Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification and Treatment of Pathophysiological Comorbidities of Autism Spectrum Disorder to Achieve Optimal Outcomes

Despite the fact that the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) continues to rise, no effective medical treatments have become standard of care. In this paper we review some of the pathophysiological abnormalities associated with ASD and their potential associated treatments. Overall, there is evidence for some children with ASD being affected by seizure and epilepsy, neurotransmitter dysfunction, sleep disorders, metabolic abnormalities, including abnormalities in folate, cobalamin, tetrahydrobiopterin, carnitine, redox and mitochondrial metabolism, and immune and gastrointestinal disorders. Although evidence for an association between these pathophysiological abnormalities and ASD exists, the exact relationship to the etiology of ASD and its associated symptoms remains to be further defined in many cases. Despite these limitations, treatments targeting some of these pathophysiological abnormalities have been studied in some cases with high-quality studies, whereas treatments for other pathophysiological abnormalities have not been well studied in many cases. There are some areas of more promising treatments specific for ASD including neurotransmitter abnormalities, particularly imbalances in glutamate and acetylcholine, sleep onset disorder (with behavioral therapy and melatonin), and metabolic abnormalities in folate, cobalamin, tetrahydrobiopterin, carnitine, and redox pathways. There is some evidence for treatments of epilepsy and seizures, mitochondrial and immune disorders, and gastrointestinal abnormalities, particularly imbalances in the enteric microbiome, but further clinical studies are needed in these areas to better define treatments specific to children with ASD. Clearly, there are some promising areas of ASD research that could lead to novel treatments that could become standard of care in the future, but more research is needed to better define subgroups of children with ASD who are affected by specific pathophysiological abnormalities and the optimal treatments for these abnormalities.
Clinical, experimental, and genomic differences between intermediately pathogenic, highly pathogenic, and epidemic Streptococcus suis.

BACKGROUND Streptococcus suis emerged to cause an unusual outbreak of streptococcal toxic-shock-like syndrome (STSLS) in 2005. The mechanisms involved are unknown. METHODS Clinical, laboratory, and epidemiologic data on patients infected with culture-confirmed S. suis were analyzed. The strain involved in the outbreak, "epidemic" strain ST7, was compared with both a classical highly pathogenic strain, ST1, and an intermediately pathogenic strain, ST25, to determine both its capacity to induce cytokines in experimentally infected mice and its genomic difference. RESULTS Of 38 patients infected with culture-confirmed S. suis, 14 presented with STSLS. During the early phase of the disease, serum levels of interleukin (IL)-1beta, IL-6, IL-8, IL-12p70, interferon-gamma, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha were more elevated in patients with STSLS than in those with meningitis only. Serum levels of proinflammatory cytokines were significantly higher in mice infected with ST7 than in those infected with either ST1 or ST25. Genomic comparisons with ST25 showed that ST1 had acquired 132 genomic islands, including 5 pathogenicity islands, and that ST7, the epidemic strain, had acquired an additional 5 genomic islands. CONCLUSION Intermediately pathogenic strain ST25 has evolved to become highly pathogenic strain ST1, which, in turn, has more recently evolved to become epidemic strain ST7. ST7 has the ability to stimulate the production of massive amounts of proinflammatory cytokines, leading to STSLS.
Defect-oriented BIST quality analysis

In this paper, the efficiency of the built-in self-test pseudorandom patterns generated by an LFSR is investigated and compared for different fault classes. In particular, the need for defect-oriented testing is taken into account. Experimental research showed that the quality of BIST estimated using the SAF model can be too optimistic, and that extended fault classes for evaluation of BIST and determining the acceptable length of BIST sequences are needed.
A Field Programmable Gate Array with Optical I/O

A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) with optical I/O is described. FPGAs with optical I/O can have their functionality specified in the field by downloading a control bit stream, and can be used in a wide range of applications, such as optical signal processing and optical interconnects. Our device implements six state-of-the-art Programmable Logic Arrays (PLAs) on a 2x2 mm die. The device was fabricated through the 1997 Lucent/ARPA/COOP workshop using a 0.5 micron CMOS/SEED technology. All devices are fully functional, and the electronic datapaths have been verified at 200 Mhz. The device has been programmed to implement a 2-stage optical switching network with six 4x4 crossbar switches, which can realize over 190 million unique programmable input-output permutations. The same 0.5 micron device scaled to a 1 cm2substrate could support 4 thousand optical I/O, 1 Terabit/sec of optical I/O bandwidth, and offer fully programmable digital functionality with ~ 110,000 programmable logic gates.
Micro- and nano-electrode arrays for electroanalytical sensing

A systematic investigation of the electrochemical behaviour of two sets of microelectrode arrays, fabricated by standard photolithographic and reactive-ion etching techniques, is presented. The first set of microelectrode arrays had a constant relative centre-centre spacing of 10r (where r is the electrode radius). As a value of r was decreased, the cyclic voltammograms recorded from the array became increasingly peak-shaped, due to merging of the diffusion fields of the individual electrodes. Furthermore, it was shown that the peak current densities obtained were largest for the arrays with the smallest individual electrodes, as were the signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Electroplating the individuals electrodes with platinum black was also shown to increase the peak currents and the SNRs, due to an increase in the effective surface area. Sigmoidal voltammograms, which are indicative of radial diffusion, were obtained for an individual electrode radius of 25 mm but not for arrays with smaller electrodes. To obtain radial diffusion for an array of 2.5 mm electrodes, it was shown (using a second set of microelectrode arrays) that a minimum relative centre-centre spacing of 40r is required. Further enhancement of the peak current densities were obtained by decreasing the size of the individual electrodes. A series of nanoelectrode arrays were fabricated using electron-beam lithography (EBL). The voltammograms obtained from these arrays exhibited a continual increase in the recorded peak current as the individual electrodes radius was decreased to a value of 110 nm. Since EBL is a slow and costly technique, nanoimprint lithography (NIL) was investigated as an alternative method of fabricating nanoelectrode arrays and comparable results were obtained from arrays produced by EBL and NIL. A dissolved oxygen and temperature sensor incorporating a working microelectrode array was also designed and fabricated. The sector comprised a densely packed array of 2.5 mm radius electrodes and a micro-reference electrode, both of which were covered with an agarose electrolyte gel enclosed in an SU8 chamber. A thermal resistor was included for temperature compensation of the dissolved oxygen measurements. The Ag|AgCl micro-reference electrode was found to be stable for approximately 80 hours in 0.1 M KCl, with 100 nA of current passing through it. Linear calibration curves were obtained from both temperature and dissolved oxygen measurements
Cross-language information retrieval in Twenty-One : Using one , some or all possible translations ?

This paper gives an overview of the tools and methods for Cross-Language Information Retrieval (CLIR) that were developed within the Twenty-One project. The tools and methods are evaluated with the TREC CLIR task document collection using Dutch queries on the English document base. The main issue addressed here is an evaluation of two approaches to disambiguation. The underlying question is whether a lot of effort should be put in finding the correct translation for each query term before searching, or whether searching with more than one possible translation leads to better results? The experimental study suggests that in terms of average precision, searching with ambiguities leads to better retrieval performance than searching with disambiguated queries.
Localizations of multiple targets using multistatic UWB radar systems

To estimate the coordinates of multiple targets, the arrangement of radar sensors is very important. This paper uses four Ultra Wide Band (UWB) radar modules at four directions in the room. In multiple targets, there is some probability to choose "ghost" targets (Helmbrecht and Biebl, 2005) when targets are on the diagonal. This paper proposes modified UWB radar module to install radar modules at two opposite sides of the room. The problem of diagonal situation could be solved by complementary cooperation of these two radar modules. It could be improved by using the relative error from the opposite module. This paper verifies the perfomance of each method by simulation.
Deposition and characterization of Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 sol–gel thin films for piezoelectric cantilever beams

PZT thin films of various thickness were deposited on Pt(111)/Ti/SiO2/Si(100) substrates by the sol–gel method. A new method to control the crystallographic orientation of the PZT thin films by modifying the coating layers in one annealing cycle is presented in this paper. PZT films with (111) and (100) preferred orientation were obtained using the multi-coating-layer-annealed and the one-coating-layer-annealed sol–gel methods, respectively. The optimized baking and annealing temperatures at 200 and 600 °C were obtained by analyzing the phase transformation of the PZT precursor solution. The effect of film thickness on the microstructures, crystalline phases, and electrical properties of the PZT films was investigated. Compared to the multi-coating-layer-annealed method, the one-coating-layer-annealed method decreases the residual stress of the PZT films. The remanent polarization increases with the thickness of the PZT films. The remanent polarization (Pr) and coercive fields (Ec) of the one-coating-layer-annealed PZT films with 1.6 µm thickness are 25.7 µC cm−2 and 59.2 kV cm−1, respectively. New microcantilevers with two PZT piezoelectric elements and three electric electrodes were designed. These structures can be applied to microsensors, microactuators, or versatile devices having both sensing and actuating functions. The cantilevers were successfully fabricated with wet and dry combined bulk micromachining technique.
Bacillus subtilis MntR coordinates the transcriptional regulation of manganese uptake and efflux systems

The Bacillus subtilis MntR metalloregulatory protein senses manganese, an essential element required for central metabolism, oxidative stress resistance and replication. An mntR null mutant is highly sensitive to Mn(II) intoxication, which is attributed in part to the constitutive expression of two importers: the proton‐dependent NRAMP family transporter MntH and the ABC transporter MntABCD. Here, we show that an mntR null mutant is still sensitive to Mn(II) intoxication even if both of the import systems are absent. This Mn(II) sensitivity results from the requirement for MntR to activate the transcription of two genes encoding cation diffusion facilitator (CDF) family efflux pumps. Physiological studies indicate that MneP (formerly YdfM) serves as the primary Mn(II) efflux pump with MneS (formerly YeaB) playing a secondary role. Mutant strains lacking mneP are Mn(II) sensitive and accumulate elevated levels of Mn(II), and these effects are exacerbated in a mneP mneS double mutant. DNA‐binding and in vitro transcription studies demonstrate that MntR binds to both the mneP and mneS regulatory regions and directly activates transcription in response to levels of Mn(II) several‐fold higher than required for repression of import genes. These results highlight the delicate balance of Mn(II) uptake and efflux systems controlled by MntR.
First-Order Extension of the FLP Stable Model Semantics via Modified Circumscription

We provide reformulations and generalizations of both the semantics of logic programs by Faber, Leone and Pfeifer and its extension to arbitrary propositional formulas by Truszczynski. Unlike the previous definitions, our generalizations refer neither to grounding nor to fixpoints, and apply to first-order formulas containing aggregate expressions. In the same spirit as the first-order stable model semantics proposed by Ferraris, Lee and Lifschitz, the semantics proposed here are based on syntactic transformations that are similar to circumscription. The reformulations provide useful insights into the FLP semantics and its relationship to circumscription and the first-order stable model semantics.
Reliability of self-reported sexual histories: test-retest and interpartner comparison in a sexually transmitted diseases clinic.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The objective was to assess reliability of self-reported sexual histories among sexually transmitted disease clinic attendees who enrolled in a study in 1994. GOAL OF THIS STUDY Knowledge about the reliability of sexual data is important to decide whether these measures of sexual behavior can be used in epidemiologic studies of sexually transmitted diseases. STUDY DESIGN In 288 attendees, degree of agreement was assessed in responses to an identical set of sexual questions asked independently by a medical doctor and a public health nurse and in responses made by members of the same couple (n = 50) to a public health nurse. RESULTS In the test-retest comparison, high agreement was found for most questions: kappa-values and exact agreement ranged from 0.73 to 0.96 and 54% to 99%, respectively. Participants interviewed by the medical doctor reported significantly lower numbers of partners and a higher age at first intercourse. Stratified analyses showed variability in agreement across subgroups. Most consistent, women provided more reliable reports than men. In the comparison of couples, substantial agreement was found for the municipality where they met (88% agreement; kappa = 0.72) and contraceptive method (87% agreement; kappa = 0.60), but only moderate agreement was found for frequency of sexual intercourse (26% agreement; kappa = 0.50). CONCLUSION The authors conclude that data on sexual behavior can be collected reliably among sexually transmitted disease clinic attendees, although reporting bias does occur. The frequency of sexual intercourse was not sufficiently reliable and should be interpreted as an estimate only.
Securing the control channel of software-defined mobile networks

Software-Defined Mobile Networks (SDMNs) are becoming popular as the next generation of telecommunication networks due to the enhanced performance, flexibility and scalability. In this paper, we study the new security challenges of the control channel of SDMNs and propose a novel secure control channel architecture based on Host Identity Protocol (HIP). IPsec tunneling and security gateways are widely used in today's mobile networks. The proposed architecture utilized these technologies to protect the control channel of SDMNs. We implement the proposed architecture in a testbed and analyze the security features. Moreover, we measure the performance penalty of security of proposed architecture and analyze its ability to protect the control channel from various IP (Internet Protocol) based attacks.
An Intelligent Battery Controller Using Bias-Corrected Q-learning

The transition to renewables requires storage to help smooth short-term variations in energy from wind and solar sources, as well as to respond to spikes in electricity spot prices, which can easily exceed 20 times their average. Efficient operation of an energy storage device is a fundamental problem, yet classical algorithms such as $Q$-learning can diverge for millions of iterations, limiting practical applications. We have traced this behavior to the max-operator bias, which is exacerbated by high volatility in the reward function, and high discount factors due to the small time steps. We propose an elegant bias correction procedure and demonstrate its effectiveness.
An Interactive Small World Graph Visualization

Small world graphs are a common class of graphs whose topology exhibits structure characteristic of both order and randomness. This report summarizes the implementation of a 3D visualization technique designed to exploit the topological features of small world graphs using the prefuse toolkit. We successfully transition the algorithm from 3 to 2 dimensions. We then explain and resolve several key ambiguities in the algorithm. We compare the performance on a variety of small world graphs. Finally, we analyze the utility of the visualization through several scenarios of use.
Self-Enhancement or Self-Coherence? Why People Shift Visual Perspective in Mental Images of the Personal Past and Future

It is often assumed, by laypeople and researchers alike, that people shift visual perspective in mental images of life events to maintain a positive self-concept by claiming ownership of desirable events (first-person) and disowning undesirable events (third-person). The present research suggests that people shift perspective not according to the pictured event’s desirability but according to whether they focus on the experience of the event (first-person) or on the event’s coherence with the self-concept (third-person). This explains why self-change promotes third-person imagery of prechange selves (Studies 1 and 2). And, the same mechanism determines perspective apart from self-change, in both memory and imagination (Studies 3 and 4). By demonstrating that people shift perspective according to whether they focus on the experience of an event or its self-concept coherence, these results suggest how perspective may function more broadly in social cognition, and specifically in the construction and maintenance of the temporally extended self.
Magnesium Sulfate for the Treatment of Eclampsia: A Brief Review

Background and Purpose— Magnesium sulfate is used extensively for prevention of eclamptic seizures. Empirical and clinical evidence supports the effectiveness of magnesium sulfate; however, questions remain as to its safety and mechanism. This review summarizes current evidence supporting the possible mechanisms of action and several controversies for magnesium sulfate treatment. Summary of Review— Several mechanisms are presented, including the effects of magnesium sulfate on peripheral and cerebral vasodilation, blood-brain barrier protection, and as an anticonvulsant. Conclusions— Though the specific mechanisms of action remain unclear, the effect of magnesium sulfate in the prevention of eclampsia is likely multi-factorial. Magnesium sulfate may act as a vasodilator, with actions in the peripheral vasculature or the cerebrovasculature, to decrease peripheral vascular resistance or relieve vasoconstriction. Additionally, magnesium sulfate may also protect the blood-brain barrier and limit cerebral edema formation, or it may act through a central anticonvulsant action.
DA-9701: A New Multi-Acting Drug for the Treatment of Functional Dyspepsia

Motilitone® (DA-9701) is a new herbal drug that was launched for the treatment of functional dyspepsia in December 2011 in Korea. The heterogeneous symptom pattern and multiple causes of functional dyspepsia have resulted in multiple drug target strategies for its treatment. DA-9701, a compound consisting of a combination of Corydalis Tuber and Pharbitidis Semen, has being developed for treatment of functional dyspepsia. It has multiple mechanisms of action such as fundus relaxation, visceral analgesia, and prokinetic effects. Furthermore, it was found to significantly enhance meal-induced gastric accommodation and increase gastric compliance in dogs. DA-9701 also showed an analgesic effect in rats with colorectal distension induced visceral hypersensitivity and an antinociceptive effect in beagle dogs with gastric distension-induced nociception. The pharmacological effects of DA-9701 also include conventional effects, such as enhanced gastric emptying and gastrointestinal transit. The safety profi le of DA-9701 is also preferable to that of other treatments.
Functional Analysis of Mouse and Monkey Multidrug Resistance-Associated Protein 2 (Mrp2)

We investigated the intrinsic transport activity of mouse and monkey Mrp2 and compared it with that of rat and dog Mrp2 reported previously. Mrp2 cDNAs were isolated from BALB/c and Macaca fascicularis liver, respectively, and vesicle transport studies were performed using recombinant Mrp2s expressed in insect Sf9 cells. ATP-dependent transport of [3H]leukotriene C4 (LTC4), 3[H]17β-estradiol 17-(β-d-glucuronide) (E217βG), [3H]bromosulfophthalein (BSP), and [3H]cholecystokinin octapeptide (CCK-8) were readily detected for all Mrp2s. A species difference in the intrinsic transport activity was apparent for LTC4 (monkey > mouse, dog > rat) and BSP (rat, dog, monkey > mouse). In addition to the difference in the transport activity, complex kinetic profiles were also evident in CCK-8, where a cooperative transport site was observed. Moreover, the transport of [3H]E217βG by mouse and monkey Mrp2 was quite different from that of rat and dog Mrp2 in that 1) there was practically only nonsaturable uptake for [3H]E217βG and 2) 4-methylumbelliferon glucuronide (Mrp2 modulator) showed a concentration-dependent stimulatory effect on the transport of [3H]E217βG in mouse and monkey Mrp2, whereas rat and dog transport activity was inhibited by the modulator. In conclusion, although the substrate specificity is similar, the intrinsic transport activity differs from one species to another. This is due not only to the difference in the Km and Vmax values, but also the qualitatively different mode of substrate and modulator recognition exhibited by different species.
Shortened Outflow Tract Leads to Altered Cardiac Looping After Neural Crest Ablation

Background—Congenital conotruncal malformations frequently involve dextroposed aorta. The pathogenesis of dextroposed aorta is not known but is thought to be due to abnormal looping and/or wedging of the outflow tract during early heart development. We examined the stage of cardiac looping in an experimental model of dextroposed aorta to determine the embryogenesis of this conotruncal malformation. Methods and Results—Hearts were examined from neural crest–ablated embryos by using videocinephotography, scanning electron microscopy, and histological sections. The inflow and outflow limbs of the looped cardiac tube were malpositioned with respect to each other, the inner curvature was diminished, and the outflow limb was straighter and displaced cranially in a manner consistent with diminished length. The altered length could be explained by a significant reduction in the number of cells added to the myocardium of the distal outflow tract from the secondary heart field. Conclusions—The data are consistent with research showing that normal looping and wedging are essential for normal alignment of the aorta with the left ventricle. These processes are abnormal in neural crest–ablated embryos because of a failure of the outflow tract to lengthen by the addition of myocardial cells from the secondary heart field.