Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of Parkinson’s disease subgroups on verbal and nonverbal fluency

Background. Parkinson’s disease (PD) leads to deficits in executive function, including verbal and nonverbal fluency, as a result of compromised frontostriatal circuits. It is unknown whether deficits in verbal and nonverbal fluency in PD are driven by certain subgroups of patients, or how strategy use may facilitate performance. Participants. Sixty-five nondemented individuals with PD, including 36 with right-body onset (RPD; 20 with tremor as their initial symptom, 16 nontremor) and 29 with left-body onset (LPD; 14 with tremor as their initial symptom, 15 nontremor), and 52 normal control participants (NC) took part in the study. Measurements. Verbal fluency was assessed using the FAS and Animals tests. Nonverbal fluency was assessed using the Ruff Figural Fluency Test. Results. Both RPD and LPD were impaired in generating words and in using clustering and switching strategies on phonemic verbal fluency, whereas different patterns of impairment were found on nonverbal fluency depending on the interaction of side of onset and initial motor symptom (tremor vs. nontremor). Strategy use correlated with number of correct responses on verbal fluency in LPD, RPD, and NC. By contrast, on nonverbal fluency, strategy use correlated with correct responses for RPD and LPD, but not for NC. Conclusion. Our findings demonstrate the importance of considering subgroups in PD and analyzing subcomponents of verbal and nonverbal fluency (correct responses, errors, and strategies), which may depend differently on the integrity of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex.
Hemoglobin C in Newborn Sheep and Goats: A Possible Explanation for its Function and Biosynthesis

Extract: Chromatographic analyses of the hemoglobins of newborn kids over a postnatal period of 120 to 140 days have shown that fetal hemoglobin is replaced by βC chain-containing hemoglobin types rather than by normal βA chain-containing adult hemoglobin components. These βC chain-containing hemoglobins are the same as those observed in adult goats subjected to severe blood-loss anemia. A similar, but quantitatively different, phenomenon was also observed in newborn lambs. The increase in βC chain production is preceded by an elevation of an erythropoietic stimulating factor (ESF) in blood plasma. When ESF extract of human urinary origin was injected into either young lambs or a young kid, an increased production of βC chain-containing hemoglobins was observed.Speculation: It is postulated that the production of βC chain-containing hemoglobin types in the newborn kid is a physiological adjustment that allows these fast growing animals to supply oxygen to the tissues in an easy fashion. The effects observed as a response to an increased ESF activity in serum are interpreted to be the result of two separate mechanisms that differ qualitatively and quantitatively. The low sensitivity of sheep to the stimulus of an elevated ESF activity is explained by a possible formation of an activator-inhibitor complex resulting in a decreased activation of the silent HbβC structural gene.
An Anti-Phishing System Employing Diffused Information

The phishing scam and its variants are estimated to cost victims billions of dollars per year. Researchers have responded with a number of anti-phishing systems, based either on blacklists or on heuristics. The former cannot cope with the churn of phishing sites, while the latter usually employ decision rules that are not congruent to human perception. We propose a novel heuristic anti-phishing system that explicitly employs gestalt and decision theory concepts to model perceptual similarity. Our system is evaluated on three corpora contrasting legitimate Web sites with real-world phishing scams. The proposed system’s performance was equal or superior to current best-of-breed systems. We further analyze current anti-phishing warnings from the perspective of warning theory, and propose a new warning design employing our Gestalt approach.
The hilar height ratio.

The hilar height ratio is a value that expresses the normal position of a hilus in its hemithorax. Pulmonary volume changes, infrapulmonary, and subphrenic processes may produce an abnormal hilar height ratio. Detection of pathologic states that do not alter the relative hilar heights is made possible by the recognition of this abnormal ratio.
The role of the pericardium and the effects of adrenaline and changes in oxygen tension on the performance of an in situ perfused crocodile heart

An in situ perfused crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) heart preparation was used to examine the mechanical responses of the heart to increases in adrenaline concentration, to a decrease in oxygen tension and to opening of the pericardium. Starling and power curves were constructed before and after these experimental manipulations. Increasing adrenaline concentration in the perfusate from 5 nmol l-1 to 0.5 µmol l-1 produced a significant increase in heart rate and a decrease in stroke volume, leaving cardiac output unchanged. With maximal adrenergic stimulation, the left ventricle was able to generate greater power outputs at high right aortic output pressures; however, the right ventricle showed a decrease in performance with increasing output pressure. Decreasing the PO2 of the perfusate to 10 kPa resulted in a significant bradycardia. Both the flow and pressure-generating capabilities of the perfused heart preparation were reduced, although the heart was able to maintain low work levels at this PO2. Opening the pericardium permitted greater movement/expansion of the cardiac chambers and resulted in an increase in heart rate. Higher flows were generated at low filling pressures during the input pressure challenge as a result of an increase in the sensitivity of the Starling response.
An Ejection Chain Approach for the Generalized Assignment Problem

We propose a tabu search algorithm for the generalized assignment problem, which is one of the representative combinatorial optimization problems known to be NP-hard. The algorithm features an ejection chain approach, which is embedded in a neighborhood construction to create more complex and powerful moves. We also incorporate an adaptive mechanism for adjusting search parameters, to maintain a balance between visits to feasible and infeasible regions. Computational results on benchmark instances of small sizes show that the method obtains solutions that are optimal or that deviate by at most 0.16% from the best known solutions. Comparisons with other approaches from the literature show that, for instances of larger sizes, our method obtains the best solutions among all heuristics tested.
Higher Order Analytical Solutions of Water Table Fluctuations in Coastal Aquifers

The groundwater response of coastal aquifers to tidal forcing is described by Laplace's equation coupled with the nonlinear phreatic‐free surface boundary condition. Here we describe fluctuations in the water table using two small parameters, extending previous work by proposing an ansatz to compute higher order, semi‐analytical solutions. The new solutions are compared with known lower order solutions. The relative difference between the linear solution and higher order solutions can reach up to 30% of the linear solution for shallow beaches. The new solutions exhibit a reduction in the over height of the groundwater fluctuations compared with the lower order solutions. In addition, the super elevation of the water table, both near shore and as the aquifer tends landward, is examined with the inclusion of higher order terms.
Influence of Fiber Properties on the Inductive Method for the Steel-Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Characterization

The inductive method has shown to be a good method for the estimation of fiber dosage in steel-fiber-reinforced concrete. The current formulations reported a strong correlation between inductance and fiber content, as well as orientation. The objective of this paper is to study how the inductive measurements are affected by fiber properties, such as its dimensions, magnetic characteristics, and sample temperature. The results obtained from numerical, simulated, and experimental data propose a shape factor to be applied in the measurements to take into account the aspect ratio of fibers. They also show that the magnetic composition of the fibers is of great importance. As for temperature, the error introduced is less than 1%, so a corrective factor is not essential.
Interferon response during Coxsackie B-3 infection in mice. I. The effect of cortisone.

The adverse effects of corticosteroids on resistance to viral infections have been recognized for a long time [1, p. 108; 2; 3]. In order to shed light on the mechanisms responsible for this enhanced susceptibility, studies were conducted to determine the effect of cortisone on interferon, an antiviral factor, the importance of which in resistance to viral infections is becoming widely accepted [4]. In the initial studies, Newcastle disease virus (NDV) was employed as the inducer of interferon [5]. NDV, which does not go through a complete cycle of replication in the mouse and which produces no pathology unless given in "toxic" amounts [6, 7], was thought to be particularly suitable for this study, since the ancillary effects of the steroid on viral replication per se would be circumvented. It was found that pretreatment of mice with cortisone prior to induction of interferon by NDV led to a significant suppression of the response to interferon. Titers of interferon in the cortisone-pretreated mice were 10-fold lower than those in the control animals at the time of the maximal inter-
The endocannabinoid system as a target for the treatment of motor dysfunction

There is evidence that cannabinoid‐based medicines that are selective for different targets in the cannabinoid signalling system (e.g. receptors, inactivation mechanism, enzymes) might be beneficial in basal ganglia disorders, namely Parkinson's disease (PD) and Huntington's disease (HD). These benefits not only include the alleviation of specific motor symptoms [e.g. choreic movements with cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1)/transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 agonists in HD; bradykinesia with CB1 antagonists and tremor with CB1 agonists in PD], but also the delay of disease progression due to the neuroprotective properties demonstrated for cannabinoids (e.g. CB1 agonists reduce excitotoxicity; CB2 agonists limit the toxicity of reactive microglia; and antioxidant cannabinoids attenuate oxidative damage). In addition, extensive biochemical, anatomical, physiological and pharmacological studies have demonstrated that: (i) the different elements of the cannabinoid system are abundant in basal ganglia structures and they are affected by these disorders; (ii) the cannabinoid system plays a prominent role in basal ganglia function by modulating the neurotransmitters that operate in the basal ganglia circuits, both in healthy and pathological conditions; and (iii) the activation and/or inhibition of the cannabinoid system is associated with important motor responses that are maintained and even enhanced in conditions of malfunctioning and/or degeneration. In this article we will review the available data regarding the relationship between the cannabinoid system and basal ganglia activity, both in healthy and pathological conditions and will also try to identify future lines of research expected to increase current knowledge about the potential therapeutic benefits of targeting this system in PD, HD and other basal ganglia disorders.
Ranking Text Documents Based on Conceptual Difficulty Using Term Embedding and Sequential Discourse Cohesion

We propose a novel framework for determining the conceptual difficulty of a domain-specific text document without using any external lexicon. Conceptual difficulty relates to finding the reading difficulty of domain-specific documents. Previous approaches to tackling domain-specific readability problem have heavily relied upon an external lexicon, which limits the scalability to other domains. Our model can be readily applied in domain-specific vertical search engines to re-rank documents according to their conceptual difficulty. We develop an unsupervised and principled approach for computing a term's conceptual difficulty in the latent space. Our approach also considers transitions between the segments generated in sequence. It performs better than the current state-of-the-art comparative methods.
Improved Deep Learning Baselines for Ubuntu Corpus Dialogs

This paper presents results of our experiments for the next utterance ranking on the Ubuntu Dialog Corpus -- the largest publicly available multi-turn dialog corpus. First, we use an in-house implementation of previously reported models to do an independent evaluation using the same data. Second, we evaluate the performances of various LSTMs, Bi-LSTMs and CNNs on the dataset. Third, we create an ensemble by averaging predictions of multiple models. The ensemble further improves the performance and it achieves a state-of-the-art result for the next utterance ranking on this dataset. Finally, we discuss our future plans using this corpus.
Small Nerve Fiber Pathology in Critical Illness

Background Degeneration of intraepidermal nerve fibers (IENF) is a hallmark of small fiber neuropathy of different etiology, whose clinical picture is dominated by neuropathic pain. It is unknown if critical illness can affect IENF. Methods We enrolled 14 adult neurocritical care patients with prolonged intensive care unit (ICU) stay and artificial ventilation (≥ 3 days), and no previous history or risk factors for neuromuscular disease. All patients underwent neurological examination including evaluation of consciousness, sensory functions, muscle strength, nerve conduction study and needle electromyography, autonomic dysfunction using the finger wrinkling test, and skin biopsy for quantification of IENF and sweat gland innervation density during ICU stay and at follow-up visit. Development of infection, sepsis and multiple organ failure was recorded throughout the ICU stay. Results Of the 14 patients recruited, 13 (93%) had infections, sepsis or multiple organ failure. All had severe and non-length dependent loss of IENF. Sweat gland innervation was reduced in all except one patient. Of the 7 patients available for follow-up visit, three complained of diffuse sensory loss and burning pain, and another three showed clinical dysautonomia. Conclusions Small fiber pathology can develop in the acute phase of critical illness and may explain chronic sensory impairment and pain in neurocritical care survivors. Its impact on long term disability warrants further studies involving also non-neurologic critical care patients.
Transported Enzymes in Sciatic Nerve and Sensory Ganglia of Rats Exposed to Maternal Antibodies Against Nerve Growth Factor

Abstract: The accumulations by axoplasmic transport of selected enzyme activities proximal and distal to a ligature placed on the sciatic nerve were monitored in rats exposed in utero to maternal antibodies to nerve growth factor (NGF) and in control rats. Littermates of the animals exposed to anti‐NGF were shown elsewhere to have had a 70% reduction in the number of sensory neurons in dorsal root ganglia and a 90% reduction in number of neurons in superior cervical (sympathetic) ganglion. The accumulation of F‐‐sensitive acid phosphatase activity was depressed 75% both proximal and distal to the tie. Accumulation of F‐‐resistant acid phosphatase activity was depressed nearly 50% proximal to the tie. Distal accumulation of this activity did not occur in either group of rats. Accumulation of acetylcholinesterase activity was not affected. Proximal accumulation of glutamic dehydrogenase activity was depressed 30%. Distal accumulation of the activities of β‐glucuronidase and hexokinase was depressed 50%. In the lumbar dorsal root ganglia, dry weight was reduced 40%, and the activities of peroxide‐sensitive, F‐‐resistant acid phosphatase and of the mitochondrial enzymes hexokinase, glutamic dehydrogenase, glutamic‐oxalacetic transaminase, and NAD‐dependent isocitric dehydrogenase were all reduced a little more, 45–50% per ganglion. However, the activities of the lysosomal enzymes, F‐‐sensitive acid phosphatase and β‐glucuronidase, of the peroxide‐resistant, F‐‐resistant acid phosphatase, and of the mitochondrial enzyme glutaminase were all reduced about 60% per ganglion. The results of these measurements were interpreted to suggest that much, and perhaps all, of the F‐‐sensitive acid phosphatase activity in motion in peripheral nerve in rat is confined to sensory axons.
Negative Regulation of Schwann Cell Myelin Protein Gene Expression by the Dorsal Root Ganglionic Microenvironment

In vivo, the surface glycoprotein Schwann cell myelin protein (SMP) is expressed in the quail peripheral nervous system exclusively by Schwann cells. It is not detectable at any developmental stage either in enteric glia or in ganglionic satellite cells. We demonstrate here that the satellite glial cells of the dorsal root ganglia start to express SMP on their surface when they are dissociated into single cells and cultivated in vitro. Activation of SMP synthesis is a rapid event observed in mass cultures of dorsal root ganglia dissociated cells as soon as 4 h after the onset of the culture. Confocal microscope analysis revealed that satellite cells may acquire the Schwann cell marker when still in close contact with the neuronal soma. Clonal cultures of satellite cells from E8 dorsal root ganglia demonstrated that the progeny of these SMP‐negative cells steadily express SMP. This, together with similar results previously obtained with enteric glia, suggests that the SMP‐positive phenotype is a constitutive trait of the peripheral glial cell lineage which is inhibited in satellite cells in vivo by the microenvironment prevailing in the peripheral nervous system ganglia.
Rheumatoid factors and secondary immune responses in the mouse I. Frequent occurrence of hybridomas secreting IgM anti‐IgG1 autoantibodies after immunization with protein antigens

The involvement of rheumatoid factor (RF)‐secreting cells in normal immune responses was examined by screening hybridomas derived from 129/Sv mice during primary and secondary immune responses against foreign proteins. No RF‐secreting cells were detected during primary responses, but up to 10% of the total number of clones obtained during secondary responses produced IgM with anti‐IgG activity. Like typical mouse RF, these anti‐IgG autoantibodies had a strict isotypic specificity, mostly for IgG1, and a much stronger avidity for immune complexes than for native IgG. The selective activation of IgG1‐specific RF during these secondary immune reactions was not due to fortuitous antigenic similarities between mouse IgG1 and the antigens used for immunization, nor did it result from the use of adjuvants for priming, or from contamination of antigen preparations with lipopolysaccharide. It is therefore concluded that, in the 129/Sv mouse, RF production during secondary immune responses is a physiological phenomenon.
Support Vector Regression for Improved Real-Time, Simultaneous Myoelectric Control

This study describes the first application of a support vector machine (SVM) based scheme for real-time simultaneous and proportional myoelectric control of multiple degrees of freedom (DOFs). Three DOFs including wrist flexion-extension, abduction-adduction and forearm pronation-supination were investigated with 10 able-bodied subjects and two individuals with transradial limb deficiency (LD). A Fitts' law test involving real-time target acquisition tasks was conducted to compare the usability of the SVM-based control system to that of an artificial neural network (ANN) based method. Performance was assessed using the Fitts' law throughput value as well as additional metrics including completion rate, path efficiency and overshoot. The SVM-based approach outperformed the ANN-based system in every performance measure for able-bodied subjects. The SVM outperformed the ANN in path efficiency and throughput with the first LD subject and in throughput with the second LD subject. The superior performance of the SVM-based system appears to be due to its higher estimation accuracy of all DOFs during inactive and low amplitude segments (these periods were frequent during real-time control). Another advantage of the SVM-based method was that it substantially reduced the processing time for both training and real time control.
Cardiomyocyte Apoptosis Were Inhibited by Anti-Fas Ribozyme

We investigate the effects of anti-Fas ribozyme on Fas expression and apoptosis in primary cultured Neonatal mouse ventricular myocytes. Neonatal mouse ventricular myocytes were isolated by using collagenase irrigation. A hammerhead ribozyme targeting the Fas mRNA was constructed, and transfected into Neonatal mouse ventricular myocytes via Effectene. Then Fas expression in Neonatal mouse ventricular myocytes was detected by RT-PCR and western blotting.After being treated with anti-Fas antibody (JO2), myocytes viability was measured with MTT assay. Caspase-3 proteolytic activity was detected, and cell apoptosis was measured according to Annexin V-FITC apoptosis detection kit. Fas expressed in primary mouse myocytes.Fas expression in myocytes transfected with anti-Fas ribozyme was decreased remarkably and correlated with the resistance to Fas-mediated apoptosis as determined by flow cytometry and caspase-3 proteolytic activity. Anti-Fas ribozyme can remarkably decrease the Fas expression in mouse myocytes, thus inhibit Fasmediated apoptosis in myocytes. It is suggested that anti-Fas ribozyme could significantly increase the resistance of transplanted myocytes to apoptosis and improve the survival of transplanted myocytes.
Purified 60-kilodalton Legionella protein antigen with Legionella-specific and nonspecific epitopes

In a previous study, all convalescent-phase sera from patients with culture-confirmed legionellosis reacted on immunoblots with a Legionella genus-wide 58-kilodalton (kDa) protein antigen (J.S. Sampson, B.B. Plikaytis, and H.W. Wilkinson, J. Clin. Microbiol. 23:92-99, 1986). The present study was done to immunologically characterize and determine the diagnostic relevance of this purified antigen. The antigen was precipitated from enriched cell extracts with ammonium sulfate and purified by high-pressure liquid chromatography. High-titered rabbit antiserum produced to the purified protein was used to show its presence on immunoblots in the 60-kDa range in 38 Legionella serogroups, representing 23 species, and in 39 non-Legionella bacteria. The antiserum was made specific for Legionella strains by sequential absorptions with Bordetella pertussis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Pseudomonas fluorescens whole cells. Serum from legionellosis patients reacted with both specific and nonspecific epitopes. Results of indirect immunofluorescence experiments showed that neither specific nor nonspecific epitopes of the 60-kDa protein were surface exposed on Legionella cells and that cross-reactive epitopes were variably exposed on non-Legionella bacteria. The 60-kDa protein antigen should be useful in diagnostic tests for legionellosis if care is taken to expose cryptic epitopes and if the tests use or measure only the Legionella-specific epitopes.