Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic microscale flow patterning using electrical modulation of zeta potential

Significance Traditional microfluidic devices make use of physical channels and mechanical actuators, in which geometries and functionalities are intimately related to one another, i.e., changing the flow field requires change at the mechanical level. In this work, we introduce a concept in which a microfluidic chamber with no preset structures or active mechanical components can be dynamically configured to produce desired flow fields. The ability to move fluids at the microscale is at the core of many scientific and technological advancements. Despite its importance, microscale flow control remains highly limited by the use of discrete channels and mechanical valves, and relies on fixed geometries. Here we present an alternative mechanism that leverages localized field-effect electroosmosis to create dynamic flow patterns, allowing fluid manipulation without the use of physical walls. We control a set of gate electrodes embedded in the floor of a fluidic chamber using an ac voltage in sync with an external electric field, creating nonuniform electroosmotic flow distributions. These give rise to a pressure field that drives the flow throughout the chamber. We demonstrate a range of unique flow patterns that can be achieved, including regions of recirculating flow surrounded by quiescent fluid and volumes of complete stagnation within a moving fluid. We also demonstrate the interaction of multiple gate electrodes with an externally generated flow field, allowing spatial modulation of streamlines in real time. Furthermore, we provide a characterization of the system in terms of time response and dielectric breakdown, as well as engineering guidelines for its robust design and operation. We believe that the ability to create tailored microscale flow using solid-state actuation will open the door to entirely new on-chip functionalities.
Communicating with realism and hope: incurable cancer patients' views on the disclosure of prognosis.

PURPOSE To identify preferences for the process of prognostic discussion among patients with incurable metastatic cancer and variables associated with those preferences. PATIENTS AND METHODS One hundred twenty-six (58%) of 218 patients invited onto the study participated. Eligible patients were the consecutive metastatic cancer patients of 30 oncologists, who were diagnosed within 6 weeks to 6 months before recruitment, over 18 years of age, and without known mental illness. Patients completed a postal survey measuring patient preferences for the manner of delivery of prognostic information, including how doctors might instill hope. RESULTS Ninety-eight percent of patients wanted their doctor to be realistic, provide an opportunity to ask questions, and acknowledge them as an individual when discussing prognosis. Doctor behaviors rated the most hope giving included offering the most up to date treatment (90%), appearing to know all there is to know about the patient's cancer (87%), and saying that pain will be controlled (87%). The majority of patients indicated that the doctor appearing to be nervous or uncomfortable (91%), giving the prognosis to the family first (87%), or using euphemisms (82%) would not facilitate hope. Factor analysis revealed six general styles and three hope factors; the most strongly endorsed styles were realism and individualized care and the expert/positive/collaborative approach. A range of demographic, psychological, and disease factors were associated with preferred general and hope-giving styles, including anxiety, information-seeking behavior, expected survival, and age. CONCLUSION The majority of patients preferred a realistic and individualized approach from the cancer specialist and detailed information when discussing prognosis.
Cilostazol: A Pilot Study on Safety and Clinical Efficacy in Neuropathies of Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 (ASCEND)

Background: Diabetic polyneuropathy may have vascular and metabolic components in its pathophysiologic mechanism. Cilostazol, aside from its antiplatelet and vasodilatory properties, may increase nerve blood flow and potentially improve neuropathy. Objective: To assess the efficacy and safety of cilostazol in diabetic polyneuropathy. Methods: Forty-seven diabetic patients were randomized into placebo, low-dose (100 mg/d), and high-dose (200 mg/d) cilostazol groups. Primary efficacy parameter was a change in neuropathy symptom scores and secondary efficacy parameter was a change in walking speed from baseline to week 12. Safety parameters were changes in nerve conduction studies as well as reporting of adverse events. Results/Conclusion: Despite significant improvement in the neuropathy symptom scores in the overall motor and sensory categories of the 3 arms of the study from baseline to week 12, no significant differences were found among the groups, indicating nonsuperiority of cilostazol in regard to improvement of neuropathy symptoms over the short study span. However, cilostazol, at low dose, was effective in improving walking speed from baseline to week 12, implying an improved blood flow. No significant worsening nor improvement in motor and sensory nerve conduction parameters were observed, comparing the 3 study arms from baseline to weeks 4, 12, and 16, supporting cilostazol’s safety. Overall, the adverse events of the 3 study arms did not significantly differ, and neither were there serious adverse events reported, also signifying safety and tolerability in our Filipino cohort of patients with neuropathy in diabetes mellitus treated with cilostazol.
Rural and urban outcomes after hospitalization for congestive heart failure in Alberta, Canada.

OBJECTIVES We compare the hospitalization rate, duration, cost, and mortality for newly diagnosed congestive heart failure in patients admitted to rural and metropolitan hospitals in one Canadian province. METHODS Administrative data for Alberta, Canada, from April 1, 1994, to March 31, 2000. RESULTS Hospitalizations (16,162) for newly diagnosed congestive heart failure constituted 50% of all hospitalizations for congestive heart failure. Hospitals were distributed as follows: rural with less than 200 cases (21% of hospitalizations), rural with 204 to 646 cases (21% of hospitalizations), regional (13% of hospitalizations), metropolitan with angiography capability (24% of hospitalizations), and metropolitan without angiography capability (21% of hospitalizations). The hospitalization rate per 1000 population was lower for residents of metropolitan regions (1.01; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.97 to 1.05) compared with residents of rural (1.70; 95% CI 1.65 to 1.75) and regional (1.95; 95% CI 1.90 to 2.00) health regions. Patient comorbidity and severity scores were lower in rural hospitals. Special care unit admissions and cardiac catheterizations were more frequent in patients admitted to metropolitan hospitals. After adjustment, the length of stay and mortality were similar amongst all hospital types. Adjusted hospital total costs were about 23% (900 Canadian dollars) greater in metropolitan hospitals with angiography capability compared to rural hospitals. CONCLUSION Hospital admission rates for newly diagnosed congestive heart failure were lower for metropolitan residents compared to non-metropolitan residents. Cost per admission was greatest in metropolitan hospitals with angiography capability compared to other hospital types.
Physical activity: one of the easiest ways to protect the brain?

At the beginning of the 21st century, the famous Latin sentence mens sana in corpore sano from the Roman poet Juvenal (late 1st and early 2nd centuries) may be of greatest neurological importance than previously expected. Indeed, a number of epidemiological and case-control studies have suggested that physical activity may decrease stroke incidence,1 while more recently it was suggested that regular physical activity may also decrease stroke severity and improve long-term outcome after stroke.2 3 In the paper by Stroud et al (see page 1019) , such beneficial effects of physical activity on both initial deficit and outcome are confirmed.4 …
The “online brain”: how the Internet may be changing our cognition

The impact of the Internet across multiple aspects of modern society is clear. However, the influence that it may have on our brain structure and functioning remains a central topic of investigation. Here we draw on recent psychological, psychiatric and neuroimaging findings to examine several key hypotheses on how the Internet may be changing our cognition. Specifically, we explore how unique features of the online world may be influencing: a) attentional capacities, as the constantly evolving stream of online information encourages our divided attention across multiple media sources, at the expense of sustained concentration; b) memory processes, as this vast and ubiquitous source of online information begins to shift the way we retrieve, store, and even value knowledge; and c) social cognition, as the ability for online social settings to resemble and evoke real‐world social processes creates a new interplay between the Internet and our social lives, including our self‐concepts and self‐esteem. Overall, the available evidence indicates that the Internet can produce both acute and sustained alterations in each of these areas of cognition, which may be reflected in changes in the brain. However, an emerging priority for future research is to determine the effects of extensive online media usage on cognitive development in youth, and examine how this may differ from cognitive outcomes and brain impact of uses of Internet in the elderly. We conclude by proposing how Internet research could be integrated into broader research settings to study how this unprecedented new facet of society can affect our cognition and the brain across the life course.
Education and cognitive decline: An integrative analysis of global longitudinal studies of cognitive aging.

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to examine the association between education and incidence of accelerated cognitive decline. METHODS Secondary analyses of data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative prospective cohort study of U.S. residents were conducted (N=28,417). Cox proportional hazards survival models were layered on longitudinal mixed-effects modeling to jointly examine healthy cognitive aging and incidence of accelerated cognitive decline consistent with patterns seen in preclinical Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD). Replication analyses were completed on a database including 62,485 additional respondents from HRS sister-studies. Life-expectancy ratios (LER) and 95% confidence intervals were reported. RESULTS This study replicated research showing that education was positively associated with cognition at baseline. Model fit improved using the survival method compared to random-slopes models alone. Analyses of HRS data revealed that higher education was associated with delayed onset of accelerated cognitive decline (LER=1.031 95% C.I. = [1.013-1.015], P<1E-06). Replication analyses using data from 14 countries identified similar results. CONCLUSIONS These results are consistent with cognitive reserve theory, suggesting that education reduces risk of ADRD-pattern cognitive decline. Follow-up work should seek to differentiate specific dementia types involved and consider potential mechanisms.
What is the extracellular calcium concentration within brain synapses?

Calcium (Ca2+) is essential for the normal functioning of the brain: Ca2+ inflow into synaptic compartments is a major trigger of neurotransmitter release and of long‐term plastic changes of synaptic efficiency. Ca2+ influx depends on the gradient for this ion across the plasma membrane, and slight fluctuations of extracellular Ca2+ concentration have significant impact on axonal excitability, synaptic transmission, and plasticity. The work by Forsberg et al. reports a concentration of physiologically active Ca2+ in human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that is half of that normally used in artificial CSF in electrophysiological brain slice experiments. By studying the impact of such difference of extracellular Ca2+ concentration, the authors reported significant differences in terms of neuronal excitability and long‐term potentiation in rat hippocampal slices. We now discuss these new findings in the context of the spatial organization of synapses, on the role of astrocytes in filtering the synaptic content and on the complexity of plasticity in a broad context of metaplastic modifications of synaptic efficiency.
Ethnic identity and substance use in multiracial youth: the moderating role of support networks

Abstract Background: Substance use in multiracial adolescents exceeds rates identified in the general population. Despite this fact, there is limited research examining risk and protective factors for multiracial substance use. Objectives: The current study examined the moderating effect of social support on the relationship between ethnic identity and substance use in a sample of multiracial adolescent youth. Methods: Multiracial youth (N = 523) completed a survey that asked questions related to their ethnic identity, perceived social support, and substance use. A series of path analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized relationships between ethnic identity, social support, and substance use. Results: Analyses indicated that ethnic affirmation was negatively related to frequency of, but not quantity of substance use. Teacher support was negatively related to both frequency and quantity of substance use, while parent support was only related to frequency. Further, teacher and parent support emerged as moderators of ethnic affirmation and frequency and quantity of substance use respectively. Conclusions/Importance: Our findings add to the current understandings of the relationship between ethnic identity, social support, ethnic identity, and substance use among the understudied multiracial adolescent population.
Montreal Cognitive Assessment for cognitive assessment in chronic kidney disease: a systematic review

Abstract Introduction: There is evidence in the literature that cognitive impairment is more prevalent in individuals with chronic kidney disease (CKD) than in the general population. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is an instrument with a good application profile for cognitive evaluation of patients with CKD-like impairments. The objective of this study is to perform a systematic review of MoCA use in the context of CKD. Method: The keywords "Montreal Cognitive Assessment", "Kidney Disease" and "Chronic Kidney Disease" were used to search the databases. The inclusion criteria were: a) empirical articles; b) approach to cognitive impairment in CKD; c) papers in Portuguese and English. Results: The studies were mostly cross-sectional, published in medical journals, with research carried out mostly in Europe. About 45% of the studies had samples of less than 150 participants and variations in the prevalence of cognitive impairment were found ranging from 28.9% to 74.6%. The cutoff point for the identification of the impairment presented variation between the studies. Discussion: The results' analysis demonstrates the need for more complete studies on MoCA scoring and adaptation in its different versions. We recommend to the health professionals who will use the results in the clinical setting that the interpretation of the results be made in the light of studies more related to the context lived by the patients. Conclusions: The instrument is efficient to be used in several stages and treatment modalities of the disease. We point to the need to adapt a cut-off point for the instrument in the different translations of the instrument.
Existence of optimal controls for singular control problems with state constraints

1. Introduction. This paper is concerned with a class of singular control problems with state constraints. The presence of state constraints, a key feature of the problem, refers to the requirement that the controlled diffusion process take values in a closed convex cone at all times [see (3)]. We consider an infinite horizon discounted cost of the form (4). The main objective of the paper is to establish the existence of an optimal control. Singular control is a well-studied but rather challenging class of stochastic control problems. We refer the reader to [7], especially the sections at the end of each chapter, for a thorough survey of the literature. Classical compactness arguments that are used for establishing the existence of optimal controls for problems with absolutely continuous control terms (cf. [8]) do not naturally extend to singular control problems. For one-dimensional models, one can typically establish existence constructively, by characterizing an optimally controlled process as a reflected diffusion (cf. [2, 3, 15]). In higher dimensions, one approach is to study the regularity of solutions of variational inequalities associated with singular control problems and the smoothness of the corresponding free boundary. Such smoothness results are the starting points in the characterization of the optimally controlled process as a constrained diffusion with reflection at the free boundary. Excepting specific models (cf. [30, 31]), this approach encounters substantial difficulties, even for linear dynamics (cf. [32]); a key difficulty is that little is known about the regularity of the free boundary in higher dimensions. Alternative approaches for establishing the existence of optimal controls based on compactness arguments are developed in [12, 17, 25]. The first of these papers considers linear dynamics, while the last two consider models with nonlinear coefficients. In all
Comparison of portable blood‐warming devices under simulated pre‐hospital conditions: a randomised in‐vitro blood circuit study

Pre‐hospital transfusion of blood products is a vital component of many advanced pre‐hospital systems. Portable fluid warmers may be utilised to help prevent hypothermia, but the limits defined by manufacturers often do not reflect their clinical use. The primary aim of this randomised in‐vitro study was to assess the warming performance of four portable blood warming devices (Thermal Angel, Hypotherm X LG, °M Warmer, Buddy Lite) against control at different clinically‐relevant flow rates. The secondary aim was to assess haemolysis rates between devices at different flow rates. We assessed each of the four devices and the control, at flow rates of 50 ml.min−1, 100 ml.min−1 and 200 ml.min−1, using a controlled perfusion circuit with multisite temperature monitoring. Free haemoglobin concentration, a marker of haemolysis, was measured at multiple points during each initial study run with spectrophotometry. At all flow rates, the four devices provided superior warming performance compared with the control (p < 0.001). Only the °M Warmer provided a substantial change in temperature at all flow rates (mean (95%CI) temperature change of 21.1 (19.8–22.4) °C, 20.4 (19.1–21.8) °C and 19.4 (17.7–21.1) °C at 50 ml.min−1, 100 ml.min−1 and 200 ml.min−1, respectively). There was no association between warming and haemolysis with any device (p = 0.949) or flow rate (p = 0.169). Practical issues, which may be relevant to clinical use, also emerged during testing. Our results suggest that there were significant differences in the performance of portable blood warming devices used at flow rates encountered in clinical practice.
EMPIRICAL ISOCHRONES FOR LOW MASS STARS IN NEARBY YOUNG ASSOCIATIONS

Absolute ages of young stars are important for many issues in pre-main-sequence stellar and circumstellar evolution but long have been recognized as difficult to derive and calibrate. In this paper, we use literature spectral types and photometry to construct empirical isochrones in Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams for low mass stars and brown dwarfs in the η Cha, ϵ Cha, and TW Hya Associations and the β Pic and Tuc-Hor Moving Groups. A successful theory of pre-main-sequence evolution should match the shapes of the stellar loci for these groups of young stars. However, when comparing the combined empirical isochrones to isochrones predicted from evolutionary models, discrepancies lead to a spectral type (mass) dependence in stellar age estimates. Improved prescriptions for convection and boundary conditions in the latest models of pre-main-sequence evolution lead to a significantly improved correspondence between empirical and model isochrones, with small offsets at low temperatures that may be explained by observational uncertainties or by model limitations. Independent of model predictions, linear fits to combined stellar loci of these regions provide a simple empirical method to order clusters by luminosity with a reduced dependence on spectral type. Age estimates calculated from various sets of modern models that reproduce Li depletion boundary ages of the β Pic Moving Group also imply a ∼4 Myr age for the low mass members of the Upper Sco OB Association, which is younger than the 11 Myr age that has been recently estimated for intermediate and high mass members.
The Role of Astrocytes in the Central Nervous System Focused on BK Channel and Heme Oxygenase Metabolites: A Review

Astrocytes outnumber neurons in the human brain, and they play a key role in numerous functions within the central nervous system (CNS), including glutamate, ion (i.e., Ca2+, K+) and water homeostasis, defense against oxidative/nitrosative stress, energy storage, mitochondria biogenesis, scar formation, tissue repair via angiogenesis and neurogenesis, and synapse modulation. After CNS injury, astrocytes communicate with surrounding neuronal and vascular systems, leading to the clearance of disease-specific protein aggregates, such as β-amyloid, and α-synuclein. The astrocytic big conductance K+ (BK) channel plays a role in these processes. Recently, potential therapeutic agents that target astrocytes have been tested for their potential to repair the brain. In this review, we discuss the role of the BK channel and antioxidant agents such as heme oxygenase metabolites following CNS injury. A better understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of astrocytes’ functions in the healthy and diseased brains will greatly contribute to the development of therapeutic approaches following CNS injury, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and stroke.
Surface contrast enhancement of integumentary structures in X‐ray tomography

Micro‐computed tomography (μCT) has become standard in the biological sciences to reconstruct, display and analyse 3D models of all kinds of organisms. However, it is often impossible to capture fine details of the surface and the internal anatomy at the same time with sufficient contrast. Here we introduce a new approach for the selective contrast‐enhancement of integumentary surface structures. The method relies on conventional and readily available sputter coaters to cover the entire sample with a thin layer of gold atoms. This approach proved successful on a diverse array of plants and animals. On average, we achieved a 14.48‐fold gain of surface contrast (ranging from 2.42‐fold to 86.93‐fold) compared with untreated specimens. Even X‐ray‐transparent samples such as spider silk became accessible via μCT. This selective contrast‐enhancement, makes it possible to digitally reconstruct fine surface structures with low absorbance while the tissue‐dependent grey value resolution of the inner anatomy is maintained and remains fully visualisable. The methodology is suited for a broad scientific application across biology and other sciences employing (μ)CT, as well as educative and public outreach purposes.