Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recent progress in semiconductor excitable lasers for photonic spike processing

Recently, there has been tremendous interest in excitable optoelectronic devices and in particular excitable semiconductor lasers that could potentially enable unconventional processing approaches beyond conventional binary-logic-based approaches. In parallel, there has been renewed investigation of non-von Neumann architectures driven in part by incipient limitations in aspects of Moore’s law. These neuromorphic architectures attempt to decentralize processing by interweaving interconnection with computing while simultaneously incorporating time-resolved dynamics, loosely classified as spiking (a.k.a. excitability). The rapid and efficient advances in CMOS-compatible photonic interconnect technologies have led to opportunities in optics and photonics for unconventional circuits and systems. Effort in the budding research field of photonic spike processing aims to synergistically integrate the underlying physics of photonics with bio-inspired processing. Lasers operating in the excitable regime are dynamically analogous with the spiking dynamics observed in neuron biophysics but roughly 8 orders of magnitude faster. The field is reaching a critical juncture at which there is a shift from studying single devices to studying an interconnected network of lasers. In this paper, we review the recent research in the information processing abilities of such lasers, dubbed “photonic neurons,” “laser neurons,” or “optical neurons. ” An integrated network of such lasers on a chip could potentially grant the capacity for complex, ultrafast categorization and decision making to provide a range of computing and signal processing applications, such as sensing and manipulating the radio frequency spectrum and for hypersonic aircraft control.
Physical activity in women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer: adherence to a walking intervention.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To describe and predict adherence to a physical activity protocol for patients with breast cancer receiving chemotherapy. DESIGN Longitudinal, observational study. SETTING Cancer center in the upper Midwestern region of the United States. SAMPLE 36 patients with breast cancer aged 40-55 years who were receiving adjuvant treatment. METHODS A longitudinal study was conducted within a randomized clinical trial comparing the effects of physical activity versus bisphosphonates on bone mineral density. Participants randomized to physical activity were advised to walk 10,000 steps per day and received initial physical therapy consultation and ongoing motivational interviewing. Multilevel modeling was used to identify variables that predict adherence. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES Adherence to the 10,000-step protocol was estimated with total steps and mean steps per day. FINDINGS Thirty-six women were enrolled in the physical activity group; 29 provided step data. The mean total steps per participant for the first six weeks was 280,571 (SD = 111,992), which is 67% of the prescribed steps. Excluding days when no steps were recorded, the mean steps per day for the initial six-week period was 7,363 (SD = 2,421), a 74% adherence rate. A significant linear increase occurred in steps per day after chemotherapy in a treatment cycle (p < 0.0001). Baseline inactivity predicted adherence. CONCLUSIONS Adherence to the walking program was compromised during chemotherapy but improved after chemotherapy completion. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING Knowing that chemotherapy predicts adherence to a walking protocol is useful for selecting the type, timing, and intensity of physical activity interventions.
Intracellular Visualization of BrdU-labeled Plasmid DNA/Cationic Liposome Complexes

Difficulties in specific detection of transfected DNA in cells represent an important limitation in the study of the gene transfer process. We studied the cellular entry and fate of a plasmid DNA complexed with a cationic lipid, Vectamidine (3-tetradecyl-amino-N-tert-butyl-N-tetradecylpropionamidine) in BHK21 cells. To facilitate its detection inside the cells, bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) was incorporated into plasmid DNA under conditions that minimize plasmid alteration. BrdU was localized in cells incubated with Vectamidine/BrdU-labeled plasmid DNA complexes by immunogold labeling and electron microscopy (EM). Labeling was predominantly associated with aggregated liposome structures at the surface of and inside the cells. EM observations of cells transfected with Vectamidine/DNA complexes showed that the liposome/DNA aggregates accumulate in large vesicles in the cell cytosol. On the other hand, using rhodamine-labeled Vectamidine and revealing BrdU with FITC-conjugated antibodies permitted simultaneous detection in the cells of both components of the complexes with confocal laser scanning microscopy. The DNA and lipids co-localized at the surface of and inside the cells, indicating that the complex is internalized as a whole. Our results show that the BrdU-labeled plasmid DNA detection system can be a useful tool to visualize exogenous DNA entry into cells by a combination of electron and confocal microscopy.
Mapping the Field: A Bibliometric Analysis of Green Innovation

The topic of green innovation (GI) has increasingly attained organizational relevance due to its contribution to the satisfaction of environmental needs while concurrently enabling companies to differentiate themselves from their competitors, and hence attain sustainable competitive advantages. In this context, we conducted a detailed analysis of 618 papers on green innovation from the Web of Science (WoS) database for the 1971–2015 period. This paper develops a bibliometric analysis with the aim of assessing the key papers in the field and identifying the most substantive contributions to the literature. This study presents the following findings: (i) the chronological development of the discipline; (ii) the research trends and popular issues in this field; (iii) the antecedent variables acting as key drivers of GI in these studies; and (iv) the main outcomes of GI. Therefore, this paper provides the past, the present and the potential future of this specific topic and serves as an orientation and guide for researchers who are new to the topic of GI; it also enhances their knowledge concerning which journals, authors and articles they may consult while creating their theoretical framework or designing future research models.
Multiple-agents to identify and separate touching digits in unconstrained handwritten Hindi numerals

This paper presents a multiagent-based approach to the identification and recognition of touching in free handwritten Hindi numerals. We do not restrict our domain to touching pairs; rather, we consider numerals with arbitrary number of digits. Two agents are presented in this paper. The first agent works directly on the scanned image of the original handwritten number. It locates possible touching based on the thickness of handwriting. The other agent works on the thinned image. It segments the image into four categories of segments and tries to locate possible touching based on the rules that govern the connection of segments to form digits. After each of the two agents applies its own rules and investigates candidate possible touching cases, and to increase touching recognition rate, the two agents negotiate and try to agree on the actual touching cases. The experiments conducted so far are promising and successful. The obtained results are very encouraging with a success factor of 92.7%.
"PULSED" versus "CONTINUOUS" application of the prodrug 5-FC for enhancing oncolytic effectiveness of a measles vaccine virus armed with a suicide gene.

Oncolytic virotherapy with measles vaccine virus (MeV) already has been demonstrated to be safe. However, early clinical results pointed out the necessity for an enhancement of oncolytic effectiveness of MeV-based virotherapeutics. In our work, we are developing an armed measles vaccine virus (MeV-SCD) encoding a suicide fusion gene of yeast cytosine deaminase/uracil phosphoribosyltransferase, conveting the non-toxic prodrug 5-FC to the chemotherapeutic drug 5-FU. To pre-clinically investigate how an optimal prodrug-assisted therapeutic regimen could look like, we added 5-FC at different time points after infection with MeV-SCD and either let the prodrug remain in the tumor cell culture medium continuously for different time periods ("continuous" 5-FC application) or applied it only temporarily for defined shorter periods of time ("pulsed" 5-FC application); we also varied the time point at which 5-FC was added after infection with MeV-SCD. As a result, addition of the prodrug at early times post infection (e.g., at 3 hpi) was found to be inferior concerning the overall oncolytic effectiveness when compared with addition of 5-FC at later time points (e.g., at 24 hpi). Next, oncolytic effectiveness was found to correlate positively with the overall duration of incubation of MeV-infected tumor cells with 5-FC. Of note, this was true despite our finding that addition of the prodrug could also exert an inhibitory effect on the generation of infectious progeny virus particles, i.e. on virus replication. These findings should be helpful for the rational design of further trials (preclinical, clinical) using suicide gene armed virotherapeutics, such as MeV-SCD.
The Cost of Omitting Credit Channel in DSGE Model

This paper discusses whether the parameter invariance problem as in Lucas (1976) applies to the standard new Keynesian DSGE model when the credit channel is left out from its structure. We simulate a nancial crisis in which the credit market friction is positive and we shift the monetary policy to stimulate the economy. We evaluate the cost of omitting the credit channel by examining the changes of the estimated model parameters and by using policy outcomes. We nd that although some parameters incur nontrivial changes after the policy shift, overall these parameter changes have little impact on the conduct of monetary policy.
Targeting Angiogenic Processes by Combination Low-Dose Paclitaxel and Radiation Therapy

Tumor growth and angiogenesis are interdependent. Paclitaxel and radiation therapy are commonly used in the clinic, in a number of disease sites, requiring high dosages of both drug and radiation for cure. Paclitaxel (Taxol) is a diterpenoid with antitumor activity against a variety of human neoplasms and can amplify the cytotoxic effect of ionizing radiation in vitro, presumably by inducing arrest at metaphase, known to be a very radiosensitive phase of the cell cycle. Little is known about how angiogenesis is affected by paclitaxel when the combination of paclitaxel and radiation are used. We have evaluated the combination of paclitaxel and radiation at various concentrations, on cytokine-induced angiogenesis in vitro with the goal of determining whether reduction of radiation and paclitaxel doses is possible without sacrificing efficacy. We have found that paclitaxel inhibited endothelial cell proliferation, migration, and tube formation (differentiation) at one-tenth the concentration needed to achieve a similar effect on tumor cell lines. In combination with radiation, inhibition of endothelial cell function was additive and increased twofold. The combination of low-dose paclitaxel and radiation suggests a complementary strategy with potential clinical ramifications to target angiogenesis-dependent malignancies.
Enhancing Location Estimation and Reducing Computation using Adaptive Zone Based K-NNSS Algorithm

The purpose of this research is to accurately estimate the location of a device using the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) of IEEE 802.11 WLAN for location tracking in indoor environments. For the location estimation method, we adopted the calibration model. By applying the Adaptive Zone Based K-NNSS (AZ-NNSS) algorithm, which considers the velocity of devices, this paper presents a 9% improvement of accuracy compared to the existing K-NNSS-based research, with 37% of the K-NNSS computation load. The accuracy is further enhanced by using a Kalman filter; the improvement was about 24%. This research also shows the level of accuracy that can be achieved by replacing a subset of the calibration data with values computed by a numerical equation, and suggests a reasonable number of calibration points. In addition, we use both the mean error distance (MED) and hit ratio to evaluate the accuracy of location estimation, while avoiding a biased comparison.
Hyperbaric oxygen intervention on expression of hypoxia‐inducible factor‐1&agr; and vascular endothelial growth factor in spinal cord injury models in rats

Background Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) intervention is a main therapeutic method and the curative effect has been certified for spinal cord injury (SCI), but the mechanisms of the neuroprotective effect of HBO on SCI remain elusive. This study aimed to observe the change in expression of hypoxia‐inducible factor‐1&agr; (HIF‐1&agr;) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) after SCI at different time points and to investigate the neuroprotective mechanism of HBO on SCI in rats. Methods A total of 160 adult Sprague‐Dawley rats, weighing between 250 and 300 g, were randomly assigned to four experimental groups (n=40 per group). SCI group: SCI was created with a special NYU impactor of Allen's by a 25 gram‐centimeter impacting energy on T10 of the spinal cord. SCI+HBO group: HBO therapy after SCI model was established. Sham operation (SH) group: only laminectomy of T10 and no impact on the spinal cord was done. SH+HBO group: HBO therapy after sham operation. The hindlimb functional recovery was evaluated using Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan (BBB) score and the expressions of HIF‐1&agr; and VEGF were observed with fluorescent quantitation PCR and Western blotting method of six rats picked randomly from each group at different time points of 1, 3, 7, and 14 days after operation. Results Rats in the SCI group and SCI+HBO group were paralyzed completely after operation with BBB 0‐1 score. Rats in the SH group and SH+HBO group could walk after sham operation with BBB 20‐21 score. The BBB score of rats in the SCI+HBO group (4.67±1.97 and 10.83±2.23) was higher than that in the SCI group (1.83±0.75 and 6.67±2.16) at 7 and 14 days time points obviously (P <0.05). The expressions of HIF‐1&agr; and VEGF in the SCI group and SCI+HBO group were higher than in the SH group and SH+HBO group at any time point obviously (P <0.05), while the SCI+HBO group presented the least expression of HIF‐1&agr; mRNA and protein (3.82±0.41 and 0.59±0.06; 2.26±0.41 and 0.37±0.05; 1.58±0.26 and 0.29±0.05) than that in the SCI group (6.36±0.58 and 0.76±0.07; 3.55±0.47 and 0.51±0.07; 2.27±0.39 and 0.40±0.06) respectively at 3, 7, and 14 days time points (P <0.05) with significant difference and more expression of VEGF mRNA and protein (5.83±0.77 and 0.72±0.06; 4.59±0.51 and 0.63±0.06) than that in the SCI group (3.06±0.30 and 0.48±0.07; 2.25±0.24 and 0.39±0.09) respectively at 7 and 14 days time points (P <0.05) with significant difference. Conclusions HBO could improve the hind limb functional recovery after SCI in rats. The elevation and duration of the expression of VEGF and the reduction of expression of HIF‐1&agr; by HBO intervention may be inversely related in the repair of damaged spinal cord and neuroprotective effect.
Correlation between polymerase chain reaction and cervical cytology for detection of human papillomavirus infection in women with and without dysplasia

The aim of this study was to compare the ability of two methods, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and cervical cytology, to detect HPV infection. The study population included 222 randomly selected women without dysplasia (controls) and 91 women with histologically confirmed dysplasia (CIN II‐III) (cases). In women without dysplasia, 8.6% had cytological signs of HPV infection, whereas 15.3% were HPV DNA positive by PCR. In women with dysplasia, 72.5% had cytological signs of HPV infection, whereas 90.1% were HPV PCR positive. The statistical agreement between the two diagnostic methods was low (controls: k= 0.26, cases: k= ‐0.03). In total, PCR failed to detect 17 of 85 women with cytological signs of HPV infection, whereas cervical cytology failed to detect 48 of 116 HPV PCR‐positive women. In women with dysplasia, but not in women without dysplasia, the oncogenic HPV types were associated with cytological signs of HPV infection.
An Energy Efficient Data Collection for Mobile User With Cluster Points

Wireless sensor networks is a distributed and non-transferable resource. Over time, variations in energy availability would likely to arise. Protocols will be similar to routing trees may concentrate energy handling at certain nodes. Differences in energy harvestshould arising from environmental variations, such as if one node is in the form of cluster and another is in the shade, can produce variations in charging rates and battery levels. We propose a novel approach for mobile users to collect the network-wide large data. The routing node structure of data collection is additively updated with the group of the mobile user. With this approaches, we only perform a limited modification to update the routing structure while the routing performance is bounded and controlled compared to the optimal performance. The proposed protocol is easy to implement. shows that the proposed scalable in maintenanceexpenses, performs efficiently in the routing performance, provides continuous data delivery during the user movement. We implement the proposed protocol an ns2 simulator to verify the efficiency of our proposed protocol
Electromyographic Investigation of Stretching: The Effect of Warm‐up

Objective:To compare the fine wire electromyographic (EMG) firing patterns during static stretches in the biceps femoris, soleus, and gastrocnemius before and after warm-up as well as over time. Design:Experimental single group pretest-posttest design. Setting:Biomechanics research laboratory. Participants:Sixteen healthy volunteers 23 to 36 years of age with no history of lower extremity injury. Intervention:Subjects performed one hamstring stretch and four calf stretches for 90 seconds, bicycled for 30 minutes as a warm-up, and stretched again. Main Outcome Measure:EMG was recorded at time 0, 30, 60, and 90 seconds during the stretches before and after warm-up. Recorded values were normalized to EMG during maximum manual muscle testing (MMT). A two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures (p < 0.05) was done to compare EMG activity during stretching before and after warm-up as well as over time. Results:Low EMG activity was seen for all muscles (<20% MMT). It was constant over the time of the stretch for all muscles, but it increased in the soleus during the bent knee stretch position. There was a statistically significant decrease in the EMG activity after the warm-up for the gastrocnemius using the traditional and heel off stretching positions and for the soleus using the heel off stretching position (p < 0.05). The biceps femoris EMG activity showed no significant differences before and after warm-up. Conclusions:EMG activity during static stretching was low. Overall, the EMG activity remained constant with time for a given stretch position. EMG of the soleus and gastrocnemius was significantly less after warm-up for some stretches, whereas the EMG activity of biceps femoris showed no differences before and after warm-up.
Comparison of lysis methods and preparation protocols for one‐ and two‐dimensional electrophoresis of Aspergillus oryzae intracellular proteins

Filamentous fungal fermentations are used to produce billions of dollars of biochemical and pharmaceutical products annually, yet are plagued by a number of poorly understood problems that would benefit from proteomic analysis. Unfortunately, few publications are available which describe extraction of filamentous fungal proteins for two‐dimensional electrophoresis. The goal here was to develop protocols for extraction of fungal proteins, from both wild‐type and a recombinant strain of the industrially important filamentous fungi Aspergillus oryzae, to be used for both one‐ and two‐dimensional electrophoresis (1‐DE and 2‐DE). Because fungal cell walls are exceptionally resistant to fragmentation, four lysis protocols were tested: (i) boiling in strong alkali solution, (ii) boiling in Sodium dodecyl surfate (SDS), (iii) chemical lysis in Y‐PER® reagent, and (iv) mechanical lysis via rapid agitation with glass beads in a Mini‐BeadBeater®. For both 1‐DE and 2‐DE, rapid agitation with glass beads was found to be the most efficient extraction method, yielding both mini‐ and large‐format gels with little streaking or spot tailing, and proteins comprising a broad range of molecular weights and pI values.
Analysis of mobile sink based Big Data gathering in dynamic wireless sensor networks

Big Data represents large amount of data which have high velocity and high variety. Contribution towards the big data increases, as the technology develops. Wireless sensor networks are considered as the main contributor of big data. Hence collecting large amount data or big data from sensor nodes is an important concern in the field of information and communication technology. Mobile sink approach is an effective way to gather data from wireless sensor networks in an energy efficient manner. For collecting data from dynamic wireless sensor networks we proposed modified clustering algorithm with mobile sink based data gathering. In addition to that, we have done a performance analysis of the proposed algorithm on dynamic wireless sensor networks. We also compared the performance of the algorithm under different number of mobile sinks and derived a relationship between the numbers of mobile sink required to gather big data from a wireless sensor networks with given number of dynamic sensor nodes.
Contributions to the use of 3D lidars for autonomous navigation: calibration and qualitative localization. (Contributions à l'exploitation de lidar 3D pour la navigation autonome : calibrage et localisation qualitative)

In order to autonomously navigate in an environment, a robot has to perceive its environment correctly. Rich perception information from the environment enables the robot to perform tasks like avoiding obstacles, building terrain maps, and localizing itself. Classically, outdoor robots have perceived their environment using vision or 2D lidar sensors. The introduction of novel 3D lidar sensors such as the Velodyne device has enabled the robots to rapidly acquire rich 3D data about their surroundings. These novel sensors call for the development of techniques that efficiently exploit their capabilities for autonomous navigation. The first part of this thesis presents a technique for the calibration of 3D lidar devices. The calibration technique is based on the comparison of acquired 3D lidar data to a ground truth model in order to estimate the optimal values of the calibration parameters. The second part of the thesis presents a technique for qualitative localization and loop closure detection for autonomous mobile robots, by extracting and indexing small-sized signatures from 3D lidar data. The signatures are based on histograms of local surface normal information that is efficiently extracted from the lidar data. Experimental results illustrate the developments throughout the manuscript.