Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A multichannel neural probe for selective chemical delivery at the cellular level

A bulk-micromachined multichannel silicon probe capable of selectively delivering chemicals at the cellular level as well as electrically recording from and stimulating neurons in vivo has been developed. The process buries multiple flow channels in the probe substrate, resulting in a hollow-core device, Microchannel formation requires only one mask in addition to those normally used for probe fabrication and is compatible with on-chip signal-processing circuitry. Flow in these microchannels has been studied theoretically and experimentally. For an effective channel diameter of 10 /spl mu/m, a channel length of 4 mm, and water as the injected fluid, the flow velocity at 11 torr is about 1.3 mm/s, delivering 100 pl in 1 s. Intermixing of chemicals, with the tissue fluid due to natural diffusion through the outlet orifice becomes significant for dwell times in excess of about 30 min, and a shutter is proposed for chronic use. The probe has been used for acute monitoring of the neural responses to various chemical stimuli in guinea pig superior and inferior colliculus.
An efficient approach to computing third- order scattering of sound by sound with application to parametric arrays

A mathematical description of third-order scattered sound fields is derived using a multi-Gaussian beam (MGB) model that describes the sound field of any arbitrary axially symmetric beam as a series of Gaussian base functions. The third-order intermodulation (IM3) frequency components are produced by considering the cascaded nonlinear second-order effects when analyzing the interaction between the first-and second-order frequency components during the nonlinear scattering of sound by sound from two noncollinear ultrasonic baffled piston sources. The theory is extended to the modeling of the sound beams generated by parametric transducer arrays, showing that the MGB model can be efficiently used to calculate both the second- and third-order sound fields of the array. Measurements are presented for the IM3 frequency components and parametric array sound fields and comparisons of the model are made with traditional simulation results from direct numerical integration.
Computational assessment of the functional role of sinoatrial node exit pathways in the human heart

Aim The human right atrium and sinoatrial node (SAN) anatomy is complex. Optical mapping experiments suggest that the SAN is functionally insulated from atrial tissue except at discrete SAN-atrial electrical junctions called SAN exit pathways, SEPs. Additionally, histological imaging suggests the presence of a secondary pacemaker close to the SAN. We hypothesise that a) an insulating border-SEP anatomical configuration is related to SAN arrhythmia; and b) a secondary pacemaker, the paranodal area, is an alternate pacemaker but accentuates tachycardia. A 3D electro-anatomical computational model was used to test these hypotheses. Methods A detailed 3D human SAN electro-anatomical mathematical model was developed based on our previous anatomical reconstruction. Electrical activity was simulated using tissue specific variants of the Fenton-Karma action potential equations. Simulation experiments were designed to deploy this complex electro-anatomical system to assess the roles of border-SEPs and paranodal area by mimicking experimentally observed SAN arrhythmia. Robust and accurate numerical algorithms were implemented for solving the mono domain reaction-diffusion equation implicitly, calculating 3D filament traces, and computing dominant frequency among other quantitative measurements. Results A centre to periphery gradient of increasing diffusion was sufficient to permit initiation of pacemaking at the centre of the 3D SAN. Re-entry within the SAN, micro re-entry, was possible by imposing significant SAN fibrosis in the presence of the insulating border. SEPs promoted the micro re-entry to generate more complex SAN-atrial tachycardia. Simulation of macro re-entry, i.e. re-entry around the SAN, was possible by inclusion of atrial fibrosis in the presence of the insulating border. The border shielded the SAN from atrial tachycardia. However, SAN micro-structure intercellular gap junctional coupling and the paranodal area contributed to prolonged atrial fibrillation. Finally, the micro-structure was found to be sufficient to explain shifts of leading pacemaker site location. Conclusions The simulations establish a relationship between anatomy and SAN electrical function. Microstructure, in the form of intercellular gap junction coupling, was found to regulate SAN function and arrhythmia.
A Novel Low Power Digitally Controlled Oscillator with Improved linear Operating Range

In this paper, an ultra low power and low jitter 12bit CMOS digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) design is presented. Based on a ring oscillator implemented with low power Schmitt trigger based inverters. Simulation of the proposed DCO using 32nm CMOS Predictive Transistor Model (PTM) achieves controllable frequency range of 550MHz~830MHz with a wide linearity and high resolution. Monte Carlo simulation demonstrates that the time-period jitter due to random power supply fluctuation is under 31ps and the power consumption is 0.5677mW at 750MHz with 1.2V power supply and 0.53-ps resolution. The proposed DCO has a good robustness to voltage and temperature variations and better linearity comparing to the conventional design.
New Application of M2M in Railway Protection

This paper proposes a novel approach is that an application of the high technological advance in the field of communication and computation allows a new form of machine interconnectivity- wireless machine to machine (M2M) technology in railway network. The technologies for M2Msolutions are also analyzed. This paper is mainly concerned with automatic protection of unman level crossing and tracking of opposite train in the railway network. We also propose a preventive algorithm in stated areas especially in unman level crossing. The provided generic software framework in unman level crossing allows systems to function effective and efficiently. Main scope of this paper is that an alarm signal is directly given to both control centre and train itself. The alert has been given by means of both light and audio medium. Keywords: Bluetooth, ZigBee, M2M, GPRS, microcontroller.
A customised logical clock for timestamp-based relaxed consistency DSM systems

In this paper we present a new logical clock, the barrier-lock clock, whose conception was based on the needs of relaxed consistency DSM systems. Barrier-lock clocks can be used to implement timestamp-based relaxed consistency DSMs since they precisely control the partial order of synchronization operations. The size of barrier-lock clocks does not depend on the number of processors of the system, being proportional to the number of synchronization variables used by the application. Each timestamp gives intrinsic information about the synchronization operation with which it is associated.
Optimization of Power Allocation and Relay Placement for Decode-and-Forward ARQ Relaying

In this letter, we investigate the power allocation and relay placement for decode-and-forward (DF) automatic repeat request (ARQ) relaying over fast Rayleigh fading channels, where the channel gains are constant during each ARQ transmission round and change independently from round to round. Specifically, when the relay decodes correctly, the source and the relay send the Alamouti space-time block coded (STBC) signals to the destination. The maximum number of ARQ rounds is represented by L, and an outage event occurs when the destination decodes the packet unsuccessfully after L ARQ rounds. Based on these assumptions, we derive the asymptotically tight approximation of outage probability in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime. Furthermore, three optimization problems are formulated to minimize the obtained asymptotic outage probability, namely, optimization of the power allocation at the source and the relay with fixed relay placement, optimization of the relay placement with fixed power allocation, and joint optimization of the power allocation and relay placement. It is shown that joint optimization obtains the best outage performance.
Scenario-based stochastic model predictive control for wind energy conversion system

This paper develops an approach for wind energy conversion system (WECS) control based on stochastic model predictive control (SMPC). The structure combines the Markov chain that illustrates the WECS behavior, a stochastic optimization method based on scenario, and quadratic programming. By using quadratic programming, SMPC can generally handle larger dimension of state model than stochastic dynamic programming for changes of WECS behavior. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the optimal control of WECS by scenario-based stochastic model predictive control algorithm.
Scene Affordance : Inferring Actions from Household Scenes

In order to be helpful some day, robots do not only need to perceive their environment accurately but also have to be capable of carrying out appropriate tasks automatically. In a household setting, it is desirable to have a robot that does not require explicit instructions but rather identifies relevant tasks automatically. We suggest to approach this challange by collecting a large dataset which describes actions between physical objects in household scenes. Various gravity-based, structured representations of the scene layout are proposed, which enable training models that reason about constituents of the scene and its associated actions. In order to foster a large number of annotations we created a web-based annotation tool which employs scenes from the SUNRGB-D dataset [8]. This way, the collection of annotations can be crowdsourced.
A Fast and Accurate Method for Automatic Segmentation of Colons at CT Colonography Based on Colon Geometrical Features

In CT colonography, the first major step of colonic polyp detection is reliable segmentation of colon from CT data. In this paper, we propose a fast and accurate method for automatic colon segmentation from CT data using colon geometrical features. After removal of the lung and surrounding air voxels from CT data, labeling is performed to generate candidate regions for Colon segmentation. The centroid of the data, derived from the labeled objects is used to analyze the colon geometry. Other notable features that are used for colon segmentation are volume/length measure and end points. The proposed method was validated using a total of 99 patient datasets. Collapsed colon surface detection was 99.59% with an average of 1.59% extra colonic surface inclusion. The proposed technique takes 16.29 second to segment the colon from an abdomen CT dataset.
Reducing Peak to Average Power Ratio of OFDM Signals using Tukey Window Technique

In this paper, a new and efficient technique is proposed called Tukey Window Pulse shaping technique for the reduction of PAPR in 4G OFDM system. It is based on proper selection of the time-limited waveforms of different subcarriers. Here, only one IFFT is used in the transmitter side instead of several IFFTs for each subcarrier. So this technique is simpler compared to other methods. The implementation complexity and the cost of the transmitter are significantly low. The PAPR of OFDM system using Tukey Window Technique and Sine Pulse is also compared in this paper.
CLA differently regulates adipogenesis in stromal vascular cells from porcine subcutaneous adipose and skeletal muscle Published, JLR Papers in Press, May 11, 2007.

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a mixture of isomers of linoleic acid, has previously been shown to be able to decrease porcine subcutaneous (SC) adipose tissue levels while increasing the count of intramuscular (IM) adipose tissue in vivo. However, the underlying mechanisms through which it acts are poorly understood. The objective of this study was to investigate the different effects of CLA on adipogenesis in cultured SC adipose tissue and IM stromal vascular cells obtained from neonatal pigs. As shown here, trans-10, cis-12 CLA decreased the expression of adipocyte-specific genes as well as adipose precursor cell numbers and the accumulation of lipid in cultured SC adipose tissue stromal vascular cells. However, the cis-9, trans-11 CLA did not alter adipogenesis in SC cultures. On the other hand, both CLA isomers increased the expression of adipocyte-specific genes in IM cultures, together with the increasing accumulation of lipid and Oil Red O-stained cells. Collectively, these data show that CLA decreases SC adipose tissue but increases IM adipose tissue by different regulation of adipocyte-specific gene expression. These results suggest that adipogenesis in IM adipocytes differs from that in SC adipocytes.
Maximization of gain in slow-light silicon Raman amplifiers

We theoretically study the problem of Raman gain maximization in uniform silicon photonic-crystal waveguides supporting slow optical modes. For the first time, an exact solution to this problem is obtained within the framework of the undepleted-pump approximation. Specifically, we derive analytical expressions for the maximum signal gain, optimal input pump power, and optimal length of a silicon Raman amplifier and demonstrate that the ultimate gain is achieved when the pump beam propagates at its maximum speed. If the signal’s group velocity can be reduced by a factor of 10 compared to its value in a bulk silicon, it may result in ultrahigh gains exceeding 100 dB. We also optimize the device parameters of a silicon Raman amplifier in the regime of strong pump depletion and come up with general design guidelines that can be used in practice.
Stress‐induced responses of human skin fibroblasts in vitro reflect human longevity

Unlike various model organisms, cellular responses to stress have not been related to human longevity. We investigated cellular responses to stress in skin fibroblasts that were isolated from young and very old subjects, and from offspring of nonagenarian siblings and their partners, representatives of the general population. Fibroblasts were exposed to rotenone and hyperglycemia and assessed for senescence‐associated β‐galactosidase (SA‐β‐gal) activity by flow cytometry. Apoptosis/cell death was measured with the Annexin‐V/PI assay and cell‐cycle analysis (Sub‐G1 content) and growth potential was determined by the colony formation assay. Compared with fibroblasts from young subjects, baseline SA‐β‐gal activity was higher in fibroblasts from old subjects (P = 0.004) as were stress‐induced increases (rotenone: P < 0.001, hyperglycemia: P = 0.027). For measures of apoptosis/cell death, fibroblasts from old subjects showed higher baseline levels (Annexin V+/PI+ cells: P = 0.040, Sub‐G1: P = 0.014) and lower stress‐induced increases (Sub‐G1: P = 0.018) than fibroblasts from young subjects. Numbers and total size of colonies under nonstressed conditions were higher for fibroblasts from young subjects (P = 0.017 and 0.006, respectively). Baseline levels of SA‐β‐gal activity and apoptosis/cell death were not different between fibroblasts from offspring and partner. Stress‐induced increases were lower for SA‐β‐gal activity (rotenone: P = 0.064, hyperglycemia: P < 0.001) and higher for apoptosis/cell death (Annexin V+/PI− cells: P = 0.041, Annexin V+/PI+ cells: P = 0.008). Numbers and total size of colonies under nonstressed conditions were higher for fibroblasts from offspring (P = 0.001 and 0.024, respectively) whereas rotenone‐induced decreases were lower (P = 0.008 and 0.004, respectively). These data provide strong support for the hypothesis that in vitro cellular responses to stress reflect the propensity for human longevity.
Semantic Hough Transform based object detection with Partial Least Squares

The codebooks play a decisive role in the Hough Transform based object detection. We propose a novel approach to generate the codebooks in the manner of parametric regression and integrate inside semantic information drawn from objects and background. Clustering is a popular method for deriving codebooks, but it generally relies on some parameters, which heavily affect the performance of the approaches. By exploiting Partial Least Squares and tuning only one parameter, we map the most informative latent components of an image patch directly to the displacement vectors from the possible object centroids to the patch, and obtain the Parameterized Semantic Codebook Group (PSCG). Experiments show that PSCG generates accurate voting vectors and performs superiorly on some challenging datasets.
Measure, Stochasticity, and the Density of Hard Languages

The main theorem of this paper is that, for every real number α<1 (e.g., α=0.99), only a measure 0 subset of the languages decidable in exponential time are \(\leqslant _{n^\alpha - tt}^P\)-reducible to languages that are not exponentially dense. Thus every\(\leqslant _{n^\alpha - tt}^P\)-hard language for E is exponentially dense. This strengthens Watanabe's 1987 result, that every ≤ O(log n)-tt P -hard language for E is exponentially dense. The combinatorial technique used here, the sequentially most frequent query selection, also gives a new, simpler proof of Watanabe's result.
Radiowaves scattering from irregular building facades through MoM analysis

In this paper, The Method of Moment (MoM) is applied to solve rigorously the scattered field from regular or irregular building facades, in order to study the effect of balconies. These façades are made of concrete material and illuminated by a plane wave. Theses studies are made both in near and far field zones. It is shown that, in the far field region, the balconies can be approximate with a good accuracy as corrugations. In both cases, the irregular facade reduces the energy in the specular direction and backscattered field appears in the incidence direction compared to the scattered field by a planar facade. The working frequency is radiowave frequency at 900 MHz.
Performance Modeling of Delay-Tolerant Network Routing via Queueing Petri Nets

With the advent of wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi Direct and Near Field Communication (NFC), infrastructure-less Peer-to-Peer (P2P) content sharing among mobile devices is set to become more ubiquitous. Delay-Tolerant Networks (DTNs), with their opportunistic message forwarding strategy, can be leveraged to provide seamless connectivity in such scenarios. To the best of our knowledge, little has been done to understand the performance of DTNs under realistic settings involving the interplay of diverse factors such as bundle fragmentation, scheduling, and buffer spacing. In this paper, we look at Queueing Petri Nets (QPNs) as a modeling framework to study the performance of DTN routing. We develop QPN models for DTNs of increasing complexity in an incremental fashion, starting from a network that employs the rudimentary direct transmission routing protocol to a network that employs a family of multi-hop and replication-based routing protocols (namely (p, q) -epidemic routing). The complete QPN model considers a number of realistic factors that impact performance such as finite buffer space, finite link bandwidth, bundles with different priorities and intra-scheduling delays arising due to different levels of the memory hierarchy at the nodes. We come up with a three-fold validation scheme to assert the veracity of our proposed models, via comparison of results obtained from simulations of the QPN vis-a-vis those obtained from direct simulation of the underlying DTN and experimental results obtained from a testbed of Android based devices that employ a mobility emulation scheme. We also show a case to exemplify the analytical capability of the QPN, by deriving the underlying reachability graph and constructing an equivalent stochastic jump process. We identify the stochastic process to be a Semi-Markov Process (SMP) and hence arrive at a closed form expression for the end-to-end delivery latency by computing the hitting time of the SMP. We find that the model accurately captures the behavior of a DTN in numerous realistic scenarios, showing the efficacy of QPNs as a suitable modeling framework for evaluating the DTN routing protocols.
Damage to vascular endothelial cells by high insulin levels is associated with increased expression of ChemR23, and attenuated by PPAR-gamma agonist, rosiglitazone.

OBJECTIVE This study investigated the effect of different insulin concentrations on the activity of vascular endothelial cells (VECs), and the role of PPARγ activator rosiglitazone (RGZ) on the expression of the chemerin receptor, ChemR23, in insulin-treated human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). METHODS Cell viability was determined in HUVECs treated with different insulin concentrations. Immunofluorescence staining was used to detect ChemR23 expression in insulin-treated HUVECs. Western blot assays were used to evaluate ChemR23 and PPARγ protein expression in insulin-treated HUVECs after pretreatment with PPARγ activator (RGZ) or inhibitor (GW9662). RESULTS High insulin concentrations significantly inhibited HUVEC cell viability compared to low insulin concentrations, and this inhibition was attenuated by pretreatment with RGZ. High concentrations of insulin caused a significant upregulation of ChemR23 and a significant downregulation of PPARγ. These effects were attenuated by RGZ pretreatment, while PPARγ antagonist, GW9662 reversed this attenuation. CONCLUSION ChemR23 upregulation may play a role in VEC damage caused by high concentrations of insulin. The protective effect of PPARγ activation in VECs may be mediated via ChemR23 downregulation.
Comparing two attachment classification methods applied to preschool strange situations

This study compared two methods for classifying preschool-age children’s behavior in the Strange Situation procedure, the MacArthur (MAC) and the Preschool Assessment of Attachment (PAA), to determine whether they operationalized converging or diverging approaches to attachment theory. Strange Situations of 306 randomly selected 3-year-old children and their mothers in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development were classified with the MAC and PAA. The methods showed 50% agreement. A block of seven demographic, child and family predictors was unrelated to MAC classifications, but accounted for 19% of the variance in PAA classifications. The MAC and PAA each had associations with some child outcomes in grades 1—5 (ages 6—10) totaling 5% and 12% of the variance respectively, but some of the MAC associations were counter to the hypothesis. The MAC and PAA were sufficiently different to reflect both different classificatory methods and different theoretical understandings of attachment. Results are discussed in terms of limitations of the sample and measures available to compare the two methods, and clinical implications.