Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fingertip based heart beat monitoring system using embedded systems

In recent technological innovations in the field of disease prevention and maintenance of patient health have enabled the evolution of fields such as monitoring systems. Heart rate is a very vital health parameter that is directly related to the soundness of the human cardiovascular system. It can be measured either by the ECG waveform or by sensing the pulse — the rhythmic expansion and contraction of an artery as blood is forced through it by the regular contractions of the heart. The pulse can be felt from those areas where the artery is close to the skin. This paper describes a technique of measuring the heart rate through a fingertip and Arduino. It is based on the principal of Photo Phelthysmo Graphy (PPG) which is non-invasive method of measuring the variation in blood volume in tissue using a light source and detector. While the heart is beating, it is pumping blood throughout the body, and that makes the blood volume inside the finger artery to change too. This fluctuation of blood can be detected through an optical sensing mechanism placed around the fingertip. The signal can be amplified and is sent to Arduino with the help of serial port communication. With the help of processing software heart rate monitoring and counting is performed.
Precise Recovery of the Earth's Gravitational Field With GRACE: Intersatellite Range-Rate Interpolation Approach

First, a new observation equation of a satellite from the intersatellite range-rate interpolation approach (IRRIA) is created by inserting the precise intersatellite range-rate measurements into the line-of-sight component of the orbital velocity difference vector. Second, by a comparison of the two-point, four-point, six-point, and eight-point interpolation formulas, the accuracy of the Earth's gravitational field is substantially improved using the six-point IRRIA formula due to an optimum signal-to-noise ratio. Third, a new Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite-only Earth gravity field model WHIGG-GEGM02S is produced by GRACE-Level-1B real data during the year 2009 using the IRRIA, and the cumulative geoid height error and cumulative gravity anomaly error are 1.140 ×10-1 m and 1.807 ×10-6 m/s2 at degree 120, respectively. Finally, the new WHIGG-GEGM02S model is much closer to the existing GGM02S model by a comparison of the root mean square of the geoid height differences between the global positioning system/leveling observations and the existing seven GRACE global gravity field models.
Improved transient performance properties of distributed generation grid side converter current controller under grid voltage harmonic distortion and unbalanced faults

The fast and accurate control of renewable energy grid side converter (GSC) under normal and abnormal grid conditions is necessary to ensure the injection of high quality power and to enhance the power system stability. Accurate control of GSC is achieved by the stable and fast response of current and PQ controllers. In the event that the grid voltage becomes unbalanced due to the presence of grid harmonics or due to an unbalanced fault, the GSC should respond in such a way so as to inject balanced and harmonic free currents. If the inverter continues to generate a balanced harmonic free three-phase voltage, the resulting current will be unbalanced and harmonically distorted. It is therefore necessary to modify the three-phase voltage of GSC in accordance to grid disturbances. This paper proposes a current controller that improves the transient performance of the injected currents in the event of grid voltage harmonic distortion and unbalanced grid faults. The proposed harmonic neutralization current controller can inject high quality and pure sinusoidal positive sequence current accurately with faster harmonic compensation and improved dynamic response.
Ribosome-binding Domain of Eukaryotic Initiation Factor-2 Kinase GCN2 Facilitates Translation Control*

A family of protein kinases regulate translation initiation in response to cellular stresses by phosphorylation of eukaryotic initiation factor-2 (eIF-2). One family member from yeast, GCN2, contains a region homologous to histidyl-tRNA synthetases juxtaposed to the kinase catalytic domain. It is thought that uncharged tRNA accumulating during amino acid starvation binds to the synthetase-related sequences and stimulates phosphorylation of the α subunit of eIF-2. In this report, we define another domain in GCN2 that functions to target the kinase to ribosomes. A truncated version of GCN2 containing only amino acid residues 1467 to 1590 can independently associate with the translational machinery. Interestingly, this region of GCN2 shares sequence similarities with the core of the double-stranded RNA-binding domain (DRBD). Substitutions of the lysine residues conserved among DRBD sequences block association of GCN2 with ribosomes and impaired the ability of the kinase to stimulate translational control in response to amino acid limitation. Additionally, as found for other DRBD sequences, recombinant protein containing GCN2 residues 1467–1590 can bind double-stranded RNAin vitro, suggesting that interaction with rRNA mediates ribosome targeting. These results indicate that appropriate ribosome localization of the kinase is an obligate step in the mechanism leading to translational control by GCN2.
Measurements of Dielectric Constant of Volcanic Ash Erupted From Five Volcanoes in Japan

The dielectric properties of volcanic ash from five volcanoes in Japan were measured by using the transmission/reflection coaxial line method of a network analyzer, in a frequency range from 3 to 13 GHz. The measured permittivity of powdered ash was then converted to that of solid ash (dense rock equivalent) with the aid of effective medium theory. The values of solid-ash relative permittivities for the five volcanoes revealed that they were in a relatively narrow range. Their real part was generally in a range from five to six in magnitude, while their imaginary part was in a range from 0.08 to 0.18.
The whole iceberg: estimating the incidence of yellow fever virus infection from the number of severe cases.

BACKGROUND Like many infectious agents, yellow fever (YF) virus only causes disease in a proportion of individuals it infects and severe illness only represents the tip of the iceberg relative to the total number of infections, the more critical factor for virus transmission. METHODS We compiled data on asymptomatic infections, mild disease, severe disease (fever with jaundice or hemorrhagic symptoms) and fatalities from 11 studies in Africa and South America between 1969 and 2011. We used a Bayesian model to estimate the probability of each infection outcome. RESULTS For YF virus infections, the probability of being asymptomatic was 0.55 (95% credible interval [CI] 0.37-0.74), mild disease 0.33 (95% CI 0.13-0.52) and severe disease 0.12 (95% CI 0.05-0.26). The probability of death for people experiencing severe disease was 0.47 (95% CI 0.31-0.62). CONCLUSIONS In outbreak situations where only severe cases may initially be detected, we estimated that there may be between one and seventy infections that are either asymptomatic or cause mild disease for every severe case identified. As it is generally only the most severe cases that are recognized and reported, these estimates will help improve the understanding of the burden of disease and the estimation of the potential risk of spread during YF outbreaks.
Reproducibility and Validity of the 10-Meter Shuttle Ride Test in Wheelchair-Using Children and Adolescents With Cerebral Palsy

Background For children with cerebral palsy (CP) who are able to walk or run, the 10-m shuttle run test is currently the test of choice to assess cardiorespiratory fitness. This test, however, has not yet been examined in wheelchair-using youth with CP. Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the test-retest reproducibility and validity of the 10-m shuttle ride test (SRiT) in youth with CP. Design Repeated measurements of the SRiT were obtained. Methods Twenty-three individuals with spastic CP (18 boys, 5 girls; mean age=13.3 years, SD=3.6 years) using a manual wheelchair for at least part of the day participated in this study. During the study, all participants performed one graded arm exercise test (GAET) and 2 identical SRiTs within 2 weeks. Peak oxygen uptake (V̇o2peak), peak heart rate (HRpeak), and respiratory exchange ratio (RER) were recorded. Intraclass correlation coefficients (2,1), the smallest detectable difference, and the limits of agreement (LOA) were calculated. The association between the results of the SRiT and GAET was tested using Pearson correlation coefficients. Results Intraclass correlation coefficients (.99, 95% confidence interval=.98–1.00) for all variables indicated highly acceptable reproducibility. The LOA analysis revealed satisfactory levels of agreement. The SRiT variables demonstrated strong, significant positive correlations for V̇o2peak values obtained during the SRiT and the GAET (r=.84, P<.01). Limitations Although the GAET is considered the gold standard, the cardiorespiratory demand during the GAET was significantly lower compared with during the SRiT. Future studies should determine whether the GAET can still be accepted as the gold standard for upper-extremity exercise. Conclusions The SRiT is a reproducible and valid test for measuring cardiorespiratory fitness in youth with spastic CP who self-propel a manual wheelchair.
Nerve growth factor expression and innervation of the painful intervertebral disc

Following a previous description of nociceptive nerve fibre growth into usually aneural inner parts of painful intervertebral disc (IVD), this study has investigated whether nociceptive nerve ingrowth into painful IVD is stimulated by local production of neurotrophins. Immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization have been used to investigate expression of the candidate neurotrophin, nerve growth factor (NGF), and its high‐ and low‐affinity receptors trk‐A and p75, respectively, in painful IVD excised for the management of low back pain. IVD from patients with back pain were of two types: those that when examined by discography reproduced the patient symptoms (pain level IVD) and those that did not (non‐pain level IVD). Microvascular blood vessels accompanied nerve fibres growing into pain level IVD and these expressed NGF. The adjacent nerves expressed the high‐affinity NGF receptor trk‐A. These vessels entered the normally avascular IVD through the discal end plates. NGF expression was not identified in non‐pain level or control IVD. Some non‐pain level IVD had vessels within them, which entered through the annulus fibrosus. These did not express NGF nor did nerves accompany them. These findings show that nociceptive nerve ingrowth into painful IVD is causally linked with NGF production by blood vessels growing into the IVD, from adjacent vertebral bodies. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Robust RNA silencing-mediated resistance to Plum pox virus under variable abiotic and biotic conditions.

Some abiotic and biotic conditions are known to have a negative impact on post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS), thus representing a potential concern for the production of stable engineered virus resistance traits. However, depending on the strategy followed to achieve PTGS of the transgene, different responses to external conditions can be expected. In the present study, we utilized the Nicotiana benthamiana–Plum pox virus (PPV) pathosystem to evaluate in detail the stability of intron-hairpin(ihp)-mediated virus resistance under conditions known to adversely affect PTGS. The ihp plants grown at low or high temperatures were fully resistant to multiple PPV challenges, different PPV inoculum concentrations and even to a PPV isolate differing from the ihp construct by more than 28% at the nucleotide level. In addition, infections of ihp plants with viruses belonging to Cucumovirus, Potyvirus or Tombusvirus, all known to affect PTGS at different steps, were not able to defeat PPV resistance. Low temperatures did not affect the accumulation of transgenic small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), whereas a clear increase in the amount of siRNAs was observed during infections sustained by Cucumber mosaic virus and Potato virus Y. Our results show that the above stress factors do not represent an important concern for the production,through ihp-PTGS technology, of transgenic plants having robust virus resistance traits.
Towards Estimating the Upper Bound of Visual-Speech Recognition: The Visual Lip-Reading Feasibility Database

Speech is the most used communication method between humans and it involves the perception of auditory and visual channels. Automatic speech recognition focuses on interpreting the audio signals, although the video can provide information that is complementary to the audio. Exploiting the visual information, however, has proven challenging. On one hand, researchers have reported that the mapping between phonemes and visemes (visual units) is one-to-many because there are phonemes which are visually similar and indistinguishable between them. On the other hand, it is known that some people are very good lip-readers (e.g: deaf people). We study the limit of visual only speech recognition in controlled conditions. With this goal, we designed a new database in which the speakers are aware of being read and aim to facilitate lip-reading. In the literature, there are discrepancies on whether hearing-impaired people are better lip-readers than normal-hearing people. Then, we analyze if there are differences between the lip-reading abilities of 9 hearing-impaired and 15 normal-hearing people. Finally, human abilities are compared with the performance of a visual automatic speech recognition system. In our tests, hearing-impaired participants outperformed the normal-hearing participants but without reaching statistical significance. Human observers were able to decode 44% of the spoken message. In contrast, the visual only automatic system achieved 20% of word recognition rate. However, if we repeat the comparison in terms of phonemes both obtained very similar recognition rates, just above 50%. This suggests that the gap between human lip-reading and automatic speech-reading might be more related to the use of context than to the ability to interpret mouth appearance.
Crucial Fas–Fas ligand interaction in spontaneous acceptance of hepatic allografts in mice

The Fas/Fas ligand (FasL) system plays important roles in the immune system, including host immunoregulation and cytotoxicity. In this study, we investigated the involvement of Fas–FasL interactions in spontaneous acceptance of hepatic allografts in murine orthotopic liver transplantation. Liver transplantation between the C57BL/6 (B6, H‐2b) donor and the MRL/Mp (MRL, H‐2k) recipient was performed in various combinations of donor and recipient mice with wild type (+/+), Fas‐mutant (lpr) or FasL‐mutant (gld) genotypes. The prolongation and spontaneous acceptance of the fully allogeneic grafts in recipients was not observed in either MRL‐lpr recipients with B6+/+ livers or MRL+/+ recipients with B6‐gld livers. Moreover, the serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels and the degree of cell infiltration into hepatic allografts on day 7 after transplantation were inversely correlated with the recipient survival time (in days). The donor‐specific cytotoxic T‐lymphocyte (CTL) activities of the graft‐infiltrating cells (GICs) from MRL‐gld recipients with B6+/+ livers were much lower than those from MRL+/+ or ‐lpr recipients on days 5 and 10 after transplantation. However, the CTL activities of the GICs from MRL+/+ and ‐gld recipients predominately disappeared by day 15 after transplantation. Furthermore, the anti‐donor CTL activities induced in MRL+/+ recipients were ascribed to CD8+ cells, and were not mediated by Fas–FasL interactions. These results strongly suggest that the Fas/FasL system plays a critical role for recipient immunoregulation, enabling recipients in accepting hepatic allografts by deletion of the donor‐specific T cells, but not for CTL/target cell interaction in MRL+/+ recipients.
Effectiveness of Bone Marrow Stromal Cell Sheets in Maintaining Random-Pattern Skin Flaps in an Experimental Animal Model

Background: Bone marrow stromal cells can be applied therapeutically to enhance angiogenesis; however, the use of bone marrow stromal cell suspensions reduces efficiency because of low-level attachment. The authors hypothesized that bone marrow stromal cell sheets would facilitate cell fixation, thus enhancing angiogenesis. The authors investigated flap survival area and enhancement of angiogenic factors in a rat random-pattern skin flap model after application of bone marrow stromal cell sheets. Methods: Bone marrow stromal cell sheets (prepared from 7-week-old rat femurs) were cultured under four different hypoxic conditions. Sheets with the highest angiogenic potential, determined by an in vitro pilot study, were injected into subcutaneous layers of the rat dorsum (bone marrow stromal cell sheet group). A control group (phosphate-buffered saline only) was included. On day 2 after injection, caudally based random-pattern skin flaps (12 × 3 cm) were elevated. On day 7 after elevation, surviving skin flap areas were measured. Skin samples were harvested from each flap and gene expression levels of vascular endothelial growth factor and basic fibroblast growth factor were measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results: Skin flap survival area (71.6 ± 2.3 percent versus 51.5 ± 3.3 percent) and levels of vascular endothelial growth factor and basic fibroblast growth factor were significantly higher in the bone marrow stromal cell sheet group than in the control group (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Implantation of bone marrow stromal cell sheets increased the survival area of random-pattern skin flaps. Expression of angiogenic factors may have contributed to the increased flap survival.
In Vitro Sensitivity of Plasmodium falciparum Clinical Isolates from the China-Myanmar Border Area to Quinine and Association with Polymorphism in the Na+/H+ Exchanger

ABSTRACT Quinine resistance (QNR) in Plasmodium falciparum has been detected in many regions of the world where malaria is endemic. Genetic polymorphisms in at least four genes are implicated in QN susceptibility, and their significance often depends on the genetic background of the parasites. In this study, we have culture-adapted 60 P. falciparum clinical isolates from the China-Myanmar border and assessed their in vitro responses to QN. Our results showed that >50% of the parasite isolates displayed reduced sensitivity to QN, with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) above 500 nM. Genotyping of pfcrt found that an overwhelming proportion of the parasite population had the chloroquine-resistant genotype, whereas pfmdr1 mutation genotypes and gene amplification were rare. Genotyping of the P. falciparum Na+/H+ exchanger gene (pfnhe1) at the minisatellite ms4760 locus identified 10 haplotypes. Haplotype 7, which harbors three copies of the DNNND repeat, was the most predominant, accounting for nearly half of the parasite isolates. Correlation studies did not reveal significant associations of the polymorphisms in pfcrt and pfmdr1 genes with QN response. However, the ms4760 haplotypes were highly associated with in vitro QN responses. In particular, parasite isolates with an increased DNNND copy number tended to have significantly reduced QN susceptibility, whereas parasite isolates with a higher NHNDNHNNDDD copy number had increased QN susceptibility. This study provided further support for the importance of pfnhe1 polymorphisms in influencing QNR in P. falciparum.
Atherosclerosis development in apolipoprotein E-null mice deficient for CD69.

AIMS Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease regulated by immune mechanisms. CD69 is a cell surface receptor rapidly induced after leukocyte activation at sites of chronic inflammation. Genetic disruption of CD69 in the mouse aggravates collagen-induced arthritis (CIA), and partial depletion of CD69-expressing cells with anti-CD69 monoclonal antibody (mAb) prevents CIA development in wild-type mice, suggesting that this receptor negatively modulates immune and inflammatory responses. It has been recently reported that CD69 is upregulated in a large subset of T cells in atherosclerosis-prone apolipoprotein E-null mice (apoE(-/-)). In this study, we investigated whether altering CD69 function affects atherosclerosis development. METHODS AND RESULTS We studied native and diet-induced atherosclerosis in apoE(-/-) and doubly deficient apoE(-/-)CD69(-/-) mice and performed expression studies in tissues and primary cells derived from these animals. Plasma cholesterol level was unaffected by CD69 genetic inactivation. Although this genetic manipulation led to an elevated production of interferon gamma and interleukin 10 by activated T cells, apoE(-/-) and apoE(-/-)CD69(-/-) mice fed control and high-fat diet exhibited atheromas of similar size and composition when analysed at different stages of the disease. Likewise, anti-CD69 mAb treatment had no effect on plasma cholesterol and atherosclerosis burden in fat-fed apoE(-/-) mice. CONCLUSION In contrast to previous studies highlighting the protective function of CD69 against CIA, an autoimmune inflammatory disease, our results rule out a significant role for CD69 against atherosclerosis in apoE(-/-) mice, an experimental disease model featuring a local inflammatory response triggered and sustained by alterations in lipid homeostasis.
HPWM based control pulses generation for single phase qZSI using DSC

The paper presents the generation of hybrid pulse width modulation (HPWM) based control pulses for single phase quasi-Z-source inverter (qZSI) using digital signal controller (DSC). The converter is a single stage which can boost the input DC voltage and convert it to AC voltage. The qZSI can be proved as the best suited power converter topology for photovoltaic (PV) power generation system because of its low cost, compactness and reliability. The proposed qZSI is even superior to the traditional Z-source inverter (ZSI) with few more advantages such as reduced power loss, the quasi-Z-source inductance and capacitance which reduces the traces on the switches. The qZSI is having the capability of boosting the input DC voltage when it is less than the required instantaneous AC voltage. An effective control technique of combining sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM) and pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) is employed in qZSI. For experimental validation, PWM module of MICROCHIP DSC is used for generating these control pulses. The qZSI is controlled by PAM in order to boost the input DC voltage when the required instantaneous AC voltage is greater than input DC voltage. Whereas, SPWM operates the qZSI when the input DC voltage is greater than the required instantaneous AC voltage. The HPWM control scheme is validated by presenting the simulation results and the experimental results of control pulses obtained by using DSC in this paper.