Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hot-melt extrusion – basic principles and pharmaceutical applications

Abstract Originally adapted from the plastics industry, the use of hot-melt extrusion has gained favor in drug delivery applications both in academia and the pharmaceutical industry. Several commercial products made by hot-melt extrusion have been approved by the FDA, demonstrating its commercial feasibility for pharmaceutical processing. A significant number of research articles have reported on advances made regarding the pharmaceutical applications of the hot-melt extrusion processing; however, only limited articles have been focused on general principles regarding formulation and process development. This review provides an in-depth analysis and discussion of the formulation and processing aspects of hot-melt extrusion. The impact of physicochemical properties of drug substances and excipients on formulation development using a hot-melt extrusion process is discussed from a material science point of view. Hot-melt extrusion process development, scale-up, and the interplay of formulation and process attributes are also discussed. Finally, recent applications of hot-melt extrusion to a variety of dosage forms and drug substances have also been addressed.
Effect of graphene nanoplatelets structure on the properties of acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene composites

In this study, the effects of various types of commercial graphene nanoplatelets (XG Sciences xGnP M5, C300, C500, and C750) on the thermal, electromagnetic shielding (EMI SE), electrical and mechanical behavior of an acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS) copolymer matrix were investigated. The selected nanofillers were characterized and compared in term of surface area, different oxygen content, dimension and density (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and helium pycnometry). Graphene nanoplatelets were dispersed in ABS by direct melt compounding at 2, 4, and 8 wt%. Melt flow index (MFI) values almost linearly decreased with all the type of xGnPs, especially with the highest surface area nanofiller (C750). Moreover, EMI SE of neat ABS was improved from 20.7 dB to 22.5 dB (increase more than 3 times) for xGnP (C300, C500, and C750) and to 26.2 dB (increase about 9 times) for xGnP-M5, in agreement with proportional reduction of electrical resistivity. xGnP-M5 also resulted in being most effective in enhancing the tensile modulus which improved up to 64%, while a maximum increment of about 20% was obtained with the others xGnP nanoparticles. However, yield stress slightly decreased for xGnP-M5 (about 29%) and remained fairly constant for others nanofillers. Halpin– Tsai model used to predict the tensile modulus of the nanocomposites suggested that graphene nanoplatelets were randomly oriented in the ABS matrix in a three-dimensional (3D) manner. POLYM. COMPOS. , 00:000–000, 2017. VC 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers
Effect of Cigarette Smoking on Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) in Lung Cancer

Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a process that allows an epithelial cell to acquire a mesenchymal phenotype through multiple biochemical changes resulting in an increased migratory capacity. During cancer progression, EMT is found to be associated with an invasive or metastatic phenotype. In this review, we focus on the discussion of recent studies about the regulation of EMT by cigarette smoking. Various groups of active compounds found in cigarette smoke such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), nicotine-derived nitrosamine ketone (NNK), and reactive oxygen specicies (ROS) can induce EMT through different signaling pathways. The links between EMT and biological responses to cigarette smoke, such as hypoxia, inflammation, and oxidative damages, are also discussed. The effect of cigarette smoke on EMT is not only limited to cancer types directly related to smoking, such as lung cancer, but has also been found in other types of cancer. Altogether, this review emphasizes the importance of understanding molecular mechanisms of the induction of EMT by cigarette smoking and will help in identifying novel small molecules for targeting EMT induced by smoking.
Exposure-resilient cryptography

We develop the notion of Exposure-Resilient Cryptography. While standard cryptographic definitions and constructions do not guarantee any security even if a tiny fraction of the secret entity (e.g., cryptographic key) is compromised, the objective of Exposure-Resilient Cryptography is to build information structures such that almost complete (intentional or unintentional) exposure of such a structure still protects the secret information embedded in this structure. The key to our approach is a new primitive of independent interest, which we call an Exposure-Resilient Function (ERF)—a deterministic function whose output appears random (in a perfect, statistical or computational sense) even if almost all the bits of the input are known. ERF's by themselves efficiently solve the partial exposure of secrets in the setting where the secret is simply a random value, like in the private-key cryptography. They can also be viewed as very secure pseudorandom generators and have many other applications. To solve the general partial exposure of secrets, we use the (generalized) notion of an All-Or-Nothing Transform (AONT) introduced by Rivest [51] and refined by Boyko [16]: an invertible (randomized) transformation T which, nevertheless, reveals “no information” about x even if almost all the bits of T(x) are known. By applying an AONT to the secret entity (of arbitrary structure), we obtain security against almost total exposure of secrets. AONT's have also many other diverse applications in the design of block ciphers, secret sharing and secure communication. To date, however, the only known analyses of AONT candidates were made in the random oracle model (by Boyko [16]). In this thesis we construct ERF's and AONT's with nearly optimal parameters in the standard model (without random oracles), in the perfect, statistical and computational settings (the latter based only on one-way functions). We also show close relationship between and examine many additional properties of what we hope will become important cryptographic primitives—Exposure-Resilient Functions and All-Or-Nothing Transforms. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)
Differential expression of circulating miRNAs in maternal plasma in pregnancies with fetal macrosomia

Macrosomia is associated with problems at birth and has life-long health implications for the infant. The aim of this study was to profile the plasma microRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) and evaluate the potential of circulating miRNAs to predict fetal macrosomia. The expression levels of miRNAs in plasma samples obtained from pregnant women with fetal macrosomia and from women with normal pregnancies (controls) were analyzed using TaqMan Low-Density Arrays (TLDAs) followed by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) validation and analysis. The TLDA data revealed that 143 miRNAs were differentially expressed in the plasma samples from pregnant women with fetal macrosomia compared with the controls (43 upregulated and 100 downregulated miRNAs). Twelve of these miRNAs were selected for RT-qPCR analysis. Receiver operational characteristic (ROC) curve analysis indicated that several miRNAs (e.g., miR-141-3p and miR-200c-3p) were clearly distinguished between pregnancies with fetal macrosomia and other types of abnormal pregnancy and healthy pregnancies with high sensitivity and specificity (AUC >0.9). The expression of miRNA clusters also showed a similar trend in pregnancies with fetal macrosomia. This study provides a platform for profiling circulating miRNAs in maternal plasma. Our data also suggest that altered levels of maternal plasma miRNAs have great potential to serve as non-invasive biomarkers and as a mechanistic indicator of abnormal pregnancies.
mRNA activity of a Sindbis virus defective-interfering RNA

We obtained Sindbis defective-interfering particles by nine and undiluted passages of standard virus on chicken embryo fibroblasts. These particles contain a deleted 20S RNA molecule which has mRNA activity, as shown by translation in cell-free systems in vitro. In infected cells, this mRNA activity appeared to be totally inhibited except at very late times postinfection.
Investigation on the Chemical Mist Deposited of Polyethylene Glycol (Peg-400) Assisted Cuo Thin Films

CuO is technologically an important material and in the present study it has been synthesized by forming mist from an aqueous solution of cupric nitrate with PEG-400 using ultrasonic nebulizer sprayed onto glass substrates kept at elevated substrate temperature. The X-ray diffraction study shows the formation of CuO as dominant phase in film samples. The scanning electron microscope images reveal dispersing nature of surfactant that helps to improve porosity in the material. The film sample deposited at substrate temperature of 400 ̊C comparatively higher response among all samples. The maximum sensitivity was found to be about 6.83% for light impulse of 27800 lux of 40 seconds duration. The sample also shows a repeatable behaviour in response when exposed to a light impulse of 2 seconds. The response of the films for light is almost follows a linear behaviour with time. Keywords— Photosensor, mist deposition, CuO
Integrating WordNet knowledge to supplement training data in semi‐supervised agglomerative hierarchical clustering for text categorization

The text categorization (TC) is the automated assignment of text documents to predefined categories based on document contents. TC has been an application for many learning approaches, which proved effective. Nevertheless, TC provides many challenges to machine learning. In this paper, we suggest, for text categorization, the integration of external WordNet lexical information to supplement training data for a semi‐supervised clustering algorithm which (i) uses a finite design set of labeled data to (ii) help agglomerative hierarchical clustering algorithms (AHC) partition a finite set of unlabeled data and then (iii) terminates without the capacity to classify other objects. This algorithm is the “semi‐supervised agglomerative hierarchical clustering algorithm” (ssAHC). Our experiments use Reuters 21578 database and consist of binary classifications for categories selected from the 89 TOPICS classes of the Reuters collection. Using the vector space model (VSM), each document is represented by its original feature vector augmented with external feature vector generated using WordNet. We verify experimentally that the integration of WordNet helps ssAHC improve its performance, effectively addresses the classification of documents into categories with few training documents, and does not interfere with the use of training data. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Food Choice And Nutrient Intake Amongst Homeless People

Homeless people in the UK and elsewhere have typically been found to consume a nutritionally inadequate diet. The current study aimed to provide an insight into the nutrient intake and food choice of a sample of homeless adults. In this mixed‐methods study, twenty‐four homeless individuals accessing two charitable meal services in Sheffield, UK participated in up to four 24‐hour dietary recalls between April and August 2012. Twelve individuals took part in a semi‐structured interview focusing on food choice. Energy intake was significantly lower than the Estimated Average Requirement. Median intakes of vitamin A, zinc, magnesium, potassium and selenium were significantly lower than Reference Nutrient Intakes. Contributions of saturated fat and non‐milk extrinsic sugars to total energy intake were significantly higher, whilst dietary fibre was significantly lower, than population average intakes. Charitable meals made an important contribution to intakes of energy and most micronutrients. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts revealed three major themes: food aspirations; constraints over food choice; and food representing survival. This study highlights a risk of dietary inadequacies amongst homeless people alongside a lack of control over food choices. Charitable meal services are suggested as a vehicle for improving the dietary intake and nutritional health of homeless people.
Role of Free Fatty Acids in Physiological Conditions and Mitochondrial Dysfunction

The role of free fatty acids (FFAs) as a source of energy and their functions in energy transport within the body are well established. Equally important is a role that FFAs play in oxidative stress following cell membrane depolarization. FFAs are physiologically active, not only as nutritional components, but also as molecules involved in cell signaling and stabilization of membranes via palmitoylation and myristoylation. Protein palmitoylation is involved in numerous cellular processes, including apoptosis, and neuronal transmission. Besides nuclear peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors that mediate the biological effects of FFAs, G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that are activated by FFA, have been recently identified. Those multiple FFA receptors (FFARs), which function on the cell surface as activated FFAs, play significant roles in the regulation of energy metabolism and mediate a wide range of important metabolic processes. FFARs have been targeted in drug development for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. FFAs upregulate transcription of uncoupling proteins, increasing their expression in brain, cardiac, and skeletal muscle that may be protective or cytotoxic, depending on the cellular energy state. Recently, FFA effects on the endothelial function and dysfunction are being recognized. FFAs play a key role in endothelium-dependent nitric oxide production. A disturbance of endothelial function, due to an imbalance in production and release of relaxing and constricting factors, has implications in the development of cardiovascular problems, such as hypertension, as well as neurotoxicity following loss of blood-brain barrier integrity. This review presents information on broad range of FFAs actions of prime importance for physiological processes. Understanding of FFA functions in the body is crucial for developing new therapeutic strategies against several metabolic disorders.
Sleep transistor sizing using timing criticality and temporal currents

Power gating is a circuit technique that enables high performance and low power operation. One of the challenges in power gating is sizing the sleep transistor which is used to gate the power supply. This paper presents a new methodology based on timing criticality and temporal currents to size the sleep transistor. The timing criticality information and temporal current estimation are obtained using static timing analyzer. The results obtained indicate that our proposed technique results in area reduction of sleep transistors by 80% and 49% compared to module based design and cluster based design respectively.
Privacy and coordination: computing on databases with endogenous participation

We propose a simple model where individuals in a privacy-sensitive population decide whether or not to participate in a pre-announced noisy computation by an analyst, so that the database itself is endogenously determined by individuals' participation choices. The privacy an agent receives depends both on the announced noise level, as well as how many agents choose to participate in the database. Each agent has some minimum privacy requirement, and decides whether or not to participate based on how her privacy requirement compares against her expectation of the privacy she will receive if she participates in the computation. This gives rise to a game amongst the agents, where each individual's privacy if she participates, and therefore her participation choice, depends on the choices of the rest of the population. We investigate symmetric Bayes-Nash equilibria, which in this game consist of threshold strategies, where all agents whose privacy requirements are weaker than a certain threshold participate and the remaining agents do not. We characterize these equilibria, which depend both on the noise announced by the analyst and the population size; present results on existence, uniqueness, and multiplicity; and discuss a number of surprising properties they display.
Alexithymia and Cancer Pain: The Effect of Psychological Intervention

Background: Alexithymia is likely to be involved in the pain experience of cancer patients, but the extent to which psychological interventions may modify both pain and alexithymia is unclear. Methods: A group of 52 consecutive cancer patients were enrolled in a 6-month multicomponent psychological intervention trial, and compared to 52 control patients who received standard medical care. Validated scales for pain, alexithymia, coping with disease, illness behavior, psychological distress, and psychosocial functioning were administered at baseline and 6 months later. Results: Pain was strongly associated with alexithymia and several psychological dimensions. Although at baseline patients in the intervention group had worse psychological and somatic health, at follow-up their level of pain intensity, alexithymia, and somatic concerns had significantly improved compared to control patients. Patients in the intervention group showed dramatic improvements in pain perception, alexithymia, and other psychological variables, while control patients showed an unexpected significant worsening of alexithymia, depression, and adjustment to disease. Multiple regression showed that psychological intervention and alexithymia were both independently associated with the reduction in pain perception. Conclusions: These findings confirm the close association between alexithymia and pain, and show that multicomponent psychological intervention may significantly reduce both alexithymia and cancer pain. Although the present findings need replication, they should strongly encourage clinicians to provide patients with psychological interventions targeting alexithymic difficulties and helping patients to cope better with both feelings and somatic perception.
Influence of Nanoclay on the Morphology, Adhesive and Mechanical Properties of Polysulfide Modified Epoxy Resin

Addition of nanoclay particles to a typical tertiary amine cured polysulfide modified epoxy adhesive leads to large increase in the single-lap shear strength of aluminum-aluminum joint. The nanoclay particles are very well dispersed (near fully exfoliated) in the polymer matrix even at 8 wt. % of nanoclay concentration. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies provide evidences for the excellent dispersion of the nanoclay platelets in the polymer matrix. The addition of nanoclay particle results in a significant increase in the elongation at break values along with the marginal increase in the tensile strength. The nanoclay provides good ductility to the epoxy-polysulfide adhesive by forming very flexible interface, which leads to less brittle composite having good strength. The increase in work to break (Wb) values by the addition of nanoclay represents the potential for dissipating a greater amount of energy during the bond rupture process of the lap shear test, and hence the adhesive strength increases. In addition, the increase in joint strength by the addition of nanoclay can also be attributed to the good interaction between the epoxy-polysulfide adhesive and the aluminum substrate in the presence of nanoclay.
AMPA receptors regulate experience-dependent dendritic arbor growth in vivo

The size and shape of neuronal dendritic arbors affect the number and type of synaptic inputs, as well as the complexity and function of brain circuits. In the intact brain, dendritic arbor growth and the development of excitatory glutamatergic synapse are concurrent. Consequently, it has been difficult to resolve whether synaptic inputs drive dendritic arbor development. Here, we test the role of AMPA receptor (AMPAR)-mediated glutamatergic transmission in dendrite growth by expressing peptides corresponding to the intracellular C-terminal domains of AMPAR subunits GluR1 (GluR1Ct) and GluR2 (GluR2Ct) in optic tectal neurons of the Xenopus retinotectal system. These peptides significantly reduce AMPAR synaptic transmission in transfected neurons while leaving visual system circuitry intact. Daily in vivo imaging over 5 days revealed that GluR1Ct or GluR2Ct expression dramatically impaired dendrite growth, resulting in less complex arbors than controls. Time-lapse images collected at 2-h intervals over 6 h show that both GluR1Ct and GluR2Ct decrease branch lifetimes. Ultrastructural analysis indicates that synapses formed onto neurons expressing the GluRCt are less mature than synapses onto control neurons. These data suggest that the failure to form complex arbors is due to reduced stabilization of new synapses and dendritic branches. Although visual stimulation increases dendritic arbor growth rates in control tectal neurons, a weak postsynaptic response to visual experience in GluRCt-expressing cells leads to retraction of branches. These results indicate that AMPAR-mediated transmission underlies experience-dependent dendritic arbor growth by stabilizing branches, and support a competition-based model for dendrite growth.
Enhanced Slotted Aloha Mechanism by Introducing ZigZag Decoding

Various random access mechanisms, such as Aloha protocol and its corresponding variants have been widely studied as efficient methods to coordinate the medium access among competing users. But when two or more wireless users transmit packets at the same time over the same channel a collisions occur. When this happens, the received packets are discarded and retransmissions are required, which is a waste of power and bandwidth. In such a situation one of the most important objectives is to find techniques to improve these protocols to reduce the number of collisions or to avoid them. Several studies have contributed to this problem. In this paper, we propose a new approach named ZigZag decoding to enhance slotted Aloha mechanism by reducing the loss rate of packets colliding. We model the system by a Markov chain witch the number of backlogged packets is taken as the system state. We use a stochastic game to achieve our objective. We evaluate and compare the performances parameters of the proposed approach with those of slotted Aloha mechanism. All found results show that our approach is more efficient than the slotted Aloha mechanism.
Cerebral Malaria Complicated by Blindness, Deafness and Extrapyramidal Tract Manifestation

Cerebral malaria is a severe manifestation of a parasitic infection caused by Plasmodium falciparum. The sequelae of this disease such as blindness, deafness, loss of motor function could be emotionally traumatic and physically disabling. We, therefore, present this case of an 8 year old boy who presented with high grade intermittent fever associated with multiple convulsions and prolonged coma. He regained consciousness after 12 days of treatment with intravenous quinine but was found to have blindness, sensory neural deafness and extrapyramidal sign. This extrapyramidal sign regressed following treatment with chlorpromazine. He also regained his sight and auditory function before he was discharged though not completely. This report is aimed at emphasizing these rare complications of cerebral malaria as well as reminding clinicians working in malaria endemic areas of the world on the need for early diagnosis and prompt treatment.