Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nerve injury induced by vibration: prevention of the effect of a conditioning lesion by D600, a Ca2+ channel blocker.

OBJECTIVES: Exposing a hind leg of a rat to vibration induces an injury to the sciatic nerve--a so called conditioning lesion. After such injury induced by vibration the regenerative capacity of the nerve is improved and can be detected as an increased axonal outgrowth from a test crush lesion to the same nerve. The purpose was to study whether the effect of a conditioning lesion induced by vibration can be prevented by local treatment with a Ca2+ channel blocker D600. METHODS: D600 (methoxyverapamil) or Ringer's solution was locally applied to the sciatic nerve on one side through a silicone tube connected to a miniosmotic pump, which was implanted subcutaneously. During the same period the hind leg was exposed to vibration (80 Hz; 32 m/s2 root mean squared) for five hours daily for five consecutive days. The other hind leg was not vibrated. After the end of exposure to vibration the sciatic nerves were crushed bilaterally (test crush lesions) and three or six days later the regeneration distances of sensory axons were measured by the pinch reflex test. RESULTS: Nerves in the control animals (without implanted miniosmotic pumps and nerves on to which Ringer's solution was locally applied) that were exposed to vibration showed a significantly increased outgrowth length of sensory axons from the test crush lesion compared with the non-vibrated side. Such an effect of a conditioning lesion from the exposure to vibration was suppressed by local application of D600. CONCLUSIONS: Local administration of a Ca2+ channel blocker D600 can prevent the effect of a conditioning lesion-that is, the nerve injury induced by vibration can be inhibited by D600. This may have implications for the treatment of patients with neuropathy of the hand induced by vibration.
Risk factors for early metachronous tumor development after endoscopic resection for early gastric cancer

Background Metachronous gastric tumor (MGT) is one of major concerns after endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for early gastric cancer (EGC). Optimal follow-up strategy has not been yet well-established. The aim of this study was to identify the different clinical features of the patients according to the time interval to development of MGT. Methods Among 1,780 consecutive patients with EGC who underwent ESD between 2005 and 2014, 115 patients with MGT were retrospectively reviewed. MGT was defined as secondary gastric cancer or dysplasia detected > 1 year after initial ESD. Clinicopathological factors associated with early development of MGT were evaluated. Results The median interval to development of MGT was 37 months. In univariate analysis, the median interval to MGT was shorter if EGC lesion was non-elevated type (39.4 vs 57.0 months, p = 0.011), or synchronous primary lesion was absent (39.8 vs 51.4 months, p = 0.050). In multivariate Cox’s proportional hazards analysis, the hazard ratios for early occurrence of MGT were 1.966 (95% CI: 1.141–3.386, p = 0.015) and 1.911 (95% CI: 1.163–3.141, p = 0.011), respectively. There was no significant difference in overall survival after diagnosis of MGT between the early occurrence group and the late occurrence group. Conclusions Non-elevated gross type and absence of synchronous gastric tumor were independent risk factors for early development of MGT. Meticulous endoscopic inspection is especially important for the detection of MGT during the early follow-up period in patients with these initial tumor characteristics.
Compact Multi-Band PIFAs on a Semi-Populated Mobile Handset With Tunable Isolation

In this communication, miniaturized tunable two-antenna systems composed of printed inverted-F antennas (PIFAs) are developed for a semi-populated mobile phone handset. The PIFAs are loaded with a series combination of an inductor and a varactor to simultaneously achieve miniaturization and tunability. The compact 32 mm-long PIFAs demonstrate tuning range of more than 240 MHz covering personal telecommunication bands from LTE-band13 to GSM900 MHz. As well a miniaturized tunable parasitic element is integrated in the handset to efficiently suppress coupling between the PIFAs to below -28 dB across the entire operational bandwidth of the antennas. Simulation and measurement results demonstrate the successful implementation of a tunable MIMO system with passive adjustable coupling reduction mechanism for mobile handsets and achievement of a channel capacity profile close to that of an un-correlated system.
DNA amplification fingerprinting analysis of genetic variation within Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. zingiberi

Genetic variation among 29 isolates of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. zingiberi (Foz) collected from diseased ginger rhizome in production regions throughout Queensland was analysed using DNA amplification fingerprinting (DAF). Eight isolates of other Fusarium species and/or formae speciales were included for comparative analysis. Within the Foz isolates, three haplotypes were identified based on 17 polymorphic bands generated with five primers. Two groups showed very little genetic variation (98.6% similarity), whereas the third single isolate was quite distinct in terms of its molecular profile (77.2% similarity). Genetic similarity among the Fusarium solani, F. oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici and F. oxysporum f.sp. cubense races 1, 3 and 4 isolates compared well with the published literature. Additional keywords: Fusarium yellows, ginger, rhizome rot, Zingiber officinale.
Effect of Biofilm on the Repair Bond Strengths of Composites

Composite restorations degrade during wear, but it is unknown how wear affects the composite surface and influences composite-to-composite bonding in minimally invasive repair. Here, it is hypothesized that in vitro exposure of composites to oral biofilm yields clinically relevant degradation of composite surfaces, and its influence on composite-to-composite bonding is determined. Biofilms on composite surfaces in vitro increased their roughness and decreased filler particle exposure, except for a microhybrid composite, similar to effects of clinical wear in palatal appliances. Failure shear stresses after intermediate-adhesive-resin application were significantly lower after aging by in vitro exposure to biofilms, while silica-coating maintained the same failure stress levels as in non-aged composites. Failure modes were predominantly cohesive after silica-coating, while intermediate-adhesive-resin application yielded more adhesive failure. It is concluded that in vitro exposure to oral biofilm is a clinically relevant aging condition, and that silica-coating is to be preferred for the repair of aged composites.
Government’s Efforts to Ensure the Sustainable Agricultural Lands: Case in the Traditional Irrigation System in Bali Province

Land (rice field) conversion has increased over the year at the national and provincial levels. This might threaten the government's program for achieving food security. In order to cope with this situation, the central government of Indonesia has issued the Law 41/2009 about the sustainable food farmland protection. However, this could not be implemented yet in the provinces, including in Bali. Its impact is the increased rice field conversion and uncertainty of food security program and might influence the existence of subak as a traditional irrigation system in Bali. This study is aimed to describe the subak system in rice farming development, understand the perception of farmers toward the Law, and to describe the effort which should be done by the government to achieve the effectiveness of the Law. Location of study is in Denpasar city as the capital of Bali province. Data collected by using interview, observation, and documentation techniques. Descriptive method is fully employed in the data analysis. The results of the study pointed out that the Law could not be effective yet to ensure sustainable food farmland protection and land conversion in the province. Perception of farmers is moderate toward the Law due to the specific reason, such as the limited size of land ownership, the small value of production gained from the rice farming, and the high tax of land (rice field). Several considerable efforts should be made by a government in cope with the land conversion, such as supporting the efficient cost of production, giving subsidy for inputs and equipment relating to rice farming, supporting the availability of irrigation water, making the higher price of rice, and others.
A Unified FDTD/PML Scheme Based on Critical Points for Accurate Studies of Plasmonic Structures

A generalized auxiliary differential equation (ADE) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) dispersive scheme is introduced for the rigorous simulation of wave propagation in metallic structures at optical frequencies, where material dispersion is described via an arbitrary number of Drude and critical point terms. The implementation of an efficient perfectly matched layer for the termination of such media is also discussed and demonstrated. The model's validity is directly compared with both analytical and numerical results that employ known dispersion schemes, for the case of two benchmark examples, transmission through a thin metal film and scattering from a metallic nanocylinder. Furthermore, the accuracy of the proposed method is also demonstrated in the study of the optical properties of Ag and Au metal-insulator-metal waveguides, filters, and resonators, which also involve dielectrics whose material dispersion is described by the Sellmeier model.
Diversity Waveform Sets for Delay-Doppler Imaging

The properties of the ambiguity function and the uncertainty relation of Fourier transforms assert fundamental limitations on the ability of any single radar waveform of constrained time-bandwidth product to distinguish two or more targets closely spaced in both time-delay (range) and Doppler-shift (radial velocity). These same mechanisms place fundamental limits on the ability radar imaging systems to distinguish separate scatterers in delay and Doppler. In this paper, the problem of using multiple waveform sets to make enhanced discrimination delay-Doppler measurements is considered. While small coded waveform sets for enhanced discrimination delay-only measurement are known (e.g., the Golay sequences), these waveforms do not have good Doppler discrimination properties. The problem of designing multiple waveform sets for enhanced discrimination delay-Doppler measurement is investigated, and the composite ambiguity function (CAF) is introduced as a tool to measure the delay-Doppler discrimination characteristics of these waveform sets. The problem of designing optimal coded waveform sets under a time-bandwidth product constraint is considered, and explicit optimal phase, frequency, and joint phase-frequency coded waveform sets having constant amplitude are presented. Algorithms for the construction of such waveform sets of arbitrary size and practical implementation issues are also presented.
Generalization From Newly Learned Words Reveals Structural Properties of the Human Reading System

Connectionist accounts of quasiregular domains, such as spelling–sound correspondences in English, represent exception words (e.g., pint) amid regular words (e.g., mint) via a graded “warping” mechanism. Warping allows the model to extend the dominant pronunciation to nonwords (regularization) with minimal interference (spillover) from the exceptions. We tested for a behavioral marker of warping by investigating the degree to which participants generalized from newly learned made-up words, which ranged from sharing the dominant pronunciation (regulars), a subordinate pronunciation (ambiguous), or a previously nonexistent (exception) pronunciation. The new words were learned over 2 days, and generalization was assessed 48 hr later using nonword neighbors of the new words in a tempo naming task. The frequency of regularization (a measure of generalization) was directly related to degree of warping required to learn the pronunciation of the new word. Simulations using the Plaut, McClelland, Seidenberg, and Patterson (1996) model further support a warping interpretation. These findings highlight the need to develop theories of representation that are integrally tied to how those representations are learned and generalized.
Simulation study of the Zhoushan project as a three-terminal DC transmission system

This paper presents a simulation study of the proposed three-terminal DC transmission system in Zhoushan Archipelago located in East China Sea. In this paper, two kinds of topologies of converter are compared to select the suitable one and the DC voltage level is determined. Then, station controller based on direct current control strategy is designed. A multipoint DC voltage control strategy based on DC voltage error method is proposed to improve reliability of the system. An additional frequency control strategy is put forward to make it possible for VSC-HVDC system to take part in the frequency control. Finally, the three-terminal DC transmission system model is developed in PSCAD/EMTDC. In Results from the simulation study show that the three-terminal DC Transmission system based on modular multilevel converter (MMC) is technically feasible for Zhoushan project.
A Multilevel AR(1) Model: Allowing for Inter-Individual Differences in Trait-Scores, Inertia, and Innovation Variance

In this article we consider a multilevel first-order autoregressive [AR(1)] model with random intercepts, random autoregression, and random innovation variance (i.e., the level 1 residual variance). Including random innovation variance is an important extension of the multilevel AR(1) model for two reasons. First, between-person differences in innovation variance are important from a substantive point of view, in that they capture differences in sensitivity and/or exposure to unmeasured internal and external factors that influence the process. Second, using simulation methods we show that modeling the innovation variance as fixed across individuals, when it should be modeled as a random effect, leads to biased parameter estimates. Additionally, we use simulation methods to compare maximum likelihood estimation to Bayesian estimation of the multilevel AR(1) model and investigate the trade-off between the number of individuals and the number of time points. We provide an empirical illustration by applying the extended multilevel AR(1) model to daily positive affect ratings from 89 married women over the course of 42 consecutive days.
Financial Literacy among the Tea Garden Labourers in Darjeeling District: An Exploratory Factor Analysis

‘Financial Literacy’ (FL) is the major challenge faced by majority of countries in the world. According to CRISIL(Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited), the Inclusix Index Scores of Darjeeling district was 42.7% in 2014 measured in terms of basic banking services 1 . Thestudy focuses on financial literacy amongst the tea garden labourers of Darjeeling district and endeavors to examine their capacity to make financial decisions.This study aims to develop the constructs in order to test the validity and reliability of Darjeeling tea garden labourers financial literacy (FL) and its determinants such as Knowledge, Attitude, Behaviour, Skill and Awareness. The data for the study was collected via structured questionnaires distributed to 200 tea garden labourers of Darjeeling District. An exploratory factor analysis using SPSS(SPSS 20.0)programme was used to analyze the data. The results show that only seven items load reliably in FL construct. Specifically, skill in dealing with finance was found to exhibit the highest variance followed by investment behaviour, financial level of awareness, knowledge in dealing with financial situations, financial planning and saving behavior, knowledge of finance and financial attitude.The Cronbach Alpha method of reliability tested has been adapted to measure financial literacy. This paper enables future researchers to expand the knowledge in the area of FL by providing validated constructs to assess FL among tea garden workers in Darjeeling district.
Protection against Influenza A Virus by Memory CD8 T Cells Requires Reactivation by Bone Marrow-Derived Dendritic Cells1

Influenza A virus is the causative agent of an acute inflammatory disease of the airway. Although Abs can prevent infection, disease and death can be prevented by T cell-mediated immunity. Recently, we showed that protection against lethal influenza A (PR8/34) virus infection is mediated by central memory CD8 T cells (TCM). In this study, using relB−/− mice we began to investigate the role of bone marrow (BM)-derived dendritic cells (DCs) in the mechanism of protection. We found that in the absence of functional DCs, memory CD8 T cells specific for the nucleoprotein epitope (NP366–374) fail to protect even after adoptive transfer into naive recipients. Through an analysis of Ag uptake, activation of memory CD8 T cells, and display of peptide/MHC complex by DCs in draining LNs and spleen early after virus infection, we established that lack of protection is associated with defective Ag presentation by BM-derived DCs and defective homing of memory T cells in the lymph nodes draining the airway tract. Collectively, the data suggest that protection against the influenza A virus requires that memory CD8 T cells be reactivated by Ag presented by BM-derived DCs in the lymph nodes draining the site of infection. They also imply that protection depends both on the characteristics of systemic adaptive immunity and on the coordinated interplay between systemic and local immunity.
Microwave‐assisted rapid plant sample preparation for transmission electron microscopy

The preparation of plant leaf material for transmission electron microscopical investigations can be a very time‐ and labour‐consuming task as the reagents infiltrate the samples quite slowly and as usually most steps have to be performed manually. Fixation, buffer washes, dehydration, resin infiltration and polymerization of the resin‐infiltrated leaf samples can take several days before the specimen can be cut ultrathin and used for ultrastructural investigations. In this study, we present a microwave‐assisted automated sample preparation procedure that reduces preparation time from at least 3 days to about 5 h – with only a few steps that have to be performed manually – until the plant sample can be ultrathin sectioned and observed with the transmission electron microscope. For studying the efficiency of this method we have compared the ultrastructure of different leaf material (Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana tabacum and Picea abies) which was prepared with a conventional, well‐established chemical fixation and embedding protocol and a commercially available automated microwave tissue processor. Despite the massive reduction in sample preparation time no negative effects on cutting properties of the blocks, stability of the sections in the electron beam, contrast and ultrastructure of the cells were observed under the transmission electron microscope when samples were prepared with the microwave‐assisted protocol. Additionally, no negative effects were detected on the dimensions of fine structures of grana stacks (including membranes, inter‐ and intrathylakoidal spaces), the nuclear envelope and the plasma membrane as the diameter of these structural components did not differ between leaf samples (of the same species) that were processed with the automated microwave tissue processor or by conventional fixation and embedding at room temperature.
Problem-solving approach to agraphia treatment : Interactive use of lexical and sublexical spelling routes

Two patients with acquired spelling impairments due to left hemisphere brain damage participated in a treatment protocol to improve their written spelling. Prior to the initiation of writing treatment, both patients showed some ability to take advantage of sound-to-letter correspondences that resulted in phonologically plausible spelling errors. A homework-based treatment was implemented to improve their ability to resolve spelling errors by increased reliance on phoneme-tographeme conversion, self-correction, and use of an electronic speller. Both patients improved their spelling abilities and provided evidence of interactive use of partially spared lexical and sublexical spelling routes to resolve their spelling difficulties.
BASS: Business Application Support through Software Services

In this paper, we introduce a software framework called Business Application Support through Software Services BASS. BASS supports the development of information system applications. BASS support aims at decoupling the business logic description of the applications from the supporting implementation, e.g. software services. BASS also allows us to define service access elements without programming activities. By using the BASS framework, target applications can dynamically select and specify service invocations according to the execution of the supported business processes.
Máquina de vectores soporte adaptativa y compacta

La Maquina de Vectores Soporte (SVM) en un sistema de aprendizaje novedoso para construir clasificadores y funciones de regresion lineales y no lineales, La SVM es una tecnica no parametrica que construye la solucion de forma explicita mediante una combinacion lineal de las muestras de entrenamiento. La caracteristica mas relevante de la SVM es su capacidad para resolver problemas en los que los datos son de gran dimensionalidad sin degradar la solucion por la falta de estos. Esta propiedad la obtiene la SVM definiendo y maximizando la distancia entra la frontera de clasificacion y las muestras, conocida como el margen. El funcional que debe minimizar la SVM es convexo con restricciones lineales, por ello su solucion es unica, sin minimos locales. La SVM presenta ciertas limitaciones en su formulacion original, como estar limitado a operar con muestras independientes e identicamente distribuidas (i.i.d.) o a una funcion de coste fija. Ademas su procedimiento de optimizacion es dificil de implementar y presenta alta carga computacional, que limita su uso para problemas con muchas muestras. Por ello, la SVM no se puede aplicar en la diversidad de aplicaciones de procesado de senales no estacionarios, en las que sus propiedades puedan ser deseables. En los problemas de clasificacion o regresion la funcion de coste puede venir determinada por el problema de resolver. El cambio de la funcion de coste debe proporcionar soluciones de menor error que las alcanzadas con la SVM y su funcion de coste original. Para superar las limitaciones indicadas sobre la SVM original, se ha tenido que modificar su procedimiento de optimizacion, que normalmente emplea programacion cuadratica, por uno de minimos cuadrado ponderado e iterados (IRWLS). Este procedimiento es de por si mas veloz que los de programacion cuadratica, reduciendo considerablemente la carga computacional asociada a la resolucion de la SVM. En el t
Gender differences in the association of C‐reactive protein with coronary artery calcium in Type‐2 diabetes

Objectives Plasma C‐reactive protein (CRP) is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD), but effects may vary by gender and degree of CVD risk. Whether CRP has value as a CVD risk marker in type‐2 diabetes (T2DM) is unclear. We examined whether CRP has gender differences in association with coronary artery calcium (CAC) in diabetic and nondiabetic samples without clinical CVD.