Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The telesign project

Telesign is designed to offer a means of visual communication over a 56- or 64-kbit/s data network. The purpose is to supply a means of visual telecommunication among the members of the deaf community using sign language or lip reading. The system consists of an edge detector followed by digital compression coding to meet channel requirements. Psychometric experiments have shown the need for 25 frames/s with a minimum definition of 128 × 128 points. Edge-detection techniques are discussed from the viewpoint of an unusual quality criterion: the subjective resemblance of the contoured image to the original and, closely related to this, the intelligibility of the image sequence. A classification of edge detectors is given, based upon the position of the contour with respect to the dark/light contrast boundaries in the picture. The relationship of this classification to the quality criterion yields the definition of a new gradient display, called the "shifted gradient," with improved visual quality. The pseudo-Laplacian, well-suited to the problem, is analyzed. Various binary coding techniques are reviewed, and the results of compression given. A psychovisual experiment, performed in conjunction with the INJS (National Institute for the Education of Young Deaf), Paris, France, is described; the results validate the proposed approach. Guidelines are proposed for the design of a real-time device. The application of Telesign to closed-caption TV programs for the deaf viewer is also suggested.
Oxidative stress and mitochondrial function with aging – the effects of calorie restriction

Accumulated oxidative stress resulting from a gradual shift in the redox status of tissues is now considered to be a key mechanism underlying the aging process. Calorie‐restricted (CR) feeding, an experimental protocol to extend survival and delay aging in rodents, is recognized to slow the rate of accrual of age‐related oxidative stress. This conclusion is based on the increase in tissues with age of the oxidation products of proteins, lipids and DNA. The functional consequence, however, of the accumulation of these non‐specific oxidative markers is more difficult to determine. A shift in the redox status of tissues with age and calorie restriction feeding may have a greater impact on cell function through activation of redox sensitive transcription factors than through the accumulation of these non‐specific oxidative markers. Activation of such transcription factors will stimulate signalling pathways that will lead to a change in the gene expression profile and cell functioning. Little research has been conducted in this area. It has been proposed that CR feeding slows the rate of accrual of oxidative damage because mitochondria in these animals have a lower rate of superoxide generation when compared with mitochondria from control animals. This proposal is based on in vitro observations using isolated mitochondria and clearly requires further confirmation in isolated cells or using an in vivo approach. The application of metabolic control analysis to identify in isolated mitochondria the mechanism underlying this response has suggested one possible explanation for the lower superoxide production rates observed.
Immunologically Induced, Complement-Dependent Up-Regulation of the Prion Protein in the Mouse Spleen: Follicular Dendritic Cells Versus Capsule and Trabeculae1

The expression of the prion protein (PrP) in the follicular dendritic cell network of germinal centers in the spleen is critical for the splenic propagation of the causative agent of prion diseases. However, a physiological role of the prion protein in the periphery remains elusive. To investigate the role and function of PrP expression in the lymphoid system we treated naive mice i.v. with preformed immune complexes or vesicular stomatitis virus. Immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis of the spleen revealed that 8 days after immunization, immune complexes and vesicular stomatitis virus had both induced a strong increase of PrP expression in the follicular dendritic cell network. Remarkably, this up-regulation did not occur in mice that lack an early factor of the complement cascade, C1q, a component which has been shown previously to facilitate early prion pathogenesis. In addition to the variable PrP level in the germinal centers, we detected steady and abundant PrP expression in the splenic capsule and trabeculae, which are structural elements that have not been associated before with PrP localization. The abundant trabeculo-capsular PrP expression was also evident in spleens of Rag-1-deficient mice, which have been shown before to be incapable of prion expansion. We conclude that trabeculocapsular PrP is not sufficient for splenic prion propagation. Furthermore, our observations may provide important clues for a physiological function of the prion protein and allow a new view on the role of complement and PrP in peripheral prion pathogenesis.
The impact of chronic pain in the community.

BACKGROUND Chronic pain is known to be very common in the community. Less is known about the epidemiology of more significant or severe chronic pain. The impact of chronic pain in the community, in terms of general health, employment and interference with daily activity, has not been quantified. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence and distribution in the community of chronic pain defined as 'significant' and 'severe', and to explore the impact of chronic pain on health and activity. METHODS A questionnaire survey was carried out of a sample drawn from the general population in the Grampian region of SCOTLAND: Questionnaires were sent to a random sample of 4611 individuals aged 25 years and over, stratified for age and gender, selected from the practice lists of 29 general practices (total practice population 136,383). The study instrument included a case definition questionnaire, from which were identified individuals with 'any chronic pain' (pain of at least 3 months duration). The instrument also included a level of expressed need questionnaire and the chronic pain grade questionnaire, from which were derived definitions for 'significant chronic pain' (based on the reported need for treatment and professional advice) and 'severe chronic pain' (based on reported intensity and pain-related disability). The SF-36 general health questionnaire and demographic questions were also included. RESULTS Of the sample, 14.1% reported 'significant chronic pain', and this was more prevalent among women and older age groups. A total of 6.3% reported 'severe chronic pain', and this was more common in older age groups. On multiple logistic regression modelling, female gender, housing tenure, employment category and educational attainment were found to be independently associated with both 'significant' and 'severe' chronic pain. The presence of 'any', 'significant' and 'severe' chronic pain had progressively more marked adverse associations with employment, interference with daily activities and all measured dimensions of general health. CONCLUSIONS Comparison of the epidemiology of 'significant chronic pain' and 'severe chronic pain' with 'any chronic pain' allows an understanding of the more clinically important end of the chronic pain spectrum. These results support the suggestion that chronic pain is multidimensional, both in its aetiology and in its effects, particularly at this end of the spectrum. This must be addressed in management and in further research.
Neurophysiologic Bases of Speech Discrimination

The mismatch negativity (MMN) is an automatic cortical evoked potential that signifies the brain's detection of acoustic change. In other words, the MMN reflects the neurophysiologic processes that underlie auditory discrimination. As such, the MMN provides an objective tool for evaluating central auditory mechanisms involved in speech perception. We are using the MMN to study the central auditory processes that encode acoustic changes important for speech perception in 1) normal-hearing adults and children, 2) individuals with impaired auditory systems (including persons with learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, cochlear implants), and 3) an animal model. Specifically, we have demonstrated that the MMN provides information about the central processing of fine acoustic differences, the neuroanatomic pathways that encode acoustic change, central auditory processing in the presence of peripheral hearing deficits, and central auditory system plasticity, In addition, we have considered methodological challenges associated with measuring the MMN in individual subjects. Several methodological issues—including appropriate stimuli, stimulus presentation variables, the recording protocol and environment, and validation of the MMN in individuals—are discussed.
The prevalence of antibodies to Mycobacterium johnei in colostrum deprived lambs

The prevalence of antibodies to Mycobacterium johnei in pre-colostral lambs in a flock of sheep infected with Johne's disease was investigated. Blood from 134 ewes and their 143 lambs were collected immediately after lambing. Double immunodiffusion and counterimmunoelectrophoresis tests were used to detect antibodies to M johnei. Four (3 per cent) of 135 lambs born to 127 ewes with serological evidence of exposure to M johnei had detectable antibodies in their sera. All lambs fed colostrum from serologically positive ewes had serum antibodies.
Incubation of alcohol craving during abstinence in patients with alcohol dependence

Time‐dependent increases in cue‐induced nicotine and methamphetamine craving during abstinence were recently reported in human drug‐dependent individuals. In the present study, we sought to determine whether this ‘incubation of craving’ phenomenon also occurs in alcoholics. Four groups of 80 inpatient adult male alcoholics were assessed in a single session (between‐group design) for cue‐induced alcohol craving at 7, 14, 30 and 60 days of abstinence. Another group that included 19 patients was repeatedly tested for cue‐induced alcohol craving at the same abstinence days as above. Other psychological and physiological measures were assessed at the four abstinence timepoints. Cue‐induced alcohol craving measured with visual analogue scales was the highest at 60 days of abstinence both between and within groups. However, heart rate, blood pressure and skin conductance responses did not differ between abstinent groups. These results provide evidence of the incubation of alcohol craving in humans, extending previous reports with smokers and methamphetamine addicts.
Regional cerebral blood flow measured during symptom provocation in obsessive-compulsive disorder using oxygen 15-labeled carbon dioxide and positron emission tomography.

BACKGROUND The study was designed to determine the mediating neuroanatomy of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). METHODS The short half-life tracer oxygen 15-labeled carbon dioxide was used to allow for repeated positron emission tomographic determinations of regional cerebral blood flow on each of eight patients with OCD during a resting and a provoked (symptomatic) state. RESULTS Individually tailored provocative stimuli were successful in provoking OCD symptoms, in comparison with paired innocuous stimuli, as measured by self-report on OCD analogue scales (P = .002). Omnibus subtraction images demonstrated a statistically significant increase in relative regional cerebral blood flow during the OCD symptomatic state vs the resting state in right caudate nucleus (P < .006), left anterior cingulate cortex (P < .045), and bilateral orbitofrontal cortex (P < .008); increases in the left thalamus approached but did not reach statistical significance (P = .07). CONCLUSIONS These findings are consistent with results of previous functional neuroimaging studies and contemporary neurocircuitry models of OCD. The data further implicate orbitofrontal cortex, caudate nucleus, and anterior cingulate cortex in the pathophysiology of OCD and in mediating OCD symptoms.
Top Management Teams’ Characteristics and Strategic Decision-Making: A Mediation of Risk Perceptions and Mental Models

Strategic decision-making is a key factor of sustainability and development in enterprises. Moreover, the top management team (TMT) of an enterprise constitutes the base for decision-making. This study employed structural equation modeling to analyze questionnaires regarding TMTs’ characteristics and strategic decision-making, and tested the mediating effects of risk perceptions and mental models and the moderating effects of psychological ownership. We investigated 289 valid questionnaires on TMTs completed by representatives from enterprises in China and found risk perceptions and mental models that serve as a mediating factor and are affected by the TMTs’ characteristics and decision-making. We also found that psychological ownership exerts moderating effects between TMTs’ characteristics and decision-making. This paper concludes with a discussion of theoretical and managerial implications for enterprise owners.
Sarbanes-Oxley, corporate governance, and strategic dividend decisions

This paper empirically analyzes the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on the relation between measures of corporate governance and a firm’s dividend policy in the U.S. equity market. Using the IRRC database, we find that there is a statistically significant relation between governance measures and a firm’s dividend policy in the years prior to the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. However, following Sarbanes-Oxley, the relation between a firm’s governance structure and dividend policy changes. In particular, shareholders’ rights and the proportion of outside directors are no longer significant in explaining a firm’s dividend policy.
Pharmacokinetics and bioavailability of three promising tilmicosin-loaded lipid nanoparticles in comparison with tilmicosin phosphate following oral administration in broiler chickens

Ali RASSOULI*, Alwan AL-QUSHAWI, Fatemeh ATYABI, Seyed Mostafa PEIGHAMBARI, Mehdi ESFANDYARI-MANESH, Gholam Reza SHAMS Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Department of Avian Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran Nanotechnology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
The Prevalence of Rotator Cuff Tears

Background: Rotator cuff tears are a common cause of pain and disability of the shoulder. Information on the prevalence and identification of potential risk factors could help in early detection of rotator cuff tears and improve treatment outcome. Hypothesis: Patients treated for a symptomatic rotator cuff tear on one side have a higher prevalence of rotator cuff tears and decreased shoulder function on the contralateral side compared with an age- and sex-matched group of healthy individuals. Study Design: Case control study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: One group consisted of 55 patients who had been arthroscopically treated on one shoulder for rotator cuff tear (tear group). In this group, the nonoperated contralateral shoulder was examined. For comparison, the matching shoulder in a control group consisting of 55 subjectively healthy individuals matched by age (±1 year) and sex to the tear group was included. Diagnosis of a rotator cuff tear was made by ultrasound. Outcomes were measured using the Constant score. Results: The prevalence of supraspinatus tears was significantly higher (P < .0001) in the tear group (67.3%) compared with the control group (11.0%). The Constant score for the activities of daily living subscale, however, was significantly lower (18.4) in the tear group compared with the control group (19.9; P = .012). No other subcategory score nor the overall score showed a significant difference. There was a significantly higher tear prevalence in the tear group of patients aged between 50 and 59 years (P < .001) and 60 and 69 years (P = .004). No tear was diagnosed in the control group in individuals younger than 60 years. Conclusion: Patients treated for partial and full-thickness rotator cuff tears have a significantly higher risk of having a tear on the contralateral side and have noticeable deficits in their shoulder function regarding activities of daily living even if the tear is otherwise asymptomatic.
Quality and Safety in Health Care, Part VII: Lower Costs and Higher Quality

Abstract The Institute of Medicine report entitled The Health Care Imperative: Lowering Costs and Improving Outcomes discussed numerous ways to decrease costs in the health care system without decreasing quality. The use of evidence-based medicine, eliminating wasteful spending such as needlessly high administrative costs, having more preventive services, having a better reimbursement system that emphasized quality, developing a less fragmented and more efficient medical delivery system, having more transparency for patients on the outcomes of different providers, having greater health care literacy for patients, and eliminating fraud were some of the recommendations. The total savings from eliminating unnecessary health care costs was estimated to be over 3 quarters of a trillion dollars each year.
Considerations on the impact of material mesostructure on charge injection at cable interfaces

In many industrialized high voltage applications, polymeric insulators are subjected to high electric field strength. Examples are cables, gas-insulated switchgears (GIS), capacitors and others [1]. The difficulty in the design process of these components is to ensure and predict their long-term reliability, where one among the important aspects is prevention of local degradation phenomena. Applications in which a combination of different solid dielectric materials are utilized, such as in cable joints or dry-type terminations are also becoming more common in the strive for achieving long lasting and maintenance free components. It is thus crucial that such components are also designed for longevity and faultless operation. This involves ensuring proper physical and chemical cleanliness of the used materials, but also optimizing component geometry with regards to local enhancements of electric field.
Awareness of rabies and response to dog bites in a Bangladesh community

Abstract Community awareness regarding rabies and treatment seeking behaviours are critical both for the prevention and control of the disease in human and animals. We conducted a study to explore people's awareness about rabies, their attitudes towards dogs and practices associated with treating dog bites in Satkhira Sadar, a south‐western sub‐district of Bangladesh. Of the total 3200 households (HHs) surveyed, the majority of the respondents have heard about rabies (73%) and there was a high level of awareness that dog bite is the main cause of rabies (86%), and that rabies can be prevented by vaccination (85%). However, 59% of the dog bite victims first seek treatment from traditional healers instead of visiting the hospitals, 29% received the rabies vaccine, 2% practiced proper wound washing with soap and water, while 4.8% have not taken any measures. None of the victims have received rabies immunoglobulin (RIG). Of the respondents, 5.2% reported a history of dog bite in at least one family member, and 11.8% reported a history of dog bite in domestic animals during the previous year. The HHs having a higher number of family members (OR: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.07–1.2), having a pet dog (OR: 2.1, 95% CI: 1.4–3.2) and caring or feeding a community dog (OR: 2.1, 95% CI: 1.4–2.9) showed an increased risk of getting a dog bite. Among the bite victims, 3.6% (n = 6) humans and 15.8% (n = 60) animals died. As a measure for dog population management (DPM), 56% preferred sterilization while the rest preferred killing of dogs. The current treatment seeking behaviours of the respondents should be improved through additional education and awareness programme and better availability for the provision of post‐exposure prophylaxis in Bangladesh. We recommend scaling up national mass dog vaccination and DPM to reduce the burden of rabies cases and dog bites in Bangladesh.
Sequential Phosphorylation by Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase and Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 Represses Transcriptional Activation by Heat Shock Factor-1*

Mammalian heat shock genes are regulated at the transcriptional level by heat shock factor-1 (HSF-1), a sequence-specific transcription factor. We have examined the role of serine phosphorylation of HSF-1 in the regulation of heat shock gene transcription. Our experiments show that mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) of the ERK-1 family phosphorylate HSF-1 on serine residues and repress the transcriptional activation of the heat shock protein 70B (HSP70B) promoter by HSF-1 in vivo. These effects of MAPK are transmitted through a specific serine residue (Ser-303) located in a proline-rich sequence within the transcriptional regulatory domain of human HSF-1. However, despite the importance of Ser-303 in transmitting the signal from the MAPK cascade to HSP70 transcription, there was no evidence that Ser-303 could be phosphorylated by MAPK in vitro, although an adjacent residue (Ser-307) was avidly phosphorylated by MAPK. Further studies revealed that Ser-303 is phosphorylated by glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) through a mechanism dependent on primary phosphorylation of Ser-307 by MAPK. Secondary phosphorylation of Ser-303 by GSK3 may thus repress the activity of HSF-1, and its requirement for priming by MAPK phosphorylation of Ser-307 provides a potential link between the MAPK cascade and HSF-1. Our experiments thus indicate that MAPK is a potent inhibitor of HSF-1 function and may be involved in repressing the heat shock response during normal growth and development and deactivating the heat shock response during recovery from stress.
Evaluating choices by single neurons in the frontal lobe: outcome value encoded across multiple decision variables

Damage to the frontal lobe can cause severe decision‐making impairments. A mechanism that may underlie this is that neurons in the frontal cortex encode many variables that contribute to the valuation of a choice, such as its costs, benefits and probability of success. However, optimal decision‐making requires that one considers these variables, not only when faced with the choice, but also when evaluating the outcome of the choice, in order to adapt future behaviour appropriately. To examine the role of the frontal cortex in encoding the value of different choice outcomes, we simultaneously recorded the activity of multiple single neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) while subjects evaluated the outcome of choices involving manipulations of probability, payoff and cost. Frontal neurons encoded many of the parameters that enabled the calculation of the value of these variables, including the onset and offset of reward and the amount of work performed, and often encoded the value of outcomes across multiple decision variables. In addition, many neurons encoded both the predicted outcome during the choice phase of the task as well as the experienced outcome in the outcome phase of the task. These patterns of selectivity were more prevalent in ACC relative to OFC and LPFC. These results support a role for the frontal cortex, principally ACC, in selecting between choice alternatives and evaluating the outcome of that selection thereby ensuring that choices are optimal and adaptive.