Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The motion of solid spherical particles falling in a cellular flow field at low Stokes number

We present a jointed experimental and numerical study examining the influence of vortical structures on the settling of solid spherical particles under the action of gravity at low Stokes numbers. The two-dimensional model experiment uses electroconvection to generate a two-dimensional array of controlled vortices which mimics a simplified vortical flow. Particle image-velocimetry and tracking are used to examine the motion of the particles within this vortical flow. Particle motion is compared to the predictions of a numerical simulation inspired by the model equation developed by Maxey [“The motion of small spherical particles in a cellular flow field,” Phys. Fluids 30, 1915 (1987)].
First-Person Perspectives on Prescriber-Service User Relationships in Community Mental Health Centers.

OBJECTIVE Because of changes in health care, there is a greater focus on brief medication management visits as the primary method of providing psychiatric care in community mental health settings. Research on the first-person perspectives of service users and prescribers in these settings is limited. The objective of this study was to describe first-person perspectives on medication management visits and the service user-prescriber relationship. METHODS Researchers conducted qualitative interviews as part of a larger comparative effectiveness trial at 15 community mental health centers, researchers interviewed service users (N=44) and prescribers (N=25) about their perspectives on the typical elements of a medication management visit and asked service users about their relationship with their prescriber. RESULTS Both service users and prescribers described medication management visits as very brief encounters focused on medication and symptoms. Most service users reflected on the service user-prescriber relationship in positive or neutral terms; they did not describe the development of a strong therapeutic relationship or a meaningful clinical encounter with prescribing clinicians. CONCLUSIONS Service users described the service user-prescriber relationship and medication management visit as largely transactional. Despite the transactional nature of these encounters, most service users described relationships with prescribing clinicians in positive or neutral terms. Their satisfaction with the visit did not necessarily mean that they were receiving high-quality care. Satisfaction may instead suggest service users' disengagement from care. They may need more support to fully participate in their own care.
Prevalence of metabolic syndrome and common metabolic components in high altitude farmers and herdsmen at 3700 m in Tibet.

OBJECTIVES To estimate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome, its associated factors and components in 30-80-year-old Tibetans living at high altitude. METHOD Multistage sampling of 692 participants. We used IDF criteria for estimation of the metabolic syndrome, and a questionnaire based on the WHO MONICA protocol. RESULTS The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 8.2% (Confidence interval (CI):6.1-10.2) while the common components were: fasting hyperglycemia 57.5% (53.8-61.1); abdominal obesity 46% (42.2-49.7); and high blood pressure 37% (33.4-40.5). Metabolic syndrome was significantly lower for males, those with higher education and physical activity >2000 Kcal/week. Self awareness, treatment and control were low for both diabetes and lipid abnormality. CONCLUSION The overall prevalence of metabolic syndrome in high altitude farmers and herdsmen in Tibet was lower compared to other high altitude natives, while its components (hyperglycemia, obesity, and high blood pressure) were higher than in other high altitude communities. Implications of the findings of high prevalence of smoking (among men), obesity, and hypertension and low rates of awareness, treatment, and control of the components of the metabolic syndrome among rural highlanders propels the need for health programs targeting risk factors.
Characterization and biological function of milk-derived miRNAs.

SCOPE Breastfeeding is associated with reduced risk of infection, immune-mediated disorders, obesity, and even cancer. Recently it was found that breast milk contains a variety of microRNAs (miRNAs) in the skim and fat layer that can be transferred to infants, and appear to play important roles in those biological functions. METHODS AND RESULTS This study applied next generation sequencing and quantitative real-time PCR analysis to determine the miRNA expression profile of the skim and fat fraction of human, goat, and bovine milk as well as infant formulas. Human and mammalian milk were found to contain known advantageous miRNAs in exosomes and also in the fat layer. These miRNAs are highly conserved in human, bovine and goat milk. However, they were not detected in several infant formulas. Further, miRNAs present in milk were able to enter normal and tumor cells and affect their biological functions. Following incubation of milk derived human miRNA with normal and cancer cells, the expression of miRNA-148a was upregulated and the expression of the DNA methyltransferase1 target gene of miRNA-148a was down regulated. CONCLUSION These results reinforce previous findings on the importance of miRNA in breast milk. Future studies should concentrate on the addition of miRNA to infant formulas.
Cortical Sensory Loss in a Patient with Posterior Cortical Atrophy: A Case Report

Patients with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) who present with initial symptoms of higher visual function deficits eventually develop alexia, aphasia, and components of Balint’s syndrome or Gerstmann’s syndrome. Recently, pathological findings were reported for these patients that are generally suggestive of Alzheimer’s disease even though Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) was presumed as an alternative cause of some autopsy-diagnosed PCA cases. Here, we report a case with a four-year progression of cognitive and higher visual function deterioration, and with features not described in previously reported PCA cases (i.e., a distinct sensory complaint and early frontal lobe involvement). To summarize, this case belongs to perceptual-motor syndrome of asymmetric cortical degeneration and the underlying neuropathology is more suggestive of Alzheimer’s disease than of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Lack of Stage-Specific Proteins in Coccoid Helicobacter pylori Cells

ABSTRACT Helicobacter pylori exists in two distinct forms, rod shaped or coccoid, in stomachs of infected patients. Based on in vitro proteome comparisons, there are no detectable coccoid-specific proteins, which argues against the specific adaptation of coccoid Helicobacter to distinct biological functions, such as enhanced persistence or transmission to other hosts.
Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor subtype 3 in pancreatic islet cell secretory granules revisited.

It has been reported that the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor subtype 3 is expressed in islet cells and is localized to both insulin and somatostatin granules [Blondel, O. , Moody, M. M. , Depaoli, A. M. , Sharp, A. H. , Ross, C. A. , Swift, H. & Bell, G. I. (1994) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91, 7777-7781]. This subcellular localization was based on electron microscope immunocytochemistry using antibodies (affinity-purified polyclonal antiserum AB3) directed to a 15-residue peptide of rat inositol trisphosphate receptor subtype 3. We now show that these antibodies cross-react with rat, but not human, insulin. Accordingly, the anti-inositol trisphosphate receptor subtype 3 (AB3) antibodies label electron dense cores of mature (insulin-rich) granules of rat pancreatic beta cells, and rat granule labeling was blocked by preabsorption of the AB3 antibodies with rat insulin. The immunostaining of immature, Golgi-associated proinsulin-rich granules with AB3 antibodies was very weak, indicating that cross-reactivity is limited to the hormone and not its precursor. Also, the AB3 antibodies labeled pure rat insulin crystals grown in vitro but failed to stain crystals grown from pure human insulin. By immunoprecipitation, the antibodies similarly displayed a higher affinity for rat than for human insulin. We could not confirm the labeling of somatostatin granules using AB3 antibodies.
Esthesioneuroblastoma in Children and Adolescent: Experience on 11 Cases With Literature Review

Esthesioneuroblastoma is a rare tumor of the olfactory epithelium. This report analyzed 11 children and adolescents treated in a single institution between 1982 and 2002. For 9 patients, therapy consisted of an initial course of chemotherapy before surgical resection and postoperative radiotherapy, for 1 patient an initial course of chemotherapy before radiotherapy and for another resection before radiotherapy with no chemotherapy. Response to chemotherapy was assessed in 9 patients of whom 6 achieved a complete or a partial remission. Ten patients are long-term survivors. The 5-year actuarial disease-free survival and overall survival rate was 91% (95% confidence interval, 62%-98%). Our study indicates that esthesioneuroblastoma is sensitive to chemotherapy and supports the role of combined modalities including neoadjuvant chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapy.
Swimming behavior and prey retention of the polychaete larvae Polydora ciliata (Johnston)

SUMMARY The behavior of the ubiquitous estuarine planktotrophic spionid polychaete larvae Polydora ciliata was studied. We describe ontogenetic changes in morphology, swimming speed and feeding rates and have developed a simple swimming model using low Reynolds number hydrodynamics. In the model we assumed that the ciliary swimming apparatus is primarily composed of the prototroch and secondarily by the telotroch. The model predicted swimming speeds and feeding rates that corresponded well with the measured speeds and rates. Applying empirical data to the model, we were able to explain the profound decrease in specific feeding rates and the observed increase in the difference between upward and downward swimming speeds with larval size. We estimated a critical larval length above which the buoyancy-corrected weight of the larva exceeds the propulsion force generated by the ciliary swimming apparatus and thus forces the larva to the bottom. This modeled critical larval length corresponded to approximately 1 mm, at which, according to the literature, competence for metamorphosis and no more length increase is observed. These findings may have general implications for all planktivorous polychaete larvae that feed without trailing threads. We observed bell shaped particle retention spectra with a minimum prey size of approximately 4 μm equivalent spherical diameter, and we found that an ontogenetic increase in maximum prey size add to a reduction in intra-specific food competition in the various larval stages. In a grazing experiment using natural seawater, ciliates were cleared approximately 50% more efficiently than similar sized dinoflagellates. The prey sizes retainable for P. ciliata larvae covers the microplankton fraction and includes non-motile as well as motile prey items, which is why the larvae are trophically positioned among the copepods and dinoflagellates. Not only do larval morphology and behavior govern larval feeding, prey behavior also influences the feeding efficiency of Polydora ciliata.
Arousal responses from apneic events during non-rapid-eye-movement sleep.

Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) experience severe sleep disruption and consequent daytime sleepiness. Current arousal scoring criteria show that some obstructive apneic events do not end in a recognizable cortical electroencephalographic (EEG) arousal. It is not known whether events that end in an obvious EEG arousal differ from those that do not, in terms of EEG frequency changes during the apneic event, the respiratory effort developed prior to apnea termination, the degree of the postapneic increase in blood pressure, or changes in CO2 tensions. We studied 15 patients with OSA in early Stage 2 sleep and analyzed obstructive apneic events with and without typical EEG arousals, defining an arousal as a frequency shift to waking alpha rhythm of 1 s or longer. EEG signals were digitized and analyzed by fast Fourier transform during and immediately after each apnea. The median EEG frequency and mean pleural pressure of the first and second halves of the apneic episode were compared with that of the first breath. Peak pleural pressure was measured just before the end of the apneic episode. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures and CO2 tensions were measured at the onset and termination of apnea. For each patient, 10 events that ended in EEG arousal were compared with 10 events that did not. Mean apnea duration did not differ for the two groups of events. Median EEG frequency and pleural pressure increased significantly from 8.14 to 9.25 Hz and 15.4 to 22.1 cm H2O, respectively, as the apnea progressed, but there was no difference between the groups nor any difference in the peak pleural pressure. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Early Speech and Language Development: A Comparison of Typically Developing Children to Children with Cleft Palate.

Early Speech and Language Development: A Comparison of Typically Developing Children with Children with Cleft Palate by Holly J. McGahey Previous research has shown that parent implemented intervention is effective in increasing the speech and language development of children with cleft lip and palate. To further determine the efficacy of this intervention, this study compared the speech and language development of children with CLP who received parent implemented intervention, with a group of younger, typically developing children, matched for vocabulary size. This study also evaluated the language differences between the mothers of both groups of children. Speech and language assessments were administered to the typically developing children and their mothers at two times to mirror the time of assessment for the children with clefts who received a three-month intervention in a prior study. The findings revealed that both groups of children demonstrated the same amount of speech and language growth as well as the cleft group exhibiting a decrease in compensatory articulation errors.
Effect of Gender on the GH-IGF-I Response to Anaerobic Exercise in Young Adults

Abstract Eliakim, A, Nemet, D, Most, G, Rakover, N, Pantanowitz, M, and Meckel, Y. Effect of gender on the GH-IGF-I response to anaerobic exercise in young adults. J Strength Cond Res 28(12): 3411–3415, 2014—Exercise-associated effects on the growth hormone–insulin-like growth factor-I (GH-IGF-I) axis were studied, mainly after aerobic exercise. We determined the gender effect on the GH-IGF-I axis response to a standard all-out Wingate anaerobic test (WAnT) in healthy active young adult men and women (men = 12 and women = 16; age range: 24–34 years). Blood samples for GH and IGF-I, key elements of the GH-IGF-I axis, were collected before and 20, 30, 40, and 60 minutes after the beginning of exercise. In addition, we collected postexercise blood lactate levels. Postexercise lactate levels were higher among men; however, this difference did not reach statistical significance (13.8 ± 1.3 vs. 11.1 ± 1.0 mmol·L−1, respectively; p = 0.1). The WAnT was associated with a significant increase in GH in both genders. However, GH peak was greater among women (10.8 ± 1.8 vs. 5.6 ± 1.4 ng·ml−1, in women and men, respectively; p < 0.01). In addition, postexercise GH peak occurred significantly earlier in female (20 minutes) compared with male participants (40 minutes). Exercise was associated with a significant increase in IGF only among men (from 166.8 ± 8.4 to 186.9 ± 9.3; p < 0.02); however, no significant between-gender effect was found. In summary, supramaximal anaerobic exercise was associated with a greater and earlier postexercise GH peak in women compared with men. All together, the results suggest anaerobic exercise-related anabolic-type hormonal response.
Efficient Provisioning for Multicast Virtual Network under Single Regional Failure in Cloud-based Datacenters

Network virtualization technology plays a key role in cloud computing, which serves as an effective approach for provisioning a flexible and highly adaptable shared substrate network to satisfy the demands of various applications or services. Recently, the problem of mapping a virtual network (VN) onto a substrate network has been addressed by various algorithms. However, these algorithms are typically efficient for unicast service-oriented virtual networks, and generally not applicable to multicast service-oriented virtual networks (MVNs). Furthermore, the survivable MVN mapping (SMVNM) problem that considers the survivability of MVN has not been studied and is also the focus of this work. In this research, we discuss SMVNM problem under regional failures in the substrate network and propose an efficient algorithm for solving this problem. We first propose a framework and formulate the SMVNM problem with the objective of minimizing mapping cost by using mixed integer linear programming. Then we design an efficient heuristic to solve this problem and introduce several optimizations to achieve the better mapping solutions. We validate and evaluate our framework and algorithms by conducting extensive simulations on different realistic networks under various scenarios, and by comparing with existing approaches. Our simulation experiments and results show that our approach outperforms existing solutions.
Neural stem cells in the adult human brain.

New neurons are continuously generated in certain regions of the adult brain. Studies in rodents have shown that new neurons are generated from self-renewing multipotent neural stem cells. Here we demonstrate that both the lateral ventricle wall and the hippocampus of the adult human brain harbor self-renewing cells capable of generating neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes in vitro, i.e., bona fide neural stem cells.
Three months of abstinence from alcohol normalizes energy expenditure and substrate oxidation in alcoholics: a longitudinal study

Objective:The aim of this study was to evaluate the energy expenditure, substrate oxidation, and body composition in alcoholics during addiction and after several months of abstinence.Methods:A total of 32 alcoholics without liver cirrhosis and malabsorption were consecutively recruited. A total of 55 social drinkers, matched for gender and height, were studied as a control group. Anthropometry and bioimpedance analysis were performed to assess body composition, and indirect calorimetry was used to measure basal metabolic rate (BMR) and substrate oxidation. Total abstinence was then achieved in 15 subjects. At 1, 2, 3, and 6 months of abstinence, the metabolic variables and the energy intake were re-examined.Results:At enrollment (T0) alcoholics compared to controls showed a significant decrease in body mass index (22.2 ± 2.71 vs 23.6 ± 1.3 kg/m2; p < 0.05), fat mass (14.1 ± 4.5 vs 16.7 ± 3.3 kg; p < 0.01), an increased BMR normalized by fat-free mass (34.5 ± 3.7 vs 32.1 ± 2.01 kcal/kg/day; p < 0.01), a lower nonprotein respiratory quotient (npRQ: 0.76 ± 0.03 vs 0.83 ± 0.03; p < 0.001), with a consequently higher lipid oxidation (0.08 ± 0.02 vs 0.04 ± 0.02 g/min; p < 0.01), and a lower carbohydrate oxidation (0.05 ± 0.02 vs 0.10 ± 0.03 g/min; p < 0.01). Although at 1 and 2 months of abstinence the metabolic parameters had improved, only after 3 months of abstinence did alcoholics show values of body mass index (23.2 ± 2.6 kg/m2), fat mass (17.0 ± 5.34 kg), BMR/fat-free mass (33.1 ± 2.78 kcal/kg/day), npRQ (0.82 ± 0.02), lipid oxidation (0.05 ± 0.03 g/min) and carbohydrate oxidation (0.11 ± 0.04 g/min) comparable to those of controls; these values remained constant at 6 months.Conclusions:Three months of abstinence from alcohol could represent the minimum time necessary to obtain a normalization of the metabolic variables considered and of the nutritional status for these patients, probably related to a regression of the functional alterations of the microsomal ethanol oxidizing system and of mitochondria secondary to chronic ethanol abuse.
Conditioning of and Algorithms for Image Reconstruction from Irregular Frequency Domain Samples.

Conditioning of and Algorithms for Image Reconstruction from Irregular Frequency Domain Samples by Benjamin Choong Lee Chair: Andrew E. Yagle The problem of reconstructing an image from irregular samples of its 2-D DTFT arises in synthetic aperture radar (SAR), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), limited angle tomography, and 2-D filter design. The problem of determining a configuration of a limited number of 2-D DTFT samples also arises in magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) and 3-D MRI. This work first focuses on the selection of the measurement data. Since there is no 2-D Lagrange interpolation formula, sufficient conditions for the uniqueness and conditioning of the reconstruction problem are both not apparent. Kronecker substitutions, such as the Good-Thomas FFT, the helical scan FFT, and the 45◦ rotated support, unwrap the 2-D problem into a 1-D problem, resulting in uniqueness and insights into the problem conditioning. The variance of distances between the adjacent unwrapped 1-D DTFT samples was developed as a sensitivity measure to quickly and accurately estimate of the condition number of the system matrix. A wellconditioned configuration of DTFT samples, restricted to radial lines in CT or spirals
Dual-band WiFi and 4G LTE textile antenna

In this paper, a “double G” textile CPW-fed monopole antenna design for dual-band WLAN applications is proposed. Return loss, realized gain and radiation patterns measurements are used to characterize a manufactured prototype. The obtained bandwidth and radiation characteristics make the double G antenna proper to be used for WiFi and 4G LTE applications in the 2.4GHz to 2.7GHz band and 5.1GHz to 5.875GHz band. Moreover, effects on the return loss for the novel design antenna under bent conditions are further discussed.
An Iterative Design Method for Coalitional Control Networks with Constraints on the Shapley Value

Abstract In this work, we introduce a new iterative design method for a coalitional control scheme for linear systems recently proposed. In this scheme, the links in the network infrastructure are enabled or disabled depending on their contribution to the overall system performance. As a consequence, the local controllers are divided dynamically into sets or coalitions that cooperate in order to attain their control tasks. The new design method allows the control system designer to include new constraints regarding the game theoretical tools of the control architecture, while optimizing the matrices that define the controller.
Management of dyschromias in ethnic skin

ABSTRACT: Pigmentary disorders are one of the most common skin disorders among people of color. Dyspigmentation in the form of either hyperpigmentation or hypopigmentation is often psychologically devastating to patients with darker skin. There is marked contrast between normally pigmented hyperpigmented, hypopigmented or depigmented skin in people of color. Despite being common, pigmentary disorders remain difficult to treat.