Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electrical development in spinal cord cell culture

Parallel electrophysiological and neurochemical studies of development are reported for mouse spinal cord cell cultures. The time course of electrical activity and the stage-dependent effects of tetrodotoxin on levels of the neuronal enzyme choline acetyltransferase were compared to establish the presence of spontaneous electrical activity at a time when tetrodotoxin adversely affects development. The extracellular patch electrode makes it possible to examine the ongoing electrical activity of the small cells present in young cultures. A rapid increase in spontaneous electrical activity during the first 2 weeks in culture was found to correlate closely with the onset of tetrodotoxin-induced depression of choline acetyltransferase activity, supporting the idea that ongoing electrical activity plays a role in neuronal development. The development of inhibitory synaptic activity occurs gradually throughout the period of culture, whereas excitatory synaptic activity and action potentials develop in unison, reaching maximal levels during the 2nd week in culture. For all cultures tested, ranging in age from 9 to 45 days old, acute bath application of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) abolished spontaneous electrical activity. Glycine is relatively ineffective in abolishing spontaneous activity in young cultures which have few inhibitory postsynaptic potentials (IPSPs), but glycine becomes as effective as GABA at a later stage of development. This suggests rather different timetables of development for GABA and glycine receptors, with glycine receptors developing in parallel with IPSPs.
Introduction: Anatomy of rifting: Tectonics and magmatism in continental rifts, oceanic spreading centers, and transforms

Research at continental rifts, mid-ocean ridges, and transforms has shown that new plates are created by extensional tectonics, magma intrusion, and volcanism. Studies of a wide variety of extensional processes ranging from plate thinning to magma intrusion have helped scientists understand how continents are broken apart to form ocean basins. However, deformation processes vary significantly during the development of continental rifts and mid-ocean ridges. In addition, ocean ridges are offset along their length by major transform faults, the initiation of which is poorly understood. Data documenting active processes have proven difficult to obtain because most ridges are submerged with only rare portions of the divergent plate boundary being exposed on land. Therefore our current knowledge about the length and time scales of magmatism and faulting during rift evolution as well as the mechanisms of initial development of mid-ocean ridges and transforms is limited. In this themed issue we present contributions that document the wide variety of processes acting at divergent plate boundaries and transforms in order to synthesize some of the most relevant research topics about plate extension and to identify the important questions that remain unanswered.
Utopias of participation: design, criticality, and emancipation

From its earliest incarnation in labor movements in Scandinavia in the 1970s, Participatory Design has had an emancipatory politics inscribed in it. As PD is appropriated in other contexts, this emancipatory politics can continue to be foregrounded or, as Bannon & Ehn (2013) worry, it can be diluted into corporate practices of "user-centered design. " One way to advance the emancipatory politics in PD is to continue PD's early embrace of utopian thinking. Yet utopianism today has a poor reputation, openly rejected by many activists. In this keynote, I will revisit some of the criticisms of utopianism. Next, I will explore an alternative framing of utopianism---derived from feminism and science fiction studies---that could productively inform PD, both epistemologically and methodologically, in its most openly political design goals. I will present some of the ways I have tied to engage with these ideas through design research projects ranging in scale from critical-participatory studies involving local makers to designing for and about the identities and aspirations of entire urban populations.
The Therapeutic Potential of Resistant Starch in Modulation of Insulin Resistance, Endotoxemia, Oxidative Stress and Antioxidant Biomarkers in Women with Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Aims: This trial aims to determine the effects of resistant starch (RS) subtype 2 (RS2) on glycemic status, metabolic endotoxemia and markers of oxidative stress. Methods: A randomized, controlled, parallel-group clinical trial group of 56 females with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) was divided to 2 groups. The intervention group (n = 28) and control group (n = 28) received 10 g/day RS2 or placebo for 8 weeks, respectively. Fasting blood samples were taken to determine glycemic status, endotoxin, high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), malondialdehyde (MDA), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), antioxidant enzymes concentrations as well as uric acid at baseline and after the intervention. Results: After 8 weeks, RS2 caused a significant decrease in the levels of MDA (-34.10%), glycosylated hemoglobin (-9.40%), insulin (-29.36%), homeostasis model of insulin resistance (-32.85%) and endotoxin (-25.00%), a significant increase in TAC (18.10%) and glutathione peroxidase (11.60%) as compared with control. No significant changes were observed in fasting plasma glucose, quantitative insulin sensitivity check index, hs-CRP, superoxide dismutase, catalase and uric acid in the RS2 group as compared with the control group. Conclusion: Supplementation with RS2 may be improved glycemic status, endotoxemia and markers of oxidative stress in patients with T2DM.
The Ground-Based Absolute Radiometric Calibration of Landsat 8 OLI

This paper presents the vicarious calibration results of Landsat 8 OLI that were obtained using the reflectance-based approach at test sites in Nevada, California, Arizona, and South Dakota, USA. Additional data were obtained using the Radiometric Calibration Test Site, which is a suite of instruments located at Railroad Valley, Nevada, USA. The results for the top-of-atmosphere spectral radiance show an average difference of −2.7, −0.8, 1.5, 2.0, 0.0, 3.6, 5.8, and 0.7% in OLI bands 1–8 as compared to an average of all of the ground-based measurements. The top-of-atmosphere spectral reflectance shows an average difference of 1.6, 1.3, 2.0, 1.9, 0.9, 2.1, 3.1, and 2.1% from the ground-based measurements. Except for OLI band 7, the spectral radiance results are generally within ±5% of the design specifications, and the reflectance results are generally within ±3% of the design specifications. The results from the data collected during the tandem Landsat 7 and 8 flight in March 2013 indicate that ETM+ and OLI agree to each other to within ±2% in similar bands in top-of-atmosphere spectral radiance, and to within ±4% in top-of-atmosphere spectral reflectance.
[A retrospective study of chronic myelocytic leukemia treatment with imatinib and interferon-α].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the clinical effect of chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML) patients treated with imatinib (IM) and interferon (IFN)-α. METHODS One hundred and fifty five CML patients at chronic phase were included in the study. All patients were divided into two groups according to treatment regimen: IM + IFN group and IM group. Complete cytogenetic response (CCyR) rate, major molecular response (MMR) rate, complete molecular response (CMR) rate, overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS) were observed and compared in both groups. RESULTS The CCyR rate was higher in the IM + IFN group than that in the IM group at 6 months (60.6% vs 41.6%, P < 0.05), but no difference was observed later on. The MMR + CMR rate was higher in the IM + IFN group than that in the IM group at 6 months and 12 months (71.2% vs 34.8%, 77.3% vs 52.8%, respectively, P < 0.05), but no difference after that. After stratification according to Sokal risk, the CCyR rate of low- and intermediate-risk patients was higher in the IM + IFN group than that in the IM group at 6 months (77.8% vs 52.6%, 75.0% vs 46.7%, P < 0.05), but not from 12 months on; the MMR + CMR rate of low- and intermediate-risk patients was higher in the IM + IFN group than that in the IM group at 6 months and 12 months (85.2% vs 36.8%, 90.0% vs 36.7%, P < 0.05; 88.9% vs 57.9%, 90.0% vs 56.7%, P < 0.05), but not from 24 months on. There was no significant difference in high-risk patients. OS in IM and IM + IFN group at 6, 12, 24 and 36 months was 100%, 100%, 96.8% and 90.0%, and 100%, 100%, 97.9% and 93.1%, respectively. PFS in IM and IM + IFN group at 6, 12, 24 and 36 months was 97.8%, 95.5%, 91.9% and 85.5%, and 98.5%, 95.5%, 91.5% and 86.2%, respectively. There was no significant difference in OS (u = 0.427, P = 0.514) or PFS (u = 0.556, P = 0.456). The side effects in both groups included pancytopenia, edema, weight gain, ostalgia, rash and muscle spasm. In addition, patients in the IM + IFN group suffered from flu-like symptoms, impaired liver function, abnormal thyroid function and extremity sensory disturbance. It seemed that grade III or IV pancytopenia occurred more commonly in the patients in the IM + IFN group, however, there was no statistically significance. CONCLUSIONS The response to IM + IFN is more rapid than that to IM alone, especially for the low- and intermediate-risk patients. It seems no benefit of the addition of IFN to treatment of high-risk patients. During the period of 36 months, survival rate in the IM + IFN group is not higher than that in IM group, and it is possible to increase the side effects of pharmaceutical drugs.
Precise Cache Timing Analysis via Symbolic Simulation

Worst-Case Execution Time (WCET) is a reliable guarantee for the temporal correctness of hard real-time systems. In this paper, we propose a novel integrated method for WCET analysis where micro-architectural modeling – with emphasis on caches – and systematic path-sensitivity, are synergized. This would give us very high precision for WCET analysis, but at the same time, it is a huge challenge for scalability. Our contribution in this paper is a dynamic programming algorithm with a powerful concept of reuse. In particular, we capture the situations where reuse is applicable by a concept of interpolation. While interpolation-based methods have been used in program verification for the purpose of pruning the search space of symbolic execution, our setting is novel not just because we are performing analysis instead of verification, but because our interpolation covers reuse under an environment where the timing of program paths are dynamic. In the end, because we are systematically path-sensitive, our algorithm is the most accurate. The important point, however, is that it also can scale to a reasonable level. Our realistic benchmarks will show both aspects: that systematc path-sensitivity in fact brings significant accuracy gains, and also that the algorithm scales well.
Promoting Physical Activity In Seniors: Future Opportunities with Emerging Technologies

High levels of physical inactivity that are trending upwards in the population present significant health challenges, particularly in seniors. Opportunities are present for emerging technologies to promote and engage seniors in physical activity, leading social change in this area, with a goal to boost quality-of-life, health, self-efficacy and autonomy in this growing segment of the population. Attitudes to emerging technology adoption, physical activity and behaviour change must be identified. This will allow the practical adoption of strategic information system implementations that can create meaningful, macro-level impacts in this in area of senior physical activity, as well as inform strategies and best practices for designers of information technology systems in this developing area.
Degradation mechanisms for water-soluble drugs in solid dosage forms.

Thiamine hydrochloride, when tableled with magnesium stearate and microcrystalline cellulose, degrades in a pattern whereby an apparent equilibrium is reached. The amount of intact thiamine at equilibrium depends on the amount of moisture present and exhibits a minimum at about 5,5 percent moisture content. A model is proposed to explain this phenomenon. Thiamine dissolved in the water present adsorbs on the microcrystalline cellulose and the thiamine present in the monolayer degrades totally, whereas the thiamine in layers beyond the monolayer does not degrade.
Energy harvesting transmitter with finite-alphabet inputs and statistical CSI: Online precoding by dynamic programming

This paper considers the online multi-antenna pre-coder design for energy harvesting transmitter with emphasis on finite-alphabet inputs and statistical channel state information (CSI). It formulates the problem by maximizing the sum of average mutual information of multiple time slots with causal energy constraint. This formulation leads to a 2 N2t-dimensional stochastic dynamic programming (SDP) problem with a non-concave objective function, where Nt is the number of transmit antennas. The 2Nt2-dimensional SDP problem is prohibitively difficult to solve and prevents the development of efficient online solver. We provide an equivalence between the multidimensional SDP problem and a one-dimensional power choice problem. Solving the one-dimensional equivalence decreases the computational burden extraordinarily without loss of optimality. We also demonstrate the performance gains offered by the proposed method when compared with other algorithms.
Development of Quality Indicators for an Integrated Approach of Knee Osteoarthritis

Objective. Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common cause of disability worldwide. Knee OA care is often suboptimal. A first necessary step in quality improvement is to gain a clear insight into usual care. We developed a set of evidence-based quality indicators for multidisciplinary high-quality knee OA care. Methods. A Rand-modified Delphi method was used to develop quality indicators for knee OA diagnosis, therapy, and followup. Recommendations were extracted from international guidelines as well as existing sets of quality indicators and scored by a multidisciplinary expert panel. Based on median score, prioritization, and agreement, recommendations were labeled as having a high, uncertain, or low potential to measure quality of care and were discussed in a consensus meeting for inclusion or exclusion. Two final validation rounds yielded a core set of recommendations, which were translated into quality indicators. Results. From a total of 86 recommendations and existing indicators, a core set of 29 recommendations was derived that allowed us to define high-quality knee OA care. From this core set, 22 recommendations were considered to be measurable in clinical practice and were transformed into a final set of 21 quality indicators regarding diagnosis, lifestyle/education/devices, therapy, and followup. Conclusion. Our study provides a robust set of 21 quality indicators for high-quality knee OA care, measurable in clinical practice. These process indicators may be used to measure usual care and evaluate quality improvement interventions across the entire spectrum of disciplines involved in knee OA care.
Changes in the neuromuscular synapse induced by an antibody against gangliosides

In this study, we used a monoclonal IgM antibody from a patient with a pure motor chronic demyelinating polyneuropathy, which binds specifically to the complex gangliosides GM2, GalNAc‐GD1a, and GalNAc‐GM1b, which appear to have a common epitope of ‐[GalNAcβ1‐4Gal(3‐2αNeuAc)β1]. This was done for the following reasons: (1) to localize these gangliosides in specific cellular components of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ), and (2) to describe the anti–ganglioside antibody–induced structural and functional changes in the NMJs to gain insight into the role of gangliosides in the synaptic function. Using immunofluorescence techniques, we found that these gangliosides are located only in the presynaptic component of the motor end‐plates, both in nerve terminals and in Schwann cells. After 2 weeks of continued passive transfer of the IgM monoclonal antibody over the mouse levator auris longus muscle, electromyography showed an axonal or NMJ disorder. Morphology showed important nerve terminal growth and retraction changes. Using intracellular recording electrophysiology, we found neurotransmitter release alterations, including quantal content reduction and an immature expression of voltage‐dependent calcium channels similar to what occurred during NMJ development and regeneration. These changes were complement independent. The results showed that these gangliosides were involved in the reciprocal Schwann cell–nerve terminal interactions, including structural stability and neurotransmission. Ann Neurol 2005;57:396–407
Identification of Active Edge Sites for Electrochemical H2 Evolution from MoS2 Nanocatalysts

The identification of the active sites in heterogeneous catalysis requires a combination of surface sensitive methods and reactivity studies. We determined the active site for hydrogen evolution, a reaction catalyzed by precious metals, on nanoparticulate molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) by atomically resolving the surface of this catalyst before measuring electrochemical activity in solution. By preparing MoS2 nanoparticles of different sizes, we systematically varied the distribution of surface sites on MoS2 nanoparticles on Au(111), which we quantified with scanning tunneling microscopy. Electrocatalytic activity measurements for hydrogen evolution correlate linearly with the number of edge sites on the MoS2 catalyst.
Late effects of the treatment of childhood cancer on the female reproductive system and the potential for fertility preservation

One in 600 children will develop cancer in the first 15 years of life. Unlike the majority of adult cancers, most paediatric cancers are curable using multi-agent chemotherapy in combination with surgery and radiotherapy. The incidence of childhood cancer is 110 to 130 per million children per year and the relative frequencies of paediatric cancers as follows: leukaemia 34%; brain/spinal 24%; embryonal 15%; lymphona 11%; soft tissue 6%; bone 5%; others 5%. Over the last three decades there has been a sustained improvement in survival for most forms of childhood cancer. In the 1960s, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, the most common childhood malignancy, had a five-year survival rate of less than 10%. Today, 70% of these children may now be cured. Following the demonstration in the 1950s that actinomycin was an effective agent in the treatment of Wilms’ tumour, there has been steady progress in the development of multi-agent chemotherapy regimens for the majority of childhood haematological and solid tumours. Radiotherapy is highly effective in the treatment of many malignancies but the increasing recognition of the morbidity for children from the late effects of radiation exposure has limited its therapeutic benefit. The majority of children with cancer are treated in specialised paediatric oncology centres according to nationally and often internationally agreed protocols. At the start of the 21 century, one in 1000 young adults in their third decade is a survivor of childhood cancer. The number of long term survivors is increasing year by year. The major challenge for this generation of children’s cancer specialists is to sustain the significant improvement in survival rates while at the same time minimising the treatment-induced late effects. The risk of late effects is directly related to the nature of the treatment received. The anticipation of late effects and their detection is important, as they may be amenable to prevention or treatment. The reproductive system is an important site of late effects of anti-cancer treatment. Natural pubertal progression, fertility and successful pregnancy outcome depend on normal hypothalamic, pituitary, ovarian and uterine function. Potential adverse effects on reproductive function in the female may be mediated through the hypothalamo–pituitary–ovarian axis, the ovary or the uterus. One of the more commonly recognised adverse effects of anti-cancer treatments is ovarian failure as a result of depletion of the numbers of primordial follicles leading to a premature menopause. The late effects of the treatment on reproductive function are difficult to predict with certainty. The patient or parents may expect discussion of these potential late effects before treatment commences. Options to preserve reproductive potential are limited in the case of young women and are experimental. Physicians need to be aware of the potential problems so that therapeutic prevention strategies and late effects can be openly discussed with the aim of cure at least cost.
Two forms of ideomotor apraxia

Destruction of parietal areas containing visuokinesthetic motor engrams, where motor acts may be programmed, should be distinguishable from apraxia induced by disconnection of these parietal areas from frontal motor areas. Destruction should result in inability to distinguish well-performed from poorly performed movements, whereas disconnection should not. We gave movement and act-discrimination tasks to apraxic and nonapraxic patients with anterior lesions or nonfluent aphasia, and to patients with posterior lesions or fluent aphasia. On both tasks, the performance of posterior/fluent patients was worse than that of all other patients. Our results suggest that there are two types of patients with ideomotor apraxia.
Costs and Consequences of Using Interferon-γ Release Assays for the Diagnosis of Active Tuberculosis in India

Background There is growing concern that interferon-γ release assays (IGRAs) are being used off-label for the diagnosis of active tuberculosis (TB) disease in many high-burden settings, including India, where the background prevalence of latent TB infection is high. We analyzed the costs and consequences of using IGRAs for the diagnosis of active TB in India from the perspective of the Indian TB control sector. Methods and Findings We constructed a decision analytic model to estimate the incremental cost and effectiveness of IGRAs for the diagnosis of active TB in India. We compared a reference scenario of clinical examination and non-microbiological tests against scenarios in which clinical diagnosis was augmented by the addition of either sputum smear microscopy, IGRA, or Xpert MTB/RIF. We examined costs (in 2013 US dollars) and consequences from the perspective of the Indian healthcare sector. Relative to sputum smear microscopy, use of IGRA for active TB resulted in 23,700 (95% uncertainty range, UR: 3,800 – 38,300) additional true-positive diagnoses, but at the expense of 315,700 (95% UR: 118,300 – 388,400) additional false-positive diagnoses and an incremental cost of US$49.3 million (95% UR: $34.9 – $58.0 million) (2.9 billion Indian Rupees). Relative to Xpert MTB/RIF (including the cost of treatment for drug resistant TB), use of IGRA led to 400 additional TB cases treated (95% UR: [-8,000] – 16,200), 370,600 (95% UR: 252,200 – 441,700) more false-positive diagnoses, 70,400 (95% UR: [-7,900] – 247,200) fewer disability-adjusted life years averted, and US$14.6 million (95%UR: [-$7.2] – $28.7 million) (854 million Indian Rupees) in additional costs. Conclusion Using IGRAs for diagnosis of active TB in a setting like India results in tremendous overtreatment of people without TB, and substantial incremental cost with little gain in health. These results support the policies by WHO and Standards for TB Care in India, which discourage the use of IGRAs for the diagnosis of active TB in India and similar settings.