Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electrophysiological Changes of Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes during Acute Hypoxia and Reoxygenation

Ischemic heart disease is the most common cardiovascular disease and a major burden for healthcare worldwide. However, its pathophysiology is still not fully understood, and human-based models for disease mechanisms and treatments are needed. Here, we used human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) to model acute ischemia-reperfusion in our novel cell culture assembly. The assembly enables exchange of oxygen partial pressure for the cells within minutes, mimicking acute ischemic event. In this study, hypoxia was induced using 0% O2 gas for three hours and reoxygenation with 19% O2 gas for 24 hours in serum- and glucose-free medium. According to electrophysiological recordings, hypoxia decreased the hiPSC-CM-beating frequency and field potential (FP) amplitude. Furthermore, FP depolarization time and propagation slowed down. Most of the electrophysiological changes reverted during reoxygenation. However, immunocytochemical staining of the hypoxic and reoxygenation samples showed that morphological changes and changes in the sarcomere structure did not revert during reoxygenation but further deteriorated. qPCR results showed no significant differences in apoptosis or stress-related genes or in the expression of glycolytic genes. In conclusion, the hiPSC-CMs reproduced many characteristic changes of adult CMs during ischemia and reperfusion, indicating their usefulness as a human-based model of acute cardiac ischemia-reperfusion.
A Preliminary Comparison between Traditional and Gamified Leg Agility Assessment in Parkinsonian Subjects

Parkinson's disease (PD) severity is assessed through a set of standardised tasks defined by clinical scales such as the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). In particular, Leg Agility is a well-established test among the motor tasks included in UPDRS, which consists in repeated cycles of knee lifting and lowering, while sitting on a chair. Leg Agility objective evaluation through optical devices is often investigated for telemedicine applications. Moreover, remote rehabilitation for PD subjects through virtual exergaming is becoming a popular approach thanks to its versatility, increased user engagement and the possibility of coupling it with remote monitoring tools. This work investigates if lower-limb exergaming may also be exploited for assessment purposes similar to traditional evaluation. In particular, if there exists a statistical difference between the kinematic description of Leg Agility versus the one of a Bouncing Ball exergame, as provided by an optical (RGB-D) acquisition system suitable for remote monitoring. Preliminary results obtained by the comparison of the two types of assessment in a small group of parkinsonian subjects are presented and discussed.
Optimizing Energy Utilization of Flexible Deep Neural Network Accelerators via Cache Incorporation

There exists, to a great degree, the ever-growing desire to stress the limits of what is possible. This is especially true in an era one could ostensibly describe as “limitless advancement. ” This advancement, however, comes with implicit costs. Costs which, at times, seldom make headlines. Costs which, if left unminimized or unmaintained, halt limitless advancement. For the purposes germane to this research, one can ascribe the implicit cost to energy. Specifically, the energy expenditures attributed to the installment of so-called flexible deep neural network accelerators. This body of research, then, aims to lower the energy requirements of these systems, in terms of leakage and dynamic energy, via subtle yet critical incorporation of a cache.
A low-cost, low-power and low-size multi-parameter station for real-time and online monitoring of the coastal area

The seashore is the front door to the oceans and the sustain of many societies. However, humans still seem to be unable to unlock new paradigms to project sustainable growth of marine and coastal ecosystems. One of the reasons for this is the lack of knowledge about the natural processes that systematically change their balance. Thus, a new generation of tools is needed to gather data to validate and predict geostatistical models and protect this important resource. This manuscript reports the design and validation of a multi-parameter marine station installed in the estuary of Cávado - Portugal. For the last two years, the station has hosted several own-developed sensors to monitor water parameters, and it was designed to send the monitoring data, in real-time, to a public website so the information can be shared with the communities. So far, the monitoring station has been able to produce data about hydraulic and environmental dynamics, such as water column height or sediment displacement, as well as seasonal events and other extreme phenomena occurrences such as floods. The proposed monitoring system, built in a low-power and low-cost philosophy, aims to allow massive replication all over the coastal areas and to deliver qualitative and quantitative data for better management and planning of the littoral.
TizBin: A Low-Power Image Sensor with Event and Object Detection Using Efficient Processing-in-Pixel Schemes

In the Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) era, always-on intelligent and self-powered visual perception systems have gained considerable attention and are widely used. Thus, this paper proposes TizBin, a low-power processing in-sensor scheme with event and object detection capabilities to eliminate power costs of data conversion and transmission and enable data-intensive neural network tasks. Once the moving object is detected, TizBin architecture switches to the high-power object detection mode to capture the image. TizBin offers several unique features, such as analog convolutions enabling low-precision ternary weight neural networks (TWNN) to mitigate the overhead of analog buffer and analog-to-digital converters. Moreover, TizBin exploits non-volatile magnetic RAMs to store NN’s weights, remarkably reducing static power consumption. Our circuit-to-application co-simulation results for TWNNs demonstrate minor accuracy degradation on various image datasets, while TizBin achieves a frame rate of 1000 and efficiency of ∼1.83 TOp/s/W.
Ultrasonic Diagnosis and Management of Posthemorrhagic Ventricular Dilatation in Premature Infants: A Narrative Review

The survival rate of preterm infants is increasing as a result of technological advances. The incidence of intraventricular hemorrhages (IVH) in preterm infants ranges from 25% to 30%, of which 30% to 50% are severe IVH (Volpe III-IV, Volpe III is defined as intraventricular bleeding occupying more than 50% of the ventricular width and acute lateral ventricle dilatation, Volpe IV is defined as intraventricular hemorrhage combined with venous infarction) and probably lead to posthemorrhagic ventricular dilatation (PHVD). Severe IVH and subsequent PHVD have become the leading causes of brain injury and neurodevelopmental dysplasia in preterm infants. This review aims to review the literature on the diagnosis and therapeutic strategies for PHVD and provide some recommendations for management to improve the neurological outcomes.
Strategies to increase success in learning programming

Programming is a special activity, which requires very special skills. Creativity, problem solving, persistence, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, commitment, dedication and hard work are some of the skills and characteristics required of those who learn programming. They are also essential characteristics to face all the challenges of the 21st century. Learning programming is a good way to practice and develop these skills. That is why most courses, in the most diverse areas of knowledge, include programming in their curricula. However, programming courses have a bad reputation. These courses have high failure and dropout rates. It is recognized by the whole scientific community in the area that there are problems and difficulties in teaching and learning programming. With this work we want to present our set of strategies and results in the improvement of our system of teaching and learning initial programming, and with that also contribute to the development and resolution of the problem. In this work, we describe a set of activities related to the initial learning of programming with good results. We present the results of the application of a machine-learning model for predicting student failure, with excellent accuracy and precision results. Finally, we argue the improvements in our teaching system and initial learning of programming, with the final results of the course of the last 5 years.
T matrix for electromagnetic scattering from an arbitrary number of scatterers and representations of E(3)

The T-matrix formulation of electromagnetic scattering given previously by Waterman for the case of one scatterer is extended to the case of an arbitrary number of scatterers. The resulting total T matrix is expressed in terms of the individual T matrices by an iterative procedure. The essential tools used in the extension are the expansions associated with a translation of the origin for the spherical-wave solutions of Helmholtz's equation. The connection between these expansions and the unitary irreducible representations and associated local representations of the threedimensional Euclidean group E(3) is emphasized. Some applications to two spheres are given. (auth)
Histopathological and Oxidative Stress Response of Oreochromis niloticus Exposed to Varying Concentrations of Sawdust Extract

Persistent dumping of sawdust on water banks and or directly into water bodies as a consequence of sawmilling activities is becoming alarming. This study therefore evaluated the effect of sawdust extract on some selected physiological parameters such as histopathology and oxidative stress response using O. niloticus as test organism. O. niloticus were divided into four groups based on exposure concentration to sawdust extract (0%, 1/10, 1/100 and 1/1000 of LC50 respectively) in triplicates. Heavy metals composition was evaluated using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Phytochemical analysis of sawdust, physico-chemical studies of the cultured water, histopathological and antioxidant enzyme activities were carried out using standard methods. Result showed the presence of metals such as iron, cadmium, zinc, copper and magnesium as well as the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, steroid, phenols, terpenoid, saponin and anthraquinone in the sawdust extract. There was no significant difference in the water temperature and pH of the cultured water of O. niloticus exposed to the varying concentrations of the sawdust. Dissolved oxygen was however highest in the control water and reduced with increase in the concentrations of sawdust extract exposure. Disintegrated lamella was observed in the intestine and gills, and graded necrosis, in the liver of O. niloticus exposed to sawdust extract. There were inhibitions in the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) of both liver and kidney of O. niloticus exposed to sawdust extract. Activity of malondialdehyde (MDA) however, increased with increased extract concentration. This study has therefore shown that sawdust extract could cause tissue - organ architectural distortions and induce oxidative stress in O. niloticus.
The Statistics of gravitational lenses: The Distributions of image angular separations and lens redshifts

An analytical calculation is presented which determines the probability that the light from a distant quasar can be lensed by objects in a different redshift range. Three types of information are used to make the calculation: (1) the physical properties of the intervening scattering lenses; (2) the intrinsic properties of the quasars and (3) the selection procedures by which the quasar samples are acquired. A series of differential equations is given in which the probability is derived, and a number of recommendations are offered with respect to VLA and Space Telescope observations of quasars lensed in this way.
Recycling Pomelo Peel Waste in the Form of Hydrochar Obtained by Microwave-Assisted Hydrothermal Carbonization

Pomelo peel (PP) is a kind of solid waste that is produced in the processing industry of honey pomelo. This study deeply explored the feasibility of recycling PP in the form of hydrochar (HC) by microwave-assisted hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) technology. Under the non-catalytic reaction conditions, the yield of hydrochar initially increased with the rise of reaction temperature (150–210 °C) until it remained relatively stable after 210 °C. Under the CaO-catalytical reaction condition, the yield of hydrochar did not change much at first (150–190 °C) but decreased significantly when the reaction temperature exceeded 190 °C. After the microwave-assisted HTC treatment, the PP-derived HC presented higher aromaticity, carbonization degree, porosity, and caloric value. Compared with raw PP, the nutrients in HC were more stable (conducive to being used as slow-release fertilizer). The application of CaO increased the pH value of HC and effectively promoted the accumulation of phosphorus in HC. The HC produced at 210 °C without any catalyst possessing a high devolatilization ability. Additionally, the HC obtained at 190 °C with CaO as the catalyst presented a high combustion property. In general, PP-derived HC showed great application potential in the field of soil remediation/improvement and solid fuels. This preliminary study would undoubtedly provide some important fundamental understanding of the microwave-assisted HTC of PP.
The Effect of Air Pollution Control Auditing on Reducing Carbon Emissions: Evidence from China

Analyzing the carbon-emission-reduction mechanism from the perspective of air pollution control auditing is of great practical significance for China to implement the dual-carbon strategy. Based on the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2004 to 2018, we examine whether and how the auditing of air pollution control has an impact on carbon emission reduction by using multiple regression method and the mediating analysis. Our analyses show that air pollution control auditing can significantly restrain carbon emissions but has no impact on carbon emission intensity. Further research suggests that (1) the bottom-up audit represented by local audit institutions is more effective than the top-down audit represented by the National Audit Office; (2) air pollution control auditing follows a simple and direct method to curb carbon emissions by output reduction, regulation, and shutdown, rather than promoting technological progress and green transformation of enterprises in a high-quality development mode. Those findings provide an improvement direction for air pollution control auditing to contribute to carbon emission reduction and supply relevant policy references for implementing the dual carbon strategy.
Visual latency difference determined by two rotating Pulfrich techniques

We tested the validity of Nickalls’ formula for determining visual latency difference by using two rotating Pulfrich techniques: (A) varying viewing distance while keeping target angular velocity constant (33 rev/min) and (B) varying the target angular velocity while keeping the viewing distance constant (180 cm). The formula predicts that the latency differences estimated by the two techniques are equal with a given neutral density filter. Observers were asked to judge whether or not the rotating target (clockwise) appeared to move back-and-forth from side-to-side with a neutral density filter (OD = 0.7, 1.0, 1.3) in front of the right eye. The results with ten observers showed that the mean visual latency differences associated with each technique for a given filter were not significantly different. These results further validate the Nickalls’ formula and, therefore, support the visual-latency hypothesis to account for the Pulfrich phenomenon.
An Analysis of Bayesian Inference for Nonparametric Regression

Abstract : The observation model Y sub i = Beta(i/n) + epsilon sub i, 1 or = n, is considered, where the epsilon's are i.i. d. mean zero and variance sigma-sq and beta is an unknown smooth function. A Gaussian prior distribution is specified by assuming beta is the solution of a high order stochastic differential equation. The estimation error delta = beta - beta-average is analyzed, where beta-average is the posterior expectation of beta. Asymptotic posterior and sampling distributional approximations are given for (abs. val del)square when (abs. val)square is one of a family of norms natural to the problem. It is shown that the frequentist coverage probability of a variety of (1 - alpha) posterior probability regions tends to be larger than 1 - alpha, but will be infinitely often less than any epsilon 0 as n approaches infinity with prior probability 1. A related continuous time signal estimation problem is also studied. Keywords: Bayesian inference; Nonparametric regression; Confidence regions; Signal extraction: Smoothing splices.
Fluorination of Terminal Groups Promoting Electron Transfer in Small Molecular Acceptors of Bulk Heterojunction Films

The fluorination strategy is one of the most efficient and popular molecular modification methods to develop new materials for organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells. For OPV materials, it is a broad agreement that fluorination can reduce the energy level and change the morphology of active layers. To explore the effect of fluorination on small molecule acceptors, we selected two non-fullerene acceptors (NFA) based bulk heterojunction (BHJ) films, involving PM6:Y6 and PM6:Y5 as model systems. The electron mobilities of the PM6:Y5 and PM6:Y6 BHJ films are 5.76 × 10−7 cm2V−1s−1 and 5.02 × 10−5 cm2V−1s−1 from the space-charge-limited current (SCLC) measurements. Through molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, it is observed that halogen bonds can be formed between Y6 dimers, which can provide external channels for electron carrier transfer. Meanwhile, the “A-to-A” type J-aggregates are more likely to be generated between Y6 molecules, and the π–π stacking can be also enhanced, thus increasing the charge transfer rate and electron mobility between Y6 molecules.
Large Scale Adaptive Beamforming

Array antennas may be built with I/Q digital I/O for each antenna element. Technology in data convertors and digital signal processing components and packaging has advanced sufficiently such that advanced algorithms may be implemented in or adjacent to the array antenna. Digitization down to the element level dramatically increases the array data rates, but localized signal processing can significantly reduce those data rates. However, the benefits of element level digitization at or near the antenna can be achieved by implementation of the algorithms in the FPGA.
A Process-Scalable Ultra-Low-Voltage Sleep Timer With a Time-Domain Amplifier and a Switch-Less Resistance Multiplier

The on-chip sleep timer is a compact and cost-effective solution that provides high-precision temperature accuracy through the use of a lookup table (LUT) and dedicated temperature sensor (TS). However, maintaining energy efficiency while integrating an accurate sleep timer is challenging due to the significant increase in leakage currents with process scaling and temperature. The proposed sleep timer overcomes these limitations by utilizing an ultra-low-voltage (ULV) frequency-locked-loop (FLL) architecture, a time-domain amplifier (TDA), and a switch-less resistance multiplier (SLRM) with a gate-leakage-leveraging technique. The prototype integrated circuit (IC), fabricated in a 65-nm CMOS, achieves a 2.73-ppm/°C temperature dependency with calibration based on an LUT while consuming only 63 nW at a 0.4-V supply and producing a 180-kHz frequency.
Miniaturized half mode substrate integrated waveguide cavity resonator and filter with good spurious suppression

A miniaturized cavity resonator based on the half mode substrate integrated waveguide (HMSIW) technology is proposed and investigated in this paper to reduce the circuit area of a conventional substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) cavity resonator much more. Such a miniaturized resonator is built up by a two-layer HMSIW cavity loaded with a modified complementary split ring resonator (CSRR) etched on its middle conductor plate. Then, the proposed miniaturized cavity resonator is employed to design an S-band fourth-element bandpass filter. The center frequency is 3 GHz and the average insertion loss is 1.2 dB within the in-band. The total circuit area is only , i.e., 7% of the size of a conventional SIW fourth-element bandpass filter. It presents a good and wideband spurious suppression because the first higher order resonant mode of the used resonator is far away from the operation band. Experimental and simulated results are in good agreement, both validating our design concept.
Relationship between Oral Function and Support/Care-Need Certification in Japanese Older People Aged ≥ 75 Years: A Three-Year Cohort Study

The aim was to examine the relationships between oral functions and support/care-need certification in older people aged ≥ 75 years using the National Health Insurance (NHI) database system and data from Kani City, Gifu, Japan. In total, 732 older Japanese people aged ≥ 75 years who did not have support/care-need certification and underwent dental check-ups in Kani City in 2017 were followed up until 2020. Chewing state, tongue and lip function, and swallowing function were assessed by a self-administered questionnaire, an oral diadochokinesis test, and a repetitive saliva-swallowing test, respectively. The presence or absence of systemic diseases and of support/care-need certification was based on data collected by the NHI database. At follow up, 121 (17%) participants had support/care-need certification. The participants with support/care-need certification included more women (p < 0.001) and older people (p < 0.001); and had more hypertension (p = 0.003), musculoskeletal disorders (p < 0.001), pneumonia (p = 0.044), poor chewing state (p < 0.001), and poor swallowing function (p = 0.003) than those without support/care-need certification. Furthermore, the presence of support/care-need certification at follow up was associated with sex (woman: odds ratio [OR], 2.120; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.354 to 3.317), age (OR, 1.203; CI, 1.139 to 1.270), chewing state (poor: OR, 2.534; CI, 1.409 to 4.557), and swallowing function (poor: OR, 2.372; CI, 1.248 to 4.510) at baseline. However, tongue and lip function were not associated with support/care-need certification. The results indicate that older Japanese people aged ≥ 75 years with a poor chewing state and poor swallowing function at baseline had a higher risk for support/care-need certification after three years.