Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PHOSPHORUS METABOLISM AND MANAGEMENT IN CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE: Renal Osteodystrophy, Phosphate Homeostasis, and Vascular Calcification

New advances in the pathogenesis of renal osteodystrophy (ROD) change the perspective from which many of its features and treatment are viewed. Calcium, phosphate, parathyroid hormone (PTH), and vitamin D have been shown to be important determinants of survival associated with kidney diseases. Now ROD dependent and independent of these factors is linked to survival more than just skeletal frailty. This review focuses on recent discoveries that renal injury impairs skeletal anabolism decreasing the osteoblast compartment of the skeleton and consequent bone formation. This discovery and the discovery that PTH regulates the hematopoietic stem cell niche alters our view of secondary hyperparathyroidism in chronic kidney disease (CKD) from that of a disease to that of a necessary adaptation to renal injury that goes awry. Furthermore, ROD is shown to be an underappreciated factor in the level of the serum phosphorus in CKD. The discovery and the elucidation of the mechanism of hyperphosphatemia as a cardiovascular risk in CKD change the view of ROD. It is now recognized as more than a skeletal disorder, it is an important component of the mortality of CKD that can be treated.
Evidence of selection at the ramosa1 locus during maize domestication

Modern maize was domesticated from Zea mays parviglumis, a teosinte, about 9000 years ago in Mexico. Genes thought to have been selected upon during the domestication of crops are commonly known as domestication loci. The ramosa1 (ra1) gene encodes a putative transcription factor that controls branching architecture in the maize tassel and ear. Previous work demonstrated reduced nucleotide diversity in a segment of the ra1 gene in a survey of modern maize inbreds, indicating that positive selection occurred at some point in time since maize diverged from its common ancestor with the sister species Tripsacum dactyloides and prompting the hypothesis that ra1 may be a domestication gene. To investigate this hypothesis, we examined ear phenotypes resulting from minor changes in ra1 activity and sampled nucleotide diversity of ra1 across the phylogenetic spectrum between tripsacum and maize, including a broad panel of teosintes and unimproved maize landraces. Weak mutant alleles of ra1 showed subtle effects in the ear, including crooked rows of kernels due to the occasional formation of extra spikelets, correlating a plausible, selected trait with subtle variations in gene activity. Nucleotide diversity was significantly reduced for maize landraces but not for teosintes, and statistical tests implied directional selection on ra1 consistent with the hypothesis that ra1 is a domestication locus. In maize landraces, a noncoding 3′‐segment contained almost no genetic diversity and 5′‐flanking diversity was greatly reduced, suggesting that a regulatory element may have been a target of selection.
INFLUÊNCIA DA DIVULGAÇÃO DO RELATO INTEGRADO NOS INDICADORES ECONÔMICO-FINANCEIROS: UMA ANÁLISE COMPARATIVA DO DESEMPENHO DE EMPRESAS PARTICIPANTES E NÃO PARTICIPANTES DO PROJETO PILOTO DO IIRC NO BRASIL

O proposito deste estudo foi analisar o desempenho das empresas integrantes do Projeto Piloto do IIRC no Brasil, que divulgam Relato Integrado (RI), comparando com empresas que nao fizeram parte dessa iniciativa, no intento de constatar a influencia decorrente da divulgacao do RI sobre a performance das empresas. Para analise, foi utilizado o Metodo Difference-in-Differences ( Dif-in-Dif ), utilizando a tecnica do Propensity Score Matching para minorar o vies da escolha. Constatou-se que as empresas pioneiras na divulgacao de RI no Brasil possuem maiores indicadores de rentabilidade, maior participacao de capital de terceiros e menor indice de liquidez corrente. Esse trabalho buscou contribuir como um estudo inicial, trazendo indicios sobre a influencia do Relato Integrado nos indicadores de desempenho de empresas no Brasil, evidenciando o reflexo no desempenho ao aderir a iniciativa do IIRC, bem como a identificacao de beneficios externos desse Relato, quanto a apresentacao de melhores indicadores economico-financeiros.
Effect of modified Bo-yang-Hwan-o-Tang, a polyherbal medicine on the hippocampal neuronal damage in a rat model of global ischemia

Background: Chronic cerebral hypoperfusion has been well-characterized as a common pathological status contributing to vascular dementia (VD). In this study, the neuroprotective effect of modified Bo-yang-Hwan-O Tang (mBHT), a polyherbal medicine for ischemic stroke, was investigated in a rat model for global ischemia. Materials and Methods: Global ischemia model was prepared in Sprague-Dawley rats by the permanent occlusion of bilateral common carotid arteries (two-vessel occlusion [2VO])-induced chronic cerebral hypoperfusion. mBHT at doses of 250 and 500 mg/kg was orally administrated for 4 weeks once a day, 24 h after 2VO. Histopathological change of the hippocampal region was observed by hematoxylin and eosin, Nissl, and Fluoro-Jade B staining and immunohistochemistry with anti-glial fibrillary acidic protein and anti-neuronal nuclei antibodies. The expression of Bax, Bcl-2, and caspase-3 was investigated in the hippocampus by Western blot. The nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) expression was also analyzed in hippocampal CA1 region using immunofluorescence staining. Results: The administration of mBHT at doses of 250 and 500 mg/kg significantly inhibited chronic cerebral hypoperfusion-induced neuronal damage and astroglial activation in the hippocampal CA1 region in 2VO rats. mBHT increased the NF-κB expression in the CA1 neuronal cells but decreased in activated astrocytes. In addition, mBHT significantly decreased the hippocampal expression of Bax and caspase-3 and increased the Bcl-2 expression in 2VO rats. Conclusions: Our data indicate that mBHT has a neuroprotective property in VD induced by chronic cerebral hypoperfusion through inhibiting the hippocampal neuronal damage and astrogliosis.
Avances en materia de energías sostenibles en América Latina y el Caribe: resultados del Marco de Seguimiento Mundial, informe de 2017

Este documento sobre la region de America Latina y el Caribe ha sido preparado por la Comision Economica para America Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) como complemento de la segunda parte del informe de 2017 del Marco de Seguimiento Mundial. Su intencion es explorar los hallazgos de dicho informe, considerar otras fuentes de datos que puedan ofrecer mas informacion y reflexionar sobre indicadores alternativos para una evaluacion mas solida del progreso regional hacia el uso de energias compatibles con el desarrollo sostenible. Tambien se intenta establecer una perspectiva organica del sistema energetico en la region, para destacar las interconexiones entre la demanda, el suministro, las politicas y los mecanismos de precios que puedan satisfacer las necesidades energeticas de la sociedad de manera sostenible, sin olvidar las interdependencias del sector energetico con otros sectores como los de la salud y el agua.
The effect of diet, age, and sex on cholesterol metabolism in white leghorn chickens.

The cholesterol metabolism of chickens differed in birds of different age and sex. The normal serum cholesterol levels were higher in females than in males and higher in 1-week-old chicks than in mature birds of the same sex. Laying hens were less susceptible to hypercholesterolemia induced by dietary cholesterol than were mature cockerels or young chicks of either sex. Corn oil tended to increase the degree of hypercholesterolemia in all cholesterol-fed birds except young cockerels. A vitamin-A-rich oil, dogfish liver oil, decreased the rise in serum cholesterol level in cholesterol-fed chicks of both sexes, but in mature birds it produced the opposite effect. The addition of 1% cholesterol to the control diet of hens increased the yolk cholesterol concentration of eggs laid by the birds and this increase in concentration was greatly enhanced if 10% corn oil was also present in the diet.
A wireless thermocouples network for temperature control in plastic machinery

In this paper authors propose a wireless thermocouples network purposely developed for plastic machinery. Thanks to a very simple protocol, based on IEEE802.15. 4 physical layer, up to sixteen nodes are scanned with a cycle time of 128 ms. Prototypes based on J type thermocouples have been realized with cost similar to wired approaches. A four-nodes network has been tested in a real environment. First experimental results, with a low standard deviation (less than 0.3°C in a range of 0-400°C) and a good quality of service (less than 1 s of consecutive lack of information from nodes), demonstrates feasibility of the proposed solution.
Compact Circularly Polarized Rectenna With Unbalanced Circular Slots

A novel rectifying antenna (rectenna) using a compact circularly polarized (CP) patch antenna with RF-to-DC power conversion part at 2.45 GHz is introduced, in which the unbalanced slots structure is adopted for size reduction and 2nd harmonic rejection. To contribute a rectenna for RF power conversion, the back side of the CP antenna is the doubler rectifier circuit with 3rd order harmonic rejection radial stub for efficiency optimization and harmonic power re-radiation elimination. The adopted CP antenna built on low cost FR-4 substrate has measured bandwidth of 137 MHz (10 dB return loss) as well as 30 MHz CP bandwidth (3 dB axial ratio). By up to 3rd order harmonic rejection, the RF-to-DC conversion efficiency would reach 53% and 75% with 1 K Omega resistor load under ANSI/IEEE uncontrolled and controlled RF human exposure limit respectively.
Design Principles of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines for Parallel Hybrid or Traction Applications

Hybrid and full electric technologies are fast emerging in vehicles and mobile working machines, where electric machines and internal combustion engines are used together to power the systems. Permanent magnet (PM) technology plays an important role here despite the high magnet prices. This paper theoretically and empirically studies the design principles of PM synchronous machines (PMSMs) for hybrid applications, where a high starting torque and a wide field weakening range are needed. Several embedded-magnet PMSM magnetic circuit topologies are considered as possible candidates. A 10-kW PMSM prototype was built and tested. Experimental results verify the theoretical considerations well.
Influence d'une supplémentation en monosodium glutamate sur la physiologie gastro-intestinale et le métabolisme chez le rat et l'Homme

Le glutamate de sodium (MSG) est un exhausteur de gout abondamment utilise dans le monde entier pour son gout unique appele " umami ". Au vu des donnees bibliographiques qui suggerent que, le L-glutamate en tant qu'acide amine libre peut representer un signal dans plusieurs fonctions physiologiques de par la presence de recepteurs au glutamate au niveau peripherique ; nous avons etudie les effets d'une supplementation en MSG sur la physiologie gastro-intestinale, les secretions pancreatiques et le metabolisme dans le modele experimental rat et chez des volontaires sains. Chez le rat, une supplementation en MSG pendant 15 jours a hauteur de 2 g pour 100 g d'aliment provoquait une diminution de l'activite glutaminase intestinale et une augmentation de la concentration circulante de glutamine ainsi qu'une augmentation transitoire de l'insulinemie. Par contre, aucun effet sur la vidange gastrique et le transit gastro-intestinal n'a ete observe malgre une accumulation de glutamate pendant 5 h dans l'estomac et pendant 1 h dans l'intestin grele apres le repas. Chez le volontaire sain, une supplementation en MSG a hauteur de 2 g par jour pendant 7 jours entrainait une augmentation de l'aire antrale de l'estomac pendant 2 h apres le repas par rapport a une dose iso-sodee de NaCl. Cette phase precoce postprandiale etait associee a une augmentation des concentrations circulantes d'acide glutamique, de leucine, d'isoleucine, de cysteine, de tyrosine, d'ornithine et de serine. Cependant, l'augmentation de l'aire antrale de l'estomac n'etait apparemment pas associee a un effet sur la vidange gastrique puisque le MSG etait sans effet sur le devenir de l'azote alimentaire. La reponse hormonale (insuline, GLP-1 et ghreline) n'est pas non plus modifiee. Enfin, les sensations de faim et de satiete mesurees par echelles analogiques visuelles n'etaient pas non plus influencees par la consommation de MSG. L'effet du MSG sur les secretions gastriques en tant que determinant de l'augmentation de la distension antrale sans modification de la vidange gastrique est discute ainsi qu'un eventuel effet d'epargne du glutamate sur le catabolisme de certains acides amines par l'intestin. Ces resultats ont permis de mettre en evidence des effets d'une supplementation en MSG sur des parametres metaboliques et physiologiques sans effet deletere mesure. D'autres etudes sont necessaires afin de mieux comprendre les mecanismes d'action du MSG.
A Transformer-Less High-Power Converter for Large Permanent Magnet Wind Generator Systems

The power conversion systems for large wind turbines are facing a great challenge as today's wind turbine power outputs approach 5 MW and above. The conventional low voltage power conversion system will suffer from a high transmission current, which significantly increases losses and cost of the cables as well as voltage drop. This paper proposes a modular, medium voltage, high-power converter topology for the large permanent magnet wind generator system, eliminating the grid-side step-up transformer, which is desirable for both onshore and offshore wind turbines. The converter modules are cascaded to achieve medium voltage output. Each converter module is fed by a pair of generator coils with 90 phase shift to get the stable dc-link power. The power factor correction (PFC) circuit enables the generator to achieve unity power factor operation and the generator armature inductance is used as ac-side PFC boost inductance. At the grid-side, H-bridge inverters are connected in series to generate multilevel medium voltage output and the voltage-oriented vector control scheme is adopted to regulate the converter active and reactive power transferred to the grid. Simulation results with a 2-MW wind turbine system and experimental results with a down-scaled 3-kW system validate the proposed topology and control methods. The proposed system can successfully deliver power from the wind generator to the grid.
Measurement of dialyzer clearance, dialysis time, and body size: death risk relationships among patients.

BACKGROUND Urea pharmacokinetic equation systems have contributed to better understanding of treatment dose among hemodialysis patients. The methods are indirect, however, and require the measurement of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) concentration before and after a dialysis session to estimate the total treatment dose that clinicians prescribe [urea clearance x dialysis time (Kt)] indexed to an estimate of body size [the volume of urea distribution in the body (V)] yielding the ratio, Kt/V. New technology permits direct on-line measurement of average small molecule clearance (Kecn) during each dialysis treatment that can be multiplied by time (t) to give a direct measurement of total treatment dose (Kt). This study evaluated the relationship of measured Kt with death risk. It also evaluated the relationship of simple body size measures to risk and also the combination of one such measure [body surface area (BSA)] with Kt to death risk. METHODS The data were taken from the Fresenius Medical Care (NA) (FMCNA) clinical database that included patients who had outcome data, height and weight measurements, and at least one average Kecn and t measurement during April 2002. Kecn, t, and the body size measures [body weight, body mass index (BMI), and BSA)] were averaged during the month. Those values were used as predictors of survival during the next 1 year in unadjusted and case mix adjusted proportional hazards (Cox) models. RESULTS Increasing values of Kecn, t, Kt and all of the body size measures were associated with lower death risk. The body size measure most closely associated with risk was the BSA that was used in subsequent models. Kt and BSA were independent risk predictors. There was a significant interaction between Kt and BSA in the case mix but not the unadjusted model indicating that the risk burden of lower total dialysis dose, Kt, may be greater among small than large patients. CONCLUSION The direct measurement of dialysis dose during each treatment is practical and the values reported by it are clinically relevant. Higher dose was associated with better survival in both small and large patients treated three times weekly. Furthermore, smaller patients may require proportionately greater total dose than larger patients to achieve comparable survival.
Generic sensor framework enabling personalized healthcare

Data and sensor fusion can enable clinical healthcare systems to improve conditions of a patient. However, hospitals are not the only application field of connected medical devices. Domestic monitoring gets more important day by day and applies Internet of Things with mobile sensors, like wearables. Through data processing data is transferred to smart data and personalized recommendations are improvable, if sensors can be chosen individually. Therefore, we developed a generic medical sensor framework which is able to merge any needed sensor and collect data to improve personalized health of an individual. To evaluate our framework and to prove the added value of sensor fusion we present a sensor-based stress detection game.
Sequential Load-Pull Technique for Multioctave Design of RF Power Amplifiers

A design methodology for multioctave RF power amplifiers (PAs) is presented in this brief using sequential harmonic characterization. The investigation of in-band harmonics on the multioctave performance of the RF PA shows that a more optimal performance can be achieved using the proposed technique compared to the conventional load-pull. To demonstrate the capability of this technique, a broadband multioctave PA prototype was designed and fabricated using sequential second harmonic characterization. The fabricated prototype uses a GaN HEMT from Cree Inc. and exhibits a drain efficiency of 53%-64% in the range of 0.7-4.0 GHz while having an output power of 37.5-39.1 dBm corresponding to the fractional bandwidth of 140%. Measurement results validate the proposed method as a robust PA design procedure for broadband and multistandard applications.
Wavelet Cesptral Coefficients for Isolated Speech Recognition

The study proposes an improved feature extraction method that is called Wavelet Cepstral Coefficients (WCC). In traditional cepstral analysis, the cepstrums are calculated with the use of the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT). Owing to the fact that the DFT calculation assumes signal stationary between frames which in practice is not quite true, the WCC replaces the DFT block in the traditional cepstrum calculation with the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) hence producing the WCC. To evaluate the proposed WCC, speech recognition task of recognizing the 26 English alphabets were conducted. Comparisons with the traditional Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) are done to further analyze the effectiveness of the WCCs. It is found that the WCCs showed some comparable results when compared to the MFCCs considering the WCCs small vector dimension when compared to the MFCCs. The best recognition was found from WCCs at level 5 of the DWT decomposition with a small difference of 1.19% and 3.21% when compared to the MFCCs for speaker independent and speaker dependent tasks respectively. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.11591/telkomnika.v11i5. 2510 Full Text: PDF
Design of a Triple Band-notched UWB Planar Monopole Antenna

In this paper, a novel design of a compact planar ultra wide band (UWB) monopole antenna with triple band notched characteristics has been presented. The antenna has a unique shape and has been fed through a 50 Ω microstrip feedline. The strength of the antenna lies in three band notched properties for WiMax system at 3.3 - 3.7 GHz, WLAN IEEE 802.11a at 5.15 - 5.85 GHz and X band satellite communication at 7.25 - 8.395 GHz. The notched bands have been achieved by incorporating an inverted U-slot etched on the radiator patch, an inverted C-slot also on the radiator patch and a U-slot on the microstrip feed line. In order to achieve FCC defined impedance bandwidth of 7.5 GHz, a rectangular cut in the ground plane has been introduced along with staircase structure in the bottom edge of the radiator. The proposed antenna is having a compact size of 30 X 30 X 1.6 mm3 and exhibits a large bandwidth from 2.8 GHz to 10.7 GHz. The antenna has been successfully simulated and fabricated. The radiation pattern is omni-directional in H-plane and the E-plane exhibits dipole like radiation pattern. The gain of the antenna is stable across the whole operating frequency band except at three notched bands.
Learning Discourse Relations from News Reports: An Event-driven Approach

Nowadays, technologies allows us to store large volumes of information in different formats. It represents a challenge due to the lack of semantic in retrieval and extraction process of information efficiently. A possible strategy is to transform unstructured information into structured data. In recent years, ontologies have been widely used as an alternative to represent structured data from texts. This paper presents a new approach based on linguistic markers for ontology learning and population by considering cognitive aspects in order identify discourse relations between events from news reports. The main idea is to find concepts (event type), discourse relations (ontological relations) between events and class instances (real events). Our approach shows promising results for learning discourse relations in terms of F-measure.
Development of a standardized occupational therapy screening tool for visual perception in adults

Occupational therapy assessment and treatment of visual perceptual impairments are integral to the rehabilitation of clients following stroke and other acquired brain injuries. Occupational therapists need to identify the nature of visual perceptual performance impairments in order to choose rehabilitation intervention strategies appropriate for remediation of specific problems or to compensate for limitations in daily function. This paper describes the variations in visual perception terminology and occupational therapy approaches to visual perceptual assessment. Limitations of existing assessment tools for visual perception are highlighted in terms of reliability, validity, normative information, length of time to administer, and comprehensiveness in screening for visual perceptual impairment. In response to these limitations, a battery of items, called the Occupational Therapy Adult Perceptual Screening Test (OT-APST) was selected to screen adults comprehensively for impairments of agnosia, visuospatial skills including body scheme and neglect, constructional skills, apraxia, and acalculia. It also includes a subtest to evaluate functional skills directly observed during screening. This new battery has established reliability, validity and age-stratified normative data for adults 16 to 97 years of age. The OT-APST is recommended for use in conjunction with observational assessment of activities of daily living for clients with stroke and acquired brain injury.