Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electromagnetic homeostasis and the role of low-amplitude electromagnetic fields on life organization

ABSTRACT The appearance of endogenous electromagnetic fields in biological systems is a widely debated issue in modern science. The electrophysiological fields have very tiny intensities and it can be inferred that they are rapidly decreasing with the distance from the generating structure, vanishing at very short distances. This makes very hard their detection using standard experimental methods. However, the existence of fast-moving charged particles in the macromolecules inside both intracellular and extracellular fluids may envisage the generation of localized electric currents as well as the presence of closed loops, which implies the existence of magnetic fields. Moreover, the whole set of oscillatory frequencies of various substances, enzymes, cell membranes, nucleic acids, bioelectrical phenomena generated by the electrical rhythm of coherent groups of cells, cell-to-cell communication among population of host bacteria, forms the increasingly complex hierarchies of electromagnetic signals of different frequencies which cover the living being and represent a fundamental information network controlling the cell metabolism. From this approach emerges the concept of electromagnetic homeostasis: that is, the capability of the human body to maintain the balance of highly complex electromagnetic interactions within, in spite of the external electromagnetic noisy environment. This concept may have an important impact on the actual definitions of heal and disease.
Stop signals decrease choices for palatable foods through decreased food evaluation

The present study explores whether presenting specific palatable foods in close temporal proximity of stop signals in a go/no-go task decreases subsequent evaluations of such foods among participants with a relatively high appetite. Furthermore, we tested whether any decreased evaluations could mediate subsequent food choice. Participants first received a go/no-go task in which palatable foods were consistently linked to go cues or no-go cues within participants. Next, evaluation of the palatable foods was measured as well as food choice. Replicating previous work, results show that among participants with a relatively high appetite palatable foods associated with no-go cues are less often chosen as snacks compared to when these foods are associated with go cues, whereas this manipulation did not affect participants with a relatively low appetite. Moreover, this effect was completely mediated by decreased evaluation of the palatable foods that had been associated with the no-go cues, whereas evaluation of the foods associated with go cues did not mediate this effect. Results further showed that the devaluation effect of foods associated with no-go cues was independent of the amount of pairings (4 vs. 12 vs. 24) with the no-go cues. The current findings suggest that decreased food evaluation is a mechanism that explains effects of stop signals on food choice.
The Challenge of Ovarian Cancer: Steps Toward Early Detection Through Advanced Signal Processing in Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy.

BACKGROUND Ovarian cancer is a major cause of cancer death among women worldwide, and particularly in Israel. Although the disease at stage IA has 5 year survival rates of over 90%, early detection methods are not sufficiently accurate. Consequently, ovarian cancer is typically diagnosed late, which results in high fatality rates. An excellent candidate for early ovarian cancer detection would be in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) because it is non-invasive and free of ionizing radiation. In addition, it potentially identifies metabolic features of cancer. Detecting these metabolic features depends on adequate processing of encoded MRS time signals for reconstructing interpretable information. The conventional Fourier-based method currently used in all clinical scanners is inadequate for this task. Thus, cancerous and benign ovarian lesions are not well distinguished. Advanced signal processing, such as the fast Padé transform (FPT) with high-resolution and clinically reliable quantification, is needed. The effectiveness of the FPT was demonstrated in proof-of-concept studies on noise-controlled MRS data associated with benign and cancerous ovaries. The FPT has now been successfully applied to MRS time signals encoded in vivo from a borderline serous cystic ovarian tumor. Noise was effectively separated out to identify and quantify genuine spectral constituents that are densely packed and often overlapping. Among these spectral constituents are recognized and possible cancer biomarkers including phosphocholine, choline, isoleucine, valine, lactate, threonine, alanine, and myoinositol. Most of these resonances remain undetected with Fourier-based in vivo MRS of the ovary. With Padé optimization, in vivo MRS could become a key method for assessing ovarian lesions, more effectively detecting ovarian cancer early, thereby improving survival for women afflicted with this malignancy.
Adolescent Depression: Experiences and Meanings of Being Parented and Parenting

Major depression affects up to 40% of U.S. adolescents in mild to severe forms, compromising emotional, academic, and relational functioning, including that of interacting with parents. The purpose of this study was to explore the parent-adolescent relationship during an episode of depression in order to elucidate the adolescent experience of being parented and the parental experience as it contributes to the context of the adolescent. Research questions included: 1) What are the depressed adolescent’s meanings and experiences of being parented? 2) How do the meanings and experiences of parenting contribute to the context of the lifeworld of the depressed adolescent? An adapted Colaizzian (1978) method was used to phenomenologically analyze interview data from 6 adolescents and 5 parents. Findings for adolescents supported an essential pattern of Dysphoric Tension Between Moving Away and Moving Toward, including themes of Feeling Devalued within the Relationship and Renegotiating the Relationship. Parent findings supported the essential pattern of Tension Between Pulling Closer and Letting Go, with 4 themes including Losing the Familiar, At the Nexus of Action, Composing Life with the Stranger, and Crisis Management Within. The adolescent and parent findings were compared for differences and commonalities to assist in understanding the context provided by the parents. Findings were used to refine the investigator’s previous model of adolescent depression.
Estimate of local average power of a mobile radio signal

The procedure for obtaining the local average power (also called local mean) of a mobile radio signal is described. The measured length of a mobile radio signal necessary to obtain the local average power is determined to be in the range of 20 to 40 wavelengths. It is based on the Rayleigh distribution. The sufficient number of samples for estimating the local average power values is about 36. It is based on a 90 percent confidence interval and less than 1 dB error in estimate. This procedure of estimate can be treated as a standard procedure.
Improvement in Lipid Profiles in Antiretroviral-Experienced HIV-Positive Patients With Hyperlipidemia After a Switch to Unboosted Atazanavir

Objective:The primary objective was to compare the change in fasting low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol from baseline to week 12 between patients receiving an atazanavir-containing regimen and those receiving comparator protease inhibitor (PI) regimens. Design:AI424-067 was a 48-week, open-label, randomized, prospective study of 246 patients on PI-based regimens with hyperlipidemia [fasting LDL cholesterol >130 mg/dL (>3.4 mmol/L)] and with HIV RNA <50 copies per milliliter. Patients were randomized to switch to atazanavir (400 mg once daily) on day 1 (immediate switch) or maintain current PI regimen for the first 24 weeks, then switch to atazanavir (delayed switch). Methods:Plasma lipid levels were compared with baseline values at weeks 12, 24, and 48. Safety, viral load, and CD4 profiles were also evaluated. Results:At week 12, the mean percent changes in LDL cholesterol from baseline for the immediate-switch and delayed-switch groups were −15% and +1%, respectively (P < 0.0001). Favorable LDL cholesterol levels in the immediate-switch group were sustained through week 48. Both groups maintained comparable virologic control. Switching to atazanavir did not produce a significant change in safety or tolerability. Conclusions:A switch-either immediate or delayed-from a boosted or unboosted PI to unboosted atazanavir in patients with hyperlipidemia was associated with improvements in plasma lipid parameters without loss of virological suppression.
Depth Image-Based Rendering With Advanced Texture Synthesis for 3-D Video

A depth image-based rendering (DIBR) approach with advanced inpainting methods is presented. The DIBR algorithm can be used in 3-D video applications to synthesize a number of different perspectives of the same scene, e.g., from a multiview-video-plus-depth (MVD) representation. This MVD format consists of video and depth sequences for a limited number of original camera views of the same natural scene. Here, DIBR methods allow the computation of additional new views. An inherent problem of the view synthesis concept is the fact that image information which is occluded in the original views may become visible, especially in extrapolated views beyond the viewing range of the original cameras. The presented algorithm synthesizes these occluded textures. The synthesizer achieves visually satisfying results by taking spatial and temporal consistency measures into account. Detailed experiments show significant objective and subjective gains of the proposed method in comparison to the state-of-the-art methods.
A Comparative Study of the Microleakage of Resilon/Epiphany and Gutta-Percha/AH-Plus Obturating Systems

Introduction The aim of the present study was to investigate and compare the apical sealing ability of Resilon/Epiphany-filled root canals with those that were obturated with gutta-percha/AH-Plus endodontic sealer. Materials and Methods A total of 60 extracted human single-rooted teeth were selected; 25 teeth for each test group and five for each control group. After conducting conventional endodontic treatment, the teeth were immersed in physiologic saline solution for thirty days, and subsequently sealed and stored in methylene blue dye solution for seven days. The teeth were sectioned to evaluate the linear apical leakage using a stereoscopic microscope. The data were statistically analyzed by non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests. Results The results showed significant differences between the two groups of endodontic sealers (P<0.001). Conclusion Within the limitation of the present in vitro study, Resilon/Epiphany sealer had better apical sealing ability than gutta-percha/AH-Plus sealer.
Multimodality imaging of foreign bodies of the musculoskeletal system.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this article is to clarify the most relevant points in managing suspected foreign bodies of the musculoskeletal system on the basis of a literature review and published reports with cases to illustrate each type on different imaging modalities. CONCLUSION Foreign bodies of the musculoskeletal system are a common problem in emergency departments, with more than a third missed in the initial clinical evaluation. These retained objects may result in various complications and also offer fertile ground for litigation.
New Riemannian metrics for improvement of convergence speed in ICA based learning algorithms

Three different Riemannian metrics are defined in the matrix space, according to various translations defined in the parameter space. Such metrics allowed the authors to derive correspondingly novel learning rules for two ICA based algorithms in blind source separation (BSS). Experimental results in several case studies have shown that a significant improvement of convergence speed can be achieved by employing such a new approach in comparison to the one, based on right and left translations, which has appeared in the literature so far.
Evaluation of the Mechanical Behavior and Marginal Accuracy of Stock and Laser-Sintered Implant Abutments.

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to evaluate the marginal accuracy and mechanical behavior of implant-supported crowns restored with original stock abutments and nonoriginal computer-aided design/computer-assisted manufacture laser-sintered abutments. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 26 implants were divided in two groups (n = 13 each) as follows: implants connected to original stock abutments (OS) and implants connected to nonoriginal laser-sintered abutments (LS). Of these, 10 samples were cross-sectioned to measure the marginal accuracy under a scanning electron microscope. In addition, 16 samples were used to study the mechanical behavior. Two tests were performed: (1) static load and (2) dynamic load after thermocycling with artificial saliva. RESULTS OS exhibited the best marginal accuracy; however, the LS gap was within the clinically acceptable range of marginal discrepancy. No significant differences were found in the mechanical tests. CONCLUSIONS Both abutments are acceptable alternatives to restore implants, although the original abutments showed better fit than nonoriginals.
Predicting privacy and security attitudes

While individual differences in decision-making have been examined within the social sciences for several decades, this research has only recently begun to be applied by computer scientists to examine privacy and security attitudes (and ultimately behaviors). Specifically, several researchers have shown how different online privacy decisions are correlated with the "Big Five" personality traits. However, in our own research, we show that the five factor model is actually a weak predictor of privacy preferences and behaviors, and that other well-studied individual differences in the psychology literature are much stronger predictors. We describe the results of several experiments that showed how decision-making style and risk-taking attitudes are strong predictors of privacy attitudes, as well as a new scale that we developed to measure security behavior intentions. Finally, we show that privacy and security attitudes are correlated, but orthogonal.
Incorporation of Exogenous RGD Peptide and Inter-Species Blending as Strategies for Enhancing Human Corneal Limbal Epithelial Cell Growth on Bombyx mori Silk Fibroin Membranes

While fibroin isolated from the cocoons of domesticated silkworm Bombyx mori supports growth of human corneal limbal epithelial (HLE) cells, the mechanism of cell attachment remains unclear. In the present study we sought to enhance the attachment of HLE cells to membranes of Bombyx mori silk fibroin (BMSF) through surface functionalization with an arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD)-containing peptide. Moreover, we have examined the response of HLE cells to BMSF when blended with the fibroin produced by a wild silkworm, Antheraea pernyi, which is known to contain RGD sequences within its primary structure. A procedure to isolate A. pernyi silk fibroin (APSF) from the cocoons was established, and blends of the two fibroins were prepared at five different BMSF/APSF ratios. In another experiment, BMSF surface was modified by binding chemically the GRGDSPC peptide using a water-soluble carbodiimide. Primary HLE were grown in the absence of serum on membranes made of BMSF, APSF, and their blends, as well as on RGD-modified BMSF. There was no statistically significant enhancing effect on the cell attachment due to the RGD presence. This suggests that the adhesion through RGD ligands may have a complex mechanism, and the investigated strategies are of limited value unless the factors contributing to this mechanism become better known.
Short term synaptic depression improves information transfer in perceptual multistability

Competitive neural networks are often used to model the dynamics of perceptual bistability. Switching between percepts can occur through fluctuations and/or a slow adaptive process. Here, we analyze switching statistics in competitive networks with short term synaptic depression and noise. We start by analyzing a ring model that yields spatially structured solutions and complement this with a study of a space-free network whose populations are coupled with mutual inhibition. Dominance times arising from depression driven switching can be approximated using a separation of timescales in the ring and space-free model. For purely noise-driven switching, we derive approximate energy functions to justify how dominance times are exponentially related to input strength. We also show that a combination of depression and noise generates realistic distributions of dominance times. Unimodal functions of dominance times are more easily told apart by sampling, so switches induced by synaptic depression induced provide more information about stimuli than noise-driven switching. Finally, we analyze a competitive network model of perceptual tristability, showing depression generates a history-dependence in dominance switching.
Software-defined traffic load balancing for cost-effective data center interconnection service

For interconnection between geographically-separated data centers, network carriers typically implement multiple optical paths in a wide-area network. For example, when transmission wavelengths have 100 Gb/s granularity, three 100 Gb/s wavelength paths are provisioned to satisfy a customer demand of 300 Gb/s. Over the multiple provisioned paths, interconnection traffic is typically distributed using per-flow hashing, which results in an uneven distribution of traffic caused by hash collisions. For a relatively-few number of high-bandwidth traffic flows (> 1 Gb/s) between data center locations, per-flow hashing can perform poorly in terms of bandwidth utilization and availability. We propose new software-defined traffic load balancer, SD-TLB, that performs measurement-based flow distribution over multiple optical paths, with an implicit impairment detection method using per-port statistics on available paths and a flow redistributor that is immediately adjusted to the current network state. While our approach does not provide the same level of protection as 1+1 optical protection, it can provide the necessary redundancy for data center inter-connection at a lower cost. We experimentally implement the SD-TLB using ASIC-based switches and open virtual switches interconnected by wavelength-division multiplexed transport network test-bed. The experimental results show that SD-TLB outperforms today's hashing-based alternatives in balancing, throughput, and restoration in the presence of outages and impairments and as a result achieves improved cost-efficiency.
Pedestrian detection aided by scale-discriminative network

Deep learning is greatly successful when used for pedestrian detection. However, we find that this method is barely satisfactory for multi-scale detection. Meanwhile, various solutions such as multi-scale classifiers have been developed (based on traditional methods) to handle this situation. Considering this, we propose a scale-discriminative classifier layer (SDC) that contains numerous classifiers to cope with different scales. To expand the capacity for small-scale pedestrian detection, we construct a full-scale layer that converges both high-level semantic features and low-level features. From the analysis above, a scale-discriminative network (SDN) for pedestrian detection was born. We apply this network to the Caltech pedestrian dataset, and the experimental results show that the SDN achieves state-of-the-art performance.
When cloud meets eBay: Towards effective pricing for cloud computing

The rapid deployment of cloud computing promises network users with elastic, abundant, and on-demand cloud services. The pay-as-you-go model allows users to be charged only for services they use. Current purchasing designs, however, are still primitive with significant constraints. Spot Instance, the first deployed auction-style pricing model of Amazon EC2, fails to enforce fair competition among users in facing of resource scarcity and may thus lead to untruthful bidding and unfair resource allocation. Dishonest users are able to abuse the system and obtain (at least) short-term advantages by deliberately setting large maximum price bids while being charged only at lower Spot Prices. Meanwhile, this may also prevent the demands of honest users from being satisfied due to resource scarcity. Furthermore, Spot Instance is inefficient and may not adequately meet users' overall demands because it limits users to bid for each computing instance individually instead of multiple different instances at a time. In this paper, we formulate and investigate the problem of cloud resource pricing. We propose a suite of computationally efficient and truthful auction-style pricing mechanisms, which enable users to fairly compete for resources and cloud providers to increase their overall revenue. We analytically show that the proposed algorithms can achieve truthfulness without collusion or (t, p)-truthfulness tolerating a collusion group of size t with probability at least p. We also show that the two proposed algorithms have polynomial complexities O(nm + n2) and O(nm), respectively, when n users compete for m different computing instances with multiple units. Extensive simulations show that, in a competitive cloud resource market, the proposed mechanisms can increase the revenue of cloud providers, especially when allocating relatively limited computing resources to a potentially large number of cloud users.
Selective induction of Fos and FRA immunoreactivity within the mesolimbic and mesostriatal dopamine terminal fields

The influence of the mesencephalic dopaminergic projections on the neurons within the basal forebrain and prefrontal cortex is not well understood although it has been intensely investigated. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the expression of Fos‐like and FRA‐like (Fos Related Antigens) immunoreactivity (IR) as a qualitative and quantitative marker of neuronal activity within the mesolimbic and mesostriatal dopamine terminal fields. Following the administration of apomorphine (5.0 mg/kg S.C.), a rapid increase in FRA‐IR, accompanied by Fos‐IR, was observed within the striatum in a patchy distribution. Apomorphine also induced the expression of FRA‐IR within the nucleus accumbens, cortex, septum, and the islands of Calleja complex. This broad pattern of activation contrasts with the limited expression of Fos‐IR and FRA‐IR within the dorsolateral striatum, dorsomedial shell of the nucleus accumbens, and cingulate cortex following haloperidol administration (2.0 mg/kg, S.C.). Finally, it was observed that nuclei expressed Fos‐IR rapidly and transiently within the striatum following haloperidol, whereas the number of FRA‐IR nuclei remained elevated but changed in distribution and intensity over time. In conclusion, different regions within the dopamine terminal fields express varying concentrations of Fos‐IR and FRA‐IR after stimulation or blockade of dopamine receptors. These data indicate that Fos, as well as selective FRAs, can be used to delineate populations of neurons with altered metabolic activity resulting from the administration of dopaminergic agents. Furthermore, the data support the concept of segregated mesostriatal and mesolimbic projections, in particular the divison of the nucleus accumbens into the shell and core compartments. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.