Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Repeatability of peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer and inner retinal thickness among two spectral domain optical coherence tomography devices.

PURPOSE To compare measurement of macular inner retina and peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL) thickness using two spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) devices in glaucoma patients, patients with ocular hypertension, idiopathic and atypical Parkinson disease, and healthy controls. METHODS A total of 171 eyes of 146 participants underwent successful pRNFL and macular scanning and automated measurement of ganglion cell layer+inner plexiform layer (GCL-IPL) using Cirrus HD-OCT or retinal nerve fiber layer+GCL-IPL (RNFL-GCL-IPL) using RTVue-100. Macular RNFL was added to the GCL-IPL thickness measured by Cirrus and was compared to the RNFL-GCL-IPL thickness of the RTVue in the corresponding Cirrus sectors. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was calculated to determine repeatability of three consecutive measurements; ICC and Bland-Altman analysis to assess agreement between OCTs; Pearson's correlation coefficient to assess strength of linear correlation. RESULTS Repeatability of average macular RNFL-GCL-IPL thickness measurement was excellent with an ICC of 0.998 for Cirrus and 0.995 for RTVue. Repeatability was also good for average pRNFL thickness measurements. Both instruments demonstrated a good consistency in measurements with ICC values ranging from 0.844 to 0.862 for macular RNFL-GCL-IPL and 0.718 to 0.958 for pRNFL thickness. CONCLUSIONS Measurement of pRNFL and macular RNFL-GCL-IPL thickness has a high degree of repeatability for both OCT devices. Despite a high correlation between measurements of the two OCT devices and fair to excellent ICC values representing a high consistency in the measurements of the two devices, RTVue measured a thicker macular RNFL-GCL-IPL and pRNFL thickness.
Fluid-filled micro suction-controller array for handling objects

This paper reports fluid-filled flexible micro suction-controller array (MISCA) that can hold diverse shape of objects. MISCA is made of PDMS and each suction unit works independently. Key technical issue was gas permeability of PDMS, which decreases the suction pressure for handling. We overcome this problem by using ethylene glycol as working fluid. We confirmed that MISCA filled with ethylene glycol had the highest suction pressure, and successfully demonstrated that 100 mm2-area MISCA can pull up a 75 g object, or a grooved object held by partial contact of the suction array.
Demographic, medical, and behavioral characteristics associated with over the counter non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drug use in a population‐based cohort: results from the Multi‐Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Three types of non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can be obtained both over the counter (OTC) and by prescription in the United States. OTC NSAID use is not recorded in prescription claims databases; this might lead to differential misclassification of NSAID exposure status in studies that use computerized pharmacy databases to study NSAID use.
Semi-active suspensions with low-order mechanical admittances incorporating inerters

This paper investigates the application of inerters in semi-active suspensions. An approach to designing semi-active suspension with inerter is proposed by dividing the semi-active system into a passive part and a semi-active part. The passive part is a mechanical network consisting of springs, dampers and inerters; the semi-active part is a semi-active damper. Different from the existing result using some fixed-structure networks as the passive part, in this study, the passive part is obtained by optimizing some low-order admittance functions and then by realizing the optimized admittance functions as mechanical networks. A suboptimal control law named steepest gradient control is employed for the semi-active damper in the semi-active part. The proposed method is illustrated in a quarter-car vehicle system, and the effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by using numerical simulations. It is shown that significant improvement can be obtained by using the proposed method compared with the conventional semi-active suspensions without inerter.
Sar1 GTPase Activity Is Regulated by Membrane Curvature*♦

The majority of biosynthetic secretory proteins initiate their journey through the endomembrane system from specific subdomains of the endoplasmic reticulum. At these locations, coated transport carriers are generated, with the Sar1 GTPase playing a critical role in membrane bending, recruitment of coat components, and nascent vesicle formation. How these events are appropriately coordinated remains poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that Sar1 acts as the curvature-sensing component of the COPII coat complex and highlight the ability of Sar1 to bind more avidly to membranes of high curvature. Additionally, using an atomic force microscopy-based approach, we further show that the intrinsic GTPase activity of Sar1 is necessary for remodeling lipid bilayers. Consistent with this idea, Sar1-mediated membrane remodeling is dramatically accelerated in the presence of its guanine nucleotide-activating protein (GAP), Sec23-Sec24, and blocked upon addition of guanosine-5′-[(β,γ)-imido]triphosphate, a poorly hydrolysable analog of GTP. Our results also indicate that Sar1 GTPase activity is stimulated by membranes that exhibit elevated curvature, potentially enabling Sar1 membrane scission activity to be spatially restricted to highly bent membranes that are characteristic of a bud neck. Taken together, our data support a stepwise model in which the amino-terminal amphipathic helix of GTP-bound Sar1 stably penetrates the endoplasmic reticulum membrane, promoting local membrane deformation. As membrane bending increases, Sar1 membrane binding is elevated, ultimately culminating in GTP hydrolysis, which may destabilize the bilayer sufficiently to facilitate membrane fission.
Public Private Partnerships : A Global Review

1. An Overview of Public Private Partnership 2. PPP Applications in Australia Infrastructure Development 3. Developments of Public Private Partnership in Belgium 4. Public Private Partnerships in Canada 5. Public Private Partnership Development in China 6. Perspectives on the Limited Emergence of Public-Private Partnerships in Finland 7. Public Private Partnership in Greece 8. Public Private Partnership in Hong Kong 9. Public Private Partnership Infrastructure Development in India 10. Defining Public-Private Partnership in Infrastructure Development within the Indonesian Context 11. Public Private Partnerships in the Republic of Ireland 12. Public Private Partnership in Italy: State of Art, Trends and Proposals 13. Public Private Partnership in Japan 14. Public Private Partnership in Malaysia 15. The State of Public Private Partnership in Nigeria 16. Portugal's Experience with Public-Private Partnerships 17. Public Private Partnership in Switzerland 18. Public-Private Partnership in Major Taiwan Infrastructure Projects 19. PPP Development in Thailand 20. Public Private Partnership Implementation in Turkey 21. Perspectives on the Future of Public Private Partnership in the UK 22. Public-Private-Partnerships in the USA Transportation Sector
Improvement of memory recall by quercetin in rodent contextual fear conditioning and human early-stage Alzheimer’s disease patients

Patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) experience a wide array of cognitive deficits, which typically include the impairment of explicit memory. In previous studies, the authors reported that a flavonoid, quercetin, reduces the expression of ATF4 and delays memory deterioration in an early-stage AD mouse model. In the present study, the effects of long-term quercetin intake on memory recall were assessed using contextual fear conditioning in aged wild-type mice. In addition, the present study examined whether memory recall was affected by the intake of quercetin-rich onion (a new cultivar of hybrid onion ‘Quergold’) powder in early-stage AD patients. In-vivo analysis indicated that memory recall was enhanced in aged mice fed a quercetin-containing diet. Memory recall in early-stage AD patients, determined using the Revised Hasegawa Dementia Scale, was significantly improved by the intake of quercetin-rich onion (Quergold) powder for 4 weeks compared with the intake of control onion (‘Mashiro’ white onion) powder. These results indicate that quercetin might influence memory recall.
Can targeted early intervention improve functional recovery in psychosis? A historical control evaluation of the effectiveness of different models of early intervention service provision in Norfolk 1998–2007

Aims: This paper assesses the impact of different models of early intervention (EI) service provision on functional recovery and inpatient hospital admission. The study compares the outcome of a comprehensive EI team with a partial model (community mental health team (CMHT) plus specialist support) and traditional care (generic CMHT) over a 10‐year period.
Sustainable, Portable, and Efficient Electricity Delivery (SPEED): Design, Control, and Testing

During emergencies or natural disasters, or at remote areas, the main electrical grid might be damaged or not accessible, therefore, a sustainable electricity generation is critical for human survivals or other electricity needs. This paper presents a sustainable, portable, and efficient electricity delivery (SPEED) system for community emergency, disaster relief, and power supply at remote areas. A demonstrated system with utility-level AC power output is built up with a 180 W photovoltaics (PV) array which consists of six serial-connected solar panels, a 1.8 kWh battery pack, a SYNDEM power converter, and a data monitoring subsystem. The autonomous operation of the system is achieved by advanced control technologies for power electronic converters in both islanded mode and grid-connected mode, while providing the overcharging and overdischarging protections of the battery pack. Field testing is conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed SPEED system under different scenarios.
Mixturas de datos composicionales

EL OBJETIVO DEL TRABAJO DE INVESTIGACION PRETENDE FUNDAMENTAR TEORICAMENTE E IMPLEMENTAR EN LA PRACTICA LOS MODELOS DE MIXTURAS EN EL CASO QUE LAS OBSERVACIONES DE UNA MUESTRA SON DATOS COMPOSICIONALES DEL SIMPLEX SD, PROPONE LA EXTENSION DE LAS POSIBILIDADES DE AJUSTE DE LA TRANSFORMACION ALR DE AITCHISON A PARTIR DE LAS TRANSFORMACIONES BOX-COX MULTIVARIANTES SOBRE DATOS COMPOSICIONALES. EL HECHO QUE SOBRE UN MISMO CONJUNTO DE DATOS COMPOSICIONALES DEL SIMPLEX SD SE OBTENGAN, APLICANDO CRITERIOS DE MAXIMA VEROSIMILITUD, D+1 TRANSFORMACIONES BOX-COX POSIBLES, OBLIGA A ESTABLECER UN CRITERIO OBJETIVO PARA LA ELECCION DE LA TRANSFORMACION BOX-COX MAS ADECUADA, EN EL SENTIDO QUE CONSIGA EL 'MEJOR' AJUSTE DE LAS OBSERVACIONES TRANSFORMADAS A UNA DISTRIBUCION NORMAL MULTIVARIANTE. LA INTRODUCCION DEL CONCEPTO DE ALR-HOMOCEDASTICIDAD EN EL SIMPLEX SD, PERMITE INTRODUCIR LOS MODELOS DE DISCRIMINACION CUADRATICOS SOBRE DATOS COMPOSICIONALES CUANDO NO PUEDE SUPONERSE LA ALR-HOMOCEDASTICIDAD DE LAS SUBPOBLACIONES. A SU VEZ, LA INTRODUCCION DE LAS TRANSFORMACIONES BOX-COX MULTIVARIANTES EN EL SIMPLEX SD PERMITE AMPLIAR LAS POSIBILIDADES DE LOS MODELOS DE DISCRIMINACION LINEAL Y CUADRATICO AL CASO EN QUE LAS SUBPOBLACIONES EN SD PUEDEN AJUSTARSE SUFICIENTEMENTE A DISTRIBUCIONES NORMALES MULTIVARIANTES MEDIANTE LA APLICACION DE TRANSFORMACIONES BOX-COX. SE ABORDA TAMBIEN EL ESTUDIO DE LOS MODELOS DE MIXTURAS EN EL CONTEXTO DE SU APLICACION AL ANALISIS DISCRIMINANTE. DESPUES DE RECORDAR SU UTILIZACION SOBRE MUESTRAS PROCEDENTES DE MIXTURAS DE DISTRIBUCIONES NORMALES MULTIVARIANTES EN IRD, SE DESARROLLA LA APLICACION DE LOS MODELOS DE MIXTURAS AL ANALISIS DISCRIMINANTE EN EL CASO PARTICULAR QUE LAS OBSERVACIONES SON DATOS COMPOSICIONALES. ESTOS MODELOS DE MIXTURAS SE APLICAN TANTO EN EL CASO EN QUE LAS SUBPOBLACIONES PUEDEN AJUSTARSE SUFICIENTEMENTE MEDIANTE LA TRANSFORMACION ALR, COMO EN EL CASO EN QUE ES PREFERIBLE APLICAR UNA TRANSFORMAC
Independent control of limb position and contact forces in cat posture.

1. It has previously been demonstrated that a set of geometric and kinetic parameters are invariant in cats standing at their preferred interfoot distance and weight distribution. Thus the length and the angle of orientation relative to the vertical of each limb axis remain approximately constant when the supporting platform is tilted in the sagittal plane. The direction of the tangential contact forces is similarly constrained in response to horizontal translations. The main aim of the present study is to assess whether or not the control of limb position is independent of the control of the contact forces at the feet. To this end we have examined cat posture under a number of different conditions expressly designed to increase the range of postural variability. We considered that if the specification of limb position is a mere byproduct of the neural control of contact forces (or vice versa), geometric and kinetic parameters would covary interdependently. If instead limb position and contact forces are controlled in parallel and independently of each other, they will tend to follow different laws of variation. 2. Limb position and contact forces were measured in intact cats standing freely on a support platform. In a first series of experiments the pitch angle of the platform was randomly changed, as were the interfoot distance and head orientation. In another series of experiments cats were tilted in the presence of an external load tending to shift the weight distribution. The same load was applied in two different manners: 1) it made contact with a very limited surface of the body, and 2) it was attached by means of a long vest that made contact with most of the trunk and produced abnormal somesthesic cues to the body. 3. The range of different experimental conditions resulted in substantial trial-to-trial variations of the length and orientation of the axis of the limbs, as well as variations of the magnitude and orientation of the net contact forces. We found that the changes of the orientation of the contact force vector are uncorrelated with the corresponding changes of limb orientation, thus providing a first line of evidence in favor of the existence of a separate neural control of geometric and kinetic parameters. 4. Another line of evidence is provided by the specific form of the laws of variation of geometric parameters and tangential forces in different animals. Under normal (unloaded) conditions the values of the limb joint angles tend to covary linearly. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Associations Between Sexually Transmitted Disease Diagnosis and Subsequent Sexual Risk and Sexually Transmitted Disease Incidence Among Adolescents

Background Empiric evidence is lacking in regard to the subsequent sexually transmitted disease (STD)-associated risk behaviors of adolescents diagnosed and treated for an STD. Goal The goal of this study was to prospectively identify associations between STD diagnosis and subsequent sexual risk and STD incidence among a sample of U.S. adolescents. Study Design A cohort of 455 adolescents (age 15–21 years) was followed for 3 months. Adolescents were recruited from primary care clinics and through outreach activities. Results A total of 10.8% were initially diagnosed with at least one STD. After adjusting for observed covariates, these adolescents (compared with those testing negative) were 2.8 times (P = 0.0001) more likely to be abstinent from sex and 2.2 times more likely to report always using condoms (P = 0.04). However, during the ensuing 3 months, they were approximately 2.4 times more likely to report having sex with multiple partners (P = 0.01), 8.9 times more likely to test positive for trichomonas (P = 0.009), and 3.0 times more likely to test positive for chlamydia (P = 0.04). Conclusions Compared with those testing negative, adolescents diagnosed with an STD may subsequently adopt safer sex behaviors, including abstinence. However, perhaps in part as a result of having sex with multiple partners, they might fail to practice safer sex behaviors stringently enough to avoid subsequent STD acquisition.
Novel Superjunction LDMOS (>950 V) With a Thin Layer SOI

A novel superjunction (SJ) lateral double-diffused MOSFET (>950 V) with a thin layer SOI combining the advantage of low specific on-resistance <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{\text {on,sp}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of the SJ and the high breakdown voltage <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}_{\text {B}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of the thin SOI is proposed and experimentally demonstrated in this letter. Based on our previously developed equivalent substrate model, the optimized SJ endows the device with a respectably reduced <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{\text {on,sp}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> without sacrificing <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}_{\text {B}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Meanwhile, the thin layer SOI is designed with the enhanced dielectric layer field principle to carry out a high <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}_{\text {B}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. The experimental results exhibit a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{\text {on,sp}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of 145 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{m}\Omega \cdot $ </tex-math></inline-formula>cm<sup>2</sup> with a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}_{\text {B}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of 977 V. This represents a reduction in <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{\text {on,sp}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> by 18.1% when compared with the theoretical <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{\text {on,sp}} \propto {V}_{\text {B}}^{{2.5}}\vphantom {^{^{^{^{}}}}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> “silicon limit”.
SocialGate: Managing large-scale social data on home gateways

Today, Online Social Networks (OSNs) are ubiquitous means of communication. In order to prevent the misuse of personal user data by OSN providers, various research efforts have produced a multitude of approaches to decentralize OSNs in the past decade. The most critical challenge for these systems is to replace the infrastructure of centralized OSNs. That is, they need to handle the large amounts of data uploaded by users on one end, and requests towards that data on the other end. Typically, existing approaches instrumentalize cloud facilities or user devices for this task. Unfortunately, they introduce either a monetary cost for users or have limited success in making data highly available. In this work we propose SocialGate, the first prototype that makes use of home routers of users as the infrastructure backbone of the OSN to avoid these shortcomings. Measurements and experiments based on real-world data support the feasibility and practicability of our approach.
Leveraging Wireless Virtualization for Network Capacity Optimization in HetNets

Wireless virtualization is regarded as an emerging paradigm for enhancing radio frequency (RF) spectrum utilization through slicing of primary wireless resources in heterogeneous networks (HetNets). In this paper, we study the creation of virtual wireless networks through wireless virtualization for mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) where portion of the primary bandwidth is sliced and leased to the MVNOs. For wireless virtualization, owners of wireless infrastructures in HetNets divide and reconfigure their RF bands to sublease to MVNOs based on their service-level-agreements while keeping enough wireless resources to their own users. Next, we leverage the wireless virtualization to investigate the network sum-capacity and revenue maximization problems for MVNOs where MVNOs offer competitive prices to attract more users for wireless communications. We evaluate the performance of the proposed approach using different metrics such as network sum-capacity, revenue of the MVNOs, competitive price for RF spectrum usage that is based on the spectral capacity of the MVNOs, and the outage probability. Numerical results obtained from simulations show that the sum-capacity of virtual network can be maximized while maximizing their revenue and offering lower/competitive spectrum-usage price for their users.
Parallel Type Two-axial Actuator Controlled by a Multi-layered Neural Network

We experimentally design a parallel typed two-axial micro actuator, which is utilized for the key part of the tactile display. The parallel typed two-axial actuator was composed of two bimorph piezoelectric elements and two small links connected by three joints. We formulated kinematics for the parallel typed two-axial actuator because the endpoint is controlled in the two-dimensional coordinate. Since relationship between applied voltage and displacement cause by the voltage shows a hysteresis loop in the bimorph piezoelectric element used as components of the two-axial actuator, we produce a control system for the two-axial actuator based on a multi-layered artificial neural network to compensate the hysteresis. The neural network is comprised of 4 neurons in the input layer, 10 neurons in the hidden layer and ones neuron in the output layer. The output neuron emits time derivative of voltage; two bits signal expressing increment or decrement condition is generated by two input neurons; one of the other two input neurons and the other calculate current values of voltage and displacement, respectively. The neural network is featured with a feedback loop including an integral element to reduce number of neurons. In the learning process, the network learns the hysteresis including a minor loop. In the verification test, the endpoint of the two-axial actuator traces the desired circular trajectory in the two-dimensional coordinate system.
Pharmacokinetic parameters of bromperidol in Korean subjects

We have presented pharmacokinetic parameters of bromperidol (BP) in 14 healthy Korean subjects. Additionally, we have investigated the effects of dose and genetic polymorphisms on BP metabolism and on extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS). The Tmax (3.9 ± 0.9 h), clearance (1.37 ± 0.52 ml/h/kg), and t1/2 (20.4 ± 3.7 h) obtained in our study are comparable to those in previous Caucasian studies, although pharmacokinetic profiles were affected by the BP dose. We could not prove any significant correlations between BP metabolism or adverse effects and genetic factors because the number of subjects was small. Further studies with a larger population are needed to determine the influence of genetic factors on BP therapy. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
FINANCIAL INSTABILITY, UNCERTAINTY AND BANK LENDING BEHAVIOR Vigneshwara Swamy and S. Sreejesh Indian School of Business-Hyderabad, India

“Why do banks squeeze their lending activity” is an oft-repeated question during the times of financial crisis. This study examines an emerging economy’s banking system, and contributes to the evolving body of literature on the topic by providing answers to what causes the sluggish bank credit during times of recession. By employing cointegration technique, the study shows that bank credit has a significant positive relationship with the borrowing activities of debt users of the banks, hence, as the contrary an inverse relationship with investment activity is evident during financial crisis. Accordingly, we suggest that banks could increase their lending by increasing the borrowings rapidly either from the Central Banks or from Government supported long term lending institutions during recessionary periods.