Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bilateral or unilateral cochlear implantation for deaf children: an observational study

Objective Cochlear implantation in one ear (unilateral implantation) has been the standard treatment for severe-profound childhood deafness. We assessed whether cochlear implantation in both ears (bilateral implantation) is associated with better listening skills, higher health-related quality of life (health utility) and higher general quality of life (QOL) than unilateral implantation. Design Cross-sectional observational study. Setting University of York. Participants Fifty severely-profoundly deaf and 56 normally-hearing children recruited via a charity, the UK National Health Service and schools. Interventions Thirty of the deaf children had received bilateral cochlear implants; 20 had unilateral cochlear implants. Main outcome measures Performance measures of children’s listening skills; parental-proxy valuations of the deaf children’s health utility obtained with the Health Utilities Index Mark 3 and of their QOL obtained with a visual analogue scale. Results On average, bilaterally-implanted children performed significantly better than unilaterally implanted children on tests of sound localisation and speech perception in noise. After conservative imputation of missing data and while controlling for confounds, bilateral implantation was associated with increases of 18.5% in accuracy of sound localisation (95% CI 5.9 to 31.1) and of 3.7 dB in speech perception in noise (95% CI 0.9 to 6.5). Bilaterally-implanted children did not perform as well as normally-hearing children, on average. Bilaterally- and unilaterally-implanted children did not differ significantly in parental ratings of health utility (difference in medians 0.05, p>0.05) or QOL (difference in medians 0.01, p>0.05). Conclusions Compared with unilateral cochlear implantation, bilateral implantation is associated with better listening skills in severely-profoundly deaf children.
GEMINI, a CMOS 180 nm mixed-signal 16-channel ASIC for Triple-GEM detectors readout

GEMINI is a readout ASIC dedicated to the Triple-GEM detector. Fabricated in CMOS 180 nm technology, GEMINI pushes towards the state-of-the-art for this peculiar detector front-end, as regards the count rate and detector pixel parasitic capacitance sustainability. It features 16 channels, each one including a charge-sensitive preamplifier, an event discriminator with channel-independent threshold and an event-triggered reset. An embedded automatic calibration unit compensates performance for environmental, CMOS process and supply voltage variations. GEMINI sustains a 5Mcps count rate, managing up to 40 pF GEM detector capacitance and consuming 2.7mW/ch.
Virtual Depth-based Representation of Cartographic Uncertainty

Research at NCGIA, funded under the National Imagery and Mapping Agency's University Research Initiative, has concentrated on the elements, measurement, modeling, propagation, and cartographic portrayal of uncertainty in the national geospatial information infrastructure. As part of this work, cartographic methods for dealing with both positional and attribute components of uncertainty have been reviewed, and the most promising methods designated for implementation and testing. Our work has focussed on using a combination of methods, including color manipulation, animation, and visual depth to represent at least positional uncertainty in an active way; that is, the user has control within the display as to what or how much uncertainty becomes part of the visualization. The environment in which we are working is the virtual world, and interaction is established using the Virtual Reality Modeling Language as well as an immersive Head Mounted Display. Uncertainty within the three dimensional environment is reflected as a floating point value assigned to features, and features change their color properties, move, and are present or absent based on the user's chosen level of uncertainty portrayal. User responses are then to be measured based on interactions established to indicate virtual position of the user's eye focus within the virtual field. This paper presents some initial findings of building and testing a prototype system, and examines methods to be used for more rigorous human subjects testing.
Online estimation of mechanical impedance for time delay compensation on driving assistant

This paper describes a method for combining a control scheme for remote control under time delay with online estimation. In the proposed method, a driving assistant is used to react to events that occur in a horizon of the network round trip delay. Since such an approach result in the driving assistant torque echoing back into the remote controlled car, the proposed method design compensates for this issue. It is shown that this disturbance becomes of the order of the parameter estimation error in the controller. Secondly, an online estimator is used to compensate for this disturbance with robustness against initial parameter mismatch. Finally, numerical simulations are conducted to show the validity of the proposed method against no compensation, and to explicit the benefit gained from implementing a robust online estimator.
No home for the disabled: The disabling metropolis of Delhi

Abstract Delhi is today one of the most diverse urban centers in India. While the Delhi metro, with its many disabled-friendly features, seems an exemplar of the ideal inclusive and open city, other attempts to create more inclusive constructions of habitation there remain fragile. Through an analysis of Shivani Gupta’s autobiography No Looking Back: A True Story, which captures her attempts to negotiate India’s national capital as an orthopedically disabled person, this article examines how the social and architectural construction of public spaces in Delhi privileges particular forms of embodied citizenship associated with a normalized body. It reveals that the development process is characterized by socio-institutional structures and relations which are insensitive to and ignorant of the needs of disabled people. This is symptomatic of an architectural apartheid and a wider set of ableist power geometries. The “reflexive modernization” thesis of Ulrich Beck is applied here to the geographical understanding of disablement.
Is gate line edge roughness a first-order issue in affecting the performance of deep sub-micro bulk MOSFET devices?

An experimental study of the effects of gate line edge roughness (LER) on the electrical characteristics of bulk MOSFET devices was performed. Device simulation had previously predicted that gate LER causes off-state current to increase. In our experiments, gate LER was deliberately introduced in devices with 40 nm or longer physical gate length, and we found about 3X I/sub OFF/ increase (for 40 nm gate length) in the I/sub OFF/-I/sub ON/ plot. In our devices, Source/Drain (S/D) extensions are produced by implants self-aligned to gate edges. Simulation results indicate that what really matters is the roughness induced of the S/D to channel junctions by gate LER. Implantation scattering and dopant diffusion cause the S/D to channel junctions to be smoother than the gate edges. This will partially reduce the differences in the I/sub OFF/-I/sub ON/ curves caused by differing amounts of gate LER. By optimizing our process flows, we obtained a minimized gate LER (EdgeRMS<2 nm). We believe that the consequence of this minimized LER is secondary to the impact of other process variations across wafer for devices with 40 nm or longer gate length.
Skyrmion State Stability in Magnetic Nanodots With Perpendicular Anisotropy

Stability of skyrmion magnetization configuration in a circular magnetic nanodot with an uniaxial anisotropy perpendicular to the dot plane is calculated. It is shown that the skyrmion state can have magnetic energy lower than the vortex and perpendicular single domain state in a finite range of magnetic anisotropy fields at room temperature even in the case of absence of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya exchange interaction and external magnetic field.
¿Qué factores inciden para romper el silencio de las víctimas de abuso sexual?

El objetivo de este estudio es incrementar el conocimiento sobre el proceso de revelación y denuncia del abuso sexual infantil en España, mediante entrevistas a 15 víctimas adultas que han vivido esta experiencia antes de los 18 años. Se han recogido datos sobre la revelación y denuncia, la reacción de sus interlocutores y su opinión respecto de la prescripción de estos delitos. La mayoría revelaron el abuso tanto en la infancia como en la adultez, pero sólo sintieron que les resultaron de ayuda las revelaciones hechas en esta última etapa. Un caso se denunció en la infancia y dos durante la adultez, habiendo transcurrido cerca de veinte años desde la edad de inicio de los abusos. Las víctimas que denunciaron reportan sentirse satisfechas con la decisión, aunque han definido el proceso como duro. La totalidad de la muestra opina que los delitos sexuales contra menores no deberían prescribir.
Turtle C-type horizontal cells act as push–pull devices

Chromaticity (C-type) horizontal cells in the retina of cold-blooded vertebrates receive antagonistic inputs from cone photoreceptors of different spectral types leading to color opponency. The relative contribution of each spectral type of cones can be selectively altered by chromatic background illumination. Therefore, the spectral properties of C-type horizontal cells are expected to change when the intensity and color of ambient illumination are altered. In this study, we investigated the effects of chromatic background lights upon color opponency in Red/Green (RGH) and Yellow/Blue (YBH) C-type horizontal cells in the everted eyecup preparation of the turtle Mauremys caspica. Photoresponses were elicited by long-wavelength and short-wavelength light stimuli in the dark-adapted state and under conditions of chromatic background illumination. We found that the total voltage range, within which graded depolarizing and the hyperpolarizing photoresponses could be elicited, either increased or decreased depending upon the color of the background light. However, the maximal and minimal potential levels determined respectively by long-wavelength and short-wavelength light stimuli of supersaturating intensity remained unchanged, regardless of the wavelength and intensity of the background. These findings indicate that turtle C-type horizontal cells operate as push–pull devices. A sufficiently bright short-wavelength stimulus can push them all the way to the maximal hyperpolarizing level while a very bright long-wavelength stimulus can pull them towards the most depolarizing potential.
Antibody responses to bacterial antigens during exacerbations of chronic bronchitis.

Immunofluorescent techniques were used to measure serum immunoglobulin M and G (IgM and IgG) antibody titers against bacteria isolated from sputum during 56 exacerbations of chronic bronchitis. Titers of antibody against a single rough strain of Hemophilus influenzae were also determined. Fourfold increases in IgM or IgG titer to H. influenzae were observed in 18 instances. Increases in titers of IgM antibodies to Diplococcus pneumoniae were observed in 3 of 11 instances. Titer increases against both organisms occurred primarily in patients with low initial titers. Increases in titer of antibodies against other potential pathogens found in sputum were uncommon. These data support the hypothesis that H. influenzae and D. pneumoniae play pathogenic roles in acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis.
Loss of the Compound Action Potential: an Electrophysiological, Biochemical and Morphological Study of Early Events in Axonal Degeneration in the C57BL/Ola Mouse

In the C57BL/Ola (Ola) mouse strain there is a marked slowing of axonal disintegration during Wallerian degeneration. The locus of the mutation controlling this phenomenon (slow Wallerian degeneration‐ Wlds) has been mapped to chromosome 4, and its protective effect decreases with advancing age. Using biochemical, electrophysiological and histological techniques, the present study was undertaken to determine whether neurofilament phosphorylation and stability are altered or whether calcium‐activated proteases are absent in the sciatic nerves of Ola mice. A compound action potential was detectable only when neurofilaments were present and normal axonal architecture was seen. In 1‐month‐old Ola mice, compound action potentials and neurofilaments were still detectable at 21 days post‐transection, whereas both were undetectable by 2 days in BALB/c and C57BL/6J (6J) mice of the same age. Neurofilament levels declined faster with advancing Ola age, confirming previous results, whereas degeneration slowed in ageing BALB/c and 6J mice. In vitro and in vivo degeneration rates were comparable in BALB/c and 6J nerves. Ola nerves, however, showed more rapid decline in vitro than in vivo. Ola and BALB/c nerves frozen and then thawed and incubated in the presence of calcium ions and the ionophore A23187 were not resistant to degradation by intrinsic proteases. Even when a compound action potential could no longer be elicited, however, a majority of nerves still had >50% of myelinated and unmyelinated axons whose electron microscopic profiles appeared normal. Thus, it appears that the first event in Wallerian degeneration in the Ola mouse is a change at the plasma membrane‐a transected nerve becomes unable to conduct a compound action potential. Degeneration of the cytoskeleton is a later, separable event.
Pentatricopeptide Repeat Proteins with the DYW Motif Have Distinct Molecular Functions in RNA Editing and RNA Cleavage in Arabidopsis Chloroplasts[W]

The plant-specific DYW subclass of pentatricopeptide repeat proteins has been postulated to be involved in RNA editing of organelle transcripts. We discovered that the DYW proteins CHLORORESPIRATORY REDUCTION22 (CRR22) and CRR28 are required for editing of multiple plastid transcripts but that their DYW motifs are dispensable for editing activity in vivo. Replacement of the DYW motifs of CRR22 and CRR28 by that of CRR2, which has been shown to be capable of endonucleolytic cleavage, blocks the editing activity of both proteins. In return, the DYW motifs of neither CRR22 nor CRR28 can functionally replace that of CRR2. We propose that different DYW family members have acquired distinct functions in the divergent processes of RNA maturation, including RNA cleavage and RNA editing.
Calcium and cardiac rhythms: physiological and pathophysiological.

Calcium plays two pivotal roles in cardiac excitation-contraction (E-C) coupling.1 Ca2+ drives myofilament activation and carries or regulates ionic currents that are responsible for normal electrical rhythms2 as well as life-threatening arrhythmias.3 In this editorial, I will focus on Ca2+ and pacemaker activity and arrhythmogenesis. Ca2+ entry via Ca2+ current ( I Ca) triggers sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ release via ryanodine receptors (RyRs), and relaxation is driven by Ca2+ transport by the SR Ca2+-ATPase and Na+-Ca2+ exchange. Two I Ca types occur in cardiac myocytes: L-type ( I Ca,L) activated at Em>−40 mV and T-type ( I Ca,T) activated at Em>−60 mV (near the pacemaker range). Inward I Ca,T and I Ca,L can contribute importantly to both normal and abnormal cardiac depolarization. I Ca,L is crucial in E-C coupling in all cardiac myocytes. I Ca,T is absent in most ventricular myocytes but is present in neonatal ventricular myocytes, some atrial myocytes, and in conducting and pacemaker cells. β-Adrenergic receptors (β-ARs) and cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) increase I Ca,L amplitude and shift activation to more negative Em (closer to the pacemaker range). Parasympathetic stimulation of the heart (via muscarinic receptors) can offset the β-AR effect. Withdrawal of muscarinic activation can also cause a rebound overshoot in I Ca,L and may contribute directly to postvagal tachycardia.4,5⇓ I Ca,L is rapidly inactivated by local [Ca2+] at the inner channel mouth (mediated by calmodulin associated with the channel). 6,7⇓ As [Ca2+]i declines, I Ca,L can recover partially from inactivation, even at depolarized Em.8 This can allow I Ca,L reactivation before the action potential (AP) fully repolarizes, inducing early afterdepolarizations (EADs). Resting myocytes exhibit spontaneous, localized SR Ca …
Design of faults estimation for uncertain state space time delay systems

Fault estimation is considered as one of the most essential problem in diagnosis domain. In this paper, a simultaneous state and fault estimation is treated for state time delay system. The fault estimation technique is based on H∞ optimization method to addressed the subject of robustness in the presence of disturbance and uncertainties. The fault estimation is made by using the Lyapunov Krasovskii functional. The condition of existent of a feasible solution from a convex problem is solved using Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) optimization. The effectiveness of the designed methodology is verified based on a two-stage chemical reactor with delay recycle streams.
Normal intracranial BS/BSOB ratio values in the first trimester of single gestations with live fetuses in a Korean population.

AIM The purpose of this study was to determine the normal length of the brainstem (BS) in Korean fetuses and to evaluatethe usefulness of the routine measurement of BS size in the first trimester of pregnancy for the early detection of spina bifida. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 2,621 normal singleton pregnant Korean women at 10+6 to 13+6 weeks of gestation were selected for this retrospective cross-sectional study. Ultrasonography was used to measure the length of the longest vertical depth diameter of the BS and brainstem-occipital bone (BSOB) in order to obtain the BS to BSOB ratio. RESULTS The best indicators for spina bifida ranged from 1.00±0.24 mm to 4.70±0.46 mm for the BS and from 2.90±0.36 mm to 8.50±0.92 mm for the BSOB. For the gestational period, BS (R=0.70) and BSOB (R=0.81) values were considered statistically significant (p<.0001). The value of the BS to BSOB ratio was <1.0 in normal fetuses, and was not correlated with the gestational age. CONCLUSION Measurement of BS and BSOB diameter in the first trimester is thought to provide the best reference marker for evaluating the posterior brain for diagnosis of spina bifida.
Television viewing, computer game playing, and Internet use and self-reported time to bed and time out of bed in secondary-school children.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship between the presence of a television set, a gaming computer, and/or an Internet connection in the room of adolescents and television viewing, computer game playing, and Internet use on the one hand, and time to bed, time up, time spent in bed, and overall tiredness in first- and fourth-year secondary-school children on the other hand. METHODS A random sample of students from 15 schools in Flanders, Belgium, yielded 2546 children who completed a questionnaire with questions about media presence in bedrooms; volume of television viewing, computer game playing, and Internet use; time to bed and time up on average weekdays and average weekend days; and questions regarding the level of tiredness in the morning, at school, after a day at school, and after the weekend. RESULTS Children with a television set in their rooms went to bed significantly later on weekdays and weekend days and got up significantly later on weekend days. Overall, they spent less time in bed on weekdays. Children with a gaming computer in their rooms went to bed significantly later on weekdays. On weekdays, they spent significantly less time in bed. Children who watched more television went to bed later on weekdays and weekend days and got up later on weekend days. They spent less time in bed on weekdays. They reported higher overall levels of being tired. Children who spent more time playing computer games went to bed later on weekdays and weekend days and got up later on weekend days. On weekdays, they actually got up significantly earlier. They spent less time in bed on weekdays and reported higher levels of tiredness. Children who spent more time using the Internet went to bed significantly later during the week and during the weekend. They got up later on weekend days. They spent less time in bed during the week and reported higher levels of tiredness. Going out was also significantly related to sleeping later and less. CONCLUSION Concerns about media use should not be limited to television. Computer game playing and Internet use are related to sleep behavior as well. Leisure activities that are unstructured seem to be negatively related to good sleep patterns. Imposing more structure (eg, end times) might reduce impact.
Importance of Electronics in Health Monitoring System

This paper illustrates the design and implementation of an e-health monitoring networked system. The architecture for this system is based on smart devices and wireless sensor networks for real time analysis of various parameters of patients. This system is aimed at developing a set of modules which can facilitate the diagnosis for the doctors through tele-monitoring of patients. It also facilitates continuous investigation of the patient for emergencies looked over by attendees and caregivers. A set of medical and environmental sensors are used to monitor the health as well as the surrounding of the patient. This sensor data is then relayed to the server using a smart device or a base station in close proximity. The doctors and caregivers monitor the patient in real time through the data received through the server. The medical history of each patient including medications and medical reports are stored on cloud for easy access and processing for logistics and prognosis of future complications. The architecture is so designed for monitoring a unitary patient privately at home as well as multiple patients in hospitals and public health care units. Use of smartphones to relay data over internet reduces the total cost of the system. We have also considered the privacy and security aspects of the system keeping the provision for selective authority for patients and their relatives to access the cloud storage as well as the possible threats to the system. We have also introduced a novel set of value added services through this paper which include Real Time Health Advice and Action (ReTiHA) and Parent monitoring for people with their family living abroad. Keywords—e-health monitoring; wireless sensor networks; smart devices; remote health advice.
Dissection of Amyloid-β Precursor Protein-dependent Transcriptional Transactivation*

Amyloid-β precursor protein (APP) forms a transcriptionally active complex with the adaptor protein Fe65 and the histone acetyltransferase Tip60, but the mechanism of transcriptional activation that is mediated by APP and Fe65 remains unclear. APP is cleaved by γ-secretase similar to Notch, whose intracellular domain activates transcription by interacting with nuclear transcription factors. To test whether the APP intracellular domain (AICD) functions analogously, we investigated how APP and Fe65 transactivate a Gal4 fusion protein of Tip60. Consistent with the Notch paradigm, we observe that γ-cleavage of APP and nuclear translocation of Fe65 are required for transactivation. Surprisingly, however, we find that nuclear translocation of the AICD may be dispensable and that only membrane-tethered AICD (i.e. AICD coupled to a transmembrane region) and not free AICD (i.e. soluble AICD) is a potent transactivator of transcription. Membrane-tethered AICD recruits Fe65 and mediates the activation of bound Fe65 that is then released for nuclear translocation by γ-cleavage together with the AICD. Our data suggest that transcriptional transactivation by APP and Notch may involve distinct mechanisms; whereas the Notch intracellular domain directly functions in the nucleus, the AICD acts indirectly by activating Fe65.