Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional Significance of Medial Olivocochlear System Morphology in the Mouse Cochlea

Objectives Baso-apical gradients exist in various cochlear structures including medial olivocochlear (MOC) efferent system. This study investigated the cochlear regional differentials in the function and morphology of the MOC system, and addressed the functional implications of regional MOC efferent terminals (ETs) in the mouse cochlea. Methods In CBA/J mice, MOC reflex (MOCR) was assessed based on the distortion product otoacoustic emission in the absence and presence of contralateral acoustic stimulation. High, middle, and low frequencies were grouped according to a mouse place-frequency map. Cochlear whole mounts were immunostained for ETs with anti-α-synuclein and examined using confocal laser scanning microscopy. The diameters of ETs and the number of ETs per outer hair cell were measured from the z-stack images of the basal, middle and apical regions, respectively. Results The middle cochlear region expressed large, clustered MOC ETs with strong MOCR, the base expressed small, less clustered ETs with strong MOCR, and the apex expressed large, but less clustered ETs with weak MOCR. Conclusion The mouse cochlea demonstrated regional differentials in the function and morphology of the MOC system. Strong MOCR along with superior MOC morphology in the middle region may contribute to ‘signal detection in noise,’ the primary efferent function, in the best hearing frequencies. Strong MOCR in spite of inferior MOC morphology in the base may reflect the importance of ‘protection from noise trauma’ in the high frequencies.
A New Bacillus anthracis Found in Wild Chimpanzees and a Gorilla from West and Central Africa

Citation: Leendertz FH, Yumlu S, Pauli G, Boesch C, Couacy-Hymann E, et al. (2006) A new Bacillus anthracis found in wild chimpanzees and a gorilla from West and Central Africa. PLoS Pathog 2(1): e8.
The Regional Dimension of Knowledge Transfers—A Behavioral Approach

Innovations are inherently connected to knowledge transfers. The need of face‐to‐face contacts to transfer tacit knowledge is commonly argued to cause a regional dimension of innovative activities. The paper presents an alternative explanation based on a model of boundedly rational actors who search for knowledge. It is shown that a regional dimension exists in these processes that results from a regional bias in an actor's search activities. Social embeddedness, a shared regional identity and limited spatial mobility foster this bias. We argue that insights from research on these topics can help to define the geographic size of a region.
The Depression Interview and Structured Hamilton (DISH): Rationale, Development, Characteristics, and Clinical Validity

Objective The Depression Interview and Structured Hamilton (DISH) is a semistructured interview developed for the Enhancing Recovery in Coronary Heart Disease (ENRICHD) study, a multicenter clinical trial of treatment for depression and low perceived social support after acute myocardial infarction. The DISH is designed to diagnose depression in medically ill patients and to assess its severity on an embedded version of Williams’ Structured Interview Guide for the Hamilton Depression scale (SIGH-D). This article describes the development and characteristics of the DISH and presents a validity study and data on its use in ENRICHD. Methods In the validity study, the DISH and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) were administered in randomized order to 57 patients. Trained interviewers administered the DISH, and clinicians administered the SCID. In ENRICHD, trained research nurses administered the DISH and recorded a diagnosis. Clinicians reviewed 42% of the interviews and recorded their own diagnosis. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was administered in both studies. Results In the validity study, the SCID diagnosis agreed with the DISH on 88% of the interviews (weighted &kgr; = 0.86). In ENRICHD, the clinicians agreed with 93% of the research nurses’ diagnoses. The BDI and the Hamilton depression scores derived from the DISH in the two studies correlated 0.76 (p < .0001) in the validity study and 0.64 (p < .0001) in ENRICHD. Conclusions These findings support the validity of the DISH as a semistructured interview to assess depression in medically ill patients. The DISH is efficient in yielding both a DSM-IV depression diagnosis and a 17-item Hamilton depression score.
Sterol Lipid Metabolism in Down Syndrome Revisited: Down Syndrome Is Associated with a Selective Reduction in Serum Brassicasterol Levels

Over the past 15 years, insights into sterol metabolism have improved our understanding of the relationship between lipids and common conditions such as atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's Disease (AD). A better understanding of sterol lipid metabolism in individuals with Down Syndrome (DS) may help elucidate how this population's unique metabolic characteristics influence their risks for atherosclerosis and AD. To revisit the question of whether sterol lipid parameters may be altered in DS subjects, we performed a pilot study to assess traditional serum sterol lipids and lipoproteins, as well as markers of sterol biosynthesis, metabolites, and plant sterols in 20 subjects with DS compared to age-matched controls. Here we report that the levels of nearly all lipids and lipoproteins examined are similar to control subjects, suggesting that trisomy 21 does not lead to pronounced general alterations in sterol lipid metabolism. However, the levels of serum brassicasterol were markedly reduced in DS subjects.
ICDAR 2013 Document Image Binarization Contest (DIBCO 2013)

DIBCO 2013 is the international Document Image Binarization Contest organized in the context of ICDAR 2013 conference. The general objective of the contest is to identify current advances in document image binarization for both machine-printed and handwritten document images using evaluation performance measures that conform to document image analysis and recognition. This paper describes the contest details including the evaluation measures used as well as the performance of the 23 submitted methods along with a short description of each method.
A Rational Theory of the Size of Government

In a general equilibrium model of a labor economy, the size of government, measured by the share of income redistributed, is determined by majority rule. Voters rationally anticipate the disincentive effects of taxation on the labor-leisure choices of their fellow citizens and take the effect into account when voting. The share of earned income redistributed depends on the voting rule and on the distribution of productivity in the economy. Under majority rule, the equilibrium tax share balances the budget and pays for the voters' choices. The principal reasons for increased size of government implied by the model are extensions of the franchise that change the position of the decisive voter in the income distribution and changes in relative productivity. An increase in mean income relative to the income of the decisive voter increases the size of government.
Order, process and morphology: Sraffa and Wittgenstein

This contribution is based on an exploration of the nature and meaning of some of Sraffa’s and Wittgenstein’s mutual ontological, methodological and philosophical influences whose initial findings are set out in Arena (2013). The article has two core objectives. First, I argue that, based on earlier findings, a different interpretation of Sraffa’s contribution to economics is possible from those that have been predominant so far and that hold that Sraffa’s approach is primarily a contribution to the theory of relative prices. I consider the two main interpretations of Sraffa’s price system in this regard. Whilst these differ in important aspects, I argue that they share a core feature, namely, an approach to prices based on the concept of economic or social order understood as a final outcome independent of the possible process through which this outcome can be achieved. Second, I am interested in highlighting a number of connections between Wittgenstein’s works post-Tractatus and certain developments contained in Sraffa’s Unpublished Papers. Taking Wittgenstein post-Tractatus as the starting point, I proceed to argue that core concepts employed by Wittgenstein are compatible with and reinforce an interpretation of Sraffa’s contribution in terms of a morphological and comparative analysis of the economic foundations of surplus-based societies. From this perspective, the notions of ‘surveyable representation’ and ‘snapshot’ are employed to characterise an analysis in which agents are guided by social rules, and the concept of mechanical causality is discarded. This convergence of Sraffa’s and Wittgenstein’s approaches does not, however, exclude differences concerning the social facts investigated and the use of analytical tools such as mathematics.
Hospital-Physician Integration: Case Studies of Community Hospitals

Hospitals are attempting more meaningfully to involve physicians in management as one approach to increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations. The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between the structure of the medical staff organization, the extent to which physicians are integrated into hospital decision making and the hospital's financial performance. A measure of hospital-physician integration was developed based on Alexander et al's (1986) dimensions of hospital-physician integration which were based on Scott's (1982) organizational models, ie, autonomous, heteronomous and conjoint. A multiple case study design, which comprised eight community non-teaching hospitals over 200 beds located in the Province of Ontario, Canada, was used to examine the relationship between variables. Study results suggest that there is variation among community hospitals on both contextual and organization factors. Hospitals with high levels of hospital-physician integration were located in highly populated areas, had formulated and implemented a strategic plan, had highly structured medical staff organizations, and had no budgetary deficit. In contrast, hospitals with moderate or low levels of integration were more likely to be located in lowly populated areas, had little planning activity, had a moderately structured medical staff organization, and had deficit budgeting. Suggested areas for future research include examining the role of the Board of Trustees in determining physicians' organizational roles and identifying differences in commitments, characteristics, and motivations of physicians working in rural versus urban hospitals and their impact on integrative strategies.
Mice as stowaways? Colonization history of Danish striped field mice

Species from the steppe region of Eastern Europe likely colonized northwestern Europe in connection with agriculture after 6500 BP. The striped field mouse (Apodemus agrarius Pallas, 1783), is a steppe-derived species often found in human crops. It is common on the southern Danish islands of Lolland and Falster, which have been isolated from mainland Europe since approximately 10 300–8000 BP. Thus, this species could have been brought in with humans in connection with agriculture, or it could be an earlier natural invader. We sequenced 86 full mitochondrial genomes from the northwestern range of the striped field mouse, analysed phylogenetic relationships and estimated divergence time. The results supported human-induced colonization of Denmark in the Subatlantic or Subboreal period. A newly discovered population from Central Jutland in Denmark diverged from Falster approximately 100–670 years ago, again favouring human introduction. One individual from Sweden turned out to be a recent introduction from Central Jutland.
Examining the effect of linkage disequilibrium between markers on the Type I error rate and power of nonparametric multipoint linkage analysis of two‐generation and multigenerational pedigrees in the presence of missing genotype data

Because most multipoint linkage analysis programs currently assume linkage equilibrium between markers when inferring parental haplotypes, ignoring linkage disequilibrium (LD) may inflate the Type I error rate. We investigated the effect of LD on the Type I error rate and power of nonparametric multipoint linkage analysis of two‐generation and multigenerational multiplex families. Using genome‐wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data from the Collaborative Study of the Genetics of Alcoholism, we modified the original data set into 30 total data sets in order to consider six different patterns of missing data for five different levels of SNP density. To assess power, we designed simulated traits based on existing marker genotypes. For the Type I error rate, we simulated 1,000 qualitative traits from random distributions, unlinked to any of the marker data. Overall, the different levels of SNP density examined here had only small effects on power (except sibpair data). Missing data had a substantial effect on power, with more completely genotyped pedigrees yielding the highest power (except sibpair data). Most of the missing data patterns did not cause large increases in the Type I error rate if the SNP markers were more than 0.3 cM apart. However, in a dense 0.25‐cM map, removing genotypes on founders and/or founders and parents in the middle generation caused substantial inflation of the Type I error rate, which corresponded to the increasing proportion of persons with missing data. Results also showed that long high‐LD blocks have severe effects on Type I error rates. Genet. Epidemiol. 2007. Published 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Parent and Family Factors Related to Children's Progress in Intensive Behavioural Intervention

The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between parent and family demographic, psychosocial, and involvement factors and the progress of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI). Children’s cognitive rates of development and parents’ perceptions of children’s progress were used to measure children’s progress in IBI. Demographic (socioeconomic status, marital status, maternal employment, and having other children with disabilities), psychosocial (parent distress, and coping), and involvement (parent involvement in IBI, and self-efficacy surrounding involvement) factors were related to children’s progress in various ways. Specifically, maternal employment, and parental involvement in IBI were predictors of increased cognitive rates of development, and coping was a predictor of increased parental perceptions of children’s progress. Clinical implications include empirical evidence for encouraging parents to be involved in their children’s treatment, along with evidence supporting maternal employment.
Molecular and phenotypic characterisation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to anti-tuberculosis drugs.

SETTING Dr Cetrángolo Hospital, Buenos Aires, Argentina. OBJECTIVES To characterise drug-resistant (DR), multidrug-resistant (MDR-) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR-) Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates, and identify their genetic profiles, drug resistance levels and resistance-conferring mutations. DESIGN Phenotypic drug susceptibility testing methods were used to determine drug resistance profiles. Minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (RMP) and levofloxacin (LVX) from 169 DR tuberculosis (TB) isolates, 78 of them monoresistant to INH, 13 to RMP, 7 to LVX, and 71 MDR-TB, were determined. Multiplex allele-specific polymerase chain reaction and DNA sequencing were used to detect mutations in katG, rpoB and gyrA/B genes. Genotyping was performed using spoligotyping and insertion sequence 6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism. RESULTS In total, 38.9% of the INH-resistant (INH(R)) isolates had an MIC ≥ 32 g/ml; 61.3% of RMP-resistant (RMP(R)) isolates had an MIC ≥ 64 g/ml and 55.6% of the LVX-resistant (LVX(R)) isolates had an MIC 4 ≥ 16 g/ml. The main mutations found in INH(R) isolates were katG315 (53.7%) and inhAP-15 (25.5%), whereas in RMP(R) isolates the main mutations were rpoB531 (61.9%), followed by rpoB526 (16.7%). LVX(R) isolates showed mutations in gyrA94/90. Haarlem, LAM and T were the main spoligotyping families found. katG315 was mainly associated with Haarlem and LAM, whereas inhAP-15 was associated with T. CONCLUSIONS Several isolates showed an association between high INH(R) levels and katG mutation; others from the Haarlem family were prone to becoming MDR-TB and continue to circulate in the community.
Treatment and Prognosis of Facial Palsy on Ramsay Hunt Syndrome: Results Based on a Review of the Literature

Abstract Introduction Ramsay Hunt syndrome is the second most common cause of facial palsy. Early and correct treatment should be performed to avoid complications, such as permanent facial nerve dysfunction. Objective The objective of this study is to review the prognosis of the facial palsy on Ramsay Hunt syndrome, considering the different treatments proposed in the literature. Data Synthesis We read the abstract of 78 studies; we selected 31 studies and read them in full. We selected 19 studies for appraisal. Among the 882 selected patients, 621 (70.4%) achieved a House-Brackmann score of I or II; 68% of the patients treated only with steroids achieved HB I or II, versus 70.5% when treated with steroids plus antiviral agents. Among patients with complete facial palsy (grades V or VI), 51.4% recovered to grades I or II. The rate of complete recovery varied considering the steroid associated with acyclovir: 81.3% for methylprednisolone, 69.2% for prednisone; 61.4% for prednisolone; and 76.3% for hydrocortisone. Conclusions Patients with Ramsay-hunt syndrome, when early diagnosed and treated, achieve high rates of complete recovery. The association of steroids and acyclovir is better than steroids used in monotherapy.
Lamivudine resistance in patients with chronic hepatitis B: Role of clinical and virological factors

Background: Lamivudine resistance is associated with long‐term monotherapy for chronic hepatitis B and can lead to potentially serious clinical consequences. Scant information exists regarding the influence of hepatitis B virus variants in the development of resistance. The present study was designed to identify factors predictive of lamivudine resistance, with a particular focus on the role of precore and basal core promoter variants in the setting of hepatitis B e antigen‐negative disease.
Application of inverse modeling to geothermal reservoir simulation

The authors have developed inverse modeling capabilities for the non-isothermal, multiphase, multicomponent numerical simulator TOUGH2 to facilitate automatic history matching and parameter estimation based on data obtained during testing and exploitation of geothermal fields.The ITOUGH2 code allows one to estimate TOUGH2 input parameters based on any type of observation for which a corresponding simulation output can be calculated. Furthermore, a detailed residual and error analysis is performed, and the uncertainty of model predictions can be evaluated. Automatic history matching using ITOUGH2 is robust and efficient so that model parameters affecting geothermal field performance can reliably be estimated based on a variety of field measurements such as pressures, temperatures, flow rates, and enthalpies. The paper describes the methodology of inverse modeling and provides a detailed discussion of sample problems to demonstrate the application of the method to data from geothermal reservoirs.
Eye Movements during Auditory Attention Predict Individual Differences in Dorsal Attention Network Activity

The neural mechanisms supporting auditory attention are not fully understood. A dorsal frontoparietal network of brain regions is thought to mediate the spatial orienting of attention across all sensory modalities. Key parts of this network, the frontal eye fields (FEF) and the superior parietal lobes (SPL), contain retinotopic maps and elicit saccades when stimulated. This suggests that their recruitment during auditory attention might reflect crossmodal oculomotor processes; however this has not been confirmed experimentally. Here we investigate whether task-evoked eye movements during an auditory task can predict the magnitude of activity within the dorsal frontoparietal network. A spatial and non-spatial listening task was used with on-line eye-tracking and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). No visual stimuli or cues were used. The auditory task elicited systematic eye movements, with saccade rate and gaze position predicting attentional engagement and the cued sound location, respectively. Activity associated with these separate aspects of evoked eye-movements dissociated between the SPL and FEF. However these observed eye movements could not account for all the activation in the frontoparietal network. Our results suggest that the recruitment of the SPL and FEF during attentive listening reflects, at least partly, overt crossmodal oculomotor processes during non-visual attention. Further work is needed to establish whether the network’s remaining contribution to auditory attention is through covert crossmodal processes, or is directly involved in the manipulation of auditory information.
Changes in body weight, glucose homeostasis, lipid profiles, and metabolic syndrome after restrictive bariatric surgery.

OBJECTIVE Bariatric surgery is an established therapy for morbid obesity. We evaluated the effects of sleeve-gastrectomy on weight, glucose and lipid metabolism and prevalence of metabolic-syndrome for up to 2 years. METHODS In 52 morbidly obese patients weight, BMI, total-cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, Lipoprotein(a), glucose, HbA1c, insulin, and criteria defining the metabolic-syndrome were determined preoperatively and 6 (n=52), 12 (n=41) and 24 (n=5) months after surgery. RESULTS BMI decreased from 51±8 kg/m² to 40±7, 39±8, and 38±9 kg/m² at 6, 12, and 24 months postoperatively. Glucose and HbA1c changed from 116±44 to 93±21 and 94±18 mg/dl and 6.0±1.3 to 5.4±0.8 and 5.4±0.8% at 6 and 12 months postoperatively. Triglycerides decreased from 159±87 to 116±41 and 116±62 mg/dl, while HDL--cholesterol increased from 46±12 to 50±12 and 56±13 mg/dl at 6 and 12 months. None of the changes correlated with changes in weight. Prevalence of metabolic syndrome decreased from 81% to 36% and 34% at 6 and 12 months, with individual criteria (central obesity, triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol, hypertension, and fasting glucose) being reduced by 8/12%, 31/28%, 12/37%, 27/30%, and 38/31% at 6/12 months, respectively. The decrease in triglycerides and HbA1c was more pronounced in hypertriglyceridemic patients compared to normo-triglyceridemic patients, while there was no significant difference between diabetic and non-diabetic patients. CONCLUSIONS This is the first study evaluating sleeve-gastrectomy in German patients. Our data indicate that sleeve-gastrectomy induces a similar metabolic improvement as malabsorptive surgery. Although metabolic improvement did not correlate with weight reduction, improvement almost exclusively occurred within the first 6 months, when significant weight reduction occurred. It is unclear whether this relates to the operative techniques or to the selection of patients.
Nonlinear Interaction in the Digital Waveguide With the Application to Piano Sound Synthesis

The paper discusses a crucial part of the piano model, the hammer model – digital waveguide interaction. The discontinuity problem arising when feeding the interaction force into the digital waveguide is investigated, and a solution for its avoidance is proposed. The stability problem of the hammer model is overcome by a novel multi-rate implementation.