Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differential expression of proteins in fetal brains of alcohol‐treated prenatally C57BL/6 mice: A proteomic investigation

Alcohol is known to impede the growth of the central nervous system and to induce neurodegeneration through cellular apoptosis. We have previously shown that moderate prenatal alcohol exposure results in brain defects at different stages of development. In this study, we further characterize the proteomic architecture underlying ethanol teratogenesis during early fetal brain development using chromatography in conjunction with a LC‐MS/MS system. Pregnant C57BL/6 mice were exposed from embryonic day 7 (E7) to E13 with either a 25% ethanol derived calorie or pair‐fed liquid diets. At E13, fetal brains were collected from five dams for each group. Individual brains were homogenized and the extracted proteins were then tryptically digested and analyzed by LC‐MS/MS. Label‐free quantitative proteomic analyses were performed on proteomes extracted from fetal brains of both alcohol‐treated (ALC) and pair‐fed groups. These analyses demonstrated that prenatal alcohol exposure induced significant downregulation (p<0.001) of the expression of mitochondrial enzymes including ADP/ATP translocase 1, ATP synthase subunit α and ubiquinol‐cytochrome‐c reductases. In addition, mitochondrial carrier homolog 1, which plays a role in apoptosis, was significantly downregulated (p<0.001) in the ALC group. Moreover, among the cytosolic proteins that were significantly downregulated (p<0.001) are Bcl‐2, 14‐3‐3 protein and calmodulin. Significant downregulation (p<0.001) of proteins that are critical for fetal brain development was observed such as prohibitin and neuronal migration protein doublecortin. These findings provide information about possible mechanisms underlying the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure during early embryonic stage.
On the achievable information rate of selective Rake reception in UWB systems

In this paper, the achievable information rate of selective Rake (S-Rake) receivers with pulse shaping filters is studied over realistic UWB channels. A theoretical framework is proposed to evaluate the performance gap between the S-Rake receiver with pulse shaping filters and the optimum whitened matched filter (WMF) receiver. This framework measures the effect of such key system parameters as the shaping filter excess bandwidth, the multipath diversity order in S-Rake receivers and the information rate of interest on the performance loss, hence provides valuable insights for practical UWB receiver design. Simulation results are presented for the cases of S-Rake receivers with root raised cosine (RRC) filters under various transmission scenarios.
Functional connectivity density mapping

Brain networks with energy-efficient hubs might support the high cognitive performance of humans and a better understanding of their organization is likely of relevance for studying not only brain development and plasticity but also neuropsychiatric disorders. However, the distribution of hubs in the human brain is largely unknown due to the high computational demands of comprehensive analytical methods. Here we propose a 103 times faster method to map the distribution of the local functional connectivity density (lFCD) in the human brain. The robustness of this method was tested in 979 subjects from a large repository of MRI time series collected in resting conditions. Consistently across research sites, a region located in the posterior cingulate/ventral precuneus (BA 23/31) was the area with the highest lFCD, which suggest that this is the most prominent functional hub in the brain. In addition, regions located in the inferior parietal cortex (BA 18) and cuneus (BA 18) had high lFCD. The variability of this pattern across subjects was <36% and within subjects was 12%. The power scaling of the lFCD was consistent across research centers, suggesting that that brain networks have a “scale-free” organization.
Development of real-time lane detection software for automated steering system

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the development of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), providing safety and comfort to passengers, and thereby decreasing the number of accidents. In addition, the efficiency of highway utilization can be increased tremendously by replacing some of the basis tasks of driving such as accelerating to a pre-specified velocity, braking within a safe distance, and automatically controlling the steering movement of the car within the left and right lanes with the help of intelligent vehicle control systems. One of the intelligent vehicle control system components is the automated steering system. Generally, the automated steering system can be further categorized into two major subsystems, the route detection and the control system. The development of these subsystems involves multi-disciplined areas such as instrumentation, signal and image processing, mathematical modeling, and control engineering. There are two approaches in developing the route detection system, the look-down and the look-ahead. This research focuses on the development of the route detection system based on the look-ahead approach where a machine vision system is used as the detector for the automated steering system to extract lane information.
Ensemble based constrained-optimization extreme learning machine for landmark recognition

Landmark recognition attracts great concerns in recent years due to its extensive applications in mobile terminals. An effective recognition system with high recognition accuracy and fast response speed is highly desired by users. In this paper, we propose an ensemble based constrained-optimization extreme learning machine (CO-ELM) combining with the spatial pyramid kernel based bag-of-words (SPK-BoW) method for landmark recognition. The recent SPK-BoW method is employed for feature extraction and representation due to its effectiveness in exploiting the spatial layout information for landmark images. To enhance the recognition performance and accelerate the data training and testing speed, the voting based CO-ELM (VCO-ELM) with multiple network ensembles is proposed as the classifier. Experiments on two real-world landmark datasets show that the proposed VCO-ELM algorithm outperforms the original CO-ELM and support vector machine (SVM) in general.
Trafficking of the bZIP Transmembrane Transcription Factor CREB‐H into Alternate Pathways of ERAD and Stress‐Regulated Intramembrane Proteolysis

CREB‐H is an ATF6‐related, transmembrane transcription factor that, in response to endoplasmic reticulum (ER)‐associated stress, is cleaved by Golgi proteases and transported to the nucleus to effect appropriate adaptive responses. We characterize the ER processing and turnover of CREB‐H with results which have important implications for ER stress regulation and signalling. We show that CREB‐H is glycosylated and demonstrate that both the ER and nuclear forms of CREB‐H have short half‐lives. We also show that CREB‐H is subject to cycles of retrotranslocation, deglycosylation and degradation through the ER‐associated degradation (ERAD) pathway. Proteasome inhibition resulted in accumulation of a cytosolic intermediate but additionally, in contrast to inhibition of glycosylation, promoted specific cleavage of CREB‐H and nuclear transport of the N‐terminal‐truncated product. Our data indicate that under normal conditions CREB‐H is transported back from the ER to the cytosol, where it is subject to ERAD, but under conditions that repress proteasome function or promote load CREB‐H is diverted from this pathway instead undergoing cleavage and nuclear transport. Finally, we identify a cytoplasmic determinant involved in CREB‐H ER retention, deletion of which results in constitutive Golgi transport and corresponding cleavage. We present a model where cellular stresses may be sensed at different levels by different members of the basic and leucine zipper domain transmembrane proteins.
Identifying vehicle descriptions in microblogging text with the aim of reducing or predicting crime

Could Social Media, and in particular, microblogs such as Twitter, play a part in helping to track criminal movement? The aim of this paper is to narrow the focus of this broader problem of using social media to crowdsource information to assist in the fight against crime, to the specific problem of identifying the description of vehicles in microblog text. As this problem has many aspects, especially in terms of data gathering and identification, an initial search is performed on preset keywords and the resulting database is tagged. The tags are then analysed to determine which features are the most common. Topic models are then run on the data to determine if any useful keyword can be found for further searches and initial statistics are recorded as a baseline for further processing. Our primary concern is establishing the common content of the relevant Tweets. The result could be used both for help with data collection as well as with feature selection when learning classification algorithms for data mining.
The development of a tool to assess levels of stress and burnout.

OBJECTIVE To pilot test the reliability and validity of a newly developed tool measuring nursing and midwifery staff stress and burnout. DESIGN Descriptive survey. SETTING Public hospital, aged care facility and university. SUBJECTS For the pilot study a total of forty-nine (n = 49) nurses and midwives, selected by convenience sampling, were sent an initial pilot questionnaire. The return rate was seventy per cent initially and the return rate on the second mail out was forty-nine per cent. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE To determine reliability and validity of a new tool that explores nurses' and midwives' perceptions of stress, burnout and control over their working environment. RESULTS Face validity, test-retest reliability, internal consistency and principal component analysis were established. Overall Cronbach's alpha was 0.87 indicating good internal consistency for the stress/ burnout element of the questionnaire. The test-retest reliability intraclass correlation coefficient reported 0.30 - 0.90 for all six sub scales which were developed for both parts of the questionnaire. CONCLUSION The pilot study indicates that it is possible to construct a valid and reliable instrument to assess nurses' and midwives' perception of stress and burnout.
Fertility of internal migrants: comparison between Austria and Poland

Previous research has proposed four competing views on an individual’s fertility following a move from one social context to another. Each view has received support but has also been challenged by literature. This study contributes to the existing discussion on fertility by providing an analysis of the effects of internal migration on the fertility of post-war Austrian and Polish female cohorts. We base our study on retrospective event-history data and apply intensity regression to both single and simultaneous equations. Our analysis shows, first, that natives in urban areas in general and in the large cities in particular have lower fertility compared to non-migrants in rural areas, both in Austria and Poland. Second, it reveals that people who move from one place to another adopt the fertility behaviour that is dominant at destination. Third, we observe an elevated first birth risk for women who move because of union formation, and a short-term postponement of childbearing for those who settle in a large city. Our country comparison shows some differences in fertility variation across settlements, but, overall, the results are quite similar, despite the different post-war societal context of two countries.
Decreased DNA repair activity in bone marrow due to low expression of DNA damage repair proteins

The bone marrow (BM) is one of the organs that is sensitive to acute exposure of ionizing radiation (IR); however, the mechanism of its high sensitivity to IR remains to be elucidated. BM is differentiated into dendritic cells (DC) with granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF). Using this in vitro model, we studied whether radiosensitivity is distinctly regulated in undifferentiated and differentiated BM. We discovered that levels of DNA damage repair (DDR) proteins are extremely low in BM, and they are markedly increased upon differentiation to DC. Efficiency of both homologous recombination (HR)- and non-homologous end joining (NHEJ)-mediated repair of DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) is much lower in BM compared with that of DC. Consistent with this, immunofluorescent γH2AX is highly detected in BM after IR. These results indicate that increased radiosensitivity of BM is at least due to low expression of the DNA repair machinery.
Prediction of sleep‐disordered breathing by unattended overnight oximetry

Between January 1994 and July 1997, 793 patients suspected of having sleep‐disordered breathing had unattended overnight oximetry in their homes followed by laboratory polysomnography. From the oximetry data we extracted cumulative percentage time at SaO2 < 90% (CT90) and a saturation variability index (ΔIndex, the sum of the differences between successive readings divided by the number of readings – 1). CT90 was weakly correlated with polysomnographic apnea/hypopnea index (AHI), (Spearman 𝓅=0.36, P< 0.0001) and with ΔIndex (𝓅=0.71, P< 0.0001). ΔIndex was more closely correlated with AHI (𝓅=0.59, P< 0.0001). In a multivariate model, only ΔIndex was significantly related to AHI, the relationship being AHI=18.8 ΔIndex +7.7. The 95% CI for the coefficient were 16.2, 21.4, and for the constant were 5.8, 9.7. The sensitivity of a ΔIndex cut‐off of 0.4 for the detection of AHI≥15 was 88%, for detection of AHI≥20 was 90% and for the detection of AHI≥25 was 91%. The specificity of ΔIndex ≥0.4 for AHI≥15 was 40%. In 113 further patients, oximetry was performed simultaneously with laboratory polysomnography. Under these circumstances ΔIndex was more closely correlated with AHI (𝓅=0.74, P< 0.0001), as was CT90 (𝓅=0.58, P< 0.0001). Sensitivity of ΔIndex ≥0.4 for detection of AHI≥15 was not improved at 88%, but specificity was better at 70%. We concluded that oximetry using a saturation variability index is sensitive but nonspecific for the detection of obstructive sleep apnea, and that few false negative but a significant proportion of false positive results arise from night‐to‐night variability.
Efficacy of Orthostatic Self‐Training in Medically Refractory Neurocardiogenic Syncope

Background. Orthostatic self‐training is effective in the prevention of neurocardiogenic syncope, though the success of this method in drug refractory patients has not been reported. Study objective and methods. This study examined the effectiveness of orthostatic self‐training in 15 patients with head‐up tilt testing (HUT)‐inducible neurocardiogenic syncope, who were intolerant of, or refractory to standard drug therapy. They were enrolled in a home orthostatic self‐training program for up to 30 min/session, twice daily. Head‐up tilt testing was repeated within 4 weeks after onset of the training program, using the same protocol as at baseline. Orthostatic self‐training was continued once daily, for up to 30 min, for a mean follow‐up period of 11 months, in the drug‐free state. Results. Syncope was not reinducible by follow‐up HUT, and spontaneous syncope occurred in no patient during the follow‐up period. Conclusions. Home orthostatic self‐training, up to 30 min once daily following an initial twice daily program, was highly effective in the suppression of recurrent neurocardiogenic syncope in patients intolerant of, or refractory to standard drug therapy.
CONTINUOUS GLUCOSE MONITORING: A CONSENSUS CONFERENCE OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF CLINICAL ENDOCRINOLOGISTS AND AMERICAN COLLEGE OF ENDOCRINOLOGY.

OBJECTIVE/METHODS Barriers to continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) use continue to hamper adoption of this valuable technology for the management of diabetes. The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and the American College of Endocrinology convened a public consensus conference February 20, 2016, to review available CGM data and propose strategies for expanding CGM access. RESULTS Conference participants agreed that evidence supports the benefits of CGM in type 1 diabetes and that these benefits are likely to apply whenever intensive insulin therapy is used, regardless of diabetes type. CGM is likely to reduce healthcare resource utilization for acute and chronic complications, although real-world analyses are needed to confirm potential cost savings and quality of life improvements. Ongoing technological advances have improved CGM accuracy and usability, but more innovations in human factors, data delivery, reporting, and interpretation are needed to foster expanded use. The development of a standardized data report using similar metrics across all devices would facilitate clinician and patient understanding and utilization of CGM. Expanded CGM coverage by government and private payers is an urgent need. CONCLUSION CGM improves glycemic control, reduces hypoglycemia, and may reduce overall costs of diabetes management. Expanding CGM coverage and utilization is likely to improve the health outcomes of people with diabetes. ABBREVIATIONS A1C = glycated hemoglobin AACE = American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists ACE = American College of Endocrinology ASPIRE = Automation to Simulate Pancreatic Insulin Response CGM = continuous glucose monitoring HRQOL = health-related quality of life ICER = incremental cost-effectiveness ratio JDRF = Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation MARD = mean absolute relative difference MDI = multiple daily injections QALY = quality-adjusted life years RCT = randomized, controlled trial SAP = sensor-augmented pump SMBG = self-monitoring of blood glucose STAR = Sensor-Augmented Pump Therapy for A1C Reduction T1D = type 1 diabetes T2D = type 2 diabetes.
Full wafer integration of shape memory alloy microactuators using adhesive bonding

This paper presents the wafer-scale manufacturing of microactuators based on bulk shape memory alloy material integrated using adhesive bonding. The work addresses key technical challenges related to the wafer-scale fabrication of bulk SMA micro actuators, including wafer-scale integration of patterned SMA sheets to structured Si wafers and the integration of cold state reset layers to the microactuators. Contact printing of an adhesive polymer ensures a selective bonding when transferring full SMA sheets to silicon structures on a patterned wafer. The stressed films deposited on top of the SMA microactuator ensure a built-in reset mechanism of the actuators. The paper reports on the successful wafer-scale integration of wafer-sized SMA sheets and the wafer-scale fabrication of actuator cantilevers. First test cantilevers with a length of 2.5 mm show a stroke of approx. 180 µm.
Four-probe electrical characterization of Pt-coated TMV-based nanostructures

The electrical transport and structural properties of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV)-based nanostructures have been studied. Electroless deposition was used to coat the TMV outer surface with a 13 nm thick homogeneous Pt layer. SEM, TEM and electrical characterization of the obtained nanostructures has been performed. Using four independently controlled scanning tunnelling microscope tips we were able to perform four-point probe resistance measurements on linear virus assemblies and demonstrate the continuous nature of the metallic coating. The measured resistivity values of the virial nanowires exceeded the bulk value by 10–100 times; notwithstanding this the coated structure allowed high current densities, of the order of 105–108 A cm−2. The four-probe technique proved to be useful for analysing the electrical properties of bio-inorganic nanowires.
Tide-related biological rhythm in the oxygen consumption rate of ghost shrimp (Neotrypaea uncinata)

ABSTRACT The effects of tidal height (high and low), acclimation to laboratory conditions (days in captivity) and oxygen level (hypoxia and normoxia) were evaluated in the oxygen consumption rate (OCR) of the ghost shrimp Neotrypaea uncinata. We evaluated the hypothesis that N. uncinata reduces its OCR during low tide and increases it during high tide, regardless of oxygen level or acclimation. Additionally, the existence of an endogenous rhythm in OCR was explored, and we examined whether it synchronized with tidal, diurnal or semidiurnal cycles. Unexpectedly, high OCRs were observed at low tide, during normoxia, in non-acclimated animals. Results from a second, longer experiment under normoxic conditions suggested the presence of a tide-related metabolic rhythm, a response pattern not yet demonstrated for a burrowing decapod. Although rhythms persisted for only 2 days after capture, their period of 12.8 h closely matched the semidiurnal tidal cycle that ghost shrimp confront inside their burrows. Summary: Oxygen consumption rate of the ghost shrimp Neotrypaea uncinata fluctuates with a period similar to that of the local semidiurnal tidal cycle.
The birthday card exercise: Replicating research as active learning

ABSTRACT One means to uncover common attitudes toward aging and older adults is to perform content analyses of popular print media forms such as newspapers, magazines, and even greeting cards. This active learning activity involves small groups of undergraduate students replicating, in a limited way, elements of a published research study on the messages conveyed by age-related birthday cards. In the exercise, each group of students is asked to analyze a set of 15 different birthday cards and to share qualitative and quantitative findings with classmates before submitting a written “discussion section” on their results to the instructor. The author demonstrates how this exercise, because it is aligned with key course learning outcomes as well as with coursework preceding and following the activity, is integrated into the overall learning environment of the course. Comments on student findings, the potential benefits of and modifications to the exercise, and the transferability of the exercise to other course contexts are also provided.
To your health: implementation of a wellness program for treatment staff and persons with mental illness.

Persons with mental illness often have poor access to both health promotion and primary care services. Consequently, they are at greater risk for earlier mortality, and comorbid health problems that ultimately impact their community rehabilitation. The "To Your Health" program is a health promotion program, based on the states of change model that was implemented as part of a clubhouse rehabilitation program. The program used personal wellness profiles, health assessments, and personal goal setting to assess the relative wellness of clients and staff in order to increase their awareness of health-promoting behaviors. Additionally opportunities were provided to engage individuals in making changes through participation in activities that provided opportunities to try out new behaviors and to set goals that integrated changes into their lives. The initial findings are reported along with the rationale for the involvement of clients and staff, and the role of health promotion in community rehabilitation of persons with mental illness.
Generalized Solutions of Volterra Integral Equations of the First Kind

Volterra integral equations of the first kind are studied in terms of generalized functions. The solutions consist of singular and regular compo- nents which can be constructed separately. The singular component is con- structed as solution of the special linear algebraic system. The regular com- ponent is constructed as solution of the special Volterra integral equation of the third kind.