Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Visual orienting in children with autism: Hyper‐responsiveness to human eyes presented after a brief alerting audio‐signal, but hyporesponsiveness to eyes presented without sound

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been associated with reduced orienting to social stimuli such as eyes, but the results are inconsistent. It is not known whether atypicalities in phasic alerting could play a role in putative altered social orienting in ASD. Here, we show that in unisensory (visual) trials, children with ASD are slower to orient to eyes (among distractors) than controls matched for age, sex, and nonverbal IQ. However, in another condition where a brief spatially nonpredictive sound was presented just before the visual targets, this group effect was reversed. Our results indicate that orienting to social versus nonsocial stimuli is differently modulated by phasic alerting mechanisms in young children with ASD. Autism Res 2017, 10: 246–250. © 2016 The Authors Autism Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Autism Research.
Smartphone for smart living: Using new technologies to cope with everyday limitations in semantic dementia

ABSTRACT New technologies have considerable potential to support people with semantic dementia—a form of progressive aphasia—in their everyday lives, but evidence is still sparse. The first objective of the study was to document day-to-day compensation strategies, including the use of a smartphone, in ND, a 56-year-old man with semantic dementia. The second objective was to explore if, 5 years after receiving his diagnosis, ND could still learn new smartphone functions. Results for objective 1 showed that ND had adopted a large number of compensation mechanisms in his everyday life, and expanded the use of one application he had learned 4 years earlier. Results for objective 2 showed that, with an errorless learning approach, he learnt to effectively use 10 smartphone functions. He was also able to verbalise semantic knowledge about those functions and still used 40% of them in daily life 6 months post-intervention. He particularly appreciated note-taking, and spontaneously expanded his abilities in using this function's features in order to reduce his semantic difficulties. This study shows the potential of new mobile technologies for semantic dementia, how they can be adapted and modified as the disease progresses, and how some patients can creatively use external technological aids.
Local and global anatomy of antibody‐protein antigen recognition

Deciphering antibody‐protein antigen recognition is of fundamental and practical significance. We constructed an antibody structural dataset, partitioned it into human and murine subgroups, and compared it with nonantibody protein‐protein complexes. We investigated the physicochemical properties of regions on and away from the antibody‐antigen interfaces, including net charge, overall antibody charge distributions, and their potential role in antigen interaction. We observed that amino acid preference in antibody‐protein antigen recognition is entropy driven, with residues having low side‐chain entropy appearing to compensate for the high backbone entropy in interaction with protein antigens. Antibodies prefer charged and polar antigen residues and bridging water molecules. They also prefer positive net charge, presumably to promote interaction with negatively charged protein antigens, which are common in proteomes. Antibody‐antigen interfaces have large percentages of Tyr, Ser, and Asp, but little Lys. Electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions in the Ag binding sites might be coupled with Fab domains through organized charge and residue distributions away from the binding interfaces. Here we describe some features of antibody‐antigen interfaces and of Fab domains as compared with nonantibody protein‐protein interactions. The distributions of interface residues in human and murine antibodies do not differ significantly. Overall, our results provide not only a local but also a global anatomy of antibody structures.
Functional Role for Protein Kinase Cβ as a Regulator of Stress-Activated Protein Kinase Activation and Monocytic Differentiation of Myeloid Leukemia Cells

ABSTRACT Human myeloid leukemia cells respond to 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) and other activators of protein kinase C (PKC) with induction of monocytic differentiation. The present studies demonstrated that treatment of U-937 and HL-60 myeloid leukemia cells with TPA, phorbol-12,13-dibutyrate, or bryostatin 1 was associated with the induction of stress-activated protein kinase (SAPK). In contrast, TPA-resistant TUR and HL-525 cell variants deficient in PKCβ failed to respond to activators of PKC with the induction of SAPK. A direct role for PKCβ in TPA-induced SAPK activity in TUR and HL-525 cells that stably express PKCβ was confirmed. We showed that TPA induced the association of PKCβ with MEK kinase 1 (MEKK-1), an upstream effector of the SAPK/ERK kinase 1 (SEK1)→SAPK cascade. The results also demonstrated that PKCβ phosphorylated and activated MEKK-1 in vitro. The functional role of MEKK-1 in TPA-induced SAPK activity was further supported by the demonstration that the expression of a dominant negative MEKK-1 mutant abrogated this response. These findings indicate that PKCβ activation is necessary for activation of the MEKK-1→SEK1→SAPK cascade in the TPA response of myeloid leukemia cells.
Specialising Word Vectors for Lexical Entailment

We present LEAR (Lexical Entailment Attract-Repel), a novel post-processing method that transforms any input word vector space to emphasise the asymmetric relation of lexical entailment (LE), also known as the IS-A or hyponymy-hypernymy relation. By injecting external linguistic constraints (e.g., WordNet links) into the initial vector space, the LE specialisation procedure brings true hyponymy-hypernymy pairs closer together in the transformed Euclidean space. The proposed asymmetric distance measure adjusts the norms of word vectors to reflect the actual WordNet-style hierarchy of concepts. Simultaneously, a joint objective enforces semantic similarity using the symmetric cosine distance, yielding a vector space specialised for both lexical relations at once. LEAR specialisation achieves state-of-the-art performance in the tasks of hypernymy directionality, hypernymy detection, and graded lexical entailment, demonstrating the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed asymmetric specialisation model.
Estimating Arterial Partial Pressure of Carbon Dioxide in Ventilated Patients: How Valid Are Surrogate Measures?

&NA; The arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (Symbol) is an important parameter in critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients. To limit invasive procedures or for more continuous monitoring of Symbol, clinicians often rely on venous blood gases, capnography, or transcutaneous monitoring. Each of these has advantages and limitations. Central venous Pco2 allows accurate estimation of Symbol, differing from it by an amount described by the Fick principle. As long as cardiac output is relatively normal, central venous Pco2 exceeds the arterial value by approximately 4 mm Hg. In contrast, peripheral venous Pco2 is a poor predictor of Symbol, and we do not recommend using peripheral venous Pco2 in this manner. Capnography offers measurement of the end‐tidal Pco2 (Symbol), a value that is close to Symbol when the lung is healthy. It has the advantage of being noninvasive and continuously available. In mechanically ventilated patients with lung disease, however, Symbol often differs from Symbol, sometimes by a large degree, often seriously underestimating the arterial value. Dependence of Symbol on alveolar dead space and ventilator expiratory time limits its value to predict Symbol. When lung function or ventilator settings change, Symbol and Symbol can vary in different directions, producing further uncertainty. Transcutaneous Pco2 measurement has become practical and reliable. It is promising for judging steady state values for Symbol unless there is overt vasoconstriction of the skin. Moreover, it can be useful in conditions where capnography fails (high‐frequency ventilation) or where arterial blood gas analysis is burdensome (clinic or home management of mechanical ventilation). Symbol. No caption available. Symbol. No caption available.
Parameters influencing hydrophobization of paper by surface sizing

Abstract Paper surface hydrophobization, also referred to as . surface sizing. , is often necessary for printing and packaging purposes. Typically, hydrophobic polymeric nanoparticles, in combination with starch are applied on the paper surface at the dry-end of the paper machine. In the surface sizing process, the nature of the nanoparticles, starch type, starch concentration and ratio between starch and nanoparticles, paper quality, ionic strength, and application as well as drying temperature are parameters that influence the result. The aim of this work was to systematically evaluate these parameters in order to create knowledge to be used for optimization of the process. Laboratory scale surface sizing trials were performed and the results from the trials showed that cationic particles gave superior performance compared to anionic particles. Both the starch type and the concentration of the oxidized starch had an impact on the performance. The effect of the ionic strength was found to depend on the particle charge: for cationic particles, the addition of salt was detrimental while for the anionic particles it was beneficial. An increase of the application or the drying temperature was found to enhance the performance up to a temperature around the glass transition temperature of the polymer.
Deletion of MBD2 inhibits proliferation of chronic myeloid leukaemia blast phase cells

ABSTRACT Aberrant methylation of tumour suppressor genes is associated with the progression to a blast crisis in chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). Methyl-CpG-binding domain protein 2 (MBD2) has been studied as a “reader” of DNA methylation in many cancers, but its role in CML is unclear. We constructed cell models of a homozygous deletion mutation of MBD2 using gene-editing technology in K562 cells and BV173 cells. Here, we demonstrated that the deletion of MBD2 inhibited cell proliferation capacity in vitro. MBD2 deletion also significantly inhibited K562 cell proliferation in a xenograft tumour model in vivo. Additionally, the JAK2/STAT3 signalling pathway, which is abnormally active in CML, was inhibited by MBD2 deletion, and MBD2 deletion could up-regulate the expression of SHP1. In conclusion, our findings suggest that MBD2 is a candidate therapeutic strategy for the CML blast phase.
Collimated proton pencil-beam scanning for superficial targets: impact of the order of range shifter and aperture

To assess if apertures shall be mounted upstream or downstream of a range shifting block if these field-shaping devices are combined with the pencil-beam scanning delivery technique (PBS). The lateral dose fall-off served as a benchmark parameter. Both options realizing PBS-with-apertures were compared to the uniform scanning mode. We also evaluated the difference regarding the out-of-field dose caused by interactions of protons in beam-shaping devices. The potential benefit of the downstream configuration over the upstream configuration was estimated analytically. Guided by this theoretical evaluation a mechanical adapter was developed which transforms the upstream configuration provided by the proton machine vendor to a downstream configuration. Transversal dose profiles were calculated with the Monte-Carlo based dose engine of the commercial treatment planning system RayStation 6. Two-dimensional dose planes were measured with an ionization chamber array and a scintillation detector at different depths and compared to the calculation. Additionally, a clinical example for the irradiation of the orbit was compared for both PBS options and a uniform scanning treatment plan. Assuming the same air gap the lateral dose fall-off at the field edge at a few centimeter depth is 20% smaller for the aperture-downstream configuration than for the upstream one. For both options of PBS-with-apertures the dose fall-off is larger than in uniform scanning delivery mode if the minimum accelerator energy is 100 MeV. The RayStation treatment planning system calculated the width of the lateral dose fall-off with an accuracy of typically 0.1 mm–0.3 mm. Although experiments and calculations indicate a ranking of the three delivery options regarding lateral dose fall-off, there seems to be a limited impact on a multi-field treatment plan.
Evaluation of inhibitors for development of a selective medium for isolation of Leptospira spp. from clinical samples

This study was conducted to develop a selective medium for the detection of Leptospira spp. in clinical samples. Serovars of Leptospira spp. , environmental bacteria and the fungus from contaminated cultures of patients with suspected leptospirosis were inoculated into EMJH medium containing amphotericin B, 5‐fluorouracil (5‐FU), furazolidone and neomycin used singly or combined. Medium with 5‐FU at the concentration of 200 μg ml−1 did not show any inhibitory effect against the fungus, Gram‐negative bacilli and any of the leptospira strains except serovar Pyrogenes. The highest concentration of neomycin and furazolidone that did not inhibit the growth of leptospires was 4 μg ml−1. All strains of Leptospira spp. grew on 5‐FU (100 μg ml−1) in combination with neomycin (4 μg ml−1) and on 5‐FU (100 μg ml−1) in combination with furazolidone (4 μg ml−1). The highest concentration of amphotericin B (500 μg ml−1) that inhibited the growth of the fungus also inhibited the bacteria and most of serovars of Leptospira spp. The most effective antibiotic combinations that inhibited the majority of environmental bacteria growth without affecting leptospiral growth were EMJH with 5‐FU (100 μg ml−1) in combination with neomycin (4 μg ml−1). In conclusion, these findings will help the development of new selective media to isolate leptospires.
Hartung–Knapp method is not always conservative compared with fixed‐effect meta‐analysis

A widely used method in classic random‐effects meta‐analysis is the DerSimonian–Laird method. An alternative meta‐analytical approach is the Hartung–Knapp method. This article reports results of an empirical comparison and a simulation study of these two methods and presents corresponding analytical results. For the empirical evaluation, we took 157 meta‐analyses with binary outcomes, analysed each one using both methods and performed a comparison of the results based on treatment estimates, standard errors and associated P‐values. In several simulation scenarios, we systematically evaluated coverage probabilities and confidence interval lengths. Generally, results are more conservative with the Hartung–Knapp method, giving wider confidence intervals and larger P‐values for the overall treatment effect. However, in some meta‐analyses with very homogeneous individual treatment results, the Hartung–Knapp method yields narrower confidence intervals and smaller P‐values than the classic random‐effects method, which in this situation, actually reduces to a fixed‐effect meta‐analysis. Therefore, it is recommended to conduct a sensitivity analysis based on the fixed‐effect model instead of solely relying on the result of the Hartung–Knapp random‐effects meta‐analysis. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Atomic Order and Submicrostructure in Iron Alloys at Megaplastic Deformation

The subject of the present review consists of summing up our previous results on the study of the relaxation of structure along the way (i) of atomic redistribution—in the form of short-range clustering in binary iron alloys—induced by megaplastic deformation (i.e., of super large value), and (ii) of the dissolution and precipitation of disperse nitrides and carbides in steels and intermetallics in ageing alloys. Within the capacity of the main method of executing megaplastic deformation, along with the practically important milling in ball mills and friction-providing external action, we employed high pressure torsion (HPT) in Bridgman anvils, which permitted the control of the degree, rate, and temperature of deformation action. At the local level of two nearest neighbors (one or two coordination shells in relation to an iron atom) we studied atomic mass transfer, stipulated by generation of a large number of point defects of deformation origin, and conducted a comparison with a case of irradiation by high-energy electrons. We established a change in the direction of phase transformations, as well as anomalous acceleration of the ordering and precipitation of disperse phases upon altering the temperature (T < 0.3Tmelt) and rate of deformation (from 2 × 10−2 to 8 × 10−2 s−1). We also demonstrated the possibility of regulating the ultra-fine-grained structure with solid–solution strengthening and dispersion hardening.
Surgery Versus Radiation Treatment for High-Grade Neuroendocrine Cancer of Uterine Cervix: A Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results Database Analysis

Objectives The objective of this study was to assess treatment and other factors impacting survival in cervical high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma (HGNEC). Methods/Materials We identified patients with cervical HGNECs diagnosed during 1988 to 2012 in the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results database. We determined overall survival by International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stages and by local treatment modalities, that is, radical surgery versus external beam radiation treatment (EBRT) plus brachytherapy using Kaplan-Meier analysis with log-rank test. We also determined factors of age, stage, and treatment modality impacting survival using proportional hazard analysis. Results We identified 832 cases of cervical HGNECs in the database. After excluding cases with incomplete stage data, the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stages I to IV distributions were 196 (28.0%), 69 (9.9%), 175 (25.0%), and 260 patients (37.1%), respectively. Radical surgery and primary radiotherapy yielded similar 5-year overall survival for stages I (61% vs 53%, P = 0.27), II (48% vs 28%, P = 0.308), and III (33% vs 28%, P = 0.408) patients. External beam radiation treatment plus brachytherapy did not yield superior survival than EBRT alone in stage I (48% vs 49%, P = 0.799), II (37% vs 20%, P = 0.112), or III (25% vs 32%, P = 0.636) patients. Age (P = 0.004) and stage (stage II: hazard ratio [HR], 1.78, P = 0.013; stage III: HR, 2.42; P < 0.001) were independent factors impacting survival but not local treatment modality (EBRT: HR, 1.30, P = 0.17; EBRT plus brachytherapy: HR, 1.16; P = 0.417). Conclusions Patients with cervical HGNECs had poor prognosis. Primary treatment by radical surgery or external beam radiotherapy with or without brachytherapy yielded equally poor survival.
Task interference and distraction efficacy in patients with fibromyalgia: an experimental investigation

Abstract Pain has the capacity to interfere with daily tasks. Although task interference by pain is largely unintentional, it can be controlled to a certain extent. Such top-down control over pain has been believed to be reduced in patients with fibromyalgia (FM). In this study, we investigated task interference and distraction efficacy in patients with FM and a matched healthy control group. Forty-nine patients with FM and 49 healthy volunteers performed as quickly as possible (1) a visual localization task in the presence of nonpainful vibrating or painful electric somatic stimuli, and (2) a somatosensory localization task (using nonpainful or painful stimuli). Participants reported on their experience of the somatic stimuli on some of the trials during both localisation tasks. Results indicated that pain interferes with performance of the visual task, in both patients with FM and healthy individuals. Furthermore, participants experienced the pain stimulus as less intense when directing attention away from the pain than when focusing on the pain. Overall, task performance of patients with FM was slower compared with the task performance in the healthy control group. In contrast to our hypotheses, patients with FM and healthy volunteers did not differ in the magnitude of the interference effect and distraction efficacy. In conclusion, current study provides support for contemporary theories claiming that attention modulates the experience of pain and vice versa. However, no evidence was found for an altered attentional processing of pain in patients with FM. Furthermore, results indicate that task interference and distraction efficacy are not just 2 sides of the same coin.
PDGF, Pericytes and the Pathogenesis of Idiopathic Basal Ganglia Calcification (IBGC)

Platelet‐derived growth factors (PDGFs) are important mitogens for various types of mesenchymal cells, and as such, they exert critical functions during organogenesis in mammalian embryonic and early postnatal development. Increased or ectopic PDGF activity may also cause or contribute to diseases such as cancer and tissue fibrosis. Until recently, no loss‐of‐function (LOF) mutations in PDGF or PDGF receptor genes were reported as causally linked to a human disease. This changed in 2013 when reports appeared on presumed LOF mutations in the genes encoding PDGF‐B and its receptor PDGF receptor‐beta (PDGF‐Rβ) in familial idiopathic basal ganglia calcification (IBGC), a brain disease characterized by anatomically localized calcifications in or near the blood microvessels. Here, we review PDGF‐B and PDGF‐Rβ biology with special reference to their functions in brain–blood vessel development, pericyte recruitment and the regulation of the blood–brain barrier. We also discuss various scenarios for IBGC pathogenesis suggested by observations in patients and genetically engineered animal models of the disease.
Mechanisms of neural cell death: Implications for development of neuroprotective treatment strategies

SummaryIt has been increasingly recognized that cell death phenotypes and their molecular mechanisms are highly diverse. Necrosis is no longer considered a single entity, passively mediated by energy failure. Moreover, caspase-dependent apoptosis is not the only pathway involved in programmed cell death or even the only apoptotic mechanism. Recent experimental work emphasizes the diverse and interrelated nature of cell death mechanisms. Thus, there are both caspase-dependent and caspase-independent forms of apoptosis, which may differ morphologically as well as mechanistically. There are also necrotic-like phenotypes that requirede novo protein synthesis and are, therefore, forms of programmed cell death. In addition, forms of cell death showing certain morphological features of both necrosis and apoptosis have been identified, leading to the term aponecrosis. Considerable experimental evidence also shows that modulation of one form of cell death may lead to another. Together, these observations underscore the need to substantially revise our conceptions about neuroprotection strategies. Use of multiple treatments that target different cell death cascades, or single agents that moderate multiple cell death pathways, is likely to lead to more effective neuroprotection for clinical disorders.
Synthesis and Functional Applications of Highly Photocatalytic TiO2 Based Surfaces: Al/TiO2 and Au/TiO2 Hybrid Structures

The interest in using heterogeneous photocatalysis as an alternative for environmental clean-up is continuously increasing as the water resources diminish enormously and the air pollution threatens human health seriously. TiO2 is one of the mostly preferred material for heterogeneous photocatalysis due to its inertness, non-toxicity, high photocatalytic activity, recyclability and safety towards humans and nature. This dissertation covers the development of TiO2 based highly photocatalytic thin films and their functional applications.