Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perceptual learning in speech reveals pathways of processing

Listeners use perceptual learning to rapidly adapt to manipulated speech input. Examination of this learning process can reveal the pathways used during speech perception. By assessing generalization of perceptually learned categorization boundaries, others have used perceptual learning to help determine whether abstract units are necessary for listeners and models of speech perception. Here we extend this approach to address the inverse issue of specificity. In these experiments we have sought to discover the levels of specificity for which listeners can learn variation in phonetic contrasts. We find that (1) listeners are able to learn multiple voicing boundaries for different pairs of phonemic contrasts relying on the same feature contrast. (2) Listeners generalize voicing boundaries to untrained continua with the same onset as the trained continua, but generalization to continua with different onsets depends on previous experience with other continua sharing this different onset. (3) Listeners can learn different voicing boundaries for continua with the same CV onset, which suggests that boundaries are lexically-specific. (4) Listeners can learn different voicing boundaries for multiple talkers even when they are not given instructions about talkers and their task does not require talker identification. (5) Listeners retain talker-specific boundaries after training on a new boundary for a second talker, but generalize boundaries across talkers when they have no previous experience with a talker. These results were obtained using a new paradigm for unsupervised perceptual learning in speech. They suggest that models of speech perception must be highly flexible in order to accommodate both specificity and generalization of perceptually learned categorization boundaries.
In Vitro Assay Development and HTS of Small-Molecule Human ABAD/17β-HSD10 Inhibitors as Therapeutics in Alzheimer’s Disease

A major hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the formation of neurotoxic aggregates composed of the amyloid-β peptide (Aβ). Aβ has been recognized to interact with numerous proteins, resulting in pathological changes to the metabolism of patients with AD. One such mitochondrial metabolic enzyme is amyloid-binding alcohol dehydrogenase (ABAD), where altered enzyme function caused by the Aβ-ABAD interaction is known to cause mitochondrial distress and cytotoxic effects, providing a feasible therapeutic target for AD drug development. Here we have established a high-throughput screening platform for the identification of modulators to the ABAD enzyme. A pilot screen with a total of 6759 compounds from the NIH Clinical Collections (NCC) and SelleckChem libraries and a selection of compounds from the BioAscent diversity collection have allowed validation and robustness to be optimized. The pilot screen revealed 16 potential inhibitors in the low µM range against ABAD with favorable physicochemical properties for blood-brain barrier penetration.
The Blood Runs Through Every One of Us and We Are Stronger for It: The Role of Head Start in Promoting Cultural Continuity in Tribal Communities

This multiple case study examined American Indian Program Branch Head Start directors' perceptions of the role their particular Head Start program plays preserving cultural integrity in tribal communities. Of specific research interest were the unique aspects of the tribal customs of child rearing and early childhood educational practices within each community. Another area of research focused on exploring each director's vision of how the Head Start experience contributes to the future of the children. Ten tribal Head Start directors from the Great Plains region were interviewed. The grand tour question addressed how participants described their perception of the role of Head Start in promoting and preserving cultural integrity in tribal communities. Directors shared their insights on the importance of Early Head Start as a presence or a perceived need in their tribal community. The participants' advocacy efforts on the behalf of the tribal community also helped to promote the preservation of cultural integrity. All of the directors expressed their belief in the important role that Head Start programs play in providing information and support to parents involved in nurturing and raising their children.
A Cluster Analysis of Perfectionism among Competitive Athletes

In the present study, the ways in which athletes may experience perfectionism in a sport context were examined. The question of interest was whether self-confidence, intensity, and direction of cognitive and somatic precompetitive anxiety would differ across identifiable profiles of perfectionism. Competitive athletes (N = 166) completed the Sport-Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the French-Canadian Hewitt Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, and the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 Revised, including a Direction scale. Results of the cluster analysis indicated that athletes could be classified into three groups labelled Nonperfectionists, Adaptive perfectionists, and Maladaptive perfectionists. Perfectionism profiles differed significantly on Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety Intensity and on Cognitive Anxiety Direction. The importance of considering all dimensions of perfectionism simultaneously when examining the functional nature of this construct in sport is discussed.
Sequential codes, lossless compression of individual sequences, and Kolmogorov complexity

A general class of sequential codes for lossless compression of individual sequences on a finite alphabet is defined, including many types of codes that one would want to implement. The principal requirement for membership in the class is that the encoding and decoding operations be performable on a computer. The OPTA function for the class of codes is then considered, which is the function that assigns to each individual sequence the infimum of the rates at which the sequence can be compressed over this class of sequential codes. Two results about the OPTA function are obtained: (1) it is shown that any sequential code in the class compresses some individual sequence at a rate strictly greater than the rate for that sequence given by the OPTA function; and (2) it is shown that the OPTA function takes a value strictly greater than that of the Kolmogorov (1965) complexity rate function for some individual sequences.
Early hominin diet included diverse terrestrial and aquatic animals 1.95 Ma in East Turkana, Kenya

The manufacture of stone tools and their use to access animal tissues by Pliocene hominins marks the origin of a key adaptation in human evolutionary history. Here we report an in situ archaeological assemblage from the Koobi Fora Formation in northern Kenya that provides a unique combination of faunal remains, some with direct evidence of butchery, and Oldowan artifacts, which are well dated to 1.95 Ma. This site provides the oldest in situ evidence that hominins, predating Homo erectus, enjoyed access to carcasses of terrestrial and aquatic animals that they butchered in a well-watered habitat. It also provides the earliest definitive evidence of the incorporation into the hominin diet of various aquatic animals including turtles, crocodiles, and fish, which are rich sources of specific nutrients needed in human brain growth. The evidence here shows that these critical brain-growth compounds were part of the diets of hominins before the appearance of Homo ergaster/erectus and could have played an important role in the evolution of larger brains in the early history of our lineage.
Infantile spasms and cytomegalovirus infection: antiviral and antiepileptic treatment

From 1 January 1995 to 31 December 2004, 22 patients (13 males, nine females; age range 2‐12mo) with infantile spasms and cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection were treated with intravenous ganciclovir (GCV) and antiepileptic drugs. GCV was given for 3 to 12 weeks with a 1‐month interval (one, two, or three courses). Epileptic spasms occurred before (group A: eight patients), simultaneously (group B: eight patients), and after (group C: six patients) a diagnosis of human CMV (HCMV) infection and antiviral treatment. In 11 patients, DNA HCMV was found in cerebrospinal fluid by nested‐polymerase chain reaction method (neuroinfection). All infants excreted CMV in urine. DNA HCMV and specific immunoglobulin M and immunoglobulin G antibodies were present in blood. Ten patients, including four with neuroinfection, have been seizure‐free for at least the past 18 months. In two patients with neuroinfection, vigabatrin monotherapy was withdrawn after a 2 year 6 month seizure‐free period. Eighteen patients required antiepileptic drugs polytherapy, four of whom required additional adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). Six patients on polytherapy were seizure‐free on follow‐up, two of whom were treated with ACTH, but no patient with hypsarrhythmia who required ACTH treatment was seizure‐free on follow‐up. In five patients, psychomotor development was normal, 16 had tetraplegia (Gross Motor Function Classification System [GMFCS] Level V), and one had diplegia (GMFCS Level III). Early antiviral and antiepileptic therapy could result in the long‐term cessation of seizures.
Impact of Nightshift Work on Overweight and Abdominal Obesity Among Workers of a Poultry Processing Plant in Southern Brazil

The authors examined the associations of shiftwork with overweight and abdominal obesity through a cross-sectional study of 1206 employees 18 to 50 yrs of age who were working on a production line in a poultry processing plant. Night-shift workers (n = 800) were considered exposed, whereas day shiftworkers (n = 406) were considered nonexposed. Overweight was defined as a body mass index ≥25 kg/m2 and abdominal obesity as a waist circumference ≥88 cm in women and ≥102 cm in men. The mean age of the workers was 30.5 yrs (standard deviation = 8.7 yrs), and 65.2% were women. Nightshift workers compared to dayshift workers showed higher prevalences of overweight (42.2% vs. 34.3%; p = .020) and abdominal obesity (24.9% vs. 19.5%; p = .037). After adjusting for sociodemographics, parental overweight status, behavioral characteristics, and sleep characteristics, including hours of sleep, the prevalence ratios for overweight and abdominal obesity were 1.27 (95% confidence interval [ CI]: 1.00–1.61) and 1.45 (95% CI: 1.10–1.92), respectively, for the nightshift workers compared to the dayshift workers. A consistent finding in our study was the independent contribution of night shiftwork to overweight and abdominal obesity among Brazilian workers. Further studies are needed to understand the biological mechanisms involved and the complex behavioral and social adaptations experienced by night-shift workers. (Author correspondence: mtolinto@gmail.com)
Sequence of eruption of permanent teeth and epiphyseal union in New World monkeys.

Sequences of eruption of teeth and union of epiphyses are given for local populations of 3 species of monkeys from South America. These sequences are highly scalable for each species and are very similar among the different species. Tentative chronological ages of epiphyseal union can be assigned to younger individuals in 2 species by utilizing chronological ages of dental eruption published by other investigators. The sequences of epiphyseal union in these New World monkeys are very similar to published sequences in Old World monkeys. No specimen in the present series was completely mature skeletally.
Experiences in mining aviation safety data

The goal of data analysis in aviation safety is simple: improve safety. However, the path to this goal is hard to identify. What data mining methods are most applicable to this task? What data are available and how should they be analyzed? How do we focus on the most interesting results? Our answers to these questions are based on a recent research project we completed. The encouraging news is that we found a number of aviation safety offices doing commendable work to collect and analyze safety-related data. But we also found a number of areas where data mining techniques could provide new tools that either perform analyses that were not considered before, or that can now be done more easily. Currently, Aviation Safety offices collect and analyze the incident reports by a combination of manual and automated methods. Data analysis is done by safety officers who are well familiar with the domain, but not with data mining methods. Some Aviation Safety officers have tools to automate the database query and report generation process. However, the actual analysis is done by the officer with only fairly rudimentary tools to help extract the useful information from the data. Our research project looked at the application of data mining techniques to aviation safety data to help Aviation Safety officers with their analysis task. This effort led to the creation of a tool called the “Aviation Safety Data Mining Workbench”. This paper describes the research effort, the workbench, the experience with data mining of Aviation Safety data, and lessons learned.
Cerebral Blood Flow Is the Optimal CT Perfusion Parameter for Assessing Infarct Core

Background and Purpose— CT perfusion (CTP) is widely and rapidly accessible for imaging acute ischemic stroke but has limited validation. Cerebral blood volume (CBV) has been proposed as the best predictor of infarct core. We tested CBV against other common CTP parameters using contemporaneous diffusion MRI. Methods— Patients with acute ischemic stroke <6 hours after onset had CTP and diffusion MRI <1 hour apart, before any reperfusion therapies. CTP maps of time to peak (TTP), absolute and relative CBV, cerebral blood flow (CBF), mean transit time (MTT), and time to peak of the deconvolved tissue residue function (Tmax) were generated. The diffusion lesion was manually outlined to its maximal visual extent. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis area under the curve (AUC) was used to quantify the correspondence of each perfusion parameter to the coregistered diffusion-weighted imaging lesion. Optimal thresholds were determined (Youden index). Results— In analysis of 98 CTP slabs (54 patients, median onset to CT 190 minutes, median CT to MR 30 minutes), relative CBF performed best (AUC, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.77–81), significantly better than absolute CBV (AUC, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.73–0.76). The optimal threshold was <31% of mean contralateral CBF. Specificity was reduced by low CBF/CBV in noninfarcted white matter in cases with reduced contrast bolus intensity and leukoaraiosis. Conclusions— In contrast to previous reports, CBF corresponded with the acute diffusion-weighted imaging lesion better than CBV, although no single threshold avoids detection of false-positive regions in unaffected white matter. This relates to low signal-to-noise ratio in CTP maps and emphasizes the need for optimized acquisition and postprocessing.
A methodology for the estimation of the optimal iteration in MLEM-based image reconstruction in PET

We have proposed a method for the estimation of the optimal iteration for the Maximum Likelihood Expectation Maximization (MLEM) algorithm used in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) image reconstruction. For the calculation of the transition matrix and the generation of the projection data a PET scanner was simulated using Monte-Carlo techniques. Our preliminary results show that the proposed methodology can estimate the optimal iteration for the MLEM algorithm.
Survey propagation: An algorithm for satisfiability

We study the satisfiability of randomly generated formulas formed by M clauses of exactly K literals over N Boolean variables. For a given value of N the problem is known to be most difficult when α = M/N is close to the experimental threshold αc separating the region where almost all formulas are SAT from the region where all formulas are UNSAT. Recent results from a statistical physics analysis suggest that the difficulty is related to the existence of a clustering phenomenon of the solutions when α is close to (but smaller than) αc. We introduce a new type of message passing algorithm which allows to find efficiently a satisfying assignment of the variables in this difficult region. This algorithm is iterative and composed of two main parts. The first is a message‐passing procedure which generalizes the usual methods like Sum‐Product or Belief Propagation: It passes messages that may be thought of as surveys over clusters of the ordinary messages. The second part uses the detailed probabilistic information obtained from the surveys in order to fix variables and simplify the problem. Eventually, the simplified problem that remains is solved by a conventional heuristic. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg. , 2005
Reprogramming of Round Spermatids by the Germinal Vesicle Cytoplasm in Mice

The birthrate following round spermatid injection (ROSI) remains low in current and evidence suggests that factors in the germinal vesicle (GV) cytoplasm and certain substances in the GV such as the nucleolus might be responsible for genomic reprogramming and embryonic development. However, little is known whether the reprogramming factors in GV oocyte cytoplasm and/or nucleolus in GV are beneficial to the reprogramming of round spermatids and development of ROSI embryos. Here, round spermatids were treated with GV cytolysates and injected this round spermatid alone or co-injected with GV oocyte nucleolus into mature metaphase II oocytes. Subsequent embryonic development was assessed morphologically and by Oct4 expression in blastocysts. There was no significant difference between experimental groups at the zygote to four-cell development stages. Blastocysts derived from oocytes which were injected with cytolysate treated-round spermatid alone or co-injected with nucleoli injection yielded 63.6% and 70.3% high quality embryos, respectively; comparable to blastocysts derived by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), but higher than these oocytes which were co-injected with lysis buffer-treated round spermatids and nucleoli or injected with the lysis buffer-treated round spermatids alone. Furthermore, the proportion of live offspring resulting from oocytes which were co-injected with cytolysate treated-round spermatids and nucleoli or injected with cytolysate treated-round spermatids alone was higher than those were injected with lysis buffer treated-round spermaids, but comparable with the ICSI group. Our results demonstrate that factors from the GV cytoplasm improve round spermatid reprogramming, and while injection of the extra nucleolus does not obviously improve reprogramming its potential contribution, although which cannot be definitively excluded. Thus, some reprogramming factors are evidently present in GV oocyte cytoplasm and could significantly facilitate ROSI technology, while the nucleolus in GV seems also having a potential to improve reprogramming of round spermatids.
Tumor resistance to vascular disrupting agents: mechanisms, imaging, and solutions

The emergence of vascular disrupting agents (VDAs) is a significant advance in the treatment of solid tumors. VDAs induce rapid and selective shutdown of tumor blood flow resulting in massive necrosis. However, a viable marginal tumor rim always remains after VDA treatment and is a major cause of recurrence. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms involved in the resistance of solid tumors to VDAs. Hypoxia, tumor-associated macrophages, and bone marrow-derived circulating endothelial progenitor cells all may contribute to resistance. Resistance can be monitored using magnetic resonance imaging markers. The various solutions proposed to manage tumor resistance to VDAs emphasize combining these agents with other approaches including antiangiogenic agents, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, radioimmunotherapy, and sequential dual-targeting internal radiotherapy.
Multiple Functions of the Leucine-Rich Repeat Protein LrrA of Treponema denticola

ABSTRACT The gene lrrA, encoding a leucine-rich repeat protein, LrrA, that contains eight consensus tandem repeats of 23 amino acid residues, has been identified in Treponema denticola ATCC 35405. A leucine-rich repeat is a generally useful protein-binding motif, and proteins containing this repeat are typically involved in protein-protein interactions. Southern blot analysis demonstrated that T. denticola ATCC 35405 expresses the lrrA gene, but the gene was not identified in T. denticola ATCC 33520. In order to analyze the functions of LrrA in T. denticola, an lrrA-inactivated mutant of strain ATCC 35405 and an lrrA gene expression transformant of strain ATCC 33520 were constructed. Characterization of the mutant and transformant demonstrated that LrrA is associated with the extracytoplasmic fraction of T. denticola and expresses multifunctional properties. It was demonstrated that the attachment of strain ATCC 35405 to HEp-2 cell cultures and coaggregation with Tannerella forsythensis were attenuated by the lrrA mutation. In addition, an in vitro binding assay demonstrated specific binding of LrrA to a portion of the Tannerella forsythensis leucine-rich repeat protein, BspA, which is mediated by the N-terminal region of LrrA. It was also observed that the lrrA mutation caused a reduction of swarming in T. denticola ATCC 35405 and consequently attenuated tissue penetration. These results suggest that the leucine-rich repeat protein LrrA plays a role in the attachment and penetration of human epithelial cells and coaggregation with Tannerella forsythensis. These properties may play important roles in the virulence of T. denticola.
Leading the celebration choir: The choral singing therapy protocol and the role of the music therapist in a social singing group for adults with neurological conditions

The CeleBRation Choir, a social singing group for people with neurological conditions and their significant others, is an initiative of the University of Auckland's Centre for Brain Research. A new model of therapy, Choral Singing Therapy, is discussed in the context of literature addressing singing and health, the rehabilitation needs of this population, and related models of music therapy. The paper outlines the choir protocol, supporting guidelines and role of the music therapist leading the choir, with reference to participant interview data from the 2011 SPICCATO (Stroke and Parkinson's: Investigating Community Choirs and Therapeutic Outcomes) feasibility study. Recommendations are provided for people considering social singing groups for this population. Further research is planned, with the intention of recruiting participants to new choirs for a randomised controlled trial of Choral Singing Therapy.