Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ceramic Composites in Extreme Environments: Experimentation and Modeling

Advanced ceramic materials are used in many fields of the technology sector. Ceramics are ideal materials for applications in extreme environments where stability under high temperatures, resistance to corrosion, and good mechanical strength are required. Ceramic composites offer novel solutions to circumvent issues and drawbacks seen in traditional single-phase materials by taking advantage of the unique properties offered by each constituent phase. A synergistic combination of properties and microstructural and morphological characteristics offer the potential for application specific tailoring, and expand the usefulness of the material by broadening its application spectrum. The goal of this research is to explore the use of ceramic composite systems for traditional single-phase components found in solid-state oxygen sensors and nuclear fuel. In both applications, ceramic-based components operate at elevated temperatures, are subjected to extreme thermal gradients, and can have compromised mechanical integrity due to the buildup of thermal stresses. These challenges may be significantly alleviated using a ceramic composite approach, where each constituent has its own unique morphology and attributes. Experimental and computational models are used in tandem in order to investigate the potential for advanced ceramic composite systems for applications in oxygen sensors and nuclear fuel. Lastly, the effect of water vapor in the high temperature environment is also evaluated.
A P300-based Quantitative Comparison between the Emotiv Epoc Headset and a Medical EEG Device

EEG-based systems have been the most widely used in the field of Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) for two decades. Plenty of applications have been proposed from games to rehabilitation systems. Until recently, EEG recording devices were too expensive for an end-user. Today, several low-cost alternatives have appeared on the market. The most sophisticated of these low-cost devices is the Emotiv Epoc headset. Some studies reported that this device is suitable for customers in terms of performance. However, none of the previous studies reported to what extent the Emotiv headset is working well compared to a medical system. The aim of this paper is thus to scientifically compare a medical system and the Emotiv Epoc headset by determining their respective performances in the context of a P300 BCI paradigm. In this study, seven healthy subjects performed P300 experiments and two different conditions were studied: sitting on a chair and walking on a treadmill at constant speed. Results show that the Emotiv headset, although able to record EEG data and not only artifacts, is sometimes significantly worse than a medical system. Those results suggest that the design of a specific low-cost EEG recording systems for rehabilitation purposes at a low price is still required.
The scaled chrysophyte flora of the Bolshezemelskaya tundra ( Russia )

The flora of scaled chrysophytes is documented from 34 sites situated within the Bolshezemelskaya tundra region of Russia, all of which are situated above the Arctic Circle. The sites included lakes and ponds in the remote Vashutkini and Kharbey lake regions, as well as ones near settlements in and around Vorkuta City. Lakes in the Vashutkini lake region were of special interest because they represent hydrologically isolated relict waterbodies that were not ice covered during the Wisconsin glaciation. We found a rich and diverse flora of scaled chrysophytes, including 75 taxa from the genera Mallomonas (n = 44), Synura (n = 10), Spiniferomonas (n = 9), Paraphysomonas (n = 10) and Chrysosphaerella (n = 2). A total of 31 of the species represent new records for Russia and our findings extend the known distributions of many taxa into the cold northern tundra. We found a small set of species, including Mallomonas pseudocoronata, M. punetifera var. brasiliensis and Spiniferomonas triangularis, that are primarily known from the new world, and add new records of rare taxa, e.g. M. crassisquama var. papillosa and Synura nygaardii, known primarily from northern Eurasia. In general, the flora of the Bolshezemelskaya tundra does not appear to be unique, but rather quite similar to ones reported for Scandinavia. Although we found the scaled chrysophyte floras to be similar between the remote Vashutkini and Kharbey lake regions, both were quite different from that recorded in waterbodies near Vorkuta City. The potential effects of human activities on the flora in this tundra region are discussed.
A Systematic Review of Dextrose Prolotherapy for Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain

Objective The aim of this study was to systematically review dextrose (D-glucose) prolotherapy efficacy in the treatment of chronic musculoskeletal pain. Data Sources Electronic databases PubMed, Healthline, OmniMedicalSearch, Medscape, and EMBASE were searched from 1990 to January 2016. Study Selection Prospectively designed studies that used dextrose as the sole active prolotherapy constituent were selected. Data Extraction Two independent reviewers rated studies for quality of evidence using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database assessment scale for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and the Downs and Black evaluation tool for non-RCTs, for level of evidence using a modified Sackett scale, and for clinically relevant pain score difference using minimal clinically important change criteria. Study population, methods, and results data were extracted and tabulated. Data Synthesis Fourteen RCTs, 1 case–control study, and 18 case series studies met the inclusion criteria and were evaluated. Pain conditions were clustered into tendinopathies, osteoarthritis (OA), spinal/pelvic, and myofascial pain. The RCTs were high-quality Level 1 evidence (Physiotherapy Evidence Database ≥8) and found dextrose injection superior to controls in Osgood–Schlatter disease, lateral epicondylitis of the elbow, traumatic rotator cuff injury, knee OA, finger OA, and myofascial pain; in biomechanical but not subjective measures in temporal mandibular joint; and comparable in a short-term RCT but superior in a long-term RCT in low back pain. Many observational studies were of high quality and reported consistent positive evidence in multiple studies of tendinopathies, knee OA, sacroiliac pain, and iliac crest pain that received RCT confirmation in separate studies. Eighteen studies combined patient self-rating (subjective) with psychometric, imaging, and/or biomechanical (objective) outcome measurement and found both positive subjective and objective outcomes in 16 studies and positive objective but not subjective outcomes in two studies. All 15 studies solely using subjective or psychometric measures reported positive findings. Conclusion Use of dextrose prolotherapy is supported for treatment of tendinopathies, knee and finger joint OA, and spinal/pelvic pain due to ligament dysfunction. Efficacy in acute pain, as first-line therapy, and in myofascial pain cannot be determined from the literature.
Subtype assignment of CLL based on B-cell subset associated gene signatures from normal bone marrow – A proof of concept study

Diagnostic and prognostic evaluation of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) involves blood cell counts, immunophenotyping, IgVH mutation status, and cytogenetic analyses. We generated B-cell associated gene-signatures (BAGS) based on six naturally occurring B-cell subsets within normal bone marrow. Our hypothesis is that by segregating CLL according to BAGS, we can identify subtypes with prognostic implications in support of pathogenetic value of BAGS. Microarray-based gene-expression samples from eight independent CLL cohorts (1,024 untreated patients) were BAGS-stratified into pre-BI, pre-BII, immature, naïve, memory, or plasma cell subtypes; the majority falling within the memory (24.5–45.8%) or naïve (14.5–32.3%) categories. For a subset of CLL patients (n = 296), time to treatment (TTT) was shorter amongst early differentiation subtypes (pre-BI/pre-BII/immature) compared to late subtypes (memory/plasma cell, HR: 0.53 [0.35–0.78]). Particularly, pre-BII subtype patients had the shortest TTT among all subtypes. Correlates derived for BAGS subtype and IgVH mutation (n = 405) revealed an elevated mutation frequency in late vs. early subtypes (71% vs. 45%, P < .001). Predictions for BAGS subtype resistance towards rituximab and cyclophosphamide varied for rituximab, whereas all subtypes were sensitive to cyclophosphamide. This study supports our hypothesis that BAGS-subtyping may be of tangible prognostic and pathogenetic value for CLL patients.
Inductive resonant power transfer and topology consideration

This paper aims to study the performance of all basic inductive resonant wireless power transfer (WPT) topologies for power transfer efficiency, using the effect of circuit topology in affecting the coefficient of coupling. In the study, all the four basic inductive resonant wireless power transfer topologies are analyzed and simulated. The simple T-equivalent circuit is used to represent the system and MATLAB® are used as the backbone in the analysis. The analysis shows that the parallel-to-series and parallel-to-parallel topology configurations give the best power transfer efficiency. The results show that parallel to series and parallel to parallel average power transfer efficiency referring to coefficient coupling (k) are 81% and 80% respectively, compared to the series-to-parallel and series-to-series which are almost 70% accordingly. The study provides evidence of further system analysis for parallel to series and parallel-to-parallel WPT topologies. The results of the analysis would prove useful in furthering insight into its application such wireless battery charging of electric vehicles.
EVALUATION OF THERMAL DOSE CONCEPTS IN SUPERFICIAL HYPERTHERMIA: HEATABILITY AND EFFECTIVE DOSE

In their recent randomized trial, Jones and collegues [1] used the thermal dose measured in a patient during superficial hyperthermia to distinguish between heatable and non-heatable patients, and to continue heating until an effective dose had been delivered. The possible consequences of this approach are considerable: ‘unheatable’ patients are rejected for hyperthermia, and the application of a flexible treatment schedule has a large impact on patient logistics. The objective of the current work was to evaluate the concepts ‘heatability’ and ‘effective dose’ in a retrospective analysis.
The predictive value of global longitudinal strain on clinical outcome in patients with ST‐segment elevation myocardial infarction and preserved systolic function

Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is fundamental for risk stratification after ST‐segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). However, it lacks discrimination power within normal range. Novel echocardiographic deformation parameters may be of benefit for those with post‐MI preserved LVEF.
Maxout neurons based deep bidirectional LSTM for acoustic modeling

Recently long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural networks (RNN) have achieved greater success in acoustic models for the large vocabulary continuous speech recognition system. In this paper, we propose an improved hybrid acoustic model based on deep bidirectional long short-term memory (DBLSTM) RNN. In this new acoustic model, maxout neurons are used in the fully-connected part of DBLSTM to solve the problems of vanishing and exploding gradient. At the same time, the dropout regularization algorithm is used to avoid the over-fitting during the training process of neural network. In addition, in order to adapt the bidirectional dependence of DBLSTM at each time step, a context-sensitive-chunk (CSC) back-propagation through time (BPTT) algorithm is proposed to train DBLSTM neural network. Simulation experiments have been made on Switchboard benchmark task. The results show that the WER of the improved hybrid acoustic model is 14.5%, and the optimal network structures and CSC configurations are given.
Tracking the relationship between children's aerobic fitness and cognitive control.

OBJECTIVE To investigate if changes in aerobic fitness over a 3-year period are associated with modulations in children's cognitive control. METHOD A sample of 2nd/3rd-grade children (N = 290) completed baseline measures in Fall of 2011, and again in Spring of 2014 at the end of 4th/5th grade. Children completed the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) test to measure aerobic capacity, a flanker task to evaluate inhibitory control, and an n-back task to assess working memory. Aerobic fitness was included as an independent variable in hierarchical regression analyses conducted at both time points, in addition to analyses examining changes in cognition over time. RESULTS At baseline, higher fit children exhibited shorter overall flanker reaction time (RT), as well as superior accuracy and d' scores (i.e., target discrimination) for both 1- and 2-back conditions. Approximately 3 years later, higher levels of fitness were associated with better performance for only the most difficult conditions of each task, including greater incongruent flanker accuracy and less interference during the compatible condition, as well as better accuracy and target discrimination for the 2-back condition of the n-back task. Importantly, increases in fitness were independently related to improvements in incongruent flanker accuracy and 2-back d' scores. CONCLUSIONS The current findings indicate that both higher aerobic fitness levels as well as increases in children's fitness are associated with better performance for task conditions eliciting greater cognitive demand. Such evidence is vital for implementing future health recommendations intended to foster improved cognitive performance in children. (PsycINFO Database Record
Silencing of Midgut Aminopeptidase N of Spodoptera litura by Double-stranded RNA Establishes Its Role asBacillus thuringiensis Toxin Receptor*

Insecticidal crystal proteins of Bacillus thuringiensis bind to receptors in the midgut of susceptible insects leading to pore formation and death of the insect. The identity of the receptor is not clearly established. Recently a direct interaction between a cloned and heterologously expressed aminopeptidase (slapn) from Spodoptera lituraand the Cry1C protein was demonstrated by immunofluorescence andin vitro ligand blot interaction. Here we show that administration of slapn double-stranded RNA to S. litura larvae reduces its expression. As a consequence of the reduced expression, a corresponding decrease in the sensitivity of these larvae to Cry1C toxin was observed. The gene silencing was retained during the insect's moulting and development and transmitted to the subsequent generation albeit with a reduced effect. These results directly implicate larval midgut aminopeptidase N as receptor for Bacillus thuringiensis insecticidal proteins.
A field survey using LAMP assay for detection of Schistosoma mansoni in a low-transmission area of schistosomiasis in Umbuzeiro, Brazil: Assessment in human and snail samples

Background In Brazil, schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease of public health relevance, mainly in poor areas where Schistosoma mansoni is the only human species encountered and Biomphalaria straminea is one of the intermediate host snails. A nested-PCR based on a specific mitochondrial S. mansoni minisatellite DNA region has been successfully developed and applied as a reference method in Brazil for S. mansoni detection, mainly in host snails for epidemiological studies. The amplification efficiency of LAMP is known to be higher than PCR. The present work aimed to assess the utility of our previously described SmMIT-LAMP assay for S. mansoni detection in human stool and snail samples in a low-transmission area of schistosomiasis in the municipality of Umbuzeiro, Paraíba State, Northeast Region of Brazil. Methodology/Principal findings A total of 427 human stool samples were collected during June-July 2016 in the municipality of Umbuzeiro and an overall prevalence of 3.04% (13/427) resulted positive by duplicate Kato-Katz thick smear. A total of 1,175 snails identified as Biomphalaria straminea were collected from 14 breeding sites along the Paraíba riverbank and distributed in 46 pools. DNA from human stool samples and pooled snails was extracted using the phenol/chloroform method. When performing the SmMIT-LAMP assay a total of 49/162 (30.24%) stool samples resulted positive, including 12/13 (92.31%) that were Kato-Katz positive and 37/149 (24.83%) previously Kato-Katz negative. By nested-PCR, only 1/46 pooled DNA snail samples was positive. By SmMIT-LAMP assay, the same sample also resulted positive and an additional one was positive from a different breeding site. Data of human and snail surveys were used to build risk maps of schistosomiasis incidence using kernel density analysis. Conclusions/Significance This is the first study in which a LAMP assay was evaluated in both human stool and snail samples from a low-transmission schistosomiasis-endemic area. Our SmMIT-LAMP proved to be much more efficient in detection of S. mansoni in comparison to the 'gold standard' Kato-Katz method in human stool samples and the reference molecular nested-PCR in snails. The SmMIT-LAMP has demonstrated to be a useful molecular tool to identify potential foci of transmission in order to build risk maps of schistosomiasis.
Sporadic lymphangioleiomyomatosis with multiple atypical features: A case report and literature review

Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is a rare, genetically determined, progressive interstitial lung disease, which almost exclusively affects women, especially at the childbearing age. The initial symptoms and radiographic changes in a patient with LAM are always associated with the respiratory system. Here, we present a case of mediastinal and abdominal LAM of a 22-year-old male, where LAM cells are negative for human melanoma black-45 ( HMB-45). The report of this uncharacterized LAM case will make a significant contribution to the realization of LAM associated clinical features, diagnostic approaches, and its afterward treatments.
Experimental Infection of Voles with Francisella tularensis Indicates Their Amplification Role in Tularemia Outbreaks

Tularemia outbreaks in humans have been linked to fluctuations in rodent population density, but the mode of bacterial maintenance in nature is unclear. Here we report on an experiment to investigate the pathogenesis of Francisella tularensis infection in wild rodents, and thereby assess their potential to spread the bacterium. We infected 20 field voles (Microtus agrestis) and 12 bank voles (Myodes glareolus) with a strain of F. tularensis ssp. holarctica isolated from a human patient. Upon euthanasia or death, voles were necropsied and specimens collected for histological assessment and identification of bacteria by immunohistology and PCR. Bacterial excretion and a rapid lethal clinical course with pathological changes consistent with bacteremia and tissue necrosis were observed in infected animals. The results support a role for voles as an amplification host of F. tularensis, as excreta and, in particular, carcasses with high bacterial burden could serve as a source for environmental contamination.
Characterization of Protective Epitopes in a Highly Conserved Plasmodium falciparum Antigenic Protein Containing Repeats of Acidic and Basic Residues

ABSTRACT The delineation of putatively protective and immunogenic epitopes in vaccine candidate proteins constitutes a major research effort towards the development of an effective malaria vaccine. By virtue of its role in the formation of the immune clusters of merozoites, its location on the surface of merozoites, and its highly conserved nature both at the nucleotide sequence level and the amino acid sequence level, the antigen which contains repeats of acidic and basic residues (ABRA) of the human malaria parasitePlasmodium falciparum represents such an antigen. Based upon the predicted amino acid sequence of ABRA, we synthesized eight peptides, with six of these (AB-1 to AB-6) ranging from 12 to 18 residues covering the most hydrophilic regions of the protein, and two more peptides (AB-7 and AB-8) representing its repetitive sequences. We found that all eight constructs bound an appreciable amount of antibody in sera from a large proportion of P. falciparummalaria patients; two of these peptides (AB-1 and AB-3) also elicited a strong proliferation response in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from all 11 human subjects recovering from malaria. When used as carrier-free immunogens, six peptides induced a strong, boostable, immunoglobulin G-type antibody response in rabbits, indicating the presence of both B-cell determinants and T-helper-cell epitopes in these six constructs. These antibodies specifically cross-reacted with the parasite protein(s) in an immunoblot and in an immunofluorescence assay. In another immunoblot, rabbit antipeptide sera also recognized recombinant fragments of ABRA expressed in bacteria. More significantly, rabbit antibodies against two constructs (AB-1 and AB-5) inhibited the merozoite reinvasion of human erythrocytes in vitro up to ∼90%. These results favor further studies so as to determine possible inclusion of these two constructs in a multicomponent subunit vaccine against asexual blood stages of P. falciparum.
Pharmacokinetic study of furosemide incorporated PLGA microspheres after oral administration to rat

Objective(s): The purpose of the current study was to assess the feasibility of microspheres from biocompatible polymer for oral bioavailability (BA) enhancement of potent sulfonamide- type loop diuretic- Furosemide - which used in the treatment of congestive heart failure, caused edema, cirrhosis, renal disease and as an adjunct in acute pulmonary edema. The comparatively poor and inconstant BA of furosemide, which occurs site-specifically in the stomach and upper small intestine, has been ascribed to the poor dissolution of furosemide. Materials and Methods: In attempt to enhance the drug BA, poly (dl-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microspheres of furosemide were obtained using solvent-evaporation method and the carrier characteristics were investigated subsequently. Results: The in vivo performance of optimum formulation was assessed by pharmacokinetic evaluation of drug after orally administration of free and loaded in microspheres to rats (4 mg/Kg). For this reason, the concentration of drug in plasma was measured by a new developed and sensitive method of HPLC. Acceptable drug loading and encapsulation efficiency of microspheres were obtained to be 70.43 and 85.21 %, respectively. Microspheres provided improved pharmacokinetic parameters (Cmax = 147.94 ng/ml, Tmax = 1.92 hr) in rats as compared with pure drug (Cmax = 75.69 ng/ml, Tmax = 1.5 hr). The obtained AUC of drug in microsphere was 10 fold higher than of the free drug. Conclusion: The results showed that the prepared microspheres successfully improved BA of the poorly water-soluble drug effectively.
DENSITY FUNCTIONAL THEORY STUDY OF B6C4SI CLUSTER AS A NOVEL DRUG CARRIER

The aim of the present study was to prepare new cluster (B6C4Si) as an antibiotic carrier. Density functional theory (DFT) method at the B3LYP level of theory in conjugate with the 6311G** basis set was used to evaluate the interaction between B6C4Si cluster and Penicillin. Binding parameters, HOMO, LUMO and HOMOLUMO GAP were calculated. Results show the B6C4Si HOMO–LUMO gap value of 0.13351 decreasing by attach of Penicillin. The negative values of b H ∆ , b E ∆ and b G ∆ indicate that B6C4Si /Penicillin are thermodynamically stable. From NMR shielding calculations, it can be seen that the penicillin connects stronger to B6C4Si cluster in positive charges than negative charge. Thus by creating positive field, penicillin can be connected to the B6C4Si cluster and delivered easily by using a negative filed.