Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Diabetes Intention, Attitude, and Behavior Questionnaire: evaluation of a brief questionnaire to measure physical activity, dietary control, maintenance of a healthy weight, and psychological antecedents

Background This study assessed measurement properties of the 17-item Diabetes Intention, Attitude, and Behavior Questionnaire (DIAB-Q), which measures intention to engage in self-care behaviors, including following a diabetes diet and engaging in appropriate physical activity. Methods The DIAB-Q includes questions based on the Theory of Planned Behavior. Items were developed using published literature, input from health care professionals, and qualitative research findings in patients with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). In Stage I of the study, 23 adults with T2DM were interviewed to evaluate the content and clarity of the DIAB-Q. In Stage II 1,015 individuals with T2DM completed the DIAB-Q and supplemental questionnaires, including the Short Form-36 acute (SF-36), section III of the Multidimensional Diabetes Questionnaire, the Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities questionnaire, and self-administered items relevant to the treatment and management of T2DM (eg, blood pressure and glycated hemoglobin [HbA1c]) at baseline and 3–7 days later. Once the DIAB-Q scale structure was determined, its test–retest reliability, construct validity, and known-groups validity were evaluated, and minimal clinically important change was estimated. Results In Stage I, the 23 respondents surveyed generally reported that the DIAB-Q was clear and comprehensive and endorsed questions as relevant to their intentions to engage in diabetes-related self-care activities. Most subjects in Stage II were male, Caucasian, and married. Mean age was 63 years. Factor analysis revealed six psychological constructs (Behavior, Planning, Intention, Perceived Behavioral Control, Attitude, and Subjective Norm). Test–retest reliability was acceptable (≥0.70) for all scales, except Perceived Behavioral Control. Construct validity was demonstrated based on correlations with diabetes-specific items/scales and the SF-36. Known-groups validity was confirmed for Behavior, Planning, and Intention when respondents were categorized into groups that differed based on body mass index, disease severity, and HbA1c. Item scores were transformed to a 100-point scale, and minimal clinically important change estimates ranged from 6–11 points, representing the change that would be considered important to a respondent. Conclusion The DIAB-Q is a brief, psychometrically sound, patient-reported outcome that can be used among individuals with T2DM to evaluate intention to engage in self-care behaviors.
Control of heat flux using computationally designed metamaterials

To gain control over the diffusive heat flux in a given domain, one has to design metamaterials with a specifc distribution of the generally anisotropic thermal conductivity throughout the domain. Until now, the appropriate conductivity distribution was usually determined using transformation thermodynamics. By this way, only a few particular cases of heat flux control in simple domains having simple boundary conditions were studied. As a more general approach, we propose to define the heat control problem as an optimization problem where we minimize the error in guiding the heat flux in a given way, taking as design variables the parameters that define the variable microstructure of the metamaterial. Anisotropic conductivity is introduced by using a metamaterial made of layers of two materials with highly dfferent conductivities, the thickness of the layers and their orientation throughout the domain are the current design variables. As an application example we design a device that thermally shields the region it encloses, while it keeps unchanged the flux outside it.
Factors influencing the assessment of the availability of choline in feedstuffs.

Experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that chicks fed diets designed to be first-limiting in choline will also respond to supplements of sulfur-containing amino acids and that the growth response of chicks fed a choline-limiting diet to a supplement of a feedstuff cannot be accepted as a reliable measure of the choline content of the feedstuff. Chicks fed 25% isolated soybean protein (ISP) diets that were severely limiting in choline showed a growth response to supplements of either choline or methionine. A bioassay was used to determine the availability of choline in soybean meal (SBM). Results indicated that including 10% SBM in the 25% ISP diet (at the expense of corn starch) drastically altered the chicks' response to choline. When 100 ppm choline was added to the 10% SBM diet, growth responses, compared to the original standard curve, indicated recoveries of 400 and 352% in two experiments. Additional studies indicated that chicks fed the 25% ISP + 10% SBM-based diet responded not only to choline additions but also to methionine, cystine, sulfate, and betaine additions. Further, it was shown that chicks fed a practical-type corn-soy-grease-based diet respond equally as well to supplements of 1% concentrated Steffens Filtrate, . 2% L-methionine, or 800 ppm choline. The validity of assays of choline availability based on the assumption that choline is the first-limiting nutrient is questioned.
A parallel computing model for large-graph mining with MapReduce

How can we quickly find the structures and characters of a large-scale graph? Large-scale graph exists everywhere, such as CALL graph, the World Wide Web, Facebook networks and many more. The continued exponential growth in both the size and complexity of the graphs is giving birth to a new challenge to the analysts and researchers. With respect to these challenges, a new class of algorithms and computing models is needed urgently for the large-scale graphs. An excellent promising clue for dealing with graphs with great sizes is the emerging MapReduce framework and its open-source implementation, Hadoop. The problem of 3-clique enumeration of a graph is an important operation that can help structure mining and a difficult mission for graphs with great sizes on the single computer. In this paper, we propose a parallel computing model for 3-clique enumeration based on cluster system with the help of MapReduce for large-scale graphs. The process of enumeration is firstly to extract one-leap information of the graph, then the two-leap information and finally, the key-based 3-clique enumeration. Also, we apply the computing model to the computation of clustering coefficient. More than anything else, the computing model is applied to three real-world large CALL graphs and the results of the experiments manifest the good scalability and efficiency of the model.
Minimizing the overlap problem in protein NMR: a computational framework for precision amino acid labeling

MOTIVATION Recent advances in cell-free protein expression systems allow specific labeling of proteins with amino acids containing stable isotopes ((15)N, (13) C and (2)H), an important feature for protein structure determination by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Given this labeling ability, we present a mathematical optimization framework for designing a set of protein isotopomers, or labeling schedules, to reduce the congestion in the NMR spectra. The labeling schedules, which are derived by the optimization of a cost function, are tailored to a specific protein and NMR experiment. RESULTS For 2D (15)N-(1)H HSQC experiments, we can produce an exact solution using a dynamic programming algorithm in under 2 h on a standard desktop machine. Applying the method to a standard benchmark protein, calmodulin, we are able to reduce the number of overlaps in the 500 MHz HSQC spectrum from 10 to 1 using four samples with a true cost function, and 10 to 4 if the cost function is derived from statistical estimates. On a set of 448 curated proteins from the BMRB database, we are able to reduce the relative percent congestion by 84.9% in their HSQC spectra using only four samples. Our method can be applied in a high-throughput manner on a proteomic scale using the server we developed. On a 100-node cluster, optimal schedules can be computed for every protein coded for in the human genome in less than a month. AVAILABILITY A server for creating labeling schedules for (15)N-(1)H HSQC experiments as well as results for each of the individual 448 proteins used in the test set is available at http://nmr.proteomics. ics.uci. edu.
On the Identification of Suggestion Intents from Vietnamese Conversational Texts

Fully understanding suggestion intents in conversational texts is a complicated process that includes three major stages: user suggestion intents filtering, suggestion domain identification, and arguments extraction of suggestion intents. In the scope of this paper, we study the first phase, that is, building a binary classification model to determine whether a text unit carries suggestion intents or not. We come up with a new text unit to analysis suggestion based on functional segment in the ISO 24617-2 standard. We investigate two approaches to filter functional segments containing suggestion intents: machine learning using maximum entropy model and deep learning using convolutional neural networks model. The results of these experiments on Vietnamese online media texts are very promising. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to analyze suggestion at functional segment level.
Selecting the Best in GANs Family: a Post Selection Inference Framework

"Which Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) generates the most plausible images? " has been a frequently asked question among researchers. To address this problem, we first propose an \emph{incomplete} U-statistics estimate of maximum mean discrepancy $\mathrm{MMD}_{inc}$ to measure the distribution discrepancy between generated and real images. $\mathrm{MMD}_{inc}$ enjoys the advantages of asymptotic normality, computation efficiency, and model agnosticity. We then propose a GANs analysis framework to select and test the "best" member in GANs family using the Post Selection Inference (PSI) with $\mathrm{MMD}_{inc}$. In the experiments, we adopt the proposed framework on 7 GANs variants and compare their $\mathrm{MMD}_{inc}$ scores.
Modelling and Experimental Analysis of a Magnetic Material Actuator: Towards Wireless Implantable Devices

This paper presents a wireless diaphragm actuator and focuses on a lumped parameter grey-box model capable of simulating actuation displacement. Here, modelling aims to provide further insight into this smart material actuator and help facilitate design into new implantable applications. Model parameters were calibrated to a prototype actuator using experimental data and a genetic algorithm optimisation. The model was validated against experimental data and showed a good ability to simulate both static and dynamic diaphragm displacement.
Resveratrol attenuates reproductive alterations in type 1 diabetes‐induced rats

The progression of diabetes mellitus leads to several complications including overproduction of reactive oxygen species and reproductive alterations. As resveratrol (RES) is a powerful anti‐oxidant and an anti‐apoptotic compound, we hypothesized that side effects of type‐1 diabetes (DM1) on male reproduction could be reduced by the RES treatment. Eighty‐four prepubertal male rats were distributed into seven groups: sham‐control (SC), RES‐treated (R), resveratrol‐vehicle‐treated (RV), diabetic (D), diabetic‐insulin‐treated (DI), diabetic‐RES‐treated (DR), diabetic‐insulin and RES‐treated (DIR). DM1 was induced by a single intraperitoneal streptozotocin (STZ) injection (65 mg/kg) on the 30th day postpartum (dpp). Animals of DR, DIR and R groups received 150 mg/day of RES by gavage for 43 consecutive days (from the 33 to 75 dpp). DI and DIR rats received subcutaneous injections of insulin (1 U/100 g b.w./day) from 5th day after the DM1 induction. The blood glucose level was monitored. At 75 dpp, the euthanasia was performed for morphometric and biometric testicular analyses, spermatic evaluation and hormonal doses. In the D group, the blood glucose level was higher than in the DR, DI and DIR groups. Besides morphometric testicular measurements, testosterone and estradiol doses were lower in D group than in DR and DIR groups; LH dose was also lower than in DR. The preputial separation age was delayed in diabetes‐induced groups. The DR and DIR groups showed an improvement in sperm mitochondrial activity, epididymal sperm counts and the frequency of morphologically normal sperms. RES treatment improved glycaemic level, sperm quantitative and qualitative parameters and the hormonal profile in DM1‐induced rats and seems to be a good reproductive protector.
An Intention-Driven Semi-autonomous Intelligent Robotic System for Drinking

In this study, an intention-driven semi-autonomous intelligent robotic (ID-SIR) system is designed and developed to assist the severely disabled patients to live independently. The system mainly consists of a non-invasive brain–machine interface (BMI) subsystem, a robot manipulator and a visual detection and localization subsystem. Different from most of the existing systems remotely controlled by joystick, head- or eye tracking, the proposed ID-SIR system directly acquires the intention from users’ brain. Compared with the state-of-art system only working for a specific object in a fixed place, the designed ID-SIR system can grasp any desired object in a random place chosen by a user and deliver it to his/her mouth automatically. As one of the main advantages of the ID-SIR system, the patient is only required to send one intention command for one drinking task and the autonomous robot would finish the rest of specific controlling tasks, which greatly eases the burden on patients. Eight healthy subjects attended our experiment, which contained 10 tasks for each subject. In each task, the proposed ID-SIR system delivered the desired beverage container to the mouth of the subject and then put it back to the original position. The mean accuracy of the eight subjects was 97.5%, which demonstrated the effectiveness of the ID-SIR system.
Depression, retention in care, and uptake of PMTCT service in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo: a prospective cohort

ABSTRACT There is a clear need for effective strategies to address the factors that affect retention, or lost-to-follow-up (LTFU) and adherence to HIV care and treatment. Depression in particular may play an important role in the high rates of LTFU along the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) cascade in sub-Saharan Africa. This study assessed the association between prenatal depression and (1) LTFU or (2) uptake of PMTCT services. As part of a randomized control trial to evaluate the effect of conditional cash transfers on retention in and uptake of PMTCT services, newly diagnosed HIV-infected women, ≤32 weeks pregnant, registering for antenatal care (ANC), in 85 clinics in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), were recruited and followed-up until LTFU, death, transfer out, or six weeks postpartum. Participants were interviewed at enrollment using a questionnaire which included the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Depression was defined as a PHQ-9 score of ≥15. Among 433 women enrolled, 51 (11.8%) had a PHQ-9 score ≥15 including 15 (3.5%) with a score ≥20. At six weeks postpartum, 67 (15.5%) were LFTU and 331 (76.4%) were in care and had accepted all available PTMCT services. Of participants with depression at enrollment, 17.7% (9/51) were LTFU at six weeks postpartum compared to 15.2% (58/382) among those without, but the association was not statistically significant. On the other hand, 78.4% (40/51) of participants with prenatal depression were in care at six weeks postpartum and had attended all their scheduled visits and accepted available services compared to 76.2% (291/382) among those without depression. In this cohort of newly diagnosed HIV-infected pregnant women, prenatal depression assessed with a PHQ-9 score ≥15 was not a strong predictor of LTFU among newly diagnosed HIV-infected women in Kinshasa, DRC.
Multiphysics Probe for Deep Brain Monitoring of Glioblastoma Environment

This work reports on the development, and preliminary results of a multiphysics probe for deep brain monitoring of neurotransmitters and metabolites in the glioblastoma environment. We made the proof of the concept of our probe with common mice glioblastoma cells GL261 modified with Green Fluorescent Protein. A silicon probe with a platinum electrode at the tip was functionalized with an enzyme in order to detect, for example, Glucose, D-serine, Lactate or Glutamate. In addition, an optical fiber was inserted in a groove in the middle of the probe for light excitation and detection of glioblastoma cells by fluorescence.
Sulfur amino acid requirement of broiler chicks from fourteen to thirty-eight days of age. 1. Performance and carcass yield.

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate increasing dietary levels of methionine and TSAA on broiler performance and carcass yield. In Experiment 1, the corn-soybean basal diet contained . 75% TSAA, to which increasing dose levels of DL-methionine were added, providing at the highest supplemental level . 95% TSAA. The experimental diets were fed for 20 d, covering the age period of 14 to 34 d. In Experiment 2, a corn-soybean basal diet containing . 70% TSAA was used along with DL-methionine supplements to determine TSAA requirement during the age period of 14 to 38 d. The highest supplemental level of DL-methionine in this experiment provided . 94% TSAA. The TSAA requirement was found to be higher for maximum efficiency of feed utilization and breast meat yield than for obtaining maximum weight gain. Based on feed conversion efficiency and breast meat yield, the requirement for TSAA was estimated to be at least . 88% for the age period of 14 to 34 or 38 d. It was calculated that the estimated TSAA requirement was equivalent to approximately . 75% apparent digestible SAA or . 78% true digestible SAA.
Axisymmetric Poroelastic Boundary Element Methods for Biphasic Mechanics of Articular Cartilage

BENEDICT, BRANDY ANN. Axisymmetric Poroelastic Boundary Element Methods for Biphasic Mechanics of Articular Cartilage. (Under the direction of Professor Mansoor A. Haider.) In this study, an axisymmetric Laplace domain boundary element method for modeling linear biphasic articular cartilage mechanics was developed. A boundary integral formulation was derived by writing the associated integral equations in terms of axisymmetric poroelastic fundamental solutions. Formulas for these fundamental solutions were derived from their three-dimensional Cartesian counterparts via transformations from Cartesian to cylindrical polar coordinates. The fundamental solutions of the poroelastic partial differential equations represent the effects at a particular boundary point of placing vector or scalar sources at all points on the boundary. In the axisymmetric formulation, these sources on the axisymmetric boundary are rotated about the z-axis, creating a ring of sources. Axisymmetric boundary element methods were developed for solving the resulting boundary integral equations in the Laplace transform domain. The axisymmetric boundary was discretized by placing nodal points along a one-dimensional curve using three-node isoparametric quadratic boundary elements. Gaussian quadrature was employed to evaluate integrals over the boundary elements, which give rise to double integrals over strip regions on the axisymmetric surface. Weaklyand stronglysingular integrals were evaluated, separately, via specialized methods. In the case of weakly-singular integrals, transformation to local polar coordinates at the element nodes regularized the integrals. Strongly-singular integrals were evaluated using three known analytical solutions that enabled determination of unknown strongly-singular entries in terms of previously computed matrix entries. Accuracy of the boundary element methods was demonstrated for configurations of biphasic compressive stress, pure radial stretching, and uniaxial confined compression, where analytical solutions are known. Potential use of the axisymmetric boundary element method and a Laplace inversion technique were illustrated via simulation of confined compression stress relaxation of a biphasic cartilage cell in a cylindrical sample of extracellular matrix. Axisymmetric Poroelastic Boundary Element Methods for Biphasic Mechanics of Articular Cartilage by Brandy Ann Benedict A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fullfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Rapidly Tunable Dual-Comb RF Photonic Filter for Ultrabroadband RF Spread Spectrum Applications

We demonstrate a rapidly frequency-tunable radio frequency (RF) filter using microwave photonics technology for ultrawideband RF spread spectrum applications. A pair of electro-optic frequency combs is arranged as a dispersive tapped delay line in a differential detection configuration to implement a programmable finite impulse response RF filter. Our photonic scheme enables both fast frequency tuning on the order of tens of nanoseconds and wide tuning range ( 7.5 GHz) with minimal variation of RF gain and passband shape. The low control voltage (ca. 1 V) and the linear relationship between control voltage and passband frequency facilitate agile frequency tuning for processing of signals with time-varying frequency content, while differential detection increases the photocurrent by a factor of two and suppresses common mode intensity noise. We exploit the rapid tunability of the implemented filter to demonstrate dynamic tracking of frequency-hopped and chirped RF signals. An experiment that performs dynamic filtering of an input chirp signal (3.92-GHz center frequency, up-chirped by >2 GHz within 100 ns) obscured by strong broadband noise achieves ~11-dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improvement. The SNR obtained is in addition to that available from standard matched filtering or pulse compression processing, suggesting strong potential for enhanced resistance against broadband noise jamming.
Lung mitochondrial dysfunction in pulmonary hypertension syndrome. II. Oxidative stress and inability to improve function with repeated additions of adenosine diphosphate.

The major objective of this study was to examine lung mitochondrial dysfunction and antioxidants in pulmonary hypertension syndrome (PHS) in broilers. Lung mitochondria were obtained from broilers fed diets containing 15 IU (control) and 100 IU dl-alpha-tocopherol acetate, i.e., vitamin E (VE)/kg with and without PHS; the four treatment groups were control, VE, PHS, and VE-PHS, respectively (Experiment 1), or from healthy broilers genetically selected or not selected for resistance to PHS (Experiment 2). Mitochondrial function was assessed with sequential additions of adenosine diphosphate (ADP) to mimic a repeated demand for energy. Compared to controls, PHS mitochondria in Experiment 1 exhibited mitochondrial dysfunction [lower respiratory control (RCR) and ADP:O ratios and an inability to improve function with repeated energy demand] and oxidative stress [lower alpha-tocopherol and reduced glutathione (GSH) and higher oxidized glutathione levels (GSSG)]. High dietary alpha-tocopherol had no effect on lung mitochondrial function in healthy broilers (VE vs. controls) but attenuated dysfunction in VE-PHS mitochondria. In Experiment 2, there were no differences in selected and nonselected mitochondrial function following a single addition of ADP, but nonselected mitochondria exhibited lower RCR and ADP:O values with repeated energy demand. Higher GSSG levels were also observed in nonselected lung. The results indicate that lung mitochondrial dysfunction present in broilers with PHS was associated with oxidative stress and may be attenuated by high dietary vitamin E. Furthermore, genetic resistance to PHS was associated with more efficient oxidative phosphorylation in lung mitochondria and an inherently lower degree of oxidative stress.