Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Motivations and barriers to exercise in chronic kidney disease: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND Exercise has the potential to modulate a number of complications associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, typically, CKD patients lead very sedentary lifestyles, the reasons for which are not fully known. The aim of this qualitative study was to gain an understanding of the motivators, barriers and beliefs held by CKD patients regarding exercise. METHODS We conducted 3 focus groups and 22 semi-structured interviews. Data were collected from nephrology outpatient clinics in the United Kingdom. A total of 36 individuals with CKD stages 1-5 not requiring renal replacement therapy, aged 26-83 years participated in this study. This manuscript outlines the findings from patients with CKD stages 3-5. Focus groups and interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically. RESULTS Positive attitudes to exercise reflected autonomous motivations including: exercising for health; enjoyment and social interaction. Family support and goal setting were seen as motivators for exercise and the accessibility of local facilities influenced activity levels. Barriers to exercise were poor health, fear of injury or aggravating their condition, a lack of guidance from healthcare professionals and a lack of facilities. CONCLUSIONS These findings are an important first stage in the development of a CKD-specific exercise behaviour change intervention. Interventions should operate at multiple levels, with a focus on improving patient autonomy and exercise self-efficacy, support networks and the physical environment (e.g. the accessibility of local facilities). In addition, strategies are required to ensure that the healthcare system is actively promoting and routinely supporting exercise for all patients with CKD.
The KRESCENT Program: an initiative to match supply and demand for kidney research in Canada.

BACKGROUND The prevalence of kidney disease is rising in Canada, and new approaches to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment are required. A kidney research training strategy, which enhances capacity while fostering collaboration and knowledge translation, may help to address this health care problem. PURPOSE This manuscript describes the Kidney Research Scientist Core Education and National Training (KRESCENT) Program that was launched in 2004 with a major goal to enhance kidney research capacity in Canada. FEATURES KRESCENT is an innovative training program, which recruits from a variety of research disciplines, and emphasizes multi-disciplinary research approaches, team-based collaboration and knowledge translation. The program provides salary support for post-doctoral fellows, new investigators and allied health doctoral trainees, and also offers core curriculum and mentorship support. The curriculum involves knowledge acquisition, application and integration and uses workshops and web-based problem modules to enhance research skills. Training in methodological approaches and career development is also included. Initial evaluation of KRESCENT suggests that kidney research capacity in Canada has increased, and trainees have a high success rate in obtaining academic positions (~88%) and peer-review grant support (~50%). SUMMARY KRESCENT represents a novel collaborative approach to kidney research training in Canada that may serve as a suitable model for training in other countries, or in other medical disciplines.
Improving gas dispersal simulation for mobile robot olfaction: Using robot-created occupancy maps and remote gas sensors in the simulation loop

Mobile robot platforms equipped with olfaction systems have been used in many gas sensing applications. However, in-field validation of mobile robot olfaction systems is time consuming, expensive, cumbersome and lacks repeatability. In order to address these issues, simulation tools are used. However, the available mobile robot olfaction simulations lack models for remote gas sensors, and the possibility to import geometrical representations of actual real-world environments in a convenient way. In this paper, we describe extensions to an open-source CFD-based filament gas dispersal simulator. These improvements arrow to use robot-created occupancy maps and offer remote sensing capabilities in the simulation loop. We demonstrate the novel features in an example application: we created a 3D map a complex indoor environment, and performed a gas emission monitoring task with a Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy based remote gas sensor in a simulated version of the environment.
Development of Serological Assays for Thottapalayam Virus, an Insectivore-Borne Hantavirus

ABSTRACT Thottapalayam virus (TPMV), a member of the genus Hantavirus in the family Bunyaviridae, was isolated from an insectivore, Suncus murinus (musk shrew), captured in southern India in 1964. While the isolation of TPMV predates the discovery of the prototype Hantaan virus, little is known about its genetics and biology. To date, preliminary evidence suggests that TPMV differs significantly, both antigenically and genetically, from all known rodent-borne hantaviruses. However, since detailed epizootiological studies have not been conducted, it is unclear if TPMV is naturally harbored by an insectivore host or if TPMV represents a “spillover” from its natural rodent reservoir host. Moreover, to what extent TPMV causes infection and/or disease in humans is not known. To address these issues, we first studied the antigenic profile of TPMV using monoclonal antibodies against Hantaan and Seoul viruses and polyclonal immune sera against Puumala virus and TPMV. Armed with this newfound information, we developed an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay system for the diagnosis of TPMV infections in shrews and humans, using a recombinant TPMV N antigen manipulated to have an E5/G6 epitope to be captured by monoclonal antibody clone E5/G6. Using this assay, we found anti-TPMV antibodies in sera from a patient with high fever of unknown etiology in Thailand and from two shrews captured in Indonesia. Seropositivity was verified by the indirect immunofluorescence antibody test, Western blotting analysis, and focus reduction neutralization test. Collectively, our data indicate that TPMV is harbored by Suncus murinus as its host in nature and is capable of infecting humans.
Probabilistic Movement Primitives

Movement Primitives (MP) are a well-established approach for representing modular and re-usable robot movement generators. Many state-of-the-art robot learning successes are based MPs, due to their compact representation of the inherently continuous and high dimensional robot movements. A major goal in robot learning is to combine multiple MPs as building blocks in a modular control architecture to solve complex tasks. To this effect, a MP representation has to allow for blending between motions, adapting to altered task variables, and co-activating multiple MPs in parallel. We present a probabilistic formulation of the MP concept that maintains a distribution over trajectories. Our probabilistic approach allows for the derivation of new operations which are essential for implementing all aforementioned properties in one framework. In order to use such a trajectory distribution for robot movement control, we analytically derive a stochastic feedback controller which reproduces the given trajectory distribution. We evaluate and compare our approach to existing methods on several simulated as well as real robot scenarios.
The channel coding theorem and the security of binary randomization

Randomization for the purposes of privacy protection refers to the probabilistic perturbation of individual data points to introduce protection through information-theoretic uncertainty. For example, in a telephonic public health survey, a data collector asks the respondent to roll a fair die, and, based on whether the rolled die shows a number divisible by 3 or not, to provide a false or true answer to the question, “DO you have HIV? ”. The data collector obtains individual answers which are true with probability p, and can use the answers to calculate the statistics of the prevalence of HIV in the population queried. The individual queried obtains some privacy because whether she has HIV or not is not completely determined by her response. More formally, Alice uses the randomization protocol to provide value Y E y when asked for the value X E X, given a posteriori probability distribution function (pdf) P(Y1X). Randomization has been in use for about twenty years in public surveys and in statistical database security [l], and has recently been proposed as a means of personal privacy protection [3, 21.
An exploration of the discourses women survivors of intimate partner violence draw on to understand intimate femicide

i DECLARATION . ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . iii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1. Violence as an International and National Problem . 1 1.2. Post-Apartheid South Africa . 1 1.3. Violence Against Women . 2 1.4. Intimate Partner Violence in South Africa . 3 1.5. Intimate Partner Violence as a Significant Risk Factor of Intimate Femicide . 3 1.6. Prevalence of Intimate Femicide . 4 1.7. Gender as Only One Axis of Oppression . 4 1.8. Rationale . 5 1.9. Aim of the Study . 6 1.10. Objectives . 6 1.11. Chapter Outline . 6 1.12. Conclusion . 7 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW . 8 2.1. Women as Survivors . 8 2.2. Women’s Understandings of Intimate Femicide . 8 2.3. Women’s Understandings of Their Level of Risk of Femicide . 9 2.4. A Review of the Discourses of Abuse in Intimate Relationships . 10 2.4. 1. Traditional gender role discourses . 10 2.4. 2. Dominant prescriptions of femininity. 11 2.4. 3. Religious discourses . 11
A high-efficiency linear power amplifier for 28GHz mobile communications in 40nm CMOS

This paper presents a high-efficiency, linear power amplifier (PA) for 28GHz mobile communications in 40nm CMOS technology. The design and layout are optimized for high linearity while maintaining high gain and output power. A capacitance neutralized differential pair with source degeneration inductor for linearity enhancement is discussed. The inductive degeneration technique greatly increases the optimal load impedance, which enables a low loss parallel power combining. The complete PA achieves a measured saturated output power of 18.1dBm with 41.5% power-added efficiency (PAE). With 6 Gb/s QAM-64 signals, the proposed PA achieves an average output power of 8.4dBm and 8.8% PAE, with −25 dBc EVM. All measurements are performed with a fixed bias condition.
Transcranial Stimulation of the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Prevents Stress-Induced Working Memory Deficits

Stress is known to impair working memory performance. This disruptive effect of stress on working memory has been linked to a decrease in the activity of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). In the present experiment, we tested whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the dlPFC can prevent stress-induced working memory impairments. We tested 120 healthy participants in a 2 d, sham-controlled, double-blind between-subjects design. Participants completed a test of their individual baseline working memory capacity on day 1. On day 2, participants were exposed to either a stressor or a control manipulation before they performed a visuospatial and a verbal working memory task. While participants completed the tasks, anodal, cathodal, or sham tDCS was applied over the right dlPFC. Stress impaired working memory performance in both tasks, albeit to a lesser extent in the verbal compared with the visuospatial working memory task. This stress-induced working memory impairment was prevented by anodal, but not sham or cathodal, stimulation of the dlPFC. Compared with sham or cathodal stimulation, anodal tDCS led to significantly better working memory performance in both tasks after stress. Our findings indicate a causal role of the dlPFC in working memory impairments after acute stress and point to anodal tDCS as a promising tool to reduce cognitive deficits related to working memory in stress-related mental disorders, such as depression, schizophrenia, or post-traumatic stress disorder. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Working memory deficits are prominent in stress-related mental disorders, such as depression, schizophrenia, or post-traumatic stress disorder. Similar working memory impairments have been observed in healthy individuals exposed to acute stress. So far, attempts to prevent such stress-induced working memory deficits focused mainly on pharmacological interventions. Here, we tested the idea that transcranial direct current stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), a critical neural substrate of working memory, may prevent working memory impairments after stress. Our results indicate that anodal stimulation of the dlPFC may indeed preserve working memory performance under stress, suggesting that the dlPFC plays a causal role in stress-induced working memory deficits and pointing to a potential new avenue to prevent stress-induced cognitive impairments.
Transmission of Signals With Complex Constellations Using Millimeter-Wave Spatially Power-Combined CMOS Power Amplifiers and Digital Predistortion

This paper reports the generation, amplification, and radiation of modulated signals at 45 GHz using a single-chip CMOS power amplifier coupled to a 2 × 2 antenna array. Using digital predistortion, complex constellations were demonstrated for wide modulation bandwidth, which allows high data rates to be transmitted in a spectrally efficient manner. After predistortion, a 98-MS/s 1024-QAM signal with peak-to-average power ratio of 7 dB was demodulated with an error vector magnitude of 1.3%. The measured equivalent isotropically radiated power was 26.2 dBm. The corresponding average RF power produced by the CMOS chip, considering a simulated antenna gain of 12 dB, was 14.2 dBm.
SemGraph: Extracting keyphrases following a novel semantic graph‐based approach

Keyphrases represent the main topics a text is about. In this article, we introduce SemGraph, an unsupervised algorithm for extracting keyphrases from a collection of texts based on a semantic relationship graph. The main novelty of this algorithm is its ability to identify semantic relationships between words whose presence is statistically significant. Our method constructs a co‐occurrence graph in which words appearing in the same document are linked, provided their presence in the collection is statistically significant with respect to a null model. Furthermore, the graph obtained is enriched with information from WordNet. We have used the most recent and standardized benchmark to evaluate the system ability to detect the keyphrases that are part of the text. The result is a method that achieves an improvement of 5.3% and 7.28% in F measure over the two labeled sets of keyphrases used in the evaluation of SemEval‐2010.
Complex Gaussian belief propagation algorithms for distributed multicell multiuser MIMO detection with imperfect channel state information

In this paper, we proposed a distributed detection scheme done at each antenna unit separately, termed complex Gaussian belief propagation algorithm (CGaBP), for multicell multi-user detection in imperfect channel state information (CSI) scenarios. The multi-user detection problem is reduced to a sequence of scalar estimations, and detecting each individual user using CGaBP is asymptotically equivalent to detecting the same user through a scalar additive Gaussian channel with some degradation in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the desired user due to the collective impact of interfering users. The degradation is determined by the unique fixed-point of state evolution equations. We demonstrate the performance of the CGaBP through simulations. The performance of the CGaBP algorithm is better than that of the MMSE-SIC (soft interference cancellation) detector. However, the CGaBP algorithm degrades in the presence of imperfect CSI due mainly to pilot contamination in channel estimation.
RQ precoding for the cooperative broadcast channel

We consider a broadcast channel with multiple transmit antennas, where receiving terminals (users), with single antenna, can cooperate by exchanging information through a secondary local channel. Similar to zero-forcing dirty paper coding (ZF-DPC) in, we consider a RQ precoding, which is based on the RQ decomposition of the channel matrix and transforms the channel matrix into an upper triangular matrix. Without DPC, the RQ precoding is used in conjunction with successive interference cancellation by the users, which send to each other their respectively detected information symbols. We conduct error probability performance analysis for the RQ precoded cooperative broadcast channel and show how errors on the local link degrade the overall performance. Finally we compare the RQ precoding to standard beamforming precoding where the users do not cooperate and observe: (i) improvements in the overall error rates and throughput, (ii) different diversity gains for the different users, (iii) performance degradation resulting in an error floor due to errors on the local channels. This last feature enables either the application of RQ precoding to a system with different quality of service users or the possibility of scheduling the users in order to improve the overall error rates and throughput.
Age-Related Changes in the Hepatic Pharmacology and Toxicology of Paracetamol

Optimal pharmacotherapy is determined when the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the drug are understood. However, the age-related changes in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, as well as the increased interindividual variation mean optimal dose selection are a challenge for prescribing in older adults. Poor understanding of how hepatic clearance and toxicity are different with age results in suboptimal dose selection, poor efficacy, and/or increased toxicity. Of particular concern is the analgesic paracetamol which has been in use for more than 50 years and is consumed by a large proportion of older adults. Paracetamol is considered to be a relatively safe drug; however, caution must be taken because of its potential for toxicity. Paracetamol-induced liver injury from accidental overdose accounts for up to 55% of cases in older adults. Better understanding of how age affects the hepatic clearance and toxicity of drugs will contribute to evidence-based prescribing for older people, leading to fewer adverse drug reactions without loss of benefit.
Postural asymmetries and language lateralization in humans (Homo sapiens).

Is hemispheric specialization for speech more closely related to left hemisphere specialization for manual skill and sequencing, as is usually supposed, or to control of asymmetries in whole body posture, as recent findings of right-handedness in nonhuman primates suggest? This question can be evaluated in the 10% of humans who have mixed handedness and footedness. Footedness entails postural asymmetry, and persons with mixed limb preferences often prefer the hand ipsilateral to the preferred foot in asymmetrical actions for which whole body postural adjustments are obligatory (e.g., throwing). The dichotic listening test , and indicator of language laterality, was administered to 4 groups of 48 persons with the 4 possible combinations of hand and foot preference. As in 2 past studies, language lateralization was somewhat more strongly related to postural asymmetries than to asymmetries in manual skill and sequencing.
Phytochemical , HPLC Analysis and Antibacterial Activity of Crude Methanolic and Aqueous Extracts for Some Medicinal Plants Flowers

Methanolic and aqueous extracts of C. cardunculus, A. millefolium, C. officinalis, and M. chamomilla flowers were Phytochemical, Identification of polyphenols and flavonoids by HPLC, and also investigated for their antibacterial activity, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtillis. The phytochemical was observed that crude methanolic and aqueous extracts of investigated flowers the highest content from activity complex. HPLC analysis identified eighteen polyphenolic compounds as authentic samples namely: Gallic acid, pyrogallol, 4-amino benzoic, protocatechuic, cataehein, chlorogenic, catechol, e.picatechen, caffien, p.oh. benzoic, caffeic, vanillic, ferulic, ellagic, benzoic acid, salicylic acid, coumarin and cinnamic acid. While, flavonoid compounds its eleven compounds as authentic samples namely: narengin, rutin, hisperdin, romarinic, quereitrin, quereetrin, narenginin, kampferol, luteolin, hispertin, and 7-Hydoxyflavon. The methanolic extracts of C. officinalis and M. chamomilla flowers produced the highest growth inhibition (43.88 and 42.11%) for against B. subtillis at 6 mg/ml, While, the aqueous extracts of C. officinalis and M. chamomilla flowers produced the highest growth inhibition (29.99 and 29.22 %) for against Bacillus subtillis at 6 mg/ml. Moreover, the C. officinalis and C. cardunculus flowers extract produced the highest growth inhibition for methanolic and aqueous extracts of against Escherichia coli at 6 mg/ml.
Discovering the Longest Set of Distinct Maximal Correlated Intervals in Time Series Data

In this paper we focus on finding all maximal correlated intervals where a given pair of time series have correlation above a user provided threshold for all its subintervals and for none of its immediate subsuming intervals. Our objective then is to find a longest set of such maximal correlated intervals. We propose a two step solution to achieve this objective. In the first step an efficient bottom-up approach is proposed to discover maximal correlated intervals. In the second step we use a dynamic programming approach to select the longest non-overlapping set. We evaluate the efficiency of our approach on synthetic datasets and compare it with that of a bruteforce approach. Using neuroimaging data that contains activity time series from brain regions, we show the utility of our approach in studying transient nature of relationships between different brain regions.
A case study on oscillating behavior of end-to-end network latency

Understanding network latency is important for providing consistent and acceptable levels of services in network-based applications. Due to the difficulty of estimating applications' network demands and the difficulty of predicting network load, however, the management of network resources has often been ignored in network-based systems. This paper presents network traffic oscillating behavior that has been observed in real operational networks. The basic idea on the study is that a variation of network latency is strongly correlated with the past history of the latency. Four typical network traffic status are defined based on the stability and the burstiness of latencies. Observations of network latency are an open research area across multi-time scale levels and the proposed network status would be helpful to simplify issues in the area.
Overexpression of ZAC impairs glucose‐stimulated insulin translation and secretion in clonal pancreatic beta‐cells

ZAC (Zinc finger protein that regulates apoptosis and cell‐cycle arrest) is a candidate gene for transient neonatal diabetes mellitus (TNDM). This condition involves severe insulin deficiency at birth that reverses over weeks or months but may relapse with diabetes recurring in later life. ZAC overexpression in transgenic mice has previously been shown to result in complex changes in both beta‐cell mass and possibly function. The present study therefore aimed to examine the role of ZAC in beta‐cell function in vitro, independent of the confounder of a reduced beta‐cell mass at birth.