Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cannabinoid disruption of learning mechanisms involved in reward processing

The increasing use of cannabis, its derivatives, and synthetic cannabinoids for medicinal and recreational purposes has led to burgeoning interest in understanding the addictive potential of this class of molecules. It is estimated that ∼10% of marijuana users will eventually show signs of dependence on the drug, and the diagnosis of cannabis use disorder (CUD) is increasing in the United States. The molecule that sustains the use of cannabis is Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC), and our knowledge of its effects, and those of other cannabinoids on brain function has expanded rapidly in the past two decades. Additionally, the identification of endogenous cannabinoid (endocannabinoid) systems in brain and their roles in physiology and behavior, demonstrate extensive involvement of these lipid signaling molecules in regulating CNS function. Here, we examine roles for endogenous cannabinoids in shaping synaptic activity in cortical and subcortical brain circuits, and we discuss mechanisms in which exogenous cannabinoids, such as Δ9-THC, interact with endocannabinoid systems to disrupt neuronal network oscillations. We then explore how perturbation of the interaction of this activity within brain reward circuits may lead to impaired learning. Finally, we propose that disruption of cellular plasticity mechanisms by exogenous cannabinoids in cortical and subcortical circuits may explain the difficulty in establishing viable cannabinoid self-administration models in animals.
Closed-Loop Particle Motion Control Using Laser-Induced Thermocapillary Convective Flows at the Fluid/Gas Interface at Micrometric Scale

Noncontact actuation has gained a large interest over the last few years, and many works have been performed on magnetic actuation, dielectrophoresis, or optical tweezers. Thermocapillary convective flows are an attractive alternative to manipulate micrometric scale particles at the water/air interface. These flows are generated when a surface tension stress is generated at the fluid/gas interface due to a thermal gradient. Laser heating allows to generate fast, localized flows that improve the actuation performance. In this paper, a closed-loop controller is used to control the particle motion. To design this controller, a model for the system is proposed and experimentally identified. Proof of concept experiments are performed using a 500-$\mu$ m-diameter steel spherical particle that show that the particle can be successfully displaced towards a target position. Experimental results show that maximal particle velocities between 4–9 mm/s can be attained during the control phase, which can be compared against some of the fastest actuation principles that use Marangoni effect.
The Dark Side of the (Preparedness) Moon: Why Promoting Public Preparedness Remains Challenging

Abstract Despite best intentions and considerable effort, promoting households' preparedness to emergencies remains insufficiently low globally. It seems that, in some cases, particularly those in which populations are frequently exposed to any given threat, a more complex sociopsychological framework emerges – one in which classical motivators, such as threat perception cues, are no longer capable of turning salient belief into action. Recent studies suggest that this phenomenon, called victimization, has considerable implications on the efficacy of risk communication efforts and could jeopardize the success in promoting public readiness. Circumventing the psychological barriers caused by this phenomenon requires innovative approaches, such as using external incentives. The model and its implications are discussed (Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2019;13:593-595)
Evolution of a Disease Surveillance System: An Increase in Reporting of Human Monkeypox Disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2001–2013

Objective Evaluating the effectiveness of a surveillance system, and how it improves over time has significant implications for disease control and prevention. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) was implemented to estimate the burden of disease, monitor changes in disease occurrence, and inform resource allocation. For this effort we utilized national passive surveillance data from DRC’s IDSR to explore reporting trends of human monkeypox (MPX) from 2001 to 2013. Methods We obtained surveillance data on MPX cases occurring between January 2001 and December 2013 from the DRC Ministry of Health (MoH). Phases of the surveillance system, yearly trends in reporting and estimated incidence for MPX were analyzed using SAS v9.2 and Health Mapper. Results Between 2001 and 2013, three discrete surveillance phases were identified that described the evolution of the surveillance system. Overall, an increase in suspected MPX cases was reported, beyond what would be expected from simply an improved reporting system. When restricting the analysis to the “stable phase,” national estimated incidence increased from 2.13 per 100,000 in 2008 to 2.84 per 100,000 in 2013. Conclusions The reported increase in MPX, based on an evolving surveillance system, is likely to be a true increase in disease occurrence rather than simply improvements to the surveillance system. Further analyses should provide critical information for improved prevention and control strategies and highlight areas of improvement for future data collection efforts.
Multicast Beamformer Design for Coded Caching

A single cell downlink scenario is considered where a multiple-antenna base station delivers contents to cache-enabled user terminals. Using the ideas from multi-server coded caching (CC) scheme developed for wired networks, a joint design of CC and general multicast beamforming is considered to benefit from spatial multiplexing gain, improved interference management and the global CC gain, simultaneously. The proposed multicast beamforming strategies utilize the multiantenna multicasting opportunities provided by the CC technique and optimally balance the detrimental impact of both noise and inter-stream interference from coded messages transmitted in parallel. The proposed scheme is shown to provide the same degrees-of-freedom at high SNR as the state-of-art methods and, in general, to perform significantly better than several baseline schemes including, the joint zero forcing and CC, max-min fair multicasting with CC, and basic unicasting with multiuser beamforming,
Adolescent Psychological Functioning and Membership in Latent Adolescent-Parent Communication Dual Trajectory Classes.

The primary goal of this study was to examine the relationship between adolescents' psychological functioning (as indicated by depressive symptoms) and substance use (alcohol and drug use) and membership in adolescent-parent communication trajectory subgroups in a large, diverse community sample of adolescents from the United States (n = 1,057; 53% female; 51% Caucasian; Age: M = 16.15, SD = .75). Adolescents completed questionnaires at three annual assessments. Fit indices from parallel process growth mixture models suggested three dual trajectory classes: (1) Average communication with both parents (Average-Both); (2) Good adolescent-mother and poor adolescent-father communication (Good-Mom/Poor-Dad); and (3) Poor adolescent-mother and good adolescent-father communication (Poor-Mom/Good-Dad). The trajectory classes differed by gender. In addition, psychological functioning and substance use were differentially related to the trajectory classes.
Five-Factor Model Best Describes Narcissistic Personality Inventory Across Different Item Response Formats

The objective of this research was to validate the Narcissistic Personality Inventory across different response formats, given that several factor structures were proposed, ranging from two to seven factors. The original forced-choice format of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory was given to 410 participants and a modified, i.e., Likert format was given to 423 participants from the general population, along with personality and other narcissism measures. The results showed that the five-factor model proposed by Ackerman et al. had the best model fit in both response formats and that a distinction between adaptive (Leadership, Vanity, and Superiority) and some aspects of maladaptive (Manipulativeness and Exhibitionism) narcissism factors could be established. However, the redundancy of items in certain factors could be problematic and further improvements of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory should include more indicators of some proposed factors, especially of Vanity.
Convolutional Neural Network With Shape Prior Applied to Cardiac MRI Segmentation

In this paper, we present a novel convolutional neural network architecture to segment images from a series of short-axis cardiac magnetic resonance slices (CMRI). The proposed model is an extension of the U-net that embeds a cardiac shape prior and involves a loss function tailored to the cardiac anatomy. Since the shape prior is computed offline only once, the execution of our model is not limited by its calculation. Our system takes as input raw magnetic resonance images, requires no manual preprocessing or image cropping and is trained to segment the endocardium and epicardium of the left ventricle, the endocardium of the right ventricle, as well as the center of the left ventricle. With its multiresolution grid architecture, the network learns both high and low-level features useful to register the shape prior as well as accurately localize the borders of the cardiac regions. Experimental results obtained on the Automatic Cardiac Diagnostic Challenge - Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (ACDC-MICCAI) 2017 dataset show that our model segments multislices CMRI (left and right ventricle contours) in 0.18 s with an average Dice coefficient of ${\text{0.91}}$ and an average 3-D Hausdorff distance of ${\text{9.5}}$ mm.
Association of Tp-Te/QT Ratio With Ventricular Tachycardia in Patients With Idiopathic Outflow Tract Ventricular Premature Contraction

Background Idiopathic outflow tract ventricular premature contraction (VPC) can evolve into ventricular tachycardia (VT) via triggered activity mechanism. Transmural dispersion of repolarization (TDR) might play a role in idiopathic outflow tract VT by inducing phase 2 early afterdepolarization (EAD) and serve as the functional substrate for VT. Tp-Te/QT ratio as an arrhythmogenesis index has been reported to be associated with the incidence of ventricular arrhythmia. This study aims to investigate the association between Tp-Te/QT ratio with VT incidence in idiopathic outflow tract VPC. Methods Observational research with cross sectional design was conducted. VT episodes were retrospectively tracked from electrocardiogram (ECG), treadmill test (TMT), Holter monitor and electrophysiology study data in Sardjito Hospital of patients with idiopathic outflow tract VPC during September to October 2017. Tp-Te/QT was defined as the time from the peak of T wave to the intersection between the tangent and isoeectric line, divided with QT interval. Tp-Te/QT ratio measurement was performed in leads V4, V5 and V6 by single observer. Tp-Te/QT ratio was categorized into increased (> 0.25) and normal (< 0.25). Chi-square and logistic regression test were performed. Results Out of 46 patients, there were 28 patients who had VT. Increased Tp-Te/QT ratio of lead V4 was found in 11 patients, the increased ratios in leads V5 and V6 were found in 13 patients. The prevalence ratio (PR) of Tp-Te/QT ratio to VT incidence in lead V4 was 2.059 (95% CI: 1.464 - 2.895; P = 0.007), while in leads V5 and V6 was 2.200 (95% CI: 1.514 - 3.197; P = 0.002). Tp-Te/QT ratios in leads V4, V5 and V6 were not significantly different and equally strong in predicting VT events (P < 0.001; 95% CI). Adjustment of confounding factor hypertension with multivariate test gave insignificant results (PR: 1.290; 95% CI: 0.444 - 3.747). Conclusions Increased Tp-Te/QT ratio in idiopathic outflow tract VPC patients was associated with higher prevalence ratio for VT, although this was affected by hypertension. Leads V4, V5 and V6 were equally strong in predicting VT events.
A Survey on Aerial Swarm Robotics

The use of aerial swarms to solve real-world problems has been increasing steadily, accompanied by falling prices and improving performance of communication, sensing, and processing hardware. The commoditization of hardware has reduced unit costs, thereby lowering the barriers to entry to the field of aerial swarm robotics. A key enabling technology for swarms is the family of algorithms that allow the individual members of the swarm to communicate and allocate tasks amongst themselves, plan their trajectories, and coordinate their flight in such a way that the overall objectives of the swarm are achieved efficiently. These algorithms, often organized in a hierarchical fashion, endow the swarm with autonomy at every level, and the role of a human operator can be reduced, in principle, to interactions at a higher level without direct intervention. This technology depends on the clever and innovative application of theoretical tools from control and estimation. This paper reviews the state of the art of these theoretical tools, specifically focusing on how they have been developed for, and applied to, aerial swarms. Aerial swarms differ from swarms of ground-based vehicles in two respects: they operate in a three-dimensional space and the dynamics of individual vehicles adds an extra layer of complexity. We review dynamic modeling and conditions for stability and controllability that are essential in order to achieve cooperative flight and distributed sensing. The main sections of this paper focus on major results covering trajectory generation, task allocation, adversarial control, distributed sensing, monitoring, and mapping. Wherever possible, we indicate how the physics and subsystem technologies of aerial robots are brought to bear on these individual areas.
Design of a Planar First-Order Loudspeaker Array for Global Active Noise Control

This paper proposes a method to design a planar first-order loudspeaker array structure for global active noise control. Compared with the traditional spherical loudspeaker array, the planar array provides a practical design with flexible source locations. The planar array is capable of achieving global noise control, provided that the loudspeakers have general variable first-order responses in elevation. On $\boldsymbol {x{-}y}$ plane, we use spherical harmonics to analyze the required first-order loudspeakers consisting of monopole and tangential dipole components. By exploiting the properties of the associated Legendre functions and its derivative, we can divide the primary soundfield into even harmonics controlled by the monopole component, and odd harmonics controlled by the dipole component. Through the appropriate choice of radii of circles, we avoid the ill-conditioning problem of matrix inversion and derive a robust solution for loudspeaker weights to suppress the primary noise field. Besides, we use the closely-located monopole pairs, instead of the ideal general first-order loudspeakers, to design an alternative planar array for practical implementation. As an illustration, we use several simulation examples to validate the performance of the two proposed planar loudspeaker arrays.
Retinal Cholesterol Content Is Reduced in Simvastatin-Treated Mice Due to Inhibited Local Biosynthesis Albeit Increased Uptake of Serum Cholesterol

Statins, a class of cholesterol-lowering drugs, are currently being investigated for treatment of age-related macular degeneration, a retinal disease. Herein, retinal and serum concentrations of four statins (atorvastatin, simvastatin, pravastatin, and rosuvastatin) were evaluated after mice were given a single drug dose of 60 mg/kg body weight. All statins, except rosuvastatin, were detected in the retina: atorvastatin and pravastatin at 1.6 pmol and simvastatin at 4.1 pmol. Serum statin concentrations (pmol/ml) were 223 (simvastatin), 1401 (atorvastatin), 2792 (pravastatin), and 9050 (rosuvastatin). Simvastatin was then administered to mice daily for 6 weeks at 60 mg/kg body weight. Simvastatin treatment reduced serum cholesterol levels by 18% and retinal content of cholesterol and lathosterol (but not desmosterol) by 24% and 21%, respectively. The relative contributions of retinal cholesterol biosynthesis and retinal uptake of serum cholesterol to total retinal cholesterol input were changed as well. These contributions were 79% and 21%, respectively, in vehicle-treated mice and 69% and 31%, respectively, in simvastatin-treated mice. Thus, simvastatin treatment lowered retinal cholesterol because a compensatory upregulation of retinal uptake of serum cholesterol was not sufficient to overcome the effect of inhibited retinal biosynthesis. Simultaneously, simvastatin-treated mice had a 2.9-fold increase in retinal expression of Cd36, the major receptor clearing oxidized low-density lipoproteins from Bruch’s membrane. Notably, simvastatin treatment essentially did not affect brain cholesterol homeostasis. Our results reveal the statin effect on the retinal and brain cholesterol input and are of value for future clinical investigations of statins as potential therapeutics for age-related macular degeneration.
Sum-Rate Capacity for Symmetric Gaussian Multiple Access Channels with Feedback

The feedback sum-rate capacity is established for the symmetric three-user Gaussian multiple-access channel (GMAC). The main contribution is a converse bound that combines the dependence-balance argument of Hekstra and Willems (1989) with a variant of the “doubling trick” of Geng and Nair (2014). The converse bound matches the achievable sum-rate of the Fourier-Modulated Estimate Correction strategy of Kramer (2002). The proof arguments extend to GMACs with more than three users.
OCT-based label-free 3D mapping of lymphatic vessels and transparent interstitial-fluid-filled dislocations

Approach to OCT-lymphangiography (OCT-LA) and interstitial-fluid-filled dislocations mapping that complement speckle variance (SV) OCT angiography is presented. OCT-LA can be extracted from the same OCT raw datasets that were acquired for SV OCT angiography. Lymphatic vessels and interstitial dislocations are filled with transparent fluids (e.g. lymph) and can be separated from the blood vessels and tissue. In vivo application of the OCT-LA approach is demonstrated on NRG mouse with grown BX-PC3 tumor (human pancreatic cancer cells).
Antitumor effects of carbon nanotube-drug complex against human breast cancer cells

To improve the bio-solubility and sustained-release properties of a carbon nanotube (CNT)-drug complex, the present study used a hydrophilic polymer, polyethylene glycol (PEG), and β-estradiol (E2), which targets the estrogen receptor in human breast cancer cells (HBCCs), to modify CNTs carrying lobaplatin (LBP) to form E2-PEG-CNT-LBP. The in vitro inhibitory effects against HBCCs and the in vivo pharmacological effect of the complex on heart, liver and kidney tissues were also evaluated. The results indicated that the inhibitory effects of this complex against HBCCs reached 80.44% within 72 h. A blood biochemical test of normal mice indicated that this complex reduced platelet counts, while aspartate aminotransferase levels were increased compared with those in the control group. Histopathological analysis revealed no obvious adverse effects on the heart, liver and kidneys. The in vivo results indicated that the novel E2-PEG-CNT-LBP complex had no obvious toxic effects while exhibiting sustained-release properties. The clearance of E2-PEG-CNT-LBP by non-specific uptake systems was delayed and its clearance was increased compared with LBP alone.
Age of Information: Updates with Priority

Independent sources send their status updates to a server for delivery to a monitor. We analyze an age of information timeliness metric when sources are assigned different priorities. We consider two service facilities (a) there is no waiting room and an update in service is preempted on arrival of an equal or higher priority update, and (b) there is a waiting room for at most one update and preemption is allowed in waiting but not in service. We model the age process as a stochastic hybrid system.
Counter-Balance Between Gli3 and miR-7 Is Required for Proper Morphogenesis and Size Control of the Mouse Brain

Brain morphogenesis requires precise regulation of multiple genes to control specification of distinct neural progenitors (NPs) and neuronal production. Dysregulation of these genes results in severe brain malformation such as macrocephaly and microcephaly. Despite studies of the effect of individual pathogenic genes, the counter-balance between multiple factors in controlling brain size remains unclear. Here we show that cortical deletion of Gli3 results in enlarged brain and folding structures in the cortical midline at the postnatal stage, which is mainly caused by the increased percentage of intermediate progenitors (IPs) and newborn neurons. In addition, dysregulation of neuronal migration also contributes to the folding defects in the cortical midline region. Knockdown of microRNA (miRNA) miR-7 can rescue abnormal brain morphology in Gli3 knockout mice by recovering progenitor specification, neuronal production and migration through a counter-balance of the Gli3 activity. Moreover, miR-7 likely exerts its function through silencing target gene Pax6. Our results indicate that proper brain morphogenesis is an outcome of interactive regulations of multiple molecules such as Gli3 and miR-7. Because miRNAs are easy to synthesize and deliver, miR-7 could be a potential therapeutic means to macrocephaly caused by Gli3-deficiency.
Photosynthetic Accumulation of Lutein in Auxenochlorella protothecoides after Heterotrophic Growth

In order to enhance lutein accumulation and to explain the reasons for the difference in lutein accumulation under photoautotrophic and heterotrophic conditions, different culture modes and the associated transcriptome profiles were investigated in Auxenochlorella protothecoides. The heterotrophic-photoautotrophic transition culture mode was investigated for lutein accumulation, changing from organic carbon to increase biomass in dark fermentation to irradiation under nitrogen rich conditions. This strategy increased the lutein content 10 times along with chloroplast regeneration and little biomass loss in 48 h. The highest lutein productivity and production in the heterotrophic-photoautotrophic transition culture reached 12.36 mg/L/day and 34.13 mg/L respectively within seven days. Furthermore, compared to the photoautotrophic conditions, most genes involved in lutein biosynthesis and photosystem generation were down-regulated during heterotrophic growth. By contrast, two β-ring hydroxylases were transiently upregulated, while violaxanthin de-epoxidase and zeaxanthin epoxidase were mostly downregulated, which explained the extremely low lutein content of heterotrophic cells. Nevertheless, the lutein proportion in total carotenoids reached nearly 100%. This study is the first to our knowledge to report on a comparative transcriptome analysis of lutein biosynthesis, and it provides a promising strategy to boost lutein production in A. protothecoides.