Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Daily step target to measure adherence to physical activity guidelines in children.

PURPOSE There is a lack of robust evidence to support a daily step count target that equates to current physical activity guidelines in children and youth. This information would be useful to researchers and practitioners who are using pedometers to monitor physical activity. METHODS Accelerometer and pedometer data collected on children and youth age 6-19 yr in the Canadian Health Measures Survey were used in this analysis (n = 1613). Correlation analyses of daily step counts and minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) by age and sex were completed. The daily step count equivalent to 60 min of MVPA was derived using linear regression by age and sex. Cross-validation, including receiver operating curve analysis, was completed to compare the new cut points to one currently used as a proxy estimate of 60 min of daily MVPA (13,500 steps per day) as well as a range of possible step count targets between 8000 and 15,000 steps per day. RESULTS Daily step counts were correlated with daily minutes of MVPA (r = 0.81, P < 0.0001). The step count equivalents to 60 min of MVPA ranged between 11,290 and 12,512 steps per day (R range = 0.59-0.74). A step count target of 12,000 steps per day resulted in closer population estimates of meeting the physical activity guideline (as measured as minutes of MVPA by accelerometer) as well as improved balance between sensitivity and specificity when compared with any cut point between 8000 and 15,000 steps per day, including the currently used daily step count target of 13,500 steps per day. CONCLUSIONS We propose that 12,000 steps per day be used as a target to determine whether children and youth age 6-19 yr are meeting the current physical activity guideline of 60 min of daily MVPA.
Association of sleep disturbances with cognitive impairment and depression in maintenance hemodialysis patients.

BACKGROUND There are few data on the relationship of sleep with measures of cognitive function and symptoms of depression in dialysis patients. METHODS We evaluated the relationship of sleep with cognitive function and symptoms of depression in 168 hemodialysis patients, using multivariable linear and logistic regression. Sleep disturbances were assessed using the sleep subscale battery of the Choices for Healthy Outcomes in Caring for ESRD (CHOICE) Health Experience Questionnaire. The cognitive battery assessed a broad range of functioning including global ability, verbal intelligence, supraspan learning, auditory retention, visual retention, attention/mental processing speed, visual construction/fluid reasoning and motor speed. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiological Studies of Depression (CESD) Scale, with depression indicated by a CESD score >16. RESULTS Mean (SD) age of participants was 62 (17) years, 49% were women, 30% were African American and 33% had diabetes. There was no significant relationship between sleep score and performance on any neurocognitive test (p>0.13, for all multivariable analyses). The prevalence of depression increased from 16% in the highest quartile (best) of sleep score, to 31% in the lowest quartile (worst) of sleep score. In multivariable analyses, each 1 SD increase in sleep score was associated with a 2.18 (95% confidence interval, 1.07-3.29, p<0.001) lower CESD score. Results were consistent when considering individual components of both the CESD and sleep score. CONCLUSIONS Disturbances in sleep are associated with symptoms of depression but not measures of cognitive function. Dialysis patients with disturbances in sleep should be screened for depression.
IBM Research Report Tag Me While You Can: Making Online Recorded Meetings Shareable and Searchable

In this paper we report on the design and implementation of a collaborative recorded meeting sharing system, with the goal of facilitating discovery and rapid access to information contained in recordings. The system, which we originally developed as a video sharing system behind the firewall a sort of YouTube for the enterprise evolved into a meeting capture, transcription, and annotation system. This evolution was driven by the high frequency and availability of recorded web-conference meetings with remote attendees joining via a common telephone bridge. The Collaborative Recorded Meetings system supports indexing and search not only in videos but also in any slides the attendees shared during the meeting. Recordings are automatically transcribed and indexed using speech-to-text technology and users can add annotations such as micro-tags ( i.e. tags on segments of the meeting ) and comments on the timeline. User generated tags can be shared via weblink with a colleague, who can then view just the segment of the recording associated with the tag. All attendees have the ability to edit the tags and transcription to improve the quality of the searchable data. We discuss the use of the system, along with findings from a 14 month video sharing trial within a large corporation.
Evolutionary stable participation game of smartphones in crowdsourced sensing

It is crucial to stimulate active participation of smartphone workers in crowdsourced sensing systems. This is due to the fact that it takes a smartphone worker considerable cost in terms of dedicated smartphone resources, human intervention, and possible privacy breach. Many incentive mechanisms have been proposed. However, existing incentive mechanisms suffer a serious common problem: they all assume full rationality of smartphone worker. Such fully rational smartphone workers are often too idealized! A smartphone worker may not be able to get the complete information and hence fails to compute the optimal strategy. In the real world, however, smartphone workers are usually bounded rational. Being bounded rational, a smartphone worker would not change the current strategy until its utility becomes too low. In this article, we propose an evolutionary stable participation game framework for crowdsourced sensing systems with smartphone workers of bounded rationality. Based on the evolutionary dynamics, we design and implement an evolutionary stable participation mechanism. It is proved that the system converges to an evolutionary equilibrium, which is globally asymptotically stable and robust to any degree of perturbations of the workers. Extensive simulation results show that the evolutionary participation mechanism leads the system to an evolutionary equilibrium quickly.
Effect of Seat Surface Inclination on Postural Control During Reaching in Preterm Children With Cerebral Palsy

Background and Purpose Because it is debatable whether seat surface inclination improves motor function in children with cerebral palsy (CP), the effect of seat surface tilting on postural control and quality of reaching was studied. Subjects The subjects were 58 children with CP aged 2 to 11 years (34 with unilateral spastic CP, 24 with bilateral spastic CP). Methods During the task of reaching movements, surface electromyographic and kinematic data were recorded for posture and reaching with the dominant arm in 3 sitting conditions: horizontal seat surface, seat surface tilted forward 15 degrees, and seat surface tilted backward 15 degrees. Results In the children with unilateral spastic CP, forward tilting improved postural efficiency and quality of reaching. In the children with bilateral spastic CP, both forward and backward tilting of the seat surface was associated with more postural instability and did not affect the quality of reaching. Discussion and Conclusion The results suggest that, in terms of postural control and quality of reaching, children with unilateral spastic CP benefit from a forward-tilted position and children with bilateral spastic CP benefit from a horizontal sitting position.
Inhibition of cell death results in hyperganglionosis: implications for enteric nervous system development

Abstract The enteric nervous system (ENS) is derived from vagal and sacral neural crest cells (NCC) that delaminate from the neural tube and undergo extensive migration and proliferation in order to colonize the entire length of the gut and differentiate into many millions of neurons and glial cells. Although apoptotic programmed cell death is an essential physiological process during development of the majority of the vertebrate nervous system, apoptosis within early ENS development has not been comprehensively investigated. The aim of this study was to determine the presence and extent of apoptosis within the vagal NCC population that gives rise to most of the ENS in the chick embryo. We demonstrated that apoptotic cells, as shown by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase biotin‐dUTP nick end labelling and active caspase‐3 immunoreactivity, are present within an electroporated green fluorescent protein (GFP) and human natural killer‐1 (HNK‐1) immunopositive NCC population migrating from the vagal region of the neural tube to the developing foregut. Inhibition of caspase activity in vagal NCC, by electroporation with a dominant‐negative form of caspase‐9, increased the number of vagal NCC available for ENS formation, as shown by 3‐dimensional reconstruction of serial GFP or HNK‐1 labelled sections, and resulted in hyperganglionosis within the proximal foregut, as shown by NADPH‐diaphorase whole gut staining. These findings suggest that apoptotic cell death may be a normal process within the precursor pool of pre‐enteric NCC that migrates to the gut, and as such it may play a role in the control of ENS formation.
Preliminary evaluation of a regional atmospheric chemical data assimilation system for environmental surveillance.

We report the progress of an ongoing effort by the Air Resources Laboratory,NOAA to build a prototype regional Chemical Analysis System (ARLCAS). The ARLCAS focuses on providing long-term analysis of the three dimensional (3D) air-pollutant concentration fields over the continental U.S. It leverages expertise from the NASA Earth Science Division-sponsored Air Quality Applied Science Team (AQAST) for the state-of-science knowledge in atmospheric and data assimilation sciences. The ARLCAS complies with national operational center requirement protocols and aims to have the modeling system to be maintained by a national center. Meteorology and chemistry observations consist of land-, air- and space-based observed and quality-assured data.We develop modularized testing to investigate the efficacies of the various components of the ARLCAS. The sensitivity testing of data assimilation schemes showed that with the increment of additional observational data sets, the accuracy of the analysis chemical fields also increased incrementally in varying margins. The benefit is especially noted for additional data sets based on a different platform and/or a different retrieval algorithm.We also described a plan to apply the analysis chemical fields in environmental surveillance at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Stable Transformation of the Saintpaulia ionantha by Particle Bombardment.

BACKGROUND A highly efficient genetic transformation system is essential for a successful genetic manipulation of the African violet (Saintpaulia ionantha Wendl.). OBJECTIVES Developing a particle bombardment-based genetic transformation system for the African violet. MATERIALS AND METHODS A local cultivar of the African violet from Guilan province was used for transformation experiments. The pFF19G and pBin61-Ech42 vectors were used for transient and stable transformation experiments, respectively. The PCR and RT-PCR techniques were used to verify transgene presence and transcript levels in candidate transgenic lines, respectively. RESULTS Using leaf explants as target tissues, we transferred an endochitinase gene cDNA into African violet. Transgenic plants were regenerated on selection medium at a reasonable frequency (in average, one stable transgenic line per shot). Molecular analysis of transgenic plants by PCR and RT-PCR techniques confirmed successful integration and expression of transgene in several independent transgenic lines. CONCLUSIONS Our results provide an efficient stable transformation system for genetic transformation of African violet.
Rework in urban renewal projects in Colombia

AbstractThere is a paucity of systematic knowledge on the dynamics of rework in urban renewal projects even though such projects frequently exceed budget and schedule. The causal factors of rework and cost impact on 69 Colombian public projects are examined. The nomenclature of project, organization, and people (POP) is used to categorize causal variables and develop a generic systemic model of rework causation. Inadequate initial budgets, poor project design (which instigated changes during construction), and the social inclusivity of contracts in Colombia (which employ local inexperienced people to conduct the required work) were the most significant contributors of rework. The developed model provides decision makers and stakeholders with insights about the interdependencies and behavior between key influencing variables in Colombian urban renewal projects, and can be used to stimulate learning and process improvements in future projects.
Development of histamine‐immunoreactivity in the Central nervous system of the two locust species Schistocerca gregaria and Locusta migratoria

Locusts are attractive model preparations for cellular investigations of neurodevelopment. In this study, we investigate the immunocytochemical localization of histamine in the developing ventral nerve cord of two locust species, Schistocerca gregaria and Locusta migratoria. Histamine is the fast neurotransmitter of photoreceptor neurons in the compound eye of insects, but it is also synthesized in interneurons of the central nervous system. In the locust ventral nerve cord, the pattern of histamine‐immunoreactive neurons follows a relatively simple bauplan. The histaminergic system comprises a set of single, ascending projection neurons that are segmentally arranged in almost every neuromere. The neurons send out their axons anteriorly, forming branches and varicosities throughout the adjacent ganglia. In the suboesophageal ganglion, the cell bodies lie in a posteriolateral position. The prothoracic ganglion lacks histaminergic neurons. In the posterior ganglia of the ventral nerve cord, the somata of the histaminergic neurons are ventromedially positioned. Histamine‐immunoreactivity starts around 50% of embryonic development in interneurons of the brain. Subsequently, the neurons of the more posterior ganglia of the ventral nerve cord become immunoreactive. From 60% embryonic development, the pattern of soma staining in the nerve cord appears mature. Around 65% of embryonic development, the photoreceptor cells show histamine‐immunoreactivity. The histaminergic innervation of the neuropile develops from the central branches toward the periphery of the ganglia and is completed right before hatching. Microsc. Res. Tech. 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Epidemiologic Study of Neonatal Subcutaneous Gangrene Caused by Multi‐Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

ABSTRACT. Forty‐five cases of neonatal subcutaneous gangrene were admitted between Nov. 1985 and Feb. 1987, with a mortality of 6.6%. This paper presents the first epidemiologic study of 20 cases of this disease caused by multi‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Eight of 20 cases were caused by an epidemic strain belonging to phage 29 (group I) and carrying 2.8, 3.3, 4.2 and 28.5–34.0 kb plasmid DNA. The restriction endonudease analysis confirmed that the plas‐mid DNA of approximately similar size in different isolates were identical or highly homologous. According to the results of an epidemiologic study the source of infection of one patient who died was her grandmother and the other one was her mother, so the family members can also be the source of neonatal infection caused by multi‐resistant S. aureus.
Increasing hip and knee flexion during a drop-jump task reduces tibiofemoral shear and compressive forces: implications for ACL injury prevention training

ABSTRACT Although most ACL injury prevention programmes encourage greater hip and knee flexion during landing, it remains unknown how this technique influences tibiofemoral joint forces. We examined whether a landing strategy utilising greater hip and knee flexion decreases tibiofemoral anterior shear and compression. Twelve healthy women (25.9 ± 3.5 years) performed a drop-jump task before and after a training session (10–15 min) that emphasised greater hip and knee flexion. Peak tibiofemoral anterior shear and compressive forces were calculated using an electromyography (EMG)-driven knee model that incorporated joint kinematics, EMG and participant-specific muscle volumes and patella tendon orientation measured using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Participants demonstrated a decrease in peak anterior tibial shear forces (11.1 ± 3.3 vs. 9.6 ± 2.7 N · kg−1; P = 0.008) and peak tibiofemoral compressive forces (68.4 ± 7.6 vs. 62.0 ± 5.5 N · kg−1; P = 0.015) post-training. The decreased peak anterior tibial shear was accompanied by a decrease in the quadriceps anterior shear force, while the decreased peak compressive force was accompanied by decreased ground reaction force and hamstring forces. Our data provide justification for injury prevention programmes that encourage greater hip and knee flexion during landing to reduce tibiofemoral joint loading.
Using public buses as mobile gateways in vehicular clouds

Recently Vehicular Ad Hoc NETwork (VANET) evolved to a rather more application and services-rich infrastructure referred to as VANET-based clouds. However the initial deployment stage of VANET is going to be crucial due to lack of proper infrastructure. In this paper, based on the predictability of time and space of the public buses in urban scenario, we use these buses as mobile gateways among vehicles on the road, VANET authorities, and cloud infrastructure. We consider data aggregation as a use-case for our proposed scheme where buses collect beacons and service requests from vehicles and send it to cloud, whereas cloud provides services to vehicles through buses. Additionally a real-time road network is considered in Seoul, South Korea where the public buses provide perfect connectivity among other vehicles.
Millimeter-wave diffraction by a photo-induced plasma grating

Optical gratings are used extensively for beamsteering in the visible and IR range of the spectrum. Change in the dielectric permittivity of a semiconductor medium resulting from the excitation of a nonequilibrium electron-hole plasma makes it possible to extend this technique to MMW frequencies. A photo-induced plasma grating (PIPG) can be easily rewritten by changing the illumination pattern. So this technique can be used in optically controllable MMW antennas. Initial experimental work studied the diffraction of MMW propagating along a dielectric waveguide containing a PIPG. This paper reports on the diffraction of MMW propagating in free space, steered by the PIPG. >
State-space models link elk movement patterns to landscape characteristics in Yellowstone National Park

Explaining and predicting animal movement in heterogeneous landscapes remains challenging. This is in part because movement paths often include a series of short, localized displacements separated by longer-distance forays. This multiphasic movement behavior reflects the complex response of an animal to present environmental conditions and to its internal behavioral state. This state is an autocorrelated process influenced by preceding behaviors and habitats visited. Movement patterns depending on the behavioral state of an animal represent the broad-scale response of that animal to the environment. Quantifying how animals respond both to local conditions and to their internal state reveals how animals respond to spatial heterogeneity at different spatial scales. We used a state-space statistical approach to model the internal behavioral state and the proximate movement response of elk (Cervus elaphus) to available forage biomass, landscape composition, topography, and wolf (Canis lupus) density during summer in Yellowstone National Park, USA. We analyzed movement paths of 16 female elk fitted with global positioning system (GPS) radio collars that recorded locations at 5-h intervals. Habitat variables were quantified within 175 m radii (one-half of the median 5-h displacement) centered on the beginning location of each interval. Stepwise model selection identified models that best explained the movement distances of each animal. The behavioral state changed very slowly for most animals (median autocorrelation r = 0.93), and all animals responded strongly to time of day (with more movement in the crepuscular hours). However, the spatial variables included in the best-fitting models varied substantially among individual elk. These results suggest that strong patterns of habitat selection observed in other studies may result from frequent visits to preferred areas rather than a reduction of movement in those areas.
Reduction of total E 2 F / DP activity induces senescence-like cell cycle arrest in cancer cells lacking functional pRB and p 53

2F/DP complexes were originally identified as potent transcriptional activators required for cell proliferation. However, recent studies revised this notion by showing that inactivation of total E2F/DP activity by dominant-negative forms of E2F or DP does not prevent cellular proliferation, but rather abolishes tumor suppression pathways, such as cellular senescence. These observations suggest that blockage of total E2F/DP activity may increase the risk of cancer. Here, we provide evidence that depletion of DP by RNA interference, but not E overexpression of dominant-negative form of E2F, efficiently reduces endogenous E2F/DP activity in human primary cells. Reduction of total E2F/DP activity results in a dramatic decrease in expression of many E2F target genes and causes a senescence-like cell cycle arrest. Importantly, similar results were observed in human cancer cells lacking functional p53 and pRB family proteins. These findings reveal that E2F/DP activity is indeed essential for cell proliferation and its reduction immediately provokes a senescence-like cell cycle arrest.
Dose Escalation Improves Outcome in Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy for Pulmonary Oligometastases from Colorectal Cancer.

AIM To evaluate the efficacy of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for pulmonary metastasis from colorectal cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS Data for 104 lesions from 93 patients who underwent SBRT for pulmonary oligometastases from colorectal cancer at ten Institutions were retrospectively analyzed. Toxicity was graded according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v4.0. RESULTS The median calculated biological effective dose using the linear-quadratic model with α/β of 10 Gy (BED10) was 105.6 Gy. Adjuvant chemotherapy after SBRT was performed in 47 patients. The median observation period was 28 months. The 3- and 5-year local control rates were 65.2% and 56.2%, respectively. The 3- and 5-year overall survival rates were 55.9% and 42.7%, respectively. Only two patients had grade 3 radiation pneumonitis. In multivariate analysis for local control, primary site, age, adjuvant chemotherapy after SBRT and BED10 were selected as prognostic factors. CONCLUSION Dose escalation and adjuvant chemotherapy might improve local control in SBRT for pulmonary oligometastases from colorectal cancer.