Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microvascular BOLD contribution at 4 and 7 T in the human brain: Gradient‐echo and spin‐echo fMRI with suppression of blood effects

The BOLD signal consists of an intravascular (IV) and an extravascular (EV) component from both small and large vessels. Their relative contributions are dependent on field strength, imaging technique, and echo time. The IV and EV contributions were investigated in the human visual cortex at 4 and 7 T using spin‐echo and gradient‐echo BOLD fMRI with and without suppression of blood effects. Spin‐echo acquisition suppresses EV BOLD from large veins and reflects predominantly blood T2 changes and EV BOLD signal from small blood vessels. At a short echo time (32 ms), diffusion gradient‐based suppression of blood signals resulted in a 75% and 20% decrease in spin‐echo BOLD changes at 4 T and 7 T, respectively. However, at echo times (55–65 ms) approximating tissue T2 typically used for optimal BOLD contrast, these gradients had much smaller effects at both fields, consistent with the decreasing blood T2 with increasing field strength. Gradient‐echo BOLD percent changes, with relatively long echo times at both fields, were virtually unaffected by gradients that attenuated the blood contribution because the EV BOLD surrounding both large and small vessels dominated. These results suggest that spin‐echo BOLD fMRI at 4 and 7 T, with TE approximating tissue T2, significantly reduces nonspecific mapping signals from large vessels and significantly accentuates microvasculature contributions. Magn Reson Med 49:1019–1027, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Inspiration choices that matter: the selection of external stimuli during ideation

Inspiration is a widely recognized phenomenon in everyday life. However, researchers still know very little about what the process of inspiration entails. This paper investigates designers’ approaches when selecting inspirational stimuli during the initial phases of a design process. We conducted a think-aloud protocol study and interviews with 31 design Masters students while generating ideas for a design problem. The results indicate that searching for and selecting stimuli require different levels of cognitive effort, depending on whether there is unlimited or limited access to stimuli. Furthermore, three important stages of the inspiration process were identified: keyword definition, stimuli search and stimuli selection. For each of these stages, we elaborate on how designers define keywords, which search approaches they use and what drives their selection of stimuli. This paper contributes to an understanding of how designers can be supported in their inspiration process in a more detailed manner.
Trustworthy Authentication on Scalable Surveillance Video with Background Model Support

H.264/SVC (Scalable Video Coding) codestreams, which consist of a single base layer and multiple enhancement layers, are designed for quality, spatial, and temporal scalabilities. They can be transmitted over networks of different bandwidths and seamlessly accessed by various terminal devices. With a huge amount of video surveillance and various devices becoming an integral part of the security infrastructure, the industry is currently starting to use the SVC standard to process digital video for surveillance applications such that clients with different network bandwidth connections and display capabilities can seamlessly access various SVC surveillance (sub)codestreams. In order to guarantee the trustworthiness and integrity of received SVC codestreams, engineers and researchers have proposed several authentication schemes to protect video data. However, existing algorithms cannot simultaneously satisfy both efficiency and robustness for SVC surveillance codestreams. Hence, in this article, a highly efficient and robust authentication scheme, named TrustSSV (Trust Scalable Surveillance Video), is proposed. Based on quality/spatial scalable characteristics of SVC codestreams, TrustSSV combines cryptographic and content-based authentication techniques to authenticate the base layer and enhancement layers, respectively. Based on temporal scalable characteristics of surveillance codestreams, TrustSSV extracts, updates, and authenticates foreground features for each access unit dynamically with background model support. Using SVC test sequences, our experimental results indicate that the scheme is able to distinguish between content-preserving and content-changing manipulations and to pinpoint tampered locations. Compared with existing schemes, the proposed scheme incurs very small computation and communication costs.
Artificial neural network tools for computerised data modeling and processing

Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) represent progressive method for information processing. Due to their capability to solve complex problems by manipulation of high volume data the designation, training and usage of ANN requires computer environment. Due to the wide possibilities of ANN in current data processing, many of SW solutions can be used while the problem is in finding the best suitable for desired problem. This paper reviews available special ANN software separated in various categories specified by licensing policy, the software environment, etc. The article focuses namely on open source license variations. It compares different user interfaces from simple diagram-like visual designs to special programming language scripting. Contribution of this paper is to give to reader a complex summary on which ANN SW is the best suitable for a specific problem.
In vivo Expansion of Naïve CD4+CD25high FOXP3+ Regulatory T Cells in Patients with Colorectal Carcinoma after IL-2 Administration

Regulatory T cells (Treg cells) are increased in context of malignancies and their expansion can be correlated with higher disease burden and decreased survival. Initially, interleukin 2 (IL-2) has been used as T-cell growth factor in clinical vaccination trials. In murine models, however, a role of IL-2 in development, differentiation, homeostasis, and function of Treg cells was established. In IL-2 treated cancer patients a further Treg-cell expansion was described, yet, the mechanism of expansion is still elusive. Here we report that functional Treg cells of a naïve phenotype - as determined by CCR7 and CD45RA expression - are significantly expanded in colorectal cancer patients. Treatment of 15 UICC stage IV colorectal cancer patients with IL-2 in a phase I/II peptide vaccination trial further enlarges the already increased naïve Treg-cell pool. Higher frequencies of T-cell receptor excision circles in naïve Treg cells indicate IL-2 dependent thymic generation of naïve Treg cells as a mechanism leading to increased frequencies of Treg cells post IL-2 treatment in cancer patients. This finding could be confirmed in naïve murine Treg cells after IL-2 administration. These results point to a more complex regulation of Treg cells in context of IL-2 administration. Future strategies therefore might aim at combining IL-2 therapy with novel strategies to circumvent expansion and differentiation of naïve Treg cells.
Hydrogen Sulfide as Endothelium-Derived Hyperpolarizing Factor Sulfhydrates Potassium Channels

Rationale: Nitric oxide, the classic endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF), acts through cyclic GMP and calcium without notably affecting membrane potential. A major component of EDRF activity derives from hyperpolarization and is termed endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor (EDHF). Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a prominent EDRF, since mice lacking its biosynthetic enzyme, cystathionine &ggr;-lyase (CSE), display pronounced hypertension with deficient vasorelaxant responses to acetylcholine. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine if H2S is a major physiological EDHF. Methods and Results: We now show that H2S is a major EDHF because in blood vessels of CSE-deleted mice, hyperpolarization is virtually abolished. H2S acts by covalently modifying (sulfhydrating) the ATP-sensitive potassium channel, as mutating the site of sulfhydration prevents H2S-elicited hyperpolarization. The endothelial intermediate conductance (IKCa) and small conductance (SKCa) potassium channels mediate in part the effects of H2S, as selective IKCa and SKCa channel inhibitors, charybdotoxin and apamin, inhibit glibenclamide-insensitive, H2S-induced vasorelaxation. Conclusions: H2S is a major EDHF that causes vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cell hyperpolarization and vasorelaxation by activating the ATP-sensitive, intermediate conductance and small conductance potassium channels through cysteine S-sulfhydration. Because EDHF activity is a principal determinant of vasorelaxation in numerous vascular beds, drugs influencing H2S biosynthesis offer therapeutic potential.
Transition to Clean Technology

We develop an endogenous growth model in which clean and dirty technologies compete in production. Research can be directed to either technology. If dirty technologies are more advanced, the transition to clean technology can be difficult. Carbon taxes and research subsidies may encourage production and innovation in clean technologies, though the transition will typically be slow. We estimate the model using microdata from the US energy sector. We then characterize the optimal policy path that heavily relies on both subsidies and taxes. Finally, we evaluate various alternative policies. Relying only on carbon taxes or delaying intervention has significant welfare costs.
Robust high-contrast companion detection from interferometric observations - The CANDID algorithm and an application to six binary Cepheids

Context. Long-baseline interferometry is an important technique to spatially resolve binary or multiple systems in close orbits. By combining several telescopes together and spectrally dispersing the light, it is possible to detect faint components around bright stars in a few hours of observations. Aims. We provide a rigorous and detailed method to search for high-contrast companions around stars, determine the detection level, and estimate the dynamic range from interferometric observations. Methods. We developed the code CANDID (Companion Analysis and Non-Detection in Interferometric Data), a set of Python tools that allows us to search systematically for point-source, high-contrast companions and estimate the detection limit using all interferometric observables, i.e., the squared visibilities, closure phases and bispectrum amplitudes. The search procedure is made on a N N grid of fit, whose minimum needed resolution is estimated a posteriori. It includes a tool to estimate the detection level of the companion in the number of sigmas. The code CANDID also incorporates a robust method to set a 3 detection limit on the flux ratio, which is based on an analytical injection of a fake companion at each point in the grid. Our injection method also allows us to analytically remove a detected component to 1) search for a second companion; and 2) set an unbiased detection limit. Results. We used CANDID to search for the companions around the binary Cepheids V1334 Cyg, AX Cir, RT Aur, AW Per, SU Cas, and T Vul. First, we showed that our previous discoveries of the components orbiting V1334 Cyg and AX Cir were detected at > 25 and > 13 , respectively. The astrometric positions and flux ratios provided by CANDID for these two stars are in good agreement with our previously published values. The companion around AW Per is detected at more than 15 with a flux ratio of f = 1:22 0:30 %, and it is located at = 32:16 0:29 mas and PA = 67:1 0:3 . We made a possible detection of the companion orbiting RT Aur with f = 0:22 0:11 %, and at = 2:10 0:23 mas and PA = 136 6 . It was detected at 3:8 using the closure phases only, and so more observations are needed to confirm the detection. No companions were detected around SU Cas and T Vul. We also set the detection limit for possible undetected companions around these stars. We found that there is no companion with a spectral type earlier than B7V, A5V, F0V, B9V, A0V, and B9V orbiting the Cepheids V1334 Cyg, AX Cir, RT Aur, AW Per, SU Cas, and T Vul, respectively. This work also demonstrates the capabilities of the MIRC and PIONIER instruments, which can reach a dynamic range of 1:200, depending on the angular distance of the companion and the (u;v) plane coverage. In the future, we plan to work on improving the sensitivity limits for realistic data through better handling of the correlations.
Design and interpretation of packer permeability tests for geotechnical purposes

Packer permeability tests are used routinely in geotechnical investigations to allow estimation of hydraulic conductivity by analysis of pressure/flow rate response during controlled injection of water into a section of borehole, isolated by packers. This paper is a review of the hydraulic fundamentals of the packer permeability test methods and analyses used routinely in geotechnical investigations and discusses the usefulness and limitations of the test. Guidance is given on design of tests, including the maximum hydraulic conductivity that can be measured by the method. Interpretation of tests must recognize that responses are influenced by the entire test system – the host rock, the borehole and any associated zone of disturbance, water quality (injected water and water in the host rock), the packers or isolation system and the head/flow rate measurement system. It is proposed that, for geotechnical projects, presenting test results as a Q–H diagram (plotting injection flow rate v. applied excess head) is useful and allows results to be classified against seven conventional and three unconventional test responses. Guidance is given on the selection of values of hydraulic conductivity, for geotechnical design purposes, from various types of test responses.
of Emotions Cultural Differences in the Relative Contributions of Face and Context to Judgments

Previous judgment studies of facial expressions of emotion in context have provided mixed results. This article clarifies and extends this literature by testing judgments across cultures and by using novel methodologies that examine both face and context effects. Two studies involving observers from three cultures provided evidence for both face and context effects in emotion judgments and cultural differences in both. Japanese and South Korean observers were more influenced by context than Americans, and these differences were mediated by personality traits. The results provided a more nuanced view of how both culture and emotion moderate judgments of faces in context and how cultural differences existed in the judgments, which were predicted using a construct known as Context Differentiation.
Do Osmoregulators Have Lower Capacity of Muscle Water Regulation than Osmoconformers? a Study on Decapod Crustaceans Species That May Have Gone Stenohaline after Long Evolution in Freshwater ( Materials and Methods

Decapod crustaceans occupy various aquatic habitats. In freshwater they are osmoregulators, while marine species are typically osmoconformers. Freshwater crustaceans are derived from marine ancestors. The hypothesis tested here was that osmoregulators, which can rely on salt transport by interface epithelia to prevent extracellular disturbance, would have a lower capacity of tissue water regulation when compared with osmoconformers. Four species of decapod crustaceans (the marine osmoconformer crab Hepatus pudibundus, and three osmoregulators of different habitats) have been exposed in vivo to a salinity challenge, for up to 24 hr. Osmoregulators were: the estuarine shrimp Palaemon pandaliformis, the diadromous freshwater shrimp Macrobrachium acanthurus, and the hololimnetic red crab Dilocarcinus pagei. H. pudibundus displayed hemolymph dilution already after 0.5 hr in 25%, reaching $30% reduction in osmolality, but its muscle degree of hydration did not increase. To make the different in vivo salinity challenges directly comparable, the ratio between the maximum change in muscle hydration with respect to the control value measured for the species and the maximum change in hemolymph osmolality was calculated Muscle slices submitted in vitro to a 30% osmotic challenge confirmed in vivo results. Thus, the estuarine/freshwater osmoregulators displayed a lower capacity to hold muscle tissue water than the marine osmoconformer, despite undergoing narrower variations in hemolymph osmolality. have lower capacity of muscle water regulation than osmoconformers? a study on decapod crustaceans. Decapod crustaceans are variably capable of efficient anisosmotic extracellular regulation (AER) (Florkin, '62), especially members of those groups that successfully invaded the freshwater or terrestrial habitats (reviews in Kirschner, '91, 2004; Péqueux, '95; Freire et al., 2008a). On the contrary, strictly marine species are in general osmoconformers, unable to perform AER. In these last species, ambient water variation in salinity results in extracellular fluid (ECF) osmotic disturbance (Kirschner, '91; Péqueux, '95). ECF osmotic variation necessitates cell volume regulatory mechanisms, and cells display mechanisms of osmotic adjustment referred to as intracellular isosmotic regulation Coastal species that inhabit areas under tidal influence, thus prone to salinity fluctuations, are necessarily more tolerant of salinity variation, thus in general more euryhaline than either marine osmoconformers or strictly freshwater hololimnetic crustaceans may osmoregulate more or less tightly (or may even osmoconform to some degree) in the rapidly changing salinities of their habitat (Denne, '68; Péqueux, '95; Freire et al., 2003). To live in fresh water requires the capacity for ion absorption against a steep ionic gradient, even with reduced hemolymph osmolal-ities when …
Proactive and reactive inhibitory control in rats

Inhibiting actions inappropriate for the behavioral context, or inhibitory control, is essential for survival and involves both reactively stopping the current prepared action and proactively adjusting behavioral tendencies to increase future performance. A powerful paradigm widely used in basic and clinical research to study inhibitory control is the stop signal task (SST). Recent years have seen a surging interest in translating the SST to rodents to study the neural mechanisms underlying inhibitory control. However, significant differences in task designs and behavioral strategies between rodent and primate studies have made it difficult to directly compare the two literatures. In this study, we developed a rodent-appropriate SST and characterized both reactive and proactive control in rats. For reactive inhibitory control, we found that, unlike in primates, incorrect stop trials in rodents result from two independent types of errors: an initial failure-to-stop error or, after successful stopping, a subsequent failure-to-wait error. Conflating failure-to-stop and failure-to-wait errors systematically overestimates the covert latency of reactive inhibition, the stop signal reaction time (SSRT). To correctly estimate SSRT, we developed and validated a new method that provides an unbiased SSRT estimate independent of the ability to wait. For proactive inhibitory control, we found that rodents adjust both their reaction time and the ability to stop following failure-to-wait errors and successful stop trials, but not after failure-to-stop errors. Together, these results establish a valid rodent model that utilizes proactive and reactive inhibitory control strategies similar to primates, and highlight the importance of dissociating initial stopping from subsequent waiting in studying mechanisms of inhibitory control using rodents.
Analysis of expression of the alpha-toxin gene (hla) of Staphylococcus aureus by using a chromosomally encoded hla::lacZ gene fusion

The staphylococcal alpha-toxin (Hla) is a major virulence factor contributing to Staphylococcus aureus pathogenesis. To elucidate the conditions influencing hla expression, the determinant was fused to lacZ, the reporter gene coding for beta-galactosidase. The hla::lacZ fusion was integrated into the chromosome of the wild-type S. aureus strain Wood 46, leading to the variant Wood 46-3. Alpha-toxin expression was found to be dependent on temperature, showing a maximum at 42 degrees C. Furthermore, the indicator strain showed a growth phase-dependent hla regulation which was influenced by temperature. At 37 degrees C, induction of hla::lacZ expression occurred in the late exponential phase of growth, whereas at 42 degrees C, a strong induction was observed as early as the mid-exponential phase. These observations were verified by Northern blot analysis of hla mRNA and by Western blot (immunoblot) analysis of culture supernatants of strain Wood 46. It was additionally found that the induction of hla transcription at 42 degrees C was not coupled with higher concentrations of agr RNAIII, the effector molecule of the global regulator agr. Furthermore, expression of the alpha-toxin was repressed at a high osmolarity. It was also shown that oxygen is essential for hla expression and that cultivation of the S. aureus strain Wood 46-3 on solid medium and in the presence of carbon dioxide stimulated hla transcriptional activity.
A Hierarchy of Temporal Receptive Windows in Human Cortex

Real-world events unfold at different time scales and, therefore, cognitive and neuronal processes must likewise occur at different time scales. We present a novel procedure that identifies brain regions responsive to sensory information accumulated over different time scales. We measured functional magnetic resonance imaging activity while observers viewed silent films presented forward, backward, or piecewise-scrambled in time. Early visual areas (e.g., primary visual cortex and the motion-sensitive area MT+) exhibited high response reliability regardless of disruptions in temporal structure. In contrast, the reliability of responses in several higher brain areas, including the superior temporal sulcus (STS), precuneus, posterior lateral sulcus (LS), temporal parietal junction (TPJ), and frontal eye field (FEF), was affected by information accumulated over longer time scales. These regions showed highly reproducible responses for repeated forward, but not for backward or piecewise-scrambled presentations. Moreover, these regions exhibited marked differences in temporal characteristics, with LS, TPJ, and FEF responses depending on information accumulated over longer durations (∼36 s) than STS and precuneus (∼12 s). We conclude that, similar to the known cortical hierarchy of spatial receptive fields, there is a hierarchy of progressively longer temporal receptive windows in the human brain.
Nutritionist’s Variation in Counseling Style and the Effect on Weight Change of Patients Attending a Community Based Lifestyle Modification Program

Information concerning the nature of nutritionist-patient relationships is very limited. This qualitative and quantitative study examined nutritionist’s skills, attributes, and beliefs towards nutrition counseling during a lifestyle modification intervention program, and whether this affected the patient’s weight outcome. 24 nutrition consultations were observed during the program and the nutritionists were interviewed for their perception on practice (n = 4). A statistically significant difference was observed between the nutritionists in regard to patient’s weight change after adjustment for age and baseline weight (p < 0.001). Key nutritionist skills identified that influenced weight outcome were meticulous investigation of the underlying obesity cause, identification of the subject’s stage of change, and psychological support.