Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Attachment, Symptom Severity, and Depression in Medically Unexplained Musculoskeletal Pain and Osteoarthritis: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background Attachment insecurity relates to the onset and course of chronic pain via dysfunctional reactions to pain. However, few studies have investigated the proportion of insecure attachment styles in different pain conditions, and results regarding associations between attachment, pain severity, and disability in chronic pain are inconsistent. This study aims to clarify the relationships between insecure attachment and occurrence or severity of chronic pain with and without clearly defined organic cause. To detect potential differences in the importance of global and romantic attachment representations, we included both concepts in our study. Methods 85 patients with medically unexplained musculoskeletal pain (UMP) and 89 patients with joint pain from osteoarthritis (OA) completed self-report measures of global and romantic attachment, pain intensity, physical functioning, and depression. Results Patients reporting global insecure attachment representations were more likely to suffer from medically unexplained musculoskeletal pain (OR 3.4), compared to securely attached patients. Romantic attachment did not differ between pain conditions. Pain intensity was associated with romantic attachment anxiety, and this relationship was more pronounced in the OA group compared to the UMP group. Both global and romantic attachment anxiety predicted depression, accounting for 15% and 17% of the variance, respectively. Disability was independent from attachment patterns. Conclusions Our results indicate that global insecure attachment is associated with the experience of medically unexplained musculoskeletal pain, but not with osteoarthritis. In contrast, insecure attachment patterns seem to be linked to pain intensity and pain-related depression in unexplained musculoskeletal pain and in osteoarthritis. These findings suggest that relationship-informed focused treatment strategies may alleviate pain severity and psychological distress in chronic pain independent of underlying pathology.
New developments in the management of chronic lymphocytic leukemia: role of ofatumumab

Ofatumumab is one of the three anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies currently available for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of ofatumumab in patients with CLL refractory to fludarabine and alemtuzumab in 2009, and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) granted approval for the same indication in 2010. Subsequent positive results of ofatumumab in combination with chlorambucil in treatment-naïve patients led the FDA in April 2014 to approve the use of this combination for first-line treatment of patients with CLL for whom fludarabine-based therapy is considered inappropriate. Later that year, the EMA approved the use of ofatumumab in combination with chlorambucil or bendamustine for the same indication. Ofatumumab has also shown potential as maintenance therapy for patients with relapsed CLL; an application to broaden the label for ofatumumab as maintenance therapy was submitted earlier this year to the EMA and FDA. Finally, ofatumumab has shown promising activity in combination with ibrutinib or idelalisib in relapsed/refractory CLL patients; combinations of ofatumumab with B-cell-receptor pathway inhibitors could represent another potential use of this antibody in the near future.
Dual-band notched wide-slot UWB antenna for low-cost RFID applications

A dual-band notched wide-slot UWB antenna is presented. The proposed structure has an impedance bandwidth of 10.5 GHz, starting from 2.03 GHz to 12.5 GHz — covering the entire UWB range of frequencies (3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz). Along with the UWB response, two notch bands are incorporated using H-shaped stepped impedance resonators to minimize interference from the free license bands (namely the WLAN, and the NATO frequencies) of operations and to ensure a better applicability for the industries. The gain of the structure was found to remain invariant over the operating frequencies except at the notch bands where it suffered a sharp decrement. The surface currents and the input impedance of the proposed configuration were analyzed to comment on the band-notched characteristics and to explain the role of the H-shaped resonators in the context. The simplicity of the design geometry and the reduced space requirements, qualify the proposed structure for low-cost RFID applications as well as for other UWB systems.
Electrospinning of a blend of a liquid crystalline polymer with poly(ethylene oxide): Vectran nanofiber mats and their mechanical properties

Vectran® is a liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) with remarkable specific properties in its commercial microfiber form. Even though it has been widely studied in the last few decades, there have been no reports in the literature on Vectran nanofibers production. Due to the insufficient spinnability of Vectran, a “host–guest” method with poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) as a host polymer is used in the present work to produce continuous and uniform nanofibers of Vectran–PEO blends. Subsequently, a heat treatment is applied and optimized to remove PEO and convert the amorphous Vectran–PEO nanofibers into more ordered and mechanically improved pure Vectran nanofibers. The conclusions are supported by scanning electron microscopy, thermal analysis, selected area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns and mechanical characterization of electrospun Vectran nanofiber mats after removal of PEO.
Consumer Smartwatches for Collecting Self-Report and Sensor Data: App Design and Engagement

Longitudinal data from patients' natural environments would benefit chronic disease care, yet most devices cannot collect sensor data alongside patient-reported outcomes. Here we describe Koalap, a consumer cellular smartwatch application that collects patient-reported outcomes alongside physical activity data from various sensors. Additionally, we show preliminary results indicating high engagement of our 26 participants with knee osteoarthritis. Our future work will show whether data collection with consumer smartwatches is feasible in terms of user engagement, acceptability, data quality and consistency.
Vascular Health and Risk Management Dovepress Heart Rate Variability Measured Early in Patients with Evolving Acute Coronary Syndrome and 1-year Outcomes of Rehospitalization and Mortality

Objective: This study sought to examine the prognostic value of heart rate variability (HRV) measurement initiated immediately after emergency department presentation for patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Background: Altered HRV has been associated with adverse outcomes in heart disease, but the value of HRV measured during the earliest phases of ACS related to risk of 1-year rehos-pitalization and death has not been established. Methods: Twenty-four-hour Holter recordings of 279 patients with ACS were initiated within 45 minutes of emergency department arrival; recordings with $18 hours of sinus rhythm were selected for HRV analysis (number [N] =193). Time domain, frequency domain, and nonlinear HRV were examined. Survival analysis was performed. Results: During the 1-year follow-up, 94 patients were event-free, 82 were readmitted, and 17 died. HRV was altered in relation to outcomes. Predictors of rehospitalization included increased normalized high frequency power, decreased normalized low frequency power, and decreased low/high frequency ratio. Normalized high frequency . 42 ms 2 predicted rehospital-ization while controlling for clinical variables (hazard ratio [HR] =2.3; 95% confidence interval [CI] =1.4–3.8, P=0.001). Variables significantly associated with death included natural logs of total power and ultra low frequency power. A model with ultra low frequency power ,8 ms 2 revealed that each contributed independently in predicting mortality. Nonlinear HRV variables were significant predictors of both outcomes. Conclusion: HRV measured close to the ACS onset may assist in risk stratification. HRV cut-points may provide additional, incremental prognostic information to established assessment guidelines, and may be worthy of additional study.
On heterogeneous neighbor discovery in wireless sensor networks

Neighbor discovery plays a crucial role in the formation of wireless sensor networks and mobile networks where the power of sensors (or mobile devices) is constrained. Due to the difficulty of clock synchronization, many asynchronous protocols based on wake-up scheduling have been developed over the years in order to enable timely neighbor discovery between neighboring sensors while saving energy. However, existing protocols are not fine-grained enough to support all heterogeneous battery duty cycles, which can lead to a more rapid deterioration of long-term battery health for those without support. Existing research can be broadly divided into two categories according to their neighbor-discovery techniques - the quorum based protocols and the co-primality based protocols. In this paper, we propose two neighbor discovery protocols, called Hedis and Todis, that optimize the duty cycle granularity of quorum and co-primality based protocols respectively, by enabling the finest-grained control of heterogeneous duty cycles. We compare the two optimal protocols via analytical and simulation results, which show that although the optimal co-primality based protocol (Todis) is simpler in its design, the optimal quorum based protocol (Hedis) has a better performance since it has a lower relative error rate and smaller discovery delay, while still allowing the sensor nodes to wake up at a more infrequent rate.
Rainfall Intensity-Dependent Infiltration Rates on Rangeland Rainfall Simulator Plots

Most implementations of infiltration equations with rainfall-runoff models use a hydraulic conductivity parameter that is constant for a given rainfall event. However, plot data from rainfall simulator experiments and natural rainfall events have shown that infiltration rates can increase with increasing rainfall rate instead of decreasing with time or infiltrated depth, as predicted by infiltration models. This has been hypothesized to be a function off the spatial variability of the infiltration capacity across the area. In this article, an exponential model relating steady-state infiltration rate with rainfall intensity and the average areal infiltration rate when the area under consideration is contributing to runoff is evaluated using data from variable-intensity rainfall simulator experiments. The experiments were conducted on five rangeland vegetation-soil associations at the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed in southeastern Arizona. The results from 19 rainfall simulation runs show that the increase in infiltration rate with increasing rainfall intensity can be significant and that the exponential model represents the relationship between steady-state infiltration and rainfall intensity. The exponential model coupled with a kinematic wave model also represents the hydrographs better than the Green-Ampt Mein-Larsen infiltration model coupled with the same routing model. The time to the start of runoff is influenced more by rainfall intensity than by initial soil moisture conditions, particularly when the initial rainfall intensity was high. The rapid time to steady-state runoff at the beginning of the simulation run of the observed runoff hydrographs suggests that the infiltration rates become constant more quickly than infiltration theory would suggest.
Risk factors for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among never-smokers in Korea

Background Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients include those who have never smoked. However, risk factors other than smoking in never-smokers have not been elucidated sufficiently. This study investigated the risk factors for COPD among never-smokers in Korea using population-based data. Methods The data were retrieved from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey IV conducted from 2007 to 2009. Among subjects aged 40 years or older who underwent appropriate pulmonary function tests, never-smokers not diagnosed with asthma and not showing a restrictive pattern on pulmonary function tests were enrolled. Risk factors of COPD in never-smokers were analyzed using logistic regression models. Results Among 24,871 participants in the representative Korean cohort, 3,473 never-smokers were enrolled. COPD patients accounted for 7.6% of the never-smokers. In the logistic regression analysis, low education status (odds ratio [OR]: 2.0; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.2–3.2), occupational exposure (OR: 2.6; 95% CI: 1.3–5.3), a history of tuberculosis (OR: 4.5; 95% CI: 2.3–8.7), bronchiectasis (OR: 6.0; 95% CI: 1.4–25.4), male sex (OR: 4.2; 95% CI: 2.6–6.7), advanced age (60–69 years vs 40–49 years; OR: 3.8; 95% CI: 2.0–7.0), and being underweight (body mass index <18.5 vs 18.0–24.9 kg/m2; OR: 3.1; 95% CI: 1.0–9.4) were associated with the development of COPD. Conclusion Low education status, manual labor, a history of tuberculosis and bronchiectasis, as well as male sex, advanced age and being underweight were risk factors for COPD in Korean never-smokers.
Processing a Locally Sourced Gypsum Material for Medical and Industrial Applications

Gypsum is a favourite when it comes to mimicking certain features of human body and enhancing some properties of industrial products made from it. Gypsum is widely used for medical purposes such as design of dental prosthetics and limbs support in orthopaedics; but the gypsum powder used for these products are usually well processed. Gypsum ore samples were obtained from a mine at Ibese in Ogun State, Nigeria and processed in a multistage de-gritting operation to obtain a grit-free powder which was converted to gypsum plaster (Plaster of Paris, POP) at about 220oC. The plaster powder so produced was used with property enhancing additives like calcium carbonate, sodium chloride, warm water and others to produce some medical and industrial products. Some of the medical products were tested at the State Specialist Hospital Ado-Ekiti and were found to conform with the required standard for such applications in medicine (especially dentistry and orthopedic). Other products such as chalk and wallboards were also produced from the processed gypsum and these also performed satisfactorily. Results of property tests showed that the products will have long service life.Keywords— multistage processing, de-gritting, property enhancer, dewatering, durability, dental, orthopaedics.
Computing Shortest Paths in the Plane with Removable Obstacles

We consider the problem of computing a Euclidean shortest path in the presence of removable obstacles in the plane. In particular, we have a collection of pairwise-disjoint polygonal obstacles, each of which may be removed at some cost c_i > 0. Given a cost budget C > 0, and a pair of points s, t, which obstacles should be removed to minimize the path length from s to t in the remaining workspace? We show that this problem is NP-hard even if the obstacles are vertical line segments. Our main result is a fully-polynomial time approximation scheme (FPTAS) for the case of convex polygons. Specifically, we compute an (1 + epsilon)-approximate shortest path in time O({nh}/{epsilon^2} log n log n/epsilon) with removal cost at most (1+epsilon)C, where h is the number of obstacles, n is the total number of obstacle vertices, and epsilon in (0, 1) is a user-specified parameter. Our approximation scheme also solves a shortest path problem for a stochastic model of obstacles, where each obstacle's presence is an independent event with a known probability. Finally, we also present a data structure that can answer s-t path queries in polylogarithmic time, for any pair of points s, t in the plane.
Detecting Topic Authoritative Social Media Users: A Multilayer Network Approach

After the impressive diffusion of social media and microblogging websites of the last few years, the identification of users having the capability of influencing other users’ choices is an important research topic because of the opportunities it can offer to many business companies. Most of the existing approaches, however, detect influencers by relying on centrality measures computed on networks that connect users having different types of inter-relationships. In this paper, we propose a method capable of finding influential users by exploiting the contents of the messages posted by them to express opinions on items, by modeling these contents with a three-layer network. Layers represent users, items, and keywords, along with intra-layer interactions among the actors of the same layer. Inter-layer connections are triples (<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$u$</tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$i$</tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$k$</tex-math> </inline-formula>) expressing the information that a user <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$u$</tex-math> </inline-formula> comments on an item <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$i$</tex-math></inline-formula> by using a keyword <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$k$</tex-math></inline-formula>. By exploiting multilinear algebra, we present a method capable of extracting the most active users stating their point of view about dominant items tagged with dominant keywords. We conduct a series of experiments on different real-world datasets collected from Twitter and Yelp Social Networks about different topics. Experimental results show the ability of our approach to find influential users that are both authoritative in the user network and very active in posting opinions about the topic of interest.
FoxO restricts growth and differentiation of cells with elevated TORC1 activity under nutrient restriction

TORC1, a central regulator of cell survival, growth, and metabolism, is activated in a variety of cancers. Loss of the tumor suppressors PTEN and Tsc1/2 results in hyperactivation of TORC1. Tumors caused by the loss of PTEN, but not Tsc1/2, are often malignant and have been shown to be insensitive to nutrient restriction (NR). In Drosophila, loss of PTEN or Tsc1 results in hypertrophic overgrowth of epithelial tissues under normal nutritional conditions, and an enhanced TORC1-dependent hyperplastic overgrowth of PTEN mutant tissue under NR. Here we demonstrate that epithelial cells lacking Tsc1 or Tsc2 also acquire a growth advantage under NR. The overgrowth correlates with high TORC1 activity, and activating TORC1 downstream of Tsc1 by overexpression of Rheb is sufficient to enhance tissue growth. In contrast to cells lacking PTEN, Tsc1 mutant cells show decreased PKB activity, and the extent of Tsc1 mutant overgrowth is dependent on the loss of PKB-mediated inhibition of the transcription factor FoxO. Removal of FoxO function from Tsc1 mutant tissue induces massive hyperplasia, precocious differentiation, and morphological defects specifically under NR, demonstrating that FoxO activation is responsible for restricting overgrowth of Tsc1 mutant tissue. The activation status of FoxO may thus explain why tumors caused by the loss of Tsc1–in contrast to PTEN–rarely become malignant.
Diet-Induced Abdominal Obesity, Metabolic Changes, and Atherosclerosis in Hypercholesterolemic Minipigs

Background Obesity and metabolic syndrome (MetS) are major risk factors for atherosclerotic diseases; however, a causal link remains elusive. Animal models resembling human MetS and its complications, while important, are scarce. We aimed at developing a porcine model of human MetS. Methods Forty pigs with familial hypercholesterolemia were fed a high fat + fructose diet for 30 weeks. Metabolic assessments and subcutaneous fat biopsies were obtained at 18 and 30 weeks, and fat distribution was assessed by CT-scans. Postmortem, macrophage density, and phenotype in fat tissues were quantified along with atherosclerotic burden. Results During the experiment, we observed a >4-fold in body weight, a significant but small increase in fasting glucose (4.1 mmol/L), insulin (3.1 mU/L), triglycerides (0.5 mmol/L), and HDL cholesterol (2.6 mmol/L). Subcutaneous fat correlated with insulin resistance, but intra-abdominal fat correlated inversely with insulin resistance and LDL cholesterol. More inflammatory macrophages were found in visceral versus subcutaneous fat, and inflammation decreased in subcutaneous fat over time. Conclusions MetS based on human criteria was not achieved. Surprisingly, visceral fat seemed part of a healthier metabolic and inflammatory profile. These results differ from human findings, and further research is needed to understand the relationship between obesity and MetS in porcine models.
Genome Wide Association Study for Drought, Aflatoxin Resistance, and Important Agronomic Traits of Maize Hybrids in the Sub-Tropics

The primary maize (Zea mays L.) production areas are in temperate regions throughout the world and this is where most maize breeding is focused. Important but lower yielding maize growing regions such as the sub-tropics experience unique challenges, the greatest of which are drought stress and aflatoxin contamination. Here we used a diversity panel consisting of 346 maize inbred lines originating in temperate, sub-tropical and tropical areas testcrossed to stiff-stalk line Tx714 to investigate these traits. Testcross hybrids were evaluated under irrigated and non-irrigated trials for yield, plant height, ear height, days to anthesis, days to silking and other agronomic traits. Irrigated trials were also inoculated with Aspergillus flavus and evaluated for aflatoxin content. Diverse maize testcrosses out-yielded commercial checks in most trials, which indicated the potential for genetic diversity to improve sub-tropical breeding programs. To identify genomic regions associated with yield, aflatoxin resistance and other important agronomic traits, a genome wide association analysis was performed. Using 60,000 SNPs, this study found 10 quantitative trait variants for grain yield, plant and ear height, and flowering time after stringent multiple test corrections, and after fitting different models. Three of these variants explained 5–10% of the variation in grain yield under both water conditions. Multiple identified SNPs co-localized with previously reported QTL, which narrows the possible location of causal polymorphisms. Novel significant SNPs were also identified. This study demonstrated the potential to use genome wide association studies to identify major variants of quantitative and complex traits such as yield under drought that are still segregating between elite inbred lines.