Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to Compare Cortical Excitability Among Depressed Patients, Sleep-Deprived Controls, and Rested Controls

OBJECTIVE: To compare cortical excitability among sleep-deprived and rested controls, and depressed subjects. METHODS: 3 controls and 4 depressed patients (average HAM-D 19) were recruited. Sleep-deprived controls were instructed to sleep <=4 hours the previous night. TMS-produced motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were measured before and after subjects engaged in sets of non-fatiguing manual exercise. RESULTS: Post-exercise MEP increased 71+1-19% for rested controls, 28+1-32% for sleep deprived controls, and 8+1-15% for depressed patients. This increase, "facilitation," was significantly greater in rested controls than in depressed patients (p=0.011). No significant difference in facilitation was found between sleep-deprived controls and depressed patients. CONCLUSION: Sleep-deprivation may partially account for reduced cortical excitability in depressed patients.
LOW FREQUENCY SHALLOW WATER INTERNAL WAVES AT PANAMA CITY, FLORIDA

Abstract : From cross-spectral analysis it was concluded that free, low- frequency, internal waves were present during a three-day survey at Panama City, Florida. The data were contaminated by incoherent noise due to turbulence. Data were found to satisfy the characteristic equation from internal wave theory. Other evidence is significant coherence between thermal fluctuations at mid-depth and current direction fluctuations at the bottom, implying shallow- water internal waves.
Academic Stress in University Students: The Role of Physical Exercise and Nutrition

The university experience can cause academic stress that, in turn, can lead to comorbidities. Students increasingly face demands and challenges that require a large amount of physical and psychological resources. These circumstances can make them experience physical and mental fatigue, lower their interest in studying, and even lead them to lose control over their academic performance and health. The objective of this work is to determine the relationship between the practice of physical exercise, eating patterns, and academic stress among university students. A questionnaire was administered to 742 students using non-probabilistic sampling. The mean age was 21.24 (DT = 3.8), and 20.1% were men and 79.4% were women. To identify academic stress, the Stress Manifestation Scale of the Students Stress Inventory (SSI) subscale was used; the Mediterranean Diet Score was applied for eating patterns, and the practice of exercise was measured by weekly hours of exercise. The results show that there is a relationship between academic stress and physical exercise, but not with adherence to the Mediterranean Diet. However, there is a relationship between the consumption of “unhealthy” foods exceeding the recommendations for the Spanish population and academic stress. In short, physical activity and diet are variables that are related to psychological well-being. Therefore, they should constitute the backbone of actions designed by university managers to eliminate or reduce stress suffered by students. Finally, the work demonstrates the need to create new scales that consider not only the foods that help alleviate stress but also their portions.
Community Soil Resources Management for Sub-Saharan West Africa: Case Study of the Gourma Region in Burkina Faso

A study on community soil fertility management concepts and practices was conducted through rapid and participatory method of research in 15 villages of the Gourma region in Eastern part of Burkina Faso. These investigations aimed at determining farmers' knowledge on soil resources: local soil taxonomy and indicators of soil degradation, soil fertility management practices, and capacity for adoption of new technologies in soil fertility management. The results of the study showed that the main parameter for soil classification for all the investigated villages was soil texture composition; soil degradation was evaluated according to crops yield decrease and the development Striga sp. in 100% of the investigated villages; the use of organic manure and long term fellow were the main practices for soil fertility management; concerning the villages where modern technologies of soil fertility management were introduced, the lack of tools and capacity building were the main limiting factors of the adoption of these improved practices at small scale farmers' level. Even if discordance between scientific and local soil taxonomy were revealed by our investigations; significant similarities between indigenous and scientific indices of soil degradation were noticed. With regard to the actual magnitude of soil degradation; the local techniques of soil fertility management need to be improved and accessible to a big number of farmers.
Pretreatment of Mesenchymal Stem Cells with Electrical Stimulation as a Strategy to Improve Bone Tissue Engineering Outcomes

Electrical stimulation (EStim), whether used alone or in combination with bone tissue engineering (BTE) approaches, has been shown to promote bone healing. In our previous in vitro studies, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were exposed to EStim and a sustained, long-lasting increase in osteogenic activity was observed. Based on these findings, we hypothesized that pretreating MSC with EStim, in 2D or 3D cultures, before using them to treat large bone defects would improve BTE treatments. Critical size femur defects were created in 120 Sprague–Dawley rats and treated with scaffold granules seeded with MSCs that were pre-exposed or not (control group) to EStim 1 h/day for 7 days in 2D (MSCs alone) or 3D culture (MSCs + scaffolds). Bone healing was assessed at 1, 4, and 8 weeks post-surgery. In all groups, the percentage of new bone increased, while fibrous tissue and CD68+ cell count decreased over time. However, these and other healing features, like mineral density, bending stiffness, the amount of new bone and cartilage, and the gene expression of osteogenic markers, did not significantly differ between groups. Based on these findings, it appears that the bone healing environment could counteract the long-term, pro-osteogenic effects of EStim seen in our in vitro studies. Thus, EStim seems to be more effective when administered directly and continuously at the defect site during bone healing, as indicated by our previous studies.
An Intelligent Head Posture Recognition Pillow

The position and posture of the head during sleep can reflect the quality of sleep and overall health. As an important component of bedding that supports the head during sleep, pillows have gained attention from researchers due to their potential to monitor head posture through a variety of sensing means. This paper proposes a non-wearable sleep posture recognition system based on microphones and speakers integrated into the pillow. Two speakers and four microphones are utilized as sound sources and receivers to identify the position and posture of the human head on the pillow. To monitor posture, the pillow is divided into five areas to detect positions related to supine and lateral positions. Due to the pressure exerted by the head on the pillow, the inner latex material of the pillow will be deformed. At the same time, the microphones will be squeezed, changing the characteristics of the sound received. After analyzing the features of the collected data, fully connected neural network is used for classification. The position and posture of the human head on the pillow corresponding to the sound fragment can be predicted by the similarity measurement calculated from the features. The method achieves a posture recognition accuracy of 91.1% and a position recognition accuracy of 98.3%. In conclusion, this study creatively demonstrates the feasibility of identifying the position and posture of the human head on the pillow using speakers integrated into the pillow as a sound source. This method can be combined with hypnotic music in practical applications, making it highly promising in relieving insomnia and improving sleep quality.
Discussion Papers in Economics

This paper proposes a new strategy for the identification of monetary policy shocks in structural vector autoregressions (SVARs). It combines traditional sign restrictions with external variable constraints on high-frequency monetary surprises and central bank’s macroeconomic projections. I use it to characterize the transmission of US monetary policy over the period 1965-2007. First, I find that contractionary monetary policy shocks unequivocally decrease output, sharpening the ambiguous implications of standard sign-restricted SVARs. Second, I show that the identified structural models are consistent with narrative sign restrictions and restrictions on the monetary policy equation. On the contrary, the shocks identified through these alternative methodologies turn out to be correlated with the information set of the central bank and to weakly comove with monetary surprises. Finally, I implement an algorithm for robust Bayesian inference in set-identified SVARs, providing further evidence in support of my identification strategy
Positive Affectivity Influences Subjective Age and Daily Moving in Older Adults

Subjective age, positive and negative affect are individually linked to physical activity but have not been measured at the same time. The combination of high and low levels of positive affectivity (PA) and negative affectivity (NA) forming either congruent or differentiated affectivity profiles, is also under researched. This cross-sectional study examined subjective age and the combined effect of positive and negative affectivity on physical activity in 34 older adults (age 70 ± 4 years, 50% female). Exploratory regression analyses revealed significant associations between the differentiated affectivity profile, PA ascendency (where positive affectivity was higher than negative affectivity), and daily moving. Positive affectivity was consistently related to physical activity measures where subjective age and negative affectivity were not. PA ascendency predicted subjective age. Older adults with a differentiated affectivity profile felt younger than their chronological age and moved more during each day. Focusing on combined affectivity profiles and promoting positive affectivity may be a promising strategy for increasing physical activity in older adults. Future research replicating this approach with larger sample sizes is advocated.
Protective Effects of Pituitary Adenylate-Cyclase-Activating Polypeptide on Retinal Vasculature and Molecular Responses in a Rat Model of Moderate Glaucoma

Despite the high probability of glaucoma-related blindness, its cause is not fully understood and there is no efficient therapeutic strategy for neuroprotection. Vascular factors have been suggested to play an important role in glaucoma development and progression. Previously, we have proven the neuroprotective effects of pituitary adenylate-cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) eye drops in an inducible, microbeads model in rats that is able to reproduce many clinically relevant features of human glaucoma. In the present study, we examined the potential protective effects of PACAP1-38 on the retinal vasculature and the molecular changes in hypoxia. Ocular hypertension was induced by injection of microbeads into the anterior chamber, while control rats received PBS. PACAP dissolved in vehicle (1 µg/drop) or vehicle treatment was started one day after the injections for four weeks three times a day. Retinal degeneration was assessed with optical coherence tomography (OCT), and vascular and molecular changes were assessed by immunofluorescence labeling. HIF1-α and VEGF-A protein levels were measured by Western blot. OCT images proved severe retinal degeneration in the glaucomatous group, while PACAP1-38 eye drops had a retinoprotective effect. Vascular parameters were deteriorated and molecular analysis suggested hypoxic conditions in glaucoma. PACAP treatment exerted a positive effect against these alterations. In summary, PACAP could prevent the severe damage to the retina and its vasculature induced by ocular hypertension in a microbeads model.
A computational and experimental investigation into the effects of debris on an inverted double wing in ground effect

Cars in several motor sports series, such as Formula 1, make use of multi-element front wings to provide downforce. These wings also provide onset flows to other surfaces that generate downforce. These elements are highly loaded to maximise their performance and are generally operating close to stall. Rubber debris, often known as marbles, created from the high slip experienced by the soft compound tyres can become lodged in the multiple elements of a front wing. This will lead to a reduction in the effectiveness of the wing over the course of a race. This work will study the effect of such debris, both experimentally and numerically, on an inverted double element wing in ground effect at representative Reynolds numbers. The wing was mounted at two different ride heights above a fixed false-floor in the Loughborough University wind tunnel and the effect of debris blockage modelled by closing sections of the gap between elements with tape. The reduction in downforce compared to the clean wing was measured and the sensitivity to the size and position of the blockage studied. It was found that debris near the centre of the element has a greater impact. CFD simulations were also carried out that were able to correctly predict the trend of downforce with blockage position. The CFD was also used to computationally remove the effects of the tunnel. This confirmed the result seen in experiment that the blockage has more effect on a more highly loaded wing.
MOF Template-Derived Carbon Shell-Embedded CoP Hierarchical Nanosheet as Bifunctional Catalyst for Overall Water Splitting

The design of earth-abundant and highly efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution and oxygen evolution reactions (HER/OER) is crucial for hydrogen production through overall water splitting. Herein, we report a novel nanostructure consisting of vertically oriented CoP hierarchical nanosheet arrays with in situ-assembled carbon skeletons on a Ti foil electrode. The novel Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework-67 (ZIF-67) template-derived hierarchical nanosheet architecture effectively improved electrical conductivity, facilitated electrolyte transport, and increased the exposure of the active sites. The obtained bifunctional hybrid exhibited a low overpotential of 72 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and a small Tafel slope of 65 mV dec−1 for HER, and an improved overpotential of 329 mV and a Tafel slope of 107 mV dec−1 for OER. Furthermore, the assembled C@CoP||C@CoP electrolyzer showed excellent overall water splitting performance (1.63 V) at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 and superior durability. This work provides a structure engineering strategy for metal–organic framework (MOF) template-derived hybrids with outstanding electrocatalytic performance.
Immigration of Lygus spp. (Hemiptera: Miridae) and predaceous natural enemies to trap-cropped organic strawberry

Lygus spp. are polyphagous pests that overwinter in weedy vegetation. In the spring on the central coast of California, Lygus spp. emigrate from weeds into strawberry fields. Subsequent feeding on strawberry flowers causes fruit deformation that precludes sale on the fresh market. Use of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) (Fabales: Fabaceae) as a trap crop has been hypothesized to prevent Lygus spp. colonization in strawberries. We examined the movement of Lygus spp. and associated predators from weeds to strawberry fields with alfalfa trap crops using a protein mark–capture technique. Insects and spiders were collected from weeds, strawberry, and alfalfa 1 day, 2 days, and ∼2 wk after an albumin protein mark was applied to weeds bordering strawberry fields. For marked Lygus spp. that emigrated from weeds, the majority (79%) of adults were recovered from alfalfa trap crops; however, all nymphs immigrated to strawberry. Most protein-marked predators immigrated to strawberry, rather than trap crops, resulting in a marked predator-to-Lygus spp. ratio of 5:1. Trap cropping effectively reduced the colonization of Lygus adults in strawberry. Converting weedy areas to native perennial plantings could further mitigate the risk of pest migration, while simultaneously conserving beneficial insects.
Mild Heat Treatment and Biopreservatives for Artisanal Raw Milk Cheeses: Reducing Microbial Spoilage and Extending Shelf-Life through Thermisation, Plant Extracts and Lactic Acid Bacteria

The microbial quality of raw milk artisanal cheeses is not always guaranteed due to the possible presence of pathogens in raw milk that can survive during manufacture and maturation. In this work, an overview of the existing information concerning lactic acid bacteria and plant extracts as antimicrobial agents is provided, as well as thermisation as a strategy to avoid pasteurisation and its negative impact on the sensory characteristics of artisanal cheeses. The mechanisms of antimicrobial action, advantages, limitations and, when applicable, relevant commercial applications are discussed. Plant extracts and lactic acid bacteria appear to be effective approaches to reduce microbial contamination in artisanal raw milk cheeses as a result of their constituents (for example, phenolic compounds in plant extracts), production of antimicrobial substances (such as organic acids and bacteriocins, in the case of lactic acid bacteria), or other mechanisms and their combinations. Thermisation was also confirmed as an effective heat inactivation strategy, causing the impairment of cellular structures and functions. This review also provides insight into the potential constraints of each of the approaches, hence pointing towards the direction of future research.
Multiple Factors Influence the Incubation Period of ALS Prion-like Transmission in SOD1 Transgenic Mice

Mutations in superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) that are associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) cause its misfolding and aggregation. Prior studies have demonstrated that the misfolded conformation of ALS-SOD1 can template with naïve SOD1 “host proteins” to propagate, spread, and induce paralysis in SOD1 transgenic mice. These observations have advanced the argument that SOD1 is a host protein for an ALS conformer that is prion-like and experimentally transmissible. Here, we investigated the propagation of different isolates of G93A-SOD1 ALS conformers using a paradigm involving transmission to mice expressing human G85R-SOD1 fused to yellow fluorescent protein (G85R-SOD1:YFP). In these studies, we also utilized a newly developed line of mice in which the G85R-SOD1:YFP construct was flanked by loxp sites, allowing its temporal and spatial regulation. We used methods in which the G93A ALS conformers were injected into the sciatic nerve or hindlimb muscle of adult transgenic mice. We observed that the incubation period to paralysis varied significantly depending upon the source of inoculum containing misfolded G93A SOD1. Serial passage and selection produced stable isolates of G93A ALS conformers that exhibited a defined minimum incubation period of ~2.5 months when injected into the sciatic nerve of young adult mice. As expected, neuronal excision of the transgene in loxpG85R-SOD1:YFP mice blocked induction of paralysis by transmission of G93A ALS conformers. Our findings indicate that G93A ALS conformers capable of inducing disease require neuronal expression of a receptive host SOD1 protein for propagation, with a defined incubation period to paralysis.
Effects of pregnancy on electrocardiographic, vasovagal tonus index, and echocardiographic variables in horses

Background and Aim: Pregnancy affects maternal hemodynamics. The changes in autonomic nervous system activity for hemodynamics adaptation in pregnant horses are still unclear. Thus, this study aimed to examine the effect of pregnancy on electrocardiographic, vasovagal tonus index, and echocardiographic variables in horses. Materials and Methods: A total of 23 Thai native crossbred mares without any cardiac abnormalities were included in this study. The animals were assigned into two groups, a non-pregnant mare group (n =12) and a pregnant mare group (n = 11). Electrocardiogram recordings (paper speed = 25 mm/s and calibration = 10 mm/mV) were performed to obtain six limb leads (leads I, II, III, aVR, aVL, and aVF). The vasovagal tonus index (VVTI) was calculated to assess variability in heart rate over short periods using just 20 consecutive beats. Cardiac structure and function were evaluated by echocardiography. Results: Heart rate, P wave duration, PR interval, QRS duration, QT interval, and T wave duration were significantly different between non-pregnant and pregnant horses (p < 0.05). Pregnant horses had significantly lower VVTI than non-pregnant (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences in cardiac structures including % interventricular septum (IVS), % left ventricular posterior wall (LVPW), IVS in diastole, left ventricular internal diameter at end-diastole, LVPW thickness at end-diastole, IVS in systole, left ventricular internal diameter at end-systole, LVPW thickness at end-systole, and left atrium/aortic roots ratio between the two groups. However, the pregnant horses had a significantly higher cardiac output and % ejection fraction than non-pregnant horses (p < 0.05). Conclusion: This study provided the first evidence that hemodynamic adaptations during pregnancy modified cardiac conduction, vasovagal tonus index, and echocardiographic variables in horses.