Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Performance Characteristics and Internal and External Training Loads in Female Collegiate Beach Volleyball Players

Abstract Bozzini, BN, McFadden, BA, Scruggs, SK, and Arent, SM. Evaluation of performance characteristics and internal and external training loads in female collegiate beach volleyball players. J Strength Cond Res 35(6): 1559–1567, 2021—Although women's beach volleyball is the fastest growing collegiate sport, the training demands and performance characteristics have yet to be determined. The purpose of this study was to evaluate internal and external training loads throughout a competitive season and to quantify the performance characteristics of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I women's beach volleyball players. Female beach volleyball players (N = 20) were monitored throughout the 6-week competitive season (T1-T6) using integrative global positioning systems (GPS) and heart rate (HR)–monitoring technology, which was individualized based on preseason testing, for the determination of workload metrics. In addition to team data, all variables were analyzed between travel (n = 11, regular match participation) and non-travel (n = 7) squad athletes (p < 0.05). Team performance metrics demonstrated the explosive power emphasis of the sport, with travel squad players exhibiting significantly greater vertical jump and jump velocity abilities than their non-travel counterparts (p < 0.05). Although few time main effects from T1 to T6 were observed for team workload metrics, follow-ups revealed significant time × group interactions for training load (TL), exercise energy expenditure (EEE), total distance covered, and minutes spent in HR zones (HRZ1-Z5) over the season (p < 0.05). Finally, although average workloads were greater in practices than in matches, when accounting for pre-match warm-ups, competition load was greater than practice (p < 0.05). National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I women's beach volleyball is a demanding, explosive power sport characterized by overall large TL and EEE, particularly in-season when athletes compete in 4 matches per weekend. The workloads observed point to the need to assess and manage training loads and fueling requirements to optimize performance and decrease injury risk.
Evaluation of Patients’ Perception of Safety in an Italian Hospital Using the PMOS-30 Questionnaire

Background: In our study, an Italian version of the PMOS-30 questionnaire was used to evaluate its feasibility and to improve health care quality in an Italian hospital. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 435 inpatients at a hospital in the Campania Region of Southern Italy using the PMOS-30 questionnaire and two other questions to assess patient feedback about the overall perception of safety. Results: The item “I was always treated with dignity and respect” showed the greatest percentage of agreement (agree/strongly agree = 89.2%; mean = 4.24). The least agreement was associated with the four “Staff Roles and Responsibilities” items (agree/strongly agree ranged from 31.5 to 40.0%; weighted mean = 2.84). All other 25 items had over 55.0% agreement, with 19 items over 70%. Moreover, 94.5% of the patients considered the safety of the ward sufficient/good/very good, and 92.8% did not notice situations that could cause harm to patients. Conclusion: Patient perception of safety was found to be satisfactory. The results were presented to the hospital decision makers for suggesting appropriate interventions. Our experience showed that the use of the PMOS-30 questionnaire may improve safety and health care quality in hospital settings through patient feedback.
Automatic Number Plate Recognition:A Detailed Survey of Relevant Algorithms

Technologies and services towards smart-vehicles and Intelligent-Transportation-Systems (ITS), continues to revolutionize many aspects of human life. This paper presents a detailed survey of current techniques and advancements in Automatic-Number-Plate-Recognition (ANPR) systems, with a comprehensive performance comparison of various real-time tested and simulated algorithms, including those involving computer vision (CV). ANPR technology has the ability to detect and recognize vehicles by their number-plates using recognition techniques. Even with the best algorithms, a successful ANPR system deployment may require additional hardware to maximize its accuracy. The number plate condition, non-standardized formats, complex scenes, camera quality, camera mount position, tolerance to distortion, motion-blur, contrast problems, reflections, processing and memory limitations, environmental conditions, indoor/outdoor or day/night shots, software-tools or other hardware-based constraint may undermine its performance. This inconsistency, challenging environments and other complexities make ANPR an interesting field for researchers. The Internet-of-Things is beginning to shape future of many industries and is paving new ways for ITS. ANPR can be well utilized by integrating with RFID-systems, GPS, Android platforms and other similar technologies. Deep-Learning techniques are widely utilized in CV field for better detection rates. This research aims to advance the state-of-knowledge in ITS (ANPR) built on CV algorithms; by citing relevant prior work, analyzing and presenting a survey of extraction, segmentation and recognition techniques whilst providing guidelines on future trends in this area.
Estimating the Effectiveness of Rotavirus Vaccine Schedules

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background: Important questions exist regarding the comparative effectiveness of alternative childhood vaccine schedules; however, optimal approaches to studying this complex issue are unclear. Methods: We applied methods for studying dynamic treatment regimens to estimate the comparative effectiveness of different rotavirus vaccine (RV) schedules for preventing acute gastroenteritis-related emergency department (ED) visits or hospitalization. We studied the effectiveness of six separate protocols: one- and two-dose monovalent rotavirus vaccine (RV1); one-, two-, and three-dose pentavalent rotavirus vaccine (RV5); and no RV vaccine. We used data on all infants to estimate the counterfactual cumulative risk for each protocol. Infants were censored when vaccine receipt deviated from the protocol. Inverse probability of censoring-weighted estimation addressed potentially informative censoring by protocol deviations. A nonparametric group-based bootstrap procedure provided statistical inference. Results: The method yielded similar 2-year effectiveness estimates for the full-series protocols; weighted risk difference estimates comparing unvaccinated children to those adherent to either full-series (two-dose RV1, three-dose RV5) corresponded to four fewer hospitalizations and 12 fewer ED visits over the 2-year period per 1,000 children. We observed dose–response relationships, such that additional doses further reduced risk of acute gastroenteritis. Under a theoretical intervention to fully vaccinate all children, the 2-year risk differences comparing full to observed adherence were 0.04% (95% CI = 0.03%, 0.05%) for hospitalizations and 0.17% (95% CI = 0.14%, 0.19%) for ED visits. Conclusions: The proposed approach can generate important evidence about the consequences of delaying or skipping vaccine doses, and the impact of interventions to improve vaccine schedule adherence.
Effect of Air Pollution on Obesity in Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Air pollution exposure has been identified as being associated with childhood obesity. Nevertheless, strong evidence of such an association is still lacking. To analyze whether air pollution exposure affects childhood obesity, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis utilizing the PRISMA guidelines. Of 7343 studies identified, eight studies that investigated the effects of air pollutant characteristics, including PM2.5, PM10, PMcoarse, PMabsorbance, NOx, and NO2, on childhood obesity were included. The polled effects showed that air pollution is correlated with a substantially increased risk of childhood obesity. PM2.5 was found to be associated with a significantly increased risk (6%) of childhood obesity (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.02–1.10, p = 0.003). In addition, PM10, PM2.5absorbance, and NO2 appeared to significantly increase the risk of obesity in children (OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.04–1.10, p < 0.00; OR 1.23, 95% CI 1.06–1.43, p = 0.07; and OR 1.10, 95% CI 1.04–1.16, p < 0.001, respectively). PMcoarse and NOx also showed trends towards being associated with an increased risk of childhood obesity (OR 1.07, 95% CI 0.95–1.20, p = 0.291, and OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.99–1.02, p = 0.571, respectively). Strong evidence was found to support the theory that air pollution exposure is one of the factors that increases the risk of childhood obesity.
An Effective Method for Preparation of Liquid Phosphoric Anhydride and Its Application in Flame Retardant Epoxy Resin

A novel liquid phosphorous-containing flame retardant anhydride (LPFA) with low viscosity was synthesized from 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-oxide (DOPO) and methyl tetrahydrophthalic anhydride (MeTHPA) and further cured with bisphenol-A epoxy resin E-51 for the preparation of the flame retardant epoxy resins. Both Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements revealed the successful incorporation of DOPO on the molecular chains of MeTHPA through chemical reaction. The oxygen index analysis showed that the LPFA-cured epoxy resin exhibited excellent flame retardant performance, and the corresponding limiting oxygen index (LOI) value could reach 31.2%. The UL-94V-0 rating was achieved for the flame retardant epoxy resin with the phosphorus content of 2.7%. With the addition of LPFA, the impact strength of the cured epoxy resins remained almost unchanged, but the flexural strength gradually increased. Meanwhile, all the epoxy resins showed good thermal stability. The glass transition temperature (Tg) and thermal decomposition temperature (Td) of epoxy resin cured by LPFA decreased slightly compared with that of MeTHPA-cured epoxy resin. Based on such excellent flame retardancy, low viscosity at room temperature and ease of use, LPFA showed potential as an appropriate curing agent in the field of electrical insulation materials.
Parent–Infant Skin-to-Skin Contact and Stress Regulation: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Several studies have focused on neonatal maternal separation (MS) to investigate behavioural and neuroendocrine reactions to lack of contact, but only a few have focused on early separation in the first days or weeks after birth. This literature review investigates the vital importance of contact and touch by exploring how skin-to-skin contact (SSC) regulates stress in the mother–infant relationship. Various databases such as PubMed, Scopus, and ScienceDirect were searched for literature published between 2015 and 2020. From 1141 articles, 22 were declared eligible. The reviewed articles showed how SSC regulates child stress by biological indicators such as the autonomic nervous system (ANS), heart rate variability (HRV), cortisol, and oxytocin. This research concludes the importance of SSC for stress regulation, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. With no research to date indicating a possible risk of neonatal COVID-19 transmission following SSC, SSC should continue to be practiced for all women, as recommended by the WHO.
Photoplethysmography in Normal and Pathological Sleep

This article presents an overview of the advancements that have been made in the use of photoplethysmography (PPG) for unobtrusive sleep studies. PPG is included in the quickly evolving and very popular landscape of wearables but has specific interesting properties, particularly the ability to capture the modulation of the autonomic nervous system during sleep. Recent advances have been made in PPG signal acquisition and processing, including coupling it with accelerometry in order to construct hypnograms in normal and pathologic sleep and also to detect sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). The limitations of PPG (e.g., oxymetry signal failure, motion artefacts, signal processing) are reviewed as well as technical solutions to overcome these issues. The potential medical applications of PPG are numerous, including home-based detection of SDB (for triage purposes), and long-term monitoring of insomnia, circadian rhythm sleep disorders (to assess treatment effects), and treated SDB (to ensure disease control). New contact sensor combinations to improve future wearables seem promising, particularly tools that allow for the assessment of brain activity. In this way, in-ear EEG combined with PPG and actigraphy could be an interesting focus for future research.
Measures Matter—Determining the True Nutri-Physiological Value of Feed Ingredients for Swine

Simple Summary Traditional proximate analysis measures (i.e., moisture, crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, and ash) have little value for estimating the actual nutritional and economic value of feed ingredients fed to swine, yet they unfortunately continue to be commonly used in research studies, feed label regulations, and commodity-trading contract guarantees. Increasing energy and nutritional efficiency while simultaneously reducing negative environmental impacts of pork production requires the adoption of precision nutrition practices in global pork production systems. Precision swine nutrition can only be achieved by using more accurate and comprehensive methods and measures to determine the true nutri-physiological value of feed ingredients used in swine diets. There are several characteristics in some types of feed ingredients that are detrimental to swine health and performance, but they are seldom measured and deserve greater consideration. Likewise, there are also several value-added benefits provided by some functional feed ingredients that are not given enough consideration when formulating swine diets. The purpose of this review is to provide a holistic assessment of the benefits and limitations of existing chemical analysis methods and measures used to evaluate feed ingredients for swine and explore the benefits of using additional measurements to more accurately assess their true nutri-physiological value. Abstract Many types of feed ingredients are used to provide energy and nutrients to meet the nutritional requirements of swine. However, the analytical methods and measures used to determine the true nutritional and physiological (“nutri-physiological”) value of feed ingredients affect the accuracy of predicting and achieving desired animal responses. Some chemical characteristics of feed ingredients are detrimental to pig health and performance, while functional components in other ingredients provide beneficial health effects beyond their nutritional value when included in complete swine diets. Traditional analytical procedures and measures are useful for determining energy and nutrient digestibility of feed ingredients, but do not adequately assess their true physiological or biological value. Prediction equations, along with ex vivo and in vitro methods, provide some benefits for assessing the nutri-physiological value of feed ingredients compared with in vivo determinations, but they also have some limitations. Determining the digestion kinetics of the different chemical components of feed ingredients, understanding how circadian rhythms affect feeding behavior and the gastrointestinal microbiome of pigs, and accounting for the functional properties of many feed ingredients in diet formulation are the emerging innovations that will facilitate improvements in precision swine nutrition and environmental sustainability in global pork-production systems.
A Germline-Encoded Structural Arginine Trap Underlies the Anti-DNA Reactivity of a Murine V Gene Segment

Autoimmunity may have its origins of early repertoire selection in developmental B cells. Such a primary repertoire is probably shaped by selecting B cells that can efficiently perform productive signaling, stimulated by self-antigens in the bone marrow, such as DNA. In support of that idea, we previously found a V segment from VH10 family that can form antibodies that bind to DNA independent of CDR3 usage. In this paper we designed four antibody fragments in a novel single-chain pre-BCR (scpre-BCR) format containing germinal V gene segments from families known to bind DNA (VH10) or not (VH4) connected to a murine surrogate light chain (SLC), lacking the highly charged unique region (UR), by a hydrophilic peptide linker. We also tested the influence of CDR2 on DNA reactivity by shuffling the CDR2 loop. The scpre-BCRs were expressed in bacteria. VH10 bearing scpre-BCR could bind DNA, while scpre-BCR carrying the VH4 segment did not. The CDR2 loop shuffling hampered VH10 reactivity while displaying a gain-of-function in the nonbinding VH4 germline. We modeled the binding sites demonstrating the conservation of a positivity charged pocket in the VH10 CDR2 as the possible cross-reactive structural element. We presented evidence of DNA reactivity hardwired in a V gene, suggesting a structural mechanism for innate autoreactivity. Therefore, while autoreactivity to DNA can lead to autoimmunity, efficiently signaling for B cell development is likely a trade-off mechanism leading to the selection of potentially autoreactive repertoires.
Corneal Culture in Infectious Keratitis: Effect of the Inoculation Method and Media on the Corneal Culture Outcome

Background: To compare two different methods of corneal culture in infectious keratitis: multiple sampling for direct inoculation and enrichment (standard method) and a single sample via transport medium for indirect inoculation (indirect inoculation method). Methods: Prospective inclusion of patients fulfilling predefined criteria of infectious keratitis undergoing corneal culture according to both studied methods in a randomized order. Results: The standard method resulted in a significantly higher proportion of positive culture outcomes among the 94 included episodes of infectious keratitis (61%; 57/94) than the indirect inoculation method (44%; 41/94) (p = 0.002) and a significantly higher proportion of microorganisms than the indirect inoculation method, with a Cohen’s kappa of 0.38 (95% CI: 0.28–0.49) for agreement between the methods. Subanalysis of culture results showed that direct inoculation on gonococcal agar only combined with the indirect inoculation method resulted in a similar rate of culture positive patients and proportion of detected microorganisms to the standard method. Conclusion: Indirect inoculation of one corneal sample cannot replace direct inoculation of multiple corneal samples without loss of information. A combination of directly and indirectly inoculated samples can reduce the number of corneal samples by four without statistically significant differences in culture outcome or in the proportion of detected microorganisms.
Transcriptomic Analysis of Rice Plants Overexpressing PsGAPDH in Response to Salinity Stress

In plants, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) is a main enzyme in the glycolytic pathway. It plays an essential role in glycerolipid metabolism and response to various stresses. To examine the function of PsGAPDH (Pleurotus sajor-caju GAPDH) in response to abiotic stress, we generated transgenic rice plants with single-copy/intergenic/homozygous overexpression PsGAPDH (PsGAPDH-OX) and investigated their responses to salinity stress. Seedling growth and germination rates of PsGAPDH-OX were significantly increased under salt stress conditions compared to those of the wild type. To elucidate the role of PsGAPDH-OX in salt stress tolerance of rice, an Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform was used to analyze transcriptome profiles of leaves under salt stress. Analysis results of sequencing data showed that 1124 transcripts were differentially expressed. Using the list of differentially expressed genes (DEGs), functional enrichment analyses of DEGs such as Gene Ontology (GO) terms and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways were performed. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis revealed that unigenes exhibiting differential expression were involved in starch and sucrose metabolism. Interestingly, trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (TPS) genes, of which expression was enhanced by abiotic stress, showed a significant difference in PsGAPDH-OX. Findings of this study suggest that PsGAPDH plays a role in the adaptation of rice plants to salt stress.
Influence of Extraction Solvent on Nontargeted Metabolomics Analysis of Enrichment Reactor Cultures Performing Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal (EBPR)

Metabolome profiling is becoming more commonly used in the study of complex microbial communities and microbiomes; however, to date, little information is available concerning appropriate extraction procedures. We studied the influence of different extraction solvent mixtures on untargeted metabolomics analysis of two continuous culture enrichment communities performing enhanced biological phosphate removal (EBPR), with each enrichment targeting distinct populations of polyphosphate-accumulating organisms (PAOs). We employed one non-polar solvent and up to four polar solvents for extracting metabolites from biomass. In one of the reactor microbial communities, we surveyed both intracellular and extracellular metabolites using the same set of solvents. All samples were analysed using ultra-performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS). UPLC-MS data obtained from polar and non-polar solvents were analysed separately and evaluated using extent of repeatability, overall extraction capacity and the extent of differential abundance between physiological states. Despite both reactors demonstrating the same bioprocess phenotype, the most appropriate extraction method was biomass specific, with methanol: water (50:50 v/v) and methanol: chloroform: water (40:40:20 v/v/v) being chosen as the most appropriate for each of the two different bioreactors, respectively. Our approach provides new data on the influence of solvent choice on the untargeted surveys of the metabolome of PAO enriched EBPR communities and suggests that metabolome extraction methods need to be carefully tailored to the specific complex microbial community under study.
Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Therapy in Novel Porcine Model of Diffuse Liver Damage Induced by Repeated Biliary Obstruction

In liver surgery, biliary obstruction can lead to secondary biliary cirrhosis, a life-threatening disease with liver transplantation as the only curative treatment option. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) have been shown to improve liver function in both acute and chronic liver disease models. This study evaluated the effect of allogenic MSC transplantation in a large animal model of repeated biliary obstruction followed by partial hepatectomy. MSC transplantation supported the growth of regenerated liver tissue after 14 days (MSC group, n = 10: from 1087 ± 108 (0 h) to 1243 ± 92 mL (14 days); control group, n = 11: from 1080 ± 95 (0 h) to 1100 ± 105 mL (14 days), p = 0.016), with a lower volume fraction of hepatocytes in regenerated liver tissue compared to resected liver tissue (59.5 ± 10.2% vs. 70.2 ± 5.6%, p < 0.05). Volume fraction of connective tissue, blood vessels and bile vessels in regenerated liver tissue, serum levels of liver enzymes (AST, ALT, ALP and GGT) and liver metabolites (albumin, bilirubin, urea and creatinine), as well as plasma levels of IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α and TGF-β, were not affected by MSC transplantation. In our novel, large animal (pig) model of repeated biliary obstruction followed by partial hepatectomy, MSC transplantation promoted growth of liver tissue without any effect on liver function. This study underscores the importance of translating results between small and large animal models as well as the careful translation of results from animal model into human medicine.