Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Short cavity erbium/ytterbium fiber lasers mode-locked with a saturable Bragg reflector

We present short cavity erbium/ytterbium fiber lasers that are passively mode-locked with a saturable Bragg reflector. The lasers produce sub-500-fs pulses at fundamental cavity repetition rates as high as 300 MHz. Stable passive harmonic operation increases the repetition rate to 2.0 GHz. The mode-locking mechanism in both the normal and anomalous group velocity dispersion regimes is investigated using complete analytical and numerical models and direct comparison with the experimental results. A simple technique for accurately measuring the total cavity dispersion is presented.
The Strategy of Combining Antidepressants in the Treatment of Major Depression: Clinical Experience in Spanish Outpatients

Introduction. The combination of antidepressants is a useful tool in the treatment of major depression, especially in cases where there is a partial response to antidepressant monotherapy. However, the use of this strategy is a matter of controversy, and its frequency of use in clinical practice is not clear. The aim of our study is to assess the use of antidepressants combination in Spain by reviewing three databases used between 1997 and 2001. Methods. Databases pertain to patients who are study subjects of major depression treatment. These databases are a result of studies performed in Spain and in which 550 psychiatrists participated. The total studied sample was comprised of N = 2, 842 patients, aged over 18, fitting DSM-IV criteria for Major Depressive Episode. The percentage of patients who received more than one antidepressant and the types of combinations used was described. Subsequently, a comparative study between the group which received a combination of antidepressants (N = 64) and the group which received antidepressant monotherapy (N = 775) was performed. Results. 27.1% of patients were on antidepressive monotherapy treatment, and 2.2% were on combination therapy. In the comparison of patients on combination therapy and monotherapy, there were significant differences only in episode duration (P = 0.001). The most frequent combinations are SSRIs and tricyclic antidepressants. The active principle most widely combined is fluoxetine. Conclusions. The prevalence of use of antidepressant combination therapy is 2.2% of the global sample and 8.3% of treated patients. Other than duration of the depressive episode, no clinical characteristics exclusive to patients who received combination rather than monotherapy were found. Our study found that the most frequent combination is SSRIs + TCAs, also being the most studied.
Factors influencing electronic data interchange success

With the rapid proliferation of electronic data interchange (EDI) in recent years, there has been a growing need for understanding various issues surrounding the adoption, implementation, and evaluation of such systems. In particular, as an increasing number of firms are piloting, implementing, or using EDI, it is becoming crucial to identify the factors that influence the success of EDI. Through a survey of 242 companies that were at different stages of adopting EDI, we show that EDI success is affected by four distinct factors relating to information quality, systems outcomes, user participation, and system quality. Evidence of reliability and validity of the scale, along with some practical standards and evaluation baseline, are provided.
Both exogenous and endogenous interleukin‐10 affects the maturation of bone‐marrow‐derived dendritic cells in vitro and strongly influences T‐cell priming in vivo

In order to avoid autoimmunity and excessive tissue destruction, the action of certain immunoinhibitory substances are very important for negative regulation of the immune system. Interleukin‐10 (IL‐10) is an important immunoregulatory cytokine which is thought to negatively affect both T cells and antigen‐presenting cells in vivo. Adoptive transfer of IL‐10‐treated bone‐marrow‐derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) may be one therapeutic avenue to inhibit autoimmunity. In this study we present a comprehensive analysis of the effects of IL‐10 on murine BMDC. We demonstrate that IL‐10 can prevent BMDC maturation, as measured by both cytokine production and T‐cell priming capacity in vitro. Furthermore, we show that IL‐10 can inhibit DC maturation induced by strong stimulatory signals such as lipopolysaccharide or a mixture of cytokines (interferon‐γ, tumour necrosis factor‐α, IL‐4). Interestingly, maturation of both T helper 1‐ and T helper 2‐inducing DCs, characterized by the induction of high levels of interferon‐γ and IL‐4‐production by responding T cells, respectively, was inhibited by IL‐10 in vitro. Finally, our data suggest that both endogenous and exogenous IL‐10 affect the T‐cell stimulatory capacity of BMDCs after injection of in vitro‐treated BMDCs into naïve mice. These data both support existing data as well as point towards a new understanding of the many aspects of IL‐10‐mediated immunosuppression.
Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation Combined With Task-Related Training Improves Lower Limb Functions in Subjects With Chronic Stroke

Background and Purpose— Previous studies have shown that repeated sensory inputs could enhance brain plasticity and cortical motor output. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether combining electrically induced sensory inputs through transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) with task-related training (TRT) in a home-based program would augment voluntary motor output in chronic stroke survivors better than either treatment alone or no treatment. Methods— Eighty-eight patients with stroke were assigned randomly to receive a home-based program of (1) TENS, (2) TENS+TRT, (3) placebo TENS+TRT, or (4) no treatment (control) 5 days a week for 4 weeks. Outcome measurements included Composite Spasticity Scale, peak torques generated during maximum isometric voluntary contraction of ankle dorsiflexors and plantarflexors, and gait velocity recorded at baseline, after 2 and 4 weeks of treatment, and 4 weeks after treatment ended. Results— When compared with TENS, the combined TENS+TRT group showed significantly greater improvement in ankle dorsiflexion torque at follow-up and in ankle plantarflexion torque at week 2 and follow-up (P<0.01). When compared with placebo+TRT, the TENS+TRT group produced earlier and greater reduction of plantarflexor spasticity and improvement in ankle dorsiflexion torque at week 2 (P<0.01). When compared with all 3 groups, the TENS+TRT group showed significantly greater improvement in gait velocity (P<0.01). Conclusions— In patients with chronic stroke, 20 sessions of a combined TENS+TRT home-based program decreased plantarflexor spasticity, improved dorsiflexor and plantarflexor strength, and increased gait velocity significantly more than TENS alone, placebo+TRT, or no treatment. Such improvements can even be maintained 4 weeks after treatment ended.
"Pressure gradient" as an indicator of plantar skin injury.

OBJECTIVE Peak plantar pressures (PPPs) have been studied extensively as a contributing factor to skin breakdown, especially in the forefoot where most plantar neuropathic ulcers occur. The purposes of this article were to 1) describe an additional pressure variable, the peak pressure gradient (PPG), 2) determine whether the PPG is higher in the forefoot than in the rearfoot (even when compared with PPP), and 3) determine the correlation between the PPG and PPP at the forefoot and rearfoot in subjects with diabetes, peripheral neuropathy, and a history of plantar ulcer. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Twenty subjects (12 male and 8 female) with diabetes, peripheral neuropathy, and a mean +/- SD age of 57 +/- 9 years participated. Plantar pressures were collected during walking in footwear. The PPP and the PPG (defined as the spatial change in plantar pressure across adjacent sites of the foot surface around the PPP) were determined for the forefoot and rearfoot, and the forefoot-to-rearfoot ratios for each variable were calculated. RESULTS The mean PPG was 143% higher in the forefoot than in the rearfoot, whereas the mean PPP was only 36% higher in the forefoot than in the rearfoot (P < 0.0001). The PPG forefoot-to-rearfoot ratio (2.84 +/- 1.36) was nearly two times greater than the PPP forefoot-to-rearfoot ratio (1.48 +/- 0.58) (P < 0.0001). The correlation between PPP and PPG was r = 0.59 at the forefoot and r = 0.75 at the rearfoot. CONCLUSIONS The PPG was substantially higher in the forefoot than in the rearfoot even when compared with the PPP. The PPG appears to be providing additional information about the stresses experienced by the soft tissues of the foot, especially in the forefoot. The PPG may be a useful indicator of skin trauma because spatial changes in high plantar pressures may identify high stress concentrations within the soft tissue.
Viscoelastic Modeling of Calving Processes at Antarctic Ice Shelves

In this thesis viscoelastic material models are established to investigate the nature of continuous calving processes at Antarctic ice shelves. Physics-based descriptions of calving require appropriate fracture criteria to separate icebergs from the remaining ice shelf. Hence, criteria of the stress, the strain, and the self-similarity criterion are considered within finite-element computations. Crucial parameters in the models to determine the position of calving are the accurate knowledge of the geometry, especially the freeboard height, while the material parameters mainly influence the time span between two successive calving events. The extension to nonlinear material models is necessary to properly analyze the internal forces also for large deformations that occur for longer times of the viscous ice flow.
The Role of Inhibition in Generating and Controlling Parkinson’s Disease Oscillations in the Basal Ganglia

Movement disorders in Parkinson’s disease (PD) are commonly associated with slow oscillations and increased synchrony of neuronal activity in the basal ganglia. The neural mechanisms underlying this dynamic network dysfunction, however, are only poorly understood. Here, we show that the strength of inhibitory inputs from striatum to globus pallidus external (GPe) is a key parameter controlling oscillations in the basal ganglia. Specifically, the increase in striatal activity observed in PD is sufficient to unleash the oscillations in the basal ganglia. This finding allows us to propose a unified explanation for different phenomena: absence of oscillation in the healthy state of the basal ganglia, oscillations in dopamine-depleted state and quenching of oscillations under deep-brain-stimulation (DBS). These novel insights help us to better understand and optimize the function of DBS protocols. Furthermore, studying the model behavior under transient increase of activity of the striatal neurons projecting to the indirect pathway, we are able to account for both motor impairment in PD patients and for reduced response inhibition in DBS implanted patients.
Longitudinal data on telomere length in leukocytes from newborn baboons support a marked drop in stem cell turnover around 1 year of age

Stem cells of various tissues are typically defined as multipotent cells with ‘self‐renewal’ properties. Despite the increasing interest in stem cells, surprisingly little is known about the number of times stem cells can or do divide over a lifetime. Based on telomere‐length measurements of hematopoietic cells, we previously proposed that the self‐renewal capacity of hematopoietic stem cells is limited by progressive telomere attrition and that such cells divide very rapidly during the first year of life. Recent studies of patients with aplastic anemia resulting from inherited mutations in telomerase genes support the notion that the replicative potential of hematopoietic stem cells is directly related to telomere length, which is indirectly related to telomerase levels. To revisit conclusions about stem cell turnover based on cross‐sectional studies of telomere length, we performed a longitudinal study of telomere length in leukocytes from newborn baboons. All four individual animals studied showed a rapid decline in telomere length (∼2–3 kb) in granulocytes and lymphocytes in the first year after birth. After 50–70 weeks the telomere length appeared to stabilize in all cell types. These observations suggest that hematopoietic stem cells, after an initial phase of rapid expansion, switch at around 1 year of age to a different functional mode characterized by a markedly decreased turnover rate.
THE IMPACT OF HUMAN RESOURCES PRACTICES ON

The past few years have been the most threatening period for enterprises that use, manage or deal in IT. The source of the tumult has been the demand, supply, recruitment and especially retention of IT professionals. Recent literature reveals that a heavy investment in the implementation of HR practices may contribute to organizational success, specifically by reducing the turnover of IT professionals. As of today, very few empirical studies have rigorously examined the influence of relevant HR practices on turnover intentions of IT people. This study offers to fill that gap by testing an integrated model of turnover intentions that addresses the unique nature of the IT profession.
Uner Tan Syndrome: History, Clinical Evaluations, Genetics, and the Dynamics of Human Quadrupedalism

This review includes for the first time a dynamical systems analysis of human quadrupedalism in Uner Tan syndrome, which is characterized by habitual quadrupedalism, impaired intelligence, and rudimentary speech. The first family was discovered in a small village near Iskenderun, and families were later found in Adana and two other small villages near Gaziantep and Canakkale. In all the affected individuals dynamic balance was impaired during upright walking, and they habitually preferred walking on all four extremities. MRI scans showed inferior cerebellovermian hypoplasia with slightly simplified cerebral gyri in three of the families, but appeared normal in the fourth. PET scans showed a decreased glucose metabolic activity in the cerebellum, vermis and, to a lesser extent the cerebral cortex, except for one patient, whose MRI scan also appeared to be normal. All four families had consanguineous marriages in their pedigrees, suggesting autosomal recessive transmission. The syndrome was genetically heterogeneous. Since the initial discoveries more cases have been found, and these exhibit facultative quadrupedal locomotion, and in one case, late childhood onset. It has been suggested that the human quadrupedalism may, at least, be a phenotypic example of reverse evolution. From the viewpoint of dynamic systems theory, it was concluded there may not be a single factor that predetermines human quadrupedalism in Uner Tan syndrome, but that it may involve self-organization, brain plasticity, and rewiring, from the many decentralized and local interactions among neuronal, genetic, and environmental subsystems.
Back to the Past: Source Identification in Diffusion Networks from Partially Observed Cascades

When a piece of malicious information becomes rampant in an information diffusion network, can we identify the source node that originally introduced the piece into the network and infer the time when it initiated this? Being able to do so is critical for curtailing the spread of malicious information, and reducing the potential losses incurred. This is a very challenging problem since typically only incomplete traces are observed and we need to unroll the incomplete traces into the past in order to pinpoint the source. In this paper, we tackle this problem by developing a two-stage framework, which first learns a continuous-time diffusion network model based on historical diffusion traces and then identifies the source of an incomplete diffusion trace by maximizing the likelihood of the trace under the learned model. Experiments on both large synthetic and real-world data show that our framework can effectively go back to the past, and pinpoint the source node and its initiation time significantly more accurately than previous state-of-the-arts.
Effects of Mannitol 20% on Outcomes in Nontraumatic Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Background: A large number of stroke patients are not the perfect candidate for craniotomy and invasive procedures, so providing an alternative and noninvasive method, which is applicable in terms of costs and facilities, is necessary. Thus, the present study aimed to determine the effects of mannitol 20% on outcome of the patients with nontraumatic intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) in patients admitted to Isfahan's Al-Zahra Hospital during 2012 and 2013. Materials and Methods: This is a clinical trial study which is conducted during 2012–2013 in Isfahan's Al-Zahra Hospital. In this study, 41 patients suffering from ICH received mannitol 20% for 3 days, and volume of hemorrhage and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) of patients were controlled every 12 h. The collected data were analyzed via SPSS software. Results: The mean ICH volume was 22.1 ± 6.3 ml in pre intervention and 38.4 ± 19.3 ml in post intervention, and according to the t-paired test, before and after treatment the difference was significant (P < 0.001). Hemorrhage volume was stable in nine patients (22%), it increased in 25 patients (61%), and decreased in seven patients (17.1%). The mean index of GCS before and after treatment was 11.85 ± 1.6 and 9.37 ± 2.65, respectively. Moreover according to t-paired test, the difference was significant before and after treatment (P < 0.001). During using mannitol, the GCS index was stable in eight patients (19.5%), it increased in eight patients (19.5%) and decreased in 25 patients (61%). Conclusions: Mannitol injection was not effective in reducing hemorrhage size, and its use is not recommended, also, further studies in this field have been proposed.
Extreme Air Pollution Conditions Adversely Affect Blood Pressure and Insulin Resistance: The Air Pollution and Cardiometabolic Disease Study

Mounting evidence supports that fine particulate matter adversely affects cardiometabolic diseases particularly in susceptible individuals; however, health effects induced by the extreme concentrations within megacities in Asia are not well described. We enrolled 65 nonsmoking adults with metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance in the Beijing metropolitan area into a panel study of 4 repeated visits across 4 seasons since 2012. Daily ambient fine particulate matter and personal black carbon levels ranged from 9.0 to 552.5 µg/m3 and 0.2 to 24.5 µg/m3, respectively, with extreme levels observed during January 2013. Cumulative fine particulate matter exposure windows across the prior 1 to 7 days were significantly associated with systolic blood pressure elevations ranging from 2.0 (95% confidence interval, 0.3–3.7) to 2.7 (0.6–4.8) mm Hg per SD increase (67.2 µg/m3), whereas cumulative black carbon exposure during the previous 2 to 5 days were significantly associated with ranges in elevations in diastolic blood pressure from 1.3 (0.0–2.5) to 1.7 (0.3–3.2) mm Hg per SD increase (3.6 µg/m3). Both black carbon and fine particulate matter were significantly associated with worsening insulin resistance (0.18 [0.01–0.36] and 0.22 [0.04–0.39] unit increase per SD increase of personal-level black carbon and 0.18 [0.02–0.34] and 0.22 [0.08–0.36] unit increase per SD increase of ambient fine particulate matter on lag days 4 and 5). These results provide important global public health warnings that air pollution may pose a risk to cardiometabolic health even at the extremely high concentrations faced by billions of people in the developing world today.
Average-Case Performance Analysis of Online Non-clairvoyant Scheduling of Parallel Tasks with Precedence Constraints

We evaluate the average-case performance of three approximation algorithms for online non-clairvoyant scheduling of parallel tasks with precedence constraints. We show that for a class of wide task graphs, when task sizes are uniformly distributed in the range [1.C], the online non-clairvoyant scheduling algorithm LL-SIMPLE has an asymptotic average-case performance bound of M/(M-(3-(1+1/C)C+1)C-1), where M is the number of processors. For arbitrary probability distributions of task sizes, we present numerical and simulation data to demonstrate the accuracy of our general asymptotic average-case performance bound. We also report extensive experimental results on the average-case performance of online non-clairvoyant scheduling algorithms LL-GREEDY and LS. Algorithm LL-GREEDY has better performance than LL-SIMPLE by using an improved algorithm to schedule independent tasks in the same level. Algorithm LS produces even better schedules due to break of boundaries among levels.
Localization and Characterization of Nitric Oxide Synthase in the Rat Suprachiasmatic Nucleus: Evidence for a Nitrergic Plexus in the Biological Clock

Abstract: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence indicates that the biological clock in the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) can be reset at night through release of glutamate from the retinohypothalamic tract and subsequent activation of nitric oxide synthase (NOS). However, previous studies using NADPH‐diaphorase staining or immunocytochemistry to localize NOS found either no or only a few positive cells in the SCN. By monitoring conversion of l‐[3H]arginine to l‐[3H]citrulline, this study demonstrates that extracts of SCN tissue exhibit NOS specific activity comparable to that of rat cerebellum. The enzymatic reaction requires the presence of NADPH and is Ca2+/calmodulin‐dependent. To distinguish the neuronal isoform (nNOS; type I) from the endothelial isoform (type III), the enzyme activity was assayed over a range of pH values. The optimal pH for the reaction was 6.7, a characteristic value for nNOS. No difference in nNOS levels was seen between SCN collected in day versus night, either by western blot or by enzyme activity measurement. Confocal microscopy revealed for the first time a dense plexus of cell processes stained for nNOS. These data demonstrate that neuronal fibers within the rat SCN express abundant nNOS and that the level of the enzyme does not vary temporally. The distribution and quantity of nNOS support a prominent regulatory role for this nitrergic component in the SCN.
Unsupervised joke generation from big data

Humor generation is a very hard problem. It is difficult to say exactly what makes a joke funny, and solving this problem algorithmically is assumed to require deep semantic understanding, as well as cultural and other contextual cues. We depart from previous work that tries to model this knowledge using ad-hoc manually created databases and labeled training examples. Instead we present a model that uses large amounts of unannotated data to generate I like my X like I like my Y, Z jokes, where X, Y, and Z are variables to be filled in. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first fully unsupervised humor generation system. Our model significantly outperforms a competitive baseline and generates funny jokes 16% of the time, compared to 33% for human-generated jokes.