Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Body representation alterations in personal but not in extrapersonal neglect patients

ABSTRACT There is still a matter of debate around the nature of personal neglect. Is it an attention disorder or a body representation disorder? Here we investigate the presence of body representation deficits (i.e., the visuo-spatial body map) in right and left brain-damaged patients and in particular in those affected by personal neglect. 23 unilateral brain-damaged patients (5 left-brain-damaged and 18 right-brain-damaged patients) and 15 healthy controls took part in the study. The visuo-spatial body map was assessed by means of the “Frontal body-evocation subtest (FBE),” in which participants have to put tiles representing body parts on a small wooden board where only the head is depicted as a reference point. In order to compare performance on the FBE with performance on an inanimate object that had well-defined right and left sides, participants also performed the “Car test. ” Group statistical analysis shows that the performance of patients with personal neglect is significantly worse than that of the controls and patients without personal neglect in the FBE but not in the Car test. Single case analyses of the five patients with pure personal neglect confirm the results of group analysis. Our data supports the hypothesis that personal neglect is a pervasive body representation disorder.
Association between Tetrodotoxin Resistant Channels and Lipid Rafts Regulates Sensory Neuron Excitability

Voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSCs) play a key role in the initiation and propagation of action potentials in neurons. NaV1.8 is a tetrodotoxin (TTX) resistant VGSC expressed in nociceptors, peripheral small-diameter neurons able to detect noxious stimuli. NaV1.8 underlies the vast majority of sodium currents during action potentials. Many studies have highlighted a key role for NaV1.8 in inflammatory and chronic pain models. Lipid rafts are microdomains of the plasma membrane highly enriched in cholesterol and sphingolipids. Lipid rafts tune the spatial and temporal organisation of proteins and lipids on the plasma membrane. They are thought to act as platforms on the membrane where proteins and lipids can be trafficked, compartmentalised and functionally clustered. In the present study we investigated NaV1.8 sub-cellular localisation and explored the idea that it is associated with lipid rafts in nociceptors. We found that NaV1.8 is distributed in clusters along the axons of DRG neurons in vitro and ex vivo. We also demonstrated, by biochemical and imaging studies, that NaV1.8 is associated with lipid rafts along the sciatic nerve ex vivo and in DRG neurons in vitro. Moreover, treatments with methyl-β-cyclodextrin (MβCD) and 7-ketocholesterol (7KC) led to the dissociation between rafts and NaV1.8. By calcium imaging we demonstrated that the lack of association between rafts and NaV1.8 correlated with impaired neuronal excitability, highlighted by a reduction in the number of neurons able to conduct mechanically- and chemically-evoked depolarisations. These findings reveal the sub-cellular localisation of NaV1.8 in nociceptors and highlight the importance of the association between NaV1.8 and lipid rafts in the control of nociceptor excitability.
T Cell Receptor-Like Recognition of Tumor In Vivo by Synthetic Antibody Fragment

A major difficulty in treating cancer is the inability to differentiate between normal and tumor cells. The immune system differentiates tumor from normal cells by T cell receptor (TCR) binding of tumor-associated peptides bound to Major Histocompatibility Complex (pMHC) molecules. The peptides, derived from the tumor-specific proteins, are presented by MHC proteins, which then serve as cancer markers. The TCR is a difficult protein to use as a recombinant protein because of production issues and has poor affinity for pMHC; therefore, it is not a good choice for use as a tumor identifier outside of the immune system. We constructed a synthetic antibody-fragment (Fab) library in the phage-display format and isolated antibody-fragments that bind pMHC with high affinity and specificity. One Fab, fE75, recognizes our model cancer marker, the Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor 2 (HER2/neu) peptide, E75, bound to the MHC called Human Leukocyte Antigen-A2 (HLA-A2), with nanomolar affinity. The fE75 bound selectively to E75/HLA-A2 positive cancer cell lines in vitro. The fE75 Fab conjugated with 64Cu selectively accumulated in E75/HLA-A2 positive tumors and not in E75/HLA-A2 negative tumors in an HLA-A2 transgenic mouse as probed using positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging. Considering that hundreds to thousands of different peptides bound to HLA-A2 are present on the surface of each cell, the fact that fE75 arrives at the tumor at all shows extraordinary specificity. These antibody fragments have great potential for diagnosis and targeted drug delivery in cancer.
RFM and CLV: Using Iso-Value Curves for Customer Base Analysis

The authors present a new model that links the well-known RFM (recency, frequency, and monetary value) paradigm with customer lifetime value (CLV). Although previous researchers have made a conceptual link, none has presented a formal model with a well-grounded behavioral ”story. ” Key to this analysis is the notion of ”iso-value” curves, which enable the grouping of individual customers who have different purchasing histories but similar future valuations. Iso-value curves make it easy to visualize the interactions and trade-offs among the RFM measures and CLV. The stochastic model is based on the Pareto/NBD framework to capture the flow of transactions over time and a gamma-gamma submodel for spend per transaction. The authors conduct several holdout tests to demonstrate the validity of the model's underlying components and then use it to estimate the total CLV for a cohort of new customers of the online music site CDNOW. Finally, the authors discuss broader issues and opportunities in the application of this model in actual practice.
BUCKLING ANALYSIS OF THIN FUNCTIONALLY GRADED RECTANGULAR PLATES WITH TWO OPPOSITE EDGES SIMPLY SUPPORTED

Abstract In this article, an exact analytical solution for thermal buckling analysis of thin functionally graded (FG) rectangular plates is presented. Based on the classical plate theory and using the principle of minimum total potential energy, the stability equations are obtained. Since the material properties in FG materials are functions of the coordinates (specially the thickness), the stability equations are coupled in terms of in-plane and out-of plane displacements. Introducing a new analytical method, the coupled stability equations are converted into independent equations. It is assumed that the plate is simply supported on two opposite edges and has arbitrary boundary conditions along the other edges, so the Levy solution is considered. Two types of thermal loads, uniform and non-linear temperature rise through the thickness are considered as the loading conditions. Finally, the effect of aspect ratio, thickness to side ratio, index of FGM and boundary conditions on the critical buckling temperature of FG rectangular plates are discussed in details.
Diversification of innate immune genes: lessons from the purple sea urchin

Pathogen diversification can alter infection virulence, which in turn drives the evolution of host immune diversification, resulting in countermeasures for survival in this arms race. Somatic recombination of the immunoglobulin gene family members is a very effective mechanism to diversify antibodies and T-cell receptors that function in the adaptive immune system. Although mechanisms to diversify innate immune genes are not clearly understood, a seemingly unlikely source for insight into innate immune diversification may be derived from the purple sea urchin, which has recently had its genome sequenced and annotated. Although there are many differences, some characteristics of the sea urchin make for a useful tool to understand the human immune system. The sea urchin is phylogenetically related to humans although, as a group, sea urchins are evolutionarily much older than mammals. Humans require both adaptive and innate immune responses to survive immune challenges, whereas sea urchins only require innate immune functions. Genes that function in immunity tend to be members of families, and the sea urchin has several innate immune gene families. One of these is the Sp185/333 gene family with about 50 clustered members that encode a diverse array of putative immune response proteins. Understanding gene diversification in the Sp185/333 family in the sea urchin may illuminate new mechanisms of diversification that could apply to gene families that function in innate immunity in humans, such as the killer immunoglobulin-like receptor genes.
Number 10 / 18 A Mathematical Model of Tumor-Immune Interactions

A mathematical model of the interactions between a growing tumor and the immune system is presented. The equations and parameters of the model are based on experimental and clinical results from published studies. The model includes the primary cell populations involved in effector T-cell mediated tumor killing: regulatory T cells, helper T cells, and dendritic cells. A key feature is the inclusion of multiple mechanisms of immunosuppression through the main cytokines and growth factors mediating the interactions between the cell populations. Decreased access of effector cells to the tumor interior with increasing tumor size is accounted for. The model is applied to tumors with different growth rates and antigenicities to gauge the relative importance of various immunosuppressive mechanisms. The most important factors leading to tumor escape are TGF-β-induced immunosuppression, conversion of helper T cells into regulatory T cells, and the limitation of immune cell access to the full tumor at large tumor sizes. The results suggest that for a given tumor growth rate, there is an optimal antigenicity maximizing the response of the immune system. Further increases in antigenicity result in increased immunosuppression, and therefore a decrease in tumor killing rate.
Design and implementation of NTU wearable exoskeleton as an enhancement and assistive device

This article presents a wearable lower extremity exoskeleton LEE developed to enhance the ability of a human's walking while carrying heavy loads. The ultimate goal of the current research work is to design and control a power assist system that integrates a human's intellect for feedback and sensory purposes. The exoskeleton system in this work consists of an inner exoskeleton and an outer exoskeleton. The inner exoskeleton measures the movements of the wearer and provides these measurements to the outer exoskeleton, which supports the whole exoskeleton system to walk following the wearer. A special footpad, which is designed and attached to the outer exoskeleton, can measure the zero moment point ZMP of the human as well as that of the exoskeleton in time. Using the measured human ZMP as the reference, the exoskeleton's ZMP is controlled by trunk compensation so that the exoskeleton can walk stably. A simulation platform has first been developed to examine the gait coordination through inner and outer exoskeletons. A commercially available software, xPC Target, together with other toolboxes from MATLAB, has then been used to provide a real-time operating system for controlling the exoskeleton. Real-time locomotion control of the exoskeleton is implemented in the developed environment. Finally, some experiments on different objects showed that the stable walking can be achieved in the real environment.
MicroRNA-155 increases colon cancer chemoresistance to cisplatin by targeting forkhead box O3

To investigate the effect of microRNA (miR)-155 on colon cancer chemoresistance to cisplatine and its mechanism. Reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction was used to measure the levels of miR-155 and forkhead box O3 (FOXO3) in colon cancer specimens and cell lines. Overexpression of miR-155 and miR-155 inhibitor were transfected into colon cancer cell lines to investigate its role of chemoresistance to cisplatin in colon cancer. MTS assays were used to analyse cell viability in vitro. In vivo tumor formation assays were performed in C57BL/6 wild type and miR-155 knockout mice (miR-155-/-). A luciferase reporter assay was used to measure the translation of FOXO3. Additionally, the expression of FOXO3 was detected by western blot analysis. It was identified that miR-155 was markedly upregulated in colon cancer tissue and cell lines. Overexpression of miR-155 enhanced colon cancer cell chemoresistance to cisplatin in vitro and tumorigenesis in vivo. In addition, overexpression of miR-155 was associated with decreased levels of FOXO3, primarily through inhibiting the expression of FOXO3 to increase colon cancer resistanec to cisplatin. The present study demonstrated that miR-155 increased colon cancer drug resistance and decreased FOXO3 expression in vivo and in vitro. This may provide a novel method for the treatment of drug-resistant colon cancer.
Optimization for Relay-Assisted Broadband Power Line Communication Systems with QoS Requirements Under Time-varying Channel Conditions

The user experience of practical indoor power line communication (PLC) applications is greatly affected by the system quality-of-service (QoS) criteria. With a general broadcastand-multi-access (BMA) relay scheme, in this work we investigate the joint source and relay power optimization of the amplify-and-forward (AF) relay systems used under indoor broadband PLC environments. To achieve both time diversity and spatial diversity from the relayinvolved PLC channel, which is time-varying in nature, the source node has been configured to transmit an identical message twice in the first and second signalling phase, respectively. The QoS constrained power allocation problem is not convex, which makes the global optimal solution is computationally intractable. To solve this problem, an alternating optimization (AO) method has been adopted and decomposes this problem into three convex/quasi-convex sub-problems. Simulation results show the fast convergence and short delay of the proposed algorithm under realistic relay-involved PLC channels. Compared with the two-hop and broadcast-andforward (BF) relay systems, the proposed general relay system meets the same QoS requirement with less network power assumption.
Generating Anaphora for Simplifying Text

We present an algorithm for generating referring expressions in open domains. Existing algorithms assume a classification of adjectives which is possible only for restricted domains. Our alternative relies on WordNet synonym and antonym sets and gives equivalent results on the examples cited in the literature and improved results in other cases that prior approaches cannot handle. We believe that it is also the first algorithm that allows for the incremental incorporation of relations. We perform an evaluation on a text-simplification task on Wall Street Journal data.
Nest Survival and Predation in Blue-Fronted Parrots Amazona aestiva: Effects of Nesting Behaviour and Cavity Characteristics

In this study we analyse factors affecting nest survival in Blue-fronted Parrots Amazona aestiva breeding in the Chaco region of northern Argentina. We combined temporal and environmental variables in order to determine which best explain variation in overall nest survival and in predation dependent nest survival. We predicted that high and deep cavities, that are inaccessible to snakes and other predators, would have high daily survival rates. We compared the relative effects on nest survival of time of the breeding season, stage of the nesting cycle, and characteristics of the nest cavity. We modelled daily survival rate (DSR) for all observed nests, and daily survival rate for nests that had been predated (daily survival rate in relation to predation exclusively, DSRp). Nest predation accounted for 50% of nest failures. DSR was on average 0.989, translating into an apparent hatching success of 0.39. DSR decreased with time of breeding and increased with nest age. DSRp decreased with time of breeding and inclination of the nest cavity entrance hole and increased with height from the ground of the entrance hole. There was a quadratic effect of nest age on DSRp, such that daily survival was highest during incubation, lowest at hatching and the early nestling stage, but increasing throughout the remainder of the nestling stage. This effect became more pronounced as the breeding season advanced. Year and observer effects did not affect the probability of survival. Temporal patterns and characteristics of the nest cavity explained most of the variation in nest survival in Blue-fronted Parrots, which highlights the relevance of including these covariates in future studies of nest survival in parrots, and has important management and conservation implications.
An architecture for a text simplification system

We present a pipelined architecture for a text simplification system and describe our implementation of the three stages-analysis, transformation and regeneration. Our architecture allows each component to be developed and evaluated independently. We lay particular emphasis on the discourse level aspects of syntactic simplification as these are crucial to the process and have not been dealt with by previous research in the field. These aspects include generating referring expressions, deciding determiners, deciding sentence order and preserving rhetorical and anaphoric structure.
Central nervous system : Neurodegeneration Lung : Neutrophilic alveolitis Asthma Cardiovascular system : Ischemia / reperfusion Septic shock Liver : Hepatitis Kidney : Glomerulonephritis Gastrointestinal tract : Inflammatory bowel disease Articular joint : Rheumatoid arthritis Review

thousands of years ago with the use of readily available natural resources. It is only recently, however, that the cellular and molecular mechanisms of inflammation have been appreciated sufficiently to design anti-inflammatory strategies with limited side effects. For example, salicylates and glucocorticoids, two widely used anti-inflammatory drug classes, are now known to inhibit the activation of NFB, a transcription factor that regulates the inducible expression of a wide range of proinflammatory mediators. New generations of NFB–targeting anti-inflammatory agents that are specific, efficacious, and cost-effective may therefore complement or replace current therapies. In this review, we describe various classes of NFB inhibitors and discuss important unresolved issues regarding their use.
Characterizing Business Models for Digital Business Through Patterns

Abstract This article considers business models through the lenses of both design science and the design orientation in management. It describes a new way of thinking about and engaging with business models as patterns. The term “business pattern” is used to refer to a coherent and repeating sequence of action involving humans, machines (including information technologies systems) and artifacts (such as data structures) as a way of organizing a firm. The study also describes a way of visualizing either existing business patterns or envisaged business patterns through the design artifact of a pattern comic. This is used to provide a narrative of some business pattern in principle or in practice. The design theory of a business pattern as well as the design artifact of a pattern comic offer a range of contributions to the literature on business models. First, they permit a clearer distinction to be drawn between business model, business motivation, and business strategy. Second, they suggest a clearer way of building models of “business” (organizing) either as currently conceived (as-is) or in terms of envisaged models (as-if). This also allows clearer expression of business motivation in terms of transitions between as-is and as-if business patterns. Third, business patterns offer a practical way of thinking about the reuse of business models as patterns and their potential for benchmarking purposes. To help ground both the theorization and the visualization proposed we apply the design theory of a business pattern and the design artifact of pattern comics to help make sense of the domain of online grocery.
Characterization of Essential Oils Obtained from Abruzzo Autochthonous Plants: Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activities Assessment for Food Application

In the present study, the essential oils (EOs) of some officinal plants from Abruzzo territory (Italy) were evaluated for their antimicrobial and antioxidant activities and their volatile fraction chemical characterization. The EOs were extracted from Rosmarinus officinalis, Origanum vulgare, Salvia officinalis, Mentha piperita, Allium sativum, Foeniculum vulgare, Satureja montana, Thymus vulgaris and Coriandrum sativum seeds. The antimicrobial activity was screened against thirteen Gram-positive and Gram-negative strains to determine the Minimal Inhibitory Concentration (MIC). The total phenolic content (TPC) and the antioxidant capacity (AOC) were assessed by means of Folin-Ciocâlteu method, and Trolox Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity with 2,2′-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (TEAC/ABTS), Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP) and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assays respectively. Among the nine EOs tested, T. vulgaris, S. montana, O. vulgare and C. sativum EOs showed MIC values ranging from 0.625 to 5 μL/mL. The AOC and TPC results for these species were also interesting. The major components for these EOs were thymol for T. vulgaris (44%) and O. vulgare (40%), linalool (77%) for C. sativum, and carvacrol for S. montana (54%). The results allowed the study to establish that these EOs are good candidates for potential application as biopreservatives in foods and/or food manufacture environments.
Ulcer Prevention Effect Of 3,4,5-Tihydroxy-N0-[(2-Methyl-1H-Indol-3yl)Methylidene]Benzohydrazide In HCl/Ethanol-Induced Gastric Mucosal Damage In Rats

The newly synthesized, 3,4,5-Trihydroxy-N 0-[(2-methyl-1H-indol-3-yl)-methylidene] benzohydrazide (TIBH), is an indole and gallic acid derivative. The aim of this research investigation was to evaluate the acute toxicity and the ulcer prevention potential of TIBH in HCl/Ethanol-induced gastric ulcer rat model. Six groups of rats were orally received 5ml/kg of vehicle (1 % Carboxy methyl cellulose) for the normal and ulcer control groups each, Omeprazole (20mg/kg) for positive control, 50 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg of TIBH for experimental groups, respectively. After one hour, instead of rats in the normal group which received 5ml/kg of 1% CMC, other groups received 5ml/kg of HCl/Ethanol. All rats were sacrificed after one additional hour. Gastric juice, gastric mucosa, morphologies of gastric ulcers and protein expressions of both control and treatment groups were evaluated. TIBH showed a ulcer prevention potential by increase of the mucus secretion, decrease of the gastric acidity, up-regulation of HSP70 protein, down-regulation of Bax protein, decrease of the lipid peroxidation and the increase of the Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in gastric tissue homogenate. Acute toxicity assay exposed valuable information on the safety of this compound. TIBH had a dose dependent ulcer prevention potential against HCl/Ethanol-triggered gastric ulcer.