Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of evidence within occupational therapy in stroke rehabilitation

Abstract Evidence-based practice creates practice that integrates research-driven evidence with clinical expertise and patients' preferences in clinical decision-making. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate and evaluate the quality and applicability of scientific research in occupational therapy intervention related to the use of everyday life occupations and client-centred practice within stroke rehabilitation. Design: Systematic searches of research studies published in English during 2000–2007 in peer-reviewed journals were undertaken. Thirty-nine articles and one Cochrane review were appraised and the quality evaluated using an evidence taxonomy and an evidence hierarchy. Results: Evidence arose providing support for a client-centred approach, entailing outcome related to better ability to recall goals, the patients feeling more involved and able to manage more everyday life occupations after rehabilitation. There is also considerable evidence for the use of everyday life occupations in occupational therapy. Occupational therapy was evaluated as an important aspect of stroke rehabilitation improving outcomes in everyday life occupations including activities of daily living (ADL) and participation. Discussion: As research of relevance for the profession to a large extent includes qualitative research it gives rise to reflection on including more tools than the evidence hierarchy while evaluating evidence within occupational therapy.
Deep belief networks for iris recognition based on contour detection

Iris recognition has proved to be one of the most reliable and stable biometric for human identification. This paper outlines an iris recognition approach based on deep learning. In addition, contour based feature vector has been used to discriminate samples belonging to different classes i.e. difference of sclera-iris and iris-pupil contours, and is named as “Unique Signature”. Moreover, contours of both the boundaries are extracted using the radius vector function. The process of feature extraction starts with preprocessing i.e. removal of specular highlight, then weighted centroid of the eye is used as the reference to extract the contour points. Further, the aforementioned approach is rotation, translation and scale invariant. Also, deep belief network (DBN) with modified back-propagation algorithm based feed-forward neural network (RVLR-NN) has been used for classification. Simulation results have been observed for the benchmark CASIA iris database i.e. CASIA-Iris-V4. Further, classification accuracies have been observed at different levels of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) i.e. additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). Also, comparisons have been made with other techniques using contour based features for iris detection. Further, all simulations have been performed in MATLAB. The proposed approach outperforms both the neural network based single and dual boundary approaches in terms of classification accuracies. Observed results have shown good classification accuracies especially at high noise levels.
Design and analysis of acoustic data transmission system for wireless multimedia data transmission

Acoustic communication is transmission technology to transmit sound and data simultaneously through speaker and microphone. In this paper, we propose a parallel acoustic communication system enabling audio and multimedia data transmission at the same time. The parallel acoustic communication system is based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) using acoustic wave. The sampling clock offset (SCO) occur because of clock mismatch between ADC and DAC as sound card. Therefore, we compensate sampling clock offset and do real experiment to ensure the good system performance. We measure system performance depending on the distance. The propose system is available as short distance multimedia data transmission method.
Risk Score for the Prediction of Contrast-Induced Nephropathy in Elderly Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

We developed a risk score for contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) in elderly patients (n = 668) before percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Another 277 elderly patients were studied for validation. Based on the odds ratio, risk factors were assigned a weighted integer; the sum of the integers was the risk score. Among the 668 elderly patients, 105 (15.7%) experienced CIN. There were 9 risk factors for CIN (with weighted integer): estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) <60 mL/min/1.73 m2 (4), diabetes (3), left ventricular ejection fraction <45% (3), hypotension (2), age >70 years (2), myocardial infarction (2), emergency PCI (2), anemia (2), and contrast agent volume >200 mL (2). The incidence of CIN was 3.4%, 11.9%, 36.9%, and 69.8% in the low-risk (≤4), moderate risk (5-8), high-risk (9-12), and very-high-risk groups (≥13). The model demonstrated good discriminative power in the validation population (c statistic = 0.79). This score can be used to plan preventative measures.
Mucinous Adenocarcinoma of a Sigmoid Vaginoplasty in a Patient with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser Syndrome: A Second Case Report

Background: Cancers of the neovagina are a rare malignancy. The case of an adenocarcinoma arising in a sigmoid vaginoplasty, in a patient with Mayer-Rokitansky- Kuster-Hauser syndrom (MRKH), is presented. Case: In 2003 A 41-year-old female patient, suffering from MRKH, underwent a surgical vaginoplasty by laparotomy using a segment of the sigmoid colon. She was then able to have satisfactory sexual intercourse. Seven years after the surgery the patient consulted for vaginal bleeding. A multiple biopsy made it possible to identify a 55 by 40 mm liberkuhnien adenocarcinoma on magnetic resonance imaging. An hepatic lesion and a superficial invasion of the first sacral vertebra were also suspected. The patient underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy, radiochemotherapy and radiofrequency treatment on the hepatic lesion. Then a resection of the transplant, a left hemicolectomy, an ovariectomy, a cholecystectomy and a segment-V liver segmentectomy were performed. The tumor was classified as ypT2N0M0. 3 years later an isolated bone metastasis was diagnosed in the first sacral vertebra. After radiotherapy and chemotherapy the patient showed significant improvement. Conclusion: This is the 2nd case of adenocarcinoma arising from a sigmoid vaginoplasty. This reminds us of how important gynecological follow-up is on patients with MRKH, in particular patients who have a neovaginal construction. Every patient with chronic vaginal bleeding has to undergone an endoscopic exploration with potential biopsy.
Spatial Compounding of Ultrasonic Diagnostic Images for Rotating Linear Probe with Geometric Parameter Error Compensation

In ultrasonic medical imaging, spatial compounding of images is a technique where ultrasonic beam is steered to examine patient tissues in multiple angles. In the conventional ultrasonic diagnostic imaging, the steering of the ultrasonic beam is achieved electronically using the phased array transducer elements. In this paper, a spatial compounding approach is presented where the ultrasonic probe element is rotated mechanically and the beam steering is achieved mechanically. In the spatial compounding, target position is computed using the value of the rotation axis and the transducer array angular position. However, in the process of the rotation mechanism construction and the control system there arises the inevitable uncertainties in these values. These geometric parameter errors result in the target position error, and the consequence is a blurry compounded image. In order to reduce these target position errors, we present a spatial compounding scheme where error correcting transformation matrices are computed and applied to the raw images before spatial compounding to reduce the blurriness in the compounded image. The proposed scheme is illustrated using phantom and live scan images of human knee, and it is shown that the blurriness is effectively reduced.
A common gustatory and interoceptive representation in the human mid‐insula

The insula serves as the primary gustatory and viscerosensory region in the mammalian cortex. It receives visceral and gustatory afferent projections through dedicated brainstem and thalamic nuclei, which suggests a potential role as a site for homeostatic integration. For example, while human neuroimaging studies of gustation have implicated the dorsal mid‐insular cortex as one of the primary gustatory regions in the insula, other recent studies have implicated this same region of the insula in interoception. This apparent convergence of gustatory and interoceptive information could reflect a common neural representation in the insula shared by both interoception and gustation. This idea finds support in translational studies in rodents, and may constitute a medium for integrating homeostatic information with feeding behavior. To assess this possibility, healthy volunteers were asked to undergo fMRI while performing tasks involving interoceptive attention to visceral sensations as well as a gustatory mapping task. Analysis of the unsmoothed, high‐resolution fMRI data confirmed shared representations of gustatory and visceral interoception within the dorsal mid‐insula. Group conjunction analysis revealed overlapping patterns of activation for both tasks in the dorsal mid‐insula, and region‐of‐interest analyses confirmed that the dorsal mid‐insula regions responsive for visceral interoception also exhibit strong responses to tastants. Hum Brain Mapp 36:2996–3006, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Transplantation of Fetal Kidney Tissue Reduces Cerebral Infarction Induced by Middle Cerebral Artery Ligation

The authors, and others, have recently reported that intracerebral administration of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) or osteogenic protein-1 protects against ischemia-induced injury in the cerebral cortex of adult rats. Because these trophic factors are highly expressed in the fetal, but not adult, kidney cortex, the possibility that transplantation of fetal kidney tissue could serve as a cellular reservoir for such molecules and protect against ischemic injury in cerebral cortex was examined. Fetal kidneys obtained from rat embryos at gestational day 16, and adult kidney cortex, were dissected and cut into small pieces. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were anesthetized with chloral hydrate and placed in a stereotactic apparatus. Kidney tissues were transplanted into three cortical areas adjacent to the right middle cerebral artery (MCA). Thirty minutes after grafting, the right MCA was transiently ligated for 90 minutes. Twenty-four hours after the onset of reperfusion, animals were evaluated behaviorally. It was found that the stroke animals that received adult kidney transplantation developed motor imbalance. However, animals that received fetal kidney grafts showed significant behavioral improvement. Animals were later sacrificed and brains were removed for triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining, Pax-2 immunostaining, and GDNF mRNA expression. It was noted that transplantation of fetal kidney but not adult kidney tissue greatly reduced the volume of infarction in the cerebral cortex. Fetal kidney grafts showed Pax-2 immunoreactivity and GDNF mRNA in the host cerebral cortex. In contrast, GDNF mRNA expression was not found in the adult kidney grafts. Taken together, our data indicate that fetal kidney transplantation reduces ischemia/reperfusion-induced cortical infarction and behavioral deficits in adult rats, and that such tissue grafts could serve as an unique cellular reservoir for trophic factor application to the brain.
Repeated evolution of digital adhesion in geckos: a reply to Harrington and Reeder

We published a phylogenetic comparative analysis that found geckos had gained and lost adhesive toepads multiple times over their long evolutionary history (Gamble et al., PLoS One, 7, 2012, e39429). This was consistent with decades of morphological studies showing geckos had evolved adhesive toepads on multiple occasions and that the morphology of geckos with ancestrally padless digits can be distinguished from secondarily padless forms. Recently, Harrington & Reeder (J. Evol. Biol., 30, 2017, 313) reanalysed data from Gamble et al. (PLoS One, 7, 2012, e39429) and found little support for the multiple origins hypothesis. Here, we argue that Harrington and Reeder failed to take morphological evidence into account when devising ancestral state reconstruction models and that these biologically unrealistic models led to erroneous conclusions about the evolution of adhesive toepads in geckos.
Controlled-release of Bacillus thurigiensis formulations encapsulated in light-resistant colloidosomal microcapsules for the management of lepidopteran pests of Brassica crops

Bacillus thuringiensis (B. t.) based formulations have been widely used to control lepidopteran pests in agriculture and forestry. One of their weaknesses is their short residual activity when sprayed in the field. Using Pickering emulsions, mixtures of spores and crystals from three B. t. serovars were successfully encapsulated in colloïdosomal microparticles (50 μm) using innocuous chemicals (acrylic particles, sunflower oil, iron oxide nanoparticles, ethanol and water). A pH trigger mechanism was incorporated within the particles so that B. t. release occurred only at pH > 8.5 which corresponds to the midgut pH of the target pests. Laboratory assays performed on Trichoplusia ni (T. ni) larvae demonstrated that the microencapsulation process did not impair B. t. bioactivity. The best formulations were field-tested on three key lepidopteran pests that attack Brassica crops, i.e., the imported cabbageworm, the cabbage looper and the diamondback moth. After 12 days, the mean number of larvae was significantly lower in microencapsulated formulations than in a commercial B. t. formulation, and the effect of microencapsulated formulations was comparable to a chemical pesticide (lambda-cyhalothrin). Therefore, colloïdosomal microcapsule formulations successfully extend the bioactivity of B. t. for the management of lepidopteran pests of Brassica crops.
First Insights into the Genome Sequence of Pseudomonas oleovorans DSM 1045

ABSTRACT The Gram-negative proteobacterium Pseudomonas oleovorans DSM 1045 is considered a promising source for enzymes of biotechnological interest, e.g., hydrolases and transaminases. Here, we present a draft sequence of its 4.86-Mb genome, enabling the identification of novel biocatalysts.
Caracterização citogenética de acessos de Brachiaria brizantha (Gramineae).

No genero Brachiaria, muitas especies e acesso sao poliploides e apomiticos, o que dificulta o melhoramento via hibridizacao. Uma ampla caracterizacao citogenetica, incluindo determinacao do numero de cromossomos e avaliacao detalhada do comportamento meiotico, vem sendo realizada na colecao de germoplasma deste genero a fim de auxiliar na selecao de genitores e explicar problemas na fecundidade dos acessos e hibridos do programa de melhoramento desenvolvido pela Embrapa Gado de Corte. Neste estudo, 22 acessos de Brachiaria brizantha foram analisados. Destes, um e diploide (2n = 2x = 18), 18 sao tetraploides (2n = 6x = 54). Anormalidades meioticas variaram de 2,85% a 5,55% nas celulas em divisao no acesso diploide e de 1,03% a 69,48% nos acessos tetraploides, com alta concentracao de anormalidades na anafase I, enquanto nos hexaploides, todos os tres acessos avaliados tiveram elevado numero de celulas (ate 43%) com anormalidades meioticas em todas as fases de divisao. Nestes, houve predominâncias de anormalidades relacionadas a poliploidia, como formacao de multivalentes na diacinose, ascensao precoce de cromossomos para os polos, cromossomos retardatarios, e separacao irregular levando a formacao de microcitos e micronucleos nas tetrades, com frequencia variando de 6,98% a 44,24%. Alguns acessos como B 251 e B 214 apresentam outras anormalidades meioticas como aderencias, fusoes celulares, formacao de poliades com micronucleos, que tambem comprometem a viabilidade gametica. Considerando-se que, dentre os 22 acessos analisados de B. brizantha, somente um e diploide e sexual, enquanto os demais apresentam diferentes niveis de anormalidades meioticas e sao apomiticos, a selecao de genitores femininos e bastante limitada. Desta forma, estudos citogeneticos extensivos necessitam ser feitos na colecao e posteriormente nos hibridos de Brachiaria para que acessos com potencial para uso no melhoramento possam ser identificados.
An innovative bioresorbable gelatin based 3D scaffold that maintains the stemness of adipose tissue derived stem cells and the plasticity of differentiated neurons

Neural tissue engineering aims at producing a simulated environment using a matrix that is suitable to grow specialized neurons/glial cells pertaining to CNS/PNS which replace damaged or lost tissues. The primary goal of this study is to design a compatible scaffold that supports the development of neural-lineage cells which aids in neural regeneration. The fabricated, freeze-dried scaffolds consisted of biocompatible, natural and synthetic polymers: gelatin and polyvinyl pyrrolidone. Physiochemical characterization was carried out using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) imaging. The 3D construct retains good swelling proficiency and holds the integrated structure that supports cell adhesion and proliferation. The composite of PVP–gelatin is blended in such a way that it matches the mechanical strength of the brain tissue. The cytocompatibility analysis shows that the scaffolds are compatible and permissible for the growth of both stem cells as well as differentiated neurons. A change in the ratios of the scaffold components resulted in varied sizes of pores giving diverse surface morphology, greatly influencing the properties of the neurons. However, there is no change in stem cell properties. Different types of neurons are characterized by the type of gene associated with the neurotransmitter secreted by them. The change in the neuron properties could be attributed to neuroplasticity. The plasticity of the neurons was analyzed using quantitative gene expression studies. It has been observed that the gelatin-rich construct supports the prolonged proliferation of stem cells and multiple neurons along with their plasticity.
Investigation of brain activity after interaction with seal robot measured by fNIRS

Brain activities during interaction with a seal robot, “PARO,” and subsequent resting periods were measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). In this study, there were two experimental tasks: interaction with PARO switched ON (PARO ON) and interaction with PARO switched OFF (PARO OFF) with a one-minute rest before and after the tasks. The results show significant decreased brain activities around the motor cortex area after the PARO OFF task compared with those during the PARO OFF task. These areas of the brain are supposed to be a function of planning, control, and execution of voluntary movement. This indicates that when participants touch and interact with PARO, they might voluntarily interact. Therefore, there was a reduction of brain activity in the brain areas related to the function of voluntary movement, the so-called “motor cortex area. ” Conversely, there were significant decreased brain activities in the left side of the frontal areas after the PARO ON task compared with those during the PARO ON task. The results suggest that when participants interact with PARO, they might recognize the positive emotional gesture expression of PARO. Therefore, after interaction with PARO, brain activities in the areas related to happy emotion processing were reduced. The results explain the improvement of mood by interaction with PARO from of a physiological point of view.
Pushing motion of humanoid robot on dynamic locomotion

This paper describes the pushing motion of a humanoid robot. It is difficult to achieve a pushing motion at constant velocity of an object since the body velocity fluctuates during the dynamic walking. Furthermore, the analysis of walking stability becomes complicated with the pushing force. We constructed a humanoid control system that is separated to an upper body controller and a lower body controller. The upper body concentrates on the force control with a constant command. The lower body deals with the biped locomotion and is controlled so that the object is within range of the arm movement. This combination of two separated controllers solves the in the pushing motion of humanoid robots. Simulation results show that the pushing motion with constant velocity of the object was achieved.
Noninvasively Decoding the Contents of Visual Working Memory in the Human Prefrontal Cortex within High-gamma Oscillatory Patterns

The temporal maintenance and subsequent retrieval of information that no longer exists in the environment is called working memory. It is believed that this type of memory is controlled by the persistent activity of neuronal populations, including the prefrontal, temporal, and parietal cortex. For a long time, it has been controversially discussed whether, in working memory, the PFC stores past sensory events or, instead, its activation is an extramnemonic source of top–down control over posterior regions. Recent animal studies suggest that specific information about the contents of working memory can be decoded from population activity in prefrontal areas. However, it has not been shown whether the contents of working memory during the delay periods can be decoded from EEG recordings in the human brain. We show that by analyzing the nonlinear dynamics of EEG oscillatory patterns it is possible to noninvasively decode with high accuracy, during encoding and maintenance periods, the contents of visual working memory information within high-gamma oscillations in the human PFC. These results are thus in favor of an active storage function of the human PFC in working memory; this, without ruling out the role of PFC in top–down processes. The ability to noninvasively decode the contents of working memory is promising in applications such as brain computer interfaces, together with computation of value function during planning and decision making processes.
ANTENNA NEAR-FIELD MEASUREMENT WITH AN OPTICAL RF FIELD SENSOR

An optical electric field sensor (OEFS) combined with a near-field test system was used to measure the radiation patterns of antennas. In the measurement system, the sensor head served as a receiving probe and the antenna under test as a transmitting antenna. Two types of antennas, double ridged waveguide antenna and log periodic antenna, were measured. The radiation patterns obtained by this novel method are compared with those achieved by the direct far-field technique with conventional open-ended waveguide probe.