Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Do different ‘magnocellular tasks’ probe the same neural substrate?

The sensory abnormalities associated with disorders such as dyslexia, autism and schizophrenia have often been attributed to a generalized deficit in the visual magnocellular–dorsal stream and its auditory homologue. To probe magnocellular function, various psychophysical tasks are often employed that require the processing of rapidly changing stimuli. But is performance on these several tasks supported by a common substrate? To answer this question, we tested a cohort of 1060 individuals on four ‘magnocellular tasks’: detection of low-spatial-frequency gratings reversing in contrast at a high temporal frequency (so-called frequency-doubled gratings); detection of pulsed low-spatial-frequency gratings on a steady luminance pedestal; detection of coherent motion; and auditory discrimination of temporal order. Although all tasks showed test–retest reliability, only one pair shared more than 4 per cent of variance. Correlations within the set of ‘magnocellular tasks’ were similar to the correlations between those tasks and a ‘non-magnocellular task’, and there was little consistency between ‘magnocellular deficit’ groups comprising individuals with the lowest sensitivity for each task. Our results suggest that different ‘magnocellular tasks’ reflect different sources of variance, and thus are not general measures of ‘magnocellular function’.
Relationship between Fractal Dimension and Spectral Scaling Decay Rate in Computer-Generated Fractals

Two measures are commonly used to describe scale-invariant complexity in images: fractal dimension (D) and power spectrum decay rate (β). Although a relationship between these measures has been derived mathematically, empirical validation across measurements is lacking. Here, we determine the relationship between D and β for 1- and 2-dimensional fractals. We find that for 1-dimensional fractals, measurements of D and β obey the derived relationship. Similarly, in 2-dimensional fractals, measurements along any straight-line path across the fractal’s surface obey the mathematically derived relationship. However, the standard approach of vision researchers is to measure β of the surface after 2-dimensional Fourier decomposition rather than along a straight-line path. This surface technique provides measurements of β that do not obey the mathematically derived relationship with D. Instead, this method produces values of β that imply that the fractal’s surface is much smoother than the measurements along the straight lines indicate. To facilitate communication across disciplines, we provide empirically derived equations for relating each measure of β to D. Finally, we discuss implications for future research on topics including stress reduction and the perception of motion in the context of a generalized equation relating β to D.
Fluorescence Spectroscopy Studies of Vaccinia Type IB DNA Topoisomerase

The prototypic type IB topoisomerase isolated from vaccinia virus cleaves the phosphodiester backbone of duplex DNA at the sequence 5′-(C/T)CCTT, forming a covalent 3′-phosphotyrosyl adduct. A precleavage conformational change in which the enzyme clamps circumferentially around the DNA has been implicated on the basis of structural and biochemical studies. However, no direct measurements to elucidate this key step have been obtained to date. To address this shortcoming we have developed two new fluorescence assays that allow detection of conformational changes in both the enzyme and substrate DNA, and allow determination of the thermodynamic and kinetic mechanism for noncovalent DNA binding and phosphodiester cleavage. The results indicate that clamp closing occurs in a rapid step (>25 s−1) that is at least 14-fold faster than the maximal rate of DNA cleavage. Opening of the clamp to release the noncovalently bound substrate is also 5–8-fold more rapid than DNA cleavage. We propose a model in which DNA cleavage and religation are connected through a single high energy transition state involving covalent bond breaking. Alternative models that involve a slow precleavage conformational step are not easily reconciled with the available data.
Cellular and humoral autoimmunity directed at bile duct epithelia in murine biliary atresia

Biliary atresia is an inflammatory fibrosclerosing lesion of the bile ducts that leads to biliary cirrhosis and is the most frequent indication for liver transplantation in children. The pathogenesis of biliary atresia is not known; one theory is that of a virus‐induced, subsequent autoimmune‐mediated injury of bile ducts. The aim of this study was to determine whether autoreactive T cells and autoantibodies specific to bile duct epithelia are present in the rotavirus (RRV)‐ induced murine model of biliary atresia and whether the T cells are sufficient to result in bile duct inflammation. In vitro analyses showed significant increases in IFN‐γ–producing T cells from RRV‐diseased mice in response to bile duct epithelial autoantigen. Adoptive transfer of the T cells from RRV‐diseased mice into naïve syngeneic SCID recipients resulted in bile duct–specific inflammation. This induction of bile duct pathology occurred in the absence of detectable virus, indicating a definite response to bile duct autoantigens. Furthermore, periductal immunoglobulin deposits and serum antibodies reactive to bile duct epithelial protein were detected in RRV‐diseased mice. In conclusion, both cellular and humoral components of autoimmunity exist in murine biliary atresia, and the progressive bile duct injury is due in part to a bile duct epithelia–specific T cell–mediated immune response. The role of cellular and humoral autoimmunity in human biliary atresia and possible interventional strategies therefore should be the focus of future research. (HEPATOLOGY 2006;44:1231–1239.)
The Logic Behind a Multimethod Intervention to Improve Adherence to Clinical Practice Guidelines in a Nationwide Network of Primary Care Practices

The gap between evidence-based guidelines for clinical care and their application in medical settings is well established and widely discussed. Effective interventions are needed to help health care providers reduce this gap. Whereas the development of clinical practice guidelines from biomedical and clinical research is an example of Type 1 translation, Type 2 translation involves successful implementation of guidelines in clinical practice. This article describes a multimethod intervention that is part of a Type 2 translation project aimed at increasing adherence to clinical practice guidelines in a nationwide network of primary care practices that use a common electronic medical record (EMR). Practice performance reports, site visits, and network meetings are intervention methods designed to stimulate improvement in practices by addressing personal and organizational factors. Theories and evidence supporting these interventions are described and could prove useful to others trying to translate medical research into practice. Additional theory development is needed to support translation in medical offices.
The Problem of Pressure Sores in a Nursing Home Population: Statistical Data

ABSTRACT: This study on 93 patients was conducted at a skilled nursing facility. Twenty‐two of the 93 patients had pressure sores; 34 of the 54 sores were present when the patients were admitted and 20 developed after admission. Only 5 of the 54 sores healed. Healing times ranged from 15 to 55 days after the beginning of treatment. Thirteen deaths occurred among the 71 patients without sores, and 17 deaths among the 22 patients with sores. Specific treatment regimens varied (cleaning solutions, antimicrobial drugs, heat, enzymatic debridement) but always included frequent changes in the position of the patient. Ten of the 22 patients with sores were anemic vs. 19 of the 71 patients without sores. Half of the patients with sores were maintained with tube feedings whereas more than half of the patients without sores received regular house diets. Pressure sores are a serious problem among geriatric patients in nursing homes. All those who care for the aged should be fully aware of the procedures involved in the prevention and management of these sores.
The Teacher, the Physician and the Person: How Faculty's Teaching Performance Influences Their Role Modelling

Objective Previous studies identified different typologies of role models (as teacher/supervisor, physician and person) and explored which of faculty's characteristics could distinguish good role models. The aim of this study was to explore how and to which extent clinical faculty's teaching performance influences residents' evaluations of faculty's different role modelling statuses, especially across different specialties. Methods In a prospective multicenter multispecialty study of faculty's teaching performance, we used web-based questionnaires to gather empirical data from residents. The main outcome measures were the different typologies of role modelling. The predictors were faculty's overall teaching performance and faculty's teaching performance on specific domains of teaching. The data were analyzed using multilevel regression equations. Results In total 219 (69% response rate) residents filled out 2111 questionnaires about 423 (96% response rate) faculty. Faculty's overall teaching performance influenced all role model typologies (OR: from 8.0 to 166.2). For the specific domains of teaching, overall, all three role model typologies were strongly associated with “professional attitude towards residents” (OR: 3.28 for teacher/supervisor, 2.72 for physician and 7.20 for the person role). Further, the teacher/supervisor role was strongly associated with “feedback” and “learning climate” (OR: 3.23 and 2.70). However, the associations of the specific domains of teaching with faculty's role modelling varied widely across specialties. Conclusion This study suggests that faculty can substantially enhance their role modelling by improving their teaching performance. The amount of influence that the specific domains of teaching have on role modelling differs across specialties.
Reference-Free Population Genomics from Next-Generation Transcriptome Data and the Vertebrate–Invertebrate Gap

In animals, the population genomic literature is dominated by two taxa, namely mammals and drosophilids, in which fully sequenced, well-annotated genomes have been available for years. Data from other metazoan phyla are scarce, probably because the vast majority of living species still lack a closely related reference genome. Here we achieve de novo, reference-free population genomic analysis from wild samples in five non-model animal species, based on next-generation sequencing transcriptome data. We introduce a pipe-line for cDNA assembly, read mapping, SNP/genotype calling, and data cleaning, with specific focus on the issue of hidden paralogy detection. In two species for which a reference genome is available, similar results were obtained whether the reference was used or not, demonstrating the robustness of our de novo inferences. The population genomic profile of a hare, a turtle, an oyster, a tunicate, and a termite were found to be intermediate between those of human and Drosophila, indicating that the discordant genomic diversity patterns that have been reported between these two species do not reflect a generalized vertebrate versus invertebrate gap. The genomic average diversity was generally higher in invertebrates than in vertebrates (with the notable exception of termite), in agreement with the notion that population size tends to be larger in the former than in the latter. The non-synonymous to synonymous ratio, however, did not differ significantly between vertebrates and invertebrates, even though it was negatively correlated with genetic diversity within each of the two groups. This study opens promising perspective regarding genome-wide population analyses of non-model organisms and the influence of population size on non-synonymous versus synonymous diversity.
Analysis of system overhead on parallel computers

Ever-increasing demand for computing capability is driving the construction of ever-larger computer clusters, typically comprising commodity compute nodes, ranging in size up to thousands of processors, with each node hosting an instance of the operating system (OS). Recent studies [E. Hendriks (2002), F. Petrini et al. (2003)] have shown that even minimal intrusion by the OS on user applications, e.g. a slowdown of user processes of less than 1.0% on each OS instance, can result in a dramatic performance degradation - 50% or more - when the user applications are executed on thousands of processors. The contribution of this paper is the explication and demonstration by way of a case study, of a methodology for analyzing and evaluating the impact of the system (all software and hardware other than user applications) activity on application performance. Our methodology has three major components: 1) a set of simple benchmarks to quickly measure and identify the impact of intrusive system events; 2) a kernel-level profiling tool Oprofile to characterize all relevant events and their sources; and, 3) a kernel module that provides timing information for in-depth modeling of the frequency and duration of each relevant event and determines which sources have the greatest impact on performance (and are therefore the most important to eliminate). The paper provides a collection of experimental results conducted on a state-of-the-art dual AMD Opteron cluster running GNU/Linux 2.6. 5. While our work has been performed on this specific OS, we argue that our contribution readily generalizes to other open source and commercial operating systems.
Structural and electronic characteristics of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin films sputtered from quaternary targets

Although the advantages of sputter deposition for large area, uniform deposition are well known, it has long been believed that sputtering Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) from a quaternary sputtering target yields films with morphological and electronic properties that make them unsuitable for use in high-efficiency photovoltaic devices. Recent work, however, has demonstrated that this deposition method can produce dense, polycrystalline, highly oriented films with the desired stoichiometry. Devices built with these films exhibit efficiencies >;10%. While effective parameters for target composition and deposition conditions have been achieved, variation from these conditions can result in a wide array of morphologies, even while composition remains near that of stoichiometric CIGS. In this paper, we review the broad range of structural and electronic properties that result from various sets of target compositions and deposition conditions. Films deposited under some conditions are similar in important respects - their composition, a dense structure composed of ~1 μm sized grains, and the presence of a MoSe2 layer - to those of evaporated CIGS. We discuss how these results point towards the possibility of higher-efficiency sputtered CIGS.
Dealing with missing values in a clinical case-based reasoning system

In clinical case-based reasoning systems, missing values in the case-base pose a common but serious problem that impairs the performance of the system. Imputation of missing values is popular in many knowledge-based systems. However, applications need to be adjusted to take into account that imputed values are only estimates of original values. In this paper, we introduce an imputation method that exploits the correlation between clinical data by filtering the case-base according to attributes correlated to the missing attribute. We also present a framework that shows how any imputation method can be used in a case-based reasoning system to account for the inherent uncertainty of imputation and to reflect the quality of the imputation method in the similarity calculation. The filter imputation method and the imputation framework are evaluated using a case-based reasoning decision support system developed for radiotherapy treatment planning for prostate cancer.
Which Predictability Measures Affect Content Word Durations

The invention relates to a process for the production of small moulded components by die-casting of metals. In this process, the metal to be melted in a crucible is limited to the charge weight for casting in a single die. Heat is supplied electrically and interrupted during casting. A metal heel is retained in the crucible so that its heat content allows compensation of a large part of the heat loss during said interruption of heat supply.
Pupal and Adult Parameters as Potential Indicators of Cottonwood Leaf Beetle (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) Fecundity and Longevity

Cottonwood leaf beetle, Chrysomela scripta, pupae from a laboratory colony were weighed and monitored through adult emergence, oviposition, and mortality to determine if correlations existed between various pupal or adult parameters and fecundity or longevity. Forty-three female cottonwood leaf beetles were monitored. Pupal weight was not a good indicator of fecun­ dity, total oviposition events, number of eggslbeetle/day, or adult longevity. In addition, adult weight showed very low correlation with fecundity, adult longevity, total oviposition e ent , or number of eggslbeetle/day. However, adult weight was a marginal indicator f the number of eggs/beetle/day, and correlated well with a ult body length. Adult longevity could be used to pre­ dict fecundity. Adult insect performance can be measured in various ways, including survival, pupal weight (Augustin et al. 1997), adult emergence, or fecundity (Miller and Ware 1997). Positive correlations have been determined to exist between pupal weight and adult fecundity in Lepidoptera (Miller 1957, Bessin and Reagan 1990, Spurgeon et al. 1995), Diptera (Hawley 1985, Krainacker et al. 1989), and Hymenoptera (Zhang and Wagner 1991, McMillin and Wagner 1995, Eliason and McCullough 1997). Few studies have explored this relationship Vvithin Coleoptera. To our knowledge, either immediate postpupal or sexually mature pupal or adult weights have not been correlated with cottonwood leaf beetle, Chrysomela scripta F. (ColeoptBra: Chrysomelidae), fecundity or longevity de­ spite this estimate being used and reported previously (Augustin et al. 1997). The objectives of this laboratory study were to determine if size parameters could be used as predictors of fecundity (defined as total eggs per female [Ameen and Story 1997]) and longevity in adult female cottonwood leaf beetles.
A STUDY OF THE PREVALENCE OF DIABETES, INSULIN RESISTANCE, LIPID ABNORMALITIES, AND CARDIOVASCULAR RISK FACTORS IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC PLAQUE PSORIASIS

Background: The association between psoriasis, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease remains largely unelucidated in the Indian population. Aims: To study the prevalence of diabetes, insulin resistance, lipid abnormalities, and cardiovascular risk factors in patients with chronic plaque psoriasis. Materials and Methods: Seventy-seven patients of chronic plaque psoriasis and ninety two age- and sex-matched controls were enrolled in the study over a period of one year. Clinical and biometric data were noted and fasting venous blood samples were collected. Nondiabetic patients were subjected to an oral glucose tolerance test with 75 g glucose and postprandial venous blood samples collected at 120 mins. The fasting glucose, insulin, lipid levels, postprandial glucose and postprandial insulin levels were measured in samples from nondiabetic patients whereas fasting lipid levels only were measured in diabetic patients. Results: The prevalence of impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, and diabetes mellitus in psoriatics was 5.2%, 9.1%, and 32.5%, respectively, as compared to 6.5%, 3.3%, and 15.2%, respectively, in the controls. The difference was statistically significant. The odds ratio of having an abnormal glucose metabolism in psoriasis was 2.63. Smoking had a positive association with insulin resistance in psoriatic cases. The serum cholesterol levels were elevated in 29 (37.7%) cases with a mean of 186.27 ± 43.18 and 34 (37%) controls with a mean of 194.38 ± 57.20. The serum HDL-cholesterol levels were reduced in 50 (64.9%) cases with a mean of 53.29 ± 15.90 as compared to 71 (74.7%) in controls with a mean of 48.76 ± 12.85. The serum LDL-cholesterol levels were elevated in 38 (49.4%) cases with a mean of 102.56 ± 44.02 and 36 controls with a mean of 115.62 ± 54.37. The serum triglyceride levels were elevated in 25 (32.5%) cases with a mean of 129.99 ± 61.32 and 38 (41.3%) controls with a mean of 141.04 ± 80.10. The differences between the two groups were not statistically significant. The two groups did not differ with respect to other cardiovascular risk factors such as increased body mass index, increased waist size, increased waist-to-hip ratio, and hypertension. Conclusion: There is a positive association between insulin resistance and psoriasis. No association between psoriasis and dyslipidemia has been found in this study.
The XMM- Ω project II. Cosmological implications from the high redshift L –T relation of X-ray clusters

The evolution with redshift of the temperature-luminosity relation of X-ray galaxy clusters is a key ingredient to break degeneracies in the interpretation of X-ray clusters redshift number counts. We therefore take advantage of the recent measurements of the temperature-luminosity relation of distant clusters observed with XMM-Newton and Chandra satellites to examine theoretical number counts expected for di (cid:11) erent available X-rays cluster samples, namely the RDCS, EMSS, SHARC, 160 deg 2 and the MACS at redshift greater than 0.3. We derive these counts without any adjustment, using models previously normalized to the local ( z (cid:24) 0 . 05) temperature distribution function (TDF) and to the high- z ( z (cid:24) 0 . 33) TDF. We ﬁnd that these models having Ω M in the range [0.85–1. ] predict counts in remarkable agreement with the observed counts in the di (cid:11) erent samples. We illustrate that this conclusion is weakly sensitive to the various ingredients of the modeling. Therefore number counts provide a robust evidence of an evolving population. A realistic ﬂat low density model ( Ω M = 0 . 3), normalized to the local abundance of clusters is found to overproduce cluster abundance at high redshift (above z (cid:24) 0 . 5) by nearly an order of magnitude. This result is in conﬂict with the popular concordance model. The conﬂict could indicate a deviation from the expected scaling of the M − T relation with redshift.