Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Soluble Adenylyl Cyclase Reveals the Significance of cAMP Compartmentation on Pulmonary Microvascular Endothelial Cell Barrier

Subtle elevations in cAMP localized to the plasma membrane intensely strengthen endothelial barrier function. Paradoxically, pathogenic bacteria insert adenylyl cyclases (ACs) into eukaryotic cells generating a time-dependent cytosolic cAMP-increase that disrupts rather than strengthens the endothelial barrier. These findings bring into question whether membrane versus cytosolic AC activity dominates in control of cell adhesion. To address this problem, a mammalian forskolin-sensitive soluble AC (sACI/II) was expressed in pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells. Forskolin stimulated this sACI/II construct generating a small cytosolic cAMP-pool that was not regulated by phosphodiesterases or Gαs. Whereas forskolin simultaneously activated the sACI/II construct and endogenous transmembrane ACs, the modest sACI/II activity overwhelmed the barrier protective effects of plasma membrane activity to induce endothelial gap formation. Retargeting sACI/II to the plasma membrane retained AC activity but protected the endothelial cell barrier. These findings demonstrate for the first time that the intracellular location of cAMP synthesis critically determines its physiological outcome.
Low-Power Digital Signal Processing for an Implantable Neural Recording System

In this paper, we describe the design of digital signal processing components for a fully-implantable, wireless neural recording system. The digital signal processing is intended to extract neural signals from a noisy background and thereby enable more efficient use of transmission bandwidth. Low power consumption is critical to the system. To this end, the algorithms for the digital signal processing are simplified as much as possible. The use of static CMOS logic vs. pass transistor logic is considered. Low supply voltage operation is also investigated. The signal processing modules are designed for a commercially available 0.5 μm process.
Scatterer density sensitive tomography utilizing light and ultrasound

Hybrid imaging modalities are becoming more popular since they utilize the benefit of both optical and ultrasound (US) imaging modalities. They use the contrast based on optical properties and negligible scattering of US waves to extend the depth of imaging. Ultrasound modulated optical tomography (UOT) and acoustic radiation force (ARF) with speckle pattern analysis, both use the idea of utilizing a focused US wave to spatially encode in information in the diffused light. We have previously shown that compared to UOT, ARF regime can result in a stronger signal and the mean irradiance change (MIC) signal can reflect the mechanical and thermal properties of the tissue non-invasively. In addition to the mechanical and thermal properties of the medium, the MIC signal is able to reveal information about the morphology of the medium. A tumor is formed by a group of cancer cells that are result of rounds of successive mutation. Cancer cell grow without control in abnormal shapes. In this study, we have modeled cells with their nuclei, assuming that the scattering events occur at the location of the nuclei of the cells. We have shown that, although the MIC signal is not sensitive to the size of the particle, it can detect the presence of the tumor base on the higher concentration of cells in a tumor.
Does asbestos exposure (asbestosis) cause (clinical) airway obstruction (small airway disease)?

1. Burnham EL, Moss M, Geraci MW. The case for 24/7 in-house intensivist coverage. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2010;181:1159–1160. 2. Gajic O, Afessa B. Physician staffing models and patient safety in the ICU. Chest 2009;135:1038–1044. 3. Arabi Y. Pro/Con debate: should 24/7 in-house intensivist coverage be implemented? Crit Care 2008;12:216. 4. Arabi Y, Alshimemeri A, Taher S. Weekend and weeknight admissions have the same outcome of weekday admissions to an intensive care unit with onsite intensivist coverage. Crit Care Med 2006;34:605–611. 5. Bell CM, Redelmeier DA. Mortality among patients admitted to hospitals on weekends as compared with weekdays. N Engl J Med 2001;345:663–668. 6. Pollack MM, Cuerdon TT, Patel KM, Ruttimann UE, Getson PR, Levetown M. Impact of quality-of-care factors on pediatric intensive care unit mortality. JAMA 1994;272:941–946. 7. Kilminster S, Cottrell D, Grant J, Jolly B. AMEE Guide No. 27: Effective educational and clinical supervision. Med Teach 2007;29:2–19. 8. Institute of Medicine (IOM). Resident duty hours: enhancing sleep, supervision, and safety. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press; 2009. 9. Kahn JM, Asch RJ, Iwashyna TJ, Haynes K, Rubenfeld GD, Angus DC, Asch DA. Physician attitudes toward regionalization of adult critical care: a national survey. Crit Care Med 2009;37:2149–2154. 10. Singh JM, MacDonald RD, Bronskill SE, Schull MJ. Incidence and predictors of critical events during urgent air-medical transport. CMAJ 2009;181:579–584. 11. Parshuram CS, Kirpalani H, Mehta S, Granton J, Cook D. In-house, overnight physician staffing: a cross-sectional survey of Canadian adult and pediatric intensive care units. Crit Care Med 2006;34:1674–1678. 12. Hill AD, Fan E, Stewart TE, Sibbald NJ, Nauenberg E, Lawless B, Bennett J, Martin CM. Critical care services in Ontario: a surveybased assessment of current and future resource needs. Can J Anaesth 2009;56:291–297. 13. The College of Family Physicians of Canada. The College of Family Physicians of Canada JANUS Project, August 2003 [Accessed June 7th 2010]. Available from: http://www.cfpc. ca/english/cfpc/education/ rural/apendix1/default.asp? s=1 14. Kane GC, Grever MR, Kennedy JI, Kuzma MA, Saltzman AR, Wiernik PH, Baptista NV. The anticipated physician shortage: meeting the nation’s need for physician services. Am J Med 2009;122:1156–1162. 15. Phillips RL Jr, Petterson S, Fryer GE Jr, Rosser W. The Canadian contribution to the US physician workforce. CMAJ 2007;176:1083–1087. 16. The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. General standards of accreditation [Accessed June 7th 2010]. October 2009. Available from: http://rcpsc.medical. org/residency/accreditation/ genstandards_e. pdf 17. Kennedy TJ, Lingard L, Baker GR, Kitchen L, Regehr G. Clinical oversight: conceptualizing the relationship between supervision and safety. J Gen Intern Med 2007;22:1080–1085. 18. Garland A. Figuring out what works: a need for more and better studies on the relationship between ICU organization and outcomes. Crit Care 2010;14:208.
Self-configuration of IEEE 802.15.4 wireless PANs for urban applications

Pervasive sensor devices are expected to flood the urban environments of the future to provide citizens with specific services. Such services will be based on the monitoring of a multiplicity of urban parameters such as the level of the acoustic/environmental pollution, the presence of traffic jams, specific cultural events, etc. Citizens themselves, through their portable digital devices equipped with sensors, can collect images, sounds and environmental parameters and provide a “real time” vision of a portion of a city or of a particular event. The use of IEEE 802.15. 4 wireless sensor networks for this data collection seems particularly appropriate thanks to the characteristics of self-configurability, adaptability, scalability and low cost of this wireless Standard. In this work, we present a distributed procedure able to self-configure an IEEE 802.15. 4 Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) in order to control the resulting network depth by selecting a suitable node that will perform the coordination of the WPAN. Performance evaluation shows that this approach for reconfiguring the WPAN achieves the goal of limiting the network depth. This will result in a reduction of the overall WPAN energy consumption and packets delay that are key performance parameters to be optimized for urban applications.
Enantioselective analysis of ranolazine and desmethyl ranolazine in microsomal medium using dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction and LC-MS/MS.

BACKGROUND An enantioselective bioanalytical method using dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) and LC-MS/MS was developed for the chiral analysis of ranolazine (RNZ) and one of its metabolites (desmethyl ranolazine [DRNZ]). RESULTS The analytes were extracted from microsomal medium by DLLME, using chloroform as extractor solvent and acetone as dispersive solvent. The enantiomers of RNZ and DRNZ were analyzed simultaneously for the first time using a Chiralcel OD-H(®). Method validation showed recoveries in the order of 55 and 45%, and LLOQ of 25 and 10 ng ml(-1) for the enantiomers of RNZ and DRNZ, respectively. Linearity was established in the concentration range of 10 to 1000 and 25 to 2500 ng ml(-1) for each DRNZ and RNZ enantiomer, respectively. CONCLUSION The unprecedented use of DLLME was demonstrated to be very useful for sample preparation of microsomal matrix. Furthermore, the in vitro metabolism of RNZ was enantioselective.
Revisiting Smart Dust with RFID Sensor Networks

We argue that sensing and computation platforms that leverage RFID technology can realize “smart-dust” applications that have eluded the sensor network community. RFID sensor networks (RSNs), which consist of RFID readers and RFID sensor nodes (WISPs), extend RFID to include sensing and bring the advantages of small, inexpensive and long-lived RFID tags to wireless sensor networks. We describe sample applications suited to the space between existing sensor networks and RFID. We highlight the research challenges in realizing RSNs such as the use of intermittent power and RFID protocols suited to sensor queries.
Business Listing Classification Using Case Based Reasoning and Joint Probability

One challenge of building and maintaining large-scale data management systems is managing data fusion from multiple data sources. Often times, different data sources may represent the same data element in a slightly different way. These differences may represent an error in the data or a disagreement between sources on the correct value that best represents the data point. When the quantity of data managed and fused becomes sufficiently large, manual review becomes impossible, and automated systems must be built to manage data fusion. Some of the traditional solutions use simple voting theory, Dempster-Shafer theory, fuzzy matching and incremental learning. This paper presents a novel approach to data fusion in the domain of business listings. The task at hand, business listing categorization, suffers from conflicting and incomplete data from disparate data sources. Given the need for a high degree of accuracy in this task, we use a combination of case-based reasoning, joint probability, and domain-specific rules to improve data accuracy above other methods.
Combustion and Emission Analysis of SI Engine Fuelled by Saudi Arabian Gasoline RON91 and RON95 with Variable Compression Ratios and Spark Timing

The performance, emissions and combustion characteristics of a spark ignition engine at varying compression ratio and spark timing using two grades of gasoline in Saudi Arabian market, RON91 and RON95 have been presented on this paper. The tests were conducted using a single cylinder, four-stroke spark ignition research engine that operates with different RON fuel. The experiments were conducted at a wide-open throttle with an engine speed of 2500 rpm at stoichiometric conditions for three different compression ratios (9.5:1, 10:1, 10.5:1). At each compression ratio, the spark timing was varied till knocking is detected. The performance characteristics such as brake power, specific fuel consumption, thermal efficiency, in-cylinder pressure, rate of heat release, and exhaust emissions were analyzed. The data shows that the increasing of compression ratio and spark timing increased the brake power and decreased the brake fuel consumption for both type of fuels. Increasing compression ratio was more advantageous for RON95 due to the auto-ignition resistance event. The NOx emission was insignificantly decreasing as compression ratio increases with lower NOx emission from RON91. Compression ratio had considerable effect on CO emission for both fuels.
High porosity reduced graphene oxide electrode prepared by langmuir-blodgett technique for application in bio-photovoltaics / Muhammad Musoddiq Jaafar

Traditional Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) method has proven versatile in fabrication of twodimensional (2D) film structures of thin films. This thesis meanwhile presents a study of developing three-dimensional (3D) structures of functional materials using unconventional LB methodologies. A detailed discussion of how 3D thin films of reduced Graphene Oxide (rGO) can be fabricated using dipping process post collapse pressure or breaking point, thus providing highly porous 3D surface topographies. Porosity could be optimized from nanometer to micrometer dimensions by varying the number of deposition with constant pressure. The 3D rGO thin film has been studied in applications for microbial fuel cells (MFCs) to provide improved biofilm formation and biocompatibility compared with the traditional 2D surfaces used as bioelectrodes. Furthermore, the inherent porosity of the deposited rGO films also improves the mass transport of materials; hence increase the charge-sustaining capacity and sensitivity. It was shown that the sixth deposition of rGO allowed the film to gain pore sizes between 1.2 to 3.8 μm, which is similar to the size of algae (2.0 – 3.5 μm). This feature of the rGO film accommodates an ideal surface for the anchoring of algae cells within the pores increasing surface contact and improves electron transfer efficiency. The rGO-algae thin film as electrodes in biophotovoltaic (BPV) systems have been studied and higher efficiency reported due to its intrinsic electrical properties and biological compatibility.
Frontal Plane Knee Mechanics and Early Cartilage Degeneration in People With Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: A Longitudinal Study

Background: Abnormal frontal plane gait mechanics are known risk factors for knee osteoarthritis, but their role in early cartilage degeneration after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) is not well understood. Hypothesis/Purpose: The objective was to evaluate the association of frontal plane gait mechanics with medial knee cartilage magnetic resonance (MR) relaxation times over 1 year in patients with ACLR and controls. It was hypothesized that (1) there will be an increase in frontal plane medial knee loading and medial knee MR relaxation times over time in the patients with ACLR, and (2) increases in frontal plane medial knee loading will be associated with an increase in medial knee MR relaxation times. Study Design: Case-control study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: Patients with ACLR (n = 37) underwent walking gait analyses and bilateral quantitative MR imaging (MRI) before surgery and at 6 and 12 months after ACLR. Healthy control participants (n = 13) were evaluated at baseline and 12 months. Gait variables included peak knee adduction moment (KAM), KAM impulse, and peak knee adduction angle. MRI variables included medial femur and medial tibia whole compartment and subregional T1ρ and T2 relaxation times. Statistical analyses included a comparison of changes over time for gait and MRI variables, correlations between changes in gait and MRI variables over time, and differences in change in MRI variables in patients who showed an increase versus decrease in KAM impulse. Results: There were significant increases in medial T1ρ (Δ 4%-11%) and T2 (Δ 2%-10%) relaxation times from baseline to 6 months for both knees in the ACLR group and in KAM (Δ 13%) for the injured knee. From baseline to 6 months, patients who had an increase in KAM impulse in the injured knee had a greater increase in medial T1ρ and T2 relaxation times as compared with those who did not have an increase in KAM impulse. Longitudinal changes for the control group were not significant. Conclusion: There is an increase in medial knee relaxation times over the first 6 months after ACLR. People with an increase in medial knee loading show an increase in medial knee relaxation times when compared with those who do not have an increase in medial knee loading over the first 6 months.
Characterizing material properties of drawn monofilament for Twisted Polymer Actuation

The field of smart materials has experienced a significant growth in the past fifteen years in actuation applications due to their smart and adaptive capabilities. However, most of these smart materials share the drawback of high cost, making their development and implementation difficult. This limitation leads us to the study of Twisted Polymer Actuators (TPAs). TPAs are inexpensive drawn monofilaments of polymers, such as fishing line, capable of actuation under thermal loads. The actuation on TPAs is due to the anisotropic thermal expansion responses of the material in the radial and axial directions. The properties of the precursor monofilament can be used to predict the actuation of TPAs. This thesis focuses on characterizing the mechanical and thermal properties of the precursor monofilament necessary as input parameters for actuation models. The properties obtained in this thesis are: axial modulus, shear modulus, radial modulus, Poisson's ratio, axial thermal contraction, and radial thermal expansion. The mechanical properties are presented as a function of temperature under the assumption of linear elasticity, but also as a function of time to characterize the viscoelastic effect at room temperature. The thermal expansion properties are also presented as functions of temperature and time, and it is found that viscous effects on thermal properties can be ignored for rapid actuation periods. Finally, this thesis presents experimental actuation data for different test conditions: free torsional actuation and torsional actuation under an isotonic torsional load. In the latter, actuation is performed for two different configurations: single monofilament and a triple strand in parallel arrangement.
Scantegrity Mock Election at Takoma Park

We report on our experiences and lessons learned using Scantegrity II in a mock election held April 11, 2009, in Takoma Park, Maryland (USA). Ninetyfive members of the community participated in our test of this voting system proposed for the November 2009 municipal election. Results helped improve the system for the November binding election.
Classification rule discovery with ant colony optimization

Ant-based algorithms or ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms have been applied successfully to combinatorial optimization problems. More recently, Parpinelli and colleagues applied ACO to data mining classification problems, where they introduced a classification algorithm called Ant/spl I.bar/Miner. In this paper, we present an improvement to Ant/spl I.bar/Miner (we call it Ant/spl I.bar/Miner3). The proposed version was tested on two standard problems and performed better than the original Ant/spl I.bar/Miner algorithm.
Centromere sequence and dynamics in Dictyostelium discoideum

Centromeres play a pivotal role in the life of a eukaryote cell, perform an essential and conserved function, but this has not led to a standard centromere structure. It remains currently unclear, how the centromeric function is achieved by widely differing structures. Since centromeres are often large and consist mainly of repetitive sequences they have only been analyzed in great detail in a handful of organisms. The genome of Dictyostelium discoideum, a valuable model organism, was described a few years ago but its centromere organization remained largely unclear. Using available sequence information we reconstructed the putative centromere organization in three of the six chromosomes of D. discoideum. They mainly consist of one type of transposons that is confined to centromeric regions. Centromeres are dynamic due to transposon integration, but an optimal centromere size seems to exist in D. discoideum. One centromere probably has expanded recently, whereas another underwent major rearrangements. In addition to insights into the centromere organization and dynamics of a protist eukaryote, this work also provides a starting point for the analysis of the evolution of centromere structures in social amoebas by comparative genomics.
Learning to localise sounds with spiking neural networks

To localise the source of a sound, we use location-specific properties of the signals received at the two ears caused by the asymmetric filtering of the original sound by our head and pinnae, the head-related transfer functions (HRTFs). These HRTFs change throughout an organism's lifetime, during development for example, and so the required neural circuitry cannot be entirely hardwired. Since HRTFs are not directly accessible from perceptual experience, they can only be inferred from filtered sounds. We present a spiking neural network model of sound localisation based on extracting location-specific synchrony patterns, and a simple supervised algorithm to learn the mapping between synchrony patterns and locations from a set of example sounds, with no previous knowledge of HRTFs. After learning, our model was able to accurately localise new sounds in both azimuth and elevation, including the difficult task of distinguishing sounds coming from the front and back.
Real-Time Fluorescence Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification for the Diagnosis of Malaria

Background Molecular diagnostic methods can complement existing tools to improve the diagnosis of malaria. However, they require good laboratory infrastructure thereby restricting their use to reference laboratories and research studies. Therefore, adopting molecular tools for routine use in malaria endemic countries will require simpler molecular platforms. The recently developed loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method is relatively simple and can be improved for better use in endemic countries. In this study, we attempted to improve this method for malaria diagnosis by using a simple and portable device capable of performing both the amplification and detection (by fluorescence) of LAMP in one platform. We refer to this as the RealAmp method. Methodology and Significant Findings Published genus-specific primers were used to test the utility of this method. DNA derived from different species of malaria parasites was used for the initial characterization. Clinical samples of P. falciparum were used to determine the sensitivity and specificity of this system compared to microscopy and a nested PCR method. Additionally, directly boiled parasite preparations were compared with a conventional DNA isolation method. The RealAmp method was found to be simple and allowed real-time detection of DNA amplification. The time to amplification varied but was generally less than 60 minutes. All human-infecting Plasmodium species were detected. The sensitivity and specificity of RealAmp in detecting P. falciparum was 96.7% and 91.7% respectively, compared to microscopy and 98.9% and 100% respectively, compared to a standard nested PCR method. In addition, this method consistently detected P. falciparum from directly boiled blood samples. Conclusion This RealAmp method has great potential as a field usable molecular tool for diagnosis of malaria. This tool can provide an alternative to conventional PCR based diagnostic methods for field use in clinical and operational programs.