Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unveiling Stimulation Secrets of Electrical Excitation of Neural Tissue Using a Circuit Probability Theory

Electrical excitation of neural tissue has wide applications, but how electrical stimulation interacts with neural tissue remains to be elucidated. Here, we propose a new theory, named the Circuit-Probability theory, to reveal how this physical interaction happen. The relation between the electrical stimulation input and the neural response can be theoretically calculated. We show that many empirical models, including strength-duration relationship and linear-non-linear-Poisson model, can be theoretically explained, derived, and amended using our theory. Furthermore, this theory can explain the complex non-linear and resonant phenomena and fit in vivo experiment data. In this letter, we validated an entirely new framework to study electrical stimulation on neural tissue, which is to simulate voltage waveforms using a parallel RLC circuit first, and then calculate the excitation probability stochastically.
Challenges : Building Scalable Mobile Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks for Aquatic Applications

Large-scale mobile Underwater Wireless Sensor Network (UWSN) is a novel networking paradigm to explore aqueous environments. However, the characteristics of mobile UWSNs, such as low communication bandwidth, large propagation delay, floating node mobility, and high error probability, are significantly different from ground-based wireless sensor networks. The novel networking paradigm poses inter-disciplinary challenges that will require new technological solutions. In particular, in this article we adopt a top-down approach to explore the research challenges in mobile UWSN design. Along the layered protocol stack, we roughly go down from the top application layer to the bottom physical layer. At each layer, a set of new design intricacies are studied. The conclusion is that building scalable mobile UWSNs is a challenge that must be answered by inter-disciplinary efforts of acoustic communications, signal processing and mobile acoustic network protocol design. Keywords— Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks, Acoustic Communications, Node Mobility, Energy Efficiency
The Effect of Trust, Perceived Risk and Security on the Adoption of Mobile Banking in Morocco

This short paper shows an acceptability model developed based on UTAUT (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology) and three additional factors namely “Perceived risk”, “Security” and “Trust”. The model was tested using 460 responses obtained from the almost 720mobile banking application users from five banks such as CIH, BP, AWB, CM, SGMB in Marrakech, Morocco. The first replies analysis, reveals that Performance expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social influence and Security in Mobile banking show a significant positive impact on the users’ behavioural intention to accept mobile banking services. However, Trust, facilitating conditions and Perceived risk in the mobile application does not influence positively the behavioural intention. Note also that the resulting model of this study, still in progress, explains almost 62% of users’ intention to use mobile banking.
The emergence of jets and vortices in freely evolving, shallow-water turbulence on a sphere

Results from a series of simulations of unforced turbulence evolving within a shallow layer of fluid on a rotating sphere are presented. Simulations show that the turbulent evolution in the spherical domain is strongly dependent on numerical and physical conditions. The independent effects of (1) (hyper)dissipation and initial spectrum, (2) rotation rate, and (3) Rossby deformation radius are carefully isolated and studied in detail. In the nondivergent and nonrotating case, an initially turbulent flow evolves into a vorticity quadrupole at long times, a direct consequence of angular momentum conservation. In the presence of sufficiently strong rotation, the nondivergent long‐time behavior yields a field dominated by polar vortices—as previously reported by Yoden and Yamada. In contrast, the case with a finite deformation radius (i.e., the full spherical shallow‐water system) spontaneously evolves toward a banded configuration, the number of bands increasing with the rotation rate. A direct application of.
Precision Farming Tools. Soil Electrical Conductivity

Virginia Cooperative Extension programs and employment are open to all, regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or marital or family status. An equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia State University, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture cooperating. Rick D. Rudd, Interim Director, Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg; Alma C. Hobbs, Administrator, 1890 Extension Program, Virginia State, Petersburg. publication 442-508
Factors Influencing and Steps Leading to the Adoption of Best Management Practices by Louisiana Dairy Farmers

A logistic regression procedure was used to assess the impact of socioeconomic attributes on the best management practices (BMPs) adoption decision by Louisiana dairy farmers relative to cost-share and fixed incentive payments. Analysis of the steps in the BMP adoption decision process indicated visits between producers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture–Natural Resource Conservation Service significantly increase likelihood of BMP adoption. Producer willingness-to-pay results indicate that marginal increases in dairy BMP adoption and associated improvement in environmental quality require increased technical and financial assistance.
Smoking Among Off-Reserve First Nations, Métis, and Inuit High School Students

Using data from the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey (APS), this study investigated associations between smoking and a number of school, peer, and family characteristics among off-reserve First Nations (n = 2,308), Métis (n = 2,058), and Inuit (n = 655) high school students aged 12 to 21 years. Logistic regressions revealed important group differences in Indigenous youths' correlates of smoking. Characteristics that were negatively associated with smoking included attending a school with a positive environment or having peers with high educational aspirations among First Nations students; participating in school-based club extra-curricular activities or living in a smoke-free home among Métis; and living in higher-income families among Inuit. A consistent risk factor for smoking among all Indigenous students was having close friends who engaged in risk behaviours.
Pulling the Finger off Disrupts Agency, Embodiment and Peripersonal Space

For this experiment a visual illusion was created in which the participant's finger looked and felt as though it was being stretched to twice its normal length until it snapped and the tip came off. It was then stabbed with virtual weapons while skin conductance was measured. Sometimes the fingertip moved under the participant's own control and sometimes it moved independently. Curiously, detaching the tip of the finger destroyed the underlying ownership for the remaining stump as well as for the tip itself, even when the tip was under participants' control. These results have implications for theories of agency, embodiment, and tool-use.
Efficacy of intraoperative, single-bolus corticosteroid administration to prevent postoperative acute respiratory failure after oesophageal cancer surgery.

OBJECTIVES Respiratory failure from acute lung injury (ALI), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and pneumonia are the major cause of morbidity and mortality following an oesophagectomy for oesophageal cancer. This study was performed to investigate whether an intraoperative corticosteroid can attenuate postoperative respiratory failure. METHODS Between November 2005 and December 2008, 234 consecutive patients who underwent an oesophagectomy for oesophageal cancer were reviewed. A 125-mg dose of methylprednisolone was administered after performing the anastomosis. ALI, ARDS and pneumonia occurring before postoperative day (POD) 7 were regarded as acute respiratory failure. RESULT The mean age was 64.2 ± 8.7 years. One hundred and fifty-one patients were in the control group and 83 patients in the steroid group. Patients' characteristics were comparable. The incidence of acute respiratory failure was lower in the steroid group (P = 0.037). The incidences of anastomotic leakage and wound dehiscence were not different (P = 0.57 and P = 1.0). The C-reactive protein level on POD 2 was lower in the steroid group (P < 0.005). Multivariate analysis indicates that the intraoperative steroid was a protective factor against acute respiratory failure (P = 0.046, OR = 0.206). CONCLUSIONS Intraoperative corticosteroid administration was associated with a decreased risk of acute respiratory failure following an oesophagectomy. The laboratory data suggest that corticosteroids may attenuate the stress-induced inflammatory responses after surgery.
Human papillomavirus detection and comorbidity: critical issues in selection of patients with oropharyngeal cancer for treatment De-escalation trials.

BACKGROUND The presence of human papillomavirus (HPV)-infection in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) is a major determinant in prognostic risk modeling. However, most risk models are based on clinical trials which only include a selected patient population. The clinical significance of HPV and other prognostic factors in patients with OPSCC remains to be evaluated in a large, unselected cohort, which also includes patients with stage I/II disease and patients with severe comorbidity. PATIENTS AND METHODS All patients diagnosed with OPSCC in 2000-2006 in two Dutch university hospitals were included. The presence of an oncogenic HPV infection was determined by p16-immunostaining, followed by a high-risk HPV general primer 5+/6+ DNA PCR on the p16-positive cases. Cox regression analysis was carried out to compare survival rates between HPV-positive and HPV-negative patients and a prognostic model was generated by recursive partitioning. RESULTS In total, 163 of 841 (19.4%) tumors were HPV-positive. Patients with HPV-positive OPSCC had a more favorable overall survival [73.5% versus 40.9% after 5 years; P < 0.001; hazard ratio = 0.34, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.25-0.48] compared with patients with HPV-negative OPSCC. Patients with p16-positive but HPV DNA-negative tumors showed a significantly less favorable survival than patients with p16-positive and HPV DNA-positive tumors (P < 0.001). A prognostic model was developed in which patients were classified into three risk groups according to HPV status, nodal stage and comorbidity. [Harrell's concordance index of 0.68 (95% CI 0.65-0.71)]. CONCLUSIONS Tumor HPV status is a strong and independent prognostic factor for survival among patients with OPSCC. A prognostic risk model was proposed, based on our large, unselected cohort of patients with HPV status, comorbidity and nodal stage being the important prognostic factors. In addition, this study emphasizes the importance of performing an HPV DNA-specific test besides p16-immunostaining.
The limits of bound structures in the accelerating Universe

According to the latest evidence, the Universe is entering an era of exponential expansion, where gravitationally bound structures will get disconnected from each other, forming isolated 'island universes'. In this scenario, we present a theoretical criterion to determine the boundaries of gravitationally bound structures and a physically motivated definition of superclusters as the largest bound structures in the Universe. We use the spherical collapse model self-consistently to obtain an analytical condition for the mean density enclosed by the last bound shell of the structure (2.36 times the critical density in the present Universe, assumed to be flat, with 30 per cent matter and 70 per cent cosmological constant, in agreement with the previous, numerical result of Chiueh & He). N-body simulations extended to the future show that this criterion, applied at the present cosmological epoch, defines a sphere that encloses approximate to 99.7 per cent of the particles that will remain bound to the structure at least until the scale parameter of the Universe is 100 times its present value. On the other hand, (28 +/- 13) per cent of the enclosed particles are in fact not bound, so the enclosed mass overestimates the bound mass, in contrast with the previous, less rigorous criterion of, e.g. Busha and collaborators, which gave a more precise mass estimate. We also verify that the spherical collapse model estimate for the radial infall velocity of a shell enclosing a given mean density gives an accurate prediction for the velocity profile of infalling particles, down to very near the centre of the virialized core.
Learning Query and Document Relevance from a Web-scale Click Graph

Click-through logs over query-document pairs provide rich and valuable information for multiple tasks in information retrieval. This paper proposes a vector propagation algorithm on the click graph to learn vector representations for both queries and documents in the same semantic space. The proposed approach incorporates both click and content information, and the produced vector representations can directly improve ranking performance for queries and documents that have been observed in the click log. For new queries and documents that are not in the click log, we propose a two-step framework to generate the vector representation, which significantly improves the coverage of our vectors while maintaining the high quality. Experiments on Web-scale search logs from a major commercial search engine demonstrate the effectiveness and scalability of the proposed method. Evaluation results show that NDCG scores are significantly improved against multiple baselines by using the proposed method both as a ranking model and as a feature in a learning-to-rank framework.
Pyrethroid Resistance in Malaysian Populations of Dengue Vector Aedes aegypti Is Mediated by CYP9 Family of Cytochrome P450 Genes

Background Dengue control and prevention rely heavily on insecticide-based interventions. However, insecticide resistance in the dengue vector Aedes aegypti, threatens the continued effectiveness of these tools. The molecular basis of the resistance remains uncharacterised in many endemic countries including Malaysia, preventing the design of evidence-based resistance management. Here, we investigated the underlying molecular basis of multiple insecticide resistance in Ae. aegypti populations across Malaysia detecting the major genes driving the metabolic resistance. Methodology/Principal Findings Genome-wide microarray-based transcription analysis was carried out to detect the genes associated with metabolic resistance in these populations. Comparisons of the susceptible New Orleans strain to three non-exposed multiple insecticide resistant field strains; Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Kota Bharu detected 2605, 1480 and 425 differentially expressed transcripts respectively (fold-change>2 and p-value ≤ 0.05). 204 genes were commonly over-expressed with monooxygenase P450 genes (CYP9J27, CYP6CB1, CYP9J26 and CYP9M4) consistently the most up-regulated detoxification genes in all populations, indicating that they possibly play an important role in the resistance. In addition, glutathione S-transferases, carboxylesterases and other gene families commonly associated with insecticide resistance were also over-expressed. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis indicated an over-representation of GO terms linked to resistance such as monooxygenases, carboxylesterases, glutathione S-transferases and heme-binding. Polymorphism analysis of CYP9J27 sequences revealed a high level of polymorphism (except in Joho Bharu), suggesting a limited directional selection on this gene. In silico analysis of CYP9J27 activity through modelling and docking simulations suggested that this gene is involved in the multiple resistance in Malaysian populations as it is predicted to metabolise pyrethroids, DDT and bendiocarb. Conclusion/significance The predominant over-expression of cytochrome P450s suggests that synergist-based (PBO) control tools could be utilised to improve control of this major dengue vector across Malaysia.
CURRENT DISTRIBUTION AND INPUT IMPEDANCE OF A STRIP LOOP ANTENNA LOCATED ON THE SURFACE OF A CIRCULAR COLUMN FILLED WITH A RESONANT MAGNETOPLASMA

We study the electrodynamic characteristics of a strip loop antenna located on the surface of a circular column fllled with a resonant magnetoplasma and surrounded by a homogeneous isotropic background medium. The antenna current is excited by a time-harmonic voltage creating an electric fleld with the azimuthal component in a narrow gap on the strip surface. It is shown that the current distribution and input impedance of such an antenna are strongly in∞uenced by the presence of an inflnite number of propagating quasielectrostatic modes that are guided by a column containing a resonant magnetoplasma.
Wood smoke exposure and risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

It was hypothesised that wood smoke exposure could be a risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Spain. The present study was designed as a case–control study of 120 females requiring hospitalisation during 2001–2003 at Hospital del Mar (Barcelona, Spain). Cases were recruited from hospital records as females who had been admitted for an exacerbation of COPD. Controls were obtained from pulmonary function test laboratory consultations prior to a surgical intervention. All patients answered a standardised questionnaire. Exposure to wood or charcoal smoke was strongly associated with COPD after adjusting for age and smoking. The association between length of exposure and COPD suggested a dose–response pattern. Intensity of exposure in both summer and winter was also related to COPD. Wood or charcoal alone independently increased risk of COPD (odds ratio (OR) 1.8 and 1.5, respectively), but only the combination of both was statistically significant (OR 4.5). In conclusion, the present study shows a strong association between wood or charcoal smoke exposure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, supporting its existence not only in developing countries, but also in European countries, such as Spain. Further studies assessing whether this association also exists in other European societies are warranted.
Identification of Cerebral Metal Ion Imbalance in the Brain of Aging Octodon degus

The accumulation of redox-active transition metals in the brain and metal dyshomeostasis are thought to be associated with the etiology and pathogenesis of several neurodegenerative diseases, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in particular. As well, distinct biometal imaging and role of metal uptake transporters are central to understanding AD pathogenesis and aging but remain elusive, due inappropriate detection methods. We therefore hypothesized that Octodon degus develop neuropathological abnormalities in the distribution of redox active biometals, and this effect may be due to alterations in the expression of lysosomal protein, major Fe/Cu transporters, and selected Zn transporters (ZnTs and ZIPs). Herein, we report the distribution profile of biometals in the aged brain of the endemic Chilean rodent O. degus—a natural model to investigate the role of metals on the onset and progression of AD. Using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, our quantitative images of biometals (Fe, Ca, Zn, Cu, and Al) appear significantly elevated in the aged O. degus and show an age-dependent rise. The metals Fe, Ca, Zn, and Cu were specifically enriched in the cortex and hippocampus, which are the regions where amyloid plaques, tau phosphorylation and glial alterations are most commonly reported, whilst Al was enriched in the hippocampus alone. Using whole brain extracts, age-related deregulation of metal trafficking pathways was also observed in O. degus. More specifically, we observed impaired lysosomal function, demonstrated by increased cathepsin D protein expression. An age-related reduction in the expression of subunit B2 of V-ATPase, and significant increases in amyloid beta peptide 42 (Aβ42), and the metal transporter ATP13a2 were also observed. Although the protein expression levels of the zinc transporters, ZnT (1,3,4,6, and 7), and ZIP7,8 and ZIP14 increased in the brain of aged O. degus, ZnT10, decreased. Although no significant age-related change was observed for the major iron/copper regulator IRP2, we did find a significant increase in the expression of DMT1, a major transporter of divalent metal species, 5′-aminolevulinate synthase 2 (ALAS2), and the proto-oncogene, FOS. Collectively, our data indicate that transition metals may be enriched with age in the brains of O. degus, and metal dyshomeostasis in specific brain regions is age-related.
Global benchmarking networks: the cases of disaster risk reduction and supply chains

Abstract While the importance and key features of transnational benchmarking have received increased attention in recent years, the organisational contexts of this benchmarking have not yet been analysed systematically enough. Drawing on actor-network theory, this article identifies two key aspects of these contexts. The first is embeddedness, which refers to the degree to which there are networks that carry information and action from the benchmark to its contexts and back that are sustained institutionally, including by technical artefacts, objects, and routine local practices. Embeddedness is critical to the effectiveness of benchmarking. The second is publicness, which refers to the degree to which these networks exhibit expanding flows of information across widening circles of engagement, or instead are marked by control, domination, and exclusion. The article argues that benchmarking as a form of governance has an inherent impetus toward greater publicness, although this can be prevented by self-interested actors or problems associated with embeddedness. The article then explores the relevance of these conceptual points by examining cases of transnational benchmarking: disaster risk reduction and supply chain management.
Managing refractory Crohn’s disease: challenges and solutions

The goals of treatment for active Crohn’s disease (CD) are to achieve clinical remission and improve quality of life. Conventional therapeutics for moderate-to-severe CD include 5-aminosalicylic acid, corticosteroids, purine analogs, azathioprine, and 6-mercaptopurine. Patients who fail to respond to conventional therapy are treated with tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α inhibitors such as infliximab and adalimumab, but their efficacy is limited due to primary nonresponse or loss of response. It is suggested that this requires switch to another TNF-α inhibitor, a combination therapy with TNF-α blockade plus azathioprine, or granulocyte and monocyte adsorptive apheresis, and that other therapeutic options having different mechanisms of action, such as blockade of inflammatory cytokines or adhesion molecules, are needed. Natalizumab and vedolizumab are neutralizing antibodies directed against integrin α4 and α4β7, respectively. Ustekinumab is a neutralizing antibody directed against the receptors for interleukin-12 and interleukin-23. Here, we provide an overview of therapeutic treatments that are effective and currently available for CD patients, as well as some that likely will be available in the near future. We also discuss the advantages of managing patients with refractory CD using a combination of TNF-α inhibitors plus azathioprine or intensive monocyte adsorptive apheresis.