Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of Ipsilateral Efferent Effects in Human via ECochG

Development of electrophysiological means to assess the medial olivocochlear (MOC) system in humans is important to further our understanding of the function of that system and for the refinement and validation of psychoacoustical and otoacoustic emission methods which are thought to probe the MOC. Based on measurements in anesthetized animals it has been hypothesized that the MOC-reflex (MOCR) can enhance the response to signals in noise, and several lines of evidence support such a role in humans. A difficulty in these studies is the isolation of efferent effects. Efferent activation can be triggered by acoustic stimulation of the contralateral or ipsilateral ear, but ipsilateral stimulation is thought to be more effective. However, ipsilateral stimulation complicates interpretation of effects since these sounds can affect the perception of other ipsilateral sounds by mechanisms not involving olivocochlear efferents. We assessed the ipsilaterally evoked MOCR in human using a transtympanic procedure to record mass-potentials from the cochlear promontory or the niche of the round window. Averaged compound action potential (CAP) responses to masked probe tones of 4 kHz with and without a precursor (designed to activate the MOCR but not the stapedius reflex) were extracted with a polarity alternating paradigm. The masker was either a simultaneous narrow band noise masker or a short (20-ms) tonal ON- or OFF-frequency forward masker. The subjects were screened for normal hearing (audiogram, tympanogram, threshold stapedius reflex) and psychoacoustically tested for the presence of a precursor effect. We observed a clear reduction of CAP amplitude by the precursor, for different masking conditions. Even without an MOCR, this is expected because the precursor will affect the response to subsequent stimuli via neural adaptation. To determine whether the precursor also activated the efferent system, we measured the CAP over a range of masker levels, with or without precursor, and for different types of masker. The results show CAP reduction consistent with the type of gain reduction caused by the MOCR. These results generally support psychoacoustical paradigms designed to probe the efferent system as indeed activating the MOCR system, but not all observations are consistent with this mechanism.
UiO1: Constituent-Based Discriminative Ranking for Negation Resolution

This paper describes the first of two systems submitted from the University of Oslo (UiO) to the 2012 *SEM Shared Task on resolving negation. Our submission is an adaption of the negation system of Velldal et al. (2012), which combines SVM cue classification with SVM-based ranking of syntactic constituents for scope resolution. The approach further extends our prior work in that we also identify factual negated events. While submitted for the closed track, the system was the top performer in the shared task overall.
Carotid artery stenting: a clinical update

Purpose of review Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) has been shown to prevent stroke in patients with severe carotid stenosis. Carotid artery stenting (CAS) has emerged as a less invasive alternative technique. Data regarding comparative effectiveness of CAS and CEA are now available and merit review. Recent findings Four large randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing CAS and CEA have shown a higher rate of stroke in symptomatic patients. The largest and most recent trial reported a lower occurrence of myocardial infarction (MI) following CAS and showed overall comparability of CAS to CEA for both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. Despite methodological differences, these RCTs are consistent in finding an interaction of patient age with outcomes. In younger patients, CAS appears equivalent or superior to CEA if considering the sum of death, stroke, and MI. In elderly patients, CEA appears to have a lower complication rate. For asymptomatic patients, reduction in event rates with current medical therapy may render previous trial results invalid. Summary CAS is an alternative to CEA in patients requiring carotid intervention. Comparison of both CAS and CEA with contemporary medical management will also be required before recommendations can be made regarding the optimal treatment of patients with asymptomatic carotid stenoses.
Online Discriminative Kernel Density Estimator With Gaussian Kernels

We propose a new method for a supervised online estimation of probabilistic discriminative models for classification tasks. The method estimates the class distributions from a stream of data in the form of Gaussian mixture models (GMMs). The reconstructive updates of the distributions are based on the recently proposed online kernel density estimator (oKDE). We maintain the number of components in the model low by compressing the GMMs from time to time. We propose a new cost function that measures loss of interclass discrimination during compression, thus guiding the compression toward simpler models that still retain discriminative properties. The resulting classifier thus independently updates the GMM of each class, but these GMMs interact during their compression through the proposed cost function. We call the proposed method the online discriminative kernel density estimator (odKDE). We compare the odKDE to oKDE, batch state-of-the-art kernel density estimators (KDEs), and batch/incremental support vector machines (SVM) on the publicly available datasets. The odKDE achieves comparable classification performance to that of best batch KDEs and SVM, while allowing online adaptation from large datasets, and produces models of lower complexity than the oKDE.
Benchmarking of the 2010 BioCreative Challenge III text-mining competition by the BioGRID and MINT interaction databases

Background: Determining usefulness of biomedical text mining systems requires realistic task definition and data selection criteria without artificial constraints, measuring performance aspects that go beyond traditional metrics. The BioCreative III Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) tasks were motivated by such considerations, trying to address aspects including how the end user would oversee the generated output, for instance by providing ranked results, textual evidence for human interpretation or measuring time savings by using automated systems. Detecting articles describing complex biological events like PPIs was addressed in the Article Classification Task (ACT)
Working memory in school-aged children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder combined type: Are deficits modality specific and are they independent of impaired inhibitory control?

This study examines differences between children with attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder combined type (ADHD-C) and normal controls on verbal and visuospatial working-memory (WM) tasks. The extent to which WM deficits in children with ADHD-C are independent of impaired inhibitory control was also examined. Two groups of 7- to 12-year-old boys participated in this study. The first group included 31 boys diagnosed with ADHD-C, and the second group included 34 boys without ADHD. Various verbal and visuospatial WM tasks and two inhibitory control tasks—prepotent response inhibition and interference control—were used. Overall, our results suggest impaired verbal and visuospatial WM processes in children with ADHD-C, as well as a lower level of performance on prepotent response inhibition. WM deficits in ADHD have previously been suggested to be particularly salient in the spatial domain; our results instead showed the largest effect for a verbal WM task thought to put heavy load on the executive or attentional control component of the WM system. An interpretation of this finding is that it is variation in terms of difficulty level or load on the executive WM processes, rather than variation in modality (verbal versus visuospatial), that is important in demonstrating WM deficits in ADHD-C. Finally, findings from logistic regression analyses showed that deficits in WM and inhibitory control seem to be semi-independent in children with ADHD-C, at least with regard to the elementary school age.
Characterizing PDMS/MWCNTs and PDMS/GNP composites for biopotential sensing

This article focusses on preparation and mechanical testing of thin-polymer electrodes to efficiently measure the biomedical signals while providing a conformal skin-contact. The method to prepare thin electrode films using Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with different Young’s moduli has been described. The Young’s modulus was evaluated for each film by conducting tension-relaxation tests. The PDMS electrodes were made conductive by mixing them with Multi-Walled Carbon Nano Tubes (MWCNTs) and Graphene Nano Powder (GNP) using an ultrasonic mixer. The current study addresses a novel approach of preparing PDMS based sensors by doping them with CNTs and GNPs and wetting them in N-N Dimethylformamide (DMF) prior to their dispersion in PDMS. This was done to avoid their clumping in PDMS and to ensure more uniform dispersion. The conductance of the PDMS/MWCNT and PDMS/GNP electrodes were measured using an impedance spectrometer and were compared with that of standard silver-silver chloride (Ag/AgCl) and dry silver (Ag) electrodes.
Rejuvenation of the inflammatory system stimulates fracture repair in aged mice

Age significantly reduces the regenerative capacity of the skeleton, but the underlying causes are unknown. Here, we tested whether the functional status of inflammatory cells contributes to delayed healing in aged animals. We created chimeric mice by bone marrow transplantation after lethal irradiation. In this model, chondrocytes and osteoblasts in the regenerate are derived exclusively from host cells while inflammatory cells are derived from the donor. Using this model, the inflammatory system of middle‐aged mice (12 month old) was replaced by transplanted bone marrow from juvenile mice (4 weeks old), or age‐matched controls. We found that the middle‐aged mice receiving juvenile bone marrow had larger calluses and more bone formation during early stages and faster callus remodeling at late stages of fracture healing, indicating that inflammatory cells derived from the juvenile bone marrow accelerated bone repair in the middle‐aged animals. In contrast, transplanting bone marrow from middle‐aged mice to juvenile mice did not alter the process of fracture healing in juvenile mice. Thus, the roles of inflammatory cells in fracture healing may be age‐related, suggesting the possibility of enhancing fracture healing in aged animals by manipulating the inflammatory system. © 2010 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 28:1000–1006, 2010
FUZZY CLUSTERING APPROACH USING DATA FUSION THEORY AND ITS APPLICATION TO AUTOMATIC ISOLATED WORD RECOGNITION

In this paper, utilization of clustering algorithms for data fusion in decision level is proposed. The results of automatic isolated word recognition, which are derived from speech spectrograph and Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) analysis, are combined with each other by using fuzzy clustering algorithms, especially fuzzy k-means and fuzzy vector quantization. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithms have better performance, compared to classical clustering. Key Word Data Fusion Theory, K-Means Clustering, Fuzzy K-Means, Fuzzy Vector Quantization
Actin Engine in Immunological Synapse

T cell activation and function require physical contact with antigen presenting cells at a specialized junctional structure known as the immunological synapse. Once formed, the immunological synapse leads to sustained T cell receptor-mediated signalling and stabilized adhesion. High resolution microscopy indeed had a great impact in understanding the function and dynamic structure of immunological synapse. Trends of recent research are now moving towards understanding the mechanical part of immune system, expanding our knowledge in mechanosensitivity, force generation, and biophysics of cell-cell interaction. Actin cytoskeleton plays inevitable role in adaptive immune system, allowing it to bear dynamic and precise characteristics at the same time. The regulation of mechanical engine seems very complicated and overlapping, but it enables cells to be very sensitive to external signals such as surface rigidity. In this review, we focus on actin regulators and how immune cells regulate dynamic actin rearrangement process to drive the formation of immunological synapse.
CC shadow volumes

We present a technique that uses culling and clamping (CC) for accelerating the performance of stencil-based shadow volume computation. Our algorithm reduces the ll requirements and rasterization cost of shadow volumes by reducing unnecessary rendering. A culling step removes shadow volumes that are themselves in shadow or do not contribute to the nal image. Our novel clamping algorithms restrict shadow volumes to those regions actually containing shadow receivers. In this way, we avoid rasterizing shadow volumes over large regions of empty space. We utilize temporal coherence between successive frames to speed up clamping computations. Even with fairly coarse clamping we obtain substantial reduction in ll requirements and shadow rendering time in dynamic environments composed of up to a 100K triangles.
Effects of Long‐Pulsed 1,064‐nm Neodymium‐Doped Yttrium Aluminum Garnet Laser on Dermal Collagen Remodeling in Hairless Mice

Background Nonablative lasers are used for dermal collagen remodeling. Although clinical improvements have been reported using various laser devices, the mechanism of dermal collagen remodeling remains unknown. Objective To investigate the effects of energy fluences of the long‐pulsed neodymium‐doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) nonablative laser on dermal collagen remodeling and evaluate the dermal collagen remodeling mechanism. Materials and methods Hairless mice were pretreated with ultraviolet B irradiation to produce photo‐damage. The laser treatment used a long‐pulse 1,064‐nm Nd:YAG laser at energy fluences of 20, 40, and 60 J/cm2. The amount of dermal collagen and expressions of transforming growth factor beta (TGF‐&bgr;), matrix metalloproteinase‐1 (MMP‐1), and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase‐1 (TIMP‐1) of laser treated skin were compared with those of nontreated control skin. Results The long‐pulse Nd:YAG laser treatment increased dermal collagen and significantly increased TGF‐&bgr; expression. The expression of MMP‐1 decreased with low energy fluence. The expression of TIMP‐1was not significantly different. Conclusion Long‐pulsed 1,064‐nm Nd:YAG laser increases the dermal collagen in association with the increased expression of TGF‐&bgr;.
A bone marrow cavity segmentation method using wavelet-based texture feature

A better understanding of in vivo bio images is expected to contribute to the discovery of new drugs and mechanisms of disease. To improve the contributions of in vivo bioimaging, the extraction of a particular region is required in order to detect a particular cell's motion because manual image processing of a massive number of images is unrealistic. One of the issues for automatic image-segmentation is that conditions of image-taking are variable. Thus, some manual input and/or manual tuning of some parameters is required to adjust each image. To reduce manual operation for image processing of bone marrow cavity segmentation, we focused on the texture pattern of bone marrow cavity. In this paper, we propose a bone marrow cavity segmentation method using support vector machine and wavelet-based texture feature. The proposed method does not require manual inputs to obtain distribution of intensity before processing, because the texture patterns of bone marrow cavity regions are integrated into the system in advance. Moreover, it is applicable to a particular frame in an image sequence in which the condition of fluorescent material is variable because it does not require temporal variation or initial frame for the segmentation. In the experiment, we evaluated our method with nine types of mother wavelets and several sets of scale parameters. The bone marrow cavity segmentation, using graph-cuts with our texture pattern classification, performs well without manual inputs by a user.
An Ultra Low-power Low-Voltage Programmable Frequency Divider for PLL Frequency Synthesizer

In this paper, an ultra low-voltage frequency divider for PLL (Phase Locked Loop) was designed using 0.13um CMOS process with 0.6V power supply. The frequency divider employs divide by 15/16 dual modulus prescaler based on phase switching, two programmable counters and the control module for prescaler. The operation frequency of this divider is from 0.8GHz to 2.2GHz. The power dissipation of the programmable frequency divider is only equal to 603uW. Additionally, a PMOS VCO oscillator from 1.51~1.70GHz was designed to cooperate with the programmable frequency divider which consumes 660uW from 0.6V supply voltage. Keywords—Frequency divider; Low-power; Low-voltage; Phase switching; 0.13um COMS
Imaging and analysis of lenticulostriate arteries using 7.0‐Tesla magnetic resonance angiography

The purpose of this study was to analyze human lenticulostriate arteries (LSAs) obtained non‐invasively by 7.0‐T MRI. A three‐dimensional time‐of‐flight (3D TOF) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) technique was used with an investigational 7.0‐T MRI scanner with a radio‐frequency coil that was optimized and designed for angiographic purposes. We obtained images from 16 healthy volunteers (8 males and 8 females, mean age 21 ± 2.7 years). For direct comparison of LSA images with digital subtraction angiography (DSA), we also obtained 7.0‐T MRA and DSA images from one patient, a 27‐year‐old woman with a posterior fossa arteriovenous malformation (AVM). We then analyzed the characteristics of LSAs using a custom data analysis method with MatLab for quantitative analysis. Analysis of LSA images included shape and number of branches and origins, findings that are essential and useful for quantification of LSA abnormalities in both healthy controls and patients. Ultra–high‐field MRA provided clear anatomic delineation of the LSAs, thereby suggesting that 7.0‐T MRA may be a promising technique for microvascular imaging of the LSAs. Magn Reson Med 61:136–144, 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The transcription factor YY1 binds to negative regulatory elements in the human cytomegalovirus major immediate early enhancer/promoter and mediates repression in non-permissive cells

We have previously shown that repression of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) major immediate early (IE) gene expression in non-permissive human teratocarcinoma (T2) cells is associated with a number of nuclear factors which bind to the imperfect dyad symmetry located in the modulator region upstream of the major IE enhancer as well as to the 21 bp repeat elements within the enhancer. Differentiation of T2 cells with retinoic acid (RA) results in a decrease in binding of some of these nuclear factors to these sites and deletion of these specific binding sites from major IE promoter/reporter constructs results in increased IE promoter activity in normally non-permissive cells. In this study, we demonstrate that the transcription factor YY1, which can negatively regulate the adeno-associated virus P5 promoter, directly binds to both the imperfect dyad symmetry and the 21 bp repeat elements in the HCMV major IE promoter/regulatory region and mediates repression of HCMV IE gene expression. This strongly suggests that YY1 plays an important role in regulating HCMV expression in non-permissive cells.
A Quality Framework for Data Integration Incorporating User Requirements

The data integration (DI) process involves multiple users with roles such as administrators, integrators and end-users, each of whom may have requirements which have an impact on the overall quality of an integrated resource. Users’ requirements may conflict with each other, and so a quality framework for the DI context has to be capable of representing the variety of such requirements and provide mechanisms to detect and resolve the possible inconsistencies between them. This paper presents a framework for the specification of DI quality criteria and associated users’ quality requirements. This is underpinned by a Description Language formalisation with associated reasoning capabilities which enables a DI setting to be tested to identify those elements inconsistent with users’ requirements.
Neuropsychological Profile of Lifetime Traumatic Brain Injury in Older Veterans

Abstract Objectives: The aim of this study was to characterize the neuropsychological profile of lifetime traumatic brain injury (TBI) in older Veterans. Methods: Participants were 169 older Veterans [mean age=79.1 years (range, 51–97 years), 89% male, 92% Caucasian], 88 with lifetime TBI and 81 without TBI, living in Veterans’ retirement homes in independent residence. TBI history was ascertained with the Ohio State TBI Identification Method structured interview. Cognition was assessed with neuropsychological tests: Raw scores were converted to Z-scores compared to age-corrected normative data and combined into five domain composite Z-scores (attention/working memory, learning/memory, language, processing speed, executive functioning). We investigated the association between TBI and performance in each cognitive domain in linear mixed effects models, with and without adjustment for demographics, medical comorbidities, and psychiatric variables. Results: Compared to those without TBI, older Veterans with TBI had greater deficits in processing speed (estimate=−.52; p=.01; f 2=.08 in fully adjusted model) and executive functioning (estimate=−.41; p=.02; f 2=.06 in fully adjusted model) but performed similarly in the attention/working memory, learning/memory, and language domains (all p>.05). TBI-associated deficits were most prominent among individuals with multiple mild TBIs and those with any moderate-to-severe TBI, but were not clearly present among those with single mild TBI. Conclusions: The neuropsychological profile of lifetime TBI in older Veterans is characterized by slowed processing speed and executive dysfunction, especially among those with greater injury burden. This pattern may reflect long-standing deficits or a TBI-associated cognitive decline process distinct from Alzheimer’s disease. (JINS, 2017, 23, 56–64)
Pulmonary arterial hypertension: Advances in pathophysiology and management

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a heterogeneous, hemodynamic, and pathophysiological state which is commonly found throughout the world, but the disease burden is greater in India and in other developing countries. It is a disease characterized by vascular obstruction and vasoconstriction leading to progressive increase in pulmonary vascular resistance and right ventricular failure. PAH is a progressive disorder carrying a poor prognosis; however, dramatic progress has occurred in our knowledge of its pathogenesis and consequently, its treatment over the last two decades. In this article, we attempt to provide an overview of the etiology, pathophysiology, and current therapeutic modalities in the treatment of PAH. Patients suspected to have PAH should be submitted to a battery of investigations which help in establishing the diagnosis, identifying the etiology, guiding in treatment and informing the prognosis. All patients should be considered for standard therapy with oxygen, anticoagulation, and diuretics for right heart failure. Oral calcium channel blockers should be used in patients with a favorable response to acute vasodilator challenge. Disease targeted therapies include prostacyclines, endothelin receptor blockers, and phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors. A brief mention of new and potential therapeutic strategies is also included.