Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Unified Model of Time Perception Accounts for Duration-Based and Beat-Based Timing Mechanisms

Accurate timing is an integral aspect of sensory and motor processes such as the perception of speech and music and the execution of skilled movement. Neuropsychological studies of time perception in patient groups and functional neuroimaging studies of timing in normal participants suggest common neural substrates for perceptual and motor timing. A timing system is implicated in core regions of the motor network such as the cerebellum, inferior olive, basal ganglia, pre-supplementary, and supplementary motor area, pre-motor cortex as well as higher-level areas such as the prefrontal cortex. In this article, we assess how distinct parts of the timing system subserve different aspects of perceptual timing. We previously established brain bases for absolute, duration-based timing and relative, beat-based timing in the olivocerebellar and striato-thalamo-cortical circuits respectively (Teki et al., 2011). However, neurophysiological and neuroanatomical studies provide a basis to suggest that timing functions of these circuits may not be independent. Here, we propose a unified model of time perception based on coordinated activity in the core striatal and olivocerebellar networks that are interconnected with each other and the cerebral cortex through multiple synaptic pathways. Timing in this unified model is proposed to involve serial beat-based striatal activation followed by absolute olivocerebellar timing mechanisms.
Use of a genetic algorithm in brill's transformation-based part-of-speech tagger

The tagging problem in natural language processing is to find a way to label every word in a text as a particular part of speech, e.g., proper noun. An effective way of solving this problem with high accuracy is the transformation-based or "Brill" tagger. In Brill's system, a number of transformation templates are specified a priori that are instantiated and ranked during a greedy search-based algorithm. This paper describes a variant of Brill's implementation that instead uses a genetic algorithm to generate the instantiated rules and provide an adaptive ranking. Based on tagging accuracy, the new system provides a better hybrid evolutionary computation solution to the part-of-speech (POS) problem than the previous attempt. Although not able to make up for the use of a priori knowledge utilized by Brill, the method appears to point the way for an improved solution to the tagging problem.
Cultural Differences in Professional Help Seeking: A Comparison of Japan and the U.S.

Previous research has found cultural differences in the frequency of support seeking. Asians and Asian Americans report seeking support from their close others to deal with their stress less often compared to European Americans. Similarly, other research on professional help seeking has shown that Asians and Asian Americans are less likely than European Americans to seek professional psychological help. Previous studies link this difference to multitude of factors, such as cultural stigma and reliance on informal social networks. The present research examined another explanation for cultural differences in professional help seeking. We predicted that the observed cultural difference in professional help seeking is an extension of culture-specific interpersonal relationship patterns. In the present research, undergraduate students in Japan and the United States completed the Inventory of Attitudes toward Seeking Mental Health Services, which measures professional help seeking propensity, psychological openness to acknowledging psychological problems, and indifference to the stigma of seeking professional help. The results showed that Japanese reported greater reluctance to seek professional help compared to Americans. Moreover, the relationship between culture and professional help seeking attitudes was partially mediated by use of social support seeking among close others. The implications of cultural differences in professional help seeking and the relationship between support seeking and professional help seeking are discussed.
A novel binarization algorithm for ballistics imaging systems

The identification of ballistics specimens from imaging systems is of paramount importance in criminal investigation. Binarization plays a key role in preprocess of recognizing cartridges in the ballistic imaging systems. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to get the satisfactory binary image using existing binary algorithms. In this paper, we utilize the global and local thresholds to enhance the image binarization. Importantly, we present a novel criterion for effectively detecting edges in the images. Comprehensive experiments have been conducted over sample ballistic images. The empirical results demonstrate the proposed method can provide a better solution than existing binary algorithms.
Pharmacokinetic Studies of Tobramycin and Gentamicin

Broth dilution susceptibility tests of 100 isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and 101 isolates of Staphylococcus aureus against tobramycin (formerly nebramycin factor 6) and gentamicin showed that tobramycin was more effective against P. aeruginosa and less effective against S. aureus. The minimal inhibitory concentration of tobramycin against the Pseudomonas sp. isolates that required 5 μg of gentamicin per ml for inhibition ranged from 0.63 to 0.31 μg/ml. Peak concentrations in the blood of 10 healthy adults after intramuscular injection of 80 and 40 mg of tobramycin averaged 3.7 ± 0.62 and 2.4 ± 0.27 μg/ml, and declined to 0.56 ± 0.05 and 0.26 ± 0.02 μg/ml, respectively, after 6 h. The urine recovery averaged 60%. The half-life was 1.6 h. During continuous intravenous infusion of tobramycin and gentamicin (infusion rate 6.6 mg per h), blood levels at steady state were 0.94 ± 0.10 and 1.04 ± 0.06 μg/ml, respectively. For both antibiotics, the calculated distribution volume ranged from 15 to 17 liters. The renal clearance to tobramycin averaged 76% and that of gentamicin averaged 85% of the total clearance, indicating that the drugs are primarily eliminated by the kidneys. The present results suggest that tobramycin may be more successful in the treatment of Pseudomonas infections than gentamicin at the same dosage (80 mg intramuscularly three to four times daily).
Motoneuron Intrinsic Properties, but Not Their Receptive Fields, Recover in Chronic Spinal Injury

Proper movement execution relies on precise input processing by spinal motoneurons (MNs). Spinal MNs are activated by limb joint rotations. Typically, their movement-related receptive fields (MRRFs) are sharply focused and joint-specific. After acute spinal transection MRRFs become wide, but their manifestation is not apparent, as intrinsic excitability, primarily resulting from the loss of persistent inward currents (PICs), dramatically decreases. PICs undergo a remarkable recovery with time after injury. Here we investigate whether MRRFs undergo a recovery that parallels that of the PIC. Using the chronic spinal cat in acute terminal decerebrate preparations, we found that MRRFs remain expanded 1 month after spinal transaction, whereas PICs recovered to >80% of their preinjury amplitudes. These recovered PICs substantially amplified the expanded inputs underlying the MRRFs. As a result, we show that single joint rotations lead to the activation of muscles across the entire limb. These results provide a potential mechanism for the propagation of spasms throughout the limb.
Partitioned optimization algorithms for multiple sequence alignment

Multiple sequence alignment is an important and difficult problem in molecular biology and bioinformatics. In this paper, we propose a partitioning approach that significantly improves the solution time and quality by utilizing the locality structure of the problem. The algorithm solves the multiple sequence alignment in three stages. First, an automated and suboptimal partitioning strategy is used to divide the set of sequences into several subsections. Then a multiple sequence alignment algorithm based on ant colony optimization is used to align the sequences of each subsection. Finally, the alignment of original sequences can be obtained by assembling the result of each subsection. The ant colony algorithm is highly optimized in order to avoid local optimal traps and converge to global optimal efficiently. Experimental results show that the algorithm can significantly reduce the running time and improve the solution quality on large-scale multiple sequence alignment benchmarks.
Clevudine Therapy with Vaccine Inhibits Progression of Chronic Hepatitis and Delays Onset of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Chronic Woodchuck Hepatitis Virus Infection

We examined a rational approach to therapy of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection that utilized the reduction of viral load combined with appropriately timed immune modulation/stimulation. In a placebo-controlled study, chronic woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV) carrier woodchucks received clevudine (l-FMAU), previously shown to have especially potent and sustained antiviral activity in woodchucks, for 32 weeks followed by WHV surface antigen (WHsAg) alum-adjuvanted vaccine at 32, 36, 40 and 48 weeks. Clevudine induced significant reductions in viraemia, surface antigenaemia, hepatic WHV nucleic acids, and hepatic core and surface antigens. Viral replication markers remained markedly suppressed in 75% of the clevudine-treated woodchucks following drug withdrawal, but remained at high levels in the vaccine monotherapy and placebo groups. Combination drug and vaccine therapy had benefits based on sustained reduction of viraemia, antigenaemia, and hepatic WHV DNA and RNA; inhibition of progression of chronic hepatitis; reduced frequency of chronic liver injury; and delayed onset of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Combination therapy contributed to prevention of HCC in up to 38% of treated carriers, although the growth rate of established HCC was not affected. This study demonstrates enhanced benefits of combination chemo-immunotherapy against viral load and disease progression in chronic hepadnaviral infection, and provides a platform for further development of such treatment regimens.
Cellular Physiology Cellular Physiology Cellular Physiology Cellular Physiology Cellular Physiology Cooperative Interactions between R531 and Acidic Residues in the Voltage Sensing Module of Herg1 Channels

HERG1 K + channels are critical for modulating the duration of the cardiac action potential. The role of hERG1 channels in maintaining electrical stability in the heart derives from their unusual gating properties: slow activation and fast inactivation. HERG1 channel inactivation is intrinsically voltage sensitive and is not coupled to activation in the same way as in the Shaker family of K + channels. We recently proposed that the S4 transmembrane domain functions as the primary voltage sensor for hERG1 activation and inactivation and that distinct regions of S4 contribute to each gating process. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that S4 rearrangements underlying activation and inactivation gating may be associated with distinct cooperative interactions between a key residue in the S4 domain (R531) and acidic residues in neighboring regions (S1 – S3 domains) of the voltage sensing module. Using double-mutant cycle analysis, we found that R531 was energetically coupled to all acidic residues in S1-S3 during activation, but was coupled only to acidic residues near the extracellular portion of S2 and S3 (D456, D460 and D509) during inactivation. We propose that hERG1 activation involves a cooperative conformational change involving the entire voltage sensing module, while inactivation may involve a more limited interaction between R531 and D456, D460 and D509.
Changes in Body Weight From Young Adulthood to Middle Age and Its Association With Blood Pressure and Hypertension: A Cross‐Sectional Study in Hong Kong Chinese Women

Background Few studies have examined the associations of weight changes from young adulthood to middle age with blood pressure (BP) and hypertension among Hong Kong Chinese women. Methods and Results Weight at age 18 (W18), current weight (Wcurrent), height, BP, demographics, and lifestyle factors were obtained from 1253 female nurses (35–65 years) by a self‐administered questionnaire through mail survey in Hong Kong. The conditional relative weight (CRW; a residual of Wcurrent regressed on W18) was used to express the relative weight change from age 18 to current age. The study results show that from young adulthood to middle age, 76.9%, 15.1%, and 8.0% of women had weight gain, weight loss, and stable weight, respectively. Women in the weight loss group had heavier W18 than those in the weight gain group (P<0.05). Higher weight gain was associated with higher BP (P for trend <0.01). Women who belonged to the heaviest 10% both at age 18 and at present had highest BP than women in other weight categories. By giving W18, a 1‐kg increase in weight change predicted 0.63 and 0.42 mm Hg increases in systolic and diastolic BP, respectively (both P<0.001) and 12% greater odds of being hypertension (95% confidence interval, 1.08, 1.17). The CRW was positively associated with BP and hypertension; no interaction was found between CRW and Wcurrent on BP/hypertension. Conclusions A majority of Chinese women tended to become heavier throughout adult life. More weight gain led to the higher BP. Weight change is an independent predictor for later‐life BP and hypertension.
Privacy-Aware Proximity Based Services

Proximity based services are location based services (LBS) in which the service adaptation depends on the comparison between a given threshold value and the distance between a user and other (possibly moving) entities. While privacy preservation in LBS has lately received much attention, very limited work has been done on privacy-aware proximity based services. This paper describes the main privacy threats that the usage of these services can lead to, and proposes original privacy preservation techniques offering different trade-offs between quality of service and privacy preservation. The properties of the proposed algorithms are formally proved, and an extensive experimental work illustrates the practicality of the approach.
Role of matrix metalloproteinase-9 in a mouse model for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

The pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis remains poorly understood, but microglial and astroglial activation are thought to contribute to motor neuron death. Evidence suggests that matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) is a mediator of this deleterious effect. In this study, we evaluated the effect of MMP-9 on the pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Although marked microglial and astroglial proliferation was seen in the spinal cord and in-vitro studies proved MMP-9 to be produced by these cells, deletion of the MMP-9 gene in SOD1G93A mice accelerated rather than delayed the motor neuron disease and significantly reduced survival. Our results suggest that the effect of MMP-9 on mutant superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD1)-induced motor neuron disease is protective rather than hazardous. Therefore, the effect of pharmacological inhibition of MMP-9 activity is unlikely to be of therapeutical benefit in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Investigating Thematic Roles through Implicit Learning: Evidence from Light Verb Constructions

The syntactic structure of a sentence is usually a strong predictor of its meaning: Each argument noun phrase (i.e., Subject and Object) should map onto exactly one thematic role (i.e., Agent and Patient, respectively). Some constructions, however, are exceptions to this pattern. This paper investigates how the syntactic structure of an utterance contributes to its construal, using ditransitive English light verb constructions, such as “Nils gave a hug to his brother,” as an example of such mismatches: Hugging is a two-role event, but the ditransitive syntactic structure suggests a three-role event. Data from an eye-tracking experiment and behavioral categorization data reveal that listeners learn to categorize sentences according to the number of thematic roles they convey, independent of their syntax. Light verb constructions, however, seem to form a category of their own, in which the syntactic structure leads listeners down an initial incorrect assignment of thematic roles, from which they only partly recover. These results suggest an automatic influence of syntactic argument structure on semantic interpretation and event construal, even in highly frequent constructions.
Association of Caffeine Intake and CYP1A2 Genotype With Ovarian Cancer

Coffee and caffeine consumption has been associated with ovarian cancer risk in several epidemiological studies. CYP1A2 is a key enzyme in the metabolism of coffee and in the activation of heterocyclic aromatic compounds that may be carcinogenic. Data from a preliminary investigation conducted in Hawaii of 164 epithelial ovarian cancer cases and 194 controls were used to examine the hypothesis that coffee and caffeine intake increases the risk of ovarian cancer and that these relations are modified by the CYP1A2 high-inducibility A/A genotype. A personal interview and blood specimen were collected in the subjects' homes. A significant positive trend (p = 0.02) in the odds ratios (ORs) was found with increasing intake of caffeine but not with tea or soda. Regular coffee drinkers were at significantly increased risk (OR = 1.8, 95% confidence interval, CI = 1.1-2.8) of ovarian cancer compared with women who did not drink regular coffee. Women with any CYP1A2 C allele were at similar risk of ovarian cancer (OR = 1.1, 95% CI = 0.7-1.7) compared with women with the A/A genotype. The associations of caffeine and coffee intake with risk were stronger among women with the A/A genotype than among women with any C allele. Somewhat stronger relations of coffee and caffeine intake to risk were found among women with cruciferous vegetable consumption above the median and among cases with mucinous histology. These preliminary data suggest a modest positive association of caffeine and coffee consumption with the OR for ovarian cancer that may be modified by CYP1A2 genotype and exposures, such as cruciferous vegetable consumption, that influence CYP1A2 expression.
Factors associated with inpatient readmission among managed care enrollees with COPD

Abstract Objective. To assess factors associated with inpatient readmission among a US managed care population with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Background. COPD is often accompanied by intermittent acute exacerbations, which may result in hospitalizations. These exacerbations are often associated with an increased frequency of subsequent exacerbations, which may lead to inpatient readmissions. Methods. We assessed US managed care claims data for enrollees ≥ 40 years old with an inpatient admission with a primary diagnosis of COPD (ICD-9-CM codes 491.xx, 492.xx or 496.xx) between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2013 (discharge date of first observed inpatient admission defined the “index date”). Patients were required to be continuously enrolled for ≥ 12 months before the index date. Two non-mutually exclusive cohorts were analyzed: (1) patients with ≥ 30 days of post-index date continuous enrollment (to evaluate 30-day readmission) and (2) patients with ≥ 90 days of post-index date continuous enrollment (to evaluate 90-day readmission). Logistic regression evaluated the association between patient characteristics and risk of 30- and 90-day COPD-related and all-cause readmission. Results. After applying selection criteria, 140,981 patients had ≥ 30 days of enrollment post-index date, and 123,545 patients had ≥ 90 days of enrollment post-index date. Within 30 days, nearly 20% of patients had an all-cause readmission and 7% had a COPD-related readmission. Within 90 days, 28% had an all-cause readmission and 12% had a COPD-related readmission. Logistic regression indicated that longer length of stay, older age, greater comorbidity burden, specific comorbidities and COPD complexity were associated with significantly greater odds of COPD-related 30- and 90-day readmission. Results for all-cause readmission were generally similar. Conclusions. Many of the factors associated with inpatient readmission documented here can be ascertained at discharge and may be used to inform discharge plans, with the end goal of improving patient outcomes, including reducing the risk of readmission.
Brain networks underlying mental imagery of auditory and visual information

Mental imagery is a complex cognitive process that resembles the experience of perceiving an object when this object is not physically present to the senses. It has been shown that, depending on the sensory nature of the object, mental imagery also involves correspondent sensory neural mechanisms. However, it remains unclear which areas of the brain subserve supramodal imagery processes that are independent of the object modality, and which brain areas are involved in modality‐specific imagery processes. Here, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study to reveal supramodal and modality‐specific networks of mental imagery for auditory and visual information. A common supramodal brain network independent of imagery modality, two separate modality‐specific networks for imagery of auditory and visual information, and a common deactivation network were identified. The supramodal network included brain areas related to attention, memory retrieval, motor preparation and semantic processing, as well as areas considered to be part of the default‐mode network and multisensory integration areas. The modality‐specific networks comprised brain areas involved in processing of respective modality‐specific sensory information. Interestingly, we found that imagery of auditory information led to a relative deactivation within the modality‐specific areas for visual imagery, and vice versa. In addition, mental imagery of both auditory and visual information widely suppressed the activity of primary sensory and motor areas, for example deactivation network. These findings have important implications for understanding the mechanisms that are involved in generation of mental imagery.
Load Balancing for M2M Random Access in LTE HetNets

In heterogeneous LTE networks, an incoming user can either join the femto or the macro base station at the random access stage. We consider a system that has a single macro base station and a number of femtocells in its coverage area. We study the problem of optimally choosing either the femto or the macro station based on the knowledge of the traffic arrival rate and the number of backlogged users in both cells. In this paper, we derive the optimal static policy of choosing the base stations that minimizes the average access delay. We also develop various dynamic policies based on the information about the arrivals and backlogged users, and compare their performance against each other and with the optimal static policy. We observe that some of these dynamic policies give very good performance, which provides a lower bound of performance. In addition, a dynamic policy that utilizes only the backlog levels, although not always as good as the optimal static policy, is robust and still stable for a wide range of arrival rates.