Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Changes in Deep Abdominal Muscle Thickness During Common Trunk-Strengthening Exercises Using Ultrasound Imaging

1Associate Professor, US Army-Baylor University Doctoral Program in Physical Therapy, San Antonio, TX. 2Researcher, Spine Research Center, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington DC. 3Staff Physical Therapist, Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center, Ft Hood, TX. 4Staff Physical Therapist, 10th Special Forces Group, Ft Carson, CO. 5Officer, Adjutant, 426th Base Support Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, Ft Campbell, KY. The protocol of this study was approved by the Brooke Army and Wilford Hall Medical Centers’ Institutional Review Board. The opinions or assertions contained herein are the private views of the authors and are not to be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the Departments of the Army, Air Force, or Defense. Address correspondence to Deydre S. Teyhen, 3151 Scott Road, Room 1303, ATTN: MCCS-HMT (MAJ Teyhen), Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234. E-mail: Deydre.teyhen@us.army. mil DEYDRE S. TEYHEN, PT, PhD1,2 PT3 PT4 5 PT, PhD1 PT, PhD1
Bleaching of Crude Glycerol by Organobentonite

As an alternative to fossil fuel, production of biodiesel is very attractive but limited supply of raw materials, capital and production costs make the process less economically feasible. Because the process economics is improved by the supplementary utilization of glycerole, refinery of the crude glycerole is of importance even it means the additional cost affecting the sale of glycerole in addition to its quality. In this work, use of organobentonites is proposed for bleaching. It was found that the mixture of 1% of activated carbon and %1 of microwave dried organoclay is effective as 3% of activated carbon for 50°C and 1 hour contact time. Thus, a 60% reduction obtained in the amount of activated carbon points that the method proposed has the potentialities to evaluate a more feasible process economics.
akıllı etkileşim sistem tasarımı Inverter air conditioner intelligent system design

Bilgisayarların gündelik hayatın bir parçası olmasıyla birlikte insanbilgisayar etkileşimi önem kazanmaya başlamıştır. Geleneksel insan bilgisayar arayüzleri olan klavye, fare gibi aygıtlar yaygın olarak kullanılmasına rağmen kullanıcı ile bilgisayar arasındaki bilgi ve komut akışını sınırlamaktadır. Son dönemlerde jestler sadece çevre ve insanlar arası iletişimde değil, insan-makina iletişimde de önemli bir role sahip olmaya başlamıştır. Jestlerin ne anlama geldiği ve nasıl bir bilgi taşıdığı alanındaki çalışmalar gün geçtikçe insan-makina arayüzü (iletişimi) çalışmalarında daha fazla yer almaya başlamıştır. Bu çalışmada amaç elektronik cihazlardan biri olan inverter klimaların kontrolünü kullanıcı ile makina arasında direkt bir etkileşim sağlayarak, kullanıcının daha kolay ve aracıdan bağımsız olarak inverter klima ile haberleşmesini sağlamaktır. Önerilen sistemde el jestinin tanınması amacı ile öncelikle kameradan görüntüler alınmış ve bu görüntülere literatürde bulunan görüntü ön-işleme teknikleri ve filtreleri kullanılarak, görüntünün netleştirilmesi ve gürültülerin temizlenmesi sağlanmıştır. Ön-işleme işlemi sonucunda elde edilen görüntülerde ten rengi tespiti ve Yönlü Gradyanlar Histogramı (YGH) algoritmaları kullanılarak el jestinin konumu belirlenmiştir. Daha sonra görüntü işleme algoritmalarından elde edilen konum bilgileri yapay sinir ağına giriş olarak verilerek el jestinin hareketi anlamlı hale getirilmiş ve inverter klimada %92 başarı ile sıcaklık ve fan ayarları kontrolü sağlayan bir algoritma geliştirilmiştir. As the computers are becoming a part of people’s daily lives, humancomputer interaction has started to gain more importance. Even though the traditional human computer interfaces like the keyboards and mouses are used frequently, they are making the information and command flow limited. Recently, gestures are not only gaining a more important role in the environment-human relations but also in humanmachine interactions as well. The studies on the meaning of the gestures and what kind of information they carry are increasing their places in researches on human-machine interface communication. The aim in this study is to provide an easy and user independent human -machine interface system in air conditioners. In the proposed system, in order to recognize hand gestures, first image preprocessing techniques and noise filters have been applied to images taken from camera. These processes provide clarification of image. After preprocessing, Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) algorithm is used along with the skin color detection made via image processing techniques applied in order to the recognition of hand gestures. After then, the hand gestures have made meaningful as the obtained images are given as inputs to artificial neuron network and an algorithm, which ensures fan and temperature settings with 92% success level in inverter air conditioners, is developed
Observation of the decay B̄s0→ψ(2S)K+π−

Article history: Received 24 March 2015 Received in revised form 12 June 2015 Accepted 16 June 2015 Available online 17 June 2015 Editor: M. Doser The decay Bs → ψ(2S)K +π− is observed using a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb−1 collected by the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. The branching fraction relative to the B0 → ψ(2S)K +π− decay mode is measured to be B(Bs → ψ(2S)K +π−) B(B0 → ψ(2S)K +π−) = 5.38 ± 0.36 (stat) ± 0.22 (syst) ± 0.31 ( f s/ fd)%,
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Recent Work Title Performance and Energy Efficiency of Big Data Applications in Cloud Environments : A Hadoop

The exponential growth of scientific and business data has resulted in the evolution of the cloud computing environments and the MapReduce parallel programming model. The focus of cloud computing is increased utilization and power savings through consolidation while MapReduce enables large scale data analysis. Hadoop, an open source implementation of MapReduce has gained popularity in the last few years. In this paper, we evaluate Hadoop performance in both the traditional model of collocated data and compute services as well as consider the impact of separating out the services. The separation of data and compute services provides more flexibility in environments where data locality might not have a considerable impact such as virtualized environments and clusters with advanced networks. In this paper, we also conduct an energy efficiency evaluation of Hadoop on physical and virtual clusters in different configurations. Our extensive evaluation shows that: (1) coexisting virtual machines on servers decrease the disk throughput; (2) performance on physical clusters is significantly better than on virtual clusters; (3) performance degradation due to separation of the services depends on the data to compute ratio; (4) application completion progress correlates with the power consumption and power consumption is heavily application specific. Finally, we present a discussion on the implications of using cloud environments for big data analyses.
Influencing Factors on Radiotherapy Outcome in Stage I-II Glottic Larynx Cancer—A Multicenter Study

Background and Purpose: Larynx cancer represents one of the most frequently diagnosed head and neck malignancies, which is most often confined to the glottic area. The aim of this study was to report the oncological outcome and identify prognostic factors in early-stage glottic squamous cell carcinoma treated with radiotherapy. Material and Methods: Patients (n = 761) diagnosed and treated in 10 centers between 1990 and 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. Probabilities of loco-regional control (LRC) and overall survival (OS) were calculated and possible prognostic factors were analyzed using Cox proportional hazards models. Results: The median follow-up was 63 months (range: 2–243). Three hundred and sixty-four, 148 and 249 patients had cT1a, cT1b, and cT2 stage I-II disease, respectively. Five and 10-years LRC/OS rates in the whole cohort were 83/82% and 80/68%, respectively. Three patients developed distant recurrences. In univariate analysis, male sex (HR: 3.49; 95% CI: 1.47–11.37; p < 0.01), T2 vs. T1a (HR: 1.62; 95% CI: 1.08–2.43; p = 0.02) and anterior commissure involvement (ACI) (HR: 1.66; 95% CI: 1.38–2.45; p < 0.01) were associated with impaired LRC. In multivariate analysis, male sex (HR: 3.42; 95% CI: 1.44–11.17; p < 0.01) and ACI (HR: 1.51; 95% CI: 1.01–2.28; p = 0.047) remained poor prognostic factors. No relation of treatment technique and biologically equivalent dose (BED) to oncological outcome was identified except for higher BED10(L = 25; T = 1) yielding better LRC in T1a tumors (p = 0.04) in univariate analyses. Conclusion: Our results highlight the negative impact of ACI on tumor control. A less-expected finding was the impact of sex on tumor control. Further research is needed to validate its prognostic value and investigate any related biologic or behavioral factors, which may be modified to improve oncologic outcome.
Systematic Affinity Purification Coupled to Mass Spectrometry Identified p62 as Part of the Cannabinoid Receptor CB2 Interactome

The endocannabinoid system (ECS) consists particularly of cannabinoid receptors 1 and 2 (CB1 and CB2), their endogenous ligands, and enzymes that synthesize and degrade their ligands. It acts in a variety of organs and disease states ranging from cancer progression over neuropathic pain to neurodegeneration. Protein components engaged in the signaling, trafficking, and homeostasis machinery of the G-protein coupled CB2, are however largely unknown. It is therefore important to identify further interaction partners to better understand CB2 receptor functions in physiology and pathophysiology. For this purpose, we used an affinity purification and mass spectrometry-based proteomics approach of Strep-HA-CB2 receptor in HEK293 cells. After subtraction of background interactions and protein frequency library assessment we could identify 83 proteins that were classified by the identification of minimally 2 unique peptides as highly probable interactors. A functional protein association network analysis obtained an interaction network with a significant enrichment of proteins functionally involved in protein metabolic process, in endoplasmic reticulum, response to stress but also in lipid metabolism and membrane organization. The network especially contains proteins involved in biosynthesis and trafficking like calnexin, Sec61A, tubulin chains TUBA1C and TUBB2B, TMED2, and TMED10. Six proteins that were only expressed in stable CB2 expressing cells were DHC24, DHRS7, GGT7, HECD3, KIAA2013, and PLS1. To exemplify the validity of our approach, we chose a candidate having a relatively low number of edges in the network to increase the likelihood of a direct protein interaction with CB2 and focused on the scaffold/phagosomal protein p62/SQSTM1. Indeed, we independently confirmed the interaction by co-immunoprecipitation and immunocytochemical colocalization studies. 3D reconstruction of confocal images furthermore showed CB2 localization in close proximity to p62 positive vesicles at the cell membrane. In summary, we provide a comprehensive repository of the CB2 interactome in HEK293 cells identified by a systematic unbiased approach, which can be used in future experiments to decipher the signaling and trafficking complex of this cannabinoid receptor. Future studies will have to analyze the exact mechanism of the p62-CB2 interaction as well as its putative role in disease pathophysiology.
Changes in Locomotor Ratio During Basketball Game Quarters From Elite Under-18 Teams

Quantifying game and training demands in basketball allows to determine player’s readiness and optimizes preparation to perform and reduce injury risks. Available research is using tracking technology to perform general descriptions of the game activities at professional levels, but somehow, is not exploring the possibilities of gathering data from new variables that can contribute with complementary information for the coaching staffs. The aim of this study was to identify changes in locomotor ratio, at higher and lower speeds, during the game quarters from elite under-18 basketball teams. Ninety-four male players participated in the study (age: 17.4 ± 0.74 years; height: 199.0 ± 0.1 cm; body mass: 87.1 ± 13.1 kg) from different playing positions, Guards (n = 35), Forwards (n = 42), and Centers (n = 17). Data were gathered from an international tournament and players’ movements were measured using a portable ultra-wide band position-tracking system (WIMU PRO®, Realtrack Systems, Almeria, Spain). The following variables were measured: (1) relative distance in different speed zones: walking (<6.0 km·h−1), jogging (6.0–12.0 km·h−1), running (12.1–18.0 km·h−1), high-intensity running (18.1–24.0 km·h−1), and sprinting (>24.1 km·h−1); and (2) player load, vector magnitude expressed as the square root of the sum of the squared instantaneous rates of change in acceleration in each of the three planes divided by 100. Afterward, these variables were used to calculate players’ locomotor ratio (player load per meter covered) at higher (running, high-intensity running, and sprinting) and lower speeds (walking and jogging). Results from the locomotor ratio at both lower and higher speeds presented a significant effect for the quarter (F = 7.3, p < 0.001 and F = 7.1, p < 0.001, respectively) and player position (F = 3.1, p = 0.04, F = 9.2, p < 0.001, respectively). There was an increase in the locomotor ratio from game quarter (Q) Q1 to Q4 at lower speeds, but contrary trends at higher speeds, i.e., the values have decreased from Q1 to Q4. Also, forwards and centers of the best teams presented lower values at higher speeds. Altogether, the findings may be used by coaching staffs as a first baseline to elaborate normative behavior models from the players’ performance and also to induce variability and adaptation in specific practice planning.
Novel Cellular Functions of Very Long Chain-Fatty Acids: Insight From ELOVL4 Mutations

Elongation of Very Long chain fatty acids-4 (ELOVL4) protein is a member of the ELOVL family of fatty acid elongases that is collectively responsible for catalyzing formation of long chain fatty acids. ELOVL4 is the only family member that catalyzes production of Very Long Chain Saturated Fatty Acids (VLC-SFA) and Very Long Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (VLC-PUFA) with chain lengths ≥28 carbons. ELOVL4 and its VLC-SFA and VLC-PUFA products are emerging as important regulators of synaptic signaling and neuronal survival in the central nervous system (CNS). Distinct sets of mutations in ELOVL4 cause three different neurological diseases in humans. Heterozygous inheritance of one set of autosomal dominant ELOVL4 mutations that leads to truncation of the ELOVL4 protein causes Stargardt-like macular dystrophy (STGD3), an aggressive juvenile-onset retinal degeneration. Heterozygous inheritance of a different set of autosomal dominant ELOVL4 mutations that leads to a full-length protein with single amino acid substitutions causes spinocerebellar ataxia 34 (SCA34), a late-onset neurodegenerative disease characterized by gait ataxia and cerebellar atrophy. Homozygous inheritance of a different set of ELOVL4 mutations causes a more severe disease with infantile onset characterized by seizures, spasticity, intellectual disability, ichthyosis, and premature death. ELOVL4 is expressed widely in the CNS and is found primarily in neurons. ELOVL4 is expressed in cell-specific patterns within different regions of the CNS that are likely to be related to disease symptoms. In the retina, ELOVL4 is expressed exclusively in photoreceptors and produces VLC-PUFA that are incorporated into phosphatidylcholine and enriched in the light sensitive membrane disks of the photoreceptor outer segments. VLC-PUFA are enzymatically converted into “elovanoid” compounds that appear to provide paracrine signals that promote photoreceptor and neuronal survival. In the brain, the main ELOVL4 products are VLC-SFA that are incorporated into sphingolipids and enriched in synaptic vesicles, where they regulate kinetics of presynaptic neurotransmitter release. Understanding the function of ELOVL4 and its VLC-SFA and VLC-PUFA products will advance our understanding of basic mechanisms in neural signaling and has potential for developing novel therapies for seizure and neurodegenerative diseases.
Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback Based on Slow-Paced Breathing With Immersive Virtual Reality Nature Scenery

This study investigated the benefits of using a virtual nature environment to administer immersive heart rate variability biofeedback (HRV-BF) based on slow-paced breathing. We compared the virtual reality (VR)-based HRV-BF with a standard implementation in a randomized controlled experiment with 60 healthy employees. After a cognitive stress induction, the participants performed a single-session of HRV-BF before repeating the cognitive stressor task. VR-based versus standard HRV-BF was comparable in terms of biofeedback performance (cardiac coherence and cardiac vagal tone). However, the VR-based implementation buffered perceived stress in the subsequent stressor task, increased relaxation self-efficacy more, reduced mind wandering, helped participants focus on the present moment, and helped preserve attentional resources. Potential long-term effects and generalizability need to be assessed in future research.
Adipocytes Directly Affect Coronary Artery Disease Pathogenesis via Induction of Adipokine and Cytokine Imbalances

This study aimed to investigate the adipokine and cytokine profiles of adipocytes from epicardial and subcutaneous adipose tissues in interconnection with the visceral adipose tissue area and the biochemical and clinical characteristics of patients with coronary artery disease. We assessed 84 patients with coronary artery disease (65 men, 19 women) and divided them into two groups based on the presence of visceral obesity. We sampled epicardial and subcutaneous adipose tissues from the patients with visceral obesity. We then cultured the adipocytes and evaluated their adipokine profiles and pro-inflammatory activity. Results show that the mRNA expression of adiponectin in cultures of epicardial adipocytes from patients with and without visceral obesity was lower than that in subcutaneous adipocytes. Moreover, adiponectin mRNA expression in cultures of subcutaneous and epicardial adipocytes from patients with visceral obesity was lower than that in patients without obesity. For leptin, the reverse pattern was observed, with expression higher in cultures of epicardial adipocytes than in subcutaneous adipocytes and higher in epicardial adipocytes from patients with visceral obesity than in those from subjects without visceral obesity. In addition, in epicardial adipocytes, increased expression of proinflammatory cytokine genes (IL6, TNF) was observed compared with that in subcutaneous adipocytes. In contrast, expression of IL10 was higher in cultures of subcutaneous adipocytes than in epicardial adipocytes. The epicardial adipose tissue area was associated with the presence of higher levels of leptin and TNF-α within adipocytes and serum, increased lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. Coronary artery disease, in the context of the status of epicardial adipocytes, can be characterized as “metabolic inflammation,” suggesting the direct involvement of adipocytes in pathogenesis through the development of adipokine imbalances and activation of proinflammatory processes.
Simvastatin Enhances the Immune Response Against Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Tuberculosis remains a serious threat worldwide. For this reason, it is necessary to identify agents that shorten the duration of treatment, strengthen the host immune system, and/or decrease the damage caused by the infection. Statins are drugs that reduce plasma cholesterol levels and have immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effects. Although there is evidence that statins may contribute to the containment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, their effects on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) involved in the immune response have not been previously described. Using PBMCs from 10 healthy subjects infected with M. tuberculosis H37Rv, we analyzed the effects of simvastatin on the treatment of the infections in an in vitro experimental model. Direct quantification of M. tuberculosis growth (in CFU/mL) was performed. Phenotypes and cell activation were assessed via multi-color flow cytometry. Culture supernatant cytokine levels were determined via cytokine bead arrays. The induction of apoptosis and autophagy was evaluated via flow cytometry and confocal microscopy. Simvastatin decreased the growth of M. tuberculosis in PBMCs, increased the proportion of NKT cells in culture, increased the expression of co-stimulatory molecules in monocytes, promoted the secretion of the cytokines IL-1β and IL-12p70, and activated apoptosis and autophagy in monocytes, resulting in a significant reduction in bacterial load. We also observed an increase in IL-10 production. We did not observe any direct antimycobacterial activity. This study provides new insight into the mechanism through which simvastatin reduces the mycobacterial load in infected PBMCs. These results demonstrate that simvastatin activates several immune mechanisms that favor the containment of M. tuberculosis infection, providing relevant evidence to consider statins as candidates for host-directed therapy. They also suggest that future studies are needed to define the roles of statin-induced anti-inflammatory mechanisms in tuberculosis treatment.
Visual Attention Modulates Phenomenal Consciousness: Evidence From a Change Detection Study

The distinction between phenomenal and access consciousness has been influential in the field of consciousness studies. Both Block and Lamme proposed that access consciousness, or narrow cognitive accessibility, is related to a limited capacity working memory, and that phenomenal consciousness, or broad cognitive accessibility, is related to iconic memory or, more recently, to a fragile (intermediate) short-term memory store with a larger capacity than working memory. They have also highlighted the preattentive nature of phenomenal consciousness and of the related iconic and fragile visual short-term stores, thus selectively linking attention with access consciousness, in line with Baars and Dehaene, among others. However, a range of electrophysiological and neurophysiological studies suggest that visual attention can affect early responses of neurons in visual cortex, before conscious access. Furthermore, some theories and neurocomputational models suggest earlier attentional biases related to phenomenal consciousness. To solve this controversy, and to shed light on the relationships of attention with iconic memory and subsequent stages of visual maintenance, we conducted an experiment with a novel procedure of change detection based on delayed cueing of the target for report with high- and low-priority objects marked by color. In line with our hypothesis, the results show an attentional bias toward high-priority objects in the memory array with the longer (600 and 1,200 ms) cueing delays associated with a fragile (intermediate) visual short-term memory, but not with the shorter cueing delays (16.6 and 200 ms) associated with iconic memory. These findings therefore suggest two stages of phenomenal consciousness before access consciousness: a first preattentive stage related to iconic memory and a second stage related to fragile visual short-term memory intermediate between iconic and visual working memory, which is modulated by visual attention in a time-dependent manner. Finally, our results suggest the dissociation between a mid-level visual attention modulating phenomenal consciousness and a central attention directing access consciousness.