Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of periodontal therapy on the regulation of soluble cell adhesion molecule expression in aggressive periodontitis patients.

BACKGROUND Inflammatory periodontal disease is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Circulating cell adhesion molecules (CAM) (intercellular adhesion molecule-1 [ICAM-1], vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 [VCAM-1], and E-selectin) have been suggested as potential candidate markers of endothelial dysfunction, which contribute to the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. The regulation of CAM in subjects with severe periodontitis and the influence of periodontal intervention on systemic CAM levels are not clear. The aim of this study was to determine whether intensive periodontal therapy reduces serum levels of CAM in patients with generalized aggressive periodontitis. METHODS Blood samples were collected at six treatment time points from 21 patients with previously untreated generalized aggressive periodontitis (mean age: 34.6 +/- 4.3 years). Patients received subgingival scaling and root planing and antibiotic therapy and were monitored over a 6-month recall period. Serum levels of soluble ICAM-1 (sICAM-1), VCAM-1 (sVCAM-1), and E-selectin (sE-selectin) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS sE-selectin plasma levels decreased significantly (P <0.01) during periodontal therapy. Mean plasma levels were 65.95 ng/ml before treatment and 44.71 ng/ml 6 months after antibiotic therapy. sICAM-1 and sVCAM-2 serum levels were unaffected by therapeutic intervention. CONCLUSIONS Periodontal therapy reduces plasma sE-selectin levels. Whether this leads to a reduction in risk of future cardiovascular events in patients with aggressive periodontal disease warrants further studies.
Reinforcement Learning for Load Management in DiffServ-MPLS Mobile Networks

Cognitive networks are envisaged to provide op- timized resource usage in future. While heterogeneity and re- source scarcity draw research attention to the wireless part, the rest of the network (mobile backhaul) is rarely considered for these improvements. The future of next generation wireless networks is probable to be all-IP, where a common flexible infrastructure is looking for dynamic autonomous solutions that cognition may provide. This work proposes a novel solution, where the introduction of reinforcement learning over multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) in a differentiated services (DiffServ) mobile backhaul should provide autonomous network adaptation aiming at en- hanced QoS capabilities. The proposed solution enables intel- ligent traffic routing by means of distributed reinforcement learning agents that base decisions on edge-gained experience. Index Terms—all-IP, DiffServ, MPLS, QoS, reinforcement learning.
KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES OF HEALTH CARE SCIENCE STUDENTS TOWARD OLDER PEOPLE.

INTRODUCTION Education of health science students in geriatrics is important in order to provide optimal care for the growing number of elderly people because it is the attitudes of health professionals toward the elderly that play the key role in the quality of care provided. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and attitudes of health care science students towards ageing and care for the elderly. MATERIAL AND METHODS The present cross-sectional study was carried out on a sample of 130 students (medical, nursing and special education and rehabilitation) of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad. The students were divided into two groups. The first group (E) included students having been taught geriatrics and nursing older adults and the other group (C) included students who had not been trained in this subject. The authors used Palmore's facts on Ageing Quiz for the knowledge evaluation and Kogan's Attitude toward Older People Scale for the attitude evaluation. RESULTS The results of Facts on Aging Quiz showed the average level of students' knowledge and statistically significant difference between E and C group. The analysis of Kogan's Attitudes toward Old People Scale showed that both groups had neutral attitudes toward older people. Furthermore, a positive correlation between students' knowledge and attitudes was found. CONCLUSION There is increasing evidence on the correlation between education, knowledge and attitudes toward older people which suggests that by acquiring better insights into all aspects of ageing through their education the students develop more positive attitudes and interest in working with older adults.
Design of programmable cellular automata based cipher scheme

This paper presents an originally encryption system implemented on a structure of hybrid additive programmable cellular automata (HAPCA). As the development of cellular automata (CA) applications is generally an experimental effort, the research implies the exploration through simulation of the huge space of cellular automata local rules and global states. The encryption and decryption modules are identically and the cryptosystem is featured by its large key space and high speed due to cellular automata's parallel information processing. The method supports both software and hardware implementation. In this paper we present a fully functional software application for the data encryption of yahoo messenger conversations.
Optogenetic Dissection of the Basal Forebrain Neuromodulatory Control of Cortical Activation, Plasticity, and Cognition

The basal forebrain (BF) houses major ascending projections to the entire neocortex that have long been implicated in arousal, learning, and attention. The disruption of the BF has been linked with major neurological disorders, such as coma and Alzheimer's disease, as well as in normal cognitive aging. Although it is best known for its cholinergic neurons, the BF is in fact an anatomically and neurochemically complex structure. Recent studies using transgenic mouse lines to target specific BF cell types have led to a renaissance in the study of the BF and are beginning to yield new insights about cell-type-specific circuit mechanisms during behavior. These approaches enable us to determine the behavioral conditions under which cholinergic and noncholinergic BF neurons are activated and how they control cortical processing to influence behavior. Here we discuss recent advances that have expanded our knowledge about this poorly understood brain region and laid the foundation for future cell-type-specific manipulations to modulate arousal, attention, and cortical plasticity in neurological disorders. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Although the basal forebrain is best known for, and often equated with, acetylcholine-containing neurons that provide most of the cholinergic innervation of the neocortex, it is in fact an anatomically and neurochemically complex structure. Recent studies using transgenic mouse lines to target specific cell types in the basal forebrain have led to a renaissance in this field and are beginning to dissect circuit mechanisms in the basal forebrain during behavior. This review discusses recent advances in the roles of basal forebrain cholinergic and noncholinergic neurons in cognition via their dynamic modulation of cortical activity.
Small Wideband Double-Loop Antennas Using Lumped Inductors and Coupling Capacitors

Miniature footprint double-loop antennas, loaded with lumped inductors and coupling capacitors, are introduced. Through band diagram analysis, it is shown that frequency separation between the two radiating modes can be controlled to achieve wider bandwidth. For verification, three wideband antennas are designed by adjusting the inductive and capacitive loadings to create resonances at two closely spaced frequencies around 2.45 GHz. The first antenna is fabricated on a 125-mil-thick Rogers TMM10i substrate and has 2.1% |S<sub>11</sub>| <; -10-dB bandwidth with >;1.2 dB gain using a λ<sub>0</sub>/9.8 × λ<sub>0</sub>/9.8 × λ<sub>0</sub>/39.4 footprint. It is shown that the antenna has 49% smaller footprint area than a standard patch and exhibits the same bandwidth performance at the expense of lower gain. The second antenna is fabricated on a reduced-size substrate comparable to its footprint size. This antenna still exhibits the same bandwidth performance as the standard patch. The third antenna is on a 250-mil-thick substrate and exhibits 14.7% bandwidth and 4.34 dB gain with λ<sub>0</sub>/9.8 × λ<sub>0</sub>/9.8 × λ<sub>0</sub>/19.7 footprint.
The role of specialists in managing the health of populations with chronic illness: the example of chronic kidney disease

PROBLEM Specialty care has been used to manage individual patients at the discretion of generalists but not to drive improvements at the population level. DESIGN Observational longitudinal study. SETTING Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, with more than 10,000 members with documented chronic kidney disease. KEY MEASURES FOR IMPROVEMENT Rate of late referrals to nephrology care, defined as occurring within four months of end stage renal disease and the proportions of patients starting haemodialysis with a mature arteriovenous fistula and starting dialysis in the outpatient setting. STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE Risk stratification of the entire population and unsolicited consultations provided by nephrologists to generalists, based on patients' risk level, enabled by an electronic population management database. EFFECTS OF CHANGE Between 2004 and 2008, the proportion of referrals occurring within four months of onset of end stage renal disease dropped from 37 of 116 (32%) to 10 of 84 (12%), P=0.001. The proportion of patients starting haemodialysis with a mature arteriovenous fistula increased from 19 of 108 (18%) to 27 of 76 (36%), P=0.006. The proportion of patients who started haemodialysis as outpatients increased from 39 of 113 (35%) to 47 of 84 (56%), P=0.003. LESSONS LEARNT Turning the traditional referral system on its head by providing unsolicited, risk driven nephrology consultations is an effective strategy for increasing the quality of medical management of patients with chronic kidney disease in the primary care setting and improving the cost effective use of nephrology services. This approach may be broadly applicable to other specialty areas.
Securing PHP – Approaches to Web Application security

The security of the web application bases on the security of the underlying layers, such as OS and application platform layers and the application itself. While the OS layer is beyond control of the PHP project, experience shows that the language is to assist developers in developing more secure code and running it in more secure manner. The majority of the problems in PHP applications is caused by the insecure application code [2], which may allow injecting untrusted data into the output (XSS[13]), database queries and other sensitive commands, running external code in the trusted context (remote include) or disclosing data that the user is not authorized to access. The challenge for the PHP language as a platform is both to provide tools for the developers to avoid such problems and for the site administrators to detect and prevent insecure code from doing harm. The following techniques were employed or researched in PHP, with varying success.
CoCl2 induces protective events via the p38-MAPK signalling pathway and ANP in the perfused amphibian heart

SUMMARY Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) constitute one of the most important intracellular signalling pathways. In particular, the p38-MAPK subfamily is known to be activated under various stressful conditions, such as mechanical or oxidative stress. Furthermore, cobalt chloride (CoCl2) has been shown to mimic hypoxic responses in various cell lines and cause overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In the current study, we investigated the effect of CoCl2 on p38-MAPK signalling pathway in the perfused Rana ridibunda heart. Immunoblot analysis of the phosphorylated, and thus activated, form of p38-MAPK revealed that maximum phosphorylation was attained at 500 μmol l-1 CoCl2. A similar profile was observed for MAPKAPK2 and Hsp27 phosphorylation (direct and indirect p38-MAPK substrates, respectively). Time course analysis of p38-MAPK phosphorylation pattern showed that the kinase reached its peak within 15 min of treatment with 500 μmol l-1 CoCl2. Similar results were obtained for Hsp27 phosphorylation. In the presence of the antioxidants Trolox or Lipoic acid, p38-MAPK CoCl2-induced phosphorylation was attenuated. Analogous results were obtained for Hsp27 and MAPKAPK2. In parallel, mRNA levels of the ANP gene, a hormone whose transcriptional regulation has previously been shown to be regulated by p38-MAPK, were examined (semi-quantitative ratiometric RT-PCR). CoCl2 treatment significantly increased ANP mRNA levels, whereas, in the presence of antioxidants, the transcript levels returned to basal values. All the above data indicate that CoCl2 stimulates compensatory mechanisms involving the p38-MAPK signalling cascade along with ANP.
Self-Determination: Free Will and Determinism

The problem of free will is one of the central issues in modern philosophy. In recent years, empirical studies have gained ground, and it may seem that neuroscience is about to take the place of philosophy. In fact, quite a number of scientists seem to assume that empirical studies can solve the problem of free will, and the answer is negative: free will does not exist. These claims are usually based on certain assumptions concerning necessary conditions of free actions, e.g. that freedom requires indeterminism, or that it requires conscious decisions, etc. In what follows, I would like to demonstrate that such claims need support from a careful analysis of our commonsense concept of free will. Ideally, such an analysis yields clear and consistent criteria that capture the most important intuitions concerning the phenomenon at hand. Empirical research could then try to determine whether or not human actions meet these criteria. Based on such an analysis, the following discussion is intended to answer three questions in particular:
Marine microplastics spell big problems for future generations

There are certain human environmental perturbations so major that they are capable of destabilizing the earth’s normal function at a global scale (1). These so-called planetary boundary threats include climate change, ozone depletion, and ocean acidification. Emerging as a novel addition to this list is the vast quantity of discarded plastic waste that is accumulating in the oceans on an unprecedented scale, where it breaks down to form microscopic and nanoscopic fragments, or microplastics. Microplastics (particles with a diameter <1 mm, with no lower limit) derive from progressive fragmentation of larger plastic items, or may be manufactured to be of a small size, for use in personal care products, medicines, and industry (2). They reach the seas through beach littering, road runoff, sewage, and illegal dumping activities. Microplastics are ubiquitous in marine waters, from deep ocean sediments to polar icecaps, a result of the estimated 8 million tons of plastic that enters the oceans each year (3). Despite calls for plastic to be reclassified as hazardous (4), legislation to restrict marine debris accumulation is hindered by a lack of evidence that it causes ecological harm. In PNAS, Sussarellu et al. (5) provide an important starting point for assembling this evidence: Using an integrative approach, they show that ingestion of microplastics during gametogenesis has impacts on feeding and reproduction in oysters, with negative impacts on adult fecundity and offspring quality, both of which are key components of an organism’s individual fitness. The results of Sussarellu et al. (5) are important because they support an emerging paradigm that microplastics can reduce reproductive output and fitness in marine species by altering their food consumption and energy allocation. Marine plastic debris is a global threat because of its abundance, persistence, and mobility across scales, with subsequent widespread distribution and potential geophysical and biological impacts … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: t.s. galloway{at}exeter.ac. uk. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Increased leukocyte-platelet adhesion in patients with graft occlusion after peripheral vascular surgery

Summary Graft occlusion following peripheral vascular surgery is attributable to some combination of acute thrombosis, and progression of atherosclerosis: interactions between leukocytes and activated platelets may play a role in both of these processes. This investigation measured perioperative leukocyte-platelet conjugate formation, and leukocyte and platelet activation in 46 patients undergoing surgery for lower extremity peripheral vascular disease (PVD). All patients were followed for graft patency over the next 6 months; 27 patients had grafts that remained patent while 19 had graft occlusion. On postoperative day #1 (POD#1), the graft occlusion group demonstrated a significantly greater increase in circulating levels of both mono-cyteplatelet and neutrophil (PMN)-platelet conjugates compared to the patent graft patients (p=0.015 and 0.018, respectively). PMN activation, assessed by increases in surface CD11b expression, was also significantly increased on POD#1 in the graft occlusion group compared to the patent group (p=0.026). The percentage of circulating activated (CD62P+) platelets did not differ between groups, but patients with graft occlusion demonstrated a higher percentage of younger, reticulated platelets throughout the study period (p=0.008), indicating increased platelet turnover. We conclude that in the early postoperative period, leukocyte-platelet adhesion, PMN activation, and platelet turnover are significantly greater in PVD patients who go on to develop later graft occlusion. Cellular activation and heterotypic cell interactions in peripheral vascular surgery patients may be important in the etiologies of thrombosis and/or accelerated atherosclerosis leading to graft loss.
A novel CMOS switched-current mode sequential shift forward inference circuit for fuzzy logic controller

A novel switched-current (SI) mode sequential shift forward inference circuit for a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) is presented. The cumulative error in each inference cycle is effectively cancelled in comparison with the previous architecture. SI basic cells are employed for high-frequency and low-voltage operation. The sequential structure ensures a low-power and compact realization whereas the digital portion is fully programmable. The analog input signal is processed directly without the need of an A/D or D/A interface. SPECTRE simulation results validate the feasibility of the proposed controller that is implemented in 0.35-mum CMOS with a battery 1.5-V supply.
Ergodic and outage capacity of interference temperature-limited cognitive radio multi-input multi-output channel

In this study, we consider a cognitive radio multi-input multi-output (CR-MIMO) system in which the cognitive radio (CR) users are allowed to access the spectrum of the licensed primary users, provided that interference power received at the primary receiver is less than a certain threshold. The authors investigate the effect of the MIMO diversity on such multi-constraint CR-MIMO systems. They consider peak interference power constraint at the primary receiver and peak transmit power constraint at the CR transmitter. In MIMO systems, the allowable transmit power is distributed over the transmit-antennas. The power allocation problem of such CR systems is studied under both sum power and interference constraints. The authors show that the equal power allocation does not improve the ergodic capacity but improves the outage capacity over the single-input single-output (SISO) system. Transmit antenna selection (TAS) which is a special case of power allocation is also investigated. The authors show that, under the peak interference and transmit power constraint, selecting a single transmit-antenna and allocating all the power to the selected best antenna achieves the same performance as the optimal power allocation (OPA). The authors evaluate ergodic capacity and outage capacity for both power allocation- and antenna selection-based schemes. The closed-form expressions of the outage probabilities are also derived. Results show that both OPA and TAS significantly improves the capacities over the SISO system.
Optical Stimulation of Neurons

Our capacity to interface with the nervous system remains overwhelmingly reliant on electrical stimulation devices, such as electrode arrays and cuff electrodes that can stimulate both central and peripheral nervous systems. However, electrical stimulation has to deal with multiple challenges, including selectivity, spatial resolution, mechanical stability, implant-induced injury and the subsequent inflammatory response. Optical stimulation techniques may avoid some of these challenges by providing more selective stimulation, higher spatial resolution and reduced invasiveness of the device, while also avoiding the electrical artefacts that complicate recordings of electrically stimulated neuronal activity. This review explores the current status of optical stimulation techniques, including optogenetic methods, photoactive molecule approaches and infrared neural stimulation, together with emerging techniques such as hybrid optical-electrical stimulation, nanoparticle enhanced stimulation and optoelectric methods. Infrared neural stimulation is particularly emphasised, due to the potential for direct activation of neural tissue by infrared light, as opposed to techniques that rely on the introduction of exogenous light responsive materials. However, infrared neural stimulation remains imperfectly understood, and techniques for accurately delivering light are still under development. While the various techniques reviewed here confirm the overall feasibility of optical stimulation, a number of challenges remain to be overcome before they can deliver their full potential.
Characterisations of electrospark deposition Stellite 6 alloy coating on 316L sealed valve used in nuclear power plant

Abstract In nuclear plant the protection of the H2BO4 solution seal areas of AISI 316L austenitic steel is accomplished by Stellite 6 plasma cladding layer. Wear defects created in service required the part to be replaced or repaired. No existing repair technologies were practical. Electrospark deposition (ESD) was to repair defects, enabling the parts to be placed back in service. In this paper the authors report the results obtained depositing directly a layer of Stellite 6 alloy onto a 316L austenitic stainless and Stellite 6 plasma cladding layer by using ESD technique. Electrospark deposition can apply metallurgical bonded coatings without the need of post-heat treatment. Structure, hardness, chemical composition and morphology of the ESD coating have been analysed. By electrochemical measurements it is inferred that the corrosion resistance of the ESD coating is comparable to that of the 316L and Stellite 6 plasma cladding layer. The hardness improvement was ascribed to the refine microstructure and the rapid solidification.