Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Frequency-specific Alterations of Large-scale Functional Brain Networks in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease

Background: Previous studies have indicated that the cognitive deficits in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) may be due to topological deteriorations of the brain network. However, whether the selection of a specific frequency band could impact the topological properties is still not clear. Our hypothesis is that the topological properties of AD patients are also frequency-specific. Methods: Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 10 right-handed moderate AD patients (mean age: 64.3 years; mean mini mental state examination [MMSE]: 18.0) and 10 age and gender-matched healthy controls (mean age: 63.6 years; mean MMSE: 28.2) were enrolled in this study. The global efficiency, the clustering coefficient (CC), the characteristic path length (CpL), and “small-world” property were calculated in a wide range of thresholds and averaged within each group, at three different frequency bands (0.01–0.06 Hz, 0.06–0.11 Hz, and 0.11–0.25 Hz). Results: At lower-frequency bands (0.01–0.06 Hz, 0.06–0.11 Hz), the global efficiency, the CC and the “small-world” properties of AD patients decreased compared to controls. While at higher-frequency bands (0.11–0.25 Hz), the CpL was much longer, and the “small-world” property was disrupted in AD, particularly at a higher threshold. The topological properties changed with different frequency bands, suggesting the existence of disrupted global and local functional organization associated with AD. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that the topological alterations of large-scale functional brain networks in AD patients are frequency dependent, thus providing fundamental support for optimal frequency selection in future related research.
Majoritarian democracy undermines truth-finding in deliberative committees

The aggregated judgments of many usually outperform individual estimates of vaguely known facts. Communication among individuals may, however, undermine this wisdom-of-crowd effect because it makes judgments mutually dependent. Deliberative democratic theory, on the other hand, suggests that communication promotes correct decisions. We investigate this puzzle about the positive and negative consequences of consensus formation on the wisdom of crowds using experimental methods. Subjects in small deliberative committees had to communicate and thereafter judge vaguely known facts. We varied the agreement rules in groups and compared the groups’ change of performance from initial to final estimates. Interestingly, groups’ performance worsened on average when they had to reach a majority decision. Groups came on average closer to the truth if they had to decide unanimously or if they did not have any restrictions to reach agreement. The low performance under majority rule is robust against different knowledge questions, group sizes and communication types. The majority rule may be worst because it makes people too focused to reach a majority so that valuable minority opinions are disregarded or not even voiced. This implies that majoritarian democracy may be less suitable for truth-finding than less or more restrictive quorum rules.
High Accordance in Prognosis Prediction of Colorectal Cancer across Independent Datasets by Multi-Gene Module Expression Profiles

A considerable portion of patients with colorectal cancer have a high risk of disease recurrence after surgery. These patients can be identified by analyzing the expression profiles of signature genes in tumors. But there is no consensus on which genes should be used and the performance of specific set of signature genes varies greatly with different datasets, impeding their implementation in the routine clinical application. Instead of using individual genes, here we identified functional multi-gene modules with significant expression changes between recurrent and recurrence-free tumors, used them as the signatures for predicting colorectal cancer recurrence in multiple datasets that were collected independently and profiled on different microarray platforms. The multi-gene modules we identified have a significant enrichment of known genes and biological processes relevant to cancer development, including genes from the chemokine pathway. Most strikingly, they recruited a significant enrichment of somatic mutations found in colorectal cancer. These results confirmed the functional relevance of these modules for colorectal cancer development. Further, these functional modules from different datasets overlapped significantly. Finally, we demonstrated that, leveraging above information of these modules, our module based classifier avoided arbitrary fitting the classifier function and screening the signatures using the training data, and achieved more consistency in prognosis prediction across three independent datasets, which holds even using very small training sets of tumors.
The Effect of Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester (CAPE) Treatment on Levels of MDA, NO and Antioxidant Enzyme Activities in Retinas of Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats

Aim: This study was performed to determine the effect of caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) treatment on levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and nitric oxide (NO) and activities of antioxidant enzymes in retinas of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Materials and Methods: Twenty-seven rats were enrolled and divided into three groups: group 1: nondiabetic rats as control (n = 9); group 2: STZ-induced, untreated diabetic rats (n = 8); and group 3: STZinduced, CAPE-treated diabetic rats (n = 10). Levels of MDA and NO and the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) in retinal tissues were analyzed. Results: In retinas of untreated diabetic rats, levels of MDA and NO and the activity of GSH-Px were significantly increased (P = 0.001, P = 0.0001, P = 0.0001, respectively), while the SOD activity was significantly decreased (P = 0.021) when compared to the control group. GSH-Px activity in the CAPE-treated diabetic group was markedly higher than that of the control group (P = 0.0001). MDA and NO levels were lower (P = 0.005, P = 0.001, respectively) and SOD activity was higher in the CAPE-treated diabetic group compared to the untreated diabetic group (P = 0.016). Conclusions: It can be concluded that nitrosative and oxidative stress is increased in the diabetic retina. CAPE treatment inhibits lipid peroxidation and NO overproduction and regulates SOD enzyme activities in diabetic rat retinas while it has no effects on GSH-Px activity.
The effects of immediate recall on eyewitness accuracy and susceptibility to misinformation

Eyewitnesses can be influenced by misinformation that they encounter when discussing the event with a co-witness. Some studies have found that an immediate recall of the event can inoculate eyewitnesses against such misinformation; others have found that it increases susceptibility to misinformation. These different findings may be due to methodological factors, so the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of three different recall conditions. An immediate cued recall, free recall or no recall was given to 88 participants after they watched a crime video. They then discussed the video with a confederate who introduced correct and incorrect information about the video. Accuracy and amount of recall was tested one week later. It was found that the immediate-recall questionnaire did not make participants more susceptible to misinformation in comparison to no-recall participants, indeed the data trended the other way, suggesting that immediate-recall inoculated participants against misinformation. Furthermore, the provision of correct post-event information increased memory accuracy, especially after immediate recall.
Under threat. Lay thinking about terrorism and the three‐dimensional model of personal involvement: a social psychological analysis

After distinguishing between acts of terrorism and terrorist risk from a social psychological perspective, this paper focuses on the lay thinking about terrorism. We suggest an analysis carried out at the ideological/positional level of explanation, as opposed to the intra/interindividual level. This analysis is based on the Theory of Social Representations and its specific methodologies. It is supported by an empirical study completed on the airports of Marseilles‐Provence (France) and Boston‐Logan (United States). The study compared the lay thinking about terrorism among participants who had different levels of anti‐terrorism practice (French safety officers vs. French passengers) and of personal involvement (US vs. French passengers). The social representation of safety officers had a more practical orientation. In contrast, for passengers, the lay thinking about terrorism was normative in nature and displayed a salient affective component. Moreover, in the group of US passengers, who reported higher scores of personal involvement, the element ‘Muslims’ appeared as central for defining terrorism. These empirical results illustrated a theoretical proposal according to which, in conflict, threat, or crisis situations, and in the absence of practice, high personal involvement may favour the expression of lay thinking through a more narrow, radical, collective and mobilising form, the nexus, rather than through social representations.
Increased mass levels of certain serine proteases in the stratum corneum in acute eczematous atopic skin

Acute eczematous atopic dermatitis (AD) is associated with increases in stratum corneum (SC) serine protease activity. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the increased SC protease activities in acute eczematous atopic dermatitis were associated with increased mass levels of SC proteases. Six subjects with healthy skin and six patients with AD each with non‐lesional skin or lesional acute eczematous skin had the mass levels of their extractable SC kallikreins (KLK), plasmin and urokinase quantified using Luminex multiplex bead‐based assays from SC tape strippings. The mass levels of KLK5 and KLK14 together with urokinase were not elevated in the SC in atopic skin. However, the mass levels of KLK7 and KLK11 together with plasmin were greatly elevated compared with the extracts from the non‐lesional and the healthy skin and correlated with the corresponding enzymatic activities.
Psychometric Properties, Norms, and Factor Structure of the Diabetes Eating Problem Survey–Revised in a Large Sample of Children and Adolescents With Type 1 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Diabetes Eating Problem Survey–Revised (DEPS-R) in a large sample of young patients with type 1 diabetes, to establish norms, and to validate it against the Eating Attitudes Test–12 (EAT-12). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 770 children and adolescents aged 11–19 years with type 1 diabetes completed the DEPS-R and the EAT-12. In addition, age- and sex-standardized BMI and HbA1c data were obtained from the Norwegian Childhood Diabetes Registry. In addition to tests of validity, principal axis factoring was conducted to investigate the factor structure of the 16-item DEPS-R. RESULTS The DEPS-R demonstrated satisfactory Cronbach α (0.89) and was significantly correlated with the EAT-12 (0.65; P < 0.01), indicating convergent validity. The mean (SD) DEPS-R scores were 11.0 (10.7) for the total sample and 7.7 (7.4) and 14.2 (2.4) for males and females, respectively. CONCLUSIONS This study replicates and extends previous research demonstrating the psychometric properties of the abbreviated 16-item DEPS-R. Findings support the utility of this important screening tool to identify disturbed eating in young patients with type 1 diabetes.
Analysing developmental disorders of reading

Abstract This paper describes the elementary subskills children need to acquire in order to become skilled readers. A model of the skilled adult reading system is used for characterising the different types of reading difficulties one sees in children, in terms of what reading subskills a child is having particular difficulty acquiring, and also used for developing a systematic method for assessing how well a child is acquiring each of the reading subskills. The model is also helpful in the selection or design of targeted treatment methods for assisting children who are having difficulties in learning to read.
A Survey of Compact Star Clusters in the South-West Field of the M31 Disk. UBVRI Photometry

We present the results of UBVRI broad-band aperture CCD photometry of 51 compact star clusters located in the South-West part of the M31 disk. The mean rms errors of all measured star cluster colors are less than 0.02 mag. In color vs. color diagrams the star clusters show significantly tighter sequences when compared with the photometric data from the compiled catalog of the M31 star clusters published by Galleti et al. (2004).
SLP compression for solutions of equations with constraints in free and hyperbolic groups

The paper is a part of an ongoing program which aims to show that the problem of satisfiability of a system of equations in a free group (hyperbolic or even toral relatively hyperbolic group) is NP-complete. For that, we study compression of solutions with straight-line programs (SLPs) as suggested originally by Plandowski and Rytter in the context of a single word equation. We review some basic results on SLPs and give full proofs in order to keep this fundamental part of the program self-contained. Next we study systems of equations with constraints in free groups and more generally in free products of abelian groups. We show how to compress minimal solutions with extended Parikh-constraints. This type of constraints allows to express semi-linear conditions as e.g. alphabetic information. The result relies on some combinatorial analysis and has not been shown elsewhere. We show similar compression results for Boolean formula of equations over a torsion-free δ-hyperbolic group. The situation is much more delicate than in free groups. As byproduct we improve the estimation of the "capacity" constant used by Rips and Sela in their paper "Canonical representatives and equations in hyperbolic groups" from a double-exponential bound in δ to some single-exponential bound. The final section shows compression results for toral relatively hyperbolic groups using the work of Dahmani: We show that given a system of equations over a fixed toral relatively hyperbolic group, for every solution of length N there is an SLP for another solution such that the size of the SLP is bounded by some polynomial p(s + log N) where s is the size of the system.
The safety assessment of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) on sympathovagal balance and heart rate variability; a comparison with amiodarone.

Dry stigmas of the Crocus sativus L. (Saffron) are well known in world as a popular flavouring and therapeutic agent. The anxiolytic, antidepressant, anticonvulsant and antiarrhythmic effects of saffron suggest that it may affect the autonomic control of the heart. This study assessed its safety on cardiac sympathovagal balance and heart rate variability in rat. Experimental groups were control, Saf50, Saf100, Saf200 (received saffron at dosages of 50 and 100 and 200 mg/kg/d, orally, respectively) and Amio (received 30 mg/mL/kg/d of amiodarone, orally, for 7 days) groups. On day 8, the frequency domain and time domain indices of animals' electrocardiograms were calculated. The heart rate decreased and RR interval increased in Saf200 and Amio groups (P<.05 vs other groups). Square root of the mean squared differences of successive RR intervals enhanced in all treated groups, however, was only significant in Amio group (P<.05). The SD1/SD2 ratio was higher in Saf200 and Amio groups. Both low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) parameters were higher, and the LF/HF ratio was non-significantly lower in treated groups. The findings suggest that saffron not only has no harmful effect on activity of cardiac autonomic nervous system, but it may improve the stability of heart sympathovagal balance in normal rat.
Evolutionary Changes in Chlorophyllide a Oxygenase (CAO) Structure Contribute to the Acquisition of a New Light-harvesting Complex in Micromonas*♦

Background: CAO domain structure has changed during evolution. Results: Micromonas CAO is split into two proteins, both of which are required for chlorophyll b synthesis. Conclusion: Establishment of a new light-harvesting system has been accompanied by changes in the CAO structure during evolution. Significance: This is the first report showing the relationship between chlorophyll metabolism and structures of the light-harvesting system. Chlorophyll b is found in photosynthetic prokaryotes and primary and secondary endosymbionts, although their light-harvesting systems are quite different. Chlorophyll b is synthesized from chlorophyll a by chlorophyllide a oxygenase (CAO), which is a Rieske-mononuclear iron oxygenase. Comparison of the amino acid sequences of CAO among photosynthetic organisms elucidated changes in the domain structures of CAO during evolution. However, the evolutionary relationship between the light-harvesting system and the domain structure of CAO remains unclear. To elucidate this relationship, we investigated the CAO structure and the pigment composition of chlorophyll-protein complexes in the prasinophyte Micromonas. The Micromonas CAO is composed of two genes, MpCAO1 and MpCAO2, that possess Rieske and mononuclear iron-binding motifs, respectively. Only when both genes were introduced into the chlorophyll b-less Arabidopsis mutant (ch1-1) was chlorophyll b accumulated, indicating that cooperation between the two subunits is required to synthesize chlorophyll b. Although Micromonas has a characteristic light-harvesting system in which chlorophyll b is incorporated into the core antennas of reaction centers, chlorophyll b was also incorporated into the core antennas of reaction centers of the Arabidopsis transformants that contained the two Micromonas CAO proteins. Based on these results, we discuss the evolutionary relationship between the structures of CAO and light-harvesting systems.
Diversification and Inequality in Higher Education: A Comparison of Israel and the United States

This article explores how the structure of higher education in the United States and Israel mediates the relationship among race/ethnicity, social origins, and postsecondary outcomes. On the basis of differences in how the two systems of higher education have developed, the authors anticipated that inequality in college attendance will be greater in Israel, while inequality in the type of college or university one attends will be greater in the United States. They found that students in the United States are more likely to attend college than are their Israeli counterparts. Contrary to their expectations, however, inequality in the chances of attendance is similar across these nations, if not slightly greater in the United States. Inequality in the types of institutions that students attend appears greater in the United States, but the contours of ethnic inequality in college destinations are markedly different across these two contexts.
Candida albicans-Derived β-1,2-Linked Mannooligosaccharides Induce Desensitization of Macrophages

ABSTRACT Candida albicans β-1,2-oligomannosides stimulate macrophage tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) but not NO release. This stimulation desensitized macrophages by altering β-1,2-oligomannoside-dependent TNF-α production and lipopolysaccharide-dependent TNF-α and NO secretion. Desensitization was not related to tyrosine phosphorylation signal transduction but was transferred by culture supernatants in which arachidonic acid derivatives were evidenced.
Is there such a thing as online video game addiction? A cross-disciplinary review

Drawing on explanatory pluralism this cross-disciplinary theoretical study asks whether excessive compulsive online gaming can be called an addiction on the basis of what is known about the disorder. This article discusses the concept of addiction; the social seating of the problems and it reviews, recent scientific literature on criteria used for diagnosing addictions. In addition, contributions by brain science are discussed. The study unfolds different dimensions of the problem and concludes by stating that research indicate that there indeed seems to be a type of problematic online gaming behavior, which bears similarities to such an extent with the essence of the concept and the phenomenon of addiction that it can beneficially lend itself and be compared to it. The authors suggest that this behavioral addiction may differ from drug addictions in magnitude, but not in kind. In addition, the authors find a possible solution for conceptualizing behavioral addictions by a general de-medicalization of the concept of addiction.
Cooperative Integration and Representation Underlying Bilateral Network of Fly Motion-Sensitive Neurons

How is binocular motion information integrated in the bilateral network of wide-field motion-sensitive neurons, called lobula plate tangential cells (LPTCs), in the visual system of flies? It is possible to construct an accurate model of this network because a complete picture of synaptic interactions has been experimentally identified. We investigated the cooperative behavior of the network of horizontal LPTCs underlying the integration of binocular motion information and the information representation in the bilateral LPTC network through numerical simulations on the network model. First, we qualitatively reproduced rotational motion-sensitive response of the H2 cell previously reported in vivo experiments and ascertained that it could be accounted for by the cooperative behavior of the bilateral network mainly via interhemispheric electrical coupling. We demonstrated that the response properties of single H1 and Hu cells, unlike H2 cells, are not influenced by motion stimuli in the contralateral visual hemi-field, but that the correlations between these cell activities are enhanced by the rotational motion stimulus. We next examined the whole population activity by performing principal component analysis (PCA) on the population activities of simulated LPTCs. We showed that the two orthogonal patterns of correlated population activities given by the first two principal components represent the rotational and translational motions, respectively, and similar to the H2 cell, rotational motion produces a stronger response in the network than does translational motion. Furthermore, we found that these population-coding properties are strongly influenced by the interhemispheric electrical coupling. Finally, to test the generality of our conclusions, we used a more simplified model and verified that the numerical results are not specific to the network model we constructed.
Unbiased Finite-Memory Digital Phase-Locked Loop

Digital phase-locked loops (DPLLs) have been commonly used to estimate phase information. However, they exhibit poor performance or, occasionally, a divergence phenomenon, if noise information is incorrect or if there are quantization effects. To overcome the weaknesses of existing DPLLs, we propose a new DPLL with a finite-memory structure called the unbiased finite-memory DPLL (UFMDPLL). The UFMDPLL is independent of noise covariance information, and it shows intrinsic robustness properties against incorrect noise information and quantization effects due to the finite-memory structure. Through numerical simulations, we show that the proposed DPLL is more robust against incorrect noise information and quantization effects than the conventional DPLLs are.