Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does regular exercise during pregnancy influence lumbopelvic pain? A randomized controlled trial

Objective. To study lumbopelvic pain in women randomized to a regular exercise program during pregnancy in comparison to women receiving standard antenatal care. Design. A two‐armed, two‐center, randomized controlled trial. Setting. St Olavs Hospital, Trondheim University Hospital and Stavanger University Hospital. Population. A total of 855 pregnant women were randomized to intervention or control groups. Methods. The intervention was a 12 week exercise program, including aerobic and strengthening exercises, conducted between 20 and 36 weeks of pregnancy. One weekly group session was led by physiotherapists, and home exercises were encouraged twice a week. The control group received standard antenatal care. Main outcome measures. Self‐reports of lumbopelvic pain and sick leave due to lumbopelvic pain. The data were analysed according to the “intention‐to‐treat” principle. Results. There were no significant differences between groups of women reporting lumbopelvic pain at 36 weeks (74 vs. 75%, p=0.76). The proportion of women on sick leave due to lumbopelvic pain was lower in the intervention group (22% vs 31%, p=0.01). Conclusions. Exercise during pregnancy does not influence the prevalence of lumbopelvic pain, but women offered a regular exercise course seem to handle the disorder better.
Mean and variance adaptation within the MLLR framework

Abstract One of the key issues for adaptation algorithms is to modify a large number of parameters with only a small amount of adaptation data. Speaker adaptation techniques try to obtain near speaker-dependent (SD) performance with only small amounts of speaker-specific data, and are often based on initial speaker-independent (SI) recognition systems. Some of these speaker adaptation techniques may also be applied to the task of adaptation to a new acoustic environment. In this case an SI recognition system trained in, typically, a clean acoustic environment is adapted to operate in a new, noise-corrupted, acoustic environment. This paper examines the maximum likelihood linear regression (MLLR) adaptation technique. MLLR estimates linear transformations for groups of model parameters to maximize the likelihood of the adaptation data. Previously, MLLR has been applied to the mean parameters in mixture-Gaussian HMM systems. In this paper MLLR is extended to also update the Gaussian variances and re-estimation formulae are derived for these variance transforms. MLLR with variance compensation is evaluated on several large vocabulary recognition tasks. The use of mean and variance MLLR adaptation was found to give an additional 2% to 7% decrease in word error rate over mean-only MLLR adaptation.
Perioperative activation of disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow of patients with prostate cancer.

PURPOSE The outcome of prostate cancer is highly unpredictable. To assess the dynamics of systemic disease and to identify patients at high risk for early relapse we followed the fate of disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow for up to 10 years and genetically analyzed such cells isolated at various stages of disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS Nine hundred bone marrow aspirates from 384 patients were stained using the monoclonal antibody A45-B/B3 directed against cytokeratins 8, 18, and 19. Log-rank statistics and Cox regression analysis were applied to determine the prognostic impact of positive cells detected before surgery (244 patients) and postoperatively (214 patients). Samples from primary tumors (n = 55) and single disseminated tumor cells (n = 100) were analyzed by comparative genomic hybridization. RESULTS Detection of cytokeratin-positive cells before surgery was the strongest independent risk factor for metastasis within 48 months (P < .001; relative risk [RR], 5.5; 95% CI, 2.4 to 12.9). In contrast, cytokeratin-positive cells detected 6 months to 10 years after radical prostatectomy were consistently present in bone marrow with a prevalence of approximately 20% but had no influence on disease outcome. Characteristic genotypes of cytokeratin-positive cells were selected at manifestation of metastasis. CONCLUSION Cytokeratin-positive cells in the bone marrow of prostate cancer patients are only prognostically relevant when detected before surgery. Because we could not identify significant genetic differences between pre- and postoperatively isolated tumor cells before manifestation of metastasis, we postulate the existence of perioperative stimuli that activate disseminated tumor cells. Patients with cytokeratin-positive cells in bone marrow before surgery may therefore benefit from adjuvant therapies.
The Movement and the Media: Framing the Debate Over Animal Experimentation

Mass media play an important role in determining both what type of activities a social movement organization engages in and the timing of those activities. In addition, the media help to set the context in which audience attitudes regarding movements are formed. This article examines the connections between the mass media and the animal rights movement in the United States. After discussing media practices and their role in movement activities, the article examines national newsmagazine and television coverage from 1984 to 1993 regarding the debate over animal experimentation. Newsmagazines and television news granted less political standing to challengers and framed events in the same way. However, newsmagazines were more likely to place incidents in broader context and draw connections between events; television presented them in a more isolated manner.
Bayesian Sparsification of Recurrent Neural Networks

Recurrent neural networks show state-of-the-art results in many text analysis tasks but often require a lot of memory to store their weights. Recently proposed Sparse Variational Dropout eliminates the majority of the weights in a feed-forward neural network without significant loss of quality. We apply this technique to sparsify recurrent neural networks. To account for recurrent specifics we also rely on Binary Variational Dropout for RNN. We report 99.5% sparsity level on sentiment analysis task without a quality drop and up to 87% sparsity level on language modeling task with slight loss of accuracy.
The Role of Technology in Organization Development and Change

The problem and the solution. Organization development (OD) is a data-driven process for change,and as a result,the successful application of OD interventions and tools has become increasingly dependent on the use of information technology. This chapter focuses on the role of information (or data) in contemporary change efforts, and the impact that technology has had on the practice of OD over the past decade.Following a case study of a Web-enabled platform used to drive culture change, the chapter closes with a discussion of the unexpected consequences and potential issues involved with the use of technology for OD initiatives that need to be addressed.
Corporate business strategy, career management and recruitment: do Spanish firms adhere to a contingency model?

This study attempts to examine career management from a contingency perspective while making specific provisions to the Spanish cultural context. The underlying assumption is that the career focus is contingent on both the broader context (corporate business policy) and the human resource policy, namely in its staffing considerations. Although the literature on career management, from an organizational perspective, seems to indicate the existence of different models and contingencies with certain organizational variables, this study failed to support the dominance of the contingency approach in Spanish organizations. Two models of careers were identified and a tendency toward the majority use of one of the career models was found. Respectively, the contingent character of one career model was partially confirmed. All in all, both career models do not seem to be explained through the contextual variables considered in this empirical investigation.
Prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms in hospital nurse technicians and licensed practical nurses: associations with demographic factors

Objective : This cross-sectional study aimed at analyzing: 1. the main musculoskeletal symptoms (MSS) presented by hospital nursing workers and; 2. personal, occupational, and health factors related to MSS among them. Method : Two questionnaires were filled in by 245 nurse technicians (NTs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs) (response rate 95%) associated with direct patient care sectors from a hospital. These questionnaires were: the standardized version of the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) and one including questions on 15 demographic independent variables potentially related to outcomes from the NMQ. Univariate analyses and binary logistic regression analyses were performed to identify which variables would explain the occurrence of MSS in different body regions. Results: The low back (57%), shoulder (52%), and neck (48%) were identified as the most affected regions. The logistic regression analysis showed that low back symptoms in the last 12 months were significantly associated with LPN activities (OR=2.36; CI=1.24-4.5) and previous sick leave due to MSS (OR=5.97; CI=1.2-29.1). Smoking was significantly associated with symptoms in the low back (OR=2.77; CI=1.13-6.8) and thoracic spine (OR=2.37; CI=1.04-5.40). Physical exercise showed a protective effect on the cervical spine (OR=0.42; CI=0.23-0.77). Previous sick leave was significantly associated with pain in the knees (OR=4.24; CI=1.33-13.5) and in the upper limbs (OR=5.36; CI=1.07-26.7). Conclusions: The nursing workers who were evaluated presented a high prevalence of MSS. Previous history of sick leave was strongly associated with the presence of symptoms in various body regions. These results indicate the need for preventive programs in the hospital environment in order to control more severe MSS in nursing professionals.
Children's behaviour and the BSAG: Some theoretical and statistical considerations

The 12 syndromes of the Bristol Social Adjustment Guide were factor analysed using data obtained on some 14000, 11 year olds. Separate analyses carried out for six social class and two sex categories revealed two very stable factors. These were discussed in relation to factors found in other similar analyses. Certain theoretical and empirical limitations and problems were pointed to and it was suggested that within the context of these, the factors provide simple and parsimonious descriptions of classroom behaviour and might be of value in future research.
A Novel Concentrator Photovoltaic (CPV) System with the Improvement of Irradiance Uniformity and the Capturing of Diffuse Solar Radiation

This paper proposes a novel concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) system with improved irradiation uniformity and system efficiency. CPV technology is very promising its for highly efficient solar energy conversion. A conventional CPV system usually uses only one optical component, such as a refractive Fresnel lens or a reflective parabolic dish, to collect and concentrate solar radiation on the solar cell surface. Such a system creates strongly non-uniform irradiation distribution on the solar cell, which tends to cause hot spots, current mismatch, and degrades the overall efficiency of the system. Additionally, a high-concentration CPV system is unable to collect diffuse solar radiation. In this paper, we propose a novel CPV system with improved irradiation uniformity and collection of diffuse solar radiation. The proposed system uses a Fresnel lens as a primary optical element (POE) to concentrate and focus the sunlight and a plano-concave lens as a secondary optical element (SOE) to uniformly distribute the sunlight over the surface of multi-junction (MJ) solar cells. By using the SOE, the irradiance uniformity is significantly improved in the system. Additionally, the proposed system also captures diffuse solar radiation by using an additional low-cost solar cell surrounding MJ cells. In our system, incident direct solar radiation is captured by MJ solar cells, whereas incident diffuse solar radiation is captured by the low-cost solar cell. Simulation models were developed using a commercial optical simulation tool (LightTools™). The irradiance uniformity and efficiency of the proposed CPV system were analyzed, evaluated, and compared with those of conventional CPV systems. The analyzed and simulated results show that the CPV system significantly improves the irradiance uniformity as well as the system efficiency compared to the conventional CPV systems. Numerically, for our simulation models, the designed CPV with the SOE and low-cost cell provided an optical power ratio increase of about 17.12% compared to the conventional CPV without the low-cost cell, and about 10.26% compared to the conventional CPV without using both the SOE and additional low-cost cell.
Prevalence of Mycoplasma pneumoniae Infection in Malagasy Children.

BACKGROUND Childhood community-acquired pneumonia is a leading cause of childhood morbidity in low-income countries. The etiologic agents are usually Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Mycoplasma pneumoniae. M. pneumoniae was recognized as a cofactor in asthmatic disease. High asthma prevalence was reported in Madagascar. Our aim was to clarify the prevalence of M. pneumoniae infection in this country and its relationship with asthma. METHODS A prospective study was conducted in 351 children (from 2 to 16 years of age) from January 2012 to December 2014. According to the clinical symptoms, children were enrolled in 3 groups: "control group" (CG, n = 106), "asthma group" (n = 129) and "pneumonia group" (n = 116). The IgG and IgM M. pneumoniae status was evaluated by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Clinical signs of infection, socioeconomic data and antimicrobial treatment were recorded. RESULTS The overall prevalence of M. pneumoniae infection was 18.2%. The multivariate analysis demonstrated that M. pneumoniae infection was significantly more frequent in the CG [pneumonia group vs. CG: odds ratio = 0.45 (0.21-0.91), P = 0.037 and asthma group vs. CG: odds ratio = 0.39 (0.18-0.87), P = 0.021]. The C-reactive protein value was significantly higher in children with M. pneumonia-positive serology (85 vs. 61 mg/L, P = 0.03). Of note, 99 (41%) children received antibiotics before attending. CONCLUSIONS We report a prevalence of 18.2% for M. pneumoniae infection in children in Madagascar. The prevalence of M. pneumoniae infection was higher in the control patients than in asthmatic ones.
Adiabatic scaling relations of galaxy clusters

The aim of this work is to show that, contrary to popular belief, galaxy clusters are not expected to be self-similar, even when the only energy sources available are gravity and shock-wave heating. In particular, we investigate the scaling relations between mass, luminosity and temperature of galaxy groups and clusters in the absence of radiative processes. Theoretical expectations are derived from a polytropic model of the intracluster medium and compared with the results of high-resolution adiabatic gasdynamical simulations. It is shown that, in addition to the well-known relation between the mass and concentration of the dark matter halo, the effective polytropic index of the gas also varies systematically with cluster mass, and therefore neither the dark matter nor the gas profiles are exactly self-similar. It is remarkable, though, that the effects of concentration and polytropic index tend to cancel each other, leading to scaling relations whose logarithmic slopes roughly match the predictions of the most-basic self-similar models. We provide a phenomenological fit to the relation between polytropic index and concentration, as well as a self-consistent scheme to derive the non-linear scaling relations expected for any cosmology and the best-fitting normalizations of the M–T, L–T and F–T relations appropriate for a Λ cold dark matter universe. The predicted scaling relations reproduce observational data reasonably well for massive clusters, where the effects of cooling and star formation are expected to play a minor role.
Comparison of entropy and complexity measures for the assessment of depth of sedation

Entropy and complexity of the electroencephalogram (EEG) have recently been proposed as measures of depth of anesthesia and sedation. Using surrogate data of predefined spectrum and probability distribution we show that the various algorithms used for the calculation of entropy and complexity actually measure different properties of the signal. The tested methods, Shannon entropy (ShEn), spectral entropy, approximate entropy (ApEn), Lempel-Ziv complexity (LZC), and Higuchi fractal dimension (HFD) are then applied to the EEG signal recorded during sedation in the intensive care unit (ICU). It is shown that the applied measures behave in a different manner when compared to clinical depth of sedation score the Ramsay score. ShEn tends to increase while the other tested measures decrease with deepening sedation. ApEn, LZC, and HFD are highly sensitive to the presence of high-frequency components in the EEG signal.
Systematic Review of the Quality and Generalizability of Studies on the Effects of Opioids on Driving and Cognitive/Psychomotor Performance

Introduction:The effect of opioids on driving performance has been much debated. Driving is a complex task requiring integration of psychomotor, cognitive, motor and decision-making skills, visual-spatial abilities, divided attention, and behavioral and emotional control. The objective of this systematic review was to assess the quality of studies and to revisit the concept that patients on stable opioids are safe to drive as it applies to everyday practice. Methods:We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, PSYCinfo, CENTRAL, TRANSPORT, CINAHL, reference lists of retrieved articles and narrative reviews, for studies on chronic cancer and noncancer pain patients on opioids, tested by driving, driving simulator, or cognitive/psychomotor tests. Methodological quality was assessed with Methodological Index for Nonrandomized Studies, cognitive/psychomotor tests were appraised regarding their sensitivity and validation, and whether confounding variables potentially affecting the study conclusions were recorded. The results were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results:We included 35 studies (2044 patients, 1994 controls), 9% of the studies were of poor, 54% of fair, and 37% of high quality; 3 quarters of the studies used high sensitivity cognitive tests. Amount and dose of opioids varied largely in many studies. Mean number of possible but unreported confounders was 2.2 (range, 0 to 4), relating to failure of the studies to mention coprescriptions with psychotropic effects, pain severity, sleep disorder or daytime somnolence, and/or significant depressive or anxiety-related problems. Interpretation:The commonly held concept that “chronic pain patients on stable opioids are safe to drive” cannot be generalized to all such patients in everyday practice, but may be applicable only to a subset who meet certain criteria.
miR-146a-5p circuitry uncouples cell proliferation and migration, but not differentiation, in human mesenchymal stem cells

Administration of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has the potential to ameliorate degenerative disorders and to repair damaged tissues. The homing of transplanted MSCs to injured sites is a critical property of engraftment. Our aim was to identify microRNAs involved in controlling MSC proliferation and migration. MSCs can be isolated from bone marrow and umbilical cord Wharton’s jelly (BM-MSCs and WJ-MSCs, respectively), and WJ-MSCs show poorer motility yet have a better amplification rate compared with BM-MSCs. Small RNA sequencing revealed that miR-146a-5p is significantly overexpressed and has high abundance in WJ-MSCs. Knockdown of miR-146a-5p in WJ-MSCs inhibited their proliferation yet enhanced their migration, whereas overexpression of miR-146a-5p in BM-MSCs did not influence their osteogenic and adipogenic potentials. Chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 12 (CXCL12), together with SIKE1, which is an I-kappa-B kinase epsilon (IKKε) suppressor, is a direct target of miR-146a-5p in MSCs. Knockdown of miR-146a-5p resulted in the down-regulation of nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) activity, which is highly activated in WJ-MSCs and is known to activate miR-146a-5p promoter. miR-146a-5p is also downstream of CXCL12, and a negative feedback loop is therefore formed in MSCs. These findings suggest that miR-146a-5p is critical to the uncoupling of motility and proliferation of MSCs. Our miRNome data also provide a roadmap for further understanding MSC biology.
Intrinsic Optical Imaging Reveals Regionally Different Manifestation of Spreading Depression in Hippocampal and Entorhinal Structures in Vitro


The spatiotemporal features of spreading depression (SD) were analyzed in vitro by using combined hippocampal-entorhinal cortex slices. SDs were induced by microinjection of 1 M KCl in the stratum radiatum of the CA1 region of the hippocampus. Measurements of extracellular field potentials, extracellular space (ECS) volume changes and intrinsic optical signal changes were combined to study SD features in different regions of the slice. Each SD was associated with a pronounced shrinkage of the extracellular space (ECS) volume and a decrease in light transmittance. The beginning of the optical signal change occurred simultaneously with the electrographic onset as measured with extracellular microelectrodes but outlasted the dc shift for tens of seconds. The amplitude of the intrinsic optical signal change displayed marked regional variations with greatest changes of 12% in cortical regions. The signal amplitudes were considerably lower in hippocampal regions. The analysis of spread patterns revealed two types of waves: fully propagated waves spreading from CA1 all the way to the temporal neocortex and abortive waves that ceased earlier. The spread velocities displayed pronounced regional differences with highest velocities of 5.4 +/- 0.3 mm/min in the area CA3 of the hippocampal formation and lowest velocities of 2.7 +/- 0.1 mm/min in cortical regions.
Average RTT HSTCP: Improving Fairness in High-Speed Networks

Traditional TCP congestion control has poor performance in high-speed networks because of its slow response with large congestion windows. HSTCP has been proposed as one of the possible ways to better utilize the networks with high bandwidth-delay products. Experiments revealed that HSTCP can use the bandwidth more sufficient than current TCP, but it has severe RTT unfairness. In this paper, we first investigate the RTT unfairness through mathematical analysis and simulation studies, and then we add a fair factor to the HSTCP to decrease the difference of window increase caused by different RTT. Experiments show that the modified algorithm can guarantee the bandwidth fairness of HSTCP flows and reduce the packets loss rate.
Developing an Interpretative Phenomenological Approach to Focus Group Data

Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) is an approach to qualitative research that is now well-established in British psychology. This approach is concerned with understanding people's experiences of the world and of themselves. The aims of IPA studies have been met most frequently through the use of one-on-one interviews. Relatively few studies have used focus group discussions as the basis for IPA studies, but focus groups may provide rich experiential data. In this article, we describe a process for integrating focus group data into an IPA study. We developed this during a study of the experiences of carers of people with mental health problems. Here we outline the various steps of our analytic process and discuss how these might be employed and adapted by other researchers wishing to apply IPA's concern with personal experience to the analysis of focus group data.