Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Credentials of Brain‐Based Learning

This paper discusses the current fashion for brain-based learning, in which value-laden claims about learning are grounded in neurophysiology. It argues that brain science cannot have the ‘authority’ about learning that some seek to give it. It goes on to discuss whether the claim that brain science is relevant to learning involves a category mistake. The heart of the paper tries to show how the contribution of brain science to our grasp of the nature of learning is limited in principle. Finally the paper explores the potential of brain science to illuminate specific learning disabilities. Some people imagine that they investigate learning itself by studying brain functioning. The required techniques are highly specialised and technical, enjoying dramatically rapid development with the advent of approaches such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans. Moreover, it has become fashionable recently to talk of ‘brain-based learning’ and to attempt to add weight to educational recommendations by appealing to supposedly relevant discoveries about brain functioning. In the light of this it is important to ask how far brain science can contribute to our understanding of learning. A comprehensive answer would require more than a few books. This paper identifies three or four issues for discussion from the much larger number that would need to be addressed in a definitive treatment. First I discuss first some of the philosophical issues raised by appealing to brain phenomena to justify claims about good or effective ways to learn. Next I examine the contention that relating recommendations about learning to brain phenomena involves ‘category mistakes’. In the most important section of the paper I show that the scope for brain science to investigate learning is limited in principle. Finally I ask whether discoveries about the brain can illuminate the understanding of specific learning disabilities.
Inflammatory Cytokines Associated with Obesity, Type-2 Diabetes, and Hypertension Exacerbate Breast Cancer Risk in Underserved African American and Latin American Women

Background: Comorbid chronic diseases, such as obesity, Type-2 Diabetes (T2D), and hypertension (HTN), are major public health issues and highly prevalent among underserved African Americans (AA) and Latin Americans (LA). Elevated inflammatory cytokines are underlying processes in comorbidities (obesity, T2D, and HTN) that could contribute to tumorigenesis and adverse cancer outcomes. Methods: A panel of 19 cytokines was measured by Luminex assay from 570 AA and LA women’s serum samples. The comorbidities and breast cancer information were extracted from our existing clinical database. Comorbidity-associated cytokines were identified by linear regression analysis, and the odds ratios of increasing cytokines for breast cancer were evaluated by Logistic regression. Results: Women with obesity, T2D, and HTN elevated specific groups of cytokines. EGF, MCP1, MDC, MIP-1b, and Groα were independent of T2D and HTN significantly associated with obesity. TGFβ1 and TGFβ2 were T2D-associated cytokines, and MIB-1b, TNFα, and VEGFα were HTN-associated cytokines. Among those comorbidity-associated cytokines, CXCL1, CCL4, CXCL10, TNFα, TGFβ1, and TGFβ2 were also significantly associated with breast cancer diagnosed at age < 50. Two or more comorbidities further increased the levels of Groα, MIP-1b, TNFα, and TGFβs. Conclusions: Comorbidity-associate cytokines could augment the risk of breast cancer for AA and LA women.
Investigating the Relationship between Exchange Rate and Inflation Targeting

This paper conducts empirical investigation on the relationship between exchange rate and inflation targeting regime in the three developed and three emerging Asian economies that have adopted inflation targeting (IT) regime. Using a multivariate GARCH model under BEKK specification, we investigate if exchange rate affect the performance of IT and the performance of IT is compared between Asian and European economies. The comparison is made in terms of changes in economic structure and the disinflation cost. The results show significant correlation between exchange rate movements and inflation and output movements in both sub-periods. IT also has significant impacts on the movements of inflation, output and exchange rate. IT leads to higher volatility in exchange rate movement in majority economies. Comparing the performance of IT across economies, we observe that the volatility in exchange rate has increased dramatically and is very volatile in Asian compared to the developed economies. The decline in inflation impulse is larger in Asian than in developed economies. The implementation of IT does not lead to trade-off of inflation-output in Asia but the trade-off relationship is detected in developed economies. 1572 Siok Kun Sek et al
Intravital two‐photon microscopy of host–pathogen interactions in a mouse model of Staphylococcus aureus skin abscess formation

Staphylococcus (S.) aureus is a frequent cause of severe skin infections. The ability to control the infection is largely dependent on the rapid recruitment of neutrophils (PMN). To gain more insight into the dynamics of PMN migration and host–pathogen interactions in vivo, we used intravital two‐photon (2‐P) microscopy to visualize S. aureus skin infections in the mouse. Reporter S. aureus strains expressing fluorescent proteins were developed, which allowed for detection of the bacteria in vivo. By employing LysM‐EGFP mice to visualize PMN, we observed the rapid appearance of PMN in the extravascular space of the dermis and their directed movement towards the focus of infection, which led to the delineation of an abscess within 1 day. Moreover, tracking of transferred labelled bone‐marrow neutrophils showed that PMN localization to the site of infection is dependent on the presence of G‐protein‐coupled receptors on the PMN, whereas Interleukin‐1 receptor was required on host cells other than PMN. Furthermore, the S. aureus complement inhibitor Ecb could block PMN accumulation at thesite of infection. Our results establish that 2‐P microscopy is a powerful tool to investigate the orchestration of the immune cells, S. aureus location and gene expression in vivo on a single cell level.
Memory performance of geriatric and nongeriatric chronic schizophrenic patients: A cross-sectional study

Memory functioning has been studied extensively in nongeriatric schizophrenic patients, leading to the suggestion that schizophrenic patients manifest a “subcortical” pattern of memory deficits. Few previous studies examined very poor outcome patients with a chronic course of hospitalization. This study examined the association of age and global cognitive dysfunction with verbal and spatial learning and delayed recall, as well as examining differential impairments in delayed recall as compared to delayed recognition memory. Sixty-six chronic schizophrenic patients were studied, with 30 of these patients over the age of 65. Verbal (California Verbal Learning Test) and spatial (Biber Figure Learning Test) serial learning and delayed memory tests were administered. All aspects of memory functioning were correlated with estimates of global cognitive status. When global cognitive status was controlled, age effects were still found for the majority of the memory measures. Delayed recognition memory was not spared, being performed as poorly as delayed recall. In contrast to previous studies of better-outcome patients with schizophrenia, geriatric patients with chronic schizophrenia performed more poorly than nongeriatric patients. The lack of sparing of delayed recognition memory suggests that previous findings of specific recall memory deficit and a subcortical profile of memory impairments may apply to schizophrenic patients with less severe global cognitive impairments. These data suggest that poor-outcome patients may have a pattern of memory impairments that has some features in common with cortical dementia. (JINS, 1999, 5, 494–501.)
The Hydrology and Sediment Transport of Low-Gradient, Forested Headwater Streams

Understanding stream hydrology of headwater regions is critical in effective land management for downstream water quantity and quality. Although extensive research has been performed on headwater streams in topographically variable areas, fewer studies examine lowgradient headwater stream systems, such as those existing on much of the southeastern coastal plain. This study aims to investigate spatial and temporal variation of headwater stream hydrology in a low-gradient forested watershed, quantify mass loading of suspended and dissolved solids in the watershed, and assess the applicability of a spatially distributed model in predicting hydrologic responses of a flat terrain landscape. Stream discharge and sediments were monitored for 17 months (Dec 2005 – Apr 2007) throughout the Flat Creek Watershed, a 369 km basin located in north central Louisiana. Containing 1, 2, and 3 order streams, land slopes average 3.9% and channel slopes are less than 1%. Results show that streamflow variability throughout the study period was highest in the 1 order streams, but ranged from intermittent conditions to water levels exceeding bankfull height throughout the watershed. Evapotranspiration in the watershed was high, exceeding 80% of the precipitation in most areas, and was partly due to low levels of rainfall. Suspended and dissolved solid loading was mainly controlled by discharge levels, as concentrations of solids did not vary extensively throughout the study period. Sediment yields in the Flat Creek Watershed were also lower than many other regions in the United States. Additionally, hydrologic simulation of streamflow using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) did not perform well, suggesting this type of model may not be applicable to the complex runoff processes created by the flat terrain. Representation of the water budget for the 17 months was reasonably close, but streamflow timing was off with
Current solutions for Web service composition

Web service composition lets developers create applications on top of service-oriented computing's native description, discovery, and communication capabilities. Such applications are rapidly deployable and offer developers reuse possibilities and users seamless access to a variety of complex services. There are many existing approaches to service composition, ranging from abstract methods to those aiming to be industry standards. The authors describe four key issues for Web service composition.
Comprehensive analysis of myocilin variants in east Indian POAG patients

Purpose Mutations in the myocilin gene (MYOC) account for 2%–4% of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) cases. To date, a limited number of Indian POAG patients have been analyzed for the contribution of the gene towards the disease pathogenesis. In this study we provided a comprehensive analysis of a total of 765 eastern Indian POAG patients. Methods In the present study 450 POAG patients and 208 ethnically matched controls were screened for the coding region of MYOC by using the polymerase chain reaction-direct sequencing approach; 315 POAG patients were analyzed in a previous study. Thus, our total patient cohort considering both the studies was 765. In addition, 1 kb upstream region of the gene was also examined for variants in a subset of 250 patients and 100 control samples. Results Analysis of MYOC coding regions in 450 POAG patients revealed 10 novel variations including 2 frame-shift (R125SfsX158 and D273DfsX344) and 3 nonsynonymous changes (Arg33Lys, Ser331Leu, and Asp395Glu), 3 reported mutations and 4 reported polymorphisms. Gln48His, which has to date been reported only from Indian subcontinent, was identified in 4 individuals among 450 patients, taking the count to 7 individuals among 765 patients harboring the same mutation in eastern Indian cohort. Screening of 1 kb upstream region of MYOC in limited number of individuals yielded 5 variants but none are likely to contribute to the pathogenesis of the disease. Conclusions MYOC mutations were found to account for 3% of POAG cases in our entire cohort (n=765) and Gln48His is the most common defect. This study, for the first time, reports the presence of deletion mutations in Indian patients, and represents the largest study performed in a single cohort in the Indian population.
Robotics in Rehabilitation: Technology as Destiny

ABSTRACTRobotic aids for rehabilitation hold considerable promise but have not yet achieved widespread clinical adoption. Barriers to adoption include the limited data on efficacy, the single-purpose design of existing robots, financial considerations, and clinician lack of familiarity with this technology. Although the path forward to clinical adoption may be slow and have several false starts, the labor-saving aspect of robotic technology will ultimately ensure its adoption.
Exact coherent structures and their instabilities: toward a dynamical-system theory of shear turbulence 1

Exact coherent structures are steady state or traveling wave solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations that bifurcate from a neutrally stable streaky ∞ow. Such solutions exist in various shear ∞ows, for example in free-slip and noslip plane Couette and Poiseuille ∞ows, and are homotopic to one another. They are smoothly connected to each other through simple mappings in parameter space and their forms in physical space are also closely related. These non-turbulent solutions capture the main structural and statistical features of turbulent ∞ows, such as the form and characteristic sizes of the coherent structures, yet they are unstable from onset. A simple 1D discrete dynamical system illustrates how unstable solutions can be relevant to the dynamics and are symptomatic of a ‘hard’ transition to turbulence. Fullyresolved steady states in no-slip plane Couette ∞ow are presented for various length scales up to Reynolds number 400 where turbulent and time-periodic solutions have been obtained.
Vaccine efficacy of Salmonella strains expressing glycoprotein 63 with different promoters

The development of Salmonella vaccine vectors has been hindered by both the requirement for multiple doses to induce immune responses and a lack of plasmid stability. Direct comparisons of different promoter systems with the same antigen are necessary to address these important issues. We have previously described an AroA- AroD- deletion mutant of Salmonella typhimurium (GID101) which expresses the gene encoding the Leishmania major promastigote surface glycoprotein gp63 (GID101). While this construct provided significant protection against L. major challenge to highly susceptible BALB/c mice, this required at least two oral doses. We report here the use of two different inducible promoters, the nirB and osmC promoters, to improve vaccine efficacy. These constructs (termed GID105 and GID106, respectively) expressed gp63 in vitro under inducible conditions and colonized BALB/c mice after oral administration. GID105 demonstrated greater plasmid stability in vitro and in vivo than did either GID106 or GID101, which expresses gp63 constitutively. Spleen and lymph node cells from mice immunized with a single oral dose of GID105 proliferated in vitro in response to L. major and secreted gamma interferon, whereas cells from mice given the other constructs did not. Mice immunized with a single oral dose of GID1O5 or GID106 developed significantly smaller lesions upon challenge with L. major, whereas mice administered GID101 did not. Mice administered GID105 also showed considerable resistance to Leishmania donovani infection. These data provide a direct comparison of promoter systems and demonstrate that the use of inducible promoters such as the nirB promoter allows a considerable improvement over the previous vaccine construct in terms of protection against infection.
Improving Correlation with Human Judgments by Integrating Semantic Similarity with Second–Order Vectors

Vector space methods that measure semantic similarity and relatedness often rely on distributional information such as co–occurrence frequencies or statistical measures of association to weight the importance of particular co–occurrences. In this paper, we extend these methods by incorporating a measure of semantic similarity based on a human curated taxonomy into a second–order vector representation. This results in a measure of semantic relatedness that combines both the contextual information available in a corpus–based vector space representation with the semantic knowledge found in a biomedical ontology. Our results show that incorporating semantic similarity into a second order co-occurrence matrices improves correlation with human judgments for both similarity and relatedness, and that our method compares favorably to various different word embedding methods that have recently been evaluated on the same reference standards we have used.
An Evaluation of a Working Memory Training Scheme in Older Adults

Working memory is a cognitive process that is particularly vulnerable to decline with age. The current study sought to evaluate the efficacy of a working memory training scheme in improving memory in a group of older adults. A 5-week online training scheme was designed to provide training in the main components of Baddeley’s (2000) working memory model, namely auditory and visuospatial short-term and working memory. A group of older adults aged between 64 and 79 were randomly assigned to a trainee (n = 19) or control (n = 17) group, with trainees engaging in the adaptive training scheme and controls engaging in a non-adaptive version of the program. Before and after training and at 3- and 6-month follow-up sessions, trainees and controls were asked to complete measures of short-term and working memory, long-term episodic memory, subjective ratings of memory, and attention and achievement of goals set at the beginning of training. The results provided evidence of an expansion of auditory short-term memory span, which was maintained 6 months later, and transfer to long-term episodic memory but no evidence of improvement in working memory capacity per se. A serendipitous and intriguing finding of a relationship between time spent training, psychological stress, and training gains provided further insight into individual differences in training gains in older adults.
Subclinical Thyroid Dysfunction and the Risk of Heart Failure Events: An Individual Participant Data Analysis From 6 Prospective Cohorts

Background— American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines for the diagnosis and management of heart failure recommend investigating exacerbating conditions such as thyroid dysfunction, but without specifying the impact of different thyroid-stimulation hormone (TSH) levels. Limited prospective data exist on the association between subclinical thyroid dysfunction and heart failure events. Methods and Results— We performed a pooled analysis of individual participant data using all available prospective cohorts with thyroid function tests and subsequent follow-up of heart failure events. Individual data on 25 390 participants with 216 248 person-years of follow-up were supplied from 6 prospective cohorts in the United States and Europe. Euthyroidism was defined as TSH of 0.45 to 4.49 mIU/L, subclinical hypothyroidism as TSH of 4.5 to 19.9 mIU/L, and subclinical hyperthyroidism as TSH <0.45 mIU/L, the last two with normal free thyroxine levels. Among 25 390 participants, 2068 (8.1%) had subclinical hypothyroidism and 648 (2.6%) had subclinical hyperthyroidism. In age- and sex-adjusted analyses, risks of heart failure events were increased with both higher and lower TSH levels (P for quadratic pattern <0.01); the hazard ratio was 1.01 (95% confidence interval, 0.81–1.26) for TSH of 4.5 to 6.9 mIU/L, 1.65 (95% confidence interval, 0.84–3.23) for TSH of 7.0 to 9.9 mIU/L, 1.86 (95% confidence interval, 1.27–2.72) for TSH of 10.0 to 19.9 mIU/L (P for trend <0.01) and 1.31 (95% confidence interval, 0.88–1.95) for TSH of 0.10 to 0.44 mIU/L and 1.94 (95% confidence interval, 1.01–3.72) for TSH <0.10 mIU/L (P for trend=0.047). Risks remained similar after adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors. Conclusion— Risks of heart failure events were increased with both higher and lower TSH levels, particularly for TSH ≥10 and <0.10 mIU/L.
A scheduling framework for general-purpose parallel languages

The trend in microprocessor design toward multicore and manycore processors means that future performance gains in software will largely come from harnessing parallelism. To realize such gains, we need languages and implementations that can enable parallelism at many different levels. For example, an application might use both explicit threads to implement course-grain parallelism for independent tasks and implicit threads for fine-grain data-parallel computation over a large array. An important aspect of this requirement is supporting a wide range of different scheduling mechanisms for parallel computation. In this paper, we describe the scheduling framework that we have designed and implemented for Manticore, a strict parallel functional language. We take a micro-kernel approach in our design: the compiler and runtime support a small collection of scheduling primitives upon which complex scheduling policies can be implemented. This framework is extremely flexible and can support a wide range of different scheduling policies. It also supports the nesting of schedulers, which is key to both supporting multiple scheduling policies in the same application and to hierarchies of speculative parallel computations. In addition to describing our framework, we also illustrate its expressiveness with several popular scheduling techniques. We present a (mostly) modular approach to extending our schedulers to support cancellation. This mechanism is essential for implementing eager and speculative parallelism. We finally evaluate our framework with a series of benchmarks and an analysis.
Improving Sexual Health Communication Between Older Women and Their Providers

Talking about sexual health can be a challenge for some older women. This project was initiated to identify key factors that improve communication between aging women and their primary care providers. A sample of women (aged 60+) completed an online survey regarding their intent to communicate with a provider about sexual health. Using the integrative model of behavioral prediction as a guide, the survey instrument captured data on attitudes, perceived norms, self-efficacy, and intent to communicate with a provider about sexual health. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Self-efficacy and perceived norms were the most important factors predicting intent to communicate for this sample of women. Intent did not vary with race, but mean scores of the predictors of intent varied for African American and White women. Results can guide practice and intervention with ethnically diverse older women who may be struggling to communicate about their sexual health concerns.
Automated Generation of Context-Aware Tests

The incorporation of context-awareness capabilities into pervasive applications allows them to leverage contextual information to provide additional services while maintaining an acceptable quality of service. These added capabilities, however, introduce a distinct input space that can affect the behavior of these applications at any point during their execution, making their validation quite challenging. In this paper, we introduce an approach to improve the test suite of a context-aware application by identifying context-aware program points where context changes may affect the application's behavior, and by systematically manipulating the context data fed into the application to increase its exposure to potentially valuable context variations. Preliminary results indicate that the approach is more powerful than existing testing approaches used on this type of application.