Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhaled Nitric Oxide: A Selective Pulmonary Vasodilator Current Uses and Therapeutic Potential

Since the recognition of nitric oxide (NO) as a key endothelial-derived vasodilator molecule in 1987, the field of NO research has expanded to encompass many areas of biomedical research. It is now well established that NO is an important signaling molecule throughout the body. The therapeutic potential of inhaled NO as a selective pulmonary vasodilator was suggested in a lamb model of pulmonary hypertension and in patients with pulmonary hypertension in 1991.1,2 Because NO is scavenged by hemoglobin (Hb) on diffusing into the blood and is thereby rapidly inactivated, the vasodilatory effect of inhaled NO is limited largely to the lung. This is in contrast to intravenously infused vasodilators that can cause systemic vasodilation and severe systemic arterial hypotension. Recent data indicate that inhaled NO can be applied in various diseases. For example, studies suggest that inhaled NO is a safe and effective agent to determine the vasodilatory capacity of the pulmonary vascular bed. This article summarizes the pharmacology and physiology of inhaled NO and reviews the current uses of inhaled NO for the treatment, evaluation, and prevention of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. ### Chemistry of NO Gas NO is a colorless, odorless gas that is only slightly soluble in water.3 NO and its oxidative byproducts (eg, NO2 and N2O4) are produced by the partial oxidation of atmospheric nitrogen in internal combustion engines, in the burning cinder cones of cigarettes, and in lightning storms. Medical-grade NO gas is produced under carefully controlled conditions, diluted with pure nitrogen, and stored in the absence of oxygen. The recent article by Williams4 provides a review of the chemistry of NO. ### Therapeutic Versus Endogenous NO Concentrations in the Airway Although early studies of inhaled NO in the treatment of pulmonary hypertension used concentrations of 5 to 80 ppm, it has since been realized that concentrations >20 ppm provide little additional …
Improving Depth Estimation Using Superpixels

This work is focused on assigning a depth label to each pixel in the image. We consider off-the-shelf algorithms that provide depth information from multiple views or depth information directly obtained from RGB-d sensors. Both of them are common scenarios of a well studied problem where many times we get incomplete depth information. Then, user interaction becomes necessary to ﬁnish, improve or correct the solution for certain applications where accurate and dense depth information for all pixels in the image is needed. This work presents our approach to improve the depth assigned to each pixel in an automated manner. Our proposed pipeline combines state-of-the art methods for image superpixel segmentation and energy minimization. Superpixel segmentation reduces complexity and provides more robustness to the labeling decisions. We study how to propagate the depth information to incomplete or inconsistent regions of the image using a Markov Random Field (MRF) energy minimization framework. We propose and evaluate an energy function and validate it together with the designed pipeline. We present a quantitative evaluation of our approach with different variations to show the improvements we can obtain. This is done using a publicly available stereo dataset that provides ground truth information. We show additional qualitatively results, with other tests cases and scenarios using different input depth information, where we also obtain signiﬁcant improvements on the depth estimation compared to the initial one. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS) : I.4. 6 [Image Processing and Computer Vision]
Age-Related Frontal Periventricular White Matter Hyperintensities and miR-92a-3p Are Associated with Early-Onset Post-Stroke Depression

Objective: To explore the correlationship among white matter hyperintensities (WMHs), miR-92a-3p and early-onset post-stroke depression (PSD). Methods: We recruited consecutively 238 patients with acute cerebral infarction and MRI examination in the Department of neurology, Ruijin hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine. The diagnosis of early-onset PSD was made in accordance with DSM-IV criteria for depression in 2 weeks after stroke. Clinical information and assessments of stroke severity were recorded on admission. The analysis of plasma miR-92a-3p was performed using quantitative PCR at the same time. WMHs were evaluated by the Fazekas and Scheltens visual rating scales. The relationship among WMHs, miR-92a-3p and PSD were analyzed by SPSS 22.0 software. Results: Logistic regression demonstrated that periventricular WMHs (PVWMHs) in frontal caps was an independent risk factor with early-onset PSD (OR = 1.579, 95% CI: 1.040–2.397, p = 0.032). The age and numbers of lacunes were related to frontal PVWMHs. Plasma miR-92a-3p in the PSD group was higher compared with the non-depressed group. Receiver operating curve analysis revealed that miR-92a-3p could predict early-onset PSD with 90% sensitivity and 90% specificity. The higher miR-92a-3p trended toward association with greater frontal PVWMHs. Conclusion: Acute ischemic stroke patients with frontal PVWMHs or a high plasma miR-92a-3p at baseline were more likely to develop early-onset PSD. MiR-92a-3p might be involved in the white matter impairment and post-stroke depression.
Etude des mécanismes d'actions neurobiologiques de la thérapie EMDR dans le trouble de stress post-traumatique

Le Trouble de Stress Post-Traumatique (TSPT) est une pathologie frequente, touchant pres de 8 % de la population generale. Cette pathologie psychiatrique s’exprime par un carre symptomatique incluant un syndrome de repetition, d’evitement, une hyperactivation neurovegetative ainsi qu’une alteration negative des cognitions et de l’humeur. Un des traitements les plus efficaces dans cette pathologie est une psychotherapie nommee EMDR pour Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. Bien que cette therapie ne soit plus a faire la preuve de son efficacite, les mecanismes d’actions de celle-ci demeurent encore aujourd’hui a l’etat d’hypothese. L’objectif de notre travail de these fut d’explorer le mecanisme d’action de la therapie EMDR a travers differents paradigmes en EEG, TEP-scanner et IRMf, en comparant l’activite cerebrale avant et apres traitement ou pendant les stimulations bilaterales alternees. Nous avons pu demontrer que la therapie EMDR modifiait l’activite cerebrale d’un reseau cerebral implique dans le traitement emotionnel et la memoire et d’une structure en particulier, le precuneus. Les stimulations bilaterales alternees qui sous-tendent l’action de l’EMDR activent elles aussi une partie de ce reseau expliquant l’impact de l’EMDR sur la memoire traumatique. Pour la premiere fois, nous avons egalement montre que l’activite du precuneus avant traitement est capable de predire l’intensite de la diminution des symptomes de TSPT. La duree du sommeil paradoxal avant traitement permet quant a elle de predire le nombre de seances necessaires pour obtenir la remission.
Structure and properties of TiN coatings deposited by filtered vacuum-arc plasma in the gas mixture N2 with Ar

Results of the study of structure, state of stress and hardness of TiN coatings deposited with PIII&D by using rectilinear filtered vacuum arc plasma system are present. Study the effect of argon addition into the nitrogen environment in the range from 0 to 45 % on characteristics of coatings deposited with application of a high pulse bias potential with amplitude of 1 kV have been performed. It was found that the coatings have a structure of TiN (structural type NaCl) with the [110] axial texture regardless of the concentration of argon in the gas mixture. With increasing the content of argon the level of residual stress is increased from 7 GPa to 10 GPa, the grain size in the coatings is reduced from 8-9 nm to 7 nm, and the coating hardness remains at a high level 27-32 GPa.
Mixed-state particle filters for multiaspect target tracking in image sequences

We introduce in this paper new mixed-state particle filter algorithms for direct target tracking in image sequences in a scenario where the true target template is unknown and changes randomly from frame to frame. We present two versions of the mixed-state particle filter tracker using respectively the sampling/importance resampling (SIR) technique and the alternative auxiliary particle filter (APF) method. Monte Carlo simulation results with heavily cluttered image sequences generated from real infrared airborne radar (IRAR) data show that the proposed algorithms have good performance and compare favorably to an alternative grid-based HMM filter by yielding similar steady-state root mean-square error (RMSE) at a much lower computational cost.
Ensembles of Selected and Evolved Predictors using Genetic Algorithms for Time Series Prediction

This work proposes the use of Neural Networks Ensembles to predict future values of an electrical load time series. At first, to generate these ensembles it is necessary to make several predictions of the same time series using various different networks in which every single one alone is sufficiently competent to predict the above mentioned time series. Therefore, we applied Genetic Algorithms to evolve the parameters of four types of networks: MLPs Neural Networks, Recurrent Neural Networks, Radial Basis Neural Networks and Neuro-fuzzy Networks. As a result, we came up with a set of genetically evolved networks as possible candidates to compose the final ensemble. Finally, in order to achieve a better model, selections (using Genetic Algorithms) of the most suitable networks were made to compose the final ensembles.
Attention and working memory training: A feasibility study in children with neurodevelopmental disorders

ABSTRACT The current study investigated the efficacy of a game-based process specific intervention for improving attention and working memory in children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The Caribbean Quest (CQ) is a ‘serious game’ that consists of five hierarchically structured tasks, delivered in an adaptive format, targeting different aspects of attention and/or working memory. In addition to game play, the intervention incorporates metacognitive strategies provided by trained educational assistants (EAs), to facilitate generalization and far transfer to academic and daily skills. EAs delivered the intervention to children (ages 6–13) during their regular school day, providing children with instruction in metacognitive strategies to improve game play, with participants completing approximately 12 hours of training over an 8 to 12 school week period. Pre- and post-test analyses revealed significant improvement on measures of working memory and attention, including reduced distractibility and improved divided attention skills. Additionally, children showed significant gains in performance on an academic measure of reading fluency, suggesting that training-related gains in attention and working memory transferred to classroom performance. Exit interviews with EAs revealed that the intervention was easily delivered within the school day, that children enjoyed the intervention, and that children transferred metacognitive strategies learned in game play into the classroom. Preliminary results support this game-based process specific intervention as a potentially effective treatment and useful tool for supporting cognitive improvements in children with FASD or ASD, when delivered as part of an overall treatment plan.
HMGA2 Regulates Transcription of the Imp2 Gene via an Intronic Regulatory Element in Cooperation with Nuclear Factor-κB

IMP2 (insulin-like growth factor-II mRNA binding protein 2) is an oncofetal protein that is aberrantly expressed in several types of cancer. We recently identified the Imp2 gene as a target gene of the architectural transcription factor HMGA2 (high mobility group A2) and its tumor-specific truncated form HMGA2Tr. In this study, we investigated the mechanism via which HMGA2 regulates Imp2 gene expression. We show that HMGA2 and HMGA2Tr directly regulate transcription of the Imp2 gene by binding to an AT-rich regulatory region located in the first intron. In reporter experiments, we show that this AT-rich regulatory region mimics the response of the endogenous Imp2 gene to HMGA2 and HMGA2Tr. Furthermore, we show that a consensus nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) binding site located immediately adjacent to the AT-rich regulatory region binds NF-κB and that NF-κB and HMGA2 cooperate to regulate Imp2 gene expression. Finally, we provide evidence that there is a strong and statistically significant correlation between HMGA2 and IMP2 gene expression in human liposarcomas. (Mol Cancer Res 2007;5(4):363–72)
Associations of physical activity and inactivity with low back pain in adolescents

Low back pain (LBP) is a common health problem already in adolescence. Physical activity has been suggested as a risk factor for LBP in adolescents, but the current evidence is conflicting. This study examined the association of physical activity and amount of sitting with LBP. The study population consisted of 5999 boy and girl members of the Northern Finland 1986 birth cohort who responded to mailed questions at the age of 15–16 years. LBP during the past 6 months was classified as “no LBP,”“reporting LBP” (not seeking medical help), or “consultation for LBP. ” Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals obtained by multinomial logistic regression were adjusted for smoking and body mass index. Being physically very active (more than 6 h of brisk physical activity per week) was associated with increased prevalence of “consultation for LBP” in both sexes, and with “reporting LBP” in girls, compared with being moderately active (2–3 h of brisk physical activity per week). High amount of sitting associated with “consultation for LBP” and “reporting LBP” in girls, but not in boys. We conclude that very active participation in physical activities in both sexes and a high amount of sitting in girls are related to self‐reported LBP.
Treatment of functional mitral regurgitation by percutaneous annuloplasty using the Carillon Mitral Contour System—Currently available data state

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to provide a systematic review of currently available data about the percutaneous trans-coronary-venous mitral annuloplasty with the Carillon Mitral Contour System. METHOD A systematic literature search was conducted using the common medical and scientific databases. The documented parameters included among others grade of mitral regurgitation (MR), vena contracta (VC), effective regurgitant orifice area (EROA), 6 minute-walk-test (6MWT), NYHA-classification, and Quality of Life (QoL) at baseline, 30 days and in the long-term follow-up. RESULTS The exact total number of successfully implantations with available data remains unclear because so many publications are either of the same institution or study group, or they present overlapping results. Reduction of functional mitral regurgitation (FMR) was associated with significant inverse left-ventricular (LV)) remodeling, improvement in 6MWT, QoL and NYHA-class during the 12-month follow-up. In almost half of the enrolled patients, the Carillon System could not be implanted or had to be removed due to coronary compromission. Adverse advent rate (AE) ranged between 2.8-39%. CONCLUSIONS Results with regard to reduction of MR and inverse LV remodeling have been remarkable. Indication and selection criteria for suitable patients, the expected complications, and the long-term results with regard to survival and quality of life still remain unclear. The available results do not establish superiority of the Carillon Mitral Contour System and support the lack of a clear benefit. The approach with the Carillon Mitral Contour System should be limited to participants of prospective and randomized trials.
Is Rising Inequality a Hindrance to the US Economic Recovery

The US economy has been expanding moderately since the official end of the Great Recession in 2009. The budget deficit has been steadily decreasing, inflation has remained in check, and the unemployment rate has fallen to 6.7 percent. The restrictive fiscal policy stance of the past three years has exerted a negative influence on aggregate demand and growth, which has been offset by rising domestic private demand; net exports have had only a negligible (positive) effect on growth. As Wynne Godley noted in 1999, in the Strategic Analysis Seven Unsustainable Processes, if an economy faces sluggish net export demand and fiscal policy is restrictive, economic growth becomes dependent on the private sector's continuing to spend in excess of its income. However, this continuous excess is not sustainable in the medium and long run. Therefore, if spending were to stop rising relative to income, without either fiscal relaxation or a sharp recovery in net exports, the impetus driving the expansion would evaporate and output could not grow fast enough to stop unemployment from rising. Moreover, because growth is so dependent on "rising private borrowing," the real economy "is at the mercy of the stock market to an unusual extent. " As proved by the crisis of 2001 and the Great Recession of 2007-09, Godley's analysis turned out to be correct. Fifteen years later, the US economy appears to be going down the same road again. Postrecession, foreign demand is still weak and the government is maintaining its tight fiscal stance. Once again, the recovery predicted in the latest Congressional Budget Office report relies on excessive private sector borrowing, and once again, the recovery is at the mercy of the stock market. Given that the income distribution has worsened since the crisis--continuing a 35-year trend--the burden of indebtedness will again fall disproportionally on the middle class and the poor. In order for the CBO projections to materialize, households in the bottom 90 percent of the distribution would have to start accumulating debt again in line with the prerecession trend while the stock of debt of the top 10 percent remained at its present level. Clearly, this process is unsustainable. The United States now faces a choice between two undesirable outcomes: a prolonged period of low growth—secular stagnation--or a bubble-fueled expansion that will end with a serious financial and economic crisis. The only way out of this dilemma is a reversal of the trend toward greater income inequality.
Ciclosporin administration during pregnancy induces ultrastructural changes on pancreatic beta-cells of newborn rats.

Ciclosporin (CS) is an immunosuppressive agent used in the prevention of graft rejections and in the management of type 1 diabetes. However, the drug is not without side effects. The aim of this study was to evaluate eventual cytotoxic phenomena in the pancreas of newborn rats whose mothers had been treated with therapeutic doses of CS. For this purpose, 25 female Wistar rats were used, 20 of which were subjected to daily injections of 10 mg/kg BW/day i.p. of CS dissolved in Intralipid, administered during the whole gestational period. The results obtained indicated that CS did not arrest fetal development, even though the number of newborns per mother was reduced when compared to controls. Moreover, mothers and newborn rats were subjected to vacuolation of kidney proximal tubular cells and of the insulin-secreting pancreatic beta-cells. This alteration was more evident in the islet beta-cells of newborn rats. Therefore, CS is not only toxic to the mothers' endocrine beta-cells but also to those of any eventual offspring.
Experimental RF-signal based wireless energy transmission

The distributed measurement and control systems employing wireless connectivity are commonly seen as the key enablers for many novel industry, retail and consumer applications. Even though, the fast spread of large wireless sensor networks today is obstructed by the absence of solutions, which are at the same time dependable, and can minimize both capital and operational expenditures. In this respect the devices, which are powered with the energy collected from their environment, look very attractive. Among all of them, the systems collecting the energy from a designated wireless (i.e., radio frequency (RF)) channel can often enjoy a more stable energy income, which makes them more dependable than their counterparts. Due to this reason, in the current paper we focus on and discuss the key techniques and design aspects enabling development of a real-life RF-powered wireless sensor device. Namely, we address the problems of designing an antenna and the energy harvesting circuit with feasible efficiency. In addition, we detail particular aspects related to the design of a sensor node and optimizing its computing and communication. The developed device is tested in harsh environment as a part of a fast rotating mechanical structure, showing the feasibility of the proposed solutions. The technology discussed in the paper is an important part of the upcoming 5G and IoT development and deployment.
Novel Neuroprotective Tripeptides and Dipeptides

Abstract: It has long been recognized that thyrotropin‐releasing hormone (TRH) and certain TRH analogues are neuroprotective in a variety of animal models of CNS trauma. In addition to these neuroprotective actions, TRH and most TRH analogues have other physiological actions that may not be desirable for treatment of acute injury, such as analeptic, autonomic, and endocrine effects. We have developed a series of dual‐substituted TRH analogues that have strong neuroprotective actions, but are largely devoid of these other physiological actions. In addition, we have developed a family of cyclized dipeptides (diketopiperazines), structurally somewhat related to a metabolic product of TRH, that appear even more effective as neuroprotective agents in vitro and in vivo, and may have nootropic properties. Here, we review these novel tripeptide and dipeptide compounds.
Cloud Security Risk Management: A Critical Review

Cloud computing has created a remarkable paradigm shift in the IT industry and brought several advantages such as on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service. These advantages enabled cloud to have significant impact on different sectors of smart cites. However, cloud adoption has increased the sophistication of the ever changing security risks which frustrate enterprises on expanding their on-premises infrastructure towards cloud horizons. These risks have the potential of being a major concern for smart cities due to the increasing impact of cloud on them. Managing these security risks requires adopting effective risk management method which involve both the cloud service provider and the customer. The risk management frameworks currently applied to manage enterprise IT risks do not readily fit the cloud environment and the dynamic nature of clouds, which are characterized by on demand self-service and rapid elasticity. Therefore, researchers have proposed different cloud security risk management methods and frameworks. This paper critically reviews these risk management methods and frameworks. In addition, it conducts critical analysis on two of them using qualitative content analysis technique, and evaluates their effectiveness for assessing and mitigating cloud security risks.