Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Role of Breathing Conditions During Exercise Testing on Training Prescription in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Abstract This study investigated whether different breathing conditions during exercise testing will influence measures of exercise capacity commonly used for training prescription in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Twenty-seven patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (forced expiratory volume in 1 sec = 45.6 [9.4]%) performed three maximal exercise tests within 8 days, but at least 48 hrs apart. Subjects were thereby breathing either room air through a tightly fitting face mask like during any cardiopulmonary exercise test (MASK), room air without mask (No-MASK), or 10 l/min of oxygen via nasal cannula (No-MASK + O2). Cycling protocols were identical for all tests (start = 20 watts, increment = 10 males/5 females watts/min). Maximal work rate (90.4 [33.8], 100.3 [34.8], 107.4 [35.9] watts, P < 0.001) and blood lactate at exhaustion (4.3 [1.5], 5.2 [1.6], 5.0 [1.4] mmol/l, P < 0.001) were lowest for MASK when compared with No-MASK and No-MASK + O2, respectively, whereas maximal heart rate did not differ significantly. Submaximal exertion (Borg rating of perceived exertion = 12–14) was perceived at lower intensity (P = 0.008), but higher heart rate (P = 0.005) when MASK was compared with No-MASK and No-MASK + O2. Different breathing conditions during exercise testing resulted in an 18.8% difference in maximal work rate, likely causing underdosing or overdosing of exercise in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Face masks reduced whereas supplemental oxygen increased patients' exercise capacity. For accurate prescription of exercise in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, breathing conditions during testing should closely match training conditions.
Do item weights matter? An assessment using the oral health impact profile.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether or not item weights contribute to the performance of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP), a comprehensive measure of the functional, social and psychological outcomes of oral disorders. DESIGN Data were obtained as part of an oral health survey of older adults living in Ontario, Canada. Subjects completed a personal interview, clinical examination and a self-complete version of the OHIP. OHIP scores were calculated in three ways: a simple count method, an additive method and a method incorporating item weights derived from the Thurstone paired comparison technique. These scores were calculated for the full 49-item version of the measure and for a short form consisting of 14 selected items. The discriminant, concurrent and predictive validity of these scores for the two versions of the measure were ascertained. PARTICIPANTS Complete data were obtained for 522 subjects. Just over half were female (56 per cent) and their mean age was 66 years. RESULTS The OHIP discriminated between groups based on dental status (dentate/edentulous), presence of dry mouth (yes/no) and, for the dentate, according to the number of remaining teeth (less than 20/20 or more) irrespective of scoring method or the version of the questionnaire used. All scores showed significant associations with self-rated oral health, self-perceived need for dental care and dissatisfaction with oral health status. There was evidence to suggest that weighted scores were better at discriminating between groups than the simple count method but no better than the additive method. Similar findings emerged with respect to the ability of the scores to predict prosthodontic, surgical and restorative treatment needs. CONCLUSIONS Although the data suggested that item weights did improve the performance of the OHIP, the fact that simple scoring methods were as good as more sophisticated ones might mean that the OHIP could be used in contexts, such as patient assessment for clinical care, where the calculation of weighted scores was not feasible.
Investigational Janus kinase inhibitors

Introduction: Dysregulation of the Janus kinase-signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK-STAT) pathway is central to the pathophysiology of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). Small molecule inhibitors of JAK family members are currently under investigation for the treatment of MPN. Of these, ruxolitinib has received approval for clinical use in myelofibrosis in the United States and Europe. Areas covered: The clinical results and future development program of major JAK inhibitors, including ruxolitinib, CYT387, SAR302503, lestaurtinib, pacritinib, XL-019, LY2784544, BMS-911453, AZD1480 and NS-018 are reviewed. Expert opinion: JAK inhibitors are effective in relieving organomegaly (splenomegaly and hepatomegaly) and constitutional symptoms of myelofibrosis and some modulate inflammatory cytokines. However, they have little impact on disease burden and bone marrow fibrosis. The relationship between clinical efficacy, toxicity profile and specificity of JAK family member inhibition (i.e., JAK2 specific vs JAK1/JAK2 active) is poorly defined. Novel resistance mechanisms including heterodimerization of JAK2 with other JAK family members have been described. It is likely that the future lies in the use of rational drug combinations that target multiple signaling pathways.
Using a manipulator for force display in molecular docking

A real-time molecular docking system is developed that uses an electrically coupled remote manipulator as a force display. The system, which uses integrates interactive computer graphics and high-speed calculation of the interaction forces between a drug and a receptor site in a molecule, is designed to be a tool for molecular scientists. The manipulator is used to generate the forces and torques exerted on the drug molecule when it is aligned with the receptor site by the user's hand. The manipulator serves both as an input device for 6-D manipulation and as an output device for generating forces. Preliminary testing indicates that the system might enhance the biochemist's understanding and performance. <<ETX>>
A neomorphic sgs3 allele stabilizing miRNA cleavage products reveals that SGS3 acts as a homodimer

The putative RNA‐binding protein SUPPRESSOR OF GENE SILENCING 3 (SGS3) protects RNA from degradation before transformation into dsRNA by the RNA‐dependent RNA polymerase RDR6 during plant post‐transcriptional gene silencing and trans‐acting small interfering (siRNA) pathways. In this study, we show that SGS3 acts as a homodimer, and that the point mutation sgs3‐3 impairs post‐transcriptional gene silencing in a dominant‐negative manner through the formation of SGS3/sgs3‐3 heterodimers. Unlike complete‐loss‐of‐function sgs3 mutants, which are impaired in the accumulation of both micro RNA‐directed TAS cleavage products and mature trans‐acting siRNAs, the sgs3‐3 mutant overaccumulates TAS cleavage products and exhibits slightly reduced trans‐acting siRNA accumulation. Together, these results suggest that sgs3‐3 is a neomorphic allele that shows increased RNA protective activity, resulting in decreased RNA processing by downstream post‐transcriptional gene silencing and trans‐acting siRNA pathway components.
Do hydrotherapy exercise programmes improve exercise tolerance and quality of life in patients with chronic heart failure? A systematic review

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether hydrotherapy programmes improve exercise tolerance and quality of life in patients with chronic heart failure. Data sources utilised were EBSCO, Scopus, Medline, PubMed, OVID, Proquest, PEDro and Cochrane Systematic Reviews databases. A systematic review of randomised controlled trials or quasi randomised controlled trials investigated hydrotherapy compared with a suitable control. Methodological quality was assessed using a modified version of the Downs and Black critical appraisal tool. Findings demonstrated that hydrotherapy was well tolerated with few adverse events reported. Two studies demonstrated hydrotherapy intervention groups significantly improved 6MWT from baseline (p≤0.05), while two studies found significantly greater improvements when compared to non-exercising (p=0.01) and land based exercising (p=0.001) controls. Four studies found significant gains (p≤0.05) in VO 2 peak from baseline following hydrotherapy interventions. Two studies reported significant (p=0.01) intragroup improvements in total score of the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire in hydrotherapy intervention groups when compared with baseline and a non-exercising control respectively. In conclusion, hydrotherapy exercise programmes were well tolerated and appear to improve exercise capacity and quality of life in people with chronic heart failure but firm conclusions could not be drawn due to the poor to moderate quality of the evidence. Graetz B, Sullivan M, Robertson T, Reeve J (2015) Do hydrotherapy exercise programmes improve exercise tolerance and quality of life in patients with chronic heart failure? A systematic review New Zealand Journal of Physiotherapy 43(2): 64-71. DOI: 10.15619/NZJP/43.2. 07
The Analysis of Continuous Variation in a Diallel Cross of Nicotiana Rustica Varieties.

TATISTICAL methods for the analysis of continuous variation have been S developed using second degree statistics such as variance and covariance and successfully applied to crosses between two inbred lines. These have allowed the recognition of the more familiar phenomena associated with Mendelian genetics although they appear in the analyses in a new and less obvious form (MATHER 1949; BATEMAN and MATHER 1951; MATHER and VINES 1953). The methods can be used over the whole range of mating systems employed in plant and animal breeding, selfing, sib mating, assortative mating, and can also be qdapted to randomly mating groups. In the present paper this approach has been extended to the analysis of data from a diallel cross between a number of inbred lines. The application of this method to a diallel cross in Nicotiavu rustics and published results of similar crossing programs in maize (JINKS and HAYMAN 1953) show it to be an efficient means of obtaining a rapid, overall picture of the genetical control of a character in a number of inbred lines ; at the same time throwing considerable light on the genetical basis of heterosis in the Fl progeny of these lines.
Catheter Kinematics for Intracardiac Navigation

Steerable catheters are utilized frequently in minimally invasive cardiac interventions. Despite their extensive applications, the properties of the steerable section of such devices have not been thoroughly investigated. In this paper, the kinematics of the distal shaft of the catheters is modeled, and the catheter's reachable workspace and its singular configurations are studied. The modeling is empirically validated through experiments with actual catheters mounted on a specialized robot. The statistical analysis of the experiments verify the effectiveness of the proposed model in estimating the catheter's tip position. In the experiments, the modeling error does not exceed 2.66 plusmn 1.96 mm, and the mean absolute error in position coordinates is less than 1.55 mm. In addition, the linear relationship between the model and the measured position vectors is demonstrated, and the significance of the modeling goodness of fit is established. Based on the precision and computational effectiveness of the method, the applicability of the modeling to control and simulation purposes is postulated.
One-year experience with the platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa antagonist tirofiban and heparin during cardiopulmonary bypass in patients with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia type II.

Heparins are the standard anticoagulants in clinical medicine. However, in 1% to 3% of all patients this medication is complicated by heparin-induced thrombocytopenia type II (HIT II). This immunologic reaction causes platelet activation and is often associated with thromboses or embolism. Patients with HIT II should not be exposed to heparins. This poses a problem, particularly in cardiac surgery involving cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), because no safe alternatives to heparin are available. The prolonged biologic elimination and unavailability of an antidote for current alternative anticoagulants, such as danaparoid or r-hirudin, may result in a persistent anticoagulant effect and severe hemorrhage. Poetzsch, Klovekorn, and Madlener 1 recently proposed that surgery be delayed until the HIT II antibodies become undetectable in laboratory assays and that unfractionated heparins then be used for anticoagulation during CPB. In those patients, after the short period of “contamination” with unfractionated heparins during CPB, HIT II antibodies remained untraceable. However, this study involved only 10 patients and lacks detail with regard to the duration of CPB. Additionally, in patients with cardiovascular disease, the operation often cannot be delayed until the antibodies are cleared, a period of approximately 40 days. 2 Therefore, this strategy is applicable only for selected patients. We 3 recently introduced a new concept in which unfractionated heparins are used after platelet paralysis with the short-acting competitive platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa (GP IIb/IIIa) antagonist tirofiban for inhibition of HIT II‐associated thromboembolism. No thromboses, thromboembolic complications, or postoperative hemorrhage were observed. However, this study involved only 10 patients. Here we report on our 1-year experience with the use of this strategy.
System-Level Performance Evaluation of Multi-Cell Transparent Mode Relay 802.16j Systems

In this paper, the system capacity of a multi-cell IEEE 802.16j system operating in transparent mode is investigated. A previous published analytical model is used and incorporates interference from neighbouring cells. The model can be used to determine downlink performance under max-min fairness constraints for both sectored and omnidirectional systems with different amounts of relays. The study provides guidelines on the design of 802.16j systems operating in transparent mode - specifically, how to maximise throughput for such systems. It is shown that inter-cell interference from relays is limited in a suburban environment and that relays can deliver significant gains over single hop systems: gains of 30% and 60% can be achieved without and with spatial reuse in an omnidirectional system while 15% and 25% in a sectorised system.
Towards Semantic Query Segmentation

Query Segmentation is one of the critical components for understanding users' search intent in Information Retrieval tasks. It involves grouping tokens in the search query into meaningful phrases which help downstream tasks like search relevance and query understanding. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to segment user queries using distributed query embeddings. Our key contribution is a supervised approach to the segmentation task using low-dimensional feature vectors for queries, getting rid of traditional hand tuned and heuristic NLP features which are quite expensive. We benchmark on a 50,000 human-annotated web search engine query corpus achieving comparable accuracy to state-of-the-art techniques. The advantage of our technique is its fast and does not use external knowledge-base like Wikipedia for score boosting. This helps us generalize our approach to other domains like eCommerce without any fine-tuning. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this method on another 50,000 human-annotated eCommerce query corpus from eBay search logs. Our approach is easy to implement and generalizes well across different search domains proving the power of low-dimensional embeddings in query segmentation task, opening up a new direction of research for this problem.
İşyerinde psikolojik yıldırmaya (mobbing) maruz kalma sıklığı ile demografik özellikler arasındaki ilişkinin incelenmesi

Gunumuzde calisma yasaminda sikca rastlanan bedensel ve zihinsel sorunlarin profesyoneller tarafindan farkli bilim dallari cercevesinde incelenmesiyle birlikte, bircok arastirmaci bu konuda ortak bir nokta olan “psikolojik yildirma (mobbing)” konusu uzerinde calismaya baslamislardir. Cunku mobbinge maruz kalan calisanlar ortak bulgular gostermekte ve bu bulgularin calisma hayatina oldukca olumsuz etkileri bulunmaktadir. Calisma yasamini ve bireyin sagligini bu denli etkileyen bir olgunun makro duzeyde toplumsal acidan verecegi zararlari tahmin etmek zor olmamaktadir. Calisma kapsaminda mobbing kavrami, mobbing magdurlari ve mobbinge sebep olan faktorler incelenmis ve Turkiye'de bir havayolu sirketinde yapilan ampirik bir arastirmayla mobbinge maruz kalanlarin sosyo-demografik ozellikleri belirtilmeye calisilmistir.
Skills Requirements for Engineering Graduates: Industry Perspective

In the last few years, it has been observed through various surveys and seminars that the large number of engineering graduates is not employable. One of the important reasons for that is the lack of necessary skills in them. Though the purposes of education is the holistic development of the graduates and make them strong in fundamentals, but it cannot be denied that in the present economic environment, developing necessary skills is also important. In this context, this paper presents the results of the survey of industry executives visiting campuses for placement to find out the skills required by the industry so that the curriculum can be revised and delivery mechanism augmented to prepare students with desired skills.
Authentication of Chinese Materia Medica decoction dregs, Part 1: Comparison of morphological and microscopic features of four Chinese Materia Medica before and after decoction

Chinese Materia Medica (CMM) decoction dregs are the residues of medicinal materials after decoction. Accurate identification of CMM in decoction dregs will be helpful for exploring the causes of poisoning or other medical incidents arising after the ingestion of CMM decoctions. To determine how decoction affects the characteristics used to authenticate specific CMM, a systematic study was carried out. In this study, two pairs of Materia Medica that are commonly confused—namely, Baizhu (Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma) and Cangzhu (Atractylodis Rhizoma), Baishao (Paeoniae Alba Radix) and Chishao (Paeoniae Rubra Radix)—were chosen for investigation. Each pair of Materia Medica has similar morphology in appearance, but they have different functions in Chinese clinic. After decoction, with regard to gross morphological characters, the results showed that bark and wood could be easily distinguished. The striation of vessels and fibers became more prominent because of the contraction of parenchymatous cells, but the lignified cells did not. As for the microscopic characteristics, the cells with thickened walls, such as stone cells and fibers, were basically stable. Most of the parenchymatous cells were broken. Crystals of calcium oxalate showed no changes as they were insoluble in water. Starch granules were gelatinized and aggregated in parenchymatous cells. Inulins were substantially reduced in number as they dissolved in water during decoction. According to these changes in morphological and microscopic characteristics after decoction, the dregs of two pairs of Materia Medica could be distinguished. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Characterization of phoneme rate as a vocal biomarker of depression

Quantitative approaches to psychiatric assessment beyond the qualitative descriptors in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders could transform mental health care. However, objective neurocognitive state estimation and tracking demands robust, scalable indicators of a disorder. A person's speech is a rich source of neurocognitive information because speech production is a complex sensorimotor task that draws upon many cortical and subcortical regions. Furthermore, the ease of collection makes speech a practical, scalable candidate for assessment of mental health. One aspect of speech production that has shown sensitivity to neuropsychological disorders is phoneme rate, the rate at which individual consonants and vowels are spoken. Our aim in this thesis is to characterize phoneme rate as an indicator of depression and to improve our use of phoneme rate as a feature through both brain imaging and neurocomputational modeling. This thesis proposes that psychiatric assessment can be enhanced using a neurocomputational model of speech motor control to estimate unobserved parameters as latent descriptors of a disorder. We use depression as our model disorder and focus on motor control of speech phoneme rate. First, we investigate the neural basis for phoneme rate modulation in healthy subjects uttering emotional sentences and in depression using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Then, we develop a computational model of phoneme rate to estimate subject-specific parameters that correlate with individual phoneme rate. Finally, we apply these and other features derived from speech to distinguish depressed from healthy control subjects. Thesis Supervisor: John D. E. Gabrieli Title: Grover Hermann Professor in Health Sciences and Technology and Cognitive Neuroscience Thesis Supervisor: Satrajit S. Ghosh Title: Principal Research Scientist Thesis Supervisor: Thomas F. Quatieri Title: Senior Technical Staff
The Multilingual Turn : Implications for SLA, TESOL, and Bilingual Education

TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface Introducing the "Multilingual Turn" Stephen May Ch. 1. Disciplinary Divides, Knowledge Construction, and the Multilingual Turn Stephen May Ch. 2. Ways Forward for a Bi/multilingual Turn in SLA Lourdes Ortega Ch. 3. Moving beyond "lingualism": Multilingual embodiment and multimodality in SLA David Block Ch. 4. Theorizing a Competence for Translingual Practice at the Contact Zone Suresh Canagarajah Ch. 5. Identity, Literacy and the Multilingual Classroom Bonny Norton Ch. 6. Communication and Participatory Involvement in Linguistically Diverse Classrooms Constant Leung Ch. 7. Multilingualism and Common Core State Standards in the US Ofelia Garcia and Nelson Flores Ch. 8. Who's teaching whom? Co-learning in multilingual classrooms Li Wei Ch. 9. Beyond Multilingualism: Heteroglossia in Practice Adrian Blackledge, Angela Creese, and Jaspreet Kaur Takhi Afterword Stephen May Contributors
Radiofrequency ablation versus surgical resection for single nodule hepatocellular carcinoma: long-term outcomes.

BACKGROUND Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) has been increasingly utilized for treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Long-term results of RFA, especially in comparison to surgical resection, have not been well described. METHODS Eighty-seven patients with single nodule HCC underwent surgical resection (N=47) or RFA (N=40) during a 9-year period. RFA was performed for 36 unresectable disease and 4 surgical refusals. Each group was further divided based on tumor size for analysis; Group 1: resection, <or=5 cm (N=18), Group 2: RFA, <or=5 cm (N=26), Group 3: resection, >5 cm (N=29) and Group 4: RFA, >5 cm (N=14). Follow-up ranged from 2 to 72 months (median 16 months). Patients' characteristics, local recurrences and overall and disease-free survivals were compared. RESULTS Patients who underwent RFA were older (69 versus 60, p=0.0006), had more advanced Child-Pugh class and TNM stage (p=0.0002 and p=0.016, respectively), and had smaller tumors (4.6 versus 7.4 cm, p=0.0032). Local recurrence rates were 2% for resection and 10% for RFA (p=0.12). These local and other recurrences were subsequently treated with multimodal therapies as indicated. The median overall and disease-free survivals were equivalent both between Groups 1 and 2 (49 versus 51 months, p=0.44, 36 versus 22 months, p=0.84), and Groups 3 and 4 (47 versus 463 months, p=0.94, 28 versus 20 months, p=0.67). DISCUSSION Although the groups were not truly comparable, this retrospective study suggests that RFA may offer similar long-term results to surgical resection for single nodule HCC when combined with multimodal treatments.