Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhibition of transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 decreases the expressions of caveolin‐1 and caveolin‐2 after focal cerebral ischemia and reperfusion in rats

This study aimed to investigate the effects of transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) inhibition on blood–brain barrier (BBB) integrity and the expressions of caveolae structural proteins caveolin‐1 and caveolin‐2 in rats with focal cerebral ischemia and reperfusion. BBB permeability was assessed by Evans blue extravasation. The mRNA and protein expressions of caveolin‐1 and caveolin‐2 were determined by RT‐PCR, Western blot and immunohistochemistry assays. We found that BBB permeability significantly increased and reaches its peak at 72 h of reperfusion in cerebral ischemia‐reperfusion rats and is able to be ameliorated by administration of HC‐067047, an antagonist of TRPV4. Additionally, it shows a significant upregulation of caveolin‐1 and caveolin‐2 expression in cerebral microvessels of ischemic tissue. However, treatment with HC‐067047 was shown to downregulate caveolin‐1 and caveolin‐2 expression during cerebral ischemia‐reperfusion. This study demonstrates that inhibition of TRPV4 ameliorates BBB leakage induced by ischemia‐reperfusion injury through the downregulation of caveolin‐1 and caveolin‐2.
Healthcare resource use and costs associated with chronic kidney disease in US private insurance patients with multiple myeloma

Objectives Within a median 1.2 years after patients have an initial diagnosis with multiple myeloma, up to 61% were diagnosed with renal impairment and 50% were diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. This study estimated economic burden associated with chronic kidney disease in multiple myeloma patients in the US. Methods In this retrospective cohort study, patients ≥18 years old with ≥1 inpatient or ≥ 2 outpatient multiple myeloma diagnoses between 1 January 2008 and 31 March 2015 were identified from MarketScan® Commercial and Medicare Supplemental Databases. Chronic kidney disease patients had ≥1 diagnosis of chronic kidney disease Stages 1–5 (first chronic kidney disease diagnosis date = index date) on or after the first multiple myeloma diagnosis, and were propensity score matched 1:1 to multiple myeloma patients without chronic kidney disease, end-stage renal disease, dialysis, or other type of chronically impaired renal function. All patients had ≥six-month continuous enrollment prior to index date and were followed for ≥one month from index date until the earliest of inpatient death, end of continuous enrollment, or end of the study period (30 September 2015). The per-patient per-year healthcare resource utilization and costs were measured during follow-up. Costs were total reimbursed amount in 2016 US dollars. Results A total of 2541 multiple myeloma patients with chronic kidney disease stages 1–5 and 2541 matched controls met the study criteria and were respectively 69.3 and 69.6 years, 54.5% and 55.3% men, and had 572.2 and 533.4 mean days of follow up. Compared to controls, chronic kidney disease patients had significantly (all P < 0.001) higher proportions (57.1% vs. 32.1%) and frequency (1.2 vs. 0.5) of inpatient admissions, frequency of emergency room visits (5.1 vs. 3.3), and total costs ($106,634 vs. $71,880). Sensitivity analyses found that patients with chronic kidney disease, end-stage renal disease, or dialysis had $78,455 (P < 0.001) higher costs (per-patient per-year) than matched controls. Conclusions The economic burden associated with chronic kidney disease in patients with multiple myeloma was estimated to be between $34,754 and $78,455 per-patient per-year. Given its substantial clinical and economic impact, preservation of renal function is important in multiple myeloma patient care.
The Modulation of Stimulus Structure on Visual Field Asymmetry Effects: The Case of Chinese Character Recognition

Recent research suggests that visual field (VF) asymmetry effects in visual recognition may be influenced by information distribution within the stimuli for the recognition task in addition to hemispheric processing differences: Stimuli with more information on the left have a right VF (RVF) advantage because the left part is closer to the centre, where the highest visual acuity is obtained. It remains unclear whether visual complexity distribution of the stimuli also has similar modulation effects. Here we used Chinese characters with contrasting structures—left-heavy, symmetric, and right-heavy, in terms of either visual complexity of components or information distribution defined by location of the phonetic component—and examined participants' naming performance. We found that left-heavy characters had the largest RVF advantage, followed by symmetric and right-heavy characters; this effect was only observed in characters that contrasted in information distribution, in which information for pronunciation was skewed to the phonetic component, but not in those that contrasted only in visual complexity distribution and had no phonetic component. This result provides strong evidence for the influence of information distribution within the stimuli on VF asymmetry effects; in contrast, visual complexity distribution within the stimuli does not have similar modulation effects.
The Role of Microfinance Institutions in the Development of Small and Medium Size Businesses in Ethiopia, A Case Study in Amhara Credit and Saving Institutions

Microfinance is a term used by many in different domains to fight poverty. Poverty is a syndrome that is affecting the developing countries and especially in sub Saharan Africa. The study tries to look at the impact of microfinance the role of microfinance institutions in the development of small and medium size businesses. The primary sources of data are questionnaires and interviews. The population was drawn from the members (clients) of ACSI and the credit unions constituting Small and Medium Size Businesses (SMEs). The study made use of closed and open ended questions. The responses were analyzed using percentage frequency tables. From the information collected, it is realized that ACSI has a positive impact in the development of the members? businesses and provide its members with financial and social intermediation services to help improve their businesses. Securing micro-financing by SMEs is determined by the stage or level of development in which the business is. Businesses that are viewed as growing had it easy to get a loan. But the main criteria used were the ability to pay back and to meet the set requirements to obtain a loan. The main requirement is fixed tangible assets such as land. The study indicated that the poorest of the poor were not included in designing and implementing their policies. The entry requirements are difficult for the poorest to meet thus they do not enjoy the services of ACSI. In this study the poorest are those who are not involved in any income generating activities. Keywords: ACSI, Ethiopia, Impact, Microfinance, SME Development.
Relationship between mean platelet volume and vitamin D deficiency in fibromyalgia

Objective: To investigate whether vitamin D deficiency is associated with high mean platelet volume (MPV) in fibromyalgia (FMS) compared to healthy controls. Methods: Ninety-nine patients with fibromyalgia and ninety-nine age- and sex-matched healthy female control subjects were included. Tenderness was evaluated by applying pressure (4 kg/cm2) over 18 specific body points, and the number of tender points was recorded. FMS patients completed visual analog scales (VAS) to evaluate their level of pain and were evaluated with the FMS Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). In all cases, platelet count and MPV were measure as part of each full blood count. Serum 25(OH)D3 levels were analyzed with Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA). Patients were divided into three groups as follows: Group 1, vitamin D level of 20 ng/ ml (n=33). Results: MPV values were significantly higher in the vitamin group 1 compared to the control group. There was no significant difference between the vitamin group 3 and the controls. A negative correlation was determined between MPV and vitamin D status or 25(OH)D level. Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency may contribute to an increase in MPV levels, which is a risk factor in cardiovascular disease (CVD) in FMS.
Vitamin K2 (menaquinone) Supplementation and its Benefits in Cardiovascular Disease, Osteoporosis, and Cancer

Vitamin K is known to play an essential role in the coagulation cascade; however, a growing body of research has found that a subtype of this vitamin, vitamin K2 (menaquinone), may have a beneficial effect in osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive review of recent literature regarding menaquinone and its role in human health. This review discusses the physiology of menaquinone, its clinical benefits in cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and cancer, and how it may interact with certain medications. The authors conclude that menaquinone supplementation has been shown to improve carboxylation of osteocalcin and matrix-Gla protein to their active forms, two proteins that possess important roles in calcium distribution. In the setting of cardiovascular disease, menaquinone intake has been shown to lower the risk of coronary calcification and coronary heart disease, and a randomized controlled trial has demonstrated that it can reduce arterial stiffness. In osteoporosis, menaquinone has been shown in numerous randomized controlled trials to decrease the rate of bone loss at the lumbar spine and forearm and reduce the risk of fracture. In cancer, menaquinone intake has been shown to reduce overall incidence and mortality; clinical trials have suggested that it may have a role in reducing recurrence and death from hepatocellular carcinoma. However, in all clinical settings, more large randomized controlled trials are needed to definitively determine the clinical benefits of menaquinone supplementation, as many studies have failed to show any significant benefit. Lastly, more research is needed to determine how menaquinone supplementation interacts with medications such as warfarin, bile-acid sequestrants, orlistat, mineral oil and CYP3A4 substrates.
Carbon Nanofiber Aerogel Converted from Bacterial Cellulose for Kilohertz AC-Supercapacitors

Compact-size kilohertz (kHz) AC-supercapacitors are being pursued for ripple current filtering and pulsed energy storage. However, their development is limited by a small areal capacitance density due to very thin electrode used for meeting frequency requirement. In our work, crosslinked carbon nanofiber aerogel (CCNFA) was investigated as freestanding electrode for kHz AC-supercapacitors with an areal capacitance density as large as 4.5 mF cm^-2 at 120 Hz, 5-10 times larger than most reports. The CCNFA was obtained in a rapid plasma carbonization process of bacterial cellulose. The fabrication route adopted here is simple and straightforward, and the produced CCNFA electrode was found to be very suitable for high-frequency AC-supercapacitors. The operating voltage range of CCNFA based AC-supercapacitors can be expanded to 3 V by utilizing an organic electrolyte. In addition to AC-Supercapacitor performance, the morphology and material properties of bacterial cellulose aerogel and CCNFA were also reported.
Experimental evaluation of a coaxial needle insertion assistant with enhanced force feedback

During needle insertion in soft tissue, detection of change in tissue properties is important both for diagnosis to detect pathological tissue and for prevention to avoid puncture of important structures. The presence of a membrane located deep inside the tissue results in a relatively small force variation at the needle tip that can be masked by relatively large friction force between the needle shaft and the surrounding tissue. Also, user perception of force can be limited due to the overall small force amplitude in some applications (e.g. brain surgery). A novel robotic coaxial needle insertion assistant was developed to enhance operator force perception. The coaxial needle separates the cutting force at the needle tip from shear friction on the needle shaft. The assistant is force controlled (admittance control), providing the operator with force feedback that is a scaled version of the force applied by the needle tip to the tissue. The effectiveness of the assistant in enhancing the detection of different tissue types was tested experimentally. Users were asked to blindly insert a needle into artificial tissues with membranes at various depths under two force feedback conditions: (1) shaft and tip force together, and (2) only tip force. The ratio of successful to unsuccessful membrane detection was significantly higher when only the needle tip force is displayed to the user. The system proved to be compliant with the clinical applications requirements.
Seismic retrofit of precast soft-storey building using diagonal steel-shape memory alloy bracing device: Numerical investigation

A diagonal steel-shape memory alloy bracing device is proposed for seismic retrofitting of vulnerable building frame structure. Superelastic shape memory alloy bar is put in series with steel bars in the bracing. The device makes use of the loading plateau of superelastic shape memory alloy to limit the tensile force of diagonal bracing. A precast soft-storey building frame in Australia was selected for a case study. A numerical model of the frame was developed and validated with the results from full-scale pull-down field tests. Nonlinear time history analysis was then conducted to evaluate the seismic performance of the frame with different retrofitting strategies. The result shows that the diagonal steel-shape memory alloy bracing can reduce the displacement demand on the soft-storey frame. Meanwhile, the level of tensile force of steel-shape memory alloy bracing can be controlled by the force plateau of the shape memory alloy bar, which is recommended to be 20% of the yielding force of the steel bar. The lower tensile force demand could alleviate the force demand at the associated support connections.
Design of Binary LDPC Codes With Parallel Vector Message Passing

Many studies were carried out for the construction of low density parity-check (LDPC) codes. They usually focused on introducing the construction methods for good LDPC codes instead of a general method for code optimization. This paper proposes a method with high versatility, called the parallel vector message passing-based edge exchange (PMPE), for optimizing a type of graph-based LDPC codes, without changing the code parameters of mother codes, such as the code length, code rate, and degree distribution. With the approximately nearest codewords searching approach, we find the optimization method can increase the Hamming distance of the LDPC codes. For the quasi-cyclic (QC) LDPC codes, an optimization method, called the parallel vector message passing oriented-to the QC-LDPC codes (QC-PMP), is further suggested, with which the quasi-cyclic characteristics of QC-LDPC codes can remain unchanged in the optimization. To evaluate the performance of the parity-check matrix corresponding to a Tanner graph, a very simple metric, the cycles metric, is introduced to work with the proposed PMPE and QC-PMP algorithms. The experimental results show that the performance of the LDPC codes optimized with the proposed PMPE can be improved significantly at low BER range compared with the mother codes of the random codes, including the regular MacKay code of rate 0.5 and the regular PEG code of rate 0.9. For the case of the regular and irregular QC-LDPC codes with different code lengths and code rates, the optimized LDPC codes with the proposed QC-PMP algorithm significantly outperform the mother codes.
Developmental trajectories and influences of environmental complexity on oxytocin receptor and vasopressin 1A receptor expression in male and female prairie voles

Nonapeptide receptors, like oxytocin receptor (OTR) and vasopressin 1a receptor (V1aR), modulate a variety of functions across taxa, and mediate phenotypic variation within and between species. Despite the popularity of studying nonapeptides in adults, developmental perspectives on properties of OTR and V1aR expression are lacking. Study of prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) has facilitated an understanding of mechanisms of social behavior and provides great potential to inform how early life experiences alter phenotype. We provide the first comprehensive profiling of OTR and V1aR in male and female prairie voles across postnatal development and into adulthood. Differences in receptor densities across the forebrain were region‐ and sex‐specific. Postnatal changes in receptor expression fell into four themes: (a) constant over time, (b) increasing with age, (c) decreasing with age, or (d) peaking during late pre‐weaning (postnatal day 15–21). We also examined the influence of post‐weaning social and spatial enrichment (i.e., environmental complexity) on OTR and V1aR. Environmental complexity appeared to promote expression of OTR in males and females, and reduced expression of V1aR across several brain regions in males. Our results show that nonapeptide receptor profiles are plastic over development and suggest that different patterns of expression might represent functional differences in sensitivity to nonapeptide activation over a period when social environments are dynamic. Our results on environmental complexity suggest that nonapeptide sensitivity responds flexibly to different environmental contexts during development. Understanding the developmental trajectories of nonapeptide receptors provides a better understanding of the dynamic nature of social behavior and the underlying mechanisms.
Temperature-aware NBTI modeling and the impact of input vector control on performance degradation

As technology scales, negative bias temperature instability (NBTI), which causes temporal performance degradation in digital circuits by affecting PMOS threshold voltage, is emerging as one of the major circuit reliability concerns. In this paper, the authors first investigate the impact of NBTI on PMOS devices and propose a novel temporal performance degradation model for digital circuits considering the temperature difference between active and standby mode. For the first time, the impact of input vector control (to minimize standby leakage) on the NBTI is investigated. Minimum leakage vectors, which lead to minimum circuit performance degradation and remains maximum leakage reduction rate, are selected and used during the standby mode. Furthermore, the potential to save the circuit performance degradation by internal node control techniques during circuit standby mode is discussed. Our simulation results show that: 1) the active and standby time ratio and the standby mode temperature have considerable impact on the circuit performance degradation; 2) the NBTI-aware IVC technique leads to an average 3% savings of the total circuit degradation; while the potential of internal node control may lead to 10% savings of the total circuit degradation
Routing autonomous vehicles in congested transportation networks: structural properties and coordination algorithms

This paper considers the problem of routing and rebalancing a shared fleet of autonomous (i.e., self-driving) vehicles providing on-demand mobility within a capacitated transportation network, where congestion might disrupt throughput. We model the problem within a network flow framework and show that under relatively mild assumptions the rebalancing vehicles, if properly coordinated, do not lead to an increase in congestion (in stark contrast to common belief). From an algorithmic standpoint, such theoretical insight suggests that the problems of routing customers and rebalancing vehicles can be decoupled, which leads to a computationally-efficient routing and rebalancing algorithm for the autonomous vehicles. Numerical experiments and case studies corroborate our theoretical insights and show that the proposed algorithm outperforms state-of-the-art point-to-point methods by avoiding excess congestion on the road. Collectively, this paper provides a rigorous approach to the problem of congestion-aware, system-wide coordination of autonomously driving vehicles, and to the characterization of the sustainability of such robotic systems.
Reversal of Dabigatran-induced Bleeding by Coagulation Factor Concentrates in a Rat-tail Bleeding Model and Lack of Effect on Assays of Coagulation

Background:Dabigatran is a potent oral anticoagulant. Like any anticoagulant, there is an increased risk of bleeding associated with its use, and reversal may be needed in cases of severe bleeding. Methods:In this study, six coagulation factor concentrates (CFCs) were tested for their ability to reduce bleeding induced by oral dabigatran etexilate (30 mg/kg) in a rat-tail bleeding model (n = 5 to 8 per group): three-factor (Profilnine [Grifols Biologicals Inc., Los Angeles, CA] and Bebulin [Baxter BioScience, Westlake Village, CA]) and four-factor prothrombin complex concentrates (Beriplex [CSL Behring, Marburg, Germany] and Octaplex [Octapharma AG, Lachen, Switzerland]), activated prothrombin complex concentrate (Factor Eight Inhibitor Bypassing Activity; Baxter AG, Vienna, Austria), and recombinant factor VIIa (NovoSeven; NovoNordisk, Bagsværd, Denmark). The effect of CFCs on prolongation of coagulation assays was measured. Thrombin generation after administration of each CFC was compared in vitro using human plasma (n = 5) spiked with dabigatran in concentrations corresponding to median peak (200 ng/ml) and supratherapeutic values (600 and 1,000 ng/ml). Results:Dabigatran resulted in an approximately three-fold increase in bleeding time, consistent with supratherapeutic dabigatran plasma levels. Beriplex (35 and 50 IU/kg), Octaplex (40 IU/kg), Profilnine (50 IU/kg), Bebulin (60 IU/kg), Factor Eight Inhibitor Bypassing Activity (100 U/kg), and NovoSeven (500 &mgr;g/kg) significantly decreased this prolonged bleeding time over 30 min (P < 0.001). The coagulation assays were prolonged three- to eight-fold over baseline (P = 0.01). None of the CFCs produced a consistent change in these assays that was predictive of reduced bleeding. Thrombin generation reversal was dependent on the concentration of dabigatran and each CFC; normalization occurred at the lower concentration of dabigatran with most CFCs, but not at higher concentrations. Conclusions:In this animal model, bleeding induced by high doses of dabigatran can be reduced by CFCs. However, routine coagulation assays do not predict this effect.