Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Combining electronics on flexible plastic strips with textiles

Electronic textiles are an enabling technology for a variety of applications in health care, rehabilitation or sports. In this paper, three methods to combine flexible plastic strips with textiles are discussed. Flexible plastic strips serve as carriers for electronic devices. The first approach uses a roving frame to wrap flexible plastic strips with cotton fibers. For the second method, flexible plastic strips are woven into textiles using a narrow fabric loom and a rapier loom. In the third approach, flexible plastic strips are embroidered on a shuttle embroidery machine. Due to the flexible plastic strips, electronic devices mounted on the strips are exposed to strain with the potential to damage the electronics. For the three presented methods, strain on the surface of a flexible plastic strip is investigated: roving causes strain >25%, embroidery approximately 6% and weaving 15%. Weaving flexible plastic strips is investigated in more detail because it offers possibilities to embed thin-film devices, surface mount devices and integrated circuits into textiles. Conductive yarns within the textile are used to contact the electronics. Weaving flexible plastic strips is first applied to fabricate a textile patch with woven flexible plastic strips carrying thin-film temperature sensors. In a second textile patch, a flexible plastic strip carrying an accelerometer is woven in the weft direction and connected with conductive yarns in the warp direction. The textile-integrated accelerometer can have an angular deviation of up to 10° from the textile surface. Nevertheless, applications in rehabilitation and health care can benefit from textile-integrated accelerometers.
Methadone Treatment at Forty

In the view of a clinician who has been providing methadone therapy since its inception 40 years ago, the status of the treatment today reflects the culmination of two trends: an increase in understanding, skills, and standards on the one hand, and a deterioration of patients’ health on the other. A retreat of stigma, greater physician interest, and the evolution of standards are beginning to move the treatment toward the mainstream.
Docetaxel and estramustine compared with mitoxantrone and prednisone for advanced refractory prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND Mitoxantrone-based chemotherapy palliates pain without extending survival in men with progressive androgen-independent prostate cancer. We compared docetaxel plus estramustine with mitoxantrone plus prednisone in men with metastatic, hormone-independent prostate cancer. METHODS We randomly assigned 770 men to one of two treatments, each given in 21-day cycles: 280 mg of estramustine three times daily on days 1 through 5, 60 mg of docetaxel per square meter of body-surface area on day 2, and 60 mg of dexamethasone in three divided doses before docetaxel, or 12 mg of mitoxantrone per square meter on day 1 plus 5 mg of prednisone twice daily. The primary end point was overall survival; secondary end points were progression-free survival, objective response rates, and post-treatment declines of at least 50 percent in serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. RESULTS Of 674 eligible patients, 338 were assigned to receive docetaxel and estramustine and 336 to receive mitoxantrone and prednisone. In an intention-to-treat analysis, the median overall survival was longer in the group given docetaxel and estramustine than in the group given mitoxantrone and prednisone (17.5 months vs. 15.6 months, P=0.02 by the log-rank test), and the corresponding hazard ratio for death was 0.80 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.67 to 0.97). The median time to progression was 6.3 months in the group given docetaxel and estramustine and 3.2 months in the group given mitoxantrone and prednisone (P<0.001 by the log-rank test). PSA declines of at least 50 percent occurred in 50 percent and 27 percent of patients, respectively (P<0.001), and objective tumor responses were observed in 17 percent and 11 percent of patients with bidimensionally measurable disease, respectively (P=0.30). Grade 3 or 4 neutropenic fevers (P=0.01), nausea and vomiting (P<0.001), and cardiovascular events (P=0.001) were more common among patients receiving docetaxel and estramustine than among those receiving mitoxantrone and prednisone. Pain relief was similar in both groups. CONCLUSIONS The improvement in median survival of nearly two months with docetaxel and estramustine, as compared with mitoxantrone and prednisone, provides support for this approach in men with metastatic, androgen-independent prostate cancer.
Using Stochastic Ray Tracing to Simulate a Dense Time Series of Gross Primary Productivity

Eddy-covariance carbon dioxide flux measurement is an established method to estimate primary productivity at the forest stand level (typically 10 ha). To validate eddy-covariance estimates, researchers rely on extensive time-series analysis and an assessment of flux contributions made by various ecosystem components at spatial scales much finer than the eddy-covariance footprint. Scaling these contributions to the stand level requires a consideration of the heterogeneity in the canopy radiation field. This paper presents a stochastic ray tracing approach to predict the probabilities of light absorption from over a thousand hemispherical directions by thousands of individual scene elements. Once a look-up table of absorption probabilities is computed, dynamic illumination conditions can be simulated in a computationally realistic time, from which stand-level gross primary productivity can be obtained by integrating photosynthetic assimilation over the scene. We demonstrate the method by inverting a leaf-level photosynthesis model with eddy-covariance and meteorological data. Optimized leaf photosynthesis parameters and canopy structure were able to explain 75% of variation in eddy-covariance gross primary productivity estimates, and commonly used parameters, including photosynthetic capacity and quantum yield, fell within reported ranges. Remaining challenges are discussed including the need to address the distribution of radiation within shoots and needles.
Mycobacterium avium in the Postgenomic Era

SUMMARY The past several years have witnessed an upsurge of genomic data pertaining to the Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC). Despite clear advances, problems with the detection of MAC persist, spanning the tests that can be used, samples required for their validation, and the use of appropriate nomenclature. Additionally, the amount of genomic variability documented to date greatly outstrips the functional understanding of epidemiologically different subsets of the organism. In this review, we discuss how postgenomic insights into the MAC have helped to clarify the relationships between MAC organisms, highlighting the distinction between environmental and pathogenic subsets of M. avium. We discuss the availability of various genetic targets for accurate classification of organisms and how these results provide a framework for future studies of MAC variability. The results of postgenomic M. avium study provide optimism that a functional understanding of these organisms will soon emerge, with genomically defined subsets that are epidemiologically distinct and possess different survival mechanisms for their various niches. Although the status quo has largely been to study different M. avium subsets in isolation, it is expected that attention to the similarities and differences between M. avium organisms will provide greater insight into their fundamental differences, including their propensity to cause disease.
Blind Source Separation Using Dodecahedral Microphone Array under Reverberant Conditions

The separation and localization of sound source signals are important techniques for many applications, such as highly realistic communication and speech recognition systems. These systems are expected to work without such prior information as the number of sound sources and the environmental conditions. In this paper, we developed a dodecahedral microphone array and proposed a novel separation method with our developed device. This method refers to human sound localization cues and uses acoustical characteristics obtained by the shape of the dodecahedral microphone array. Moreover, this method includes an estimation method of the number of sound sources that can operate without prior information. The sound source separation performances were evaluated under simulated and actual reverberant conditions, and the results were compared with the conventional method. The experimental results showed that our separation performance outperformed the conventional method.
THE ORGANIZATION OF SPEECH MOVEMENTS: SPECIFICATION OF UNITS AND MODES OF CONTROL

In the present paper we will address two issues. First, are the units of speech static targets or dynamically specified gestures? The available evidence favors the conclusion that dynamic signal attributes play an important role in speech perception, However, the perceptual significance of speech dynamics does not compel us to conclude that the input to the speech production system is dynamic (gestural). Parsimony would seem to dictate that dynamic motor commands be put on hold until physiological and biomechanical response characteristics of the speech production system are better understood. Second, are speech units articulatory or perceptual? This is a question that derives from much quoted programmatic statements by Stetson and Jakobson. Evidence was reviewed showing that speech movements, like nonspeech actions, are adaptively organized and can be planned so as to facilitate the listener’s task by enhancing the perceptual correlates of phonetic categories. However, there is also data indicating that these categories have a strong isomorphism with articulatory processes. The implication of this conclusion is that the question of where in the speech chain units are best defined may be a spurious one.
A review of argumentation for the Social Semantic Web

Argumentation represents the study of views and opinions that humans express with the goal of reaching a conclusion through logical reasoning. Since the 1950's, several models have been proposed to capture the essence of informal argumentation in different settings. With the emergence of the Web, and then the Semantic Web, this modeling shifted towards ontologies, while from the development perspective, we witnessed an important increase in Web 2.0 human-centered collaborative deliberation tools. Through a review of more than 150 scholarly papers, this article provides a comprehensive and comparative overview of approaches to modeling argumentation for the Social Semantic Web. We start from theoretical foundational models and investigate how they have influenced Social Web tools. We also look into Semantic Web argumentation models. Finally we end with Social Web tools for argumentation, including online applications combining Web 2.0 and Semantic Web technologies, following the path to a global World Wide Argument Web.
Evidence for Directed Evolution of Larger Size Motif in Arabidopsis thaliana Genome

Transcription control of gene expression depends on a variety of interactions mediated by the core promoter region, sequence specific DNA-binding proteins, and their cognate promoter elements. The prominent group of cis acting elements in plants contains an ACGT core. The cis element with this core has been shown to be involved in abscisic acid, salicylic acid, and light response. In this study, genome-wide comparison of the frequency of occurrence of two ACGT elements without any spacers as well as those separated by spacers of different length was carried out. In the first step, the frequency of occurrence of the cis element sequences across the whole genome was determined by using BLAST tool. In another approach the spacer sequence was randomized before making the query. As expected, the sequence ACGTACGT had maximum occurrence in Arabidopsis thaliana genome. As we increased the spacer length, one nucleotide at a time, the probability of its occurrence in genome decreased. This trend continued until an unexpectedly sharp rise in frequency of (ACGT)N25(ACGT). The observation of higher probability of bigger size motif suggests its directed evolution in Arabidopsis thaliana genome.
Microvascular decompression for hypoglossal nerve palsy secondary to vertebral artery compression: A case report and review of the literature

Background: Neurovascular-compression syndrome (NCS) is described as a prominent pathological contact between cranial nerves and vessels. Trigeminal neuralgia, hemifacial spasm, and glossopharyngeal neuralgia are typical clinical entities associated with NCS. On the other hand, the hyoglossal nerve is rarely affected by NCS. Case Description: We present a case of hypoglossal nerve palsy (HNP) secondary to vertebral artery (VA) compression. A 47-year-old man presented to our hospital with a 1-month history of dysarthria and dysphagia. Neurological examination revealed left HNP, with an intact swallowing reflex and no oropharyngeal or palatal weakness. Magnetic resonance imaging (constructive interference in steady state) revealed left hypoglossal nerve compression by the V4 segment of the left atherosclerotic VA. He underwent microvascular decompression (MVD) surgery. Intraoperatively, the VA was compressing the hypoglossal nerve. The left VA was moved and attached to the dura matter using a polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon®) sheet and fibrin glue. Postoperatively, the patient exhibited gradual recovery of HNP in 3 months without dysfunction of lower cranial nerves. Conclusion: In patients with isolated HNP, vascular compression should be considered as a cause of these symptoms, and subsequent MVD can lead to resolution.
A Nascent Peptide Signal Responsive to Endogenous Levels of Polyamines Acts to Stimulate Regulatory Frameshifting on Antizyme mRNA

Background: Regulatory +1 frameshifting in antizyme mRNA is central for polyamine level homeostasis. Results: A nascent peptide stimulator of +1 frameshifting operates in Agaricomycete fungal antizyme mRNA. Conclusion: Frameshifting can be stimulated by nascent peptide interactions with the ribosome's peptide exit tunnel in a polyamine-dependent manner. Significance: Specific nascent peptide stimulators may be a more general and unappreciated feature of utilized ribosomal frameshifting. The protein antizyme is a negative regulator of cellular polyamine concentrations from yeast to mammals. Synthesis of functional antizyme requires programmed +1 ribosomal frameshifting at the 3′ end of the first of two partially overlapping ORFs. The frameshift is the sensor and effector in an autoregulatory circuit. Except for Saccharomyces cerevisiae antizyme mRNA, the frameshift site alone only supports low levels of frameshifting. The high levels usually observed depend on the presence of cis-acting stimulatory elements located 5′ and 3′ of the frameshift site. Antizyme genes from different evolutionary branches have evolved different stimulatory elements. Prior and new multiple alignments of fungal antizyme mRNA sequences from the Agaricomycetes class of Basidiomycota show a distinct pattern of conservation 5′ of the frameshift site consistent with a function at the amino acid level. As shown here when tested in Schizosaccharomyces pombe and mammalian HEK293T cells, the 5′ part of this conserved sequence acts at the nascent peptide level to stimulate the frameshifting, without involving stalling detectable by toe-printing. However, the peptide is only part of the signal. The 3′ part of the stimulator functions largely independently and acts at least mostly at the nucleotide level. When polyamine levels were varied, the stimulatory effect was seen to be especially responsive in the endogenous polyamine concentration range, and this effect may be more general. A conserved RNA secondary structure 3′ of the frameshift site has weaker stimulatory and polyamine sensitizing effects on frameshifting.
Artemisia Iwayomogi Extract Attenuates High-Fat Diet-Induced Hypertriglyceridemia in Mice: Potential Involvement of the Adiponectin-AMPK Pathway and Very Low Density Lipoprotein Assembly in the Liver

This study aimed to examine the protective effect of Artemisia iwayomogi extract (AI) against hypertriglyceridemia induced by a high-fat diet (HFD) in mice and to uncover the underlying molecular mechanisms. C57BL/6N mice were fed chow, HFD, HFD + 0.1% AI, HFD + 0.25% AI, or HFD + 0.5% AI for 10 weeks. The addition of 0.25% and 0.5% AI resulted in dose-dependent improvements in the major parameters of hypertriglyceridemia, including plasma triglyceride, free fatty acids, apolipoprotein B, and lipoprotein lipase, with parallel reductions in body weight gain, hepatic lipid accumulation, and insulin resistance. These beneficial effects were accompanied by the activation of adiponectin-adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) mediated signaling cascades in the liver, which downregulated molecules involved in lipogenesis and concurrently upregulated molecules related to fatty acid oxidation. The downregulation of molecules involved in very low density lipoprotein assembly, which was associated with improved hepatic insulin signaling, also appeared to contribute to the AI-induced attenuation of hypertriglyceridemia.
Reactive robots and amnesics: a comparative study in memoryless behavior

Reactive robot behavior has been claimed as a model of memoryless intelligence. Using results highlighting the cyclic conflicts in such systems, we throw light on similar phenomena in biology such as human amnesic behavior. We present a formal characterization of cycles in the temporal sequence of memoryless behaviors and show that attempts to eliminate cycles result in less powerful behavior systems. Conversely, more powerful behavior systems are more likely to exhibit cyclicity. Such systems can be viable in performing simple tasks only by using the world as an external memory. Our results also provide useful insights into a better design of strategies for the treatment of amnesics.
Flocking-Based Multi-Robot Exploration

Exploration of an unknown environment is one of the major applications of Multi-Robot Systems. Many works have proposed multi-robot coordination algorithms to accomplish exploration missions based on multi-agent systems techniques. Some of these works particularly focus on multi-robot exploration under communication constraint. In this paper, we propose a solution based on flocking rules in order to explore an open area while keeping robots close enough to avoid disconnections. We show that the multi-robot coordination resulting from this approach is effective and exhibits interesting properties compared to other works in the literature.
Delta Metric Scheduling for LTE-Advanced Uplink Multi-User MIMO Systems

Proportional fair (PF) scheduling algorithm has been extensively utilized in many different systems, since it can support both multi-user diversity and system fairness guarantee. Brute-force searching is the optimal scheduling, pairing and ordering algorithm. However, the optimal brute-force searching method is too computationally prohibitive, especially in case of the large number of users. This paper proposes a novel 2-dimensional grid based scheduling scheme for uplink MU-MIMO transmission using either the conventional proportional fairness metric or delta scheduling metric. Comparing to the scheduling approach using the conventional priority based pairing metric, the proposed scheduling algorithm based on delta scheduling metric could obtain approximate 7% gain for both cell and cell-edge throughput gain with neglectful computational complexity increase. With the aid of successive interference cancellation, MU-MIMO with MMSE-SIC receiver could also improve the cell-edge throughput compared to SU-MIMO. The advantage of the proposed scheme is that it can improve the throughput performance without the sacrifice of the user fairness guarantee.
Efficient FPGA Implementation of Equalizer for Finite Interval Constant Modulus Algorithm

This paper deals with the optimization of iterative algorithms with matrix operations or nested loops for hardware implementation in Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), using Integer Linear Programming (ILP). The method is demonstrated on an implementation of the Finite Interval Constant Modulus Algorithm, proposed for 4G communication systems. We used two pipelined arithmetic libraries based on the logarithmic number system or the floating-point number system, using the widely known IEEE format for the floating-point calculations required in the algorithm. Traditional approaches to the scheduling of nested loops lead to a relatively large code, which is unsuitable for FPGA implementation. This paper presents a new high-level synthesis methodology, which models both, iterative loops and imperfectly nested loops, by means of the system of linear inequalities. Moreover, memory access is considered as an additional resource constraint. Since the solutions of ILP formulated problems are known to be computationally intensive, important part of the article is devoted to the reduction of the problem size.
Analysis of outage capacity of cognitive radio network with partial channel state information

In this paper, we have explored a potential spectrum sharing technique based on the power allocation in fading environment under transmit power constraint at secondary user/cognitive user (SU) and the interference power constraint at the primary user (PU). In addition to this, we have also analyzed the outage capacity limits over the fading channel, when the partial channel state information is provided to SU by the PU in the form of mean and variance. However, the minimum mean square error (MMSE) channel estimation technique is used to estimate the channel gain of SU and PU link. The outage capacity limit is analyzed under joint transmit power and interference outage power constraints. Moreover, the effect of error variance and outage constraint over the fading channel is also analyzed with constant peak transmit power of the SU.
An Exonuclease I-Based Quencher-Free Fluorescent Method Using DNA Hairpin Probes for Rapid Detection of MicroRNA

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) act as biomarkers for the diagnosis of a variety of cancers. Since the currently used methods for miRNA detection have limitations, simple, sensitive, and cost-effective methods for the detection of miRNA are required. This work demonstrates a facile, quencher-free, fluorescence-based analytical method for cost-effective and sensitive detection of miRNA using a super 2-aminopurine (2-AP)-labeled hairpin probe (HP) and exonuclease I activity. Specifically, the fluorescence of 2-AP is strongly quenched when it is incorporated within DNA. In the presence of a target miRNA, HP attains an open conformation by hybridizing with the target miRNA to form a double-stranded structure with a protruding 3′-terminus. Next, the digestion of the protruding 3′-terminus is triggered by exonuclease I, during which 2-AP is released free in solution from the DNA, thereby increasing fluorescence. This method is highly sensitive, with a detection limit of 0.5 nM—10 times lower than a previously reported quencher-free fluorescence method. Furthermore, this method has potential applications in clinical diagnosis and biomedical research.