Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Brazilian version of the 25-Item National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire: translation, reliability and validity.

PURPOSE To develop and investigate the reliability and validity of a Brazilian version of the 25-Item National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire. METHODS A Brazilian version of the questionnaire was developed and applied to patients with chronic eye diseases and healthy controls. Reliability was assessed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient, intraclass correlation coefficient and interrater reliability coefficient. Participants were submitted to the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 Questionnaire. Validity was estimated by the correlation between the questionnaires and among the 12 subscales of the questionnaire, subscales scores and visual acuity, patients' and controls' subscales scores, and the factor analysis. Responsiveness of the questionnaire was assessed in a group of patients before and following cataract surgery. RESULTS Cronbach's alpha, intraclass correlation and interrater reliability coefficients were highly significant. Validity was well established in all tests. In patients who underwent cataract surgery, a better vision-related quality of life was observed following surgery. CONCLUSION The Brazilian version of the 25-Item National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire has valid and reliable psychometric properties and can be applied to vision-related quality of life research.
Prenatal diagnosis of nail patella syndrome: A case report

Abstract The Nail Patella Syndrome (NPS) is an autosomal dominant connective tissue disorder affecting the nails, skeletal system, kidneys and eyes. Here, we report a case of NPS detected at 19 weeks of gestation. The movements of the elbow and knee joints were restricted and there was rotational deformity of the knee joints. To our knowledge, this is the first report of in-utero restriction of limb movements in a fetus with NPS.
Competition for Visual Selection in the Oculomotor System

During behavior, the oculomotor system is tasked with selecting objects from an ever-changing visual field and guiding eye movements to these locations. The attentional priority given to visual targets during selection can be strongly influenced by external stimulus properties or internal goals based on previous experience. Although these exogenous and endogenous drivers of selection are known to operate across partially overlapping timescales, the form of their interaction over time remains poorly understood. Using a novel choice task that simultaneously manipulates stimulus- and goal-driven attention, we demonstrate that exogenous and endogenous attentional biases change linearly as a function of time after stimulus onset and have an additive influence on the visual selection process in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). We present a family of computational models that quantify this interaction over time and detail the history dependence of both processes. The computational models reveal the existence of a critical 140–180 ms attentional “switching” time, when stimulus- and goal-driven processes simultaneously favor competing visual targets. These results suggest that the brain uses a linear sum of attentional biases to guide visual selection.
Factors Associated With Human Herpesvirus Type 8 Infection in an Injecting Drug User Cohort

Background Human herpesvirus type 8 (HHV-8) has been infrequently studied in injecting drug user (IDU) populations. Goal To estimate the seroprevalence of HHV-8 and risk factors for infection in a cohort of 2946 IDUs. Study Design In this nested cross-sectional study of 390 IDUs, lytic HHV-8 indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) was utilized to estimate the HHV-8 seroprevalence. Multivariate logistic regression was used to assess risk factors for infection. Results The HHV-8 seroprevalence among the IDUs examined in 1988 was 11.5% (95% confidence interval, 8.5–15.13). HHV-8 seroprevalence in this population was associated with being female (OR = 2.2;P = 0.080), having a larger body mass index (OR = 3.0;P = 0.053), and history of genital warts (OR = 4.0;P = 0.023). Injection of any drug more than daily exhibited an inverse effect on HHV-8 seropositivity (OR = 0.5;P = 0.085). Conclusion The seroprevalence of HHV-8 in this population is similar to that seen in the general population, with risk factors being more consistent with sexual behaviors than injection drug use.
Whether the hearing brain hears it or the deaf brain sees it, it’s just the same

“Now that he’d remembered what he meant to tell her, he seemed to lose interest. She didn’t have to see his face to know this. It was in the air. It was in the pause that trailed from his remark of eight, ten, twelve seconds ago” (1). Lauren Hartke, Don DeLillo’s protagonist in The Body Artist (1), does not have to look at her husband to feel him drifting away. Words and pauses between them carry a wealth of information about the speakers’ intentions and emotions. Words, however, cannot only be heard but also can be seen being signed in sign language. How does the brain go about extracting identity and emotional cues from sentences when they arrive via different senses? Are they duly processed in their corresponding sensory cortices: the speaking speaker’s identity and emotional tone in the auditory cortex and the signing speaker’s identity and emotional tone in the visual cortex? Alternately, do they converge rapidly into one common brain area, irrespective of whether the conversation is heard or seen? If the latter is the case, where would that area be? Deaf signers can communicate through the visual channel with a dexterity that matches spoken communication between two speakers. This capacity gives one a rare opportunity to explore fundamental questions on how different parts of the brain go about dividing their labor. Now, in PNAS, Benetti et al. (2) bring important insights into this matter. For many decades, it has been thought that a fundamental principle of brain organization is the division of that labor between separate sensory systems (e.g., visual, auditory, tactile). Consequently, experience-dependent changes were thought to occur almost exclusively within the bounds of this division: Visual training would cause changes in the visual cortex, and so on (e.g., ref. 3). Against this view, the past … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: mfszwed{at}gmail.com. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Observer-based output feedback control of discrete-time Lur'e systems with sector-bounded slope-restricted nonlinearities

Many well studied classes of dynamical systems such as actuator-constrained linear systems and dynamic artificial neural networks can be written as discrete-time Lur'e systems with sector- bounded and/or slope-restricted nonlinearities. Two types of observer- based output feedback control design methods are presented and analyzed with regard to robustness to model uncertainties and insensitivity to output disturbances. The controller designs are formulated in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) that are solvable with standard software. The design equations are illustrated in numerical examples.
A gender‐aware framework for women's entrepreneurship

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer a new gender‐aware framework to provide a springboard for furthering a holistic understanding of women's entrepreneurship.Design/methodology/approach – The paper builds on an existing framework articulating the “3Ms” (markets, money and management) required for entrepreneurs to launch and grow ventures. Drawing on institutional theory, it is argued that this “3M” framework needs further development and “motherhood” and “meso/macro environment” are added to extend and mediate the “3Ms” and construct a “5M” framework to enable the study of women's entrepreneurship in its own right.Findings – It was found that “Motherhood” is a metaphor representing the household and family context of female entrepreneurs, which might have a larger impact on women than men. The meso/macro environment captures considerations beyond the market, such as expectations of society and cultural norms (macro), and intermediate structures and institutions (meso). Practical implications – .
Iterative adaptive soft parallel interference canceller for turbo coded MIMO multiplexing

SUMMARY In this paper, iterative adaptive soft parallel interference canceller (ASPIC) is proposed for turbo coded multiple-input multipleoutput (MIMO) multiplexing. ASPIC is applied to transform a MIMO channel into single-input multiple-output (SIMO) channels for maximum ratio diversity combining (MRC). In the ASPIC, replicas of the interference are generated and subtracted from the received signals. For the generation of replicas with higher reliability, iterative ASPIC is proposed. It performs the iterative interference cancellation by feedback of the log-likelihood ratio (LLR) sequence obtained as the turbo decoder output. For iterative ASPIC, at the transmitter, the information sequence and parity sequence are transmitted from different antennas. In this paper, the achievable bit error rate (BER) performance, in a Rayleigh fading channel, for the turbo coded MIMO multiplexing with the proposed iterative ASPIC system is evaluated by computer simulation.
Whole mouse brain imaging using optical coherence tomography: reconstruction, normalization, segmentation, and comparison with diffusion MRI

Abstract. An automated massive histology setup combined with an optical coherence tomography (OCT) microscope was used to image a total of n=5 whole mouse brains. Each acquisition generated a dataset of thousands of OCT volumetric tiles at a sampling resolution of 4.9×4.9×6.5 μm. This paper describes techniques for reconstruction and segmentation of the sliced brains. In addition to the measured OCT optical reflectivity, a single scattering photon model was used to compute the attenuation coefficients within each tissue slice. Average mouse brain templates were generated for both the OCT reflectivity and attenuation contrasts and were used with an n-tissue segmentation algorithm. To better understand the brain tissue OCT contrast origin, one of the mouse brains was acquired using dMRI and coregistered to its corresponding assembled brain. Our results indicate that the optical reflectivity in a fiber bundle varies with its orientation, its fiber density, and the number of fiber orientations it contains. The OCT mouse brain template generation and coregistration to dMRI data demonstrate the potential of this massive histology technique to pursue cross-sectional, multimodal, and multisubject investigations of small animal brains.
The CONCISUS Corpus of Event Summaries

Text summarization and information extraction systems require adaptation to new domains and languages. This adaptation usually depends on the availability of language resources such as corpora. In this paper we present a comparable corpus in Spanish and English for the study of cross-lingual information extraction and summarization: the CONCISUS Corpus. It is a rich human-annotated dataset composed of comparable event summaries in Spanish and English covering four different domains: aviation accidents, rail accidents, earthquakes, and terrorist attacks. In addition to the monolingual summaries in English and Spanish, we provide automatic translations and ``comparable'' full event reports of the events. The human annotations are concepts marked in the textual sources representing the key event information associated to the event type. The dataset has also been annotated using text processing pipelines. It is being made freely available to the research community for research purposes.
The Murine Coronavirus Hemagglutinin-esterase Receptor-binding Site: A Major Shift in Ligand Specificity through Modest Changes in Architecture

The hemagglutinin-esterases (HEs), envelope glycoproteins of corona-, toro- and orthomyxoviruses, mediate reversible virion attachment to O-acetylated sialic acids (O-Ac-Sias). They do so through concerted action of distinct receptor-binding (“lectin”) and receptor-destroying sialate O-acetylesterase (”esterase”) domains. Most HEs target 9-O-acetylated Sias. In one lineage of murine coronaviruses, however, HE esterase substrate and lectin ligand specificity changed dramatically as these viruses evolved to use 4-O-acetylated Sias instead. Here we present the crystal structure of the lectin domain of mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) strain S HE, resolved both in its native state and in complex with a receptor analogue. The data show that the shift from 9-O- to 4-O-Ac-Sia receptor usage primarily entailed a change in ligand binding topology and, surprisingly, only modest changes in receptor-binding site architecture. Our findings illustrate the ease with which viruses can change receptor-binding specificity with potential consequences for host-, organ and/or cell tropism, and for pathogenesis.
A cache- and memory-aware mapping algorithm for big data applications

In this paper, we propose and investigate a task mapping algorithm for big data applications. As a critical resource, data are produced faster than ever before. Parallel programs that process these data on massive parallel systems are widely adopted. The task mapping algorithm however, has not been well optimized for these applications. We explore the characteristics of big data applications based on a shared cache/memory multicore processor. The latencies of cache and memory sub-systems are analysed. The proposed algorithm is designed to optimize the cache/memory latency, as well as intra-application latency. We introduce an efficient greedy algorithm to calculate the mapping result based on the congregate degree of nodes. Different numbers of search spaces are discussed and evaluated. Experiments are conducted based on synthetic simulation and running real applications on a full system simulation environment. Results confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Average execution time of five selected big data applications is reduced by 8% compared with the first fit algorithm.
BDCon: A Spanish knowledge database

In this paper we describe a knowledge base that has been built using the partially structured knowledge from encyclopaedias. The BDCon (from the Spanish: Base de Datos de Conocimiento) is a general ontology built around an extended Spanish lexicon extracted from two encyclopaedias and a cartographic database. It is composed by a number of interconnected knowledge structures, each of them covering a different aspect of world knowledge. The purpose of the BDCon is to classify the contents of various reference works publishing companies, as well as to support a set of advanced linguistic tools.
Evolutionary Perspectives on Sex Steroids in the Vertebrates

The term “sex-steroids” refers to estrogen, androgen and progestin products of vertebrate gonads. Sex steroids were so named for their influence on the sexually dimorphic development of the reproductive tract, secondary sex characters and central nervous system, which cause subsequent sexually dimorphic behavior and physiology (Phoenix et al. 1959b; Breedlove & Arnold 1983b). Receptors for sex-steroids are present in almost all tissues, and sex-steroids may be synthesized from cholesterol in the gonads, adrenals and brain. Although commonly described as endocrine components released into the bloodstream, sexsteroids may be generated through conversion from other (particularly adrenal) circulating steroids (Hinson et al. 2010) or generated de novo from cholesterol via intracrine pathways, as in the case of the brain neurosteroids (Baulieu 1997). In this chapter we examine how sex-steroids fit into the larger themes of metazoan physiology and reproduction, and examine why these compounds may function the way they do in vertebrates. I aim to present broad concepts in a manner that is easily accessible to the nonspecialized reader. It will be useful for the reader to be able to navigate modern versions of metazoan systematics. Therefore I aim to utilize the open-source nature of this publication by providing links that encourage the reader to use the Tree of Life web project (http://tolweb.org/tree/) for up-to-date “locations” of animals within the organization of living things. Navigation instructions for the Tree of Life web project are located at: (http://tolweb.org/tree/home.pages/navigating.html). In summary, clicking the leftwardpointing arrow on a given tree will navigate to the next broader category. Clicking text on the right side of the tree will navigate inside the highlighted group (the next narrower category).
Effects of Uncertainty on ERPs to Emotional Pictures Depend on Emotional Valence

Uncertainty about the emotional content of an upcoming event has found to modulate neural activity to the event before its occurrence. However, it is still under debate whether the uncertainty effects occur after the occurrence of the event. To address this issue, participants were asked to view emotional pictures that were shortly after a cue, which either indicated a certain emotion of the picture or not. Both certain and uncertain cues were used by neutral symbols. The anticipatory phase (i.e., inter-trial interval, ITI) between the cue and the picture was short to enhance the effects of uncertainty. In addition, we used positive and negative pictures that differed only in valence but not in arousal to investigate whether the uncertainty effect was dependent on emotional valence. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded during the presentation of the pictures. Event-related potential (ERP) results showed that negative pictures evoked smaller P2 and late LPP but larger N2 in the uncertain as compared to the certain condition; whereas we did not find the uncertainty effect in early LPP. For positive pictures, the early LPP was larger in the uncertain as compared to the certain condition; however, there were no uncertainty effects in some other ERP components (e.g., P2, N2, and late LPP). The findings suggest that uncertainty modulates neural activity to emotional pictures and this modulation is altered by the valence of the pictures, indicating that individuals alter the allocation of attentional resources toward uncertain emotional pictures dependently on the valence of the pictures.
Competition in Health Insurance Markets: Limitations of Current Measures for Policy Analysis

Health care reform proposals often rely on increased competition in health insurance markets to drive improved performance in health care costs, access, and quality. We examine a range of data issues related to the measures of health insurance competition used in empirical studies published from 1994-2004. The literature relies exclusively on market structure and penetration variables to measure competition. While these measures are correlated, the degree of correlation is modest, suggesting that choice of measure could influence empirical results. Moreover, certain measurement issues such as the lack of data on PPO enrollment, the treatment of small firms, and omitted market characteristics also could affect the conclusions in empirical studies. Importantly, other types of measures related to competition (e.g., the availability of information on price and outcomes, degree of entry barriers, etc.) are important from both a theoretical and policy perspective, but their impact on market outcomes has not been widely studied.
Factors Associated with Fatigue among Men Aged 45 and Older: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background and Purpose: Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms reported in several studies; but few studies have concentrated on the male population, especially for the middle-aged and older men who are exposed to greater fatigue risk. The purpose of this study was to explore the prevalence of fatigue and identify the risk factors of fatigue among men aged 45 and older in China. Methods: This study was part of a cross-sectional study on community health in Shunde (Guangdong Province, China). A total sample of 1158 men aged 45 and older were included. Sociodemographic characteristics, health and lifestyle factors and the Chalder Fatigue Scale (CFS) were measured by structured questionnaires through face-to-face interviews. Multivariate logistic regression was applied to determine the risk factors of fatigue. Results: Approximately 30% of participants experienced fatigue. Older age (≥75 years: adjusted OR 3.88, 95% CI 2.09–7.18), single marital status (1.94, 1.04–3.62), unemployed status (1.68, 1.16–2.43), number of self-reported chronic diseases (≥2 chronic diseases: 2.83, 1.86–4.31), number of individuals’ children (≥4 children: 2.35, 1.33–4.15), hospitalization in the last year (1.61, 1.03–2.52) were all significantly associated with increased risk of fatigue, while regular exercise (0.46, 0.32–0.65) was a protective factor against fatigue. Conclusions: Fatigue was usual in males and several factors were associated with the fatigue. These findings may have implication in risk assessment of fatigue and help in developing and implementing targeted interventions in middle-aged and elderly males.
Interactive Narrative Planning in The Best Laid Plans

The Best Laid Plans is an interactive narrative video game that uses cognitive-inspired fast planning techniques to generate stories with conflict during play. Players alternate between acting out a plan and seeing that plan thwarted by non-player characters. The Glaive narrative planner combines causal-link-based computational models of narrative with the speed of fast heuristic search techniques to adapt the story each time the player attempts a new plan.
Integration of Colour and Texture Distributions for Skin Cancer Image Segmentation

This study presents an efficient way to segment the skin cancer images. A novel method is proposed that combines colour and texture for the segmentation of skin lesions from unaffected skin region in an image. The distributions of colour and texture features provide a platform for the discrimination of skin lesions. The segmentation results are evaluated quantitatively by means of a comparative experiment on a set of skin cancer images. The evaluation of the proposed method is based on the comparison with Live Wire segmentation technique. The results indicate that the proposed methodology proved effective and efficient for the skin cancer image segmentation.
Judges as Rulemakers

Frederick Schauer has written a very interesting article (http://ssrn.com/abstract=779386) suggesting that judges who announce rules in the course of adjudicating cases are subject to cognitive biases that interfere with their ability to craft sound rules. In particular, the immediacy of a particular dispute may make the facts of that dispute appear more representative of the classes of facts covered by a rule than they actually are. I agree with Schauer's insight. However, I suggest in a brief reply that certain practices traditionally associated with the common law help to counteract the biases that affect judges. The doctrine of precedent exposes judges to a wider range of fact situations, as well as to the reasoning of past judges. So-called analogical reasoning also greatly increases the range of cases judges consider in designing prospective rules. Both these practices are of questionable value as direct means of deciding cases, but can be valuable as indirect strategies to improve judicial rulemaking. As a result, common law rules may suffer less from distortion than Schauer's theory predicts. However, the traditional practices on which my analysis is based depend on judicial habits that have eroded over time.