Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mobile Diabetes Intervention for Glycemic Control in 45- to 64-Year-Old Persons With Type 2 Diabetes

The purpose of this study was to assess effects of a mobile coaching system on glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels in younger versus older patients over 1 year. Participants (n = 118) included adult patients with Type 2 diabetes cared for by community physicians. Intervention patients received mobile phone coaching and individualized web portal. Control patients received usual care. Patients were stratified into two age groups: younger (<55 years) and older (≥55 years). The intervention resulted in greater 12-month declines in HbA1c, compared with usual care, for patients in both age groups (p < .0001). Among older patients, HbA1c changed by −1.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] = [−2.4, −1.1]) in the intervention group and −0.3% (95% CI = [−0.9, +0.3]) in the control group. Among younger patients, HbA1c changed by −2.0% (95% CI = [−2.5, −1.5]) in the intervention group and −1.0% (95% CI = [−1.6, −0.4]) in the control group. The mobile health intervention was as effective at managing Type 2 diabetes in older adults as younger persons.
Live Attenuated Malaria Vaccine Designed to Protect Through Hepatic CD8+ T Cell Immunity

The efficacy of a sporozoite-based malaria vaccine is tested in humans, nonhuman primates, and mice. Our goal is to develop a vaccine that sustainably prevents Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) malaria in ≥80% of recipients. Pf sporozoites (PfSPZ) administered by mosquito bites are the only immunogens shown to induce such protection in humans. Such protection is thought to be mediated by CD8+ T cells in the liver that secrete interferon-γ (IFN-γ). We report that purified irradiated PfSPZ administered to 80 volunteers by needle inoculation in the skin was safe, but suboptimally immunogenic and protective. Animal studies demonstrated that intravenous immunization was critical for inducing a high frequency of PfSPZ-specific CD8+, IFN-γ–producing T cells in the liver (nonhuman primates, mice) and conferring protection (mice). Our results suggest that intravenous administration of this vaccine will lead to the prevention of infection with Pf malaria.
High-sensitivity C-reactive protein, lipid profile, malondialdehyde and total antioxidant capacity in psoriasis

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by epidermal hyperproliferation and lymphocytic infiltration. The ongoing inflammatory process in psoriasis affects the arterial wall promoting the atherosclerotic process, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease in a younger group of patients. Atherosclerotic processes involve an inflammatory component and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein considered as a marker of the inflammatory component in atherosclerosis. This study was undertaken to evaluate the levels of hsCRP and the traditional risk markers like lipid profile in psoriasis. A case control study as done with 40 cases of psoriasis and 40 healthy controls. The biochemical parameters: lipid profile, hsCRP, malondialdehyde and total antioxidant capacity were estimated on the fasting blood samples. There was a significant increase in lipid profile in cases but these levels were well within the reference ranges for the same. There was a significant rise in hsCRP and malondialdehyde with decreased levels of total antioxidant capacity in cases suggesting a state of inflammation and oxidative stress which co-exists with psoriasis and also plays a role in atherosclerosis. Keywords : Inflammation; atherosclerosis; cardiovascular disease; oxidative stress
Manipulator control based on a disturbance observer in the operational space

Requirements for fast and accurate motion in industrial robot manipulators demand more advanced control techniques. Past techniques, such as the resolved acceleration method and nonlinear feedback control, etc. require detailed information on mechanical parameters. In these methods, the modelling errors adversely effect manipulator motion. To overcome this problem, this paper proposes a method for constructing nominal dynamic modelling for a robotic arm in the operational space. When the proposed method realizes a disturbance observer in the operational space, individual coordinate motions can be decoupled and independently controlled. Further, individual motion in the operational space coordinate is driven as if only nominally fixed mechanical dynamics in the operational space existed. As a result, the method enables one to construct the control law without any calibration for the mechanical parameters. Finally, the authors present experimental results from an implementation of the proposed method. <<ETX>>
Force decomposition in cooperating manipulators using the theory of metric spaces and generalized inverses

The decomposition of forces on an object grasped by multiple manipulators is analyzed using the theory of metric spaces and generalized inverses. In general, the space of forces exerted on the object is nonhomogenous and suitable metrics must be used to decompose the space into motion-inducing and internal force subspaces. A common theoretical framework is proposed in this paper which solves the decomposition problem for rigid, palm-type, and frictional point-contact grasps. New solutions are derived for systems with palm-type and mixed grasps. Previous decompositions for the rigid and frictional point contact grasps are analyzed within the theoretical framework. It is shown that previous solutions in the rigid grasp case are equivalent to the minimization of a norm based on a kinetic energy metric associated with the object. <<ETX>>
The Origin of OB Runaway Stars

Most of the unusually fast, young stars in our Galaxy are produced in three-body encounters within dense clusters of stars. About 20% of all massive stars in the Milky Way have unusually high velocities, the origin of which has puzzled astronomers for half a century. We argue that these velocities originate from strong gravitational interactions between single stars and binaries in the centers of star clusters. The ejecting binary forms naturally during the collapse of a young (≲1 milion years old) star cluster. This model replicates the key characteristics of OB runaways in our galaxy, and it explains the presence of runaway stars of ≳100 solar masses (M☉) around young star clusters, such as R136 and Westerlund 2. The high proportion and the distributions in mass and velocity of runaways in the Milky Way are reproduced if the majority of massive stars are born in dense and relatively low-mass (5000 to 10,000 M☉) clusters.
Viewing Art on a Tablet Computer: A Well-Being Intervention for People With Dementia and Their Caregivers

Background: Art-based interventions have been shown to be beneficial for the well-being of people with dementia and their caregivers. This article explored whether such interventions can be delivered via a touchscreen tablet device displaying art images. Method: Twelve pairs of volunteers with dementia and informal caregivers were recruited (N = 24). A quasi-experimental mixed-methods within-subjects study evaluated the well-being impacts of art viewing using visual analogue scales and explored participant experiences with thematic analysis. Findings: Quantitative results before Bonferroni correction showed a significant effect for change in composite well-being from Session 1 to Session 5 but this became non-significant after the correction was applied. Well-being subdomains generally increased with number of sessions. Qualitative findings included changes in cognition, behavior, mood, and relationships. These changes tended to be viewed positively. Conclusion: The results suggest touchscreen-based art interventions could yield well-being benefits for this population. A larger-scale controlled study would help determine whether wider dementia care practice implications can be drawn.
Smoking Cessation and Changes in Body Mass Index Among Middle Aged and Older Adults

Objective: This study contributes to the body of literature examining smoking cessation and body mass index (BMI) for adults aged 50 and older. Method: Utilizing the 2004 and 2010 waves of the RAND Health and Retirement Study, this analysis utilized Fixed Effects (FE) regression on a sample of 1,316 adults aged 50 and older. Results: Older adults undergo a small change in BMI after a transition from smoking to nonsmoking during a 6-year period, and this occurs after accounting for individual-level unobserved heterogeneity. More specifically, men experience a BMI gain of 1.24 (p< .01) and women experience a BMI gain of 1.58 (p< .01). Discussion: Gerontologists/health professionals can use these results to inform older adults about the potential for a small increase in BMI and, in the process, assuage any apprehensions about excessive weight gain. This insight may encourage a greater number of older adults to cease smoking.
Do Villages Promote Aging in Place? Results of a Longitudinal Study

Villages are a new, grassroots, consumer-directed model that aims to promote aging in place and prevent unwanted relocations for older adults. In exchange for a yearly membership fee, Villages provide seniors with opportunities for social engagement (social events and classes), civic engagement (member-to-member volunteer opportunities), and an array of support services. In total, 222 Village members were surveyed at intake and 12-month follow-up to examine changes in their confidence aging in place, social connectedness, and health. The strongest positive results were in the domain of confidence, including significantly greater confidence aging in place, perceived social support, and less intention to relocate after 1 year in the Village. As most seniors were in good health and well connected at the time they joined the Village, there were not improvements in health or social connectedness. Authors discuss the importance of longer term, longitudinal studies to examine the effectiveness of Villages in preventing institutionalization over time.
High Relatedness Is Necessary and Sufficient to Maintain Multicellularity in Dictyostelium

Experimental evolution shows that the cooperation of cells in multicellular organisms degrades under low relatedness. Most complex multicellular organisms develop clonally from a single cell. This should limit conflicts between cell lineages that could threaten the extensive cooperation of cells within multicellular bodies. Cellular composition can be manipulated in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, which allows us to test and confirm the two key predictions of this theory. Experimental evolution at low relatedness favored cheating mutants that could destroy multicellular development. However, under high relatedness, the forces of mutation and within-individual selection are too small for these destructive cheaters to spread, as shown by a mutation accumulation experiment. Thus, we conclude that the single-cell bottleneck is a powerful stabilizer of cellular cooperation in multicellular organisms.
Near-Field Deformation from the El Mayor–Cucapah Earthquake Revealed by Differential LIDAR

Earthquakes from Above Preparing for risks and hazards associated with large earthquakes requires detailed understanding of their mechanical properties. In addition to pinpointing the location and magnitude of earthquakes, postmortem analyses of the extent of rupture and amount of deformation are key quantities, but are not simply available from seismological data alone. Using a type of optical remote sensing, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), Oskin et al. (p. 702) surveyed the surrounding area that ruptured during the 2010 Mw 7.2 El Mayor–Cucapah earthquake in Northern Mexico. Because this area had also been analyzed in 2006, a comparative analysis revealed slip rate and strain release on the shallow fault zone and a number of previously unknown faults. As remote imaging becomes cheaper and more common, differential analyses will continue to provide fault-related deformation data that complements modern seismological networks. Optical remote sensing before and after a large earthquake reveals its rupture dynamics. Large [moment magnitude (Mw) ≥ 7] continental earthquakes often generate complex, multifault ruptures linked by enigmatic zones of distributed deformation. Here, we report the collection and results of a high-resolution (≥nine returns per square meter) airborne light detection and ranging (LIDAR) topographic survey of the 2010 Mw 7.2 El Mayor–Cucapah earthquake that produced a 120-kilometer-long multifault rupture through northernmost Baja California, Mexico. This differential LIDAR survey completely captures an earthquake surface rupture in a sparsely vegetated region with pre-earthquake lower-resolution (5-meter–pixel) LIDAR data. The postevent survey reveals numerous surface ruptures, including previously undocumented blind faults within thick sediments of the Colorado River delta. Differential elevation changes show distributed, kilometer-scale bending strains as large as ~103 microstrains in response to slip along discontinuous faults cutting crystalline bedrock of the Sierra Cucapah.
The Church's Response to Alzheimer's Disease

This study examined churches'responses to families living with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Forty informants (19 spousal caregivers and their respective clergy) were interviewed with four research goals in mind: (a) to identify the importance of church participation, (b) to examine the nature of the caregiver-clergy dyad, (c) to identify church-based intervention programs, and (d) to develop guidelines for offering assistance to congregants. Findings show that churches can play an important support role to AD families. Church participation remained important for most informants, even with the added demands of caregiving. Most provided information congruent with that of their clergy and most were satisfied with their churches'responses to their situations. Several successful church-based programs were identified, and six guidelines for responding to AD families emerged from the data. Future research should examine how non-Christian faiths are responding to members who have AD or related illnesses.
The Effect of No Music, Stimulative Background Music and Sedative Background Music on Agitated Behaviors in Persons with Severe Dementia

Twenty-eight severely regressed patients with dementias hospitalized at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in the Midwest participated as subjects in this study. All patients, except for one, were male and all patients, except for one, had functional hearing. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of no music, stimulative background music and sedative background music conditions on the agitated behaviors of patients with severe dementias. Data were taken with a placheck method for 30 days; 10 days for each of the three conditions, three times a day for 30 minutes. The conditions were assigned randomly. The results showed no significant differences in the percentages of agitated behaviors exhibited during the three testing conditions. The music and no music background conditions did not influence significantly the agitated behaviors. In addition, significant differences in the percentages exhibited across times of day and across days for the entire testing period were not found. The findings.
Structure and Allostery of the PKA RIIβ Tetrameric Holoenzyme

Keeping a Kinase in Check Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)–dependent protein kinase (PKA) is involved in the regulation of several key metabolic pathways. It exists in mammalian cells as an inactive tetramer composed of a regulatory (R) subunit dimer and two catalytic (C) subunits. cAMP binding causes activation by releasing the C subunits. Insight into PKA regulation has come from structures of R and C subunit heterodimers; however, further understanding requires knowledge of the holoenzyme structure. P. Zhang et al. (p. 712) report a high-resolution structure of the RIIβ2:C2 tetramer. The structure reveals interactions at an interface between the two RC heterodimers and provides insight into the mechanism of allosteric activation upon cAMP binding. Details are revealed as to how cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) binding causes dissociation and activation of cAMP-dependent protein kinase. In its physiological state, cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)–dependent protein kinase (PKA) is a tetramer that contains a regulatory (R) subunit dimer and two catalytic (C) subunits. We describe here the 2.3 angstrom structure of full-length tetrameric RIIβ2:C2 holoenzyme. This structure showing a dimer of dimers provides a mechanistic understanding of allosteric activation by cAMP. The heterodimers are anchored together by an interface created by the β4-β5 loop in the RIIβ subunit, which docks onto the carboxyl-terminal tail of the adjacent C subunit, thereby forcing the C subunit into a fully closed conformation in the absence of nucleotide. Diffusion of magnesium adenosine triphosphate (ATP) into these crystals trapped not ATP, but the reaction products, adenosine diphosphate and the phosphorylated RIIβ subunit. This complex has implications for the dissociation-reassociation cycling of PKA. The quaternary structure of the RIIβ tetramer differs appreciably from our model of the RIα tetramer, confirming the small-angle x-ray scattering prediction that the structures of each PKA tetramer are different.
Design and development of a new robot joint using a mechanical impedance adjuster

The object of our work is to realize passive impedance on the joints of robot fingers by mechanical elements, as leaf springs and brakes, and to develop robot fingers using the new mechanism to grasp objects softly. This paper presents a new joint mechanism, named "mechanical impedance adjuster", and an impedance control method of the robot finger joint by this mechanism. The effectiveness of this method is shown by the experiment on a 1-DOF finger model.
Is depression different in older adults

Psychiatric disorders such as depression are common conditions in older adults. Depression presents similarly to younger adults, but with more psychotic symptoms and apathy. Research has suggested that genetics play a less important role in the etiology of depression in the elderly, but that other biological factors may be more significant. Vascular pathology in particular is thought to be especially important. White-matter hyperintensities are found in the frontal lobes and basal ganglia in greater numbers in older adults with depression, with damage to the frontal–subcortical circuits thought to be particularly important. It is associated with treatment resistance. Prognosis is poor if depression is not detected and treated adequately and this may lead to a higher risk of dementia and death. However, treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and other antidepressants, plus psychological therapies, are effective in the older depressed patient and reduce morbidity and mortality.
La estrategia para la nutrición, actividad física y prevención de la obesidad: estrategia NAOS

La obesidad, cuya prevalencia permanece en aumento, se halla relacionada con las principales enfermedades cronicas que afectan a la salud de la poblacion. Por ello, la Asamblea Mundial de la Salud aprobo, en 2004, la Estrategia Mundial sobre Regimen Alimentario, Actividad Fisica y Salud, con el objetivo de reducir los factores de riesgo de enfermedades no transmisibles relacionados con las dietas poco saludables y la inactividad fisica. En esta linea, en 2005, el Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo puso en marcha la Estrategia NAOS como una plataforma donde incluir e impulsar todas aquellas iniciativas que contribuyan a lograr el necesario cambio social en la promocion de una alimentacion saludable y la prevencion del sedentarismo a partir de unos retos especificos en diversos ambitos de actuacion. La Estrategia NAOS trasciende de las areas sanitaria y educativa y aglutina actuaciones en todos los sectores de la sociedad que juegan un papel en la prevencion de la obesidad. Campanas de informacion, acuerdos con instituciones publicas y privadas, convenios de colaboracion voluntaria, programas educativos, apoyo a iniciativas de promocion de la salud, son algunas de las actividades que se llevan a cabo en el seno de la Estrategia NAOS. El desarrollo de las mismas y la incorporacion de otras nuevas, junto con la labor de evaluacion y seguimiento de todas ellas sera lo que permita mantener un alto grado de efectividad en la prevencion de la obesidad.
Reconsidering the Consequences of Selective Fisheries

Balanced fishing across a range of species, stocks, and sizes could mitigate adverse effects and address food security better than increased selectivity. Concern about the impact of fishing on ecosystems and fisheries production is increasing (1, 2). Strategies to reduce these impacts while addressing the growing need for food security (3) include increasing selectivity (1, 2): capturing species, sexes, and sizes in proportions that differ from their occurrence in the ecosystem. Increasing evidence suggests that more selective fishing neither maximizes production nor minimizes impacts (4–7). Balanced harvesting would more effectively mitigate adverse ecological effects of fishing while supporting sustainable fisheries. This strategy, which challenges present management paradigms, distributes a moderate mortality from fishing across the widest possible range of species, stocks, and sizes in an ecosystem, in proportion to their natural productivity (8), so that the relative size and species composition is maintained.
Development of the Insulator Washer robot

This is a report on the development of the Insulator Washer-I, a robot designed to wash the insulators for high voltage lines that are installed on steel towers. The Insulator Washer-I is composed of an orbit rail for ascending the steel tower, a cylindrical coordinate type arm mounted on the orbit rail, and a rotating washing unit which, when transported by the orbit cart and attached to the fin of the insulator by the arm, automatically rotates around the insulator and conducts the washing operation with on-board brushes. A new long stroke, light weight mechanism and a "slant wheel drive mechanism", which produces movement with two degrees of freedom, were introduced into the drive system of the arm in order to clean all surfaces of the insulators, which have a height of nearly three meters. Finally, operational experiments were conducted using the Insulator Washer-I, and the results indicated that practical operation is possible.
Transforming Earthquake Detection?

Citizen science projects have the potential to transform earthquake science if data quality standards are maintained. Earthquakes are a collective experience. Citizens have long participated in earthquake science through the reporting, collection, and analysis of individual experiences. The value of citizen-generated status reports was clear after the 1995 Kobe, Japan, earthquake (1). Today's communications infrastructure has taken citizen engagement to a new level: Earthquake-related Twitter messages can outrun the shaking (2), Internet traffic detects earthquakes (3–7) and maps the distribution of shaking in minutes (8–10), and accelerometers in consumer electronic devices record seismic waveforms (11–16). What are we learning from this flood of data, and what are the limitations? How do we harness these new capabilities for scientific discovery, and what is the role of education?