Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Patterns of Brain Activation during Visually Evoked Sexual Arousal Differ between Homosexual and Heterosexual Men

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Nowadays the mechanism of homosexuality is little known. Few studies have been carried out to explore the brain functional changes of homosexual men during sexual arousal. We used functional MR imaging (fMRI) to determine whether the patterns of brain activation in homosexual and heterosexual men differed during visually evoked sexual arousal. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To all the subjects (10 homosexual and 10 heterosexual), real-time visual stimulation was provided by 3-minute exposure to 3 types of erotic film: heterosexual couples (F-M), male homosexual couples (M-M), and female homosexual couples (F-F) engaged in sexual activity, during which time fMRI was used to determine the patterns of brain activation. Self-reports of level of sexual arousal were collected immediately afterward. RESULTS: Statistical parametric mapping showed that viewing erotic film excerpts that induced sexual arousal was associated, in both groups, with activation of the middle prefrontal gyrus, bilateral temporal lobe and postcentral gyrus, thalamus, insula, vermis, left precuneus, occipital cortex, parietal cortex, and cerebellum. In homosexual men, the left angular gyrus, left caudate nucleus, and right pallidum were activated; in contrast, heterosexual men showed no activation in these regions. However, heterosexual men showed activation in the bilateral lingual gyrus, right hippocampus, and right parahippocampal gyrus, areas not activated in homosexual men. In both groups, region-of-interest analysis revealed no correlation between the magnitude of amygdala or thalamus activation and the reported level of sexual arousal. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that different neural circuits are active during sexual arousal in homosexual and heterosexual men and may contribute to a better understanding of the neural basis of male sexual orientation.
The Stockholm Neonatal Family Centered Care Study: Effects on Length of Stay and Infant Morbidity

OBJECTIVE: Parental involvement in the care of preterm infants in NICUs is becoming increasingly common, but little is known about its effect on infants' length of hospital stay and infant morbidity. Our goal was to evaluate the effect of a new model of family care (FC) in a level 2 NICU, where parents could stay 24 hours/day from admission to discharge. METHODS: A randomized, controlled trial was conducted in 2 NICUs (both level 2), including a standard care (SC) ward and an FC ward, where parents could stay from infant admission to discharge. In total, 366 infants born before 3707 weeks of gestation were randomly assigned to FC or SC on admission. The primary outcome was total length of hospital stay, and the secondary outcome was short-term infant morbidity. The analyses were adjusted for maternal ethnic background, gestational age, and hospital site. RESULTS: Total length of hospital stay was reduced by 5.3 days: from a mean of 32.8 days (95% confidence interval [CI]: 29.6–35.9) in SC to 27.4 days (95% CI: 23.2–31.7) in FC (P = .05). This difference was mainly related to the period of intensive care. No statistical differences were observed in infant morbidity, except for a reduced risk of moderate-to-severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia: 1.6% in the FC group compared with 6.0% in the SC group (adjusted odds ratio: 0.18 [95% CI: 0.04–0.8]). CONCLUSIONS: Providing facilities for parents to stay in the neonatal unit from admission to discharge may reduce the total length of stay for infants born prematurely. The reduced risk of moderate-to-severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia needs additional investigation.
Processor allocation and loop scheduling on multiprocessor computers

This paper is concerned with the automatic exploitation of the parallelism detected in a sequential program. The target machine is a shared memory multiprocessor. The main goal is minimizing the completion time of the program. To achieve this, one has first to distribute the code over the processors, then to schedule the parts of the code in order to minimize the execution time while preserving the semantics. This problem is NP-complete. Loop scheduling and processor allocation are the main problems. However we are also able to deal with so-called control parallelism. Allocation and scheduling are performed at compile time. For a given processor allocation, we use list scheduling algorithm to compute the elapsed time, which is then optimized by the Tabu heuristic. The estimation of each component execution time is based on knowledge of average execution time of the operators and built-in functions and on the estimation of iteration space size. Experimentations on the Encore-Multimax machine show that on a representative set of scientific programs, the efficiency we obtained is in almost all the cases greater than 80%, as soon as the problem size is large enough.
The P Cygni supergiant [OMN2000] LS1 – implications for the star formation history of W51

Aims. We investigate the nature of the massive star [OMN2000] LS1 and use these results to constrain the history of star formation within the host complex W51. Methods. We utilised a combination of near-IR spectroscopy and non-LTE model atmosphere analysis to derive the physical properties of [OMN2000] LS1, and a combination of theoretical evolutionary calculations and Monte Carlo simulations to apply limits on the star formation history of W51. Results. We find the spectrum of [OMN2000] LS1 to be consistent with that of a P Cygni supergiant. With a temperature in the range of 13.2–13.7 kK and log(L∗/L� ) ≤ 5.75, it is significantly cooler, less luminous, and less massive than proposed by previous authors. The presence of such a star within W51 shows that star formation has been underway for at least 3 Myr, while the formation of massive O stars is still on going. The lack of a population of evolved red supergiants within the complex shows that the rate of formation of young massive clusters at ages ≥9 Myr was lower than currently observed. We find no evidence of internally triggered, sequential star formation within W51, and favour the suggestion that star formation has proceeded at multiple indepedent sites within the GMC. Along with other examples, such as the G305 and Carina star-forming regions, we suggest that W51 is a Galactic analogue of the ubiquitous star cluster complexes seen in external galaxies such as M51 and NGC2403.
Salts in the Deterioration of Porous Materials: An Overview

Abstract The present overview on salt-induced deterioration of inorganic porous materials focuses on those topics considered the most relevant for understanding this phenomenon. These are movement of both water/moisture and salts within the pore system; influence of the presence of salts in moisture absorption; effect of the simultaneous presence of more than one salt; salt distribution in masonry; deterioration mechanisms; and weathering patterns. Of the latter, the most ubiquitous are powdering and scaling, and they have been found to occur on most stone types. However, the mechanism that induces the same outward appearance on different stones can vary significantly depending on the synergism that develops among porous material, salt, and moisture.
Detecting kinetic occlusion

Visual motion boundaries provide a powerful cue for the perceptual organization of scenes. Motion boundaries are present when surfaces in motion occlude one another. Conventional approaches to motion analysis have relied on assumptions of data conservation and smoothness, which has made analysis of motion boundaries difficult. We show that a common source of motion boundary, kinetic occlusion, can be detected using spatiotemporal junction analysis. Junction analysis is accomplished by utilizing distributed representations of motion used in models of human visual motion sensing. By detecting changes in the direction of motion in these representations, spatiotemporal junctions are detected in a manner which differentiates accretion from deletion. We demonstrate successful occlusion detection on spatiotemporal imagery containing occluding surfaces in motion. <<ETX>>
Sites of origin in the central nervous system of monoamine metabolites measured in human cerebrospinal fluid1

The concentrations of homovanillic acid (HVA) and 5-hydroxyindole-acetic acid (5-HIAA) were measured in five cases with partial or complete block of CSF circulation, at various levels. Determinations were made in both a lumbar and a cisternal, or `mixed', sample obtained during pneumoencephalography. Most of the HVA appears to enter the ventricular system at the lateral ventricles, whereas much of the 5-HIAA in CSF originates in lower neuronal structures, including the spinal cord. The spinal contribution to the 5-HIAA content of lumbar CSF is of the order of 23-37%.
An associational model of birdsong sensorimotor learning I. Efference copy and the learning of song syllables.

Birdsong learning provides an ideal model system for studying temporally complex motor behavior. Guided by the well-characterized functional anatomy of the song system, we have constructed a computational model of the sensorimotor phase of song learning. Our model uses simple Hebbian and reinforcement learning rules and demonstrates the plausibility of a detailed set of hypotheses concerning sensory-motor interactions during song learning. The model focuses on the motor nuclei HVc and robust nucleus of the archistriatum (RA) of zebra finches and incorporates the long-standing hypothesis that a series of song nuclei, the Anterior Forebrain Pathway (AFP), plays an important role in comparing the bird's own vocalizations with a previously memorized song, or "template. " This "AFP comparison hypothesis" is challenged by the significant delay that would be experienced by presumptive auditory feedback signals processed in the AFP. We propose that the AFP does not directly evaluate auditory feedback, but instead, receives an internally generated prediction of the feedback signal corresponding to each vocal gesture, or song "syllable. " This prediction, or "efference copy," is learned in HVc by associating premotor activity in RA-projecting HVc neurons with the resulting auditory feedback registered within AFP-projecting HVc neurons. We also demonstrate how negative feedback "adaptation" can be used to separate sensory and motor signals within HVc. The model predicts that motor signals recorded in the AFP during singing carry sensory information and that the primary role for auditory feedback during song learning is to maintain an accurate efference copy. The simplicity of the model suggests that associational efference copy learning may be a common strategy for overcoming feedback delay during sensorimotor learning.
Polar codes in quantum information theory

Polar codes are the first capacity achieving and efficiently implementable codes for classical communication. Recently they have also been generalized to communication over classical-quantum and quantum channels. In this work we present our recent results for polar coding in quantum information theory, including applications to classical-quantum multiple access channels, interference channels and compound communication settings, including the first proof of channel coding achieving the Han-Kobayashi rate region of the interference channel without the need of a simultaneous decoder. Moreover we add to the existing framework by extending polar codes to achieve the asymmetric capacity and improving the block error probability for classical-quantum channels. In addition we use polar codes to prove a new achievable rate region for the classical-quantum broadcast channel. We also discuss polar codes for quantum communication over quantum channels and state results towards codes for compound quantum channels in this setting. We conclude by stating a list of interesting open questions to invite further research on the topic.
Frequency of Magnetic Resonance Imaging patterns of tuberculous spondylitis in a public sector hospital

Objective: To determine frequencies of different MRI patterns of tuberculous spondylitisin a public sector hospital in Karachi. Methods: This descriptive multidisciplinary case series study was done from October 25, 2011 to May 28, 2012 in Radiology Department and Department of Medicine in the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center Karachi. MRI scans (dorsal / lumbosacral spine) of the Patients presenting with backache in Medical OPD, were performed in Radiology Department. Axial and sagittal images of T1 weighted, T2 weighted and STIR sequences of the affected region were taken. A total of 140 patients who were diagnosed as having tuberculous spondylitis were further evaluated and analyzed for having different patterns of involvement of the spine and compared with similar studies. Results: Among frequencies of different MRI pattern of tuberculous spondylitis, contiguous vertebral involvement was 100%, discal involvement 98.6%, paravertebral abscess 92.1% cases, epidural abscess 91.4%, spinal cord / thecal sac compression 89.3%, vertebral collapse 72.9%, gibbus deformity 42.9% and psoas abscess 36.4%. Conclusion: Contiguous vertebral involvement was commonest MRI pattern, followed by disk involvement, paravertebral & epidural abscesses, thecal sac compression and vertebral collapse.
Film Blowing of Thermotropic Liquid Crystalline Polymers

Abstract The process of film blowing was considered in an attempt to obtain biaxial orientation and properties for two thermotropic copolyesters: p-hydroxybenzoic acid/polyethylene terephthalate (HBA/PET) and p-hydroxybenzoic acid/6-hydroxy-2-naphthoic acid (HBA/HNA). Tensile properties of the blown film were exceptional for these materials: tensile strengths of 300 to 400 MPa and moduli of13 GPa were observed in the axial direction, for example. This result if believed due to the absence of a skin-core texture in which the core often remains relatively unoriented. Despite some improvement in the transverse direction with increasing blow up ratio (B UR), properties did not exceed 20 to 25% of those in the machine direction. Wide angle x-ray scattering measurements confirmed the predominantly axial orientation in the films, which was believed to be generated in the annular die gap and not significantly disrupted during the subsequent blowing process. The properties and morphology of the blown film were compared to those ofuniaxially drawn films. It was found that in the machine direction the properties were similar, while significantly higher properties were obtained in the transverse direction for the blown film.
A Mammal-Specific Exon of WT1 Is Not Required for Development or Fertility

ABSTRACT The WT1 tumor suppressor gene is a zinc finger-containing transcription factor which is required for development of the kidney and gonads. A mammal-specific alternative splicing event within this gene results in the presence or absence of a 17-amino-acid sequence within the WT1 protein. To determine the function of this sequence in vivo, gene targeting was utilized to specifically eliminate the exon encoding this sequence in mice. Mice lacking WT1 exon 5 develop normally. Adult mice lacking this exon are viable and fertile, and females are capable of lactation.
The failed HIV Merck vaccine study: a step back or a launching point for future vaccine development?

The world of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccines has suffered a baffling setback. The first trial of a vaccine designed to elicit strong cellular immunity has shown no protection against infection. More alarmingly, the vaccine appeared to increase the rate of HIV infection in individuals with prior immunity against the adenovirus vector used in the vaccine. A new study in this issue suggests that a different vaccine approach—using a DNA prime/poxvirus boost strategy—induces polyfunctional immune responses to an HIV immunogen. The disappointing results of the recent vaccine trial suggest that a more thorough assessment of vaccine-induced immune responses is urgently needed, and that more emphasis should be placed on primate models before efficacy trials are undertaken.
On the Representativeness of Automated SEM/EDS Analyses for Inclusion Characterisation with Special Regard to the Measured Sample Area

The cleanness of steel has emerged to an important quality criterion for a wide field of special applications. In order to ensure the reliable characterisation of non-metallic inclusions, the constant optimisation of current analysing methods is essential. The present study focuses on the automated SEM/EDS analysis, especially determining the influence of the analysed sample area on the obtained particle diameters and size distributions of non-metallic inclusions. Besides the experimental analysis of different area sizes, a model was formulated to estimate the error of area ratio as a function of inclusion content. For the assumed conditions, an area range combining a sufficient and significant area size with a feasible time effort is defined. The model also evaluates the significance of the results for the maximum and medium particle diameter gained out of the measurements. Moreover, the truncation of the data – resulting from an experimental analysing limit – and its consequences are discussed. The results underline the potential of this analysing method for inclusion characterisation but also demonstrate the limitations especially regarding the maximum particle diameter. This work contributes to a better understanding in terms of representativeness of automated SEM/EDS analysis and provides important information for further practical analyses.
Effects of alcohol withdrawal on monocyte subset defects in chronic alcohol users

Excessive alcohol consumption has a modulating effect on immune functions that may contribute to decreased immunity and host defense. It is associated with increased intestinal permeability to endotoxins that is normalized after 14 d of abstinence. Whether and how blood monocyte subsets are impaired in patients with an AUD and what their evolution is after alcohol withdrawal are the paper's objectives. With the use of flow cytometry, blood monocyte subsets were quantified in AUDs before (n = 40) and 2 wk after (n = 33) alcohol withdrawal and compared with HC donors (n = 20). Expression of TLR2 and TLR4 on monocyte subsets was also quantified. Cytokine response of monocytes was monitored following PGN and LPS stimulation. The CD14+CD16− subset was decreased, whereas the CD14dimCD16+ subset was expanded (P < 0.001) in AUD compared with HC. The frequencies of TLR2‐ and TLR4‐expressing monocytes were reduced in AUD compared with HC. Although the basal production of IL‐1, IL‐6, and TNF by monocytes in AUD was compared with HC, the PGN‐ and LPS‐mediated IL‐6 and TNF production was increased in AUD. Frequencies of IL‐6‐expressing monocytes were higher in AUD than HC. Alcohol withdrawal partially restored the distribution of monocyte subsets and the frequency of IL‐6‐producing monocytes and increased the frequency of TNF‐producing cells in response to LPS and PGN stimulation to levels compared with those in HC. Our findings indicate that chronic alcohol use alters the distribution as well as the phenotypic and functional characteristics of blood monocyte subsets, which are partially restored following 2 wk of alcohol withdrawal.
Active Learning of Linear Embeddings for Gaussian Processes

We propose an active learning method for discovering low-dimensional structure in high-dimensional Gaussian process (GP) tasks. Such problems are increasingly frequent and important, but have hitherto presented severe practical difficulties. We further introduce a novel technique for approximately marginalizing GP hyperparameters, yielding marginal predictions robust to hyperparameter mis-specification. Our method offers an efficient means of performing GP regression, quadrature, or Bayesian optimization in high-dimensional spaces.
MUTYH DNA glycosylase: the rationale for removing undamaged bases from the DNA

Maintenance of genetic stability is crucial for all organisms in order to avoid the onset of deleterious diseases such as cancer. One of the many proveniences of DNA base damage in mammalian cells is oxidative stress, arising from a variety of endogenous and exogenous sources, generating highly mutagenic oxidative DNA lesions. One of the best characterized oxidative DNA lesion is 7,8-dihydro-8-oxoguanine (8-oxo-G), which can give rise to base substitution mutations (also known as point mutations). This mutagenicity is due to the miscoding potential of 8-oxo-G that instructs most DNA polymerases (pols) to preferentially insert an Adenine (A) opposite 8-oxo-G instead of the appropriate Cytosine (C). If left unrepaired, such A:8-oxo-G mispairs can give rise to CG→AT transversion mutations. A:8-oxo-G mispairs are proficiently recognized by the MutY glycosylase homologue (MUTYH). MUTYH can remove the mispaired A from an A:8-oxo-G, giving way to the canonical base-excision repair (BER) that ultimately restores undamaged Guanine (G). The importance of this MUTYH-initiated pathway is illustrated by the fact that biallelic mutations in the MUTYH gene are associated with a hereditary colorectal cancer syndrome termed MUTYH-associated polyposis (MAP). In this review, we will focus on MUTYH, from its discovery to the most recent data regarding its cellular roles and interaction partners. We discuss the involvement of the MUTYH protein in the A:8-oxo-G BER pathway acting together with pol λ, the pol that can faithfully incorporate C opposite 8-oxo-G and thus bypass this lesion in a correct manner. We also outline the current knowledge about the regulation of MUTYH itself and the A:8-oxo-G repair pathway by posttranslational modifications (PTM). Finally, to achieve a clearer overview of the literature, we will briefly touch on the rather confusing MUTYH nomenclature. In short, MUTYH is a unique DNA glycosylase that catalyzes the excision of an undamaged base from DNA.
Scalability of Massively Parallel Depth-First Search

We analyzeand comparethe scalabilityof two genericschemes for heuristic depth-(cid:12)rstsearch on highly parallelMIMD systems. The (cid:12)rst one employs a task attraction mechanismwhere the work packets are generated on demand by splitting the donor’s stack. Analytical and empirical analyses show that this stack-splitting scheme works e(cid:14)ciently on parallel systems with a small communication diameter and a moderate number of processing elements. The second scheme, search-frontier splitting , also employs a task attraction mechanism, but uses pre-computed work packets taken from a search-frontier level of the tree. At the beginning,a search-frontier is generated and stored in the local memories. Then, the processors expand the subtrees of their frontier nodes, communicatingonly when they run out of work or a solution has been found. Empirical results obtained on a 32 (cid:2) 32 = 1024 node MIMD system indicatethatthesearch-frontiersplittingschemeincursfeweroverheadsand scales better than stack-splitting on large message-passing systems. Best resultswere obtainedwith an iterative-deepeningvariantthatimprovesthe work-load balance from one iteration to the next.