Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional magnetic resonance imaging study on dysphagia after unilateral hemispheric stroke: a preliminary study

Background: Swallowing dysfunction is common and disabling after acute stroke; however, the mechanism of dysphagia or recovery of swallowing from dysphagia remains uncertain. The purpose of this study was to explore cerebral activation of swallowing in dysphagia using functional MRI (fMRI) to compare the functional anatomy of swallowing in unilateral hemispheric stroke patients and healthy adults. Methods: In total, five left hemispheric stroke patients with dysphagia, five right hemispheric stroke patients with dysphagia and 10 healthy controls were examined with event related fMRI while laryngeal swallow related movements were recorded. Data were processed using the general linear model. Results: A multifocal cerebral representation of swallowing was identified predominantly in the left hemisphere, in a bilateral and asymmetrical manner. Cerebral activation during swallowing tasks was localised to the precentral, postcentral and anterior cingulate gyri, insula and thalamus in all groups. Activation of volitional swallowing in dysphagic unilateral hemispheric stroke patients might require reorganisation of the dominant hemispheric motor cortex, or a compensatory shift in activation to unaffected areas of the hemisphere. Conclusions: The results indicate that unilateral stroke of either cerebral hemisphere can produce dysphagia. Effective recovery is associated with cerebral activation related to cortical swallowing representation in the compensating or recruited areas of the intact hemisphere. Functional MRI is a useful method for exploring the spatial localisation of changes in neuronal activity during tasks that may be related to recovery. Therefore, the subsequent information gleaned from changes in neural plasticity could be useful for assessing the prognosis of dysphagic stroke.
Robust Tomlinson-Harashima Precoding

Tomlinson-Harashima precoding (THP) for a wireless system with multiple cooperative transmitters and non-cooperative receivers is considered (downlink channel). In the literature THP has been optimized for this channel assuming complete channel state information (CSI). But quality of CSI is generally poor at the transmitter due to the time-varying channel. We present a robust optimization of THP and a combined optimization of THP and channel estimation, which take into account the quality of CSI. They yield a significantly improved robustness towards errors in CSI
Current status of bevacizumab in advanced ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological cancer, mainly because of the delay in diagnosis. Recently, much effort has been put into investigating and introducing novel targeted agents into clinical practice, with the aim of improving prognosis and quality of life. Angiogenesis is a possible target. The aim of this review is to investigate the most common molecular pathways of angiogenesis, which have provided novel targets for tailored therapy in patients with ovarian cancer. These therapeutic strategies include monoclonal antibodies and tyrosine-kinase inhibitors. These drugs have as molecular targets vascular endothelial growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor receptors, platelet-derived growth factor, fibroblast growth factor, and angiopoietin. Bevacizumab was investigated in several Phase III studies, with interesting results. Today, there is strong evidence for introducing bevacizumab in the treatment of patients with advanced and recurrent ovarian cancer. Nevertheless, further investigations and large clinical trials are needed to understand the safety and effectiveness of bevacizumab, the optimal duration and timing of treatment, and activity in association with other chemotherapeutic and targeted agents. It also is necessary to identify biologic factors predictive of efficacy to choose the most appropriate antiangiogenic agent in the integrated treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer.
Butyrate affects differentiation, maturation and function of human monocyte‐derived dendritic cells and macrophages

We studied the in vitro effects of butyric acid on differentiation, maturation and function of dendritic cells (DC) and macrophages (MΦ) generated from human monocytes. A non‐toxic dose of butyrate was shown to alter the phenotypic differentiation process of DC as assessed by a persistence of CD14, and a decreased CD54, CD86 and HLA class II expression. The more immature differentiation stage of treated cells was confirmed further by their increased phagocytic capability, their altered capacity to produce IL‐10 and IL‐12, and their weak allostimulatory abilities. Butyrate also altered DC terminal maturation, regardless of the maturation inducer, as demonstrated by a strong down‐regulation of CD83, a decreased expression of CD40, CD86 and HLA class II. Similarly, butyrate altered MΦ differentiation, down‐regulating the expression of the restricted membrane antigens and reducing the phagocytic capacity of treated cells. To investigate further the mechanism by which butyrate hampers the monocyte dual differentiation pathway, we studied the effects of 1,25(OH)2D3 alone or in combination with butyrate on the phenotypic features of DC. Unlike 1,25(OH)2D3, butyrate inhibited DC differentiation without redirecting it towards MΦ. Combined treatment gave rise to a new cell subset (CD14high, CD86 and HLA‐DRlow) phenotypically distinct from monocytes. These results reveal an alternative mechanism of inhibition of DC and MΦ differentiation. Altogether, our data demonstrate a novel immune suppression property of butyrate that may modulate both inflammatory and immune responses and support further the interest for butyrate and its derivatives as new immunotherapeutic agents.
Corruption as a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Costa Rica

An influential body of scholarship argues that corruption behaves as a selffulfilling prophecy. The idea of this work is that levels of corruption emerge endogenously as a result of a society-wide coordination game in which ther individual returns to corrupt behavior are a function of how disposed towards corruption the other members of society are perceived as being. An empirical implication of this logic is that if one were to exogenously perturb beliefs about societal levels of corruption upward, willingness to engage in corruption should increase as a consequence. The current paper evaluates this claim by utilizing an information experiment embedded in a large-scale household survey conducted in the Gran Area Metropolitana (GAM) of Costa Rica from October 2013 to April 2014 (n=4200). Changes in beliefs about corruption were induced via the random assignment of an informational display depicting the increasing percentage of Costa Ricans who have experienced or directly observed an act of corruption (from 2006 to 2011). The paper finds that, on average, assignment to this display (relative to the control condition) increased the probability that a respondent would be willing to pay a bribe to a police officer by approximately 0. 04 to 0. 08, thereby providing supporting evidence for the self-fulfilling prophecy hypothesis.
Genome-wide survey of Arabidopsis natural variation in downy mildew resistance using combined association and linkage mapping

The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana exhibits extensive natural variation in resistance to parasites. Immunity is often conferred by resistance (R) genes that permit recognition of specific races of a disease. The number of such R genes and their distribution are poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the basis for resistance to the downy mildew agent Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis ex parasitica (Hpa) in a global sample of A. thaliana. We implemented a combined genome-wide mapping of resistance using populations of recombinant inbred lines and a collection of wild A. thaliana accessions. We tested the interaction between 96 host genotypes collected worldwide and five strains of Hpa. Then, a fraction of the species-wide resistance was genetically dissected using six recently constructed populations of recombinant inbred lines. We found that resistance is usually governed by single dominant R genes that are concentrated in four genomic regions only. We show that association genetics of resistance to diseases such as downy mildew enables increased mapping resolution from quantitative trait loci interval to candidate gene level. Association patterns in quantitative trait loci intervals indicate that the pool of A. thaliana resistance sources against the tested Hpa isolates may be predominantly confined to six RPP (Resistance to Hpa) loci isolated in previous studies. Our results suggest that combining association and linkage mapping could accelerate resistance gene discovery in plants.
DIVORCE AND THE FAMILY COURT: WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE?

Approximately 50% of couples who have separated report being victims of violence and/or emotional abuse by their former intimate partners. Family courts can make an important contribution toward reducing the number of intimate partners who report being victims of domestic violence and abuse during and following their participation in divorce proceedings in three ways. First, increase opportunities for participation in nonadversarial procedures. Second, implement mandatory assessment/screening for domestic violence using field-tested instruments that link subscores on sets of items (e.g., control motivated violence, conflict instigated violence/abuse, substance abuse associated violence/abuse) with appropriate community-based treatments and/or resources. Third, educate family court judges, lawyers, mediators, and other court personnel in the dynamics of domestic violence generally, as well as the dynamics associated with separation/divorce.
Haptic Guidance Improves the Visuo-Manual Tracking of Trajectories

Background Learning to perform new movements is usually achieved by following visual demonstrations. Haptic guidance by a force feedback device is a recent and original technology which provides additional proprioceptive cues during visuo-motor learning tasks. The effects of two types of haptic guidances-control in position (HGP) or in force (HGF)–on visuo-manual tracking (“following”) of trajectories are still under debate. Methodology/Principals Findings Three training techniques of haptic guidance (HGP, HGF or control condition, NHG, without haptic guidance) were evaluated in two experiments. Movements produced by adults were assessed in terms of shapes (dynamic time warping) and kinematics criteria (number of velocity peaks and mean velocity) before and after the training sessions. Trajectories consisted of two Arabic and two Japanese-inspired letters in Experiment 1 and ellipses in Experiment 2. We observed that the use of HGF globally improves the fluency of the visuo-manual tracking of trajectories while no significant improvement was found for HGP or NHG. Conclusion/Significance These results show that the addition of haptic information, probably encoded in force coordinates, play a crucial role on the visuo-manual tracking of new trajectories.
Bmc Medical Research Methodology Open Access Locating Sex-specific Evidence on Clinical Questions in Medline: a Search Filter for Use on Ovidsp™

Background: Many recently published clinical studies report sex-specific data. This information may help to improve clinical decision-making for both sexes, but it is not easily accessible in MEDLINE. The aim of this project was to develop and validate a search filter that would facilitate the retrieval of studies reporting high quality sex-specific data on clinical questions.
The Effect of Fuel Contracting Constraints on SO 2 Trading Program Compliance : Empirical Evidence

The U.S. SO2 Trading Program created by Title IV of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendment led to lower compliance costs than what would have occurred under a Command-and-Control approach. However, all compliance cost savings were not realized. There have been several conjectures, including rigidities from fuel contracts, as to why the hypothetical outcome was not obtained. Kneifel (2008) shows how fuel contracts could alter a generating unit’s compliance decision in the U.S. SO2 Trading Program, but ignores any aggregate allowance market and industry-wide compliance cost impacts. This paper expands on Kneifel (2008) by looking at the allowance market equilibrium impacts and total industry compliance costs from fuel contracts both analytically and empirically. This paper also uses generating unit-level simulations to replicate results from previous studies and show that fuel contracts appear to explain a large portion of the previously unexplained compliance cost simulations. Based on the simulation results, actual total industry compliance costs were $1.17 billion compared to the least-cost outcome of $288.3 million, or $878.8 million in excess compliance costs. Once fuel contracts are introduced into the simulations, minimum total industry compliance costs increase to $939.4 million, which explains $651.1 million of the excess compliance costs, or 74%. Also, this paper considers a more appropriate level for compliance decisions. The literature has only considered compliance costs at the generating unit level up to this point. However, actual compliance decisions would be made at the plant level. This paper analytically analyzes the plant level decision-making process to show how costminimization at the more complex plant level may deviate from cost-minimization at the generating unit level. Choices may not minimize costs at the generating unit level, but should result in lower costs at the plant level and lead to lower costs overall.
Poly[aqua(μ2-4,4′-bipyridine-κ2 N:N′)(ethane-1,2-diol-κO)(μ2-sulfato-κ2 O:O′)nickel(II)]

The title compound, [Ni(SO4)(C10H8N2)(C2H6O2)(H2O)]n, contains two crystallographically unique NiII atoms, each lying on a twofold rotation axis and having a slightly distorted octahedral environment. It is isotypic with the previously reported CuII analog [Zhong et al. (2011 ▶). Acta Cryst. C67, m62–m64]. One NiII atom is coordinated by two N atoms from two bridging 4,4′-bipyridine (4,4′-bipy) ligands, two O atoms from two sulfate ions and two aqua O atoms. The second NiII atom is surrounded by two N atoms from 4,4′-bipy ligands and four O atoms, two from bridging sulfate ions and from two ethane-1,2-diol ligands. The sulfate anion acts as a bridging ligand, linking adjacent NiII atoms, leading to the formation of linear ⋯Ni1—Ni2—Ni1—Ni2⋯ chains along the a-axis direction. Adjacent chains are further bridged by 4,4′-bipy ligands, resulting in a two-dimensional layered polymer parallel to (001). In the crystal, the polymeric layers are linked by extensive O—H⋯O hydrogen-bonding interactions involving the O atoms of the water molecules and the ethane-1,2-diol molecules, resulting in a three-dimensional supramolecular network.
Object Classification using RGB-D data for Vision Aids Apples and Oranges

With the increased availability of cheap and reliable depth sensors, imaging systems can now use depth information to better detect and locate objects in a scene. New augmented reality (AR) systems, such as the Microsoft HoloLens, are now mounting depth sensors on their glasses to improve functionality. The motivation behind our project is to perform object recognition using RGB-D (color and depth) data for a vision aid being developed at Stanford. This vision aid consists of a pair of AR goggles with an Asus Xtion depth sensor mounted on top of it. We would like to use the RGB-D data from this sensor to train a classifier that can recognize household items from a database. Information on the classified object can then be relayed to a user through the vision aid. This system has the potential to help the visually impaired navigate and perform everyday tasks more efficiently. Our training data consists of an RGB-D data set from a team at the University of Washington. We used two different 3D descriptors to extract feature vectors that describe each frame of RGB-D data. The input features to our algorithm are these descriptor vectors. We then use SVM to train a classifier that can output the predicted class of new RGB-D images. Using test data we collected with our own experimental setup, we evaluated the effectiveness of our classifier. The best cross validation results gave 89% accuracy while using the SHOTCOLOR descriptors and a subset of tested items. Experimental results from this model had a prediction accuracy of 83% when presented with testing data obtained from our experimental setup.
Mobile media learning: multiplicities of place

Purpose – This paper seeks to build a theory of mobile media learning by studying indigenous use of these media and theorizing what impact they might have on learning and education.Design/methodology/approach – Using a critical approach, the paper reviews contemporary developments in mobile media learning particularly those happening outside of schools. It includes reviews of games and/or media, literature (particularly firsthand accounts published by designers and/or users), and analyses of online communities.Findings – Although mobile media learning has mostly been framed as “anytime, anywhere” their more profound impact may be in the experience of place. Mobile media enables a multiplicity and hybridity of place that causes opportunities and challenges to learning and education.Research limitations/implications – To date, there has been relatively little close study of how youth use such media in educational and learning contexts, and more case studies are needed to understand the impact of mobile medi.
DISTRIBUTED SHARED MEMORY SYSTEMS

Software Distributed Shared Memory (DSM) systems have been proposed to provide the convenience of shared memory programming on clusters of workstations. Different research groups advocate specific design decisions in their implementations. In this paper we present an experimental comparison of the communication requirements of three different page based systems software DSM systems, CVM, Quarks and Strings. Programs from the SPLASH-2 benchmark suite and some computational kernels are used to evaluate these systems. This paper shows the effect of different design decisions used in each of the DSMs on the same evaluation environment, a cluster of symmetrical multiprocessors. It is seen that systems that allow multiple application threads, like Strings and CVM, require lower number of messages when compared to Quarks. CVM and Quarks use user level threads for implementing the runtime, and it seen that they cannot effectively exploit multiple processors on each node. The Strings DSM uses kernel level threads and shows the best overall performance in a majority of the applications examined.
An engineering approach to business model experimentation - an online investment research startup case study

Every organization needs a viable business model. Strikingly, most of current literature is focused on business model design, whereas there is almost no attention for business model validation and implementation and related business model experimentation. The goal of the research as described in this paper is to develop a business model engineering tool for supporting business model management as a continuous design, validation and implementation cycle. The tool is applied to an online investment research startup in roll out and market phase. This paper describes the research as performed in a case study setting by focusing on the design, implementation and evaluation of the business model engineering tool. We also analyze the actual implementation and usage of the business model tool by the online investment research startup by focusing on the most critical actions related to actual business model implementation – i.e. actions with so-called ‘Lollapalooza tendencies’.
Inside-out flowers of Lacandonia brasiliana (Triuridaceae) provide new insights into fundamental aspects of floral patterning

Background and Aims. A recently described Brazilian species, Lacandonia brasiliana, shares with its longer established putative sister species from Mexico, L. schismatica, inverted floral patterning (carpels surrounding stamens) that is almost unique among angiosperms. We present a detailed ontogenetic study of L. brasiliana for comparison with other members of the tribe Triurideae (Triuridaceae) to explore the possible evolutionary origins of “inside-out” flowers. Methods. Wild-source populations of L. brasiliana were compared morphologically and ontogenetically with related species of Triurideae, using light and scanning electron microscopy. Key Results. Relatively few morphological differences separate flowers of L. brasiliana and L. schismatica. Both species have tepals with late-developing subapical appendages. In both species, the three central (almost sessile) anthers develop precociously with respect to the carpels; the anthers remain closed, and fertilization is achieved via pollen-tube growth from germinating pollen grains of the same cleistogamous flower. Carpels are initiated on fascicles. Conclusions. The close similarity between the two Lacandonia species makes it unlikely that they arose independently from two separate homeotic transformation events; they could either represent sister species or two populations of a single disjunct species. Our study underlines the problematic generic and species boundaries within Triurideae. We present an evolutionary scenario of character evolution in Triuridaceae. The inside-out Lacandonia flower could have resulted from a stabilized homeotic transformation; this hypothesis is not in conflict with constrasting theories of the origin of the Triuridaceae flower, which coincided with a shift to unisexuality. The unisexual yet highly plastic flowers that are typical of Triuridaceae could have pre-adapted the origin of the extraordinary Lacandonia morphology.
Influence of Carrier Gas Composition on the Stress of Al2O3 Coatings Prepared by the Aerosol Deposition Method

Al2O3 films were prepared by the aerosol deposition method at room temperature using different carrier gas compositions. The layers were deposited on alumina substrates and the film stress of the layer was calculated by measuring the deformation of the substrate. It was shown that the film stress can be halved by using oxygen instead of nitrogen or helium as the carrier gas. The substrates were annealed at different temperature steps to gain information about the temperature dependence of the reduction of the implemented stress. Total relaxation of the stress can already be achieved at 300 °C. The XRD pattern shows crystallite growth and reduction of microstrain while annealing.
Associative Recognition Processes Are Modulated by Modality Relations

Although memory of episodic associations is generally considered to be recollective in nature, it has been suggested that when stimuli are experienced as a unit, familiarity-related processes might contribute to their subsequent associative recognition. Furthermore, intradomain associations are believed to be unitized more readily than interdomain associations. To assess these claims, we tested associative recognition following two types of pair associate learning. In the unimodal task, stimulus pairs were pictures of common objects, whereas in the cross-modal task, stimulus pairs consisted of an object picture and an unrelated environmental sound. At test, participants discriminated intact from recombined pairs while ERPs were recorded. In the unimodal task only, associative recognition was accompanied by a robust frontal deflection reminiscent of a component commonly interpreted as related to familiarity processes. In contrast, ERP correlates of associative recognition observed at more posterior sites, akin to a component that has been related to recollection, were apparent in both tasks. These findings indicate that retrieval of unimodal associations can be supported by familiarity-related processes that are dissociable from recollective processes required for the retrieval of cross-modal associations.