Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ablation of triadin causes loss of cardiac Ca2+ release units, impaired excitation–contraction coupling, and cardiac arrhythmias

Heart muscle excitation–contraction (E-C) coupling is governed by Ca2+ release units (CRUs) whereby Ca2+ influx via L-type Ca2+ channels (Cav1.2) triggers Ca2+ release from juxtaposed Ca2+ release channels (RyR2) located in junctional sarcoplasmic reticulum (jSR). Although studies suggest that the jSR protein triadin anchors cardiac calsequestrin (Casq2) to RyR2, its contribution to E-C coupling remains unclear. Here, we identify the role of triadin using mice with ablation of the Trdn gene (Trdn−/−). The structure and protein composition of the cardiac CRU is significantly altered in Trdn−/− hearts. jSR proteins (RyR2, Casq2, junctin, and junctophilin 1 and 2) are significantly reduced in Trdn−/− hearts, whereas Cav1.2 and SERCA2a remain unchanged. Electron microscopy shows fragmentation and an overall 50% reduction in the contacts between jSR and T-tubules. Immunolabeling experiments show reduced colocalization of Cav1.2 with RyR2 and substantial Casq2 labeling outside of the jSR in Trdn−/− myocytes. CRU function is impaired in Trdn−/− myocytes, with reduced SR Ca2+ release and impaired negative feedback of SR Ca2+ release on Cav1.2 Ca2+ currents (ICa). Uninhibited Ca2+ influx via ICa likely contributes to Ca2+ overload and results in spontaneous SR Ca2+ releases upon β-adrenergic receptor stimulation with isoproterenol in Trdn−/− myocytes, and ventricular arrhythmias in Trdn−/− mice. We conclude that triadin is critically important for maintaining the structural and functional integrity of the cardiac CRU; triadin loss and the resulting alterations in CRU structure and protein composition impairs E-C coupling and renders hearts susceptible to ventricular arrhythmias.
Estimation of dose reference levels in computed tomography for select procedures in Kerala, India

Sir, The authors in their earlier article[1] had estimated tentatively the diagnostic reference levels (DRL) as the third quartile values of weighted computed tomography dose index (CTDIw), volumetric CTDI (CTDIv), and dose length product (DLP); after a detailed survey of the distribution of dose received by patients during diagnosis using CT scanners located in Puducherry region of South India. The procedure and details of dosimetry using standard head and body phantoms and pencil ionization chamber were fully discussed in that article. The present work is a logical extension of the earlier study, conducted for the Kerala region and was undertaken as part of the establishment and consolidation of DRL values for the southern zone of India, comprising the states of Tamil Nadu,[2] Puducherry, Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. The importance of establishment of regional DRL values can be gauged from the fact that in advanced countries like US, the mean dose and dose range received by patients in CT examinations has diminished considerably in subsequent years. [3]
CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES IN AUTOIMMUNITY Exposure to Epstein–Barr Virus Infection Is Associated with Mild Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease

Infections may act as environmental triggers for the induction of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). In this study, we determine the relationship between disease manifestations of SLE patients and the titers of five Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) Abs. We evaluated the titers of early antigen IgG (EAG), nuclear antigen IgG, viral capsid antigen (VCA) IgG and IgM, and heterophile IgM, using the BioPlex 2200 multiplexed immunoassay method in 260 sera (120 SLE patients and 140 controls). EAG titers were significantly elevated (P < 0.024) in patients with cutaneous symptoms and increased anti-Ro antibody titers (P < 0.005). VCA IgG titers were significantly elevated (P < 0.003) in patients with joint involvement. None of the titers differed by central nervous system or renal involvement or antiphospholipid syndrome. We conclude that exposure to EBV infection may predict a disease phenotype of mild SLE disease with cutaneous and joint manifestations and elevated titers of anti-Ro Abs.
Downlink power control in two-tier OFDMA femtocell networks with Firefly Algorithm

To alleviate the cross-tier interference in two-tier Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) femtocell networks, this article put forward a distributed utility-based downlink power control algorithm. We firstly modeled the objective of power control with utility functions for macrocell and femtocell based on the factor of Area Spectral Efficiency (ASE). Then we developed a power control algorithm with Firefly Algorithm (FA) to find the optimal power settings in iteration procedure which can maximize the value of utility function. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can improve the total throughput and the throughput of femto users with minor impact on macro users.
Task-based compliance planning for multifingered hands

Based on the analysis of the stiffness relation between the operational space and the fingertip space of multifingered hands, this paper provides a guideline of task-based compliance planning for multifingered hands. 2D and 3D examples are illustrated to show the characteristics of the task-based stiffness matrix. It is shown that some of coupling stiffness elements cannot be planned arbitrarily due to grasping geometry. Through the analytical results, it is concluded that the operational stiffness matrix should be carefully specified by considering the location of compliance center and the grasp geometry of multifingered hands for successful grasping and manipulation tasks.
Multichannel MMSE Wiener Filter Using Complex Real and Imaginary Spectral Coefficients for Distributed Microphone Speech Enhancement

In this paper, the authors propose a frequency domain multichannel Wiener filter for distributed microphone speech enhancement using acoustic arrays. The current state-of-the-art single channel estimators achieve noticeable performance gains using the to-noise ratio (SNR) and segmental signal-to-noise ratio (SSNR) objective measures, which measure noise reduction, but only achieve marginal performance gains using the Log-Likelihood Ratio (LLR) and Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) objective metrics, which correlate better than SNR and SSNR with speech distortion and overall speech quality. By extending the traditional single channel Wiener filter to multiple distributed channels through minimum mean-square error (MMSE) estimation of the complex real and imaginary components, the approach presented here demonstrates increases in the SSNR, LLR, and PESQ objective measures. Experimental results show that the new multichannel Wiener filter using distributed microphones produces gains of 5.0 dB (SSNR improvement), 0.7 (LLR output), and 0.8 (PESQ output) averaged across the 0 dB, 5 dB, and 10 dB input SNRs over the baseline single channel Wiener filter.
Paradoxical effects of prodynorphin gene deletion on basal and cocaine‐evoked dopaminergic neurotransmission in the nucleus accumbens

Quantitative and conventional microdialysis were used to investigate the effects of constitutive deletion of the prodynorphin gene on basal dopamine (DA) dynamics in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and the responsiveness of DA neurons to an acute cocaine challenge. Saline‐ and cocaine‐evoked locomotor activity were also assessed. Quantitative microdialysis revealed that basal extracellular DA levels were decreased, while the DA extraction fraction, an indirect measure of DA uptake, was unchanged in dynorphin (DYN) knockout (KO) mice. The ability of cocaine to increase NAc DA levels was reduced in KO. Similarly, cocaine‐evoked locomotor activity was decreased in KO. The selective kappa opioid receptor agonist U‐69593 decreased NAc dialysate DA levels in wildtype mice and this effect was enhanced in KO. Administration of the selective kappa opioid receptor (KOPr) antagonist nor‐binaltorphimine to KO mice attenuated the decrease in cocaine‐induced DA levels. However, it was ineffective in altering the decreased locomotor response to cocaine. These studies demonstrate that constitutive deletion of prodynorphin is associated with a reduction of extracellular NAc DA levels and a decreased responsiveness to acute cocaine. Data regarding the effects of U‐69593 and nor‐binaltorphimine in KO suggest that the kappa opioid receptor is up‐regulated as a consequence of prodynorphin gene deletion and that this adaptation underlies the decrease in basal DA dynamics and cocaine‐evoked DA levels observed in DYN KO mice. These findings suggest that the phenotype of DYN KO mice is not solely due to loss of endogenous opioid peptide but also reflects developmental compensations that occur at the level of the opioid receptor.
Admission control policies for video on demand brokers

A VOD server has to employ admission control algorithms to decide whether a new client (request) can be admitted without violating the requirements of clients who are already being serviced. This paper presents and analyzes four specific admission control algorithms pertaining to the deterministic and predictive category. These algorithms are: maximum, adaptive maximum, average and adaptive average. They are studied in detail for CPU and network resources. The adaptive algorithms are our own contribution and we show that they use an exponential weighted average to guess the future resource needs of a stream, rather than just using the maximum or mean over the whole period. Thus, they provide smoothing and so a closer matching of resources used to those reserved and so higher capacity and less waiting time.
Transcriptional inactivation of amphotropic murine leukemia virus replication in human cells

Amphotropic murine leukemia virus (MLV) replicates in cells from various mammalian species including humans and is a potential contaminant in MLV vector preparations for human gene transfer studies. Because MLV replication proceeds through an RNA genome that is generated under the control of viral enhancer and promoter elements, vectors were developed that delete such elements during transduction to reduce the generation of replication‐competent virus. It was shown recently that replication of amphotropic MLV in certain human cells is possible without the 75 bp transcription enhancers. It is now demonstrated that enhancer‐independent replication requires functional elements within U3 and is repressed by an extended deletion in the U3 region comprising enhancers, promoter and flanking sequences. It is concluded that the transcriptional inactivation of amphotropic MLV in human cells requires the combined deletion of enhancers and of additional elements in U3. J. Med. Virol. 69:267–272, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Kronecker Compressed Sensing formulation for energy efficient EEG sensing

In Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) the energy consumption is dominated by sensing, processing and communication. Previous Compressed Sensing (CS) based solutions to EEG tele-monitoring over WBAN's could only reduce the communication cost. In this work, we propose to reduce the sensing and processing energy costs as well, by randomly under-sampling the signal. We formulate a theoretically sound framework based on Kronecker Compressed Sensing (KCS) for recovering signals acquired via random under-sampling. We have shown experimentally that when the signals are acquired via under-sampling, all previous CS based techniques fail; only our proposed formulation succeeds. We have also carried out a discussion on the power savings provided by our method; the analysis indicate significant reduction in energy cost.
Inferring a shape grammar: Translating designer's knowledge

Abstract This article focuses on a shape grammar, the rabo-de-bacalhau housing style, that was developed to enable the adaptation of existing houses to new requirements and most particular on the process of inference of the grammar. In the article we describe the process undertaken to develop the grammar and what the achievements of the transformation grammar are regarding the possibilities of a mass customization of a dwelling's rehabilitation work. The goal of this article is to describe and discuss how the designer's knowledge was encoded into shape rules. The process used to extract the architect's knowledge and to incorporate it into the transformation grammar enable us to abstract the designer's actions and to define a sequence of actions that can define a possible strategy of design. The proposed design methodology generates dwelling layouts that are legal because they follow the grammar language and adequate because they meet the a priori user and design requirements.
Diagnosis of venoocclusive disease of the liver after bone marrow transplantation: value of duplex sonography.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine if duplex sonography of the hepatic vasculature can be used to detect venoocclusive disease in patients who have had bone marrow transplantation. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Twenty-seven bone marrow transplant recipients were serially studied with hepatic duplex sonography before (n = 27) and biweekly after (n = 136) transplantation. Duplex waveforms were obtained from the hepatic artery and the portal and hepatic venous systems. Clinical records were reviewed to confirm the clinical diagnosis of venoocclusive disease (n = 5), including its time of onset and duration. Patients with venoocclusive disease were further split into two groups: those with clinically active disease and those with clinically inactive disease. The resistive index in the hepatic artery, the velocity in the portal vein, and the differences among bone marrow transplant values before and after transplantation were compared among the groups. RESULTS On the basis of data obtained before transplantation, a resistive index greater than 0.76 and a change in resistive index greater than 0.10 after transplantation were considered abnormal. Similarly, velocity in the portal vein after transplantation was considered abnormal when the value was less than 4.3 cm/sec or more than 50.3 cm/sec. There was no statistically significant difference in the resistive index in the hepatic artery or velocity in the portal vein among patient groups. Hepatopetal portal venous flow was shown in 26 of 27 patients during the study. Portal venous flow was reversed in one patient with venoocclusive disease. Appropriately directed hepatic venous flow was demonstrated in all 27 patients. CONCLUSION Our study shows that resistive index in the hepatic artery, velocity and flow direction in the portal vein, and flow direction in the hepatic vein as detected by duplex sonography are of no value in the diagnosis of venoocclusive disease after transplantation.
Image Correlation Based Video Tracking

Image correlation can be used for quality testing, pattern recognition, image searching, and image tracking. Image tracking of a video image was the focus of a frequency domain based approach using two-dimensional Fourier transforms for image correlation. When tracking a moving object that varies in size over time, a technique to identify the position of a template image within the larger picture was used. This approach requires the dynamic resizing of the template image in the video as it grows and shrinks in size. This approach allows for accurate image placement and the subsequent path of the image through a video screen can be followed. The solution can be implemented to provide real time results to provide the path of the image tracked.
PID Controller Design for FES Applied to Ankle Muscles in Neuroprosthesis for Standing Balance

Closed-loop controlled functional electrical stimulation (FES) applied to the lower limb muscles can be used as a neuroprosthesis for standing balance in neurologically impaired individuals. The objective of this study was to propose a methodology for designing a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller for FES applied to the ankle muscles toward maintaining standing balance for several minutes and in the presence of perturbations. First, a model of the physiological control strategy for standing balance was developed. Second, the parameters of a PID controller that mimicked the physiological balance control strategy were determined to stabilize the human body when modeled as an inverted pendulum. Third, this PID controller was implemented using a custom-made Inverted Pendulum Standing Apparatus that eliminated the effect of visual and vestibular sensory information on voluntary balance control. Using this setup, the individual-specific FES controllers were tested in able-bodied individuals and compared with disrupted voluntary control conditions in four experimental paradigms: (i) quiet-standing; (ii) sudden change of targeted pendulum angle (step response); (iii) balance perturbations that simulate arm movements; and (iv) sudden change of targeted angle of a pendulum with individual-specific body-weight (step response). In paradigms (i) to (iii), a standard 39.5-kg pendulum was used, and 12 subjects were involved. In paradigm (iv) 9 subjects were involved. Across the different experimental paradigms and subjects, the FES-controlled and disrupted voluntarily-controlled pendulum angle showed root mean square errors of <1.2 and 2.3 deg, respectively. The root mean square error (all paradigms), rise time, settle time, and overshoot [paradigms (ii) and (iv)] in FES-controlled balance were significantly smaller or tended to be smaller than those observed with voluntarily-controlled balance, implying improved steady-state and transient responses of FES-controlled balance. At the same time, the FES-controlled balance required similar torque levels (no significant difference) as voluntarily-controlled balance. The implemented PID parameters were to some extent consistent among subjects for standard weight conditions and did not require prolonged individual-specific tuning. The proposed methodology can be used to design FES controllers for closed-loop controlled neuroprostheses for standing balance. Further investigation of the clinical implementation of this approach for neurologically impaired individuals is needed.
Liposomal lidocaine to improve procedural success rates and reduce procedural pain among children: a randomized controlled trial

Background: Historically, children have been undertreated for their pain, and they continue to undergo painful cutaneous procedures without analgesics. A new topical anesthetic, liposomal lidocaine 4% cream (Maxilene, RGR Pharma, Windsor, Ont.), has become available. It has pharmacologic properties that are superior to other topical anesthetics, including an onset of action of only 30 minutes. We sought to determine the success rate of cannulation, analgesic effectiveness, procedure duration and rate of adverse skin reactions when liposomal lidocaine is used before intravenous cannulation of children. Methods: In this double-blind randomized controlled trial, children aged 1 month to 17 years received liposomal lidocaine or placebo before cannulation. Success on first cannulation attempt was recorded, and, among children 5 years and older, pain was evaluated before and after the attempt by the child, parents and research assistant using a validated measure (Faces Pain Scale-Revised). For children younger than 5 years, pain was evaluated by the parents and research assistant only. The total duration of the procedure and adverse skin reactions were also recorded. Results: Baseline characteristics did not differ (p > 0.05) between children who received liposomal lidocaine (n = 69) and those who received placebo (n = 73). Cannulation on the first attempt was achieved in 74% of children who received liposomal lidocaine compared with 55% of those who received placebo (p = 0.03). Among children 5 years of age and older (n = 67), lower mean pain scores during cannulation were reported by those receiving liposomal lidocaine (p = 0.01). Similarly, lower mean pain scores during cannulation were reported by the parents and research assistant for all children who received liposomal lidocaine than for all those who received placebo (p < 0.001). The mean total procedure duration was shorter with liposomal lidocaine (6.7 v. 8.5 minutes; p = 0.04). The incidence of transient dermal changes was 23% in both groups (p = 1.0). Conclusions: Use of liposomal lidocaine was associated with a higher intravenous cannulation success rate, less pain, shorter total procedure time and minor dermal changes among children undergoing cannulation. Its routine use for painful cutaneous procedures should be considered whenever feasible.
Hyperspectral and LiDAR Fusion Using Extinction Profiles and Total Variation Component Analysis

The classification accuracy of remote sensing data can be increased by integrating ancillary data provided by multisource acquisition of the same scene. We propose to merge the spectral and spatial content of hyperspectral images (HSIs) with elevation information from light detection and ranging (LiDAR) measurements. In this paper, we propose to fuse the data sets using orthogonal total variation component analysis (OTVCA). Extinction profiles are used to automatically extract spatial and elevation information from HSI and rasterized LiDAR features. The extracted spatial and elevation information is then fused with spectral information using the OTVCA-based feature fusion method to produce the final classification map. The extracted features have high dimension, and therefore OTVCA estimates the fused features in a lower dimensional space. OTVCA also promotes piece-wise smoothness while maintaining the spatial structures. Both attributes are important to provide homogeneous regions in the final classification maps. We benchmark the proposed approach (OTVCA-fusion) with an urban data set captured over an urban area in Houston/USA and a rural region acquired in Trento/Italy. In the experiments, OTVCA-fusion is evaluated using random forest and support vector machine classifiers. Our experiments demonstrate the ability of OTVCA-fusion to produce accurate classification maps while using fewer features compared with other approaches investigated in this paper.
Deformation and failure of curved colloidal crystal shells

Significance Substantial experimental and theoretical work has been devoted to understand the equilibrium properties of curved crystals, but these crystals’ stability under mechanical forces remains largely unexplored and unknown. Understanding how curved crystals can adapt their shape and resist failure is of fundamental importance because these structures are at the forefront in the drive to fabricate new functionalized self-assembled materials. Here, we address these questions by numerical simulations of the deformation of colloidal crystalline shells. Our results highlight the fundamental role played by geometrically necessary crystal defects in controlling mechanical stability and plastic rearrangements of the shell. Designing and controlling particle self-assembly into robust and reliable high-performance smart materials often involves crystalline ordering in curved spaces. Examples include carbon allotropes like graphene, synthetic materials such as colloidosomes, or biological systems like lipid membranes, solid domains on vesicles, or viral capsids. Despite the relevance of these structures, the irreversible deformation and failure of curved crystals is still mostly unexplored. Here, we report simulation results of the mechanical deformation of colloidal crystalline shells that illustrate the subtle role played by geometrically necessary topological defects in controlling plastic yielding and failure. We observe plastic deformation attributable to the migration and reorientation of grain boundary scars, a collective process assisted by the intermittent proliferation of disclination pairs or abrupt structural failure induced by crack nucleating at defects. Our results provide general guiding principles to optimize the structural and mechanical stability of curved colloidal crystals.