Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
UČINKOVITOST TRAKCIJE U LIJEČENJU SPINALNIH RADIKULOPATIJA

INTRODUCTION: Spinal traction is a commonly used method of treatment of spinal radiculopathies caused by herniated intervertebral disk. Traction affects the reduction of pain, functional disability and the overall improvement of health in spinal radiculopathies, and it can affect the reduction of herniated intervertebral disk. OBJECTIVE: Investigate the efficacy of traction in the treatment of spinal radiculopathies. METHODS: We conducted an electronic search of the PubMed biomedical database by keywords in the period from 2013 to 2018 and a manual search of PubMed and Google Scholar for randomized controlled trials that compared the efficacy of one method of traction with other traction methods or with other physiotherapy methods. RESULTS: The study included three studies that compared the efficacy of mechanical intermittent traction in combination with or without physical procedures and therapeutic exercises in treatment of acute, subacute and chronic radiculopathies. Efficacy of traction refers to reduction of pain and functional disability and increase of spine mobility. None of the studies measured the efficacy of fraction on the reduction of herniated disk. CONCLUSION: Traction is not more effective than physical procedures and therapeutic exercises in treatment of spinal radiculopathies. There is no difference in the efficacy of traction when compared to the amount of force used. Traction in combination with physical procedures and therapeutic exercises can have a slightly higher effect on the treatment of chronic spinal radiculopathies when compared to treatment consisting solely of physical procedures and therapeutic exercises.
WHEN DO SUPERVISORS SUPPORT ‘TAILOR-MADE’ WORK ARRANGEMENTS? AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

This study investigates the conditions under which supervisors support employees' demands for ‘tailor-made’ employment arrangements. Although it is assumed that these arrangements are generally beneficial for both employees and employers, conditions under which tailoring takes place have not been studied systematically. To investigate supervisor support for tailor-made employment arrangements, interviews were conducted with 19 supervisors drawn from a financial service provider. From the interviews, it is concluded that a number of conditions need to be met for supervisors to provide support for tailor-made arrangements. First, supervisors require organisational knowledge as well as people management skills (i.e. ability) to tailor employment arrangements. Second, supervisors are more likely to encourage tailor-made employment arrangements when senior management gives attention to human resource- related topics in management team meetings and introduces HR-related targets (i.e. motivation). Third, the relationship between supervisors and their superiors was found to be important, as was providing supervisors with sufficient freedom of action to tailor employment conditions to meet employees' preferences (i.e. opportunity). These findings provide a rich description of the multiple facets of implementing tailor-made arrangements and therefore are a valuable addition to previous quantitative studies.
Buffalo Milk as a Source of Probiotic Functional Products

In the past two decades, consumption of food has been accruing due to its health claims which include gastrointestinal health, improved immunity, and well-being. Currently, the dairy industry is the sector where probiotics are most widely used, especially in fermented milk, cheese, yoghurt, butter, and dairy beverages. Although, it is still necessary to face many challenges regarding their stability and functionality in food. Considering the increasing demand for healthy products, it is necessary to develop strategies that aim to increase the consumption of functional foods in order to meet probiotic usefulness criteria and the consumer market. This review aimed to promote the utilization of buffalo milk considering its probiotic effects as a functional food and natural remedy to various ailments, emphasizing the potential of innovation and the importance of milk-based products as health promoters. The intake of probiotics plays an important role in modulating the health of the host, as a result of a balanced intestinal microbiota, reducing the risk of development of various diseases such as cancer, colitis, lactose intolerance, heart diseases, and obesity, among other disorders. However, further studies should be carried out to deepen the knowledge on the relationship between raw buffalo milk, its dairy products microbiota and consumer’s health beneficial effects, as well as to implement a strategy to increase the variety and availability of its products as a functional food in the market.
A new method for proportioning recycled concrete

A new modified mix proportioning method for producing normal‐strength concrete using recycled concrete aggregate, called the equivalent coarse aggregate mass (ECAM) method, is proposed in this paper. The basic concepts of the proposed method with calculations for mix design are presented by designing 14 mixes and testing 99 concrete samples (57 cubes and 42 cylinders). Experimental work was carried out in two phases. In the first phase, an experimental programme was conducted to verify the proposed mix design method by studying a single parameter – uniaxial compressive strength. Five different mixes with initial 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 % replacement by mass were designed, cast and tested in this phase. It was concluded from the first phase that the proposed method can be adopted for designing the recycled concrete up to a nominal replacement ratio of 50 %. Accordingly, the second phase of experimental study was carried out to design three different grades of concrete strength using the proposed method to investigate the mechanical properties of the recycled concrete. Seven different mechanical properties – compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, Schmidt hammer test, ultrasonic pulse velocity test, fresh density and hardened density – were investigated and are presented and discussed here.
Chemical Treatment of Lignocellulosic Material for Use as Ruminant Feed

ABSTRACT Rice straw and bagasse were treated with a combination of concentrations of sodium hydroxide and hydrogen peroxide. The purpose was to pre-digest a fraction of the lignocellulosic material to allow for a more complete digestion and utilization by ruminants. Digestibility was measured using an enzyme (cellulose) procedure. A minimum level of 8% H2O2 and 20% NaOH on a dry-matter basis was necessary to improve the digestibility of the lignocellulosic materials. Sodium hydroxide was effective in increasing the digestibility of the lignocellulosic material when a minimum of 10 and 20% was applied to straw and bagasse, respectively. The pH of the material treated with 10% or more NaOH was high (pH>10), even after washing with copious amount of water; however, no adverse effect of pH was observed on in vitro dry matter digestion. Ferrous and manganese catalysts were each ineffective in reducing the amount of H2O2 necessary to effect digestibility. A 1:1 solid-to-liquid ratio resulted in slightly lower digestion values than a 1:10 ratio for chemical application. The digestibility of bagasse for any specified treatment was always lower than that of straw. Significant differences (P<0.01) in digestibility values were found to be due to different particle sizes of the material. Dry matter digestibility determined with a cellulase enzyme technique was highly correlated with that determined by the in vitro rumen technique.
Coupled Plasmonic Systems and Devices: Applications in Visible Metamaterials, Nanophotonic Circuits, and CMOS Imaging

With the size of transistors approaching the sub-nanometer scale and Si-based photonics pinned at the micrometer scale due to the diffraction limit of light, we are unable to easily integrate the high transfer speeds of this comparably bulky technology with the increasingly smaller architecture of state-of-the-art processors. However, we find that we can bridge the gap between these two technologies by directly coupling electrons to photons through the use of dispersive metals in optics. Doing so allows us to access the surface electromagnetic wave excitations that arise at a metal/dielectric interface, a feature which both confines and enhances light in subwavelength dimensions - two promising characteristics for the development of integrated chip technology. This platform is known as plasmonics, and it allows us to design a broad range of complex metal/dielectric systems, all having different nanophotonic responses, but all originating from our ability to engineer the system surface plasmon resonances and interactions. In this thesis, we demonstrate how plasmonics can be used to develop coupled metal-dielectric systems to function as tunable plasmonic hole array color filters for CMOS image sensing, visible metamaterials composed of coupled negative-index plasmonic coaxial waveguides, and programmable plasmonic waveguide network systems to serve as color routers and logic devices at telecommunication wavelengths.
Passive suspensions incorporating inerters for railway vehicles

This paper investigates the possibility of improving the performance of railway vehicle suspensions by incorporating a newly developed mechanical device known as the inerter. A comparative study of several low-complexity passive suspension layouts is made. Improved performance for the lateral and vertical ride comfort, as well as lateral body movement when curving are demonstrated in comparison with the conventional suspension layout. The constraints imposed are to maintain the same level of other performance metrics. The calculations and optimisations are based on linearised plan-view and side-view high-speed train mathematical models.
Freeze–thaw resistance of normal strength powder concretes

The effects of mineral powders on scaling, water absorption and internal deterioration of concretes are studied. Properties of a reference concrete produced with Portland cement are compared with corresponding mineral powder concretes. In the mineral powder concretes the Portland cement is replaced by 10 or 20 wt% by either limestone or quartz powder. Some mixes also contain a further addition of 10 and 20 wt% of these powders to the Portland cement. Surface scaling and internal damage tests and a capillary suction test are performed on the concretes, to obtain a basic understanding of the freeze–thaw durability of the mineral powder concretes. The results suggest that the use of mineral powders itself does not have an effect on the freeze–thaw resistance, but the consequent binder reduction and loss of strength impairs durability. The loss of strength resulting from the replacement of the cement and the consequent reduction in the freeze–thaw durability might be compensated for by reducing the water/ceme.
Modulation of fibroblast behaviour by enzymatically-tailored pectins: PectiCoat

MD NAGEL, P VIGNERON, C BUSSY, M VAYSSADE, JL DUVAL, M GALLET, M DUFRESNE, R VERHOEF , M MORRA, JP KNOX, H SCHOLS, G CECCONE , C DELLA VOLPE Universite de Technologie de Compiegne, UMR CNRS 6600, BP 20529, F-60205 Compiegne Cedex 2 Wageningen University, Department of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences, The Netherlands 3 Nobil BioRicerche srl, Italy 4 University of Leeds, Centre for Plant Sciences, United Kingdom European Commission, Institute for Health and Consumer Protection 6 University of Trento, Department of Materials Engineering and Industrial Technologies, Italy
Oral Administration of Brain Protein Combined With Probiotics Induces Immune Tolerance Through the Tryptophan Pathway

Excessive inflammation leads to secondary immune damage after traumatic brain injury (TBI). The intestinal mucosa is a key component of immune tolerance due to gut-brain axis regulation, but the curative effect is not optimal. Intestinal dysfunction impairs the establishment of immune tolerance in patients with TBI. Therefore, we orally administered brain protein (BP) combined with probiotics to induce immune tolerance and explored the mechanism by which the homeostasis of the microbiota contributes to the enhancement of curative effects by BPs. Herein, we demonstrated that patients with TBI and surgical brain injury (SBI) models of rats had obvious dysbiosis. Notably, the intestinal barrier, proinflammatory cytokines, and activation of microglia demonstrated that excessive inflammatory damage was better controlled in the combined group (oral administration of BP combined with probiotics) than in the BP group (oral administration of BP). Fundamentally, tandem mass tag (TMT)-based quantitative proteomics analysis revealed that BP and probiotics preferentially affect Try-related pathways. A series of experiments further confirmed that Indoleamine 2,3 dioxygenase (IDO)/Kynurenine (Kyn)/Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) expression was high in the BP group, while Tryptophan hydroxylase 1(TpH1)/5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) only changed in the combined group. This study suggests that probiotics can enhance the efficacy of oral BP-induced immune tolerance through the Try pathway.
Trends in Out-of-Home and At-Home Activities

Expectations remain high that information communications technology (ICT) might reduce travel. The rapid evolution of technology, combined with a dearth of longitudinal data, has made it extremely difficult to assess the affects of ICT on travel. Results are compared from two independent but similar household surveys in 1995 and 2003 to examine changes in home ICT use and store travel. Multiple analysis of covariance is used to control for differences in sample characteristics, attitudes, and city type and to examine changes in the frequency of out-of-home and at-home shopping and banking between 1995 and 2003. Results indicate that the year of the survey has a main effect in explaining shopping, but not banking frequencies. Respondents in 2003 shop out of home and at home with greater frequency and bank out of home and at home with less frequency, though the latter finding is not statistically significant. Despite reported increases in at-home activities substituting out-of-home shopping trips, the most likely explanation of the results—examining several behaviors—is that people engage in multiple forms of shopping and banking and do so in the ways that are most convenient. Preferences for store shopping and online security concerns may limit observable changes in past growth and the future potential of ICT to replace physical trips.
A new technique for compensating the influence of the feedback DAC delay in continuous-time bandpass delta-sigma converters

A new technique for the synthesis of continuous time bandpass delta-sigma modulators with maximum gain margin and higher loop delay is presented. This method is based on the pulse shaping of the DAC output signal taking into account the loop delay and rise time. It is only based on discrete time analysis. It will be shown that high values of the loop delay together with high filter gain margin can be reached. The gain margin sensitivity to the real loop delay variation can also be improved if a return-to-zero DAC (RZDAC) is used.
On the Statistical Significance of a Community Structure

The community structure typically refers to the existence of a network partition in terms of a set of non-overlapping dense sub-graphs, where each sub-graph is called a community and there are few links between different communities. The detection of community structure is able to provide additional knowledge on the organization mechanism of the network and its characteristics. Despite decades of developments in community detection algorithms, how to determine whether a given community structure is true or not in a statistically sound manner still remains unresolved. In this paper, we derive an analytical upper bound on the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$p$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:mi>p</mml:mi></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="he-ieq1-3125330.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>-value of a community structure under the configuration model. To demonstrate its effectiveness on community structure validation, we further develop a community detection algorithm in which the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$p$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:mi>p</mml:mi></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="he-ieq2-3125330.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>-value upper bound is used as the objective function. Experimental results on both real networks and simulated networks show that our algorithm outperforms prior state-of-the-art community detection methods.
Active Roll Mode Control Implementation on a Narrow Tilting Vehicle

This paper describes work carried out on the development of a narrow tilting vehicle at the University of Minnesota. The project had two objectives. One objective was to better understand the dynamics of two-passenger leaning vehicles. The other was to use this understanding to design and implement leaning control on such a vehicle. The desire was to make a tilting vehicle as easy, in some sense, to drive as a non-leaning vehicle. The scope of this work was fourfold. First, a model of such a system was developed and linearized to obtain a fourth-order linear model. Second, a tilt controller was designed to stabilize a tilting vehicle's unstable rolling mode. Third, the system and controller were simulated using both Simulink and a real time simulator written with Visual Basic. Fourth, and most importantly, an experimental vehicle was built and used for implementation. Comparisons were made between the simulated system and the experimental vehicle. This illustrated the limitations encountered in the simulations but also showed similarities that validated the model. Also, experimental results showed that the vehicle was stabilized well by the controller within the limitations of our hardware.
Plant-based diet as a means to prevent and treat chronic disease

Chronic diseases, such as coronary artery disease, ischemic stroke, diabetes, and some specific types of cancer, were once thought to be prevalent in high-income countries only. However, research shows that these chronic diseases are now affecting populations worldwide [1]. Furthermore, migrants who go from a low-income country to a highincome country often have a dramatic increase in the rate of cancer and cardiovascular disease [2]. Rates of chronic disease among African Americans are similar to Caucasian Americans even though the rate of chronic disease is extremely low in traditional African societies. Not only does it illustrate the cultural environment that promote chronic disease in North America, it also indicates the primary determinants of these diseases are heavily influenced by modifiable environmental factors, such as lifestyle and diet.
Sustainability Evaluation of Low Carbon Technology and Transition Plan of Building Industry in Chongming, Shanghai

In order to meet the GHG reduction and sustainable goals in industry development, we need those strategies that are not only reducing GHG emissions but also not compromising other economic, environmental and social priorities. The low carbon and sustainable requirements in industry development are analyzed by reviewing the existing related researches. Multi-Attributive Assessment method is selected as the most appropriate one for the study. Indicators and utility value functions of the assessment system are accordingly set up. Building industry in Chongming, Shanghai is analyzed as case study. Most potential technologies and their preferential order are figured out after evaluation. CO2 emission reduction requirement in 2015 is worked out as 0.68 t for low carbon scenario and 1.36t for ideal scenario. Required building area is then calculated. Results show the low carbon scenario is possible to meet if the existing and new construction buildings can well apply the selected technologies.
Study on Grid-Connected Converter for Permanent Magnet Direct-Driven Wind Power System

According to characteristics of unidirectional flow of energy in permanent magnet wind power system, the paper proposes a two-quadrant three-level converter topology. Combined with method of the optimum tip speed ratio for tracking the maximum wind energy, the generator-side converter uses the double closed-loop control, speed outer loop and stator current inner loop control, whose control objective is to track the given generator speed. Grid-side converter uses the direct power control strategy based on virtual flux-linkage orientation. On the basis of MATLAB simulation platform, the permanent magnet wind power system simulation model was established. The simulation results show that the grid- and generator-side converter can operate with unity power factor, furthermore, verifies that the proposed converter structure is feasible.
A Novel Single-phase Inverter with Distribution Static Compensator Capability for Wind Applications

Abstract The modular multi-level converter is an attractive topology for high-voltage DC/flexible AC transmission systems. In this article, a new single-phase modular multi-level converter based distribution static compensator inverter for grid connection is proposed. The proposed inverter is designed for grid-connected wind turbines in the small- to mid-sized (10–20 kW) range using the most advanced multi-level inverter topology. The proposed modular multi-level converter distribution static compensator inverter controls the DC-link voltage as well as the active and reactive power transferred between the renewable energy source, specifically the wind turbine, and the grid in order to regulate the power factor of the grid regardless of the input active power from wind turbine. The goal of this study is to present a new inverter with flexible AC transmission system capability in a single unit without any additional cost. The five-level distribution static compensator inverter is simulated, and the results are presented to verify the operation of the proposed system. The simulation studies are carried out in the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment (The MathWorks, Natick, Massachusetts, USA). To validate the simulation results, an experimental configuration of a five-level modular multi-level converter distribution static compensator inverter has been built and tested.
Research on data transmission model of agricultural wireless sensor network based on game theory

ABSTRACT In order to improve the effect of agricultural data collection and transmission, based on the technology adopted by the mainstream agricultural environmental information monitoring system on the market, this paper uses game theory to innovatively improve the algorithm mechanism of wireless sensor nodes, optimise the clustering structure and routing method of wireless sensor networks, design a remote monitoring platform for field farm information and finally build a complete agricultural information monitoring system. Moreover, taking the temperature and humidity sensor as an example, this paper improves the parameters on the basis of testing the various performance of the sensor, and develops the software of the main chip on the basis of the improved node, and completes the driver design of the sensor. In addition, this paper constructs a wireless sensor network data transmission model based on game theory, and combines simulation experiments to conduct experimental research on the system model constructed in this paper. From the test results, it can be seen that the model constructed in this paper has a better effect.