Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improved Preparation Method for Animal Histopathological Section

In order to study a quick and practical preparation method for animal histopathological section,we explored a new quick and easy preparation method of paraffin section by improving and innovating the key technique process that based on classical paraffin section.The result showed the color of paraffin section by the new method was good by hematoxylin-eosin staining,the cell structure was clear,and the cytoplasm and nucleus had sharp contrast by microscope.
FDD Massive MIMO via UL/DL Channel Covariance Extrapolation and Active Channel Sparsification

We propose a novel method for massive multiple-input multiple-output (massive MIMO) in frequency division duplexing (FDD) systems. Due to the large frequency separation between uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) in FDD systems, channel reciprocity does not hold. Hence, in order to provide DL channel state information to the base station (BS), closed-loop DL channel probing, and <italic>channel state information</italic> (CSI) feedback is needed. In massive MIMO, this typically incurs a large training overhead. For example, in a typical configuration with <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M \simeq 200$ </tex-math></inline-formula> BS antennas and fading coherence block of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$T \simeq 200$ </tex-math></inline-formula> symbols, the resulting rate penalty factor due to the DL training overhead, given by <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\max \{0, 1 - M/T\}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, is close to 0. To reduce this overhead, we build upon the well-known fact that the <italic>angular scattering function</italic> of the user channels is <italic>invariant</italic> over frequency intervals whose size is small with respect to the carrier frequency (as in current FDD cellular standards). This allows us to estimate the users’ DL channel covariance matrix from UL pilots without additional overhead. Based on this covariance information, we propose a novel <italic>sparsifying precoder</italic> in order to maximize the rank of the effective sparsified channel matrix subject to the condition that each effective user channel has sparsity not larger than some desired DL pilot dimension <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\sf T_{dl}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, resulting in the DL training overhead factor <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\max \{0, 1 - {\sf T_{dl}}/ T\}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and CSI feedback cost of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\sf T_{dl}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> pilot measurements. The optimization of the sparsifying precoder is formulated as a <italic>mixed integer linear program</italic>, that can be efficiently solved. Extensive simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed approach with respect to the concurrent state-of-the-art schemes based on compressed sensing or UL/DL dictionary learning.
General Concepts in Adult Congenital Heart Disease

Congenital heart disease in adults (adult congenital heart disease) is a growing burden for healthcare systems. While infant mortality due to congenital heart disease in the last four decades decreased by almost 3-fold, adult congenital heart disease prevalence increased by more than 2-fold in United States. Adult congenital heart disease prevalence is expected to increase steadily until 2050 in projections. Adult congenital heart disease is a multifaceted problem with many dimensions. This manuscript aims to provide an overview of the common adult congenital heart diseases and summarize important points in management of these diseases with possible problems and complications that the patients and the physicians face.
Multilevel Darwinist Brain in Robots - Initial Implementation

In this paper we present a Cognitive Mechanism called MDB (Multilevel Darwinist Brain) based on Darwinist theories and its initial application to autonomous learning by robotic systems. The mechanism has been designed to permit an agent to adapt to its environment and motivations in an autonomous way. The general structure of the MDB is particularized into a two level architecture: reasoning and interaction. This structure corresponds to a generic cognitive model where world, internal and satisfaction models are used to select strategies that fulfil the motivation of the agent. The main idea behind the proposal is that all of the components of the mechanism are obtained and modified through interaction with the environment in real time by means of on line Darwinist processes, allowing for a natural learning curve. The mechanism is able to provide solutions based on experience or original solutions to new situations. The knowledge used by the agent is acquired automatically and not imposed by the designer. Here we discuss the basic operation of the mechanism and demonstrate it through a real example in which a hexapod robot is taught to walk efficiently and to reach an objective in its surroundings.
Triggering a Second T Cell Receptor on Diabetogenic T Cells Can Prevent Induction of Diabetes

In this paper, we test the hypothesis that triggering of a second T cell receptor (TCR) expressed on diabetogenic T cells might initiate the onset of diabetes. A cross between two TCR-transgenic strains, the BDC2.5 strain that carries diabetogenic TCRs and the A18 strain that carries receptors specific for C5, was set up to monitor development of diabetes after activation through the C5 TCR. F1 BDC2.5 × A18 mice developed diabetes spontaneously beyond 3–4 mo of age. Although their T cells express both TCRs constitutively, the A18 receptor is expressed at extremely low levels. In vitro activation of dual TCR T cells followed by adoptive transfer into neonatal or adult F1 mice resulted in diabetes onset and death within 10 d after transfer. In contrast, in vivo immunization of F1 mice with different forms of C5 antigen not only failed to induce diabetes but protected mice from the spontaneous onset of diabetes. We propose that antigenic stimulation of cells with low levels of TCR produces signals inadequate for full activation, resulting instead in anergy.
Flash forward: a review of flash glucose monitoring

The FreeStyle Libre flash glucose monitor became available on prescription (subject to local health authority approval) in all four nations of the UK from November 2017, a watershed moment in the history of diabetes care. Calibration free, the FreeStyle Libre is a disc worn on the arm for 14 days which is designed largely to replace the recommended 4–10 painful finger‐stick blood glucose tests required each day for the self‐management of diabetes. This review discusses clinical data from randomized and observational studies, considers device accuracy metrics and deliberates its popularity and the potential challenges that this new device brings to diabetes care in the UK. In randomized trials, FreeStyle Libre use is associated with a reduction in hypoglycaemia and, in observational studies, improvements in HbA1c levels. User satisfaction is high and adverse events are low. Accuracy of the FreeStyle Libre is comparable to currently available real‐time continuous glucose monitors in adults, children and during pregnancy; the cost of the FreeStyle Libre is lower. Glucose data can be visualized in multiple devices and platforms, and summarized in an ambulatory glucose profile to aid pattern recognition and insulin dose adjustment. There is a need for appropriate education, of both users and healthcare professionals, to harness the full benefits. Further randomized studies to assess the long‐term impact on HbA1c, particularly in those with high baseline HbA1c and in specific age groups, such as adolescents and young adults, are warranted. The potential impact on complications, is yet to be realized.
Brain Deletion of Insulin Receptor Substrate 2 Disrupts Hippocampal Synaptic Plasticity and Metaplasticity

Objective Diabetes mellitus is associated with cognitive deficits and an increased risk of dementia, particularly in the elderly. These deficits and the corresponding neurophysiological structural and functional alterations are linked to both metabolic and vascular changes, related to chronic hyperglycaemia, but probably also defects in insulin action in the brain. To elucidate the specific role of brain insulin signalling in neuronal functions that are relevant for cognitive processes we have investigated the behaviour of neurons and synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus of mice lacking the insulin receptor substrate protein 2 (IRS-2). Research Design and Methods To study neuronal function and synaptic plasticity in the absence of confounding factors such as hyperglycaemia, we used a mouse model with a central nervous system- (CNS)-restricted deletion of IRS-2 (NesCreIrs2KO). Results We report a deficit in NMDA receptor-dependent synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus of NesCreIrs2KO mice, with a concomitant loss of metaplasticity, the modulation of synaptic plasticity by the previous activity of a synapse. These plasticity changes are associated with reduced basal phosphorylation of the NMDA receptor subunit NR1 and of downstream targets of the PI3K pathway, the protein kinases Akt and GSK-3β. Conclusions These findings reveal molecular and cellular mechanisms that might underlie cognitive deficits linked to specific defects of neuronal insulin signalling.
Airway Hyperresponsiveness in Asthma Model Occurs Independently of Secretion of β1 Integrins in Airway Wall and Focal Adhesions Proteins Down Regulation

The extracellular domains of some membrane proteins can be shed from the cell. A similar phenomenon occurs with β1 integrins (α1β1 and α2β1) in guinea pig. The putative role of β1 integrin subunit alterations due to shedding in airway smooth muscle (ASM) in an allergic asthma model was evaluated. Guinea pigs were sensitized and challenged with antigen. Antigenic challenges induced bronchoobstruction and hyperresponsiveness at the third antigenic challenge. Immunohistochemistry and immunoelectronmicroscopy studies showed that the cytosolic and extracellular domains of the β1 integrin subunit shared the same distribution in airway structures in both groups. Various polypeptides with similar molecular weights were detected with both the cytosolic and extracellular β1 integrin subunit antibodies in isolated airway myocytes and the connective tissue that surrounds the ASM bundle. Flow cytometry and Western blot studies showed that the expression of cytosolic and extracellular β1 integrin subunit domains in ASM was similar between groups. An increment of ITGB1 mRNA in ASM was observed in the asthma model group. RACE‐PCR of ITGB1 in ASM did not show splicing variants. The expression levels of integrin‐linked kinase (ILK) and paxillin diminished in the asthma model, but not talin. The levels of phosphorylation of myosin phosphatase target subunit 1 (MYPT1) at Thr696 increased in asthma model. Our work suggests that β1 integrin is secreted in guinea pig airway wall. This secretion is not altered in asthma model; nevertheless, β1 integrin cytodomain assembly proteins in focal cell adhesions in which ILK and paxillin are involved are altered in asthma model. J. Cell. Biochem. 117: 2385–2396, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Hierarchical Reproductive Allocation and Allometry within a Perennial Bunchgrass after 11 Years of Nutrient Addition

Bunchgrasses are one of the most important plant functional groups in grassland ecosystems. Reproductive allocation (RA) for a bunchgrass is a hierarchical process; however, how bunchgrasses adjust their RAs along hierarchical levels in response to nutrient addition has never been addressed. Here, utilizing an 11-year nutrient addition experiment, we examined the patterns and variations in RA of Agropyron cristatum at the individual, tiller and spike levels. We evaluated the reproductive allometric relationship at each level by type II regression analysis to determine size-dependent and size-independent effects on plant RA variations. Our results indicate that the proportion of reproductive individuals in A. cristatum increased significantly after 11 years of nutrient addition. Adjustments in RA in A. cristatum were mainly occurred at the individual and tiller levels but not at the spike level. A size-dependent effect was a dominant mechanism underlying the changes in plant RA at both individual and tiller levels. Likewise, the distribution of plant size was markedly changed with large individuals increasing after nutrient addition. Tiller-level RA may be a limiting factor for the adjustment of RA in A. cristatum. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to examine plant responses in terms of reproductive allocation and allometry to nutrient enrichment within a bunchgrass population from a hierarchical view. Our findings have important implications for understanding the mechanisms underlying bunchgrass responses in RA to future eutrophication due to human activities. In addition, we developed a hierarchical analysis method for disentangling the mechanisms that lead to variation in RA for perennial bunchgrasses.
Polymeric nanoparticles: Recent development in synthesis and application

Nanosized particles have attractive characteristics, which have received considerable attention in the last decade. Polymeric nanoparticles (PNP)s are solid particles or particulate dispersions with size in the range of 10-1000 nm. Due to the very small size, the surface area is very large so the percentage of atoms or molecules on the surface is significantly in- creased, which is expected to have extensive applications in various fields such as drug delivery systems, biosensors, catalysts, nanocomposites, agriculture and environment. The aim of the present paper is to critically review enhancement in the field of synthesis and different application of novel PNPs in various area from drug delivery to composite fabrication. Literature sources were mainly taken from the publications of 2011 and later; though, for a basic depiction of the structural principles, older publications have also been cited.
Simulation of Deformable Objects using GLSL 4.3

In this research, we implement a deformable object simulation system using OpenGL's shader language, GLSL4.3. Deformable object simulation is implemented by using volumetric mass-spring system suitable for real-time simulation among the methods of deformable object simulation. The compute shader in GLSL 4.3 which helps to access the GPU resources, is used to parallelize the operations of existing deformable object simulation systems. The proposed system is implemented using a compute shader for parallel processing and it includes a bounding box-based collision detection solution. In general, the collision detection is one of severe computing bottlenecks in simulation of multiple deformable objects. In order to validate an efficiency of the system, we performed the experiments using the 3D volumetric objects. We compared the performance of multiple deformable object simulations between CPU and GPU to analyze the effectiveness of parallel processing using GLSL. Moreover, we measured the computation time of bounding box-based collision detection to show that collision detection can be processed in real-time. The experiments using 3D volumetric models with 10K faces showed the GPU-based parallel simulation improves performance by 98% over the CPU-based simulation, and the overall steps including collision detection and rendering could be processed in real-time frame rate of 218.11 FPS
Adhesion of Nanoparticles Fouling Glass Surfaces

ABSTRACT The fouling of glass surfaces by nanoparticles formed from corroding iron was studied. Simple experiments demonstrated that adherent films of nanoparticles were deposited by corrosion of iron particles on a glass surface and by flowing water past corroding particles and then onto a glass surface. The water collected from this experiment was found to contain about 2 parts per million (ppm) of particles 500 nm in diameter when tested by photon correlation spectroscopy. However, electron micrographs showed that the primary particles in the fouling film were 20 nm in diameter. This discrepancy was explained by a new theory of nucleation of the fouling films. The theory was confirmed by measuring the particle size of ferric hydroxide dispersions as a function of concentration and pH. It was shown that the 20 nm primary nanoparticles nucleated much larger stable aggregates (defined as nucleags), which were sensitive both to pH and to magnetic fields. In particular, as the pH rose above 6, flocculation occurred, and large unstable agglomerates were observed. The conclusion was that three types of particle could exist in the corrosion product of iron and water: nanoparticles, nucleags, and flocs.
Phosphorylation decelerates conformational dynamics in bacterial translation elongation factors

Phosphorylation-induced conformational trap is an essential mechanism for phosphoregulation of bacterial metabolism. Bacterial protein synthesis is intricately connected to metabolic rate. One of the ways in which bacteria respond to environmental stress is through posttranslational modifications of translation factors. Translation elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) is methylated and phosphorylated in response to nutrient starvation upon entering stationary phase, and its phosphorylation is a crucial step in the pathway toward sporulation. We analyze how phosphorylation leads to inactivation of Escherichia coli EF-Tu. We provide structural and biophysical evidence that phosphorylation of EF-Tu at T382 acts as an efficient switch that turns off protein synthesis by decoupling nucleotide binding from the EF-Tu conformational cycle. Direct modifications of the EF-Tu switch I region or modifications in other regions stabilizing the β-hairpin state of switch I result in an effective allosteric trap that restricts the normal dynamics of EF-Tu and enables the evasion of the control exerted by nucleotides on G proteins. These results highlight stabilization of a phosphorylation-induced conformational trap as an essential mechanism for phosphoregulation of bacterial translation and metabolism. We propose that this mechanism may lead to the multisite phosphorylation state observed during dormancy and stationary phase.
Fabrication of High Speed Nano-Silicon thin films on Glass Substrate with Various buffer Layer

The characteristics of nanocrystalline silicon deposited on different film substrates were studied. Through atomic force microscope, field emission scanning electron microscope, Raman scattering and Hall measurement, we investigated and compared the morphology, columnar grain size, crystallinity and Hall mobility of nanocrystalline silicon on different film substrates. Additionally, the mechanism of different film substrates affected the characteristics of nanocrystalline silicon will be studied in detail.
Near-Infrared Transillumination Guides Administration of Dental 2D Radiography and CBCT Imaging

Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) can provide enhanced information for diagnosing dental diseases when compared to 2D radiographs. However, other nonionizing imaging modes such as near-infrared transillumination may have clinical potential to supplement radiographic methods. In a study of 13 extracted human teeth, we compared clinical features between 2D radiograph, CBCT, and near-infrared transillumination imaging. We found that near-infrared imaging independently, and in some cases exclusively, was successful in identifying early demineralization and shallow enamel features, while radiography was optimal for capturing deeper decay and developed caries. We report that near-infrared transillumination imaging is well-suited for rapid screening of patients for detection of early problem sites and as a preliminary assessment tool to guide administration of radiographs.
Intent prediction of vulnerable road users from motion trajectories using stacked LSTM network

Intent prediction of vulnerable road users (VRUs) has got some attention recently from the research community, due to its critical role in the advancement of both advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) and highly automated vehicles development. Most of the proposed techniques for addressing the intent prediction problem have been focusing mainly on two methodologies, namely dynamical motion modelling and motion planning. Despite how powerful these techniques are, but they both rely on hand crafting a set of specific features which are scene specific, which in return affects their generalization to unseen scenes which involves VRUs. In this paper a novel end-to-end data-driven approach is proposed for long-term intent prediction of VRUs such as pedestrians in urban traffic environment based solely on their motion trajectories. The intent prediction problem was formulated as a time-series prediction problem, whereas by just observing a short-window sequence of motion trajectory of pedestrians, a forecasting about their future lateral positions can be made up to 4 secs ahead. In the proposed approach, we utilized the widely adopted architecture of recurrent neural networks, Long-Short Term Memory networks (LSTM) architecture to form a deep stacked LSTM network. The proposed stacked LSTM model was evaluated on one of the popular datasets for intent and path prediction of pedestrians in four unique traffic scenarios that involve pedestrians in an urban environment. Our proposed approach demonstrated competent results in comparison to the baseline approaches in terms of long-term prediction with small lateral position error of 0.39 meters, 0.48 meters, 0.46 meters and 0.51 meters respectively in the four scenarios of the testing dataset.
Fibrinogen depletion after plasma-dilution: impairment of proteolytic resistance and reversal via clotting factor concentrates

Summary In trauma patients, resuscitation treatment of intravascular volume may cause haemodilution including blood cell- and plasma-dilution. After plasma-dilution, fibrinogen is the first factor that decreases to critically low concentrations. Fibrin formed in lowered levels is susceptible to fibrinolysis, a natural forerunner for bleeding. To assess whether a fibrinogen concentrate or a factor XIII (FXIII) concentrate can reverse the impairment of fibrin properties after plasma dilution, different laboratory methods were used to determine thrombin generation and fibrin quantity/quality in a normal plasma sample diluted in vitro. Coagulation and clot lysis by plasmin were triggered with tissue factor and rt-PA, respectively. We found that while the endogenous thrombin potential (ETP) was unaffected after plasma-dilution due to postponement of thrombin decay, levels of fibrinogen and hence fibrin were decreased in dilution degree-dependency. The imbalance between influence of the dilution on thrombin activity and fibrin formation brought unexpected outcomes of fibrin properties: the formed clots favoured the degradation by plasmin but the fibrin networks remained tighter/less permeable. This proteolytic tendency was partly overturned by the fibrinogen concentrate added (total fibrinogen ≥ 2 g/l), and much more affected if used in combination with tranexamic acid (a fibrinolysis inhibitor) at small doses. No reversal effect resulted from the FXIII concentrate added. We conclude that plasma-dilution did reduce the proteolytic resistance of formed clots. The fibrinogen concentrate, better together with small doses of tranexamic acid, may reverse the impairment of fibrin property. The FXIII concentrate is not effective in this regard in our in vitro model using platelet-poor plasma.