Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption after Cardiac Surgery

To shed light on brain complications occurring after heart surgery, the authors assessed BBB disruption and DWI findings in half of their patients by imaging at 24 hours after surgery and 24–48 hours later. Additionally, postcontrast T1 images were obtained postoperatively at 2–4 days in the other half of the patients. Almost half the patients undergoing cardiac surgery had evidence of BBB abnormalities and three-quarters showed acute lesions on DWI after surgery. BBB disruption is more prevalent in the first 24 hours after surgery. These findings suggest that MR can be used as an imaging biomarker to assess therapies that may protect the BBB in patients undergoing heart surgery. BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: CNS complications are often seen after heart surgery, and postsurgical disruption of the BBB may play an etiologic role. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of MR imaging-detected BBB disruption (HARM) and DWI lesions after cardiac surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All patients had an MRI after cardiac surgery. For half the patients (group 1), we administered gadolinium 24 hours after surgery and obtained high-resolution DWI and FLAIR images 24–48 hours later. We administered gadolinium to the other half (group 2) at the time of the postoperative scan, 2–4 days after surgery. Two stroke neurologists evaluated the images. RESULTS: Of the 19 patients we studied, none had clinical evidence of a stroke or delirium at the time of the gadolinium administration or the scan, but 9 patients (47%) had HARM (67% in group 1; 30% in group 2; P = .18) and 14 patients (74%) had DWI lesions (70% in group 1; 78% in group 2; P = 1.0). Not all patients with DWI lesions had HARM, and not all patients with HARM had DWI lesions (P = .56). CONCLUSIONS: Almost half the patients undergoing cardiac surgery have evidence of HARM, and three-quarters have acute lesions on DWI after surgery. BBB disruption is more prevalent in the first 24 hours after surgery. These findings suggest that MR imaging can be used as an imaging biomarker to assess therapies that may protect the BBB in patients undergoing heart surgery.
Teaching Learning and Motivation Strategies to Enhance the Success of First-Term College Students

This study examined the effect of taking a Learning and Motivation Strategies course on GPA and retention of 351 new freshmen over their first four quarters, in comparison to 351 matched non-takers. The course taught four strategies and eight sub-strategies to help students overcome procrastination, build self-confidence, take responsibility, learn from lecture and text, write papers and manage their lives. New freshmen who took the course in their first quarter had significantly higher GPAs in each of their first four quarters, significantly higher retention (six times more likely to be retained) than did matched controls, and had higher graduation rates.
Contributions of the PPC to Online Control of Visually Guided Reaching Movements Assessed with fMRI-Guided TMS

The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) plays an important role in controlling voluntary movements by continuously integrating sensory information about body state and the environment. We tested which subregions of the PPC contribute to the processing of target- and body-related visual information while reaching for an object, using a reaching paradigm with 2 types of visual perturbation: displacement of the visual target and displacement of the visual feedback about the hand position. Initially, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to localize putative target areas involved in online corrections of movements in response to perturbations. The causal contribution of these areas to online correction was tested in subsequent neuronavigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) experiments. Robust TMS effects occurred at distinct anatomical sites along the anterior intraparietal sulcus (aIPS) and the anterior part of the supramarginal gyrus for both perturbations. TMS over neighboring sites did not affect online control. Our results support the hypothesis that the aIPS is more generally involved in visually guided control of movements, independent of body effectors and nature of the visual information. Furthermore, they suggest that the human network of PPC subregions controlling goal-directed visuomotor processes extends more inferiorly than previously thought. Our results also point toward a good spatial specificity of the TMS effects.
SHORT COMMUNICATION Bilateral overactivation of the sensorimotor cortex in the unilateral rodent model of Parkinson's disease - a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is used to investigate the basal ganglia (BG)‐cortex circuit using a rat model of Parkinson’s disease (PD). The model involves a unilateral destruction of the right substantia nigra by intranigral injection of the dopaminergic neurotoxin 6-hydroxydopamine. Volume of cortical activity was measured by the blood oxygenation level-dependent contrast method while applying electrical forepaw stimulation. The main findings are the following. (i) Contrary to the predictions of the classic model but in line with recent experimental results (positron emission tomography, fMRI and electrophysiology), an increased cortical activity in the sensorimotor cortex of PD rats compared with sham-operated or normal rats was found. (ii) A diffuse neuronal activity at large cortical areas that were not related directly to the stimulation used, was observed. (iii) No difference was found between the lesion and the nonlesion hemispheres when the left or the right forepaw was stimulated; both cortices show significant overactivation of the sensorimotor cortices in addition to diffuse cortical activation. The last finding could be explained by either corticocortical connections or by bilateral BG‐cortex connections. These finding suggest that the mutual influence of the two hemispheres is important in the pathophysiology of the BG‐cortex circuit and might be crucial in predicting treatments.
A method to project clinical outcome topographies onto preoperative MRI to guide direct DBS targeting

The use of intraoperative MR and direct DBS targeting, relies on anatomical rather than functional data. Historical clinical outcome databases that have recorded stimulation location and magnitude of effect, can provide a useful adjunct in DBS targeting strategies. We present a method for generating clinical outcome topographies, and merging regions of effect onto a pre-operative MR, for surgical planning. The clinical outcome topographies are consistent with more intuitive strategies used by neurosurgeons. This method provides theoretical guidance during DBS target planning.
Adult Spinal Cord Stem Cells Generate Neurons after Transplantation in the Adult Dentate Gyrus

The adult rat spinal cord contains cells that can proliferate and differentiate into astrocytes and oligodendroglia in situ. Using clonal and subclonal analyses we demonstrate that, in contrast to progenitors isolated from the adult mouse spinal cord with a combination of growth factors, progenitors isolated from the adult rat spinal cord using basic fibroblast growth factor alone display stem cell properties as defined by their multipotentiality and self-renewal. Clonal cultures derived from single founder cells generate neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes, confirming the multipotent nature of the parent cell. Subcloning analysis showed that after serial passaging, recloning, and expansion, these cells retained multipotentiality, indicating that they are self-renewing. Transplantation of an in vitro-expanded clonal population of cells into the adult rat spinal cord resulted in their differentiation into glial cells only. However, after heterotopic transplantation into the hippocampus, transplanted cells that integrated in the granular cell layer differentiated into cells characteristic of this region, whereas engraftment into other hippocampal regions resulted in the differentiation of cells with astroglial and oligodendroglial phenotypes. The data indicate that clonally expanded, multipotent adult progenitor cells from a non-neurogenic region are not lineage-restricted to their developmental origin but can generate region-specific neurons in vivowhen exposed to the appropriate environmental cues.
On the German Monetary Transmission Mechanism: Interest Rate and Credit Channels for Investment Spending

The transmission channels through which monetary policy affects business investment remain opaque. This paper examines the importance of the interest rate and credit channels on business fixed investment in Germany. We have at our disposal three uniquely rich datasets -- a panel of financial statement data for 6,408 firms (44,345 datapoints) supplemented with user costs of capital and confidential measures of creditworthiness. We uncover a statistically significant interest rate channel. Its economic significance can be sizeable, but depends on auxiliary assumptions. Sorting firms with our direct measure of creditworthiness, we find that credit constraints are important for a subset of firms. Sortings by firm size or dividend payout ratios shed some light on continuing debates in the literature.
How can spreaders affect the indirect infuence on twitter?

Most studies on social influence have focused on direct influence, while another interesting question can be raised as whether indirect influence exists between two users who're not directly connected in the network and what affects such influence. In addition, the theory of complex contagion tells us that more spreaders will enhance the indirect influence between two users. Our observation of intensity of indirect influence, propagated by n parallel spreaders and quantified by retweeting probability on Twitter , shows that complex contagion is validated globally but is violated locally. In other words, the retweeting probability increases non-monotonically with some local drops.
Recollection Consistency of Festival Consumption Emotions

In this study, the validity of a measure of festival consumption emotions and the recollection consistency of visitors’ emotional experiences at festivals over time and across settings was examined. Data were collected from festival visitors using an on-site and postvisit survey in Texas. It was found that measures of a six-dimensional product consumption emotions scale were valid and reliable for festival visitors over time. Despite some differences in the type and strength of emotional descriptors across the studies, festival visitors experienced moderate levels of positive emotions when asked to rate their affective states both during and after their visit. Our results demonstrate that respondents reported a higher intensity of positive emotions but reported a consistent intensity of neutral and negative emotions when asked to evaluate their emotions on-site during their festival visit. Based on these findings, we provide practical and theoretical insights and offer suggestions for future research.
Management Dilemmas and Decisions

This study assesses the impact of decision framing and the anticipated behavior of others on choosing to cooperate in social dilemma problems. Two hundred and eighty-eight students completed a questionnaire which presented two management scenarios representative of social dilemmas a manager might confront in a business environment. The two scenarios were based on parameters established by a generalized uniform N-person dilemma game. One scenario was described in a give-some context (contribute to the collective good); the other was presented in a take-some context (destruction of an existing collective good). After each scenario, information was presented concerning the response proportion of others, the certainty of the others' response, and whether others were expected to cooperate or defect. All four main effects were significant, as well as the interactions of response proportions by game context and response certainty by response direction. Reliable framing effects were evidenced. Individuals were more willing to contribute to a collective good than to experience some personal loss to avoid the destruction of an existing collective good. Findings raise questions concerning the extent of applicability of prospect theory to social dilemmas.
Hedgehog signaling is required for cranial neural crest morphogenesis and chondrogenesis at the midline in the zebrafish skull

Neural crest cells that form the vertebrate head skeleton migrate and interact with surrounding tissues to shape the skull, and defects in these processes underlie many human craniofacial syndromes. Signals at the midline play a crucial role in the development of the anterior neurocranium, which forms the ventral braincase and palate, and here we explore the role of Hedgehog (Hh) signaling in this process. Using sox10:egfp transgenics to follow neural crest cell movements in the living embryo, and vital dye labeling to generate a fate map, we show that distinct populations of neural crest form the two main cartilage elements of the larval anterior neurocranium: the paired trabeculae and the midline ethmoid. By analyzing zebrafish mutants that disrupt sonic hedgehog (shh) expression, we demonstrate that shh is required to specify the movements of progenitors of these elements at the midline, and to induce them to form cartilage. Treatments with cyclopamine, to block Hh signaling at different stages, suggest that although requirements in morphogenesis occur during neural crest migration beneath the brain, requirements in chondrogenesis occur later, as cells form separate trabecular and ethmoid condensations. Cell transplantations indicate that these also reflect different sources of Shh, one from the ventral neural tube that controls trabecular morphogenesis and one from the oral ectoderm that promotes chondrogenesis. Our results suggest a novel role for Shh in the movements of neural crest cells at the midline, as well as in their differentiation into cartilage, and help to explain why both skeletal fusions and palatal clefting are associated with the loss of Hh signaling in holoprosencephalic humans.
Bounds on the Number of Measurements for Reliable Compressive Classification

This paper studies the classification of high-dimensional Gaussian signals from low-dimensional noisy, linear measurements. In particular, it provides upper bounds (sufficient conditions) on the number of measurements required to drive the probability of misclassification to zero in the low-noise regime, both for random measurements and designed ones. Such bounds reveal two important operational regimes that are a function of the characteristics of the source: 1) when the number of classes is less than or equal to the dimension of the space spanned by signals in each class, reliable classification is possible in the low-noise regime by using a one-vs-all measurement design; 2) when the dimension of the spaces spanned by signals in each class is lower than the number of classes, reliable classification is guaranteed in the low-noise regime by using a simple random measurement design. Simulation results both with synthetic and real data show that our analysis is sharp, in the sense that it is able to gauge the number of measurements required to drive the misclassification probability to zero in the low-noise regime.
Distortion in 3D shape estimation with changes in illumination

In many domains it is very important that observers form an accurate percept of 3-dimensional structure from 2-dimensional images of scenes or objects. This is particularly relevant for designers who need to make decisions concerning the refinement of novel objects that haven't been physically built yet. This study presents the results of two experiments whose goal was to test the effect of lighting direction on the shape perception of smooth surfaces using shading and lighting techniques commonly used in modeling and design software. The first experiment consisted of a 2 alternate forced choice task which compared the effect of the amount of shape difference between smooth surfaces lit by a single point light with whether the position of the light sources were the same or different for each surface. Results show that, as the difference between the shapes decreased, participants were more and more biased towards choosing the match shape lit by the same source as the test shape. In the second experiment, participants had to report the orientation at equivalent probe locations on pairs of smooth surfaces presented simultaneously, using gauge figures. The surfaces could either be the same or slightly different and the light source of each shape could either be at the same relative location or offset by 90° horizontally. Participants reported large differences in surface orientation when the lighting condition was different, even when the shapes were the same, confirming the first results. Our findings show that lighting conditions can have a strong effect on 3-dimensional perception, and suggest that great care should be taken when projection systems are used for 3D visualisation where an accurate representation is required, either by carefully choosing lighting conditions or by using more realistic rendering techniques.
Hyperhomocysteinaemia induced by dietary folate restriction causes kidney oxidative stress in rats

Diet is the most common cause of mild hyperhomocysteinaemia (HHcy), which occurs in approximately 5–7 % of the general population. Since HHcy causes endothelial damage by oxidative stress in different organs, the present study was designed to examine whether HHcy might be involved in renal oxidative stress. Twenty-five male Wistar rats were randomly divided into two groups: one (n 13) was fed ad libitum a folate-free diet (FF) and the other (n 12) was fed the same diet supplemented with folic acid (control, CO). After 8 weeks the animals were killed and kidneys removed. Malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities were measured in plasma and kidney homogenates. Renal tissue sections were analysed by indirect immunostaining with the primary antibody against oxidatively modified LDL receptor (LOX-1). A marked HHcy was confirmed in the FF group. As compared with CO animals, MDA levels in plasma and kidney homogenate were significantly higher in FF rats (P<0·05). Similarly, renal GPx and SOD activities were significantly higher in the FF group (P<0·001). No differences were found in LOX-1 immunohistochemical expression, which in the two groups was displayed in tubular cells. The present study provides evidence that HHcy does produce renal oxidative stress mediated by lipid peroxidation, and that the increased kidney MDA displayed by FF animals may enhance kidney antioxidant activity and thereby attenuate both kidney damage and expression of LOX-1.
Clinical pharmacology of calcium antagonists as antihypertensive and anti-anginal drugs

Use of calcium antagonists These drugs are prescribed for antihypertensive activity in patients with essential hypertension, perioperative hypertension associated with thoracic surgery, angina pectoris and for secondary prevention after acute coronary syndromes (myocardial infarction, unstable angina). Action of newer calcium antagonists Pharmacokinetic improvements to the original calcium antagonists have provided slow- and long-acting drugs in the dihydropyridine group, which provoke little or no reflex tachycardia. Vasoselectivity (to a certain degree) is another improvement in a few newer compounds. Some may even have a certain selectivity for particular, specialized vascular beds. Safety At present it seems preferable to use the newer slow and long-acting dihydropyridine calcium antagonists. Their long-term safety is the subject of ongoing, randomized prospective trials.
Usability and Value : Playing Computer Games

The essence of my PhD research surrounds the application of concepts from Usability theory to computer games.1 There are several reasons to make this connection. First, computer games are gaining huge popularity and represent one of the major uses of computer systems today. Second, computer games are becoming an important medium for purposes other than solely entertainment, and thus the study of their usability may affect more critical dimensions than just how much fun players have and how easily they have it. Third, research into the usability of computer systems is a very well-established field with extensive research to draw on. Fourth, usability is an practically-oriented discipline, which makes it more likely that my research could have an impact on the games industry. Fifth, because computer game usability is an under-explored area (see section 4.3), there is an opportunity to do original and meaningful work. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is concerned with what we can call interactive computer systems. Simply put, the “interactive” part means that a user can take action in the context of the computer system, and have that system react to them. Usability can be considered a sub-discipline of HCI. To use Jakob Nielsen’s classic definition, usability theory is concerned with five central properties of interactive computer systems: learnability, efficiency, memorability, lack of errors, and capacity for user satisfaction (Nielsen 1993). A classic and pithy characterisation of usability is to say it considers the “ease-of-use” of a system.
Maternal bedsharing practices, experiences, and awareness of risks.

OBJECTIVES The objectives of this study were to determine mothers' practices and experiences of bedsharing with their infants and also to determine their knowledge of the risks. DESIGN A self-report questionnaire was mailed to 1,122 mothers of infants. SETTING Manitoba, Canada. PARTICIPANTS The participants in this study were the mothers of infants aged 3 months whose contact information was obtained through the Manitoba Health Information Privacy Committee. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Maternal-infant bedsharing practices and maternal knowledge of risks. RESULTS There were 293 completed questionnaires received (26% return rate). Key findings suggest that although 89% of participants agreed that sleeping with one's baby has some risks associated with it, 72% reported that they bedshared with their baby on either a regular or an occasional basis. Mothers who breastfed were twice as likely to have bedshared. Approximately 13% of respondents who had bedshared reported an experience(s) with bedsharing in which they had rolled onto or partway onto their infant. CONCLUSIONS Although the majority of participants agreed that bedsharing had risks for infants, almost three quarters of respondents reported bedsharing on a regular or an occasional basis. Reports by respondents of rolling onto or partway onto their infants support the conclusion that health care professionals should promote safe sleeping environments that include a separate sleep surface for infants.