Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sleep Quality in Parkinson Disease: An Examination of Clinical Variables

The etiology of sleep problems in Parkinson disease (PD) is not well understood, as they may arise from the pathology of the disease or from other disease-related factors such as motor dysfunction, dopaminergic medication, and mood disturbances. The aim of this study was to investigate factors associated with sleep, including disease-related variables such as motor symptom severity, dose of medication, and mood and disease subtypes. Thirty-five nondemented patients with PD were included. Sleep was measured using 24-hour wrist actigraphy over a 7-day period, during which time participants kept a sleep diary. Subjective sleep and arousal questionnaires included the PD Sleep Scale and Epworth Sleepiness Scale. Motor symptom severity and dopaminergic medication were significantly related to measures of sleep quality. Sex differences in sleep quality were found, with men having worse sleep quality and more excessive daytime sleepiness than women. We also found that actigraphy may serve as a useful tool for identifying individuals with possible rapid eye movement behavior disorder, a sleep disorder that has important implications in early detection of PD.
Nanocrystal technology, drug delivery and clinical applications

Nanotechnology will affect our lives tremendously over the next decade in very different fields, including medicine and pharmacy. Transfer of materials into the nanodimension changes their physical properties which were used in pharmaceutics to develop a new innovative formulation principle for poorly soluble drugs: the drug nanocrystals. The drug nanocrystals do not belong to the future; the first products are already on the market. The industrially relevant production technologies, pearl milling and high pressure homogenization, are reviewed. The physics behind the drug nanocrystals and changes of their physical properties are discussed. The marketed products are presented and the special physical effects of nanocrystals explained which are utilized in each market product. Examples of products in the development pipelines (clinical phases) are presented and the benefits for in vivo administration of drug nanocrystals are summarized in an overview.
Enclosing a moving target with an optimally rotated and scaled multiagent pattern

We propose a novel control method to enclose a moving target in a two-dimensional setting with a team of agents forming a prescribed geometric pattern. The approach optimises a measure of the overall agent motion costs, via the minimisation of a suitably defined cost function encapsulating the pattern rotation and scaling. We propose two control laws which use global information and make the agents exponentially converge to the prescribed formation with an optimal scale that remains constant, while the team's centroid tracks the target. One control law results in a multiagent pattern that keeps a constant orientation in the workspace; for the other, the pattern rotates with constant speed. These behaviours, whose optimality and steadiness are very relevant for the task addressed, occur independently from the target's velocity. Moreover, the methodology does not require distance measurements, common coordinate references, or communications. We also present formal guarantees of collision avoidance for the proposed approach. Illustrative simulation examples are provided.
How small can small be: The compound eye of the parasitoid wasp Trichogramma evanescens (Westwood, 1833) (Hymenoptera, Hexapoda), an insect of 0.3- to 0.4-mm total body size

Abstract With a body length of only 0.3–0.4 mm, the parasitoid wasp Trichogramma evanescens (Westwood) is one of the smallest insects known. Yet, despite its diminutive size, it possesses compound eyes that are of oval shapes, measuring across their long axes in dorsoventral direction 63.39 and 71.11 μm in males and females, respectively. The corresponding facet diameters are 5.90 μm for males and 6.39 μm for females. Owing to the small radii of curvature of the eyes in males (34.59 μm) and females (42.82 μm), individual ommatidia are short with respective lengths of 24.29 and 34.97 μm. The eyes are of the apposition kind, and each ommatidium possesses four cone cells of the eucone type and a centrally fused rhabdom, which throughout its length is formed by no more than eight retinula cells. A ninth cell occupies the place of the eighth retinula cell in the distal third of the rhabdom. The cone is shielded by two primary and six secondary pigment cells, all with no apparent extensions to the basement membrane, unlike the case in larger hymenopterans. The regular and dense packing of the rhabdoms reflects an effective use of space. Calculations on the optics of the eyes of Trichogramma suggest that the eyes need not be diffraction limited, provided they use mostly shorter wavelengths, that is, UV light. Publications on the visual behavior of these wasps confirm Trichogramma’s sensitivity to UV radiation. On the basis of our findings, some general functional conclusions for very small compound eyes are formulated.
Learning Attractor Landscapes for Learning Motor Primitives

Many control problems take place in continuous state-action spaces, e.g., as in manipulator robotics, where the control objective is often defined as finding a desired trajectory that reaches a particular goal state. While reinforcement learning offers a theoretical framework to learn such control policies from scratch, its applicability to higher dimensional continuous state-action spaces remains rather limited to date. Instead of learning from scratch, in this paper we suggest to learn a desired complex control policy by transforming an existing simple canonical control policy. For this purpose, we represent canonical policies in terms of differential equations with well-defined attractor properties. By nonlinearly transforming the canonical attractor dynamics using techniques from nonparametric regression, almost arbitrary new nonlinear policies can be generated without losing the stability properties of the canonical system. We demonstrate our techniques in the context of learning a set of movement skills for a humanoid robot from demonstrations of a human teacher. Policies are acquired rapidly, and, due to the properties of well formulated differential equations, can be re-used and modified on-line under dynamic changes of the environment. The linear parameterization of nonparametric regression moreover lends itself to recognize and classify previously learned movement skills. Evaluations in simulations and on an actual 30 degree-of-freedom humanoid robot exemplify the feasibility and robustness of our approach.
Extreme Weather Impacts on Maize Yield: The Case of Shanxi Province in China

Extreme weather can have negative impacts on crop production. In this study, we statistically estimate the impacts of dry days, heat waves, and cold days on maize yield based on household survey data from 1993 to 2011 in ten villages of Shanxi province, China. Our results show that dry days, heat waves, and cold days have negative effects on maize yield, although these effects are marginal if these extreme events do not increase dramatically. Specifically, a one percent increase in extreme-heat-degree-days and consecutive-dry-days results in a maize yield declines of 0.2% and 0.07%, respectively. Maize yield also is reduced by 0.3% for cold days occurring during the growing season from May to September. However, these extreme events can increase dramatically in a warmer world and result in considerable reduction in maize yields. If all the historical temperatures in the villages are shifted up by 2 degrees Celsius, total impacts of these extreme events would lead to a reduction of maize yield by over 30 percent. The impacts may be underestimated since we did not exclude the offset effect of adaptation measures adopted by farmers to combat these extreme events.
Analysis of Acoustic Emission Signal for the Detection of Defective Manufactures in Press Process

— Small cracks or chips of a product appear very frequently in the course of continuous production of an automatic press process system. These phenomena become the cause of not only defective product but also damage of a press mold. In order to solve this problem AE system was introduced. AE system was expected to be very effective to real time detection of the defective product and to prevention of the damage of the press molds. In this study, for pick and analysis of AE signals generated from the press process, AE sensors/pre-amplifier/analysis and processing board were used as frequently found in the other similar cases. For analysis and processing the AE signals picked in real time from the good or bad products, specialized software called cdm8 was used. As a result of this work it was conformed that intensity and shape of the various AE signals differ depending on the weight and thickness of metal sheet and process type.
The Effects of Simultaneous 8 Weeks Astragalus sp/ Euphorbia Cheriradenia Honey Supplementation and Endurance Training on Membrane Lipid Peroxidation of Erythrocytes after a Bout Acute Exhaustive Treadmill Exercise in Rats

Strenuous exercise is known to induce oxidative stress leading to the generation of free radicals. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of honey, at a dose (1.5 g/kg weight per d) on the MDA and SOD levels of plasma in rats after exhaustive exercise. Male rats (n=48) were divided into four groups, group 1, sedentary with distilled water (Sed -DW n=12), group 2, sedentary control with honey (Sed-H N=12), group 3, exercise trained with distilled water (ET-WD n=12), group 4, exercise trained with honey (ET- H n=12) groups. Four groups were further divided equally into two groups where the rats were studied at rest and immediately after exhaustive exercise. During the training period, groups 2‚4 were treated with 1.5 g/kg body weight honey, freshly diluted by distilled water to 50% and the other groups 1‚3 were treated with distilled water (1 ml) just before each administration intragastrically tube daily at 8:00 to rats / once daily for 8 weeks. Endurance training consisted of treadmill running 1.5 h day -1 , 5 days a week for 8 weeks, reaching the speed of 2.1 kmh -1 at the fourth week. For acute exhaustive exercise, graded treadmill running was conducted reaching the speed of 2.1 km h -1 at the 95 th min, 10% uphill, and was continued until exhaustion. Erythrocyte
An Epitome of Multi Secret Sharing Schemes for General Access Structure

Secret sharing schemes are widely used now a days in various applications, which need more security, trust and reliability. In secret sharing scheme, the secret is divided among the participants and only authorized set of participants can recover the secret by combining their shares. The authorized set of participants are called access structure of the scheme. In Multi-Secret Sharing Scheme (MSSS), k different secrets are distributed among the participants, each one according to an access structure. Multi-secret sharing schemes have been studied extensively by the cryptographic community. Number of schemes are proposed for the threshold multi-secret sharing and multi-secret sharing according to generalized access structure with various features. In this survey we explore the important constructions of multi-secret sharing for the generalized access structure with their merits and demerits. The features like whether shares can be reused, participants can be enrolled or dis-enrolled efficiently, whether shares have to modified in the renewal phase etc., are considered for the evaluation.
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This letter presents a novel and compact antenna array suggesting geometrical modifications in the concept of collinear arrays at millimeter-wave (MMW) spectrum. The extension of the standard narrowband Franklin linear antenna array in a compact two-dimensional (2D) assembly is proposed and multiband response is accomplished in this work which fulfills demands of future 5G systems. The proposed 2D antenna array is designed to operate at licensed frequency bands of 28GHz and 37-39 GHz recommended by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for 5G wireless networks, as well as at 33GHz for satellite communications and radio navigation. Measurements validate the triple-band response at the desired frequencies of operation. The proposed antenna array also offers distinguishing performance in terms of high gain and significant efficiency above 70% in all the MMW operating bands.
Repair of Acute zone II flexor tendon injuries using a wide awake technique in the hand

Introduction: Flexor tendon injuries of the hand are a challenging task for surgeon due to the peculiar anatomy of the tendons passing through flexor tendon sheaths, surgeons have to avoid increasing the bulkiness of the tendon through its sheath, as this may affect the functional results of the tendon repair. Methods: Prospective study has been conducted targeting patients with acute zone II flexor tendon injuries admitted at Orthopedic department in Mansoura Emergency Hospital within the period from February 2016 till February2018, and their follow up for minimum three months at outpatient clinic of Upper limb and Hand surgery unit, Mansoura university orthopedic center. Conclusion and recommendation: Using the wide awake technique provides an optimal opportunity to test repair strength making the surgeon much more comfortable to initiate early active motion. Besides, rising trend toward using early active rehabilitation protocol in case of strong repair using four or more strand repairs is recently supported in literature. Citation: Khaled NA, Serry MA, Basyoni Y and Mansour W. Repair of Acute zone II flexor tendon injuries using a wide awake technique in the hand. J Orthopedics Rheumatol. 2018; 5(2): 11. J Orthopedics Rheumatol 5(2): 11 (2018) Page 02 ISSN: 2334-2846 ➢ Mutilated hand injuries. ➢ Associated fractures close to the tendon injury. ➢ Vascular injury requiring revascularization As shown in figure, twenty six patients with acute zone II flexor tendon injuries have been operated by the wide awake technique, but only twenty two patients were included in this study having fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria of this study while the remaining four patients were discarded as they didn’t complete the minimum follow up period of three months. Methods I) Initial Assessment: Twenty two Patients with zone II flexor tendon injuries were seen at emergency room and thorough examination and assessment was conducted including:
Simplified maximum likelihood detection for multi-beam satellite systems using group-wise interference cancellation

The ideal joint detection method for multi-beam satellite systems is the maximum likelihood (ML) detection, while the complexity increases exponentially with the number of spot beams. A simplified ML detection is proposed for multi-beam satellite systems in this paper. The proposed algorithm is based on grouping of spot beams. ML detection is applied within groups after a crucial group detection and interference cancellation. The performance is improved by keeping multiple candidates for each group and a final constrained ML detection. Simulation results verify that the proposed algorithm reduces the computational complexity significantly while limiting the performance loss to within 0.2 dB from ML detection. In addition, the complexity of the proposed algorithm is reduced by 60 percent compared with that of a multistage group detection algorithm.
Caracterização morfológica e bioquímica de calos de pimenta longa (Piper hispidinervium Candolle, De Candolle)

A Amazonia, uma das regioes de maior biodiversidade do planeta, abriga inumeras plantas detentoras de propriedades aromaticas, embora a maioria seja pouco conhecida cientificamente. Dentre essas, destaca-se a pimenta longa (Piper hispidinervium C. DC.), especie que contem nas folhas e ramos jovens oleos essenciais denominados de safrol. Estudos de especies vegetais atraves da organogenese, partindo de uma celula ou tecido, ou ainda atraves de cultura de protoplastos, tomam-se necessarios para conhecer os processos de inducao, diferenciacao e competencia celular, bem como para entender o crescimento desses tecidos e celulas para que possam ser aplicados eficazmente no processo industrial. Esse trabalho visa a estudos de caracterizacao citologica, quantificacao dos niveis de carboidratos estruturais e nao estruturais e minerais, durante o desenvolvimento de calos formados a partir de tecidos foliares. Inicialmente adaptou-se uma metodologia para inducao de calos utilizando auxinas (ANA e 2,4-D) e citocininas (BAP). A fim de entender melhor o desenvolvimento dessa massa celular, calos com alta (ACR) e baixa (BCR) capacidade de regeneracao foram comparados. Os resultados indicaram que o diâmetro medio foi de 25 um e >35 um, respectivamente. A viabilidade dos protoplastos foi diferente entre esses tipos de calos indicando perda com o desenvolvimento. Calos com ACR apresentaram alta solubilizacao das pectinas, niveis mais elevados de amido, proteinas e hemiceluloses e maior teor de calcio em relacao aos calos com BCR. Essa diferenca possivelmente permitir aos calos com ACR uma maior atividade de divisao celular. A manipulacao in vitro basicamente nao causou expressivas alteracoes nas caracteristicas anatomicas nas condicoes avaliadas em relacao as plantas aclimatizadas.
Nitric oxide treatment and acute pulmonary inflammatory response in very premature infants with intractable respiratory failure shortly after birth

Aim: Premature infants with respiratory failure and early‐onset pneumonia have low inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS2) and no evidence of nitric oxide (NO) toxicity. However, inhalation of NO may not be indicated in sepsis because excessive NO generation has been reported. This prospective study was designed to test the hypothesis that inhaled NO is effective in a select group of small premature infants and that the responsiveness to NO is associated with low NOS2 enzyme. Methods: 246 very low birthweight infants (birthweight <1500 g, VLBW) were screened for severe, intractable respiratory failure (oxygenation index >40, arterial‐alveolar ratio for oxygen tension <0.10) that does not respond to two doses of surfactant within 5 h from birth. Infants with severe cardiac failure or a bleeding disorder were excluded. Five of the nine eligible cases received inhaled NO. They all had prolonged rupture of foetal membranes, early‐onset pneumonia and persistent pulmonary hypertension. Results: All five responded strikingly, survived and appeared normal in follow‐up. Airway specimens during the first day of life revealed very low NOS2, interleukin‐1β and surfactant protein A, compared with VLBW infants who had no acute infection despite histological chorioamnionitis. In early‐onset pneumonia, NOS2 and other inflammatory mediators increased first during the recovery 1–2 d after birth.
A case for NEMS-based functional-unit power gating of low-power embedded microprocessors

This paper presents a case for using Nano-Electro-Mechanical-System switches for power gating idle functional units of an embedded microprocessor. We achieve an average of 26% total energy savings, with a worst-case 5% increase in cycles. Our work includes detailed comparison with transistor switches, actuation circuitry design, identification of desired switch parameters, and device lifetime analysis
Fair queueing for mmWave WMN backhaul

Static Wireless Mesh Networks (WMN) based on high capacity pencil-beam millimeter wave (mmWave) links offer an attractive solution for small cell backhauling in 5G networks. However, the delay targets in 5G are such that it is quite challenging to develop adequate link scheduling and routing mechanisms especially for a system composed of backhaul nodes with a single TDD radio. We have proposed earlier a scheme that is based on cyclic semipermanent link schedules and multiple spanning tree based multipath routing. This scheme enables multihop backhaul connections with low delays and fast fault recovery. However, so far this scheme has been analyzed only by using end-to-end delay estimates based solely on link schedules. The potential effects of different queueing disciplines have not been studied in detail. In this paper, we will show how common output queueing systems can have a harmful interplay with the cyclic link schedules that contradicts our primary path optimization targets. We will also suggest a few simple modifications to existing queueing solutions that resolve these problems at WMN node level.
Raman spectroscopy of carbon nanotubes

The use of Raman spectroscopy to reveal the remarkable structure and the unusual electronic and phonon properties of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) is reviewed comprehensively. The various types of Raman scattering processes relevant to carbon nanotubes are reviewed, and the theoretical foundations for these topics are presented. The most common experimental techniques used to probe carbon nanotubes are summarized, followed by a review of the novel experimental findings for each of the features in the first order and second order Raman spectra for single wall carbon nanotubes. These results are presented and discussed in connection with theoretical considerations. Raman spectra for bundles of SWNTs, for SWNTs surrounded by various common wrapping agents, and for isolated SWNTs at the single nanotube level are reviewed. Some of the current research challenges facing the field are briefly summarized. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. PACS:78. ; 78.67. Ch; 78.55. −m; 78.30. −j; 78.30. Na
Induced mitotic recombination of p53 in vivo

Genetic mosaics produced by FLP/FRT induced mitotic recombination have been widely used in Drosophila to study gene function in development. Recently, the Cre/loxP system has been applied to induce mitotic recombination in mouse embryonic stem cells and in many adult mouse tissues. We have used this strategy to generate a previously undescribed p53 mouse model in which expression of a ubiquitously expressed recombinase in a heterozygous p53 knockout animal produces mitotic recombinant clones homozygous for the p53 mutation. The induction of loss of heterozygosity in a few cells in an otherwise normal tissue mimics genetic aspects of tumorigenesis more closely than existing models and has revealed the possible cell autonomous nature of Wnt3. Our results suggest that inducible mitotic recombination can be used for clonal analysis of mutants in the mouse.
Somatic tetraploidy in specific chick retinal ganglion cells induced by nerve growth factor

A subset of neurons in the normal vertebrate nervous system contains double the normal amount of DNA in their nuclei. These neurons are all thought to derive from aberrant mitoses in neuronal precursor cells. Here we show that endogenous NGF induces DNA replication in a subpopulation of differentiating chick retinal ganglion cells that express both the neurotrophin receptor p75 and the E2F1 transcription factor, but that lack the retinoblastoma protein. Many of these neurons avoid G2/M transition and remain alive in the retina as tetraploid cells with large cell somas and extensive dendritic trees, and most of them express β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits, a specific marker of retinal ganglion cells innervating lamina F in the stratum-griseum-et-fibrosum-superficiale of the tectal cortex. Tetraploid neurons were also observed in the adult mouse retina. Thus, a developmental program leading to somatic tetraploidy in specific retinal neurons exists in vertebrates. This program might occur in other vertebrate neurons during normal or pathological situations.