Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perceiving Electrical Stimulation of Identified Human Visual Areas

We studied whether detectable percepts could be produced by electrical stimulation of intracranial electrodes placed over human visual areas identified with fMRI. Identification of areas was confirmed by recording local-field potentials from the electrode, such as face-selective electrical responses from electrodes over the fusiform face area (FFA). The probability of detecting electrical stimulation of a visual area varied with the position of the area in the visual cortical hierarchy. Stimulation of early visual areas including V1, V2, and V3 was almost always detected, whereas stimulation of late visual areas such as FFA was rarely detected. When percepts were elicited from late areas, subjects reported that they were simple shapes and colors, similar to the descriptions of percepts from early areas. There were no reports of elaborate percepts, such as faces, even in areas like FFA, where neurons have complex response properties. For sites eliciting percepts, the detection threshold was determined by varying the stimulation current as subjects performed a forced-choice detection task. Current thresholds were similar for late and early areas. The similarity between both percept quality and threshold across early and late areas suggests the presence of functional microcircuits that link electrical stimulation with perception.
THE ROLE OF GENDER IN SALT-INDUCED HYPERTENSION

To evaluate gender differences in salt-induced hypertension, female and male Dahl salt-sensitive rats were fed high (8.0% NaCl, HS) and low (0.3% NaCl, LS) salt diets. During a 3-week treatment period, blood pressure was significantly elevated in both female and male HS groups compared to their respective LS groups. The blood pressure and 4 week mortality rate of the female HS group, however, were significantly lower than those of the male HS group. Renal and aortic blood flows were reduced in male rats on HS diet compared to the LS group, while, in females, renal blood flow was elevated and aortic flow was maintained while on HS diet. Plasma prostaglandin E2 and prostacyclin levels were higher in females than males and unaffected by diet. In contrast, plasma nitric oxide levels were reduced by HS, regardless of gender. In isolated aortic rings, HS diet caused a smaller elevation in the stimulated norepinephrine release ratio in female rats than in males. Thus, salt-induced hypertension is associated with a reduction in levels of nitric oxide regardless of gender. Plasma prostaglandin E2 and prostacyclin levels were higher in females. Taken together, the higher plasma prostaglandin levels and reduced sympathetic activity in females may be contributing factors in their lower blood pressure and reduced mortality.
Enhanced Muscle Insulin Sensitivity After Contraction/Exercise Is Mediated by AMPK

Earlier studies have demonstrated that muscle insulin sensitivity to stimulate glucose uptake is enhanced several hours after an acute bout of exercise. Using AICAR, we recently demonstrated that prior activation of AMPK is sufficient to increase insulin sensitivity in mouse skeletal muscle. Here we aimed to determine whether activation of AMPK is also a prerequisite for the ability of muscle contraction to increase insulin sensitivity. We found that prior in situ contraction of m. extensor digitorum longus (EDL) and treadmill exercise increased muscle and whole-body insulin sensitivity in wild-type (WT) mice, respectively. These effects were not found in AMPKα1α2 muscle-specific knockout mice. Prior in situ contraction did not increase insulin sensitivity in m. soleus from either genotype. Improvement in muscle insulin sensitivity was not associated with enhanced glycogen synthase activity or proximal insulin signaling. However, in WT EDL muscle, prior in situ contraction enhanced insulin-stimulated phosphorylation of TBC1D4 Thr649 and Ser711. Such findings are also evident in prior exercised and insulin-sensitized human skeletal muscle. Collectively, our data suggest that the AMPK-TBC1D4 signaling axis is likely mediating the improved muscle insulin sensitivity after contraction/exercise and illuminates an important and physiologically relevant role of AMPK in skeletal muscle.
Role of Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3β in APP Hyperphosphorylation Induced by NMDA Stimulation in Cortical Neurons

The phosphorylation of Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) at Thr668 plays a key role in APP metabolism that is highly relevant to AD. The c-Jun-N-terminal kinase (JNK), glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) and cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) can all be responsible for this phosphorylation. These kinases are activated by excitotoxic stimuli fundamental hallmarks of AD. The exposure of cortical neurons to a high dose of NMDA (100 μM) for 30’-45’ led to an increase of P-APP Thr668. During NMDA stimulation APP hyperphosphorylation has to be assigned to GSK-3β activity, since addition of L803-mts, a substrate competitive inhibitor of GSK-3β reduced APP phosphorylation induced by NMDA. On the contrary, inhibition of JNK and Cdk5 with D-JNKI1 and Roscovitine respectively did not prevent NMDA-induced P-APP increase. These data show a tight connection, in excitotoxic conditions, between APP metabolism and the GSK-3β signaling pathway.
Efficient Tree-Based Feature Descriptor and Matching Algorithm

This paper presents the development of a new feature descriptor derived from previous work on the basis sparse-coding inspired similarity descriptor that provides smaller descriptor size, simpler computations, faster matching speed, and higher accuracy. The TreeBASIS descriptor algorithm uses a binary vocabulary tree that is computed offline using basis sparse-coding inspired similarity dictionary images derived from sparse coding and a test set of feature region images. The resulting tree is stored in memory for online high-speed searching for feature matching. During the online matching stage, a feature region image is binary quantized and the resulting quantized vector is passed into the basis sparse-coding inspired similarity tree. A Hamming distance is computed between the feature region images and the effectively descriptive basis sparse-coding inspired similarity dictionary images at the current node to determine the branch taken. The path the feature region image takes is saved as the descriptor, .
Performance of Asphalt Concrete Wearing Course (AC-WC) Utilizing Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement from Cold Milling Bound with 80/100 Pen Asphalt

Demands on natural aggregate materials for road pavement can be reduced by utilizing reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). This research was aimed at evaluating the performance of AC-WC mixture using RAP materials from cold milling, bound with 80/100 pen asphalt. The RAP aggregate gradation was adjusted by adding the required amount of natural aggregates to meet the specification in Indonesia. The RAP and added aggregates were hotmixed and compacted with Marshall hummer at 2×75 blows. The asphalt content were varied. It was found that the optimum asphalt content was 6.05 % with the following Marshall characteristics: stability 1237.08 kg; flow 3.36 mm; Marshall quotient 324,73kg/mm; void in mix (VIM) 3,360%; void in mineral aggregate (VMA) 15.103; and void filled with bitumen (VFB) 77.759% and residual stability 91.04; all met the Indonesian specification. The cantabro abration loss (CAL) at 30°C was 9,02%. The indirect tensile stiffness modulus (ITSM) at 20 °C was 7961.4 MPa; dynamic creep with 100 kPa pressure at 40°C gave slope 0.0112 microsstrain/pulse which is suitable for heavy load traffic. The fatigue test results was obtained at increased stress level, i.e. at 900, 1100, and 1300 kPa. Based on the equation derived from the fatigue strain and repeated loading relationship, at 100 microstrain (με) the repeated load was 434,661.58 times, and at one million (106) repeated loading, the samples could withstand strain of 92,38 microstrain. The performance of the samples were overall better than AC-WC mixture using virgin aggregates bound with 60/70 pen asphalt.
Unit Selection and its Relation to Symb

Aiming at the improvement of the quality of synthetic speech generated by our native TTS ARTIC, we adopted the unit selection method. Our unit selection module is driven by prosody described solely by high-level symbolic features which are linked to the prosody of synthesized phrases through the phenomena of prosodic synonymy and homonymy. It was confirmed that such an approach not only generates speech with high naturalness but also keeps the richness of prosody. Our first version of this approach significantly increased the quality of the output speech, which was assessed by listeners as very close to natural. The concept of prosodic synonymy and homonymy is, therefore, further extended and formally described in this paper, and its importance to the unit selection treatment is demonstrated. In addition, the difference of this concept from the concepts most frequently used is shown. Moreover, the first experiment following the formal definition of the problem presented in this paper has been carried out, proving that the whole concept is feasible.
Tea Polyphenols and Their Roles in Cancer Prevention and Chemotherapy

Many plant-derived, dietary polyphenols have been studied for their chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic properties against human cancers, including green tea polyphenols, genistein (found in soy), apigenin (celery, parsley), luteolin (broccoli), quercetin (onions), kaempferol (broccoli, grapefruits), curcumin (turmeric), etc. The more we understand their involved molecular mechanisms and cellular targets, the better we could utilize these “natural gifts” for the prevention and treatment of human cancer. Furthermore, better understanding of their structure-activity relationships will guide synthesis of analog compounds with improved bio-availability, stability, potency and specificity. This review focuses on green tea polyphenols and seeks to summarize several reported biological effects of tea polyphenols in human cancer systems, highlight the molecular targets and pathways identified, and discuss the role of tea polyphenols in the prevention and treatment of human cancer. The review also briefly describes several other dietary polyphenols and their biological effects on cancer prevention and chemotherapy.
Acute lung injury in isolated traumatic brain injury.

OBJECTIVE To determine the incidence of acute lung injury (ALI) in comatose patients after isolated traumatic brain injury, to determine whether specific brain lesions diagnosed by cranial computed tomographic scans are associated with ALI, and to determine the outcome of patients with head injuries who developed ALI. METHODS Descriptive epidemiology and a case-control study using the Traumatic Coma Data Bank was performed to evaluate clinical features and brain lesions associated with ALI in patients with isolated head trauma. Patients with ALI were defined as those who demonstrated a ratio of partial pressure of arterial oxygen to fractional expired oxygen of 300 or less. RESULTS Twenty of 100 comatose patients developed ALI. Patients with ALI were almost three times more likely to die or survive in a vegetative state (odds ratio, 2.8; 95% confidence interval, 1.6-4.9). Specific anatomic brain lesions diagnosed by cranial computed tomographic scans were not associated with ALI. However, patients with more severe injuries, i.e., large nonevacuated mass lesions, and those with midline shift demonstrated a 10- and 5-fold increased risk of ALI (odds ratio, 9.9; 95% confidence interval, 1.2-217.1; and odds ratio, 5.5; 95% confidence interval, 1.5-20.0). CONCLUSIONS ALI was common in comatose victims with an isolated traumatic brain injury and was associated with an increased risk of death or a severe neurological morbidity. ALI was associated with the global severity of head injury but not with specific anatomic lesions diagnosed by cranial computed tomographic scans.
Failure prognostic by using Dynamic Bayesian Networks

this paper presents a procedure for failure prognostic by using Dynamic Bayesian Networks (DBNs). The graphical representation of this tool is particularly well suitable for modeling complex systems, with non homogeneous sources of data and knowledge. Moreover, DBNs allow to deal with uncertainty which is an inherent property to any failure prognostic work, especially regarding the estimation of the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) before a failure. The DBN model can be also used to observe the propagation of the effect of any state of the model on the other remaining states. The proposed procedure is applied on a small industrial system to show its feasibility.
Affective Cognitive Learning and Decision Making : The Role of Emotions

This paper presents a new computational framework where both ‘the extrinsic reward from the external goal or cost’ and ‘the intrinsic reward from multiple emotion circuits and drives’ play an integral role in learning and decision making. We show that the integration of the intrinsic reward from affect systems can be used for enhancing the efficacy of learning and decision making. In particular, we suggest a model of the affective anticipatory reward that is assumed to arise from the emotional seeking system. Our simulation results for a singlestep choice and sequential multi-step choices show that affective biases from affective anticipatory rewards can be applied for improving the speed of learning, regulating the trade-off between exploration and exploitation in learning more efficiently, and adjusting the weight given to the immediate rewards over the future rewards in obtaining a decision making policy.
Surface perception in a large workspace encounter interface

Haptic interaction with virtual objects is typically tool mediated, or in alternative it constraints userpsilas body in someway, like it happens in exoskeletons that cannot be totally transparent. Encounter type haptic interfaces aim at hands free haptic interaction, that is more natural and can be applied in contexts in which the user moves in the space around the interface. This paper presents a system that allows a palm based haptic interaction in a large workspace using the principle of encountered haptics. The system is evaluated in a surface exploration task and compared against the same task performed with a standard haptic interface. In this type of task this type of interface is better suited, providing a smoother feedback to the hand during the movement over the surface.
Bezel swipe: conflict-free scrolling and multiple selection on mobile touch screen devices

Zooming user interfaces are increasingly popular on mobile devices with touch screens. Swiping and pinching finger gestures anywhere on the screen manipulate the displayed portion of a page, and taps open objects within the page. This makes navigation easy but limits other manipulations of objects that would be supported naturally by the same gestures, notably cut and paste, multiple selection, and drag and drop. A popular device that suffers from this limitation is Apple's iPhone. In this paper, we present Bezel Swipe, an interaction technique that supports multiple selection, cut, copy, paste and other operations without interfering with zooming, panning, tapping and other pre-defined gestures. Participants of our user study found Bezel Swipe to be a viable alternative to direct touch selection.
Religion, spirituality, and acute care hospitalization and long-term care use by older patients.

BACKGROUND The impact of religion and spirituality on acute care hospitalization (ACH) and long-term care (LTC) in older patients before, during, and after ACH is not well known. METHODS Patients 50 years or older consecutively admitted to the general medical service at Duke University Medical Center were interviewed shortly after admission (N = 811). Measures of religiosity were organized religious activity (ORA), nonorganizational religious activity (NORA), religiosity through religious radio and/or television (RTV), intrinsic religiosity, and self-rated religiousness. Measures of spirituality included self-rated spirituality and daily spiritual experiences (DSE). Primary outcome was number of ACH days during an average 21-month observation period. Secondary outcomes were times hospitalized and number of days spent in a nursing home or rehabilitation setting (collectively, long-term care: LTC). Race and sex interactions were examined. RESULTS In the cross-sectional analysis, ORA was the only religious variable related to fewer ACH days and fewer hospitalizations, an effect that is fully explained by physical health status and that disappeared when examined prospectively. The number of LTC days was inversely related to NORA, RTV, and DSE, effects that were partially explained by social support but not by severity of medical illness. Interactions with race and sex were notable but reached statistical significance only among African Americans and women. In those groups, religious and/or spiritual characteristics also predicted future LTC use independent of physical health and baseline LTC status. CONCLUSIONS Relationships with ACH were weak, were confined to ORA only, and disappeared in prospective analyses. However, robust and persistent effects were documented for religiousness and/or spirituality in the use of LTC among African Americans and women.
Torque control strategy of non-sinusoidal Brushless DC Motor based on fractional regulator

This paper deals with Torque Control Strategy of non-sinusoidal Brushless DC Motor based on fractional regulator. In this case, the dq components of the EMF are not constants. Then, the optimisation of the torque and the reduction of copper losses and torque ripples need to synthesize and to impose an optimal current waveform in dq frame. Also, the current regulators must ensure reference tracking without affecting the signal magnitudes or introducing phase shift. So we propose to investigate the fractional order regulator to control the dq currents in the park frame.
Classification of 3-D MRI Images Based on Spatial Deformationsin The Schizophrenia Research

Automatic classification of schizophrenia patients and healthy controls based on their 3-D MRI deformation images is introduced here. The image data are reduced by 2DPCA to avoid high computational expenses. Consecutively, reduced data are classified into the two groups according to the centroid method or the average linkage method. The results show that the algorithm gives better results while using the average linkage method than the centroid method. The main advantage of the algorithm lies in its low memory and time requirements.
Consideration for efficient RFID Information retrieval in traceability system

This paper reports on a fundamental research for efficient RFID Information retrieval especially in a traceability system. Applying RFID to business application systems has been rapidly spreading now. People's interests concerning the management of commercial products applying RFID are high in the market of the traceability. The activity of the EPC-Global is especially notable for establishing the traceability system. A great number of EPCIS are needed on the network in the system. Therefore, in order to retrieve a target server in which request information is recorded, the system that is called Object Naming Service is designed. This paper applies the peer-to-peer technique called Chord to the EPCIS system in order to reduce the load of EPCIS retrieve, and gets a prospect that the number of accesses would be able to be reduced by using the proposed method.
Recommendations from the EGAPP Working Group: genetic testing strategies in newly diagnosed individuals with colorectal cancer aimed at reducing morbidity and mortality from Lynch syndrome in relatives

Summary of Recommendations: The Evaluation of Genomic Applications in Practice and Prevention (EGAPP) Working Group found sufficient evidence to recommend offering genetic testing for Lynch syndrome to individuals with newly diagnosed colorectal cancer to reduce morbidity and mortality in relatives. We found insufficient evidence to recommend a specific genetic testing strategy among the several examined.Rationale: Genetic testing to detect Lynch syndrome in individuals with newly diagnosed colorectal cancer (CRC) is proposed as a strategy to reduce CRC morbidity and mortality in their relatives (see Clinical Considerations section for definition of Lynch syndrome). The EGAPP Working Group (EWG) constructed a chain of evidence that linked genetic testing for Lynch syndrome in patients with newly diagnosed CRC with improved health outcomes in their relatives. We found that assessing patients who have newly diagnosed CRC with a series of genetic tests could lead to the identification of Lynch syndrome. Relatives of patients with Lynch syndrome could then be offered genetic testing, and, where indicated, colorectal, and possibly endometrial, cancer surveillance, with the expectation of improved health outcome. The EWG concluded that there is moderate certainty that such a testing strategy would provide moderate population benefit.Analytic Validity: The EWG found adequate evidence to conclude that the analytic sensitivity and specificity for preliminary and diagnostic tests were high.Clinical Validity: After accounting for the specific technologies and numbers of markers used, the EWG found at least adequate evidence to describe the clinical sensitivity and specificity for three preliminary tests, and for four selected testing strategies. These measures of clinical validity varied with each test and each strategy (see Clinical Considerations section). Clinical Utility: The EWG found adequate evidence for testing uptake rates, adherence to recommended surveillance activities, number of relatives approachable, harms associated with additional follow-up, and effectiveness of routine colonoscopy. This chain of evidence supported the use of genetic testing strategies to reduce morbidity/mortality in relatives with Lynch syndrome. Several genetic testing strategies were potentially effective, but none was clearly superior. The evidence for or against effectiveness of identifying mismatch repair (MMR) gene mutations in reducing endometrial cancer morbidity or mortality was inadequate.Contextual Issues: CRC is a common disease responsible for an estimated 52,000 deaths in the United States in 2007. In about 3% of newly diagnosed CRC, the underlying cause is a mutation in a MMR gene (Lynch syndrome) that can be reliably identified with existing laboratory tests. Relatives inheriting the mutation have a high (about 45% by age 70) risk of developing CRC. Evidence suggests these relatives will often accept testing and increased surveillance.
The Distance and Radius of the Neutron Star PSR B0656+14

We present the result of astrometric observations of the radio pulsar PSR B0656+14, made using the Very Long Baseline Array. The parallax of the pulsar is π = 3.47 ± 0.36 milliarcsec, yielding a distance 288 pc. This independent distance estimate has been used to constrain existing models of thermal X-ray emission from the neutron star's photosphere. Simple blackbody fits to the X-ray data formally yield a neutron star radius R∞ ~ 7-8.5 km. With more realistic fits to a magnetized hydrogen atmosphere, any radius between ~13 and ~20 km is allowed.