Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neural regulation of rhythmic arm and leg movement is conserved across human locomotor tasks

It has been proposed that different forms of rhythmic human limb movement have a common central neural control (‘common core hypothesis’), just as in other animals. We compared the modulation patterns of background EMG and cutaneous reflexes during walking, arm and leg cycling, and arm‐assisted recumbent stepping. We hypothesized that patterns of EMG and reflex modulation during cycling and stepping (deduced from mathematical principal components analysis) would be comparable to those during walking because they rely on similar neural substrates. Differences between the tasks were assessed by evoking cutaneous reflexes via stimulation of nerves in the foot and hand in separate trials. The EMG was recorded from flexor and extensor muscles of the arms and legs. Angular positions of the hip, knee and elbow joints were also recorded. Factor analysis revealed that across the three tasks, four principal components explained more than 93% of the variance in the background EMG and middle‐latency reflex amplitude. Phase modulation of reflex amplitude was observed in most muscles across all tasks, suggesting activity in similar control networks. Significant correlations between EMG level and reflex amplitude were frequently observed only during static voluntary muscle activation and not during rhythmic movement. Results from a control experiment showed that strong correlation between EMG and reflex amplitudes was observed during discrete, voluntary leg extension but not during walking. There were task‐dependent differences in reflex modulation between the three tasks which probably arise owing to specific constraints during each task. Overall, the results show strong correlation across tasks and support common neural patterning as the regulator of arm and leg movement during various rhythmic human movements.
Primary school pupils’ performances in understanding historical time

This study focuses on the development of the understanding of historical time of pupils in primary school. We present a developmental model with three stages: emergent, initial and continued understanding of historical time. Based on this model, we constructed an instrument to measure how pupils aged 6–12 perform. The participants were 1457 pupils from 7 Dutch primary schools. The analysis of the data showed that in all three stages pupils in higher grades significantly outperformed pupils in lower grades and that pupils’ performances were influenced by the variables gender and parents’ education. In all grades, there seemed to be room for improvement, especially in the lower grades (ages 6–9) where pupils have hardly had any teaching on the understanding of historical time. However, in the higher grades as well (ages 10–12), pupils could improve on the level of continued understanding of historical time.
Collective Fluctuations in the Dynamics of Adaptation and Other Traveling Waves

The dynamics of adaptation are difficult to predict because it is highly stochastic even in large populations. The uncertainty emerges from random genetic drift arising in a vanguard of particularly fit individuals of the population. Several approaches have been developed to analyze the crucial role of genetic drift on the expected dynamics of adaptation, including the mean fitness of the entire population, or the fate of newly arising beneficial deleterious mutations. However, little is known about how genetic drift causes fluctuations to emerge on the population level, where it becomes palpable as variations in the adaptation speed and the fitness distribution. Yet these phenomena control the decay of genetic diversity and variability in evolution experiments and are key to a truly predictive understanding of evolutionary processes. Here, we show that correlations induced by these emergent fluctuations can be computed at any arbitrary order by a suitable choice of a dynamical constraint. The resulting linear equations exhibit fluctuation-induced terms that amplify short-distance correlations and suppress long-distance ones. These terms, which are in general not small, control the decay of genetic diversity and, for wave-tip dominated (“pulled”) waves, lead to anticorrelations between the tip of the wave and the lagging bulk of the population. While it is natural to consider the process of adaptation as a branching random walk in fitness space subject to a constraint (due to finite resources), we show that other traveling wave phenomena in ecology and evolution likewise fall into this class of constrained branching random walks. Our methods, therefore, provide a systematic approach toward analyzing fluctuations in a wide range of population biological processes, such as adaptation, genetic meltdown, species invasions, or epidemics.
The Emperor's New Clothes: Globalisation and e-learning in Higher Education

Two closely related and over-determining myths have shaped government inspired policy towards Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and education: the one is the irresistible power of globalisation, the other is the determining effect of technology. The result of both is to present the acceptance of e-learning throughout the education system as inevitable. The space left for practitioners in Higher Education is either to embrace the new media enthusiastically or to stand aside and watch its inevitable unfolding. In this paper we develop a critical stance towards the dominant discourse and suggest that the shape of new media in education can be, and is being, contested. We argue against both technological determinism and the passive acceptance of the neo-liberal globalisation paradigm. No technologies are neutral. They are always the products of real historical social relations as well as the emergent technical capacities they provide. ICTs as artefacts and social processes are already inscribed with gendered assumptions and the accumulation strategies of their purveyors. Moreover, the conditions under which e-learning is being introduced into education are shaped by managerialist agendas. Placing pedagogy at the forefront is therefore to struggle over the terms and shape of the media adopted. We can see this at both the micro and macro level. Our paper exposes the emperor's new clothes while arguing that there is space for critical discourses that can more meaningfully engage with socially available technologies.
A dual channel ferroelectric-gate field-effect transistor

We demonstrate here an oxide memory (OxiM) transistor as a new type of ferroelectric-gate field-effect transistor (FeFET), provided with a dual (top and bottom) channel, which can memorize channel-conductance with a dynamic range exceeding 104. This new transistor consists entirely of oxide-based thin films: SrRuO3 (bottom gate electrode), Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (ferroelectric), ZnO (semiconductor), and SiON (gate insulator). A notable feature of the OxiM transistor is that two types of FET, such as a top gate-type TFT (top-TFT) and a bottom gate-type FeFET (bottom-FeFET), are stacked with a conduction layer of thin ZnO film in common. The channel conductance of the top-TFT and the bottom-FeFET can be controlled independently by the top gate and the bottom gate, respectively. We were successful in fabricating a NAND memory circuit using serially connected OxiM transistors. The dual gate structure allows disturb-free reading.
Production and characterization of monoclonal antibodies specific for Cryptococcus neoformans capsular polysaccharide

Cryptococcus neoformans is surrounded by a capsular polysaccharide. There are at least four known serotypes of the polysaccharide. The objective of this study was to produce monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) that could be used to study the distribution of epitopes among the serotypes of C. neoformans. BALB/c mice were immunized with cryptococcal polysaccharides of serotype A or D that were coupled to sheep erythrocytes. Splenocytes were isolated, and hybridomas secreting MAbs specific for cryptococcal polysaccharides were isolated. Two hybridomas, designated MAbs 439 and 1255, were produced from mice immunized with serotype A polysaccharide. One hybridoma, designated MAb 302, was produced from mice immunized with serotype D polysaccharide. All three antibodies were of the immunoglobulin G1 isotype. MAb 302 showed a specificity for serotypes A and D in Ouchterlony diffusion, agglutination, and opsonophagocytosis assays. MAb 1255 was reactive with polysaccharides and cells of serotypes A, B, and D. MAb 439 was reactive with polysaccharides and cells of serotypes A, B, C, and D. The reactivity of these MAbs closely matched the distribution of epitopes among cryptococcal polysaccharides predicted in previous studies of polyclonal antibodies reactive with cryptococcal polysaccharides. The ability to produce a MAb against an epitope shared by all four serotypes may have value for the detection of cryptococcal antigens in body fluids.
Disentangling the meaning of ‘altmetrics’: content analysis of Web of Science scientific publications

‘Altmetrics’ (Priem et al., 2010) are regarded as a new way of expanding the analysis of impact of scientific activities (Wouters & Costas, 2012) and research outputs (Piwowar, 2013). Previous studies have already demonstrated that altmetrics have only weak correlations with citations (Haustein et al., 2014a); Costas, Zahedi, & Wouters, 2014; Waltman & Costas, 2014). This lack of correlation suggests that these two metrics are probably capturing different dimensions of impact. Citations are normally linked to the idea of ‘scientific impact’. However, it is not defined what kind of impact do altmetrics capture?
In vivo analysis of the interactions of the LysR‐like regulator SpvR with the operator sequences of the spvA and spvR virulence genes of Salmonella typhimurium

The interaction of the Salmonella typhimurium virulence gene regulator, SpvR, with its operator sites upstream of the spvA and spvR genes was analysed in vivo by dimethyl sulphate (DMS) footprinting and site‐directed mutagenesis. DMS methylation protection assays showed that, in vivo, SpvR forms direct protein–DNA contacts with nucleotides clustered in two regions (+1 to −27 and −51 to −71) of the spvA regulatory region. These regions were subjected to site‐directed mutagenesis and the effects on SpvR binding and gene activation assessed. Mutations that prevented occupancy of the promoter distal site (−51 to −71) in vivo also prevented occupancy of the promoter proximal site (+1 to −27), whereas mutations in the proximal site affected binding only at the proximal site and not the distal site. SpvR binding at the promoter proximal site was an essential prerequisite for transcription activation. These findings demonstrated a hierarchy of SpvR binding in which the promoter distal site is dominant to the proximal. The spvR gene was found to possess an operator site that resembled closely the distal SpvR binding site of the spvA operator. Nonetheless, SpvR interaction with the spvR operator was difficult to detect in vivo. When the nucleotide sequence of the spvR operator was altered at two nucleotides so that it corresponded more precisely to that of the distal site of the spvA operator, strong SpvR–DNA interactions were detected, with nucleotides in the region −31 to −67 being protected from DMS methylation in vivo. However, despite the improved interaction with the transcriptional activator, the altered regulatory region was poorer at promoting spvR gene transcription than the wild type. We describe a two‐step model for activation of the spvA promoter and discuss the possibility that a specific cofactor in addition to sigma factor RpoS is required for SpvR action at this promoter in vivo.
Fusion of a Multiple Hypotheses Color Model and Deformable Contours for Figure Ground Segmentation in Dynamic Environments

In this paper we propose a new technique to perform figure-ground segmentation in image sequences of moving objects under varying illumination conditions. Unlike most of the algorithms that adapt color, the assumption of smooth change of the viewing conditions is no longer needed. To cope with this, in this work we introduce a technique that formulates multiple hypotheses about the next state of the color distribution (some of these hypotheses take into account small and gradual changes in the color model and others consider more abrupt and unexpected variations) and the hypothesis that generates the best object segmentation is used to remove noisy edges from the image. This simplifies considerably the final step of fitting a deformable contour to the object boundary, thus allowing a standard snake formulation to successfully track nonrigid contours. Reciprocally, the contour estimation is used to correct the color model. The integration of color and shape is done in a stage denominated 'sample concentration', that has been introduced as a final step to the well-known CONDENSATION algorithm.
Assessment of anosognosia for motor impairments

Patients with anosognosia fail to acknowledge their motor impairments. Anosognosia is usually assessed by means of a structured interview, beginning with questions about general health and moving to specific questions about the patient’s motor impairment. A patient whose arm or leg is paralysed or weak following a stroke may deny the weakness in response to questions like ‘Is there anything wrong with your arm or leg? ’ or ‘Is your limb weak, paralysed, or numb? ’ (questions from Cutting, 1978 ; Nathanson, Bergman and Gordon, 1952 ; Starkstein, Federoff, Price, Leiguarda and Robinson, 1992 ), and may continue to deny the impairment even when it has been demonstrated. The examiner may ask the patient to raise both arms and then demonstrate to the patient that one arm is not raised as high as the other. Recognising that a patient has anosognosia may be relatively straightforward, for example, when the patient denies outright that there is anything the matter. In many patients, however, a full assessment will reveal a more complex profile. In this chapter, we begin (Section 2) with a threefold distinction that organises our investigation of anosognosia — the distinction between failure to experience a motor impairment ( concurrent unawareness ), failure to acknowledge the impairment itself, and failure to appreciate the consequences of the impairment (Aimola Davies, Davies, Ogden, Smithson and White, 2009 ). Then, we review methods for the assessment of motor impairments and anosognosia for motor impairments (Section 3) including structured anosognosia interviews that have been published (Section 4). This literature review reveals considerable variation in the methods by which patients with anosognosia have been assessed. The development of a comprehensive and widely accepted procedure for assessing anosognosia for motor impairments would contribute to a better understanding of the many factors in anosognosia and might also lead to improvement in the clinical management of patients (Orfei, Caltagirone and Spalletta, 2009 ). We present a structured interview (Section 5) that offers a theoretically motivated and relatively comprehensive approach to the assessment of anosognosia for motor impairments.
How Can The Nanomaterial Surfaces Be Highly Cleaned

Citation: Pham VP. How Can The Nanomaterial Surfaces Be Highly Cleaned? (2018) Edelweiss Appli Sci Tech 2: 184-186 Received: Feb 15, 2018 Accepted: Feb 22, 2018 Published: Feb 26, 2018 Copyright: © 2018 Pham VP. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Hierarchical regulation of wound healing by NOD-like receptors in cardiovascular disease.

SIGNIFICANCE Persistent nonmicrobial tissue injury leads to the nonlinear activation of integrated wound-healing pathways. In chronic cardiovascular diseases, local tissue undergoes dynamic remodeling involving both structural cells and professional innate immune cells in attempts to limit burden of injury. While the final effector mechanisms by which these different cellular populations participate in wound healing are functionally distinct, their upstream molecular signaling pathways can often be shared. RECENT ADVANCES The NOD-like receptors (NLRs) are intracellular pattern recognition receptors that have been well characterized as key regulators of pro-inflammatory cytokine production in innate immune cells. However, recent evidence has shown that some NLR proteins are additionally expressed by resident structural cells despite negligible cytokine production. These results indicate the potential for noncanonical routes of innate immune signaling by NLRs within solid organ systems. CRITICAL ISSUES Here, we review the emerging functions of NLR proteins in professional immune and tissue-resident cells, and discuss the implications in wound healing during chronic cardiovascular diseases. Emphasis is placed on NLRP3 and its regulation of cardiac structure and function in response to injury. Specific cellular and subcellular signaling paradigms are also discussed. FUTURE DIRECTIONS The characterization of how NLRs participate in homeostasis during cellular injury is essential to develop their potential utility for therapeutic intervention in cardiovascular disease.
Quantitative characterisation of eye movements in typical and atypical children

Children with delayed reading skills and/or poor academic achievement are increasingly being referred to Eye Care Professionals with suspected eye movement/“tracking” difficulties. However, current clinical techniques are highly subjective, poorly controlled, and relatively imprecise. It is therefore reasonable to suggest that Eye Care Professionals face challenges in recognising and diagnosing genuine eye movement disorders, and consequently, fail to support and/or manage these children. The principal aim of the studies described in this thesis was to characterise eye movements in children with learning related difficulties who are frequently considered to be at risk of eye movement disorders. Using a novel child-friendly method, we have shown that, in general, eye movement characteristics in children with reading/learning related difficulties are not different from those in typically developing age-matched children when compared as a group. The findings also showed that when eye movement characteristics in children with reading/learning related difficulties were compared on an individual basis, some of these children had eye movement parameters outside their age-matched norms. Further, our results suggested that children whose eye movements were outside their age-matched norms, generally corresponded to those who had specific, more complex and global difficulties (e.g. dyspraxia, general developmental delay). In conclusion, the studies presented in this thesis suggest that there is an association between specific learning difficulties and eye movement disorders, but challenge the view that eye movement disorders can be found in isolation in children with delayed reading/academic performance. Finally, based on the sum of results obtained, simple actionable guidelines are proposed to improve the examination of eye movements in clinical practice in order to recognise genuine eye movement disorders.
Improving Outcome after Stroke: Overcoming the Translational Roadblock

Stroke poses a massive burden of disease, yet we have few effective therapies. The paucity of therapeutic options stands contrary to intensive research efforts. The failure of these past investments demands a thorough re-examination of the pathophysiology of ischaemic brain injury. Several critical areas hold the key to overcoming the translational roadblock: (1) vascular occlusion: current recanalization strategies have limited effectiveness and may have serious side effects; (2) complexity of stroke pathobiology: therapy must acknowledge the ‘Janus-faced’ nature of many stroke targets and must identify endogenous neuroprotective and repair mechanisms; (3) inflammation and brain-immune-system interaction: inflammation contributes to lesion expansion, but is also instrumental in lesion containment and repair; stroke outcome is modulated by the interaction of the injured brain with the immune system; (4) regeneration: the potential of the brain for reorganization, plasticity and repair after injury is much greater than previously thought; (5) confounding factors, long-term outcome and predictive modelling. These 5 areas are linked on all levels and therefore need to be tackled by an integrative approach and innovative therapeutic strategies.
Medical Image Segmentation by More Sensitive Adaptive Thresholding

To make 3D surface model from medical images, segmentation is essential process. And, in the case that the HU(Hounsfield Unit) values of the object to be segmented varies in the image, adaptive thresholding segmentation is very efficient segmentation method. But in many cases, it shows insufficient sensitivity of segmentation that weak(dim) objects are not segmented. This problem is caused mainly by strong(bright) object nearby the weak object because adaptive thresholding makes high threshold due to strong object. In this study we present a more sensitive adaptive thresholding method overcoming this problem.
15.8 A 22.3b 1kHz 12.7mW switched-capacitor ΔΣ modulator with stacked split-steering amplifiers

Efforts to improve the resolution and power-efficiency of ADCs continue unabated, as is well documented in [2]. Although the number of new switched-capacitor (SC) ADC publications has declined over the years in favor of continuous-time designs, these circuits still remain attractive owing to their superior immunity to clock jitter and process variations. In this paper, we present three independent power optimization techniques realized by splitting the sampling capacitors, which are implemented in the first stage of the single-bit SC ΔΣ modulator shown in Fig. 15.8. 1.
Evaluation of an oral direct factor Xa inhibitor anticoagulant in healthy adult horses

OBJECTIVE To assess whether an oral direct factor Xa inhibitor (DiXaI) anticoagulant drug used at the low end of the recommended dose in people achieves presumed prophylactic plasma concentrations and does not induce bleeding in horses. DESIGN Experimental study. SETTING Field study. ANIMALS Ten healthy adult horses. INTERVENTIONS A DiXaI was administered at a dose of 0.125 mg/kg every 24 h orally for 4 days. Following a wash-out period of 2 weeks, 8 of 10 horses received daily subcutaneous doses of a low molecular weight heparin (dalteparin) for 4 consecutive days at 50 IU/kg. In both trials, antifactor Xa activity was measured at baseline time and 3 hours after each dose administration. Activated partial thromboplastin time, prothrombin time, hematocrit, erythrocyte agglutination, and platelet aggregation were monitored throughout the study. In addition, an in vitro spiking experiment was performed to demonstrate anticoagulant activity of this DiXaI in horse plasma. MAIN RESULTS When treated with the DiXaI, this group of horses did not achieve the suggested thromboprophylactic plasma range of antifactor Xa activity (0.1-0.2 IU/mL), except for 1 horse after the first administration of the drug. In contrast, median values of plasma antifactor Xa activity 3 hours after receiving dalteparin were within the prophylactic range (0.16 IU/mL). No hemorrhagic events or erythrocyte agglutination were observed. In vitro addition of this DiXaI caused a concentration-dependent effect in antifactor Xa activity. CONCLUSIONS At the low end of the recommended dose in people this oral formulation of DiXaI did not reach prophylactic plasma antifactor Xa activity in this group of healthy adult horses. Further studies are warranted in order to establish the prophylactic dose for horses.