Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neurog1 can partially substitute for Atoh1 function in hair cell differentiation and maintenance during organ of Corti development

Atoh1, a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor (TF), is essential for the differentiation of hair cells (HCs), mechanotransducers that convert sound into auditory signals in the mammalian organ of Corti (OC). Previous work demonstrated that replacing mouse Atoh1 with the fly ortholog atonal rescues HC differentiation, indicating functional replacement by other bHLH genes. However, replacing Atoh1 with Neurog1 resulted in reduced HC differentiation compared with transient Atoh1 expression in a ‘self-terminating’ Atoh1 conditional null mouse (Atoh1-Cre; Atoh1f/f). We now show that combining Neurog1 in one allele with removal of floxed Atoh1 in a self-terminating conditional mutant (Atoh1-Cre; Atoh1f/kiNeurog1) mouse results in significantly more differentiated inner HCs and outer HCs that have a prolonged longevity of 9 months compared with Atoh1 self-terminating littermates. Stereocilia bundles are partially disorganized, disoriented and not HC type specific. Replacement of Atoh1 with Neurog1 maintains limited expression of Pou4f3 and Barhl1 and rescues HCs quantitatively, but not qualitatively. OC patterning and supporting cell differentiation are also partially disrupted. Diffusible factors involved in patterning are reduced (Fgf8) and factors involved in cell-cell interactions are affected (Jag1, Hes5). Despite the presence of many HCs with stereocilia these mice are deaf, possibly owing to HC and OC patterning defects. This study provides a novel approach to disrupt OC development through modulating the HC-specific intracellular TF network. The resulting disorganized OC indicates that normally differentiated HCs act as ‘self-organizers’ for OC development and that Atoh1 plays a crucial role to initiate HC stereocilia differentiation independently of HC viability. Summary: The transcription factor Neurog1 may in part mimic Atoh1 activity, which is essential for hair fate determination, but cannot fully regulate stereocilia maturation and inner ear patterning.
A Controller Tuning for 2-Mass System Using Closed-Loop Transient Data

Abstract This paper proposes a velocity controller tuning method for 2-mass system that is the first approximation of mechanical resonant systems. The method requires only one-shot transient input/output (I/O) data of the 2-mass system under closed-loop operation to tune the controller. The data is used to estimate the frequency response of the system and to model the system in frequency domain. The closed-loop system that consists of the model of the 2-mass system and the model-based controller designed by the model is introduced as the reference model for the Fictitious Reference Tuning (FRIT) to compensate the modeling error. The usefulness of the method is shown by numerical examples of the controller tuning for the velocity control system of a 2-mass system.
Analysis and design of high efficiency inductive power-links using a novel matching strategy

One of the major factors that limit the powering distance in any RF energy scavenging sensor is the intrinsic threshold of the voltage-multiplier or voltage-boosting circuits. In this paper we present a passive matching network that overcomes the threshold-voltage limitation by enhancing the quality-factor of the voltage-multiplier front-end. We first derive the figures-of-merits comparing the theoretical improvements that can be achieved by the proposed matching network over a conventional parallel matching network. Using measured results from prototypes fabricated in a 0.5-μm CMOS process we show that for a fixed transmission power, the proposed approach significantly increases the powering distance of a 13.56MHz RF scavenging sensor.
FPGA Implementation of Highly Modular Fast Universal Discrete Transforms

SUMMARY This paper presents an FPGA implementation of highly modular universal discrete transforms. The implementation relies upon the unified discrete Fourier Hartley transform (UDFHT), based on which essential sinusoidal transforms including discrete Fourier transform (DFT), discrete Hartley transform (DHT), discrete cosine transform (DCT) and discrete sine transform (DST) can be realized. It employs a reconfigurable, scalable and modular architecture that consists of a memory-based FFT processor equipped with pre- and post-processing units. Besides, a pipelining technique is exploited to seamlessly harmonize the operation between each sub-module. Experimental results based on Xilinx Virtex-II Pro are given to examine the performance of the proposed UDFHT implementation. Two practical applications are also shown to demonstrate the flexibility and modularity of the proposed work.
Adherence to therapy and adverse drug reactions: is there a link?

Introduction: Advances in biomedical technology and access to effective medications have resulted in significant improvements in patient survival and quality of life. Patient adherence is crucial to quality healthcare outcomes; however, achievement of consistent adherence remains difficult. Patient non-adherence represents an important health problem, from a clinical/economic viewpoint, being associated with reduced treatment benefits and significant financial burden. Non-adherence potentially leads to adverse drug events (ADEs), which are generally responsible for poorer health outcomes and avoidable resource misuse. Further, adverse drug reactions (ADRs) exemplify one of the most significant barriers to patients’ medication-taking behavior with further detrimental clinical/economic outcomes. Areas covered: The authors review adherence definitions and its measurement, emphasizing the consequences of the New European Pharmacovigilance Legislation on ADR definition. They analyzed the causes and the clinical/economic consequences of non-adherence and ADEs/ADRs in order to highlight a possible causal link. Expert opinion: Careful assessment of this harmful relationship is crucial in planning for the interventions needed to improve effectiveness of pharmacological care and to safeguard the sustainability of healthcare systems. Finally, through the ‘deactivation’ of this link, there will be more chance that advances in healthcare technologies will realize their potential to reduce the burden of chronic illness.
FPGA with Improved Routability and Robustness in 130nm CMOS with Open-Source CAD Targetability

This paper outlines an FPGA VLSI design methodology that was used to realize a fully functioning FPGA chip in 130nm CMOS with improved routability and memory robustness. The architectural design space exploration and synthesis capability were enabled by the Verilog-to-Routing CAD tool. The capabilities of this tool were extended to enable bitstream generation and deployment. To validate the architecture and bitstream implementation, a Chisel (Constructing Hardware in the Embedded Scala Language) model of the FPGA was created to rapidly verify the microarchitectural details of the device prior to schematic design. A custom carrier board and configuration tool were used to verify correct operational characteristics of the FPGA over various resource utilizations and clock frequencies.
Postreceptor events associated with human neutrophil activation by interleukin‐8

Recombinant human monocyte–derived interleukin‐8 (IL‐8M), recombinant human endotheliumderived IL‐8 (IL‐8E), and a recombinant human truncated form of IL‐8 (IL‐8T) stimulated a time‐dependent (t1/2 ~ 2–3 s) and concentration‐dependent (0.1–100 nM) release of azurophil (myeloperoxidase) and specific (vitamin B12 binding protein, gelatinase) granule constituents from cytochalasin B–treated human neutrophils (HNs) wherein IL‐8T = IL‐8M > IL‐8E. An increase in the cytosolic free calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) was greater in IL‐8T– than in IL‐8M– or IL‐8E–activated HNs, and IL‐8T was more potent than either IL‐8M or IL‐8E in sequentially desensitizing the HNs to the effects of the other IL‐8 forms. IL‐8 induced a time‐ and concentration‐dependent (0.1–100 nM) increase in the production of inositol 1,4,5‐trisphosphate (IP3) in HNs. U‐73122 (1‐[6‐[[17β‐3‐methoxyestra‐1,3,5(10)‐trien‐17‐yl]amino]hexyl]‐1H‐pyrrole‐2,5‐dione), a potent inhibitor of phospholipase C–catalyzed events in HNs, suppressed IL‐8–triggered IP3 production, increased [Ca2+]i and granule exocytosis in HNs. The membrane‐associated activity of the α and β subtypes of protein kinase C was significantly enhanced in IL‐8–activated cells.
Prognostic markers in node‐negative breast cancer: A prospective study

Despite years of research, it is still unclear which women with node‐negative (N–) breast cancer will need adjuvant chemotherapy and which women are being treated unnecessarily. Our goal was to determine which factors best predicted disease free survival (DFS) or cancer‐specific overall survival (OS) and, therefore, select the correct patients for treatment. A total of 11 parameters were measured: estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), age, race, ploidy status, %G0/G1 (% non‐DNA synthesis), %S (% S‐phase), cathepsin D status, size, stage, and histologic grade.
Selective voltammetric method for uric acid detection using pre-anodized Nafion-coated glassy carbon electrodes

Electrochemically pre-anodized Nafion-coated glassy carbon electrodes (NCGCEs) were used for the selective determination of uric acid (UA) by square-wave voltammetry. The major interference from ascorbic acid (AA) was overcome owing to the distinct ability of the pre-anodized NCGCE to yield its best performance at around pH 5. At pH 5, AA exists in the anionic form whereas UA is in the cationic form, since their pKa values are 4.1 and 5.4, respectively, at 25 °C. Consequently, the Nafion film repels the negatively charged AA and selective sensing of UA can be achieved. Moreover, the anodized surface has a high affinity towards UA through hydrogen bonding. Hence the combination of pre-anodization and the Nafion film modification works excellently in the determination of UA. Under optimized conditions, the detection limit for UA has been improved to 10 nM (S/N = 3). The practical analytical utility of the method is demonstrated by the measurement of UA in human urine without any preliminary treatment.
MOBY-DIC: A MATLAB Toolbox for Circuit-Oriented Design of Explicit MPC

This paper describes a MATLAB Toolbox for the integrated design of Model Predictive Control (MPC) state-feedback control laws and the digital circuits implementing them. Explicit MPC laws can be designed using optimal and sub-optimal formulations, directly taking into account the specifications of the digital circuit implementing the control law (such as latency and size), together with the usual control specifications (stability, performance, constraint satisfaction). Tools for a-posteriori stability analysis of the closed-loop system, and for the simulation of the circuit in Simulink, are also included in the toolbox.
Probabilistic Inference of the Stealthy Bridges between Enterprise Networks in Cloud

Cloud computing, with the paradigm of computing as a utility, has the potential to significantly tranform the IT industry. Attracted by the high efficiency, low cost, and great flexibility of cloud, enterprises began to migrate large parts of their networks into cloud. The cloud becomes a public space where multiple “tenants” reside. Except for some public services, the enterprise networks in cloud should be absolutely isolated from each other. However, some “stealthy bridges” could be established to break such isolation due to two features of the public cloud: virtual machine image sharing and virtual machine co-residency. This paper proposes to use cross-layer Bayesian networks to infer the stealthy bridges existing between enterprise network islands. Cloud-level attack graphs are firstly built to capture the potential attacks enabled by stealthy bridges and reveal hidden possible attack paths. Cross-layer Bayesian networks are then constructed to infer the probability of stealthy bridge existence. The experiment results show that the cross-layer Bayesian networks are capable of inferring the existence of stealthy bridges given supporting evidence from other intrusion steps in a multi-step attack. Received on 25 December 2017; accepted on 26 December 2017; published on 4 January 2018
Alkaline Lyotropic Silicate−Surfactant Liquid Crystals

Multinuclear (2H, 13C, 29Si, 81Br) magnetic resonance spectroscopy, small-angle X-ray scattering, and polarized optical microscopy techniques have been used to investigate molecular and mesoscopic organization in silicate−surfactant lyotropic liquid crystals with hexagonal and lamellar morphologies under highly alkaline conditions. Such systems cooperatively self-assemble following the addition of a basic aqueous solution containing anionic silicate oligomers (e.g., double-four-ring species) to an isotropic micellar solution of cationic surfactant molecules (e.g., cetyltrimethylammonium bromide). Important similarities and differences are shown to exist between multicomponent silicate−surfactant and conventional binary lyotropic liquid crystals. Under highly alkaline conditions, the silicate−surfactant systems possess the characteristics of ordinary lyotropic liquid crystalline systems, though the balance of forces underlying their self-assembly is complicated by the richness of the aqueous silicate chemi.
Exposure of spraymen to pesticides.

Values for potential dermal and respiratory exposure, and for total exposure in terms of fraction of toxic dose were determined for 11 different pesticides during orchard spraying with air-blast application equipment. Highest total exposure was calculated to be only 1.12% of a toxic dose per hour for workers applying the organophosphorus compound, carbophenothion, the most toxic compound in the study. There was considerable variation in exposure to a specific pesticide depending on certain factors, mainly wind. Potential dermal exposure to each compound was much greater than potential respiratory exposure. Workers were subjected to relatively small fractions of a toxic dose each day as they applied the compounds that were studied.
Isolation and characterization of butanol-resistant mutants of Clostridium acetobutylicum

In a wild-type strain of Clostridium acetobutylicum isolated from soil, solvent production appeared limited by butanol toxicity. Butanol-resistant mutants have been obtained which produced significantly higher solvent concentrations (about 30%) than the wild-type strain. Some other physiological differences were observed between a selected resistant mutant and the wild-type strain at the level of solvent resistance and sporulation.
A 135-μW 0.46-mΩ/√Hz thoracic impedance variance monitor with square-wave current modulation

A low-power high-resolution thoracic impedance variance (TIV) monitoring circuit is presented. The TIV information is extracted by injecting a square-wave modulated current to the body. The resulted voltage is then demodulated by a proposed delayed-sampling technique. This proposed technique solves the gain-error issue occurred in prior square-wave modulated architectures. Furthermore, compared with sine-wave modulation, the proposed TIV monitoring circuit is more power efficient. Fabricated in a 0.18-μm CMOS, this chip draws 75 μA from a 1.8-V supply. The equivalent input-referred impedance noise density is only 0.46 mΩ/VHz.
Garcinia mangostana Fruit : Determination of the Total Antioxidant Activity in Extracts and Phenolic Compound Characterization using CEMS ( TOF )

Xanthones are an important family of polyphenols present in Garcinia mangostana fruit. Products of G. mangostana have begun to be commercialized as a dietary supplement because of their potent antioxidant properties. Interest in their beneficial health effects such as antioxidant characteristics, lipid profile and anticarcinogenic activity, etc., has encouraged scientific research to determine compounds responsible for these properties. The antioxidant capacity determination and the phenolic compound characterization in extracts of G. mangostana were investigated. High antioxidant capacity was determined in whole fruit dried extract by ORAC, FRAP and ABTS + assays. The values obtained by FRAP, ORAC and ABTS assays were 1222 and 4088 and 3590 μM TE/g, respectively. Phenolic compound identification in these extracts was carried out by capillary electrophoresis coupled to ionization by electrospray-mass spectrometry (CE-ESI-MS) with a time of flight analyzer (Micro TOF), and a sensible, fast and efficient method was developed. The CEESI parameters were optimized to obtain good separation and suitable sensitivity. The CE parameters were: 80 mM ammonium acetate, pH 10.5, 30 kV, 15 s for injection and fused-silica capillary of 50 m i.d. and 100 cm in length. The ESI-MS parameters were also optimized: drying gas flow of 4L/min, 300°C, nebulization gas pressure at 4 psi, sheath liquid composition and flow (60:40) isopropanol/water + 0.1% triethylamine to 0.18 mL/h. Spectrometric determination was achieved in negative polarity and the mass range was between 100-800 m/z. Considering the scarcity of commercial standards and the scanty bibliography references, some of the most important xanthones from G. mangostana fruit have been identified using CE-ESI-MS (micro TOF), such as Garcinine C, Garcinone E, Mangostenone C and -mangostin. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Liver transplantation for the treatment of homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia in an era of emerging lipid‐lowering therapies

Homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) causes severe premature coronary artery disease because of very high levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL)‐cholesterol. Standard lipid‐lowering drugs and LDL‐apheresis may not be sufficiently effective. Liver transplantation replaces defective LDL receptors and vastly improves the lipid profile, and we present the first report of an Australian adult to receive this treatment. Emerging drug treatments for FH may be alternatives to LDL‐apheresis and transplantation, but long‐term safety and efficacy data are lacking for all of these options.
A Social Identity Perspective on the Relationship Between Perceived Organizational Support and Organizational Commitment

RESEARCHERS HAVE CONSISTENTLY FOUND perceived organizational support (POS) to be positively related to organizational commitment ( e g , Settoon, Bennett, & Liden, 1996). POS is defined as people’s “global beliefs about the extent to which the organization cares about their well-being and values their contributions” (Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchinson, & Sowa, 1986, p. 501). The relationship between POS and organizational commitment is based on social exchange theory and the norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960). That is, because commitment can be an exchange commodity, people are likely to become committed to an organization when they feel that the organization is committed to them. Because no research had explored other theoretical explanations for the relationship between POS and organizational commitment, the present study was designed to examine that relationship from a perspective of social identity theory. Social identity theory suggests that people “remain loyal when they feel that their organizations . value and appreciate them” (Tyler, 1999, p. 235). However, social identity theory maintains that when people feel that their organization values and appreciates them, it is a sign of organizational respect for them or of
Spatial redistribution of irregularly-spaced pareto fronts for more intuitive navigation and solution selection

A multi-objective optimization approach is often followed by an a posteriori decision-making process, during which the most appropriate solution of the Pareto set is selected by a professional in the field. Conventional visualization methods do not correct for Pareto fronts with irregularly-spaced solutions. However, achieving a uniform spread of solutions can make the decision-making process more intuitive when decision tools such as sliders, which represent the preference for each objective, are used. We propose a method that maps an m-dimensional Pareto front to an (m - 1)-simplex and spreads out points to achieve a more uniform distribution of these points in the simplex while maintaining the local neighborhood structure of the solutions as much as possible. This set of points can then more intuitively be navigated due to the more uniform distribution. We test our approach on a set of non-uniformly spaced 3D Pareto fronts of a real-world problem: deformable image registration of medical images. The results of these experiments are visualized as points in a triangle, showing that we indeed achieve a representation of the Pareto front with a near-uniform distribution of points where these are still positioned as expected, i.e., according to their quality in each of the objectives of interest.
Organizational Assimilation of Web Services Technology: A Research Framework

Web services is an extremely promising technology that has the potential to revolutionize many aspects of information systems. Web services facilitates vendor-, platform-, and language-independent, loosely coupled, inexpensive integration of both internal and external systems. Although there is a general agreement that Web services will have a significant impact on applications of information technology in organizations, there is a disagreement regarding the speed and spread of assimilation due to a multitude of inhibitors. In this article, we identify 3 areas of assimilation of Web services in organizations: information systems departmental assimilation, intraorganizational assimilation, and interorganizational assimilation. We propose a research framework for investigating various issues related to organizational assimilation of Web services. In addition, we developed a projection of the assimilation patterns for the 3 areas of organizational assimilation of Web services. Based on the proposed framework, we outline a research agenda on the organizational assimilation of Web services.
Maternal vitamin A supplementation and immunity to malaria in pregnancy in Ghanaian primigravids

Background Vitamin A supplementation is believed to enhance immune responses to infection but few studies have assessed its effects on anti‐malarial immunity, especially during pregnancy when women are at increased risk from both vitamin A deficiency and pregnancy‐associated malaria. The pathological effects of malaria in pregnancy are believed to be due to the sequestration of parasites in the placenta mediated via binding of variant surface antigens (VSA) expressed on the surface of P. falciparum infected red blood cells to placental chondroitin sulphate A (CSA).
Privacy-preserving Data Retrieval using Anonymous Query Authentication in Data Cloud Services

Recently, cloud computing became an essential part of most IT strategies. However, security and privacy issues are still the two main concerns that limit the widespread use of cloud services since the data is stored in unknown locations and retrieval of data (or part of it) may involve disclosure of sensitive data to unauthorized parties. Many techniques have been proposed to handle this problem, which is known as Privacy-Preserving Data Retrieval (PPDR). These techniques attempt to minimize the sensitive data that needs to be revealed. However, revealing any data to an unauthorized party breaks the security and privacy concepts and also may decrease the efficiency of the data retrieval. In this paper, different requirements are defined to satisfy a high level of security and privacy in a PPDR system. Moreover, a technique that uses anonymous query authentication and multi-server settings is proposed. The technique provides an efficient ranking-based data retrieval by using weighted Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) vectors. It also satisfies all of the defined security requirements that were completely unsatisfied by the techniques reported in the literature.