Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Light Treatment for Sleep Disorders: Consensus Report

Sleep disturbances are an all-too-familiar symptom of jet lag and a prime source of complaints for transmeridian travelers and flight crews alike. They are the result of a temporary loss of synchrony between an abruptly shifted sleep period, timed in accordance with the new local day-night cycle, and a gradually reentraining circadian system. Scheduled exposure to bright light can, in principle, alleviate the symptoms of jet lag by accelerating circadian reentrainment to new time zones. Laboratory simulations, in which sleep time is advanced by 6 to 8 h and the subjects exposed to bright light for 3 to 4 h during late subjective night on 2 to 4 successive days, have not all been successful. The few field studies conducted to date have had encouraging results, but their applicability to the population at large remains uncertain due to very limited sample sizes. Unresolved issues include optimal times for light exposure on the first as well as on subsequent treatment days, whether a given, fixed, light exposure time is likely to benefit a majority of travelers or whether light treatment should be scheduled instead according to some individual circadian phase marker, and if so, can such a phase marker be found that is both practical and reliable.
Pulsed Out of Awareness: EEG Alpha Oscillations Represent a Pulsed-Inhibition of Ongoing Cortical Processing

Alpha oscillations are ubiquitous in the brain, but their role in cortical processing remains a matter of debate. Recently, evidence has begun to accumulate in support of a role for alpha oscillations in attention selection and control. Here we first review evidence that 8–12 Hz oscillations in the brain have a general inhibitory role in cognitive processing, with an emphasis on their role in visual processing. Then, we summarize the evidence in support of our recent proposal that alpha represents a pulsed-inhibition of ongoing neural activity. The phase of the ongoing electroencephalography can influence evoked activity and subsequent processing, and we propose that alpha exerts its inhibitory role through alternating microstates of inhibition and excitation. Finally, we discuss evidence that this pulsed-inhibition can be entrained to rhythmic stimuli in the environment, such that preferential processing occurs for stimuli at predictable moments. The entrainment of preferential phase may provide a mechanism for temporal attention in the brain. This pulsed inhibitory account of alpha has important implications for many common cognitive phenomena, such as the attentional blink, and seems to indicate that our visual experience may at least some times be coming through in waves.
Autoantigen Glycoprotein 70 Expression Is Regulated by a Single Locus, Which Acts as a Checkpoint for Pathogenic Anti-Glycoprotein 70 Autoantibody Production and Hence for the Corresponding Development of Severe Nephritis, in Lupus-Prone BXSB Mice1

Retroviral envelope glycoprotein gp70 is present in the sera of immunologically normal and autoimmune-prone strains of mice. However, only lupus-prone mice spontaneously develop gp70-anti-gp70 immune complexes (gp70IC), and these have been implicated in the development of nephritis. We investigated the genetic factors that affect the production of both free serum gp70 and gp70IC in the lupus-prone BXSB mouse strain by analyzing (BXSB × (C57BL/10 × BXSB)F1)- and (C57BL/10 × (C57BL/10 × BXSB)F1)-backcrossed male mice. Production of gp70 mapped to a single major locus located on chromosome 13 (Bxs6) with a maximum log likelihood of the odds of 36.7 (p = 1.6 × 10−38). The level of gp70IC was highly dependent on Bxs6-related gp70 production, and high titer autoantibody production only occurred when serum gp70 levels were greater than a threshold value of ∼4.0 μg/ml. The subdivision of the (BXSB × (C57BL/10 × BXSB)F1)-backcrossed mice into those homozygous or heterozygous for Bxs6 enabled a remarkable association to be observed between high levels of gp70IC and severe nephritis in the Bxs6 homozygote population. A further mapping study in these two subgroups identified a previously unrecognized interval associated with the production of autoantibodies.
Methylmercury Induces a Spontaneous, Transient Slow Inward Chloride Current in Purkinje Cells of Rat Cerebellar Slices

Methylmercury (MeHg; 10–100 μM) induced a spontaneous, transient, slow inward current in Purkinje cells in rat cerebellar slices. Insensitivity of this current to tetrodotoxin suggests that its generation is not related to presynaptic firing. The present study was designed to attempt to identify the ionic origin of this current. Neither Gd3+, a nonspecific cation channel blocker, nor tetrakis(2-pyridylmethyl)ethylethylenediamine, which chelates Zn2+, could prevent this current. Following dialysis of cells with a low-[Cl–] pipette solution, the giant currents were inducible only when the cells were held at potentials more positive than 0 mV but not at potentials more negative than –60 mV. In addition, no giant currents were observed when cells were held at 0 mV under symmetrical [Cl–] conditions. Thus, this current seems to be mediated by Cl–. However, it was insensitive to the glycine receptor antagonist strychnine. The anion channel blockers 4,4′-diisothiocyanostilbene-2,2′-disulfonic acid (DIDS) or niflumic acid suppressed GABAA receptor-mediated spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents. Niflumic acid also prevented appearance of this giant current; DIDS was only effective at more positive membrane potentials. Thus, this current seems to be carried by a voltage-dependent Cl– channel. Reducing extracellular Ca2+ concentration and/or intracellular application of the Ca2+ chelator 1,2-bis(2-aminophenoxy)ethane-N,N,N′,N′-tetraacetic acid seemed to be ineffective at preventing appearance of this current. Thus, these data do not seem to support the conclusion that this current is mediated by a Ca2+-activated Cl– channel. The role that this current plays in MeHg-induced neurotoxicity is unknown.
Toward High Performance, Weakly Invasive Brain Computer Interfaces Using Selective Visual Attention

Brain–computer interfaces have been proposed as a solution for paralyzed persons to communicate and interact with their environment. However, the neural signals used for controlling such prostheses are often noisy and unreliable, resulting in a low performance of real-world applications. Here we propose neural signatures of selective visual attention in epidural recordings as a fast, reliable, and high-performance control signal for brain prostheses. We recorded epidural field potentials with chronically implanted electrode arrays from two macaque monkeys engaged in a shape-tracking task. For single trials, we classified the direction of attention to one of two visual stimuli based on spectral amplitude, coherence, and phase difference in time windows fixed relative to stimulus onset. Classification performances reached up to 99.9%, and the information about attentional states could be transferred at rates exceeding 580 bits/min. Good classification can already be achieved in time windows as short as 200 ms. The classification performance changed dynamically over the trial and modulated with the task's varying demands for attention. For all three signal features, the information about the direction of attention was contained in the γ-band. The most informative feature was spectral amplitude. Together, these findings establish a novel paradigm for constructing brain prostheses as, for example, virtual spelling boards, promising a major gain in performance and robustness for human brain–computer interfaces.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management Working Paper the Coupling of Product Architecture and Organizational Structure Decisions

This work is motivated by our informal observation that corporations redesign their products and their organizations quite separately. We find, however, that the relationship of product architecture to organizational design is an intricate one. This study provides a rudimentary basis for understanding the linkages between product architecture and organizational design, which may allow managers to implement the appropriate organizational or architectural structures. In addition, a thorough understanding of the reliance that product architecture has upon organizational design and vice versa can aid managers in creating an environment in which product architecture can exploit the advantages of the current organizational design and in which the organizational design can enhance the efficiency of the personnel interactions required to implement a product's architecture. We discuss several observations about the dimensions by which these attributes are coupled. Acknowledgment Funding for this research has been provided by the MIT International Center for Research on the Management of Technology. We appreciate the assistance of the company that we studied in developing the examples presented in this paper.
Moving target inference with hierarchical Bayesian models in synthetic aperture radar imagery

In synthetic aperture radar (SAR), images are formed by focusing the response of stationary objects to a single spatial location. On the other hand, moving targets cause phase errors in the standard formation of SAR images that cause displacement and defocusing effects. SAR imagery also contains significant sources of non-stationary spatially-varying noises, including antenna gain discrepancies, angular scintillation (glints) and complex speckle. In order to account for this intricate phenomenology, this work combines the knowledge of the physical, kinematic, and statistical properties of SAR imaging into a single unified Bayesian structure that simultaneously (a) estimates the nuisance parameters such as clutter distributions and antenna miscalibrations and (b) estimates the target signature required for detection/inference of the target state. Moreover, we provide a Monte Carlo estimate of the posterior distribution for the target state and nuisance parameters that infers the parameters of the model directly from the data, largely eliminating tuning of algorithm parameters. We demonstrate that our algorithm competes at least as well on a synthetic dataset as state-of-the-art algorithms for estimating sparse signals. Finally, performance analysis on a measured dataset demonstrates that the proposed algorithm is robust at detecting/estimating targets over a wide area and performs at least as well as popular algorithms for SAR moving target detection.
A cost-effectiveness analysis of an in-hospital clinical pharmacist service

Objective A randomised controlled study performed from 2007 to 2008 showed beneficial effects of a composite clinical pharmacist service as regards a simple health status instrument. The present study aimed to evaluate if the intervention was cost-effective when evaluated in a decision-theoretic model. Design A piggyback cost-effectiveness analysis from the healthcare perspective. Setting Two internal medicine wards at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden. Participants Of 345 patients (61% women; median age: 82 years; 181 control and 164 intervention patients), 240 patients (62% women, 82 years; 124 control and 116 intervention patients) had EuroQol-5 dimensions (EQ-5D) utility scores at baseline and at 6-month follow-up. Outcome measures Costs during a 6-month follow-up period in all patients and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) in patients with EQ-5D utility scores. Inpatient and outpatient care was extracted from the VEGA database. Drug costs were extracted from the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register. A probabilistic analysis was performed to characterise uncertainty in the cost-effectiveness model. Results No significant difference in costs between the randomisation groups was found; the mean total costs per individual±SD, intervention costs included, were €10 748±13 799 (intervention patients) and €10 344±14 728 (control patients) (p=0.79). For patients in the cost-effectiveness analysis, the corresponding costs were €10 912±13 999 and €9290±12 885. Intervention patients gained an additional 0.0051 QALYs (unadjusted) and 0.0035 QALYs (adjusted for baseline EQ-5D utility score). These figures result in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of €316 243 per unadjusted QALY and €463 371 per adjusted QALY. The probabilistic uncertainty analysis revealed that, at a willingness-to-pay of €50 000/QALY, the probability that the intervention was cost-effective was approximately 0.2. Conclusions The present study reveals that an intervention designed like this one is probably not cost-effective. The study thus illustrates that the complexity of healthcare requires thorough health economics evaluations rather than simplistic interpretation of data.
Percolation in ∞ + 1 dimensions

We investigate percolation on the graph of the direct product T × Z of a regular tree T and the line Z, in which each 'tree' edge is open with probability τ and each 'line' edge with probability λ. There are three non-trivial phases, corresponding to the existence of 0, ∞, and 1 infinite open clusters. Such results may be obtained also for the graph T × Z d where d ≥ 2.
Infrastructure and Trade : A Meta-Analysis 1

Low levels of infrastructure quality and quantity can create trade impediments through increased transport costs. Since the late 1990s an increasing number of trade studies have taken infrastructure into account. The purpose of the present paper is to quantify the importance of infrastructure for trade by means of meta-analysis and meta-regression techniques that synthesize various studies. The type of infrastructure that we focus on is mainly public infrastructure in transportation and communication. We examine the impact of infrastructure on trade by means of estimates obtained from 36 primary studies that yielded 542 infrastructure elasticities of trade. We explicitly take into account that infrastructure can be measured in various ways and that its impact depends on the location of the infrastructure. We estimate several meta-regression models that control for observed heterogeneity in terms of variation across different methodologies, infrastructure types, geographical areas and their economic features, model specifications, and publication characteristics. Additionally, random effects account for between-study unspecified heterogeneity, while publication bias is explicitly addressed by means of the Hedges model. After controlling for all these issues we find that a 1 percent increase in own infrastructure increases exports by about 0.6 percent and imports by about 0.3 percent. Such elasticities are generally larger for developing countries, land infrastructure, IV or panel data estimation, and macro-level analyses. They also depend on the inclusion or exclusion of various common covariates in trade regressions.
Efficacy and feasibility of antidepressant treatment in patients with post-stroke depression

Background:Depression greatly impacts the quality of life in most stroke survivors. Therefore, effective treatment of post-stroke depression (PSD) is critically important. However, evidence supporting the effectiveness and feasibility of antidepressant treatment in this population is limited and somewhat confusing. Methods:A comprehensive literature search of the Cochrane, PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase databases from inception up to November 2015 was conducted. We reviewed all randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that assigned patients with a clinical diagnosis of PSD to antidepressant or placebo treatment. Reduction in depression rating scale scores and response rate to antidepressants were defined as the efficacy outcomes. Rates of dropout for any reason and for adverse effects were defined as the acceptability outcomes. We also assessed improvements in activities of daily living (ADL) as functional outcomes. Results:In total, 11 trials consisting of 740 participants were indentified. A significant advantage of antidepressants compared with placebo treatment in PSD was observed in overall pooled effect size analysis (SMD = −0.96; 95% CI = −1.41 to −0.51; P <0.0001). In addition, patients receiving antidepressants presented a much greater improvement in various depressive symptoms than those with placebo (RR = 1.36; 95% CI = 1.01–1.83; P = 0.04). However, antidepressants were less well tolerated than placebo because of some adverse events (RR = 2.72; 95% CI = 1.37–5.43; P = 0.04). Intriguingly, no consistent evidence was found for a positive effect of antidepressants on ADL in our analysis. Conclusions:This meta-analysis suggests that antidepressants treatment confers potentially positive effects in patients with PSD as compared with simple placebo treatment. However, this must be carefully considered in light of its possible adverse events in some individual patients.
Cancer and bone.

I. Introduction II. Normal Calcium and Bone Homeostasis A. Bone remodeling B. Calcium homeostasis C. Defenses against hyper- and hypocalcemia III. Humoral Mechanisms by Which Solid Tumors Affect the Skeleton A. Hypercalcemia B. Oncogenic osteomalacia C. Tumor lysis syndrome IV. Local Mechanisms by Which Tumors Affect the Skeleton A. Clinical manifestations B. Pathophysiology of the metastatic process to bone C. Local tumor syndromes in bone D. Therapy of tumor in bone
Determinación de las variables psicológicas y deportivas relevantes a las lesiones deportivas

Este estudio analiza la relacion entre variables psicologicas y las lesiones deportivas. Participaron en el estudio un total de 297 deportistas, de 26 distintos deportes. Se recogieron variables biomedicas, deportivas, psicologicas y referentes a la lesion deportiva. El analisis de los datos se llevo a cabo por medio de redes Bayesianas. Nuestros resultados parecen indicar que una elevada probabilidad de autoeficacia produce dependencia estadistica de mas probabilidad de lesion deportiva. Esta variable recibe influencias antecedentes tanto de variables biomedicas (IMC) como de variables psicologicas (estres). Tambien existen variables consecuentes a la lesion: uso de estrategias de afrontamiento, y locus de control.
Characteristics and coupling of cardiac and locomotor rhythms during treadmill walking tasks

Studying the variability of physiological subsystems (e.g., cardiac and locomotor control systems) has been insightful in understanding how functional and dysfunctional patterns emerge within their behaviors. The coupling of these subsystems (termed cardiolocomotor coupling) is believed to be important to maintain healthy functioning in the diverse conditions in which individuals must operate. Aging and pathology result in alterations to both the patterns of individual systems, as well as to how those systems couple to each other. By examining cardiac and locomotor rhythms concurrently during treadmill walking, it is possible to ascertain how these two rhythms relate to each other in different populations (i.e., younger and older adults) and with varying task constraints (i.e., a gait synchronization task or fast walking task). The purpose of this research was to simultaneously document the characteristics of cardiac and gait rhythms in younger (18-35 yrs) and older (63-80 yrs) healthy adults while walking and to establish the extent to which changes in these systems are coupled when gait is constrained. This study consisted of two repeated-measures experiments that participants completed on two separate days. Both experiments consisted of three 15-minute phases. During the first (baseline) and third (retention) phases of both experiments, participants walked with no cues or specific instructions at their preferred walking speed. During the second phase, participants were asked to synchronize their step falls to the timing of a visual cue (experiment 1) or to walk at 125% of their preferred walking speed (experiment 2). Fifty-one healthy adults (26 older, 67.67±4.70 yrs, 1.72±0.09 m, 70.13±14.30 kg; 25 younger, 24.57±4.29 yrs, 1.76±0.09 m, 73.34±15.35 kg) participated in this study. Participants’ cardiac rhythms (R-R interval time series) and locomotor rhythms (stride interval, step width, and step length time series) were measured while walking on a treadmill. Characteristics of variability in cardiac and locomotor rhythms and the coupling between cardiac and gait rhythms were measured. Results revealed that younger and older healthy adults alter gait patterns similarly when presented with a gait synchronization or fast walking task and that these tasks also alter cardiac patterns. Likewise, both groups exhibited enhanced cardiolocomotor coupling when tasked with a step timing constraint or increased speed during treadmill walking. Combined, these findings suggest that walking tasks likely alter both locomotor and cardiac dynamics and the coupling of physiological subsystems could be insightful in understanding the diverse effects aging and pathology have on individuals.
Attachment Security and Immunity in Healthy Women

Background: Attachment security is associated with health and possibly autonomic and endocrine reactivity to stress, however the relationship between attachment style and immune function has not yet been investigated. Methods: A random sample of 61 female nurses provided a blood sample and completed the Perceived Stress Scale, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, and the Experiences in Close Relationships questionnaire. Immune measures included immunophenotypic analysis, lymphocyte proliferative response to Phytohemagglutinin, and NK cell cytotoxicity (NKCC). Statistical analysis focused on the relationship between attachment-related anxiety or avoidance and immune measures. Multiple regression was used to control for perceived stress and support, alexithymia, health-related behaviors possibly influencing immunity, and use of anti-inflammatory drugs, tobacco or alcohol. Results: Attachment-related anxiety was not associated with any immune parameter. Attachment-related avoidance was associated with lower NKCC. This association was independent from the number of circulating NK cells, which suggests a change in cell functionality. Perceived stress was also associated with lower NKCC. Conclusions: This study suggests a link between attachment security and immunity. While our findings should be interpreted with great caution and need replication, they are consistent with previous work suggesting that insecure attachment may be a risk factor for health and may relate to biological processes relevant to health. PSS = Perceived Stress Scale; MSPSS = Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support; TAS-20 = 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale; ECR = Experiences in Close Relationships questionnaire; PHA = Phytohemagglutinin; NKCC = Natural Killer Cell Cytotoxicity; BMI = body mass index.