Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
NANOPARTICLES FOR SKIN WOUND HEALING

Over the past two decades, there has been a surge in the development of nanoparticle technologies for therapeutic applications. In the area of skin wound healing, silver nanoparticles have been long used as topical antibacterials, but new types of multifunctional nanosystems that can provide more comprehensive therapeutic effects on wounds are being rolled out. The ability to provide a reservoir of bioactive molecules that can be released over time is a feature of many of these systems, which is critically important for nonhealing wounds, where there often is a persistent bacterial load and a chronic lack of growth factors necessary for healing. A great advantage of nanosystems is that by virtue of their extremely small size, they can be easily incorporated into a wide variety of topical treatments that are currently available for use in the clinic. For example, nanoparticles can be easily introduced into decellularized skin products as well as other bioengineered skin substitutes. The design options avai.
An Introductory CS Course for Cognitive Science Students

This paper describes an introductory computer science course recently developed at Pomona College that is designed specifically for liberal arts students majoring in cognitive science with no previous technical background in programming. A key component of the course is the use of low-cost robots to illustrate ideas about the computational foundations of cognition in a hands-on way. We describe the pedagogical objectives of the course and outline the major topics covered, including the robotics section and its relationship to the other course topics.
Better Patient Persistence With Once-Daily Bupropion Compared With Twice-Daily Bupropion

Evidence suggests that improving adherence and persistence to antidepressant therapy could enhance clinical and economic outcomes in depression. This study was conducted to assess the impact of dosing frequency (once daily with bupropion XL vs twice daily with bupropion SR) on adherence to bupropion therapy in a nationally representative prescription database in the United States. Demographics of patients with a prescription for bupropion XL or bupropion SR between October 1, 2005, and October 31, 2005, were similar between the XL group (n = 257,049; 69% female) and the SR group (n = 12,468; 67% female). Refill adherence over a 1-year period was greater with bupropion XL than bupropion SR. The percentage of patients with ≥1 refill over 1 year was 60.1% with bupropion XL compared with 51.3% with bupropion SR (P < 0.0001). The percentage of patients with ≥6 refills over 1 year was 25.3% with bupropion XL compared with 9.5% with bupropion SR. Bupropion XL was associated with significantly greater likelihood of refilling a prescription than bupropion SR as shown by Kaplan-Meier curves (P < 0.0001, log-rank test). The medication possession ratio over a 9-month period was higher for bupropion XL (0.26) than it was for bupropion SR (0.16). Logistic regression analyses show that patients with a prescription for bupropion SR were significantly less likely to fill a future prescription than were patients with a prescription for bupropion XL. These data show that adherence to bupropion therapy in this sample was better with the once-daily XL formulation than with the twice-daily SR formulation across several measures.
Mutual information-based stereo matching combined with SIFT descriptor in log-chromaticity color space

Radiometric variations between input images can seriously degrade the performance of stereo matching algorithms. In this situation, mutual information is a very popular and powerful measure which can find any global relationship of intensities between two input images taken from unknown sources. The mutual information-based method, however, is still ambiguous or erroneous as regards local radiometric variations, since it only accounts for global variation between images, and does not contain spatial information properly. In this paper, we present a new method based on mutual information combined with SIFT descriptor to find correspondence for images which undergo local as well as global radiometric variations. We transform the input color images to log-chromaticity color space from which a linear relationship can be established. To incorporate spatial information in mutual information, we utilize the SIFT descriptor which includes near pixel gradient histogram to construct a joint probability in log-chromaticity color space. By combining the mutual information as an appearance measure and the SIFT descriptor as a geometric measure, we devise a robust and accurate stereo system. Experimental results show that our method is superior to the state-of-the art algorithms including conventional mutual information-based methods and window correlation methods under various radiometric changes.
The Efficacy of Morphine, Pregabalin, Gabapentin, and Duloxetine on Mechanical Allodynia Is Different from That on Neuroma Pain in the Rat Neuropathic Pain Model

BACKGROUND: It has been reported that <50% of neuropathic pain patients are satisfactorily treated with drugs. It is possible that this lack of efficacy of drugs on neuropathic pain might be due to the drugs prescribed, regardless of the origin of pain. We compared the efficacy of orally administered morphine, pregabalin, gabapentin, and duloxetine on mechanical allodynia with that on neuroma pain using the tibial neuroma transposition (TNT) model. METHODS: In the TNT model, the tibial nerve is transected, and the tibial nerve stump is transpositioned to the lateral aspect of the hindlimb. After TNT injury, mechanical allodynia and neuroma pain are observed. Morphine, pregabalin, gabapentin, and duloxetine were administered orally and were examined for the antiallodynic and antineuroma pain effects. RESULTS: Morphine, pregabalin, gabapentin, and duloxetine attenuated the level of mechanical allodynia in a dose-dependent manner. Morphine—but not pregabalin, gabapentin, and duloxetine—attenuated the neuroma pain. Morphine was less potent in neuroma pain than in mechanical allodynia. In the 2-drug-combination studies (morphine + pregabalin, morphine + duloxetine, and pregabalin + duloxetine), all drug combinations produced a synergistic effect on mechanical allodynia, but not on neuroma pain. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that the potency of morphine and the efficacy of pregabalin, gabapentin, and duloxetine on mechanical allodynia are different from those on neuroma pain and that combination therapy is one of different therapeutic choices for the treatment of neuropathic pain.
Determination of dendritic spine morphology by the striatin scaffold protein STRN4 through interaction with the phosphatase PP2A

Dendritic spines are heterogeneous and exist with various morphologies. Altered spine morphology might underlie the cognitive deficits in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, but how different subtypes of dendritic spines are selectively maintained along development is still poorly understood. Spine maturation requires spontaneous activity of N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor and local dendritic protein synthesis. STRN4 (also called zinedin) belongs to the striatin family of scaffold proteins, and some of the potential striatin-interacting proteins are encoded by autism risk genes. Although previous studies have demonstrated their localization in dendritic spines, the function of various striatin family members in the neuron remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate that Strn4 mRNA is present in neuronal dendrites, and the local expression of STRN4 protein depends on NMDA receptor activation. Notably, STRN4 is preferentially expressed in mushroom spines, and STRN4 specifically maintains mushroom spines but not thin spines and filopodia through interaction with the phosphatase PP2A. Our findings have therefore unraveled the local expression of STRN4 as a novel mechanism for the control of dendritic spine morphology.
Gene Transfer of Parvalbumin Improves Diastolic Dysfunction in Senescent Myocytes

Background—Impaired relaxation is a cardinal feature of senescent myocardial dysfunction. Recently, adenoviral gene transfer of parvalbumin, a small calcium-buffering protein found exclusively in skeletal muscle and neurons, has been shown to improve cardiomyocyte relaxation in disease models of diastolic dysfunction. The goal of this study was to investigate whether parvalbumin gene transfer could reverse diastolic dysfunction in senescent cardiomyocytes. Methods and Results—Myocytes were isolated from senescent (26 months) and adult (6 months) F344/BN hybrid rats and were infected with Ad.Parv. GFP (where GFP is green fluorescent protein) or Ad. β gal.GFP at a multiplicity of infection of 250 for 48 hours. Uninfected senescent and adult myocytes served as controls. After stimulation at a frequency of 0.5 Hz, intracellular calcium transients and myocyte contractility were measured using dual excitation spectrofluorometry and video-edge detection system (Ionoptix). Parvalbumin significantly improved relaxation parameters in senescent myocytes: Both the rate of calcium transient decay and the rate of myocyte relengthening were dramatically increased in senescent cardiac myocytes transduced with parvalbumin compared with nontransduced and GFP-expressing controls, with no effect on myocyte shortening. Conclusions—Parvalbumin expression corrects impaired relaxation in aging myocytes. Given that abnormalities of myocyte relaxation underlie diastolic dysfunction in a large proportion of elderly patients with heart failure, gene transfer of parvalbumin may thus be a novel approach to target diastolic dysfunction in senescent myocardium.
Maximum entropy based IDS using header and payload information

In this work, a new maximum entropy based intrusion detection system that combines data from payload and packet headers, is proposed. This combined method uses sniffed data from a network to detect intrusions to or any other anomaly in that network. This method is tested with DARPA 1999 Intrusion Detection Evaluation (IDEVAL) Dataset, which is the largest dataset available including whole payloads.
The role of the microenvironment and intercellular cross-talk in tumor angiogenesis.

The expression of angiogenic factors in tumors is controlled by intrinsic factors in the tumor and by the host microenvironment. Endothelial cells within particular tumor microenvironments interact not only with tumor cells but also with immune cells, fibroblasts, pericytes, and the extracellular matrix (ECM). The relationship and cross-talk among these cells determine gene expression, phenotypic distinction, and ultimately whether endothelial cells survive, proliferate, or undergo apoptosis. The diversity of angiogenic factor expression in tumors at different sites, combined with the fact that endothelial cells in different organs and tumors are phenotypically distinct, constitutes a formidable challenge for the development of effective anti-angiogenic therapies.
A low-cost correction algorithm for transient data errors

Scaling of very large scale integration (VLSI) technologies, coupled with increased integrated circuit complexity, will strongly increase the occurrence of transient faults (also known as soft errors) [1]. Transient faults, unlike manufacturing or design faults, do not occur consistently. Instead, these faults are caused by external events, such as electromagnetic interferences, power glitches, or highly energized particles striking the chip. These events do not cause permanent physical damage to the chip, but can alter signal transfers or stored values and thus cause incorrect program execution [2].
The role of AI planning in the management of future Internet

One of the major research challenges in the design of the future Internet is to include management into the network. To serve this purpose, many researchers believe that the task decomposition capability is one of the important requirements for the management of the future Internet. It assists operators to deal with intricate management details and, in the long run, empowers the network with capabilities to manage themselves. To that end, reasoning and analysis methods are essential to achieve those objectives. In this paper, we discuss the viability of applying the AI-based planning approach as one of the building blocks to increase the manageability of the future Internet.
Urban Road Materials Identification using Narrow Near Infrared Vision System

An urban road materials vision system using narrow band near infrared imaging indexes were proposed. This proposed imaging indexes were enhancement for previous work on autonomous multispectral road sensing method. Each urban road material has different near infrared spectral patterns which is as the base of its spectral identification. The new proposed imaging indexes, which using similar formula of NDVI, was normalized with narrow band near infrared spectrum range of 720nm to 1000nm of wavelength, were used to identify concretes, aggregates/sands/rocks, clay, natural dry fibers and bitumen/asphalt that make up most of urban road materials. This paper proposes imaging indexes evaluation from experiment results to identify those urban road materials. There were seven narrow band optical filter sets with the center spectrum at 710nm, 730nm, 750nm, 800nm, 870nm, 905nm and 970nm. Normalization band used was 720nm using high pass optical filter. The proposed multi-spectral imaging indexes were able to show the potential to classify the selected urban road materials, another approach may need to clearly distinguish between concrete and aggregates. The comparison to the previous imaging indexes (NDVI, NDGR, NDBR) were presented that used for urban road materials identification.
Optimal Policy Tracking of a Batch Reactive Distillation by Neural Network-based Model Predictive Control (NNMPC) Strategy

 Abstract—This paper presents the use of neural network-based model predictive control (NNMPC) for handling predefined optimal policy tracking determined by dynamic optimization strategy of a batch reactive distillation column. Multi-layer feedforward neural network model and estimator are developed and used in the model predictive control algorithm. The results show that the NNMPC provides satisfactory control performance for set point tracking problems. The robustness of the NNMPC is investigated with respect to plant/model mismatches and compared to a conventional proportional controller (P). It has been found that the NNMPC provides better control performance than the P controller does in all cases.
Modeling of Intercritical Heat Treatment of DP and TRIP Steels

The final microstructure of DP and TRIP assisted steels can evolve after hot working (hot rolling) or during post heat treatment process. In the formation of the final structure a number of different technological parameters have important roles, e.g. end temperature of rolling, cooling rates, temperature of intercritical annealing, etc. As a result of the individual factors and their combinations a lot of product technology routes are feasible. The effect of the different combinations of these technological parameters on the microstructure can be mapped by the special Jominy end-quench test (so called intercritical Jominy end-quench test) described in this paper. Unlike the traditional Jominy test, in this case there is a partial anstenizing between A1 and A3 temperatures which results in a given amount of ferrite in the microstructure before quenching. The method developed can be applied for mapping DP and TRIP assisted steels' microstructure in a wide range of technological parameters. The analysis of measured and calculated data can help us find the technological parameters optimal from the microstructural point of view.
Rule and theme discovery in human interactions with an 'internet of things'

The 'Internet of Things' promises a society of smart objects which can work towards common purposes. For HCI, core questions relate to how people might become members of, or otherwise interact with, such a society. In this paper, we address these questions through a simple experiment in which people interact with smart objects, each of which has a specific sensing processing-communicating capability. In the experiment, objects had to be arranged such that their individual goals were satisfied. The human's role was partly to move the boxes and partly to ensure that all goals were met. The task was presented either as a rule discovery task (i.e., to deduce the goal of each object) or as a theme (pattern) discovery task (i.e., to deduce an appropriate arrangement of objects to satisfy the goals). In other words, the human task involved either a bottom-up analysis of goals or a top-down analysis of configuration. Differences between these conditions were found. The study presents a simple paradigm which, through modification of objects and rules, allows study of human interaction with smart objects in a goal-directed manner. The main conclusions relate to the ways in which people make sense of the smart objects.
Controllable biomimetic adhesion using embedded phase change material

In many cases, such as in the instance of climbing robots or temporary adhesives, there is the need to be able to dynamically control the level of adhesion a biomimetic dry adhesive can provide. In this study, the effect of changing the backing layer stiffness of a dry adhesive is examined. Embedding a phase change material within the backing of a synthetic dry adhesive sheet allows the stiffness to be tailored at different points of a preload and adhesion cycle. Larger contact areas and more equal load sharing between adhesive fibres can be achieved by increasing the backing layer stiffness after initial deformation when the adhesive backing is loaded in its softened state. Adhesion behaviour is examined when the backing layer is maintained in solid and softened phases during complete load cycles and for load cycles under the condition of contact with the softened phase backing followed by pull-off during the solid phase. Absolute adhesion force is increased for trials in which a soft backing layer hardens prior to pull-off. This effect is due to the increased contact area made between the rounded probe and the softened material during preloading and the more equal load sharing condition during pull-off when the backing layer becomes stiff again.
Respiratory health outcomes 1 year after admission with severe lower respiratory tract infection

Severe lower respiratory infection (LRI) is believed to be one precursor of protracted bacterial bronchitis, chronic moist cough (CMC), and chronic suppurative lung disease. The aim of this study was to determine and to describe the presence of respiratory morbidity in young children 1 year after being hospitalized with a severe LRI. Children aged less than 2 years admitted from August 1, 2007 to December 23, 2007 already enrolled in a prospective epidemiology study (n = 394) were included in this second study only if they had a diagnosis of severe bronchiolitis or of pneumonia with no co‐morbidities (n = 237). Funding allowed 164 to be identified chronologically, 131 were able to be contacted, and 94 agreed to be assessed by a paediatrician 1 year post index admission. Demographic information, medical history and a respiratory questionnaire was recorded, examination, pulse oximetry, and chest X‐ray (CXR) were performed. The predetermined primary endpoints were; (i) history of CMC for at least 3 months, (ii) the presence of moist cough and/or crackles on examination in clinic, and (iii) an abnormal CXR when seen at a time of stability. Each CXR was read by two pediatric radiologists blind to the individuals' current health. Results showed 30% had a history of CMC, 32% had a moist cough and/or crackles on examination in clinic, and in 62% of those with a CXR it was abnormal. Of the 81 children with a readable follow‐up X‐ray, 11% had all three abnormal outcomes, and 74% had one or more abnormal outcomes. Three children had developed bronchiectasis on HRCT. The majority of children with a hospital admission at <2 years of age for severe bronchiolitis or pneumonia continued to have respiratory morbidity 1 year later when seen at a time of stability, with a small number already having sustained significant lung disease. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2013; 48:772–779. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Aneuploidy and prognosis of non-small-cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis of published data

In lung cancer, DNA content abnormalities have been described as a heterogeneous spectrum of impaired tumour cell DNA histogram patterns. They are merged into the common term of aneuploidy and probably reflect a high genotypic instability. In non-small-cell lung cancer, the negative effect of aneuploidy has been a subject of controversy inasmuch as studies aimed at determining the survival–DNA content relationship have reported conflicting results. We made a meta-analysis of published studies aimed at determining the prognostic effect of aneuploidy in surgically resected non-small-cell lung cancer. 35 trials have been identified in the literature. A comprehensive collection of data has been constructed taking into account the following parameters: quality of specimen, DNA content assessment method, aneuploidy definition, histology and stage grouping, quality of surgical resection and demographic characteristics of the analysed population. Among the 4033 assessable patients, 2626 suffered from non-small-cell lung cancer with aneuploid DNA content (overall frequency of aneuploidy: 0.65; 95% CI: (0.64–0.67)). The DerSimonian and Laird method was used to estimate the size effects and the Peto and Yusuf method was used in order to generate the odds ratios (OR) of reduction in risk of death for patients affected by a nearly diploid (non-aneuploid) non-small-cell lung cancer. Survivals following surgical resection, from 1 to 5 years, were chosen as the end-points of our meta-analysis. Patients suffering from a nearly diploid tumour benefited from a significant reduction in risk of death at 1, 2, 3 and 4 years with respective OR: 0.51, 0.51, 0.45 and 0.67 (P< 10–4 for each end-point). 5 years after resection, the reduction of death was of lesser magnitude: OR: 0.87 (P = 0.08). The test for overall statistical heterogeneity was conventionally significant (P< 0.01) for all 5 end-points, however. None of the recorded characteristics of the studies could explain this phenomenon precluding a subset analysis. Therefore, the DerSimonian and Laird method was applied inasmuch as this method allows a correction for heterogeneity. This method demonstrated an increase in survival at 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 years for patients with diploid tumours with respective size effects of 0.11, 0.15, 0.20, 0.20 and 0.21 (value taking into account the correction for heterogeneity; P< 10–4 for each end-point). Patients who benefit from a surgical resection for non-small-cell lung cancer with aneuploid DNA content prove to have a higher risk of death. This negative prognostic factor decreases the probability of survival by 11% at one year, a negative effect deteriorating up to 21% at 5 years following surgery. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer. com