Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Age-related Neural Reorganization during Spoken Word Recognition: The Interaction of Form and Meaning

Research on language and aging typically shows that language comprehension is preserved across the life span. Recent neuroimaging results suggest that this good performance is underpinned by age-related neural reorganization [e.g., Tyler, L. K. , Shafto, M. A. , Randall, B. , Wright, P., Marslen-Wilson, W. D. , & Stamatakis, E. A. Preserving syntactic processing across the adult life span: The modulation of the frontotemporal language system in the context of age-related atrophy. Cerebral Cortex, 20, 352–364, 2010]. The current study examines how age-related reorganization affects the balance between component linguistic processes by manipulating semantic and phonological factors during spoken word recognition in younger and older adults. Participants in an fMRI study performed an auditory lexical decision task where words varied in their phonological and semantic properties as measured by degree of phonological competition and imageability. Older adults had a preserved lexicality effect, but compared with younger people, their behavioral sensitivity to phonological competition was reduced, as was competition-related activity in left inferior frontal gyrus. This was accompanied by increases in behavioral sensitivity to imageability and imageability-related activity in left middle temporal gyrus. These results support previous findings that neural compensation underpins preserved comprehension in aging and demonstrate that neural reorganization can affect the balance between semantic and phonological processing.
Ex Vivo Antibody-Dependent Cellular Cytotoxicity Inducibility Predicts Efficacy of Cetuximab

Taylor and colleagues studied patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck treated with cetuximab and lenalidomide and report that enhanced ex vivo antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity and innate immunity best predicted clinical responses. We conducted in vitro studies and a clinical trial for patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) to study the relationship between FcγRIIIa polymorphisms and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). In vitro, FcγRIIIa genotype was correlated with ADCC and innate cytotoxicity using natural killer (NK) cells harvested from healthy donors. In the phase II study, patients with recurrent or metastatic SCCHN were treated with cetuximab (500 mg/m2 i.v. every 2 weeks) and lenalidomide (25 mg daily). FcγRIIIa genotype and ex vivo ADCC were correlated with clinical response, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). In vitro, healthy donors with a FcγRIIIa 158-V allele demonstrated more effective ADCC against two colon cancer cell lines HT29 and SW480, mean cytotoxicity: FF 16.1%, VF/VV 24.3% (P = 0.015) and FF 11.7%, VF/VV 21.0% (P = 0.008), respectively. We observed a linear relationship between ADCC response and innate cytotoxicity. In the phase II trial, 40 patients received cetuximab and lenalidomide with median PFS of 7.2 weeks and OS of 16.4 weeks. Thirty-six patients had FcγRIIIa genotype: VV (2), VF (20), and FF (14), and 25 patients had sufficient NK-cell yield to perform ex vivo ADCC. FcγRIIIa genotype was not associated with any clinical outcomes. Patients mounting ex vivo ADCC response had a higher likelihood of stable disease (P = 0.01) and showed a trend toward increased PFS: 14 weeks versus 6.8 weeks, respectively (P = 0.13). Enhanced ex vivo ADCC and innate immunity responses were more predictive of clinical response than FcγRIIIa and may offer a functional assay to select patients suitable for cetuximab therapy. Cancer Immunol Res; 3(5); 567–74. ©2015 AACR.
Local Energy Variability as a Generic Measure of Bottom-Up Salience

In image analysis, complexity reduction by selection of regions of interest is considered a biologically inspired strategy. In fact, Human Visual System (HVS) is constantly moving away less relevant information in favour of the most salient objects or features, by means of highly selective mechanisms forming an overall operation referred to as visual attention. This is the evolutionary solution to the well known complexity reduction problem (Tsotsos, 2005), when dealing with the processing and interpretation of natural images; a problem that is a major challenge for technical systems devoted to the processing of images or video sequences in real time. Hence, attention seems to be an adequate bio-inspired solution which can be applied in a variety of computing problems. Along with available technical advances, this fact is key to explain why the description and computational modelling of the attentional function of the HVS has experienced an enormous increase in the last two decades. In fact, applications of computing visual conspicuity are already found in many different fields: image segmentation and object learning and recognition (Rutishauser et al., 2004); vision system for robots (Witkowski & Randell, 2004) and humanoid robots (Orabona et al., 2005); visual behaviour generation in virtual human animation (Peters & O'Sullivan, 2003); processing data from 3D laser scanner (Frintrop et al., 2003); content-based image retrieval (Marques et al., 2003), etc. In models of attention it is common to differentiate between two types of attention, the bottom-up from an image-based saliency, which accounts for features that stand out from the context, and the top-down attention as task-dependent and knowledge-based. These two kinds of attention are widely assumed to interact each other, delivering a global measure of saliency that drives visual selection. In fact, neurophysiological results suggest that these two mechanisms of attention take place in separate brain areas which interact in a visual task (Corbetta & Shulman, 2002) (Buschman & Miller 2007). Regarding bottom-up attention, there are both psychophysical and neurophysiological experiments supporting the existence of some kind of an image-based saliency map in the brain, and it can be also argued that understanding of bottom-up saliency should definitely help to elucidate the mechanisms of attention (Zhaoping, 2005). Moreover, from a technical point of view, mainly concerned with a generic approach to active vision tasks, the modelling of bottom-up component of attention can play a crucial role in the reduction of the amount of information to process, regardless of the knowledge O pe n A cc es s D at ab as e w w w . ite ch on lin e. co m
Grid Resource Negotiation: Survey and New Directions

Since Grid computing systems involve large-scale resource sharing, resource management is central to their operations. Whereas there are more Grid resource management systems adopting auction, commodity market, and contract-net (tendering) models, this survey supplements and complements existing surveys by reviewing, comparing, and highlighting existing research initiatives on applying bargaining (negotiation) as a mechanism to Grid resource management. The contributions of this paper are: 1) discussing the motivations for considering bargaining models for Grid resource allocation; 2) discussing essential design considerations such as modeling devaluation of Grid resources, considering market dynamics, relaxing bargaining terms, and co-allocation of resources when building Grid negotiation mechanisms; 3) reviewing the strategies and protocols of state-of-the-art Grid negotiation mechanisms; 4) providing detailed comparisons and analyses on how state-of-the-art Grid negotiation mechanisms address the design considerations mentioned in 3); and 5) suggesting possible new directions.
Neonatal Sepsis

Infection is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the newborn. The smaller and more preterm the baby, the higher the risk of infection and its consequences. Babies with risk factors or symptoms of infection should be screened and treated promptly. Group B streptococcus remains the leading cause of early onset infection. Late onset infection is predominated by coagulase negative staphylococci and gram-negative pathogens with increasingly resistant and unusual proﬁles. Increasing antimicrobial resistance is a global issue, and must be combated by robust infection control measures and implementation of antibiotic stewardship programmes including surveillance of infection episodes. While early detection and prompt management are vital in the prevention of adverse consequences of neonatal infection, it is imperative that antibiotic therapy is appropriately targeted to reduce the short and long term consequences of antibiotic use.
Robust time-domain timing and frequency synchronization for OFDM systems

A robust and efficient technique for frame/symbol timing and carrier frequency synchronization in OFDM systems is presented. It uses a preamble consisting of only one training symbol with two identical parts to achieve reliable timing and frequency accuracy in the time-domain, over a wide frequency estimation range which can be up to half of the signal sampling frequency. Also, it has a low complexity which is adaptive to the degree of channel distortion. Computer simulations in the Rayleigh fading ISI channel show that the proposed method achieves superior performance to existing techniques in terms of timing and frequency accuracy. Also, its operation in the time-domain helps to achieve faster synchronization convergence.
Easy Web Search Results Clustering: When Baselines Can Reach State-of-the-Art Algorithms

This work discusses the evaluation of baseline algorithms for Web search results clustering. An analysis is performed over frequently used baseline algorithms and standard datasets. Our work shows that competitive results can be obtained by either fine tuning or performing cascade clustering over well-known algorithms. In particular, the latter strategy can lead to a scalable and real-world solution, which evidences comparative results to recent text-based state-of-the-art algorithms.
Restorative material and other tooth-specific variables associated with the decision to repair or replace defective restorations: findings from the dental PBRN.

OBJECTIVES Using data from dentists participating in The Dental Practice-Based Research Network (DPBRN), the study had 2 main objectives: (1) to identify and quantify the types of restorative materials in the existing failed restorations; and (2) to identify and quantify the materials used to repair or replace those failed restorations. METHODS This cross-sectional study used a consecutive patient/restoration recruitment design. Practitioner-investigators recorded data on consecutive restorations in permanent teeth that needed repair or replacement. Data included the primary reason for repair or replacement, tooth surface(s) involved, restorative materials used, and patient demographics. RESULTS Data for 9,875 restorations were collected from 7,502 patients in 197 practices for which 75% of restorations were replaced and 25% repaired. Most of the restorations that were either repaired or replaced were amalgam (56%) for which most (56%) of the material used was direct tooth-colored. The restorative material was 5 times more likely to be changed when the original restoration was amalgam (OR = 5.2, p < .001). The likelihood of changing an amalgam restoration differed as a function of the tooth type (OR = 3.0, p < .001), arch (OR = 6.6, p < .001); and number of surfaces in the original restoration (OR = 12.2, p < .001). CONCLUSION The probability of changing from amalgam to another restorative material differed with several characteristics of the original restoration. The change was most likely to take place when (1) the treatment was a replacement; (2) the tooth was not a molar; (3) the tooth was in the maxillary arch; and (4) the original restoration involved a single surface.
Identifying the lipid-protein interface of the Torpedo nicotinic acetylcholine receptor: secondary structure implications.

To identify amino acid residues of the Torpedo nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AchR) interacting with membrane lipid, we have used the photoactivatable, hydrophobic probe 3-trifluoromethyl-3-(m-[125I]-iodophenyl)diazirine([125I]TID). The pattern of [125I]TID incorporation into the M3 and M4 hydrophobic segments of each subunit was the same both in the presence and absence of the agonist carbamoylcholine and in the presence of an excess of nonradioactive TID, consistent with nonspecific photoincorporation from the lipid-protein interface. [125I]TID reacted with five residues in alpha-M4 [Blanton, M.P., & Cohen, J. B. (1992) Biochemistry 31, 3738-3750] but with only two or three residues in M4 segments of beta-, gamma-, and delta-subunits. In delta-M3, [125I]TID reacted with Met-293, Ser-297, Gly-301, Val-304, and Asn-305 as well as with Ile-288 preceding M3. Residues at corresponding positions were labeled in beta-M3 (Met-285, Ile-289, Phe-293) and in gamma-M3 (Phe-292, Leu-296, Met-299, and Asn-300) as well as gamma-Ile-283. Within alpha-M3, Phe-284 and Ser-287 were labeled. The periodicity of labeled residues provides the first direct evidence that M3 as well as M4 segments of each subunit are organized as transmembrane alpha-helices each with substantial contact with lipid. In addition, in alpha-M1 [125I]TID reacted nonspecifically with Cys-222, Leu-223, Phe-227, and Leu-228, a pattern of incorporation inconsistent with the labeling pattern expected either for a "face" of an alpha-helix or a beta-sheet.
Stent Revascularization Restores Cortical Blood Flow and Reverses Tissue Hypoxia in Atherosclerotic Renal Artery Stenosis but Fails to Reverse Inflammatory Pathways or Glomerular Filtration Rate

Background—Atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis (ARAS) is known to reduce renal blood flow, glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and amplify kidney hypoxia, but the relationships between these factors and tubulointerstitial injury in the poststenotic kidney are poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of renal revascularization in ARAS on renal tissue hypoxia and renal injury. Methods and Results—Inpatient studies were performed in patients with ARAS (n=17; >60% occlusion) before and 3 months after stent revascularization, or in patients with essential hypertension (n=32), during fixed Na+ intake and angiotensin converting enzyme/angiotensin receptors blockers Rx. Single kidney cortical, medullary perfusion, and renal blood flow were measured using multidetector computed tomography, and GFR by iothalamate clearance. Tissue deoxyhemoglobin levels (R2*) were measured by blood oxygen level–dependent MRI at 3T, as was fractional kidney hypoxia (percentage of axial area with R2*>30/s). In addition, we measured renal vein levels of neutrophil gelatinase–associated lipocalin, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, and tumor necrosis factor-&agr;. Pre-stent single kidney renal blood flow, perfusion, and GFR were reduced in the poststenotic kidney. Renal vein neutrophil gelatinase–associated lipocalin, tumor necrosis factor-&agr;, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, and fractional hypoxia were higher in untreated ARAS than in essential hypertension. After stent revascularization, fractional hypoxia fell (P<0.002) with increased cortical perfusion and blood flow, whereas GFR and neutrophil gelatinase–associated lipocalin, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, and tumor necrosis factor-&agr; remained unchanged. Conclusions—These data demonstrate that despite reversal of renal hypoxia and partial restoration of renal blood flow after revascularization, inflammatory cytokines and injury biomarkers remained elevated and GFR failed to recover in ARAS. Restoration of vessel patency alone failed to reverse tubulointerstitial damage and partly explains the limited clinical benefit of renal stenting. These results identify potential therapeutic targets for recovery of kidney function in renovascular disease.
High altitude kite mapping: evaluation of kite aerial photography (KAP) and structure from motion digital elevation models in the Peruvian Andes

ABSTRACT Researching glacier-melt impacted hydrology in the Andes motivates us to collect on-demand, high-resolution multispectral imagery, and digital elevation models (DEMs). While adverse conditions in these remote mountain locations present technical challenges for motorized unmanned aerial systems (UAS), consistent katabatic winds allow for testing lightweight Kite Aerial Photography (KAP) as an alternative. We use a KAP platform at 4000 msl in the Peruvian Andes to survey a 0.23 km2 pro-glacial alpine meadow and wetland system. Using structure from motion we develop a 2 cm orthomosaic, dense point cloud with 101 points/m2, and 5–100 cm DEMs. Accuracy of the DEM was found to be equivalent to a 1 m aerial lidar DEM; however, the denser point cloud derived from the KAP platform retained better definition of fine surface features. The high resolution, robustness and low acquisition cost of these platforms indicates strong potential for the monitoring of fine scale and rapid changes in mountain environments.
Clinical and biomarker changes in dominantly inherited Alzheimer's disease.

BACKGROUND The order and magnitude of pathologic processes in Alzheimer's disease are not well understood, partly because the disease develops over many years. Autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease has a predictable age at onset and provides an opportunity to determine the sequence and magnitude of pathologic changes that culminate in symptomatic disease. METHODS In this prospective, longitudinal study, we analyzed data from 128 participants who underwent baseline clinical and cognitive assessments, brain imaging, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood tests. We used the participant's age at baseline assessment and the parent's age at the onset of symptoms of Alzheimer's disease to calculate the estimated years from expected symptom onset (age of the participant minus parent's age at symptom onset). We conducted cross-sectional analyses of baseline data in relation to estimated years from expected symptom onset in order to determine the relative order and magnitude of pathophysiological changes. RESULTS Concentrations of amyloid-beta (Aβ)(42) in the CSF appeared to decline 25 years before expected symptom onset. Aβ deposition, as measured by positron-emission tomography with the use of Pittsburgh compound B, was detected 15 years before expected symptom onset. Increased concentrations of tau protein in the CSF and an increase in brain atrophy were detected 15 years before expected symptom onset. Cerebral hypometabolism and impaired episodic memory were observed 10 years before expected symptom onset. Global cognitive impairment, as measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Clinical Dementia Rating scale, was detected 5 years before expected symptom onset, and patients met diagnostic criteria for dementia at an average of 3 years after expected symptom onset. CONCLUSIONS We found that autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease was associated with a series of pathophysiological changes over decades in CSF biochemical markers of Alzheimer's disease, brain amyloid deposition, and brain metabolism as well as progressive cognitive impairment. Our results require confirmation with the use of longitudinal data and may not apply to patients with sporadic Alzheimer's disease. (Funded by the National Institute on Aging and others; DIAN ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00869817.).
Secure beamforming and artificial noise design for simultaneous wireless information and power transfer in interference networks

We study a secure communication of a two-user interference network. In this network, two transmitters send information and artificial noise simultaneously to two users and energy receivers (ERs), and ERs are likely to perform as eavesdroppers. We propose a joint beamforming and artificial noise design to maximize the total energy harvested by ERs subject to the secrecy sum rate requirement and power constraints. The proposed design constitutes an optimization problem, which is non-convex yet can be further transformed into a two-stage problem. In the first stage, by introducing an auxiliary variable, we can reformulate the non-convex as a second-order cone program (SOCP) problem, and the constrained concave convex procedure based algorithm is proposed to make this SOCP problem tractable. In the second stage, the auxiliary variable is obtained by the one-dimensional line search. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Using Visual Aids to Improve Communication of Risks about Health: A Review

Recent research has shown that patients frequently experience difficulties understanding health-relevant numerical concepts. A prominent example is denominator neglect, or the tendency to pay too much attention to numerators in ratios (e.g., number of treated patients who died) with insufficient attention to denominators (e.g., overall number of treated patients). Denominator neglect can lead to inaccurate assessments of treatment risk reduction and thus can have important consequences for decisions about health. Here, we reviewed a series of studies investigating (1) different factors that can influence patients' susceptibility to denominator neglect in medical decision making—including numerical or language-related abilities; (2) the extent to which denominator neglect can be attenuated by using visual aids; and (3) a factor that moderates the effectiveness of such aids (i.e., graph literacy). The review spans probabilistic national U.S. and German samples, as well as immigrant (i.e., Polish people living in the United Kingdom) and undergraduate samples in Spain. Theoretical and prescriptive implications are discussed.
In Vitro Characterization of the Drug-Drug Interaction Potential of Catabolites of Antibody-Maytansinoid Conjugates

The in vitro characterization of the inhibition potential of four representative maytansinoid species observed upon hepatic and/or tumor in vivo processing of antibody-maytansine conjugates (AMCs) with cleavable and noncleavable linkers is reported. We investigated the free maytansinoid species N2′-deacetyl-N2′-(3-mercapto-1-oxopropyl)-maytansine (DM1), (S)-methyl-DM1, and N2′-deacetyl-N2′-(4-mercapto-4-methyl-1-oxopentyl)-maytansine (DM4) as representative cleavable linker catabolites and Lysine-Nε-N-succinimidyl 4-(N-maleimidomethyl) cyclohexane-1-carboxylate-DM1 (Lys-MCC-DM1) as the representative noncleavable linker catabolite. Studies with recombinant human cytochromes P450 (P450s) indicate CYP2D6, CYP3A4, and CYP3A5 are the primary isoforms responsible for the oxidative metabolism of DM1, (S)-methyl-DM1, and DM4. Lys-MCC-DM1 was not metabolized by any of the P450 isoforms studied. DM1 was shown to be a reversible inhibitor of CYP2C8 (Ki = 11 ± 3 μM) and CYP2D6 (Ki = 14 ± 2 μM). Lys-MCC-DM1 and (S)-methyl-DM1 showed no reversible or time-dependent inactivation of any of the P450s studied. DM1 and DM4 inactivated CYP3A from human liver microsomes with Ki/kinact values of 4.8 ± 0.9 μM/0.035 ± 0.002 min−1 and 3.3 ± 0.2 μM/0.114 ± 0.002 min−1, respectively. DM1 and DM4 inactivated recombinant CYP3A4 with Ki/kinact values of 3.4 ± 1.0 μM/0.058 ± 0.005 min−1 and 1.4 ± 0.3 μM/0.117 ± 0.006 min−1, respectively. Because of instability in plasma, further characterization of the DM1 and DM4 intramolecular and intermolecular disulfide conjugates observed in vivo is required before an accurate drug-drug interaction (DDI) prediction can be made. AMCs with noncleavable thioether-linked DM1 as the cytotoxic agent are predicted to have no potential for a DDI with any of the major human P450s studied.