Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Complex language functions and subcortical mechanisms: evidence from Huntington's disease and patients with non-thalamic subcortical lesions.

The neuropathological changes associated with Huntington's disease (HD) are most marked in the head of the caudate nucleus and, to a lesser extent, in the putamen and globus pallidus, suggesting that at least part of the language impairments found in patients with HD may result from non-thalamic subcortical (NTS) pathology. The present study aimed to test the hypothesis that a signature profile of impaired language functions is found in patients who have sustained damage to the non-thalamic subcortex, either focally induced or resulting from neurodegenerative pathology. The language abilities of a group of patients with Huntington's disease (n=13) were compared with those of an age- and education-matched group of patients with chronic NTS lesions following stroke (n=13) and a non-neurologically impaired control group (n=13). The three groups were compared on language tasks that assessed both primary and more complex language abilities. The primary language battery consisted of The Western Aphasia Battery and The Boston Naming Test, whilst the more complex cognitive-linguistic battery employed selected subtests from The Test of Language Competence - Expanded, The Test of Word Knowledge and The Word Test - Revised. On many of the tests of primary language function from the Western Aphasia Battery, both the HD and NTS participants performed in a similar manner to the control participants. The language performances of the HD participants were significantly more impaired (p<0.05 using modified Bonferroni adjustments) than the control group, however, on various lexico-semantic tasks (e.g. the Boston Naming Test and providing definitions), on both single-word and sentence-level generative tasks (e.g. category fluency and formulating sentences), and on tasks which required interpretation of ambiguous, figurative and inferential meaning. The difficulties that patients with HD experienced with tasks assessing complex language abilities were strikingly similar, both qualitatively and quantitatively, to the language profile produced by NTS participants. The results provide evidence to suggest that a signature language profile is associated with damage to the non-thalamic subcortex resulting from either focal neurological insult or a degenerative disease.
On the Privacy of Frequently Visited User Locations

With the fast adoption of location-enabled devices, Location-based Applications (LBAs) have become widely popular. While LBAs enable highly useful concepts such as geo-social networking, their use also raises serious privacy concerns as it involves sharing of location data with non-trusted third parties. In this respect, we propose an approach that protects the frequently visited locations of users, e.g., a bar, against inferences from long-term monitoring of their location data. Such inferences equate a privacy leak as they reveal a user's personal behavior and interests to possibly malicious non-trusted parties. To this end, we first present a study of a dataset of location check-ins to show the existence of this threat among users of LBAs. We then propose our approach to protect visit-frequency of the users to different locations by distributing their location data among multiple third-party Location Servers. This distribution not only serves to avoid a single point of failure for privacy in our system, it also allows the users to control which LBA accesses what information about them. We also describe a number of possible attacks against our privacy approach and evaluate them on real-data from the check-ins dataset. Our results show that our approach can effectively hide the frequent locations while supporting good quality-of-service for the LBAs.
Reduced Survival of Motor Neuron (SMN) Protein in Motor Neuronal Progenitors Functions Cell Autonomously to Cause Spinal Muscular Atrophy in Model Mice Expressing the Human Centromeric (SMN2) Gene

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a common (∼1:6400) autosomal recessive neuromuscular disorder caused by a paucity of the survival of motor neuron (SMN) protein. Although widely recognized to cause selective spinal motor neuron loss when deficient, the precise cellular site of action of the SMN protein in SMA remains unclear. In this study we sought to determine the consequences of selectively depleting SMN in the motor neurons of model mice. Depleting but not abolishing the protein in motor neuronal progenitors causes an SMA-like phenotype. Neuromuscular weakness in the model mice is accompanied by peripheral as well as central synaptic defects, electrophysiological abnormalities of the neuromuscular junctions, muscle atrophy, and motor neuron degeneration. However, the disease phenotype is more modest than that observed in mice expressing ubiquitously low levels of the SMN protein, and both symptoms as well as early electrophysiological abnormalities that are readily apparent in neonates were attenuated in an age-dependent manner. We conclude that selective knock-down of SMN in motor neurons is sufficient but may not be necessary to cause a disease phenotype and that targeting these cells will be a requirement of any effective therapeutic strategy. This realization is tempered by the relatively mild SMA phenotype in our model mice, one explanation for which is the presence of normal SMN levels in non-neuronal tissue that serves to modulate disease severity.
Anxiolytic-Like Effects of Antisauvagine-30 in Mice Are Not Mediated by CRF2 Receptors

The role of brain corticotropin-releasing factor type 2 (CRF2) receptors in behavioral stress responses remains controversial. Conflicting findings suggest pro-stress, anti-stress or no effects of impeding CRF2 signaling. Previous studies have used antisauvagine-30 as a selective CRF2 antagonist. The present study tested the hypotheses that 1) potential anxiolytic-like actions of intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) administration of antisauvagine-30 also are present in mice lacking CRF2 receptors and 2) potential anxiolytic-like effects of antisauvagine-30 are not shared by the more selective CRF2 antagonist astressin2-B. Cannulated, male CRF2 receptor knockout (n = 22) and wildtype littermate mice (n = 21) backcrossed onto a C57BL/6J genetic background were tested in the marble burying, elevated plus-maze, and shock-induced freezing tests following pretreatment (i.c.v.) with vehicle, antisauvagine-30 or astressin2-B. Antisauvagine-30 reduced shock-induced freezing equally in wildtype and CRF2 knockout mice. In contrast, neither astressin2-B nor CRF2 genotype influenced shock-induced freezing. Neither CRF antagonist nor CRF2 genotype influenced anxiety-like behavior in the plus-maze or marble burying tests. A literature review showed that the typical antisauvagine-30 concentration infused in previous intracranial studies (∼1 mM) was 3 orders greater than its IC50 to block CRF1-mediated cAMP responses and 4 orders greater than its binding constants (Kd, Ki) for CRF1 receptors. Thus, increasing, previously used doses of antisauvagine-30 also exert non-CRF2-mediated effects, perhaps via CRF1. The results do not support the hypothesis that brain CRF2 receptors tonically promote anxiogenic-like behavior. Utilization of CRF2 antagonists, such as astressin2-B, at doses that are more subtype-selective, can better clarify the significance of brain CRF2 systems in stress-related behavior.
KELLER: estimating time-varying interactions between genes

Motivation: Gene regulatory networks underlying temporal processes, such as the cell cycle or the life cycle of an organism, can exhibit significant topological changes to facilitate the underlying dynamic regulatory functions. Thus, it is essential to develop methods that capture the temporal evolution of the regulatory networks. These methods will be an enabling first step for studying the driving forces underlying the dynamic gene regulation circuitry and predicting the future network structures in response to internal and external stimuli. Results: We introduce a kernel-reweighted logistic regression method (KELLER) for reverse engineering the dynamic interactions between genes based on their time series of expression values. We apply the proposed method to estimate the latent sequence of temporal rewiring networks of 588 genes involved in the developmental process during the life cycle of Drosophila melanogaster. Our results offer the first glimpse into the temporal evolution of gene networks in a living organism during its full developmental course. Our results also show that many genes exhibit distinctive functions at different stages along the developmental cycle. Availability: Source codes and relevant data will be made available at http://www.sailing. cs.cmu. edu/keller Contact: epxing@cs.cmu. edu
Spouse similarity for psychological distress and well-being: a population study

Synopsis While spouse similarity for psychiatric morbidity has been the object of numerous studies, most of these focused on clinical samples and, consequently, the interpretation of their results is limited by the existence of a selection bias. In this study, conducted on a sample of 845 general population couples, significant spouse similarity was observed for psychological distress and well-being, characterized by a marked symmetry in the relation between spouses' scores. The sex differences observed in many earlier studies would appear essentially to be artefactual. Spouse similarity was also found to be significant in the subpopulation of couples married less than two years, which pointed to assortative mating for psychological distress and well-being. While many studies have found educational dissimilarity and age difference between spouses to be associated with certain health variables, such as high blood pressure and coronary heart disease, these variables do not have a significant influence on individual levels of psychological distress and well-being. Spouse similarity for socio-demographic characteristics does not play a significant role in explaining spouse similarity for mental health. Consequently, assortative mating for psychological distress and well-being would appear to be primarily due to personal preference.
Automatic clusters to face recognition

In this paper we consider to study the distribution of the vectors of face in the dimensional space (n x m pixels of the image), and we have developed a face recognition that works under varying pose dealing with N different individual given under M different view/ poses and illumination. We construct an automatic algorithm that computes and finds clusters within the training group preserving intrinsic human face characteristics. The algorithm named K-PCA applies a SOM neural network in the cluster stage and applies the PCA method into each cluster, that is, each cluster forms an eigenface.
Health status, mood, and cognition in experimentally induced subclinical thyrotoxicosis.

OBJECTIVE Our objective was to determine whether subclinical thyrotoxicosis alters health status, mood, and/or cognitive function. DESIGN This was a double-blinded, randomized, cross-over study of usual dose l-T(4) (euthyroid arm) vs. higher dose l-T(4) (subclinical thyrotoxicosis arm) in hypothyroid subjects. PATIENTS A total of 33 hypothyroid subjects receiving l-T(4) were included in the study. MEASUREMENTS Subjects underwent measurements of health status, mood, and cognition: Short Form 36 (SF-36); Profile of Mood States (POMS); and tests of declarative memory (Paragraph Recall, Complex Figure), working memory (N-Back, Subject Ordered Pointing, and Digit Span Backwards), and motor learning (Pursuit Rotor). These were repeated after 12 wk on each of the study arms. RESULTS Mean TSH levels decreased from 2.15 to 0.17 mU/liter on the subclinical thyrotoxicosis arm (P < 0.0001), with normal mean free T(4) and free T(3) levels. The SF-36 physical component summary and general health subscale were slightly worse during the subclinical thyrotoxicosis arm, whereas the mental health subscale was marginally improved. The POMS confusion, depression, and tension subscales were improved during the subclinical thyrotoxicosis arm. Motor learning was better during the subclinical thyrotoxicosis arm, whereas declarative and working memory measures did not change. This improvement was related to changes in the SF-36 physical component summary and POMS tension subscales and free T(3) levels. CONCLUSIONS We found slightly impaired physical health status but improvements in measures of mental health and mood in l-T(4) treated hypothyroid subjects when subclinical thyrotoxicosis was induced in a blinded, randomized fashion. Motor learning was also improved. These findings suggest that thyroid hormone directly affects brain areas responsible for affect and motor function.
Low‐level bayesian segmentation of piecewise‐homogeneous noisy and textured images

We present a novel approach to image segmentation, differing from the known “simulated annealing” method in the following ways: the compound Bayesian decision rule and consequent maximal marginal a posteriori probability (MMAP) estimates of desired region labels in pixels; the two‐ or three‐level piecewise‐homogeneous Gibbs random field with constant control parameters as the probabilistic model of the images and region maps (in the general case such a model integrates the submodels of the region map, of the ideal intensities within each region, and of the noise distorting the ideal intensities); the stochastic relaxation with the constant control parameters of the Gibbs probability distribution only as a tool to obtain the samples of this field and estimate the unknown marginal a posteriori probabilities of the region labels by collecting in each pixel the histogram of labels for these samples; the like stochastic relaxation with directed variation of the control parameters of the Gibbs probability distribution as a tool to find maximal likelihood estimates of the unknown these parameters. Some experimental results are presented.
Mapping Loneliness in Australia

This paper maps loneliness in Australia. Using national survey data, it outlines patterns of loneliness, support and friendship and assesses who is most at risk of emotional and social isolation and who is socially supported and connected. The paper focuses on young adults aged 25 to 44, a demographic that has been neglected in existing studies of loneliness despite the fact that solitary living has shown the most significant increase among such people.
Modulated filter banks with minimum output distortion in presence of subband quantization

This paper presents modulated minimum mean squared error (MMSE) filter banks, designed for subband coding purposes. Uniform scalar quantizers, the synthesis prototype and an additional gain control factor per subband are optimized in a rate-distortion sense. The main advantage of the proposed solution is to keep the efficient modulated implementation of the synthesis filter bank, while reducing the reconstruction distortion introduced by quantization of the subband signals. It is shown that in many circumstances, the resulting schemes are almost as efficient as plain MMSE filter banks (Wiener filters with optimized quantizers).
Dipole Strengths in the Chlorophylls ¶ †

Measurements of dipole strengths of chlorophylls in solution are reviewed and correlated. The refractive index dependence is found to be expressible in a simple empirical fashion that does not rely on the concept of vacuum dipole strength. The index dependence in some respects contradicts the dependence expected on the basis of effective field theories.
A Centralized Multi-Agent Negotiation Approach to Collaborative Air Traffic Resource Management Planning

Demand and capacity imbalances in the US national airspace are resolved using traffic management initiatives designed, in current operations, with little collaboration with the airspace users. NASA and its partners have developed a new collaborative concept of operations that requires the users and airspace service provider to work together to choose initiatives that better satisfy the business needs of the users while also ensuring safety to the same standard as today. In this paper, we describe an approach to implementing this concept through a software negotiation framework underpinned by technology developed in the artificial intelligence community. We describe our exploration of peer-to-peer negotiation and how the number of conversation threads and the time sensitivity of offer acceptance led us to a centralized approach. The centralized approach uses hill climbing to evaluate airport slot allocations from a user perspective and a linear programming solver to seek solutions compatible across the user community. Our experiments with full sized problems identify the potential operational benefits as well as limitations, and where future research needs to be focused.
Type-directed Trace Analysis of Security Protocols in Process Calculus

Trace analysis is one of the formal methods to verify security protocols based on the process calculus, in which behaviors of the principals in the protocol are regarded as processes, and the environment is represented by the sequences of actions(trace) that the protocol may execute and a deductive system on the messages the sequences includes. Then it explicitly generates the model in order to check whether any insecure state is reachable. [1, 2, 3, 4]. The main problem of trace analysis is that the execution of a protocol typically generates infinite traces, because the environment is too large to predict. A principal of the protocol waiting for an input at a given moment may expect any of the infinite messages the environment can produce. We can cut down the state space to a convenient finite size by imposing upper-bounds upon the critical parameters. In [2], a symbolic method approach is given to cut down state space of the model. In this paper, we explore an alternative approach to reduce the state space by type matching. The general idea is that when a principal waits for an input, the type of message it expects can be decided by actions the principal performs after the input. On the other hand, when a principal sends messages to the environment, the types of the messages can be predicted. And still we also can infer the type of the message which the environment deduces by deduction rules. So we only need to generate messages from the environment whose type matches the input type. In this approach, we can show that the model state space is cut down to be finite.
Freezing and thawing milk samples before culture to improve diagnosis of bovine staphylococcal mastitis.

________________________________________________________________________________________ PEHLIVANOGLU, F. , H. YARDIMCI, H. TURUTOGLU: Freezing and thawing milk samples before culture to improve diagnosis of bovine staphylococcal mastitis. Vet. arhiv 85, 59-65, 2015. ABSTRACT Diagnosis of staphylococcal mastitis cases may sometimes prove problematic due to the nature of the bacterium. Thus, in the present study, the effect of freezing and thawing bovine milk samples on the performance of standard cultures of staphylococcal mastitis was investigated to improve the diagnosis. Each of a total of 228 quarter milk samples from clinical and subclinical mastitis cases was plated on 7 % sheep blood agar directly, and after fi rst being subjected to a process of freezing and thawing. The culture results from two methods were compared on the basis of Staphylococcus spp. positive udder counts and alteration in colony counts of the strains. In the fi rst method, Staphylococcus spp. were isolated from 91 milk samples. In the second method, Staphylococcus spp. were isolated from an additional 11 milk samples that were negative in the fi rst method. Staphylococcus spp. positive udder counts were found to be signifi cantly different between the two methods. The changes in colony counts of the strains between the two methods were also found to be statistically signifi cant in both clinical and subclinical mastitis cases, with the second method performing better. Consequently, these results indicate that a simple preculture step consisting of freezing and thawing milk samples has advantages for more sensitive diagnosis of staphylococcal mastitis in cattle milk.
Biological hydrogen production using a membrane bioreactor

A cross‐flow membrane was coupled to a chemostat to create an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (MBR) for biological hydrogen production. The reactor was fed glucose (10,000 mg/L) and inoculated with a soil inoculum heat‐treated to kill non‐spore‐forming methanogens. Hydrogen gas was consistently produced at a concentration of 57–60% in the headspace under all conditions. When operated in chemostat mode (no flow through the membrane) at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 3.3 h, 90% of the glucose was removed, producing 2200 mg/L of cells and 500 mL/h of biogas. When operated in MBR mode, the solids retention time (SRT) was increased to SRT = 12 h producing a solids concentration in the reactor of 5800 mg/L. This SRT increased the overall glucose utilization (98%), the biogas production rate (640 mL/h), and the conversion efficiency of glucose‐to‐hydrogen from 22% (no MBR) to 25% (based on a maximum of 4 mol‐H2/mol‐glucose). When the SRT was increased from 5 h to 48 h, glucose utilization (99%) and biomass concentrations (8,800 ± 600 mg/L) both increased. However, the biogas production decreased (310 ± 40 mL/h) and the glucose‐to‐hydrogen conversion efficiency decreased from 37 ± 4% to 18 ± 3%. Sustained permeate flows through the membrane were in the range of 57 to 60 L/m2 h for three different membrane pore sizes (0.3, 0.5, and 0.8 μm). Most (93.7% to 99.3%) of the membrane resistance was due to internal fouling and the reversible cake resistance, and not the membrane itself. Regular backpulsing was essential for maintaining permeate flux through the membrane. Analysis of DNA sequences using ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis indicated bacteria were most closely related to members of Clostridiaceae and Flexibacteraceae, including Clostridium acidisoli CAC237756 (97%), Linmingia china AF481148 (97%), and Cytophaga sp. MDA2507 AF238333 (99%). No PCR amplification of 16s rRNA genes was obtained when archaea‐specific primers were used. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Thermal Generation Flexibility With Ramping Costs and Hourly Demand Response in Stochastic Security-Constrained Scheduling of Variable Energy Sources

This paper proposes a stochastic day-ahead scheduling of electric power systems with flexible resources for managing the variability of renewable energy sources (RES). The flexible resources include thermal units with up/down ramping capability, energy storage, and hourly demand response (DR). The Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) is used in this paper for simulating random outages of generation units and transmission lines as well as representing hourly forecast errors of loads and RES. Numerical tests are conducted for a 6-bus system and a modified IEEE 118-bus system and the results demonstrate the benefits of applying demand response as a viable option for managing the RES variability in the least-cost stochastic power system operations.