Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Early Steps towards Hearing: Placodes and Sensory Development

Sensorineural hearing loss is the most prevalent sensory deficit in humans. Most cases of hearing loss are due to the degeneration of key structures of the sensory pathway in the cochlea, such as the sensory hair cells, the primary auditory neurons, and their synaptic connection to the hair cells. Different cell-based strategies to replace damaged inner ear neurosensory tissue aiming at the restoration of regeneration or functional recovery are currently the subject of intensive research. Most of these cell-based treatment approaches require experimental in vitro models that rely on a fine understanding of the earliest morphogenetic steps that underlie the in vivo development of the inner ear since its initial induction from a common otic–epibranchial territory. This knowledge will be applied to various proposed experimental cell replacement strategies to either address the feasibility or identify novel therapeutic options for sensorineural hearing loss. In this review, we describe how ear and epibranchial placode development can be recapitulated by focusing on the cellular transformations that occur as the inner ear is converted from a thickening of the surface ectoderm next to the hindbrain known as the otic placode to an otocyst embedded in the head mesenchyme. Finally, we will highlight otic and epibranchial placode development and morphogenetic events towards progenitors of the inner ear and their neurosensory cell derivatives.
Immunomodulatory Properties of Probiotics and Their Derived Bioactive Compounds

Immune system modulation is an intriguing part of scientific research. It is well established that the immune system plays a crucial role in orchestrating cellular and molecular key mediators, thus establishing a powerful defense barrier against infectious pathogens. Gut microbiota represent a complex community of approximately a hundred trillion microorganisms that live in the mammalian gastrointestinal (GI) tract, contributing to the maintenance of gut homeostasis via regulation of the innate and adaptive immune responses. However, impairment in the crosstalk between intestinal immunity and gut microbiota may reflect on detrimental health issues. In this context, many studies have indicated that probiotics and their bioactive compounds, such as bacteriocins and short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), display distinct immunomodulatory properties through which they suppress inflammation and enhance the restoration of microbial diversity in pathological states. This review highlights the fundamental features of probiotics, bacteriocins, and SCFAs, which make them ideal therapeutic agents for the amelioration of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. It also describes their underlying mechanisms on gut microbiota modulation and emphasizes how they influence the function of immune cells involved in regulating gut homeostasis. Finally, it discusses the future perspectives and challenges of their administration to individuals.
Oxidative Stress, Inflammation and Colorectal Cancer: An Overview

Colorectal cancer (CRC) represents the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The pathogenesis of CRC is a complex multistep process. Among other factors, inflammation and oxidative stress (OS) have been reported to be involved in the initiation and development of CRC. Although OS plays a vital part in the life of all organisms, its long-term effects on the human body may be involved in the development of different chronic diseases, including cancer diseases. Chronic OS can lead to the oxidation of biomolecules (nucleic acids, lipids and proteins) or the activation of inflammatory signaling pathways, resulting in the activation of several transcription factors or the dysregulation of gene and protein expression followed by tumor initiation or cancer cell survival. In addition, it is well known that chronic intestinal diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are associated with an increased risk of cancer, and a link between OS and IBD initiation and progression has been reported. This review focuses on the role of oxidative stress as a causative agent of inflammation in colorectal cancer.
Quantitative methods for molecular ultrasound imaging

Molecular ultrasound imaging is used to image the expression of specific proteins on the surface of blood vessels using the conjugated microbubbles (MBs) that can bind to the targeted proteins, which makes MBs ideal for imaging the protein expressed on blood vessels. However, how to optimally apply MBs in an ultrasound imaging system to detect and quantify the targeted protein expression needs further investigation. To address this issue, objective of this study is to investigate feasibility of developing and applying a new quantitative imaging marker to quantify the expression of protein markers on the surface of cancer cells. To obtain a numeric value proportional to the amount of MBs that bind to the target protein, a standard method for quantification of MBs is applying a destructive pulse, which bursts most of the bubbles in the region of interest. The difference between the signal intensity before and after destruction is used to measure the differential targeted enhancement (dTE). In addition, a dynamic kinetic model is applied to fit the timeintensity curves and a structural similarity model with three metrics is used to detect the differences between images. Study results show that the elevated dTE signals in images acquired from the targeted (MBTar) and isotype (MBIso) are significantly different (p<0.05). Quantitative image features are also successfully computed from the kinetic model and structural similarity model, which provide potential to identify new quantitative image markers that can more accurately differentiate the targeted microbubble status.
True Random Number Generator based on Voltage-Gated Spintronic structure

On-chip True Random Number Generator (TRNG) forms an integral part of a number of cryptography systems in multi-core processors and communication networks. TRNGs are also used in deep learning and neural network platforms for power efficient computations. Conventional TRNGs are implemented using artificially created thermal agitations in CMOS circuits, comparators, and shift registers but have high power dissipation and a large area overhead. Several magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) based TRNG designs in literature employ current control and post-process approaches to generate random numbers. Though these TRNG designs perform well in terms of leakage power, speed and density, they require a high switching current that leads to high energy dissipation during writes. Further, post-processing circuitry for improving the quality of randomness leads to power and area overheads. To address these challenges, the paper proposes a TRNG design based on ultra low power consuming Voltage-Gated Spin Orbit Torque (VGSOT) MTJs. The thermal stability $(\Delta)$ values of the VGSOT-MTJ is tuned to enhance it randomness making it suitable for TRNG applications. The quality of the output bitstream generated by the proposed TRNG design is found to be truly random when evaluated using the test provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Statistical analysis through histogram and autocorrelation plots also indicate that the generated random numbers are independent and non-correlated. The proposed TRNG design has an average increase of 50% in bitstream generation speed. The TRNG generates better random numbers by consuming only 9% of the energy consumed by CMOS-TRNG. It also has an area reduction of 60% compared to conventional CMOS-based TRNG design.
Performance Characterisation of Long Distance 7-Core MCF Transmission with Crosstalk Reducing Bidirectional Assignment

We experimentally evaluate the transmission performance of a long-distance multi-core fiber link with a bidirectional assignment of the 7 cores. We show a reduction of inter-core crosstalk when benchmarking against a fully co-propagating system and extended reach to 5600km with SNR above the 7% FEC threshold.
Poly-(lactic-co-glycolic acid) /poly-(vinyl alcohol) and cobalt ferrite magnetic nanoparticles as vanillin carriers

ABSTRACT Besides being known by food and perfume industries, vanillin has also important pharmacological properties such as anti-inflammatory and antibacterial activities. The use of magnetic nanoparticles as carriers for a vanillin delivery system is a way to explore its benefits in human beings. In this paper, poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles stabilized by poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and containing magnetic CoFe2O4 and vanillin have been prepared using a double emulsion-solvent evaporation method. The morphology, particle size, structure, and surface properties of the nanoparticles were investigated by transmission electron microscopy, zeta-potential measurements, X-ray diffractometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, magnetic hysteresis loops, and thermogravimetric analysis. The spherical nanoparticles presented negative charge, with zeta-potential values ranging from −9.15 to −5.64 mV, high thermal stability, superparamagnetic properties, and excellent encapsulation of the vanillin (around 80%). Accordingly, such PLGA/PVA nanoparticles encapsulating vanillin and CoFe2O4 exhibited the desired features to suggest their potential use as drug delivery systems. Highlights PLGA/PVA nanoparticles with CoFe2O4 were synthesized for the targeted delivery of vanillin. The spherical nanoparticles presented negative zeta-potential ranging from −9.15 to −5.64 mV. Encapsulation promoted an increased release rate of vanillin. Analytical validation was used for vanillin quantification.
Recent Advances in Nanoparticle Development for Drug Delivery: A Comprehensive Review of Polycaprolactone-Based Multi-Arm Architectures

Controlled drug delivery is a crucial area of study for improving the targeted availability of drugs; several polymer systems have been applied for the formulation of drug delivery vehicles, including linear amphiphilic block copolymers, but with some limitations manifested in their ability to form only nanoaggregates such as polymersomes or vesicles within a narrow range of hydrophobic/hydrophilic balance, which can be problematic. For this, multi-arm architecture has emerged as an efficient alternative that overcame these challenges, with many interesting advantages such as reducing critical micellar concentrations, producing smaller particles, allowing for various functional compositions, and ensuring prolonged and continuous drug release. This review focuses on examining the key variables that influence the customization of multi-arm architecture assemblies based on polycaprolactone and their impact on drug loading and delivery. Specifically, this study focuses on the investigation of the structure–property relationships in these formulations, including the thermal properties presented by this architecture. Furthermore, this work will emphasize the importance of the type of architecture, chain topology, self-assembly parameters, and comparison between multi-arm structures and linear counterparts in relation to their impact on their performance as nanocarriers. By understanding these relationships, more effective multi-arm polymers can be designed with appropriate characteristics for their intended applications.
Infrared Target Detection Based on the Fusion of Attention Mechanism and YOLOv5

Infrared images have the characteristics of strong anti-interference ability and all-weather work, and are used in many fields. This paper improves the infrared target detection based on the YOLOv5 deep learning algorithm. Since the attention mechanism has the function of ignoring irrelevant information and focusing on key information, this paper integrates the attention mechanism with the YOLOv5 algorithm to improve the feature extraction ability of the algorithm. Increase the multi-scale detection strategy; this paper conducts experiments on the public infrared data set. The test results show that the YOLOv5 algorithm based on the fusion of attention mechanism and multi-scale detection improves the target detection accuracy by 3.2%, and also has good performance in small infrared target detection.
Design Method of High-speed MUTC Photodiodes for Terahertz Applications

A novel design method of modified uni-traveling-carrier photodiodes for terahertz wave generation is proposed. Both hole and electron transport in photodiodes are considered in the design method to realize high-speed and high-power performance. The simulated 3 dB bandwidth reaches 217 GHz, and the output power reaches 15.8 dBm, 13.7 dBm, and 11.2 dBm at 100 GHz, 200 GHz, and 300 GHz, respectively.
A survey on cloud security threats using Deep learning algorithms

Enterprises have transformed to the usage of Cloud computing technology as it provides facilities for storage, infrastructure and software's on demand. Huge amount of confidential data is stored in cloud. The popularity of cloud computing has increased rapidly due to this the main concern is security for data. These data are vulnerable to different types of attacks. One of the way to handle security is using deep learning(DL) algorithms. DL algorithms are used in various ways to detect and prevent the threat. This survey is a systematical analyze of 25 relevant research articles on various cloud computing threats, which has incorporated deep learning algorithms to detect them. The results of the study are categorized into three main research areas: i) various cloud security threats, ii) deep learning algorithms used to overcome the threat, iii) performance measure and dataset used. 5 threats are defined and the most vulnerable cloud security threat is denial of service and distributed denial of service with 43% of detection. 9 deep learning algorithms are used in standalone and hybrid mode for detection of threat. Moreover 9 evaluation metrics are enumerated. In the last from the 6 dataset which is found in the relevant studies NSL-KDD is the most used.
A Straightforward Method for the Development of Positively Charged Gold Nanoparticle-Based Vectors for Effective siRNA Delivery

The therapeutic potential of short interfering RNA (siRNA) to treat many diseases that are incurable with traditional preparations is limited by the extensive metabolism of serum nucleases, low permeability through biological membrane barriers because of a negative charge, and endosomal trapping. Effective delivery vectors are required to overcome these challenges without causing unwanted side effects. Here, we present a relatively simple synthetic protocol to obtain positively charged gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with narrow size distribution and the surface modified with Tat-related cell-penetrating peptide. The AuNPs were characterized using TEM and the localized surface plasmon resonance technique. The synthesized AuNPs showed low toxicity in experiments in vitro and were able to effectively form complexes with double-stranded siRNA. The obtained delivery vehicles were used for intracellular delivery of siRNA in an ARPE-19 cell line transfected with secreted embryonic alkaline phosphatase (SEAP). The delivered oligonucleotide remained intact and caused a significant knockdown effect on SEAP cell production. The developed material could be useful for delivery of negatively charged macromolecules, such as antisense oligonucleotides and various RNAs, particularly for retinal pigment epithelial cell drug delivery.
Active and reactive power regulation utilising an ANN controller for a PV Fed Trans Quasi-Z Source Network with a Multilevel Grid-Tied System

New Z-source inverter and quasi Z-source inverter topologies and their variations suitable for solar photovoltaic power systems are designed and developed in this study, with verification by simulation and experimental validation. In order to create topologies of Z-source inverters that are well-suited for a wide range of uses, researchers have analysed current Z-source inverter designs in depth. In order to get the performance characteristics of solar photovoltaic systems, which are used in the design of the impedance network of Z-source inverters, modelling, simulation, and experimental verification of solar photovoltaic systems are performed. With the help of simulation and appropriate Matlab software, the optimal PV array configuration for use in the proposed Z-source inverter topologies is determined by analysing the performance of photovoltaic (PV) modules connected in a variety of array configurations under normal/partial shaded conditions.
A 2.5 GHz, 1-Kb SRAM with Auxiliary Circuit Assisted Sense Amplifier in 65-nm CMOS Process

Scaling of MOS technology introduces issues to the memory design like read and write latency, leakage current, reduction in Static Voltage Noise Margin (SVNM), and stability. The parasitic capacitance existing on the bitline can have a significant impact on the memory performance and capacity. This paper discusses the need and working of an improved auxiliary circuit assisted sense amplifier design. The improved sense amplifier design was further used in a case study of 1-Kb memory using conventional 6T SRAM cell. The architecture is designed and implemented in 65-nm CMOS technology with a supply voltage of 0.9 V. The results show that the design achieves the operating frequency of 2.5 GHz with a power consumption of 13.5 mW. Also. the timing margin was improved by 22.3% compared to the strong-arm latch sense amplifier.
Ferrite Beads Design to Improve Turn-Off Characteristics of Cascode GaN HEMTs: An Optimum Design Method

In this article, an optimum ferrite beads design method is proposed to suppress the self-sustained turn-off oscillation of cascode gallium nitride high-electron-mobility transistors (GaN HEMTs). At first, the impacts of gate loop beads and power loop beads on the turn-off oscillation of cascode GaN HEMTs are analyzed. The analysis reveals the weak damping effect of gate loop beads on the turn-off oscillation. Next, an analytical method is proposed to design the power loop beads that can achieve maximum effective damping on the turn-off oscillation. The power loop beads introduce extra stray inductance in the power loop, which can induce high-voltage overshoot. To tackle the problem, an optimum design method is proposed, so that the power loop beads can suppress the oscillation while mitigating the voltage overshoot. The accuracy of the proposed model is validated by the experimental data in the end.
Ecological pollution and health risk monitoring assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals in surface water, southeastern Nigeria

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals (HMs) are predominant pollutants linked with anthropogenic activities across a host of environmental mediums. The level of pollution, ecological and health risk were assessed in surface water from Ekulu in Enugu metropolis, Nigeria for 17 PAHs and selected HMs (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Ni, Zn) components. PAHs and HMs were determined using a gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID) and atomic adsorption spectrophotometer (AAS). The total PAHs in station A (3.17mg/l), B (1.51mg/l), and C (1.83mg/l) were due to high molecular weight (HMW) PAHs than low molecular weight (HMW) PAHs. HMs contents were within USEPA and WHO minimum contamination levels (MCL) except Cr and Pb. The molecular diagnostics of PAHs showed that incomplete combustion of carbonaceous compounds was dominant, while petrogenic was insignificant across all samples. The ecological indices of PAHs and HMs varied from medium to high pollution due to anthropogenic activities that pose a threat to the ecosystem. The non-carcinogenic models showed that hazard index (HI) ranged from PAHs (0.027 – 0.083) and HMs (0.0067 – 0.087) which is less than unity implying no adverse health issues. The lifetime cancer risk (LCR) for PAHs (4.21×10–4 – 9.61×10–4) and HMs (1.72×10–5 – 3.98×10–5) suggested significant cancer risk is possible over some time for a population of 1 in 10,000 and 100,000 for both PAHs and HMs exposure for 70 years. Therefore, there is an urgent need for proper pollution control and mitigation plan to preserve both age groups from being continuously exposed to anthropogenic activities in the Ekulu River and further study should be carried out to monitor the available toxicants.
Analysis of Cross-Regional Transfer of Food Safety Risks and Its Influencing Factors—An Empirical Study of Five Provinces in East China

The cross-regional transfer of food safety risks has become more prominent, bringing new challenges to food safety regulation. This study used a social network analysis to delve into the nuanced features and determinants of the cross-regional transfer of food safety risks based on the food safety inspection data of five provinces in East China from 2016 to 2020, thus contributing to the establishment of effective cross-regional cooperation in food safety regulation. The main findings are as follows: First, the cross-regional transfer of unqualified products accounts for 36.09% of all unqualified products. Second, the food safety risk transfer network presents a typical complex network—a relatively low but increasing network density, heterogeneous nodes, numerous subgroups, and a dynamic structure—bringing more difficulties to food safety cross-regional cooperation. Third, territorial regulation and intelligent supervision both contribute to restricting cross-regional transfers. However, the advantages of intelligent supervision have not yet been brought into play due to low data utilization. Fourth, the development of the food industry helps to mitigate the cross-regional transfer of food safety risks. To achieve effective cross-regional cooperation in food safety risks, it is essential to use food safety big data as a guide and to maintain synchronization between the development of the food industry and the improvement of regulations.
Voltage Boosted Schmitt Trigger Sense Amplifier (VBSTSA) With Improved Offset And Reaction Time For High Speed SRAMs

Sense amplifiers (SAs) provide amplification to a very small voltage change in the bit lines during the read operation. The sub-micron technology demands high performance sensing at extreme noise margins with better yield. This paper, presents a novel scheme “VBSTSA” with improved sigma offset and reaction time compared to conventional VLSA with minimal area impact. 22nm HKMG CMOS technology is used in this work. Our proposed VBSTSA has shown 48% lesser sigma offset and 4x times improvement in reaction time compared to conventional VLSA. This improvement leads to 10% better access time for a medium density memory instance. Implementation of VBSTSA is also presented in memory IO along with the modification in the self-time circuit to trigger the negative boost circuit in read cycle.
A Novel Silicon Integrated Optical ROTMAN Lens for RF Beamforming

We propose a novel integrated Rotman lens based on the commercially mature 220nm-thick SOI platform, which supports 33 optical beamforming angles ranging from -75° to 75°. By adopting optical switch and coherent detection technology, the OBFN with Rotman lens can support multibeam operation and the sweeping speed is as fast as nanoseconds in prospect.