Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: An Overview from the Glia Perspective

Alcohol consumption during pregnancy can produce a variety of central nervous system (CNS) abnormalities in the offspring resulting in a broad spectrum of cognitive and behavioral impairments that constitute the most severe and long-lasting effects observed in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). Alcohol-induced abnormalities in glial cells have been suspected of contributing to the adverse effects of alcohol on the developing brain for several years, although much research still needs to be done to causally link the effects of alcohol on specific brain structures and behavior to alterations in glial cell development and function. Damage to radial glia due to prenatal alcohol exposure may underlie observations of abnormal neuronal and glial migration in humans with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), as well as primate and rodent models of FAS. A reduction in cell number and altered development has been reported for several glial cell types in animal models of FAS. In utero alcohol exposure can cause microencephaly when alcohol exposure occurs during the brain growth spurt a period characterized by rapid astrocyte proliferation and maturation; since astrocytes are the most abundant cells in the brain, microenchephaly may be caused by reduced astrocyte proliferation or survival, as observed in in vitro and in vivo studies. Delayed oligodendrocyte development and increased oligodendrocyte precursor apoptosis has also been reported in experimental models of FASD, which may be linked to altered myelination/white matter integrity found in FASD children. Children with FAS exhibit hypoplasia of the corpus callosum and anterior commissure, two areas requiring guidance from glial cells and proper maturation of oligodendrocytes. Finally, developmental alcohol exposure disrupts microglial function and induces microglial apoptosis; given the role of microglia in synaptic pruning during brain development, the effects of alcohol on microglia may be involved in the abnormal brain plasticity reported in FASD. The consequences of prenatal alcohol exposure on glial cells, including radial glia and other transient glial structures present in the developing brain, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and their precursors, and microglia contributes to abnormal neuronal development, reduced neuron survival and disrupted brain architecture and connectivity. This review highlights the CNS structural abnormalities caused by in utero alcohol exposure and outlines which abnormalities are likely mediated by alcohol effects on glial cell development and function.
Health Related Quality of Life in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Iran: A National Survey

Introduction The aim of this study was to measure health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in Iranian people with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus using two different measures and examines which socio-demographic and diabetes-related characteristics are associated with better quality of life based on a nationally distributed sample. Methods A multi-stage cluster sampling method was used to select 3472 subjects as a part of Iranian surveillance of risk factors of non-communicable disease (ISRFNCD). EuroQol-5 Dimensions questionnaire (EQ-5D) and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) were employed to measure HRQoL. Binary logistic and Tobit regression models were used to investigate factors associated with EQ-5D results. Results The mean age of subjects was 59.4 years (SD = 11.7), 61.3% were female and had 8.08 years (SD = 6.7) known duration of diabetes. The patients reported “some or extreme problems” most frequently in Pain/Discomfort (69.3%) and Anxiety/Depression (56.6%) dimensions of EQ-5D. The mean EQ-5D and VAS score were 0.70 (95% CI 0.69–0.71) and 56.8 (95% CI 56.15–57.5) respectively. Female gender, lower education, unemployment, long duration of diabetes, diabetes-related hospitalization in past years and having nephropathy and lower extremity lesions were associated with higher probabilities of reporting “some or extreme problems” in most dimensions of EQ-5D in binary logistic regression models. The same factors in addition to retinopathy were significantly associated with lower levels of HRQoL in Tobit regression analysis too. Conclusions The study findings indicate that patients with diabetes in Iran suffer from relatively poor HRQoL. Therefore much more attention should be paid to main determinants of HRQoL to identify and implement appropriate policies for achieving better management of diabetes and ultimately improving the quality of life of diabetic patients in this region.
Deterministic/Stochastic Wavelet Decomposition for Recovery of Signal From Noisy Data

In a series of recent articles on nonparametric regression, Donoho and Johnstone developed waveletshrinkage methods for recovering unknown piecewise-smooth deterministic signals from noisy data. Wavelet shrinkage based on the Bayesian approach involves specifying a prior distribution on the wavelet coefficients, which is usually assumed to have a distribution with zero mean. There is no a priori reason why all prior means should be 0; indeed, one can imagine certain types of signals in which this is not a good choice of model. In this article, we take an empirical Bayes approach in which we propose an estimator for the prior mean that is “plugged into” the Bayesian shrinkage formulas. Another way we are more general than previous work is that we assume that the underlying signal is composed of a piecewise-smooth deterministic part plus a zero-mean stochastic part; that is, the signal may contain a reasonably large number of nonzero wavelet coefficients. Our goal is to predict this signal from noisy data. We also develop a new estimator for the noise variance based on a geostatistical method that considers the behavior of the variogram near the origin. Simulation studies show that our method (DecompShrink) outperforms the wellknown VisuShrink and SureShrink methods for recovering a wide variety of signals. Moreover, it is insensitive to the choice of the lowest-scale cut-off parameter, which is typically not the case for other wavelet-shrinkage methods.
Reliable Guaranteed Cost Control for Nonlinear Singular Systems

This paper deals with the problem of reliable guaranteed cost control problem for nonlinear singular systems governed by a set of differential-algebraic equations. A more practical model of actuator failures than outage is adopted. The objective is to design a reliable guaranteed cost state feedback law, which can tolerant actuator failure, such that the cost function of the closed-loop system is guaranteed to be no more than a certain upper bound. Based on the Hamilton-Jacobi inequality (HJI), the sufficient condition of existence and design method of desiring reliable controller is presented. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Real-Time Planning for Covering an Initially-Unknown Spatial Environment

We consider the problem of planning, on the fly, a path whereby a robotic vehicle will cover every point in an initially unknown spatial environment. We describe four strategies (Iterated WaveFront, Greedy-Scan, Delayed GreedyScan and Closest-First Scan) for generating cost-effective coverage plans in real time for unknown environments. We give theorems showing the correctness of our planning strategies. Our experiments demonstrate that some of these strategies work significantly better than others, and that the best ones work very well; e.g., in environments having an average of 64,000 locations for the robot to cover, the best strategy returned plans with less than 6% redundant coverage, and took only an average of 0.1 milliseconds per action.
Double obstacle phase field approach to an inverse problem for a discontinuous diffusion coefficient

We propose a double obstacle phase field approach to the recovery of piece-wise constant diffusion coefficients for elliptic partial differential equations. The approach to this inverse problem is that of optimal control in which we have a quadratic fidelity term to which we add a perimeter regularization weighted by a parameter σ. This yields a functional which is optimized over a set of diffusion coefficients subject to a state equation which is the underlying elliptic PDE. In order to derive a problem which is amenable to computation the perimeter functional is relaxed using a gradient energy functional together with an obstacle potential in which there is an interface parameter ϵ. This phase field approach is justified by proving Γ − ? > convergence to the functional with perimeter regularization as ϵ → 0 ? > . The computational approach is based on a finite element approximation. This discretization is shown to converge in an appropriate way to the solution of the phase field problem. We derive an iterative method which is shown to yield an energy decreasing sequence converging to a discrete critical point. The efficacy of the approach is illustrated with numerical experiments.
PP1-Dependent Formin Bnr1 Dephosphorylation and Delocalization from a Cell Division Site

Cell cycle ends with cytokinesis that is the physical separation of a cell into two daughter cells. For faithful cytokinesis, cells integrate multiple processes, such as actomyosin ring formation, contraction and plasma membrane closure, into coherent responses. Linear actin assembly by formins is essential for formation and maintenance of actomyosin ring. Although budding yeast’s two formins, Bni1 and Bnr1, are known to switch their subcellular localization at the division site prior to cytokinesis, the underlying mechanisms were not completely understood. Here, we provide evidence showing that Bnr1 is dephosphorylated concomitant with its release from the division site. Impaired PP1/Glc7 activity delayed Bnr1 release and dephosphorylation, Bni1 recruitment and actomyosin ring formation at the division site. These results suggest the involvement of Glc7 in this regulation. Further, we identified Ref2 as the PP1 regulatory subunit responsible for this regulation. Taken together, Glc7 and Ref2 may have a role in actomyosin ring formation by modulating the localization of formins during cytokinesis.
Emerging Roles of ADAP, SKAP55, and SKAP-HOM for Integrin and NF-ÃŽÂºB Signaling in T cells

Adapter proteins are scaffolding proteins that lack enzymatic or transcriptional activity. They play a crucial role in the organization of signalosomes, which are molecular complexes involved in signal transduction. Here, we review some of the recent findings regarding the three cytosolic adapter proteins ADAP, SKAP55, and SKAP-HOM with respect to their role in T-cell adhesion, migration and proliferation.
Nasal Elision and Universals: Evidence from Romance

The postulation of diachronic universals derives from certain conclusions reached in the investigation of synchronic universals, i.e., that there are natural (universal) phonological subsystems in languages or dialects, and that there are natural (universal) structural relationships between the elements in these subsystems. In essence, a hypothesis about a particular diachronic universal is a claim that a shared natural state in various languages or dialects is the product of the same diachronic process (a sound change, series of linked sound changes, etc.). A counterproposal to this hypothesis would specify that there are multiple diachronic routes which can link two parallel states in the history of two or more innovating languages or dialects. If the latter view is correct, and I believe that it is, then the theory of diachronic universals will require refinement if it is to retain theoretical value.
Sampurna Suraksha: Unconditionally Secure and Authenticated One Time Pad Cryptosystem

Information security has been a growing concern over the past few years. During the last few decades, the importance of security throughout the network and internet society has been growing constantly. These days strategic user agencies have also realized the growing importance of information security not only for strategic and government bodies but also for peaceful scientific projects. One-time pad encryption is a basic yet robust method in information security which can be used for securing short and long messages. One time pad is a cryptosystem where the plaintext is combined with a random key which is, as long as the plaintext and used only once. This cryptosystem has been proven to be actually unbreakable with the condition that the key is truly random, never reused, and is kept secret. If properly used, the system provides a formidable encryption and it will be practically impossible for any sniffer to decrypt or break one-time pad encrypted message by any type of cryptanalysis, without the proper key or even with infinite computational power. Since all plaintexts are equally probable in one time pad, it creates a strong notion of cryptanalytic difficulty. This paper explains how to use one-time pads, how to set up secure one-time pad communications, how to deal with its various security issues and also addresses the integration of other security techniques with one time pad, like a biometric finger print scanner for authentication and PKCS based Cryptoki E-tokens for authentication and confidentiality.
Myofibroblast differentiation of normal human keratocytes and hTERT, extended-life human corneal fibroblasts.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to determine whether TGFbeta induces myofibroblast differentiation in cultured human keratocytes and in telomerase (hTERT)-immortalized human corneal fibroblast cell lines. METHODS Normal human corneal keratocytes were isolated from donor corneas of various ages and grown under serum-free (cultured keratocytes) or serum-added (corneal fibroblasts) conditions. Corneal fibroblasts were infected with the MPSV-hTERT retroviral vector, and selected clones were isolated and characterized by chromosomal karyotyping. The responses of normal cultured keratocytes and serum-starved corneal fibroblasts to TGFbeta in the presence or absence of Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD)-containing peptides and neutralizing antibodies to platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) were characterized by immunocytochemistry, Western blot analysis, and real-time PCR, to identify assembly of actin filaments, formation of focal adhesions, and expression of alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA). RESULTS Treatment of cultured keratocytes with TGFbeta (1 ng/mL) induced cell spreading, assembly of actin filaments, formation of focal adhesions, and expression of alpha-SMA, which was blocked by the addition of RGD-containing peptides (100 microM). A similar response was identified in hTERT-expressing human corneal fibroblast cell lines, showing a 69-fold increase in alpha-SMA message. Furthermore, treatment of hTERT corneal fibroblasts with RGD or anti-PDGF inhibited myofibroblast differentiation. Karyotype analysis of hTERT corneal fibroblasts identified age-dependent chromosomal aberrations in cells of older donors but not in those of a 10-year-old donor. CONCLUSIONS Induction of myofibroblast differentiation by TGFbeta in cultured human keratocytes and hTERT corneal fibroblasts occurs through a similar signal transduction pathway to that previously identified in the rabbit, which involves an autocrine PDGF feedback loop.
Ambipolar independent double gate FET logic

In this work, we present a review of recent logic circuit design research using ambipolar independent double gate field effect transistors (Am-ICDGFETs). In a first approach, we examine compact logic and show that, with respect to conventional CMOS-like static logic structures and for comparable power consumption, time delay and integration density can be reduced by 25% and 45% respectively. We then turn to reconfigurability, and demonstrate a key use of ambipolarity in a 16-function dynamically reconfigurable logic cell based on a sum-of-products Boolean function implementation, which achieves remarkable gains in terms of power consumption (9x) and in terms of intrinsic time delay (5x) with respect to conventional 16nm LP CMOS-based look-up table circuits. Finally, we tackle the question of logic synthesis for design paradigms using such fine-grain reconfigurable cells, and show how binary decision diagrams can be adapted to this purpose to generate, in a flexible way, multiple input selective function sets. Using this technique, a generated circuit was also evaluated and shown to compare very favorably to its CMOS equivalent.
What Should Guide Decision-Making Process in Urgency? A Curious Case of Right Acute Hemiparesis

Citation: Restelli F, Agresta G, Alfiero T, Dario A, Locatelli D (2018) What Should Guide Decision-Making Process in Urgency? A Curious Case of Right Acute Hemiparesis. Neurosurg Cases Rev 1:003. Accepted: October 29, 2018; Published: October 31, 2018 Copyright: © 2018 Restelli F, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Open Access
Keyword Training Using a Single Spoken Example for Applications in Audio Document Retrieval

An open keyword vocabulary word-spotting system is described for audio document retrieval. To model each keyword, an N-Best recogniser is used to hypothesise the keyword's phonetic transcription based on a single spoken example. The system is evaluated on a database of spoken messages and performance is found to be comparable with that obtained using pronunciations taken from a dictionary.
Multimode spectral coding of speech for satellite communications

We present a multimode spectral coding algorithm which employs the enhanced MBE (EMBE) spectral model and a new spectral quantization technique called transformed variable dimension vector quantization (TVDVQ) offering good speech quality at low rate. The EMBE model represents the short-term speech spectrum in a mode-specific way. TVDVQ encodes the variable-dimension spectral components efficiently at low complexity. The resulting 2.9 kb/s source coder offers good speech quality comparable to the 4.8 kb/s CELP 1016 and the 4.15 kb/s IMBE coder. An additional 1.1 kb/s of channel coding preserves the speech quality and intelligibility quite well with up to 2% random bit errors.
Mate preferences in Argentinean transgender people: An evolutionary perspective

Transgender people provide a unique opportunity to examine the effect of biological sex versus gender identity on mating preferences. This study aimed at identifying the mate characteristics that are most and least valued by transgender people and at examining to what extent their biological sex or their gender identity determined their mate preferences. A convenience sample of 134 male‐to‐female (MTF) and 94 female‐to‐male (FTM) individuals from Argentina rated Buss's list of 18 mate attributes. Compared to FTM, MTF individuals placed significantly more emphasis on attractiveness and socioeconomic status, whereas FTM, more than MTF individuals, valued partners with a dependable character. Although biological sex differences were present in both groups, providing support to the evolutionary theory, MTF individuals valued the same characteristics as both biological male and female individuals do.
Music genre classification using data mining algorithm

Multimedia data generated and stored online is growing at a huge rate. In order to access the desired multimedia data in real time, this needs to be analyzed and stored in categorical manner. This paper presents the data mining base approach for categorization of musical data. Experiments are performed using various data mining classifiers and preprocessing methods. This paper also compares the performance of single classifier based music categorization against ensemble of classifier approach for music categorization. Experimental results shows that single classifier based categorization approach outperform the ensemble of classifier based music categorization.
Enhancing situation awareness by fusion of infrared and visible image using multiresolution transform

Fusion of infrared and visible images has been studied for enhancing the situation awareness of user in the surveillance sector during low lighting conditions. The fusion of content helps to produce a more informative image. The use of multi resolution transform (MRT) for fusion will be more beneficial as its operation is similar to the working of human visual system. Wavelet transform is a MRT technique apt for the purpose. The use of biorthogonal wavelet approach scores over conventional wavelet approach because of its merits like: symmetry, linear phase, flexibility and compactness. This work reports the application of biorthogonal wavelet transforms for fusion of registered visible and infrared images of the same scene. A comparison of various biorthogonal wavelet functions has also been made to select appropriate biorthogonal wavelet family suitable for fusion of infrared and visible images for surveillance.
Robust regression for minimum-delay load-balancing

By providing origin-destination pairs with several possible paths, Dynamic Load-Balancing has been shown to obtain excellent results in terms of robustness and effective resource usage. In these dynamic schemes, paths are defined a priori, and the portion of traffic routed through each path is (typically) adjusted so that the sum over all links of a certain link-cost function is minimized. Queueing delay is usually used as this cost function due to its versatility and simplicity. However, all load-balancing schemes require an analytical expression of the delay, for which oversimplistic models are used (such as the classic M/M/1 model). In this paper we propose a framework that instead learns this queueing delay function from measurements, while restricting the assumptions to the minimum. For this, we use a novel robust regression method that, given a set of link load and delay measurements, returns a very simple regression delay function. Some adjustments to this regression function allow us to use it as the link cost of a greedy load-balancing algorithm that converges to the actual minimum-delay configuration. We also compare our framework with previous load-balancing proposals, showing for instance that using the M/M/1 model results in a total delay that may easily exceed the minimum by 10%, and can go as high as more than 100%.
Learning of Kalman Filter Parameters for Lane Detection

This paper presents a framework for learning of system parameters for vision-based lane detection systems. Learning is achieved by ground-truth data based optimization of a performance measure evaluated on video sequences. Different options for evaluating the performance of lane detection systems are discussed, and in order to allow for a linear combination, we show how these performance measures can be normalized. The approach presented is applied to the optimization of the state noise variances of a Kalman filter. The surroundings around the located solutions are examined by 2D-grid analysis. It turns out that this approach leads to the same regions for robust parametrizations independent on the starting conditions for the optimization, and thereby a well generalizing parameter set can be obtained