Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Compact Three-Phase Single-Input/Dual-Output Matrix Converter

This paper presents a novel matrix converter with one ac input and two ac outputs. The presented topology is based on the traditional indirect matrix converter, but with its rear-end six-switch inverter replaced by a compact nine-switch inverter. With only three extra switches added, the proposed converter can produce two sets of three-phase ac outputs, whose amplitudes, frequencies, and phases can appropriately be regulated. Features such as sinusoidal input and outputs, unity input power factor and minimum commutation count are all retained by the proposed topology, despite having an additional output. Its modulation is realized by the computationally less intensive carrier-based method, whose unique carrier requirements can easily be managed within a programmable logic device. Mathematical proof for validating sinusoidal input and outputs achieved by this modulation technique is also discussed, before being verified in simulation and experimentally, together with other findings.
Zona Reaction in Porcine Oocytes Fertilized In Vivo and In Vitro as Seen with Scanning Electron Microscopy1

Abstract Morphological changes in zona pellucidae (ZP) isolated from in vitro-matured (IVM) and ovulated porcine oocytes were compared before or after fertilization in vitro and in vivo, respectively, by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The ZP of some ovulated or IVM oocytes and in vivo- or in vitro-fertilized (IVF) zygotes were equally split into two halves while immersed in an enzyme-inhibitor solution, using a surgical blade. After washing, intact and ZP halves were fixed in 1% glutaraldehyde solution in 0.1 M cacodylate buffer, processed, and examined using SEM. The outer surface of ZP in ovulated oocytes had a mesh-like structure. The outer morphology in IVM oocytes was more smooth although the mesh-like structure was still visible at high magnification. In in vivo zygotes and IVM-IVF zygotes, this lysed, mesh-like structure was more obvious. The inner surface of ZP had some small depressions (orifices). The mean number of orifices per 100 μm2 of ZP surface was larger in IVM oocytes as compared to ovulated ones. The number of orifices per 100 μm2 decreased in IVM-IVF zygotes as compared to IVM oocytes; whereas, in vivo zygotes did not differ from ovulated oocytes. The mean diameter of intact ZP as well as their mean thickness was greater in ovulated oocytes than IVM oocytes. The mean thickness of the ZP was larger in ovulated oocytes than IVM ones. The ZP thickness was larger in zygotes than in in vivo oocytes, whereas that of IVM-IVF zygotes did not differ from that of IVM oocytes. These results indicate that the morphology of ZP and the ZP reaction at sperm penetration appears to be much different between IVM oocytes and ovulated ones.
Religion, Spirituality, and Chaplains in the Biomedical Literature: 1965–2000

In recent years, several prominent medical journals have published articles addressing the relationship between religion/spirituality and medicine, and recognizing the importance of religion in the lives of most Americans, especially in times of illness. We hypothesized that the publication of these articles reflected a trend in the biomedical literature in which greater attention is being given to the role of religion and spirituality in health-care. A correlational design was used, based on an electronic survey of all articles in MEDLINE for the years 1965 through 2000. The search terms used were: 1) religion or religious; 2) spiritual; and 3) chaplain. The number of articles per 100,000 that mentioned religion (religion or religious), spirituality, or chaplains each year was determined. Statistically significant upward trends across years were found for the rates of articles addressing religion (r = .59, p < .001) and spirituality (r = .89, p < .001) and a non-significant trend was found for chaplains (r = .31). The rising rates of articles on religion and spirituality in biomedical journals suggest a growing recognition of the need to address spiritual and religious issues in health-care.
Asynchronous Cooperative Communications with STBC Coded Single Carrier Block Transmission

Conventional cooperative communication schemes suffer from asynchronous relay transmissions of distributed relay nodes, which can destroy the deliberately designed code structure and result in severe diversity gain loss. In the paper, we propose a cooperative scheme based on the single carrier block transmission (SCBT) technique that is robust to asynchronous relay transmissions. By introducing the orthogonal structure in the frequency domain and deploying the frequency domain equalizer (FDE), cooperative diversity can be achieved. Moreover, a novel random cyclic delay diversity (CDD) technique is developed so that a higher cooperative diversity gain can be achieved when more than 2 relay nodes are available. The proposed scheme is independent of the number of relay nodes and does not need to exchange any side information among nodes. The proposed scheme can inherently support both the amplify-and-forward (AF) and decode-and-forward (DF) cooperative mechanisms.
N-Acetylglucosamine Changes Permeability of Peritoneum during Chronic Peritoneal Dialysis in Rats

Objective To evaluate the effect of supplementation of dialysis fluid with N-acetylglucosamine (NAG) on the permeability of peritoneum during chronic peritoneal dialysis in rats. Design Experiments were performed on rats with surgically implanted peritoneal catheters. Dialysis solution [DianeaI1.5% (Baxter, Deerfield, IL, U.S.A.) supplemented with either NAG 50 mmol/L or glucose 50 mmol/L (control)] was infused intraperitoneally twice, every day, for 8 weeks. Peritoneal equilibration tests (PET) were performed in all animals at the beginning of the study and after 8 weeks of dialysis. Additionally, at the end of each week, dialysis solution infused in the morning was drained after 4 hours of intraperitoneal dwell. White blood cell count, creatinine, and total protein concentrations were measured in the effluent dialysate. After 8 weeks of dialysis, the morphology of the peritoneum was studied. Results In rats exposed to dialysis fluid supplemented with NAG, peritoneal permeability to creatinine and proteins was reduced when compared to animals dialyzed with glucose solution. In NAG treated animals, staining with alcian blue for polyanions in the peritoneal interstitium was significantly stronger than in rats dialyzed with glucose solution. Conclusions Chronic peritoneal dialysis with dialysis solution supplemented with N-acetylglucosamine causes accumulation of glycosaminoglycans in the peritoneal interstitium, which results in a change of peritoneal permeability.
Wavelet-based analysis of 60 GHz Doppler radar for non-stationary vital sign monitoring

We propose here a Doppler-radar implementation at 60 GHz for contactless monitoring of vital signs (respiration and heartbeat). In order to provide a real-time detection of non-stationary vital signs and critical events, an estimation technique is here used by means of a wavelet transform of the received signals. Moreover, the amplitudes of the relevant vital movements can be deduced by the wavelet transform so as to distinguish the useful signal from noises and non-desired movements.
Segmentation of human chromosome images using distance regularized level set evolution

The karyotyping of a patient must go through a good segmentation of images from chromosome metaphase plate before any measurement or interpretation phase. The technique of deformable active contours is well suited to solve this problem and has the advantage of leading to an automatic segmentation and interactive monitoring, while providing guarantees to get closed contours and decreased sensitivity to speckle noise. The new method called “Distance regularized level set evolution (DRLSE) “, made it possible to eliminate the need for reinitialization and avoided of this fact its induced numerical errors.
Enamines in Heterocyclic Synthesis: A Novel Simple and Efficient Route to Condensed Pyridazines

An efficient and easy preparation of enamine derivatives, via active methyl and methylene compounds by in situ-generated 1-(diethoxymethyl)piperidine, produced from the mixture of triethyl orthoformate/piperidine/DMF, are described. Some new pyridazinone derivatives have been synthesized from the reaction of enamines with hydrazine hydrate and cyanoacid hydrazide. Graphical Abstract Enamines in Heterocyclic Synthesis: A Novel Simple and Efficient Route to Condensed Pyridazines
Altered Redox Mitochondrial Biology in the Neurodegenerative Disorder Fragile X-Tremor/Ataxia Syndrome: Use of Antioxidants in Precision Medicine

A 55–200 expansion of the CGG nucleotide repeat in the 5′-UTR of the fragile X mental retardation 1 gene (FMR1) is the hallmark of the triplet nucleotide disease known as the “premutation” as opposed to those with >200 repeats, known as the full mutation or fragile X syndrome. Originally, premutation carriers were thought to be free of phenotypic traits; however, some are diagnosed with emotional and neurocognitive issues and, later in life, with the neurodegenerative disease fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS). Considering that mitochondrial dysfunction has been observed in fibroblasts and post-mortem brain samples from carriers of the premutation, we hypothesized that mitochondrial dysfunction-derived reactive oxygen species (ROS) may result in cumulative oxidative-nitrative damage. Fibroblasts from premutation carriers (n = 31, all FXTAS-free except 8), compared with age- and sex-matched controls (n = 25), showed increased mitochondrial ROS production, impaired Complex I activity, lower expression of MIA40 (rate-limiting step of the redox-regulated mitochondrial-disulfide-relay-system), increased mtDNA deletions and increased biomarkers of lipid and protein oxidative-nitrative damage. Most of the outcomes were more pronounced in FXTAS-affected individuals. Significant recovery of mitochondrial mass and/or function was obtained with superoxide or hydroxyl radicals’ scavengers, a glutathione peroxidase analog, or by overexpressing MIA40. The effects of ethanol (a hydroxyl radical scavenger) were deleterious, while others (by N-acetyl-cysteine, quercetin and epigallocatechin-3-gallate) were outcome- and/or carrier-specific. The use of antioxidants in the context of precision medicine is discussed with the goal of improving mitochondrial function in carriers with the potential of decreasing the morbidity and/or delaying FXTAS onset.
Associations between prognosed future work capacity among long-term sickness absentees and their actual work incapacity two years later.

BACKGROUND Studies indicate that long-term sickness absence reduces the ability to return to work (RTW). Multidisciplinary medical assessments (MMA) have been used as a method to receive a more versatile assessment of long-term sickness absentees (LTSA) and thereby a better basis for adequate medical and vocational rehabilitation, and an increasing ability to maintain or regain work capacity. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to investigate the associations between the prognoses of LTSAs' future work capacity made at a MMA and the assessments of their work incapacity made by the Social Insurance Offices (SIO) two years later. PARTICIPANTS 385 LTSAs referred to an MMA by SIOs in the Stockholm area in Sweden between 2001 and 2006. METHODS Data was collected at the MMA on demographic factors, health, diagnoses, and future work capacity. Information on SIO decisions on sickness benefits and disability pension and what measures the SIO had taken was extracted from the case files at the SIOs. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analyses were used to assess the associations between the prognosis and decisions on benefits, controlling for individual factors. RESULTS Of those predicted to be able to maintain or regain work capacity, 68% received full-time benefits two years later. Work capacity was negatively affected by high age, full time sickness absence at MMA and number of physical symptoms at MMA. The prognosis at the MMA was not significantly related to work capacity when socio-demographic and health factors were controlled for. However, this was partly due to the fact that the MMA also included recommendations for vocational rehabilitation and that this factor had an effect on assessed work incapacity after two years. CONCLUSION The prognosis of future work capacity evaluated at a multidisciplinary medical assessment correlated with actual work capacity two years later. However, a range of other factors were decisive for the result. The study shows that the link between the prognosis and recommendations for vocational rehabilitation should be followed by the SIOs responsible for enhancing RTW among individuals on long-term sick leave.
Hybrid Driver Fatigue Detection System Based on Data Fusion with Wearable Sensor Devices

The increasing popularity of wearable devices has raised the importance of human-centric services, such as healthcare, physical training, smart assistant, and its applications. In this paper, we focus on a hybrid drowsiness detection system to use wearable sensor devices for measuring drowsiness. We make following contributions: (1) an auto-configurable and adaptive middleware framework to manage flexible devices, (2) a hybrid drowsiness detection module using the wearable sensor devices and ordinary camera, (3) a real-time driver drowsiness detection system to evaluate classifying result to provide more accurate drowsiness status classification, (4) we experimentally compare the results of the above method with video-based method with and without wearable sensor device, then show that our method is crucial to achieve better prediction accuracy and robustness. Overall, the experimental result shows that the proposed system allows at the most 13 % of accuracy improvement. Therefore, the proposed system can be used to improve the accuracy of driver drowsiness detection based on fusion wearable device measures in real-time. Keywords— PERCLOS; Wearable MEMS sensors; Sensor Fusion; Driver fatigue detection; Drowsiness detection;
Transient and Stationary Losses in a Finite-Buffer Queue with Batch Arrivals

We present an analysis of the number of losses, caused by the buffer overflows, in a finite-buffer queue with batch arrivals and autocorrelated interarrival times. Using the batch Markovian arrival process, the formulas for the average number of losses in a finite time interval and the stationary loss ratio are shown. In addition, several numerical examples are presented, including illustrations of the dependence of the number of losses on the average batch size, buffer size, system load, autocorrelation structure, and time.
Similar small-scale variation of diatom assemblages on different substrates in a mesotrophic stream

Abstract The aim of the present study was to analyze if small-scale spatial variation of benthic diatom assemblages has consequences for biomonitoring. Benthic diatom samples were collected at one sampling site in a mesotrophic stream in Middle-Sweden from stone and plant (macrophytes and mosses) substrate. Our results showed that spatial variation of both the diatom species composition and the calculated bioindices were similar on both small (distance of centimeter) and medium (distance of decimeters) scales. Spatial variation was also similar on both studied substrates. This implies that it does not matter if a small or a larger area is sampled for biomonitoring as long as no major environmental factors impact certain sites systematically. Diatom assemblages and indices were significantly different between substrates. Spatial variation did not contribute much to this variation, and variation on a slide was unimportant. These results confirm earlier findings that smallscale spatial variation is not a problem when using diatoms to detect anthropogenic impacts to a stream or lake.
The Corporatization of Health Care: An Evaluation and An Alternative

The corporatization of health care organizations has become a significant international trend. This paper examines that trend, comparing the development of corporate health care in the USA with the impact of the New Zealand health reforms. The paper traces the evolution of the organizations of health care systems and explains the emergence of the corporate form. We argue that the corporate model of work organization is unsuited to the complex and ambiguous nature of the medical task as it ignores inherent interdependencies. An alternative is needed which addresses work practices rather than just participation in decision making and is based on a concept of mutual interdependence and support in the execution of work.
Potential Societal Savings from Reduced Sodium Consumption in the U.S. Adult Population

Purpose. Policies that address the food environment at the population level may help prevent chronic disease, but their value to society is still uncertain. Dietary sodium is linked to increased prevalence of hypertension, a primary risk factor for cardiovascular and renal diseases. This study calculates the potential societal savings of reducing hypertension and related cardiovascular disease via a reduction in population-level sodium intake. On average, U. S. adults consume almost twice the recommended maximum of dietary sodium, most of it from processed foods. Design. This study modeled sodium-reduction scenarios by using a cross-sectional simulation approach. The model used population-level data on blood pressure, antihypertensive medication use, and sodium intake from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999–2004). This data was then combined with parameters from the literature on sodium effects, disease outcomes, costs, and quality of life to yield model outcomes. Measures. This study calculated the following outcome measures: hypertension prevalence, direct health care costs, and quality-adjusted life years for noninstitutionalized U.S. adults. Analysis. The simulation was conducted with STATA 9.2 and Microsoft Excel. Survey weights were used to calculate population averages. Results. Reducing average population sodium intake to 2300 mg per day, the recommended maximum for adults, may reduce cases of hypertension by 11 million, save $18 billion health care dollars, and gain 312,000 QALYs that are worth $32 billion annually. Greater reductions in population sodium consumption bring even greater savings to society. Conclusions. Large benefits to society may result from efforts to lower sodium consumption on a population level by modest amounts over time. Although savings in direct health care costs are likely to be quite high, they could easily be matched or exceeded by the value of quality-of-life improvements.
Hands as a Controller: User Preferences for Hand Specific On-Skin Gestures

Hand-specific on-skin (HSoS) gestures are a trending interaction modality yet there is a gap in the field regarding users' preferences about these gestures. Thus, we conducted a user-elicitation study collecting 957 gestures from 19 participants for 26 commands. Results indicate that (1) users use one hand as a reference object, (2) load different meanings to different parts of the hand, (3) give importance to hand-properties rather than the skin properties and (4) hands can turn into self-interfaces. Moreover, according to users' subjective evaluations, (5) exclusive gestures are less tiring than the intuitive ones. We present users' subjective evaluations regarding these and present a 33-element taxonomy to categorize them. Furthermore, we present two user-defined gesture sets; the intuitive set including users' first choices and natural-feeling gestures, and the exclusive set which includes more creative gestures indigenous to this modality. Our findings can inspire and guide designers and developers of HSoS.
Estudio de la longitud telomérica e identificación de nuevos genes causales en el cáncer colorrectal hereditario no polipósico

Aunque se estima la proporcion de casos de cancer colorrectal (CCR) atribuibles a factores geneticos entre el 20 y 35%, gran parte de la herencia genetica al CCR queda por descubrir. Dentro de ese conglomerado de casos de CCR con agregacion familiar sin una causa subyacente clara, se encuentra el CCR familiar tipo X (CCRf-X). Estas familias cumplen los criterios clinicos mas estrictos para el CCR hereditario no poliposico (criterios de Amsterdam) pero no presentan defectos en el sistema de reparacion de bases desapareadas, rasgo definitorio de los pacientes con SL. El estudio de dos de estas familias mediante secuenciacion de exomas nos ha permitido identificar el gen causal de la predisposicion. La primera familia ha resultado ser un caso de CCR asociado a MUTYH enmascarado bajo unas caracteristicas fenotipicas y moleculares atipicas. Estas son: Herencia aparentemente dominante debido al riesgo que aportan las variantes monoalelicas en MUTYH, ausencia de polipos y presencia de tumores con inestabilidad de microsatelites. En la segunda familia hemos identificado un nuevo gen de predisposicion al CCR que podria explicar aproximadamente un 3% de las familias CCRf-X. La haploinsuficiencia de este gen podria causar una reparacion defectuosa del ADN con la consiguiente acumulacion de un tipo especifico de errores. Se ha sugerido que mutaciones en el gen que codifica la glicosilasa GALNT12 confieren un riesgo incrementado a padecer CCR. Hemos estudiado el gen en 103 familias CCRf-X pero no se han identificado cambios relevantes que afecten la actividad enzimatica, desestimando a GALNT12 como un gen de alta penetrancia para CCR. Por otro lado, hemos evaluado el papel de la longitud telomerica como modulador del riesgo a desarrollar cancer en las formas de CCR hereditario no poliposico. Hemos observado que muestran un patron distinto en funcion del estado de la maquinaria de reparacion de bases desapareadas: Acortamiento para pacientes con SL y elongamiento para el CCRf-X. Ademas, descartamos el acortamiento de los telomeros como mecanismo molecular que explique el fenomeno de la anticipacion genetica observada en el SL.