Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Equivalent Circuit of a Novel Ultrasonic Motor

This paper presents an equivalent circuit of a novel ultrasonic stator and discusses its applications in evaluation of the stator's frequency characteristics. The equivalent circuit analysis is based on the principle of ultrasonic motor operations and is conducted from the viewpoint of the mechanic vibration of the piezoelectric ceramic disk. When an external electric field is applied on a piezoelectric ceramic disk, two equivalent vibrations will, one in the thickness direction and the other in the radial direction, be observed. However, when the thickness-to-radius ratio is very small, the extensional vibration in the thickness can be ignored. On the other hand, the tangential vibration and coupling vibration are induced due to the non-equal-triangular boundary condition of the stator. The two-dimensional equivalent circuit model for the new disc-type ultrasonic motor is derived based on the above considerations. The rotor is assumed as a rigid body, and its effect will be separately added into the equivalent circuit model. In this paper, the equivalent circuits are admittance-type expression of a piezoelectric stator and focused on the contacted point between the stator and the rotor with the most significant lateral elliptic motion effect
The management of herpes simplex virus infections

Herpes simplex virus persists in a latent form for the life of its host, periodically reactivating and often resulting in significant psychosocial distress for the patient. Currently no cure is available. Antiviral therapy is the main treatment modality, used either orally, intravenously, or topically to prohibit further replication of the virus and thereby minimize cellular destruction. However, immunologic advances in the treatment and prevention of herpes simplex infections are promising and continue to be studied.
Pulmonary dehydration and infection in cystic fibrosis: evidence that ethanol activates alginate gene expression and induction of mucoidy in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Mortality among cystic fibrosis (CF) patients is most commonly attributed to pulmonary infection by mucoid, alginate‐producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The initial infecting P. aeruginosa are typically non‐mucoid; however, upon continued exposure to the CF lung environment, they become highly mucoid. The CF lung is an osmotically high environment because of the presence of substantial concentrations of electrolytes and dehydrated mucus. In this report we demonstrate that ethanol (a commonly used dehydrating agent) activates transcription from a critical alginate promoter, algD, and show that prolonged exposure to ethanol allows switching to the mucoid form. This activation appears to be dependent on DNA gyrase. Analysis of alginate gene activation, and the subsequent reversal of the activation process by bacterial DNA gyrase inhibitors, should aid the development of treatment strategies for CF patients infected with this organism.
Synergism between Different Germinant Receptors in the Germination of Bacillus subtilis Spores

ABSTRACT Rates of commitment to germinate and germination of Bacillus subtilis spores with mixtures of low concentrations of germinants acting on different germinant receptors (GRs) were much higher than the sums of the rates of commitment and germination with individual germinants alone. This synergism with mixtures of nutrient germinants was not seen with spores lacking GRs responsible for recognizing one or several components of the germinant mixtures and was not eliminated by either a gerD mutation or overexpression of one of the GRs involved in this synergism. This synergism was also not seen between the germinant l-valine, which acts via a GR, and the germinant dodecylamine, which does not act via any GR. These results indicate that spores not only integrate but can also amplify signals from multiple germinants and multiple GRs in determining rates of commitment and overall spore germination. This amplification can be explained by a simple mechanism in which a single signal integrator triggers germination above an accumulation threshold. Direct cooperative action between GRs may further add to the synergism seen in germination triggered by multiple GRs. Further experiments and modeling are required to determine the relative contributions of these different mechanisms.
Interleukin-4 Induces Senescence in Human Renal Carcinoma Cell Lines through STAT6 and p38 MAPK*

Background: IL-4 can directly inhibit growth of several tumor cell types, but the molecular mechanism is not known. Results: IL-4 induces senescence by increasing p21WAF1/CIP1 expression through STAT6 and p38 MAPK. Conclusion: STAT6 and p38 MAPK play important roles in senescence induction by IL-4. Significance: This is the first report of cellular senescence induction by IL-4 and the responsible mechanism. Interleukin (IL)-4, originally identified as a lymphocyte growth factor, can directly inhibit growth of certain tumor cell types. We reported previously that IL-4 induced cell cycle arrest in G1 phase through an increase in p21WAF1/CIP1 expression in human renal cell carcinoma (RCC) cell lines. In the present study, we investigated the underlying mechanism of IL-4-induced growth inhibition. In four of six human RCC cell lines, including Caki-1, A498, SNU482, and SNU228, IL-4 induced cellular senescence as demonstrated by enlarged and flattened morphology, increased granularity, and senescence-associated-β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal) staining. Signal tranducer and activator of transcription 6 (STAT6) and p38 MAPK were found to mediate IL-4-induced growth inhibition and cellular senescence. Both of these molecules were activated by 10 min after IL-4 treatment, and inhibition of their activity or expression prevented growth suppression and cellular senescence induced by IL-4. Inhibiting or silencing either STAT6 or p38 MAPK alone partially reduced the effect of IL-4, whereas inhibiting or silencing both molecules exerted an additive effect and almost completely abrogated the effect of IL-4. Thus STAT6 and p38 MAPK appeared to independently mediate IL-4-induced growth inhibition and cellular senescence. The p21WAF1/CIP1 up-regulation that accompanied growth inhibition and cellular senescence by IL-4 was also attenuated additively when p38 MAPK and STAT6 were silenced. Taken together, these results show that IL-4 induces cellular senescence through independent signaling pathways involving STAT6 and p38 MAPK in some human RCC cell lines.
Hourly demand response in day-ahead scheduling for managing the variability of renewable energy

This study proposes a stochastic optimisation model for the day-ahead scheduling in power systems, which incorporates the hourly demand response (DR) for managing the variability of renewable energy sources (RES). DR considers physical and operating constraints of the hourly demand for economic and reliability responses. The proposed stochastic day-ahead scheduling algorithm considers random outages of system components and forecast errors for hourly loads and RES. The Monte Carlo simulation is applied to create stochastic security-constrained unit commitment (SCUC) scenarios for the day-ahead scheduling. A general-purpose mixed-integer linear problem software is employed to solve the stochastic SCUC problem. The numerical results demonstrate the benefits of applying DR to the proposed day-ahead scheduling with variable RES.
ORGANIZACION FRACTAL, LA GERENCIA Y EL APRENDIZAJE ORGANIZACIONAL: ALGUNAS REFLEXIONES

Este ensayo; tiene por objetivo; analizar la influencia y pertinencia del enfoque fractal: (a): en las organizaciones y su aprendizaje, (b): en el rol de la gerencia, para la solucion de dilemas de gestion aplicables a las estrategias y politicas de marketing, finanzas y la gestion de personas. La metodologia esta basada en una revision reflexiva de la literatura, complementada con una evaluacion de la evidencia empirica pertinente. Desde la perspectiva fractal, se justifica revisar el rol de la gerencia y sus paradigmas; de manera que la organizacion pueda lograr capacidades efectivas de “aprender a aprender”, como un medio para lograr ventajas competitivas estables en contextos complejos. -
Relación entre las Bases Neurobiológicas de las Adicciones a Sustancias y las Tecnoadicciones

Las tecnoadicciones hacen referencia al uso patologico o la dependencia de las tecnologias de la informacion y comunicacion. Es una adiccion comportamental que genera fenomenos de tolerancia y abstinencia similares a los producidos por abuso de sustancias, por lo cual podrian compartir centros de recompensa. Es escasa la investigacion respecto a las bases neurobiologicas de dicha problematica. Objetivos: Se busca valorar si los circuitos de recompensa implicados en tecnoadicciones podrian ser similares a los observados en las adicciones a sustancias. Metodologia: Se realiza una revision bibliografica de las adicciones comportamentales, focalizada en las tecnoadicciones, las bases neurobiologicas de las adicciones a sustancias y de la ludopatia (categoria incluida en adicciones comportamentales). Para ello se realizaron busquedas en Google Scholar y se seleccionaron los 19 trabajos mas afines a la tematica por sus palabras claves. Resultados y Discusion: La evidencia sugiere que en las adicciones a sustancias se genera hipersecrecion dopaminergica en el area tegmental ventral y diversas areas mesolimbicas. Estas respuestas se observan tambien en diferentes adicciones comportamentales, particularmente en la ludopatia. Estos trabajos dan apoyo a la hipotesis que los centros de recompensa presentes en las adicciones a las tecnologias serian analogos a los existentes en la ludopatia y por ende tambien a las adicciones a sustancia. Se destaca que esta area aun no posee evidencia directa, por lo cual es un terreno fertil para la investigacion a futuro.
Strategic GHG reduction through the use of ground source heat pump technology

Higher energy prices and concern about climate change is drawing increasing attention to ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems. Their clear advantage lies in being able to provide heating using 25 to 30% of the energy consumed by even the most efficient conventional alternatives. Their drawback has been high capital costs and uncertainty about whether the emissions associated with the electric power used to energise the system has higher system-wide emissions than the highest-efficiency furnaces. This study delineates circumstances under which GSHP systems achieve net emission reductions, for different electricity generation methods, heat pump efficiencies, and heating loads. We illustrate the effect of relative fuel prices on annual operating savings using fuel prices in multiple countries. Annual operating savings determine how rapidly the technology achieves payback and then generates return on the initial capital investment. Finally, we highlight the least cost supply curve for using GSHP to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Using the United States as a base reference case, this study explores the potential of GSHP in cold-climate countries worldwide.
Requirement for Vibrio cholerae Integration Host Factor in Conjugative DNA Transfer

ABSTRACT The requirement for host factors in the transmission of integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs) has not been extensively explored. Here we tested whether integration host factor (IHF) or Fis, two host-encoded nucleoid proteins, are required for transfer of SXT, a Vibrio cholerae-derived ICE that can be transmitted to many gram-negative species. Fis did not influence the transfer of SXT to or from V. cholerae. In contrast, IHF proved to be required for V. cholerae to act as an SXT donor. In the absence of IHF, V. cholerae displayed a modest defect for serving as an SXT recipient. Surprisingly, SXT integration into or excision from the V. cholerae chromosome, which requires an SXT-encoded integrase related to λ integrase, did not require IHF. Therefore, the defect in SXT transmission in the V. cholerae IHF mutant is probably not related to IHF's ability to promote DNA recombination. The V. cholerae IHF mutant was also highly impaired as a donor of RP4, a broad-host-range conjugative plasmid. Thus, the V. cholerae IHF mutant appears to have a general defect in conjugation. Escherichia coli IHF mutants were not impaired as donors or recipients of SXT or RP4, indicating that IHF is a V. cholerae-specific conjugation factor.
Phosphoinositide 3‐kinases in cell migration

Cell migration is essential for many biological processes in animals and is a complex highly co‐ordinated process that involves cell polarization, actin‐driven protrusion and formation and turnover of cell adhesions. The PI3K (phosphoinositide 3‐kinase) family of lipid kinases regulate cell migration in many different cell types, both through direct binding of proteins to their lipid products and indirectly through crosstalk with other pathways, such as Rho GTPase signalling. Emerging evidence suggests that the involvement of PI3Ks at different stages of migration varies even within one cell type, and is dependent on the combination of external stimuli, as well as on the signalling status of the cell. In addition, it appears that different PI3K isoforms have distinct roles in cell polarization and migration. This review describes how PI3K signalling is regulated by pro‐migratory stimuli, and the diverse ways in which PI3K‐mediated signal transduction contributes to different aspects of cell migration.
Semantic Knowledge of Famous People in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Progression to Alzheimer’s Disease

Patients with dementia of Alzheimer’s type (DAT) show severe impairment in recognizing famous people. The aim of the current study was to investigate if this well-known memory impairment of famous faces is already present in the preclinical phase of DAT and if the famous faces test can help to differentiate patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) who progress to dementia and those who do not. We compared baseline performance in a task of famous face identification in a sample of 116 patients with subjective memory complaints classified in three groups: 17 participants with no evidence of cognitive impairment; 26 patients with MCI who had not developed dementia, and 27 patients with MCI who had developed probable DAT 2 years later. The remaining patients were excluded because they abandoned or did not meet the applied restrictive criteria for DAT, MCI or control. MCI patients who were diagnosed 2 years later with DAT performed significantly worse in the preclinical phase than MCI and control participants (p < 0.004). Patients with MCI but not DAT obtained intermediate results between control subjects and MCI patients who develop Alzheimer’s disease. A neuropsychological task of semantic knowledge of famous people may be useful in the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
Evaluating CLB designs under multiple SETs in SRAM-based FPGAs

Defects as well as soft errors are a growing concern in micro and nanoelectronics. Multiple faults induced by single event effects are expected to be seen more often. Thus, reliability has become an important design criterion. In this context, we are concerned about the susceptibility of SRAM-based FPGA's logic blocks to multiple single event transients. Our target is to select the most reliable CLB design among different architectures of hardened CLBs, under the constraint of limited overheads. After synthesizing the candidate CLB architectures in STM 65nm CMOS technology, we compare them in terms of logical masking and reliability, and evaluate their area, time and power overheads. The most reliable CLB design is selected according to a metric expressing the tradeoff between the reliability gain and the cost penalties.
The First Minds

The book presents a novel theory of the origins of mind and consciousness dubbed the Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC). It argues that sentience emerged with life itself. The most primitive unicellular species of bacteria are conscious, though it is a sentience of a primitive kind. They have minds, though they are tiny and limited in scope. There is nothing even close to this thesis in the current literature on consciousness. Hints that cells might be conscious can be found in the writings of a few cell biologists, but a fully developed theory has never been put forward before. Other approaches to the origins of consciousness are examined and shown to be seriously or fatally flawed, specifically ones based on: (a) the assumption that minds are computational and can be captured by an artificial intelligence (AI), (b) efforts to discover the neurocorrelates of mental experiences, the so-called Hard Problem, and (c) looking for consciousness in less complex species by identifying those that possess precursors of those neurocorrelates. Each of these approaches is shown to be either essentially impossible (the AI models) or so burdened by philosophical and empirical difficulties that they are effectively unworkable. The CBC approach is developed using standard models of evolutionary biology. The remarkable repertoire of single-celled species that micro- and cell-biologists have discovered is reviewed. Bacteria, for example, have sophisticated sensory and perceptual systems, learn, form memories, make decisions based on information about their environment relative to internal metabolic states, communicate with one another, and even show a primitive form of altruism. All such functions are indicators of sentience. Conversations with a caterpillar function as a literary vehicle Finally, the implications of the CBC model are discussed along with a number of related issues in evolutionary biology, philosophy of mind, the possibility of sentient plants, the ethical repercussions of universal animal sentience, and the long-range impact of adopting the CBC stance.
Pharmacological strategies for the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease

This review examines key pharmacological strategies that have been clinically studied for the primary or secondary prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. Much information (neuropsychological, genetic and imaging) is already available to characterise an individual’s risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. However, regulatory pathways for obtaining a prevention indication are less well charted, and such trials tend to involve 3- to 7-year studies of 1000 – 5000 individuals, depending on baseline status. Treatments developed for prevention will also need to have superior safety. For these reasons, > 100 proprietary pharmacological products are currently being developed for an Alzheimer’s disease treatment, but only a few are being studied for prevention. Randomised trial data are available for antihypertensive agents (calcium channel blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors), pravastatin, simvastatin, conjugated oestrogen, raloxifene, rofecoxib, CX516 (AMPA agonist) and cholinesterase inhibitors regarding efficacy for Alzheimer’s disease prevention. At least four large prevention trials of conjugated oestrogen, selenium and vitamin E, Ginkgo biloba and statins are currently underway. Strategies using other agents have not yet been evaluated in Alzheimer’s disease prevention clinical trials. These include anti-amyloid antibodies, active immunisation, selective secretase inhibitors and modulators, microtubule stabilisers (e.g., paclitaxel), R-flurbiprofen, xaliproden, ONO-2506, FK962 (somatostatin releaser), SGS 742 (GABAB antagonist), TCH 346 (apoptosis inhibitor), Alzhemed™, phophodiesterase inhibitors, rosiglitazone, leuprolide, interferons, metal-protein attenuating compounds (e.g., PBT2), CX717, rasagaline, huperzine A, antioxidants and memantine. Studies combining lifestyle modification and drug therapy have not been conducted. Full validation of surrogate markers for disease progression (such as amyloid imaging) should further facilitate drug development. Reducing the complexity of prevention trials and gaining regulatory consensus of design is a high priority for the field.
Modulating tone: the overture of S1P receptor immunotherapeutics

Summary: Modulation of complex functions within the immune system has proven to be surprisingly sensitive to alterations in the lysophospholipid sphingosine 1‐phosphate (S1P) receptor‐ligand rheostat. This has become increasingly evident from both chemical and genetic manipulation of the S1P system, with pharmacological effects upon lymphoid cells, dendritic cell function, as well as vascular interfaces. The integrated immune system, perhaps as a result of its relatively recent evolutionary ontogeny, has selected for a number of critical control points regulated by five distinct high affinity G‐protein‐coupled receptor subtypes with a shared ligand, with receptors distributed on lymphocytes, dendritic cells, and endothelium. All of these cellular components of the axis are capable of modulating immune responses in vivo, with the impact on the immune response being very different from classical immunosuppressants, by virtue of selective spatial and temporal sparing of humoral and myeloid elements of host defense. Pharmacological subversion of the S1P rheostat is proving to be clinically efficacious in multiple sclerosis, and both the scope and limitations of therapeutic modulation of the S1P axis in immunotherapy are becoming clearer as understanding of the integrated chemical physiology of the S1P system emerges.
Perception of Severity of Disease and Health Locus of Control in Compliant and Noncompliant Diabetic Patients

Compliant and noncompliant obese, non-insulin-dependent diabetic subjects were assessed using a variety of demographic variables, the health locus of control scale (HLC), and the perception of severity of disease index based on the health belief model. The compliant subjects were significantly older and viewed their illness as significantly more severe than the noncompliant patients. Additionally, they tended to exhibit more of an internal locus of control than the noncompliant patients.
Anatomy of herpes simplex virus DNA. XI. Apparent clustering of functions effecting rapid inhibition of host DNA and protein synthesis

Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) strains inhibit the synthesis of both DNA and protein of the host cell more rapidly than HSV-1 strains. Several intertypic HSV-1 X HSV-2 recombinants and parental strains were examined for their ability to inhibit rapidly the synthesis of host protein and DNA. The two functions cosegregated in all of eight recombinants tested and are therefore controlled by the same gene or by different genes in the same region of the viral DNA.
Hope, recovery and symptoms: the importance of hope for people living with severe mental illness

Objectives: Hope is an important part of recovery from severe mental illness. Our aim was to assess hope and its correlation with symptoms in people living with severe mental illness. Methods: We used validated questionnaires to assess hope, social isolation, quality of life and symptoms among 60 people living with severe mental illness. Results: Hope scores were significantly lower than those reported for many community groups. There was a negative association between psychiatric symptoms and levels of hope. Conclusions: Some people living with enduring severe mental illness in the Australian community feel hopeless. Being hopeful and initiating recovery are evidently difficult when symptoms remain severe. Appropriate acknowledgement and support for patients and their families is required.