Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ontology-Based User Profiles for Search and Browsing

As the number of Internet users and the number of accessible Web pages grows, it is becoming increasingly difficult for users to find documents that are relevant to their particular needs. Users must either browse through a large hierarchy of con cepts to find the information for which they are looking or submit a query to a publicly available search engine and wade through hundreds of results, most of them irrelevant. The core of the problem is that whether the user is browsing or searching, whet her they are an eighth grade student or a Nobel prize winner, the identical information is selected and it is presented the same way. In this paper, we report on research that adapts information navigation based on a user profile structured as a weighted concept hierarchy. A user may create his or her own concept hierarchy and use them for browsing Web sites. Or, the user profile may be created from a reference ontology by ‘watching over the user’s shoulder’ while they browse. We show that these automati cally created profiles reflect the user’s interests quite well and they are able to produce moderate improvements when applied to search results. Current work is investigating the interaction between the user profiles and conceptual search wherein documents are indexed by their concepts in addition to their keywords.
[Test-retest and interobserver reliability of a Spanish version (MMSE-37) of the Folstein minimental test, adapted to populations with a low level of schooling].

INTRODUCTION Several versions of Folstein's minimental test (MMSE, Minimental State Examination) exist in Spanish. One of them is the 37-point MMSE (MMSE-37), which is adapted to people with a low cultural level. AIM. To study the interobserver and test-retest reliability of the MMSE-37. PATIENTS AND METHODS Interobserver reliability was studied in three professional observers who simultaneously administered the MMSE-37 to 40 patients from a community setting. Test-retest reliability was obtained in 35 patients by administering the MMSE-37 on two occasions 2-3 months apart. Statistics used: intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), Bland-Altman difference plot method, and kappa index. RESULTS Interobserver reliability study: multiple ICC of 0.99 (95% confidence interval, CI 95% = 0.99-0.99); kappa index of 0.84 (CI 95% = 0.72-0.97); the degree of agreement between the individual responses was 1 for 'pathological outcome', 0.79 for 'probably pathological outcome', 0.37 for 'probably normal outcome' and 0.89 for 'normal outcome'; ICC > 0.99 (CI 95% = 0.99-0.99) between all the pairs of observers. The systematic differences in the mean score between the pairs of observers did not exceed the score of 0.1, which represents a bias of 0.47% after removing the scale. Test-retest reliability study: ICC of 0.92 (CI 95% = 0.87-0.96), kappa index of 0.84 (CI 95% = 0.54-1.00) and mean difference in the magnitude of disagreement of 0.34 (CI 95% = -2.80-3.49), 1% of the percent error in the magnitude of the disagreement. CONCLUSIONS The MMSE-37 shows a high degree of test-retest reliability and reliability among professional observers, as in other versions of the MMSE.
Measuring professional identity formation early in medical school

Abstract Aim: To assess the feasibility and utility of measuring baseline professional identity formation (PIF) in a theory-based professionalism curriculum for early medical students. Methods: All 132 entering students completed the professional identity essay (PIE) and the defining issues test (DIT2). Students received score reports with individualized narrative feedback and wrote a structured reflection after a large-group session in which the PIF construct was reviewed. Analysis of PIEs resulted in assignment of a full or transitional PIF stage (1–5). The DIT2 score reflects the proportion of the time students used universal ethical principles to justify a response to 6 moral dilemma cases. Students’ reflections were content analyzed. Results: PIF scores were distributed across stage 2/3, stage 3, stage 3/4, and stage 4. No student scores were in stages 1, 2, 4/5, or 5. The mean DIT2 score was 53% (range 9.7? 76.5%); the correlation between PIF stage and DIT score was ρ = 0.18 (p = 0.03). Students who took an analytic approach to the data and demonstrated both awareness that they are novices and anticipation of continued PIF tended to respond more positively to the feedback. Conclusions: These PIF scores distributed similarly to novice students in other professions. Developmental-theory based PIF and moral reasoning measures are related. Students reflected on these measures in meaningful ways suggesting utility of measuring PIF scores in medical education.
Dengue Reporter Virus Particles for Measuring Neutralizing Antibodies against Each of the Four Dengue Serotypes

The lack of reliable, high-throughput tools for characterizing anti-dengue virus (DENV) antibodies in large numbers of serum samples has been an obstacle in understanding the impact of neutralizing antibodies on disease progression and vaccine efficacy. A reporter system using pseudoinfectious DENV reporter virus particles (RVPs) was previously developed by others to facilitate the genetic manipulation and biological characterization of DENV virions. In the current study, we demonstrate the diagnostic utility of DENV RVPs for measuring neutralizing antibodies in human serum samples against all four DENV serotypes, with attention to the suitability of DENV RVPs for large-scale, long-term studies. DENV RVPs used against human sera yielded serotype-specific responses and reproducible neutralization titers that were in statistical agreement with Plaque Reduction Neutralization Test (PRNT) results. DENV RVPs were also used to measure neutralization titers against the four DENV serotypes in a panel of human sera from a clinical study of dengue patients. The high-throughput capability, stability, rapidity, and reproducibility of assays using DENV RVPs offer advantages for detecting immune responses that can be applied to large-scale clinical studies of DENV infection and vaccination.
The role of the amygdala in social behavior and alcoholism

Alcoholism is a major health risk, since 4% of all deaths worldwide are attributed to alcohol. The development of alcoholism is influenced by genetic, psychosocial and environmental factors. The reward feeling, derived of alcohol consumption, can also stimulate the development of an alcohol problem. This reward is mediated by the mesolimbic reward pathway in the brain. Social behavior, especially social play, can also result in a reward feeling and there is a relation between social behavior and alcohol. This relation is most clearly seen in adolescents, where alcohol facilitates social behavior and where a social environment can support alcohol use, presumably by emphasizing the positive effects of alcohol. Much research is done towards the underlying mechanisms of alcohol use, social behavior and the relation between the two. Of particular interest in this respect is the research on prairie voles that display strong social bonds and have a high preference for alcohol that is related to social behavior. Based on different studies it turned out that low doses of alcohol can support play behavior, presumably by the release of opioids. One of the brain structures involved in social play and alcohol is the amygdala, which contributes to the rewarding effects of both. The amygdala is also involved in the sex differences of social play, and with respect to alcohol it might also play a role in the positive and negative reinforcing effects of alcohol, which suggest a regulating function of the amygdala. Furthermore, there was an increased expression of the adapter protein 14-3-3 found in the amygdala during escalated alcohol intake, which might confirm the regulating role of the amygdala on alcohol intake. However, there is more research needed towards this effect and if the amygdala has indeed a regulating role, it might be a potential target for a treatment of alcoholism, perhaps via the stimulating effects of social play on the amygdala.
Does improving sleep lead to better mental health? A protocol for a meta-analytic review of randomised controlled trials

Introduction Sleep and mental health go hand-in-hand, with many, if not all, mental health problems being associated with problems sleeping. Although sleep has been traditionally conceptualised as a secondary consequence of mental health problems, contemporary views prescribe a more influential, causal role of sleep in the formation and maintenance of mental health problems. One way to evaluate this assertion is to examine the extent to which interventions that improve sleep also improve mental health. Method and analysis Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) describing the effects of interventions designed to improve sleep on mental health will be identified via a systematic search of four bibliographic databases (in addition to a search for unpublished literature). Hedges’ g and associated 95% CIs will be computed from means and SDs where possible. Following this, meta-analysis will be used to synthesise the effect sizes from the primary studies and investigate the impact of variables that could potentially moderate the effects. The Jadad scale for reporting RCTs will be used to assess study quality and publication bias will be assessed via visual inspection of a funnel plot and Egger’s test alongside Orwin’s fail-safe n. Finally, mediation analysis will be used to investigate the extent to which changes in outcomes relating to mental health can be attributed to changes in sleep quality. Ethics and dissemination This study requires no ethical approval. The findings will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal and promoted to relevant stakeholders. PROSPERO registration number CRD42017055450.
Analysis of MRE11's function in the 5′→3′ processing of DNA double-strand breaks

The resection of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) into 3′ single-strand tails is the initiating step of homology-dependent repair pathways. A key player in this process is the MRE11-RAD50-NBS1 complex, but its contribution to and mechanistic role in resection are not well understood. In this study, we took advantage of the Xenopus egg extract system to address these questions. We found that depletion of MRE11 caused a dramatic inhibition of 5′-resection, even for the first nucleotide at the 5′-end. Depletion of Xenopus CtIP also inhibited 5′-strand resection, but this inhibition could be alleviated by excess MRN. Both MRE11 and CtIP could be bypassed by a DNA that carried a 3′-ss-tail. Finally, using purified proteins, we found that MRN could stimulate both the WRN-DNA2-RPA pathway and the EXO1 pathway of resection. These findings provide important insights into the function of MRE11 in 5′-strand resection.
OVERVIEW OF ROTARY FLOW VISUALIZATION RESULTS ON THE F/A-18 AIRCRAFT

To understand the physics of the complex vortex flow field of the F/A-18 aircraft during maneuvering at high incidences, a series of flow visualizations were conducted in the IAR 0.38 x 0.51m water tunnel. A 1/72-scale model was tested on the new orbital-platform rotary apparatus at angles of attack from 20o to 65o with sideslip angles in the range 10. It was found that the aerodynamic behaviour of the F/A-18 aircraft is dominated by forebody/LEX vortex interactions. Strong or weak leeward vortex interactions occur at different rotation rates and sideslip angles, causing non-linear lateral-directional aerodynamic behaviour. The boundaries of the threshold rotation rates at post-stall angles of attack and non-zero sideslip have been defined by the flow visualization results. Asymmetric forebody vortex shedding occurred at 57.5o 65o under static conditions. The rotary vortex flow field exhibits hysteretic behaviour over the range of steady rotation rates.
Increased ictal perfusion of the thalamus in paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia

The ictal and interictal cerebral blood flow (CBF) were evaluated in a patient with right unilateral short lasting paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia, by means of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). The patient was a 6 year old boy with no family history. During an attack, increased CBF was seen in the left thalamus. Subtraction of interictal CBF from ictal CBF disclosed a prominent increase in CBF in the left posterolateral part of the thalamus. This finding suggests that abnormal hyperactivity of thalamic neurons could be responsible for the pathophysiology of paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia in this patient.
Democracy at Work: Moving Beyond Elections to Improve Well-Being

How does democracy work to improve well-being? In this article, we disentangle the component parts of democratic practice—elections, civic participation, expansion of social provisioning, local administrative capacity—to identify their relationship with well-being. We draw from the citizenship debates to argue that democratic practices allow citizens to gain access to a wide range of rights, which then serve as the foundation for improving social well-being. Our analysis of an original dataset covering over 5,550 Brazilian municipalities from 2006 to 2013 demonstrates that competitive elections alone do not explain variation in infant mortality rates, one outcome associated with well-being. We move beyond elections to show how participatory institutions, social programs, and local state capacity can interact to buttress one another and reduce infant mortality rates. It is important to note that these relationships are independent of local economic growth, which also influences infant mortality. The result of our thorough analysis offers a new understanding of how different aspects of democracy work together to improve a key feature of human development.
Histamine elevates free intracellular calcium in mouse retinal dopaminergic cells via H1-receptors.

PURPOSE Previously, retinopetal axons containing histamine and dopaminergic neurons expressing histamine H(1)-receptor had been localized in mouse retinas using anatomic techniques. The goal of these experiments was to demonstrate that these receptors are functional. METHODS Dopaminergic cells were acutely isolated from retinas of transgenic mice expressing red fluorescent protein under control of the tyrosine hydroxylase promoter and loaded with the calcium indicator Fura-2. RESULTS Under control conditions, there were spontaneous oscillations in the levels of free intracellular calcium in dopaminergic cells. These oscillations were abolished in nominally calcium-free extracellular medium and in 1 μM tetrodotoxin, findings suggesting that the oscillations were mediated by calcium entry across the plasma membrane in response to sodium-dependent action potentials. Histamine increased the mean free intracellular calcium in the dopaminergic cells by increasing the frequency and/or amplitude of the calcium oscillations. The effects of histamine were dose-dependent and reached maximum at 5 μM. With this dose, there was a 65% increase in the mean free intracellular calcium concentration. The histamine H(1)-receptor antagonist, pyrilamine, blocked the effects of 5 μM histamine when applied at 50 μM. The selective histamine H(1)-receptor agonists, 2-(3-trifluoromethylphenyl) histamine and methylhistaprodifen significantly increased mean free intracellular calcium when applied at 5 μM. CONCLUSIONS Histamine released from retinopetal axons in the mouse retina can elevate intracellular calcium levels in the perikarya of dopaminergic cells via the activation of histamine H(1)-receptors.
TLR9 agonist acts by different mechanisms synergizing with bevacizumab in sensitive and cetuximab-resistant colon cancer xenografts

Synthetic agonists of Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), a class of agents that induce specific immune response, exhibit antitumor activity and are currently being investigated in cancer patients. Intriguingly, their mechanisms of action on tumor growth and angiogenesis are still incompletely understood. We recently discovered that a synthetic agonist of TLR9, immune modulatory oligonucleotide (IMO), acts by impairing epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling and potently synergizes with anti-EGFR antibody cetuximab in GEO human colon cancer xenografts, whereas it is ineffective in VEGF-overexpressing cetuximab-resistant GEO cetuximab-resistant (GEO-CR) tumors. VEGF is activated by EGFR, and its overexpression causes resistance to EGFR inhibitors. Therefore, we used IMO and the anti-VEGF antibody bevacizumab as tools to study IMO's role on EGFR and angiogenesis and to explore its therapeutic potential in GEO, LS174T, and GEO-CR cancer xenografts. We found that IMO enhances the antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) activity of cetuximab, that bevacizumab has no ADCC, and IMO is unable to enhance it. Nevertheless, the IMO-plus-bevacizumab combination synergistically inhibits the growth of GEO and LS174T as well as of GEO-CR tumors, preceded by inhibition of signaling protein expression, microvessel formation, and human, but not murine, VEGF secretion. Moreover, IMO inhibited the growth, adhesion, migration, and capillary formation of VEGF-stimulated endothelial cells. The antitumor activity was irrespective of the TLR9 expression on tumor cells. These studies demonstrate that synthetic agonists of TLR9 interfere with growth and angiogenesis also by EGFR- and ADCC-independent mechanisms affecting endothelial cell functions and provide a strong rationale to combine IMO with bevacizumab and EGFR inhibitory drugs in colon cancer patients.
Interactions of Attention, Stimulus Conflict, and Multisensory Processing

iv List of Tables . xiv List of Figures . xv Acknowledgements . xvii 1. General Introduction . 1 1.1 Multisensory Integration . 3 1.1.1 Temporal integration of multisensory stimuli . 5 1.1.2 Spatial integration of multisensory stimuli . 9 1.1.3 Inverse effectiveness . 12 1.1.4 Semantic information and multisensory interactions . 13 1.1. 5 The emergence of multisensory processing . 16 1.2 Conflict . 18 1.2. 1 Neural signatures of conflict processing . 19 1.2. 2 Conflict monitoring/cognitive control . 22 1.2. 3 Supramodal aspects of conflict processing? 24 1.2. 3 Other aspects of conflict processing . 25 1.3 Attention . 25 1.3. 1 Attention and multisensory processing . 28 1.3. 2 Attention and conflict processing . 30 1.4 Individual differences and experience . 32
An Architecture for Online Affordance‐based Perception and Whole‐body Planning

The DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials held in December 2013 provided a landmark demonstration of dexterous mobile robots executing a variety of tasks aided by a remote human operator using only data from the robot's sensor suite transmitted over a constrained, field‐realistic communications link. We describe the design considerations, architecture, implementation, and performance of the software that Team MIT developed to command and control an Atlas humanoid robot. Our design emphasized human interaction with an efficient motion planner, where operators expressed desired robot actions in terms of affordances fit using perception and manipulated in a custom user interface. We highlight several important lessons we learned while developing our system on a highly compressed schedule.
Use of a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment to Predict Short-Term Postoperative Outcome in Elderly Patients With Colorectal Cancer

Purpose This study was conducted to identify the effectiveness of a preoperative comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) for predicting postoperative morbidity in elderly patients who underwent surgery for colorectal cancer. Methods Elderly patients (≥70 years old) who underwent surgery for colorectal cancer at a tertiary hospital in Korea were identified, and their cases were analyzed using data from a prospectively collected database to establish an association between major postsurgical complications and 'high-risk' patient as defined by the CGA. Results A total of 240 patients, with a mean age of 76.7 ± 5.2 years, were enrolled. Ninety-five patients (39.6%) were classified as "high-risk" and 99 patients (41.3%) as having postoperative complications. The univariate analysis indicated that risk factors for postoperative complications were age, American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status classification, serum hemoglobin, carcinoembryonic antigen, cancer stage, and "high-risk" status. The multivariable analyses indicated that "high-risk" status (odds ratio, 2.107; 95% confidence interval, 1.168–3.804; P = 0.013) and elevated preoperative carcinoembryonic antigen (odds ratio, 2.561; 95% confidence interval, 1.346–4.871, P = 0.004) were independently associated with postoperative complications. A multivariable analysis of the individual CGA domains indicated that high comorbidities and low activities of daily living were significantly related with postoperative complications. Conclusion A preoperative CGA indicating "high-risk" was associated with major postoperative complications in elderly patients who underwent surgery for colorectal cancer. Thus, using the CGA to identify elderly colorectal-cancer patients who should be given more care during postoperative management may be clinically beneficial.
A Partial Intensity Invariant Feature Descriptor for Multimodal Retinal Image Registration

Detection of vascular bifurcations is a challenging task in multimodal retinal image registration. Existing algorithms based on bifurcations usually fail in correctly aligning poor quality retinal image pairs. To solve this problem, we propose a novel highly distinctive local feature descriptor named partial intensity invariant feature descriptor (PIIFD) and describe a robust automatic retinal image registration framework named Harris-PIIFD. PIIFD is invariant to image rotation, partially invariant to image intensity, affine transformation, and viewpoint/perspective change. Our Harris-PIIFD framework consists of four steps. First, corner points are used as control point candidates instead of bifurcations since corner points are sufficient and uniformly distributed across the image domain. Second, PIIFDs are extracted for all corner points, and a bilateral matching technique is applied to identify corresponding PIIFDs matches between image pairs. Third, incorrect matches are removed and inaccurate matches are refined. Finally, an adaptive transformation is used to register the image pairs. PIIFD is so distinctive that it can be correctly identified even in nonvascular areas. When tested on 168 pairs of multimodal retinal images, the Harris-PIIFD far outperforms existing algorithms in terms of robustness, accuracy, and computational efficiency.
Two Systems for the Detection of Melanomas in Dermoscopy Images Using Texture and Color Features

Melanoma is one of the deadliest forms of cancer; hence, great effort has been put into the development of diagnosis methods for this disease. This paper addresses two different systems for the detection of melanomas in dermoscopy images. The first system uses global methods to classify skin lesions, whereas the second system uses local features and the bag-of-features classifier. This paper aims at determining the best system for skin lesion classification. The other objective is to compare the role of color and texture features in lesion classification and determine which set of features is more discriminative. It is concluded that color features outperform texture features when used alone and that both methods achieve very good results, i.e., Sensitivity = 96% and Specificity = 80% for global methods against Sensitivity = 100% and Specificity = 75% for local methods. The classification results were obtained on a data set of 176 dermoscopy images from Hospital Pedro Hispano, Matosinhos.