Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effectiveness of high-flow nasal cannula on pulmonary rehabilitation in subjects with chronic respiratory failure.

BACKGROUND The effects of exercise training using both high fraction of inspired oxygen (FIO2) and high flow oxygen delivered through a high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) on exercise capacity in patients with chronic respiratory failure (CRF) receiving long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) are unknown. METHODS In this randomized study, 32 patients with CRF receiving LTOT were assigned to undergo 4 weeks of exercise training on a cycle ergometer using an HFNC (flow: 50 L/min) with a FIO2 of 1.0 (HFNC group; n = 16) or ordinary supplemental oxygen via a nasal cannula (flow: 6 L/min) (oxygen group; n = 16). A 6-min walking test and a constant-load test were performed before and after 4 weeks of exercise training. RESULTS Following 4 weeks of exercise training, change in the 6-min walking distance was significantly greater in the HFNC than in the oxygen group (55.2 ± 69.6 m vs. -0.5 ± 87.3 m; p = 0.04). However, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the degree of improvement in the duration of the constant-load exercise test after exercise training. CONCLUSIONS Considering the effect on daily activities (e.g., walking), exercise training using both high FIO2 and high flow through an HFNC is a potentially superior exercise training modality for patients with CRF receiving LTOT. Clinical Trial Registration - http://www. CLINICALTRIALS gov. Unique identifier: NCT02804243.
Behavior of Lignin during alkaline Sulfite-Quinone Cooking

The sulfite-quinone cooking has been investigated as an alternative to the kraft process in terms of delignification, pulp yields, and pulp qualities. However, behaviors of lignin in this cooking have not been clarified, and there are few studies in which delignification selectivity and pulp qualities were compared at given delignification rates and H-factors with those of the soda-quinone and the kraft-quinone cookings. In this study, yezo spruce/saghalien fir mixed chips and beech chips were cooked by the three kinds of cookings under the conditions where the delignification at a given H-factor (cooking temp. : 170°C cooking time : 2 h) were equal. Pulp yields, handsheet strength properties, and characteristics of lignins in those pulps and black liquors were compared, and behaviors of lignin and mechanism of delignification in the sulfite-quinone pulping were discussed. In these experiments, 1, 4-dihydro-9, 10-dihydroxyanthracene sodium salt (DDA) was used as a quinone additive, and this sulfite-quinone cooking was called the alkaline sulfite-DDA cooking because sodium hydroxide, sodium sulfite, and DDA were used as cooking chemicals. The results are summarized as follows : (1) The alkaline sulfite-DDA cooking of yezo spruce/saghalien fir wood gave pulp of almost the same kappa no. 50 as the soda-DDA and the krart-DDA cookings. At kappa no. 50, the total pulp yields of the former were higher than those of the latter. However, the screened pulp yields of the alkaline sufite-DDA cooking were almost the same as those of the kraft-DDA cooking and slightly lower than those of the soda-DDA cooking because of its higher yields of screen rejects. (2) This cooking of beech wood gave pulp of kappa no. 26.4, but it had no advantage of pulp yields compared with the soda-DDA and the kraft-DDA cookings. (3) The contents of sulfonic acid group of lignin in pulps given by this cooking were about 0.1-0.2/phenyl propane unit. (4) Handsheet strength properties of this cooking were almost the same as those of the kraft-DDA cooking. (5) Gel chromatography indicated that the dissolved lignin of this cooking was richer in low-molucular lignin fractions than those of the other cookings. (6) Alkaline nitrobenzene oxidation of screened pulps and black liquors of this cooking gave higher yields of vanillin (soft wood) or vanillin and syringaldehyde (hard wood) than those of the others. (7) In the alkaline sulfite-DDA cooking, the condensation of lignin was depressed by the addition of sodium sulfite. This must be a reason why delignification is accelerated together with the increase of solubilyty of lignin with the cleavage of β-ether linkages by quinone compounds and the sulfonation by sulfite.
Abdominal Diameter Profiles Related to Visceral Obesity Based on Lipid Accumulation Product in Obese Adolescent Females

Background :The prevalence of abdominal obesity followed by excess visceral fat in females is greater than males. Furthermore, one of the anthropometric measurements that has not been widely used and further analyzed is related to excess accumulation of visceral fat mass, namely abdominal diameter (SAD, SAD/Height, ADI). Aims:This study aimed to analyze the relationship between abdominal diameter and visceral obesity (based on Lipid Accumulation Product values) in obese adolescent females.Settings and Design:This study was included in the scope of community nutrition which is observational analytic with a cross-sectional design.Methods and Material:A cross-sectional design was used, and 112 subjects were selected by random sampling method, with an age range of 18-21 years.Statistical analysis used:The statistical analysis used Kolmogorov-Smirnov for normality data test and Spearman rank test for bivariate data analysis.Results: 42% of the subjects had SAD values that were classified as risky, 24.1% had risky SAD/Height values, and 97.3% had ADI values that were classified as not at risk. In addition, females with visceral obesity based on LAP values were 26.8%. Conclusions: There was a relationship between each abdominal diameter profile with LAP with a positive correlation direction.
Studies on Effect of Zinc Oxide (ZnO) Nanostructures Morphology by Modification of Sol-Gel Solution

Zinc Oxide (ZnO) known as wide band gap semiconductor with large excitation energy 60 meV, noncentral symmetry, piezoelectric and biocompatible for biomedical application are the unique characteristic that attract many researcher’s attention on ZnO nanostructure synthesis and physical properties. ZnO thin films were deposited on Si Glass substrate by a sol-gel process. The starting solution were prepare by dissolved zinc acetate dehydrate (ZnAc) and diethanolamine (DEA) in water (H2O) and 2-propanol (2-PrOH). 0 to 60 drops of NaOH were dropped into 100 ml sol-gel solution to study effect of sol-gel modification. ZnO thin films were obtained after preheating the spin coated thin films at 100 °C for 10 minutes after each coating. The coated substrates were undergone for Hot Water Treatment (HWT) process at 90 °C for 6 hours to grow ZnO nanostructures. The effects of sol-gel modification by drop of NaOH into the solution were studied. ZnO nanorods and nanoflakes were obtained after hot water treated at 90 °C for 6 hours with different amount of NaOH dropped directly in the sol-gel solution. On the basis of the changes in morphology and microstructure induced by hot water treatment, it is concluded that the amount of NaOH dropped into sol-gel effected morphology of ZnO growth.
Fracture Strength Determination Methods for Ceramic Materials Applied to Uranium Dioxide

The Advanced Fuels Campaign is currently focusing on development of accident-tolerant fuels that possess a range of property modifications intended to improve fuel performance during accident and transient conditions as well as extend license limits to burnups beyond 62 MWd/kgU. Both of these drivers have identified understanding and mitigating fuel cracking as a key performance criterion. Small-scale cantilever beam testing has been identified as a plausible method by which to collect fracture data for UO 2 as a function of chemical and structural evolutions introduced either during fabrication or irradiation. While this method has been found to be capable of providing data that are in reasonable agreement with literature for unirradiated UO 2 , the inherently small sample volumes that can be sampled limit its ability to capture the statistical nature of mechanisms that govern the fracture of brittle ceramics. A biaxial flexure strength test was developed to be used for unirradiated UO 2 . This method is standard in the community, but no systems presently in use at national laboratories, universities, or private companies are available to be used for nuclear fuel materials. This report describes the operation and benchmarking of this system, which has been validated for a number of common oxides. Future work will extend this system to characterization of both doped UO 2 and other relevant microstructural modifications that can also be measured using small-scale cantilever beam testing. Comparison of datasets collected using both methods will allow the overall applicability of small-scale techniques to be assessed and provide confidence or bounds on their use for irradiated fuels.
Factors That Help and Hinder the Implementation of Digital Depression Prevention Programs: School-Based Cross-sectional Study

Background Digital prevention programs that are delivered in a school environment can inoculate young people against depression. However, little is known about the school-based factors that help and hinder the implementation of these programs. Staff members are integral for supporting mental health programs in schools and are likely to have a wealth of expertise and knowledge about the factors that affect implementation. Objective The primary objective of this study was to explore the barriers and facilitators to implementing a digital depression prevention program in Australian secondary schools with teachers, counselors, and principals. The secondary objective was to explore variations in these factors across different school contexts, including the school type (government or nongovernment), location (capital city, regional/or rural areas), and socioeconomic status (SES) (low, medium, high). Methods This quantitative cross-sectional survey study assessed the barriers and facilitators to implementing a hypothetical digital prevention program in Australian schools. The survey was taken by 97 teachers (average age 38.3 years), 93 counselors (average age 39.5 years), and 11 principals (average age 50.9 years) across Australia between November 2017 and July 2018. Results A range of barriers and facilitators relating to logistics and resources, staff support, and program factors were endorsed by the surveyed staff. Consistent with prior research, common barriers included a lack of time and resources (ie, staff and rooms). These barriers were particularly evident in government, rural/regional, and low socioeconomic schools. Other barriers were specific to digital delivery, including privacy issues and a lack of clarity around staff roles and responsibilities. Facilitators included upskilling staff through training, embedding the program into the curriculum, and other program factors including universal delivery, screening of students’ mental health, and clear referral pathways. Knowledge about the program efficacy was also perceived as important by a large proportion of the respondents. Conclusions The digital depression prevention program was perceived as suitable for use within different schools in Australia, although certain factors need to be considered to enable effective implementation. Logistics and resources, support, and program factors were identified as particularly important for school-based implementation. To maximize the effectiveness in delivering digital programs, implementation may need to be tailored to the staff roles and school types.
The Interdependencies between Economic Growth, Energy Consumption and Pollution in Europe

The strong interdependency between economic growth and conventional energy consumption have led to significant environmental impact, especially with respect to greenhouse gas emissions. Conventional energy-intensive industries release increasing quantities every year, which has prompted global leaders to consider new approaches based on sustainable consumption. The main purpose of this research is to propose a new energy index that accounts for the complexity and interdependences between the research variables. The methodology is based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and combines the key components determined into a score that allows for both temporal and cross-country comparisons. All data analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 25™. The main findings show that most countries improved their economic performance since 2014, but the speed of the improvement varies a lot from one country to another. The final score determined reflects the complex changes taking place in each country and the efficiency of the governmental measures for sustainable economic growth based on low energy consumption and low environmental pollution.
Assessment of the Heavy Metal Contents of Sardina pilchardus Sold in Izmir, Turkey

The total heavy metal (chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and lead (Pb)) present in the muscle tissue of sardine was determined by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) after microwave wet digestion during the winter season of 2010. The mean concentrations of heavy metals in the sardine muscle tissues was 0.21 mg Cr/kg, 1.00 mg Cu/kg, 1.49 mg As/ kg, 0.46 mg Cd/kg, 0.03 mg Hg/kg, and 0.14 mg Pb/kg wet weight. It was found that the cadmium concentrations in the sardine fish samples provided from four fish markets with the exception of one fish market, exceeded the value of 0.05 mg Cd/kg (wet weight) limit which is permitted nationally and internationally. The level of arsenic for one of each group of sardines sampled was higher than the permitted limit of arsenic according to the Australia Food Standard (1.00 mg As/kg). As a result, the comprehensive and periodic controls of heavy metals in fish are important in terms of public and environmental health.
Do Health Insurers Manage Their Medical Loss Ratios? At What Cost?

We use plan-level data to examine a reporting incentive unique to health insurers—the federal Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) provisions—which require that health plans spend a specified percentage of premiums on claims or else pay policyholder rebates. While there are no penalties for noncompliance with the MLR provisions, incentives for insurers to comply include avoiding political and reputation costs, reducing administrative burdens, and eliminating rebate payments. We find that health plans with pre-managed MLRs— i.e., the MLRs that would be reported without reporting discretion—below the required MLR overstate claims, thereby increasing their MLRs and reducing or eliminating rebate payments. Overall, results suggest that overstating claims reduced rebate payments by approximately $190 million to $325 million for 20112013; i.e., about 10–17% of total rebates actually paid. We also find that plans with pre-managed MLRs significantly greater than the minimum required MLR understate claims, thereby improving plan earnings while still complying with the MLR provisions. These understatements average between 14–34% of plans’ pre-tax earnings.
Evaluation of the prevalence of inner ear damage manifestation in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Al Ramadi city

BackgroundDM is considered a common medical health problem and its association with inner ear damage is not well understood. Hearing loss and tinnitus are the two most complaints of inner ear damage which focused on in this study. Objectives: To assess the prevalence of hearing loss and tinnitus among diabetic patients in al-Ramadi city. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional study carried out between January 2019 and December 2019 in which the patients were grouped according to their age, gender, duration of DM and the type of medication given. Assessment of the patients was done by clinical examination including otoscopy and audiological study by pure tone audiometry. Result: inner ear manifestation among 200 patients revealed that about 52 % of patients complaining of sensory neural hearing loss and about 32 % complaining of tinnitus. The duration of disease and the strict glycemic control seem to have an important effect on hearing while tinnitus may require further study due to the vague nature of the complaint. Conclusion: those patients with DM and on insulin therapy looks better doing in hearing and tinnitus complaining than those on oral hypoglycemic agents and diet control. Also, it seems to be necessary for diabetic patients to attend ENT clinic to check their hearing as part of their regular follow up.
Predictors of atrial fibrillation in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a propensity score-matched case-control study.

Background Compared to people without diabetes, people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have an increased risk of developing atrial fibrillation (AF). Possible predictors of AF have not been adequately investigated in T2DM. We aimed to identify the factors associated with AF in such patients. Methods A total of 2,682 patients with T2DM, who was admitted to Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, the Third Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University between 1 June, 2015 to 1 Nov, 2019, were enrolled in the study. 641 patients were excluded. There were 122 patients with AF and 1,919 patients without AF. 1:1 propensity scores match was performed according to age and gender. Patients were divided into the two groups: with AF (122patients) and without AF (122patients). Clinical, demographic, echocardiographic, laboratorial data and medicine were compared between the groups. Results There was significant statistical difference in neutrophil, monocyte, creatinine, total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), apolipoprotein A1 (ApoA1), apolipoprotein B100 (ApoB100), monocyte to high-density lipoprotein ratio (MHR), fasting glucose (FG), left atrial diameter (LAD), ejection fraction(EF), antiplatelet therapy and the prevalence of heart failure between the two groups. On multivariate logistic regression analysis, the increase of MHR, FG and LAD, as well as the decrease of TC and antiplatelet therapy were independent predictors of AF. On receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, using a cut-off level of 0.568, MHR predicted AF with a sensitivity of 65.6%, a specificity of 76.2%, and an AUC of 0.736(95% CI 0.673-0.800). Using a cut-off level of 0.507, the combination of TC, MHR, FG, LAD and antiplatele therapy predicted AF with a sensitivity of 73.0%, a specificity of 84.4%, and an AUC of 0.862(95% CI 0.816-0.907). Conclusions The increase of MHR, FG and LAD, as well as the decrease of TC and antiplatelet therapy were independent predictors of AF. MHR only, as well as the combination of TC, MHR, FG, LAD and antiplatelet therapy can better predict the risk of AF in patients with T2DM.
EFFECT OF DIETARY SUPPLEMENTATION OF TURMERIC POWDER ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE, BEHAVIOR AND BLOOD BIOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS OF FAYOUMI BROILERS

The present study was undertaken to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of turmeric (Curcuma longa) powder on the performance, carcass traits and behavior of native Fayoumi broiler. A total number of 120 one month old commercial male Fayoumi broilers with nearly similar weights were randomly distributed into three experimental groups each 40 birds in 4 replicates (10 bird/replicate). Birds in the first group were fed on standard basal diet without any addition ( control T1) while, Fayoumi broilers in the second and the third groups fed on the same basal diet supplemented with 0.5 and 0.75% turmeric powder (T2&T3). Growth performance parameters, carcass traits, and behavioral parameters were assessed. The results showed that, there was a significant increased in body weight gain, feeding, drinking and sitting behavior, total protein, globulin, calcium, phosphorus and dressing percentage while, significant decrease in FCR, walking and standing behavior. Addition of turmeric powder in the second and third treatment had no significant effect on albumin level, relative weights of liver, gizzard, heart and spleen over six weeks of experimental period. Results of the current study concluded that using turmeric (curcuma longa) powder supplement in Fayoumi broiler diets improved growth performance and ingestive behavior, in addition, total serum protein, globulin, calcium, phosphorus and dressing percentage were increased significantly.
A Package-Cognizant CMOS On-Chip Antenna for 2.4 GHz Free-Space and Implantable Applications

A 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific, and medical band on-chip antenna (OCA) is integrated into an on-chip broadband balun in <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.18~\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> CMOS technology on a die of size 4 mm<sup>2</sup>. Antenna miniaturization is achieved from the capacitive loading of meandered dipole arms. A back-to-back configuration of the balun on a separate die is characterized with in-band insertion and return loss of better than 0.9 dB and 20 dB, respectively. A commercial low-cost package is used to provide a decoupling effect to the OCA when immersed in tissue, enabling it to maintain stable impedance matching as in the air. A detailed explanation of the decoupling mechanism is provided using field plots and equivalent circuit analysis. The OCA is characterized in air and different tissue phantoms with a gain of −23.8 dBi in air and −25.9 dBi inside skin mimicking gel. The maximum simulated uplink specific absorption rate is obtained as 160 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>/kg for an input power of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$25~\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> to the OCA in the transmitting mode. As the antenna has a small footprint and is analytically estimated to be capable of communicating at a high uplink bit rate of 1 Mb/s over a distance of 5.2 m with a 3 dB link margin, it is most suited as a minimally invasive implantable medical device.