Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Paper-based interdigitated impedance sensor for moisture and vapor measurements

A low-cost, easy-to-fabricate paper-based capacitance sensor with inkjet printed interdigitated electrodes is presented. The sensor enables measurements of the dielectric properties of electrode free polymer films, a quick technique for assessing the insulating quality of polymer sheets. We demonstrate the suitability of the sensor for moisture and vapor measurements, permitting direct operation of the sensor in water or body fluids. Potential applications of the sensors may arise in smart diapers and wound dressings. In addition, the sensors allow for the study of water adsorption and desorption kinetics under a wide range of humidity conditions. We show that the effective permittivity of the sensor follows a Guggenheim-Anderson-DeBoer sorption isotherm, enabling us to simultaneously record and quantitatively analyze the wetting and drying of moist paper in printed electronics manufacturing.
Postnatal development of stearoyl coenzyme A desaturase gene expression and adiposity in bovine subcutaneous adipose tissue.

This investigation addressed the hypothesis that stearoyl coenzyme A desaturase (SCD) gene expression would serve as a postnatal marker of adipocyte differentiation in bovine s.c. adipose tissue. Samples of tailhead s.c. adipose tissue were obtained by biopsy from preweaning steer calves 2.5 wk, 5 mo, and 7.5 mo of age and from yearling steers 12 mo of age. Samples also were obtained at slaughter when the steers were 18 mo of age. The steers sampled as yearlings were fed native pasture from weaning until 12 mo of age, and the steers sampled at slaughter were fed a high-concentrate diet from 12 to 18 mo of age. Major peak adipocyte volumes for the 2.5-wk-, 5-mo-, and 7.5-mo-old steers were 14, 270, and 700 pL, respectively (P < .001). The steers did not gain weight during pasture feeding, and at 12 mo of age peak adipocyte volume had decreased (P = .009) to 270 pL. At this time, a second, smaller population of adipocytes had appeared with a peak volume of 115 pL. At slaughter, adjusted fat thickness of the steers was 1.60 +/- . 13 cm, the USDA yield grade of the carcasses was 3.51 +/- . 31, and peak adipocyte volume had increased (P = .01) to over 2,500 pL. The number of adipocytes per 100 mg of adipose tissue doubled (P = .006) between 2.5 wk and 5 mo of age, concurrent with the nearly 20-fold increase in peak adipocyte volume, indicating that this was a period of apparent adipocyte hyperplasia. Uncoupling protein mRNA was undetectable at all stages of postnatal growth, indicating that differentiating tailhead s.c. adipocytes do not acquire brown adipocyte characteristics postnatally. Lipogenesis expressed on a cellular basis was low in all preweaning samples and increased significantly above preweaning values only in the 18-mo-old steers. Stearoyl coenzyme A desaturase mRNA concentration also was low in all preweaning samples, but it peaked (P = .07) at 12 mo of age. Because the peak in SCD mRNA concentration preceded a significant rise in lipogenesis and lipid filling, we conclude that the level SCD gene expression may be indicative of the extent of terminal differentiation in bovine tailhead s.c. adipose tissue.
RNAi and the genes that control in plants and animals

Gene suppression via RNA interference (RNAi) provides an alternative strategy for insect pest management. Insect pests cost billions of dollars in the form of crop losses and insecticides, and farmers face an ever-present threat of insecticide resistance, fueling a continual search for alternative pest-control strategies. Of late, novel insect pest management strategies like transgenic plants expressing insecticidal crystal protein genes from the soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are effective in managing the insect pests that belong to Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. But success of the above technology is threatened by accelerated development of resistance, which is also true with chemical insecticides. Therefore, there is a need for identifying some additional effective pest management strategies, which could also augment integrated pest management (IPM). In this scenario, RNA interference (RNAi) offers a great deal of hope in successful mitigation of various insect pests. This review will feature late endeavors to comprehend the boundaries to RNA conveyance in headstrong insect species, depict late advances in the commercial development of insect -protected crops and biological insecticides using RNAi, and talk about this methodology with regards to an integrated pest management approach.
Clear cell carcinoma of the ovary

Eight cases of “hypernephroid” clear cell carcinoma of the ovary are reported. As in the uterine cervix, our findings appear to indicate that clear cell carcinoma of the ovary is a low‐grade malignancy which is associated with good prognosis. Although this tumor is probably related to endometriosis and endometrioid carcinoma, the authors suggest that the “hypernephroid” clear cell carcinoma of the ovary be recognized as a separate entity and its behavior studied through cumulative experience.
NEUROMUSCULAR RESPONSES OF TRAINED BALLET DANCERS TO POSTURAL PERTURBATIONS

The balance of trained ballet dancers and non-dancer controls was mechanically perturbed in order to evaluate the time of onset of muscle activation and the consistency of muscle activation. Results supported the prediction that ballet dancers have significantly faster long-latency (LL) neuromuscular responses than controls and are significantly more consistent in muscle activation. These findings indicate a superior postural control mechanism in trained dancers and may explain the ability of dancers to maintain static balances over a small base of support.
Quaking and miR-155 interactions in inflammation and leukemogenesis

Quaking (QKI) is a tumor-suppressor gene encoding a conserved RNA-binding protein, whose expression is downregulated in several solid tumors. Here we report that QKI plays an important role in the immune response and suppression of leukemogenesis. We show that the expression of Qki is reduced in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-challenged macrophages, suggesting that Qki is a key regulator of LPS signaling pathway. Furthermore, LPS-induced downregulation of Qki expression is miR-155-dependent. Qki overexpression impairs LPS-induced phosphorylation of JNK and particularly p38 MAPKs, in addition to increasing the production of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10. In contrast, Qki ablation decreases Fas expression and the rate of Caspase3/7 activity, while increasing the levels of IL-1α, IL-1β and IL-6, and p38 phosphorylation. Similarly, the p38 pathway is also a target of QKI activity in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)-derived MEC2 cells. Finally, B-CLL patients show lower levels of QKI expression compared with B cells from healthy donor, and Qki is similarily downregulated with the progression of leukemia in Eμ-miR-155 transgenic mice. Altogether, these data implicate QKI in the pathophysiology of inflammation and oncogenesis where miR-155 is involved.
American Pediatric Society's 2006 John Howland Award Acceptance Lecture

I am most grateful to the American Pediatric Society for honoring this happily converted internist who saw the light thanks to the wisdom and encouragement of the late Horace Hodes, whom I had the pleasure of introducing for his Howland Award in 1982 (1,2). I am equally grateful for your honoring a geneticist, only the second, the first being Barton Childs in 1989 (3). He has been a role model for me since my getting into the field in 1956. There hasn't been a dull day since then.
No evidence for calcium electrogenic exchanger in frog semicircular canal hair cells

We investigated the possibility that, in hair cells mechanically isolated from frog semicircular canals, Ca2+ extrusion occurs via a Na+ : Ca2+ (cardiac type) or a Na+ : Ca2+,K+ (retinal type) exchanger. Cells concurrently imaged during whole‐cell patch‐clamp recordings using the Ca2+ sensitive fluorescent dye Oregon Green 488 BAPTA‐1 (100 µm) showed no voltage dependence of Ca2+ clearance dynamics following a Ca2+ load through voltage‐gated Ca2+ channels. Reverse exchange was probed in hair cells dialyzed with a Ca2+‐ and K+‐free solution, containing a Na+ concentration that saturates the exchanger, after zeroing the contribution to the whole‐cell current from Ca2+ and K+ conductances. In these conditions, no reverse exchange current was detected upon switching from a Ca2+‐free external solution to a solution containing concentrations of Ca2+ alone, or Ca2+ + K+ that saturated the exchanger. By contrast, the same experimental protocol elicited peak exchange currents exceeding 100 pA in gecko rod photoreceptors, used as positive controls. In both cell types, we also probed the forward mode of the exchanger by rapidly increasing the intracellular Ca2+ concentration using flash photolysis of two novel caged Ca2+ complexes, calcium 2,2′‐{[1‐(2‐nitrophenyl)ethane‐1,2‐diyl]bis(oxy)}bis(acetate) and calcium 2,2′‐{[1‐(4,5‐dimethoxy‐2‐nitrophenyl)ethane‐1,2‐diyl]bis(oxy)} bis(acetate), in the presence of internal K+ and external Na+. No currents were evoked by UV‐triggered Ca2+ jumps in hair cells, whereas exchanger conformational currents up to 400 pA, followed by saturating forward exchange currents up to 40 pA, were recorded in rod photoreceptors subjected to the same experimental conditions. We conclude that no functional electrogenic exchanger is present in this hair cell population, which leaves the abundant plasma membrane Ca2+‐ATPases as the primary contributors to Ca2+ extrusion.
An Algorithm for Finding the Most Similar Given Sized Subgraphs in Two Weighted Graphs

We propose a weighted common subgraph (WCS) matching algorithm to find the most similar subgraphs in two labeled weighted graphs. WCS matching, as a natural generalization of equal-sized graph matching and subgraph matching, has found wide applications in many computer vision and machine learning tasks. In this brief, WCS matching is first formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem over the set of partial permutation matrices. Then, it is approximately solved by a recently proposed combinatorial optimization framework—graduated nonconvexity and concavity procedure. Experimental comparisons on both synthetic graphs and real-world images validate its robustness against noise level, problem size, outlier number, and edge density.
Comparison of bone mineral density in the jaws of patients with and without chronic periodontitis.

OBJECTIVES Although several studies have addressed the relationship between systemic bone mineral status and the severity of periodontitis, there is little knowledge of the relationship between periodontal disease and locally detected bone mineral density. The aim of this study was to compare the mandibular bone mineral density of patients with chronic periodontitis with that of periodontally healthy subjects. METHODS 48 systemically healthy subjects were included in the study and underwent a periodontal examination to determine their status. 24 subjects were periodontally healthy and the other 24 had moderate or severe chronic periodontitis. The mandibular bone mineral density of the subjects was determined by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. The region of interest on the body of the mandible was independently determined on the dual energy absorptiometry radiographs, and a computer calculated the bone mineral density of these regions. RESULTS The mandibular bone mineral density of the subjects with periodontitis was significantly lower than that of the periodontally healthy subjects (p < 0.01). There were significant negative correlations between the mandibular bone mineral density values and parameters related to the amount of periodontal destruction. CONCLUSIONS Low bone mineral density in the jaw may be associated with chronic periodontitis.
Pathophysiologic changes in the optic nerves of eyes with primary open angle and pseudoexfoliation glaucoma.

PURPOSE To determine whether differences in the optic nerve occur in eyes with primary versus secondary open-angle glaucoma. METHODS Optic nerves obtained at autopsy from 36 eyes with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and 15 with pseudoexfoliation glaucoma (PEXG) were studied quantitatively and qualitatively. Axon counts, fibrosis, capillary number and density, and arteriosclerotic changes were assessed in the postlaminar optic nerve and compared to normal age-matched autopsy eyes. Changes in composition of extracellular matrix components were evaluated by immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy. RESULTS Marked differences were found between POAG and PEXG. Axon loss in eyes with POAG but not in PEXG was associated with increasing connective tissue in the septa and surrounding the central retinal vessels, including increased amounts of type IV and VI collagen. The total number of capillaries decreased with the loss of axons in both POAG and PEXG. POAG nerves, however, had a decrease in the density of capillaries, whereas in PEXG the capillary density did not change with axon loss. Arteriosclerotic changes were more common in glaucomatous eyes than in age-matched control eyes. CONCLUSIONS The difference in morphology of the optic nerves between POAG and PEXG indicates that in eyes with POAG, elevated IOP cannot be the only pathogenetic factor in glaucomatous optic neuropathy. Additional factors, inducing fibrosis and loss of capillaries, seem to be involved. Such additional factors may also contribute to the clinical finding in POAG that nerves can become damaged without elevation of intraocular pressure.
Analysis of slots and notches loaded patch antenna for dualband operation

In this article, the theoretical analysis is carried out of the slots and notches loaded microstrip patch antenna for dual-band operations. It is observed that antenna resonates at three distinct modes of frequencies. The bandwidth of the proposed antenna at TM01 is 3.42%, TM02 is 3.81% and TM03 is 4.80%. The theoretical results of proposed antenna are compared with IE3D simulation results.
Performance and QoS in Service-Based Systems

We present a systematic method of measuring performance risk for specific implementations of an Enterprise SOA within a Cloud computing framework. The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is determining performance baselines for distributed architectures that are internally organized using service interfaces. Such architectures are essential for highly reliable and life critical Cloud applications. We provide baseline performance for an architecture comprised of service components from the service interfaces provided by several major commercial software vendors. Transition from legacy systems into Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) systems necessitates an infrastructure of federated components. This paper documents a means to measure such an infrastructure. Baselines provide a foundation for assessment of future services including Quality of Service (QoS) contracts and assessment of fused web services within heterogeneous SOA or Cloud architectures.
Role of topiramate in adults with intractable epilepsy, mental retardation, and developmental disabilities

The efficacy and safety of topiramate in patients with intractable mixed seizures, mental retardation (MR), and developmental disabilities (DD) were investigated. Twenty patients (eight females and 12 males) aged 21-57 years old with intractable epilepsy with mixed seizures, MR [profound (five), severe (three), moderate (two), mild (eight) and borderline (two)], and DD were treated with adjunctive topiramate 25 mg per day for 1 week followed by titration to clinical response (range 50-350 mg per day). Other antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) were decreased simultaneously. Topiramate therapy was discontinued in four patients for adverse events consisting of disorientation, unsteadiness, and pneumonia (one patient); anaphylactic shock from a tuna fish allergy (one); patient choice (one); and loss to follow-up (one). Seizures improved by gt-or-equal, slanted 50% in 11 of 16 patients (69%). Two patients (13%) were seizure free, including one patient who prior to topiramate therapy was seizure free but experiencing an intolerable adverse effect during therapy with another AED. Seizure duration and/or severity decreased in seven patients (44%). An increase in alertness was observed in 11 patients (59%). Topiramate was associated with improvement in seizure severity and alertness in this series and may be useful as adjunctive therapy in patients with mixed seizures, MR, and DD.
The trend‐renewal process: a useful model for medical recurrence data

Time‐to‐event data analysis has a long tradition in applied statistics. Many models have been developed for data where each subject or observation unit experiences at most one event during its life. In contrast, in some applications, the subjects may experience more than one event. Recurrent events appear in science, medicine, economy, and technology. Often the events are followed by a repair action in reliability or a treatment in life science. A model to deal with recurrent event times for incomplete repair of technical systems is the trend‐renewal process. It is composed of a trend and a renewal component. In the present paper, we use a Weibull process for both of these components. The model is extended to include a Cox type covariate term to account for observed heterogeneity. A further extension includes random effects to account for unobserved heterogeneity. We fit the suggested version of the trend‐renewal process to a data set of hospital readmission times of colon cancer patients to illustrate the method for application to clinical data. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Analytical and Numerical Analysis of Matrix-Fracture Exchanges through Diffusion Mechanisms in Naturally Fractured Reservoirs

To model the behaviour of matrix/fracture exchanges in Naturally Fractured Reservoirs (NFRs) through dual-medium models, analytical transfer functions (TF) have been developed. Amongst those novel TFs, the General Transfer Function (GTF), developed by Lu et al. at Imperial College London in 2007, has been already validated for three main recovery mechanisms (gravity, capillarity and expansion). Within this paper, the behaviour of its diffusing term, inspired by Zimmerman et al. (1993) approach, was simulated and tested, to improve the accuracy of flow simulator for NFRs. For this validation we first checked the behaviour of an industrial flow simulator, on a fine grid, against an analytical solution for the diffusion process, in simple 1D conditions. This gave us our reference cases. The comparison study of analytical and numerical approaches, revealed differences between diffusion recovery through the GTF and the reference, with a diffusion speed slightly faster with the GTF at early and middle times. A good match was observed at late times in 1D. Meanwhile, an increase in speed was observed in 2D with the increase of the matrix size. A comparison with a commercial double-porosity simulator showed however that the GTF is worth being used instead of the standard TFs.
The north staffordshire maternity hospital prospective study of pregnancy-associated depression

The objective of the study was to establish the frequency of depression during pregnancy and the puerperium, and its relationship to marital disharmony and sociodemographic variables. A prospective longitudinal study was carried out in a district general hospital in the West Midlands, UK. The cohort consisted of 417 women booked for confinement at the hospital. Depression was measured as a proportion of high scores (> 14) on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and marital disharmony was determined by the Spanier Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Using recommended cut-offs, 41/417 (9.8%) of the women were depressed during pregnancy and 31/417 (7.4%) were depressed at 3 months postpartum. There was a significant association between antenatal and postnatal depression, seven of the 31 women who were depressed postpartum had also been depressed in the antenatal period. Only five of the 41 women with antenatal depression and eight of the 31 women with postnatal depression were identified by their general practitioners as depressed. Marital disharmony was sequentially associated with depression before and after delivery. We conclude that antenatal depression is more common than generally thought, and that both antenatal and postnatal depression are frequently missed during routine consultation. Pregnancy-associated depression is more common where marital disharmony exists. More widespread use of the Epds during pregnancy may help to highlight these often unidentified mental health problems.
A high power density soft switching bidirectional converter using unified resonant circuit

This paper proposes a high efficiency bi-directional converter with high power handling capability. Soft switching technique is endowed with all power switches by using an auxiliary unified resonant circuit. Zero voltage switching (ZVS) and zero current switching (ZCS) modes are implemented for all power switches in boost operation. For buck mode of operation, ZVS and ZCS are executed for most of the power switches. Voltage stresses for all of the power switches are significantly reduced. Additionally, the proposed converter has a high step up and step down gain compared to a conventional bi-directional converter. The circuit is simulated in PSPICE and performance parameters are measured and verified.
BEP Analysis for DF Cooperative Systems Combined with Signal Space Diversity

In fading channels, increasing diversity gains can effectively improve the reliability of transmissions. This letter considers high-order diversity acquisition by incorporating signal space diversity (SSD) into a decode-and-forward (DF) cooperative system. Our focus is on the bit error probability (BEP) analysis for this cooperative system. In particular, a tight closed-form upper bound on the end-to-end BEP is derived. Moreover, an asymptotic approximation for the BEP is presented which reveals that both the signal space diversity and the spatial diversity gains are achieved when all channels are available. Simulation results validate the theoretical analysis and show that a significant BEP gain over the traditional DF-based system is obtained at no additional power or bandwidth expense.
Expanded Terminal Fields of Gustatory Nerves Accompany Embryonic BDNF Overexpression in Mouse Oral Epithelia

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is expressed in gustatory epithelia and is required for gustatory neurons to locate and innervate their correct target during development. When BDNF is overexpressed throughout the lingual epithelium, beginning embryonically, chorda tympani fibers are misdirected and innervate inappropriate targets, leading to a loss of taste buds. The remaining taste buds are hyperinnervated, demonstrating a disruption of nerve/target matching in the tongue. We tested the hypothesis here that overexpression of BDNF peripherally leads to a disrupted terminal field organization of nerves that carry taste information to the brainstem. The chorda tympani, greater superficial petrosal, and glossopharyngeal nerves were labeled in adult wild-type (WT) mice and in adult mice in which BDNF was overexpressed (OE) to examine the volume and density of their central projections in the nucleus of the solitary tract. We found that the terminal fields of the chorda tympani and greater superficial petrosal nerves and overlapping fields that included these nerves in OE mice were at least 80% greater than the respective field volumes in WT mice. The shapes of terminal fields were similar between the two groups; however, the density and spread of labels were greater in OE mice. Unexpectedly, there were also group-related differences in chorda tympani nerve function, with OE mice showing a greater relative taste response to a concentration series of sucrose. Overall, our results show that disruption in peripheral innervation patterns of sensory neurons have significant effects on peripheral nerve function and central organization of their terminal fields.