Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GAL3 receptor KO mice exhibit an anxiety-like phenotype

Significance In the modern world, stress-related diseases, including depression and anxiety disorders, are rapidly increasing. Neuropeptides are important modulators of these diseases. The neuropeptide galanin (GAL) has already been implicated in anxiety- and depression-related behaviors, but the relevant receptor subtypes remain to be elucidated. In the present work, we are the first, to our knowledge, to examine the role of the GAL3 receptor in anxiety- and depression-related behaviors in GAL3 receptor-deficient mice. We provide evidence that this receptor subtype is involved in stress-related diseases, and we propose this receptor as a target for alternative treatment strategies for mood disorders. The neuropeptide galanin (GAL) is widely distributed in the central and peripheral nervous systems. It is a modulator of various physiological and pathological processes, and it mediates its effects via three G protein-coupled receptors (GAL1–3 receptors). A role for GAL as a modulator of mood and anxiety was suggested, because GAL and its receptors are highly expressed in limbic brain structures of rodents. In recent years, numerous studies of animal models have suggested an involvement of GAL and GAL1 and GAL2 receptors in anxiety- and depression-related behavior. However, to date, there is sparse literature implicating GAL3 receptors in behavioral functions. Therefore, we studied the behavior of GAL3 receptor-deficient (GAL3-KO) mice to elucidate whether GAL3 receptors are involved in mediating behavior-associated actions of GAL. The GAL3-KO mouse line exhibited normal breeding and physical development. In addition to behavioral tests, phenotypic characterization included analysis of hematology, amino acid profiles, metabolism, and sudomotor function. In contrast to WT littermates, male GAL3-KO mice exhibited an anxiety-like phenotype in the elevated plus maze, open field, and light/dark box tests, and they were less socially affiliated than WT animals to a stranger mouse in a social interaction test. In conclusion, our data suggest involvement of GAL3 receptors in GAL-mediated effects on mood, anxiety, and behavior, making it a possible target for alternative treatment strategies for mood disorders.
Linearized Dual-Band Power Amplifiers With Integrated Baluns in 65 nm CMOS for a 2$\, \times \,$2 802.11n MIMO WLAN SoC

Fully integrated dual-band power amplifiers with on-chip baluns for 802.11n MIMO WLAN applications are presented. With a 3.3 V supply, the PAs produce a saturated output power of 28.3 dBm and 26.7 dBm with peak drain efficiency of 35.3% and 25.3% for the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, respectively. By utilizing multiple fully self-contained linearization algorithms, an EVM of -25 dB is achieved at 22.4 dBm for the 2.4 GHz band and 20.5 dBm for the 5 GHz band while transmitting 54 Mbs OFDM. The chip is fabricated in standard 65 nm CMOS and the PAs occupy 0.31 mm2 (2.4 GHz) and 0.27 mm2 (5 GHz) area. To examine the reliability of the PAs, accelerated aging tests are performed for several hundreds parts without a single failure.
Validation of the CAchexia SCOre (CASCO). Staging Cancer Patients: The Use of miniCASCO as a Simplified Tool

The CAchexia SCOre (CASCO) was described as a tool for the staging of cachectic cancer patients. The aim of this study is to show the metric properties of CASCO in order to classify cachectic cancer patients into three different groups, which are associated with a numerical scoring. The final aim was to clinically validate CASCO for its use in the classification of cachectic cancer patients in clinical practice. We carried out a case -control study that enrolled prospectively 186 cancer patients and 95 age-matched controls. The score includes five components: (1) body weight loss and composition, (2) inflammation/metabolic disturbances/immunosuppression, (3) physical performance, (4) anorexia, and (5) quality of life. The present study provides clinical validation for the use of the score. In order to show the metric properties of CASCO, three different groups of cachectic cancer patients were established according to the results obtained with the statistical approach used: mild cachexia (15 ≤ × ≤ 28), moderate cachexia (29 ≤ × ≤ 46), and severe cachexia (47 ≤ × ≤ 100). In addition, a simplified version of CASCO, MiniCASCO (MCASCO), was also presented and it contributes as a valid and easy-to-use tool for cachexia staging. Significant statistically correlations were found between CASCO and other validated indexes such as Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and the subjective diagnosis of cachexia by specialized oncologists. A very significant estimated correlation between CASCO and MCASCO was found that suggests that MCASCO might constitute an easy and valid tool for the staging of the cachectic cancer patients. CASCO and MCASCO provide a new tool for the quantitative staging of cachectic cancer patients with a clear advantage over previous classifications.
Ischaemic stroke or TIA in older subjects associated with impaired dynamic blood pressure control in the absence of severe large artery stenosis.

BACKGROUND older subjects may require higher baseline blood pressures to maintain cerebral perfusion. We investigated whether episodic hypotension is associated with tissue infarction in subjects with syncopal symptoms at stroke onset. METHODS over 30 months, all acute strokes/TIAs were prospectively screened for symptoms of syncope or presyncope at stroke onset. Subjects with severe large vessel stenosis were excluded, while cases were referred for syncope unit investigation. All underwent 1.5 T MRI acutely, and suspected borderzone infarctions (BZI) were confirmed through Matlab-derived perfusion software. Case-control comparison was derived from stroke controls with no prior syncope history. RESULTS thirty-eight of 772 stroke patients described presyncope or syncope at stroke onset and had patent large vessels (4.9% of all strokes). Median age was 72 years (IQR 21.4). Twenty-two patients (58%) were prescribed antihypertensive agents at symptom onset. Twenty-six (68.4%) reported focal neurology <24 h in duration. 63.2% (n = 24) of cases reported prior syncope history, compared with 33% (N = 103) of controls, P < 0.001. Cases exhibited greater orthostatic BP drop than controls, P < 0.05 Twenty-four patients were diagnosed with vasovagal syncope through head-up tilt symptom reproduction, 9 with orthostatic hypotension, 4 with cardiac syncope and 1 with carotid sinus syndrome. Nineteen (50%) patients had an acute infarct on MRI, 14 of these were in the arterial borderzone (73.6%). The BZI group were significantly older than the non-BZI group, 79.2 yrs versus 63.3 yrs, P = 0.002. CONCLUSION subjects reporting hypotensive symptoms at stroke onset have a higher prevalence of borderzone infarction, despite being normotensive or hypertensive at baseline.
A New Technique for Pectoral Muscle Detection

—Previous works on breast tissue identification and abnormalities detection notice that the feature extractionprocess is affected if the region processed is not well defined. Thereby, it is important to split the mammogram into regions to achieve optimal breast parenchyma measurements, breast registration or to put into focus a technique when searching for abnormalities. Detection and suppression of pectoral muscle can also help in image registration for further analysis of breast abnormalities In this paper a proposed new automated technique for segmenting a digital mammogram into breast region with pectoral muscle suppression. This technique uses bit depth and edge processes for pectoral muscle detection and suppression.
Dynamic Fidelity Control to the Central Auditory System: Synergistic Glycine/GABAergic Inhibition in the Cochlear Nucleus

GABA and glycine are the major inhibitory transmitters that attune neuronal activity in the CNS of mammals. The respective transmitters are mostly spatially separated, that is, synaptic inhibition in the forebrain areas is mediated by GABA, whereas glycine is predominantly used in the brainstem. Accordingly, inhibition in auditory brainstem circuits is largely mediated by glycine, but there are few auditory synapses using both transmitters in maturity. Little is known about physiological advantages of such a two-transmitter inhibitory mechanism. We explored the benefit of engaging both glycine and GABA with inhibition at the endbulb of Held-spherical bushy cell synapse in the auditory brainstem of juvenile Mongolian gerbils. This model synapse enables selective in vivo activation of excitatory and inhibitory neuronal inputs through systemic sound stimulation and precise analysis of the input (endbulb of Held) output (spherical bushy cell) function. The combination of in vivo and slice electrophysiology revealed that the dynamic AP inhibition in spherical bushy cells closely matches the inhibitory conductance profile determined by the glycine-R and GABAA-R. The slow and potent glycinergic component dominates the inhibitory conductance, thereby primarily accounting for its high-pass filter properties. GABAergic transmission enhances the inhibitory strength and shapes its duration in an activity-dependent manner, thus increasing the inhibitory potency to suppress the excitation through the endbulb of Held. Finally, in silico modeling provides a strong link between in vivo and slice data by simulating the interactions between the endbulb- and the synergistic glycine-GABA-conductances during in vivo-like spontaneous and sound evoked activities.
Prefibrillar Amyloid Protein Aggregates Share Common Features of Cytotoxicity*

The intracellular free Ca2+ concentration and redox status of murine fibroblasts exposed to prefibrillar aggregates of the HypF N-terminal domain have been investigated in vitro and in vivo using a range of fluorescent probes. Aggregate entrance into the cytoplasm is followed by an early rise of reactive oxygen species and free Ca2+ levels and eventually by cell death. Such changes correlate directly with the viability of the cells and are not observed when cell are cultured in the presence of reducing agents or in Ca2+-free media. In addition, moderate cell stress following exposure to the aggregates was found to be fully reversible. The results show that the cytotoxicity of prefibrillar aggregates of HypF-N, a protein not associated with clinical disease, has the same fundamental origin as that produced by similar types of aggregates of proteins linked with specific amyloidoses. These findings suggest that misfolded proteinaceous aggregates stimulate generic cellular responses as a result of the exposure of regions of the structure (such as hydrophobic residues and the polypeptide main chain) that are buried in the normally folded proteins. They also support the idea that a higher number of degenerative pathologies than previously known might be considered as protein deposition diseases.
Sparse Vs Dense Data Representations in Kernel Methods

This paper focuses on the problem of how data representation influences the generalization error of kernel based learning machines like Support Vector Machines (SVM) for classification. Frame theory provides a well founded mathematical framework for representing data in many different ways. We analyze the effects of sparse and dense data representations on the generalization error of such learning machines measured by using leave-one-out error given a finite number of training data. We show that, in the case of sparse data representation, the generalization capacity of an SVM trained by using polynomial or Gaussian kernel functions is equal to the one of a linear SVM. We show that sparse data representations reduce the generalization error as long as the representation is not too sparse, as in the case of very large dictionaries. Very sparse representations increase drastically the generalization error of kernel based methods. Dense data representations, on the contrary, reduce the generalization error also in the case of very large dictionaries.
Designated as Dangerous: Characteristics of Sex Offenders Subject to Post‐Sentence Orders in Australia

The earliest characterisation of Australian sex offenders subjected to post‐sentence legislation is presented. Demographic, developmental, clinical, and criminal characteristics were obtained for sex offenders under post‐sentence orders in Western Australia, New South Wales, and Victoria. Data on 50 offenders were recorded from psychological and psychiatric risk assessment reports statutorily required at the initiation of post‐sentence legal proceedings. The findings describe a group of demonstrably dangerous men who exhibited an early onset of sexual offending, high rates of mental disorder, sexual deviance, and antisociality. Their developmental histories are characterised by early deprivation, disadvantage, abuse, early exposure to substance abuse, and social and psychological dislocation. These offenders present a conundrum to criminal justice agencies. They are an objectively unfortunate group and have engaged in significantly harmful behaviours. However, the early onset of their offending suggests that early intervention services, such as those offered by mental health professionals, have a critically important role to play in any effort to alter offending trajectories such as those exhibited in this sample. A paradigm shift in public policy from a post hoc model to a well‐resourced preventative and public health approach to the problem of sexual violence is proposed. Broad treatment implications are also considered.
Assessing and Relaxing Assumptions in Quasi-Simplex Models

The quasi-simplex model (QSM) makes use of at least three repeated measures of the same variable to estimate reliability. The model has rather strict assumptions and ignoring them may bias estimates of reliability. While some previous studies have outlined how several of its assumptions can be relaxed, they have not been exhaustive and systematic. Thus, it is unclear what all the assumptions are and how to test and free them in practice. This chapter will addresses this situation by presenting the main assumptions of the quasi-simplex model and the ways in which users can relax these with relative ease when more than three waves are available. Additionally, by using data from the British Household Panel Survey we show how this is practically done and highlight the potential biases found when ignoring the violations of the assumptions. We conclude that relaxing the assumptions should be implemented routinely when more than three waves of data are available.
Prediction and monitoring upper-extremity motor recovery after severe stroke. Clinical and neurophysiological studies

Stroke is an important disease in Western Society with an estimated incidence of 30.000 patients/year in the Netherlands. In approximately 70 to 80% of the stroke survivors upper-extremity motor function is impaired and in almost one third of these patients motor impairments are severe. Among those with severe impairments, two-thirds do not regain the functional use of the affected arm or hand. Nevertheless, nearly 25% of these patients will regain partial motor recovery, and 5-20% even complete motor recovery. These 'recovery' patients, however, cannot be accurately identified by clinical assessment. The pathophysiological processes underlying motor recovery after stroke and the development of spasticity are not well understood. It seems essential to enhance our knowledge of (cortical) reorganization processes to predict motor recovery and ultimately improve the effects of various treatment approaches in stroke patients. Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a non-invasive neurophysiological technique to assess the integrity of the corticospinal pathways both objectively and quantitatively. TMS is particularly effective in the activation of distal hand muscles in which a short-latency motor evoked potential (MEP) can be recorded by surface electromyography. Previous studies consistently showed high specificity of the presence of a MEP (100%) in those patients who will show upper-extremity motor recovery. There is also some evidence that TMS may be of value in predicting the development of post-stroke spasticity through information obtained from the silent period (SP). In this study, both clinical examinations and neurophysiological techniques will be used to investigate the importance of the integrity of the corticospinal pathways for upper-extremity functioning. In particular, the additional predictive value of both MEP and SP to clinical examination with regard to post-stroke hand motor recovery will be determined in patients with a severe, middle cerebral artery stroke. The development of spasticity will be monitored and predicted in these patients as well.
FACIAL FEATURE BASED HEAD TRACKING AND POSE ESTIMATION

Main purpose of this thesis is to study a facial feature based human head pose estimation. Especially the facial feature extraction methods suitable for a real-time system are considered. Based on the literature survey, an experimental head tracking and pose estimation system is implemented. An efficient method based on skin detection, gray-scale morphology and a geometrical face model are applied to detect roughly the face region and extract facial features. The facial features extracted include the eyes, mouth, nostrils and eyebrows. The system automatically initializes whenever the face of a user is detected. After successful initialization, the tracker is started. The extended Kalman filtering (EKF) framework is utilized for tracking and estimation of the 3-D pose of the moving head in an image sequence. During tracking the correspondences between a rigid head model and three extracted facial features (eyes and mouth) are used to solve the pose. To demonstrate the practicality of the approach the user’s gaze direction is detected and applied to a cursor control on the computer screen. Experiments with real image sequences and synthetic data were carried out. Tests with real sequences showed that the system is able to extract facial features reliably from a near frontal view of the face under proper lighting conditions. Furthermore, high real-time performance was achieved. Pose estimation and gaze detection accuracies were tested with synthetic data and good preliminary results were obtained. The fast implementation proves the basic premise that the proposed approach can be applied in platforms like mobile devices where high computational resources are not available. However, there are some restrictions in the current implementation. A user with glasses, occlusion and shadows will cause problems for the system. In future work the observed problems will be considered more closely.
Sleep and wake in rhythmic vs arrhythmic chronotypes of a microphthalmic species of African mole rat ( Cryptomys mechowi )

The giant Zambian molerat (Cryptomys mechowi) is a subterranean African rodent noted for its regressed visual system and unusual patterns of circadian rhythmicity – within this species some individuals exhibit distinct regular circadian patterns while others have arrhythmic circadian patterns. The current study was aimed at understanding whether differences in circadian chronotypes in this species affects the patterns and proportions of the different phases of the sleep-wake cycle. Physiological parameters of sleep (EEG and EMG) and behaviour (video recording) were recorded continuously for 72 h from six mole rats (three rhythmic and three arrhythmic) using a telemetric system and a low light CCTV camera connected to a DVD recorder. The telemetric data was scored (in both 5 s and 1 min
Communicative facial displays as a new conversational modality

The human face is an independent communication channel that conveys emotional and conversational signals encoded as facial displays. Facial displays can be viewed as communicative signals that help coordinate conversation. We are attempting to introduce facial displays into computer-human interaction as a new modality. This will make the interaction tighter and more efficient while lessening the cognitive load. As the first step, a speech dialogue system was selected to investigate the power of communicative facial displays. We analyzed the conversations between users and the speech dialogue system, to which facial displays had been added. We found that conversation with the system featuring facial displays was more successful than that with a system without facial displays.
Partial task assignment of task graphs under heterogeneous resource constraints

This paper presents a novel partial assignment technique (PAT) that decides which tasks should be assigned to the same resource without explicitly defining assignment of these tasks to a particular resource. Our method simplifies the assignment and scheduling steps while imposing a small or no penalty on the final solution quality. This technique is specially suited for problems which have different resources constraints. Our method does not cluster tasks into a new task, as typical clustering techniques do, but specifies which tasks need to be executed on the same processor. Our experiments have shown that PAT, which may produce nonlinear groups of tasks, gives better results than linear clustering when multi-resource constraints are present. Linear clustering was proved to be optimal comparing to all other clusterings for problems with timing constraints only. In this paper, we show that, if used for multi-resource synthesis problem, as it is often used nowadays, linear clustering will produce inferior solutions.
Adaptive Accelerated Gradient Converging Method under H\"{o}lderian Error Bound Condition

Recent studies have shown that proximal gradient (PG) method and accelerated gradient method (APG) with restarting can enjoy a linear convergence under a weaker condition than strong convexity, namely a quadratic growth condition (QGC). However, the faster convergence of restarting APG method relies on the potentially unknown constant in QGC to appropriately restart APG, which restricts its applicability. We address this issue by developing a novel adaptive gradient converging methods, i.e., leveraging the magnitude of proximal gradient as a criterion for restart and termination. Our analysis extends to a much more general condition beyond the QGC, namely the H\"{o}lderian error bound (HEB) condition. {\it The key technique} for our development is a novel synthesis of {\it adaptive regularization and a conditional restarting scheme}, which extends previous work focusing on strongly convex problems to a much broader family of problems. Furthermore, we demonstrate that our results have important implication and applications in machine learning: (i) if the objective function is coercive and semi-algebraic, PG's convergence speed is essentially $o(\frac{1}{t})$, where $t$ is the total number of iterations; (ii) if the objective function consists of an $\ell_1$, $\ell_\infty$, $\ell_{1,\infty}$, or huber norm regularization and a convex smooth piecewise quadratic loss (e.g., square loss, squared hinge loss and huber loss), the proposed algorithm is parameter-free and enjoys a {\it faster linear convergence} than PG without any other assumptions (e.g., restricted eigen-value condition). It is notable that our linear convergence results for the aforementioned problems are global instead of local. To the best of our knowledge, these improved results are first shown in this work.