Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Undernutrition on Swallowing Function and Activities of Daily Living in Hospitalized Patients: Data from the Japanese Sarcopenic Dysphagia Database

This retrospective cohort study examined the effects of undernutrition on swallowing function and activities of daily living in hospitalized patients. Data from the Japanese Sarcopenic Dysphagia Database were used, and hospitalized patients aged ≥20 years with dysphagia were included in the analysis. Participants were assigned to the undernutrition or normal nutritional status group based on the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition criteria. The primary outcome was the Food Intake Level Scale change, and the secondary outcome was the Barthel Index change. Among 440 residents, 281 (64%) were classified under the undernutrition group. The undernutrition group had a significantly higher Food Intake Level Scale score at baseline and Food Intake Level Scale change (p = 0.001) than the normal nutritional status group. Undernutrition was independently associated with the Food Intake Level Scale change (B = −0.633, 95% confidence interval = −1.099 to −0.167) and the Barthel Index change (B = −8.414, 95% confidence interval = −13.089 to −3.739). This was defined as the period from the date of admission to the hospital until discharge or 3 months later. Overall, our findings indicate that undernutrition is associated with reduced improvement in swallowing function and the ability to perform activities of daily living.
Indigenous Knowledge of Besemah-Semende‘s People on Water Conservation Resources

Water conservation is faced with three major problems, which include availability, use, and management. This requires a high level of formal education, as well as already existing societal indigenous knowledge. This qualitative research design recognized indigenous knowledge in the aspect of water conservation, and the object of this study included Besemah-Semende’s people living in three sub-districts. The result showed the following indigenous knowledge: tebat, calak badawan, tambak ayik, and bubus tebat. These result of this study can be deployed as as teaching materials in environmental science education.
Transcriptome-Based Evaluation of Optimal Reference Genes for Quantitative Real-Time PCR in Yak Stomach throughout the Growth Cycle

Simple Summary The stomach is one of the primary sites for the digestion and absorption of nutrients. Quantifying related gene expression patterns using quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) is conducive to further understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying nutrition metabolism in the yak stomach. The authenticity of RT-qPCR data is affected by the selection of reference genes. Unfortunately, no studies have demonstrated suitable reference genes for the normalization of RT-qPCR data in the yak stomach. In this study, 15 candidate reference genes (CRGs) were identified according to transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) results and the previous literature. Five algorithms were used to evaluate the stability of the CRGs across the entire developmental stage in the yak stomach. RPS15, MRPL39, and RPS23 were found to be the most stable genes in the yak stomach from birth to adulthood. This study indicates the appropriate reference genes for gene expression analysis via RT-qPCR in the yak stomach. Abstract Efficient nutritional assimilation and energy metabolism in the stomachs of yaks contribute to their adaption to harsh environments. Accurate gene expression profile analysis will help further reveal the molecular mechanism of nutrient and energy metabolism in the yak stomach. RT-qPCR is regarded as an accurate and dependable method for analyzing gene expression. The selection of reference genes is essential to obtain meaningful RT-qPCR results, especially in longitudinal gene expression studies of tissues and organs. Our objective was to select and validate optimal reference genes from across the transcriptome as internal controls for longitudinal gene expression studies in the yak stomach. In this study, 15 candidate reference genes (CRGs) were determined according to transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) results and the previous literature. The expression levels of these 15 CRGs were quantified using RT-qPCR in the yak stomach, including the rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum at five stages: 0 days, 20 days, 60 days, 15 months and three years old (adult). Subsequently, the expression stabilities of these 15 CRGs were evaluated via four algorithms: geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper and the comparative CT method. Furthermore, RefFinder was employed to obtain a comprehensive ranking of the stability of CRGs. The analysis results indicate that RPS15, MRPL39 and RPS23 are the most stable genes in the yak stomach throughout the growth cycle. In addition, to verify the reliability of the selected CRGs, the relative expression levels of HMGCS2 were quantified via RT-qPCR using the three most stable or the three least stable CRGs. Overall, we recommend combining RPS15, MRPL39 and RPS23 as reference genes for the normalization of RT-qPCR data in the yak stomach throughout the growth cycle.
On the Convergence of Sums of Random Step Processes to a Poisson Process

Let $X_n (t) = \sum _{r - 1}^{k_n } X_{nr} (t)$, where $X_{nr} (t)$ are independent asymptotically negligible stochastic processes with non-negative integer-valued increments. The necessary and sufficient conditions for convergence of the sequence $\{ X_n (t)\} $ to a given Poisson process are proved.
Acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of internet-based emotion-focused cognitive behavior therapy with husband participation for Iranian pregnant women with anxiety disorder

ABSTRACT Background Anxiety disorders during pregnancy are associated with poor pregnancy outcomes. Internet-based emotion-focused cognitive behavior therapy (IECBT) with husband participation approach is an alternative treatment for treatment of mental disorders in pregnant women. The study aimed to compare the acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of IECBT with husband participation. Method In a quasi-experimental study 68 pregnant women diagnosed with anxiety disorders were divided into IECBT with husband participation (n = 34) and IECBT alone (n = 34) and completed the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI-18) Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ-8) and System usability scale (SUS) at baseline and eight weeks after the trial. Findings Results showed that acceptability and feasibility of CO-IECBT among women and their spouses were positive. Acceptability with indices, namely women’s satisfaction and average participation in sessions, was greater among IECBT with husband participation participants than among participants in IECBT alone. Feasibility was high for both therapy methods, and no significant difference was observed between the two groups. Conclusion This study suggests that both IECBT with husband participation and IECBT alone are effective treatments for mitigating psychological distress in anxious pregnant women.
Appropriate pre-transplant strategy for patients with myelodysplastic syndromes receiving allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation after myeloablative conditioning

Purpose Appropriate pre-transplant strategies in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) remain challenging. We sought to assess the effect of different pre-transplant therapies and transplantation interval times on patient prognosis. Methods We retrospectively analysed clinical data for 371 consecutive MDS patients after myeloablative transplantation between 2007 and 2019. Results The median age of the patients was 38 years (range, 12–64 years). A total of 114 patients (31%) received supportive care (SC), 108 (29%) hypomethylating agents (HMAs), and 149 (40%) chemotherapy-based therapy before transplantation. In patients who received HMA or SC, there was no significant difference in overall survival (OS; P=0.151) or relapse-free survival (RFS; P=0.330), except that HMA-treated patients had a lower rate of non-relapse mortality (5-year NRM: 18% vs. 32%, P=0.035). However, compared with patients who received HMA, those who received chemotherapy-based therapy had a lower 5-year OS rate (56% vs. 69%, P=0.020) and a slightly higher 5-year NRM rate (28% vs. 18%, P=0.067). Compared to the delayed transplant group (transplant interval ≥6 months), the early transplant group (transplant interval <6 months) had a superior 5-year OS (66% vs. 51%, P=0.001) and a lower 5-year cumulative incidence of NRM (22% vs. 36%, P=0.001). Conclusion The findings of the study indicate that receiving an appropriate pre-transplant strategy (SC/HMA + <6 months) significantly improves OS and decreases NRM in MDS patients after myeloablative transplantation.
Lessons Learned From Four Computing Education Crowdsourcing Systems

Crowdsourcing is a general term that describes the practice of many individuals working collectively to achieve a common goal or complete a task, often involving the generation of content. In an educational context, crowdsourcing of learning materials– where students create resources that can be used by other learners– offers several benefits. Students benefit from the act of producing resources as well as from using the resources. Despite benefits, instructors may be hesitant to adopt crowdsourcing for several reasons, such as concerns around the quality of content produced by students and the perceptions students may have of creating resources for their peers. While prior work has explored crowdsourcing concerns within the context of individual tools, lessons that are generalisable across multiple platforms and derived from practical use can provide considerably more robust insights. In this perspective article, we present four crowdsourcing tools that we have developed and used in computing classrooms. From our previous studies and experience, we derive lessons which shed new light on some of the concerns that are typical for instructors looking to adopt such tools. We find that across multiple contexts, students are capable of generating high quality learning content which provides good coverage of key concepts. Although students do appear hesitant to engage with new kinds of activities, various types of incentives have proven effective. Finally, although studies on learning effects have shown mixed results, no negative outcomes have been observed. In light of these lessons, we hope to see a greater uptake and use of crowdsourcing in computing education.
Wavelet and multiscale methods for operator equations

More than anything else, the increase of computing power seems to stimulate the greed for tackling ever larger problems involving large-scale numerical simulation. As a consequence, the need for understanding something like the intrinsic complexity of a problem occupies a more and more pivotal position. Moreover, computability often only becomes feasible if an algorithm can be found that is asymptotically optimal. This means that storage and the number of floating point operations needed to resolve the problem with desired accuracy remain proportional to the problem size when the resolution of the discretization is refined. A significant reduction of complexity is indeed often possible, when the underlying problem admits a continuous model in terms of differential or integral equations. The physical phenomena behind such a model usually exhibit characteristic features over a wide range of scales. Accordingly, the most successful numerical schemes exploit in one way or another the interaction of different scales of discretization. A very prominent representative is the multigrid methodology; see, for instance, Hackbusch (1985) and Bramble (1993). In a way it has caused a breakthrough in numerical analysis since, in an important range of cases, it does indeed provide asymptotically optimal schemes. For closely related multilevel techniques and a unified treatment of several variants, such as multiplicative or additive subspace correction methods, see Bramble, Pasciak and Xu (1990), Oswald (1994), Xu (1992), and Yserentant (1993). Although there remain many unresolved problems, multigrid or multilevel schemes in the classical framework of finite difference and finite element discretizations exhibit by now a comparatively clear profile. They are particularly powerful for elliptic and parabolic problems.
Pyrrole-Containing Alkaloids from a Marine-Derived Actinobacterium Streptomyces zhaozhouensis and Their Antimicrobial and Cytotoxic Activities

Two new alkaloids, streptopyrroles B and C (1 and 2), were discovered through a chemical investigation of the ethyl acetate (EtOAc) extract from a marine-derived actinomycete, Streptomyces zhaozhouensis, along with four known analogs (3–6). The structures of the new compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic analysis (HR-ESIMS, 1D, and 2D NMR) and a comparison of their experimental data with literature values. The new compounds were evaluated for their antimicrobial activity by standard broth dilution assay, and the tested compounds showed significant activity against Gram-positive bacteria with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ranging from 0.7 to 2.9 µM, and kanamycin was used as a positive control with MIC values ranging from <0.5 to 4.1 µM. Additionally, 1, 3, and 5 were evaluated for their cytotoxicity against six tumor cell lines by sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay, and these compounds displayed cytotoxic activities against all the tested cell lines, with concentration causing 50% cell growth inhibition (GI50) values ranging from 4.9 to 10.8 µM, while a positive control, adriamycin, showed GI50 values of 0.13–0.17 µM.
Evaluation of Japan’s Policy for CO2 Reduction at the First Commitment Period of the Kyoto Protocol

Japan achieved its 6% reduction target under the first commitment period stipulated by the Kyoto Protocol by using flexibility mechanisms and land use, land use change and forestry. Carbon dioxide emission from the energy sector increased by 6.7% compared to 1990. We analysed the change of Japan’s carbon dioxide emission from the energy sector during the period with official reference year 1990 and with the five years(i.e. 2003-2007) just before the first commitment period (i.e. 2008-2012) comparing with Germany, UK, France, and Spain. Japan reduced its greenhouse gases emissions by 23.6% through contribution from sectors other than energy, while the emission from the energy sector increased by 9.3%. It contrasts with the fact that the other four countries achieved reduction in the energy sector. Though Japan achieved a certain level of GHG reductions on the demand-side through various policy measures, including Top-Runner method and technology R&D, it failed to low-carbonize the energy sector which increased its carbon dioxide emission. This structure would not have changed even if the accident of Fukushima nuclear power station in 2011 had not occurred. Without a fundamental energy policy change, Japan might not achieve a substantial emission reduction of carbon dioxide from its energy sector under the coming era of Paris Agreement.
Lattice match: An application to heteroepitaxy

We define the concept of lattice match for any pair of crystal lattices in any given crystal direction, allowing for a periodic reconstruction of the interface. An algorithm for a systematic search for all possible matches is developed, and some examples of nonstandard lattice matches are given for CdTe on GaAs and sapphire to illustrate the method. For the case of CdTe on GaAs, our results agree with published results, both with respect to growth plane and orientation for CdTe(111) on GaAs(100). For CdTe on sapphire, our results agree with published results with respect to growth plane.
Fully-Integrated Transformer With Asymmetric Primary and Secondary Leakage Inductances for a Bidirectional Resonant Converter

Typically, inserted-shunt integrated transformers have symmetric primary and secondary leakage inductances. However, bidirectional resonant converters typically operate more efficiently with different primary and secondary series inductances. In this paper, a new topology for an inserted-shunt integrated transformer which can provide tunable, asymmetric leakage (series) inductances on the primary and secondary sides is presented. Two magnetic shunts, with appropriate air gaps, are inserted between two E-cores and the primary and secondary windings are separated by being placed at opposite sides of the shunts. The proposed transformer is analysed in detail and modelling and design guidelines are provided. It is shown that the magnetising inductance and the primary and secondary leakage inductances are decoupled from each other, and they can be determined separately. The design has the advantage of using planar E-cores and magnetically permeable sheets that are commercially available. The theoretical analysis is verified by simulation and experimental results. In addition, to demonstrate the performance of the proposed integrated transformer in practice, an exemplar bidirectional CLLLC resonant converter is designed, constructed and tested using the new integrated transformer.
Nonlinear Vertical Scale Selection in Equatorial Inertial Instability

Abstract The zonal flows of the earth's equatorial stratosphere and mesosphere are prone to inertial instability when the horizontal shear Λ ≠ 0 at the equator. However, it is not clear why the vertical wavelength of the observed structures is much greater than that predicted by the simple linear theory, based on a vertical scale selection by molecular diffusion. Here, a nonlinear mechanism is described that can lead to upscaling from structures with short vertical wavelengths to long vertical wavelengths. The mechanism is dependent upon a secondary Kelvin–Helmholtz instability that develops as the inertial instability grows. Numerical simulations on an equatorial β plane, employing a simple parameterization of the vertical transport of horizontal momentum due to the secondary instability, are used to assess the likely degree of upscaling in a zonally symmetric system. For a fluid with buoyancy frequency N, it is shown that upscaling toward the buoyancy cutoff wavenumber 4Nβ/Λ2 can occur, even when diffus.
Twinning modes in lattices

Deformation twinning is an important contributory factor in the plastic deformation of crystalline materials. The macroscopic shape deformation associated with deformation twinning is a simple shear, and in this paper the generalized theory of twinning shears developed in an earlier paper (Bevis & Crocker 1968), is applied to specific lattices and the resulting twinning modes described. Examples of all seven different classes of twinning mode, five of which do not satisfy the classical orientation relations of deformation twinning are first examined for the special case of cubic lattices. Relations between modes in the seven crystal systems which arise from variants of the unit correspondence matrix are then investigated. These modes are all conventional in character, but, when this procedure is repeated for a more complex correspondence matrix, most of the resulting modes are non-conventional, having four irrational twinning elements. The orientation relations associated with several of these modes are discussed in detail. Although the modes presented have been chosen specifically to illustrate pertinent features of the theory, many of them are shown to be the operative deformation twinning modes in metals and other crystalline materials. Finally the physical significance of the component correspondence and rotation matrices, into which a twinning shear is formally resolved in the theory, is discussed and extensions of the analysis, which enable transformation shears in lattices to be studied, are briefly considered.
A Non-Invasive Method for Monitoring Osteogenesis and Osseointegration Using Near-Infrared Fluorescent Imaging: A Model of Maxilla Implantation in Rats

Currently, computed tomography and conventional X-ray radiography usually generate a micro-artifact around metal implants. This metal artifact frequently causes false positive or negative diagnoses of bone maturation or pathological peri-implantitis around implants. In an attempt to repair the artifacts, a highly specific nanoprobe, an osteogenic biomarker, and nano-Au-Pamidronate were designed to monitor the osteogenesis. In total, 12 Sprague Dawley rats were included in the study and could be chategorized in 3 groups: 4 rats in the X-ray and CT group, 4 rats in the NIRF group, and 4 rats in the sham group. A titanium alloy screw was implanted in the anterior hard palate. The X-ray, CT, and NIRF images were taken 28 days after implantation. The X-ray showed that the tissue surrounded the implant tightly; however, a gap of metal artifacts was noted around the interface between dental implants and palatal bone. Compared to the CT image, a fluorescence image was noted around the implant site in the NIRF group. Furthermore, the histological implant-bone tissue also exhibited a significant NIRF signal. In conclusion, this novel NIRF molecular imaging system precisely identifies the image loss caused by metal artifacts and can be applied to monitoring bone maturation around orthopedic implants. In addition, by observing the new bone formation, a new principle and timetable for an implant osseointegrated with bone can be established and a new type of implant fixture or surface treatment can be evaluated using this system.
The normal modes of a resonant cavity containing discrete inhomogeneities - The influence of fibril magnetic fields on the solar acoustic oscillations

Motivated by considerations of the interaction between fibril magnetic fields and solar p-modes, the acoustic spectrum of a cylindrical cavity filled with ideal gas in which a number of magnetic flux tubes are embedded is studied. A formalism, based on the T-matrix approach to acoustic scattering, is developed which can be used to determine the eigenfrequencies and eigenfunctions for any arbitrary distribution of flux tubes. For weak scatterers, the frequency shifts and velocity eigenfunctions are calculated using perturbation theory for the cases of a single flux tube and a random distribution of up to 100 flux tubes. The results of this 'exact' approach are used to give a critical appraisal of the predictions of theories based on some form of averaging, such as the one discussed recently by Bogdan and Zweibel (1987). 34 refs.
Camera-Based Short Physical Performance Battery and Timed Up and Go Assessment for Older Adults With Cancer

This paper presents an automatic camera-based device to monitor and evaluate the gait speed, standing balance, and 5 times sit-stand (5TSS) tests of the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) and the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test. The proposed design measures and calculates the parameters of the SPPB tests automatically. The SPPB data can be used for physical performance assessment of older patients under cancer treatment. This stand-alone device has a Raspberry Pi (RPi) computer, three cameras, and two DC motors. The left and right cameras are used for gait speed tests. The center camera is used for standing balance, 5TSS, and TUG tests and for angle positioning of the camera platform toward the subject using DC motors by turning the camera left/right and tilting it up/down. The key algorithm for operating the proposed system is developed using Channel and Spatial Reliability Tracking in the cv2 module in Python. Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) in the RPi are developed to run tests and adjust cameras, controlled remotely via smartphone and its Wi-Fi hotspot. We have tested the implemented camera setup prototype and extracted all SPPB and TUG parameters by conducting several experiments on a human subject population of 8 volunteers (male and female, light and dark complexions) in 69 test runs. The measured data and calculated outputs of the system consist of tests of gait speed (0.041 to 1.92 m/s with average accuracy of >95%), and standing balance, 5TSS, TUG, all with average time accuracy of >97%.