Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biomarker changes preceding symptom onset in genetic prion disease

Importance. Genetic prion disease is a universally fatal and rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disease for which genetically targeted therapies are currently under development. Preclinical proofs of concept indicate that treatment before symptoms will offer outsize benefit. Though early treatment paradigms will be informed by the longitudinal biomarker trajectory of mutation carriers, to date limited cases have been molecularly tracked from the presymptomatic phase through symptomatic onset. Objective. To longitudinally characterize disease-relevant cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma biomarkers in individuals at risk for genetic prion disease up to disease conversion, alongside non-converters and healthy controls. Design, setting, and participants. This single-center longitudinal cohort study has followed 41 PRNP mutation carriers and 21 controls for up to 6 years. Participants spanned a range of known pathogenic PRNP variants; all subjects were asymptomatic at first visit and returned roughly annually. Four at-risk individuals experienced prion disease onset during the study. Main outcomes and measures. RT-QuIC prion seeding activity, prion protein (PrP), neurofilament light chain (NfL) total tau (t-tau), and beta synuclein were measured in CSF. Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and NfL were measured in plasma. Results. We observed RT-QuIC seeding activity in the CSF of three E200K carriers prior to symptom onset and death, while the CSF of one P102L carrier remained RT-QuIC negative through symptom conversion. The prodromal window of RT-QuIC positivity was one year long in an E200K individual homozygous (V/V) at PRNP codon 129 and was longer than two years in two codon 129 heterozygotes (M/V). Other neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory markers gave less consistent signal prior to symptom onset, whether analyzed relative to age or individual baseline. CSF PrP was longitudinally stable (mean CV 10%) across all individuals over up to 6 years, including at RT-QuIC positive timepoints. Conclusion and relevance. In this study, we demonstrate that at least for the E200K mutation, CSF prion seeding activity may represent the earliest detectable prodromal sign, and that its prognostic value may be modified by codon 129 genotype. Neuronal damage and neuroinflammation markers show limited sensitivity in the prodromal phase. CSF PrP levels remain stable even in the presence of RT-QuIC seeding activity.
Efficient Notation Assembly in Optical Music Recognition

Optical Music Recognition (OMR) is the field of research that studies how to computationally read music notation from written documents. Thanks to recent advances in computer vision and deep learning, there are successful approaches that can locate the music-notation elements from a given music score image. Once detected, these elements must be related to each other to reconstruct the musical notation itself, in the so-called notation assembly stage. However, despite its relevance in the eventual success of the OMR, this stage has been barely addressed in the literature. This work presents a set of neural approaches to perform this assembly stage. Taking into account the number of possible syntactic relationships in a music score, we give special importance to the efficiency of the process in order to obtain useful models in practice. Our experiments, using the MUSCIMA++ handwritten sheet music dataset, show that the considered approaches are capable of outperforming the existing state of the art in terms of efficiency with limited (or no) performance degradation. We believe that the conclusions of this work provide novel insights into the notation assembly step, while indicating clues on how to approach the previous stages of the OMR and improve the overall performance.
Countering Cybersecurity Threats with AI

This paper discusses the role of artificial intelligence in cyber attacks. Because of all the specifics that AI technology brings with it, what is characteristic of it is its relationship with cyber risks. AI technology has a twofold effect on cyber security: it can threaten it, and it can also contribute to it. This paper discusses the role of artificial intelligence in cyber attacks. It also talks about machine learning and some of the methods, as well as deep learning methods. Here, various researches are analyzed and the best artificial intelligence methods are presented when it comes to cyber security.
Fusion Graph Convolutional Networks

Semi-supervised node classification in attributed graphs, i.e., graphs with node features, involves learning to classify unlabeled nodes given a partially labeled graph. Label predictions are made by jointly modeling the node and its' neighborhood features. State-of-the-art models for node classification on such attributed graphs use differentiable recursive functions that enable aggregation and filtering of neighborhood information from multiple hops. In this work, we analyze the representation capacity of these models to regulate information from multiple hops independently. From our analysis, we conclude that these models despite being powerful, have limited representation capacity to capture multi-hop neighborhood information effectively. Further, we also propose a mathematically motivated, yet simple extension to existing graph convolutional networks (GCNs) which has improved representation capacity. We extensively evaluate the proposed model, F-GCN on eight popular datasets from different domains. F-GCN outperforms the state-of-the-art models for semi-supervised learning on six datasets while being extremely competitive on the other two.
Style Transfer as Unsupervised Machine Translation

Language style transferring rephrases text with specific stylistic attributes while preserving the original attribute-independent content. One main challenge in learning a style transfer system is a lack of parallel data where the source sentence is in one style and the target sentence in another style. With this constraint, in this paper, we adapt unsupervised machine translation methods for the task of automatic style transfer. We first take advantage of style-preference information and word embedding similarity to produce pseudo-parallel data with a statistical machine translation (SMT) framework. Then the iterative back-translation approach is employed to jointly train two neural machine translation (NMT) based transfer systems. To control the noise generated during joint training, a style classifier is introduced to guarantee the accuracy of style transfer and penalize bad candidates in the generated pseudo data. Experiments on benchmark datasets show that our proposed method outperforms previous state-of-the-art models in terms of both accuracy of style transfer and quality of input-output correspondence.
Defining arcticity: phenomenological study on tourists' understanding of arctic

The aim of this study is to find out what kind of definitions do international tourists give to the term “arctic”, how they comprehend and describe it and what images does it bring to their minds. The research question in my study is: How is the term “arctic” colloquially defined by tourists and what types of meanings do they give to it? I will also examine how do these definitions differ from the definitions given to “arctic” in varying other fields of research, and how do the representations and marketing of the Arctic differ from people’s own perceptions and definitions. Data collected by interviewing tourists in Rovaniemi, Finnish Lapland, is examined in a theoretical framework of phenomenology and analyzed using the analytical method of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The study is considered to relate to psychology as individual understandings are the object of study. The theoretical discussions of meaning generation and sense of place are in this research considered to connect the theoretical side of this study to the empirical. In this study, the term arcticity is used as a descriptive word for something perceived to be “arctic”. The results of this study suggest that tourists understand the term “arctic” most commonly in relation to the elements of winter and cold weather, arctic animals and nature, and the geographical location of the Arctic region. People or other social elements are not clearly connected to the conception of “arctic”, and elements of summer were not connected to “arctic” at all. The tourist definitions of “arctic” maintain great similarities with the ways the Arctic region is defined in varying fields of science, as well as with the images and representations produced of “arctic” through marketing and media. The results of this study provide valuable information of the scarcely studied social ways of understanding and defining “arctic”, and the results of the study can be applied in further research of the topic, as well as in adjustments of tourism marketing applying the term.
Performance Capital: Retailing Myth, Identity, and the Practices of Governance

Abstract:Assuming responsibility and developing the tools needed for self- and political construction are hallmarks of the liberal imagination. A newly emerging subfield of performance studies—call it "performance capital studies"—teaches us what those tools are and how they may be put to use. "Performance" now comes to be seen as an exchange of cultural, legal, and identity capital retailing different forms of knowledge and power in the constitution and regulation of governance.
Fattening of Mangrove Crab (Scylla olivacea) By Silvofishery System with Different Feeding Frequency

Mangrove crab culture within mangrove areas may be simultaneously done with silvofishery system i.e. an integrated cultivation activity of multiple uses of mangrove without eliminating the natural function of the ecosystems. This study was aimed to determine the frequency of efficient and effective feeding in the fattening cultivation of mangrove crabs (Scylla olivacea) which maintained the pattern of silvofishery. The research was conducted in mangrove areas of Pangkep Regency, South Sulawesi. The tested animals used were male mangrove (S. olivacea) crabs measuring 200 ± 10 g weighing 10 imdividuals/cage. The container used was a cage made of bamboo that placed in the mangrove areas. The feed used was trash fish dose 10% from crab biomass. The study used a complete randomized design consisting of five treatments and three replicates. The data obtained were analyzed using the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and W-Tuckey's advanced test. The results of variance analysis showed that feeding frequency had a very significant effect (p <0.01) on the stability and growth of mangrove crab. Frequency of feeding twice a day and once dailyresulted in the same synthesis (p> 0.05) and significantly higher than other treatments (p <0.05), and the lowest at feeding frequency of once per four days.
Salvia verticillata Improved Cognitive Deficits in a Chronic Cerebral Hypoperfusion Rat Model

CCH, resulting from multiple cerebrovascular diseases, has been considered the primary cause of cognitive impairment in recent years. In this process, oxidative stress plays a critical role and damages hippocampal neurons. Research has shown that Salvia verticillata has a significant antioxidant and free radical-scavenging activity due to its polyphenolic compounds. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the effect of Salvia verticillata on a rat model of chronic cerebral hypoperfusion. A total of 24 rats were subjected to Salvia verticillata or vehicle orally from one week before 2VO surgery for 14 days. Cerebral hypoperfusion was induced by the bilateral occlusion of the common carotid arteries (2VO, n = 12 and sham, n = 12). The cognition of rats was evaluated 1 week after surgery in the MWM. In the MWM test, 2VO rats showed longer escape latency time and swimming distance and spent a shorter time in the target quadrant ( p < 0.05). Moreover, we observed that Salvia verticillata treatment significantly reduced escape latency time, shortened the swimming distance, and increased target quadrant time ( p > 0.05). Our results indicated that Salvia verticillata treatment significantly improved cognitive deficits in cerebral ischemic rats, probably by reducing oxidative stress damage.
Spatio-Temporal Patterning in Primary Motor Cortex at Movement Spatio-Temporal Patterning in Primary Motor Cortex at Movement Onset Onset

Voluntary movement initiation involves the engagement of large populations of motor cortical neurons around movement onset. Despite knowledge of the temporal dynamics that lead to movement, the spatial structure of these dynamics across the cortical surface remains unknown. In data from 4 rhesus macaques, we show that the timing of attenuation of beta frequency local field potential oscillations, a correlate of locally activated cortex, forms a spatial gradient across primary motor cortex (MI). We show that these spatio-temporal dynamics are recapitulated in the engagement order of ensembles of MI neurons. We demonstrate that these patterns are unique to movement onset and suggest that movement initiation requires a precise spatio-temporal sequential activation of neurons in MI.
and dysfunction of spinal cord injury by inactivating the MAPK pathway

Background: Since the abnormal expression of miR-125b in spinal cord injury (SCI) and the regulatory effect of miR-125b on the MAPK pathway have been expounded, we attempt to investigate whether miR-125b exerts a regulatory effect on SCI by modulating the MAPK pathway. Method: A SCI rat model was established. The rats were treated with miR-125b antagomir or agomir, and their motor function affected by miR-125b was further detected by Basso-Beattie-Bresnahan (BBB) scoring. The histopathological changes and neuronal loss in the spinal cord were evaluated using hematoxylin-eosin and Nissl staining. Microglia-conditioned medium (MCM) was prepared and further used to treat the astrocytes, the activation of which was evaluated via immunofluorescence staining. The expressions of miR-125b, inflammation-related factors (IL-6, IL-1 β , TNF-α , and IL-10), and MAPK pathway-related proteins (p38, ERK1/2, and JNK1/2 as well as their phosphorylated (p) forms) in the spinal cord, serum, and MCM-treated astrocytes of rats were determined by reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and Western blot. Result: MiR-125b was lowly expressed in SCI-modeled rats. MiR-125b inhibitor aggravated the impaired motor function, the disorder within the tissue, astrocyte activation, and neuron loss in the spinal cord tissues of SCI-modeled rats, while miR-125b mimic did oppositely. MiR-125b inhibitor enhanced the levels of IL-6, IL-1 β , TNF-α , p38, p-p38, p-ERK1/2, and p-JNK1/2, whilst reducing that of IL-10. Contrarily, miR-125b mimic exerted the opposite effects in SCI-modeled rats and MCM-treated astrocytes. Conclusion: Up-regulation of miR-125b mitigates inflammation, astrocyte activation, and dysfunction in SCI by inactivating the MAPK pathway.
Assessing Plastic Waste Green Economy Management via Integrated Life Cycle Environmental and Costing Framework

Plastic waste (PW) mishandling is an ever-growing global conundrum that can negatively impact the environment and human health. A circular plastic economy is introduced for a sustainable systemic transition in the PW value chain. Nevertheless, life-cycle circularity in PW management remains flawed in various countries, especially when issues such as economic loopholes, externality cost negligence, and free-ridership exist in the PW value chain. To date, research conducted on scientific and standardized methodologies for circular PW management is rare. In this study, an integrated life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) methodology with two novel performance indicators: PW footprint and life cycle benefit-cost ratio (BCR) are introduced to measure the sustainability of PW management. Based on the integrated LCA-LCC methodology, the mechanical recycling pathway exhibits outstanding environmental (59-88 % environmental saving) and economic performance (412.70 US$ 2022 t -1 PW) with and without externality cost consideration among incineration and landfilling pathways. The research outcomes of this study shall provide scientific and green economy insights to PW value chain stakeholders in circular plastic management
The Qualitative Report The Qualitative Report

Abstract This study explored the multiple intelligence representation in the micro-credentials designed by Malaysian educators and the reasons for integrating multiple intelligences in their course materials. The study was guided by the eight indicators of multiple intelligences suggested by Howard Gardner. We conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with 20 educators from a university in the northern region of Malaysia. The thematic analysis guided by Braun and Clarke shows a number of reasons why educators included the indicators in designing their content for micro-credential. Educators generally demonstrated that they used all the multiple intelligences indicators in designing the micro-credentials. The findings are encouraging and suggest that all eight intelligences can be included in designing micro–credentials to enhance students' learning experiences with the help of technology. Finally, the authors suggest a pedagogical framework that can be considered by educators who intend to design the micro-credentials.
Aspects of Germination, Emergence, and Seed Production of Three Ipomoea Taxa

The influence of seed age, planting depth, and temperature on the germination and emergence of ivyleaf morningglory [Ipomoea hederacea (L.) Jacq. var. hederacea], white morningglory (Ipomoea lacunosa L.), and entireleaf morningglory (Ipomoea hederacea var. integriuscula Gray) was studied by using pure seed of each taxa that were collected in 1972, 1973, and 1974. Germination of acid-scarified white and entireleaf morningglory seed ranged from 64 to 98% at continuous 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40 C and at an alternating 20/30 C cycle. The ivyleaf morningglory germination range was 50 to 98% at these temperatures, except at 40 C germination was <25%. Germination of nonscarified seed was generally 30 to 60% lower than scarified seed for the three taxa. Germination of seed collected in 1972 for all three taxa was less than 10% with 6 days of exposure to 45 C and 100% relative humidity, and germination of seed collected in 1973 and 1974 ceased with 12 days of exposure. Maximum emergence for all taxa occurred at planting depths of 1.3 and 2.5 cm. Seed age influenced seedling emergence of white morningglory and ivyleaf morningglory but not entireleaf morningglory. Total numbers of seed produced per plant for white, entireleaf, and ivyleaf morningglory were 15,200, 14,600, and 5,800, respectively.
Spike output jitter, mean firing time and coefficient of variation

To understand how a single neurone processes information, it is critical to examine the relationship between input and output. Marsalek, Koch and Maunsell's study focused on output jitter (standard deviation of output interpike interval) found that for the integrate-and-fire (IF whereas an input distribution with a more slowly decreasing tail induces divergence of output jitter. Exact formulae for mean firing time are also obtained which enable us to estimate the coefficient of variation. The I&F model with leakage is also briefly considered.
MIT Open Access Articles Raman Spectroscopy Provides a Powerful Diagnostic Tool for Accurate Determination of Albumin Glycation

We present the first demonstration of glycated albumin detection and quantification using Raman spectroscopy without the addition of reagents. Glycated albumin is an important marker for monitoring the long-term glycemic history of diabetics, especially as its concentrations, in contrast to glycated hemoglobin levels, are unaffected by changes in erythrocyte life times. Clinically, glycated albumin concentrations show a strong correlation with the development of serious diabetes complications including nephropathy and retinopathy. In this article, we propose and evaluate the efficacy of Raman spectroscopy for determination of this important analyte. By utilizing the pre-concentration obtained through drop-coating deposition, we show that glycation of albumin leads to subtle, but consistent, changes in vibrational features, which with the help of multivariate classification techniques can be used to discriminate glycated albumin from the unglycated variant with 100% accuracy. Moreover, we demonstrate that the calibration model developed on the glycated albumin spectral dataset shows high predictive power, even at substantially lower concentrations than those typically encountered in clinical practice. In fact, the limit of detection for glycated albumin measurements is calculated to be approximately four times lower than its minimum physiological concentration. Importantly, in relation to the existing detection methods for glycated albumin, the proposed method is also completely reagent-free, requires barely any sample preparation and has the potential for simultaneous determination of glycated hemoglobin levels as well. Given these key advantages, we believe that the proposed approach can provide a uniquely powerful tool for quantification of glycation status of proteins in biopharmaceutical development as well as for glycemic marker determination in routine clinical diagnostics in the future.
Af ﬁ nity informs environmental cooperation between ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and anaerobic ammonia-oxidizing (Anammox) bacteria

Anaerobic ammonia-oxidizing (Anammox) bacteria (AnAOB) rely on nitrite supplied by ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and archaea (AOA). Af ﬁ nities for ammonia and oxygen play a crucial role in AOA/AOB competition and their association with AnAOB. In this work we measured the af ﬁ nity constants for ammonia and oxygen (half-saturation; k m ) of two freshwater AOA enrichments, an AOA soil isolate ( N. viennensis ), and a freshwater AnAOB enrichment. The AOA enrichments had similar kinetics ( μ max ≈ 0.36 d − 1 , k m,NH4 ≈ 0.78 µM, and k m,O2 ≈ 2.9 µM), whereas N. viennensis had similar k m values but lower μ max (0.23 d − 1 ). In agreement with the current paradigm, these AOA strains showed a higher af ﬁ nity for ammonia (lower k m,NH4 ; 0.34 – 1.27 µM) than published AOB measurements (>20 µM). The slower growing AnAOB ( μ max ≈ 0.16 d − 1 ) had much higher k m values ( k m,NH4 ≈ 132 µM, k m,NO2 ≈ 48 µM) and were inhibited by oxygen at low levels (half-oxygen inhibition; k i,O2 ≈ 0.092 µM). The higher af ﬁ nity of AOA for ammonia relative to AnAOB, suggests AOA/AnAOB cooperation is only possible where AOA do not outcompete AnAOB for ammonia. Using a bio ﬁ lm model, we show that
Prevention of postoperative nausea and vomiting - studies on different antiemetics, their combinations and dosing regimens

9 LIST OF ORIGINAL PUBLICATIONS 11 ABBREVIATIONS 12 INTRODUCTION 13 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 15 INCIDENCE AND CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS OF POSTOPERATIVE NAUSEA AND VOMITING 15 PHYSIOLOGY OF POSTOPERATIVE NAUSEA AND VOMITING 15 RISK FACTORS FOR POSTOPERATIVE NAUSEA AND VOMITING 19 Predictive scores for postoperative nausea and vomiting 19 Anaesthesia-related factors 22 Premedication 22 Intravenous anaesthetics 22 Anaesthetic gases 23 Intraoperative opioids 25 Reversal of muscle relaxation 25 Postoperative pain and analgesics 25 Operation-related factors 26 PREVENTION OF POSTOPERATIVE NAUSEA AND VOMITING 26 Anticholinergics 26 Dopamine receptor antagonists 27 Phenothiazines 27 Butyrophenones 27 Benzamides 28 Antihistamines 29 Serotonin receptor antagonists 29 Ondansetron 29 Granisetron 30 Dolasetron 31 Tropisetron 31 Glucocorticoids 31 Combinations of antiemetics 32 Double combinations 33 Multimodal techniques 33