Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Eliciting and Annotating Uncertainty in Spoken Language

A major challenge in the field of automatic recognition of emotion and affect in speech is the subjective nature of affect labels. The most common approach to acquiring affect labels is to ask a panel of listeners to rate a corpus of spoken utterances along one or more dimensions of interest. For applications ranging from educational technology to voice search to dictation, a speaker’s level of certainty is a primary dimension of interest. In such applications, we would like to know the speaker’s actual level of certainty, but past research has only revealed listeners’ perception of the speaker’s level of certainty. In this paper, we present a method for eliciting spoken utterances using stimuli that we design such that they have a quantitative, crowdsourced legibility score. While we cannot control a speaker’s actual internal level of certainty, the use of these stimuli provides a better estimate of internal certainty compared to existing speech corpora. The Harvard Uncertainty Speech Corpus, containing speech data, certainty annotations, and prosodic features, is made available to the research community.
Value of enameloplasty as diagnosis and treatment method of stained occlusal fissures in the first permanent molar

Introduction. Enameloplasty is a new, simple, minimal invasive method of diagnosis and treatment, an "excisional biopsy of the enamel", indicated in cases of stained fissures suspected to hide dentinary caries, in molars and premolars, when the patient has high caries risk. Objectives. The main objective of this paper is to establish the efficiency of enameloplasty as a diagnosis and treatment method in cases of stained occlusal fissures in the first permanent molar. Material and method. The study was carried out on 137 patients (64 girls and 73 boys) and on 213 first permanent molars with suspected stained fissures in which enameloplasty and then different types of restorations (sealant restorations; preventive resin restorations) were performed. Results. 51 (23.95%) of the first permanent molars treated by enameloplasty revealed dentinar caries and were subsequently restored by preventive resin restorations, while in the 162 (76.05%) other molars, caries stopped in enamel and teeth were restored by sealant restorations. Conclusions. Enameloplasty and sealant restorations have proved their efficiency offering a new approach to the management of the stained occlusal fissures bringing selective and conservative solutions to the varying clinical presentations of occlusal caries.
Area-specific Biased Global Efficiency in Functional Connectivity Provides Features Negatively Correlated with Age

It has been acknowledged that graph-theoretical coefficients computed from the adjacency matrix of cerebral resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) represent aging of the brain and its plasticity facilitating cognitive reserve. In particular, global efficiency (GE) has been recognized as a crucial graph index for age-dependent RSFC. Using the dataset of the Nathan Kline Institute-Rockland Sample [NKI-RS], we found that the regions of the brain in which GE values decay with age were located in the subcortical zone and the cerebellum, whereas an opposite relationship was found in many frontal and parietal regions. Based on this systematic tendency, a new coefficient was proposed that corrects GE, referred to as biased GE (BGE); BGE is calculated by changing the sign of the weight between the superior and the inferior parts of the brain before separately averaging the respective sign groups of area-specific corrected GE values, to influence the raw global network GE. The BGE showed a significant negative correlation with age, irrespective of the scan condition, and strong consistency as an information source of a subject’s identity. We propose that this new index could play an important role in the clinical context of preventive medicine and the maintenance of healthy brains.
Analgesic and side effects of intravenous recombinant Phα1β

ABSTRACT Background: Intrathecal injection of voltage-sensitive calcium channel blocker peptide toxins exerts analgesic effect in several animal models of pain. Upon intrathecal administration, recombinant Phα1β exerts the same analgesic effects as the those of the native toxin. However, from a clinical perspective, the intrathecal administration limits the use of anesthetic drugs in patients. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the possible antinociceptive effect of intravenous recombinant Phα1β in rat models of neuropathic pain, as well as its side effects on motor, cardiac (heart rate and blood pressure), and biochemical parameters. Methods: Male Wistar rats and male Balb-C mice were used in this study. Giotto Biotech® synthesized the recombinant version of Phα1β using Escherichia coli expression. In rats, neuropathic pain was induced by chronic constriction of the sciatic nerve and paclitaxel-induced acute and chronic pain. Mechanical sensitivity was evaluated using von Frey filaments. A radiotelemeter transmitter (TA11PA-C10; Data Sciences, St. Paul, MN, USA) was placed on the left carotid of mice for investigation of cardiovascular side effects. Locomotor activity data were evaluated using the open-field paradigm, and serum CKMB, TGO, TGP, LDH, lactate, creatinine, and urea levels were examined. Results: Intravenous administration of recombinant Phα1β toxin induced analgesia for up to 4 h, with ED50 of 0.02 (0.01-0.03) mg/kg, and reached the maximal effect (Emax = 100% antinociception) at a dose of 0.2 mg/kg. No significant changes were observed in any of the evaluated motor, cardiac or biochemical parameters. Conclusion: Our data suggest that intravenous administration of recombinant Phα1β may be feasible for drug-induced analgesia, without causing any severe side effects.
Detecting rare copy number variants from Illumina genotyping arrays with the CamCNV pipeline: Segmentation of z‐scores improves detection and reliability

The intensities from genotyping array data can be used to detect copy number variants (CNVs) but a high level of noise in the data and overlap between different copy‐number intensity distributions produces unreliable calls, particularly when only a few probes are covered by the CNV. We present a novel pipeline (CamCNV) with a series of steps to reduce noise and detect more reliably CNVs covering as few as three probes. The pipeline aims to detect rare CNVs (below 1% frequency) for association tests in large cohorts. The method uses the information from all samples to convert intensities to z‐scores, thus adjusting for variance between probes. We tested the sensitivity of our pipeline by looking for known CNVs from the 1000 Genomes Project in our genotyping of 1000 Genomes samples. We also compared the CNV calls for 1661 pairs of genotyped replicate samples. At the chosen mean z‐score cut‐off, sensitivity to detect the 1000 Genomes CNVs was approximately 85% for deletions and 65% for duplications. From the replicates, we estimate the false discovery rate is controlled at ∼10% for deletions (falling to below 3% with more than five probes) and ∼28% for duplications. The pipeline demonstrates improved sensitivity when compared to calling with PennCNV, particularly for short deletions covering only a few probes. For each called CNV, the mean z‐score is a useful metric for controlling the false discovery rate.
Vasohibin-1 mediated tubulin detyrosination selectively regulates secondary sprouting and lymphangiogenesis in the zebrafish trunk

Previous studies have shown that Vasohibin-1 (Vash-1) is stimulated by VEGFs in endothelial cells and that its overexpression interferes with angiogenesis in vivo. Recently, Vasohibin-1 was found to mediate tubulin detyrosination, a post-translational modification that is implicated in many cell functions, such as cell division. Here we used the zebrafish embryo to investigate the cellular and subcellular mechanisms of Vash-1 on endothelial microtubules during formation of the trunk vasculature. We show that microtubules within venous-derived secondary sprouts are strongly and selectively detyrosinated in comparison with other endothelial cells, and that this difference is lost upon vash-1 knockdown. Vasohibin-1 depletion in zebrafish specifically affected secondary sprouting from the posterior cardinal vein, increasing both the number of sprouts and endothelial cell divisions. We show that altering secondary sprout numbers and structure upon vash-1 depletion leads to a failure in the development and specification of lymphatic vessels of the zebrafish trunk. SUMMARY Vasohibin-1 mediated detyrosination of endothelial microtubules is selectively required for adequate behaviour of venous secondary sprouting and subsequent formation of functional lymphatics in the zebrafish trunk.
Local externalization of phosphatidylserine mediates developmental synaptic pruning by microglia

Neuronal circuits assembly requires the fine equilibrium between synapse formation and elimination. Microglia, through the elimination of supernumerary synapses, have an established role in this process. While the microglial receptor TREM2 and the soluble complement proteins C1q and C3 are recognized key players in this process, the neuronal molecular components that tag synapses to be eliminated are still undefined. Here we show that exposed phosphatidylserine (PS) represents a neuronal ‘eat-me’ signal enabling microglial-mediated synapse pruning. In hippocampal neuron and microglia co-cultures, synapse elimination can be prevented by blocking accessibility of exposed PS using Annexin V or through microglial loss of TREM2. In vivo, exposed PS is detectable at both hippocampal and retinogeniculate synapses, where exposure coincides with the onset of synapse elimination and increased PS engulfment by microglia. Mice deficient in C1q, which fail to properly refine retinogeniculate connections, display elevated exposed PS and reduced PS engulfment by microglia. These data provide mechanistic insight into microglial-mediated synapse pruning and identify a novel role of developmentally regulated PS exposure that is common among developing brain structures.
In vitro antimicrobial effect of jabuticaba [Myrciaria cauliflora (Mart.)O.Berg] extract on Streptococcus from the oral cavity

Este estudo avaliou a acao do extrato etanolico das folhas de Myrciaria cauliflora (Mart.)O.Berg. sobre tres culturas de Streptococcus formadoras do biofilme dental. A atividade antimicrobiana foi determinada pelo metodo de difusao em meio solido. Os dados obtidos foram satisfatorios para todas as especies ensaiadas (Streptococcus mutans ATCC 25175, Streptococcus sobrinus ATCC 27609 e Streptococcus sanguis ATCC 10557) gerando halos de inibicao quando utilizado o extrato puro e diluicoes 1:2 e 1:4. Os resultados incentivam a realizacao de novas pesquisas que viabilizem a producao de compostos com finalidade terapeutica que possam ser utilizados clinicamente na odontologia.
Representation of conscious percept without report in the macaque face patch network

A powerful paradigm to identify the neural correlates of consciousness is binocular rivalry, wherein a constant visual stimulus evokes a varying conscious percept. It has recently been suggested that activity modulations observed during rivalry could represent the act of report rather than the conscious percept itself. Here, we performed single-unit recordings from face patches in macaque inferotemporal (IT) cortex using a no-report paradigm in which the animal’s conscious percept was inferred from eye movements. We found high proportions of IT neurons represented the conscious percept even without active report. Population activity in single trials, measured using a new 128-site Neuropixels-like electrode, was more weakly modulated by rivalry than by physical stimulus transitions, but nevertheless allowed decoding of the changing conscious percept. These findings suggest that macaque face patches encode both the physical stimulus and the animal’s conscious visual percept, and the latter encoding does not require active report.
When names are wrong and colours deceive: unravelling the Pseudoceros bicolor species complex (Turbellaria: Polycladida)

The polyclad Pseudoceros bicolor derives its name from a distinctive two-coloured dorsal colouration, which consists of a very dark, almost black central area with acute black lobes extending towards a translucent greyish margin. At least three different colour morphs have been described, ranging from a pale speckled brown through an evenly dark brown form, to a morphotype resembling the original species description. Pseudoceros aureolineatus is easily confused with the light brown colour morph of P. bicolor, and P. rawlinsonae resembles both P. bicolor and P. aureolineatus. Using morphological characters of newly collected specimens and nucleotide sequences of the 28S ribosomal DNA gene, the taxonomic validity of P. rawlinsonae and P. bicolor is confirmed and the descriptions of their colouration are emended. The new subspecies, P. bicolor marcusorum subsp. nov. is erected, the genus Cryptoceros is eliminated, and the new combination Maritigrella aureolineata comb. nov. (Euryleptidae) is established for P. aureolineatus.
Staphylococcus aureus alpha-toxin inhibits CD8+ T cell-mediated killing of cancer cells in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma

ABSTRACT Staphylococcus aureus and its toxins have been linked to disease progression and mortality in advanced stages of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). CD8+ T cells play a crucial role in anti-cancer responses and high CD8+ T cell numbers in tumor lesions are associated with a favorable prognosis in CTCL. Here, we show that CD8+ T cells from both healthy donors and Sézary syndrome patients are highly susceptible to cell death induced by Staphylococcal alpha-toxin, whereas malignant T cells are not. Importantly, alpha-toxin almost completely blocks cytotoxic killing of CTCL tumor cells by peptide-specific CD8+ T cells, leading to their escape from induced cell death and continued proliferation. These findings suggest that alpha-toxin may favor the persistence of malignant CTCL cells in vivo by inhibiting CD8+ T cell cytotoxicity. Thus, we propose a novel mechanism by which colonization with Staphylococcus aureus may contribute to cancer immune evasion and disease progression in CTCL.
A Terramycin 200 for Fish (44.09% Oxytetracycline Dihydrate) Treatment Regimen Proposed for the Fluorescent Marking of Rainbow Trout Vertebrae

Abstract We evaluated the efficacy of a Terramycin 200 for Fish (TM200; 44.09% oxytetracycline [OTC] dihydrate) treatment regimen proposed for fluorescent marking of the vertebrae of Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss. Test fish weighed 36.6 ± 1.9 g (mean ± SD) at the start of treatment. The TM200-treated feed was administered to six tanks of fish at a target dosage of 82.7 mg OTC·kg fish−1·d−1 for 10 d, while nontreated control feed was administered to three tanks of fish (20 fish/tank in each treatment group). After a 22-d posttreatment period, vertebrae were extracted from all fish and were examined for fluorescent marks with a dissecting scope and ultraviolet light. The vertebrae of all treated fish were marked, whereas vertebrae of control fish were not marked. Consequently, the probability of marking success in treated tanks was significantly different from that in control tanks. The 95% CI for the proportion of treated tanks containing one or more nonmarked fish was 0.00 to 0.39. Analysis of treated.
Chloroplasts in the epidermis of Sarracenia (the American pitcher plant) and their possible role in carnivory ― An immunocytochemical approach

A photosynthetic apparatus is present in the epidermis of the bottom zone of the pitcher of Sarracenia purpurea L. ssp. purpurea. This has been demonstrated using conventional light and electron microscopy, as well as fluorescent and immunohistochemical techniques. Red intrinsic fluorescence by these chloroplasts indicates photochemical activity. Antibodies against the coupling factor of chloroplast ATPase and against the subunits of ribulose-bis-phosphate-carboxylase were bound to the epidermal chloroplasts. This has been visualized using a ferritin-isothiocyanate labeled second antibody. These results unequivocally prove the existence of the two main proteins which are associated with the photophosphorylation (membrane protein) and carbon dioxide fixation (stromal protein). The possible implication of this system to interrelationships between the carnivorous plant and aquatic insects inhabiting its leaves is discussed.
Phylogeographic structure in mitochondrial DNA of a South‐east Asian freshwater fish, Hemibagrus nemurus (Siluroidei; Bagridae) and Pleistocene sea‐level changes on the Sunda shelf

We postulated that the biogeographical history of South‐east Asia contributed to extensive admixture during Pleistocene low sea levels of genetic groups of an obligate freshwater fish (the river catfish, Hemibagrus nemurus) isolated during periods of high sea levels. During Pleistocene glacial maxima, the sea level was lower than at present and the islands of the Sunda shelf (Sumatra, Borneo and Java) and the Asian mainland were connected by lowlands traversed by rivers. Restriction fragment length polymorphisms in mitochondrial DNA were documented for 140 putative H. nemurus analysed from 13 sampling sites resulting in the definition of 35 haplotypes. The high level of haplotype differentiation (mean P × 100 = 2.22, SD = 1.33) indicates that the subdivision of the ancestral H. netnurus group was extensive and probably occurred early in the Pleistocene. The occurrence of some genetically divergent groups of the H. netnurus complex occurring in sympatry in widely separated locations supports the proposition that low sea levels aided the dispersion and mingling of genetic groups. Based on both genetic and morphological evidence, the main H. nemurus line gave rise to three regional groups: (1) a morphologically distinct ‘Indochinese’ group composed of two mtDNA clades overlapping in east peninsular Malaysia; (2) a ‘Sundaic’ group composed of various lineages of differing morphology and genetic identity; (3) a genetically distinct ‘Sarawak’ group in west Borneo, similar in morphology to the ‘Sundaic’ and ‘Indochinese’ groups, but including a small, golden colour morph as a distinct dade. The morphologically similar Sundaic forms from west Java, Sumatra and west Borneo show some degree of genetic divergence, but their phylogenetic relationships are poorly resolved. The most genetically and morphologically distinct Sundaic dade, assigned to H. hoevenii, colonized the Kapuas river (west Borneo), east Sumatra and south peninsular Malaysia. Contrary to our original hypothesis and present biogeographical theory, little exchange of genetic groups has apparently occurred between the mainland and the Sunda Islands during recent glaciations.
DEEP LEARNING FOR HUMAN ACTIVITY RECOGNITION 9

AC Accuracy ADL Activities of daily living AF Average F-measure CNN Convolutional neural network CPU Central processing unit DBN Deep belief network DT Decision tree HA Hand Gesture HAR Human activity recognition KNN K-nearest neighbors LSTM Longand short-term memory MV Means and variance NB Naive Bayes NF Normalized F-measure OAR Opportunity activity recognition RAM Random access memory ReLU Rectified linear unit REALDISP Real displacement RNN Recurrent neural network SVM Support vector machine
Modulation of Interhemispheric Auditory Communication by Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation

Synchronized oscillatory gamma-band activity (30-100Hz) has been suggested to constitute a key mechanism to dynamically orchestrate sensory information integration across multiple spatio-temporal scales. We here tested whether interhemispheric functional connectivity and ensuing auditory perception can selectively be modulated by high-density transcranial alternating current stimulation (HD-tACS). For this purpose, we applied multi-site HD-tACS at 40Hz bilaterally with a phase lag of 180 ̊ and recorded a 64-channel EEG to study the oscillatory phase dynamics at the source-space level during a dichotic listening (DL) task in twenty-six healthy participants. In this study, we revealed an oscillatory phase signature at 40Hz which reflects different temporal profiles of the phase asymmetries during left and right ear percept. Here we report that 180 ̊-tACS did not affect the right ear advantage during DL at group level. However, a follow-up analysis revealed that the intrinsic phase asymmetries during sham-tACS determined the directionality of the behavioral modulations: While a shift to left ear percept was associated with augmented interhemispheric asymmetry (closer to 180 ̊), a shift to right ear processing was elicited in subjects with lower asymmetry (closer to 0 ̊). Crucially, the modulation of the interhemispheric network dynamics depended on the deviation of the tACS-induced phase-lag from the intrinsic phase asymmetry. Our characterization of the oscillatory network trends is giving rise to the importance of phase-specific gamma-band coupling during ambiguous auditory perception, and emphasizes the necessity to address the inter-individual variability of phase asymmetries in future studies by tailored stimulation protocols. Introduction Synchronized neuronal activity across widely distributed cortical regions is encoded in unique spectral signatures and thought to reflect a key mechanism for cortical information integration and conscious perception in humans [1]. In particular, synchronization in the gammaPLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone. 0213996 April 3, 2019 1 / 19 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111
Synthesis of well-defined azido end-functional polystyrene: Monomer concentration and temperature effects on polymerization

Azide end-functional initiator 1-azidoethane-2-oxy-2-bromopropionyl (AEOBP) was synthesized by esterification of 2-azidoethanol and 2-bromopropionyl bromide in presence of triethylamine (Et3N) in dry Tetrahydrofuran (THF). Azido end-functional polystyrene (PS-N3)) was synthesized by AEOBP initiated CuBr/bipyridine mediated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (ATRP) technique with controlled molecular weight and narrow polydispersity. The yield and molecular weight of polystyrene increased with increasing styrene/AEOBP ratio and reaction temperature. The structures of the polystyrene and AEOBP initiator were characterized by 1H NMR spectra and the molecular weight of the polystyrene was determined by Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC).
First-principles calculations of elastic properties and electronic structure of α-CoSn3 IMC

The current enthusiasm for the study of interfacial intermetallic compounds (IMCs) has its origins in the miniaturization of integrated circuits, in which scholars had been realizing that IMCs represent an increasingly large fraction of micro-solder joints. In order to learn more about αCoSn<inf>3</inf> IMC, this paper used the CASTEP software package based on density functional theory to calculate the elastic properties and electronic structure of α-CoSn<inf>3</inf>. Compared with the experimental values, the lattice constant of α-CoSn<inf>3</inf> optimized are about 2%. The bulk modulus of α-CoSn<inf>3</inf> is 80.19 GPa, the shear modulus is 41.90 GPa, the Young's modulus is 107.05 GPa, and the Poisson's ratio is 0.278. In addition, the mechanical properties of α-CoSn<inf>3</inf> and other IMCs were compared. It was found that the mechanical properties of αCoSn<inf>3</inf> were softer than Cu<inf>6</inf>Sn<inf>5</inf>, Cu<inf>3</inf>Sn and Ni<inf>3</inf>Sn<inf>4</inf> except AuSn and Ag<inf>3</inf>Sn. Meanwhile, this paper analyzed the contribution of electronic orbit to band structure and electronic structure based on the density of states and the band structure.