Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Parallel inputs from the mediodorsal thalamus to the prefrontal cortex in the rat

There is a growing interest in determining the functional contribution of thalamic inputs to cortical functions. In the context of adaptive behaviours, identifying the precise role of the mediodorsal thalamus (MD) in particular remains difficult despite the large amount of experimental data available. A better understanding of the thalamocortical connectivity of this region may help to capture its functional role. To address this issue, this study focused exclusively on the specific connections from the MD to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) by means of direct comparisons of labelling produced by single and dual injections of retrograde tracers in the different subdivisions of the PFC in the rat. We show that at least three parallel and essentially separate thalamocortical pathways originate from the MD, as follows: projections to the dorsal (1) and the ventral (2) subdivisions of the mPFC follow a mediolateral topography at the thalamic level (i.e. medial thalamic neurons target the mPFC ventrally whereas lateral thalamic neurons project dorsally), whereas a considerable innervation to the OFC (3) includes thalamic cells projecting to both the lateral and the ventral OFC subdivisions. These observations provide new insight on the functions of the MD and suggest a specific focus on each of these pathways for future functional studies.
The effect of unilateral arm swing motion on lower extremity running mechanics associated with injury risk

Abstract Many field sports involve equipment that restricts one or both arms from moving while running. Arm swing during running has been examined from a biomechanical and physiologic perspective but not from an injury perspective. Moreover, only bilateral arm swing suppression has been studied with respect to running. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of running with one arm restrained on lower extremity mechanics associated with running or sport-related injury. Fifteen healthy participants ran at a self-selected speed with typical arm swing, with one arm restrained and with both arms restrained. Lower extremity kinematics and spatiotemporal measures were analysed for all arm swing conditions. Running with one arm restrained resulted in increased frontal plane knee and hip angles, decreased foot strike angle, and decreased centre of mass vertical displacement compared to typical arm swing or bilateral arm swing restriction. Stride length was decreased and step frequency increased when running with one or both arms restrained. Unilateral arm swing restriction induces changes in lower extremity kinematics that are not similar to running with bilateral arm swing restriction or typical arm swing motion. Running with one arm restrained increases frontal plane mechanics associated with risk of knee injury.
Trainable ISTA for Sparse Signal Recovery

In this paper, we propose a novel sparse signal recovery algorithm called the trainable iterative soft thresholding algorithm (TISTA). The proposed algorithm consists of two estimation units: a linear estimation unit and a minimum mean squared error (MMSE) estimator based shrinkage unit. The error variance required in the MMSE shrinkage unit is precisely estimated from a tentative estimate of the original signal. The remarkable feature of the proposed scheme is that TISTA includes adjustable variables that control step size and the error variance for the MMSE shrinkage function. The variables are adjusted by standard deep learning techniques. The number of trainable variables of TISTA is nearly equal to the number of iteration rounds and is much smaller than that of known learnable sparse signal recovery algorithms. This feature leads to highly stable and fast training processes of TISTA. Computer experiments show that TISTA is applicable to various classes of sensing matrices, such as Gaussian matrices, binary matrices, and matrices with large condition numbers. Numerical results also demonstrate that, in many cases, TISTA provides significantly faster convergence than approximate message passing (AMP) and the learned iterative shrinkage thresholding algorithm and also outperforms orthogonal AMP in the NMSE performance.
Risks associated with communication delays in infants from underserved South African communities

Background For optimal development young children need warm, responsive, enriched and communicative environments for learning social, language, and other skills. Infants and toddlers exposed to psychosocial risk lack enriched environments and may present with communication delays. Aim To investigate the relationship between psychosocial risks and communication delays in infants from underserved communities in South Africa. Setting Primary healthcare facilities in Tshwane district, South Africa. Methods A parent interview and Rossetti Infant Toddler Language Scales were used to collect data from caregivers of 201 infants aged 6–12 months, selected through convenience sampling. Associations between communication delays and risks were determined (Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests). A log-linear model analysis was used to model the simultaneous effect of significant risks on the probability of having communication delays. Results Communication delays were present in 13% of infants. Infants with two or more siblings, born from mothers aged 18–29 years who own their house, had a 39% chance of presenting with communication delays. Conclusion Developmental screening and early intervention is important in primary healthcare contexts in South Africa, as a clear relationship has been established between three risk factors and communication delays in infants. Contexte Risques associés à des retards de communication verbale chez les nourrissons des communautés sud-africaines non desservies. Pour s'épanouir complètement les jeunes enfants ont besoin d'un environnement chaud, réceptif, enrichi et communicatif pour apprendre le langage social et d'autres compétences. Les nourrissons et les tout-petits exposés à des risques psychosociaux souffrent d'un manque d'environnements enrichissants et pourraient souffrir de retards de communication verbale. Objectif Pour étudier la relation entre les risques psychosociaux et les retards de communication verbale chez les nourrissons des communautés non desservies en Afrique du Sud. Lieu Services de soins primaires dans le district de Tshwane, en Afrique du Sud. Méthodes Une entrevue avec les parents et l'Echelle de Compétence linguistique pour les Nourrissons de Rossetti ont été utilisés pour rassembler les données de 201 nourrissons de 6 à 12 mois provenant de leurs gardiens, sélectionnés au moyen d'échantillonnages de proximité. On a remarqué un lien entre les retards et les risques de communication verbale (tests Chi carré et de Fisher). On a utilisé un modèle d'analyse log-linéaire pour modéliser l'effet simultané des risques importants sur la probabilité d'avoir des retards de communication verbale. Résultats On a trouvé des retards de communication verbale chez 13% des nourrissons. Les nourrissons qui vivent avec deux frères ou sœurs ou plus, nés de mères âgées de 18 à 29 ans qui ont leur propre maison, avaient 39% plus de chance d'avoir des retards de communication verbale.
A Novel Lip Descriptor for Audio-Visual Keyword Spotting Based on Adaptive Decision Fusion

Keyword spotting remains a challenge when applied to real-world environments with dramatically changing noise. In recent studies, audio-visual integration methods have demonstrated superiorities since visual speech is not influenced by acoustic noise. However, for visual speech recognition, individual utterance mannerisms can lead to confusion and false recognition. To solve this problem, a novel lip descriptor is presented involving both geometry-based and appearance-based features in this paper. Specifically, a set of geometry-based features is proposed based on an advanced facial landmark localization method. In order to obtain robust and discriminative representation, a spatiotemporal lip feature is put forward concerning similarities among textons and mapping the feature to intra-class subspace. Moreover, a parallel two-step keyword spotting strategy based on decision fusion is proposed in order to make the best use of audio-visual speech and adapt to diverse noise conditions. Weights generated using a neural network combine acoustic and visual contributions. Experimental results on the OuluVS dataset and PKU-AV dataset demonstrate that the proposed lip descriptor shows competitive performance compared to the state of the art. Additionally, the proposed audio-visual keyword spotting (AV-KWS) method based on decision-level fusion significantly improves the noise robustness and attains better performance than feature-level fusion, which is also capable of adapting to various noisy conditions.
Dispersal assembly of rain forest tree communities across the Amazon basin

Significance The Amazon is largely covered by contiguous rain forest. Nevertheless, previous studies have suggested that past geological and climatic events, as well as limited seed dispersal, may have restricted the movement of tree lineages across the Amazon. Using a phylogenetic approach, we show that dispersal into local communities and larger regions in the Amazon appears to not have been limited on evolutionary timescales, but instead, local communities have been assembled by lineages from across the Amazon. These results contrast with those from seasonally dry tropical forests, where closely related species are clustered in geographic space. Furthermore, our results suggest a role for dispersal as an initiator for geographic isolation that might lead to speciation in Amazonian trees. We investigate patterns of historical assembly of tree communities across Amazonia using a newly developed phylogeny for the species-rich neotropical tree genus Inga. We compare our results with those for three other ecologically important, diverse, and abundant Amazonian tree lineages, Swartzia, Protieae, and Guatteria. Our analyses using phylogenetic diversity metrics demonstrate a clear lack of geographic phylogenetic structure, and show that local communities of Inga and regional communities of all four lineages are assembled by dispersal across Amazonia. The importance of dispersal in the biogeography of Inga and other tree genera in Amazonian and Guianan rain forests suggests that speciation is not driven by vicariance, and that allopatric isolation following dispersal may be involved in the speciation process. A clear implication of these results is that over evolutionary timescales, the metacommunity for any local or regional tree community in the Amazon is the entire Amazon basin.
Survival After Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy in Older Adults With Neurologic Disorders.

BACKGROUND Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube placement is a common procedure performed to provide a route for enteral feeding. We aimed to examine the survival after PEG in older adults with neurologic disease and to demonstrate the factors associated with mortality. METHODS We analyzed the data of 500 patients who underwent PEG placement between 2005 and 2015 at a university hospital. The data included age, sex, follow-up duration, comorbidities, medications, indications for PEG, complications, and laboratory results. Related risk factors and mortality rates were analyzed. RESULTS Median age was 77 years. Median survival time after PEG placement was 13.9 months. The 30-day, 3-month, 1-year, 2-year, 3-year, and 5-year mortality rates were 11.3%, 28.3%, 46.8%, 56.3 %, 63.0%, and 67.8%, respectively. Stroke was independently correlated with mortality (odds ratio [OR], 2.20; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.52-3.19; P < .001). Overall survival time after PEG placement was shorter in patients with stroke than without stroke (11.4 vs 27.1 months, P = .014). In multivariate logistic regression analyses, preprocedural neutrophil percentage (OR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.02-1.17, P = .015) and late complications (OR, 9.2; 95% CI, 1.80-46.90; P = .008) were independent risk factors for mortality in the stroke subgroup. Prophylactic antibiotic usage (OR, 0.07; 95% CI, 0.17-0.29; P < .001) and hyperlipidemia (OR, 0.30; 95% CI, 0.86-1.00; P = .048) were independently and inversely correlated with mortality in stroke patients. CONCLUSIONS Stroke patients had higher mortality rates than other neurological indications for PEG. In stroke patients with PEG, neutrophil percentage was independently correlated with mortality, while hyperlipidemia and preprocedural antibiotic usage were independently related with survival.
An Evaluation of Food as a Potential Source for Clostridium difficile Acquisition in Hospitalized Patients

OBJECTIVE To determine whether Clostridium difficile is present in the food of hospitalized patients and to estimate the risk of subsequent colonization associated with C. difficile in food. METHODS This was a prospective cohort study of inpatients at a university-affiliated tertiary care center, May 9, 2011–July 12, 2012. Enrolled patients submitted a portion of food from each meal. Patient stool specimens and/or rectal swabs were collected at enrollment, every 3 days thereafter, and at discharge, and were cultured for C. difficile. Clinical data were reviewed for evidence of infection due to C. difficile. A stochastic, discrete event model was developed to predict exposure to C. difficile from food, and the estimated number of new colonization events from food exposures per 1,000 admissions was determined. RESULTS A total of 149 patients were enrolled and 910 food specimens were obtained. Two food specimens from 2 patients were positive for C. difficile (0.2% of food samples; 1.3% of patients). Neither of the 2 patients was colonized at baseline with C. difficile. Discharge colonization status was available for 1 of the 2 patients and was negative. Neither was diagnosed with C. difficile infection while hospitalized or during the year before or after study enrollment. Stochastic modeling indicated contaminated hospital food would be responsible for less than 1 newly colonized patient per 1,000 hospital admissions. CONCLUSIONS The recovery of C. difficile from the food of hospitalized patients was rare. Modeling suggests hospital food is unlikely to be a source of C. difficile acquisition. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2016;1401–1407
Use of railway wheel wear and damage prediction tools to improve maintenance efficiency through the use of economic tyre turning

This paper investigates the wear rate and pattern for wheels turned with thin flanges using economic tyre turning. Economic tyre turning refers to the process of turning wheels to a profile that has the same tread shape but a thinner flange than the design case profile, allowing less material to be removed from the wheel diameter during re-profiling. Modern wheel lathes are typically capable of turning such profiles but the GB railway group standards do not currently permit their use. The paper demonstrates how the wheel profile damage model (WPDM) can be used, with a good degree of accuracy, to predict both the magnitude of wheel wear and the worn profile shape of the design and economic tyre turning re-profiled wheels for service mileages exceeding 100,000 miles. The WPDM simulations were run for two typical electric multiple units (one suburban and one intercity train fleet) and a two-axle freight wagon. Additionally, it discusses the calibration methodology used to adjust the wear coefficients contained within the Archard wear model to improve the accuracy of the WPDM simulation results for specific routes and vehicle types. Furthermore, this paper presents the findings of a trial of economic tyre turning on a fleet of intercity trains. The analysis is extended to predict the effect of using economic tyre turning on rail rolling contact fatigue for typical routes and operating conditions using a series of vehicle dynamic simulations. The analysis considers new 56E1 and 60E2 rails together with a selection of worn wheel. The research provides valuable evidence to support a future change to the standards which will allow train operators/maintainers to implement economic tyre turning policies.
Density dependence in demography and dispersal generates fluctuating invasion speeds

Significance Mitigating the spread of invasive species remains difficult—substantial variability in invasion speed is increasingly well-documented, but the sources of this variability are poorly understood. We report a mechanism for invasion speed variability. The combined action of density dependence in demography and dispersal can cause invasions to fluctuate, even in constant environments. Speed fluctuations occur through creation of a pushed invasion wave that moves forward not from small populations at the leading edge but instead, from larger, more established populations that “jump” forward past the previous invasion front. Variability in strength of the push generates fluctuating invasion speeds. Conditions giving rise to fluctuations are widely documented in nature, suggesting that an important source of invasion variability may be overlooked. Density dependence plays an important role in population regulation and is known to generate temporal fluctuations in population density. However, the ways in which density dependence affects spatial population processes, such as species invasions, are less understood. Although classical ecological theory suggests that invasions should advance at a constant speed, empirical work is illuminating the highly variable nature of biological invasions, which often exhibit nonconstant spreading speeds, even in simple, controlled settings. Here, we explore endogenous density dependence as a mechanism for inducing variability in biological invasions with a set of population models that incorporate density dependence in demographic and dispersal parameters. We show that density dependence in demography at low population densities—i.e., an Allee effect—combined with spatiotemporal variability in population density behind the invasion front can produce fluctuations in spreading speed. The density fluctuations behind the front can arise from either overcompensatory population growth or density-dependent dispersal, both of which are common in nature. Our results show that simple rules can generate complex spread dynamics and highlight a source of variability in biological invasions that may aid in ecological forecasting.
Sports and Exercise at Different Ages and Leukocyte Telomere Length in Later Life – Data from the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II)

Physical activity and sports have repeatedly been reported to be associated with telomere length. We studied the association of different types of sports across different stages of life on relative leukocyte telomere length (rLTL) in advanced age.815 participants (397 men) from the Berlin Aging Study II aged over 61 years were included in the analysis. rLTL was measured by real time PCR and physical activity was determined retrospectively by questionnaire, assessing type and duration of sports in the past as well as currently. Five separate multiple linear regression models adjusted for various control variables were performed. 67.3% of participants exercised currently, whereas 19.4% performed sports only between the age of 20 and 30. rLTL was higher in subjects who stated to exercise currently (N = 456), and in subjects who engaged in endurance (N = 138) or intensive activity sports (N = 32). Current physical activity was positively associated with rLTL in the risk factor adjusted regression model (β = 0.26, p < 0.001) and practicing sports for a minimum of 10 years preceding the assessment had a significant effect on rLTL (β = 0.39, p = 0.011). The highest impact was seen for intensive activity sports (β = 0.79, p < 0.001) and physical activity since at least 42 years (β = 0.47, p = 0.001). However, physical activity only between 20 and 30 years of age did not affect rLTL in old age when compared to no sports at all (β = -0.16, p = 0.21). Physical activity is clearly associated with longer rLTL. The effect is seen with longer periods of physical activity (at least 10 years), with intensive sports activities having the greatest impact on rLTL. Our data suggest that regular physical activity for at least 10 years is necessary to achieve a sustained effect on rLTL.
Biocompatible and totally disintegrable semiconducting polymer for ultrathin and ultralightweight transient electronics

Significance Organic electronics, particularly polymers, can be synthesized and processed with low temperatures and, more importantly, have the potential to be environmentally benign candidates for electronic applications. However, there has been no report of totally decomposable polymer semiconductors. Their availability will enable low-cost and fully disintegrable transient electronics. We have developed an innovative concept based on imine chemistry that allows totally disintegrable and biocompatible semiconducting polymers. Using an ultrathin biodegradable substrate, we successfully fabricated polymer transistors and logic circuits that show high performance and are ultralightweight, but they can be fully disintegrable. Our work significantly advances organic materials to enable environmentally friendly and biointegrated electronic applications. Increasing performance demands and shorter use lifetimes of consumer electronics have resulted in the rapid growth of electronic waste. Currently, consumer electronics are typically made with nondecomposable, nonbiocompatible, and sometimes even toxic materials, leading to serious ecological challenges worldwide. Here, we report an example of totally disintegrable and biocompatible semiconducting polymers for thin-film transistors. The polymer consists of reversible imine bonds and building blocks that can be easily decomposed under mild acidic conditions. In addition, an ultrathin (800-nm) biodegradable cellulose substrate with high chemical and thermal stability is developed. Coupled with iron electrodes, we have successfully fabricated fully disintegrable and biocompatible polymer transistors. Furthermore, disintegrable and biocompatible pseudo-complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) flexible circuits are demonstrated. These flexible circuits are ultrathin (<1 μm) and ultralightweight (∼2 g/m2) with low operating voltage (4 V), yielding potential applications of these disintegrable semiconducting polymers in low-cost, biocompatible, and ultralightweight transient electronics.