Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Normative data for healthy elderly on the phonemic verbal fluency task – FAS

Phonemic verbal fluency tests assess the production of words beginning with specific letters. Of these letters, the most frequently used are F, A and S. It is a sensitive test for assessing frontal lobe functions. Objective To provide normative data for the elderly Brazilian population on the FAS test and to investigate the effects of age and schooling on test performance. Methods The individuals were divided into three age groups (60–69, 70–79 and =80 years), and into four groups according to education (1–3, 4–7, 8–11 and 12 years). All subjects were assessed by the Mini Mental State Examination and the FAS. Data were analyzed with Student’s t test, ANOVA, simple linear regression and Spearman’s correlation. Results We evaluated 345 cognitively healthy volunteers, 66.66% being female, aged 60 to 93 years, with an educational level ranging from one to 24 years. The average (number of items) ±SD for the whole sample was 28.28±11.53. No significant effect of gender was observed (p=0.5). Performance on the MMSE and education exerted a direct influence on FAS scores (p<0.001), with education being the most significant factor. A positive correlation was found between FAS and the MMSE (r=0.404; p<0.001). Conclusion The performance of Brazilian elderly on the phonemic verbal fluency tests-FAS is significantly influenced by education, where individuals with higher educational level present better performance than those with fewer years of schooling. Age and gender did not prove significant with the FAS.
Comments on ‘The discrepancy between human peripheral nerve chronaxie times as measured using magnetic and electric field stimuli: the relevance to MRI gradient coil safety’

A recent electrostimulation study with human subjects (Recoskie et al 2009 Phys. Med. Biol. 54 5965–79) reported a large difference between chronaxie times when stimuli were delivered to the same body locus (the wrist) either through contact electrodes (electric stimulation) or through a pulsed magnetic field (magnetic stimulation). This paper reviews the procedures and analytic methods used in that study that might account for the reported discrepancies. Factors possibly accounting for reported discrepancies include the maximum and minimum pulse widths of the experimental stimuli; variations in experimental waveforms vis-à-vis mathematically ideal functions; differences in the spatial distribution of the in situ electric field for the two methods of delivery and differences in derived chronaxie relative to strength-duration time constants.
Measurement of CO2 effective diffusion coefficient of cementitious materials

The CO2-effective diffusion coefficient is a key parameter in the modelling of carbonation of cementitious materials. It is usually deduced from empirical relationships determined by tests on mixtures made with Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). These relationships are a priori non-valid for materials with high content of mineral additions, such as ground granulated blast furnace slag (BFS). In order to better understand the effect of composition on the CO2 effective diffusion coefficient, a device was developed to measure this property. This study presents the developed protocol and the study carried out on dried cement pastes and limestone samples. The influence of several parameters was investigated: material nature, water/binder ratio, binder type (OPC or BFS). BFS pastes were found less diffusive than OPC pastes for the same porosity. CO2 diffusion is strongly affected by the pore structure properties. Comparison with literature results is mixed. Effective diffusion coefficients determined in the present study are only of the same order of magnitude than coefficients measured through CO2 diffusion tests.
ORF7 of Varicella-Zoster Virus Is Required for Viral Cytoplasmic Envelopment in Differentiated Neuronal Cells

ABSTRACT Although a varicella-zoster virus (VZV) vaccine has been used for many years, the neuropathy caused by VZV infection is still a major health concern. Open reading frame 7 (ORF7) of VZV has been recognized as a neurotropic gene in vivo, but its neurovirulent role remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated the effect of ORF7 deletion on VZV replication cycle at virus entry, genome replication, gene expression, capsid assembly and cytoplasmic envelopment, and transcellular transmission in differentiated neural progenitor cells (dNPCs) and neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y (dSY5Y) cells. Our results demonstrate that the ORF7 protein is a component of the tegument layer of VZV virions. Deleting ORF7 did not affect viral entry, viral genome replication, or the expression of typical viral genes but clearly impacted cytoplasmic envelopment of VZV capsids, resulting in a dramatic increase of envelope-defective particles and a decrease in intact virions. The defect was more severe in differentiated neuronal cells of dNPCs and dSY5Y. ORF7 deletion also impaired transmission of ORF7-deficient virus among the neuronal cells. These results indicate that ORF7 is required for cytoplasmic envelopment of VZV capsids, virus transmission among neuronal cells, and probably the neuropathy induced by VZV infection. IMPORTANCE The neurological damage caused by varicella-zoster virus (VZV) reactivation is commonly manifested as clinical problems. Thus, identifying viral neurovirulent genes and characterizing their functions are important for relieving VZV related neurological complications. ORF7 has been previously identified as a potential neurotropic gene, but its involvement in VZV replication is unclear. In this study, we found that ORF7 is required for VZV cytoplasmic envelopment in differentiated neuronal cells, and the envelopment deficiency caused by ORF7 deletion results in poor dissemination of VZV among neuronal cells. These findings imply that ORF7 plays a role in neuropathy, highlighting a potential strategy to develop a neurovirulence-attenuated vaccine against chickenpox and herpes zoster and providing a new target for intervention of neuropathy induced by VZV.
Review of the Nomenclature of the Retaining Ligaments of the Cheek: Frequently Confused Terminology

Since the time of its inception within facial anatomy, wide variability in the terminology as well as the location and extent of retaining ligaments has resulted in confusion over nomenclature. Confusion over nomenclature also arises with regard to the subcutaneous ligamentous attachments, and in the anatomic location and extent described, particularly for zygomatic and masseteric ligaments. Certain historical terms—McGregor’s patch, the platysma auricular ligament, parotid cutaneous ligament, platysma auricular fascia, temporoparotid fasica (Lore’s fascia), anterior platysma-cutaneous ligament, and platysma cutaneous ligament—delineate retaining ligaments of related anatomic structures that have been conceptualized in various ways. Confusion around the masseteric cutaneous ligaments arises from inconsistencies in their reported locations in the literature because the size and location of the parotid gland varies so much, and this affects the relationship between the parotid gland and the fascia of the masseter muscle. For the zygomatic ligaments, there is disagreement over how far they extend, with descriptions varying over whether they extend medially beyond the zygomaticus minor muscle. Even the ‘main’ zygomatic ligament’s denotation may vary depending on which subcutaneous plane is used as a reference for naming it. Recent popularity in procedures using threads or injectables has required not only an accurate understanding of the nomenclature of retaining ligaments, but also of their location and extent. The authors have here summarized each retaining ligament with a survey of the different nomenclature that has been introduced by different authors within the most commonly cited published papers.
A critical examination of the available data sources for estimating meat and protein consumption in the USA

Abstract Objective To describe the methods, strengths and limitations of available data sources for estimating US meat and protein consumption in order to facilitate accurate interpretations and applications. Design We examined agricultural supply and dietary intake databases from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the US Department of Health and Human Services and the FAO to describe their methodology and to report the most recent estimates for meat and protein consumption. Results Together, loss-adjusted agricultural supply data and dietary recall data provide the best available estimates of US consumption; the most recent sources indicated that US citizens (ages 2 years and over) consume 4·4–5·9 oz (125·9–166·5 g) of total meat and 6·2–7·4 oz-eq (175·2–209·4 g-eq) from the USDA Protein Foods Group per day. Meat constitutes the majority of intake within the Protein Foods Group, and red meat and processed meat constitute the majority of total meat intake. Nutrient supply data indicate that total meat represents an estimated 43·1 % of the total protein available in the US food supply, but without any loss-adjusted nutrient data, per capita protein intake is best estimated by dietary recall data to be 79·9 g/d. Conclusions In order to address public health concerns related to excess meat and/or protein consumption, practitioners, educators and researchers must appropriately use available data sources in order to accurately report consumption at the population level. Implications for comparing these estimates with various recommended intakes are discussed.
Multi-Label Music Genre Classification from Audio, Text and Images Using Deep Features

Music genres allow to categorize musical items that share common characteristics. Although these categories are not mutually exclusive, most related research is traditionally focused on classifying tracks into a single class. Furthermore, these categories (e.g., Pop, Rock) tend to be too broad for certain applications. In this work we aim to expand this task by categorizing musical items into multiple and fine-grained labels, using three different data modalities: audio, text, and images. To this end we present MuMu, a new dataset of more than 31k albums classified into 250 genre classes. For every album we have collected the cover image, text reviews, and audio tracks. Additionally, we propose an approach for multi-label genre classification based on the combination of feature embeddings learned with state-of-the-art deep learning methodologies. Experiments show major differences between modalities, which not only introduce new baselines for multi-label genre classification, but also suggest that combining them yields improved results.
Natural Radioactivity Assessment and Radiological Hazards in Soils from Qarun Lake and Wadi El Rayan in Faiyum, Egypt

The activity concentrations of naturally occurring 238U, 232Th and 40K in surface soils along Qarun Lake and Wadi El Rayan located in Faiyum, Egypt were determined. The measurements were carried out through gamma-ray spectrometry using a coaxial HPGe detector. The results were compared with those reported in the literature. The radiological hazard radium-equivalent activity index, external and internal indices, radioactivity level index, absorbed dose rate, annual effective dose rate and total absorbed dose rate associated with radioactivity in all samples were evaluated and compared with recommended values. Correlation studies between pairs of radionuclides were performed and discussed.
Materialistic values and well-being among business students: Further evidence of their detrimental effect

According to an environmental-match perspective regarding the content of values (Sagiv & Schwartz, 2000), extrinsic or materialistic values should positively predict well-being in populations in which extrinsic values match the environmentally promoted values (e.g., among business students). However, other value researchers (Kasser & Ahuvia, 2002) disagree with these claims. Although the present study shows that business students ascribe higher importance to extrinsic values than do education students, the negative relation of extrinsic values with well-being and the positive relation with internal distress and substance use was not moderated by the department to which students belonged. Finally, mediational analyses revealed that value orientations could account for the fact that business students report lower well-being and higher substance use in comparison to education students.
TEM: Tree-enhanced Embedding Model for Explainable Recommendation

While collaborative filtering is the dominant technique in personalized recommendation, it models user-item interactions only and cannot provide concrete reasons for a recommendation. Meanwhile, the rich side information affiliated with user-item interactions (e.g., user demographics and item attributes), which provide valuable evidence that why a recommendation is suitable for a user, has not been fully explored in providing explanations. On the technical side, embedding-based methods, such as Wide&Deep and neural factorization machines, provide state-of-the-art recommendation performance. However, they work like a black-box, for which the reasons underlying a prediction cannot be explicitly presented. On the other hand, tree-based methods like decision trees predict by inferring decision rules from data. While being explainable, they cannot generalize to unseen feature interactions thus fail in collaborative filtering applications. In this work, we propose a novel solution named Tree-enhanced Embedding Method that combines the strengths of embedding-based and tree-based models. We first employ a tree-based model to learn explicit decision rules (aka. cross features) from the rich side information. We next design an embedding model that can incorporate explicit cross features and generalize to unseen cross features on user ID and item ID. At the core of our embedding method is an easy-to-interpret attention network, making the recommendation process fully transparent and explainable. We conduct experiments on two datasets of tourist attraction and restaurant recommendation, demonstrating the superior performance and explainability of our solution.
Pedobacter mongoliensis sp. nov., isolated from grassland soil.

A Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped, motile by gliding and strictly aerobic bacterial strain, named 1-32T, was isolated from soil of the Ordos grassland in Inner Mongolia, PR China. Strain 1-32T showed highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities to Pedobacter luteus N7d-4T (95.4 %), Pedobacter oryzae DSM 19973T (95.3 %), 'Pedobacter xinjiangensis' 12157T (95.2 %) and Pedobacter tournemirensis TF5-37.2-LB10T (95.1 %). Phylogenetic analyses clustered strain 1-32T with 'P. xinjiangensis' 12157T and P. tournemirensis TF5-37.2-LB10T. The DNA G+C content was 43.4 mol%. Menaquinone 7 was the main respiratory quinone. The predominant fatty acids (>5 %) were iso-C15 : 0, summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω6c and/or C16 : 1ω7c), iso-C17 : 0 3-OH, iso-C15 : 0 3-OH and C16 : 1ω5c. The polar lipids of strain 1-32T comprised phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified polar lipids, one unidentified glycolipid and two unidentified phospholipids. Strain 1-32T could be distinguished from the other members of the genus Pedobacter based on its phylogenetic distance and physiological and biochemical characteristics such as being negative for the assimilation of rhamnose and the activity of α-glucosidase. Therefore, strain 1-32T represents a novel species of the genus Pedobacter, for which the name Pedobacter mongoliensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 1-32T (=KCTC 52859T=CCTCC AB 2017084T).
The feasibility of using Microsoft Kinect v2 sensors during radiotherapy delivery

Consumer‐grade distance sensors, such as the Microsoft Kinect devices (v1 and v2), have been investigated for use as marker‐free motion monitoring systems for radiotherapy. The radiotherapy delivery environment is challenging for such sensors because of the proximity to electromagnetic interference (EMI) from the pulse forming network which fires the magnetron and electron gun of a linear accelerator (linac) during radiation delivery, as well as the requirement to operate them from the control area. This work investigated whether using Kinect v2 sensors as motion monitors was feasible during radiation delivery. Three sensors were used each with a 12 m USB 3.0 active cable which replaced the supplied 3 m USB 3.0 cable. Distance output data from the Kinect v2 sensors was recorded under four conditions of linac operation: (i) powered up only, (ii) pulse forming network operating with no radiation, (iii) pulse repetition frequency varied between 6 Hz and 400 Hz, (iv) dose rate varied between 50 and 1450 monitor units (MU) per minute. A solid water block was used as an object and imaged when static, moved in a set of steps from 0.6 m to 2.0 m from the sensor and moving dynamically in two sinusoidal‐like trajectories. Few additional image artifacts were observed and there was no impact on the tracking of the motion patterns (root mean squared accuracy of 1.4 and 1.1 mm, respectively). The sensors’ distance accuracy varied by 2.0 to 3.8 mm (1.2 to 1.4 mm post distance calibration) across the range measured; the precision was 1 mm. There was minimal effect from the EMI on the distance calibration data: 0 mm or 1 mm reported distance change (2 mm maximum change at one position). Kinect v2 sensors operated with 12 m USB 3.0 active cables appear robust to the radiotherapy treatment environment. PACS number(s): 87.53 JW, 87.55 N‐, 87.63 L‐
Transparent, conformable, active multielectrode array using organic electrochemical transistors

Significance We have developed a transparent, ultraflexible, and active multielectrode array (MEA), which consists of transparent organic electrochemical transistors and transparent Au grid wirings. The micropatterned Au grid showed 60% transparency at 475-nm wavelength. The transparent active MEA showed the spatial mapping of electrocorticogram electrical signals from an optogenetic rat with 1-mm spacing and shows lower light artifacts than noise level. Mechanically flexible active multielectrode arrays (MEA) have been developed for local signal amplification and high spatial resolution. However, their opaqueness limited optical observation and light stimulation during use. Here, we show a transparent, ultraflexible, and active MEA, which consists of transparent organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) and transparent Au grid wirings. The transparent OECT is made of Au grid electrodes and has shown comparable performance with OECTs with nontransparent electrodes/wirings. The transparent active MEA realizes the spatial mapping of electrocorticogram electrical signals from an optogenetic rat with 1-mm spacing and shows lower light artifacts than noise level. Our active MEA would open up the possibility of precise investigation of a neural network system with direct light stimulation.
Compartmental distribution of GABAB receptor-mediated currents along the somatodendritic axis of hippocampal principal cells

Activity of cortical principal cells is controlled by the GABAergic system providing inhibition in a compartmentalized manner along their somatodendritic axis. While GABAAR-mediated inhibitory synaptic transmission has been extensively characterized in hippocampal principal cells, little is known about the distribution of postsynaptic effects of GABABRs. In the present study, we have investigated the functional localization of GABABRs and their effector inwardly rectifying potassium (Kir3) channels by combining electrophysiological recordings in acute rat hippocampal slices, high-resolution immunoelectron microscopic analysis and single cell simulations. Pharmacologically isolated slow inhibitory postsynaptic currents were elicited in the three major hippocampal principal cell types by endogenous GABA released by electrical stimulation, photolysis of caged-GABA, as well as the canonical agonist baclofen, with the highest amplitudes observed in the CA3. Spatially restricted currents were assessed along the axis of principal cells by uncaging GABA in the different hippocampal layers. GABABR-mediated currents were present along the entire somatodendritic axis of principal cells, but non-uniformly distributed: largest currents and the highest conductance densities determined in the simulations were consistently found on the distal apical dendrites. Finally, immunocytochemical localization of GABABRs and Kir3 channels showed that distributions overlap but their densities diverge, particularly on the basal dendrites of pyramidal cells. GABABRs current amplitudes and the conductance densities correlated better with Kir3 density, suggesting a bottlenecking effect defined by the effector channel. These data demonstrate a compartmentalized distribution of the GABABR-Kir3 signaling cascade and suggest differential control of synaptic transmission, dendritic integration and synaptic plasticity at afferent pathways onto hippocampal principal cells.
WPI-CS-TR-02-25 Oct 2002 XML Algebra Optimization . by Xin

Mapping of XML data into and out of relational database systems, including query processing over such virtual XML views that wrap relational sources, has become a topic of critical importance recently. The Rainbow XML data management system, being developed at WPI, focuses on the processing and optimization of XQuery queries against XML views of that relational data. For this, Rainbow’s query model, XML Algebra Tree (XAT), has been designed. Because the XML formatting operators are interleaved with the computation operators, this XAT must then be optimized before being translated into SQL. For this, our computation pushdown technology splits the XAT into the XML-specific and SQL-doable operators with the later then being converted into SQL statements. However, the XAT after computation pushdown may contain unreferenced columns or unused operators. We show that these unneeded operators cannot be discovered by the relational engine after SQL generation. Leaving these operators in the tree would create unnecessarily large SQL statements that will slow down the overall execution. Our main contributions to XML query processing, described in this paper, are threefold. One, we describe the XAT algebra for modeling XQuery expressions. Two, we propose rewriting rules to optimize XQueries by cancelling operators. Three, we describe a cutting algorithm that removes unreferenced columns and operators from the XATs. We have implemented the techniques discussed in this paper in the Rainbow system. Our experimental study compares the performance of execution before and after operator cancel out and before and after cutting.
Leber hereditary optic neuropathy: current perspectives

Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is one of the most common inherited optic neuropathies causing bilateral central vision loss. The disorder results from point mutations in mitochondrial DNA and subsequent mitochondrial dysfunction. The primary cell type that is lost in LHON is the retinal ganglion cell, which is highly susceptible to disrupted ATP production and oxidative stress. Inheritance of LHON follows that of mitochondrial genetics, and it has a highly variable clinical phenotype, as other genetic and environmental factors also play a role. Although LHON usually presents with isolated vision loss, some patients suffer other neurological sequelae. For ill-defined reasons, male LHON mutation carriers are more affected than females. Most LHON patients remain legally blind, but a small proportion can experience spontaneous partial recovery, often within the first year of symptom onset. Unfortunately, at this time there are no established curative interventions and treatment is largely supportive. Patients should be offered low vision services and counseled on mitigating risk factors for additional vision loss, such as smoking and consuming alcohol. Encouraging treatments currently undergoing investigation includes ubiquinone analogs, such as idebenone, as well as gene therapy and stem cells to restore ATP synthesis and provide neuroprotection to surviving retinal ganglion cells.