Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interval training as an alternative modality to continuous exercise in patients with COPD

Understanding of what constitutes a training load adequate to induce training effects in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is still evolving. The present study investigated whether interval training (IT) is effective in terms of inducing measurable improvements in physiological response and compared its effects on exercise tolerance (ET) and quality of life to those of continuous training (CT). Thirty-six COPD patients, with a forced expiratory volume in one second of 45±4% of the predicted value (mean±sem), were randomly assigned to CT (exercise at 50% of baseline peak work-rate) or IT (work for 30 s at 100% of peak work-rate alternating with 30‐s rest intervals) groups that cycled 40 min·day−1 and 2 days·week−1 for 12 weeks. After training, both groups showed significantly improved ET (IT, 57±6 to 71±8 W; CT, 57±5 to 70±6 W) and total quality-of-life score of the Chronic Respiratory Disease Questionnaire (IT, 77±3 to 88±2; CT, 78±3 to 93±2). At identical levels of exercise, minute ventilation was significantly reduced (IT, 35.8±2.5 to 31.7±2.5 L·min−1; CT, 36.4±2.7 to 32.5±2.7 L·min−1). The magnitude of improvement in these variables was not significantly different among groups. The present data expand on the principles of exercise prescription for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients by demonstrating that interval training elicits substantial training effects, which are similar in magnitude to those produced by continuous training at half the exercise intensity but double the exercise time.
Interpreting the multifocal visual evoked potential: the effects of refractive errors, cataracts, and fixation errors

Aim: To understand how refractive errors, cataracts, and fixation errors affect multifocal visual evoked potential (mfVEP) responses. Methods: Monocular mfVEP responses were obtained using a pattern reversal dartboard display. For the control condition, visual acuity was corrected to ⩾20/20 and foveal fixation was maintained. The right eye was tested under the following conditions: simulated refractive error, simulated cataract, steady eccentric fixation, and unsteady fixation. Results: No subject demonstrated significant abnormalities under control conditions. For the simulated refractive error condition, significant centrally located abnormalities were seen for all subjects. For the simulated cataract condition, significant abnormalities were found for three subjects. The steady eccentric fixation condition yielded abnormalities in both eyes for all subjects while the unsteady fixation condition yielded significant central abnormalities in the tested eye. With eccentric and unsteady fixation conditions, all subjects had at least one sector with a waveform polarity reversal. Conclusions: While the mfVEP is a useful tool for identifying local optic nerve damage or ruling out non-organic aetiology of visual field defects, factors such as uncorrected refractive errors, cataract, eccentric fixation, and unsteady fixation can produce apparent field defects on the mfVEP. With care, these problems can be correctly identified.
How to protect biometric templates

In addition to the inherent qualities that biometrics posses, powerful signal processing tools enabled widespread deployment of the biometric-based identification/verification systems. However, due to the nature of biometric data, well-established cryptographic tools (such as hashing, encryption, etc.) are not sufficient for solving one of the most important problems related to biometric systems, namely, template security. In this paper, we examine and show how to apply a recently proposed secure sketch scheme in order to protect the biometric templates. We consider face biometrics and study how the performance of the authentication scheme would be affected after the application of the secure sketch. We further study the trade-off between the performance of the scheme and the bound of the entropy loss from the secure sketch.
Dense Estimation of Surface Reflectance Properties for Merging Virtualized Objects into Real Images

To appropriately reproduce a real object in a mixed environment, it is necessary to estimate reflectance properties of object surfaces. This paper describes a new method of densely estimating non-uniform surface reflectance properties of an object with convex and concave surfaces using registered range and surface color texture images obtained by a laser rangefinder. The proposed method determines positions of light source to take color images for discriminating diffuse and specular reflection components of surface reflection. The Torrance-Sparrow model is employed to estimate reflectance parameters using color images under multiple illumination conditions. Experiments show the usefulness of the method.
The endocrine and follicular growth dynamics throughout the menstrual cycle in women with consistently or variably elevated early follicular phase FSH compared with controls.

BACKGROUND Elevated early follicular phase (EFP) FSH is frequently observed in subfertile patients. In these women, temporary normalization of FSH concentrations is known to occur. We studied the complete endocrine cycle profile of subfertile young women with elevated basal FSH compared with controls. METHODS Daily bloodsampling and ultrasound monitoring in the follicular phase was performed in 22 patients with elevated basal FSH levels (identified in screening) and in 16 controls during one menstrual cycle and for 5 days of the next cycle. RESULTS Eleven patients showed elevated basal FSH levels in the study cycle ('High, High'; H,H group) whereas 11 had normalized basal FSH levels ('High, Low'; H,L group). Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) was lower in both groups. In the H,H group, FSH was higher in all phases of the cycle and both inhibin A and B were lower during the EFP. In the H,L group, FSH was also higher than in controls in the EFP and the late luteal phase and inhibin A was higher in the periovulatory phase. 'Normalization' of Day 3 FSH in women with previously elevated FSH was associated with normalization of inhibin B levels in the preceding luteal phase. CONCLUSIONS The endocrine cycle profile in younger subfertile patients with consistently elevated basal FSH resembles that in published data from older women and also reflects a low ovarian reserve. Normalization of FSH in association with normal inhibin B suggests a temporary increase of the available cohort.
PLOTREP: a web tool for defragmentation and visual analysis of dispersed genomic repeats

Identification of dispersed or interspersed repeats, most of which are derived from transposons, retrotransposons or retrovirus-like elements, is an important step in genome annotation. Software tools that compare genomic sequences with precompiled repeat reference libraries using sensitive similarity-based methods provide reliable means of finding the positions of fragments homologous to known repeats. However, their output is often incomplete and fragmented owing to the mutations (nucleotide substitutions, deletions or insertions) that can result in considerable divergence from the reference sequence. Merging these fragments to identify the whole region that represents an ancient copy of a mobile element is challenging, particularly if the element is large and suffered multiple deletions or insertions. Here we report PLOTREP, a tool designed to post-process results obtained by sequence similarity search and merge fragments belonging to the same copy of a repeat. The software allows rapid visual inspection of the results using a dot-plot like graphical output. The web implementation of PLOTREP is available at .
EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY AND LOGISTIC ANALYSIS ON INTERNET ADDICTION DISORDER AMONG 3508 MIDDLE AND COLLEGE STUDENTS

[Objective] To study the situation of Internet addiction disorder (IAD) and mental health among middle school students and college students in Nanchang City. To analyze the factors associated with IAD. [Methods] Chinese Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS), Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90) and the questionnaires about the situation of Internet designed by researchers were used for a concentrate survey among 3 666 students. [Results] The IAD rate of the students was 11.8%. Preva-lence rate was higher in boys and college students. The scores of somatization, obsessive-compulisive, interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety, depression hostility, paranoid ideation in SCL-90 of IAD students were higher than those of non-IAD. Many factors were associated with IAD, such as disharmony family relation, low self-confidence, depression, and so on. [Conclusion] The prevalence rate of IAD is high in middle school students and college students. Internet addictive students have poor mental health. They suffering from the diseases is related many factors. It is necessary to take interventions as soon as possibly.
Modeling Individual Differences through Frequent Pattern Mining on Role-Playing Game Actions

There has been much work on player modeling using game behavioral data collected. Many of the previous research projects that targeted this goal used aggregate game statistics as features to develop behavior models using both statistical and machine learning techniques. While existing methods have already led to interesting findings, we suspect that aggregated features discard valuable information such as temporal or sequential patterns, which may be important in deciphering information about decisionmaking, problem solving, or individual differences. Such sequential information is critical to analyze player behaviors especially in role-playing games (RPG) where players can face ample choices, experience different contexts, behave freely with individual propensities but possibly end up with similar aggregated statistics (e.g., levels, time spent). In this paper we intend to develop and apply a modeling technique that takes into consideration sequential patters to decipher individual differences in playing a Role Playing Game (RPG) game. Using an RPG with multiple affordances, we designed an experiment collecting granular in-game behaviors of 64 players. Using closed sequential pattern mining and logistic regression, we developed a model that uses gameplay action sequences to predict the real world characteristics, including gender, game play expertise and five personality traits (as defined by psychology). The results show that game expertise is a dominant factor that impacts in-game behaviors. The contribution of this paper is the algorithms we developed combined with a validation procedure to determine the reliability and validity of the results and the results themselves.
Key distribution mechanisms for wireless sensor networks : a survey

Advances in technology introduce new application areas for sensor networks. Foreseeable wide deployment of mission critical sensor networks creates concerns on security issues. Security of large scale densely deployed and infrastructure less wireless networks of resource limited sensor nodes requires efficient key distribution and management mechanisms. We consider distributed and hierarchical wireless sensor networks where unicast, multicast and broadcast type of communications can take place. We evaluate deterministic, probabilistic and hybrid type of key pre-distribution and dynamic key generation algorithms for distributing pair-wise, group-wise and network-wise keys.
Visual confirmation of mobile objects tracked by a multi-layer lidar

Integrity of the information provided by a perception system is crucial for advanced driver assistance systems intended for safety applications, like obstacle avoidance systems. A method to ensure integrity is to use different kinds of perception sources. Lidars are key sensors for multiple objects detection and tracking. Stereo vision systems (SVS) can be used to improve the tracking but, in this paper, we use also SVS to confirm the real existence of potential obstacles thanks to 3D dense reconstruction in focused regions of interest. Synchronization issues between the different sensors are addressed using predictive filtering. The proposed approach is evaluated in real conditions thanks to five use cases relevant to urban situations. Results show that this visual confirmation strategy is efficient.
A population-based cross-sectional study of the association between facial morphology and cardiometabolic risk factors in adolescence

Objective To determine whether facial morphology is associated with fasting insulin, glucose and lipids independent of body mass index (BMI) in adolescents. Design Population-based cross-sectional study. Setting Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), South West of England. Participants From the ALSPAC database of 4747 three-dimensional facial laser scans, collected during a follow-up clinic at the age of 15, 2348 white British adolescents (1127 males and 1221 females) were selected on the basis of complete data on cardiometabolic parameters, BMI and Tanner's pubertal stage. Main outcome measures Fasting insulin, glucose and lipids (triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLc) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLc)). Results On the basis of the collection of 63 x, y and z coordinates of 21 anthropometric landmarks, 14 facial principal components (PCs) were identified. These components explained 82% of the variation in facial morphology and were used as exposure variables. With adjustment for age, gender and pubertal stage, seven PCs were associated with fasting insulin, none with glucose, three with triglycerides, three with HDLc and four with LDLc. After additional adjustment for BMI, four PCs remained associated with fasting insulin, one with triglycerides and two with LDLc. None of these associations withstood adjustment for multiple comparisons. Conclusions These initial hypotheses generating analyses provide no evidence that facial morphology is importantly related to cardiometabolic outcomes. Further examination might be warranted. Facial morphology assessment may have value in identifying other areas of disease risk.
Serum Long-Chain n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Risk of Hospital Diagnosis of Atrial Fibrillation in Men

Background— Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common cardiac arrhythmia. Regular fish consumption has been shown to reduce the risk of AF in some but not all studies. Long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) from fish have been suggested to account for these beneficial effects. We tested this hypothesis by studying the association between the serum long-chain n-3 PUFAs eicosapentaenoic acid, docosapentaenoic acid, and docosahexaenoic acid and risk of AF in men. Methods and Results— A total of 2174 men from the prospective population-based Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study, 42 to 60 years old and free of AF at baseline in 1984 to 1989, were studied. During the average follow-up time of 17.7 years, 240 AF events occurred. In the Cox proportional hazards model, the multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio in the highest (>5.33%) versus the lowest (<3.61%) quartile of eicosapentaenoic acid plus docosapentaenoic acid plus docosahexaenoic acid was 0.65 (95% confidence interval 0.44 to 0.96, P for trend=0.07). Evaluated individually, only serum docosahexaenoic acid was associated with the risk of AF (hazard ratio in the highest versus the lowest quartile 0.62, 95% confidence interval 0.42 to 0.92, P for trend=0.02). Exclusion of subjects (n=233) with myocardial infarction or congestive heart failure either at baseline or that preceded the AF event during follow-up slightly strengthened the associations. Serum intermediate chain-length n-3 PUFA, αagr;agr;agr;agr;-linolenic acid, or hair methylmercury concentration were not associated with the risk. Conclusions— An increased concentration of long-chain n-3 PUFAs in serum, a marker of fish or fish oil consumption, may protect against AF. Serum docosahexaenoic acid concentration had the greatest impact.
Novel Genetic Approach to Investigate the Role of Plasma Secretory Phospholipase A2 (sPLA2)-V Isoenzyme in Coronary Heart Disease: Modified Mendelian Randomization Analysis Using PLA2G5 Expression Levels

Background—Secretory phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) enzymes are considered to play a role in atherosclerosis. sPLA2 activity encompasses several sPLA2 isoenzymes, including sPLA2-V. Although observational studies show a strong association between elevated sPLA2 activity and CHD, no assay to measure sPLA2-V levels exists, and the only evidence linking the sPLA2-V isoform to atherosclerosis progression comes from animal studies. In the absence of an assay that directly quantifies sPLA2-V levels, we used PLA2G5 mRNA levels in a novel, modified Mendelian randomization approach to investigate the hypothesized causal role of sPLA2-V in coronary heart disease (CHD) pathogenesis. Methods and Results—Using data from the Advanced Study of Aortic Pathology, we identified the single-nucleotide polymorphism in PLA2G5 showing the strongest association with PLA2G5 mRNA expression levels as a proxy for sPLA2-V levels. We tested the association of this SNP with sPLA2 activity and CHD events in 4 prospective and 14 case–control studies with 27 230 events and 70 500 controls. rs525380C>A showed the strongest association with PLA2G5 mRNA expression (P=5.1×10−6). There was no association of rs525380C>A with plasma sPLA2 activity (difference in geometric mean of sPLA2 activity per rs525380 A-allele 0.4% (95% confidence intervals [−0.9%, 1.6%]; P=0.56). In meta-analyses, the odds ratio for CHD per A-allele was 1.02 (95% confidence intervals [0.99, 1.04]; P=0.20). Conclusions—This novel approach for single-nucleotide polymorphism selection for this modified Mendelian randomization analysis showed no association between rs525380 (the lead single-nucleotide polymorphism for PLA2G5 expression, a surrogate for sPLA2-V levels) and CHD events. The evidence does not support a causal role for sPLA2-V in CHD.
Expression of carcinoembryonic antigen and its predicted immunoglobulin-like domains in HeLa cells for epitope analysis.

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is a member of the immunoglobulin gene superfamily with one predicted variable domain-like region (N domain; 108 amino acids) and three sets of constant domain-like regions (A1B1, A2B2, and A3B3; 92 amino acids for A domains and 86 amino acids for B domains). In addition, CEA possesses two signal peptides, one at the amino terminus and one at the carboxyl terminus. Both are removed during posttranslational processing, with the one at the carboxyl terminus being replaced by a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) moiety. We have previously expressed the full length complementary DNA clone for CEA in Chinese hamster ovary cells and murine L cells, demonstrating proper processing of nascent polypeptide chains to mature, fully glycosylated CEA including the GPI anchor. Using the same full length CEA complementary DNA clone and the polymerase chain reaction, we have now constructed expression clones for secreted versions of the N domain, the A3B3 domain, and the A3 and B3 subdomains. The clones were expressed in HeLa cells using the beta-actin promoter. A stop codon was introduced at the end of the A3B3 and the A3 and B3 domains to allow secretion instead of retention on plasma membranes with the GPI anchor. Expressed products were purified to homogeneity by affinity chromatography using monoclonal antibodies specific for each domain and by reversed phase high pressure liquid chromatography. Purified domains were characterized by Western blotting, antibody binding and inhibition studies, amino-terminal sequence and amino acid analyses, and laser desorption/time of flight mass spectrometry. These analyses revealed that the monomeric N domain is of size 15,990, with a glycosylation mass of about 4100, in good agreement with two N-linked glycosyl units of about mass 2100. There is some evidence that the N domain forms dimers. The N domain reacted with antibodies specific for this domain with an affinity similar to that of intact CEA. The A3B3 domain had a mass of 34,462, with a glycosylation mass of 14,900, in good agreement with seven N-linked glycosylation sites of average mass 2100. The A3B3 domain reacted only with antibodies specific for this domain, with a slightly lower affinity than that of native CEA. The amino-terminal sequences of the N domain and A3B3 domain proteins demonstrated proper processing of the signal peptide. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Mediation Analysis With Intermediate Confounding: Structural Equation Modeling Viewed Through the Causal Inference Lens

The study of mediation has a long tradition in the social sciences and a relatively more recent one in epidemiology. The first school is linked to path analysis and structural equation models (SEMs), while the second is related mostly to methods developed within the potential outcomes approach to causal inference. By giving model-free definitions of direct and indirect effects and clear assumptions for their identification, the latter school has formalized notions intuitively developed in the former and has greatly increased the flexibility of the models involved. However, through its predominant focus on nonparametric identification, the causal inference approach to effect decomposition via natural effects is limited to settings that exclude intermediate confounders. Such confounders are naturally dealt with (albeit with the caveats of informality and modeling inflexibility) in the SEM framework. Therefore, it seems pertinent to revisit SEMs with intermediate confounders, armed with the formal definitions and (parametric) identification assumptions from causal inference. Here we investigate: 1) how identification assumptions affect the specification of SEMs, 2) whether the more restrictive SEM assumptions can be relaxed, and 3) whether existing sensitivity analyses can be extended to this setting. Data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (1990–2005) are used for illustration.
Mechanisms for soil moisture effects on activity of nitrifying bacteria

Moisture may limit microbial activity in a wide range of environments including salt water, food, wood, biofilms, and soils. Low water availability can inhibit microbial activity by lowering intracellular water potential and thus reducing hydration and activity of enzymes. In solid matrices, low water content may also reduce microbial activity by restricting substrate supply. As pores within solid matrices drain and water films coating surfaces become thinner, diffusion path lengths become more tortuous, and the rate of substrate diffusion to microbial cells declines. We used two independent techniques to evaluate the relative importance of cytoplasmic dehydration versus diffusional limitations in controlling rates of nitrification in soil. Nitrification rates in shaken soil slurries, in which NH(inf4)(sup+) was maintained at high concentrations and osmotic potential was controlled by the addition of K(inf2)SO(inf4), were compared with rates in moist soil incubations, in which substrate supply was controlled by the addition of NH(inf3) gas. Comparison of results from these techniques demonstrated that diffusional limitation of substrate supply and adverse physiologic effects associated with cell dehydration can explain all of the decline in activity of nitrifying bacteria at low soil water content. However, the relative importance of substrate limitation and dehydration changes at different water potentials. For the soil-microbial system we worked with, substrate limitation was the major inhibiting factor when soil water potentials were greater than -0.6 MPa, whereas adverse physiological effects associated with cell dehydration were more inhibiting at water potentials of less than -0.6 MPa.