Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cognitive-Motor Interference during Walking in Older Adults with Probable Mild Cognitive Impairment

Although several studies have shown that dual-tasking (DT) mobility is impaired in Alzheimer's disease, studies on the effects of DT conditions in probable Mild Cognitive Impairment (pMCI) have not yielded unequivocal results. The objectives of the study were to (1) examine the effect of a concurrent task on a complex walking task in adults with cognitive impairment; and (2) determine whether the effect varied with different difficulty levels of the concurrent task. Furthermore, the study was designed to evaluate the Trail-Walking Test (TWT) as a potential detection tool for MCI. We examined DT performance in 42 young adults (mean age 23.9 ± 1.98), and 43 older adults (mean age 68.2 ± 6.42). The MoCA was used to stratify the subjects into those with and without pMCI. DT was assessed using the TWT: participants completed 5 trials each of walking along a fixed pathway, stepping on targets with increasing sequential numbers (i.e., 1-2-…-15), and increasing sequential numbers and letters (i.e., 1-A-2-B-3-…-8). Motor and cognitive DT effects (DTE) were calculated for each task. ROC curves were used to distinguish younger and healthy older adults from older adults with pMCI. The TWT showed excellent test-retest reliability across all conditions and groups (ICC : 0.83–0.97). SEM% was also low (<11%) as was the MDC95% (<30%). Within the DT conditions, the pMCI group showed significantly longer durations for all tasks regardless of the cognitive load compared to the younger and the healthy older adults. The motor DTEs were greatest for the complex condition in older adults with pMCI more so than in comparison with younger and healthy older adults. ROC analyses confirmed that only the tasks with higher cognitive load could differentiate older adults with pMCI from controls (area under the curve >0.7, p < 0.05). The TWT is a reliable DT mobility measure in people with pMCI. However, the condition with high cognitive load is more sensitive than the condition with low cognitive load in identifying pMCI. The TWT-3 thus could serve as a screening tool for early detection of individuals with pMCI. Future studies need to determine the neural correlates for cognitive-motor interference in older adults with pMCI.
THE STRUCTURE OF INTERNATIONAL INTEREST RATES: THE U.S. TREASURY BILL RATE AND THE EURODOLLAR DEPOSIT RATE

A NUMBER OF INVESTIGATORS have recently reported estimates of the sensitivity of short-term international capital movements to international interest rate differentials [1], [4], [7]. While the wide range of their estimates indicates a need for further estimation of this sensitivity, the present study extends the investigation into a closely related area. Even if the relationship between short-term capital flows and interest rate differentials were known with certainty, this knowledge by itself would not allow computation of the net impact of changes in U.S. short-term interest rates on the capital flows. The relationship between relevant pairs of U.S. and foreign short-term interest rates is also needed. Since a recent attempt to explain U.S. private short-term capital outflows suggests a very large sensitivity in these flows to the U.S. Treasury bill rate and the Eurodollar deposit rate, the relation between these rates is investigated in this paper. ' The paper is divided into theoretical and empirical sections. The theoretical relationship between the interest rates derived in Section I is based on part of George Horwich's recent theoretical analysis [3]. A flow model of the Eurodollar market is developed in which the suppliers of Eurodollar deposits are analyzed as financial intermediaries and the U.S. bill rate is taken to be the principal determinant of the Eurodollar rate. The model greatly simplifies the complex structure of the Eurodollar market, but the basic character of the market is retained. Stock-flow considerations suggest that the Eurodollar deposit rate adjusts gradually to changes in the U.S. bill rate. In the empirical
Vitamin B12 deficiency in chronic gastritis

This study covers a group of elderly persons who suffer from chronic atrophic gastritis and resulting vitamin B12 deficiency. Increasing weakness, loss of memory, and mental depression were common symptoms and flatulent dyspepsia was sometimes a troublesome recurring complaint. These symptoms were improved by treatment with vitamin B12. Even if untreated, persons in this group rarely develop severe pernicious anaemia. The introduction of the flexible suction tube for gastric biopsy by members of our
Pharmacological Cyclophilin Inhibitors Prevent Intoxication of Mammalian Cells with Bordetella pertussis Toxin

The Bordetella pertussis toxin (PT) is one important virulence factor causing the severe childhood disease whooping cough which still accounted for approximately 63,000 deaths worldwide in children in 2013. PT consists of PTS1, the enzymatically active (A) subunit and a non-covalently linked pentameric binding/transport (B) subunit. After endocytosis, PT takes a retrograde route to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), where PTS1 is released into the cytosol. In the cytosol, PTS1 ADP-ribosylates inhibitory alpha subunits of trimeric GTP-binding proteins (Giα) leading to increased cAMP levels and disturbed signalling. Here, we show that the cyclophilin (Cyp) isoforms CypA and Cyp40 directly interact with PTS1 in vitro and that Cyp inhibitors cyclosporine A (CsA) and its tailored non-immunosuppressive derivative VK112 both inhibit intoxication of CHO-K1 cells with PT, as analysed in a morphology-based assay. Moreover, in cells treated with PT in the presence of CsA, the amount of ADP-ribosylated Giα was significantly reduced and less PTS1 was detected in the cytosol compared to cells treated with PT only. The results suggest that the uptake of PTS1 into the cytosol requires Cyps. Therefore, CsA/VK112 represent promising candidates for novel therapeutic strategies acting on the toxin level to prevent the severe, life-threatening symptoms caused by PT.
ARLTS 1 polymorphisms and basal cell carcinoma of the skin

Polymorphisms in the ARLTS1 gene, a member of the Ras super-family, have been associated with susceptibility in different cancer types. The involvement of the gene in apoptotic signalling motivated us to study the role of ARLTS1 polymorphic variations in basal cell carcinoma of the skin (BCC). In a case-control study, 529 cases diagnosed with BCC and 533 controls from Hungary, Romania and Slovakia were genotyped for the S99S (297G>A), P131L (392C>T), L132L (396G>C), C148R (442T>C) and W149X (446G>A) polymorphisms in the ARLTS1 gene. No significant association between any of the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) and risk of BCC (S99S, odds ratio (OR) 0.96, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.60-1.53; P131L, OR 1.31 95%CI 0.74-2.31; L132L, OR 0.50, 95%CI 0.02-7.07; C148R, OR 0.50, 95%CI 0.69-1.18; and W149X, OR 1.01, 95%CI 0.37-2.79) was detected. Furthermore, no significant difference in the distribution of haplotypes due to five polymorphisms in the ARLTS1 gene was found between the BCC cases and controls. Our data rule out an association between variants in ARLTS1 and risk of BCC in the investigated population.
Carrier Tracking Loop using the Adaptive Two-Stage Kalman Filter for High Dynamic Situations

In high dynamic situations, the GPS carrier tracking loop requires a wide bandwidth to track a carrier signal because the Doppler frequency changes more rapidly with time. However, a wide bandwidth allows noises within the bandwidth of the tracking loop to pass through the loop filter. As these noises are used in the numerical controlled oscillator (NCO), the carrier tracking loop of a GPS receiver shows a degraded performance in high dynamic situations. To solve this problem, an adaptive two-stage Kalman filter, which offers the NCO a less noisy phase error, can be used. This filter is based on a carrier phase dynamic model and can adapt to an incomplete dynamic model and a quickly changed Doppler frequency. The performance of the proposed tracking loop is verified by several simulations.
Using an integral projection model to assess the effect of temperature on the growth of gilthead seabream Sparus aurata

Accurate information on the growth rates of fish is crucial for fisheries stock assessment and management. Empirical life history parameters (von Bertalanffy growth) are widely fitted to cross-sectional size-at-age data sampled from fish populations. This method often assumes that environmental factors affecting growth remain constant over time. The current study utilized longitudinal life history information contained in otoliths from 412 juveniles and adults of gilthead seabream, Sparus aurata, a commercially important species fished and farmed throughout the Mediterranean. Historical annual growth rates over 11 consecutive years (2002–2012) in the Gulf of Lions (NW Mediterranean) were reconstructed to investigate the effect of temperature variations on the annual growth of this fish. S. aurata growth was modelled linearly as the relationship between otolith size at year t against otolith size at the previous year t-1. The effect of temperature on growth was modelled with linear mixed effects models and a simplified linear model to be implemented in a cohort Integral Projection Model (cIPM). The cIPM was used to project S. aurata growth, year to year, under different temperature scenarios. Our results determined current increasing summer temperatures to have a negative effect on S. aurata annual growth in the Gulf of Lions. They suggest that global warming already has and will further have a significant impact on S. aurata size-at-age, with important implications for age-structured stock assessments and reference points used in fisheries.
A regional competitive water resources security evaluation model based on Nash equilibrium restrictions

Traditional water security evaluation methods usually use a unified weight to compose index values, which cannot fully reflect the weight preferences of each of the assessor objects themselves. A regional competitive water resources security evaluation model based on the restrictions of the Nash equilibrium as a binding condition of the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method was established to get a competitive weight. Using a genetic algorithm optimization method to iteratively solve this model, the process of competition and coordination among regional water resources security evaluation objects can be simulated. Each evaluation object can then be given a competitive weight that maximizes its own advantages while the other evaluation objects are also given consideration. The competitive evaluation model was used to evaluate water resources security in 11 administrative regions in the Shanxi province of China. The evaluation results show that the new method can simulate the coordinated process of the advantages of each region and are more reasonable than traditional evaluation methods.
Public Health and Local Comprehensive Plan; Socio-Physical, Political and Multi-Sectoral Context

This research investigates factors affecting local governments to include public health objectives in their local comprehensive plans. Based on the governance of healthy city, our theoretical model admits that the local comprehensive plan should be a holistic approach to public health. Our analytical model takes into account local politics, intersectoral collaboration and socio-physical variables. The findings suggest that local governments are more likely to adopt health as a goal based on the degree of community wealth, population growth, and population density, . On the other hand, the degree to which local governments attain the collaboration within organizations (health and planning) and local policies expands the scope of public health provisions in comprehensive plans. While socio-physical conditions and intersectoral collaboration have a significant relationship with the inclusion of health in comprehensive plan, local politics does not.
Reasonableness Monitors

As we move towards autonomous machines responsible for making decisions previously entrusted to humans, there is an immediate need for machines to be able to explain their behavior and defend the reasonableness of their actions. To implement this vision, each part of a machine should be aware of the behavior of the other parts that they cooperate with. Each part must be able to explain the observed behavior of those neighbors in the context of the shared goal for the local community. If such an explanation cannot be made, it is evidence that either a part has failed (or was subverted) or the communication has failed. The development of reasonableness monitors is work towards generalizing that vision, with the intention of developing a system-construction methodology that enhances both robustness and security, at runtime (not static compile time), by dynamic checking and explaining of the behaviors of parts and subsystems for reasonableness in context.
Current role of MR imaging in the staging of adenocarcinoma of the prostate.

Surgical cure of adenocarcinoma of the prostate (ACP) is possible in over 80% of cases when the disease is confined to the gland capsule. The endorectal probe for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has increased resolution of the prostate gland and capsule, which has improved the sensitivity and specificity for staging ACP (.65 sensitivity, .69 specificity for body coil; .87 sensitivity, .85 specificity for the endorectal coil). Normal glandular regions in the peripheral zone and central zone have significantly higher citrate levels than ACP and fibromuscular and fibrous benign prostatic hyperplasia at proton spectroscopy. ACP has a higher phosphomonoester-phosphocreatine ratio than normal glandular tissue at phosphorus spectroscopy. The combination of endorectal coil MR imaging for local spread, and body coil MR imaging for advanced disease, makes MR imaging the premier imaging modality for the preoperative staging of ACP.
A New Direct Manipulation Technique for Immersive 3D Virtual Environments

In this paper, we introduce a new 7-Handle manipulation technique for 3D objects in immersive virtual environments and its evaluation. The 7-Handle technique includes a set of seven points which are flexibly attached to an object. There are three different control modes for these points including configuration, manipulation and locking / unlocking modes. We have conducted an experiment to compare the efficiency of this technique with the traditional 6-DOF direct manipulation technique in terms of time, discomfort metrics and subjective estimation for precise manipulations in an immersive virtual environment in two consecutive phases: an approach phase and a refinement phase. The statistical results showed that the completion time in the approach phase of the 7-Handle technique was significantly longer than the completion time of the 6-DOF technique. Nevertheless, we found a significant interaction effect between the two factors (the manipulation technique and the object size) on the completion time of the refinement phase. In addition, even though we did not find any significant differences between the two techniques in terms of intuitiveness, ease of use and global preference in the result of subjective data, we obtained a significantly better satisfaction feedback from the subjects for the efficiency and fatigue criteria.
Improved Wireless Power Transfer Efficiency Using Reactively Terminated Resonators

To increase the efficiency of a wireless power transfer system, a method based on optimizing the product of coupling coefficient by quality factor (kQ) of the resonators has been proposed. In this method, efficiency is improved by tuning the resonance frequency at a value where kQ has a maximum. This is carried out by a terminating capacitor for the resonators. In this case, the resonance frequency is less than the self-resonance frequency. However, the capacitance of the tuning capacitor is small enough to ensure that both electric and magnetic coupling will contribute to power transmission. Applying the proposed method to two square 18 cm × 18 cm antidirectional spiral resonators at a spacing of 270 mm, the efficiency is increased to 20% compared with 13% at the SRF. Moreover, the proposed method desensitizes the power transfer efficiency to the nearby objects.
Down-regulation of LATS kinases alters p53 to promote cell migration

In this study, Furth et al. identify a novel link between p53 and the LATS1 and LATS2 kinases, core components of the Hippo tumor suppressor pathway. They show that silencing of LATS1 and LATS2 in nontransformed mammary epithelial cells changes p53 function, resulting in a partially altered p53 conformation and transcriptional output, providing novel insight into the regulation of p53 in tumor cells.
Cellular communication signal identification, detection and analysis

The detection of cellular communications signals was investigated, and a prototype detector was implemented. Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) signals were detected in recorded data and the correct frequency channel was determined. Inter-channel interference (ICI) was observed and methods to reduce it are discussed. Detection was achieved at a lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) than is required by a base transceiver station (BTS), thereby demonstrating the potential to detect mobiles at long range.
Whole Chia Flour as Yield Enhancer, Potential Antioxidant and Input of n-3 Fatty Acid in a Meat Product

In this paper, the effect of the addition of whole chia flour and water at cooked fish burgers on yield, water and fat retention, n-3 fatty acids content and oxidative stability were studied. The results showed that 94% of yield, 92% of water retention and 97% of fat retention were achieved with the addition of 5.92 g of whole chia flour and 15 g of water per 100 g of burger. The n-3 fatty content increased from 704.57 ± 21.66 mg to 1551.71 ± 47.71 mg/100g of cooked burger when the chia flour was added, enhancing nutritional quality indices of lipid. A good oxidative stability, with minimum formation of conjugated dienes, hydroperoxides and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances during 30 days frozen storage was obtained too, probably due to the presence of polyphenolic compounds with antiradical activity and reducing power in the fibrous fraction of the flour chia. The results from the present study highlight remarkable technological applications of whole chia flour as food ingredient in the design of healthier fish meat commodities.
Late-onset hypogonadism: the advantages of treatment with human chorionic gonadotropin rather than testosterone

Abstract The traditional pharmacological treatment of patients with late onset hypogonadism (LOH) is represented by different formulations of testosterone (T) or alternatively by the extractive human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). The hormone replacement treatment (HRT) is associated with the potential increase of hematocrit, serum concentrations of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and prostate volume. Moreover, the gynecomastia represent a condition frequently associated with HRT. Recent evidences showed the role of leydig cells in the 25-hydroxylation of vitamin D and the elevated frequency of hypovitaminosis D among LOH patients. Finally, another important aspect of LOH is represented by the frequency of secondary infertility due to age or to traditional HRT. This study evaluated 40 LOH patients treated for 6 months with extractive HCG (n = 10 patients) and three different formulations of T: transdermal (n = 10 patients), undecaonate (n = 10 patients) and enantate (n = 10 patients). Hormonal, anthropometric, metabolic and sperm parameters were evaluated and compared. Moreover, the main safety parameters and the results of the main questionnaires were evaluated. After treatment, HCG group showed serum concentrations of 25-OH-vitamin D significantly higher (p < 0.05) and serum concentrations of oestrogens significantly lower (p < 0.05) compared with other groups. Moreover, they showed a mean value of hematocrit, PSA and prostate volume significantly lower (p < 0.05) compared with other groups. Finally, all the groups treated with T showed a significant reduction (p < 0.05) of sperm density and of percentage of spermatozoa with progressive motility compared with HCG group.
Decentralized User-Centric Access Control using PubSub over Blockchain

We present a mechanism that puts users in the center of control and empowers them to dictate the access to their collections of data. Revisiting the fundamental mechanisms in security for providing protection, our solution uses capabilities, access lists, and access rights following well-understood formal notions for reasoning about access. This contribution presents a practical, correct, auditable, transparent, distributed, and decentralized mechanism that is well-matched to the current emerging environments including Internet of Things, smart city, precision medicine, and autonomous cars. It is based on well-tested principles and practices used in a distributed authorization, cryptocurrencies, and scalable computing.
Combining family and work in Europe, 1960-2000

The rise in female labour supply in developed economies has stimulated research on the combination of family and work. The aim of this thesis is to provide some empirical evidence on the factors driving family formation and mothers' employment across Europe over the period 1960-2000. After the Introduction, Chapter 2 describes a theory to explain the elements (e.g. public provided childcare, taxation system, subsidies to childcare, flexi-time at work, and unemployment rates) that affect the sign of the correlation between fertility and employment. The two subsequent chapters are both divided into two core sections: a Spanish case and a comprehensive European comparison (Belgium, West-Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden). Chapter 3 analyses how the labour market affects individual fertility decisions (i.e. marriage/cohabitation, first, second and third birth) using a Cox hazard approach. Results suggest that if we would like to reverse the declining path in fertility in Spain, we need to accomplish three main things: overturn the negative impact of female employment on childbearing through policies that facilitate reconciliation of work and family, reduce the instability of working patterns, and implement policies that raise male employment. Interestingly, the cross-country comparison reveals that Sweden is the only country where being employed encourages earlier childbearing. Chapter 4 investigates transitions from employment to non-employment around childbearing and its evolution across time. The European comparison suggests that the probabilities of staying-on employed are different across countries and these have changed substantially over the period 1973-93. This evolution is mainly explained by the taxation system (joint vs. separate), the removal of barriers to part-time work and the increase in education. Chapter 5 focuses on female employment in the UK between 1974-2002. A first section aims to quantify how much of the rise in female participation is due to changes in the structure of the female population and how much is caused by changes in behaviour. A second section investigates the rise in the employment of married mothers. We isolate those birth cohorts whose mothers experienced significant increases in employment and relate those to changes in policies (maternity rights, taxation and childcare). Maternity rights have induced a change in behaviour toward returning to work in the first year post-birth, mostly among better-educated and higher-paid mothers.