Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Episodic memory for external information

People make use of hidden external information, first recalling that it exists and then finding it. This dissertation investigates the memory phenomena involved in recalling that external information exists. We present data in which a programmer navigates to hidden features in a real-world task environment. We then present a model that accounts for this navigation by encoding and using simple episodic memories for having seen a feature. The model inherits constraints from its underlying cognitive architecture, which specify that learning is passive and pervasive, and that it creates simple memories that depend on the feature itself being present as a cue. The nature of these memories requires the model to recall features to its mind's eye as cues in order to retrieve them. This retrieval process requires domain knowledge: familiarity with features in order to imagine them, and an idea of when it would be useful to recall having seen them. Recalling that a hidden feature exists prompts the model to scroll to that feature. Thus the model's access to external information is a function of passively-encoded episodic memories, and retrieval of these memories using knowledge. As a claim applied to people, this appears to overlap with a recently-published theory of long-term working memory. This theory proposes that experts, for example in chess, use long-term memory to expand their working memory in their domain of expertise. We propose a ubiquitous episodic long-term working memory, in which people store information about features with little effort, and from which they retrieve this information when it is relevant.
MUSICAL ACTIVITIES IN THE THIRD AGE: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY WITH AMATEUR MUSICIANS

The purpose of this study is to explore a) the musical and social background of members of seniors’ amateur ensembles, b) the functions and rewards of making music in seniors’ amateur ensembles, and c) age-related restrictions of musical activities and coping strategies with these restrictions. A total of 550 questionnaires were mailed to 46 seniors’ ensembles in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, 308 valid questionnaires were returned and evaluated. The age of respondents ranged from 40 to 97 years, the mean was 71 years (s = 7.89). About one third (38.4%) were women. A proportion of 44% had an academic degree. The vast majority (90%) had no professional education as musician. A majority of 80% started to play an instrument in the first 20 years of their lives. 70% of the respondents grew up with their mother and/or father playing an instrument. The paramount reward of making music is an increase in enjoyment of life, quality of life, and happiness, and furthermore the establishment of social contacts, a sense of community, and challenges. Other very important functions are relaxation, the expression of feelings and giving a sense to life. Half of the respondents (52%) reported age-related restrictions in making music. Several coping strategies were mentioned to cope with these problems. Implications of these findings are discussed in the following.
A simple lamp-eye-brain model for flicker observations

This paper suggests a simple eye-brain model for light flicker studies and examines the response of such a model to voltage flicker. Calculated flicker curves representing the objectionable threshold of voltage fluctuation were found to match reasonably well the experimental IEEE curves. The model may be used to predict flicker curves for diverse voltage flicker waveforms and for lamps with different time constants and gain factors.
Regulation of Biofilm Formation and Norspermidine Production by Iron in Vibrio Cholerae

Vibrio cholerae is a pathogenic bacterium and the causative agent of the diarrheal disease cholera. V. cholerae is thought to persist in the environment in the form of a biofilm. Biofilm formation is regulated by signals ranging from self produced signals to environmental signals. This work investigated whether iron availability and production of the polyamine, norspermidine, are linked to biofilm regulation. Through investigating mutants defective in vibriobactin synthesis (a siderophore) in regards to iron availability, I have shown that iron deficiency inhibits biofilm formation and that mutants defective in siderophore synthesis have increased biofilm formation compared to wild-type. Vibriobactin contains a norspermidine backbone and previous work has shown that norspermidine is a pro-biofilm signal. HPLC data does not show any increase in norspermidine levels in the cell or in the extracellular environment, but conditioned media experiments have shown that a pro-biofilm signal is present in the culture medium. Preliminary data suggests that a modified, potentially acetylated, form of norspermidine is the pro-biofilm signal in this system. Future work will be directed at acetylase mutants and media fractionation in order to conclusively determine what the pro-biofilm signal is in this system
Clinical Evaluation of a Microwave Device for Treating Axillary Hyperhidrosis

Background A third‐generation microwave‐based device has been developed to treat axillary hyperhidrosis by selectively heating the interface between the skin and underlying fat where the sweat glands reside. Materials and Methods Thirty‐one (31) adults with primary axillary hyperhidrosis were enrolled. All subjects had one to three procedure sessions over a 6‐month period to treat both axillae fully. Efficacy was assessed using the Hyperhidrosis Disease Severity Scale (HDSS), gravimetric weight of sweat, and the Dermatologic Life Quality Index (DLQI), a dermatology‐specific quality‐of‐life scale. Subject safety was assessed at each visit. Subjects were followed for 12 months after all procedure sessions were complete. Results At the 12‐month follow‐up visit, 90.3% had HDSS scores of 1 or 2, 90.3% had at least a 50% reduction in axillary sweat from baseline, and 85.2% had a reduction of at least 5 points on the DLQI. All subjects experienced transient effects in the treatment area such as swelling, discomfort, and numbness. The most common adverse event (12 subjects) was the presence of altered sensation in the skin of the arm that resolved in all subjects. Conclusion The device tested provided efficacious and durable treatment for axillary hyperhidrosis.
Meta-Analysis of the Efficacy of Ectoine Nasal Spray in Patients with Allergic Rhinoconjunctivitis

Objectives. The meta-analysis aims to investigate the efficacy of ectoine nasal spray and eye drops in the treatment of allergic rhinitis and rhinoconjunctivitis symptoms. Design and Methods. This meta-analysis is based on yet unpublished data of four studies. Both nasal and eye symptoms were documented in patient diary cards. All scales were transformed into a 4-point scale: 0 = no, 1 = mild, 2 = moderate, and 3 = severe symptoms. Each symptom was analysed individually in a meta-analysis of the area under the curve values as well as in a meta-analysis of pre- and posttreatment comparison. Results. After seven days of treatment with ectoine nasal spray both nasal and ocular symptoms decreased significantly. A strong reduction of symptom severity was shown for the parameters rhinorrhoea (31.76% reduction) and nasal obstruction (29.94% reduction). Furthermore, the meta-analyses of individual symptoms to investigate the strength of effect after seven days of medication intake showed significant improvement for nasal obstruction, rhinorrhoea, nasal itching, sneezing, itching of eyes, and redness of eyes. The improvement of the symptom nasal obstruction was associated with a strong effect 0.53 (±0.26). Conclusions. The ectoine nasal spray and eye drops seem to be equally effective as guideline-recommended medication in the treatment of rhinoconjunctivitis symptoms.
An accurate track-and-latch comparator

In this paper, a new accurate track and latch comparator circuit is presented. The Offset voltage of latch is compensated by negative feedback loop and the low offset voltage is achieved without pre-amplifiers. The pull up devices in modified regeneration latch is turned off to reduce quiescent current of comparator within the tracking phase. The Monte-Carlo simulation results for the designed comparator in 0. 18μm CMOS process show that equivalent input referred offset voltage is 200μV at 1 sigma while it was 26 mV at 1 sigma before offset cancellation. The comparator dissipates 400μW from a 1.8 V supply while operates in 500 MHz clock frequency. The power consumption improvement is up to 33% over previously reported structure.
The meaning of ‘life’ and other abstract words: Insights from neuropsychology

There are a number of long‐standing theories on how the cognitive processing of abstract words, like ‘life’, differs from that of concrete words, like ‘knife’. This review considers current perspectives on this debate, focusing particularly on insights obtained from patients with language disorders and integrating these with evidence from functional neuroimaging studies. The evidence supports three distinct and mutually compatible hypotheses. (1) Concrete and abstract words differ in their representational substrates, with concrete words depending particularly on sensory experiences and abstract words on linguistic, emotional, and magnitude‐based information. Differential dependence on visual versus verbal experience is supported by the evidence for graded specialization in the anterior temporal lobes for concrete versus abstract words. In addition, concrete words have richer representations, in line with better processing of these words in most aphasic patients and, in particular, patients with semantic dementia. (2) Abstract words place greater demands on executive regulation processes because they have variable meanings that change with context. This theory explains abstract word impairments in patients with semantic‐executive deficits and is supported by neuroimaging studies showing greater response to abstract words in inferior prefrontal cortex. (3) The relationships between concrete words are governed primarily by conceptual similarity, while those of abstract words depend on association to a greater degree. This theory, based primarily on interference and priming effects in aphasic patients, is the most recent to emerge and the least well understood. I present analyses indicating that patterns of lexical co‐occurrence may be important in understanding these effects.
Fault Sensitivity Analysis Meets Zero-Value Attack

Previous works have shown that the combinatorial path delay of a cryptographic function, e.g., The AES S-box, depends on its input value. Since the relation between critical path delay and input value seems to be relatively random and highly dependent on the routing of the circuit, up to now only template or some collision attacks could reliably extract the used secret key of implementations not protected against fault attacks. Here we present a new attack which is based on the fact that, because of the zero-to-zero mapping of the AES Sbox inversion circuit, the critical path when processing the zero input is notably shorter than for all other inputs. Applying the attack to an AES design protected by an state-of-the-art fault detection scheme, we are able to fully recover the secret key in less than eight hours. Note that we neither require a known key measurement step (template case) nor a high similarity between different S-box instances (collision case). The only information gathered from the device is whether a fault occurred when processing a chosen plaintext.
[Psychosocial risk factors of Alzheimer's disease].

OBJECTIVE To explore the relationship between psychosocial factor and risk of Alzheimer's disease(AD). METHODS A cohort study of people 55 years and older was followed up 10 years after a baseline screening. 5,055 elderly subjects in a district of Shanghai were stratified clustering sampled from community. Information about psychosocial factors was collected in 1987. The clinical diagnoses of dementia and AD were made according to DSM-III-R and NINCDS-ADRDA criteria. 4,896 non-demented persons were followed in 1997. The incidence of AD was calculated and the relationship between the psychosocial factors and the AD was analyzed by Logistic model. RESULTS 1,203 subjects were resurveyed in 1997 and among them 124 new cases of dementia including 81 cases of AD were identified. By computing the relative risk(RR) of psychosocial factors to the AD, many psychosocial factors were found to be correlated with AD including blue collar occupation, no job, no reading or writing, no taking community activities, no gardening in leisure, bad psychological feeling and lower education (RR > 1). The items with high PARP > 50% were not working, no job, retirement, no taking community activities, no reading or writing, blue collar occupation and no gardening in leisure. MMSE total score is a good predict for AD. CONCLUSION Psychosocial factors play an important role in the development of Alzheimer's disease.
Discrete-time observability and estimability analysis for bearings-only target motion analysis

Observability in the context of bearings-only tracking (BOT) is still the subject of important literature. Different from previous approaches, where continuous-time analysis was considered, our approach relies on discrete-time analysis. It is then shown that this allows us to use directly and efficiently the simple formalisms of linear algebra. Using the direct approach, observability analysis is essentially reduced to basic considerations about subspace dimensions. Even if this approach is conceptually quite direct, it becomes more and more complex as the source-encounter scenario complexity increases. For complex scenarios, the dual approach may present some advantages essentially due to the direct use of multilinear algebra. New results about BOT observability for maneuvering sources are thus obtained. Observability analysis is then extended to unknown instants of source velocity changes. Even if observability analysis provides thorough insights about the algebraic structure of the BOT problem, the optimization of the observer maneuvers is essentially a control problem. Basic algebraic considerations prove that a relevant cost functional for this control problem is the determinant of the Fisher information matrix (FIM). So, a large part of this work is devoted to the analysis of this cost functional. Using multilinear algebra, general approximations of this functional are given. In order to involve only directly estimable parameters, the source bearing-rates are examined. Using these approximations, a general framework for optimizing the observer trajectory is derived which allow us to approximate the optimal sequence of controls. It is worth stressing that our approach does not require the knowledge of the source trajectory parameters and is still valid for a maneuvering source.
Changes in the Bacterial Community of Soybean Rhizospheres during Growth in the Field

Highly diverse communities of bacteria inhabiting soybean rhizospheres play pivotal roles in plant growth and crop production; however, little is known about the changes that occur in these communities during growth. We used both culture-dependent physiological profiling and culture independent DNA-based approaches to characterize the bacterial communities of the soybean rhizosphere during growth in the field. The physiological properties of the bacterial communities were analyzed by a community-level substrate utilization assay with BioLog Eco plates, and the composition of the communities was assessed by gene pyrosequencing. Higher metabolic capabilities were found in rhizosphere soil than in bulk soil during all stages of the BioLog assay. Pyrosequencing analysis revealed that differences between the bacterial communities of rhizosphere and bulk soils at the phylum level; i.e., Proteobacteria were increased, while Acidobacteria and Firmicutes were decreased in rhizosphere soil during growth. Analysis of operational taxonomic units showed that the bacterial communities of the rhizosphere changed significantly during growth, with a higher abundance of potential plant growth promoting rhizobacteria, including Bacillus, Bradyrhizobium, and Rhizobium, in a stage-specific manner. These findings demonstrated that rhizosphere bacterial communities were changed during soybean growth in the field.
Experimental insights into flow impingement in cerebral aneurysm by stereoscopic particle image velocimetry: transition from a laminar regime

This study experimentally investigated the instability of flow impingement in a cerebral aneurysm, which was speculated to promote the degradation of aneurysmal wall. A patient-specific, full-scale and elastic-wall replica of cerebral artery was fabricated from transparent silicone rubber. The geometry of the aneurysm corresponded to that found at 9 days before rupture. The flow in a replica was analysed by quantitative flow visualization (stereoscopic particle image velocimetry) in a three-dimensional, high-resolution and time-resolved manner. The mid-systolic and late-diastolic flows with a Reynolds number of 450 and 230 were compared. The temporal and spatial variations of near-wall velocity at flow impingement delineated its inherent instability at a low Reynolds number. Wall shear stress (WSS) at that site exhibited a combination of temporal fluctuation and spatial divergence. The frequency range of fluctuation was found to exceed significantly that of the heart rate. The high-frequency-fluctuating WSS appeared only during mid-systole and disappeared during late diastole. These results suggested that the flow impingement induced a transition from a laminar regime. This study demonstrated that the hydrodynamic instability of shear layer could not be neglected even at a low Reynolds number. No assumption was found to justify treating the aneurysmal haemodynamics as a fully viscous laminar flow.
Measuring the Effects of Sexual Content in the Media: A Report to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The purposes of this report are to review what we know about the relations of entertainment media to sexual development during childhood and adolescence to consider methodological issues and challenges in studying this topic and to propose some fruitful directions for future research. There are many opinions about the effects of sexual content in the mass media and they are often couched in political or religious overtones. This report is not intended to debate these opinions rather it is a review and discussion of social scientific methods which provide publicly shared objective empirical and replicable information that can be used to build a cumulative body of knowledge of this area. (excerpt)
Material Considerations for Avalanche Photodiodes

Avalanche photodiodes (APDs) are widely used to detect and amplify weak optical signals by utilizing the impact ionization process. The choice of material is critical for the detection of a particular wavelength, and it is often expedient to use a combination of different materials to optimize the overall device performance. The APDs are now capable of covering a wide spectrum from the infrared down to the ultraviolet wavelengths. This paper will review the material requirements to achieve high gain with low excess noise at the different wavelength regions.
Echinostoma revolutum: Freshwater Snails as the Second Intermediate Hosts in Chiang Mai, Thailand

The occurrence of 37-collar spined echinostome metacercariae in freshwater snails was investigated in 6 districts of Chiang Mai Province, Thailand, from October 2011 to April 2012. A total of 2,914 snails that belong to 12 species were examined, and 7 snail species (Clea helena, Eyriesia eyriesi, Bithynia funiculata, Bithynia siamensis siamensis, Filopaludina doliaris, Filopaludina sumatrensis polygramma, and Filopaludina martensi martensi) were found infected with echinostome metacercariae. The prevalence of metacercariae was the highest in Filopaludina spp. (38.5-58.7%) followed by B. funiculata (44.0%), E. eyriesi (12.5%), B. siamensis siamensis (8.2%), and C. helena (5.1%). Metacercariae were experimentally fed to hamsters and domestic chicks, and adult flukes were recovered from both hosts at days 15 and 20 post-infection. The adult flukes were identified based on morphological features, morphometrics, host-parasite relationships, and geographical distribution. They were compatible to Echinostoma revolutum or Echinostoma jurini, with only minor differences. As the adults were recovered from both hamsters and chicks, our specimens were more compatible to E. revolutum rather than E. jurini (reported only from mammals). This is the first report for metacercariae of E. revolutum in the snail host, C. helena, and also confirmed that Filopaludina spp. , E. eryresi, and Bithynia spp. act as the second intermediate hosts of E. revolutum under natural conditions, which are indigenously distributed in Chiang Mai province.
Gefitinib, a selective EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor, induces apoptosis through activation of Bax in human gallbladder adenocarcinoma cells

Although gefitinib, a selective inhibitor of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase, has been clinically demonstrated to be effective for certain cancer cell types, the molecular mechanisms of the anti‐tumor activity have not been fully elucidated. In this study, we investigated the mechanism of gefitinib‐induced growth inhibition and apoptosis in HAG‐1 human gallbladder adenocarcinoma cells. Treatment of gefitinib at a dose of 1 µM resulted in a significant growth inhibition, and the cell number irreversibly declined after 72‐h incubation, with a progressive expansion of apoptotic cell population over 120‐h. Following 2‐h treatment, gefitinib significantly inhibited EGFR autophosphorylation and subsequent downstream signaling pathway through Erk and Akt, and induced accumulation of cells in the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle at 24‐h, accompanied by a concomitant increase in p21 transcript and increased expression of p27. Gefitinib did not affect the amount of total and phosphorylated p53 at serine 15, but upregulated the expression of total Bax, with subsequent increase in p18 Bax, an active form of Bax. The expression of Bcl‐2 and Bad was unchanged. An increase in gefitinib‐induced expression of total Bax might be due to the decreased degradation of Bax, because the level of Bax mRNA has not been altered by gefitinib treatment. Gefitinib promoted the cleavage of full‐length p21 Bax into p18 Bax in mitochondrial‐enriched fraction, a characteristic feature of Bax activation toward apoptosis. Moreover, blockade of Bax by using anti‐Bax small interfering double stranded RNA (siRNA) significantly reduced gefitinib‐induced apoptosis. Taken together, these data suggest a critical role of p18 Bax in gefitinib‐induced apoptosis. J. Cell. Biochem. 97: 724–734, 2006. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Efficient maintenance and self-collision testing for Kinematic Chains

The kinematic chain is a ubiquitous and extensively studied representation in robotics as well as a useful model for studying the motion of biological macro-molecules. Both fields stand to benefit from algorithms for efficient maintenance and collision detection in such chains. This paper introduces a novel hierarchical representation of a kinematic chain allowing for efficient incremental updates and relative position calculation. A hierarchy of oriented bounding boxes is superimposed on this representation, enabling high performance collision detection, self-collision testing, and distance computation. This representation has immediate applications in the field of molecular biology, for speeding up molecular simulations and studies of folding paths of proteins. It could be instrumental in path planning applications for robots with many degrees of freedom, also known as hyper-redundant robots. A comparison of the performance of the algorithm with the current state of the art in collision detection is presented for a number of benchmarks.