Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-term results of thalamic deep brain stimulation for essential tremor.

OBJECT Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the ventral intermediate nucleus of the thalamus (VIM) has proven to be efficacious in the treatment of essential tremor (ET). The authors report on long-term follow-up of a series of patients treated at 1 institution by 1 neurosurgeon. METHODS Thirty-four patients with ET received unilateral or bilateral VIM DBS. The tremor and handwriting components of the Fahn-Tolosa-Marin clinical tremor rating scale were assessed pre- and postoperatively. Visual analog scale scores for overall patient satisfaction and tremor control were recorded. Stimulation parameters at different intervals after surgery were also recorded. RESULTS The average follow-up period was 56.9 months. The average tremor score improved from 3.27 preoperatively to 0.64 postoperatively (on stimulation; p < 0.001) and the average handwriting score improved from 2.94 to 0.89 (p < 0.001). The average visual analog scale score for overall satisfaction was 8.12 and for tremor control was 1.43. Overall, there was an 80.4% improvement in tremor and 69.7% improvement in handwriting. In 12 patients both tremor and handwriting scores were compared between 57.3 months and 90.7 months after surgery and no significant changes were discovered. Comparison of stimulation parameters at onset and at 1-3, 3-5, 5-7, and > 7 years after surgery showed significant differences, with a gradual increase in stimulation parameters within 5 years after surgery. The overall hardware-related complication rate was 23.5%. CONCLUSIONS Deep brain stimulation of the VIM is an efficient and safe treatment for ET. Tremor and handwriting improvements in long-term follow-up are stable. The patients' perception of their outcome is quite good. However, tolerance may develop in some patients requiring changes in stimulation parameters.
FUNCTIONAL GENETIC DIVERGENCE IN HIGH CO2 ADAPTED EMILIANIA HUXLEYI POPULATIONS

Predicting the impacts of environmental change on marine organisms, food webs, and biogeochemical cycles presently relies almost exclusively on short‐term physiological studies, while the possibility of adaptive evolution is often ignored. Here, we assess adaptive evolution in the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi, a well‐established model species in biological oceanography, in response to ocean acidification. We previously demonstrated that this globally important marine phytoplankton species adapts within 500 generations to elevated CO2. After 750 and 1000 generations, no further fitness increase occurred, and we observed phenotypic convergence between replicate populations. We then exposed adapted populations to two novel environments to investigate whether or not the underlying basis for high CO2‐adaptation involves functional genetic divergence, assuming that different novel mutations become apparent via divergent pleiotropic effects. The novel environment “high light” did not reveal such genetic divergence whereas growth in a low‐salinity environment revealed strong pleiotropic effects in high CO2 adapted populations, indicating divergent genetic bases for adaptation to high CO2. This suggests that pleiotropy plays an important role in adaptation of natural E. huxleyi populations to ocean acidification. Our study highlights the potential mutual benefits for oceanography and evolutionary biology of using ecologically important marine phytoplankton for microbial evolution experiments.
The trophy hunting controversy

In recent years, the moral panic over trophy hunting has led to a global cultural reckoning, particularly since the infamous ‘Cecilgate’, involving a rich white tourist. However, in the scholarly debate, the hunter’s perspective has largely been overlooked, or at best, hunters have been surveyed and categorised according to their motivations, satisfactions and other such reductionist dimensions. In contrast, this chapter presents a discourse analysis of hunters’ social media posts, with the goal of understanding how they rationalise their controversial pastime, and the implications for animal ethics in wildlife tourism. The discursive social media approach is timely, as it taps into naturally occurring online exchanges that shed new light on the elusive trophy hunter mindset, an object of enduring curiosity.
The Relation between Monetary Policy Preferences and Unemployment Rates

Bu calismada TCMB tarafindan uygulanan para politikasi tercihleri ile issizlik oranlari arasindaki iliski 1999 ile 2014 donemi icin analiz edilmektedir. Calismamizda para politikasi kurali olarak Taylor kurali dikkate alinmis ve Markov rejim degisim modeli kullanarak aktif ve pasif para politikasinin uygulandigi donemler belirlenmistir. Ardindan, egilim skoru eslestirme yontemi kullanarak, para politikasinin aktif olarak uygulandigi donemlerde issizlik oranlarinin daha yuksek oldugu sonucuna varilmistir. Bu sonuclar, TCMB’nin ekonomik istikrari saglamasi acisindan para politikasi tercihlerinde enflasyon oraninin yaninda cikti acigini dikkate alan politika karmasini tercih etmesinin uygun olacagi anlamina gelmektedir
Synthetic Nerve Guide Implants in Humans: A Comprehensive Survey

OBJECTIVE:Lesions of the peripheral nervous system result in the loss of sensory and motor function and may in addition be accompanied by severe neuropathic syndromes originating from aberrant axonal regrowth. The transplantation of autologous nerve grafts represents the current “gold standard” during reconstructive surgery, despite obvious side effects. Depending on the demands of the lesion site, various donor nerves may be used for grafting (e.g., the sural, saphenous), sacrificing native functions in their target areas. Recently, several synthetic nerve guide implants have been introduced and approved for clinical use to replace autologous transplants. This alternative therapy is based on pioneering studies with experimental nerve guides. METHODS:We present a comprehensive review of all published human studies involving synthetic nerve guides. RESULTS:Data from some 300 patients suggest that for short nerve defects of a few centimeters, resorbable implants provide promising results, whereas a number of late compression syndromes have been documented for nonresorbable implants. CONCLUSIONS:To treat longer defects, further implant development is needed, a goal that could be achieved, for example, by more closely imitating the intact nerve architecture and regulatory cell-cell interactions.
SEMON

A conventional wireless sensor network node consists of a number of components: microprocessor, memory, sensor, and radio. Advances in nanotechnology have enabled the miniaturization of these components, thus enabling wireless nanoscale sensor networks (WNSN). Due to their small size, WNSN nodes are expected to be powered by harvesting energy from the environment. Unfortunately, there is a mismatch in the energy that can be harvested and the energy required to power all the aforementioned components in a WNSN node. In this article, we propose a simplified sensor node architecture for event detection. We call our architecture Sensorless Event MONitoring in self-powered WNSNs (SEMON). A SEMON node consists of only an energy harvester and a radio with minimal processing capacity. We assume that each event to be monitored will generate a different amount of energy, and we can therefore use this amount of energy as the signature of an event. When an event occurs, a SEMON node harvests the energy released by the event and turns it into a radio pulse with an amplitude proportional to the harvested energy. A remote station is used to decode the amplitude of the pulse to recognize the event that has occurred. We propose two methods for the remote station to decode the events that have occurred. The first method is based on thresholds. The second method makes use of an event model that gives the probability that a sequence of events will occur. This enables us to formulate the decoding problem using Hidden Markov Models. We study the decoding performance of both methods. Finally, we provide a case study on using the SEMON architecture to monitor the chemical reactions inside a reactor.
Growth-promoting effects of pepsin- and trypsin-treated caseinomacropeptide from bovine milk on probiotics

Probiotic Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species are generally fastidious bacteria and require rich media for propagation. In milk-based media, they grow poorly, and nitrogen supplementation is required to produce high bacterial biomass levels. It has been reported that caseinomacropeptide (CMP), a 7-kDa peptide released from κ-casein during renneting or gastric digestion, exhibits some growth-promoting activity for lactobacilli and bifidobacteria. During the digestive process, peptides derived from CMP are detected in the intestinal lumen The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of peptic and tryptic digests of CMP on probiotic lactic acid bacteria growth in de Man, Rogosa and Sharpe broth (MRS) and in milk during fermentation at 37 °C under anaerobic conditions. The study showed that pepsin-treated CMP used as supplements at 0·5 g/l can promote the growth of probiotics even in peptone-rich environments such as MRS. The effect was strain-dependent and evident for the strains that grow poorly in MRS, with an improvement of >1·5 times (P<0·05) by addition of pepsin-treated CMP. Trypsin-treated CMP was much less efficient as growth promoter. Moreover, pepsin-treated CMP was effective in promoting the growth in milk of all probiotic lactic acid bacteria tested, with biomass levels being improved significantly, by 1·7 to 2·6 times (P<0·05), depending on the strain. Thus, supplementation of MRS and of milk with pepsin-treated CMP would be advantageous for the production of high biomass levels for Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli.
Definición y Análisis de requisitos del Sistema de Información para el Programa de Alimentación Escolar de la Gobernación del Cauca e implementación del sistema de priorización, seguimiento y control del programa.

El Programa de Alimentacion Escolar (PAE) es una de las estrategias del Ministerio de Educacion Nacional que promueve el acceso y permanencia de los ninos, ninas y adolescentes focalizados a traves de la entrega de un complemento alimenticio. Principalmente se busca el desarrollo integral de los ninos y ninas, la permanencia escolar, una Colombia mas educada y la promocion de habitos saludables. La operacion del PAE se encuentra sujeta a lo establecido en el Decreto 1852 del 16 de diciembre de 2015, Resolucion 29452 del 29 de diciembre de 2017 y la Resolucion 16432 de 2015 bajo los principios de corresponsabilidad, cofinanciacion, bolsa comun y articulacion de todos los actores. Actualmente el mundo se encuentra en continuo cambio y evolucion para alcanzar una ventaja competitiva de calidad hacia el cliente, para este caso los ninos beneficiados con el Programa de Alimentacion Escolar, quien al final, es el que determina las necesidades a satisfacer por parte de una empresa. La tecnologia se convierte en la herramienta estrategica e imprescindible en la Entidad como fuente para la innovacion y crecimiento empresarial, en un entorno que se transforma continuamente, formulando nuevos modelos de negocios, creando nuevos roles a nivel tecnologico y generando cambios en la fuerza laboral de cualquier empresa hacia la promocion del desarrollo institucional. Asi mismo, el mundo actual exige a nivel gerencial en toda organizacion el uso adecuado de Tecnologias de la Informacion y la Comunicacion (TICs), por lo que la inversion en tecnologia es un factor determinante de competitividad como los de calidad y eficiencia, cuyo desarrollo y aplicabilidad situa a la Entidad ante la necesidad de implementar un modelo de gestion de la tecnologia que permita apoyar el sostenimiento, desarrollo, fortalecimiento y mejora continua de los procesos y generar canales efectivos de comunicacion para la comunidad que se perciban como beneficios y ventaja competitiva en el servicio publico. En consideracion a lo anterior, se implemento el sistema de priorizacion, seguimiento y control del PAE.
Import Substitution in Russia

Russia is currently implementing a policy of import substitution. Although some positive results have been achieved (e.g., in the agricultural industry and the pharmaceutical industry), there are still significant problems with the current approach. The present article considers the successes and challenges of Russia’s current import substitution policy and offers several solutions that should facilitate significant economic growth. In particular, we argue that a systematic approach to import substitution should focus on stimulating the industrial base through government regulation and support, which is better than the present policy of maintaining a relatively unregulated domestic free market and relying on the import of foreign technology. This article reviews several arguments in favor and against this approach and concludes that under current economic conditions, the best way forward for the Russian economy involves the transition to a system-strategic approach to import substitution, which requires a reevaluation of macroeconomic policy and the rejection of certain liberal principles (e.g., rigid monetary policy, floating exchange rates, and abstaining from currency restrictions). In light of foreign experience, we argue that this model has been successfully implemented in countries that are currently technological leaders in global value chains and that this model can likewise help Russia develop its industrial base.
Are minichromosomes valid model systems for DNA replication control? Lessons learned from Escherichia coli

Initiation of chromosome replication is a key event in the life cycle of any organism. Little is known, however, about the regulatory mechanisms of this vital process. Conventionally, the initiation mechanism of chromosome replication in microorganisms has been studied using plasmids in which an origin of chromosome replication has been cloned, rather than using the chromosome itself. The reason for this is that even bacterial chromosomes are so large that biochemical and genetic manipulations become difficult and cumbersome. Recently, the combination of flow cytometry and genetic methods, in which modifications of the replication origin are systematically introduced onto the chromosome, has made possible detailed studies of the molecular events involved in the control of replication initiation in Escherichia coli. The results indicate that requirements for initiation at the chromosomal origin, oriC, are drastically different from those for initiation at cloned oriC.
Filters … not just for coffee and carotids

Even though it seems there’s a Starbucks on almost every corner in Phoenix, I still think you can’t beat a sweet, dark cup of camp coffee. You get up early, build a fire, hang a pot of water, throw in some grounds, and wait for them to settle in at the bottom so you can pour steaming coffee into a cup that warms your hands. No filters, no fuss. You’re the only barista in town. Once you get back to the city though, you’ll either be standing in line under the green-and-white sign, or scrambling for a filter and pouring water into the coffeemaker on your kitchen counter. And speaking of filters, it just so happens that Dr. Michael Wholey and colleagues think they should be a mainstay at work, too. It’s no secret that distal embolization of particulate matter during interventional procedures is bad business [1]. We have known for some time that embolic protection devices reduce distal embolization in carotid [2] and saphenous vein graft interventions [3–7]. Most recently, carotid artery stenting with embolic protection has been compared to the gold standard of care, endarterectomy, and has been shown to provide similar results [8]. Even before filter devices were approved in the United States, guiding catheter aspiration was helpful in removing particulate matter [9]. Embolic protection in primary interventions has been shown to be feasible and safe as well and may exert beneficial effects on markers of myocardial reperfusion such as TIMI flow and myocardial blush [10]. But Wholey et al. take on the subject of embolic protection in a different camp entirely: the periphery. While we have seen the benefits during renovascular interventions [11], their article in this issue is the first to detail its success in high-risk femoropopliteal procedures and bypass grafting in the lower extremities. Atherosclerotic disease is ubiquitous in the superficial femoral and popliteal arteries. Although standard angioplasty techniques have been in use for decades, they are generally more appropriate in the iliac vessels, where there is good distal runoff, and lesions are usually stenotic rather than occlusive. Certainly, the difficulty in negotiating these lesions and the potential for embolic consequences have kept many of us away from more distal territory. Although filters are not likely to make the trip easier from a technical standpoint, a reduction in serious complications would certainly be worth the fuss.
Characterization of an organic solvent‐tolerant thermostable glucoamylase from a halophilic isolate, Halolactibacillus sp. SK71 and its application in raw starch hydrolysis for bioethanol production

A halophilic bacterium Halolactibacillus sp. SK71 producing extracellular glucoamylase was isolated from saline soil of Yuncheng Salt Lake, China. Enzyme production was strongly influenced by the salinity of growth medium with maximum in the presence of 5% NaCl. The glucoamylase was purified to homogeneity with a molecular mass of 78.5 kDa. It showed broad substrate specificity and raw starch hydrolyzing activity. Analysis of hydrolysis products from soluble starch by thin‐layer chromatography revealed that glucose was the sole end‐product, indicating the enzyme was a true glucoamylase. Optimal enzyme activity was found to be at 70°C, pH 8.0, and 7.5% NaCl. In addition, it was highly active and stable over broad ranges of temperature (0–100°C), pH (7.0–12.0), and NaCl concentration (0–20%), showing excellent thermostable, alkali stable, and halotolerant properties. Furthermore, it displayed high stability in the presence of hydrophobic organic solvents. The purified glucoamylase was applied for raw corn starch hydrolysis and subsequent bioethanol production using Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The yield in terms of grams of ethanol produced per gram of sugar consumed was 0.365 g/g, with 71.6% of theoretical yield from raw corn starch. This study demonstrated the feasibility of using enzymes from halophiles for further application in bioenergy production. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog. , 30:1262–1268, 2014
Treatment of Refractory Status Epilepticus with Pentobarbital, Propofol, or Midazolam: A Systematic Review

Summary: Background: New continuous infusion antiepileptic drugs (cIV‐AEDs) offer alternatives to pentobarbital for the treatment of refractory status epilepticus (RSE). However, no prospective randomized studies have evaluated the treatment of RSE. This systematic review compares the efficacy of midazolam (MDL), propofol (PRO), and pentobarbital (PTB) for terminating seizures and improving outcome in RSE patients.
Silencing of gelatinase expression delays myoblast differentiation in vitro

Skeletal muscle growth and regeneration relies on the activation of muscle specific stem cells, that is, satellite cells. The activation and differentiation of satellite cells into myoblasts, as well as their migration, proliferation, and fusion of mononuclear myoblasts into a functional multi‐nucleated muscle fiber, are associated with extracellular matrix (ECM) protein synthesis and degradation. The extracellular environment is dynamically adapting to the changes accompanying skeletal muscle growth or repair. Enzymes engaged in many biological processes that involve ECM remodeling are matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Among metalloproteinases crucial for skeletal muscles are two gelatinases—MMP‐9 and MMP‐2. In the current study we test the effect of silencing the MMP‐9 and MMP‐2 expression on the proliferation and differentiation of in vitro cultured skeletal muscle myoblasts. We show that downregulating gelatinase MMP‐9 expression results in a delayed myoblast differentiation.
Novel Multimodal Feedback Techniques for In-Car Mid-Air Gesture Interaction

This paper presents an investigation into the effects of different feedback modalities on mid-air gesture interaction for infotainment systems in cars. Car crashes and near-crash events are most commonly caused by driver distraction. Mid-air interaction is a way of reducing driver distraction by reducing visual demand from infotainment. Despite a range of available modalities, feedback in mid-air gesture systems is generally provided through visual displays. We conducted a simulated driving study to investigate how different types of multimodal feedback can support in-air gestures. The effects of different feedback modalities on eye gaze behaviour, and the driving and gesturing tasks are considered. We found that feedback modality influenced gesturing behaviour. However, drivers corrected falsely executed gestures more often in non-visual conditions. Our findings show that non-visual feedback can reduce visual distraction significantly
A tool for assessing healthy food knowledge in 5–6-year-old Australian children

Abstract Objective In the early years of life, influential attributes are formed and may be difficult to change later in life. Early childhood is now recognised as a key target in the prevention of overweight and obesity, and the knowledge that children gain at this time about food and its health benefits may have an important influence on their dietary choices and preferences in later life. Therefore, an activity was designed using age-appropriate methods to assess nutrition knowledge of young children. Design The Healthy Food Knowledge Activity was developed using a list of thirty healthy and unhealthy foods and drinks generated from the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating. Setting The activity was conducted with individual children from reception classes of South Australian schools. Subjects Children aged 5–6 years undertook the activity in a pilot study (n 13) and in the main study (n 192). Results Pilot data indicated good test–retest reliability of the activity (r = 0·84, P < 0·01). In the main study, there was a good distribution of scores with acceptable skewness and kurtosis statistics. A breakdown of responses indicated good face validity, with more obvious foods being more correctly classified. Conclusions Children as young as 5–6 years of age can correctly identify healthy foods, and this can be measured objectively. This activity also provides interesting insights regarding misconceptions about foods that could be attributed to influences such as media advertising and that can be addressed by educators of this age group.