Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sexual function and endocrine profile in fertile women with type 1 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE Aims of this study were 1) to assess sexual function and endocrine profile among fertile type 1 diabetic women during the follicular and luteal phases of the menstrual cycle, 2) to compare these results with those obtained among healthy fertile women who served as control subjects, and 3) to explore the correlations between sexual function and endocrine milieu among patients and control subjects during the follicular and luteal phases of the menstrual cycle. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Fifty fertile women with type 1 diabetes and 47 healthy control subjects completed a semistructured medical interview and filled in self-administered validated instruments to evaluate sexual function, depression, and sexual distress. Venous blood samples were drawn to measure glycated hemoglobin and an endocrine profile during either the follicular or the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. RESULTS Type 1 diabetic women had decreased sexual function and increased sexual distress compared with control subjects during the luteal, but not the follicular, phase of the menstrual cycle. During the follicular phase, patients had lower estrogenic basal tone, lower "weak" androgen (namely Delta4-androstenedione and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate) production, and lower free-triiodothyronine and free-thyroxine levels compared with control subjects. During the luteal phase, total testosterone levels were higher in patients than control subjects, while 17beta-estradiol and progesterone levels were lower in patients than control subjects. CONCLUSIONS Among type 1 diabetic women, sexual function and sexual distress vary according to the phase of the menstrual cycle. This finding may have implications on the clinical assessment of sexual function in type 1 diabetic women.
Improved reporting of DNA methylation data derived from studies of the human placenta

Epigenetic variation is increasingly hypothesized as a mechanism underlying the effect of the in utero environment on long-term postnatal health; however, there is currently little clear data to support this in humans. A number of biological and technical factors provide challenges for the design of clinical epigenetic studies: from the type of cells or tissues that are available to the large range of predicted confounders that may impact findings. The human placenta, in addition to other neonatal tissues and whole blood, is commonly sampled for the study of epigenetic modifications. However there is little conformity for the most appropriate methods for study design, data analysis, and importantly, data interpretation. Here we present general recommendations for the reporting of DNA methylation in biological samples, with specific focus on the placenta. We outline key guidelines for: (1) placental sampling, (2) data analysis and presentation, and (3) interpretation of DNA methylation data. We emphasize the need to consider methodological noise, increase statistical power and to ensure appropriate adjustment for biological covariates. Finally, we highlight that epigenetic changes may be non-pathological and not necessarily translate into disease-associated changes. Improved reporting of DNA methylation data will be critical to identify epigenetic-based effects and to better understand the full phenotypic impact of these widely-reported epigenomic changes.
Poor Renal Accumulation of 99mTc-DMSA in Idiopathic Tubular Proteinuria

In Japanese patients idiopathic tubular proteinuria presents mainly as asymptomatic tubular low molecular weight proteinuria. This disease has recently been shown to resemble Dent’s disease which is characterized by tubular proteinuria, hypercalciuria, rickets and eventual renal failure. We report on 4 children with idiopathic tubular proteinuria. Although they had normal renal function, as evidenced by serum creatinine or creatinine clearance, they had very poor renal accumulation of 99mTc-DMSA and the presence of large amounts of tracer in the bladder. Additionally, the patient with the largest amounts of tubular proteinuria had the poorest renal accumulation of the 4 patients. The renal accumulation of tracer decreased with time from a maximum at 10 min after injection. These findings demonstrate that the tracer, once taken to be confined to the proximal tubular cells, is immediately excreted to the tubular lumen. We suggest that poor renal accumulation of 99mTc-DMSA is very important in elucidating the mechanism of idiopathic tubular proteinuria, and that 99mTc-DMSA renoscintigraphy is useful in the evaluation of the patient’s renal function over time.
A flexible biphasic pulse generating and accurate charge balancing stimulator with a 1μW neural recording amplifier

In this paper, we present a flexible biphasic pulse generating and accurate charge balancing stimulator with a 1μW neural recording amplifier. To achieve accurate charge balance, the stimulator is implemented using a dynamic current copying technique. It can generate a biphasic current pulse with an anodic scaling feature. To reduce power consumption, the recording amplifier is implemented to operate with 1V, while the stimulator works with 3V supply. They are implemented using a 65nm CMOS process. Simulation results show charge balance of less than 2% error in current pulses. The recording amplifier has an input referred noise of 4. 5μVrms and passband from 1.5Hz to 5KHz with the power consumption of 1μW.
Building context-dependent DNN acoustic models using Kullback-Leibler divergence-based state tying

Deep neural network (DNN) based speech recognizers have recently replaced Gaussian mixture (GMM) based systems as the state-of-the-art. HMM/DNN systems have kept many refinements of the HMM/GMM framework, even though some of these may be suboptimal for them. One such example is the creation of context-dependent tied states, for which an efficient decision tree state tying method exists. The tied states used to train DNNs are usually obtained using the same tying algorithm, even though it is based on likelihoods of Gaussians. In this paper, we investigate an alternative state clustering method that uses the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence of DNN output vectors to build the decision tree. It has already been successfully applied within the framework of KL-HMM systems, and here we show that it is also beneficial for HMM/DNN hybrids. In a large vocabulary recognition task we report a 4% relative word error rate reduction using this state clustering method.
Efficient Sparse Modeling With Automatic Feature Grouping

For high-dimensional data, it is often desirable to group similar features together during the learning process. This can reduce the estimation variance and improve the stability of feature selection, leading to better generalization. Moreover, it can also help in understanding and interpreting data. Octagonal shrinkage and clustering algorithm for regression (OSCAR) is a recent sparse-modeling approach that uses a l1 -regularizer and a pairwise l∞-regularizer on the feature coefficients to encourage such feature grouping. However, computationally, its optimization procedure is very expensive. In this paper, we propose an efficient solver based on the accelerated gradient method. We show that its key proximal step can be solved by a highly efficient simple iterative group merging algorithm. Given d input features, this reduces the empirical time complexity from O(d2 ~ d5) for the existing solvers to just O(d). Experimental results on a number of toy and real-world datasets demonstrate that OSCAR is a competitive sparse-modeling approach, but with the added ability of automatic feature grouping.
Battery Pack Cells Mon itoring for Intelligent Charging

Society’s’ growth of use on mobile devices makes the study of batteries a really important subject. Mobile phones and electric vehicles are, among others, battery dependent devices. Li-ion cells are the main choice for battery dependent applications. Different charging of cells as they age put the balancing management systems on the spotlight as a study subject. This paper proposes a balancing management system (BMS) for improving the capacity usage and lifespan of Li-ion batteries. Algorithms to implement the proposed BMS are proposed and experimental results are obtained for multiple battery packs with up to 192 series cells. Keywords—BMS; Battery Charge Equalization; Cell Balancing; Battery Management System.
A Novel Brain Penetrant NPS Receptor Antagonist, NCGC00185684, Blocks Alcohol-Induced ERK-Phosphorylation in the Central Amygdala and Decreases Operant Alcohol Self-Administration in Rats

The Neuropeptide S receptor, a Gs/Gq-coupled GPCR expressed in brain regions involved in mediating drug reward, has recently emerged as a candidate therapeutic target in addictive disorders. Here, we describe the in vitro and in vivo pharmacology of a novel, selective and brain penetrant NPSR antagonist with nanomolar affinity for the NPSR, NCGC00185684. In vitro, NCGC00185684 shows biased antagonist properties, and preferentially blocks ERK-phosphorylation over intracellular cAMP or calcium responses to NPS. In vivo, systemic NCGC00185684 blocks alcohol-induced ERK-phosphorylation in the rat central amygdala, a region involved in regulation of alcohol intake. NCGC00185684 also decreases operant alcohol self-administration, and lowers motivation for alcohol reward as measured using progressive ratio responding. These effects are behaviorally specific, in that they are observed at doses that do not influence locomotor activity or reinstatement responding following extinction. Together, these data provide an initial validation of the NPSR as a therapeutic target in alcoholism.
Performance Analysis of DNS with TTL Value 0 as Location Repository in Mobile Internet

The Domain Name System (DNS) is an existing and implemented network service in Internet providing host and service reachability, which is essential to every IP connection setup. Merge of mobile networks with Internet results in large flow of frequent updates to the DNS database, which is a threat for DNS database consistency, because of strong caching it uses. Even though DNS wasn't originally designed for networks supporting host mobility, it gets enabled, if caching of resource records, carrying mobile host's locator information, is disabled by setting the time-to-live (TTL) field to 0 and by enabling dynamic DNS updates from mobile hosts to authoritative name servers. In this paper we are interested in the impact of TTL value 0 on DNS system performance. Based on the modeling of DNS caching behavior, we have a quantitative evaluation of the TTL value 0 impact on DNS performance of the mobile enhanced Internet.
Application of sensory nerve quantitative tests to analyze the subtypes of motor disorders in Parkinson’s disease

This study investigated the sensory nerve function in people with different subtypes of Parkinson’s disease (PD), which included the tremor-dominant (TD) group (n = 30), postural instability and gait disorder (PIGD) group (n = 33), and healthy-controls (HC) group (n = 33). Sural nerve's current perception threshold (CPT) and pain tolerance threshold (PTT) in both feet were measured at different frequencies. Results were evaluated using the mini-mental state examination (MMSE), Hoehn Yahr scale (H-Y) , and 3-meter timed-up-and-go-test (TUGT). The MMSE scores of the TD and HC groups were higher than those of the PIGD group (TD < HC). The 3-meter TUGT scores of the PIGD group were higher than theTD and HC groups (TD > HC). The PIGD patients experienced a significantly shorter disease duration and higher H-Y score than the TD patients (P < 0.05). The values of 2 KHz CPT of left-side (CPTL), 2KHz CPT of right-side (CPTR), and 5 Hz CPTR in the PIGD group were significantly higher compared to the TD and HC groups (P < 0.05, Bonferroni correction). Additionally, the values of 250 Hz CPTL, 5 Hz CPTL, 250 Hz CPTR, 2 kHz PTT of left-side (PTTL), 250 Hz PTTL, and 5 Hz PTTL in the PIGD group were significantly elevated relative to the TD group (P < 0.05, Bonferroni correction). Distinctive current threshold perception and PTT of the sural nerve can be observed in patients with varying PD subtypes, and sensory nerve conduction threshold electrical diagnostic testing can detect these discrepancies in sensory nerve function.
Formulation development and in vitro and in vivo evaluation of membrane-moderated transdermal systems of ampicillin sodium in ethanol: pH 4.7 buffer solvent system

The objective of the present study was to develop membrane-moderated transdermal systems of ampicillin sodium and to evaluate them with respect to various in vitro and in vivo parameters. The membrane-type transdermal systems were prepared using a drug with various antinucleant polymers— hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), methylcellulose (MC), cellulose acetate phthalate, chitosan, sodium alginate (SA), and sodium carboxymethylcellulose—in an ethanol: pH 4.7 buffer volatile system by the solvent evaporation technique with HPMC as the rate-controlling membrane for all the systems. The swelling properties of the polymers were studied, and drug-polymer interaction studies were performed. The patches were subjected to various physicochemical studies, in vitro release studies, permeation studies, and skin irritation studies. The best patch among the formulations was selected for further in vivo studies. Compared to the other patches, SA exhibited the highest moisture content at 16%; a 21% moisture uptake was found with MC. The release and permeation of the drug from the SA patch was found to be the maximum. The in vivo study of the SA patch exhibited a peak plasma concentration Cmax of 126 μg/mL at Tmax 4 hours. Hence, it can be concluded that hydrophilic ampicillin sodium can be developed as a transdermal delivery system with SA that is an alternative to intravenous administration and has minimal adverse effects.
Road traffic optimisation using an evolutionary game

In a commuting scenario, drivers expect to arrive at their destinations on time. Drivers have an expectation as to how long it will take to reach the destination. To this end, drivers make independent decisions regarding the routes they take. Independent decision-making is uncoordinated and unlikely to lead to a balanced usage of the road network. However, a well-balanced traffic situation is in the best interest of all drivers, as it minimises their travel times on average over time. This study investigates the possibility of using an Evolutionary Game, Minority Game (MG), to achieve a balanced usage of a road network through independent decisions made by drivers assisted by the MG algorithm. The experimental results show that this simple game-theoretic approach can achieve a near-optimal distribution of traffic in a network. An optimal distribution can be assumed to lead to equitable travel times which are close to the possible minimum considering the number of cars in the network.
Storage-Optimized Data-Atomic Algorithms for Handling Erasures and Errors in Distributed Storage Systems

Erasure codes are increasingly being studied in the context of implementing atomic memory objects in large scale asynchronous distributed storage systems. When compared with the traditional replication based schemes, erasure codes have the potential of significantly lowering storage and communication costs while simultaneously guaranteeing the desired resiliency levels. In this work, we propose the Storage-Optimized Data-Atomic (SODA) algorithm for implementing atomic memory objects in the multi-writer multi-reader setting. SODA uses Maximum Distance Separable (MDS) codes, and is specifically designed to optimize the total storage cost for a given fault-tolerance requirement. For tolerating f server crashes in an n-server system, SODA uses an [n, k] MDS code with k = n - f, and incurs a total storage cost of n/n-f. SODA is designed under the assumption of reliable point-to-point communication channels. The communication cost of a write and a read operation are respectively given by O(f2) and n/n-f(δw+1), where δw denotes the number of writes that are concurrent with the particular read. In comparison with the recent CASGC algorithm [1], which also uses MDS codes, SODA offers lower storage cost while pays more on the communication cost. We also present a modification of SODA, called SODAerr, to handle the case where some of the servers can return erroneous coded elements during a read operation. Specifically, in order to tolerate f server failures and e error-prone coded elements, the SODAerr algorithm uses an [n, k] MDS code such that k = n - 2e - f. SODAerr also guarantees liveness and atomicity, while maintaining an optimized total storage cost of n/n-f-2e.
Identification of Tetranectin as a Potential Biomarker for Metastatic Oral Cancer

Lymph node involvement is the most important predictor of survival rates in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). A biomarker that can indicate lymph node metastasis would be valuable to classify patients with OSCC for optimal treatment. In this study, we have performed a serum proteomic analysis of OSCC using 2-D gel electrophoresis and liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry. One of the down-regulated proteins in OSCC was identified as tetranectin, which is a protein encoded by the CLEC3B gene (C-type lectin domain family 3, member B). We further tested the protein level in serum and saliva from patients with lymph-node metastatic and primary OSCC. Tetranectin was found significantly under-expressed in both serum and saliva of metastatic OSCC compared to primary OSCC. Our results suggest that serum or saliva tetranectin may serve as a potential biomarker for metastatic OSCC. Other candidate serum biomarkers for OSCC included superoxide dismutase, ficolin 2, CD-5 antigen-like protein, RalA binding protein 1, plasma retinol-binding protein and transthyretin. Their clinical utility for OSCC detection remains to be further tested in cancer patients.
A linear time natural evolution strategy for non-separable functions

We present a novel Natural Evolution Strategy (NES) variant, the Rank-One NES (R1-NES), which uses a low-rank approximation of the search distribution covariance matrix. The algorithm allows computation of the natural gradient with cost linear in the dimensionality of the parameter space, and excels in solving high-dimensional non-separable problems.
Sgol2 provides a regulatory platform that coordinates essential cell cycle processes during meiosis I in oocytes

Accurate chromosome segregation depends on coordination between cohesion resolution and kinetochore-microtubule interactions (K-fibers), a process regulated by the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC). How these diverse processes are coordinated remains unclear. We show that in mammalian oocytes Shugoshin-like protein 2 (Sgol2) in addition to protecting cohesin, plays an important role in turning off the SAC, in promoting the congression and bi-orientation of bivalents on meiosis I spindles, in facilitating formation of K-fibers and in limiting bivalent stretching. Sgol2’s ability to protect cohesin depends on its interaction with PP2A, as is its ability to silence the SAC, with the latter being mediated by direct binding to Mad2. In contrast, its effect on bivalent stretching and K-fiber formation is independent of PP2A and mediated by recruitment of MCAK and inhibition of Aurora C kinase activity respectively. By virtue of its multiple interactions, Sgol2 links many of the processes essential for faithful chromosome segregation. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.01133. 001
Cardiac Progenitor Cells and the Interplay with Their Microenvironment

The microenvironment plays a crucial role in the behavior of stem and progenitor cells. In the heart, cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) reside in specific niches, characterized by key components that are altered in response to a myocardial infarction. To date, there is a lack of knowledge on these niches and on the CPC interplay with the niche components. Insight into these complex interactions and into the influence of microenvironmental factors on CPCs can be used to promote the regenerative potential of these cells. In this review, we discuss cardiac resident progenitor cells and their regenerative potential and provide an overview of the interactions of CPCs with the key elements of their niche. We focus on the interaction between CPCs and supporting cells, extracellular matrix, mechanical stimuli, and soluble factors. Finally, we describe novel approaches to modulate the CPC niche that can represent the next step in recreating an optimal CPC microenvironment and thereby improve their regeneration capacity.
Optimization trade-offs for vector volume and test power

In today's large designs, especially large SOC (system-on-a-chip) designs, vector volume for a single core could dominate the memory resources of the target tester and leave little or no room for other vectors. To this end, delivery of an "optimized" or "reduced" vector set, without any loss of coverage, is preferred. One commercial means of delivering an optimized vector set is to compress the vectors during vector generation. Another applicable solutions to understand the overlapping faults among various fault models and remove them from the fault lists for certain pattern types. The main problem with these optimization approaches is that compressed vectors create more switching activities, which could potentially cause average power dissipation, instantaneous and peak power during test to be significantly higher than normal operation. Test power is such a big concern in large SOC designs that the power associated with the "reuse" vectors must be understood. This paper presents a case study of a Motorola Version 3 ColdFire(R) microprocessor core, with a focus on the various vector optimizations and their ramifications on test power.
New methodology for computing tsunami generation by subaerial landslides: Application to the 2015 Tyndall Glacier landslide, Alaska

Landslide‐generated tsunamis pose significant hazards and involve complex, multiphase physics that are challenging to model. We present a new methodology in which our depth‐averaged two‐phase model D‐Claw is used to seamlessly simulate all stages of landslide dynamics as well as tsunami generation, propagation, and inundation. Because the model describes the evolution of solid and fluid volume fractions, it treats both landslides and tsunamis as special cases of a more general class of phenomena. Therefore, the landslide and tsunami can be efficiently simulated as a single‐layer continuum with evolving solid‐grain concentrations, and with wave generation via direct longitudinal momentum transfer—a dominant physical mechanism that has not been previously addressed in this manner. To test our methodology, we used D‐Claw to model a large subaerial landslide and resulting tsunami that occurred on 17 October 2015, in Taan Fjord near the terminus of Tyndall Glacier, Alaska. Modeled shoreline inundation patterns compare well with those observed in satellite imagery.