Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Layer-by-layer films assembled from natural polymers for sustained release of neurotrophin

Cortical neural prostheses (CNPs) hold great promise for paralyzed patients by recording neural signals from the brain and translating them into movement commands. However, these electrodes normally fail to record neural signals weeks to months after implantation due to inflammation and neuronal loss around the implanted neural electrodes. Sustained local delivery of neurotrophins from biocompatible coatings on CNPs can potentially promote neuron survival and attract the nearby neurons to migrate toward the electrodes to increase neuron density at the electrode/brain interface, which is important for maintaining the recording quality and long-term performance of the implanted CNPs. However, sustained release of neurotrophins from biocompatible ultrathin coatings is very difficult to achieve. In this study, we investigated the potential of several biocompatible natural polyanions including heparin, dextran sulfate, and gelatin to form layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly with positively charged neurotrophin nerve growth factor (NGF) and its model protein lysozyme, and whether sustained release of NGF and lysozyme can be achieved from the nanoscale thin LbL coatings. We found that gelatin, which is less negatively charged than heparin and dextran sulfate, showed the highest efficacy in loading proteins into the LbL films because other interactions in addition to electrostatic interactions were involved in LbL assembly. Sustained release of NGF and lysozymes for approximately 2 weeks was achieved from the gelatin-based LbL coatings. Released NGF maintained the bioactivity to stimulate neurite outgrowth from PC12 cells. Gelatin is generally recognized as safe by the FDA. Thus, the biocompatible LbL coating developed in this study is highly promising to be used for implanted CNPs to improve their long-term performance in human patients.
A 1-V CMOS VCO for 60-GHz applications

An integrated 1-V, 50-GHz CMOS voltage-controlled-oscillator (VCO) is presented for the emerging 60-GHz UWB applications. Implemented in a commercial 0.18/spl mu/m CMOS technology, the core VCO circuitry consumes 4mW of power and occupies only 90/spl mu/m/spl times/120/spl mu/m of the silicon estate. The high quality-factor line inductors and NMOS varactors are used to construct the LC-resonators. The measured phase noise at 1-MHz offset from 49 GHz is -96 dBc/Hz, which leads to an excellent figure-of-merit (FOM) of -184 dBc/Hz.
Reconstitution of Muscarinic Modulation of the KCNQ2/KCNQ3 K+ Channels That Underlie the Neuronal M Current

Channels from KCNQ2 and KCNQ3 genes have been suggested to underlie the neuronal M-type K+ current. The M current is modulated by muscarinic agonists via G-proteins and an unidentified diffusible cytoplasmic messenger. Using whole-cell clamp, we studied tsA-201 cells in which cloned KCNQ2/KCNQ3 channels were coexpressed with M1 muscarinic receptors. Heteromeric KCNQ2/KCNQ3 currents were modulated by the muscarinic agonist oxotremorine-M (oxo-M) in a manner having all of the characteristics of modulation of native M current in sympathetic neurons. Oxo-M also produced obvious intracellular Ca2+ transients, observed by using indo-1 fluorescence. However, modulation of the current remained strong even when Ca2+ signals were abolished by the combined use of strong intracellular Ca2+ buffers, an inhibitor of IP3 receptors, and thapsigargin to deplete Ca2+ stores. Muscarinic modulation was not blocked by staurosporine, a broad-spectrum protein kinase inhibitor, arguing against involvement of protein kinases. The modulation was not associated with a shift in the voltage dependence of channel activation. Homomeric KCNQ2 and KCNQ3 channels also expressed well and were modulated individually by oxo-M, suggesting that the motifs for modulation are present on both channel subtypes. Homomeric KCNQ2 and KCNQ3 currents were blocked, respectively, at very low and at high concentrations of tetraethylammonium ion. Finally, when KCNQ2 subunits were overexpressed by intranuclear DNA injection in sympathetic neurons, total M current was fully modulated by the endogenous neuronal muscarinic signaling mechanism. Our data further rule out Ca2+ as the diffusible messenger. The reconstitution of muscarinic modulation of the M current that uses cloned components should facilitate the elucidation of the muscarinic signaling mechanism.
Enabling smart environments by avoiding TCP congestion through PINK: A no-drop AQM

This paper proposes PINK (Passive INverse feedbacK), a queue management algorithm designed to indirectly impose a certain resource allocation policy on defined sets of client hosts. PINK adds intelligence at intermediate nodes that connect client hosts to bottleneck links or to external networks in general, allowing these nodes to dynamically modify the TCP Acknowledgments (ACKs) segments passing through. This is made by setting TCP ACK advertised Receive Windows field (RCV.WNDs) to custom values, in order to enforce a specific bandwidth utilization upper bound. To compute new RCV.WND values, PINK needs only the number of active connections, the flows RTTs and the transmission channel bandwidth. It follows that PINK permits to impose a centralized bandwidth management without the cooperation of clients, which means that no modification or addition whatsoever to end hosts is needed with the goal of enabling a smart environment by simply configuring the access node. Furthermore, as demonstrated in this paper, our proposal does not constraints client hosts performance without purpose; on the contrary, PINK improves efficiency on multiplexed channels by exploiting channel throughput, maintaining a low queuing delay, and guaranteeing optimal flow fairness without forcing any packet drop.
Relaxation as Principal Treatment for Excessive Cigarette Use and Caffeine Ingestion by a College Female

A female graduate student with diagnosed tachycardia was the subject in an experiment to reduce consumption of caffeine and use of cigarettes. The relaxation procedure described by Benson was used as the principal treatment. Reinforcement cards for nonsmoking and elimination of caffeine were also used. The subject was successful in reducing her caffeine intake and completely extinguished use of cigarettes. She reported that she was still practicing the relaxation procedure 1 yr. later. Apparently these procedures can be helpful in modifying use of cigarettes and caffeine.
Breakdown of the coral-algae symbiosis: towards formalising a linkage between warm-water bleaching thresholds and the growth rate of the intracellular zooxanthellae

Impairment of the photosynthetic machinery of the algal endosymbiont ("zooxanthellae") is the proximal driver of the thermal breakdown of the coral-algae symbiosis ("coral bleaching"). Yet, the initial site of damage, and early dynamics of the impairment are still not well resolved. In this perspective essay, I consider further a recent hypothesis which proposes an energetic disruption to the carbon-concentrating mechanisms (CCMs) of the coral host, and the resultant onset of CO 2 -limitation within the photosynthetic "dark reactions" as a unifying cellular mechanism. The hypothesis identifies the enhanced retention of photosynthetic carbon for zooxanthellae (re)growth following an initial irradiance-driven expulsion event as a strong contributing cause of the energetic disruption. If true, then it implies that the onset of the bleaching syndrome and setting of upper thermal bleaching limits are emergent attributes of the coral symbiosis that are ultimately underpinned by the characteristic growth profile of the intracellular zooxanthellae; which is known to depend not just on temperature, but also external (seawater) nutrient availability and zooxanthellae genotype. Here, I review this proposed bleaching linkage at a variety of observational scales, and find it to be parsimonious with the available evidence. Future experiments are suggested that can more formally test the linkage. If correct, the new cellular model delivers a valuable new perspective to consider the future prospects of the coral symbiosis in an era of rapid environmental change, including: (i) the underpinning mechanics (and biological significance) of observed changes in resident zooxanthellae genotypes, and (ii) the now crucial importance of reef water quality in co-determining thermal bleaching resistance.
Optimal Distributed Generation Placement in Power Distribution Networks: Models, Methods, and Future Research

The integration of distributed generation (DG) units in power distribution networks has become increasingly important in recent years. The aim of the optimal DG placement (ODGP) is to provide the best locations and sizes of DGs to optimize electrical distribution network operation and planning taking into account DG capacity constraints. Several models and methods have been suggested for the solution of the ODGP problem. This paper presents an overview of the state of the art models and methods applied to the ODGP problem, analyzing and classifying current and future research trends in this field.
A Controlled Comparison of the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Two Psychological Therapies for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing vs. Emotional Freedom Techniques

The present study reports on the first ever controlled comparison between eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and emotional freedom techniques (EFT) for posttraumatic stress disorder. A total of 46 participants were randomized to either EMDR (n = 23) or EFT (n = 23). The participants were assessed at baseline and then reassessed after an 8-week waiting period. Two further blind assessments were conducted at posttreatment and 3-months follow-up. Overall, the results indicated that both interventions produced significant therapeutic gains at posttreatment and follow-up in an equal number of sessions. Similar treatment effect sizes were observed in both treatment groups. Regarding clinical significant changes, a slightly higher proportion of patients in the EMDR group produced substantial clinical changes compared with the EFT group. Given the speculative nature of the theoretical basis of EFT, a dismantling study on the active ingredients of EFT should be subject to future research.
Mismatch calibration methods for high-speed time-interleaved ADCs

Time Interleaved ADCs (TIADCs) are a good solution to implement high sampling rate converters at a moderate hardware cost. However, they suffer from mismatches between the ADC channels such as offset, gain, timing skew and possibly bandwidth mismatches. These mismatches have to be corrected in order to get sufficient performances from the converter. This paper presents the classical calibration methods and focuses on the blind ones. Among those, both mixed analog-digital methods and fully digital methods are overviewed. By considering the state-of-the-art of published chips, a comparison between those methods is provided.
The causalist program: rational or irrational persistence?

• A summary of part of the contents of this paper was read at the Terceras Jomadas de Epistemologial Metodologia de la lrwestigaciOn'Y de la AcciOn (Un iversidad de Belgrano), hel in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in September 1985. A summary of other parts was read at theJorruulas de Pedagogia y Epi8temologta (Facuhad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires), held in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in June 1985. Another summary was read in the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, in the City of La Plata, in December 1988. Section 3 of this paper is a reformulation of some parts of the Introduction of my thesis [2] presented in SADAF (Sociedad Argentina de Analisis Fil0e6fico) in December 1985. Parts of that Section have heen published in Spanish, included mainly in sections 2, 5 and 8, in [3]. I am grateful to Gregorio Klimovsky, Alberto Moretti, Raul Orayen, Gladys Palau, Agustin Rela and, very specially,_ to Dorothy Edgington, for very helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Ma,ny thanks too, to the participants in the Seminary I directed in SADAF in 1986, for the illuminating discussions on this and related items. I am also grateful to Horacio Aheledo and to Dorothy Edgington for checking my English of my next before last draft. For the errors i~troduced in this last version I am solely responsible.
Dysfunction in Configural Face Processing in Patients With Schizophrenia

Background: Face recognition has important implications for patients with schizophrenia, who exhibit poor interpersonal and social skills. Previous reports have suggested that patients with schizophrenia have deficits in their ability to recognize faces, and because face recognition relies heavily on information about the configuration of faces, we hypothesized that patients with schizophrenia would have specific problems in processing configural information. Methods: We measured the performance of 20 patients with schizophrenia and 20 normal subjects in a face-discrimination task, using upright and inverted pairs of face photographs that differed in featural or configural information. Results: The patients with schizophrenia showed disproportionately poorer performance in discriminating configural compared with featural face sets. Conclusion: The result suggests that the face-recognition deficit in schizophrenic patients is due to specific impairments in configural processing of faces.
Algorithmic Aspects of Topology Control Problems for Ad Hoc Networks

Topology control problems are concerned with the assignment of power values to the nodes of an ad hoc network so that the power assignment leads to a graph topology satisfying some specified properties. This paper considers such problems under several optimization objectives, including minimizing the maximum power and minimizing the total power. A general approach leading to a polynomial algorithm is presented for minimizing maximum power for a class of graph properties called monotone properties. The difficulty of generalizing the approach to properties that are not monotone is discussed. Problems involving the minimization of total power are known to be NP-complete even for simple graph properties. A general approach that leads to an approximation algorithm for minimizing the total power for some monotone properties is presented. Using this approach, a new approximation algorithm for the problem of minimizing the total power for obtaining a 2-node-connected graph is developed. It is shown that this algorithm provides a constant performance guarantee. Experimental results from an implementation of the approximation algorithm are also presented.
Incomplete electrocardiogram time series prediction

The prevalence of Big Data has led to the operation practice based on time series data from multiple sources in many practical applications. The prediction analysis of time series, a fundamental objective of time series data crunch, is an integral part for planning and decision making. However, the prediction analysis based on raw time series data is hardly satisfactory as missing values are usually involved in raw data samples, even if a collection of the existing regression models are available to handle the complete time series prediction problems. To achieve higher prediction precision with incomplete raw time series data, in this paper, we describe a new framework called ISM (Incomplete time series prediction based on Selective tensor modeling and Multi-kernel learning). ISM is composed of three steps. First, multi-source time series are fused and then a selective tensor is constructed from K most relevant raw data sets. Second, the selective tensor is further factorized by ISM with the sparsity constraint to extract the common latent factors across multiple sources. Finally, these factors serve as the training features of multi-kernel learning, which is an effective approach to build multi-source regression models. Extensive experiments on the electrocardiogram data set demonstrate that the proposed framework ISM achieves a superior performance of time series prediction with missing data.
Cardioprotection, attenuated systemic inflammation, and survival benefit of &bgr;1-adrenoceptor blockade in severe sepsis in rats*

Objective: To explore the hypothesis that beta-1 adrenoreceptor blockade may be protective through the attenuation of sympathetic hyperactivity and catecholaminergic inflammatory effects on cardiac and hepatic function. Design: Prospective, randomized, controlled study. Setting: Animal laboratory in a university medical center. Subjects: Male adult Wistar rats. Interventions: Peripheral &bgr;1-adrenoceptor blockade through daily intraperitoneal injection (metoprolol, 100 mg·kg−1; atenolol, 6 mg·kg−1) or central nervous system &bgr;1-adrenoceptor blockade (intracerebroventricular metoprolol, 25 &mgr;g) to achieve ∼20% heart rate reduction in rats for 2 days before or after the induction of lethal endotoxemia, cecal ligation and puncture, or fecal peritonitis. Measurements and Main Results: Peripheral &bgr;1-adrenoceptor blockade established for 2 days before lethal endotoxemia markedly improved survival in both metoprolol-treated (n = 16; log rank test, p = .002) and atenolol-treated (n = 15; p = .03) rats. Overall mortality in cecal ligation and puncture was similar between metoprolol (40%; n = 10) and saline (50%; n = 10) pretreatment (p = .56), but the median time to death was increased by 33 hrs in metoprolol-treated rats (p = .03). Metoprolol pretreatment reduced hepatic expression of proinflammatory cytokines and lowered plasma interleukin-6 (both p < .05). Myocardial protein expression of interleukin-18 and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, key mediators of cardiac dysfunction in sepsis, were also reduced (p < .05). Peripheral &bgr;1-adrenoceptor blockade commenced 6 hrs after lethal endotoxemia or fecal peritonitis did not improve survival. However, arterial blood pressure was preserved and left ventricular contractility restored similar to that found in nonseptic controls. Central nervous system &bgr;1-adrenoceptor blockade (metoprolol) did not reduce plasma cytokines or mortality, despite enhancing parasympathetic tone. Conclusions: Peripheral &bgr;1-adrenoceptor blockade offers anti-inflammatory and cardioprotective effects, with mortality reduction if commenced before a septic insult. Its role in sepsis should be explored further.
Array pattern synthesis techniques for circular array of antennas for passive radar applications

We investigate the design of phased array pattern synthesis for applications in passive radars. In particular, we identify certain drawbacks associated with the Bucci algorithm based beamformer design and investigate a convex optimization based approach. The performance is compared in terms of least squares errors and the capability of placing nulls in the direction of interference signals using a circular array of antennas.
Conversion From Twice-Daily Tacrolimus to Once-Daily Extended Release Tacrolimus (LCPT): The Phase III Randomized MELT Trial

Phase III noninferiority trial examining efficacy and safety of converting stable renal transplant recipients from twice‐daily tacrolimus to a novel extended‐release once‐daily tacrolimus formulation (LCPT) with a controlled agglomeration technology. Controls maintained tacrolimus twice daily. The primary efficacy endpoint was proportion of patients with efficacy failures (death, graft failure, locally read biopsy‐proven acute rejection [BPAR], or loss to follow‐up) within 12 months. Starting LCPT dose was 30% lower (15% for blacks) than preconversion tacrolimus dose; target trough levels were 4–15 ng/mL. A total of 326 patients were randomized; the mITT population (n = 162 each group) was similar demographically in the two groups. Mean daily dose of LCPT was significantly (p < 0.0001) lower than preconversion tacrolimus dose at each visit; mean trough levels between groups were similar. There were four efficacy failures in each group; safety outcomes were similar between groups. Frequency of premature study drug discontinuation was LCPT: 12% versus tacrolimus twice daily: 5% (p = 0.028). LCPT demonstrated noninferiority to tacrolimus twice daily in efficacy failure rates. LCPT may offer a safe and effective alternative for converting patients to a once‐daily formulation. Compared to currently available tacrolimus formulation, LCPT requires lower doses to achieve target trough levels.
Coarse-grained modeling of protein unspecifically bound to DNA

There is now a certain consensus that transcription factors (TFs) reach their target sites, where they regulate gene transcription, via a mechanism dubbed facilitated diffusion (FD). In FD, the TF cycles between events of 3D diffusion in solution (jumps), 1D diffusion along DNA (sliding), and small jumps (hopping), achieving association rates higher than for 3D diffusion alone. We investigate the FD phenomenology through molecular dynamics simulations in the framework of coarse-grained modeling. We show that, despite the crude approximations, the model generates, upon varying the equilibrium distance of the DNA–TF interaction, a phenomenology matching a number of experimental and numerical results obtained with more refined models. In particular, focusing on the kinematics of the process, we characterize the geometrical properties of TF trajectories during sliding. We find that sliding occurs via helical paths around the DNA helix, leading to a coupling of translation along the DNA axis with rotation around it. The 1D diffusion constant measured in simulations is found to be interwoven with the geometrical properties of sliding and we develop a simple argument that can be used to quantitatively reproduce the measured values.
Lymphocyte Subpopulations in Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients

Protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis is based on cell-mediated immunity, most importantly involving CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell subsets. The aim of this study was to evaluate CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell profiles and CD19+ and CD3−CD(16+56)+ populations in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, B-lymphocytes, and natural killer (NK) cells were evaluated in 75 active (APTB) and 25 inactive (IPTB) pulmonary tuberculosis cases and 20 healthy subjects (HCs). The results were compared at different stages of antituberculosis treatment in the APTB patients and also according to X-ray findings in the newly diagnosed APTB patients. The percentages of CD4+ T cells were significantly lower (P < .01) and those of CD3−CD(16 + 56)+ cells were significantly higher (P < .01) in APTB patients than in HCs. CD8+ T cells were significantly decreased (P < .05), and CD3−CD(16+56)+ cells were significantly increased (P < .01), in IPTB patients compared to HCs. The percentages of CD4+, CD8+, CD3−CD19+, and CD3−CD(16+56)+ cells showed no differences at different times of the antituberculosis regimen, and different stages of newly diagnosed APTB patients. APTB patients have a reduced percentage of circulating CD4+ T cells and an increased percentage of NK cells compared with healthy individuals. These cells could play important roles in the immune response to M tuberculosis infection.