Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Acupoint stimulation for alcohol use disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: To assess the effect of acupoint stimulation for Alcohol use disorders (AUD). Methods: AUD is a complex disease that threatens the health of the global population. Acupoint stimulation, a sort of therapy applying stimulation on acupoints to produce a therapeutic effect without side effects, has been widely used in AUD patients, but its efficacy remains controversial. Electronic databases (the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, PubMed, CNKI, VIP, Wan-Fang) were systematically searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on acupoint stimulation for AUD from database inception to September 30, 2022. A meta-analysis was performed using Review Manager 5.4 software. Continuous data (scales) were expressed as mean differences (MDs) or standardized mean difference (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Study methodological quality was assessed according to the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for trials. The grading of recommendations assessment, development and evaluation was used to assess the certainty of evidence for outcomes. Results: A total of 16 RCTs with 1097 participants were included. Compared to psychotherapy or drug therapy alone, the combination of acupoint stimulation and other sorts of therapies presented advantages in alleviating alcohol craving (SMD = –1.09, 95% CI = –1.40 to –0.77, df = 2, P < .00001, grading of recommendations assessment, development and evaluation very low certainty), (SMD = –2.25, 95% CI = –3.17 to –1.34, df = 3, P < .00001, low certainty) and the severity of alcohol withdrawal symptoms (MD = –1.21, 95% CI = –2.32 to –0.1, df = 2, P = .03, low certainty), as well as improving anxiety (MD = –3.41, 95% CI = –4.06 to –2.76, df = 4, P < .00001, very low certainty) and depression levels (MD = –3.27, 95% CI = –4.92 to –1.62, df = 4, P = .0001, very low certainty) on patients with AUD. In addition, a greater effect was also found with the 4-week treatment courses in reducing craving (SMD = –2.18, 95% CI = –2.61 to –1.75, P < .00001, low certainty). Conclusion: Acupoint stimulation and its combined therapy may better relieve AUD symptoms effectively and the treatment duration should be set at more than 2 weeks. However, due to the low-quality of the included RCTs, high-quality studies are needed to further confirm it in the future.
Longitudinal Change of Risk Factors During Treatment in High-Security Forensic Psychiatry in Flanders

Empirical studies on the longitudinal change of risk factors during treatment of forensic psychiatric patients are scarce. Therefore, in the current study, changes in risk factors of 341 high-security forensic psychiatric patients in Flanders were investigated using latent growth curve analyses. Annual assessments of the Historical Clinical Future-Revised (HKT-R) at three time points were considered, starting at time of admission. A significant small improvement was found on the future scale and most future factors. However, the clinical scale did not change significantly and only one of the 14 clinical factors (i.e., problem insight) changed significantly over time. Although the forensic treatment seems to be a slow process, the sensitivity of the HKT-R to detect clinically relevant change is questioned, underscoring the importance of determining whether there are instruments capable of detecting small significant changes over time.
Glycated albumin and post-transplant diabetes mellitus in kidney transplant recipients

Background Post-transplant diabetes mellitus is one of the most important cardiovascular risk factors after solid organ transplantation. Factors other than hyperglycaemia found in patients post-transplant, affect the level of haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), and new markers of hyperglycaemia are needed. Our aim was to establish a 95% reference interval for glycated albumin in kidney transplant recipients, and to compare glycated albumin concentrations to the diagnostic criteria for diabetes mellitus post-transplant using oral glucose tolerance test and HbA1c. Methods A total of 341 non-diabetic kidney transplant recipients aged ≥18 years who underwent an oral glucose tolerance test at 8 weeks and 1 year after transplantation were included. Glycated albumin was determined by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. Results The 95% reference interval for glycated albumin was 8.2 (90% CI: 7.2–8.5) to 12.8% (90% CI: 12.2–13.5) which is not significantly different from our laboratory’s 95% reference interval for persons without diabetes. At both 8 weeks and 1 year after transplantation, 35 patients (10.3%) fulfilled one, two or all three diagnostic criteria for diabetes mellitus. One year after transplantation, eight additional patients had glycated albumin concentration >12.8%. Conclusion Our findings are in accordance with the notion that kidney transplant recipients form glycation end products like normal controls as estimated by glycated albumin and HbA1c. Further studies should address glycated albumin as a supplemental tool for the diagnosis of post-transplant diabetes mellitus in kidney transplant recipients.
Categorical encoding of moving colors during location tracking

Categorical perception (CP) describes our tendency to perceive the visual world in a categorical manner, suggesting that high-level cognition may affect perception. While most studies are conducted in static visual scenes, Sun and colleagues found CP effects of color in multiple object tracking (MOT). This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the neural mechanism behind the categorical effects of color in MOT. Categorical effects were associated with activities in a broad range of brain regions, including both the ventral (V4, middle temporal gyrus) and dorsal pathways (MT + /V5, inferior parietal lobule) of feature processing, as well as frontal regions (middle frontal gyrus, medial superior frontal gyrus). We proposed that these regions are hierarchically organized and responsible for distinct functions. The color-selective V4 encodes color categories, making cross-category colors more discriminable than within-category colors. Meanwhile, the language and/or semantic regions encode the verbal information of the colors. Both visual and nonvisual codes of color categories then modulate the activities of motion-sensitive MT + areas and frontal areas responsible for attentional processes.
Large Sample Theory of a Modified Buckley-James Estimator for Regression Analysis with Censored Data

this approach, we introduce herein a slight modification of the Buckley-James estimator to get around the difficulties caused by the instability at the upper tail of the associated Kaplan-Meier estimate of the underlying error distribution and show that the modified BuckleyJames estimator is consistent and asymptotically normal under certain regularity conditions. A simple formula for the asymptotic variance of the modified Buckley-James estimator is also derived and is used to study the asymptotic efficiency of the estimator. Extensions of these results to the multiple regression model are also given.
Clinico‐genetic and prognostic analyses of 716 patients with primary myelodysplastic syndrome and myelodysplastic syndrome/acute myeloid leukemia based on the 2022 International Consensus Classification

The 2022 International Consensus Classification (ICC) recategorized myeloid neoplasms based on recent advances in the understanding of the biology of hematologic malignancies, in which myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) with blasts of 10%–19% is classified as MDS/acute myeloid leukemia (AML), MDS with mutated SF3B1, irrespective of the number of ring sideroblasts, as MDS‐SF3B1, and those with multi‐hit TP53 mutations as MDS with mutated TP53. In the analysis of 716 patients with MDS diagnosed according to the 2016 WHO classification, we found that 75.3% of patients remained in the MDS group based on the ICC, while 24.7% of patients were reclassified to the MDS/AML group after the exclusion of 15 patients who were classified to the AML group. Patients with MDS/AML showed a distinct mutational landscape and had poorer outcomes, compared to those with MDS. In the MDS group, patients with MDS‐SF3B1 had higher frequencies of DNMT3A and TET2 mutations than those with MDS, not otherwise specified, with single lineage dysplasia or multilineage dysplasia. Patients with mutated TP53 were associated with dismal outcomes, irrespective of the blast percentage. In conclusion, this study showed that the ICC facilitates efficient segregation and risk‐stratification of MDS which can help guide the treatment choice of patients with the disease.
High quantum efficiency luminescence from a conducting polymer in solution: A novel polymer laser dye

A novel dye laser based on the soluble conducting polymer poly[2‐methoxy, 5‐(2’ ethyl‐hexyloxy)‐p‐phenylenevinylene], MEH‐PPV, has been demonstrated. Laser action has been tested in a transverse cavity configuration where the conducting polymer laser was pumped by light pulses generated from the second harmonic radiation of a Q‐switched Nd:YAG laser. The performance of MEH‐PPV in solution as a laser dye was compared to that of rhodamine 6G in solution under identical conditions. The results indicate that the quantum yield of MEH‐PPV laser is comparable to that of rhodamine 6G.
Suppression of circular Bragg phenomenon in chiral sculptured thin films produced with simultaneous rocking and rotation of substrate during serial bideposition

Chiral sculptured thin films (STFs) produced by substrate rotation during physical vapor deposition exhibit the circular Bragg phenomenon, whereby normally incident left- and right-circularly polarized plane waves are discriminated in a spectral regime called the circular Bragg regime. Theory had predicted that substrate rocking, in synchrony with substrate rotation, during deposition, could suppress the propensity to exhibit the circular Bragg phenomenon. Therefore, ZnSe chiral STFs were fabricated with/without substrate rocking, and their transmittance spectrums for incident linearly and circularly polarized plane waves were measured. With sufficient rocking amplitude, the discrimination between incident left- and right-circularly polarized light nearly vanished, whereas a Bragg phenomenon for all normally incident plane waves was observed. Thus, chiral STF technology can be used to produce both ordinary and circular-polarization Bragg filters.
Discrete-Time LPV Controller Synthesis Using Dilated LMIs with Application to an Arm-Driven Inverted Pendulum

Abstract This paper considers the synthesis of linear parameter-varying controllers based on dilated linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). It is an extension of robust output feedback dynamic controller synthesis based on dilated LMIs. The parameters are assumed to vary inside a convex polytope. Introducing a slack variable allows the separation between system matrices and a Lyapunov matrix and enables the use of a parameter-dependent Lyapunov function. The linear parameter-varying controller obtained by the proposed method does not require a bound on the rate of change of variation of the scheduling parameters in real time, which make the linear parameter-varying controller synthesis approach more practical. The main idea is to have a simple less conservative method based on a parameter-dependent Lyapunov function so that to apply it experimentally. The efficiency of the method is illustrated with experimental results on an Arm- Driven Inverted Pendulum.
Naphthoquinones biflorin and bis-biflorin (Capraria biflora) as possible inhibitors of the fungus Candida auris polymerase: molecular docking, molecular dynamics, MM/GBSA calculations and in silico drug-likeness study

Abstract A new worldwide concern has emerged with the recent emergence of infections caused by Candida auris. This reflects its comparative ease of transmission, substantial mortality, and the increasing level of resistance seen in the three major classes of antifungal drugs. Efforts to create a better design for structure-based drugs that described numerous modifications and the search for secondary metabolic structures derived from plant species are likely to reduce the virulence of several fungal pathogens. In this context, the present work aimed to evaluate in silico two naphthoquinones isolated from the roots of Capraria biflora, biflorin, and its dimmer, bis-biflorin, as potential inhibitors of Candida auris polymerase. Based on the simulation performed with the two naphthoquinones, biflorin and bis-biflorin, it can be stated that bis-biflorin showed the best interactions with Candida auris polymerase. Still, biflorin also demonstrated favorable coupling energy. Predictive pharmacokinetic assays suggest that biflorin has high oral bioavailability and more excellent metabolic stability compared to the bis-biflorin analogue. constituting a promising pharmacological tool. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma
Diagnosis of Convective and Mesoscale Motions During Phase IH of Gate.

Abstract Observational evidence from GATE suggests that a significant fraction of precipitation in tropical disturbances over the eastern Atlantic occurs beneath anvil-type mesoscale convective systems that are frequently associated with intense cumulonimbus convection. A diagnostic model is developed that includes heat, moisture and mass transports by both the convective-scale and mesoscale components of these systems. An entraining plume model is used for individual convective-scale elements yielding a spectral distribution of cumulus sizes. Mesoscale downdrafts are modeled using a bulk cloud model. A parameterization links properties of the mesoscale systems to those of associated deep convective-scale (cumulonimbus) clouds. A method based on a subjective comparison of model results to observed cloud cover is used to determine mesoscale downdraft areas in relation to cumulonimbus areas. For this reason only qualitative results derived from application of the theory can be considered reliable. The model.
Vibration analysis of stepped rectangular plates using the extended Kantorovich method

ABSTRACT In this study, vibration behaviors of stepped plates are investigated based on the variational principle of minimum total energy and the extended Kantorovich method. The out-of-plane displacement is represented by a separable function of parameters x and y. A set of governing equations, boundary conditions, and continuity conditions in the form of ordinary differential equations are derived from the energy condition. The natural frequency and out-of-plane displacement function can be determined numerically from the derived equations and conditions. Solutions from the proposed approach are in good agreement with results from past studies and those of the finite element method.
Parallelism between hypovitaminosis D3 and recently detected myopia in children with amplified screen use in the COVID-19 era—A preliminary study

Purpose: This introductory study aims to analyze the association of serum vitamin D3 levels with recently detected myopia in Indian children following home confinement post-COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Children aged 5–15 years who had not attended physical school in the past 1 year and visited the ophthalmology department with various ocular symptoms were divided into two groups: the myopic group with recently detected myopia and the non-myopic group with ocular ailments other than myopia. All children underwent basic ophthalmic evaluation and a general physical examination. Blood samples were collected for serum vitamin D3 levels. A pretested questionnaire inquiring about the duration of exposure to a digital screen, outdoor activities, and socioeconomic status was filled out for all children. Results: The mean serum vitamin D3 level in the myopic group was 28.17 ± 15.02 ng/dl in comparison to 45.36 ± 17.56 ng/dl in the non-myopic group (P value < 0.05). Linear regression of the data establishes that myopia is associated with hypovitaminosis D3 (OR- 13.12, 95% CI 2.90–50.32, a P value of 0.001). The correlation between spherical equivalent and vitamin D3 levels was significant (Pearson correlation value: 0.661). In the myopic group, 63.3% of children had screen use >6 hours against 43.3% of children in the non-myopic group. In the myopic group, 33.3% of the children had an outdoor activity duration of <2 hours against 6.6% of children in the non-myopic group. Conclusion: This study proposes hypovitaminosis D3 as a strong factor associated with the development of myopia in children. Although it is a preliminary study, it suggests that the trial for vitamin D3 supplementation in young children to delay or cease the development of myopia is warranted.
Design Considerations for an Exergame-Based Training Intervention for Older Adults With Mild Neurocognitive Disorder: Qualitative Study Including Focus Groups With Experts and Health Care Professionals and Individual Semistructured In-depth Patient Interviews

Background Exergames have attracted growing interest in the prevention and treatment of neurocognitive disorders. The most effective exergame and training components (ie, exercise and training variables such as frequency, intensity, duration, or volume of training and type and content of specific exergame scenarios) however remain to be established for older adults with mild neurocognitive disorders (mNCDs). Regarding the design and development of novel exergame-based training concepts, it seems of crucial importance to explicitly include the intended users’ perspective by adopting an interactive and participatory design that includes end users throughout different iterative cycles of development. Objective This study aimed to determine the capabilities, treatment preferences, and motivators for the training of older adults with mNCD and the perspectives of individuals on training goals and settings and requirements for exergame and training components. Methods A qualitative study including expert focus groups and individual semistructured in-depth patient interviews was conducted. Data were transcribed to a written format to perform qualitative content analysis using QCAmap software. Results In total, 10 experts and health care professionals (80% females) and 8 older adults with mNCD (38% females; mean age 82.4, SD 6.2 years) were recruited until data saturation was observed. Conclusions The psychosocial consequences of patients’ self-perceived cognitive deterioration might be more burdensome than the cognitive changes themselves. Older adults with mNCD prefer integrative forms of training (such as exergaming) and are primarily motivated by enjoyment or fun in exercising and the effectiveness of the training. Putting the synthesized perspectives of training goals, settings, and requirements for exergames and training components into context, our considerations point to opportunities for improvement in research and rehabilitation, either by adapting existing exergames to patients with mNCDs or by developing novel exergames and exergame-based training concepts specifically tailored to meet patient requirements and needs.
Climate variability in Scandinavia for the past millennium simulated by an atmosphere-ocean general circulation model

ABSTRACT The atmosphere-ocean model ECHO-G, run with solar, volcanic and greenhouse gas forcing for the past millennium, is used to analyse winter and summer temperature variability in Scandinavia. Relationships with atmospheric circulation, North Atlantic SSTs and Northern Hemisphere (NH) temperatures are investigated at timescales longer and shorter than 10 yr. The simulated response to volcanic forcing is also analysed. Realistic relationships with the atmospheric circulation, with some deficiencies in summer, are found. High-frequency co-variations with SSTs and NH temperatures are too weak, but low-frequency co-variations with NH temperatures in winter are apparently too strong. The summer cooling response to volcanic forcing is realistic, but the expected winter warming is absent. The simulated long-term temperature evolution agrees broadly with proxy data. Combinations of several forcing factors can lead to decadal and multidecadal anomalies from the centennial trends. Decreased solar forcing can account for cold intervals in both summer and winter. A systematic negative North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) phase can explain the coldest winter temperatures during 1590–1650. Several strong volcanic forcing events can have contributed to a simultaneous summer cooling. Proxy data also indicate cold summers and winters, and a negative NAO in winter, in the same period.
The High-Resolution X-Ray Spectrum of MR 2251–178 Obtained with the Chandra HETGS

The QSO MR 2251-178 was observed with the Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer (HETGS) at a 2-10 keV luminosity of 2.41 × 1044 ergs s-1 (using H0 = 72 km s-1 Mpc-1). We observe the source in a relatively low state. The light curve shows no evidence of variability. We present the zero-order image of MR 2251-178 and compare it to previous observations. We find evidence of a highly ionized, high-velocity outflow, which we detect in a resolved Fe XXVI Lyα absorption line. The outflow appears to have a large mass and kinetic energy flux compared to the estimated nuclear accretion rate and luminosity. We examine the possibility that other absorption features in the spectrum are associated with the high-velocity outflow. We detect a narrow Fe Kα line and resolved forbidden line emission from Ne IX and O VII. Modeling the emitting material enables us to constrain its properties and conclude that it is not along our line of sight.
CdSe quantum dot-dispersed DOBAMBC: an electro-optical study

Cadmium selenide quantum dot (CdSe QD) has been used as a dopant in ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) 2-methylbutyl 4-(4-decyloxybenzylideneamino) cinnamate (DOBAMBC). Effect of CdSe QD in DOBAMBC on its different electro-optical (E-O) properties has been studied in the SmC* phase. The optical micrographs recorded for the pure and composite material are showing good dispersion of QDs in the FLC matrix. Micrographs of unaligned sample cell revealed that CdSe QDs induce homeotropic alignment of FLC molecules. An appreciable change in the value of E-O parameters like tilt angle, spontaneous polarisation and response time with shifting of SmA–SmC* phase transition temperature has been observed for CdSe QD–DOBAMBC composite. The observed properties of composite system have been discussed on the basis of surface properties of QDs in FLC system.