Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tactile Apparent Motion on the Torso Modulates Perceived Forward Self-Motion Velocity

The present study investigated whether a tactile flow created by a matrix of vibrators in a seat pan simultaneously presented with an optical flow in peripheral vision enhances the perceived forward velocity of self-motion. A brief tactile motion stimulus consisted of four successive rows of vibration, and the interstimulus onset between the tactile rows was varied to change the velocity of the tactile motion. The results show that the forward velocity of self-motion is significantly overestimated for rapid tactile flows and underestimated for slow ones, compared with optical flow alone or non-motion vibrotactile stimulation conditions. In addition, the effect with a temporal tactile rhythm without changing the stimulus location was smaller than that with spatiotemporal tactile motion, with the interstimulus onset interval to elicit a clear sensation of tactile apparent motion. These findings suggest that spatiotemporal tactile motion is effective in inducing a change in the perceived forward velocity of self-motion.
Complex-Frequency Shifted PML Formulation for the 3-D MNL-FDTD Method

This letter presents a complex-frequency shifted perfectly matched layer (CFS-PML) formulation for the partially implicit Magnetically-mixed Newmark-Leapfrog finite-difference time-domain (MNL-FDTD) method. Its formulation is based on time-dependent Maxwell's equations in CFS-PML media and the auxiliary differential equation (ADE) of PML auxiliary variables. In the PML region, the efficiency of auxiliary variable terms of the formulated scheme is same as that of Roden's convolutional PML for Yee's FDTD. It is demonstrated that reflection error of MNL-FDTD with CFS-PML is comparable to those of the conventional explicit and implicit FDTDs with CFS-PML.
Prospective validation of ‘Allergy‐Control‐SCORETM’: a novel symptom–medication score for clinical trials

To cite this article: Häfner D, Reich K, Matricardi PM, Meyer H, Kettner J, Narkus A. Prospective validation of ‘Allergy‐Control‐SCORETM’: a novel symptom–medication score for clinical trials. Allergy 2011; 66: 629–636
Modulation of Autophagy by Calcium Signalosome in Human Disease

Autophagy is a catabolic process that is largely regulated by extracellular and intracellular signaling pathways that are central to cellular metabolism and growth. Mounting evidence has shown that ion channels and transporters are important for basal autophagy functioning and influence autophagy to handle stressful situations. Besides its role in cell proliferation and apoptosis, intracellular Ca2+ is widely recognized as a key regulator of autophagy, acting through the modulation of pathways such as the mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1, calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase kinase 2, and protein kinase C. Proper spatiotemporal Ca2+ availability, coupled with a controlled ionic flow among the extracellular milieu, storage compartments, and the cytosol, is critical in determining the role played by Ca2+ on autophagy and on cell fate. The crosstalk between Ca2+ and autophagy has a central role in cellular homeostasis and survival during several physiologic and pathologic conditions. Here we review the main findings concerning the mechanisms and roles of Ca2+-modulated autophagy, focusing on human disorders ranging from cancer to neurologic diseases and immunity. By identifying mechanisms, players, and pathways that either induce or suppress autophagy, new promising approaches for preventing and treating human disorders emerge, including those based on the modulation of Ca2+-mediated autophagy.
Mobile Sensor Networks Self-Organization for System Utility Maximization: Work in Progress

This paper reports on work in progress on mobile sensor network self-organization for system utility maximization with system utility being the difference between the aggregate utility of sensor information and penalty associated with sensor battery energy expenditure. We assume that location-dependent marginal utility of each sensor is determined and communicated back to the corresponding sensor by the sensor information access point, where the information streams from all sensors are fused into coherent picture. Self-organization takes place in two time scales: in the fast time scale sensors form and optimize multi-hop Mobile Ad-hoc NETwork (MANET) with sensors cooperating by relaying other sensor information possibly in addition to transmitting their own information. Optimized in the fast time scale system utility determines potential fields and virtual forces guiding sensor repositioning in the slow time scale.
Independent Evolution of Visual and Electrosensory Specializations in Different Lineages of Mormyrid Electric Fishes

African mormyrid fishes are by far the most diverse group of osteoglossomorph (bony tongue) fishes. Mormyrids communicate using pulses of electricity, and they process electric communication signals in the midbrain exterolateral nucleus (EL). In its ancestral form, the EL is relatively small and homogenous. In two different lineages, however, the EL expanded in size and increased in cytological complexity. This evolutionary change established the perceptual ability to distinguish variation in electric pulse waveform, which plays an important role in species recognition and mate choice. However, the sensory basis of social behavior in species with a small, homogenous EL remains unknown. Using published species descriptions, we found that species in one of these lineages have relatively large eyes. Using sectioned brains, we measured the volume of a major visual region, the optic tectum (OT), and found that this same lineage also has an enlarged OT. We also found that eye size and OT size are highly correlated across species. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that a reduced visual system evolved with the origins of an active electrosense, and that this one particular lineage secondarily evolved an enlarged visual system. Behavioral tests revealed that this enlargement of the visual system established increased visual acuity. Thus, our findings demonstrate that different lineages of mormyrids have evolved visual or electrosensory specializations, but that no lineages have specialized in both. This sensory divergence likely reflects fundamentally different ecologies and suggests that vision may play an especially important role in the social behavior of mormyrids that cannot detect variation in electric signal waveform. Our findings provide an example of evolutionary change in multiple sensory systems among closely related species that lays a foundation for relating ecological adaptation to evolutionary change in multisensory perception and social behavior.
Characterization of Prescription Opioid Abuse in the United States: Focus on Route of Administration

ABSTRACT Prescription opioids are prescribed increasingly for the management of chronic pain, and this has been accompanied by a dramatic rise in opioid-related abuse, addiction, and overdose deaths. Reports of abuse involving nonoral administration (e.g., snorting, injecting) of prescription opioids are increasing, although the epidemiology of oral versus nonoral abuse is not well understood. Available data indicate that oral abuse is far more common, with 72% to 97% of opioid abusers perferring oral administration. Factors associated with nonoral administration include longer duration of opioid abuse, male gender, and rural setting. Extended-release opioids, because of their relatively high drug load, may be attractive to experienced abusers seeking to manipulate the formulation to facilitate a rapid onset of effect. Putative abuse-deterrent formulations have been developed to decrease the likelihood or consequences of nonoral abuse. In addition, Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) are now required for prescribed extended-release/long-acting opioids by the US Food and Drug Administration, although their effectiveness in reducing the risk of abuse, addiction, and overdose has not been evaluated. Physicians should remain vigilant when prescribing opioids and should exercise appropriate patient selection, perform risk analysis and stratification, and maintain continuous patient monitoring to ensure the benefits outweigh these important risks.
Shear mode coupling and tilted grain growth of A1N thin films in BAW resonators

Polycrystalline A1N thin films were deposited by RF reactive magnetron sputtering on Pt(111)/Ti electrode films. The substrates were tilted by an angle ranging from 40 degrees to 70 degrees with respect to the target normal. A low deposition temperature and a high sputter gas pressure were found ideal for tilted growth. The resulting grain tilt angle amounts to about half the substrate tilt angle. For coupling evaluation, 5 GHz solidly mounted resonator structures have been realized. The tilted grain A1N films exhibited a permittivity in the 9.5-10.5 range and loss tangent of 0.3%. Two shear modes as well as the longitudinal mode could be clearly identified. The coupling coefficient k2(eff) of the fundamental thickness shear mode (TS0) was found to be about 0.5%, which is compatible with a c-axis tilt of about 6 degrees.
Electrochemotherapy of cutaneous metastases in malignant melanoma

Electrochemotherapy is a new anticancer therapy in which transient permeabilization of cells by an electric field induces a significant increase in the bleomycin concentration and toxicity in tumour cells. We report a clinical study of electrochemotherapy in malignant melanoma. The main issues addressed were the effect of the size of the nodules, the optimization of the electrical parameters, and post-treatment clinical observations. Four patients were enrolled in the study. They received a 10 mg/m2 dose of bleomycin administered intravenously, followed by short, intense electric pulses applied directly to the skin at the tumour sites. Antitumour effects were obtained, especially in the smallest nodules. Objective responses were obtained in more than 90% of the 55 nodules treated, with a complete response rate of 9%. All patients tolerated the treatment well. No residual effects from the electric pulses were observed, even when a high number of pulses were required or when two consecutive treatments were applied. These results are encouraging and the study should be continued.
A Role for G1/S Cyclin-dependent Protein Kinases in the Apoptotic Response to Ionizing Radiation*

In Xenopus development the mid-blastula transition (MBT) marks a dramatic change in response of the embryo to ionizing radiation. Whereas inhibition of cyclin D1-Cdk4 and cyclin A2-Cdk2 by p27Xic1 has been linked to cell cycle arrest and prevention of apoptosis in embryos irradiated post-MBT, distinct roles for these complexes during apoptosis are evident in embryos irradiated pre-MBT. Cyclin A2 is cleaved by caspases to generate a truncated complex termed ΔN-cyclin A2-Cdk2, which is kinase active, not inhibited by p27Xic1, and not sensitive to degradation by the ubiquitin-mediated proteasome pathway. Moreover, ΔN-cyclin A2-Cdk2 has an expanded substrate specificity and can phosphorylate histone H2B at Ser-32, which may facilitate DNA cleavage. Consistent with a role for cyclin A2 in apoptosis, the addition of ΔN-cyclin A2-Cdk2, but not full-length cyclin A2-Cdk2, toXenopus egg extracts triggers apoptotic DNA fragmentation even when caspases are not activated. Similarly, cyclin D1 is targeted by caspases, and the generated product exhibits higher affinity for p27Xic1, leading to reduced phosphorylation of the retinoblastoma protein (pRB) during apoptosis. These data suggest that caspase cleavage of both cyclin D1-Cdk4 and cyclin A2-Cdk2 promotes specific apoptotic events in embryos undergoing apoptosis in response to ionizing radiation.
The Solar Acoustic Spectrum and Eigenmode Parameters

The Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) project estimates the frequencies, amplitudes, and linewidths of more than 250,000 acoustic resonances of the sun from data sets lasting 36 days. The frequency resolution of a single data set is 0.321 microhertz. For frequencies averaged over the azimuthal order m, the median formal error is 0.044 microhertz, and the associated median fractional error is 1.6 × 10−5. For a 3-year data set, the fractional error is expected to be 3 × 10−6. The GONG m-averaged frequency measurements differ from other helioseismic data sets by 0.03 to 0.08 microhertz. The differences arise from a combination of systematic errors, random errors, and possible changes in solar structure.
Differential translation and fragile X syndrome

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is caused by the transcriptional silencing of the Fmr1 gene, which encodes a protein (FMRP) that can act as a translational suppressor in dendrites, and is characterized by a preponderance of abnormally long, thin and tortuous dendritic spines. According to a current theory of FXS, the loss of FMRP expression leads to an exaggeration of translation responses linked to group I metabotropic glutamate receptors. Such responses are involved in the consolidation of a form of long‐term depression that is enhanced in Fmr1 knockout mice and in the elongation of dendritic spines, resembling synaptic phenotypes over‐represented in fragile X brain. These observations place fragile X research at the heart of a long‐standing issue in neuroscience. The consolidation of memory, and several distinct forms of synaptic plasticity considered to be substrates of memory, requires mRNA translation and is associated with changes in spine morphology. A recent convergence of research on FXS and on the involvement of translation in various forms of synaptic plasticity has been very informative on this issue and on mechanisms underlying FXS. Evidence suggests a general relationship in which the receptors that induce distinct forms of efficacy change differentially regulate translation to produce unique spine shapes involved in their consolidation. We discuss several potential mechanisms for differential translation and the notion that FXS represents an exaggeration of one ‘channel’ in a set of translation‐dependent consolidation responses.
Portable Device for Preparation and Delivery of Gas Mixtures

A simple, portable device for the preparation and delivery of gas mixtures has been designed and constructed. The basic feature of the device is the use of gas flow controllers to maintain stable flow rates over a wide range of downstream pressures, instead of the capillary tubes and water-filled barostats commonly used in gas-mixing devices. Elimination of the barostat avoids problems such as water leakage, the loss of gases through the barostat, and changes in gas pressure due to evaporative loss of water from the barostat. The absence of a barostat also provides a closed system, allowing the use of the device for mixing and delivering of toxic gases. The prototype of the device has been used to prepare mixtures of different gases for more than 1 year and has been found to operate consistently and reproducibly. The actual concentrations of O2, CO2, and N2 in gas mixtures (determined by gas chromatography) immediately after mixing were between 2.2 and 6.6% of the desired values in four performance tests. Fluctuations in concentration of gases in mixtures after 9 days of continuous gas delivery was less than 2% in four performance tests.
[Information on educational level from hospital discharge register: an analysis of validity].

OBJECTIVE to analyze the validity of information on educational level from Hospital discharge register, by comparison with the 2001 Census; to develop a hierarchical algorithm which allows to maximize its validity. METHODS Hospital Information System (HIS) of Lazio Region and 2001 Census were used to select all the hospital admissions between 2000 and 2009 of at least 35-year-old people living in Rome and registered at 2001 Census. For each hospitalisation, the information on education stated on Census was associated. Agreement with Census was measured using Cohen's kappa. A hierarchical algorithm based on the results of agreement analysis was developed. For each patient, it selects the most valid admission in order to find the most accurate information on education. The application of the algorithm was tested on four cohorts of 2008-2009 hospital admissions. RESULTS a good agreement on education from HIS and Census (k between 0.5 and 0.6) was found. The information on education was better for planned hospitalisations placed in hospitals with a volume of care within the 12,000 admissions per year. The agreement between HIS and Census in hip fractures and acute myocardial infarction cohorts was considered sufficient (k=0.3), while it was found a good/excellent agreement in cholecystectomy and coronary artery bypass (k=0.6 for both conditions) cohorts. The application of the algorithm to the cohorts of acute care hospitalisations allowed moving to a level of good agreement (increase: 19%). The gain was much lower in the elective admission cohorts (4%). CONCLUSIONS the overall agreement is good, but it depends on the characteristics of the hospital admission. However, these differences may be reduced by using hierarchical algorithm.
Effectiveness of a breastfeeding peer coaching intervention in rural Scotland.

BACKGROUND Breastfeeding initiation in Scotland in 2000 was 63 percent, compared with over 90 percent in Norway and Sweden. Although peer support is effective in improving exclusivity of breastfeeding in countries where over 80 percent of women initiate breastfeeding, the evidence for effectiveness in countries with lower initiation is uncertain. Our primary aim was to assess whether group-based and one-to-one peer breastfeeding coaching improves breastfeeding initiation and duration. METHODS Action research methodology was used to conduct an intervention study in 4 geographical postcode areas in rural northeast Scotland. Infant feeding outcomes at birth and hospital discharge; at 1, 2, and 6 weeks; and at 4 and 8 months were collected for 598 of 626 women with live births during a 9-month baseline period and for 557 of 592 women with live births during a 9-month intervention period. Groups met in 5 locations, with 266 groups meeting in the period when intervention women were eligible to attend. Data on place of birth and length of postnatal hospital stay were also collected. Control data from 10 other Health Board areas in Scotland were compared. An intention-to participate survey about coaching participation was completed by 206 of 345 women initiating breastfeeding. Group attendance data were collected by means of 266 group diaries. RESULTS There was a significant increase in any breastfeeding of 6.8 percent from 34.3 to 41.1 percent (95% CI 1.2, 12.4) in the study population at 2 weeks after birth compared with a decline in any breastfeeding in the rest of Scotland of 0.4 percent from 44 to 43.6 percent (95% CI -1.2, 0.4). Breastfeeding rates increased compared with baseline rates at all time points until 8 months. However, the effect was not uniform across the 4 postcode areas and was not related to level of deprivation. Little difference was seen in receipt of information and knowledge about the availability of coaching among areas. All breastfeeding groups were well attended, popular, and considered helpful by participants. A minority of women (n = 14/206) participated in formal one-to-one coaching. Women who received antenatal, birth, and postnatal care from community midwife-led units were more likely to be breastfeeding at 2 weeks (p = 0.007) than women who received some or all care in district maternity units. CONCLUSIONS Group-based and one-to-one peer coaching for pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers increased breastfeeding initiation and duration in an area with below average breastfeeding rates.
Dynamics, spread, and persistence of a single genotype of Pseudomonas syringae relative to those of its conspecifics on populations of snap bean leaflets

A rifampin-resistant strain of Pseudomonas syringae (R10) was introduced onto bean plants grown in field plots to examine the processes of growth, spread, and survival of a single genotype relative to the dynamics of its conspecifics on populations of individual leaflets. R10 was applied to four plots (400, 200, 100, and 50 m2), each of which was centered in a quadrant of a bean field (90 by 90 m). Population sizes of the species P. syringae and of R10 were determined on each of 25 individual leaflets collected from the largest plot (A) at approximately weekly intervals during a 10-week period following application. The spread of R10 from all plots was monitored by leaf imprinting of individual leaflets collected at sites along four transects, each of which bisected two of the plots. The introduced strain was a dominant component of the species for about 5 weeks postinoculation on leaflets from plot A. Although the population sizes of R10 remained at about 5.0 to 5.5 log10 CFU per leaflet, the strain became a progressively minor component of the species as the population sizes of its conspecifics continued to increase during the latter part of the growing season. In general, a positive correlation was found for the population sizes of R10 and its conspecifics on individual leaflets collected throughout the growing season. This result suggests that large numbers of R10 early in the growing season did not exclude the colonization of bean leaflets by its conspecifics. It is apparent that the species pool comprised genotypes that were more fit than R10 under the conditions that prevailed during the latter part of the growing season. By 6 weeks postinoculation, R10 was detected at all sites sampled within the unsprayed areas of the field. However, it was present as a minor component of the species. The persistence of R10 throughout the winter and into the following growing season was monitored in plot A, which was plowed and replanted with wheat in the fall. R10 was detected on some of the samples (wheat seedlings or soil) taken at approximately monthly intervals from November to June of the following year. In June, the field was plowed and replanted with beans. We could not detect R10 on emerging bean seedlings in plot A. The results demonstrate that the successful spread and persistence of an introduced bacterium do not necessarily lead to the establishment of large populations of the bacterium in adjacent untreated areas or on its host plant in subsequent growing seasons.
Automata for Reduction Properties Solving

Abstract We introduce a new class of tree automata, which we call Reduction Automata (RA), and we use it to prove the decidability of the whole first order of theory of reduction (the theory of reduction is the set of true sentences built up with unary predicates red t ( x ) " x is reducible by t ", i.e. "some instance of t is a subterm of x "). So we link rewriting, logic and formal languages.