Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Obesity and cardiometabolic risk factors in a representative population of Iranian adolescents and adults in comparison to a Western population: the Isfahan Healthy Heart Programme

Abstract Objective The aim of the present study was to develop reference data for the Iranian population for anthropometric values and cardiometabolic data in comparison with those in Americans, as representative of a Western population. Design The present cross-sectional survey, conducted as part of the baseline survey of a community-based interventional study (the Isfahan Healthy Heart Programme), used a two-stage clustering design and was conducted in 12 600 randomly selected adults (≥19 years of age) and 2000 adolescents (aged 11–18 years) living in three cities in the central part of Iran. For comparison with a Western population, comparable data for Americans were derived from the data sets of the Second and Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES II and NHANES III). Results Iranian women had significantly higher mean BMI, waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC) and waist:hip ratio (WHR) than Iranian men and American women; but the mean BMI of Iranian men was lower than that of American men. The mean serum TAG level of Iranian men was significantly higher than that of Iranian women, whereas the mean serum total cholesterol (TC), LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) and HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) levels were significantly higher in Iranian women than in men. The Iranian population had lower mean TC, LDL-C and TAG levels than the Americans, but such difference was not documented for HDL-C. Iranian adolescents had significantly lower mean BMI and higher mean TAG than did American adolescents. Conclusions Our findings provide serious evidence for health professionals and policy makers about the very high prevalence of generalized and abdominal obesity in Iran. Controlling this emerging health problem, notably in women, should become a national priority in Iran and necessitates comprehensive public health programmes.
FPGA implementation of AES algorithm for high throughput using folded parallel architecture

This paper presents high throughput architecture for the hardware implementation of Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm. Advanced Encryption Standard is the industry standard crypto algorithm for encryption and is used for protecting secret information. This work is mainly targeted for low-cost embedded applications. This paper introduces parallel operation in the folded architecture to obtain better throughput. The design is coded in Very High-speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description Language. Timing simulation is performed to verify the functionality of the designed circuit. The proposed structure is implemented in Virtex-6 XC6VLX75T FPGA device. This work gives a high throughput of 37.1Gb/s with a maximum frequency of 505.5MHz, which is 20% higher than the maximum throughput reported in the literature. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Kibitz: End-to-End Recommendation System Builder

Kibitz (kibitz.csail.mit.edu) is a web application and recommendation system framework that helps inexperienced and novice programmers to build recommenders without the need to program the back end for the system. The author uploads a table of items, and Kibitz produces a collaborative-filtering recommender for the uploaded items. The recommender can be hosted by Kibitz or downloaded and customized as a set of static pages hosted on the author's personal web domain. Developers who want to avoid the hassle of writing their own recommender back end may choose to link their websites to our service through our easy to use API. A demo of our system can be found at kibitz.csail. mit.edu/video_demo/.
The power of linear programming for valued CSPs: a constructive characterization

A class of valued constraint satisfaction problems (VCSPs) is characterised by a valued constraint language, a fixed set of cost functions on a finite domain. An instance of the problem is specified by a sum of cost functions from the language with the goal to minimise the sum. We study which classes of finite-valued languages can be solved exactly by the basic linear programming relaxation (BLP). Thapper and Zivny showed [20] that if BLP solves the language then the language admits a binary commutative fractional polymorphism. We prove that the converse is also true. This leads to a necessary and a sufficient condition which can be checked in polynomial time for a given language. In contrast, the previous necessary and sufficient condition due to [20] involved infinitely many inequalities. More recently, Thapper and Zivny [21] showed (using, in particular, a technique introduced in this paper) that core languages that do not satisfy our condition are NP-hard. Taken together, these results imply that a finite-valued language can either be solved using Linear Programming or is NP-hard.
SLAM based on Kalman filter for multi-rate fusion of laser and encoder measurements

In this paper, extended Kalman and unscented Kalman filters are developed for multi-rate systems in the context of the SLAM problem. These multi-rate filters have been extensively compared and tested with experimental data taken from a parking lot. Both multi-rate filters have improved the estimation with respect to the conventional single-rate Kalman filter. A performance index is introduced, showing that EKF gives better performance than UKF. In order to complete the SLAM solution, well-known techniques for feature extraction, data association and map building have been also implemented.
Procedural Justice and Personality Testing

Research in selection examines how organizational justice principles may influence applicants’ reactions to selection procedures. This article extends this research by examining how two aspects of procedures—interpersonal treatment and social comparison information—affect reactions to a personality testing. The results of two studies demonstrate that interpersonal treatment (expression of concern for applicants’ feelings) and social comparison information (description of testing as either typical or experimental) interact to affect test-takers’ reactions. When concern was expressed and personality testing was described as typical, individuals responded less positively. However, when no concern was expressed, evaluations were more positive when testing was described as typical. The implications for organizational justice research and selection research are discussed.
Efficient Clue-Based Route Search on Road Networks

With the advances in geo-positioning technologies and location-based services, it is nowadays quite common for road networks to have textual contents on the vertices. Previous work on identifying an optimal route that covers a sequence of query keywords has been studied in recent years. However, in many practical scenarios, an optimal route might not always be desirable. For example, a personalized route query is issued by providing some clues that describe the spatial context between PoIs along the route, where the result can be far from the optimal one. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate the problem of clue-based route search (<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\sf {CRS}}$ </tex-math><alternatives><inline-graphic xlink:href="zheng-ieq1-2703848.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>), which allows a user to provide clues on keywords and spatial relationships. First, we propose a greedy algorithm and a dynamic programming algorithm as baselines. To improve efficiency, we develop a branch-and-bound algorithm that prunes unnecessary vertices in query processing. In order to quickly locate candidate, we propose an AB-tree that stores both the distance and keyword information in tree structure. To further reduce the index size, we construct a PB-tree by utilizing the virtue of 2-hop label index to pinpoint the candidate. Extensive experiments are conducted and verify the superiority of our algorithms and index structures.
Beyond mutual acculturation. Intergroup relations among immigrants, Anglo-Australians, and Indigenous Australians

In this paper we examine intercultural relations from a three-way perspective (among immigrants/refugees, Anglo-Australians, and Indigenous Australians) through the lens of social cohesion and its dimensions (belonging, inclusion, participation, recognition, and legitimacy). Our data are drawn from three community case studies involving 15 focus group discussions (138 community residents) and 54 key informant interviews (government and nongovernment service providers and community representatives). Our findings highlight the complexity of intergroup relations, with tensions driven largely by realistic threat concerns and perceived relative deprivation among Anglo-Australians and Indigenous Australians. These concerns intersected with intercultural recognition and national identity. Finally, there was a general lack of the kind of intergroup contact that would decrease prejudice. The findings are discussed in relation to acculturation research and the complexity of intergroup relations in plural societies.
Evaluating the quality of dietary intake validation studies

Within the EURopean micronutrient RECommendations Aligned Network of Excellence (EURRECA), a scoring system was developed to assess the quality of dietary intake validation studies. The scoring system included three steps. The first step was to give each study a quality score, which included five components: sample size, statistics used, data collection procedure, consideration of seasonality and supplement use. Scores ranged from 0 to 7, and validation studies classified as very good ( ≥ 5), good (5–3·5), acceptable/reasonable (3·5–2·5) and poor ( < 2·5). The second and third steps included an adjustment/weighting of the correlation coefficient according to the quality score and moreover a rating of the adjusted/weighted correlation. The scoring system was tested in 124 validation studies that included at least one vitamin. Only 5·6 % of the 124 studies were judged to be of very good quality according to the quality score, 41·9 % of good quality and 16·9 % had a poor rating. When adjusting for the study quality scores, crude and adjusted mean correlations of vitamins A, C, D and E intakes were similar, but the percentage of correlation values classified as poor or very good was higher after adjustment. These results show the importance of considering the quality of studies validating dietary assessment methods and the correlations obtained for the micronutrient of interest when interpreting effects observed in epidemiological studies using dietary assessment methods. Without a doubt, this subject constitutes a key topic for research in nutritional epidemiology.
Synergistic effect between IL-10 and bcl-2 genotypes in determining susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether genes participating in programmed cell death, including bcl-2, IL-10, Fas-L, and CTLA-4, may contribute to the genetic predisposition to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). METHODS First, intragenic markers for the bcl-2, IL-10, Fas-L, and CTLA-4 genes were characterized and their extent of polymorphism in normal populations was determined. The allelic distribution of these gene markers in a large Mexican American SLE cohort of 158 patients and 223 ethnically matched controls was determined using fluorescent-labeled primers and semiautomated genotyping. RESULTS The bcl-2, Fas-L, and IL-10 loci showed significantly different allelic distribution in SLE patients compared with controls, indicating an association between these genes and SLE. No association was found between SLE and the CTLA-4 gene. Further analysis revealed a synergistic effect between susceptibility alleles of the bcl-2 and IL-10 genes in determining disease susceptibility. Alone, the presence of each of these alleles was associated with a moderate increase in SLE risk, while the occurrence of these alleles together increased the odds of developing SLE by more than 40-fold. CONCLUSION The results suggest that individuals carrying specific genotypes of both bcl-2 and IL-10 are at significant risk of developing SLE.
Robust Stabilization for Uncertain Takagi-Sugeno Fuzzy Continuous Model with Time-Delay Based on Razumikhin Theorem

© 2012 Manai and Benrejeb, licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Robust Stabilization for Uncertain Takagi-Sugeno Fuzzy Continuous Model with Time-Delay Based on Razumikhin Theorem
Process locking: a protocol based on ordered shared locks for the execution of transactional processes

In this paper, we propose process locking, a dynamic scheduling protocol based on ideas of ordered shared locks, that allows for the correct concurrent and fault-tolerant execution of transactional processes. Transactional processes are well defined, complex structured collections of transactional services. The process structure comprises flow of control between single process steps and also considers alternatives for failure handling purposes. Moreover, the individual steps of a process may have different termination characteristics, i.e., they cannot be compensated once they have committed. All these constraints have to be taken into consideration when deciding how to interleave processes. However, due to the higher level semantics of processes, standard locking techniques based on shared and exclusive locks on data objects cannot be applied. Yet, process locking addresses both atomicity and isolation simultaneously at the appropriate level, the scheduling of processes, and accounts for the various constraints imposed by processes. In addition, process locking aims at providing a high degree of concurrency while, at the same time, minimizing execution costs. This is done by allowing cascading aborts for rather simple processes white this is prevented for complex, long-running processes within the same framework.
Vision-only autonomous navigation using topometric maps

This paper presents a mapping and navigation system for a mobile robot, which uses vision as its sole sensor modality. The system enables the robot to navigate autonomously, plan paths and avoid obstacles using a vision based topometric map of its environment. The map consists of a globally-consistent pose-graph with a local 3D point cloud attached to each of its nodes. These point clouds are used for direction independent loop closure and to dynamically generate 2D metric maps for locally optimal path planning. Using this locally semi-continuous metric space, the robot performs shortest path planning instead of following the nodes of the graph - as is done with most other vision-only navigation approaches. The system exploits the local accuracy of visual odometry in creating local metric maps, and uses pose graph SLAM, visual appearance-based place recognition and point clouds registration to create the topometric map. The ability of the framework to sustain vision-only navigation is validated experimentally, and the system is provided as open-source software.
Both Ends of a Telescope: Experience and Expertise in Principal Problem Solving

This article develops a conceptual framework for the application of schema theory to the appraisal of expertise in school administration and reports the results of a study conducted to investigate relevant variables. More complex schemata of the kind considered likely to be associated with expertise were viewed as being associated with both greater attention to detail and a more abstract approach to problem solving. The relationship of these characteristics to judged expertise in transcribed think-aloud responses to a case problem was investigated with reference to the effects of professional experience. Results showed that attention to detail and level of abstraction were both positively related to judged expertise. Professional experience in schools-but not necessarily in the principalship-was also positively related to judged expertise and the other variables, with some interesting exceptions.
A Functional Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) Channel Is Expressed in Human Endothelial Progenitor Cells

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are mobilized into circulation to replace damaged endothelial cells and recapitulate the vascular network of injured tissues. Intracellular Ca2+ signals are key to EPC activation, but it is yet to be elucidated whether they are endowed with the same blend of Ca2+‐permeable channels expressed by mature endothelial cells. For instance, endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs), the only EPC subset truly committed to acquire a mature endothelial phenotype, lack canonical transient receptor potential channels 3, 5 and 6 (TRPC3, 5 and 6), which are widely distributed in vascular endothelium; on the other hand, they express a functional store‐operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE). The present study was undertaken to assess whether human circulating EPCs possess TRP vanilloid channel 4 (TRPV4), which plays a master signalling role in mature endothelium, by controlling both vascular remodelling and arterial pressure. We found that EPCs express both TRPV4 mRNA and protein. Moreover, both GSK1016790A (GSK) and phorbol myristate acetate and, two widely employed TRPV4 agonists, induced intracellular Ca2+ signals uniquely in presence of extracellular Ca2+. GSK‐ and PMA‐induced Ca2+ elevations were inhibited by RN‐1734 and ruthenium red, which selectively target TRPV4 in mature endothelium. However, TRPV4 stimulation with GSK did not cause EPC proliferation, while the pharmacological blockade of TRPV4 only modestly affected EPC growth in the presence of a growth factor‐enriched culture medium. Conversely, SOCE inhibition with BTP‐2, La3+ and Gd3+ dramatically decreased cell proliferation. These data indicate that human circulating EPCs possess a functional TRPV4 protein before their engraftment into nascent vessels. J. Cell. Physiol. 230: 95–104, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Immunohistochemical Evidence of Seizure-Induced Activation of trkB Receptors in the Mossy Fiber Pathway of Adult Mouse Hippocampus

Genetic and pharmacological perturbations suggest that tyrosine receptor kinase B (trkB) receptor activation promotes limbic epileptogenesis, but whether or where trkB activation occurs during epileptogenesis is uncertain. Because activation of trk receptors involves phosphorylation of specific tyrosine residues (Segal et al., 1996), the availability of antibodies that selectively recognize the phosphorylated form of trk receptors at the Shc site permits an immunohistochemical assessment of trk receptor activation. We reported previously increased phospho-specific trk (p-trk) immunoreactivity in the mossy fiber pathway of the hippocampus during epileptogenesis in rats (Binder et al., 1999b). Because the p-trk antibody does not distinguish among trkA, trkB, and trkC, the identity of the neurotrophin receptor(s) undergoing phosphorylation was uncertain. The development of mice carrying a point mutation of the Shc binding site (Y515F) in the trkB gene (trkBshc ) provided an opportunity to test the hypothesis that trkB is the neurotrophin receptor undergoing phosphorylation. Epileptogenesis in wild-type (WT) mice was associated with increased p-trk immunoreactivity in both the mossy fiber pathway and CA3 stratum oriens of hippocampus. In contrast, the epileptogenesis-associated increase of p-trk immunoreactivity was reduced in trkBshc mutant mice. The development of epileptogenesis as measured by electrophysiological and behavioral indices did not differ betweentrkBshc mutant and WT mice. These data demonstrate that the neurotrophin receptor trkB undergoes phosphorylation in the mossy fiber pathway and CA3 stratum oriens of the hippocampus during limbic epileptogenesis. In addition, the signaling pathways activated by the Shc site of trkB exert no detectable regulatory effects on limbic epileptogenesis.
“Slight” of Hand: The Processing of Visually Degraded Gestures with Speech

Co-speech hand gestures influence language comprehension. The present experiment explored what part of the visual processing system is optimized for processing these gestures. Participants viewed short video clips of speech and gestures (e.g., a person saying “chop” or “twist” while making a chopping gesture) and had to determine whether the two modalities were congruent or incongruent. Gesture videos were designed to stimulate the parvocellular or magnocellular visual pathways by filtering out low or high spatial frequencies (HSF versus LSF) at two levels of degradation severity (moderate and severe). Participants were less accurate and slower at processing gesture and speech at severe versus moderate levels of degradation. In addition, they were slower for LSF versus HSF stimuli, and this difference was most pronounced in the severely degraded condition. However, exploratory item analyses showed that the HSF advantage was modulated by the range of motion and amount of motion energy in each video. The results suggest that hand gestures exploit a wide range of spatial frequencies, and depending on what frequencies carry the most motion energy, parvocellular or magnocellular visual pathways are maximized to quickly and optimally extract meaning.
Review article: Best practice management of common knee injuries in the emergency department (part 3 of the musculoskeletal injuries rapid review series)

Knee injuries are a common presentation to the ED and are often difficult to assess and definitively diagnose due to the patient's acute pain, effusion and guarding. The quality of ED care provided to patients with fractures or soft tissue injuries of the knee is critical to ensure the best possible outcomes for the patient. This rapid review investigated best practice for the assessment and management of common knee injuries in the ED. Databases were searched in 2017, including PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, TRIP and the grey literature, including relevant organisational websites. Primary studies, systematic reviews and guidelines were considered for inclusion. English‐language articles published in the past 12 years that addressed the acute assessment, management, follow‐up plan or prognosis were included. Data extraction of included articles was conducted, followed by quality appraisal to rate the level of evidence where possible. The search revealed 2250 articles, of which 54 were included in the review (n = 8 primary articles, n = 28 systematic reviews, n = 18 guidelines). This rapid review provides clinicians managing fractures and soft tissue injuries of the knee in the ED, a summary of the best available evidence to enhance the quality of care for optimal patient outcomes. There is consistent evidence to support undertaking a thorough history and physical examination, including the application of special tests and clinical decision rules for imaging. In the undifferentiated knee injury, expedited follow up and further imaging is recommended to improve patient outcomes and cost‐effectiveness.
Compact planar arrays based on parasitic superdirective elements

This paper addresses the problem of designing compact antenna arrays for UHF band by using small superdirective unit-elements. A small parasitic two-element array is designed for 868MHz European RFID band. This array with a size factor (ka = 1.1) has a total directivity of 7dBi and radiation efficiency of 43.4%. Then this array is integrated in a 2 × 2 planar array. A parametric analysis on the interelement distance is performed revealing the tradeoffs between the antenna- dimensions, -directivity and -efficiency. A small 2 × 2 antenna array with dimensions of 34×34cm2 presenting a total directivity of 12.6dBi and radiation efficiency of 41% is designed.