Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Weight-Specific Anticipatory Coding of Grip Force in Human Dorsal Premotor Cortex

The dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) uses prior sensory information for motor preparation. Here, we used a conditioning-and-map approach in 11 healthy male humans (mean age 27 years) to further clarify the role of PMd in anticipatory motor control. We transiently disrupted neuronal processing in PMd, using either continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) at 80% (inhibitory cTBS) or 30% (sham cTBS) of active motor threshold. The conditioning effects of cTBS on preparatory brain activity were assessed with functional MRI, while participants lifted a light or heavy weight in response to a go-cue (S2). An additional pre-cue (S1) correctly predicted the weight in 75% of the trials. Participants were asked to use this prior information to prepare for the lift. In the sham condition, grip force showed a consistent undershoot, if the S1 incorrectly prompted the preparation of a light lift. Likewise, an S1 that falsely announced a heavy weight produced a consistent overshoot in grip force. In trials with incorrect S1, preparatory activity in left PMd during the S1–S2 delay period predicted grip force undershoot but not overshoot. Real cTBS selectively abolished this undershoot in grip force. Furthermore, preparatory S1–S2 activity in left PMd no longer predicted the individual undershoot after real cTBS. Our results provide converging evidence for a causal involvement of PMd in anticipatory downscaling but not upscaling of grip force, suggesting an inhibitory role of PMd in anticipatory grip force control during object lifting.
Helping the Good Get Better , but Leaving the Rest

The decentralization of public services is a major feature of institutional innova argument in support of decentralization is that it brings decisions closer to the p alleviating information asymmetries and improving accountability. However, dece also degrade service provision in poor communities that lack the ability to voice th or in areas under local governments that have weak administrative capabilit decentralization may increase inequality and even make the poor worse off. In this that school decentralization in Argentina had a positive impact on st actually fell in poor areas in weakly-manag
Space-based moving target positioning using radar with a switched aperture antenna

Ground moving target indication (GMTI) by space based radar can effectively only be performed with a multi- aperture / multi-channel system or a satellite cluster [1]. To keep weight, power consumption, data rate and costs low, the technique of switching subapertures from pulse to pulse has been proposed. While the detection performance using STAP (space-time adaptive processing) has been analysed in several publications, the estimation performance and the mechanisms leading to good or bad aperture switching strategies, have not yet been treated sufficiently. In fact, aperture partitions well suited for detection must not necessarily be good for estimation. This paper is thought as a contribution to fill the knowledge gaps concerning repositioning algorithms and performance analysis.
Intraoperative blood pressure measurement modalities are separate and not equal.

To the Editor: We read with great interest the recent publication by Wax et al. The authors argue that because noninvasively detected blood pressure tends to be higher than that measured invasively in hypotensive patients and lower in hypertensive patients, some patients monitored with invasive arterial lines alone may undergo potentially harmful vasoactive and transfusion therapy if hemodynamic instability is not confirmed with noninvasive means. However, in the absence of outcome studies following these cohorts (patients whose treatment was guided by invasive arterial lines alone vs. those in whom such therapy was withheld based on noninvasive readings), one cannot make the authors’ claim: it remains entirely possible that the reliance on confirmatory noninvasive reading leads to potentially harmful undertreatment. In reality, invasive and noninvasive modalities of blood pressure measurement use vastly different physical phenomena. Whereas an invasive line displays a direct, electronically processed, beat-to-beat intravascular pressure waveform, the noninvasive tool used in the study is an indirect oscillometric device. Oscillometric parameters are derived, not measured, from the superimposition of a pulse oscillogram envelope on a cuff pressure curve, with mean blood pressure determined at the point of maximal oscillations. Proprietary software algorithms, specific to individual manufacturers, are utilized in analyzing the slopes of scillograms to derive systolic and diastolic readings. These manufacturer-specific algorithms are generally not standardized for measurement accuracy, and, in addition to numerous other technical (i.e., the rate of cuff “bleed”) and clinical (i.e., size and location of the cuff not recorded in the authors’ database, and elastic properties of the vasculature) variables, affect the reliability of indirect oscillographic determinations. Therefore, in critically ill patients, noninvasive blood pressure measurements are generally considered unreliable. We applaud Wax et al. for their confirmation of a significant discrepancy between the direct and indirect modalities of blood pressure measurement, but would caution against withholding therapy based on nonuniformly standardized, and possibly inaccurate, confirmatory data.
Inverse Kinematics - Stewart Platform Actuated by Shape Memory Alloy for Immobilization of Ankle-Foot Rehabilitation

In this paper, the analyses results on the behavior of Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) in Medical application were carried out. SMA materials are known by their aptitude to recover its original form when undergone suitable thermal changes. SMA is widely used in robotics, automotive, aerospace and it can be a potential application in biomedical engineering due to its low cost, high corrosion resistance and can be easily integrated with human applications. Stewart platform with two different upper platform diameters of 150 mm and 300 mm were designed, fabricated and used as experimental test-rig. Inverse kinematic calculations were carried out to identify a maximum deflection of Stewart platform that can promote continuous passive motion (CPM). The 150 mm base diameter Stewart platform is found to be the suited for generating substantial displacement between ankle and foot. The mechanical changes induced by the heat could be used as a property in manufacturing of rehabilitation device for foot and ankle.
Comparison of Advanced Pixel Based (ANN and SVM) and Object-Oriented Classification Approaches Using Landsat-7 Etm+ Data

In this study, the pixel-based and object-oriented image classification approaches were used for identifying different land use types in Karnal district. Imagery from Landsat-7 ETM with 6 spectral bands was used to perform the image classification. Ground truth data were collected from the available maps, personal knowledge and communication with the local people. In order to prepare land use map different approaches: Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) were used. For performing object oriented classification eCognition software was used. During the object oriented classification, in first step several different sets of parameters were used for image segmentation and in second step nearest neighbor classifier was used for classification. Outcome from the classification works show that the object-oriented approach gave more accurate results (including higher producer’s and user’s accuracy for most of the land cover classes) than those achieved by pixelbased classification algorithms. It is also observed that ANN performed better as compared to SVM classification approach.
Toward A Second-Generation Theory of Fiscal

Drawing on a wide range of literature and ideas, a new “second-generation theory of fiscal federalism” is emerging that provides new insights into the structure and working of federal systems. After a restatement and review of the first-generation theory, this paper surveys this new body of work and offers some thoughts on the ways in which it is extending our understanding of fiscal federalism and on its implications for the design of fiscal institutions.
Gradual Learning of Deep Recurrent Neural Networks

Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) achieve state-of-the-art results in many sequence-to-sequence modeling tasks. However, RNNs are difficult to train and tend to suffer from overfitting. Motivated by the Data Processing Inequality (DPI), we formulate the multi-layered network as a Markov chain, introducing a training method that comprises training the network gradually and using layer-wise gradient clipping. We found that applying our methods, combined with previously introduced regularization and optimization methods, resulted in improvements in state-of-the-art architectures operating in language modeling tasks.
Epidemiology, Endovascular Treatment, and Prognosis of Cerebral Venous Thrombosis: US Center Study of 152 Patients

Background Cerebral venous thrombosis is a rare cause of stroke that poses diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic challenges. Mainstay treatment is systemic anticoagulation, but endovascular treatment is increasingly advocated. Our objectives were to describe the epidemiology, treatment, and prognosis of 152 patients with cerebral venous thrombosis. Methods and Results This was a retrospective study of consecutive cerebral venous thrombosis cases from 2006 to 2013 at a comprehensive stroke center through hospital discharge. Predictors of full recovery (modified Rankin Scale scores 0–1) were analyzed with multiple logistic regression and presented as adjusted odds ratios (AORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The population was young (average age: 42 years), majority female (69%), and commonly presenting with cerebral edema (63%), and 72% were transferred in. All patients received systemic anticoagulation; 49% (n=73) required endovascular treatment. Reasons for requiring endovascular treatment included cerebral edema, herniation, or hemorrhagic infarct (n=38); neurologic decline (n=17); rethrombosis, persistent occlusion, or clot propagation (n=10); extensive clot burden (n=7); and persistent headache despite anticoagulation (n=1). There were 7 (10%) procedural complications. Recanalization was successful (61%), partial (30%), and unsuccessful (9%). Overall, 60% fully recovered. Positive predictors of full recovery included hormonal etiology, particularly for patients who were transferred in (AOR: 7.06 [95% CI, 2.27–21.96], interaction P=0.03) and who had migraine history (AOR: 4.87 [95% CI, 1.01–23.50], P=0.05), whereas negative predictors of full recovery were cerebral edema (AOR: 0.11 [95% CI, 0.04–0.34], P<0.001) and motor weakness (AOR: 0.28 [95% CI, 0.09–0.96], P=0.04). Conclusions As one of the largest cohort studies, our findings suggest that cerebral edema, history of migraine, and hormonal etiology were prognostic and that endovascular treatment might be a safe and effective treatment for cerebral venous thrombosis when conventional management is inadequate.
Effect of Regional Anesthesia on the Success Rate of External Cephalic Version: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVE: To estimate whether the use of regional anesthesia is associated with increased success of external cephalic version. DATA SOURCES: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, and clinical trial registries. METHODS OF STUDY SELECTION: Electronic databases were searched from 1966 through April 2011 for published, randomized controlled trials in the English language comparing regional anesthesia with no regional anesthesia for external cephalic version. The primary outcome was external cephalic version success. Secondary outcomes included cesarean delivery, maternal discomfort, and adverse events. Pooled risk ratios (relative risk) were calculated using a random-effects model. Heterogeneity was assessed using the Cochran's Q statistic and quantified using the I2 method. TABULATION, INTEGRATION, AND RESULTS: Six randomized controlled trials met criteria for study inclusion. Regional anesthesia was associated with a higher external cephalic version success rate compared with intravenous or no analgesia (59.7% compared with 37.6%; pooled relative risk 1.58; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.29–1.93). This significant association persisted when the data were stratified by type of regional anesthesia (spinal compared with epidural). The number needed to treat with regional anesthesia to achieve one additional successful external cephalic version was five. There was no evidence of statistical heterogeneity (P=.32, I2=14.9%) or publication bias (Harbord test P=.78). There was no statistically significant difference in the risk of cesarean delivery comparing regional anesthesia with intravenous or no analgesia (48.4% compared with 59.3%; pooled relative risk 0.80; 95% CI 0.55–1.17). Adverse events were rare and not significantly different between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Regional anesthesia is associated with a higher success rate of external cephalic version.
On Poisson quasi-Nijenhuis Lie algebroids

We propose a definition of Poisson quasi-Nijenhuis Lie algebroids as a natural generalization of Poisson quasi-Nijenhuis manifolds and show that any such Lie algebroid has an associ- ated quasi-Lie bialgebroid. Therefore, also an associated Courant algebroid is obtained. We introduce the notion of a morphism of quasi-Lie bialgebroids and of the induced Courant algebroids morphism and provide some examples of Courant algebroid mor- phisms.
Response of the large-scale subglacial drainage system of Northeast Greenland to surface elevation changes

Abstract. The influence of subglacial water on the dynamics of ice flow has been the object of increasing interest in the past decade. In this study we focus on large-scale, long-term changes in surface elevation over Northeast Greenland and the corresponding changes in subglacial water routeways. Our results show that over timescales ranging from decades to millennia the area may experience redistribution of and fluctuation in subglacial water outflux under the main glacier outlets. The fluctuations in subglacial water routing occur even in the absence of external forcing. Based on these results we conclude that changes in the subglacial water routeways are an intrinsic part of the drainage basin dynamics, where the subglacial system is likely always in a transient state. The results also imply that fluctuations at the margins observed at present might originate from changes several hundred kilometres upstream. Since surface elevation changes may propagate upstream over timescales much longer than the observational period, the cause of the fluctuations may not be present in current observational records.
Coxeter-like complexes

Motivated by the Coxeter complex associated to a Coxeter system (W,S), we introduce a simplicial regular cell complex Δ (G,S) with a G-action associated to any pair (G,S) where G is a group and S is a finite set of generators for G which is minimal with respect to inclusion. We examine the topology of Δ (G,S), and in particular the representations of G on its homology groups. We look closely at the case of the symmetric group S_n minimally generated by (not necessarily adjacent) transpositions, and their type-selected subcomplexes. These include not only the Coxeter complexes of type A, but also the well-studied chessboard complexes.
Automation bias: a systematic review of frequency, effect mediators, and mitigators

Automation bias (AB)--the tendency to over-rely on automation--has been studied in various academic fields. Clinical decision support systems (CDSS) aim to benefit the clinical decision-making process. Although most research shows overall improved performance with use, there is often a failure to recognize the new errors that CDSS can introduce. With a focus on healthcare, a systematic review of the literature from a variety of research fields has been carried out, assessing the frequency and severity of AB, the effect mediators, and interventions potentially mitigating this effect. This is discussed alongside automation-induced complacency, or insufficient monitoring of automation output. A mix of subject specific and freetext terms around the themes of automation, human-automation interaction, and task performance and error were used to search article databases. Of 13 821 retrieved papers, 74 met the inclusion criteria. User factors such as cognitive style, decision support systems (DSS), and task specific experience mediated AB, as did attitudinal driving factors such as trust and confidence. Environmental mediators included workload, task complexity, and time constraint, which pressurized cognitive resources. Mitigators of AB included implementation factors such as training and emphasizing user accountability, and DSS design factors such as the position of advice on the screen, updated confidence levels attached to DSS output, and the provision of information versus recommendation. By uncovering the mechanisms by which AB operates, this review aims to help optimize the clinical decision-making process for CDSS developers and healthcare practitioners.
Plausibility Structures for Default Reasoning

Friedman and Halpern have introduced the inference by plausibility structures, which provides semantics for various default logics. This is a generalization of known inferences, such as those based on expectations, or on possibilistic logic. We argue that a slightly different inference by plausibility would be more appropriate for default reasoning. It would still be appropriate for all the default logics considered by Friedman and Halpern. Significant cases, such as subsets of normal defaults with multiple extensions, or a formalism extending circumscription to the cases where (AND) is falsified, can be translated into the new formalism only. In order to prove our results, we complete the list of the reasoning properties for the (two versions of the) inference by plausibility. Since these properties describe the behavior of a given inference in an intuitive and non technical way, this list is important for any potential user. Moreover, it happens that considering these properties only, without going into the technicalities of the plausibility approach, is enough to describe the main results given here.
Babel system : Multilingual BLSTM acoustic model with i-vector based adaptation

The paper provides an analysis of BUT automatic speech recognition systems (ASR) built for the 2016 IARPA Babel evaluation. The IARPA Babel program concentrates on building ASR system for many low resource languages, where only a limited amount of transcribed speech is available for each language. In such scenario, we found essential to train the ASR systems in a multilingual fashion. In this work, we report superior results obtained with pre-trained multilingual BLSTM acoustic models, where we used multi-task training with separate classification layer for each language. The results reported on three Babel Year 4 languages show over 3% absolute WER reductions obtained from such multilingual pre-training. Experiments with different input features show that the multilingual BLSTM performs the best with simple log-Mel-filter-bank outputs, which makes our previously successful multilingual stack bottleneck features with CMLLR adaptation obsolete. Finally, we experiment with different configurations of i-vector based speaker adaptation in the monoand multi-lingual BLSTM architectures. This results in additional WER reductions over 1% absolute.
New performance driven routing techniques with explicit area/delay tradeoff and simultaneous wire sizing

We present new algorithms for construction of performance driven Rectilinear Steiner Trees under the Elmore delay model. Our algorithms represent a departure from previous approaches in that we derive an explicit area/delay trade-off curve. We achieve this goal by limiting the solution space to the set of topologies induced by a permutation on the sinks of the net. This constraint allows efficient identification of optimal solutions while still providing a rich solution space. We also incorporate simultaneous wire sizing. Our technique consistently produces topologies equalling the performance of previous approaches with substantially less area overhead.
Phase I trial of recombinant immunotoxin anti-Tac(Fv)-PE38 (LMB-2) in patients with hematologic malignancies.

PURPOSE To evaluate the toxicity, pharmacokinetics, immunogenicity, and antitumor activity of anti-Tac(Fv)-PE38 (LMB-2), an anti-CD25 recombinant immunotoxin that contains an antibody Fv fragment fused to truncated Pseudomonas exotoxin. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients with CD25(+) hematologic malignancies for whom standard and salvage therapies failed were treated with LMB-2 at dose levels that ranged from 2 to 63 microg/kg administered intravenously over 30 minutes on alternate days for three doses (QOD x 3). RESULTS LMB-2 was administered to 35 patients for a total of 59 cycles. Dose-limiting toxicity at the 63 microg/kg level was reversible and included transaminase elevations in one patient and diarrhea and cardiomyopathy in another. LMB-2 was well tolerated in nine patients at the maximum-tolerated dose (40 microg/kg QOD x 3); toxicity was transient and most commonly included transaminase elevations (eight patients) and fever (seven patients). Only six of 35 patients developed significant neutralizing antibodies after the first cycle. The median half-life was 4 hours. One hairy cell leukemia (HCL) patient achieved a complete remission, which is ongoing at 20 months. Seven partial responses were observed in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (one patient), HCL (three patients), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (one patient), Hodgkin's disease (one patient), and adult T-cell leukemia (one patient). Responding patients had 2 to 5 log reductions of circulating malignant cells, improvement in skin lesions, and regression of lymphomatous masses and splenomegaly. All four patients with HCL responded to treatment. CONCLUSION LMB-2 has clinical activity in CD25(+) hematologic malignancies and is relatively nonimmunogenic. It is the first recombinant immunotoxin to induce major responses in cancer. LMB-2 and similar agents that target other cancer antigens merit further clinical development.
Training Trot Back to the Starting Gate ? Supported Treadmill Training and Robotic-Assistive Steppers for Locomotor − Should Body Weight

Body weight–supported treadmill training (BWSTT) and robotic-assisted step training (RAST) have not, so far, led to better outcomes than a comparable dose of progressive over-ground training (OGT) for disabled persons with stroke, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, or cerebral palsy. The conceptual bases for these promising rehabilitation interventions had once seemed quite plausible, but the results of well-designed, randomized clinical trials have been disappointing. The authors reassess the underpinning concepts for BWSTT and RAST, which were derived from mammalian studies of treadmill-induced hind-limb stepping associated with central pattern generation after low thoracic spinal cord transection, as well as human studies of the triple crown icons of task-oriented locomotor training, massed practice, and activity-induced neuroplasticity. The authors retrospectively consider where theory and practice may have fallen short in the pilot studies that aimed to produce thoroughbred interventions. Based on these shortcomings, the authors move forward with recommendations for the future development of workhorse interventions for walking. In the absence of evidence for physical therapists to employ these strategies, however, BWSTT and RAST should not be provided routinely to disabled, vulnerable persons in place of OGT outside of a scientifically conducted efficacy trial.