Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Maternal Vitamin D Status and Gestational Weight Gain as Correlates of Neonatal Bone Mass in Healthy Term Breastfed Young Infants from Montreal, Canada

The implications of maternal gestational weight gain (GWG) and vitamin D status to neonatal bone health are unclear. We tested whether maternal 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) and GWG relate to neonatal bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD). Healthy term appropriate for gestational age breastfed neonates (n = 142) and their mothers were recruited 24–36 h after delivery and followed at 1.0 ± 0.5 month. At birth, obstetric data were collected and newborn serum 25(OH)D was measured. At 1 month, neonatal whole-body (WB) BMC, WB BMC relative to body weight (WB BMC/kg), lumbar spine BMC and BMD, maternal and neonatal 25(OH)D concentrations, and anthropometry were measured. Infant BMC and BMD between maternal 25(OH)D (<50, ≥50 nmol/L) and GWG (insufficient, adequate, and excessive) categories were compared. Maternal 25(OH)D was not related to infant whole-body BMC, BMC/kg, lumbar spine BMC, and BMD. Infants in the excessive maternal GWG category had greater (p = 0.0003) whole-body BMC and BMC/kg and lumbar spine BMC and BMD than inadequate GWG, and greater (p = 0.0063) whole-body BMC/kg and lumbar spine BMC and BMD than adequate GWG. These results suggest that maternal GWG, but not vitamin D status, modestly relates to bone mass in neonates.
Increased Resistance to Flow and Temperature-rise Resulting from Dust Accumulation on Greenhouse Insect-proof Screens

Insect-proof screens increase the resistance to ventilation flow across a greenhouse. The pressure drop across a clean 50-mesh screen is approximately 10 times the dynamic pressure of the approach velocity. While this is negligible relative to the pressure drop created by fans, it is a significant fraction of the wind-induced pressure drop. In naturally ventilated greenhouses, the problem is further aggravated by the accumulation of dust, which may increase the resistance of a screen by an order of magnitude. Measurements in a 50m2 greenhouse showed that the loss coefficient of a 50-mesh screen increased from 12 when clean to 200 after two months of continuous fan ventilation. An approximate analysis of the problem showed that in naturally ventilated greenhouses, reduced ventilation due to dust accumulation, could double the intended temperature-rise.
Small Split-Ring Resonators as Efficient Antennas for Remote LoRa IOT Systems—A Path to Reduce Physical Interference

While wireless IOT modules can be made extremely compact, antennas typically protrude from the module, providing the potential to catch near moving/rotating equipment or transfer loads to the PCB through end forces, which can lead to failures. This work explores the use of split-ring resonator (SRR) designs to achieve a planar antenna with a maximum dimension less than a monopole working at the same frequency. The very narrow bandwidth of the SRR required detailed physical models to create printed circuit board (PCB)-based antenna designs that could be used at LoRa frequencies of 433 MHz and 915 MHz. Uncertainty analysis allowed for the impact of geometrical and physical tolerances on the resonant frequency to be evaluated. Nearfield and farfield measurements were performed allowing for the resonant frequency, directionality, and range of the antenna to be evaluated. An unbalanced SMA port was added to the SRR design to allow for the use of a network vector analyser to determine the input impedance of various designs. The optimum design achieved an input resistance of 44 Ω at a resonant frequency of 919 MHz, close to the target values (50 Ω at 915 MHz). Field measurements of the received signal strength from a planar antenna design indicated a gain of 5 dB over a conventional quarter-wave monopole antenna, in a footprint that was 40% smaller than the monopole.
Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass with 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium Acetate for Its Eventual Valorization by Anaerobic Digestion

This study assessed the breakdown of lignocellulosic biomass (LB) with the ionic liquid (IL) 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([Emim][Ac]) as a pretreatment to increase the methane yield. The pretreatment was conducted for wheat straw (WS), barley straw (BS), and grape stem (GS) at 120 °C for 120 min, using several LB to [Emim][Ac] ratios (1:1, 1:3, and 1:5 w/w). Pretreatment significantly disrupted the lignocellulose matrix of each biomass into soluble sugars. GS showed the highest sugar yield, which was followed by WS, while BS was slightly hydrolyzed (175.3 ± 2.3, 158.2 ± 5.2, and 51.1 ± 3.1 mg glucose g–1 biomass, respectively). Likewise, the pretreatment significantly reduced the cellulose crystallinity index (CrI) of the resulting solid fractions of GS and WS by 15% and 9%, respectively, but slightly affected the CrI of BS (5%). Thus, BMP tests were only carried out for raw and hydrothermally and [Emim][Ac] (1:5) pretreated GS and WS. The untreated GS and WS showed similar methane yields to those achieved for the solid fraction obtained after pretreatment with an LB to [Emim][Ac] ratio of 1:5 (219 ± 10 and 368 ± 1 mL CH4 g–1 VS, respectively). The methane production of the solid plus liquid fraction obtained after IL pretreatment increased by 1.61- and 1.34-fold compared to the raw GS and WS, respectively.
Prevention, Diagnosis and Management of Post-Surgical Mediastinitis in Adults Consensus Guidelines of the Spanish Society of Cardiovascular Infections (SEICAV), the Spanish Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (SECTCV) and the Biomedical Research Centre Network for Respiratory Diseases (CI

This is a consensus document of the Spanish Society of Cardiovascular Infections (SEICAV), the Spanish Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (SECTCV) and the Biomedical Research Centre Network for Respiratory Diseases (CIBERES). These three entities have brought together a multidisciplinary group of experts that includes anaesthesiologists, cardiac and cardiothoracic surgeons, clinical microbiologists, infectious diseases and intensive care specialists, internal medicine doctors and radiologists. Despite the clinical and economic consequences of sternal wound infections, to date, there are no specific guidelines for the prevention, diagnosis and management of mediastinitis based on a multidisciplinary consensus. The purpose of the present document is to provide evidence-based guidance on the most effective diagnosis and management of patients who have experienced or are at risk of developing a post-surgical mediastinitis infection in order to optimise patient outcomes and the process of care. The intended users of the document are health care providers who help patients make decisions regarding their treatment, aiming to optimise the benefits and minimise any harm as well as the workload.
Association between Unhealthful Plant-Based Diets and Possible Risk of Dyslipidemia

The relationship between the various types of diets derived from plants and vulnerability of dyslipidemia has rarely been investigated, and limited data exist in Asians whose dietary pattern is fairly different from that of the Western population. We aim to analyze the relationship between three plant-based diet indices (PDI) and the risk of dyslipidemia. Participants included 173,209 Korean adults who were aged ≥40 years from the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study_Health Examination (2004–2013). A food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was used to assess dietary intake. Three PDI were quantified for the study: overall PDI, healthful PDI (hPDI), and unhealthful PDI (uPDI). Among the 147,945 included, 48,166 (32.6%) of participants had dyslipidemia. Great adherence to uPDI was related with 15% greater odds of having dyslipidemia (OR: 1.15; 95% CI: 1.11–1.20, p-trend < 0.0001). No significant association was observed between PDI, hPDI, and dyslipidemia. The association between uPDI and dyslipidemia was significantly stronger among participants aged ≥55 years when compared to participants aged <55 years (p-value for interaction = 0.001). The quality of plant foods is vital in preventing dyslipidemia among people consuming high plant-based food diets.
Culture and Social Change in Mothers’ and Fathers’ Individualism, Collectivism and Parenting Attitudes

Cultures and families are not static over time but evolve in response to social transformations, such as changing gender roles, urbanization, globalization, and technology uptake. Historically, individualism and collectivism have been widely used heuristics guiding cross-cultural comparisons, yet these orientations may evolve over time, and individuals within cultures and cultures themselves can have both individualist and collectivist orientations. Historical shifts in parents' attitudes also have occurred within families in several cultures. As a way of understanding mothers' and fathers' individualism, collectivism, and parenting attitudes at this point in history, we examined parents in nine countries that varied widely in country-level individualism rankings. Data included mothers' and fathers' reports (N = 1338 families) at three time points in China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States. More variance was accounted for by within-culture than between-culture factors for parents' individualism, collectivism, progressive parenting attitudes, and authoritarian parenting attitudes, which were predicted by a range of sociodemographic factors that were largely similar for mothers and fathers and across cultural groups. Social changes from the 20th to the 21st century may have contributed to some of the similarities between mothers and fathers and across the nine countries.
Subjective and Objective Evaluation of the Thermal Environment in a Three-Star Green Office Building in China

A post-occupancy study was carried out to investigate the thermal environment in a high-standard office building certified by China Three-star Green Building Label. The study included a subjective evaluation of the indoor environment quality and work performance. A total of 182 office workers responded to the questionnaire survey based on the Building Use Studies (BUS) Occupant Survey and Reporting Method. Objective measurements of the thermal environment (temperature and relative humidity) under mechanically and naturally ventilated conditions were also carried out in the building. Although the thermal environment satisfied the majority of respondents, 12% and 20% reported dissatisfaction with summer and winter temperatures, respectively. The complaint on summer temperature was mainly from those working close to the chilled air outlets of the air-conditioners. The perception of cold winter temperatures revealed the potential shortcomings of sustainable building design in humid subtropical climates, where natural ventilation and passive cooling would predominate in the sustainable design while cold air in winter would tend to be neglected. The purpose of this study was to investigate the reasons why green buildings succeeded or failed to meet occupants’ perception and this could have an implication in the design decisions for green building practice.
Utilizing the balanced scorecard for IT/IS performance evaluation in construction

Leading organizations do not stop at the gathering and analysis of performance data; rather, these organizations use performance measurement to stimulate improvement efforts and successfully translate strategy into action. In other words, they use performance measurement for managing their organizations. The most commonly used performance evaluation tool, the balanced scorecard (BSC) has been used extensively in the manufacturing, government, banking, retail, insurance and financial services sectors. This paper looks at potential applications and benefits of using the BSC as a framework to evaluate the performance improvement resulting from IT/IS implementation by a construction organization. The paper firstly seeks to adapt the original BSC concept to construction and then attempts to develop a performance measurement framework in the form of a tiered “Construct IT” BSC. The developed framework allows for the measurement of IT/IS performance at three different decision‐making tiers (i.e., project, business unit and enterprise tiers). At each tier, a group of performance indicators are used to describe key aspects of activities that occur frequently enough to warrant meaningful measurement and comparison. The proposed framework applies the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and multi‐attribute utility theory (MAUT) to facilitate aggregating the obtained diverse performance measurements, thus giving rise to an overall IT/IS performance improvement measure (score) at each decision‐making tier. To illustrate the application of the proposed framework, a project tier example is provided.
Selenium: An Element of Life Essential for Thyroid Function

Selenium (Se), a microelement essential for life, is critical for homeostasis of several critical functions, such as those related to immune–endocrine function and signaling transduction pathways. In particular, Se is critical for the function of the thyroid, and it is particularly abundant in this gland. Unfortunately, Se deficiency is a very common condition worldwide. Supplementation is possible, but as Se has a narrow safety level, toxic levels are close to those normally required for a correct need. Thus, whether the obtaining of optimal selenium concentration is desirable, the risk of dangerous concentrations must be equally excluded. This review addressed the contribution by environment and food intake on Se circulating levels (e.g., geographical factors, such as soil concentration and climate, and different quantities in food, such as nuts, cereals, eggs, meat and fish) and effects related to its deficiency or excess, together with the role of selenium and selenoproteins in the thyroid pathophysiology (e.g., Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and Graves’ disease).
Sleeping on Toxins? A Study of Flame Retardants in Sleep Products

Fires and fire damage result in thousands of lives lost or injured each year. The need to protect our homes and furniture from accidental fires has resulted in flammability laws that require the addition of flame retardants into everyday products. However, the very properties of the chemicals that make them so effective also make them toxic. Recently, studies show that these flame retardants have carcinogenic properties and result reproductive and neurological toxicity as well as. Studies have evaluated furniture foam and the foam of baby products but no investigations have focused on foam mattress pads and nursery school sleeping mats for their chemical content. I studied foam samples of over 50 mattress pads and 30 nursery school using particle induced X-ray emissions and gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy provided by Hope College. All of the nursery school sleeping mats and 50% of mattress pads tested positive for halogens regardless of the year of purchase and the lack of a flammability standards; but there were no significant trends by the store of purchase. An interview was also conducted with a federal official from the Consumer Product Safety Commission to better understand the reasoning for the addition of toxic flame retardants. The presence of chemicals in the products shows disconnect between the flammability standards, manufacturer practices and consumer knowledge and choice on flame-retardants. The flammability standards need to be re-evaluated and flame-retardants need further research before they are deemed safe.
Rework in Civil Infrastructure Projects: Determination of Cost Predictors

Within Australia, civil engineering works continue to meet the insatiable demand for new infrastructure despite project complexity and cost and schedule overruns. A significant factor that can contribute to such overruns is rework; yet to date research into the root causes and consequential costs of rework in civil infrastructure projects has been limited. Using a questionnaire survey, rework costs and probable causes were obtained from 115 civil infrastructure projects. Stepwise multiple regression was then used to determine the significant variables that contributed to rework. The regression model revealed that the following five significant predictors accounted for 25% of the variance in total rework cost: (1) ineffective use of information technologies; (2) excessive client involvement in the project; (3) lack of clearly defined working procedures; (4) changes made at the request of the client; and (5) insufficient changes initiated by the contractor to improve quality. The findings also revealed that.
ACE Inhibitory Peptide from Skin Collagen Hydrolysate of Takifugu bimaculatus as Potential for Protecting HUVECs Injury

Angiotensin-I-converting enzyme (ACE) is a crucial enzyme or receptor that catalyzes the generation of potent vasopressor angiotensin II (Ang II). ACE inhibitory peptides from fish showed effective ACE inhibitory activity. In this study, we reported an ACE inhibitory peptide from Takifugu bimaculatus (T. bimaculatus), which was obtained by molecular docking with acid-soluble collagen (ASC) hydrolysate of T. bimaculatus. The antihypertensive effects and potential mechanism were conducted using Ang-II-induced human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) as a model. The results showed that FNLRMQ alleviated the viability and facilitated apoptosis of Ang-II-induced HUVECs. Further research suggested that FNLRMQ may protect Ang-II-induced endothelial injury by regulating Nrf2/HO-1 and PI3K/Akt/eNOS signaling pathways. This study, herein, reveals that collagen peptide FNLRMQ could be used as a potential candidate compound for antihypertensive treatment, and could provide scientific evidence for the high-value utilization of marine resources including T. bimaculatus.
SHAKE TABLE TESTS OF REINFORCED CONCRETE BRIDGE COLUMNS THAT RE-CENTER FOLLOWING EARTHQUAKES

橋脚の変形性能を重視した最近の設計基準によるRC橋脚は，強震動による倒壊は免れるものの，地震後に大きな残留変形を生じ，その結果，橋梁としての機能を維持できず，災害救援・復旧活動に大きな支障を来す可能性が指摘されている．こうした2次被害を最小化することおよび橋脚自体の復旧性の向上を目指してRC橋脚の残留変形を低減できる構造を提案し，その地震応答特性を円形断面RC橋脚に対する振動台加震実験により評価した．この結果，アンボンドPC鋼棒を円形断面RC橋脚の断面中心に配置し，適切な緊張力を与えることで，最大応答変位，基部の損傷の程度は従来のRC構造と大差ないが，地震後の残留変位を大きく低減できることが明らかとなった．
The effects of bicycle helmet legislation on cycling-related injury: The ratio of head to arm injuries over time

Legislation for the mandatory use of bicycle helmets is a controversial issue. The analysis presented in this paper examines the ratio of cycling-related head to arm injuries using hospital admissions data in New South Wales. The analysis is based on the idea that even if the numbers of cyclists has dropped over time, the relative injury rates (head versus arm) should remain unchanged unless some factor is differentially impacting on one type of injury, for example, helmet use reducing head injuries but not affecting arm injuries. Results indicate that there was already a fall in the ratio of head to arm injuries before the mandatory helmet legislation was introduced in 1991. After the introduction of bicycle helmet legislation, there was a continued but declining reduction in the ratio of head injuries relative to arm injuries for most age groups. It is likely that factors other than the mandatory helmet legislation reduced head injuries among cyclists.
Qualitative Modeling for Bridging Expert-Knowledge and Social-Ecological Dynamics of an East African Savanna

Sub-Saharan social-ecological systems are undergoing changes in environmental conditions, including modifications in rainfall pattern and biodiversity loss. Consequences of such changes depend on complex causal chains which call for integrated management strategies whose efficiency could benefit from ecosystem dynamic modeling. However, ecosystem models often require lots of quantitative information for estimating parameters, which is often unavailable. Alternatively, qualitative modeling frameworks have proved useful for explaining ecosystem responses to perturbations, while only requiring qualitative information about social-ecological interactions and events and providing more general predictions due to their validity for wide ranges of parameter values. In this paper, we propose the Ecological Discrete-Event Network (EDEN), an innovative qualitative dynamic modeling framework based on “if-then” rules generating non-deterministic dynamics. Based on expert knowledge, observations, and literature, we use EDEN to assess the effect of permanent changes in surface water and herbivores diversity on vegetation and socio-economic transitions in an East African savanna. Results show that water availability drives changes in vegetation and socio-economic transitions, while herbivore functional groups have highly contrasted effects depending on the group. This first use of EDEN in a savanna context is promising for bridging expert knowledge and ecosystem modeling.
The Thermal Performance of Residential Electric Water Heaters Subjected to Various Off-Peak Schedules

An increasing number of utilities control the supply of power to residential water heaters as one means of reducing peak electrical demand. Water heaters operated in this manner are referred to as off-peak water heaters. Several utilities are also considering the use of solar domestic water heaters as an additional means of limiting power demand during times of greatest electrical usage. The research described within this paper quantifies the variation in thermal efficiency attributable to subjecting residential electrical water heaters to various off-peak and water removal schedules and, thus, forms a basis of comparison to which the thermal efficiency of solar water heaters or other water heating technologies may be compared. Laboratory tests, where the off-peak period and hot water draw schedule were varied, were conducted on two residential storage water heaters. A computer model of an electric water heater was developed and validated. The laboratory tests and the model were used to quantify the effect that various off-peak and hot water draw schedules have on water heater thermal efficiency. Thermal efficiency was found to vary up to seven percent for water heaters which meet the present minimum efficiency standards as specified within the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act. Themore » energy factor, as measured using the Department of Energy Test Procedure for Water Heaters, is shown to be independent of the off-peak schedule because of a ``normalizing`` that occurs as part of the calculation procedure. « less