Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A systematic review of heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback treatment following traumatic brain injury (TBI)

ABSTRACT Objective Autonomic nervous system dysregulation is a common consequence of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Heart rate variability (HRV) is a cost-effective measure of autonomic nervous system functioning, with studies suggesting decreased HRV following moderate-to-severe TBI. HRV biofeedback treatment may improve post-TBI autonomic nervous system functioning and post-injury emotional and cognitive functioning. We provide a systematic evidence-based review of the state of the literature and effectiveness of HRV biofeedback following TBI. Method We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Two coders coded each article and provided quality ratings. Seven papers met inclusion criteria. All studies included a measure of emotional functioning and 5 studies (63%) included neuropsychological outcomes. Results Participants completed 11 sessions of HRV biofeedback on average (range = 1 to 40). HRV biofeedback was associated with improved HRV following TBI. There was a positive relationship between increased HRV and TBI recovery following biofeedback, including improvements in cognitive and emotional functioning, and physical symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, and sleep problems. Conclusion The literature on HRV biofeedback for TBI is promising, but in its infancy; effectiveness is unclear due to poor-to-fair study quality, and potential publication bias (all studies reported positive results).
Perspectives of economic losses due to condemnation of cattle and buffalo carcasses in the northern region of Brazil

The work aims to study the economical losses of the condemnation of bovine and buffalo carcasses, in order to estimate the losses in animals slaughtered in Santarém-Pará, Brazil, between 2016 and 2018, with data obtained from the Municipal Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. Sex, age, origin, total number of animals slaughtered and causes of condemnation of carcasses were considered. All analyzes were performed in RStudio version 1.1. 463. In this study, 71,277 bovine carcasses and 2,016 buffalo carcasses were inspected, of which 300 bovine and 71 buffalo were condemned. The highest prevalence of causes of condemnation in cattle was recorded for brucellosis (0.0020%) and tuberculosis (0.0019%). In buffaloes, tuberculosis (0.0307%) peritonitis (0,0019%) were the main causes of condemnations. Economical losses were more evident in females, for both species. The projection of economical losses related to the condemnation of carcasses showed a sharp growth for the next three years, if the average growth remains constant. The biggest projected loss was for bovine females, with an accumulated projection of $ 5,451.44. The smallest estimated loss was for buffalo males, projected at more than thirty-two thousand reais. The most important causes of condemnation report the diseases brucellosis and tuberculosis, as the ones with the greatest impact. In the buffalo species this was even more accentuated, even though the number of buffaloes slaughtered is more than 35 times smaller than the number of cattle.
Environmental and Mobility Strategies During Early COVID-19: Insights From an Empirical Study Focusing on Park Visitations in El Paso, TX

Objectives: We explored the importance of environmental and mobility strategies during early COVID-19 by age and ethnicity and investigated predictors of park visitations considering the COVID-19 impacts. Background: Parks are safe and accessible venues to stay active and reduce social isolation, which is especially important considering COVID-19 and the associated lockdowns. Methods: We analyzed online survey data from 683 residents (collected July 2020) of El Paso, TX, and objective measures of neighborhood park characteristics. Chi-square tests and mixed-effects logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the environmental/mobility strategies, personal and environmental factors, and park visitations, considering the COVID-19 impacts. Results: The percentage of those who visited (1+ times/week) parks or trails/paths in the neighborhood dropped from 41.7% to 19.5% since the start of COVID-19 (OR = 0.015, p < .001). Before COVID-19, middle-aged and older adults were less likely to visit parks than younger adults, while this difference became insignificant during early COVID-19. Hispanic adults were more likely to visit parks than non-Hispanics both before and during early COVID-19. Positive environmental predictors of park visitations included park availability in the neighborhood, proximity to the closest park, seeing people being physically active in the neighborhood, and neighborhood aesthetics. Conclusions: Proximately located parks, trails, and paths well integrated into residential communities, and high aesthetic quality of the neighborhood are the potential features of pandemic-resilient communities and should be considered an important national priority to maintain and promote the health and well-being of the population, especially during pandemics like COVID-19.
Strategies to prevent surgical site infections in acute-care hospitals: 2022 Update

Abstract and purpose The intent of this document is to highlight practical recommendations in a concise format designed to assist acute-care hospitals in implementing and prioritizing their surgical-site infection (SSI) prevention efforts. This document updates the Strategies to Prevent Surgical Site Infections in Acute Care Hospitals published in 2014.1 This expert guidance document is sponsored by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). It is the product of a collaborative effort led by SHEA, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), the American Hospital Association (AHA), and The Joint Commission, with major contributions from representatives of a number of organizations and societies with content expertise.
Spatial dispersion in phonon focusing

The ballistic phonon flux emanating from a point–like heat source in a crystal shows strong directional dependence. This effect is called phonon focusing and is measured using a technique called phonon imaging. In situations where long wavelength phonons are involved, the observations can be explained on the basis of classical continuum elasticity theory. Dispersion i.e. the variation of velocity with wavelength, sets in when the phonon wavelengths become comparable to the natural scale of length of the material, the lattice constant. This has a significant effect in the phonon focusing pattern and causes shorter wavelength phonons to lag behind longer wavelength ones and the dispersion relation i.e. the relation between angular frequency ω and wave number k becomes non-linear. A number of studies have used lattice dynamics models to explain the observed dispersive phonon images. Measured phonon images are not entirely satisfactorily reproduced by any of these lattice dynamics models and the different models tend to predict somewhat different focusing patterns. In this thesis, we set out to explain the observed dispersive phonon focusing patterns of cubic crystals by using a modification of continuum elasticity theory. This is done by including third and fourth order spatial derivatives of the displacement field in the wave equation. The coefficients of these higher order terms are the dispersive elastic constants. They are determined through optimized fitting to frequency versus wave vector data extracted from neutron scattering experiments for the acoustic modes in symmetry directions of a number of cubic crystals. Our approach is limited to the first onset of spatial dispersion and does not apply to near Brillouin zone boundary phonons. It is also applicable to crystals of any symmetry but in this thesis we focus on crystals of cubic symmetry. We report results on two crystals with a centre of inversion, Ge and Si, and two crystals without a centre of inversion, InSb and GaAs.
Deep brain stimulation alleviates tics in Tourette syndrome via striatal dopamine transmission

Abstract Tourette syndrome is a childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by intrusive motor and vocal tics that can lead to self-injury and deleterious mental health complications. While dysfunction in striatal dopamine neurotransmission has been proposed to underlie tic behaviour, evidence is scarce and inconclusive. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the thalamic centromedian parafascicular complex (CMPf), an approved surgical interventive treatment for medical refractory Tourette syndrome, may reduce tics by affecting striatal dopamine release. Here, we use electrophysiology, electrochemistry, optogenetics, pharmacological treatments and behavioural measurements to mechanistically examine how thalamic DBS modulates synaptic and tonic dopamine activity in the dorsomedial striatum. Previous studies demonstrated focal disruption of GABAergic transmission in the dorsolateral striatum of rats led to repetitive motor tics recapitulating the major symptom of Tourette syndrome. We employed this model under light anaesthesia and found CMPf DBS evoked synaptic dopamine release and elevated tonic dopamine levels via striatal cholinergic interneurons while concomitantly reducing motor tic behaviour. The improvement in tic behaviour was found to be mediated by D2 receptor activation as blocking this receptor prevented the therapeutic response. Our results demonstrate that release of striatal dopamine mediates the therapeutic effects of CMPf DBS and points to striatal dopamine dysfunction as a driver for motor tics in the pathoneurophysiology of Tourette syndrome.
Name Agreement Norms for a Set of 260 Pictures in Kannada for Children

The utility of picture naming is beyond dispute, yet, it has become evident to us that cross linguistic comparisons using this technique are limited by the absence of comparable naming norms across the languages. As there are many different ways to depict an object in a picture, each one can elicit a different response. Also, the degree to which each picture possesses the characteristics that affect the process under investigation is unknown. To be able to compare studies that used picture naming, it is important to have norms of the pictorial stimuli that are used in these studies.
Convergence Acceleration of Mesh-less Euler Solver

Least Square Kinetic Upwind Method (LSKUM) is one class of mesh-less approach to solve compressible-Euler equations of gas dynamics. LSKUM is kinetic theory based upwind scheme that operates on any cloud of points. The present solver uses single step modified CIR (MCIR) scheme which is similar to first order LSKUM formulation and provides spatial accuracy closer to second order. The explicit time integration schemes like four stage Runge-Kutta (RK4) is slow in convergence. The implicit schemes offer superior robustness and faster convergence. The implicit Lower-Upper Symmetric Gauss-Seidel (LU-SGS) scheme is very attractive for its low numerical complexity, moderate memory requirement and unconditional stability for linear wave equation. It is based on the factorization of the implicit operator in to three parts namely lower triangular matrix, upper triangular matrix and diagonal terms. The use of LU-SGS results in a matrix free implicit framework which is very economical as against other expensive procedure which necessarily involves matrix inversion. In the present work LU-SGS procedure is adopted for mesh-less approach and implemented in 2-D and 3-D solvers in matrix free framework. To assess the efficacy of implicit procedure, explicit and implicit 2-D solvers are tested on NACA 0012 airfoil for various flow conditions in subsonic and transonic regime. The computed 2-D results are validated against NASA experimental data and AGRAD test case. A maximum speed of close to 14 is achieved. 3-D implicit solver is tested on ONERA M6 wing. The computed results compare very well with experiments. To demonstrate the effectiveness of code in handling small gaps, implicit solver is used to compute flow past clipped delta wing with aileron deflection of 6 at Mach number of 0.9 and angle of attack of 3. The computed results are validated with NASA experiments.
Bacillus subtilis, a Swiss Army Knife in Science and Biotechnology

Next to Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis is the most studied and best understood organism that also serves as a model for many important pathogens. Due to its ability to form heat-resistant spores that can germinate even after very long periods of time, B. subtilis has attracted much scientific interest. ABSTRACT Next to Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis is the most studied and best understood organism that also serves as a model for many important pathogens. Due to its ability to form heat-resistant spores that can germinate even after very long periods of time, B. subtilis has attracted much scientific interest. Another feature of B. subtilis is its genetic competence, a developmental state in which B. subtilis actively takes up exogenous DNA. This makes B. subtilis amenable to genetic manipulation and investigation. The bacterium was one of the first with a fully sequenced genome, and it has been subject to a wide variety of genome- and proteome-wide studies that give important insights into many aspects of the biology of B. subtilis. Due to its ability to secrete large amounts of proteins and to produce a wide range of commercially interesting compounds, B. subtilis has become a major workhorse in biotechnology. Here, we review the development of important aspects of the research on B. subtilis with a specific focus on its cell biology and biotechnological and practical applications from vitamin production to concrete healing. The intriguing complexity of the developmental programs of B. subtilis, paired with the availability of sophisticated tools for genetic manipulation, positions it at the leading edge for discovering new biological concepts and deepening our understanding of the organization of bacterial cells.
DiabetesWise: An innovative approach to promoting diabetes device awareness

DiabetesWise is an unbranded, data‐driven online resource that tailors device recommendations based on preferences and priorities of people with insulin‐requiring diabetes. The objective of this study is to examine whether DiabetesWise increases uptake of diabetes devices, which are empirically supported to improve glycemic and psychosocial outcomes.
The goals of care framework and the perioperative period: A practical approach

The goals of care (GOC) framework (2014) is an illness phase categorisation system that enables limitations of medical treatment (LOMT) to be documented and communicated within a healthcare system. It incorporates a clinical assessment of illness phase and GOC discussion on aims and LOMT for an episode of care. Together, this results in documentation of a GOC category that guides treatment escalation decisions during episodes of patient deterioration. Confusion exists about incorporating this framework into the perioperative period, particularly management of treatment escalation required for patient survival during surgery that is at variance with agreed goals and limitations. A historical tendency for automatic and unilateral suspension of limitations during surgery may be susceptible to ethical or medicolegal challenge. This article highlights the difference between the GOC framework and ‘not for resuscitation’ framework, considers the unique considerations of the perioperative period and addresses misconceptions of the GOC framework in patients undergoing surgery. Finally, it provides an approach to the GOC framework for patients considered for surgery by emphasising illness phase assessment and the need for the GOC category to accurately reflect the clinical situation throughout the perioperative period, guiding treatment escalation intraoperatively and postoperatively.
The relationship between psychology practice and complementary medicine in Australia: Psychologists’ demographics and practice characteristics regarding type of engagement across a range of complementary medicine modalities

Introduction Many people with mental health problems utilise a range of complementary medicine (CM) practitioners, products, and practices. Psychologists are likely to consult with clients who are seeking and using CM, in some form, as part of their wider mental health treatment. The aim of this research is to determine how much, and in what ways, Australian psychologists recommend CM products and/or practices, and/or initiate referrals to CM practitioners as part of their clinical practice and to explore if these behaviours have any association with the characteristics of the psychologist or their wider practice. Methods Survey data was collected from psychologists in clinical practice who self-selected to participate between February and April 2021. Participation in the study was via an online 79-item questionnaire exploring core aspects of CM engagement in psychology clinical practice. Results Amongst the 202 psychologists who completed the survey, mind/body approaches (90.5%) were the most recommended CM and cultural/spiritual approaches the least recommended CM (7.5%). Participants also reported referring to CM practitioners with naturopaths the most common focus of their referrals (57.9%) and cultural and spiritual practitioners the least common focus of their referrals (6.69%). Our analysis shows the demographic and practice characteristics of a psychologist are generally not predictors of a psychologist’s engagement with CM in their clinical practice. Conclusions Substantial numbers of psychologists recommend CM products and practices and/or refer clients to CM practitioners. Alongside subjecting CM interventions for mental health to an evidence-base assessment, the broader discipline of psychology needs to also consider psychologist engagement with CM in clinical practice in order to help ensure cultural-sensitivity, client safety and client choice.
Dissociating neural sensitivity to target identity and mental state content type during inferences about other minds

ABSTRACT Predicting and inferring what other people think and feel (mentalizing) is central to social interaction. Since the discovery of the brain’s “mentalizing network,” fMRI studies have probed the lines along which the activity of different regions in this network converges and dissociates. Here, we use fMRI meta-analysis to aggregate across stimuli, paradigms, and contrasts from past studies in order to definitively test two sources of possible sensitivity among brain regions of this network with particular theoretical relevance. First, it has been proposed that mentalizing processes depend on aspects of target identity (whose mind is considered), with self-projection or simulation strategies engaging disproportionately for psychologically close targets. Second, it has been proposed that mentalizing processes depend on content type (what the inference is), with inferences about epistemic mental states (e.g., beliefs and knowledge) engaging different processes than mentalizing about other types of content (e.g., emotions or preferences). Overall, evidence supports the conclusion that different mentalizing regions are sensitive to target identity and content type, respectively, but with some points of divergence from previous claims. The results point to fruitful directions for future studies, with implications for theories of mentalizing.
A two-stage PSO algorithm for job shop scheduling problem

Abstract This paper presents a two-stage particle swarm optimization algorithm for job shop scheduling problems. The algorithm is named 2S-PSO to reflect that two stages with multiple swarms are used. The random key representation is used and the schedules are constructed using a permutation with m-repetitions of job numbers. Performances of the algorithms are tested using benchmark instances for both the single objective and multiobjective cases. For the single objective cases, makespan and weighted tardiness are considered. For the multiobjective cases, three criteria are considered: makespan, weighted earliness, and weighted tardiness. The solutions are found using the weighted aggregate approach to allow for comparison with published work. In general, the solutions obtained via 2S-PSO dominate those published results in that it provided equal or better solution quality in much shorter computational time.
The effect of the genomic GC content bias of prokaryotic organisms on the secondary structures of their proteins

One of the main characteristics of prokaryotic genomes is the ratio in which guanine-cytosine bases are used in their DNA sequences. This is known as the genomic GC content and varies widely, from values below 20% to values greater than 74%. It has been demonstrated that the genomic GC content varies in accordance with the phylogenetic distribution of organisms and influences the amino acid composition of their corresponding proteomes. This bias is particularly important for amino acids that are coded by GC content-rich codons such as alanine, glycine, and proline, as well as amino acids that are coded by AT-rich codons, such as lysine, asparagine, and isoleucine. In our study, we extend these results by considering the effect of the genomic GC content on the secondary structure of proteins. On a set of 192 representative prokaryotic genomes and proteome sequences, we identified through a bioinformatic study that the composition of the secondary structures of the proteomes varies in relation to the genomic GC content; random coils increase as the genomic GC content increases, while alpha-helices and beta-sheets present an inverse relationship. In addition, we found that the tendency of an amino acid to form part of a secondary structure of proteins is not ubiquitous, as previously expected, but varies according to the genomic GC content. Finally, we discovered that for some specific groups of orthologous proteins, the GC content of genes biases the composition of secondary structures of the proteins for which they code.