Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Brain Signal Variability Differentially Affects Cognitive Flexibility and Cognitive Stability

Recent research yielded the intriguing conclusion that, in healthy adults, higher levels of variability in neuronal processes are beneficial for cognitive functioning. Beneficial effects of variability in neuronal processing can also be inferred from neurocomputational theories of working memory, albeit this holds only for tasks requiring cognitive flexibility. However, cognitive stability, i.e., the ability to maintain a task goal in the face of irrelevant distractors, should suffer under high levels of brain signal variability. To directly test this prediction, we studied both behavioral and brain signal variability during cognitive flexibility (i.e., task switching) and cognitive stability (i.e., distractor inhibition) in a sample of healthy human subjects and developed an efficient and easy-to-implement analysis approach to assess BOLD-signal variability in event-related fMRI task paradigms. Results show a general positive effect of neural variability on task performance as assessed by accuracy measures. However, higher levels of BOLD-signal variability in the left inferior frontal junction area result in reduced error rate costs during task switching and thus facilitate cognitive flexibility. In contrast, variability in the same area has a detrimental effect on cognitive stability, as shown in a negative effect of variability on response time costs during distractor inhibition. This pattern was mirrored at the behavioral level, with higher behavioral variability predicting better task switching but worse distractor inhibition performance. Our data extend previous results on brain signal variability by showing a differential effect of brain signal variability that depends on task context, in line with predictions from computational theories. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Recent neuroscientific research showed that the human brain signal is intrinsically variable and suggested that this variability improves performance. Computational models of prefrontal neural networks predict differential effects of variability for different behavioral situations requiring either cognitive flexibility or stability. However, this hypothesis has so far not been put to an empirical test. In this study, we assessed cognitive flexibility and cognitive stability, and, besides a generally positive effect of neural variability on accuracy measures, we show that neural variability in a prefrontal brain area at the inferior frontal junction is differentially associated with performance: higher levels of variability are beneficial for the effectiveness of task switching (cognitive flexibility) but detrimental for the efficiency of distractor inhibition (cognitive stability).
The California, ABCD, and Unified ABCD2 Risk Scores and the Presence of Acute Ischemic Lesions on Diffusion-Weighted Imaging in TIA Patients

Background and Purpose— Some clinical models, like California ABCD and unified ABCD2 scores, are now available to predict the early risk of stroke after a TIA. Despite the transitivity of symptoms, DWI identified an area of acute brain ischemia in almost half of patients. It would be interesting to know how the presence of DWI abnormalities relates to clinical risk scores to plan other prognostic variables or to recommend the performance of DWI. Methods— We prospectively studied 135 consecutive TIA patients visited by the neurologists in our institution. All patients underwent DWI (3.8±1.7 days after symptoms onset). Clinical risk scores (California, ABCD, and ABCD2) were calculated prospectively for each patient. The identification of acute ischemic lesions (positive DWI) was related to the presence of clinical features and clinical risk scores. Results— DWI were positive in 67 (49.6%) patients. After Bonferroni adjustment, elevated ABCD, ABCD2, and California scores were not associated with a positive DWI. However, some clinical symptoms such as facial palsy and motor weakness were associated with a positive DWI (P<0.001). The logistic regression model identified only facial palsy as an independent predictor of acute ischemic lesions (odds ratio 6.26, 95% CI 2.49 to 15.71, P<0.001). Conclusion— Clinical symptoms such as motor impairment, but not clinical risk scores, were associated with a positive DWI. Performing a DWI may add prognostic information to clinical risk scales as a predictor of stroke recurrence after TIA in future large studies.
Multi-stage HMM based Arabic text recognition with rescoring

In this paper, we present a multi-stage approach to handwritten Arabic text recognition using HMM where we separate the Arabic text image into core components and diacritics and recognize them separately using two separate HMM recognition systems. In the next stage, we combine the scores from both recognizers to make a final word hypothesis. This approach leads to huge reduction in the number of HMM models that need to be trained. Experiments conducted on a word recognition task using a publicly available benchmark database show the effectiveness of the technique. We achieve state-of-the-art results in addition to a compact model set for the recognition system.
Microfabrication of hard x-ray lenses

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Affective Beliefs Influence the Experience of Eating Meat

People believe they experience the world objectively, but research continually demonstrates that beliefs influence perception. Emerging research indicates that beliefs influence the experience of eating. In three studies, we test whether beliefs about how animals are raised can influence the experience of eating meat. Samples of meat were paired with descriptions of animals raised on factory farms or raised on humane farms. Importantly, the meat samples in both conditions were identical. However, participants experienced the samples differently: meat paired with factory farm descriptions looked, smelled, and tasted less pleasant. Even basic properties of flavor were influenced: factory farmed samples tasted more salty and greasy. Finally, actual behavior was influenced: participants consumed less when samples were paired with factory farm descriptions. These findings demonstrate that the experience of eating is not determined solely by physical properties of stimuli—beliefs also shape experience.
A Circadian and Cardiac Intraocular Pressure Sensor for Smart Implantable Lens

This paper presents a new system to measure the Intraocular Pressure (IOP) with very high accuracy (0.036 mbar) used for monitoring glaucoma. The system not only monitors the daily variation of the IOP (circadian IOP), but also allows to perform an spectral analysis of the pressure signal generated by the heartbeat (cardiac IOP). The system comprises a piezoresistive pressure sensor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) to read out the sensor data and an external reader installed on customized glasses. The ASIC readout electronics combines chopping modulation with correlated double sampling (CDS) in order to eliminate both the amplifier offset and the chopper ripple at the sampling frequency. In addition, programmable current sources are used to compensate for the atmospheric pressure ( 800-1200 mbar ) and the circadian component ( ±7 mbar) thus allowing to read out the very weak cardiac signals ( ±1.6 mbar) with a maximum accuracy of 0.036 mbar.
Behavioral and Brain Functions

Background: The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is a common paradigm used to study the interactions between emotions and decision making, yet little consensus exists on the cognitive process determining participants' decisions, what affects them, and how these processes interact with each other. A novel conceptual framework is proposed according to which behavior in the IGT reflects a balance between two dissociable processes; a cognitively demanding process that tracks each option's long-term payoff, and a lower-level, automatic process that is primarily sensitive to loss frequency and magnitude. Methods: A behavioral experiment was carried out with a modified version of IGT. In this modified version, participants went through an additional phase of interaction, designed to measure performance without further learning, in which no feedback on individual decisions was given. A secondary distractor task was presented in either the first or the second phase of the experiment. Behavioral measures of performance tracking both payoff and frequency sensitivity in choices were collected throughout the experiment. Results: Consistent with our framework, the results confirmed that: (a) the two competing cognitive processes can be dissociated; (b) that learning from decision outcomes requires central cognitive resources to estimate long-term payoff; and (c) that the decision phase itself can be carried out during an interfering task once learning has occurred. Conclusion: The experimental results support our novel description of the cognitive processes underlying performance in the Iowa Gambling Task. They also suggest that patients' impairments in this and other gambling paradigms can originate from a number of different causes, including a failure in allocating resources among cognitive strategies. This latter interpretation might be particularly useful in explaining the impairments of patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions and, by extension, the contribution of this brain region to human decision making. Background Gambling paradigms are widely used to investigate the relationships between emotions and decision making in behavioral [1,2], neuropsychological [3-5], and neuroimaging studies [6-10]. The most frequently used gambling paradigm, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), was originally designed to measure the impulsive conduct of patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) lesions [3]. Published: 2 January 2009 Behavioral and Brain Functions 2009, 5:1 doi:10.1186/1744-9081-5-1 Received: 13 September 2008 Accepted: 2 January 2009 This article is available from: http://www.behavioralandbrainfunctions. com/content/5/1/1 © 2009 Stocco et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
White blood cell counts and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio in the diagnosis of testicular cancer: a simple secondary serum tumor marker

ABSTRACT Purpose The aim of the study was to investigate white blood cell counts and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) as markers of systemic inflammation in the diagnosis of localized testicular cancer as a malignancy with initially low volume. Materials and Methods Thirty-six patients with localized testicular cancer with a mean age of 34.22±14.89 years and 36 healthy controls with a mean age of 26.67±2.89 years were enrolled in the study. White blood cell counts and NLR were calculated from complete blood cell counts. Results White blood cell counts and NLR were statistically significantly higher in patients with testicular cancer compared with the control group (p<0.0001 for all). Conclusions Both white blood cell counts and NLR can be used as a simple test in the diagnosis of testicular cancer besides the well-known accurate serum tumor markers as AFP (alpha fetoprotein), hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) and LDH (lactate dehydrogenase).
Analysis of large clock meshes via Harmonic-weighted model order reduction and port sliding

Clock meshes posses inherent low clock skews and excellent immunity to PVT variations, and have increasingly found their way to high-performance IC designs. However, analysis of such massively coupled networks is significantly hindered by the sheer size of the network and tight coupling between non-tree interconnects and large numbers of clock drivers. The presented Harmonic-weighted model order reduction algorithm is motivated by the key observation of the steady-state operation of the clock networks, and its efficiency is facilitated by the locality analysis via port sliding. The scalability of the analysis is significantly improved by eliminating the need of computing infeasible multi-port passive reduced order interconnect models with large port count. And the overall task is decomposed into tractable and naturally parallelizable model generation and FFT/Inverse-FFT operations, all on a per driver or per sink basis.
Supporting trust in virtual communities

At any given time, the stability of a community depends on the right balance of trust and distrust. Furthermore, we face information overload, increased uncertainty and risk taking as a prominent feature of modern living. As members of society, we cope with these complexities and uncertainties by relying trust, which is the basis of all social interactions. Although a small number of trust models have been proposed for the virtual medium, we find that they are largely impractical and artificial. In this paper we provide and discuss a trust model that is grounded in real-world social trust characteristics, and based on a reputation mechanism, or word-of-mouth. Our proposed model allows agents to decide which other agents' opinions they trust more and allows agents to progressively tune their understanding of another agent's subjective recommendations.
Characterization of a Zinc-Containing Alcohol Dehydrogenase with Stereoselectivity from the Hyperthermophilic Archaeon Thermococcus guaymasensis

ABSTRACT An alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) from hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus guaymasensis was purified to homogeneity and was found to be a homotetramer with a subunit size of 40 ± 1 kDa. The gene encoding the enzyme was cloned and sequenced; this gene had 1,095 bp, corresponding to 365 amino acids, and showed high sequence homology to zinc-containing ADHs and l-threonine dehydrogenases with binding motifs of catalytic zinc and NADP+. Metal analyses revealed that this NADP+-dependent enzyme contained 0.9 ± 0.03 g-atoms of zinc per subunit. It was a primary-secondary ADH and exhibited a substrate preference for secondary alcohols and corresponding ketones. Particularly, the enzyme with unusual stereoselectivity catalyzed an anti-Prelog reduction of racemic (R/S)-acetoin to (2R,3R)-2,3-butanediol and meso-2,3-butanediol. The optimal pH values for the oxidation and formation of alcohols were 10.5 and 7.5, respectively. Besides being hyperthermostable, the enzyme activity increased as the temperature was elevated up to 95°C. The enzyme was active in the presence of methanol up to 40% (vol/vol) in the assay mixture. The reduction of ketones underwent high efficiency by coupling with excess isopropanol to regenerate NADPH. The kinetic parameters of the enzyme showed that the apparent Km values and catalytic efficiency for NADPH were 40 times lower and 5 times higher than those for NADP+, respectively. The physiological roles of the enzyme were proposed to be in the formation of alcohols such as ethanol or acetoin concomitant to the NADPH oxidation.
The Construct of Agreeableness: Facet vs. Item Level Analysis.

The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) was developed to operationalize the Five-Factor Model of Personality. Using correlational analysis and confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis, the present study investigates the facet structure of the domain of Agreeableness of the NEOPI-R at the facet and item level to assess which is a more appropriate level of analysis for interpretation. While the six Agreeableness facets fit the domain, the results of confirmatory factor analysis indicate that the original six facet model at the item level did not fit the data well. Exploratory factor analysis indicates that only 35 of the 48 items associated with the Agreeableness domain had salient loadings on their intended facet. Results indicate that performing item-level factor analysis can produce misleading or un-interpretable results. Implications for research and assessment are discussed. The Construct of Agreeableness: Facet vs. Item Level Analysis The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992a) was originally developed in 1978 as the NEO Inventory. The NEO Inventory consisted of three domain scales and 18 facet scales which measured Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience (Costa & McCrae, 1992b). Scales, consisting of 18 items, were added in 1985 to measure the domains of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, and the inventory was renamed the NEO Personality Inventory. These new domain scales were inadequate in capturing the complete personality picture as the number of items was limited. Then, in 1990, facet scales were completed for Agreeableness and
The linear no-threshold relationship is inconsistent with radiation biologic and experimental data.

The carcinogenic risk induced by low doses of ionizing radiation is controversial. It cannot be assessed with epidemiologic methods alone because at low doses the data are imprecise and often conflicting. Since the 1970s, the radiation protection community has estimated the risk of low doses by means of extrapolation from the risk assessed at high doses, generally by using the linear no-threshold (LNT) model.
Foundations of Quantum Mechanics

General Instructions Write your CANDIDATE NUMBER clearly on each of the THREE answer books provided. If an electronic calculator is used, write its serial number in the box at the top right hand corner of the front cover of each answer book. USE ONE ANSWER BOOK FOR EACH QUESTION. Enter the number of each question attempted in the horizontal box on the front cover of its corresponding answer book. Hand in THREE answer books even if they have not all been used. You are reminded that the Examiners attach great importance to legibility, accuracy and clarity of expression.
A critical examination of stoichiometric and path-finding approaches to metabolic pathways

Advances in the field of genomics have enabled computational analysis of metabolic pathways at the genome scale. Singular attention has been devoted in the literature to stoichiometric approaches, and path-finding approaches, to metabolic pathways. Stoichiometric approaches make use of reaction stoichiometry when trying to determine metabolic pathways. Stoichiometric approaches involve elementary flux modes and extreme pathways. In contrast, path-finding approaches propose an alternative view based on graph theory in which reaction stoichiometry is not considered. Path-finding approaches use shortest path and k-shortest path concepts. In this article we give a critical overview of the theory, applications and key research challenges of stoichiometric and path-finding approaches to metabolic pathways.
Full-Resolution Residual Networks for Semantic Segmentation in Street Scenes

Semantic image segmentation is an essential component of modern autonomous driving systems, as an accurate understanding of the surrounding scene is crucial to navigation and action planning. Current state-of-the-art approaches in semantic image segmentation rely on pre-trained networks that were initially developed for classifying images as a whole. While these networks exhibit outstanding recognition performance (i.e., what is visible? ), they lack localization accuracy (i.e., where precisely is something located? ). Therefore, additional processing steps have to be performed in order to obtain pixel-accurate segmentation masks at the full image resolution. To alleviate this problem we propose a novel ResNet-like architecture that exhibits strong localization and recognition performance. We combine multi-scale context with pixel-level accuracy by using two processing streams within our network: One stream carries information at the full image resolution, enabling precise adherence to segment boundaries. The other stream undergoes a sequence of pooling operations to obtain robust features for recognition. The two streams are coupled at the full image resolution using residuals. Without additional processing steps and without pre-training, our approach achieves an intersection-over-union score of 71.8% on the Cityscapes dataset.
Hausdorff dimension of the limit set of conformal iterated function systems with overlaps

We give a new approach to the study of conformal iterated function systems with arbitrary overlaps. We provide lower and upper estimates for the Hausdorff dimension of the limit sets of such systems; these are expressed in terms of the topological pressure and the function d, counting overlaps. In the case when the function d is constant, we get an exact formula for the Hausdorff dimension. We also prove that in certain cases this formula holds if and only if the function d is constant.
Environmental neonatology.

Nowadays, the small or sick newborn baby is subjected to more intrusive and vigorous investigations and treatment than ever before in neonatal care. ' The impressive fall in neonatal mortality of very low birthweight infants in the past decade has been welcomed. Concern has been expressed, however, that the development and application of new medical technology have outpaced considerations for the psychological well-being of the very young patient in hospital.2
Dynamic Earth: crustal and mantle heterogeneity

The dynamic processes within the Earth leave their record in geophysical and geochemical variation about the general stratification with depth. A snapshot of current structure is provided by geophysical evidence, whereas geochemical information provides a perspective over the age of the Earth. The combination of information on the distribution of heterogeneity from geophysical and geochemical sources provides enhanced insight into likely geodynamic processes. A variety of techniques can be used to examine crustal structure, but the major source of information on seismic heterogeneity within the Earth comes from tomographic studies, exploiting surface waves for the lithosphere and body waves for the bulk Earth. A powerful tool for examining the character of mantle heterogeneity is the comparison of images of bulk-sound and shear-wave speed extracted in a single inversion, since this isolates the dependencies on the elastic moduli. Such studies are particularly effective when a common path coverage is achieved for P and S as, for example, when common source and receiver pairs are extracted for arrival times of the phases. The relative behaviour of the bulk-sound and shear-wave speeds allows the definition of heterogeneity regimes. For subduction zones, a large part of the imaged structure comes from S-wave speed variations. The narrow segments of fast wave speeds in the lower mantle, in the depth range 900 – 1500 km, are dominated by S variations, with very little bulk-sound contribution, so images of P-wave speed are controlled by shear-wave variability. Deep in the mantle, there are many features with high seismic-wave speed without an obvious association with subduction in the last 100 million years, which suggests long-lived preservation of components of the geodynamic cycle. The base of the Earth's mantle is a complex zone with widespread indications of heterogeneity on many scales, discontinuities of variable character, and shear-wave anisotropy. Discordance between P- and S-wave speed anomalies suggests the presence of chemical heterogeneity rather than just the effect of temperature.