Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Neuroanatomical Substrate of Lexical-Semantic Decline in MCI APOE &egr;4 Carriers and Noncarriers

Lexical-semantic competency in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) &egr;4 carriers was used as an endophenotype, and gray matter volume in MCI &egr;4 carriers/noncarriers and in noncarrier controls was compared. Residual gray matter volumes were correlated with age of acquisition values for words from a category fluency task, an index of semantic competency. MCI patients had significantly impoverished lexical-semantic output compared with controls, more marked in MCI &egr;4 carriers. Smaller volumes in the left hippocampus, bilateral regions of the uncus, and posterior cingulate cortex were associated with a tendency to retrieve earlier acquired words in the category fluency task in MCI &egr;4 carriers, whereas poor semantic performance in MCI noncarriers was associated with smaller volumes in the left uncus, bilateral regions of the parahippocampal gyrus, and hippocampus, and also in a large number of neocortical regions. There was a significant semantic competency by genotype interaction in the left perirhinal cortex, in a number of left frontal and temporal areas and in the right inferior parietal lobule and precuneus. MCI &egr;4 carriers, when compared with noncarriers, had lower gray matter volume values confined to the right precuneus and the cerebellum bilaterally, but the converse comparison showed that MCI noncarriers had lower values in extensive frontal, temporal, and parietal regions of the neocortex. Similar brain volumetric variations linked to genotype were found in minimal-to-mild AD. The results suggest a relatively specific impact of apolipoprotein E (APOE) &egr;4 burden and underline the value of linguistic assessment in preclinical diagnosis.
INFLUENCE OF COARSE AGGREGATE IN PORTLAND CEMENT CONCRETE ON SPALLING OF CONCRETE PAVEMENTS

Spalling is a form of distress in concrete pavements. However, the current state of knowledge and the available prediction models on spalling indicate a lack of understanding of the spalling mechanism. This research attempts to fill the need to develop a framework to incorporate spalling in the design of concrete pavements based on a mechanistic approach. The report presents results from a comprehensive field survey on spalling in concrete pavements in Texas. Based on the results from this field survey, a mechanism for spalling is proposed. According to this mechanism, spalling is the culmination of damage initiated as delaminations early in the life of pavements. The development of delaminations is related to the concrete mix design and conditions at the time of paving including ambient conditions and the method of curing. The delaminations are extended into spalls as a result of fatigue damage induced by traffic and temperature fluctuations in the pavement. Early-age analysis of concrete pavements was performed using a finite element program developed to predict stresses in the pavement caused by shrinkage. Results from the analysis indicated that a high level of stress sufficient to create delaminations may be generated at a very early age. The coarse aggregate type in concrete was noted to have a significant effect on the level of spalling. Based on results from laboratory studies, a mechanism on how the aggregate type influences spalling is proposed. This proposed spalling mechanism is included in a framework to incorporate spalling in the design of concrete pavements.
Self-image and depressive symptoms among adolescents in a non-clinical sample

The connection between self-image and depressive symptoms in non-clinical adolescent populations has not been well documented in large samples of teenagers. Our purpose was to investigate the correlation between self-image and depressive symptoms. To assess the adolescent's self-concept, we used the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire (OSIQ), and to study their depressive symptoms, we chose the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI). The sample consisted of 1054 eighth-grade students (465 boys, 589 girls) from normal comprehensive schools in one town with 200 000 inhabitants. The mean age of both gender groups was 14.5 years and they came from all social classes. The results showed a highly significant correlation between OSIQ scale scores and CDI scores. The more problems the adolescents had with their self-image, the greater the number of depressive symptoms. The correlation between the CDI total score and OSIQ scales scores was higher for girls than for boys except for the Superior Adjustment scale. The difference between sexes in the strengths of the correlations was highly significant (P<0.0001) except in the Sexuality scale. Since both the tests have shown to have predictive value for later psychiatric symptoms, further investigation of high-scoring CDI adolescents’, and especially girls’, self-image problems is important.
MOST photometry of the roAp star 10 Aquilae

Context. We present 31.2 days of nearly continuous MOST photometry of the rapidly oscillating Ap star 10 Aql. Aims. The goal was to provide an unambiguous frequency identification for this little studied star, as well as to discuss the detected frequencies in the context of magnetic models and analyze the influence of the magnetic field on the pulsation. Methods. Using traditional Fourier analysis techniques on three independent data reductions, intrinsic frequencies for the star are identified. Theoretical non-adiabatic axisymmetric modes influenced by a magnetic field having polar field strengths BP = 0–5 kG were computed to compare the observations to theory. Results. The high-precision data allow us to identify three definite intrinsic pulsation frequencies and two other candidate frequencies with low S /N. Considering the observed spacings, only one (∆ν = 50.95 µHz) is consistent with the main sequence nature of roAp [%]
Thyroid structure and size and two-year follow-up of solitary cold thyroid nodules in an unselected population with borderline iodine deficiency.

OBJECTIVE Multinodular goitre has been found with a high prevalence in iodine-deficient areas, but less frequently in iodine-replete areas; the iodine intake sufficient to prevent goitre has not been established, however. METHODS We report data from an ultrasonic investigation of the thyroid glands of 2656 randomly selected subjects aged 41 to 71 years in an area with borderline iodine deficiency. RESULTS Median iodine concentration in spot urine samples was 70microg/l. Multinodular thyroid structure was found in 23% of the population, increasing in women from 20 to 46% with increasing age, and in men from 7 to 23%. Solitary, scintigraphically cold, thyroid nodules >10mm were found in 2.4% of the population with the same prevalence in the different age and sex groups. Two years of follow-up of these cold nodules revealed no signs of malignancies. Median thyroid volume was 11.0ml. Thyroid enlargement (>18ml for women and >25ml for men) was found among 13. 1% of the women and 6.2% of the men, and the prevalence increased with age. The presence of thyroid nodules was related to positive anti-thyroperoxidase antibody (TPO Ab) titres, whereas thyroid enlargement was associated with iodine excretion <50microg/day. CONCLUSIONS Thyroid enlargement was associated with low iodine excretion and median thyroid volume was slightly increased compared with iodine-replete areas. Multinodular thyroid structure was found with a high prevalence and was associated with TPO Ab >200kU/l. Cold thyroid nodules were moderately prevalent, with no cases of detected malignancies during 2 years of follow-up.
Rapid Synthesis of Calcium Deficient Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticles by Microwave Irradiation

Calcium deficient hydroxyapatite (CDHA, Ca10-x HPO4) PO4)6-x(OH)2-x has attracted many researchers as natural biocrystals of bone mineral has CDHA structure with Ca/P ratio of about 1.5, which is chemically and compositionally similar to beta tricalcium phosphate (â-TCP) and structurally similar to stoichiometric hydroxyapatite (Ca/P = 1.67). Rapid synthesis of CDHA was done by co-precipitation process of calcium nitrate tetra-hydrate and phosphoric acid and subsequently subjecting the rinsed precipitate to microwave irradiation in a domestic microwave oven. Transmission electron microscopy analysis shows needle like morphology of CDHA having length 16-39 nm and width 7-16 nm. The synthesized CDHA shows characteristic vibration band at 875 cm-1 in Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra. The additional confirmation of CDHA by its thermal decomposition to â-TCP was also studied using XRD and FT-IR. The CDHA was stable up to 600C and transformed to â-TCP at around 65C.
Key frame preview techniques for video browsing

Digitized video is an important format in digital libraries. Browsing video surrogates saves user time, storage capacity and avoids unnecessary downloading of large files. The study presented in this paper compared dynamic and static presentation techniques for key frames extracted from video documents. For this study key frames were automatically extracted and then a subset was manually selected to best represent the document. The three interface designs used were: 4 key frame static storyboard display, 12 key frame static storyboard display and 12 key frame dynamic slideshow display. The key frames in all displays were shown in temporal order. User performances on object, action identification, and gist comprehension and selection tasks were compared across treatments. Examination time and user satisfaction were also measured. Static storyboard displays proved to support object identification better, while other user performance measures showed no statistically significant differences. Using fewer key frames in static displays saved considerable amount of user time and screen real estate and user performance on gist comprehension and selection did not decrease when key frames were carefully selected to support queries. Implications for interface design and further research are discussed.
Display of Information for Time-Critical Decision Making

We describe methods for managing the complexity of information displayed to people responsible for making high-stakes, time-critical decisions. The techniques provide tools for real-time control of the configuration and quantity of information displayed to a user, and a methodology for designing flexible human-computer interfaces for monitoring applications. After defining a prototypical set of display decision problems, we introduce the expected value of revealed information (EVRI) and the related measure of expected value of displayed information (EVDI). We describe how these measures can be used to enhance computer displays used for monitoring complex systems. We motivate the presentation by discussing our efforts to employ decision-theoretic control of displays for a time-critical monitoring application at, the NASA Mission Control Center in Houston
Analysis of the Performance of Heat Pipes and Phase-Change Materials with Multiple Localized Heat Sources for Space Applications

Abstract : The objective of this report is to examine the performance characteristics of heat pipes and phase-change materials with multiple localized heat sources as well as the fundamental problems related to their specific applications. A numerical analysis is presented for the overall performance of heat pipes with single or multiple heat sources. The analysis includes the heat conduction in the wall and liquid-wick regions as well as the compressibility effect of the vapor flow inside the heat pipe. The solutions are compared with existing experimental data for the vapor and wall temperatures at both low and high temperatures. In addition, the performance of heat pipes with localized heat input including the effects of axial and circumferential heat conduction under high and low working temperatures was investigated. The numerical results for block heating a heat pipe with low working temperatures indicate a good agreement with existing experimental data.
An EEG-based study on coherence and brain networks in mild depression cognitive process

Depression is a common mental disorder, and in recent years, there has been an increasing trend of mild to moderate depression among college students. Additionally, effective detection of mild depression at an earlier stage remains an urgent problem that must be solved. In this study, electroencephalography (EEG) activities were recorded from 37 participants during processing of facial expression stimuli. With both high-gamma and low-gamma bands, the coherence in the right hemisphere of normal controls was greater than that of mildly depressive subjects, especially for electrodes P8, TP8, C4, FC4, and F8. In the low gamma band, the clustering coefficients of healthy controls in the prefrontal lobe (AF4, AFz, AF3, FC5, F4, and F6) and the parietal lobe (PO3, PO4, and P2) were significantly higher than those of mildly depressive subjects. The ratio of the characteristic path length between the functional network of the mildly depressed group and the small-world network was greater than 1. For the normal group, the ratio was near 1. This research contributes to the study of the cognitive process of mild depression. In our study, the results show closer cooperation in the brain areas of right hemisphere in normal controls during the cognitive process compared with the mildly depressed group, while the activity of the prefrontal and parietal regions in mild depression was significantly lower than that of normal controls. At the same time, in terms of the characteristic path length, the functional network of the mildly depressed group deviates from the small-world network.
IEEE 802.11 Handovers Assisted by GPS Information

IEEE 802.11 networks are now very common and are present in various locations. While roaming through access points, a mobile node is often required to perform a link layer handover. This mechanism causes user-interceptable connection loss and breaks in time-sensitive communication, especially if a network layer handover follows the link layer handover. Many solutions attempting to improve this process have been proposed but only a few use geolocation systems in the management of the handover. In this article, we present a new method to enhance both link layer and network layer handovers using geolocation information provided by a GPS system. The idea behind our algorithm is to predict the next mobile node point of attachment and the associated sub-network using the position of the mobile nodes. This method has been implemented using the new Mobile IP daemon for GNU/Linux operating system and evaluated through two scenarios
Natural language interfaces to databases – an introduction

Abstract This paper is an introduction to natural language interfaces to databases (NLIDBS). A brief overview of the history of NLIDBS is first given. Some advantages and disadvantages of NLIDBS are then discussed, comparing NLIDBS to formal query languages, form-based interfaces, and graphical interfaces. An introduction to some of the linguistic problems NLIDBS have to confront follows, for the benefit of readers less familiar with computational linguistics. The discussion then moves on to NLIDB architectures, portability issues, restricted natural language input systems (including menu-based NLIDBS), and NLIDBS with reasoning capabilities. Some less explored areas of NLIDB research are then presented, namely database updates, meta-knowledge questions, temporal questions, and multi-modal NLIDBS. The paper ends with reflections on the current state of the art.
FIELD-CAMPAIGN RADAR DATA COLLECTED IN THE CONTEXT OF THE TRMM CLIMATOLOGY : COMPARISONS OF OBSERVED STORM MORPHOLOGY AND VALIDATION OPPORTUNITIES

Many field campaigns using ground-based radars have been undertaken over the past four decades in the Tropics, and the data collected have been instrumental in improving our physical understanding of the global climate system. Unfortunately, the timescale of the radar observations collected in field campaigns (on the order of a month to several months) is less than the period of many modes of Tropical atmospheric variability that occur on longer timescales. Examples include seasonal variability, ENSO and the MJO, which most certainly influence the types, microphysics, and kinematics of rainfall systems in a given region, such that any climatology of the properties of rainfall systems derived from field campaign data may not be completely representative of the “true climatology” of rainfall systems in a given region. Routine radar observations are not widely available in the Tropics, so, until recently, one had to rely solely on field campaign data as our “ground truth” of the rainfall regimes present in the Tropics. With the launch of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite in December 1997, the precipitation radar (PR) has allowed the retrieval of snapshots of vertical reflectivity profiles it overflies. Thus, TRMM provides the opportunity to examine the climatology of rainfall systems on timescales longer than those seen by individual field campaigns. However, since TRMM only samples relatively infrequent snapshots of the radar reflectivity field in a given region, the ground-based radar remains the tool of choice for examining many characteristics of precipitating systems, including their life cycle and the local variability in rainfall in a given area, for example. The desire to intercompare radar data among field campaigns provides the motivation to use the satellite to understand the context of field-campaign-observed rainfall systems in the perspective of the satellite climatology, particularly in their rainfall and convective intensity and morphology characteristics, and where those storms fit into the statistical distribution of storms using such characteristics. The PR’s calibration is stable and accurate to within 1 dBZ (Iguchi et al. 2000), and Heymsfield et al. (2000) has shown that the PR is, in large part, a reliable standard to compare ground-based radar data with when the PR’s relatively low sensitivity and resolution are taken into account. 2. TRMM CLIMATOLOGY: THE PF DATABASE
Neuromuscular training improves single-limb stability in young female athletes.

STUDY DESIGN Controlled single-group pretest/posttest design. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine if a 6-week neuromuscular training program designed to decrease the incidence of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries would improve single-limb postural stability in young female athletes. We hypothesized neuromuscular training would result in an improvement in postural stability, with the greatest improvement taking place in the medial-lateral direction. BACKGROUND Balance training has become a common component of programs designed to prevent ACL injury. Rehabilitation programs can improve postural stability following ACL injury and reconstruction; however, there is limited information available which quantifies improvement of postural stability following neuromuscular training designed to prevent ACL injuries in a healthy population. METHODS AND MEASURES Forty-one healthy female high school athletes (mean age, 15.3 years; age range, 13-17 years) participated in this study. Single-limb postural stability for both lower extremities was assessed with a Biodex Stability System. The neuromuscular training program consisted of three 90-minute training sessions per week for 6 weeks. Following the completion of the training program, each subject was re-evaluated to determine change in total, anterior-posterior, and medial-lateral single-limb stability. Two-way analysis of variance models were used to determine differences between pretraining and posttraining and between limbs. RESULTS The subjects showed a significant improvement in single-limb total stability (P = .004) and anterior-posterior stability (P = .001), but not medial-lateral stability (P = .650) for both the right and left lower extremity following training. In addition, the subjects demonstrated significantly better total postural stability on the right side as compared to the left (P = .026). CONCLUSIONS A 6-week neuromuscular training program designed to decrease the incidence of ACL injuries improves objective measures of total and anterior-posterior single-limb postural stability in high school female athletes.
Brainstem Auditory and Somatosensory Evoked Potentials in Relation to Clinical and Neuroimaging Findings in Chiari Type 1 Malformation

Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe the abnormalities found in the recordings of evoked potentials (EPs), in particular those of brainstem auditory evoked potentials and somatosensory evoked potentials, in a homogeneous series of patients with Chiari type 1 malformation (CM-1) and study their relationship with clinical symptoms and malformation severity. CM-1 is characterized by cerebellar tonsils that descend below the foramen magnum and may be associated with EP alterations. However, only a small number of authors have described these tests in CM-1, and the patient groups studied to date have been small and heterogeneous. Methods: The clinical findings, neuroimages, and EP findings were retrospectively studied in a cohort of 50 patients with CM-1. Results: Seventy percent of patients had EP abnormalities (brainstem auditory evoked potential: 52%, posterior tibial nerve somatosensory evoked potential: 42%, and median nerve somatosensory evoked potential: 34%). The most frequent alteration was an increased central conduction time. Morphometric measurements differed between the normal and pathological groups, although no statistical significance was found when comparing these groups. Conclusions: A high percentage of patients with CM-1 show EP alterations regardless of their clinical or radiological findings, thus highlighting the necessity of performing these tests, especially in patients with few or no symptoms.
Quantification of sleep in dairy cows in three different stages of lactation

The aim of this project was to quantify the total sleep time in modern dairy cows during 24-hour periods and to investigate whether the total amount of sleep as well as time spent in different sleep stages varies between the dry period, early- and peak lactation. The distribution of sleep time between night and day was also examined. Furthermore, correlations between sleep and lying time, fluctuations in body temperature and heart beat were included in the aim. Eight dairy cows of the Swedish Red breed were used in this study, which was carried out between June and September 2010. In order to quantify sleep non-invasive electrophysiological recordings were performed. Simultaneously with collecting sleep data, body position and body temperature were also recorded. No heart rate data was obtained due to difficulties of maintaining electrodes for heart beat measurements attached to the skin. One 24-hour data collection was performed on each cow in the three different stages of lactation. The electrophysiological data was visually scored according to definitions of human sleep. Electrophysiological data from one of the eight cows mainly contained artefacts and all her data was excluded from the data set. Shorter sleep time was obtained in early- and peak lactation compared with the dry period. The rapid eye movement (REM) sleep time and REM sleep time in proportion of total sleep was higher in peak lactation compared to early lactation. It could also be concluded that cows sleep during larger proportion of the night compared with the day. Indications of a possible correlation between total sleep time and total lying time was found, but no relationship between sleep and fluctuations in body temperature. Possible correlations between sleep and heart beat could not be investigated since no heart rate measurements was not obtained.