Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A whole-grain cereal-rich diet increases plasma betaine, and tends to decrease total and LDL-cholesterol compared with a refined-grain diet in healthy subjects

Epidemiological studies have repeatedly found that whole-grain (WG) cereal foods reduce the risk of several lifestyle-related diseases, though consistent clinical outcomes and mechanisms are elusive. To compare the effects of a WG-rich diet with a matched refined-grain (RG) diet on plasma biomarkers and bowel health parameters, seventeen healthy subjects (eleven females and six males) completed an exploratory cross-over study with a 2-week intervention diet based on either WG- or RG-based foods, separated by a washout of at least 5 weeks. Both diets were the same except for the use of WG (150 g/d) or RG foods. Subjects undertook a 4 h postprandial challenge on day 8 of each intervention diet. After 2 weeks, the WG diet tended to decrease plasma total and LDL-cholesterol (both P = 0·09), but did not change plasma HDL-cholesterol, fasting glucose, C-reactive protein or homocysteine compared with the RG diet. Plasma betaine and alkylresorcinol concentrations were elevated after 1 week of the WG diet (P = 0·01 and P < 0·0001, respectively). Clostridium leptum populations in faeces were increased after the WG diet, along with a trend for decreased faecal water pH (P = 0·096) and increased stool frequency (P < 0·0001) compared with the RG diet. A short controlled intervention trial with a variety of commercially available WG-based products tended to improve biomarkers of CVD compared with a RG diet. Changes in faecal microbiota related to increased fibre fermentation and increased plasma betaine concentrations point to both fibre and phytochemical components of WG being important in mediating any potential health effects.
Postoperative abdominal wound infection – epidemiology, risk factors, identification, and management

Surgical site infections (SSIs) complicate the postoperative course of a significant proportion of general abdominal surgical patients and are associated with excessive health care costs. SSIs increase postoperative morbidity and mortality, and may require hospital admission, intravenous antibiotics, and even surgical reintervention. Risks associated with SSIs are related to both host and perioperative factors. However, a vast majority of these infections are preventable. More recently, quality initiative programs such as American College of Surgeons National Sur- gical Quality Improvement Program are expanding their roles to help better monitor adherence to improvement measures. Indeed, standardizing preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis timing is perhaps the most persuasive example and this has been integral to reducing postoperative SSI rates. Herein, the authors provide an update on the epidemiology, risk factors, identification, and management of wound infections following abdominal surgery.
Guidelines for screening and monitoring of cardiometabolic risk in schizophrenia: systematic evaluation

Background Metabolic and cardiovascular health problems have become a major focus for clinical care and research in schizophrenia. Aims To evaluate the content and quality of screening guidelines for cardiovascular risk in schizophrenia. Method Systematic review and quality assessment of guidelines/recommendations for cardiovascular risk in people with schizophrenia published between 2000 and 2010, using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE). Results The AGREE domain scores varied between the 18 identified guidelines. Most guidelines scored best on the domains ‘scope and purpose’ and ‘clarity of presentation‘. The domain ‘rigour of development’ was problematic in most guidelines, and the domains ‘stakeholder involvement’ and ‘editorial independence’ scored the lowest. The following measurements were recommended (in order of frequency): fasting glucose, body mass index, fasting triglycerides, fasting cholesterol, waist, high-density lipoprotein/low-density lipoprotein, blood pressure and symptoms of diabetes. In terms of interventions, most guidelines recommended advice on physical activity, diet, psychoeducation of the patient, treatment of lipid abnormalities, treatment of diabetes, referral for advice and treatment, psychoeducation of the family and smoking cessation advice. Compared across all domains and content, four European guidelines could be recommended. Conclusions Four of the evaluated guidelines are of good quality and should guide clinicians' screening and monitoring practices. Future guideline development could be improved by increasing its rigour and assuring user and patient involvement.
Epoxy Composites Using Wood Pulp Components as Fillers

The components of wood, especially lignin and cellulose, have great potential for improving the properties of polymer composites. In this chapter, we discuss some of the latest developments from our lab on incorporating wood-based materials into epoxy composites. Lignosulfonate was used as a flame retardant and cellulose nanocrystals were used as reinforcing materials. Lignosulfonate will disperse well in epoxy, but phase separates during curing. An epoxidation reaction was developed to immobilize the lignosulfonate during curing. The lignosulfonate–epoxy composites were characterized using microcombustion and cone calorimetry tests. Cellulose also has poor interfacial adhesion to hydrophobic polymer matrices. Cellulose fibers and nanocrystals aggregate when placed in epoxy resin, resulting in very poor dispersion. The cellulose nanocrystal surface was modified with phenyl containing materials to disrupt cellulose interchain hydrogen bonding and improve dispersion in the epoxy resin. The cellulose nanocrystal – epoxy composites were characterized for mechanical strength using tensile tests, water barrier properties using standardized water absorption, glass transition temperatures using differential calorimetry, and aggregation and dispersion using microscopic techniques. The observed peeling of the char layer during combustion in the cone calorimeter suggested the lignin migrated and separated from the epoxy matrix during curing. The migration was verified using microcombustion calorimetry. Microcombustion calorimetry is a small scale (3 mg to 10 mg samples) test, where a sample is heated in nitrogen, similar to thermogravimetric analysis, and the pyrolyzed gases are mixed with oxygen and combusted in a separate chamber. The amount of oxygen consumed can be correlated to heat released. The heat release capacity (HRC) and heat of combustion (H c ) measured by the MCC are correlated to several flammability parameters obtained from other measurements, including peak heat release rate (PHRR) and total heat released (THR) from cone calorimetry experiments. As , ethoxylated lignosulfonate has a lower flammability and higher char yield than alkali lignin, which is why it was chosen as the primary flame retardant in this study. Lignin and ethoxylated lignosulfonate have much lower flammabilities than epoxy. The use of these materials in epoxy significantly reduces the HRC by up to 45 % and the H c by up to 20 %. A 5 mg sample was taken from the top and the bottom of an 8 mm thick epoxy + 10 % REAX825E sample. The results show that the lignosulfonate migrates to the top surface of the epoxy during the curing process. The higher char yield and lower apparent heat capacity are likely due almost entirely to the lignin, rather than uncombusted epoxy. The low H c and char yield for AT verifies that it has potential as a gas-forming agent in intumescent formulations.
Recovering Structured Probability Matrices

We consider the problem of accurately recovering a matrix B of size M by M , which represents a probability distribution over M2 outcomes, given access to an observed matrix of "counts" generated by taking independent samples from the distribution B. How can structural properties of the underlying matrix B be leveraged to yield computationally efficient and information theoretically optimal reconstruction algorithms? When can accurate reconstruction be accomplished in the sparse data regime? This basic problem lies at the core of a number of questions that are currently being considered by different communities, including building recommendation systems and collaborative filtering in the sparse data regime, community detection in sparse random graphs, learning structured models such as topic models or hidden Markov models, and the efforts from the natural language processing community to compute "word embeddings". Our results apply to the setting where B has a low rank structure. For this setting, we propose an efficient algorithm that accurately recovers the underlying M by M matrix using Theta(M) samples. This result easily translates to Theta(M) sample algorithms for learning topic models and learning hidden Markov Models. These linear sample complexities are optimal, up to constant factors, in an extremely strong sense: even testing basic properties of the underlying matrix (such as whether it has rank 1 or 2) requires Omega(M) samples. We provide an even stronger lower bound where distinguishing whether a sequence of observations were drawn from the uniform distribution over M observations versus being generated by an HMM with two hidden states requires Omega(M) observations. This precludes sublinear-sample hypothesis tests for basic properties, such as identity or uniformity, as well as sublinear sample estimators for quantities such as the entropy rate of HMMs.
The E 1 proteins

E1, an ATP-dependent DNA helicase, is the only enzyme encoded by papillomaviruses (PVs). It is essential for replication and amplification of the viral episome in the nucleus of infected cells. To do so, E1 assembles into a double-hexamer at the viral origin, unwinds DNA at the origin and ahead of the replication fork and interacts with cellular DNA replication factors. Biochemical and structural studies have revealed the assembly pathway of E1 at the origin and how the enzyme unwinds DNA using a spiral escalator mechanism. E1 is tightly regulated in vivo, in particular by post-translational modifications that restrict its accumulation in the nucleus. Here we review how different functional domains of E1 orchestrate viral DNA replication, with an emphasis on their interactions with substrate DNA, host DNA replication factors and modifying enzymes. These studies have made E1 one of the best characterized helicases and provided unique insights on how PVs usurp different host-cell machineries to replicate and amplify their genome in a tightly controlled manner. & 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Advancements in GSM Technology Using Smart Antenna : An Overview

In this paper, we discuss about the problems facing by GSM technology and how a smart antenna system can efficiently counter these problems. Here we present an overview about smart antenna system and how it can be used to eliminate or reduce the problems which limits the performance of GSM. We show here the potential improvements like range extension, multipath diversity, interference suppression, capacity enhancement and increment in data rate. KeywordsAdaptive array system, beam forming network, diversity, fading, interference, switch beam.
Understanding Patients’ Preferences for Referrals to Specialists for an Asymptomatic Condition

Background: A specialty referral is a common but complex decision that often requires a primary care provider to balance his or her own interests with those of the patient. Objective: To examine the factors that influence a patient’s choice of a specialist for consultation for an asymptomatic condition and better understand the tradeoffs that patients are and are not willing to make in this decision. Design: Stratified cross-sectional convenience sample of subjects selected to parallel US population demographics. Participants: Members of an Internet survey panel who reported seeing a physician in the past year whose responses met objective quality metrics for attention. Main measures: Respondents completed an adaptive conjoint analysis survey comparing specialists regarding eight attributes. The reliability of assessments and the predictive validity of models were measured using holdout samples. The relative importance (RI) of different attributes was computed using paired t tests. The implications of utility values were studied using market simulation methods. Key results: Five hundred and thirty subjects completed the survey and had responses that met quality criteria. The reliability of responses was high (86% agreement), and models were predictive of patients’ preferences (82.6% agreement with holdout choices). The most important attribute for patients was out-of-pocket cost (RI of 19.5%, P < 0.0001 v. other factors). Among the nonfinancial factors, “collaboration and communication” with the primary care provider was the most important attribute (RI of 13.1% P < 0.001). Third in importance was whether the specialist practiced shared decision making (RI of 12.2% P < 0.001 v. other factors except delay in consultation). Cost did not dominate decision making. In market simulations, patients frequently preferred more expensive providers. For example, most patients (76.3%) were willing to pay more ($80) to see a specialist who both collaborated well with their primary care provider and practiced shared decision making. Most patients prefer to wait for a doctor who practices shared decision making: Only one-third (32.3%) of patients preferred a paternalistic doctor who was available in 2 weeks over a doctor who practiced decision making but was available in 4 weeks. Conclusions: In the setting of a referral for an asymptomatic but serious condition, out-of-pocket costs are important to patients; however, they also value specialists who collaborate and communicate well with their primary care providers and who practice shared decision making. Patients have wide variability in preferences for specialists, and referral decisions should be individualized.
Peer-to-peer Collaborative Vehicle Health Management – the Concept and an Initial Study

Advanced vehicle diagnostics and prognostics (D&P) technology enhances ownership experience, and reduces corporate warranty cost. D&P performance optimization requires significant algorithm tuning and a large amount of test data collection, which is resource consuming. In this paper, we propose a novel D&P framework called Collaborative Vehicle Health Management (CVHM) to automatically optimize the D&P algorithms on a host vehicle, using the field data collected from peer vehicles encountered on the road. The carefully designed system architecture and learning algorithms enhance D&P performance without costly human intervention. The experimental results on battery remaining useful life prediction show the effectiveness of the proposed framework. This proposed framework has been implemented in a small test fleet as a proof-of-concept prototype.
Doxycycline Does Not Influence Established Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms in Angiotensin II-Infused Mice

Background There is no proven medical approach to attenuating expansion and rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs). One approach that is currently being investigated is the use of doxycycline. Despite being primarily used as an antimicrobial drug, doxycycline has been proposed to function in reducing AAA expansion. Doxycycline is effective in reducing the formation in the most commonly used mouse models of AAAs when administered prior to the initiation of the disease. The purpose of the current study was to determine the effects of doxycycline on established AAAs when it was administered at a dose that produces therapeutic serum concentrations. Methods and Results LDL receptor −/− male mice fed a saturated-fat supplemented diet were infused with AngII (1,000 ng/kg/min) via mini-osmotic pumps for 28 days. Upon verification of AAA formation by noninvasive high frequency ultrasonography, mice were stratified based on aortic lumen diameters, and continuously infused with AngII while also administered either vehicle or doxycycline (100 mg/kg/day) in drinking water for 56 days. Administration of doxycycline led to serum drug concentrations of 2.3±0.6 µg/ml. Doxycycline administration had no effect on serum cholesterol concentrations and systolic blood pressures. Doxycycline administration did not prevent progressive aortic dilation as determined by temporal measurements of lumen dimensions using high frequency ultrasound. This lack of effect on AAA regression and progression was confirmed at the termination of the study by ex vivo measurements of maximal width of suprarenal aortas and AAA volumes. Also, doxycycline did not reduce AAA rupture. Medial and adventitial remodeling was not overtly changed by doxycycline as determined by immunostaining and histological staining. Conclusions Doxycycline administration did not influence AngII-induced AAA progression and aortic rupture when administered to mice with established AAAs.
Methemoglobinemia due to topical pharyngeal anesthesia during endoscopic procedures

Acquired methemoglobinemia is a known complication of topical anesthesia during endoscopic procedures. Benzocaine has been implicated in a majority of cases and has been removed from some hospital formularies. However, a lot of uncertainty exists about the risk factors for this uncommon complication. This review attempts to summarize the current knowledge of this condition and describe known risk factors. Anesthetic and patient-specific risk factors are described along with some hypothetical procedure-related factors. Clinicians should identify patients who are at high risk and apply appropriate postprocedure screening. Prospective studies are needed to further our knowledge and improve patient safety.
Tensile Strength Assessment of Injection-Molded High Yield Sugarcane Bagasse-Reinforced Polypropylene

Sugarcane bagasse was treated to obtain sawdust, in addition to mechanical, thermomechanical, and chemical-thermomechanical pulps. The obtained fibers were used to obtain reinforced polypropylene composites prepared by injection molding. Coupling agent contents ranging from 2 to 10% w/w were added to the composite to obtain the highest tensile strength. All the composites included 30% w/w of reinforcing fibers. The tensile strength of the different sugarcane bagasse fiber composites were tested and discussed. The results were compared with that of other natural fiber- or glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene composites. Pulp-based composites showed higher tensile strength than sawdust-based composites. A micromechanical analysis showed the relationship of some micromechanical properties to the orientation angle, critical length, the intrinsic tensile strength, and the interfacial shear strength. The pulps showed similar intrinsic tensile strengths and were higher than that of sawdust. The properties of the sugarcane bagasse composites compared well with other natural fiber-reinforced composites.
Anomaly Detection and Prognosis for Primary Flight Control EMAs

One of the most significant research trends in the aeronautic industry is currently the design and, possibly, build of “more electric aircraft”. In this framework, one of the more deeply investigated subjects has been, and still is, the replacement of the traditional hydraulic/electro-hydraulic technology for flight control systems with the electromechanical ones. Although featuring many advantages, electro-mechanical actuators still suffer from several shortcomings, mainly those related to reliability issues, which are still difficult to overcome simply by design. The development of an efficient PHM system could instead provide the needed increase in reliability without any major design variations. This paper addresses, in the first part of the study, the design of a comprehensive PHM system for EMAs employed as primary flight control devices; the peculiarities of the application are presented and discussed, while a novel approach based on short pre-flight health tests is proposed. The most common electric motor windings degradation is addressed in the second part and a particlefiltering framework for anomaly detection and prognosis is proposed featuring a self-tuning non-linear model for improved prognostic performance. Features, anomaly detection and the prognostic algorithm are hence evaluated through state-of-the art performance metrics and their results discussed.
Fish intake during pregnancy, fetal growth, and gestational length in 19 European birth cohort studies.

BACKGROUND Fish is a rich source of essential nutrients for fetal development, but in contrast, it is also a well-known route of exposure to environmental pollutants. OBJECTIVE We assessed whether fish intake during pregnancy is associated with fetal growth and the length of gestation in a panel of European birth cohort studies. DESIGN The study sample of 151,880 mother-child pairs was derived from 19 population-based European birth cohort studies. Individual data from cohorts were pooled and harmonized. Adjusted cohort-specific effect estimates were combined by using a random- and fixed-effects meta-analysis. RESULTS Women who ate fish >1 time/wk during pregnancy had lower risk of preterm birth than did women who rarely ate fish (≤ 1 time/wk); the adjusted RR of fish intake >1 but <3 times/wk was 0.87 (95% CI: 0.82, 0.92), and for intake ≥ 3 times/wk, the adjusted RR was 0.89 (95% CI: 0.84, 0.96). Women with a higher intake of fish during pregnancy gave birth to neonates with a higher birth weight by 8.9 g (95% CI: 3.3, 14.6 g) for >1 but <3 times/wk and 15.2 g (95% CI: 8.9, 21.5 g) for ≥ 3 times/wk independent of gestational age. The association was greater in smokers and in overweight or obese women. Findings were consistent across cohorts. CONCLUSION This large, international study indicates that moderate fish intake during pregnancy is associated with lower risk of preterm birth and a small but significant increase in birth weight.
Local decoding and testing of polynomials over grids

We study the local decodability and (tolerant) local testability of low‐degree n‐variate polynomials over arbitrary fields, evaluated over the domain {0,1}n. We show that for every field there is a tolerant local test whose query complexity depends only on the degree. In contrast we show that decodability is possible over fields of positive characteristic, but not over the reals.
High Gain Conformal Tri Band Antenna

In this paper, a tri-band E-shaped microstrip patch antenna is presented for SHF and microwave data links. The proposed antenna has symmetrical properties and has been designed by forming E-shape structure on substrate with Wave guide feed. It radiates for three bands having two bands in SHF and one in lower EHF frequency bands. It is demonstrated that the fabricated antenna offers improved values of S11, gain and efficiency. Parametric study is done for different patch dimensions. The return loss S11 of the fabricated antenna was simulated using Ansoft HFSS which was in good agreement when compared with CST STUDIO
A Decision Tree Approach to Voice-enable Mobile Commerce Applications

Speech interfaces have become increasingly popular to support mobile commerce. Although spoken dialogue systems have been studied for decades, they pertain to specific domains. There is a lack of research on general approaches for voice enabling. In this paper, we propose a decision tree approach to personalize and voice-enable applications in the context of mobile commerce. The system dynamically analyses user preferences by mining the navigation and transaction logs. The user profile then is used to personalize a tree-based product catalogue. We utilize the Predictive Model Markup Language to store the resultant catalogue. This XML document is used to construct conversational dialogues for users to find the product information. The proposed architecture has been verified and evaluated though implementing a mobile car city application.