Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pathogenesis and pharmacological strategies for mitigating secondary damage in acute spinal cord injury.

OBJECTIVE Experimental models and clinical observations of acute spinal cord injury (SCI) support the concepts of primary and secondary injury, in which the initial mechanical insult is succeeded by a series of deleterious events that promote progressive tissue damage and ischemia. Whereas the primary injury is fated by the circumstances of the trauma, the outcome of the secondary injury may be amenable to therapeutic modulation. This article reviews the pathogenetic determinants of these two phases of injury and summarizes the pharmacological manipulations that may restore neurological function after SCI. METHODS Experimental models of SCI and their inherent limitations in simulating human SCI are surveyed. The pathogenesis of primary and secondary injury, as well as the theoretical bases of neurological recovery, are examined in detail. The effects of glucocorticoids, lazeroids, gangliosides, opiate antagonists, calcium channel blockers, glutamate receptor antagonists, antioxidants, free radical scavengers, and other pharmacological agents in both animal models and human trials are summarized. Practical limitations to inducing neural regeneration are also addressed. RESULTS The molecular events that mediate the pathogenesis of SCI are logical targets for pharmacological manipulation and include glutamate accumulation, aberrant calcium fluxes, free radical formation, lipid peroxidation, and generation of arachidonic acid metabolites. Enhancement of neural regeneration and plasticity comprise other possible strategies. CONCLUSION Pharmacological agents must be given within a narrow window of opportunity to be effective. Although many therapeutic agents show potential promise in animal models, only methylprednisolone has been shown in large, randomized, double-blinded human studies to enhance the functional recovery of neural elements after acute SCI. Future therapy is likely to involve various combinations of these agents.
Enhancement of Weak Lidar Signal Based on Variable Frequency Resolution EMD

A new high-resolution approach is presented for noise reduction in lidar signals using variable frequency resolution empirical mode decomposition. Avalanche photo diode (APD) output single-channel low signal-noise ratio (SNR) real data are decomposed into multi-scale components and reconstructed with less noise. The key is to have a fine scale signal in each component. Based on the non-symmetric signal and the symmetric noise on the timeline in APD data, the proposed approach is highly effective in distinguishing between signal and noise by choosing an appropriate frequency resolution, compared with the conventional multiscale method. Real examples are examined with real data, signal separation is obtained in the components, and the -22.4 dB low SNR has been enhanced by the component product.
New Ecology and the Social Sciences: What Prospects for a Fruitful Engagement?

▪ Abstract This review asks the question: What new avenues of social science enquiry are suggested by new ecological thinking, with its focus on nonequilibrium dynamics, spatial and temporal variation, complexity, and uncertainty? Following a review of the emergence of the “new ecology” and the highlighting of contrasts with earlier “balance of nature” perspectives, work emerging from ecological anthropology, political ecology, environmental and ecological economics, and debates about nature and culture are examined. With some important exceptions, much social science work and associated popular and policy debates remain firmly wedded to a static and equilibrial view. This review turns to three areas where a more dynamic perspective has emerged. Each has the potential to take central elements of new ecological thinking seriously, sometimes with major practical consequences for planning, intervention design, and management. First is the concern with spatial and temporal dynamics developed in detailed and s.
Optimum Transparent Absorbers of Electromagnetic Waves

Electromagnetic wave absorbers consisting of thin transparent sheets of conducting medium are studied in this paper. In particular, a result known since the 1930 s that, for plane waves normally incident on a conducting sheet, the maximum achievable absorption is one half of the incident power is proved and generalized to multiple layers. The case of arbitrary incidence angle and polarization is discussed and illustrated with examples, and the resistance providing maximum absorption when the angle of incidence and polarization is arbitrary is derived. We also consider an absorber consisting of two resistive sheets and optimize its resistances to yield the best possible absorption for normal incidence, such that the total absorption at all frequencies is ges 0.5. Finally, conditions for an optimal absorber for a spherical sheet surrounding a dipole antenna are derived.
Message Queuing Telemetry Transport

Internet of things refers to uniquely identifiable objects and the representation of these physical objects in a virtual form in an Internet like structure. The numberof things that get added to the network are increasing day by day. These connected devices are bound to reach 50 billion by 2020. MQTT or Message Queue Telemetry Transport is an Internet Of Things protocol for machine to machine communication. The protocol was invented by Andy Stanford-Clark of IBM, and Arlen Nipper of Cirrus Link Solution. MQTT is a Client Server publish/subscribe messaging transport protocol. It is light weight, open, simple, and designed so as to be easy to implement. This paper is designed to introduce the fundamental information about MQTT protocol. It represents an overview of MQTT from starting history till the present development. KeywordsMQTT, IoT, publish/subscribe; MQTTSN. Introduction: MQTT is a Client Server publish/subscribe messaging transport protocol. It is light weight, open, simple, and designed so as to be easy to implement. These characteristics make it ideal for use in many situations, including constrained environments such as for communication in Machine to Machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) contexts where a small code footprint is required and/or network bandwidth is at a premium. The protocol runs over TCP/IP, or over other network protocols that provide ordered, lossless, bi-directional connections. As per MQTT V3.1 Protocol Specification,“MQ Telemetry Transport (MQTT) is a lightweight broker-based publish/subscribe messaging protocol designed to be open, simple, lightweight and easy to implement. ” MQTT runs over TCP/IP. It enables transfer of telemetry style data which is nothing but sensor and actuator data. The sensors and actuators communicate with applications through MQTT message broker. It is useful for connections with remote locations where a small code footprint is required and/or network bandwidth is at a premium. For example: Usage in health clinics where doctors can remotely monitor patients at their home.
Capteur intégré tactile d'empreintes digitales à microstructures piezorésistives. (Fingerprint sensor using piezoresistive microstructures)

A l'heure de l'explosion des reseaux informatiques, le besoin d'identifier les personnes a distance devient de plus en plus necessaire pour effectuer diverses operations comme les controles d'acces ou les paiements securises. Jusqu'a present, la saisie d'un code alphanumerique reste la solution la plus utilisee. Cette solution, bien qu'ayant le merite d'etre tres simple, a le desavantage de ne pas certifier que l'individu qui entre le code est bien celui qu'il pretend etre. Une autre possibilite qui s'offre a nous, est d'utiliser la biometrie en identifiant directement les traits corporels de l'utilisateur. Le caractere physique le plus simple a utiliser est sans contestation l'empreinte digitale utilisee depuis plus d'un siecle par la police. L'extraction des points de bifurcation ou d'arret des courbes formant l'empreinte (les minuties) permet de creer une signature propre a chaque individu, garantissant ainsi avec une probabilite proche de l'unite l'identite de celui-ci. Il est possible de classifier les capteurs d'empreintes digitales selon leur mode de fonctionnement (capteurs optiques, thermiques ou mecaniques) et selon leur geometrie (capteurs en matrice ou en ligne). Jusqu'a present, les capteurs matriciels sont les plus utilises mais il sont chers du fait de la grande surface de silicium utilisee. Nous proposons de realiser un capteur d'empreintes digitales compose d'une unique rangee de microstructures (en fait trois rangees dans le cas des prototypes presentes dans ce memoire) afin de minimiser la taille de la puce et par consequent son prix. Afin d'obtenir l'image de l'integralite de l'empreinte, l'utilisateur passe son doigt a la surface du capteur suivant un mouvement de translation. Durant le passage du doigt, les reliefs de ce dernier induisent des contraintes au sein des microstructures et donc une variation de resistance electrique au niveau des jauges piezoresistives. Cette variation de resistance electrique est alors amplifiee, filtree et numerisee (sur 8 bits soit 256 niveaux de gris) en utilisant l'electronique integree au sein du capteur.
Overproduction in Escherichia coli and Characterization of Yeast Replication Factor C Lacking the Ligase Homology Domain*

Eukaryotic replication factor C (RF-C) is a heteropentameric complex that is required to load the replication clamp proliferating cell nuclear antigen onto primed DNA. Saccharomyces cerevisiae RF-C is encoded by the genes RFC1–RFC5. The RFC1 gene was cloned under control of the strong inducible bacteriophage T7 promoter, yet induction did not yield detectable Rfc1p. However, a truncated form of RFC1 deleted for the coding region for amino acids 3–273, rfc1-ΔN, did allow overproduction. The other four RFC genes were cloned into the latter plasmid to yield a single plasmid that overproduced RF-C to moderate levels. Overproduction of the complex was further enhanced when the Escherichia coli argU gene encoding the rare arginine tRNA was also overproduced. The enzyme thus produced in E. coli was purified to homogeneity through three column steps, including a proliferating cell nuclear antigen affinity column. This enzyme, as well as the enzyme purified from yeast, is prone to aggregation and inactivation, and therefore, light scattering was used to determine conditions stabilizing the enzyme and preventing aggregation. Broad-range carrier ampholytes at about 0.05% were found to be most effective. In some assays, the Rfc1-ΔN containing RF-C from E. coli showed an increased activity compared with the full-length enzyme from yeast, likely because the latter enzyme exhibits significant nonspecific binding to single-stranded DNA. Replacement of RFC1 byrfc1-ΔN in yeast shows essentially no phenotype with regard to DNA replication, damage susceptibility, telomere length maintenance, and intrachromosomal recombination.
Performance of undergraduate dental students on ICDAS clinical caries detection after different learning strategies.

AIM This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a digital learning tool on undergraduate dental students' performance in detecting dental caries using ICDAS. METHODS An experimental digital learning tool (DLT) was created using digital photographs of sound and carious teeth. Thirty-nine students were divided into three groups (n = 13) and each assessed 12 randomly allocated patients before and after learning strategies: G1, ICDAS e-learning program; G2, ICDAS e-learning program plus DLT; G3, no learning strategy. Students (n = 32) reassessed patients 2 weeks after training. RESULTS Comparing before and after the learning strategies, any difference in the values of specificity and area under the ROC curve for all groups was found. Sensitivity was statistically significantly higher for G1 and G2. Comparing the groups, G2 showed a significant increase in sensitivity at the D2 and D3 thresholds. Spearman's correlations with the gold standard before and after the learning strategy were 0.60 and 0.61 for G1, 0.57 and 0.63 for G2, and 0.54 and 0.54 for G3, respectively. The Wilcoxon test showed a statistically significant difference between the values obtained before and after learning strategies for G1 and G2. CONCLUSIONS Use of the DLT after the ICDAS e-learning program tended to increase the sensitivity of ICDAS used by undergraduate dental students. The DLT appeared to improve dental students' ability to use ICDAS.
Acceptance of altering the standard 21-day/7-day oral contraceptive regimen to delay menses and reduce hormone withdrawal symptoms.

OBJECTIVE Measure acceptance and use of extending the number of active oral contraceptive (OC) pills beyond 21 days and/or shortening the hormone-free interval to reduce the frequency and severity of hormone withdrawal symptoms. STUDY DESIGN A retrospective review was performed of patients on OCs with unwanted hormone withdrawal symptoms who were counseled by one osbtetrician-gynecologist (P. J. S.) on altering their standard 21/7 regimen. All patients used a monophasic 30 to 35 microg pill and underwent an initial counseling visit between December 1993 and October 2000. RESULTS Of 318 patients counseled on "extending the number of active pills," 292 (92%) had documented follow-up after the initial counseling session. The primary reason for extending the number of active pills was to decrease symptoms of headache (35%), dysmenorrhea (21%), hypermenorrhea (19%), and premenstrual symptoms (13%). The remaining 12% of patients cited convenience, endometriosis, and other reasons such as menstrual-associated acne. Twenty-five (9%) of 292 chose not to extend, with a preference for monthly menses as the most common reason (40%) followed by a concern that symptoms were not severe enough to warrant extension (32%). Of 267 patients who initiated an extended regimen, 57 discontinued OCs, 38 returned to a standard regimen, and 172 were extending use at the time of last follow-up. Using survival analysis methods, at 5 years 46% +/- 5% (mean +/- SE) of patients continued an extended OC pattern. The regimen of OC use by patients continuing an extended pattern was 12 +/- 12 (mean +/- SD) weeks of active pills (median of 9 weeks and range to 104 weeks) with pill-free interval of 6 +/- 2 days (median of 5 days and range of 0-7 days). CONCLUSION The majority of patients with hormone withdrawal symptoms on OCs will initiate a regimen of extending active pills, often with a shortened hormone-free interval to reduce frequency and severity of associated symptoms.
Multi-period allocation of ambulances to casualty cluster in a disaster relief operation with uncertain demand

Casualty relief in a disaster is one of the most important issues in emergency management. After the occurrence of a natural disaster, such as earthquakes, it is difficult to determine the precise casualty number due to lack of useful and effective information. In order to describe the uncertainty feature of the casualty, Scenario Analyze Method (SAM) is adopted, and multi-period robust optimization model on ambulances allocation (MROAA) are given based on multiple scenarios. Solution procedure for MROAA is presented also, which solves problem in two phases consisting of a sequence of knapsack problems and a shortest path procedure, respectively. A preprocessing rule which drastically reduces computation time of the algorithm is also introduced. Finally, results of the proposed model and algorithm are illustrated via a hypothetical earthquake case study.
Administration of gadopentetate dimeglumine in MR imaging of intracranial tumors: dosage and field strength.

PURPOSE To investigate the efficacy of 0.025, 0.05 and 0.1 mmol/kg gadopentetate dimeglumine in MR imaging of patients with intracranial tumors at mid and high field strength. METHODS In 88 patients, an open-label phase III multicenter dose-finding study was performed at 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 T MR units. Before and after (5, 15, 25 minutes) intravenous administration of gadopentetate dimeglumine, imaging was performed with T1-weighted spin-echo sequences. RESULTS With 0.1 mmol/kg yielding the highest values, tumor enhancement and numerical tumor/brain contrast showed dose-dependent 5-minute postcontrast values (P less than 0.05). Compared to 5-minute postcontrast values, there was no significant change at 15 and 25 minutes. Although the lowest values of enhancement were found at 0.5 T, differences in enhancement among the field strengths were not statistically significant. The numerical data were confirmed by visual assessment of tumor/brain contrast. Eighty to 90% of cases had diagnostically valuable enhancement at 0.1 mmol/kg, 50% at 0.05 mmol/kg, and 10% at 0.025 mmol/kg (P less than 0.05). There were no adverse events. CONCLUSION Our results confirm that 0.1 mmol/kg gadopentetate dimeglumine is more effective at enhancing intracranial tumors than lower doses at mid and high field MR units.
Some aspects of plant mitochondria

The presence of a large central vacuole in plant cells has greatly hindered histochemical and biochemical investigations, because, when a homogenate is prepared, the vacuolar sap, which frequently includes large quantities of the substrate and product of an enzyme reaction and in certain cases enzyme inhibitors, becomes intimately mixed with the somewhat limited amount of protoplasm present. Bentley (1952), for instance, has shown that malonic acid is widely distributed in plants; fluoroacetic acid occurs in Dichapetalum cymosum (Marais 1944), and transaconitic acid may be present in certain members of the Ranunculaceae. Though these facts pose interesting problems in the permeability relations of cell components, they greatly complicate the analysis of homogenates. Dialysis provides one method of isolating active enzyme material from the homogenate, but the concomitant loss of cofactors has limited its application. A partial solution to the problem has been obtained by isolating particulate material by differential centrifugation. This method has made possible investigations of metabolism not amenable to study by the classical methods of enzymology and simultaneously has provided an approach to the study of the spatial relations of enzymes. The pioneer work was performed by Hill & Bhagvat (1939), who demonstrated the association of cytochrome oxidase with particulate material. Several workers (Meeuse 1950; Bhagvat & Hill 1951; Stafford 1951) have demonstrated the association of succinoxidase with particulate material isolated from homogenates prepared in dilute phosphate buffer, but cytochrome c was necessary for activity. Meeuse (1950) also found that malic oxidase was associated with particulate material, but DPN and cytochrome c were required for activity. Millerd, Bonner, Axelrod & Bandurski (1951), Stafford (1953), Price & Thimann (1953) and Davies (1953) have isolated particulate material from seedlings which was active in the oxidation of Krebs-cycle intermediates. Millerd et al. (1951) were also able to demonstrate that phosphorylation accompanied the oxidation of Krebs-cycle intermediates.
Acetylcholine‐induced current fluctuations and fast excitatory post‐synaptic currents in rabbit sympathetic neurones.

Post‐synaptic currents and responses to ionophoretically applied acetylcholine (ACh) were recorded at 34‐37 degrees C from rabbit superior cervical ganglion neurones clamped at ‐80 mV membrane potential. Atropine (1 microM) was used to block muscarinic receptors. The fast excitatory post‐synaptic current (e.p.s.c.) reversed at ‐9.6 +/‐ 1.7 mV and decayed with a single exponential time course. The e.p.s.c. decay time constant, tau d, was 4.5 +/‐ 0.3 msec and increased as the membrane was hyperpolarized (e‐fold increase in tau d corresponded to 140 mV hyperpolarization). Miniature e.p.s.c.s. (m.e.p.s.c.s) decayed with time constants similar to those of the e.p.s.c. The decay of the e.p.s.c. was slowed by lowering temperature but remained a single exponential; the changes of tau d with temperature followed the Arrhenius equation (Q10 = 3.7). In most of the neurones studied the analysis of ACh noise spectra revealed two kinetic components with mean time constants tau N1 = 1.1 +/‐ 0.1 msec and tau N2 = 5.0 +/‐ 0.5 msec. In a few neurones only the tau N1 component was found. Similar two‐component ACh noise spectra were observed in the neurones not treated with atropine. tau N1 and tau N2 components revealed temperature dependences similar to each other and close to that of tau d. The values of tau N1 and tau N2 and the ratio between the contributions of the tau N1 and tau N2 components to the ACh noise spectrum did not depend on the dose of ACh. The single channel conductance is 36 +/‐ 3 pS. A single ACh quantum opens about 150 ionic channels and the e.p.s.c. consists of 4‐243 quanta. It is suggested that in mammalian sympathetic ganglion neurones there are two types of nicotinic ACh receptor channels, with short and long lifetimes, and that the kinetics of e.p.s.c. and m.e.p.s.c. are determined by the activity of the longer lifetime channel type.
Similarities and sensitivity: Immune and ant algorithms applied towards robotics

Over the last five and a half decades, the focus of mainstream artificial intelligence was on creating computers and algorithms that display some human cognitive abilities. Over time, bio-inspired artificial intelligence has shown great success. The ideas of bio-inspired artificial intelligence are taken from biological systems and applied to solve artificial intelligence problems. The future robots and computational devices will have diverse artificial systems including immune systems. The current paper studies the similarities between Ant-based algorithms and Artificial Immune Systems and their further steps in the development of robots. We study the sensitive approaches and several related robotic applications solved by means of both presented algorithms.
Relationship Between Plasma and Oral Fluid Nicotine Concentrations in Humans: A Pilot Study

The relationship between plasma and oral fluid concentrations of nicotine after infusion at varying times was investigated. Five healthy human volunteers were administered 0, 0.75, and 1.5 mg nicotine as 0.5-, 1.0-, 2.5-, and 5-minute infusions. Blood and oral fluid were collected before drug administration and for 4 hours thereafter. Nicotine concentrations were determined by HPLC using a limit of quantification of 1 ng/mL. Plasma nicotine concentrations were dose related. Peak plasma concentrations (mean ± SD) at the 4 infusion times were 14.1 ± 5.5, 11.8 ± 5.3, 12.8 ± 1.9, and 11.5 ± 4.0 ng/mL (N = 5) after the 0.75-mg dose and 26.3 ± 11.7, 19.3 ± 12.8, 24.54 ± 10.4, and 19.02 ± 6.5 ng/mL after the 1.5-mg dose. In general, the highest peak concentration occurred at the shortest infusion time at each dose. Peak nicotine oral fluid concentrations (mean ± SD) at the 4 infusion times of 22.4 ± 29.1, 22.64 ± 29.9, 19.1 ± 13.5, and 49.1 ± 31.7 ng/mL (n = 5) after the low dose and 35.8 ± 21.1, 26.0 ± 7.7, 33.3 ± 28.8, and 104.0 ± 68.9 ng/mL, after the 1.5 mg dose. The highest oral fluid concentration of nicotine occurred at the longest infusion time at each dose. Oral fluid/plasma were >1 for up to 60 minutes after the low dose and 120 minutes after the high dose. There was no correlation between plasma and oral fluid nicotine concentrations.