Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Some aspects of the validity of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) for evaluating cognitive impairment in Brazilian patients with Parkinson's disease

Background The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a short global cognitive scale, and some studies suggest it is useful for evaluating cognition in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, its accuracy has been questioned in studies involving patients with low education. Objective We sought to assess whether some of the MoCA subtests contribute to the low accuracy of the test. Methods We performed a cross-sectional retrospective analysis of clinical data in a cohort of 71 patients with PD, most with less than 8 years of education. Patients were examined using the MDS-UPDRS, Hoehn and Yahr and the MoCA. The data were analyzed using mainly descriptive statistics. Results We analyzed the data of 66 patients that were not demented according to the clinical evaluation and classified them using the proposed cut-off MoCA scores for diagnosis of MCI and dementia. Thirteen patients (19.7%) were classified as having normal cognition, 24 (36.3%) MCI and 29 (43.9%) dementia. Patients with dementia had longer disease duration (p=0.016) and lower education (p=0.0001). Total MoCA scores had a an almost normal distribution with a wide range of scores and only one maximum score. Performance on the MoCA was highly correlated with education (correlation coefficient=0.66, p=0.0001). At least five of the 10 MoCA subtests showed significant floor effects. Conclusion We believe that some of the MoCA subtests may be too difficult to be completed by PD patients with low educational level, thus contributing to the test's poor diagnostic accuracy.
Corrections to the parameterization of constraints on allele sharing in sibling pairs alter covariate-parameter estimates but not sharing-probability estimates or power of tests for linkage.

To the Editor: Errors in appendix B of our 1999 article in the Journal (Greenwood and Bull 1999) were recently pointed out to us (D. Weeks and H.-J. Tsai, personal communication). The simultaneous-boundary–constrained estimates for z0(xi) presented in 1999 do not give the correct values for the covariate parameters under the null hypothesis. The correct expression for the expected proportion of sibling pairs sharing zero alleles identical by descent (IBD) under the simultaneous-boundary constraint with no additive variance should be The relationships between this proportion and those for sharing one or two alleles IBD do not change from the 1999 article: z1(xi)=2z0(xi) and z2(xi)=1-3z0(xi). For the minmax-optimal simultaneous-boundary constraint, the correct expression should be As in the 1999 article, the constraints on the othersharing proportions are z1(xi)=0.355+0.58z0(xi) and z2(xi)=0.645-1.58z0(xi). Note that both the original (see appendix B in Greenwood and Bull 1999) and the corrected expressions for z0(xi) satisfy the specified constraints on the expected sharing proportion zj(xi) and differ only in those values of the covariate-associated parameter vector β0 that correspond to specific null or alternative hypotheses. When written in terms of the sharing proportion z0(xi), the score equations—based on the LOD**(β0) expressions given in appendix B (Greenwood and Bull 1999) and used in the M step of the estimation algorithm—are identical for the original and corrected expressions. Provided that the zijs in the E step are updated using the z0(xi) estimates, the final z0(xi) estimates from the expectation-maximization algorithm, and hence the LOD scores for the test of linkage with covariates, will also be identical. This can be considered as a special case of the invariance of the likelihood to reparameterization. Therefore, the original conclusions concerning relative power and effects of constraints are unchanged. We have rerun our simulations to confirm these theoretical conclusions, and we show here in table 1 some corrected results and original results from tables 2 and 3 of the 1999 article (Greenwood and Bull 1999). The corrected algorithms almost always converge, whereas we previously had more difficulty in obtaining convergence with these two constraint methods. Thus, we conclude that the small differences in mean LOD scores or in significance levels are a result of the fact that we no longer had to exclude as many data sets from our summaries. Therefore, although estimates of the parameter β0 would not be correct if the expressions in the 1999 article were used, our conclusions about the power of the various approaches have not changed. Table 1 Original and Corrected Results of Simulation Models
Adult Mother-Daughter Relationships in Indonesia, the Republic of Korea and Germany

This study investigated the question of cultural differences and similarities in factors that may be relevant for the adult mother-daughter relationship. In the introduction, we will discuss some ideas concerning cultural influences on intergenerational relationships. We will then present comparisons of Indonesian, Korean, and German women from a study conducted in preparation for the "Value of Children and Intergenerational Relations Study" (Nauck & Trommsdorff, 1997) to answer the research question.
Mixture Models for Estimating the Size of a Closed Population When Capture Rates Vary among Individuals

Summary We develop a parameterization of the beta‐binomial mixture that provides sensible inferences about the size of a closed population when probabilities of capture or detection vary among individuals. Three classes of mixture models (beta‐binomial, logistic‐normal, and latent‐class) are fitted to recaptures of snowshoe hares for estimating abundance and to counts of bird species for estimating species richness. In both sets of data, rates of detection appear to vary more among individuals (animals or species) than among sampling occasions or locations. The estimates of population size and species richness are sensitive to model‐specific assumptions about the latent distribution of individual rates of detection. We demonstrate using simulation experiments that conventional diagnostics for assessing model adequacy, such as deviance, cannot be relied on for selecting classes of mixture models that produce valid inferences about population size. Prior knowledge about sources of individual heterogeneity in detection rates, if available, should be used to help select among classes of mixture models that are to be used for inference.
Functional Improvement with Low-dose Dopaminergic Grafts in Hemiparkinsonian Rats

OBJECTIVE:The beneficial functional effects of neural transplantation in Parkinson’s disease are often directly attributed to the number of surviving dopaminergic cells within a graft. However, recent clinical trials of fetal neural transplantation suggest that a high number of dopaminergic cells may induce serious side effects. In this study, we explored the ability of low-dose dopaminergic grafts to produce functional benefits in the 6-hydroxydopamine rodent model of Parkinson’s disease over a long period of observation. METHODS:Twelve rats received either 50,000 or 400,000 fetal ventral mesencephalic cells implanted into the striatum. Rotational behavior was assessed after the lesion and at 3, 6, 9, and 12 weeks after transplantation. Twelve weeks after transplantation, animals were perfused, and microtome sections were stained for tyrosine hydroxylase, glial fibrillary acidic protein, heat-shock protein 27, and vimentin. RESULTS:The low-dose group had a three-fold increase in tyrosine hydroxylase-positive cell survival rate compared with the high-dose group rate. The low-dose group also had a mean cell diameter significantly higher than the high-dose group. There was no significant difference between groups in fiber density; however, a higher percentage of longer fibers was encountered in the low-dose group. The low-dose group had a lower degree of trauma in the striatum, as assessed by optical density scores from glial fibrillary acidic protein, heat-shock protein 27, and vimentin staining. There was significant improvement in rotational behavior in the high-dose group at 3 weeks after transplantation, whereas the rotational behavior normalized in the low-dose group at 6 weeks after grafting. There was no significant difference in rotational behavior scores between groups at 6 weeks after grafting. CONCLUSION:This study demonstrates that over time, a low-dose dopaminergic graft has the capability of eliciting the same functional effect as a high-dose graft. Furthermore, low-dose grafts may increase graft survival, fiber outgrowth, and dopamine production and decrease trauma to the brain.
Is there an association between meningioma and hormone replacement therapy?

PURPOSE Molecular and clinical observations suggest a role of sex steroid hormones in the occurrence of meningioma. However, there is limited and often conflicting data on the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) as a possible risk factor for meningioma. The goal of this study was to investigate whether there is an association between a diagnosis of meningioma and either current or past HRT use in women. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed records in the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville electronic patient database between 1993 and 2003 to identify women with a diagnosis of either symptomatic or incidentally discovered, clinically silent meningioma. Records were also searched to identify women with a documented history of either current or past HRT use. RESULTS Of the 355,318 women, ages 26 to 86, evaluated for any medical issue, 18,037 (5%) were documented as current or past HRT users. A total of 1,390 women with a history of symptomatic or incidentally discovered meningiomas were identified, 156 (11%) of whom were either current or past HRT users. A logistic regression analysis, adjusted for age, demonstrated a positive association between a diagnosis of meningioma and HRT use, with an odds ratio of 2.2 (95% CI, 1.9 to 2.6; P < .0001). The frequency of meningioma in women with either current or past HRT use was 865 in 100,000, whereas the frequency of meningioma in women without the history of HRT use was 366 in 100,000. CONCLUSION The study provides evidence of a positive association between HRT use and diagnosis of meningioma, and therefore, HRT use may be a risk factor for meningioma.
Grasp Moduli Spaces

We present a new approach for modelling grasping using an integrated space of grasps and shapes. In particular, we introduce an infinite dimensional space, the Grasp Moduli Space, which represents shapes and grasps in a continuous manner. We define a metric on this space allowing us to formalize ‘nearby’ grasp/shape configurations and we discuss continuous deformations of such configurations. We work in particular with surfaces with cylindrical coordinates and analyse the stability of a popular L1 grasp quality measure Ql under continuous deformations of shapes and grasps. We experimentally determine bounds on the maximal change of Ql in a small neighbourhood around stable grasps with grasp quality above a threshold. In the case of surfaces of revolution, we determine stable grasps which correspond to grasps used by humans and develop an efficient algorithm for generating those grasps in the case of three contact points. We show that sufficiently stable grasps stay stable under small deformations. For larger deformations, we develop a gradient-based method that can transfer stable grasps between different surfaces. Additionally, we show in experiments that our gradient method can be used to find stable grasps on arbitrary surfaces with cylindrical coordinates by deforming such surfaces towards a corresponding ‘canonical’ surface of revolution.
Measuring Functional Cohesion

We examine the functional cohesion of procedures using a data slice abstraction. Our analysis identifies the data tokens that lie on more than one slice as the "glue" that binds separate components together. Cohesion is measured in terms of the relative number of glue tokens, tokens that lie on more than one data slice, and super-glue tokens, tokens that lie on all data slices in a procedure, and the adhesiveness of the tokens. The intuition and measurement scale factors are demonstrated through a set of abstract transformations. >
DNA-inspired anonymous fingerprinting for efficient peer-to-peer content distribution

When selling electronic content, the merchant would like each buyer to receive a different copy of the content fingerprinted with a serial number, in order to be able to trace redistributors should illegal redistribution happen. On the other hand, the merchant would like content distribution to be as scalable as possible, in order for mass transactions to be possible. Multicast content distribution fails to satisfy the first requirement: all receivers get exactly the same copy of the content, which makes it difficult to trace illegal redistributors. Unicast distribution of fingerprinted content, on the other hand, fails to satisfy the second requirement: for each buyer, the merchant needs to compute a fingerprint and establish a connection. P2P content distribution is a third option combining the strengths of multicast and unicast: the merchant needs to establish unicast connections only with a few seed buyers; on the other hand, with a suitable fingerprinting mechanism, illegal redistributors can still be identified and honest buyers can stay anonymous. We present a P2P content distribution scheme with such an anonymous fingerprinting mechanism, which is inspired in the way DNA sequences combine and spread from ancestors to descendants.
Conditional Path Sampling of SDEs and the Langevin MCMC Method

We introduce a stochastic PDE based approach to sampling paths of SDEs, conditional on observations. The SPDEs are derived by generalising the Langevin MCMC method to infinite dimensions. Various applications are described, including sampling paths subject to two end-point conditions (bridges) and nonlinear filter/smoothers.
Trace Norm Regularized Tensor Classification and Its Online Learning Approaches

In this paper we propose an algorithm to classify tensor data. Our methodology is built on recent studies about matrix classification with the trace norm constrained weight matrix and the tensor trace norm. Similar to matrix classification, the tensor classification is formulated as a convex optimization problem which can be solved by using the off-the-shelf accelerated proximal gradient (APG) method. However, there are no analytic solutions as the matrix case for the updating of the weight tensors via the proximal gradient. To tackle this problem, the Douglas-Rachford splitting technique and the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADM) used in tensor completion are adapted to update the weight tensors. Further more, due to the demand of real applications, we also propose its online learning approaches. Experiments demonstrate the efficiency of the methods.
Toxicity of atmospheric aerosols on marine phytoplankton

Atmospheric aerosol deposition is an important source of nutrients and trace metals to the open ocean that can enhance ocean productivity and carbon sequestration and thus influence atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and climate. Using aerosol samples from different back trajectories in incubation experiments with natural communities, we demonstrate that the response of phytoplankton growth to aerosol additions depends on specific components in aerosols and differs across phytoplankton species. Aerosol additions enhanced growth by releasing nitrogen and phosphorus, but not all aerosols stimulated growth. Toxic effects were observed with some aerosols, where the toxicity affected picoeukaryotes and Synechococcus but not Prochlorococcus. We suggest that the toxicity could be due to high copper concentrations in these aerosols and support this by laboratory copper toxicity tests preformed with Synechococcus cultures. However, it is possible that other elements present in the aerosols or unknown synergistic effects between these elements could have also contributed to the toxic effect. Anthropogenic emissions are increasing atmospheric copper deposition sharply, and based on coupled atmosphere–ocean calculations, we show that this deposition can potentially alter patterns of marine primary production and community structure in high aerosol, low chlorophyll areas, particularly in the Bay of Bengal and downwind of South and East Asia.
News-Oriented Keyword Indexing with Maximum Entropy Principle

In our information era, keywords are very useful to information retrieval, text clustering and so on. News is always a domain attracting a large amount of attention. Aiming at news documents' characteristics and the resources available, this paper proposes to use Maximum Entropy (ME) model to conduct automatic keyword indexing. The focus of ME-based keyword indexing is how to obtain all the candidate items and select useful features for ME model. First, we make use of some relatively mature linguistic techniques and tools to obtain all the possible candidate items. Then, a feature set of ME model will be introduced. At last we test the model, and experimental results are given.
Extending the accuracy limits of prediction for side-chain conformations.

Current techniques for the prediction of side-chain conformations on a fixed backbone have an accuracy limit of about 1.0-1.5 A rmsd for core residues. We have carried out a detailed and systematic analysis of the factors that influence the prediction of side-chain conformation and, on this basis, have succeeded in extending the limits of side-chain prediction for core residues to about 0.7 A rmsd from native, and 94 % and 89 % of chi(1) and chi(1+2 ) dihedral angles correctly predicted to within 20 degrees of native, respectively. These results are obtained using a force-field that accounts for only van der Waals interactions and torsional potentials. Prediction accuracy is strongly dependent on the rotamer library used. That is, a complete and detailed rotamer library is essential. The greatest accuracy was obtained with an extensive rotamer library, containing over 7560 members, in which bond lengths and bond angles were taken from the database rather than simply assuming idealized values. Perhaps the most surprising finding is that the combinatorial problem normally associated with the prediction of the side-chain conformation does not appear to be important. This conclusion is based on the fact that the prediction of the conformation of a single side-chain with all others fixed in their native conformations is only slightly more accurate than the simultaneous prediction of all side-chain dihedral angles.
Mapping the File Systems Genome: rationales, technique, results and applications

This paper provides evidence of a feature of Hard-Disk Drives (HDDs), that we call File System Genome. Such a feature is originated by the areas where (on the HDD) the file blocks are placed by the operating system during the installation procedure. It appears from our study that the File System Genome is a distinctive and unique feature of each indi- vidual HDD. In particular, our extensive set of experiments shows that the installation of the same operating system on two identical hardware configurations generates two different File System Genomes. Further, the application of sound information theory tools, such as min entropy, show that the differences between two File System Genome are considerably relevant. The results provided in this paper constitute the scientific basis for a number of applications in various fields of information technology, such as forensic identification and security. Finally, this work also paves the way for the application of the highlighted technique to other classes of mass-storage devices (e.g. SSDs, Flash memories).
An On-Site, Ultra-Sensitive, Quantitative Sensing Method for the Determination of Total Aflatoxin in Peanut and Rice Based on Quantum Dot Nanobeads Strip

An on-site, ultra-sensitive, and quantitative sensing method was developed based on quantum dot nanobeads (QDNBs) and a test strip for the determination of total aflatoxins (AFTs) in rice and peanuts. The monoclonal antibody against AFT (mAbAFT) was homemade and labeled with QDNB. After the pre-coating of the AFT antigen on the test line (T line), the competitive immunoreactions were conducted between AFT and AFT antigen on the T line with QDNBs-mAbAFT. Under optimal conditions, this approach allowed a rapid response towards AFT with a considerable sensitivity of 1.4 pg/mL and 2.9 pg/mL in rice and peanut matrices, respectively. The put-in and put-out durations were within 10 min. The recoveries for AFT in rice and peanut sample matrices were recorded from 86.25% to 118.0%, with relative deviations (RSD) below 12%. The assay was further validated via the comparison between this QDNB strip and the conventional HPLC method using spiked samples. Thus, the design provided a potential alternative for on-site, ultra-sensitive, and quantitative sensing of AFT that could also be expanded to other chemical contaminants for food safety.
Supporting VHO by a Self-Organizing Multidimensional P2P Overlay

(cid:151) Vertical handovers (VHO) are expected to be a key feature in Beyond 3G (B3G) networks. This paper presents a CAN-based P2P overlay network for supporting vertical handover in B3G networks. The P2P overlay is used to quickly locate attachment points (APs) for mobile entities and to retrieve rapidly the con(cid:2)guration and coverage information of these APs. The advantage of the P2P-based solution is its distributed nature, its scalability, and its self-organizing capability. We show by means of simulation the ef(cid:2)ciency and the scalability of our approach in comparison to a standard CAN implementation.
Microbridge tests on gallium nitride thin films

In this work, we develop further the microbridge testing method by deriving a closed formula of deflection versus load, which is applied at an arbitrary position on the microbridge beam. Testing a single beam at various positions allows us to characterize simultaneouslyYoung's modulus and residual stress of the beam. The developed method was then used to characterize the mechanical properties of GaN thin films on patterned-Si (1 1 1) substrates grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The microbridge samples were fabricated by using the microelectromechanical fabrication technique and tested with a nanoindentation system. Young's modulus and residual stress of the GaN films were determined to be 287 ± 190 GPa and 851 ± 155 MPa, respectively. In addition, alternative measurements of the residual stress, Young's modulus and hardness of the GaN films, were conducted with micro-Raman spectroscopy and the nanoindentation test, yielding the corresponding values of 847 ± 46 MPa, 269.0 ± 7.0 GPa and 17.8 ± 1.1 GPa.
Dynamic Analysis of Liquid Storage Cylindrical Tanks due to Earthquake

Ground-supported tanks are used to store a variety of liquids. This paper provides theoretical background of seismic design of liquid storage ground-supported circular tanks. During earthquake activity the liquid exerts impulsive and convective (sloshing) actions on the walls and bottom of the circular tank. Seismic response was calculated by using the seismic response spectrum. Knowledge of these inner forces is important for design of reservoirs.