Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of brain activity changes in patients with former heroin dependency under methadone maintenance treatment, by using functional magnetic resonance imaging

Introduction: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) has been successful in illustrating the brain function of patients addicted to different drugs. Methadone maintenance is proposed as the standard agonist substitution treatment for opiate dependent patients. In this study we aimed to systematically review all the MRI findings related to former heroin addicts under long term methadone maintenance therapy. Method: PubMed was performed by the following search strategy: (methadone OR Dolophine) AND (MRI OR magnetic resonance imaging), with no language and date restrictions. Results: Out of 56 articles found at the initial search, 5 articles were eligible to be included in the systematic review, which were published from 2008 – 2014. In all the included studies the effect of long term MTT in confronting with drug related cues was compared with healthy control individuals or neutral stimuli. One article studied the acute efficacy of methadone use and one article compared the effect of different durations of MTT on brain responses to drug related cues. Conclusion: Different brain parts from prefrontal to deep limbic structures have been activated by drug related cues observation in patients under long term MMT. However methadone has shown the ability to inhibit the heroin craving and decreasing withdrawal symptoms, the learned brain response to drug stimuli persists despite long-term MMT
How the Lack of Chitosan Characterization Precludes Implementation of the Safe-by-Design Concept

Efficacy and safety of nanomedicines based on polymeric (bio)materials will benefit from a rational implementation of a Safe-by-Design (SbD) approach throughout their development. In order to achieve this goal, however, a standardization of preparation and characterization methods and their accurate reporting is needed. Focusing on the example of chitosan, a biopolymer derived from chitin and frequently used in drug and vaccine delivery vector preparation, this review discusses the challenges still to be met and overcome prior to a successful implementation of the SbD approach to the preparation of chitosan-based protein drug delivery systems.
Echocardiographic Features of Patients with Stroke in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Stroke is a major challenge to physicians worldwide, with a high incidence, mortality, disability rates and costs. selected for comparison. Patients who were less than 40 years, hemodynamically unstable or pregnant were excluded. Results: One hundred patients (61 males and 39 females) and 80 healthy controls (51 males and 29 females) were enrolled. There were more males than females in a ratio of 1.6:1 for the patients and 1.3:1 for the controls. Mean age of patients was 57.7 ± 8.4 years and 57.1 ± 8.8 years for controls. Mean body mass index was 27.8 ± 5.48 kg/m 2 in patients and 27.6 ± 4.72 kg/m 2 in controls. Left ventricular mass index of > 110 g/m 2 in females and > 134 g/m 2 in males was considered abnormal. The mean left ventricular mass index was higher in patients than in controls (140.3 ± 43.1 g/m 2 versus 88.1 ± 24.3 g/m 2 ; p < 0.001). Left ventricular hypertrophy was present in 60% of patients and 7.5% of controls (p < 0.001). Potential cardiac sources of embolism was found in 47% of the patients which includes left atrial dilatation (27%), left atrial dilatation with spontaneous echocardiographic contrast (3%), atrial fibrillation (7%), intracardiac thrombus (6%) and valvular heart disease (4%). Conclusion: Stroke patients have a high prevalence of LVH and potential cardiac sources of embolism which can be identified by echocardiography.
Disrupted Ankle Control and Spasticity in Persons With Spinal Cord Injury: The Association Between Neurophysiologic Measures and Function. A Scoping Review

Control of muscles about the ankle joint is an important component of locomotion and balance that is negatively impacted by spinal cord injury (SCI). Volitional control of the ankle dorsiflexors (DF) is impaired by damage to pathways descending from supraspinal centers. Concurrently, spasticity arising from disrupted organization of spinal reflex circuits, further erodes control. The association between neurophysiological changes (corticospinal and spinal) with volitional ankle control (VAC) and spasticity remains unclear. The goal of this scoping review was to synthesize what is known about how changes in corticospinal transmission and spinal reflex excitability contribute to disrupted ankle control after SCI. We followed published guidelines for conducting a scoping review, appraising studies that contained a measure of corticospinal transmission and/or spinal reflex excitability paired with a measure of VAC and/or spasticity. We examined studies for evidence of a relationship between neurophysiological measures (either corticospinal tract transmission or spinal reflex excitability) with VAC and/or spasticity. Of 1,538 records identified, 17 studies were included in the review. Ten of 17 studies investigated spinal reflex excitability, while 7/17 assessed corticospinal tract transmission. Four of the 10 spinal reflex studies examined VAC, while 9/10 examined ankle spasticity. The corticospinal tract transmission studies examined only VAC. While current evidence suggests there is a relationship between neurophysiological measures and ankle function after SCI, more studies are needed. Understanding the relationship between neurophysiology and ankle function is important for advancing therapeutic outcomes after SCI. Future studies to capture an array of corticospinal, spinal, and functional measures are warranted.
Reconfigurable Spoof Surface Plasmon Polariton Band-stop Filter with Monolithic Schottky Diodes

Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) provide high electric field confinement and non-diffraction limit at optical, terahertz, and microwave frequencies. Several approaches have been explored to actively manipulate SPPs with a typical modulation capability of only a few percent. Here, active control of SPPs using monolithically fabricated Schottky diodes has been demonstrated with a significant modulation of transmission and reflection. The proposed device is based on a novel spoof SPP band-stop filter with single-loop split ring resonators (SRRs) and Schottky diodes connecting the SRR split gaps. Differing from the reported works, the SRRs are designed directly on a SPP waveguide to provide both a low-pass response as the conventional rectangular corrugations and an additional band-stop response, the latter of which is induced by the SRR resonance. The IGZO Schottky diode bridges each SRR split gap with a tunable resistance of a few orders of magnitude at various bias, and thus actively modulates the SPP attenuation. As the forward bias increases, the free carriers with increasing density short out the capacitor gradually, which leads to weaker resonance magnitude of SRRs and smaller attenuation. The measured S parameters of the proposed active SPP device reveal a remarkable modulation range of 40% for the transmission of SPPs at 49 GHz.
Synthesis of antibacterial gold nanoparticles with different particle sizes using chlorogenic acid

This study proposes a strategy for the rapid and simple synthesis of gold nanoparticles (CGA-AuNPs) with different particle sizes using trisodium citrate (TSC) as the first reducing agent and chlorogenic acid (CGA) as the second reducing agent. And the antibacterial activity of CGA-AuNPs with different particle sizes in vitro was checked by measuring the growth curves of Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922) and Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923). The CGA-AuNPs obtained by the analysis of transmission electron microscope (TEM) images and ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) spectra were mainly spherical, and the average diameters were 18.94 ± 1.81, 30.42 ± 6.32, 37.86 ± 3.80 and 48.72 ± 6.47 nm, respectively. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) showed that these nanoparticles were polycrystalline gold structures. Both CGA-AuNPs and CGA have excellent antibacterial activity, and CGA-AuNPs with small particle size has a stronger antibacterial effect than the larger one. UV–Vis absorption spectrum data revealed that the synthesized CGA-AuNPs without adding other stabilizing agent were well maintained even after 26 days. This work provides a special idea to regulate the size of CGA-AuNPs with CGA by chemical synthesis, and the potent antibacterial activity of these CGA-AuNPs may be applied in the field of antibacterial in the future.
Social Perception and Interaction Database—A Novel Tool to Study Social Cognitive Processes With Point-Light Displays

Introduction The ability to detect and interpret third-party encounters (TPE) is one of the crucial skills enabling people to operate in the social world. Multiple lines of evidence converge towards the preferential processing of TPE when compared to the individual actions of multiple agents, even if the actions of agents were visually degraded to minimalistic point-light displays (PLDs). Here, we present a novel PLD dataset (Social Perception and Interaction Database; SoPID) that may be used for studying multiple levels of social information processing. Methods During a motion-capture session, two pairs of actors were asked to perform a wide range of dyadic 3-second actions, including: (1) neutral, gesture-based communicative interactions (COM); (2) emotional exchanges (Happy/Angry); (3) synchronous physical activity of actors (SYNC); and (4) independent actions of agents, either object-related (ORA) or non-object related (NORA). The stimuli were then transformed into PLDs. Two validation studies (each with 20 healthy individuals) were then performed to establish the recognizability of the SoPID vignettes. Results The first study showed a ceiling level accuracy for discrimination of communicative vs. individual actions (93% +/- 5%) and high accuracy for interpreting specific types of actions (85 +/- 4%) from the SoPID. In the second study, a robust effect of scrambling on the recognizability of SoPID vignettes was observed in an independent sample of healthy individuals. Discussion These results suggest that the SoPID may be effectively used to examine processes associated with communicative interactions and intentions processing. The database can be accessed via Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/dcht8/).
$2\times 2$ MIMO antenna with defected ground structure for mm-wave 5G applications

This work presents a Defected Ground Structure (DGS)-based MIMO antenna anticipated for the integration in the future mm-wave 5G applications. The proposed design consists of four antenna elements excited by the microstrip transmission line and DGS. The substrate used is Rogers RT/Duroid 5880, with the overall dimensions of $30\times 28\times 0.508\ \text{mm}^{3}$. The center frequency of the proposed design is at 26.414 GHz. The bandwidth covered is 3.5346 GHz (−6 dB BW). The maximum IEEE gain of the single element of the MIMO is 6.22 dBi. The design has been optimized for high isolation between the antenna elements. The diversity gain, envelope correlation coefficient, and channel capacity indicate that the proposed design has excellent MIMO characteristics. The proposed antenna meets the practical requirements and, therefore, can serve as an excellent candidate for 5G handheld devices such as a dongle, and smart-watches.
Matrix Metalloproteinases and Tissue Inhibitors of Metalloproteinases Are Potential Biomarkers of Pulmonary and Extra-Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase (TIMPs) are potential regulators of tuberculosis (TB) pathology. Whether they are candidates for non-sputum-based biomarkers for pulmonary TB (PTB) and extra-pulmonary TB (EPTB) is not fully understood. Hence, to examine the association of MMPs and TIMPs with PTB and EPTB, we have measured the circulating levels of MMPs (MMP-1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 12, and 13) and TIMPs (TIMP-1, 2, 3, and 4) in PTB, EPTB and compared them with latent tuberculosis (LTB) or healthy control (HC) individuals. We have also assessed their circulating levels before and after the completion of anti-tuberculosis treatment (ATT). Our data describes that systemic levels of MMP-1, 8, 9, 12 were significantly increased in PTB compared to EPTB, LTB, and HC individuals. In contrast, MMP-7 was significantly reduced in PTB compared to EPTB individuals. Likewise, the systemic levels of MMP-1, 7, 13 were significantly increased in EPTB in comparison to LTB and HC individuals. In contrast, MMP-8 was significantly reduced in EPTB individuals compared to LTB and HC individuals. In addition, the systemic levels of TIMP-1, 2, 3 were significantly diminished and TIMP-4 levels were significantly enhanced in PTB compared to EPTB, LTB, and HC individuals. The circulating levels of TIMP-2 was significantly reduced and TIMP-3 was significantly elevated in EPTB individuals in comparison with LTB and HCs. Some of the MMPs (7, 8, 9, 12, 13 in PTB and 1, 7, 8, 9 in EPTB) and TIMPs (1, 2, 3, 4 in PTB and 4 in EPTB) were significantly modulated upon treatment completion. ROC analysis showed that MMP-1, 9 and TIMP-2, 4 could clearly discriminate PTB from EPTB, LTB and HCs and MMP-13 and TIMP-2 could clearly discriminate EPTB from LTB and HCs. Additionally, multivariate analysis also indicated that these alterations were independent of age and sex in PTB and EPTB individuals. Therefore, our data demonstrates that MMPs and TIMPs are potential candidates for non-sputum-based biomarkers for differentiating PTB and EPTB from LTB and HC individuals.
Undersensitivity in Neural Reading Comprehension

Current reading comprehension methods generalise well to in-distribution test sets, yet perform poorly on adversarially selected data. Prior work on adversarial inputs typically studies model oversensitivity: semantically invariant text perturbations that cause a model’s prediction to change. Here we focus on the complementary problem: excessive prediction undersensitivity, where input text is meaningfully changed but the model’s prediction does not, even though it should. We formulate an adversarial attack which searches among semantic variations of the question for which a model erroneously predicts the same answer, and with even higher probability. We demonstrate that models trained on both SQuAD2.0 and NewsQA are vulnerable to this attack, and then investigate data augmentation and adversarial training as defences. Both substantially decrease adversarial vulnerability, which generalises to held-out data and held-out attack spaces. Addressing undersensitivity furthermore improves model robustness on the previously introduced ADDSENT and ADDONESENT datasets, and models generalise better when facing train / evaluation distribution mismatch: they are less prone to overly rely on shallow predictive cues present only in the training set, and outperform a conventional model by as much as 10.9% F1.
Weakly Supervised Local-Global Attention Network for Facial Expression Recognition

Combining global and local features is an essential solution to improve discriminative performances in facial expression recognition tasks. The limitations of existing methods are that they cannot extract crucial local features and ignore the complementary effects of local and global features. To address these problems, this paper proposes a Weakly Supervised Local-Global Attention Network (WS-LGAN), which uses the attention mechanism to deal with part location and feature fusion problems. Firstly, an Attention Map Generator is designed to get a set of attention maps under weak supervision. It mimics the attention mechanism of human brain and quickly finds the local regions-of-interest. Secondly, bilinear attention pooling is employed to generate and refine local features based on attention maps. Thirdly, a building block called Selective Feature Unit is designed. It allows adaptive weighted fusion of global and local features before making classification. In WS-LGAN, global and local features represent expressions from different aspects. Compared with methods relying on single type of feature, it benefits from local-global complementary advantages. Additionally, contrastive loss is introduced for both local and global features to increase inter-class dispersion and intra-class compactness under different granularities. Experiments on three popular facial expression datasets, including two lab-controlled facial expression datasets and one real-world facial expression dataset show that WS-LGAN achieves state-of-the-art performance, which demonstrates our superiority in facial expression recognition.
Entropy production in systems with unidirectional transitions

The entropy production is one of the most essential features for systems operating out of equilibrium. The formulation for discrete-state systems goes back to the celebrated Schnakenberg's work and hitherto can be carried out when for each transition between two states also the reverse one is allowed. Nevertheless, several physical systems may exhibit a mixture of both unidirectional and bidirectional transitions, and how to properly define the entropy production in this case is still an open question. Here, we present a solution to such a challenging problem. The average entropy production can be consistently defined, employing a mapping that preserves the average fluxes, and its physical interpretation is provided. We describe a class of stochastic systems composed of unidirectional links forming cycles and detailed-balanced bidirectional links, showing that they behave in a pseudo-deterministic fashion. This approach is applied to a system with time-dependent stochastic resetting. Our framework is consistent with thermodynamics and leads to some intriguing observations on the relation between the arrow of time and the average entropy production for resetting events.
Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Modulation of Pupillary Unrest

Pupillary unrest is an established indicator of drowsiness or sleepiness. How sympathetic and parasympathetic activity contribute to pupillary unrest is not entirely unclear. In this study, we investigated 83 young healthy volunteers to assess the relationship of pupillary unrest to other markers of the autonomic nervous system. Sample entropy (SE) and the established pupillary unrest index (PUI) were calculated to characterize pupil size variability. Autonomic indices were derived from heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, and skin conductance. Additionally, we assessed individual levels of calmness, vigilance, and mood. In an independent sample of 26 healthy participants, we stimulated the cardiovagal system by a deep breathing test. PUI was related to parasympathetic cardiac indices and sleepiness. A linear combination of vagal heart rate variability [root mean square of heart beat interval differences (RMSSD)] and skin conductance fluctuations (SCFs) was suited best to explain interindividual variance of PUI. Complexity of pupil diameter (PD) variations correlated to indices of sympathetic skin conductance. Furthermore, we found that spontaneous fluctuations of skin conductance are accompanied by increases of pupil size. In an independent sample, we were able to corroborate the relation of PUI with RMSSD and skin conductance. A slow breathing test enhanced RMSSD and PUI proportionally to each other, while complexity of PD dynamics decreased. Our data suggest that the slow PD oscillations (f < 0.15 Hz) quantified by PUI are related to the parasympathetic modulation. Sympathetic arousal as detected by SCFs is associated to transient pupil size increases that increase non-linear pupillary dynamics.
The prevalence of emergence delirium and its associated factors among children at a postoperative unit: A retrospective cohort at a Middle Eastern hospital

Background: Emergence delirium (ED) has been reported among children at a postoperative setting, which delays their recovery and exposes them to traumas. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of ED and its associated factors among children who underwent surgeries at a major tertiary healthcare facility in Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: Between March and August 2018, a retrospective cohort study was conducted based on a review of 413 medical charts of children (<14 years) who underwent an elective/nonemergency surgery and then were admitted to a Post Anesthesia Care Unit. Patient and surgery-related characteristics were analyzed as potential factors associated with ED. The anxiety level was assessed preoperatively using the Modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale (four domains), while the ED was detected after surgery using the Watcha scale (child is agitated and thrashing around). Results: The leading surgery category was ear, nose, and throat surgeries [184 (44.6%)] and dental surgeries [109 (26.4%)]. Almost one-third received only general anesthesia (31.2%), while 271 (68.8%) received an additional regional block/skin infiltrate. The anxiety domains preop showed that the percentage mean score ± standard deviation of expression of emotions was 37.1 ± 21.6, apparent arousal 33.7 ± 20.4, activeness 30.1 ± 13.5, and vocalization 26.9 ± 20.3. The prevalence of ED among children who underwent surgeries during the 6-month period was 23 (6.6%). Almost 18.8% of those who received opioid analgesics (fentanyl alone) developed ED, while 12% of those who received both opioid and nonopioid analgesics (fentanyl/paracetamol) developed ED. ED was significantly associated with longer recovery duration 69.5 + 27.1 min, P = 0.007. Binary logistics regression analysis showed that participants who did not receive Precedex were adj. odds ratio = 10.3 (2.4–48.9) times more likely to develop ED, compared with those who received it, adj. P = 0.003. Lower preoperative scores of expression of emotions and higher scores of apparent arousal were significantly associated with ED, adj. P = 0.035 and adj. P = 0.023, respectively. Conclusion: ED appears to be inevitable in postoperative settings. It is crucial to address any preoperative anxiety assessment as it is associated with ED. Anxiety remains a modifiable factor that can be managed, as well as to the administration of Precedex and adjunct analgesic treatments.