Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diagnostic terminology, athlete status, and history of concussion affect return to play expectations and anticipated symptoms following mild traumatic brain injury

ABSTRACT “Mild traumatic brain injury” (mTBI) and “concussion” are terms often used interchangeably. However, “mTBI” is frequently seen as representing a broader injury that encompasses the construct of “concussion,” which often conveys transience or decreased severity. The present study examined the influence of varying diagnostic terminology on acute injury expectations in an undergraduate population (N = 105). Participants were presented with an mTBI vignette and were randomly assigned to one of two conditions in which the term “mTBI” or “concussion” was used to describe the injury. There were no significant differences between the two conditions on anxiety, symptomatology, timeline, or consequence scales. However, participants in the “mTBI” group allocated more days to return to play than participants in the “concussion” group, suggesting that terminology has an effect on perceptions of the severity of the injury. Varsity athletes allocated fewer days to return to play than nonathletes. Individuals with a history of concussion, both athletes and nonathletes, indicated fewer days to return to play, but greater symptomatology than individuals with no history of concussion. Clinicians should consider the influence of diagnostic terminology, athletic background, and history of concussion on perceptions of the severity of an injury because expectations can influence injury outcomes and compliance in a recovery process.
Home advantage in professional tennis

Abstract Home advantage is a pervasive phenomenon in sport. It has been established in team sports such as basketball, baseball, American football, and European soccer. Attention to home advantage in individual sports has so far been limited. The aim of this study was to examine home advantage in professional tennis. Match-level data are used to measure home advantage. The test used is based on logit models, and consistent specification is addressed explicitly. Depending on the interpretation of home advantage, restrictions on the specification of the model need to be imposed. We find that although significant home advantage exists for men, the performance of women tennis players appears to be unaffected by home advantage.
Fungal-Mediated Multitrophic Interactions - Do Grass Endophytes in Diet Protect Voles from Predators?

Plant-associated micro-organisms such as mycotoxin-producing endophytes commonly have direct negative effects on herbivores. These effects may be carried over to natural enemies of the herbivores, but this has been rarely explored. We examined how feeding on Neotyphodium endophyte infected (E+) and endophyte free (E−) meadow ryegrass (Scherodonus pratensis) affects body mass, population size and mobility of sibling voles (Microtus levis), and whether the diet mediates the vulnerability of voles to least weasel (Mustela nivalis nivalis) predation. Because least weasels are known to be olfactory hunters, we also examined whether they are able to distinguish olfactory cues of voles fed on E+ and E− diets. Neither body mass of voles nor population size differed between diets. However, contrary to our prediction, least weasels preyed more often on voles fed with E− grass than on voles fed with E+ grass. The mobility of voles fed on E+ grass was reduced compared to voles fed on E− grass, but this effect was unrelated to risk of predation. Least weasels appeared unable to distinguish between excrement odours of voles between the two treatments. Our results suggest that consumption of endophytic grass is not directly deleterious to sibling voles. What's more, consumption of endophytes appears to be advantageous to voles by reducing risk of mammalian predation. Our study is thus the first to demonstrate an effect of plant-associated microbial symbionts on herbivore-predator interactions in vertebrate communities.
Development of Ti-MMCs by the Use of Different Reinforcements via Conventional Hot-Pressing

Titanium and its alloys have evolved faster than any structural material in the history of metallurgy. The increasing employment of titanium in many different applications is mainly due to its light weight, high strength and structural efficiency. The titanium metal matrix composites (Ti-MMCs) have helped to achieve these objectives. The aim of this work is the development and study of Ti-MMCs manufactured via hot pressing at 900 °C reinforced by sub-micron and micron boron carbide (B4C), amorphous boron and sub-micron and micron titanium diboride (TiB2) particles in order to improve its mechanical properties. Full dense composites were obtained with this consolidation technique. The influence of the different reinforcements has been analyzed. Moreover, the strengthening effect of sub-micron reinforcements is compared to the effect of the material with the same chemical composition in a micro-scaled phase. Comparison has been established studying the microstructure (grain size and density) and mechanical properties through tensile and hardness tests.
Robust Fault-Tolerant Predictive Current Control for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors Considering Demagnetization Fault

In this study, a robust fault-tolerant predictive current control (RFT-PCC) algorithm based on a composite observer is proposed for permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs), which can eliminate the influence of motor parameter perturbation and permanent magnet demagnetization. First, the effects of the parameter perturbation and permanent magnet demagnetization on the current vector are analyzed based on the conventional predictive current control. The composite observer based on the sliding mode observer and the Luenberger observer is then designed to observe the compensation voltage and current prediction value of the next time simultaneously. Finally, an RFT-PCC method is developed. The proposed RFT-PCC is able to effectively enhance robustness against parameter perturbation and permanent magnet demagnetization by adding compensation voltage. The current prediction value of the next time is used to replace the sampled current in RFT-PCC to compensate for the influence of the one-step delay. Comparative simulations and experimentations verify that the proposed RFT-PCC can improve the robustness while maintaining quick dynamic response of the current control loops.
Clinical Features of Pregnancy-associated Retinal and Choroidal Diseases Causing Acute Visual Disturbance

Purpose To report clinical features of patients with retinal and choroidal diseases presenting with acute visual disturbance during pregnancy. Methods In this retrospective case series, patients who developed acute visual loss during pregnancy (including puerperium) and visited a tertiary hospital from July 2007 to June 2015, were recruited by searching electronic medical records. Patients were categorized according to the cause of visual loss. Clinical features and required diagnostic modalities were analyzed in the retinal and choroidal disease group. Results Acute visual loss occurred in 147 patients; 49 (38.9%) were classified into the retinal and choroidal group. The diagnoses included central serous chorioretinopathy (22.4%), hypertensive retinopathy with or without pre-eclampsia (22.4%), retinal tear with or without retinal detachment (18.4%), diabetic retinopathy progression (10.2%), Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease (4.1%), retinal artery occlusion (4.1%), multiple evanescent white dot syndrome (4.1%), and others (14.3%). Visual symptoms first appeared at gestational age 25.9 ± 10.3 weeks. The initial best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 0.27 ± 0.39 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR); the final BCVA after delivery improved to 0.13 ± 0.35 logMAR. Serious visual deterioration (BCVA worth than 20 / 200) developed in two patients. Differential diagnoses were established with characteristic fundus and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography findings in all cases. Conclusions In pregnant women with acute visual loss, retinal and choroidal diseases are common and could be vision threatening. Physicians should be aware of pregnancy-associated retinal and choroidal diseases and their clinical features. The differential diagnosis can be established with non-invasive techniques.
Tracking by Prediction: A Deep Generative Model for Mutli-person Localisation and Tracking

Current multi-person localisation and tracking systems have an over reliance on the use of appearance models for target re-identification and almost no approaches employ a complete deep learning solution for both objectives. We present a novel, complete deep learning framework for multi-person localisation and tracking. In this context we first introduce a light weight sequential Generative Adversarial Network architecture for person localisation, which overcomes issues related to occlusions and noisy detections, typically found in a multi person environment. In the proposed tracking framework we build upon recent advances in pedestrian trajectory prediction approaches and propose a novel data association scheme based on predicted trajectories. This removes the need for computationally expensive person re-identification systems based on appearance features and generates human like trajectories with minimal fragmentation. The proposed method is evaluated on multiple public benchmarks including both static and dynamic cameras and is capable of generating outstanding performance, especially among other recently proposed deep neural network based approaches.
A Novel Adaptive Spectrum Noise Cancellation Approach for Enhancing Heartbeat Rate Monitoring in a Wearable Device

This paper presents a novel approach, adaptive spectrum noise cancellation (ASNC), for motion artifacts removal in photoplethysmography (PPG) signals measured by an optical biosensor to obtain clean PPG waveforms for heartbeat rate calculation. One challenge faced by this optical sensing method is the inevitable noise induced by movement when the user is in motion, especially when the motion frequency is very close to the target heartbeat rate. The proposed ASNC utilizes the onboard accelerometer and gyroscope sensors to detect and remove the artifacts adaptively, thus obtaining accurate heartbeat rate measurement while in motion. The ASNC algorithm makes use of a commonly accepted spectrum analysis approaches in medical digital signal processing, discrete cosine transform, to carry out frequency domain analysis. Results obtained by the proposed ASNC have been compared with the classic algorithms, the adaptive threshold peak detection and adaptive noise cancellation. The mean (standard deviation) absolute error and mean relative error of heartbeat rate calculated by ASNC is 0.33 (0.57) <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text {beats}\cdot \text {min}^{-1}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and 0.65%, by adaptive threshold peak detection algorithm is 2.29 (2.21) <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text {beats}\cdot \text {min}^{-1}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and 8.38%, by adaptive noise cancellation algorithm is 1.70 (1.50) <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text {beats}\cdot \text {min}^{-1}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and 2.02%. While all algorithms performed well with both simulated PPG data and clean PPG data collected from our verity device in situations free of motion artifacts, ASNC provided better accuracy when motion artifacts increase, especially when motion frequency is very close to the heartbeat rate.
Forces positioning the mitotic spindle: Theories, and now experiments

The position of the spindle determines the position of the cleavage plane, and is thus crucial for cell division. Although spindle positioning has been extensively studied, the underlying forces ultimately responsible for moving the spindle remain poorly understood. A recent pioneering study by Garzon‐Coral et al. uses magnetic tweezers to perform the first direct measurements of the forces involved in positioning the mitotic spindle. Combining this with molecular perturbations and geometrical effects, they use their data to argue that the forces that keep the spindle in its proper position for cell division arise from astral microtubules growing and pushing against the cell's cortex. Here, we review these ground‐breaking experiments, the various biomechanical models for spindle positioning that they seek to differentiate, and discuss new questions raised by these measurements.
Cytotoxic and mutagenic properties of alkyl phosphotriester lesions in Escherichia coli cells

Abstract Exposure to many endogenous and exogenous agents can give rise to DNA alkylation, which constitutes a major type of DNA damage. Among the DNA alkylation products, alkyl phosphotriesters have relatively high frequencies of occurrence and are resistant to repair in mammalian tissues. However, little is known about how these lesions affect the efficiency and fidelity of DNA replication in cells or how the replicative bypass of these lesions is modulated by translesion synthesis DNA polymerases. In this study, we synthesized oligodeoxyribonucleotides containing four pairs (Sp and Rp) of alkyl phosphotriester lesions at a defined site, and examined how these lesions are recognized by DNA replication machinery in Escherichia coli cells. We found that the Sp diastereomer of the alkyl phosphotriester lesions could be efficiently bypassed, whereas the Rp counterparts moderately blocked DNA replication. Moreover, the Sp-methyl phosphotriester induced TT→GT and TT→GC mutations at the flanking TT dinucleotide site, and the induction of these mutations required Ada protein, which is known to remove efficiently the methyl group from the Sp-methyl phosphotriester. Together, our study provided a comprehensive understanding about the recognition of alkyl phosphotriester lesions by DNA replication machinery in cells, and revealed for the first time the Ada-dependent induction of mutations at the Sp-methyl phosphotriester site.
Real-time imaging of single neuronal cell apoptosis in patients with glaucoma

See Herms and Schön (doi:10.1093/brain/awx100) for a scientific commentary on this article. Glaucoma is often diagnosed late when vision loss has already occurred. Cordeiro et al. report a new fluorescent marker for retinal imaging that can safely visualise real-time in vivo neuronal apoptosis in patients. Increased labelling is observed in patients with progressive neurodegenerative disease compared to healthy controls.
Characteristics of H3 K27M-mutant gliomas in adults

Background Diffuse H3 K27M-mutant gliomas occur primarily in children but can also be encountered in adults. The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of H3 K27M-mutant gliomas in adults. Methods We analyzed the characteristics of 21 adult H3 K27M-mutant gliomas and compared them with those of 135 adult diffuse gliomas without histone H3 and without isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutation (IDH/H3 wild type). Results The median age at diagnosis in H3 K27M-mutant gliomas was 32 years (range: 18-82 y). All tumors had a midline location (spinal cord n = 6, thalamus n = 5, brainstem n = 5, cerebellum n = 3, hypothalamus n = 1, and pineal region n = 1) and were IDH and BRAF-V600E wild type. The identification of an H3 K27M mutation significantly impacted the diagnosis in 3 patients (14%) for whom the histological aspect initially suggested a diffuse low-grade glioma and in 7 patients (33%) for whom pathological analysis hesitated between a diffuse glioma, ganglioglioma, or pilocytic astrocytoma. Compared with IDH/H3 wild-type gliomas, H3 K27M-mutant gliomas were diagnosed at an earlier age (32 vs 64 y, P < .001), always had a midline location (21/21 vs 21/130, P < .001), less frequently had a methylated MGMT promoter (1/21 vs 52/129, P = .002), and lacked EGFR amplification (0/21 vs 26/128, P = .02). The median survival was 19.6 months in H3 K27M-mutant gliomas and 17 months in IDH/H3 wild-type gliomas (P = .3). Conclusion In adults, as in children, H3 K27M mutations define a distinct subgroup of IDH wild-type gliomas characterized by a constant midline location, low rate of MGMT promoter methylation, and poor prognosis.
Transient Antenatal Bartter’s Syndrome: A Case Report

Antenatal Bartter’s syndrome is a rare inherited disorder characterized by fetal polyhydramnios and polyuria that is usually detected between 24 and 30 weeks of gestation. However, a rare, severe, but transient form of antenatal Bartter’s syndrome due to an x-linked melanoma-associated antigen D2 (MAGED2) mutation has recently been described. This transient type results in the earlier onset of severe polyhydramnios and preterm birth, but spontaneously resolves postnatally. Here, we present a case of a 29-week gestation male born to a mother with severe polyhydramnios, who was subsequently found to have a novel mutation for MAGED2 not previously reported. This is the first and only case not to be treated with indomethacin, yet still resulted in spontaneous resolution of symptoms. Our case suggests the need for awareness of and testing for this new mutation in cases of severe antenatal polyhydramnios and discusses the perinatal treatment of this condition.
Elevated Plasma Transforming Growth Factor &bgr;1 Levels Predict the Development of Hypertension in Normotensives: The 14-Year Follow-Up Study

BACKGROUND Transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) is a multifunctional cytokine. There is growing evidence that TGF-β1 is involved in the pathogenesis of hypertension and the development of target organ damage in hypertensives. Although several studies have shown that TGF-β1 induced vascular hypertrophy and remodelling in various vascular diseases, there are no longitudinal data on hypertension in the epidemiological studies. The present study tested the hypothesis whether elevated TGF-β1 levels can predict the development of hypertension. METHODS In 2002-2004, 528 subjects received health examinations in Uku town, southwestern Japan. We examined blood pressure (BP), body mass index, and blood test. Data on fasting plasma TGF-β1 were obtained from 528 individuals. Of these, 149 normotensives (BP <140/90 mm Hg without antihypertensive medications) at baseline were followed-up for 14 years. RESULTS The receiver-operating characteristic curve was used and the calculated cutoff value was 8.9 ng/ml. Of 149 normotensives at baseline, 59 subjects developed hypertension. Plasma TGF-β1 levels were significantly associated with the development of hypertension after adjustment for confounding factors. To further examine the association between them, we performed logistic regression analysis. We divided the baseline plasma TGF-β1 levels into 2 groups using a cutoff value. The significant high odds ratio [3.582 (95% confidence interval, 1.025-12.525)] for the development of hypertension was found in the highest group of TGF-β1 level vs. the lowest group after adjustment for confounders. CONCLUSIONS This is the first report demonstrating the causal relationship between them. Elevated plasma TGF-β1 levels predicted the development of hypertension in normotensives in a population of community-dwelling Japanese.
The Role of Early Gestation Ultrasound in the Assessment of Fetal Anatomy in Maternal Obesity

The 2012 Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health fetal imaging consensus suggested that fetal anatomy ultrasound in obese pregnancies be performed at 20 to 22 weeks, with follow‐up in 2 to 4 weeks if anatomy is incomplete. It was postulated that imaging in early gestation may improve visualization, although no prospective trials had been done to date.
Distinct Types of Fibrocyte Can Differentiate from Mononuclear Cells in the Presence and Absence of Serum

Background Fibrocytes are bone-marrow derived cells, expressing both haematopoietic and stromal cell markers, which contribute to tissue repair as well as pathological fibrosis. The differentiation of fibrocytes remains poorly characterised and this has limited understanding of their biology and function. In particular two methods are used to generate fibrocytes in vitro that differ fundamentally by the presence or absence of serum. Methodology/Principal Findings We show here that fibrocytes grown in the absence of serum (SF) differentiate more efficiently from peripheral blood mononuclear cells than CD14+ monocytes, and respond to serum by losing their spindle-shaped fibrocyte morphology. Although fibrocytes generated in the presence of serum (SC) express the same range of markers, they differentiate more efficiently from CD14+ monocytes and do not change their morphology in response to serum. Transcriptional analysis revealed that both types of fibrocyte are distinct from each other, fibroblasts and additional monocyte-derived progeny. The gene pathways that differ significantly between SF and SC fibrocytes include those involved in cell migration, immune responses and response to wounding. Conclusions/Significance These data show that SF and SC fibrocytes are distinct but related cell types, and suggest that they will play different roles during tissue repair and fibrosis where changes in serum proteins may occur.
Space-Time Uplink Transmission in Non-Coherent Systems With Receiver Having Massive Antennas

In this letter, an uplink communication scenario in which one dual-antenna transmitter communicates with a receiver having massive antennas is considered. We propose a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2\times 2$ </tex-math></inline-formula> space-time transmission scheme, which does not require any knowledge of instantaneous channel state information at either transmitter or receiver. Based on the non-coherent maximum-likelihood detector, we derive the pairwise error probability (PEP) performance and analyze its upper and lower bounds, which show the PEP decays exponentially with the number of receiving antennas. In addition, two criteria are obtained for designing the transmitting signal matrix <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\mathbf{S}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, i.e., the determinant and trace criteria of matrix <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\mathbf{S}}^{H}{\mathbf{S}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. With these criteria, we present a space-time signal design based on PSK constellation. Finally, computer simulations are performed to show how this design works, and numerical results validate the tightness of the upper and lower bounds when the number of receiving antennas is large.
An efficient storage technique for network monitoring data

Monitoring modern networks involves storing and transferring huge amounts of data. For this reason, compression techniques are typically used in order to reduce the space and time needed for these operations. The main drawback of this approach is that, when data has to be processed, a preliminary decompression is necessary, which increases the time and computational power needed. To cope with this problem, in this paper we propose a technique that allows to transform the measurement data in a representation format meeting two main objectives at the same time. Firstly, it allows to perform a number of operations directly on the transformed data with a controlled loss of accuracy, thanks to the mathematical framework it is based on. Secondly, the new representation has a small memory footprint, allowing to reduce the space needed for data storage and the time needed for data transfer. To validate our technique, we perform an analysis of its performance in terms of accuracy and memory footprint. The results show that the transformed data closely approximates the original data (within 5% relative error) while achieving the compression ratio of 20%; storage footprint can be gradually made close to that of the state-of-the-art compression tools, such as bzip2, if higher approximation is allowed.