Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Two cationic porphyrin isomers showing different multimeric G-quadruplex recognition specificity against monomeric G-quadruplexes

Ligands that can interact specifically with telomeric multimeric G-quadruplexes could be developed as promising anticancer drugs with few side effects related to other G-quadruplex-forming regions. In this paper, a new cationic porphyrin derivative, m-TMPipEOPP, was synthesized and characterized. Its multimeric G-quadruplex recognition specificity under molecular crowding conditions was compared to its isomer p-TMPipEOPP. The slight structural difference accounts for different multimeric G-quadruplex recognition specificity for the two isomers. p-TMPipEOPP can barely discriminate between multimeric and monomeric G-quadruplexes. By contrast, m-TMPipEOPP can bind with multimeric but not with monomeric G-quadruplexes. p-TMPipEOPP might bind to multimeric G-quadruplexes by two modes: sandwich-like end-stacking mode and pocket-dependent intercalative mode. Increasing the pocket size between adjacent two G-quadruplex uints is beneficial for the latter mode. m-TMPipEOPP might bind to multimeric G-quadruplexes by a side binding mode, which confers m-TMPipEOPP with higher multimeric G-quadruplex recognition specificity compared to p-TMPipEOPP. m-TMPipEOPP increases the stability of multimeric G-quadruplex under both dilute and molecular crowding conditions but its G-quadruplex-stabilizing ability is a little weaker than p-TMPipEOPP. These results provide important information for the design of highly specific multimeric G-quadruplex ligands. Another interesting finding is that pocket size is an important factor in determining the stability of multimeric G-quadruplexes.
Dextran Modified Silicon Photonic Microring Resonator Sensors

We present a dextran modified silicon microring resonator sensor for high density antibody immobilization. An array of sensors consisting of three sensor rings and a reference ring was fabricated and its surface sensitivity and the limit of detection were obtained using polyelectrolyte multilayers. The mass sensitivity and the limit of detection of the fabricated sensor ring are 0.35 nm/ng mm and 42.8 pg/mm in air, respectively. Dextran modified sensor surface was successfully prepared by covalent grafting of oxidized dextran on 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) modified silicon sensor surface. The antibody immobilization on hydrogel dextran matrix improves 40% compared to traditional antibody immobilization method via APTES and glutaraldehyde linkage. Keywords—Antibody immobilization, Dextran, Immunosensor, Label-free detection, Silicon micro-ring resonator
Stroke Patients with a Past History of Cancer Are at Increased Risk of Recurrent Stroke and Cardiovascular Mortality

Background and Purpose Cancer patients are at increased risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events. It is unclear whether cancer confers any additional risk for recurrent stroke or cardiovascular mortality after stroke. Methods This was a single center, observational study of 1,105 consecutive Chinese ischemic stroke patients recruited from a large stroke rehabilitation unit based in Hong Kong. We sought to determine whether patients with cancer are at higher risk of recurrent stroke and cardiovascular mortality. Results Amongst 1,105 patients, 58 patients (5.2%) had cancer, of whom 74% were in remission. After a mean follow-up of 76±18 months, 241 patients developed a recurrent stroke: 22 in patients with cancer (38%, annual incidence 13.94%/year), substantially more than those without cancer (21%, 4.65%/year) (p<0.01). In a Cox regression model, cancer, age and atrial fibrillation were the 3 independent predictors of recurrent stroke with a hazard ratio (HR) of 2.42 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.54–3.80), 1.01 (1.00–1.03) and 1.35 (1.01–1.82) respectively. Likewise, patients with cancer had a higher cardiovascular mortality compared with those without cancer (4.30%/year vs. 2.35%/year, p = 0.08). In Cox regression analysis, cancer (HR: 2.08, 95% CI: 1.08–4.02), age (HR: 1.04, 95% CI 1.02–1.06), heart failure (HR: 3.06, 95% CI 1.72–5.47) and significant carotid atherosclerosis (HR: 1.55, 95% CI 1.02–2.36) were independent predictors for cardiovascular mortality. Conclusions Stroke patients with a past history of cancer are at increased risk of recurrent stroke and cardiovascular mortality.
Combined Effects of Thermal Barrier Coating and Blending With Diesel Fuel on Usability of Waste Plastic Oil in Diesel Engines

The possibility of using waste plastic pyrolysis oil blends in a thermally insulated diesel engine has been experimentally investigated. Initially, the standard diesel fuel was tested in the engine, as base experiment for comparison. Then the engine was thermally insulated by coating the piston crown exhaust surface with Yttrium Stabilized Zirconium (YSZ). The main purpose of engine coating was to reduce heat rejection from the walls of combustion chamber and to increase thermal efficiency and thus to increase performance of the engine that using waste plastic pyrolysis oil blends. The experiments were performed using 10%, 20% and 30% waste plastic pyrolysis oildiesel blends. Waste plastic pyrolysis oil is blended with diesel fuel. Blends and diesel fuel were then tested in the coated diesel engine. Experimental results proved that the main purpose of this study was achieved as the engine performance parameters such as brake thermal efficiency, mechanical efficiency, were increased with simultaneous decrease in fuel consumption. Carbon dioxide and unburned hydrocarbon were higher than that of the diesel baseline. The toxic gas carbon monoxide emission of waste plastic oil was higher than diesel. Smoke reduced by about 10% to 15% in waste plastic oil at all loads.
Using Interactive Artificial Bee Colony to Forecast Exchange Rate

Exchange rate forecasting has become a popular research topic in recent years because the problems of the forecasting model selection and the improvement on forecasting accuracy are not easy to be solved. In this study, we employ a swarm intelligence method called Interactive Artificial Bee Colony (IABC) and use nine macroeconomic factors as the input for the exchange rate forecasting. The sliding window is used in the experiment for both the training and the testing. In our experiments, we use continuous previous three days data as the training set, and use the training result to forecast the fourth day's exchange rage. Moreover, we evaluate the forecasting accuracy with three criteria, namely, Mean Square Error (MSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). The experimental results indicate that using IABC with the macroeconomic factors is a positive and doable way for the exchange rate forecasting.
State of the art of existing standards for the evaluation of network performance and energy consumption

The expansion of the telecommunication market to a wider number of customers, along with the increasing of services being offered, has brought the CO2 emissions to a dangerous level. Concern is due both to the impact on the environment and to the high costs caused by such energy consumptions. For these reasons, the scientific community is producing many researches to introduce power management capabilities in commercial network devices. Since reducing power consumption has the drawback of performance degradation, some benchmarking methodologies have been proposed to evaluate the trade-off between power consumption and network performance. This paper is devoted to critically analyse and compare the existing methodologies, in order to evaluate their effectiveness and possible enhancements.
A novel robot hand with the magneto-rheological fluid solidification

The conventional passively underactuated hand can self-adaptively grasp an object under the reaction force produced by other active joints or the grasped objects, but it may reject the object if the force disappears, and cannot grasp independently. In order to overcome this serious disadvantage, a novel kind design of the passively self-adaptive underactuated hand is proposed, called the magneto-rheological fluid (MRF) hand. The MRF can be instantaneously solidified while a fitful magnetic field being produced, and liquidized shortly after the magnetic field disappearing. Based on this characteristic, the MRF is applied to a self-adaptive hand which can solidify the shape of the joint grasping the object and keep the grasping force under the help of springs. The MRF Hand is actuated initially by the reaction force from the grasped object and locked by the solidified MRF ultimately. The MRF Hand can keep the shape of the grasping object securely during the grasping process.
The Multi-commodity One-to-one Pickup-and-delivery Traveling Salesman Problem with Path Duration Limits

The design of container shipping networks is an important real world problem, with assets and operational costs in billions of dollars. To guide the optimal deployment of the ships, a single vessel roundtrip is considered by minimizing operational costs and flowing the best paying cargo under com- mercial constraints. Inspiration for formulation and solution method is taken from the rich research done within pickup and delivery problems. The problem, the multicommodity one-to- one pickup and delivery traveling salesman problem with path duration limits is, to the best of out knowledge, considered for the first time. An arc flow and a path flow model are presented. A Branch and Cut and Price solution method is proposed and implemented.
Choice The Debate That Won't Die? Values Incommensurability, Antagonism and Theory

Abstract. In this article, I examine a recent turn in the paradigm debate towards the incommensurability thesis and the proposed possibility of adjudication between theories from different paradigms. In particular, I argue that McKelvey and Baum’s views (among others) appear to be based on a desire to reduce paradigmatic pluralism and, in turn, reduce uncertainty about what is the empirically valid view among competing theories. By contrast, I make the case that an incommensurability of values still permeates any attempt to engage in theory-adjudication. Such values, I assert, will stall any attempt to adjudicate between theories from different paradigms. In the face of widespread cognitive bias, conﬁ rmation bias and belief perseverance, we cannot, I conclude, hope to deal with this issue in any satisfactory way. Key words. cognitive bias; organization theory; paradigm incommensurability; politics; values incommensurability While we can only speculate as to why the incommensurability thesis has again become a problem in recent literature, one reason that might ﬁ gure prominently is that incommensurability represents perhaps the major stumbling block preventing organization scholars from attaining a level of consensus on fundamental research questions (Fabian, 2000; McKelvey, 1997, 1999, 2003a, 2003b; Pfeffer, 1993). This, in turn, impacts on the cumulative nature of the production of knowledge in the discipline and therefore on its perceived scientiﬁ c status and ability to demonstrate some
Exploring interactive furniture with EmotoCouch

People respond emotionally to other people, animals, or even objects like furniture. While current furniture is static in appearance, embedded electronics can enable furniture to change its appearance. A couch could show excitement during a party or anger when a pet scratches it. But would emotional furniture delight or annoy people? To explore the potential for emotional furniture, we built EmotoCouch. Through colored light, visual patterns, and haptic feedback, EmotoCouch expresses six emotional states: Excited, Happy, Calm, Depressed/Sad, Afraid, and Angry. This video describes the construction of EmotoCouch, feedback gathered through surveys and user interviews, and shows example EmotoCouch usage situations.
Trading Decision Maker: stock trading decision by price series smoothing and tendency transition inference

Financial engineering, such as trading decision-making, is a major topic for research and also has commercial applications. The stock price series has a series of change-points, and accurate prediction of its movements is the key to successful trading. However, making correct trading decisions is difficult because of the influence of embedded noise and price fluctuations that confuse the interpretation of stock trends. This paper proposes a novel stock trading method, called the Trading Decision Maker (TDM), based on price series smoothing to reveal important change-points, which reflect changes in stock trends more precisely. Tendency transition inference is used to identify these important change-points effectively. We demonstrate the usefulness of TDM in evaluating profitability capacity, and prove that its accumulated rate of return performed 199.05% better than other buy-and-hold strategies used by open-ended mutual funds on the Taiwan Stock Exchange Capitalization Weighted Index (TAIEX) from 2001 to 2003.
Envejecimiento cerebral

Background. Higher cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is cross-sectionally associated with more conserved brain volume in older age, but longitudinal studies are rare. This study examined whether higher midlife CRF was prospectively associated with slower atrophy, which in turn was associated with higher late-life CRF. Methods. Brain volume by magnetic resonance imaging was determined annually from 1994 to 2003 in 146 participants (Mbaseline age = 69.6 years). Peak oxygen uptake on a treadmill yielded estimated midlife CRF in 138 and late-life CRF in 73 participants. Results. Higher midlife CRF was associated with greater middle temporal gyrus, perirhinal cortex, and temporal and parietal white matter, but was not associated with atrophy progression. Slower atrophy in middle frontal and angular gyri was associated with higher late-life CRF, independent of CRF at baseline magnetic resonance imaging. Conclusions. Higher midlife CRF may play a role in preserving middle and medial temporal volumes in late adulthood. Slower atrophy in middle frontal and angular gyri may predict late-life CRF.
Fast Dissolving Tablets of Fexofenadine HCl by Effervescent Method

In the present work, fast dissolving tablets of fexofenadine HCl were prepared by effervescent method with a view to enhance patient compliance. Three super-disintegrants viz., crospovidone, croscarmellose sodium and sodium starch glycolate along with sodium bicarbonate and anhydrous citric acid in different ratios were used and directly compressible mannitol (Pearlitol SD 200) to enhance mouth feel. The prepared batches of tablets were evaluated for hardness, friability, drug content uniformity and in vitro dispersion time. Based on the in vitro dispersion time (approximately 20 s), three formulations were tested for in vitro drug release pattern in pH 6.8 phosphate buffer, short-term stability at 40°/75% RH for 3 mo and drug-excipient interaction (IR spectroscopy). Among the three promising formulations, the formulation ECP3 containing 8% w/w of crospovidone and mixture of 24% w/w sodium bicarbonate 18% w/w of anhydrous citric acid emerged as the best (t50% 4 min) based on the in vitro drug release characteristics compared to conventional commercial tablet formulation (t50% 15 min). Short-term stability studies on the formulations indicated that there are no significant changes in drug content and in vitro dispersion time (P<0.05).
Learning to Comprehend Foreign‐Accented Speech by Means of Production and Listening Training

The effects of production and listening training on the subsequent comprehension of foreign-accented speech were investigated in a training-test paradigm. During training, German nonnative (L2) and English native (L1) participants listened to a story spoken by a German speaker who replaced all English /θ/s with /t/ (e.g., *teft for theft) or they produced the story themselves with the t-substitutes. During test, participants made auditory lexical decisions to English words with t-substitutes. L2 participants’ reaction times to words from the training were significantly faster after having produced the story than after no training; having listened to the short story also resulted in faster reaction times, but less strongly so. For L1 participants, the facilitatory effect of training did not differ significantly between production and listening training. Thus, only for L2 participants, the effect of accent production for adaptation was superior to accent listening.
Bayesian Modelling of Confusability of Phoneme-Grapheme Connections

Deficiencies in the ability to map letters to sounds are currently considered to be the most likely early signs of dyslexia. This has motivated the use of Literate, a computer game for training this skill, in several Finnish schools and households as a tool in the early prevention of reading disability. In this paper, we present a Bayesian model that uses a student's performance in a game like Literate to infer which phoneme-grapheme connections student currently confuses with each other. This information can be used to adapt the game to a particular student's skills as well as to provide information about the student's learning progress to their parents and teachers. We apply our model to empirical data collected using Literate. Based on these data, we evaluate and compare using Bayesian methodology three different submodels with different restrictions on the possible confusability relations.
Optimal Decoders for 4 G LTE Communication

Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) techniques are used to realize practical high data rate systems which laid the foundation of Long Term Evolution (LTE). Various transmission techniques like Transmit Diversity (TxD), Open Loop Spatial Multiplexing (OLSM) and Closed Loop Spatial Multiplexing (CLSM) are deployed in the realm of MIMO. The spectral efficiency is improved with the help Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). In this paper we will focus on CLSM, to evaluate its performance with the help of Zero Forcing (ZF), Minimum Mean Sqaure Error (MMSE), SoftSphere Decoder (SSD), SSD K-Best (SSDKB) and SIC receivers to find the optimal decoder in LTE environment. The SSD, SSD-KB and SIC uses MMSE based equalizers. The channel environment used are Additive White Gaussian (AWGN), Vehicular A (VehA), Vehicular B (VehB) and an outdoor Pedestrian (Ped B) channel model. A Least Square (LS) estimated feedback obtained by the averaging of two channel instances is used to improve BLER in the case of fading channels.
The safety of intravitreal bevacizumab monotherapy in adult ophthalmic conditions: systematic review

Objectives To assess the safety of intravitreal bevacizumab (IVB) as a monotherapy and to evaluate the relationship between quality of treatment and adverse events. Data sources Cochrane Library, Ovid MEDLINE, MEDLINE in-process, Ovid EMBASE and Toxicology Literature Online (TOXLINE) from January 2009 to May 2012. Studies included in an earlier systematic review were also assessed for inclusion. Study eligibility criteria, participants and interventions Randomised controlled trials (RCTs), controlled trials or observational studies including ≥10 participants reporting adverse events data following IVB monotherapy as a primary treatment in patients (aged 18 years or more) with any eye condition were included. Study appraisal and synthesis methods Study selection was undertaken independently by a minimum of two reviewers using pre-defined criteria. Data abstraction and quality assessment were performed by one reviewer, and then checked by a second reviewer. Study quality was assessed for only RCTs in accordance to the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool. Additional items relating to safety data were also assessed. Results were tabulated or meta-analysed as appropriate. Results 22 RCTs and 67 observational studies were included. Only two RCTs reported valid safety data. Rates of serious adverse events following treatment were low. There was insufficient data to explore the relationship between the incidence of adverse events and quality of IVB injection. Limitations A majority of relevant existing studies were characterised by small sample sizes, unclear diagnostic criteria and reporting of safety outcomes. Conclusions and implications of key findings Available evidence demonstrates low rates of serious local and systemic adverse events following treatment. However, the role of IVB quality in the incidence of adverse events remains unclear. Robust evidence is needed to examine the relationship between the incidence of adverse events and variables such as injection techniques, pre-existing risk factors (eg, immunosuppression, cross-contamination) and quality of IVB treatment.
18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose-Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography for Other Thyroid Cancers: Medullary, Anaplastic, Lymphoma and So Forth

Positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) is used in staging, restaging, and evaluation of therapy response in many cancers as well as differentiated thyroid carcinomas especially in non-iodine avid variants. Its potential in less frequent thyroid tumors like medullary, anaplastic thyroid cancers, thyroid lymphoma and metastatic tumors of the thyroid however, is not well established yet. The aim of this review is to provide an overview on the recent applications and indications of 18F-FDG PET/CT in these tumors and to focus on the controversies in the clinical setting.
Low Complexity Enhanced Hybrid Spectrum Sensing Architectures for Cognitive Radio Equipment

Spectrum sensing enables detecting opportunities in licensed bands in order to access unused portions of the licensed spectrum. In this paper we propose two low complexity detectors based on a combination of two well-known and complementary signal detection mechanisms: energy detection and mono-cycle detection, which exploits cyclostationarity property of the signals. In the first algorithm the mono-cycle detector iteratively corrects the thresholds of a double threshold energy detector, that will finally converge to the performance of the mono-cycle detector. The second algorithm uses the mono-cycle detector to directly estimate the noise level N0, which is used to fix the threshold of the radiometer. Simulation results conducted on different environments show promising performances of the proposed detectors especially in low SNR.
Numerical Investigation of Cell Encapsulation for Multiplexing Diagnostic Assays Using Novel Centrifugal Microfluidic Emulsification and Separation Platform

In the present paper, we report a novel centrifugal microfluidic platform for emulsification and separation. Our design enables encapsulation and incubation of multiple types of cells by droplets, which can be generated at controlled high rotation speed modifying the transition between dripping-to-jetting regimes. The droplets can be separated from continuous phase using facile bifurcated junction design. A three dimensional (3D) model was established to investigate the formation and sedimentation of droplets using the centrifugal microfluidic platform by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The simulation results were compared to the reported experiments in terms of droplet shape and size to validate the accuracy of the model. The influence of the grid resolution was investigated and quantified. The physics associated with droplet formation and sedimentation is governed by the Bond number and Rossby number, respectively. Our investigation provides insight into the design criteria that can be used to establish centrifugal microfluidic platforms tailored to potential applications, such as multiplexing diagnostic assays, due to the unique capabilities of the device in handling multiple types of cells and biosamples with high throughput. This work can inspire new development of cell encapsulation and separation applications by centrifugal microfluidic technology.