Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Vitamin D Supplementation on the Prognosis of Post-stroke Fatigue: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the effect of vitamin D supplementation in post-stroke fatigue (PSF) patients with vitamin D deficiency on fatigue symptoms and outcomes. Methods: Patients with primary acute ischemic stroke (AIS) were recruited consecutively from July 2016 to June 2018. Post-stroke fatigue patients were screened out with the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) questionnaire, serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25-(OH)-D] were assessed with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and neurological function was evaluated with FSS and modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scoring criteria. Post-stroke fatigue patients with vitamin D deficiency were divided into two groups: a study group in which patients received vitamin D supplementation (cholecalciferol, 600 IU/day) along with usual care, and a control group in which patients received usual care alone. At the end of 1 and 3 months after treatment, all PSE patients accepted re-measurement of serum vitamin D and re-evaluation of fatigue and neurological function. Results: A total of 532 AIS patients were consecutively recruited to participate in this study. Patients without PSF, non-vitamin D deficiency, pre-stroke fatigue, or vitamin D supplementation were excluded from the study. In addition, patients who were lost to follow-up were also excluded. Finally, 139 out of 532 (26.1%) patients with PSF and vitamin D deficiency received vitamin D supplementation treatment. Fatigue Severity Scale score was significantly lower in the study group than in the control group at 1 month (t = −4.731, p < 0.01) and 3 months (t = −7.937, p < 0.01) after treatment. One month after treatment, mRS score in the study group was lower than that in the control group without statistical difference (t = −0.660, p > 0.05), whereas mRS was significantly higher in the study group than in the control group at 3 months after treatment (t = −4.715, p < 0.01). Conclusions: Our results indicated that vitamin D supplementation could improve fatigue symptoms and neurological outcomes in PSF patients with vitamin D deficiency. Subject to replication in other settings, a randomized controlled trial (RCT) might be undertaken to validate the potential beneficial impact of vitamin D supplementation in post-stroke patients found to be vitamin D deficient.
Using Satellite Images and Deep Learning to Identify Associations Between County-Level Mortality and Residential Neighborhood Features Proximal to Schools: A Cross-Sectional Study

What is the relationship between mortality and satellite images as elucidated through the use of Convolutional Neural Networks? Background: Following a century of increase, life expectancy in the United States has stagnated and begun to decline in recent decades. Using satellite images and street view images, prior work has demonstrated associations of the built environment with income, education, access to care, and health factors such as obesity. However, assessment of learned image feature relationships with variation in crude mortality rate across the United States has been lacking. Objective: We sought to investigate if county-level mortality rates in the U.S. could be predicted from satellite images. Methods: Satellite images of neighborhoods surrounding schools were extracted with the Google Static Maps application programming interface for 430 counties representing ~68.9% of the US population. A convolutional neural network was trained using crude mortality rates for each county in 2015 to predict mortality. Learned image features were interpreted using Shapley Additive Feature Explanations, clustered, and compared to mortality and its associated covariate predictors. Results: Predicted mortality from satellite images in a held-out test set of counties was strongly correlated to the true crude mortality rate (Pearson r = 0.72). Direct prediction of mortality using a deep learning model across a cross-section of 430 U.S. counties identified key features in the environment (e.g., sidewalks, driveways, and hiking trails) associated with lower mortality. Learned image features were clustered, and we identified 10 clusters that were associated with education, income, geographical region, race, and age. Conclusions: The application of deep learning techniques to remotely-sensed features of the built environment can serve as a useful predictor of mortality in the United States. Although we identified features that were largely associated with demographic information, future modeling approaches that directly identify image features associated with health-related outcomes have the potential to inform targeted public health interventions.
Salmonella Infantis Delays the Death of Infected Epithelial Cells to Aggravate Bacterial Load by Intermittent Phosphorylation of Akt With SopB

Salmonella Infantis has emerged as a major clinical pathogen causing gastroenteritis worldwide in recent years. As an intracellular pathogen, Salmonella has evolved to manipulate and benefit from the cell death signaling pathway. In this study, we discovered that S. Infantis inhibited apoptosis of infected Caco-2 cells by phosphorylating Akt. Notably, Akt phosphorylation was observed in a discontinuous manner: immediately 0.5 h after the invasion, then before peak cytosolic replication. Single-cell analysis revealed that the second phase was only induced by cytosolic hyper-replicating bacteria at 3–4 hpi. Next, Akt-mediated apoptosis inhibition was found to be initiated by Salmonella SopB. Furthermore, Akt phosphorylation increased mitochondrial localization of Bcl-2 to prevent Bax oligomerization on the mitochondrial membrane, maintaining the mitochondrial network homeostasis to resist apoptosis. In addition, S. Infantis induced pyroptosis, as evidenced by increased caspase-1 (p10) and GSDMS-N levels. In contrast, cells infected with the ΔSopB strain displayed faster but less severe pyroptosis and had less bacterial load. The results indicated that S. Infantis SopB–mediated Akt phosphorylation delayed pyroptosis, but aggravated its severity. The wild-type strain also caused more severe diarrhea and intestinal inflammatory damage than the ΔSopB strain in mice. These findings revealed that S. Infantis delayed the cells’ death by intermittent activation of Akt, allowing sufficient time for replication, thereby causing more severe inflammation.
Increased System Worth Through Reliability Design Review

It is the purpose of this paper to present the results, conclusions and recommendations of the analysis of electronic equipment to provide the optimum system worth, with regard to reliability and performance. Additional parameters set up in the three mathematical regimes are minimum weight, minimum geometric space envelope, schedule time delays, and cost trade-offs. This paper further proposes a methodical engineered system which attaches numerical quantities and mathematical relationships which may be measured and compared to parameters determining electronic equipment system worth. Value engineering concepts are thus generalized for electronic equipment to include many significant, parameters for optimum system worth -- with probability of success and performance replacing cost reductions as the prime yardstick for analytical trade-off comparisons. Forcing function inputs include transportation and handling loads, gunfire, takeoff, landing, flight maneuvers and catapult dynamic loads. These are mathematically treated as random vibrations, random shock, sustained acceleration, steady-state sinusoidal vibrations at resonance, sweep-cycle sinusoidal vibrations, and sudden impulse shock. The electronic equipment is analyzed under all probable conditions of the true environment plus the requisite conditions of the governing military specifications. Critical deflections, rotations, stresses and deformations are determined at all key substations of each dynamic subsystem of the electronic equipment. Each electronic tube is subdivided into the significant subsystems: 1. Cantilevered gun and assembly 2. Cantilevered heater and button assembly 3. Ceramic rods and helix 4. Outer envelope 5. Collector end 6.
Balancing Prediction and Surprise: A Role for Active Sleep at the Dawn of Consciousness?

The brain is a prediction machine. Yet the world is never entirely predictable, for any animal. Unexpected events are surprising, and this typically evokes prediction error signatures in mammalian brains. In humans such mismatched expectations are often associated with an emotional response as well, and emotional dysregulation can lead to cognitive disorders such as depression or schizophrenia. Emotional responses are understood to be important for memory consolidation, suggesting that positive or negative ‘valence’ cues more generally constitute an ancient mechanism designed to potently refine and generalize internal models of the world and thereby minimize prediction errors. On the other hand, abolishing error detection and surprise entirely (as could happen by generalization or habituation) is probably maladaptive, as this might undermine the very mechanism that brains use to become better prediction machines. This paradoxical view of brain function as an ongoing balance between prediction and surprise suggests a compelling approach to study and understand the evolution of consciousness in animals. In particular, this view may provide insight into the function and evolution of ‘active’ sleep. Here, we propose that active sleep – when animals are behaviorally asleep but their brain seems awake – is widespread beyond mammals and birds, and may have evolved as a mechanism for optimizing predictive processing in motile creatures confronted with constantly changing environments. To explore our hypothesis, we progress from humans to invertebrates, investigating how a potential role for rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in emotional regulation in humans could be re-examined as a conserved sleep function that co-evolved alongside selective attention to maintain an adaptive balance between prediction and surprise. This view of active sleep has some interesting implications for the evolution of subjective awareness and consciousness in animals.
A Meta-Analysis of Growth Differentiation Factor-15 and Prognosis in Chronic Heart Failure

Background: Previous studies had reported increased circulating concentrations of growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15) in chronic heart failure (CHF), suggesting the potential prognostic significance of GDF-15 in this setting. To verify the relationship between the circulating GDF-15 levels and prognosis of CHF patients, we conducted an updated evidence-based meta-analysis. Methods: A comprehensive literature retrieval of PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane library was performed to collect the qualified studies that analyzed the prognostic value of GDF-15 in CHF from the inception of these online databases to September 25, 2021. The hazard ratio (HR) calculated for logGDF-15 of all-cause death and the related 95% confidence interval (CI) in multivariate analysis were used to measure the effect size. Additionally, subgroup analyses stratified by characteristics of the study participants were conducted for incremental evidence of GDF-15 in CHF with different clinical status. Results: A total of ten eligible studies involving 6,244 CHF patients were finally taken into the quantitative analysis. Results in the random-effects model indicated that there was an increased risk of 6% in all-cause mortality with a per 1LnU increase in baseline GDF-15 concentration (HR: 1.06, 95% CI: 1.03–1.10, P < 0.001). In stratified analyses, the association of GDF-15 with risk of all-cause mortality was found among chronic ischemic HF patients (HR:1.75, 95%CI: 1.24–2.48, P = 0.002), while the association was not found among chronic nonischemic HF patients (HR:1.01, 95%CI: 1.00–1.02, P = 0.219). Conclusion: The elevated GDF-15 is associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality in CHF, especially, among CHF patients with ischemic etiology. The circulating GDF-15 might be a prognostic indicator in CHF patients. Registration Number: https://www.crd. york.ac. uk/PROSPERO; CRD42020210796.
Precision aspects of active magnetic bearings for hard disk drives

These Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne EPFL, n° 2279 (2000)Faculte des sciences et techniques de l'ingenieurInstitut de microtechniqueJury: Jacques Giovanola, Hans Leuthold, Urs Meyer, Philippe Renaud, Roland Siegwart Public defense: 2000-10-20 Reference doi:10.5075/epfl-thesis-2279Print copy in library catalog Record created on 2005-03-16, modified on 2016-08-08
Effect of Resistance Training in the Treatment of Pre-Sarcopenia or Sarcopenia and Pre-Frailty or Frailty in Older People: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Studies

Background: Resistance training (RT) is considered as an effective method to increase muscle strength and physical performance in elderly people. Methods: A search from the earliest record up to and including June 2019 was carried out using the following electronic databases: PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science. The search strategy employed combined the terms related to the population (e.g. ‘sarcopenia’, ‘frailty’) with terms for the intervention (e.g. ‘resistance training’, ‘strength training’). Results: 11 studies including 2691 subjects were included in our meta-analysis (aged 64-98). Training duration ranged from 8 to 48 weeks and intensity up to 80% of 1-RM. According to the meta-analyses, RT had statistically significant effect on all the measures except handgrip strength. In handgrip strength Effect size (ES) was 0.58 (95 % CI: - 0.10 to 1.26) p = 0.076 with the moderate heterogeneity (I 2 = 58.6%). ES in legs strength was 0.52 (95 % CI 0.11 to 0.92) p = 0.022, I 2 = 42.0 %. The biggest ES was in TUG test where ES was 0.90 (95 % CI 0.19 to 1.60) p = 0.022, however, there was a high heterogeneity I 2 = 89.6. The high ES was found also in FFM 0.69 (95 % CI 0.17 to 1.20) p = 0.025, and gait speed 0.41 (95 % CI 0.11 to 0.72) p = 0.017. In both cases, there was small heterogeneity I 2 = 13.2 % respective 38.3 %. The overall ES was estimated 0.67 (95 % CI 0.40 to 0.93) p <0.001. Nevertheless, the heterogeneity was high I 2 = 78.1 %. Conclusion: RT interventions in pre-frail, frail, pre-sarcopenic and sarcopenic older adults, provided evidence that RT has positive effects on most of the outcome measurements included in the current revision except handgrip strength.
Dynamics Modeling of a Humanoid Robot

This paper presents the overall dynamics analysis for humanoid robots and proposes a method to extend the dynamics equations to check the stability conditions and compute the maximum torques required at each joint. We consider a humanoid robotics system with various base conditions. As the robot walks, the robot will switch between single and double support conditions. The conventional works on dynamical stability of the robots mostly uses simple models with invariant bases. Our proposed method models a robot with various base conditions and describes the dynamics equations of humanoid robots in three dimensional space. Using this method, a straight walking was simulated as a sample gait during which joint torques was achieved and the stability condition was tested.Copyright © 2005 by ASME
BS 7910: History and Future Developments

BS 7910, the UK procedure for the assessment of flaws in metallic structures, was first published almost 30 years ago in the form of a fracture/fatigue assessment procedure, PD6493. It provided the basis for analysing fabrication flaws and the need for repair in a rational fashion, rather than relying on long-established (and essentially arbitrary) workmanship rules. The UK offshore industry in particular embraced this new approach to flaw assessment, which is now widely recognised by safety authorities and specifically referred to in certain design codes, including codes for pressure equipment. Since its first publication in 1980, PD6493/BS 7910 has been regularly maintained and expanded, taking in elements of other publications such as the UK power industry’s fracture assessment procedure R6 (in particular the Failure Assessment Diagram approach), the creep assessment procedure PD6539 and the gas transmission industry’s approach to assessment of locally thinned areas in pipelines. The FITNET European thematic network, run between 2002 and 2006, has further advanced the state of the art, bringing in assessment methods from SINTAP (an earlier European research project), R6, R5 and elsewhere. In particular, the FITNET fracture assessment methods represent considerable advances over the current BS 7910 methods; for example, weld strength mismatch can be explicitly analysed by using FITNET Option 2, and crack tip constraint through Option 5. Corrosion assessment methods in FITNET are also more versatile than those of BS 7910, and now include methods for vessels and elbows as well as for pipelines. In view of these recent advances, the BS 7910 committee has decided to incorporate many elements of the FITNET procedure into the next edition of BS 7910, to be published c2012. This paper summarises the history of the development of BS 7910, its relationship with other flaw assessment procedures (in particular FITNET and R6) and its future.Copyright © 2009 by TWI Ltd.
Fuzzy logic enhanced robust torque controlled induction motor drive system

A closed-loop torque controlled induction motor drive system is presented which can function as a controllable source of torque with a fast dynamic response and thus it can achieve an adequate control performance. The proposed drive system includes an accurate and robust flux and torque estimator and a direct fuzzy controller to enhance the torque regulation. The proposed flux and torque estimators keep the machine field oriented and can overcome any problem created by changes in the transformation and torque ripples. The fuzzy controller can achieve an adequate control performance with a high bandwidth torque control. Simulation and experimental results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed drive system.
Operation and Control of HV D-C Transmission

The special requirements on control of inverters for HV (high-voltage) d-c transmission have led to a special control system, which is described. Co-operation between regulators at each end of the transmission is necessary in reducing the consequences of disturbances in the converters. Also described are the switching and blocking of valve groups and how to accomplish this without using circuit breakers. The type of protective system is discussed in a general way.
Routing and channel assignment for low power transmission in PCS

There has been increased interest recently from military, civil, and commercial sectors in networks capable of self-organization. Routing and channel assignment for multi-hop communications in these networks are complex problems, given the interactions between the various transmissions, all of which must share some fixed bandwidth, and by the lack of a central controller. By enforcing a "reuse distance" similar to the frequency reuse factor in AMPS cellular service, we can route and assign channels to (place) arriving calls in a peer-to-peer network so as to significantly reduce power requirements and interference.
Explicit formulas for lattice wave digital filters

Explicit formulas are derived for designing lattice wave digital filters of the most common filter types, for Butterworth, Chebyshev, inverse Chebyshev, and Cauer parameter (elliptic) filter responses. Using these formulas a direct top down design method is obtained and most of the practical design problems can be solved without special knowledge of filter synthesis methods. Since the formulas are simple enough also in the case of elliptic filters, the design process is sufficiently simple to serve as basis in the first part (filter design from specs to algorithm) of silicon compilers or applied to high level programmable digital signal processors.
The Effect of Static Workplace Stretching on the Balance in Computer Operators with a Single Leg Balance Test

Background: Flexibility is an essential component of the exercise program; however, it is not clear how the best use can be made in an educational program. It is common to spread stretching Exercise among computer operators. Stretching exercises are regularly recommended, even in many articles, with the goal of preventing injury and muscle pains, or even to increase muscle performance. Objectives: The purpose of the present article is to determine static workplace stretching on the balance in computer operators with a Single leg balance test. Patients and Methods: 420 health care workers with an average age of 37.1 (SD=8.03) who were randomly selected, were divided into two groups, with intervention and control group names. Within the intervention groups, individual differences in flexibility, familiarity with static stretching methods in teaching and doing stretching, and the distinction among the equilibrium test were considered. Initially, the pain test questionnaire (vas), then the stretching exercise (SE), and the Foot Balance Test, were performed before and after training based on the Pender Health Promotion Model (HPM). This period lasted for eight weeks, at some point of which period stretching was performed. Throughout this time, the software program was used to draw stretching sporting activities on the computer. Static test changed into was used to measure static equilibrium. Eventually, T-test was used for analysis. Results: Significant increase in static balance after SE (37.1 ± 4.20) was observed. In contrast, before the SE (2.65 ± 3.87). Functional T-test analysis showed that there was a significant difference between intervention groups and control group (P<0.05). The intervention group was better than the control group and there was no significant difference in the control group. In the level of behavioral score, there was a significant difference between the two groups by independent t-test (P<0.001) and this was in the intervention group with the aid of paired t-test (P=0.222). VAS pain scores showed a significant difference between the two groups with independent t-test (P<0.001) and the VAS score in the intervention group was obtained by paired t-test (P<0.001). Conclusions: SE with positive effects on pain relief, on the other hand, increased the behavior and static balance in computer operators with a single leg balance test.
Digital Meteorological Service (DMET) in Support of Trajectory Optimization and ATM Automation

An improvement is required in the meteorological support for the future Air Traffic Management (ATM) System. New concepts of weather services must be tailored to enable a safer and more efficient aviation: better accuracy, increased data availability, real time support, digital service and shared information are some of the foundational elements underlying trajectory optimization, automation of operations, and fuel & time cost-reductions. A Digital Meteorological Service (DMET) is cornerstone in a net-centric service-oriented ATM system architecture where available data, air-ground connectivity and modern computational resources are taken advantage of to attain a 4D predictive model specifically designed for real-time support to aircraft operations. The effort presented here consists on the development of a prototype DMET service that computes atmospheric data from several sources to produce predicted 4D atmosphere scenarios regularly available to subscribers. By using many data sources –such as forecasts from global and mesoscale weather models, in-situ observations and the introduction of local airborne parameters, a well-tailored forecast product is developed. It consists of a 4D grid of pressure, temperature and wind data fields that are valid into an airspace cube of about 150 × 150 × 20 km, within a time interval of 2.5 hours. On top of this model, minimum time, minimum consumption and other interesting weather-based optimization functions are covered, all being processed in parallel for a future migration to a supercomputing centre.