Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program with Meditation on Perceived Self-Efficacy, Pulmonary Rehabilitation Behavior, Exercise Tolerance, and Dyspnea in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Objective This quasi-experimental research using a single-group repeated measure design was conducted to assess the effect of a pulmonary rehabilitation program with meditation on perceived self-efficacy, pulmonary rehabilitation behavior, exercise tolerance, and dyspnea in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Material and Method Thirty-three COPD patients followed-up at the Outpatient Department at Wangpong District Hospital, Petchaboon Province were included into this study. All participants received the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program (PRP) adjunct with meditation for eight weeks. The data were collected by using a Perceived Self-efficacy for Pulmonary Rehabilitation Questionnaire, a Pulmonary Rehabilitation Behaviors Questionnaire, an Exercise Tolerance Test, and a Perceived Dyspnea Questionnaire and other cardio-pulmonary parameters (PR, BP, RR, and oxygen saturation) at the baseline, at the fourth week, and at the eighth week of visits. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, a repeated measure ANOVA, and Bonferroni’s correction. Results At the eighth week, the participants had a significant higher average of perceived self-efficacy, pulmonary rehabilitation behaviors and exercise tolerance (p-value <0.001), and lower average perceived of dyspnea than at the baseline and at the fourth week (p-value <0.05). The PR, BP, RR, and oxygen saturation were significantly improved between pre and post pulmonary rehabilitation with adjuncts meditation in baseline, 4 and 8 weeks of visits (p-value <0.001). The most effective improvement was most related to respiratory domain (RR and oxygen saturation). These effects established early in 4 weeks and strongly improved after 8 weeks and showed statistically significant when compared of 8 weeks of visit with baseline (pre-measurement of RR; p-value <0.001, 0.0326, and <0.001, and post-measurement after adjuncts meditation program; p-value = 0.206, 0.0139, and <0.001, respectively). For cardiovascular domain, PR, and SBP were seemed to improve and compensate well when comparing 8-week visit to baseline (p-value = 0.005 and 0.0032, respectively). PR was decreased after continuing adjuncts meditation compared to baseline state (p-value = 0.0004). Conclusion The mediation adjuncts with routine pulmonary rehabilitation program demonstrated improving of average of perceived self-efficacy meditation, behaviors, exercise tolerance, and cardio-pulmonary parameters (RR and oxygen saturation). It was promising and should be recommended and applied to COPD patients to restore the pulmonary function, reducing perceived of dyspnea symptom, increasing exercise endurance, activity daily life, and quality of life of patients.
Adult-onset renal cell carcinoma associated with Xp11.2 translocation/TFE3 gene fusion

Rationale: Renal cell carcinoma associated with Xp11.2 translocations/TFE3 gene fusions is a rare subtype of renal cell carcinoma. This predominantly occurs in juveniles, but rarely seen in adults with lymph node or organic metastasis and a worsened prognosis. Patients concerns: Herein, we presented 3 adult cases of Xp11-RCC. Two patients were in early stage and good condition, and the third patient had lymph node metastasis but showed no recurrence after a 3-month follow-up. Diagnoses: Case 1: A 50-year-old female without any lumbago and gross hematuria was incidentally detected by left renal mass by ultrasonography. Case 2: A 31-year-old female with 2-year hemodialysis was detected with right renal carcinoma during preoperative examination of renal transplant. Case 3: A 45-year-old male with right lumbago for 1 month was detected with a mass in the lower pole of right kidney by ultrasonography. Intervention: The characteristics of these 3 images are not consistent with each other, and showed some differences with the previous ones. Outcomes: All these 3 patients underwent laparoscopic radical nephrectomy, and case 1 patient underwent renal hilar lymphnode dissection at the same time. Immunohistochemistry was performed on all the 3 tumors, revealing that the tumor cells were positive for TFE3 and Melan-A. Case 1 showed lymph node metastasis, and received mTOR inhibitors. The 3 patients had no recurrent and new metastasis in other organs after follow-up for 3 months, 2 months, and 11 months, respectively. Lessons: Whether the adult-onset Xp-RCC has an aggressive clinical course still remains controversial. Characteristics of the images of the 3 adult cases showed some uniformity but still have some differences. Immunohistochemistry results revealed tumor cell positive for TFE3, but have no consistency in carbonic anhydrase IX, CD117, Ki67, CK8/18 AE1/AE3 and so on. Therefore, the uniform and definitive diagnostic standards of the tumors are uncertain. Hence, more cases and findings are required to elaborate the standards of all the tumor subtypes. Vascular endothelial growth factor-targeted therapy showed some efficacious results in patients with metastasis, but more useful treatments are warranted.
Prostaglandins in the pathogenesis of kidney diseases

Prostaglandins (PGs) are important lipid mediators produced from arachidonic acid via the sequential catalyzation of cyclooxygenases (COXs) and specific prostaglandin synthases. There are five subtypes of PGs, namely PGE2, PGI2, PGD2, PGF2α, and thromboxane A2 (TXA2). PGs exert distinct roles by combining to a diverse family of membrane-spanning G protein-coupled prostanoid receptors. The distribution of these PGs, their specific synthases and receptors vary a lot in the kidney. This review summarized the recent findings of PGs together with the COXs and their specific synthases and receptors in regulating renal function and highlighted the insights into their roles in the pathogenesis of various kidney diseases.
Automatic control of electrical conductivity and PH using fuzzy logic for hydroponics system

Hydroponics is the method of growing plants without soil. A mineral nutrient is given to plants by using water solvent only. The important factor in this method is the control of the Electrical Conductivity (EC) and pH values at the appropriate level through whole planting time. However, the control of these two parameters requires skill and knowledge to avoid wasting resources such as labor and nutrient. This paper proposed the application of fuzzy logic control for automatically controlling the EC and pH values in Hydroponics Planting. Fuzzy logic is applied to decide on the adjusting nutrient and pH in steads of the classical rules. The proposed method has experimented in the DRFT hydroponics greenhouse with the planting of green oak lettuce. The results show that a system based on fuzzy logic control can efficiently adjust EC and pH value for helping the growth of plants. In addition, the system also reduces the waste of resources.
STEAM: Using the Arts to Train Well-Rounded and Creative Scientists

While the demand for a strong STEM workforce continues to grow, there are challenges that threaten our ability to recruit, train, and retain such a workforce in a way that is effective and sustainable and fosters innovation. One way in which we are meeting this challenge is through the use of the arts in the training of scientists. In this Perspectives article, we review the use of the arts in science education and its benefits in both K–12 and postsecondary education. We also review the use of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) programs in science outreach and the development of professional scientists.
Meta-Learning Transferable Active Learning Policies by Deep Reinforcement Learning

Active learning (AL) aims to enable training high performance classifiers with low annotation cost by predicting which subset of unlabelled instances would be most beneficial to label. The importance of AL has motivated extensive research, proposing a wide variety of manually designed AL algorithms with diverse theoretical and intuitive motivations. In contrast to this body of research, we propose to treat active learning algorithm design as a meta-learning problem and learn the best criterion from data. We model an active learning algorithm as a deep neural network that inputs the base learner state and the unlabelled point set and predicts the best point to annotate next. Training this active query policy network with reinforcement learning, produces the best non-myopic policy for a given dataset. The key challenge in achieving a general solution to AL then becomes that of learner generalisation, particularly across heterogeneous datasets. We propose a multi-task dataset-embedding approach that allows dataset-agnostic active learners to be trained. Our evaluation shows that AL algorithms trained in this way can directly generalise across diverse problems.
A novel planar inverted-F antenna for 2G/3G/LTE systems

In this paper, a novel planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) operating at six bands (GSM850, GSM900, DCS1800, PCS1900, UMTS2100, LTE2300) is proposed. By adding a parasitic element and two slots in the patch of basic PIFA, the bandwidth on the upper frequency band can be improved to cover more communication systems. All the simulated and measured results show that the proposed PIFA possesses −6dB bandwidth 185 MHz (805 MHz to 990 MHz) at the lower frequency band and 815 MHz (1705 MHz to 2520 MHz) at the upper frequency band. Moreover, the proposed antenna exhibits good performance of total radiated power (TRP), (18 ∼28 dBm) and total isotropic sensitivity (TIS), (−91 ∼−107 dBm), under the free space environment. Thus, the novel PIFA is suitable for 2G/3G/LTE mobile communication systems.
Physical exercise programme during pregnancy decreases perinatal depression risk: a randomised controlled trial

Introduction The incidence of depression is high during the perinatal period. This mood disorder can have a significant impact on the mother, the child and the family. Objective To examine the effect of an exercise programme during pregnancy on the risk of perinatal depression. Methods Healthy women who were <16 weeks pregnant were randomly assigned to two different groups. Women in the intervention group participated in a 60 min exercise programme throughout pregnancy, 3 days per week, which was conducted from October 2014 to December 2016. The Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale was used to measure the risk of depression at the beginning of the study (12–16 weeks), at gestational week 38 and at 6 weeks postpartum. Results One hundred and twenty-four pregnant women were allocated to either the intervention (IG=70) or the control (CG=54) group. No differences were found in the percentage of depressed women at baseline (20% vs 18.5%) (χ2=0.043; p=0.836). A smaller percentage of depressed women were identified in the IG compared with the CG at 38 gestational weeks (18.6% vs 35.6%) (χ2=4.190; p=0.041) and at 6 weeks postpartum (14.5% vs 29.8%) (χ2=3.985; p=0.046) using the per-protocol analysis. No significant differences were found using the intention-to-treat analyses, except in the multiple imputation analysis at week 38 (18.6% vs 34.4%) (χ2=4.085; p=0.049). Conclusion An exercise programme performed during pregnancy may reduce the prevalence of depression in late pregnancy and postpartum. Trial registration number NCT02420288; Results.
Resolving Occlusion in Active Visual Target Search of High-Dimensional Robotic Systems

We propose an algorithm for handling visual occlusions that disrupt visual tracking of high-dimensional eye-in-hand systems. Our algorithm allows a robot to look behind an occluder during active visual target search and reacquire its target in an online manner. A particle filter continuously estimates the target location and an enhanced observation model updates the target belief state. Meanwhile, we build a simple but efficient map of the occluder boundaries to compute potential occlusion-clearing motions. Our mixed-initiative cost function balances the goal of gaining more information about the target and occluder boundary while minimizing the sensor action cost. A data-driven planner uses informed samples to strike a balance between target search and information gain to avoid exhaustive mapping of the three-dimensional occluder into Configuration space. We demonstrate the capabilities of our algorithm in simulation and a real-world experiment. We also show that our proposed solvers outperform a common approach in the literature. Our results indicate that our algorithm can quickly obtain clear views of the target when occlusion is persistent and significant camera motion is required.
Predicting Delivery Capability in Iterative Software Development

Iterative software development has become widely practiced in industry. Since modern software projects require fast, incremental delivery for every iteration of software development, it is essential to monitor the execution of an iteration, and foresee a capability to deliver quality products as the iteration progresses. This paper presents a novel, data-driven approach to providing automated support for project managers and other decision makers in predicting delivery capability for an ongoing iteration. Our approach leverages a history of project iterations and associated issues, and in particular, we extract characteristics of previous iterations and their issues in the form of features. In addition, our approach characterizes an iteration using a novel combination of techniques including feature aggregation statistics, automatic feature learning using the Bag-of-Words approach, and graph-based complexity measures. An extensive evaluation of the technique on five large open source projects demonstrates that our predictive models outperform three common baseline methods in Normalized Mean Absolute Error and are highly accurate in predicting the outcome of an ongoing iteration.
Sensory impairment after stroke: Exploring therapists’ clinical decision making

Background. Stroke survivors experience sensory impairments that significantly limit upper-limb functional use. Lack of clear research-based guidelines about their management exacerbates the uncertainty in occupational therapists’ decision making to support these clients. Purpose. This study explores occupational therapists’ clinical decision making regarding upper-limb, post-stroke sensory impairments that can ultimately inform approaches to support therapists working with such clients. Method. Twelve therapists participated in a qualitative descriptive study. Transcripts of semi-structured interviews were analyzed using content analysis. Findings. Three overarching categories were identified: deciding on the focus of interventions (describing intervention choices), it all depends (outlining factors considered when choosing interventions), and managing uncertainty in decision making (describing uncertainty and actions taken to resolve it). Implications. Providing training about post-stroke sensory impairment and decision making may improve therapists’ decision making and ultimately improve client outcomes. Further research is needed to understand the impact of uncertainty on occupational therapy decision making and resulting care practices. Description. Les personnes ayant survécu à un accident vasculaire cérébral (AVC) ont des déficits sensoriels qui limitent considérablement l’usage fonctionnel du membre supérieur atteint. Le manque de directives claires et basées sur la recherche en matière d’intervention exacerbe l’incertitude des ergothérapeutes lorsqu’ils doivent prendre des décisions pour aider ces clients. But. Cette étude examine les prises de décisions cliniques des ergothérapeutes en ce qui concerne les déficits sensoriels au membre supérieur à la suite d’un AVC, dans le but d’orienter les approches visant à soutenir les ergothérapeutes travaillant avec ce genre de clients. Méthodologie. Douze ergothérapeutes ont participé à une étude qualitative descriptive. Les transcriptions des entrevues semi-structurées ont été analysées à l’aide d’une analyse du contenu. Résultats. Trois catégories principales ont été repérées : Décider de l’objectif principal des interventions (décrivant les choix des interventions), Cela dépend (exposant les facteurs pris en considération lors du choix des interventions), et Gérer l’incertitude lors de la prise de décisions (décrivant l’incertitude et les mesures prises pour y faire face). Conséquences. Une formation sur les déficits sensoriels à la suite d’un AVC et sur la prise de décision peut améliorer le processus décisionnel des ergothérapeutes et, éventuellement, améliorer les résultats des clients. D’autres recherches devront être menées pour comprendre les effets de l’incertitude sur la prise de décision en ergothérapie et sur les pratiques résultantes en matière de soins.
The enigmatic role of the neutrophil in asthma: Friend, foe or indifferent?

Whilst severe asthma has classically been categorized as a predominantly Th2‐driven pathology, there has in recent years been a paradigm shift with the realization that it is a heterogeneous disease that may manifest with quite disparate underlying inflammatory and remodelling profiles. A subset of asthmatics, particularly those with a severe, corticosteroid refractory disease, present with a prominent neutrophilic component. Given the potential of neutrophils to impart extensive tissue damage and promote inflammation, it has been anticipated that these cells are closely implicated in the underlying pathophysiology of severe asthma. However, uncertainty persists as to why the neutrophil is present in the asthmatic lung and what precisely it is doing there, with evidence supporting its role as a protagonist of pathology being primarily circumstantial. Furthermore, our view of the neutrophil as a primitive, indiscriminate killer has evolved with the realization that neutrophils can exhibit a marked anti‐inflammatory, pro‐resolving and wound healing capacity. We suggest that the neutrophil likely exhibits pleiotropic and potentially conflicting roles in defining asthma pathophysiology—some almost certainly detrimental and some potentially beneficial—with context, timing and location all critical confounders. Accordingly, indiscriminate blockade of neutrophils with a broad sword approach is unlikely to be the answer, but rather we should first seek to understand their complex and multifaceted roles in the disease state and then target them with the same subtleties and specificity that they themselves exhibit.
Renal mitochondrial oxidative stress is enhanced by the reduction of Sirt3 activity, in Zucker diabetic fatty rats

ABSTRACT Objectives: Mitochondrial oxidative stress is involved in the pathogenesis of diabetic kidney disease. The objective of our study is to identify the mechanisms of renal mitochondrial oxidative stress, focusing on Sirt3, which is nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+; oxidized NAD)-dependent deacetylase in mitochondria. Methods: Renal mitochondrial oxidative stress and Sirt3 activity, using Zucker diabetic fatty rats (ZDFRs) and cultured proximal tubular cells under high-glucose condition were evaluated. Results: At 28 weeks of age, ZDFRs exhibited the increased urinary albumin/liver-type fatty acid-binding protein (L-FABP)/8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) excretion, histological tubular cell damage, compared to non-diabetic Zucker Lean rats. In renal mitochondria, acetylated isocitrate dehydrogenase2 (IDH2) and superoxide dismutase2 (SOD2), accompanied with mitochondrial oxidative stress and mitochondrial morphologic alterations, were increased in ZDFRs, indicating inactivation of Sirt3. Additionally, expression of the NAD-degrading enzyme, CD38, was increased, and the NAD+/NADH (reduced NAD) ratio was reduced in the renal cortex of ZDFRs. High-glucose stimulation in cultured proximal tubular cells also resulted in an increase in acetylated IDH2/SOD2, CD38 overexpression and a reduction in the NAD+/NADH ratio. Conclusions: Enhancement of mitochondrial oxidative stress in the diabetic kidney was mediated by the reduction of Sirt3 activity. CD38 overexpression may be related to a reduction in the NAD+/NADH ratio in the diabetic kidney.
The important but weakening maize yield benefit of grain filling prolongation in the US Midwest

A better understanding of recent crop yield trends is necessary for improving the yield and maintaining food security. Several possible mechanisms have been investigated recently in order to explain the steady growth in maize yield over the US Corn‐Belt, but a substantial fraction of the increasing trend remains elusive. In this study, trends in grain filling period (GFP) were identified and their relations with maize yield increase were further analyzed. Using satellite data from 2000 to 2015, an average lengthening of GFP of 0.37 days per year was found over the region, which probably results from variety renewal. Statistical analysis suggests that longer GFP accounted for roughly one‐quarter (23%) of the yield increase trend by promoting kernel dry matter accumulation, yet had less yield benefit in hotter counties. Both official survey data and crop model simulations estimated a similar contribution of GFP trend to yield. If growing degree days that determines the GFP continues to prolong at the current rate for the next 50 years, yield reduction will be lessened with 25% and 18% longer GFP under Representative Concentration Pathway 2.6 (RCP 2.6) and RCP 6.0, respectively. However, this level of progress is insufficient to offset yield losses in future climates, because drought and heat stress during the GFP will become more prevalent and severe. This study highlights the need to devise multiple effective adaptation strategies to withstand the upcoming challenges in food security.
Unscented particle filter using student-t distribution with non-Gaussian measurement noise

Particle filters (PF) has become a powerful technique used to solve non-Gaussian / nonlinear state estimation problems because it does not make any presumptions about the probability density function or the linearity of the system model. Gaussian noise assumption may result in a significant reduction in the accuracy of state estimate, especially when measurements are given with the existence of outliers. Recently, the unscented particle filter (UPF) has emerged, which is based on the use the unscented Kalman filter (UKF). Furthermore, the UKF generates the importance proposal distributions that match more closely to the true posterior, thus, the UPF has a better performance than the standard PF. In this paper, we introduce a robust strategy based on unscented particle filtering using Student-t distribution. This strategy addresses the unknown observations noise using the Student-t distribution to estimate the state of a non-Gaussian/ nonlinear dynamics systems. The proposed strategy is tested with a highly non-linear example and the robustness of our strategy has been confirmed.