Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Structural and Functional Integrity of Peripheral Nerves Depends on the Glial-Derived Signal Desert Hedgehog

We show that desert hedgehog (dhh), a signaling molecule expressed by Schwann cells, is essential for the structural and functional integrity of the peripheral nerve. Dhh-null nerves display multiple abnormalities that affect myelinating and nonmyelinating Schwann cells, axons, and vasculature and immune cells. Myelinated fibers of these mice have a significantly increased (more than two times) number of Schmidt-Lanterman incisures (SLIs), and connexin 29, a molecular component of SLIs, is strongly upregulated. Crossing Dhh-null mice with myelin basic protein (MBP)-deficient shiverer mice, which also have increased SLI numbers, results in further increased SLIs, suggesting that Dhh and MBP control SLIs by different mechanisms. Unmyelinated fibers are also affected, containing many fewer axons per Schwann cell in transverse profiles, whereas the total number of unmyelinated axons is reduced by approximately one-third. In Dhh-null mice, the blood–nerve barrier is permeable and neutrophils and macrophage numbers are elevated, even in uninjured nerves. Dhh-null nerves also lack the largest-diameter myelinated fibers, have elevated numbers of degenerating myelinated axons, and contain regenerating fibers. Transected dhh nerves degenerate faster than wild-type controls. This demonstrates that a single identified glial signal, Dhh, plays a critical role in controlling the integrity of peripheral nervous tissue, in line with its critical role in nerve sheath development (Parmantier et al., 1999). The complexity of the defects raises a number of important questions about the Dhh-dependent cell–cell signaling network in peripheral nerves.
What Makes a Better Performer : Achieving Closer “ Fit ” With The Market or Having Generic “ Best Resources ” That Suit Any Market ?

The research uses the resource-based paradigm and a typology of markets (consisting of consumer, business and governmental markets) to investigate the notion of fit between the firm and its environment and the links of this notion to performance. Based on a sample of 69 firm managers, the results reveal that firms develop resources and capabilities that match the attributes of the market. High-performing firms achieve the best of both worlds: on the one hand, they achieve a closer fit with the task environment, by being more market-specific, and on the other hand, they share some general managerial and financial “best resources”.
Ray tracing and volume rendering large molecular data on multi-core and many-core architectures

Visualizing large molecular data requires efficient means of rendering millions of data elements that combine glyphs, geometry and volumetric techniques. The geometric and volumetric loads challenge traditional rasterization-based vis methods. Ray casting presents a scalable and memory- efficient alternative, but modern techniques typically rely on GPU-based acceleration to achieve interactive rendering rates. In this paper, we present bnsView, a molecular visualization ray tracing framework that delivers fast volume rendering and ball-and-stick ray casting on both multi-core CPUs and many-core Intel® Xeon Phi™ co-processors, implemented in a SPMD language that generates efficient SIMD vector code for multiple platforms without source modification. We show that our approach running on co- processors is competitive with similar techniques running on GPU accelerators, and we demonstrate large-scale parallel remote visualization from TACC's Stampede supercomputer to large-format display walls using this system.
Construction of boundary-surface-based Chinese female astronaut computational phantom and proton dose estimation

With the rapid development of China's space industry, the importance of radiation protection is increasingly prominent. To provide relevant dose data, we first developed the Visible Chinese Human adult Female (VCH-F) phantom, and performed further modifications to generate the VCH-F Astronaut (VCH-FA) phantom, incorporating statistical body characteristics data from the first batch of Chinese female astronauts as well as reference organ mass data from the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP; both within 1% relative error). Based on cryosection images, the original phantom was constructed via Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) boundary surfaces to strengthen the deformability for fitting the body parameters of Chinese female astronauts. The VCH-FA phantom was voxelized at a resolution of 2 × 2 × 4 mm3for radioactive particle transport simulations from isotropic protons with energies of 5000–10 000 MeV in Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended (MCNPX) code. To investigate discrepancies caused by anatomical variations and other factors, the obtained doses were compared with corresponding values from other phantoms and sex-averaged doses. Dose differences were observed among phantom calculation results, especially for effective dose with low-energy protons. Local skin thickness shifts the breast dose curve toward high energy, but has little impact on inner organs. Under a shielding layer, organ dose reduction is greater for skin than for other organs. The calculated skin dose per day closely approximates measurement data obtained in low-Earth orbit (LEO).
Matrix models and eigenfunctions from the Topological String/Spectral Theory correspondence

The Topological String/Spectral Theory (TS/ST) correspondence was introduced as a sharp, non-perturbative relationship between topological strings on toric Calabi-Yau threefolds on one side, and the spectral theory of operators given by the quantized mirror curve on the other side. It predicts a non-trivial relationship between enumerative invariants of the toric Calabi-Yau threefold and spectral quantities of the corresponding operator. This work explores three consequences and extensions of the TS/ST correspondence. First, we show that the TS/ST correspondence implies a new realization of the topological string as convergent matrix models. Second, we propose an extension of the TS/ST correspondence involving the open sector of topological strings on the TS side and the eigenfunctions of the operator on the ST side. Third, we investigate how the TS/ST correspondence and its interpretation in terms of a non-interacting Fermi gas can help us defining a sensible notion of "quantum curve".
New Methods for the Study of Measurement Invariance with Many Groups

This papers considers new factor analytic and item response theory (IRT) approaches to the study of invariance across groups. Two methods are described and contrasted. The alignment method considers the groups as a fixed mode of variation, while the random-intercept, random-loading two-level method considers the groups as a random mode of variation. Both maximum-likelihood and Bayesian analysis is applied. A survey of close to 50,000 subjects in 26 countries is used as an illustration. In addition, the two methods are studied by Monte Carlo simulations. A list of considerations for choosing between the two methods is presented.
Masked onset priming effect for high-frequency words: Further support for the speech-planning account

Two experiments investigated whether priming due to a match in just the onset between a masked prime and target is found with high-frequency target words. Forster and Davis (1991, Exp. 5) reported that the masked onset priming effect was absent for high-frequency words and used the finding to argue that the effect has its locus in the grapheme–phoneme mapping process that operates serially within the nonlexical route. Experiment 1 used primes that were unrelated to targets and found a masked onset priming effect of equal size for high-frequency and low-frequency target words. Experiment 2 used form-related primes as used by Forster and Davis, and again found that the effect of onset mismatch was not dependent on target word frequency. These results are interpreted in terms of an alternative view that the masked onset priming effect has its origin in the process of preparing a speech response.
Feasibility study of robot enhanced mobility in children with cerebral palsy

Mobility is a causal factor in infant development. Neural impaired Infants, e.g., born with cerebral palsy (CP), have motor disability and are at risk for further developmental delays due to lack of self-generated mobility. It is possible that these impaired infants may benefit from robot enhanced mobility where they learn to drive a robot via a joystick, i.e., the mobility comes from the robot but the infants control the motion via a joystick. It is our hypothesis that such an enriched mobility experience will minimize delays in attaining other social and developmental childhood milestones. However, presently, there are no reported studies if children with CP would learn to drive a robot using a joystick and if they will sustain interest in doing so over multiple days of training. Also, it remains to be seen if such a robot enhanced mobility will impact development scores in this group of children. In this feasibility study, we use a special purpose robotic chair driven by a joystick to encourage infants and toddlers to drive. The study involved 20 children with CP in progressively difficult driving tasks over 10 sessions of training 20 minutes each. We found that after multiple training sessions, all children advanced in their driving skills and benefited in GMFM-88 functional scores.
Contrast adaptation in a nonadapting LGN model.

Sensory neurons appear to adapt their gain to match the variance of signals along the dimension they encode, a property we shall call "contrast normalization. " Contrast normalization has been the subject of extensive physiological and theoretical study. We previously found that neurons in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) exhibit contrast normalization in their responses to full-field flickering white-noise stimuli, and that neurons with the strongest contrast normalization best preserved information transmission across a range of contrasts. We have also shown that both of these properties could be reproduced by nonadapting model cells. Here we present a detailed comparison of this nonadapting model to physiological data from the LGN. First, the model cells recapitulated other contrast dependencies of LGN responses: decreasing stimulus contrast resulted in an increase in spike-timing jitter and spike-number variability. Second, we find that the extent of contrast normalization in this model depends on model parameters related to refractoriness and to noise. Third, we show that the model cells exhibit rapid, transient changes in firing rate just after changes in contrast, and that this is sufficient to produce the transient changes in information transmission that have been reported in other neurons. It is known that intrinsic properties of neurons change during contrast adaptation. Nevertheless the model demonstrates that the spiking nonlinearity of neurons can produce many of the temporal aspects of contrast gain control, including normalization to input variance and transient effects of contrast change.
Sensitivity of the NeuroFlexor method to measure change in spasticity after treatment with botulinum toxin A in wrist and finger muscles.

OBJECTIVE The NeuroFlexor objectively quantifies the neural, elastic and viscous components of passive movement resistance in wrist and finger flexor muscles. In this study we investigated the sensitivity of the NeuroFlexor to changes in spasticity induced by treatment with botulinum toxin type A (BoNT-A). DESIGN Prospective observational design. SUBJECTS A convenience sample of 22 adults with post-stroke upper limb spasticity scheduled for botulinum toxin treatment. METHODS BoNT-A was given according to individual treatment plans. NeuroFlexor assessments were made before treatment and 4 and 12 weeks after. RESULTS At group level, spasticity decreased significantly at 4 weeks (expected time of maximum effect) (p = 0.04). At 12 weeks, spasticity had rebounded and no longer differed significantly from baseline (p = 0.64), i.e. in line with the pharmacodynamics of BoNT-A. At the individual level, 7 participants showed a reduction in spasticity greater than the measurement error. The reduction was dose-dependent (r(20) = 0.66, p < 0.001), and largest in participants with the highest dose. CONCLUSION At the group level, the sensitivity of NeuroFlexor is good enough to detect reduction in spasticity after treatment with BoNT-A. Further work is needed to establish the sensitivity of NeuroFlexor on an individual level.
The Effects of Own and Others' Emotion on Prosocial Behavior in Childhood

Author(s): Nicolaides, Christina Alexandra | Advisor(s): Davis, Elizabeth L | Abstract: Children interact with peers in their daily lives and sometimes help, share, or otherwise do something to benefit someone else. The opportunities they encounter to engage in prosocial behavior often overlap with their own and their peers' experiences of a range of emotions. The current study investigated the effects of children's own negative emotion and the effects of peer emotion on prosocial behavior. Children participated in one of four different emotion conditions in this study which had a 2 (child emotion: neutral or negative) x 2 (peer emotion: neutral or negative) factorial design. Children either played a version of a game designed to make them feel negative emotion or to feel neutral (child emotion) and then watched a version of a video of a peer who either expressed negative emotion or described feeling neutral (peer emotion). Children had multiple subsequent opportunities to behave prosocially towards the peer. Parent reports of children's emotion regulation and six different aspects of children's social cognition were used to investigate individual differences that relate to prosocial behavior that would potentially be moderated by own and other emotion. Results supported the hypothesis that children's own negative emotion experiences hinder prosocial behavior, though contrary to what was hypothesized, exposure to a peer's negative emotion had no effect on prosocial behavior. In addition, the links between individual differences in emotion regulation and social cognition and prosocial behavior were moderated by own and other emotion. Specifically, when children played the negative emotion version of the game, better social cognition was associated with greater sharing and lower social cognition was associated with less sharing. However, when children played the neutral version of the game, greater social cognition skills were associated with less prosocial behavior, and greater emotion regulation was associated with slower prosocial behavior. These findings are discussed in terms of how they advance our understanding of children's social information processing and subsequent prosocial behavior in different emotion contexts. Findings also indicate the importance of ecologically valid investigations of prosocial behavior, including examination of the emotion context, to better understand how children engage in prosocial behavior towards peers in their daily lives.
From PTSD to dementia, can art therapy be useful for prevention and intervention?

This review explores the possible link between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the increased risk of developing dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s disease. Chronic stress and trauma alter the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal pathway resulting in increased exposure to glucocorticoids (GC). The hippocampus, a memory center of the brain, is highly vulnerable to the effect of the stress hormone GC because of the high density of GC receptors. Continuous exposure to stress causes reduced hippocampal volume resulting in memory problems, trouble in trauma processing and long term health consequences, possibly including Alzheimer’s disease. Trauma also results in reshaping the amygdala, the center of emotions, causing emotional outbursts among patients with PTSD. Service members and civilian adults with PTSD have higher risk of dementia at older age. Because trauma processing is often non-verbal, art therapy may be an effective treatment because it uses sensory information to transform images into trauma narrative. However, art therapy is more effective when combined with other psychotherapeutic modalities such as cognitive behavioral therapy. Hence, art therapy can be part of a treatment regimen that helps in the healing of trauma. That said, early treatment after exposure to trauma can prevent the long term consequences of stress on hippocampal reshaping, which may result in dementia. Evidence-based research for the effectiveness of art therapy in PTSD and the prevention of dementia is highly needed. This review provides a wide overview of the link between PTSD, dementia and the different treatment modalities that can be used for future research. PTSD, DEMENTIA AND ART THERAPY 2
4E’s Socratic Model: A grounded theory for managing team creativity in an organisational context

There has been considerable research on identifying antecedents of creativity and the determinants of organizational creativity but researchers are yet to develop an effective model for managing creativity within a traditional hierarchical management structure. It has been suggested that using the Socratic Method to create a learning environment within an organization is a way to foster creativity in an uncertain environment. In this context the Socratic Method is defined as a directed questioning technique to encourage critical thinking. This paper proposes that taking a Socratic approach to champion creativity will enable management to increase creativity in their teams, reviews the relevant literature to test support for this assumption and proposes a model to manage a Socratic Dialogue in a team environment. Introduction The importance of creativity in an organizational context was first highlighted by Schumpeter in 1942 when he said that the process of “creative destruction” (new ideas/ways destroying old ones to create value) was at the heart of Capitalism (1942, 82). However, creativity of itself is not enough to guarantee growth. Edith Penrose (1959), in espousing her theory of growth of the firm, points out that a firm’s failure to grow is “often attributed to demand conditions rather than to the limited nature of entrepreneurial resources” (Penrose 1959, 37). Those demand conditions are not just market driven but are also influenced by the culture of an organization which in many cases doesn’t tolerate trial and error decision-making (Thompson 1961, 486). The issue then is to be able to foster creativity in an environment that is not necessarily conducive. While the ideal traits of the creative individual and the most conducive environmental conditions have been well documented by socio-cultural theorists such as Amabile (1983) and Csikzentmihalyi (1996) there is no clear framework identified for managers to use to foster creativity in real-world conditions where individual and environmental factors are less than optimal. Decision-making is often the preserve of senior management and is not usually encouraged amongst the rank and file. Gratton (2007) proposes a new approach to management, based on Socratic leadership where, “The role of leader will be less about controlling and commanding, and more about igniting energy and enabling groups to volunteer and emerge. ” (45). The following literature provides support for this approach.
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF GYPSUM BOARD AT ELEVATED TEMPERATURES

Gypsum board is a common fire barrier used in house and general building construction. Recently, evaluation of the collapses of the World Trade Center Towers highlighted the potential role and failure of gypsum board in containing the fires and resisting damage. The use of gypsum board as primary fire protection of light-flame wood or steel construction is ubiquitous. Yet knowledge of the common engineering mechanical properties of this construction product is nearly nonexistent. Gypsum board is used in a prescriptive manner with little or no rational design. Summarized here are the results of a study examining the mechanical properties of Type X gypsum board at elevated temperatures. These properties are needed to contemplate the engineering design of gypsum board fire barriers. Tests were undertaken with a small oven within a test machine measuring mass loss, shrinkage, bending strength and modulus of elasticity at elevated temperatures to 400°C. The research showsthat shrinkage and calcination of the gypsum board appear complete between 20 to 30 minutes of exposure at a uniform 400°C. Only after complete calcination, where all moisture is driven off, does the bending strength approach 0. Strength appeared to decrease linearly with increasing temperature. Mass loss and modulus of elasticity exhibited similar trends with the greatest decreases occurring from 100°C to 200°C followed by more gradual decrease to 400°C. The surface paper plays significant stiffening and strengthening roles up to 60 minutes at temperatures as high as 200°C.
A DYNAMIC MODEL FOR STRUCTURING DECISION PROBLEMS

This paper develops a new model of decision problem structuring which synthesises a number of models and approaches cited in the decision making literature in general and the multi-criteria literature in particular. The model advocates a dynamic interaction between criteria and alternatives as a decision maker understands his preferences and expands the set of alternatives. This model endeavours to bridge the gap between prescriptive and descriptive approaches. It is prescriptive in its orientation, recommending an approach based on earlier prescriptive work. The model, however, is also validated empirically, based on the descriptive decision making literature and reported case studies of actual decision making.
Post‐stroke depressive disorders: a follow‐up study of 103 patients.

One hundred three patients attending a stroke clinic were evaluated for post-stroke depressive disorders using repeated quantitative assessment of psychopathology during a 12 month period. Almost one-third of these patients were depressed at the time of the initial assessment and two-thirds of these depressed patients who were re-evaluated remained depressed for 7 to 8 months. The prevalence and severity of depressive disorders was significantly elevated in those patients who were between 6 months and 2 years post-stroke. Demographic variables however did not distinguish depressed and non-depressed patients, nor did type of neurological symptoms, degree of impairment in activities of daily living or global cognitive impairment. However, patients with left hemisphere brain injury were significantly more depressed than patients with right hemisphere or brain stem infarctions. Based on this work and previous studies, we have suggested a profile for patients who are at high risk for developing post stroke depressive disorders: patients with left hemisphere frontal lobe infarctions who are within 2 years of the stroke. In spite of the fact that these depressions were clinically significant, none of the patients were presently receiving treatment. Effective treatment methods for these patients need to be developed.