Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aerobic Exercise and Neurocognitive Performance: A Meta-Analytic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

Objectives: To assess the effects of aerobic exercise training on neurocognitive performance. Although the effects of exercise on neurocognition have been the subject of several previous reviews and meta-analyses, they have been hampered by methodological shortcomings and are now outdated as a result of the recent publication of several large-scale, randomized, controlled trials (RCTs). Methods: We conducted a systematic literature review of RCTs examining the association between aerobic exercise training on neurocognitive performance between January 1966 and July 2009. Suitable studies were selected for inclusion according to the following criteria: randomized treatment allocation; mean age ≥18 years of age; duration of treatment >1 month; incorporated aerobic exercise components; supervised exercise training; the presence of a nonaerobic-exercise control group; and sufficient information to derive effect size data. Results: Twenty-nine studies met inclusion criteria and were included in our analyses, representing data from 2049 participants and 234 effect sizes. Individuals randomly assigned to receive aerobic exercise training demonstrated modest improvements in attention and processing speed (g = 0.158; 95% confidence interval [CI]; 0.055–0.260; p = .003), executive function (g = 0.123; 95% CI, 0.021–0.225; p = .018), and memory (g = 0.128; 95% CI, 0.015–0.241; p = .026). Conclusions: Aerobic exercise training is associated with modest improvements in attention and processing speed, executive function, and memory, although the effects of exercise on working memory are less consistent. Rigorous RCTs are needed with larger samples, appropriate controls, and longer follow-up periods. ITT = intention-to-treat; RCT = randomized controlled trial.
Overtraining Athletes: Personal Journeys in Sport

Chapter 1. Introduction and Background Chapter 2. How Big Is It? Prevalence and Manifestation of Overtraining Chapter 3. What Brings It On? Risk Factors for Overtraining Chapter 4. Coaches' and Sport Scientists' Views on Risk Factors Chapter 5. Burnt Cookies: Conversations with an Exercise Physiologist Chapter 6. Sport Systems Can Damage: Conversations with a Sport Psychologist Chapter 7. The Pathogenic World of Professional Sport: Steve's Tale Chapter 8. A Case of Olympic Seduction: John's Tale Chapter 9. The Perfect Girl: Jane's Tale Chapter 10. The Perfect Boy: The Author's Tale Chapter 11. Models of Overtraining: Then and Now Chapter 12. Afterword: Where to From Here?
Exogenous Lipocalin 2 Ameliorates Acute Rejection in a Mouse Model of Renal Transplantation

Lipocalin 2 (Lcn2) is rapidly produced by damaged nephron epithelia and is one of the most promising new markers of renal injury, delayed graft function and acute allograft rejection (AR); however, the functional importance of Lcn2 in renal transplantation is largely unknown. To understand the role of Lcn2 in renal AR, kidneys from Balb/c mice were transplanted into C57Bl/6 mice and vice versa and analyzed for morphological and physiological outcomes of AR at posttransplantation days 3, 5, and 7. The allografts showed a steady increase in intensity of interstitial infiltration, tubulitis and periarterial aggregation of lymphocytes associated with a substantial elevation in serum levels of creatinine, urea and Lcn2. Perioperative administration of recombinant Lcn2:siderophore:Fe complex (rLcn2) to recipients resulted in functional and morphological amelioration of the allograft at day 7 almost as efficiently as daily immunosuppression with cyclosporine A (CsA). No significant differences were observed in various donor–recipient combinations (C57Bl/6 wild‐type and Lcn2−/−, Balb/c donors and recipients). Histochemical analyses of the allografts showed reduced cell death in recipients treated with rLcn2 or CsA. These results demonstrate that Lcn2 plays an important role in reducing the extent of kidney AR and indicate the therapeutic potential of Lcn2 in transplantation.
Plasma D-Dimer Predicts Short-Term Poor Outcome after Acute Ischemic Stroke

Objective Haemostatic biomarkers associated with poor outcome in acute ischemic stroke (AIS). The objective of the study was to evaluate the predictive value of plasma D-dimer (D-D) on functional outcome at 90-day follow-up from stroke onset. Methods We conducted a prospective, observational cohort study in the emergency department and enrolled 220 patients with AIS. Plasma D-D concentrations, determined by a particle-enhanced, immunoturbidimetric assay, were measured. Each patient’s medical record was reviewed, and demographic, clinical, laboratory and neuroimaging information was abstracted. Results There was a positive correlation between levels of D-D and the NIHSS (r = 0.361, p<0.001), and the infarct volume (r = 0.449, p<0.001). In the 69 patients with an unfavorable functional outcome, D-D levels were higher compared with those in patients with a favorable outcome [3.24(IQR, 2.18–4.60)mg/L vs 0.88(IQR, 0.35–1.77) mg/L; p<0.001]. After adjusting for all other significant outcome predictors, D-D level remained an independent predictor for unfavorable functional outcome and mortality with an odds ratio of 2.18 (95% CI, 1.55–2.83), 3.22 (95% CI, 2.05–6.43); respectively. Conclusions D-D levels are a useful tool to predict outcome and mortality 90-day after acute ischemic stroke and have a potential to assist clinicians.
Neural networks for proper name retrieval in the framework of automatic speech recognition

The problem of out-of-vocabulary words, more precisely proper names retrieval for in speech recognition is investigated. Speech recognition vocabulary is extended using diachronic documents. This article explores a new method based on neural network (NN), proposed recently by Mikolov. The NN uses high-quality continuous representation of words from large amounts of unstructured text data and predicts surrounding words of one input word. Different strategies of using the NN to take into account lexical context are proposed. Experimental results on broadcast speech recognition and comparison with previously proposed methods show an ability of NN representation to model semantic and lexical context of proper names.
Type III protein secretion is associated with poor clinical outcomes in patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

OBJECTIVE Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a frequent cause of ventilator-associated pneumonia. Recent evidence suggests that production of type III secretion proteins is correlated with increased pathogenicity in both cellular and animal models of infection. The objective of this study was to determine whether this system contributes to disease severity in humans with ventilator-associated pneumonia. DESIGN Retrospective pilot cohort study. SETTING University hospital. PATIENTS Thirty-five mechanically ventilated patients with bronchoscopically confirmed ventilator-associated pneumonia caused by P. aeruginosa. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Ventilator-associated pneumonia was categorized as severe (patients died or had a recurrence of their pneumonia despite appropriate antibiotic therapy) or mild (patients uneventfully recovered from their pneumonia). The type III secretion genotypes and phenotypes of isolates cultured from the patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia were determined. Whereas every examined isolate harbored type III secretion genes, only 27 (77%) were capable of secreting detectable amounts of type III proteins in vitro. Twenty-two (81%) of the patients infected with these 27 isolates had severe disease. Of the eight isolates that did not secrete type III proteins, only three (38%) were cultured from patients with severe disease. Thus, infection with a type-III-secreting isolate correlated with severe disease (p < .05). In vitro assays indicated that ExoU, the type III effector protein most closely linked to mortality in animal models, was secreted in detectable amounts in vitro by 10 (29%) of the 35 examined isolates. Nine (90%) of these 10 isolates were cultured from patients with severe disease (p < .05 when compared with the nonsecreting isolates). In contrast, ExoS was secreted by 16 (46%) of the 35 examined isolates. Twelve (75%) of these 16 isolates were cultured from patients with severe disease (p = .14 when compared with the nonsecreting isolates). CONCLUSIONS In patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia, type-III-secreting isolates were associated with worse clinical outcomes, suggesting that this secretion system plays an important role in human disease. Our findings support the hypothesis that antibodies targeted against these proteins may be useful as adjunctive therapy in intubated patients with P. aeruginosa colonization or infection.
On Limited Memory Universal Classification of Individual Sequences

We discuss a device called "classifier" (or discriminator) that observes an individual "training" sequence of length of m letters, X<sup>m</sup> <sub>1</sub>. The classifier's task is to examine individual test sequences of length N and decide whether the test N-sequence has the same features as those that are captured by the training sequence, or is sufficiently different, according to some appropriate criterion. No a-priori information about the test sequences is available to the classifier, aside from the training sequence. A universal classifier d(N,Z<sup>N</sup> <sub>1</sub> isin A<sup>N</sup>) for N-vectors is a mapping from A<sup>N</sup> onto {0,1}. Upon observing Z<sup>N</sup> <sub>1</sub> , the classifier declares Z<sup>N</sup> <sub>1 </sub> to be "similar" to the training sequence X<sup>m</sup> <sub>1</sub>, iff d(N,Z<sup>N</sup> <sub>1</sub>) = 1. A trivial way to proceed is to compare the test sequence X<sup>N</sup> <sub>1</sub> with each of the distinct N-vectors that appear in the training sequence X<sup>m</sup> <sub>1</sub>. However, this procedure calls for a storage-space complexity that may grow exponentially with N. It is demonstrated that a particular universal context-tree classifier with a computational and storage complexity that is linear in N is essentially optimal. Another task for an N-sequence classifier is to decide whether two N-sequences Y<sup>N</sup> <sub>1</sub> and Z<sup>N</sup> <sub>1</sub>, or more, are similar to each other in the sense that each of the N-sequences is similar (as defined above) to the same unknown training sequence which is not available, (e.g "do these N-sequences sequences have a "common ancestor" - a frequent topic in computational biology). It is demonstrated that such an hypothesis may be essentially optimally tested based on the same context-tree classifier. This contributes a theoretical "individual sequence" justification for the probabilistic suffix tree approach in computational biology
Optimal Synthesis of Communication Procedures in Real-Time Synchronous Reactive Models

Model-based design methodologies are gaining attention in the industrial community because of the possibility of early and efficient functional validation and formal verification of properties at high levels of abstraction. The advantages of validating the design using high-level models can be lost entirely if errors and modifications that are not back-annotated to the higher abstraction levels are introduced when refining the design to lower levels of abstraction. To overcome this problem and to reduce design time, automatic synthesis has been used for the refinement process from Register Transfer Languages (RTLs) to logic gates for digital circuit design. This approach guarantees (assuming that the synthesis algorithms are correctly implemented) that the semantic of the RTL description is semantically equivalent to the semantic of the logic circuit. Automatic code generation is similar in intent and applicability. However, the software implementation of the abstract model must make efficient use of the platform resources that may not reflect all the assumptions of the code generation algorithms. The implementation of communication in a synchronous reactive model requires buffering and access procedures at the kernel level. In previous work, we obtained tight bounds on the size of communication buffers to maintain semantic equivalence. In realtime systems, however, because of the longer execution times of access procedures, an implementation with minimum buffer size may lead to the violation of deadlines. To solve this problem, we propose a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP)-based optimization approach that provides the minimum memory implementation of a set of communication channels while guaranteeing that the task deadline constraints are met. The analysis is validated by an OSEK/VDX-compliant implementation that provides an estimate of actual runtime overheads. The approach is applied to a set of task graphs and an automotive case study.
A new method for generating compressed representation of transitive closure

Let <i>G(V, E)</i> be a digraph (directed graph) with <i>n</i> nodes and <i>e</i> edges. Digraph <i>G</i>* = (<i>V, E</i>*) is the reflexive, transitive closure of <i>G</i> if (<i>v, u</i>) ∈ <i>E</i>* iff there is a path from <i>v</i> to <i>u</i> in <i>G</i>. If we store it as a matrix, O(<i>n</i><sup>2</sup>) space is required, not suitable for large graphs. In this paper, we present a new method to reduce the space overhead to O(<i>bn</i>), where <i>b</i> is the <i>G</i>'s width, defined to be the size of a largest node subset <i>U</i> of <i>G</i> such that for every pair of nodes <i>u, v ∈ U</i>, there does not exist a path from <i>u</i> to <i>v</i> or from <i>v</i> to <i>u</i>. With such a compressed data structure of transitive closure, the time for checking reachability (whether a node is reachable from another node through a path) is bounded by O(log<i>b</i>). In addition, this data structure can be generated in O(<i>be</i>') time, where <i>e</i>' is the size of a subset of <i>E</i>, which contains only those edges (<i>u, v</i>) such that there is no path of length ≥2 connecting <i>u</i> and <i>v</i>. We are able to show that the average value of <i>e</i>' is on the order of O(<i>n</i><sup>1.5</sup>). Our method is suitable for both acyclic and cyclic graphs.
A manipulation framework for compliant humanoid COMAN: Application to a valve turning task

With the purpose of achieving a desired interaction performance for our compliant humanoid robot (COMAN), in this paper we propose a semi-autonomous control framework and evaluate it experimentally in a valve turning setup. The control structure consists of various modules and interfaces to identify the valve, locate the robot in front of it and perform the manipulation. The manipulation module implements four motion primitives (Reach, Grasp, Rotate and Disengage) and realizes the corresponding desired impedance profile for each phase to accomplish the task. In this direction, to establish a stable and compliant contact between the valve and the robot hands, while being able to generate the sufficient rotational torques depending on the valve's friction, Rotate incorporates a novel dual-arm impedance control technique to plan and realize a task-appropriate impedance profile. Results of the implementation of the proposed control framework are firstly evaluated in simulation studies using Gazebo. Subsequent experimental results highlight the efficiency of the proposed impedance planning and control in generation of the required interaction forces to accomplish the task.
The Analysis of Emotion Recognition Skills of Children with Cochlear Implants from Facial Expressions and Scenarios

Objectives: In our cross-sectional research study, the emotion-recognition ability of cochlear-implanted (CI) children is compared to that of normally-hearing (NH) children between four and six years old. For this purpose, thirty (CI) children and thirty NH children were assessed. Materials and Methods: The emotion recognition abilities of each child were evaluated with the use of emotion and scenario cards: the children were asked to identify the feelings which were presented by five emotion cards (for happy, sad, angry, scared and surprised) after viewing ten scenario cards. Results: The results showed that CI children were not able to recognize the five emotion from the two-dimensional stimuli as well as NH children. Conclusion: Our findings support other studies in the literature and follow suit in raising awareness, which may promote the establishment of appropriate training programs, especially since the age of hearing-impaired children is increasing.
Surface roughness measurement based on image texture analysis

In this paper, turning workpiece surface images were captured by the image acquisition system composed of digital microscopy, high-resolution camera and computer. the 14 texture feature parameters based on gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) were extracted by using the method of statistical analysis, The variation between each texture parameter and arithmetic mean deviation (Ra) was investigated, thus the roughness of turning workpiece surface was evaluated qualitatively, the relationship between texture characteristic parameters and roughness evaluation index Ra was analyzed by using multiple regression method, and the linear and nonlinear regression testing model were bulit up. The result shows that the two models have good detection effect, and the nonlinear model performance better than the linear model.
PLASMA MEMBRANE AND INTERNALIZED IMMUNOGLOBULINS OF LYMPH NODE CELLS STUDIED WITH CONJUGATES OF ANTIBODY OR ITS FAB FRAGMENTS WITH HORSERADISH PEROXIDASE

Normal rat and mouse lymphoid cells were incubated at 0°–4°C for 1 h with purified rabbit or sheep antirat (mouse) immunoglobulin (Ig)-horseradish peroxidase (PO) conjugates or with Fab fragments of antibody coupled with peroxidase. Cells were subsequently washed and incubated in fresh medium, without labeled antibody or Fab fragments for 5–30 min at 20° or 37°C. With the use of the diaminobenzidine (DAB) method, distribution of peroxidase was studied in the light and electron microscopes. Fab fragments of antirat Ig antibody were iodinated with 125I and subsequently coupled with horseradish PO. Plasma membrane and internalized immunoglobulins were detected by electron microscope autoradiography and peroxidase cytochemistry. Single- (Fab-PO), and double- ([125I]Fab-PO) labeled lymphoid cells showed identical patterns of surface or internal distribution of immunoglobulins. In the electron microscope, Fab-PO conjugates at 0°–4°C resulted in a diffuse specific staining of the plasmalemma of lymphocytes and plasma cells. Most of the small dark lymphocytes (T cells? ) did not show plasma membrane Ig. Macrophages did not show plasmalemma staining, but displayed nonspecific cytoplasmic staining after incubation at 20° or 37°C with antibody or Fab-PO conjugates. Lymphocytes and plasma cells, after incubation with antibody-PO conjugates at 0°–4°C, had patchy deposits of oxidized DAB on their plasma membranes. Macrophages, similarly treated, had no plasmalemmal staining. Patch and cap formation on the plasma membrane of lymphocytes and plasma cells was seen regularly after antibody-PO incubation at 37°C. Internalization patterns were different in lymphocytes and plasma cells. In lymphocytes, peroxidase staining was observed in small round or oval vesicles clustered at one pole of the cell (30 min at 37°C). In plasma cells, peroxidase staining was seen in clusters of tubules resembling the Golgi apparatus. Internalization of plasma membrane IgG was less pronounced after antibody-PO labeling as compared to Fab-PO labeling.
Blind Multiuser Detection Based on Subspace Estimation

In this paper, we study an enhanced subspace based approach for the mitigation of multiple access interference (MAI) in direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) systems over frequencyselective channels. Blind multiuser detection based on signal subspace estimation is of special interest in mitigating MAI in CDMA systems since it is impractical to assume perfect knowledge of parameters such as spreading codes, time delays and amplitudes of all the users in a rapidly changing mobile environment. We develop a new blind multiuser detection scheme which only needs the priori knowledge of the signature waveform and timing of the user of interest. By exploiting the improper nature of multiple access interference (MAI) and intersymbol interference (ISI), the enhanced detector shows clear superiority to the conventional subspace-based blind multiuser detector. The performance advantages are shown to be more obvious in heavily loaded systems when the number of active users is large.
Localized energy conservation algorithm

Energy is one of the most important metric when we talk about Mobile ad-hoc networks. In order to increase the system's life-time, energy consumption has to be minimized. Here we will look at some energy saving algorithms. The initial analysis tells us that LECA conserves more energy that SPAN or any other algorithm. We present a Localized Energy Conservation Algorithm (LECA) [3] for routing in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs), to reduce energy consumption while being able to maintain performance levels. In LECA a small subset nodes, called coordinators, is selected to participate in routing while the others are put off to conserve power. The number of coordinators selected is lower than the corresponding number in the existing methods. This makes it possible for the network to attain high performance levels although a sparse set of coordinators are elected to reduce energy consumption to the bare minimum. we proposed a localized algorithm for conservation of energy in MANET's, without compromising the system performance. The algorithm presented here (LECA) selects minimum number of coordinators which constitute a connected backbone.
Foreword: JMO special issue on self-employment/freelancing

First, although there are major differences between countries, as Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data in Figure 1 show, self-employment or own-account working (outside agriculture) now accounts for a substantial share of the employed workforce in many industrialised countries (in some countries as many as a quarter of those in work are self-employed, and self-employment accounts for more than one in 10 of the workforce in around two-thirds of OECD countries). Moreover, it has been growing in the majority of these countries in the last decade or so (Figure 2), and the underlying trend seems to be an upward one. This does undoubtedly challenge the postwar consensus that self-employment was a diminishing archaic form of work, largely confined to agriculture, manual craft activities and a few liberal professions. However, as the paper by Bridge in this special issue argues, from a longer term historical perspective, it is waged employment which should perhaps be seen as the aberration.
Relative Expression Levels Rather Than Specific Activity Plays the Major Role in Determining In Vivo AKT Isoform Substrate Specificity

The AKT protooncogene mediates many cellular processes involved in normal development and disease states such as cancer. The three structurally similar isoforms: AKT1, AKT2, and AKT3 exhibit both functional redundancy and isoform-specific functions; however the basis for their differential signalling remains unclear. Here we show that in vitro, purified AKT3 is ∼47-fold more active than AKT1 at phosphorylating peptide and protein substrates. Despite these marked variations in specific activity between the individual isoforms, a comprehensive analysis of phosphorylation of validated AKT substrates indicated only subtle differences in signalling via individual isoforms in vivo. Therefore, we hypothesise, at least in this model system, that relative tissue/cellular abundance, rather than specific activity, plays the dominant role in determining AKT substrate specificity in situ.