Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Endothelin B Receptors on Primary Chicken Müller Cells and the Human MIO-M1 Müller Cell Line Activate ERK Signaling via Transactivation of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptors

Injury to the eye or retina triggers Müller cells, the major glia cell of the retina, to dedifferentiate and proliferate. In some species they attain retinal progenitor properties and have the capacity to generate new neurons. The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) system and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling are key regulators of these processes in Müller cells. The extracellular signals that modulate and control these processes are not fully understood. In this work we studied whether endothelin receptor signaling can activate EGFR and ERK signaling in Müller cells. Endothelin expression is robustly upregulated at retinal injury and endothelin receptors have been shown to transactivate EGFRs in other cell types. We analyzed the endothelin signaling system in chicken retina and cultured primary chicken Müller cells as well as the human Müller cell line MIO-M1. The Müller cells were stimulated with receptor agonists and treated with specific blockers to key enzymes in the signaling pathway or with siRNAs. We focused on endothelin receptor mediated transactivation of EGFRs by using western blot analysis, quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR and immunocytochemistry. The results showed that chicken Müller cells and the human Müller cell line MIO-M1 express endothelin receptor B. Stimulation by the endothelin receptor B agonist IRL1620 triggered phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and autophosphorylation of (Y1173) EGFR. The effects could be blocked by Src-kinase inhibitors (PP1, PP2), EGFR-inhibitor (AG1478), EGFR-siRNA and by inhibitors to extracellular matrix metalloproteinases (GM6001), consistent with a Src-kinase mediated endothelin receptor response that engage ligand-dependent and ligand-independent EGFR activation. Our data suggest a mechanism for how injury-induced endothelins, produced in the retina, may modulate the Müller cell responses by Src-mediated transactivation of EGFRs. The data give support to a view in which endothelins among several other functions, serve as an injury-signal that regulate the gliotic response of Müller cells.
Characterisation of Ti-6Al-4V deposits produced by arc-wire based additive manufacture

xxvi Acknowledgements . xxviii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1 General . 1 1.2 Aims and Objectives . 3 1.3 Rationale . 5 1.4 Outline of Thesis . 6 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW . 8 2.1 Titanium and its Alloys . 8 2.2 Titanium Alloy Classification . 12 2.3 Production and Manufacture of Titanium and its Alloys . 16 2.3. 1 Cost Structure of Production and Manufacture of Titanium Components . 16 2.3. 2 Current Titanium Production Techniques . 19 2.3. 3 Emerging Production Processes . 23 2.3. 4 Fabrication of Titanium and its Alloys . 26 2.3. 5 Welding of Titanium and its Alloys . 31 2.4 Additive Manufacturing of Titanium . 36 2.5 Arc-wire Based Additive Manufacture of Ti-6Al-4V . 43 iv CHAPTER 3 – PROCESS CHARACTERISATION . 45 3.
Anxiety in Patients with Chronic Cor Pulmonale and Its Effect on Exercise Capacity

Background: Chronic cor pulmonale (CCP) is a disease of increasing frequency in Chinese people and profoundly influences their health. CCP is often accompanied by anxiety and other psychological problems, and patients may show signs of motor function decline. However, little attention has been paid to the impact of CCP-related psychological problems on motor function. Methods: Patients with CCP receiving in- or outpatient treatment in the Respiratory Department of Xiangya Hospital of Central South University and the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University in Hunan Province between January and July 2015 were investigated. A total of 167 questionnaires were distributed, with 160 valid questionnaires ultimately collected from 95 male and 65 female participants of mean age (± standard deviation) of 68.2 ± 12.3 yr. Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) scoring was adopted to evaluate anxiety in the participants, and heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, 6-minute walk test and Borg index score were combined to detect the exercise capability of the participants. Results: Anxiety was present in 48.8% of patients. Heart rate, systolic blood pressure, breathing rate and the Borg score of CCP patients with anxiety were higher than in CCP patients without anxiety (P < 0.05), while mean walking distance was shorter (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The rate of anxiety in patients with CCP is relatively high. Anxiety reduces motor function in CCP patients; therefore, in the process of treating patients with CCP, effort should be made to engage simultaneously patients in psychotherapy.
Modification of microstructure to increase impact toughness of nanostructured bainite–austenite steel

Abstract To improve impact toughness of the nanostructured bainite–austenite steel, a heat treatment operation was developed to divide prior austenite grains by plates of martensite directly before isothermal transformation. In the investigation, nanostructured steel containing 0·55%C, 1·95%Mn, 1·82%Si, 1·29%Cr and 0·72%Mo was used. It was found that a partial transformation to martensite achieved by cooling to 160°C followed by direct isothermal transformation to bainite at 225°C was the most promising treatment to improve Charpy impact energy of the investigated steel. For each testing temperature: ambient, 0, −20, −40 and −60°C, the specimens subjected to the developed treatment showed a higher averaged impact energy than the specimens subjected to the standard treatment.
Assessing impact of oral diseases on oral health related quality of life of institutionalized elderly using OHIP-14 in Bengaluru: A cross sectional study

The proportion of older people is growing faster than that of any other age group. The interrelationship between oral health and general health is particularly pronounced among older people. Poor oral health exerts a negative impact on the quality of life of geriatric population. There is no sound database regarding the oral disease burden and treatment needs of the elderly in India and the extent to which oral diseases impact the general health and quality of lives of the Indian elderly. A survey conducted among 218 subjects above 60 years of age residing in seven old age homes across Bengaluru city to assess the impact of oral diseases on oral health related quality of life using OHIP-14 questionnaire tool. Independent t-test revealed that, presence or absence of grossly decayed teeth produced significant differences in the physical pain, physical discomfort and handicap domains while edentulism (partial or complete) produced significant impact in the psychological disability domain of elderly subjects. Females experienced greater impact of oral diseases than males in all the domains of OHIP. Oral health status of the institutionalized geriatric population of Bengaluru, India is poor, with edentulism, periodontitis and under utilization being major concerns. The impact of oral diseases on the lives of elderly is relatively lower and disproportionate compared to the disease
Tree Automata

N -ary queries in trees select sets of n-tuples of nodes. We propose and investigate representation formalisms for n-ary queries by tree automata, both for ranked and unranked trees. We show that existential run-based queries ca pture MSO in then-ary case, as well as universal run-based queries. We then characteriz e queries by runs of unambiguous tree automata, and show how to decide whether an MSO d efine query belongs to this class.
Near-Optimal Power Allocation for MIMO Systems with Partial CSI Feedback

This paper studies the power allocation problems for a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna system with various partial channel state information (CSI) feedback. Through the derivation of new upper bounds of the ergodic capacity for both the cases of channel mean and covariance information feedback, we devise simple closed-form power allocation solutions for the MIMO systems with two transmit antennas. These results are then extended to systems with any number of antennas at both sides. Unlike previous approaches which require computationally complex numerical optimizations over random processes, our solutions in closed-form offer a water-filling interpretation and perform nearly the same as the global optimum.
Sum-capacity of multiple-write noisy memory

Motivated by the emerging interests in non-volatile solid-state computer memories such as flash memories, this paper studies the problem of repeatedly storing information on memory cells with noise and state. The goal is to reliably convey t messages by writing X<inf>j</inf><sup>j</sup> on an n-cell noisy memory p(y<inf>j</inf> |x<inf>j</inf>, y<inf>j−1</inf>), which stores Y <inf>j</inf><sup>n</sup> at the j-th write. We model this problem as a channel with state and introduce the multiple-write noisy memory model, which includes the write-once memory and flash memory models as special cases. The t-write sum-capacity for the multiple-write noisy memory is established as equation where the maximum is over all pmfs p(x<inf>1</inf>) П<inf>j</inf><sup>t</sup>=2 p(u<inf>j</inf> |y<inf>j−1</inf>) and functions xj(u<inf>j</inf>, y<inf>j−1</inf>), j = 2, …, t. We derive three outer bounds on the capacity region and discuss their extension to other classes of memory models. These results extend Wolf, Wyner, Ziv, and Körner's work on the binary write-once memory and Fu and Vinck's work on the generalized write-once memory to noisy memories.
Increased Serum PAI-1 Levels in Subjects with Metabolic Syndrome and Long-Term Adverse Mental Symptoms: A Population-Based Study

Depression is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and is associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS). Levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), an inhibitor of tissue-type and urokinase-type plasminogen activators, are associated with MetS. To clarify the role of PAI-1 in subjects with long-term adverse mental symptomatology (LMS; including depression) and MetS, we measured circulating PAI-1 levels in controls (n = 111), in subjects with MetS and free of mental symptoms (n = 42), and in subjects with both MetS and long-term mental symptoms (n = 70). PAI-1 increased linearly across the three groups in men. In logistic regression analysis, men with PAI-1 levels above the median had a 3.4-fold increased likelihood of suffering from the comorbidity of long-term adverse mental symptoms and MetS, while no such associations were detected in women. In conclusion, our results suggest that in men high PAI-1 levels are independently associated with long-term mental symptomatology.
The Network Origins of Aggregate Fluctuations

This paper argues that in the presence of intersectoral input-output linkages, microeconomic idiosyncratic shocks may lead to aggregate fluctuations. In particular, it shows that, as the economy becomes more disaggregated, the rate at which aggregate volatility decays is determined by the structure of the network capturing such linkages. Our main results provide a characterization of this relationship in terms of the importance of different sectors as suppliers to their immediate customers as well as their role as indirect suppliers to chains of downstream sectors. Such higher-order interconnections capture the possibility of "cascade effects" whereby productivity shocks to a sector propagate not only to its immediate downstream customers, but also indirectly to the rest of the economy. Our results highlight that sizable aggregate volatility is obtained from sectoral idiosyncratic shocks only if there exists significant asymmetry in the roles that sectors play as suppliers to others, and that the "sparseness" of the input-output matrix is unrelated to the nature of aggregate fluctuations.
Optimizing $\sigma^{0}$ Information From the Jason-2 Altimeter

A radar altimeter's normalized backscatter, sigma0, is used in many oceanographic applications to infer values of wind speed, wind stress, rain rate, and the presence of biogenic slicks. The waveform retracker used to estimate the key geophysical variables for the altimeters on the Jason-1 and Jason-2 satellites shows increased small-scale variability since the problem is ill-conditioned. A simple empirical adjustment to sigma0 improves the separability between various parameters and also improves the along-track profiles of sigma0. This leads to the following: 1) more realistic wind fields; 2) better discrimination of rain events; and 3) improved comparison between the Jason-1 and Jason-2 altimeters during their tandem mission.
Multiple Similarity Measures and Source-Pair Information in Story Link Detection

State-of-the-art story link detection systems, that is, systems that determine whether two stories are about the same event or linked, are usually based on the cosine-similarity measured between two stories. This paper presents a method for improving the performance of a link detection system by using a variety of similarity measures and using source-pair specific statistical information. The utility of a number of different similarity measures, including cosine, Hellinger, Tanimoto, and clarity, both alone and in combination, was investigated. We also compared several machine learning techniques for combining the different types of information. The techniques investigated were SVMs, voting, and decision trees, each of which makes use of similarity and statistical information differently. Our experimental results indicate that the combination of similarity measures and source-pair specific statistical information using an SVM provides the largest improvement in estimating whether two stories are linked; the resulting system was the bestperforming link detection system at TDT-2002.
Nutritional Status of Adolescent Girls in Rural Area of Kolar District-A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: To assess the nutritional status of adolescent girls in selected villages of the Kolar district. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was carried out over a period of two months. 230 adolescent girls of age 10–19 years were selected randomly. Data was collected by interviewing the adolescent girls using predesigned and pre tested Proforma. Various statistical applications like percentiles, mean, standard deviation and proportions were used for analysis of the data. Results: The prevalence of wasting and stunting was 54.79% and 32.17% respectively as per water lows classification and the trend of wasting and stunting declines with the age. The prevalence of thinness was found to be 73.5% as per Indian standards. Prevalence of Anemia was 34.8% percent and it was more among menstruating girls than compared to non-menstruating girls. Anemia prevalence was less among adolescent girls using footwear during defecation than girls not using foot wear. Conclusion: It is concluded that there is a high prevalence of under nutrition among adolescent girls in the rural area of the selected villages. Health education and nutrition interventions are needed on priority basis.
Multilayer Perceptrons: Approximation Order and Necessary Number of Hidden Units

This paper considers the approximation of sufficiently smooth multivariable functions with a multilayer perceptron (MLP). For a given approximation order, explicit formulas for the necessary number of hidden units and its distributions to the hidden layers of the MLP are derived. These formulas depend only on the number of input variables and on the desired approximation order. The concept of approximation order encompasses Kolmogorov-Gabor polynomials or discrete Volterra series, which are widely used in static and dynamic models of nonlinear systems. The results are obtained by considering structural properties of the Taylor polynomials of the function in question and of the MLP function.
Reconstruction of Upper‐Extremity Peripheral‐Nerve Injuries with ePTFE Conduits

This reported investigation was designed to determine the role of a new synthetic conduit-expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) tube--in clinical repair of median and ulnar nerves in the upper extremities. The main goals of this study were: to determine the effectiveness of the ePTFE conduit in clinical nerve reconstruction; to evaluate the potential of this technique in reconstruction of various nerve gaps (1.5 to 6 cm); and to analyze the results of repair with the ePTFE tube regarding different mechanisms of injury. Forty-three patients were evaluated. They had upper-extremity peripheral-nerve injuries (21 injuries to the median nerve, and 22 ulnar nerve injuries) located at the various levels of the upper extremities. All surgical procedures described in the study were secondary reconstructions, and the average delay from injury to repair was 4.2 months. With regard to the nerve-gap lengths, patients were categorized in two groups. Group 1 (gaps from 1.5 to 4 cm) included 28 patients (17 median nerve injuries and 11 ulnar nerve injuries), and Group 2 (gaps from 4.1 to 6 cm) comprised 15 patients (4 median nerve injuries and 11 ulnar nerve injuries). Results showed that 78.6 percent of patients from Group 1 demonstrated functional motor and sensory recovery, while reconstruction of only 13.3 percent of peripheral nerves from Group 2 resulted in useful reinnervation. According to published results, ePTFE conduit is a reliable and successful surgical procedure for nerve repair in reconstruction of nerve gaps up to 4 cm between the ends of median and ulnar nerves in various levels of the upper extremity. Because of its properties, ePTFE conduit has the advantages of promoting better nerve regeneration, compared to other synthetic tubes, especially in reconstruction of proximal nerve injuries, larger nerve gaps, and in cases with unfavorable mechanisms of nerve injury.
The N-terminal region of influenza virus polymerase PB1 adjacent to the PA binding site is involved in replication but not transcription of the viral genome

The influenza virus genome forms viral ribonucleoprotein (vRNP) complexes with nucleoprotein and viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerases (RdRp), PB1, PB2, and PA subunits. The vRNP complex catalyzes both genome replication and transcription reactions. PB1 contains the motifs highly conserved among RdRps and functions as a catalytic subunit of RdRp. The N-terminal region of PB1 between amino acid (a.a.) positions 1–83 contains both putative vRNA and cRNA promoter binding sites and a PA binding site. However, except for the PA binding site, the crystal structure and the function of the N-terminal region of PB1 are poorly understood. Here, we have examined the functional structure of the N-terminal region of PB1. The regions between a.a. positions 1–50 are highly conserved between influenza A and B viruses, but amino acids at positions 16, 27, and 44 are different between two viruses. To elucidate the functional importance of these amino acids in replication and transcription of the viral genome, we generated viruses containing mutations at these positions by reverse genetics and examined replication and transcription activities of these mutants. We found that a.a. positions 27 and 44 are responsible for the viral replication activity but not transcription activity.
Conventional carotid endarterectomy versus stenting: comparison of restenosis rates in arteries with identical predisposing factors.

BACKGROUND The aim of the study was to investigate the possible role of individual predisposition in the pathogenesis of carotid restenosis. METHODS Over 1700 patients have undergone carotid endarterectomy (CEA) in our institute over the past 15 years. We retrospectively reviewed the charts of those who also had contralateral carotid stenting (CAS) for primary atherosclerotic stenosis and recorded the rates of post-CEA and post-CAS restenosis ≥50%. RESULTS In the 29 cases analyzed (21 men/8 women), CEA was performed with conventional technique and direct suturing in most cases. Mean ages at the time of CEA and CAS were 69.2±6.6 and 73±6.7 yrs, respectively, and risk profiles at the 2 time points were similar: hypertension (96.5%), dyslipidemia (55.2%), smoking (51.7%), diabetes (31%), coronary artery disease (48.3%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (37.9%), and chronic renal failure (13.8%). Antiplatelet therapy protocols were identical for the two procedures. During follow-up (mean: 67.25±51.6 months after CEA, 24.6±16.9 months after CAS), Duplex scans revealed restenosis in 12 patients (9 arteries treated with CEA, 6 managed with CAS). In three patients, restenosis was bilateral. Restenosis-free survival rates at five years were 85% after CEA and 66% after CAS (P=NS). CONCLUSIONS In this selected group of patients, CEA and CAS were associated with a similar incidence of restenosis. Only 25% of the patients who developed restenosis did so after both procedures. These preliminary findings indicate that individual predisposition does not play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of restenosis. To confirm this conclusion, an analysis of a much larger, multicenter cohort is essential.
A New Hand-Measurement Method to Simplify Calibration in CyberGlove-Based Virtual Rehabilitation

We have previously developed a prototype virtual-reality-enhanced rehabilitation system using the CyberForce system to assist patients who have suffered from upper extremity stroke to practice some daily life exercises. However, full calibration of the system for each patient is currently not only tedious and time consuming but also impractical in the case of severely disabled hands. In this paper, we propose a practical and easy-to-perform hand-measurement method to calibrate the CyberGlove using artificial neural networks (NNs). The NNs are trained with the hand-segment sizes as input and the manually collected calibrated data as output. The only external device needed is a 2-D digital camera to take the picture of the subject's hand against a chessboard for the hand-segment-size measurement. Subjective evaluation results for various common hand postures show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
POROUS AND MICROPOROUS HONEYCOMB COMPOSITES AS POTENTIAL BOUNDARY-LAYER BLEED MATERIALS

Results of an experimental investigation are presented in which the use of porous and microporous honeycomb composite materials is evaluated as an alternate to perforated solid plates for boundary-layer bleed in supersonic aircraft inlets. The terms "porous" and "microporous," respectively, refer to bleed orifice diameters roughly equal to and much less than the displacement thickness of the approach boundary-layer. A baseline porous solid plate, two porous honeycomb, and three microporous honeycomb configurations are evaluated. The performance of the plates is characterized by the flow coefficient and relative change in boundary-laye r profile parameters across the bleed region. The tests were conducted at Mach numbers of 1.27 and 1.98. The results show that the porous honeycomb is not as efficient at removing mass compared to the baseline. The microporous plates were about equal to the baseline with one plate demonstrating a significantly higher efficiency. The microporous plates produced significantly fuller boundarylayer profiles downstream of the bleed region for a given mass flow removal rate than either the baseline or the porous honeycomb plates.
InP-based Membrane Photodetectors for Optical Interconnects to Si

We present the design, fabrication and a characterization of an InP-based membrane photodetector on an SOI wafer containing a Si-wiring photonic circuit. Waveguide losses in the Si-wiring circuit are below 5 dB/cm. Measured detector responsivity is 0.45 A/W. The photonic device fabrication is compatible with wafer scale processing steps, guaranteeing compatibility towards future generation electronic IC processing.