Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of antidepressant therapy on executive function after stroke *

Executive dysfunction is common after stroke and may impair long-common after stroke and may impair long-term outcome.Remedies for this condition term outcome.Remedies for this condition are limited. are limited. Aims Aims To examine the effect of To examine the effect of antidepressants on executive function antidepressants on executive function after stroke. after stroke. Method Method Forty-seven patients who had Forty-seven patients who had had a stroke during the prior 6 months had a stroke during the prior 6 months received12 weeks of antidepressant received12 weeks of antidepressant treatment in double-blind placebo-treatment in double-blind placebo-controlled fashion, followed by assessment controlled fashion, followed by assessment of executive function atthe end of of executive function atthe end of treatment and after 2 years. treatment and after 2 years. Results Results No significant group effect was No significant group effect was found atthe end of treatment.However, found atthe end oftreatment.However, 21months after the end of treatmentthe 21months after the end of treatmentthe placebo group showed deterioration of placebo group showed deterioration of executive function, whereas the active executive function, whereas the active treatment group showed clear and treatment group showed clear and significant improvement independent of significant improvement independent of depressive symptoms (depressive symptoms (F F¼12.1, d.f. Conclusions Conclusions Antidepressant Antidepressant treatment fosters long-termimprovement treatment fosterslong-term improvement of executive function following stroke.This of executive function following stroke.This phenomenon is consistent with a phenomenon is consistent with a reorganisation of neuronal networks reorganisation of neuronal networks associated with prefrontal functions based associated with prefrontal functions based on modulation of monoaminergic on modulation of monoaminergic neurotransmission and the activity of neurotransmission and the activity of neurotrophins. neurotrophins. Executive functions are mental abilities that Executive functions are mental abilities that allow the individual to respond appropri-allow the individual to respond appropriately to unfamiliar and complex situations ately to unfamiliar and complex situations and support several cognitive, emotional and support several cognitive, emotional and social capacities. Impairment of execu-and social capacities. Impairment of executive functions occurs in the majority of tive functions occurs in the majority of stroke patients (Lesser stroke patients (Lesser et al et al, 1996), and , 1996), and may slow rehabilitation and return to pre-may slow rehabilitation and return to pre-morbid levels of psychosocial adjustment. morbid levels of psychosocial adjustment. Antidepressant treatment improves out-Antidepressant treatment improves outcome following stroke, independently of come following stroke, independently of depression. Nortriptyline and fluoxetine depression. Nortriptyline and fluoxetine …
On Decoding and Performance Optimizing of Four-Group Decodable Space-Time Block Codes

A class of rate-one space-time block codes (STBC) allowing the decoding of transmitted symbols into four groups is recently proposed by Yuen, Guan and Tjhung. This code is called four-group decodable STBC (4Gp-STBC). In this paper, the equivalent channel of 4Gp-STBC is derived and a new method to decode 4Gp-STBC based on sphere decoders is proposed. Furthermore, the performance of 4Gp-STBC is analyzed. A New signal rotation method is proposed, which performs better than the existing one. Keywords-Space-time block codes, quasi-orthogonal, performance analysis, low decoding complexity.
Using Personal Ontology in Evaluating Service Quality

How to find a suitable service for a user is a challenging task. This paper introduces a method of concept categorization with the use of personal ontology to select more suitable service according to the preferences of users. In addition, a new attribute called 'reformation' is added to evaluate service quality. Our method is to aide the evaluation process with user preferences to reflect the fact that the user difference will affect the selection of different service providers.
Transient magnetic field formulation for solid source conductors with axial symmetry

The simulation of transient magnetic field problems requires the repeated and successive solution of high-dimensional linear systems with near-identical system matrices and different righthand side vectors. The combination of conjugate gradient method with subspace projection methods is shown. Additionally, the formulation for the azimuthal component of the magnetic vector potential for axisymmetric magnetostatic applications reveal a singularity which is the source of numerical instability. A variable transformation is introduced to remove the singularity from the numerical scheme and to move it to the postprocessing.
Canine emotional states assessment with heart rate variability

Emotions of a person affect the person's performance in a task and so do emotions of a rescue dog that works after disasters. Hence, estimating emotions of a rescue dog by the handler can improve its performance and welfare. Emotions also appear in physiological signals such as heart rate variability (HRV). In fact, HRV has information of emotions in both cases of human and dogs. To make emotion estimation more practical, we proposed a method for emotion estimation from HRV of dogs and evaluated its performance using real data. The method classified positive, negative, and neutral emotions with 88% accuracy within each subject and 72% over all subjects. These accuracies are high enough for practical use in rescue dogs.
A Combined Static and Dynamic Software Birthmark Based on Component Dependence Graph

Software birthmarking provides an effective approach to detect software theft by computing the similarity of unique characteristics between the suspected program and the original. In this paper, we present and empirically evaluate a novel birthmarking technique which uniquely identifies a program based on static and dynamic component dependence graphs of it. To argue the advantage of the technique, the credibility and reliability against semantics-preserving transformations are evaluated. Experimental results show that our technique is more stable than the WPP birthmark proposed by Myles and Collberg. Additionally, it complements the previously proposed birthmarking techniques which are only static or dynamic.
Effect of plant protection on assemblages of ground beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in pea (Pisum L.) and lupine (Lupinus L.) crops

Background and Purpose : Various crop cultivation systems may affect field-dwelling organisms, representatives of both harmful and beneficial entomofauna. In this paper, attention was drawn to one of the factors which distinguishes organic and integrated farming, that is the application of chemical plant protection preparations. Materials and Methods : The experiment was conducted in Poland, at the Experimental Station IOR-PIB in Winna Gora near Środa Wielkopolska, on crop fields of lupine and pea. The experiment was composed of a block of organic fields (no chemical plant protection preparations) and another block, where a plant protection programme was carried out in line with the integrated agricultural production guidelines. Carabidae were caught into modified Barber traps, from May to the end of July in 2006, 2010 and 2014. Results and conclusions : As a result of our study, 8 848 specimens belonging to 67 species of Carabidae were collected. The most numerous species collected in the pea and lupine were: Poecilus cupreus , Pterostichus melanarius , Harpalus rufipes , Bembidion femoratum, Bembidion quadrimaculatum and Bembidion tetracolum . Overall, our results demonstrate that an application of chemical plant protection preparations decreases the abundance and species diversity of carabid beetles assemblages in studied crops and induces changes in particular life traits of carabids fauna. After the treatment, the abundance of large carabid beetles diminishes and their place is occupied by small zoophages. Furthermore, the forecrop could be one of the factors that influence assemblages of carabids on crop fields.
A gridding algorithm for efficient density compensation of arbitrarily sampled Fourier-domain data

Uniformly sampled data is sometimes not directly available in engineering applications ranging from synthetic aperture radars to magnetic resonance imaging. However, certain signal processing techniques, such as the fast Fourier transform, cannot be applied to non-equispaced data. It is therefore desirable to resample the data on a regular grid. Various interpolation schemes have been proposed for this purpose, such as gridding reconstruction. A computationally expensive step in the gridding algorithm is the estimation of the data sampling density. The paper presents a method for improving both the efficiency and the quality of gridding density estimation based on partial Voronoi diagrams. It is shown that significantly higher computational efficiency is achieved by this method over existing schemes. Lower spreading and greater sidelobe suppression of the point spread function demonstrate the superiority of the proposed reconstruction method
Diabetic Cardiomyopathy: Current Approach and Potential Diagnostic and Therapeutic Targets

Although ischemic heart disease is the major cause of death in diabetic patients, diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is increasingly recognized as a clinically relevant entity. Considering that it comprises a variety of mechanisms and effects on cardiac function, increasing the risk of heart failure and worsening the prognosis of this patient category, DCM represents an important complication of diabetes mellitus, with a silent development in its earlier stages, involving intricate pathophysiological mechanisms, including oxidative stress, defective calcium handling, altered mitochondrial function, remodeling of the extracellular matrix, and consequent deficient cardiomyocyte contractility. While DCM is common in diabetic asymptomatic patients, it is frequently underdiagnosed, due to few diagnostic possibilities in its early stages. Moreover, since a strategy for prevention and treatment in order to improve the prognosis of DCM has not been established, it is important to identify clear pathophysiological landmarks, to pinpoint the available diagnostic possibilities and to spot potential therapeutic targets.
Scheduling Cells with Multiple Output Ports for Input-Queued Switches

With the line rate growing faster and faster, input queued switching architecture has become attractive in high performance switches and routers due to the no speedup character. In this paper, a simple efficient queue balance matching (QBM) algorithm is presented supporting cells with multiple output ports based on the multi-hop routing. The QBM algorithm combines the virtue of iSLIP and EiSLIP, and uses a multiple eligible output ports manner to efficiently balance the traffic into all input queues. Simulation results show that the throughput can be increased more than 25% comparing to iSLIP under non-uniform traffic with single iteration, and the delay performance is improved finely. It is also easy to be implemented as iSLIP.
A theoretical evaluation for assessing the relevance of modeling techniques in business process modeling

Enterprise systems are an important topic for business modeling techniques currently. Due to the focus on business process and its usefulness in different business improvement methodologies, the process modeling has gained prominence in the information systems modeling area. Several modeling techniques have been proposed to fulfill the objective of systematize the business process modeling. However, to date, no guidelines exist for selecting the appropriated technique according with a specific application domain. For this reason, it is necessary to evaluate the quality of the techniques from the theoretical viewpoint to identity the capabilities to model business process. In this paper, a theoretical evaluation is proposed to evaluate techniques for business process modeling using three levels of modeling -- organizational, integration and web. The theoretical evaluation compares the modeling capabilities supplied by the different techniques. The results of the evaluation allow us to determine what modeling technique is the most appropriate to face business modeling process.
Delivery of c-myb antisense oligodeoxynucleotides to human neuroblastoma cells via disialoganglioside GD(2)-targeted immunoliposomes: antitumor effects.

BACKGROUND Advanced-stage neuroblastoma resists conventional treatment; hence, novel therapeutic approaches are required. We evaluated the use of c-myb antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (asODNs) delivered to cells via targeted immunoliposomes to inhibit c-Myb protein expression and neuroblastoma cell proliferation in vitro. METHODS Phosphorothioate asODNs and control sequences were encapsulated in cationic lipid, and the resulting particles were coated with neutral lipids to produce coated cationic liposomes (CCLs). Monoclonal antibodies directed against the disialoganglioside GD(2) were covalently coupled to the CCLs. (3)H-labeled liposomes were used to measure cellular binding, and cellular uptake of asODNs was evaluated by dot-blot analysis. Growth inhibition was quantified by counting trypan blue dye-stained cells. Expression of c-Myb protein was examined by western blot analysis. RESULTS Our methods produced GD(2)-targeted liposomes that stably entrapped 80%-90% of added c-myb asODNs. These liposomes showed concentration-dependent binding to GD(2)-positive neuroblastoma cells that could be blocked by soluble anti-GD(2) monoclonal antibodies. GD(2)-targeted liposomes increased the uptake of asODNs by neuroblastoma cells by a factor of fourfold to 10-fold over that obtained with free asODNs. Neuroblastoma cell proliferation was inhibited to a greater extent by GD(2)-targeted liposomes containing c-myb asODNs than by nontargeted liposomes or free asODNs. GD(2)-targeted liposomes containing c-myb asODNs specifically reduced expression of c-Myb protein by neuroblastoma cells. Enhanced liposome binding and asODN uptake, as well as the antiproliferative effect, were not evident in GD(2)-negative cells. CONCLUSIONS Encapsulation of asODNs into immunoliposomes appears to enhance their toxicity toward targeted cells while shielding nontargeted cells from antisense effects and may be efficacious for the delivery of drugs with broad therapeutic applications to tumor cells.
Coordinated Changes in Antioxidative Enzymes Protect the Photosynthetic Machinery from Salinity Induced Oxidative Damage and Confer Salt Tolerance in an Extreme Halophyte Salvadora persica L.

Salinity-induced modulations in growth, photosynthetic pigments, relative water content (RWC), lipid peroxidation, photosynthesis, photosystem II efficiency, and changes in activity of various antioxidative enzymes were studied in the halophyte Salvadora persica treated with various levels of salinity (0, 250, 500, 750, and 1000 mM NaCl) to obtain an insight into the salt tolerance ability of this halophyte. Both fresh and dry biomass as well as leaf area (LA) declined at all levels of salinity whereas salinity caused an increase in leaf succulence. A gradual increase was observed in the Na+ content of leaf with increasing salt concentration up to 750 mM NaCl, but at higher salt concentration (1000 mM NaCl), the Na+ content surprisingly dropped down to the level of 250 mM NaCl. The chlorophyll and carotenoid contents of the leaf remained unaffected by salinity. The photosynthetic rate (PN), stomatal conductance (gs), the transpiration rate (E), quantum yield of PSII (ΦPSII), photochemical quenching (qP), and electron transport rate remained unchanged at low salinity (250 to 500 mM NaCl) whereas, significant reduction in these parameters were observed at high salinity (750 to 1000 mM NaCl). The RWC% and water use efficiency (WUE) of leaf remained unaffected by salinity. The salinity had no effect on maximum quantum efficiency of PS II (Fv/Fm) which indicates that PS II is not perturbed by salinity-induced oxidative damage. Analysis of the isoforms of antioxidative enzymes revealed that the leaves of S. persica have two isoforms each of Mn-SOD and Fe-SOD and one isoform of Cu-Zn SOD, three isoforms of POX, two isoforms of APX and one isoform of CAT. There was differential responses in activity and expression of different isoforms of various antioxidative enzymes. The malondialdehyde (MDA) content (a product of lipid peroxidation) of leaf remained unchanged in S. persica treated with various levels of salinity. Our results suggest that the absence of pigment degradation, the reduction of water loss, and the maintenance of WUE and protection of PSII from salinity-induced oxidative damage by the coordinated changes in antioxidative enzymes are important factors responsible for salt tolerance of S. persica.
A new modular multilevel AC/DC converter topology applied to a modular multilevel DC/DC converter

With the rising demand for energy harvesting from regenerative power sources, increasing power and voltage ratings are required of power electronic converter systems. For high-power conversion systems, modular multilevel converters proved to be superior to conventional topologies. This paper introduces a reduced variant of the well-known modular multilevel converter (M2LC) topology suitable for AC/DC conversion. It is compared to the original M2LC topology and examined for its usability in a DC/DC converter application. Results from a detailed simulation model prove the topology's expected functionality.
A large-scale service system with packing constraints: minimizing the number of occupied servers

We consider a large-scale service system model proposed in [14], which is motivated by the problem of efficient placement of virtual machines to physical host machines in a network cloud, so that the total number of occupied hosts is minimized. Customers of different types arrive to a system with an infinite number of servers. A server packing configuration is the vector k = {ki}, where ki is the number of type-i customers that the server "contains". Packing constraints are described by a fixed finite set of allowed configurations. Upon arrival, each customer is placed into a server immediately, subject to the packing constraints; the server can be idle or already serving other customers. After service completion, each customer leaves its server and the system. It was shown in [14] that a simple real-time algorithm, called Greedy, is asymptotically optimal in the sense of minimizing ∑k Xk1+α in the stationary regime, as the customer arrival rates grow to infinity. (Here α > 0, and Xk denotes the number of servers with configuration k.) In particular, when parameter α is small, and in the asymptotic regime where customer arrival rates grow to infinity, Greedy solves a problem approximating one of minimizing ∑k Xk, the number of occupied hosts. In this paper we introduce the algorithm called Greedy with sublinear Safety Stocks (GSS), and show that it asymptotically solves the exact problem of minimizing ∑k Xk. An important feature of the algorithm is that sublinear safety stocks of Xk are created automatically - when and where necessary - without having to determine a priori where they are required. Moreover, we also provide a tight characterization of the rate of convergence to optimality under GSS. The GSS algorithm is as simple as Greedy, and uses no more system state information than Greedy does.
The Arc Consistency Problem: a Case Study in Parallel Programming with Shared Objects

Communication through shared objects is a simple model for parallel programming of distributed-memory machines. We describe our experiences with this model for implementing a parallel algorithm for the Arc Consistency Problem. We provide performance measurements of the program on two distributed systems, which use the same network (Eth-ernet) and operating system (Amoeba), but diier in processor speed and size of local memory.
Upper Extremity Motor Learning among Individuals with Parkinson's Disease: A Meta-Analysis Evaluating Movement Time in Simple Tasks

Motor learning has been found to occur in the rehabilitation of individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). Through repetitive structured practice of motor tasks, individuals show improved performance, confirming that motor learning has probably taken place. Although a number of studies have been completed evaluating motor learning in people with PD, the sample sizes were small and the improvements were variable. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to determine the ability of people with PD to learn motor tasks. Studies which measured movement time in upper extremity reaching tasks and met the inclusion criteria were included in the analysis. Results of the meta-analysis indicated that people with PD and neurologically healthy controls both demonstrated motor learning, characterized by a decrease in movement time during upper extremity movements. Movement time improvements were greater in the control group than in individuals with PD. These results support the findings that the practice of upper extremity reaching tasks is beneficial in reducing movement time in persons with PD and has important implications for rehabilitation.
The drive-wise project: driving simulator training increases real driving performance in healthy older drivers

Background: Age-related cognitive decline is often associated with unsafe driving behavior. We hypothesized that 10 active training sessions in a driving simulator increase cognitive and on-road driving performance. In addition, driving simulator training should outperform cognitive training. Methods: Ninety-one healthy active drivers (62–87 years) were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (1) a driving simulator training group, (2) an attention training group (vigilance and selective attention), or (3) a control group. The main outcome variables were on-road driving and cognitive performance. Seventy-seven participants (85%) completed the training and were included in the analyses. Training gains were analyzed using a multiple regression analysis with planned orthogonal comparisons. Results: The driving simulator-training group showed an improvement in on-road driving performance compared to the attention-training group. In addition, both training groups increased cognitive performance compared to the control group. Conclusion: Driving simulator training offers the potential to enhance driving skills in older drivers. Compared to the attention training, the simulator training seems to be a more powerful program for increasing older drivers' safety on the road.
Comparison-Based Algorithms Are Robust and Randomized Algorithms Are Anytime

Randomized search heuristics (e.g., evolutionary algorithms, simulated annealing etc.) are very appealing to practitioners, they are easy to implement and usually provide good performance. The theoretical analysis of these algorithms usually focuses on convergence rates. This paper presents a mathematical study of randomized search heuristics which use comparison based selection mechanism. The two main results are that comparison-based algorithms are the best algorithms for some robustness criteria and that introducing randomness in the choice of offspring improves the anytime behavior of the algorithm. An original Estimation of Distribution Algorithm combining both results is proposed and successfully experimented.