Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pain, Disability, and Depression in Osteoarthritis

Objectives: A cross-sectional study examined how race and sex affect associations among osteoarthritis (OA) pain, disability, and depression in 363 older adults with diagnosed knee OA. Method: African American (Black; N = 94) and non-Hispanic White (White; N = 269) men and women self-reported pain, disability, depressive symptoms, arthritis history, general health, and demographic information. Results: Women experienced greater pain and marginally greater disability than men; African Americans reported greater disability and marginally greater pain than non-Hispanic Whites. These effects varied with education, health, and arthritis history. In ordinary least squares regression analyses, race and pain independently predicted depression. Significant interactions of race, sex, and disability were driven by a lack of relationship between depression and disability among African American men. Discussion: Race and sex influence affective response to OA pain and disability in complex ways, with African American men showing paradoxical effects. Further research is needed to elucidate mechanisms of this moderation effect.
Measuring impact of protected area management interventions: current and future use of the Global Database of Protected Area Management Effectiveness

Protected areas (PAs) are at the forefront of conservation efforts, and yet despite considerable progress towards the global target of having 17% of the world's land area within protected areas by 2020, biodiversity continues to decline. The discrepancy between increasing PA coverage and negative biodiversity trends has resulted in renewed efforts to enhance PA effectiveness. The global conservation community has conducted thousands of assessments of protected area management effectiveness (PAME), and interest in the use of these data to help measure the conservation impact of PA management interventions is high. Here, we summarize the status of PAME assessment, review the published evidence for a link between PAME assessment results and the conservation impacts of PAs, and discuss the limitations and future use of PAME data in measuring the impact of PA management interventions on conservation outcomes. We conclude that PAME data, while designed as a tool for local adaptive management, may also help to provide insights into the impact of PA management interventions from the local-to-global scale. However, the subjective and ordinal characteristics of the data present significant limitations for their application in rigorous scientific impact evaluations, a problem that should be recognized and mitigated where possible.
An Exploratory Study on the Use of Eye Movement Integration Therapy in Overcoming Childhood Trauma

Eye movement integration therapy (EMI) is a relatively new therapeutic modality, based on a neurobiological model of trauma. This article advances the empirical knowledge base of EMI, by assessing its utility with a cohort of 12 adolescents, aged 14 to 16 years, in South Africa. The results indicate a reduction in a range of trauma symptoms, based on the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children and post-EMI interviews with the children's care workers. A number of clinical practice issues regarding the utilization of EMI with children are discussed and illustrated with case material.
Inhibitors of Histone Deacetylation Downregulate the Expression of Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase and Compromise Endothelial Cell Function in Vasorelaxation and Angiogenesis

Abstract— The histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor trichostatin A (TSA) inhibits hypoxia-stimulated angiogenesis. Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS)–derived NO is central to angiogenesis signaling in endothelial cells (ECs). We hypothesized that the HDAC-dependent regulation of angiogenesis may involve a modulatory effect on eNOS expression. The HDAC inhibitors TSA, butyric acid (BuA), and MS-275 time- and concentration-dependently suppressed eNOS protein levels to 41±2%, 46±12%, and 40±12% of control, respectively. In parallel, TSA and BuA also downregulated eNOS mRNA expression to 21±4% and 37±4% of control. TSA also attenuated the NO-dependent relaxation of porcine coronary arteries (P <0.0001, TSA 1 &mgr;mol/L) and prevented tube formation in a human angiogenesis assay. Although vascular endothelial growth factor substitution did not compensate for the inhibitory effect of TSA, exogenous NO reversed the inhibition of angiogenesis by TSA. To address the underlying signaling mechanism, we characterized the effect of TSA on eNOS gene transcription and mRNA half-life. Although TSA decreased both eNOS protein and mRNA levels, TSA paradoxically enhanced the activity of the eNOS promoter, and did not alter the eNOS transcription rate in nuclear run-on experiments, suggesting that TSA posttranscriptionally targets eNOS mRNA. These data indicate that HDAC-dependent mechanisms contribute to the regulation of eNOS expression in ECs.
Comparison of MODIS and bird in detecting wildfires over large areas in an Australian context

Responding to the threat of wildfire on human and natural resources is important, particularly in countries such as Australia where large areas of land are required to be observed and managed. Remote sensing techniques are an obvious choice in providing fire related information over large areas for emergency services in responding timely to outbreaks of wildfires. The objective of this study was to compare the utility of the MODIS fire products, MOD14 and MCD45, against the experimental small satellite BIRD, using Landsat ETM+ as the validation dataset. The results show that MODIS has the highest accuracy for detecting active fire fronts, with 91.5% compared to BIRD with 83.1%, but that BIRD outperformed MODIS in burn scar detection with 81.5% and 76% compared to MODIS which had 49.5% and 65% for the respective tests.
Genome‐wide association study with the risk of schizophrenia in a Korean population

Schizophrenia is regarded as a multifactorial and polygenic brain disorder that is attributed to different combinations of genetic and environmental risk factors. Recently, several genome‐wide association studies (GWASs) of schizophrenia have identified numerous risk factors, but the replication results remain controversial and ambiguous. To identify schizophrenia susceptibility loci in the Korean population, we performed a GWAS using the Illumina HumanOmni1‐Quad V1.0 Microarray. We genotyped 1,140,419 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 350 Korea schizophrenia patients and 700 control subjects, and approximately 620,001 autosomal SNPs were passed our quality control. In the case–control analysis, the rs9607195 A>G on intergenic area 250 kb away from the ISX gene and the rs12738007 A>G on the intron of the MECR gene were the most strongly associated SNPs with the risk of schizophrenia (P = 6.2 × 10−8, OR = 0.50 and P = 3.7 × 10−7, OR = 2.39, respectively). In subsequent fine‐mapping analysis, 6 SNPs of MECR were genotyped with 310 schizophrenia patients and 604 control subjects. The association of the MECR rs12738007, a top ranked‐SNP in GWAS, was replicated (P = 1.5 × 10−2, OR = 1.53 in fine mapping analysis, P = 1.5 × 10−6, OR = 1.90 in combined analysis). The identification of putative schizophrenia susceptibility loci could provide new insights into genetic factors related with schizophrenia and clues for the development of diagnosis strategies. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Can Devices Facilitate a Hypnotic Induction?

Abstract Historically, many devices were believed to have the ability to facilitate a hypnotic induction, but in time such devices proved to have no inherent facilitating properties other than a general placebo effect. To test the efficacy of a device called a “plasma ball” that may facilitate an induction by combining two sensory modalities simultaneously (visual and auditory), 42 college students who scored 6 and below on the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (HGSHS: A) and completed a scale rating the realness of items, were selected for a second session. Participants were matched on hypnotizability scores and randomly assigned to experimental or standard eye fixation induction control condition. Although hypnotizability scores and realness ratings increased significantly from the initial session, use of the device did not produce higher hypnotizability scores or realness ratings in the experimental compared with the control condition. Results indicate that there is still no evidence that one fixation device works better as a target than any other.
Rate Control For People detection in video 1

People Detection in video is generally used in high level multimedia applications like intelligent surveillance systems, augmented reality ,etc. People detection is based on background subtraction. Generally videos are available in compressed form due to which noise will be added in it. Many algorithms are used to detect people and control their rate. There are three key steps in video analysis detection of interesting moving objects, tracking of such objects from frame to frame, and analysis of object tracks to recognize their behavior. The ability of human visual system to detect visual saliency is extraordinarily fast and reliable. However, computational modeling of this basic intelligent behavior still remains a challenge. In this paper we put our attention into background subtraction and Gaussian grouping of pixels for detection of people in low quality video i.e. improve accuracy.
IT Stereotyping and the CEO-CIO Headlock

In addition to running key organizational systems, Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are increasingly expected to embrace a broader role in their organizations by driving organizational transformation, innovating for competitive advantage and acting as key strategic partners to the CEO and other members of the C-level team. Their ability to fulfill this challenging role, however, is inhibited by the existence (and influence) of IT stereotypes. When CEOs harbor these stereotypes, they tend to treat the CIO as a “last among equals”, impose limits on the CIO’s resources (e.g., access to the Board), and relegate the CIO to a supporting role thus denying a strategic opportunity for IT. This research proposal develops a means of assessing the IT stereotypes and their strength and examines their impact on the role of IT within the organization. This study will introduce a novel theoretical approach to the understanding of the relationship between the IT organization and the rest of the business. Implications for theory and practice are
Shape-Dependent Optoelectronic Cell Lysis

We show an electrical method to break open living cells amongst a population of different cell types, where cell selection is based upon their shape. We implement the technique on an optoelectronic platform, where light, focused onto a semiconductor surface from a video projector creates a reconfigurable pattern of electrodes. One can choose the area of cells to be lysed in real-time, from single cells to large areas, simply by redrawing the projected pattern. We show that the method, based on the “electrical shadow” that the cell casts, allows the detection of rare cell types in blood (including sleeping sickness parasites), and has the potential to enable single cell studies for advanced molecular diagnostics, as well as wider applications in analytical chemistry.
Patterns , Process and Systems-Thinking : Putting Social Pattern Languages to Work

Following a 2006 study aimed at evaluating the validity of pattern languages within the context of civic communication and social change, a number of insights emerged connected to the field of system dynamics and the practice of process monitoring. The study revealed that both system dynamics and process monitoring provide a number of opportunities for further grounding pattern thinking, as well as in supporting adaptive approaches to pattern based capacity building among community networks. Based upon these initial findings it would appear that further investigation is necessary to better understand how patterns, systems and process can be integrated for ever more effective planning and capacity building among civil society, community networks and social change advocates.
Early prediction of favourable recovery 6 months after mild traumatic brain injury

Background: Predicting outcome after mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) is notoriously difficult. Although it is recognised that milder head injuries do not necessarily mean better outcomes, less is known about the factors that do enable early identification of patients who are likely to recover well. Objective: To develop and internally validate two prediction rules for identifying patients who have the highest chance for good 6 month recovery. Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted among patients with MTBI admitted to the emergency department. Apart from MTBI severity indices, a range of pre-, peri- and early post-injury variables were considered as potential predictors, including emotional and physical functioning. Logistic regression modelling was used to predict the absence of postconcussional symptoms (PCS) and full return to work (RTW). Results: At follow-up, 64% of the 201 participating patients reported full recovery. Based on our prediction rules, patients without premorbid physical problems, low levels of PCS and post-traumatic stress early after injury had a 90% chance of remaining free of PCS. Patients with over 11 years of education, without nausea or vomiting on admission, with no additional extracranial injuries and only low levels of pain early after injury had a 90% chance of full RTW. The discriminative ability of the prediction models was satisfactory, with an area under the curve >0.70 after correction for optimism. Conclusions: Early identification of patients with MTBI who are likely to have good 6 month recovery was feasible on the basis of relatively simple prognostic models. A score chart was derived from the models to facilitate clinical application.
A Case Study of the International Niemann-Pick Disease Registry (INPDR)

Clinical research registries need to be driven by data quality to improve the outcome of clinical trials and to provide the possibility to facilitate new research initiatives. The International Niemann-Pick Disease Registry (INPDR) is one such example of a clinical research registry. Unlike other registries where data quality is largely based around best effort manual data entry, the INPDR registry supports ongoing data completeness evaluation and feedback to those entering data. To assess the efficiency of this feedback, a research framework evaluating data completeness with different types of user feedback was applied. In this paper we consider the impact on data quality and user activity over time. Data accuracy and data completeness was measured by participating centers and combined into an overall data quality score. The results show that clinical research registries can benefit from an ongoing data quality assurance framework with targeted data quality feedback. This has implications for future clinical trials and clinical databases more generally.
Edge Disjoint Paths in Moderately Connected Graphs

We study the Edge Disjoint Paths (EDP) problem in undirected graphs: Given a graph G with n nodes and a set ${\mathcal T}$ of pairs of terminals, connect as many terminal pairs as possible using paths that are mutually edge disjoint. This leads to a variety of classic NP-complete problems, for which approximability is not well understood. We show a polylogarithmic approximation algorithm for the undirected EDP problem in general graphs with a moderate restriction on graph connectivity; we require the global minimum cut of G to be Ω(log5n). Previously, constant or polylogarithmic approximation algorithms were known for trees with parallel edges, expanders, grids and grid-like graphs, and most recently, even-degree planar graphs. These graphs either have special structure (e.g., they exclude minors) or there are large numbers of short disjoint paths. Our algorithm extends previous techniques in that it applies to graphs with high diameters and asymptotically large minors.
A Generic Approach to Schedulability Analysis of Real-Time Tasks

In off-line schedulability tests for real time systems, tasks are usually assumed to be periodic, i.e. they are released with fixed rates. To relax the assumption of complete knowledge on arrival times, we propose to use timed automata to describe task arrival patterns. In a recent work, it is shown that for fixed priority scheduling strategy and tasks with only timing constraints (i.e. execution time and deadline), the schedulability of such models can be checked by reachability analysis on timed automata with two clocks.In this paper, we extend the above result to deal with precedence and resource constraints. This yields a unified task model, which is expressive enough to describe concurrency, synchronization, and tasks that may be periodic, aperiodic, preemptive or nonpreemptive with (or without) combinations of timing, precedence, and resource constraints. We present an operational semantics for the model, and show that the related schedulability analysis problem can be solved efficiently using the same technique. The presented results have been implemented in the TIMES tool for automated schedulability analysis.
Ventriculo–arterial interaction may be assessed by Oscillatory Power Fraction

The rate of energy transfer from the left ventricle to the aorta is viewed in terms of mean power (MP) and total power (TP). The difference between MP and TP is due to the pulsatility of the circulation and is known as oscillatory power (OP). OP is considered the energy spent to accelerate the blood flow. The aim of this study was to investigate the baseline left ventricular oscillatory power fraction (OP/TP) and how this was affected by acute cardiovascular dysfunction and altered preload. Twenty‐eight patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass graft surgery were included. Before administration of anaesthesia, we simultaneously recorded an arterial pressure curve and instantaneous cardiac outflow with pulsed wave Doppler. Postoperatively, prior to extubation, these measurements were repeated in neutral, Trendelenburg and reverse‐Trendelenburg position. The final measurements were taken on the awake patient the day after the operation. TP is the mean of the instantaneous product of the flow and pressure curves. MP was calculated by multiplying mean arterial pressure with mean cardiac output. The oscillatory power fraction is therefore calculated as (TP‐MP)/TP. The oscillatory power fraction in neutral position decreased from 23% preoperatively to 16% immediately postoperatively (P<0·001) and increased again to 19% the first postoperative day (P = 0·001). The oscillatory power fraction also increased from 16% in neutral to 19% in Trendelenburg (P = 0·001) and decreased comparing to neutral, to 14% in reverse‐Trendelenburg (P = 0·04). The oscillatory power fraction is situation‐dependent and is influenced by both the operation and the altered preload.
Scheduled PSM for Minimizing Energy in Wireless LANs

Power conservation is a general concern for mobile computing and communication. In this paper, we investigate the performance of the current 802.11 power saving mechanism (unscheduled PSM) and demonstrate that background network traffic can have a significant impact on the power consumption of mobile stations. To improve power efficiency, a scheduled PSM protocol based on time slicing is proposed in this paper. The protocol adopts the mechanism of time division, schedules the access point to deliver pending data at designated time slices, and adaptively adjusts the power state of the mobile stations. The proposed scheme is near theoretical optimal for power saving in the sense that it greatly reduces the effect of background traffic, minimizes the station idle time, and maximizes its energy utilization. Comprehensive analysis and simulations are conducted to evaluate the new protocol. Our results show that it provides significant energy saving over the unscheduled PSM, particularly in circumstances where multiple traffic streams coexist in a network. Moreover, it achieves the saving at the cost of only a slight degradation of the one-way delay performance.
Multiple description coding: compression meets the network

This article focuses on the compressed representations of pictures. The representation does not affect how many bits get from the Web server to the laptop, but it determines the usefulness of the bits that arrive. Many different representations are possible, and there is more involved in their choice than merely selecting a compression ratio. The techniques presented represent a single information source with several chunks of data ("descriptions") so that the source can be approximated from any subset of the chunks. By allowing image reconstruction to continue even after a packet is lost, this type of representation can prevent a Web browser from becoming dormant.
A Multilevel Refinement Approach to the Rooted Delay-Constrained Steiner Tree Problem

The Rooted Delay-Constrained Steiner Tree Problem (RDCSTP) is a variant of the well-known Steiner Tree Problem on a graph in which the paths to all terminal nodes are restricted by a certain maximum delay. The problem mostly appears in the context of network routing for multicasts, i.e., sending packages from a fixed source to a subset of other participants in the network. Since the RDCSTP belongs to the class of NP-hard problems it is in general not possible to solve large instances exactly in a reasonable amount of time. Therefore, the focus mostly lies on developing good heuristics that can still solve large instances comparatively fast to near optimality. In this thesis a Multilevel Refinement heuristic – which has already been successfully applied to other problems like the Graph Partitioning Problem – is implemented as an improvement heuristic for the RDCSTP. In the general approach of this metaheuristic the problem’s complexity is first iteratively reduced while still maintaining its general characteristics. The problem is thereby simplified and can at the top level finally easily be solved. Then, the solution on this highest level is refined until a solution for the original problem is obtained. The algorithm introduced here implements the Multilevel Refinement approach as an improvement heuristic, iteratively changing an existing solution. However, it is designed in a way that also allows it to be used to construct an initial solution. Another distinctiveness is that, due to the additional delay constraints, supplementary data structures have to be used to avoid creating invalid solutions on higher levels as much as possible. In the refinement phase an additional improvement algorithm, the Key Path Improvement, is executed on each level, drastically increasing result quality. Experimental tests are carried out, evaluating the performance of the algorithm on large instances and comparing it to other algorithms in the literature. The obtained results are promising and indicate that the Multilevel Refinement metaheuristic is indeed a competitive approach for the RDCSTP.