime. Data analyses showed a significant difference on response times for congruent action verbs compared with incongruent action verbs in the usual context, whereas no difference was observed in the unusual context. This finding indicates that the influence of action observation on language appears only with usual actions, suggesting that the context of action presentation is crucial to enable the influence of action observation on action verbs processing.
Guidelines for porcine models of human bacterial infections

During the last 10 years the number of porcine models for human bacterial infectious diseases has increased. In the future, this tendency is expected to continue and, therefore, the aim of the present review is to describe guidelines for the development and reporting of these models. The guidelines are based on a review of 122 publications of porcine models for different bacterial infectious diseases in humans. The review demonstrates a substantial lack of information in most papers which hampers reproducibility and continuation of the work that was established in the models. The guidelines describe overall principles related to the inoculum, the animal, the infected animal and the post-mortem characterization that are of crucial importance when porcine models of infectious diseases are developed, validated and reported.
A novel ultra-light suction device for mechanical characterization of skin

Suction experiments have been extensively applied for skin characterization. In these tests the deformation behavior of superficial tissue layers determines the elevation of the skin surface observed when a predefined negative (suction) pressure history is applied. The ability of such measurements to differentiate between skin conditions is limited by the variability of the elevation response observed in repeated experiments. The scatter was shown to be associated with the force exerted by the observer when holding the instrument against the skin. We have developed a novel suction device and a measurement procedure aiming at a tighter control of mechanical boundary conditions during the experiments. The new device weighs only 3.5 g and thus allows to minimize the force applied on the skin during the test. In this way, it is possible to reliably characterize the mechanical response of skin, also in case of low values of suction pressure and deformation. The influence of the contact force is analyzed through experiments on skin and synthetic materials, and rationalized based on corresponding finite element calculations. A comparative study, involving measurements on four body locations in two subjects by three observers, showed the good performance of the new procedure, specific advantages, and limitations with respect to the Cutometer®, i.e. the suction device most widely applied for skin characterization. As a byproduct of the present investigation, a correction procedure is proposed for the Cutometer measurements, which allows to partially compensate for the influence of the contact force. The characteristics of the new suction method are discussed in view of future applications for diagnostic purposes.
Effect of elemental diet combined with infliximab dose escalation in patients with Crohn's disease with loss of response to infliximab: CERISIER trial

Many clinical observations have confirmed that anti-TNF-α mAbs are efficacious for the treatment of CD. Unfortunately, however, we are faced with a new complication: loss of response (LOR). In Japan at the time of this study, an infliximab (IFX) dose escalation regimen to 10 mg/kg was only allowed in patients who developed LOR during scheduled maintenance therapy with IFX (5 mg/kg every 8 weeks) according to the results of a preapproval clinical trial. However, we often encounter patients who cannot gain adequate control with increasing doses of 10 mg/kg of IFX in daily clinical practice. In this open-labeled prospective study (UMIN registration No. 000010058), patients with non-colonic CD who had developed LOR to scheduled administration of IFX (5 mg/kg every 8 weeks) were randomly assigned to IFX dose escalation (10 mg/kg every 8 weeks) with (combination group) or without (monotherapy group) an elemental diet (ED, 900–1200 kcal/day) for 56 weeks (Table 1, SuppleThe development and success of anti-tumor necrosis factor-α (anti-TNF-α) monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have dramatically changed the therapeutic strategy of IBD and
Convergence of finite difference methods for the wave equation in two space dimensions

When using a finite difference method to solve an initial-boundaryvalue problem, the truncation error is often of lower order at a few grid points near boundaries than in the interior. Normal mode analysis is a powerful tool to analyze the effect of the large truncation error near boundaries on the overall convergence rate, and has been used in many research works for different equations. However, existing work only concerns problems in one space dimension. In this paper, we extend the analysis to problems in two space dimensions. The two dimensional analysis is based on a diagonalization procedure that decomposes a two dimensional problem to many one dimensional problems of the same type. We present a general framework of analyzing convergence for such one dimensional problems, and explain how to obtain the result for the corresponding two dimensional problem. In particular, we consider two kinds of truncation errors in two space dimensions: the truncation error along an entire boundary, and the truncation error localized at a few grid points close to a corner of the computational domain. The accuracy analysis is in a general framework, here applied to the second order wave equation. Numerical experiments corroborate our accuracy analysis.
Peek-a-boo: i see your smart home activities, even encrypted!

A myriad of IoT devices such as bulbs, switches, speakers in a smart home environment allow users to easily control the physical world around them and facilitate their living styles through the sensors already embedded in these devices. Sensor data contains a lot of sensitive information about the user and devices. However, an attacker inside or near a smart home environment can potentially exploit the innate wireless medium used by these devices to exfiltrate sensitive information from the encrypted payload (i.e., sensor data) about the users and their activities, invading user privacy. With this in mind, in this work, we introduce a novel multi-stage privacy attack against user privacy in a smart environment. It is realized utilizing state-of-the-art machine-learning approaches for detecting and identifying the types of IoT devices, their states, and ongoing user activities in a cascading style by only passively sniffing the network traffic from smart home devices and sensors. The attack effectively works on both encrypted and unencrypted communications. We evaluate the efficiency of the attack with real measurements from an extensive set of popular off-the-shelf smart home IoT devices utilizing a set of diverse network protocols like WiFi, ZigBee, and BLE. Our results show that an adversary passively sniffing the traffic can achieve very high accuracy (above 90%) in identifying the state and actions of targeted smart home devices and their users. To protect against this privacy leakage, we also propose a countermeasure based on generating spoofed traffic to hide the device states and demonstrate that it provides better protection than existing solutions.
The in situ structures of mono-, di-, and trinucleosomes in human heterochromatin

The in situ 3-D organization of chromatin at the nucleosome and oligonucleosome levels is unknown. Here we use cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) to determine the in situ structures of HeLa nucleosomes, which have canonical core structures and asymmetric, flexible linker DNA. Subtomogram remapping suggests that sequential nucleosomes in heterochromatin follow irregular paths at the oligonucleosome level. This basic principle of higher-order repressive chromatin folding is compatible with the conformational variability of the two linker DNAs at the single-nucleosome level.
Ataxia telangiectasia mutated deficiency does not result in genetic susceptibility to 50 Hz magnetic fields exposure in mouse embryonic fibroblasts

Extremely low frequency magnetic field (ELF‐MF) has been classified as a possible carcinogen to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer [2002]. However, debate on the genotoxic effects of ELF‐MF has continued due to lack of sufficient experimental evidence. Ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) plays a central role in DNA damage repair; its deficiency can result in cellular sensitivity to DNA‐damaging agents. To evaluate the genotoxicity of ELF‐MF, we investigated the effects of 50 Hz MF on DNA damage in ATM‐proficient (Atm+/+) mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) and ATM‐deficient (Atm−/−) MEFs, a radiosensitive cell line. Results showed no significant difference in average number of γH2AX foci per cell (9.37 ± 0.44 vs. 9.08 ± 0.28, P = 0.58) or percentage of γH2AX foci positive cells (49.22 ± 1.86% vs. 49.74 ± 1.44%, P = 0.83) between sham and exposure groups when Atm+/+ MEFs were exposed to 50 Hz MF at 2.0 mT for 15 min. Extending exposure duration to 1 or 24 h did not significantly change γH2AX foci formation in Atm+/+ MEFs. Similarly, the exposure did not significantly affect γH2AX foci formation in Atm−/− MEFs. Furthermore, 50 Hz MF exposure also did not significantly influence DNA fragmentation, cell viability, or cell cycle progression in either cell types. In conclusion, exposure to 50 Hz MF did not induce significant DNA damage in either Atm+/+ or Atm−/− MEFs under the reported experimental conditions. Bioelectromagnetics. 39:476–484, 2018. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Cache-Aided Communications With Multiple Antennas at Finite SNR

We study the problem of cache-aided communication for cellular networks with multi-user and multiple antennas at finite signal-to-noise ratio. Users are assumed to have non-symmetric links, modeled by wideband fading channels. We show that the problem can be formulated as a linear program, whose solution provides a joint cache allocation along with pre-fetching and fetching schemes that minimize the duration of the communication in the delivery phase. The suggested scheme uses zero-forcing and cached interference subtraction, and hence, allows each user to be served at the rate of its own channel. Thus, this scheme is better than the previously published schemes that are compromised by the poorest user in the communication group. We also consider a special case of the parameters for which we can derive a closed form solution and formulate the optimal power, rate, and cache optimization. This special case shows that the gain of MIMO coded caching goes beyond the throughput. In particular, it is shown that in this case, the cache is used to balance the users such that fairness and throughput are no longer contradicting. More specifically, in this case, strict fairness is achieved jointly with maximizing the network throughput.
Propagation of Syndesmotic Injuries During Forced External Rotation in Flexed Cadaveric Ankles

Background: Forced external rotation of the foot is a mechanism of ankle injuries. Clinical observations include combinations of ligament and osseous injuries, with unclear links between causation and injury patterns. By observing the propagation sequence of ankle injuries during controlled experiments, insight necessary to understand risk factors and potential mitigation measures may be gained. Hypothesis: Ankle flexion will alter the propagation sequence of ankle injuries during forced external rotation of the foot. Study Design: Controlled laboratory study. Methods: Matched-pair lower limbs from 9 male cadaveric specimens (mean age, 47.0 ± 11.3 years; mean height, 178.1 ± 5.9 cm; mean weight, 94.4 ± 30.9 kg) were disarticulated at the knee. Specimens were mounted in a test device with the proximal tibia fixed, the fibula unconstrained, and foot translation permitted. After adjusting the initial ankle position (neutral, n = 9; dorsiflexed, n = 4; plantar flexed, n = 4) and applying a compressive preload to the tibia, external rotation was applied by rotating the tibia internally while either lubricated anteromedial and posterolateral plates or calcaneal fixation constrained foot rotation. The timing of osteoligamentous injuries was determined from acoustic sensors, strain gauges, force/moment readings, and 3-dimensional bony kinematics. Posttest necropsies were performed to document injury patterns. Results: A syndesmotic injury was observed in 5 of 9 (56%) specimens tested in a neutral initial posture, in 100% of the dorsiflexed specimens, and in none of the plantar flexed specimens. Superficial deltoid injuries were observed in all test modes. Conclusion: Plantar flexion decreased and dorsiflexion increased the incidence of syndesmotic injuries compared with neutral matched-pair ankles. Injury propagation was not identical in all ankles that sustained a syndesmotic injury, but a characteristic sequence initiated with injuries to the medial ligaments, particularly the superficial deltoid, followed by the propagation of injuries to either the syndesmotic or lateral ligaments (depending on ankle flexion), and finally to the interosseous membrane or the fibula. Clinical Relevance: Superficial deltoid injuries may occur in any case of hyper–external rotation of the foot. A syndesmotic ankle injury is often concomitant with a superficial deltoid injury; however, based on the research detailed herein, a deep deltoid injury is then concomitant with a syndesmotic injury or offloads the syndesmosis altogether. A syndesmotic ankle injury more often occurs when external rotation is applied to a neutral or dorsiflexed ankle. Plantar flexion may shift the injury to other ankle ligaments, specifically lateral ligaments.