Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cardiac function index provided by transpulmonary thermodilution behaves as an indicator of left ventricular systolic function

Objective:To test whether cardiac function index could actually behave as an indicator of left ventricular systolic function by testing if 1) it increased with inotropic stimulation; 2) it was not altered by fluid loading; 3) it correlated with the echographic left ventricular ejection fraction, considered as the clinical gold standard for measuring left ventricular systolic function, and it reliably tracked the changes in left ventricular ejection fraction during therapeutic intervention. The transpulmonary thermodilution calculates the cardiac function index, which is the ratio of cardiac output over global end-diastolic volume. Design:Prospective study. Setting:Medical intensive care unit of a university hospital. Patients:Thirty-nine patients (n = 48 cases) with acute circulatory failure. Intervention:A 500-mL saline administration (n = 24 cases) and a dobutamine infusion (n = 24 cases). Measurements and Main Results:We simultaneously measured left ventricular ejection fraction (monoplane or biplane Simpson method) and cardiac function index at baseline and after saline and dobutamine administration. As volume expansion altered neither left ventricular ejection fraction (47 ± 11% to 47 ± 11%) nor cardiac function index (4.5 ± 2.2 to 4.5 ± 2.1 min−1), dobutamine infusion significantly increased left ventricular ejection fraction by 32 ± 28% and cardiac function index by 29 ± 22%. Considering the 96 cardiac function index:left ventricular ejection fraction pairs of measurements, cardiac function index and left ventricular ejection fraction were correlated significantly (r = .67, p < .05). A cardiac function index <3.2 min−1 predicted a left ventricular ejection fraction of ≤35% with a sensitivity of 81% and a specificity of 88%. Importantly, the changes in left ventricular ejection fraction and in cardiac function index during fluid and dobutamine administration were correlated significantly (r = .79, p < .05). Conclusions:Cardiac function index fulfilled the criteria required from a clinical indicator of left ventricular global systolic function. Thus, it could serve as an easy bedside detection of the alteration in left ventricular ejection fraction that should alert the physician and incite to perform an echocardiography. Furthermore, cardiac function index tracked accurately the effects of an inotropic therapy.
Age and Diet of Fossil California Condors in Grand Canyon, Arizona

A dozen new radiocarbon dates, together with a thorough review of its fossil distribution, shed new light on the time and probable cause of extinction of the California condor, Gymnogyps californianus, in Grand Canyon, Arizona. The radiocarbon data indicate that this species became extinct in Grand Canyon, and other parts of the inland West, more than 10,000 years ago in coincidence with the extinction of megafauna (proboscidians, edentates, perissodactyls). That condors relied on the megafauna for food is suggested by the recovery of food bones from a late Pleistocene nest cave in Grand Canyon. These fossil data have relevance to proposed release and recovery programs of the present endangered population of California condors.
Obesity and fractures in postmenopausal women

Purpose of reviewAlthough obesity was previously believed to be protective against fracture, there is now evidence that a significant proportion of fractures in postmenopausal women occur in those who are obese. Recent findingsIn this article the epidemiology, pathophysiology and clinical management of fractures in obese postmenopausal women are discussed with particular focus on the site specificity of the effect of BMI on fracture, interactions between fat and bone and risk assessment and prevention of fractures. There is similarity in many respects between risk factors for fracture in obese and nonobese women, although falls may play a particularly important role in the obese. Treatment rates in obese postmenopausal women with fracture are currently low, and further studies are required to establish effective preventive strategies. SummaryFractures in obese postmenopausal women contribute significantly to the overall fracture burden in this population. Further work is required to establish their pathophysiology and to develop effective preventive strategies.
Quality of life in women with fibromyalgia syndrome: validation of the QIF, the French version of the fibromyalgia impact questionnaire.

OBJECTIVE To validate a translated and adapted version of the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) for use in French-speaking populations. METHODS The FIQ was translated into French by 2 independent translators and then back-translated into English to assess the conceptual equivalence. The translated version was tested and adapted by an expert committee to obtain the Questionnaire de mesure d'Impact de la Fibromyalgie (QIF), the French version of the FIQ. We administered the QIF to 102 women with fibromyalgia (FM): 71 women who consulted once, and 31 women who were follow for 3 visits (D0, M1, and M3). The patients were also asked to answer 4 other questionnaires: the McGill Pain Questionnaire, the Medical Outcome Study Short Form-36 (SF-36), the short form of the Arthritis Impact Measurement Scale 2 (AIMS2), and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) (for psychiatric assessment). To ensure test-retest reliability, the patients were asked to complete the QIF 7 days after the first visit and to send it back to the investigators by mail. During each visit, all patients were asked about pain intensity. A tender point count was obtained by thumb palpation and the tenderness threshold of each specific point was assessed by a 4-point scale score to determine the global tender point index. RESULTS No major cultural adaptation was needed to obtain the French version of the FIQ. Test-retest reliability coefficients (intraclass correlation coefficient) for each question ranged from 0.04 to 0.84. Two items from the QIF (number of days when the patient felt good and visual analog scale stiffness) did not reach significant levels of test-retest reliability. Internal validity was good. The QIF score correlated well with the SF-36 and AIMS2 scores. The psychological aspects of the QIF were well correlated with those of GHQ-28. None of the items from the McGill Pain Questionnaire was correlated with QIF items. Similarly the clinical data concerning pain assessment were not correlated with QIF items. CONCLUSIONS QIF is a valid instrument for measuring functional disability and health status in French women with FM. Some of the items were of a limited reliability, perhaps due to the variability of the multiple aspects of this syndrome.
Running Economy: Comparing Alternative Measurement Models

Abstract : The oxygen cost of running (OCR) is the oxygen consumed per unit of distance. Running economy (RE) refers to individual differences in OCR. OCR and RE are measured by dividing the oxygen uptake (mlO2) rate during a submaximal run by the speed (s) of that run. The results of these measurements are assumed to be independent of speed. This assumption is invalid unless the intercept (b(sub 0)) of the regression of mlO2 on s is zero. When b(sub 0) not = 0, standard measures are biased. The magnitude of bias is b(sub 0)/s, so bias is contingent on speed. Nevill, Cooke, Holder, Ramsbottom, and Williams (1992) presented evidence that, in general, b(sub 0) not = 0. Instead, b(sub 0) differs between people, so bias is a problem that may obscure important relationships in RE research. This report presents a re-analysis of published data from 5 studies to replicate Nevill et al.'s (1992) findings and examine plausible alternatives to their model. Nevill et al. s findings did replicate, but an alternative mathematical model that replaced differences in b(sub 0) with differences in b(sub 1), the slope of the regression of mlO2 on s, was preferable. The alternative model was slightly more accurate in predicting mlO2 and the variation in individual differences in b(sub 1) was significant while the variation in differences in b(sub 0) was not. The alternative model also was preferable because differences in b(sub 1) were interpretable in bioenergetic terms. A high proportion of negative values made the interpretation of differences in b(sub 0) uncertain. Because the alternative model included a fixed b(sub 0), it implied that RE measures should be based on net oxygen consumption. Subtracting ~3.2 ml kg-1 min-1 from measured ml02 would eliminate a speed-related bias. This approach would not be entirely novel. Roughly 8% of RE studies currently use a net uptake approach. The present findings suggest that this practice should become the preferred method of assessing RE.
Region based visual object categorization using segment features and polynomial image modeling

This paper presents a novel approach for visual object classification. Based on Gestalt theory, we propose to extract features from coarse regions carrying visually significant information such as line segments and/or color and to include neighborhood information in them. We also introduce a new classification method based on the polynomial modeling of feature distribution which avoids the drawbacks of a popular approach, namely ”bag of keypoints”. Moreover we show that by separating features extracted from different sources in different ”channel”, and then to combine them using a late fusion, we can limit the impact of feature dimensionality and actually improve classification performance. Using this classifier, experiments reveal that our features lead to better results than the popular SIFT descriptors, but also that they can be combined with SIFT features to reinforce performance, suggesting that our features managed to extract information which is complementary to the one of SIFT features.
Detecting Information Theft Based on Mobile Network Flows for Android Users

With the widespread use of smartphones, more and more malicious attacks happen with information leakage from apps installed on users' devices. The adversary always uses a malware as the client to take remote control of smartphones, and leverages the vulnerability of operation systems to send back the collected information without users' permissions. All the information has to be transferred by network traffic. In this paper, we consider that different apps maybe generate different network flows by different operations, and the ``shapes" of the benign flows and malicious ones will be diverse. Thus we propose a detection model based on the analysis of relationships between behavior patterns and network flows, which achieves our goal by using the Random Forest machine learning algorithm to classify the network flows into benign or malicious. To further improve the controllability of the experiment, we design an app called Moledroid to simulate malwares by uploading the user's privacy without authorization, in addition, we can change the behavior pattern of the app to complete our evaluation. Finally, we run this app and several benign apps to generate traffic to detect the malicious network flows, and it shows that our detection model can achieve precision and accuracy higher than 95\%, which demonstrates that our model is suitable for detecting the network flows of information theft.
Investigation of a novel 3-fluid nozzle spray drying technology for the engineering of multifunctional layered microparticles

Objective: To examine the potential of a novel 3-fluid nozzle spray drying technology to formulate differentiated layered microparticles (MPs) of diclofenac sodium (DFS)/ethyl cellulose (EC). Methods: DFS/EC MPs were formulated using the inner and/or outer nozzles of a novel 3-fluid nozzle and compared with MPs formed using conventional (2-fluid) spray drying. MPs were characterised for particle size and for morphology by TEM and SEM. Distribution of DFS and EC of MPs was analysed by FT-IR and DSC. A two-factor, three-level (32) factorial design was applied to investigate the effect and interaction of total feed solid content (TSC) and feed flow rate (FFR) on MP size, D50% and D90%, bulk density and MP yield. Results: Interestingly, TEM demonstrated that MPs formed by 3-fluid nozzle spray drying showed a heterogeneous internal morphology consisting of a core and coat, characteristic of a microcapsule. In comparison, MPs from conventional spray drying showed a homogeneous internal morphology, characteristics of a matrix system. This differential distribution of DFS/EC was supported by FT-IR and DSC. Results of multiple linear regression analysis showed a linear relationship for the effect of TSC and FFR on all responses except for D50% where a quadratric model was valid. The effect of TSC/FFR on MP size and yield was similar to conventional spray drying. Conclusion: The novel 3-fluid nozzle spray drying offers a new method of designing layered microparticles or microcapsules which can have wide applications from drug stabilisation to controlled drug delivery and targeting.
Expression patterns of Notch1, Notch2, and Notch3 suggest multiple functional roles for the Notch‐DSL signaling system during brain development

The Notch‐DSL signaling system consists of multiple receptors and ligands, and plays many roles in development. The function of Notch receptors and ligands in mammalian brain, however, is poorly understood. In the current study, we examined the expression patterns for three receptors of this system, Notch1, 2, and 3, in late embryonic and postnatal rat brain by in situ hybridization. The three receptors have overlapping but different patterns of expression. Messenger RNA for all three proteins is found in postnatal central nervous system (CNS) germinal zones and, in early postnatal life, within numerous cells throughout the CNS. Within zones of cellular proliferation of the postnatal brain, Notch1 mRNA is found in both the subventricular and the ventricular germinal zones, whereas Notch2 and Notch3 mRNAs are more highly localized to the ventricular zones. Both Notch1 and Notch3 mRNAs are expressed along the inner aspect of the dentate gyrus, a site of adult neurogenesis. Notch2 mRNA is expressed in the external granule cell layer of the developing cerebellum. In several brain areas, Notch1 and Notch2 mRNAs are relatively concentrated in white matter, whereas Notch3 mRNA is not. Neurosphere cultures (which contain CNS stem cells), purified astrocyte cultures, and striatal neuron‐enriched cultures express Notch1 mRNA. However, in these latter cultures, Notch1 mRNA is produced by nestin‐containing cells, rather than by postmitotic neurons. Taken together, these results support multiple roles for Notch1, 2, and 3 receptor activation during CNS development, particularly during gliogenesis. J. Comp. Neurol. 436:167–181, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
SELF‐INCOMPATIBILITY IN CENTRAL AMERICAN HELICONIA

Physiological self-incompatibility (SI) is one of the most common mechanisms by which outcrossing is promoted in the angiosperms (East, 1940; Whitehouse, 1950; Nettancourt, 1977). Considerable information on the taxonomic distribution of SI and the mechanisms of self-inhibition is available (e.g., Heslop-Harrison, 1975; Nettancourt, 1977). Yet we are far from a full understanding of SI. Most of our knowledge of SI in angiosperms comes from investigations of temperate zone plants, especially herbaceous annuals and perennials (Nettancourt, 1977). Relatively little is known about the breeding systems of trees (Hagman, 1975) and tropical species. Information on breeding systems of plants is important to our understanding of the processes of speciation (Baker, 1959). Several early speciation models that attempted to explain the great floristic diversity of the tropics were based on opposing assumptions about breeding systems: one assumed predominant selfpollination of tropical trees (Federov, 1966); the other predominant cross-pollination (Ashton, 1969). These phyletic models of speciation have since been challenged by other models (Endler, 1977), including quantum evolution (Eldredge and Gould, 1977). Even though no consensus on speciation processes in the tropics has been reached, the controversy has focussed attention on our lack of knowledge about breeding systems of tropical plants. Recently several workers have reported that the majority of tree species they tested in subtropical and tropical, wet and semideciduous forests are obligate outcrossers (Bawa, 1974, 1979; Tomlinson, 1975; Zapata and Arroyo, 1978; Arroyo, 1979; Sobrevila and Arroyo, 1982). Only a very small percentage of the total flora, however, has been sampled. In addition, the distinction between self-compatible and self-incompatible species is not always clearcut: self-incompatible plants occasionally set fruit following self-pollination (Bawa, 1979). Studies on breeding systems of tropical plants so far have been restricted to trees of mature and secondary forests; the prevalence of SI in the extensive herbaceous understory flora of these same forests is unknown. The most conspicuous and dominant elements of the lowermost strata of the wet neotropical forests are the large, herbaceous, broad-leaved monocots of the Heliconiaceae, Marantaceae, Zingiberaceae, Costaceae, Araceae, Arecaceae and Cyclanthaceae. Flowers of all species of the first four families are hermaphroditic. Members of the latter three families tend to be dioecious or monoecious and strongly dichogamous (East, 1940; Mora-U and Solis, 1980; J. Beach, pers. comm.). In 1978 I initiated a survey of the breeding systems of Heliconia with several questions in mind: Do these herbaceous members of the understory show a predominance of SI similar to that shown in woody canopy species? Is SI complete? Are there other mechanisms that promote outcrossing in the group? Here I report findings on physiological SI in a number of species of Heliconia.
Lattice dynamics and hyperfine interactions in ZnO and ZnSe at high external pressures.

The II-VI semiconductors ZnO and ZnSe have been investigated by x-ray and $^{67}\mathrm{ssbauer}$ spectroscopy at high external pressures. In ZnSe, the recoilfree fraction f increases from f=0.50% at ambient pressure to 1.19% at 6.1 GPa. It then decreases to f=0.92% as the pressure is further raised to 8.2 GPa. This decrease of f is caused by softening of phonon modes which occurs far below the crystallographic phase transition (13.5 GPa). In the high-pressure phase of ZnO (NaCl structure), low-frequency acoustic-phonon modes become harder and high-frequency optic modes become softer as compared to ZnO (wurtzite structure). Modern theoretical Hartree-Fock cluster and full potential scalar-relativistic linearized-augmented plane-wave calculations have been performed. These calculations reveal that in both systems covalent contributions to the chemical bond determine the change of the s electron density \ensuremath{\rho}(0) at the Zn nucleus between the different crystallographic phases as well as the electric-field-gradient tensor in ZnO (wurtzite). In particular, \ensuremath{\rho}(0) in ZnO (NaCl phase) is reduced compared to \ensuremath{\rho}(0) in ZnO (wurtzite phase) by -1.15e/${\mathit{a}}_{0}^{3}$. Thus, contrary to observation for ZnSe, the electrical conductivity in ZnO (NaCl phase) is not expected to increase in comparison with the low-pressure wurtzite structure. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
A predictive approach to task scheduling for Big Data in cloud environments using classification algorithms

There have been many recent developments in integrating the Cloud with the Internet of Τhings (IoT) which comprise of up and coming technologies such as Smart Cities and Smart devices. This federation has resulted in research being directed towards further integration of Big Data with the Cloud, as IoT devices consisting of such technologies generate a continuous stream of sensor data. Thus, in this paper, we seek to present a predictive approach to task scheduling with the aim of reducing the overhead incurred when Big Data is processed on the Cloud. Subsequently, we wish to increase both the efficiency and reliability of the Cloud network while handling Big Data. We present a method of using classification in Machine Learning as a tool for scheduling tasks and assigning them to Virtual Machines (VMs) in the Cloud environment. A comparative study is undertaken to observe which brand of classifiers perform optimally in the given scenario. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is used to generate the dataset which is used to train the classifiers. A number of classification algorithms such as Naive Bayes, Random Forest and Κ Nearest Neighbor are then used to predict the VM best suited to a task in the test dataset.
A Compressive Sensing Approach to Describe Indoor Scenes for Blind People

This paper introduces a new portable camera-based method for helping blind people to recognize indoor objects. Unlike state-of-the-art techniques, which typically perform the recognition task by limiting it to a single predefined class of objects, we propose here a completely different alternative scheme, defined as coarse description. It aims at expanding the recognition task to multiple objects and, at the same time, keeping the processing time under control by sacrificing some information details. The benefit is to increment the awareness and the perception of a blind person to his direct contextual environment. The coarse description issue is addressed via two image multilabeling strategies which differ in the way image similarity is computed. The first one makes use of the Euclidean distance measure, while the second one relies on a semantic similarity measure modeled by means of Gaussian process estimation. To achieve fast computation capability, both strategies rely on a compact image representation based on compressive sensing. The proposed methodology was assessed on two indoor datasets representing different indoor environments. Encouraging results were achieved in terms of both accuracy and processing time.
Reciprocating Biomass Conversion Reactor ( RBCR )

The reciprocating biomass conversion reactor (RBCR) is a novel means to produce bio-oil by fast-pyrolysis whose core is a re-purposed 4-cycle internal combustion engine. An inert gas and a small volume-fraction of pulverized biomass are input into the RBCR intake, and the crankshaft is cycled by an external energy source to supply the process heat. The biomass is converted during the compression stroke, and then the bioproducts are exhausted. The cycle is: intake, compression /heating, expansion/cooling, and exhaust. This strategy is unique in its reciprocating approach and the potential benefits of the RBCR relative to the state of the art are increased e fficiency, throughput, and bio-oil quality.
Measures of exposure to the Well London Phase-1 intervention and their association with health well-being and social outcomes

In this paper, we describe the measures of intervention exposure used in the cluster randomised trial of the Well London programme, a public health intervention using community engagement and community-based projects to increase physical activity, healthy eating and mental health and well-being in 20 of the most deprived neighbourhoods in London.10 No earmarked resources to support the development of these measures and associated data collection were provided to either the research team or to those delivering the interventions on the ground. Instead, these were derived from contractually specified performance management information reported quarterly by partners and by inclusion of questions seeking information about participation in the follow-up questionnaires used to measure the main trial outcomes. The exposure measures are consequently considerably less sophisticated than those used in the US studies, where earmarked funding was available.