Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lifetimes and substrate currents in static and dynamic hot-carrier degradation

Device lifetimes are correlated with substrate currents for n-MOSFETs after static and dynamic stress. Good agreement between a simple theory and the experimental results is found in both static and dynamic cases. However, the damage is larger for dynamic than for static stress which requires a modification of duty cycle calculations. The results are explained by a model in which chargaable traps in the oxide close to the interface are important. These can modify the injection of holes into the oxide depending on stress time structure and potential conditions.
TREM-2 Mediated Signaling Induces Antigen Uptake and Retention in Mature Myeloid Dendritic Cells1

Myeloid dendritic cells (mDC) activated with a B7-DC-specific cross-linking IgM Ab (B7-DC XAb) take up and retain Ag and interact with T cell compartments to affect a number of biologic changes that together cause strong antitumor responses and blockade of inflammatory airway disease in animal models. The molecular events mediating the initial responses in mDC remain unclear. In this study we show that B7-DC XAb caused rapid phosphorylation of the adaptor protein DAP12 and intracellular kinases Syk and phospholipase C-γ1. Pretreatment of mDC with the Syk inhibitor piceatannol blocked B7-DC XAb-induced Ag uptake with a concomitant loss of tumor protection in mice. Vaccination with tumor lysate-pulsed wild-type B7-DC XAb-activated mDC, but not TREM-2 knockout XAb-activated mDC, protected mice from lethal melanoma challenge. Multimolecular caps appeared within minutes of B7-DC XAb binding to either human or mouse mDC, and FRET analysis showed that class II, CD80, CD86, and TREM-2 are recruited in tight association on the cell surface. When TREM-2 expression was reduced in wild-type mDC using short hairpin RNA or by using mDC from TREM-2 knockout mice, in vitro DC failed to take up Ag after B7-DC XAb stimulation. These results directly link TREM-2 signaling with one change in the mDC phenotype that occurs in response to this unique Ab. The parallel signaling events observed in both human and mouse mDC support the hypothesis that B7-DC cross-linking may be useful as a therapeutic immune modulator in human patients.
Frequent loss of Shiga-like toxin genes in clinical isolates of Escherichia coli upon subcultivation

Forty-five consecutive patients with various gastrointestinal disorders were identified as having Shiga-like toxin (SLT)-producing Escherichia coli infections. This was shown by the cytotoxic effect of stool extracts in Vero cell cultures which was neutralizable by antibodies to SLTs and by isolation of E. coli that hybridized with DNA probes complementary to SLT-I and SLT-II sequences. When we tested the same strains for SLT genes after subcultivation, the isolates from 15 patients became negative by colony hybridization and polymerase chain reaction and failed to produce SLTs. The instability of SLT genes warrants direct screening methods for clinical material and the development of new culture methods to prevent the loss of SLT genes.
Temperature-related voltage generating circuit using MOS in strong inversion

System-on-Chip (SoC) integrated circuits frequently embed voltage references and temperature sensors. In view of the spread of battery-supplied products, there is a growing demand for low-power and low-voltage circuit solutions to implement these blocks. This paper describes the development of one such circuit structure that employs an alternative technique to generate reference and PTAT voltage signals based on a suitable arrangement of MOS transistors operating in strong inversion. Low-voltage prototypes were produced on the conventional process CMOS AMS 0.35um to provide the experimental results presented in this work. These results include the generation of a voltage reference signal with thermal coefficient lower than 10ppm/°C, from −40°C to 120°C, under a 1V power supply.
Micronized progesterone reduces vasoconstriction in the placenta*

Abstract Objective: To investigate if micronized progesterone (P4) has the ability to attenuate thromboxane mimetic U46619-mediated fetoplacental artery vasoconstriction. Methods: Paired cotyledons obtained from the same placenta of five-term subjects were analyzed. The fetal artery and maternal intervillous space of one cotyledon was infused with P4 while another cotyledon was infused with control perfusate. After 30 min, a bolus dose of U44619 was administered to both cotyledons. Results: The change in the measured fetoplacental vascular pressure caused by bolus administration of U46619 was less in the cotyledons infused with P4 (p = 0.009). Conclusion: Continuous treatment with P4 significantly attenuates the U46619-mediated fetoplacental vasoconstriction.
Caenorhabditis elegans proteomics comes of age

Caenorhabditis elegans, a free‐living soil nematode, is an ideal model system for studying various physiological problems relevant to human diseases. Despite its short history, C. elegans proteomics is receiving great attention in multiple research areas, including the genome annotation, major signaling pathways (e.g. TGF‐β and insulin/IGF‐1 signaling), verification of RNA interference‐mediated gene targeting, aging, disease models, as well as peptidomic analysis of neuropeptides involved in behavior and locomotion. For example, a proteome‐wide profiling of developmental and aging processes not only provides basic information necessary for constructing a molecular network, but also identifies important target proteins for chemical modulation. Although C. elegans has a simple body system and neural circuitry, it exhibits very complicated functions ranging from feeding to locomotion. Investigation of these functions through proteomic analysis of various C. elegans neuropeptides, some of which are not found in the predicted genome sequence, would open a new field of peptidomics. Given the importance of nematode infection in plants and mammalian pathogenesis pathways, proteomics could be applied to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying plant– or animal–nematode pathogenesis and to identify novel antinematodal drugs. Thus, C. elegans proteomics, in combination of other molecular, biological and genetic techniques, would provide a versatile new tool box for the systematic analysis of gene functions throughout the entire life cycle of this nematode.
Effects of Type I Protein Kinase A Modulation on the T Cell Distal Pole Complex

The distal pole complex (DPC) assembles signalling proteins at the T cell pole opposite the immunological synapse (IS) and is thought to facilitate T cell activation by sequestering negative regulatory molecules away from the T cell receptor‐proximal signalling machinery. Here, we report the translocation of type I protein kinase A (PKA) to the DPC in a fraction of T cells following activation and the localization of type I PKA with known components of the DPC. We propose that sequestration of type I PKA and concomitant loss of cAMP‐mediated negative regulation at the IS may be necessary to allow full T cell activation. Moreover, composition of the DPC appears to be modulated by type I PKA activity, as the antagonist Rp‐8‐Br‐cAMPS inhibited translocation of type I PKA and other DPC proteins.
A Usability Study on How Non-technical Students Interact with a Free-text Computer Assisted Assessment System

Willow is a free-text Computer Assisted Assessment system, which can automatically assess students' short written answers in Spanish or in English. Willow is based on the combination of techniques from Natural Language Processing and User Modelling to generate students’ conceptual models (i.e. a set of interconnected concepts of a certain area-of-knowledge associated with an estimated value that indicates how well each concept has been assimilated by the student) from the students’ free-text answers. In the past, the system was used by a group of students of an Operating Systems course within an Informatics degree. The results of that study suggested that the system was useful for these students. Nevertheless, our hypothesis was that the procedure implemented in Willow is also suitable for non-technical domains and, that students without computer training are able to use Willow without any technical difficulty. Therefore, we asked a group of voluntary students of a Pragmatics course within an English Studies program to use the system. The results achieved support our hypothesis that Willow can successfully be applied to a nontechnical domain, and it can be used by non-technical students.
Plasma Concentrations of Mycophenolic Acid Acyl Glucuronide Are Not Associated with Diarrhea in Renal Transplant Recipients

The aim of this study was to determine whether plasma concentrations of the acyl (AcMPAG) and phenolic (MPAG) glucuronide metabolites of mycophenolic acid (MPA) were related to diarrhoea in renal transplant patients on mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) with cyclosporine (CsA) or tacrolimus (TCL). Blood samples (0, 30, 120 min) were taken at days 3, 10, week 4, months 3, 6 and 12 for determination of MPA, MPAG and AcMPAG. MPA‐AUC was estimated using validated algorithms. Two hour AUCs were calculated for MPAG and AcMPAG. Immunosuppressive therapy consisted of CsA/MMF (n= 110) and of TCL/MMF (n= 180). In 70/290 (24%) patients 86 episodes of diarrhoea were recorded during 12 months. Significantly more patients on TCL (31.1%) suffered from diarrhea compared to CsA (12.7%). MMF dose, MPA‐AUC and the 2 h AUCs of MPAG and AcMPAG did not differ between patients with and without diarrhoea. Plasma AcMPAG and MPAG concentrations were substantially higher in patients on CsA compared with TCL, while MPA‐AUC was lower in the former group. These data support the concept that CsA inhibits the biliary excretion of MPAG and AcMPAG, thereby potentially reducing the risk of intestinal injury through enterohepatic recycling of MPA and its metabolites.
Pathophysiology of severe forms of falciparum malaria

We studied 26 patients with severe falciparum malaria who were admitted to an ICU in Namibia. The pathophysiologic effects on various organ systems are documented and the mortality associated with organ failure is reported. Patients with three or more organ failures showed a high mortality, especially when pulmonary or renal failure occurred. Predicted mortality based on the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II scoring system was 34% compared to an actual mortality of 38%.
Human papillomavirus vaccine and Pap tests on college campuses: How do historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) measure up?

ABSTRACT Objective: The availability of cervical cancer prevention services at college health centers was compared between historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and non-HBCUs. Methods: Four-year, non–primarily distant learning colleges, matching HBCUs with randomly selected non-HBCUs within the same states (N = 136) were examined. Data were collected (2014–2015 academic year) on the availability of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine and Pap tests at college health centers. HBCUs were compared with non-HBCUs using conditional logistic regression, and correlates of offering these services were identified. Results: Many institutions did not offer HPV vaccine or Pap tests. Fewer HBCUs offered HPV vaccine (18% vs 53%) and Pap tests (50% vs 76%) compared with non-HBCUs. In multivariable analyses, HBCUs remained less likely than non-HBCUs to offer HPV vaccine (odds ratio [OR] = 0.07, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.02–0.26) and Pap tests (OR = 0.19, 95% CI: 0.06–0.61). Conclusions: Greater effort is needed to make cervical cancer prevention services available at colleges, especially at HBCUs.
Planar Hall effect in magnetite (100) films

Giant planar Hall effect (GPHE) has been observed in epitaxial magnetite (100) films grown on MgO substrates. The effect is manifested as jumps in the transverse resistivity when the film is subjected to a swept, in-plane magnetic field. The jumps are two orders of magnitude higher than previously observed in metallic ferromagnets. Recently, the same effect has been reported for other materials, but unlike our results, they present GPHE at low temperature only. The magnitude of the GPHE observed at room temperature has potential applications such as magnetic sensors and nonvolatile memory elements.
Lifetime Enhancement by Cluster Head Evolutionary Energy Efficient Routing Model for WSN

This paper proposes a new model to efficiently control cluster-heads using heterogeneous sensors in real-time. It also proposes a generic software framework to feasibly and efficiently meet the needs of the users and applications (e.g., reliability, energy efficiency). The proposed model and its method have been implemented and evaluated in Matlab, comparing its performance with known protocols for WSNs. The proposed model is suitable for common use because it is superior to other methods by energy efficiency.
Optical spectroscopy of candidate Alpha Persei white dwarfs

As part of an investigation into the high-mass end of the initial mass–final mass relation we performedasearchfornewwhitedwarfmembersofthenearby(172.4pc),young(80–90Myr) α Persei open star cluster. The photometric and astrometric search using the United Kingdom InfraRed Telescope (UKIRT) Infrared Deep Sky Survey and SuperCOSMOS sky surveys discovered 14 new white dwarf candidates. We have obtained medium resolution optical spectra of the brightest 11 candidates using the William Herschel Telescope and confirmed that while 7 are DA white dwarfs, 3 are DB white dwarfs and 1 is an sdOB star, only three have cooling ages within the cluster age, and from their position on the initial mass–final mass relation, it is likely none are cluster members. This result is disappointing, as recent work on the cluster mass function suggests that there should be at least one white dwarf member, even at this young age. It may be that any white dwarf members of α Per are hidden within binary systems, as is the case in the Hyades cluster, however the lack of high-mass stars within the cluster also makes this seem unlikely. One alternative is that a significant level of detection incompleteness in the legacy optical image survey data at this Galactic latitude has caused some white dwarf members to be overlooked. If this is the case, Gaia will find them.
An infrastructure to support the development of collaborative project-based learning environments

The area of CSCL is short of toolkits to support the construction of educational environments, since the developer of applications knows neither the education domain, nor the collaborative strategies applied to the teaching-learning process. The teacher needs a flexible environment supported by computing technology, and where he can configure different collaborative projects. The authors present a conceptual and computational infrastructure for the domain of collaborative learning based on development of projects, whose first stage was the definition of a collaboration model in the format of conceptual patterns. The requirements and the conceptual patterns gave support for the development of this infrastructure, composed by a collaborative environment, a tool framework, a database of projects, and a library of references.
Flicker-free low-light video enhancement using patch-similarity and adaptive accumulation

Recently, the various low-light enhancement methods have been proposed for consumer electronic devices. Although the existing methods provide the better brightness enhancement results, these methods generate the flicker effects during the video enhancement process. Flicker effects are caused by ignoring the correlation information between adjacent frames (i.e. inter-frames). To minimize the flicker effects, the proposed method uses the patch-similarity and adaptive accumulation in the inter-frames domain, and it makes the mean brightness values of enhanced video frames be preserved. The experimental results show that the proposed method can better improve the video frames without flicker effects than existing enhancement methods, and it can be applied to the image signal processing (ISP) chain for consumer electronic devices.
Ankle sprains: patient perceptions of function and performance of physical tasks. A mixed methods approach

Purpose. To investigate patient's perceptions of function and performance of physical tasks after discharge from treatment for an ankle sprain. Methods. Using a mixed methods approach, 40 participants who presented with an acute sprained ankle and their treating clinicians completed two questionnaires related to function at the start and end of a rehabilitation programme. Additionally, participants completed the questionnaires at 6 weeks following discharge at which time they also performed physical tasks that were still perceived as difficult. Ten participants also completed a semi-structured interview. Results. There were no significant differences (p > 0.05) in the participant's and clinician's initial assessment of function. However, at discharge participants scored their function significantly (p < 0.05) lower than clinicians. This difference was not apparent 6 weeks later (p > 0.05). However, there was a significant difference (p < 0.05) following actual performance of tasks with an effect size of 1.58. Participant interviews confirmed that patients had a fear of re-injury until they actually performed tasks that were perceived as difficult. Conclusions. Clinicians and participants do not have a similar perception of the recovery of an ankle sprain at discharge. Performing tasks which were perceived as difficult were valuable in assisting participants gain an improved appreciation of their function.
Production planning and backup sourcing strategy of a buyer-dominant supply chain with random yield and demand

This paper studies the backup sourcing strategy of the buyer and the production planning of the supplier in presence of both random yield and random demand. Since the production is susceptible to the randomness of yield beyond the control of the supplier, the buyer may access to a backup sourcing option for the finished items. We analyse the value of backup sourcing for both the decentralised and centralised channels. Backup sourcing strategy of the buyer may lower the supply chain's performance. We show that the order quantity of the buyer does not change the stocking factor of the supplier's input. Meanwhile, compared with the centralised operation, the decentralised operation is more dependent on the backup sourcing to reduce supply shortage of the contracting supplier. From the channel's perspective, an incentive scheme is developed to facilitate the coordination of both the buyer and the contracting supplier, we show that the proposed option contract can allow the supply chain members to share the respective risks involved in the production and selling processes. Finally, we also provide qualitative insights based on numerical examples of the centralised and decentralised solutions.
Early fluid resuscitation in severe trauma

#### Summary points Trauma is a global health problem that affects patients in both rich and poor countries and accounts for 10 000 deaths each day.1 2 Trauma is the second leading cause of death after HIV/AIDS in the 5-45 year old age group.w1 w2 Early triage and resuscitation decisions affect outcome in trauma situations.w3 w4 The two leading causes of mortality in trauma are neurological injury and blood loss.3 4 w5 w6 There has been considerable improvement in our understanding of trauma resuscitation in the past 20 years, and data from databases and observational trials suggests outcomes are improving.w7 For patients with severe traumatic injuries (defined as <15 by the injury severity score, an anatomical scoring system), the high volume fluid resuscitation promoted by early advanced trauma life support manuals,5 followed by definitive surgical care, has given way to a damage …
Nuclease‐mediated genome editing: At the front‐line of functional genomics technology

Genome editing with engineered endonucleases is rapidly becoming a staple method in developmental biology studies. Engineered nucleases permit random or designed genomic modification at precise loci through the stimulation of endogenous double‐strand break repair. Homology‐directed repair following targeted DNA damage is mediated by co‐introduction of a custom repair template, allowing the derivation of knock‐out and knock‐in alleles in animal models previously refractory to classic gene targeting procedures. Currently there are three main types of customizable site‐specific nucleases delineated by the source mechanism of DNA binding that guides nuclease activity to a genomic target: zinc‐finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcription activator‐like effector nucleases (TALENs), and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR). Among these genome engineering tools, characteristics such as the ease of design and construction, mechanism of inducing DNA damage, and DNA sequence specificity all differ, making their application complementary. By understanding the advantages and disadvantages of each method, one may make the best choice for their particular purpose.
Portal hypertension: from pathophysiology to clinical practice

Abstract: Portal hypertension (PHT) is responsible for the more severe and often lethal complications of cirrhosis such as bleeding oesophageal varices, ascites, renal dysfunction and hepatic encephalopathy. Because of the combined impact of these complications, PHT remains the most important cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with cirrhosis. Over the years, it has become clear that a decrease in portal pressure is not only protective against the risk of variceal (re)bleeding but is also associated with a lower long‐term risk of developing complications and an improved long‐term survival. A milestone in therapy was the introduction of non‐selective β‐blockers for the prevention of bleeding and rebleeding of gastro‐esophageal varices. However, in practice, less than half the patients under β‐blockade are protected from these risks, supporting the overall demand for innovation and expansion of our therapeutic armamentarium. Recent advances in the knowledge of the pathophysiology of cirrhotic PHT have directed future therapy towards the increased intrahepatic vascular resistance, which, in part, is determined by an increased hepatic vascular tone. This increased vasculogenic component provides the rationale for the potential use of therapies aimed at increasing intrahepatic vasorelaxing capacity via gene therapy, liver‐selective nitric oxide donors and statines on the one hand, and at antagonizing excessive intrahepatic vasoconstrictor force through the use of endothelin antagonists, angiotensin blockers, α1 adrenergic antagonists or combined α1‐ and non‐selective β‐blockers or somatostatin analogues on the other. The focus of this review is to give an update on the pathophysiology of PHT in order to elucidate these potential novel strategies subsequently.