Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-term memory for temporal structure: evidence form the identification of well-known and novel songs.

In three experiments, long-term memory for temporal structure was examined by having participants identify both well-known (e.g., "I've Been Working on the Railroad") and novel songs. The target songs were subjected to a number of rhythmic alterations, to assess the importance of four critical features of identification performance. The four critical features were meter, phrasing, rhythmic contour (ordinal scaling of note durations), and the ratio of successive durations. In contrast with previous work, the unaltered version of each song was identified significantly better than any altered version. This indicates that rhythm is stored in long-term memory. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that all four critical features play a role in the identification of songs. These results held for both well-known and novel tunes.
STAT Transcription Factors in Tumor Development and Targeted Therapy of Malignancies

The signal transducers and activators of transcription, STAT proteins, were originally discovered in interferon (IFN)-regulated gene transcription in the early 1990’s. Since then, a number of cytokines have been recognized to activate various STAT proteins. STATs constitute a family of seven transcription factors, STAT1α/β, STAT2, STAT3α/β, STAT4, STAT5A, STAT5B and STAT6, that transduce signals from a variety of extracellular stimuli initiated by different cytokine families that aside from interferons (interferon α, β and γ) include gp130 cytokines, i.e., IL-6, IL-12, IL-23 and γC cytokines that include IL-2, IL-15 and IL-21 [1 ].
SiSeRHMap v1.0: a simulator for mapped seismic response using a hybrid model

Abstract. The SiSeRHMap (simulator for mapped seismic response using a hybrid model) is a computerized methodology capable of elaborating prediction maps of seismic response in terms of acceleration spectra. It was realized on the basis of a hybrid model which combines different approaches and models in a new and non-conventional way. These approaches and models are organized in a code architecture composed of five interdependent modules. A GIS (geographic information system) cubic model (GCM), which is a layered computational structure based on the concept of lithodynamic units and zones, aims at reproducing a parameterized layered subsoil model. A meta-modelling process confers a hybrid nature to the methodology. In this process, the one-dimensional (1-D) linear equivalent analysis produces acceleration response spectra for a specified number of site profiles using one or more input motions. The shear wave velocity–thickness profiles, defined as trainers, are randomly selected in each zone. Subsequently, a numerical adaptive simulation model (Emul-spectra) is optimized on the above trainer acceleration response spectra by means of a dedicated evolutionary algorithm (EA) and the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm (LMA) as the final optimizer. In the final step, the GCM maps executor module produces a serial map set of a stratigraphic seismic response at different periods, grid solving the calibrated Emul-spectra model. In addition, the spectra topographic amplification is also computed by means of a 3-D validated numerical prediction model. This model is built to match the results of the numerical simulations related to isolate reliefs using GIS morphometric data. In this way, different sets of seismic response maps are developed on which maps of design acceleration response spectra are also defined by means of an enveloping technique.
OPTIMAL INVESTMENT IN CREDIT DERIVATIVES PORTFOLIO UNDER CONTAGION RISK

We consider the optimal portfolio problem of a power investor who wishes to allocate her wealth between several credit default swaps (CDSs) and a money market account. We model contagion risk among the reference entities in the portfolio using a reduced‐form Markovian model with interacting default intensities. Using the dynamic programming principle, we establish a lattice dependence structure between the Hamilton‐Jacobi‐Bellman equations associated with the default states of the portfolio. We show existence and uniqueness of a classical solution to each equation and characterize them in terms of solutions to inhomogeneous Bernoulli type ordinary differential equations. We provide a precise characterization for the directionality of the CDS investment strategy and perform a numerical analysis to assess the impact of default contagion. We find that the increased intensity triggered by default of a very risky entity strongly impacts size and directionality of the investor strategy. Such findings outline the key role played by default contagion when investing in portfolios subject to multiple sources of default risk.
Dual‐mode behaviour in the human accommodation system

The human accommodation system was investigated using a dynamic infra‐red optometer to determine whether its feedback control process exhibited dual‐mode behaviour. Ramp changes of target accommodative demand presented monocularly at various velocities (0.5‐0.6 D s‐1) with a fixed 2 D amplitude elicited two modes of behaviour. Smooth ramp movements were observed for low‐velocity stimuli, whereas step responses predominated for high‐velocity stimuli. At intermediate velocities, combined step‐ramp responses were more prevalent. The characteristic of these step‐ramp responses showed two important properties that suggest a pre‐programming mechanism. The amplitude of the step portion of a step‐ramp response approximated the value of the ramp stimulus at the time corresponding to the end of the step movement. Also, the initial step amplitude increased with increasing target ramp velocity. It appears that the amplitude of the preprogrammed accommodative movement was based on an estimate of the expected ramp target position at the end of the response. These findings are consistent with a recent unifying theory of oculomotor control in which the various oculomotor subsystems (versional and vergence eye movements and accommodation) each has fast and slow components. The fast component exhibits preprogramming, while the slow component shows continuous feedback control.
Hepatitis C virus-related cryoglobulinemic glomerulonephritis: long-term remission after antiviral therapy.

BACKGROUND Renal involvement in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection commonly manifests as cryoglobulinemic glomerulonephritis (CGN). The combination of interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) and ribavirin, which is currently considered the standard antiviral therapy in chronic hepatitis C, could be difficult to carry out in cryoglobulinemic patients who are frequently anemic, even in the absence of renal failure. Clinical and histologic long-term results of this therapeutic regimen have not been so far reported in patients with CGN. METHODS Three patients with HCV-related CGN and slightly impaired kidney function were treated with IFN-alpha and ribavirin for 12 months, and subsequently were followed up for 24 to 36 months. Two of these patients who were anemic were pretreated with erythropoietin (EPO). In each patient renal biopsy was performed before starting therapy and repeated 14 to 26 months after the end of treatment. RESULTS In all three patients, antiviral therapy induced sustained virologic response, which was followed by clear improvement in clinical, biochemical, immunologic, and histologic features. Clinical and biochemical improvement steadily progressed in all three patients, achieving normal or nearly normal results at the end of follow-up. In contrast, some immunologic features, such as serum levels of C4 and rheumatoid factor activity, did not normalize in two and three patients, respectively. Posttreatment renal biopsies showed mildly active histologic lesions. CONCLUSION Antiviral therapy with IFN-alpha and ribavirin may be considerably beneficial in patients with HCV-related CGN who obtain sustained virologic response.
Brain‐derived neurotrophic factor prevents dendritic retraction of adult mouse retinal ganglion cells

We used cultured adult mouse retinae as a model system to follow and quantify the retraction of dendrites using diolistic labelling of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) following explantation. Cell death was monitored in parallel by nuclear staining as ‘labelling’ with RGC and apoptotic markers was inconsistent and exceedingly difficult to quantify reliably. Nuclear staining allowed us to delineate a lengthy time window during which dendrite retraction can be monitored in the absence of RGC death. The addition of brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) produced a marked reduction in dendritic degeneration, even when application was delayed for 3 days after retinal explantation. These results suggest that the delayed addition of trophic factors may be functionally beneficial before the loss of cell bodies in the course of conditions such as glaucoma.
Sleep and Inflammation During Adolescence

Objective To investigate the associations between objective and subjective dimensions of adolescent sleep and C-reactive protein (CRP), a key biomarker of inflammation that predicts chronic health problems in adulthood, and whether the associations vary as a function of adolescents' age. Methods A total of 315 adolescents (14.5–18.4 years) wore wrist actigraphs at night to objectively estimate their sleep duration and variability across nights, and completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index to assess their subjective sleep quality. CRP levels were assayed from dried blood spots obtained from finger pricks. To control for adiposity, age- and sex-specific body mass index percentiles were obtained from height and weight measurements. Results Nightly variability in sleep duration was associated with higher levels of CRP (b = 0.13, p = .045). Shorter average sleep duration was associated with higher CRP, but only among younger adolescents (b = −0.11, p = .041). Subjective sleep quality was not associated with CRP. Conclusions The association of sleep with inflammation during adolescence seems more evident in objective dimensions of sleep duration and variability than in the subjective dimensions of sleep quality. Insufficient sleep may be particularly consequential for younger adolescents.
Interlaboratory comparison of current high‐performance methods for HbA2

Introduction: Few data are available on the alignment of the different methods used for HbA2 quantitation and recent external quality survey results show a consistent spread of HbA2 values. To this aim, a comparison study among the actual best performing techniques for HbA2 determination, comprising HPLC and CE methods, was performed.
Mechanical Properties of Rice Husk Fiiled Cashew Nut Shell Liquid Resin Composites

The need to have composite materials that are renewable has lead to materials scientists researching on natural fibres. To minimize environmental pollution research into rice husk has been on for a period of time now. In this research cashew nut resin reinforced rice husk composite was fabricated at different particle sizes and different filler loading. The present study reveals that both filler loading and particle size can affect the tensile strength, young modulus, strain at failure, flexural strength, and impact strength. As the % filler content increases all particle sizes (400µm, 600µm and 800µm) shows a quadratic relationship except % elongation at failure which tends to be linear at 400µm. As particle size increases all % filler content shows quadratic relationship which tends to be linear. As particle sizes increases impact strength for 10 and 30% shows a linear equation while 20% shows a quadratic relationship which tends to be linear. In general, RH/CNSR composite could be considered as a potential source of low cost, natural fibre for composites.
Comments on ‘Colitis’

Improved diagnostic techniques are invariably followed by more accurate terminology. Originally textbooks referred to 'chronic ulcerative colitis' but, with the introduction of the sigmoidoscope, the more acute and early forms of the disease were seen and the 'chronic' was dropped. With the growing interest of the pathologists and with the introduction of the biopsy, it has become better realized that the essential pathological lesion is a mucosal inflammatory reaction and that ulceration is a secondary complication undermining the mucosa by inflammation and suppuration and not always present. Perhaps the time has come to drop the term 'ulcerative' and to substitute 'idiopathic', not so much to emphasize the unknown etiology as to remind us all the time of the specific diagnoses which can cause diagnostic confusion. Furthermore, 'proctocolitis' is a more accurate description than 'colitis'.
Effectiveness of hybrid recovery techniques on parametric failures

Modern day microprocessors effectively utilise supply voltage scaling for tremendous power reduction. The minimum voltage beyond which a processor cannot operate reliably is defined as V ddmin. On-chip memories like caches are the most susceptible to voltage-noise induced failures because of process variations and reduced noise-margins thereby arbitrating whole processor's V ddmin. In this paper, we evaluate the effectiveness of a new class of hybrid techniques in improving cache yield through failure prevention and correction. Proactive read/write assist techniques like body-biasing (BB) and wordline boosting (WLB) when combined with reactive techniques like ECC and redundancy are shown to offer better quality-energy-area trade offs when compared to their standalone configurations. Proactive techniques can help lower V ddmin (improving functional margin) for significant power savings and reactive techniques ensure that the resulting large number of failures are corrected (improving functional yield). Our results in 22nm technology indicate that at scaled supply voltages, hybrid techniques can improve parametric yield by atleast 28% when considering worst-case process variations.
Age-Related Alterations in Cardiac Geometry in Formerly Preeclamptic Women and Healthy Parous Controls: An Explorative Study

Introduction: Preeclamptic pregnancies induce concentric left ventricular hypertrophy instead of eccentric left ventricular hypertrophy as seen in healthy pregnancies. Although these differences persist for at least several months postpartum, the long-term fate of these changes is unknown. Objective: To explore the age-related changes in cardiovascular structure and function in formerly preeclamptic women relative to parous controls. Methods: A total of 20 formerly preeclamptic women and 8 parous controls underwent 2 echocardiograms at 1 and 14 years of postpartum. With the nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test and the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test, we analyzed the between-group differences in cardiac structure and function at both time points and the time-related changes in these indices. Results: Left ventricular geometry and dimensions and systolic function were comparable in the 2 study groups at both time points. The age-related decline in E/A ratio and increase in intraventricular septum thickness were noted in both groups over time, without appreciable differences between groups. Conclusion: A history of preeclampsia does not affect the age-related cardiac remodeling over a period of 14 years.
Perceptual user interfaces using vision-based eye tracking

We present a multi-camera vision-based eye tracking method to robustly locate and track user's eyes as they interact with an application. We propose enhancements to various vision-based eye-tracking approaches, which include (a) the use of multiple cameras to estimate head pose and increase coverage of the sensors and (b) the use of probabilistic measures incorporating Fisher's linear discriminant to robustly track the eyes under varying lighting conditions in real-time. We present experiments and quantitative results to demonstrate the robustness of our eye tracking in two application prototypes.
Transcapillary Escape Rate of Albumin and Plasma Volume in Essential Hypertension

The transcapillary escape rate of albumin, the fraction of intravascular mass of albumin that passes to the extravascular space per unit time, was determined from the disappearance of intravenously injected 131I-labeled human serum albumin during the first 60 minutes after the injection in 10 normotensive and 18 hypertensive male subjects. The investigation was preceded by at least 12 hours of fasting and 30 minutes of rest in the supine position. The transcapillary escape rate of albumin was significantly increased in the hypertensive group: it averaged 7.6±1.2 (SD) %/hour compared with 5.6±1.1%/hour in the normotensive group (P < 0.001). Similar results were obtained for the outflux of albumin, the mass of intravascular albumin that passes to the extravascular space per unit time, when identical intravascular albumin masses were compared (P < 0.001). A highly significant correlation between the transcapillary escape rate of albumin and blood pressure was found in the hypertensive group (P < 0.001). Therefore, the increased transcapillary escape rate and the outflux of albumin probably reflected an increase in arteriolar and capillary permeability to albumin. This increase was probably due to the high intra-arterial pressure, which induces constriction in some arteries and dilatation in others and thus allows the high intraluminal pressure to be transmitted distally with distention of the small vessel walls. Finally, a significant reduction in plasma volume was found in the hypertensive subjects (P < 0.05).
TINTE Uncertainty Analysis of the Maximum Fuel Temperature During a DLOFC Event for the 400 MW Pebble Bed Modular Reactor

The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) is a high temperature, helium cooled, graphite moderated pebbled bed reactor, using a multi-pass fuelling scheme. The aim of this paper is to quantify the effects of uncertainties inherent to various reactor and material parameters on the maximum fuel temperature during a Depressurized Loss of Forced Cooling (DLOFC) event. The data is obtained by using the transient computer code TINTE, which was specifically developed to assess the nuclear and thermal-hydraulic transient behavior of pebble bed high temperature reactor designs. TINTE calculates time-dependent neutron fluxes, heat source distributions and heat transfer rates between solids and gasses in a 2D r-z geometry to obtain the global transient core temperature behavior. This study is based on the 400 MW PBMR core design status as at April 2003, and includes DLOFC calculations over a wide range of reactor and material parameters. Some of the parameters investigated for their effect on the fuel temperature during the DLOFC are: reactor fission power and decay heat, control rod movements and scram scenarios, coolant mass flow rates and helium coolant and graphite reflector properties (conductivity, emissivity and specific heat capacity). The results of this study indicate that the current estimates for the total DLOFC maximum fuel temperature, for a 400 MW PBMR reactor operating at 105% power, are within an uncertainty band of ±107 oC for a DLOFC with scram. The three most important parameters influencing the maximum fuel temperatures during a DLOFC are (in sequence of importance): the reactor power level, the amount of decay heat generated by the nuclear fuel after shutdown, and the thermal conductivity of the pebble bed fuel spheres.
Intense, flu-like symptoms in women using menstrual devices: always think of staphylococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome

Abstract Staphylococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) is an exceptionally rare, toxin-induced, life-threatening, clinical entity that has largely been associated with the use of tampons and other menstrual devices. We, here, report a case of menstrual TSS in a young, female patient who was successfully treated in our hospital. The patient was vaginally colonized with Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli and the possible interactions between the two are discussed. An account of all the essential facts that physicians should be aware of with regard to TSS is subsequently included.
Phase I dose-escalating study of SU11654, a small molecule receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in dogs with spontaneous malignancies.

PURPOSE The purpose of the following study was to investigate the safety and efficacy of the novel multitargeted indolinone receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) inhibitor, SU11654, using a canine model of spontaneous tumors. This p.o. bioavailable compound exhibits potent inhibitory activity against members of the split kinase family of RTKs, including vascular endothelial growth factor receptor, platelet-derived growth factor receptor, Kit, and Flt-3, resulting in both direct antitumor and antiangiogenic activity. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN This was a Phase I trial in which successive cohorts of dogs with spontaneous tumors that had failed standard treatment regimens received escalating doses of SU11654 as oral therapy. Pharmacokinetics, toxicity, and tumor response were assessed. RESULTS Fifty-seven dogs with a variety of cancers were enrolled; of these, 10 experienced progressive disease within the first 3 weeks. Measurable objective responses were observed in 16 dogs (including 6 complete responses), primarily in mast cell tumors (n = 11), mixed mammary carcinomas (n = 2), soft tissue sarcomas (n = 2), and multiple myeloma (n = 1), for an overall response rate of 28% (16 of 57). Stable disease of sufficient duration to be considered clinically meaningful (>10 weeks) was seen in an additional 15 dogs, for a resultant overall biological activity of 54% (31 of 57). CONCLUSIONS This study provides the first evidence that p.o. administered kinase inhibitors can exhibit activity against a variety of spontaneous malignancies. Given the similarities of canine and human cancers with regard to tumor biology and the presence of analogous RTK dysregulation, it is likely that such agents will demonstrate comparable antineoplastic activity in people.
Deposited in DRO : 04 March 2014 Version of attached le : Published Version Peer-review status of attached le : Peer-reviewed Citation for published item

Publisher's copyright statement: c © 2014 The Author(s). Published by Taylor Francis. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted.
Clifford Valued Differential Forms, and Some Issues in Gravitation, Electromagnetism and

In this paper we show how to describe the general theory of a linear metric compatible connection with the theory of Clifford valued differential forms. This is done by realizing that for each spacetime point the Lie algebra of Clifford bivectors is isomorphic to the Lie algebra of . In that way the pullback of the linear connection under a local trivialization of the bundle (i.e., a choice of gauge) is represented by a Clifford valued 1-form. That observation makes it possible to realize immediately that Einstein's gravitational theory can be formulated in a way which is similar to a gauge theory. Such a theory is compared with other interesting mathematical formulations of Einstein's theory, and particularly with a supposedly "unified" field theory of gravitation and electromagnetism proposed by M. Sachs. We show that his identification of Maxwell equations within his formalism is not a valid one. Also, taking profit of the mathematical methods introduced in the paper we investigate a very polemical issue in Einstein gravitational theory, namely the problem of the 'energy–momentum' conservation. We show that many statements appearing in the literature are confusing or even wrong.