Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A polymer-made 3DOF spatial parallel manipulator for cell production system

In the present paper, in order to realize the functions equivalent to the functions of the spherical bearing which is frequently used in conventional spatial mechanisms, a polymeric manufactured hinge with Hytrel® (DUPONT Co., Ltd.)[1], which has excellent flexural fatigue resistance, have been proposed. Next, the shape and dimensions of the polymeric manufactured hinge having low stress values at bending deformation have been found by FEM analysis results. In addition, a polymer-made three-degrees-of-freedom(3DOF) spatial parallel manipulator which consists of this polymer-made hinge is designed and developed, and the output displacement characteristics of the manipulator are revealed.
A method to locate the source of forced oscillations based on linearized model and system measurements

In this paper, a method to locate the source of forced oscillations based on the power system linearized model and the use of system measurements is proposed. The method utilizes generator measurements to estimate the phase angle, magnitude and frequency of the forced oscillation. Then, based on the characteristics of the analytical response of a linear system to an external input, the phase, amplitude and frequency are used along with the eigenvalues and eigenvector of the system state matrix to estimate the location of the source. Several important characteristics of the response are highlighted and studied throughout the document in order to provide a better analytical understanding about the fundamental behavior of forced oscillations in power systems. The proposed analytical solution and location method are tested using a two-machine system and nonlinear simulation of the New England-New York (NETS-NYPS) 68 Bus System with promising results.
Neuronal gene expression and function in the growth-stimulated R28 retinal precursor cell line

Purpose. Proliferative retinal progenitor cells that express neuronal characteristics are potentially useful for developmental studies and as experimental graft material. The continuously-growing R28 retinal cell line has been distributed to over 60 laboratories for a variety of studies, yet has not been fully characterized. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the proliferative R28 retinal cell line contains subpopulations of cells that express neuronal mRNAs and proteins characteristic of CNS neurons. Methods. To this end, we sought to determine the potential retinal, neuronal, and growth-related characteristics of this retinal cell line through gene expression profiling, coupled with confirmatory immunocytochemistry and electrophysiology. Results. Despite expression of growth-stimulatory oncogenes and growth-promoting factors, subpopulations of R28 cells express abundant retinal and neuronal markers, as well as the functional capacity to respond to specific neurotransmitters such as dopamine, acetylcholine, serotonin, and glycine. Conclusion. Proliferative R28 cells retain functional neuronal properties that may prove useful in future studies of neuronal differentiation and development.
Hospital Nursing and 30-Day Readmissions Among Medicare Patients With Heart Failure, Acute Myocardial Infarction, and Pneumonia

Background:Provisions of the Affordable Care Act that increase hospitals’ financial accountability for preventable readmissions have heightened interest in identifying system-level interventions to reduce readmissions. Objectives:To determine the relationship between hospital nursing; that is, nurse work environment, nurse staffing levels, and nurse education, and 30-day readmissions among Medicare patients with heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, and pneumonia. Method and Design:Analysis of linked data from California, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania that included information on the organization of hospital nursing (ie, work environment, patient-to-nurse ratios, and proportion of nurses holding a BSN degree) from a survey of nurses, as well as patient discharge data, and American Hospital Association Annual Survey data. Robust logistic regression was used to estimate the relationship between nursing factors and 30-day readmission. Results:Nearly 1 quarter of heart failure index admissions [23.3% (n=39,954)], 19.1% (n=12,131) of myocardial infarction admissions, and 17.8% (n=25,169) of pneumonia admissions were readmitted within 30 days. Each additional patient per nurse in the average nurse’s workload was associated with a 7% higher odds of readmission for heart failure [odds ratio (OR)=1.07; confidence interval CI, 1.05–1.09], 6% for pneumonia patients (OR=1.06; CI, 1.03–1.09), and 9% for myocardial infarction patients (OR=1.09; CI, 1.05–1.13). Care in a hospital with a good versus poor work environment was associated with odds of readmission that were 7% lower for heart failure (OR=0.93; CI, 0.89–0.97), 6% lower for myocardial infarction (OR=0.94; CI, 0.88–0.98), and 10% lower for pneumonia (OR=0.90; CI, 0.85–0.96) patients. Conclusions:Improving nurses’ work environments and staffing may be effective interventions for preventing readmissions.
Contrasting patterns of phytoplankton viability in the subtropical NE Atlantic Ocean

The proportion of living phytoplankton cells (% LC) was quantified in natural com- munities along 2 transects of the subtropical NE Atlantic. The region is characterized by the domi- nance of nano- and micro-phytoplankton in the coastal NW African upwelling zone and pico- phytoplankton in the oligotrophic open ocean. Among the pico-cyanobacteria, Synechococcus sp. % LC (40 to 100% LC) was generally higher than that observed for Prochlorococcus sp. (20 to 90% LC). The % LC values of both Prochlorococcus sp. and Synechococcus sp. were low at the oli- gotrophic open ocean stations and decreased towards the coastal upwelling area. Both Prochlorococ- cus sp. and Synechococcus sp. % LC increased in waters in which temperatures reached >21°C. The vertical variability of Prochlorococcus sp. % LC was related to the underwater visible and ultraviolet radiation, showing lower viability in the surface waters. The % LC of nano- and micro-phytoplankton varied with the trophic conditions of the waters, showing lowest values (18.6 and 11.8% LC, respec- tively) in the oligotrophic open ocean and highest values (98.9 and 80.0% LC, respectively) in the coastal upwelling area. However, both nano- and micro-phytoplankton viability decreased as the water temperature increased. This pattern contrasted strongly with that found for pico-cyanobac- teria, indicating that the factors stressing the pico-sized and larger phytoplankton cells in the region were different. As a result of the % LC distribution of the different phytoplankton communities, the highest level of phytoplankton cell death was found in the oligotrophic area, while larger proportions of healthy, living cells were generally found in communities in the upwelling zone. The results identified cell death as an important factor structuring phytoplankton communities in the ocean.
Detailed analysis and a general design procedure of damped LCL filters in three phase voltage source converters

Detailed analysis and the parameter design of damped LCL filters applied in three phase voltage source converters is carried out in this work. Relations between the LCL filter parameters (L<sub>1</sub>, L<sub>2</sub>, C and R) and the corresponding transfer function parameters, including ω<sub>s</sub>, ω<sub>c</sub>, ω<sub>z</sub> and ω<sub>R</sub>, are investigated mathematically and demonstrated explicitly. Based on this methodology, a reasonable and optimal design procedure is proposed. Simulation results are provided to validate the performance of the LCL filter and the design procedure.
On the Value of Design Thinking for Innovation in Complex Contexts: A Case from Healthcare

This paper discusses the use of different approaches to design in complex contexts, exemplified through a case from healthcare. Specifically, the value of Design Thinking (DT) for understanding of a problem at hand is discussed. The paper argues that a design approach based on a holistic understanding of problems constitutes a prerequisite for innovations in complex contexts where problems are open, complex, dynamic, networked and have a wicked character. The argument is made for the importance of differentiating design approaches with respect to their ability to support broader and more open explorations of the underlying problems, especially those in complex contexts. A case from healthcare illustrates the value of DT and is used to discuss the importance of avoiding what I refer to as deceptive problems. The potential of DT to increase the relevance of innovations through a better understanding of underlyingproblems is discussed.
C-Peptide Response and HLA Genotypes in Subjects With Recent-Onset Type 1 Diabetes After Immunotherapy With DiaPep 277 An Exploratory Study

RESULTS—A total of 146 subjects (aged 4.3 to 58.5 years) were enrolled, including 76 children (,18 years old) and 70 adults. At baseline, there was a significant increase in fasting, maximal, and area under the curve (AUC) C-peptide from high to moderate and low risk HLA genotypes in adults (P for trend ,0.04) but not in children. Children showed a decrease of the three parameters over time regardless of therapy and HLA genotype. DiaPep277-treated adults with low risk genotype had significantly higher maximal and AUC C-peptide versus placebo at 12 months (0.04 6 0.07 vs. 20.28 6 0.09 nmol/L, P , 0.01, and 0.53 6 1.3 vs. 24.59 6 1.5 nmol/L, P , 0.05, respectively). In the moderate risk genotype group, Dmaximal and AUC C-peptide values were significantly higher in DiaPep277-treated versus placebo-treated patients (P , 0.01 and P , 0.05, respectively).
Epinephrine, norepinephrine, glucagon, and growth hormone release in association with physiological decrements in the plasma glucose concentration in normal and diabetic man.

The release of potentially important glucose counter-regulatory factors (epinephrine, norepinephrine, glucagon, GH, and cortisol) was studied during Biostator-controlled reductions in the plasma glucose concentration from the high physiological level of 95 mg/dl to the low physiological level of 60 mg/dl in 10 subjects (5 normal subjects and 5 patients with insulin-dependent diabetes) and from the supraphysiological level of 200 to 100 mg/dl in 6 subjects (3 normal subjects and 3 patients with insulin-dependent diabetes). Reductions in the plasma glucose concentration from 95 to 60 mg/dl were associated with early (+30 to +40 min) increments [here with the maximal values expressed as the percent of the mean baseline (mean ± SE)] in plasma epinephrine (529 ± 144; P < 0.02), norepinephrine (146 ± 12; P < 0.01), and glucagon (123 ± 13; P < 0.05) and a late (+75 min) increment in plasma GH (2504 ± 1065; P < 0.05); an apparent late (+105 min) increment in plasma cortisol (132 ± 15) was not statistically signif.
Munc18c Regulates Insulin-stimulated GLUT4 Translocation to the Transverse Tubules in Skeletal Muscle*

To examine the intracellular trafficking and translocation of GLUT4 in skeletal muscle, we have generated transgenic mouse lines that specifically express a GLUT4-EGFP (enhanced green fluorescent protein) fusion protein under the control of the human skeletal muscle actin promoter. These transgenic mice displayed EGFP fluorescence restricted to skeletal muscle and increased glucose tolerance characteristic of enhanced insulin sensitivity. The GLUT4-EGFP protein localized to the same intracellular compartment as the endogenous GLUT4 protein and underwent insulin- and exercise-stimulated translocation to both the sarcolemma and transverse-tubule membranes. Consistent with previous studies in adipocytes, overexpression of the syntaxin 4-binding Munc18c isoform, but not the related Munc18b isoform, in vivo specifically inhibited insulin-stimulated GLUT4-EGFP translocation. Surprisingly, however, Munc18c inhibited GLUT4 translocation to the transverse-tubule membrane without affecting translocation to the sarcolemma membrane. The ability of Munc18c to block GLUT4-EGFP translocation to the transverse-tubule membrane but not the sarcolemma membrane was consistent with substantially reduced levels of syntaxin 4 in the transverse-tubule membrane. Together, these data demonstrate that Munc18c specifically functions in the compartmentalized translocation of GLUT4 to the transverse-tubules in skeletal muscle. In addition, these results underscore the utility of this transgenic model to directly visualize GLUT4 translocation in skeletal muscle.
Spherical molecularly imprinted polymer particles: A promising tool for molecular recognition in capillary electrokinetic separations

Spherical molecularly imprinted polymer particles obtained via precipitation polymerization, were introduced as a pseudostationary phase in capillary electrophoresis (CE) to study molecular recognition. Analyses were performed via a partial filling technique using (+)‐ephedrine‐imprinted microspheres (100–200 nm) which were polymerized from methacrylic acid and 1,1,1‐Tris(hydroxymethyl)propanetrimethacrylate using acetonitrile as the solvent. The influence of pH and the modifier content on the separation was investigated. A 0.1% w/v suspension in an aqueous 10 mM phosphate buffer (pH 2.5 with 40% acetonitrile) was hydrodynamically injected into the CE system (80% of the effective capillary length) and led to full baseline separation of racemic ephedrine within 10 min.
Genetic analysis of resistance to stem rust in ten durum wheats

Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L.) cultivars derived from CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center) germplasm are currently grown on more than 8 million ha worldwide. Because negligible information is available on their genes for resistance to stem rust, crosses in a diallel arrangement (without reciprocals) were made among nine resistant CIMMYT-derived durums, and Kingfisher, which was susceptible to one Mexican pathotype of Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici. Parents, F 1 plants, F 2 populations, and F 3 lines were evaluated as seedlings in the greenhouse with two pathotypes and in the field with one pathotype (.)
Precise digital implementations of hyperbolic tanh and sigmoid function

Sigmoid and Hyperbolic Tangent are widely used as activation functions in artificial neural networks. Exponential term and division are basic building blocks of these functions. This paper proposes precise and efficient hardware implementations for sigmoid and hyperbolic tangent functions using exponential function approximation. Performance of both functions has been verified which shows that the proposed implementations have up to 99.97% similarity with the ideal transfer functions while the circuits take maximum 2% of logic resources when implemented on a Vertex IV FPGA.
A Circuit-Driven Design Methodology for a Circular Polarizer Based on Modified Jerusalem Cross Grids

This paper presents an accelerated methodology to design a circular polarizer based on modified Jerusalem cross unit cells. The proposed three-layer planar polarizer features a high transparency to both TE and TM polarized fields while providing a quadrature phase difference between them, as required for the generation of circularly polarized fields. The structure is designed employing a circuit-driven approach in which two independent equivalent circuits describe the behavior of TE and TM modes through the polarizer. Featuring a unit cell volume of $0.17\lambda _{0} \times 0.17\lambda _{0} \times 0.21\lambda _{0}$ , the polarizer offers axial ratios of less than 3 and 1 dB over 20% and 7% bandwidths around 20 GHz, respectively, with an insertion loss less than 0.4 dB. Full-wave numerical simulations and experimental measurements verify not only the performance of the proposed polarizer but also the accuracy of the circuit-driven approach and its ability as a design tool.
Effectiveness of linear prediction characteristics of the speech wave for automatic speaker identification and verification.

Several different parametric representations of speech derived from the linear prediction model are examined for their effectiveness for automatic recognition of speakers from their voices. Twelve predictor coefficients were determined approximately once every 50 msec from speech sampled at 10 kHz. The predictor coefficients and other speech parameters derived from them, such as the impulse response function, the autocorrelation function, the area function, and the cepstrum function were used as input to an automatic speaker‐recognition system. The speech data consisted of 60 utterances, consisting of six repetitions of the same sentence spoken by 10 speakers. The identification decision was based on the distance of the test sample vector from the reference vector for different speakers in the population; the speaker corresponding to the reference vector with the smallest distance was judged to be the unknown speaker. In verification, the speaker was verified if the distance between the test sample vector and the reference vector for the claimed speaker was less than a fixed threshold. Among all the parameters investigated, the cepstrum was found to be the most effective, providing an identification accuracy of 70% for speech 50 msec in duration, which increased to more than 98% for a duration of 0.5 sec. Using the same speech data, the verification accuracy was found to be approximately 83% for a duration of 50 msec, increasing to 98% for a duration of 1 sec. In a separate study to determine the feasibility of text‐independent speaker identification, an identification accuracy of 93% was achieved for speech 2 sec in duration even though the texts of the test and reference samples were different.
To what extent do contact-mode and indirect ESD test methods reproduce reality?

Currents, current derivatives and transient fields of ESDs of humans are compared to currents and fields caused by simulators. A method for the simulation of the discharge current is provided. This method includes an arc model. The resulting high peak current values (>10 A/kV) are validated by a simple physical model of the hand geometry. Investigations of transient fields from simulators point to differences between simulators from different manufactures and between the transient fields caused by humans compared to the fields from simulators. Suggestions for possible improvements of the ESD test standard are given.
Ciprofloxacin safety in a pediatric population.

OBJECTIVE We conducted a retrospective study primarily to estimate the risk of musculoskeletal toxicities associated with ciprofloxacin administration in a pediatric population. In addition risks of hepatic and renal disorders associated with ciprofloxacin therapy were calculated. METHODS Adverse events in this study were restricted to those that required physician referral or hospitalization and occurred within 45 days of receiving a prescription for ciprofloxacin. From 2 resource databases, > 1700 patients < or = 17 years who received at least 1 ciprofloxacin prescription were identified between January, 1988, and December, 1993. RESULTS In this population there were no cases of newly diagnosed acute arthritis or serious liver or kidney disease that were likely ciprofloxacin-induced. One patient was diagnosed with hemolytic-uremic syndrome, which may have been exacerbated by ciprofloxacin therapy. CONCLUSIONS Surveillance of ciprofloxacin usage in a pediatric population failed to demonstrate serious or unusually high rates of any adverse events, including joint toxicity.
Brief Educational Intervention to Improve Medical Student Competence in Managing Patients Exposed to Secondhand Smoke

Background Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure may lead to the development of various diseases and conditions. One way to reduce SHS exposure is to screen for it within each primary care examination so that appropriate counseling can be directed to affected individuals. There has been little attention to improving medical education about SHS exposure and screening. The goal of this study was to develop an SHS-related educational intervention for medical students, with the purpose of improving knowledge regarding consequences of SHS exposure, and increasing intent to screen patients for exposure. Methods Medical students (N = 405) were given a measure assessing their knowledge of SHS exposure and intent to screen. Two groups of students served as controls (i.e., a posttest-only group and a pre/posttest group), and one group participated in the SHS education intervention. A factorial analysis with repeated measures and chi-square analyses were used to assess the differences between the groups to determine the impact of the SHS education intervention (ie, online lectures and a standardized patient interaction) on knowledge and intent to screen. Results Results of pretesting demonstrated that medical students had little knowledge of SHS exposure, averaging scores between 63% and 69% on the examination. One control group was reassessed a year later with no educational intervention. They did not demonstrate a significant change in their pre- to posttest scores, although the vast majority (∼95%) reported intending to screen future patients. Students who participated in the SHS educational intervention significantly improved their scores from pre- to posttest (P <.001), and 100% also reported intending to screen future patients. Conclusions This study suggests that brief education regarding the consequences of SHS exposure may improve medical students’ knowledge and increase intent to screen. Future research should assess the long-term impact of educational programs on improved clinical care.
A case of recurrent abdominal bleeding due to polyarteritis nodosa despite immunosuppressive therapy

Polyarteritis nodosa (PAN) is a vasculitis of unknown aetiology, characterized by segmental, necrotizing, transmural inflammation of medium-sized vessels. A prevalence of 30.7 per million has been estimated; geographic as well as ethnic differences have been reported. In addition, the reduced incidence of hepatitis B infections might contribute to a decline in PAN (1, 2). Systemic organ involvement can cause fever, malaise, weight loss, skin affection, arthritis, abdominal symptoms and also neuropathy (3–5). Typical diagnostic findings have been summarized by the 1990 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) classification criteria (6) to aid in the diagnostic process. Corticosteroids (2 mg/kg/day) are the standard treatment and can induce remission. Cyclophosphamide, preferably as pulse therapy, or other immunosuppressive drugs [azathioprine, mycophenolate mofetil or antitumour necrosis factor (TNF) biologics] should be added in cases of complications (3, 7, 8). We report here the case of a 44-year-old woman who presented with retroperitoneal bleeding and 4 months later suffered a recurrent bleed from a ruptured hepatic artery aneurysm (HAA) despite clinical and serological remission in response to immunosuppressive treatment. The patient was admitted because of diffuse abdominal pain, aggravated by food intake, and concomitant nausea and vomiting. For 1 month prior to admission, she had noticed progressive fatigue, low-grade fever (38 C̊) and weight loss of about 5 kg.