Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring the attitudes towards and experiences of geocaching amongst families in the community

There is a need for physical activity interventions to focus on autonomous forms of motivation to increase uptake and maintenance. Geocaching is a GPS-based treasure-hunt game with potential to increase levels of walking. The study aim was to explore the experiences of a geocaching intervention for people introduced to geocaching. A five-week geocaching intervention took place. Participants (n = 30) were recruited via school assemblies and village posters. Semi-structured telephone interviews (n = 21) were conducted post intervention to determine the participants’ motives, barriers and experiences of geocaching. Geocaching motivators (social activity, challenge/discovery) and barriers (lack of time, problems with mobile technology and unsuccessful trips) were identified. Findings suggest that geocaching is a feasible activity to promote physical activity, particularly among families. Further robust and larger scale trials are required that target sedentary individuals, adopting strategies to reduce perceived barriers to geocaching.
Pain perception in patients with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia

Objective: Pain perception is reported to be altered in patients with depression and schizophrenia. However, few studies have investigated the pain perception in patients with bipolar disorders. We therefore aimed to compare pain sensitivity between patients with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and controls. Methods: Study groups consisted of 30 patients with bipolar disorder, and control groups consisted of 27 patients with schizophrenia and 59 healthy subjects. Pain perception was assessed with cold pressor test (CPT) by exposure to ice-water. Results: Patients with schizophrenia had significantly higher pain thresholds (PTh) than patients with bipolar disorder. There were no differences between the PTh of patients with schizophrenia and healthy control subjects. However, patients with bipolar disorder had significantly lower pain tolerance (PT) in the CPT than patients with schizophrenia and corresponding healthy control subjects. Conclusions: The higher PTh in the schizophrenia group compared with the bipolar group found in this study supports further investigation of a potential difference in the pain perception between patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Theoretical implications of these findings and possible relevant behavioural and neurochemical mechanisms are discussed.
Preoperative Treatment with Levosimendan in Candidates for Mechanical Circulatory Support

Left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation is a widely accepted treatment for end-stage heart failure. Preoperative conditions and right ventricular dysfunction are determinant parameters that influence outcome. We investigated the effect of preoperative levosimendan treatment in LVAD patients with moderate right ventricular dysfunction and right ventricular dilatation. Twenty-one patients treated with LVADs were included in the study. Before surgery, patients received levosimendan infusion (0.1–0.2 &mgr;g/kg/min) for 48 hours. Hemodynamic parameters and NT-proBNP were evaluated before, during, and 24 hours after the end of levosimendan treatment. During levosimendan treatment, all patients demonstrated a significant improvement in cardiac index (p = 0.014), pulmonary pressure (p = 0.003), and central venous pressure (p = 0.016). The hemodynamic condition worsened 24 hours after the end of the treatment in patients who died because of right ventricular failure while it was s in patients who survived. NT-proBNP was significantly higher (6733 vs. 8797 pg/ml) (p = 0.019) in patients who died because of right ventricular failure after 24 hours of levosimendan treatment. During levosimendan treatment, the median NT-proBNP value in patients who survived decreased by 39%, whereas in patients who died there was an increase of 3% (p = 0.008) at 72 hours. A reduction in NT-proBNP to below 25% is a predictor of mortality with sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 70%. Levosimendan treatment improves preimplant hemodynamic performance and permits the identification of patients who will develop right ventricular failure.
Eco-Efficiency Evaluation of Agricultural Production in the EU-28

This paper evaluates the eco-efficiency performance of agriculture at the sector level using the joint application of life cycle assessment (LCA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) techniques. The research has been performed for the agricultural production of the 28 member states of the European Union (the EU-28). The foundation for the calculation of the eco-efficiency performance was a statistically selected set of impact categories derived from the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) phase as input values and economic indicators, with the gross domestic product (GDP) of their agriculture as the output value. The results of the analysis showed that the agricultural sectors of 10 member states of the European Union (i.e., Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Romania, and Sweden) are relatively eco-efficient. The remaining 18 member states of the EU-28 have eco-inefficient agricultural sectors, though to a varying extent. This means that their agricultural sectors consume too many natural resources (in particular, energy), use too much fertilizer, and produce considerable amounts of airborne emissions in relation to the current level of GDP per hectare. These insights into the eco-efficiency performance of agriculture in the EU-28 may contribute to the adoption of better management techniques and more effective agricultural policies.
Critical Discourse Analysis 0n Ideology 0f Feminism in Nawāl Al-Sa’adāwi’s Mudzakkirāt Thobībah

The aim of this research is to carry out a critical discourse analysis on the ideology of feminism in the novel Mudzakkirāt Thobībah by Nawāl Al-Sa’adāwī, through linguistic feature in the symbol of sound, vocabulary and text structure or the dialog contained in the novel. This research utilizes qualitative approach with content analysis method of Philipp Mayring. Data is collected by way of reading the novel, identifying, marking, classifying and interpreting meaning. The findings are 1) patriarchal sound symbols because of the existence of non (nir)-sound in Nawāl Al-Sa’adāwī’s Mudzakkirāt Thobībah linguistic feature. They can be identified as patriarchal because the text is commonly read by men due to minimum access of education for women. Women are illiterate and experience oppression in education. There is almost no information about women figure that become a linguist, scientists and including female scholars. 2) the inequality of antonym and synonym. The word relation and series word by word (word) is ideologically unequal. The words that are used for women are not culturally conditioned as a partner to men. 3) The hegemony of power in the structure of texts in the form of dialog among the characters. In the texts the harmonious and disharmonious dialogs are reciprocal. From the result of this research, the researchers recommend a newly designed curriculum for education to carry out advocacy for the awareness linguistic feminist education with the character of the East and Indonesia.
Hypoosmotic swelling and ammonia increase oxidative stress by NADPH oxidase in cultured astrocytes and vital brain slices

The role of NADPH oxidase (NOX) and the regulatory subunit p47phox for hypoosmotic ROS generation was studied in cultured rat astrocytes and brain slices of wilde type and p47phox knock‐out mice. Cultured rat astrocytes express mRNAs encoding for the regulatory subunit p47phox, NOX1, 2, and 4, and the dual oxidases (DUOX)1 and 2, but not NOX3. Hypoosmotic (205 mosmol/L) swelling of cultured astrocytes induced a rapid generation of ROS that was accompanied by serine phosphorylation of p47phox and prevented by the NADPH oxidase inhibitor apocynin. Apocynin also impaired the hypoosmotic tyrosine phosphorylation of Src. Both, hypoosmotic ROS generation and p47phox serine phosphorylation were sensitive to the acidic sphingomyelinase inhibitors AY9944 and desipramine, the protein kinase C (PKC)ζ‐inhibitory pseudosubstrate peptide, the NMDA receptor antagonist MK‐801 and the intracellular Ca2+ chelator BAPTA‐AM. Also hypoosmotic exposure of wilde type mouse cortical brain slices increased ROS generation, which was allocated in part to the astrocytes and which was absent in presence of apocynin and in cortical brain slices from p47phox knock‐out mice. Also ammonia induced a rapid ROS production in cultured astrocytes and brain slices, which was sensitive to apocynin. The data suggest that astrocyte swelling triggers a p47phox‐dependent NADPH oxidase‐catalyzed ROS production. The findings further support a close interrelation between osmotic and oxidative stress in astrocytes, which may be relevant to different brain pathologies including hepatic encephalopathy. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Clinical value of MDCT in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease in patients with a low pretest likelihood of significant disease.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical value of MDCT in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease in a population having a low pretest likelihood of significant disease. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Sixty-four patients with suspected coronary artery disease and a low pretest likelihood of significant disease according to the criteria of the American Heart Association underwent both MDCT of the heart and quantitative conventional coronary angiography (QCA). MDCT examinations were performed on a 16-MDCT scanner. CT data sets were evaluated on a per-patient basis and a per-segment basis and were classified as indicating no disease, nonsignificant disease (stenoses </= 50%), or significant disease (stenoses > 50%). Sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV), and positive predictive value (PPV) of 16-MDCT in the detection or exclusion of significant and nonsignificant coronary artery disease were evaluated on both per-patient and per-segment bases. RESULTS Regarding the success rate of 16-MDCT, 94% (60/64) of patients and 92% (388/420) of vessel segments were of sufficient quality for diagnosis. In the remaining 60 patients evaluated, QCA revealed significant coronary artery disease, nonsignificant disease, and no disease in 8.3% (5/60), 75.0% (45/60), and 16.7% (10/60) of cases, respectively, on a per-patient basis, and in 1.3% (5/388), 23.2% (90/388), and 75.5% (293/388) of cases, respectively, on a per-segment basis. The sensitivity, specificity, NPV, and PPV of 16-MDCT for the detection of significant coronary artery disease were 80.0%, 94.5%, 98.1%, and 57.1%, respectively, on a per-patient basis, and 80.0%, 99.2%, 99.7%, and 57.1% on a per-segment basis. CONCLUSION In a population having a low pretest likelihood of significant coronary artery disease, 16-MDCT shows a moderate to high sensitivity and high NPV for the detection or exclusion of significant disease, but has a somewhat reduced PPV compared with QCA.
Impaired E-Cadherin Expression and Glutamine Synthetase Overexpression in Solid Pseudopapillary Neoplasm of the Pancreas

Objectives: To analyze in solid pseudopapillary neoplasm of the pancreas (SPNP) the consequences of the deregulated Wnt pathway by studying the expression of Wnt target glutamine synthetase (GLUL), cyclin D1, and E-cadherin, which is one of the &bgr;-catenin binding partner in cell adhesion. Methods: The expression of cyclin D1 and GLUL was studied at the protein and/or messenger RNA levels, and the immunolocalization for E-cadherin was analyzed in 28 SPNPs screened for &bgr;-catenin mutations. Expression of cyclin D1, GLUL, and &bgr;-catenin was also assessed in pancreatic endocrine tumors as controls. Results: Cytosolic and/or nuclear accumulation of &bgr;-catenin was observed in all tumors; an activating &bgr;-catenin mutation was identified in 21 (91%) of 23 tumors analyzed. E-cadherin expression is lost from the membrane and is observed in intracytosolic "dotlike" structures. Whereas cyclin D1 expression is observed widely in SPNP and endocrine tumors, GLUL expression is restricted to SPNP (100%) and rare endocrine tumors (10%) displaying Wnt activation. Conclusions: The activation of the Wnt/&bgr;-catenin pathway in SPNP has 2 main consequences. First, E-cadherin expression moved from membranous to intracytoplasmic localization. Second, GLUL expression is highly correlated with Wnt/&bgr;-catenin activation, demonstrating its faithfulness as a Wnt target gene.
Biometric Authentication Using Mouse and Eye Movement Data

This paper presents a novel technique to uniquely identify a user using data gathered from a mouse and the users eyes during computer use. The research involves gathering data from users, extracting user features, and training a Neural Network classifier that can identify them. Previous work has attempted to identify users solely by eye or mouse data alone, but we seek to find out if combining the two kinds of data can produce better results. After going through this process and investigating several Neural Network based classification models we conclude that combining both techniques produces better results and will become practical once the hardware is more widespread.
Anterior Cruciate Ligament Segmentation: Using Morphological Operations with Active Contour

Among the ligaments responsible in maintaining the structural integrity of knee joint, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury is most commonly diagnosed. Recent advancement in clinical imaging technology has led to wide employment of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in such injury assessment. However, the visual assessment conducted with these images often requires the boundaries of selected structures to be manually traced using computer software. Such interpretation is often time consuming and subjective as it is based on the radiologist's opinion and past experiences. In this study, a semi-automatic ACL segmentation program that utilized both morphological operations and active contour is proposed. It takes advantage of the ACL's unique shape and orientation within MR images to carry out the segmentation. Among 111 PD-weighted images segmented, the proposed program was capable of achieving an overall sensitivity, specificity and Dice coefficient of 43.3 % ±± 14.0 %, 99.4 % ±± 0.3 %, and 0.381 ±± 0.091 respectively. Although these values indicated low performance produced by the proposed program, the results from this study did prove its feasibility in providing an objective and reproducible ACL segmentation. Thus, with necessary improvements implemented, this program can be deployed clinically to facilitate ACL injury diagnosis.
Multi-objective Optimization Algorithms with the Island Metaheuristic for Effective Project Management Problem Solving

Abstract Background and Purpose: In every organization, project management raises many different decision-making problems, a large proportion of which can be efficiently solved using specific decision-making support systems. Yet such kinds of problems are always a challenge since there is no time-efficient or computationally efficient algorithm to solve them as a result of their complexity. In this study, we consider the problem of optimal financial investment. In our solution, we take into account the following organizational resource and project characteristics: profits, costs and risks. Design/Methodology/Approach: The decision-making problem is reduced to a multi-criteria 0-1 knapsack problem. This implies that we need to find a non-dominated set of alternative solutions, which are a trade-off between maximizing incomes and minimizing risks. At the same time, alternatives must satisfy constraints. This leads to a constrained two-criterion optimization problem in the Boolean space. To cope with the peculiarities and high complexity of the problem, evolution-based algorithms with an island meta-heuristic are applied as an alternative to conventional techniques. Results: The problem in hand was reduced to a two-criterion unconstrained extreme problem and solved with different evolution-based multi-objective optimization heuristics. Next, we applied a proposed meta-heuristic combining the particular algorithms and causing their interaction in a cooperative and collaborative way. The obtained results showed that the island heuristic outperformed the original ones based on the values of a specific metric, thus showing the representativeness of Pareto front approximations. Having more representative approximations, decision-makers have more alternative project portfolios corresponding to different risk and profit estimations. Since these criteria are conflicting, when choosing an alternative with an estimated high profit, decision-makers follow a strategy with an estimated high risk and vice versa. Conclusion: In the present paper, the project portfolio decision-making problem was reduced to a 0-1 knapsack constrained multi-objective optimization problem. The algorithm investigation confirms that the use of the island meta-heuristic significantly improves the performance of genetic algorithms, thereby providing an efficient tool for Financial Responsibility Centres Management.
Hybrid volume beamforming for 3-D ultrasound imaging using 2-D CMUT arrays

In real-time 3-D (4-D) ultrasound imaging using 2-D array transducers, manipulating massive ultrasound data acquired from a large number of system channels is a challenge as is interconnecting thousands of elements of 2-D array with the imaging system's front-end electronics. Minimizing the number of transmitting and receiving channels and the firing events without degrading the image quality is one of solutions to reduce the overall system complexity and improve the frame rate. This paper introduces a hybrid volume beam-forming and scanning method for a medical ultrasound imaging system. We also present an efficient volume image-forming architecture using 2-D arrays for miniaturized volumetric ultrasound imaging scanners. To evaluate our works, computer simulations are performed. From the simulation results, we have shown that the presented method provides the comparable image quality to the fully-sampled array (FSA) beam-formation, and is feasible for realtime volumetric ultrasound scanners with miniature devices.
A Novel Heme a Insertion Factor Gene Cotranscribes with the Thermus thermophilus Cytochrome ba3 Oxidase Locus

ABSTRACT Studying the biogenesis of the Thermus thermophilus cytochrome ba 3 oxidase, we analyze heme a cofactor insertion into this membrane protein complex. Only three proteins linked to oxidase maturation have been described for this extreme thermophile, and in particular, no evidence for a canonical Surf1 homologue, required for heme a insertion, is available from genome sequence data. Here, we characterize the product of an open reading frame, cbaX, in the operon encoding subunits of the ba 3-type cytochrome c oxidase. CbaX shares no sequence identity with any known oxidase biogenesis factor, and CbaX homologues are found only in the Thermaceae group. In a series of cbaX deletion and complementation experiments, we demonstrate that the resulting ba 3 oxidase complexes, affinity purified via an internally inserted His tag located in subunit I, are severely affected in their enzymatic activities and heme compositions in both the low- and high-spin sites. Thus, CbaX displays typical features of a generic Surf1 factor essential for binding and positioning the heme a moiety for correct assembly into the protein scaffold of oxidase subunit I.
Responsiveness of functional health status measures frequently used in stroke research

Purpose. To compare the responsiveness of several functional health status measures frequently used in stroke research, namely the Barthel Index (BI), Functional Independence Measure (FIM), Frenchay Activities Index (FAI) and Stroke-Adapted Sickness Impact Profile 30 (SA-SIP 30). Method. Patients with a first-ever supratentorial stroke admitted for inpatient rehabilitation were included. Complete datasets for 163 patients were available for analysis. Floor/ceiling effects and responsiveness, quantified by effect sizes, were studied for the periods between rehabilitation admission and six months post stroke (subacute phase) and between six and 12 months post stroke (chronic phase). Results. Effect sizes in the subacute phase were similar and were classified as large for the BI, FIM total and FIM motor score. The FIM cognitive score showed a considerable ceiling effect and had the smallest effect size in the subacute phase. In the chronic phase, the FAI and SA-SIP 30 detected the most changes and had moderate effect sizes. Conclusions. BI, FIM total and FIM motor score, FAI and SA-SIP 30 were responsive measures. We recommend the use of the BI in the subacute phase and the use of the FAI and SA-SIP 30 in the chronic phase, especially for the stroke rehabilitation population.
Structured light 3D face scanning system

The paper proposes the integration of a structure lighting system on a gantry to improve its flexibility, efficiency and accuracy of 3D reconstruction for face modeling. A method for the integrated system calibration to calculate the correspondences between the coordinate systems of the camera, the light source and the rotational axis is also proposed. Parameters obtained from calibration are used to calculate the 3D data from the acquired 2D images. Experiments have been performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method when applied to the 3D reconstruction of human face. The proposed system is able to obtain more accurate 3D models of objects with reduced time.
Proactive Re-replication Strategy in HDFS based Cloud Data Center

Cloud storage systems use data replication for fault tolerance, data availability and load balancing. In the presence of node failures, data blocks on the failed nodes are re-replicated to other remaining nodes in the system randomly, thus leading to workload imbalance. Balancing all the server workloads namely, re-replication workload and current running user's application workload during the re-replication phase has not been adequately addressed. With a reactive approach, re-replication can be scheduled based on current resource utilization but by the time replication kicks off, actual resource usage may have changed as resources are continuously in use. In this paper, we propose a proactive re-replication strategy that uses predicted CPU utilization, predicted disk utilization, and popularity of the replicas to perform re-replication effectively while ensuring all the server workloads are balanced. We consider both reliability of a data block and performance status of nodes in making decision for re-replication. Simulation results from synthetic workload data demonstrate that all the servers' utilization is balanced and our approach improves performance in terms of re-replication throughput and re-replication time compared to baseline Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS). Our proactive approach maintains the balance of resource utilization and avoids the occurrence of servers' overload condition during re-replication.