Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ISISEMD: Intelligent system for independent living and self-care of seniors with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia

According to the 2009 World Alzheimer Report, the number of people living with Alzheimer's and dementia is predicted to double almost every 20 years, and people will experience their first symptoms of dementia at an earlier age. In Europe the number of people with dementia is conservatively anticipated to increase by 40% over the next 20 years mainly due to the increase in the ageing population. As a consequence, social care providers in Europe will face major challenges over the next couple of decades due to the increased care demand for people suffering from dementia. This will have a double negative impact as it will not only increase the burden of care but also reduce the quality of life of informal carers helping those with pre- and mild dementia, living at home. Current traditional care provides limited services for these groups, leaving their needs unmet to a great extent. Information and communication technology (ICT) offers a number of promising opportunities to help patients with pre- and mild dementia live autonomously and safely in their own homes, and to support informal carers in coping with the care burden. ISISEMD is a European project aiming at improving the quality of life of elderly people with pre- and mild dementia living in their own homes, and also for their caregivers by offering innovative intelligent custom services. The services aim to support the needs of the elderly from this target group for: a) living safely at home; b) self-care by supporting their basic daily activities; c) daily interaction with relatives, friends and caregivers, giving them the feeling of safety and preventing their social isolation. The services will be validated via a controlled study across four European countries in real-life situations for one year. To address scalability, the pilot services will contain three complementary service bundles (basic services, intermediate and high level) that allow for escalation of the service provided to the end-users, based on their needs. The service bundles provided will be eas- ily managed, personalised, transparent and comprehensive. This paper elaborates on the ISISEMD approach for an innovative care model, including technical aspects of the services, the technologies used and the system architecture. It also describes plans for evaluation from a human factor perspective, and briefly discusses business opportunities.
Sustainable New Multilateral Peace and Security System in Northeast Asia : Focusing on Northeast Asia Plus Community of Responsibility

동북아 역내 국가들의 전략적 이해관계, 대립적 양자관계로 인한 갈등과 대립은 ‘동북아 혼돈 시대’로의 도래와 함께 중대한 변화의 갈림길로 들어서게 만들었다. 이러한 상황 하에서 국제사회는 불신과 핵심 이익의 추구로 국가간 협력을 더욱 어렵게 하고 있다. 그럼에도 불구하고 강대국에 둘러싸여 있는 지리적 조건에서 우리 정부의 외교역량 강화는 필수불가결하며, 지속가능한 협력 틀을 구축하기 위한 역내 국가들의 참여와 협력은 거스를 수 없는 추세이다. 이러한 관점에서 본 연구의 목적은 동북아지역의 불확실한 안보환경을 개선하고 평화와 협력을 도출하기 위해 지속가능한 다자안보평화체제 방안을 모색하는데 있다. 즉 다자주의에 기반을 둔 동북아 평화안보체제의 수립을 ‘동북아플러스 책임공동체’ 차원에서 살펴보고, 지속가능한 다자평화안보체제의 추진 방안을 추진전략과 실천과제 차원에서 고찰하는데 있다.
AN EFFECTIVENESS, SAFETY AND TOLERABILITY STUDY OF AZILSARTAN AND TELMISARTAN IN PATIENTS OF ESSENTIAL HYPERTENSION : A RANDOMIZED AND OPEN-LABEL STUDY

BACKGROUND : The aim of this study was to compare effectiveness, safety and tolerability of azilsartan and telmisartan in terms of their blood pressure lowering capacity, effect on hematological and biochemical profile and side effects respectively in patients of essential hypertension. METHODS : This was an observational, prospective, open label, randomized, parallel study. The study was conducted after getting approval from the ethics committee at RIMS, Ranchi. Total sample size was 108. Blood pressure recordings, hematologic and biochemical investigations were done at the beginning of study and at every visit according to study design. The first group was prescribed tablet azilsartan 40mg once daily and the other tablet telmisartan 40 mg once daily at the beginning. Each patient was followed for 12 weeks and total study duration was 1 year. RESULTS : The treatment arms showed significant reduction (p<0.05) in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure at the end of study period, although while doing inter-group comparison, the difference was not significant. Safety profile of both drugs was similar. Notable side-effects included fatigue and dizziness apart from headache. CONCLUSION : Azilsartan and telmisartan reduced the blood pressure significantly in 12 weeks when compared from the baseline, but the reduction was similar when an intergroup comparison was done. The drugs did not adversely affect the haematologic and biochemical parameters. Few side-effects were reported but these were mild in nature and did not require any specific intervention. KEYWORDS : Angiotensin receptor blocker, Azilsartan, Effectiveness, Essential hypertension, Randomized, Safety, Telmisartan, Tolerability
VITAMIN DEFICIENCY AND INSULIN RESISTANCE IN NONDIABETIC OBESE PATIENTS.

Objective Obese people may have nutritional deficiencies, although they are exposed to excessive food intake. We aim to assess relationship of vitamin D, B12, and folic acid levels and dietary vitamin intake and insulin resistance in obese people. Design This case-control study was performed at the obesity outpatient clinics between March 2014 and April 2015. Subjects and Methods We included 304 non-diabetic obese subjects in patient group and 150 normal weight individuals in control group. Patients were questioned in detail about their food intake. Results Mean age of obese patients was 37.3±10.1 years, the mean duration of obesity was 7.9±5.4 years, and the percentage of female patients was 65.8%. Mean vitamin D, B12, and folic acid levels were significantly lower in patients than in controls. Vitamin D deficiency (<20 ng/mL) in 69.7%, vitamin B12 deficiency (<200 pg/mL) in 13.5%, and folic acid deficiency (<4 ng/mL) was found in 14.2% of the patients. BMI negatively correlated with vitamin D, B12, and folic acid levels. B12 levels negatively correlated with duration of obesity. Insulin resistance was found in 55.9% of patients and HOMA-IR levels negatively correlated with vitamin D and B12 levels. While dietary vitamin D and folic acid intakes were inadequate in all of patients, only 28.3% of patients had inadequate vitamin B12 intake. There was no relation between vitamin levels and dietary vitamin intakes. Conclusions The study reveals that vitamin D, B12, and folic acid levels were low and poor vitamin D and B12 status were associated with insulin resistance in nondiabetic obese patients.
Assessment of post-orthodontic occlusal contacts with wrap-around and clear overlay retainers

A prospective study to evaluate short-term changes in occlusal force and contact surface area associated with retainer wear. Total 32 subjects, randomly assigned to two experimental groups, a clear overlay group and a wrap-around retainer group, were followed to assess occlusal changes. Assessments were made utilizing the T-Scan II (Tekscan, Inc., 307 West First St., South Boston, MA 02127) method of occlusal analysis at 3 time periods; T0, at debond all subjects received lower fixed canine to canine retainer and upper clear overlay retainers; T1, 2 weeks later 14 subjects received wrap-around retainers and the clear overlay retainer group was checked (18 subjects); T2, occlusal contact assessment 2 months later for both groups. During T0–T1, the occlusion with clear overlay retainers showed a significant decrease in posterior surface area contact (p 0.05). An independent sample (15 subjects) showed high intraclass correlations (r > 0.90) between replicate measurements of relative force, indicating low technical errors when multiple measurements are used. In conclusion, there were no significant net changes in occlusal forces or areas after 6 weeks of comparison between the wrap-around and clear overlay retainers following orthodontic therapy. In addition, it was shown that the T-Scan is a reliable apparatus for analysis of relative force.
QUALIDADE MICROBIOLÓGICA DA ÁGUA PARA CONSUMO EM ESCOLAS DO KM 13.5, 14 E 16, MINGA GUAZÚ, PARAGUAI (2017-2018)

Plant species such as Syzygium aromaticum (clove) and Punica granatum (pomegranate) have begun to draw the attention of large internationally renowned companies, which have invested scientifically to develop products from their raw materials. Thus, the aim of this study was to analyze the antibacterial activity of the plant species Syzygium aromaticum (clove) and Punica granatum (pomegranate) against strains of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. For this purpose, an ethanolic extract of the pomegranate peel and an essential oil of the clove seeds were produced. Antibacterial tests were performed by inserting wells and discs in the petri dishes containing Mueller-hinton Agar with the extract and oil analyzed at a concentration of 60μL for the wells and 20μL for the discs and comparing their activities. A positive control consisted of amoxicillin disks at a concentration of 10μg and a negative control used saline. In this study it was found that amoxicillin exerted considerable bacterial inhibition with 22mm halos for Staphylococcus aureus and 20mm for Escherichia coli, whereas the negative control did not inhibit. The carnation had slightly lower antibacterial activity than the positive control for both microorganisms tested. The pomegranate extract had higher activity than the positive control against the species Staphylococcus aureus, slightly lower than the control for the species Escherichia coli in the technique using the disks and activity equal to that of amoxicillin in the well technique. Considering these findings, it is concluded that the pomegranate and clove species have significant antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli strains.
The antioxidant activity of Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa Linii) phenolic compounds in different variations microwave-assisted extraction time and power

The roselle flower bioactive compounds must be extracted out of the cell to facilitate their use. The use of microwave-assisted extraction methods is considered more effective and efficient, but improper use of microwave power and extraction time will actually cause damage to the bioactive compound. The focus of these study was to evaluate the effect of different microwave power and extraction time on chemical characteristics and antioxidant activity of roselle flower extract. The research design used in this study was randomized block design (RBD) trial with 2 (two) factors. The first factor is microwave power (100, 175, 250, 325 and 400 watts). Second one is extraction time (1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 minutes). The effect showed that the use of microwave power which give the best results is 325 watts with total anthocyanin 13.8591 mg/100g, vitamin C 110.88 mg/100g,. The best extraction time was 5 minutes with total anthocyanin 13.8381 mg/100g, vitamin C 121.44 mg/100g. The bioactive content is directly proportional to the antioxidant activity produced, namely IC50 of 0.515 ug/ml.
Penetrating neck injury: Selective surgery versus urgent exploration?

Abstract Penetrating injuries of the neck are life-threatening injuries which constitutes 5–10% of all emergency consultations. Numerous vital structures, vascular, neurologic, digestive tract and airway injuries resulted in mortality rates up to 35%. The need for an emergency neck exploration or selective surgery after investigation remains a controversy. We present a case of penetrating neck injury undetected by Computer Tomography (CT) scan, requiring urgent neck exploration.
Quality of life in stoma patients

ludzi w wieku podeszłym, często chorych i niepełnosprawnych, stało się triumfem wiedzy i techniki medycznej z jednej strony, a z drugiej wyzwaniem, polegającym na doprowadzeniu uratowanego życia do zadowalającego stanu. Pracownicy ochrony zdrowia troszczą się obecnie nie tylko o wydłużanie życia pacjentom, ale także o poprawianie jego jakości. W niniejszej pracy podjęto próbę oceny jakości życia osób ze stomią oraz wykazania zależności jakości życia i czynników demograficznych za pomocą kwestionariusza. Dokonano analizy jakości życia 60 osób ze stomią jelitową, w zależności od płci, wieku, wykształcenia, charakteru pracy, miejsca zamieszkania, przyczyny wyłonienia stomii, przygotowania do samopielęgnacji, możliwości kontaktu z personelem ochrony zdrowia oraz oceny stanu zdrowia. Stwierdzono dobrą i bardzo dobrą jakość życia u 86% osób badanych. Znamiennie lepszą jakość życia obserwowano u osób ze stomią w dobrym stanie zdrowia po operacji i z dobrym kontaktem z pracownikami ochrony zdrowia.
Perspectives on the biopsychosocial model - part 2: The shopping basket approach.

When I first trained, in the early 1980’s, and later, when I did my manual therapy training, a major emphasis of assessment was to find the structural or tissue source of the patient’s problem and to then perform one technique at a time to the presumed source. While giving the technique it was important to assess progress by focusing on the pain response to the technique (what’s happening to your pain, where is your pain, how does this feel, what’s happening now, etc etc…) and then re-examining the pain response and quality of a physical movement (where’s the pain now, what’s happening to the pain; better, same or worse? etc.). Taking a term from basic electricity wiring diagrams, this process can be seen as an ‘in series’ one, whereby one procedure at a time had to be proved and performing several techniques at once i.e. ‘in-parallel’, would muddy the proving process. In much of my training and early work as a manual therapist even giving an exercise before a technique had been proven was frowned upon – if you do many things at once, one thing might be helping, while another may be detrimental - was the logic that was
Nucleosomes as carriers of epigenetic memory

Author(s): Schlissel, Gavin | Advisor(s): Rine, Jasper D | Abstract: A core assumption in chromatin biology is that nucleosomes store and transmit epigenetic memory of gene regulation through cell division. A requirement of this model is that nucleosomes – modified in place in one generation – continue to occupy the same DNA locus in the subsequent generation. In my graduate work, I asked whether nucleosomes remember their position through cell division. To execute my experiments, I developed a synthetic chromatin modifying enzyme that deposited high affinity covalent chromatin modification at a defined locus. The chromatin-modifying enzyme could be delocalized within minutes by the addition of a small molecule antibiotic, and the synthetic chromatin modification could be tracked for several hours after preventing new label deposition. Using this synthetic enzyme, I labeled nucleosomes at the GAL10 locus in S cerevisiae and tracked their position through DNA replication. I found that nucleosomes remained localized through DNA replication, suggesting that nucleosomes can transmit epigenetic. Furthermore, I found that in the absence of the fork associated nucleosome chaperones Mcm2 and Dpb3, nucleosomes did not remain localized, suggesting that mcm2 dpb3 mutants cannot transmit epigenetic memory through chromatin. In addition to exploring the fate of nucleosomes during DNA replication, I tracked nucleosomes through transcription and discovered that contrary to published models, nucleosomes are not translated linearly along an open reading frame during transcription. In the thesis that follows, I discuss the context for our collective intuition about the role of chromatin in transmitting epigenetic memory, and I identify the points at which our collective understanding rests on thin or contradictory data. I then discuss my attempts to develop and apply technology to reach a satisfactory resolution of one of the central unanswered questions in chromatin biology: do nucleosomes remember their position? Lastly I discuss side projects adjacent to chromatin biology that occupied my attention during the slower moments of my core thesis research.
Herding and Anchoring in Cryptocurrency Markets: Investor Reaction to Fear and Uncertainty

Cryptocurrencies have emerged as an innovative alternative investment asset class, traded in data-rich markets by globally distributed investors. Although significant attention has been devoted to their pricing properties, to-date, academic literature on behavioral drivers remains less developed. We explore the question of how price dynamics of cryptocurrencies are influenced by the interaction between behavioral factors behind investor decisions and publicly accessible data flows. We use sentiment analysis to model the effects of public sentiment toward investment markets in general, and cryptocurrencies in particular on crypto assets’ valuations. Our results show that investor sentiment can predict the price direction of cryptocurrencies, indicating direct impact of herding and anchoring biases. We also discuss a new direction for analyzing behavioral drivers of the crypto assets based on the use of natural language AI to extract better quality data on investor sentiment.
Towards an effective integration of ICT in an EFL setting in a Vietnamese higher education context

vii STATEMENT (THESIS DECLARATION) . ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . x LIST OF TABLES . xi LIST OF FIGURES . xiii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . xiv LIST OF APPENDICES . xvi CHAPTER
Influencia de factores oceánicos y climáticos en los manglares del golfo de Urabá

Resumen: El Golfo de Uraba es el estuario mas grande del Caribe Colombiano y el unico del Departamento de Antioquia, y su importancia es estrategica, en cuanto a los servicios ecosistemicos, economicos, sociales y ambientales que presta. En el se encuentran ecosistemas costeros, especialmente ecosistemas de manglar, los cuales son ecosistemas vulnerables a cambios en el ambiente o perturbaciones antropicas que pueden llevar a modificaciones en su estructura, composicion y conservacion. En este trabajo se realizo un analisis de la relacion entre las variables oceanicas, climaticas y ambientales y la estructura y composicion de los ecosistemas de manglar del Golfo de Uraba, Colombia. Se dividio el area de estudio en dos zonas, la zona Occidental y la Zona Oriental. Se analizo el patron espacial de las variables ambientales (pH del suelo y del agua, salinidad del agua, porcentaje de materia organica, arenas, limos y arcillas) y de las variables dasometricas (area basal, diametros, alturas y regeneracion natural), en 27 parcelas de manglar de borde y 5 de manglar de cuenca. Se evaluo ademas el cambio en areas y metricas del paisaje de las coberturas presentes en el Golfo. La Zona Occidental, se encuentra dominada por individuos de Rhizophora mangle¸ y presentan el mayor desarrollo estructural de todo el golfo. Esta especie se ve favorecida por el aporte de agua dulce y sedimentos del rio Atrato, el alto contenido de materia organica y de arcillas en el suelo. La zona Oriental esta dominada por Avicennia germinans, especie con mayor tolerancia a la salinidad. Por lo que el menor aporte de agua dulce de los rios de esta zona, el menor impacto del oleaje y de los vientos, las mayores tasas de sedimentacion, entre otras variables, le permiten a dicha especie establecerse y mantenerse en el tiempo. Por su parte Laguncularia racemosa, no presenta un patron espacial en su comportamiento; sin embargo, debido a su condicion oportunista ante eventos de perturbacion antropica, se encuentra en areas en las que historicamente se registran intervenciones humanas, con procesos de sedimentacion, y alta carga de sedimentos. Palabras claves: Ecosistemas costeros, ecosistemas de manglar, metrica del paisaje, Oleaje, vientos, sedimentacion, erosion, caudal, golfo de Uraba.
Evolutionary causes of lifespan extension by dietary restriction: linking theory and mechanisms

Dietary restriction (DR), reduced food intake without malnutrition, increases lifespan across a broad range of taxa, but the evolutionary underpinning of this phenomenon is poorly understood. The resource reallocation hypothesis proposes that dietary restricted animals divert resources from reproduction to somatic maintenance to increase survival in times of nutrient scarcity in favour of future reproduction. The “longevity by-product” hypothesis proposes instead that dietary restricted animals increase nutrient recycling via autophagy to maximise immediate reproduction, thereby reducing cellular toxic waste and leading to longer lifespan as an unselected by-product. The “longevity by-product” hypothesis makes a unique prediction that blocking autophagy in DR animals will simultaneously reduce lifespan and reproduction. To test the adaptive value of autophagy under dietary restriction, we inhibited autophagy using bec-1 RNAi knockdown in DR and fully-fed Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes. Our findings confirm that autophagic inhibition results in a significantly shorter lifespan under DR, suggesting that autophagy is important for survival in times of famine. Remarkably, we also show that inhibiting autophagy throughout adult life significantly increases reproduction in both dietary restricted and fully fed worms. Moreover, this did not come at a transgenerational cost to offspring fitness. Our results suggest that autophagy is an energetically costly process that reduces resources available for reproduction, but is necessary for survival during famine, and are thus consistent with the resource reallocation hypothesis.
Gender differences in the association between mortality and socioeconomic-marital status in the Moli-sani Study cohort

Introduction. Socioeconomic disparities in health outcomes are well-established, with lower-status groups being at higher risk of disease/mortality. However, few are the studies which estimated possible gender-related differences in the association between the socioeconomic status (SES) and mortality. We aimed to investigate gender differences in the association between socioeconomic indicators and mortality, as well as the possible mechanisms of such association. Methods. Longitudinal analysis of 10,655 men (mean age 55.7 ± 11.8) and 11,539 women (mean age 54.6 ± 11.5) enrolled in the Moli-sani Study, Italy (2005-2010). Education level, housing tenure and occupational social class were used as indicators of SES, while marital status represented the social factor. We tested health conditions (e.g. history of disease) and the behavioural (e.g. diet), traditional (e.g. blood cholesterol) and inflammatory (e.g. C-reactive protein) pathways as mediators of the SES-mortality gradient. Potential gender-related differences were tested by appropriate interaction terms. Results. In the course of an average follow-up of 8.3 years (182,924 person-years), 1155 all-cause deaths were established. Among men, lower education and poor housing-tenure were associated with a 56% and a 72% increase in the risk of death, respectively; unemployed/unclassified men reported a lower survival rate versus professionals; likewise, divorced men showed to be at higher risk compared to their married counterparts. None of the SES factors was associated with reduced survival among women. Behavioural factors explained up to 23% of SES disparities in mortality among men. The mortality risk associated with housing tenure was higher in men than in women (p for interaction = 0.048). In addition, marital status and poor housing interacted among men, but less so among women, with a 2-fold increase in the risk of death among unmarried men with lower housing-tenure. On the contrary, the association between education and mortality did not vary with gender. Discussion. Findings from this large cohort enrolled among the Italian general population indicate a clear SES gradient in mortality. Gender appears to modify the association between material SES indicators and the risk of death, but not that between education and mortality. Marital status and poor material resources interacted in such a way that unmarried men were at higher risk of long-term mortality than their married counterparts.