Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Heat Treatment Schedules for Emerald Ash Borer (Coleoptera: Buprestidae)

ABSTRACT The thermotolerance of the emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), was evaluated by subjecting larvae and prepupae to a number of timetemperature regimes. Three independent experiments were conducted during 2006 and 2007 by heating emerald ash borer infested firewood in laboratory ovens. Heat treatments were established based on the internal wood temperature. Treatments ranged from 45 to 65°C for 30 and 60 min, and the ability of larvae to pupate and emerge as adults was used to evaluate the success of each treatment. A fourth experiment was conducted to examine heat treatments on exposed prepupae removed from logs and subjected to ambient temperatures of 50,55, and 60°C for 15,30,45, and 60 min. Results from the firewood experiments were consistent in the first experiment. Emergence data showed emerald ash borer larvae were capable of surviving a temperatures-time combination up to 60°C for 30 min in wood. The 65°C for 30 min treatment was, however, effective in preventing emerald ash borer emergence on both dates. Conversely, in the second experiment using saturated steam heat, complete mortality was achieved at 50 and 55°C for both 30 and 60 min. Results from the prepupae experiment showed emerald ash borer survivorship in temperature-time combinations up to 55°C for 30 min, and at 50°C for 60 min; 60°C for 15 min and longer was effective in preventing pupation in exposed prepupae. Overall results suggest that emerald ash borer survival is variable depending on heating conditions, and an internal wood temperature of 60°C for 60 min should be considered the minimum for safe treatment for firewood.
Neural Plasticity of Mild Tinnitus: An fMRI Investigation Comparing Those Recently Diagnosed with Tinnitus to Those That Had Tinnitus for a Long Period of Time

Objectives. The aim of the study was to compare differences in neural correlates of tinnitus in adults with recent onset and others who had the disorder for longer than a year. Design. A total of 25 individuals with tinnitus were divided into groups based on the amount of time for which they had experienced tinnitus: <1 year (RTIN) or >1 year (LTIN). Subjects underwent an fMRI scan while listening to affective sounds from the International Affective Digital Sounds database. Resting state functional connectivity data were also collected. Results. The RTIN group recruited the posterior cingulate and insula to a greater extent than the LTIN group when processing affective sounds. In addition, we found that the LTIN group engaged more frontal regions when listening to the stimuli compared to the RTIN group. Lastly, we found increased correlations between the default mode network and the precuneus in RTIN patients compared to LTIN at rest. Conclusion. Our results suggest that the posterior cingulate and insula may be associated with an early emotional reaction to tinnitus in both task and resting states. Over time, tinnitus patients may recruit more frontal regions to better control their emotional response and exhibit altered connectivity in the default mode network.
Anterior cingulate activity and the self in disorders of consciousness

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between medial cortical activation and the presence of self and consciousness in healthy subjects and patients with vegetative state and minimally conscious state using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Experiment design: We first conducted two fMRI experiments in healthy subjects to identify brain regions specifically associated with self‐perception through the use of different auditory stimuli that had different grades of self‐relatedness. We then applied these regions as functional localizers to examine the relationship between neural activity changes during self‐relatedness and consciousness level in the patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC). Principal observations: We demonstrated recruitment of various anterior medial cortical regions including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in healthy subjects during auditory perception of self‐related stimuli. We further showed that patients with DOC showed signal changes in the ACC during auditory perception of self‐related stimuli. Finally, it was shown that these signal changes correlate with the level of consciousness in the patients with DOC. Conclusion: The degree of consciousness in patients with DOC was correlated with neural activity in the ACC induced by self‐related stimuli. Our results not only shed light on the pathophysiology of DOC, but may also suggest a useful neural, and thus diagnostic, marker of the dysfunction of consciousness in vegetative patients. Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Inferring Logical Forms From Denotations

A core problem in learning semantic parsers from denotations is picking out consistent logical forms--those that yield the correct denotation--from a combinatorially large space. To control the search space, previous work relied on restricted set of rules, which limits expressivity. In this paper, we consider a much more expressive class of logical forms, and show how to use dynamic programming to efficiently represent the complete set of consistent logical forms. Expressivity also introduces many more spurious logical forms which are consistent with the correct denotation but do not represent the meaning of the utterance. To address this, we generate fictitious worlds and use crowdsourced denotations on these worlds to filter out spurious logical forms. On the WikiTableQuestions dataset, we increase the coverage of answerable questions from 53.5% to 76%, and the additional crowdsourced supervision lets us rule out 92.1% of spurious logical forms.
Cultured Cortical Neurons Can Perform Blind Source Separation According to the Free-Energy Principle

Blind source separation is the computation underlying the cocktail party effect––a partygoer can distinguish a particular talker’s voice from the ambient noise. Early studies indicated that the brain might use blind source separation as a signal processing strategy for sensory perception and numerous mathematical models have been proposed; however, it remains unclear how the neural networks extract particular sources from a complex mixture of inputs. We discovered that neurons in cultures of dissociated rat cortical cells could learn to represent particular sources while filtering out other signals. Specifically, the distinct classes of neurons in the culture learned to respond to the distinct sources after repeating training stimulation. Moreover, the neural network structures changed to reduce free energy, as predicted by the free-energy principle, a candidate unified theory of learning and memory, and by Jaynes’ principle of maximum entropy. This implicit learning can only be explained by some form of Hebbian plasticity. These results are the first in vitro (as opposed to in silico) demonstration of neural networks performing blind source separation, and the first formal demonstration of neuronal self-organization under the free energy principle.
Postnatal salivary cortisol and sense of coherence (SOC) in Eritrean mothers

This pilot study explores possible physiological correlates of maternal sense of coherence (SOC) by looking at salivary cortisol levels in Eritrean mothers during the immediate pre‐ and postnatal period. Samples of pre‐ and postnatal resting whole saliva were obtained from 19 mothers and from 31 controls in Ghinda. Radioimmunoassay results revealed no differences between prenatal and control concentrations of salivary cortisol, but postnatal levels were significantly lower (P < 0.014). Mothers who delivered in hospital had significantly higher SOC scores compared to those who opted for home birth (P < 0.045). This difference was particularly pronounced in the comprehensibility subscale of the SOC scores (P < 0.037). Moreover, mothers with higher comprehensibility scores showed significantly lower postnatal cortisol levels (P < 0.017). No associations were found between cortisol and age or parity. The implications of these findings for maternity health service policy and practice in Eritrea are considered. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 17:376–379, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Graduated compression stockings: Physiological and perceptual responses during and after exercise

Abstract The aim of this study was to examine the effect of wearing graduated compression stockings on physiological and perceptual variables during and after intermittent (Experiment 1) and continuous (Experiment 2) running exercise. Fourteen recreational runners performed two multi-stage intermittent shuttle running tests with 1 h recovery between tests (Experiment 1). A further 14 participants performed a fast-paced continuous 10-km road run (Experiment 2). Participants wore commercially available knee-length graduated compression stockings (pressure at ankle 18 – 22 mmHg) beneath ankle-length sports socks (experimental trials) or just the latter (control trials) in a randomized counterbalanced design (for both experiments). No performance or physiological differences were observed between conditions during intermittent shuttle running. During the 10-km trials, there was a reduction in delayed-onset muscle soreness 24 h after exercise when wearing graduated compression stockings (P < 0.05). There was a marked difference in the frequency and location of soreness: two participants in the stockings trial but 13 participants in the control trial indicated soreness in the lower legs. Wearing graduated compression stockings during a 10-km road run appears to reduce delayed-onset muscle soreness after exercise in recreationally active men.
Rethinking the N(H2)/I(CO) conversion factor

Consequences of an improved formulation, proposed in an earlier paper, for the N(H2)/I(CO) conversion factor are examined. That formulation quantified the statement that the velocity-integrated radiation temperature of the 12CO J= 1 0 line, I(12CO), ‘counts’ optically thick clumps. The clump effective optical depth was approximated as a power law of the clump's optical depth on its central sightline; the power-law index, e, had values between zero and unity. Assuming virialization of the clumps yielded an expression for the N(H2)/I(CO) conversion factor, or X-factor, whose dependence on physical parameters like density and temperature was ‘softened’ by power-law indices of less than unity that depend on the parameter e. One important suggestion of this formulation is that virialization of entire clouds is irrelevant. The densities required to give reasonable values of Xf are consistent with those found in cloud clumps (i.e. ∼103 H2 cm−3). Thus virialization of clumps, rather than of entire clouds, is consistent with the observed values of Xf. And even virialization of clumps is not strictly required; only a relationship between clump velocity width and column density similar to that of virialization can still yield reasonable values of the X-factor. The underlying physics is now at the scale of cloud clumps, implying that the X-factor can probe subcloud structure. The properties of real clumps in real molecular clouds can be used to estimate the X-factor within these clouds and then be compared with the observationally determined X-factor. This yields X-factor values that are within a factor of 2 of the observed values. This is acceptable for the first attempt, but reducing this discrepancy will require improving the formulation. While this formulation improves upon the earlier explanation given about 20 yr ago, it has shortcomings of its own. These include uncertainties as to why e seems to be constant from cloud to cloud, uncertainties in defining the average clump density and neglecting certain complications, such as non-local thermodynamic equilibrium effects, magnetic fields, turbulence, etc. Despite these shortcomings, the proposed formulation represents the first major improvement in understanding the X-factor because it is the first formulation to include radiative transfer.
Heat shock proteins and heat shock protein-antibody complexes in placental tissues.

OBJECTIVE: The relationship between pregnancy outcome and expression of the heat shock proteins (hsps) or hsp-antibody complexes of 60kD (hsp60), 70kD (hsp70), and 90kD (hsp90) in placental tissue and circulating antibodies to hsps was evaluated. METHOD: Expression of hsp60, hsp70, and hsp90 in placentae from 12 women with preterm birth, eight with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), and 10 with term birth, as well as the presence of the corresponding antibodies, was investigated by a new carbocyanine double fluorescence technique. Results were compared with microbiological findings and circulating antibodies to hsps in sera. RESULTS: In each placental specimen examined, hsp60, hsp70, and hsp90 were identified. However, hsp70-antibody complexes were detected in only four of the preterm labor cases. Similarly, hsp60-antibody complexes were detected in only five preterm labor patients and in one patient with IUGR. None of the placentae contained hsp90-antibody complexes. In the preterm birth group, all patients with hsp60-antibody complexes were also positive for circulating antibodies to hsp60. The presence of hsp70-antibody complexes also correlated with hsp70 antibody in sera. CONCLUSIONS: Formation of hsp60- and hsp70-antibody complexes in the placenta may contribute to the induction of preterm birth. Women sensitized to these antibodies may be at increased risk for adverse pregnancy outcome.
Classification of solid dispersions: correlation to (i) stability and solubility (ii) preparation and characterization techniques

Abstract Solid dispersion has been a topic of interest in recent years for its potential in improving oral bioavailability, especially for poorly water soluble drugs where dissolution could be the rate-limiting step of oral absorption. Understanding the physical state of the drug and polymers in solid dispersions is essential as it influences both the stability and solubility of these systems. This review emphasizes on the classification of solid dispersions based on the physical states of drug and polymer. Based on this classification, stability aspects such as crystallization tendency, glass transition temperature (Tg), drug polymer miscibility, molecular mobility, etc. and solubility aspects have been discussed. In addition, preparation and characterization methods for binary solid dispersions based on the classification have also been discussed.
Neuronal nonlinearity explains greater visual spatial resolution for darks than lights

Significance Light and dark stimuli are separately processed by ON and OFF channels in retina and thalamus. Although most textbooks assume that ON and OFF visual responses are relatively balanced throughout the visual system, recent studies have identified a pronounced overrepresentation of OFF responses in the cerebral cortex. This recent discovery resonates with Galileo and Helmholtz’s pioneering observations that visual spatial resolution is higher for darks than lights. In this paper, we demonstrate that these two seemingly separate findings are related and caused by a pronounced difference between ON and OFF luminance response functions, which most likely originates in photoreceptors. Therefore, asymmetric ON and OFF neural responses provide the neurophysiological explanation for an almost four-century-old puzzle dating back to Galileo. Astronomers and physicists noticed centuries ago that visual spatial resolution is higher for dark than light stimuli, but the neuronal mechanisms for this perceptual asymmetry remain unknown. Here we demonstrate that the asymmetry is caused by a neuronal nonlinearity in the early visual pathway. We show that neurons driven by darks (OFF neurons) increase their responses roughly linearly with luminance decrements, independent of the background luminance. However, neurons driven by lights (ON neurons) saturate their responses with small increases in luminance and need bright backgrounds to approach the linearity of OFF neurons. We show that, as a consequence of this difference in linearity, receptive fields are larger in ON than OFF thalamic neurons, and cortical neurons are more strongly driven by darks than lights at low spatial frequencies. This ON/OFF asymmetry in linearity could be demonstrated in the visual cortex of cats, monkeys, and humans and in the cat visual thalamus. Furthermore, in the cat visual thalamus, we show that the neuronal nonlinearity is present at the ON receptive field center of ON-center neurons and ON receptive field surround of OFF-center neurons, suggesting an origin at the level of the photoreceptor. These results demonstrate a fundamental difference in visual processing between ON and OFF channels and reveal a competitive advantage for OFF neurons over ON neurons at low spatial frequencies, which could be important during cortical development when retinal images are blurred by immature optics in infant eyes.
Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in the Management of Patients With Primary Cutaneous Melanoma: Review of a Large Single-Institutional Experience With an Emphasis on Recurrence

ObjectiveTo analyze the authors’ experience with sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) and the subsequent incidence and pattern of recurrence in patients with positive and negative nodes. Summary Background DataLymphatic mapping with SLNB has become widely accepted in the management of patients with melanoma who are at risk for occult regional lymph node metastases. Because this procedure is relatively new, the pattern of recurrence after SLNB is not yet clear. MethodsAll patients with primary cutaneous melanoma who underwent SLNB from 1991 through 1998 were identified from a prospective single-institution melanoma database. ResultsThree hundred fifty-seven consecutive patients with localized primary cutaneous melanoma who underwent SLNB were identified. The sentinel node was identified in 332 patients (93%) and was positive in 56 (17%). Fourteen percent of patients had developed a recurrence at a median follow-up of 24 months. The median time to recurrence was 13 months. The 3-year relapse-free survival rates for patients with positive and negative nodes were 56% and 75%, respectively. SLN status was the most important predictor of disease recurrence. The site of first recurrence in patients with negative and positive nodes was more commonly locoregional than distant. Reexamination of the SLN in 11 patients with negative nodes with initial nodal and in-transit recurrence showed evidence of metastases in 7 (64%). ConclusionsPatients with positive sentinel nodes have a significantly increased risk for recurrence. The early pattern of first recurrence for patients with negative and positive results is characterized by a preponderance of locoregional sites, similar to that reported in previous series of elective lymph node dissection. These data underscore the need for careful pathologic analysis of the SLN as well as a careful, directed locoregional physical examination in the follow-up of these patients.
Evaluation of Care Management for the Uninsured

Background:In 2008, Kern Medical Center established a Care Management Program (CMP) for low-income adults identified as frequent users of hospital services. Frequent users are defined as having 4 or more emergency department (ED) visits or admissions, 3 or more admissions, or 2 or more admissions and 1 ED visit within 1 year. The CMP helps patients access primary care and medical and social resources. Objective:To determine whether the CMP reduces ED visits and hospitalizations among frequent users. Method:Between August 2007 and January 2010, a retrospective analysis was conducted using Kern Medical Center encounter data. ED visits and inpatient visits were compared pre- and postenrollment for care managed patients (n = 98). The analysis included a comparison group (n = 160) of frequent users matched on the basis of race and age. Multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate the difference in utilization between groups, and to adjust for potential group differences. Results:There was a reduction in the median number of ED visits per year from 6.0 ± 5.0 (median ± interquartile range) pre-enrollment to 3.0 ± 4.2 postenrollment (P < 0.0001). The difference in inpatient admissions pre- and postenrollment was 0.0 ± 1.0 (P < 0.0001). After adjusting for multiple factors, multivariate analysis demonstrated that care managed patients had a 32% lower risk of visiting the ED than the comparison group (P < 0.0001). There was no difference in inpatient admissions between groups. Conclusions:CMP that helps patients navigate the health care system and access social and medical resources show significant promise in reducing ED utilization.
Association of blood lactate concentration with physical perfusion variables, blood pressure, and outcome for cats treated at an emergency service.

OBJECTIVE To determine the association of blood lactate concentration with physically assessed perfusion variables, systolic arterial blood pressure (SAP), and outcome in cats evaluated by an emergency service. DESIGN Prospective, observational study. ANIMALS 111 cats. PROCEDURES Initial blood lactate concentration and SAP (prior to any therapeutic interventions) as well as physically assessed perfusion variables (mucous membrane color, capillary refill time, peripheral pulse quality, heart rate, and rectal temperature) were determined. Cats were categorized as having no shock, mild to moderate shock, or severe shock. Outcomes were recorded. Associations between lactate concentration and these variables were assessed. RESULTS Median initial blood lactate concentration was 2.7 mmol/L (range, 0.5 to 19.3 mmol/L); cats with white mucous membranes, abnormal peripheral pulse quality, and hypothermia had significantly higher lactate concentration than did cats without these findings. Median lactate concentration for cats with SAP < 90 mm Hg (3.3 mmol/L) was significantly higher than that of cats with SAP ≥ 90 mm Hg (2.35 mmol/L). Cats with severe shock had significantly higher lactate concentration (4.3 mmol/L) than did cats in other shock categories. Median initial lactate concentration at admission did not differ between cats that did (2.45 mmol/L) and did not (3.2 mmol/L) survive to discharge from the hospital. Change in lactate concentration during hospitalization (when applicable) was not associated with outcome. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Findings indicated that blood lactate concentration, together with physical examination findings and SAP, may be a useful tool for identifying abnormalities in tissue oxygen delivery in cats. However, lactate concentrations were not associated with outcome in the present study.
Data Mining on Finance and Accounting: a Review of Current Research Trends

Data mining tools become important in finance and accounting. Their classification and prediction abilities enable them to be used for the purposes of bankruptcy prediction, going concern status and financial distress prediction, management fraud detection, credit risk estimation, and corporate performance prediction. This study aims to provide a state-of-the-art review of the relative literature and to indicate relevant research opportunities.