Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
NONPOINT SOURCE POLLUTION POTENTIAL IN AN AGRICULTURAL WATERSHED IN NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA

: A 155,947 ha portion of the Shenango River watershed in western Pennsylvania was evaluated as to the potential impact of agriculture drainage on water quality. Approximately a third of the area is being used as either cropland or pasture with approximately an equal percentage in forest lands. Eleven subwatersheds were evaluated as to their potential for nonpoint source pollution according to the criteria established by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources for the Chesapeake Bay Pollution Abatement Program. The individual components and overall rating for each subwatershed were then evaluated as to their correlation with four water quality variables based on 104 samples collected at 26 sampling stations throughout the watershed. There was a significant correlation between the overall rating factor for each subwatershed and each of the four water quality variables. In general, the watershed delivery factor, animal nutrient factor, and management factors were correlated with fecal coliform and phosphorus in the receiving streams, whereas the ground water delivery factor appeared to be more important in determining nitrate concentrations in these streams. These results indicate that manure and nutrient management, along with the exclusion of livestock from streams and the enhancement and/or replacement of riparian wetlands, are important approaches in reducing agricultural impacts in fresh water ecosystems.
Family History of Cancer in Benign Brain Tumor Subtypes Versus Gliomas

Purpose: Family history is associated with gliomas, but this association has not been established for benign brain tumors. Using information from newly diagnosed primary brain tumor patients, we describe patterns of family cancer histories in patients with benign brain tumors and compare those to patients with gliomas. Methods: Newly diagnosed primary brain tumor patients were identified as part of the Ohio Brain Tumor Study. Each patient was asked to participate in a telephone interview about personal medical history, family history of cancer, and other exposures. Information was available from 33 acoustic neuroma (65%), 78 meningioma (65%), 49 pituitary adenoma (73.1%), and 152 glioma patients (58.2%). The association between family history of cancer and each subtype was compared with gliomas using unconditional logistic regression models generating odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals. Results: There was no significant difference in family history of cancer between patients with glioma and benign subtypes. Conclusion: The results suggest that benign brain tumor may have an association with family history of cancer. More studies are warranted to disentangle the potential genetic and/or environmental causes for these diseases.
Cortico‐basal ganglia mechanisms for overcoming innate, habitual and motivational behaviors

Most of the human behaviors are executed automatically under familiar circumstances. These behaviors are prepotent in that they take precedence over any other potential alternatives. Yet, humans are also capable of engaging cognitive resources to inhibit such a prepotent behavior and replace it with an alternative controlled behavior in response to an unforeseen situation. This remarkable capability to switch behaviors in a short period of time is the hallmark of executive functions. In this article, we first argue that the prepotent automaticity could emerge at least in three different domains – innate, habitual and motivational. We then review neurophysiological findings on how the brain might realize its switching functions in each domain, primarily by focusing on the monkey oculomotor system as the experimental model. Emerging evidence now suggests that multiple neuronal populations in the shared cortico‐basal ganglia network contribute to overriding prepotent eye movement, be its origin innate, habitual or motivational. This consideration suggests the general versatility of the cortico‐basal ganglia network as the neural mechanism whereby humans and other animals keep themselves from becoming subservient to reflex, habit and motivational impulses.
Preventing lapse in performance using a drowsiness monitoring and management system

Research on public security, especially the safe manipulation and control of vehicles, has gained increasing attention in recent years. This study proposes a closed-loop drowsiness monitoring and management system that can estimate subjects' driving performance. The system observes electroencephalographic (EEG) dynamics and behavioral changes, delivers arousing feedback to individuals experiencing momentary cognitive lapses, and assesses the efficacy of the feedback. Results of this study showed that the arousing feedback immediately improved subject performance, which was accompanied by concurrent theta- and alpha-power suppression in the bilateral occipital areas. This study further demonstrated the feasibility of accurately assessing the efficacy of arousing feedback presented to drowsy participants by monitoring the changes in their EEG power spectra.
Making gnutella-like P2P systems scalable

Napster pioneered the idea of peer-to-peer file sharing, and supported it with a centralized file search facility. Subsequent P2P systems like Gnutella adopted decentralized search algorithms. However, Gnutella's notoriously poor scaling led some to propose distributed hash table solutions to the wide-area file search problem. Contrary to that trend, we advocate retaining Gnutella's simplicity while proposing new mechanisms that greatly improve its scalability. Building upon prior research [1, 12, 22], we propose several modifications to Gnutella's design that dynamically adapt the overlay topology and the search algorithms in order to accommodate the natural heterogeneity present in most peer-to-peer systems. We test our design through simulations and the results show three to five orders of magnitude improvement in total system capacity. We also report on a prototype implementation and its deployment on a testbed.
Sharp thresholds of graph properties, and the -sat problem

Consider G(n, p) to be the probability space of random graphs on n vertices with edge probability p. We will be considering subsets of this space defined by monotone graph properties. A monotone graph property P is a property of graphs such that a) P is invariant under graph automorphisims. b) If graph H has property P , then so does any graph G having H as a subgraph. A monotone symmetric family of graphs is a family defined by such a property. One of the first observations made about random graphs by Erdos and Renyi in their seminal work on random graph theory [12] was the existence of threshold phenomena, the fact that for many interesting properties P , the probability of P appearing in G(n, p) exhibits a sharp increase at a certain critical value of the parameter p. Bollobas and Thomason proved the existence of threshold functions for all monotone set properties ([6]), and in [14] it is shown that this behavior is quite general, and that all monotone graph properties exhibit threshold behavior, i.e. the probability of their appearance increases from values very close to 0 to values close to 1 in a very small interval. More precise analysis of the size of the threshold interval is done in [7]. This threshold behavior which occurs in various settings which arise in combinatorics and computer science is an instance of the phenomenon of phase transitions which is the subject of much interest in statistical physics. One of the main questions that arises in studying phase transitions is: how “sharp” is the transition? For example, one of the motivations for this paper arose from the question of the sharpness of the phase transition for the property of satisfiability of a random kCNF Boolean formula. Nati Linial, who introduced me to this problem, suggested that although much concrete analysis was being performed on this problem the best approach would be to find general conditions for sharpness of the phase transition, answering the question posed in [14] as to the relation between the length of the threshold interval and the value of the critical probability. In this paper we indeed introduce a simple condition and prove it is sufficient. Stated roughly, in the setting of random graphs, the main theorem states that if a property has a coarse threshold, then it can be approximated by the property of having certain given graphs as a subgraph. This condition can be applied in a more
Novel Approaches for Fungal Transcriptomics from Host Samples

Candida albicans adaptation to the host requires a profound reprogramming of the fungal transcriptome as compared to in vitro laboratory conditions. A detailed knowledge of the C. albicans transcriptome during the infection process is necessary in order to understand which of the fungal genes are important for host adaptation. Such genes could be thought of as potential targets for antifungal therapy. The acquisition of the C. albicans transcriptome is, however, technically challenging due to the low proportion of fungal RNA in host tissues. Two emerging technologies were used recently to circumvent this problem. One consists of the detection of low abundance fungal RNA using capture and reporter gene probes which is followed by emission and quantification of resulting fluorescent signals (nanoString). The other is based first on the capture of fungal RNA by short biotinylated oligonucleotide baits covering the C. albicans ORFome permitting fungal RNA purification. Next, the enriched fungal RNA is amplified and subjected to RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). Here we detail these two transcriptome approaches and discuss their advantages and limitations and future perspectives in microbial transcriptomics from host material.
Age-Dependent Immune Events during HBV Infection from Birth to Adulthood: An Alternative Interpretation

Immune responses change during the life of an individual. While this concept has been well accepted for adaptive immunity, only recently it is becoming clear that the innate immune responses also acquire distinct features in different phases of life. We believe that this concept can offer a different interpretation of the pathological manifestations that can be observed in HBV-infected subjects during the patient’s life. Here, we will review the age-related immunopathological features of HBV infection and discuss how the different virological and clinical manifestations might be linked to the developmental pathway of the immune system from newborns to adults. We will discuss how the age of patients can affect the degree of inflammatory responses, but not the levels of antiviral specific immunity. We then propose that the different clinical manifestations occurring during the natural history of HBV infection are related to the host ability to trigger an inflammatory immune response.
Differential Item Functioning Between Ethnic Groups in the Epidemiological Assessment of Depression

A potential explanation for the finding that disadvantaged minority status is associated with a lower lifetime risk for depression is that individuals from minority ethnic groups may be less likely to endorse survey questions about depression even when they have the same level of depression. We examine this possibility using a nonparametric item response theory approach to assess differential item functioning (DIF) in a national survey of psychiatric disorders, the National Comorbidity Survey. Of 20 questions used to assess depression symptoms, we found evidence of DIF in 3 questions when comparing non-Hispanic blacks with non-Hispanic whites and in 3 questions when comparing Hispanics with non-Hispanic whites. However, removal of the questions with DIF did not alter the relative prevalence of depression between ethnic groups. Ethnic differences do exist in response to questions concerning depression, but these differences do not account for the finding of relatively low prevalence of depression among minority groups.
Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Tenosynovitis in the Hand: Two Case Reports with the MR Imaging Findings

Nontuberculous mycobacterial infections can cause destructive tenosynovitis of the hand. We report on and discuss the clinical course and distinctive radiologic findings of two patients with hand tenosynovitis secondary to M. marinum and intracellulare infection, which are different from those of the nontuberculous mycobacterial infections reported in the previous literature.
Alzheimer's disease versus dementia with Lewy bodies: Cerebral metabolic distinction with autopsy confirmation

Seeking antemortem markers to distinguish Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), we examined brain glucose metabolism of DLB and AD. Eleven DLB patients (7 Lewy body variant of AD [LBVAD] and 4 pure diffuse Lewy body disease [DLBD]) who had antemortem position emission tomography imaging and autopsy confirmation were compared to 10 autopsy‐confirmed pure AD patients. In addition, 53 patients with clinically‐diagnosed probable AD, 13 of whom later fulfilled clinical diagnoses of DLB, were examined. Autopsy‐confirmed AD and DLB patients showed significant metabolic reductions involving parietotemporal association, posterior cingulate, and frontal association cortices. Only DLB patients showed significant metabolic reductions in the occipital cortex, particularly in the primary visual cortex (LBVAD −23% and DLBD −29% vs AD −8%), which distinguished DLB versus AD with 90% sensitivity and 80% specificity. Multivariate analysis revealed that occipital metabolic changes in DLB were independent from those in the adjacent parietotemporal cortices. Analysis of clinically‐diagnosed probable AD patients showed a significantly higher frequency of primary visual metabolic reduction among patients who fulfilled later clinical criteria for DLB. In these patients, occipital hypometabolism preceded some clinical features of DLB. Occipital hypometabolism is a potential antemortem marker to distinguish DLB versus AD.
High-throughput fabrication of compact and flexible bilayer nanowire grid polarizers for deep-ultraviolet to infrared range

The authors present the design and fabrication of a bilayer metallic wire-grid polarizer with a period of 80 nm on a flexible polymeric substrate optimized for broadband operation ranging from the infrared down to the deep-ultraviolet range. Their high-throughput fabrication over large areas is realized by nanoimprint lithography by producing the imprint master stamps using extreme ultraviolet interference lithography. Optical measurements show that the fabricated bilayer polarizer covers a broad spectral range, starting from wavelength of 280 nm. Transverse magnetic transmission of 70% and an extinction ratio of 30 dB were realized.
Distributed Compressed Sensing for Static and Time-Varying Networks

We consider the problem of in-network compressed sensing from distributed measurements. Every agent has a set of measurements of a signal x, and the objective is for the agents to recover x from their collective measurements using only communication with neighbors in the network. Our distributed approach to this problem is based on the centralized Iterative Hard Thresholding algorithm (IHT). We first present a distributed IHT algorithm for static networks that leverages standard tools from distributed computing to execute in-network computations with minimized bandwidth consumption. Next, we address distributed signal recovery in networks with time-varying topologies. The network dynamics necessarily introduce inaccuracies to our in-network computations. To accommodate these inaccuracies, we show how centralized IHT can be extended to include inexact computations while still providing the same recovery guarantees as the original IHT algorithm. We then leverage these new theoretical results to develop a distributed version of IHT for time-varying networks. Evaluations show that our distributed algorithms for both static and time-varying networks outperform previously proposed solutions in time and bandwidth by several orders of magnitude.
On the use of the multimodal clues in human behaviour for the modelling of agent co-operative behaviour

Although there are different definitions of autonomous agents, one of their features should probably be the flexibility of choice an autonomous agent should have on how and with which other agents it should co-operate. The TYCOON framework is introduced for studying co-operation between agents. The framework includes on one hand a typology including six types of co-operation between agents (transfer, equivalence, specialization, redundancy, 'complementarity' and concurrency), and on the other hand the associate algorithms for computing metrics of co-operative behaviour. It is described how the framework can be applied to two different problem-solving tasks: a simple variable binding task and a more complex multimodal collective presentation task. I believe that these TYCOON low-level specifications of co-operation between agents might be useful as building blocks for bridging the gap between experimental human behaviour analysis and the modelling of higher-level co-operation-related attitudes related to autonomy, delegation and control.
An exploratory study of mental representations for rehabilitation based upon the Theory of Planned Behaviour

This study explores whether mental representations based upon the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) can predict engagement in rehabilitation after acquired brain injury (ABI). A scale was developed to measure: treatment outcome beliefs, perceived barriers, subjective norm, and control cognitions. Other adjustment factors that are often seen as important in predicting engagement, e.g., denial and anger, were also measured using the Motivation for Traumatic Brain Injury Questionnaire (MOT-Q). Clinicians also provided ratings of patient's engagement in rehabilitation which was used as the measure of actual behaviour. The scales were administered to 40 participants with ABI who were a mean of 14 months post-injury. The new scale showed good internal reliability, and regression analyses demonstrated that “treatment outcome beliefs” were the main aspects of TPB that predicted engagement. Control beliefs and adjustment factors added very little to the variance in engagement that was already explained by TPB. However, the amount of variance that was explained by TPB was small and it is suggested that other volitional factors need to be considered in order to predict engagement more accurately. This study thus constitutes a first exploration of mental representations about rehabilitation after ABI using TPB. It suggests a theoretical model that may help clinicians to formulate lack of engagement. It also suggests that addressing patients' beliefs about the benefits of undertaking rehabilitation may prove fruitful in increasing engagement.
Positive correlations of age and parity with plasma concentration of macrophage migration inhibitory factor in Japanese black cows

Plasma Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) concentration correlates positively with age, and negatively with self-rated health in women, and optimal MIF concentration may promote proper reproductive function. This study was conducted to evaluate the hypotheses that plasma MIF concentration changes with parturition or postpartum first ovulation, and that age in months and parity correlate with plasma MIF concentration in Japanese black cows. Western blotting utilizing an anti-MIF mouse monoclonal antibody of various tissues and plasma from females indicated that MIF expression was stronger in the anterior pituitary than in other tissues. We developed a competitive EIA utilizing the same anti-MIF mouse monoclonal antibody with sufficient sensitivity and reliable performance for measuring bovine plasma samples. We then measured MIF concentrations in bovine plasma collected from 4 weeks before parturition to 4 weeks after postpartum first ovulation. There was no significant difference in plasma MIF concentration pre- and post-parturition, or before and after the postpartum first ovulation. Plasma MIF concentrations were positively correlated (P < 0.01) with parity (r = 0.703), age in months on the day of parturition (r = 0.647), and age in months on the day of the postpartum first ovulation (r = 0.553) when we used almost all data, except for that from a third-parity cow with an abnormally high plasma MIF concentration. We therefore concluded that plasma MIF concentrations may increase with age in months and parity, but do not change either before and after parturition or before and after postpartum first ovulation in Japanese black cows.
Patterns of FOXE1 expression in papillary thyroid carcinoma by immunohistochemistry.

BACKGROUND FOXE1, a thyroid-specific transcription factor also known as TTF-2, was recently identified as a major genetic risk factor for papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Its role in thyroid carcinogenesis, however, remains unknown. The purpose of the present study was to assess the relationship between the FOXE1 immunohistochemical features and the clinical and genetic characteristics of PTC. METHODS Immunohistochemical staining of FOXE1 was performed in 48 PTC cases. Two single nucleotide polymorphisms immediately inside (rs1867277) or in the vicinity (rs965513) of the FOXE1 gene were genotyped by direct sequencing. Histopathological, clinical, and genetic data were included in statistical analyses. RESULTS FOXE1 exhibited cytoplasmic overexpression in tumor tissue compared to the normal counterpart (p<0.001). Both cancer and normal thyroid cells demonstrated the highest FOXE1 scores in the areas closest to the tumor border (<300 μm) compared with more distant areas (p<0.001). No differences in FOXE1 staining distributions were found between microcarcinomas and PTC of larger size, between different histopathological variants of PTC, and encapsulated and nonencapsulated tumors. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that nuclear FOXE1 expression in neoplastic cells in the vicinity of the tumor border independently associated with the genotype at rs1867277 (the dominant model of inheritance, p=0.037) and tumor multifocality (p=0.032), and with marginal significance with capsular invasion (p=0.051). CONCLUSIONS FOXE1 overexpression and translocation to the cytoplasm are phenotypic hallmarks of tumor cells suggesting that FOXE1 is involved in the pathogenesis of PTC. Nuclear FOXE1 expression in tumor cells in the vicinity of the PTC border is associated with the presence of a risk allele of rs1867277 (c.-238G>A) in the 5' untranslated region of the FOXE1 gene, as well as with pathological characteristics of PTC, suggesting possible FOXE1 involvement in the facilitation of tumor development beginning at an early stage.