Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Potential Therapeutics for Vascular Cognitive Impairment and Dementia

BACKGROUND As the human lifespan increases, the number of people affected by agerelated dementia is growing at an epidemic pace. Vascular pathology dramatically affects cognitive profiles, resulting in dementia and cognitive impairment. While vascular dementia itself constitutes a medical challenge, hypo-perfusion/vascular risk factors enhance amyloid toxicity and other memory- damaging factors and hasten Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other memory disorders' progression, as well as negatively affect treatment outcome. METHODS Research and online content related to vascular cognitive impairment and dementia is reviewed, specifically focusing on the potential treatment of the disorder. RESULTS Few therapeutic options are currently available to improve the prognosis of patients with vascular dementia and cognitive impairment, mixed AD dementia with vascular pathology, or other memory disorders. Emerging evidence, however, indicates that, like AD and other memory disorders, synaptic impairment underlies much of the memory impairment in the cognitive decline of vascular cognitive impairment and vascular dementia. CONCLUSION Effective rescues of the memory functions might be achieved through synaptic and memory therapeutics, targeting distinct molecular signaling pathways that support the formation of new synapses and maintaining their connections. Potential therapeutic agents include: 1) memory therapeutic agents that rescue synaptic and memory functions after the brain insults; 2) antipathologic therapeutics and an effective management of vascular risk factors; and 3) preventative therapeutic agents that achieve memory therapy through functional enhancement. These therapeutic agents are also likely to benefit patients with AD and/or other types of memory disorders.
Ethical implications of verbal disinhibition with conversational agents

This paper presents a reflection on the ethical implications of conversational agents. The reflection is motivated by recent empirical findings showing that, when interacting in natural language with artificial partners, users tend to indulge in disinhibited behaviour, such as flaming, bullying and sexual harassment. The paper then addresses the question whether conversational agents open any ethical issues and whether this new communication context requires the definition of new moral values and principles or could be addressed by ordinary moral norms.
Robotic wheelchair with autonomous traveling capability for transportation assistance in an urban environment

To realize a new type of personal vehicle for elderly people while contributing to a low-carbon traffic society, we have been developing a robotic wheelchair with autonomous traveling and obstacle avoidance in an urban environment. In this paper, we primarily discuss two kinds of key technologies, long-distance autonomous travel in an outdoor environment and obstacle avoidance in a human-shared environment. For the localization and navigation methods, we propose sub-map dividing and realignment with FastSLAM, which enables generation of large-scale 3D voxel maps by the sampling based SLAM method. For the planning and obstacle avoidance methods, we propose motion control by a combination of the global/local A* algorithm and the dynamic window approach. To confirm the effectiveness of our proposed methods, the results of demonstration experiments using our robotic wheelchair `Marcus' in the Tsukuba Robot Zone are also reported.
The two-parameter Poisson-Dirichlet distribution derived from a stable subordinator

The two-parameter Poisson-Dirichlet distribution, denoted PD(α,θ), is a probability distribution on the set of decreasing positive sequences with sum 1. The usual Poisson-Dirichlet distribution with a single parameter θ, introduced by Kingman, is PD(0, θ). Known properties of PD(0, θ), including the Markov chain description due to Vershik, Shmidt and Ignatov, are generalized to the two-parameter case. The size-biased random permutation of PD(α, θ) is a simple residual allocation model proposed by Engen in the context of species diversity, and rediscovered by Perman and the authors in the study of excursions of Brownian motion and Bessel processes. For 0 < α < 1, PD(α, 0) is the asymptotic distribution of ranked lengths of excursions of a Markov chain away from a state whose recurrence time distribution is in the domain of attraction of a stable law of index α. Formulae in this case trace back to work of Darling, Lamperti and Wendel in the 1950s and 1960s. The distribution of ranked lengths of excursions of a one-dimensional Brownian motion is PD(1/2, 0), and the corresponding distribution for a Brownian bridge is PD(1/2, 1/2). The PD(α, 0) and PD(α, α) distributions admit a similar interpretation in terms of the ranked lengths of excursions of a semistable Markov process whose zero set is the range of a stable subordinator of index α.
Two loop polarization contributions to radiative recoil corrections to hyperfine splitting in muonium

We calculate radiative-recoil corrections of order ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}^{2}(Z\ensuremath{\alpha}{)(m/M)E}_{F}$ to hyperfine splitting in muonium generated by the diagrams with electron and muon polarization loops. These corrections are enhanced by the large logarithm of the electron-muon mass ratio. The leading logarithm cubed and logarithm squared contributions were obtained a long time ago. The single-logarithmic and nonlogarithmic contributions calculated here improve the theory of hyperfine splitting, and affect the value of the electron-muon mass ratio extracted from the experimental data on the muonium hyperfine splitting.
Automated Insertion of Exception Handling for Key and Referential Constraints

Key and referential constraints are the two main integrity constraints in database applications. These constraints can be enforced by the Database Management System automatically. Any violation from these constraints is handled by programmer's written code. This paper proposes an approach to relieve the burden of programmers from the mechanical coding for the exception handling of these constraints. In our approach, first SQL operations that may lead to constraint violations are identified. Then, based on SQL query patterns, the code for exception handling is generated accordingly and inserted into the program automatically. We provide two alternative ways to handle the exceptions: one is handling the exceptions without using the automated enforcement in Database Management System, the other is to handle it in conjunction with the DBMS enforcement. We have developed a tool, GEHPHP (Generation of Exception Handling for PHP Systems), and conducted experiments to verify the proposed approach.
Reciprocity Calibration for Massive MIMO: Proposal, Modeling, and Validation

This paper presents a mutual coupling-based calibration method for time-division-duplex massive MIMO systems, which enables downlink precoding based on uplink channel estimates. The entire calibration procedure is carried out solely at the base station (BS) side by sounding all BS antenna pairs. An expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm is derived, which processes the measured channels in order to estimate calibration coefficients. The EM algorithm outperforms the current state-of-the-art narrow-band calibration schemes in a mean squared error and sum-rate capacity sense. Like its predecessors, the EM algorithm is general in the sense that it is not only suitable to calibrate a co-located massive MIMO BS, but also very suitable for calibrating multiple BSs in distributed MIMO systems. The proposed method is validated with experimental evidence obtained from a massive MIMO testbed. In addition, we address the estimated narrow-band calibration coefficients as a stochastic process across frequency, and study the subspace of this process based on measurement data. With the insights of this study, we propose an estimator which exploits the structure of the process in order to reduce the calibration error across frequency. A model for the calibration error is also proposed based on the asymptotic properties of the estimator, and is validated with measurement results.
Evaluating Risk Propensity Using an Objective Instrument

Risk propensity is the stable tendency to choose options with a lower probability of success, but greater rewards. Its evaluation has been approached from various perspectives: from self-report questionnaires to objective tests. Self-report questionnaires have often been criticized due to interference from voluntary and involuntary biases, in addition to their lack of predictive value. Objective tests, on the other hand, require resources that make them difficult to administer to large samples. This paper presents an easy-to-administer, 30-item risk propensity test. Each item is itself an objective test describing a hypothetical situation in which the subject must choose between three options, each with a different gain function but equivalent in expected value. To assess its psychometric fit, the questionnaire was administered to 222 subjects, and we performed a test of its reliability as well as exploratory factor analysis. The results supported a three-factor model of risk (Sports and Gambling, Long-term Plans, and Loss Management). After making the necessary adjustments and incorporating a global factor of risk propensity, confirmatory factor analysis was done, revealing that the data exhibited adequate goodness of fit. La tendencia al riesgo es una propensión estable a elegir opciones con menores probabilidades de éxito pero mayores recompensas. Su evaluación se ha abordado desde diferentes perspectivas: mediante cuestionarios de autoinforme y pruebas objetivas. El autoinforme ha sido frecuentemente criticado por la interferencia de sesgos voluntarios e involuntarios, y falta de validez predictiva. Las pruebas objetivas requieren recursos que hacen que sean difíciles de aplicar a grandes muestras de sujetos. Este trabajo presenta un test de tendencia al riesgo de treinta ítems de fácil aplicación. Cada ítem es en sí mismo una prueba objetiva que presenta al sujeto una situación hipotética en la que tiene que elegir entre tres opciones, cada una con una función de ganancia diferente pero equivalentes en su esperanza matemática. Para valorar sus bondades psicométricas, se aplicó el cuestionario a 222 sujetos y se realizaron análisis de fiabilidad y de validez factorial exploratorio. Los resultados apoyaron un modelo del riesgo en tres factores (deportes y juegos de azar, planes a largo plazo y prevención de pérdidas). Tras los ajustes necesarios al adoptar este modelo, e incluyendo un factor global de tendencia al riesgo, un análisis factorial confirmatorio mostró que los datos presentaban un ajuste adecuado.
The effect of mental comorbidity on service delivery planning in primary care: an analysis with particular reference to patients who request referral without prior assessment.

BACKGROUND In their everyday practice, primary-care physicians are often asked to refer patients to a specialist without a prior appointment in primary care. Such referrals are problematic, and one might suspect that patients who make such requests are more likely to have mental comorbidities predisposing them toward higher utilization of health-care services. METHODS In a cross-sectional study, 307 patients of 13 primary-care practices who requested referral to a specialist without a prior appointment in primary care were given a Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) containing questions that related to depression, anxiety, panic disorder, and somatoform disorder (independent variables). Further information was obtained about these patients' primary-care contacts, referrals, and days taken off from work with a medical excuse over the course of one year (dependent variables). A regression model was used to compare these patients with 977 other primary-care patients. RESULTS The groups of patients who did and did not request specialist referral without a primary-care appointment did not differ to any statistically significant extent with respect to mental comorbidity. In the overall group, somatoform disorder was found to be associated with a high rate of primary-care contacts (odds ratio [OR] 2.4, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.4-4.3). High rates of referral were strongly correlated (percentage of variance explained, R²) with depression (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.1-4.0; R² = 35.3%), anxiety (OR 4.1, 95% CI 1.8-9.6; R² = 34.5%), panic disorder (OR 5.9, 95% CI 2.1-16.4; R² = 34.3%), and somatoform disorder (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.2-4.0; R² = 34.6%). Taking a long time off from work with a medical excuse was correlated with depression (OR 2.5, 95% CI 1.2-4.8), anxiety (OR 4.2, 95% CI 1.7-10.5), and somatoform disorder (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.2-4.2). CONCLUSION Mental comorbidity contributes to the increased utilization of health-care services. This should be borne in mind whenever a patient requests many referrals to specialists (either with or without a prior appointment in primary care). It is important to identify "doctor-hopping" patients so that the causes of their behavior can be recognized, discussed, and properly treated.
Curve forecast with the SOM algorithm: using a tool to follow the time on a Kohonen map

To forecast a complete curve, we propose a method that consists to predict from a rule based on a classification, which takes the present time class into account. This technique is simpler than a vectorial prediction and solves some problems of long term forecasting. A type of error, which belongs to this method, imposes to take care of it. The SOM and a tool of visualization that permits to follow the time on that kind of classification give us a way to control it. The application to the polish electrical consumption is presented.
A novel membrane protein insertion pathway in Escherichia coli

Every living cell is surrounded by a selectivity permeable cytoplasmic membrane. Its general structure is a lipid bilayer with embedded and peripherally associated membrane proteins. The primary functions of the cytoplasmic membrane are the regulation of cell volume and maintenance of the intracellular pH and the molecular composition of the cell's content. Membrane proteins fulfil a variety of vectorial transport, communication and energy transduction functions. They catalyze the import of ions and organic substrates for anabolic and catabolic reactions within the cell, the export of dissimilation products or toxic compounds and even the transport of macromolecules, like secretory proteins, without disturbing the general role of the membrane as a diffusion barrier for hydrophilic compounds and ions. Zie: Summary
The impact of emotional intelligence on managers’ performance: Evidence from hospitals located in Tehran

Context: Most of the studies show that emotional intelligence (EI) is an important factor for effective leadership and team performance in organizations. Aims: This research paper aims to provide an exploratory analysis of EI in the hospitals managers located in Tehran, and examine its relation to their performance. Settings and Design: The present research was an analytical and cross-sectional study. Setting of the study was hospitals located in Tehran, Iran. Subjects and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study from a matched sample of 120 managers and 360 subordinates in hospitals located in Tehran. Cyberia shrink EI measure was used for assessing the EI of the participants. Moreover, a management performance Questionnaire is specifically developed for the present study. The total of 480 questionnaires analyzed throughout Kolmogorov–Smirnov, Mann–Whitney, and Kruskal–Wallis tests in SPSS. Results: The findings suggested a poor EI among hospital managers. As for EI subscales, social skills and self-motivation were in the highest and lowest levels respectively. Moreover, the results indicated that EI increases with experience. The results also showed there is no significant relationship between the components of EI and the performance of hospital managers. Conclusions: Present research indicated that higher levels of EI did not necessarily lead to better performance in hospital managers.
SwingWrapper: Retiling triangle meshes for better edgebreaker compression

We focus on the lossy compression of manifold triangle meshes. Our SwingWrapper approach partitions the surface of an original mesh <i>M</i> into simply connected regions, called <i>triangloids</i>. From these, we generate a new mesh <i>M</i><sup>′</sup>. Each triangle of <i>M</i><sup>′</sup> is an approximation of a triangloid of <i>M</i>. By construction, the connectivity of <i>M</i><sup>′</sup> is fairly regular and can be compressed to less than a bit per triangle using EdgeBreaker or one of the other recently developed schemes. The locations of the vertices of <i>M</i><sup>′</sup> are compactly encoded with our new prediction technique, which uses a single correction parameter per vertex. SwingWrapper strives to reach a user-defined output file size rather than to guarantee a given error bound. For a variety of popular models, a rate of 0.4 bits/triangle yields an <i>L</i><sup>2</sup> distortion of about 0.01% of the bounding box diagonal. The proposed solution may also be used to encode crude meshes for adaptive transmission or for controlling subdivision surfaces.
Opioids Suppress IPSCs in Neurons of the Rat Medial Septum/Diagonal Band of Broca: Involvement of μ-Opioid Receptors and Septohippocampal GABAergic Neurons

The medial septum/diagonal band region (MSDB), which provides a major cholinergic and GABAergic input to the hippocampus, expresses a high density of opioid receptors. Behaviorally, intraseptal injections of opioids produce deficits in spatial memory, however, little is known about the electrophysiological effects of opioids on MSDB neurons. Therefore, we investigated the electrophysiological effects of opioids on neurons of the MSDB using rat brain slices. In voltage-clamp recordings with patch electrodes, bath-applied met-enkephalin, a nonselective opioid receptor agonist, decreased the number of tetrodotoxin and bicuculline-sensitive inhibitory synaptic currents in cholinergic- and GABA-type MSDB neurons. A similar effect occurred in brain slices containing only the MSDB, suggesting that opioids decrease GABA release primarily by inhibiting spontaneously firing GABAergic neurons located within the MSDB. Accordingly, in extracellular recordings, opioid-sensitive, spontaneously firing neurons could be found within the MSDB. Additionally, in intracellular recordings a subpopulation of GABA-type neurons were directly inhibited by opioids. All effects of met-enkephalin were mimicked by a μ receptor agonist, but not by δ or κ agonists. In antidromic activation studies, μ-opioids inhibited a subpopulation of septohippocampal neurons with high conduction velocity fibers, suggestive of thickly myelinated GABAergic fibers. Consistent with the electrophysiological findings, in double-immunolabeling studies, 20% of parvalbumin-containing septohippocampal GABA neurons colocalized the μ receptor, which at the ultrastructural level, was found to be associated with the neuronal cell membrane. Thus, opioids, via μ receptors, inhibit a subpopulation of MSDB GABAergic neurons that not only make local connections with both cholinergic and noncholinergic-type MSDB neurons, but also project to the hippocampus.
Data Attack Isolation in Power Networks Using Secure Voltage Magnitude Measurements

In this paper a procedure to detect and isolate data attacks on power network power flow measurements is proposed. This method can be used in conjunction with available bad data detection (BDD) methods to isolate multiple bad data which are otherwise difficult to handle. The proposed procedure relies on secure measurements of bus voltage magnitudes to define a measurement residual using potentially compromised active and reactive power flow measurements on transmission lines. The proposed residual can be calculated in real-time. In addition, the component of the proposed residual on any particular line depends only locally on the component of the data attack on the same line. This makes the proposed residual well-suited for distributed data attack isolation in large-scale power networks. Furthermore, it can be shown that the proposed procedure becomes more effective when measurements from multiple time instances can be utilized. A detailed numerical case study on the IEEE 14-bus benchmark system demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed procedure.
Medium Access Control Protocols With Memory

Many existing medium access control (MAC) protocols utilize past information (e.g., the results of transmission attempts) to adjust the transmission parameters of users. This paper provides a general framework to express and evaluate distributed MAC protocols utilizing a finite length of memory for a given form of feedback information. We define protocols with memory in the context of a slotted random access network with saturated arrivals. We introduce two performance metrics, throughput and average delay, and formulate the problem of finding an optimal protocol. We first show that a time-division multiple access (TDMA) outcome, which is the best outcome in the considered scenario, can be obtained after a transient period by using a protocol with -slot memory, where is the total number of users. Next, we analyze the performance of protocols with one-slot memory using a Markov chain and numerical methods. Protocols with one-slot memory can achieve throughput arbitrarily close to 1 (i.e., 100% channel utilization) at the expense of large average delay by correlating successful users in two consecutive slots. Finally, we apply our framework to wireless local area networks (WLANs).