Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Structural Principles or Frequency of Use? An ERP Experiment on the Learnability of Consonant Clusters

Phonological knowledge of a language involves knowledge about which segments can be combined under what conditions. Languages vary in the quantity and quality of licensed combinations, in particular sequences of consonants, with Polish being a language with a large inventory of such combinations. The present paper reports on a two-session experiment in which Polish-speaking adult participants learned nonce words with final consonant clusters. The aim was to study the role of two factors which potentially play a role in the learning of phonotactic structures: the phonological principle of sonority (ordering sound segments within the syllable according to their inherent loudness) and the (non-) existence as a usage-based phenomenon. EEG responses in two different time windows (adversely to behavioral responses) show linguistic processing by native speakers of Polish to be sensitive to both distinctions, in spite of the fact that Polish is rich in sonority-violating clusters. In particular, a general learning effect in terms of an N400 effect was found which was demonstrated to be different for sonority-obeying clusters than for sonority-violating clusters. Furthermore, significant interactions of formedness and session, and of existence and session, demonstrate that both factors, the sonority principle and the frequency pattern, play a role in the learning process.
Behavioral / Systems / Cognitive Reinforcement Learning Signals Predict Future Decisions

Optimal behavior in a competitive world requires the flexibility to adapt decision strategies based on recent outcomes. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that this flexibility emerges through a reinforcement learning process, in which reward prediction errors are used dynamically to adjust representations of decision options. We recorded event-related brain potentials (ERPs) while subjects played a strategic economic game against a computer opponent to evaluate how neural responses to outcomes related to subsequent decision-making. Analyses of ERP data focused on the feedback-related negativity (FRN), an outcome-locked potential thought to reflect a neural prediction error signal. Consistent with predictions of a computational reinforcement learning model, we found that the magnitude of ERPs after losing to the computer opponent predicted whether subjects would change decision behavior on the subsequent trial. Furthermore, FRNs to decision outcomes were disproportionately larger over the motor cortex contralateral to the response hand that was used to make the decision. These findings provide novel evidence
A Low T Regulatory Cell Response May Contribute to Both Viral Control and Generalized Immune Activation in HIV Controllers

HIV-infected individuals maintaining undetectable viremia in the absence of therapy (HIV controllers) often maintain high HIV-specific T cell responses, which has spurred the development of vaccines eliciting HIV-specific T cell responses. However, controllers also often have abnormally high T cell activation levels, potentially contributing to T cell dysfunction, CD4+ T cell depletion, and non-AIDS morbidity. We hypothesized that a weak T regulatory cell (Treg) response might contribute to the control of viral replication in HIV controllers, but might also contribute to generalized immune activation, contributing to CD4+ T cell loss. To address these hypotheses, we measured frequencies of activated (CD38+ HLA-DR+), regulatory (CD4+CD25+CD127dim), HIV-specific, and CMV-specific T cells among HIV controllers and 3 control populations: HIV-infected individuals with treatment-mediated viral suppression (ART-suppressed), untreated HIV-infected “non-controllers” with high levels of viremia, and HIV-uninfected individuals. Despite abnormally high T cell activation levels, controllers had lower Treg frequencies than HIV-uninfected controls (P = 0.014). Supporting the propensity for an unusually low Treg response to viral infection in HIV controllers, we observed unusually high CMV-specific CD4+ T cell frequencies and a strong correlation between HIV-specific CD4+ T cell responses and generalized CD8+ T cell activation levels in HIV controllers (P≤0.001). These data support a model in which low frequencies of Tregs in HIV controllers may contribute to an effective adaptive immune response, but may also contribute to generalized immune activation, potentially contributing to CD4 depletion.
The Use of Ensembles to Identify Forecasts with Small and Large Uncertainty

Abstract In the past decade ensemble forecasting has developed into an integral part of numerical weather prediction. Flow-dependent forecast probability distributions can be readily generated from an ensemble, allowing for the identification of forecast cases with high and low uncertainty. The ability of the NCEP ensemble to distinguish between high and low uncertainty forecast cases is studied here quantitatively. Ensemble mode forecasts, along with traditional higher-resolution control forecasts, are verified in terms of predicting the probability of the true state being in 1 of 10 climatologically equally likely 500-hPa height intervals. A stratification of the forecast cases by the degree of overall agreement among the ensemble members reveals great differences in forecast performance between the cases identified by the ensemble as the least and most uncertain. A new ensemble-based forecast product, the “relative measure of predictability,” is introduced to identify forecasts with below and above ave.
Height error mapping and compensation for a fused filament fabrication machine

An artifact-based height error mapping and compensation method for fused lament fabrication machines ( 3D printers ) is developed. In the proposed method, an error mapping artifact is produced and inspected using a coordinate measuring machine to determine height errors at 81 discrete points in the machine's work envelope. A polynomial regression model is tted to this measured data and used to generate height error predictions at each point in the volume of novel parts. Finally, height error compensation based on the aforementioned model is applied by modifying G-code sequences used to drive the machine. Preliminary experimental validation of the proposed method's e cacy was carried out on NVPro fused lament fabrication machines manufactured by New Valence Robotics Corporation. Results suggest the proposed method is capable of reducing systematic height errors and spatial dependence of height errors over the work volume studied. However, these improvements are attenuated by an accompanying increase in random height variation resulting from the intervention. Recommendations for further testing, re nement, and application of the proposed error mapping and compensation method are presented. Thesis Supervisor: David E. Hardt Title: Ralph E. and Eloise F. Cross Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Duration of Purkinje cell complex spikes increases with their firing frequency

Climbing fiber (CF) triggered complex spikes (CS) are massive depolarization bursts in the cerebellar Purkinje cell (PC), showing several high frequency spikelet components (±600 Hz). Since its early observations, the CS is known to vary in shape. In this study we describe CS waveforms, extracellularly recorded in awake primates (Macaca mulatta) performing saccades. Every PC analyzed showed a range of CS shapes with profoundly different duration and number of spikelets. The initial part of the CS was rather constant but the later part differed greatly, with a pronounced jitter of the last spikelets causing a large variation in total CS duration. Waveforms did not effect the following pause duration in the simple spike (SS) train, nor were SS firing rates predictive of the waveform shapes or vice versa. The waveforms did not differ between experimental conditions nor was there a preferred sequential order of CS shapes throughout the recordings. Instead, part of their variability, the timing jitter of the CS’s last spikelets, strongly correlated with interval length to the preceding CS: shorter CS intervals resulted in later appearance of the last spikelets in the CS burst, and vice versa. A similar phenomenon was observed in rat PCs recorded in vitro upon repeated extracellular stimulation of CFs at different frequencies in slice experiments. All together these results strongly suggest that the variability in the timing of the last spikelet is due to CS frequency dependent changes in PC excitability.
A topologically driven glass in ring polymers

Significance The glass transition is commonly associated with a reduction in the temperature of liquids or by an increase in density of granular materials. In this work, we propose a radically different approach to study dynamical arrest that relies on the topology of the components. We find that a concentrated solution of ring polymers can be driven to a kinetically arrested state by randomly pinning a small fraction of rings, a transition not observed in linear polymers. We attribute this jamming to topological interactions, called “threadings,” that populate solutions of rings. Our work provides the first evidence for these threadings and suggests that very long rings may be expected to be kinetically arrested even as the fraction of pinned rings approaches zero. The static and dynamic properties of ring polymers in concentrated solutions remains one of the last deep unsolved questions in polymer physics. At the same time, the nature of the glass transition in polymeric systems is also not well understood. In this work, we study a novel glass transition in systems made of circular polymers by exploiting the topological constraints that are conjectured to populate concentrated solutions of rings. We show that such rings strongly interpenetrate through one another, generating an extensive network of topological interactions that dramatically affects their dynamics. We show that a kinetically arrested state can be induced by randomly pinning a small fraction of the rings. This occurs well above the classical glass transition temperature at which microscopic mobility is lost. Our work both demonstrates the existence of long-lived inter-ring penetrations and realizes a novel, topologically induced, glass transition.
Controlled embeddings into groups that have no non-trivial finite quotients

If a class of finitely generated groups G is closed under isometric amalgamations along free subgroups, then every G ∈ G can be quasi-isometrically embedded in a group Ĝ ∈ G that has no proper subgroups of finite index. Every compact, connected, non-positively curved space X admits an isometric embedding into a compact, connected, non-positively curved space X such that X has no non-trivial finite-sheeted coverings. AMS Classification 20E26, 20E06, 53C70; 20F32, 20F06
Oxygen Limitation within a Bacterial Aggregate

ABSTRACT Cells within biofilms exhibit physiological heterogeneity, in part because of chemical gradients existing within these spatially structured communities. Previous work has examined how chemical gradients develop in large biofilms containing >108 cells. However, many bacterial communities in nature are composed of small, densely packed aggregates of cells (≤105 bacteria). Using a gelatin-based three-dimensional (3D) printing strategy, we confined the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa within picoliter-sized 3D “microtraps” that are permeable to nutrients, waste products, and other bioactive small molecules. We show that as a single bacterium grows into a maximally dense (1012 cells ml−1) clonal population, a localized depletion of oxygen develops when it reaches a critical aggregate size of ~55 pl. Collectively, these data demonstrate that chemical and phenotypic heterogeneity exists on the micrometer scale within small aggregate populations. IMPORTANCE Before developing into large, complex communities, microbes initially cluster into aggregates, and it is unclear if chemical heterogeneity exists in these ubiquitous micrometer-scale aggregates. We chose to examine oxygen availability within an aggregate since oxygen concentration impacts a number of important bacterial processes, including metabolism, social behaviors, virulence, and antibiotic resistance. By determining that oxygen availability can vary within aggregates containing ≤105 bacteria, we establish that physiological heterogeneity exists within P. aeruginosa aggregates, suggesting that such heterogeneity frequently exists in many naturally occurring small populations. Before developing into large, complex communities, microbes initially cluster into aggregates, and it is unclear if chemical heterogeneity exists in these ubiquitous micrometer-scale aggregates. We chose to examine oxygen availability within an aggregate since oxygen concentration impacts a number of important bacterial processes, including metabolism, social behaviors, virulence, and antibiotic resistance. By determining that oxygen availability can vary within aggregates containing ≤105 bacteria, we establish that physiological heterogeneity exists within P. aeruginosa aggregates, suggesting that such heterogeneity frequently exists in many naturally occurring small populations.
Stimulation of proa 1 ( I ) collagen by TGF-b 1 in mesangial cells : role of the p 38 MAPK pathway

BEEK YOKE CHIN, AMIR MOHSENIN, SU XIA LI, AUGUSTINE M. K. CHOI, AND MARY E. CHOI Toxicological Sciences, Environmental Health Sciences, and Department of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland 21205; and Sections of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare Systems, New Haven, Connecticut 06520
Training plan evolution based on training models

Training models have been proposed to model the effect of physical strain on fitness. In this work we explore their use not only for analysis but also to generate training plans to achieve a given fitness goal. These plans have to include side constraints such as, e.g., maximal training loads. Therefore plan generation can be treated as a constraint satisfaction problem and thus can be solved by classical CSP solvers. We show that evolutionary algorithms such as differential evolution or CMA-ES produce comparable results while allowing for more flexibility and requiring less computational resources. Due to this flexibility, it is possible to include well known principles of training science during plan generation, resulting in reasonable training plans.
Detection of Pulsed Gamma Rays Above 100 GeV from the Crab Pulsar

This detection constrains the mechanism and emission region of gamma-ray radiation in the pulsar’s magnetosphere. We report the detection of pulsed gamma rays from the Crab pulsar at energies above 100 giga–electron volts (GeV) with the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) array of atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. The detection cannot be explained on the basis of current pulsar models. The photon spectrum of pulsed emission between 100 mega–electron volts and 400 GeV is described by a broken power law that is statistically preferred over a power law with an exponential cutoff. It is unlikely that the observation can be explained by invoking curvature radiation as the origin of the observed gamma rays above 100 GeV. Our findings require that these gamma rays be produced more than 10 stellar radii from the neutron star.
Prenylation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Chs4p Affects Chitin Synthase III Activity and Chitin Chain Length

ABSTRACT Chs4p (Cal2/Csd4/Skt5) was identified as a protein factor physically interacting with Chs3p, the catalytic subunit of chitin synthase III (CSIII), and is indispensable for its enzymatic activity in vivo. Chs4p contains a putative farnesyl attachment site at the C-terminal end (CVIM motif) conserved in Chs4p of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and other fungi. Several previous reports questioned the role of Chs4p prenylation in chitin biosynthesis. In this study we reinvestigated the function of Chs4p prenylation. We provide evidence that Chs4p is farnesylated by showing that purified Chs4p is recognized by anti-farnesyl antibody and is a substrate for farnesyl transferase (FTase) in vitro and that inactivation of FTase increases the amount of unmodified Chs4p in yeast cells. We demonstrate that abolition of Chs4p prenylation causes a ∼60% decrease in CSIII activity, which is correlated with a ∼30% decrease in chitin content and with increased resistance to the chitin binding compound calcofluor white. Furthermore, we show that lack of Chs4p prenylation decreases the average chain length of the chitin polymer. Prenylation of Chs4p, however, is not a factor that mediates plasma membrane association of the protein. Our results provide evidence that the prenyl moiety attached to Chs4p is a factor modulating the activity of CSIII both in vivo and in vitro.
Influence of Kinesitherapy on Balance Reactions in Patients with Ischemic Stroke in the Chronic Period

AIM: The study aims to trace the influence of specialized kinesitherapeutic methodology (SKTM) on balance reactions in patients with ischemic stroke in the chronic period (ISChP). MATERIAL AND METHODS: A prospective, multicenter study with 56 patients with ISChP. Evaluation of balance reactions using Berg Balance Scale - BBS, includes implementation of 14 tasks with increasing difficulty reflecting the usual activities of everyday life. The first 5 assignments are used to assess the main balance potential and the remaining 9 (6th to 14th task) include more sophisticated balance tasks. RESULTS: The patients were found with a significant improvement in balance opportunities, according to the scale of Berg. Compared to initial data there is a significant increase in the number of points in the measured indicators for functional and static balance. In absolute terms, positive change is most pronounced during the 1st month with a level of significance of p <0.001. CONCLUSION: The applied specialized kinesitherapeutic methodology continued later as adapted exercise program at home, and significantly improved equilibrium reactions in patients with postural disorders because of ischemic stroke and is with a supportive prolonged exposure.
Challenges in the formability of the next generation of automotive steel sheets

ABSTRACT Improving strength may lightweight car bodies by thinning the structure gauge while bearing the same crash loads. Development of the third generation advanced high-strength steels aiming to boost material ductility to over 30% total elongation has become the common sense of potential solutions for stamping. Not only total elongation but also several other parameters, involving presswork hardening, anisotropy ratio, strain rate sensitivity, uniform elongation, edge sensitivity and internal stress between phases, are critical in determining the formability under the complex stress and strain distributions during stamping. We clarify here the logic of formability and difficulties in this context of three types of steel: quenching and partitioning, δ-transformation-induced plasticity and medium Mn-TRIP.
Cellular Immune Suppressor Activity Resides in Lymphocyte Cell Clusters Adjacent to Granulomata in Human Coccidioidomycosis

ABSTRACT The in situ immunologic response in human coccidioidomycosis remains undefined. To explore this further, pulmonary necrotizing coccidioidal granulomata were examined using immunohistochemical staining for lymphocyte subsets and for the cytokines interleukin-10 (IL-10) and gamma interferon (IFN-γ). Discrete perigranulomatous lymphocytic clusters were seen in eight of nine tissues examined. In these tissues, T lymphocytes (CD3+) significantly outnumbered B lymphocytes (CD20+) in the mantle area of the granulomata (P = 0.028), whereas the clusters were composed of roughly equal numbers of T and B lymphocytes. While the number of cells in the mantle expressing IL-10 was similar to those in the perigranulomatous clusters, there were significantly more cells expressing IFN-γ in the mantle than in the clusters (P = 0.037). Confocal microscopy revealed that CD4+ T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes are associated with IL-10 production. CD4+CD25+ T lymphocytes were identified in the perigranulomatous clusters but were not associated with IL-10 production. This is the first report noting perigranulomatous lymphocyte clusters and IL-10 in association with human coccidioidal granulomata and suggests that down-regulation of the cellular immune response is occurring within coccidioidal granulomata.
Asthma Knowledge among Asthmatic School Students.

OBJECTIVES Bronchial asthma is a common and life threatening problem affecting school children and adolescents. The flare-up of asthma may lead to impaired daily function and absence from school. These complications of bronchial asthma could be influenced by poor knowledge, poor use of inhaler technique, non-compliance and negative attitude toward the illness and drugs. The study is designed to assess the asthma knowledge of school students suffering form asthma and identify the resources of the knowledge. METHODS All diagnosed asthma students (131 cases) selected from school health register grade 7-12 was included in this study. The self administrated questionnaire was distributed among them. It was designed to collect information of the students about epidemiology of asthma, source of their information and effect of the disease on their school attendance. Special knowledge score was constructed to measure the level of the students' knowledge. RESULTS The study showed that from 131 diagnosed asthma cases 90% (118) aware about their diagnosis. Medical and paramedical personnel were found to be the source of knowledge for 49.4% (65) of the students, while teachers were mentioned by only 9.2% (12) of the students as their source of information. Regarding the effect of asthma on school absenteeism, 66% (87) of school students may miss their school due asthma attack. CONCLUSION Health education about bronchial asthma is a need for school students. This require inter-disciplinary approach from various organization particularly the schools. It is vital that school teachers' knowledge be improved and continuously updated that it can reflect in students' knowledge and attitudes too.