Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fractional order two port network oscillator with equal order

Most of electric circuits can be viewed as a two port network with two terminals defined as input and output ports. In this paper, two different concepts are combined together which are the two port network concept and the fractional calculus to design a general fractional order two port network with equal order. An oscillator case study with three impedances structure has been presented. The three impedances are two equal order fractional capacitors and a resistor. Two different two port network are studied which are Op-amp based circuit and nonideal gyrator circuit. The general oscillation frequency and condition for each case have been derived and discussed numerically using Matlab. Spice simulations are presented for some cases to validate the proposed idea where the fractional order oscillator has more degrees of freedom than the integer order.
Germination and morphology of fruits , seeds and plants of Cereus jamacaru DC 1

This work aimed to evaluate the germination and morphology of fruits, seeds and description of plant growth stages of mandacaru. The experimental design was completely randomized in a 2 x 3 factorial arrangement, consisting of combinations of two light conditions and three temperature regimes. A daily count of the number of germinated seeds was performed until the 16th day after sowing in order to determine the percentage, speed and time of germination. External and internal aspects were considered for the morphological description. The germination and the development of plants were evaluated for 150 days and featured eight stages of growth, based on morphological differentiation. The fruit has 154,66 ± 40,01 g mass, 82,26 ± 5,78 mm length, 62,63 ± 6,63 mm diameter and 1439 ± 189,78 seeds. The temperature of 25 °C under a photoperiod of 12 h provides the highest rate of seed germination and the seeds behave as neutral photoblastic. The germination is epigeal and fanerocotyledonary. The growth is slow and after 150 days of sowing the plant presents epicotyl with a large amount of thorns, where the whole plant is 325.30 mm in length.
A battery of genotoxicity studies with an allergy vaccine adjuvanted with monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL®) for the treatment of grass pollen allergy

The allergy vaccine Pollinex® Quattro Grass, developed for the prevention/relief of allergic symptoms caused by grass pollen in adults and children, contains extracts of 12 grass pollens and rye cereal (all chemically modified by glutaraldehyde), adsorbed onto l‐tyrosine with addition of the immunostimulatory adjuvant monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL®). This paper represents the first publication on genetic toxicology data for such a vaccine. An Ames test using five strains of Salmonella typhimurium at concentrations up to 2000 standardized units (SU) per plate in the absence (−) and presence (+) of metabolic activation (rat liver S9) showed negative results, as did treatment − S9 in the mouse lymphoma assay (MLA). However, a reproducible positive response was noted in the MLA + S9, which could not be attributed to extreme culture conditions, but may have been an artefact of the exogenous metabolizing system. Up to 60% false positive results are reported for the MLA with noncarcinogens. Hence, in vivo genotoxicity studies were conducted. These further assessments comprised a rat bone marrow micronucleus test following subcutaneous (s.c.) doses of 10 000, 20 000 or 40 000 SU kg−1 per day for 2 days, and a comet assay in liver and kidney cells from rats treated with Pollinex® Quattro Grass at 20 000 or 40 000 SU kg−1 per day s.c. for 2 days. Plasma analysis showed evidence of systemic antibodies to Pollinex® Quattro Grass immunogens, but the exposure levels could not be quantified. No evidence of genotoxicity was observed in either of the in vivo studies. Overall, the genotoxicity test results supported safe clinical use of Pollinex® Quattro Grass. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Circulating microRNAs in response to exercise

MicroRNAs (miRNAs, miRs) are a novel class of endogenous noncoding RNAs, which post‐transcriptionally regulate gene expression via mRNA degradation or translational inhibition. miRNAs have become increasingly recognized as central players in the process of gene regulation and are responsible for a variety of essential biological processes including proliferation, differentiation and metabolism. miRNAs can be released into the circulation where they remain stable. Exercise is one of the most positive and effective means of achieving enhanced physique. This review highlights and summarizes recent progress in the field of circulating miRNAs in response to acute and chronic exercise and discusses future directions in studying circulating miRNAs in exercise‐induced adaptation. A better understanding of how circulating miRNAs participate in the physiological response to exercise would eventually help develop circulating miRNAs as therapeutic targets for improving exercise capacity in patients with heart failure and other diseases.
High-Speed Multilevel nand Flash Memory With Tight $V_{\rm th}$ Distribution Using an Engineered Potential Well and Forward-Bias Adjusted Programming

This paper reports a high-speed multilevel-cell nand Flash memory device using a Si- SiO2-TiN- TiO2-SiO2-TaN (SOTTOT) engineered potential well (EW). The SOTTOT EW Flash memory device has very fast cell programming speed and good data retention. A 16-kbit nand memory block using SOTTOT cells was programmed using a forward-bias-adjusted programming scheme, which enables bit adjustability during page programming to suppress the development of fast bits. The SOTTOT memory block shows fast programming speed (~40 μs/page), tight threshold voltage (Vth) distribution (~0.22 V/level), and clear Vth-level margins (~0.9 V) for the eight-level programming. The SOTTOT memory block also shows good resistance against pass/read disturbances as well as good ten-year data retention at an ambient temperature of 75 °C throughout 105 programming/erasing cycling.
Highly parallel online bioelectrical signal processing on GPU architecture

Signal processing is of central importance in biomedical systems, in which pre-processing steps are unavoidable in order to reduce noise, remove unwanted artefacts, segment time series into smaller epochs, or extract statistical and other descriptive features that can be used in consecutive classification stages. The high sampling rates and electrode counts used e.g. in advanced EEG or body-surface potential mapping ECG systems, result in very large data sets, which require considerable time to process. While long computation times can be tolerated in research settings, in many application areas, e.g. brain computer interfaces, online feature detection (e.g. in epilepsy or heart monitoring) or clinical diagnostics, fast - often real-time - execution speed is required. This paper examines whether and how GPUs can be used efficiently to implement parallel signal processing algorithms. The performance critical factors of GPU programs used for real-time processing are identified then we show that high performance is achievable only if great attention is given to the hardware execution characteristics of the GPU. Overlapped data transfer and computation, optimized use of the GPU memory hierarchy, using enough threads to hide memory transactions are used to obtain better results than sequential CPU implementations.
Apoptotic Cell Death Is Initiated During Normothermic Ischemia in Human Kidneys

Ischemic damage plays an important role in post‐transplant organ failure. Activation of the apoptotic cascade is crucially involved in post‐ischemic inflammation resulting in tissue damage and organ dysfunction. Here we investigate the initiation of the apoptotic cascade during normothermic ischemia in human kidneys using a model for normothermic ischemia with kidneys nephrectomized because of renal cell carcinoma. Ex vivo, kidneys were stored at 37°C, and consecutive biopsies were taken from disease‐free tissue. Pro‐ and anti‐apoptotic proteins were assessed by Western blotting and immunofluorescence. During normothermic ischemia the pro‐apoptotic proteins Bax and activated caspase‐9 increased with ischemia time, whereas caspase‐8 was not activated. The anti‐apoptotic proteins Bcl‐2 and cFLIP decreased in time. Data on Bcl‐2 and Bax were supported by immunofluorescence for Bcl‐2 and activated Bax. However, activation of the central effector caspase‐3, essential for execution of the apoptotic process, was not detected. In conclusion, during normothermic ischemia the apoptotic cascade in the human kidney is initiated, but not fulfilled. Our data show that the duration of ischemia significantly correlates with activation of the apoptotic cascade. These findings provide insight in the initiation of apoptotic cell‐death during warm ischemia and may be useful in the assessment of ischemic injury.
A bio-inspired study on tidal energy extraction with flexible flapping wings

Previous research on the flexible structure of flapping wings has shown an improved propulsion performance in comparison to rigid wings. However, not much is known about this function in terms of power efficiency modification for flapping wing energy devices. In order to study the role of the flexible wing deformation in the hydrodynamics of flapping wing energy devices, we computationally model the two-dimensional flexible single and twin flapping wings in operation under the energy extraction conditions with a large Reynolds number of 106. The flexible motion for the present study is predetermined based on a priori structural result which is different from a passive flexibility solution. Four different models are investigated with additional potential local distortions near the leading and trailing edges. Our simulation results show that the flexible structure of a wing is beneficial to enhance power efficiency by increasing the peaks of lift force over a flapping cycle, and tuning the phase shift between force and velocity to a favourable trend. Moreover, the impact of wing flexibility on efficiency is more profound at a low nominal effective angle of attack (AoA). At a typical flapping frequency f * = 0.15 and nominal effective AoA of 10°, a flexible integrated wing generates 7.68% higher efficiency than a rigid wing. An even higher increase, around six times that of a rigid wing, is achievable if the nominal effective AoA is reduced to zero degrees at feathering condition. This is very attractive for a semi-actuated flapping energy system, where energy input is needed to activate the pitching motion. The results from our dual-wing study found that a parallel twin-wing device can produce more power compared to a single wing due to the strong flow interaction between the two wings.
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC WOUND MEASUREMENT WITH A THREE-CAMERA VISION SYSTEM

A three-camera vision system is developed for the measurement of the shape and volume of wounds, especially pressure sores. This system is able to assist physicians in monitoring the healing process of these wounds. The vision system consists of three progressive scan video cameras that are mounted on a triangular frame with a light source with optional texture projection in the centre. The cameras are not designed for high accuracy measurement purposes. This makes the calibration of the system decisive for the accuracy of the Digital Surface Model (DSM). Eight image triplets of a testfield are acquired for system calibration. A least squares bundle adjustment determines the camera calibration parameters as well as the exterior orientation parameters of the cameras in the frame. A commercial software package, designed for aerial photogrammetry, automatically generates a DSM. A DSM is computed for each of the three image pairs. Differences between the three models are calculated to get insight in the obtained precision of the DSM. To increase the quality of the DSM, the three models are combined to form one final DSM. The resulting DSM is used to calculate the wound features of interest. The applicability of the technique in practice is tested on artificial and real wounds. The comparison between different models showed that a precision of better than 0.7 mm in height could be achieved in the DSM generation using texture projection. Future work has to concentrate on the integration of the components in one user-friendly real-time measurement system for wounds, and on further improvement of the accuracy of the system.
Synovial sarcoma: imaging features of common and uncommon primary sites, metastatic patterns, and treatment response.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this review is to describe the imaging features, common and uncommon sites, metastatic pattern, and treatment response of synovial sarcoma. CONCLUSION Synovial sarcoma primarily occurs in young adults, most commonly in the lower extremities; presents as a large, noninfiltrative, well-circumscribed mass adjacent to joints, often with punctuate calcifications; and may exhibit a triple signal pattern on T2-weighted images. Small synovial sarcomas can mimic benign lesions. This tumor has a propensity for late local recurrence and metastasis, most commonly to lung.
A General Derivative Identity for the Conditional Mean Estimator in Gaussian Noise and Some Applications

This paper provides a general derivative identity for the conditional mean estimator of an arbitrary vector signal in Gaussian noise with an arbitrary covariance matrix. This new identity is used to recover and generalize many known identities in the literature and derive some new identities. For example, a new identity is discovered, which shows that an arbitrary higher-order conditional moment is completely determined by the first conditional moment.Several applications of the identities are shown. For instance, by using one of the identities, a simple proof of the uniqueness of the conditional mean estimator as a function of the distribution of the signal is shown. Moreover, one of the identities is used to extend the notion of empirical Bayes to higher-order conditional moments. Specifically, based on a random sample of noisy observations, a consistent estimator for a conditional expectation of any order is derived.
Power Augmentation and Rehabilitation Exoskeleton Robot based on Variable Stiffness Soft Actuators

Rehabilitation and helping disable humans are critically important to ensuring the well-being of many people. Technologies that support that should be easy to use, low-cost, and highly robust. The goal of this paper is to explain the design of a completely soft exoskeleton glove for power augmentation and rehabilitation, based on new soft pneumatic actuators with variable stiffness. In this work, curved extensor and contraction pneumatic soft artificial muscles were used, which showed that these muscles are ideal for constructing the soft exoskeleton. This novel artificial muscles of variable stiffness were formed by combining the proposed bending soft actuators with the soft artificial muscle contraction. The proposed exoskeleton will perform multi-gripping and multi-pinching with movements of hook and table top grasp. This exoskeleton is designed to fit the size of an adult's hand without mechanical adjustment. Hand signals of electromyography (EMG) are tested for confirmation of the assistive force for the proposed prototype.
A review of current approaches to identifying human genes involved in myopia

The prevalence of myopia is high in many parts of the world, particularly among the Orientals such as Chinese and Japanese. Like other complex diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, myopia is likely to be caused by both genetic and environmental factors, and possibly their interactions. Owing to multiple genes with small effects, genetic heterogeneity and phenotypic complexity, the study of the genetics of myopia poses a complex challenge. This paper reviews the current approaches to the genetic analysis of complex diseases and how these can be applied to the identification of genes that predispose humans to myopia. These approaches include parametric linkage analysis, non‐parametric linkage analysis like allele‐sharing methods and genetic association studies. Basic concepts, advantages and disadvantages of these approaches are discussed and explained using examples from the literature on myopia. Microsatellites and single nucleotide polymorphisms are common genetic markers in the human genome and are indispensable tools for gene mapping. High throughput genotyping of millions of such markers has become feasible and efficient with recent technological advances. In turn, this makes the identification of myopia susceptibility genes a reality.
Digital image watermarking using partial pivoting lower and upper triangular decomposition into the wavelet domain

A digital image watermarking algorithm using partial pivoting lower and upper triangular (PPLU) decomposition is proposed. In this method, a digital watermark image is factorised into lower triangular, upper triangular and permutation matrices by PPLU decomposition. The permutation matrix is used as the valid key matrix for authentication of the rightful ownership of the watermark image. The product of the lower and upper triangular matrices is embedded into particular sub-bands of a cover image that is decomposed by wavelet transform using the singular value decomposition. The weightage-based differential evolution algorithm is used to achieve the possible scaling factor for obtaining the maximum possible robustness against various image processing operations and pirate attacks. The authors experiments show that the proposed algorithm is highly reliable with better imperceptibility of the embedded image and computationally efficient compared with recently existed methods.
Incidence and antibiotic resistance of pathogenic Escherichia coli among poultry in Belgium

GIBSON, T. E. (1973) Recent advances in the epidemiology and control of parasitic gastroenteritis in sheep. Veterinary Record 92,469-473 MCKELLAR, Q. A. & MARRINER, S. E. (1987) Comparison of the anthelmintic efficacy of oxfendazole or ivermectin administered orally and ivermectin administered subcutaneously to sheep during the periparturient period. Veterinary Record 120,383-386 STAFFORD, K. J., WEST, D. M. & POMROY, W. E. (1994) Nematode worm egg output by ewes. New Zealand Veterinary Journal 42,30-32 TAYLOR, S. M. , EDGAR, H. & KENNY, J. (1993) Prophylactic efficacy ofmoxidectin for periparturient ewes and mid-summer lambs. Veterinary Record 133,270-271 TAYLOR, S. M. , KENNY, J., EDGAR, H. W. , ELLISON, S. & FERGUSON, L. (1997) Efficacy of moxidectin, ivermectin and albendazole oral drenches for suppression of periparturient rise in ewe worm egg output and reduction of anthelmintic treatment for lambs. Veterinary Record 141, 357-360
$z$ -Domain Orthonormal Basis Functions for Physical System Identifications

In this paper, novel z-domain orthonormal basis functions are presented for physical systems identification. The new basis functions yield guaranteed real-valued time-domain responses for physical systems containing both real and complex-conjugate poles. Also, application of the new basis functions is demonstrated by adopting them for z-domain orthogonal vector fitting algorithm. Necessary theoretical foundations and validating examples are presented.
Epha4-Fc Treatment Reduces Ischemia/Reperfusion-Induced Intestinal Injury by Inhibiting Vascular Permeability

ABSTRACT The inflammatory response is characterized by increased endothelial permeability, which permits the passage of fluid and inflammatory cells into interstitial spaces. The Eph/ephrin receptor ligand system plays a role in inflammation through a signaling cascade, which modifies Rho-GTPase activity. We hypothesized that blocking Eph/ephrin signaling using an EphA4-Fc would result in decreased inflammation and tissue injury in a model of ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Mice undergoing intestinal I/R pretreated with the EphA4-Fc had significantly reduced intestinal injury compared to mice injected with the control Fc. This reduction in I/R injury was accompanied by significantly reduced neutrophil infiltration, but did not affect intestinal inflammatory cytokine generation. Using microdialysis, we identified that intestinal I/R induced a marked increase in systemic vascular leakage, which was completely abrogated in EphA4-Fc-treated mice. Finally, we confirmed the direct role of Eph/ephrin signaling in endothelial leakage by demonstrating that EphA4-Fc inhibited tumor necrosis factor-&agr;–induced vascular permeability in human umbilical vein endothelial cells. This study identifies that Eph/ephrin interaction induces proinflammatory signaling in vivo by inducing vascular leak and neutrophil infiltration, which results in tissue injury in intestinal I/R. Therefore, therapeutic targeting of Eph/ephrin interaction using inhibitors, such as EphA4-Fc, may be a novel method to prevent tissue injury in acute inflammation by influencing endothelial integrity and by controlling vascular leak.
Structure and mass segregation in Galactic stellar clusters

We quantify the structure of a very large number of Galactic open clusters and look for evidence of mass segregation for the most massive stars in the clusters. We characterize the structure and mass segregation ratios of 1276 clusters in the Milky Way Stellar Cluster (MWSC) catalogue containing each at least 40 stars and that are located at a distance of up to ≈2 kpc from the Sun. We use an approach based on the calculation of the minimum spanning tree of the clusters, and for each one of them, we calculate the structure parameter Q and the mass segregation ratio MSR. Our findings indicate that most clusters possess a Q parameter that falls in the range 0.7–0.8 and are thus neither strongly concentrated nor do they show significant substructure. Only 27 per cent can be considered centrally concentrated with Q values >0.8. Of the 1276 clusters, only 14 per cent show indication of significant mass segregation (MSR > 1.5). Furthermore, no correlation is found between the structure of the clusters or the degree of mass segregation with their position in the Galaxy. A comparison of the measured Q values for the young open clusters in the MWSC to N-body numerical simulations that follow the evolution of the Q parameter over the first 10 Myr of the clusters life suggests that the young clusters found in the MWSC catalogue initially possessed local mean volume densities of ρ∗ ≈ 10–100 M� pc−3.
, Siberian Prison Hospital from Respiratory Specimens in a Mycobacterium tuberculosisof Indirect Drug Susceptibility Testing Indicator Tube for Direct and Evaluation of Mycobacteria Growth

J. Clin. Microbiol. 39(4):1501-1505. Respiratory Specimens in a Siberian Prison Hospital. from Mycobacterium tuberculosis Testing of Tube for Direct and Indirect Drug Susceptibility 2001. Evaluation of Mycobacteria Growth Indicator et al. Vera Goloubeva, Maryvonne Lecocq, Piotr Lassowsky, Siberian Prison Hospital from Respiratory Specimens in a Mycobacterium tuberculosis of Indirect Drug Susceptibility Testing Indicator Tube for Direct and Evaluation of Mycobacteria Growth
The Search for Non-Linear Exposure-Response Relationships at Ambient Levels in Environmental Epidemiology

Environmental exposures to ambient air particulate matter (PM), ozone (O3), environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), and to dioxin and related compounds are of considerable public health concern, and risk assessments for them have generally been based on linear, non-threshold models derived from epidemiological study data. While the epidemiological databases for PM, O3, and ETS have been sufficient to show that adverse health effects are occurring, the relative risks have been quite low, and it has not been possible, to date, to identify thresholds or non-linear relationships for them. For dioxin and related compounds, the evidence for excess cancer risks has been inadequate to establish causality, and there is suggestive evidence that hormesis may have occurred.