Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cortisol, 11β-Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenases, and Hypertension

Hypersecretion of cortisol is associated with hypertension. In addition, an abnormal cortisol metabolism may play a role in the pathogenesis of hypertension. The 11 b -hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11 b -HSD) isozymes catalyze interconversion of cortisol and cortisone and play an important role in the regulation of the effects of cortisol. Activity of 11 b -HSD type 2, converting active cortisol in inactive cortisone, is crucial in preventing access of cortisol to the renal mineralocorticoid receptors (MRs). Decreased activity of this isozyme in the kidney, either congenitally in Apparent Mineralocorticoid Excess syndrome or acquired following licorice consumption, allows cortisol access to the MRs, resulting in hypokalemic hypertension. In normotensive subjects, an association has been demonstrated between blood pressure increase on a high-salt diet and a mild decrease of renal 11 b -HSD2 activity. In ectopic adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), plasma cortisol levels are very high, resulting in mineralocorticoid hypertension caused by saturation of the available renal 11 b -HSD2 capacity. Activity of the 11 b -HSDs has also been demonstrated in many extrarenal sites. Several studies have demonstrated extrarenal effects of cortisol on blood pressure, as well as a possible role for altered extrarenal 11 b - HSD activities in the pathogenesis of hypertension. More studies are needed to clarify the role of 11 b -HSDs in the pathogenesis of hypertension.
The Microvasculature in Insulin Resistance and Type 2 Diabetes

Insulin resistance of muscle has been attributed to impairment of elements of insulin signaling, glucose transport, and/or metabolism within the muscle cells. This article explores the notion that a component of insulin resistance in vivo may result from impaired hemodynamic effects of this hormone to facilitate access to the muscle cells for itself and other nutrients, including glucose. In chronic situations this may manifest as a decreased capillary density of muscle, but in the acute, there may be impaired mechanisms for increasing total limb blood flow or for achieving optimal microvascular perfusion. Newly developed techniques show that insulin acts to recruit muscle capillary flow to enhance microvascular perfusion in animals and humans. This microvascular effect of insulin correlates closely with muscle glucose uptake, is independent of increases in bulk blood flow, and is impaired in obese insulin-resistant patients. Similarly, there are impaired vasodilatory responses in the skin of diabetic subjects.
Average Consensus for Multi‐Agent System with Measurement Noise and Binary‐Valued Communication

This paper considers the average consensus problems of a class of multi‐agent systems (MAS) with binary‐valued communication. Each agent can only obtain its neighbor's binary‐valued information under measurement noise because of limited bandwidth in communication channels. To seek consensus, we propose a two‐scale multi‐agent consensus algorithm with distributed strategy by combining state estimation and control design alternately. An exponential step size is chosen in the state estimation process and the estimation method can be proved to be asymptotically efficient. Additionally, by utilizing a distributed control law designed based on the estimates of the neighbors' states with a constant gain, we further prove that the proposed average consensus algorithm is convergent. Furthermore, the proposed average consensus algorithm is given and proved. Finally, some simulation results, which illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained results, are also given in the paper.
Dietary Determinants of Plasma Homocysteine Concentrations

Severe hyperhomocysteinemia is typically caused by rare enzymatic defects or by renal failure. In contrast, mild to moderate hyperhomocysteinemia chieﬂy results from suboptimal status of nutritional factors involved in homocysteine metabolism. Low dietary intake of folate is the most important nutritional cause of elevated homocysteine (tHcy) concentrations. Folic acid is more effective than dietary folate in lowering tHcy concentrations, and a daily dose of 400 m g of folic acid is the minimum daily dose associated with the maximum tHcy-lowering effect ( (cid:1) 20–25% reduction). Mean fasting tHcy concentrations have dropped substantially in populations with mandatory folic acid fortiﬁcation, and other B-vitamins, such as vitamin B 12 , are important determinants of tHcy levels in this setting. Vitamins B 2 and B 6 have little inﬂuence on fasting tHcy concentrations, although the former may be relevant in individuals with the MTHFR 677 TT-genotype, and the latter may improve tHcy catabolism in elderly individuals. Betaine and choline can lower fasting tHcy concentrations to a similar extent as folic acid, particularly in the setting of a high intake of methionine. Consumption of tea and coffee increase tHcy concentrations by up to 20%. A high-protein meal also increases tHcy, but these changes are transient, and levels return to normal after an overnight fast. Serine and cystine also inﬂuence the methionine-induced postprandial rise in tHcy concentrations. In conclusion, alteration in dietary intake or use of folic acid supplements can substantially lower tHcy concentrations. However, it is not known whether lowering tHcy levels can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease or cognitive decline or prevent pregnancy complications or osteoporosis.
Polymer optical fiber specklegram strain sensor with extended dynamic range

Abstract. A polymer optical fiber strain sensor with extended dynamic range is reported. The proposed algorithm resets the reference fiber status depending on the magnitude of the specklegram deviation so the correlation coefficient never saturates, yielding a continuous response over the full range for both positive and negative strains. The technique was evaluated on the measurement of axial strains using a ZEONEX core, poly(methyl methacrylate) cladding multimode fiber, presenting reproducible results with 3 × 10 − 3 μϵ − 1 sensitivity (∼15 μϵ resolution) within a 22,600 μϵ interval. In contrast to the available approaches, the presented method can retrieve the strain direction and does not require intensive image processing, thus providing a simple and reliable technique for mechanical measurements using multimode optical fibers.
ALOE VERA IN PROTECTION OF ARSENIC TOXICITY

Concomitant oral supplementation of Aloe vera, (1, 2 or 5% w/v in drinking water) during arsenic exposure (0.2 mg/kg, intraperitoneally, once daily for 3 weeks) was investigated in rats for its protective value. Animals exposed to arsenic (III) showed a significant inhibition of δ-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD) activity, a marginal decrease in glutathione (GSH) and an increase in zinc protoporphyrin (ZPP) level in blood. White blood corpuscles (WBC) level decreased while most of the other clinical blood parameters like red blood cells count, haemoglobin, MCV, MCH, MCHC ratio and platelet number, etc. remained unaltered on arsenic exposure. Hepatic reduced GSH, oxidized glutathione (GSSG) level remained unaltered, thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) level increased significantly while the activity of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and catalase decreased on arsenic exposure. Renal GSH contents decreased while superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity decreased significantly on arsenic exposure. Concomitant administration of Aloe vera had remarkable protective action on inhibited blood ALAD activity and restored blood GSH level while most of the other blood biochemical parameters remained unchanged on Aloe vera supplementation. Interestingly, most of hepatic biochemical variables indicative of oxidative stress showed protection; no effect of Aloe vera on blood and liver arsenic concentration was noted. Also, no effect of Aloe vera on most of the altered renal biochemical parameters were noticed. The results thus lead us to conclude that simultaneous supplementation of Aloe vera protects against arsenic induced oxidative stress but does not influence the arsenic concentration in these organs. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The power of shaking hands

Hamiltonian paths By a Hamiltonian path in a graph G, we mean a path that visits every node exactly once. Here, we will be interested in Hamiltonian paths between to given nodes s and t (we ignore the direction in which the path is traversed and only consider the set of edges on the path). Not every graph has a Hamiltonian path, and it is NP-hard to decide if a given graph has a Hamiltonian path between two given nodes. However, if we have one such path, we can sometimes conclude that there must be another.
Estimation and prediction methods for univariate and bivariate cyclic longitudinal data using a semiparametric stochastic mixed effects model

In this thesis, I propose and consider inference for a semiparametric stochastic mixed model for bivariate longitudinal data; and provide a prediction procedure of a future cycle utilizing past cycle information. This thesis is built on the work of Zhang et al (1998) [45] and Zhang, Lin & Sowers (2000) [44]. However, the papers are missing big gaps in the theoretical results, are to be applied on univariate longitudinal data, and contain no coverage of prediction of future cycles. We fill in all the gaps in this thesis as well as consider real application of a dataset that contains bivariate longitudinal data. The proposed approach models the mean of outcome variables by parametric fixed effects and a smooth nonparametric function for the underlying time effects, and the relationship across the bivariate responses by a bivariate Gaussian random field and a joint distribution of random effects. The prediction approach is proposed from the frequentist prospective and a prediction density function with predictive intervals will be provided. Simulations studies are performed and a real application of a hormone dataset is considered.
Integral Homeopathy – Elements, Patterns, and Homeopathy

The emergence of Integral Homeopathy is made possible because of Scholtenʼs Element theory. His theory, from a developmental stance, has irrevocably changed homeopathy. It hauled homeopathy into the long overdue development as a science as well as initiated a paradigm shift in conceptualising remedy pictures. In that, the Element theory has taken homeopathy from the zero and first stage of science, since the days of Hahnemann, to the second stage in the classification of remedies – a monumental leap by any stretch of the imagination. In regard to its paradigmatic shift it liberated homeopathy from the confines of gathering symptoms derived from provings to understanding the remedy patterns by way of classifications. Hence, it provided the foundation formy expanding and evolving from the Classical homeopathyʼs focus on parts (Repertory/rubrics) to Pattern recognition (e.g. Element theory/psychological complexes).
Sperm motility in modulated microchannels

Sperm cells swim through the fluid by a periodic wave-like beating of their flagellum. At low Reynolds numbers and in confinement, the directed motion of sperm and other microswimmers is strongly influenced by steric and hydrodynamic wall interactions. We model sperm motility in mesoscale hydrodynamics simulations by imposing a planar traveling bending wave along the flagellum. Sperm are simulated swimming in curved, straight, shallow and zigzag-shaped microchannels. Changes in the sidewall modulations and the imposed beat pattern allow the identification of a strong dependence of the surface attraction on the beat-shape envelope of the sperm cell. For swimming in zigzag microchannels, the deflection-angle distribution at sharp corners is calculated and found to be in good agreement with recent microfluidic experiments. The simulations reveal a strong dependence of the deflection angle on the orientation of the beat plane with respect to the channel sidewall, and thus deepen the understanding of sperm navigation under strong confinement. Detachment of sperm, while swimming along curved walls, is dominated by the change of beat-plane orientation. Therefore, either the emergence of a nonplanar component of the flagellar beat with increasing wavelength or the strong confinement in shallow channels drastically increases wall attraction. Our simulation results reveal a consistent picture of passive sperm guidance that is dominated by the steric interactions of the beat pattern with the nearby surfaces.
Energy filtering in silicon nanowires and nanosheets using a geometric superlattice and its use for steep-slope transistors

This paper investigates energy filtering in silicon nanowires and nanosheets by resonant electron tunneling through a geometric superlattice. A geometric superlattice is any kind of periodic geometric feature along the transport direction of the nanowire or nanosheet. Multivalley quantum-transport simulations are used to demonstrate the manifestation of minibands and minibandgaps in the transmission spectra of such a superlattice. We find that the presence of different valleys in the conduction band of silicon favors a nanowire with a rectangular cross section for effective energy filtering. The obtained energy filter can consequently be used in the source extension of a field-effect transistor to prevent high-energy electrons from contributing to the leakage current. Self-consistent Schrodinger-Poisson simulations in the ballistic limit show minimum subthreshold swings of 6 mV/decade for geometric superlattices with indentations. The obtained theoretical performance metrics for the simulated devices are compared with conventional III-V superlatticeFETs and TunnelFETs. The adaptation of the quantum transmitting boundary method to the finite-element simulation of 3-D structures with anisotropic effective mass is presented in Appendixes A and B. Our results bare relevance in the search for steep-slope transistor alternatives which are compatible with the silicon industry and can overcome the power-consumption bottleneck inherent to standard CMOS technologies.This paper investigates energy filtering in silicon nanowires and nanosheets by resonant electron tunneling through a geometric superlattice. A geometric superlattice is any kind of periodic geometric feature along the transport direction of the nanowire or nanosheet. Multivalley quantum-transport simulations are used to demonstrate the manifestation of minibands and minibandgaps in the transmission spectra of such a superlattice. We find that the presence of different valleys in the conduction band of silicon favors a nanowire with a rectangular cross section for effective energy filtering. The obtained energy filter can consequently be used in the source extension of a field-effect transistor to prevent high-energy electrons from contributing to the leakage current. Self-consistent Schrodinger-Poisson simulations in the ballistic limit show minimum subthreshold swings of 6 mV/decade for geometric superlattices with indentations. The obtained theoretical performance metrics for the simulated devices are .
An approximate method for solving fractional optimal control problems by the hybrid of block‐pulse functions and Taylor polynomials

In this paper, an efficient and accurate computational method based on the hybrid of block‐pulse functions and Taylor polynomials is proposed for solving a class of fractional optimal control problems. In the proposed method, the Riemann‐Liouville fractional integral operator for the hybrid of block‐pulse functions and Taylor polynomials is given. By taking into account the property of this operator, the solution of fractional optimal control problems under consideration is reduced to a nonlinear programming one to which existing well‐developed algorithms may be applied. The present method applies to both fractional optimal control problems with or without inequality constraints. The method is computationally very attractive and gives very accurate results. Easy implementation and simple operations are the essential features of the proposed hybrid functions. Illustrative examples are given to assess the effectiveness of the developed approximation technique.
Bifurcation Analysis Applied to Structural Economic Dynamics with a Choice of Technique: A Numerical Example

This article illustrates the application of bifurcation analysis to structural economic dynamics with a choice of technique. A numerical example of the Samuelson-Garegnani model is presented in which technical progress is introduced. Examples of temporal paths through the parameter space illustrate variations of the wage frontier. A single technique is initially uniquely cost-minimizing for all feasible rates of profits. Eventually, the technique for which coefficients of production decrease at the fastest rate is always cost-minimizing. This example illustrates possible variations in the existence of Sraffa effects, which arise during the transition between these positions.
A concept of separated numerical formulations for the solution and evaluation of complex field problems

Nowadays, a variety of numerical methods and numerical formulations exits to solve complex or coupled field problems in three dimensions. Most of them are generally applicable to nearly arbitrary kind of field problems. On the other hand, some highly optimized methods are available, which are predestined for the solution of a specific kind of problem. Especially in the case of weakly coupled multiphysics problems, a mixture of several numerical methods is very advantages to benefit from different properties of numerical methods for diverse physical sub-problems. A very promising approach for a flexible coordination of the related solution process is the application of software agents. Then, the results of one sub-problem are converted into boundary values or volume source distributions for another sub-problem and software agents choose solution methods independently for each subproblem. Furthermore, two main aspects have to be considered in applications of numerical methods. First, the solution of a boundary value problem should be computed efficiently and second, the solution is evaluated for visualization and interpretation of obtained results. In practice, it is difficult to choose a single appropriate method, which is well suited both for the solution of a problem and its evaluation, since the demands differ in both cases. Here, a concept is presented to apply various numerical methods successfully to the solution and evaluation of complex field problems. Attention is mainly turned on the integration of boundary element methods into the concept of mixed numerical formulations.
Feature extraction from hyperspectral images using learned edge structures

ABSTRACT In this letter, a novel edge-preserving filtering based approach is proposed for feature extraction of hyperspectral images, which consists of the following steps. First, the dimension of the hyperspectral image is reduced with an averaging based method. Then, the resulting features are obtained by performing edge-preserving filtering on the dimension reduced image, in which a learned edge detection map serves as one of the major cues in the filtering process. The advantage of the proposed method is that it makes full use of the learned edge information in the feature extraction process, and thus, able to improve the performance with respect to other traditional feature extraction methods. Experiments on two real hyperspectral data sets demonstrate the outstanding performance of the proposed method especially when the number of training samples is limited.
An improved sequential minimization method for minimax design of stable IIR filters

In optimal designs of infinite impulse response (IIR) filters, a major challenge is how to choose proper stability constraints to insure the stability of the designed filters. A method was proposed in [12] to iteratively and sequentially convert the minimax design of an IIR filter to a sequence of minimax designs of sub-filters with second-order denominator, for which the necessary and sufficient stability triangles can be easily applied as their stability constraints. A defect of the method, however, is its long design time, mainly because each inner iteration may need several calls of the core convex subproblem solver. The method is improved in this paper by firstly converting the non-convex minimax designs of the sub-filters into convex ones with the first-order Taylor expansion based Gauss-Newton strategy and then reducing the number of convex sub-filter design problems to one in each inner iteration. Design examples show that the improved method may obtain comparable minimax error with much less iterations and much less design time.
Time and Space as Unpredictable Biological Constructions

Whatever we can say, we say in rhythms of symbols—e.g., words written as marks on paper. What a mark symbolizes to us or to other agents cannot be predicted on the basis of measurement and calculation. Without admitting any explicit notion of an agent, quantum theory implies a role for an unpredictable symbol-handling agent. To accept agents and symbols into physics is to see mechanisms, especially clocks, not in isolation but as tools that agents build and adjust as needed. We model a symbol-handling agent by combining a modified Turing machine with an adjustable clock, needed to allow communication of symbols from one agent to another. To communicate, agents must adjust their clocks so as to mesh their rhythms of operation. We call this meshing of rhythms logical synchronization and display its features. While symbols are digital, maintaining logical synchronization requires something analog, idiosyncratic, and unpredictable, beyond symbols. Our main claim is that logically synchronized rhythms of symbols need not be seen as taking place in some externally supplied “space and time,” but instead are the raw material out of which physicists construct time, space, and spacetime. We hypothesize that all living organisms employ logically synchronized rhythms of symbols. We invite collaboration to explore, in a variety of contexts for people and other living organisms, the situations involving logical synchronization of rhythms of symbols that differ from those used in physics. Accompanying such initial study, we would like to see the development of mathematical expressions of logical synchronization Journal of Cognitive Science 19-2:165-193, 2018 c2018 Institute for Cognitive Science, Seoul National University 166 John M. Myers, F. Hadi Madjid applicable to more complex cybernetic systems than those we discuss here.
Topographic Influence on the Motion of Tropical Cyclones Landfalling on the Coast of China

AbstractA few recent numerical studies investigated the influence of a continent, which is much larger in size than islands, on the track of a landfalling tropical cyclone. It has been found that land surface roughness and temperature tend to make a tropical cyclone move toward the continent. In this study, the effect of the elevated terrain on the western part of mainland China on landfall tracks is examined through idealized numerical experiments, in which an initially axisymmetric vortex is embedded into a monsoon trough and takes a landfall track across China’s mainland. It is found that the effect of the elevated terrain on the western part of mainland China can enhance the southerly environmental flows in the low and midtroposphere, leading to an additional landward component of tropical cyclone motion, suggesting that forecasts for tropical cyclone tracks over land should take into consideration the change in thermal condition over the continent. The study suggests that the increased duration of tr.