Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characteristics of intracranial plaque in patients with non-cardioembolic stroke and intracranial large vessel occlusion

Objective To determine the characteristics of intracranial plaque proximal to large vessel occlusion (LVO) in stroke patients without major-risk cardioembolic source using 3.0 T high-resolution MRI (HR-MRI). Methods We retrospectively enrolled eligible patients from January 2015 to July 2021. The multidimensional parameters of plaque such as remodelling index (RI), plaque burden (PB), percentage lipid-rich necrotic core (%LRNC), presence of discontinuity of plaque surface (DPS), fibrous cap rupture, intraplaque haemorrhage and complicated plaque were evaluated by HR-MRI. Results Among 279 stroke patients, intracranial plaque proximal to LVO was more prevalent in the ipsilateral versus contralateral side to stroke (75.6% vs 58.8%, p<0.001). The larger PB (p<0.001), RI (p<0.001) and %LRNC (p=0.001), the higher prevalence of DPS (61.1% vs 50.6%, p=0.041) and complicated plaque (63.0% vs 50.6%, p=0.016) were observed in the plaque ipsilateral versus contralateral to stroke. Logistic analysis showed that RI and PB were positively associated with an ischaemic stroke (RI: crude OR: 1.303, 95% CI 1.072 to 1.584, p=0.008; PB: crude OR: 1.677, 95% CI 1.381 to 2.037, p<0.001). In subgroup with <50% stenotic plaque, the greater PB, RI, %LRNC and the presence of complicated plaque were more closely related to stroke, which was not evident in subgroup with ≥50% stenotic plaque. Conclusion This is the first study to report the characteristics of intracranial plaque proximal to LVO in non-cardioembolic stroke. It provides potential evidence to support different aetiological roles of <50% stenotic vs ≥50% stenotic intracranial plaque in this population.
A monolithic smoothing‐gap algorithm for contact‐impact based on the signed distance function

A new algorithm has been developed for smoothing the surfaces in finite element formulations of contact‐impact. A key feature of this method is that the smoothing is done implicitly by constructing smooth signed distance functions for the bodies. These functions are then employed for the computation of the gap and other variables needed for implementation of contact‐impact. The smoothed signed distance functions are constructed by a moving least‐squares approximation with a polynomial basis. Results show that when nodes are placed on a surface, the surface can be reproduced with an error of about one per cent or less with either a quadratic or a linear basis. With a quadratic basis, the method exactly reproduces a circle or a sphere even for coarse meshes. Results are presented for contact problems involving the contact of circular bodies. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
CircRANBP17 modulated KDM1A to regulate neuroblastoma progression by sponging miR-27b-3p

Abstract Neuroblastoma (NB) is a common childhood cancer. Circular RNA RAN binding protein 17 (circRANBP17) has been identified to participate in diverse tumor progression. This study aims to explore the function and mechanism of circRANBP17 in NB. The levels of circRANBP17, miR-27b-3p and KDM1A in NB tissues and cells were measured by qRT-PCR. Mouse model assay was performed to investigate the effect of circRANBP17 knockdown on tumor formation in vivo. The levels of circRANBP17 and KDM1A were significantly up-regulated, and the level of miR-27b-3p was strikingly down-regulated in NB tissues and cells (SK-N-SH and SK-N-AS). Functional studies indicated that miR-27b-3p inhibitor mitigated the inhibitory effects on cell proliferation, migration, invasion and the promoting effect on cell apoptosis in SK-N-SH and SK-N-AS cells induced by circRANBP17 knockdown. Also, miR-27b-3p regulated NB cell malignancy by targeting KDM1A. Further studies revealed that miR-27b-3p inhibitor reversed the low expression of KDM1A induced by circRANBP17 knockdown. In support, circRANBP17 knockdown led to inhibition of tumor formation in vivo. In conclusion, circRANBP17 modulated KDM1A to promote cell proliferation, migration, invasion and restrain cell apoptosis in NB by sponging miR-27b-3p, and the new regulatory network may provide a theoretical basis for the further study of NB.
The role of interpersonal alienation in the relationship between social media addiction and learning burnout among Chinese secondary school students

ABSTRACT The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between social media addiction and learning burnout and the mediating role of interpersonal alienation in the relationship between social media addiction and learning burnout among Chinese middle school students. The study investigates 2095 junior high school students in Zhuhai, China through a web-based questionnaire survey. The study results showed that (1) adolescent social media addiction significantly and positively influenced learning burnout and interpersonal alienation, and (2) adolescent interpersonal alienation mediated the relationship between social media addiction and learning burnout.
“Get-Rich-Quick Rituals, Remote Sex, and Herbs in Vaginal Canals”: Portrayal of Indigenous Fruits and Medicinal Herbs in Zimbabwe's The Mirror Newspaper

Abstract This article examines how The Mirror, a regional newspaper in Zimbabwe, represents issues related to indigenous knowledge, such as the use of medicinal herbs and fruits. The Mirror largely circulates in the Midlands and the Masvingo region, although it also has a presence in parts of Mashonaland East, Manicaland, and Matabeleland South. The article utilises a qualitative methodology, in which archival data were collected from The Mirror to examine its portrayal of indigenous fruits and medicinal herbs. As such, representation theory is the theoretical lens of the study, and the data are analysed using thematic analysis. The study found that stories related to indigenous fruits and medicinal herbs are narrated through an urban gaze, which is sometimes at odds with the common uses of such resources by rural communities. It is argued in this article that The Mirror, as a post-colonial media entity, does not deviate from the colonial practices of suppressing and attacking African culture. Indigenous herbs are framed in terms such as witchcraft, bizarre incidents, and lack of efficacy. Furthermore, news stories published by The Mirror do not provide complete information on the uses of indigenous fruits and medicinal herbs, but instead focus only on what journalists perceive as “newsworthy” and appropriate for their readers.
Visual environment of rearing sites affects larval response to perceived risk

Turbidity challenges the visual performance of aquatic animals. During development, environments with limited visibility may affect the fine-tuning of visual systems and thus the perception of, and response to, risk. While turbidity has frequently been used to characterise permanent aquatic habitats, it has been an overlooked feature of ephemeral ones. Here, we use the natural diversity of ephemeral rearing sites (phytotelmata) in which the tadpoles of two poison frog species are deposited and confined until metamorphosis to explore the relationship between environments with limited visibility and response to perceived risk. We sampled wild tadpoles of Dendrobates tinctorius, a rearing-site generalist with facultatively cannibalistic tadpoles, and Oophaga (formerly Dendrobates) pumilio, a small-phytotelm specialist dependent on maternal food-provisioning, to investigate how the visual environment in rearing sites influences tadpole behaviour. We hypothesised that turbid rearing conditions negatively impact both species’ ability to perceive risk, decreasing response strength to predatory visual stimuli. Using experimental arenas, we measured tadpole activity and space first on a black and white background, and then on either black or white backgrounds where tadpoles were exposed to visual stimuli of (potentially cannibalistic) conspecifics or potential predators. When placed in a novel arena, the effects of rearing environment on D. tinctorius tadpoles were clear: tadpoles from darker pools were less active than tadpoles from brighter pools, and did not respond to either visual stimuli, whereas tadpoles from brighter pools swam more when paired with conspecifics versus odonate larvae, suggesting that tadpoles can visually discriminate between predators. For O. pumilio, tadpoles were more active on experimental backgrounds that more closely matched the luminosity of their rearing sites, but their responses to the two visual stimuli did not differ. Larval specialisation associated with species-specific microhabitat use may underlie the observed responses to visual stimuli, which has implications for the stability of species interactions and trophic dynamics in pool communities. Together, our findings demonstrate that light availability of wild larval rearing conditions influences the perception of risk in novel contexts, and provide insight into how visually guided animals may respond to sudden environmental disturbances.
Elevational and latitudinal range extensions of the puna mouse, Punomys (Cricetidae), with the first record of the genus from Chile

We report an elevational record for the Andean sigmodontine puna mouse Punomys, which is also the first record of the genus in Chile. The record is based on a mummified specimen that we discovered at an elevation of 5,461 m (17,917’) in the caldera of Volcán Acamarachi, Región de Antofagasta, Chile. Results of a morphological suggest that the specimen can be provisionally referred to the species P. lemminus. This new record also extends the known geographic distribution of the genus by 700 km to the south and brings the known Chilean mammal richness to a total of 170 living species and 88 genera. This finding highlights the need for increased survey efforts in more remote, high-elevation regions and demonstrates that there is still much to be learned about the mammal fauna of the Andean Altiplano.
Concussion-related disruptions to hub connectivity in the default mode network are related to symptoms and cognition

Concussions present with a myriad of symptomatic and cognitive concerns; however, the relationship between these functional disruptions and the underlying changes in the brain are not yet well understood. Hubs, or brain regions that are connected to many different functional networks, may be specifically disrupted after concussion. Given the implications in concussion research, we quantified hub disruption within the default mode network (DMN) and between the DMN and other brain networks. We collected resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from collegiate student-athletes (n = 44) at three timepoints: baseline (prior to beginning their athletic season), acute post-injury (approximately 48 hours after a diagnosed concussion), and recovery (after starting return-to-play progression, but prior to returning to contact). We used self-reported symptoms and computerized cognitive assessments collected across similar timepoints to link these functional connectivity changes to clinical outcomes. Concussion resulted in increased connectivity between regions within the DMN compared to baseline and recovery, and this post-injury connectivity was more positively related to symptoms and more negatively related to visual memory performance compared to baseline and recovery. Further, concussion led to decreased connectivity between DMN hubs and visual network non-hubs relative to baseline and recovery, and this post-injury connectivity was more negatively related to somatic symptoms and more positively related to visual memory performance compared to baseline and recovery. Relationships between functional connectivity, symptoms, and cognition were not significantly different at baseline versus recovery. These results highlight a unique relationship between self-reported symptoms, visual memory performance and acute functional connectivity changes involving DMN hubs after concussion in athletes. This may provide evidence for a disrupted balance of within- and between-network communication highlighting possible network inefficiencies after concussion. These results aid in our understanding of the pathophysiological disruptions after concussion and inform our understanding of the associations between disruptions in brain connectivity and specific clinical presentations acutely post-injury.
Individual similarities and differences in eye-movement-related eardrum oscillations (EMREOs)

We recently discovered a unique type of low-frequency otoacoustic emission (OAE) time-locked to the onset (and offset) of saccadic eye movements and occurring in the absence of external sound (Gruters et al., 2018). How and why these eye-movement-related eardrum oscillations (EMREOs) are generated is unknown, with a role in visual-auditory integration being the likeliest candidate. Clues to both the drivers of EMREOs and their purpose can be gleaned by examining responses in normal hearing human subjects. Do EMREOs occur in all individuals with normal hearing? If so, what components of the response occur most consistently? Understanding which attributes of EMREOs are similar across participants and which show more variability will provide the groundwork for future comparisons with individuals with hearing abnormalities affecting the ear’s various motor components. Here we report that in subjects with normal hearing thresholds and normal middle ear function, all ears show (a) measurable EMREOs (mean: 58.7 dB SPL; range 45-67 dB SPL for large contralateral saccades), (b) a phase reversal for contra-versus ipsilaterally-directed saccades, (c) a large peak in the signal occurring soon after saccade onset, (d) an additional large peak time-locked to saccade offset and (e) evidence that saccade duration is encoded in the signal. We interpret the attributes of EMREOs that are most consistent across subjects as the ones that are most likely to play an essential role in their function. The individual differences likely reflect normal variation in individuals’ auditory system anatomy and physiology, much like traditional measures of auditory function such as auditory-evoked OAEs, tympanometry and auditory-evoked potentials. Future work will compare subjects with different types of auditory dysfunction to population data from normal hearing subjects. Overall, these findings provide important context for the widespread observations of visual-and eye-movement related signals found in cortical and subcortical auditory areas of the brain.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) dynamics in secondary lymphoid tissues and the evolution of cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) escape mutants

In the secondary lymphoid tissues, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can replicate both in the follicular and the extrafollicular compartments. Yet, virus is concentrated in the follicular compartment in the absence of antiretroviral therapy, in part due to the lack of cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL)-mediated activity there. CTL home to the extrafollicular compartment, where they can suppress virus load to relatively low levels. We use mathematical models to show that this compartmentalization can explain seemingly counterintuitive observations. First, it can explain the observed constancy of the viral decline slope during antiviral therapy irrespective of the presence of CTL in SIV-infected macaques, under the assumption that CTL-mediated lysis significantly contributes to virus suppression. Second, it can account for the relatively long times it takes for CTL escape mutants to emerge during chronic infection even if CTL-mediated lysis is responsible for virus suppression. The reason is the heterogeneity in CTL activity, and the consequent heterogeneity in selection pressure between the follicular and extrafollicular compartments. Hence, to understand HIV dynamics more thoroughly, this analysis highlights the importance of measuring virus populations separately in the extrafollicular and follicular compartments rather than using virus load in peripheral blood as an observable; this hides the heterogeneity between compartments that might be responsible for the particular patters seen in the dynamics and evolution of the HIV in vivo.
Causal Effects of Pupil Size on Visual Processing

The size of the eyes’ pupils determines how much light enters the eye and also how well this light is focused. Through this route, pupil size shapes the earliest stages of visual processing. Yet causal effects of pupil size on vision are poorly understood and rarely studied. Here we report the effects of both experimentally induced and spontaneous changes in pupil size on visual processing as measured through EEG. We compare these to the effects of stimulus intensity and covert visual attention, because previous studies have shown that these factors all have comparable effects on some common measures of early visual processing, such as detection performance and steady-state visual evoked potentials; yet it is still unclear whether these are superficial similarities, or rather whether they reflect similar underlying processes. Using a mix of neural-network decoding, ERP analyses, and time-frequency analyses, we find that induced pupil size, spontaneous pupil size, stimulus intensity, and covert visual attention all affect EEG responses, mainly over occipital and parietal electrodes, but—crucially—that they do so in qualitatively different ways. Induced and spontaneous pupil-size changes mainly modulate activity patterns (but not overall power or intertrial coherence) in the high-frequency beta range; this may reflect a causal effect of pupil size on oculomotor activity and/ or visual processing. In addition, spontaneous (but not induced) pupil size tends to correlate positively with intertrial coherence in the alpha band; this may reflect a non-causal relationship, mediated by arousal. Taken together, our findings suggest that pupil size has qualitatively different effects on visual processing from stimulus intensity and covert visual attention. This shows that pupil size causally affects visual processing, and provides concrete starting points for further study of this important yet understudied earliest stage of visual processing.
TMS disruption of the lateral prefrontal cortex increases neural activity in the default mode network when naming facial expressions

Recognizing facial expressions is dependent on multiple brain networks specialized for different cognitive functions. In the current study participants (N=20) were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while they performed a covert facial expression naming task. Immediately prior to scanning thetaburst transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was delivered over the right lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), or the vertex control site. A group whole-brain analysis revealed that TMS induced opposite effects in the neural responses across different brain networks. Stimulation of the right PFC (compared to stimulation of the vertex) decreased neural activity in the left lateral PFC but increased neural activity in three nodes of the default mode network (DMN): the right superior frontal gyrus (SFG), right angular gyrus and the bilateral middle cingulate gyrus. A region of interest (ROI) analysis showed that TMS delivered over the right PFC reduced neural activity across all functionally localised face areas (including in the PFC) compared to TMS delivered over the vertex. These results causally demonstrate that visually recognizing facial expressions is dependent on the dynamic interaction of the face processing network and the DMN. Our study also demonstrates the utility of combined TMS / fMRI studies for revealing the dynamic interactions between different functional brain networks.
The Temperature of Optical Molasses for Two Different Atomic Angular Momenta

We have measured the temperature of laser-cooled Rb atoms in optical molasses as a function of laser intensity and detuning. For both 85Rb and 87Rb, cooled on the F = 3 → F' = 4 and F = 2 → F' = 3 transitions, respectively, the temperatures are proportional to the ratio of laser power and detuning for a wide range of these parameters. We observe a small but significant difference between the two isotopes. We also show the results of three-dimensional semi-classical numerical calculations. Our results favor a model which includes atomic localization in optical standing waves.
Fault tolerant control design using adaptive control allocation based on the pseudo inverse along the null space

Fault‐tolerant control systems are vital in many industrial systems. Actuator redundancy is employed in advanced control strategies to increase system maneuverability, flexibility, safety, and fault tolerability. Management of control signals among redundant actuators is the task of control allocation algorithms. Simplicity, accuracy and low computational cost are key issues in control allocation implementations. In this paper, an adaptive control allocation method based on the pseudo inverse along the null space of the control matrix (PAN) is introduced in order to adaptively tolerate actuator faults. The proposed method solves the control allocation problem with an exact solution and optimized l∞ norm of the control signal. This method also handles input limitations and is computationally efficient. Simulation results are used to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Along-Tract Statistical Mapping of Microstructural Abnormalities in Bipolar Disorder: A Pilot Study

Investigating brain circuitry involved in bipolar disorder (BD) is key to discovering brain biomarkers for genetic and interventional studies of the disorder. Even so, prior research has not provided a fine-scale spatial mapping of brain microstructural differences in BD. In this pilot diffusion MRI dataset, we used BUndle ANalytics (BUAN), a recently developed analytic approach for tractography, to extract, map, and visualize the profile of microstructural abnormalities on a 3D model of fiber tracts in people with BD (N=38) and healthy controls (N=49), and investigate along-tract white matter (WM) microstructural differences between these groups. Using the BUAN pipeline, BD was associated with lower mean Fractional Anisotropy (FA) in fronto-limbic and interhemispheric pathways and higher mean FA in posterior bundles relative to controls. BUAN combines tractography and anatomical information to capture distinct along-tract effects on WM microstructure that may aid in classifying diseases based on anatomical differences.
Neural mechanisms of costly helping in the general population and mirror-pain synesthetes

Helping others often comes with a cost to ourselves. It has been argued that experiencing the pain of others motivates helping. Here we investigate how individuals that report somatically feeling the pain of others (mirror-pain synesthetes) differ from those that do not, when deciding to help and reduce someone’s pain conveyed through different modalities. Mirror-pain synesthetes and participants who do not report such everyday life experiences witnessed a confederate expressing pain and could decide to reduce the intensity by donating money. Measuring brain activity using fMRI confirmed our initial hypothesis: self-reported mirror-pain synesthetes increased their donation more steeply, as the intensity of the observed pain increased, and their somatosensory brain activity (in SII and the adjacent IPL) activity was more tightly associated with donation when the pain of other was conveyed by the reactions of the pain-receiving hand. For all participants, in a condition where the pain was conveyed by facial expressions, activation in insula, SII and MCC correlated with the trial by trial donation made, while SI and MTG activation was correlated with the donation in the Hand condition. These results further inform us about the role of empathy in costly helping, the underlying neural mechanism, and individual variability.