Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Personality Disturbances in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Case Study Demonstrating Changes in Personality Without Cognitive Deficits

Abstract Patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) often show deficits on neuropsychological tests that tap functions related to the integrity of the prefrontal lobes. Various aspects of personality are also known to be mediated by prefrontal regions, particularly ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Other than apathy, personality changes have not been widely reported in patients with ALS, although clinical observations indicate such changes might be relatively common. Here, we report on a middle-aged woman with bulbar onset ALS (diagnosed 06/2011, examined in Spring, 2012) whose neuropsychological exam did not reveal cognitive deficits. She performed normally on tests of executive functioning. Self-report measures of mood and personality were unremarkable. However, significant personality changes subsequent to disease onset were reported by her husband and two daughters, and these changes were quantified with the Iowa Scales of Personality Change. Results show that personality disturbance may manifest in the absence of notable cognitive changes in ALS, and careful assessment of personality may be important for documenting early neurobehavioral changes in some ALS patients. Findings also show that patients with ALS may not have good insight into personality changes, underscoring the importance of acquiring collateral information. More generally, the results provide further evidence that ALS may compromise the integrity of ventromedial prefrontal regions. (JINS, 2014, 20, 1–8)
A wearable walking monitoring system for gait analysis

In this paper, both hardware and software design to develop a wearable walking monitoring system for gait analysis are presented. For hardware, the mechanism proposed is adaptive to different individuals to wear, and the portability of the design makes it easy to perform outdoor experiments. Four force sensors and two angle displacement sensors were used to measure plantar force distribution and the angles of hip and knee joints. For software design, a novel algorithm was developed to detect different gait phases and the four gait periods during the stance phase. Furthermore, the center of ground contact force was calculated based on the relationships of the force sensors. The results were compared with the VICON motion capture system and a force plate for validation. Experiments showed the behavior of the joint angles are similar to VICON system, and the average error in foot strike time is less than 90 ms.
Agrobacterium tumefaciens mutants affected in attachment to plant cells

An analysis of Agrobacterium tumefaciens mutants with Tn5 insertions in chromosomal DNA showed that the chromosome of A. tumefaciens codes for a specific ability of this bacterium to attach to plant cells. This ability is associated with tumorigenesis by A. tumefaciens, the ability of avirulent A. tumefaciens to inhibit tumorigenesis, and the ability to adsorb certain phages. A second class of chromosomal mutations affects tumorigenesis without altering the ability to attach to plant cells. The attachment of A. tumefaciens to plant cells was assayed by mixing radiolabeled bacteria with suspensions of tobacco tissue culture cells or freshly isolated Zinnia leaf mesophyll cells. Under the conditions of this assay, an avirulent Ti plasmid-cured strain attached to the same extent as the same strain containing pTiB6806. Six of eight avirulent mutants with Tn5 insertions in chromosomal DNA showed defective attachment, whereas two retained wild-type attachment ability. In contrast to the strains showing wild-type attachment, the attachment-defective mutants failed to inhibit tumorigenesis when inoculated onto Jerusalem artichoke slices before inoculation of a virulent strain and also showed a loss of sensitivity to two Agrobacterium phages. The loss of phage sensitivity appeared to be due to a loss of ability to adsorb the phages. Staining with Calcofluor indicated that the mutants retained the ability to synthesize cellulose fibrils, which have been implicated in the attachment process. Southern filter hybridizations demonstrated that each mutant contained a single Tn5 insertion, and genetic linkage between the Tn5 insertion in one mutant and the attachment phenotype has also been demonstrated.
Experimental Model Based Control Design Using Multibody Codes

In this paper we discuss an on-going project at Cornell University aimed at introducing a significant graphical simulation component in the dynamics and control curriculum, and to expose the students to the interplay between simulations and experiments . This is being achieved by incorporating control experiments from Quanser Consulting, MATLAB control software from the Mathworks, and the Working Model 2D and 3D multibody code software from Knowledge Revolution. The benefits of this approach are both economical and pedagogical; only a limited number of control experiments needs to be purchased and maintained, and it exposes to the students to computer simulation and the relationship between simulations and reality.
Uniformly-switching logic for cryptographic hardware

Recent work on differential power analysis shows that even mathematically-secure cryptographic protocols may be vulnerable at the physical implementation level. By measuring energy consumed by a working digital circuit, one can glean enough information to break encryption. Thwarting such attacks requires a new approach to logic and physical design. In this work, we seek to equalize switching activity of a circuit over all possible inputs and input transitions by adding redundant gates and increasing the overall number of signal transitions. We introduce uniformly-switching (U-S) logic, and present a doubling construction that equalizes power dissipation without requiring drastic changes in CAD tools.
An Energy-Efficient Virtual Memory System with Flash Memory as the Secondary Storage

The traditional virtual memory system is designed for decades assuming a magnetic disk as the secondary storage. Recently, flash memory becomes a popular storage alternative for many portable devices with the continuing improvements on its capacity, reliability and much lower power consumption than mechanical hard drives. The NAND flash memory is organized with blocks, and each block contains a set of pages. The characteristics of flash memory are quite different from a magnetic disk. Therefore, in this paper, we revisit virtual memory system design considering limitations imposed by flash memory. In particular, we study the effects of the subpaging technique and storage cache management. In the traditional virtual memory system, a full page is written back to the secondary storage on a page fault. We found that this could result in unnecessary writes thereby wasting energy. The subpaging technique that partitions a page into subunits, and only dirty subpages are written to flash memory is beneficial to the energy efficiency. For the storage cache management, unlike traditional disk cache management, care needs to be taken to guarantee that the flash pages of a main memory page are replaced from the cache in sequence. Experimental results show that the average energy reduction of combined subpaging and caching techniques is 35.6%
Delta1 Expression, Cell Cycle Exit, and Commitment to a Specific Secretory Fate Coincide within a Few Hours in the Mouse Intestinal Stem Cell System

The stem cells of the small intestine are multipotent: they give rise, via transit-amplifying cell divisions, to large numbers of columnar absorptive cells mixed with much smaller numbers of three different classes of secretory cells - mucus-secreting goblet cells, hormone-secreting enteroendocrine cells, and bactericide-secreting Paneth cells. Notch signaling is known to control commitment to a secretory fate, but why are the secretory cells such a small fraction of the population, and how does the diversity of secretory cell types arise? Using the mouse as our model organism, we find that secretory cells, and only secretory cells, pass through a phase of strong expression of the Notch ligand Delta1 (Dll1). Onset of this Dll1 expression coincides with a block to further cell division and is followed in much less than a cell cycle time by expression of Neurog3 – a marker of enteroendocrine fate – or Gfi1 – a marker of goblet or Paneth cell fate. By conditional knock-out of Dll1, we confirm that Delta-Notch signaling controls secretory commitment through lateral inhibition. We infer that cells stop dividing as they become committed to a secretory fate, while their neighbors continue dividing, explaining the final excess of absorptive over secretory cells. Our data rule out schemes in which cells first become committed to be secretory, and then diversify through subsequent cell divisions. A simple mathematical model shows how, instead, Notch signaling may simultaneously govern the commitment to be secretory and the choice between alternative modes of secretory differentiation.
Crosstalk in VLSI interconnections

We address the problem of crosstalk computation and reduction using circuit and layout techniques in this paper. We provide easily computable expressions for crosstalk amplitude and pulse width in resistive, capacitively coupled lines. The expressions hold for nets with arbitrary number of pins and of arbitrary topology under any specified input excitation. Experimental results show that the average error is about 10% and the maximum error is less than 20%. The expressions are used to motivate circuit techniques, such as transistor sizing, and layout techniques, such as wire ordering and wire width optimization to reduce crosstalk.
Aging restricts the ability of mesenchymal stem cells to promote the generation of oligodendrocytes during remyelination

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that leads to severe neurological deficits. Due to their immunomodulatory and neuroprotective activities and their ability to promote the generation of oligodendrocytes, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are currently being developed for autologous cell therapy in MS. As aging reduces the regenerative capacity of all tissues, it is of relevance to investigate whether MSCs retain their pro‐oligodendrogenic activity with increasing age. We demonstrate that MSCs derived from aged rats have a reduced capacity to induce oligodendrocyte differentiation of adult CNS stem/progenitor cells. Aging also abolished the ability of MSCs to enhance the generation of myelin‐like sheaths in demyelinated cerebellar slice cultures. Finally, in a rat model for CNS demyelination, aging suppressed the capability of systemically transplanted MSCs to boost oligodendrocyte progenitor cell (OPC) differentiation during remyelination. Thus, aging restricts the ability of MSCs to support the generation of oligodendrocytes and consequently inhibits their capacity to enhance the generation of myelin‐like sheaths. These findings may impact on the design of therapies using autologous MSCs in older MS patients.
Polarization of Prostate Cancer-associated Macrophages Is Induced by Milk Fat Globule-EGF Factor 8 (MFG-E8)-mediated Efferocytosis*

Background: The growing body of data on tumor-associated macrophages largely neglects phagocytosis of apoptotic cells. Results: MFG-E8, induced during efferocytosis, contributes to macrophage polarization with STAT3/SOCS3 pathway involvement. Conclusion: Efferocytosis induces macrophage polarization into tumor-associated macrophages mediated by MFG-E8. Significance: A novel tumor-promoting mechanism for macrophage polarization through efferocytosis and MFG-E8 and its corresponding signaling pathway were identified. Tumor cells secrete factors that modulate macrophage activation and polarization into M2 type tumor-associated macrophages, which promote tumor growth, progression, and metastasis. The mechanisms that mediate this polarization are not clear. Macrophages are phagocytic cells that participate in the clearance of apoptotic cells, a process known as efferocytosis. Milk fat globule- EGF factor 8 (MFG-E8) is a bridge protein that facilitates efferocytosis and is associated with suppression of proinflammatory responses. This study investigated the hypothesis that MFG-E8-mediated efferocytosis promotes M2 polarization. Tissue and serum exosomes from prostate cancer patients presented higher levels of MFG-E8 compared with controls, a novel finding in human prostate cancer. Coculture of macrophages with apoptotic cancer cells increased efferocytosis, elevated MFG-E8 protein expression levels, and induced macrophage polarization into an alternatively activated M2 phenotype. Administration of antibody against MFG-E8 significantly attenuated the increase in M2 polarization. Inhibition of STAT3 phosphorylation using the inhibitor Stattic decreased efferocytosis and M2 macrophage polarization in vitro, with a correlating increase in SOCS3 protein expression. Moreover, MFG-E8 knockdown tumor cells cultured with wild-type or MFG-E8-deficient macrophages resulted in increased SOCS3 expression with decreased STAT3 activation. This suggests that SOCS3 and phospho-STAT3 act in an inversely dependent manner when stimulated by MFG-E8 and efferocytosis. These results uncover a unique role of efferocytosis via MFG-E8 as a mechanism for macrophage polarization into tumor-promoting M2 cells.
Endovascular (Intraarterial) Treatment of Acute Ischemic Stroke: Efficacy Not Supported by Clinical Trials

Abstract Intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (IV tPA, alteplase) provides a statistically and clinically significant improvement in clinical outcome for carefully selected patients with acute ischemic stroke when administered within 4.5 hours of onset; however, even within the 4.5-hour window, outcome is poor for some eligible patients, including those with occlusions of large arteries (internal carotid, middle cerebral, and basilar) and many patients do not meet the stringent eligibility criteria, especially the time requirement. Intraarterial (also known as endovascular or neurointerventional) therapies have been developed to address these needs. This review summarizes the current evidence for the efficacy of endovascular treatments in acute ischemic stroke. Randomized controlled clinical trials of acute ischemic stroke do not show any added clinical benefit of endovascular treatment over IV tPA alone in IV tPA–eligible patients, even in patients with persistent large-artery occlusion, nor have these trials provided evidence of clinical benefit in patients ineligible for IV tPA because they are >4.5 hours from onset, even if selected by sophisticated neuroimaging. The new stent retrievers, however, were rarely used in these trials. It remains to be determined from trials with direct head-to-head comparisons whether these new devices are superior to standard nonendovascular therapy. If there is a role for endovascular treatment of acute ischemic stroke, it is for patients who can be treated under 4.5 hours but who are ineligible for IV tPA because of increased hemorrhage risk from systemic thrombolytic drug effects, although this remains unproven.
An implementation of power-aware storage architecture

Nowadays, large storage is becoming an important feature of mobile embedded systems as their media functions are getting increasingly powerful and popular. However, no low power cost memory can provide sufficient capacity at low cost. And much higher power consumption of large capacity storage devices such as Microdrive is hard to be accepted. In this paper, we propose a logical storage layer over hybrid storage device composed of flash memory and Microdrive to provide file systems to embedded systems with minimal impact on battery runtime and power consumption. The result shows that the architecture can provide 32 times as much capacity with 10-15% battery runtime impact.
An item response theory analysis of the sexual compulsivity scale and its correspondence with the hypersexual disorder screening inventory among a sample of highly sexually active gay and bisexual men.

INTRODUCTION Numerous scales and assessments are available to assess sexual compulsivity (SC). AIM This study sought to conduct an item response theory (IRT) analysis of the Sexual Compulsivity Scale (SCS) to provide evidence about its measurement precision at the various levels of the SC construct in a sample of highly sexually active gay and bisexual men (GBM). METHODS SCS data from a sample of 202 GBM who are highly sexually active but who vary in their experiences of SC symptoms were modeled using Samejima's polytomous graded response IRT model. To describe the performance of the SCS relative to the Hypersexual Disorder Screening Inventory (HDSI), SCS scores were compared with participants' corresponding HDSI results to determine sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and accuracy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES This study examined the correspondence between the SCS and the HDSI, a diagnostic instrument for the screening of hypersexuality. RESULTS IRT analyses indicated that, although two of the SCS items had low reliability, the SCS as a whole was reliable across much of the SC continuum. Scores on the SCS and the HDSI were highly correlated; however, no potential cutoffs on the SCS corresponded strongly with the polythetic scoring criteria of the HDSI. CONCLUSION Comparisons of SCS scores with HDSI results indicated that the SCS itself could not serve as a substitute for the HDSI and would incorrectly classify a substantial number of individuals' levels of hypersexuality. However, the SCS could be a useful screening tool to provide a preliminary screening of people at risk for meeting criteria on the HDSI. Combining the SCS and the HDSI may be an appropriate evaluation strategy in classifying GBM as negative on both (i.e., "non-hypersexual/non-SC"), positive on the SCS only (i.e., "at risk"), and positive on both the SCS and the HDSI (i.e., "problematic hypersexuality/SC").
Increased Litter Size and Suckling Intensity Stimulate mRNA of RFamide-related Peptide in Rats

Background RFamide-related peptide-3 (RFRP-3) inhibits gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion in rats. This study evaluates the effects of litter size and suckling intensity on RFRP mRNA expression in the dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus (DMH) of rats. Materials and Methods A total of 32 pregnant and 4 non-lactating ovariectomized (control group) Sprague-Dawley rats were used in this experimental study. Lactating rats were allotted to 8 equal groups. In 3 groups, the litter size was adjusted to 5, 10, or 15 pups upon parturition. Dams were allowed to suckle their pups continuously until 8 days postpartum. In the other 3 groups, the litter size was adjusted to 5 pups following birth. These pups were separated from the dams for 6 hours on day 8 postpartum, after which the pups were allowed to suckle for 2.5, 5, or 7.5 minutes prior to killing the dams. In 2 groups, lactating rats with 10 and 15 pups were separated from their pups for 6 hours on day 8 postpartum. In these groups, the pups were allowed to suckle their dams for 5 minutes before the dams were killed. All rats were killed on day 8 postpartum and the DMH was removed from each rat. We evaluated RFRP mRNA expression using realtime polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results The expression of RFRP mRNA in the DMH increased with increased litter size and suckling intensity compared to the controls. The effect of suckling intensity on the expression of RFRP mRNA was more pronounced compared to the litter size. Conclusion Increased litter size and suckling intensity stimulated RFRP mRNA expression in the DMH which might contribute to lactation anestrus in rats.
Functional neuroanatomy of visuospatial working memory in fragile X syndrome: relation to behavioral and molecular measures.

OBJECTIVE Fragile X syndrome is a neurogenetic disorder that is the most common known heritable cause of neurodevelopmental disability. This study examined the neural substrates of working memory in female subjects with fragile X syndrome. Possible correlations among behavioral measures, brain activation, and the FMR1 gene product (FMRP expression), as well as between IQ and behavioral measures, were investigated. METHOD Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine visuospatial working memory in 10 female subjects with fragile X syndrome and 15 typically developing female subjects (ages 10-23 years). Subjects performed standard 1-back and 2-back visuospatial working memory tasks. Brain activation was examined in four regions of the cortex known to play a critical role in visuospatial working memory. Correlations between behavioral, neuroimaging, and molecular measures were examined. RESULTS Relative to the comparison group, subjects with fragile X syndrome performed significantly worse on the 2-back task but not on the 1-back task. In a region-of-interest analysis focused on the inferior frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, superior parietal lobule, and supramarginal gyrus, comparison subjects showed significantly increased brain activation between the 1-back and 2-back tasks, but subjects with fragile X syndrome showed no change in activation between the two tasks. Significant correlations were found in comparison subjects between activation in the frontal and parietal regions and the rate of correct responses on the 2-back task, but not on the 1-back task. In subjects with fragile X syndrome, significant correlations were found during the 2-back task between FMRP expression and activation in the right inferior and bilateral middle frontal gyri and the bilateral supramarginal gyri. CONCLUSIONS Subjects with fragile X syndrome are unable to modulate activation in the prefrontal and parietal cortex in response to an increasing working memory load, and these deficits are related to a lower level of FMRP expression in fragile X syndrome subjects than in normal comparison subjects. The observed correlations between biological markers and brain activation provide new evidence for links between gene expression and cognition.
Study and Implementation of a Single-Stage Current-Fed Boost PFC Converter With ZCS for High Voltage Applications

The study and implementation of a single-stage current-fed full-bridge boost converter with power factor correction (PFC) and zero current switching (ZCS) for high voltage application is presented in this paper. The single-stage current-fed full-bridge boost PFC converter can achieve ZCS by utilizing the leakage inductance and parasitic capacitance as the resonant tank. The variable frequency control scheme with ZCS is used to regulate the output voltage and achieve high power factor. The operating principle, steady-state analysis, and control method of this single-stage AC-DC PFC converter are provided. Also, the ZCS operational conditions under various operational conditions are discussed. The design guidelines are given and verified by a laboratory prototype converter with 200 ~ 240 Vrms input voltage and a 4 kV/1.2 kW output. In order to reduce the switching losses, the highest switching frequency is constrained at 160 kHz. So, the switching frequency of the prototype converter is 50~160 kHz. The measured power factor is 0.995 and the efficiency is 87.4 at full-load condition with an input voltage of 220 Vrms. The laboratory prototype converter can be operated at ZCS under full range by carefully designing the circuit parameters.