Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Probiotic Soy Product Supplemented with Isoflavones Improves the Lipid Profile of Moderately Hypercholesterolemic Men: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of worldwide morbidity and mortality. Several studies have demonstrated that specific probiotics affect the host’s metabolism and may influence the cardiovascular disease risk. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of an isoflavone-supplemented soy product fermented with Enterococcus faecium CRL 183 and Lactobacillus helveticus 416 on cardiovascular risk markers in moderately hypercholesterolemic subjects. Design: Randomized placebo-controlled double-blind trial Setting: São Paulo State University in Araraquara, SP, Brazil. Participants: 49 male healthy men with total cholesterol (TC) >5.17 mmol/L and <6.21 mmol/L Intervention: The volunteers have consumed 200 mL of the probiotic soy product (group SP-1010 CFU/day), isoflavone-supplemented probiotic soy product (group ISP–probiotic plus 50 mg of total isoflavones/100 g) or unfermented soy product (group USP-placebo) for 42 days in a randomized, double-blind study. Main outcome measures: Lipid profile and additional cardiovascular biomarkers were analyzed on days 0, 30 and 42. Urine samples (24 h) were collected at baseline and at the end of the experiment so as to determine the isoflavones profile. Results: After 42 days, the ISP consumption led to improved total cholesterol, non-HDL-C (LDL + IDL + VLDL cholesterol fractions) and electronegative LDL concentrations (reduction of 13.8%, 14.7% and 24.2%, respectively, p < 0.05). The ISP and SP have prevented the reduction of HDL-C level after 42 days. The C-reactive protein and fibrinogen levels were not improved. The equol production by the ISP group subjects was inversely correlated with electronegative LDL concentration. Conclusions: The results suggest that a regular consumption of this probiotic soy product, supplemented with isoflavones, could contribute to reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases in moderately hypercholesterolemic men, through the an improvement in lipid profile and antioxidant properties.
The Role of Visual Merchandising in Impulse Buying Behavior: An exploration from the lens of young adult consumers

The study was conducted to identify the relationship between young adult consumer’s impulse buying behavior and visual merchandising. Five techniques of visual merchandising which are window display, store layout, lighting, promotional signage and brand name was considered in the study to determine the effect. A convenient sampling technique was used to gather data. The young adult consumer’s including male and female (N=290, age range between 16 to 35 years) was considered for data gathering. To study the variables, questionnaire is adapted from different author’s (Rook & Fisher, 1995),(Bhalla & Anuraag, 2010),(Wanninayake & Randiwela, 2007),(Dua & Karolia, 2008),(Bhatti & Latif, 2014). Stepwise regression showed that five dimensions of visual merchandising window display, store lay out, lighting, promotional signage and brand name effect young adults consumers’ impulse buying behavior directly. Findings also indicate that Visual merchandising has turned out to be an essential variable nowadays to attract consumers and to increase sales.
Botulinum toxin type A in treatment of bilateral primary axillary hyperhidrosis: randomised, parallel group, double blind, placebo controlled trial

Abstract Objectives: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of botulinum toxin type A in the treatment of bilateral primary axillary hyperhidrosis. Design: Multicentre, randomised, parallel group, placebo controlled trial. Setting: 17 dermatology and neurology clinics in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Participants: Patients aged 18-75 years with bilateral primary axillary hyperhidrosis sufficient to interfere with daily living. 465 were screened, 320 randomised, and 307 completed the study. Interventions: Patients received either botulinum toxin type A (Botox) 50 U per axilla or placebo by 10-15 intradermal injections evenly distributed within the hyperhidrotic area of each axilla, defined by Minor's iodine starch test. Main outcome measures: Percentage of responders (patients with ≥50% reduction from baseline of spontaneous axillary sweat production) at four weeks, patients' global assessment of treatment satisfaction score, and adverse events. Results: At four weeks, 94% (227) of the botulinum toxin type A group had responded compared with 36% (28) of the placebo group. By week 16, response rates were 82% (198) and 21% (16), respectively. The results for all other measures of efficacy were significantly better in the botulinum toxin group than the placebo group. Significantly higher patient satisfaction was reported in the botulinum toxin type A group than the placebo group (3.3 v 0.8, P<0.001 at 4 weeks). Adverse events were reported by only 27 patients (11%) in the botulinum toxin group and four (5%) in the placebo group (P>0.05). Conclusion: Botulinum toxin type A is a safe and effective treatment for primary axillary hyperhidrosis and produces high levels of patient satisfaction. What is already known on this topic Primary hyperhidrosis is a chronic disorder that can affect any part of the body, especially the axillas, palms, feet, and face Current treatments are often ineffective, short acting, or poorly tolerated What this study adds Botulinum toxin type A was significantly better than placebo on all measures of sweating Patient satisfaction was high and few adverse events were reported Effects of treatment remained apparent at 16 weeks
Stability, power sharing, & distributed secondary control in droop-controlled microgrids

Motivated by the recent and growing interest in microgrids, we study the operation of droop-controlled DC/AC inverters in an islanded inductive microgrid. We present a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a synchronized steady state that is unique and locally exponentially stable. We discuss a selection of controller gains which leads to a sharing of power among the generators, and show that this proportional selection enforces actuation constraints for the inverters. Moreover, we propose a distributed integral controller based on averaging algorithms which dynamically regulates the system frequency in the presence of a time-varying load. Remarkably, this distributed-averaging integral controller has the additional property that it maintains the power sharing properties of the primary droop controller. Finally, we present experimental results validating our controller design, along with simulations of extended scenarios. Our results hold without assumptions on uniform line admittances, inverter power ratings, or voltage magnitudes.
The Effect of Station Technique Used in Science and Technology Class on Students' Achievement and Retention

In this study, the effect of station technique used in Science and Technology course on students' achievement and retention investigated. The research was conducted with 79 students in the 7 th grade from two different primary schools located in the east of Turkey on the 2 nd term of 2010-2011 educational year. For the study, an experimental group and two control groups were randomly selected by the researchers. The research was conducted according to the pretest-posttest model with control group. During the application process, the students in the experimental group were learning the subjects by station technique while the students in the control groups were learning the subjects by the activities planned in the science and technology course curriculum. In this study, an "Optics Achievement Test" consisting of 23 multiple-choice questions was developed by the researchers to measure changes in student achievement, and this test was applied to all groups as pretest and posttest. Also 6 weeks after posttest, "Optics Achievement Test" was reapplied to experimental group as retention test. According to the findings, it is concluded that station technique is more effective than existing curriculum activities on students’ achievement, and it enables retention of the learnt subjects (p<0.05). In addition, in this study, John Henry, and Hawthorne effects, the most important factors threatening internal validity in experimental studies, were tried to be controlled.
Effects of contextual factors on image searching on the Web

This research examined college students’ image searching processes on the Web. The study’s objective was to collect empirical data on students’ search needs and identify what contextual factors had a significant influence on their image searching tactics. While confirming common search behaviors such as Google-dominant use, short queries, rare use of advanced search options, and checking few search result pages, the findings also revealed a significantly different effect of contextual factors on the tactics of querying and navigating, performance, and relevance judgment. In particular, interaction activities were differentiated by task goals, level of searching expertise, and work task stages. The results suggested that context-sensitive services and interface features would better suit Web users’ actual needs and enhance their searching experience.
Simple Generalized Group-Oriented Cryptosystems Using ElGamal Cryptosystem

In the generalized group-oriented cryptosystem, the sender can send a conditional message to a group of users such that only the specified sets of users in this group can cooperate to decrypt this message. In this paper, we will use an ElGamal cryptosystem and an elliptic curve ElGamal cryptosystem to achieve the purposes of generalization and group-orientation, respectively. Both of our schemes are more efficient than Tsai et al.'s scheme in terms of sender's computational complexity.
Tum/RacGAP50C provides a critical link between anaphase microtubules and the assembly of the contractile ring in Drosophila melanogaster

A central question in understanding cytokinesis is how the cleavage plane is positioned. Although the positioning signal is likely to be transmitted via the anaphase microtubule array to the cell cortex, exactly how the microtubule array determines the site of contractile ring formation remains unresolved. By analysing tum/RacGAP50C mutant Drosophila embryos we show that cells lacking Tum do not form furrows and fail to localise the key cytokinetic components Pebble (a RhoGEF), Aurora B kinase, Diaphanous, Pav-KLP and Anillin. The GAP activity of Tum is required for cytokinesis: in its absence cytokinesis fails early even though Tum is present on microtubules at the cell equator where the furrow should form. Disruption of the Pebble-interacting domain leaves Tum localised to the cell equator on cortically associated microtubules, again with no evidence of furrowing. These data support a model in which Tum/RacGAP, via its interaction with Pbl, provides a critical link between the anaphase microtubule spindle and cytokinetic furrow formation in Drosophila cells.
Loss of Metal Ions, Disulfide Reduction and Mutations Related to Familial ALS Promote Formation of Amyloid-Like Aggregates from Superoxide Dismutase

Mutations in the gene encoding Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) are one of the causes of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (FALS). Fibrillar inclusions containing SOD1 and SOD1 inclusions that bind the amyloid-specific dye thioflavin S have been found in neurons of transgenic mice expressing mutant SOD1. Therefore, the formation of amyloid fibrils from human SOD1 was investigated. When agitated at acidic pH in the presence of low concentrations of guanidine or acetonitrile, metalated SOD1 formed fibrillar material which bound both thioflavin T and Congo red and had circular dichroism and infrared spectra characteristic of amyloid. While metalated SOD1 did not form amyloid-like aggregates at neutral pH, either removing metals from SOD1 with its intramolecular disulfide bond intact or reducing the intramolecular disulfide bond of metalated SOD1 was sufficient to promote formation of these aggregates. SOD1 formed amyloid-like aggregates both with and without intermolecular disulfide bonds, depending on the incubation conditions, and a mutant SOD1 lacking free sulfhydryl groups (AS-SOD1) formed amyloid-like aggregates at neutral pH under reducing conditions. ALS mutations enhanced the ability of disulfide-reduced SOD1 to form amyloid-like aggregates, and apo-AS-SOD1 formed amyloid-like aggregates at pH 7 only when an ALS mutation was also present. These results indicate that some mutations related to ALS promote formation of amyloid-like aggregates by facilitating the loss of metals and/or by making the intramolecular disulfide bond more susceptible to reduction, thus allowing the conversion of SOD1 to a form that aggregates to form resembling amyloid. Furthermore, the occurrence of amyloid-like aggregates per se does not depend on forming intermolecular disulfide bonds, and multiple forms of such aggregates can be produced from SOD1.
Mechanically-controlled phase shifter of left-handed waveguide for beam-scanning slot array antennas

A mechanically-controlled phase shifter of left-handed waveguide is developed for beam-scanning slot array antennas. A delay line using similar periodic structures of right-handed waveguide is also developed for grating lobe suppression of slot array antennas with travelling-wave excitation. The left-handed waveguide is composed of periodic structures as the pair of an inductive iris for shunt inductance and a short stub for series capacitance. The delay line of the right-handed waveguide is composed of a capacitive iris for shunt capacitance and a shorter short stub for series inductance. Dispersion diagram is estimated by Bloch analysis in the design. Left-handed phenomenon with phase variation of mechanically-controlled phase shifter and shortening wavelength due to the delay line are confirmed in the experiments.
Energy-Efficient Power Allocation for Cooperative NOMA Systems With IBFD-Enabled Two-Way Cognitive Transmission

To compensate for the transmission efficiency in a cooperative non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system, we enable in-band full-duplex (IBFD) and two-way cognitive transmission at the mobile relay, which assists the NOMA user in weak channel condition while transmitting and receiving its own data by means of spectral sharing. To strike a balance between spectral efficiency and energy conservation, we consider the power allocation problem to maximize the energy efficiency of the hybrid system while maintaining the bit rate requirements of NOMA users. To overcome the non-convexity of the original problem, we apply the successive inner approximation technique and propose an efficient iterative scheme to obtain a Karush–Kuhn–Tucker point in polynomial time. The gain of IBFD-enabled two-way cognitive transmission and the efficiency of the proposed power allocation scheme are validated via simulation results.
Spontaneous Mandarin production: results of a corpus-based study

This paper presents empirical results of a corpus-based study attempting to characterize linguistic features of spontaneous Mandarin, which has been difficult to obtain before due to the lack of suitable speech material. Starting from linguistic considerations, these results of word frequency as well as syllable frequency should provide important cues to spontaneous speech production. Frequent words or syllables need special investigations into their phonetic forms in real production. Examinations of syllable structures also show that the distribution of onset consonant, nucleus and coda consonant in syllables which are often used in spontaneous Mandarin is similar across different speakers. And results of a segmental analysis also clearly indicate the likelihood of a segment being produced in spoken Mandarin.
The Exceptionally Soft X-Ray Spectrum of the Low-Mass Starburst Galaxy NGC 1705

NGC 1705 is one of the optically brightest and best studied dwarf galaxies. It appears to be in the late stage of a major starburst and contains a young super-star cluster. Type II supernovae are therefore likely to have been a major event in the recent evolution of this galaxy and are likely to have produced a superbubble whose effects on the low-density ambient interstellar medium can be ideally studied. ROSAT PSPC observations of this galaxy reveal two striking blobs of X-ray emission embedded in Hα loops that can be interpreted as both sides of the upper plumes of the same superbubble. These sources are a surprise. They are much softer than those observed from other starburst dwarf galaxies and are so soft that they should have been blocked if the observed Galactic H I column density were uniformly distributed across NGC 1705 or if the sources were embedded in the H I disk of NGC 1705. In addition, the total X-ray luminosity in the ROSAT energy band of 1.2×1038 ergs s-1 is low in comparison with similar objects. We discuss possible models for the two X-ray peaks in NGC 1705 and find that the sources most likely originate from the relatively cool gas of one single superbubble in NGC 1705. The implications of the exceptional softness of these sources are addressed in terms of the intrinsic properties of NGC 1705 and the nature of the foreground Galactic absorption.
Artificial Synaptic Conductances Reduce Subthreshold Oscillations and Periodic Firing in Stellate Cells of the Entorhinal Cortex

Previous work has established that stellate cells of the medial entorhinal cortex produce prominent intrinsic subthreshold oscillations in the voltage response concentrated within the theta range (3–7 Hz). It has been speculated that these oscillations play an important role in vivo in establishing network behavior both in the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus. Consequently, it is important to investigate under what conditions theta oscillations in stellate cells can be generated and whether the spike-train power spectral density (PSD) also carries power at theta. We investigated the ability of stellate cells to generate theta oscillations in the presence of generic in vivo-like patterns of stimulation. Inputs were Poisson process-driven excitatory and inhibitory synaptic conductances or currents, introduced via dynamic clamp. We analyzed the subthreshold membrane oscillations and spike-train behavior in the presence of comparable synaptic conductance- or current-mediated membrane fluctuations. In the presence of conductance-based synapses, subthreshold oscillations are highly attenuated or entirely eliminated. Conversely, with current-based synapses stellate cells retain their ability to generate subthreshold oscillations in the theta band. These results also extend into the spiking regime, where only under current-based synapses does the PSD of the spike train show a prominent peak at theta. Furthermore, the peak in the spike-train PSD and spike clustering results from an increased probability of firing after a spike afterhyperpolarization and not directly from subthreshold oscillatory dynamics as has been previously suggested. Our results suggest that subthreshold oscillations may contribute less to in vivo response properties than has been hypothesized.
Choosing Wisely: assessment of current US top five list recommendations’ trustworthiness using a pragmatic approach

Objectives Identification of sufficiently trustworthy top 5 list recommendations from the US Choosing Wisely campaign. Setting Not applicable. Participants All top 5 list recommendations available from the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation website. Main outcome measures/interventions Compilation of US top 5 lists and search for current German highly trustworthy (S3) guidelines. Extraction of guideline recommendations, including grade of recommendation (GoR), for suggestions comparable to top 5 list recommendations. For recommendations without guideline equivalents, the methodological quality of the top 5 list development process was assessed using criteria similar to that used to judge guidelines, and relevant meta-literature was identified in cited references. Judgement of sufficient trustworthiness of top 5 list recommendations was based either on an ‘A’ GoR of guideline equivalents or on high methodological quality and citation of relevant meta-literature. Results 412 top 5 list recommendations were identified. For 75 (18%), equivalents were found in current German S3 guidelines. 44 of these recommendations were associated with an ‘A’ GoR, or a strong recommendation based on strong evidence, and 26 had a ‘B’ or a ‘C’ GoR. No GoR was provided for 5 recommendations. 337 recommendations had no equivalent in the German S3 guidelines. The methodological quality of the development process was high and relevant meta-literature was cited for 87 top 5 list recommendations. For a further 36, either the methodological quality was high without any meta-literature citations or meta-literature citations existed but the methodological quality was lacking. For the remaining 214 recommendations, either the methodological quality was lacking and no literature was cited or the methodological quality was generally unsatisfactory. Conclusions 131 of current US top 5 list recommendations were found to be sufficiently trustworthy. For a substantial number of current US top 5 list recommendations, their trustworthiness remains unclear. Methodological requirements for developing top 5 lists are recommended.
Distributed Localization and Sampling Algorithm for 3-Dimensional Mobile Oceanic Sensor Networks

Last several years have overseen a rapidly growing interest in Oceanic Sensor Networks (OSN in short), which consists of a variable number of sensor nodes working at underwater to monitor particular oceanic environment collaboratively. Compared with the traditional sensor networks, OSN has many additional challenges with acoustic communication environment such as large propagation delay, low communication bandwidth and high packet drop rate. Moreover, OSN belongs to one 3-Dimensional framework networks. Therefore, traditional localization schemes for 2-Dimensional terrestrial sensor networks should be transformed into 3-Dimensional localization problem. In this paper, we proposed a large-scale OSN framework for distributed localization first. And then a distributed range-based localization algorithm designed for 3-Dimensional OSN is illustrated in details. Localization accuracy and localized ratio are two metrics to verify our proposed scheme.
Control of a Clonal Outbreak of Multidrug-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in a Hospital of the Basque Country after the Introduction of Environmental Cleaning Led by the Systematic Sampling from Environmental Objects

Background. Between July 2009 and September 2010, an outbreak of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii was detected in one critical care unit of a tertiary hospital in the Basque Country, involving 49 infected and 16 colonized patients. The aim was to evaluate the impact of environmental cleaning and systematic sampling from environmental objects on the risk of infection by MDR A. baumannii. Methods. After systematic sampling from environmental objects and molecular typing of all new MDR A. baumannii strains from patients and environmental isolates, we analyzed the correlation (Pearson's r) between new infected cases and positive environmental samples. The risk ratio (RR) of infection was estimated with Poisson regression. Results. The risk increased significantly with the number of positive samples in common areas (RR = 1.40; 95%CI = 0.99–1.94) and positive samples in boxes (RR = 1.19; 95%CI = 1.01–1.40). The number of cases also positively correlated with positive samples in boxes (r = 0.50; P < 0.05) and common areas (r = 0.29; P = 0.18). Conclusion. Once conventional measures have failed, environmental cleaning, guided by systematic sampling from environmental objects, provided the objective risk reduction of new cases and enabled the full control of the outbreak.