Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A role for neuromorphic processors in therapeutic nervous system stimulation

The motivations behind the development of many neuromorphic processors have been dominated by either the creation of better artificial intelligence, or novel non-von Neumann computing paradigms. A result of this impetus has been a number of low-power processors capable of simulating many different biological features of the nervous system. Power efficiency is crucial for deployed neuromorphic systems, but it also opens this technology up to other energy restricted applications. In this opinion, we suggest two such applications pertaining to therapeutic stimulation of the nervous system where closing the control loop could be assisted by advances in neuromorphic architectures: (1) deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the treatment of Parkinson's disease and (2) epidural spinal cord stimulation (ESS) for restoring voluntary motor functions. Though there are still questions that must be addressed before this would be feasible, but we are suggesting that the technological barriers—in both the algorithms and hardware—can be overcome with directed funding and research. Neuromorphic processor research is centered around the creation of brain-like intelligence through power-efficient circuits that borrow elements directly from biology (Mead, 1989). The applications for these projects range from brain-scale simulations (Gao et al., 2012; Benjamin et al., 2014) and in silica experimentation (Schemmel et al., 2010; Furber et al., 2012), to brain-like computing and learning (Merolla et al., 2011; Srinivasa and Cruz-Albrecht, 2012; Cruz-Albrecht et al., 2013; Rahimi Azghadi et al., 2014; Schmuker et al., 2014). These projects promise unrivaled access to large-scale models of the brain as well as insight into the unique non-von Neumann computation that biological systems appear to achieve. Regardless of the motivation, the tangible result of these efforts has been an accumulation of low-power circuits capable of emulating various elements of the nervous system. Although these are essential for embodying robotic systems and augmenting current super-computing paradigms, they also have the potential to assist in nervous system stimulation control. This application is outside the scope of the currently funded neuromorphic hardware projects, but with new insights and technological advances, it is one that will be particularly beneficial.
Clinical Characteristics and Metabolic Features of Patients with Adrenal Incidentalomas with or without Subclinical Cushing's Syndrome

Background The aim of this study was to examine the clinical characteristics of adrenal incidentalomas discovered by computed tomography (CT) and to investigate metabolic features of subclinical Cushing's syndrome (SCS) in patients with adrenal incidentalomas in a tertiary hospital in Korea. Methods This retrospective study examined the clinical aspects of 268 patients with adrenal incidentalomas discovered by CT at Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital. Clinical data and endocrine function of the patients as well as histological findings were obtained from medical records, while anatomic characteristics were analyzed by reviewing imaging studies. Hormonal tests for pheochromocytoma, Cushing's syndrome, and aldosterone-secreting adenoma were performed. Results Most (n=218, 81.3%) cases were nonfunctioning tumors. Of the 50 patients with functioning tumors (18.7%), 19 (7.1%) were diagnosed with SCS, nine (3.4%) with overt Cushing's syndrome, 12 (4.5%) with primary aldosteronism, and 10 (3.7%) with pheochromocytoma. Malignant tumors (both primary and metastatic) were rare (n=2, 0.7%). Body mass index, fasting glucose, hemoglobin A1c, and total cholesterol were significantly higher in patients with SCS in comparison with those with nonfunctioning tumors. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertension were significantly higher in patients with SCS compared with those with nonfunctioning tumors. Conclusion Functioning tumors, especially those with subclinical cortisol excess, are commonly found in patients with adrenal incidentalomas, although malignancy is rare. In addition, patients with SCS in adrenal incidentalomas have adverse metabolic and cardiovascular profiles.
Defect-Based Test : A Key Enabler for Successful Migration to Structural Test

Intels traditional microprocessor test methodology, based on manually generated functional tests that are applied at speed using functional testers, is facing serious challenges due to the rising cost of manual test generation and the increasing cost of high-speed testers. If current trends continue, the cost of testing a device could exceed the cost of manufacturing it. We therefore need to rely more on automatic testpattern generation (ATPG) and low-cost structural testers. The move to structural testers, the new failure mechanisms of deep sub-micron process technologies, the raw speed of devices and circuits, and the compressed time to quality requirements of products with shorter lifecycles and steeper production ramps are adding to the challenges of meeting our yield and DPM goals. To meet these challenges, we propose augmenting the structural testing paradigm with defect-based test. This paper discusses the challenges that are forcing us to change our testing paradigm, the challenges in testing the I/O, cache and logic portions of todays microprocessors, due to the paradigm shift, and the problems to be solved to automate the entire process to the extent possible.
Fetal haemopoietic cells display enhanced migration across endothelium

Summary. Fetal haemopoietic cells continually circulate and migrate into tissues, and thus may have specialized homing capabilities. In this study we investigated the in vitro features of haemopoietic cells in fetal blood and liver which are relevant to homing and engraftment. Fetal cells were examined for long‐term culture‐initiating cell (LTC‐IC) and progenitor content, adhesion molecule expression, cell cycle behaviour and transendothelial migratory activity. The LTC‐IC content of fetal CD34+ cells is similar to that of CD34+ cells from cord and adult mobilized blood. In contrast to adult and cord blood CD34+ cells, fetal CD34+ cells were actively cycling (11·0 ± 1·7% and 28 ± 1·1% of fetal blood and liver CD34+ cells, respectively, in S+G2M, P < 0·001, compared with cord and adult cells). The striking finding was that fetal haemopoietic cells (both LTC‐ICs and committed progenitors) displayed significantly higher levels of migration across endothelium (P < 0·05 compared with cord, P < 0·01 compared with adult blood and bone marrow CD34+ cells), which were further increased by chemokines and growth factors. The superior migratory activity of fetal haemopoietic cells may underlie a more efficient homing ability, in keeping with their physiological role.
Aripiprazole augmentation in treatment-resistant depression.

BACKGROUND Evidence is accumulating to support the use of atypical neuroleptics as adjunctive treatment for refractory mood disorders, although there are currently no published data on the efficacy of an atypical neuroleptic in treatment-resistant depression when a previous trial of drug from the same class has failed. The authors hypothesized that aripiprazole would be efficacious in augmenting antidepressant treatment in resistant patients with non-psychotic unipolar depression who had previously failed a trial of another atypical neuroleptic. METHODS This study was a retrospective chart review of the efficacy of aripiprazole augmentation in 30 treatment-resistant unipolar depression patients who had failed multiple previous antidepressant trials and had also failed augmentation with at least one other atypical neuroleptic. Prospective Global Assessment of Functioning and Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement scores were completed on each patient throughout treatment. RESULTS Utilizing an intent-to-treat analysis (including 9 patients who dropped out prior to completion of 6 weeks), 46.7% (14/30) patients were rated much improved or very much improved with treatment. This improvement negatively correlated with Thase-Rush staging of treatment resistance. GAF scores also showed a significant improvement. Six of the 14 patients who initially improved subsequently relapsed (yielding a long-term net response rate of 26.7%). CONCLUSION Aripiprazole may be effective as an antidepressant augmentation agent in highly treatment resistant patients who had failed a prior trial of another atypical neuroleptic.
Secure and efficient cryptosystem for smart grid using homomorphic encryption

A secure and efficient cryptography-based data exchange scheme for the smart grid based on homomorphic encryption is investigated in this work. Public key cryptography has been proposed as the main tool to ensure the security of a smart grid [1]. We first examine the shortcomings of conventional public key cryptography to motivate our current study. For the uplink communication (i.e. from customers to the utility) in the proposed scheme, smart meters homomorphically encrypt privacy-sensitive customer data before sending them over the grid. To prevent message forgery, a simple authentication scheme is designed specifically for uplink communication. For the downlink communication (i.e. from the utility to customers), the utility transmits the signed control messages to customers using digital signatures to ensure that messages from utilities are not tampered. For the data exchange scheme, we propose a practical cryptosystem based on a partially homomorphic encryption algorithm. The proposed solution has several appealing features such as strengthened security, high efficiency and user privacy preservation.
Design of Intelligent Monitoring and Controlling System for Foodstuff Deepfreeze

In order to improve monitoring and control level for small and medium scale enterprises, an intelligent monitoring and control system has been designed. In hardware designing, MSP430FG4619 was selected as microprocessor for its topping performance and ultralow-power consumption; and the temperature and humidity can be gathered accurately by SHT71 sensor. The acquiring information can be saved in the memorizer provisionally and can be transmitted by wired or wireless transmission. In fuzzy control system software designing, a prototype for fuzzy control was built in the first instance. On the basis of artificial manipulation experience and specific characteristics of the environment, the fuzzy control system can be built expediently by adding relevant parameters to the prototype. Practice shows that: the fuzzy control system prototype greatly improve development efficiency of intelligent monitoring and control system. The system has a high degree of automation and storage food quality is improved obviously.
The PALB 2 Gene Is a Strong Candidate for Clinical Testing in BRCA 1-and BRCA 2-Negative Hereditary Breast Cancer

Background: Several reports indicate that inherited mutations in the PALB2 gene predispose to breast cancer. However, there is little agreement about the clinical relevance and usefulness of mutation screening in this gene. We analyzed the prevalence and spectrum of germline mutations in PALB2 to estimate their contribution to hereditary breast and/or ovarian cancer in the Czech Republic. Methods: The entire PALB2 coding regionwas sequenced in 409 breast/ovarian cancer patients negative for BRCA1 and BRCA2mutations. Testing for large genomic rearrangements (LGR) was performed by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) analysis. Results:We have identified 13 different pathogenic alterations including 10 truncatingmutations and three LGRs in 16 of 409 patients (3.9%), whereas one truncating mutation was found in a group of 1,226 controls (0.08%; P1⁄4 2.6 10 ). Three novel LGRs included deletions involving exons 7–8 and 9–10, respectively, and a duplication spanning exons 9–11. Five frameshift and two nonsense mutations were novel, whereas three truncating mutations were described previously. The only recurrent mutation was the c. 172_175delTTGT detected in four unrelated breast cancer individuals. Conclusions: Our analyses demonstrated the significant role of the PALB2 gene in breast cancer susceptibility. The highest frequency of PALB2mutations (comparable with that previously reported for BRCA2) was found in a subgroup of patients with hereditary breast cancer (HBC) (13/235; 5.5%). Impact: Our results show that mutation analysis of the PALB2 gene, including the analysis of LGRs, is primarily indicated in patients with HBC in case of their BRCA1 and BRCA2 negativity. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 22(12); 1–10. 2013 AACR.
TaintART: A Practical Multi-level Information-Flow Tracking System for Android RunTime

Mobile operating systems like Android failed to provide sufficient protection on personal data, and privacy leakage becomes a major concern. To understand the security risks and privacy leakage, analysts have to carry out data-flow analysis. In 2014, Android upgraded with a fundamentally new design known as Android RunTime (ART) environment in Android 5.0. ART adopts ahead-of-time compilation strategy and replaces previous virtual-machine-based Dalvik. Unfortunately, many data-flow analysis systems like TaintDroid were designed for the legacy Dalvik environment. This makes data-flow analysis of new apps and malware infeasible. We design a multi-level information-flow tracking system for the new Android system called TaintART. TaintART employs a multi-level taint analysis technique to minimize the taint tag storage. Therefore, taint tags can be stored in processor registers to provide efficient taint propagation operations. We also customize the ART compiler to maximize performance gains of the ahead-of-time compilation optimizations. Based on the general design of TaintART, we also implement a multi-level privacy enforcement to prevent sensitive data leakage. We demonstrate that TaintART only incurs less than 15% overheads on a CPU-bound microbenchmark and negligible overhead on built-in or third-party applications. Compared to legacy Dalvik environment in Android 4.4, TaintART achieves about 99.7% faster performance for Java runtime benchmark.
Understanding and integrating the structural and biomedical determinants of HIV infection: a way forward for prevention

Purpose of reviewAs understanding and integrating the structural and biomedical determinants of HIV infection is essential for the success of prevention efforts, there is a need for biomedical and social scientists to work together. Recent findingsA review of the biomedical research literature indicates that the two major routes of HIV transmission, sexual and injection drug use behaviours, are primarily understood as biological. A review of the social science literature, however, indicates that such a positioning provides a very weak basis for prevention, as these behaviours or practices are socially produced; that is, they are patterned by socio-cultural, economic and political forces as well as by biological factors. This paper compares successful with unsuccessful prevention interventions/programmes highlighting the central importance of the structural determinants of risk. For HIV-prevention programmes to be effective, the focus must shift from behaviour, for example, from vaginal intercourse, to the cultural forms in which it is enacted; that is, to marriage, concurrent partnering, sex work, and so forth. SummaryThis paper concludes that multidisciplinary teams provide a good starting place for the development of effective prevention programmes.
Low serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in children and adolescents with systemic lupus erythematosus

We evaluated the concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] in children and adolescents with juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (JSLE) and associated them with disease duration and activity, use of medication (chloroquine and glucocorticoids), vitamin D intake, calcium and alkaline phosphatase levels, and bone mineral density. Thirty patients with JSLE were evaluated and compared to 30 healthy individuals, who were age and gender matched. Assessment was performed of clinical status, disease activity, anthropometry, laboratory markers, and bone mineral density. The 30 patients included 25 (83.3%) females and 16 (53.3%) Caucasians, with a mean age of 13.7 years. The mean age at diagnosis was 10.5 years and mean disease duration was 3.4 years. Mean levels of calcium, albumin, and alkaline phosphatase were significantly lower in patients with JSLE compared with controls (P<0.001, P=0.006, and P<0.001, respectively). Twenty-nine patients (97%) and 23 controls (77%) had 25(OH)D concentrations lower than 32 ng/mL, with significant differences between them (P<0.001). Fifteen patients (50%) had vitamin D levels <20 ng/mL and 14 had vitamin D levels between 20 and 32 ng/mL. However, these values were not associated with greater disease activity, higher levels of parathormone, medication intake, or bone mineral density. Vitamin D concentrations were similar with regard to ethnic group, body mass index, height for age, and pubertal stage. Significantly more frequently than in controls, we observed insufficient serum concentrations of 25(OH)D in patients with JSLE; however, we did not observe any association with disease activity, higher levels of parathormone, lower levels of alkaline phosphatase, use of medications, or bone mineral density alterations.
Comparative Study of Various VOIP Applications in 802.11a Wireless Network Scenario

Today, Voice over Wireless Local Area Network (VOWLAN) is the most accepted Internet application. There are a large number of literatures regarding the performance of various WLAN networks. Most of them focus on simulations and modeling, but there are also some experiments with real networks. This paper explains the comparison of performance of two different VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) applications over the same IEEE 802.11a wireless network. Radio link standard 802.11a have maximum transmission rate of 54Mbps. First protocol is session initiation protocol (SIP) and second is H.323 protocol. First one has an agent called SIP proxy. Second have a gateway reflects the characteristics of a Switched Circuit Network (SCN). With this comparison we have required to obtain a better understanding of wireless network suitability for voice communication in IP network.
Tangible VR: Diegetic Tangible Objects for Virtual Reality Narratives

We present a system for diegetic tangible objects in virtual reality (VR) narratives. The system integrates a custom-designed sensor unit, built with low-cost off-the-shelf hardware, to track objects in VR and to support a variety of custom-made and found tangibles. In its current form, the sensor unit tracks the objects' orientation and supports the authoring of specifically designed interactions for each tangible object. We contribute our design rationale, sensor unit, and four proof of concept prototypes, including a cube, a stuffed animal, a treasure chest, and a wooden boat, demonstrating how we leverage passive and active haptics to create a closer link between real and virtual worlds. For developers and users of VR, we expand interaction possibilities to include the physical characteristics of tangible objects. For the field of tangible narratives, we expand the current use of diegetic objects.
Dimensionality reduction of brain imaging data using graph signal processing

Brain imaging data such as EEG or MEG is high-dimensional spatiotemporal measurements that commonly require dimensionality reduction before being used for further analysis or applications. This paper presents a new dimensionality reduction method based on the recent graph signal processing theory. Specifically, we focus on a task to classify the brain imaging signals recording the cortical activities in response to visual stimuli. We propose to use the resting-state measurements (i.e., before onset of the stimulus) of the subjects to build a connectivity graph. The graph Laplacian and Graph-Based Filtering (GBF) are then applied to learn the low-dimensional linear subspace for the task-state measurements (i.e., after onset of the stimulus). We investigate different techniques to build the connectivity graph suitable for this application. Compared with other dimensionality reduction methods such as Principle Component Analysis (PCA), GBF-based dimensionality reduction leverages the connectivity graph as side information to analyze the degraded, non-Gaussian noise corrupted measurements. Experimental results with synthetic and real MEG datasets are presented.
Deliberative versus Intuitive Psychodiagnostic Decision

Several studies have demonstrated that in the mental health domain, experience does not always lead to better diagnostic decisions, suggesting that in clinical psychology experience-based intuition might actually not improve performance. The aim of the current study was to investigate differences in preferred reasoning styles of novice and experienced clinical psychologists as possible explanation of this surprising phenomenon. We investigated clinical and control decisions of novice (n = 20) and experienced (n = 20) clinical psychologists as well as age-matched controls (n = 20 and n = 20 respectively) by using vignettes and MouselabWeb matrices. We assessed their reasoning style preferences by using the Rational-Experiential Inventory (Pacini & Epstein, 1999). Results showed that experienced and novice clinical psychologists did not differ in diagnostic accuracy and that experienced psychologists had a higher preference for rational thinking than novices. We also found that in experienced psychologists a stronger preference for deliberation was associated with greater accuracy, and in novice psychologists a stronger preference for intuitive reasoning was associated with less accurate decisions. It might be that it is not a question of more experience but of deliberation about the task that could help clinicians perform more accurately.
DSP implementation of a reconfigurable software defined radio channelizer

The most computationally intensive part of a software defined radio (SDR) receiver is the channelizer, which extracts multiple narrowband channels from a wideband input signal. In an SDR receiver, the compatibility of the channnelizer with different wireless communication standards is guaranteed by its reconfigurability. In this paper, we present the implementation of a reconfigurable channelizer based on tree-structured quadrature mirror filter (QMF) banks using Texas Instruments TMS320C6711 digital signal processor (DSP). Experimental results show that the proposed channelizer offers better adjacent channel interference attenuation and low complexity when compared with conventional Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) based channelizer.
Testing first-order properties for subclasses of sparse graphs

We present a linear-time algorithm for deciding first-order (FO) properties in classes of graphs with bounded expansion, a notion recently introduced by Nešetřil and Ossona de Mendez. This generalizes several results from the literature, because many natural classes of graphs have bounded expansion: graphs of bounded tree-width, all proper minor-closed classes of graphs, graphs of bounded degree, graphs with no subgraph isomorphic to a subdivision of a fixed graph, and graphs that can be drawn in a fixed surface in such a way that each edge crosses at most a constant number of other edges. We deduce that there is an almost linear-time algorithm for deciding FO properties in classes of graphs with locally bounded expansion. More generally, we design a dynamic data structure for graphs belonging to a fixed class of graphs of bounded expansion. After a linear-time initialization the data structure allows us to test an FO property in constant time, and the data structure can be updated in constant time after addition/deletion of an edge, provided the list of possible edges to be added is known in advance and their simultaneous addition results in a graph in the class. All our results also hold for relational structures and are based on the seminal result of Nešetřil and Ossona de Mendez on the existence of low tree-depth colorings.