Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
School‐based interventions promoting both physical activity and healthy eating in Europe: a systematic review within the HOPE project

It is the purpose of this study to systematically review the evidence of school‐based interventions targeting dietary and physical activity behaviour in primary (6–12 years old) and secondary school (12–18 years old) children in Europe. Eleven studies (reported in 27 articles) met the inclusion criteria, six in primary school and five in secondary school children. Interventions were evaluated in terms of behavioural determinants, behaviour (diet and physical activity) and weight‐related outcomes (body mass index [BMI] or other indicators of obesity). The results suggest that combining educational and environmental components that focus on both sides of the energy balance give better and more relevant effects. Furthermore, computer‐tailored personalized education in the classroom showed better results than a generic classroom curriculum. Environmental interventions might include organized physical activities during breaks, or before and after school; improved availability of physical activity opportunities in and around the school environment; increased physical education lesson time; improved availability or accessibility of healthy food options; and restricted availability and accessibility of unhealthy food options. More high‐quality studies are needed to assess obesity‐related interventions in Europe.
Acid tolerance of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli

Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) strains were tested for their ability to survive in acid pH at 37 degrees C. No loss of viability was observed in an O157:H7 EHEC strain (ATCC 43895) at pH levels of 3.0 and 2.5 for at least 5 h. The level of acid tolerance of most EHEC isolates was very high, similar to that of Shigella flexneri strains. The acid tolerance was dependent on the growth phase and pH of the growth medium.
Compact low voltage VHF continuous-time current mode FLF filters based on first order low-pass building blocks

A new approach for the implementation of VHF biquadratic continuous time current mode filters with continuously programmable characteristics is introduced. It is based on unity gain first order low-pass building blocks replacing integrators used in conventional state variable filter structures. The implementation is based exclusively on utilization of simple current mirrors. This approach allows implementation of filters with very high f0Q products close to technology limits. Novel gain programmable current mirrors are used in order to provide programmability to the filters characteristics. Simulations in 0.5 mum CMOS technology show feasibility to operate at frequencies over 30 MHz with Q and f0 adjustable values
An optimization approach to trajectory generation for autonomous vehicle following

We present a novel approach to trajectory generation that enables an autonomous vehicle to accurately follow a lead vehicle tracked by on-board sensors. In contrast to other approaches, we ignore the structure of the environment (e.g., lane markings), focusing purely on following the path driven by the vehicle ahead. Based on the leader's velocity, its distance to the ego vehicle and its recorded path, a continuous-curvature trajectory is generated using Sequential Quadratic Programming. As the optimization process takes the ego vehicle's kinematic and dynamic constraints into account, the resulting trajectory is guaranteed to be feasible and safe. The algorithm was tested extensively during practical experiments with an actual autonomous car. Our tests were conducted in both on- and off-road environments, with speeds ranging from 1 m/s to 15 m/s. Ground truth data shows that the system achieves a high degree of accuracy even in difficult scenarios.
A reconfigurable pipelined ADC in 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS

A reconfigurable pipelined A/D converter has been implemented in a 0.18 /spl mu/m RF-CMOS process. The ADC has eight configurations with a top performance of 10 bits resolution at 80 MSPS consuming 94mW. The reconfigurability is achieved by combining the cyclic and pipelined ADC architectures giving it a low level of complexity. In the conventional pipeline mode, the measured SFDR is 69 dBFS and the SNDR is 56.5 dBc for a 1.54 MHz single sinusoid tone input.
Camel Whey Protein Protects B and T Cells from Apoptosis by Suppressing Activating Transcription Factor-3 (ATF-3)-Mediated Oxidative Stress and Enhancing Phosphorylation of AKT and IκB-α in Type I Diabetic Mice

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is associated with severe immune system complications. Camel whey protein (CWP) decreases free radicals (ROS) and modulates immune functions, but its effect on DM-impaired immune systems has not been studied. We investigated the impact of CWP on the immune system in a Type 1 diabetes mouse model. Methods: Three experimental groups were used: (1) non-diabetic control; (2) diabetic; and (3) CWP-treated diabetic mice. Results: Induction of diabetes by streptozotocin was associated with reduction of body weight and insulin level, increase in glucose level and pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α), and reduction in IL-2 and IL-4 levels. Upregulated ATF-3 expression was followed by a marked elevation in ROS levels. Lymphocytes from diabetic mice exhibited increased apoptosis through decreased phosphorylation of AKT and IκB-α, increased infiltration of T cells in the spleen and thymus, and decreased B cell numbers in the spleen. Supplementation with CWP decreased the levels of proinflammatory cytokines, ROS, and ATF-3 expression, and increased the levels of IL-4. Treatment with CWP decreased apoptosis by enhancing the phosphorylation of AKT and IκB-α as well as T-cell and B-cell distribution in the spleen and thymus. Conclusions: Our findings suggest the beneficial effects of CWP supplementation during diabetes on decreasing and orchestrating the redox status and subsequently rescuing the immune cells from exhaustion.
Integrating high-level sensor features via STDP for bio-inspired navigation

Correlation based algorithms have been found to explain many basic behaviors in simple animals. In this paper the authors investigate the problem of navigation control of a robot from the viewpoint of bio-inspired perception. In this paper the authors study how to go up, through learning, from the implementation of a reactive system, towards behaviors of increasing complexity. The whole control system is based on networks of spiking neurons. A correlation based rule, namely the spike timing dependent plasticity (STDP), is implemented for an efficient learning. The main interesting consequence is that the system is able to learn high-level sensor features, based on a set of basic reflexes, depending on some low-level sensor inputs. The whole methodology is presented through simulation results and also through its implementation on an FPGA based system for real time working on a roving robot.
Microwave Activities in Taiwan

The recent research efforts on microwave and millimeter-wave technologies in Taiwan are presented in this paper. The scope of our researches includes passive elements, and monolithic microwave/millimeter-wave integrated circuits (MMICs), together with the device modeling, design methodology, and measurement techniques. Also, the microwave industry is browsed to give a clearer picture of the combined efforts in promoting the microwave researches and development in Taiwan.
Multimer formation in one-dimensional two-component gases and trimer phase in the asymmetric attractive Hubbard model

We consider two-component one-dimensional quantum gases at special imbalanced commensurabilities which lead to the formation of multimer (multiparticle bound-states) as the dominant order parameter. Luttinger liquid theory supports a mode-locking mechanism in which mass (or velocity) asymmetry is identified as the key ingredient to stabilize such states. While the scenario is valid both in the continuum and on a lattice, the effects of umklapp terms relevant for densities commensurate with the lattice spacing are also mentioned. These ideas are illustrated and confronted with the physics of the asymmetric (mass-imbalanced) fermionic Hubbard model with attractive interactions and densities such that a trimer phase can be stabilized. Phase diagrams are computed using density-matrix renormalization group techniques, showing the important role of the total density in achieving the latter phase. The effective physics of the trimer gas is studied as well. Last, the effect of a parabolic confinement and the emergence of a crystal phase of trimers are briefly addressed. This model has connections with the physics of imbalanced two-component fermionic gases and Bose-Fermi mixtures as the latter gives a good phenomenological description of the numerics in the strong-coupling regime.
Disordered eating and its psychosocial correlates among Chinese adolescent females in Hong Kong.

OBJECTIVES To study the prevalence of disordered eating and its relationship with body dissatisfaction, family dysfunction, and depression among Chinese adolescent females in Hong Kong. METHOD Two hundred ninety-four schoolgirls completed a demographic and weight history sheet, Eating Attitudes Test-26, Body Dissatisfaction Scale, cohesion and conflict subscales of the Family Environment Scale, and the Beck Depression Inventory. RESULTS 6.5% of subjects were EAT-26 high scores. Disordered eating was positively predicted by body dissatisfaction and, to a lesser extent, family cohesion and conflict. Body dissatisfaction was in turn positively predicted by depression, which was negatively predicted by family cohesion. DISCUSSION Western patterns of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating attitudes are common among Chinese adolescent females. In the presence of psychosocial vulnerability factors, more weight control behavior and eating disorders may be expected to arise in Hong Kong.
VaR Evaluation of Bank Portfolio- Conservativeness, Accuracy and Efficiency

The efficiency of bacteria preservation of CMPTM Transtube (Creative Biotechnology Co., Ltd. Taiwan.) was evaluated according to the CLSI approved standard M40-A ＂Quality control of microbiological transport systems＂(2003). The experiments used fastidious clinical bacteria, Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Streptococcus pyogenes, to evaluate the efficacy of CMPTM transtube. After inoculated 106 CFU organisms on the transtube, the transtubes were preserved in room temperature or at 4℃ to simulate how the clinical specimen is transported. The survived N. gonorrhoeae were recovered by saline after 0, 8, 24 hours storage, and S. pyogenes were recovered after 0, 8, 24, 48 hours storage. The recovered bacterial suspensions were performed in a ten-fold serial dilution method, and then plating with spreading method and counting the number of the survival bacteria after incubating at suitable conditions. According to CLSI M40- A statement: ＂In room temperature, there should be no more than a 3 log decline in CFU between the zero-time CFU count and the CFU of the swabs that were stored at different time interval; at 4℃, there should be no more than a 1 log increase in CFU and no more than a 3 log to decline in CFU between the zero-time CFU and the CFU of the swabs that were stored at different time interval. ＂ The results of this study showed that CMPTM Transtube can well preserved the S. pyogenes up to 48 hours whether stored in room temperature or at 4℃. It fulfills the CLSI M40-A guideline. The CMPTM Transtube can also well-preserved N. gonorrhoeae up to 24 hours in room temperature, but only last 8 hours at 4℃. The experiment result could be act as reference data when Clinical Microbiology Laboratory choosing their transport device.
Synaptic Background Activity Influences Spatiotemporal Integration in Single Pyramidal Cells.

The standard one-dimensional Rall cable model assumes that the electrotonic structure of neurons does not change in response to synaptic input. This model is used in a great number of both theoretical and anatomicalphysiological structure-function studies. In particular, the membrane time constant, em, the somatic input resistance, Ri. , and the electrotonic length are used to characterize single cells. However, these studies do not take into account that neurons are embedded in a network of spontaneously active cells. Synapses from these cells will contribute scantly to the membrane conductance, especially if recent evidence of very high specific membrane resistance, Rm = 100 kfi cm2, is taken into account. We numerically simulated the electrical behavior of an anatomically reconstructed layer V cortical pyramidal cell receiving input from 4000 excitatory and 1000 inhibitory cells firing spontaneously at 0-7 Hz. We found that, over this range of synaptic background activity, rm and R. change by a factor of 10 (80-7 msec, 110-14 Mfl) and the electrotonic length of the cell changes by a factor of 3. We show that this significantly changes the response of the cell to temporal desynchronized versus temporal synchronized synaptic input distributed throughout the neuron. Thus, the global activity of the network can control how individual cells perform spatial and temporal integration. activity on the spatial and temporal integrative properties of individual pyramidal cells and discuss the functional implications of our results, both for interpreting data from an in vitro (e.g., slice or culture) preparation as well as for cortical information processing strategies.
MRI overlay system using optical see-through for marking assistance

In this paper we propose an augmented reality system that superimposes MRI onto the patient model. We use a half-silvered mirror and a handheld device to superimpose the MRI onto the patient model. By tracking the coordinates of the patient model and the handheld device using optical markers, we are able to transform the images to the correlated position. Voxel data of the MRI are made so that the user is able to view the MRI from many different angles.
Architectures for Enhancing Authentication Privacy and Security using Trusted Computing

When it comes to remote authentication, after the initial login, progressively major service providers no longer rely on a single variable for authentication (such as password or fingerprint) but rely on user meta-data to raise the trust in the session or continuously authenticate their users utilizing data such as location information, user behaviour analytic, etcetera. However, these meta-data as well as the authentication variables used by the service providers are often a source of concern from a privacy preservation point of view. While these data are stored, an intruder or a service provider can access user's fingerprint, location information, device type and model which can all harm user privacy. To improve the privacy protection available for users and authentication security while providing usable security, this paper provides analyses of existing authentication architectures and those that use Trusted Computing (TC) like technologies. We highlight a number of challenging threats present in the current architectures. Then we propose a novel architecture for authentication using TC, addressing the issues discussed. The new architecture ensures user authentication template will be under the user's control and will not be revealed to any third party, including to authentication service providers while providing the user with assurances.
Reproductive toxicology of nickel – Review

The goal of this minireview is to summarize our current knowledge on the reproductive toxicity of soluble nickel salts. We made an attempt to present the most relevant data obtained from in vivo and in vitro experiments performed on mammals, mammalian primary cell cultures and cell lines. Nickel has been demonstrated to disturb the mammalian reproductive functions at several levels of regulation. The results of previous investigations indicate that the hormonal effects may play an important role in the reproductive toxicology of nickel both at the neuroendocrine and gonadal levels in the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis. At the molecular level, it may be important that nickel may substitute certain other metals in metal dependent enzymes, leading to an altered protein function. It readily crosses the cell membrane via calcium channels and competes with calcium for specific receptors. Nickel can cross-link aminoacids to DNA, lead to formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), moreover mimic hypoxia. These changes may lead to the activation of some signaling pathways, subsequent transcription factors and eventually to alterations in gene expression and cellular metabolism. These events are likely to be involved in the reproductive toxicity of nickel.
Breakdown mechanism in short-channel MOS transistors

In this paper a new breakdown mechanism in a short channel MOS transistor is proposed based on experimental measurements of substrate currents. We have observed a negative resistance in the substrate current followed by conductivity modulation, similar to the operation of a unijunction transistor during switching. By adding an external substrate resistance, saturation of the substrate current was observed in conjunction with the turn-on of the parasitic NPN (source-substrate-drain) bi-polar transistor. Breakdown of the device will occur when the drain bias reaches BVCEOof this parasitic bipolar transistor. The channel length dependence of the breakdown voltage of the short channel MOS transistor can then be explained by the dependence of BVCEOon the base width.
Severe obesity as a habituation syndrome. Evidence during a starvation study.

IT IS estimated that 20% of the population of the United States, or approximately 40 million adults and children, are overweight. Gordon et al 1 have pointed out that obesity of such widespread proportions is a problem of affluent societies, occurring when an abundance of food is available to great masses of people. Presumably, many in this overweight population are what they are because of the mere availability of food. For some, however, the reasons for excessive food intake are less obvious; the severely obese person so exceeds his caloric needs that his fatness threatens his own physical and social wellbeing. Although emotional factors are apparently of importance in such obesity, Stunkard 2 points out that this assumption is based on two very general findings: first, that obese persons admit they eat when they are upset and, secondly, that such persons manifest more neurotic traits than their nonobese counterparts.
Identification of an Uptake Hydrogenase Required for Hydrogen-Dependent Reduction of Fe(III) and Other Electron Acceptors by Geobacter sulfurreducens

ABSTRACT Geobacter sulfurreducens, a representative of the family Geobacteraceae that predominates in Fe(III)-reducing subsurface environments, can grow by coupling the oxidation of hydrogen to the reduction of a variety of electron acceptors, including Fe(III), fumarate, and quinones. An examination of the G. sulfurreducens genome revealed two operons, hya and hyb, which appeared to encode periplasmically oriented respiratory uptake hydrogenases. In order to assess the roles of these two enzymes in hydrogen-dependent growth, Hya- and Hyb-deficient mutants were generated by gene replacement. Hyb was found to be required for hydrogen-dependent reduction of Fe(III), anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonate, and fumarate by resting cell suspensions and to be essential for growth with hydrogen and these three electron acceptors. Hya, in contrast, was not. These findings suggest that Hyb is an essential respiratory hydrogenase in G. sulfurreducens.
Reduced neonatal mortality from infection after introduction of respiratory monitoring

La mortalite intantile due aux infections par streptocoques de groupe B est importante: environ 3 morts pour 1000 naissances aux Etats-Unis. En Grande-Bretagne cette mortalite est tres diminuee depuis 1980, probablement parce que l'enregistrement systematique de la frequence respiratoire chez les nouveau-nes permet de deceler la tachypnee, souvent la premiere manifestation de l'infection: les explorations et le traitement sont plus precoce. Revue de 19 cas, un seul nouveau-ne est mort
Elephant Search with Deep Learning for Microarray Data Analysis

Even though there is a plethora of research in Microarray gene expression data analysis, still, it poses challenges for researchers to effectively and efficiently analyze the large yet complex expression of genes. The feature (gene) selection method is of paramount importance for understanding the differences in biological and non-biological variation between samples. In order to address this problem, a novel elephant search (ES) based optimization is proposed to select best gene expressions from the large volume of microarray data. Further, a promising machine learning method is envisioned to leverage such high dimensional and complex microarray dataset for extracting hidden patterns inside to make a meaningful prediction and most accurate classification. In particular, stochastic gradient descent based Deep learning (DL) with softmax activation function is then used on the reduced features (genes) for better classification of different samples according to their gene expression levels. The experiments are carried out on nine most popular Cancer microarray gene selection datasets, obtained from UCI machine learning repository. The empirical results obtained by the proposed elephant search based deep learning (ESDL) approach are compared with most recent published article for its suitability in future Bioinformatics research.
Candidate adaptive genes associated with lineage divergence: identifying SNPs via next‐generation targeted resequencing in mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus)

Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) are an excellent nonmodel species for empirically testing hypotheses in landscape and population genomics due to their large population sizes (low genetic drift), relatively continuous distribution, diversity of occupied habitats and phenotypic variation. Because few genomic resources are currently available for this species, we used exon data from a cattle (Bos taurus) reference genome to direct targeted resequencing of 5935 genes in mule deer. We sequenced approximately 3.75 Mbp at minimum 20X coverage in each of the seven mule deer, identifying 23 204 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within, or adjacent to, 6886 exons in 3559 genes. We found 91 SNP loci (from 69 genes) with putatively fixed allele frequency differences between the two major lineages of mule deer (mule deer and black‐tailed deer), and our estimate of mean genetic divergence (genome‐wide FST = 0.123) between these lineages was consistent with previous findings using microsatellite loci. We detected an over‐representation of gamete generation and amino acid transport genes among the genes with SNPs exhibiting potentially fixed allele frequency differences between lineages. This targeted resequencing approach using exon capture techniques has identified a suite of loci that can be used in future research to investigate the genomic basis of adaptation and differentiation between black‐tailed deer and mule deer. This study also highlights techniques (and an exon capture array) that will facilitate population genomic research in other cervids and nonmodel organisms.
En qué va el sistema de seguridad social en salud colombiano después de quince años de la Ley 100 de 1993

Este documento analiza un tema vital para las condiciones de bienestar de cualquier pais: el acceso a los servicios de salud.Una poblacion mas saludable implica, ademas de los impactos obvios sobre el bienestar de las personas, una fuerza de trabajo potencialmente mas productiva, que facilita el crecimiento, mejora los salarios y potencia el desarrollo economico. Con esto se crea un circulo virtuoso que mejora las condiciones de bienestar de los hogares.