Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ANISHING THE HOMUNCULUS: MAKING WORKING MEMORY WORK

structure in a serial reaction time task. Neuroreport 8:2877 urstewitz D, Kelc M, Gunturkun O (1999) A neurocomputational theory of the dopaminergic modulation of working memory functions. J Neurosci 19:2807 urstewitz D, Seamans JK, Sejnowski TJ (2000) Dopamine-mediated stabilization of delay-period activity in a network model of prefrontal cortex. J Neurophysiol 83:1733–1750. riksen BA, Eriksen CW (1974) Effects of noise letters upon the identification of a target letter in a nonsearch task. Percept Psy-
Self-stabilization by window washing

A useful way to design simple and robust protocols is to make them self-stabilitizing. We describe a new general technique for self-stabilization called window washing. We apply this technique to generalized sliding window protocols that work on a number of topologies. This results in simple, efficient, and self-stabilizing protocols. As far as we know, both window washing and generalized sliding window protocols are new ideas. Our protocols can be used for data links, reliable broadcast, and flow control.
A Network of Interacting Factors Triggering Different Cell Fates

In animal systems, a single signaling network often triggers different developmental goals depending on the cellular context. Several studies, including those related to epidermal patterning, extend such an idea to plant systems ([Benfey, 1999][1]; [Larkin et al., 2003][2]; [Schiefelbein, 2003][3
Contrôle santé des structures composites : génération de délaminages par choc laser et quantification par apprentissage machine

Dans ce travail, nous abordons la quantification de dommage de type delaminage dans des stratifies en CFRP. Le probleme de quantification est transforme en un probleme de classification multiclasses au sens de l'apprentissage statistique. Chaque classe correspond a une certaine severite de dommage. Le modele de machine a vecteurs de support (SVM) est utilise pour effectuer la classification. Generalement, des descripteurs de dommage bases sur une utilisation directe des signaux mesures (SBF) sont utilises pour apprendre les modeles decisionnels. Dans ce travail, nous nous basons sur l'hypothese qu'un dommage genere necessairement une part de non linearite dans la reponse dynamique de la structure et nous investiguons la pertinence de l'utilisation de descripteurs de dommage bases sur un modele non lineaire (NMBF) pour ameliorer les performances du modele decisionnel. Les NMBF proposes sont calcules en se basant sur le modele de Hammerstein en parallele identifie avec un signal de type "sweep exponentiel". Une reduction de dimension du vecteur des caracteristiques en utilisant l'ACP est egalement conduite et son effet sur les performances du processus de quantification suggere est etudie. L'approche de quantification proposee a ete testee et validee en utilisant des resultats de simulation puis des resultats experimentaux obtenus sur des plaques composites en CFRP equipees d'elements piezoelectriques et contenant diverses severites de delaminage. Les dommages de type delaminage ont ete generes au sein des echantillons de maniere calibree et realiste a l'aide de la technique du choc LASER et plus particulierement du choc LASER symetrique. Nous avons demontre experimentalement que cette configuration de choc LASER est une alternative efficace aux methodes classiques de generation de dommage telles que les impacts classiques et les patches de Teflon, permettant une meilleure calibration du dommage en type, profondeur et taille.
A Variable-Length PCR Target Protein of Ehrlichia chaffeensis Contains Major Species-Specific Antibody Epitopes in Acidic Serine-Rich Tandem Repeats

ABSTRACT Ehrlichia chaffeensis and E. canis have a small subset of tandem repeat (TR)-containing proteins that elicit strong host immune responses and are associated with host-pathogen interactions. In a previous study, we molecularly characterized a highly conserved 19-kDa major immunoreactive protein (gp19) of E. canis and identified the corresponding TR-containing ortholog variable-length PCR target (VLPT) protein in E. chaffeensis. In this study, the native 32-kDa VLPT protein was identified and the immunodeterminants defined in order to further understand the molecular basis of the host immune response to E. chaffeensis. Synthetic and/or recombinant polypeptides corresponding to various regions of VLPT were used to localize major antibody epitopes to the TR-containing region. Major antibody epitopes were identified in three nonidentical repeats (R2, R3, and R4), which reacted strongly with antibodies in sera from an E. chaffeensis-infected dog and human monocytotropic ehrlichiosis patients. VLPT-R3 and VLPT-R2 reacted most strongly with antibody, and the epitope was further localized to a nearly identical proximal 17-amino-acid region common between these repeats that was species specific. The epitope in R4 was distinct from that of R2 and R3 and was found to have conformational dependence. VLPT was detected in supernatants from infected cells, indicating that the protein was secreted. VLPT was localized on both reticulate and dense-core cells, and it was found extracellularly in the morula fibrillar matrix and associated with the morula membrane.
DICERing macrophages for reprogramming TAMs

Keywords: DICER ; microRNA ; macrophage ; tumor ; immunity Reference EPFL-ARTICLE-220593doi:10.1080/15384101.2016. 1216927View record in Web of Science Record created on 2016-08-05, modified on 2017-01-24
Clinical Cytology

and pre-glaucomatous changes. Tonometry alone revealed a large number of "ocular hypertensives " but was an unreliable guide to glaucoma. Ophthalmoscopy detected all previously unknown cases of glaucoma, and also alarge number of suspected but unconfirmed cases. Slit-lamp and visual-field examination might also be useful. Dr. A. M. THOMSON and Mr. W. Z. BILLEWICZ (M.R.C. Obstetric Medicine Research Unit, Aberdeen) found that parity and social class had much less effect than age upon the weights relative to height of pregnant women. Though the average pregnant woman laid down a large amount of fat during pregnancy, this seemed to be mostly lost between pregnancies, faster in lactating than in non-lactating women. Dr. MURIEL NEWHOUSE and Mrs. H. E. THOMSON (London School of Hygiene) compared histories of exposure to asbestos in 83 patients with mesothelial tumours and a control group matched for age and sex. Fiftythree per cent. of the mesothelioma patients had been exposed to asbestos, compared with 12% in the control series. Among 36 patients with mesotheliomata with no positive occupational history or asbestos workers in their homes, there were 11 who lived within half a mile of an asbestos factory. Dr. R. A. M. CASE and Miss JOAN M. DAVIES (Chester Beatty Institute, London) questioned whether official confidence regarding the prevention of industrial bladder tumours was justified. An examination of deaths from bladder cancer suggested that there might be a continuing association between this disease and employment in the chemical, rubber, and cablemaking industries.
Modelling Post-molding Warping

Abstract This paper describes how to use the semi-empirical thermal expansion model, proposed in Part 1 of this paper (Fan et al., 2010), to simulate the post-molding warping of injection molded parts during the post thermal treatment. The post-molding warping of a viscoelastic ribbed plate and a fibre reinforced ribbed plate are simulated using a finite element method. The results of simulations showed that the post-molding warping due to the thermal treatment for viscoelastic ribbed plate is much larger than the de-mold warpage, in contrast to results for fibre reinforced ribbed plates.
Heart rate variability during sleep in healthy term newborns in the early postnatal period

Normative time- and frequency-domain heart rate variability (HRV) measures were extracted during quiet sleep (QS) and active sleep (AS) periods in 30 healthy babies. All newborn infants studied were less than 12 h old and the sleep state was classified using multi-channel video EEG. Three bands were extracted from the heart rate (HR) spectrum: very low frequency (VLF), 0.01–0.04 Hz; low frequency (LF), 0.04–0.2 Hz, and high frequency (HF), >0.2 Hz. All metrics were averaged across all patients and per sleep state to produce a table of normative values. A noticeable peak corresponding to activity in the RSA band was found in 80% patients during QS and 0% of patients during AS, although some broadband activity was observed. The majority of HRV metrics showed a statistically significant separation between QS and AS. It can be concluded that (i) activity in the RSA band is present during QS in the healthy newborn, in the first 12 h of life, (ii) HRV measures are affected by sleep state and (iii) the averaged HRV metrics reported here could assist the interpretation of HRV data from newborns with neonatal illnesses.
A Method for Correlations Analysis of Coordinates: Applications for Molecular Conformations

We describe a new method to analyze multiple correlations between subsets of coordinates that represent a sample. The correlation is established only between specific regions of interest at the coordinates. First, the region(s) of interest are selected at each molecular coordinate. Next, a correlation matrix is constructed for the selected regions. The matrix is subject to further analysis, illuminating the multidimensional structural characteristics that exist in the conformational space. The method's abilities are demonstrated in several examples: it is used to analyze the conformational space of complex molecules, it is successfully applied to compare related conformational spaces, and it is used to analyze a diverse set of protein folding trajectories.
The Effectiveness of Voice Therapy for Teachers with Dysphonia

Objective: An incorrect voice emission is a risk factor for developing occupational voice disorders. The study aimed at assessing the effectiveness of voice therapy in female teachers with dysphonia. Methods: The study comprised 133 subjects with voice disorders, taking part in a vocal training programme. A reference group for the present study included 53 teachers with dysphonia. Questionnaire surveys, phoniatric examination and videostroboscopic evaluation were conducted at initial and control examination. Results: In the study group, an improvement after the vocal training was noted in most of the reported symptoms and also in some quantitative parameters of phoniatric examinations compared to the findings for the reference group. The number of patients who assessed their voice as normal increased significantly after the vocal training (2.3 vs. 46.6%). A significant increase in the mean maximum phonation time, from 13.3 to 16.6 s, was observed. The same applied to voice frequency range (increase from 171 to 226.8 Hz). Conclusions: The outcomes of vocal training, such as a subjective improvement of voice quality and an increase in the quantitative parameters (prolonged maximum phonation time, extended voice range) seem to be important parameters for monitoring the effectiveness of training in correct voice emission.
Food Labels Use Is Associated with Higher Adherence to Mediterranean Diet: Results from the Moli-Sani Study

Mediterranean diet (MD) has been associated with lower risk of ischemic cerebro- and cardio-vascular disease, neurological degenerative disease, and breast and colonrectal cancers. Nevertheless, adherence to this pattern has decreased. Food labels are a potentially valid means to encourage towards healthier dietary behavior. This study, conducted on a subsample of 883 subjects enrolled in the Moli-sani Project, evaluated whether food labels reading (LR) is associated with MD adherence. Participants completed a questionnaire on nutrition knowledge, information, and attitudes, with a specific question on food labels reading. Biometric measurements, socio-economic status, education, physical activity, and smoking habits were collected. The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) food frequency questionnaire was used to collect dietary habits, and subsequently evaluated by both the Mediterranean diet score (MDS) and Italian Mediterranean index (IMI), a priori dietary patterns. Food consumption patterns were generated by Principal Components Analysis (PCA), an a posteriori approach. Multivariable odds ratios were calculated to quantify the association of LR categories with dietary habits. LR was significantly associated with greater adherence to both MDS (p = 0.0004) and IMI (p = 0.0019) in a multivariable model. LR participants had 74% (MDS) or 68% (IMI) higher probability to be in the highest level of adherence to Mediterranean diet-like patterns. Moreover, they showed greater adherence to Mediterranean-like food consumption patterns (0.1 vs. −0.2, p < 0.0001) and lower adherence to two Western-like patterns (0.01 vs. 0.2, p = 0.009 and 0.1 vs. 0.2, p = 0.02). These findings support an association between food label use and consuming a Mediterranean-type diet.
Fault-tolerant tracking for gait analysis

This research introduces a method of predicting tracking failures and applies it to the robust analysis of human gait. The body is represented using a multicomponent structural model. For each component, the proposed approach extracts features from tracked noise covariance matrices and uses them to construct an observation sequence for a hidden Markov model (HMM) trained to detect tracking failures. When transformed with a logarithmic function, the conditional output probability of the HMM is shown to have a causal relationship with imminent tracking failures. This fusion of multiple structural models with a reliable means of failure prediction facilitates the successful tracking and extraction of gait variables. Results are demonstrated on numerous video sequences.
Acute Effects of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide on Circulating Steroid Levels in Healthy Subjects

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a serotonin 5‐hydroxytryptamine‐2A (5‐HT2A) receptor agonist that is used recreationally worldwide. Interest in LSD research in humans waned after the 1970s, although the use of LSD in psychiatric research and practice has recently gained increasing attention. LSD produces pronounced acute psychedelic effects, although its influence on plasma steroid levels over time has not yet been characterised in humans. The effects of LSD (200 μg) or placebo on plasma steroid levels were investigated in 16 healthy subjects using a randomised, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, cross‐over study design. Plasma concentration–time profiles were determined for 15 steroids using liquid‐chromatography tandem mass‐spectrometry. LSD increased plasma concentrations of the glucocorticoids cortisol, cortisone, corticosterone and 11‐dehydrocorticosterone compared to placebo. The mean maximum concentration of LSD was reached at 1.7 h. Mean peak psychedelic effects were reached at 2.4 h, with significant alterations in mental state from 0.5 h to > 10 h. Mean maximal concentrations of cortisol and corticosterone were reached at 2.5 h and 1.9 h, and significant elevations were observed 1.5–6 h and 1–3 h after drug administration, respectively. LSD also significantly increased plasma concentrations of the androgen dehydroepiandrosterone but not other androgens, progestogens or mineralocorticoids compared to placebo. A close relationship was found between plasma LSD concentrations and changes in plasma cortisol and corticosterone and the psychotropic response to LSD, and no clockwise hysteresis was observed. In conclusion, LSD produces significant acute effects on circulating steroids, especially glucocorticoids. LSD‐induced changes in circulating glucocorticoids were associated with plasma LSD concentrations over time and showed no acute pharmacological tolerance.
Transformation Function Based Methods for Model Shift

Transfer learning techniques are often used when one tries to adapt a model learned from a source domain with abundant labeled samples to the target domain with limited labeled samples. In this paper, we consider the regression problem under model shift condition, i.e., regression functions are different but related in the source and target domains. We approach this problem through the use of transformation functions which characterize the relation between the source and the target domain. These transformation functions are able to transform the original problem of learning the complicated regression function of target domain into a problem of learning a simple auxiliary function. This transformation function based technique includes some previous works as special cases, but the class we propose is significantly more general. In this work we consider two widely used non-parametric estimators, Kernel Smoothing (KS) and Kernel Ridge Regression (KRR) for this setting and show improved statistical rates for excess risk than non-transfer learning. Through an -cover technique, we show that we can find the best transformation function a function class. Lastly, experiments on synthesized, robotics and neural imaging data demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework.
ESD Knitted Fabrics from Conductive Yarns Used as Protective Garment for Electronic Industry

Nowadays, interest in protection against electrostatic discharge (ESD), regarded as an important issue, is still growing. ESD may lead to serious economic losses and can also be hazardous to humans. In zones where substances with low values of ignition energy occur, ESD may involve a high risk of fire or explosion. Protective clothing is used to reduce the risk of electrostatic discharge (ESD) in electronics industry as well as in explosive atmospheres. In the manufacturing process of electronic products, significant percentage-related failures due to ESD phenomena that occur on the production line, especially where they are not installed systems and rigorous protection rules, are still recorded. Protective clothing with antistatic properties is designed to prevent the trans- fer of electrical charge from human operator to electronic device during the manufacturing process. In this chapter, a study was conducted about the electrical parameters representative for the control of electrostatic discharges as well as the surface and volume resistivity by applying the current absorption-resorption method and parame- ters of charge decay using the standardized induction method on several knitted conductive fabrics with carbon yarn. Current absorption-resorption method is applied for the first time in research under antistatic and dissipative fabrics.
Doctors face trial for manslaughter as criminal charges against doctors continue to rise

Two UK junior doctors are to stand trial for manslaughter over the death of a 31 year old patient who developed staphylococcal toxic shock syndrome following a routine knee operation. Rajeev Srivastava and Amit Mizra, both senior house officers at the time, have been charged with causing the death of Sean Phillips, who died in June 2000 following surgery at Southampton General Hospital. A trial date has been set for March 2003 at Winchester crown court in Hampshire. The case follows the acquittal last month of consultant …
Hygrothermal aging effects on axial behaviour of pultruded web–flange junctions and adhesively bonded build-up bridge members

Premature local failure of web/flange junctions of the majority of unstiffened commercially produced pultruded fiber-reinforced polymer composites profiles is inescapable due to lack of fiber continuity at the resin-dominated junction zones. This paper focuses on evaluating both short- and long-term behavior of such junctions when subjected to axial tensile stresses. In this study, the axial mechanical behavior of web/flange junctions of pultruded bridge deck components before and after hygrothermal aging effect is investigated. In the experimental phase, axial tensile tests were performed on six different types of pultruded web–flange junctions to assess axial characteristics of each web/flange junction type. In order to evaluate the hygrothermal behavior of such junctions, axial tensile tests were conducted on web/flange junction specimens that were exposed to both fresh water and artificial seawater environments at temperatures of 40℃, 60℃, and 80℃. Several controlling parameters affecting both strength and stiffness of pultruded fiber-reinforced polymer junctions were identified and discussed that include: (i) Junction's web and flange thicknesses, (ii) fillet radius, and (iii) variation of hygrothermal exposure environments. Results of this study indicated that the axial tensile capacity of a pultruded profiles is increased as the thickness of both web and flange increases. Also, it was found that the larger fillet radius of the pultruded fiber-reinforced polymer profile may contribute to a larger axial tensile capacity of pultruded profiles. However, due to variable size and geometry of the resin-rich junction zones and the common manufacturing defects in the form of folded fabric and other fibers misalignment effects, it is difficult to generalize the preceding results. Experimental results also showed that the degradation of web/flange junctions axial tensile strength increases when junctions are exposed to higher temperatures. Also, it was found that the axial tensile characteristics for junctions specimens exposed to freshwater environment are slightly different than those that were exposed to artificial seawater environments.
Single layer centrifugation of fresh dromedary camel semen improves sperm quality and in vitro fertilization capacity compared with simple sperm washing

Single layer centrifugation (SLC) through a colloid is a tool for selecting viable mammalian spermatozoa but has not been used previously for fresh dromedary camel sperm. Semen from six camels (2 ejaculates/male) was diluted 1:5 (v:v) or 1:10 (v:v) in a Tris-citrate-fructose buffer for mechanical liquefaction by gentle pipetting. Following liquefaction, semen was processed either by SLC or by centrifugation without a colloid (control). Total and progressive motilities, CASA kinematics, vitality and acrosome integrity (eosin-nigrosin) and plasma membrane integrity (Hypo-osmotic swelling test; HOST), and fertilizing ability in a heterologous assay (zona-free goat oocytes) were evaluated. Both total (p = .003) and progressive motilities (p = .003) were higher in SLC-processed than in control semen samples, irrespective of dilution. Positive HOST values increased when using colloid in 1:5 (p = .001) and 1:10 dilution (p = .010). Colloid-selected sperm had higher penetration rates than controls (p < .001 and p = .02 for 1:5 and 1:10 dilutions, respectively). However, only the SLC sperm at 1:5 dilution showed higher percentages of pronuclear formation (p = .02) than controls. Dilution effect was only significant for total motility before in vitro fertilization, with higher values for the 1:5 dilution (p = .033). The recovery rates of motile sperm between dilutions were similar (26.1% vs 35.4%; p = .226). In conclusion, SLC is a promising tool for selecting functional dromedary camel sperm and warrants more research.