Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metabolic Syndrome and Functional Fitness Abilities

Background: It has been pointed out that moderate to vigorous exercise improves metabolic syndrome (MetS) criteria; however, studies on functional fitness in subjects with MetS are scarce. Aim: This study aimed to assess functional fitness abilities in MetS and non-MetS subjects. Methods: Cross-sectional study. Participants living in the Balearic Islands (n = 477, 52% men, 55–80 years old) with MetS (n = 333) and without MetS (n = 144). Anthropometric, socioeconomic and lifestyle characteristics were measured, and blood samples were collected. Functional fitness tests included: one leg balance, standing and sitting handgrip, 30-s chair stand, arm curl, chair sit-and-reach, back scratch, 8-foot time up-and-go, 30-m walk, and 6-min walk tests. A Functional Fitness Score was created from tests that measured agility and dynamic balance, static balance, lower-and-upper body strength, lower-and-upper body flexibility, aerobic endurance, and speed. Results: All functional fitness tests were lower in MetS subjects, except for back scratch and standing handgrip test. After adjusting for possible confounders (sex, age, civil status, education level, leisure-time physical activity) MetS subjects were more likely to be below average for a sex and age specific cut-off value of one leg balance (Odds Ratio, OR: 2.37; 95% Confidence Interval, CI: 1.25–4.48), chair stand (OR: 2.30; 95% CI: 1.26–3.20), arm curl (OR: 3.43; 95% CI:1.90–6.26), back scratch (OR: 3.49; 95% CI: 2.31–5.91), 8-foot up-&-go (OR: 13.03; 95% CI: 6.66–25.55), 30-m walk (OR: 8.10; 95% CI: 4.33–15.57) and 6-min walk test (OR: 3.28; 95% CI: 1.76–6.52), whereas they were more likely to be above average for sitting handgrip test (OR:1.69; 95% CI:1.21–2.95). Functional Fitness Score was lower in MetS subjects (5.44 ± 2.40 vs. 7.04 ± 1.72, p < 0.001), independently of sex and age. Conclusion: MetS participants showed lower functional fitness abilities and lower Functional Fitness Score than non-MetS peers, independently of sex, age, body mass index and waist circumference, showing lower ability to perform everyday activities safely and independently.
Rate of Recovery of Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction in a Real-World Population of Patients Receiving a Wearable Cardioverter Defibrillator

Background This study aimed to investigate the rate of early improvement in ejection fraction (EF) within 21 - 60 days among patients with cardiomyopathy who were provided with a wearable cardioverter defibrillator (WCD). Methods This was a retrospective study of patients who received a WCD at our institution to determine the rate of improvement in left ventricular EF (LVEF) to ≥ 35-40%. Among 990 patients who received a WCD during the study period, 101 had an echocardiogram performed during the subsequent 21 - 60 days. Patients were stratified according to their initial EF, as well as age, gender, number of heart failure medications, and ischemic vs. nonischemic cardiomyopathy. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the influence of these variables on the subsequent improvement in EF. Results There were 39 patients who had improvement in their EF to ≥ 35-40%. The only significant predictor of EF recovery was the initial EF. There was a direct correlation between initial EF category and the likelihood of improvement in EF. For every unit increase in initial EF category, the odds of improvement increased 1.73 times (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.22 - 2.45). Age (P = 0.20), gender (P = 0.10), ischemic cardiomyopathy (P = 0.40), and number of heart failure medications at the time of WCD placement (P = 0.26) were not significant predictors of improved LVEF. Conclusions This study showed a rate of improvement in EF to ≥ 35-40% of 39% within 21 - 60 days of placement of a WCD among patients with both ischemic and nonischemic cardiomyopathy. The only significant clinical predictor of EF improvement was initial EF.
Automatic Recognition by Gait Recognizing people by the way they walk promises to be useful for identifying individuals from a distance; improved techniques are under development.

Recognizing people by gait has a unique advantage over other biometrics: it has potential for use at a distance when other biometrics might be at too low a resolution, or might be obscured. The current state of the art can achieve over 90% identification rate under situations where the training and test data are captured under similar conditions, while recognition rates with change of clothing, shoe, surface, illumination, and pose usually decrease perfor- mance and are the subject of much of the current study. Recognition can be achieved on outdoor data with uncon- trolled illumination and at a distance when other biometrics could not be used. We shall show how this position has been achieved, covering most approaches to recognition by gait and the databases on which performance has been evaluated. We shall describe the context of these approaches, show how recognition by gait can be achieved and how current limits on performance are understood. We shall describe results on the most popular database, showing how recognition can handle some of the covariates that can affect recognition. We shall also investigate the supporting literature for this research, since the notion that people can be recognized by gait has support not only in medicine and biomedicine, and also in literature and psychology and other areas. In this way, we shall show that this new biometric has capability and research and application potential in other domains.
Dynamics of Energy Metabolism in Carbon Starvation-Induced Fruitlet Abscission in Litchi

Fruit abscission is triggered by multiple changes in endogenous components of the fruit, including energy metabolism. However, it is still unknown how the core energy metabolism pathways are modified during fruit abscission. Here, we investigated the relationship between carbon starvation-induced fruitlet abscission and energy metabolism changes in litchi. The fruitlet abscission of litchi ‘Feizixiao’ was induced sharply by girdling plus defoliation (GPD), a carbon stress treatment. Using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) targeted metabolomics analysis, we identified a total of 21 metabolites involved in glycolysis, TCA cycle and oxidative phosphorylation pathways. Among them, the content of most metabolites in glycolysis pathways and TCA cycles was reduced, and the activity of corresponding metabolic enzymes such as ATP-dependent phosphofructokinase (ATP-PFK), pyruvate kinase (PK), citrate synthase (CS), succinate thiokinase (SAT), and NAD-dependent malate dehydrogenase (NAD-MDH) was decreased. Consistently, we further showed that the expression of the relative genes (LcPFK2, LcPK2, LcPK4, LcCS1, LcCS2, LcSAT, LcMDH1 and LcMDH2) was also significantly down-regulated. In contrast, the level of ATP, an important metabolite in the oxidative phosphorylation pathway, was elevated in parallel with both higher activity of H+-ATPase and the increased expression level of LcH+-ATPase1. In conclusion, our findings suggest that carbon starvation can induce fruitlet abscission in litchi probably by energy depletion that mediated through both the suppression of the glycolysis pathway and TCA cycle and the enhancement of the oxidative phosphorylation pathway.
Generative Adversarial Networks with Attention Mechanisms at Every Scale

Existing works in image synthesis have shown the efficiency of applying attention mechanisms in generating natural-looking images. Despite the great informativeness, current works utilize such mechanisms at a certain scale of generative and discriminative networks. Intuitively, the increased use of attention should lead to a better performance. However, due to memory constraints, even moving a single attention mechanism to a higher scale of the network is infeasible. Motivated by the importance of attention in image generation, we tackle this limitation by proposing a generative adversarial network-based framework that readily incorporates attention mechanisms at every scale of its networks. A straightforward structure of attention mechanism enables direct plugging in a scale-wise manner and trains jointly with adversarial networks. As a result, networks are forced to focus on relevant regions of feature maps learned at every scale, thus improving their own image representation power. In addition, we exploit and show the usage of multiscale attention features as a complementary feature set in discriminator training. We demonstrate qualitatively and quantitatively that the introduction of scale-wise attention mechanisms benefits competitive networks, thus improving the performance compared with those of current works.
Leaders and champions for construction innovation

Based on empirical studies of the role of key individuals in the processes of ten successful innovations in the US construction industry, this paper makes three principal arguments. First, effective leadership is essential for technological innovation - in particular in construction. Second, technological competence is an utmost prerequisite for effective leadership for construction innovation - regardless of the size of the firm. In other words, an entrepreneurial role as a technical champion in a small firm does not change even as the firm grows. Lastly, the role of technical champion can be delegated only with slack resources and adequate power. This paper also highlights conclusions and practical applications to increase technological innovation in design and construction firms.
Performance analysis on a navigation method of multiple AUVs for wide area survey

A navigation method of multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) is proposed in this paper, and a performance analysis on position estimation for a wide area survey is given. Alternating roles of the AUVs between Moving and Measuring Role (MMR) and Landmark Role (LR) is the key idea of the proposed method. AUVs in the MMR move based on the AUVs in the LR, while AUVs in the LR keep their positions on the seabed to act as landmarks for the moving AUVs. The two groups of AUVs can observe in a wide area, while maintaining a good position estimate, by alternating their roles. AUV position is estimated by mutual acoustic measurements of relative distance among AUVs and direction among them. In order to achieve a robust position estimate against sensor noises and lack of measurements, these position measurements are fused with other on-board sensors such as Doppler velocity logger (DVL), fiber optic gyro (FOG) and depth sensor by particle filter. The performance of the method was verified through navigation simulation based on the performance of sensors obtained during various experiments performed in a pool environment and at sea. In the simulation, the proposed method achieved a positioning error considerably smaller than dead reckoning and conventional navigation methods of a single AUV. Each AUV also achieved state estimation in the proposed method, suppressing deviation from its true position and heading due to alternating roles and evaluating outliers of positioning measurements by particle filter. It is evident that, compared with conventional navigation methods, the proposed method is suitable for a wide area survey without sensor drifts and deviation from true state.
Leveling with Tinbergen: Four levels simplified to causes and consequences

In 1963, Niko Tinbergen published his foundational manuscript identifying the four questions we ask in animal behavior—how does the behavior emerge across the lifespan (development); how does it work (mechanism); how and why did it evolve (evolution); and why is it adaptive (function). Tinbergen clarified that these ‘levels of analysis’ are complementary, not competing, thereby avoiding many fruitless scientific debates. However, the relationships among the four levels was never established. Here, we propose ‘leveling’ Tinbergen's questions to a single temporal timescale divided into causes (encompassing mechanism, development, and evolution) and consequences (encompassing function). Scientific advances now seamlessly link evolution, development, and mechanism into a continuum of ‘causes’. The cause–consequence distinction separates the processes that precede (and lead to) a behavior, from the processes that come after (and result from) a behavior. Even for past behaviors, the functional outcomes are (historical) consequences of the causes that preceded them.
Quantification of Caffeine and Chlorogenic Acid in Green and Roasted Coffee Samples Using HPLC-DAD and Evaluation of the Effect of Degree of Roasting on Their Levels

Chlorogenic acid and caffeine are among the important components in coffee beans, determining the taste and aroma. In addition, phenols and antioxidants content possess vital health values. The main aim of this study is to determine the levels of caffeine and chlorogenic acid in several coffee samples of different origins and degrees of roasting. The coffee samples were extracted using hot water. The levels of caffeine and chlorogenic acid were quantified using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) equipped with a diode array detector, a reverse phase system, and an ODS column (C18). Total phenol and antioxidant contents were previously determined for the same samples. The results showed that the highest content of caffeine was found in the medium roasted coffee (203.63 mg/L), and the highest content of chlorogenic acid content was found in the green coffee (543.23 mg/L). The results demonstrated a negative correlation between the chlorogenic acid levels with the degree of roasting, while it showed a positive correlation between the caffeine levels with the degree of roasting till a certain point where the levels dropped in the dark roasted coffee. The origin of coffee samples did not show any effect on any of the measured variables. Antioxidant effects of coffee samples were largely determined by chlorogenic acid content.
Effectiveness of mRNA BNT162b2 Vaccine 6 Months after Vaccination among Patients in Large Health Maintenance Organization, Israel

Israel experienced a new wave of coronavirus disease during June 2021, six months after implementing a national vaccination campaign. We conducted 3 discrete analyses using data from a large health maintenance organization in Israel to determine whether IgG levels of fully vaccinated persons decrease over time, describe the relationship between IgG titer and subsequent PCR-confirmed infection, and compare PCR-confirmed infection rates by period of vaccination. Mean IgG levels steadily decreased over the 6-month period in the total tested population and in all age groups. An inverse relationship was found between IgG titer and subsequent PCR-positive infection. Persons vaccinated during the first 2 months of the campaign were more likely to become infected than those subsequently vaccinated. The vaccinated group >60 years of age had lower initial IgG levels and were at greater risk for infection. The findings support the decision to add a booster vaccine for persons >60 years of age.
Annoyance of Low Frequency Tones and Objective Evaluation Methods

Annoyance of low frequency pure and combined tones was measured in a laboratory experiment. Three low frequency tones at frequencies of 31.5, 50 and 80 Hz at four sound pressure levels, from about 6 dB to 24 dB above average hearing threshold, were selected as pure tones. The combined tones were combinations of two tones: the four levels of 31.5, 50 and 80 Hz tones and a constant level 40 Hz tone. The results showed that the rate of increase in annoyance of pure tones with increase in the sound pressure level was higher at lower frequencies, as reported in previous studies. The results for the combined tones showed that the increase in the annoyance of the combined tone compared to the annoyance of pure tone was dependent on the level difference of the two tones and their frequency separation. These results were compared with the evaluation obtained from different objective methods. The three methods were Moore's loudness model, the low frequency A-weighting and the total energy summation used as objective evaluation methods. Among the methods, the low frequency A-weighting gave the best correlation.
Estimating Demolition Costs for Single Residential Buildings

With the increasing stock of aging structures, buildingdemolition is becoming a challenging research field fromthe perspective of management. As the converse ofconstruction, management of demolition puts forward somenew management themes or adds some new contentseven though the same issues are faced in constructionmanagement. This research aims to develop a quantitativeapproach to estimate the costs of a demolition project. Acost analysis method is presented to systematically breakdown the cost components involved in the demolition ofa structure. Due to the lack of robust research in theoryand systematic summary in practice to date, the economicperformances of demolition will be studied through a casestudy, and the majority of parameters are derived fromactual experiences in practice. The proposed demolition costestimation method is applied to the actual form of buildingelimination (ScenariO 1), and further comparison is carriedout with two other elimination methods, which are the newlydeveloped deconstruction (Scenario 2) and mechanicaldemolition (Scenario 3). Deconstruction is found to be themost profitable in this particular instance, and is closelyfollowed by the actual form.
Validation of maternal report of nutrition‐related interventions and counselling during antenatal care in southern Nepal

Abstract The delivery of nutrition‐related interventions and counselling during antenatal care is critical for a healthy pregnancy for both mother and child. However, the accuracy of maternal reports of many of these services during household surveys has not yet been examined. Our objectives were to assess the validity of the maternal reports of 10 antenatal nutrition interventions, including counselling, and examine associates between maternal characteristics and accuracy. Maternal report of services received collected during a post‐partum survey was compared to the gold standard, the direct observation of all women's antenatal care visits. Individual‐level validity was assessed by calculating indicator sensitivity, specificity and area under the operating curve (AUC). The inflation factor (IF) measured population‐level bias. For five indicators, the high true coverage limited our ability to assess the validity of the maternal reports. There were no indicators that had both high individual‐level validity (AUC > 0.70) and low population bias (0.75 < IF < 1.25). Indicators with greater true coverage estimates had higher sensitivity and lower specificity estimates compared to those indicators with lower true coverage. There were no maternal characteristics associated with the accuracy of the report. Maternal report of antenatal nutrition‐related interventions and counselling during household surveys was found to have variable validity across indicators. Additional research in settings with varying coverage levels should be considered to best inform antenatal care coverage measurement in household surveys.
They Are Just Light Bulbs, Right? The Personality Antecedents of Household Energy-Saving Behavioral Intentions among Young Millennials and Gen Z

Small individual behaviors such as household energy-saving behaviors may have major environmental impacts. Individuals may combat global warming by replacing traditional light bulbs with more energy-efficient light bulbs such as LED bulbs, which save electricity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Guided by the integrative model of behavioral prediction, the current study explored the effects of five individual personality differences (i.e., consideration of future consequences, environmental value orientation, individualism and collectivism, regulatory focus, and self-monitoring) on young Millennials’ and Gen Z’s attitudes, perceived norms, perceived control, and intention to switch light bulbs. The results of a survey indicated that environmental value orientation, individualism and collectivism, regulatory focus, and self-monitoring all significantly predicted attitudes, perceived norms, and perceived control, which predicted behavioral intention. The findings suggested the complex psychological nuance of environmental protection behaviors, even among the “greenest” generations. Implications and directions for future studies were discussed.
Potential of Asparagopsis armata as a Biopesticide for Weed Control under an Invasive Seaweed Circular-Economy Framework

Simple Summary The invasive seaweed Asparagopsis armata has the potential to be used as a biopesticide. The application of its exudate shows severe impacts on energetic and carotenoid metabolism and induces significant oxidative stress in a model weed. This points to the potential use of this macroalga as a resource for a biopesticide cocktail, for sustainable and eco-friendly weed control and as a substitute for the chemical pesticides widely used nowadays. Abstract Marine macroalgae have been increasingly targeted as a source of bioactive compounds to be used in several areas, such as biopesticides. When harvesting invasive species, such as Asparagopsis armata, for this purpose, there is a two-folded opportunity: acquiring these biomolecules from a low-cost resource and controlling its spreading and impacts. The secondary metabolites in this seaweed’s exudate have been shown to significantly impact the physiology of species in the ecosystems where it invades, indicating a possible biocidal potential. Considering this in the present work, an A. armata exudate cocktail was applied in the model weed Thellungiella halophila to evaluate its physiological impact and mode of action, addressing its potential use as a natural biocide. A. armata greatly affected the test plants’ physiology, namely, their photochemical energy transduction pathway (impairing light-harvesting and chemical energy production throughout the chloroplast electron transport chain), carotenoid metabolism and oxidative stress. These mechanisms of action are similar to the ones triggered when using the common chemical pesticides, highlighting the potential of the A. armata exudate cocktail as an eco-friendly biopesticide.
Changing Fortunes: An analysis of the dynamics of income inequality in US metropolitan areas

earners, as well as increased returns to skilled workers. This study uses IPUMS data to build a novel dataset for 226 MSAs over the 1980 to 2010 period. Results suggest that education has had the strongest impact on rising inequality across US metropolitan areas. Our findings also suggest that supply-side factors such as racial segregation and the size of the immigrant population are likewise positively linked with greater inequality.