Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Women with a History of Childhood Maltreatment Exhibit more Activation in Association Areas Following Non-Traumatic Olfactory Stimuli: A fMRI Study

Background The aim of this study was investigating how women with a history of childhood maltreatment (CM) process non-threatening and non-trauma related olfactory stimuli. The focus on olfactory perception is based on the overlap of brain areas often proposed to be affected in CM patients and the projection areas of the olfactory system, including the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, insula and hippocampus. Methods Twelve women with CM and 10 controls participated in the study. All participants were, or have been, patients in a psychosomatic clinic. Participants underwent a fMRI investigation during olfactory stimulation with a neutral (coffee) and a pleasant (peach) odor. Furthermore, odor threshold and odor identification (Sniffin' Sticks) were tested. Principal Findings Both groups showed normal activation in the olfactory projection areas. However, in the CM-group we found additionally enhanced activation in multiple, mainly neocortical, areas that are part of those involved in associative networks. These include the precentral frontal lobe, inferior and middle frontal structures, posterior parietal lobe, occipital lobe, and the posterior cingulate cortex. Conclusions The results indicate that in this group of patients, CM was associated with an altered processing of olfactory stimuli, but not development of a functional olfactory deficit. This complements other studies on CM insofar as we found the observed pattern of enhanced activation in associative and emotional regions even following non-traumatic olfactory cues.
Assessment of human baroreflex function using carotid ultrasonography: what have we learnt?

The arterial baroreflex is critical to both short‐ and long‐term regulation of blood pressure. However, human baroreflex research has been largely limited to the association between blood pressure and cardiac period (or heart rate) or indices of vascular sympathetic function. Over the past decade, emerging techniques based on carotid ultrasound imaging have allowed new means of understanding and measuring the baroreflex. In this review, we describe the assessment of the mechanical and neural components of the baroreflex through the use of carotid ultrasound imaging. The mechanical component refers to the change in carotid artery diameter in response to changes in arterial pressure, and the neural component refers to the change in R‐R interval (cardiac baroreflex) or muscle sympathetic nerve activity (sympathetic baroreflex) in response to this barosensory vessel stretch. The key analytical concepts and techniques are discussed, with a focus on the assessment of baroreflex sensitivity via the modified Oxford method. We illustrate how the application of carotid ultrasound imaging has contributed to a greater understanding of baroreflex physiology in humans, covering topics such as ageing and diurnal variation, and physiological challenges including exercise, postural changes and mental stress.
Sub-symbolically managing pieces of symbolical functions for sorting

We present a hybrid system for managing both symbolic and subsymbolic knowledge in a uniform way. Our aim is to solve problems where some gap in formal theories occurs which stops us from getting a fully symbolical solution. The idea is to use neural modules to functionally connect pieces of symbolical knowledge, such as mathematical formulas and deductive rules. The whole system is trained through a backpropagation learning algorithm where all (symbolic or subsymbolic) free parameters are updated piping back the error through each component of the system. The structure of this system is very general, possibly varying over time, possibly managing fuzzy variables and decision trees. We use as a test-bed the problem of sorting a file, where suitable suggestions on next sorting moves are supplied by the network also on the basis of hints provided by some conventional sorters. A comprehensive discussion of system performance is provided in order to understand behaviors and capabilities of the proposed hybrid system.
Introducing Accessibility Features in an Educational Game Authoring Tool: The &#60;e-Adventure> Experience

The introduction of new technologies in education raises accessibility issues, which can endanger the universal right to education for students with disabilities. Moreover, in education there is a shift to provide more dynamic and interactive content to the students and video games have been proposed to promote the development of new skills. In this paper we discuss the main challenges of introducing accessibility in game educational software and how they are being addressed within the authoring tool for educational games. The goal is to turn into a holistic solution for the development of accessible educational games.
[Peribulbar anesthesia: comparing 1% ropivacaine and a mixture of 0.5% bupivacaine--2% lidocaine].

PURPOSE To compare the efficacy of 1% ropivacaine with a mixture of 0.5% bupivacaine and 2% lidocaine in peribulbar anesthesia for elective cataract surgery. MATERIAL AND METHODS Prospective double-blinded study, enrolling 100 patients randomly assigned to two different groups. Group 1 received 9 ml of 1% ropivacaine and group 2 received 4.5 ml of 0.5% bupivacaine and 4.5 ml of 2% lidocaine. Both groups received 1 ml of hyaluronidase to reach a total volume of 10 ml. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION No difference between the groups was noted during the study regarding not only onset time, but also the duration of anesthesia and perioperative analgesia. A greater incidence of pain on injection was significantly reported in group 2 (p<0.001). Patients in group 1 had less need for top-up injection and showed better ocular akinesia (p<0.01).
High Functional Diversity in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Driven by Genetic Drift and Human Demography

Mycobacterium tuberculosis infects one third of the human world population and kills someone every 15 seconds. For more than a century, scientists and clinicians have been distinguishing between the human- and animal-adapted members of the M. tuberculosis complex (MTBC). However, all human-adapted strains of MTBC have traditionally been considered to be essentially identical. We surveyed sequence diversity within a global collection of strains belonging to MTBC using seven megabase pairs of DNA sequence data. We show that the members of MTBC affecting humans are more genetically diverse than generally assumed, and that this diversity can be linked to human demographic and migratory events. We further demonstrate that these organisms are under extremely reduced purifying selection and that, as a result of increased genetic drift, much of this genetic diversity is likely to have functional consequences. Our findings suggest that the current increases in human population, urbanization, and global travel, combined with the population genetic characteristics of M. tuberculosis described here, could contribute to the emergence and spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis.
Carbon nanotube catalytic deposition synthesis

Carbon nanotubes "CNTs" have been the focus of numerous investigations because of their unique and superior properties that are a consequence of their particular structure. Their synthesis has been receiving much attention for a wide variety of applications. Though, scientists are researching more economic ways to produce these structures with high quality and purity, our aim in this research is to investigate and optimize the results of the CNTs growth process using CCVD technique. Due to its simplicity and low cost, this technique is perfectly suited for the production of nanomaterials for future industrial applications. MWNTs CCVD synthesis was carried out at 700degC in 5 to 120 minutes reaction. It is essentially based on 2 steps process: a catalyst impregnation preparation step followed by CCVD procedure using ethylene decomposition over Fe-Co/MgO support. During this synthesis, impurities were also produced. Thus, subsequent chemical purification steps were required to separate the tubes. Finally, characterization of crude and purified products was performed by TEM, SEM and FESEM focusing on composition, form and purity obtained.
Robust activating timing for SRAM SA with replica cell voltage boosted circuit

A boosted replica cell voltage control scheme has been proposed for reducing the process-variation of SRAM sense amplifier. This technique suppresses the timing variation by boosting the replica cell voltage. Simulation result shows that the variation of the generated timing was 34.6% smaller when compared with conventional technique, and the cycle time is reduced by 17% at a 0.85V VDD operation in TSMC 65 nm technology with this scheme.
EFNS guideline on the management of community‐acquired bacterial meningitis: report of an EFNS Task Force on acute bacterial meningitis in older children and adults

Acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) is a potentially life‐threatening neurological emergency. An agreed protocol for early, evidence‐based and effective management of community‐acquired ABM is essential for best possible outcome. A literature search of peer‐reviewed articles on ABM was used to collect data on the management of ABM in older children and adults. Based on the strength of published evidence, a consensus guideline was developed for initial management, investigations, antibiotics and supportive therapy of community‐acquired ABM. Patients with ABM should be rapidly hospitalized and assessed for consideration of lumbar puncture (LP) if clinically safe. Ideally, patients should have fast‐track brain imaging before LP, but initiation of antibiotic therapy should not be delayed beyond 3 h after first contact of patient with health service. In every case, blood sample must be sent for culture before initiating antibiotic therapy. Laboratory examination of cerebrospinal fluid is the most definitive investigation for ABM and whenever possible, the choice of antibiotics, and the duration of therapy, should be guided by the microbiological diagnosis. Parenteral therapy with a third‐generation cephalosporin is the initial antibiotics of choice in the absence of penicillin allergy and bacterial resistance; amoxicillin should be used in addition if meningitis because of Listeria monocytogenes is suspected. Vancomycin is the preferred antibiotic for penicillin‐resistant pneumococcal meningitis. Dexamethasone should be administered both in adults and in children with or shortly before the first dose of antibiotic in suspected cases of Streptococcus pneumoniae and H. Influenzae meningitis. In patients presenting with rapidly evolving petechial skin rash, antibiotic therapy must be initiated immediately on suspicion of Neisseria meningitidis infection with parenteral benzyl penicillin in the absence of known history of penicillin allergy.
A novel parking control algorithm for a car-like mobile robot

This paper proposes a novel algorithm for parking motion of a Car-like mobile robot. The algorithm presented here addresses calculating equations for planning a parking path in real time. Moreover, by incorporating the constraints of the mechanical and kinematical characteristics of the car and the geometry of the parking lot in the path planning, we can turn a parking problem into solving algebraic equations. By tracking a planned path, the Car-like mobile robot can drive into the parking area without hitting any boundaries. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by simulation.
Performance comparison between right-handers and left-handers in a Brazilian sample of the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment

Studies that investigate handedness are performed in order to relate hemispheric specialization and cognitive performance. The aim of study was compare the neuropsychological performance between right-handed and left-handed children with ages from five to six years who participated in the Brazilian study of standardization of the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment. For analysis of socio-demographic characteristics, descriptive statistics were used. To compare the mean scores between the groups, normality was tested using Analysis of Variance (one-way Anova) and the Kruskal-Wallis test. When comparing right-handed and left-handed children with typical development, left-handed children presented poorer performance on the subtests involving Attention and Executive Functioning, Language, and Learning and Memory.
Apolipoprotein E Genotype Predicts 24-Month Bayley Scales Infant Development Score

Apolipoprotein E (APOE) regulates cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism, and may mediate synaptogenesis during neurodevelopment. To our knowledge, the effects of APOE4 isoforms on infant development have not been studied. This study was nested within a cohort of mother-infant pairs living in and around Mexico City. A multiple linear regression model was constructed using the 24-mo Mental Development Index (MDI) of the Bayley Scale as the primary outcome and infant APOE genotype as the primary risk factor of interest. Regression models stratified on APOE genotype were constructed to explore effect modification. Of 311 subjects, 53 (17%) carried at least one copy of the APOE4 allele. Mean (SD) MDI scores among carriers with at least one copy of APOE4 were 94.1 (14.3) and among E3/E2 carriers were 91.2 (14.0). After adjustment for covariates, APOE4 carrier status was associated with a 4.4 point (95% confidence interval: 0.1-8.7; p = 0.04) higher 24-mo MDI. In the stratified regression models, the negative effects for umbilical cord blood lead level on 24-mo MDI score was approximately 4-fold greater among APOE3/APOE2 carriers than among APOE4 carriers. These results suggest that subjects with the E4 isoform of APOE may have advantages over those with the E2 or E3 isoforms with respect to early life neuronal/brain development.
Distinguishing the Quasi-Decadal and Multidecadal Sea Level and Climate Variations in the Pacific: Implications for the ENSO-Like Low-Frequency Variability

AbstractLow-frequency sea level variations with periods longer than interannual time scales have been receiving much attention recently, with the aim of distinguishing the anthropogenic regional sea level change signal from the natural fluctuations. Based on the available sea level products, this study finds that the dominant low-frequency sea level mode in the Pacific basin has both quasi-decadal variations and a multidecadal trend reversal in the early 1990s. The dominant sea level modes on these two time scales have different tropical structures: a west–east seesaw in the tropical Pacific on the multidecadal time scale and a dipole between the western and central tropical Pacific on the quasi-decadal time scale. These two sea level modes in the Pacific basin are closely related to the ENSO-like low-frequency climate variability on respective time scales but feature distinct surface wind forcing patterns and subbasin climate processes. The multidecadal sea level mode is associated with the Pacific decad.
The estimation of β - ARCH model under the order restriction and application

That is a good way that use the ARCH family models to describe the time-varying characteristic of the return sequence on stocks. Intuitively, the influence to present from the long history data should not bigger than the short history data. So the order restriction to the parameter is according to the fact better. This paper researched the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of the parameters in the β - ARCH(0,q) model under the nonnegative restriction. At last we use the model in Chinese stock market.
Time Crawls

Conscious visual perception of the constantly changing environment is one of the brain’s most critical functions. In virtually every moment of every daily activity, the visual system is confronted with the task of accurately representing and interpreting scenes that change rapidly over time. Adults can judge the identity and order of changing images presented at a rate of up to 10 Hz (~50 ms per image); this limit reflects a finite temporal resolution of attention. In the research reported here, although 6- to 15-month-old infants could detect the presence of rapid flicker without difficulty, their ability to segment individual alternating states within the flicker was severely limited: Fifteen-month-old infants had a temporal resolution of attention approximately one order of magnitude lower than that of adults (~1 Hz). Coarse temporal resolution constrains how infants perceive and utilize dynamic visual information and may play a role in the visual processing deficits found in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders.
Intrabursal Administration of the Antiangiopoietin 1 Antibody Produces a Delay in Rat Follicular Development Associated with an Increase in Ovarian Apoptosis Mediated by Changes in the Expression of BCL2 Related Genes1

Abstract The angiopoietin (ANGPT) receptor (TEK) system plays a crucial role in blood vessel development and regression. To date, no reports have addressed the actions of the anti-ANGPT1 antibody on gonadotropin-stimulated follicular development and atresia in the ovary. Therefore, in this study we specifically investigated whether ANGPT1 plays a critical intraovarian survival role for gonadotropin-dependent folliculogenesis. In particular, we examined the effect of local administration of anti-ANGPT1 antibody on follicular development, apoptosis, and expression of BCL2 protein family members (BAX, BCL2, and BCL2L1), TNFRSF6, and FASLG in ovarian follicles from prepubertal eCG-treated rats. The inhibition of ANGPT1 caused an increase in the number of atretic follicles and a decrease in the number of both antral follicles (AFs) and preovulatory follicles in gonadotropin-treated rat ovaries. Taking into account that follicular atresia is mediated by apoptosis, we analyzed the effect of the antibody against ANGPT1 on programmed cell death. The inhibition of the action of ANGPT1 caused an increase both in the number of apoptotic granulosa cells in AFs and in the spontaneous DNA fragmentation of AFs cultured in serum-free medium. Besides, AFs obtained from rats treated with intraovarian antibodies against ANGPT1 showed both a decrease in BCL2 and an increase in BAX protein levels. Moreover, a reduction in the BCL2L1L/BCL2L1S ratio was observed in this group, with a reduction of BCL2L1L greater than that of BCL2L1S, thus showing that the expression of these antiapoptotic proteins is lower in follicles from treated rats than in those from untreated ones. Our findings suggest that the inhibition of ANGPT1 activity causes an increase in the number of atretic follicles mediated by ovarian apoptosis through an imbalance in the ratio of antiapoptotic to proapoptotic proteins. This could take place through a paracrine effect on granulosa cells mediated by the TEK receptor in theca cells. Therefore, these data clearly indicate that ANGPT1 is necessary for follicular development induced by gonadotropins.
Does clinical evidence support ICD-9-CM diagnosis coding of complications?

BACKGROUND Hospital discharge diagnoses, coded by use of the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM), increasingly determine reimbursement and support quality monitoring. Prior studies of coding validity have investigated whether coding guidelines were met, not whether the clinical condition was actually present. OBJECTIVE To determine whether clinical evidence in medical records confirms selected ICD-9-CM discharge diagnoses coded by hospitals. RESEARCH DESIGN AND SUBJECTS Retrospective record review of 485 randomly sampled 1994 hospitalizations of elderly Medicare beneficiaries in Califomia and Connecticut. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Proportion of patients with specified ICD-9-CM codes representing potential complications who had clinical evidence confirming the coded condition. RESULTS Clinical evidence supported most postoperative acute myocardial infarction diagnoses, but fewer than 60% of other diagnoses had confirmatory clinical evidence by explicit clinical criteria; 30% of medical and 19% of surgical patients lacked objective confirmatory evidence in the medical record. Across 11 surgical and 2 medical complications, objective clinical criteria or physicians' notes supported the coded diagnosis in >90% of patients for 2 complications, 80% to 90% of patients for 4 complications, 70% to <80% of patients for 5 complications, and <70% for 2 complications. For some complications (postoperative pneumonia, aspiration pneumonia, and hemorrhage or hematoma), a large fraction of patients had only a physician's note reporting the complication. CONCLUSIONS Our findings raise questions about whether the clinical conditions represented by ICD-9-CM codes used by the Complications Screening Program were in fact always present. These findings highlight concerns about the clinical validity of using ICD-9-CM codes for quality monitoring.
Structuring Destination Image: A Qualitative Approach

This article analyzes data derived from conversations with varying groups of residents and visitors in New Zealand with reference to Auckland as a visitor destination. What emerges is a complex, hierarchical pattern of imagery of place, and it is suggested that underlying dimensions are two continua, friendly versus tense/frustrating/threatening and exciting versus relaxing. It is suggested that cognition is a factor influencing image complexity and affective response; hence, images may be both specific to place and characteristics of respondents. This article discusses a number of issues, including the role of visitor familiarity with a site, the modes of analysis used in such studies as these, and the nature of the image construct.
On the performance of DPI signature matching with dynamic priority

Traffic classification and identification plays an important role for several activities in network traffic management, where DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) is one of the most accurate and used techniques. However, inspection of packet payload is highly computing intensive. Several research studies have evaluated different components of DPI systems for application detection, in order to increase the classification speed. Nonetheless, the arrangement of the signatures in the signature set is an open issue and can degrade performance. Depending on the order of signatures, the overall performance of the DPI system can be degraded, leading to loss of packets and incorrect traffic identification. To the best of our knowledge, no previous research has analyzed the impact of the order of the application signatures and how it could be modified to improve the identification speed in a given DPI. In this work, we evaluate the impact of the ordering of signatures in a list and propose a method to dynamically adapt the signature list according to the traffic dynamics. We show the effectiveness of our approach with the most reactive proposed setup, saving more than 50% of processing time. We demonstrate the importance of the order of signatures and propose an effective method that can be used to save processing time. Finally, our method can be combined with other state-of-the-art techniques to achieve an optimal utilization of DPI features.