Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Use of Flow-Through Anterolateral Thigh Perforator Flaps in Reconstruction of Complex Extremity Defects

Abstract Background The flow-through flap has been widely utilized for reconstruction of complex defects of the extremities as it can be used for arterial reconstruction and soft-tissue coverage simultaneously. This study describes our clinical experience with the application of the flow-through anterolateral thigh perforator (ALTP) flap for reconstruction of complex defects of the extremities. Methods From January 2008 to June 2011, we retrospectively analyzed 16 patients with complex defects in the limbs. In two patients the defects occurred after undergoing wide excision of chronic ulcer, while 14 defects were due to trauma. All patients in this series underwent reconstruction with the flow-through ALTP flap. Applications of flow-through performed include preserving the recipient artery flow, rebuilding the major artery gap, bridging the artery and concomitant vein simultaneously, and combining the ALTP with another free flap. Results Flow-through ALTP flaps were used to preserve recipient flow (n = 5), rebuild the vessel gap (n = 2), bridge the artery and concomitant vein simultaneously (n = 2), and in combination with another free flap (n = 7). Follow-up ranged from 3 to 36 months (mean, 12 months). All flaps were successful; only two combination flaps required reexploration because of vessel crisis, and two patients suffered minor degrees of wound-edge necrosis. The donor sites healed well in all cases, without any complications. Conclusion Our experience showed that the flow-through ALTP flap is reliable and suitable for reconstruction of complex defects of the extremities, as well as for various other clinical purposes.
The Small Gtpase, Rap1, Mediates Cd31-Induced Integrin Adhesion

Integrin-mediated leukocyte adhesion is a critical aspect of leukocyte function that is tightly regulated by diverse stimuli, including chemokines, antigen receptors, and adhesion receptors. How cellular signals from CD31 and other adhesion amplifiers are integrated with those from classical mitogenic stimuli to regulate leukocyte function remains poorly understood. Here, we show that the cytoplasmic tail of CD31, an important integrin adhesion amplifier, propagates signals that induce T cell adhesion via β1 (VLA-4) and β2 (LFA-1) integrins. We identify the small GTPase, Rap1, as a critical mediator of this effect. Importantly, CD31 selectively activated the small Ras-related GTPase, Rap1, but not Ras, R-Ras, or Rap2. An activated Rap1 mutant stimulated T lymphocyte adhesion to intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM) and vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM), as did the Rap1 guanine nucleotide exchange factor C3G and a catalytically inactive mutant of RapGAP. Conversely, negative regulators of Rap1 signaling blocked CD31-dependent adhesion. These findings identify a novel important role for Rap1 in regulating ligand-induced cell adhesion and suggest that Rap1 may play a more general role in coordinating adhesion-dependent signals during leukocyte migration and extravasation. Our findings also suggest an alternative mechanism, distinct from interference with Ras-proximal signaling, by which Rap1 might mediate transformation reversion.
Financial Stress Through Complexity Science

Financial markets typically undergo periods of prosperity followed by periods of stagnation, and this undulation makes it challenging to maintain market efficiency. The efficient market hypothesis (EMH) states that there exist differences in structural complexity in security prices between regular and abnormal situations. Yet, despite a clear link between market acceleration (cf. recession in security prices) and stress in physical systems, indices of financial stress still have significant scope for further development. The overarching aim of this work is therefore to determine the characteristics of financial indices related to financial stress, and to establish a robust metric for the extent of such `stress'. This is achieved based on intrinsic multiscale analysis which quantifies the so called complexity-loss hypothesis in the context of financial stress. The multiscale sample entropy and our proposed Assessment of Latent Index of Stress methods have successfully assessed financial stress, and have served as a measure to establish an analogy between transitions from `normal' (relaxed) to `abnormal' (stressed) financial periods with the sympatho-vagal balance in humans. Four major stock indices of the US economy over the past 25 years are considered: (i) Dow Jones Industrial Average, (ii) NASDAQ Composite, (iii) Standard & Poor's 500, and (iv) Russell 2000, together with FTSE 100, CAC 40 and exchange rates. Our findings support the EMH theory and reveal high stress for both the periods of Internet bubble burst and sub-prime mortgage crisis.
A frontier based multi-robot approach for coverage of unknown environments

With the advent of latest technical advancements in the field of robotics, a stage has arrived where autonomous robots are expected to help humans in tasks that are either dangerous or too monotonous such as mining, search and rescue, floor cleaning. All these problems are derivatives of the coverage problem wherein the motto is to complete coverage of the environment in a time effective manner. Most of the coverage methods developed till date have access to the map prior to exploration and only few of them made use of multiple robots. In view of the drawbacks of the existing approaches, we develop a novel frontier based multi robot approach for coverage of unknown environments. In this work, multiple robots are employed to simultaneously explore and map the environment. Global map is computed by merging the individual maps of the robots. Frontiers which are the boundaries between explored and unexplored areas are identified and the robots are navigated toward frontiers using the proposed exploration strategy. Robot operating System (ROS) is used for implementation and Stage is used for simulating robots and their environments. Comparisons are made with existing approaches taking into consideration of time to explore, percentage of area explored. Results demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of our approach.
Black Adolescents' Racial Socialization Experiences

This study explored the relationship between parental racial socialization messages and area-specific self-esteem (i.e., home, school, and peer self-esteem) among Black American adolescents. The authors found that parental racial socialization messages reflecting pride and knowledge about African American culture were positively associated with Black youths' peer self-esteem. Moreover, racial socialization messages about the relative importance of majority culture (i.e., White) institutions and the values and benefits associated with being involved with these institutions were negatively associated with school self-esteem in Black adolescents. Future research directions are offered.
PreImplantation factor (PIF) therapy provides comprehensive protection against radiation induced pathologies

Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS) may lead to cancer and death and has few effective countermeasures. Efficacy of synthetic PIF treatment was demonstrated in preclinical autoimmune and transplantation models. PIF protected against inflammation and mortality following lethal irradiation in allogeneic bone marrow transplant (BMT) model. Herein, we demonstrate that PIF imparts comprehensive local and systemic protection against lethal and sub-lethal ARS in murine models. PIF treatment 2 h after lethal irradiation led to 100% survival and global hematopoietic recovery at 2 weeks after therapy. At 24 h after irradiation PIF restored hematopoiesis in a semi-allogeneic BMT model. PIF-preconditioning provided improved long-term engraftment. The direct effect of PIF on bone marrow cells was also demonstrated in vitro: PIF promoted pre-B cell differentiation and increased immunoregulatory properties of BM-derived mesenchymal stromal cells. PIF treatment also improved hematopoietic recovery and reduced systemic inflammatory cytokine production after sub-lethal radiation exposure. Here, PIF also prevented colonic crypt and basal membrane damage coupled with reduced nitric oxide synthetase (iNOS) and increased (B7h1) expression. Global upper GI gene pathway analysis revealed PIF's involvement in protein-RNA interactions, mitochondrial oxidative pathways, and responses to cellular stress. Some effects may be attributed to PIF's influence on macrophage differentiation and function. PIF demonstrated a regulatory effect on irradiated macrophages and on classically activated M1 macrophages, reducing inflammatory gene expression (iNOS, Cox2), promoting protective (Arg1) gene expression and inducing pro-tolerance cytokine secretion. Notably, synthetic PIF is stable for long-term field use. Overall, clinical investigation of PIF for comprehensive ARS protection is warranted.
The interpretation of habitat preference metrics under use–availability designs

Models of habitat preference are widely used to quantify animal–habitat relationships, to describe and predict differential space use by animals, and to identify habitat that is important to an animal (i.e. that is assumed to influence fitness). Quantifying habitat preference involves the statistical comparison of samples of habitat use and availability. Preference is therefore contingent upon both of these samples. The inferences that can be made from use versus availability designs are influenced by subjectivity in defining what is available to the animal, the problem of quantifying the accessibility of available resources and the framework in which preference is modelled. Here, we describe these issues, document the conditional nature of preference and establish the limits of inferences that can be drawn from these analyses. We argue that preference is not interpretable as reflecting the intrinsic behavioural motivations of the animal, that estimates of preference are not directly comparable among different samples of availability and that preference is not necessarily correlated with the value of habitat to the animal. We also suggest that preference is context-dependent and that functional responses in preference resulting from changing availability are expected. We conclude by describing advances in analytical methods that begin to resolve these issues.
Using NSSE to Understand Student Success: A Multi-Year Analysis

This research focuses on using NSSE (National Survey of Student Engagement) responses to predict student academic success. The analysis is based on 16,630 Indiana University - Bloomington first-year beginner students and seniors who completed the NSSE survey administered from 2006-2012. Logistic regression and linear regression on student background and pre-college information, financial aid, previous college academic performance, NSSE Benchmarks and individual NSSE items were conducted to predict academic success defined as: 1) first-year students' fall-to-fall retention and end-of-first-year cumulative GPA, 2) seniors number of terms taken to degree completion and 4-year graduation. Results show that certain student characteristics and earlier achievement are indicative of college success with higher levels of student engagement marginally contributing to the models. Analyses also highlighted elements of engagement that go counter to their expected effect on retention and performance.
Refining the two‐parameter testlet response model by introducing testlet discrimination parameters

For testlet response data, traditional item response theory (IRT) models are often not appropriate due to local dependence presented among items within a common testlet. Several testlet-based IRT models have been developed to model examinees' responses. In this paper, a new two-parameter normal ogive testlet response theory (2PNOTRT) model for dichotomous items is proposed by introducing testlet discrimination parameters. A Bayesian model parameter estimation approach via a data augmentation scheme is developed. Simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed 2PNOTRT model. The results indicated that the estimation of item parameters is satisfactory overall from the viewpoint of convergence. Finally, the proposed 2PNOTRT model is applied to a set of real testlet data.
Use and Impact of COACH with Students who are Deaf-Blind

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use and impact of COACH (Choosing Options and Accommodations for Children: A Guide to Planning Inclusive Education) with 30 students with deaf-blindness who attended general education classes in public schools. Interview and observational data were analyzed qualitatively while document data were analyzed quantitatively. The findings and discussion centered around five evaluation questions: (a) How do people use COACH? (b) Does the use of COACH result in educational program components referenced to valued life outcomes identified by parents and/or students? (c) How do educational programs developed using COACH differ from those developed prior to its use? (d) In what ways did the use of COACH effect relationships between parents and professionals? and (e) In what ways did the use of COACH effect valued life outcomes for students? Implications for planning in general education settings are discussed.
An Efficient Prediction-Based Data Forwarding Strategy in Vehicular Ad Hoc Network

As an important infrastructure of intelligent transportation system (ITS), vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) provide navigation and positioning, information services, driver assistance, in-vehicle entertainment, and other functions for the owners improving the development of the future smart city. Due to the high dynamic nature of VANETs, choosing a relatively stable and reliable transmission path to reduce the link breakage is obviously very important. In this paper, we propose an efficient prediction-based data forwarding strategy to ensure the reliability and efficiency of data transmission in VANETs. Besides the link lifetime prediction, we introduce a new metric named link utility used in the process of forwarder selection, in order to improve data forwarding efficiency. Link utility reflects the impact of relative velocity and distance between the vehicles on the efficiency of intervehicle data transmissions. It can be used to optimize packet routing and minimize number of hops especially in the high-density VANETs. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the proposed forwarding strategy through simulation confirming its feasibility and effectiveness.
Funções executivas em sujeitos candidatos e submetidos a cirurgia bariátrica

Obesity has been linked to cognitive difficulties in executive functions. This study aims to compare the executive functioning of two groups: 30 obese subjects seeking bariatric surgery and 30 bariatric surgery patients. In order to study the influence of weight on cognition, we compare obese subjects and subjects who had lost weight after surgery. We applied five neuropsychological tests to evaluate different components of executive functioning (Zoo Map test, Trail Making Test, Stroop, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and Iowa Gambling Task). The results show no differences between the groups in almost all components. However, both groups performed below their expected level (considering normative data). They both show difficulties in planning, troubleshooting, control/inhibition, cognitive flexibility and decision-making.
What predicts Australian university students' intentions to volunteer their time for community service?

Abstract University students represent one target population with great potential to serve as volunteers. The primary focus on describing the characteristics of students who choose to volunteer, however, has resulted in limited understanding of the psychosocial factors impacting on students' decisions to volunteer. To bridge this gap, we used an extension of a well‐known theoretical framework, the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), to predict students' intentions to volunteer for community service. Using content and thematic analysis, we explored also students' motivations and constraints for volunteering. Students (N = 235; M age = 22.09 years) self‐reported their attitude, normative influences, control perceptions, moral obligation, past behaviour, demographic characteristics, and intentions for volunteering via questionnaire. Regression analyses showed that the extended TPB explained 67% of the variance in students' volunteering intentions. In qualitative analyses, themes primarily represented the factors contributing to low efficacy for volunteering (e.g., time constraints). Control perceptions and perceived moral obligations related to volunteering represent important future targets to encourage student volunteering for organisations providing critical services for those most in need.
Data-driven information retrieval in heterogeneous collections of transcriptomics data links SIM2s to malignant pleural mesothelioma

Motivation: Genome-wide measurement of transcript levels is an ubiquitous tool in biomedical research. As experimental data continues to be deposited in public databases, it is becoming important to develop search engines that enable the retrieval of relevant studies given a query study. While retrieval systems based on meta-data already exist, data-driven approaches that retrieve studies based on similarities in the expression data itself have a greater potential of uncovering novel biological insights. Results: We propose an information retrieval method based on differential expression. Our method deals with arbitrary experimental designs and performs competitively with alternative approaches, while making the search results interpretable in terms of differential expression patterns. We show that our model yields meaningful connections between biological conditions from different studies. Finally, we validate a previously unknown connection between malignant pleural mesothelioma and SIM2s suggested by our method, via real-time polymerase chain reaction in an independent set of mesothelioma samples. Availability: Supplementary data and source code are available from http://www.ebi. ac.uk/fg/research/rex. Contact: samuel.kaski@aalto.fi Supplementary Information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Time series correlation for first-person videos

In this paper, an efficient feature encoding for firstperson video is introduced. The proposed method is appropriate for abstraction of high dimensional features such as those extracted from Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). The perframe extracted features are considered as time series, and the relations between them, in both temporal and spatial directions, are employed to represent the video descriptors. To find the relations, the time series are grouped and the linear correlation between each pair of groups are calculated. Furthermore, we split series in temporal direction in order to better focus on each local time window. The experiments show that our method outperforms previous methods such as Bag of Visual Word (BoVW), Improved Fisher Vector (IFV) and recently proposed Pooled Time Series (PoT) on the first-person DogCentric dataset. In addition, the presented method achieves a considerable improvement in computation time.
Characterization of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii phosphatidylglycerophosphate synthase in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803

Phosphatidylglycerol (PG) is an indispensable phospholipid class with photosynthetic function in plants and cyanobacteria. However, its biosynthesis in eukaryotic green microalgae is poorly studied. Here, we report the isolation and characterization of two homologs (CrPGP1 and CrPGP2) of phosphatidylglycerophosphate synthase (PGPS), the rate-limiting enzyme in PG biosynthesis, in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Heterologous complementation of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 pgsA mutant by CrPGP1 and CrPGP2 rescued the PG-dependent growth phenotype, but the PG level and its fatty acid composition were not fully rescued in the complemented strains. As well, oxygen evolution activity was not fully recovered, although electron transport activity of photosystem II was restored to the wild-type level. Gene expression study of CrPGP1 and CrPGP2 in nutrient-starved C. reinhardtii showed differential response to phosphorus and nitrogen deficiency. Taken together, these results highlight the distinct and overlapping function of PGPS in cyanobacteria and eukaryotic algae.
The role of attitudes in reactions toward diversity in workgroups

The present study examined attitudes toward diversity as a moderator of outcomes of diversity in workgroups. Two studies were conducted that focused on the development of the Attitudes Toward Diverse Workgroups Scale (ADWS) and on the impact of diversity attitudes on task performance and psychological reactions in actual face-to-face diverse brainstorming groups. The first study supported the internal consistency and stability of the ADWS and revealed that it was related, in the predicted way, to the Big Five and general prejudice. The second study revealed that high scores on the productive and affective dimensions of the ADWS enhanced brainstorming performance (quality of ideas) in actual diverse groups and positive psychological reactions to the group experiences, respectively.
Emotional Rescue: How Affect Helps Partisans Overcome Collective Action Problems

Why does party identification motivate citizens to participate in politics? From a theoretical standpoint, it is in a partisan's self-interest to free ride on the efforts of others. Yet, mere identification with a party is enough to motivate many people to overcome this structural hurdle. We theorize that, by virtue of aligning one's self with a party, individuals become more likely to react to their political environment with anger and enthusiasm rather than fear. Anger and enthusiasm are associated with approach and continuation of current behavior, while fear triggers behavior reconsideration. In short, party identification stimulates participation via anger and enthusiasm. On the other hand, fear produces thought but not much action. We find support for our model using data from the American National Election Studies (ANES) and an original laboratory experiment.
Positive feedback in eukaryotic gene networks: cell differentiation by graded to binary response conversion

Feedback is a ubiquitous control mechanism of gene networks. Here, we have used positive feedback to construct a synthetic eukaryotic gene switch in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Within this system, a continuous gradient of constitutively expressed transcriptional activator is translated into a cell phenotype switch when the activator is expressed autocatalytically. This finding is consistent with a mathematical model whose analysis shows that continuous input parameters are converted into a bimodal probability distribution by positive feedback, and that this resembles analog–digital conversion. The autocatalytic switch is a robust property in eukaryotic gene expression. Although the behavior of individual cells within a population is random, the proportion of the cell population displaying either low or high expression states can be regulated. These results have implications for understanding the graded and probabilistic mechanisms of enhancer action and cell differentiation.
Stripe painting: a method of expressing the experience of cycling through 'quantified self' data visualisation

This paper describes a collection of data-driven aesthetic explorations that investigate the concept of 'cycling as art practice' through the lens of 'quantified self' data-visualization. The explorations draw upon the philosophy of the 'Walking artists' and the concept of 'Deep mapping' and the focus of the work is on trying to visualize the experience of cycling. In doing so it draws attention to what aspects of experience can and cannot be quantified through the kinds of data we capture about ourselves.