Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Anaerobic Fermentation on Black Garlic Extract by Lactobacillus: Changes in Flavor and Functional Components

The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential application of probiotics in the development of novel functional foods based on black garlic. The single-factor analysis (extraction temperatures, solid-to-liquid ratios, and extraction times) and the response surface methodology were firstly used to optimize hot water extraction of soluble solids from black garlic. The optimal extraction conditions were temperature 99.96°C, solid-to-liquid ratio 1:4.38 g/ml, and extracting 2.72 h. The effects of Lactobacillus (Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, and co-culture of them) fermentation on the physicochemical properties of black garlic extract broth were studied for the first time. Artificial and electronic sensory evaluations demonstrated that fermentation significantly influenced the sensory characteristics. The variations of metabolites in different broth samples (S1, unfermented; S2, 1-day fermentation by L. plantarum; S3, 2-day fermentation by L. rhamnosus; and S4, 1-day fermentation by co-cultured Lactobacillus) were further investigated by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry analysis. As a result, Lactobacillus fermentation significantly reduced the pH; increased the contents of the total acid, amino nitrogen, total polyphenol, and total flavonoid; and reduced the content of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (a carcinogenic component) by 25.10–40.81% in the black garlic extract. The contents of several components with unpleasant baking flavors (e.g., furfural, 2-acetylfuran, and 5-methyl furfural) were reduced, whereas the contents of components with green grass, floral, and fruit aromas were increased. More importantly, the contents of several functional components including lactic acid, Gly-Pro-Glu, sorbose, and α-CEHC (3,4-dihydro-6-hydroxy-2,5,7,8-tetramethyl-2H-1-benzopyran-2-propanoic acid) were increased after Lactobacillus fermentation. The results demonstrated the potential of probiotic fermentation to improve the quality of black garlic. This work will provide an insight into the strategic design of novel black garlic products and facilitate the application of black garlic in functional foods.
Retrospective Analysis of Training and Its Response in Marathon Finishers Based on Fitness App Data

Objective: Finishing a marathon requires to prepare for a 42.2 km run. Current literature describes which training characteristics are related to marathon performance. However, which training is most effective in terms of a performance improvement remains unclear. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of training responses during a 16 weeks training period prior to an absolved marathon. The analysis was performed on unsupervised fitness app data (Runtastic) from 6,771 marathon finishers. Differences in training volume and intensity between three response and three marathon performance groups were analyzed. Training response was quantified by the improvement of the velocity of 10 km runs Δv10 between the first and last 4 weeks of the training period. Response and marathon performance groups were classified by the 33.3rd and 66.6th percentile of Δv10 and the marathon performance time, respectively. Results: Subjects allocated in the faster marathon performance group showed systematically higher training volume and higher shares of training at low intensities. Only subjects in the moderate and high response group increased their training velocity continuously along the 16 weeks of training. Conclusion: We demonstrate that a combination of maximized training volumes at low intensities, a continuous increase in average running speed up to the aimed marathon velocity and high intensity runs ≤ 5 % of the overall training volume was accompanied by an improved 10 km performance which likely benefited the marathon performance as well. The study at hand proves that unsupervised workouts recorded with fitness apps can be a valuable data source for future studies in sport science.
Clinical Ecopsychology: The Mental Health Impacts and Underlying Pathways of the Climate and Environmental Crisis

Humankind is confronted with progressing climate change, pollution, environmental degradation, and/or destruction of the air, soil, water, and ecosystems. The climate and environmental crisis is probably one of the greatest challenges in the history of humankind. It not only poses a serious current and continuing threat to physical health, but is also an existing and growing hazard to the mental health of millions of people worldwide. This synergy of literature provides a current summary of the adverse mental health impacts of the climate and environmental crisis from the perspective of Clinical Psychology. Furthermore, it presents potential underlying processes, including biological, emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and social pathways. The existing data suggest that the climate and environmental crisis not only acts as a direct stressor, but can also exert a detrimental impact on the various pathways, with the potential to amplify an individual's biopsychosocial vulnerability to develop mental ill-health. This is a call for an increased investigation into this emerging research field of Clinical Ecopsychology by clinical psychologists and other researchers.
Association Between Anticoagulation Outcomes and Venous Thromboembolism History in Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension

Background: The association between anticoagulation outcomes and prior history of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) has not been established. This study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of anticoagulation treatment in CTEPH patients with and without prior history of VTE. Methods: A total of 333 CTEPH patients prescribed anticoagulants were retrospectively included from May 2013 to April 2019. The clinical characteristics were collected at their first admission. Incidental recurrent VTE and clinically relevant bleeding were recorded during follow-up. The Cox proportional regression models were used to identify potential factors associated with recurrent VTE and clinically relevant bleeding. Results: Seventy patients (21%) without a prior history of VTE did not experience recurrent VTE during anticoagulation. Compared to CTEPH patients without a prior history of VTE, those with a prior history of VTE had an increased risk of recurrent VTE [2.27/100 person-year vs. 0/100 person-year; hazard ratio (HR), 8.92; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.18–1142.00; P = 0.029] but a similar risk of clinically relevant bleeding (3.90/100 person-year vs. 4.59/100 person-year; HR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.38–1.78; P = 0.623). Multivariate Cox analyses suggested that a prior history of VTE and interruption of anticoagulation treatments were significantly associated with an increased risk of recurrent VTE, while anemia and glucocorticoid use were significantly associated with a higher risk of clinically relevant bleeding. Conclusions: This study is the first to reveal that a prior history of VTE significantly increases the risk of recurrent VTE in CTEPH patients during anticoagulation treatment. This finding should be further evaluated in prospective studies.
Impact of Syndecan-2-Selected Mesenchymal Stromal Cells on the Early Onset of Diabetic Cardiomyopathy in Diabetic db/db Mice

Background: Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are an attractive cell type for cell therapy given their immunomodulatory, anti-fibrotic, and endothelial-protective features. The heparin sulfate proteoglycan, syndecan-2/CD362, has been identified as a functional marker for MSC isolation, allowing one to obtain a homogeneous cell product that meets regulatory requirements for clinical use. We previously assessed the impact of wild-type (WT), CD362−, and CD362+ MSCs on local changes in protein distribution in left ventricular (LV) tissue and on LV function in an experimental model of early-onset diabetic cardiomyopathy. The present study aimed to further explore their impact on mechanisms underlying diastolic dysfunction in this model. Materials: For this purpose, 1 × 106 WT, CD362−, or CD362+ MSCs were intravenously (i.v.) injected into 20-week-old diabetic BKS.Cg-m+/+Leprdb/BomTac, i.e., db/db mice. Control animals (db+/db) were injected with the equivalent volume of phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) alone. After 4 weeks, mice were sacrificed for further analysis. Results: Treatment with all three MSC populations had no impact on blood glucose levels in db/db mice. WT, CD362−, and CD362+ MSC application restored LV nitric oxide (NO) and cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) levels in db/db mice, which correlated with a reduction in cardiomyocyte stiffness. Furthermore, all stromal cells were able to increase arteriole density in db/db mice. The effect of CD362+ MSCs on NO and cGMP levels, cardiomyocyte stiffness, and arteriole density was less pronounced than in mice treated with WT or CD362− MSCs. Analysis of collagen I and III protein expression revealed that fibrosis had not yet developed at this stage of experimental diabetic cardiomyopathy. All MSCs reduced the number of cardiac CD3+ and CD68+ cells in db/db mice, whereas only splenocytes from CD362−- and CD362+-db/db mice exhibited a lower pro-fibrotic potential compared to splenocytes from db/db mice. Conclusion: CD362+ MSC application decreased cardiomyocyte stiffness, increased myocardial NO and cGMP levels, and increased arteriole density, although to a lesser extent than WT and CD362− MSCs in an experimental model of early-onset diabetic cardiomyopathy without cardiac fibrosis. These findings suggest that the degree in improvement of cardiomyocyte stiffness following CD362+ MSC application was insufficient to improve diastolic function.
Towards a Critical Technical Practice of Narrative Intelligence

The practice of building intelligent narrative technologies is implicitly grounded in a sociopolitical context whose values are reﬂected in the artifacts we build and our narration of their use. This position paper attempts to make these implicit values explicit by naming them and conceptualizing alternatives. We argue for adopting a Critical Technical Practice of narrative intelligence in which explicit critical reﬂection on the values and metaphors a system’s assumptions embed is inter-woven into the design process. We demonstrate a broad application of this practice by identifying four ideals underlying narrative intelligence systems that impose and reﬂect systems of power: the Hero’s Journey, Amalgamated Human Author-ship, Social Believability, and the Holodeck. We then identify values that are marginalized by these ideals, such as narrative pluralism, amplifying underrepresented voices, representation of non-normative identities and relationships, and opportunities for reﬂection and interpretation. Finally, we pro-pose imagined alternatives to existing ideals that bring these marginalized values to the center.
Pembuatan Nanopartikel Berbasis Kitosan dari Infus Daun Sirsak (Annona Muricata LINN) sebagai Antioksidan

Abstrak Daun Sirsak ( Annona muricata Linn), Annonaceae telah diketahui memiliki kemampuan meredam radikal bebas yang kuat dan bisa dikembangkan menjadi sediaan farmasi antioksidan. Pembentukan nanopartikel dari ekstrak akan meningkatkan stabilitas, kemampuan mukoadhesif dan penetrasi ekstrak sehingga dapat meningkatkan efektifitasnya. Pembuatan nanopartikel dilakukan dengan melarutkan kitosan dalam larutan asam asetat glasial 1%, dan dicampurkan dengan infus daun sirsak. Suspensi nanopartikel ekstrak daun sirsak dikeringkan dengan menggunakan alat pengering semprot. Hasil evaluasi nanopartikel ekstrak diperoleh ukuran partikel 131,23 ± 1,81%, indeks polidispersitas 0,3 – 0,4; padatan total 0,47 %, warna coklat muda, bau khas ekstrak, rasa pahit, sifat serbuk halus, higroskopis, kadar air 6.86 ± 0,88%. Pemeriksaan aktivitas antioksidan pada nanopartikel ekstrak daun sirsak dengan menggunakan metode peredaman radikal bebas DPPH menunjukkan aktivitas antioksidan kuat dengan nilai 1C 50 sebesar 80,98 bpj. Kata kunci : daun sirsak, Annona muricata Linn. , DPPH, antioksidan, nanopartikel, kitosan
Perception of the role of scintigraphic imaging in the exploration of Pulmonary Embolism by cardiologists in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa

Background: The purpose of this study is to assess the place given to pulmonary scintigraphy in the exploration of pulmonary embolism (PE) by cardiologists in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: The cross-sectional study, carried out from 1 Feb to 30 May 2017 and included 103 cardiologists working in Frenchspeaking sub-Saharan African countries. Their accessibility, knowledge, and attitudes regarding the use of lung scintigraphy in the exploration of PE were analyzed. Results: The sample consisted of 103 cardiologists of various nationalities practicing mainly in West Africa (85.4%) and 36.9% of whom had completed a clinical internship in Europe. A nuclear medicine service existed in their country, city, and practice hospital in 56.3%, 48.5%, and 15.5% of cases, respectively. A large majority of cardiologists had never ordered for a pulmonary scintigraphy (79.6%), 15.5% ordered it rarely, and 4.9% often. With equal accessibility, 86.4% would choose Computed tomography (CT) pulmonary angiography as the examination of choice in managing suspected cases of PE, compared to 11.7% for pulmonary scintigraphy. To rule out PE in case of chest pain with normal chest X-ray, only 16.5% would request for a pulmonary scintigraphy, against 80.6% for a CT angiography. However, 61.2% preferred a pulmonary scintigraphy to a CT pulmonary angiography (32%) to diagnose PE in a pregnant woman. More than half (56.3%) said they were unable to recognize a typical scintigraphic image of PE and 28.2% believed that pulmonary scintigraphy was more irradiating than CT pulmonary angiography. Overall, the differences in perception were not statistically significant depending on their country of practice, their professional experience, the completion of a previous internship in Europe. Conclusion: The place given to pulmonary scintigraphy in the exploration of PE by cardiologists in sub-Saharan Africa is not very satisfactory. It is, therefore, necessary to sensitize clinicians to its diagnostic and prognostic value.
[Copper(phenanthroline)(bisisonitrile)]+-Complexes for the Visible-Light-Mediated Atom Transfer Radical Addition and Allylation Reactions

A series of heteroleptic [Cu(phenantroline)(bisisonitrile)]+-complexes was synthesized, and their structural, spectroscopic, and electrochemical properties were investigated. The new copper(I) complexes were employed as photoredox-catalysts in the visible-light-mediated atom transfer radical addition (ATRA). Especially, [Cu(dpp)(binc)]BF4 (6a-BF4)(dpp = 2,9-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline; binc = bis(2-isocyanophenyl) phenylphosphonate) proved to be highly active owing to an enhanced excited-state lifetime compared to the commonly employed [Cu(dap)2]Cl (1-Cl)(dap = 2,9-di(p-anisyl)-1,10-phenanthroline). Furthermore, the catalyst could be applied to allylation reactions with trimethylallylsilane under mild visible-light photoredox conditions.
The influence of anxiety and depression on Korean lupus patients’ quality of life

Background & Aim: Approximately 40% of lupus patients experience anxiety and depression. This study aimed to determine the effects of anxiety and depression on lupus patients’ quality of life. Methods & Materials: This study adopted a correlational predictive survey design. Using convenience sampling, we recruited 117 patients who had been diagnosed with lupus at a general tertiary hospital in Korea. Structured questionnaires were used to assess their demographic and clinical characteristics, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Lupus Quality of Life. Data analyses included descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation analysis, and stepwise multiple regression analysis and were performed with the SAS program (version 9.4). Results: The participants obtained a mean overall quality of life score of 63.49 out of 100. The highest and lowest means emerged for physical health and burden to others, respectively. Anxiety emerged as the strongest predictor of quality of life, followed by disease activity, depression, and duration since diagnosis. These variables explained 53 % of the variance in lupus patients’ quality of life. Conclusion: Medical professionals should pay close attention to each lupus patient's disease activity and duration to improve his or her quality of life. In particular, multidisciplinary efforts are needed to take proactive steps to screen for anxiety and depression in lupus patients.
A Mathematical Exploration of a PDE System for Lithium-Ion Batteries

In this thesis, we explore some mathematical properties of the electro-chemical model for lithium-ion batteries, which is a nonlinear system of algebraically coupled diffusion equations. We prove a local existence and uniqueness theorem. Furthermore, we prove the asymptotic stability of a modified version, the so called Single Particle Model for several materials.
Oblivious TLS via Multi-Party Computation Full Version

In this paper, we describe Oblivious TLS: an MPC protocol that we prove UC secure against a majority of actively corrupted parties. The protocol securely implements TLS 1.3. Thus, any party P who runs TLS can communicate securely with a set of servers running Oblivious TLS; P does not need to modify anything, or even be aware that MPC is used. Applications of this include communication between servers who offer MPC services and clients, to allow the clients to easily and securely provide inputs or receive outputs. Also, an organization could use Oblivious TLS to improve in-house security while seamlessly connecting to external parties. Our protocol runs in the preprocessing model, and we did a preliminary non-optimized implementation of the on-line phase. In this version, the hand-shake completes in about 1 second. Performance of the record protocol depends, of course, on the encryption scheme used. We designed an MPC friendly scheme which achieved a throughput of about 300 KB/sec. Based on implementation results from other work, the standard AESGCM can be expected to be as fast, although our implementation did not do as well.
Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks: Efficient Localization Schemes using SemiDefinite Programming

— Location awareness and distance estimation cannot be underestimated in wireless sensor networks especially for the marine environment. State-of-the-art localization research and approaches have been thoroughly reviewed to illustrate the challenges imposed by inaccurate distance measurements and noisy backgrounds. Compared to existing localization approaches, the SemiDefinite Programming approach delivers accurate distance measurements even in hostile backgrounds. In this paper, two localization schemes, namely Fixed-Position, and Magnified-Range, are proposed. The main idea behind the Fixed-Position scheme is to improve connectivity of the whole system. Magnified-Range is mainly based on the fact that anchors are special nodes that suffer less from energy constraints. Therefore, it is possible to magnify their radio range without impacting the energy consumption of the network. Magnified-Range differentiates between the radio range of anchors and regular sensor nodes. Performance evaluation and simulation results have shown that the proposed schemes offer robust localization. In fact, the Magnified-Range scheme improves localization accuracy by 20%. Future research will focus on three main challenges, namely 3-D simulations, hybrid localization systems, and real-life demonstrations.
An energy-eÆcient walking for a low-cost humanoid robot PINO

The RoboCup Humanoid League [1], which is scheduled to start in 2002, is one of the most attractive research targets. We believe that the success of the humanoid league is critical for the future of RoboCup, and will have major implications in robotics research and industry. Building humanoids that compete at RoboCup requires sophistication in various aspects including mechanical design, control, and high-level cognition. PINO is a low-cost humanoid platform composed of low-torque servo-motors and low-precision mechanical structures [2][3]. It has been developed as a humanoid platform that can be widely used for many RoboCup researchers in the world. Figure 1 shows the whole view and the mechanical architecture of PINO.
Interactive comment on “Multiple scale error growth in a convection-resolving model” by F. Uboldi and A. Trevisan

1. The main goal of this paper is to characterize the error growth at various dynamical scales and the introduction of model error would have obscured the interpretation of results. However model errors, which are present in operational systems, constitute an important limitation for all improvements that can be obtained by assimilating observations. In the conclusions of the revised manuscript we will stress that the error reduction obtained for the trajectory with larger initial error by removing the error component on the bred subspace is obtained in absence of model (and boundary) error. We agree that this is necessary, to caution the reader against too optimistic an interpretation of our result. C129
Semiparametric additive hazards models with missing covariates

In this paper, we have applied case cohort study design to semiparametric additive hazard models to study the effect of covariates on failure times. We have considered the phase one covariates to have both time varying and constant effect on failure time while phase two covariates have constant effect. We have applied Augmented Inverse Probability Weighted (AIPW) method to estimate the model parameters and compared the result with widely adopted Inverse Probability Weighted (IPW) method. Our simulation study shows that AIPW estimation is more consistent than IPW estimation method. The method is applied to analyze the RV144 vaccine trial data to assess whether immune response has effect on HIV-1 infection.
Growth Curve of S. PNEUMONIAE -A Serious Pathogen

Objective The Pneumocococcus is a member of Streptococcus Mitis group and a serious pathogen capable of causing several severe diseases like bacterial pneumonia, meningitis, bronchitis, otitis media (mid-ear infection) and septicemia. In order to stop these diseases caused by the same pathogen, the preventive therapy appears to be now an option because of our antibiotic resistance crisis, born in 1960 in Tokyo (Japan) has not yet been solved. On the contrary the antibiotic resistance crisis has been increasing for the past 60 years by the abuse of antibiotics by our physicians and in the absence of any alternative therapy. These physicians have been increasing the doses of antibiotics with longer duration. How about our vaccines? That could have been an excellent solution provided the antigenic variation by the pathogenic bacteria is clearly understood. Many of these patients are children who are almost lacking body immunity and the elderly also losing their body immunity. Solution for our global population is to develop now an alternative preventive, lowcost hometherapy by inhibiting the growth of this pathogen. In view of such an objective, we must understand the growth curve of such a pathogen.