Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Temporal frequency and velocity-like tuning in the pigeon accessory optic system.

Neurons in the accessory optic system (AOS) and pretectum are involved in the analysis of optic flow and the generation of the optokinetic response. Previous studies found that neurons in the pretectum and AOS exhibit direction selectivity in response to large-field motion and are tuned in the spatiotemporal domain. Furthermore, it has been emphasized that pretectal and AOS neurons are tuned to a particular temporal frequency, consistent with the "correlation" model of motion detection. We examined the responses of neurons in the nucleus of the basal optic root (nBOR) of the AOS in pigeons to large-field drifting sine wave gratings of varying spatial (SF) and temporal frequencies (TF). nBOR neurons clustered into two categories: "Fast" neurons preferred low SFs and high TFs, and "Slow" neurons preferred high SFs and low TFs. The fast neurons were tuned for TF, but the slow nBOR neurons had spatiotemporally oriented peaks that suggested velocity tuning (TF/SF). However, the peak response was not independent of SF; thus we refer to the tuning as "apparent velocity tuning" or "velocity-like tuning. " Some neurons showed peaks in both the fast and slow regions. These neurons were TF-tuned at low SFs, and showed velocity-like tuning at high SFs. We used computer simulations of the response of an elaborated Reichardt detector to show that both the TF-tuning and velocity-like tuning shown by the fast and slow neurons, respectively, may be explained by modified versions of the correlation model of motion detection.
Advances in Nanotechnology and Microfluidics for Human Papillomavirus Diagnostics

Human papillomavirus (HPV) has been shown in many studies as a prerequisite for the development of cervical cancer, which is the second most common and predominant form of malignancy among women worldwide, with 270 000 deaths (80% of whom live in developing countries) and 500 000 new cases per year. Early diagnosis of cervical cancer allows patients to be fully treated. Therefore, there is high clinical utility of HPV diagnostics even with binary positive/negative indication of the presence of HPV in patient samples. Although the Pap smear is widely used for cervical cancer screening, this method still suffers from low sensitivity and specificity. Thus, simple, rapid and inexpensive diagnostic methods are needed to detect the etiology of cervical cancer, i.e., HPV, especially high-risk oncogenic subtypes 16 and 18. Here, we review the existing assays and platforms employed for HPV diagnosis, and highlight recent advances in nanotechnology and microfluidics that potentially enable new approaches for HPV diagnosis.
A structural explanation for the low effectiveness of the seasonal influenza H3N2 vaccine

The effectiveness of the annual influenza vaccine has declined in recent years, especially for the H3N2 component, and is a concern for global public health. A major cause for this lack in effectiveness has been attributed to the egg-based vaccine production process. Substitutions on the hemagglutinin glycoprotein (HA) often arise during virus passaging that change its antigenicity and hence vaccine effectiveness. Here, we characterize the effect of a prevalent substitution, L194P, in egg-passaged H3N2 viruses. X-ray structural analysis reveals that this substitution surprisingly increases the mobility of the 190-helix and neighboring regions in antigenic site B, which forms one side of the receptor binding site (RBS) and is immunodominant in recent human H3N2 viruses. Importantly, the L194P substitution decreases binding and neutralization by an RBS-targeted broadly neutralizing antibody by three orders of magnitude and significantly changes the HA antigenicity as measured by binding of human serum antibodies. The receptor binding mode and specificity are also altered to adapt to avian receptors during egg passaging. Overall, these findings help explain the low effectiveness of the seasonal vaccine against H3N2 viruses, and suggest that alternative approaches should be accelerated for producing influenza vaccines as well as isolating clinical isolates.
Sleep and somatic complaints in university students

Background Sleep problems are common among university students. Poor sleep is associated with impaired daily functioning, increased risk of psychiatric symptoms, and somatic complaints such as pain. Previous results suggest that poor sleep exacerbates pain, which in turn negatively affects sleep. The purpose of the present study was to determine prevalence rates, comorbidity, and role of depression as a factor of moderating the relationship between sleep and physical complaints in German university students. Samples and methods In total, 2443 German university students (65% women) completed a web survey. Self-report measures included the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index, three modules of the Patient Health Questionnaire, and a questionnaire on the functional somatic syndromes (FSSs). Results More than one-third (36.9%) reported poor sleep as assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Somatoform syndrome was identified in 23.5%, and the prevalence of any FSS was 12.8%. Self-reported sleep quality, sleep onset latency, sleep disturbances, use of sleep medications, and daytime dysfunctioning were significant predictors of somatoform syndrome, whereas sleep efficiency and sleep duration influenced somatic complaints indirectly. Moderate correlations were found between stress, anxiety, somatoform syndrome, depression, and overall sleep quality. The effect of somatic complaints on sleep quality was associated with the severity of depression. Anxiety shows direct effects on somatization and depression but only indirect associations with sleep quality.
Sexual orientation and first-year college students' nonmedical use of prescription drugs

ABSTRACT Objective: To examine differences between heterosexual and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning students' nonmedical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD). Participants: First-year university students between October 2009 and October 2013 who self-identified as heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning. Methods: Students completed questionnaires on demographic variables and NMUPD. Any NMUPD was examined, as were stimulants, anxiolytics, and painkillers. Hierarchical regression was used to examine differential NMUPD based on sexual orientation, gender, and race. Results: For any NMUPD and painkillers, bisexual and questioning students reported higher rates of nonmedical use than heterosexual students and gay men. When compared with heterosexual females, lesbian, bisexual, and questioning females reported higher any NMUPD and nonmedical painkiller use. For stimulants and anxiolytics, bisexual students reported the highest nonmedical use, followed by gay and lesbian students. Conclusions: There may be particular risk for NMUPD associated with membership in marginalized groups in terms of both sexual orientation and gender.
Distinguishing Community Benefits: Tax Exemption Versus Organizational Legitimacy

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY US policymakers continue to call into question the tax‐exempt status of hospitals. As nonprofit tax‐exempt entities, hospitals are required by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to report the type and cost of community benefits they provide. Institutional theory indicates that organizations derive organizational legitimacy from conforming to the expectations of their environment. Expectations from the state and federal regulators (the IRS, state and local taxing authorities in particular) and the community require hospitals to provide community benefits to achieve legitimacy. This article examines community benefit through an institutional theory framework, which includes regulative (laws and regulation), normative (certification and accreditation), and cultural‐cognitive (relationship with the community including the provision of community benefits) pillars. Considering a review of the results of a 2006 IRS study of tax‐exempt hospitals, the authors propose a model of hospital community benefit behaviors that distinguishes community benefits between cost‐quantifiable activities appropriate for justifying tax exemption and unquantifiable activities that only contribute to hospitals' legitimacy.
Weathering the storm: nurses' satisfaction with a mobile admission nurse service.

AIM To evaluate nurses' satisfaction with, and perceptions of, a practice innovation introducing a Mobile Admission Nurse service. BACKGROUND Staff nurses identified that the admission process, while crucial to initiating safe and appropriate acute care, can be disruptive and interfere with care in progress. A pilot project implementing the role of a Mobile Admission Nurse was introduced to address this need. METHOD A self-developed web-based survey was administered to a convenience sample of 104 RNs who had used the services during the pilot project. RESULTS Staff nurses (n = 78) reported a chaotic, demanding work environment within which the admission process disrupts the flow of care. The Mobile Admission Nurse helped them in 'weathering the storm', which was the overarching theme that emerged during data analysis. CONCLUSIONS Having an admission nurse complete the admission process steadied workflow processes for nurses. Improved patient safety and increased staff and family satisfaction were also reported. The strongly positive feedback led to expansion of the service. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT Proactively redesigning work processes, using a structured theoretical model such as the (Plan-Do-Study-Act) PDSA approach, may improve outcomes in a chaotic practice environment.
At Limits of Life: Multidisciplinary Insights Reveal Environmental Constraints on Biotic Diversity in Continental Antarctica

Multitrophic communities that maintain the functionality of the extreme Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems, while the simplest of any natural community, are still challenging our knowledge about the limits to life on earth. In this study, we describe and interpret the linkage between the diversity of different trophic level communities to the geological morphology and soil geochemistry in the remote Transantarctic Mountains (Darwin Mountains, 80°S). We examined the distribution and diversity of biota (bacteria, cyanobacteria, lichens, algae, invertebrates) with respect to elevation, age of glacial drift sheets, and soil physicochemistry. Results showed an abiotic spatial gradient with respect to the diversity of the organisms across different trophic levels. More complex communities, in terms of trophic level diversity, were related to the weakly developed younger drifts (Hatherton and Britannia) with higher soil C/N ratio and lower total soluble salts content (thus lower conductivity). Our results indicate that an increase of ion concentration from younger to older drift regions drives a succession of complex to more simple communities, in terms of number of trophic levels and diversity within each group of organisms analysed. This study revealed that integrating diversity across multi-trophic levels of biotic communities with abiotic spatial heterogeneity and geological history is fundamental to understand environmental constraints influencing biological distribution in Antarctic soil ecosystems.
Topology identification in smart grid with limited measurements via convex optimization

With the growing penetration of renewable and demand response programs which lead to frequent flow reversals and substation reconfigurations, correct identification of the topology becomes an imperative task in future power grid management. However, due to low measurement redundancy especially on distribution networks, the aforementioned task is inevitably challenging. In this paper, we are thus motivated to propose a maximum a posterior based mechanism, which is capable of embedding prior information on the breaker status, to enhance the identification accuracy. Building upon semidefinite programming, our goal is converted to solving a relaxed convex optimization problem. Within the optimization problem, the sparsity in prior knowledge is also promoted using compressed sensing technique to further alleviate the effect of insufficient measurements. Numerical tests on the IEEE 14-bus model corroborate the effectiveness of our proposed scheme.
Stability Region of Opportunistic Scheduling in Wireless Networks

The stability regions of two opportunistic scheduling policies, i.e., utility-based (UB) scheduling and the channel-rate-based (CRB) scheduling, in wireless networks are discussed, respectively. UB scheduling is a generalized proportional fair scheduling in an unsaturated system, and CRB scheduling is a variant of the UB scheduling. We give the closed-form expression of the stability region of CRB scheduling and a numerical method to obtain the stability region of UB scheduling. Both two scheduling policies are not throughput optimal, and thus, in general, their stability regions are less than the ergodic capacity region. With CRB scheduling, the stability region is a convex hull, whereas with UB scheduling, the stability region is generally even nonconvex and may exhibit some undesirable properties such as decreasing the traffic of one flow leading another flow being unstable and proportionally decreasing the traffic of all flows leading a stable system to be unstable. We further show that, as long as the arrival rate lies inside the ergodic capacity region, we can assign a proper weight to each user, and based on the weighted UB/CRB scheduling policies, the system can be stabilized. Detailed numerical examples and simulations are given to illustrate the stability region of the two policies and validate our analysis.
Divergent anomaly in mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic circuits might be associated with different depressive behaviors, an animal study

The mesocorticolimbic dopamine system, which originates from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and projects primarily to the prefrontal cortex (PFC), olfactory tubercle (OT), nucleus accumbens (NAc), dorsal striatum (ST), and the amygdala (AMy), plays a pivotal role in determining individual motivation and sensitivity to rewards, namely, anhedonia. Not all depressive individuals exhibited anhedonia, thus, it is natural to speculate that the heterogenous manifestations of depression might be related to the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system. Maternal deprivation (MD) and chronic unpredictable stress (CUPS) are two well‐established depressogenic stressors, and they were proven to induce different depressive phenotypes.
Charles River Sprague Dawley Rats Lack Early Age-Dependent Susceptibility to DMBA-Induced Mammary Carcinogenesis

Developmental stages of mammary glands influence their susceptibility to initiating events related to carcinogenesis. The “window of susceptibility” to mammary carcinogenesis is classically defined as the time in early puberty when the mammary gland morphology is most sensitive to initiation events. Administration of the polyaromatic hydrocarbon, 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA), in a single oral dose yields maximal mammary tumor formation when administered in this “window”. We examined the DMBA treated mammary glands, precursor lesions, and morphology of the uninvolved mammary epithelium for the first 100 days of life for Charles River Sprague Dawley CDR IGS. Our goal was to determine the DMBA dose at which 50% of the rats (IC50) developed carcinoma in situ (CIS) within three months of dosing. Here we demonstrate, rather than the classical U-shaped dose curve in which there is maximum sensitivity for DMBA at 50 days, there is an increasing degree of sensitivity with age in the CDR IGS rat. Additionally, we report that vehicle-treated animals developed mammary CIS without any known initiator, and 100 day virgin animals demonstrated lactational changes, independent of DMBA exposure or dose. Lastly, we demonstrate this strain of virgin female rats has elevated pituitary prolactin immunoreactivity independent of the level of mammary differentiation. We conclude this strain of Charles River Sprague Dawley rats has prolactin-induced pituitary stimulation, and therefore, the window of susceptibility for mammary tumorigenesis is absent.
Proapoptotic ability of oncogenic H-Ras to facilitate apoptosis induced by histone deacetylase inhibitors in human cancer cells

More than 35% of human urinary bladder cancers involve oncogenic H-Ras activation. In addition to tumorigenic ability, oncogenic H-Ras possesses a novel proapoptotic ability to facilitate the induction of apoptosis by histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACI). HDACIs are a new class of anticancer agents and are highly cytotoxic to transformed cells. To understand the connection between the selectivity of HDACIs on transformed cells and the proapoptotic ability of oncogenic H-Ras to facilitate HDACI-induced apoptosis, we introduced oncogenic H-Ras into urinary bladder J82 cancer cells to mimic an acquisition of the H-ras gene activation in tumor development. Expression of oncogenic H-Ras promoted J82 cells to acquire tumorigenic ability. Meanwhile, oncogenic H-Ras increased susceptibility of J82 cells to HDACIs, including FR901228 and trichostatin A, for inducing apoptosis. The caspase pathways, the B-Raf and extracellular signal-regulated kinase pathway, p21Cip1 and p27Kip1, and core histone contents are regulated differently by FR901228 in oncogenic H-Ras–expressed J82 cells than their counterparts in parental J82 cells, contributing to the increased susceptibility to the induction of selective apoptosis. Our results lead us to a suggestion that HDACIs activate the proapoptotic ability of oncogenic H-Ras, indicating a potential therapeutic value of this new class of anticancer agents in the control of human urinary bladder cancer that has progressed to acquire oncogenic H-Ras. [Mol Cancer Ther 2007;6(3):1099–111]
A Spectrum of Hypereosinophilic Syndromes Exemplified by Six Cats with Eosinophilic Enteritis

Of six cats with eosinophilic enteritis, two had lesions confined to the intestinal tract, and four had varied disseminated eosinophilic infiltration of other organs. The lesions in these cats are similar to those of the hypereosinophilic syndrome in man. A feline hypereosinophilic syndrome is proposed, consisting of eosinophilic enteritis, disseminated eosinophilic disease, and eosinophilic leukemia.
WYSWYE: shoulder surfing defense for recognition based graphical passwords

Recognition based graphical passwords are inherently vulnerable to shoulder surfing attacks because of their visual mode of interaction. In this paper, we propose and evaluate two novel shoulder-surfing defense techniques for recognition based graphical passwords. These techniques are based on WYSWYE (Where You See is What You Enter) strategy, where the user identifies a pattern of password images within a presented grid of images and replicates it onto another grid. We conducted controlled laboratory experiments to evaluate the usability and security of the proposed techniques. Both the schemes had high login success rates with no failures in authentication. More than seventy percent of participants successfully logged on to the system in their first attempt in both the schemes. The participants were satisfied with the schemes and were willing to use it in public places. In addition, both the schemes were significantly secure against shoulder surfing than normal unprotected recognition based graphical passwords. The login efficiency improved with practice in one of the proposed scheme. We believe, WYSWYE strategy has considerable potential and can easily be extended to other types of authentication systems such as text passwords and PINS.
The Effect of Platform Switching on Periimplant Crevicular Fluid Content During Early Wound Healing

Purpose:The objective of this study was to investigate the soft tissue response and periimplant crevicular fluid (PICF) content around platform-switched (PS) and platform-matched (PM) implants during early healing. Materials and Methods:Nonsmokers treatment planned to receive a single implant in 2 quadrants were recruited. Two-stage implant placement protocol with 1 PM and 1 PS implant was implemented. Periimplant probing depths (PDs), modified sulcus bleeding index, and plaque indices were recorded, and PICF was collected at 1, 2, 4, and 6 weeks after abutment connection. Results:PD readings were higher at week 1 than at week 6 for both groups (P = 0.0005). PD was statistically deeper in PM than in PS at week 1 (P = 0.03). There was a time-dependent decrease in total PICF volume for both groups. This decrease was statistically significant for PS (P = 0.0005), with no differences between the 2 groups at any time (P > 0.05). The decrease observed in both PM and PS for PICF interleukin 6 and macrophage inflammatory protein-1&bgr;, and in PS for tumor necrosis factor-&agr; (TNF-&agr;) was statistically significant (P ⩽ 0.03). TNF-&agr; was statistically higher in PS than in PM at week 1 (P = 0.005). Conclusion:Within the limits of this study, it seems that periimplant soft tissue response around PM and PS implants is mostly similar during the early healing period.
Semantic Wavelet-Induced Frequency-Tagging (SWIFT) Periodically Activates Category Selective Areas While Steadily Activating Early Visual Areas

Primate visual systems process natural images in a hierarchical manner: at the early stage, neurons are tuned to local image features, while neurons in high-level areas are tuned to abstract object categories. Standard models of visual processing assume that the transition of tuning from image features to object categories emerges gradually along the visual hierarchy. Direct tests of such models remain difficult due to confounding alteration in low-level image properties when contrasting distinct object categories. When such contrast is performed in a classic functional localizer method, the desired activation in high-level visual areas is typically accompanied with activation in early visual areas. Here we used a novel image-modulation method called SWIFT (semantic wavelet-induced frequency-tagging), a variant of frequency-tagging techniques. Natural images modulated by SWIFT reveal object semantics periodically while keeping low-level properties constant. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we indeed found that faces and scenes modulated with SWIFT periodically activated the prototypical category-selective areas while they elicited sustained and constant responses in early visual areas. SWIFT and the localizer were selective and specific to a similar extent in activating category-selective areas. Only SWIFT progressively activated the visual pathway from low- to high-level areas, consistent with predictions from standard hierarchical models. We confirmed these results with criterion-free methods, generalizing the validity of our approach and show that it is possible to dissociate neural activation in early and category-selective areas. Our results provide direct evidence for the hierarchical nature of the representation of visual objects along the visual stream and open up future applications of frequency-tagging methods in fMRI.
Analysis of the T Cell Receptor Variability of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes in Colorectal Carcinomas

While there is good clinical and experimental evidence for immunological tumor control in some tumors – malignant melanomas, for instance – the immunogenicity of colorectal carcinoma (CRC) still remains unsettled. We examined surgical specimens from 4 CRC patients for T cell clones among tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL). The growth of specific lymphocyte clones in a tumor indicates an immunological response in vivo. We used a T cell receptor Vβ family-specific semiquantitative PCR with additional sequencing to examine TIL for clonal expansion. In CRC, specific T cell clones could not be demonstrated. However, we observed a predominance of Vβ9 in 3 of 4 tumors.