Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Poststroke Depression: A Review

Objective: To review the world's (English-language) publications related to depression following stroke. Method: The databases from MEDLINE and PubMed were reviewed for articles related to poststroke depression (PSD), depression and cerebral vascular accident, depression and cerebral vascular disease, and depression and cerebral infarction. Results: Most studies examined prevalence rates of depression and the clinical correlates of depression. Based on pooled data, the overall prevalence of major depression was 21.7% and minor depression was 19.5%. The strongest single correlate of depression was severity of impairment in activities of daily living. However, the existence of depression at baseline was found to be associated with greater impairment at follow-up, ranging from 6 weeks to 2 years in 83% of studies. Further, depression following acute stroke was also associated with greater cognitive impairment and increased mortality. PSD has been shown in 6 double-blind controlled studies to be effectively treated with antidepressants, and 1 study has recently shown that PSD can be effectively prevented. Conclusions: During the past 20 years, significant progress has been made in the identification and treatment of depression following stroke. In the future, antidepressant treatment will likely play an increasing role in the management of patients with acute stroke. Further research is needed to identify the mechanisms of depression and why antidepressants lead to improved physical and cognitive recovery and decreased mortality.
The impact of psychosocial factors on adherence to compression therapy to prevent recurrence of venous leg ulcers.

AIMS To identify self-care activities undertaken and to determine relationships between self-efficacy, depression, quality of life, social support and adherence to compression therapy in a sample of patients with chronic venous insufficiency. BACKGROUND Up to 70% of venous leg ulcers recur after healing. Compression hosiery is a primary strategy to prevent recurrence; however, problems with adherence to this strategy are well documented and an improved understanding of how psychosocial factors influence patients with chronic venous insufficiency will help guide effective preventive strategies. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey and retrospective medical record review. METHOD All patients previously diagnosed with a venous leg ulcer that healed between 12-36 months prior to the study were invited to participate. Data on health, psychosocial variables and self-care activities were obtained from a self-report survey and data on medical and previous ulcer history were obtained from medical records. Multiple linear regression modelling was used to determine the independent influences of psychosocial factors on adherence to compression therapy. RESULTS In a sample of 122 participants, the most frequently identified self-care activities were application of topical skin treatments, wearing compression hosiery and covering legs to prevent trauma. Compression hosiery was worn for a median of four days/week (range 0-7). After adjustment for all variables and potential confounders in a multivariable regression model, wearing compression hosiery was found to be significantly positively associated with participants' knowledge of the cause of their condition (p = 0.002), higher self-efficacy scores (p = 0.026) and lower depression scores (p = 0.009). CONCLUSION In this sample, depression, self-efficacy and knowledge were found to be significantly related to adherence to compression therapy. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE These findings support the need to screen for and treat depression in this population. In addition, strategies to improve patient knowledge and self-efficacy may positively influence adherence to compression therapy.
Useless Degrees of Useless Statistics? A Comparison of the Net Present Value of Higher Education by Field of Study in Five European Countries

With higher education increasingly available to young people regardless of their socioeconomic status, the question “what to study�? is steadily replacing “whether to study�? as the key question facing students today. This paper examines, in a comparative and methodologically innovative manner, incentives for studying various fields measured by net present value of university education. We use data from five European countries (France, Italy, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia) and include (opportunity) costs in the computation. Results suggest that enrolling in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) faculties is often not the best bargain, especially for female students. Decisions made by students are therefore consistent with their private returns, which points to the fact that if policy-makers desire to induce changes in behaviour, they should consider changing the incentives themselves.
Chemokines and chemokine receptors in multiple sclerosis. Potential targets for new therapies

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic demyelinating disease of the human central nervous system of a still unknown etiology. The autoimmune inflammatory process is believed to be essential for the development of the disease. Several different studies have shown that chemokines and chemokine receptors are involved in the pathogenesis of MS. Chemokines can mediate the trafficking of immune cells across the blood–brain barrier, and regulate their transfer to lesion sites. Chemokines were detected in actively demyelinating lesions and were found to be elevated in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with MS during relapse. Different pairs of chemokine receptors and their ligands seem to play a pathogenic role in MS (e.g., CXCR3 and CXCL9, CXCL10; CCR1 and CCL3, CCL4, CCL5; CCR2 and CCL2; CCR5 and CCL3, CCL4, CCL5). Interfering with the chemokine system may be an effective therapeutic approach in MS. In this review we briefly summarize the results of the previous studies and identify the most important findings in the field.
Electrospinning-derived “Hairy Seaweed” and its photoelectrochemical properties

Highly porous three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical nanostructures suspended in aqueous media were facilely prepared via electrospinning of polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/indium tin oxide (ITO) nanofibers and collection of the hybrid nanofibers by water, followed by hydrothermally growing ZnO nanorods from the nanofibers. The large interfiber distances facilitated the uniform growth of the ZnO nanorods throughout the whole system. The suspended PAN/ITO nanofibers process excellent light trapping capability due to their centimeter-sized dimensions and hence large light penetration path. This significantly increases the probability of multiple-reflections, leading to high absorption with almost zero transmission when the size of the sample reaches 10 mm in the direction parallel to incident light. High photocurrent was generated when the nanorods-on-nanofibers was used as a photoanode. The high photocurrent density generated by the anode can be attributed to its excellent light-trapping capability brought by the lar.
The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity in Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways

Chapter 1. Hunter-Gatherers and Anthropology Chapter 2. Environment, Evolution, and Anthropological Theory Chapter 3. Foraging and Subsistence Chapter 4. Foraging and Mobility Chapter 5. Sharing, Exchange, and Land Tenure Chapter 6. Group Size and Reproduction Chapter 7. Men, Women, and Foraging Chapter 8. Egalitarian and Nonegalitarian Hunter-Gatherers Hunter-Gatherers and Prehistory Notes References Index
On the interest of architectural technical debt: Uncovering the contagious debt phenomenon

A known problem in large software companies is to balance the prioritization of short‐term and long‐term business goals. As an example, architecture suboptimality (Architectural Technical Debt), incurred to deliver fast, might hinder future feature development. However, some technical debt generates more interest to be paid than other. We conducted a multi‐phase, multiple‐case embedded case study comprehending 9 sites at 6 large international software companies. We have investigated which architectural technical debt items generate more interest , how the interest occurs during software development and which costly extra‐activities are triggered as a result. We presented a taxonomy of the most dangerous items identified during the qualitative investigation and a model of their effects that can be used for prioritization, for further investigation and as a quality model for extracting more precise and context‐specific metrics. We found that some architectural technical debt items are contagious, causing the interest to be not only fixed, but potentially compound, which leads to the hidden growth of interest (possibly exponential). We found important factors to be monitored to refactor the debt before it becomes too costly. Instances of these phenomena need to be identified and stopped before the development reaches a crises.
Interleukin‐10‐secreting type 1 regulatory T cells in rodents and humans

Summary: Interleukin‐10 (IL‐10)‐secreting T regulatory type 1 (Tr1) cells are defined by their specific cytokine production profile, which includes the secretion of high levels of IL‐10 and transforming growth factor‐β(TGF‐β), and by their ability to suppress antigen‐specific effector T‐cell responses via a cytokine‐dependent mechanism. In contrast to the naturally occurring CD4+CD25+ T regulatory cells (Tregs) that emerge directly from the thymus, Tr1 cells are induced by antigen stimulation via an IL‐10‐dependent process in vitro and in vivo. Specialized IL‐10‐producing dendritic cells, such as those in an immature state or those modulated by tolerogenic stimuli, play a key role in this process. We propose to use the term Tr1 cells for all IL‐10‐producing T‐cell populations that are induced by IL‐10 and have regulatory activity. The full biological characterization of Tr1 cells has been hampered by the difficulty in generating these cells in vitro and by the lack of specific marker molecules. However, it is clear that Tr1 cells play a key role in regulating adaptive immune responses both in mice and in humans. Further work to delineate the specific molecular signature of Tr1 cells, to determine their relationship with CD4+CD25+ Tregs, and to elucidate their respective role in maintaining peripheral tolerance is crucial to advance our knowledge on this Treg subset. Furthermore, results from clinical protocols using Tr1 cells to modulate immune responses in vivo in autoimmunity, transplantation, and chronic inflammatory diseases will undoubtedly prove the biological relevance of these cells in immunotolerance.
Iron status of Filipino infants and preschoolers using plasma ferritin and transferrin receptor levels.

Iron status of 1,861 Filipino infants and preschoolers was evaluated by measurements of plasma ferritin (PF), transferrin receptor (TR) and hemoglobin (Hb). One group of subjects (Group I) consisted of all anemic subjects together with a systematic subsample from the Fourth National Nutrition Survey-Biochemical Phase. Results showed that depleted iron stores based on PF (< 12.0 ng/ml) was present in 70.0% of infants and 60.5% of preschoolers. Tissue iron deficiency based on TR (> 8.5 mg/l) was present in higher proportion (80.0% and 73.7% for infants and preschoolers) which was comparable to the proportion of anemia (80.3%). In a subgroup of subjects from the Country Program for Children IV (Group 2) elevated TR was present in 61.4% of infants and 46.5% of preschoolers. A lower proportion of depleted iron stores of 22.7% in infants and 15.2% in preschoolers was observed. Correlation test showed that there was a closer relationship between Hb and TR (r = -0.42) than Hb and PF (r = 0.20) even if PF was expected to give a higher proportion of values below normal. The occurrence of anemia in the presence of elevated TR without any decrease in PF values suggest that the diagnostic ability of PF could be limited in the presence of infection. Therefore, future studies should include biochemical tests such as C-reactive proteins (CRP) to determine the extent of association between anemia and infection.
Performance Comparison Between Distributed Antenna and Microcellular Systems

The microcellular system and distributed antenna system (DAS) are two promising systems for future high data rate wireless communications, since both systems can reduce the radio transmission distance between the transmitter and the receiver. This paper aims to compare the average spectrum efficiency and the cell edge spectrum efficiency between the two cellular systems in the downlink transmission. In order to achieve high spectrum efficiency, frequency reuse and/or spatial diversity are exploited in these two systems. The performances between the two cellular systems are theoretically compared in a network topology with seven macrocells, each of which has seven hexagonal sectors (or microcells). Moreover, the approach of antenna unit selection in the DAS for spatial diversity is presented. Numerical results show that the average spectrum efficiency per sector and the cell edge spectrum efficiency in the microcellular system are better than those in the DAS without frequency reuse. However, when the frequency reuse is considered in the DAS, the DAS outperforms the microcellular system in both of the average and cell edge spectrum efficiencies.
Attitudes of Czechs towards Working Life

The paper deals with consumer attitudes and perceptions of working life on the Czech labour market and analyses possibilities of the Czech labour market segmentation. The research is based on an analysis of data MML-TGI provided by Median agency. This data source is highly accepted in targeted marketing. In the first part the research focuses on the satisfaction of Czech people with their jobs and salary and identification of prevailing attitudes to work and employer loyalty. The next section identifies segments of the Czech labour market according to the perceived importance of selected aspects of working life. These segments are further characterized. The research results provide a new perspective on issues of employee recruitment, motivation and retention, which may be the real base for the application of HR marketing in its complexity in organizations operating on the Czech labour market.
Robust model predictive control for discrete uncertain time-varying systems with delay

In this paper, we present a method for synthesizing a robust model predictive control for uncertain time-varying systems with state delay. The goal is to design, at each sampling time, a state feedback control law that minimizes an upper bound of the worst-case objective function, subject to constraints of control inputs. The worst-case performance is defined as an infinite-horizon quadratic function of states and control inputs. In order to guarantee robust performance, the method uses multiple Lyapunov-Krasovskii functions each of which corresponds to a different vertex of the uncertainty polytope. The state feedback design problem is cast as convex optimization involving linear matrix inequalities which can be efficiently solved. The proposed technique yields an improved performance and less conservative than the robust model predictive control technique using a single Lyapunov-Krasovskii function. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the control algorithm.
Performance of healthy braced participants during aerobic and anaerobic capacity tasks.

CONTEXT Knee braces were introduced in sports approximately 30 years ago. However, the effects of a functional knee brace (FKB) on aerobic and anaerobic performance after fatigue are unknown. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether FKB use in noninjured participants hindered performance during aerobic (Léger beep test) and anaerobic (repeated high-intensity shuttle test [RHIST]) tasks. DESIGN Crossover study. SETTING Laboratory. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS Twenty-seven healthy male provincial and national basketball and field hockey athletes (age = 19.4±3.0 years, range, 17-26 years; height = 182.6±6.8 cm, range, 168-196 cm; mass = 80.0±9.1 kg, range, 66-108 kg). INTERVENTION(S) Each participant was provided a custom-fitted FKB and performed 5 nonbraced (NBR) testing sessions over 3 days, followed by 5 braced (BR) testing sessions over 3 days, for a total of 17.5 hours of testing per condition. During each testing session, participants performed 1 trial of the Léger beep test and 1 trial of the RHIST in each condition. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) Predicted maximal oxygen consumption (Vo(2) max) and time performance measures were recorded for each NBR and BR trial. RESULTS Initial performance levels were lower for BR than NBR for both the Léger beep test (BR = 44.3 mL/kg/min, NBR = 47.3 mL/kg/min; F(1,26) = 8.726; P = . 007) and the RHIST (BR = 16.5 seconds, NBR = 16.2 seconds; F(1,26) = 13.98, P = . 001). However, with continued FKB use, the aerobic performance measure remained higher for only the first 2 BR testing sessions (NBR = 46.9 mL/kg/min, BR = 42.4 mL/kg/min; F(3.0,79.8) = 4.95, P = . 003). For the anaerobic test, no performance difference was noted between the testing conditions (NBR = 16.2 seconds, BR = 16.4 seconds; P = .7), whereas fatigue levels were lower during BR testing sessions (NBR = 33%, BR = 31%). After 14.0 hours of FKB use, performance levels were almost equal between the testing conditions (NBR = 47.6 mL/kg/min, BR = 46.1 mL/kg/min). CONCLUSIONS We found an initial decrement in performance when the FKB was used during an aerobic or anaerobic task. However, after 14.0 hours of FKB use, accommodation to the FKB was possible.
Radiographic hand osteoarthritis: incidence, patterns, and influence of pre-existing disease in a population based sample.

OBJECTIVE Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common type of arthritis; involvement of joints in the hand is highly prevalent, especially in the elderly. Few data are available on the incidence of hand OA in men and women or on the association between OA in one hand joint with incidence in others. METHODS We studied the cumulative incidence of radiographic hand OA in a population based group of men and women, and evaluated whether baseline OA in one joint affected OA rates in other joints in the hand. Study subjects were 751 members of the Framingham Study cohort, who had a baseline right hand radiograph taken in 1967-1969 (mean age 55+/-5.58) and followup radiographs 24 years later. RESULTS In those without OA at baseline, women had more incident disease than men in almost all hand joints, but the joints most frequently affected were the same in both sexes: the distal interphalangeal (DIP), followed by the base of the thumb, proximal interphalangeal (PIP), and metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joints. The MCP joint group was the only one in which the incidence in men was comparable to incidence in women. Prevalent OA in one or more joints in a row (e.g., MCP) markedly increased the risk of incident OA in other joints in the same row. Also, prevalent OA in one joint in a finger (a ray) increased the risk of incident OA in other joints in that ray. Prevalent OA in either DIP or PIP joints at baseline substantially increased the risk of incident OA in all other hand joints. Thumb base OA at baseline increased risk in MCP joints, and to a lesser extent, DIP and PIP joints. CONCLUSION Cumulative incidence was generally higher in women than men, baseline OA in one joint in a row markedly increased the risk of developing OA in other joints in the same row, and baseline OA in a joint in a ray similarly increased risk in that ray. Interphalangeal joint OA at baseline appeared to increase subsequent OA in all hand joints, baseline OA in the thumb was not as strong a predictor. This descriptive information on incidence of radiographic hand OA should generate new hypotheses about why OA affects hands in particular patterns.
Simvastatin treatment in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis receiving interferon beta 1a: a double-blind randomized controlled trial

Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of simvastatin (40 mg/day) as an adjuvant therapy to interferon beta (IFNb 1a, 30 µg once weekly) in relapsing—remitting multiple sclerosis patients, compared with placebo. Methods: We enrolled 85 patients with relapsing—remitting multiple sclerosis (71% female) who were already receiving IFNb 1a (Avonex), with Expanded Disability Status Scale score of less than 5.0. The patients were assigned (in random and double-blinded fashion) into the two groups of simvastatin and placebo. All patients continued to receive their current IFNb treatment. The outcome measures were total relapse rate, Expanded Disability Status Scale score, and the number of gadolinium-enhanced (Gd+) and new T2 lesions in magnetic resonance imaging after a 1-year follow-up. We used Mann—Whitney and one-way multivariate analysis of variances to analyze the data. Results: Four patients in the placebo and two in the simvastatin group prematurely withdrew from the study due to experiencing two attacks. The total attack number in the simvastatin group was significantly lower than placebo group (moderate effect size r = 0.29) (p = 0.01). The final Expanded Disability Status Scale scores were lower in the simvastatin group (1.01 ± 1.40, mean ± SD) than in the placebo group (1.73 ± 1.49, mean ± SD), but this difference was not significant after controlling the baseline Expanded Disability Status Scale score (p = 0.07). In the simvastatin group, the mean ± SD of gadolinium-enhanced and new T2 lesions were 0.66 ± 1.18 and 3.39 ± 3.55, respectively, (compared with 0.74 ± 1.21 and 3.39 ± 3.55 in the placebo group). Although there was a decreasing trend in lesions on magnetic resonance imaging, this difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.62). The combination therapy was safe and well tolerated, and no serious adverse effect was noted. Conclusion: Our study supports the safety and efficacy of simvastatin as an add-on therapy to INFb 1a in patients with relapsing—remitting multiple sclerosis. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00668343. This interventional study provides Class I evidence stating that adding simvastatin 40 mg/day to IFNb 1a 30 µg a week in patients with relapsing—remitting multiple sclerosis may reduce the relapse rate (moderate effect size r = 0.29) (p = 0.01) compared with treatment with IFNb 1a alone.
Optical Fiber Sensors Array to Identify Beverages by Their Odor

Four optical fiber sensors have been grouped in an array which is able to distinguish odors of different drinks. The sensing materials employed have been deposited onto optical fibers following the electrostatic self assembly method. The responses have been characterized in terms of reflected optical power; more specifically, the dynamic range and the recovery of each device have been used to discriminate between the samples. Data mining techniques based on the combination of principal component analysis and artificial neural networks are performed. The final system is trained to distinguish between grape juice, wine, and vinegar by using a set of one hundred samples of each one. Furthermore, the array can be located at up to 6 km away from the optical header, offering the possibility of in situ measurements.