Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Network Controllability in the Inferior Frontal Gyrus Relates to Controlled Language Variability and Susceptibility to TMS

In language production, humans are confronted with considerable word selection demands. Often, we must select a word from among similar, acceptable, and competing alternative words to construct a sentence that conveys an intended meaning. In recent years, the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) has been identified as being critical to this ability. Despite a recent emphasis on network approaches to understanding language, how the LIFG interacts with the brain's complex networks to facilitate controlled language performance remains unknown. Here, we take a novel approach to understanding word selection as a network control process in the brain. Using an anatomical brain network derived from high-resolution diffusion spectrum imaging, we computed network controllability underlying the site of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in the LIFG between administrations of language tasks that vary in response (cognitive control) demands: open-response tasks (word generation) versus closed response tasks (number naming). We found that a statistic that quantifies the LIFG's theoretically predicted control of communication across modules in the human connectome explains TMS-induced changes in open-response language task performance only. Moreover, we found that a statistic that quantifies the LIFG's theoretically predicted control of difficult-to-reach states explains vulnerability to TMS in the closed-ended (but not open-ended) response task. These findings establish a link among network controllability, cognitive function, and TMS effects. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT This work illustrates that network control statistics applied to anatomical connectivity data demonstrate relationships with cognitive variability during controlled language tasks and TMS effects.
The Phantom in the Mirror: A Modified Rubber-Hand Illusion in Amputees and Normals

The bodily boundaries in amputees may seem to be more malleable than in non-amputees, given the propensity for a phantom limb to embody a mirror-reflected hand. However, in the present investigation, in which phantom-limb illusions within body space are induced and manipulated, we found that perceiving phantom sensations and illusory embodiment does not require amputation. Surprisingly, in the present modified rubber-hand illusion, we found that simultaneous stroking or stimulation of the participant's target hand was not necessary to induce illusions of embodiment and corresponding perceptual illusions. We tested this upper-limb paradigm in fourteen upper-limb amputees and twenty-six controls (including fourteen lower-limb amputees). We propose a model for embodiment of a rubber or real hand passively observed in a mirror. In this model, passive observation of the hand in the mirror triggers body representations (body image and body schema), most likely through activation of the posterior parietal cortex and temporo-parietal junction. Activity in these regions heightens awareness of peripersonal space and increases tactile sensitivity, and may subsequently enhance perception of illusory touch and embodiment. Furthermore, sense of embodiment may be more apparent to the participant when the hand is threatened; however, embodiment may even be strengthened when the motor system is engaged, evoking motor schemata to support the more easily induced perceptual embodiment via body image.
A novel mutation in GDF5 causes autosomal dominant symphalangism in two Chinese families

Proximal symphalangism (SYM1) is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by ankylosis of the proximal interphalangeal joints and fusion of carpal and tarsal bones. We identified and characterized two five‐generation Chinese families with SYM1. The two families share some similarities (e.g., osseous fusion of interphalangeal joints of the 2–4 fingers) with SYM1 families with mutations in the NOG gene or the family with mutation R438L recently reported in the GDF5 gene (encoding a bone morphogenetic protein family member). However, they show some unique features including the absence of cuboid bone, the lack of shortness of the first and fifth metacarpal bones, and manifestation of flat feet. Genome‐wide linkage analysis of the two families mapped the disease gene to marker D20S112 with a combined LOD score of 4.32. Mutational analysis revealed a novel E491K mutation in the GDF5 gene in both families. The mutation occurs at a highly conserved residue in the TGF‐β domain of GDF5 and represents the second GDF5 mutation identified for SYM1 to date. The E491K mutation co‐segregated with the affected individuals in the two families, and did not exist in unaffected family members or 200 normal controls. These results indicate that defects in GDF5 can cause SYM1 in the Chinese population, and expand the spectrum of clinical phenotypes associated with mutant GDF5. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Impacts of physical and mental workload interaction on human attentional resources performance

Motivation -- Task workload is key determinant of human performance. It may include physical and/or cognitive components, and these can interact to influence operator performance. This research study investigates the interaction of physical workload, mental workload and arousal level on attentional resources in order to predict performance. Research approach -- This study was divided into two experiments. In both experiments, fifteen participants (aged 25--35) performed a physical task (pedalling on a bicycle-ergometer) concurrently with a mental task under nine levels of workload in a 3x3 design (low, medium and high levels for both physical and mental). In the first experiment, the mental task was designed to occupy verbal attentional resources through mental arithmetic, whereas a spatial figures task was used in the second experiment to evaluate spatial resources. Findings/Design -- The hypothesis of the study is that optimum performance occurs at intermediate levels of workload, whereas poor performance is observed at the extreme low and high levels of physical and mental demand due to underload and overload. It is also anticipated that physical and mental workload can interact to 'offset' underload or overload decrements. Originality/Value -- The present study will fill the gap in the ergonomics literature by explaining performance degradation due to mental underload and by clarifying the interaction with physical workload. Take away message -- It is possible that moderate levels of physical workload could compensate for attentional resource reduction with mental underload.
Extended phase I study of AS1411 in renal and non-small cell lung cancers.

13098 Background: AS1411 is an oligonucleotide aptamer that binds to nucleolin, a protein expressed on the surface of tumor cells. A dose-escalating phase I trial in patients with various advanced cancers revealed no serious toxicities and consequently did not reach an MTD. There was evidence of activity, especially in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). This study has been reopened for further dose escalation to reach an optimal biological dose (OBD; unless an MTD is reached) in patients with RCC and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS Patients had advanced RCC or NSCLC refractory to standard treatment. AS1411 was administered as a single continuous 7-day iv infusion, with the option of a second cycle. Patients were enrolled in cohorts of 3. If no serious toxicity was observed within 28 days, the dose was escalated to the next level. Toxicity was graded using the NCI CTCAE v3.0. The study plan was to enroll additional patients at the OBD such that a total of 12 RCC and 12 NSCLC patients received a 7-day infusion. Blood and urine samples were taken for pharmacokinetic analysis. Tumor responses were assessed every 28 days using the RECIST guidelines. RESULTS No serious adverse events have been observed up to a dose of 22mg/kg/day, which was associated with a mean peak plasma concentration of 1.5 μM. Response findings to date are as follows: of 5 RCC patients, 1 maintains a near-complete response 18 months after treatment, 3 have ongoing stable disease (SD; 1 at 3 months, 2 at 2 months) and a fourth had progressive disease (PD) at 2 months post-treatment; of 3 NSCLC patients, 1 has an ongoing SD and 2 had PDs at 1 month post-treatment. Recruitment and follow up continues. CONCLUSIONS A 7-day infusion of AS1411 at 22mg/kg/day was not associated with any serious adverse events and achieved peak plasma concentrations in the range at which killing of various cancer cell lines is observed in vitro. A single further escalation is planned to reach a dose of 40mg/kg/day. Observation of additional cases of stable disease in RCC supports the previous observations of anti-cancer effects in this disease. [Table: see text].
Applications of cell‐free protein synthesis in synthetic biology: Interfacing bio‐machinery with synthetic environments

Synthetic biology is built on the synthesis, engineering, and assembly of biological parts. Proteins are the first components considered for the construction of systems with designed biological functions because proteins carry out most of the biological functions and chemical reactions inside cells. Protein synthesis is considered to comprise the most basic levels of the hierarchical structure of synthetic biology. Cell‐free protein synthesis has emerged as a powerful technology that can potentially transform the concept of bioprocesses. With the ability to harness the synthetic power of biology without many of the constraints of cell‐based systems, cell‐free protein synthesis enables the rapid creation of protein molecules from diverse sources of genetic information. Cell‐free protein synthesis is virtually free from the intrinsic constraints of cell‐based methods and offers greater flexibility in system design and manipulability of biological synthetic machinery. Among its potential applications, cell‐free protein synthesis can be combined with various man‐made devices for rapid functional analysis of genomic sequences. This review covers recent efforts to integrate cell‐free protein synthesis with various reaction devices and analytical platforms.
Self-consistent order-N density-functional calculations for very large systems.

We present a method to perform fully self-consistent density-functional calculations that scales linearly with the system size and which is well suited for very large systems. It uses strictly localized pseudoatomic orbitals as basis functions. The sparse Hamiltonian and overlap matrices are calculated with an {ital O}({ital N}) effort. The long-range self-consistent potential and its matrix elements are computed in a real-space grid. The other matrix elements are directly calculated and tabulated as a function of the interatomic distances. The computation of the total energy and atomic forces is also done in {ital O}({ital N}) operations using truncated, Wannier-like localized functions to describe the occupied states, and a band-energy functional which is iteratively minimized with no orthogonality constraints. We illustrate the method with several examples, including carbon and silicon supercells with up to 1000 Si atoms and supercells of {beta}-C{sub 3}N{sub 4}. We apply the method to solve the existing controversy about the faceting of large icosahedral fullerenes by performing dynamical simulations on C{sub 60}, C{sub 240}, and C{sub 540}. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society. }
Generation of Transmission Zero through Electric and Magnetic Mixed Coupling

A novel method to generate a transmission zero is proposed through both electric and magnetic mixed coupling between two coupled resonators without using any additional cross coupling. A novel equivalent circuit model of two coupled resonators with both electric and magnetic mixed coupling is given to analyze the principle of this approach. An example of two coupled TE01 mode dielectric resonators coupled by both an iris and a probe is illustrated to prove the availability of the proposed method.
Evaluation of body fat estimated from body mass index, skinfolds and impedance. A comparative study.

The purpose of the study was to cross-validate three different methods used in field studies for estimating body fat in a group of Danes (n = 139) aged 35-65 years with a wide range in body fat. On the first two-thirds of the participants (n = 93) multiple regressions equations were developed for body fat by means of height, weight, sex and age and either BMI, or by sum of four skinfolds or electrical impedance. A four-compartment-model based on measurements of both total body water (TBW) and potassium (TBK) was used as reference. On the remaining one-third of the subjects (n = 46) cross-validation of the developed equations was carried out. The multiple regression equation for impedance had higher R-square (R2 = 0.89) and lower residual error (SEE = 3.32 kg) than the multiple regression equations for skinfolds (R2 = 0.81, SEE = 3.91 kg) or body mass index (R2 = 0.85, SEE = 3.94 kg). The cross-validation study showed that all three simple methods give reliable average body fat estimates. The difference in estimates of body fat between the reference method and impedance, BMI and skinfolds was 0.76 kg, -0.64 kg and -0.21 kg respectively, none of these differences being different from zero. However, the variance of body fat estimated from BMI (4.84 kg) was higher than body fat estimated from impedance (4.36 kg) (P = 0.013). The multiple regression analysis further showed that measurements of skinfold do not seem to add significantly to the prediction of body fat if height and weight are included. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Technique for in vivo measurement of the three‐dimensional kinematics and laxity characteristics of the ankle joint complex

We introduce here a technique to measure the three‐dimensional kinematics and laxity characteristics of the ankle joint complex in vivo. The system consists of an optoelectric, kinematic data acquisition system that is used to measure the motion of the ankle joint complex in response to controlled moments applied through a system of pneumatic actuators. As a first step toward development of the method into a quantitative diagnostic tool for injuries of ankle ligaments, we addressed the following questions: (a) What is the reliability for measurement of range of motion and laxity of the ankle joint complex? (b) Are there significant differences in laxity between the left and right joints of a healthy individual? and (c) Are there significant differences in laxity of the ankle joint complex between men and women? To answer these questions, we performed repeated measures of range of motion and laxity of paired ankles in a population of 18 healthy young individuals. The high intraclass correlation coefficients obtained from the statistical analysis indicate that the new experimental system is highly reliable in measurement of total range of motion and total laxity of the ankle joint complex. We further concluded that, within the statistical power available in our experimental design, there are no significant differences in either range of motion or laxity between left and right ankles of healthy individuals or between men and women.
General practitioners’ relationship to sickness certification

Objective. GPs’ role conflict in connection with sickness certification is widely accepted. The authors explored the relationship between GPs and this difficult task. Design. Cross-sectional questionnaire study of experiences, attitudes, and management of sickness certification. Data were analysed by hierarchical cluster analysis. Setting. Norway. Subjects. Representative sample of 308 general practitioners from a nationwide panel established by the Research Institute of the Norwegian Medical Association. Main outcome measures. Differentiation of response patterns regarding perceived burden, self-evaluation, doubt, permissiveness, opinions on whether sickness certification is a medical task, and sociopolitical attitude. Associations with hours of patient contact per week, number of sickness certifications per week, job satisfaction, degree of paternalism, and personality characteristics. Results. Four groups evolved, one (12%) with low burden, high self-esteem, little doubt, and permissiveness, another (12%) with the opposite characteristics. They displayed similar sociopolitical attitudes. The third group (32%) was primarily characterized by a biomedical attitude, while the fourth represented a middle position in all dimensions. The first two groups differed on personality characteristics. There were no differences between groups regarding number of sickness certifications per week, job satisfaction, or degree of paternalism. Conclusions. Prominent differences in experiences with sickness certification between groups of doctors exist. No evidence was found of associations between group-level GP differences and sickness certification rates.
Effectiveness of oral zinc supplementation in the treatment of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL).

OBJECTIVE Investigate the benefit of zinc supplement combined with standard treatment ofidiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL) patients. MATERIAL AND METHOD A prospective, randomized study was designed to evaluate the hearing outcomes in ISSNHL patients treated with zinc supplement. The patients were randomized into two groups, the study and the control group. The study group received oral chelated zinc with standard treatment (oral prednisolone), while the control group received standard treatment alone. Hearing improvement was assessed from pure-tone average (PTA) and speech discrimination scores (SDS). RESULTS After treatment, significant hearing improvement was noted in both groups regarding PTA value (p = 0.016, 0.025). SDS was also improved in both groups but with no statistical significance (p > 0.05). Post-treatment PTA and SDS values between the zinc and control groups were not statistically different (p > 0.05). Hearing improvement was documented in eight of 16 patients in the study group and seven of 14 patients in the control group. This was no significant difference (p = 1.000). CONCLUSION Zinc supplementation does not have benefit when combined with standard treatment. Nevertheless, more subjects and well-designed studies are needed to verify the effect of zinc.
A case of metastatic struma ovarii treated with 131I therapy: Focus on preservation of fertility and selected review of the literature

Struma ovarii is a rare monodermal ovarian teratoma composed predominantly of mature thyroid tissue. We describe herein the case of a 22-year-old woman who underwent a right salpingo-oophorectomy for struma ovarii at the age of 12 years, who was admitted 8 years later with signs and symptoms of a left pelvic tumor. Laparoscopy detected a left ovarian endometriotic cyst and multiple nodules on the pelvic peritoneum, right lateral abdominal wall, diaphragm, vesical plica and liver. The diagnosis was abdominal and pelvic widespread dissemination of recurrent struma ovarii, with features consistent with the follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma. The patient was treated with a combination of conservative surgery and two 131I administrations (cumulative activity of 350 mCi after dosimetric evaluation). Because of the high degree of hormonogenesis shown by the metastases, the first administration was performed following use of recombinant human (rh) thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) to reach adequate TSH levels. To avoid the ‘stunning effect’ and to obtain high-quality scintigraphy, a whole-body scan was performed with 123I after rh-TSH and before the 131I therapy. We also discuss the potential role and the possible benefit of using gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogs and ovarian tissue cryopreservation to preserve fertility in women treated with 131I for pelvic metastases from malignant struma ovarii.
Corrective Control to Handle Forecast Uncertainty: A Chance Constrained Optimal Power Flow

Higher shares of electricity generation from renewable energy sources and market liberalization is increasing uncertainty in power systems operation. At the same time, operation is becoming more flexible with improved control systems and new technology such as phase shifting transformers (PSTs) and high voltage direct current connections (HVDC). Previous studies have shown that the use of corrective control in response to outages contributes to a reduction in operating cost, while maintaining N-1 security. In this work, we propose a method to extend the use of corrective control of PSTs and HVDCs to react to uncertainty. We characterize the uncertainty as continuous random variables, and define the corrective control actions through affine control policies. This allows us to efficiently model control reactions to a large number of uncertainty sources. The control policies are then included in a chance constrained optimal power flow formulation, which guarantees that the system constraints are enforced with a desired probability. By applying an analytical reformulation of the chance constraints, we obtain a second-order cone problem for which we develop an efficient solution algorithm. In a case study for the IEEE 118 bus system, we show that corrective control for uncertainty leads to a decrease in operational cost, while maintaining system security. Further, we demonstrate the scalability of the method by solving the problem for the IEEE 300 bus and the Polish system test cases.
Neoadjuvant vinorelbine/epirubicin (VE) versus standard adriamycin/cyclophosphamide (AC) in operable breast cancer: analysis of response and tolerability in a randomised phase III trial (TOPIC 2).

BACKGROUND Vinorelbine is active and well tolerated against advanced breast cancer but there are no published efficacy studies in early breast cancer. We have therefore carried out a randomised phase III neoadjuvant trial in operable breast cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients with > or =3 cm operable breast carcinoma were randomised to receive either vinorelbine 25 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 8 and epirubicin 60 mg/m(2) on day 1, 3 weekly for six cycles (VE) or doxorubicin 60 mg/m(2) and cyclophosphamide 600 mg/m(2) i.v. on day 1, 3 weekly for six cycles (AC), prior to standard local therapy, and adjuvant endocrine therapy as appropriate. RESULTS A total of 451 patients were randomised. Results for AC and VE, respectively, were: overall clinical response 73% and 74%, complete clinical remission 20% and 24%, pathological complete remission 12% and 12%, mastectomy rate 52% and 55%. None of these differences were significant. Dose reduction was required in 8% for AC and 20% for VE (P <0.001) (GSCF support not used). Significantly more grade 3/4 toxicity for nausea, vomiting and alopecia (despite scalp cooling) was seen for AC compared with VE but significantly less grade 3/4 thrombophlebitis and neuropathy. CONCLUSIONS Neoadjuvant VE is as effective as AC in early breast cancer and was better tolerated except for thrombophlebitis and neuropathy.