Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An oxygen‐, acid‐ and anaesthetic‐sensitive TASK‐like background potassium channel in rat arterial chemoreceptor cells

1 The biophysical and pharmacological properties of an oxygen‐sensitive background K+ current in rat carotid body type‐I cells were investigated and compared with those of recently cloned two pore domain K+ channels. 2 Under symmetrical K+ conditions the oxygen‐sensitive whole cell K+ current had a linear dependence on voltage indicating a lack of intrinsic voltage sensitivity. 3 Single channel recordings identified a K+ channel, open at resting membrane potentials, that was inhibited by hypoxia. This channel had a single channel conductance of 14 pS, flickery kinetics and showed little voltage sensitivity except at extreme positive potentials. 4 Oxygen‐sensitive current was inhibited by 10 mM barium (57 % inhibition), 200 μM zinc (53 % inhibition), 200 μM bupivacaine (55 % inhibition) and 1 mM quinidine (105 % inhibition). 5 The general anaesthetic halothane (1.5 %) increased the oxygen‐sensitive K+ current (by 176 %). Halothane (3 mM) also stimulated single channel activity in inside‐out patches (by 240 %). Chloroform had no effect on background K+ channel activity. 6 Acidosis (pH 6.4) inhibited the oxygen‐sensitive background K+ current (by 56 %) and depolarised type‐I cells. 7 The pharmacological and biophysical properties of the background K+ channel are, therefore, analogous to those of the cloned channel TASK‐1. Using in situ hybridisation TASK‐1 mRNA was found to be expressed in type‐I cells. We conclude that the oxygen‐ and acid‐sensitive background K+ channel of carotid body type‐I cells is likely to be an endogenous TASK‐1‐like channel.
Gradient-Domain Vertex Connection and Merging

Recently, gradient-domain rendering techniques have shown great promise in reducing Monte Carlo noise and improving overall rendering efficiency. However, all existing gradient-domain methods are built exclusively on top of Monte Carlo integration or density estimation. While these methods can be effective, combining Monte Carlo integration and density estimation has been shown (in the primal domain) to more robustly handle a wider variety of light paths from arbitrarily complex scenes. We present gradient-domain vertex connection and merging (G-VCM), a new gradient-domain technique motivated by primal domain VCM. Our method enables robust gradient sampling in the presence of complex transport, such as specular-diffuse-specular paths, while retaining the denoising power and fast convergence of gradient-domain bidirectional path tracing. We show that G-VCM is able to handle a variety of scenes that exhibit slow convergence when rendered with previous gradient-domain methods.
Benchmarking of text segmentation in devnagari handwritten document

Handwritten Character Recognition is the capability of a computer to receive and interpret handwritten input from paper documents, photographs, touch screens and other devices. In this paper we have introduced a new method for Hindi handwritten character segmentation. It consists of a novel approach segmentation line, word and character using depth first search on the distance metric of connected components identified using 8- connectivity mechanism on the foreground pixels of the image. Next the extracted words are skew normalized using their orthographic projection. The skew corrected words are then segmented into upper modifier, lower modifier and individual letter using average height of consonant in the document. A novel database are developed for recognition. The database for off-line Hindi handwritten character with modifiers consist more than 26000 images of their original size with programmatically segmented consonant and vowels.
Evaluation of Sleep Quality by Actigraphy in Women with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE)

Despite the small number of studies about sleep quality and its possible occurrence in SLE, it is a frequent complaint among patients. This study evaluated sleep quality using actigraphy and the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) in 46 women with SLE and the relationship between disease activity, cumulative damage, quality of life, pain intensity, fatigue, and medication to treat the disease, as well as the influence of pain intensity (subgroups) on quality of life. The short-form 36 health survey (SF-36) assessed health related quality of life (HRQoL), the fatigue severity scale (FSS) assessed fatigue, and the visual analog scale (VAS) was used to evaluate pain intensity. The significance level was 5%. Objective and subjective measures were concordant in sleep latency. Univariate logistic regression analysis was performed using categorized VAS pain as a dependent variable, we found an association with sleep latency (actigraphy), PSQI global score, six components of the SF-36 (physical functioning, role physical or role limitations due to physical problems, bodily pain, vitality, social functioning, role emotional or role limitations due to emotional problems), and fatigue. In the final analyses, using multivariate logistic regression, the model showed that the predicting variables for HPG (high pain group) and LPG (low pain group) were sleep latency and fatigue. Perhaps we did not find associations between sleep and quality of life as other factors were more relevant, such as pain and fatigue.
Context-aware e-health services in smart spaces. (Services e-santé sensibles au contexte dans les espaces intelligents)

In this thesis, we propose a new e-health monitoring system for elderly, dependent and isolated persons living alone. We provided a better understanding of the monitored person's context. We develop a context-aware framework for monitoring the person's activities of daily living (ADL) and consider the most famous scales applied in the dependency evaluation models used in the geriatric domain such as the Functional Autonomy Measurement System (SMAF). The proposed adaptive framework offers several services such as the collection of high relevant and contextual data and an evaluation of the health status (i.e. dependency level) of persons. The proposed approach allows learning the human's lifestyle regarding the achievement of the ADL and the detection of the behavioral changes that may represent a risk for the monitored person. In order get closer to real-life situations, we use a Markovian-based model built for generating long term and realistic scenarios. For the behavior detection and prediction, we propose a novel forecasting approach based on the extension of the Grey theory GM (1, 1). The performances of the proposed system are evaluated and compared to traditional monitoring approaches within different scenarios and persons' profiles. The results of our evaluations reveal an efficient monitoring that optimizes the system resources in terms of computing, energy consumption, and network. With a minimum of sensing data, our system succeeds to ensure a high accuracy regarding the evaluation of the person's dependency, behavioral patterns learning, prediction of the health condition, and the detection of abnormal situations.
A genomic island linked to ecotype divergence in Atlantic cod

The genomic architecture underlying ecological divergence and ecological speciation with gene flow is still largely unknown for most organisms. One central question is whether divergence is genome‐wide or localized in ‘genomic mosaics’ during early stages when gene flow is still pronounced. Empirical work has so far been limited, and the relative impacts of gene flow and natural selection on genomic patterns have not been fully explored. Here, we use ecotypes of Atlantic cod to investigate genomic patterns of diversity and population differentiation in a natural system characterized by high gene flow and large effective population sizes, properties which theoretically could restrict divergence in local genomic regions. We identify a genomic region of strong population differentiation, extending over approximately 20 cM, between pairs of migratory and stationary ecotypes examined at two different localities. Furthermore, the region is characterized by markedly reduced levels of genetic diversity in migratory ecotype samples. The results highlight the genomic region, or ‘genomic island’, as potentially associated with ecological divergence and suggest the involvement of a selective sweep. Finally, we also confirm earlier findings of localized genomic differentiation in three other linkage groups associated with divergence among eastern Atlantic populations. Thus, although the underlying mechanisms are still unknown, the results suggest that ‘genomic mosaics’ of differentiation may even be found under high levels of gene flow and that marine fishes may provide insightful model systems for studying and identifying initial targets of selection during ecological divergence.
The Windigo in the Material World

Reconsideration of documentary evidence indicates that the Subarctic Algonquian windigo complex was of probable prehistoric inception, that a cor- relative psychiatric disorder entailing cannibalistic ideation and behavior is his- torically demonstrable, and that existing ecological explanations of the complex fail to elucidate its origin, persistence, characteristics, and distribution. Exami- nation of the windigo complex from structural, pragmatic, and ideological per- spectives suggests that instances of the psychiatric disorder were conditioned by Algonquian theories of dreaming and predestination The celebrated windigo and its concomitant "psychosis," perennial staples of Subarctic Algonquian ethnology and the literature on culture-specific psychiatric syndromes, appear of late as endangered species, Algonquian fictions uncritically taken as factual by credulous and subliminally biased anthropological consumers. At issue are whether ethnological writing has ever adequately elucidated the windigo concept in Algonquian terms and more specifically whether such a phenomenon as windigo psychosis ever occurred. The noun windigo (Ojibwa wintiko, Cree wihtikow) refers to one of a class of anthropophagous monsters, "supernatural" from a non- Algonquian perspective, who exhibit grotesque physical and behavioral abnormalities and possess great spiritual and physical power. Either many or all windigos were once human beings, transformed, usually irrevers- ibly, into their monstrous condition. In some cases the transition was conceived as rapid while in others the condition could be covert and vo- litionally disguised. The phrase "windigo psychosis" refers in academic literature to an Algonquian-specific psychiatric disorder whose sufferers experienced and acted upon obsessional cannibalistic urges. Cases of the disorder (cf. Teicher I960), with few exceptions, occurred prior to the Ethnohistory 35:4 (Fall 1988). Copyright ? by the American Society for Ethno- history. ccc ooI4-80oi/88/$i.5o.
Explanation of the JET n = 0 chirping mode

Persistent rapid up and down frequency chirping modes with a toroidal mode number of zero (n = 0) are observed in the JET tokamak when energetic ions, in the range of several hundred keV, are created by high field side ion cyclotron resonance frequency heating. Fokker–Planck calculations demonstrate that the heating method enables the formation of an energetically inverted ion distribution which supplies the free energy for the ions to excite a mode related to the geodesic acoustic mode. The large frequency shifts of this mode are attributed to the formation of phase space structures whose frequencies, which are locked to an ion orbit bounce resonance frequency, are forced to continually shift so that energetic particle energy can be released to counterbalance the energy dissipation present in the background plasma.
Mucoadhesive microspheres of chitosan and polyvinyl alcohol as a carrier for intranasal delivery of insulin: in vitro and in vivo studies

The aim of this study was to investigate the capabilities of chitosan microspheres as drug carrier system in co-formulation with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), to improve the systemic absorption of intranasal insulin delivery. Insulin loaded microspheres was developed from varying ratio of chitosan solutions along with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as additive polymer using spray drying method. Different formulations were developed and morphological studies of the optimized formulas showed that the size range of spherical shaped particulate matters existed from 200 nm to 2 mm. It was clearly observed that physicochemical properties of the microspheres were extensively affected by changing the concentration ratio of the two polymeric materials. In vitro studies of insulin release pattern was performed in various time intervals up to 24 h. It was evident that microspheres made up of chitosan showed initial burst release but slower release as the experiment continued. Microspheres made up of combination of the aforementioned two polymers had instant, sharp and burst drug release. Surprisingly there was no absorption after intranasal delivery of chitosan-PVA microspheres in groups of rats comparing to formulated chitosan microspheres having profound absorption due to their smaller particle size, slower drug release rate and better mucoadhesive properties. Therefore, significant reduction in the plasma blood glucose level for chitosan based optimized formulation was seen right after 4.5 hours compared with control group. The aim of the present study was to fabricate an appropriate application of polymeric microspheres for intranasal delivery of insulin using a novel optimized formulation based on industrial level spray drying technique and to realize the possible barriers in scale up process of its large scale production, considering the effectiveness of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and chitosan to increase mucoadhesivness, gelling ability and ultimately effective release behavior pattern of insulin. According to this study, the combination of the polymers used and the mean particle size of formulated microspheres were found to be key factors in insulin drug release resulting for further enhancement of insulin absorption via intranasal route of delivery.
Efficacy of Human Umbilical Stem Cells Cultured on Polylactic/ Polyglycolic Acid Membrane in the Treatment of Multiple Gingival Recession Defects: a Randomized Controlled Clinical Study

Statement of the Problem: Recently allogenic mesenchymal stem cells are proposed to have multipotential progenitor cell capabilities to differentiate into cementoblasts, osteoblasts, and periodontal ligament fibroblasts. Purpose: The aim of the present study was to compare the efficacy of human umbilical stem cells cultured on polylactic acid (PLA), polyglycolic acid (PGA) membrane with PLA/PGA membrane alone in the treatment of multiple gingival recession defects. Materials and Method: A total number of 14 cases of multiple gingival recession (Miller’s Class I or II) located in the anterior region were randomly selected and divided into test (stem cells in combination with PLA/PGA membrane) and control group (PLA/PGA membrane alone). Clinical parameters including gingival recession, probing pocket depth, clinical attachment level, and width of keratinized gingiva were recorded at baseline, and at 6 months postoperative. Results: At baseline, there was 2.28 mm and 2.14mm mean gingival recession at 16 sites and 14 sites in test and control groups respectively. At 6 months post-surgery, test group showed 1.57 mm mean reduction of gingival recession indicating 66% root coverage, while the control group showed 1.24mm mean reduction of gingival recession indicating 57% root coverage. Conclusion: In the present study, the stem cell with PLA/PGA membrane showed significantly higher mean root coverage compared to only PLA/PGA membrane group.
Green Biosynthesis of Gold Nanoparticles and Biomedical Applications

Nanotechnology is an emerging field of science and technology with numerous applications in biomedical fields and manufacturing new materials. To extract gold nanoparticles with different techniques, green biosynthesis is in under exploration due to its cost effective ecofriendly preparation with controllable shape, size and disparity, tremendous physical and chemical inertness, optical properties related with surface plasmon resonance, surface modification, surface bio-conjugation with molecular probes, excellent biocompatibility and less toxicity. This review article presents the overview of green biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles (AuNP) and their recent biomedical applications.
Inhibition of Histone Deacetylases Preserves Myocardial Performance and Prevents Cardiac Remodeling through Stimulation of Endogenous Angiomyogenesis

We have previously shown that the inhibition of histone deacetylases (HDACs) protects the heart against acute myocardial ischemia and reperfusion injury. We also demonstrated that HDAC inhibition stimulates myogenesis and angiogenesis in a cultured embryonic stem cell model. We investigate whether in vivo inhibition of HDAC preserves cardiac performance and prevents cardiac remodeling in mouse myocardial infarction (MI) through the stimulation of endogenous regeneration. MI was created by ligation of the left descending artery. Animals were divided into three groups: 1) sham group, animals that underwent thoracotomy without MI; 2) MI, animals that underwent MI; and 3) MI + trichostatin A (TSA), MI animals that received a daily intraperitoneal injection of TSA. In addition, infarcted mice received a daily intraperitoneal injection of TSA (0.1 mg/kg), a selective HDAC inhibitor. 5-Bromo-2-deoxyuridine (50 mg/kg) was delivered every other day to pulse-chase label in vivo endogenous cardiac replication. Eight weeks later, the MI hearts showed a reduction in ventricular contractility. HDAC inhibition increased the improvement of myocardial functional recovery after MI, which was associated with the prevention of myocardial remodeling and reduction of myocardial and serum tumor necrosis factor α. HDAC inhibition enhanced the formation of new myocytes and microvessels, which was consistent with the robust increase in proliferation and cytokinesis in the MI hearts. An increase in angiogenic response was demonstrated in MI hearts receiving TSA treatment. It is noteworthy that TSA treatment significantly inhibited HDAC activity and increased phosphorylation of Akt-1, but decreased active caspase 3. Taken together, our results indicate that HDAC inhibition preserves cardiac performance and mitigates myocardial remodeling through stimulating cardiac endogenous regeneration.
An adaptive wideband beamformer using Kalman filter with spatial signal processing characteristics

This paper presents a novel adaptive wideband beamformer for smart antennas capable of effectively steering the main beam to a desired direction, and place nulls to the interfering signals direction in presence of noise. The proposed beamformer uses a fully spatial signal processing configuration, in which a two-dimensional antenna array acts as a spatial filter, therefore the signals received by each element are processed with only weighting schemes, avoiding tape-delay line networks and frequency filters. To obtain the adaptive weights a Kalman filter is applied. Additionally, the algorithm is able to avoid the self-nulling phenomenon, which occurs when there is a mismatch between the desired signal steering vector and the actual steering vector. The simulation results illustrate the satisfactory performance of the proposed wideband spatial beamformer.
Microglia‐Derived Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor Promotes Generation of Proinflammatory Cytokines by Astrocytes in the Periventricular White Matter in the Hypoxic Neonatal Brain

Inflammation in the periventricular white matter (PWM) of hypoxic neonatal brain causes myelination disturbances. In this connection, macrophage colony‐stimulating factor (M‐CSF) has been reported to regulate release of proinflammatory cytokines that may be linked to PWM damage. We sought to determine if M‐CSF derived from amoeboid microglial cells (AMC) would promote proinflammatory cytokine production by astrocytes in the PWM following hypoxic exposure, and, if so, whether it is associated with axon degeneration and myelination disturbances. In 1‐day hypoxic rats, expression of M‐CSF was upregulated in AMC. This was coupled with increased expression of CSF‐1 receptor, tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α) and interleukin‐1β (IL‐1β) in astrocytes, and TNF‐receptor 1 and IL‐receptor 1 on the axons. Neurofilament‐200 immunopositive axons and myelin basic protein immunopositive processes appeared to undergo disruption in 14‐days hypoxic rats. By electron microscopy, some axons showed degenerative changes affecting the microtubules and myelin sheath. Primary cultured microglial cells subjected to hypoxia showed enhanced release of M‐CSF. Remarkably, primary cultured astrocytes treated with conditioned‐medium derived from hypoxic microglia or M‐CSF exhibited increased production of TNF‐α and IL‐1β. Our results suggest that AMC‐derived M‐CSF promotes astrocytes to generate proinflammatory cytokines, which may be involved in axonal damage following a hypoxic insult.
NEISSERIA GONORRHOEAE I

Kellogg, Douglas S. , Jr. (Communicable Disease Center, Atlanta, Ga.), William L. Peacock, Jr., W. E. Deacon, L. Brown, and Carl I. Pirkle. Neisseria gonorrhoeae. I. Virulence genetically linked to clonal variation. J. Bacteriol. 85:1274–1279. 1963. —One type, obtained from the purulent exudate of acute gonorrhea was maintained by 69 selective in vitro passages, at which point the organisms produced infections in human volunteers. A predominance of clonal types found in laboratory strains and a lack of ability to infect human volunteers resulted from 69 nonselective in vitro passages. Physiological and serological characteristics of the clonal types are compared. We are now in a position to study Neisseria gonorrhoeae organisms in their virulent form.
The hypo-osmotic swelling test and the sperm mucus penetration test in determining fertilization of the human oocyte.

The usefulness of the hypo-osmotic swelling (HOS) test and the sperm mucus penetration (SMP) test as sperm function tests for in-vitro fertilization was analysed in 56 couples. Using logistic regression analysis only the SMP test was independently related to fertilization (P = 0.004), no false negative results were obtained, i.e. no fertilization if sperm from the ejaculate failed to penetrate mucus. The HOS test was of no predictive value. The results justify a further examination of the SMP test in other IVF centres.
Digital filters as absolute norm regularizers

A variational formulation of the digital filtering problem, based on a certain regularizing functional, is presented. In particular, the special case where the regularizing functional is defined by means of l/sub 1/-norm is considered and a characterization of its minima is presented. It is shown that, for a certain class of signals, one solution to the regularization problem can be obtained by means of a suitable recursive median filter. Some examples and a possible extension of the variational approach are also discussed. >