Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Opposing Changes in Synaptic and Extrasynaptic N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor Function in Response to Acute and Chronic Restraint Stress

A pertinent mechanism by which stress impacts learning and memory is through stress-induced plastic changes in glutamatergic transmission in the hippocampus. For instance, acute stress has been shown to alter the expression, binding, and function of the ionotropic glutamate N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR). However, the consequences of chronic stress, which could lead to various stress-related brain disorders, on NMDAR function remain unclear. While most studies on NMDARs focused on these receptors in synapses (synaptic NMDARs or sNMDARs), emerging findings have revealed functional roles of NMDARs outside synapses (extrasynaptic NMDARs or exNMDARs) that are distinct from those of sNMDARs. Using a restraint stress paradigm in adult rats, the objective of the current study is to examine whether sNMDARs and exNMDARs in the hippocampus are differentially regulated by acute and chronic stress. We examined sNMDAR and exNMDAR function in dorsal CA1 hippocampal neurons from brain slices of adult rats that were acutely (1 episode) or chronically (21 daily episodes) stressed by restraint (30 min). We found that acute stress increases sNMDAR but suppresses exNMDAR function. Surprisingly, we only observed a reduction in exNMDAR function after chronic stress. Taken together, our findings suggest that sNMDARs and exNMDARs may be differentially regulated by acute and chronic stress. Most importantly, the observed suppression in exNMDAR function by both acute and chronic stress implies crucial but overlooked roles of hippocampal exNMDARs in stress-related disorders.
Plasma catalytic process for CO2 methanation

The limited resources of oil and natural gas, together with an increasing energy demand, forces us to seek more and more efficient and cleaner energy production alternatives. Hydrogen has been recently considered as a promising energy carrier. However, there are several inherent problems to the utilization of H2, from its transportation to its distribution. Transformation of the H2 molecule by fixing into a carbon-containing compound, i.e. CH4, will offer the possibility of using the conventional transportation network. Indeed, the Sabatier reaction, which is highly exothermic, involves the reaction of carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas in order to produce methane and water. This process, called methanation, represents a feasible approach contributing to the reduction of the CO2 emissions in our atmosphere, through a closed carbon cycle involving the valorization of CO2, i.e. from capture. However, below a temperature of 250 °C, the conversion becomes practically close to 0 %, whereas at higher temperatures, i.e., (>300 oC), the co-existence of secondary reactions favours the formation of CO and H2. This is the reason why new catalysts and process conditions are continuously being investigated in order to maximize the methane selectivity at low reaction temperatures at atmospheric pressure. Therefore, by using catalysts combined to Dielectric Barrier Discharge plasmas (DBD), the activation of the methanation reaction can be enhanced and overcome the drawbacks of existing conventional processes. Several Ni-containing catalysts were prepared using various ceria-zirconia oxides as supports, with different Ce/Zr ratios. The results obtained in the adiabatic conditions at low temperatures (ranging between 100-150 °C), in the presence of catalysts activated by plasma, are promising. Indeed, the conversion of CO2 to CH4 is about 85 % with a selectivity close to 100 %. The same conversion in the absence of the plasma activation of the catalyst is observed at 350 °C. At low temperatures (120-150 °C) and without plasma, conversion is almost close to zero. This low consumption energy system helps reduce the cost of production of synthetic methane together with an extended life of the catalyst.
Prevalence of polycystic ovarian syndrome among adolescents and young women in India

Background: There is little epidemiological data from India on the prevalence of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). The objectives of the present study were to estimate the prevalence of PCOS using different criteria among adolescents and young women and to evaluate risk factors associated with PCOS. Materials and Methods: A total of 518 participants, adolescents (12–17 years, n = 246) and young women (18–30 years, n = 272), were recruited. Participants who were overweight and having menstrual disorders or biochemical abnormalities were invited for ultrasonographic examination. A standardized questionnaire assessed the regularity of menstrual cycles, body hair growth, skin, body weight, sleep, and androgen excess. The ovarian volume and follicular size were assessed transabdominally. Prevalence of PCOS was assessed by the Rotterdam, AE-PCOS, and NIH criteria. Results: The mean age of participants with PCOS was 19.7±4.2 years and those without PCOS was 18.4±4.2 years. Mean body weight, body fat %, body mass index, waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, and fasting insulin were significantly higher in the PCOS group. Prevalence of polycystic ovaries on ultrasonography was observed in 78.6% of the women with PCOS as against 5% in women without PCOS. Obesity (odds ratio (OR): 3.09, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.32–7.21), insulin resistance (OR: 2.12, 95% CI: 1.12–4.0), and hypertension (OR: 4.46, 95% CI: 1.52–13.06) were significantly associated with PCOS (P < 0.05). The overall prevalence of PCOS was highest with 8.1% according to the Rotterdam criteria followed by AE-PCOS (2.9%) and NIH (2.1%). Irrespective of the criterion used, the prevalence increased with age. Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of PCOS in urban India, which emphasizes the need for urgent preventive and control measures. Early diagnosis is therefore crucial in incorporating lifestyle and dietary modifications for weight reduction and better control of blood pressure at a younger age to further prevent long-term reproductive and metabolic disorders.
Gracilaria fisheri oligosaccharides ameliorate inflammation and colonic epithelial barrier dysfunction in mice with acetic acid-induced colitis

Objective: To investigate the effect of Gracilaria fisheri oligosaccharides (GFO) on inflammation and colonic epithelial barrier dysfunction in colitis mice. Methods: The animals were treated by oral gavage with distilled water, 1 000 mg/kg inulin, 100, 500, or 1 000 mg/kg GFO for 14 d, or treated with 50 mg/kg mesalamine for 5 d after colitis induction (on day 10). Histopathology, inflammatory cytokines, colonic permeability, and tight junction proteins were investigated by hematoxylin and eosin staining, immunohistochemical staining, Ussing chamber technique, and Western blotting assays, respectively. Results: GFO ameliorated histological damage in colitis mice when compared to untreated colitis mice. Treatments with 100, 500, and 1 000 mg/kg GFO reduced TNF-α expression, while IL-1β was significantly reduced in colitis mice treated with 500 and 1 000 mg/kg. Compared to untreated colitis mice, GFO increased transepithelial electrical resistance, reduced fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran paracellular flux, and modulated tight junction proteins (occludin and claudin 2) in colitis mice. Conclusions: GFO has anti-inflammatory activity and could modulate colonic epithelial barrier dysfunction in acetic acid-induced colitis mice. Furthermore, GFO could modulate the expression of tight junction proteins that play important roles in colonic barrier function.
Plasma production and preliminary results from the ADITYA Upgrade tokamak

The Ohmically heated circular limiter tokamak ADITYA (R0 = 75 cm, a = 25 cm) has been upgraded to a tokamak named the ADITYA Upgrade (ADITYA-U) with an open divertor configuration with divertor plates. The main goal of ADITYA-U is to carry out dedicated experiments relevant for bigger fusion machines including ITER, such as the generation and control of runaway electrons, disruption prediction, and mitigation studies, along with an improvement in confinement with shaped plasma. The ADITYA tokamak was dismantled and the assembly of ADITYA-U was completed in March 2016. Integration of subsystems like data acquisition and remote operation along with plasma production and preliminary plasma characterization of ADITYA-U plasmas are presented in this paper.
A comparative LCA of different graphene production routes

This study is an LCA of three graphene production routes: electrochemical exfoliation of graphite rods, chemical oxidation and subsequent chemical or thermal reduction and chemical vapour deposition (CVD). Different processes for each route are analysed and their cradle-to-gate LCA is presented. A comparative LCA of the least impacting processes for each route is also presented showing that the chemical oxidation process followed by thermal reduction is the least impacting to produce large quantities of graphene when lab equipment is used to its full potential. A prospective LCA on a likely commercial scale of the least impacting processes is also presented and shows that almost all processes benefit from a scale-up activity and that the least impacting material route remains the chemical oxidation followed by thermal reduction. An optimistic scenario in which all electricity comes from renewable sources is also presented. While this last scenario promotes the more energy intensive processes, the least impacting technology to produce large quantities of graphene remains the chemical oxidation followed by thermal reduction.
Effect of non-Darcy seepage on productivity of tight gas reservoir

In the process of gas reservoir development, with the production of formation fluid, the effective overburden pressure on the rock skeleton of the reservoir increases, and the rock is deformed under compression, which changes the physical properties of the rock (porosity, permeability, etc.), especially the influence on permeability. Stress sensitivity and threshold pressure gradient are important factors for non-linear seepage in tight gas reservoirs. This paper establishes an empirical prediction model through experimental tests and uses numerical simulation to analyze the effects on productivity. The experimental results show that the relationship between stress sensitivity and permeability is exponential, and there is a strong hysteresis effect. The starting pressure gradient of gas presents a power function relationship with water saturation and permeability respectively, and an empirical relationship is established to predict the starting pressure gradient by comprehensively considering the influence of permeability and water saturation. The single well productivity simulation shows that: The effect of starting pressure gradient on gas well development is greater than stress sensitivity. When starting pressure gradient or stress sensitivity is taken into account, the formation average pressure increases relative to each other and the stable production period decreases obviously.
Review on the evaluation of green development of mining industry

With the continuous acceleration of green development of mining industry, a series of research results around the evaluation of green development of mining industry have been obtained. This paper reviews the literature about green mining concept, sustainable development and circular development of mining industry, scientific mining evaluation, green performance evaluation in foreign countries and green mine evaluation, green mining evaluation and other related green development evaluation in China. Based on the summaries, the challenges and prospects of green development evaluation of mining industry are proposed and they can provide favorable foundation and guidance for further innovation of mining green development evaluation systems and methods.
Photoreflectance studies of temperature and hydrostatic pressure dependencies of direct optical transitions in BGaAs alloys grown on GaP

BGaAs layers with boron concentrations of 4.1%, 7.4%, and 12.1% are grown by molecular beam epitaxy on a GaP substrate and studied by optical absorption and photoreflectance (PR) spectroscopy with both temperature and hydrostatic pressure dependence. The direct optical transitions from the bands composing the valence band—namely heavy-hole, light-hole, and spin–orbit split-off—to the conduction band are clearly observed in the PR spectra. For the abovementioned optical transitions, their temperature dependencies are obtained in the range from 20 K to 300 K, and analyzed by Varshni and Bose–Einstein relations. Furthermore, the BGaAs alloys are also studied with hydrostatic pressure up to ∼18 kbar, revealing pressure coefficients of direct optical transitions. The obtained results are discussed within the framework of the band anticrossing model and chemical trends.
Practical Reviews of Exhaust Systems Operation in Semiconductor Industry

Scrubbers are widely used for air pollution treatment in semiconductor. Efficiency of waste gas treatment must be carefully maintained for environmental and health issue. However, due to the complex types of exhaust system and the needs of using chemicals with different characteristics at the same time in the semiconductor process, many conditions will occur in the operation of the scrubber tower and the processing efficiency will be reduced. This paper aims at the common problems such as growth of bacteria, unstable pH, white smoke, and inaccurate monitoring of exhaust gas flow rate. Based on the investigation, all the analysis, results and solutions are provided as practical reference for other semiconductor companies.
Defense Mechanism against Adversarial Attacks Based on Chaotic Map Encryption

During recent years, image classification through DNN has been applied to various fields, including payment security and image search. DNN in image classification is effective and convenient, yet susceptible to perturbations: non-targeted and targeted adversarial attacks against neural networks, such as FGSM and BIM respectively, exert modifications that are unrecognizable to naked eyes to image inputs, and will probably result in wrong classifications. To ensure the degree of safety of DNN image classification, researchers have been dedicated to the study of defense mechanisms to diminish or even eliminate the effects brought by adversarial attacks. Our proposed approach, aims at increasing the classifier’s resistance to perturbations by adding a pseudo-random matrix key generated by Logistic Chaos. Our defense mechanism with Logistic Chaos-generated secret random key utilized 1 key with mere 3 elements and is of high generality. We show empirically that our approach is efficient against most attacks.
Research on Application of Support Vector Machine in Intrusion Detection

There are some problems such as the high false negative rate and false positive rate in intrusion detection technology. The paper researches on the technology of intrusion detection based on support vector machine. The forming process of SVM classifier is analyzed. The choice of kernel function is discussed. The experimental results show that the SVM-based intrusion detection system with the appropriate kernel function has high detection-accuracy and it can effectively predict and classify the network attacks.
Identifying Government Spending Shocks: It's All in the Timing

Do shocks to government spending raise or lower consumption and real wages? Standard VAR identification approaches show a rise in these variables, whereas the Ramey-Shapiro narrative identification approach finds a fall. I show that a key difference in the approaches is the timing. Both professional forecasts and the narrative approach shocks Granger-cause the VAR shocks, implying that the VAR shocks are missing the timing of the news. Simulations from a standard neoclassical model in which government spending is anticipated by several quarters demonstrate that VARs estimated with faulty timing can produce a rise in consumption even when it decreases in the model. Motivated by the importance of measuring anticipations, I construct two new variables that measure anticipations. The first is based on narrative evidence that is much richer than the Ramey-Shapiro military dates and covers 1939 to 2008. The second is from the Survey of Professional Forecasters, and covers the period 1969 to 2008. All news measures suggest that most components of consumption fall after a positive shock to government spending. The implied government spending multipliers range from 0.6 to 1.1.
Fish gelatin nanofibers prevent drug crystallization and enable ultrafast delivery

For drug delivery, uncontrolled drug crystallization is the most important and well-described problem which affects the compatibility between target drug and carrier polymer matrix. The crystallization of drugs makes a drug delivery system unstable and it causes a drop the drug loading efficiency and unpredictable release behavior. Recently, the electrospinning process which has rapid solvent evaporation speed has been proposed to prevent the drug crystallization during the drug loading process. In the present study, a fast-dissolving nanofibrous drug delivery carrier was prepared via electrospinning of aqueous fish gelatin as the polymer carrier and caffeine as the hydrophilic model drug under environmentally friendly conditions. Fish gelatin electrospinning was able to produce caffeine loaded gelatin nanofibers with a diameter of 200–220 nm. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) data clearly showed that the amorphous state of caffeine was well incorporated into ultrafine nanofibrous carrier whereas crystalline caffeine was dispersed into conventional fish gelatin film. Fish gelatin nanofibers were able to load two times more caffeine (20 mg ml−1) than conventional caffeine-loaded polymer nanofibers. The fish gelatin nanofibrous mat has good flexibility compared to film due to its interporous nanofiber network. The fish gelatin nanofibrous mats disintegrated within 1.5 s, 27 times faster than films. Fish gelatin nanofibers also showed that most caffeine was released within 10 seconds, which is faster than fish gelatin film and free caffeine drugs. These fish gelatin nanofibers showed 10 times faster caffeine release rates than other caffeine loaded polymer nanofibers. Electrospun fish gelatin nanofibrous mats can be used in biomedical fields especially for the ultra fast delivery of hydrophilic drugs or active ingredients.
Iterative learning heterogeneous trajectory tracking for partially interdependent networks

Trajectory tracking is a hot topic in the field of complex systems. In this paper, based on the Lyapunov stability theory, combined with the adaptive iterative learning control method, the heterogeneous trajectory tracking of partially interdependent networks is investigated in a given finite time interval. The considered network consists of two subnets, where only the first m nodes are intercoupled. Firstly, some suitable iterative learning controllers, as well as the adaptive laws and the coupling strength learning laws, are designed for each node. Secondly, the boundedness and the convergence of the signals are proved using the proposed control strategy. Finally, some simulations are presented to illustrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the theoretical results presented in this paper. Generally, the accuracy trajectory tracking is found almost proportional to the number of iterations. When the number of iterations is fixed, with the increasing number of nodes having interdependence, the time required to track target accurately is reduced.
Solar Irradiation Forecasting Technologies: A Review

Renewable energy has received a lot of attention in the previous two decades when it comes to meeting electrical needs in the home, industrial, and agricultural sectors. Solar forecasting is critical for the efficient operation, scheduling, and balancing of energy generation by standalone and grid-connected solar PV systems. A variety of models and methods have been developed in the literature to forecast solar irradiance. This paper provides an analysis of the techniques used in the literature to forecast solar irradiance. The main focus of the study is to investigate the influence of meteorological variables, time horizons, climatic zone, pre-processing technique, optimization & sample size on the complexity and accuracy of the model. Due to their nonlinear complicated problem solving skills, artificial neural network based models outperform other models in the literature. Hybridizing the two models or performing pre-processing on the input data can improve their accuracy even more. It also addresses the various main constituents that influence a model’s accuracy. The paper provides key findings based on studied literature to select the optimal model for a specific site. This paper also discusses the metrics used to measure the efficiency of forecasted model. It has been observed that the proper selection of training and testing period also enhance the accuracy of the model.
ABC Analysis and Product Quality of Manufacturing Firms in Nigeria

The study examined ABC analysis inventory management practice and product quality of manufacturing firms, a study of De United Foods Industries Limited. The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of ABC analysis on product quality of De United Foods Industries Limited. The population of the study is 385 which consist of all the staff of inventory related departments and a sample size of 196 was selected. The study used quantitative method utilizing questionnaire to gather data from the respondents. Research data were analyzed using regression analysis. The findings indicate that there is a strong positive and significant relationship between ABC analysis on product quality of De United Foods Industries Limited (r=0.568; β=0.447; p=0.000).
Ultra-fast two-photon microscopy for in vivo brain imaging

Two-photon microscopy is an imaging technique for optical investigations in deep layers of the biological tissue (~0.5-1 mm), but the acquisition of full-frame images is relatively slow (~30 images/sec), because most microscopes use revolving mirrors for the scanning process. This work describes the development of a high-speed two-photon microscope (~1000 images/sec), using acousto-optical deflectors (AOD) as scanning devices. AODs induce several beam distortions, and this work investigates their compensation. A special focus is on beam distortions from the ‘cylindrical lens effect’, an artifact when AODs are used for highest line-scan frequencies. The newly designed microscope has a highly increased sensitivity, allowing for the detection of calcium-transients in individual spines in vivo and in vitro. This is demonstrated in measurements of an acute slice preparation of a Purkinje-cell, and in vivo in the auditory cortex.