Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modularity-Guided Functional Brain Network Analysis for Early-Stage Dementia Identification

Function brain network (FBN) analysis has shown great potential in identifying brain diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and its prodromal stage, namely mild cognitive impairment (MCI). It is essential to identify discriminative and interpretable features from function brain networks, so as to improve classification performance and help us understand the pathological mechanism of AD-related brain disorders. Previous studies usually extract node statistics or edge weights from FBNs to represent each subject. However, these methods generally ignore the topological structure (such as modularity) of FBNs. To address this issue, we propose a modular-LASSO feature selection (MLFS) framework that can explicitly model the modularity information to identify discriminative and interpretable features from FBNs for automated AD/MCI classification. Specifically, the proposed MLFS method first searches the modular structure of FBNs through a signed spectral clustering algorithm, and then selects discriminative features via a modularity-induced group LASSO method, followed by a support vector machine (SVM) for classification. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method, extensive experiments are performed on 563 resting-state functional MRI scans from the public ADNI database to identify subjects with AD/MCI from normal controls and predict the future progress of MCI subjects. Experimental results demonstrate that our method is superior to previous methods in both tasks of AD/MCI identification and MCI conversion prediction, and also helps discover discriminative brain regions and functional connectivities associated with AD.
Gender Differences in Fear and Risk Perception During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has led many people to suffer from emotional distress. Previous studies suggest that women process and express affective experiences, such as fear, with a greater intensity compared to men. We administered an online survey to a sample of participants in the United States that measures fear of COVID-19, perceptions about health and financial risks, and preventative measures taken. Despite the empirical fact that men are more likely to experience adverse health consequences from COVID-19, women report greater fear and more negative expectations about health-related consequences of COVID-19 than men. However, women are more optimistic than men regarding the financial consequences of the pandemic. Women also report more negative emotional experiences generally during the pandemic, particularly in situations where other people or the government take actions that make matters worse. Though women report taking more preventative measures than men in response to the pandemic, gender differences in behavior are reduced after controlling for fear. These results shed light on how differences in emotional experiences of the pandemic may inform policy interventions.
Pyrotinib Plus Vinorelbine Versus Lapatinib Plus Capecitabine in Patients With Previously Treated HER2-Positive Metastatic Breast Cancer: A Multicenter, Retrospective Study

Background Pyrotinib is a newly-developed irreversible pan-ErbB (erythroblastic leukemia viral oncogene homolog) receptor oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) with promising efficacy in the human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) positive breast cancer. The phase III PHOEBE study proved that pyrotinib plus capecitabine exceeded lapatinib plus capecitabine (LX) in PFS (p < 0.001). Oral vinorelbine is commonly used in combination with anti-HER2 treatment. However, no evidence was reported in terms of the real-world pattern, safety, and efficacy of pyrotinib plus vinorelbine (NP) compared with LX. Methods Medical records were retrospectively evaluated for all HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients who experienced progression on prior trastuzumab-containing regimens (advanced setting) and taxane (any setting) and received NP or LX therapy from 2015 to 2021 in five institutions. Results A total of 224 patients were enrolled and evaluated, of which 132 (58.9%) patients received LX and 92 (41.1%) patients received NP. The median progression-free survival (mPFS) of NP group was significantly longer than that in LX group (8.3 vs 5.0 months, HR = 0.47 95% CI 0.34–0.65, p < 0.001). The advantage of NP over LX was seen both in patients with trastuzumab resistance (p < 0.001) and refractoriness (p = 0.004). The NP group had more diarrhea cases (23.9%) compared to the LX group (8.3%). Discontinuation rates in the two groups were similar. Conclusions This trial revealed the clinical practice of NP and LX treatment among HER2+ MBC patients pretreated with trastuzumab in China. More patients received LX than NP in real-world while the efficacy of NP exceeded LX in terms of PFS regardless of resistant status of trastuzumab. Although the NP group had more diarrhea cases, toxicities in both groups were acceptable.
Neural Efficiency in Athletes: A Systematic Review

According to the neural efficiency hypothesis (NEH), professionals have more effective cortical functions in cognitive tasks. This study is focusing on providing a systematic review of sport-related NEH studies with functional neuroimaging or brain stimulation while performing a sport-specific task, with the aim to answer the question: How does long-term specialized training change an athlete's brain and improve efficiency? A total of 28 studies (N = 829, Experimental Group n = 430) from 2001 to 2020 (Median = 2014, SD = 5.43) were analyzed and results were organized into four different sections: expert-novice samples, perceptual-cognitive tasks and neuroimaging technologies, efficiency paradox, and the cluster analysis. Researchers examined a wide range of sport-specific videos and multiple object tracking (MOT) specific to 18 different sports and utilized blood oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and electroencephalogram (EEG). Expert-novice comparisons were often adopted into investigations about the variations in general about optimal-controlled performance, neurophysiology, and behavioral brain research. Experts tended to perform at faster speeds, more accurate motor behavior, and with greater efficiency than novices. Experts report lower activity levels in the sensory and motor cortex with less energy expenditure, experts will possibly be more productive. These findings generally supported the NEH across the studies reviewed. However, an efficiency paradox and proficient brain functioning were revealed as the complementary hypothesis of the NEH. The discussion concentrates on strengths and key limitations. The conclusion highlights additional concerns and recommendations for prospective researchers aiming to investigate a broader range of populations and sports.
Quantitative Soundscape Analysis to Understand Multidimensional Features

A methodology for the analysis of soundscapes was developed in an attempt to facilitate efficient and accurate soundscape comparisons across time and space. The methodology consists of a collection of traditional soundscape metrics, statistical measures, and acoustic indices that were selected to quantify several salient properties of marine soundscapes: amplitude, impulsiveness, periodicity, and uniformity. The metrics were calculated over approximately 30 h of semi-continuous passive acoustic data gathered in seven unique acoustic environments. The resultant metric values were compared to a priori descriptions and cross-examined statistically to determine which combination most effectively captured the characteristics of the representative soundscapes. The best measures of amplitude, impulsiveness, periodicity, and uniformity were determined to be SPLrms and SPLpk for amplitude, kurtosis for impulsiveness, an autocorrelation based metric for periodicity, and the Dissimilarity index for uniformity. The metrics were combined to form the proposed “Soundscape Code,” which allows for rapid multidimensional and direct comparisons of salient soundscape properties across time and space. This initial characterization will aid in directing further analyses and guiding subsequent assessments to understand soundscape dynamics.
African Swine Fever in the Russian Far East (2019–2020): Spatio-Temporal Analysis and Implications for Wild Ungulates

African swine fever (ASF) is an emerging viral contagious disease affecting domestic pigs (DP) and wild boar (WB). ASF causes significant economic damage to the pig industry worldwide due to nearly 100% mortality and the absence of medical treatments. Since 2019, an intensive spread of ASF has been observed in the Russian Far East region. This spread raises concerns for epidemiologists and ecologists given the potential threat to the WB population, which is an essential member of the region's wild ungulates and provides a notable share of food resources for predatory species. This study aims to determine the genotype of ASF virus circulating in the region, reveal the spatio-temporal patterns of the ASF outbreaks' emergence, and assess the potential reduction of the regional fauna because of expected depopulation of WB. The first historical case of ASF in the study region was caused by an African swine fever virus (ASFV) isolated from DPs and belonging to Genotype 2, CVR1; IGR-2 (TRS +). Sequencing results showed no significant differences among ASFV strains currently circulating in the Russian Federation, Europe, and China. The spatiotemporal analysis with the space-time permutations model demonstrated the presence of six statistically significant clusters of ASF outbreaks with three clusters in DPs and one cluster in WBs. DP outbreaks prevail in the north-west regions of the study area, while northern regions demonstrate a mixture of DP and WB outbreaks. Colocation analysis did not reveal a statistically significant pattern of grouping of one category of outbreaks around the others. The possible damage to the region's fauna was assessed by modeling the total body mass of wild ungulates before and after the wild boars' depopulation, considering a threshold density of WB population of 0.025 head/km2, according to the currently in force National Plan on the ASF Eradication in Russia. The results suggest the total mass of ungulates of the entire study region will likely decrease by 8.4% (95% CI: 4.1–13.0%), while it may decrease by 33.6% (19.3–46.1%) in the Primorsky Krai, thereby posing an undeniable threat to the predatory species of the region.
Effects of Combined Endurance and Resistance Training in Women With Multiple Sclerosis: A Randomized Controlled Study

Purpose: To test the hypothesis that combined resistance and endurance training would improve muscle strength, fatigue, depression, and quality of life in persons with MS. Methods: Twenty-seven women with MS were randomly assigned to either control (CON, n = 13) or the experimental (EXP, n = 14) group. The participants in the EXP group trained twice a week for 12 weeks, followed by 12 weeks of detraining. Both CON and EXP groups were tested before and after 12 weeks of the intervention period, as well as 12 weeks after training cessation (follow-up), where measures of muscle strength, fatigue, depression, and quality of life were evaluated. Results: There were significant changes in maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC), 1RM leg extension, and 1RM chest press following the intervention period in the EXP group (P < 0.05), but not in the CON group (P > 0.05). These changes persisted after 12 weeks of detraining. Similar findings were found for fatigue, depression, and physical and mental composites of quality of life. Conclusion: These results suggest that combined exercise training, at a minimum, prevents the disease-related deterioration of muscular performance and quality of life and well-being in persons with MS.
Disrupted Topological Organization of Functional Networks in Asymptomatic Carotid Plaque Without Significant Carotid Stenosis: A Resting-State fMRI Study

Purpose: Previous studies have found that there are significant changes in functional network properties for patients with moderate to severe carotid artery stenosis. Our study aimed to explore the topology properties of brain functional network in asymptomatic patients with carotid plaque without significant stenosis. Methods: A total of 61 asymptomatic patients with carotid plaque (mean age 61.79 ± 7.35 years) and 25 healthy control subjects (HC; 58.12 ± 6.79 years) were recruited. General data collection, carotid ultrasound examination and resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging were performed on all subjects. Graph-theory was applied to examine the differences in the brain functional network topological properties between two groups. Results: In the plaque group, Eloc(P = 0.03), γ (P = 0.01), and σ (P = 0.01) were significantly higher than in the HC group. The degree centrality of left middle frontal gyrus and the nodal efficiency of left middle frontal gyrus and right inferior parietal angular gyrus were significantly higher in the plaque group than in HC. The degree centrality and betweenness centrality of right middle temporal gyrus, as well as the nodal efficiency of right middle temporal gyrus, were significantly lower in the plaque group than in HC. Conclusions: The brain functional networks of patients with carotid plaques differ from those of healthy controls. Asymptomatic patients with carotid plaques exhibit increased local and global connectivity, which may reflect subtle reorganizations in response to early brain damage.
Parsing the Neural Mechanisms of Short-Term and Long-Term Associations in the Flanker Tasks: An ERP Analysis

The neural mechanisms of cognitive conflicts within various flanker tasks are still unclear, which may be mixed with different effects of short-term associations and long-term associations. We applied a perceptual (color) flanker task and a symbolic (arrow) flanker task to 25 healthy young adults, while the event-related potentials (ERP) and behavioral performance were recorded. The former contains stimulus-stimulus conflict (SSC) of short-term memory (STM) associations, and the latter contains stimulus-response conflict (SRC) of long-term memory (LTM) associations. Both flanker tasks included congruent and incongruent conditions. The reaction time demonstrated the stimulus-response conflict effect in the arrow flanker task without the stimulus-stimulus conflict effect in the color flanker task. The ERP results showed SSC enhanced the frontocentral N2b without behavioral effects. SRC increased the frontocentral P2 but decreased the centroparietal P3b with prolonged reaction time. In the comparison between both tasks, the color flanker task elicited both the centroparietal N2b/N300 and the frontocentral N400, and the arrow flanker task increased the occipital N1. Our findings provide new evidence that different neural mechanisms underlie conflict effects based on different types of memory associations.
Theoretical study on the topotactic transformation and memory effect of M (II) M (III)-layered double hydroxides

Abstract The topotactic transformation mechanism and memory effect of NiAl- and MgFe- layered double hydroxides (LDHs) are investigated by density functional theory (DFT)-based molecular simulation under their two key thermal decomposition temperatures (365, 800 °C for NiAl-LDHs, and 380, 800 °C for MgFe-LDHs). The results show that at the first temperature, the interlayer carbonate in both LDHs decompose to CO2 and H2O via a monodentate intermediate. During the dehydroxylation of the layers, for both LDHs the metal cations maintain their original distribution within the LDH (0 0 1) facet, while migrating substantially along the c-axis direction, and the layered structure of MgFe-LDHs is destroyed earlier than those of NiAl-LDH. Meanwhile, MgFe-LDHs can keep the memory effect longer than NiAl-LDHs, and the memory effect will disappear when the four-coordinated metal cations increased. At 800 °C, the layered structure of NiAl-LDHs is slightly destroyed, while a complete collapse of layered structure occurs in MgFe-LDHs. These results agree well with the experimental findings. This work will be helpful for the design and preparation of nanocatalysts derived from LDHs precursors.
An SDR-Based Experimental Study of Reliable and Low-Latency Ethernet-Based Fronthaul with MAC-PHY Split

Cloud-Radio Access Network (RAN) is one of the architectural solutions for those mobile networks that aim to provide an infrastructure that satisfies the communication needs of a wide range of services and deployments. In Cloud-RAN, functions can be flexibly split between central and distributed units, which enables the use of different types of transport network. Ethernet-based fronthaul can be an attractive solution for Cloud-RAN. On the one hand, the deployment of Ethernet-based fronthaul enables Cloud-RAN to provide more diverse, flexible and cost-efficient solutions. On the other hand, Ethernet-based fronthaul requires packetized communication, which imposes challenges to delivering stringent latency requirements between RAN functionalities. In this paper, we set up a hardware experiment based on Cloud-RAN with a low layer split, particularly between medium access control and the physical layer. The aim is to demonstrate how multi-path and channel coding over the fronthaul can improve fronthaul reliability while ensuring that: (i) latency results meet the standard requirements; and (ii) the overall system operates properly. Our results show that the proposed solution can improve fronthaul reliability while latency remains below a strict latency bound required by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project for this functional split.
Isolation and Identification of High-Yield Ethyl Acetate-Producing Yeast from Gujinggong Daqu and Its Fermentation Characteristics

ABSTRACT Ethyl acetate is used to judge the style and quality of baijiu. Therefore, it is of significance to improve and strengthen the stability of baijiu quality by improving and controlling the levels of ethyl acetate. The aroma-producing yeasts are the main strains that produce ethyl acetate and have been used to better effect in baijiu production. In this article, a high-yield ethyl acetate-producing yeast strain named Y3604 was isolated from Gujinggong Daqu by screening and ethyl acetate analysis. According to the morphological properties, physiological and biochemical characteristics, and 26S rDNA sequence analysis, strain Y3604 was identified as Wickerhamomyces anomalus. The optimum fermentation conditions of Y3604 for producing ethyl acetate were obtained by single-factor experiments. When W. anomalus Y3604 was inoculated into sorghum hydrolysate medium (SHM) with the addition of 4% anhydrous ethanol and 0.1% acetic acid, fermented at 25°C with a shaking speed of 210 rpm for 96 h, and a 8°Brix medium, the total ethyl acetate production was 16.92 g/L. This strain has the potential to increase the content of ethyl acetate in baijiu production and enhance the aroma characteristics of baijiu. Thus, it has potential application value in improving the quality of baijiu.
Forecasting Operation Metrics for Virtualized Network Functions

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is the key technology that allows modern network operators to provide flexible and efficient services, by leveraging on general-purpose private cloud infrastructures. In this work, we investigate the performance of a number of metric forecasting techniques based on machine learning and artificial intelligence, and provide insights on how they can support the decisions of NFV operation teams. Our analysis focuses on both infrastructure-level and service-level metrics. The former can be fetched directly from the monitoring system of an NFV infrastructure, whereas the latter are typically provided by the monitoring components of the individual virtualized network functions. Our selected forecasting techniques are experimentally evaluated using real-life data, exported from a production environment deployed within some Vodafone NFV data centers. The results show what the compared techniques can achieve in terms of the forecasting accuracy and computational cost required to train them on production data.
An Improved Faster R-CNN for Pulmonary Embolism Detection From CTPA Images

Computer-aided detection of pulmonary embolism is an important technology method for diagnosing pulmonary embolism, which can help doctors diagnose quickly and save a lot of manpower. However, due to the small area of pulmonary embolism in the Computed Tomography Pulmonary Angiography (CTPA) slice images, some previous methods for detecting pulmonary embolism have a high number of false detection and missed detection. This study proposes a detection method of pulmonary embolism based on the improved faster region-based convolutional neural network (Faster R-CNN) named More Accurate Faster R-CNN (MA Faster R-CNN). A new feature fusion network named Multi-scale Fusion Feature Pyramid Network (MF-FPN) is proposed by extending and adding two bottom-up paths on the Feature Pyramid Network (FPN). It enhances the feature extraction capability of the entire network by transmitting low-level accurate location information, and makes up for the original information lost after multiple down-sampling, strengthens the use of detailed information, which is more helpful to the detection of small object. In the prediction module, the residual block is added before the fully-connected layer to deepen the network and enhance the classification accuracy, named residual prediction module (RPM). Compared with the original Faster R-CNN, the proposed MA Faster R-CNN which combines MF-FPN and RPM has a higher detection precision and solves the problems of false detection and missed detection of pulmonary embolism effectively. The average precision (AP) reached 85.88% on the CTPA pulmonary embolism dataset used in this article.
Effects of Forest Clearance and Cultivation on Bulk Density Variations and Relationships with Texture and Organic Matter in Tephra Soils of Mount Kupe (Cameroon)

ABSTRACT Tephra soils around mount Kupe harbor forests which have in the past 30 to 40 years been subject to degradation giving way to continuous cultivation which have the tendency to reduce the yield potentials of the soils. This study was conducted to evaluate the state of degradation following the long periods of cultivation to assist put in place more sustainable management practices. Soil samples from six profiles developed from pyroclastic materials (tephra) of Quaternary age, three from cultivated farms and three from adjacent virgin forests were studied to establish the relationships that exist between bulk density (BD) and organic carbon (OC) content and between BD and particle size. Variations of BD and OC within profiles are erratic. Soil texture is dominated by sand (64.8–81.9%), followed by clay (11.6–32.2%) and then silt (0.8–11.9%). The relationships between BD, OC, and texture indicated that BD correlates negatively with clay (r = −0.68, p < 0.01) and OC (r = −0.15, p < 0.01) contents but inversely with sand (r = 0.43, p < 0.05) and silt (r = 0.33, p < 0.05) contents. Relationships between these properties were better observed in virgin forests than in cultivated farmlands indicating that virgin forest systems are more stable (equilibrium is maintained since they do not incur anthropic perturbations). The high and significantly similar OM contents in both systems indicate that farming practices in the study area are sustainable and need to be maintained since they conserve OM. Results of this study will contribute to management of similar soils in tropical environments.