Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effects of Blood Flow Restricted Electrostimulation on Strength and Hypertrophy.

CONTEXT The combined effect of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) and blood flow restriction (BFR) on muscle mass and strength has not been thoroughly investigated. OBJECTIVE To examine the effects of combined and independent BFR and a low-intensity NMES on skeletal muscle adaptation. DESIGN Exploratory study. SETTING Laboratory. PARTICIPANTS Twenty recreationally active subjects. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Subjects had each leg randomly allocated to 1 of 4 possible intervention groups: (1) cyclic BFR alone, (2) NMES alone, (3) BFR + NMES, or (4) control. Each leg was stimulated in its respective intervention group for 32 minutes, 4 days per week for 6 weeks. Mean differences in size (in grams) and isometric strength (in kilograms), between week 0 and week 6, were calculated for each group. RESULTS Leg strength increased 32 (19) kg in the BFR + NMES group, which differed from the 3 (11) kg change in the control group (P = .03). The isolated NMES and BFR groups revealed increases of 16 (28) kg and 18 (17) kg, respectively, but these did not statistically differ from the control, or one another. No alterations were statistically significant for leg size. CONCLUSION Compared with a control that received no treatment, the novel combination of BFR and NMES led to increasing muscular strength of the knee extensors, but not muscle mass which had a large interindividual variability in response.
Transcriptional control of toxT, a regulatory gene in the ToxR regulon of Vibrio cholerae

Co‐ordinate expression of many virulence genes in Vibrio cholerae is under the control of the ToxR and ToxT proteins. These proteins function in a regulatory cascade in which ToxR is required to activate toxT, and ToxT activates virulence genes. The precise mechanism for ToxR activation of toxT is unknown, but data presented in this report suggest a direct involvement of ToxR. Primer extension and gene fusion analyses identified a ToxR‐regulated promoter directly upstream of toxT, immediately following a region of inverted repeats capable of terminating transcription. Gel mobility shift studies indicate that ToxR binds DNA within the inverted repeat region, yet preliminary evidence suggests that ToxR binding alone is not sufficient for activation of toxT. Possible mechanisms of ToxR‐dependent toxT expression are discussed.
Plants, endosymbionts and parasites

It was recently discovered that the protozoan parasite, Toxoplasma gondii produces and uses the plant hormone, abscisic acid (ABA), for communication. Following intracellular replication, ABA production influences the timing of parasite egress from the host cell. This density-dependent signal may serve to coordinate exit from the host cell in a synchronous manner by triggering calcium-dependent activation of motility. In the absence of ABA production, parasites undergo differentiation to the semi-dormant, tissue cyst. The pathway for ABA production in T. gondii may be derived from a relict endosymbiont, acquired by ingestion of a red algal cell. Although the parasite has lost the capacity for photosynthesis, the plant-like nature of this signaling pathway may be exploited to develop new drugs. In support of this idea, an inhibitor of ABA biosynthesis protected mice against lethal infection with T. gondii. Here, we compare the role of ABA in parasites to its activities in plants, where it is know to control development and stress responses.
Multidisciplinary Hybrid Constrained GA Optimization

Realistic engineering problems always involve interaction of several disciplines like fluid dynamics, heat transfer, elasticity, electromagnetism, dynamics, etc. Thus, realistic problems are always multidisciplinary and the geometric space is typically arbitrarily shaped and three-dimensional. Each of the individual disciplines is governed by its own system of governing partial differential equations or integral equations of different degree of non-linearity and based on often widely disparate time scales and length scales. All of these factors make a typical multidisciplinary optimization problem highly non-linear and interconnected. Consequently, an objective function space for a typical multidisciplinary problem could be expected to have a number of local minimums. A typical multidisciplinary optimization problem therefore requires the use of optimization algorithms that can either avoid the local minimums or escape from the local minimums. Non-gradient based optimizers have these capabilities. On the other hand, once the neighborhood of the global minimum has been found, the non-gradient based optimizers have difficulty converging to the global minimum. For this purpose, it is more appropriate to use gradient-based optimizers.
Long‐term survival and cure after marrow transplantation for congenital hypoplastic anaemia (Diamond‐Blackfan syndrome)

Summary. Four patients with Diamond‐Blackfan syndrome (congenital hypoplastic anaemia) whose disease was resistant to corticosteroid treatment and who were red blood cell transfusion‐dependent, were given marrow grafts from allogeneic human‐leucocyte‐antigen (HLA)‐identical siblings. The patients were conditioned with regimens including cyclophosphamide and busulfan. Three of four patients had sustained and complete marrow engraftment. One patient showed early signs of haematopoietic recovery but died on day 35 of pulmonary toxicity. The three surviving patients are well with normal haematopoiesis and Karnofsky performance scores of 100%, 3·0, 7·4 and 10·6 years after transplantation. Congenital hypoplastic anaemia can be treated successfully by allogeneic marrow grafts.
Reducing scan shifts using folding scan trees

In this paper, a new method for reducing scan shifts is presented. Scan design is one of the most popular design for test technologies for sequential circuits. However, it requires much test application time and test data when applied to circuits with many flip-flops. The new scan method utilizes two configurations of scan chains, a folding scan tree and a fully compatible scan tree. A test pattern including many don't care values is used to configure a fully compatible scan tree in order to reduce the scan shift without degrading fault coverage. And then a folding scan tree is configured to reduce the length of the scan chain and thus reduce the scan shift. Experimental results for benchmark circuits shows this scan method can reduce many scan shifts.
Poseidon: Mitigating interest flooding DDoS attacks in Named Data Networking

Content-Centric Networking (CCN) is an emerging networking paradigm being considered as a possible replacement for the current IP-based host-centric Internet infrastructure. CCN focuses on content distribution, which is arguably not well served by IP. Named-Data Networking (NDN) is an example of CCN. NDN is also an active research project under the NSF Future Internet Architectures (FIA) program. FIA emphasizes security and privacy from the outset and by design. To be a viable Internet architecture, NDN must be resilient against current and emerging threats. This paper focuses on distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks; in particular we address interest flooding, an attack that exploits key architectural features of NDN. We show that an adversary with limited resources can implement such attack, having a significant impact on network performance. We then introduce Poseidon: a framework for detecting and mitigating interest flooding attacks. Finally, we report on results of extensive simulations assessing proposed countermeasure.
Ultrasound visualization of congenital malformations.

Anomalies fœtales etudiees: malformations du tube neural et du crâne, tumeurs fœtales, malformations gastrointestinales, organes genitaux fœtaux, malformations de l'appareil urinaire, modifications du volume du liquide amniotique, deformations des membres, anomalies cardiaques, hydrops fœtal
Associations of Anthropometric Factors with KRAS and BRAF Mutation Status of Primary Colorectal Cancer in Men and Women: A Cohort Study

Obesity is a well-established risk factor for colorectal cancer (CRC), and accumulating evidence suggests a differential influence of sex and anthropometric factors on the molecular carcinogenesis of the disease. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between height, weight, bodyfat percentage, waist- and hip circumference, waist-hip ratio (WHR), body mass index (BMI) and CRC risk according to KRAS and BRAF mutation status of the tumours, with particular reference to potential sex differences. KRAS and BRAF mutations were analysed by pyrosequencing in tumours from 494 incident CRC cases in the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study. Hazard ratios of CRC risk according to anthropometric factors and mutation status were calculated using multivariate Cox regression models. While all anthropometric measures except height were associated with an increased risk of KRAS-mutated tumours, only BMI was associated with an increased risk of KRAS wild type tumours overall. High weight, hip, waist, WHR and BMI were associated with an increased risk of BRAF wild type tumours, but none of the anthropometric factors were associated with risk of BRAF-mutated CRC, neither in the overall nor in the sex-stratified analysis. In men, several anthropometric measures were associated with both KRAS-mutated and KRAS wild type tumours. In women, only a high WHR was significantly associated with an increased risk of KRAS-mutated CRC. A significant interaction was found between sex and BMI with respect to risk of KRAS-mutated tumours. In men, all anthropometric factors except height were associated with an increased risk of BRAF wild type tumours, whereas in women, only bodyfat percentage was associated with an increased risk of BRAF wild type tumours. The results from this prospective cohort study further support an influence of sex and lifestyle factors on different pathways of colorectal carcinogenesis, defined by KRAS and BRAF mutation status of the tumours.
A Comparison of Mathematical Models for Polarization of Single Eukaryotic Cells in Response to Guided Cues

Polarization, a primary step in the response of an individual eukaryotic cell to a spatial stimulus, has attracted numerous theoretical treatments complementing experimental studies in a variety of cell types. While the phenomenon itself is universal, details differ across cell types, and across classes of models that have been proposed. Most models address how symmetry breaking leads to polarization, some in abstract settings, others based on specific biochemistry. Here, we compare polarization in response to a stimulus (e.g., a chemoattractant) in cells typically used in experiments (yeast, amoebae, leukocytes, keratocytes, fibroblasts, and neurons), and, in parallel, responses of several prototypical models to typical stimulation protocols. We find that the diversity of cell behaviors is reflected by a diversity of models, and that some, but not all models, can account for amplification of stimulus, maintenance of polarity, adaptation, sensitivity to new signals, and robustness.
A critical literature review exploring the challenges of delivering effective palliative care to older people with dementia.

AIM This paper considers the challenges of delivering effective palliative care to older people with dementia and the possible strategies to overcome barriers to end-of-life care in these patients. BACKGROUND In UK alone, approximately 100,000 people with dementia die each year and as the number of older people increases, dementia is set to become even more prevalent. Dementia is a progressive terminal illness for which there is currently no cure. Patients dying with dementia have significant health-care needs and in recent years it has been recognised that palliative care should be made available to everyone regardless of diagnosis, as this improves comfort and quality of life. Despite this, patients dying with dementia are often still not given access to palliative care services. METHOD A review of English language literature published after 1996 to the present day relating to older people with dementia during the terminal phase of their illness. RESULTS Twenty-nine articles met inclusion criteria for the review. Most originated from North America and UK and were mostly quantitative in nature. Four key themes were identified: difficulties associated with diagnosing the terminal phase of the illness (prognostication); issues relating to communication; medical interventions; and the appropriateness of palliative care intervention. CONCLUSIONS This review reinforces the importance of providing appropriate palliative care to individuals suffering from end-stage dementia and identifies some of the barriers to extending such specialist palliative care provision. RELEVANCE TO PRACTICE There is an urgent need to improve palliative care provision for older people with end-stage dementia and, in addition, more research is required on the needs of patients entering the terminal phase of dementia to assist the allocation of appropriate resources and training to ensure quality and equality in the provision of end-of-life care.
Hardware/software Co-simulation In A Vhdl-based Test Bench Approach

Novel test bench techniques are required to cope with afunctional test complexity which is predicted to grow muchmore strongly than design complexity. Our test benchapproach attacks this complexity by using a stronghierarchical architecture, application domain-independentsynchronization, reusable modules, and easy incrementalextendability based on table-driven techniques. In addition,the integration of VHDL/C co-simulation under the controlof the test bench makes it possible to use the hardware modelfor software testing and vice versa and thus enables extremereductions in test bench coding. The efficiency of our testbench has already been demonstrated in several industrialprojects, among them a four-ASIC ATM board with oneembedded core and one external micro controller.
Cost-effectiveness of noninvasive liver fibrosis tests for treatment decisions in patients with chronic hepatitis C

The cost‐effectiveness of noninvasive tests (NITs) as alternatives to liver biopsy is unknown. We compared the cost‐effectiveness of using NITs to inform treatment decisions in adult patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC). We conducted a systematic review and meta‐analysis to calculate the diagnostic accuracy of various NITs using a bivariate random‐effects model. We constructed a probabilistic decision analytical model to estimate health care costs and outcomes (quality‐adjusted life‐years; QALYs) using data from the meta‐analysis, literature, and national UK data. We compared the cost‐effectiveness of four treatment strategies: testing with NITs and treating patients with fibrosis stage ≥F2; testing with liver biopsy and treating patients with ≥F2; treat none; and treat all irrespective of fibrosis. We compared all NITs and tested the cost‐effectiveness using current triple therapy with boceprevir or telaprevir, but also modeled new, more‐potent antivirals. Treating all patients without any previous NIT was the most effective strategy and had an incremental cost‐effectiveness ratio (ICER) of £9,204 per additional QALY gained. The exploratory analysis of currently licensed sofosbuvir treatment regimens found that treat all was cost‐effective, compared to using an NIT to decide on treatment, with an ICER of £16,028 per QALY gained. The exploratory analysis to assess the possible effect on results of new treatments, found that if SVR rates increased to >90% for genotypes 1‐4, the incremental treatment cost threshold for the “treat all” strategy to remain the most cost‐effective strategy would be £37,500. Above this threshold, the most cost‐effective option would be noninvasive testing with magnetic resonance elastography (ICER = £9,189). Conclusions: Treating all adult patients with CHC, irrespective of fibrosis stage, is the most cost‐effective strategy with currently available drugs in developed countries. (Hepatology 2014;60:832–843)
Subpicosecond excitonic optical nonlinearities in quantum wells

Excitonic resonances in semiconductors are very sensitive to applied optical fields. We present here a comparison between the effects of resonant and non resonant optical excitation, creating respectively real or virtual excitons. A blue shift of the exciton line and a reduction of the oscillator strength are simultaneoustly observed in multiple-quantum-well-structures for the two following cases: presence of a population of real excitons in very thin wells (two-dimensional systems), or presence of an intense off-resonance non absorbed optical field (virtual excitons) independently of the well thickness. The latter configuration (optical Stark effect) has been studied as a function of pump intensity, determining in particular how the saturation of the blue shift is related to the exciton bleaching Etude sur puits quantiques multiples GaAs-AlGaAs. Effets d'une excitation optique resonnante ou non resonnante (creation d'excitons reels ou virtuels); observation d'un decalage vers le bleu des raies excitoniques, accompagne d'une diminution de la force d'oscillateur de la resonance dans le cas de presence d'une population d'excitons dans des puits tres etroits (systemes 2D) et dans le cas de presence d'un champ optique intense non resonnant (excitons virtuels) quelle que soit la largeur du puits. Etude dans ce dernier cas (effet Stark optique) des effets de l'intensite d'excitation; relation entre la saturation du decalage et l'ecrantage de l'absorption excitonique
The Influence of Social Networking Web Sites on the Evaluation of Job Candidates

This study investigated how the content of social networking Web site (SNW) pages influenced others' evaluation of job candidates. Students (N = 148) evaluated the suitability of hypothetical candidates for an entry-level managerial job. A 2 x 4 design was employed: résumés were either marginally qualified or well qualified for the job. SNW printouts reflected (a) an emphasis on drinking alcohol, (b) a family orientation, or (c) a professional orientation; participants in a control group received no Web page information. In addition to a main effect for résumé quality, applicants with either a family-oriented or a professional-oriented SNW were seen as more suitable for the job and more conscientious than applicants with alcohol-oriented SNW pages. They were more likely to be interviewed. If hired, they were also likely to be offered significantly higher starting salaries. Results are discussed in terms of implications for both managers and applicants.
Incremental diagnosis of multiple open-interconnects

With increasing chip interconnect distances, open-interconnect is becoming an important defect. The main challenge with open-interconnects stems from its non-deterministic real-life behavior In this work, we present an efficient diagnostic technique for multiple open-interconnects. The algorithm proceeds in two phases. During the first phase, potential solution sets are identified following a model-free incremental diagnosis methodology. Heuristics are devised to speed up this step and screen the solution space efficiently. In the second phase, a generalized fault simulation scheme enumerates all possible faulty behaviors for each solution from the first phase. We conduct experiments on combinational and full-scan sequential circuits with one, two and three open faults. The results are very encouraging.
Improvement of the Cycle Performance of LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 Cathode Active Materials by In-Situ Coating with Poly(3,4-Ethylenedioxythiophene)

LiNi0.5Mn1. 5O4 (LNMO)/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) composite cathode materials were prepared through in-situ polymerization of thiophene monomer (EDOT), with ammonium persulphate (APS) as oxidizing agent, p-toluenesulfonic acid (PTSA) as dopant. The morphology, amount of PEDOT coating, electrochemical properties of LNMO/PEDOT were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and galvanostatic charge and discharge tests. The results show that the composite materials show better cycle performance than bare LNMO.
Iterative Robust Capon Beamforming with Adaptively Updated Array Steering Vector Mismatch Levels

The performance of the conventional adaptive beamformer is sensitive to the array steering vector (ASV) mismatch. And the output signal-to interference and noise ratio (SINR) suffers deterioration, especially in the presence of large direction of arrival (DOA) error. To improve the robustness of traditional approach, we propose a new approach to iteratively search the ASV of the desired signal based on the robust capon beamformer (RCB) with adaptively updated uncertainty levels, which are derived in the form of quadratically constrained quadratic programming (QCQP) problem based on the subspace projection theory. The estimated levels in this iterative beamformer present the trend of decreasing. Additionally, other array imperfections also degrade the performance of beamformer in practice. To cover several kinds of mismatches together, the adaptive flat ellipsoid models are introduced in our method as tight as possible. In the simulations, our beamformer is compared with other methods and its excellent performance is demonstrated via the numerical examples.
Hypoglycaemia in Type 2 diabetes

The primary cause of hypoglycaemia in Type 2 diabetes is diabetes medication—in particular, those which raise insulin levels independently of blood glucose, such as sulphonylureas (SUs) and exogenous insulin. The risk of hypoglycaemia is increased in older patients, those with longer diabetes duration, lesser insulin reserve and perhaps in the drive for strict glycaemic control. Differing definitions, data collection methods, drug type/regimen and patient populations make comparing rates of hypoglycaemia difficult. It is clear that patients taking insulin have the highest rates of self‐reported severe hypoglycaemia (25% in patients who have been taking insulin for > 5 years). SUs are associated with significantly lower rates of severe hypoglycaemia. However, large numbers of patients take SUs in the UK, and it is estimated that each year > 5000 patients will experience a severe event caused by their SU therapy which will require emergency intervention. Hypoglycaemia has substantial clinical impact, in terms of mortality, morbidity and quality of life. The cost implications of severe episodes—both direct hospital costs and indirect costs—are considerable: it is estimated that each hospital admission for severe hypoglycaemia costs around £1000. Hypoglycaemia and fear of hypoglycaemia limit the ability of current diabetes medications to achieve and maintain optimal levels of glycaemic control. Newer therapies, which focus on the incretin axis, may carry a lower risk of hypoglycaemia. Their use, and more prudent use of older therapies with low risk of hypoglycaemia, may help patients achieve improved glucose control for longer, and reduce the risk of diabetic complications.