Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mid-Term and Long-Lasting Psycho–Cognitive Benefits of Bidomain Training Intervention in Elderly Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Background: This study investigated whether combining simultaneous physical and cognitive training yields superior cognitive outcomes compared with aerobic training alone in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and whether these benefits persist after four weeks of detraining. Methods: Forty-four people with MCI (11 males and 33 females) aged 65 to 75 years were randomly assigned to an 8-week, twice-weekly program of either aerobic training (AT group, n = 15), aerobic training combined with cognitive games (ACT group, n = 15), or simply reading for controls (CG group, n = 14). Selective attention (Stroop), problem-solving (Hanoi Tower), and working memory (Digit Span) tasks were used to assess cognitive performances at baseline, in the 4th (W4) and 8th weeks (W8) of training, and after 4 weeks of rest (W12). Results: Both training interventions induced beneficial effects on all tested cognitive performance at W4 (except for the number of moves in the Hanoi tower task) and W8 (all p <0.001), with the ACT group exhibiting a more pronounced positive impact than the AT group (p < 0.05). This advantage was specifically observed at W8 in tasks such as the Stroop and Tower of Hanoi (% gain ≈40% vs. ≈30% for ACT and AT, respectively) and the digit span test (% gain ≈13% vs. ≈10% for ACT and AT, respectively). These cognitive improvements in both groups, with the greater ones in ACT, persisted even after four weeks of detraining, as evidenced by the absence of a significant difference between W8 and W12 (p > 0.05). Concerning neuropsychological assessments, comparable beneficial effects were recorded following both training regimens (all p < 0.05 from pre- to post-intervention). The control group did not show any significant improvement in most of the cognitive tasks. Conclusions: The greater mid-term and long-lasting effects of combined simultaneous physical–cognitive training underscores its potential as a cost-effective intervention for the prevention and management of cognitive decline. While these results are valuable in guiding optimal physical and mental activity recommendations for adults with MCI, further neurophysiological-based studies are essential to offer robust support and deepen our understanding of the mechanisms underlying these promising findings.
A case study of air quality control in Beijing and the surrounding area during the 2015 World Championships and Parade

Abstract Based on satellite observations, the effects of emission reduction measures on air pollutants (NO2 (nitrogen dioxide), SO2 (sulfur dioxide), and aerosols) were estimated in Beijing and its surroundings during the 2015 World Championships and Parade (WCP) held in Beijing. Compared with the same period in the previous three years (2012–2014), the tropospheric vertical column densities of NO2 and SO2 in 2015 were significantly reduced in Beijing and its surroundings. During the WCP, aerosol optical depth was reduced most significantly in Beijing, while NO2 and SO2 were reduced most significantly in Hebei and Tianjin, respectively. The meteorological conditions were also favorable during this period. During the WCP, the North China Plain was located under high pressure from the north of China. A southward pressure gradient force and weak northerly and northeasterly winds blocked the transport of pollution from southern and western parts of the industrial area (Hebei, Shanxi and Shandong provinces). Cold air masses pushed southwards weakly. These conditions were beneficial to the removal of air pollutants in Beijing.
Emulation of DWRDSM using Artificial Neural Networks and Estimation of Sacramento River Flow from Salinity

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are widely used and well-suited for multiple non-linear regression. Department of Water Resources Delta Simulation Model (DWRDSM) is a computer model that simulates hydrology and constituent transport in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Feed-forward ANNs are used to relate the flow conditions and gate positions in the Delta to the DWRDSM simulated salinity at interior and boundary locations in the Delta. The ANNs provide a fast and reasonably accurate method of modeling the relationship between flows and water quality. This relationship is then used to estimate the Sacramento River flow required to meet a salinity standard.
Soil fertility enhancement through appropriate fertilizer management on winter cover crops in a conservation agriculture system

A study was conducted to determine the effects of oat (Avena sativa) and grazing vetch (Vicia darsycapa) winter cover crops and fertilization regimes on soil organic matter (SOM) in an irrigated maize-based conservation agriculture (CA) system following four years of continuous practice. Separate plots of oat and grazing vetch cover crops were grown in winter and maize was planted in all plots in the following summer season. The four fertilization regimes used were: (i) fertilizer applied to the cover crops and the maize crop (F1), (ii) fertilizer applied to cover crops only (F2), (iii) fertilizer applied to the maize crop only (F3) and (iv) no fertilizer applied (F4). This gave a 2 × 4 factorial plus control plots (weedy fallows) laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Soil samples from 0 – 5, 5 – 20 and 20 – 50 cm depths were analyzed for total SOM, particulate organic matter (POM) fractions, hot water soluble C (HWC) and C-associated with water stable macro and micro aggregates (WSAC). While total SOM was more concentrated in the 0 – 5 cm soil depth across treatments, a lack of maize fertilization (F2 and F4 regimes) significantly (p<0.05) reduced the stratification ratio. Oat and vetch rotations had significantly higher (p<0.05) fine POM, coarse POM and HWC than weedy fallow rotations at 0 – 5 and 5 – 20 cm. When fertilized, oat was better able to support SOM sequestration in water stable aggregates at 0 – 20 cm whilst grazing vetch was more effective at 20 – 50 cm. The F3 regime had similar SOM levels as the F2. When no fertilizer was applied (F4 regime), there were significant (p<0.01) reductions in biomass input and total SOM on the oat-maize and weedy fallow-maize rotations, whereas the vetch-maize rotation did not respond, both at 0 – 5 and 5 – 20 cm. The findings suggested that in the low fertilizer input CA system, targeting fertilizer to the winter cover crop as opposed to the maize crop could give similar SOM response, with less fertilizer invested and that grazing vetch cover crops may be better suited to low N input CA systems for SOM improvement. 34
Gut dysbiosis in patients with chronic pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction Recent evidence supports the contribution of gut microbiota dysbiosis to the pathophysiology of rheumatic diseases, neuropathic pain, and neurodegenerative disorders. The bidirectional gut-brain communication network and the occurrence of chronic pain both involve contributions of the autonomic nervous system and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis. Nevertheless, the current understanding of the association between gut microbiota and chronic pain is still not clear. Therefore, the aim of this study is to systematically evaluate the existing knowledge about gut microbiota alterations in chronic pain conditions. Methods Four databases were consulted for this systematic literature review: PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Embase. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess the risk of bias. The study protocol was prospectively registered at the International prospective register of systematic reviews (PROSPERO, CRD42023430115). Alpha-diversity, β-diversity, and relative abundance at different taxonomic levels were summarized qualitatively, and quantitatively if possible. Results The initial database search identified a total of 3544 unique studies, of which 21 studies were eventually included in the systematic review and 11 in the meta-analysis. Decreases in alpha-diversity were revealed in chronic pain patients compared to controls for several metrics: observed species (SMD= -0.201, 95% CI from -0.04 to -0.36, p=0.01), Shannon index (SMD= -0.27, 95% CI from -0.11 to -0.43, p<0.001), and faith phylogenetic diversity (SMD -0.35, 95% CI from -0.08 to -0.61, p=0.01). Inconsistent results were revealed for beta-diversity. A decrease in the relative abundance of the Lachnospiraceae family, genus Faecalibacterium and Roseburia, and species of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Odoribacter splanchnicus, as well as an increase in Eggerthella spp. , was revealed in chronic pain patients compared to controls. Discussion Indications for gut microbiota dysbiosis were revealed in chronic pain patients, with non-specific disease alterations of microbes. Systematic review registration https://www.crd. york.ac. uk/prospero/, identifier CRD42023430115.
Direct and indirect measures of gene flow in three tropical dry forest tree species in southwestern Puerto Rico

The ability to exchange genes across the fragmented dry forest life zone of Puerto Rico’s south coast was examined in three species of tropical trees. Two of the species, Bursera simaruba and Hymenaea courbaril, are native to the island, while the third, Albizia lebbek, was introduced from tropical Asia in historic times. Indirect gene flow estimates, which are relatively easy to obtain, were compared against direct gene flow estimates, which although requiring more effort, entail fewer assumptions. One of the critical assumptions of the indirect approach, the presence of migration-drift equilibrium, was violated by all three species. Possible causes of the absence of equilibrium are discussed. Mating system analyses indicated that the three species were essentially completely outcrossed. Results from the direct gene flow study showed that for all three species, a substantial portion of a tree’s seed production is the result of gene-flow pollen, with between 42% and 100% of seeds being sired by foreign pollen. Gene flow was highest in A. lebbek, and lowest in H. courbaril. This contradicts a priori expectations of relative gene flow rates based on pollinator flight capacities, where the bat-pollinated H. courbaril was expected to have the highest gene flow rates. Asynchronous flowering and a lower population density are likely explanations for the relatively low gene flow estimates in H. courbaril. No relationship was seen between gene flow rates and either distance to nearest neighbor or stand size. In B. simaruba, however, germination rates of seeds increased with increasing stand size, with an almost total absence of germination in stands of three trees or less. A study of pollen movement within a stand of 21 adult H. courbaril trees showed that pollen usually did not come from nearest neighbors, and that relatively few trees contributed the majority of the pollen leading to successful pollinations. Genetic diversity values were higher in B. simaruba and A. lebbek than in other species with similar life history characteristics, while they were lower in H. courbaril. Possible causes of these patterns are discussed.
Surface-Enhanced Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy in Tissue

One aim of personalized medicine is to use continuous or on-demand monitoring of metabolites to adjust prescription dosages in real time. Surface-enhanced spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SESORS) is an optical technique capable of detecting surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)-active targets under a barrier, which may enable frequent metabolite monitoring. Here we investigate how the intensity of the signal from SERS-active material varies spatially through tissue, both experimentally and in a computational model. Implant-sized, SERS-active hydrogel was placed under different thicknesses of contiguous tissue. Emission spectra were collected at the air-tissue boundary over a range of offsets from the excitation site. New features were added to the Monte Carlo light-tissue interaction model to modify the optical properties after inelastic scattering and to calculate the distribution of photons as they exit the model. The Raman signals were detectable through all barrier thicknesses, with strongest emission for the case of 0 mm offset between the excitation and detector. A steep decline in the signal intensities occurred for offsets greater than 2 mm. These results did not match published SORS work (where targets were much larger than an implant). However, the model and experimental results agree in showing the greatest intensities at 0 mm offset and a steep gradient in the intensities with increasing offset. Also, the model showed an increase in the number of photons when the new, longer wavelengths were used following the Stokes shift for scattering and the graphical display of the exiting photons was helpful in the determination and confirmation of the optimal offset.
Underlay Loosely Coupled Model for Public Safety Networks Based on Device-to-Device Communication

In several emergency situations, during natural or human-caused disasters, frontline responders need to be able to communicate and collaborate to properly carry out relief missions. Some countries build their national Public Safety Mobile Broadband based on cellular LTE technology to provide fast, safe, and secure emergency services. However, in several emergency situations, cellular antennas can be overloaded or partially damaged in a manner that affects group communication services. In the last few years, direct device-to-device (D2D) communications have been proposed by the 3GPP as an underlay of long-term evolution (LTE) networks based on proximity, reuse, and hop gains. This paper focuses on a loosely coupled model based on direct D2D communication in a public safety context. Many scenarios related to user membership and network management are detailed. Both the “less cost” and “optimized tree” approaches are proposed and implemented, and their performance is evaluated in terms of the network update number and the resulting average Channel Quality Indicator (CQI). Other optimization approaches, with different CQI thresholds and optimization interval parameters, are simulated to compare their performance with the “optimized tree” approach. By conducting simulations that combine a CQI threshold = 1 and optimization interval = 2 s, it becomes possible to keep an average CQI level close to the “optimized tree” approach, while the costs related to network updates significantly decrease by almost 35%. Other simulations are also carried out to measure the bandwidth required by the control messages between the server and active users. It was found that both inbound and outbound traffic on the server side can be well supported with LTE and 5G networks.
Adaptive Clustering for Point Cloud

The point cloud segmentation method plays an important role in practical applications, such as remote sensing, mobile robots, and 3D modeling. However, there are still some limitations to the current point cloud data segmentation method when applied to large-scale scenes. Therefore, this paper proposes an adaptive clustering segmentation method. In this method, the threshold for clustering points within the point cloud is calculated using the characteristic parameters of adjacent points. After completing the preliminary segmentation of the point cloud, the segmentation results are further refined according to the standard deviation of the cluster points. Then, the cluster points whose number does not meet the conditions are further segmented, and, finally, scene point cloud data segmentation is realized. To test the superiority of this method, this study was based on point cloud data from a park in Guilin, Guangxi, China. The experimental results showed that this method is more practical and efficient than other methods, and it can effectively segment all ground objects and ground point cloud data in a scene. Compared with other segmentation methods that are easily affected by parameters, this method has strong robustness. In order to verify the universality of the method proposed in this paper, we test a public data set provided by ISPRS. The method achieves good segmentation results for multiple sample data, and it can distinguish noise points in a scene.
Analysis and Control of Single-Phase Single-Stage Grid- Connected Photovoltaic Inverter

Photovoltaic (PV) energy generation provides several advantages such as being harmless to the environment and renewable. Furthermore, grid-connected PV energy generation represents a renewable energy growing alternative that is becoming more competitive due to the new favourable governmental laws and policies as recently introduced. In this regard, PV systems that supply power directly to the grid are becoming more popular because of the cost reduction due to the lack of a battery subsystem. The main components of a grid-connected PV (GPV) system include a series-parallel connection arrangement of the available PV panels and a power conditioning system in charge to extract and properly transfer the maximum available power present at the PV generator to the grid. A GPV system based on a single central inverter is one of the most prevailing configurations since, under uniform irradiance conditions of the PV panels, it represents a good trade-off between the extracted energy and the design complexity of the power inverter. In this configuration all of the available PV panels are connected to a single power stage. One of the most typical central inverter power converter topology is the single-phase single-stage full-bridge inverter. The control strategy driving the central inverter results crucial for the optimization of the grid-connected PV energy extraction. The inverter's control scheme requires achieving simultaneously the following objectives: - The maximum power extraction from the PV array by means of tracking the solar panels maximum power point that varies with the solar irradiance and the PV panels temperature. - The proper conversion of the DC input power into an AC output current which has to be injected to the grid. This current has to exhibit low harmonic contents and must be in phase with respect to the grid voltage in order to perform the power transfer at unity power factor. These control requirements have generally been carried out by means of a s
An Impedance-Boosted Transformer-First Discrete-Time Analog Front-End Achieving 0.34 NEF and 389-MΩ Input Impedance

This article presents a transformer-first analog front-end (AFE) for ultra-low-power sensor nodes. The proposed AFE employs a discrete-time transformer based on series–parallel converters as an input stage. The switched-capacitor (SC) transformer can provide a passive low-noise voltage gain, attenuating the input-referred noise (IRN) of the following continuous-time chain. However, it also degrades the AFE input impedance. As a remedy, this article presents an input-resistance-boosting (IRB) loop that successfully increases the input resistance, sensing the output of a following continuous-time stage. At the same time, we also introduce an input-capacitance-canceling (ICC) loop to improve the input impedance at high frequencies. The proposed AFE achieves 389-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathbf {M\Omega }$ </tex-math></inline-formula> input impedance at 1 kHz, which represents a 39<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> improvement compared to prior work. Moreover, it attains superior noise efficiency, with an IRN of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathbf {1.36}~\mathbf {\mu V_{\text {rms}}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, while consuming 370 nW. This results in a noise efficiency factor (NEF) of 0.34 and a power efficiency factor (PEF) of 0.1, the lowest reported values to the best of the authors’ knowledge. The impedance-boosted chain consisting of the SC transformer, first continuous-time amplifier (CTA), and the IRB loop achieves an NEF of 0.27 and a PEF of 0.06.
SQUIDs and magnetotellurics with a remote reference

Two 3‐axis SQUID magnetometers were used to perform simultaneous magnetotelluric measurements at two sites separated by 4.8 km near Hollister, California. The data obtained at earch site were analyzed by using a standard least‐squares method, and also using the two magnetic field measurements at the other site as a lock‐in reference. The apparent resistivities obtained from the conventional analysis were nearly always biased downward by noise picked up in the magnetic channels, at some frequencies by as much as two orders of magnitude. By comparison, the same data analyzed with the remote reference technique showed no such bias.
Role of Physiotherapy in Osgood-Schlatter’s Disease in Adolescent Volleyball Smasher: A Case Report

A 14-year-old female presented to the sports physiotherapy with a diagnosis of Osgood-Schlatter's disease (OSD), a condition particularly prevalent in adolescents engaged in sports with repetitive knee motions, such as volleyball. This ailment commonly manifests at the tibia, directly beneath the patella, eliciting discomfort and inflammation. The chronic overuse injuries involve repetitive activities inducing fatigue in specific anatomical structures. Adequate recovery mechanisms allow for tissue adaptation, mitigating the risk of injury. In the absence of proper recovery, microtrauma ensues, instigating inflammation mediated by substances like histamines. The release of inflammatory cells and enzymes inflicts damage on local tissue, and prolonged stress contributes to degenerative changes, resulting in weakness, diminished flexibility, and chronic pain. These manifestations are intimately associated with OSD in chronic or recurrent instances. The primary symptom of OSD is knee pain, often of sufficient severity to induce limping. Patients report discomfort during activities such as kneeling, descending stairs, prolonged stationary positions, prolonged episodes of sitting with the knee rendered immobile, and engagement in sporting activities. This case study specifically underscores the efficacy of tailored physiotherapy in the management of OSD among adolescent volleyball players. The study's findings indicate that the patient successfully alleviated symptoms, facilitating recovery with improved outcomes. Furthermore, the physiotherapy regimen appears instrumental in enhancing the patient's functional mobility, as evidenced by the study's outcomes.