Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Language Disorder in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and Corticobasal Syndrome: Neural Correlates and Detection by the MLSE Screening Tool

Background: Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal syndrome (CBS) affect speech and language as well as motor functions. Clinical and neuropathological data indicate a close relationship between these two disorders and the non-fluent variant of primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA). We use the recently developed Mini Linguistic State Examination tool (MLSE) to study speech and language disorders in patients with PSP, CBS, and nfvPPA, in combination with structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Methods: Fifty-one patients (PSP N = 13, CBS N = 19, nfvPPA N = 19) and 30 age-matched controls completed the MLSE, the short form of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE), and the Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination III. Thirty-eight patients and all controls underwent structural MRI at 3 Tesla, with T1 and T2-weighted images processed by surface-based and subcortical segmentation within FreeSurfer 6.0. 0 to extract cortical thickness and subcortical volumes. Morphometric differences were compared between groups and correlated with the severity of speech and language impairment. Results: CBS and PSP patients showed impaired MLSE performance, compared to controls, with a similar language profile to nfvPPA, albeit less severe. All patient groups showed reduced cortical thickness in bilateral frontal regions and striatal volume. PSP and nfvPPA patients also showed reduced superior temporal cortical thickness, with additional thalamic and amygdalo-hippocampal volume reductions in nfvPPA. Multivariate analysis of brain-wide cortical thickness and subcortical volumes with MLSE domain scores revealed associations between performance on multiple speech and language domains with atrophy of left-lateralised fronto-temporal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, putamen, and caudate. Conclusions: The effect of PSP and CBS on speech and language overlaps with nfvPPA. These three disorders cause a common anatomical pattern of atrophy in the left frontotemporal language network and striatum. The MLSE is a short clinical screening tool that can identify the language disorder of PSP and CBS, facilitating clinical management and patient access to future clinical trials.
Impact of social support, loneliness & social isolation on sustained physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 lockdown introduced substantial barriers to physical activity, providing a unique natural experiment to understand the social factors associated with sustained physical activity. Longitudinal data from the COVID-19 Social Study was used to identify a sample of participants who maintained their physical activity despite lockdown. 16% were consistently active while 44% were completely inactive. After adjustment for multiple confounders high social support was associated with a 39% (95% CI, 12-74%) increased odds of sustaining physical activity. Association between physical activity and loneliness and social isolation were not found. This study supports previous research showing the importance of social support for the long-term maintenance of physical activity behaviour but shows that such effects extend to contexts of social restrictions.
Extraction of nucleic acids from bacterial spores using bead‐based mechanical lysis on a plastic chip

This paper describes an experimentally simple and efficient way of integrating bead‐based mechanical cell lysis on a plastic chip. The chip is fabricated from machined slides of poly(methylmethacrylate) and accommodates a metal disk along with solid microbeads in a designated lysis chamber. Magnetic actuation of the metal disk induces collisions and frictional forces within the lysis matrix causing cell disruption. The efficiency of nucleic acid extraction was investigated using spores of Bacillus atrophaeus subsp. globigii and the amount of genomic DNA in the lysates has been quantified by real‐time PCR. Compared to a standardized DNA extraction method based on BD GeneOhm™ Lysis Kit, the yield was dependent on the composition of the lysis matrix, including size and relative amount of microbeads, along with instrumental parameters, such as duration and frequency of agitation. The interplay of these parameters should allow for optimizing lysis protocols to faithfully disrupt any particular type of cell without affecting the genetic material to be extracted.
Effect of Eight-Week Online Cognitive Training in Parkinson's Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Cognitive training (CT) has been proposed as a non-pharmacological treatment option for the frequent cognitive impairments occurring in Parkinson's disease (PD). Objective: Assess the efficacy of CT on cognitive function in PD. Methods: In this double-blind, randomized controlled trial we enrolled 140 PD patients with significant subjective cognitive complaints. In eight weeks, participants underwent 24 sessions of computerized multi-domain CT or an active control condition for 45 minutes each (n=70 vs. n=70). The primary outcome was the accuracy on a computerized Tower of London task; secondary outcomes included effects on other neuropsychological outcomes and subjective cognitive complaints. Outcomes were assessed before and after training and at six-months follow-up, and were analyzed with multivariate mixed-model analyses. Results: The intention-to-treat population consisted of 136 participants. Multivariate mixed-model analyses showed no group difference on the Tower of London accuracy corrected for baseline performance: B: -0.06, 95% CI: -0.27 to 0.15, p=0.562. Participants in the CT group were on average 0.30 SD (i.e., 1.5 seconds) faster on the Tower of London, difficulty load 4 (secondary outcome): 95% CI: -0.55 to -0.06, p=0.015. CT had similar positive effects on other processing speed-related executive function tasks, although these did not reach statistical significance. At follow-up, no group differences were present. Conclusions: The results show tentative but consistent positive effects of CT on processing speed during executive functioning. Future studies should investigate booster sessions to increase durability, optimize training duration, and study different sub-groups of PD patients along the continuum of cognitive decline towards PD dementia.
Demystifying data and AI for manufacturing: case studies from a major computer maker

In this article, we discuss the backgrounds and technical details about several smart manufacturing projects in a tier-one electronics manufacturing facility. We devise a process to manage logistic forecast and inventory preparation for electronic parts using historical data and a recurrent neural network to achieve significant improvement over current methods. We present a system for automatically qualifying laptop software for mass production through computer vision and automation technology. The result is a reliable system that can save hundreds of man-years in the qualification process. Finally, we create a deep learning-based algorithm for visual inspection of product appearances, which requires significantly less defect training data compared to traditional approaches. For production needs, we design an automatic optical inspection machine suitable for our algorithm and process. We also discuss the issues for data collection and enabling smart manufacturing projects in a factory setting, where the projects operate on a delicate balance between process innovations and cost-saving measures.
Evaluation of the Baermann–Wetzel method for detecting lungworm larvae in wild ruminants from faecal samples

Abstract Lungworms can exert a negative impact on wild ruminant fitness; for this reason, the diagnosis of the associated diseases is an important prevention measure. The Baerman–Wetzel technique is the most usual method for the diagnosis of bronchopulmonary nematodes and is based on the active migration and movement of their first-stage larvae. Pulmonary tissue samples are frequently used for the post-mortem diagnosis of these parasites, but this kind of sample is not always available and easy to obtain. Faecal samples represent a more accessible choice for parasite monitoring. This work aimed to evaluate the agreement between the results obtained by the Baermann–Wetzel technique when samples of lung parenchyma or faeces from wild ruminants are used. A good level of agreement as well as a similar sensitivity between the two types of sample were observed, validating the use of faecal samples as a less invasive and cost-effective alternative for the monitoring of lungworm in wild ruminant populations.
Mental disorder in pregnancy and the early postpartum

Perinatal mental illness is common, affecting up to 20% of women, but remains under‐recognised and under‐diagnosed. It may have adverse effects on pregnancy and neonatal outcomes, and mental disorder remains one of the leading causes of maternal death in the UK. Women with mental ill health face difficult decisions in balancing risks and benefits of treatment. Stigma related to mental disorder may lead to non‐engagement with maternity care. Some disorders bring specific challenges for anaesthetists working in maternity settings and it is vital that anaesthetists have knowledge of these disorders so they may offer care which is sensitive and appropriate.
COLUMN TRACER STUDIES IN SURFACE AND SUBSURFACE HORIZONS OF TWO TYPIC ARGIUDOLLS

Soil properties that vary in space and/or time within a soil profile introduce heterogeneity to solute transport. The objectives of this work were to (i) study transport of bromide through the horizons of two soils under no-tillage but differing in soil structure and organic carbon content, and (ii) determine the nature of the process by fitting breakthrough curves (BTC) with a convection-dispersion model assuming equilibrium (CDEeq) and nonequilibrium (CDEneq). Three sets of undisturbed soil cores were collected from the A, B, and C horizons of two soils and used to independently measure BTC of bromide, water retention (Tempe cells and pressure extractors), and saturated hydraulic conductivity (constant head). Data were fitted with the deterministic models CDEeq and CDEneq as implemented in CXTFIT version 2.1 and used to estimate pore water velocity (v) and hydrodynamic dispersion (D). The shape of BTC of horizons A and B exhibited tailing, asymmetry, and early appearance of the tracer, but there was no statistical difference between the goodness-of-fit of the CDEeq and CDEneq models. Values of v, D, and dispersivity (&lgr;), indicated that flow in the A and B horizons were dominated by convection and dispersion, whereas the prevalent transport mechanism in C horizons was convection. Values of &lgr; were significantly correlated (r = 0.83; P < 0.05) to clay content mainly because of the correlation between clay and the dispersion coefficients D estimated with either model. Transport properties of soil horizons should be considered when modeling nonreactive solute transport for assessing risks of groundwater contamination.
Generation of Nanoparticles with a Nebulizer-Cyclone System

A cyclone was used to modify the droplet output with a three-jet Collison nebulizer. The cyclone-nebulizer system was tested by producing ammonium fluorescein particles from a liquid suspension. The particle size distribution produced with the cyclone was smaller and narrower than that produced without the cyclone. Thus, the cyclone effectively removed the large droplets produced by the nebulizer. The nebulizer-cyclone system reduced the GSD of the output aerosol from 1.7 to 1.4. At the input pressures greater than 138 kPa, the concentration of 10–60 nm particles was greater with the cyclone than without the cyclone. These results are consistent with the shattering of large droplets within the cyclone and re-entrainment of these small secondary droplets. Optimization of the system using cyclone modeling to enhance the sharpness of cut, operational improvements, and decreased venting could maximize the output of tailored distributions of nanoparticles for various applications.
Enhanced recovery pathways and patient‐reported outcome measures in gynaecological oncology

Comprehensive peri‐operative care for women with gynaecological malignancy is essential to ensure optimal clinical outcomes and maximise patient experience through the continuum of care. Implementation of peri‐operative enhanced recovery pathways in gynaecological oncology have been repeatedly shown to improve postoperative recovery, decrease complications and reduce healthcare costs. With increasing emphasis being placed on patient‐centred care in the current healthcare environment, incorporation of patient‐reported outcome data collection and analysis within the enhanced recovery pathway as part of quality measurement is not only useful, but necessary. Inclusion of patient‐reported outcome enhanced recovery pathway evaluation enables clinicians to capture authentic patient‐reported parameters such as subtle symptoms, changes in function and multiple dimensions of well‐being, directly from the source. These data guide the treatment course by encouraging shared decision‐making between the patient and clinicians and provide the necessary foundation for ongoing peri‐operative quality improvement efforts. Elements of the gynaecological oncology enhanced recovery pathway are divided into five phases of care: pre‐admission; pre‐operative; intra‐operative; postoperative; and post‐discharge. The development process starts with detailing each step of the patient's journey in all five phases, then identifying stakeholder groups responsible for care at each of these phases and assembling a multidisciplinary team including: gynaecologists; anaesthetists; nurses; nutritionists; physical therapists; and others, to provide input into the institutional pathway. To practically integrate patient‐reported outcomes into an enhanced recovery pathway, a validated measurement tool should be incorporated into the peri‐operative workflow. The ideal tool should be concise to facilitate longitudinal assessments by the clinical staff.
Behavioral Design of Guiding Agents to Encourage their Use by Visitors in Public Spaces

To encourage visitors to use guiding agents in public spaces, this study adopted a design approach and focused on identifying behavioral factors that would encourage interaction. Six factors of agent behavior were hypothesized, and an experiment was performed in a public space with real people. One or two communication robots were installed near the entrance of a university library. The reactions of library users passing by the robot were observed and recorded under different robot behavior conditions. The results showed that the robots were able to attract attention by uttering guidance information and looking in various directions while waiting for people. When the robots spoke directly to nearby people, the people tended to interact with them. The results of a questionnaire survey suggested that the voice, speech content, and appearance of the robots are also important factors.
Communicative Function of Eye Blinks of Virtual Avatars May Not Translate onto Physical Platforms

Eye behaviour is one of the main modalities used to regulate face-to-face conversation. Gaze aversion and mutual gaze, for example, serve to signal cognitive load, interest or turns during a conversation. While eye blinking is mainly thought to have a physiological function, the rate of blinking is known to increase during conversation suggesting a communicative function for the eye. Recently, it has been shown that a virtual avatar, acting as the receiver in a conversation, could use blinking as a kind of conversational marker influencing the speaker's communicative behaviour. In particular, it has been demonstrated that long eye blinks resulted in shorter answers by the speaker compared with short ones. Here, we set out to investigate this effect when using a humanoid robot as interaction partner, given that robots have both a physical and social presence. Interestingly, however, we could not replicate the result: short or long blinks did not modulate the length of the responses by the human interactant.
Fake It to Make It: Exploratory Prototyping in HRI

Exploratory prototyping techniques are critical to devising new robot forms, actions, and behaviors, and to eliciting human responses to designed interactive features, early in the design process. In this opinion piece, we establish the contribution of exploratory prototyping to the field of human-robot interaction, arguing research engaged in design exploration-rather than controlled experimentation-should be focused on flexibility rather than specificity, possibility rather than replicability, and design insights as incubated subjectively through the designer rather than dispassionately proven by statistical analysis. We draw on literature in HCI for examples of published design explorations in academic venues, and to suggest how analogous contributions can be valued and evaluated by the HRI community. Lastly, we present and examine case studies of three design methods we have used in our own design work: physical prototyping with human-in-the-loop control, video prototyping, and virtual simulations.
Exoskeletons in the Supermarket: Influences of Comfort, Strain Relief and Task-Technology Fit on Retail Workers' Post-Trial Intention to Use

Many supermarket employees, such as shelf and warehouse workers, suffer from musculoskeletal disorders. Exoskeletons, that is, physical assistance systems that are worn on the body, could help. The conditions under which workers would be willing to use this new wearable technology, however, remain largely unclear. In this exploratory field study, 58 supermarket employees tested one or more out of five passive exoskeletons during their regular work. Perceived wearing comfort, extent of strain relief, and task-technology fit (i.e., how well the exoskeleton fit their current task requirements) were found to correlate significantly with post-trial intention to use. Soft exoskeletons were rated as preferable to rigid ones. Trying one of the latter also resulted in lower intention to use, which was revealed to be fully mediated by a better task-technology fit being ascribed to soft exoskeletons. Practical relevance of the results, study limitations and future research directions are discussed.
Fate of Glyphosate in a Canadian Forest Watershed. 2. Persistence in Foliage and Soils

Residues of glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine] and the metabolite (aminomethyl)phosphonic acid (AMPA) were monitored in foliage, leaf litter, and soils following aerial application of ROUNDUP herbicide (nominal rate 2.0 kg/ha AI) to the Carnation Creek watershed of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Glyphosate deposit was variable, ranging from 1.85 to 2.52 kg/ha AI, depending upon location within the watershed. (.)
Performance improvement in bucky gel actuators by chemical modifications of carbon nanotubes

Single walled carbon nanotubes functionalized with an aromatic diamine have been successfully used to prepare bucky gel layers by mixing with an imidazolium based ionic liquid, allowing to build bimorph actuators that significantly outperform those prepared by using the pristine or oxidized carbon nanotubes. The carbon nanotube gravimetric specific capacitance doubles, the actuator maximum operating frequency becomes five times higher and for same injected charge the strain reaches a fourfold increase. The origin of such dramatic effects is most probably due to an enhanced binding between the carbon nanotubes induced by their chemical modification. (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Genetic Identification of Edible Bird’s Nest in Thailand Based on ARMS-PCR

Edible bird’s nest (EBN) is a popular delicacy in the Asian Pacific region originating from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, which consist of various potential medicine value in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Thailand is one of the main exporters of EBN. However, the genetic information of EBN, a key part of molecular biology, has yet to be reported in Thailand. It is necessary to explore the genetic information of EBN in Thailand based on a quick and simple method to help protect the rights and interests of consumers. This research aimed to systematically evaluate different methods of extracting EBN DNA to improve the efficiency of the analysis of cytochrome b (Cytb) and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 (ND2) gene sequences, the establishment of phylogenetic trees, and the genetic information of EBN in Thailand. Additionally, we aimed to develop a quick and simple method for identifying EBN from different species based on the genetic information and amplification-refractory mutation system PCR (ARMS-PCR). By comparing the four methods [cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), kit and guanidinium isothiocyanate methods] for EBN extraction, we found that the guanidinium isothiocyanate method was the optimal extraction method. Phylogenetic trees generated on the basis of Cytb and ND2 gene analyses showed that 26 samples of house EBN and 4 samples of cave EBN came from Aerodramus fuciphagus and Aerodramus maximus, respectively. In addition, to distinguish different samples from different species of Apodiformes, we designed 4 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification primers based on the ND2 gene sequences of A. fuciphagus and A. maximus. The ARMS-PCR results showed band lengths for A. fuciphagus EBN of 533, 402, and 201 bp, while those for A. maximus EBN were 463, 317, and 201 bp. Collectively, the results showed that ARMS-PCR is a fast and simple method for the genetic identification of EBN based on designing specific original identification primers.
Cross Kingdom Immunity: The Role of Immune Receptors and Downstream Signaling in Animal and Plant Cell Death

Both plants and animals are endowed with sophisticated innate immune systems to combat microbial attack. In these multicellular eukaryotes, innate immunity implies the presence of cell surface receptors and intracellular receptors able to detect danger signal referred as damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) and pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). Membrane-associated pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), such as Toll-like receptors (TLRs), C-type lectin receptors (CLRs), receptor-like kinases (RLKs), and receptor-like proteins (RLPs) are employed by these organisms for sensing different invasion patterns before triggering antimicrobial defenses that can be associated with a form of regulated cell death. Intracellularly, animals nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptors or plants nucleotide-binding domain (NBD)-containing leucine rich repeats (NLRs) immune receptors likely detect effectors injected into the host cell by the pathogen to hijack the immune signaling cascade. Interestingly, during the co-evolution between the hosts and their invaders, key cross-kingdom cell death-signaling macromolecular NLR-complexes have been selected, such as the inflammasome in mammals and the recently discovered resistosome in plants. In both cases, a regulated cell death located at the site of infection constitutes a very effective mean for blocking the pathogen spread and protecting the whole organism from invasion. This review aims to describe the immune mechanisms in animals and plants, mainly focusing on cell death signaling pathways, in order to highlight recent advances that could be used on one side or the other to identify the missing signaling elements between the perception of the invasion pattern by immune receptors, the induction of defenses or the transmission of danger signals to other cells. Although knowledge of plant immunity is less advanced, these organisms have certain advantages allowing easier identification of signaling events, regulators and executors of cell death, which could then be exploited directly for crop protection purposes or by analogy for medical research.