Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional and Cognitive Decline Is Associated With Increased Endothelial Cell Inflammation and Platelet Activation: Liquid Biopsy of Microvesicles in Community- Dwelling Octogenarians

Increased life expectancy is usually associated with comorbidities, such as cardio and cerebrovascular disease causing impaired functionality. A common underlying cause of these comorbidities is vascular inflammation and injury. Elevated levels of circulating microvesicles (cMV), as a product of a hemostatic and inflammatory cell activation, could be direct mapping of an imbalanced hemostasis. In this manuscript, we aimed to investigate by liquid biopsy whether successful aging can be discriminated by cMV levels and phenotype. To this purpose, we included 135 community-dwelling octogenarians in a cross-sectional study. Successful aging was defined as good functional (Barthel Index > 90 points, and Lawton index score > 7/4 points for women and men, respectively) and cognitive status (Spanish version of the Mini-Mental State Examination -MEC- > 24 points) and no need for institutionalization. Total, annexin V positive (AV+), and AV– cMV from different cell origins from the vascular compartment were phenotypically characterized and quantified from fasting plasma samples by flow cytometry. Successful aging was associated with lower plasma concentrations of total and AV+ CD141+/CD41+-CD61+, and PAC1+/AV+, CD141+/AV+, and CD36+/AV– cMV. From these phenotypes, ROC curve analyses revealed that CD141+/AV+ and CD141+/CD41+-CD61+/AV+ endothelial- and platelet-derived cMV discriminate successful and non-successful aging with an AUC (95%CI) of 0.655 (0.551, 0.758), P = 0.005, and 0.638 (0.535, 0.741), P = 0.013, respectively. In conclusion, successful aging is associated with low levels of cMV released by endothelial cells and platelets, indicating lower endothelial cell inflammation and platelet activation. Our results contribute to the understanding of the link between unsuccessful aging, cognitive decline and vascular cell inflammatory disturbances.
Rice Stripe Mosaic Disease: Characteristics and Control Strategies

Rice stripe mosaic disease (RSMD) is caused by the rice stripe mosaic virus (RSMV; genus Cytorhabdovirus, family Rhabdoviridae). In recent years, significant progress has been made in understanding several aspects of the disease, especially its geographical distribution, symptoms, vectors, gene functions, and control measures. Since RSMD was first detected in southern China in 2015, it has been found in more and more rice growing areas and has become one of the most important rice diseases in southern China. RSMV is transmitted by the leafhopper Recilia dorsalis in a persistent-propagative manner, inducing yellow stripes, a slight distortion of leaves, increased tillers, and empty grains in rice plants. The virus has a negative-sense single-strand RNA genome of about 12.7 kb that encodes seven proteins: N, P, P3, M, G, P6, and L. Several molecular and serological tests have been developed to detect RSMV in plants and insects. The disease cycle can be described as follows: RSMV and its vector overwinter in infected plants; viruliferous R. dorsalis adults transmit the virus to spring rice and lay eggs on the infected seedlings; the next generation of R. dorsalis propagate on infected seedlings, become viruliferous, disperse, and cause new disease outbreaks. Control measures include monitoring and accurate forecasting, selecting disease-resistant varieties, improving cultivation systems, covering rice seedling nurseries with insect-proof nets, and using pesticides rationally. Inappropriate cultivation systems, pesticide overuse, and climatic conditions contribute to epidemics by affecting the development of vector insects and their population dynamics.
What Behavioral Abilities Emerged at Key Milestones in Human Brain Evolution? 13 Hypotheses on the 600-Million-Year Phylogenetic History of Human Intelligence

This paper presents 13 hypotheses regarding the specific behavioral abilities that emerged at key milestones during the 600-million-year phylogenetic history from early bilaterians to extant humans. The behavioral, intellectual, and cognitive faculties of humans are complex and varied: we have abilities as diverse as map-based navigation, theory of mind, counterfactual learning, episodic memory, and language. But these faculties, which emerge from the complex human brain, are likely to have evolved from simpler prototypes in the simpler brains of our ancestors. Understanding the order in which behavioral abilities evolved can shed light on how and why our brains evolved. To propose these hypotheses, I review the available data from comparative psychology and evolutionary neuroscience.
Preoperative Systemic Therapy Versus Upfront Surgery in HER2-Positive Breast Cancer in the Real World

Purpose To compare survival in different strategies, preoperative systemic treatment versus upfront surgery, in HER2-positive early breast cancer patients in the real world. Methods According to the actual upfront treatment, eligible patients from 2012 to 2015 were classified as preoperative systemic treatment or upfront surgery group prospectively. The primary endpoint is disease-free survival; the second endpoint is overall survival. All the outcomes were examined in the propensity score matching model and inverse probability of treatment weighting model. Results Included in the analysis were 1,067 patients (215 in the preoperative systemic treatment group, 852 in the upfront surgery group). In the propensity score matching model (matching at 1:1 ratio), the disease-free survival of the preoperative systemic treatment group was significantly higher than that of the upfront surgery group (hazard ratio, 0.572, 95%CI, 0.371–0.881, P, 0.012). In the inverse probability of treatment weighting model, there was no significant difference in disease-free survival between the two groups (hazard ratio, 0.946, 95%CI, 0.763–1.172, P, 0.609). For overall survival, there was no significant difference between the two groups. Conclusion The HER2-positive patients who accepted preoperative systemic treatment had better disease-free survival than those who underwent upfront surgery by real-world statistic methods. Clinical Trial Registration Clinicaltrials.gov, identifier NCT04249440.
Increased Expression of Extracellular Vesicles Is Associated With the Procoagulant State in Patients With Established Rheumatoid Arthritis

This study sought to identify different subpopulations of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in plasma from female patients with established rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in relation to the activation of coagulation and fibrin formation in these patients. Forty women were included in the study, 20 patients and 20 age-matched healthy controls. The mean disease duration in patients was 13.0 (5.0–25.0) years, with medium to high disease activity despite ongoing treatment with low-dose prednisolone and methotrexate. There were no differences between the investigated groups regarding the presence of traditional cardiovascular risk factors. The concentration of phosphatidylserine-positive (PS+) EVs; platelet (CD42a+), leucocyte (CD45+), monocyte (CD14+), and endothelial (CD144+)-derived EVs; and EVs-expressing tissue factor (CD142+), P-selectin (CD62P+), and E-selectin (CD62E+) were determined by flow cytometry analysis. Overall hemostasis potential (OHP) was assessed to follow the hemostatic disturbances, including the parameters for overall coagulation potential (OCP) and overall fibrinolytic potential (OFP). Fibrin clot turbidity was measured together with clot lysis time, and scanning electron microscopy was performed. Increased concentrations of PS+, CD42a+, CD142+, CD45+, CD14+, and CD62P+ EVs were found in plasma from patients with RA compared to healthy controls, and the concentrations of PS+, CD42a+, CD14+, and CD62P+ EVs were positively correlated with the inflammatory parameters in RA patients. Positive correlations were also found between the levels of PS+ and CD42a+ EVs and OCP as well as between the levels of PS+, CD42a+, and CD62P+EVs and OHP. The levels of PS+, CD42a+, CD14+, CD62P+, and CD62E+ EVs were negatively correlated with OFP. Elevated levels of circulating EVs of different cell origins were found in patients with established RA, in relation to the inflammatory burden and coagulation activation in the disease.
Measuring Gaze and Arrow Cuing Effects With a Short Test Adapted to Brain Damaged Patients With Unilateral Spatial Neglect: A Preliminary Study

People with left unilateral spatial neglect (USN) following a right brain lesion show difficulty in orienting their attention toward stimuli presented on the left. However, cuing the stimuli with gaze direction or a pointing arrow can help some of them to compensate for this difficulty. In order to build a tool that helps to identify these patients, we needed a short version of the paradigm classically used to test gaze and arow cuing effects in healthy adults, adapted to the capacities of patients with severe attention deficit. Here, we tested the robustness of the cuing effects measured by such a short version in 48 young adult healthy participants, 46 older healthy participants, 10 patients with left USN following a right brain lesion (USN+), and 10 patients with right brain lesions but no USN (USN–). We observed gaze and arrow cuing effects in all populations, independently of age and presence or absence of a right brain lesion. In the neglect field, the USN+ group showed event greater cuing effect than older healthy participants and the USN– group. We showed that gaze and arrow cuing effects are powerful enough to be detected in a very short test adapted to the capacities of older patients with severe attention deficits, which increases their applicability in rehabilitation settings. We further concluded that our test is a suitable basis to develop a tool that will help neuropsychologists to identify USN patients who respond to gaze and/or arrow cuing in their neglect field.
A Psychosocial Exploration of Body Dissatisfaction: A Narrative Review With a Focus on India During COVID-19

COVID-19 has been an unprecedented global crisis. Besides the public health impact, the pandemic necessitated measures, such as quarantine, travel restrictions, and lockdown, that have had a huge effect on digital screen time, dietary habits, lifestyle measures, and exposure to food-related advertising. At the same time, a reduction in physical activity, an increase of social media consumption, and an increase in fitness tutorials during the lockdown have contributed to body image issues. Emerging evidence from India suggests that peer conversations about appearance as negative body talk (fat talk) is particularly salient in contributing to body dissatisfaction and body perception ideals, which are more prevalent in women. Even though there has been an increase in research on the psychosocial impact of COVID-19, its influence on body image perceptions and consequent distress have been stigmatized and classified as under-spoken areas. With this background, this article reviews research on the biopsychosocial factors that influence body dissatisfaction among women, particularly the role of media. It also highlights the development of body image concerns in India, one of the worst-hit countries in the pandemic, through liberalization, importing Western notions of body instrumentality, demographic shift, and resultant social changes. Finally, the psychosocial strategies for positive body image ideas to prevent and mitigate the adverse effects of body dissatisfaction are discussed, particularly those that focus on cognitive behavioral techniques (CBTs) from the perspectives of positive psychology, media literacy programs, and involvement of the media. Interventions and further research to address body dissatisfaction among women, especially in the post-COVID aftermath, need to be a recognized as a public health goal.
Proctored Step by Step Training Program for GreenLight Laser Anatomic Photovaporization of the Prostate: A Single Surgeon's Experience

Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility and safety of a proctored step-by-step training program for GreenLight laser anatomic photovaporization (aPVP) of the prostate. Methods: Data from patients undergoing aPVP between January 2019 and December 2020 operated by a single surgeon following a dedicated step-by-step proctored program were prospectively collected. The procedure was divided into five modular steps of increasing complexity. Preoperative patients' data as well as total operative time, energy delivered on the prostate and postoperative data, were recorded. Then, we assessed how the overall amount of energy delivered and the operative times varied during the training program. Surgical steps were analyzed by cumulative summation. Univariable and multivariable regression models were built to assess the predictors of the amount of energy delivered on the prostate. Results: Sixty consecutive patients were included in the analysis. Median prostate volume was 56.5 mL. The training program was succesfully completed with no intraoperative or meaningful post-operative complications. The energy delivered reached the plateau after the 40th case. At multivariable analysis, increasing surgeon experience was associated with lower amounts of energy delivered as well as lower operative times. Conclusions: A step-by-step aPVP training program can be safely performed by surgeons with prior endoscopic experience if mentored by a skilled proctor. Considering the energy delivered as an efficacy surrogate metrics (given its potential impact on persistent postoperative LUTS), 40 cases are needed to reach a plateau for aPVP proficiency. Further studies are needed to assess the safety of our step-by-step training modular program in other clinical contexts.
Clinical Application of TERT Promoter Mutations in Urothelial Carcinoma

Urothelial carcinoma (UC) is a common urological malignancy with a high rate of disease recurrence. Telomerase activity, a hallmark of cancer characterized by overcoming the replicative senescence, is upregulated in over 90% of patients with UC. Somatic mutations in the promoter region of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) are frequently detected in UC, and drive telomerase activity. Recent studies have demonstrated a strong association between TERT promoter mutation and tumorigenesis of UC. Also, TERT promoter mutation has great potential for diagnosis, as well as prognosis in UC treatment, and this is also applicable for the liquid biopsy techniques. In this review, we discuss the progress in these areas and highlight the challenges, clinical potential, and future direction for developing UC treatment methods.
Exploring destination advocacy behavior in a virtual travel community

ABSTRACT The use of social media to engage in travel-related discourse plays an increasingly important role in destination choice as users turn to virtual communities where exchanges between visitors and residents thrive. There is growing recognition of the local resident as destination advocate, yet research of online advocacy behavior is limited. This study analyzes 1,226 messages exchanged among members of a Facebook travel community using netnography, supplemented by several in-depth interviews, to reveal behaviors including sentiment expression, advocate-focused and visitor-focused. The findings extend our understanding of destination advocacy, building on social identity theory to identify unique patterns of co-created social participation.
A Look Beyond Aptitude: The Relationship Between Personality Traits, Autonomous Motivation, and Academic Achievement in Gifted Students

ABSTRACT Understanding the factors that influence achievement among gifted students has been a longstanding interest of researchers in the field of gifted education. To that end, this study investigated the individual difference antecedents of achievement as a means to identify dispositions and motivational processes that inform the design of interventions to improve student performance. More specifically, we report the results of a mediation analysis in which the association between personality traits and academic achievement is explained by autonomous motivation in a sample of gifted students (N = 161). All Big Five personality traits were found to be significant predictors of achievement measured by ACT or ACT Explore scores. Agreeableness, neuroticism, and extraversion had negative direct associations with achievement. The positive associations of conscientiousness and openness with achievement were partially mediated by autonomous motivation. Results are discussed in terms of adapting educational practices to the specific personality traits and motivational orientations of gifted students.
Effect of a perceived threat of informal actors on the business performance of formal actors: inbound tour operators’ perspective

ABSTRACT This paper develops and tests a conceptual model to examine the effect of a perceived threat of informal actors on the business performance of formal actors. Drawing on a sample of 130 inbound tour operators, structural path analysis shows that the perceived threat of informal actors is positively associated with the formal actors’ service quality and customer acquisition efforts, which subsequently are positively associated with an increase in business performance. The perceived threat of informal actors appears to increase business performance only through its influence on service quality and customer acquisition efforts. Based on the findings, actionable recommendations are provided.
Effect of vacancy defects on the thermal transport of β-Ga2O3

ABSTRACT We employ first-principles modeling alongside atomistic molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the impact of oxygen vacancy defects on the thermal transport of β-Ga2O3. Our predictions of thermal conductivity are in good agreement with results from recent experimental efforts. Atomic defects initiated by the random removal of oxygen atoms are shown to reduce the thermal conductivity due to defect-induced phonon scattering that suppressed the delocalized vibrational modes and reduced the phonon mean free paths. From the joint density of states at finite temperatures, we attribute the reduced thermal conductivity at elevated temperatures to the increased probability of three-phonon scattering processes.
A New Method of Testing Machine Learning Models of Detection for Targeted DDoS Attacks

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) is one of the most popular attacks on the Internet. One of the most popular classes of DDoS attacks is the flood-based, which sends huge amounts of packets to the victim host or infrastructure, causing an overload of the system. One of the attack mitigation systems is based on machine learning (ML) methods, which in many cases has a very high accuracy rate (0.95 – 0.99). Unfortunately, most ML models are not resistant against targeted DDoS attacks. In this article, we present the targeted attacks to the DDoS ML-based mitigation models, which have a high accuracy. After this, we propose a new method of testing ML-based models against targeted DDoS attacks.
Hybrid Impedance and Nonlinear Adaptive Control for a 7-DoF Upper Limb Rehabilitation Robot: Formulation and Stability Analysis

Physical rehabilitation aims to improve the condition of people with any musculoskeletal disorder. Different assistive technologies have been developed to provide support to this process. In this context, human-machine interaction has progressively improved to avoid abrupt movements and vibrations, to obtain a more natural interaction, where control strategies play a key role. In this work, a control technique based on the combination of nonlinear adaptive theory with a hybrid impedance control applied to a 7-DoF upper limb assistance robotic device is proposed. Additionally, we include the stability analysis using Lyapunov functions. Then, we validate the strategies through simulations for one rehabilitation routine test. The articular and cartesian obtained results demonstrate the effectiveness of the control to follow trajectories. The control stabilizes the trajectories in 0.9 seconds even when the initial conditions start far from the desired trajectories, without producing vibrations or overshoots, which is the desired behavior in rehabilitation applications like the one we
Online Facility Service Leasing Inspired by the COVID-19 Pandemic

In response to resource shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, many communities have been leasing health facilities such as hospitals, clinics, and other centers in order to meet the needs of their patients. The goals have been two-folded: leasing costs had to be optimized and patients had to be served as soon as possible. Decisions as to when to lease which services at which facility locations shaped the success of these goals. At the heart of these decisions lies a complex optimization problem, which we call the Online Non-metric Facility Service Leasing problem (non-metric OFSL), a generalization of the well-known Online Non-metric Facility Leasing problem (non-metric OFL) in which facility locations are leased for different facility-time durations. In non-metric OFSL, each facility location may provide a number of services leased for different service-time durations. Additionally, each service is associated with a dormant fee that needs to be paid for each day at which the service is not leased. The optimization goal is to minimize the total leasing costs, dormant fees, and the distances between patients and the facilities they are connected to. We develop the first online algorithm for non-metric OFSL, evaluated using the notion of competitive analysis. The latter is a worst-case analysis used to measure the quality of online algorithms, in which the online algorithm's output is compared to the optimal offline solution for all instances of the problem. © 2021 by SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
End-to-End Self-Debiasing Framework for Robust NLU Training

Existing Natural Language Understanding (NLU) models have been shown to incorporate dataset biases leading to strong performance on in-distribution (ID) test sets but poor performance on out-of-distribution (OOD) ones. We introduce a simple yet effective debiasing framework whereby the shallow representations of the main model are used to derive a bias model and both models are trained simultaneously. We demonstrate on three well studied NLU tasks that despite its simplicity, our method leads to competitive OOD results. It significantly outperforms other debiasing approaches on two tasks, while still delivering high in-distribution performance.
On-the-Fly Attention Modulation for Neural Generation

Despite considerable advancements with deep neural language models (LMs), neural text generation still suffers from degeneration: the generated text is repetitive, generic, self-contradictory, and often lacks commonsense. Our analyses on sentence-level attention patterns in LMs reveal that neural degeneration may be associated with insufficient learning of task-specific characteristics by the attention mechanism. This finding motivates on-the-fly attention modulation -- a simple but effective method that enables the injection of priors into attention computation during inference. Automatic and human evaluation results on three text generation benchmarks demonstrate that attention modulation helps LMs generate text with enhanced fluency, creativity, and commonsense reasoning, in addition to significantly reduce sentence-level repetition.