Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ultrahigh-Sensitivity Mediator-Free Biosensor Based on a Microfabricated Microwave Resonator for the Detection of Micromolar Glucose Concentrations

This paper presents a miniaturized microwave-resonator-based ultrahigh sensitivity mediator-free biosensor for determining the level of glucose in deionized-water glucose solutions and human sera using integrated passive device technology on a gallium-arsenide substrate. The proposed glucose biosensor, which consists of cross-coupled stepped-impedance resonators (SIRs), strongly concentrates electromagnetic energy between the coupling regions at a central frequency of 6.53 GHz. The changes in effective permeability (μeff) and permittivity (εeff), which correlate with the variations in the glucose concentration, effectively change the equivalent series inductance and shunt capacitance of the biosensor resonator. This concept was used for the first time to develop an ultrahigh-sensitivity biosensor based on a low -Q microwave resonator. The length of each SIR was meandered width wise, and a meandered-line stub-load was embedded inside the SIR to utilize the equivalent high series inductance and shunt capacitance, respectively. The newly designed present biosensor, which linearly detected glucose level within a wide range of concentration, exhibited an ultrahigh sensitivity (978.7 MHz/mgmL-1 for sera) at least 4.918 times higher than that of previously reported microwave-resonator-based glucose biosensors, a lower detection limit of 0.01928 μM, and a rapid detection time of less than 5 s. Supported by S-parameter-based effective-medium-parameter analysis and a sensitivity enhancement principle, the detection accuracy of the proposed biosensor was increased using its glucose-level-dependent spreading of propagation constant (γ) and self-resonances of impedance (Z).
Effects of systemic lidocaine versus magnesium administration on postoperative functional recovery and chronic pain in patients undergoing breast cancer surgery: A prospective, randomized, double-blind, comparative clinical trial

Introduction We aimed to compare the effects of intraoperative lidocaine and magnesium on postoperative functional recovery and chronic pain after mastectomy due to breast cancer. Systemic lidocaine and magnesium reduce pain hypersensitivity to surgical stimuli; however, their effects after mastectomy have not been evaluated clearly. Methods In this prospective, double-blind, clinical trial, 126 female patients undergoing mastectomy were randomly assigned to lidocaine (L), magnesium (M), and control (C) groups. Lidocaine and magnesium were administered at 2 mg/kg and 20 mg/kg for 15 minutes immediately after induction, followed by infusions of 2 mg/kg/h and 20 mg/kg/h, respectively. The control group received the same volume of saline. Patient characteristics, perioperative parameters, and postoperative recovery profiles, including the Quality of Recovery 40 (QoR-40) survey, pain scales, length of hospital stay, and the short-form McGill pain questionnaire (SF-MPQ) at postoperative 1 month and 3 months were evaluated. Results The global QoR-40 scores on postoperative day 1 were significantly higher in group L than in group C (P = 0.003). Moreover, in sub-scores of the QoR-40 dimensions, emotional state and pain scores were significantly higher in group L than those in groups M and C (P = 0.027 and 0.023, respectively). At postoperative 3 months, SF-MPQ and SF-MPQ-sensitive scores were significantly lower in group L than in group C (P = 0.046 and 0.036, respectively). Conclusions Intraoperative infusion of lidocaine improved the quality of recovery and attenuated the intensity of chronic pain in patients undergoing breast cancer surgery.
Can Language Affect Our Cognition? The Case of Grammatical and Conceptual Gender

The present study investigated the effect of grammatical gender on object categorization. To this end, two experiments were designed. In the first experiment, German and Arabic native speakers’ perceptions of similarity between objects and people were compared via picture matching tasks in which the participants were asked to match a series of people’s pictures to pictures of a series of inanimate objects along with body parts. The pictures chosen were of opposite grammatical gender in German and Arabic (none of the chosen pictures was neuter in German). The results indicated that there was a significant difference between both groups’ choice pattern, i.e., each group had a tendency to match the pictures based on their mother tongues’ grammatical gender. Further, to investigate the effects of grammatical gender on concepts of objects in bilingual speakers of two languages that assign opposite gender to the same object, the second experiment was implemented. In experiment two, similar to experiment one, picture matching tasks were carried out by Spanish native speakers and Persian-Spanish bilinguals as experimental groups and Persian native speakers as control group. The results revealed that there was a significant difference between Spanish native speakers and Persian native speakers’ performances. However, the inferential analysis did not show any significant difference between Persian-Spanish bilinguals’ performance with those of the other two groups. The overall findings showed that mother tongue significantly affects the cognition of the speakers while second language does not have such salience in affecting the cognition.
The Performance of Italian Equity Funds

We estimate the risk-adjusted performance of Italian equity funds, using both net and gross returns (i.e. net returns plus management fees), employing single factor and multi-factor benchmarks. With net returns the funds' performance is not significantly different from zero. With gross returns, however, the performance is always positive, even when we use benchmarks which take account of the non-equity investments of the funds and measures which are not influenced by the market timing behavior of the portfolio managers. Our evidence supports the Grossman and Stiglitz's view of market efficiency, suggesting that informed investors are compensated for their information gathering.
Changes in Adenylate Nucleotides Concentration and Na+, K+-ATPase Activities in Erythrocytes of Horses in Function of Breed and Sex

The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between the concentrations of ATP, ADP, AMP (HPLC methods), total nucleotide pool (TAN), adenylate energy charge (AEC) and Na+, K+-ATPase erythrocytic activities (by Choi's method) of horses as a function of breed and sex. The studies were conducted on 54 horses (stallions and mares) of different constitution types: breathing constitution (Wielkopolska and Hanoverian breed) and digestive constitution (Ardenian breed). Horse erythrocytes, independently of examined breed, present low ATP concentration in comparison to other mammal species while retaining relatively high AEC. Erythrocytes of breathing constitution type horses appear to have a more intensive glucose metabolism and a more efficient energetic metabolism when compared to digestive constitution type horses. The conclusions may be proven by significantly higher ATP concentration, higher TAN and significantly higher AEC in breathing constitution type horses compared to the digestive constitution type. Sex does not significantly influence adenine nucleotides concentration in the erythrocytes of the examined horses, however, stallions have slightly higher values in comparison to mares. A positive correlation was found between Na+, K+, -ATPase activity, ATP, ADP and AMP concentration and TAN in Wielkopolska and Ardenian breeds, which was not confirmed for the Hanoverian breed.
Cluster mass estimators from CMB temperature and polarization lensing

Upcoming Sunyaev–Zel'dovich surveys are expected to return ∼104 intermediate mass clusters at high redshift. Their average masses must be known to the same accuracy as desired for the dark energy properties. Internal to the surveys, the cosmic microwave background (CMB) potentially provides a source for lensing mass measurements whose distance is precisely known and behind all clusters. We develop statistical mass estimators from six quadratic combinations of CMB temperature and polarization fields that can simultaneously recover large-scale structure and cluster mass profiles. The performance of these estimators on idealized Navarro–Frenk–White (NFW) clusters suggests that surveys with a ∼1′ beam and noise in uncontaminated temperature maps can make a ∼10σ detection, or equivalently a ∼10% mass measurement for each 103 set of clusters. With internal or external acoustic scale E-polarization measurements, the ET cross-correlation estimator can provide a stringent test for contaminants on a first detection at ∼1/3 the significance. For surveys that reach below , the EB cross-correlation estimator should provide the most precise measurements and potentially the strongest control over contaminants.
Proteomic Study Reveals That Proteins Involved in Metabolic and Detoxification Pathways Are Highly Expressed in HER-2/neu-positive Breast Cancer*

The receptor tyrosine kinase ErbB2 (HER-2/neu) is overexpressed in up to 30% of breast cancers and is associated with poor prognosis and an increased likelihood of metastasis especially in node-positive tumors. In this proteomic study, to identify the proteins that are associated with the aggressive phenotype of HER-2/neu-positive breast cancer, tumor cells from both HER-2/neu-positive and -negative tumors were procured by laser capture microdissection. Differentially expressed proteins in the two subsets of tumors were identified by two-dimensional electrophoresis and MALDI-TOF/TOF MS/MS. We found differential expression of several key cell cycle modulators, which were linked with increased proliferation of the HER-2/neu-overexpressing cells. Nine proteins involved in glycolysis (triose-phosphate isomerase (TPI), phosphoglycerate kinase 1 (PGK1), and enolase 1 (ENO1)), lipid synthesis (fatty acid synthase (FASN)), stress-mediated chaperonage (heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27)), and antioxidant and detoxification pathways (haptoglobin, aldo-keto reductase (AKR), glyoxalase I (GLO), and prolyl-4-hydrolase β-isoform (P4HB)) were found to be up-regulated in HER-2/neu-positive breast tumors. HER-2/neu-dependent differential expression of PGK1, FASN, Hsp27, and GLO was further validated in four breast cancer cell lines and 12 breast tumors by immunoblotting and confirmed by partially switching off the HER-2/neu signaling in the high HER-2/neu-expressing SKBr3 cell line with Herceptin treatment. Statistical correlations of these protein expressions with HER-2/neu status were further verified by immunohistochemistry on a tissue microarray comprising 97 breast tumors. Our findings suggest that HER-2/neu signaling may result, directly or indirectly, in enhanced activation of various metabolic, stress-responsive, antioxidative, and detoxification processes within the breast tumor microenvironment. We hypothesize that these identified changes in the cellular proteome are likely to drive cell proliferation and tissue invasion and that the key cell cycle modulators involved, when uncovered by future research, would serve as naturally useful targets for the development of therapeutic strategies to negate the metastatic potential of HER-2/neu-positive breast tumors.
The Market Effect of Healthcare Security: Do Patients Care about Data Breaches?

Data breach notification required by federal and state regulators has reduced information asymmetry on the effectiveness of information security programs. While pervasive media coverage of data breaches likely tarnishes an organization’s reputation, there is little empirical evidence that shows how consumers react to such organizational failures. Focusing on the healthcare sector as one of the most information-intensive service industries, this paper investigates consumer reaction to data breaches by examining changes in patient visits consequent to breaches. Using a propensity score matching technique, we analyze a matched sample of 761 U.S. hospitals. We investigate how data breaches affect subsequent outpatient visits and admissions, accounting for the geographical-based competition within a Core Based Statistical Area (CBSA). We find that while data breaches do not affect patients’ short-term choices, the cumulative effect of breach events over a three-year period significantly decreases the number of outpatient visits and admissions. Similarly, the cumulative number of breached records is negatively associated with outpatient visits and admissions. Further, the cumulative effects in competitive markets are significantly larger than those in non-competitive markets, which are insignificant. Our findings provide policy insights on effective security programs that induce providers to invest in security as they would for other market-based, brand-building initiatives.
GAS DISTRIBUTION NETWORK OPTIMIZATION BY GENETIC ALGORITHM

Natural gas is increasingly being used as a pure energy source. So it's valuable to reduce its total cost to be affordable for individual customer. In the past, interest was focused on efficient pipe network analysis method regardless of network cost; so many researches could be found for methods developed for network analysis. In contrast, very little researches could be developed to optimize the design of distribution networks. This, of course, reflects on software developed for the two purposes: the analysis and simulation of gas networks and the optimization purpose. The aim of this work is to develop a computer code that simulate and optimize gas distribution networks at all pressure ranges, i.e. low, medium and high pressure networks. The aim is to reduce the network diameter sizes to a minimum value while fulfilling the constraints of maximum link velocity and minimum node pressure. In this code, the analysis of gas distribution networks was based on the gradient algorithm which had never presented in gas networks before. In this study, the algorithm was presented and gave efficient analysis for any gas network, i.e. at all pressure ranges, at the least time any algorithm can record. Optimization of gas distribution networks was presented by the genetic algorithm. The code was applied on low pressure gas distribution networks and proved its efficiency and robustness. Therefore, this code was found to be useful at the stage of gas distribution networks design. INTRODUCTION A gas pipeline network is classified as: transmission network (to transmit gas at high pressure from coastal supplies to regional demand points) and distribution network (to distribute gas to consumers at low pressure from the regional demand points). The distribution network differs from the transmission one in its small-diameter pipes, its simplicity as there are no valves, compressors or nozzles, and its operation at low and medium pressures. The main interest in this study is focused on distribution networks. The simulation and analysis of gas networks has focused on the development of efficient algorithms for the analysis of flow and it has been widely studied in the literature, Osiadacz [1] and Osiadacz and Górecki [2] and Herrán-González et al. [3]. The gas network optimization can be divided into two main categories: the optimization of gas transmission pipelines and the optimization of gas distribution networks. The researches mainly focused on gas transmission pipelines optimization due to the high cost of equipment (compressor …
Growth and Development in an Empirical Dual Economy Model

The empirical literature on cross-country growth and development commonly employs aggregate economy data such as the Penn World Table Heston, Summers, and Aten (2009) to estimate homogeneous production function or convergence regression models. Against the background of a dual economy framework this paper investigates the potential sources of bias when aggregate economy data is adopted instead of sectoral data. Furthermore we investigate the evidence for various sources of growth arising in the dual economy literature. Following appropriate empirical specification and testing we estimate production functions in agriculture and manufacturing for a large panel of developing and developed countries (1963-1992, Crego, Larson, Butzer, & Mundlak, 1998). Our focus is on recent panel time series methods which can accommodate technology heterogeneity, variable time-series properties and the breakdown of the standard cross-section independence assumption in panels. We investigate the potential for bias in the production parameter coefficients due to aggregation of sectors and empirical misspecification. Finally we test the significance of the potential sources of growth identified in our discussion of the dual economy model.
Modeling particle formation during low-pressure silane oxidation: Detailed chemical kinetics and aerosol dynamics

A detailed chemical kinetic model is presented for silicon oxide clustering that leads to particle nucleation during low-pressure silane oxidation. Quantum Rice–Ramsperger–Kassel theory was applied to an existing high-pressure silane oxidation mechanism to obtain estimates for the pressure dependence of rate parameters. Four classes of clustering pathways were considered based on current knowledge of reaction kinetics and cluster properties in the Si–H–O system. The species conservation equations and a moment-type aerosol dynamics model were formulated for a batch reactor undergoing homogeneous nucleation and particle growth by surface reactions and coagulation. The chemical kinetics model was coupled to the aerosol dynamics model, and time-dependent zero-dimensional simulations were conducted. The effects of pressure and temperature were examined, and the main contributing processes to particle formation and growth were assessed, for conditions around 0.8 Torr, 773 K, and an initial oxygen-to-silane ratio of 15.A detailed chemical kinetic model is presented for silicon oxide clustering that leads to particle nucleation during low-pressure silane oxidation. Quantum Rice–Ramsperger–Kassel theory was applied to an existing high-pressure silane oxidation mechanism to obtain estimates for the pressure dependence of rate parameters. Four classes of clustering pathways were considered based on current knowledge of reaction kinetics and cluster properties in the Si–H–O system. The species conservation equations and a moment-type aerosol dynamics model were formulated for a batch reactor undergoing homogeneous nucleation and particle growth by surface reactions and coagulation. The chemical kinetics model was coupled to the aerosol dynamics model, and time-dependent zero-dimensional simulations were conducted. The effects of pressure and temperature were examined, and the main contributing processes to particle formation and growth were assessed, for conditions around 0.8 Torr, 773 K, and an initial oxygen-to-silane rati.
Comparison of the ultra-low-dose Veo algorithm with the gold standard filtered back projection for detecting pulmonary asbestos-related conditions: a clinical observational study

Objectives Radiation delivered during CT is a major concern, especially for individuals undergoing repeated screening. We aimed to compare a new ultra-low-dose algorithm called Veo with the gold standard filtered back projection (FBP) for detecting pulmonary asbestos-related conditions. Setting University Hospital CHU G. Montpied, Clermont-Ferrand, France Participants Asbestos-exposed workers were recruited following referral to screening for asbestos-related conditions. Two acquisitions were performed on a 64-slice CT: the gold standard FBP followed by Veo reconstruction. Outcome measures Two radiologists independently assessed asbestos-related abnormalities, pulmonary nodules, radiation doses and image quality (noise). Results We included 27 asbestos-exposed workers (63.3±6.5 years with 11.9±9.7 years of asbestos exposure). We observed 297 pleural plaques in 20 participants (74%). All patients (100%) had pulmonary nodules, totalling 167 nodules. Detection rates did not differ for pleural plaques (Veo 87% vs FBP 97%, NS), pleural thickening (100% for both) and pulmonary nodules (80% for both). Interstitial abnormalities were depicted less frequently with Veo than FBP. False negative and false positive did not exceed 2.7%. Compared with FBP, Veo decreased the radiation dose up to 87% (Veo 0.23±0.07 vs FBP 1.83±0.88 mSv, p<0.001). The objective image noise also decreased with Veo as much as 23% and signal-to-noise ratio increased up to 33%. Conclusions A low-dose CT with Veo reconstruction substantially reduced radiation. Veo compared favourably with FBP in detecting pleural plaques, pleural thickening and pulmonary nodules. These results should be confirmed on a larger sample size before the use of Veo in clinical routine practice in asbestos-related conditions, especially regarding the low prevalence of interstitial abnormalities in this study. Trial registration number NCT01955018.
Drell-Yan and diphoton production at hadron colliders and low scale gravity model

In the model of Arkani-Hamed, Dimopoulos, and Dvali where gravity is allowed to propagate in the extra dimensions of very large size, virtual graviton exchange between the standard model particles can give rise to signatures that can be tested in collider experiments. We study these effects in dilepton and diphoton production at hadron colliders. Specifically, we examine the double differential cross section in the invariant mass and scattering angle, which is found to be useful in separating the gravity effects from the standard model. In this work, sensitivity obtained using the double differential cross section is higher than that in previous studies based on single differential distributions. Assuming no excess of events over the standard model predictions, we obtain the following 95% confidence level lower limits on the effective Planck scale: 0.9\char21{}1.5 TeV in the Fermilab Tevatron run I, 1.3\char21{}2.5 TeV in run IIa, 1.7\char21{}3.5 TeV in run IIb, and 6.5\char21{}12.8 TeV at the CERN LHC. The range of numbers corresponds to the number of extra dimensions $n=7\ensuremath{-}2. $