Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Physical Inactivity and Pain in Older Men and Women with Hip Fracture History

Hip fracture patients often suffer from pain for several months after surgery. This may lead to physical inactivity and subsequent mobility limitation and disability. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between severe musculoskeletal pain and the level of physical activity in older people with a history of hip fracture. Data were collected from 60- to 85-year-old (n = 78) community-dwelling people, 0.7–7.5 years after hip fracture. Physical activity was assessed with the Yale Physical Activity Survey (YPAS). According to the YPAS summary index distribution, the participants were divided into the physically inactive and physically active groups. Musculoskeletal pain in the lower back, hip or knee region was assessed by the Visual Analog Scale. Pain was defined as severe pain if the subject rated the pain 66 mm or over (upper third of the scale) in at least one of the relevant body regions in the lower body. Thirty-three subjects (42%) experienced severe pain in the lower body, of whom 23 (70%) reported severe pain in the operated hip. Twenty-three patients (30%) used pain medication prescribed by a physician. The level of musculoskeletal pain was significantly higher in the physically inactive (62%) than in the physically active (31%) group (p = 0.011). Logistic regression analysis showed that people with severe pain had over three times (OR: 3.5, 95% CI: 1.30–9.39) the risk for physical inactivity compared to those with less or no pain. Multivariate adjustments for balance confidence, time since fracture, number of chronic diseases and type of surgery did not materially change the estimate (OR: 3.0, 95% CI: 1.00–9.30). Pain is an important associated factor of physical inactivity in older people with a hip fracture history. Pain management may be important in restoring and sustaining the level of physical activity after hip fracture. Further prospective and experimental studies are, however, needed to explore the causality between pain and physical activity as well as the role of pain management and physical activity interventions in preventing mobility limitation and disability among older people recovering from hip fracture.
Three-Dimensional Underwater Target Tracking With Acoustic Sensor Networks

Using traditional sonar arrays may be difficult and impractical in some mission-critical scenarios, because they should be mounted on or towed by a ship or a submersible. Alternatively, underwater acoustic sensor networks (UW-ASNs) offer a promising solution approach. In this paper, a target-tracking algorithm for UW-ASNs, i.e., 3-D underwater target tracking (3DUT), is presented. The objective of 3DUT is to collaboratively accomplish accurate tracking of underwater targets with minimum energy expenditure. Based on the time of arrival of the echoes from the target after transmitting acoustic pulses from the sensors, the ranges of the nodes to the target are determined, and trilateration is used to obtain the location of the target. The location and the calculated velocity of the target are then exploited to achieve tracking. To realize energy-effective target tracking, 3DUT incorporates a new target-movement-based duty-cycle mechanism. To avoid rapid depletion of the energy resources of boundary nodes due to continuous surveillance, 3DUT employs an adaptive procedure to find, designate, and activate new boundary nodes. Performance evaluation shows that 3DUT is a promising alternative to the traditional sonar-based target-tracking approaches, particularly for on-demand surveillance applications.
Iunius: A Cross-Layer Peer-to-Peer System With Device-to-Device Communications

Device-to-device (D2D) communications utilizing licensed spectrum have been considered a promising technology to improve cellular network spectral efficiency and offload local traffic from cellular base stations (BSs). In this paper, we develop Iunius: a peer-to-peer (P2P) system based on harvesting data in a community utilizing multi-hop D2D communications. The Iunius system optimizes D2D communications for P2P local file sharing, improves user experience, and offloads traffic from the BSs. The Iunius system features cross-layer integration of: 1) a wireless P2P protocol based on the BitTorrent protocol in the application layer; 2) a simple centralized routing mechanism for multi-hop D2D communications; 3) an interference cancellation technique for conventional cellular (CC) uplink communications; and 4) a radio resource management scheme to mitigate the interference between CC and D2D communications that share the cellular uplink radio resources while maximizing the throughput of D2D communications. Simulation results show that the proposed Iunius system can increase the cellular spectral efficiency, reduce the traffic load of BSs, and improve the data rate and energy saving for mobile users.
Cell-based therapies for Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide, classically characterized by a triad of motor features: bradykinesia, rigidity and resting tremor. Neurodegeneration in PD critically involves the dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta, which results in a severe reduction in dopamine levels in the dorsal striatum. However, the disease also exhibits extensive non-nigral pathology and as many non-motor as motor features. Nevertheless, owing to the relatively circumscribed nature of the nigrostriatal lesion in PD, dopaminergic cell transplantation has emerged as a potentially reparative therapy for the disease. Sources for such cells are varied and include the developing ventral mesencephalon, several autologous somatic cell types, embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells. In this article, we review the origins of dopaminergic transplantation for PD and the emergent hunt for a suitable long-term source of transplantable dopaminergic neurons.
Effects of Electrochromic Glass on Computer Vision Syndrome

Occupant surveys were conducted in 4 office buildings, 2 with traditional non-tinted low-e glass (LeG) and 2 with electrochromic glass (EC). 106 employees working in these buildings volunteered to participate in the study. Results showed that subjective reports of overall ambient lighting conditions were comparable in the buildings. However, EC optimizes daylight and reduces sunlight glare, and significantly more workers sat close to the windows in the EC buildings compared to the LeG buildings. Workers in the EC office buildings reported significantly better daylight, significantly less adverse glare, and significantly fewer symptoms of computer vision syndrome than those in the LeG buildings.
Effects of Phyllanthus reticulatus on lipid profile and oxidative stress in hypercholesterolemic albino rats

Objective: This study was designed to investigate the effect of Phyllanthus reticulatus on lipid profile and oxidative stress in hypercholesterolemic albino rats. Materials and Methods: Hypercholesterolemia was induced in albino rats by administration of atherogenic diet for 2 weeks. Experimental rats were divided into different groups: normal, hypercholesterolemic control and P. reticulatus treated (250 and 500 mg/kg body weight doses for 45 days). After the treatment period of 45th day triglyceride, VLDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, total cholesterol (TC), LDL-cholesterol and oxidative stress (protein carbonyl) were assayed and compared with hypercholesterolemic control. Results: The aqueous extract of P. reticulatus (250 mg and 500 mg/kg) produced significant reduction (P < 0.05) in triglyceride, VLDL-cholesterol, total cholesterol (TC), LDL-cholesterol and oxidative stress (protein carbonyl) while increased HDL-cholesterol in atherogenic diet-induced hypercholesterolemic rats at the end of the treatment period (45 days). However, the reduction in the above parameters was comparable with hypercholesterolemic control. Thus, aqueous extract of P. reticulatus is effective in controlling TC, lipid profile and oxidative stress in hypercholesterolemic animals. Conclusion: The results suggest the aqueous extract of P. reticulatus can be utilized for prevention of atherosclerosis in hypercholesterolemic patients.
Semantic search and composition in unstructured peer-to-peer networks

This dissertation focuses on several research questions in the area of semantic search and composition in unstructured peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Going beyond the state of the art, the proposed semantic-based search strategy S2P2P offers a novel path-suggestion based query routing mechanism, providing a reasonable tradeoff between search performance and network traffic overhead. In addition, the first semantic-based data replication scheme DSDR is proposed. It enables peers to use semantic information to select replica numbers and target peers to address predicted future demands. With DSDR, k-random search can achieve better precision and recall than it can with a near-optimal non-semantic replication strategy. Further, this thesis introduces a functional automatic semantic service composition method, SPSC. Distinctively, it enables peers to jointly compose complex workflows with high cumulative recall but low network traffic overhead, using heuristic-based bidirectional chaining and service memorization mechanisms. Its query branching method helps to handle dead-ends in a pruned search space. SPSC is proved to be sound and a lower bound of its completeness is given. Finally, this thesis presents iRep3D for semantic-index based 3D scene selection in P2P search. Its efficient retrieval scales to answer hybrid queries involving conceptual, functional and geometric aspects. iRep3D outperforms previous representative efforts in terms of search precision and efficiency.
The volume of separable states is super-doubly-exponentially small

In this note we give sharp estimates on the volume of the set of separable states on N qubits. In particular, the magnitude of the “eﬀective radius” of that set in the sense of volume is determined up to a factor which is a (small) power of N , and thus precisely on the scale of powers of its dimension. Additionally, one of the appendices contains new sharp estimates (by known methods) for the expected values of norms of the GUE random matrices. We employ standard tools of classical convexity, high-dimensional probability and geometry of Banach spaces.
Reproducibility of heart rate recovery in patients with intermittent claudication

Postexercise heart rate recovery (HRR) is a non‐invasive tool for cardiac autonomic function assessment. Reproducibility of HRR has been established in healthy subjects; however, no study has evaluated this reproducibility in clinical populations who may present autonomic dysfunction. Patients with peripheral artery disease and intermittent claudication (IC) often present altered cardiac autonomic function and HRR could be an interesting tool for evaluating autonomic responses to interventions in this population. Therefore, the reproducibility of HRR should be determined in this specific population.
New insights into the pathology of white matter tracts in cerebral palsy from diffusion magnetic resonance imaging: a systematic review

Aim Structural connectivity analysis using diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) and tractography has become the method of choice for studying white matter pathology and reorganization in children with congenital hemiplegia. To evaluate its role in the research domain, we systematically reviewed the literature about children with cerebral palsy (CP) to document common findings and identify strengths and possible limitations of this neuroimaging technology.
An Effect of Reinforcement and Heat Treatment on AA7075 Metal Matrix Composite – A Review

AA7075 is a combination with zinc as an essential allo ying component. When contrasted with numerous diffe rent steels its quality is very similar. It has greater fatigue strength, however less protection from corrosion th an numerous other Al alloy. This paper investigates the possibility of g rowing elite composites with low cast, for different applications like aviation and automobile. The impact of different re inforcements on the AA7075 based composite has been investigated. The mechanical properties, have been seen to be eit her practically identical or better after heat trea tment to the as cast composites. It has been found from the past researc h that the nearness of the hard ceramic stage, for example, SiC, TiB2, B4C, Al2O3effects directstrengthening of the composites. In v iew of the information from the previous research, t he application region of AA7075 AMCs has been shown in th e present review. It has been gathered that the hybr id composites give greater reliability and flexibility in the design of components depending upon the rei nforcement and matrix material.
The Structural and Functional Organization of Cognition

This article proposes that what have been historically and contemporarily defined as different domains of human cognition are served by one of four functionally- and structurally-distinct areas of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Their contributions to human intelligence are as follows: (a) BA9, enables our emotional intelligence, engaging the psychosocial domain; (b) BA47, enables our practical intelligence, engaging the material domain; (c) BA46 (or BA46-9/46), enables our abstract intelligence, engaging the hypothetical domain; and (d) BA10, enables our temporal intelligence, engaging in planning within any of the other three domains. Given their unique contribution to human cognition, it is proposed that these areas be called the, social (BA9), material (BA47), abstract (BA46-9/46) and temporal (BA10) mind. The evidence that BA47 participates strongly in verbal and gestural communication suggests that language evolved primarily as a consequence of the extreme selective pressure for practicality; an observation supported by the functional connectivity between BA47 and orbital areas that negatively reinforce lying. It is further proposed that the abstract mind (BA46-9/46) is the primary seat of metacognition charged with creating adaptive behavioral strategies by generating higher-order concepts (hypotheses) from lower-order concepts originating from the other three domains of cognition.
nifH Sequences and Nitrogen Fixation in Type I and Type II Methanotrophs

ABSTRACT Some methane-oxidizing bacteria (methanotrophs) are known to be capable of expressing nitrogenase and utilizing N2 as a nitrogen source. However, no sequences are available fornif genes in these strains, and the known nitrogen-fixing methanotrophs are confined mainly to a few genera. The purpose of this work was to assess the nitrogen-fixing capabilities of a variety of methanotroph strains. nifH gene fragments from four type I methanotrophs and seven type II methanotrophs were PCR amplified and sequenced. Nitrogenase activity was confirmed in selected type I and type II strains by acetylene reduction. Activities ranged from 0.4 to 3.3 nmol/min/mg of protein. Sequence analysis shows that thenifH sequences from the type I and type II strains cluster with nifH sequences from other gamma proteobacteria and alpha proteobacteria, respectively. The translatednifH sequences from three Methylomonas strains show high identity (95 to 99%) to several published translated environmental nifH sequences PCR amplified from rice roots and a freshwater lake. The translated nifHsequences from the type II strains show high identity (94 to 99%) to published translated nifH sequences from a variety of environments, including rice roots, a freshwater lake, an oligotrophic ocean, and forest soil. These results provide evidence for nitrogen fixation in a broad range of methanotrophs and suggest that nitrogen-fixing methanotrophs may be widespread and important in the nitrogen cycling of many environments.
Optimizing the QoS of high speed moving terminals in cellular networks

This paper presents a dynamic guard channel assignment technique based on a two‐layer cellular architecture which optimizes the blocking probability performance of high‐speed moving terminals (HSMT) and handoff calls of low‐speed moving terminals (LSMT), in a congested urban area. The lower layer of the proposed architecture is based on a microcellular solution, for absorbing the traffic loads of LSMT. The higher layer is based on a macro‐cell umbrella solution, for absorbing the traffic load of the HSMT. The results show that using the optimum number of channels and adjusting dynamically the number of guard channels in each layer, the blocking probability of the HSMT and the handoff blocking probability of LSMT is optimized having the minimum bad effect on the new call blocking probability of LSMT. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effect of nutrient mixture and black grapes on the pharmacokinetics of orally administered (‐)epigallocatechin‐3‐gallate from green tea extract: a human study

(‐)Epigallocatechin‐3‐gallate (EGCG), a green tea component, has been attributed with anticarcinogenic and antioxidant activities. The extent and rate of absorption of EGCG by the small intestine depends on various factors such as molecular size, lipophilicity, solubility, pKa, gastric and intestinal transit time, lumen pH, membrane permeability and first pass metabolism.
Response to comments by Mage regarding “Is daily mortality associated specifically with fine particles?”

We are somewhat puzzled to receive a comment on a paper two decades old, focused on the exposure error due to missing days of particle concentrations, particularly when many subsequent papers, some involving over 100 cities, have examined the association of PM2.5 with daily deaths. Those studies had daily monitoring data available, and found similar results. For example, Dai et al. (2014) examined 75 U.S. cities and reported a 1.18% increase in daily deaths associated with a 10 μg/m increase in PM2.5, quite similar to our earlier report. Moreover, if the issue is error in assigning exposure, great progress has been made by combining daily monitoring data with daily satellite remote sensing data. Using this approach Kloog et al. (2013) recently reported an association between two-day mean exposure at each decedent’s home address and the risk of death, again with similar effect size to our two-decade-old paper. To address the specific comment, for part of the study period, the monitors used in our analysis were only operated every other day, whereas many papers had previously suggested that two-day averages of particle exposure were most strongly associated with daily death rates. To address this, we took the mean of the non-missing values to construct two-day means. Missing data can bias estimates in a study unless the data are missing completely at random. For routine every other day sampling, this is certainly the case—the missing days are neither more polluted than the non-missing days, nor, on average, do they have higher death rates. Moreover, up to time trends in exposure (which are removed by the analysis) yesterday’s air pollution is an unbiased estimate of today’s air pollution. So while there surely could be more sophisticated ways to estimate the two-day mean, such as the EM algorithm that Dr. Mage suggests, there is no bias. Using a more sophisticated two-day mean would merely slightly reduce classical measurement error, and classical error leads to underestimates of the effect size for particles on mortality. However, given the plethora of subsequent studies on PM2.5 since this paper, we fail to see what value such an effort would have. We have newer studies, at lower and more relevant concentrations, in many more cities, and some with individual exposure estimates.
Biocontrol treatments confer protection against Verticillium dahliae infection of potato by inducing antimicrobial metabolites.

Verticillium wilt, caused by Verticillium dahliae Kleb. , is a serious potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) disease worldwide, and biocontrol represents a promising eco-friendly strategy to reduce its impact. We used extracts from Canada milk vetch (CMV) and a set of four V. dahliae-antagonistic bacterial strains to coat potato seeds at planting and examined the degree of protection provided against V. dahliae as well as accumulation of soluble phenolics as markers for induced resistance. All tested treatments were effective in reducing disease severity, and CMV showed the highest level of protection. In this treatment, flavonol-glycoside rutin was a highly abundant compound induced in potato tissues, with levels two to three times higher than those detected in noninoculated controls and V. dahliae-inoculated plants. We investigated dose-dependent effects of rutin on V. dahliae growth and sporulation in vitro and in planta. The effect of rutin on mycelial growth was inconsistent between disk assay and amended medium experiments. On the other hand, significant reduction of V. dahliae sporulation in vitro was consistently observed starting at 300 and 100 μM for isolates Vd-9 and Vd-21, respectively. We successfully detected 2-protocatechuoylphloroglucinolcarboxylic acid (2-PCPGCA) using ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry, indicating that V. dahliae dioxygenally oxidizes quercetin. Quercetin, as an aglycone, is freed from the sugar moiety by glucosidases and rhamnosidases produced by the fungus and is a substrate for quercetinases. The occurrence of quercetinases in V. dahliae provides a background to formulate a hypothesis about how by-product 2-PCPGCA may be interfering with potato defenses.