Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
STIMULATE-ICP: A pragmatic, multi-centre, cluster randomised trial of an integrated care pathway with a nested, Phase III, open label, adaptive platform randomised drug trial in individuals with Long COVID: A structured protocol

Introduction: Long COVID (LC), the persistent symptoms >=12 weeks following acute COVID-19, presents major threats to individual and public health across countries, affecting over 1.5 million people in the UK alone. Evidence-based interventions are urgently required and an integrated care pathway (ICP) approach in pragmatic trials, which include investigations, treatments and rehabilitation for LC, could provide scalable and generalisable solutions at pace. Methods and analysis: This is a pragmatic, multi-centre, cluster-randomised clinical trial of two components of an ICP (Coverscan, a multi-organ MRI, and Living with COVID Recovery, a digitally enabled rehabilitation platform) with a nested, Phase III, open label, platform randomised drug trial in individuals with LC. Cluster randomisation is at level of primary care networks so that ICP interventions are delivered as "standard of care" in that area. The drug trial randomisation is at individual level and initial arms are rivaroxaban, colchicine, famotidine/loratadine, compared with no drugs, with potential to add in further drug arms. The trial is being carried out in 6-10 NHS LC clinics in the UK and is evaluating the effectiveness of a pathway of care for adults with LC in reducing fatigue and other physical, psychological and functional outcomes (e.g. EQ-5D-5L, GAD-7, PHQ-9, WSAS, PDQ-5, CFQ, SF-12, MRC Dyspnoea score) at 3 months. The trial also includes an economic evaluation which will be described separately. Ethics and dissemination: The protocol was reviewed by South Central - Berkshire Research Ethics Committee (reference: 21/SC/0416). All participating sites obtained local approvals prior to recruitment. Coverscan has UKCA certification (752965). The first participant was recruited in July 2022 and interim/final results will be disseminated in 2023, in a plan co-developed with public and patient representatives. The results will be presented at national and international conferences, published in peer reviewed medical journals, and shared via media (mainstream and social) and patient support organisations. Trial registration number: ISRCTN10665760
Assessment of somatosensory and cognitive-motor processing time in retired athletes with a history of repeated head trauma

Measurement of the adverse outcomes of repeated head trauma in contact sport athletes is often achieved using tests where the comparator is the score or the accuracy obtained. While it is expected that ex-athletes would perform worse than controls, previous studies have shown inconsistent results. Here we have attempted to address these inconsistencies from a different perspective by quantifying not only accuracy, but also the time of motor responses (response time). We tested age-matched control subjects who have never experienced head trauma (n=20; 41.8 +/- 14.4 years), and two cohorts of retired contact sport athletes with a history of head trauma and concussions; one with self-reported concerns (n=36; 45.4 +/- 12.6 years), and another with no ongoing concerns (n=19; 43.1 +/- 13.5 years). Participants performed cognitive (Cogstate) and somatosensory (Cortical Metrics) testing and both accuracy and response time were recorded. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was undertaken to investigate corticospinal conduction and excitability. Results showed that in both test batteries there was little difference between groups when considering only accuracy scores. By contrast, response times in all but one test revealed that ex-athletes with self-reported concerns were significantly slower compared to no concern ex-athlete or control groups (p ranges 0.031 to <0.001). TMS latency showed significantly increased conduction time (p=0.008) in the group with ongoing concerns. These findings suggest that incorporating response times in cognitive and somatosensory testing is more informative than considering accuracy scores alone when assessing cognitive processing ability in retired contact sport athletes with ongoing brain health concerns.
E cacy and safety of simple exercise interventions for men with osteoporosis – a prospective randomized controlled trial

Franca Maria Natalie Genest Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen Medizinische Fakultat https://orcid.org/0000-0001-62334805 Sarah Lindström Julius-Maximilians-Universitat Wurzburg Medizinische Fakultat Sophia Scherer Julius-Maximilians-Universitat Wurzburg Medizinische Fakultat Michael Schneider Julius-Maximilians-Universitat Wurzburg Medizinische Fakultat Lothar Seefried (  l-seefried.klh@uni-wuerzburg.de ) University of Wuerzburg https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1154-3388
Multi-model Predictive Stability Control Strategy for Vehicle Four-wheel Steering System Considering Tire Nonlinear Cornering Characteristics

 Abstract : In extreme working conditions such as poor road conditions, the low road adhesion coefficient is easy to cause the tire cornering characteristics curve to be in the nonlinear domain, making the vehicle system in the critical instability state. To this end, this paper proposes a cascade deep learning framework combining multi-model predictive control (MMPC) and LSTM tire cornering stiffness estimation (TCSE) neural network and designs a stability control strategy of vehicle four-wheel steering system considering tire nonlinear cornering characteristics. The four-wheel steering system and vehicle tire dynamic model are analyzed and est ablished, and the online estimation method of tire cornering stiffness and MMPC's sub-model classification method is developed. On this basis, the tire angle is creatively introduced as the phase plane stability region boundary, used to design the MMPC controller's boundary condition. The hardware in the loop test results shows that compared with the existing research, the strategy proposed in this paper can effectively improve the tracking accuracy of the target steering signal and ensure the system's stability when the road adhesion coefficient is low.
Designing more responsible behaviours through Design Education: Reflections on a Brazilian pilot experience in Social Innovation for Sustainability

Abstract From the Design viewpoint, sustainable strategies must be integrated into a wide collaborative system that contemplates the environmental, socio-cultural, economic and technological dimensions as a whole. This paper presents a pilot experience in Design Education that discusses social innovation for sustainability in the city of Uberlandia/MG/Brazil. By involving a group of undergraduate design students of the Federal University and Second Hand Furniture Stores, the objectives of the trial were: (1) to find alternative solutions to social and environmental problems; (2) to connect theory and practice by generating a “home interiors prototype”; (3) to stimulate collaboration among the University, young designers and society and (4) to foster a virtuous cycle of actions. Despite the many positive aspects achieved, a continuous collective effort is crucial in order to include new partners, such as support institutions and local government as well as to gradually engage companies in trying new paths towards a more responsible behaviour.
COMPARISON OF CLASSIFIERS FOR SENTIMENT ANALYSIS

The need of social media has vividly changed people’s life with more and more sharing their thoughts, expressing opinions, and in the hunt for support on social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs etc. Twitter, an online social networking and micro blogging service, which enables users to send and read text-based posts, known as tweets , with 140-character limit. Newspapers and blogs express opinion of news entities (people, places, things) while exposure to recent events. We present a system which extracts the sentiments from the online posts of twitter about news event. Our system shows sentiment identification, which expresses opinion associated with each entity. Also it consists of scoring phase, which assigns scores to each entity, on which the tweets are classified. Finally, we compare Maximum Entropy, Decision tree, Support vector machine and Naives Bayes classifiers.
End-of-life analysis of nanotechnology products

END-OF-LIFE ANALYSIS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY PRODUCTS by Sun Olapiriyakul Previous research has shown that thermodynamic properties including melting point and specific heat capacity of nanomaterials may be higher than that of their corresponding bulk materials. The melting point elevation and specific heat capacity enhancement of nanomaterials may result in increased energy consumption and waste gases emission at the end-of-life (EOL) stage where the products containing nanomaterials are recycled by high temperature metal recovery (HTMR) process. In this dissertation, the effect of physical characteristics of nanomaterials, referred to as physicochemical parameters, on their melting temperature and specific heat capacity was investigated. In addition, physical, chemical, and thermodynamic properties of nanomaterials embedded inside commercially available lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery were examined by various characterization techniques including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Thermodynamic analysis techniques with life cycle assessment (LCA) were used to investigate the environmental impacts of nanomaterials during the EOL material recovery stage due to their unusual thermodynamic properties. As opposed to the energy analysis result, the exergy analysis showed that the chemical reactions that occur during the reduction and smelting processes are the primary sources of exergy loss. If the smelting temperature is increased to fully melt down nanomaterials with unusually high melting point, under assumptions of constant heat flux, the smelter may operate for a longer period of time resulting in substantial amount of exergy loss and carbon dioxide emission. It was also shown that the reduction process consumes larger amount of energy to raise the temperature of nanomaterials with specific heat capacity enhancement, as opposed to bulk materials. Design for environment (DFE) guideline was developed to improve process performance and risk management. Potential vulnerabilities to recycling of nanomaterials as well as recommended product design and process modifications are summarized. Finally, a novel exergy footprint was formulated as a sustainable and environmental impact metric that provides a meaningful understanding of the environmental impact of a product or a process. The consumption and flow of exergy in the US economy is defined in terms of five functional categories: materials, transportation, food, water, and direct energy carriers. To illustrate the exergy footprint calculation, the environmental impact associated with the HTMR process measured in terms of exergy loss and exergy consumption were compared to the exergy consumption at a national level. END-OF-LIFE ANALYSIS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY PRODUCTS
Efficacy and Tolerability of the Histrelin Implant (VANTAS ® )

Introduction: Androgen deprivation is the cornerstone in management of patients with advanced or metastatic prostate cancer. Androgen deprivation can be achieved in a number of different ways, all, leading to lowering of testosterone to castrate range. We present our initial experience with a newly introduced one- year formulation. Material and Methods: Consecutive patients managed with Histrelin implants. Main out-come, testosterone levels 3 and 12 months following implantation. Results: Histrelin implants maintained testosterone levels within castration range in all patients 3 and 12 months following implantation. Major side effects were the expected consequences of androgen deprivation, only few patients had complaints related to the implant or procedure. Conclusion: Histrelin implants may serve as a valid alternative in patients undergoing either permanent or short-term androgen deprivation therapy
Baseline Keyphrase Extraction Methods from Hebrew News HTML Documents

: Most documents do not include keyphrases. There are a few keyphrase extraction systems for documents written in English. However, there is no such a system for the Hebrew language. In this ongoing work, we investigate baseline methods that extract keyphrases from Hebrew news HTML documents. These methods have been tested on a set of documents. Each document has an accompanying file containing keyphrases extracted by students who read the original documents. The two best baseline methods were found as: Term Frequency (TF) and the First N terms (FN). These results are similar to those discovered for documents written in English.
An Efficient Job Scheduling Technique in Trusted Clusters for Load Balancing

— Although there has been tremendous increase in PC power and most of it is not fully harnessed, yet certain computation intensive application tend to migrate their process with the aim of reducing the response time. Cluster computing is the area that aims just at this. Clustering provides means to improve availability of services, sharing computational workload and performing computation intensive application. However, these benefits can only be achieved if the computing power of cluster is used efficiently and allocated fairly among all the available nodes. As is the case with our desktops, it is usually seen that clusters also suffer from underutilization. A number of approaches proposed in the past share only idle CPU cycles and not use the resources of systems when the machine has its own local processes to execute. We propose a priority-based scheduling approach for run queue and multilevel feedback queue scheduling approach for migrated tasks that doesn’t degrade the performance of local jobs too. Simulation and experimental results have been able to show that priority-based run queue management and multilevel feedback queue scheduling for migrated tasks can increase overall throughput by about 28-33 percent.
Continuous and intermittent nicotine treatment reduces L-dopa-induced dyskinesias in a rat model of Parkinson’s disease

The development of abnormal involuntary movements (AIMs) or dyskinesias is a serious complication of L-dopa therapy for Parkinson's disease. Our previous work had shown that intermittent nicotine dosing reduced L-dopa-induced dyskinetic-like movements in nonhuman primates. A readily available nicotine formulation is the nicotine patch, which provides a constant source of nicotine. However, constant nicotine administration more readily desensitizes nicotinic receptors, to possibly yield alternate behavioral outcomes. We therefore investigated whether constant nicotine administration reduced L-dopa-induced AIMs in a rat parkinsonian model, with results compared to those with intermittent nicotine dosing. Rats with a unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesion were exposed to either intermittent (drinking water) or constant (minipump) nicotine for >2 wk at doses that yielded plasma levels of the nicotine metabolite cotinine similar to those in smokers. The rats were next treated with L-dopa/benserazide (8 or 12 mg/kg/15 mg/kg) for >3 wk to allow for the development of AIMs, with nicotine treatment continued. Both modes of nicotine administration resulted in >50% decline in L-dopa-induced AIMs. Nicotine treatment also significantly reduced AIMs in L-dopa primed rats using either dosing regimen, while nicotine removal led to an increase in AIMs. There was no effect of nicotine on various measures of motor performance in 6-OHDA-lesioned rats. In summary, nicotine provided either via the drinking water or minipump reduced L-dopa-induced AIMs in a rat model of Parkinson's disease. These results suggest that either intermittent or constant nicotine treatment may be useful in the treatment of L-dopa-induced dyskinesias in Parkinson's disease patients. The present studies were done to determine whether constant nicotine exposure, which likely induces a greater degree of receptor desensitization than intermittent administration via the drinking water, reduces the incidence of L-dopa-induced AIMs. For these studies, we used a well-characterized and validated rodent model, L-dopa-treated rats with a unilateral 6-OHDA lesion of the nigrostriatal pathway Cenci Lundblad Cenci Nicotine was administered via minipump to provide a constant source of drug, as well as in the drinking water to provide an intermittent dosing regimen. The results show that both forms of nicotine exposure result in significant declines in AIMs in L-dopa-naïve and L-dopa-primed rats.
Epac Mediates -Adrenergic Receptor–Induced Cardiomyocyte Hypertrophy

Cardiac hypertrophy is promoted by adrenergic overactivation and can progress to heart failure, a leading cause of mortality worldwide. Although cAMP is among the most well-known signaling molecules produced by -adrenergic receptor stimulation, its mechanism of action in cardiac hypertrophy is not fully understood. The identification of Epac (exchange protein directly activated by cAMP) proteins as novel sensors for cAMP has broken the dogma surrounding cAMP and protein kinase A. However, their role and regulation in the mature heart remain to be defined. Here, we show that cardiac hypertrophy induced by thoracic aortic constriction increases Epac1 expression in rat myocardium. Adult ventricular myocytes isolated from banded animals display an exaggerated cellular growth in response to Epac activation. At the molecular level, Epac1 hypertrophic effects are independent of its classic effector, Rap1, but rather involve the small GTPase Ras, the phosphatase calcineurin, and Ca /calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II. Importantly, we find that in response to -adrenergic receptor stimulation, Epac1 activates Ras and induces adult cardiomyocyte hypertrophy in a cAMP-dependent but protein kinase A–independent manner. Knockdown of Epac1 strongly reduces -adrenergic receptor–induced hypertrophic program. Finally, we report for the first time that Epac1 is mainly expressed in human heart as compared with Epac2 isoform and is increased in heart failure. Taken together, our data demonstrate that the guanine nucleotide exchange factor Epac1 contributes to the hypertrophic effect of -adrenergic receptor in a protein kinase A–independent fashion and may, therefore, represent a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of cardiac disorders. (Circ Res. 2008;102:959-965.)
Optimization of Insecticides Extracted from Neem Leaves on Nilaparvata lugens , Brown Planthopper

Nilaparvata lugens , brown planthopper is a major threat to rice crops throughout Asia. It attacks rice plant by sucking the plant sap of the leaf blades and leaf sheaths, which resulted the plant to be yellowish, dry and damaging them. Several natural insecticides have been used to control its population. Among them, neem leaves has been found effectively good as a natural insecticide in controlling the outbreaks of N. lugens due to the presence of bioactive compound namely Azadirachtin (AZA). However, the optimized condition of neem extract to be applied as an effective insecticide against N.lugens is undiscovered. In this study, three factors were discovered namely neem extract concentration, exposure time and temperature against mortality of N.lugens . Besides that, the study also included the effect of neem extract in terms of contact toxicity, repellency of rice plants as well as the effect on the body of N. lugens . From the optimization studies, 100% of N. lugens were died after exposure to 40% of neem extract, for 72 hours at 30oC. The results showed that neem extract can be an effective insecticide to prevent the outbreaks of N. lugens .
Who Is Likely to Graduate High School Ready for College? Technical Brief.

Today, a majority of high school graduates aspire to earn a college degree (ACT, 2016). Yet many students are graduating from high school unprepared to do college-level work; and as a result, about one-third of college freshmen enroll in at least one developmental course upon entry to college (Skomsvold, 2014). Because developmental courses are often not credit-bearing, having to take them can delay students’ degree completion and increase the cost of their education (Attewell, Lavin, Domina, & Levey, 2006).
Clinical Outcomes and Factors of Single Attempt of Stent Retrieval during Endovascular Thrombectomy for Acute Ischemic Stroke

Backgrounds: Single attempt of stent retrieval during endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) seems to be associated with favorable clinical outcomes of patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS), but the relationship between single attempt and clinical outcomes or complications have not been characterized. In addition, the factors related to single retrieval attempts during EVT are undefined. Here, we investigated the relationship between single attempt of stent retrieval and the clinical outcomes or complications after EVT, and further investigated the factors associated with single attempt of stent retrieval in AIS patients. Methods: This study enrolled consecutive patients with AIS treated by EVT with second-generation stent retriever devices from April 2016 to April 2019. Attempts of EVT were classified as single or multiple attempts of stent retrieval after filtrating all enrolled patients based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. We analyzed the clinical outcomes and complications between single attempt of stent retrieval and multiple attempts of stent retrieval, and the factors independently associated with a single attempt were identified through logistical regression analysis. Results: We enrolled 143 patients, including 69 patients with single attempt of stent retrieval and 74 patients with multiple attempts of stent retrieval. More patients with single attempt of stent retrieval reached favorable clinical outcomes ( p =0.016; adjusted OR 95%CI: 2.652 1.204-5.843 ), and patients with single attempts of stent retrieval showed as a lower incidence of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH) ( p =0.046; adjusted OR 95%CI: 0.192 0.038-0.973 ). Diabetes mellitus ( p =0.026; adjusted OR 95%CI: 2.871 1.137-7.249 ) was independently associated with single attempt of EVT with stent retrieval. Conclusions: Single attempt of stent retrieval during EVT can decrease incidence of sICH and improve favorable clinical outcomes of patients with AIS. Those with diabetes mellitus may be more prone to single attempt of stent retrieval during EVT .
Study with IL-4 Primary Human NK and T Cells: A Comparative Pathway and Biologic Function of IL-13 in Differential Regulation of the Janus Kinase-STAT

IL-13, a cytokine similar to IL-4, is a regulator of human B cell and monocyte functions. Biologic effects of IL-13 on primary human NK and T cells have not been well deﬁned. We demonstrate that, in primary NK cells, IL-13, but not IL-4, may induce low levels of IFN- g secretion. When NK cells were costimulated with IL-13 and IL-2, IL-13 generally resulted in two types of reactivity: IL-13 synergized with IL-2 to stimulate IFN- g production or it modestly inhibited IL-2-mediated IFN- g production. In both types of donors, the effect of IL-13 on IL-2-induced IFN- g production was in marked contrast to the strong inhibition seen with IL-4 in NK cells. Additionally, IL-13 suppresses IL-2-induced NK cytolytic and proliferative activities although less efﬁciently than IL-4. In T cells, IL-13 inhibits anti-CD3 mAb/IL-2- or PHA-mediated IFN- g production and enhances cytolytic potential. Furthermore, we demonstrate that IL-13, like IL-4, induces distinct STAT6-DNA binding complexes and tyrosine phosphorylation of STAT6 and Janus kinase 3 (JAK3) in NK and T cells. We observed that Abs directed against unique domains of STAT6 have differential effects on complexes in T cells but not in NK cells, suggesting different STAT6 isoforms. These ﬁndings show that IL-13 and IL-4 have the ability to regulate NK and T cell activation and that IL-13 is a potent regulator of STAT6 and JAK3 in these cell types. The Journal of Immunology, 1998, 218–227.