Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efeito do treinamento físico na pressão arterial de adolescentes com obesidade

OBJETIVO: Descrever, por meio de uma revisao sistematica, os efeitos do treinamento fisico sobre a pressao arterial em adolescentes com obesidade. FONTES DE DADOS: Recorreu-se a revisao sistematica de ensaios clinicos randomizados que analisaram o efeito do treinamento fisico sobre a pressao arterial de adolescentes obesos, publicados em periodicos indexados nas bases de dados PubMed/Medline, Lilacs, SciELO e ISI Web of KnowledgeSM. Foram incluidos os estudos que avaliaram adolescentes publicados ate 2010, e que possuiam Grupo Controle. SINTESE DOS DADOS: Oito estudos atenderam aos criterios de inclusao. Dois deles utilizaram exercicios de forca combinados com aerobios, enquanto seis empregaram apenas os aerobios. Cinco estudos utilizaram intervencoes complementares, sendo a nutricional a mais frequente. Quatro estudos observaram reducao da pressao arterial sistolica no Grupo Exercicio comparado ao Controle. Nesses quatro estudos, alem da reducao da pressao arterial, notou-se diminuicao da massa corporea. Todos aqueles que verificaram reducao da pressao arterial utilizaram 12 a 24 semanas de exercicios aerobios, tres a seis sessoes semanais, com duracao de 50 a 90 minutos e intensidade entre 55 e 75% da frequencia cardiaca maxima. CONCLUSOES: O efeito do treinamento fisico na pressao arterial de adolescentes obesos e controverso. A reducao da pressao arterial parece ocorrer com programas de treinamento aerobios que promovam tambem a reducao da massa corporea.
Biomonitoring of heavy metals in the west coastal waters of Peninsular Malaysia using the green-lipped mussel perna viridis: Present status and what next?

This paper aims to review the papers published using Perna viridis as a biomonitoring agent of heavy metals in this region and particularly from Malaysia and to discuss the existing knowledge. Further research which will enhance our understanding and increase our knowledge on heavy metal ecotoxicology in Malaysia by using P. viridis is also suggested. This can be part of Mussel Watch monitoring program in this region. The work in establishing P. viridis for the biomonitoring of heavy metals, which is fundamentally based on the recommended criteria for a good biomonitoring agent, can be applied in other mollusks species.
Comparison Between Acupuncture Therapy and Low Level Laser Therapy on Acupuncture Points in Relieving Pain and Improvement on Functional Ability in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis

The objective of the study was to know the comparison between Acupuncture Therapy and Low Level Laser Therapy on acupuncture points in relieving pain and improvement on functional ability in patients with knee osteoarthritis. This study was an experimental study with pre-test -post test control group design. Sampling was done by consecutive sampling, which is all subjects who came and met the inclusion criteria included in the study until the required number of subjects met. In this study, 34 subjects were successfully analyzed (17 subjects in the group of Acupuncture, and 17 subjects in the group of Low Level Laser Therapy on acupuncture points). Relieving pain were measured by the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), and functional value as measured by the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities (WOMAC). These assessments were measured before treatment and 8 weeks after treatment. The use of Acupuncture therapy as well as Low Level Laser Therapy on acupuncture points equally reduce pain and improve functional ability of patients with knee osteoarthritis (p=0,000). At the time of comparison, the average Low Level Laser Therapy on acupuncture points and Acupuncture therapy seems no different on pain(1.241 versus 1.547) but on functional Low Level Laser Therapy on acupunture points seems superior than Acupunture therapy (3.235 versus 4.235). But statistically, there was no significant difference in both groups(P> 0.05). Both therapies in this research equally have significant effect in relieving pain and improvement on functional ability in patients with knee osteoarthritis. When compared, on average, Low Level Laser Therapy on acupuncture points is superior in improvement on functional ability in patients with knee osteoarthritis. However, both the rapies are not statistically different.
Global Journal of Advanced Engineering Technologies and Sciences DETERMINATION OF THE OXIDATIVE STABILITY OF BIODIESEL AND OILS BY ATR-FTIR SPECTROSCOPY AND MULTIVARIATE CALIBRATION

This work reports the use ATR-FTIR Spectroscopy and multivariate calibration as a method for determination of oxidative stability of biodiesel and oils. The prediction of the oxidative stability showed a good agreement with the results obtained by the EN14112 reference method Rancimat. The models presented high correlation between spectral data and induction periods. The R2 values of (0.9927 and 0.9921) indicated the accuracy of the models to predict the oxidative stability of vegetable oils and samples of biodiesel, respectively. Student’s t test showed no significant difference at 95% confidence between the actual and the predicted values of the periods of induction when applied for samples of vegetable oils and biodiesel.
Modelling the spreading of a liquid droplet on a superhydrophobic surface using the Multiphase Lattice Boltzmann method

Nowadays, the development of artificial super-hydrophobic surfaces has led to several technological advances such as selfcleaning surfaces, anti-icing surfaces, anti-fouling surfaces and reduced-drag surfaces. A key feature of many synthetic superhydrophobic surfaces is the topographical pattern imprinted on them in the form of arrays of micron-sized pillars. In this study, a two-dimensional Multiphase Lattice Boltzmann code is developed for modelling the spreading of a droplet on a surface with two ridges. This paper reports an effect of the geometric parameters of the textured surfaces on different outcomes of the wetting front during the spreading of the droplet.
Cooperative Conveyance of an Object with Tethers by Two Mobile Robots

This paper deals with cooperative conveyance by two mobile robots with tethers. First, a tether-winding unit that maintains a constant tension is developed for stable conveyance of an object. Second, three types of methods for marching of two mobile robots are proposed for examination of effective cooperative conveyance. Performances of these methods are evaluated by computer simulations. Third, the best method smoothly tugging the object is adopted for implementation of an actual robot system. The demonstration shows the validity of the algorithm so that two mobile robots cooperatively avoid an obstacle tugging an object.
Analysis of Status and Risk Factors for Macrovascular Complications in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

The status and risk factors for atherosclerosis (AS) were investigated and the sensitivity and accuracy of existing examine methods of AS were evaluated in patients with diabetes mellitus(T2DM). Ninety nine patients who diagnosed with the WHO 1999 criteria for T2DM were enrolled in this study, which were divided into atherosclerotic group(group A) and non-atherosclerosis group(group B). The clinical characteristics, including fasting plasma glucose(FPG), postprandial plasma glucose(PPG), total cholesterol(TC), triglyceride(TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C), glycosylated hemoglobin A1c(HbAlc) and early examination methods of AS, including carotid intima-media thickness(CIMT), ankle brachial index(ABI) and pulse wave velocity (PWV) were recorded. The t-test, χ2 test or linear regression model were used for retrospective analyses then showed that the prevalence rate of carotid plaque was 29.3%( 29/99), there is no difference between the distribution of age and gender in the group with or without plaque (χ2 = 0.044, P>0.05; t = 0.850, P>0.05). It also demonstrated that systolic blood pressure(SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), LDL-C, CIMT, history of smoke were significantly higher in plaques group than that of without plaques ( P＜0.05). Logistic analysis showed that LDL-C and CIMT were independent risk factors for incidence of cervical atheromatous plaques in type 2 diabetic patients (P＜0.05). The risk of AS has increased by 1.7 times by every unit of LDL-C, as well as increased by 13.8 times by every unit of CIMT. CIMT and PWV, but not ABI, are valuable for AS diagnosing. According to sensitivity and specificity, the best diagnostic value for CIMT is 0.9mm and for PWV is 1560.As a result, LDL-C and CIMT are independent risk factors for AS. Early intervention and controlling of risks factors will have clinical value for prevention and treatment of macrovascular diseases in T2DM. The corresponding cut-off points 1560 of PWV is better than 1400 for diagnosis of AS in this hospital.
Using the Fib-4 Score to Monitor Morbidity and Mortality Risk in Chronic Hepatitis C Patients

Introduction: In the recent past, many patients with chronic Hepatitis C infections (HCV) delayed treatment until symptoms emerged due to significant, direct and indirect costs associated with older treatments. Physicians may have acquiesced to delays in therapy as clinical research data on new treatment options began to emerge in the literature. However, delaying therapy must be coupled with valid methods for monitoring the patient's disease progression over time to insure that mortality and morbidity risks do not become untenable. This study examined if FIB-4 values can be used to monitor the risk of liver-related events and mortality in HCV patients. Methods: A cohort of patients was selected from the Veterans Health Affairs (VHA) Hepatitis C Clinical Case Registry (Hep C CCR) of confirmed HCV patients. The primary outcomes were time to death and time to a composite for first liver-related clinical events. Cox proportional hazards models were estimated using time to a patient's FIB-4 exceeding 1.45 or 3.25 as the risk factor of interest. Cox models were performed to examine the risk for patients using age, gender, genotype, race, ethnicity, BMI, prior hospitalizations and HIV and hepatitis B co-infection. Results: 187,860 patients met study requirements. Patients whose FIB-4 level exceeded 3.25 were at significantly higher risk of death (Hazard Ratio (HR) = 3.56 (3.47-3.65)) and an adverse liver- related clinical event (HR = 4.01 (3.92-4.10)). Exceeding FIB-4 > 1.45 was also associated with a significant but smaller increased risk of death (HR = 2.27 (2.21-2.33)) and the composite event (HR = 2.23 ((2.18-2.28)). Conclusion: FIB-4 is a significant predictor of risk, even at the lower threshold (1.45).
Bayesian Random-Effects Meta-Analysis Using the bayesmeta R Package

The random-effects or normal-normal hierarchical model is commonly utilized in a wide range of meta-analysis applications. A Bayesian approach to inference is very attractive in this context, especially when a meta-analysis is based only on few studies. The bayesmeta R package provides readily accessible tools to perform Bayesian meta-analyses and generate plots and summaries, without having to worry about computational details. It allows for flexible prior specification and instant access to the resulting posterior distributions, including prediction and shrinkage estimation, and facilitating for example quick sensitivity checks. The present paper introduces the underlying theory and showcases its usage.
Bodywork Applications for Autism

My daughter, Heather was diagnosed around age 13 with autism. She was given a bleak prognosis that included a recommendation to institutionalize her. No traditional pharmaceutical supports were working and Heather’s neurosurgeon was recommending brain surgery to “poke around her brain,” but he advised it was highly unlikely there was anything they could do to control the 40 seizures a day. I poured my heart out to Heather’s occupational therapist who was trained in, and recommended Upledger CranioSacral Therapy.
Job Loss, Job Finding, and Unemployment in the U.S. Economy over the Past Fifty Years

New data compel a new view of events in the labor market during a recession. Unemployment rises almost entirely because jobs become harder to find. Recessions involve little increase in the flow of workers out of jobs. Another important finding from new data is that a large fraction of workers departing jobs move to new jobs without intervening unemployment. I develop estimates of separation rates and job-finding rates for the past fifty years, using historical data informed by detailed recent data. The separation rate is nearly constant, while the job-finding rate shows high volatility at business-cycle and lower frequencies. I review modern theories of fluctuations in the job-finding rate. The challenge to these theories is to identify mechanisms in the labor market that amplify small changes in driving forces into fluctuations in the job-finding rate of the high magnitude actually observed. In the standard theory developed over the past two decades, the wage moves to offset driving forces, and the predicted magnitude of changes in the job-finding rate is tiny. New models overcome this property by invoking a new form of sticky wages or by introducing information and other frictions into the employment relationship.
An Earth Mover’s Distance Algorithm Based DDoS Detection Mechanism in SDN

Software-defined networking (SDN) provides a solution for scalable network framework with decoupled control and data plane. However, this architecture also induces a particular distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that can affect or even overwhelm the SDN network. DDoS attack detection problem has to date been mostly researched as entropy comparison problem. However, this problem lacks the utilization of SDN, and the results are not accurate. In this paper, we propose a DDoS attack detection method, which interprets DDoS detection as a signature matching problem and is formulated as Earth Mover’s Distance (EMD) model. Considering the feasibility and accuracy, we further propose to define the cost function of EMD to be a generalized Kullback-Leibler divergence. Simulation results show that our proposed method can detect DDoS attacks by comparing EMD values with the ones computed in the case without attacks. Moreover, our method can significantly increase the true positive rate of detection. Keywords—DDoS detection, EMD, relative entropy, SDN.
Mode of action of carbonic anhydrase

AM1 calculations are reported that address the following: (1) the hydration of C 0 2 by H,O and OH-; (2) the deprotonation enthalpies of zinc-bound and -unbound H 2 0 and imidazole; (3) the catalytic mechanism of hydration (dehydration) of C 0 2 by carbonic anhydrase (CA). The AM1 calculations on the hydration of C 0 2 agree well with the ab initio results, in that the hydration of C 0 2 by H 2 0 involves a rather large activation energy in the gas phase, while hydration by OHis activationless. However, the heat of reaction for OHhydration of CO, is found to be too exothermic due to errors in the calculated heats of formation of OHand C02. Our calculations also show, as have previous ab initio calculations, that zinc-bound water has a lower deprotonation enthalpy than does zinc-bound imidazole. This result agrees with the experimental evidence that suggests that the deprotonation of zinc-bound water initiates the catalytic activity of CA. The detailed calculations on the catalytic mechanism of hydration of C 0 2 by CA have uncovered some interesting features as well as corroborated existing experimental results. Our calculations suggest and other workers’ experiments have shown that the rate-determining step in the catalytic cycle of CA is the intramolecular proton transfer (PT). We have investigated four mechanisms for this step: ( I ) PT via a Thr-199, Glu-106 proton relay; (2) PT to water in the CA active site; (3) PT to His-64 via a two-water-proton relay; (4) PT to His-64 via a bicarbonate proton relay. It is predicted that there are two low-energy pathways, namely, the two-water relay and the bicarbonate proton relay. Our calculations also indicate that the hydration of C 0 2 by the zinc-hydroxide form of CA proceeds via a trigonal bipyramidal transition state, which forms the zinc-bicarbonate species directly. We also find that the presence of a water molecule inhibits this reaction. Finally, given our results, we have suggested an alternative mechanism for the mode of action of CA. An important issue in enzyme chemistry is to explain why enzyme reactions are so fast and so specific. To understand these two aspects, it is necessary to know the details of the catalytic mechanism. Unfortunately, such detailed mechanisms for most enzymes are not known with any certainty. This state of affairs is true in the case of the enzyme system studied here, namely, carbonic anhydrase (CA). 2 I t is the goal of this research to provide new insight into the catalytic activity of CA. C A is found in both plants and animals, and its only known biological function is to catalyze the interconversion of C 0 2 and H C 0 3 (eq I ) . The active site environment, as determined by
Applications of Trajectory Data From the Perspective of a Road Transportation Agency: Literature Review and Maryland Case Study

Transportation agencies have an opportunity to leverage increasingly available trajectory datasets to improve their analyses and decision-making processes. However, this data is typically purchased from vendors, which means agencies must understand its potential benefits beforehand in order to properly assess its value relative to the cost of acquisition. While the literature concerned with trajectory data is rich, it is naturally fragmented and focused on technical contributions in niche areas, which makes it difficult for government agencies to assess its value across different transportation domains. To overcome this issue, this paper explores trajectory data from the perspective of a road transportation agency interested in acquiring trajectories to enhance its analysis. This paper provides a literature review illustrating applications of trajectory data in six areas of road transportation systems analysis: demand estimation, modeling human behavior, designing public transit, traffic performance measurement and prediction, environment, and safety. In addition, it visually explores 20 million GPS traces in Maryland, USA, illustrating the existing and suggesting new applications of trajectory data.
Comparison of Agrobacterium mediated wheat and barley transformation with nucleoside diphosphate kinase 2 (NDPK2) gene

An efficient and reliable transformation system is imperative for improvement of important crop species like barley and wheat. Wheat transformation is complex due to larger genome size and polyploidy while barley has a limitation of genotypic dependency. The objective of current study was to compare the relative transformation efficiency of wheat and barley using specific expression vector pBRACT 214-NDPK2 constructed through gateway cloning carrying Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinase 2 (NDPK2) gene. The vector was used to compare the transformation response in both crops using immature embryos through Agrobacterium mediated transformation. Both wheat and barley showed different responses towards callus induction and regeneration. Immature embryos of 1.5 to 2 mm in diameter was found optimum for wheat callus induction while 1 to 1.5 mm for barley. Both embryogenic and non-embryogenic calli were found in wheat with significantly greater tendency for embryogenecity in barley. The overall regeneration response was found different for all transformed wheat and barley cultivars. Wheat cultivars showed good response initially that drastically slowed down in later stages with the exception of Fielder that reached to the green shoots with good roots. The barley transformed lines showed good regeneration response as compared to wheat. PCR analysis of putative transformants using genomic DNA showed a maximum of 27% transformation efficiency in barely. No true transformation response was obtained in all cultivars of wheat used in this study. The protocol developed for wheat and barley transformation will greatly be helpful in crop improvement programme through genetic engineering especially in diploid relatives of cereals.
B3-1 Analysis of User's Speech Behavior Pattern after Correction: focusing on Smartphone Voice User Interface

Voice interaction between users and IT devices has become possible through voice user interface. Since VUI is based on vocabulary language, the most basic form of human communication, it lowers the entry barrier for those who experience difficulty using graphic user interface (GUI) or situations where using IoT devices with tiny screen or no screen at all. User experience can be a critical marker for the development of technology, however, few academic researchers have attempted to investigate the users’ speech behavior pattern when they use VUI. Therefore, this study aims to provide insight about guidelines and design feedback for the novice users through observation in their adaption process of VUI. The author investigated speech patterns of error correction through observing ‘iPhone Siri’ users who have less experience on VUI. Through the 7 days Siri usage history, the speech behavior patterns of error correction were analyzed in tone (amplitude, pitch, and duration), and in sentences (sentence elements or structure) based on the Communication Accommodation Theory. The results of this study can be summarized as follow; 1) After the first error, users change their speech tone and sentences at a similar rate, 2) but, when the second error occurred, they change sentences more, 3) the speech behavior patterns after error were different depending on the types of errors and 4) the users’ speech behavior patterns were changed depending on time period of use. This study has primarily focused on variation in use behavior by observing real user experience. Through demonstrating how users respond to the situations of errors, this research has practical implications for the industry as it can positively contribute to the development of VUI voice feedback design and improve user experience on VUI.
Preliminary characterization of an estuarine, benzoate-utilizing Vibrio sp. isolated from Durban Harbour, South Africa

High production volume chemicals (HPVCs) are those that are produced in quantities greater than 1000 tons per year in at least one OECD member country. About 65% of these chemicals contain aromatic rings. Due to their important role in modern society, aromatic hydrocarbons tend to be important constituents of wastewaters and, as such, the quantity of these chemicals present in aquatic environments has increased. Nevertheless, many HPVCs are a potential source of carbon and energy and can therefore be exploited by bacteria as growth substrates. During the course of our screening for aerobic, HPVC-utilizing bacteria, an estuarine strain with the ability to utilize benzoic acid was isolated from Durban Harbour. The isolate was tentatively identified as a member of the genus Vibrio based on a host of taxonomically-relevant morphological and biochemical characteristics, along with the analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence. Growth experiments along with oxygen uptake measurements indicated that the isolate catabolizes benzoic acid via the ortho-pathway. With only limited information as to the capability of Vibrio spp. to mineralize aromatic compounds, this discovery adds useful information highlighting the metabolic versatility of the genus Vibrio.