Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
White matter integrity and cognition in childhood and old age

Objective: To test the hypothesis that white matter integrity, as measured by diffusion tensor and magnetization transfer MRI is significantly associated with cognitive ability measured in youth and old age. Methods: Forty, nondemented, surviving participants of the Scottish Mental Survey of 1932 underwent brain MRI and a battery of psychometric tests covering major cognitive domains and tests of information processing efficiency. IQ scores were available from age 11. Mean diffusivity, fractional anisotropy (FA), and magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) were measured in frontal and parieto-occipital white matter and centrum semiovale. Results: Centrum semiovale FA correlated (r = 0.36 to 0.56; p < 0.02) with contemporaneous (age 83) scores on psychometric tests of nonverbal reasoning, working memory, executive function, and information processing efficiency. Centrum semiovale FA also correlated with IQ at age 11 (r = 0.37; p = 0.02). Controlling for IQ at age 11 and information processing at age 83 attenuated the association between centrum semiovale FA and general cognitive ability by approximately 85%. MTR, largely, did not show significant correlations with cognitive test scores. Conclusions: These data support the information processing efficiency hypothesis of cognitive aging and suggest one foundation for individual differences in processing efficiency. They also suggest that studies of imaging and cognition in the elderly should take into account prior mental ability rather than assuming that any associations between imaging parameters and cognitive test scores are the result of age-related changes.
Functional Specificity of Extracellular Nucleases of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1

ABSTRACT Bacterial species such as Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 require extracellular nucleolytic activity for the utilization of extracellular DNA (eDNA) as a source of nutrients and for the turnover of eDNA as a structural matrix component during biofilm formation. We have previously characterized two extracellular nucleases of S. oneidensis MR-1, ExeM and ExeS. Although both are involved in biofilm formation, they are not specifically required for the utilization of eDNA as a nutrient. Here we identified and characterized EndA, a third extracellular nuclease of Shewanella. The heterologously overproduced and purified protein was highly active and rapidly degraded linear and supercoiled DNAs of various origins. Divalent metal ions (Mg2+ or Mn2+) were required for function. endA is cotranscribed with phoA, an extracellular phosphatase, and is not upregulated upon phosphostarvation. Deletion of endA abolished both extracellular degradation of DNA by S. oneidensis MR-1 and the ability to use eDNA as a sole source of phosphorus. PhoA is not strictly required for the exploitation of eDNA as a nutrient. The activity of EndA prevents the formation of large cell aggregates during planktonic growth. However, in contrast to the findings for ExeM, endA deletion had only minor effects on biofilm formation. The findings strongly suggest that the extracellular nucleases of S. oneidensis exert specific functions required under different conditions.
Low-Power System Design for MPEG-2/4 AAC Audio Decoder Using Pure ASIC Approach

This paper presents an implementation of a low-power and pure-hardware advanced-audio-coding (AAC) audio decoder system. Based on the characteristics of each decoding block, the AAC system is partitioned into four separate modules. For low-power and low-complexity considerations, architectural- and algorithmic-level approaches are adopted in both individual modules and whole system. In parallel PLA-based codeword decoder, we achieve a constant output rate of Huffman decoding in 2.5 cycles for the worst case, and memory usage is decreased compared to that in the binary-tree memory-based method. In reduced lookup table inverse quantizer, a table lookup with interpolation scheme is adopted which reduces the size of the lookup table from 8192 to 256. In hardware-shared signal processor, we use a hardware-sharing technique which integrates several similar blocks into a common hardware to reduce cost and enhance hardware utilization. In fully pipelined filterbank, a fast algorithm decreases the numbers of multiplication and addition largely to factors of 24 and 144 for the short and long blocks, respectively. A corresponding hardware for filterbank processing is proposed with fully pipelined architecture. Referring to stereo processing, a single hardware is shared for the channel pairs with low-cost consideration. The hardware operations of each module are well scheduled with high utilization of pipeline, and furthermore, the parallel processing among blocks is joined to increase efficiency. A 48% power savings can be reached by using the pipeline and parallel techniques of the channel pair. The proposed AAC decoder is realized in UMC 0.18-mum 1P6M technology and is operated at only 3 MHz in the worst case. The power dissipation is only 2.45 mW at the sampling frequency of 44.1 kHz.
The theory of laser materials processing : heat and mass transfer in modern technology

Mathematics in Laser Processing. - Simulation of Laser Cutting. - Keyhole Welding: The Solid and Liquid Phases. - Laser Keyhole Welding: The Vapour Phase. - Basic Concepts of Laser Drilling. - Arc Welding and Hybrid Laser-Arc Welding. - Metallurgy of Welding and Hardening. - Laser Cladding. - Laser Forming. - Femtosecond Laser Pulse Interactions with Metals. - Comprehensive Numerical Simulation of Laser Materials Processing.
Functional Network Connectivity Patterns between Idiopathic Generalized Epilepsy with Myoclonic and Absence Seizures

The extensive cerebral cortex and subcortical structures are considered as the major regions related to the generalized epileptiform discharges in idiopathic generalized epilepsy. However, various clinical syndromes and electroencephalogram (EEG) signs exist across generalized seizures, such as the loss of consciousness during absence seizures (AS) and the jerk of limbs during myoclonic seizures (MS). It is presumed that various functional systems affected by discharges lead to the difference in syndromes of these seizures. Twenty epileptic patients with MS, 21 patients with AS, and 21 healthy controls were recruited in this study. The functional network connectivity was analyzed based on the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. The statistical analysis was performed in three groups to assess the difference in the functional brain networks in two types of generalized seizures. Twelve resting-state networks were identified in three groups. Both patient groups showed common abnormalities, including decreased functional connectivity in salience network (SN), cerebellum network, and primary perceptional networks and decreased connection between SN and visual network, compared with healthy controls. Interestingly, the frontal part of high-level cognitive resting-state networks showed increased functional connectivity (FC) in patients with MS, but decreased FC in patients with AS. Moreover, patients with MS showed decreased negative connections between high-level cognitive networks and primary system. The common alteration in both patient groups, including SN, might reflect a similar mechanism associated with the loss of consciousness during generalized seizures. This study provided the evidence of brain network in generalized epilepsy to understand the difference between MS and AS.
A real-time EEG-based BCI system for attention recognition in ubiquitous environment

Several types of biological signal, such as Electroencephalogram (EEG), electrooculogram(EOG), electrocardiogram(ECG), electromyogram (EMG), skin temperature variation and electrodermal activity, may be used to measure a human subject's attention level. Generally electroencephalogram (EEG) is considered the most effective and objective indicator of attention level. However, few systems based on EEG have actually been developed to measure attention levels. In this paper we describe a pervasive system, based on an electroencephalogram (EEG) Brain-Computer Interface, which measures attention level. After demonstrating the effectiveness of our system we then go on to compare our approach with traditional approaches. In our study, three attention levels were classified by a KNN classifier based on the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) model. In our experiment, subjects were given several mental tasks to undertake and asked to report on their attention level during the tasks using a set of attention classifications. The average accuracy rate is shown to reach 57.03% after seven sessions' EEG training. Moreover, our system works in real-time while maintaining this accuracy. This is demonstrated by our time performance evaluation results which show that the time latency is short enough for our system to recognize attention in real-time.
ICES IN THE QUIESCENT IC 5146 DENSE CLOUD

This paper presents spectra in the 2 to 20 μm range of quiescent cloud material located in the IC 5146 cloud complex. The spectra were obtained with NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility SpeX instrument and the Spitzer Space Telescope's Infrared Spectrometer. We use these spectra to investigate dust and ice absorption features in pristine regions of the cloud that are unaltered by embedded stars. We find that the H2O-ice threshold extinction is 4.03 ± 0.05 mag. Once foreground extinction is taken into account, however, the threshold drops to 3.2 mag, equivalent to that found for the Taurus dark cloud, generally assumed to be the touchstone quiescent cloud against which all other dense cloud and embedded young stellar object observations are compared. Substructure in the trough of the silicate band for two sources is attributed to CH3OH and NH3 in the ices, present at the ∼2% and ∼5% levels, respectively, relative to H2O-ice. The correlation of the silicate feature with the E(J − K) color excess is found to follow a much shallower slope relative to lines of sight that probe diffuse clouds, supporting the previous results by Chiar et al.
Flexible dynamic coordinated scheduling in virtual-RAN deployments

Using Coordinated Scheduling (CS), eNodeBs in a cellular network dynamically agree on which Resource Blocks (not) to use, so as to reduce the interference, especially for cell-edge users. This paper describes a software framework that allows dynamic CS to occur among a relatively large number of nodes, as part of a more general framework of network management devised within the Flex5Gware project. The benefits of dynamic CS, in terms of spectrum efficiency and resource saving, are illustrated by means of simulation and with live measurements on a prototype implementation using virtualized eNodeBs.
ABCG2 and ABCB1 Limit the Efficacy of Dasatinib in a PDGF-B–Driven Brainstem Glioma Model

Dasatinib is a multikinase inhibitor in clinical trials for glioma, and thus far has failed to demonstrate significant efficacy. We investigated whether the ABC efflux transporters ABCG2 and ABCB1 expressed in the blood–brain barrier (BBB), are limiting the efficacy of dasatinib in the treatment of glioma using genetic and pharmacologic approaches. We utilized a genetic brainstem glioma mouse model driven by platelet-derived growth factor-B and p53 loss using abcg2/abcb1 wild-type (ABC WT) or abcg2/abcb1 knockout mice (ABC KO). First, we observed that brainstem glioma tumor latency is significantly prolonged in ABC KO versus ABC WT mice (median survival of 47 vs. 34 days). Dasatinib treatment nearly doubles the survival of brainstem glioma-bearing ABC KO mice (44 vs. 80 days). Elacridar, an ABCG2 and ABCB1 inhibitor, significantly increases the efficacy of dasatinib in brainstem glioma-bearing ABC WT mice (42 vs. 59 days). Pharmacokinetic analysis demonstrates that dasatinib delivery into the normal brain, but not into the tumor core, is significantly increased in ABC KO mice compared with ABC WT mice. Surprisingly, elacridar did not significantly increase dasatinib delivery into the normal brain or the tumor core of ABC WT mice. Next, we demonstrate that the tight junctions of the BBB of this model are compromised as assessed by tissue permeability to Texas Red dextran. Finally, elacridar increases the cytotoxicity of dasatinib independent of ABCG2 and ABCB1 expression in vitro. In conclusion, elacridar improves the efficacy of dasatinib in a brainstem glioma model without significantly increasing its delivery to the tumor core. Mol Cancer Ther; 15(5); 819–29. ©2016 AACR.
A Micropower $\Delta\Sigma$-Based Interface ASIC for a Capacitive 3-Axis Micro-Accelerometer

In this paper, a micropower interface IC for a capacitive 3-axis micro-accelerometer is presented. The IC is implemented in a 0.25-mum CMOS process. The fully-integrated sensor interface is based on a DeltaSigma sensor front-end that operates mechanically in an open-loop configuration and converts the acceleration signals directly into the digital domain, thus avoiding the use of separate analog-to-digital converters. A detailed analysis with transfer functions is presented for the front-end circuit. Furthermore, the interface IC includes a decimator, a frequency reference, a clock generator for the front-end, a voltage and current reference, the required reference buffers, and low-dropout regulators (LDOs) needed for system-on-chip power management. The interface IC provides operating modes with 12-bit resolution for 1 and 25 Hz signal bandwidths. The former is optimized for very low power dissipation at the cost of reduced bandwidth, and is intended for example for activity monitoring in otherwise powered-off devices. The chip, with a 1.73 mm2 active area, draws typically 21.2 muA in the 1 Hz mode, and 97.6 muA in the 25 Hz mode, from a 1.2-2.75 V supply. In the 1 and 25 Hz modes with a plusmn 4-g capacitive 3-axis accelerometer, the measured noise floors in the x-, y-, and z-directions are 1080, 1100 and 930 mug/radic{Hz}, and 360, 320 and 275 mug/radic{Hz} , respectively. The implemented prototype achieves competitive figures of merit (FOMs) compared to the other published or commercially available, low-g, low-power accelerometers.
Open Access Research Characterization of the Gxxxg Motif in the First Transmembrane Segment of Japanese Encephalitis Virus Precursor Membrane (prm) Protein

article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons At-tribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract The interaction between prM and E proteins in flavivirus-infected cells is a major driving force for the assembly of flavivirus particles. We used site-directed mutagenesis to study the potential role of the transmembrane domains of the prM proteins of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) in prM-E heterodimerization as well as subviral particle formation. Alanine insertion scanning mutagenesis within the GXXXG motif in the first transmembrane segment of JEV prM protein affected the prM-E heterodimerization; its specificity was confirmed by replacing the two glycines of the GXXXG motif with alanine, leucine and valine. The GXXXG motif was found to be conserved in the JEV serocomplex viruses but not other flavivirus groups. These mutants with alanine inserted in the two prM transmembrane segments all impaired subviral particle formation in cell cultures. The prM transmembrane domains of JEV may play importation roles in prM-E heterodimerization and viral particle assembly. Background Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a small enveloped positive-strand RNA virus that belongs to the genus Fla-vivirus of the family Flaviviridae [1,2]. The RNA genome of all flaviviruses contain sequences that code for three structural protein genes (capsid C, membrane precursor prM, and envelope E) and seven non-structural protein genes (NS1, NS2A, NS2B, NS3, NS4A, NS4B, NS5), as well as flanking un-translated regions [1,2]. The flavivirus assembly process includes (i) interaction of prM and E proteins by heterodimer formation in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), (ii) encapsulation of the genomic RNA by the C protein and enclosure by cell membrane-derived lipid bilayers containing prM and E proteins to form immature virions, and (iii) cleavage of the prM protein to M protein by furin or a furin-like protease in the trans-Golgi network (TGN) to release viral particles. Subviral particles (SPs) that do not contain genomic RNA and protein C have been found in flavivirus-infected cells [3]. Co-expression of prM and E envelope proteins resulted in the formation and secretion of SPs in cell cultures for tick
A Formulation of the Channel Capacity of Multiple-Access Channel

The necessary and sufficient condition of the channel capacity is rigorously formulated for the N -user discrete memoryless multiple-access channel (MAC). The essence is to invoke an elementary MAC where sizes of input alphabets are not greater than the size of output alphabet. The main objective is to demonstrate that the channel capacity of an MAC is achieved by an elementary MAC included in the original MAC. The proof is quite straightforward by the very definition of the elementary MAC. The second objective is to prove that the Kuhn-Tucker conditions of the elementary MAC are sufficient (obviously necessary) for the channel capacity. The latter proof requires two distinctive properties of the MAC: Every solution of the Kuhn-Tucker conditions is a local maximum on the domain of all possible input probability distributions (IPDs), and then particularly for the elementary MAC a set of IPDs for which the value of the mutual information is not smaller than the arbitrary positive number is connected on the domain. As a result, in respect of the channel capacity, the MAC in general can be regarded as an aggregate of a finite number of elementary MACs.
Predictors of microinvasion and its prognostic role in ductal carcinoma in situ.

188 Background: Predictors of microinvasion in ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) are not well understood. We sought to determine factors predicting microinvasion and the prognostic role this plays in patients with DCIS. METHODS A retrospective cohort study of 205 consecutive patients presenting to the Yale Breast Center with DCIS from 2000 through 2003 was performed. A chart review was conducted and bivariate and multivariate analyses comparing patients with and without possible microinvasion were performed. Statistical analyses were done using SPSS software version 19. RESULTS Of the 205 patients who presented with DCIS and were treated with surgical excision, 51 (24.9%) had evidence of possible microinvasion on final pathology. The median age of all patients was 53.0 years (range 35.8 to 88.9). On bivariate analysis, patients with microinvasion had larger areas of DCIS, and were more likely to have high grade DCIS, of solid type, associated with necrosis and microcalcifications (see table). There was a trend towards white women having a higher rate of microinvasion than black women (26.9% vs. 8.7%, p=0.061). On multivariate analysis, none of these factors were independent predictors of microinvasion. With a median follow-up of 8.5 years, there was no difference in the likelihood of recurrence in the microinvasion vs. no microinvasion groups (6.0% vs. 7.2%, p=1.000). 5-year actuarial overall survival was also not different between the two groups (96% vs. 94%, p=0.202, respectively). CONCLUSIONS Patients with larger DCIS size, higher grade, solid histology, necrosis, and microcalcifications have a higher likelihood of microinvasion. However, the presence of possible microinvasion does not significantly increase risk of recurrence or decrease survival. [Table: see text].
Convergence method, properties and computational complexity for Lyapunov games

Convergence method, properties and computational complexity for Lyapunov games We introduce the concept of a Lyapunov game as a subclass of strictly dominated games and potential games. The advantage of this approach is that every ergodic system (repeated game) can be represented by a Lyapunov-like function. A direct acyclic graph is associated with a game. The graph structure represents the dependencies existing between the strategy profiles. By definition, a Lyapunov-like function monotonically decreases and converges to a single Lyapunov equilibrium point identified by the sink of the game graph. It is important to note that in previous works this convergence has not been guaranteed even if the Nash equilibrium point exists. The best reply dynamics result in a natural implementation of the behavior of a Lyapunov-like function. Therefore, a Lyapunov game has also the benefit that it is common knowledge of the players that only best replies are chosen. By the natural evolution of a Lyapunov-like function, no matter what, a strategy played once is not played again. As a construction example, we show that, for repeated games with bounded nonnegative cost functions within the class of differentiable vector functions whose derivatives satisfy the Lipschitz condition, a complex vector-function can be built, where each component is a function of the corresponding cost value and satisfies the condition of the Lyapunov-like function. The resulting vector Lyapunov-like function is a monotonic function which can only decrease over time. Then, a repeated game can be represented by a one-shot game. The functionality of the suggested method is successfully demonstrated by a simulated experiment.
Behaviour of aluminium alloy structures under fire

Abstract In the paper the attention is focused on the influence of high temperatures on the mechanical properties of the aluminium alloys selected by Eurocode 9 for structural uses. Therefore, based on the analysis of existing data taken from technical literature, the variation of the Young's modulus, the conventional yielding strength, the ultimate strength, the hardening factor and the material ultimate strain are represented as a function of the temperature. A mechanical model, based on the well‐known Ramberg‐Osgood formulation, which appropriately takes into account the peculiarities of such materials at high temperatures, is provided. In particular, the combined influence of the hardening factor and temperature on the material stress‐strain relationship is considered and analysed. Then, the proposed model has been introduced in a finite element program, devoted to the global analysis of structures under fire. Finally, the results obtained for a simple portal frame structure, designed with different a.
Retweet Prediction with Attention-based Deep Neural Network

On Twitter-like social media sites, the re-posting statuses or tweets of other users are usually considered to be the key mechanism for spreading information. How to predict whether a tweet will be retweeted by a user has received increasing attention in recent years. Previous methods studied the problem using various linguistic features, personal information of users, and many other manually constructed features to achieve the task. Usually, feature engineering is a laborious task, we require to obtain the external sources and they are difficult or not always available. Recently, deep learning methods have been used in the industry and research community for their ability to learn optimal features automatically and in many tasks, deep learning methods can achieve state-of-the art performance, such as natural language processing, computer vision, image classification and so on. In this work, we proposed a novel attention-based deep neural network to incorporate contextual and social information for this task. We used embeddings to represent the user, the user's attention interests, the author and tweet respectively. To train and evaluate the proposed methods, we also constructed a large dataset collected from Twitter. Experimental results showed that the proposed method could achieve better results than the previous state-of-the-art methods.