Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimizing Physical Function Following Distal Radius Fracture

Distal Radius Fracture (DRF) is one of the most frequent of all human bone fractures. Wrist and/or finger range of motion (ROM) and grip strength are standard outcome measures used by clinicians to evaluate recovery after a hand injury. ROM is considered to be an important component of joint mobility and relates to measures of functional impairment and disability. Impaired wrist and hand ROM are related to a decrease in grip strength, grasp ability, fine manipulation, and hand function. The relationship between ROM and other physical impairments as they relate to patient-rated outcomes after DRF have not been well identified. The thesis includes three studies. The first study (Chapter 2) is a systematic review and meta analysis of existing literature on the effects of laser irradiation on bone regeneration, suggesting that low power laser can enhance biomechanical indicators of bone during fracture healing in animal models. The second study (Chapter 3) explores the intra-rater, inter-rater, and inter-instrument reliability and construct validity of two digital electro goniometers to measure active wrist and active/passive index finger ROM in patients with limited wrist and/or hand. The results of this study demonstrate that digital goniometry is highly reliable for all measures across occasions, raters and instruments. The moderate correlation between individual joint motions and patient-rated self-reported function suggests that joint motion impairments contribute to functional disability. The third study (Chapter 4) has a specific focus on the relationship between physical impairment outcome measures and patient-rated wrist pain and function in early and late stages after distal radius fracture. Wrist flexion, extension, supination, pronation, grip strength, age and gender, were found to contribute significantly with wrist pain and function. Good wrist arc of motions (close to normal) and moderate grip strength must be recovered to have optimal wrist functional outcomes after distal radius fracture. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the next steps required toward understanding effective mechanisms to promote bone healing and earlier function after DRF, which may lead to more effective patient-centered treatment protocols. Keywords: Bone Healing, Distal Radius Fracture, Physical Impairment, Patient-Rated Wrist Evaluation.
Control Algorithm For Sine Excitation On Nonlinear Systems

When using electrodynamic vibration exciters to excite structures, the actual force applied to the structure under test is the reaction force between the exciter and the structure. The magnitude and phase of the reaction force is dependent upon the characteristics of the structure and exciter. Therefore the quality of the reaction force i.e. the force applied on the structure depends on the relationship between the exciter and structure under test. Looking at the signal from the force transducer when exciting a structure with a sine wave, the signal will appear harmonically distorted within the regions of the resonance frequencies. This phenomenon is easily observed when performing tests on lightly damped structures. The harmonic distortion is a result of nonlinearities produced by the shaker when undergoing large amplitude vibrations, at resonances. When dealing with non-linear structures, it is of great importance to be able to keep a constant force level as well as a non-distorted sine wave in order to get reliable results within the regions of the resonance frequencies. This paper presents theoretical methods that can be used to create a non-distorted sinusoidal excitation signal with constant force level.
Towards integrating agile development and risk management

In this paper, we investigate the state of practice of integrating risk management with software development in 37 software organizations. We do this by using a set of evaluation criteria covering various process integration aspects. Our results recognize that process integration in this domain is still in its infancy. There is a great need for process integration and process integration models within the industry studied.
Web Malware that Targets Web Applications

Web applications have steadily increased, making them very important in areas, such as financial sectors, e-commerce, e-government, social media network, medical data, e-business, academic an activities, e-banking, e-shopping, e-mail. However, web application pages support users interacting with the data stored in their website to insert, delete and modify content by making a web site their own space. Unfortunately, these activities attracted writers of malicious software for financial gain, and to take advantage of such activities to perform their malicious objectives. This chapter focuses on severe threats to web applications specifically on Structure Query Language Injection Attack (SQLIA) and Zeus threats. These threats could adopt new obfuscation techniques to evade and thwart countermeasures Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS). Furthermore, this work explores and discusses the techniques to detect and prevent web application malwar.
Long non-coding RNA MEG3 alters neuronal apoptosis and is associated with poor prognosis in ischemic stroke: based on basic and prospective studies

Background: Ischemic stroke (IS) is a highly heterogeneous disease with variable pathogenesis. Due to the lack of early predictive markers, the mortality rate of IS remains high worldwide. This study focused on the expression pattern of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) maternally expressed gene 3 (MEG3) and its prognostic value in IS. Methods: Twenty-four ICR mice (30-35g, 12 males and 12 females) were involved in this study. Middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) was established to simulate an IS environment. Oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) in cells were also performed. A total of 215 IS patients and 153 age and gender-matched controls were included. Quantitative Real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed to detect the expression of MEG3 in peripheral blood leukocytes. Results: The MEG3 expression in MCAO group was significantly higher than control group (P=0.004), and the survival time of high MEG3 group was significantly lower than that of the low MEG3 group (P=0.042). OGD/R promotes cell apoptosis, while si-MEG3 inhibits apoptosis. Results of WB showed that, expression level of Bax was down regulated by si-MEG3, while OGD/R increased its expression level. MEG3 was significantly up-regulated in IS patients and associated with the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) (r=0.347, P<0.001), modified Rankin Scale (mRS) (r=0.385, P<0.001), high sensitivity C-reactive protein (Hs-CRP) (r=0.221, P=0.002) level and infarct volume (r=0.201, P=0.006). Overall survival analysis showed that patients with higher MEG3 expression had a relatively poor prognosis (P<0.001). Meanwhile, multivariate analysis revealed that MEG3 was an independent prognostic marker of functional outcome and death in patients with IS. Conclusions: Current study suggested that MEG3 might be considered as a potential prognostic indicator in IS.
Education as a Moderator in the Effect of Successful Aging on Mortality Risk in Elderly Chinese: A National Longitudinal Study (2011-2016)

BackgroundSome studies have found that successful aging and its components were significantly associated with older adults’ health, their achievement has a positive effect on reducing mortality rates. However, there is little evidence to discuss whether education could modify the effect of successful aging on morality risk. Numerous literatures from worldwide were cross-sectional and previous studies on the association between successful aging and mortality in China were quite few. We aim to evaluate the effect of successful aging and each of its components on mortality risk of older in China, further discussed whether education was a moderator in this effect and investigated differences in results among males and females.MethodsData was derived from CHARLS (China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study), which is a nationally representative follow-up survey. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate the education's moderate effect on the relationship between successful aging and mortality.ResultsIn total, 4824 residents aged 60 years and above were recorded. 15.18% (n=367) for males and 15.74% (n=379) for females were defined as successful aging and the mortality were 2.61% (n=63) for males and 3.45% (n=83) for females during the survey. It is the first longitudinal study using national cohort data to research the educational effects on the association between mortality and successful aging, our study showed that the effect only existed in females aged 65-74 years old group with lower education.ConclusionsEducation has the significant effect on the relationship between successful aging and mortality. Physical health is significantly associated with the achieving of successful aging among young older. More measures should be paid on improving mental health among the young female older with lower education to achieve successful aging and to against mortality and live longevity.
Recent Developments in Multiplicative Error Models

Joint research agenda with:Matteo BarigozziECARES - ULBChristian T. BrownleesStern School of Business NYUFabrizio CipolliniDip. di Statistica “G.Parenti” - Universitadi FirenzeGiovanni De LucaUniversita di Napoli – ParthenopeRob EngleStern School of Business NYUMargherita VelucchiDip. di Statistica “G.Parenti” -Universita di FirenzeDavid VeredasECARES - ULB
Evaluating and planning flexibility in a sustainable power system with large wind penetration

Flexibility describes the system ability to cope with events that may cause imbalance between electricity supply and demand while maintaining the system reliability in a cost-effective manner. Flexibility has always been present in the power system to cater for unplanned generator outages and demand uncertainty and variability. The arrival of wind generation with its variable and hard to predict nature increases the overall needs for system flexibility.This thesis provides a systematic approach for investigating the role of flexibility in different power system activities including generation scheduling, generation planning and market operation, and furthermore proposes two ? offline? indices for flexibility evaluation.Using the tools and metrics presented in this thesis, it is possible to perform the following tasks:? Conduct generation scheduling simulation to evaluate the impacts of wind on the flexibility requirement of power systems;? Use the unit construction and commitment algorithm to 1) estimate the maximum allowable wind capacity for an existing system; 2) find the optimal investment of new flexible units for accommodating more wind generation; and 3) decide an optimal generation mix for integrating a given wind penetration;? Use the market model to reveal the value and profitability of flexibility and evaluate the corresponding effects of alternative market design;? Use the two proposed flexibility indices to quantitatively assess the flexibility of individual generators and power systems without undertaking complex and time consuming simulations.
A semiotic approach to ad-hoc networked environments

The aim of the work in this thesis is to develop a new approach of interacting with adhoc networked environments. These are networks where devices connect on demand with no underlying network infrastructure. The intention of this work is to develop these environments so that devices and services on these networks can publish their services, query for other services and connect with each other when required. The devices need to be able to perform these actions without prior knowledge of each other, therefore a theory of communication, semiotics, is presented. Ad-hoc networks provide an appropriate test-bed for this application of semiotics as they allow services to `know' about each other and communicate with one another. By using semiotics, we aim to create a representation of communication that allows a system to communicate within the networked environment and ask for services and connections as well as interact with users and provide. This way a user can demand something from the surrounding environment and the elements within this environment can communicate with each other to provide the service the user required. To create an effective model for this representation, various research areas will be discussed such as smart environments, natural language processing, multicast environments and human computer interaction. Principles will be used from all these areas to implement an approach of interacting with smart environments. Different types of smart environments, such as as smart homes and m-commerce environments, will be used to observe how di erent contexts a ect communication. A prototype system was realised for proof of concept and evaluated by subjects. This work highlighted the feasibility of this approach and opened a new area worthwhile of further research.
Menstrual Cups: The Sustainable Future for Women Hygiene in India

In India, the usage of Menstrual Cups is comparatively limited. The study focuses on the acceptability, affordability, accessibility and awareness of Menstrual Cups amongst Indian women in the menstruating age. An assessment of the Knowledge, Aptitude, Practice and Behaviour (KAPB) of Menstrual Cups was done. The sampled data received from various parts of the country, after exclusions, included 397 responses. The average age of the respondents was 24 years where most of them were students and were from urban dwelling. From the results, it was inferred that menstrual cups users were in favour with their experiences with 79% reporting menstrual cups to be comfortable and 82% of the users found menstrual cups to be cheaper compared to other menstrual products, 61% of the users reported menstrual cups to be easy to adapt. For monthly expenditure of sanitary products, menstrual cups were more cost efficient as users spent an average of Rs 0-100 in comparison to other Sanitary Products where users spent an average of Rs 100-300. Disposable Sanitary pads was the most used sanitary product by non-menstrual cup users. 29.6% of the respondents are willing to switch to menstrual cups and 45.4% of the respondents are not sure if they want to switch to menstrual cups. The reasons for non-usage of menstrual cups was mostly comfort (32%), limited knowledge (25%) and accessibility (15%). Homemakers scored high on Practice and Behaviour questions while Business women scored high on Knowledge and Aptitude questions. Both users and non-users recommended conducting awareness drives in the form of seminars focusing on clarifying myths and taboos related to menstrual cups. A change in favor of menstrual cups could be made possible by targeted pricing and advertising
CALIBRATING CAPACITANCE SENSORS TO ESTIMATE WATER CONTENT, MATRIC POTENTIAL, AND ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY IN SOILLESS SUBSTRATES

Title of Thesis: CALIBRATING CAPACITANCE SENSORS TO ESTIMATE WATER CONTENT, MATRIC POTENTIAL, AND ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY IN SOILLESS SUBSTRATES Félix Rubén Arguedas Rodríguez, MS, 2009 Directed By: John Lea-Cox, PhD. Associate Professor, Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture The nursery and greenhouse industry requires precise methods to schedule irrigations, since current practices are subjective and contribute to water and nutrient runoff. Capacitance sensors were calibrated to precisely estimate substrate water content, matric potential, and pore water electrical conductivity (EC) in five soilless substrates. Regression coefficients (R) ranged from 0.29 – 0.88 and 0.16 – 0.79 for water content in 5-cm and 20-cm column heights; matric potential R ranged from 0.10 – 0.98 and 0.79 – 0.98, respectively. Pore water EC calibrations were investigated, contrasting two sensor types and two prediction models. Results were applied to an empirical greenhouse dataset. Better precision and accuracy were achieved with ECH2O-TE sensor and Rhoades model. Capacitance sensors provide precise estimates of plant-available water in most soilless substrates, while pore water EC accuracy and precision depends on the sensor-model combination. These results will enable growers to precisely schedule irrigations based on water content and pore water EC. CALIBRATING CAPACITANCE SENSORS TO ESTIMATE WATER CONTENT, MATRIC POTENTIAL, AND ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY IN SOILLESS SUBSTRATES
Positioning System for 4-Wheel Mobile Robot: Encoder, Gyro and Accelerometer Data Fusion with Error Model Method

In this sensor fusion approach, combination of filtering encoder, gyro and accel - erometerʼs signals was used to improve and correct the measurement of 4-wheel mobile robotʼs own position. The error model method was proposed for fusing encoder information with relative position measurement by gyro sensor and accelerometerʼs information to obtain more reliable position estimation. From this, we computed high-accuracy position estimation and had reduced the systematic and non-systematic errors during traveling and had succeeded in estimating the bias drift of gyro and accelerometer. The basic tool here is a Kalman filter supported by change detection from sensor diagnosis. Results and experience of real-time implementations are presented.
Foreclosure

Broke, not broken. It still lies, unfinished, steel rafters piercing the unsteady sun, rusting after a long, well-needed rain. I figured it’d join the pantheon of local eyesores: the fuel oil company with ruptured tanks beneath its broken asphalt; the Pharmacy That Never Was, smack dab on Main—a merger-driven tax write-off worth far more as a fresco for graffiti than as a retrofitted Dollar Store; the textile mill that turned the river gold or green, depending on the color of the day; the tents the congregation used all summer.
Effects of Colored Shade Nets on Grapes and Leaves of Shine Muscat Grown under Greenhouse Conditions

Greenhouse grapes are often ripened at very high temperatures in the south of China, however, high temperatures are detrimental to their ripening. To moderate the strong light and high temperature conditions of the growing environment, different colored shade nets (green, blue, and black) were used to cover Shine Muscat (Vitis labruscana L.H. Bailey × Vitis vinifera L.) grapes during the ripening period. Differences in the cooling effect, fruit appearance and taste, and leaf photosynthetic performance were analyzed. It was found that the shading treatment exerted a significant cooling effect, and the light transmittance of blue and green shade nets was significantly higher than that of the black shade net. Shine Muscat grapes grown under shading treatment conditions were found to have more consistent total soluble solids content and coloring. Shading was found to affect the aroma of grapes, but the effect of the green shade net treatment was lower. The shading treatments slightly alleviated the senescence of old leaves. The shading treatments were found to improve the consistency of Shine Muscat grape berries. Of the shading treatments, the green and blue shade nets were found to be most effective and can be used to cultivate high quality grapes.
Decreased abundance of Akkermansia muciniphila after adrenocorticotropic hormone therapy in patients with West syndrome

Background West syndrome (WS) is a severe epileptic encephalopathy of infancy. The high degree of effectiveness of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) therapy indicates that the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis may be involved in WS, and there is substantial evidence that the gut microbiota (GM) communicates with the brain via the HPA axis. The aims of this study were to determine and compare the diversity of the GM in infants with WS and healthy infants, and in patients with WS before and after ACTH therapy. Results A total of 19 infants with WS and 24 healthy infants in the same age range (3–13 months) were enrolled. Fecal samples were collected and DNA was extracted and sequenced on the Illumina HiSeq platform. The between-group differences in Chao1 index (α diversity) and the abundances of GM genera were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test; graphs were plotted using R software. There were no significant differences in the top four dominant GM genera between patients with WS and healthy infants; however, the abundance of the species Akkermansia muciniphila was significantly (P = 0.017) higher in the WS group than in healthy infants. After 2 weeks of ACTH therapy, the abundance of this bacteria was significantly (P = 0.022) and dramatically decreased. Conclusion The abundance of A. muciniphila was significantly higher in patients with WS than healthy infants. Further research is needed to clarify the relationship between A. muciniphila and WS pathogenesis.
Reduced complexity detection methods for continuous phase modulation

Continuous phase modulation (CPM) is often plagued by high receiver complexity. One successful method of dealing with this is the well-known pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) representation of CPM, which was first proposed by Laurent. It is shown that the PAM representation also applies to multi-h CPM and ternary CPM, two previously unconsidered cases. In both cases it is shown that many PAM components may be required to exactly represent the signal. This is especially true of partial-response systems where the memory of the signal is long. Therefore, approximations are proposed which require only a limited number of terms. These extensions of the PAM representation are used to construct reduced-complexity detectors for CPM. These are generalizations of the detector first proposed by Kaleh. These detectors can be used in an optimal configuration, or in a suboptimal reduced-complexity configuration. The PAM complexity-reduction principle is shown explicitly. An exact expression is given for the pairwise error probability for the entire class of PAM-based CPM detectors, not just the extended cases proposed herein. The analysis is performed for the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. The performance bound that results from this pairwise error probability is shown to be tighter than a previously published bound for PAM-based CPM detectors. The analysis shows that PAM-based detectors are a special case of the broad class of mismatched CPM detectors. However, it is shown that the metrics for PAM-based detectors accumulate distance in a different manner than metrics for other mismatched and suboptimal detectors. These distance properties are especially useful in applications with greatly reduced trellis sizes. The proposed detectors are included in two case studies. The first is for a multi-h CPM standard used in aeronautical telemetry. Many reduced-complexity detectors are studied in addition to PAM-based detectors. The second case study is for a ternary CPM known as shaped offset QPSK (SOQPSK). Here, the performance of serially concatenated coded SOQPSK is studied along with uncoded systems. It is shown that the coded systems achieve large gains over uncoded systems. However, the design proposed herein achieves these gains with less complexity than previously published designs.
A FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPING STOCHASTIC MULTI-OBJECTIVE PAVEMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

This paper proposes a framework for developing a stochastic, multi-objective pavement management system (PMS). The multi-objective framework is discussed, and the departure from stochastic single-objective PMSs is highlighted. It is shown that the multi-objective PMS approach would result in several non-dominated (pareto-optimal) policies. These are PMS policies whose attributes make them competitive. The advantage of the stochastic multi-objective approach is to allow decisionmakers to have an important leverage in the final choice of PMS policy.