Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reference values for self-recorded blood pressure: a meta-analysis of summary data.

BACKGROUND The widespread clinical use of self-recorded blood pressure measurement is limited by the lack of generally accepted reference values. The purpose of this study was therefore to perform a meta-analysis of summary data in an attempt to determine an operational threshold for self-recorded blood pressures. STUDIES AND METHODS: Seventeen studies, including a total of 5422 subjects, were reviewed. Eight of these 17 studies included both normotensive and untreated hypertensive subjects, while the other 9 reports included normotensive subjects only. Within each study an operational cutoff point between normotension and hypertension was derived by means of the mean+2 SDs and the 95th percentiles of the self-recorded blood pressure in normotensive subjects. These 2 methods were contrasted with 2 other techniques that have been applied in the literature to calculate (1) the self-recorded pressures equivalent to a conventional pressure of 140 mm Hg systolic and 90 mm Hg diastolic by means of regression analysis and (2) the self-recorded blood pressures at the percentiles corresponding to a conventional pressure of 140/90 mm Hg. The latter 2 methods were applied in untreated subjects not selected on the basis of their blood pressure. RESULTS With weighting for the number of subjects included in the various studies, the self-recorded blood pressure averaged 115/71 mm Hg in normotensive persons and 119/74 mm Hg in untreated subjects not selected on the basis of their blood pressure. The reference values for self-recorded blood pressures determined by the mean+2 SDs (137/89 mm Hg) or the 95th percentile (135/86 mm Hg) of the distribution in normotensive subjects were concordant within 2/3 mm Hg, whereas the cutoff points derived with the regression and percentile methods were considerably lower, ie, 125/79 and 129/84 mm Hg, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Until the relationship between self-recorded pressure and the incidence of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality is further clarified by prospective studies, a mean self-recorded blood pressure above 135 mm Hg systolic or 85 mm Hg diastolic may be considered hypertensive.
Getting inTOUCH: outcomes of a knowledge translation intervention for tactile assessment knowledge, barriers, and practice in paediatric therapists working with children with cerebral palsy

Abstract Background: Tactile impairments are common in children with cerebral palsy (CP), however assessment is not routinely carried out by therapists. We investigated a multi-faceted Knowledge Translation intervention to improve Knowledge, remove Barriers and enhance Practice of tactile assessments by paediatric therapists. Method: Twelve therapists from a state-wide service for children with CP (seven physiotherapists, five occupational therapists; 12 female) received: written information, demonstration videos, a face-to-face workshop, equipment provision, and on-call mentoring. Therapists completed pre–post-intervention questionnaires reporting their perceived tactile assessment Knowledge, current Practices and implementation Barriers. Results: Following intervention, therapists improved Knowledge of correct (1) tactile impairment prevalence in children with CP (pre 3/12; post 9/12), (2) tactile assessment items (e.g. Registration – pre 1/12; post 9/12; Localisation – pre 2/12; post 10/12), and (3) equipment choice (e.g. Monofilaments – pre 1/12; post 10/12). Tactile assessment Practice improved slightly. All major clinician-level implementation Barriers were resolved and less obvious organisational-level Barriers were identified for follow-up. Conclusion: A 12-month multi-faceted Knowledge Translation intervention can improve tactile assessment Knowledge, resolve major clinician-level implementation Barriers, and identify less obvious organisational-level Barriers to be addressed to achieve maximum Practice improvement. Ongoing multi-faceted knowledge translation processes are essential for high-performing organisations. Implications for rehabilitation A multi-faceted knowledge translation intervention significantly improved paediatric therapists’ knowledge of the items and equipment necessary for tactile assessment. A 12-month intervention can address clinician-level barriers of knowledge, confidence, and access to equipment and assist in the identification of less obvious organisational-level barriers. Consideration of motivational readiness for change, intervention timelines, monitoring of emergent barriers, and fitting tactile assessment into a broader assessment framework are critical for improving uptake of tactile assessment in practice.
An improved adaptive P&O technique for two stage grid interfaced SPVECS

This work presents an improved perturb and observe with adaptive perturbation size (IAP&O) algorithm for harnessing maximum power from a double stage solar photovoltaic (PV) energy conversion system (SPVECS) interfaced to a three phase distribution grid. Among various MPPT (Maximum Power Point Technique) techniques, the P&O method is most popular technique in industrial and domestic applications because of its simplicity. However, its performance is affected from drift problem and it is increased in quick changes of environmental conditions. In this double stage SPVECS, a VSI (Voltage Source Inverter) to a three phase distribution grid is deployed. To ensure the quality of power as per an IEEE-519 std. on harmonics, it has maintained the power quality norms in three phase distribution feeder network. Therefore, to feed the real power to the three phase distribution network and to maintain the sinusoidal grid currents, this system performs well. The Matlab/Simulink is utilized for simulation purpose and the performance of proposed system is examined in different environmental situations on an experimental prototype, which is established in the laboratory.
Relativistic Binaries in Globular Clusters

The galactic population of globular clusters are old, dense star systems, with a typical cluster containing 104 – 106 stars. As an old population of stars, globular clusters contain many collapsed and degenerate objects. As a dense population of stars, globular clusters are the scene of many interesting close dynamical interactions between stars. These dynamical interactions can alter the evolution of individual stars and can produce tight binary systems containing one or two compact objects. In this review, we discuss the theoretical models of globular cluster evolution and binary evolution, techniques for simulating this evolution which lead to relativistic binaries, and current and possible future observational evidence for this population. Globular cluster evolution will focus on the properties that boost the production of hard binary systems and on the tidal interactions of the galaxy with the cluster, which tend to alter the structure of the globular cluster with time. The interaction of the components of hard binary systems alters the evolution of both bodies and can lead to exotic objects. Direct N-body integrations and Fokker-Planck simulations of the evolution of globular clusters that incorporate tidal interactions and lead to predictions of relativistic binary populations are also discussed. We discuss the current observational evidence for cataclysmic variables, millisecond pulsars, and low-mass X-ray binaries as well as possible future detection of relativistic binaries with gravitational radiation.
No Surgical Innovation Without Evaluation: Evolution and Further Development of the IDEAL Framework and Recommendations

Objective: To update, clarify, and extend IDEAL concepts and recommendations. Background: New surgical procedures, devices, and other complex interventions need robust evaluation for safety, efficacy, and effectiveness. Unlike new medicines, there is no internationally agreed evaluation pathway for generating and analyzing data throughout the life cycle of surgical innovations. The IDEAL Framework and Recommendations were designed to provide this pathway and they have been used increasingly since their introduction in 2009. Based on a Delphi survey, expert workshop and major discussions during IDEAL conferences held in Oxford (2016) and New York (2017), this article updates and extends the IDEAL Recommendations, identifies areas for future research, and discusses the ethical problems faced by investigators at each IDEAL stage. Methods: The IDEAL Framework describes 5 stages of evolution for new surgical therapeutic interventions—Idea, Development, Exploration, Assessment, and Long-term Study. This comprehensive update proposes several modifications. First, a “Pre-IDEAL” stage describing preclinical studies has been added. Second we discuss potential adaptations to expand the scope of IDEAL (originally designed for surgical procedures) to accommodate therapeutic devices, through an IDEAL-D variant. Third, we explicitly recognise the value of comprehensive data collection through registries at all stages in the Framework and fourth, we examine the ethical issues that arise at each stage of IDEAL and underpin the recommendations. The Recommendations for each stage are reviewed, clarified and additional detail added. Conclusions: The intention of this article is to widen the practical use of IDEAL by clarifying the rationale for and practical details of the Recommendations. Additional research based on the experience of implementing these Recommendations is needed to further improve them.
Self-similar vortex-induced vibrations of a hanging string

Abstract An experimental analysis of the vortex-induced vibrations of a hanging string with variable tension along its length is presented in this paper. It is shown that standing waves develop along the hanging string. First, the evolution of the Strouhal number $\mathit{St}$ with the Reynolds number $\mathit{Re}$ follows a trend similar to what is observed for a circular cylinder in a flow for relatively low Reynolds numbers ( $32\lt \mathit{Re}\lt 700$ ). Second, the extracted mode shapes are self-similar: a rescaling of the spanwise coordinate by a self-similarity coefficient allows all of them to collapse onto a unique function. The self-similar behaviour of the spatial distribution of the vibrations along the hanging string is then explained theoretically by performing a linear stability analysis of an adapted wake-oscillator model. This linear stability analysis finally provides an accurate description of the mode shapes and of the evolution of the self-similarity coefficient with the flow speed.
Investigating Effect of Space Radiation Environment on Piezoelectric Sensors: Cobalt-60 Irradiation Experiment

Piezoelectric sensors are used in many structural health monitoring (SHM) methods to interrogate the condition of the structure to which the sensors are affixed or embedded. Among SHM methods utilizing thin wafer piezoelectric sensors, embedded ultrasonics is seen as a promising approach to assess condition of space structures. If SHM is to be implemented in space vehicles, it is imperative to determine the effects of the extreme space environment on piezoelectric sensors in order to discern between actual structural damage and environmental effects. The near-Earth space environment comprises extreme temperatures, vacuum, atomic oxygen, microgravity, micrometeoroids and debris, and significant amounts of radiation. Gamma radiation can be used to emulate the space radiation environment. In this contribution, the effects of gamma radiation on piezoelectric ceramic sensors are investigated for equivalent gamma radiation exposure of more than a year on low Earth orbit (LEO). Two experiments were conducted in which cobalt-60 was utilized as the source of radiation. Freely supported piezoelectric sensors were exposed to increasing levels of gamma radiation. Impedance data were collected for the sensors after each radiation exposure. The results show that piezoelectric ceramic material is affected by gamma radiation. Over the course of increasing exposure levels to cobalt-60, the impedance frequencies of the free sensors increased with each absorbed dose. The authors propose that the mechanism causing these impedance changes is due to gamma rays affecting piezoelectric, electric, and elastic constants of the piezoelectric ceramic. A theoretical model describing observed effects is presented. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4037684]
Functional brain activation differences in school-age children with speech sound errors: speech and print processing.

PURPOSE To examine neural response to spoken and printed language in children with speech sound errors (SSE). METHOD Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to compare processing of auditorily and visually presented words and pseudowords in 17 children with SSE, ages 8;6[years;months] through 10;10, with 17 matched controls. RESULTS When processing spoken words and pseudowords, the SSE group showed less activation than typically speaking controls in left middle temporal gyrus. They also showed greater activation than controls in several cortical and subcortical regions (e.g., left superior temporal gyrus, globus pallidus, insula, fusiform, and bilateral parietal regions). In response to printed words and pseudowords, children with SSE had greater activation than controls in regions including bilateral fusiform and anterior cingulate. Some differences were found in both speech and print processing that that may be associated with children with SSE failing to show common patterns of task-induced deactivation and/or attentional resource allocation. CONCLUSION Compared with controls, children with SSE appear to rely more on several dorsal speech perception regions and less on ventral speech perception regions. When processing print, numerous regions were observed to be activated more for the SSE group than for controls.
MELL: Effective Embedding Method for Multiplex Networks

Network embedding is a method for converting nodes in a network into low dimensional vectors, preserving its structure and the similarities among the nodes. Embedding is widely used in many applications, e.g., social network analysis and knowledge discovery. Because of its wide usage, many studies have been proposed, such as DeepWalk, LINE and node2vec. These works are designed for single-layer networks, however, real world networks often possess not just one, but multiple types of connections. Hence it is more appropriate to represent them as multiplex networks, which consist of multiple layers each of which represents one type of relationship. Embedding multiplex networks is difficult because all layer structures have to be taken into consideration. In this paper, we propose MELL, a novel embedding method for multiplex networks, which incorporates an idea of layer vector that captures and characterizes each layer's connectivity. This method exploits the overall structure effectively, and embeds both directed and undirected multiplex networks, whether their layer structures are similar or complementary. We focus on link prediction tasks and test our method and other baseline methods using five data sets from different domains. The results show that our method outperforms all of the baseline methods for all of the data sets.
Piers: an efficient model for similarity search in DNA sequence databases

Growing interest in genomic research has resulted in the creation of huge biological sequence databases. In this paper, we present a hash-based pier model for efficient homology search in large DNA sequence databases. In our model, only certain segments in the databases called 'piers' need to be accessed during searches as opposite to other approaches which require a full scan on the biological sequence database. To further improve the search efficiency, the piers are stored in a specially designed hash table which helps to avoid expensive alignment operation. The has table is small enough to reside in main memory, hence avoiding I/O in the search steps. We show theoretically and empirically that the proposed approach can efficiently detect biological sequences that are similar to a query sequence with very high sensitivity.
A DSP Practical Application: Working on ECG Signal

An electrocardiogram (ECG) is a graphical record of bioelectrical signal generated by the human body during cardiac cycle (Goldschlager, 1989). ECG graphically gives useful information that relates to the heart functioning (Dubis, 1976) by means of a base line and waves representing the heart voltage changes during a period of time, usually a short period (Cuesta, 2001). Putting leads on specific part of the human body, it is possible to get changes of the bioelectrical heart signal (Goldschlager, 1989) where one of the most basic forms of organizing them is known as Einthoven lead system which is shown in Figure 1 (Vidal & Pavesi, 2004; Vidal et al., 2008).
Blood Cell SegmentationusingEM algorithm

We presenta methodfor segmentationof cells from color imagesof bloodsmear sin theframeworkof statisticalmodeling. The2-part approach resultsin locating each of the white blood cells (WBC) and identifying the regions correspondingto the nucleusand the cytoplasm,in the given bloodsmear . ThegivenRGBimage is first convertedto its Hue (H), Saturation (S),Value (V) equivalent.Each pixel is treatedas a vector of the three dimensionsnamelyH, S and V. The componentsare weightedto give more importanceto the mostdistinguishingfeatures. We segment by modelingeach of theabovementionedregionsby a distinct 3-D Gaussiandistribution. In the first step,K-means clusteringis performedon the3-D featurevectors. Thisresultsin partitioning of the image into distinct regions. The centroids and the variancesobtainedin the K-meansstep areusedto initialize Gaussianparameter s for ExpectationMaximization(EM) algorithm. TheEM algorithm iterates betweensegmentationandparameterestimationtill convergence. A total of 115imagesof smear swereanalyzedusing our algorithmandsuccessful segmentationwasachievedin 80%of thecellscontainedin the images. Themostimportant featureof this techniqueis that therearenoparameter s to betunedby theuser.
Disruption of Sertoli‐germ cell adhesion function in the seminiferous epithelium of the rat testis can be limited to adherens junctions without affecting the blood–testis barrier integrity: An in vivo study using an androgen suppression model

During spermatogenesis, both adherens junctions (AJ) (such as ectoplasmic specialization (ES), a testis‐specific AJ type at the Sertoli cell‐spermatid interface (apical ES) or Sertoli–Sertoli cell interface (basal ES) in the apical compartment and BTB, respectively) and tight junctions (TJ) undergo extensive restructuring to permit germ cells to move across the blood–testis barrier (BTB) as well as the seminiferous epithelium from the basal compartment to the luminal edge to permit fully developed spermatids (spermatozoa) to be sloughed at spermiation. However, the integrity of the BTB cannot be compromised throughout spermatogenesis so that postmeiotic germ cell‐specific antigens can be sequestered from the systemic circulation at all times. We thus hypothesize that AJ disruption in the seminiferous epithelium unlike other epithelia, can occur without compromising the BTB‐barrier, even though these junctions, namely TJ and basal ES, co‐exist side‐by‐side in the BTB. Using an intratesticular androgen suppression‐induced germ cell loss model, we have shown that the disruption of AJs indeed was limited to the Sertoli‐germ cell interface without perturbing the BTB. The testis apparently is using a unique physiological mechanism to induce the production of both TJ‐ and AJ‐integral membrane proteins and their associated adaptors to maintain BTB integrity yet permitting a transient loss of cell adhesion function by dissociating N‐cadherin from β‐catenin at the apical and basal ES. The enhanced production of TJ proteins, such as occludin and ZO‐1, at the BTB site can supersede the transient loss of cadherin‐catenin function at the basal ES. This thus allows germ cell depletion from the epithelium without compromising BTB integrity. It is plausible that the testis is using this novel mechanism to facilitate the movement of preleptotene and leptotene spermatocytes across the BTB at late stage VIII through early stage IX of the epithelial cycle in the rat while maintaining the BTB immunological barrier function. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Association of student position in classroom and school performance

a UNESP – Sao Paulo State University, Institute of Biosciences. Distrito de Rubiao Jr., s/n, CxP 510, CEP 18618-970, Botucatu, Sao Paulo, Brazil. MSc. Student, Department of Morphology, Sao Paulo State University, Institute of Biosciences. Distrito de Rubiao Jr., s/n, CxP 510, CEP 18618-970, Botucatu, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Adjunct Professor, Caunesp, Department of Physiology, Sao Paulo State University, Institute of Biosciences. Distrito de Rubiao Jr., s/n, CxP 510, CEP 18618-970, Botucatu, Sao Paulo, Brazil. d Adjunct Professor, Department of Education, Sao Paulo State University, Institute of Biosciences. Distrito de Rubiao Jr., s/n, CxP 510, CEP 18618-970, Botucatu, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Alternative splicing events implicated in carcinogenesis and prognosis of colorectal cancer

Background: Emerging evidence suggested that aberrant alternative splicing (AS) is pervasive event in development and progression of cancer. However, the information of aberrant splicing events involved in colorectal carcinogenesis and progression is still elusive. Materials and Methods: In this study, splicing data of 499 colon adenocarcinoma cases (COAD) and 176 rectum adenocarcinoma (READ) with clinicopathological information were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to explore the changes of alternative splicing events in relation to the carcinogenesis and prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC). Gene interaction network construction, functional and pathway enrichment analysis were performed by multiple bioinformatics tools. Results: Overall, most AS patterns were more active in CRC tissues than adjacent normal ones. We detected altogether 35391 AS events of 9084 genes in COAD and 34900 AS events of 9032 genes in READ, some of which were differentially spliced between cancer tissues and normal tissues including genes of SULT1A2, CALD1, DTNA, COL12A1 and TTLL12. Differentially spliced genes were enriched in biological process including muscle organ development, cytoskeleton organization, actin cytoskeleton organization, biological adhesion, and cell adhesion. The integrated predictor model of COAD showed an AUC of 0.805 (sensitivity: 0.734; specificity: 0.756) while READ predictor had an AUC of 0.738 (sensitivity: 0.614; specificity: 0.900). In addition, a number of prognosis-associated AS events were discovered, including genes of PSMD2, NOL8, ALDH4A1, SLC10A7 and PPAT. Conclusion: We draw comprehensive profiles of alternative splicing events in the carcinogenesis and prognosis of CRC. The interaction network and functional connections were constructed to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of alternative splicing in CRC.
Simulation of advanced ultrasound systems using Field II

The background and basic features of the Field II simulation program are described. It can simulate any linear ultrasound system, which can use single or multi-element transducers. Any kind of apodization, focusing, and excitation can be used. The basic theory behind the program's use of spatial impulse responses is explained. A simulation example for a synthetic aperture spread spectrum flow systems is described. It is shown how the advanced coded excitation can be set up, and how the simulation can be parallelized to reduce the simulation time from 17 months to 391 hours using a 32 CPU Linux cluster.