Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relationship between lower-limb muscle strength and frailty among elderly people

ABSTRACT CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Sarcopenia is the main factor involved in the development of frailty syndrome. The aims here were to investigate relationships between lower-limb muscle strength and the variables of sex, age and frailty criteria; compare lower-limb muscle strength with each frailty criterion; and assess the power of each criterion for estimating the risk of frailty among elderly outpatients. DESIGN AND SETTING: Cross-sectional study at the Geriatrics Outpatient Clinic of a university hospital in Campinas. METHOD: A non-probabilistic convenience sample of 150 elderly people of both sexes who were followed up as outpatients was assessed. Sociodemographic data (sex and age) and physical health data (frailty criteria and the five-times sit-to-stand test) were gathered. Descriptive, comparative and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. RESULTS: The majority of the elderly people (77.3%) were 70 years of age or over, with predominance of females (64.2%) and had a low score for the five-times sit-to-stand test (81.4% scored 0 or 1); 55.3% of the elderly people presented three or more frailty criteria. A significant association was found between lower-limb muscle strength and the variables of age and number of frailty criteria. CONCLUSIONS: Lower levels of lower-limb muscle strength were associated with advanced age and greater presence of signs of frailty. Moreover, lower-limb muscle strength was also associated with the criteria of reduced walking speed criteria and hand-grip strength.
Assessing Otolith Function by the Subjective Visual Vertical

Abstract: The effects of peripheral vestibular diseases on the subjective visual vertical (SVV) are resumed and provide the basis for some insights into the otolith pathophysiology. With a normal range of 0 ± 2 deg (when measured in an upright body position), the SVV was shifted by 11 ± 6 deg toward the ipsilateral ear in 40 patients following an acute unilateral vestibular deafferentiation (UVD), but in the opposite direction in 9 of 52 patients after stapes surgery. These opposite effects suggest a push‐pull mechanism of the pairs of otolith organs with respect to the SVV. The dissociation between the SVV and the perception of body position indicates influences by unconscious reflexive mechanisms such as ocular cyclotorsion on the SVV. In chronic UVD patients, lateral shifts of the subjects during constant angular velocity rotation into various eccentric positions (± 16 cm) revealed a shift of the “center of graviception” close to the remaining intact contralateral inner ear. To date, this seems to be the most consistent test for clinical identification of a chronic compensated unilateral loss of otolith function. The findings regarding asymmetries in otolithic sensitivity to medially and laterally directed roll‐tilts remain controversial, probably mainly because of influences of extravestibular cues.
Monitoring of TIG welding using laser and diode illumination sources: A comparison study

This paper presents a vision system based on the use of a CMOS camera. The vision system has demonstrated its potential for applications of weld pool monitoring. It has been demonstrated in this study that the arc light can be successfully eliminated and that a substantial amount of information can be obtained in real time e.g. metal transfer in TIG welding and weld pool geometry, position and development. The system's design and components are detailed in this study including camera technology and selection, and a range of illumination techniques. A study on the welding spectra has helped greatly in the selection of an optimum spectral window where arc radiations are low. A combination of optical filtering, short pulse laser illumination and fast-shuttering imaging techniques along with precise synchronisation and very accurate triggering methods has enabled high quality images of the weld area irrespective of the brightness of the intense arc light. A number of illumination sources including pulsed and continuous wave (CW) lasers, laser diodes and LED illumination are used.
DNA-binding specificity of NGFI-A and related zinc finger transcription factors

NGFI-A is the prototypic member of a family of immediate-early gene-encoded transcription factors which includes NGFI-C, Egr3, and Krox20. These proteins possess highly homologous DNA-binding domains, composed of three Cys2-His2 zinc fingers, and all bind to and activate transcription from the sequence GCGGGGGCG. We used a PCR-mediated random site selection protocol to determine whether other sites could be bound by these proteins and the extent to which their binding site preferences are similar or different. The high-affinity consensus sites generated from the selection data are similar, and the combined consensus sequence is T-G-C-G-T/g-G/A-G-G-C/a/t-G-G/T (lowercase letters indicate bases selected less frequently). Using gel shift assays, we found that sequences that diverge from the consensus were bound by NGFI-A, confirming that there is greater variability in binding sites than has generally been acknowledged. We also provide evidence that protein-DNA interactions not noted, or whose importance was not apparent from the X-ray cocrystal structure of the NGFI-A zinc fingers complexed with DNA, contribute significantly to the binding energy of these proteins and confirm that an optimal site is at least 10 instead of 9 nucleotides in length. In contrast to the similarities in binding specificity among these proteins we found that while NGFI-A, Egr3, and Krox20 have comparable DNA binding affinities and kinetics of dissociation, the affinity of NGFI-C is more than threefold lower. This could result in differential regulation of target genes in cells where NGFI-C and the other proteins are coexpressed. Furthermore, we show that this affinity difference is a property not of the zinc fingers themselves but rather of the protein context of the DNA-binding domain.
Respiratory impairment and the aging lung: a novel paradigm for assessing pulmonary function.

BACKGROUND Older persons have an increased risk of developing respiratory impairment because the aging lung is likely to have experienced exposures to environmental toxins as well as reductions in physiological capacity. METHODS Systematic review of risk factors and measures of pulmonary function that are most often considered when defining respiratory impairment in aging populations. RESULTS Across the adult life span, there are frequent exposures to environmental toxins, including tobacco smoke, respiratory infections, air pollution, and occupational dusts. Concurrently, there are reductions in physiological capacity that may adversely affect ventilatory control, respiratory muscle strength, respiratory mechanics, and gas exchange. Recent work has provided a strong rationale for defining respiratory impairment as an age-adjusted reduction in spirometric measures of pulmonary function that are independently associated with adverse health outcomes. Specifically, establishing respiratory impairment based on spirometric Z-scores has been shown to be strongly associated with respiratory symptoms, frailty, and mortality. Alternatively, respiratory impairment may be defined by the peak expiratory flow, as measured by a peak flow meter. The peak expiratory flow, when expressed as a Z-score, has been shown to be strongly associated with disability and mortality. However, because it has a reduced diagnostic accuracy, peak expiratory flow should only define respiratory impairment when spirometry is not readily available or an older person cannot adequately perform spirometry. CONCLUSIONS Aging is associated with an increased risk of developing respiratory impairment, which is best defined by spirometric Z-scores. Alternatively, in selected cases, respiratory impairment may be defined by peak expiratory flow, also expressed as a Z-score.
Performance evaluation of the Trans-PET® BioCaliburn® LH system: a large FOV small-animal PET system

The Trans-PET® BioCaliburn® LH is a commercial positron emission tomography (PET) system for animal imaging. The system offers a large transaxial field-of-view (FOV) of 13.0 cm to allow imaging of multiple rodents or larger animals. This paper evaluates and reports the performance characteristics of this system. Methods: in this paper, the system was evaluated for its spatial resolutions, sensitivity, scatter fraction, count rate performance and image quality in accordance with the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) NU-4 2008 specification with modifications. Phantoms and animals not specified in the NEMA specification were also scanned to provide further demonstration of its imaging capability. Results: the spatial resolution is 1.0 mm at the center. When using a 350–650 keV energy window and a 5 ns coincidence time window, the sensitivity at the center is 2.04%. The noise equivalent count-rate curve reaches a peak value of 62 kcps at 28 MBq for the mouse-sized phantom and a peak value of 25 kcps at 31 MBq for the rat-sized phantom. The scatter fractions are 8.4% and 17.7% for the mouse- and rat-sized phantoms, respectively. The uniformity and recovery coefficients measured by using the NEMA image-quality phantom both indicate good imaging performance, even though the reconstruction algorithm provided by the vendor does not implement all desired corrections. The Derenzo-phantom images show that the system can resolve 1.0 mm diameter rods. Animal studies demonstrate the capabilities of the system in dynamic imaging and to image multiple rodents. Conclusion: the Trans-PET® BioCaliburn® LH system offers high spatial resolution, a large transaixal FOV and adequate sensitivity. It produces animal images of good quality and supports dynamic imaging. The system is an attractive imaging technology for preclinical research.
Content and task based navigation for structural biology in 3D environments

Visualisation and exploration of molecular experimental results play a crucial role in structural biology. By visualizing and analysing the 3 dimensional structure of a molecule - possibly over time thanks to simulation tools - scientists try to understand its functional role in the cell. Stereoscopic rendering features are historically used in structural biology and experts are thus quite familiar with virtual environment and 3D interaction. Since the dawn of virtual reality, immersive environments have been used to bring scientists into the heart of complex molecular scenes while adding an interactive dimension. However, in immersive environments as well as in desktop contexts, many issues concerning navigation need to be addressed when exploring molecular content. Among these issues, lack of spatial awareness and the cybersickness phenomenom encountered in navigation tasks are major obstacles to overcome to avoid any degradation of the experience and efficiency. It is interesting to highlight the fact that even if navigation is very frequently studied in virtual environments, most of the studies produce generic paradigms that are only applicable to realistic virtual scenes. These approaches do not explicitly take into account the content of the 3D scene and the task of the end user. In this study, we present some new implementation of navigation paradigms based on tasks and contents, dedicated to molecular biology and designed with the involvement of experts in structural biology. These paradigms are independent of the interaction context and can be indifferently used in a daily desktop context or in immersive environments ranging from CAVEs to HMDs.
A Risk-Based Approach for Asset Allocation with A Defaultable Share

This paper presents a novel risk-based approach for an optimal asset allocation problem with default risk, where a money market account, an ordinary share and a defaultable security are investment opportunities in a general non-Markovian economy incorporating random market parameters. The objective of an investor is to select an optimal mix of these securities such that a risk metric of an investment portfolio is minimized. By adopting a sub-additive convex risk measure, which takes into account interest rate risk, as a measure for risk, the investment problem is discussed mathematically in a form of a two-player, zero-sum, stochastic differential game between the investor and the market. A backward stochastic differential equation approach is used to provide a flexible and theoretically sound way to solve the game problem. Closed-form expressions for the optimal strategies of the investor and the market are obtained when the penalty function is a quadratic function and when the risk measure is a sub-additive coherent risk measure. An important case of the general non-Markovian model, namely the self-exciting threshold diffusion model with time delay, is considered. Numerical examples based on simulations for the self-exciting threshold diffusion model with and without time delay are provided to illustrate how the proposed model can be applied in this important case. The proposed model can be implemented using Excel spreadsheets.
Experimental characterization of lateral profiles of scanned proton and carbon ion pencil beams for improved beam models in ion therapy treatment planning

Scanned ion pencil beams carry a low-dose envelope which can extend up to several centimeters from the individual beam central axis. Depending on the energy and species of the beam, this halo consists mainly of secondary particles produced by nuclear interactions in the target or of particles undergoing multiple Coulomb scattering in the beam line components. This halo is often neglected by single Gaussian beam modeling in current treatment planning systems. One possibility of improving the accuracy of treatment planning is to upgrade the used pencil beam models by adding a description of the low-dose envelope. But at the same time it is crucial to keep the calculation time and the complexity for treatment planning in reasonable limits. As a first approach we measured the lateral beam profiles of scanned proton and carbon ion pencil beams at different energies and depths in water and air at the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center. Then we tried to describe their beam halo by adding a supplementary Gaussian function to the standard single Gauss modeling which is used at the moment by our treatment planning systems. This analysis helped to identify trends in the parameters describing the lateral beam broadening to support its modeling. Finally, it is shown that the accuracy of treatment planning could be improved by the proposed upgrade of the pencil beam model. In particular, the presented experimental data can be either used directly as input for dose calculation or serve for representative comparison with the results of calculation models such as Monte Carlo simulations for the generation of lateral basic data to be input in upgraded beam models of treatment planning systems.
Effects of Gender and Preference for Information and Control on Anxiety Early After Myocardial Infarction

BackgroundMen and women differ in anxiety, which is one of the most stressful outcomes of an acute myocardial infarction (AMI). This anxiety may be moderated by coping styles of preference for information and control. ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine the relation of gender and preference for information and control to anxiety during the critical care period after AMI. MethodsAs part of a larger study on complications after AMI, a descriptive cross-sectional multicenter one-group investigation designed with a convenience sample of AMI patients admitted to acute care units was conducted. Within the first 48 hours after the patients were admitted to the hospital, anxiety was assessed using the State Anxiety Inventory, and preference for information and control was measured using the Krantz Health Opinion Survey. ResultsThe sample of AMI patients (N = 410) was 68% male, 87% White, 68% married. The women were significantly older than the men (p < .05) and significantly more anxious (p < .05). Multiple stepwise regression analysis with a control for age demonstrated that neither preference for information nor preference for control moderated the relation of gender and anxiety. ConclusionsThe women expressed greater anxiety than the men. However, the men and women were similar at all levels of anxiety in their preference for information and control. The search for other factors related to the stress of AMI will help healthcare providers design effective interventions to reduce anxiety among men and women.
TLR9 Signaling Failure Renders Peyer’s Patch Regulatory B Cells Unresponsive to Stimulation with CpG Oligodeoxynucleotides

Intestinal Peyer’s patch (PP) regulatory CD21+ B cells (Bregs) suppress TLR9-induced innate immune responses. However, it is not known whether TLR9 activation is regulated in PP Bregs. Here, we investigated the responses of PP Bregs to stimulation with the TLR9 agonist CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN). We observed that PP CD21+ Bregs express high levels of TLR9 mRNA, but fail to proliferate when stimulated with CpG ODN. Furthermore, unlike CD21+ B cells from blood, PP CD21+ Bregs do not secrete IgM or IL-12 following CpG ODN stimulation. We hypothesized that the unresponsiveness of PP Bregs to CpG stimulation was due to an inability of the TLR9 agonist to activate the TLR9 signaling pathway in these cells. This was confirmed by kinome analysis which demonstrated dynamic patterns of phosphorylation of key TLR adaptor proteins such as IRAK1, TAK1, IKK and NF-ĸB-p65 in CpG-stimulated blood CD21+ B cells, consistent with activation of the TLR9 pathway. In contrast, stimulation of PP CD21+ Bregs with CpG ODN resulted in phosphorylation patterns of these adaptor proteins suggestive of inactivation of the TLR9 pathway. The absence of apparent TLR9 signaling events immediately following stimulation indicated that signaling is blocked close to the receptor. Our observations suggest a novel mechanism by which the host regulates TLR responses in TLR-expressing cells with regulatory functions.
Specificity of a mycoplasma mitogen for lymphocytes from human and various animal hosts

Spleen lymphocytes from Lewis and Buffalo rats and peripheral blood lymphocytes from 10 human donors exhibited high levels of transformation when exposed to Mycoplasma arthritidis supernatants. In contrast, spleen lymphocytes from rabbits and guinea pigs and peripheral blood lymphocytes from sheep and calves failed to transform when exposed to M. arthritidis supernatants. The lymphocytes from all hosts were transformed in the presence of phytohemagglutinin or concanavalin A or both Serological studies failed to provide evidence that the responding hosts were presensitized against M. arthritidis antigens.
Left and right in the amphibian world: which way to develop and where to turn?

The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in studies on the development, function and evolution of asymmetries in vertebrates, including amphibians. Here we discuss current knowledge of behavioral and anatomical asymmetries in amphibians. Behavioral laterality in the response of both adult and larval anurans to presumed predators and competitors is strong and may be related, respectively, to laterality in the telencephalon of adults and the Mauthner neurons of tadpoles. These behavior lateralities, however, do not seem to correlate with visceral asymmetries in the same animals. We briefly compare what is known about the evolution and development of asymmetry in the structure and function of amphibians with what is known about asymmetries in other chordate and non‐chordate groups. Available data suggest that the majority of asymmetries in amphibians fall into two independent groups: (1) related to situs viscerum and (2) of a neurobehavioral nature. We find little evidence linking these two groups, which implies different developmental regulatory pathways and independent evolutionary histories for visceral and telencephalic lateralizations. Studies of animals other than standard model species are essential to test hypotheses about the evolution of laterality in amphibians and other chordates. BioEssays 26:512–522, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Thermogenic response to food: intra-individual variability and measurement reliability.

The objective of this study was to assess the reliability and variability of the thermogenic response to food (TRF) in healthy adult subjects. Eight healthy adults (4 men, 4 women) participated in three sets of measurements of TRF, evaluated by indirect calorimetry with a ventilated hood system during 6 hours after a standardized meal. The reliability of TRF measurement was estimated using a one-way analysis of variance with repeated measurements. After the 6-hour period of measurement, the within-subject coefficient of variation for TRF was 10.7%, while the between-subject variability was twice as high (24.1%, p < 0.01). The overall reliability estimate of TRF was acceptable (RE > or = 0.80) after a single measurement which lasted at least 6 hours postprandially, while duplicate and triplicate measurements reached a similar degree of reliability in 3 hours. These results suggest that intra-individual variability contributes little to the variability commonly seen in TRF studies, provided that the measurement period is at least 6 hours.
Metastasis of uveal melanoma millimeter-by-millimeter in 8033 consecutive eyes.

OBJECTIVE To determine the rate of metastasis of uveal melanoma on the basis of tumor thickness in millimeters. METHODS Retrospective medical record review. RESULTS The mean (median) patient age was 58 (59) years. A total of 8033 eyes were examined. Of the 285 eyes with iris melanoma, the mean tumor thickness was 2.7 mm and metastasis occurred in 0.5%, 4%, and 7% at 3, 5, and 10 years, respectively. Of the 492 eyes with ciliary body melanoma, the mean tumor thickness was 6.6 mm and metastasis occurred in 12%, 19%, and 33% at 3, 5, and 10 years, respectively. Of the 7256 eyes with choroidal melanoma, the mean tumor thickness was 5.5 mm and metastasis occurred in 8%, 15%, and 25% at 3, 5, and 10 years, respectively. For all uveal melanoma, metastasis at 5, 10, and 20 years was 6%, 12%, and 20% for small melanoma (0-3.0 mm thickness), 14%, 26%, and 37% for medium melanoma (3.1-8.0 mm), and 35%, 49%, and 67% for large melanoma (>8.0 mm). More specifically, metastasis per millimeter increment at 10 years was 6% (0-1.0 mm thickness), 12% (1.1-2.0 mm), 12% (2.1-3.0 mm), 16% (3.1-4.0 mm), 27% (4.1-5.0 mm), 28% (5.1-6.0 mm), 29% (6.1-7.0 mm), 41% (7.1-8.0 mm), 50% (8.1-9.0 mm), 44% (9.1-10.0 mm), and 51% (>10.0 mm). Clinical factors predictive of metastasis by multivariate analysis included increasing patient age, ciliary body location, increasing tumor diameter, increasing tumor thickness, having a brown tumor, and the presence of subretinal fluid, intraocular hemorrhage, or extraocular extension. CONCLUSION Increasing millimeter thickness of uveal melanoma is associated with increasing risk for metastasis.