Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Overview of Systematic Reviews of Health Interventions for the Prevention and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Children

(1) Background: The importance of studying the health interventions used to prevent and treat overweight and obesity in school-aged children is imperative. This overview aimed to summarize systematic reviews that assess the effects of school-based, family, and mixed health interventions for preventing and treating overweight and obesity in school-aged children. (2) Methods: The Cochrane Collaboration methodology and PRISMA statement were followed. A search was conducted using terms adapted to 12 databases. Systematic reviews reporting interventions in children from six to 12 years old with an outcome related to preventing or treating obesity and overweight were included. Studies with pharmacological or surgical interventions and adolescents were excluded. (3) Results: A total of 15,226 registers were identified from databases and citation searching. Of those, ten systematic reviews published between 2013 and 2022 were included. After the overlap, 331 interventions for children between 6 and 12 years old were identified, and 61.6% involved physical activity and nutrition/diet intervention. Multicomponent intervention, combining physical activity with nutrition and behavioral change, school-based plus community-based interventions may be more effective in reducing overweight and obesity in children. (4) Conclusions: Plenty of interventions for childhood overweight and obesity aimed at prevention and treatment were identified, but there is a gap in the methodological quality preventing the establishment of a certain recommendation.
Composite scaffolds for bone regeneration and infection control

To overcome the autologous bone graft limitations, tissue engineering is being explored aiming to develop bone substitutes for reconstructions. Our hypothesis is to develop a composite polylactide (PDLLA) scaffold, coated with collagen, containing Bioglass (BG) and minocycline (MH) – an antibiotic with anti-inflammatory and osteoinductive effects - that would be able to provide an improved regeneration with antimicrobial protection. PDLLA scaffolds were prepared by solvent casting/particulate leaching technique and loaded with MH by adsorption. The morphological characterization was performed by SEM as well as the elemental chemical composition (EDS). Crystalline structure was identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and attenuated total reflectance (ATR-FTIR) analysis was assessed to identify the functional groups. Antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus was evaluated by agar diffusion and the biofilm inhibition formation was observed by SEM analysis. Cellular proliferation and activity were evaluated using human osteoblasts (MG-63 cells). SEM images showed the PDLLA surface with interconnected porous; EDS showed that the BG particles were incorporated into the scaffolds; XRD and ATR evidenced chemical interactions between MH and PDLLA; MH-scaffolds presented antimicrobial activity including biofilm formation reduction. Effects on the cellular proliferation and activity were observed on both samples, without important differences. Overall, results show that PDLLA composite scaffolds show potential as antimicrobial and osteoconductive bone grafts.
Global optimality of nonconvex penalized estimators

Nonconvex penalties such as the smoothly clipped absolute deviation or minimax concave penalties have desirable properties such as the oracle property, even when the dimension of the predictive variables is large. However, checking whether a given local minimizer has such properties is not easy since there can be many local minimizers. In this paper, we give sufficient conditions under which a local minimizer is unique, and show that the oracle estimator becomes the unique local minimizer with probability tending to one. Copyright 2012, Oxford University Press.
Next-Generation MODIS for Polar Operational Environmental Satellites

Abstract The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) protoflight model has been delivered to the NASA Earth Observing System AM-1 platform project to provide highly calibrated, near daily, global atmosphere, land, and ocean observation in 36 spectral channels. MODIS includes extensive in-flight calibration allowing improved environmental data products addressing the visible–infrared imaging Environmental Data Records required by the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System. NASA is considering Advanced MODIS concepts to dramatically reduce MODIS mass, power, and volume. Alternatively, next-generation MODIS Light options can substantially reduce MODIS cost, mass, power, and size but retain the core MODIS optical bench assembly spectroradiometric sensing subsystem to minimize both performance risk and changes to the data processing algorithms. These MODIS Light options range from in-flight calibration hardware removal to instrument repackaging and scanner redesign. Th.
On the Stability of Reconstruction of Irregularly Sampled Diffraction Fields

This paper addresses the problem of reconstruction of a monochromatic light field from data points, irregularly distributed within a volume of interest. Such setting is relevant for a wide range of three-dimensional display and beam shaping applications, which deal with physically inconsistent data. Two finite-dimensional models of monochromatic light fields are used to state the reconstruction problem as regularized matrix inversion. The Tikhonov method, implemented by the iterative algorithm of conjugate gradients, is used for regularization. Estimates of the model dimensionality are related to the number of degrees of freedom of the light field as to show how to control the data redundancy. Experiments demonstrate that various data point distributions lead to ill-poseness and that regularized inversion is able to compensate for the data point inconsistencies with good numerical performance.
South Africa’s male homicide epidemic hiding in plain sight: Exploring sex differences and patterns in homicide risk in a retrospective descriptive study of postmortem investigations

South Africa has an overall homicide rate six times the global average. Males are predominantly the victims and perpetrators, but little is known about the male victims. For the country’s first ever study on male homicide we compared 2017 male and female victim profiles for selected covariates, against global average and previous estimates for 2009. We conducted a retrospective descriptive study of routine data collected through postmortem investigations, calculating age-standardised mortality rates for manner of death by age, sex and province and male-to-female incidence rate ratios with 95% confidence intervals. We then used generalised linear models and linear regression models to assess the association between sex and victim characteristics including age and mechanism of injury (guns, sharp and blunt force) within and between years. 87% of 19,477 homicides in 2017 were males, equating to seven male deaths for every female, with sharp force and firearm discharge being the most common cause of death. Rates were higher among males than females at all ages, and up to eight times higher for the age group 15–44 years. Provincial rates varied overall and by sex, with the highest comparative risk for men vs. women in the Western Cape Province (11.4 males for every 1 female). Male homicides peaked during December and were highest during weekends, underscoring the prominent role of alcohol as a risk factor. There is a massive, disproportionate and enduring homicide risk among South African men which highlights their relative neglect in the country’s prevention and policy responses. Only through challenging the normative perception of male invulnerability do we begin to address the enormous burden of violence impacting men. There is an urgent need to address the insidious effect of such societal norms alongside implementing structural interventions to overcome the root causes of poverty, inequality and better control alcohol and firearms.
Ultrasound-Guided Continuous Femoral Nerve Block with Dexmedetomidine Combined with Low Concentrations of Ropivacaine for Postoperative Analgesia in Elderly Knee Arthroplasty

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the clinical effect of dexmedetomidine (DEX) combined with low concentrations of ropivacaine in ultrasound-guided continuous femoral nerve block for postoperative analgesia in elderly patients with total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Materials and Methods: Patients were divided into three groups: group C, group D1, and group D2. For postoperative analgesia, patients in group C were given 0.15% ropivacaine, patients in group D1 were given 0.15% ropivacaine + 0.02 μg × kg–1 × h–1 DEX, and patients in group D2 were given 0.15% ropivacaine + 0.05 μg × kg–1 × h–1 DEX. The visual analogue scores in the resting state, active state (AVAS), and passive functional exercise state (PVAS), degree of joint bending, and Ramsay scores were recorded. Results: The Ramsay scores were significantly higher, AVAS scores were significantly lower, PVAS scores were significantly decreased, the degree of joint bending was significantly higher, and the time to the first postoperative ambulation was shorter in groups D1 and D2 than group C. Furthermore, the time to the first postoperative ambulation was shorter in group D2 than in group D1, patients in groups D1 and D2 were more satisfied than patients in group C, and patients in group D2 were more satisfied than patients in group D1. Conclusion: The protocol of 0.05 μg × kg–1 × h–1 of DEX combined with 0.15% ropivacaine in ultrasound-guided continuous femoral nerve block for postoperative analgesia in elderly patients with TKA provides a better analgesic effect than without DEX performance.
An Optimization Strategy for Customized Radiotherapy Head Immobilization Masks

An effective head immobilization is an important requirement in radiotherapy treatment sessions, although it may also be thought in the future as a precious aid in brain medical imaging. Thus, the present work is focused on the stiffness optimization of a customized head immobilization mask, modelled upon the head reconstruction surface based on computerized tomography images.This paper proposes a strategy supported by a metaheuristic optimization technique and a metamodeling approach for the whole mask, illustrated at its most unfavorable region occurring in the gnathion region.
AN OPERATIONAL OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS SYSTEM

Abstract The system of objective weather map analysis used at the Joint Numerical Weather Prediction Unit is described. It is an integral part of the automatic data processing system, and is designed to operate with a minimum of manual supervision. The analysis method, based mainly on the method of Bergthorssen and Dooos, is essentially a method of applying corrections to a first guess field. The corrections are determined from a comparison of the data with the interpolated value of the guess field at the observation point. For the analysis of the heights of a pressure surface the reported wind is taken into account in determining the lateral gradient of the correction to be applied. A series of scans of the field is made, each scan consisting of application of corrections on a smaller lateral scale than during the previous scan. The analysis system is very flexible, and has been used to analyze many different types of variables. An example of horizontal divergence computed from a direct wind analysis is .
Multi-Focus Image Fusion Based on a Non-Fixed-Base Dictionary and Multi-Measure Optimization

Multi-scale geometric analysis is a popular tool that is widely used in the field of multi-focus image fusion. It plays a large role in extracting the features from input images. In this paper, a novel multi-focus image fusion method based on a non-fixed-base dictionary and multi-measure optimization is presented in the non-subsampled shearlet transform (NSST) domain. The proposed approach contains the following four steps. The input images are first decomposed by NSST into low- and high-frequency coefficients. Second, a sparse representation (SR)-based framework is proposed and applied to merge the low-frequency coefficients of the input images. In this framework, a non-fixed-base dictionary iteratively trained by the previous dictionary is constructed, which represents the complex details of the source images. Third, a type-2 fuzzy logic scheme is introduced for the high-frequency coefficient fusion, which can effectively select the high-quality coefficients from the source images so that it can achieve better performance. Finally, an inverse NSST operation is conducted in the merged low- and high-pass subbands and thus obtains the initial fused image. A multi-measure optimization method is then employed to optimize the initial fused image, and thus, the final fused result is achieved. In this method, three different measures, namely, pixel difference, visual saliency, and similarity, are designed to select the focus regions more completely. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed approach yields a better effect than other methods in both the visual quality and the objective assessment.
Scalar Implicature is Sensitive to Contextual Alternatives

Abstract The quantifier “some” often elicits a scalar implicature during comprehension: “Some of today's letters have checks inside” is often interpreted to mean that not all of today's letters have checks inside. In previous work, Goodman and Stuhlmüller (G&S) proposed a model that predicts that this implicature should depend on the speaker's knowledgeability: If the speaker has only examined some of the available letters (e.g., two of three letters), people are less likely to infer that “some” implies “not all” than if the speaker has examined all of the available letters. G&S also provided behavioral evidence in support of their model. In this paper, we first show that a simple extension of G&S's model (1) predicts G&S's knowledgeability effects, and in addition, (2) predicts that the knowledgeability effect will be reduced when the speaker's usage indicates numeral alternatives are available. We tested the new model's predictions in four preregistered experiments. All experiments supported the first model prediction, replicating G&S's finding of a main effect of the speaker's knowledge. Further, Experiments 2 and 4 supported the second model prediction showing that the words that a speaker tends to use affect the strength of scalar implicature that comprehenders make. In particular, when the speaker has partial knowledge (e.g., has only examined two of three letters), comprehenders think that “some” is more likely to mean “not all” when the speaker also tends to produce number words in similar sentences (e.g., “2 of today's rooms have working smoke detectors.”). These results have important ramifications for theories of meaning: the context beyond the sentence (e.g., the speaker's tendency to use particular words) affects the set of alternatives that comprehenders consider when inferring meaning.
Development of trauma team cognition can be explained by ”split vision”: A grounded theory study

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to explore interaction of interprofessional hospital trauma teams. A theory about how team cognition is developed through a dynamical process was established using grounded theory methodology. Video recordings of in-real-life resuscitations performed in the emergency ward of a Scandinavian mid-size urban hospital were collected and eligible for inclusion using theoretical sampling. By analyzing interactions during seven trauma resuscitations, the theory that trauma teams perform patient assessment and resuscitation by alternating between two process modes, the two main categories “team positioning” and “sensitivity to the patient,” was generated. The core category “working with split vision” explicates how the teams interplay between the two modes to coordinate team focus with an emergent mental model of the specific situation. Split vision ensures that deeper aspects of the team, such as culture, knowledge, empathy, and patient needs are absorbed to continuously adapt team positioning and create precision in care for the specific patient.
Provider perspectives on service delivery modifications to maintain access to HIV pre‐exposure prophylaxis during the COVID‐19 pandemic: qualitative results from a PrEP implementation project in Kenya

HIV pre‐exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an essential prevention strategy being scaled up for priority populations in Kenya, including for HIV serodiscordant couples. The COVID‐19 pandemic posed challenges to PrEP rollout. We conducted a qualitative study of PrEP providers to understand how clinics adjusted PrEP delivery during the COVID‐19 pandemic.
Qualitative SEM analysis of fracture surfaces for dental ceramics and polymers broken by flexural strength testing and crown compression.

PURPOSE To perform qualitative analysis using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of fracture surfaces for ceramic and polymeric dental materials broken via standardized flexural and crunch the crown (CTC) tests. METHODS Zirconia, glass ceramic, and polymeric (Trilor; TRI, Juvora; JUV, Pekkton; PEK) materials were loaded using crowns for CTC tests, discs (zirconia and glass-ceramics) for piston-on-3 ball tests, bars (polymer) for 3-point bend tests, and bars (zirconia, glass ceramics) for 4-point bend tests. SEM was used to characterize the fracture surfaces and identify fracture surface features (e.g., origin, mist, hackle, and the direction of crack propagation (DCP)). Electron dispersive spectroscopy was used to identify the local chemistry. RESULTS Fracture surface features were found to be less visually apparent for glass-ceramics than zirconia. For zirconia bars, fractures originated roughly midway between the corner and center for processing defects related to sintering. Fractures originated at the bottom corners of glass-ceramic bars (void or surface flaw) and PEK bars (surface flaw). TRI bar failures exposed glassy fibers. Fracture features were generally less discernable for discs compared to bars for zirconia and glass-ceramics. Ceramic crowns fractured into 2 to 3 pieces, with fractures originating at the occlusal surface and clear evidence for the DCP. Failures of TRI and JUV specimens (bars and crowns) were less catastrophic than for the ceramics, with exposed fibers (TRI) and surface cracks (JUV). PEK crown and bar fractures presented dimple (ductile) features formed due to microvoid coalescence followed by brittle crack propagation. CONCLUSIONS The critical flaws responsible for failure initiation were a function of material composition and test configuration. Fractographic analysis can reveal problems associated with the manufacturing of materials, their handling, grinding and finishing/polishing procedures, the structural design and choice of material, and the quality of the final laboratory-delivered restoration. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Simplified Homogeneous Balance Method and Its Applications to the Whitham-Broer-Kaup Model Equations

A nonlinear transformation of the Whitham-Broer-Kaup (WBK) model equations in the shallow water small-amplitude regime is derived by using a simplified homogeneous balance method. The WBK model equations are linearized under the nonlinear transformation. Various exact solutions of the WBK model equations are obtained via the nonlinear transformation with the aid of solutions for the linear equation.
Additional effects of pain neuroscience education combined with physiotherapy on the headache frequency of adult patients with migraine: A randomized controlled trial

Aim To assess the efficacy of pain neuroscience education combined with physiotherapy for the management of migraine. Background Physiotherapy can significantly reduce the frequency of migraine, but the evidence is based only on a few studies. Pain neuroscience education might pose a promising treatment, as it addresses migraine as a chronic pain disease. Methods In this non-blinded randomized controlled trial, migraine patients received physiotherapy + pain neuroscience education or physiotherapy alone, preceded by a three-month waiting period. Primary outcomes were frequency of headache (with and without migraine features), frequency of migraine and associated disability. Results Eighty-two participants were randomized and analyzed. Both groups showed a decrease of headache frequency (p = 0.02, d = 0.46) at post-treatment (physiotherapy: 0.77 days, 95%CI: −0.75 to 2.29 and physiotherapy + pain neuroscience education: 1.25 days, 95%CI: −0.05 to 2.55) and at follow-up (physiotherapy: 1.93, 95%CI: 0.07 to 3.78 and physiotherapy + pain neuroscience education: 3.48 days, 95%CI: 1.89 to 5.06), with no difference between groups (p = 0.26, d = 0.26). Migraine frequency was reduced significantly in the physiotherapy + pain neuroscience education group, and not in the physiotherapy group, at post-treatment (1.28 days, 95%CI: 0.34 to 2.22, p = 0.004) and follow-up (3.05 days, 95%CI: 1.98 to 5.06, p < 0.0001), with a difference between groups at follow-up (2.06 days, p = 0.003). Migraine-related disability decreased significantly in both groups (physiotherapy: 19.8, physiotherapy + pain neuroscience education: 24.0 points, p < 0.001, d = 1.15) at follow-up, with no difference between groups (p = 0.583). Secondary outcomes demonstrated a significant effect of time with no interaction between time and group. No harm or adverse events were observed during the study. Conclusion In comparison to physiotherapy alone, pain neuroscience education combined with physiotherapy can further reduce the frequency of migraine, but had no additional effect on general headache frequency or migraine-related disability. Trial Registration The study was pre-registered at the German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS00020804).
Causal Modeling of Policy Interventions From Sequences of Treatments and Outcomes

A treatment policy defines when and what treatments are applied to affect some outcome of interest. Data-driven decision-making requires the ability to predict what happens if a policy is changed. Existing methods that predict how the outcome evolves under different scenarios assume that the tentative sequences of future treatments are fixed in advance, while in practice the treatments are determined stochastically by a policy and may depend, for example, on the efficiency of previous treatments. Therefore, the current methods are not applicable if the treatment policy is unknown or a counterfactual analysis is needed. To handle these limitations, we model the treatments and outcomes jointly in continuous time, by combining Gaussian processes and point processes. Our model enables the estimation of a treatment policy from observational sequences of treatments and outcomes, and it can predict the interventional and counterfactual progression of the outcome after an intervention on the treatment policy (in contrast with the causal effect of a single treatment). We show with real-world and semi-synthetic data on blood glucose progression that our method can answer causal queries more accurately than existing alternatives.