Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Time-Frequency-Space Range of EEG Selected by NMI for BCIs

In order to increase the classification accuracy of the mental tasks with speech imagery, a time-frequency-space range selection model based on neighborhood mutual information (NMI) is proposed. According to time, the electroencephalography (EEG) signals are divided into 7 distinct segments. These 7 sections of signals are filtered by 28 band pass filters with different frequency range. The filtered signals are extracted by common spatial pattern (CSP) to obtain spatial matrices. Then, the NMI values of these matrices are calculated. At last, the time-frequency-space range is optimized by NMI values. The EEG signals are processed by the selected time-frequency-space range, and the eigenvalues are calculated and classified by variance and support vector machines, respectively. From the results of 10 subjects, the average classification accuracy is improved by 3.0% after optimization. The improvements of subjects S2 and S5 are the most pronounced, and their results are increased by 5.0% and 5.2%, respectively. With automatic range selection and improvement of classification results, the model is entirely applicable to real time optimization calculation of online brain-computer interfaces.
Palatable Food Dampens the Long-Term Behavioral and Endocrine Effects of Juvenile Stressor Exposure but May Also Provoke Metabolic Syndrome in Rats

The juvenile period is marked by a reorganization and growth of important brain regions including structures associating with reward seeking behaviors such as the nucleus accumbens (NA) and prefrontal cortex (PFC). These changes are impacted by stressors during the juvenile period and may lead to a predisposition to stress induced psychopathology and abnormal development of brain reward systems. Like in humans, adult rodents engage certain coping mechanisms such as increases in the consumption of calorie-rich palatable foods to reduce stress, but this behavior can lead to obesity and metabolic disorders. In this study, we examined whether stressors during the juvenile period led to increased caloric intake when a palatable diet was accessible, and whether this diet attenuated adult stress responses. In addition, we examined if the stress buffering effects produced by the palatable diet were also accompanied by an offset propensity towards obesity, and by alterations in mRNA expression of dopamine (DA) receptors in the NA and PFC in adulthood. To this end, juvenile male Wistar rats underwent episodic stressor exposure (forced swim, elevated platform stress and restraint) on postnatal days (PD) 27–29 and received access to regular chow or daily limited access to a palatable diet until adulthood. At the age of 2 months, rats were tested on a social interaction test that screens for anxiety-like behaviors and their endocrine responses to an acute stressor. Animals were sacrificed, and their brains processed to detect differences in DA receptor subtype expression in the PFC and NA using qPCR. Results showed that rats that were stressed during the juvenile period displayed higher social anxiety and a sensitized corticosterone response as adults and these effects were attenuated by access to the palatable diet. Nevertheless, rats that experienced juvenile stress and consumed a palatable diet showed greater adiposity in adulthood. Interestingly, the same group displayed greater mRNA expression of DA receptors at the NA. This suggests that access to a palatable diet mitigates the behavioral and endocrine effects of juvenile stressor exposure in adulthood, but at the cost of metabolic imbalances and a sensitized dopaminergic system.
Changing from 12‐hr to 8‐hr day shifts: A qualitative exploration of effects on organising nursing care and staffing

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To investigate (a) How nursing care is organised on wards where nursing staff work different lengths of day shifts, and (b) How length of day shift affects the staffing of wards. BACKGROUND Twelve-hour shifts have become increasingly common worldwide but there are concerns about impact on care quality and safety. Eight-hour shifts, and how day shift length affects how nurses organise their work, and staffing, have been little studied. DESIGN Case study. METHODS The setting was two older people's wards in an acute hospital in England. Nursing staff on one ward continued to work 12-hr day shifts; staff on the other ward worked 8 hr late and early day shifts, with an afternoon overlap, for 6 months. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 22 nursing staff. Semi-structured observations were conducted from 12-15.00 (5 × 3 hr episodes on each ward). Data analysis was conducted using the Framework approach. RESULTS Theme 1: Organising nursing care and staff activities, (sub-themes: Care delivery across a 12 hr shift; Care delivery on early and late 8 hr shifts; Staff communication and documentation; Staff breaks; Teaching, supervision and staff development); Theme 2: Staffing wards with different length of day shift (sub-themes:: Adequacy of staffing and use of temporary staff; Recruitment and retention of staff after introducing 8 hr shifts). CONCLUSION Nursing staff organised care on 8-hr shifts similarly to 12-hr shifts but then felt dissatisfied with their care delivery and handovers. Nursing staff on both wards approached care in a task-focused way. There were concerns that adopting an 8-hr shift pattern negatively affected recruitment and retention. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Changing from 12 hr to 8 hr day shifts may affect nursing staff satisfaction with their care delivery and handovers, and have a negative effect on staffing wards.
Technical Note: Virtual CT for reducing CT dose in targeted radionuclide therapy dosimetry

PURPOSE Previously we have shown that using sequential CT images is superior to sequential SPECT for nonrigid registration in three-dimensional (3D) targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT) dosimetry. However, sequential CTs are often not available due to radiation concerns. In this paper, we propose a virtual CT (vCT) method for attenuation and scatter correction, image registration, and segmentation for improved dosimetric accuracy with single CT acquisition. METHODS We used a population of nine XCAT phantoms with different In-111 Zevalin biokinetics and anatomical variations for the simulations. An analytical projector was used to simulate sequential SPECT/CT acquisitions for a medium energy general purpose collimator at 1, 12, 24, 72, and 144 h postinjection, modeling attenuation, scatter, and geometric collimator-detector response. The corresponding sequential attenuation maps of the phantoms served as real CT (rCT) images. For vCT generation, we investigated three registration methods, that is, (a) SPECT to SPECT; (b) SPECT to CT, and (c) CT to SPECT, and the optimal time point for single CT acquisition. Difference images and average normalized mean square errors (NMSE) were calculated between different vCTs and their corresponding rCTs. Absorbed dose and dose-volume histograms (DVHs) for critical organs were computed for the rCT, optimized vCT, and conventional single CT (1CT) protocols, respectively, for dosimetric analyses. RESULTS For vCT generation, SPECT to SPECT registration with a single CT acquired at the first time point shows the smallest difference and NMSE. For organ absorbed doses, the results of vCT were similar to those of rCT and were superior to 1CT, that is, -0.24 ± 1.56% vs -0.49 ± 1.76% vs -6.37 ± 5.63% for the liver, -1.05 ± 2.89% vs -0.69 ± 2.74% vs -4.87 ± 4.35% for kidneys, respectively. The results of DVHs also showed improvement for all organs using vCTs as compared to the conventional 1CT protocol. CONCLUSION The optimized vCT method can effectively increase the TRT dosimetric results if there is only a single CT available in the sequential imaging protocol, reducing the substantial increase in radiation burden from repeated CT scans.
Trauma-associated anterior cingulate connectivity during reward learning predicts affective and anxiety states in young adults

Abstract Background Trauma exposure is associated with development of depression and anxiety; yet, some individuals are resilient to these trauma-associated effects. Differentiating mechanisms underlying development of negative affect and resilience following trauma is critical for developing effective interventions. One pathway through which trauma could exert its effects on negative affect is reward-learning networks. In this study, we examined relationships among lifetime trauma, reward-learning network function, and emotional states in young adults. Methods One hundred eleven young adults self-reported trauma and emotional states and underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during a monetary reward task. Trauma-associated neural activation and functional connectivity were analyzed during reward prediction error (RPE). Relationships between trauma-associated neural functioning and affective and anxiety symptoms were examined. Results Number of traumatic events was associated with greater ventral anterior cingulate cortex (vACC) activation, and lower vACC connectivity with the right insula, frontopolar, inferior parietal, and temporoparietal regions, during RPE. Lower trauma-associated vACC connectivity with frontoparietal regions implicated in regulatory and decision-making processes was associated with heightened affective and anxiety symptoms; lower vACC connectivity with insular regions implicated in interoception was associated with lower affective and anxiety symptoms. Conclusions In a young adult sample, two pathways linked the impact of trauma on reward-learning networks with higher v. lower negative affective and anxiety symptoms. The disconnection between vACC and regions implicated in decision-making and self-referential processes may reflect aberrant regulatory but appropriate self-focused mechanisms, respectively, conferring risk for v. resilience against negative affective and anxiety symptoms.
Scrophularia striata Extract Supports Rumen Fermentation and Improves Microbial Diversity in vitro Compared to Monensin

In the search for natural alternatives to antibiotic feed additives, we compared the efficacy of two doses of Scrophularia striata extract [S. striata-Low at 40 and S. striata-High at 80 mg g-1 dry matter (DM)] with monensin (monensin) and a negative control in the modulation of rumen fermentation, methane production and microbial abundance in vitro. Microbes were investigated using qPCR and 16S rRNA targeted sequencing. Data showed that the addition of S. striata increased production of total short chain fatty acids (SCFA) in comparison to both monensin and control (P = 0.04). The addition of S. striata increased acetate production, and increased propionate at the higher dosage (P < 0.001). Supplementation of S. striata lowered methane production (P < 0.001) compared to control but with no effect compared to monensin. Ammonia concentration decreased by 52% (P < 0.001) with S. striata-High supplementation (4.14 mmol L-1) compared to control, which was greater than that of monensin (36%). The diversity of rumen bacteria was reduced (P < 0.001) for monensin and S. striata for both the number of observed OTUs and the Chao1 index. Quantitative analysis of Protozoa showed a decrease in the monensin treatment (P = 0.05) compared to control. Archaea copy numbers decreased equally in both S. striata-High and monensin treatments compared to the control group. Supplementation with S. striata increased relative abundances of Fibrobacteres (P < 0.001) and Planctomycetes (P = 0.001) in comparison to both the control and monensin treatments. Significant negative correlations were observed between the abundances of Bacteroides, Fusobacterium, and Succinivibrio genera and methane (r > -0.71; P ≤ 0.001). The abundance of Fibrobacter genera and total SCFA (r = 0.86), acetate (r = 0.75), and valerate (r = -0.51; P < 0.001) correlated positively. These results suggest that S. striata supplementation at 80 mg g-1 DM inclusion, similar to monensin, supports rumen fermentation, lowers methane and ammonia production. However, S. striata supported rumen fermentation toward higher total SCFA and propionate production, while unlike monensin still supported a diverse rumen microbiome and an increase in cellulolytic bacteria such as Fibrobacter.
Optimum Geometric Transformation and Bipartite Graph-Based Approach to Sweat Pore Matching for Biometric Identification

Sweat pores on the human fingertip have meaningful patterns that enable individual identification. Although conventional automatic fingerprint identification systems (AFIS) have mainly employed the minutiae features to match fingerprints, there has been minimal research that uses sweat pores to match fingerprints. Recently, high-resolution optical sensors and pore-based fingerprint systems have become available, which motivates research on pore analysis. However, most existing pore-based AFIS methods use the minutia-ridge information and image pixel distribution, which limit their applications. In this context, this paper presents a stable pore matching algorithm which effectively removes both the minutia-ridge and fingerprint-device dependencies. Experimental results show that the proposed pore matching algorithm is more accurate for general fingerprint images and robust under noisy conditions compared with existing methods. The proposed method can be used to improve the performance of AFIS combined with the conventional minutiae-based methods. Since sweat pores can also be observed using various systems, removing of the fingerprint-device dependency will make the pore-based AFIS useful for wide applications including forensic science, which matches the latent fingerprint to the fingerprint image in databases.
Prevalence and Therapeutic Classifications of FDA-Approved Prescription Drugs With Boxed Warnings

Purpose : To characterize and determine the prevalence of drugs with boxed warnings (BXWs) based on a review of structured product labels (SPLs) available on the National Library of Medicine (NLM) DailyMed website. Methods : A cross-sectional review was conducted of SPLs with BXWs for human prescription drugs on the NLM DailyMed website in July 2012. The presence of a BXW in the DailyMed version of the SPL was validated by cross-referencing a corresponding label on the FDA website. The SPLs were organized into drug groups, and descriptive statistics were used to determine the proportion of SPLs and drug groups associated with a validated BXW. The top therapeutic classes of drugs with BXWs were determined as well as the percentage of the top 100 BXW-associated drugs used in US hospitals and retail settings in 2012. Results : Findings revealed that 35% (n = 4940/14,264) of drug labels on DailyMed and 35% (n = 650/1848) of the drug groups created were associated with a validated BXW. Central nervous system agents, antineoplastic agents, and cardiovascular drugs were the most common therapeutic classes. In 2012, 39% of the top 100 drugs were associated with a BXW.
An Advanced, Silicon-Based Substrate for Sensitive Nucleic Acids Detection

Surface substrate and chemical functionalization are crucial aspects for the fabrication of the sensitive biosensor based on microarray technology. In this paper, an advanced, silicon-based substrate (A-MA) allowing enhancement of optical signal for microarray application is described. The substrate consists in a multilayer of Si/Al/SiO2 layers. The optical signal enhancement is reached by a combination of the mirror effect of Al film and the SiO2 thickness around 830 nm, which is able to reach the maximum of interference for the emission wavelength of the Cy5 fluorescent label. Moreover, SiO2 layer is suitable for the immobilization of single-strand DNA through standard silane chemistry, and probe densities of about 2000 F/µm2 are reached. The microarray is investigated in the detection of HBV (Hepatitis B Virus) pathogen with analytical samples, resulting in a dynamic linear range of 0.05–0.5 nM, a sensitivity of about 18000 a.u. nM−1, and a Limit of Detection in the range of 0.031–0.043 Nm as a function of the capture probe sequence.
Incremental Spectral Clustering via Fastfood Features and Its Application to Stream Image Segmentation

: We propose an incremental spectral clustering method for stream data clustering and apply it to stream image segmentation. The main idea in our work consists of generating the data points in the kernel space by Fastfood features and iteratively calculating the eigendecomposition of data. Compared with the popular Nyström-based approximation, our work accesses each data point only once while Nyström, in particular the sampling scheme, will go through the entire dataset ﬁrst and calculate the embeddings of data points with a second visit. As a result, our method is able to learn data partitions incrementally and improve eigenvector approximation with more and more data seen from a stream. By contrast, the performance of the standard Nyström is ﬁxed when the sample set is selected. Experimental results show the superiority of our method.
Abundant and Rare Microbial Biospheres Respond Differently to Environmental and Spatial Factors in Tibetan Hot Springs

Little is known about the distribution and ecological functions of abundant, intermediate, and rare biospheres and their correlations with environmental factors in hot springs. Here, we explored the microbial community composition of total, abundant, intermediate, and rare biospheres in 66 Tibetan hot springs (pairwise geographic distance 0–610 km, temperature 32–86°C, pH 3.0–9.5, and salinity 0.13–1.32 g/L) with the use of Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing. The results showed that the abundant sub-communities were mainly composed of Chloroflexi, Proteobacteria, Deinococcus-Thermus, Aquificae, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes. In contrast, the rare sub-communities mainly consisted of most newly proposed or candidate phyla of Dictyoglomi, Hydrogenedentes, Atribacteria, Hadesarchaea, Aminicenantes, Microgenomates, Calescamantes, Omnitrophica, Altiarchaeales, and Chlamydiae. However, the abundant and rare sub-communities shared some common phyla (e.g., Crenarchaeota, Bathyarchaeota, and Chlorobi), which were composed of different OTUs. The abundant, intermediate, and rare sub-communities were mainly influenced by different environmental variables, which could be ascribed to the fact that they may have different growth and activity and thus respond differently to these variables. Spatial factors showed more contribution to shaping of the intermediate and rare communities than to abundant sub-community, suggesting that the abundant taxa were more easily dispersed than their rare counterparts among hot springs. Microbial ecological function prediction revealed that the abundant and rare sub-communities responded differently to the measured environmental factors, suggesting they may occupy different ecological niches in hot springs. The rare sub-communities may play more important roles in organic matter degradation than their abundant counterparts in hot springs. Collectively, this study provides a better understanding on the microbial community structure and potential ecological functions of the abundant and rare biospheres in hot spring ecosystems. The identified rare taxa provide new opportunities of ecological, taxonomic and genomic discoveries in Tibetan hot springs.
Overweight and obesity as major, modifiable risk factors for urinary incontinence in young to mid‐aged women: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

The purpose of this review and meta‐analysis was to evaluate overweight and obesity as risk factors for urinary incontinence in young to mid‐aged women. Understanding these relationships during this life stage is important as early onset increases the risk for developing severe and persistent incontinence. A systematic search resulted in 497 citations, 14 of which were retained for review. Data were analysed by overweight and obesity and by subtype of urinary incontinence – stress, urge, mixed and severe. When compared with ‘normal’ body mass index, overweight was associated with a one‐third increase in risk of urinary incontinence (relative risk = 1.35, 95% confidence interval = 1.20–1.53), while the risk was doubled in women with obesity (relative risk = 1.95, 95% confidence interval = 1.58–2.42). When estimates were pooled according to urinary incontinence subtype, there was no statistical difference in risk. Overweight and obesity are strong predictors of urinary incontinence, with a significantly greater risk observed for obesity. Clinical advice to young women at risk of, or presenting with, obesity should not be limited to metabolic health only but should emphasize the role of excess weight on pelvic floor weakening and subsequent risk of incontinence.
Parallel Optimization of Relion: Performance Comparison based on Cluster for CPU/GPU and KNL

Relion is the 3D reconstruction program with the Bayes algorithm of electron cryo-microscope (cryo-EM) data. We analyzed the characteristics of the Relion program, and designed a parallelization scheme. We use the optimization methods commonly used in the code optimization for Relion programs, such as memory access optimization, multithread optimization, vectorization and conversing coarse grained parallel to fine-grained parallelism. Finally, the overall running time of the entire Relion program was reduced by 379s. At the same time, we tested the program on GPU and KNL platform and compared the results of the Relion program on the KNL cluster platform and the GPU cluster platform. The results show that the optimization effect of Relion on the GPU platform is better than KNL.
Epidemiology of Infantile Visceral Leishmaniasis in Western Algerian And The Convenience of Serum For The Disease Diagnosis by PCR and Immunochromatography

Epidemiological situation of infantile visceral leishmaniasis (IVL), which is a public health problem in Algeria, is almost unknown in the cities of Western part of the country. The aim of this study was to analyze the epidemiological, clinical, biological, therapeutic, and evolutionary aspects of IVL in Western Algeria, to evaluate the performance of the immunochromatography as a rapid diagnostic test of the disease, and to propose a diagnosis approach by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay from the serum. This prospective study was performed on 63 suspicious cases of visceral leishmaniasis collected from the infectious diseases department at the Pediatric Hospital of Oran from January 2012 to July 2017. For each patient, the epidemiological parameters, and the clinical and biological data were collected. Bone marrow and blood samples were drawn from all cases. Bone marrow was performed to research amastigote forms of Leishmania and to identify the species by PCR-sequencing. Blood samples were used to detect anti-Leishmania antibodies as well as parasite DNA. Patients from the Western regions were mostly from rural areas. Sensitivity of RT-PCR from the bone marrow and from serum was 95.45% and 94.44%, respectively. The immunochromatography allowed the disease’s diagnosis for 11 cases whose myelogram did not confirm the presence of the amastigote forms of Leishmania. Immunochromatography was revealed to be a good technique for disease diagnosis regarding the strongly evocative clinical signs. The results also suggest the interest of the RT-PCR assay from patient serum as a non-invasive sample, in the detection of parasite DNA.