Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Visual activity in area V2 during reversible inactivation of area 17 in the macaque monkey.

1. The presence of a direct lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) input to area V2 raises the possibility that some neurons in this area remain active when area 17 is inactivated. It is also known that many neurons in area MT are visually responsive in the absence of input from area 17. Because MT sends a strong projection to V2, it appears likely that visual activity could be transferred to V2 through this feedback connection when the V1 afferents are disabled. For these reasons, we decided to reexamine the residual visual activity of neurons in V2 during inactivation of area 17. A circular region 16 mm in diameter on the opercular part of area 17 was cooled by a thermoelectric Peltier device, and single- and multiunit activity was recorded in the retinotopically corresponding region of area V2. 2. Because of the proximity of areas V1 and V2, it was necessary to make sure that neurons in V2 could not be directly blocked by cooling applied to V1. Temperature gradients within cortex were measured with a specially designed thermocouple at different heat flows imposed by the Peltier device. Gradients ranged between 2.3 and 5.5 degrees C/mm. Knowing the temperature gradients and the temperature of the cooling plate, it was possible to deduce the temperature at a given depth within cortex. With this method we measured the blocking temperatures of neurons in area 17, i.e., the temperature at which neurons completely ceased to respond to optimal visual stimulation. Blocking temperatures ranged between 4 and 18 degrees C, values that are substantially lower than those reported in previous papers. Knowing the blocking temperatures, it was possible to determine the cooling-plate temperature necessary to entirely block the region of V1 under the cooling plate. Using the temperature gradients, we then calculated the depth of recording for which V2 neurons could not be directly blocked by the cold. For this reason, all our recordings were made in or near the fundus of the lunate sulcus. 3. During cryoblocking of V1, we recorded 154 sites in penetrations normal to area V2. All these sites had receptive fields included within the visual-field region coded in the cooled zone. In addition, we recorded 55 sites in tangential penetrations aimed at traveling in V2 for long distances. Among these 209 sites, only 3 could be considered as unambiguously active when V1 was blocked. Two of these sites were located at or close to the V2-V3 border. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Finite-length performance of spatially-coupled LDPC codes under TEP decoding

Spatially-coupled (SC) LDPC codes are constructed from a set of L regular sparse codes of length M. In the asymptotic limit of these parameters, SC codes present an excellent decoding threshold under belief propagation (BP) decoding, close to the maximum a posteriori (MAP) threshold of the underlying regular code. In the finite-length regime, we need both dimensions, L and M, to be sufficiently large, yielding a very large code length and decoding latency. In this paper, and for the erasure channel, we show that the finite-length performance of SC codes is improved if we consider the tree-structured expectation propagation (TEP) algorithm in the decoding stage. When applied to the decoding of SC LDPC codes, it allows using shorter codes to achieve similar error rates. We also propose a window-sliding scheme for the TEP decoder to reduce the decoding latency.
Is Hypertension a Disorder of Volume Control? What Is the Evidence?

The etiological factors responsible for the hypertensive phenotype are complex and several experimental and clinical observations point to a major role of the kidney as being responsible. Genetic studies of uncommon diseases which express monogenetic inheritance all have in common a dysregulation of Na+ balance and volume expansion. Furthermore, epidemiological data suggest an increased incidence of hypertension in communities with high excretory rates of Na+. Experimental data also suggest that low birth weight is associated with an increase in the frequency of hypertension later in life and raises the possibility that intrauterine imprinting may contribute to the expression of the phenotype. Upregulation of the Na+/K+/2Cl– and thiazide-sensitive transporters in low birth weight animals may provide the physiological basis for these observations. In addition, low birth weight is associated with a decrease in nephron number. Therefore, low nephron number may induce adaptive changes in utero which influence volume homeostasis later in life and subtle gain of function mutations in one or more of these transporters may unmask defects in volume homeostasis with increasing salt intake. Finally, the high prevalence of hypertension in functionally anephric patience seems to respond to sustained maintenance of ‘dry weight’ through ultrafiltration.
Service modelling for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things envisions a multitude of heterogeneous objects and interactions with the physical environment. The functionalities provided by these objects can be termed as ‘real-world services’ as they provide a near real-time state of the physical world. A structured, machine-processible approach to provision such real-world services is needed to make heterogeneous physical objects accessible on a large scale and to integrate them with the digital world. This paper presents a semantic modeling approach for different components in an IoT framework. It is also discussed how the model can be integrated into the IoT framework by using automated association mechanisms with physical entities and how the data can be discovered using semantic search and reasoning mechanisms.
High-resolution, real-time three-dimensional shape measurement on graphics processing unit

Abstract. A three-dimensional (3-D) shape measurement system that can simultaneously achieve 3-D shape acquisition, reconstruction, and display at 30 frames per second (fps) with 480,000 measurement points per frame is presented. The entire processing pipeline was realized on a graphics processing unit (GPU) without the need of substantial central processing unit (CPU) power, making it achievable on a portable device, namely a laptop computer. Furthermore, the system is extremely inexpensive compared with similar state-of-art systems, making it possible to be accessed by the general public. Specifically, advanced GPU techniques such as multipass rendering and offscreen rendering were used in conjunction with direct memory access to achieve the aforementioned performance. The developed system, implementation details, and experimental results to verify the performance of the proposed technique are presented.
Performance Analysis of Various PWM Strategies for Control of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines in High Voltage EV Application

An efficient control of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) is required for a high-performance electric drive. The type of modulation technique used to switch the Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) is essential to achieve higher DC bus utilization, lower the switching losses and harmonics, and improve the system efficiency. Space Vector PWM (SVPWM) and Third Harmonic Injected PWM (THIPWM) are two such modulation techniques for inverter switching. A detailed performance analysis is presented in this paper considering these two modulation techniques in the flux weakening area of operation for given load profile. A modified average power switching loss calculation model is developed to calculate the power loss during the hard switching of the IGBTs. A detailed comparison of IGBT power loss is presented with the comparison of average power calculation method and the modified power loss calculation model adapted for three-phase VSI. The Total Harmonic Distortion analysis (THD) uses the Fast Fourier Transformation analysis (FFT) tool. The entire system modeling and simulation were done using MATLAB/Simulink software.
Hydrophobins and air filled emulsions

Suspensions of micron sized air cells, Air Filled Emulsions (AFEs), represent a new colloidal material with outstanding physical properties. They have the potential for technological applications in very different fields such as biomedical, environmental sciences and the food industry. This thesis focuses on the construction of AFEs and their use as ingredients to construct reduced fat and calorie emulsion-based products. These microstructurally complex materials have been termed triphasic A/O/W emulsions. A sonochemical templating process has allowed for the construction of air cells (the majority around 0.5-10 μm) in the size range of oil droplets found in emulsion based foods. Air cells were stabilised with either hydrophobins, obtained from submerged fermentation and extraction, or other cysteine rich but more common proteins such as bovine serum albumin (BSA) and egg albumen (EWP). The air cells were stable against disproportionation and ripening for substantial periods of time. They resisted destabilisation effect of oil droplets and could survive unit operations involving mild vacuum treatment and centrifugal forces, relatively high shear forces, temperatures and pressures. Triphasic A/O/W emulsions were created with up to 60% included phase of air and oil in an aqueous continuous phase. This gave a greater than 50% reduction in lipid content. Comparative rheology and tribology showed that the triphasic A/O/W emulsions could have similar if not better lubrication properties than a full O/W version. The molecular properties of the protein used for the AFEs played a crucial role in the determination of lubrication properties (mouth-feel). Moreover, AFEs and triphasic emulsions offer the potential for new structures and textures for the food industry due to their self interaction to give a weak gel
Materials Characterization and Device Performance Survey of InAlN/GaN HEMT Layers from Commercial Sources

In this work, we compare the most recent efforts to develop device-quality InAlN/GaN HEMT structures from three commercial sources. These structures were grown by MOCVD on SiC substrates and all had the same nominal thickness and mole fraction. Device data from two- and fourfinger HEMTs will be presented for each material source. We will show the trends observed in the dc, small-signal, and load-pull data as a function of the material stoichiometry, and an estimate of the barrier layer bandgap
REVIEW: An overview of the environmental risks posed by neonicotinoid insecticides

Summary 1. Neonicotinoids are now the most widely used insecticides in the world. They act systemically, travelling through plant tissues and protecting all parts of the crop, and are widely applied as seed dressings. As neurotoxins with high toxicity to most arthropods, they provide effective pest control and have numerous uses in arable farming and horticulture. 2. However, the prophylactic use of broad-spectrum pesticides goes against the long-established principles of integrated pest management (IPM), leading to environmental concerns. 3. It has recently emerged that neonicotinoids can persist and accumulate in soils. They are water soluble and prone to leaching into waterways. Being systemic, they are found in nectar and pollen of treated crops. Reported levels in soils, waterways, field margin plants and floral resources overlap substantially with concentrations that are sufficient to control pests in crops, and commonly exceed the LC50 (the concentration which kills 50% of individuals) for beneficial organisms. Concentrations in nectar and pollen in crops are sufficient to impact substantially on colony reproduction in bumblebees. 4. Although vertebrates are less susceptible than arthropods, consumption of small numbers of dressed seeds offers a route to direct mortality in birds and mammals. 5. Synthesis and applications. Major knowledge gaps remain, but current use of neonicotinoids is likely to be impacting on a broad range of non-target taxa including pollinators and soil and aquatic invertebrates and hence threatens a range of ecosystem services.
Romiplostim for the treatment of chronic immune (idiopathic) thrombocytopenic purpura.

PURPOSE On August 22, 2008, Romiplostim (Nplate for Injection) received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of thrombocytopenia in patients with chronic immune (idiopathic) thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) who have had an insufficient response to corticosteroids, immunoglobulins, or splenectomy. This report summarizes the FDA analyses of the clinical data supporting this approval. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN The FDA reviewed data from two double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical studies, an uncontrolled extension study, and supportive studies. In the controlled studies, enrolled patients had completed at least one prior treatment for chronic ITP and had a platelet count < or = 30 x 10(9)/L. One study enrolled patients who had undergone splenectomy; the other enrolled patients who had not undergone splenectomy. The primary endpoint in both controlled studies was durable platelet response. RESULTS Overall, 125 patients were randomized in the controlled studies. A durable platelet response was observed in 61% of nonsplenectomized patients and 38% of patients who had undergone splenectomy. One placebo group patient achieved a durable platelet response. Serious hemorrhage events were reported in 10% of placebo recipients and 6% of romiplostim recipients. In the extension study, patients received romiplostim for a median of 60 weeks and a maximum of 96 weeks; the majority of patients maintained platelet counts > or = 50 x 10(9)/L throughout the study. Major safety findings pertained to a risk for bone marrow reticulin formation and worsened thrombocytopenia following romiplostim discontinuation. CONCLUSIONS The FDA approved romiplostim for use among certain patients with chronic ITP. This approval included a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy to ensure that the benefits of the drug outweigh its risks.
FDRS: Federated Diversified Recommender System Based on Heterogeneous Graph Convolutional Network

Currently, researchers are working to improve the accuracy of recommender systems. However, recommender systems ignore users' diversity requirements in recommendation lists, thus reducing user satisfaction. Additionally, in the big data environment, users' data information is scattered in different enterprises or organizations, but these enterprises or organizations are reluctant to share users' data information due to the existing laws and regulations, which leads to the recommendation process facing the problem of the sparsity of users' available data. Based on the above research, we propose a novel framework of a federated diversified recommender system, i.e., FDRS, which is a diversified recommendation method following the principle of vertical federation learning. Specifically, FD RS first constructs a heterogeneous users-items graph, then uses a heterogeneous graph convolutional network to learn user representations based on heterogeneous information, and finally, based on vertical federation learning, FDRS performs model parameter aggre-gation, rating prediction, and diversity recommendation. We compare our approach with existing recommendation methods on the Epinions dataset. The experimental results show that our proposal greatly alleviates the accuracy and diversity dilemmas while preserving data privacy.
An amulet for trustworthy wearable mHealth

Mobile technology has significant potential to help revolutionize personal wellness and the delivery of healthcare. Mobile phones, wearable sensors, and home-based tele-medicine devices can help caregivers and individuals themselves better monitor and manage their health. While the potential benefits of this "mHealth" technology include better health, more effective healthcare, and reduced cost, this technology also poses significant security and privacy challenges. In this paper we propose Amulet, an mHealth architecture that provides strong security and privacy guarantees while remaining easy to use, and outline the research and engineering challenges required to realize the Amulet vision.
An integer support vector machine

Data mining is a technique to discover patterns and trends in data and can be used to create a model to predict those patterns and trends. This is particularly useful for data sets that are not amenable to traditional statistical analysis. One particular data mining task is classification, predicting a quantity that can only take on a finite number of values. An important class of binary classifiers are support vector machines (SVMs). Traditional SVMs use constrained optimization to find a separating hyperplane. A new data point is classified based on which side of the separating hyperplane it happens to fall on. All SVMs try to minimize the number of potential errors the classifier makes by minimizing a sum of distances from the hyperplane. However, the actual task of classification does not place any importance on a distance. In order to model this more closely, we propose the integer support vector machine classifier (ISVM). ISVM uses binary indicator error variables to directly minimize the number of potential errors the classifier can make.
Sphingosine-1-Phosphate Receptor-2 Antagonists: Therapeutic Potential and Potential Risks

The sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) signaling system with its specific G-protein-coupled S1P receptors, the enzymes of S1P metabolism and the S1P transporters, offers a multitude of promising targets for drug development. Until today, drug development in this area has nearly exclusively focused on (functional) antagonists at the S1P1 receptor, which cause a unique phenotype of immunomodulation. Accordingly, the first-in class S1P1 receptor modulator, fingolimod, has been approved for the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, and novel S1P1 receptor (functional) antagonists are being developed for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases such as psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease, lupus erythematodes, or polymyositis. Besides the S1P1 receptor, also S1P2 and S1P3 are widely expressed and regulate many diverse functions throughout the body. The S1P2 receptor, in particular, often exerts cellular functions which are opposed to the functions of the S1P1 receptor. As a consequence, antagonists at the S1P2 receptor have the potential to be useful in a contrasting context and different areas of indication compared to S1P1 antagonists. The present review will focus on the therapeutic potential of S1P2 receptor antagonists and discuss their opportunities as well as their potential risks. Open questions and areas which require further investigations will be emphasized in particular.
A Personalized Meal Recommendation Approach For Smart Refrigerator

This paper presents a food recommendation system that utilizes the multiple regression formula to suggest suitable dishes and meals. The system incorporates several independent variables, including ingredient availability (consisting of ingredient weights and expiration weights), user ratings, user health conditions, and nutritional responsiveness. The dependent variable is the appropriateness of the suggested dish and meal choices for the users. By employing the multiple regression formula, our system aims to understand the relationships between these variables and develop an effective method for providing personalized food and meal recommendations. The results contribute to the field of personalized food recommendation and provide insights for enhancing user satisfaction and promoting healthy eating habits.
Evidence for fetal involvement in the pathologic process of clinical chorioamnionitis.

OBJECTIVE Clinical and histologic chorioamnionitis have recently been identified as risk factors for cerebral palsy. Proinflammatory cytokines have been implicated in the mechanisms that are responsible for brain injury in cases of intrauterine infection. The purpose of this study was to determine whether clinical chorioamnionitis, which is a maternal syndrome, is associated with an elevation in the fetal plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6) that is indicative of fetal inflammation. STUDY DESIGN A cross-sectional study was designed to determine plasma concentrations of IL-6 in umbilical venous blood from patients with clinical chorioamnionitis (n = 26) and a control group (n = 111). Umbilical cord blood was obtained at the time of delivery. Plasma concentrations of IL-6 were measured with a sensitive and specific immunoassay. Nonparametric statistics were used for analysis. RESULTS Plasma concentrations of IL-6 were detectable in all samples of umbilical venous plasma. The median concentration of plasma IL-6 was higher in neonates born to mothers with clinical chorioamnionitis than in neonates born to mothers in the control group (clinical chorioamnionitis: median, 27.46 pg/mL; range, 1.3-5550.0 pg/mL; vs control: median, 2.13 pg/mL; range, 0.6-812.3 pg/mL; P <.001). Sixty-two percent of neonates (16/26) who were born to women with clinical chorioamnionitis had fetal plasma concentrations of IL-6 >11 pg/mL and 54% (14/26) had fetal plasma concentrations of IL-6 >18 pg/mL (these cutoff points have been used previously to define the fetal inflammatory response syndrome). CONCLUSION Umbilical vein plasma concentrations of interleukin-6 are elevated in the neonates who were born to mothers with clinical chorioamnionitis, which suggests that the inflammatory process that is responsible for the maternal syndrome of clinical chorioamnionitis frequently involves the human fetus.
Binding site prediction of galanin peptide using evolutionary trace method

Galanin is a neuropeptide with aminoacid length ranging from 29 to 31 is widely distributed in central and peripheral nervous system. Galanin controls various psychological processes such as sensation of pain, learning, feeding, and sexual behaviour. The N-terminal region of this neuropeptide has highly conserved 15 amino acids, which is triggered by galanin receptors. We performed evolutionary trace analysis for galanin sequences to gather information about functional residues. The consensus pattern given by the evolutionary trace (ET) analysis is supported by CLUSTALW and WEBLOGO results. Our observations strongly suggest the presence of functional residues in the N-terminal region of galanin for agonist-receptor binding.
Signaling by the High-Affinity HDL Receptor Scavenger Receptor B Type I

Scavenger receptor B type I (SR-BI) plays an important role in mediating cholesterol exchange between cells, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and other lipoproteins. SR-BI in hepatocytes is essential for reverse cholesterol transport and biliary secretion of HDL cholesterol; thus, it is atheroprotective. More recently, it has been discovered that the HDL–SR-BI tandem serves other functions that also likely contribute to HDL-related cardiovascular protection. A number of the latter mechanisms, particularly in endothelial cells, involve unique direct signal initiation by SR-BI that leads to the activation of diverse kinase cascades. SR-BI signaling occurs in response to plasma membrane cholesterol flux. It requires the C-terminal PDZ-interacting domain of the receptor, which mediates direct interaction with the adaptor molecule PDZK1; and the C-terminal transmembrane domain, which directly binds membrane cholesterol. In endothelium, direct SR-BI signaling in response to HDL results in enhanced production of the antiatherogenic molecule nitric oxide; in a nitric oxide–independent manner, it serves to maintain endothelial monolayer integrity. The role of SR-BI signaling in the numerous other cellular targets of HDL, including hepatocytes, macrophages, and platelets, and the basis by which SR-BI senses plasma membrane cholesterol movement to modify cell behavior are unknown. Further understanding of signaling by SR-BI will optimize the capacity to harness the mechanisms of action of HDL–SR-BI for cardiovascular benefit.