Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Magnetic Microspheres: A Novel Drug Delivery System

Magnetic microspheres are supramolecular particles that are small enough to circulate through capillaries without producing embolic occlusion (<4μm)but are sufficiently susceptible (ferromagnetic) to be captured in micro-vessels and dragged into the adjacent tissues by magnetic field of 0.5-0.8 tesla [1,2]. Magnetic microspheres are very much important which localizes the drug to the disease site. In this respect, larger amount of freely circulating drug can be replaced by smaller amount of magnetically targeted drug [3].
Would you be willing to zap your child's brain? Public perspectives on parental responsibilities and the ethics of enhancing children with transcranial direct current stimulation

ABSTRACT Background: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is an experimental brain stimulation technology that may one day be used to enhance the cognitive capacities of children. Discussion about the ethical issues that this would raise has rarely moved beyond expert circles. However, the opinions of the wider public can lead to more democratic policy decisions and broaden academic discussion of this issue. Methods: We performed a quantitative survey of members of the U.S. public. A between-subjects design was employed, where conditions varied based on the trait respondents considered for enhancement. Results: There were 227 responses included for analysis. Our key finding was that the majority were unwilling to enhance their child with tDCS. Respondents were most reluctant to enhance traits considered fundamental to the self (such as motivation and empathy). However, many respondents may give in to implicit coercion to enhance their child in spite of an initial reluctance. A ban on tDCS was not supported if it were to be used safely for the enhancement of mood or mathematical ability. Opposition to such a ban may be related to the belief that tDCS use would not represent cheating or violate authenticity (as it relates to achievements rather than identity). Conclusions: The wider public appears to think that crossing the line from treatment to enhancement with tDCS would not be in a child's best interests. However, an important alternative interpretation of our results is that lay people may be willing to use enhancers that matched their preference for “natural” enhancers. A ban on the safe use of tDCS for enhancing nonfundamental traits would be unlikely to garner public support. Nonetheless, it could become important to regulate tDCS in order to prevent misuse on children, because individuals reluctant to enhance may be likely to give in to implicit coercion to enhance their child.
Vibration analysis and control of delaminated and/or damaged composite plate structures using finite element analysis

Abstract The present article deals with the vibration analysis of delaminated and/or damages composite plate structures. Delamination and/or debonding occur in the laminate due to various load and extreme environmental conditions in their service time. A Matlab based finite element model is developed for centrally located delamination. The Active Fiber Composite actuator layer is placed at top or bottom of the laminated plate. A small delamination in the mid-plane is considered. Numerical results are generated for different boundary conditions and delamination sizes. The formulation of the governing equation is based on minimum potential energy approach. The key observation is that natural frequencies decrease due to delamination because of a decrease in stiffness of the structures. Certain local mode shapes can also be observed in the delamination region. The stiffness of the delaminated composite plate can be enhanced by applying voltage to the active fibre actuator layer.
Processing of Egomotion-Consistent Optic Flow in the Rhesus Macaque Cortex

Abstract The cortical network that processes visual cues to self‐motion was characterized with functional magnetic resonance imaging in 3 awake behaving macaques. The experimental protocol was similar to previous human studies in which the responses to a single large optic flow patch were contrasted with responses to an array of 9 similar flow patches. This distinguishes cortical regions where neurons respond to flow in their receptive fields regardless of surrounding motion from those that are sensitive to whether the overall image arises from self‐motion. In all 3 animals, significant selectivity for egomotion‐consistent flow was found in several areas previously associated with optic flow processing, and notably dorsal middle superior temporal area, ventral intra‐parietal area, and VPS. It was also seen in areas 7a (Opt), STPm, FEFsem, FEFsac and in a region of the cingulate sulcus that may be homologous with human area CSv. Selectivity for egomotion‐compatible flow was never total but was particularly strong in VPS and putative macaque CSv. Direct comparison of results with the equivalent human studies reveals several commonalities but also some differences.
A throughput maximization strategy for scheduling transaction‐intensive workflows on SwinDeW‐G

With the rapid development of e‐business, workflow systems now have to deal with transaction‐intensive workflows whose main characteristic is the huge number of concurrent workflow instances. For such workflows, it is important to maximize the overall throughput to provide good quality of service. However, most of the existing scheduling algorithms are designed for scheduling of a single complex scientific workflow instance and are not efficient enough for scheduling transaction‐intensive workflows. To address this problem, we propose a throughput maximization strategy (TMS), which contains two specific algorithms for scheduling transaction‐intensive workflows at the instance and task levels, respectively. The first algorithm called Opposite Average Load tries to maximize the overall throughput by pursuing the overall load balance at the instance level, whereas the second algorithm called Extended Min–Min tries to further maximize the overall throughput at the task level by increasing the utilization rate of resources within each local autonomous group. The comparison and simulation performed on Swinburne Decentralized Workflow for Grid (SwinDeW‐G), a peer‐to‐peer‐based grid workflow environment, demonstrate that our strategy can improve the overall throughput significantly over existing scheduling algorithms when scheduling transaction‐intensive workflows. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Screening Hepatotoxic Components in Euodia rutaecarpa by UHPLC-QTOF/MS Based on the Spectrum-Toxicity Relationship

Euodia rutaecarpa is a common traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in clinical practice, having the ability to suppress pain and cease coughing; however, with the increasing reports showing that it is toxic, particularly hepatotoxic, the concerns raised by what cause its toxicity is growing. In the current study, an analysis method based on the spectrum effect has been employed to screen the major hepatotoxic components in Euodia rutaecarpa so that the toxic material’s basis would be elucidated. A fingerprinting method of the Euodia rutaecarpa extracts (which were petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate, n-butanol, and water) using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer (UHPLC-QTOF/MS) has been developed. Orthogonal partial least squares (OPLS) was used to establish the spectrum-toxicity relationship with the levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in mice serum as evaluation indices for liver injury. The UHPLC-MS fingerprint was established and the OPLS analytical results suggested that coniferin, 1-methyl-2-undecyl-4(1H)-quinolone, 1-methyl-2-[(6Z,9Z,12E)-pentadeca triene]-4(1H)-quinolone, evocarpine, 1-methyl-2-[(Z)-7-tridecenyl]-4(1H)-quinolone, dihydroevocarpine, and 1-methyl-2-tetradecy-4-(1H)-quinolone probably associated with the hepatotoxicity of Euodia rutaecarpa. This paper offered considerable methods and insight for the fundamental research of the toxic material basis of similar toxic TCMs.
Call Paths for Pin Tools

Fine-grained binary instrumentation is a popular technique to monitor program execution. Intel's Pin is a leading dynamic binary instrumentation framework for building program measurement and analysis tools. A key feature missing in Pin is the ability to associate call paths with instructions as they execute. The availability of calling context information enables Pin tools to provide more detailed diagnostic feedback. This paper introduces CCTLib---a call path collection library that any Pin tool can use to obtain the full calling context at any and every machine instruction that executes. CCTLib not only associates any instruction with source code along the call path, but also points to the data object accessed by the instruction if it is a memory access. With CCTLib, we demonstrate that collecting call paths on each executed instruction is possible, even for reasonably long running programs. Prior art in call path collection for Pin has several limitations. Compared to other open-source Pin tools for call path collection, CCTLib provides richer information that is accurate even for programs with complex control flow and does so with about 30% less overhead---a difference of 14× on average. CCTLib enables attribution of metrics in Pin tools to both code and data.
Output Regulation of Boolean Control Networks

This note investigates the output regulation of Boolean control networks (BCNs) by using the semi-tensor product of matrices, and presents a number of new results. Firstly, based on an algebraic state-space representation of BCNs, a necessary and sufficient condition is presented for the solvability of the output regulation problem. Secondly, an effective method is proposed for the control design of the output regulation problem by using an augmented system approach. The study of an illustrative example shows that the obtained new results are effective in dealing with the output regulation of BCNs.
Optimizing virtual backup allocation for middleboxes

In enterprise networks, network functions such as address translation, firewall and deep packet inspection are often implemented in middleboxes. Those can suffer from temporary unavailability due to misconfiguration or software and hardware malfunction. Traditionally, middlebox survivability is achieved by an expensive active-standby deployment where each middlebox has a backup instance, which is activated in case of a failure. Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is a novel networking paradigm allowing flexible, scalable and inexpensive implementation of network services. In this work we suggest a novel approach for planning and deploying backup schemes for network functions that guarantee high levels of survivability with significant reduction in resource consumption. In the suggested backup scheme we take advantage of the flexibility and resource-sharing abilities of the NFV paradigm in order to maintain only a few backup servers, where each can serve one of multiple functions when corresponding middleboxes are unavailable. We describe different goals that network designers can take into account when determining which functions to implement in each of the backup servers. We rely on a graph theoretical model to find properties of efficient assignments and to develop algorithms that can find them. Extensive experiments show, for example, that under realistic function failure probabilities, and reasonable capacity limitations, one can obtain 99.9% survival probability with half the number of servers, compared to standard techniques.
Hyperspectral Image Super-Resolution via Nonlocal Low-Rank Tensor Approximation and Total Variation Regularization

Hyperspectral image (HSI) possesses three intrinsic characteristics: the global correlation across spectral domain, the nonlocal self-similarity across spatial domain, and the local smooth structure across both spatial and spectral domains. This paper proposes a novel tensor based approach to handle the problem of HSI spatial super-resolution by modeling such three underlying characteristics. Specifically, a noncovex tensor penalty is used to exploit the former two intrinsic characteristics hidden in several 4D tensors formed by nonlocal similar patches within the 3D HSI. In addition, the local smoothness in both spatial and spectral modes of the HSI cube is characterized by a 3D total variation (TV) term. Then, we develop an effective algorithm for solving the resulting optimization by using the local linear approximation (LLA) strategy and the alternative direction method of multipliers (ADMM). A series of experiments are carried out to illustrate the superiority of the proposed approach over some state-of-the-art approaches.
Adding genetic risk score to family history identifies twice as many high‐risk men for prostate cancer: Results from the prostate cancer prevention trial

While family history (FH) has been widely used to provide risk information, it captures only a small proportion of subjects with higher genetic susceptibility. Our objective is to assess whether a genetic risk score (GRS) calculated from prostate cancer (PCa) risk‐associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) can supplement FH for more effective risk stratification for PCa screening decision‐making.
Methamphetamine compromises gap junctional communication in astrocytes and neurons

Methamphetamine (meth) is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that results in psychological and physical dependency. The long‐term effects of meth within the CNS include neuronal plasticity changes, blood–brain barrier compromise, inflammation, electrical dysfunction, neuronal/glial toxicity, and an increased risk to infectious diseases including HIV. Most of the reported meth effects in the CNS are related to dysregulation of chemical synapses by altering the release and uptake of neurotransmitters, especially dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine. However, little is known about the effects of meth on connexin (Cx) containing channels, such as gap junctions (GJ) and hemichannels (HC). We examined the effects of meth on Cx expression, function, and its role in NeuroAIDS. We found that meth altered Cx expression and localization, decreased GJ communication between neurons and astrocytes, and induced the opening of Cx43/Cx36 HC. Furthermore, we found that these changes in GJ and HC induced by meth treatment were mediated by activation of dopamine receptors, suggesting that dysregulation of dopamine signaling induced by meth is essential for GJ and HC compromise. Meth‐induced changes in GJ and HC contributed to amplified CNS toxicity by dysregulating glutamate metabolism and increasing the susceptibility of neurons and astrocytes to bystander apoptosis induced by HIV. Together, our results indicate that connexin containing channels, GJ and HC, are essential in the pathogenesis of meth and increase the sensitivity of the CNS to HIV CNS disease.
Cytokine Concentrations Measured by Multiplex Assays in Canine Peripheral Blood Samples

Cytokines are known to play important roles in a wide range of pathologic conditions spanning all organ systems in every species studied. As our knowledge of the physiology of individual cytokines expands and our ability to measure multiple cytokines in smaller biological samples increases, we gain more insight into the significance and function of each cytokine and the importance of cytokine networks. Previous studies that reported measurements of cytokine concentrations from serum or plasma in dogs with infectious, autoimmune, metabolic, endocrine, and neoplastic diseases yield an appreciation for the complexity of cytokine control and potential applications for cytokine measurements in the diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy of a variety of disease conditions. In this review, we highlight the benefits of multiplex cytokine analysis, summarize clinical and experimental reports that have used this technology in dogs, and discuss the strengths and limitations of data analysis for the interpretation of results in these studies. We describe how differences in technical acuity, data reporting tactics, statistical analysis, study population selection criteria, and cross-sectional experimental design methods may affect interpretation of results from this technology. We also suggest methods for analysis in future studies, such as reporting median fluorescence intensity values, analyzing the proportion of patients above population medians, and performing longitudinal studies.
CBCT‐guided evolutive library for cervical adaptive IMRT

PURPOSE In the context of adaptive radiation therapy (ART) for locally advanced cervical carcinoma (LACC), this study proposed an original cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT)-guided "Evolutive library" and evaluated it against four other known radiotherapy (RT) strategies. MATERIAL AND METHODS For 20 patients who underwent intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for LACC, three planning CTs [with empty (EB), intermediate (IB), and full (FB) bladder volumes], a CT scan at 20 Gy and bi-weekly CBCTs for 5 weeks were performed. Five RT strategies were simulated for each patient: "Standard RT" was based on one IB planning CT; "internal target volume (ITV)-based RT" was an ITV built from the three planning CTs; "RT with one mid-treatment replanning (MidTtReplan)" corresponded to the standard RT with a replanning at 20 Gy; "Pretreatment library ART" using a planning library based on the three planning CTs; and the "Evolutive library ART", which was the "Pretreatment library ART" strategy enriched by including some CBCT anatomies into the library when the daily clinical target volume (CTV) shape differed from the ones in the library. Two planning target volume (PTV) margins of 7 and 10 mm were evaluated. All the strategies were geometrically compared in terms of the percentage of coverage by the PTV, for the CTV and the organs at risk (OAR) delineated on the CBCT. Inadequate coverage of the CTV and OARs by the PTV was also assessed using deformable image registration. The cumulated dose distributions of each strategy were likewise estimated and compared for one patient. RESULTS The "Evolutive library ART" strategy involved a number of added CBCTs: 0 for 55%; 1 for 30%; 2 for 5%; and 3 for 10% of patients. Compared with the other four, this strategy provided the highest CTV geometric coverage by the PTV, with a mean (min-max) coverage of 98.5% (96.4-100) for 10 mm margins and 96.2% (93.0-99.7) for 7 mm margins (P < 0.05). Moreover, this strategy significantly decreased the geometric coverage of the bowel. CTV undercoverage by PTV occurred in the anterior and superior uterine regions for all strategies. The dosimetric analysis at 7 mm similarly demonstrated that the "Evolutive library ART" increased the V42.75Gy of the CTV by 27%, 20%, 13%, and 28% compared with "Standard RT", "ITV-based RT", "MidTtReplan", and "Pretreatment library ART", respectively. The dose to the bowel was also decreased by the "Evolutive library ART" compared with that by the other strategies. CONCLUSION The "Evolutive library ART" is a personalized ART strategy that comprises a pretreatment planning library of three CT scans, enriched for half of the patients by one to three per-treatment CBCTs. This original strategy increased both the CTV coverage and bowel sparing compared with all the other tested strategies and enables us to consider a PTV margin reduction.
Antibiotic Resistance Markers in Burkholderia pseudomallei Strain Bp1651 Identified by Genome Sequence Analysis

ABSTRACT Burkholderia pseudomallei Bp1651 is resistant to several classes of antibiotics that are usually effective for treatment of melioidosis, including tetracyclines, sulfonamides, and β-lactams such as penicillins (amoxicillin-clavulanic acid), cephalosporins (ceftazidime), and carbapenems (imipenem and meropenem). We sequenced, assembled, and annotated the Bp1651 genome and analyzed the sequence using comparative genomic analyses with susceptible strains, keyword searches of the annotation, publicly available antimicrobial resistance prediction tools, and published reports. More than 100 genes in the Bp1651 sequence were identified as potentially contributing to antimicrobial resistance. Most notably, we identified three previously uncharacterized point mutations in penA, which codes for a class A β-lactamase and was previously implicated in resistance to β-lactam antibiotics. The mutations result in amino acid changes T147A, D240G, and V261I. When individually introduced into select agent-excluded B. pseudomallei strain Bp82, D240G was found to contribute to ceftazidime resistance and T147A contributed to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid and imipenem resistance. This study provides the first evidence that mutations in penA may alter susceptibility to carbapenems in B. pseudomallei. Another mutation of interest was a point mutation affecting the dihydrofolate reductase gene folA, which likely explains the trimethoprim resistance of this strain. Bp1651 was susceptible to aminoglycosides likely because of a frameshift in the amrB gene, the transporter subunit of the AmrAB-OprA efflux pump. These findings expand the role of penA to include resistance to carbapenems and may assist in the development of molecular diagnostics that predict antimicrobial resistance and provide guidance for treatment of melioidosis.
Expanding Home‐Based Primary Care to American Indian Reservations and Other Rural Communities: An Observational Study

Home‐based primary care (HBPC) is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary program to meet the medical needs of community‐dwelling populations needing long‐term care (LTC). The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) expanded its HBPC program to underserved rural communities, including American Indian reservations, providing a “natural laboratory” to study change in access to VA LTC benefits and utilization outcomes for rural populations that typically face challenges in accessing LTC medical support.
Technical Note: Feasibility of MRI‐based estimation of water‐equivalent path length to detect changes in proton range during treatment courses

PURPOSE To evaluate the feasibility of using on-treatment magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to detect proton range changes during treatment courses. METHODS MRI-based virtual computed tomography (vCT) was generated to calculate water-equivalent path length (WEPL) at the distal surface of a clinical target volume. T2-weighted MR images with and without fat suppression were processed by thresholding and fuzzy c-mean clustering to assign a bulk HU (Hounsfield Unit) to each segment of fat, water, and air. Bony tissues in vCT were transferred from planning CT via a region-based registration. We validated this method using images from three patients (aged 9, 12, and 17 yr old) with pelvic sarcomas who underwent proton therapy. MRI-based WEPL was evaluated against those of repeat CT (rCT) and cone beam CT (CBCT). RESULTS The vCT agreed well with the rCT, wherein the use of bulk HU and imperfect bone registration contributed to discrepancies. The 99th percentile error of the MRI-based WEPL was up to 3.3 mm for posterior fields when we compensated the effect of mobile air. The gamma index (2-mm WEPL/2-mm pixel distance) was greater than 99% for those fields. We observed larger errors for anterior fields, which were due to bowel gas movement, mismatched respiratory motion, and differences in patient posture between the vCT and rCT. Applied to multiple on-treatment MRI of a patient, the estimated WEPL demonstrated an underrange trend, which was consistent with the CBCT results and the increased patient body circumference. CONCLUSIONS The MRI-based vCT produced highly accurate WEPL estimates, demonstrating the potential of using on-treatment MRI for detecting changes in proton ranges.