Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The SSSA-MyHand: A Dexterous Lightweight Myoelectric Hand Prosthesis

The replacement of a missing hand by a prosthesis is one of the most fascinating challenges in rehabilitation engineering. State of art prostheses are curtailed by the physical features of the hand, like poor functionality and excessive weight. Here we present a new multi-grasp hand aimed at overcoming such limitations. The SSSA-MyHand builds around a novel transmission mechanism that implements a semi-independent actuation of the abduction/adduction of the thumb and of the flexion/extension of the index, by means of a single actuator. Thus, with only three electric motors the hand is capable to perform most of the grasps and gestures useful in activities of daily living, akin commercial prostheses with up to six actuators, albeit it is as lightweight as conventional 1-Degrees of Freedom prostheses. The hand integrates position and force sensors and an embedded controller that implements automatic grasps and allows inter-operability with different human-machine interfaces. We present the requirements, the design rationale of the first prototype and the evaluation of its performance. The weight (478 g), force (31 N maximum force at the thumb fingertip) and speed of the hand (closing time: <370 ms), make this new design an interesting alternative to clinically available multi-grasp prostheses.
Measurement error of waist circumference: gaps in knowledge

Abstract Objective It is not clear whether measuring waist circumference in clinical practice is problematic because the measurement error is unclear, as well as what constitutes a clinically relevant change. The present study aimed to summarize what is known from state-of-the-art research. Design To identify the magnitude of the measurement error of waist circumference measurements from the literature, a search was conducted in PubMed from 1975 to February 2011. Results The measurement error may vary between 0·7 cm and 15 cm. Taking a realistic range of measurable waist circumference into account (60–135 cm), we argue that a short-term clinically relevant change in waist circumference of 5 % may lie between 3·0 and 6·8 cm and a maintained clinically relevant change of 3 % between 1·8 and 4·1 cm. Conclusions Based on these results, we conclude it may be difficult to distinguish clinically relevant change from measurement error in individual subjects, due to the large measurement error and unclear definition of clinically relevant change. More research is needed to address these gaps in knowledge. To minimize measurement error, we recommend using a uniform measurement protocol, training and repeated measurements.
Prospective Study of the Emfit Movement Monitor

Sudden unexplained death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is associated with generalized tonic-clonic seizures and occurs most often when patients are in bed. There are several seizure detection monitors on the market, but little data are available on the sensitivity and specificity of these devices. We recently tested 2 models of seizure detection alarms with disappointing results. Here we tested the Emfit movement monitor on children with various seizure types who also had standard video electroencephalography (EEG), cardiopulmonary, and nursing monitoring. Video EEG records were reviewed to detect any seizures. In 45 patients, 78 seizures were recorded by video EEG. The Emfit movement monitor captured 23 seizure events (30%) in total, and 15 of the 28 (54%) that occurred during sleep. Most importantly, the alarm was activated with 11 of the 13 (85%) generalized tonic-clonic seizures that occurred in sleeping children. The Emfit movement monitor performed very well in comparison to previously tested devices.
A holistic approach to multihop routing in sensor networks

The dynamic and lossy nature of wireless communication poses major challenges to reliable, self-organizing multihop networks. Non-ideal link characteristics are especially problematic with the primitive, low-power radio transceivers found in sensor networks and raise new issues that routing protocols must address. We redefine the basic notion of wireless connectivity in terms of probabilistic links, and demonstrate that link statistics can be captured dynamically through an efficient yet adaptive link estimator. This probabilistic notion of connectivity changes the usual concept of a neighbor and introduces new problems with neighborhood management: the neighbor table on a sensor node is of fixed size and cannot always be used to gather link statistics about all neighbors, yet the process of selecting the most competitive neighbors requires a comparison with the link statistics of those neighbors that are not in the table. Together, link estimation and neighborhood management build a probabilistic connectivity graph which can be exploited by a routing algorithm to increase reliability. Together, these three processes constitute our holistic approach to routing. We study and evaluate link estimation, neighborhood table management, and reliable routing protocol techniques, focusing on the many-to-one, periodic data collection workload commonly found in sensor network applications today. Our final system uses a variant of an exponentially weighted moving average estimator, frequency based table management, and minimum transmission cost-based routing. Our analysis ranges from large-scale, high-level simulations to in-depth empirical experiments and emphasizes the intricate interactions between the routing topology and the underlying connectivity graph, which underscores the need for a whole-system approach to the problem of routing in wireless sensor networks.
Inhibition of germinal vesicle breakdown in bovine oocytes by 5,6‐dichloro‐1‐β‐D‐ribofuranosylbenzimidazole (DRB)

5,6‐Dichloro‐1‐β‐D‐ribofuranosylbenzimidazole (DRB) is an analog of the nucleoside adenosine that has been used to inhibit transcription in a variety of cell types. The present studies were designed to evaluate the ability of DRB to block germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD) in bovine oocytes matured in vitro and to characterize culture conditions required for DRB‐mediated arrest of meiosis. Administration of DRB (60–90 μM) at 2–3 h intervals during culture of COC blocked GVBD in approximately 70 percent of oocytes. The inhibitory effect of DRB was reversible and required the presence of cumulus cells. Treatment with DRB was associated with a 57% decrease in 3H‐uridine incorporation into total COC RNA and a 90.8% decrease into mRNA but did not affect the incorporation of 3H‐leucine into COC proteins. The ability of DRB to arrest meiosis was significantly compromised if supplemental gonadotropin preparations were absent from the maturation media. Gonadotropin‐induced GVBD as well as cumulus cell expansion was blocked by treatment with DRB but no with adenosine. GVBD in cultured bovine COC was initially inhibited and then stimulated when supplemental gonadotropin preparations were included in the culture media. DRB treatment in the presence of gonadotropin supplementation blocked the stimulatory effect of gonadotropins on GVBD. In conclusion, DRB can be used to arrest GVBD in bovine COC in a specific and reversible manner. The data support the hypothesis that gene transcription is required for the stimulatory phase of gonadotropin‐mediated GVBD in cultured bovine COC. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Absence of human papillomavirus genomic sequences detected by the polymerase chain reaction in oesophageal and gastric carcinomas in Japan.

AIMS: To estimate the occurrence of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in oesophageal or gastric carcinomas in patients in Japan. METHODS: 103 oesophageal and 99 gastric carcinomas were investigated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays using two consensus (targeting either the L1 or the E6-E7 regions) and two type specific (type 16 and 18) primer sets. A beta globin gene specific primer set was also applied to examine the quality of the extracted DNA. RESULTS: Amplification of beta globin gene was clearly visible in 92 (89.3%) of the 103 oesophageal, and 89 (89.8%) of the 99 gastric carcinoma specimens. However, the entire series of tumour DNA was negative for HPV sequences by PCR assay using all four primer sets. CONCLUSION: HPV is not likely to be involved in oesophageal or gastric tumorigenesis in Japanese patients.
High performance web sites - essential knowledge for frontend engineers: 14 steps to faster-loading web sites

Want your web site to display more quickly? This book presents 14 specific rules that will cut 25% to 50% off response time when users request a page. Author Steve Souders, in his job as Chief Performance Yahoo! , collected these best practices while optimizing some of the most-visited pages on the Web. Even sites that had already been highly optimized, such as Yahoo! Search and the Yahoo! Front Page, were able to benefit from these surprisingly simple performance guidelines. The rules in High Performance Web Sites explain how you can optimize the performance of the Ajax, CSS, JavaScript, Flash, and images that you've already built into your site -- adjustments that are critical for any rich web application. Other sources of information pay a lot of attention to tuning web servers, databases, and hardware, but the bulk of display time is taken up on the browser side and by the communication between server and browser. High Performance Web Sites covers every aspect of that process. Each performance rule is supported by specific examples, and code snippets are available on the book's companion web site. The rules include how to: * Make Fewer HTTP Requests * Use a Content Delivery Network * Add an Expires Header * Gzip Components * Put Stylesheets at the Top * Put Scripts at the Bottom * Avoid CSS Expressions * Make JavaScript and CSS External * Reduce DNS Lookups * Minify JavaScript * Avoid Redirects * Remove Duplicates Scripts * Configure ETags * Make Ajax Cacheable If you're building pages for high traffic destinations and want to optimize the experience of users visiting your site, this book is indispensable. "If everyone would implement just 20% of Steve's guidelines, the Web would be a dramatically better place. Between this book and Steve's YSlow extension, there's really no excuse for having a sluggish web site anymore. " -Joe Hewitt, Developer of Firebug debugger and Mozilla's DOM Inspector "Steve Souders has done a fantastic job of distilling a massive, semi-arcane art down to a set of concise, actionable, pragmatic engineering steps that will change the world of web performance. " -Eric Lawrence, Developer of the Fiddler Web Debugger, Microsoft Corporation
International Common Otology Database: Taste Disturbance After Stapes Surgery

Objective: To use a study on dysgeusia to assess the usefulness of an otology database. Study Design: Data were extracted from the international Common Otology Database. Intervention: Primary stapes operations. Main Outcome Measure and Results: From a cohort of 14 otologists, only 8 (57%) were able to satisfy external validation and maintain data input for a period of at least 6 months. The rates of dysgeusia varied from 0 to 39% at 3 months and 0 to 27% at 6 months. The percentages of patients with taste disturbance at 6 months in the "nerve-cut" and "nerve-preserved" groups were 22.7 and 10.9%, respectively, although this was not statistically significant (&khgr;2; p = 0.325). Conclusion: Many surgeons found it difficult to maintain a prospective otology database. The rates of certain subjective symptoms such as dysgeusia are influenced by how vigorously the reviewers prompt the response from the patients. Dysgeusia after stapes surgery is common even if the chorda tympani nerve is preserved. Many patients whose chorda tympani nerve is divided may not complain of dysgeusia.
A Parimutuel-like Mechanism for Information Aggregation: Forecasting Inside Intel

We evaluate the performance of an information aggregation mechanism (IAM) implemented inside Intel to forecast unit sales for the company. Developed, rened and tested in the laboratory using experimental methods, the IAM is constructed from institutional features that improve performance and overcome barriers to successful applications of other information aggregation methods. Its implementation at Intel provides a testbed for evaluating this new form of IAM’s performance in a complex eld environment. In contrast to prediction markets, which provide only a point forecast of future sales, the IAM characterizes the full distribution of participants’ aggregated beliefs allowing a more detailed evaluation of its performance. We show this predictive distribution very closely matches the distribution over outcomes at short horizons while slightly underweighting low-probability realizations of unit sales at long horizons. Compared to Intel’s \ocial forecast," the IAM forecasts perform well overall, even though they predate the ocial forecasts. The forecast improvements are most prominent at short forecast horizons and in direct distribution channels, where the eective aggregation of individually-held information drives the IAM to be more accurate than the ocial forecast over 75% of the time.
Frequency of abnormalities detected by upper abdominal ultrasound.

OBJECTIVE The present study was undertaken to categorize frequency of abnormalities detected by upper abdominal ultrasound. MATERIAL AND METHOD The present study was conducted on 3,398 people between the ages of 16 and 93 years old, who had the annual health check-up between October 2003 and May 2004 at the Health Promotion Center Bangkok Hospital Medical Center (all of those participating were defined as "patients"). Of these, 1,930 are men (56.8%) and 1,468 are women (43.2%). In the present study, the data of age, gender, and upper abdominal ultrasound findings were assessed. RESULTS Of the 3,398 subjects, 1,782 patients (52.4%) had positive findings; 1,147 of which were men (64.4%) and 635 were women (35.6%). Fatty liver, being the most common positive finding, was observed in 1,219 patients (35.9%); 831 of which were men (68.2%) and 388 were women (31.8%). The finding of a liver mass, as the second positive finding, was observed in 209 patients (6.2%); of which were 124 patients (59.3%) with hepatic cyst, 51 patients (24.4%) with hemangioma, 16 patients (7.7%) with indetermined nodule, 11 patients (5.3%) with calcification, and 7 patients (3.4%) with malignant tumor while 664 patients (19.5%) had other positive findings. The top four included gallbladder polyp observed in 181 patients (5.3%), renal cyst observed in 155 patients (4.6%), gallstone observed in 141 patients (4.2%), and renal stone observed in 101 patients (3.0%). CONCLUSION The prevalence of abnormalities detected by upper abdominal ultrasound was 52.44%. The most common finding was fatty liver (35.87%). Although the majority of positive findings were benign conditions, some of them might have an adverse effect to the health condition of patients in the long run. The ultrasound findings also yielded the patient management to prevent subsequent disease and to perform medical treatment or follow up.
How Early Does Morpholexical Reading Develop in Readers of a Shallow Orthography?

In this research, lexical and morpholexical reading in Italian children ages 8 to 10 years were investigated. Children and control adults were administered two tasks on words and pseudowords: visual lexical decision and naming. Word frequency effects in both lexical decision and naming were found in both children and adults. For all age groups pseudowords made up of roots and derivational suffixes were decided more frequently as possible words and were named more quickly and accurately than matched pseudowords with no morphological constituency. These results show that morpholexical reading is available and efficient in young readers of a shallow orthography, with similar patterns in children and adults.
The relative impact of generic head-related transfer functions on auditory speech thresholds: implications for the design of three-dimensional audio displays.

BACKGROUND Auditory speech thresholds were measured in this study. METHODS Subjects were required to discriminate a female voice recording of three-digit numbers in the presence of diotic speech babble. The voice stimulus was spatialized at 11 static azimuth positions on the horizontal plane using three different head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) measured on individuals who did not participate in this study. The diotic presentation of the voice stimulus served as the control condition. RESULTS The results showed that two of the HRTFS performed similarly and had significantly lower auditory speech thresholds than the third HRTF. All three HRTFs yielded significantly lower auditory speech thresholds compared with the diotic presentation of the voice stimulus, with the largest difference at 60 degrees azimuth. CONCLUSION The practical implications of these results suggest that lower headphone levels of the communication system in military aircraft can be achieved without sacrificing intelligibility, thereby lessening the risk of hearing loss.
Overexpression of Cellular Iron Import Proteins Is Associated with Malignant Progression of Esophageal Adenocarcinoma

Purpose: There is growing evidence that iron is important in esophageal adenocarcinoma, a cancer whose incidence is rising faster than any other in the Western world. However, how iron mediates carcinogenesis at the molecular level remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the expression of iron transport proteins involved in cellular iron import, export, and storage in the premalignant lesion Barrett's metaplasia and esophageal adenocarcinoma. Experimental Design: Perls' staining was used to examine iron deposition in tissue. mRNA expression in samples of Barrett's metaplasia matched with esophageal adenocarcinoma and samples of Barrett's metaplasia without evidence of adenocarcinoma were examined by real-time PCR. Semiquantitative immunohistochemistry was used to examine cellular localization and protein levels. The effect of iron loading on cellular proliferation and iron transporter expression was determined in esophageal cell lines OE33 and SEG-1 using a bromodeoxyuridine assay and real-time PCR, respectively. Results: In the progression of Barrett's metaplasia to adenocarcinoma, there was overexpression of divalent metal transporter 1 (DMT1), transferrin receptor 1, duodenal cytochrome b, ferroportin, and H-ferritin, and these changes were associated with increased iron deposition. Overexpression of DMT1 was further associated with metastatic adenocarcinoma. Iron loading OE33 and SEG-1 cells caused increased cellular proliferation, which was associated with increased H-ferritin and decreased transferrin receptor 1 and DMT1 expression. Conclusions: Progression to adenocarcinoma is associated with increased expression of iron import proteins. These events culminate in increased intracellular iron and cellular proliferation. This may represent a novel mechanism of esophageal carcinogenesis.
he missing link : Mothers ’ neural response to infant cry related to nfant attachment behaviors

This study addresses a gap in the attachment literature by investigating maternal neural response to cry related to infant attachment classifications and behaviors. Twenty-two primiparous mothers and their 18-month old infants completed the Strange Situation (SS) procedure to elicit attachment behaviors. During a separate functional MRI session, mothers were exposed to their own infant’s cry sound, as well as an unfamiliar infant’s cry and control sound. Maternal neural response to own infant cry related to both overall attachment security and specific infant behaviors. Mothers of less secure infants maintained greater activation to their cry in left parahippocampal and amygdala regions and the right posterior insula consistent with a negative schematic response bias. Mothers of infants exhibiting more avoidant or contact maintaining behaviors during the SS showed diminished response across left prefrontal, parietal, and cerebellar areas involved in attentional processing and cognitive control. Mothers of infants exhibiting more disorganized behavior showed reduced response in bilateral temporal and subcallosal areas relevant to social cognition and emotion regulation. No differences by attachment classification were found. Implications for attachment transmission models are discussed. © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
A novel experimental rat model of peripheral nerve scarring : Reliably mimicking post-surgical complications and recurring adhesions

Inflammation, fibrosis and perineural adhesions with the surrounding tissue are common pathological processes following nerve injury and surgical interventions on peripheral nerves in human patients. Furthermore, these signs can reoccur following external neurolysis, currently the most common surgical treatment, thus leading to renewed nerve function impairment and chronic pain. To enable a successful evaluation of new therapeutic approaches, it is crucial to use a reproducible animal model that mimics the main clinical symptoms occurring in human patients. However, a clinically relevant model combining both histological and functional alterations has not been published to date. For this reason, we developed a reliable rat model, which exhibits the essential pathological processes of peripheral nerve scarring. In our study, we present a novel method for the induction of nerve scarring by applying glutaraldehyde-containing glue, known to cause nerve injury in humans. After a three-week contact period with the sciatic nerve in female Sprague Dawley rats, we could demonstrate severe intraand perineural scarring that resulted in grade 3 adhesions and major impairments in the electrophysiological peak amplitude compared to sham control (p = 0.0478). Immunohistochemical analysis of the nerve structure revealed vigorous nerve inflammation and recruitment of T cells and macrophages. Also, distinct nerve degeneration was determined by immunostaining. These pathological alterations were further reflected in significant functional deficiencies as determined by the analysis of relevant gait parameters as well as the quantification of the sciatic functional index starting at week 1 post-operatively (p < 0.01). Moreover, with this model we could, for the first time, demonstrate not only the primary formation, but also the recurrence of severe adhesions one week after glue removal, imitating a major clinical challenge. As a comparison, we tested an already published model for generating perineural fibrotic adhesions, which however did not result in significant pathological changes. Taken together, we established an easily reproducible and reliable rat model for peripheral nerve scarring which allows for the effective testing of new therapeutic strategies. D is ea se M o de ls & M ec ha ni sm s • D M M • A dv an ce a rt ic le