Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Frontal-Anatomic Specificity of Design Fluency Repetitions and Their Diagnostic Relevance for Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia

Abstract On tests of design fluency, an examinee draws as many different designs as possible in a specified time limit while avoiding repetition. The neuroanatomical substrates and diagnostic group differences of design fluency repetition errors and total correct scores were examined in 110 individuals diagnosed with dementia, 53 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 37 neurologically healthy controls. The errors correlated significantly with volumes in the right and left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the right and left superior frontal gyrus, the right inferior frontal gyrus, and the right striatum, but did not correlate with volumes in any parietal or temporal lobe regions. Regression analyses indicated that the lateral OFC may be particularly crucial for preventing these errors, even after excluding patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) from the analysis. Total correct correlated more diffusely with volumes in the right and left frontal and parietal cortex, the right temporal cortex, and the right striatum and thalamus. Patients diagnosed with bvFTD made significantly more repetition errors than patients diagnosed with MCI, Alzheimer's disease, semantic dementia, progressive supranuclear palsy, or corticobasal syndrome. In contrast, total correct design scores did not differentiate the dementia patients. These results highlight the frontal-anatomic specificity of design fluency repetitions. In addition, the results indicate that the propensity to make these errors supports the diagnosis of bvFTD. (JINS, 2012, 18, 1–11)
Modeling and Mapping for Customizable Domain-Specific Computing

In this article, we introduce the ongoing research in modeling and mapping for heterogeneous, customizable, parallel systems, as part of the effort in the newly established Center for Domain-Specific Computing (CDSC). This research combines the diverse backgrounds from multiple disciplines, including computer science and engineering, electrical engineering, medicine, and applied mathematics. The goal of this project is to look beyond parallelization and to focus on domain-specific customization as the next disruptive technology to bring orders-of-magnitude power-performance efficiency improvement to important application domains. The project initially focuses on medical imaging applications, which provide an important tool in diagnosis and treatment of most medical problems, but many advances in this field have been constrained to the research environment due to a lack of computational power. Orders of magnitude in power-performance efficiency improvement that this project is expected to deliver will have a tremendeous impact on the applicability of the current applications and on the development of new ones.
Accumulation of Fingolimod (FTY720) in Lymphoid Tissues Contributes to Prolonged Efficacy

The immunomodulator fingolimod (FTY720) induces lymphopenia by inhibiting lymphocyte egress from thymus and secondary lymphoid organs (SLOs). It is phosphorylated mainly by sphingosine kinase (SK) 2 in vivo. FTY720-phosphate (FTY-P) activated and rapidly internalized S1P1, which is the major sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) receptor for mediating lymphocyte egress. Although FTY-P is thought to be the active metabolite for triggering the onset of lymphopenia, nonphosphorylated FTY720 was much more potent in inhibiting cellular calcium flux and splenocyte chemotaxis via S1P1 than FTY-P after preincubation. Determination of both compounds by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry revealed efficient uptake and accumulation of FTY720 but not FTY-P by splenocytes. Coculture experiments of B and T cells with and without FTY720 pretreatment led to rapid cellular transfer and phosphorylation by mouse lymphocytes. The presence of FTY720 in lymphoid tissues of FTY720-treated SK2-deficient mice without onset of lymphopenia excluded a potential role of the nonphosphorylated compound for lymphocyte egress. Local concentrations of both phosphorylated and nonphosphorylated FTY720 were much higher in lymphoid tissues than in blood. Therefore, we conclude that cellular accumulation of FTY720 generates a reservoir in thymus and SLOs, leading to sustained FTY-P production and activation of S1P1 within tissues.
Indoor air quality and health in schools*

Objective: To determine whether indoor air quality in schools is associated with the prevalence of allergic and respiratory diseases in children. Methods: We evaluated 1,019 students at 51 elementary schools in the city of Coimbra, Portugal. We applied a questionnaire that included questions regarding the demographic, social, and behavioral characteristics of students, as well as the presence of smoking in the family. We also evaluated the indoor air quality in the schools. Results: In the indoor air of the schools evaluated, we identified mean concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) above the maximum reference value, especially during the fall and winter. The CO2 concentration was sometimes as high as 1,942 ppm, implying a considerable health risk for the children. The most prevalent symptoms and respiratory diseases identified in the children were sneezing, rales, wheezing, rhinitis, and asthma. Other signs and symptoms, such as poor concentration, cough, headache, and irritation of mucous membranes, were identified. Lack of concentration was associated with CO2 concentrations above the maximum recommended level in indoor air (p = 0.002). There were no other significant associations. Conclusions: Most of the schools evaluated presented with reasonable air quality and thermal comfort. However, the concentrations of various pollutants, especially CO2, suggest the need for corrective interventions, such as reducing air pollutant sources and improving ventilation. There was a statistically significant association between lack of concentration in the children and exposure to high levels of CO2. The overall low level of pollution in the city of Coimbra might explain the lack of other significant associations.
Enantioselective reduction of prochiral ketones by engineered bifunctional fusion proteins

NADPH‐dependent oxidoreductases are useful catalysts for the production of chiral synthons. However, preparative applications of oxidoreductases require efficient methods for in situ regeneration of the expensive nicotinamide cofactors. An advantageous method for cofactor regeneration is the construction of bifunctional fusion proteins composed of two enzymes, one catalysing the reduction reaction and the other one mediating the recycling of cofactors. Herein, we describe the in‐frame fusion between an NADP+‐accepting mutant of FDH (formate dehydrogenase) from Mycobacterium vaccae N10 and KR [3‐ketoacyl‐(acyl‐carrier‐protein) reductase] from Synechococcus sp. strain PCC 7942. The generation of linker insertion mutants led to a fusion protein exhibiting 100 and 80% of the enzymatic activities of native KR and FDH respectively. Escherichia coli cells expressing the fusion protein showed an approx. 2‐fold higher initial reaction rate in the production of chiral alcohols than cells expressing the enzymes separately. The application of the engineered fusion protein in whole‐cell bioreduction of pentafluoroacetophenone resulted in a substrate conversion of 99.97% with an excellent enantiomeric excess of 99.9% (S)‐1‐(pentafluorophenyl)ethanol.
Ankylosing spondylitis and its impact on sexual relationships.

OBJECTIVE To explore the impact of AS on the sexual relationships of a large cohort of patients, across the UK. METHODS A total of 1000 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of AS under the clinical care of 10 specialist rheumatology centres across the UK were invited to participate in a study evaluating a new quality of life measure. Patients completed a questionnaire, which also included questions relating to the impact of AS on their sexual relationships, sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. RESULTS Six hundred and twelve (64%) patients took part in the study. The majority were male (71.6%), mean age 50.8 +/- 12.2 years, mean diagnosed disease duration 17.3 +/- 11.7 years and mean symptom duration 23 +/- 18.6 years. Of those who responded to the question on sexual relationships (n = 552), 210 (38.0%) reported that their sexual relationships were affected 'moderately', 'quite a bit' or 'extremely' by their AS. Males reported greater sexual problems with increasing age. Poor function [odds ratio (OR) 3.64; 95% CI 1.92, 6.87], depression (OR 2.03; 95% CI 1.21, 3.41), greater disease activity (OR 2.10; 95% CI 1.01, 4.40), unemployment (OR 1.99; 95% CI 1.16, 3.40) and poor self-efficacy (OR 1.25; 95% CI 1.09, 1.43) were independently associated with a greater impact on patients' sexual relationships. CONCLUSION AS has a substantial impact on patients' sexual relationships. Management of AS and its impact on sexual relationships should be directed not only towards physical outcomes such as disease activity and physical function, but also take into consideration the psychological state of the patient.
Efficient Active Sensing with Categorized Further Explorations for a Home Behavior-Monitoring Robot

Mobile robotics is a potential solution to home behavior monitoring for the elderly. For a mobile robot in the real world, there are several types of uncertainties for its perceptions, such as the ambiguity between a target object and the surrounding objects and occlusions by furniture. The problem could be more serious for a home behavior-monitoring system, which aims to accurately recognize the activity of a target person, in spite of these uncertainties. It detects irregularities and categorizes situations requiring further explorations, which strategically maximize the information needed for activity recognition while minimizing the costs. Two schemes of active sensing, based on two irregularity detections, namely, heuristic-based and template-matching-based irregularity detections, were implemented and examined for body contour-based activity recognition. Their time cost and accuracy in activity recognition were evaluated through experiments in both a controlled scenario and a home living scenario. Experiment results showed that the categorized further explorations guided the robot system to sense the target person actively. As a result, with the proposed approach, the robot system has achieved higher accuracy of activity recognition.
3D reconstruction of the vessels that enter the right atrium of the mouse heart at Theiler Stage 20

Computer‐generated 3D reconstructions of a serially sectioned mouse embryo at Theiler Stage (TS) 20 (E 12–12.5 d.p.c.) were studied. This study investigated the vessels that enter the right atrium of the heart and the drainage of the ductus venosus. It was principally undertaken to allow a comparison to be made between the situation in the mouse and at a comparable stage of human development. Later stages of prenatal development were also studied in the mouse by the analysis of serially sectioned embryos at TS 21–26. As no left brachiocephalic vein forms in the mouse, unlike the situation in the human, the left (cranial) superior vena cava drains via the left common cardinal vein, later to become the coronary sinus, into the floor of the right atrium. It was also noted that unlike the situation in the human, at no stage during the prenatal period does the ductus venosus enter the right atrium. Even shortly before birth, it enters the intra‐hepatic part of the inferior vena cava at a considerable distance caudal to the right atrium. This study indicates that the haemodynamics of the prenatal cardiac circulation in the mouse differs significantly from that in the human. Clin. Anat. 18:27–38, 2005. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Genomic Loss of miR-486 Regulates Tumor Progression and the OLFM4 Antiapoptotic Factor in Gastric Cancer

Purpose: MicroRNAs (miRNA) play pivotal oncogenic and tumor-suppressor roles in several human cancers. We sought to discover novel tumor-suppressor miRNAs in gastric cancer (GC). Experimental Design: Using Agilent miRNA microarrays, we compared miRNA expression profiles of 40 primary gastric tumors and 40 gastric normal tissues, identifying miRNAs significantly downregulated in gastric tumors. Results: Among the top 80 miRNAs differentially expressed between gastric tumors and normals (false discovery rate < 0.01), we identified hsa-miR-486 (miR-486) as a significantly downregulated miRNA in primary GCs and GC cell lines. Restoration of miR-486 expression in GC cell lines (YCC3, SCH and AGS) caused suppression of several pro-oncogenic traits, whereas conversely inhibiting miR-486 expression in YCC6 GC cells enhanced cellular proliferation. Array-CGH analysis of 106 primary GCs revealed genomic loss of the miR-486 locus in approximately 25% to 30% of GCs, including two tumors with focal genomic losses specifically deleting miR-486, consistent with miR-486 playing a tumor-suppressive role. Bioinformatic analysis identified the secreted antiapoptotic glycoprotein OLFM4 as a potential miR-486 target. Restoring miR-486 expression in GC cells decreased endogenous OLFM4 transcript and protein levels, and also inhibited expression of luciferase reporters containing an OLFM4 3′ untranslated region with predicted miR-486 binding sites. Supporting the biological relevance of OLFM4 as a miR-486 target, proliferation in GC cells was also significantly reduced by OLFM4 silencing. Conclusions:miR-486 may function as a novel tumor-suppressor miRNA in GC. Its antioncogenic activity may involve the direct targeting and inhibition of OLFM4. Clin Cancer Res; 17(9); 2657–67. ©2011 AACR.
Feeding on Multiple Sources: Towards a Universal Parameterization of the Functional Response of a Generalist Predator Allowing for Switching

Understanding of complex trophic interactions in ecosystems requires correct descriptions of the rate at which predators consume a variety of different prey species. Field and laboratory data on multispecies communities are rarely sufficient and usually cannot provide an unambiguous test for the theory. As a result, the conventional way of constructing a multi-prey functional response is speculative, and often based on assumptions that are difficult to verify. Predator responses allowing for prey selectivity and active switching are thought to be more biologically relevant compared to the standard proportion-based consumption. However, here we argue that the functional responses with switching may not be applicable to communities with a broad spectrum of resource types. We formulate a set of general rules that a biologically sound parameterization of a predator functional response should satisfy, and show that all existing formulations for the multispecies response with prey selectivity and switching fail to do so. Finally, we propose a universal framework for parameterization of a multi-prey functional response by combining patterns of food selectivity and proportion-based feeding.
Spatial error concealment of corrupted image data using frequency selective extrapolation

The paper introduces a method for spatial error concealment of lost image data in erroneous image transmission. The image content of the correctly received surrounding blocks is successively approximated by a weighted linear combination of basis functions and the missing block is obtained by extrapolation. An implementation in the frequency domain allows an efficient realization. Investigations show that particularly 2D DFT basis functions are suited for signal extrapolation in order to be able to reconstruct both monotone areas and edges.
Correlation Between Structural and Functional Retinal Changes in Parkinson Disease

Background: To evaluate structural changes in the retina and correlate those with visual function measurements in patients with Parkinson disease (PD). Methods: A cross-sectional comparative study of 20 patients with PD and 20 age-matched healthy controls was conducted. Visual acuity, color vision, contrast sensitivity, visual fields, pattern visual-evoked response (VER), and multifocal electroretinogram were recorded to determine functional change, whereas structural changes were evaluated with retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness, macular thickness, macular volume, and ganglion cell–inner plexiform layer complex (GCL-IPL) thickness using spectral domain ocular coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Results: PD patients ranged from Stage 1–3, with median Stage 2 (Hoehn and Yahr Classification) with mean Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale III score of 19 ± 10.42, and average disease duration of 5.8 ± 2.78 years. Visual acuity, color vision, and visual fields were unaffected but contrast sensitivity was significantly worse than controls (P < 0.001). Multifocal electroretinogram values in the central 2° field revealed decreased foveal electrical activity, with increased pattern VER amplitude and latency. Significant RNFL thinning was observed in the average RNFL (P = 0.033), superior (P = 0.018), and temporal (P = 0.036) quadrants. Significant ganglion cell layer loss was captured on SD-OCT with average, minimum GCL-IPL, and all 6 sectors showing thinning (P ⩽ 0.003). The functional changes correlated significantly with structural changes, disease duration, and severity. There was no correlation between structural changes in the retina and disease duration or severity. Conclusions: Subclinical visual dysfunction was observed in patients with PD with good structural–functional correlation. GCL-IPL thinning may be a more reliable parameter than RNFL thickness for structural alterations of the retina in patients with PD.
MCquery: interactive visual query of relational data with coordinating context displays

The use of visual queries for relational data retrieval is a well-known approach. Various advanced visualization methods have been proposed to improve the quality of such queries. However, most of current methods focus on constructing queries in a single visualization context that increases user's efforts significantly in visually matching the details with their contexts. The single visualization causes the isolation of data models and query results which could be displayed on a single screen. The challenge is how to visually and synchronously represent all data models, queries and query results in a single screen that will make much convenient for users to interact with the visualization. For dealing with the challenge, this paper proposes a novel method called MCquery. This method allows query specification in the coordinating visual contexts of data models and query results by interaction on node-link graphs of relational data representations. MCquery enables relational data to be analyzed with concrete and relative results from the incremental exploration of data models, queries and query results. The demonstration based on a typical case study shows that MCquery is useful for exploring relational data in a single screen with synchronous visual integration of data models, queries and query results.
Exploring Occasion Specificity in the Assessment of DSM-5 Maladaptive Personality Traits: A Latent State-Trait Analysis

The alternative classification system for personality disorders in DSM-5 features a hierarchical model of maladaptive personality traits. This trait model comprises five broad trait domains and 25 specific trait facets that can be reliably assessed using the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5). Although there is a steadily growing literature on the validity of the PID-5, issues of temporal stability and situational influences on test scores are currently unexplored. We addressed these issues using a sample of 611 research participants who completed the PID-5 three times, with time intervals of 2 months. Latent state-trait (LST) analyses for each of the 25 PID-5 trait facets showed that, on average, 79.5% of the variance was due to stable traits (i.e., consistency), and 7.7% of the variance was due to situational factors (i.e., occasion specificity). Our findings suggest that the PID-5 trait facets predominantly capture individual differences that are stable across time.
pASSWORD tYPOS and How to Correct Them Securely

We provide the first treatment of typo-tolerant password authentication for arbitrary user-selected passwords. Such a system, rather than simply rejecting a login attempt with an incorrect password, tries to correct common typographical errors on behalf of the user. Limited forms of typo-tolerance have been used in some industry settings, but to date there has been no analysis of the utility and security of such schemes. We quantify the kinds and rates of typos made by users via studies conducted on Amazon Mechanical Turk and via instrumentation of the production login infrastructure at Dropbox. The instrumentation at Dropbox did not record user passwords or otherwise change authentication policy, but recorded only the frequency of observed typos. Our experiments reveal that almost 10% of login attempts fail due to a handful of simple, easily correctable typos, such as capitalization errors. We show that correcting just a few of these typos would reduce login delays for a significant fraction of users as well as enable an additional 3% of users to achieve successful login. We introduce a framework for reasoning about typo-tolerance, and investigate the seemingly inherent tension here between security and usability of passwords. We use our framework to show that there exist typo-tolerant authentication schemes that can get corrections for "free": we prove they are as secure as schemes that always reject mistyped passwords. Building off this theory, we detail a variety of practical strategies for securely implementing typo-tolerance.
Perceived collective continuity and social well‐being: exploring the connections

Research has shown that people tend to perceive the groups to which they belong (e.g., national groups) as temporally persistent. In this paper we argue that enhanced perceptions of collective continuity lead to lower levels of anomy and misfit, and to higher levels of social well-being (SWB). Furthermore, we argue that the effects of perceived collective continuity (PCC) on SWB are mediated by collective self-esteem (CSE). Finally, we contend that PCC has positive effects on perceived group entitativity (PGE), which in turn has a positive influence on CSE. This model is tested by means of a cross-sectional study using a sample of Spanish nationals (N = 145) drawn from the general public. Results confirm that the data fit the model well. These findings are in line with research demonstrating that a sense of personal continuity through time is related with better mental health and personal well-being. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Ray-tracing-based reconstruction algorithms for digital breast tomosynthesis

Abstract. As a breast-imaging technique, digital breast tomosynthesis has great potential to improve the diagnosis of early breast cancer over mammography. Ray-tracing-based reconstruction algorithms, such as ray-tracing back projection, maximum-likelihood expectation maximization (MLEM), ordered-subset MLEM (OS-MLEM), and simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique (SART), have been developed as reconstruction methods for different breast tomosynthesis systems. This paper provides a comparative study to investigate these algorithms by computer simulation and phantom study. Experimental results suggested that, among the four investigated reconstruction algorithms, OS-MLEM and SART performed better in interplane artifact removal with a fast speed convergence.
Incorporating Novel Path Planning Method into Cognitive Vision System for Safe Human-Robot Interaction

In this paper, a novel path planning method is presented and discussed. The method has its application in tasks like human-robot-interaction and cooperation. Thus special boundary conditions, i.e., real-time behaviour and safety, are of great interest. According to the presented results, cognitive industrial robotics without safety fences and a great autonomy are on their way to become part of our everyday life.