Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ultrahigh speed endoscopic optical coherence tomography using micromotor imaging catheter and VCSEL technology

We developed a micro-motor based miniature catheter with an outer diameter of 3mm for ultrahigh speed endoscopic optical coherence tomography (OCT) using vertical cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) at a 1MHz axial scan rate. The micro-motor can rotate a micro-prism at 1,200-72,000rpm (corresponding to 20- 1,200fps) with less than 5V driving voltage to provide fast and stable scanning, which is not sensitive to the bending of the catheter. The side-viewing probe can be pulled back for a long distance to acquire three-dimensional (3D) dataset covering a large area on the specimen. VCSEL provides high a-line rate to support dense sampling under high frame rate operation. With the use of a C++ based high speed data acquisition (DAQ) system, in vivo three-dimensional OCT imaging in rabbit GI tract with 1.6mm depth range, 11μm axial resolution, 8μm lateral resolution, and frame rate of 400fps is demonstrated.
Functional Performance Testing After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction

Background: When to allow an athlete to return to unrestricted sporting activity after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction remains controversial. Purpose: To report the results of functional performance testing reported in the literature for individuals at differing time points following ACL reconstruction and to examine differences between graft types. Study Design: Systematic review; Level of evidence, 4. Methods: A systematic review of Medline, Scopus, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials was performed using PRISMA guidelines. Inclusion criteria were English-language studies that examined any functional rehabilitation test from 6 months to 2 years following ACL reconstruction. All patient-, limb-, and knee-specific demographics were extracted from included investigations. All functional rehabilitation tests were analyzed and compared when applicable. Results: The search term returned a total of 890 potential studies, with 88 meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria. A total of 4927 patients were included, of which 66% were male. The mean patient age was 26.5 ± 3.4 years. The predominant graft choices for reconstruction were bone–patellar tendon–bone (BPTB) autograft (59.8%) and hamstring autograft (37.9%). The most commonly reported functional tests were the hop tests. The results of these functional tests, as reported in the Limb Symmetry Index (LSI), improved with increasing time, with nearly all results greater than 90% at 1 year following primary ACL reconstruction. At 6 months postoperatively, a number of isokinetic strength measurements failed to reach 80% LSI, most commonly isokinetic knee extension testing in both BPTB and hamstring autograft groups. The knee flexion strength deficit was significantly less in the BPTB autograft group as compared with those having hamstring autograft at 1 year postoperatively, while no significant differences were found in isokinetic extension strength between the 2 groups. Conclusion: Hop testing was the most commonly reported functional test following ACL reconstruction. Increases in performance on functional tests were predictably seen as time increased following surgery. Those with hamstring autografts may experience increased strength deficits with knee flexion versus those having BPTB autograft. These data provide information that may assist providers in determining timing of return to unrestricted sporting activity.
Insect Footsteps on Leaves Stimulate the Accumulation of 4-Aminobutyrate and Can Be Visualized through Increased Chlorophyll Fluorescence and Superoxide Production1

A substantial literature has demonstrated that within 2 to 3 h of insect herbivory or mechanical damage, plants synthesize wound-induced proteinase inhibitors that inhibit digestion ([Bergey et al., 1996][1]; [Ryan, 2000][2]). In contrast, we demonstrate here that the simple non-wounding crawling of
Prenatal Reflective Functioning and Accumulated Risk as Predictors of Maternal Interactive Behavior During Free Play, the Still-Face Paradigm, and Two Teaching Tasks

This study examined whether prenatal reflective functioning (RF) was related to mothers’ interactive style across contexts with their 6-month-old infants (M age = 6.02 months, SD = 0.41, 54% boys), and to what extent quality of prenatal RF could account for the influence of accumulated risk on maternal interactive behavior. Accumulated risk was defined as the sum-score of a selection of risk factors that have been associated with sub- optimal infant development. Mother–infant dyads (N = 133) were observed during free play, two teaching tasks, and the Still-Face Paradigm (SFP). Better prenatal RF was asso- ciated with more positive maternal behavior in all settings and less negative behavior dur- ing teaching and SFP reengagement. Accumulated risk and prenatal RF predicted shared variance in maternal interactive behavior (with unique predictive effects observed only for RF on sensitivity during teaching and SFP play, and for accumulated risk on sensitivity and positive engagement during SFP play, and internalizing-helplessness during SFP reen- gagement). Accumulated risk had an indirect effect on maternal sensitivity during teaching and SFP play through prenatal RF. These findings suggest not only that RF may be tar- geted prenatally to improve mother–infant interactions, but also that enhancing RF skills may ameliorate some of the negative consequences from more stable perinatal risk factors that influence parent–child interactions.
Recent advances in sperm cell mediated gene transfer

INTRODUCTION Improvement of techniques in molecular biology and mammalian embryo manipulation have recently made possible the production of transgenic animals. These technologies offer unique tools to investigate the function of specific genes and the mechanisms regulating their expression. Gene transfer techniques have been developed mainly in mice (Palmiter and Brinster, 1986; Jaenisch, 1988). Since for many purposes the use of other species is desirable and sometimes necessary, great effort has gone into extending genome manipulating techniques to farm animals. However, current methods in genetic engineering still apply to these species much less efficiently (Purse1 et al., 1989; Wilmut, 1991). Therefore, the search for a simple, efficient, and widely applicable method for inserting foreign genes into a variety of mammals, birds, and fish is needed. In 1971 Brackett and co-workers published the results of pioneering studies showing that, after exposure of rabbit spermatozoa to 3H-thymidine-labelled purified SV40 DNA, radioactive material was detectable inside the heads of the spermatozoa. Their results showed that heterologous DNA can be incorporated into mature mammalian sperm cells. Moreover, the observation that %cell ova fertilized with these spermatozoa were able to infect CV-1 kidney cells suggested that exogenous DNA was carried into the oocyte a t fertilization. Eighteen years later similar findings were described in other species. Arezzo (1989) showed that homologous and heterologous macromolecules can penetrate living sea urchin spermatozoa. Moreover, pRSVCAT or pSV2CAT plasmids were incorporated into the egg and the CAT gene was expressed in the embryos. In the same year Lavitrano et al. showed that the same phenomenon occurs using mouse epididymal spermatozoa and also that transgenic offspring can be produced at a frequency of about 30%. The transgene was stably integrated in the germ line and transgenic strains were obtained. These results were received with great interest, but also with caution and some skepticism since other laboratories were not able to achieve the same results (Brinster et al., 1989; A1 Shawy et al., 1990). At this point in time, a large amount of research arose in an array of different species, especially in domestic ones. The possibility of generating transgenic farm animals simply by artificial insemination procedures, rather
A systematic approach to manage information quality for supporting software package selection

Software package selection plays a crucial role in the deployment of software systems. One of its main current problems is how to deal with the vast amount of unstructured, incomplete, evolvable and widespread information that highly increases the risks of taking a wrong decision. It could be said that nowadays there are not satisfactory solutions to that problem. In this paper, we propose an approach to systematically tackle these information quality problems by stating a reference model embracing quality indicators that facilitate the collection, storage, retrieval, analysis and reuse of information in a quality assurance environment. We illustrate it with a scenario of use that shows how this reference model may be used to support software package selection decision-making.
Qualitative preference-based service selection for multiple agents

Service selection is one of the important problems in applications of multi-agent systems. A qualitative way is desirable for service selection according to agents' preferences on non-functional Quality of Service QoS attributes of services. However, it is challenging when the decision has to be made for multiple agents with preferences on attributes that may be incomplete. In this paper, first use a qualitative graphical representation tool called CP-nets to describe preference relations in a relatively compact, intuitive and structured manner. We then propose a preference reasoning algorithm to construct a derivation tree from a CP-net for each agent and then generate all service patterns for this agent. The Rank semantic is used together with the Lex semantic to provide the ordering of different service patterns. After that, we merge ranked service patterns for all agents and select a set of services that satisfy these agents the most. Finally, we also propose a semantic validation algorithm to show the satisfactory degree of the best service patterns according to other voting semantics. Experimental results indicate that this method can always obtain optimal outcomes which closely satisfy all agents, within acceptable execution time.
A new FIFO for transferring data between two unrelated clock domains

A new simple-to-design FIFO that allows data transfer between two clock domains of unrelated frequencies has been developed. The fully synchronous interfaces significantly ease the system-on-chip integration process. With a relatively low gate count, the proposed FIFO allows the producer and consumer to put/get data at their respective frequencies (1 datum/clock cycle) till it gets filled, then the rates converge to the lower of the two frequencies. The maximum initial latency is three cycles of the consumer's clock. Several manifestations of the FIFO have been developed for different design cases including producer/consumer data width mismatch. Operation of the FIFO has been verified using both gate-level simulations and SPICE simulations with a 0.13 µm, 1.2 V technology. An 8-cell FIFO showed proper operation at producer and consumer clock frequencies of 2 and 3.125 GHz, respectively, with a data transfer rate of more than 2 giga datum/s and an average power of 721 µW.
Polarized delivery of viral glycoproteins to the apical and basolateral plasma membranes of Madin-Darby canine kidney cells infected with temperature-sensitive viruses

The intracellular route followed by viral envelope glycoproteins in polarized Madin-Darby canine kidney cells was studied by using temperature-sensitive mutants of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and influenza, in which, at the nonpermissive temperature (39.5 degrees C), the newly synthesized glycoproteins (G proteins) and hemagglutinin (HA), respectively, are not transported out of the endoplasmic reticulum. After infection with VSV and incubation at 39.5 degrees C for 4-5 h, synchronous transfer of G protein to the plasma membrane was initiated by shifting to the permissive temperature (32.5 degrees C). Immunoelectron microscopy showed that under these conditions the protein moved to the Golgi apparatus and from there directly to a region of the lateral plasma membrane near this organelle. G protein then seemed to diffuse progressively to basal regions of the cell surface and, only after it had accumulated in the basolateral domain, it began to appear on the apical surface near the intercellular junctions. The results of these experiments indicate that the VSV G protein must be sorted before its arrival at the cell surface, and suggest that passage to the apical domain occurs only late in infection when tight junctions are no longer an effective barrier. In complementary experiments, using the temperature-sensitive mutant of influenza, cultures were first shifted from the nonpermissive temperature (39.5 degrees C) to 18.5 degrees C, to allow entrance of the glycoprotein into the Golgi apparatus (see Matlin, K.S., and K. Simons, 1983, Cell, 34:233-243). Under these conditions HA accumulated in Golgi stacks and vesicles but did not reach the plasma membrane. When the temperature was subsequently shifted to 32.5 degrees C, HA rapidly appeared in discrete regions of the apical surface near, and often directly above, the Golgi elements, and later diffused throughout this surface. To ensure that the anti-HA antibodies had access to lateral domains, monolayers were treated with a hypertonic medium to dilate the intercellular spaces. Some labeling was then observed in the lateral plasma membranes soon after the shift, but this never increased beyond 1.0 gold particle/micron, whereas characteristic densities of labeling in apical surfaces soon became much higher (approximately 10 particles/micron). Our results suggest that the bulk of HA follows a direct pathway leading from the Golgi to regions of the apical surface close to trans-Golgi cisternae.
Models for Count Data With an Application to Healthy Days Measures: Are You Driving in Screws With a Hammer?

Introduction Count data are often collected in chronic disease research, and sometimes these data have a skewed distribution. The number of unhealthy days reported in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is an example of such data: most respondents report zero days. Studies have either categorized the Healthy Days measure or used linear regression models. We used alternative regression models for these count data and examined the effect on statistical inference. Methods Using responses from participants aged 35 years or older from 12 states that included a homeownership question in their 2009 BRFSS, we compared 5 multivariate regression models — logistic, linear, Poisson, negative binomial, and zero-inflated negative binomial — with respect to 1) how well the modeled data fit the observed data and 2) how model selections affect inferences. Results Most respondents (66.8%) reported zero mentally unhealthy days. The distribution was highly skewed (variance = 58.7, mean = 3.3 d). Zero-inflated negative binomial regression provided the best-fitting model, followed by negative binomial regression. A significant independent association between homeownership and number of mentally unhealthy days was not found in the logistic, linear, or Poisson regression model but was found in the negative binomial model. The zero-inflated negative binomial model showed that homeowners were 24% more likely than nonowners to have excess zero mentally unhealthy days (adjusted odds ratio, 1.24; 95% confidence interval, 1.08–1.43), but it did not show an association between homeownership and the number of unhealthy days. Conclusion Our comparison of regression models indicates the importance of examining data distribution and selecting models with appropriate assumptions. Otherwise, statistical inferences might be misleading.
A Novel Phage Protein Mediates the Virus's Removal from Bacterial Chromosomes

Long before anyone realistically entertained the notion of engineering transgenic corn, cloned dogs, or designer babies, scientists looked for clues to the fundamental properties of life in much simpler organisms. Studies in one such organism—bacteria-infecting viruses called bacteriophages, or phages—produced some of the most important discoveries of molecular biology: identifying DNA as the genetic material, elucidating the mechanism of genome replication, and revealing the power of recombinant DNA, the backbone of genetic engineering.
Distributed algorithms for maximum lifetime routing in wireless sensor networks

A sensor network of nodes with wireless transceiver capabilities and limited energy is considered. We propose distributed algorithms to compute an optimal routing scheme that maximizes the time at which the first node in the network drains out of energy. The problem is formulated as a linear programming problem and subgradient algorithms are used to solve it in a distributed manner. The resulting algorithms have low computational complexity and are guaranteed to converge to an optimal routing scheme that maximizes the network lifetime. The algorithms are illustrated by an example in which an optimal flow is computed for a network of randomly distributed nodes.
A Method of Discourse Structure Understanding in Japanese Task-Free Conversation for Causal Conjunction

日本語の談話理解を考える際には, 文脈, すなわち「会話の流れ」を把握する必要がある. 一般的に日本語では, 「会話の流れ」を明示する語として, 順接・逆接・話題の転換・因果性, などを表す接続 (助) 詞が用いられることが多い. これらの語は・スケジュール設定など何らかの話題・目的が存在する会話だけではなく, 雑談などの場合でも, 聞き手が「会話の流れ」を把握するために利用しているものと考えられる. 本技術資料では, 「だって」や「から」などの接続表現によって, 因果関係の前件および後件の関係が談話中で明示されている場合を対象とし, そのような因果関係が談話中で示す特徴について検討する. この検討から, いくつかの観察結果が得られるが, それについて自由会話コーパスを用いた検討を行ない, 実際にそのような特徴が成立することを確認した. この結果は, 接続表現に依存する前件と後件の順序関係, および前件と後件の隣接性という2項目にまとめることができ, 機械的処理による談話理解への足掛かりと考えられる.
Thymoquinone ameliorates NLRP3-mediated inflammation in the pancreas of albino Wistar rats fed ethanol and high-fat diet

Abstract Background: Inflammasomes are protein complexes that mediate the process of inflammation and tissue injury by regulating the level of cytokine production. Pancreatitis is a major gastrointestinal disorder characterized by painful inflammation in the pancreas. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether thymoquinone (TQ) exerts anti-inflammatory activity by influencing the expression of the apoptosis-associated speck-like protein (ASC) complex of NOD-like receptor pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasomes in rats subjected to experimental pancreatitis. Methods: Male albino Wistar rats were randomly separated into four groups. Rats in groups 1 and 2 were fed with a normal diet for 90 days, and rats in groups 3 and 4 were administered with ethanol (EtOH) 8–12 g/kg/day orally and fed with a high-fat diet (HFD) for 90 days. In addition, rats in groups 2 and 4 were administered with 100 mg/kg body weight of TQ from the 31st day. The serum lipase (L)/amylase (A) ratio; the oxidative stress markers; the GSH/GSSG ratio; the mRNA expression of ASC, caspase-1, IL-1β, IL-18, and TNF-α; and the protein expression of ASC and caspase-1 in the pancreas were assessed. Results: We observed a significant increase in the serum L/A ratio and oxidative stress, a decrease in the GSH/GSSG ratio, and a GST activity in EtOH- and HFD-fed rats. The mRNA expression of IL-1β, IL-18, and TNF-α was significantly reduced in TQ-coadministered rats than that in EtOH- and HFD-fed rats. The upregulation of mRNA and the protein expression of ASC and caspase-1 were significantly reduced in TQ-coadministered rats. Conclusions: TQ exerts the anti-inflammatory activity probably by downregulating the ASC expression to minimize the maturation of proinflammatory cytokines.
Increased bone mass in male and female mice following tamoxifen administration

Tamoxifen is capable of preserving bone mass in gonadectomized rodents as well as intact female mice; however, a detailed 3D quantitative analysis of the structural changes produced in the growing skeleton of intact mice of both genders by this agent is lacking. Employing quantitative microcomputed tomography (μCT), we assessed the effects of 4‐hydroxytamoxifen (OHT) on the femora of C57BL/6J mice administered this agent either for 12 (males and females) or 2 (females) weeks. In mice of either gender, but especially in females, 12 weeks of OHT exposure led to dramatic increases in both cortical and trabecular bone. Females exposed to OHT for either 2 or 12 weeks demonstrated significantly increased cortical wall thickness, trabecular bone volume, connectivity, and number, as well as decreased trabecular separation. Significant increases in several of these parameters were also evident in males after 12 weeks of OHT administration. In view of the expanding use of OHT to induce Cre‐mediated recombination events, our findings suggest that care should be exercised when interpreting the skeletal phenotypes of mice exposed this agent, particularly in situations where the effects of OHT might synergize with the phenotypic outcome of a specific genetic alteration. genesis 45:229–235, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
High-performance programmable SISO decoder VLSI implementation for decoding turbo codes

We developed a high-performance programmable SISO decoder LSI for decoding turbo codes based on the SW-log-BCJR algorithm. This LSI is based on the original architecture and memory management method, which guarantees the order of the soft-output to be the same as soft-input without attaching LIFO memory. Moreover, we propose new accurate implementation on 4-input log-sum operations used in the recursion of /spl alpha/ and /spl beta/ for codes of rate 2/3 and 3/3. This technique enables high operating frequency and low coding loss simultaneously. The interleaver and inevitable delay lines required to realize the turbo decoders are embedded on the chip so the most turbo code applications, including parallel concatenated convolutional codes (PCCC), serial concatenated convolutional codes (SCCC), turbo trellis coded modulation (TTCM) and serial concatenated trellis coded modulation (SCTCM), can easily be implemented scalably by cascading this LSI. The LSI is fully programmable for code types, code polynomials and interleaver patterns and applicable for BPSK, QPSK and 8-PSK with arbitrary signal constellation. An operating frequency of 100 MHz is achieved using CMOS 0.25 /spl mu/m process whereas the coding loss according to implementation is kept within 0.03 dB.
A versatile AMBER‐Gaussian QM/MM interface through PUPIL

The PUPIL package (Program for User Package Interfacing and Linking) originally was developed to interface different programs for multiscale calculations in materials sciences (Torras et al., J Comput Aided Mater Des 2006, 13, 201; Torras et al., Comput Phys Commun 2007, 177, 265). Here we present an extension of PUPIL to computational chemistry by interfacing two widely used computational chemistry programs: AMBER (molecular dynamics) and Gaussian (quantum chemistry). The benefit is to allow the application of the advanced MD techniques available in AMBER to a hybrid QM/MM system in which the forces and energy on the QM part can be computed by any of the methods available in Gaussian. To illustrate, we present two example applications: A MD calculation of alanine dipeptide in explicit water, and a use of the steered MD capabilities in AMBER to calculate the free energy of reaction for the dissociation of Angeli's salt. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2008