Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A self report measure of affective lability

OBJECTIVES The development and validation of the Center for Neurologic Study- Lability Scale (CNS-LS), the first self report measure of affective lability in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). METHODS Potential questionnaire items were identified through interviews with patients and families and expert review. Potential items, as well as measures of affect intensity, affective lability in psychopathology, and depression were administered to 99 patients with ALS for item selection and the examination of factor structure and construct validity. Test-retest reliability was examined using an additional sample of 31 patients with ALS, and criterion related validity was examined by comparing CNS-LS scores with physicians’ diagnoses of affective lability in a sample of 77 patients with ALS. RESULTS A seven item questionnaire emerged, composed of two subscales measuring labile laughter (four items) and labile tearfulness (three items). The CNS-LS showed a pattern of associations with affect intensity, affective lability in psychopathology, and depression consistent with a scale measuring affective lability. The CNS-LS also showed good test-retest reliability and internal consistency, and successfully predicted physicians’ diagnoses of affective lability. An auxiliary subscale measuring labile frustration, anger, and impatience also emerged. CONCLUSIONS The CNS-LS is a short, easily administered, and psychometrically sound measure of affective lability for use with patients with ALS. It has potential applications as both a clinical screening device and a research tool. The need for future research into the relation of depression as well as labile frustration, anger, and impatience to the syndrome of affective lability in neurological disorders is discussed.
Records of the hermit crab genus Pagurixus Melin, 1939 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura: Paguridae) from Europa Island, Western Indian Ocean, with descriptions of two new species.

Three species of the pagurid hermit crab genus Pagurixus Melin, 1939, are reported from Europa Island in the Mozambique Strait, western Indian Ocean: P. haigae Komai & Osawa, 2007, P. annulus n. sp. , and P. europa n. sp. Pagurixus haigae is recorded from the western Indian Ocean for the first time. Pagurixus annulus n. sp. and P. europa n. sp. are referred to the P. boninensis (Melin, 1939) species group and P. anceps (Forest, 1954) group, respectively. Diagnostic characters of these two new species are discussed.
Temporal Convolutional Neural Networks for Diagnosis from Lab Tests

Early diagnosis of treatable diseases is essential for improving healthcare, and many diseases' onsets are predictable from annual lab tests and their temporal trends. We introduce a multi-resolution convolutional neural network for early detection of multiple diseases from irregularly measured sparse lab values. Our novel architecture takes as input both an imputed version of the data and a binary observation matrix. For imputing the temporal sparse observations, we develop a flexible, fast to train method for differentiable multivariate kernel regression. Our experiments on data from 298K individuals over 8 years, 18 common lab measurements, and 171 diseases show that the temporal signatures learned via convolution are significantly more predictive than baselines commonly used for early disease diagnosis.
Sharp Threshold for Multivariate Multi-Response Linear Regression via Block Regularized Lasso

In this paper, we investigate a multivariate multi-response (MVMR) linear regression problem, which contains multiple linear regression models with differently distributed design matrices, and different regression and output vectors. The goal is to recover the support union of all regression vectors using $l_1/l_2$-regularized Lasso. We characterize sufficient and necessary conditions on sample complexity \emph{as a sharp threshold} to guarantee successful recovery of the support union. Namely, if the sample size is above the threshold, then $l_1/l_2$-regularized Lasso correctly recovers the support union; and if the sample size is below the threshold, $l_1/l_2$-regularized Lasso fails to recover the support union. In particular, the threshold precisely captures the impact of the sparsity of regression vectors and the statistical properties of the design matrices on sample complexity. Therefore, the threshold function also captures the advantages of joint support union recovery using multi-task Lasso over individual support recovery using single-task Lasso.
Adult monolingual policy becomes children’s bilingual practice: code-alternation among children and staff in an English-medium preschool in Sweden

ABSTRACT Parents, teachers and institutions often attempt to implement monolingual policies in bilingual settings, believing that they thereby facilitate children’s bilingual development. Children, however, often have their own communicative agendas. In this study, we investigate how the twofold language policy of an English-medium preschool in Sweden is put into practice in everyday interaction. The results show that children (aged 3–4) develop a broader range of code alternation practices than the staff uses in their interaction with the children. The paper analyses several examples of spontaneous interaction either between staff and children, or among children playing with each other in the preschool. We show how the preschool’s English language profile in practice becomes a bilingual policy, which encourages children not only to acquire English and Swedish in the preschool, but also to learn different ways to manage their bilingualism in the school context.
Conformationally Flexible Biphenyl-phosphane Ligands for Ru-Catalyzed Enantioselective Hydrogenation.

Stereomutation of a BIPHEP/RuCl2 /diamine complex (shown schematically) is possible because of the conformational flexibilty of BIPHEP ligands. The result is an asymmetric activation in the Ru-catalyzed hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds to optically active alcohols. Whereas a racemic BINAP/RuCl2 complex with a chiral diamine activator gives a 1:1 mixture of two diastereomers, unequal amounts of the diastereomers can be produced from a BIPHEP/RuCl2 complex and a chiral diamine. Ar=3,5-dimethylphenyl, BINAP=2,2'-bis(diphenylphosphanyl)-1,1'-binaphthyl, BIPHEP=2,2'-bis(diarylphosphanyl)biphenyl.
High expression of interleukin-11 is an independent indicator of poor prognosis in clear-cell renal cell carcinoma

Interleukin‐11 (IL‐11), a member of the IL‐6 family of cytokines, exerts pleiotropic oncogenic activities by stimulating angiogenesis and metastasis in many cancer types. The present study aims to evaluate the impact of IL‐11 expression on recurrence and mortality of patients with clear‐cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). We retrospectively enrolled 193 ccRCC patients undergoing nephrectomy at a single center. Clinicopathologic features, recurrence‐free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were recorded. IL‐11 intensity was assessed by immunohistochemistry in tumor specimens. The Kaplan–Meier method was applied to compare survival curves. Cox regression models were used to analyze the impact of prognostic factors on RFS and OS. The concordance index (C‐index) was calculated to assess predictive accuracy. High IL‐11 expression is associated with increased risk of recurrence and poor survival for ccRCC patients (P < 0.001 and P < 0.001, respectively), especially those with early‐stage disease (TNM stage I + II). Multivariate analyses confirmed that IL‐11 expression was an independent prognostic factor for RFS and OS (P = 0.006 and P = 0.008, respectively). The predictive accuracy of well‐established prognostic models was improved when IL‐11 expression was integrated. In conclusion, high IL‐11 expression is an independent predictor of poor prognosis in ccRCC patients. It may help identify patients who could benefit from additional treatments and closer follow up.
Brain Systems Mediating Cognitive Interference by Emotional Distraction

Flexible behavior depends on our ability to cope with distracting stimuli that can interfere with the attainment of goals. Emotional distracters can be particularly disruptive to goal-oriented behavior, but the neural systems through which these detrimental effects are mediated are not known. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the effect of emotional and nonemotional distracters on a delayed-response working memory (WM) task. As expected, this task evoked robust activity during the delay period in typical WM regions (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and lateral parietal cortex). Presentation of emotional distracters during the delay interval evoked strong activity in typical emotional processing regions (amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex) while simultaneously evoking relative deactivation of the WM regions and impairing WM performance. These results provide the first direct evidence that the detrimental effect of emotional distracters on ongoing cognitive processes entails the interaction between a dorsal neural system associated with “cold” executive processing and a ventral system associated with “hot” emotional processing.
What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear. Everyone has feelings of anxiety from time to time. It is a natural reaction to situations we find threatening or difficult, such as moving house or money problems. Usually anxiety disappears when the situation changes, or if we get used to the situation or can move away from it. But some people become anxious for long periods of time and for no clear reason. This can make life difficult and may affect your work and social life.
Self-organization in Balanced State Networks by STDP and Homeostatic Plasticity

Structural inhomogeneities in synaptic efficacies have a strong impact on population response dynamics of cortical networks and are believed to play an important role in their functioning. However, little is known about how such inhomogeneities could evolve by means of synaptic plasticity. Here we present an adaptive model of a balanced neuronal network that combines two different types of plasticity, STDP and synaptic scaling. The plasticity rules yield both long-tailed distributions of synaptic weights and firing rates. Simultaneously, a highly connected subnetwork of driver neurons with strong synapses emerges. Coincident spiking activity of several driver cells can evoke population bursts and driver cells have similar dynamical properties as leader neurons found experimentally. Our model allows us to observe the delicate interplay between structural and dynamical properties of the emergent inhomogeneities. It is simple, robust to parameter changes and able to explain a multitude of different experimental findings in one basic network.
Design of Complex Biologically Based Nanoscale Systems Using Multi-Agent Simulations and Structure–Behavior–Function Representations

The process of designing integrated biological systems across scales is difficult, with challenges arising from the modeling, understanding, and search of complex system design spaces. This paper explores these challenges through consideration of how stochastic nanoscale phenomenon relate to higher level systems functioning across many scales. A domain-independent methodology is introduced which uses multi-agent simulations to predict emergent system behavior and structure‐behavior‐function (SBF) representations to facilitate design space navigation. The methodology is validated through a nanoscale design application of synthetic myosin motor systems. In the multi-agent simulation, myosins are independent computational agents with varied structural inputs that enable differently tuned mechanochemical behaviors. Four synthetic myosins were designed and replicated as agent populations, and their simulated behavior was consistent with empirical studies of individual myosins and the macroscopic performance of myosin-powered muscle contractions. However, in order to configure high performance technologies, designers must effectively reason about simulation inputs and outputs; we find that counter-intuitive relations arise when linking system performance to individual myosin structures. For instance, one myosin population had a lower system force even though more myosins contributed to system-level force. This relationship is elucidated with SBF by considering the distribution of structural states and behaviors in agent populations. For the lower system force population, it is found that although more myosins are producing force, a greater percentage of the population produces negative force. The success of employing SBF for understanding system interactions demonstrates how the methodology may aid designers in complex systems embodiment. The methodology’s domain-independence promotes its extendibility to similar complex systems, and in the myosin test case the approach enabled the reduction of a complex physical phenomenon to a design space consisting of only a few critical parameters. The methodology is particularly suited for complex systems with many parts operating stochastically across scales, and should prove invaluable for engineers facing the challenges of biological nanoscale design, where designs with unique properties require novel approaches or useful configurations in nature await discovery. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4024227]
Performance of opportunistic routing in low duty-cycle wireless sensor networks

In this paper, we propose three variants of WSN routing protocol: i) basic-opportunistic, ii) opportunistic with delay and iii) opportunistic with backtracking. The main idea is that a node transmits its packet to the next awake node as long as this decreases the remaining distance to the sink. The two last variants allow a packet to be discarded or moved further away from the sink if necessary. The performance evaluation is carried out by simulations and with analytical model based on a Poisson rain model. The comparison is based i) probability of packet delivery, ii) end-to-end packet delay and iii) number of hops between the source and the sink node.
Re-Finding Found Things: An Exploratory Study of How Users Re-Find Information

The problem of how people find information is studied extensively; however, the problem of how people organize, re-use, and re-find information that they have found is not as well understood. Recently, several projects have conducted in-situ studies to explore how people re-find and re-use information. Here, we present results and observations from a controlled, laboratory study of refinding information found on the web. Our study was conducted as a collaborative exercise with pairs of participants. One participant acted as a retriever, helping the other participant re-find information by telephone. This design allowed us to gain insight into the strategies that users employed to re-find information, and into how domain artifacts and contextual information were used to aid the re-finding process. We also introduced the ability for users to add their own explicitly artifacts in the form of making annotations on the web pages they viewed. We observe that re-finding often occurs as a two stage, iterative process in which users first attempt to locate an information source (search), and once found, begin a process to find the specific information being sought (browse). Our findings are consistent with research on waypoints; orienteering approaches to re-finding; and navigation of electronic spaces. Furthermore, we observed that annotations were utilized extensively, indicating that explicitly added context by the user can play an important role in re-finding.
Tachykinins and calcitonin gene-related peptide enhance release of endogenous glutamate and aspartate from the rat spinal dorsal horn slice

The effects of dorsal root stimulation and of substance P (SP), neurokinin A (NKA), and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) on the basal release of 9 endogenous amino acids, including glutamate (Glu) and aspartate (Asp), have been investigated using the rat spinal cord slice-dorsal root ganglion preparation and high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorimetric detection. High-intensity repetitive electrical stimulation of a lumbar dorsal root produced a Ca2(+)- dependent increase in the basal release of Asp, Glu, glycine (Gly), serine (Ser), and threonine (Thr). Low concentrations of SP (2 x 10(-7) M) caused a selective increase in the rate of basal release of Glu, whereas higher concentrations (1–5 x 10(-6) M) produced, in addition, an increase in the basal release of Asp. The SP-induced increase of Glu persisted in the absence of external Ca2+, but the effect was blocked by (D-Arg1, D-Pro2, D-Trp7,9, Leu11)-SP, an SP analog claimed to be an antagonist of the synthetic SP. NKA (5 x 10(-7) - 10(-6) M), a related tachykinin coexpressed with SP in primary sensory neurons, enhanced the basal release of Gly. CGRP (10(-7) M) caused a significant, largely Ca2(+)-independent increase in the basal release of Glu and Asp and a decrease in asparagine. SP and CGRP potentiated the electrically evoked release of Glu and Asp. Neonatal capsaicin treatment did not significantly alter the basal efflux of 9 endogenous amino acids from the spinal slices, but it prevented the dorsal root stimulation-evoked release of Asp, Glu, Gly, and Thr and the SP-induced increase in the basal release of Glu. However, the effect of CGRP was not significantly modified by the capsaicin treatment. These results indicate that tachykinins (SP and NKA) and CGRP are capable of modulating the basal and electrically evoked release of endogenous Glu and Asp, and these actions may provide an important mechanism by which the peptides contribute to the regulation of the primary afferent synaptic transmission. The enhancement of the basal and the dorsal root stimulation-evoked release of Glu and Asp by tachykinins and CGRP may have important physiological implications for strengthening the synaptic connections in the spinal dorsal horn.
The Anatomy of Medium-Scale Farm Growth in Zambia: What Are the Implications for the Future of Smallholder Agriculture?

Lost in the debates about the appropriate scale of production to promote agricultural growth in Africa is the rapid expansion of medium-scale farmers. Using Zambia as a case study, this article explores the causes and consequences of this middle-tier transformation on the future of small-scale agriculture. Combining political economic analysis with household survey data, this article examines the relationships between the growth in medium-scale farmers and changing conditions of land access, inequality, and alienation for small-scale farmers. Growth of medium-scale farmers is associated with high land inequality and rapid land alienation in high potential agricultural areas. This growth is shown to be partially driven by wage earner investment in land acquisition and is leading to substantial under-utilization of agricultural land. These processes are both limiting agricultural growth potential and foreclosing future options for an inclusive agricultural development strategy.
Lixisenatide: A New Member of the Glucagon-Like Peptide 1 Receptor Agonist Class of Incretin Therapies

In Brief In the past decade, various incretin-based therapies have emerged in clinical practice. These drugs, including dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists lower A1C with weight-neutral or weight-lowering effects and a relatively lower risk of hypoglycemia. This article provides a review of lixisenatide, a once-daily GLP-1 receptor agonist for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
Interleukin-10 Contributes to Therapeutic Effect of Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Acute Liver Failure via Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3 Signaling Pathway

Background:Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) transplantation has been proven to have therapeutic potential for acute liver failure (ALF). However, the mechanism remains controversial. Recently, modulation of inflammation by MSCs has been regarded as a crucial mechanism. The aim of the present study was to explore the soluble cytokines secreted by MSCs and their therapeutic effects in ALF. Methods:MSCs isolated from Sprague-Dawley rats were identified by fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis. Conditioned medium derived from MSCs (MSCs-CM) was collected and analyzed by a cytokine microarray. MSCs and MSCs-CM were transplanted into rats with D-galactosamine-induced ALF. Liver function, survival rate, histology, and inflammatory factors were determined. Exogenous recombinant rat interleukin (IL)-10, anti-rat IL-10 antibody, and AG490 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 [STAT3] signaling pathway inhibitor) were administered to explore the therapeutic mechanism of MSCs-CM. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS version 19.0, and all data were analyzed by the independent-sample t-test. Results:There are statistical differences of the survival curve between ALF+MSCs group and ALF+Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) group, as well as ALF+MSCs-CM group and ALF+DMEM group (all P < 0.05). Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level in the ALF+MSCs and ALF+MSCs-CM groups was lower than that in the ALF+DMEM group (865.53±52.80 vs. 1709.75±372.12 U/L and 964.72±414.59 vs. 1709.75±372.12 U/L, respectively, all P < 0.05); meanwhile, serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) level in the ALF+MSCs and ALF+MSCs-CM groups was lower than that in the ALF+DMEM group (2440.83±511.94 vs. 4234.35±807.30 U/L and 2739.83±587.33 vs. 4234.35±807.30 U/L, respectively, all P < 0.05). Furthermore, MSCs or MSCs-CM treatment significantly reduced serum interferon-&ggr; (IFN-&ggr;), IL-1&bgr;, IL-6 levels and increased serum IL-10 level compared with DMEM (all P < 0.05). Proteome profile analysis of MSCs-CM indicated the presence of anti-inflammatory factors and IL-10 was the most distinct. Blocking of IL-10 confirmed the therapeutic significance of this cytokine. Phosphorylated STAT3 was upregulated after IL-10 infusion and inhibition of STAT3 by AG490 reversed the therapeutic effect of IL-10. Conclusions:The factors released by MSCs, especially IL-10, have the potential for therapeutic recovery of ALF, and the STAT3 signaling pathway may mediate the anti-inflammatory effect of IL-10.
Staggered Contracts and Business Cycle Persistence

Staggered price and staggered wage contracts are commonly viewed as similar mechanisms in generating persistent real effects of monetary shocks. In this paper, we distinguish the two mechanisms in a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium framework. We show that, although the dynamic price setting and wage setting equations are alike, a key parameter governing persistence is linked to the underlying preferences and technologies in different ways. Under the staggered wage mechanism, an intertemporal smoothing incentive in labor supply creates a real rigidity that is absent under the staggered price mechanism. Consequently, the two mechanisms have different implications on persistence. While the staggered price mechanism by itself does not contribute to, the staggered wage mechanism plays an important role in generating persistence.