Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effectiveness of Exercise Therapy and Dry Needling on Wrist Range of Motion, Pinch and Grip Force in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Background: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most prevalent form of peripheral neuropathy. There are various treatments for carpal tunnel. Objectives: In this study, we evaluated the effect of electroacupuncture and exercise on pinch and grip strength and wrist range of motion in patients with mild to moderate CTS. Methods: Sixty patients with carpal tunnel syndrome were evaluated in this study, only five of whom were male. In this study, patients were divided into three groups. The control group consisted of 20 patients who only used splints in the second group, in addition to splints, special exercises were administered, and the third group, electroacupuncture, and brace were prescribed for 12 sessions of 40- minute duration. study time was 6 weeks. The parameters of pinch force, grip force, ROM (flexion and extension) were evaluated at baseline and after the treatment. Results: In this study, 55 women and 5 men with an average age of 49.23 ± 8.96 were enrolled. At the final follow up, significant improvements in all parameters were found in third groups (P < 0.05), except flexion of the wrist in the control group (P = 0.098). Our findings indicate that exercise therapy had more effect on ROM of flexion than acupuncture and acupuncture had more effect on pinching than exercise therapy but the effect sizes were weak. Also, the efficacy of splint alone was less than intervention groups in all parameters. Conclusions: Results of this study demonstrated that adding exercise or acupuncture to nocturnal splinting, the functional improvement is more in patients with mild to moderate carpal tunnel syndrome and these interventions could be adopted in the management of these patients.
The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018: India’s regulatory journey towards a comprehensive data protection law

This article analyses the relevance of Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 for developing a data protection legal framework in India. In this regard, the article attempts to analyse the evolution process of comprehensive personal data protection law in the Indian context. The manner in which the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 will revamp and strengthen the existing data protection regulatory framework forms the major edifice of this article. The article also dwells on the significant role played by the fundamental right to privacy judgment (Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v Union of India) of Supreme Court of India, thus preparing the regulatory ground for the evolution of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018. The influence of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation in shaping the Indian legal framework is highlighted. The article also discusses pertinent legal concerns that could question the effectiveness of the proposed data protection legal framework in the Indian context.
Thermosensory Transduction Mechanisms in Drosophila melanogaster

Ambient temperature has an profound effect in the physiology of all animals and accurate evaluation of both external and internal temperatures is therefore an essential factor for fitness and survival. To this end, animals possess specialized cells and organs, which have evolved to obtain accurate information about this crucial factor. Drosophila melanogaster relies on different thermosenstive neurons to gauge both its internal as well as the external temperature. One thermosensitive organ is located in the arista, a feather like structure protruding from the third segment of the fly’s antenna. It has been found that the arista houses six neurons, three of which exhibit excitatory responses to heat (and were therefore called hot cells) and three which are responding to cold (named cold cells). In this study, I characterized the responses properties of the thermosensory organ in the arista and I analyzed the role that the TRP ion channel NOMPC, classically associated with mechanosensation, plays in this particular structure. Using Ca2+ imaging, I found that the amplitude of temperature evoked Ca2+ responses appears to be determined by the relative change in temperature, rather than the absolute value. I furthermore found evidence that the TRP channel NOMPC can be found in the hot cell population of arista neurons. Data obtained in this study shows that a knockdown of nompC leads to a reduction in the temperature response amplitude of hot cells. Homozygous nompC null mutants exhibit a stronger reduction in amplitude than heterozygous mutants, hinting at a possible gene dosage effect. The response modulation via NOMPC also affects behaviour, as locomotion experiments in a temperature gradient showed that nompC knockdown mutants show later hot avoidance and have a higher preferred temperature. The effect in both physiological and behavioural experiments could be rescued. Taken together, the findings of this study show that the thermosensitive neurons in the arista of Drosophila function as relative temperature sensors and that NOMPC serves an important modulatory role for the temperature evoked responses of these neurons.
Impact of robot hotel service on consumers’ purchase intention: a control experiment

ABSTRACT As an innovative technology, robot services are now used in the tourism industry to enhance consumer experience. Despite its importance, the impact of robot applications on the purchase intention of consumers has received limited, if any, attention. Considering that purchase intention can largely lead to actual purchase behaviour, this study investigated the impact of robot hotel service on the purchase intention of consumers through an experiment. Findings revealed that the purchase intention of the group who watched a video about robot hotel service was significantly higher than those who watched traditional hotel service video. Implications are further discussed.
Application of ANP in the Power System:A Review

The aim of this paper is to presents a review on the application of the ANP (Analytical Network Process) for decision making in the Power System. A comprehensive search is conducted using Google Scholar to identify relevant papers. A review of the qualifying publications was also conducted. Publications in this study are grouped into those that use ANP on its own, and ANP with Fuzzy method. With the rapid focus around the world on the renewable energies, the study found that there has been an increasing number of publications where decision making in the power system is done based on ANP. This study will help those who wishes to do research in future based on the application of ANP in the power system much easier by grouping together of the publications in that study area.
Electrostatic-Discharge-Immunity Impacts in 300 V nLDMOS by Comprehensive Drift-Region Engineering

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) events are the main factors impacting the reliability of Integrated circuits (ICs); therefore, the ESD immunity level of these ICs is an important index. This paper focuses on comprehensive drift-region engineering for ultra-high-voltage (UHV) circular n-channel lateral diffusion metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor (nLDMOS) devices used to investigate impacts on ESD ability. Under the condition of fixed layout area, there are four kinds of modulation in the drift region. First, by floating a polysilicon stripe above the drift region, the breakdown voltage and secondary breakdown current of this modulation can be increased. Second, adjusting the width of the field-oxide layer in the drift region when the width of the field-oxide layer is 5.8 μm will result in the minimum breakdown voltage (105 V) but the best secondary breakdown current (6.84 A). Third, by adjusting the discrete unit cell and its spacing, the corresponding improved trigger voltage, holding voltage, and secondary breakdown current can be obtained. According to the experimental results, the holding voltage of all devices under test (DUTs) is greater than that of the reference group, so the discrete HV N-Well (HVNW) layer can effectively improve its latch-up immunity. Finally, by embedding different P-Well lengths, the findings suggest that when the embedded P-Well length is 9 μm, it will have the highest ESD ability and latch-up immunity.
Biodistribution of Novel 68Ga-Radiolabelled HER2 Aptamers in Mice

Background: Two novel HER2 aptamers were recently selected with great potential for the in vitro diagnosis of HER2-positive cancer. The goal of this study was to examine the in vivo diagnostic potential of these HER2 aptamers. Methods: Both HER2 aptamers were radiolabelled with 68Ga, injected in mice bearing a HER2-positive and HER2-negative tumour and evaluated by PET/MRI. Results: Ex vivo bio distribution analysis revealed high uptake in the blood, tissues and organs, except the brain. Interestingly, this high uptake was explained by the slow blood clearance due to non-specific aptamer binding to blood proteins. We observed accumulation of radioactivity in both tumours in time. Although higher uptake in the HER2-positive tumour compared to the HER2-negative tumour was observed, this was accompanied with more necrosis in the HER2-negative tumour, which was observed by 18FDG PET/CT. Conclusion: This work presents a first step towards the development of 68Ga-labelled aptamers for molecular cancer imaging.
Power Supply Variations and Analog Performance of 5-nm Node Silicon Nanosheet Transistor

This work estimates the possible changes in analog performance due to on-chip power supply variations for a 5 nm node N-channel Nanosheet Transistor. A fully calibrated Sentaurus TCAD model is used for this purpose. On-chip supply voltage, in real life, suffers from unwanted ripples significantly affecting different analog parameters. For 25 mV of peak-peak ripple voltage and nominal supply voltage of 0.7 V: the maximum gm value can be 1.7% smaller or 1.6% larger; the minimum $g$ds value can increase by 4% or decrease by 4.9%; the Av value can be more significant by 6.85% or smaller by 5.47%; the fT value can degrade by 1.24% or improve by 1.4%; the GFP value increase by 5.5 % or decrease by 4.2%; and the td value varies by up to 3.56% or -3% from the nominal value.
A credit default swap application by using quantile regression technique

Abstract A credit default swap (CDS) is a type of financial derivative or contract that permits an investor to swap or balance the owned credit risk with that of another investor. Recently, this investment tool has been preferred by a wide range of investors in order to minimize their probability of credit default. Many economists and researchers agree that credit default swaps contribute significantly to the prevention of credit risk. Quantile regression provides conditional quantiles of solutions with a general linear model that assumes non parametric form for the conditional distribution of the solutions. Moreover, it is possible to obtain more information by this method which could not be reached directly from standard regression methods. Furthermore, the quantile regression method has a broad application area in various disciplines since it gives the option of modeling the tails of the conditional distribution. In this study, a comprehensive literature review was given at the beginning and then a credit default swap application was implemented by using the quantile regression method. In the application section, the Credit Default Swap variables and the ratings of various independent rating agencies such as Standard&Poor’s, Fitch, and Moody’s of Turkey were used for between 2013 and 2018 as monthly.
Retention of Flunisolide in Rat Lungs after Single Inhalation

Flunisolide (6α-fluorine 11β, 16α, 17α, 21-tetrahydroxypregna-1, 4-diene-3.20-dione 16.17 acetonide) is a potent inhaled corticosteroid, as demonstrated by its anti-inflammatory activities. Clinical data have widely demonstrated that inhaled flunisolide administered twice daily is effective for the treatment of bronchial asthma. However, pharmacokinetic studies suggest that the high solubility rate of flunisolde in bronchial fluid reduces the residence time of the drug in the lungs to a few minutes. The aim of this study is to determine the concentration of flunisolide in lung tissue of rats after administration by inhalation at varying time periods. Male Wistar rats weighing approximately 300 g were divided into four groups and administered a single dose of 1 mg flunisolide via inhalation. Rats were sacrificed with the exposure to CO2 either immediately or 3,6,12 hours after inhalation. The whole lung was then surgically removed and analysed for flunisolide concentration using gas chromatography. The mean concentration (2 standard deviation) of flunisolide detected in the lung tissue at 0, 3, 6 hours after inhalation were 66.4 (11.9), 48.6 (5.9), 42.7 (8.1) ng/mg of proteins, respectively. No flunisolide was detected after 12 hours in lung tissue. We conclude that flunisolide is retained for long duration (more than 6 hours) in lung tissue. This finding partially explains the mechanisms of action of the drug.
Economic Security of the Country: Marketing, Institutional and Political Determinants

The aim of the paper was analysing of the main indicators which influence on the country’s economic security. The authors allocated the main approaches to define economic security. Traditionally the economic security was analysed as a range of economic parameters which are not considering the institutional and marketing parameters. The authors highlighted, the different types of combinations of marketing, political and institutional indicators could influence on the level of the country’s security level with different power. On this basis, the key factors which influenced on the level of the economic security were identified. All indicators were combined in three groups: marketing, political and institutional. To the political indicators, the parameters as follows were included: violence/terrorism; voice and accountability rating; rule of law; control of corruption. The marketing group of indicators contained the parameter – the country’s brand. The institutional group involved: adjusted net national income per capita; agricultural raw materials exports; agriculture, value-added; external balance on goods and services; food exports; food imports; foreign direct investment, net inflows; GDP growth; wage and salaried workers, total; GDP per capita growth; industry, value-added; total natural resources rents; trade. Thus, in the paper, the authors checked the hypothesis as follows: the existence of the statistically significant relationship between marketing, political and institutional parameters and level of economic security. The informational basis for analyses was dataset from the: World Government Indicators, Future Brand, World Data Bank. For checking hypothesis, the 2SLS method was chosen. The analysed period 2002-2018 years. The empirical findings proved that political stability had a negative statistically significant impact at level 1% on agriculture value-added, agricultural raw materials exports, food imports. Besides, the rule of law had a negative significant impact on the indicators: agricultural raw materials exports, value-added, and agriculture value-added. The finding proved that political and institutional imbalance restricts the recovering of the country’s economic security. In this case, the government should consider not only economic parameters but also marketing and institutional during developing the mechanism to increase the level of the country’s economic security. Keywords: economic security, corruption, stability, government, brand.
Control Assembly of Pillar[6]arene-Modified Ag Nanoparticles on Covalent Organic Framework Surface for Enhanced Sensing Performance toward Paraquat

In this study, a class of supramolecular host water-soluble pillar[6]arene (WP6)-modified Ag nanoparticle (WP6@Ag)-functionalized two-dimensional (2D) covalent organic framework (COF) composite is researched for the first time. The obtained 2D heterogeneous hybrid material (WP6@Ag@COF) has excellent electrocatalytic activity and high recognition capability for electrochemical detection of paraquat (PQ). Consequently, a rapid, ultrasensitive, and highly selective electrochemical sensing platform for the determination of PQ is fabricated. The WP6@Ag can be easily prepared by reducing AgNO3 in the presence of WP6. The functionalized WP6@Ag@COF composite can be obtained by the assembly of WP6@Ag onto the surface of COF, where the WP6@Ag serves as a host and electrocatalyst to recognize PQ and enhance the response signal, COF acts as a prominent 2D material for constructing an electrochemical sensing platform, respectively. The electrode, best operated at a working potential of −0.95 to −0.4 V (vs Hg/Hg2Cl2), .
Mineralocorticoid Receptors: A Novel Therapeutic Target for Treating Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

ii Acknowledgements.vii Vita.ix List of Tables.xvi List of Figures.xix List of Abbreviations. xxiii Chapters 1: Introduction.1 1.1: Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.1 1.2: Glucocorticoid Treatment.4 1.3: Dilated Cardiomyopathy.5 1.4: Animal Models of DMD.6 1.5: Preclinical Benefits of Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antagonists.7 1.6: The Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System.9 1.7. 1: Mineralocorticoid Receptor.10 1.7. 2: Mineralocorticoid Receptors in Heart Failure.11 1.8: Summary.13 1.9: Figures.15
Exploring Ni(Mn1/3Cr2/3)2O4 spinel-based electrodes for solid oxide cells

The alkaline earth element- and cobalt-free Ni(Mn1/3Cr2/3)2O4 (NMC) spinel is adopted to form composite electrodes with an oxygen ion conductive phase for symmetrical solid oxide cells and its applicability is successfully demonstrated in both solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) modes. In a H2 or CO–CO2 atmosphere, NMC decomposes to Ni and spinel, but would quickly recover to NMC in air or pure CO2. Both NMC and NMC–Gd0.1Ce0. 9O2−δ (NMC–GDC) composite electrodes reveal a high redox resistance and fast recovery, which originated from the significant difference in Gibbs free energy when NMC is subjected to reducing and oxidizing atmospheres. In SOFC mode at 800 °C, the anode supported and symmetrical cells with the NMC–GDC electrode achieve peak power densities of 1293 and 416 mW cm−2, respectively. With an applied current density of 400 mA cm−2 at 750 °C in SOFC mode, the working voltage of the symmetrical cell with the NMC–GDC electrode showed no evident decline over 96 h. In SOFC mode and under pure CO2 in the cathode, the symmetrical cell working in SOEC mode showed a faradaic efficiency of over 96% at 700–850 °C and an electrolysis current density of 2320 mA cm−2 at 850 °C with an applied voltage of 2 V. Furthermore, the applied voltage decreased from 1.507 V to 1.407 V over a 72 h running time under a static current density of 800 mA cm−2 at 800 °C. The nickel exsolution in a reduction atmosphere and the abundant transition metal element centered octahedra ensure the multi-functionality of NMC. The NMC spinel-based electrode demonstrates an extraordinary redox resistance and running stability, and it is anticipated to play a pivotal role in the future exploration of novel and stable electrodes for solid oxide cells.
Diagnosing Software System Exploits

Software vulnerabilities are bugs in a program that an attacker can exploit to make the program deviate from its specification. An attacker exploits a vulnerability by crafting input that causes the program to behave incorrectly. Such an input is called an exploit. This article deals with diagnosing exploits, i.e., given an exploit, the task is to return the vulnerability that allowed it. We show that existing software diagnosis algorithms are ill-suited for this problem, and introduce two novel techniques for adapting them to this problem. This includes manipulating an automated testing tool to generate additional inputs that are similar to the given exploit, and tracing below the desired granularity level to improve diagnostic accuracy. Experimental evaluation on real exploits from four open-source projects shows that our algorithm significantly reduces diagnostic efforts.
Analysis and Classification of the Lung Cancer with CNN Implementation

A Lung malignancy is considered to be one among the prominent cause of disease and mortality in many countries, and radiologists face a difficult burden in diagnosing the disease early on. Observing, analyzing and medication of lung cancer has been probably a great trouble for the physicians over decades. Thus early detection of a tumor would encourage in saving an immense count of lives over the world reliably. Also early detection of lung nodules prevents the patient from meta-staging nodules. The existing image processing and machine learning techniques consume more execution time and are expensive. In our proposed system; the human lung CT scans image is given as input to the preprocessing stage. Binarization is applied to the pre-processed image to transform the complete binary image and equate it with the threshold value for detecting lung cancer. The lung CT scan image is then segmented, and each component of the segmented photos is familiarized with a solid element extraction approach. This methodology uses a Convolution Neural Network (CNN) to arrange the tumor cells identified in the human lung as threatening (malignant) or generous (benign). Thus the proposed method includes the exactness acquired by using CNN is 95%, which is highly effective when contrasted with precision obtained by the traditional neural system frameworks.
Evaluation of two functional CD24 polymorphisms in primary sclerosing cholangitis

Abstract Background: Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a progressive liver disease and characterized by chronic inflammation, sclerosis and strictures of bile ducts. Several genetic risk factors might contribute to pathogenesis. Functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the CD24 gene have been associated with the development of autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases and might contribute to the susceptibility for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Aim: This retrospective study aimed to evaluate the impact of two functional CD24 SNPs on clinical features and disease progression in patients with PSC. Methods: A C to T coding polymorphism (rs8734) and a TG deletion in the 3´- untranslated region (rs3838646) were genotyped. The study cohort comprises of 359 PSC patients for rs3838646 genotype and 335 PSC patients for rs8734 genotype. Clinical and laboratory parameters were collected by chart review. Results: For the rs8734 genotype, 175 patients (52.2%) were found to be homozygous wildtype (‘Ala/Ala’), 127 (37.9%) patients were heterozygous (‘Ala/Val’) and 33 patients (9.9%) were homozygous mutant (‘Val/Val’). The rs8734genotype was associated with a decreased risk for dominant strictures at first diagnosis of PSC (p = .04). For the rs3838646 genotype, 322 patients (89.7%) were found to be homozygous wildtype (‘TG/TG’); 37 showed the ‘TG/del’ genotype (10.3%). The ‘TG/del’genotype was associated with alower risk of IBD (p = .01). There was no influence of both CD24 SNPs with clinical end points or transplantation-free survival in our PSC cohort. Conclusion: Our results suggest a mild association of the rs8734 CD24 genotype with dominant strictures at first diagnosis of PSC. The rs3838646 CD24 genotype is associated with a lower rate of IBD. Both SNPs seem to modulate the clinical phenotype without major pathogenetic importance for disease progression in PSC.