Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of activity pacing in patients with chronic conditions associated with fatigue complaints: a meta-analysis

Abstract A meta-analysis was conducted to (1) determine the effect of activity pacing interventions on fatigue, physical functioning and physical activity among patients with chronic conditions associated with fatigue complaints, and to (2) examine potential moderator effects of trial characteristics (components of intervention and amount of patient-provider contact). Six studies were included in the meta-analysis. Relevant content of the studies was extracted and rated on methodological quality. Random-effects modeling was used to pool data across studies. Medium (standardized mean difference =0.50) and marginal (standardized mean difference =0.34) effects were found for fatigue at post-treatment and follow-up respectively. Inconsequential effects were found for physical functioning and activity (standardized mean difference =0.08–0.30) at both assessment points. Subgroup analyses revealed components of intervention and amount of patient-provider contact were not the source of variance. Minimal patient-provider contact had an effect on fatigue comparable in magnitude to more intensive contact. This meta-analysis of activity pacing in patients with fatigue complaints suggests that activity pacing might have sustained beneficial effects on fatigue management, in particular on fatigue reduction. The divergence in effects for all outcomes suggests that alternative ways such as tailoring advice to individual’s behavior toward physical activity may be more successful. Implications for rehabilitation In a relatively small sample this meta-analysis shows fatigue severity improved after activity pacing interventions and provides a basis to integrate activity pacing in activity stimulation programs for persons with chronic conditions. Activity pacing can feasibly be implemented within standard health care to manage fatigue and physical activity behaviors in persons with chronic conditions.
Do code data sharing dependencies support an early prediction of software actual change impact set?

Existing studies have shown that structural dependencies within code are good predictors for code actual change impact set—a set of entities that repeatedly changing together to ensure a consistent and complete change. However, the result is far from ideal, particularly when insufficient historical data are available at an early stage of software development. This paper demonstrates that a better understanding of data dependencies in addition to call dependencies greatly improves actual change impact set prediction. We propose a new approach and tool (namely, CHIP) to predict software actual change impact sets leveraging both call and data sharing dependencies. For this purpose, CHIP employs novel extensions (dependency frequency filtering and shared data type idf filtering) to reduce false positives. CHIP assumes that developers know initial places where to start making changes in the source code even though they may not know all changes. This approach has been empirically evaluated on 4 large‐scale open source systems. Our evaluation demonstrates that data sharing dependencies have a complementary impact on software actual change impact set prediction as compared with predictions based on call dependencies only. CHIP improves the F2‐score compared with the predictors using both Program Dependence Graph and evolutionary couplings.
Laser assisted tattoo removal – state of the art and new developments

Decorative tattoos including permanent make-up are very popular world-wide. However, some people regret tattooing and seek tattoo removal. Tattooed skin contains numerous solid particles of tattoo pigments. A major mechanism of tattoo removal is laser assisted fragmentation of these particles, which are then transported away from the skin. For many years, Q-switched lasers with nanosecond pulse durations at high light intensities have been applied to cause such fragmentation via rapid heating up while sparing the adjacent tissue. Despite the long-lasting use of such laser treatment, the exact mechanisms of laser assisted fragmentation are hardly investigated. Due to short and intense laser pulses applied, non-linear effects of light ( e.g . photoacoustic and optical breakdown) and nonlinear thermal properties in tattoo particles may play a crucial role. In the past few years, lasers with even shorter pulse duration in the subnanosecond range were launched for tattoo removal. Theoretical considerations assumed that pulse durations shorter than nanoseconds allow even more effective fragmentation of tattoo particles. A couple of initial studies affirm the effectiveness of picosecond pulses in tattoo treatment, especially in clearing black tattoos. Furthermore, treatment with picosecond lasers seems to be less painful. Consequently, picosecond technology may be a new strategy for more effective removal of tattoo pigments at a lower rate of side effects. But there is an urgent need for more well-designed and randomized controlled trials to compare this treatment modality to the traditional nanosecond technology regarding efficacy and adverse reactions.
Expert Opinion on Managing Chronic HCV in Patients with Mixed Cryoglobulinaemia Vasculitis

Mixed cryoglobulinaemia vasculitis (CryoVas) is a small-vessel systemic vasculitis caused by deposition of mixed cryoglobulins and is characterized by a wide range of clinical symptoms. HCV is the primary cause of Cryo-Vas, which is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The mortality rate among patients with HCV-associated CryoVas is 3x that of the general population, with a 63% 10-year survival rate. First-line treatment for CryoVas is anti-HCV therapy because viral clearance is associated with clinical improvement. The introduction of highly effective, interferon-free, direct-acting antiviral regimens provides additional treatment options for these patients. Here, we review recent studies investigating the effect of antiviral therapy on HCV-associated CryoVas and provide expert opinion for health-care professionals managing these patients.
Influence of Algae Growth on the Electrical Performance of RTV Coated Post Insulators

Algae are found grow on the surface of room temperature vulcanized (RTV) silicone rubber coated insulators installed in warm and humid region such as Sichuan, which brings potential operating risk to power transmission and transformation equipment. In this research, two different types of 110kV RTV coated post insulators with algae growth were obtained from Sichuan. Firstly, the algae coverage rate of upper and lower surfaces of top, middle and bottom shed of insulators were calculated through the image processing method respectively. Then, the wet impulse puncture voltage and fog flashover voltage were tested on the algae-grow insulators as well as clean ones. Lastly, the equivalent salt deposit density (ESDD) and no soluble deposit density (NSDD) of insulators were measured. The results show that the algae on the lower surface of insulators are significantly less than the upper surface. Algae have no effect on impulse puncture voltage of insulators. However, the algae decrease the flashover voltage of insulators under the condition of steam fog by 25.2%∼44.0% compared to the clean ones.
Miniaturized Broadband CPW-Fed Folded-Slot Antenna for Wireless-LAN and Wi-MAX Bandwidths

A miniaturized wideband CPW-fed Y-shape patch with a folded surrounding slot structure is discussed in this work. The presented antenna, fabricated on $\mathrm{a}30 \times 20 \times1.6$ mm$^{\mathbf{3}}$ FR4 dielectric, exhibits a measured S}$_{\mathbf{11}} \quad \le$-10 dB bandwidth from 2.39 GHz to 3.56 GHz; within this bandwidth, a gain larger than 0.6 dBi is found. Compactness and wideband characteristics yield this antenna a valid choice for Wireless LAN 2.4-2.7 GHz and Wi-MAX 2.5/3.5 GHz.
Unsupervised Speech Separation Using Statistical, Auditory and Signal Processing Approaches

Unsupervised speech separation refers to the task of separating the individual speaker's speech from the multi- speaker speech without using any apriori information regarding speakers. This paper mainly focuses on unsupervised speech separation for single and multichannel case. State of art speech separation algorithms based on statistical, auditory, and signal processing approaches are evaluated and results are discussed. Algorithms are evaluated for synthetic and real speech mixtures. Experimental results shows that multichannel speech separation algorithms perform better than single channel for artificial speech mixtures and for real speech mixtures the efficacy of signal processing approach compared with other two in terms of subjective evaluation.
Active coping moderates associations among race-related stress, rumination, and depressive symptoms in emerging adult African American women

Abstract Cross-sectional and longitudinal research has shown that race-related stress is associated with increased depressive symptoms among racial/ethnic minorities. Rumination has long been considered a maladaptive self-regulatory response to race-related stress, and growing evidence suggests that it may be an important link in the relation between race-related stress and depression. More adaptive forms of self-regulation, such as active coping, may counteract the negative impact of rumination. We examined the influence of rumination on the relation between race-related stress and depressive symptoms in a sample (N = 69) of young adult (mean age = 20 ± 1.5 years) African American women. We also considered the possible moderating effects of John Henryism, a form of persistent and determined goal striving, and vagally mediated heart rate variability, a purported biomarker of coping. Anticipatory race-related stress was indirectly associated with depressive symptoms through rumination: estimate = 0.07, 95% confidence interval [0.01, 0.16]. Both John Henryism and vagally mediated heart rate variability moderated the relationship between race-related stress and rumination; however, only John Henryism reliably influenced the indirect association between race-related stress and depression through rumination. We discuss these findings in the context of growing research examining the interplay between cultural and biological factors in the risk for poorer mental health.
Multi-Modal Humanoid Robot

Human-Robot Interaction deals with the direct use of robotic systems to interact with humans in particular context. In this paper, a humanoid is developed which can understand the commands in the form of speech and gesture. A connectedword speaker-independent speech recognition system is built using Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient and Gaussian Mixture Model in Kaldi toolkit. Gesture recognition is implemented using Convolutional Neural Network.
Control of Outdoor Robots at Higher Speeds on Challenging Terrain

This thesis studies the motion control of wheeled mobile robots. Its focus is set on high speed control on challenging terrain. Additionally, it deals with the general problem of path following, as well as path planning and obstacle avoidance in difficult conditions. First, it proposes a heuristic longitudinal control for any wheeled mobile robot, and evaluates it on different kinematic configurations and in different conditions, including laboratory experiments and participation in a robotic competition. Being the focus of the thesis, high speed control on uneven terrain is thoroughly studied, and a novel control law is proposed, based on a new model representation of skidsteered vehicles, and comprising of nonlinear lateral and longitudinal control. The lateral control part is based on the Lyapunov theory, and the convergence of the vehicle to the geometric reference path is proven. The longitudinal control is designed for high speeds, taking actuator saturation and the vehicle properties into account. The complete solution is experimentally tested on two different vehicles on several different terrain types, reaching the speeds of ≈ 6m s−1, and compared against two state-of-the-art algorithms. Furthermore, a novel path planning and obstacle avoidance system is proposed, together with an extension of the proposed high speed control, which builds up a navigation system capable of autonomous outdoor person following. This system is experimentally compared against two classical obstacle avoidance methods, and evaluated by following a human jogger in outdoor environments, with both static and dynamic obstacles. All the proposed methods, together with various different state-of-the-art control approaches, are unified into one framework. The proposed framework can be used to control any wheeled mobile robot, both indoors and outdoors, at low or high speeds, avoiding all the obstacles on the way. The entire work is released as open-source software.
Biosynthetic Pathways of Purine and Pyridine Alkaloids in Coffee Plants

Caffeine (1,3,7-N-trimethylxanthine) and trigonelline (1N-methylnicotinic acid) are major alkaloids in coffee plants. The key enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of these compounds are very closely related N-methyltransferases belonging to the motif B’ family of methyltransferases. The major biosynthetic pathways of caffeine and trigonelline are summarized in this review, including new evidence obtained from recombinant enzymes. In addition, precursor supply pathways are discussed with newly obtained results. Transgenic plants produced by the modification of the expression of N-methyltransferase genes are also introduced.
Suitability analysis of software reliability models for its applicability on NPP systems

The advent of software components in the safety critical systems of nuclear power plant has introduced new challenges for software professionals to provide increased software reliability. Several proposals have been proposed for ensuring software reliability in different phases of software development life cycle. The present article is a novel attempt in providing an exhaustive survey of software reliability models for their applicability on safety critical systems of nuclear power plants. Our systematic review shows that none of the proposals for ensuring software reliability are applicable on such systems. The issues and challenges are discussed, and a software reliability model for safety critical system of nuclear power plants is proposed.
Intracellular mass density increase is accompanying but not sufficient for stiffening and growth arrest of yeast cells

Many organisms, including yeast cells, bacteria, nematodes and tardigrades, endure harsh environmental conditions, such as nutrient scarcity, or lack of water and energy for a remarkably long time. The rescue programs that these organisms launch upon encountering these adverse conditions include reprogramming their metabolism in order to enter a quiescent or dormant state in a controlled fashion. Reprogramming coincides with changes in the macromolecular architecture and changes in the physical and mechanical properties of the cells. However, the cellular mechanisms underlying the physical-mechanical changes remain enigmatic. Here, we induce metabolic arrest of yeast cells by lowering their intracellular pH. We then determine the differences in the intracellular mass density and stiffness of active and metabolically arrested cells using optical diffraction tomography and atomic force microscopy. We show that an increased intracellular mass density is associated with an increase in stiffness when the growth of yeast is arrested. However, increasing the intracellular mass density alone is not sufficient for maintenance of the growth-arrested state in yeast cells. Our data suggest that the cytoplasm of metabolically arrested yeast displays characteristics of solid. Our findings constitute a bridge between the mechanical behavior of the cytoplasm and the physical and chemical mechanisms of metabolically arrested cells with the ultimate aim of understanding dormant organisms.
Easy Preparation of [Bis(trifluoroacetoxy)iodo]arenes from Iodoarenes, with Sodium Percarbonate as the Oxidant†

Easy and effective preparations of the nearly pure [bis(trifluoroacetoxy)-iodo]arenes, ArI(OCOCF)3, from some iodoarenes, ArI, are reported, using an anhydrous sodium percarbonate/(CF3CO)2O/CH2Cl2 system. The colorless, freshly prepared ArI(OCOCF3)2 thus obtained were 98-99% pure (by iodometry).
Improved Surface Electrical Properties of Polystyrene in Vacuum by Plasma Modification

In order to satisfy the demand of industry development, the improvement of the surface insulation performance of polystyrene (PS) is urgent. It is believed that the accumulation of charge on the material can induce the distortion of local electric field, even cause surface flashover. Therefore, in this paper, in order to reduce the accumulation of surface charge, inorganic nano-films are deposited on the surface of PS by plasma modification technology. The plasma excitation source is AC high voltage generator with a frequency of 20 kHz. The PS samples are treated with tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) precursor assisted by plasma for 10 minutes. The working gas is argon and the pressure is sub-atmospheric (2 kPa). Before and after the plasma modification, surface charge accumulation and dissipation characteristics are measured. The results show that the decay rate of surface charge is increased obviously for modified PS. The Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrum (FTIR) indicates that new groups of Si-O-Si, Si-OH are formed on the sample surface. The trap energy level induced by the above groups is lower, namely, the shallow traps are beneficial to the dissipation of surface charge. Thus, the surface flashover withstand voltage is improved significantly.
Introduction of 5G Over-the-Air Measurements

Fifth generation (5G) wireless devices will be released into the general market in the next few years. It is expected that there needs to be ways to evaluate the Over-the-Air (OTA) performance of these devices as their release moves closer. This paper will review proposed test methods for performing these measurements and the perceived benefits of different types of solutions.
Altered speech with migraine attacks: A prospective, longitudinal study of episodic migraine without aura

Background and Objective Some individuals with migraine report the presence of speech changes during their migraine attacks. The goal of this study was to compare objective features of speech during the migraine pre-attack, the migraine attack, and during the interictal period. Methods This was a prospective, longitudinal, observational study of adults with episodic migraine and healthy non-migraine controls. Participants provided speech samples three times per day using a speech elicitation tool included within a mobile app. Six complementary speech features that capture articulation and prosody were extracted from speech samples. Participants with migraine maintained a daily headache diary using the same app. A mixed effects model and t-tests were used to investigate differences in speech features between controls, the migraine pre-attack phase, the migraine attack, and the interictal period. Results In total, 56,767 speech samples were collected, including 43,102 from 15 individuals with migraine and 13,665 from matched healthy controls. Significant group-level differences in speech features were identified between those with migraine and healthy controls and within the migraine group during the pre-attack vs. attack vs. interictal periods (all p < .05). Most consistently, speech changes occurred in the speaking rate, articulation rate and precision, and phonatory duration. Within-subject analysis revealed that seven of 15 individuals with migraine showed significant change in at least one speech feature when comparing the migraine attack vs. interictal phase and four showed similar changes when comparing the pre-attack vs. interictal phases. Conclusions Changes in speech occurred in almost half of the individuals during migraine attacks. Once confirmed in subsequent studies, speech changes could be considered a feature of the migraine attack.
Low-Power Wide-Area Networks for Industrial Sensing Applications

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) allows to interconnect a large number of devices and sensors to improve the operation of industrial installations and processes. Low-power wireless communication capabilities enable battery-powered condition monitoring applications that avoid the cost of wiring. Low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs) are a novel class of wireless communication systems that are tailored for long-range connectivity at low data rates using resource-constrained devices (e.g., battery-powered wireless sensor nodes). LPWAN protocols are designed to operate in unlicensed parts of the radio-frequency spectrum. As the transmission power within these bands is limited by regulations, LPWAN technologies reduce data transfer rates to operate at a higher link budget and thus provide larger communication ranges than short-range wireless protocols (e.g., Bluetooth, WiFi). In this paper, we provide an overview of the different LPWAN protocols and discuss their integration into industrial sensing applications. In the second part of this study, we present the evaluation results of a multi-week industrial condition monitoring case study with a focus on three selected LPWAN technologies: LoRa, IEEE 802.15. 4g, and a proprietary narrow-band communication scheme (TI CC1310 long-range mode). Our experimental results have shown that LoRa modulation provides the largest communication range and reliability in our industrial indoor setup followed by the TI CC1310 narrowband communication protocol. However, IEEE 802.15. 4g is a viable choice for scenarios where a smaller link budget (and thus smaller range) are required as it consumes about an order of magnitude less energy to send a radio packet compared to the other protocols in our test.
Establishment of a highly efficient conjugation protocol for Streptomyces kanamyceticus ATCC12853

Kanamycin B as the secondary metabolite of wild‐type Streptomyces kanamyceticus (S. kanamyceticus) ATCC12853 is often used for the synthesis of dibekacin and arbekacin. To construct the strain has the ability for kanamycin B production; the pSET152 derivatives from Escherichia coli ET12567 were introduced to S. kanamyceticus by intergeneric conjugal transfer. In this study, we established a reliable genetic manipulation system for S. kanamyceticus. The key factors of conjugal transfer were evaluated, including donor‐to‐recipient ratio, heat‐shock, and the overlaying time of antibiotics. When spores were used as recipient, the optimal conjugation frequency was up to 6.7 × 10−6. And mycelia were used as an alternative recipient for conjugation instead of spores; the most suitable donor‐to‐recipient ratio is 1:1 (107:107). After incubated for only 10–12 hr and overlaid with antibiotics subsequently, the conjugation frequency can reach to 6.2 × 10−5 which is sufficient for gene knockout and other genetic operation. Based on the optimized conjugal transfer condition, kanJ was knocked out successfully. The kanamycin B yield of kanJ‐disruption strain can reach to 543.18 ± 42 mg/L while the kanamycin B yield of wild‐type strain was only 46.57 ± 12 mg/L. The current work helps improve the content of kanamycin B in the fermentation broth of S. kanamyceticus effectively to ensure the supply for the synthesis of several critical semisynthetic antibiotics.
Clinicopathological analysis of primary intestinal diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma: Prognostic evaluation of CD5, PD‐L1, and Epstein‐Barr virus on tumor cells

Primary intestinal diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (iDLBCL) is rare. In this study, we investigated the clinicopathological features of this disease to further understand the prognostic value of CD5, programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD‐L1), and Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) on tumor cells.