Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rate of Progression in Activity and Participation Outcomes in Exercisers with Parkinson's Disease: A Five-Year Prospective Longitudinal Study

Background Rates of progression of motor symptoms and physical performance show declines between 2% and 7% annually in community samples with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the effects of ongoing exercise behaviors on progression rates have not been considered. Objective The primary purpose of this prospective, longitudinal study was to examine the annual rates of progression in activity and participation measures over five years in community-based exercisers with PD. Methods A cohort of 55 regular exercisers with idiopathic PD was assessed at baseline and 1, 2, and 5 years. Regular exercise was defined as scores of 4-5 on the Stages for Readiness to Exercise Scale and a self-reported average of at least 60 minutes of exercise/week within six months of each testing session. Unadjusted and adjusted annual progression rates for activity and participation measures were calculated with a standardized equation of change from baseline. A linear mixed model with covariates of age at PD diagnosis and PD subtype was used to determine adjusted change scores. Results Annual progression rates for unadjusted and adjusted variables were similar, and none exceeded 1.7% across time points for this group of exercisers with PD. Older age at PD diagnosis significantly contributed to faster progression of walking and balance functions. A nonlinear trajectory of the PD progression was demonstrated across most activity and participation outcomes. Conclusions Annual progression rates demonstrated by this sample of exercisers were lower than those previously reported for motor decline in general samples with PD. Assessing activity and participation outcomes longitudinally at interim time points was important for understanding the trajectory of change over time. The lower rates of progression in this study warrant further investigation into the long-term effects of exercise in PD.
Merging Textual Representations of Software Models

Modeling is an important area of software development. The most prevalent approach to modeling is the graphical approach, which means that models are edited through a graphical interface. In the case of highly complex and large models, however, editing a model through text can be more efficient than the graphical approach. In this paper, a method is presented that can be used to compare and merge models based on their textual representations. This approach helps optimizing teamwork due to its possible application in version control systems for textual representations. Our method is universal, thus it can be applied to any modeling environment and formal language. Differences between the presented method and other, already existing comparing and merging approaches are also described.
Experimental and model based investigation of the effects of high stimulus presentation rate on code-modulated visual evoked potential based brain-computer interfaces

EXPERIMENTAL AND MODEL BASED INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTS OF HIGH STIMULUS PRESENTATION RATE ON CODE-MODULATED VISUAL EVOKED POTENTIAL BASED BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACES Toygun Başaklar M.S. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering Advisor: Yusuf Ziya İder September 2018 Objective. Previous studies on code-modulated visual evoked potentials (cVEP) have yielded important results regarding the performance of c-VEP based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) in recent years. Since, speed is the key factor in BCI applications and since the monitor refresh rate limits the stimulation time and thus limits the performance of the system, this study aims at investigating the effects of high stimulus presentation rates (refresh rate of the monitor) on a c-VEP based speller BCI. Furthermore, Robinson’s corticothalamic model, which has not yet been studied for c-VEP responses, is used to simulate the salient behaviors that are observed in our experiments. Approach. Six subjects participated in three different experiments with refresh rates of 60 Hz (E1), 120 Hz (E2) and 240 Hz (E3), where a 127-bit m-sequence is used. Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) was used in the training stage to obtain 36 target templates from 100 averages of 8 EEG channels. Information transfer rate (ITR) and accuracy values were calculated for each experiment and subject. Subjects also answered a questionnaire asking at which refresh rate they felt more comfortable. Robinson’s corticothalamic model was used to simulate the c-VEP experiments. Power spectral density (PSD) estimates of c-VEP responses and results of principal component analysis (PCA) were evaluated both for the simulation data and the experimental data. Main Results. Average ITR and accuracy values for E1 are 86.17 bits/min and 93%, for E2 are 90.68 bits/min and 95% and for E3 are 70.89 bits/min and 81% respectively. Also 5 out of 6 subjects stated that E3, and 1 subject stated that E2 is the most comfortable experiment. The c-VEP responses are band-limited although the input m-sequence is a wide-band signal. The spectral densities of c-VEP templates are concentrated on several frequency intervals,
Integrated Circuit and System Design for Cognitive Radio and Ultra-Low Power Applications

The ubiquitous presence of wireless and battery-powered devices is an inseparable and invincible feature of our modern life. Meanwhile, the spectrum aggregation, and limited battery capacity of handheld devices challenge the exploding demand and growth of such radio systems. In this work, we try to present two separate solutions for each case; an ultrawideband (UWB) receiver for Cognitive Radio (CR) applications to deal with spectrum aggregation, and an ultra-low power (ULP) receiver to enhance battery life of handheld wireless devices. Limited linearity and LO harmonics mixing are two major issues that ultra-wideband receivers, and CR in particular, are dealing with. Direct conversion schemes, based on current-driven passive mixers, have shown to improve the linearity, but unable to resolve LO harmonic mixing problem. They are usually limited to 3, and 5 harmonics rejection or require very complex and power hungry circuitry for higher number of harmonics. This work presents a heterodyne up-down conversion scheme in 180 nm CMOS technology for CR applications (54-862 MHz band) that mitigates the harmonic mixing issue for all the harmonics, while by employing an active feedback loop, a comparable to the state-of-the art IIP3 of better than +10 dBm is achieved. Measurements show an average NF of 7.5 dB when the active feedback loop is off (ie. in the absence of destructive interference), and 15.5 dB when the feedback loop is active and a 0 dBm interferer is applied, respectively. Also, the second part of this work presents an ultra-low power super-regenerative receiver (SRR) suitable for OOK modulation and provides analytical insight into its design procedure. The receiver is fabricated in 40 nm CMOS technology and operates in the ISM band of 902-928 MHz. Binary search algorithm through Successive Approximation Register (SAR) architecture is being exploited to calibrate the internally generated quench
Sentiment Analysis of Amazon Canon Camera Review using Hybrid Method

Sentiment Analysis or Opinion Mining is a new developing research field that has opened new challenges for researchers to be answered. Sentiment analysis or Opinion mining is a very important field in finding the correct sentiment of customer product review, election result analysis, summarization of news articles. Sentiment analysis has opened a new door in different domains like financial, telecommunication, business, medical, social events, and e-shopping. In this paper, a hybrid sentiment analysis approach is proposed to analyze “Amazon” Canon camera reviews and classify them into positive and negative polarity classes which is useful for other customers and organizations to take future decisions. The results of hybrid approach show improvement in accuracy, and also in precision and recall measures.
Recent advances in evaluation of roughages as feeds for ruminants.

A method of evaluating fibrous feeds is proposed and discussed. The method is based on determination of degradation characteristics of roughages from experiments in which the roughages are incubated in the rumen for different periods of time (t) and the relationship of time (t) to degradation (p) described by a mathematical description p = a t b (1 e-et). Further improvements to this expression are suggested and the relationship to animal performance, and in particular feed intake, is discussed.
Should we Reload Time Series Classification Performance Evaluation ? (a position paper)

Since the introduction and the public availability of the ucr time series benchmark data sets, numerous Time Series Classification (TSC) methods has been designed, evaluated and compared to each others. We suggest a critical view of TSC performance evaluation protocols put in place in recent TSC literature. The main goal of this "position" paper is to stimulate discussion and reflexion about performance evaluation in TSC literature.
Pulse Width and Frequency Hybrid Modulated LLC Converter Adapted to Ultra Wide Voltage Range

In wide voltage range applications such as electric vehicles (EVs) onboard charging, conventional frequency modulated LLC topology has its intrinsic limitations. Its frequency span is extremely wide and the soft switching feature might get lost. To address this issue, this paper proposes a novel LLC resonant converter. The pulse width and frequency hybrid modulation are adopted to narrow down its switching frequency span. The operating principles, circuit modeling, and the design methodology are presented. A 1 kW rated prototype has been built to realize an efficient power flow between the 400 V DC bus and 200–440 V battery pack. The designed prototype validates the effectiveness of the proposed topology and modulation method. 96.8% peak efficiency is measured for the constructed experimental prototype.
Sexual Stress Immunization Protocols

The increased attention on methamphetamine as a substance of abuse has proceeded without concurrent innovations deploying its utility as a valid pharmaceutical. Its medicinal properties have not been considered as a basis to understand and correct pathological using patterns. There is a dearth of medical and treatment programs that develop stimulant science for purposeful applications, despite well-known medicinal properties of methamphetamine. The neglected areas of practice are addressed by way of a theoretical development of an approach guided by existing literature. Methamphetamine science has a 100-year journal literature that includes the findings of recent experimental trials, where the pharmacy was found to strengthen the metacognition of agency under known dose structure. Proposed treatment principles are developed, premising the urgency to test those with formulations as the basis of further clinical trials. A defined treatment framework is also presented for deploying metacognition during relapse prevention. Treatment targets for sexual trauma recovery are formulated, because of the pharmacy’s potential to support the sexual neuropsychology of the parasympathetic nervous system during recovery. Materials are summarised in five new treatment principles that are developed within combination metacognitive-CBT based frameworks. Psychopharmacological treatment concepts are summarised within the fortified cognition hypothesis. Proposed Sexual Stress Immunisation Protocols (SSIPs), guided by the principles of fortified cognition, preface new trauma and relapse prevention concepts, in their basis for clinical testing.
The incidence of new onset sacroiliac joint pain following lumbar fusion.

Background The sacroiliac joint (SIJ) can be a new source of pain following lumbar fusion. The aim of this study was to identify the incidence of and predisposing factors for new onset SIJ pain following successful lumbar fusion. Methods We review our series of 317 patients who underwent spinal fusion in the past 5 years to identify patients who developed new onset SIJ pain. All patients had a minimum 12 months follow up. Diagnostic criteria for SIJ pain were: New onset pain localised to lower lumbar region and buttocks, ≥2 positive provocative tests of SIJ and pain relief of >70% achieved from SIJ block. Results There were 38 patients who developed new SIJ pain following fusion with an overall incidence of 12.0%. The average time to new onset symptoms was 22 months. Of the 38 patients, 57.9% had fusion to sacrum. The incidence of SIJ pain in patients who had fusion extending into sacrum was 12.6% vs. 11.2% in those who had not. The incidence of SIJ pain was 11.1% with 1-level fusion, 12.0% with 2-level fusion, 12.9% with 3-level fusion and 14.0% with equal or more than 4-level fusion. Conclusions New onset SIJ pain can arise following spinal fusion. We have not found a higher frequency of SIJ pain in patients with fusion extending to sacrum or longer spinal construct.
Learning in the wild: coding for learning and practice on Reddit

ABSTRACT Learning on and through social media is becoming a cornerstone of lifelong learning, creating places not only for accessing information, but also for finding other self-motivated learners. Such is the case for Reddit, the online news sharing site that is also a forum for asking and answering questions. We studied learning practices found in ‘Ask’ subreddits AskScience, Ask_Politics, AskAcademia, and AskHistorians to develop a coding schema for informal learning. This paper describes the process of evaluating and defining a workable coding schema, one that started with attention to learning processes associated with discourse, exploratory talk, and conversational dialogue, and ended with including norms and practices on Reddit and the support of communities of inquiry. Our ‘learning in the wild’ coding schema contributes a content analysis schema for learning through social media, and an understanding of how knowledge, ideas, and resources are shared in open, online learning forums.
Implementation of SDR TWSTFT in UTC Computation

Two-Way Satellite Time and Frequency Transfer (TWSTFT or TW for short) is one of the primary techniques for the realization of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is computed by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM). TWSTFT is carried out continuously by about 20 timing laboratories around the world. One limiting factor of the TWSTFT performance is the daily pattern (diurnals) in the TWSTFT data. Their peak-to-peak variations were observed as up to 2 ns in some extreme cases. They must be attributed to the equipment on ground or the satellite transponder, but no clear understanding has been achieved for some years. In 2014 and 2015, it was demonstrated inlinks between Asian stations that the use of Software-Defined Radio (SDR) receivers for TWSTFT could considerably reduce the diurnals and also the TWSTFT measurement noise. In 2016, BIPM and the Consultative Committee for Time and Frequency (CCTF) working group (WG) on TWSTFT launched a pilot study on the application of SDR receivers in the Asia to Asia, Asia to Europe, Europe to Europe and Europe to USA TWSTFT networks. The very first results of the pilot study have been reported to the PTTI 2017. The results show, 1) for continental (short) links: SDR TWSTFT demonstrates a significant gain in reducing the diurnals by a factor of two to three; 2) for inter-continental (very-long) links: SDR TWSTFT displays a small gain of measurement noise at short averaging times; 3) SDR receivers show superior or at least similar performance compared with SATRE measurements for all links. The CCTF WG on TWSTFT prepared a recommendation “On Improving the uncertainty of Two-Way Satellite Time and Frequency Transfer (TWSTFT) in UTC Generation” for the 21 CCTF meeting. One of the recommended items is to introduce the use of SDR TWSTFT in UTC generation. The recommendation was approved by CCTF during the meeting in June 2017. In the current setups, a SDR receiver and the collocated SATRE modem receive the signals transmitted by remote SATRE modems, and the two devices independently determine the arrival time of the received signal. Thus, a few setup changes are necessary to implement SDR receivers into operational TWSTFT ground stations. On the other hand, the data computation, e.g. for calibrated time transfer, needs some caution in the data processing and provision, which are not trivial. Thus, an Ad hoc Group has been established to work out a procedure for the use of the SDR TWSTFT in UTC computation. This paper reports on the progress of the work for using SDR TWSTFT in UTC computation. Section 1 introduces SDR TWSTFT and the pilot study. Section 2 presents the considerations for using SDR TWSTFT in UTC generation. Section 3 and 4 show the methods for analysing SDR TWSTFT and the analysis results. Sections 5 and 6 discusses the further improvement of SDR TWSTFT and summarizes the work towards using SDR TWSTFT in UTC generation.
Evaluating Quantized Convolutional Neural Networks for Embedded Systems

This paper presents a deep learning approach which evaluates accuracy and inference time speedups in deep convolutional neural networks under various network quantizations. Quantized networks can result in much faster inference time allowing them to be deployed in real time on an embedded system such as a robot. We evaluate networks with activations quantized to 1, 2, 4, and 8-bits and binary weights. We found that network quantization can yield a significant speedup for a small drop in classification accuracy. Specifically, modifying one of our networks to use an 8-bit quantized input layer and 2-bit activations in hidden layers, we calculate a theoretical 9.9x speedup in exchange for an F1 score decrease of just 3.4% relative to a full precision implementation. Higher speedups are obtainable by designing a network architecture containing a smaller proportion of the total multiplications within the input layer.
The beneficial effects of the Lab4 probiotic consortium in atherosclerosis

Background Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is currently the leading cause of mortality world-wide, responsible for approximately one-third of all global deaths. Atherosclerosis, the primary cause of CVD, is a chronic inflammatory disease characterised by lipid accumulation in the arterial wall. Despite the success of current therapies, the incidence of CVD continues to rise and the search continues for alternative therapeutic agents. The Lab4, Lab4b and CUL66 probiotic consortia have been shown to possess lipid-lowering and immunomodulatory capabilities, highlighting their anti-atherogenic potential. The aim of this project was to assess the anti-atherogenic effects of Lab4, Lab4b and CUL66 probiotic consortia using in vitro and in vivo model systems. Results Experiments using in vitro model systems demonstrated probiotic-induced attenuation of macrophage foam cell formation at the cellular and molecular levels. In addition, probiotics reduced monocyte migration, increased phagocytosis, and reduced proliferation of key atherosclerosis-associated cell types. Mice supplemented with a live combination of Lab4 and CUL66 demonstrated reduced atherosclerotic plaque formation, and an improved plasma lipid profile compared to the control. In addition, numbers of macrophages and T-cells were reduced in both the plaque and the bone marrow of probiotic-treated mice. Liver gene expression analysis revealed probiotic-induced attenuation of several key pro-atherogenic genes. Conclusion Findings from this study demonstrate many anti-atherogenic effects of Lab4, Lab4b and CUL66 probiotic consortia in both in vitro and in vivo model systems, and highlight their potential as candidates for inclusion in clinical trials and future atherosclerosis intervention strategies. Underlying mechanisms of action have also been investigated and proposed, thereby contributing to the understanding of probiotic action.
Flocking-based adaptive granular control strategy for autonomous microgrids in emergency situations

In this study, the authors study the operation of autonomous microgrids (MGs) in emergency situations such as the presence of large physical disturbances or cyber attacks. Traditional approaches to enhance system-wide stability, such as automatic generation control, are insufficient for stabilising MGs in some emergency situations due to the correspondingly lower capacity of distributed energy resources. To address this challenge, in this study, they develop an adaptive flocking-based framework that provides control-based MG resilience. The contribution of the authors' work is three-fold. First, they effectively model the complex and dynamic dependencies amongst MG components by exploiting flocking theory. Second, they propose an adaptive granular control strategy based on the modelled dynamic dependencies. Third, they also explore the role of energy storage systems to facilitate distributed generations in achieving autonomous MG power balance in the presence of disruptions of different natures. Case studies demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy in stabilising MGs in response to physical disturbances and cyber attacks.
Analgesia for enhanced recovery after surgery in laparoscopic surgery

Effectual analgesia is one of the essential cornerstones of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) programmes and indeed all anaesthetic care. It is a vital element in reducing the surgical stress response, encouraging a return to normal functions—breathing, eating, sleeping—early mobilisation and for basic humane reasons. Opioid usage is associated with side effects including postoperative nausea and vomiting, constipation, ileus, pruritis, delirium, urinary retention and respiratory depression along with a potential to cause chronic dependence. The avoidance of opioids is associated with earlier mobilisation, return of bowel function and a reduced length of stay, leading to a preference for multimodal analgesia. While laparoscopic surgical techniques have been shown to reduce the intensity of postoperative pain when compared to open surgery, pain after laparoscopic surgery can be due to a myriad of factors. This article will give an overview of the best practice choices available. Multimodal analgesia aims to reduce the side effects of individual analgesics whilst still providing adequate analgesia by using a combination of pharmacological mechanisms. Basic analgesics include paracetamol and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) with other non-opioid systemic agents include lidocaine, alpha-2-agonists (dexmedetomidine and clonidine), ketamine, magnesium, gabapentinoids and dexamethasone. Local anaesthetic administration can provide analgesia in a variety of ways. This includes neuraxial blockade (spinal or epidural), regional nerve blocks [including transversus abdominis plane (TAP) blocks], wound catheter local anaesthetic infusions as well as direct local infiltration. Spinal anaesthetics are a superior alternative to epidurals for laparoscopic surgery given the good analgesia, quick delivery, limited duration and moderate attenuation of the stress response alongside lower complication rate. Analgesia is one of the cornerstones of ERAS pathways and anaesthetic practice in general. The general consensus is that a multimodal approach is best, to ensure sparing of opioids. This can involve the use of both systemic analgesia and local anaesthetics.