Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Automatic Visual Simulation of Words: A Memory Reactivated Mask Slows Down Conceptual Access

How do we represent the meaning of words? The present study assesses whether access to conceptual knowledge requires the reenactment of the sensory components of a concept. The reenactment—that is, simulation—was tested in a word categorisation task using an innovative masking paradigm. We hypothesised that a meaningless reactivated visual mask should interfere with the simulation of the visual dimension of concrete words. This assumption was tested in a paradigm in which participants were not aware of the link between the visual mask and the words to be processed. In the first phase, participants created a tone–visual mask or tone–control stimulus association. In the test phase, they categorised words that were presented with 1 of the tones. Results showed that words were processed more slowly when they were presented with the reactivated mask. This interference effect was only correlated with and explained by the value of the visual perceptual strength of the words (i.e., our experience with the visual dimensions associated with concepts) and not with other characteristics. We interpret these findings in terms of word access, which may involve the simulation of sensory features associated with the concept, even if participants were not explicitly required to access visual properties. Comment nous représentons-nous le sens des mots? La présente étude évalue si l’accès aux connaissances conceptuelles requiert la reconstitution des éléments sensoriels d’un concept. La reconstitution, c’est-à-dire la simulation, a été testée dans le cadre d’une tâche de catégorisation des mots au moyen d’un paradigme de masquage novateur. Nous avons émis l’hypothèse qu’un masque visuel réactivé superflu pourrait interférer avec la simulation de la dimension visuelle de mots concrets. Cette hypothèse a été vérifiée au moyen d’un paradigme dans le cadre duquel les participants n’étaient pas conscients du lien qui existait entre le masque visuel et les mots à traiter. Lors de la première phase, les participaient faisaient une association ton - masque visuel ou ton - contrôle du stimulus. Lors de la phase-test, ils ont catégorisé des mots qui étaient présentés avec l’un des deux tons. Les résultats ont montré que les mots étaient traités plus lentement lorsqu’ils étaient présentés avec le masque réactivé. Cet effet d’interférence a uniquement pu être corrélé avec et expliqué par la valeur de la force de perception visuelle des mots (c’est-à-dire notre expérience avec les dimensions visuelles associées aux concepts) et non avec les autres caractéristiques. Nous interprétons ces résultats en termes d’accès aux mots, lesquels peuvent impliquer la simulation de fonctions sensorielles associées au concept, même si les participants n’étaient pas tenus d’accéder aux propriétés visuelles.
Intrinsic brain abnormalities in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a resting-state functional MR imaging study.

PURPOSE To explore alterations of regional and network-level neural function using resting-state functional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and to assess the association between these alterations of intrinsic neural activity and executive dysfunction in ADHD. MATERIALS AND METHODS This prospective study was approved by the local ethical committee, and written informed consent was obtained from guardians of all participants. Thirty-three boys with ADHD who were not receiving medication and who were without comorbidity (aged 6-16 years) and 32 healthy control subjects (aged 8-16 years) underwent imaging by using resting-state functional MR imaging. Amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and seed-based functional connectivity (FC) were calculated to examine regional neural function and functional integration, respectively, and were compared between patients and control subjects by using the voxel-based two-sample t test, while Pearson correlation analyses were performed to identify neural correlates of executive function measured with the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and the Stroop Color-Word Test. RESULTS Relative to healthy control subjects, patients with ADHD showed impaired executive function (P < .05), along with the following: lower ALFF in the left orbitofrontal cortex (P = .004) and the left ventral superior frontal gyrus (P = .003); higher ALFF in the left globus pallidus (P = .004), the right globus pallidus (P = .002), and the right dorsal superior frontal gyrus (P = .025); lower long-range FC in the frontoparietal and frontocerebellar networks; and higher FC in the frontostriatal circuit that correlated across subjects with ADHD with the degree of executive dysfunction (P < .05). CONCLUSION These findings of focal spontaneous hyper- and hypofunction, together with altered brain connectivity in the large-scale resting-state networks, which correlates with executive dysfunction, point to a connectivity-based pathophysiologic process in ADHD.
Fast Gossiping on Mesh-Bus Computers

A mesh-bus computer is a parallel computer in which nodes (i.e., processors) are arranged on a two-dimensional array, and nodes on each row and nodes on each column, respectively, are connected by a shared bus. The nodes communicate with each other by exchanging packets through shared buses in CREW manner. Suppose that each node initially contains a piece of information called a token. A gossiping problem is the routing problem of exchanging tokens among all nodes in the computer, which has been studied extensively as a basic communication scheme for sharing information among nodes in a parallel computer. In this paper, we propose three gossiping algorithms for mesh-bus computers assuming that each packet can carry at most l tokens in a step, where l is a function of the number of all nodes. It is shown that by selecting the fastest algorithm among them, for each given function l, a lower bound on the gossiping time can be attained asymptotically.
Postural control and detection of slip/fall initiation in the elderly population

One of the common causes of morbidity and mortality in workplaces is related to slips or falls. Reaction to external disturbances, such as slips or falls, requires a process of perturbation detection and control of motion changes. Postural control is a common mechanism to compensate unexpected displacements of the body. The ability of postural control diminishes with ageing or neuropathy. In this study, two controlled groups, diabetics and non-diabetics in the elderly population, were investigated to compare how different postural control mechanisms would relate to the detection of perturbation and regain of balance. The ultra-low-vibration Sliding Linear Investigative Platform for Analyzing Lower Limb Stability SYSTEM was used to measure the biomechanical changes of posture and perturbation detection. In phase 1 of the analysis, static measures during quiet standing were considered to investigate the relationship between postural stability and perturbation detection capability. In phase 2 of the analysis, dynamic measures during an occurrence of perturbation were analysed. Statistical tests and linear logistic regression models were applied to find differences of postural control mechanisms and to build a predictive model for perturbation detection quantitatively. It is anticipated that the results of this study will contribute to more comprehensive understanding of postural control mechanisms and design of slip/fall prevention programmes.
Hand gesture detection using a stereo camera system and simulation of movement

The implementation of a hand gesture detection using a stereo camera system is used to determine the hand position in a space described by two intersecting planes and the finger position by determining the finger tips, which leads to the classification of the hand image viewed from above into six different types. The hand movement is simulated using a 3D model implemented in Matlab programming language. In order to test the performance of the image type detection, we classify using the algorithm a dataset of 6000 images of different hand positions acquired from 20 subjects. This application can be used to control a robotic arm in real time.
Issues on Selecting Image Features for Robust Source Camera Identification

Image feature selection is an important issue for source camera identification. Well-selected features should make camera classifiers accurate, efficient as well as robust. Current source camera identification schemes select image features mainly based on classification accuracy and computational efficiency. In this work, we demonstrate that robustness should also be considered for classifiers which aim at real-world tasks. Besides, we reveal what impact the reduced feature subset will have on the robustness of camera classifiers. The dimensionality reduction is often necessary for computational efficiency.
Examining the effects of an interprofessional crew resource management training intervention on perceptions of patient safety

ABSTRACT This article reports the results from a study that employed an interprofessional crew resource management (CRM) education programme in the emergency and critical care departments. The study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of this intervention of participants’ satisfaction and safety attitude changes using a satisfaction questionnaire and the Human Factors Attitude Survey (HFAS). Overall, participants responded positively to the CRM training—93.4% were satisfied, 93.1% agreed that it enhanced patient safety and care quality, 85.7% agreed that it increased their confidence, 86.4% agreed that it reduced practice errors, and 90.8% agreed that it would change their behaviours. Overall, the participants reported positive changes in their attitudes regarding 22 of the 23 HFAS questions.
Allogeneic tumor-cell-based vaccines secreting endoplasmic reticulum chaperone gp96

Heat-shock proteins are chaperones for proteins including tumor antigens. Heat-shock protein gp96, also known as glucose-regulated protein grp94, is the primary chaperone of the endoplasmic reticulum and a natural adjuvant for priming the innate and adaptive immune system. By transfecting tumor cells with a genetically modified secretory form of gp96, the tumor cells are transformed into vaccine cells. Gp96 vaccines in murine studies trigger robust innate and antigen-specific cellular immune responses and cause tumor rejection followed by long-lasting tumor immunity. The authors briefly review here the generation of cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses by gp96 and the most up to date clinical data in the use of gp96-based cancer vaccines.
Neuronal mechanisms underlying physiological tremor.

1. Tremor force was recorded during stationary isometric contractions of intrinsic hand muscles of normal subjects. Subjects maintained a steady force level between their thumb and forefinger for 30 s. The force level varied from weak (0.2 kg) to strong contractions (7 kg). These experimental conditions were the same as those in two preceding studies, where single motor-unit activity (14) and the correlation between the discharges of two simultaneously recorded motor units and physiological tremor (11) have been investigated. 2. Two alterations of the power spectra were observed at successively stronger contractions: increase of tremor amplitude and changes in the shape of the power spectrum. At all force levels, the power spectra of tremor force show the well-known decay of tremor amplitude from the lower to the higher frequencies with a local peak at 6--10 Hz. This peak does not show a significant change with respect to frequency when the force level is varied. It is shifted toward lower frequencies in a pathological condition (Parkinsonism) where the recruitment firing rates of the motor units are significantly lower than in the normal. 3. Higher frequencies (greater than 20 Hz) are barely present in the power spectrum during the very weak contractions. They become significant as the contractions become stronger. 4. The steep decay of the power spectrum toward higher frequencies has a similar slope (--43 dB/decade) as the reduction in amplitude of the unfused part of the muscle contractions with increasing stimulus rates (--38 dB/decade). The cutoff of the power spectrum above 25 Hz parallels the achievement of total fusion of muscle twitches above this rate. 5. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that the power spectrum over the range of 6--25 Hz is mainly caused by the unfused parts of the twitch contractions of motor units firing between recruitment (6--8/s) and total fusion of the twitches (25--30/s). The decline of the power spectrum toward higher frequencies can be explained by mechanical damping, which results from increasing fusion of the twitch contractions. The low-frequency part of the power spectrum is assumed to be the result of the slow force deviations produced by changes in the net output of the motoneuron pool. 6. These assumptions were supported by additional animal experiments where the number and rate of force-producing elements could be controlled. Bundles of ventral root filaments innervating cat soleus and gastrocnemius muscles were stimulated synchronously and asynchronously at a number of different rates. The force output of the strain gauge was recorded, filtered, and analyzed in the same way as the human force records. 7. Stimualtion of one nerve bundle at one fixed frequency led to a sharp peak in the power spectrum at that frequency plus peaks of decreasing height representing the harmonics of the stimulation frequency. The height of the peaks decreased at --37 dB/decade. 8.
Bacterial Lipopolysaccharide Inhibits Dengue Virus Infection of Primary Human Monocytes/Macrophages by Blockade of Virus Entry via a CD14-Dependent Mechanism

ABSTRACT Monocytes/macrophages (MO/Mφ) are the major target cells for both dengue virus (DV) and bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and the aim of this study was to define their interactions. We had found that LPS markedly suppressed DV infection of primary human MO/Mφ when it was added to cultures prior to or together with, but not after, viral adsorption. The inhibitory effect of LPS was direct and specific and was not mediated by LPS-induced secretion of cytokines and chemokines such as tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6, IL-8, IL-12, alpha interferon, MIP-1α, and RANTES. In fact, productive DV infection was not blocked but was just postponed by LPS, with a time lag equal to one viral replication cycle. Time course studies demonstrated that LPS was only effective in suppressing DV infection of MO/Mφ that had not been previously exposed to the virus. At various time points after viral adsorption, the level of unbound viruses that remained free in the culture supernatants of LPS-pretreated cultures was much higher than that of untreated controls. These observations suggest that the LPS-induced suppression of DV replication was at the level of virus attachment and/or entry. Blockade of the major LPS receptor, CD14, with monoclonal antibodies MY4 or MoS39 failed to inhibit DV infection but could totally abrogate the inhibitory effect of LPS. Moreover, human serum could significantly enhance the LPS-induced DV suppression in a CD14-dependent manner, indicating that the “binding” of LPS to CD14 was critical for the induction of virus inhibition. Taken together, our results suggest that LPS blocked DV entry into human MO/Mφ via its receptor CD14 and that a CD14-associated cell surface structure may be essential for the initiation of a DV infection.
SecPage - A Lightweight Memory Protection Architecture

Protection of memory is very significant for preventing computer system from vulnerabilities, malware or runtime reverse engineering. We introduce SecPage (Secure Page), a new hardware/software memory protection architecture. New architecture provides isolated memory environment to protect sensitive code and data. The security of SecPage mechanism is achieved by adding extensional dedicated instructions and registers into hardware architecture and modifying system software to support the creation and management of isolated memory environment in fine-grained memory page. We demonstrate that SecPage can be achieved without significant performance penalty and the development of SecPage-aware application has minimal modification to existing code. We demonstrate and evaluate the implementation of SecPage can be achieved in low hardware complexity, minimal software modification, and acceptable performance penalty. We use SPEC 2006 benchmark running on GEM5 system simulator to evaluate performance of SecPage. The average of performance loss is 3.1% and the largest loss is 11.1% in IPC.
Broadband dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) design for mobile wireless applications

This paper presents a broadband dielectric resonator antenna operating from 1.15 to 6 GHz to cover most of the existing wireless mobile standards. This antenna assembly is constructed by a printed monopole antenna and a defected cylindrical dielectric resonator. The broad impedance bandwidth of this antenna is achieved by loading the crescent shaped radiator of the printed monopole antenna with a high permittivity dielectric material of 81. The envelope size of this antenna is 57 × 37.5 × 5.8 mm3. The simulated results in term of return loss, far field and gain of this antenna were shown and compared with the published work. The results of parametric study of this antenna were given in order to understand the influence of the permittivity and the height of the dielectric resonator to the return loss of the antenna. These results have demonstrated that the proposed antenna is potential candidate for mobile handset application.
Beaconholic: An efficient framework for location sensing reminder application using IoT

The Beaconholic is an iphone operating system (iOS) application that provides a link between the Reminders on phone and Beacons in the real world. iBeacon is a trending technology that provides new location awareness possibilities for applications. Leveraging Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), an iBeacon technology enabled device that can be used to establish a region around an object and identify whenever the device enters or exits the region. In this paper we introduce a reminder application which monitors our location and provide us with the corresponding reminders which we have already fed into the application. The iOS device can alert applications when we approach or leave a location using iBeacon. Each time the iOS device enters the beaconic region, the application notifies the user with the corresponding reminders. Thus this application implements Internet of things with the communication of an iBeacon with an iOS device. We envision that the application of the proposed method lead to significant time conservation and automation of the reminders.
A study of how varying degrees of functionalised nanofiller have an effect on nanodielectrics

This paper follows our investigation on the interfacial region within nanodielectrics. Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy were used to analyse the effects of modifying nanofiller with coupling agent. Specifically, silane chemistry was used to treat nanosilica samples; by functionalising nanofiller to different degrees and introducing this into an epoxy matrix, a series of nanocomposite systems were prepared and examined. The dispersion state of the treated nanofiller in epoxy was observed using Scanning electron microscopy, where the optimum distribution was found at a ratio of 4:1 (nanosilica to silane) and the ac breakdown strength is reported to improve with uniformity in dispersion.
Breathing retraining in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome: A pilot study

The study aimed to 1) examine the point prevalence of asynchronous breathing in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients; 2) examine whether CFS patients with an asynchronous breathing pattern present with diminished lung function in comparison with CFS patients with a synchronous breathing pattern; and 3) examine whether one session of breathing retraining in CFS patients with an asynchronous breathing pattern is able to improve lung function. Twenty patients fulfilling the diagnostic criteria for CFS were recruited for participation in a pilot controlled clinical trial with repeated measures. Patients presenting with an asynchronous breathing pattern were given 20–30 minutes of breathing retraining. Patients presenting with a synchronous breathing pattern entered the control group and received no intervention. Of the 20 enrolled patients with CFS, 15 presented with a synchronous breathing pattern and the remaining 5 patients (25%) with an asynchronous breathing pattern. Baseline comparison revealed no group differences in demographic features, symptom severity, respiratory muscle strength, or pulmonary function testing data (spirometry). In comparison to no treatment, the session of breathing retraining resulted in an acute (immediately postintervention) decrease in respiratory rate (p<0.001) and an increase in tidal volume (p<0.001). No other respiratory variables responded to the session of breathing retraining. In conclusion, the present study provides preliminary evidence supportive of an asynchronous breathing pattern in a subgroup of CFS patients, and breathing retraining might be useful for improving tidal volume and respiratory rate in CFS patients presenting with an asynchronous breathing motion.
Radiofrequency ablation for the treatment of gastric antral vascular ectasia

Background and study aims: The traditional endoscopic treatment for gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE) is argon plasma coagulation, but results are not always positive. Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a new endoscopic therapy that may be an attractive option for the treatment of GAVE. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of RFA for the treatment of GAVE. Patients and methods: This was an open-label, retrospective, case series study. The main outcome measures were number of red blood cell (RBC) packs transfused (transfusion requirement) and hemoglobin concentrations (g/dL) in the 6 months prior to and after RFA. Success was defined as a decrease in transfusion requirement in the 6 months after RFA compared with before treatment. Results: A total of 24 patients underwent a mean of 1.8 ± 0.8 RFA sessions. No complications were reported. One patient was referred for additional argon plasma coagulation during follow-up. The mean number of RBC packs decreased in all 23 transfusion-dependent patients, from a mean of 10.6 ± 12.1 during the 6 months prior to RFA, to a mean of 2.5 ± 5.9 during the 6 months after RFA treatment (P < 0.001), and 15 patients (65.2 %) were weaned off transfusions completely. An increase in the hemoglobin concentration was reported in all patients after RFA (from 6.8 ± 1.4 g/dL to 9.8 ± 1.8 g/dL; P < 0.001). Conclusion: RFA for the treatment of GAVE seems feasible and safe, and significantly reduced the need for RBC transfusion and increased the hemoglobin level in this retrospective case series.