Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-term functional outcomes of patients with very mild stroke: does a NIHSS score of 0 mean no disability? An interim analysis of the KOSCO study

Abstract Purpose: To explore the long-term functional outcomes of stroke patients with very mild severity at 6 months after stroke. Methods: This study presents the interim results of the Korean Stroke Cohort for Functioning and Rehabilitation. On day 7, stroke evaluation was performed using the functional assessment battery including the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS). At 6 months after stroke, functional outcomes using the face-to-face functional assessment battery including Functional Independence Measure (FIM) were analyzed in the patients who had a score of 0 on the NIHSS at 7 days after stroke onset. Results: In the very mild stroke group, 455 patients were followed up at 6 months. Out of these patients, 11.0% had impairments in cognitive function, 14.1% had motor impairment, and 2.1% had impairments in their mobility measured by the functional assessment battery. At 6 months after onset, 3.3% of stroke survivors without recurrence showed dependency according to the FIM. Conclusions: Many acute stroke patients with mild stroke severity as assessed by the NIHSS had impairments in various functional domains, and could have been easily overlooked for intensive rehabilitation therapy. Candidates for comprehensive rehabilitation therapy might be better identified by the functional assessment battery. Implications for rehabilitation Many acute stroke patients with mild stroke severity assessed by NIHSS could be easily overlooked for intensive rehabilitation therapy. Candidates for comprehensive rehabilitation therapy should be evaluated using a functional assessment battery rather than the NIHSS.
The Malmö polymorphism of coagulation factor IX, an immunologic polymorphism due to dimorphism of residue 148 that is in linkage disequilibrium with two other F.IX polymorphisms.

A mouse monoclonal antibody (MAB 9.9) to coagulation factor IX (F.IX) detects a polymorphism in the plasma of normal people. Its epitope has been narrowed down to less than 6 amino acids in the activation peptide of the X-linked F.IX protein. The activation peptide contains a dimorphism--Thr:Ala--at position 148 of the protein. Using synthetic oligonucleotides, we have demonstrated that (1) the F.IX which reacts with 9.9 has Thr at position 148 and (2) that which does not has Ala. Positive reactors (148thr) are designated Malmö A, and negative reactors (148ala) are designated Malmö B. The plasma levels of AA women are indistinguishable from those of A men, and both B men and BB women are null against MAB 9.9. The plasma level of Malmö A in AB women is approximately half that of AA women, and "lyonization" is clearly operating in the heterozygotes. The dimorphism is in strong linkage disequilibrium with two other intragenic RFLPs, TaqI and XmnI. Furthermore, intragenic crossing-over--including double crossing-over--appears to have occurred between the three sites. Seven of the eight possible haplotypes have been identified, five in men and two others in women. The immunoassay that identifies approximately 50% of the AB women in the pool of Malmö A females with 95% confidence identifies men unambiguously as A or B. The assay would be very useful for population-genetic studies of the Malmö epitope if the studies were limited to men.
Development of battery thermal management system for LiFeMnPO4 module using air cooling method to minimize cell temperature differences and parasitic energy

In this work, we develop battery thermal management system for high capacity lithium-ion module by using air cooling method to minimize the differences of battery cell's temperature by comparing the parasitic energy consumed by the cooling fan system. The battery thermal management system utilizes two brushless fans, an evaporator unit, an insulation box, a programmable logic control (PLC) and sensors to monitor the operational and the performance of the battery cells. The battery module consists of four high capacity lithium iron manganese phosphate (LiFeMnPO4) battery cells with the nominal voltage of 3.2V and the nominal capacity of 100Ah which are connected in series. To get the initial battery cells thermal characteristic in time series, C5, C10, and C20 discharging methods have been conducted to the battery module using programmable load controller. Based on these thermal characteristics, we demonstrate thermal management system using active control of air cooling system to reduce the temperature rises and temperature differences between battery cells. The results show that the implemented battery thermal management system affects the amount of energy that can be utilized from the battery module. In the C5 discharging process, by using 40 % of fan speed control, the amount of energy that can be drawn from battery module was 3044 kJ including 19.3 kJ as the parasitic energy, and the highest battery cell temperature differences was 3.9 Celsius. This amount of energy was 5.1% higher than that of without the thermal management system.
Quasi-three-dimensional modeling of sub-micron LOCOS structures

A quasi-three-dimensional simulation of local oxidation is presented. The approach employs the solution of three-dimensional oxidant diffusion, a set of analytical solutions which can predict two-dimensional local oxidation of silicon (LOCOS) shape and parameterization to consider the three-dimensional oxidation enhancement effects. A synthesis step is used to combine the three-dimensional oxidant profile and two-dimensional analytical solutions for the creation of full three-dimensional LOCOS shapes. Oxidation characteristics are investigated based on atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements that produce three-dimensional structural effects such as the bird's eye phenomena. The narrow window and narrow mask effects on the bird's beak length are simulated and compared with SEM photographs obtained using AFM measurements. Differences between two- and three-dimensional oxidation effects are shown by the comparison of simulation and experiments. >
Impact of a TV-based Assistive Technology on Older People's Ability to Self-manage Their Own Health

Nowadays, special emphasis is being focused on involving people on their own health and care. The use of digital technologies in the home-care management process is increasingly contributing to the maintenance of quality of life and preservation of functional independence in older adults. There is a huge number of available m-health applications for self-tracking health parameters, but the majority of them are inconsistent with the needs of older adults who do not currently use technologies such as computers, smartphones or tablets. The aim of this work is to present a pilot study, which included 19 older adults, that was conducted to objectively measure the effect of a TV-based assistive system on the improvement of older adults’ activation levels about self-management of health. The correlation with the usage of specific digital services provided by the system was also investigated. The results reveal how the impact is limited by the aspecific nature of the intervention with respect to the participants’ health condition. At the same time, they are encouraging and indicate that there is the potential for the system to impact on older people’ self-management skills.
The effect of combined pulsed wave low‐level laser therapy and mesenchymal stem cell‐conditioned medium on the healing of an infected wound with methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcal aureus in diabetic rats

This study aims to investigate the combined effects of Pulsed wave low‐level laser therapy (PW LLLT) and human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell‐conditioned medium (hBM‐MSC‐CM) on the microbial flora and tensiometrical properties of an infected wound model with methicillin‐resistant staphylococcal aureus (MRSA) in an experimental model for Type 1 diabetes mellitus (TIDM). TIDM was induced in rats by streptozotocin (STZ). One full‐thickness excision was made on the backs of the rats. Next, the rats were divided into the following groups: Group 1 was the control (placebo) group; Group 2 received hBM‐MSCs‐CM four times; Group 3 were laser PWLLLT (890 nm, 80 Hz, 0.2 J/cm2); and Group 4 received hBM‐MSCs‐CM +LASER. Wounds were infected with MRSA. Microbiological examinations were performed on days 4, 7, and 15. Tensiometerical examinations were carried out on the 15th day. One‐way analysis of variance showed that laser and CM alone and/or in combination significantly increases the tensiomerical properties of the repaired wounds compared with control wounds. A combination of PW laser and CM was statistically more effective than other treated groups. Two‐way analysis of variance showed that laser and CM alone and/or in combination significantly decreases the colony‐forming units (CFUs) compared with the control group. The application of hBM‐MSC‐CM and PWlaser alone and/or together significantly accelerates the wound‐healing process in MRSA‐infected cutaneous wounds in TI DM in rats. Additionally, a combined application of hBM‐MSC‐CM and PWlaser demonstrates a synergistic effect on the wound‐healing process in MRSA‐infected cutaneous wounds in Type I DM rats.
Quality Characteristics of Functional Spent Hen Meat Nuggets Incorporated with Amla (Emblica officinalis) Fruit Juice Powder

The present study was conducted to develop functional fibre enriched spent hen meat nuggets (SMN) with incorporation of amla fruit juice powder. Four different products with amla fruit juice powder with the replacement of lean meat viz. 0% (Control), 0.5% (T1), 1.0% (T2) and 1.5% (T3) were prepared and optimum level of amla fruit juice powder was selected on the basis of physico-chemical, proximate analysis, instrumental texture and color profile, and sensory analysis. The pH decreased whereas water activity (aw) and moisture content followed an increasing trend with the increase in the level of incorporation of amla fruit juice powder in the SMN. The cooking yield and emulsion stability significantly (P<0.05) increased with the incorporation of amla fruit juice powder. The fat percentage was comparable in T1 and T2 and was significantly (P<0.05) higher than T3. Protein content decreased whereas crude fiber and ash increased with the increase in level of incorporation of amla fruit juice powder. Color profile did not vary significantly (P<0.05) among the different treatments with the incorporation of amla fruit juice powder. Hardness, chewiness and gumminess significantly decreased whereas springiness, resilience showed an increase with in treatments and control. The overall acceptability in treated products was higher than control. Sensory panelists awarded highest overall acceptability scores to T2. Results concluded that functional fibre enriched spent hen meat nuggets can be successfully manufactured with the incorporation of 1.0% amla fruit juice powder.
A gauss function based approach for unbalanced ontology matching

Ontology matching, aiming to obtain semantic correspondences between two ontologies, has played a key role in data exchange, data integration and metadata management. Among numerous matching scenarios, especially the applications cross multiple domains, we observe an important problem, denoted as unbalanced ontology matching which requires to find the matches between an ontology describing a local domain knowledge and another ontology covering the information over multiple domains, is not well studied in the community. In this paper, we propose a novel Gauss Function based ontology matching approach to deal with this unbalanced ontology matching issue. Given a relative lightweight ontology which represents the local domain knowledge, we extract a "similar" sub-ontology from the corresponding heavyweight ontology and then carry out the matching procedure between this lightweight ontology and the newly generated sub-ontology. The sub-ontology generation is based on the influences between concepts in the heavyweight ontology. We propose a Gauss Function based method to properly calculate the influence values between concepts. In addition, we perform an extensive experiment to verify the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed approach by using OAEI2007 tasks. Experimental results clearly demonstrate that our solution outperforms the existing methods in terms of precision, recall and elapsed time.
Altered Intracortical Inhibition in Chronic Traumatic Diffuse Axonal Injury

Background Overactivation of NMDA-mediated excitatory processes and excess of GABA-mediated inhibition are attributed to the acute and subacute phases, respectively, after a traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, there are few studies regarding the circuitry during the chronic phase of brain injury. Objective To evaluate the cortical excitability (CE) during the chronic phase of TBI in victims diagnosed with diffuse axonal injury (DAI). Methods The 22 adult subjects were evaluated after a minimum of 1 year from the onset of moderate or severe TBI. Each of the subjects first had a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment to evaluate executive functions—attention, memory, verbal fluency, and information processing speed. Then, CE assessment was performed with a circular coil applying single-pulse and paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation over the cortical representation of the abductor pollicis brevis muscle on M1 of both hemispheres. The CE parameters measured were resting motor threshold (RMT), motor-evoked potentials (MEPs), short-interval intracortical inhibition (SIICI), and intracortical facilitation (ICF). All data were compared with that of a control group that consisted of the healthy age-matched individuals. Results No significant differences between the left and right hemispheres were detected in the DAI subjects. Therefore, parameters were analyzed as pooled data. Values of RMT, MEPs, and ICF from DAI patients were within normal limits. However, SIICI values were higher in the DAI group—DAI SIICI = 1.28 (1.01; 1.87) versus the control value = 0.56 (0.33; 0.69)—suggesting that they had a disarranged inhibitory system (p < 0.001). By contrast, the neuropsychological findings had weak correlation with the CE data. Conclusion As inhibition processes involve GABA-mediated circuitry, it is likely that the DAI pathophysiology itself (disruption of axons) may deplete GABA and contribute to ongoing disinhibition of these neural circuits of the cerebrum during the chronic phase of DAI.
Modelling thermal degradation of composite materials

A one–dimensional, transient thermal degradation heat transfer model for the response of composite materials when exposed to fire is presented. The model can handle layers of different materials. Material properties are functions of temperature. The reaction can be specified using Arrhenius‐type parameters or by inputting a density–temperature relationship determined by any experimental technique such as thermogravimetric analysis. The model is validated against the experimental data presented in Boyer's 1984 dissertation. Overall, the model provides excellent agreement with the experimental data. It is shown that very little difference is found between results arrived at by Arrhenius kinetics and results obtained by specifying the easier to measure density–temperature relationship. From this it is concluded that this technique is a viable alternative to Arrhenius‐type models. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Hijacked Smart Devices - Methodical Foundations for Autonomous Theft Awareness based on Activity Recognition and Novelty Detection

Personal devices such as smart phones are increasingly utilised in everyday life. Frequently, Activity Recognition is performed on these devices to estimate the current user status and trigger automated actions according to the user’s needs. In this article, we focus on improving the self-awareness of such systems in terms of detecting theft: We equip devices with the capabilities to model their own user and to, e.g., alarm the legal user if an unexpected other person is carrying the device. We gathered 24hours of data in a case study with 14 persons using a Nokia N97 and trained an activity recognition system. Based on it, we developed and investigated an autonomous novelty detection system that continuously checks if the observed user behavior corresponds to the initial model, and that gives an alarm if not. Our evaluations show that the presented method is highly successful with a successful theft detection rate of over 85% for the trained set of persons. Comparison experiments with state of the art techniques support the strong practicality of our approach.
Evolution of multilayered scale structures during high temperature oxidation of ZrSi_2

The oxidation behavior of bulk ZrSi_2 at 700, 1000, and 1200 °C in ambient air has been investigated. Parabolic to cubic oxide layer growth kinetics was confirmed by weight gain measurements and the average oxide layer thickness was 470 nm, 6.7 µm, and 37 µm at 700 °C, 1000 °C, and 1200 °C, respectively, after 5 h oxidation tests. Evolution of compositionally modulated nano/micro structures was confirmed in the oxide layer. At 700 °C, Si diffusion resulted in discontinuous Si-rich oxide phases in amorphous Zr–Si–O matrix. At 1000 °C, complex multilayered structures such as fine and coarse irregular spinodal structures, wavy Si-rich oxide, and Si-rich islands evolved. At 1200 °C, additional nucleation of nanoscale ZrO_2 particulate phase was observed. The spinodal structures were confirmed to be crystalline ZrO_2 and amorphous SiO_2, and the thermodynamic driving force for phase evolution has been explained by extension of liquid miscibility gap in the binary ZrO_2–SiO_2 phase diagram.
Resource Allocation for Energy Efficiency Optimization in Heterogeneous Networks

Heterogeneous network (HetNet) deployment is considered a de facto solution for meeting the ever increasing mobile traffic demand. However, excessive power usage in such networks is a critical issue, particularly for mobile operators. Characterizing the fundamental energy efficiency (EE) performance of HetNets is therefore important for the design of green wireless systems. In this paper, we address the EE optimization problem for downlink two-tier HetNets comprised of a single macro-cell and multiple pico-cells. Considering a heterogeneous real-time and non-real-time traffic, transmit beamforming design and power allocation policies are jointly considered in order to optimize the system energy efficiency. The EE resource allocation problem under consideration is a mixed combinatorial and non-convex optimization problem, which is extremely difficult to solve. In order to reduce the computational complexity, we decompose the original problem with multiple inequality constraints into multiple optimization problems with single inequality constraint. For the latter problem, a two-layer resource allocation algorithm is proposed based on the quasiconcavity property of EE. Simulation results confirm the theoretical findings and demonstrate that the proposed resource allocation algorithm can efficiently approach the optimal EE.
Study of Thin Film Pressure Sensor by Magnetron Sputtering

The use of sensors made of thin films has several advantages over wire or foil sensors. Thin film pressure sensors can be used in high temperature, vibration and other special environment with small volume, high sensitivity and stability. Thin film pressure sensors can be made by magnetron sputtering. In this paper the thin film pressure sensors are prepared by elastic Element polishing, growth of dielectric film, NiCr alloy and Ni films with magnetron sputtering, the process and results are analyzed.
The role of intellectual property rights in seed technology transfer through trade: evidence from U.S. field crop seed exports

To investigate whether intellectual property rights (IPRs) promote or hinder seed technology diffusion through trade, we use panel data for 134 countries over the period 1985-2010 to evaluate the impact of a country’s IPRs on its seed imports from the U.S. by estimating a gravity equation using both linear and nonlinear (Poisson) fixed effects methods. In both the static and dynamic models, the variable for WTO member countries that have implemented the TRIPs (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) agreement consistently shows a significantly positive effect on seed imports. We improve on previous studies by focusing on one type of planting seeds - field crop seeds, also accounting for status of growing genetically modified crops, and utilizing an estimation technique (Poisson) that is more viable in the handling of zero trade observations.
Accuracy of axillary ultrasound after different neoadjuvant chemotherapy cycles in breast cancer patients

Background This study determined whether axillary ultrasound (AUS) accurately predicted the status of axillary lymph nodes of patients who received different number of cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). Materials and Methods From 2008 to 2015, 656 cases of patients with breast cancers who received NAC and had subsequent axillary lymph node dissection were included in this study. The findings of preoperative AUS were tested by pathological examination. We evaluated the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of AUS for patients who received two-, four-, and six-cycle NAC. Results In the two-cycle subgroup, the sensitivity (Sn), specificity (Sp) and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were 80.2% (95% CI: 74.3%-86.2%), 61.4% (95% CI: 48.8%-74.0%) and 6.64 (95% CI: 3.36-12.4) respectively. In the four-cycle subgroup, the Sn, Sp and DOR were 69.7% (95% CI: 62.2%-77.1%), 66.1% (95% CI: 53.7%-78.5%) and 4.47 (95% CI: 2.32-8.62), respectively. In the six-cycle subgroup, the Sn, Sp and DOR were 56.7% (95% CI: 49.5%-64.0%), 74.5% (95% CI: 62.8%-87.2%) and 3.83 (95% CI: 1.863-7.86), respectively. Furthermore, the patients with normal AUS findings after six cycles of NAC have few positive nodes than patients with suspicious findings (p < 0.001). Conclusion Preoperative AUS is a potentially useful imaging modality to predict the pathologic status of the axillary within four cycles of NAC. Although the accuracy is lower for patients who completed six cycles of NAC than that who received four- and two- cycles, the number of positive lymph nodes for patients with normal findings on AUS is low.
PRIS at TAC2010 KBP Track

This paper describes our participation in Knowledge Base Population track at TAC2010. In the entity-linking task, we combined machine learning-based methods and rule-based methods to improve the linking results. In the slot filling task, a supervised machine learning method based on CRF model and a rule pattern method were used to select proper answers for slots.
Magnetic thin films of cobalt nanocrystals encapsulated in graphite-like carbon

A VARIETY of crystalline materials have now been encapsulated in nanometre-scale graphitic cages1–8 and tubules9–11. For magnetic materials, encapsulation should serve the dual role of protecting air-sensitive particles against degradation and reducing the magnetic coupling between individual particles, thus potentially opening the way for applications of these composite materials as ultra-high-density magnetic recording media12,13. But to realize this potential, the materials must be available in the form of thin, smooth films, with precise control of the size of the individual magnetic crystallites. Here we report the fabrication and characterization of magnetic thin films, consisting of cobalt nanocrystals encapsulated in graphite-like carbon cages, that meet these structural requirements.