Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Protection from Lethal Coxsackievirus-Induced Pancreatitis by Expression of Gamma Interferon

ABSTRACT Coxsackievirus infection causes severe pancreatitis and myocarditis in humans, often leading to death in young or immunocompromised individuals. In susceptible strains of mice, coxsackievirus strain CB4 causes lethal hypoglycemia. To investigate the potential of gamma interferon (IFN-γ) in protection and clearance of the viral infection, IFN-γ knockout mice and transgenic (Tg) mice specifically expressing IFN-γ in their pancreatic β cells were infected with CB4. Lack of IFN-γ in mice normally resistant to CB4-mediated disease resulted in hypoglycemia and rapid death. However, expression of IFN-γ in the β cells of Tg mice otherwise susceptible to lethal infection allowed for survival and protected them from developing the accompanying hypoglycemia. While all the mice had high levels of viral replication in their pancreata and comparable tissue pathology following viral infection, the Tg mice had significantly lower levels of virus at the peak of infection, significantly higher numbers of activated macrophages before and after infection, and less damage to their acinar tissue. Additionally, despite having increased levels of inducible nitric oxide synthetase (iNOS) expression, treatment of Tg mice with the iNOS inhibitor aminoguanidine did not alter the level of protection afforded by IFN-γ expression. In conclusion, IFN-γ protects from lethal coxsackievirus infection by activating macrophages in an iNOS-independent manner.
Development of a Proxy Data Set for the Energetic Heavy Ion Sensor (EHIS) in the GOES-R Space Environment In-Situ Suite (SEISS)

Energetic heavy ions of solar origin can adversely affect a variety of human operations including but not limited to aircraft, satellites, and spacecraft. In addition, energetic heavy ions can pose a threat to human health, particularly for astronauts beyond Earth's protective atmospheric layer. NOAA has monitored solar energetic particles (protons and alpha particles) since 1975 from geostationary orbit. The Energetic Heavy Ion Sensor (EHIS), which is part of the GOES-R Space Environment In-Situ Suite (SEISS, http://www.goesr.gov/spacesegment/seiss.html), will augment this longstanding capability. In support of NOAA's goal of a Weather Ready Nation, EHIS will measure elemental ion fluxes from hydrogen (atomic number = 1) to nickel (atomic number = 28) in energy ranges capable of penetrating normal satellite shielding and causing single event effects. The NESDIS National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) will derive a Level 2 product from EHIS fluxes in which the observed spectra of flux versus energy are transformed into spectra of flux versus linear energy transfer (LET) or stopping power in silicon. A flux-LET spectrum summed over all energetic ion species is more useful to the spacecraft design and testing communities than flux-energy spectra by particle type. Iron ion fluxes are of particular concern because they typically dominate the high end of the LET spectrum up to ~30 MeV cm mg. In support of the development and testing of the Level 2 LET algorithm, we have developed a proxy data set of energetic heavy ion fluxes from measurements by the Solar Isotope Spectrometer (SIS) aboard the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite (Stone et al., 1998). ACE is located at the L1 Lagrangian point; the heavy ion fluxes measured by GOES-R are expected to be similar to those observed at L1, particularly at higher energies. The SIS Level 2 product available from the ACE Science Center includes fluxes of the fourteen most abundant elements from helium to nickel in eight energy bands that vary by element but lie in the range from 4 to 150 MeV/nucleon. The upper four SIS energy bands overlap the lower part of the EHIS energy range. In order to generate the proxy data, a method has to be developed for interpolating or extrapolating the SIS fluxes to the EHIS energy bands. For the initial proxy data set, we have fit energy spectra of heavy ion differential flux integrated over entire solar energetic particle (SEP) events to an analytical expression derived from the physics of particle acceleration in solar flares. This expression fits well most of the observed spectra for all fourteen elemental ions. The resultant fits can be used to estimate the fluxes in the EHIS channels. In this paper, we describe the method for calculating the proxy data set and associated errors, and results of this analysis.
Removable singularities for bounded p-harmonic and quasi (super) harmonic functions on metric spaces

We study removable singularities for bounded p-harmonic functions in complete doubling metric spaces supporting a Poincare inequality. We show that a relatively closed set E of an arbitrary open set Ω is removable if it has zero capacity. Moreover, the extensions are unique. We give several general results showing nonremovability and giving us characterizations of removable sets as sets of capacity zero in various situations. We also provide examples of removable sets with positive capacity. Such examples can have some unexpected behaviour: e.g., E may disconnect Ω; the extensions may not be unique; and there exists a nonremovable union of two compact disjoint removable sets. Similar results for superharmonic, quasiharmonic and quasisuperharmonic functions are also given.
Prevalence, Clinical Correlates, and Use of Glucose-Lowering Drugs among Older Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Living in Long-Term Care Facilities

Prevalence, clinical correlates, and use of glucose-lowering drugs were comprehensively evaluated among 863 nursing home older patients with diabetes (mean age 82.9 ± 2.1 years): functional dependence and cognitive impairment were present in 84.1% and 68% of patients, respectively, and 66.3% of patients had 2–4 comorbidities. HbA1c values < 7.0% were documented in 54.9% of diabetic; significantly lower HbA1c levels were observed in demented patients than in nondemented subjects. Documented hypoglycemic episodes were reported for 57 patients (6.6%), without significant association with age, functional dependence, cognitive impairment, or HbA1c levels. About one-fifth of older long-term facilities residents have diabetes, with concomitant poor health conditions and high prevalence of cognitive impairment and functional dependence. Roughly three-fourths of these older and frail diabetic patients have HbA1c values lower than optimal, suggesting a potential for hypoglycemic harm especially among patients with severe cognitive impairment.
Contemporary Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine Contemporary Insights and Strategies for Risk Stratification and Prevention of Sudden Death in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Consequently, it is timely to summarize what hasbeen learned about HCM-related SD over these 5 decades,including the electrophysiological substrate, epidemiology,risk markers, and ultimately the role of ICDs, which havechanged the natural course of this complex disease.This discussion emphasizes the clarification of areas inwhich disagreement and divergent views arise, by usingavailable information to achieve a balanced assessment of SDin HCM. However, these observations ultimately representonly a “snapshot” in time for what undoubtedly will prove tobe an evolving area of investigation and understanding.
A fully-synthesized 20-gate digital spike-based synapse with embedded online learning

Neuromorphic engineering aims at building cognitive systems made of electronic neuron and synapse circuits. These emerging computing architectures have a high potential for real-world problems that are difficult to formalize and program, such as vision or sensorimotor control. In order to leverage the potential of neuromorphic engineering and study cognition principles in physical systems, the development of autonomous online learning is a key feature. However, to develop scalable systems that can be used in realistic applications, it is crucial to design compact and low-power hardware platforms. Here we analyze a spike-driven synaptic plasticity (SDSP) learning rule and show that it is particularly well suited for highly compact digital synapse implementations, especially if compared to conventional spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) rules. Furthermore, we designed an asynchronous fully-synthesizable digital synapse circuit with embedded SDSP-based online learning features, and with programmability options for versatile computing. The proposed synapse implementation requires only 20 gates for a compact area of 25μm2 in a 28nm FDSOI CMOS process.
Efficient and economic use of harvested rain water for sustainable crop production under rainfed agriculture

A field experiment was conducted from kharif 2006 to 2012 on sites at the AICRP for dry land agriculture, centre for watershed management partnership research & rural engineering, S.D Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar (North Gujarat) under arid and semi-arid agro-climatic zone. The different treatments viz., T1: Control, T2: Control with FYM @ 5 t ha, T3: One life saving irrigation, T4: One life saving irrigation with FYM@ 5 t ha, T5: Two lifesaving irrigation, T6: Two life saving irrigation with FYM @ 5 t ha were tried out in efficient and economic use of harvested rain water for sustainable crop production. The results revealed that the seed and stalk yield of castor affected significantly due to different treatment during all the years as well as in pooled results. The highest yield of castor 957.8 kg ha (Pooled) was recorded under treatment of two life saving irrigation with FYM @ 5 t ha, which is 59.92 percent higher than control (598.9 kg ha). It was followed by two life saving irrigation(815.2 kg/ha), which is 36.11 percent higher than control (598.9 kg ha), one life saving irrigation with FYM @ 5 t ha (795.0 kg ha), 32.74 percent higher than control. The stalk yield of castor was also observed highest under treatment two life saving irrigation with FYM @ 5 t ha (1110 kg ha), 64.73 percent higher than control followed by two life saving irrigation, one life saving irrigation with FYM @ 5 t ha and one life saving irrigation. The maximum B: C ratio (2.99) and water use efficiency (1.08) was also under treatment of two life saving irrigation with FYM @ 5 t ha.
Optimal Power Allocation and Scheduling Under Jamming Attacks

In this paper, we consider a jammed wireless scenario where a network operator aims to schedule users to maximize network performance while guaranteeing a minimum performance level to each user. We consider the case where no information about the position and the triggering threshold of the jammer is available. We show that the network performance maximization problem can be modeled as a finite-horizon joint power control and user scheduling problem, which is NP-hard. To find the optimal solution of the problem, we exploit dynamic programming techniques. We show that the obtained problem can be decomposed, i.e., the power control problem and the user scheduling problem can be sequentially solved at each slot. We investigate the impact of uncertainty on the achievable performance of the system and we show that such uncertainty leads to the well-known exploration-exploitation tradeoff. Due to the high complexity of the optimal solution, we introduce an approximation algorithm by exploiting state aggregation techniques. We also propose a performance-aware online greedy algorithm to provide a low-complexity sub-optimal solution to the joint power control and user scheduling problem under minimum quality-of-service requirements. The efficiency of both solutions is evaluated through extensive simulations, and our results show that the proposed solutions outperform other traditional scheduling policies.
8 Magnetic confinement and the sharp tachopause

The discovery by Spruit of a new small-scale turbulent dynamo has significantly changed the tachocline model proposed by Gough and McIntyre (GM98). The small-scale dynamo is shear driven, is characteristic of stably stratified flows, and is mediated by the kink or ‘tipping’ instability elucidated for such flows by R. J. Tayler. The dynamo works best in high latitudes and supports turbulent Maxwell stresses large enough to dominate the angular momentum transport, taking over from the pure mean meridional circulation (MMC) proposed in GM98. What survives from the GM98 tachocline scenario is the laminar thermomagnetic boundary layer at the tachopause, essential for the confinement of the interior field Bi by highlatitude downwelling. That downwelling is, however, itself confined within a double boundary layer at the tachopause. The thermomagnetic boundary layer sits just underneath a modified Ekman layer, in which the turbulent Maxwell stress of the small-scale dynamo diverges. The effects of compositional stratification in the helium settling layer under the tachopause are considered. It is concluded that GM98’s “polar pits” to burn lithium are dynamically impossible and that the tachopause is not only sharp but globally horizontal. That is, the tachopause, as marked by the top of the helium settling layer, follows a single heliopotential to within a very tiny fraction of a megametre from equator to pole. Therefore the stably-stratified tachocline, defined in high latitudes as the layer of dynamically significant shear beneath the convection zone, must be thick enough to burn lithium. This is consistent with the helioseismic evidence because the high-latitude shear, even though crucial to the maintenance of the dynamo action, is held down in magnitude, by the dynamo’s turbulent Maxwell stresses, to values too small to be visible.
Clinical application of single‐pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation for the treatment of depression

Abstract Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been recently suggested for the treatment of patients with major depression. Based on the results of the authors’ pilot study showing a possible antidepressive effect of single‐pulse TMS, a clinical trial was conducted involving patients with major depression. For the present study single‐photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) was recorded for six of the target patients to study the effects of TMS on the local blood flow volume. Twenty‐three inpatients meeting the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edn; DSM‐IV) criteria for major depression were invited to participate in the study. Depressive symptoms were rated using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM‐D). Patients were given 10 stimuli over the frontal area of both sides for a total of 20 stimuli in a session. The subjects had daily TMS session for 5 days as an add‐on therapy. In addition, six patients had their quantitative 99mTc‐ethyl cysteinate dimer SPECT images measured before and after TMS treatment. Compared with the value 2 days prior to the start of TMS therapy (24.2 ± 4.9), the average HAM‐D scale dropped significantly to 15.3 ± 6.6 on the day after completion of such therapy. The results of SPECT showed that the regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) of the bilateral frontal region had increased in four out of six patients when comparing before and after treatment. The present study shows that single‐pulse TMS, which is widely used as a neurological test method, possesses a wide range of antidepressive effects without inducing adverse reactions. The results suggest that although repetitive TMS is steadily becoming the mainstay technique today, single‐pulse TMS also possesses sufficient antidepressive effects.
Efficient Electronic Gambling: An Extended Implementation of the Toolbox for Mental Card Games

There are many wonderful protocols in cryptography which are still waiting for their realization. Here we consider efficient solutions for secure electronic card games. Our contribution seems to be the first known practical implementation that requires no trusted third-party and simultaneously keeps the players’ strategies confidential. The provided open source library LibTMCG can be used for creating secure peer-to-peer games and furthermore for some unusual applications, e.g., secure multiparty computation or simple electronic voting schemes.
Using web-based collaborative forecasting to enhance information literacy and disciplinary knowledge

This paper outlines how an existing collaborative forecasting tool called a prediction market (PM) can be integrated into an educational context to enhance information literacy skills and cognitive disciplinary knowledge. The paper makes a number of original contributions. First, it describes how this tool can be packaged as a pedagogical intervention which can be used in a range of contexts across multiple disciplines. This is illustrated by a case study, which describes the addition of a PM assignment to an undergraduate module. Second, using both quantitative and qualitative data, the paper empirically investigates the impact of PM participation on engagement in information search and cognitive disciplinary knowledge. Our results show that participant's behaviors are altered by the intervention, and that students actively search for information related to the forecasting problems presented. We also demonstrate that students' disciplinary knowledge is enhanced by the intervention.
Cloning of plasmid genes encoding resistance to cadmium, zinc, and cobalt in Alcaligenes eutrophus CH34

A 238-kilobase-pair plasmid, pMOL30, confers resistance to cadmium, zinc, and cobalt salts in Alcaligenes eutrophus CH34. After Tn5 mutagenesis, restriction nuclease analysis, and Southern DNA-DNA hybridization, a 9.1-kilobase-pair EcoRI fragment was found to harbor all of these resistance properties and was cloned into the broad-host-range hybrid plasmid pRK290. When transferred to a plasmid-free derivative of CH34, the hybrid plasmid conferred the same degree of resistance as the parent plasmid pMOL30. In two other Alcaligenes strains, the hybrid plasmid was expressed, but to a lower degree than in CH34 derivatives.
Health Insurance Coverage and Impact: A Survey in Three Cities in China

Background China has one of the world's largest health insurance systems, composed of government-run basic health insurance and commercial health insurance. The basic health insurance has undergone system-wide reform in recent years. Meanwhile, there is also significant development in the commercial health insurance sector. A phone call survey was conducted in three major cities in China in July and August, 2011. The goal was to provide an updated description of the effect of health insurance on the population covered. Of special interest were insurance coverage, gross and out-of-pocket medical cost and coping strategies. Results Records on 5,097 households were collected. Analysis showed that smaller households, higher income, lower expense, presence of at least one inpatient treatment and living in rural areas were significantly associated with a lower overall coverage rate. In the separate analysis of basic and commercial health insurance, similar factors were found to have significant associations. Higher income, presence of chronic disease, presence of inpatient treatment, higher coverage rates and living in urban areas were significantly associated with higher gross medical cost. A similar set of factors were significantly associated with higher out-of-pocket cost. Households with lower income, inpatient treatment, higher commercial insurance coverage, and living in rural areas were significantly more likely to pursue coping strategies other than salary. Conclusions The surveyed cities and surrounding rural areas had socioeconomic status far above China's average. However, there was still a need to further improve coverage. Even for households with coverage, there was considerable out-of-pocket medical cost, particularly for households with inpatient treatments and/or chronic diseases. A small percentage of households were unable to self-finance out-of-pocket medical cost. Such observations suggest possible targets for further improving the health insurance system.
Getting Research into Clinical Practice – Barriers and Solutions

The success of current efforts towards evidence-based health services in many countries depends on efficient transfer of research findings to health practitioners. However, there is a lag in research being adopted. In part this is due to difficulties in interpreting or generalising research findings, in part to inertia, organisational structures and information. Clinical guidelines are usually cited as being the most effective product of evidence assessment and means of getting research into practice. The processes by which they are prepared and disseminated are discussed. Current clinical practice requires that health professionals adapt to changing systems and adopt new techniques. Therefore, in future, practice research to evaluate (a) clinical interventions and (b) dissemination and implementation strategies will become increasingly important. Recognised barriers to such research include lack of interest, lack of involvement, lack of time and lack of remuneration. High-quality research in dental primary care requires academics and dental service providers working in partnership on topics that are relevant both to clinicians and policy makers. Good project management, education and training are essential.
Learning and the Evolution of Language: The Role of Cultural Variation and Learning Costs in the Baldwin Effect

The Baldwin effect has been explicitly used by Pinker and Bloom as an explanation of the origins of language and the evolution of a language acquisition device. This article presents new simulations of an artificial life model for the evolution of compositional languages. It specifically addresses the role of cultural variation and of learning costs in the Baldwin effect for the evolution of language. Results show that when a high cost is associated with language learning, agents gradually assimilate in their genome some explicit features (e.g., lexical properties) of the specific language they are exposed to. When the structure of the language is allowed to vary through cultural transmission, Baldwinian processes cause, instead, the assimilation of a predisposition to learn, rather than any structural properties associated with a specific language. The analysis of the mechanisms underlying such a predisposition in terms of categorical perception supports Deacon's hypothesis regarding the Baldwinian inheritance of general underlying cognitive capabilities that serve language acquisition. This is in opposition to the thesis that argues for assimilation of structural properties needed for the specification of a full-blown language acquisition device.
Longitudinal Research on the Behavioral Characteristics of Children with Learning Disabilities

This paper summarizes a program of research on the behavioral characteristics of children with learning disabilities (LD) compared to average achievers. Longitudinal studies over a 3-year period beginning in the first and second grades showed that children with LD, as a heterogeneous group, displayed a persistent pattern of maladaptive classroom behavior that distinguished them from average achieving peers and that was associated with continued underachievement over time. Subsequently, children with LD in the longitudinal sample were clustered into seven different subtypes that represented attention problems, conduct and classroom management problems, withdrawn-dependent behavior, and normal behavior. Although no differences in achievement were found initially between behavioral subtypes, children in the attention and conduct problem subtypes had poorer academic outcomes 3 years later compared to those in the withdrawn subtype and those who had no significant behavior problems. The collective findings from this research are discussed in terms of the developmental relationship between learning disabilities, attention disorders, and social/emotional problems, and implications are drawn for a greater focus on behavioral interventions in special education and prevention efforts in the early grades.