Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of maturation on nerve excitability in an experimental model of threshold electrotonus

Threshold electrotonus (TE) is a new tool for investigating axonal function noninvasively in vivo. To increase its potential clinical value, we developed a rat model of TE, and examined the effects of maturation and pharmacological intervention. We recorded TE in 92 male rats (body weight 90–650 g) by stimulating the motor nerve in the tail, and applying 100‐ms conditioning currents. Motor conduction velocities increased up to a body weight of 330 g, and remained constant thereafter. TE in mature rats was similar to that in humans, and two parameters were analyzed: TEd10–20 or the mean threshold reduction 10–20 ms after the onset of the depolarizing conditioning current at 40% of threshold intensity; and TEh10–20 or the corresponding threshold decrease on hyperpolarization. Like latency, the absolute value of TEh10–20 decreased up to 330 g, and then stabilized thereafter, probably reflecting the progressive increase in the axonal diameter and relative reduction in internodal impedance. In contrast, TEd10–20 gradually decreased up to 330 g, and then jumped to a higher level, which was maintained for animals of >400 g. 4‐Aminopyridine, a blocker of fast potassium channels, selectively increased TEd10–20 only in the immature or young (<330 g) rats. This suggests that, in the mature animals, fast potassium channels become sequestrated from the nodal membrane and not activated in response to nodal depolarization. These findings indicate that mature rats (>400 g) may provide a useful experimental model for interpreting abnormal TE responses in humans, and provide evidence for nonlinear maturation of potassium channel function in myelinated axons. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Muscle Nerve 23: 498–506, 2000.
Is mindfulness associated with stress and burnout among mental health professionals in Singapore?

Abstract High levels of stress and burnout have been reported among mental health professionals worldwide, including Singapore, with concerning potential implications for the quality of patient care. Mindfulness has been associated with decreased stress and burnout; however, associations between mindfulness, stress, and burnout have not been examined in Singapore. The aim of this study was to investigate whether mindfulness is associated with stress and burnout among healthcare professionals working in a mental health setting in Singapore. A total of 224 Singaporean mental health professionals completed a cross-sectional survey which included measures of: mindfulness (observe, describe, act with awareness, non-judge, and non-react), stress, and burnout (exhaustion and disengagement). Using multiple regression, significant negative associations were found between each of the mindfulness facets and: stress, exhaustion, and disengagement, while controlling for years of experience. Of the five mindfulness facets, act with awareness demonstrated the strongest negative association with all three variables. This study showed that mental health professionals in Singapore who have higher levels of mindfulness also have lower levels stress and burnout (disengagement and exhaustion). Future longitudinal research is warranted to better understand the directionality of these associations, with implications for the development of interventions aimed to reduce stress and burnout within this population.
Noncoherent Detections for Ambient Backscatter System

Ambient backscatter, an emerging communication mechanism where battery-free devices communicate with each other via backscattering ambient radio frequency (RF) signals, has achieved much attention recently because of its desirable application prospects in the Internet of Things. In this paper, we formulate a practical transmission model for an ambient backscatter system, where a tag wishes to send some low-rate messages to a reader with the help of an ambient RF signal source, and then provide fundamental studies of noncoherent symbol detection when all channel state information of the system is unknown. For the first time, a maximum likelihood detector is derived based on the joint probability density function of received signal vectors. In order to ease availability of prior knowledge of the ambient RF signal and reduce computational complexity of the algorithm, we design a joint-energy detector and derive its corresponding detection threshold. The analytical bit error rate (BER) and BER-based outage probability are also obtained in a closed form, which helps with designing system parameters. An estimation method to obtain detection-required parameters and comparison of computational complexity of the detectors are presented as complementary discussions. Simulation results are provided to corroborate theoretical studies.
Antibodies to the Cryptococcus neoformans capsular glucuronoxylomannan are ubiquitous in serum from HIV+ and HIV− individuals

Murine MoAbs to the Cryptococcus neoformans capsular glucuronoxylomannan (GXM) polysaccharide are protective in mice in vivo and in vitro. The prevalence of protective anti‐GXM antibodies in human serum is unknown. To provide further insight into the human antibody response to C. neoformans we determined the prevalence, isotype, and IgG subclass utilization of human anti‐GXM antibodies in HIV+ and HIV− sera by a sensitive antigen capture ELISA assay. One hundred and twenty‐three sera from the Bronx Municipal Hospital Centre serum bank were studied retrospectively. Seventy were from HIV+ individuals, 10 with a history of cryptococcal meningitis (CM), and 53 were from HIV− individuals. Serum GXM determinations were also performed on 61 HIV+ sera. Our results demonstrated that anti‐GXM IgG, IgA, and IgM are ubiquitous in both HIV+ (including those with CM), and HIV− sera. Anti‐GXM IgA titres and total serum IgA concentration were elevated in HIV+ sera. Anti‐GXM IgG antibodies were almost exclusively isotype‐restricted to the IgG2 subclass. Our data also demonstrated elevations of anti‐bovine serum albumin (BSA) titres in HIV+ sera. Taken together, our findings confirm hypergammaglobulinaemia and expansion of anti‐protein (BSA) antibodies in HIV+ individuals and isotype restriction of human anti‐carbohydrate (GXM) antibodies to the IgG2 subclass. Our report of ubiquitous anti‐GXM antibodies of the IgG and IgA isotypes suggests that anti‐GXM antibodies exist before HIV infection.
Tolerance of a ruminant ciliate Entodinium caudatum against mercury, copper and chromium

The effects of three heavy metal cations, mercury (II), copper (II), and chromium (VI), on the growth of the rumen ciliate Entodinium caudatum in vitro culture was studied. The E. caudatum culture was challenged by HgCl2, CuCl2, and K2Cr2O7 for a period of 4 days. The tested concentrations of mercury (II) and copper (II) were 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 mg/L and 2, 10, 20, 40 mg/L for chromium (VI) at single dose with either untreated or inhibited bacterial co-culture population. Effective metal concentrations required to reduce ciliate growth by 50% (EC50) for mercury (II), copper (II), and chromium (VI) either with untreated or inhibited bacterial co-culture population after 24 h of metal application were 24, 20, and 21 or 15, 20, and 19 mg/L, respectively. After 4 days of metal application, corresponding EC50 values for mercury (II), copper (II), and chromium (VI) were 16, 20, and 17 (with untreated bacterial population) or not determinable, 20, and 15 mg/L, respectively (with inhibited bacterial population). Increased sensitivity of E. caudatum to tested heavy metals with inhibited bacterial co-culture population indicate that the ciliate resistance to the heavy metal tested depends on detoxification abilities of rumen bacterial population.
Increment on Grain Size of TiO2 doped niobium chloride (NbCl5) by sol-gel spin coating technique

In this work, we have successfully prepared TiO2 thin films doped with various concentration of NbCl5. The doping concentrations were varied from 0.0 mol%, 0.1 mol%, 0.2 mol%, 0.3 mol% and 0.4 mol%. The characterizations were done by means of electrical properties and surface morphology. The results show that as the concentrations of NbCl5 increased, current escalates. For surface morphology, the grain size of TiO2 thin films becomes larger when doping concentrations were increased. It shows that the I-V characteristic depends on the grain size as the doping concentration of NbCl5 varies. The optimized thin film in this work is 0.4 mol% of NbCl5.
Detection and Identification of Ehrlichia spp. in Ticks Collected in Tunisia and Morocco

ABSTRACT A broad-range 16S rRNA gene PCR assay followed by partial sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene was used for the detection of members of the family Anaplasmataceae in ticks in North Africa. A total of 418 questing Ixodes ricinus ticks collected in Tunisia and Morocco, as well as 188 Rhipicephalus ticks from dogs and 52 Hyalomma ticks from bovines in Tunisia, were included in this study. Of 324 adult I. ricinus ticks, 16.3% were positive for Ehrlichia spp. , whereas only 3.4 and 2.8% of nymphs and larvae, respectively, were positive. A large heterogeneity was observed in the nucleotide sequences. Partial sequences identical to that of the agent of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE) were detected in I. ricinus and Hyalomma detritum, whereas partial sequences identical to that of Anaplasma platys were detected in Rhipicephalus sanguineus. However, variants of Anaplasma, provisionally designated Anaplasma-like, were predominant in the I. ricinus tick population in Maghreb. Otherwise, two variants of the genus Ehrlichia were detected in I. ricinus and H. detritum. Surprisingly, a variant of Wolbachia pipientis was evidenced from I. ricinus in Morocco. These results emphasized the potential risk of tick bites for human and animal populations in North Africa.
Evaluation of intima‐media thickness and vascular elasticity of the common carotid artery in patients with isolated systolic hypertension using ultrasound radiofrequency‐data technology

Background: Radiofrequency (RF) data technology is a newly developed method to evaluate vascular disease, especially subclinical atherosclerotic change. Data regarding predictors of intima‐media thickness (IMT) and vascular elasticity of the common carotid artery (CCA) in subjects with isolated systolic hypertension (ISH) using ultrasound RF‐data technology are scarce.
A new approach to the discretization of continuous-time controllers

A new method for discretising continuous-time controllers is derived, using principles of controller approximation (Anderson & Yi [1]). It focuses on the closed-loop use of the discrete-time controller. The resulting approximation criterion is a measure for stability of the control system, provides an upper bound on the sampling time for which stability can be guaranteed and because it is based on continuous-time controller approximation it indicates the cost of discretization in terms of performance degradation. The discrete-time controller is obtained through minimization of this criterion, which can be performed with standard software used in H¿ controller design.
Zur Verwendung und Übersetzung von Prädikatsausdrücken im Rahmen der Lexikongrammatik

In diesem Beitrag werden die Grundzuge der Lexikongrammatik vorgestellt und einige morphosyntaktische Typen von Pradikatsausdrucken (Operators) aus kontrastiver Sicht Franzosisch - Deutsch behandelt. Dabei werden prototypische Entsprechungen von formal unterschiedlichen Ausdrucken, Mehrfachverwendungen oder Polysemien sowie schlieslich Verbindungen von Operatoren mit den fur sie typischen Adverbialen untersucht, die morpho-syntaktische Varianten und zielsprachliche Entsprechungen in Form von Mehrwortausdrucken oder Komposita haben konnen. Der im Rahmen der Lexikongrammatik, fur den Sprachvergleich und fur die Ubersetzung zentrale Begriff der Verwendung von Pradikatsausdrucken wird anhand zahlreicher Beispiele erlautert.
Variability of the Accommodation Response in Early Onset Myopia

Purpose. Hyperopic retinal defocus (blur) is thought to be a cause of myopia. If the retinal image of an object is not clearly focused, the resulting blur is thought to cause the continuing lengthening of the eyeball during development causing a permanent refractive error. Both lag of accommodation, especially for near targets, and greater variability in the accommodative response, have been suggested as causes of increased hyperopic retinal blur. Previous studies of lag of accommodation show variable findings. In comparison, greater variability in the accommodative response has been demonstrated in adults with late onset myopia but has not been tested in children. This study looked at the lag and variability of accommodation in children with early onset myopia. Methods. Twenty-one myopic and 18 emmetropic children were tested. Dynamic measures of accommodation and pupil size were made using eccentric photorefraction (PowerRefractor) while children viewed targets set at three different accommodative demands (0.25, 2, and 4 D). Results. We found no difference in accommodative lag between groups. However, the accommodative response was more variable in the myopes than emmetropes when viewing both the near (4 D) and far (0.25 D) targets. Since pupil size and variability also varied, we analyzed the data to determine whether this could account for the inter-group differences in accommodation variability. Variation in these factors was not found to be sufficient to explain these differences. Changes in the accommodative response variability with target distance were similar to patterns reported previously in adult emmetropes and late onset myopes. Conclusions. Children with early onset myopia demonstrate greater accommodative variability than emmetropic children, and have similar patterns of response to adult late onset myopes. This increased variability could result in an increase in retinal blur for both near and far targets. The role of accommodative variability in the etiology of myopia is discussed.
Optimal distributed control with application to asymmetric vehicle platoons

This paper considers a distributed system of identical agents with arbitrary LTI models. A method for distributed state-feedback design is provided. The proposed solution consists of two steps: first a single-agent controller is derived and then, based on the network topology, the gain of this controller is adjusted. LQ optimality of this controller is proved provided that the Laplacian has only real eigenvalues and is non-defective. The result is subsequently used to design a controller for asymmetric vehicle platoon. We show that the same controller with a fixed gain is the optimal controller for any number of vehicles in the platoon. However, the performance of the optimal controller is still subject to inherent limitations given by the network topology. In some cases, even exponential scaling in the number of vehicles must occur for any controller.
Background estimation in nonlinear image restoration.

One of the essential ways in which nonlinear image restoration algorithms differ from linear, convolution-type image restoration filters is their capability to restrict the restoration result to nonnegative intensities. The iterative constrained Tikhonov-Miller (ICTM) algorithm, for example, incorporates the nonnegativity constraint by clipping all negative values to zero after each iteration. This constraint will be effective only when the restored intensities have near-zero values. Therefore the background estimation will have an influence on the effectiveness of the nonnegativity constraint of these algorithms. We investigated quantitatively the dependency of the performance of the ICTM, Carrington, and Richardson-Lucy algorithms on the estimation of the background and compared it with the performance of the linear Tikhonov-Miller restoration filter. We found that the performance depends critically on the background estimation: An underestimation of the background will make the nonnegativity constraint ineffective, which results in a performance that does not differ much from the Tikhonov-Miller filter performance. A (small) overestimation, however, degrades the performance dramatically, since it results in a clipping of object intensities. We propose a novel general method to estimate the background based on the dependency of nonlinear restoration algorithms on the background, and we demonstrate its applicability on real confocal images.
Effects of acetylcholine and catecholamines on the smooth muscle cell of the porcine coronary artery.

The effects of acetylcholine (ACh), noradrenaline (NA) and isoprenaline (Isop) on the membrane and mechanical properties of smooth muscle cells of the pig coronary artery were investigated by micro‐electrode, double sucrose gap and isometric tension recording methods. (1) The mean membrane potential was ‐51.4 mV and the membrane was electrically quiescent. Application of outward current pulse generated a graded response. The current‐voltage relationship was linear for application of inward current pulses. The length constant of the tissue was 0.67 mm and time constant of the membrane was 290 msec. The tissue possessed cable‐like properties. (2) ACh (10(‐10) to 10(‐5) g/ml. ) did not change the membrane potential and membrane resistance, but NA and Isop hyperpolarized the membrane and reduced the membrane resistance. These actions of catecholamines, presumably mediated by beta‐adrenergic receptors, were suppressed by propranolol but not phentolamine. (3) The minimum depolarization required to produce the contraction was 4 mV by excess extracellular K concentration and 6 mV by electrical displacement of the membrane potential. The amplitude of the contraction evoked by depolarization in excess K was consistently larger than that by the electrical displacement. The minimum concentration required to produce the contraction induced by ACh was 5 x 10(‐9) g/ml. NA and Isop consistently suppressed the contraction evoked by excess extracellular K or by ACh. (4) When the tissue was immersed in Ca‐free EGTA solution containing excess K or Ca‐free EGTA Krebs solution, the time taken for Ca depletion from the intracellular store site was longer with depolarized membranes than that with polarized membranes. ACh evoked contraction, even after the tissue had lost the ability to produce contraction by excess extracellular K in Ca‐free solution. (5) After the tissue had been immersed in Ca‐free solution containing excess K for more than 4 hr, or Ca‐free Krebs solution for more than 2 hr, application of Ca evoked the contraction. These effects of Ca were suppressed by application of catecholamines. The amplitudes of subsequent ACh‐induced contraction in Ca‐free excess K were not suppressed, while there was a suppression of the K‐induced contraction in Ca‐free Krebs solution. (6) It is concluded that the smooth muscle cell of the pig coronary artery possesses muscarinic and beta‐adrenergic receptors. The former mainly activates the mechanical response without affecting the surface membrane while the latter modifies both membrane and mechanical properties.
Upper limb motion capturing and classification for unsupervised stroke rehabilitation

In recent years, substantial amount of researches have been carried out on cost-effective remote/unsupervised stroke rehabilitation methods due to the increasing number of post-stroke hospitalisation and the healthcare expenditure associated. This leads to the need of a reliable remote monitoring scheme that can assists medical specialists in monitoring the condition of patients. The information required to provide this remote monitoring system include the general physiological signals and patient's movement during the exercise. This information can be recorded and analysed to assess the patient condition‥ Most of the conventional motion-capturing methods are visual based where large and expensive equipments are required and the tracking is generally limited in a certain area by the vision of the optical sensor. The non-visual based methods using inertial sensor suffer from drifting problem even when high-precision accelerometers and gyroscopes are used. This paper provides an alternative solution for patient's motion capturing using a low-cost non-visual based wireless sensor tracking system. Each sensor node only contains a 3-axis accelerometer and a microcontroller embedded communication module. Unlike the conventional systems, the output of the sensor, which is a mixture of change in acceleration and gravity influence, is directly used without extracting the precise acceleration and rotation information. Although the output from the sensors does not provide a direct image of the patient's movement, the waveform is still unique for all different types of motion and since the rehabilitation exercises are generally repetitive and pre-defined, the patient's movement can be classified by comparing the sensors' output to a series of templates. A series of experiments involving multiple subjects have been conducted and 200 movement samples were recorded and used to obtain templates, train classifier, and test system performance. K-Nearest Neighbor algorithm has been adopted in the experiment and the validation test has shown a promising result of a 97.22% overall classification accuracy from 36 independent testing inputs.
CD38 and CD157 as Receptors of the Immune System: A Bridge Between Innate and Adaptive Immunity

This paper reviews some of the results and the speculations presented at the Torino CD38 Meeting in June, 2006 and focused on CD38 and CD157 seen as a family of molecules acting as surface receptors of immune cells. This partisan view was adopted in the attempt to combine the enzymatic functions with what the immunologists consider key functions in different cell models. At the moment, it is unclear whether the two functions are correlated, indifferent, or independent. Here we present conclusions inferred exclusively on human cell models, namely T and B lymphocytes, dendritic cells, and granulocytes. As an extra analytical tool, we try to follow in the history of life when the enzymatic and receptorial functions were generated, mixing ontogeny, membrane localization, and cell anchorage.
Genes and hepatitis C: susceptibility, fibrosis progression and response to treatment

Hepatitis C virus contact and infection show three different phenotypes: spontaneous viral clearance (SVC), chronic hepatitis C (CHC) and sustained virological response (SVR) following antiviral treatment. Many factors, including genetics, influence the evolution of these three phenotypes. We performed a literature search (PubMed) up to 31 January 2010 without language restriction to identify relevant studies on genes and hepatitis C. Additional studies were sought by reviewing the reference lists of the identified articles. Meta‐analysis (using Meta‐disk 1.4) was conducted to evaluate the association of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the IL28B region and SVR. The candidate gene approach showed strong relationships between human leucocyte antigen class II (DQB1*0301 and DRB1*1101) and SVC. A cirrhosis risk score involving 7 SNPs has been validated recently. The set of odds ratios of studies demonstrated an association between SNP (rs12987960/rs8099917) in the IL28B and SVR in CHC treated with peginterferon plus ribavirin (OR: 4.6; 95% CI: 2.9–7.3). The overall distribution of protective allele correlated with ethnic differences in SVR (Asians, Europeans, Hispanic and Afro‐Americans) together with SVC, but not with fibrosis stage or viral load. These polymorphisms did not influence SVR in very‐easy‐to‐treat patients such as genotype 2/3, rapid virological responders or patients with acute hepatitis C. While the genetic fingerprint for fibrosis progression remains elusive, IL28b polymorphism predicts SVC and SVR. However, nearly half of patients achieving SVR did not show favourable genotype. Further genetic signals are warranted to complete the puzzle of factors influencing hepatitis C.