Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neural Encoding and Decoding with Deep Learning for Dynamic Natural Vision

Convolutional neural network (CNN) driven by image recognition has been shown to be able to explain cortical responses to static pictures at ventral-stream areas. Here, we further showed that such CNN could reliably predict and decode functional magnetic resonance imaging data from humans watching natural movies, despite its lack of any mechanism to account for temporal dynamics or feedback processing. Using separate data, encoding and decoding models were developed and evaluated for describing the bi-directional relationships between the CNN and the brain. Through the encoding models, the CNN-predicted areas covered not only the ventral stream, but also the dorsal stream, albeit to a lesser degree; single-voxel response was visualized as the specific pixel pattern that drove the response, revealing the distinct representation of individual cortical location; cortical activation was synthesized from natural images with high-throughput to map category representation, contrast, and selectivity. Through the decoding models, fMRI signals were directly decoded to estimate the feature representations in both visual and semantic spaces, for direct visual reconstruction and semantic categorization, respectively. These results corroborate, generalize, and extend previous findings, and highlight the value of using deep learning, as an all-in-one model of the visual cortex, to understand and decode natural vision.
Etiology and Pharmacology of Neuropathic Pain

Injury to or disease of the nervous system can invoke chronic and sometimes intractable neuropathic pain. Many parallel, interdependent, and time-dependent processes, including neuroimmune interactions at the peripheral, supraspinal, and spinal levels, contribute to the etiology of this “disease of pain. ” Recent work emphasizes the roles of colony-stimulating factor 1, ATP, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Excitatory processes are enhanced, and inhibitory processes are attenuated in the spinal dorsal horn and throughout the somatosensory system. This leads to central sensitization and aberrant processing such that tactile and innocuous thermal information is perceived as pain (allodynia). Processes involved in the onset of neuropathic pain differ from those involved in its long-term maintenance. Opioids display limited effectiveness, and less than 35% of patients derive meaningful benefit from other therapeutic approaches. We thus review promising therapeutic targets that have emerged over the last 20 years, including Na+, K+, Ca2+, hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide–gated channels, transient receptor potential channel type V1 channels, and adenosine A3 receptors. Despite this progress, the gabapentinoids retain their status as first-line treatments, yet their mechanism of action is poorly understood. We outline recent progress in understanding the etiology of neuropathic pain and show how this has provided insights into the cellular actions of pregabalin and gabapentin. Interactions of gabapentinoids with the α2δ-1 subunit of voltage-gated Ca2+ channels produce multiple and neuron type-specific actions in spinal cord and higher centers. We suggest that drugs that affect multiple processes, rather than a single specific target, show the greatest promise for future therapeutic development.
Psychometric Properties of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised in Patients One Year After Burn Injury

Burn injury can be a life-threatening and traumatic event. Despite considerable risk for psychological morbidity, few outcome measures have been evaluated. The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of a Swedish version of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) in patients 1 year after burn injury (N = 147). A principal component analysis was performed, and the results supported the three-factor structure of the IES-R. High internal consistency and intelligible associations with concurrent psychological symptoms and known risk factors for distress after trauma indicate satisfactory psychometric properties. Thus, the study supports the use of the IES-R as a screening tool for measuring traumatic distress after burn.
COP1/DET1/ETS axis regulates ERK transcriptome and sensitivity to MAPK inhibitors

Aberrant activation of MAPK signaling leads to the activation of oncogenic transcriptomes. How MAPK signaling is coupled with the transcriptional response in cancer is not fully understood. In 2 MAPK-activated tumor types, gastrointestinal stromal tumor and melanoma, we found that ETV1 and other Pea3-ETS transcription factors are critical nuclear effectors of MAPK signaling that are regulated through protein stability. Expression of stabilized Pea3-ETS factors can partially rescue the MAPK transcriptome and cell viability after MAPK inhibition. To identify the players involved in this process, we performed a pooled genome-wide RNAi screen using a fluorescence-based ETV1 protein stability sensor and identified COP1, DET1, DDB1, UBE3C, PSMD4, and COP9 signalosome members. COP1 or DET1 loss led to decoupling between MAPK signaling and the downstream transcriptional response, where MAPK inhibition failed to destabilize Pea3 factors and fully inhibit the MAPK transcriptome, thus resulting in decreased sensitivity to MAPK pathway inhibitors. We identified multiple COP1 and DET1 mutations in human tumors that were defective in the degradation of Pea3-ETS factors. Two melanoma patients had de novo DET1 mutations arising after vemurafenib treatment. These observations indicate that MAPK signaling–dependent regulation of Pea3-ETS protein stability is a key signaling node in oncogenesis and therapeutic resistance to MAPK pathway inhibition.
Ex Post Efficient Set Mathematics

This paper considers efficient set mathematics for the case where the covariance matrix of asset returns is assumed known but ex ante the vector of expected returns is replaced by an estimated or forecast value. It is shown that the ex post mean and variance differ from the standard results. Consequently the maximum Sharpe ratio portfolio also differs from the standard result. However, even with uncertainty about the vector of expected returns, subject to the assumptions made about the joint distribution of actual returns and estimated mean returns, ex post Sharpe ratio maximisers hold the ex post market portfolio. The properties of the zero beta portfolio are similar to the standard results leading to a capital market line. The ex post Capital Asset Pricing Model incorporates an intercept and the betas are not the same as those computed ex ante. The results are illustrated with an example.
Neutrophil‐specific antigens, immunobiology, and implications in transfusion medicine and blood disorders

E lie Metchnikoff (1845-1916) was the first to demonstrate the immunogenicity of leukocytes. He reported that guinea pigs injected with rabbit blood produced antibodies against rabbit leukocytes, and he called the antibodies leukoagglutinins and leukolysins. In 1926, Charles Doan recognized that leukocyte incompatibility causes transfusion reactions and suggested that leukocytes have their own “groups. ” Twentysix years later, Jean Dausset reported that leukoagglutinins were associated with chronic autoimmune neutropenia. Dausset’s report was followed by numerous publications on leukocyte immunology in Europe and the United States. In 1957, Tom Brittingham produced leukoagglutinins experimentally in humans. He volunteered to receive 100-mL blood infusions from a patient with chronic myelogenous leukemia for 9 consecutive weeks, the last 4 causing chills and fever. He could prevent the reaction by minimizing the number of the injected leukocytes. After 1 year, when the antibodies became undetectable, he repeated the experiment, receiving 50 mL of leukemic blood for 10 consecutive weeks. To study the effects of antibodies in donors’ blood, he received 50 mL of blood from a patient who had received numerous transfusions. The injection caused high fever, vomiting, dyspnea, cyanosis, and hypotension. Next day, the x-ray showed bilateral lung infiltrations, an early case of transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI)! It was in this period that Dausset and others demonstrated the inheritance of leukocyte antigens, and the identification of new antigens began (Fig. 1).
Classification of Partial Discharge Signals by Combining Adaptive Local Iterative Filtering and Entropy Features

Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) is a technique for capturing Partial Discharge (PD) signals in High-Voltage (HV) power plant apparatus. EMI signals can be non-stationary which makes their analysis difficult, particularly for pattern recognition applications. This paper elaborates upon a previously developed software condition-monitoring model for improved EMI events classification based on time-frequency signal decomposition and entropy features. The idea of the proposed method is to map multiple discharge source signals captured by EMI and labelled by experts, including PD, from the time domain to a feature space, which aids in the interpretation of subsequent fault information. Here, instead of using only one permutation entropy measure, a more robust measure, called Dispersion Entropy (DE), is added to the feature vector. Multi-Class Support Vector Machine (MCSVM) methods are utilized for classification of the different discharge sources. Results show an improved classification accuracy compared to previously proposed methods. This yields to a successful development of an expert’s knowledge-based intelligent system. Since this method is demonstrated to be successful with real field data, it brings the benefit of possible real-world application for EMI condition monitoring.
The use and analysis of anti‐plagiarism software: Turnitin tool for formative assessment and feedback

This analysis investigates the efficiency of the Turnitin software as a formative writing tool. The inquiry is especially looking into undergraduate and postgraduate students’ experiences while using Turnitin. The perceptions and experiences of students will be prioritized in the study with the purpose of determining ways to improve Turnitin from students’ point of view. Turnitin obtains text matches or similarity index values of 3,173 assignments submitted on subjects uploaded between 2012 and 2014 by university students. We statistically analyzed the similarity index values or levels of plagiarism percentage between the first and the last assignments, using the two‐sample Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, and we found that there was a significant improvement (p = 0.002). Hence, our results demonstrated that using Turnitin as a formative writing tool, allows students to prepare an assignment in an academically acceptable way, during the second half of the semester, with less plagiarism. The results found in this study suggests an insignificant difference between the draft version and final version of the same assignment (p = 0.192). Similarity index values are also different for different courses, such as writing based project subject and mathematics based engineering subject have different values (p < 0.0001). We also observed that students seem to be able to fool Turnitin tool by uploading images of the assignments instead of the text. Nevertheless, the nature of the subject, individual talent, learning approach, time contribution, and the exclusion of consecutive word count may affect the plagiarism percentage. Our results also indicate that there is a substantial benefit in using Turnitin as an educational writing tool rather than a punitive tool, as the use of Turnitin, promotes student learning outcomes with significantly improved academic skills. Thus, this paper provides an insight into avoiding high levels of plagiarism by using Turnitin as a preemptive tool.
High-frequency stimulation-induced synaptic potentiation in dorsal and ventral CA1 hippocampal synapses: the involvement of NMDA receptors, mGluR5, and (L-type) voltage-gated calcium channels

The ability of the ventral hippocampus (VH) for long-lasting long-term potentiation (LTP) and the mechanisms underlying its lower ability for short-lasting LTP compared with the dorsal hippocampus (DH) are unknown. Using recordings of field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) from the CA1 field of adult rat hippocampal slices, we found that 200-Hz stimulation induced nondecremental LTP that was maintained for at least 7 h and was greater in the DH than in the VH. The interaction of NMDA receptors with L-type voltage-dependent calcium channels appeared to be more effective in the DH than in the VH. Furthermore, the LTP was significantly enhanced in the DH only, between 2 and 5 h post-tetanus. Furthermore, the mGluR5 contributed to the post-tetanic potentiation more in the VH than in the DH.
Real-Time FPGA-Based Detection of Speeded-Up Robust Features Using Separable Convolution

In this paper, we propose a novel architecture for efficient detection of speeded-up robust features (SURF) for field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The main benefits of the proposed architecture are in real-time low-latency performance and scalability. The proposed solution provides a significant acceleration of salient points extraction that is fundamental image processing technique for vision-based methods including the simultaneous localization and mapping. Based on the presented practical results, the proposed architecture is capable of processing streaming image data at the rate of 140 Megapixels per second that roughly scales from the 640 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times$</tex-math></inline-formula> 480@420 fps up to 1920 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times$</tex-math></inline-formula> 1080@60 fps video streams on a low-end, low-cost FPGA solution (Cyclone V). Moreover, the proposed feature detection utilizes only about 20% of logic elements of the FPGA which supports further parallel processing of multiple inputs.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa Condensins Support Opposite Differentiation States

ABSTRACT Condensins play a key role in global chromosome packing. Pseudomonas aeruginosa encodes two condensins, SMC-ScpAB and MksBEF. We report here that the two proteins are involved in the differentiation of the bacterium and impose opposite physiological states. The inactivation of SMC induced a state characterized by increased adhesion to surfaces as well as defects in competitive growth and colony formation. In contrast, MksB-deficient cells were impaired in biofilm formation with no obvious defects during planktonic growth. The phenotype of the double mutant was dominated by the absence of MksB, indicating that the observed growth defects are regulatory in their nature rather than structural. ATPase mutations recapitulated many of the phenotypes of the condensins, indicating their requirement for a functional protein. Additionally, inactivation of condensins dramatically reduced the virulence of the bacterium in a murine model of lung infection. These data demonstrate that condensins are involved in the differentiation of P. aeruginosa and reveal their importance for pathogenicity. IMPORTANCE Adaptation and differentiation play key roles in bacterial pathogenicity. In Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an opportunistic human pathogen, these processes are mediated by the activity of an intricate regulatory network. We describe here novel members of this network, condensins. We show that the two P. aeruginosa condensins specialize in the establishment of the sessile and planktonic states of the bacterium. Whereas condensins have well-established roles in global chromosome organization, their roles in regulating bacterial physiology have remained unknown. Our data indicate that the two programs may be linked. We further show that condensins are essential for the pathogenicity of P. aeruginosa.
Characteristics of Participants Completing ( A ) Mental Health Measurements and ( B ) Self-Worth Measurement

Objective: Social transitions are increasingly common for transgender children. A social transition involves a child presenting to other people as a member of the “opposite” gender in all contexts (e.g., wearing clothes and using pronouns of that gender). Little is known about the wellbeing of socially transitioned transgender children. This study examined self-reported depression, anxiety, and self-worth in socially transitioned transgender children compared with 2 control groups: ageand gendermatched controls and siblings of transgender children.
Assessing Potential Suicide Risk of Young Adults Burned as Children

This study examines potential for suicide risk among young adults burned as children and examines characteristics associated with potential risk. Eighty-five young adults were administered the Suicide Probability Scale, which contains four clinical subscales: suicide ideation, hopelessness, negative self-evaluation, and hostility; the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire; and the Family Environment Scale. Burn survivors reported more feelings of hopelessness in comparison to the reference group. High anxiety was positively associated with hopelessness, suicide ideation, hostility and negative self-evaluation whereas high extroversion was inversely related with hopelessness, negative self-evaluation, and hostility. Multiple regression analyses revealed emotional stability explained 29% of the variance, self-reliance 17% of the variance, and both 38% of the variance in relation to Suicide Probability Scale scores; and increased family conflict 12% of the variance. Results suggest that high anxiety, emotional reactivity, and family conflict correlate with increased potential suicide risk; whereas, extroversion correlates with decreased risk.
Added value of cerebro-placental ratio and uterine artery Doppler at routine third trimester screening as a predictor of SGA and FGR in non-selected pregnancies

Abstract Objectives: The objective of this study is to determine the added value of cerebroplacental ratio (CPR) and uterine Doppler velocimetry at third trimester scan in an unselected obstetric population to predict smallness and growth restriction. Methods: We constructed a prospective cohort study of women with singleton pregnancies attended for routine third trimester screening (32+0–34+6 weeks). Fetal biometry and fetal–maternal Doppler ultrasound examinations were performed by certified sonographers. The CPR was calculated as a ratio of the middle cerebral artery to the umbilical artery pulsatility indices. Both attending professionals and patients were blinded to the results, except in cases of estimated fetal weight < p10. The association between third trimester Doppler parameters and small for gestational age (SGA) (birth weight <10th centile) and fetal growth restriction (FGR) (birth weight below the third centile) was assessed by logistic regression, where the basal comparison was a model comprising maternal characteristics and estimated fetal weight (EFW). Results: A total of 1030 pregnancies were included. The mean gestational age at scan was 33 weeks (SD 0.6). The addition of CPR and uterine Doppler to maternal characteristics plus EFW improved the explained uncertainty of the predicting models for SGA (15 versus 10%, p < .001) and FGR (12 versus 8%, p = .03). However, the addition of CPR and uterine Doppler to maternal characteristics plus EFW only marginally improved the detection rates for SGA (38 versus 34% for a 10% of false positives) and did not change the predictive performance for FGR. Conclusions: The added value of CPR and uterine Doppler at 33 weeks of gestation for detecting defective growth is poor.
The secretion and biological function of tumor suppressor maspin as an exosome cargo protein

Maspin is an epithelial-specific tumor suppressor shown to exert its biological effects as an intracellular, cell membrane-associated, and secreted free molecule. A recent study suggests that upon DNA-damaging g-irradiation, tumor cells can secrete maspin as an exosome-associated protein. To date, the biological significance of exosomal secretion of maspin is unknown. The current study aims at addressing whether maspin is spontaneously secreted as an exosomal protein to regulate tumor/stromal interactions. We prepared exosomes along with cell extracts and vesicle-depleted conditioned media (VDCM) from normal epithelial (CRL2221, MCF-10A and BEAS-2B) and cancer (LNCaP, PC3 and SUM149) cell lines. Atomic force microscopy and dynamic light scattering analysis revealed similar size distribution patterns and surface zeta potentials between the normal cells-derived and tumor cells-derived exosomes. Electron microscopy revealed that maspin was encapsulated by the exosomal membrane as a cargo protein. While western blotting revealed that the level of exosomal maspin from tumor cell lines was disproportionally lower relative to the levels of corresponding intracellular and VDCM maspin, as compared to that from normal cell lines, maspin knockdown in MCF-10A cells led to maspin-devoid exosomes, which exhibited significantly reduced suppressive effects on the chemotaxis activity of recipient NIH3T3 fibroblast cells. These data are the first to demonstrate the potential of maspin delivered by exosomes to block tumor-induced stromal response, and support the clinical application of exosomal maspin in cancer diagnosis and treatment.
In Vitro Assessment of Early Bacterial Activity on Micro/Nanostructured Ti6Al4V Surfaces

It is imperative to understand and systematically compare the initial interactions between bacteria genre and surface properties. Thus, we fabricated a flat, anodized with 80 nm TiO2 nanotubes (NTs), and a rough Ti6Al4V surface. The materials were characterized using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). We cultured in vitro Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) to evaluate the bacterial-surface behavior by FE-SEM and viability calculation. In addition, the initial effects of human osteoblasts were tested on the materials. Gram-negative bacteria showed promoted adherence and viability over the flat and rough surface, while NTs displayed opposite activity with altered morphology. Gram-positive bacteria illustrated similar cellular architecture over the surfaces but with promoted surface adhesion bonds on the flat alloy. Rough surfaces supported S. epidermidis viability, whilst NTs exhibited lower vitality. NTs advocated promoted better osteoblast organization with enhanced vitality. Gram-positive bacteria suggested preferred adhesion capability over flat and carbon-rich surfaces. Gram-negative bacteria were strongly disturbed by NTs but largely stimulated by flat and rough materials. Our work proposed that the chemical profile of the material surface and the bacterial cell wall characteristics might play an important role in the bacteria-surface interactions.
Disentangling Loneliness: Differential Effects of Subjective Loneliness, Network Quality, Network Size, and Living Alone on Physical, Mental, and Cognitive Health

Objective: To examine whether different measures of social disconnectedness—subjective loneliness, network quality, network size, living alone—have differential effects on the health of older adults. Methods: We used a longitudinal sample of the German Aging Survey (N = 4,184) and analyzed seven measures of health (life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, depression, cognitive performance, physical functioning, and pulmonary function) via regression analyses. Results: We found that subjective loneliness and network quality best predicted mental health; contrarily, network size and living alone best predicted physical and cognitive health. Discussion: Different measures of social disconnectedness have differential effects on health. Therefore, using only global measures or one aspect of social disconnectedness might obfuscate potential health hazards. Researchers and practitioners should be mindful of differences between these measures and should include multiple aspects of social disconnectedness in their research and practice. Future studies should explore the causes why these measures and their effects differ.