Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Obesity, Migraine, and Overlapping Comorbidities in a Rural Pediatric Population

Abstract Objective This study aims to report the prevalence of obesity and overlapping comorbidities in a rural population of children and adolescents with migraine. Design and Methods A cross-sectional, descriptive, secondary data analysis using a comprehensive patient database from the West Virginia University (WVU) Medicine Epic Clarity system will be reported. A review of electronic medical records of 990 children and adolescents, ages 7 to 17 years, evaluated for headache at a rural clinic from December 1, 2009 to December 31, 2017 was completed. The Chi-square test was used to identify any differences in demographic characteristics (age, gender, and race) and distribution of comorbidities (obstructive sleep apnea syndrome [OSAS], depression, and anxiety) among obese versus nonobese adolescents with migraine. Student’s t-test was used to identify any differences in the number of comorbidities between the two groups. Results A total of 648 children and adolescents with a diagnosis of migraine were identified. Approximately 26.4% of the children and adolescents diagnosed with migraine (n = 648) met the criteria for being obese with a mean body mass index (BMI) of 30.6 kg/m2 (standard deviation [SD] = 6.5), ranging from 20.0 to 58.5 kg/m2. There were no significant differences between migraineurs who were categorized as obese versus nonobese in terms of gender (p = 0.8587), age (p = 0.1703), race (p = 0.7655), anxiety (p = 0.1841), or depression (p = 0.2793). Obese individuals have more comorbidities than nonobese individuals (p = 0.015). Additionally, the prevalence of OSAS was significantly higher among obese versus nonobese migraineurs (20 vs. 9.9%, p = 0.0007). Conclusion Given the prevalence of obesity in rural pediatric populations and the reported neurobiological links between migraine and obesity, BMI needs to be monitored and weight management interventions included in plans of care for rural children and adolescents with migraine.
Evaluation of Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio, Platelet-to-Lymphocyte Ratio, and C-Reactive Protein in Tension-Type Headache Patients

Abstract Objectives A tension headache is the most common type of headache, and its causes are multifactorial. A relationship has been shown between migraine headaches and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and C-reactive protein (CRP). In this study, we investigated the NLR, PLR, and serum CRP levels in frequent episodic tension-type headache (FETTH) and chronic tension-type headache (CTTH) patients. Materials and Methods This retrospective study included 64 patients with FETTH, 80 patients with CTTH, and 60 healthy controls who were followed up in the neurology clinic. Hematological parameters were compared between the patient and control groups. Results In CTTH patients, platelets, NLR, PLR, and CRP values were statistically higher than in FETTH patients and patients in the control group. In FETTH patients, the PLR value was higher than in patients in the control group, but there was no statistically significant difference in NLR and CRP values between FETTH patients and patients in the control group. Also, there was no correlation between these values and age and gender. Conclusion Increase platelet count might have an effect on tension-type headache pathophysiology. Systemic inflammation parameters were shown to be significantly higher in CTTH patients. More comprehensive studies are needed to evaluate the effect of systemic inflammation on the chronicity of tension headaches.
Cell penetration and chondrogenic differentiation of human adipose derived stem cells on 3D scaffold

The ability of cells to penetrate the scaffold and differentiate into chondrocyte is important in cartilage engineering. The aim of this research was to evaluate the use of silk fibroin 3D scaffold in facilitating the growth of stem cell and to study the role of L-ascorbic acid and platelet rich plasma (PRP) in proliferation and differentiation genes. Cell penetration and type II collagen content in the silk fibroin scaffold was analyzed by confocal microscopy. Relative expressions of CDH2, CCND1, CTNNB1 and COL2A1 were analyzed by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). The silk fibroin 3D scaffold could facilitate cell penetration. L-ascorbic acid and PRP increased the expression of CDH2 and COL2A1 on the 21st day of treatment while PRP inhibited CTNNB1 and CCND1.
Exosomes derived from human umbilical cord Wharton's jelly mesenchymal stem cells ameliorate experimental lymphedema

Dear Editor, Acquired lymphedema is a complex disease caused by cancer treatment or parasitic infection and few effective treatments are available for lymphedema.1–3 It is urgently needed to develop new experimental approaches and therapeutic strategies.3 In this study, we address a new role and mechanism of MSC-ex (human umbilical cord Wharton’s jelly mesenchymal stem cells derived exosome) in lymphedema treatment.We found thatMSC-ex deliveredAng2 (angiopoietin-2) promoted lymphangiogenesis by upregulating Prox1 (ProsperoHomeobox 1) mediated Akt signaling. MSC-ex can improve lymphatic function and ameliorate edema in a mouse model of acquired lymphedema. MSC-ex were isolated from the conditional medium of WJ-MSC, which were negative for CD206 and positive for CD29, CD44 (Figure 1A,D). Exosomalmarkers CD9, CD63, CD81, and TSG101 were expressed in MSC-ex, whereas Calnexin was not detected (Figure 1B,C). MSC-ex showed a spheroid shape, and the size was about 130 nm (Figure 1E-G). To investigate the effect of MSC-ex on edema, we developed an acquired lymphedema model via surgical dissection of lymphatic vessels in the mouse tail (Figure 1H). As shown in Figure 1I, subcutaneously administeredDir labeledMSC-ex localized in the injured tail at 24 h after treatment. MSC-ex treatment promoted lymphatic drainage in lymphedema mice as injected methylene blue across the site of incision atweek 6,whichwas not found in PBS treatedmice (Figure 1J). The edema determined by tail diameter was persisted in mice treated by PBS. However, the edemawasmarkedly reduced at week 2 inmice treated by MSC-ex (Figure 1K). As lymphangiogenesis is crucial in lymphedema development after lymphatic ablation,4,5 we analyzed the lymphatic anatomy and lymphangiogenesis inMSC-ex treated animals. Relative to PBS-treated animals, a relatively thinner dermis and epidermis was found in MSC-ex treated mice (Figure 1L). Number of LYVE-1 (lymphatic endothelial hyluronan receptor-1) lymphatics
Immunohistological Examination of AKT Isoforms in the Brain: Cell-Type Specificity That May Underlie AKT’s Role in Complex Brain Disorders and Neurological Disease

Abstract Protein kinase B (PKB/AKT) is a central kinase involved in many neurobiological processes. AKT is expressed in the brain as three isoforms, AKT1, AKT2, and AKT3. Previous studies suggest isoform-specific roles in neural function, but very few studies have examined AKT isoform expression at the cellular level. In this study, we use a combination of histology, immunostaining, and genetics to characterize cell-type-specific expression of AKT isoforms in human and mouse brains. In mice, we find that AKT1 is the most broadly expressed isoform, with expression in excitatory neurons and the sole detectable AKT isoform in gamma-aminobutyric acid ergic interneurons and microglia. By contrast, we find that AKT2 is the sole isoform expressed in astroglia and is not detected in other neural cell types. We find that AKT3 is expressed in excitatory neurons with AKT1 but shows greater expression levels in dendritic compartments than AKT1. We extend our analysis to human brain tissues and find similar results. Using genetic deletion approaches, we also find that the cellular determinants restricting AKT isoform expression to specific cell types remain intact under Akt deficiency conditions. Because AKT signaling is linked to numerous neurological disorders, a greater understanding of cell-specific isoform expression could improve treatment strategies involving AKT.
DUBLIN CITY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING Resource Allocation for Multimedia Messaging Services over EGPRS

Declaration I hereby declare that, except where otherwise indicated, this document is entirely my own work and has not been submitted in whole or in part to any other university. Abstract The General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a new bearer service for GSM that greatly simplifies wireless access to packet data networks, such as the Internet, corporate LANs or to mobile portals. It applies a packet radio standard to transfer user data packets in well-organized way between Mobile Stations (MS) and external packet data networks. The Enhanced General Packet Radio Service (EGPRS) is an extension of GPRS, offering much greater capacity. These enhancements have allowed the introduction of new services like Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS). MMS enables messaging with full content versatility, including images, audio, video, data and text, from terminal to terminal or from terminal to e-mail. The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is the WAP Forum standard for the presentation and delivery of wireless information and telephony services on mobile phones and other wireless terminals. In this thesis it is indicated that efficient radio resource allocation is necessary for managing different types of traffic in order to maintain the quality demands for different types of services. A theoretical model of MMS and WAP traffic is developed, and based on this model a simulator is implemented in Java programming language. This thesis proposes two techniques to improve the radio resource allocation algorithm performance called "radio link condition diversification" and "interactive traffic class prioritization". The radio link condition diversification technique defines minimum radio link quality that allows the user to receive their packets. The interactive traffic class prioritization technique defines different priorities for WAP packets and for MMS packets. Both techniques give good results in increasing user's perception of services and increasing network efficiency. iv This thesis indicates also that the prioritization mechanism successfully improves the response time of the interactive service by up to 80% with a setting of priority for interactive traffic class and decreasing the performance of the background traffic. This decrease is within a range acceptable by the end-user and that the link conditions limit mechanism has an advantage in terms of resource utilization.
Intervention Aware Shared Autonomy

Shared autonomy refers to approaches for enabling an autonomous agent to collaborate with a human with the aim of improving human performance. However, besides improving performance, it may often be beneﬁcial that the agent concurrently accounts for preserving the user’s experience or satisfaction of collaboration. In order to address this additional goal, we examine approaches for improving the user experience by constraining the number of interventions by the autonomous agent. We propose two model-free reinforcement learning methods that can account for both hard and soft constraints on the number of interventions. We show that not only does our method outperform the existing baseline, but also eliminates the need to manually tune an arbitrary hyperparameter for controlling the level of assistance. We also provide an in-depth analysis of intervention scenarios in order to further illuminate system understanding.
Gendered Barriers to Formal Healthcare Utilization: Modelling Healthcare Demand in a Low-Resource Setting

This paper develops a model of healthcare demand to study healthcare choices in resource-limited settings with poor health indicators, especially for women. Using data from rural Nigeria on individual illnesses and injuries as well as the entire portfolio of locally available providers, we estimate the effect of price, distance and quality on access to care, focusing on the heterogeneous responses to these three factors by gender. We find that women are more price sensitive than men, in particular in households where they have low bargaining power, while being equally responsive to quality or distance. Using our model to simulate ex-ante the impacts of price interventions, we predict that a full price subsidy in public clinics would substantially increase both men's and women's access to formal care, and almost eliminate the observed gender gap in formal healthcare utilization. Subsidizing both public and private clinics only marginally improves overall access, but it fully eliminates the observed gender gap in addition to broadening the capacity of the health sector to respond to increased demand when public facilities have limited capacity.
Fournier s gangrene: etiology, treatment outcomes and factors affecting mortality in 38 patients

Aim: Fournier's gangrene (FG) is a rare, rapidly progressing and life-threatening disease of the genital, perianal and perineal regions. We aimed to evaluate etiological parameters, accompanying diseases, current treatment methods and factors affecting mortality in patients with FG. Method: The medical records of 38 patients who were operated by the same team with a diagnosis of FG from December 2015 to January 2021 were retrospectively reviewed. Those patients were divided into two groups: survivors (Group 1), and non-survivors (Group 2). Comparisons were made regarding clinical and demographic features; comorbid diseases; leukocyte count at first presentation; etiological factors; treatment outcomes; and mortality rates. Results: Thirty-eight patients (24 males, 14 females) were evaluated; mean age was 60.2 ± 13.2 years. While 76.3% (n = 29) of these patients recovered with treatment, the total mortality rate was 23.7% (n = 9). The most common cause of the FG and comorbidity were anorectal diseases (n = 22; 57.9%) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (n = 21; 55.3%), respectively. Female gender, septic shock, necrosis, abdominal wall and lumbar region involvement, chronic renal failure, FG development secondary to postoperative complications and ostomy rates were higher in non-survivors. There were no significant differences between the two groups regarding leukocyte count at first presentation, number of debridement, dressing methods, reconstruction methods, and length of hospital stay. Conclusions: Female gender, presence of septic shock and necrosis on physical examination, involvement of the abdominal wall and lumbar region in addition to the perianal region, chronic renal failure, disease secondary to postoperative complications and the necessity of ostomy play an important role in mortality.
Poultry and Wild Bird Interactions: An Assessment of Risk Factors in Kogi State, Nigeria

Department of Veterinary Medicine, Surgery and Radiology, University of Jos, Nigeria Department of Animal Sciences, Cross River State University of Technology, Obubra Campus, Nigeria Department of Veterinary Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria Ministry of Agriculture, Kogi State, Nigeria *Corresponding author’s Email: amejivet@gmail.com, ORCID: 0000 0002 1052 2799 Received: 20 Apr. 2021 Accepted: 03 June 2021 ABSTRACT
Central Bank of Iceland Emu and the Icelandic Labour Market Emu and the Icelandic Labour Market

Iceland. The views expressed in them are those of their authors and not necessarily the views of the Central Bank of Iceland. Abstract In this paper we look at the costs and benefits for Iceland from joining the EMU from a labour-market perspective. We conclude that none of Mundell's three criteria for an optimal currency area are at present fulfilled for Iceland and the initial Euro zone. Shocks to the Icelandic economy are found to be asymmetric with those experienced in other countries, nominal wages rigid, and migration limited. The painful adjustment of the Faeroese economy to macroeconomic shocks in the early 1990s suggests that the disadvantages of not having a separate currency can be substantial if nominal wages are rigid. Substantial variation in labour market participation and frequent adjustments of the exchange rate seem to have held unemployment in check in Iceland, at least until around 1988. * All authors are affiliated with the Institute of Economic Studies at the University of Iceland except Zoega who is affiliated with Birkbeck College, University of London. We wish to thank Má r Guð mundsson and Guð mundur Magnú sson for comments and Haukur C. Benediktsson, Marias H. Gestsson, and Marta G. Skú ladó ttir for research assistance. The study is financed by the Central Bank of Iceland, but responsibility for the content of the paper lies with the authors.
Stellar Evolution of High Mass-Loss Stars

E-mail: pierre.millette@uottawa.ca, Ottawa, Canada In this paper, we investigate the 37 strongest QSO emission lines of stars of type Q in the catalog of Hewitt & Burbidge [22], as determined by Varshni et al [21]. We identify the candidate lines from atomic spectra lines data and determine the estimated Te range down to the 50% ionic element density for the identified candidate emission lines. This information assists in the classification of Q stars from the 37 QSO dominant emission lines. We use the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram to analyze and determine the role of mass loss in the evolution of stars. We review the nucleosynthesis process that leads from massive O stars to WN and then WC Wolf-Rayet stars as a result of mass loss, and then consider the nucleosynthesis of oxygen in massive stars, showing that 16O oxygen has a significant presence in massive stars beyond the WC stage, until the generation of 28Si, where it disappears. This leads us to postulate more than one population of stars of type Q. One group identified by Varshni [27] with O VI and He II emission lines in their spectra implying much higher temperatures and positioning those QSO stars above the WR region in the HRD. The other group with emission lines dominated by temperatures in the O II and O III range, indicating a lower temperature range of QSO stars with a significant number of ionized oxygen lines and some Si emission lines, in addition to the nitrogen WN and carbon WC lines. We postulate that these QSO spectra correspond to unrecognized Wolf-Rayet stars, in particular WO stars and WSi pre-supernova stars, extending into lower temperatures. In that scenario, Q stars would be the end-state of the Wolf-Rayet evolution process, prior to moving to the supernova state.
Exploring the Marketing Mix of Mobile App Market in India

- The study examines the influence of marketing mix used by the app developers on the presence and position of apps in the Indian Market. The study was guided by 5 research questions and two research objectives. A survey was conducted where the sample size was 263 respondents. Moreover insights of app developers were also taken in the form of telephonic interview. The result of the study shows appropriate marketing mix for mobile app market in India. This study can be used by app developers to create a presence of an app and enhance its position in the Indian market.
An electromagnetic actuator for brain magnetic resonance elastography with high frequency accuracy

Our goal is to design, test and verify an electromagnetic actuator for brain magnetic resonance elastography (MRE). We proposed a grappler‐shaped design that can transmit stable vibrations into the brain. To validate its performance, simulations were carried out to ensure the electromagnetic field generated by the actuator did not interfere with the B0 field. The actuation vibration spectrum was analyzed to verify the actuation accuracy. Phantom and volunteer experiments were carried out to evaluate the performance of the actuator. Simulation of the magnetic field showed that the proposed actuator has a fringe field of less than 3 G in the imaging region. The phantom experiments showed that the proposed actuator did not interfere with the routine imaging sequences. The measured vibration spectra demonstrated that the frequency offset was about one third that of a pneumatic device and the transmission efficiency was three times higher. The shear moduli estimated from brain MRE were consistent with those from the literature. The actuation frequency of the proposed actuator has less frequency offset and off‐center frequency components compared with the pneumatic counterpart. The whole actuator weighted only 980 g. The actuator can carry out multifrequency MRE on the brain with high accuracy. It is easy to use, comfortable for the patient and portable.
The morphology-controlled synthesis of a nanoporous-antimony anode for high-performance sodium-ion batteries

We have presented a comprehensive study of using chemical dealloying methods to control the morphology of nanoporous-antimony (NP-Sb) and the size of Sb particles. For the first time, depending on the regulation of the Al–Sb alloy composition, coral-like NP-Sb (NP-Sb70), honeycomb-like NP-Sb (NP-Sb80) and Sb particles (Sb10, Sb30 and Sb45) with different sizes were prepared through chemical dealloying of Al30Sb70, Al20Sb80, Al90Sb10, Al70Sb30 and Al55Sb45 (at%) alloy ribbon precursors respectively, a top-down process. The NP-Sb70 delivered a high capacity of 573.8 mA h g−1 after 200 cycles at a rate of 100 mA g−1 with good rate capability as anode for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). The excellent electrochemical performance is because of its innovative electrode design, which ensures strong structural integrity, high sodium ion accessibility, and fast electrode transport. This scalable strategy shall pave the way for the mass production of large-capacity electrodes for SIBs and other energy storage systems, providing new guidelines for the optimization of the synthesis of nanostructures.
Shared decision‐making in standardized cancer patient pathways in Norway—Narratives of patient experiences

Cancer patient pathways (CPPs) were implemented in Norway in 2015–2017 to advance cancer diagnostics and treatment initiation. The aim of CPPs is to ensure standardized waiting times, but also to strengthen patient participation and shared decision‐making. This study investigates how patients enrolled in a CPP experienced shared decision‐making.
Changes in neural drive to calf muscles during steady submaximal contractions after repeated static stretches

Repeated static‐stretching interventions consistently increase the range of motion about a joint and decrease total joint stiffness, but findings on the changes in muscle and connective‐tissue properties are mixed. The influence of these stretch‐induced changes on muscle function at submaximal forces is unknown. To address this gap in knowledge, the changes in neural drive to the plantar flexor muscles after a static‐stretch intervention were estimated. Neural drive to the plantar flexor muscles during a low‐force contraction increased after repeated static stretches. These findings suggest that adjustments in motor unit activity are necessary at low forces to accommodate reductions in the force‐generating and transmission capabilities of the muscle–tendon unit after repeated static stretches of the calf muscles.