Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Unpredictability on Dyspnea Perception, Anxiety and Interoceptive Error Processing

Dyspnea is a prevalent interoceptive sensation and the aversive cardinal symptom in many cardiorespiratory diseases as well as in mental disorders. Especially the unpredictability of the occurrence of dyspnea episodes has been suggested to be highly anxiety provoking for affected patients. Moreover, previous studies demonstrated that unpredictable exteroceptive stimuli increased self-reports and electrophysiological responses of anxiety such as the startle probe N100 as well as amplified the processing of errors as reflected by greater error-related negativity (ERN). However, studies directly examining the role of unpredictability on dyspnea perception, anxiety, and error processing are widely absent. Using high-density electroencephalography, the present study investigated whether unpredictable compared to predictable dyspnea would increase the perception of dyspnea, anxiety and interoceptive error processing. Thirty-two healthy participants performed a respiratory forced choice reaction time task to elicit an interoceptive ERN during two conditions: an unpredictable and a predictable resistive load-induced dyspnea condition. Predictability was manipulated by pairing (predictable condition) or not pairing (unpredictable condition) dyspnea with a startle tone probe. Self-reports of dyspnea and affective state as well as the startle probe N100 and interoceptive ERN were measured. The results demonstrated greater dyspnea unpleasantness in the unpredictable compared to the predictable condition. Post hoc analyses revealed that this was paralleled by greater anxiety, and greater amplitudes for the startle probe N100 and the interoceptive ERN during the unpredictable relative to the predictable condition, but only when the unpredictable condition was experienced in the first experimental block. Furthermore, higher trait-like anxiety sensitivity was associated with higher ratings for dyspnea unpleasantness and experimental state anxiety ratings. The present findings suggest that unpredictability increases the perception of dyspnea unpleasantness. This effect seems related to increased state and trait anxiety and interoceptive error processing, especially when upcoming dyspnea is particularly unpredictable, such as in early experimental phases. Future studies are required to further substantiate these findings in patients suffering from dyspnea.
Metamemory or just Memory? Searching for the Neural Correlates of Judgments of Learning

v interaction between subjective and objective measures of memory encoding. Finally, the neural correlates of both JOLs and successful memory encoding were found to vary depending on the nature of the stimulus materials, suggesting that both phenomena are supported by multiple cognitive and neural systems. Although the primary focus was on the study phase ERP data, the thesis also contains two additional chapters reporting the ERP data acquired during the test phases of three of the original experiments. These data, which examined the relative engagements of retrieval processes for low and high JOL items, suggest that encoding processes specifically resulting in later recollection (as opposed to familiarity) form one reliable basis for making JOLs. Overall, the evidence collected in this series of ERP experiments suggests that JOLs are not pure products of objective memory processes, as suggested by direct access theories, but are supported by neural systems that are at least partly distinct from those supporting successful memory encoding. These observations are compatible with inferential theories claiming that JOLs are supported by multiple processes that can be differentially engaged across stimulus contents.
Functional Roles of the IgM Fc Receptor in the Immune System

It is now evident from studies of mice unable to secrete IgM that both non-immune “natural” and antigen-induced “immune” IgM are important for protection against pathogens and for regulation of immune responses to self-antigens. Since identification of its Fc receptor (FcμR) by a functional cloning strategy in 2009, the roles of FcμR in these IgM effector functions have begun to be explored. Unlike Fc receptors for switched Ig isotypes (e.g., FcγRs, FcεRs, FcαR, Fcα/μR, pIgR, FcRn), FcμR is selectively expressed by lymphocytes: B, T, and NK cells in humans and only B cells in mice. FcμR may have dual signaling ability: one through a potential as yet unidentified adaptor protein non-covalently associating with the FcμR ligand-binding chain via a His in transmembrane segment and the other through its own Tyr and Ser residues in the cytoplasmic tail. FcμR binds pentameric and hexameric IgM with a high avidity of ~10 nM in solution, but more efficiently binds IgM when it is attached to a membrane component via its Fab region on the same cell surface (cis engagement). Four different laboratories have generated Fcmr-ablated mice and eight different groups of investigators have examined the resultant phenotypes. There have been some clear discrepancies reported that appear to be due to factors including differences in the exons of Fcmr that were targeted to generate the knockouts. One common feature among these different mutant mice, however, is their propensity to produce autoantibodies of both IgM and IgG isotypes. In this review, we briefly describe recent findings concerning the functions of FcμR in both mice and humans and propose a model for how FcμR plays a regulatory role in B cell tolerance.
Nephroprotective Potential of Human Albumin Infusion: A Narrative Review

Albumin infusion improves renal function in cirrhosis; however, mechanisms are incompletely understood. In clinical practice, human albumin is used in various intensive care unit indications to deal with a wide range of problems, from volume replacement in hypovolemic shock, or sepsis, to treatment of ascites in patients with liver cirrhosis. Against the background of the results of recent studies on the use of human albumin in septic patients, the importance of the natural colloid in these critically ill patients is being redefined. In addition to the hemodynamic effects of administration of human albumin impacting on sympathetic tone, attention is being paid to other effects in which its pharmacodynamics is associated with the physiological importance of endogenous albumin. The morbidity and mortality data discussed in this paper support the importance of both the hemodynamic and the pharmacological effects of the administration of human albumin in various indications. The contribution that human albumin could make towards the maintenance of renal function in the course and treatment of severe sepsis and cirrhosis of the liver is the subject of this narrative review.
A pilot study on the potential of remote support to enhance wound care for nursing-home patients.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effectiveness of a telehealth system, using digital pen-and-paper technology and a modified smartphone, to remotely monitor and support the effectiveness of wound management in nursing home residents. METHOD A randomised controlled pilot study was conducted in selected nursing homes in Bradford, which were randomised to either the control or evaluation group. All patients with a wound of any aetiology or severity, resident in the selected nursing homes were considered eligible to participate in the study. Residents in the control homes who had, or developed, a wound during the study period, continued to receive unsupported care directed by the nursing home staff (defined as 'standard care'), while those in the evaluation homes received standard care supported by input from the remote experts. RESULTS Thirty-nine patients with a wound were identified in the 16 participating Bradford nursing homes. Analysis of individual patient management pathways suggested that the system provided improved patient outcomes and that it may offer cost savings by improving dressing product selection, decreasing inappropriate onward referral and speeding healing. Despite initial anxiety related to the technology most nursing-home staff found the system of value and many were keen to see the trial continue to form part of routine patient management. CONCLUSION The current study supports the potential value of telemedicine in wound care and indicates the value that such a system may have to nursing-home staff and patients. DECLARATION OF INTEREST This study was funded by a Regional Innovation Fund grant from the Yorkshire and Humberside Strategic Health Authority. The authors have no conflict of interest to declare with respect to the article or its contents.
A Scalability Model for Distributed Resource Management in Real-Time Online Applications

We consider a challenging class of highly interactive virtual environments, also known as Real-Time Online Interactive Applications (ROIA). Popular examples of ROIA include multi-player online computer games, e-learning and training based on real-time simulations, and other challenging applications. ROIA combine high demands on scalability and real-time user interactivity with the problem of an efficient and economic utilization of resources, which is difficult to achieve due to the changing number of users. This paper proposes a generic scalability model for ROIA that analyzes the application performance during runtime and predicts the demand for load balancing, i.e., when to add/remove resources or redistribute workload. We prove the practical relevance of the model by incorporating it into our RTF-RMS resource management system where it is used to predict the influence of different load-balancing actions on the application scalability. Our model is utilized by RTF-RMS for finding efficient load-balancing actions and thresholds for how often these actions should be applied. We report experimental results on the load balancing of a multi-player online game using predictions from the scalability model.
The Pursuit of Happiness

Contemporary cross-cultural comparisons of life satisfaction show that survey research, by going to the people broadly and representatively, is a crucial complement to ethnography. Using the survey approach, the present article poses the following research question: is happiness driven more by economic or psychological factors? This question is investigated in the English and German populations with the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), and the European Social Survey (ESS). The results of the present study show that English and German life satisfaction follow different time trends and have different compositions. Both are driven more by psychological than economic factors, but Germans are more economically sensitive. The R2 = . 59, achieved here for explaining English happiness, appears to be the highest yet recorded in the quality-of-life literature. This English R2 increases to . 78 when a personality effect is included in the multiple-item predictor. Moreover, in the financial, housing and medical spheres of experience subjective representations of physical variables, rather than the physical scales themselves, are the operational determinants of life satisfaction. Finally, an important methodological result emerges in the present study; namely, ordinary regression of cardinal satisfaction scales can replace logistic regression in revealing the values of a nation.
Boundary Constraint-free Biomechanical Model-Based Surface Matching for Intraoperative Liver Deformation Correction

In image-guided liver surgery, 3D-3D non-rigid registration methods play a crucial role in estimating the mapping between the preoperative model and the intraoperative surface represented as point clouds, addressing the challenge of tissue deformation. Typically, these methods incorporate a biomechanical model, represented as a finite element model (FEM), used to regularize a surface matching term. This paper introduces a novel 3D-3D non-rigid registration method. In contrast to the preceding techniques, our method uniquely incorporates the FEM within the surface matching term itself, ensuring that the estimated deformation maintains geometric consistency throughout the registration process. Additionally, we eliminate the need to determine zero-boundary conditions and applied force locations in the FEM. We achieve this by integrating soft springs into the stiffness matrix and allowing forces to be distributed across the entire liver surface. To further improve robustness, we introduce a regularization technique focused on the gradient of the force magnitudes. This regularization imposes spatial smoothness and helps prevent the overfitting of irregular noise in intraoperative data. Optimization is achieved through an accelerated proximal gradient algorithm, further enhanced by our proposed method for determining the optimal step size. Our method is evaluated and compared to both a learning-based method and a traditional method that features FEM regularization using data collected on our custom-developed phantom, as well as two publicly available datasets. Our method consistently outperforms or is comparable to the baseline techniques. Both the code and dataset will be made publicly available.
Feminism and the Biological Body

Bodies may be currently fashionable in social and feminist theory, but their insides are not. Biological bodies always seem to drop out of debates about the body and its importance in Western culture. They are assumed to be fixed, their workings uninteresting or irrelevant to theory. Birke argues that these static views of biology do not serve feminist politics well. As a trained biologist, she uses ideas in anatomy and physiology to develop the feminist view that the biological body is socially and culturally constructed. She rejects the assumption that the body's functioning is somehow fixed and unchanging, claiming that biological science offers more than just a deterministic narrative of 'how nature works'. Feminism and the Biological Body puts biological science and feminist theory together and suggests that we need a politics which includes, rather than denies, our bodily flesh.
Measurement of the Surfactant Properties of Human Meibomian Lipids

PURPOSE. Human meibomian lipids are the major part of the lipid layer of the tear film. Their surfactant properties enable their spread across the aqueous layer and help maintain a stable tear film. The purpose of this study was to investigate surfactant properties of human meibomian lipids in vitro and to determine effects of different physical conditions such as temperature and increased osmolarity, such as occur in dry eye, on these properties.
Self versus Family Ratings of the Frontal Systems Behaviour Scale and Measured Executive Functions: Adult Outcomes following Childhood Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) frequently occurs during childhood and adolescence with long-term neuropsychological and behavioral effects. Greater personal awareness of injury is associated with better outcomes. However, personal awareness is often assessed using ratings obtained from family members or significant others. Surprisingly, the accuracy of family-ratings compared with self-ratings has not been well studied in the TBI population. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine self versus family-ratings of frontal dysfunction and secondly, the association between self/family reported frontal dysfunction and measured executive function outcomes. A total of 60 participants, approximately 10 years post-TBI, comprised 3 groups including; moderate/severe TBI (N=26; mean age 22.9, SD=3.0), mild TBI (N=20; mean age, 21.7, SD=2.7), and control (N=14: mean age, 21.6, SD=3.7). Neuropsychological testing was used to obtain domain scores for executive function and working memory/attention for each participant, and nominated family members and participants with TBI were asked to complete the Frontal Systems Behaviour Scale (FrSBe), consisting of three sub-scales; apathy, disinhibition, and executive dysfunction. Using the FrSBe there was no significant difference between the groups in executive function score, but the moderate/severe and mild groups had significantly lower working memory/attention scores compared with the control group (p<0.05). Repeated measures analysis of variance showed higher self-ratings on all sub-scales compared with family in each group (p<0.05). Scores on executive function and working memory/attention domains correlated with self, but not family reported executive dysfunction. Self-rated executive dysfunction explained 36% of the variance in executive function (p<0.001). While agreement between self-rated and family-rated total FrSBe scores was significant in all groups (p<0.001), our results showed that self-ratings were of higher predictive utility for executive functioning compared with family ratings. Further, at 10 years post-TBI, patients show greater awareness of deficits compared with family who rate consistently closer to the normal functioning range.
Clinical Trial of an Air-Abrasion/Chemomechanical Operative Procedure for the Restorative Treatment of Dental Patients

The aim of this study was to investigate whether caries removal with air-abrasion/Carisolv™ gel is an acceptable and viable alternative in the treatment of dental patients. Twenty-two patients were treated with conventional methods (local anaesthetic injection/drill) followed by alternative treatment (air-abrasion and Carisolv gel) in a general practice setting, by the same operator. The participants’ pre-operative anxiety levels were measured using the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale. Their postoperative levels of anxiety/dislike for aspects of both conventional and alternative treatments were assessed using a visual analogue scale. Levels of anxiety/dislike for both treatments were compared and statistically analysed. Results showed 100% of subjects were concerned about several aspects of conventional treatment including pain/discomfort on injection, taste of anaesthetic, length of time tissues remained numb, noise of the drill, its sensory vibrations and water coolant. However, 75% of the study population were happy with all aspects of the air-abrasion technique including dust, pain/discomfort and vibrations produced. Overall, the study population found Carisolv gel to be an acceptable alternative method of caries removal in terms of time taken, pain/discomfort and taste. There were statistically significant differences between patients’ perceptions of various aspects of the two treatment methods. All participants found the alternative treatment to be pain-free, quicker and overall more acceptable compared with conventional treatment. The conclusion drawn from the study was that air-abrasion/Carisolv gel treatment was a well-accepted and viable alternative to conventional local anaesthetic injection and drill for dental patients.
Hubris, learning, and M&A decisions: Empirical Evidence

Recent empirical results have found a declining trend in the cumulative abnormal return (CAR) of acquiring firms during an M&A program. Should one conclude that CEOs undertaking M&As are infected by hubris and unable to learn? We first confirm the existence of this declining trend. However, we find a positive CAR trend for CEOs most likely to be infected by hubris and a negative (and significantly different) trend for likely rational CEOs. This supports the learning hypothesis and conforms to the theoretical analysis of Aktas et al. (2005). Moreover, the empirical evidence is broadly consistent with theoretical predictions about the implications of learning for the time between successive M&A deals. We conclude that CEO behavior reveals substantial learning during acquisition programs.
Mothering the Self: Mothers, Daughters, Subjects

1. Being and Knowing: The Social Relations of Truth 2.Guaranteeing the Social Order: Good-Enough Daughters, Good-Enough Mothers 3. (Re)Producing the Self 4.Girls Growing Up: Regulation and Autonomy 5.Daughterly Stories: Matrophobia, Class and the Self 6.Maternal Stories, Maternal Selves and Desires 7. Children's Needs and Mothers' Desires 8.Conclusion: Power, Resistance and the Self
rain volume and white matter in youth with type 2 diabetes ompared to obese and normal weight , non-diabetic peers : A pilot tudy

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and obesity are linked to specific patterns of subcortical brain atrophy and decreased microstructural integrity of white matter. Fifteen adolescents (12–21-years-old, 80% Caucasian, 15% African American, mean BMI = 32)–five with T2DM confirmed by oral glucose tolerance test, five matched obese adolescent controls without diabetes (OBCN), and five matched (race, sex) normal-weight controls (NWCN)–underwent Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for the collection of gray matter volume and white matter integrity. Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) of the neuroimaging data revealed significant differences in caudate nucleus volume [F(2,12) = 7.79, p < 0.05] such that the normalweight group had significantly greater volume than the obese and T2DM groups (NWCN>OBCN, p = 0.020; OBCN > T2DM, p = 0.042; and NWCN > T2DM; p = 0.003) after controlling for participant Body Mass Index (BMI). Similarly, there was a main effect for the volume of the thalamus [F(2,12) = 4.39, p < 0.05] with greater volume for both the NWC and the OBC groups in comparison to the T2DM group (NWC > T2DM, p = 0.020; OBC > T2DM; p = 0.040). Finally, an examination of white matter integrity among the three groups illustrated a pattern of white matter integrity reduction between normal-weight participants and both obese controls and T2DM participants, with T2DM demonstrating the greatest deficit in functional anisotropy (FA) volume, but these results were not significant after further controlling for BMI. Results from the current pilot study illuminate a host of brain morphology differences between youth with T2DM, obese youth, and normal-weight controls; future research with a larger sample size is critical.
The Influence of Acetaminophen on Task Related Attention

Our study was designed to examine whether the pain reliever acetaminophen impacts the normal ebb-and-flow of off-task attentional states, such as captured by the phenomenon of mind wandering. In a placebo-controlled between-groups design, participants performed a sustained attention to response task while event-related potentials (ERPs) to target events were recorded. Participants were queried at random intervals for their attentional reports – either “on-task” or “off-task. ” The frequency of these reports and the ERPs generated by the preceding target events were assessed. Behaviorally, the frequency of off-task attentional reports was comparable between groups. Electrophysiologically, two findings emerged: first, the amplitude of the P300 ERP component elicited by target events was significantly attenuated during off-task vs. on-task attentional states in both the acetaminophen and placebo groups. Second, the amplitude of the LPP ERP component elicited by target events showed a significant decrease during off-task attentional states that was specific to the acetaminophen group. Taken together, our findings support the conclusion that acetaminophen doesn’t impact our relative propensity to drift into off-task attentional states, but it does affect the depth of neurocognitive disengagement during off-task attentional states, and in particular, at the level of post-categorization stimulus evaluations indexed by the LPP.