Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Physical activity and energy expenditure in haemodialysis patients: an international survey.

BACKGROUND The assessment of physical activity and energy expenditure is relevant to the care of maintenance haemodialysis (MHD) patients. In the current study, we aimed to evaluate measurements of physical activity and energy expenditure in MHD patients from different centres and countries and explored the predictors of physical activity in these patients. METHODS In this cross-sectional multicentre study, 134 MHD patients from four countries (France, Switzerland, Sweden and Brazil) were included. The physical activity was evaluated for 5.0 ± 1.4 days (mean ± SD) by a multisensory device (SenseWear Armband) and comprised the assessment of number of steps per day, activity-related energy expenditure (activity-related EE) and physical activity level (PAL). RESULTS The number of steps per day, activity-related EE and PAL from the MHD patients were compatible with a sedentary lifestyle. In addition, all parameters were significantly lower in dialysis days when compared to non-dialysis days (P < 0.001). The multivariate regression analysis revealed that diabetes and higher body mass index (BMI) predicted a lower PAL and older age and diabetes predicted a reduced number of steps. CONCLUSIONS The physical activity parameters of MHD patients were compatible with a sedentary lifestyle. This inactivity was worsened by aging, diabetes and higher BMI. Our results indicate that MHD patients should be encouraged by the health care team to increase their physical activity.
Voltage stability margin improvement using shunt capacitors and active and reactive power management

improvement of the power system economical dispatch from voltage stability margin viewpoint is studied in this paper and for that a methodology is proposed. The considered time interval is short term operation. Active and reactive power (generation) re-dispatch injection is the basis of proposed method and voltage stability will be achieved using generated reactive power by shunt capacitors in power system. This method is implemented via modal analysis with specifying participation factor of generators and Synchronous condensers (units), and shunt capacitors. Using modal index, units with negative impact on voltage stability margin are revealed and penalized with high costs in objective function of the optimal power flow program used to run the re-dispatch process. Results indicate significant improve in voltage stability margin. So, the new method is applied in order to update penalty factor of units. In this research it is assumed that contingency occurred in system does not lead the stability margin to under zero Level and load shedding is not necessary for recovering a desired criteria. Finally, proposed method is performed in modified 30-bus IEEE power system in contingency condition.
Essential Needs and Requirements of Mobile Phones for the Deaf

ABSTRACT Despite their necessity for deaf people in daily life, mobile phones still lack features and functions required by those individuals. While assessing the daily needs of deaf mobile phone users is an important issue for closing this gap, this issue has seldom been addressed. Therefore, we adopted a qualitative research method to extract and construct needs from deaf mobile phone users and translate them into user requirements for mobile phone development. Semistructured interviews and task observations were performed to obtain information from 12 deaf mobile phone users. Context coding was used to code the collected data into needs. The coded needs were then sorted into six categories (social, communication, consumption, entertainment, transportation, and safety) and translated subjectively into three requirements (specific feature-function, general feature-function, and common). The requirements were compared with the functions of the mobile phones of the participants, and five feature-function gaps were identified.
Educating for Sustainability: The Crucial Role of the Tertiary Sector

The Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations represent a universal response to current global challenges that include climate change, poverty, political instability and the massive displacement of people worldwide. The central role of education in achieving sustainable development has been internationally acknowledged and successfully promoted: Global enrolment rates are now 90 percent for primary education and over 70 percent for secondary education. Building on these achievements, this paper focuses the role of tertiary education in contributing to sustainable development. This study reviewed recent theoretical and empirical research relating to the field. Conclusions from theoretical studies confirm that building on human capital is crucial for achieving the sustainable development goals. The majority of empirical studies also confirm a positive correlation between tertiary education and sustainable development. This study highlighted, however, that the full benefits of tertiary education to society may have been underestimated and that there are significant research gaps in the field. Furthermore, current challenges including funding, equity and market relevancy in tertiary education need to be addressed. Given the pressing global issues and the mounting evidence of positive impacts, this paper calls for more research and attention to be devoted to tertiary education in the sustainable development debate.
Preoperative ultrasound-guided mapping of peripheral nerves.

OBJECT Surgical exposure of a peripheral nerve can be technically challenging, making the operation more extensive and time consuming, particularly in the treatment of small nerves with an anatomically variable position. This study describes the application of ultrasound to facilitate surgical access and localization of targeted peripheral nerves. METHODS A preclinical feasibility study was performed at the University of Washington's Willed Body Program laboratory. Unembalmed cadavers were placed on the dissection table in positions mimicking those typically required for surgical access to specific nerves that can be challenging to localize. A high-frequency portable ultrasound system was used to identify the nerves. An extraneural injection of methylene blue immediately adjacent to the target nerve was performed under ultrasound guidance as the experimental nerve mapping procedure. Surgical dissections through a small skin incision parallel to skin tension lines were guided by the transducer position and angle. Success was determined by the accuracy and rapidity of surgical identification and exposure of the nerve. RESULTS Using ultrasound-guided mapping, all anticipated peripheral nerves were correctly identified via a direct approach from the skin incision. This was confirmed by performing an anatomical dissection to expose and identify the intended nerve and its relation to the injected methylene blue dye. In no case was intraneural injection of the dye observed. CONCLUSIONS Preoperative ultrasound-guided nerve mapping may be useful in facilitating surgical access to a targeted nerve and thereby minimizing tissue dissection and operating time.
A novel compact quadruple-mode microstrip bandpass filter with low harmonic response

A novel compact quadruple-mode resonator is presented in this paper. The quadruple-mode resonator consists of a pair of quarter-wavelength resonators and a pair of L-C type resonators connected to each other through a grounded via. The new resonator has the same size as a dual mode square open-loop resonator published earlier, but has four modes and better harmonic response. The resonator filter has a centre frequency of 0.99 GHz and passband insertion loss of 1.2 dB. The selectivity of the filter and stopband response can be improved by implementing different feed structures. Simulated and measured results are in good agreement.
Expanding the horizons of depression: beyond the monoamine hypothesis

The monoamine hypothesis has dominated our understanding of depression and of pharmacological approaches to its management and it has produced several generations of antidepressant agents, ranging from the monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), through tricyclics (TCAs) and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), to the recently introduced selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor (NARI), reboxetine. Greater receptor selectivity has improved tolerability, but not efficacy, when newer compounds are compared with the original tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) and monoamine oxidase inhibitors. Essentially, the newer antidepressants have the same distinguishing feature as older ones, i.e. acute enhancement of monoaminergic neurotransmission. The monoamine hypothesis cannot conclusively link the acute biochemical action of antidepressants on monoamine levels with their delayed clinical effect of 10–14 days, nor can it explain the mode of action of antidepressants that are effective despite being very weak inhibitors of monoaminergic transmission (e.g. iprindole) or, incongruously, enhancing monoamine uptake (e.g. tianeptine). Compared with other fields of medicine, there has been a lack of progress in understanding the pathophysiology of depression and producing truly novel antidepressant agents. Other biological approaches to depression, such as overactivity of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, hippocampal neural plasticity in response to stress, and the link between the inflammatory response and depression, offer new approaches to finding pharmacological agents, aided by improved techniques for visualising the human brain, better animal models, and increased knowledge of human markers of depression. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Sexual Communication Between Early Adolescents and Their Dating Partners, Parents, and Best Friends

This study assessed early adolescents’ sexual communication with dating partners, parents, and best friends about six sexual health topics: condoms, birth control, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), pregnancy, and abstinence/waiting. Using a school-based sample of 603 youth (ages 12 to 15; 57% female; 46% Caucasian), we examined communication differences across demographic and developmental factors, tested whether communication with parents and best friends was associated with greater communication with partners, and examined associations between communication and condom use. More than half of participants had not discussed any sexual topics with their dating partners (54%), and many had not communicated with parents (29%) or best friends (25%). On average, communication was more frequent among adolescents who were female, African American, older, and sexually active, despite some variation in subgroups across partner, parent, and friend communication. Importantly, communication with parents and friends—and the interaction between parent and friend communication—was associated with increased communication with dating partners. Further, among sexually active youth, increased sexual communication with partners was associated with more frequent condom use. Results highlight the importance of understanding the broader family and peer context surrounding adolescent sexual decision making and suggest a possible need to tailor sexual communication interventions.
Footstep Recognition with Psyco-acoustics Parameter

The characteristics of a footstep are determined by the gait, the footwear and the floor. Accurate footstep analysis would be useful in various applications, home security service, surveillance and understanding of human action since the gait expresses personality, age and gender. The feasibility of personal identification has been confirmed by using the feature parameter of footsteps (Shoji et al., 2004), however, the recognition rate of this method decreases as the number of subjects increases. This paper applies psycho-acoustics parameter to feature extraction. Results show that the parameter proposed herein yields effective and practical personal identification
The accumulation of reproductive isolation in early stages of divergence supports a role for sexual selection

Models of speciation by sexual selection propose that male–female coevolution leads to the rapid evolution of behavioural reproductive isolation. Here, we compare the strength of behavioural isolation to ecological isolation, gametic incompatibility and hybrid inviability in a group of dichromatic stream fishes. In addition, we examine whether any of these individual barriers, or a combined measure of total isolation, is predicted by body shape differences, male colour differences, environmental differences or genetic distance. Behavioural isolation reaches the highest values of any barrier and is significantly greater than ecological isolation. No individual reproductive barrier is associated with any of the predictor variables. However, marginally significant relationships between male colour and body shape differences with ecological and behavioural isolation are discussed. Differences in male colour and body shape predict total reproductive isolation between species; hierarchical partitioning of these two variables' effects suggests a stronger role for male colour differences. Together, these results suggest an important role for divergent sexual selection in darter speciation but raise new questions about the mechanisms of sexual selection at play and the role of male nuptial ornaments.
Supramolecular organization of photosystem II and its light-harvesting antenna in partially solubilized photosystem II membranes.

We present an extended analysis of the organization of green plant photosystem II and its associated light-harvesting antenna using electron microscopy and image analysis. The analysis is based on a large dataset of 16 600 projections of negatively stained PSII-LHCII supercomplexes and megacomplexes prepared by means of three different pretreatments. In addition to our previous work on this system [Boekema, E.J., van Roon, H. , Calkoen, F. , Bassi, R. and Dekker, J.P. (1999) Biochemistry 38, 2233-2239], the following results were obtained. The rotational orientation of trimeric LHCII at the S, M and L binding positions was determined. It was found that compared to the S trimer, the M and L trimers are rotationally shifted by about -20 degrees and -50 degrees, respectively. The number of projections with empty CP29, CP26 and CP24 binding sites was found to be about 0, 18 and 4%, respectively. We suggest that CP26 and CP24 are not required for the binding of trimeric LHCII at any of the three binding positions. A new type of megacomplex was observed with a characteristic windmill-like shape. This type III megacomplex consists of two C2S2 supercomplexes connected at their CP26 tips. Structural variation in the region of the central dimeric photosystem II complex was found to occur at one specific position near the periphery of the complex. We attribute this variation to the partial absence of an extrinsic polypeptide or one or more small intrinsic membrane proteins.
Targeted downregulation of N‐acetylgalactosamine 4‐sulfate 6‐O‐sulfotransferase significantly mitigates chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan‐mediated inhibition

Chondroitin sulfate‐4,6 (CS‐E) glycosaminoglycan (GAG) upregulation in astroglial scars is a major contributor to chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan (CSPG)‐mediated inhibition [Gilbert et al. ( 2005 ) Mol Cell Neurosci 29:545–558]. However, the role of N‐acetylgalactosamine 4‐sulfate 6‐O‐sulfotransferase (GalNAc4S6ST) catalyzed sulfation of CS‐E, and its contribution to CSPG‐mediated inhibition of CNS regeneration remains to be fully elucidated. Here, we used in situ hybridization to show localized upregulation of GalNAc4S6ST mRNA after CNS injury. Using in vitro spot assays with immobilized CS‐E, we demonstrate dose‐dependent inhibition of rat embryonic day 18 (E18) cortical neurons. To determine whether selective downregulation of CS‐E affected the overall inhibitory character of extracellular matrix produced by reactive astrocytes, single [against (chondroitin 4) sulfotransferase 11 (C4ST1) or GalNAc4S6ST mRNA] or double [against C4ST1 and GalNAc4S6ST mRNA] siRNA treatments were conducted and assayed using quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction and high‐performance liquid chromatography to confirm the specific downregulation of CS‐4S GAG (CS‐A) and CS‐E. Spot and Bonhoeffer stripe assays using astrocyte‐conditioned media from siRNA‐treated rat astrocytes showed a significant decrease in inhibition of neuronal attachment and neurite extensions when compared with untreated and TGFα‐treated astrocytes. These findings reveal that selective attenuation of CS‐E via siRNA targeting of GalNAc4S6ST significantly mitigates CSPG‐mediated inhibition of neurons, potentially offering a novel intervention strategy for CNS injury. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
ZLang: A Scripting Language for Digital Content Creation Applications

: ABSTRACT Digital Content Creation (DCC) Applications (e.g. Blender, Autodesk 3ds Max) have long been used for the creation and editing of digital content (e.g. Images, videos). Due to current advancement in the field, the need for controlled automated work forced these applications to add support for scripting languages that gave power to artists without diving into many details. With time these languages developed into more mature languages and were used for more complex tasks (driving physics simulations, controlling particle systems, or even game engines). For long, these languages have been interpreted, embedded within the applications, lagging the UIs or incomparable with real programming languages (regarding Completeness, Expressiveness, Extensibility and Abstractions). In this paper, we present a high level scripting language (Zlang) and a DCC Engine that addresses those problems. The language can be interpreted, compiled, extended in C/C++ and has a number of constructs, and optimizations dedicated to DCC domain. The engine provides geometric primitives, mesh modifiers, key-framed animation and Physics Simulations (Rigid Body, and Cloth Simulations). The engine is designed and implemented as a library so it can be used alone or embedded.
Online impedance parameter tuning for compliant biped balancing

This paper describes a technique aimed at the online active impedance regulation of compliant humanoid robots, for the purpose of maintaining balance. The presence of passive elastic elements in their drives leads to under-actuation, thereby rendering the control of compliant robots a rather intricate task. Consequently, the impedance regulation procedure proposed in this paper accounts for these elastic elements. In order to acquire an indication of the robot's state of balance in an online fashion, an energy (Lyapunov) function is introduced, whose sign then allows one to determine whether the robot is converging to or diverging from, a desired equilibrium position. This function's derivative reveals the energy-injecting nature of the active stiffness regulation, while it attests to the fact that active damping regulation has no effect on the system's stability properties. Furthermore, the notion of the velocity margin is described as a velocity beyond which the system might lose its balance, or below which it will be guaranteed to remain stable. As a result, the impedance optimization procedure's functionality relies upon the use of bounds that have been defined based on the energy function's derivative, in addition to the velocity margin. A series of experiments carried out using the COmpliant huMANoid (COMAN), demonstrates the superior balancing results acquired when using the proposed scheme, as compared to utilizing controllers possessing constant impedance parameters.
MMP Inhibition in Prostate Cancer

ABSTRACT: Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) play a significant role during the development and metastasis of prostate cancer (CaP). CaP cells secrete high levels of MMPs and low levels of endogenous MMP inhibitors (TIMPs), thus creating an excess balance of MMPs. Established CaP cell lines that express high levels of MMPs frequently metastasize to the bone and the lungs. Drugs such as Taxol and alendronate that reduce cell motility and calcium metabolism reduce bony metastasis of xenografted CaP tumors. We tested several synthetic, nontoxic inhibitors of MMPs that can be administered orally, including doxycycline (DC) and chemically modified tetracyclines (CMTs) on CaP cells in vitro and on a rat CaP model in vivo. Among several anti‐MMP agents tested, CMT‐3 (6‐deoxy, 6‐demethyl,4‐de‐dimethylamino tetracycline) showed highest activity against CaP cell invasion and cell proliferation. Micromolar concentration of CMT‐3 and DC inhibited both the secretion and activity of MMPs by CaP cells. When tested for in vivo efficacy in the Dunning rat CaP model by daily oral gavage, CMT‐3 and DC both reduced the lung metastases (> 50%). CMT‐3, but not DC, inhibited tumor incidence (55 ± 9%) and also reduced the tumor growth rate (27 ± 9.3%). More significantly, the drugs showed minimum systemic toxicity. Ongoing studies indicate that CMT‐3 may inhibit the skeletal metastases of CaP cells and delay the onset of paraplegia due to lumbar metastases. These preclinical studies provide the basis for clinical trials of CMT‐3 for the treatment of metastatic disease.
Dissociation of perception and action in audiovisual multisensory integration

The ‘temporal rule’ of multisensory integration (MI) proposes that unisensory stimuli, and the neuronal responses they evoke, must fall within a window of integration. Ecological validity demands that MI should occur only for physically simultaneous events (which may give rise to non‐simultaneous neural activations), and spurious neural response simultaneities unrelated to environmental multisensory occurrences must somehow be rejected. Two experiments investigated the requirements of simultaneity for facilitative MI. Experiment 1 employed an reaction time (RT)/race model paradigm to measure audiovisual (AV) MI as a function of AV stimulus‐onset asynchrony (SOA) under fully dark adapted conditions for visual stimuli that were either rod‐ or cone‐isolating. Auditory stimulus intensity was constant. Despite a 155‐ms delay in mean RT to the scotopic vs. photopic stimulus, facilitative AV MI in both conditions occurred exclusively at an AV SOA of 0 ms. Thus, facilitative MI demands both physical and physiological simultaneity. Experiment 2 investigated the accuracy of simultaneity and temporal order judgements under the same stimulus conditions. Judgements of AV stimulus simultaneity or temporal order were significantly influenced by stimulus intensity, indicating different simultaneity requirements for these tasks. The possibility was considered that there are mechanisms by which the nervous system may take account of variations in response latency arising from changes in stimulus intensity in order to selectively integrate only those physiological simultaneities that arise from physical simultaneities. It was proposed that separate subsystems for AV MI exist that pertain to action and perception.