Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kinematic parameters of throwing performance in patients with schizophrenia using a markerless motion capture system

Abstract Motor dysfunction is consistently reported but understudied in schizophrenia. It has been hypothesized that this abnormality may reflect a neuro-developmental disorder underlying this illness. The main goal of this study was to analyze movement patterns used by participants with schizophrenia and healthy controls during overarm throwing performance, using a markerless motion capture system. Thirteen schizophrenia patients and 16 healthy control patients performed the overarm throwing task in a markerless motion capture system. Participants were also examined for the presence of motor neurological soft signs (mNSS) using the Brief Motor Scale. Schizophrenia patients demonstrated a less developed movement pattern with low individualization of components compared to healthy controls. The schizophrenia group also displayed a higher incidence of mNSS. The presence of a less mature movement pattern can be an indicator of neuro-immaturity and a marker for atypical neurological development in schizophrenia. Our findings support the understanding of motor dysfunction as an intrinsic part of the disorder of schizophrenia.
ImpBench revisited: An extended characterization of implant-processor benchmarks

Implants are nowadays transforming rapidly from rigid, custom-based devices with very narrow applications to highly constrained albeit multifunctional embedded systems. These systems contain cores able to execute software programs so as to allow for increased application versatility. In response to this trend, a new collection of benchmark programs for guiding the design of implant processors, ImpBench, has already been proposed and characterized. The current paper expands on this characterization study by employing a genetic-algorithm-based, design-space exploration framework. Through this framework, ImpBench components are evaluated in terms of their implications on implant-processor design. The benchmark suite is also expanded by introducing one new benchmark and two new stressmarks based on existing ImpBench benchmarks. The stressmarks are proposed for achieving further speedups in simulation times without polluting the processor-exploration process. Profiling results reveal that processor configurations generated by the stressmarks follow with good fidelity — except for some marked exceptions — ones generated by the aggregated ImpBench suite. Careful use of the stressmarks can seriously reduce simulation times up to x30, which is an impressive speedup and a good tradeoff between DSE speed and accuracy.
Overview on the sub-grouping of the crustacean hyperglycemic hormone family

The Crustacean hyperglycemic hormones (CHHs) are an ever extending family of crustacean hormones mainly involved in carbohydrate metabolism, molt and reproduction. In this paper, we drew together 32 available CHH sequences, and applied the techniques of multiple sequence alignment, motif searching and amino acid conservation analysis to the characterization of the molecules independently of their biological function. The analysis clearly showed that the proteins clustered into two groups (CHH and VIH). Amino acid conservation analysis also subdivided the VIH group into sequences involved in reproduction (RIH) or in molt (MIH). Motif searching identified five motifs in each group of mature hormones. Motifs A2 and A3 were conserved in all sequences while motifs A1 and A1' were specific of the CHH and VIH groups respectively. This approach demonstrated the S. gregaria ion transport peptides as true members of the CHH group. The two main groups, CHH and VIH, are also discussed in terms of functional homogeneity.
Scaling tape-recording areal densities to 100 Gb/in2

We examine the issue of scaling magnetic tape-recording to higher areal densities, focusing on the challenges of achieving 100 Gb/in2 in the linear tape format. The current highest achieved areal density demonstrations of 6.7 Gb/in2 in the linear tape and 23.0 Gb/in2 in the helical scan format provide a reference for this assessment. We argue that controlling the head-tape interaction is key to achieving high linear density, whereas track-following and reel-to-reel servomechanisms as well as transverse dimensional stability are key for achieving high track density. We envision that advancements in media, data-detection techniques, reel-to-reel control, and lateral motion control will enable much higher areal densities. An achievable goal is a linear density of 800 Kb/in and a track pitch of 0.2 µm, resulting in an areal density of 100 Gb/in2.
The Lateral Occipito-temporal Cortex Is Involved in the Mental Manipulation of Body Part Imagery

The lateral occipito-temporal cortex (LOTC), including the extrastriate body area, is known to be involved in the perception of body parts. Although still controversial, recent studies have demonstrated the role of the LOTC in higher-level body-related cognition in humans. This study consisted of two experiments (E1 and E2). The first (E1) was an exploratory experiment to find the neural correlate of the mental manipulation of body part imagery, in which brain cerebral glucose metabolic rates and the performance of mental rotation of the hand were measured in 100 subjects who exhibited a range of symptoms of cognitive decline. In E1, we found that the level of glucose metabolism in the right LOTC was significantly correlated with performance in a task involving mental manipulation of the hand. Next, in E2, we performed a randomized, double-blind, controlled intervention study (clinical trial number: UMIN 000018310) in younger healthy adults to test whether right occipital (corresponding to the right LOTC) anodal stimulation using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) could enhance the mental manipulation of the hand. In E2, we demonstrated a significant effect of tDCS on the accuracy rate in a task involving mental manipulation of the hand. Although further study is necessary to answer the question of whether these results are specific for the mental manipulation of body parts but not non-body parts, E1 demonstrated a possible role of the LOTC in carrying out the body mental manipulation task in patients with dementia, and E2 suggested the possible effect of tDCS on this task in healthy subjects.
User sketches: a quick, inexpensive, and effective way to elicit more reflective user feedback

Our aim is to introduce techniques that allow for active involvement of users throughout the design process, starting with the very early stages of ideation and exploration. The approach discussed in this study augments conventional usability testing with a user sketching component. We found that enabling users to sketch their ideas facilitated reflection, and provided a rich medium for discovery and communication of design ideas. We believe that this technique has the potential to complement usability testing in general, in order to generate "reflective" as opposed to purely "reactive" user feedback.
Helping the Poor with Selfish Intentions: Trade, Foreign Aid and Growth

Departing from explanations that involve either altruistic or political motivations of donors, we link a donor’s willingness to give aid to economic incentives and returns. Since targeted aid might increase the returns from trade and FDI linkages for donors, there exists a non-altruistic basis for helping poor countries. We explore this idea by developing a two-country dynamic strategic interaction model of foreign aid and trade. We endogenize aid-tying process by incorporating it into the donor’s optimization problem. We analyze the dynamics of aid composition and show how different components of foreign aid, such as education, investment, commodity and general budget support are optimally supplied over time. We show even under donor-ideal conditions aid might fail to generate growth for the recipient. JEL classification: F35, O11, P16, C61, F12, O41
Cytometric diversity in marine ultraphytoplankton

The concept and methods of ecological diversity in communities were applied to phytoplankton categorized by flow cytometric measurements related to size and chlorophyll content. Each cytometric signature was condensed to single numerical values indicative of diversity and evenness. Measurements pooled from studies disparate in temporal and spatial scales indicated greater chlorophyll biomass and primary production with greater cytometric diversity and evenness. Future development of these ideas may help link biological oceanographic processes with patterns established through ecological processes at the community level.
Accurate polyp segmentation for 3D CT colongraphy using multi-staged probabilistic binary learning and compositional model

Accurate and automatic colonic polyp segmentation and measurement in Computed Tomography (CT) has significant importance for 3D polyp detection, classification, and more generally computer aided diagnosis of colon cancers. In this paper, we propose a three-staged probabilistic binary classification approach for automatically segmenting polyp voxels from their surrounding tissues in CT. Our system integrates low-, and mid-level information for discriminative learning under local polar coordinates which align on the 3D colon surface around detected polyp. More importantly, our supervised learning system has flexible modeling capacity, which offers a principled means of encoding semantic, clinical expert annotations of colonic polyp tissue identification and segmentation. The learning generality to unseen data is bounded by boosting [12, 11] and stacked generality [14]. Extensive experimental results on polyp segmentation performance evaluation and robustness testing with disturbances (using both training data and unseen data) are provided to validate our presented approach. The reliability of polyp segmentation and measurement has been largely increased to 98:2% (ie. errors les 3 mm), compared with other state of art work [4, 15] of about 75% ~ 80%.
Improvement in exercise tolerance and spirometric values in stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients after an individualized outpatient rehabilitation programme.

OBJECTIVE We sought to determine whether patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) whose exercise performance is mainly limited by dyspnoea are able to improve their exercise tolerance after rehabilitation with an individualized programme based on aerobic training at the ventilatory threshold (VT) level. PATIENTS AND EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Thirteen stable and moderate to severe COPD patients took part in an outpatient rehabilitation programme lasting 4 months. This individualized programme consisted of exercise training (general training on cycle and upper-limb training by rowing at the heart rate corresponding to VT) together with provision of adequate calorie and protein support. RESULTS Lung function test after rehabilitation revealed significant increases in FVC (82.9 vs 69.2 % pred) and FEV1 (47.2 vs 39.7 % pred), although FEV1/FVC were unchanged (44.8 vs 46.8%). Incremental exercise test performed on cycle revealed significant increases in time, work rate (82.0 vs 63.2 W), peak VO2 (14.6 vs 10.7 ml.kg-1.min-1), peak VO2 (840 vs 701 ml.min-1), peak VT (1309 vs 980 ml), and O2-pulse (8.3 vs 6.7). However, exercise tests were always symptom-limited by dyspnoea. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that this individualized outpatient rehabilitation programme is able to improve exercise tolerance in stab le COPD patients affected by dyspnoea during exercise, through an apparent reconditioning of both skeletal and respiratory muscles and improved gas exchange during exercise, thus reducing the ratio of dead space to tidal volume. In consequence, patients whose exercise capacity is so reduced that they cannot develop significant lactic acidosis may reduce the ventilatory cost for exercise through this individualized therapy.
Prevalence and Characteristics of Painful Diabetic Neuropathy in a Large Community-Based Diabetic Population in the U.K.

OBJECTIVE To assess, in the general diabetic population, 1) the prevalence of painful neuropathic symptoms; 2) the relationship between symptoms and clinical severity of neuropathy; and 3) the role of diabetes type, sex, and ethnicity in painful neuropathy. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Observational study of a large cohort of diabetic patients receiving community-based health care in northwest England (n = 15,692). Painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN) was assessed using neuropathy symptom score (NSS) and neuropathy disability score (NDS). RESULTS Prevalence of painful symptoms (NSS ≥5) and PDN (NSS ≥5 and NDS ≥3) was 34 and 21%, respectively. Painful symptoms occurred in 26% of patients without neuropathy (NDS ≤2) and 60% of patients with severe neuropathy (NDS >8). Adjusted risk of painful neuropathic symptoms in type 2 diabetes was double that of type 1 diabetes (odds ratio [OR] = 2.1 [95% CI 1.7–2.4], P < 0.001) and not affected by severity of neuropathy, insulin use, foot deformities, smoking, or alcohol. Women had 50% increased adjusted risk of painful symptoms compared with men (OR = 1.5 [1.4–1.6], P < 0.0001). Despite less neuropathy in South Asians (14%) than Europeans (22%) and African Caribbeans (21%) (P < 0.0001), painful symptoms were greater in South Asians (38 vs. 34 vs. 32%, P < 0.0001). South Asians without neuropathy maintained a 50% increased risk of painful neuropathy symptoms compared with other ethnic groups (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS One-third of all community-based diabetic patients have painful neuropathy symptoms, regardless of their neuropathic deficit. PDN was more prevalent in patients with type 2 diabetes, women, and people of South Asian origin. This highlights a significant morbidity due to painful neuropathy and identifies key groups who warrant screening for PDN.
CTLA-4 Overexpression Inhibits T Cell Responses through a CD28-B7-Dependent Mechanism1

CTLA-4 has been shown to be an important negative regulator of T cell activation. To better understand its inhibitory action, we constructed CTLA-4 transgenic mice that display constitutive cell surface expression of CTLA-4 on CD4 and CD8 T cells. In both in vivo and in vitro T cell responses, CTLA-4 overexpression inhibits T cell activation. This inhibition is dependent on B7 and CD28, suggesting that overexpressed CTLA-4 inhibits responses by competing with CD28 for B7 binding or by interfering with CD28 signaling. In addition, expression of the transgene decreases the number of CD25+Foxp3+ T cells in these mice, but does not affect their suppressive ability. Our data confirm the activity of CTLA-4 as a negative regulator of T cell activation and that its action may be by multiple mechanisms.
Pharmacokinetics of anticancer drugs in children.

Several comprehensive reviews of the disposition of anticancer drugs in children with cancer have been published (1–7). However, recent advances in cellular and molecular biology techniques have led to the design and analysis of clinical pharmacology studies, which have increased our understanding of the age-related changes that govern drug disposition: absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination. Moreover, recent studies have characterized the disposition of new anticancer drugs in children, as well as contributed new insights into the use of currently available anticancer drugs. Thus, an update on pediatric pharmacokinetics of anticancer drugs in children is warranted.
Set mapping decomposition by mathematical morphology

A memory chip and a method of operating a chip with a number of banks of memory to be backward compatible with a controller designed to operate a chip having a lesser number of banks. To accomplish this, a control (bit) is produced on the chip Mode Register Set (MRS) that activates corresponding logic in the chip to move one of the bits used to address a memory cell, such as one of the row address bits, to a position of the bank ID field. This provides a greater number of bank ID bits to select memory banks of a chip so that a high number bank chip can accept a command supplied by a controller designed to operate a chip with a fewer number of banks and that has a format of a lesser number of bank ID bits.
Asynchronous consensus of continuous-time multi-agent systems with intermittent measurements

This article is concerned with asynchronous consensus problems of continuous-time second-order agents with fixed topology and time-varying delays. It is assumed that each agent obtains the measurements of its states relative to its neighbours only at discrete times and the discrete times of each agent are independent of the others'. It is proven that the asynchronous consensus is equivalent to the global asymptotic stability of a time-varying discrete-time system with delays. Furthermore, a sufficient condition for asynchronous consensus is established in virtue of the Lyapunov's direct method. Simulations are performed to validate the theoretical results.
Networks as the Pipes and Prisms of the Market1

This article draws an analytical distinction between two types of market uncertainty: egocentric, which refers to a focal actor’s uncertainty regarding the best way to convert a set of inputs to an output desired by a potential exchange partner, and altercentric, which denotes the uncertainty confronted by a focal actor’s exchange partners regarding the quality of the output that the focal actor brings to the market. Given this distinction, the article considers how the value of “structural holes” and market status vary with these two types of uncertainty. The article proposes that the value of structural holes increases with egocentric uncertainty, but not with altercentric uncertainty. In contrast, the value of status increases with altercentric uncertainty, but declines with egocentric uncertainty. Thus actors with networks rich in structural holes should sort into markets or market segments that are high in egocentric uncertainty; high‐status actors should sort into markets that are low in egocentric uncertainty. Support for this claim is found in an examination of the venture capital markets.
Stabilization in a Two-Species Chemostat With Monod Growth Functions

We design feedback controllers for two species chemostats so that an equilibrium with arbitrary prescribed positive species concentrations becomes globally asymptotically stable. We use a new global explicit strict Lyapunov function construction, which allows us to quantify the effects of disturbances using the input-to-state stability paradigm. We assume that only a linear combination of the species concentrations is known. We illustrate our approach using a numerical example.
On analysis of k-t BLAST for dynamic MRI

k-t BLAST (Broad-use Linear Acquisition Speed-up Technique) is a popular means of improving imaging speed for dynamic MRI. The impact of several factors such as dealing DC(direct current) separately, the width of the temporal frequency band and the signal estimation capacity of the unaliasing formalisms are investigated. It is shown that the compactness of the temporal frequency representation is crucial to the performance of k-t BLAST. The accuracy of the priori information retrieved from the training data has only diminishing impact on reconstruction quality due to the inaccurate unaliasing equation. The estimation capacity of the unaliasing formalism is insufficient when the signal overlap is severe, and changing the unaliasing formalism accordingly may improve the reconstruction quality.
Performance criteria for graph clustering and Markov cluster experiments

In~[1] a cluster algorithm for graphs was introduced called the Markov cluster algorithm or MCL~algorithm. The algorithm is based on simulation of (stochastic) flow in graphs by means of alternation of two operators, expansion and inflation. The results in~[2] establish an intrinsic relationship between the corresponding algebraic process (MCL~process) and cluster structure in the iterands and the limits of the process. Several kinds of experiments conducted with the MCL~algorithm are described here. Test cases with varying homogeneity characteristics are used to establish some of the particular strengths and weaknesses of the algorithm. In general the algorithm performs well, except for graphs which are very homogeneous (such as weakly connected grids) and for which the natural cluster diameter (i.e. the diameter of a subgraph induced by a natural cluster) is large. This can be understood in terms of the flow characteristics of the MCL~algorithm and the heuristic on which the algorithm is grounded. A generic performance criterion for clusterings of weighted graphs is derived, by a stepwise refinement of a simple and appealing criterion for simple graphs. The most refined criterion uses a particular Schur convex function, several properties of which are established. A metric is defined on the space of partitions, which is useful for comparing different clusterings of the same graph. The metric is compared with the metric known as the equivalence mismatch coefficient. The performance criterion and the metric are used for the quantitative measurement of experiments conducted with the MCL~algorithm on randomly generated test graphs with 10000 nodes. Scaling the MCL~algorithm requires a regime of pruning the stochastic matrices which need to be computed. The effect of pruning on the quality of the retrieved clusterings is also investigated. [1] A cluster algorithm for graphs. Technical report INS-R0010, National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in the Netherlands, Amsterdam, 2000. [2] A stochastic uncoupling process for graphs. Technical report INS-R0011, National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in the Netherlands, Amsterdam, 2000.
A new micronized formulation of 2-methoxyestradiol-bis-sulfamate (STX140) is therapeutically potent against breast cancer.

UNLABELLED There is a continued need for orally bioavailable anticancer compounds that exhibit good efficacy against breast cancer. STX140, a derivative of 2-methoxyestradiol (2-MeOE2), has been shown to have excellent oral bioavailability and significantly reduces tumor growth. A new micronized formulation of STX140 has now been developed and its pharmacokinetics (PK) in rats and effect on MDA-MB-231 breast cancer growth in nude mice was investigated. MATERIALS AND METHODS For the PK studies, female Wistar rats were treated orally with STX140 in two separate vehicles (10% tetrahydrofuran (THF) in propylene glycol (PG) or 0.5% methyl cellulose (MC) in saline) and plasma samples taken for high performance liquid chromatography analysis over 48 h. For the tumor efficacy studies, female nude mice were inoculated with MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells and then treated orally with a range of doses of STX140. RESULTS The PK studies demonstrated that the THF/PG vehicle resulted in a greater oral bioavailability of STX140 compared to the 0.5% MC vehicle. However, this was not translated to the tumor efficacy studies where STX140 at 20 mg/kg in either vehicle caused a significant reduction in tumor volume. CONCLUSION The new micronized formulation of STX140 is orally bioavailable and efficacious at inhibiting MDA-MB-231 breast tumor growth.