Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring the Functional Status of Patients With Low Back Pain: Assessment of the Quality of Four Disease-Specific Questionnaires

Study Design. This study was a literature review of the quality of four disease-specific functional status questionnaires for patients with low back pain: Oswestry; Million; Roland; and Waddell disability questionnaire. Objectives. The questionnaires were evaluated in terms of general description, scale structure, reliability, validity, responsiveness, and clinical research applications. Summary of Background Data. Functional status is an outcome of great interest for clinical trials of low back pain. Methods. A computer-aided search was conducted of articles published between 1981 and 1993 and references given in selected relevant publications. Articles were selected if at least one of the four functional status questionnaires was used or if the authors gave relevant information about the methodology of these questionnaires. Results. There was not enough information available about the criteria of item selection used for the development of the questionnaires. The test-retest reproducibility of the questionnaires seemed satisfactory. The Oswestry and Roland disability questionnaires have been used and evaluated more frequently than the Million and Waddell. Therefore, we can be more certain about the validity and responsiveness of the former pair of questionnaires. Conclusion. In the absence of a gold standard, direct comparisons of evaluative functional status questionnaires in a single patient group are needed. Through direct comparisons, comparative validity and responsiveness can be assessed. Functional status measures are not currently used in many settings in which they would be valuable. It is important to encourage their wider use in clinical trials. Additional research is needed to compare and improve the existing questionnaires.
Patterns of mammalian jaw ecomorphological disparity during the Mesozoic/Cenozoic transition

The radiation of mammals after the Cretaceous/Palaeogene (K/Pg) boundary was a major event in the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems. Multiple studies point to increases in maximum body size and body size disparity, but patterns of disparity for other traits are less clear owing to a focus on different indices and subclades. We conducted an inclusive comparison of jaw functional disparity from the Early Jurassic–latest Eocene, using six mechanically relevant mandibular ratios for 256 species representing all major groups. Jaw functional disparity across all mammals was low throughout much of the Mesozoic and remained low across the K/Pg boundary. Nevertheless, the K/Pg boundary was characterized by a pronounced pattern of turnover and replacement, entailing a substantial reduction of non-therian and stem-therian disparity, alongside a marked increase in that of therians. Total mammal disparity exceeded its Mesozoic maximum for the first time during the Eocene, when therian mammals began exploring previously unoccupied regions of function space. This delay in the rise of jaw functional disparity until the Eocene probably reflects the duration of evolutionary recovery after the K/Pg mass extinction event. This contrasts with the more rapid expansion of maximum body size, which occurred in the Palaeocene.
Adapting Cued Speech to Additional Languages

As of October, 1993, Cued Speech had been adapted to 56 languages and major dialects. In most of these adaptations, the writer had the assistance of one or more native speakers of the target language. In a few cases he had advice from experts on the phonetic and phonological aspects of the language in question. Other persons produced five of the adaptations (Alu, Malagasy, Maltese, Korean and Polish) with little or no guidance from the writer.
Hierarchical Simulation Approach to Accurate Fault Modeling for System Dependability Evaluation

This paper presents a hierarchical simulation methodology that enables accurate system evaluation under realistic faults and conditions. In this methodology, effects of low-level (i.e., transistor or circuit level) faults are propagated to higher levels (i.e., system level) using fault dictionaries. The primary fault models are obtained via simulation of the transistor-level effect of a radiation particle penetrating a device. The resulting current bursts constitute the first-level fault dictionary and are used in the circuit-level simulation to determine the impact on circuit latches and flip-flops. The latched outputs constitute the next level fault dictionary in the hierarchy and are applied in conducting fault injection simulation at the chip-level under selected workloads or application programs. Faults injected at the chip-level result in memory corruptions, which are used to form the next level fault dictionary for the system-level simulation of an application running on simulated hardware. When an application terminates, either normally or abnormally, the overall fault impact on the software behavior is quantified and analyzed. The system in this sense can be a single workstation or a network. The simulation method is demonstrated and validated in the case study of Myrinet (a commercial, high-speed network) based network system.
Pulmonary glass particles may persist in the lung suppressing function of immune cells

The health effects of silica may depend on the inherent properties of crystalline silica or on external factors affecting the biological activity or distribution of its polymorphs. Inhaled crystalline silica is classified as a Group I carcinogen, however, information on the health effects of amorphous silica is still insufficient. Considering that alveolar macrophages play a key role in both innate and adaptive immune responses for removal of foreign bodies that enter via the respiratory system, we treated sheet‐like glass particles (SGPs), a type of noncrystalline amorphous silica, to MH‐S cells, an alveolar macrophage cell line. SGPs reduced the generation of ROS and NO and induced cell death via multiple pathways. Although the expression of CD80, CD86, and CD40, increased by exposure to SGPs, the expression of MHC class II molecules had not notably changed. Additionally, expression of ICAM‐1 tended to decrease. In mice, SGPs were distributed in the interstitial region of the lung without notable pathological lesion on day 14 after a single intratracheal instillation. Pulmonary total cell number increased significantly with the highest dose, but the levels of all measured inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, except IL‐1, were lower in BAL fluid from SGP‐treated mice compared to control. More interestingly, the expression of antigen presentation‐related proteins was enhanced in the lungs of SGP‐exposed mice concomitant with an increase in the number of mature dendritic cells, whereas the expression of ICAM‐1, an important adhesion molecule for helper T cell recruitment, was suppressed. Taken together, we suggest that SGPs may induce adverse health effects by down‐regulating function of immune cells in the lungs. Furthermore, ICAM‐1 may play a key role in immune response to remove pulmonary SGPs.
Towards Application-Aware In-Network Bandwidth Management in Data Centers

A wide variety of applications nowadays are running on data centers, making the scarce in-network bandwidth of data centers become the performance bottleneck. To guarantee the network performance, an efficient in-network bandwidth management can be leveraged, however little work has been done so far. The crux is that existing work mainly relies on a static or dynamic bandwidth allocation strategy, which lacks efficient schemes to allow elastic and flexible use of the in-network bandwidth among different applications. In this paper, we study the in-network bandwidth management problem in data centers with a large number of diverse applications. To this end, we first formulate a max-min bandwidth constraint model to reserve an amount of bandwidth for each type of application. With this model, bandwidth can be sharing across different application types in an elastic and flexible way. We further present a Borrow-Return-Preempt bandwidth management method (BRP) to practically allocate bandwidth to individual requests of each type of applications. Extensive simulation results have shown that our proposed BRP is capable of improving the in-network bandwidth utilization as well as providing desirable network performance for applications, compared to the conventional fair allocation method.
Inflammation and MiR-21 Pathways Functionally Interact to Downregulate PDCD4 in Colorectal Cancer

Inflammation plays a direct role in colorectal cancer (CRC) progression; however the molecular mechanisms responsible for this effect are unclear. The inflammation induced cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) enzyme required for the production of Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), can promote colorectal cancer by decreasing expression of the tumour suppressor gene Programmed Cell Death 4 (PDCD4). As PDCD4 is also a direct target of the oncogene microRNA-21 (miR-21) we investigated the relationship between the COX-2 and miR-21 pathways in colorectal cancer progression. Gene expression profile in tumour and paired normal mucosa from 45 CRC patients demonstrated that up-regulation of COX-2 and miR-21 in tumour tissue correlates with worse Dukes' stage. In vitro studies in colonic adenocarcinoma cells revealed that treatment with the selective COX-2 inhibitor NS398 significantly decreased miR-21 levels (p = 0.0067) and increased PDCD4 protein levels (p<0.001), whilst treatment with PGE2 up-regulated miR-21 expression (p = 0.019) and down-regulated PDCD4 protein (p<0.05). These findings indicate that miR-21 is a component of the COX-2 inflammation pathway and that this pathway promotes worsening of disease stage in colorectal cancer by inducing accumulation of PGE2 and increasing expression of miR-21 with consequent downregulation of the tumour suppressor gene PDCD4.
The Poetics of Bodily Being: The Lived Experience of Breastfeeding an Infant "Out of Reach" in the NICU

Title of Document: THE POETICS OF BODILY BEING: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF BREASTFEEDING AN INFANT “OUT OF REACH” IN THE NICU Christy A. Sampson-Kelly Doctor of Philosophy, 2013 Directed By: Professor Francine Hultgren, Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership Babies born preterm (<37 weeks gestation) and at very low birth weight (VLBW, <1500 grams, 3.3 pounds) reside "out of reach" from their mothers in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) during the very beginnings of life. As the evidence of breast milk versus formula for infants within this vulnerable population is well established, multiple initiatives call for the provision of breast milk, and NICU professionals are subsequently making efforts to increase numbers of breastfed infants. However, there is a gap in the scholarly literature that brings forth mothers' voices relative to this unique breastfeeding experience. These voices are imperative to making a greater understanding of this phenomenon. This hermeneutic phenomenological study asks the question: What is the lived experience of providing breast milk for one’s child who lives in a NICU? My exploration draws upon the writings of several philosophers including Levinas, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer, and Derrida that relate to the phenomenon and discover how the phenomenon is made visible through them. The wondrous writings of poets are interlaced throughout my journeying, reverberating the deep meaning that lies beneath the surface of things. Max van Manen’s depiction of hermeneutic phenomenology provides the methodological structure for the study, which is uncovered through the multiple, individual conversations with and journal entries of ten mothers who share this human experience. As meaning unfolds, breastfeeding emerges centrally, as a remedy and offering a way to transcend the dis-eases of selfblame, dis-place-ment, and dis-member-ment underwent as part of mothering in the NICU. Reflecting on these dis-eases, calls for the offering of pedagogical insights of more welcoming and less judgment in supporting mothers in doing the work of mothering, taking on a view of breast milk as more than pure resource, and the importance of nurturing the nurses. Attending to these stories may help NICU professionals to imagine an environed NICU, were mothers, too, are cared for in their journey to self-forgiveness, em-place-ment, and re-member-ment, amid the strange and wondrous terrain of their beginnings. THE POETICS OF BODILY BEING: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF BREASTFEEDING AN INFANT “OUT OF REACH” IN THE NICU
Rational judging method of fire station layout based on Data Mining

Rationality of city fire station layout is a hot issue in fire researches. On the basis of the method of fire station layout, the concept of equivalent travel time is put forward in this paper. Through arrival time data are extracted using Data Mining technology in FARDMS, rational judging method of fire station layout is established. Taking jurisdiction squadrons of Chongqing as an example, the method is verified. Studies show that the method is simple and reliable and evaluation results are consistent with the reality. So it will not only provide a feasible idea to judge rationality of fire station layout for built-up area, but also provide references to planning and construction fire stations in the future.
Retention of Antimicrobial Activity in Plaque and Saliva following Mouthrinse Use in vivo

The aim of this study was to determine the contribution of plaque and saliva towards the prolonged activity, also called substantivity, of three antimicrobial mouthrinses (Listerine®, Meridol®, Crest Pro Health®), used in combination with a toothpaste (Prodent Coolmint®). Volunteers brushed for 4 weeks with a toothpaste without antimicrobial claims, while during the last 2 weeks half of the volunteers used an antimicrobial mouthrinse in addition to brushing. At the end of the experimental period, plaque and saliva samples were collected 6 h after oral hygiene, and bacterial concentrations and viabilities were determined. The contribution of plaque and saliva towards substantivity was assessed by combining plaque obtained after mechanical cleaning only with plaque and saliva obtained after additional use of an antimicrobial rinse. Subsequently, resulting viabilities of the combined plaques were determined. The viabilities of plaque samples after additional rinsing with mouthrinses were lower than of plaque obtained after mechanical cleaning only, regardless of the rinse involved. Moreover, plaque collected 6 h after rinsing with antimicrobial mouthrinses contained a surplus of antimicrobial activity. Only Listerine showed decreased viability in saliva, but none of the mouthrinses showed any residual antimicrobial activity in saliva. The findings indicate that plaque left behind after mechanical cleaning contributes to the prolonged substantivity of antimicrobial mouthrinses.
Design of an Electronically Beam Scanning Reflectarray Using Aperture-Coupled Elements

The design of a C-band electronically beam scanning reflectarray is presented. The reconfigurable reflectarray element consists of a microstrip patch, printed on a flexible membrane substrate, aperture-coupled to a transmission line loaded with two varactor diodes. The designed element allows continuous tuning of the reflected signal's phase over a 360deg range with a maximum loss of 2.4 dB at 5.4 GHz. The measured results on a 30-element reflectarray breadboard show that by varying the bias voltages on each element the main beam can be steered to large angles, up to 40deg from broadside in the H-plane. A loss analysis of the proposed reflectarray is also presented
Impact of Precipitation Fluctuation on Desert-Grassland ANPP

Precipitation change has significantly influenced annual net primary productivity (ANPP) at either annual or seasonal scales in desert steppes in arid and semi-arid regions. In order to reveal the process of precipitation driving ANPP at different time scales, responses of different ANPP levels to the inter-annual and intra-annual precipitation fluctuations were analyzed. ANPP was reversed by building a ground reflectance spectrum model, from 2000 to 2015, using the normalized differential vegetation index of the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS-NDVI) data at 250 m × 250 m spatial resolution. Since the description of the differently expressing forms of precipitation are not sufficient in former studies in order to overcome the deficiency of former studies, in this study, intra-annual precipitation fluctuations were analyzed not only with precipitation of May–August, June–August, July–August, and August, respectively, which have direct influence on vegetation productivity within the year, but quantitative description, vector precipitation (R), concentration ratio (Cd), and concentration period (D), were also used to describe the overall characteristics of intra-annual precipitation fluctuations. The concentration ratio and the maximum precipitation period of the intra-annual precipitation were represented by using monthly precipitation. The results showed that: (1) in the period from 1971 to 2015, the maximum annual precipitation is 3.76 times that of the minimum in the Urat desert steppe; (2) vector precipitation is more significantly related to ANPP ( r = 0.7724, p = 0.000) compared to meteorological annual precipitation and real annual precipitation influence; and (3) annual precipitation is almost concentrated in 5–8 months and monthly precipitation accumulation has significantly effected ANPP, especially in the period of June–August, since the vegetation composition in the study area was mainly sub-shrubs and perennial grasses, which were more sensitive to precipitation accumulation. These findings suggest that: (1) In the desert steppe, the inter-annual fluctuation and the intra-annual distribution of precipitation have a direct impact on ANPP; (2) the annual vector precipitation showed an extremely significant regression relationship with ANPP; and (3) monthly precipitation fluctuations (May–August) possess the accumulative effect on ANPP during the growing period in the desert steppe, while precipitation accumulation from June to August shows the most significant impact.
Discovery of X-Ray Burst Oscillations from a Neutron Star X-Ray Transient in the Globular Cluster NGC 6440

We report the discovery of millisecond oscillations in an X-ray burst from the X-ray transient SAX J1748.9-2021 in the globular cluster NGC 6440. Oscillations at a frequency of 409.7 ± 0.3 Hz were present in one of 15 X-ray bursts observed with the Proportional Counter Array on the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer during the outburst that occurred in 2001. The burst was relatively dim and had the second longest duration and decay time. The average peak luminosity of two bursts showing radius expansion is (3.6 ± 0.4) × 1038 ergs s-1, consistent with the Eddington luminosity for a 1.4 M☉ and 10 km radius neutron star burning hydrogen-poor matter. We speculate that the dichotomy observed between sources with burst oscillations at once versus twice the frequency difference of kHz quasiperiodic oscillations in the persistent emission may be related to the magnetic field geometry of the neutron stars.
Protein Binding Sites Prediction Using Ensembles

Protein molecules play essential roles in the living organisms. The knowledge about their functions is very important in order to design new drugs that could be used to control various processes in the organisms. The determination of the protein functions could be performed by detecting the binding sites where interactions between proteins occur. In this paper we focus on predicting the protein binding sites. First, several characteristics of the amino acid residues are extracted. Then, prediction methods are induced. In this research paper we consider several classification methods for inducing models. In order to enhance the predictions, we use ensembles, which combine several classification models. The results show that using ensembles, the prediction power is increased.
Multi-code Distributed Storage

Distributed storage systems need to guarantee reliable access to stored data. Resilience to node failures can be increased by using erasure encoding. A variety of erasure codes are discussed in literature and implemented in practice. This multiplicity of codes puts a heavy burden on existing systems. In scenarios such as multi-cloud file delivery or migration of data to a new erasure code, the ability to combine data from diverse erasure codes of multiple cloud systems is essential. The methods presented in this paper enable combining symbols of different erasure codes regardless of their underlying generator matrix, finite field size, and source block size. Mathematical approaches are discussed using Reed-Solomon and RLNC codes as example but without loss of generality. The presented approaches enable multi-cloud file delivery across diverse coding algorithms and permits graceful migration of a legacy erasure coding without the need of re-ingestion of existing data.
ROKU : An Improved Method for the Detection of Tissue-Specific Expression Patterns

A major challenge of microarray analysis is to detect genes whose expression in a single or small number of tissues is significantly different than in other tissues. The tissue-specificity provides an essential reference to identify tissue-specific drug targets. Several methods were used for the purpose: For example, Shannon information theoretic entropy was used for ranking genes according to their tissue-specificity [1]; Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) was used for the detection of expression outliers [2]. Both the entropyand AIC-based methods entail pros and cons. The entropy does not explain to which tissue a gene is tissue-specific, only measuring the degree of overall tissue specificity of the gene. The AIC-based method is the contrary. This complementary relationship between the two methods led us to develop a combined approach, ROKU. ROKU analyzes any type of tissue-specific genes (up-, down-, and mixed-type) in two steps. First, it ranks genes according to overall tissue-specificity using entropy [1], and second, for each gene, it identifies specific tissues whose observations are regarded as outliers using AIC [2].
Development of a verification method on ultrasonic-based perpendicular parking assist system

This paper presents a verification method on an ultrasonic-based perpendicular parking assist system. The system is an automotive product using ultrasonic sensors and electric power steering to carry out perpendicular parking semi-automatically for consumer convenience. An accurate verification method is required to develop the parking assist system because this system has a risk of crashing into other vehicles while parking. Thus, the standard test specification and parameters of the verification method are proposed to prove the system accurately. Especially, it considers the mechanism of the parking system and risk points of sensors on the system sufficiently. The proposed verification method is proven that it is effective to verify the ultrasonic-based perpendicular parking assist system.