Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Web Camera Based Eye Tracking to Assess Visual Memory on a Visual Paired Comparison Task

Background: Web cameras are increasingly part of the standard hardware of most smart devices. Eye movements can often provide a noninvasive “window on the brain,” and the recording of eye movements using web cameras is a burgeoning area of research. Objective: This study investigated a novel methodology for administering a visual paired comparison (VPC) decisional task using a web camera.To further assess this method, we examined the correlation between a standard eye-tracking camera automated scoring procedure [obtaining images at 60 frames per second (FPS)] and a manually scored procedure using a built-in laptop web camera (obtaining images at 3 FPS). Methods: This was an observational study of 54 clinically normal older adults.Subjects completed three in-clinic visits with simultaneous recording of eye movements on a VPC decision task by a standard eye tracker camera and a built-in laptop-based web camera. Inter-rater reliability was analyzed using Siegel and Castellan's kappa formula. Pearson correlations were used to investigate the correlation between VPC performance using a standard eye tracker camera and a built-in web camera. Results: Strong associations were observed on VPC mean novelty preference score between the 60 FPS eye tracker and 3 FPS built-in web camera at each of the three visits (r = 0.88–0.92). Inter-rater agreement of web camera scoring at each time point was high (κ = 0.81–0.88). There were strong relationships on VPC mean novelty preference score between 10, 5, and 3 FPS training sets (r = 0.88–0.94). Significantly fewer data quality issues were encountered using the built-in web camera. Conclusions: Human scoring of a VPC decisional task using a built-in laptop web camera correlated strongly with automated scoring of the same task using a standard high frame rate eye tracker camera.While this method is not suitable for eye tracking paradigms requiring the collection and analysis of fine-grained metrics, such as fixation points, built-in web cameras are a standard feature of most smart devices (e.g., laptops, tablets, smart phones) and can be effectively employed to track eye movements on decisional tasks with high accuracy and minimal cost.
Incidence and prognosis of synchronous and metachronous bilateral breast cancer.

PURPOSE Because the incidence of breast cancer is increasing and prognosis is improving, a growing number of women are at risk of developing bilateral disease. Little is known, however, about incidence trends and prognostic features of bilateral breast cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS Among 123,757 women with a primary breast cancer diagnosed in Sweden from 1970 to 2000, a total of 6,550 developed bilateral breast cancer. We separated synchronous (diagnosed within 3 months after a first breast cancer) and metachronous bilateral cancer, and analyzed incidence and mortality rates of breast cancer using Poisson regression models. RESULTS The incidence of synchronous breast cancer increased by age and by 40% during the 1970s, whereas the incidence of metachronous cancer decreased by age and by approximately 30% since the early 1980s, most likely due to increasing use of adjuvant therapy. Women who developed bilateral cancer within 5 years and at age younger than 50 years were 3.9 times (95% CI, 3.5 to 4.5) more likely to die as a result of breast cancer than women with unilateral cancer. Women with a bilateral cancer diagnosed more than 10 years after the first cancer had a prognosis similar to that of a unilateral breast cancer. Adjuvant chemotherapy of primary cancer is a predictor of poor survival after diagnosis of early metachronous cancers. CONCLUSION We found profound differences in the incidence trends and prognostic outlook between synchronous and metachronous bilateral breast cancer diagnosed at different ages. Adjuvant chemotherapy therapy has a dual effect on metachronous cancer: it reduces the risk, while at the same time it seems to worsen the prognosis.
Autonomic Abnormalities in Children With Functional Abdominal Pain: Coincidence or Etiology?

Background There is increasing evidence that autonomic neuropathies may adversely affect gastrointestinal motility by involving the extrinsic nerves of the gut. The authors' hypothesize that functional abdominal pain in children is associated with generalized autonomic dysfunction. Methods The authors performed detailed autonomic testing in eight patients with functional abdominal pain, including deep breathing, Valsalva, tilting (to assess parasympathetic and sympathetic adrenergic function), and axon-reflex function and thermoregulatory sweat testing to assess sympathetic cholinergic function. Patients also completed a questionnaire regarding other autonomic symptoms. Results Results of autonomic testing were abnormal in seven patients. Parasympathetic function was normal in all, and the abnormalities were restricted to sympathetic cardiac, vasomotor, and sudomotor function. Abnormal results of axon-reflex testing in six were consistent with peripheral nervous system dysfunction. Five had decreased sweating over the abdomen, determined by thermoregulatory sweat testing. Five eight had nongastrointestinal autonomic symptoms, primarily palpitations and flushing. Conclusions Functional abdominal pain in the current patients is associated with generalized dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. This dysfunction can be peripheral or central in different individuals but seems to be restricted to the sympathetic branch. The known function of the sympathetic nervous system as the motility “brake” suggests that pain could be a manifestation of unmodulated peristalsis, resulting in abdominal cramps.
Optimizing Energy-Latency Trade-off with Mobile Elements in Wireless Sensor Networks

Recent research shows that significant energy can be saved in wireless sensor networks by using mobile elements (MEs) capable of carrying data mechanically. Though the use of MEs can reduce the energy consumption at each sensor node, it increases the latency of data transfer from a source node to the base station. To address this issue, we propose a collection-based approach in which a subset of nodes serves as data collection points (CPs) that buffer data originated from sources and transfer data to MEs when they arrive. This will shorten the trajectory of MEs, but will also increase energy consumption of network nodes. There is a trade-off between energy consumption and data delivery latency. In this paper, we introduce a Probabilistic Path Selection (PPS) algorithm to reduce the data collection delay for stochastic event detection scenario. Furthermore, we develop a heuristic algorithm and apply it to situations where CPs are used to enable a flexible trade-off between energy consumption and data delivery latency.
Back propagation through adjoints for the identification of nonlinear dynamic systems using recurrent neural models

In this paper, back propagation is reinvestigated for an efficient evaluation of the gradient in arbitrary interconnections of recurrent subsystems. It is shown that the error has to be back-propagated through the adjoint model of the system and that the gradient can only be obtained after a delay. A faster version, accelerated back propagation, that eliminates this delay, is also developed. Various schemes including the sensitivity method are studied to update the weights of the network using these gradients. Motivated by the Lyapunov approach and the adjoint model, the predictive back propagation and its variant, targeted back propagation, are proposed. A further refinement, predictive back propagation with filtering is then developed, where the states of the model are also updated. The convergence of this scheme is assured. It is shown that it is sufficient to back propagate as many time steps as the order of the system for convergence. As a preamble, convergence of online batch and sample-wise updates in feedforward models is analyzed using the Lyapunov approach.
The Total Interval Number of a Graph II: Trees and Complexity

A multiple-interval representation of a simple graph $G$ assigns each vertex a union of disjoint real intervals so that vertices are adjacent if and only if their assigned sets intersect. The total interval number $I(G)$ is the minimum of the total number of intervals used in such a representation of $G$. For triangle-free graphs, $I(G)=\C{E(G)}+t(G)$, where $t(G)$ is the minimum number of pairwise edge-disjoint trails that together contain an endpoint of each edge. This yields the NP-completeness of testing $I(G)=\C{E(G)}+1$ (even for triangle-free 3-regular planar graphs) and an alternative proof that HAMILTONIAN CYCLE is NP-complete for line graphs. It also yields a linear-time algorithm to compute $I(G)$ for trees and a characterization of the trees requiring $\C{E(G)}+t$ intervals for fixed $t$. Further corollaries include the Aigner--Andreae bound of $I(G)\le\FL{(5n-3)/4}$ for $n$-vertex trees (achieved by subdividing every edge of a star), a characterization of the extremal trees, and a shorter proof of the extremal bound $\lfloor(5m+2)/4\rfloor$ for connected graphs.
Update on Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Mutations in Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer

In 2004, several investigators reported that somatic mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor gene were associated with clinical responses to erlotinib and gefitinib in patients with non–small cell lung cancer. Since then, multiple groups have examined the biological properties that such mutations confer as well as the clinical relevance of these mutations in patients with non–small cell lung cancer. Although a tremendous amount of knowledge has been gained in the past 2 years, there remain a number of important epidemiologic, biological, and clinical questions.
Amphibian species richness across environmental gradients

Large-scale field patterns are a fundamental source of inferences on processes responsible for variation in species richness among habitats. We examined species richness of larval amphibian communities in 37 ponds over seven years on the Univ. of Michigan’s E. S. George Reserve. Ordination of the community incidence matrix indicated a strong major axis of variation in species associations that was correlated with pond hydroperiod, surface area and forest canopy cover. Communities were significantly nested with those species found in ponds with high canopy cover, small area and short hydroperiod being nested subsets of those found in ponds with contrasting characteristics. Presence of fish had strong negative effects on species richness; relaxation of this effect also was apparent when fish were extirpated from ponds by drought. We employed a model selection analysis to identify the most appropriate statistical model for predicting the long-term average species richness of these ponds from local abiotic and biotic (predator and competitor density) factors. A model including only the abiotic factors was overwhelmingly superior for the anurans; hierarchical partitioning indicated that area and canopy cover alone accounted for over 70% of the independent effects of predictor variables. The global model including both abiotic and biotic factors was the best supported model for the caudates, and correspondingly hierarchical partitioning suggested that area, hydroperiod, invertebrate predators and caudate biomass all accounted for 9 � 16% of the independent effects. Overall, biotic factors accounted for much less of the variation in species richness than abiotic factors. The patterns in larger, open-canopy ponds provided little evidence of competitive effects on species richness, though there were patterns consistent with competitive effects in small, closed-canopy ponds. The unusual temporal and spatial extent of these data enabled us to critically evaluate ideas regarding patterns in larval amphibian communities, and the effects of area, disturbance (hydroperiod) and productivity (canopy cover) on species richness of these communities. These results have important implications to the conservation of amphibian species richness in freshwater wetlands, which are among the most threatened ecosystems worldwide. Understanding processes responsible for variation in species richness among habitats is a fundamental goal of ecology, and large-scale field patterns are a fertile source for hypotheses concerning these processes. Such pattern analysis has a venerable history in ecology, in particular analyses of the distributions of both individual taxa and species richness along environmental gradients. These
Outcomes and Failure Factors in Surgical Treatment for Osteochondritis Dissecans of the Capitellum

Background: Osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) of the capitellum is an intra-articular lesion and one of the leading causes of permanent elbow disability. The treatment of advanced capitellar OCD remains challenging because of the limited potential of the articular cartilage for self-repair. The purpose of this study was to investigate the outcome of surgical treatment for OCD of the capitellum. Methods: From 2000 to 2010, 32 male patients who had advanced lesions of capitellar OCD were treated operatively. The mean age of the patients was 14.4 years at the time of surgery. Twenty-nine patients played baseball and 3 played other sports. The lesions were of the centralized type in 9 patients, the lateral type in 4 patients, and the widespread type in 19 patients. For the surgical procedure, osteochondral peg fixation was selected for 13 patients and osteochondral autograft transplantation for 19 patients. Clinical outcome was measured with the elbow rating system including range of motion, and the number of patients who returned to active sports participation within 1 year after surgery was determined. Results: The mean total arc of elbow motion increased from 123±17 degrees preoperatively to 132±14 degrees postoperatively. The mean clinical score improved significantly from 133±24 to 177±27. Within the first year after surgery, 81.3% of the patients returned to active sports playing. However, 4 of 8 patients (50%) in which osteochondral peg fixation was performed for lesions of the lateral widespread type required reoperation. Conclusions: Our results indicate that osteochondral peg fixation and osteochondral autograft transplantation may improve elbow rating score, and may facilitate a return to active sports participation. However, osteochondral peg fixation may be insufficient for lesions of the widespread type because of their poor stability. The large lateral condyle lesions had a worse outcome, and future studies will need to develop improved treatment for these defects. Level of Evidence: Level IV (case series).
Nut traits and nutritional composition of hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) as influenced by zinc fertilization.

BACKGROUND Zinc is an essential element for plants and its deficiency is a widespread problem throughout the world, causing decreased yields and nutritional quality. In this study the effect of zinc fertilization on some nut traits and the nutritional composition of 'Tombul' hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) variety cultivated in the Black Sea region of Turkey was investigated and the contribution of this nut to human nutrition determined. Trials were carried out at 'Tombul' hazelnut orchards, and zinc fertilizers were applied at 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8 and 1.6 kg Zn ha(-1) in three consecutive years. RESULTS Significant differences in some nut traits and mineral composition (protein, total oil, ash, kernel percentage, empty and wrinkled nuts, copper, boron, manganese and molybdenum) were observed with zinc fertilizer applications. In terms of daily nutritional element requirements, 100 g of hazelnut provided about 44.74% phosphorus, 13.39% potassium, 19.32% calcium, 37.49% magnesium, 0.19% sodium, 51.63% iron, 25.73% zinc and 14.05% boron of the recommended daily amounts (RDAs), while copper, manganese and molybdenum contents exceeded their RDAs. CONCLUSION In order to improve some nut traits and the mineral composition of hazelnut, 0.8 and 1.6 kg Zn ha(-1) fertilizations could be recommended in practice.
Hardness and elasticity of caries-affected and sound primary tooth dentin bonded with 4-META one-step self-etch adhesives.

PURPOSE To evaluate the quality of the interface of sound and carious primary tooth dentin bonded with two 4-META one-step self-etch adhesives. METHODS 12 sound and 12 carious primary molars were bonded with AQ Bond Plus (AQBP; Sun Medical) or Hybrid Bond (HB; Sun Medical) and restored with Clearfil Protect Liner F (Kuraray Medical Inc.). After 24 hours of water immersion, the teeth were sectioned and polished. Resin-dentin interfaces were measured with a nano-indentation tester and hardness and Young's modulus were calculated. Data were analyzed using one-way or two-way ANOVA and Fisher's PLSD test with alpha = 0.05. Resin-dentin interfaces were also observed with SEM and TEM. Ammoniacal silver nitrate was used as a tracer for TEM observation. RESULTS Hardness and Young's modulus of the interfacial dentin were significantly lower than the underlying intact dentin except for the carious-AQBP group. However, there was no significant difference of hardness and Young's moduli of the interfacial dentin among all groups. TEM revealed extensive interfacial nanoleakage in sound dentin bonded with either AQBP or HB. For the carious teeth, nanoleakage was absent in the hybrid layers bonded with the two adhesives. However, extensive silver deposits were identified from the subsurface, porous caries-affected dentin.
How to make a static cytokinetic furrow out of traveling excitable waves

ABSTRACT Emergence of the cytokinetic Rho zone that orchestrates formation and ingression of the cleavage furrow had been explained previously via microtubule-dependent cortical concentration of Ect2, a guanine nucleotide exchange factor for Rho. The results of a recent publication now demonstrate that, en route from resting cortex to fully established furrow, there lies a regime of cortical excitability in which Rho activity and F-actin play the roles of the prototypical activator and inhibitor, respectively. This cortical excitability is manifest as dramatic traveling waves on the cortex of oocytes and embryos of frogs and starfish. These waves are initiated by autocatalytic activation of Rho at the wave front and extinguished by F-actin-dependent inhibition at their back. It is still unclear how propagating excitable Rho-actin waves give rise to the stable co-existence of Rho activity and F-actin density in the static cleavage furrow during cytokinesis. It is possible that some central spindle-associated signaling molecule simply turns off the inhibition of Rho activity by F-actin. However, mathematical modeling suggests a distinct scenario in which local “re-wiring” of the Rho-actin coupling in the furrow is no longer necessary. Instead, the model predicts that the continuously rising level of Ect2 produces in the furrow a qualitatively new stable steady state that replaces excitability and brings about the stable co-existence of high Rho activity and dense F-actin despite the continuing inhibition of Rho by F-actin.
Wolbachia Symbiont Infections Induce Strong Cytoplasmic Incompatibility in the Tsetse Fly Glossina morsitans

Tsetse flies are vectors of the protozoan parasite African trypanosomes, which cause sleeping sickness disease in humans and nagana in livestock. Although there are no effective vaccines and efficacious drugs against this parasite, vector reduction methods have been successful in curbing the disease, especially for nagana. Potential vector control methods that do not involve use of chemicals is a genetic modification approach where flies engineered to be parasite resistant are allowed to replace their susceptible natural counterparts, and Sterile Insect technique (SIT) where males sterilized by chemical means are released to suppress female fecundity. The success of genetic modification approaches requires identification of strong drive systems to spread the desirable traits and the efficacy of SIT can be enhanced by identification of natural mating incompatibility. One such drive mechanism results from the cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) phenomenon induced by the symbiont Wolbachia. CI can also be used to induce natural mating incompatibility between release males and natural populations. Although Wolbachia infections have been reported in tsetse, it has been a challenge to understand their functional biology as attempts to cure tsetse of Wolbachia infections by antibiotic treatment damages the obligate mutualistic symbiont (Wigglesworthia), without which the flies are sterile. Here, we developed aposymbiotic (symbiont-free) and fertile tsetse lines by dietary provisioning of tetracycline supplemented blood meals with yeast extract, which rescues Wigglesworthia-induced sterility. Our results reveal that Wolbachia infections confer strong CI during embryogenesis in Wolbachia-free (GmmApo) females when mated with Wolbachia-infected (GmmWt) males. These results are the first demonstration of the biological significance of Wolbachia infections in tsetse. Furthermore, when incorporated into a mathematical model, our results confirm that Wolbachia can be used successfully as a gene driver. This lays the foundation for new disease control methods including a population replacement approach with parasite resistant flies. Alternatively, the availability of males that are reproductively incompatible with natural populations can enhance the efficacy of the ongoing sterile insect technique (SIT) applications by eliminating the need for chemical irradiation.
Feasibility of colonoscopy screening: discussion of issues and recommendations regarding implementation.

Background: Prediction of a technically difficult colonoscopy may influence patient selection and procedure scheduling. Identification of predictive factors may be difficult because a common endpoint used to evaluate the success of colonoscopy is intubation of the cecum, which is usually achieved. The goal of this study was to examine the feasibility of using an alternative measure, time required for cecal intubation, to identify factors that can impact performance of colonoscopy. Methods: The time required for cecal intubation was prospectively recorded for 802 consecutive outpatient colonoscopies performed by 7 experienced gastroenterologists. Patient data collected included height, weight, age, bowel habits, surgical history, and findings at colonoscopy. Forty-seven examinations that were stopped because of disease or unacceptable bowel preparation were excluded. The impact of the patient characteristics of the remaining sample of 755 patients on the median time required for cecal intubation for men and women was examined. Results: Older age and female gender, body mass index ≤25.0 (regardless of gender), diverticular disease in women, and a history of constipation or reported laxative use in men were predictors of difficult colonoscopy. Conclusions: By using median time required for cecal intubation, several patient characteristics were identified that may predict technical difficulty at colonoscopy. These findings have implications for practice and teaching.
A Derivative Estimation Toolbox based on Algebraic Methods - Theory and Practice

In this paper, the implementation and usage of a so-called Derivative Estimation Toolbox is demonstrated. By means of this toolbox, time derivatives of sampled, noisy time signals may be determined in realtime, all based on a recently presented algebraic derivative estimation method. The main contribution is a possible implementation on a prototyping control unit. The performance of the Derivative Estimation Toolbox is experimentally validated on a brake-testbench. In particular, the friction force and the drive torque are estimated in realtime.