Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigation of Denaturation of Hydrophobic Perfluoropolymer Surfaces and Their Applications for Micropatterns on Biochip

The mechanism causing the denaturation of hydrophobicity of a micropatterned perfluoropolymer surface through the damage that occurs during the fabrication process is investigated. Using the results of the investigation, we successfully formed highly hydrophobic patterns without any loss of hydrophobicity even on low-thermal-tolerance substrates such as polycarbonates. We previously reported that the loss of hydrophobicity could be reduced by employing Cu as a dry etching mask and that hydrophobicity could be restored by postannealing the surface at 230°C. In this study, we investigate the detailed influence of process parameters on the binding condition and hydrophobicity of the perfluoropolymer surface. Even when the postannealing temperature was reduced to 145°C , by employing 50-nm-thick Cu as an etching mask, it was possible to form highly hydrophobic perfluoropolymer patterns having a contact angle of 110.3°. The hydrophobicity of the formed surface could be restored to its original value by postannealing at 145°C. This was possible because the depth of the damaged perfluoropolymer surface that contained unsaturated bonds was shallower when a Cu mask was used than when an Al mask was used. The developed technology can be employed in biochip applications such as cell patterning and droplet generation.
Polarization-insensitive all-optical NRZ-to-RZ format conversion by spectral filtering of a cross phase modulation broadened signal spectrum

All-optical modulation format conversion may be needed in future hybrid optical-time-division multiplexing (OTDM) and wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) networks. This paper describes an approach for nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) to return-to-zero (RZ) format conversion by spectral filtering of a cross phase modulation (XPM) broadened signal spectrum with a study of the polarization effect of XPM. Two configurations, single-pass and polarization diversified loop, are proposed to realize the all-optical format conversion, and to evaluate the polarization sensitivity of the proposed noninterferometric format conversion scheme by spectral filtering. Error-free operation is obtained for the format converted output.
The interactions between CdTe quantum dots and proteins: understanding nano-bio interface

Despite remarkable developments in the nanoscience, relatively little is known about the physical (electrostatic) interactions of nanoparticles with bio macromolecules. These interactions can influence the properties of both nanoparticles and the bio-macromolecules. Understanding this bio-interface is a prerequisite to utilize both nanoparticles and biomolecules for bioengineering. In this study, luminescent, water soluble CdTe quantum dots (QDs) capped with mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) were synthesized by organometallic method and then interaction between nanoparticles (QDs) and three different types of proteins (BSA, Lysozyme and Hemoglobin) were investigated by fluorescence spectroscopy at pH= 7.4. Based on fluorescence quenching results, Stern-Volmer quenching constant (Ksv), binding constant (Kq) and binding sites (n) for proteins were calculated. The results show that protein structure (e.g.,globular, metalloprotein, etc.) has a significant role in Protein-Quantum dots interactions and each type of protein influence physicochemical properties of Quantum dots differently.
How Does the Scapula Move during the Tennis Serve?

PURPOSE This study aimed to describe the scapulothoracic kinematics during the tennis serve in highly skilled tennis players. METHODS Thirteen male competitive players performed flat first serves while eight high-speed cameras recorded the three-dimensional trajectories of the 15 markers located on bony landmarks. The scapular position through the tennis serve was determined using the acromial marker cluster method. RESULTS The results revealed that, during the cocking phase, the scapula externally rotated and posteriorly tilted to attain the maximal humeral external rotation. During the acceleration phase, the scapula upwardly rotated and anteriorly tilted to reach maximal racket head height. During the follow-through phase, the scapula internally and downwardly rotated, and posteriorly tilted, while the upper limb lowered and crossed the player's body. CONCLUSIONS The findings of this study provide new knowledge on the asymptomatic scapular motion during the tennis serve, which may help clinicians and coaches to understand the overhead sport motion mechanics and to better prevent and rehabilitate overhead shoulder injuries.
ExoU expression by Pseudomonas aeruginosa correlates with acute cytotoxicity and epithelial injury

The production of exoenzyme S is correlated with the ability of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to disseminate from epithelial colonization sites and cause a fatal sepsis in burn injury and acute lung infection models. Exoenzyme S is purified from culture supernatants as a non‐covalent aggregate of two polypeptides, ExoS and ExoT. ExoS and ExoT are encoded by separate but highly similar genes, exoS and exoT. Clinical isolates that injure lung epithelium in vivo and that are cytotoxic in vitro possess exoT but lack exoS, suggesting that ExoS is not the cytotoxin responsible for the pathology and cell death measured in these assays. We constructed a specific mutation in exoT and showed that this strain, PA103 exoT::Tc, was cytotoxic in vitro and caused epithelial injury in vivo, indicating that another cytotoxin was responsible for the observed pathology. To identify the protein associated with acute cytotoxicity, we compared extracellular protein profiles of PA103, its isogenic non‐cytotoxic derivative PA103 exsA::Ω and several cytotoxic and non‐cytotoxic P. aeruginosa clinical isolates. This analysis indicated that, in addition to expression of ExoT, expression of a 70‐kDa protein correlated with the cytotoxic phenotype. Specific antibodies to the 70‐kDa protein bound to extracellular proteins from cytotoxic isolates but failed to bind to similar antigen preparations from non‐cytotoxic strains or PA103 exsA::Ω. To clone the gene encoding this potential cytotoxin we used Tn5Tc mutagenesis and immunoblot screening to isolate an insertional mutant, PA103exoU:: Tn5Tc, which no longer expressed the 70‐kDa extracellular protein but maintained expression of ExoT. PA103 exoU::Tn5Tc was non‐cytotoxic and failed to injure the epithelium in an acute lung infection model. Complementation of PA103exoU::Tn5Tc with exoU restored cytotoxicity and epithelial injury. ExoU, ExoS and ExoT share similar promoter structures and an identical binding site for the transcriptional activator, ExsA, data consistent with their co‐ordinate regulation. In addition, all three proteins are nearly identical in the first six amino acids, suggesting a common amino terminal motif that may be involved in the recognition of the type III secretory apparatus of P. aeruginosa.
Motion in first language acquisition: Manner and Path in French and English child language*

ABSTRACT Two experiments compared how French vs. English adults and children (three to seven years) described motion events. Given typological properties (Talmy, 2000) and previous results (Choi & Bowerman, 1991; Hickmann, 2003; Slobin, 2003), the main prediction was that Manner should be more salient and therefore more frequently combined with Path (MP) in English than in French, particularly with four types of ‘target’ events, as compared to manner-oriented ‘controls’: motion up/down (Experiment I, N=200) and across (Experiment II, N=120), arrivals and departures (both experiments). Results showed that MP-responses (a) varied with events and increased with age in both languages, but (b) were more frequent in English at all ages with all events, and (c) were age- and event-specific among French speakers, who also frequently expressed Path or Manner alone. The discussion highlights several factors accounting for responses, with particular attention to the interplay between cognitive factors that drive language acquisition and typological properties that constrain this process from early on.
DISEArch - A Strategy for Searching Electronic Medical Health Records

This paper proposes DISEArch, a novel strategy for searching electronic health records (EHR) of patients that have a specific disease. The objective of DISEArch is to enhance research activities on disease analysis allowing researchers to describe the disease they are interested on, and providing them the EHRs that best match their description. Its principle is to improve the precision of searching EHRs combining the analysis of structured attributes with the analysis of narrative text attributes producing a semantic ranking of EHRs with respect to a given disease. DISEArch is useful in medical systems where the information about the primary diagnosis of patients may be hidden in narrative text hindering the automatic detection of relevant records for clinical studies.
8 Protein-Protein Interactions and Disease

Protein-protein interactions (PPI), in which, two or more proteins associate with each other by various means, are key to understanding all biological processes that occur within as well as between cells. In effect, biological processes are essentially interactions between multiple proteins (Zhang et al., 2011) with PPI networks controlling the flow of information both within and between biological processes.
Celiac disease in a Chilean population carrying Amerindian traits.

BACKGROUND Although clinical manifestations of celiac disease may change throughout life, clinical, histologic, immunologic, and genetic studies show that there are incomplete forms of this condition, making it difficult to define the disease at a given moment. Because there is no information published in the Latin American-Amerindian population, this study was conducted to assess relations between these parameters in Chileans with celiac disease and their first-degree relatives. METHODS Sixty-two persons with confirmed celiac disease (mean age, 17.9 +/- 5.1 years; 78.3% females) and 126 relatives (mean age, 27.9 +/- 17.2 years; 65.1% females) were evaluated. Clinical manifestations, antiendomysial antibodies (EMAs), and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) haplotypes were studied in patients. Additionally, jejunal biopsy specimens were assessed (light microscopy) in EMA-positive (EMA+) relatives. RESULTS Of the patients, 24.1% adhered to a strict gluten-free diet; 26% were oligosymptomatic, and none were malnourished; 45% were EMA+; 13.8% who ingested gluten were EMA-negative (EMA-); one patient consuming a strict gluten-free diet was EMA+. The DQA1*0501 allele was present in the highest frequency (48%, P < 0.0005), whereas combinations of DQ8 were predominant. Of the relatives, 4.8% were EMA+; they had a significantly higher frequency of diarrhea, weight loss, and anorexia (P < 0.03); and all had abnormal histology in biopsy specimens. CONCLUSIONS After childhood, celiac disease is oligosymptomatic and is often unrecognized by patients. Disease in 13.8% of patients and in 4.8% relatives appeared as incomplete forms of celiac disease. Predominance of DQ8 HLA haplotypes reflects the genetic Spanish-Mapuche heritage of this population.
On Energy-Efficient Straight-Line Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

One of the limitations of a wireless sensor network (WSN) is its limited sensor node energy resource; this necessitates an energy-efficient routing protocol that maximizes the overall system performance. Rumor routing is a classic random-walk routing protocol that, unfortunately, is not scalable and can result in spiral paths. We consider that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line and that two straight lines in a plane are likely to intersect and develop for WSNs an improved protocol called straight-line routing (SLR), in which we construct a straight path using two-hop information without the assistance of geographic information. SLR thus reduces the energy consumption of sensor nodes in WSNs. We propose enhanced schemes to improve performance and conserve more energy and, with extensive simulation results, demonstrate the effectiveness of these SLR schemes in comparison with rumor routing.
Binary Code Clone Detection across Architectures and Compiling Configurations

Binary code clone (or similarity) detection is a fundamental technique for many important applications, such as plagiarism detection, malware analysis, software vulnerability assessment and program comprehension. With the prevailing of smart and IoT (Internet of Things) devices, more and more programs are ported from traditional desktop platform (e.g., IA-32) to ARM and MIPS architectures. It is imperative to detect cloned binary code across architectures. However, because of incomparable instruction sets of different architectures as well as alternative compiling configurations of binaries, it is difficult to conduct a binary code clone detection with traditional syntax-or structure-based methods. To address, we propose a semantics-based approach to fulfill the target. We recognize arguments and indirect jump targets of each binary function, and emulate executions of those functions to extract semantic signatures helping measure the similarity of functions. The approach has been implemented in a prototype system names CACompare to detect cloned binary functions across architectures and compiling configurations. It supports comparisons between mainstream architectures (IA-32, ARM and MIPS) and is able to analysis binaries on Linux platform. The experimental results show that CACompare not only is effective in dealing with binaries of different architectures and variant compiling configurations, but also improves the accuracy of binary code clone detection comparing to state-of-the-art solutions.
BLOOD PRESSURE LOWERING EFFECT OF THE ETHANOL EXTRACT FROM THE STEMBARK OF CINNAMOMUM ZEYLANICUM (LAURACEAE) IN RATS

Summary Cinnamomum zeylanicum (Lauraceae) bark is generally used in Cameroon ethnomedicine for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Intravenous (i.v) injection of the ethanol extract resulted in a biphasic dose-related hypotensive activity. In normotensive rats (NTR), C. zeylanicum at the doses of 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg decreased systolic blood pressure (SBP) an hour after administration by 10.51 %, 17.55 % and 19.06 %, respectively. In salt-loaded hypertensive rats (SLHR), the decrease in systolic blood pressure was 13.10 %, 20.87 %, and 30.54 % at the above doses, respectively. This late hypotensive effects might be due to the reduction of peripheral resistance. In order to verify this hypothesis, the extract was assayed for its vasorelaxant activity. The results showed a vasorelaxant effect of C. zeylanicum on the rat thoracic aortic ring segments with (+E) or without (-E) endothelium precontracted with KCl (60 mM), suggesting that, C. zeylanicum might be inhibiting extracellular Ca² + through L-type voltage-sensitive channels. These findings suggest that C. zeylanicum exhibited it first hypotensive effect probably by reducing cardiac activity and secondly through vasodilation.
The role of visual spatial attention in adult developmental dyslexia

The present study investigated the nature of visual spatial attention deficits in adults with developmental dyslexia, using a partial report task with five-letter, digit, and symbol strings. Participants responded by a manual key press to one of nine alternatives, which included other characters in the string, allowing an assessment of position errors as well as intrusion errors. The results showed that the dyslexic adults performed significantly worse than age-matched controls with letter and digit strings but not with symbol strings. Both groups produced W-shaped serial position functions with letter and digit strings. The dyslexics' deficits with letter string stimuli were limited to position errors, specifically at the string-interior positions 2 and 4. These errors correlated with letter transposition reading errors (e.g., reading slat as “salt”), but not with the Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) task. Overall, these results suggest that the dyslexic adults have a visual spatial attention deficit; however, the deficit does not reflect a reduced span in visual–spatial attention, but a deficit in processing a string of letters in parallel, probably due to difficulty in the coding of letter position.
Performance-Driven Robust Video Multicast over broadband wireless access networks

In performing video multicast over WiMAX networks, AMC enables the BSs to be able to select an appropriate modulation method in accordance with the transmission objective, namely to improve the video quality or to maximize the bandwidth utilization efficiency. However, by choosing the modulation method which maximizes the video quality at all of the SSs, the bandwidth utilization efficiency is reduced and vice versa. In addition, because wireless channels are noisy, FEC is always employed for video multicast. However, by choosing high FEC ratio, the video quality is improved but the bandwidth utilization efficiency is degraded and vice versa. In other words, a tradeoff exists between the video quality and the bandwidth utilization efficiency for video multicast over WiMAX networks. Accordingly, the present study proposes a scheme designated as Performance-Driven Robust Video Multicast PDRVM, in which both the modulation method and the FEC ratio are determined adaptively in accordance with the network status by mathematical analyses. Simulation results show that PDRVM not only ensures that most of the SSs acquire a good video quality, but also makes the best possible use of the available transmission resources.
Strain balance of papillary muscles as a prerequisite for successful mitral valve repair in patients with mitral valve prolapse due to fibroelastic deficiency.

AIMS The aim of this study was to assess the papillary muscle strain as a contributor to recurrent mitral regurgitation (MR) after mitral valve repair for fibroelastic deficiency. METHODS AND RESULTS Sixty-four patients with isolated posterior mitral valve prolapse and severe MR referred for surgery were prospectively recruited between 2008 and 2012. Two- and three-dimensional echocardiography and speckle tracking were performed in all patients. The longitudinal strain of the anterolateral (AL) and posteromedial (PM) papillary muscles was individually calculated as well as the global longitudinal strain of both papillary muscles was measured before and after mitral repair and normalized to left ventricle end-diastolic volume. Eight patients (12.5%) had at least moderate MR 6 months after mitral repair. The longitudinal strain of the AL (preop -4.94 ± 2.2 vs. postop -3.28 ± 1.3, P < 0.001) and the PM papillary muscles (preop -12.64 ± 5.3 vs. postop -4.12 ± 6.77, P < 0.001) as well as the global strain of both papillary muscles (preop -7.59 ± 3.48 vs. postop -1.07 ± 6, P < 0.001) were all reduced after surgical repair. The longitudinal strain of the PM papillary muscle was the strongest predictor of recurrent MR (when less than or equal to -14.78). The global preoperative papillary muscle strain was also a determinant of recurrent MR when the global strain was greater than -9.05% (area under the curve: 0.895, sensitivity: 100%, and specificity: 76.8%). CONCLUSIONS Patients with isolated posterior mitral leaflet prolapse are less likely having any residual MR post repair when the global papillary muscle strain of both papillary muscles is close or equal to zero. Strain of the papillary muscles may be an important determinant in predicting residual MR in patients who undergo mitral valve repair.
DIFFERENTIAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGICAL PROFILE OF VICTIMS OF INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE ACCORDING TO AGE

Psychology in Spain, 2008, Vol. 12. No 1, 53-62 In this paper, differential psychopathological consequences in battered women according to age were analyzed in a sample of 148 victims seeking psychological treatment at a Family Violence Centre. The younger victims exposed to intimate partner violence suffered more often from physical violence and were at higher risk for their lives than the older ones. Prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was higher (42%) in the younger victims than in the older ones (27%). Likewise, younger victims were affected by more depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem than the older ones. Severity of PTSD in the younger victims was related to the presence of forced sexual relationship, but in the older ones it was related to perceived threat to their lives. The implications of this study for clinical practice and future research in this field are discussed.
A Plausible Micro Neural Circuit for Decision-Making

An intermediate level between neural circuits and behaviors is neural computations, various behaviors that animals exhibit following some basic control laws can be implemented by some canonical neural computations [Carandini, 2012]. To explore how the microscopic activity of neurons leads to macroscopic behavioral control strategy, we consider basic logic-like operations as some canonical computations in the brain. In this paper, firstly we designed the functional circuits for basic logic-like operations based on the known neurophysiological properties. Secondly, using basic functional circuits constructed a possible neural network for decision logic of animal’s behavior. This study provides a general approach for constructing the neural circuits to implement the behavioral control rules. Furthermore, this study will help us to establish a transitional bridge between the microscopic activity of the nervous system and the macroscopic animal behavior.
Performance analysis and design of dynamic output feedback control for switched systems

This article deals with discrete-time switched systems, which are associated with a performance index depending on the switched rule. Behind the stability of such systems, our results are focused, on one hand, on its performance analysis and its guaranteed cost certification, and on the other hand, on the design of a stabilising controller, which belongs to the class of dynamic output feedback controller minimising a guaranteed cost. An example illustrates the main results and gives some perspectives.
Instant Medical Pill Recognition on Mobile Phones

Smartphones have attracted a lot of interest recently as they are becoming more and more computationally powerful platforms for all kinds of tasks in mobile environments. Due to the availability of high quality mobile phone cameras, the use of these platforms even for critical applications leveraging Computer Vision techniques is justified. In this paper we present an application of Computer Vision techniques for instant and interactive medical pill detection and recognition on mobile phones. Our approach is designed to help trained or untrained personnel outside of medical facilities to perform the task of identifying tablets interactively with or without the help of online resources. By describing our application in detail and giving results on the recognition task we are proofing the plausibility of our approach.
Long‐term Medical Consequences of Incest, Rape, and Molestation

One hundred thirty-one patients who gave a history of childhood sexual abuse were seen in a general medical practice decades after the event and were compared with a control group. The subject patients were found to be distinct for chronic depression, morbid obesity, marital instability, high utilization of medical care, and certain psychosomatic symptoms, particularly chronic gastrointestinal distress and recurrent headaches. It is clear that these remote events can underlie difficult chronic medical problems. Questions about childhood sexual abuse must become part of the practitioner's review of systems in these difficult cases, if not routinely.