Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Virtual Reality as a Distraction Intervention to Relieve Pain and Distress During Medical Procedures: A Comprehensive Literature Review

Objectives: This review aims to provide a framework for evaluating the utility of virtual reality (VR) as a distraction intervention to alleviate pain and distress during medical procedures. We first describe the theoretical bases underlying the VR analgesic and anxiolytic effects and define the main factors contributing to its efficacy, which largely emerged from studies on healthy volunteers. Then, we provide a comprehensive overview of the clinical trials using VR distraction during different medical procedures, such as burn injury treatments, chemotherapy, surgery, dental treatment, and other diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Methods: A broad literature search was performed using as main terms “virtual reality,” “distraction,” and “pain. ” No date limit was applied and all the retrieved studies on immersive VR distraction during medical procedures were selected. Results: VR has proven to be effective in reducing procedural pain, as almost invariably observed even in patients subjected to extremely painful procedures, such as patients with burn injuries undergoing wound care, and physical therapy. Moreover, VR seemed to decrease cancer-related symptoms in different settings, including during chemotherapy. Only mild and infrequent side effects were observed. Discussion: Despite these promising results, future long-term randomized controlled trials with larger sample sizes and evaluating not only self-report measures but also physiological variables are needed. Further studies are also required both to establish predictive factors to select patients who can benefit from VR distraction and to design hardware/software systems tailored to the specific needs of different patients and able to provide the greatest distraction at the lowest cost.
Thermal Properties of Banana Starch Nanocrystals Prepared by Acid Hydrolysis as Reinforcing Filler

Banana is one of the most important tropical fruits in Thailand. It is available throughout the year, i.e., no specific growing season, resulting to the low cost. All parts of banana plant can be used, particularly its fruit has several adaptable in term of how to eat it. However, banana is ripe and perishable easily. Therefore, it is a potential resource that can be utilized and developed in order to add more value to this raw material. In this work, green banana fruits were used as a raw material for preparing a starch nanocrystal reinforcing filler in bio-nanocomposites. The green banana was extracted into banana starch by using 0.05 N sodium hydroxide solution. The composition of the obtained banana starch contained 90.61% of starch, 18.82% of amylose, 0.19% of protein, 0.11% of ash, and 0.03% of lipid. The banana starch composition exhibited low content of protein, ash, and lipid (<0.5%) indicating that the obtained banana starch was pure enough to be used. After that, starch nanocrystal (SNC) was prepared from banana starch by acid hydrolysis with 3.5 M sulfuric acid and 3.0 M hydrochloric acid at 40°C for 7 and 5 hours, repectively. The obtained banana SNC showed an increase in the degree of crystallinity from 28.03% for native banana starch to 47.13% and 40.15% for banana SNC prepared from sulfuric and hydrochloric acid hydrolysis, respectively. Furthermore, the thermal properties of banana SNC were investigated by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) in order to assess thermal stability of banana SNC for using as reinforcing filler in bio-nanocomposite. The decomposition temperature of native banana starch and SNC was in the range of 260-315°C. The gelatinization temperature of banana SNC increased as a result of the increment of its degree of crystallinity when comparing with native starch.
Exploring regulation in tissues with eQTL networks

Significance A core tenet in genetics is that genotype influences phenotype. In an individual, the same genome can be expressed in substantially different ways, depending on the tissue. Expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analysis, which associates genetic variants at millions of locations across the genome with the expression levels of each gene, can provide insight into genetic regulation of phenotype. In each of 13 tissues we performed an eQTL analysis, represented significant associations as edges in a network, and explored the structure of those networks. We found clusters of eQTL linked to shared functions across tissues and tissue-specific clusters linked to tissue-specific functions, driven by genetic variants with tissue-specific regulatory potential. Our findings provide unique insight into the genotype–phenotype relationship. Characterizing the collective regulatory impact of genetic variants on complex phenotypes is a major challenge in developing a genotype to phenotype map. Using expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analyses, we constructed bipartite networks in which edges represent significant associations between genetic variants and gene expression levels and found that the network structure informs regulatory function. We show, in 13 tissues, that these eQTL networks are organized into dense, highly modular communities grouping genes often involved in coherent biological processes. We find communities representing shared processes across tissues, as well as communities associated with tissue-specific processes that coalesce around variants in tissue-specific active chromatin regions. Node centrality is also highly informative, with the global and community hubs differing in regulatory potential and likelihood of being disease associated.
ArchShield: architectural framework for assisting DRAM scaling by tolerating high error rates

DRAM scaling has been the prime driver for increasing the capacity of main memory system over the past three decades. Unfortunately, scaling DRAM to smaller technology nodes has become challenging due to the inherent difficulty in designing smaller geometries, coupled with the problems of device variation and leakage. Future DRAM devices are likely to experience significantly high error-rates. Techniques that can tolerate errors efficiently can enable DRAM to scale to smaller technology nodes. However, existing techniques such as row/column sparing and ECC become prohibitive at high error-rates. To develop cost-effective solutions for tolerating high error-rates, this paper advocates a cross-layer approach. Rather than hiding the faulty cell information within the DRAM chips, we expose it to the architectural level. We propose ArchShield, an architectural framework that employs runtime testing to identify faulty DRAM cells. ArchShield tolerates these faults using two components, a Fault Map that keeps information about faulty words in a cache line, and Selective Word-Level Replication (SWLR) that replicates faulty words for error resilience. Both Fault Map and SWLR are integrated in reserved area in DRAM memory. Our evaluations with 8GB DRAM DIMM show that ArchShield can efficiently tolerate error-rates as higher as 10−4 (100x higher than ECC alone), causes less than 2% performance degradation, and still maintains 1-bit error tolerance against soft errors.
The architectural template method: templating architectural knowledge to efficiently conduct quality‐of‐service analyses

Software architects plan the realization of software systems by assessing design decisions on the basis of architectural models. Using these models as input, architectural analyses assess the impact of architects' decisions on quality‐of‐service properties. While the creation of suitable architectural models requires software architects to apply complex architectural knowledge, for example, in the form of established architectural styles and patterns, current architectural analyses lack support for directly reusing such knowledge. This lack points to an unused potential to make the work of software architects more effective and efficient.
Effects of Bacillus fermentation on the protein microstructure and anti‐nutritional factors of soybean meal

This study evaluated the effects of Bacillus fermentation on soybean meal protein (SBMP) microstructure and major anti‐nutritional factors (ANFs) in soybean meal (SBM). The Bacillus siamensis isolate JL8 producing high yield of protease at 519·1 U g−1 was selected for the laboratory production of fermented soybean meal (FSBM). After 24 h fermentation, the FSBM showed better properties compared with those of SBM, the ANFs such as glycinin, β‐conglycinin and trypsin inhibitor significantly decreased by 86·0, 70·3 and 95·01%, while in vitro digestibility and absorbability increased by 8·7 and 18·9% respectively. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of fermented soybean meal protein showed smaller aggregates and looser network than that of SBMP. Secondary structure examination of proteins revealed fermentation significantly decreased the content of β‐sheet structure by 43·2% and increased the random coil structure by 59·9%. It is demonstrated that Bacillus fermentation improved the nutritional quality of SBM through degrading ANFs and changing the microstructure of SBMP.
The cost of cooking a meal. The case of Nyeri County, Kenya

Energy for cooking is considered essential in achieving modern energy access. Despite this, almost three billion people worldwide still use solid fuels to meet their cooking needs. To better support practitioners and policy-makers, this paper presents a new model for comparing cooking solutions and its key output metric: the ‘levelized cost of cooking a meal’ (LCCM). The model is applied to compare several cooking solutions in the case study area of Nyeri County in Kenya. The cooking access targets are connected to the International Workshop Agreement and Global Tracking Framework’s tiers of cooking energy access. Results show how an increased energy access with improved firewood and charcoal cookstoves could reduce both household’s LCCMs and the total costs compared to traditional firewood cooking over the modelling period. On the other hand, switching to cleaner cooking solutions, such as LPG- and electricity, would result in higher costs for the end-user highlighting that this transition is not straightforward. The paper also contextualizes the results into the wider socio-economic context. It finds that a tradeoff is present between minimizing costs for households and meeting household priorities, thus maximizing the potential benefits of clean cooking without dismissing the use of biomass altogether.
Valid but Invalid: Suboptimal ImPACT Baseline Performance in University Athletes

Purpose This study aimed to investigate the frequency of valid yet suboptimal Immediate Postconcussion Assessment and Cognitive Test (ImPACT) performance in university athletes and to explore the benefit of subsequent ImPACT administrations. Methods This descriptive laboratory study involved baseline administration of ImPACT to 769 university athletes per the institution’s concussion management protocol. Testing was proctored in groups of ⩽2 participants. Participants who scored below the 16th percentile according to ImPACT normative data were readministered the ImPACT test up to two additional times because these scores were thought to be potentially indicative of suboptimal effort or poor understanding of instructions. Descriptive analyses were used to examine validity indicators and individual Verbal and Visual Memory, Visual Motor Speed, and Reaction Time ImPACT composite scores in initial and subsequent administrations. Results On the basis of ImPACT’s validity criteria, 1% (9/769) of administrations were invalid and 14.6% (112/769) had one or more composite score of <16th percentile but were considered valid. After one readministration, 71.4% (80/112) achieved scores of ≥16th percentile and an additional 18 of 32 scored ≥16th percentile after a third administration. Verbal Memory was most commonly <16th percentile on the first administration (43%), Verbal Memory and Visual Motor Speed on the second administration (44% each), and Visual Motor Speed alone on the third administration (50%). Conclusions Approximately 16% of ImPACT records were flagged as invalid or had one or more composite scores of <16th percentile, potentially indicative of suboptimal performance. Upon readministration, 88% of those participants scored >16th percentile. Clinicians must be aware of suboptimal ImPACT performance as it limits the clinical utility of the baseline assessment. Further research is needed to address factors leading to “valid” but invalid baseline performance.
The Essential Role of Tick Salivary Glands and Saliva in Tick Feeding and Pathogen Transmission

As long-term pool feeders, ticks have developed myriad strategies to remain discreetly but solidly attached to their hosts for the duration of their blood meal. The critical biological material that dampens host defenses and facilitates the flow of blood—thus assuring adequate feeding—is tick saliva. Saliva exhibits cytolytic, vasodilator, anticoagulant, anti-inflammatory, and immunosuppressive activity. This essential fluid is secreted by the salivary glands, which also mediate several other biological functions, including secretion of cement and hygroscopic components, as well as the watery component of blood as regards hard ticks. When salivary glands are invaded by tick-borne pathogens, pathogens may be transmitted via saliva, which is injected alternately with blood uptake during the tick bite. Both salivary glands and saliva thus play a key role in transmission of pathogenic microorganisms to vertebrate hosts. During their long co-evolution with ticks and vertebrate hosts, microorganisms have indeed developed various strategies to exploit tick salivary molecules to ensure both acquisition by ticks and transmission, local infection and systemic dissemination within the vertebrate host.
EEG Changes Accompanying Successive Cycles of Sleep Restriction With and Without Naps in Adolescents

Abstract Study objectives: To investigate the temporal evolution of sleep EEG changes in adolescents across two cycles of sleep restriction and recovery simulating an intense school week and to examine the effect of an afternoon nap on nocturnal sleep. Methods: A parallel-group design, quasi-laboratory study was conducted in a student hostel. Fifty-seven adolescents (31 males, age = 15–19 years) were randomly assigned to nap or no nap groups. Participants underwent a 15-day protocol comprising two sleep restriction (5-hour time-in-bed [TIB]) and recovery (9-hour TIB) cycles. The nap group was also provided with a 1-hour nap opportunity at 14:00 following each sleep restriction night. Polysomnography recordings were obtained on nine nights and five nap episodes. Results: Naps reduced homeostatic sleep pressure on sleep restriction nights as evidenced by longer N2 latency and reduced total sleep time (TST), sleep efficiency (SE), and slow wave energy. Sleep debt accumulated in both groups, evidenced by increased TST, greater SE, and reduced wake after sleep onset on recovery compared to baseline nights. Changes were greater in the no nap group. Recovery sleep after the first cycle of sleep restriction did not restore sleep architecture to baseline in either group. SE, rapid eye movement (REM), and non-REM sleep increased, and N2 latency was reduced in the second sleep restriction period. Conclusions: Changes in sleep EEG induced by sleep restriction to 5-hour TIB for five nights were not eliminated after two nights of 9-hour recovery sleep. An afternoon nap helped but residual effects on the sleep EEG suggest that there is no substitute for adequate nocturnal sleep.
The prevalence and trends of waterpipe tobacco smoking: A systematic review

Introduction Waterpipe tobacco smoking is harmful to health however its prevalence estimates remain uncertain. We aimed to systematically review the medical literature on waterpipe tobacco prevalence and trends. Methods We searched Medline, Embase and ISI Web of Science for ‘waterpipe’ and its synonyms, without using language or date restrictions. We included any measure of waterpipe tobacco smoking prevalence in jurisdictionally representative populations. We stratified findings by prevalence measure (past 30 day, ever, regular or occasional, daily, other or unspecified) and age (adults or youth). Results We included 129 studies reporting 355 estimates for 68 countries. In general, prevalence estimates among adults were highest in the Eastern Mediterranean, and among youth were about equal between Eastern Mediterranean and European regions. Past 30 day use was highest among Lebanese youth (37.2% in 2008), ever use was highest among Lebanese youth in 2002 and Lebanese university students in 2005 (both 65.3%), regular or occasional use was highest in among Iranian university students (16.3% in 2005), and daily use was highest among Egyptian youth (10.4% in 2005). Trend data were limited but most studies reported increased use over time, ranging from 0.3–1.0% per year among youth in the US to 2.9% per year among youth in Jordan (both for past 30 day use). Results were similar for ever use trends. Turkey (2.3% in 2008 to 0.8% in 2010) and Iraq (6.3% in 2008 and 4.8% in 2012) both witnessed decreased waterpipe use. Conclusion Waterpipe tobacco smoking is most prevalent in Eastern Mediterranean and European countries, and appears higher among youth than adults. Continued surveillance will be important to assess and inform policy measures to control waterpipe tobacco use.
Stroke Risk Factors Unique to Women

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in women in the United States and is a leading cause of disability. Each year 55 000 more women than men have a stroke, a discrepancy largely driven by longer life expectancy in women (www.stroke.org). Although the majority of stroke incidence can be attributed to traditional vascular risk factors that occur in both men and women, including hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus, smoking, and atrial fibrillation, there are several stroke risk factors that are specific to women. Specifically, differences in sex hormones, exogenous estrogens, and pregnancy exposures are factors exclusively experienced by women. In this review, we will summarize the current state of the literature with regards to women-specific factors, such as endogenous hormone levels, exogenous hormone therapy, pregnancy, parity, timing of age at menarche, and menopause in relation to stroke risk. The following terms were searched with women and stroke in PubMed and Google Scholar, mainly for original articles and meta-analysis/systematic reviews: estrogens, estradiol, testosterone, DHEAS, menarche, menopause, oophorectomy, postmenopausal hormone therapy, oral contraception, transgender, transmen, transwomen, pregnancy, peripartum, postpartum, and parity The following search was also performed: therapy OR treatment OR secondary prevention AND pregnancy AND stroke. The resultant literature was reviewed by the authors, and the data covering the topics outlined below were reviewed in this manuscript. ### Endogenous Hormone Levels Data on the relationship of endogenous sex hormones and risk of stroke in women are relatively limited. Estrogen levels fluctuate dramatically in women with the menstrual cycle and then drop dramatically in the menopausal transition and in post-menopause. In data from the Copenhagen City Study, neither high nor low estradiol levels were associated with increased risk of ischemic stroke.1 In premenopausal women, those in the lowest 10th percentile of estradiol had a >2-fold increased risk of ischemic stroke, but this was based on …
Volitional and Automatic Control of the Hand When Reaching to Grasp Objects

When picking up an object, we tend to grasp at contact points that allow a stable grip. Recent studies have demonstrated that appropriate grasp points can be selected during an ongoing movement in response to unexpected perturbations of the target object. In this study, we tested whether such online grip adjustments are automatic responses or can be controlled volitionally. Subjects performed virtual grasping movements toward target 2D shapes that sometimes changed shape or orientation during movement. Unlike in previous studies, the conditions and task requirements discouraged any online adjustments toward the perturbed shapes. In Experiment 1, target shapes were perturbed briefly (200 ms) during movement before reverting to the original shape, and subjects were instructed to ignore the transient perturbations. Despite subjects’ intentions, we observed online adjustments of grip orientation that were toward the expected grip axis of the briefly presented shape. In Experiment 2, we added a stop-signal to the grasping task, with target perturbation as the stop cue. We again observed unnecessary online adjustments toward the grip axis of the perturbed shape, with similar latency. Furthermore, the grip adjustments continued after the forward motion of the hand had stopped, indicating that the automatic response to the perturbed target shape co-occurred with the volitional response to the perturbation onset. Our results provide evidence that automatic control mechanisms are used to guide the fingers to appropriate grasp points and suggest that these mechanisms are distinct from those involved with volitional control.
qPortal: A platform for data-driven biomedical research

Modern biomedical research aims at drawing biological conclusions from large, highly complex biological datasets. It has become common practice to make extensive use of high-throughput technologies that produce big amounts of heterogeneous data. In addition to the ever-improving accuracy, methods are getting faster and cheaper, resulting in a steadily increasing need for scalable data management and easily accessible means of analysis. We present qPortal, a platform providing users with an intuitive way to manage and analyze quantitative biological data. The backend leverages a variety of concepts and technologies, such as relational databases, data stores, data models and means of data transfer, as well as front-end solutions to give users access to data management and easy-to-use analysis options. Users are empowered to conduct their experiments from the experimental design to the visualization of their results through the platform. Here, we illustrate the feature-rich portal by simulating a biomedical study based on publically available data. We demonstrate the software’s strength in supporting the entire project life cycle. The software supports the project design and registration, empowers users to do all-digital project management and finally provides means to perform analysis. We compare our approach to Galaxy, one of the most widely used scientific workflow and analysis platforms in computational biology. Application of both systems to a small case study shows the differences between a data-driven approach (qPortal) and a workflow-driven approach (Galaxy). qPortal, a one-stop-shop solution for biomedical projects offers up-to-date analysis pipelines, quality control workflows, and visualization tools. Through intensive user interactions, appropriate data models have been developed. These models build the foundation of our biological data management system and provide possibilities to annotate data, query metadata for statistics and future re-analysis on high-performance computing systems via coupling of workflow management systems. Integration of project and data management as well as workflow resources in one place present clear advantages over existing solutions.