Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of a Vegetarian vs Conventional Hypocaloric Diabetic Diet on Thigh Adipose Tissue Distribution in Subjects with Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Study

ABSTRACT Objective: The aim of our study was to compare the effects of a vegetarian and a conventional diet on thigh adipose tissue distribution in subjects with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Methods: Seventy-four subjects with T2D were randomly assigned to either follow a vegetarian diet (V, n = 37) or a control group who followed an isocaloric conventional anti-diabetic diet (C, n = 37). Both diets were calorie restricted (−500 kcal/day). To measure insulin sensitivity, the hyperinsulinemic (1 mU.kg−1.min−1) isoglycemic clamp was conducted. β-Cell function was assessed using a mathematical model after a test meal. Magnetic resonance imaging of the thigh was performed. All subjects were examined at 0, 3, and 6 months. Statistical analyses were performed using repeated measures analysis of variance and a multivariate regression model. Results: Greater reduction was observed in total leg area in V (−13.6 cm2 [95% confidence interval [CI], −14.2 to −12.9] in V vs −9.9 cm2 [95% CI, −10.6 to −9.2] in C; Gxt p < 0.001). The reduction in subcutaneous fat was comparable in response to both diets (Gxt, p = 0.64). Subfascial fat was reduced only in response to a vegetarian diet (−0.82 [95% CI, −1.13 to −0.55] cm2 in V vs −0.44 [95% CI, −0.78 to +0.02] cm2 in C; Gxt, p = 0.04). The reduction in intramuscular fat tended to be greater in response to a vegetarian diet (−1.78 [95% CI, −2.26 to −1.27] cm2 in V vs −0.57 [95% CI, −1.06 to −0.09] cm2 in C; Gxt, p = 0.12). Changes in subcutaneous and subfascial fat correlated with changes in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), fasting plasma glucose, and β-cell insulin sensitivity. After adjustment for changes in body mass index (BMI), correlations remained significant for changes in fasting plasma glucose and β-cell insulin sensitivity and with changes in triglycerides. Conclusions: Our data indicate the importance of both subcutaneous and subfascial fat in relationship to glucose and lipid metabolism. Abbreviations: BMI , body mass index; C , control group; FPG , fasting plasma glucose; Gxt , interaction between group and time; HbA1c , glycated hemoglobin; MCR , metabolic clearance rate of glucose; OPLS , orthogonal projections to latent structure; T2D , type 2 diabetes; V , vegetarian group
Notice of RetractionEnergy Consumption, Structural Breaks and Economic Growth: Evidence from China

This paper attempts to shed light into the Granger causality relationship between energy consumption and economic growth allowing structural breaks for China, based on two multivariate time series models: a demand side model of energy consumption, real GDP and energy price and a production side model of GDP, energy, capital, and labor. To test for Granger causality in the presence of cointegration between the variables, we employ a VECM rather than a VAR model estimation. Empirical results from the two models for China over the period 1952-2007 show that there is a bi-directional causalities between energy consumption and GDP, both in the short-run and long-run. This indicates unanimously that energy acts as an engine of economic growth, and that energy conservation policies may harm economic growth in China. It also implies that energy consumption keeps on growing as long as the economy grows in China.
Putative Connections Between Nitrate Reductase S-Nitrosylation and NO Synthesis Under Pathogen Attacks and Abiotic Stresses

Nitrate reductase (NR) is the key enzyme for nitrogen assimilation in plant cells and also works as an important enzymatic source of nitric oxide (NO), which then regulates plant growth and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. However, how NR activities are finely tuned to modulate these biological processes remain largely unknown. Here we present a SWISSPROT 3D analysis of different NR from plant sources indicating the possible sites of S-nitrosylation, and show some evidence of immunoblottings to S-nitrosated (SNO-) proteins. We also found that S-nitrosylation status of NR is negatively correlated with the enzyme activity. The production of NO via NR in vitro represents only 1% of its nitrate reduction activity, possibly due to NO generated through NR reaction may deactivate the enzyme by this S-nitrosylation-mediated negative-feedback regulation. NR-mediated NO generation also plays a key role in protecting plants from abiotic stresses through activating antioxidant enzymes and increasing antioxidants. Putative connections between NR S-nitrosylation and NO biosynthesis under pathogen attacks and abiotic stresses are discussed in this Perspective.
A qualitative study of older adults’ and family caregivers’ perspectives regarding their preoperative care transitions

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To explore how older patients with multiple chronic conditions and their family caregivers perceive their engagement and overall care experience throughout the preoperative phase of elective orthopaedic hip or knee joint replacement. BACKGROUND Patient engagement is a critical component of care necessary for improving patient outcomes. Little is known about how older adults with multiple chronic conditions and their family caregivers engage in preoperative care transitions and the subsequent impact of this experience on postoperative health outcomes. DESIGN Prospective qualitative descriptive design was used. METHODS Semi-structured telephone interviews with a convenience sample of older adults coping with multiple chronic conditions and their family caregivers. Interviews were conducted prior to surgery and, again 21 days postsurgery, were audio-recorded and transcribed for qualitative content analysis. The Quality Health Outcomes Model was used to categorise study findings. RESULTS Eleven patients and five family caregivers participated. Guided by the Quality Health Outcomes Model, four major themes were identified. (i) Older adults perceive that joint replacement is about quality of life. (ii) Standardised interventions often fail to address the unique needs of complex older adults. (iii) Family caregivers perceive they are the primary care coordinators. (iv) Postoperative outcomes and resource utilisation vary widely in complex older adults. CONCLUSION Findings suggest that current preoperative care interventions are often not designed to effectively engage complex older patients and their family caregivers. Coordinated patient-centred preoperative care that reflects the needs and goals of complex older patients and their family caregivers may positively influence perioperative care transitions and outcomes beyond this episode of care. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE The current research documents the need for more in-depth knowledge about the relationship between older adults' and their family caregivers' engagement preoperatively and postoperative outcomes and resource utilisation.
Characterization of auxetic polyurethanes foam for biomedical implants

Abstract Aging, accidents and diseases are the leading causes of disability in today’s world. Therefore, implants and prostheses for hard and soft tissues are becoming increasingly common to restore daily activity and improve the quality of life of patients. Although implants have been extensively developed and are in the clinical use, deformation mechanism, inflexibility and mismatch of the elastic and mechanical behavior of the implants with native tissues are challenges for tissue engineering. The objective of this study was to characterize auxetic polyurethane foam as an auxetic soft tissue implant based on mathematical modeling using a nonlinear elasticity theory. The compressibility effects on auxetic soft tissue implants due to equibiaxial loading were studied. Numerical results were computed using experimentally obtained data and compared with the non-auxetic behavior of a soft tissue.
Identification of maize seeds using terahertz transmitted spectral imaging

The several maize seeds were measured by using THz time-domain spectroscopy(THz-TDS) and THz transmitted scanning imaging technology,respectively.The experimental results show that different samples have different absorption characters while they haven't obvious absorption peaks.It is not possible to realize the identification using the characteristic "fingerprint" absorption spectra.The inspection and identification of specific kinds of maize seeds were realized successfully by using THz imaging technology.The spatial distribution of each sample was obtained from THz image,using the method of component pattern analysis.In this method,comparing with the conventional methods,only data of image and absorption spectral information of samples were required,no specific features of samples were required.This technology provides a new approach for the nondestructive examination,safety inspection and so on,and then it has practical applications.
Compression Header Analyzer Intrusion Detection System (CHA - IDS) for 6LoWPAN Communication Protocol

Prior 6LoWPAN intrusion detection system (IDS) utilized several features to detect various malicious activities. However, these IDS methods only detect specific attack but fails when the attacks are combined. In this paper, we propose an IDS known as compression header analyzer intrusion detection system (CHA-IDS) that analyzes 6LoWPAN compression header data to mitigate the individual and combination routing attacks. CHA-IDS is a multi-agent system framework that capture and manage raw data for data collection, analysis, and system actions. The proposed CHA-IDS utilize best first and greedy stepwise with correlation-based feature selection to determine only significant features needed for the intrusion detection. These features are then tested using six machine learning algorithms to find the best classification method that able to distinguish between an attack and non-attack and then from the best classification method, we devise a rule to be implemented in Tmote Sky. To ensure the reliability of our proposed method, we evaluate the CHA-IDS with three types of combination attacks known as hello flood, sinkhole, and wormhole. We also compare our results in term of accuracy of detection, energy overhead, and memory consumption with the prior 6LoWPAN-IDS implementation such as SVELTE and Pongle’s IDS. The results show that CHA-IDS performs better than the aforementioned methods with 99% true positive rate and consumed low energy overhead and memory that fit in constrained device such Tmote Sky.
Efficient Graph-based Word Sense Induction by Distributional Inclusion Vector Embeddings

Word sense induction (WSI), which addresses polysemy by unsupervised discovery of multiple word senses, resolves ambiguities for downstream NLP tasks and also makes word representations more interpretable. This paper proposes an accurate and efficient graph-based method for WSI that builds a global non-negative vector embedding basis (which are interpretable like topics) and clusters the basis indexes in the ego network of each polysemous word. By adopting distributional inclusion vector embeddings as our basis formation model, we avoid the expensive step of nearest neighbor search that plagues other graph-based methods without sacrificing the quality of sense clusters. Experiments on three datasets show that our proposed method produces similar or better sense clusters and embeddings compared with previous state-of-the-art methods while being significantly more efficient.
Warp-knitted fabric defect segmentation based on the non-subsampled wavelet-packet-based Contourlet transform

In the work, the Contourlet transform is modified for a more complex situation in order to obtain a subtler decomposition of the warp-knitted fabric image. The new Contourlet transform is named the non-subsampled wavelet-packet-based Contourlet transform (NWPCT) and it consists of wavelet-packet transform and a non-subsampled directional filter bank. Firstly, the fabric image is processed by means of wavelet-packet transform with segmented threshold de-noising to acquire the subtle frequency coefficients. Secondly, the more elaborate directional coefficients will be obtained by decomposing the wavelet-packet coefficients with non-subsampled directional filter bank. Then the directional coefficients with higher energy are chosen to reconstruct the wavelet-packet coefficients. Finally, the iterative threshold method and object operation based on morphology are applied to segment the defect profile. The final experimental result demonstrates that NWPCT has excellent properties to segment out the defects (broken wrap, oil and width barrier). The defect profile is distinct enough for the further work concerning warp-knitted fabric defect recognition.
Expeditious Generation of Knowledge Graph Embeddings

Knowledge Graph Embedding methods aim at representing entities and relations in a knowledge base as points or vectors in a continuous vector space. Several approaches using embeddings have shown promising results on tasks such as link prediction, entity recommendation, question answering, and triplet classification. However, only a few methods can compute low-dimensional embeddings of very large knowledge bases. In this paper, we propose KG2Vec, a novel approach to Knowledge Graph Embedding based on the skip-gram model. Instead of using a predefined scoring function, we learn it relying on Long Short-Term Memories. We evaluated the goodness of our embeddings on knowledge graph completion and show that KG2Vec is comparable to the quality of the scalable state-of-the-art approaches and can process large graphs by parsing more than a hundred million triples in less than 6 hours on common hardware.
Body image: a survey of children in Caribbean Bonaire

Background In Bonaire, the prevalence of overweight and obesity is twice as high compared with Northern Europe but similar to other Caribbean Islands and the USA. Having a realistic body image may be an important tool in the battle against childhood obesity. Previous studies have demonstrated associations between having a realistic body image and efforts to control weight. The aim of the study was to explore the body image of children in Bonaire. Methods In a cross-sectional study from March to May 2015 in Bonaire, weight and height were measured in all children aged 10–14 years attending school. Body mass index (kg/m2) was classified according to the International Obesity Task Force. The children were asked about their body image using a validated questionnaire. Results Body mass index was measured in 939 of 1029 (91.3%) children aged 10–14 years (51.5% boys) in Bonaire. Of all children, 9.7% was underweight, 57.6% was normal weight, 32.7% was overweight (including obesity) and 11.6% was obese. The question pertaining to body image was completed by 750 of 939 (79.9%) children. Having a realistic perception of body image varied per weight category from 65% in underweight girls to 13% in obese boys. The percentage of obese children who underestimate their weight is high (boys 87%, girls 77%). Conclusions In many children in Caribbean Bonaire, perceived body image is not in agreement with actual weight status. This applies especially to obese children. Disagreement between perceived body image and actual weight status may prevent weight management in overweight children. Future research is needed to elucidate determinants of disagreement between body image and actual weight status.
A Novel Sensor for Measuring the Inner Pressure of Catheters for Clinical Use

In numerous clinical procedures requiring the infusion of a fluid (gas or liquid) it is necessary to monitor the infusion pressure. To this purpose, several devices have been developed so far. Such devices are generally disposable, with a pressure transducer in direct contact with the infusion fluid. In this paper, we describe the design and development of a dry infusion pressure measurement system, sensing the pressure-induced radial displacement of the external surface of polymeric catheters. Such displacement is first amplified using a near-to-singularity elastic beam and then transduced using a Hall effect displacement sensor. We start describing the working principle of the whole system, then we detail the design process. Finally, we present the static calibration on two widely used biomedical catheters.
The best of both worlds? A review of delayed selfing in flowering plants.

PREMISE OF STUDY In a seminal body of theory, Lloyd showed that the fitness consequences of selfing will depend on its timing in anthesis. Selfing that occurs after opportunities for outcrossing or pollen dispersal can provide reproductive assurance when pollinators are limited and is expected to incur little cost, even when inbreeding depression is high. As a result, delayed selfing is often interpreted as a "best-of-both-worlds" mating system that combines the advantages of selfing and outcrossing. METHODS We surveyed 65 empirical studies of delayed selfing, recording floral mechanisms and examining information on inbreeding depression, autofertility, and other parameters to test the support for delayed selfing as a best-of-both-worlds strategy. KEY RESULTS Phylogenetic distribution of the diverse floral mechanisms suggests that some basic floral structures may predispose plant taxa to evolve delayed selfing. Delayed selfing appears to serve as a best-of-both-worlds strategy in some but not all species. While the capacity for autonomous selfing is often high, it is lower, in some cases, than in related species with earlier modes of selfing. In other delayed-selfers, low inbreeding depression and reduced investment in corollas and pollen suggest limited benefits from outcrossing. CONCLUSIONS Despite a growing literature on the subject, experimental evidence for delayed selfing is limited and major gaps in knowledge remain, particularly with respect to the stability of delayed selfing and the conditions that may favor transitions between delayed and earlier selfing. Finally, we suggest a potential role of delayed selfing in facilitating transitions from self-incompatibility to selfing.
Low HDL-cholesterol among normal weight, normoglycemic offspring of individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus

OBJECTIVE: Offspring of type 2 diabetics have an increased risk of dyslipidemia, glucose intolerance and obesity. The aim of this study was to assess the lipid levels in the offspring of diabetics with normal glucose tolerance and normal body weight. DESIGN: Normal weight offspring of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) who had normal glucose tolerance, and healthy gender matched controls of comparable age without a family history of diabetes mellitus, were the subjects of this study. Lipid profiles were determined in cases and controls. RESULTS: The study included 114 subjects (64 males and 50 females) in each group, aged (mean±SD) 24.0±7.9 in cases and 24.1±8.0 years in controls. The body mass index (BMI) was 20.8±3.0 and 20.2±3.1 kg/m2 in cases and controls, respectively. Serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, plasma glucose, fasting insulin, C-peptide and proinsulin levels were comparable in cases and controls. Serum high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol was lower (p <0.001), whilst the serum triglyceride/HDL ratio, low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and area under the curve for insulin and proinsulin during an oral glucose tolerance test were higher in cases compared to controls. HDL cholesterol showed no significant correlation with plasma glucose, insulin or proinsulin. CONCLUSION: Plasma HDL cholesterol is low among normal weight, normoglycemic offspring of subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The implications of this finding are not apparent.
Challenges and Opportunities of Centrifugal Microfluidics for Extreme Point-of-Care Testing

The advantages offered by centrifugal microfluidic systems have encouraged its rapid adaptation in the fields of in vitro diagnostics, clinical chemistry, immunoassays, and nucleic acid tests. Centrifugal microfluidic devices are currently used in both clinical and point-of-care settings. Recent studies have shown that this new diagnostic platform could be potentially used in extreme point-of-care settings like remote villages in the Indian subcontinent and in Africa. Several technological inventions have decentralized diagnostics in developing countries; however, very few microfluidic technologies have been successful in meeting the demand. By identifying the finest difference between the point-of-care testing and extreme point-of-care infrastructure, this review captures the evolving diagnostic needs of developing countries paired with infrastructural challenges with technological hurdles to healthcare delivery in extreme point-of-care settings. In particular, the requirements for making centrifugal diagnostic devices viable in developing countries are discussed based on a detailed analysis of the demands in different clinical settings including the distinctive needs of extreme point-of-care settings.
Information Theory for Fields

A physical field has an infinite number of degrees of freedom since it has a field value at each location of a continuous space. Therefore, it is impossible to know a field from finite measurements alone and prior information on the field is essential for field inference. An information theory for fields is needed to join the measurement and prior information into probabilistic statements on field configurations. Such an information field theory (IFT) is built upon the language of mathematical physics, in particular, on field theory and statistical mechanics. IFT permits the mathematical derivation of optimal imaging algorithms, data analysis methods, and even computer simulation schemes. The application of IFT algorithms to astronomical datasets provides high fidelity images of the Universe and facilitates the search for subtle statistical signals from the Big Bang. The concepts of IFT may even pave the road to novel computer simulations that are aware of their own uncertainties.
Tensor Robust Principal Component Analysis with a New Tensor Nuclear Norm

In this paper, we consider the Tensor Robust Principal Component Analysis (TRPCA) problem, which aims to exactly recover the low-rank and sparse components from their sum. Our model is based on the recently proposed tensor-tensor product (or t-product) [14]. Induced by the t-product, we first rigorously deduce the tensor spectral norm, tensor nuclear norm, and tensor average rank, and show that the tensor nuclear norm is the convex envelope of the tensor average rank within the unit ball of the tensor spectral norm. These definitions, their relationships and properties are consistent with matrix cases. Equipped with the new tensor nuclear norm, we then solve the TRPCA problem by solving a convex program and provide the theoretical guarantee for the exact recovery. Our TRPCA model and recovery guarantee include matrix RPCA as a special case. Numerical experiments verify our results, and the applications to image recovery and background modeling problems demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.