Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bifunctional role of pro-inflammatory cytokines after traumatic brain injury

Abstract Background: Pro-inflammatory cytokines play an essential role in maintenance of normal brain function as well as in repair after traumatic brain injuries (TBI). However, massive and uncontrolled release of these cytokines, particularly interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6 and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, can also result in a great deal of additional brain damage. Levels of these cytokines may increase in the brain thousands of times more than do the corresponding levels in serum. Research design: Narrative literature review. Outcome and conclusions: Strategies to control the levels of these pro-inflammatory cytokines and to reduce the cytokine-induced brain damage are discussed. There is extensive evidence from experiments in animal models that suppression of cytokines is effective in ameliorating neurologic damage after TBI. However, the efficacy of this approach remains to be proven in patient trials.
Another sleeve for fiberoptic tracheal intubation.

53.7% with cardiovascular collapse), cutaneous symptoms (69.6%), and bronchospasm (44.2%) were the most common clinical features (3). However, because patients are under drapes and often unconscious or sedated, the early cutaneous signs of anaphylaxis are often unrecognized, leaving bronchospasm and cardiovascular collapse as the first recognized signs of anaphylaxis in the perioperative period. While bronchospasm was the sole presenting feature in 3.1% of cases, cardiovascular collapse presented alone in 8.4% of cases (3). It is important to note that although cardiovascular collapse is less likely to present in nonsurgical patients, it was not reported in the group in the Lieberman series (2). In addition, Lieberman (2) acknowledges that different series report signs and symptoms differently. The other point raised by Dr. Brock-Utne refers to the timing of the presentation of adverse latex reactions, and we believe that this statement deserves some clarification. First, it depends on the type of reaction: irritant contact dermatitis may develop minutes to hours after exposure to latex-powdered gloves or chemicals, and type IV cell-mediated hypersensitivity reaction usually begins 48 to 72 h after exposure to antioxidants and rubber accelerators. The presentation of a type I IgE-mediated hypersensitivity reaction depends on the route of exposure. Latex proteins are absorbed slowly when the exposure is airborne, causing a delayed presentation 30 min after exposure. Parenteral or mucous membrane exposure may lead to an anaphylactic reaction shortly after exposure, as there is a higher rate of absorption of latex proteins. We agree with Dr. Brock-Utne that most cases of latex anaphylaxis during anesthesia present 30 to 60 min after induction, coinciding with a delayed airborne exposure or with mucous membrane exposure at the beginning of the surgical procedure.
Assessment of the thigh cuff technique for measurement of dynamic cerebral autoregulation.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Dynamic methods of measuring cerebral autoregulation have become an accepted alternative to static evaluation. This article aims to describe a set of data collected from healthy volunteers by a dynamic method, the purpose being to qualify and quantify expected results for those who may be designing a study using this technique. METHODS Cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) (measured by transcranial Doppler) and arterial blood pressure (Finapres) were recorded in 16 normal subjects before, during, and after the induction of a blood pressure drop (release of bilateral thigh cuffs). This procedure was repeated 6 times for each subject. A mathematical model was applied to the data to generate an autoregulatory index (ARI) with values between 0 and 9. RESULTS The ARI values for this sample population follow a normal distribution, with a mean+/-SD of 4.98+/-1.06 (n=15). Analysis of the cumulative mean ARI values of all subjects showed an exponential-type convergence of ARI toward the sample mean as the number of test iterations increased. The population average blood pressure drop on thigh cuff release was 26.4+/-7.1 mm Hg (n=16), occurring in 4.6+/-1. 7 seconds. The corresponding population average drop for CBFV was 15. 6+/-5.8 cm/s, taking 2.5+/-1.0 seconds. No significant trend was noted in the measurements as the number of test iterations increased. The correlation between the predicted and actual CBFV, having a mean value of 0.76+/-0.19, showed evidence of a nonlinear relationship to ARI values. Significant correlation was also found between ARI and (1) arterial blood pressure before cuff release and (2) the magnitude of the drop in CBFV on cuff release. CONCLUSIONS The distribution of ARI values is not significantly different from normal. At least 3 iterations of the test procedure should be performed and averaged to obtain the mean ARI for each subject. There is no significant evidence of physiological accommodation as the number of test iterations increases. The effects of mean blood pressure and the magnitude of the change in CBFV should be considered as possible covariates when ARI data are analyzed.
ClinicalTrials.gov as a Data Source for Semi-Automated Point-Of-Care Trial Eligibility Screening

Background Implementing semi-automated processes to efficiently match patients to clinical trials at the point of care requires both detailed patient data and authoritative information about open studies. Objective To evaluate the utility of the ClinicalTrials.gov registry as a data source for semi-automated trial eligibility screening. Methods Eligibility criteria and metadata for 437 trials open for recruitment in four different clinical domains were identified in ClinicalTrials.gov. Trials were evaluated for up to date recruitment status and eligibility criteria were evaluated for obstacles to automated interpretation. Finally, phone or email outreach to coordinators at a subset of the trials was made to assess the accuracy of contact details and recruitment status. Results 24% (104 of 437) of trials declaring on open recruitment status list a study completion date in the past, indicating out of date records. Substantial barriers to automated eligibility interpretation in free form text are present in 81% to up to 94% of all trials. We were unable to contact coordinators at 31% (45 of 146) of the trials in the subset, either by phone or by email. Only 53% (74 of 146) would confirm that they were still recruiting patients. Conclusion Because ClinicalTrials.gov has entries on most US and many international trials, the registry could be repurposed as a comprehensive trial matching data source. Semi-automated point of care recruitment would be facilitated by matching the registry's eligibility criteria against clinical data from electronic health records. But the current entries fall short. Ultimately, improved techniques in natural language processing will facilitate semi-automated complex matching. As immediate next steps, we recommend augmenting ClinicalTrials.gov data entry forms to capture key eligibility criteria in a simple, structured format.
Making Space for Play in European Cities

is used to remind adult readers of the wisdom of children and the valueof engaging children directly when planning for play. The importance of play inchildren’s lives is often underestimated and thus the second section of this paperclarifies the nature of play and explains why play matters to all concerned withchildren. Attention then turns to the draft strategy of
The boundary between hypochondriasis and obsessive-compulsive disorder: a cross-sectional study from the Netherlands.

OBJECTIVE To investigate similarities and differences between the symptom profiles of patients with hypochondriasis and those of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and to compare the contamination/cleaning OCD subtype to other OCD subtypes. METHOD Between January 1998 and July 2002, 76 patients diagnosed with hypochondriasis (N = 31) or OCD (N = 45) (DSM-IV criteria) and 25 subjects with no formal DSM-IV diagnosis were compared with regard to the extent of diagnosis-specific symptoms, the number and nature of physical symptoms, and whether these symptoms evoked fear. The analyses were repeated after subdividing the OCD patients into the contamination/cleaning and other OCD subgroups. RESULTS Patients with hypochondriasis and OCD differed significantly from each other on the extent of diagnosis-specific symptoms (all p < .001). Patients with hypochondriasis reported significantly more obsessive-compulsive symptoms and patients with OCD reported significantly more hypochondriacal symptoms than did the healthy control-group members (all p < .05). Neither group differed significantly from the other on the number and nature of feared physical symptoms. The contamination/cleaning OCD subtype did not differ significantly from other OCD subtypes in either the severity of hypochondriacal symptoms or the number of feared physical symptoms. CONCLUSION Hypochondriasis and OCD can be distinguished on the basis of diagnosis-specific symptoms, although they share a number of similarities. In addition, although patients with the contamination/cleaning OCD subtype tend to be afraid of contracting diseases, the differences between the symptom profiles of these patients and those of patients with hypochondriasis exceed the similarities. Our results confirm that the 2 conditions are separable and valid diagnoses.
What Is Nanotechnology and Why Does It Matter

Nanotechnology has in various ways been regarded as a technology that promises both innovations and risks and that has the potential to profoundly change the world. Yet for many people there are still two questions that remain unanswered: just what is nanotechnology, and why does it matter? What is nanotechnology and why does it matter? : from science to ethics, by a nanoscientist and two philosophers, aims to give the reader a balanced and informed understanding of this important technology. The book not only focuses on providing the reader with normative reasons around why nanotechnology matters, such as its social impact and ethics, but also offers an accurate and generally accessible analysis of the science involved, highlighting what nanotechnology actually is and why it matters in terms of the applications and features that make it relevant. The book serves as a useful introduction to nanotechnology for those who know little about the subject but wish to learn about the impact this technology could have on their lives and about the ethical issues it raises. The book is for the most part easily accessible, with the exception of some of the first chapters in Unit 1 which could come across as overly technical. However, this may be viewed as a positive feature, rather than a negative one, given that few books that discuss the ethical and social issues of nanotechnology offer such a comprehensive review of the science behind nanotechnology. This review of the science behind nanotechnology is indeed a main strength of this book by Allhoff et al., as it is here that a framework is established that permits a better understanding of the societal and ethical issues covered in the subsequent units. In a wider sense, the book can be recommended to both scientists and non-scientists alike, since it deals with a wide range of the questions and problems that are the subject of current debate. The book is divided into three units. The first focuses on the science behind nanotechnology. In the second the authors provide frameworks that allow an evaluation of the specific ethical and social issues to be discussed in the final unit, including military, medical and enhancement-related applications. The first unit entitled ‘What is nanotechnology? ’ Begins with a chapter that attempts to explain the basic principles of nanotechnology to the reader, addressing definitions and scales, the origins of nanotechnology, the current state and future of nanotechnology, as well as issues relating to nanotechnology in nature and its applications. As the authors state: “Nanotechnology has not only been present in nature, but has also been used unwittingly in human-made technology for centuries” (p.18). The second chapter focuses on the “tools of the trade” that are used in nanotechnologies and discusses the basic governing theories that have affected them. Reference is made to the development of the electron microscope and to scanning probe microscopy in the context of the former, and to quantum mechanics, Nanoethics (2014) 8:211–213 DOI 10.1007/s11569-014-0196-8
Development of a novel tapered balun for the UWB UHF coupler

The UWB UHF coupler for GIS PD detection requires a balun (balance to unbalance transformer) to show its inherent UWB characteristics. In order to reduce the size of the balun and to make it practical in the conventional GIS, a novel tapered coaxial balun with a dielectric was proposed for the UWB UHF coupler. The performance of the proposed balun was verified through a series of simulations, measurements and experiments. As a result, both the conventional balun and the proposed balun, which has a length equal to one third of that of the conventional balun, demonstrated good S11 characteristics, whereas the efficiency of the proposed balun increased as much as about 30% in comparison to the conventional one.
The Production and Perception of Facial Expressions by Infants at High-Risk for an Autism Spectrum Disorder

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display atypical production and perception of emotion. Infant sibling studies, longitudinal assessments of infants with (i.e., high risk) and without (i.e., low-risk) an older sibling with ASD, have reported that the production of social smiles may indicate ASD as early as 12 months of age. Still, little is known about the nature of HR and low-risk (LR) infants’ emotion development prior to 12 months. The current study explores HR and LR infants’ facial expression production and perception at 6 and 11 months of age. The social signals of emotion produced by 26 HR 6-month-olds, 24 LR 6-month-olds, 24 HR 11-month-olds, and 33 LR 11-month-olds were measured in the context of face-to-face interaction with their mothers. Results indicated that increased positive affect at 6 months may characterize HR infants later diagnosed with ASD (HR-ASD infants), while increased looking to mother at 6 months and increased positive affect at 11 months may characterize HR infants with no known diagnosis of ASD (HR-no ASD). Eye-tracking methods were utilized to measure visual attention to smile/neutral face pairings displayed by 31 HR 6-month-olds, 28 LR 6-month-olds, 37 HR 11-month-olds, and 32 LR 11-month-olds. Results revealed that increased visual attention to the whole stimulus and the internal features of the face at 6 months may characterize HR infants as a whole (i.e., HR-no ASD and HR-ASD). Taken together, these findings suggest that emotion production and perception help define the early phenotype of HR infants. Increased positive affect and looking to affective stimuli observed in the HR sample are discussed as possible indicators of arousal regulation and visual disengagement difficulty. All findings are discussed from the theoretical framework of transactional models of child development and experience-expectant model of emotion development.
Application of Combined Botulinum Toxin Type A and Modified Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy for an Individual With Chronic Upper-Extremity Spasticity After Stroke

Background and Purpose. Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) is a promising intervention for retraining upper-extremity function after a stroke. The purpose of this case report is to describe the use of a combination of botulinum toxin type A (BtxA) and a modified CIMT program for a patient with severe spasticity who was unable to use his right upper extremity. Case Description. The 52-year-old patient, who had a stroke 4 years ago, did not meet the minimum motor criteria for CIMT benefit. After receiving BtxA injections targeting the elbow, wrist, and finger flexors, he completed a 4-week program of modified CIMT followed by a 5-month home exercise program. Outcomes. The patient exhibited improvement in muscle tone (the velocity-dependent resistance to stretch that muscle exhibits) and in scores on several upper-extremity function tests (Modified Ashworth Scale, Motor Activity Log, Wolf Motor Function Test, Action Research Arm Test, and Fugl-Meyer Assessment of Motor Recovery). He also reported making much progress in the functional use of the involved upper extremity. Discussion. In a patient with severe flexor spasticity and nonuse of the dominant upper extremity after a stroke, a combined treatment of BtxA and modified CIMT may have resulted in improved upper-extremity use.
Jointly Cross-Layer Scheduling and Dynamic Resource Allocation for RT and NRT Traffic Types for IEEE802.16e

Mobile communications has witnessed an exponential increase in the amount of users, services and applications. New high bandwidth consuming applications are targeted for B3G networks raising more stringent requirements for Dynamic Resource Allocation (DRA) architectures and packet schedulers that must be spectrum efficient and deliver QoS for heterogeneous applications and services. In this paper we propose a new cross layer-based architecture framework embedded in a newly designed DRA architecture for the Mobile WiMAX standard. System level simulation results show that the proposed architecture can be considered a viable candidate solution for supporting mixed services in a cost-effective manner in contrast to existing approaches.
Combined word-length optimization and high-level synthesis ofdigital signal processing systems

Conventional approaches for fixed-point implementation of digital signal processing algorithms require the scaling and word-length (WL) optimization at the algorithm level and the high-level synthesis for functional unit sharing at the architecture level. However, the algorithm-level WL optimization has a few limitations because it can neither utilize the functional unit sharing information for signal grouping nor estimate the hardware cost for each operation accurately. In this study, we develop a combined WL optimization and high-level synthesis algorithm not only to minimize the hardware implementation cost, but also to reduce the optimization time significantly. This software initially finds the WL sensitivity or minimum WL of each signal throughout fixed-point simulations of a signal flow graph, performs the WL conscious high-level synthesis where signals having the similar WL sensitivity are assigned to the same functional unit, and then conducts the final WL optimization by iteratively modifying the WLs of the synthesized hardware model. A list-scheduling-based and an integer linear-programming-based algorithms are developed for the WL conscious high-level synthesis. The hardware cost function to minimize is generated by using a synthesized hardware model. Since fixed-point simulation is used to measure the performance, this method can be applied to general, including nonlinear and time-varying, digital signal processing systems. A fourth-order infinite-impulse response filter, a fifth-order elliptic filter, and a 12th-order adaptive least mean square filter are implemented using this software.
Construction of extended Lyapunov functions and control laws for discrete-time TS systems

Non-quadratic Lyapunov functions have now been more and more frequently used for the analysis and design of Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy models. In this paper, we use a delayed non-quadratic Lyapunov function to develop controller design conditions for TS systems. The conditions can easily be formulated as LMIs. We show that in certain cases the developed conditions are more relaxed than current state-of-the-art methods. In order to further reduce the conservativeness, we also extend the conditions to α-sample variation.
Efficient coupling of light from dielectric to HIMI plasmonic waveguide

This is the first report on the investigation of a hybrid plasmonic tapered coupler injecting light efficiently from conventional dielectric waveguide to a hybrid insulator-metal-insulator (HIMI) plasmonic waveguide. The proposed structure gives high transmission efficiency and suppresses the reflection losses significantly. With this tapered coupling mechanism, maximum transmittance and return loss of 98% and 26 dB have been observed, respectively. The coupler also offers very good propagation length (274 μm) along with minimal mode propagation losses (0.016 dB/μm). Apart from that, it offers decent confinement of light in low dielectric regions up to 32%. The proposed structure is designed in an ultra-short tapered length of 1.0 μm, and the entire structure occupies a footprint area of 1.4 × 2.4 μm 2 . Proposed hybrid waveguide coupler could be useful for several chip scale applications.
Control of the hybrid cascaded converter under unbalanced conditions

This paper presents a DC bus voltage balancing control method for the grid-connected hybrid cascaded converter with renewable energy sources. The proposed control method is based on the power flow management in the hybrid cascaded converter, which is investigated in this paper, and is thus capable of overcoming the unbalanced conditions arising at DC-side or AC-side. Laboratory test results under unbalanced conditions are provided to verify the feasibility of the proposed control method.
Scheduling in cooperative cognitive radio networks

This paper considers network-layer cooperation in cognitive radio networks whereby secondary users may be allowed to relay primary users packets. Under this cooperative scheme, the paper investigates whether, and under what conditions, the primary and secondary networks can be stabilized without explicit knowledge of the arrival-rates. We consider a deterministic and periodic primary packet arrival process and develop a relaying and scheduling algorithm using Lyapunov drift techniques that does not require explicit knowledge of primary and secondary packet arrival rates. The algorithm is then shown to stabilize the transmission queues in the network for all secondary packet arrival rate vectors that lie in the interior of a certain region. The region includes all secondary arrival-rate vectors that can be supported when the secondary nodes do not cooperate. Furthermore, when the primary data arrival-rate is greater than what could have been supported without cooperative relay but less than what can be maximally supported with cooperation, the algorithm stabilizes the network for a non-empty set of secondary arrival-rate vectors. The significance of these results is that they show that properly designed cooperation may result in a win-win scenario for both primary and secondary users (and not just for the primary users).
A Modified Hybrid Modulation Strategy for Suppressing DC Voltage Fluctuation of Cascaded H-Bridge Photovoltaic Inverter

The hybrid modulation strategy using both low-frequency square-wave modulation and high-frequency pulse-width modulation can extend the stable operating region of a cascaded H-bridge converter. However, it does not control accurately dc voltages of converter but balances them by charging or discharging dc capacitors based on the state of system, which could aggravate fluctuation of dc voltages. If cascaded H-bridge converter is used in photovoltaic field, the aggravated fluctuation on dc capacitor voltages will result in further losses in energy harvesting of solar cells. To address this issue, a modified hybrid modulation strategy is presented in this paper. When dc-bus measured voltages are close to their reference voltages, these H-bridges operate in a zero mode. Adding appropriate zero state can prevent grid current charging or discharging the dc capacitors whose voltages have already reached their control goals. Therefore, the proposed technique is capable of suppressing dc voltage fluctuation, and, thus, improving the output power of solar cells. Simulation and experimental results validate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method.