Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prefrontal Cortical Mechanisms Underlying Individual Differences in Cognitive Flexibility and Stability

The pFC is critical for cognitive flexibility (i.e., our ability to flexibly adjust behavior to changing environmental demands), but also for cognitive stability (i.e., our ability to follow behavioral plans in the face of distraction). Behavioral research suggests that individuals differ in their cognitive flexibility and stability, and neurocomputational theories of working memory relate this variability to the concept of attractor stability in recurrently connected neural networks. We introduce a novel task paradigm to simultaneously assess flexible switching between task rules (cognitive flexibility) and task performance in the presence of irrelevant distractors (cognitive stability) and to furthermore assess the individual “spontaneous switching rate” in response to ambiguous stimuli to quantify the individual dispositional cognitive flexibility in a theoretically motivated way (i.e., as a proxy for attractor stability). Using fMRI in healthy human participants, a common network consisting of parietal and frontal areas was found for task switching and distractor inhibition. More flexible persons showed reduced activation and reduced functional coupling in frontal areas, including the inferior frontal junction, during task switching. Most importantly, the individual spontaneous switching rate antagonistically affected the functional coupling between inferior frontal junction and the superior frontal gyrus during task switching and distractor inhibition, respectively, indicating that individual differences in cognitive flexibility and stability are indeed related to a common prefrontal neural mechanism. We suggest that the concept of attractor stability of prefrontal working memory networks is a meaningful model for individual differences in cognitive stability versus flexibility.
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome

SINCE June, 1981, when it was first reported,' the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) has reached epidemic proportions among certain groups in the United States. It appears to be a new condition, and may well be infectious. Over 1300 cases had been reported by March, 1983, from most parts of the United States and from at least 15 other countries. The daily notification rate has progressively risen to the present three to four cases. ' Although AIDS initially seemed restricted to homosexual men, it is now known that several predominantly heterosexual groups are at risk, including Haitians (especially emigrants to Florida), intravenous drug abusers, persons with haemophilia, and the female sexual partners of men who have, or are at risk from, AIDS. The prognosis is appalling over 450 deaths have occurred so far, with a case fatality rate of about 40% over all and about 60% for cases in which the diagnosis has been made for more than a year. "
CD34+ Cells from Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Myelodysplastic Syndromes, and Normal Bone Marrow Display Different Apoptosis and Drug Resistance–Associated Phenotypes

Myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are heterogeneous disorders in which conflicting results in apoptosis and multidrug resistance (MDR) have been reported. We have evaluated by multiparameter flow cytometry the expression of apoptosis- (APO2.7, bcl-2, and bax) and MDR-related proteins [P-glycoprotein (P-gp), multidrug resistance protein (MRP), and lung resistance protein (LRP)] specifically on bone marrow (BM) CD34+ cells, and their major CD32−/dim and CD32+ subsets, in de novo AML (n = 90), high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (n = 9), and low-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (n = 21) patients at diagnosis, and compared with normal BM CD34+ cells (n = 6). CD34+ myeloid cells from AML and high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome patients displayed higher expression of bcl-2 (P < 0.0001) and lower reactivity for APO2.7 (P = 0.002) compared with low-risk myelodysplastic syndrome and normal controls. Similar results applied to the two predefined CD34+ myeloid cell subsets. No significant differences were found in the expression of P-gp, MRP, and LRP between low-risk myelodysplastic syndrome patients and normal BM, but decreased expression of MRP (P < 0.03) in AML and high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes and P-gp (P = 0.008) in high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes were detected. Hierarchical clustering analysis showed that low-risk myelodysplastic syndrome patients were clustered next to normal BM samples, whereas high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes were clustered together and mixed with the de novo AML patients. In summary, increased resistance to chemotherapy of CD34+ cells from both AML and high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes would be explained more appropriately in terms of an increased antiapoptotic phenotype rather than a MDR phenotype. In low-risk myelodysplastic syndromes abnormally high apoptotic rates would be restricted to the CD34− cell compartments.
Disjunctions of Conjunctions, Cognitive Simplicity, and Consideration Sets

The authors test methods, based on cognitively simple decision rules, that predict which products consumers select for their consideration sets. Drawing on qualitative research, the authors propose disjunctions-of-conjunctions (DOC) decision rules that generalize well-studied decision models, such as disjunctive, conjunctive, lexicographic, and subset conjunctive rules. They propose two machine-learning methods to estimate cognitively simple DOC rules. They observe consumers' consideration sets for global positioning systems for both calibration and validation data. They compare the proposed methods with both machine-learning and hierarchical Bayes methods, each based on five extant compensatory and noncompensatory rules. For the validation data, the cognitively simple DOC-based methods predict better than the ten benchmark methods on an information theoretic measure and on hit rates. The results are robust with respect to format by which consideration is measured, sample, and presentation of profiles. The article closes with an illustration of how DOC-based rules can affect managerial decisions.
Towards a more comprehensive understanding of lacustrine greenhouse gas dynamics — two-year measurements of concentrations and fluxes of CO2, CH4 and N2O in a typical boreal lake surrounded by managed forests

Lakes emit terrestrially fixed carbon back to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). Redox conditions in the water columns of lakes typically vary seasonally, and therefore lakes may also be sources of nitrous oxide (N2O). In this study, we measured the weekly water column concentrations of CO2, CH4 and N2O in a boreal lake and calculated the annual emissions of these gases for the years 2011 and 2012. We found that the emissions of all the gases studied were high right after the ice melt, CH4 most likely originating from the catchment. Bottom anoxia in summer induced maximum concentrations of CH4 and N2O near the sediment, but only elevated the emission of N2O in autumn 2012. Otherwise, the high concentrations near the sediment did not affect the surface concentrations. The unstable water column in summer 2012 increased the CO2 and N2O emissions, but prevented anoxia, and thus decreased the CH4 concentrations. From the perspective of global warming, the CO2 emissions were by far the most significant and the relevance of the N2O emissions was negligible.
Skin Temperature Changes in Patients With Unilateral Lumbosacral Radiculopathy

Objective To clarify the relationship of skin temperature changes to clinical, radiologic, and electrophysiological findings in unilateral lumbosacral radiculopathy and to delineate the possible temperature-change mechanisms involved. Methods One hundred and one patients who had clinical symptoms and for whom there were physical findings suggestive or indicative of unilateral lumbosacral radiculopathy, along with 27 normal controls, were selected for the study, and the thermal-pattern results of digital infrared thermographic imaging (DITI) performed on the back and lower extremities were analyzed. Local temperatures were assessed by comparing the mean temperature differences (ΔT) in 30 regions of interest (ROIs), and abnormal thermal patterns were divided into seven regions. To aid the diagnosis of radiculopathy, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electrophysiological tests were also carried out. Results The incidence of disc herniation on MRI was 86%; 43% of patients showed electrophysiological abnormalities. On DITI, 97% of the patients showed abnormal ΔT in at least one of the 30 ROIs, and 79% showed hypothermia on the involved side. Seventy-eight percent of the patients also showed abnormal thermal patterns in at least one of the seven regions. Patients who had motor weakness or lateral-type disc herniation showed some correlations with abnormal DITI findings. However, neither pain severity nor other physical or electrophysiological findings were related to the DITI findings. Conclusion Skin temperature change following lumbosacral radiculopathy was related to some clinical and MRI findings, suggesting muscle atrophy. DITI, despite its limitations, might be useful as a complementary tool in the diagnosis of unilateral lumbosacral radiculopathy.
An Institutional Theory of Momentum and Reversal

We propose a rational theory of momentum and reversal based on delegated portfolio management. A competitive investor can invest through an index fund or an active fund run by a manager with unknown ability. Following a negative cashflow shock to assets held by the active fund, the investor updates negatively about the manager’s ability and migrates to the index fund. While prices of assets held by the active fund drop in anticipation of the investor’s outflows, the drop is expected to continue, leading to momentum. Because outflows push prices below fundamental values, expected returns eventually rise, leading to reversal. Fund flows generate comovement and lead-lag effects, with predictability being stronger for assets with high idiosyncratic risk. We derive explicit solutions for asset prices, within a continuous-time normal-linear equilibrium.
Porcine Endothelial Cells and Iliac Arteries Transduced with AdenoIL-4 Are Intrinsically Protected, through Akt Activation, against Immediate Injury Caused by Human Complement1

Vascular endothelial cells (ECs) can be injured in a variety of pathologic processes that involve activated complement. We reported previously that porcine ECs incubated with exogenous IL-4 or IL-13 are protected from cytotoxicity by human complement and also from apoptosis by TNF-α. The resistance to complement consists of an intrinsic mechanism that is lost a few days after cytokine removal. In our current study, we investigated whether transfer of the IL-4 gene into porcine ECs in vitro and into porcine vascular tissues in vivo would induce efficient and durable protection from human complement. We found that ECs transduced with adenoIL-4 or adenoIL-13 exhibited continuous production of the cytokine and prolonged protection from complement-mediated killing. IL-4 also protected ECs from activation: ECs incubated with IL-4 did not develop cell retraction and intercellular gaps upon stimulation with sublytic complement. The endothelium and subendothelium of pig iliac arteries that were transduced with the IL-4 gene were effectively protected from complement-dependent immediate injury after perfusion with human blood. However, after similar perfusion, the endothelium was immediately lost from arteries that were transduced with a control adenovirus. The protection was not due to up-regulation of the complement regulators decay accelerating factor, membrane cofactor protein, and CD59, or to reduced complement activation, but required the participation of Akt. Although our studies model protection in pig-to-primate xenotransplantation, our findings of IL-4 induction of Akt-mediated protection may be more broadly applicable to EC injury as manifested in ischemia-reperfusion, allotransplantation, and various vascular diseases.
Investigation of Long-Term Reproducibility of Intrinsic Connectivity Network Mapping: A Resting-State fMRI Study

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Connectivity mapping based on resting-state fMRI is rapidly developing, and this methodology has great potential for clinical applications. However, before resting-state fMRI can be applied for diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring treatment for an individual patient with neurologic or psychiatric diseases, it is essential to assess its long-term reproducibility and between-subject variations among healthy individuals. The purpose of the study was to quantify the long-term test-retest reproducibility of ICN measures derived from resting-state fMRI and to assess the between-subject variation of ICN measures across the whole brain. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Longitudinal resting-state fMRI data of 6 healthy volunteers were acquired from 9 scan sessions during >1 year. The within-subject reproducibility and between-subject variation of ICN measures, across the whole brain and major nodes of the DMN, were quantified with the ICC and COV. RESULTS: Our data show that the long-term test-retest reproducibility of ICN measures is outstanding, with >70% of the connectivity networks showing an ICC > 0.60. The COV across 6 healthy volunteers in this sample was >0.2, suggesting significant between-subject variation. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that resting-state ICN measures (eg, the correlation coefficients between fMRI signal-intensity profiles from 2 different brain regions) are potentially suitable as biomarkers for monitoring disease progression and treatment effects in clinical trials and individual patients. Because between-subject variation is significant, it may be difficult to use quantitative ICN measures in their current state as a diagnostic tool.
The complete mitochondrial genome of Feirana taihangnica (Anura: Dicroglossidae)

Abstract The complete mitochondrial genome sequence of the Feirana taihangnica (Anura: Dicroglossidae) was determined. It is a circular molecule of 17,412 bp in length, containing 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNAs, 22 transfer RNAs, and a control region. The tRNAThr gene located in the LTPF tRNA gene cluster typically found in other anurans is absent from the F. taihangnica mtDNA and a tandem duplication of tRNAMet gene is observed. The A+T content of the overall base compositon of H-strand is 57.2% and the length of control region is 1972 bp with 61.8% A+T content.
Towards conscious-like behavior in computer game characters

The main sources of inspiration for the design of more engaging synthetic characters are existing psychological models of human cognition. Usually, these models, and the associated Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, are based on partial aspects of the real complex systems involved in the generation of human-like behavior. Emotions, planning, learning, user modeling, set shifting, and attention mechanisms are some remarkable examples of features typically considered in isolation within classical AI control models. Artificial cognitive architectures aim at integrating many of these aspects together into effective control systems. However, the design of this sort of architectures is not straightforward. In this paper, we argue that current research efforts in the young field of Machine Consciousness (MC) could contribute to tackle complexity and provide a useful framework for the design of more appealing synthetic characters. This hypothesis is illustrated with the application of a novel consciousness-based cognitive architecture to the development of a First Person Shooter video game character.
Abnormalities in the serum phospholipids fatty acid profile in patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis - a pilot study

The fatty acid composition of serum phospholipids were analyzed in 20 patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis (11 with malnutrition and 9 with acceptable nutritional status); 25 healthy age and sex-matched adults were used as controls. Cirrhotic patients showed higher levels of palmitic acid and total saturated fatty acids than healthy subjects. Total n-6 and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), and levels of linoleic, dihomo-gama linolenic, arachidonic, and docosahexaenoic acid were significantly lower (p<0.001) in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis compared to healthy controls. Significant changes were also found between patients stratified according to nutritional status. In particular, the sum of n-3 PUFA was significantly lower (p<0.001) and ratio of n-6/n-3 fatty acids was higher (p<0.01) in malnourished patients when compared to the patients with acceptable nutritional status. Furthermore, important changes in the levels of saturated fatty acids, palmitoleic and oleic acid and long-chain PUFA were found in well-nourished patients with alcoholic cirrhosis as well. Our present data confirmed evidence that malnutrition is one of the factors that led to lower levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids in patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis. PUFA supplementation in the latter needs further investigation.
Adenylate Kinase and AMP Signaling Networks: Metabolic Monitoring, Signal Communication and Body Energy Sensing

Adenylate kinase and downstream AMP signaling is an integrated metabolic monitoring system which reads the cellular energy state in order to tune and report signals to metabolic sensors. A network of adenylate kinase isoforms (AK1-AK7) are distributed throughout intracellular compartments, interstitial space and body fluids to regulate energetic and metabolic signaling circuits, securing efficient cell energy economy, signal communication and stress response. The dynamics of adenylate kinase-catalyzed phosphotransfer regulates multiple intracellular and extracellular energy-dependent and nucleotide signaling processes, including excitation-contraction coupling, hormone secretion, cell and ciliary motility, nuclear transport, energetics of cell cycle, DNA synthesis and repair, and developmental programming. Metabolomic analyses indicate that cellular, interstitial and blood AMP levels are potential metabolic signals associated with vital functions including body energy sensing, sleep, hibernation and food intake. Either low or excess AMP signaling has been linked to human disease such as diabetes, obesity and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Recent studies indicate that derangements in adenylate kinase-mediated energetic signaling due to mutations in AK1, AK2 or AK7 isoforms are associated with hemolytic anemia, reticular dysgenesis and ciliary dyskinesia. Moreover, hormonal, food and antidiabetic drug actions are frequently coupled to alterations of cellular AMP levels and associated signaling. Thus, by monitoring energy state and generating and distributing AMP metabolic signals adenylate kinase represents a unique hub within the cellular homeostatic network.
Validity of Thermal Ramping Assays Used to Assess Thermal Tolerance in Arthropods

Proper assessment of environmental resistance of animals is critical for the ability of researchers to understand how variation in environmental conditions influence population and species abundance. This is also the case for studies of upper thermal limits in insects, where researchers studying animals under laboratory conditions must select appropriate methodology on which conclusions can be drawn. Ideally these methods should precisely estimate the trait of interest and also be biological meaningful. In an attempt to develop such tests it has been proposed that thermal ramping assays are useful assays for small insects because they incorporate an ecologically relevant gradual temperature change. However, recent model-based papers have suggested that estimates of thermal resistance may be strongly confounded by simultaneous starvation and dehydration stress. In the present study we empirically test these model predictions using two sets of independent experiments. We clearly demonstrate that results from ramping assays of small insects (Drosophila melanogaster) are not compromised by starvation- or dehydration-stress. Firstly we show that the mild disturbance of water and energy balance of D. melanogaster experienced during the ramping tests does not confound heat tolerance estimates. Secondly we show that flies pre-exposed to starvation and dehydration have “normal” heat tolerance and that resistance to heat stress is independent of the energetic and water status of the flies. On the basis of our results we discuss the assumptions used in recent model papers and present arguments as to why the ramping assay is both a valid and ecologically relevant way to measure thermal resistance in insects.
The Early Course of Kidney Allograft Rejection: Defining the Time When Rejection Begins

We studied the early events in mouse kidney allografts and isografts to define when allorecognition begins and when alloimmune tissue injury begins. Allografts but not isografts showed T‐cell infiltration in perivascular areas from day 1, but tubulitis and arteritis did not develop until day 7. Flow cytometry confirmed the early allospecific CD3+CD8+ T‐cell infiltrate. At day 1, both allografts and isografts showed extensive transcriptome changes, reflecting the response to surgery, but only allografts showed expression of interferon‐gamma (IFN‐γ)‐inducible transcripts and T‐cell‐associated transcripts. Although the number of CD68+ myeloid cell numbers did not increase in day 1 isografts or allografts, mRNA expression for myeloid markers was increased in isografts and allografts, suggesting activation of resident cells of the macrophage‐dendritic cell series (MMDCs) in response to injury, followed by increased CD68+ cell numbers from day 2. By day 3, an interstitial T‐cell and MMDC infiltrate was established in allografts, corresponding with the emergence of allospecific tissue injury, as reflected by decreased parenchymal transcripts. Thus, in renal allografts, allorecognition by T cells occurs in perivascular sites by day 1, but alloimmune parenchymal damage begins at day 3, coinciding with the emergence of the interstitial T‐cell–MMDC infiltrate.
Analyzing language development from a network approach

In this paper we propose some new measures of language development using network analyses, which is inspired by the recent surge of interests in network studies of many real-world systems. Children's and care-takers' speech data from a longitudinal study are represented as a series of networks, word forms being taken as nodes and collocation of words as links. Measures on the properties of the networks, such as size, connectivity, hub and authority analyses, etc., allow us to make quantitative comparison so as to reveal different paths of development. For example, the asynchrony of development in network size and average degree suggests that children cannot be simply classified as early talkers or late talkers by one or two measures. Children follow different paths in a multi-dimensional space. They may develop faster in one dimension but slower in another dimension. The network approach requires little preprocessing of words and analyses on sentence structures, and the characteristics of words and their usage emerge from the network and are independent of any grammatical presumptions. We show that the change of the two articles "the" and "a" in their roles as important nodes in the network reflects the progress of children's syntactic development: the two articles often start in children's networks as hubs and later shift to authorities, while they are authorities constantly in the adult's networks. The network analyses provide a new approach to study language development, and at the same time language development also presents a rich area for network theories to explore.