Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Divergent Thinking in Parkinsonism: A Case–Control Study

Background Creativity is a multidimensional phenomenon and an important component of human capacities. This ability is characterized by the involvement of several cognitive functions particularly linked to the prefrontal cortex. We compared divergent thinking, a measure of creativity, in patients affected by progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), other parkinsonian syndromes, and healthy controls (HCs). Methods Creativity features were evaluated using the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA). Consecutive PSP outpatients were screened for inclusion. Then, patients with multiple system atrophy (MSA) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) and a group of HC were studied. All groups have preserved cognitive functions and were matched for gender, education, disease duration, and age at onset with exception of PD patients who were matched by disease severity rather than disease duration. Results PSP patients were characterized by lower values in total ATTA and all subscales than HC and both MSA and PD patients. No differences were found comparing HC versus both MSA and PD patients. PSP patients were characterized by more impaired frontal functioning [assessed by means of Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB)] than HC and both PD and MSA patients. Conclusion In the present study, ATTA was significantly lower in PSP patients than in the other study groups. The worst performance in ATTA-total score and the lower score in FAB in PSP patients support the role of frontal function in creative processes.
EXPRESSION AND PROGNOSTIC VALUE OF HCG IN DIGESTIVE TRACT MALIGNANCIES

An improvement is proposed in the method for the preparation of a ceramic heater consisting of a substrate of boron nitride, patterned graphite layer thereon as an electric resistance heater element and an overall cladding layer of pyrolytic boron nitride formed on allover the surface after pattern-wise engraving of the graphite layer and the substrate in order to enhance the stability of the cladding layer against crack formation or exfoliation. The improvement is achieved by limiting the depth of engraving not to exceed 200 mu m or chamfering and rounding of the edged and recessed ridge lines formed by engraving so that the cross sectional profile is in a smooth contour having a radius of curvature not smaller than 0.5 mm.
OpenStackEmu — A cloud testbed combining network emulation with OpenStack and SDN

OpenStack has been widely acknowledged to be one of the most important open source cloud platforms. In order to perform experimentally driven research in the area of cloud and cloud networking, there is however a big gap, because most researchers do not have access to a large cloud deployment and cannot change networking or compute infrastructure in order to test their algorithms and protocols on a large-scale. We developed OpenStackEmu, which is to the best of our knowledge the first attempt that combines OpenStack infrastructure with a Software Defined Networking (SDN) based controller such as OpenDay-light and a large-scale network emulator CORE (Common Open Research Emulator). The OpenStack compute and control nodes are connected to the CORE emulation server using TUN/TAP interfaces that inject the control (e.g. for VM migration) and data (VM-to-VM traffic) packets into a customizable network topology that is emulated using configurable Open vSwitches using CORE emulator. Experimenters can define e.g. fat-tree or distributed data center topologies and study the behavior of real VMs and services in those VMs under different background loads and SDN routing policies. We integrated the data center traffic generator DCT2Gen that allows to generate realistic background traffic based on traces from real data centers. Experimenters can study the performance impact of different VM migration strategies or different routing and load balancing schemes on real VM and application performance using different emulated topologies. We believe that OpenStackEmu is an important tool for both the SDN and OpenStack community in order to evaluate the performance of novel algorithms and protocols in the area of cloud networking.
Distributed throughput maximization in hybrid-forwarding P2P VoD applications

In peer-to-peer (P2P) video-on-demand (VoD) systems, a scalable source coding is a promising solution to provide heterogeneous peers with different video quality. In a scalable P2P VoD system, the received video quality at each peer is dependent on the throughput if the packet redundancy has been addressed with coding techniques. In this paper, we propose a hybrid-forwarding P2P VoD architecture, which integrates both the buffer-forwarding approach and storage-forwarding approach. Furthermore, we develop a distributed algorithm to maximize the throughput. Through simulations, we demonstrate that the hybrid-forwarding architecture can obtain a much higher throughput compared to the architecture with only buffer- forwarding links or with only storage-forwarding links.
The roles of platelets in inflammation , immunity , wound healing and malignancy

The roles of platelets as essential effector cells in hemostasis have been known for over a century. Platelets also have many other functions, which are facilitated by their complex morphological structures and their ability to synthesize and store a variety of biochemical substances. These substances are released via the platelet release reaction in response to tissue/cell damage. The aim of the current study was to review the reported functions of platelets in inflammation, immunity, wound healing and malignancy. For this purpose, we used relevant data from the latest numerous scientific studies, including review articles, and original research articles. Platelets physiologically respond to inflammation by recruiting inflammatory cells to repair and resolve injuries. This response is facilitated by the ability of platelets to promote vascular permeability under inflammatory conditions. Platelets have critical roles in innate and adaptive immune responses and extensively interact with endothelial cells, various pathogens, and almost all known immune cell types, including neutrophils, monocytes, macrophages and lymphocytes. Additionally, platelets affect wound healing by integrating complex cascades between their mediators, which include multiple cytokines, transforming growth factors, platelet growth factors, and vascular endothelial growth factors, among others. In addition, recent evidence suggests that platelets play a significant role in the pathogenesis of malignancy by forming complex, bidirectional interactions with tumor cells. In the future, platelet functions, including their actions in vivo, will become further clarified, especially their clinical implications.
Natural image statistics mediate brightness ‘filling in’

Although the human visual system can accurately estimate the reflectance (or lightness) of surfaces under enormous variations in illumination, two equiluminant grey regions can be induced to appear quite different simply by placing a light–dark luminance transition between them. This illusion, the Craik–Cornsweet–O'Brien (CCOB) effect, has been taken as evidence for a low–level ‘filling–in’ mechanism subserving lightness perception. Here, we present evidence that the mechanism responsible for the CCOB effect operates not via propagation of a neural signal across space but by amplification of the low spatial frequency (SF) structure of the image. We develop a simple computational model that relies on the statistics of natural scenes actively to reconstruct the image that is most likely to have caused an observed series of responses across SF channels. This principle is tested psychophysically by deriving classification images (CIs) for subjects' discrimination of the contrast polarity of CCOB stimuli masked with noise. CIs resemble ‘filled–in’ stimuli; i.e. observers rely on portions of the stimuli that contain no information per se but that correspond closely to the reported perceptual completion. As predicted by the model, the filling–in process is contingent on the presence of appropriate low SF structure.
On background-independent open-string field theory.

A framework for background-independent open-string field theory is proposed. The approach involves using the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism, in a way suggested by recent developments in closed-string field theory, to implicitly define a gauge-invariant Lagrangian in a hypothetical space of all open-string world-sheet theories. '' It is built into the formalism that classical solutions of the string field theory are Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin- (BRST-) invariant open-string world-sheet theories and that, when expanding around a classical solution, the infinitesimal gauge transformations are generated by the world-sheet BRST operator.
Cardiovascular response to dynamic exercise in patients with chronic symptomatic mild-to-moderate and severe aortic regurgitation.

Fifteen patients with symptomatic mild-to-moderate and severe chronic aortic regurgitation (AR) performed supine bicycle exercise while measurements of rest and exercise hemodynamics and left ventricular function were obtained. A continuous Doppler method was used to determine the change in distribution of total left ventricular stroke volume between forward stroke volume and regurgitant volume (RgV) with exercise. The pulmonary arterial wedge pressure (PAWP) was lower in the mild-to-moderate AR group than in the severe AR group at rest (8 +/- 1.2 vs 19 +/- 3.6 mm Hg, p = 0.01) and during exercise (15 +/- 3.9 vs 30 +/- 4.3 mm Hg, p = .02). In all patients there were increases in heart rate (78 +/- 4 to 96 +/- 5 beats/min, p less than .001), forward stroke volume (41 +/- 2 to 46 +/- 2 ml/m2), and the cardiac index (3.1 +/- 0.2 to 4.4 +/- 0.3 liters/min-m2, p less than .001), despite a fall in total left ventricular stroke volume index from 84 +/- 5 to 76 +/- 5 ml/m2 (p = .03). The systemic vascular resistance (SVR) decreased with exercise from 1277 +/- 72 to 1031 +/- 64 dynes-sec/cm5 (p less than .001), and the RgV and regurgitant fraction (RgF) both decreased with exercise from 43 +/- 5 ml/m2 to 30 +/- 4 ml/m2 (p = .002) and 0.50 +/- 0.03 to 0.37 +/- 0.03 (p less than .001), respectively. Left ventricular ejection fraction increased on exercise from 0.51 +/- 0.03 to 0.55 +/- 0.03 (p = .02) for the group, but it either decreased or failed to increase by at least 0.05 in seven of 13 patients. The change in ejection fraction on exercise was directly related to the change in SVR (r = .80, p less than .001). We conclude that: in patients with mild-to-moderate AR, the PAWP is generally normal at rest and exercise, in most of those with severe AR, the PAWP is elevated at rest and increases significantly with exercise, which is the likely mechanism for dyspnea on exertion in these patients, the cardiac index in both groups is normal at rest and increases on exercise, the increase in cardiac output results from both an increased heart rate and forward stroke volume, the increase in forward stroke volume results from reductions of RgV and RgF, the RgV and RgF are decreased due to a decreased SVR, and the ejection fraction response to exercise is variable and correlates best with changes in SVR with exercise.
Mudanças climáticas, mortalidade e adaptação no Brasil

xi 1 INTRODUÇÃO . 1 1.1 Considerações iniciais. 1 1.2 O problema e sua importância. 3 1.3 Hipóteses . 9 1.4 Objetivos . 9 2 MODELO TEÓRICO . 11 3 METODOLOGIA . 18 3.1 Taxas de mortalidade . 18 3.2 Consumo residencial de energia elétrica. 22 3.3 Disposição a pagar/aceitar pelas mudanças climáticas . 24 3.4 Dados em painel. 26 3.5 Fonte de dados . 28 3.6 Estatística descritiva dos dados. 30
American Cancer Society Guidelines for Breast Cancer Screening: Update 2003

In 2003, the American Cancer Society updated its guidelines for early detection of breast cancer based on recommendations from a formal review of evidence and a recent workshop. The new screening recommendations address screening mammography, physical examination, screening older women and women with comorbid conditions, screening women at high risk, and new screening technologies.
Target Selection and Determination of Function in Structural Genomics

The first crucial step in any structural genomics project is the selection and prioritization of target proteins for structure determination. There may be a number of selection criteria to be satisfied, including that the proteins have novel folds, that they be representatives of large families for which no structure is known, and so on. The better the selection at this stage, the greater is the value of the structures obtained at the end of the experimental process. This value can be further enhanced once the protein structures have been solved if the functions of the given proteins can also be determined. Here we describe the methods used at either end of the experimental process: firstly, sensitive sequence comparison techniques for selecting a high‐quality list of target proteins, and secondly the various computational methods that can be applied to the eventual 3D structures to determine the most likely biochemical function of the proteins in question. IUBMB Life, 55: 249‐255, 2003
Optical Image Generation and High-precision Line-of-Sight Extraction for Mars Approach Navigation – CORRIGENDUM

1. On page 1, the sentence in the Abstract, “Next, a hybrid image processing and subpixellevel line-of-sight extraction algorithm is proposed through modification of moment-based sub-pixel edge detection and improvement of direct least-square fitting approaches. ” should be revised as “Next, a hybrid image processing and line-of-sight extraction algorithm is proposed through objective segmentation and rough edge detection, pseudo-edge elimination and precise edge detection, and robust ellipse fitting. ”
Run-time component allocation in CPU-GPU embedded systems

Nowadays, many of the modern embedded applications such as vehicles and robots, interact with the environment and receive huge amount of data through various sensors such as cameras and radars. The challenge of processing large amount of data, within an acceptable performance, is solved by employing embedded systems that incorporate complementary attributes of CPUs and Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), i.e., sequential and parallel execution models. Component-based development (CBD) is a software engineering methodology that augments the applications development through reuse of software blocks known as components. In developing a CPU-GPU embedded application using CBD, allocation of components to different processing units of the platform is an important activity which can affect the overall performance of the system. In this context, there is also often the need to support and achieve run-time component allocation due to various factors and situations that can happen during system execution, such as switching off parts of the system for energy saving. In this paper, we provide a solution that dynamically allocates components using various system information such as the available resources (e.g., available GPU memory) and the software behavior (e.g., in terms of GPU memory usage). The novelty of our work is a formal allocation model that considers GPU system characteristics computed on-the-fly through software monitoring solutions. For the presentation and validation of our solution, we utilize an existing underwater robot demonstrator.
SerpinB2 Is Critical to Th2 Immunity against Enteric Nematode Infection

SerpinB2, a member of the serine protease inhibitor family, is expressed by macrophages and is significantly upregulated by inflammation. Recent studies implicated a role for SerpinB2 in the control of Th1 and Th2 immune responses, but the mechanisms of these effects are unknown. In this study, we used mice deficient in SerpinB2 (SerpinB2−/−) to investigate its role in the host response to the enteric nematode, Heligmosomoides bakeri. Nematode infection induced a STAT6-dependent increase in intestinal SerpinB2 expression. The H. bakeri–induced upregulation of IL-4 and IL-13 expression was attenuated in SerpinB2−/− mice coincident with an impaired worm clearance. In addition, lack of SerpinB2 in mice resulted in a loss of the H. bakeri–induced smooth muscle hypercontractility and a significant delay in infection-induced increase in mucosal permeability. Th2 immunity is generally linked to a CCL2-mediated increase in the infiltration of macrophages that develop into the alternatively activated phenotype (M2). In H. bakeri–infected SerpinB2−/− mice, there was an impaired infiltration and alternative activation of macrophages accompanied by a decrease in the intestinal CCL2 expression. Studies in macrophages isolated from SerpinB2−/− mice showed a reduced CCL2 expression, but normal M2 development, in response to stimulation of Th2 cytokines. These data demonstrate that the immune regulation of SerpinB2 expression plays a critical role in the development of Th2-mediated protective immunity against nematode infection by a mechanism involving CCL2 production and macrophage infiltration.
Vaginal pH and Microbicidal Lactic Acid When Lactobacilli Dominate the Microbiota

Lactic acid at sufficiently acidic pH is a potent microbicide, and lactic acid produced by vaginal lactobacilli may help protect against reproductive tract infections. However, previous observations likely underestimated healthy vaginal acidity and total lactate concentration since they failed to exclude women without a lactobacillus-dominated vaginal microbiota, and also did not account for the high carbon dioxide, low oxygen environment of the vagina. Fifty-six women with low (0-3) Nugent scores (indicating a lactobacillus-dominated vaginal microbiota) and no symptoms of reproductive tract disease or infection, provided a total of 64 cervicovaginal fluid samples using a collection method that avoided the need for sample dilution and rigorously minimized aerobic exposure. The pH of samples was measured by microelectrode immediately after collection and under a physiological vaginal concentration of CO2. Commercial enzymatic assays of total lactate and total acetate concentrations were validated for use in CVF, and compared to the more usual HPLC method. The average pH of the CVF samples was 3.5 ± 0.3 (mean ± SD), range 2.8-4.2, and the average total lactate was 1.0% ± 0.2% w/v; this is a five-fold higher average hydrogen ion concentration (lower pH) and a fivefold higher total lactate concentration than in the prior literature. The microbicidal form of lactic acid (protonated lactic acid) was therefore eleven-fold more concentrated, and a markedly more potent microbicide, than indicated by prior research. This suggests that when lactobacilli dominate the vaginal microbiota, women have significantly more lactic acid-mediated protection against infections than currently believed. Our results invite further evaluations of the prophylactic and therapeutic actions of vaginal lactic acid, whether provided in situ by endogenous lactobacilli, by probiotic lactobacilli, or by products that reinforce vaginal lactic acid.
Interferometric technique for engineering indistinguishability and entanglement of photon pairs

We give a detailed account of a recently introduced technique to suppress distinguishing information in the space-time component of the state vector of a pair of photons. The method works by creating interference between two possible ways for each photon to occupy any given space-time mode. Under certain conditions, this technique also allows the preparation of the two photons in a highly entangled space-time state.
Definition of Extreme El Niño and Its Impact on Projected Increase in Extreme El Niño Frequency

During extreme El Niño events, the Intertropical Convergence Zone moves to the normally cold and dry east equatorial Pacific, resulting in a nonlinear rainfall increase with sea surface temperature in the region. An arbitrary threshold value of boreal winter total rainfall (e.g., 5 mm d−1) in the east equatorial Pacific was used by previous studies to capture this feature. Under greenhouse warming, the frequency of extreme El Niño events is projected to increase, so is the mean east equatorial Pacific rainfall. Is the projected frequency increase a consequence of the mean rainfall increase? We show that the projection is not significantly influenced by the increased mean rainfall. Instead, the increased frequency accounts for approximately 50% of the mean rainfall increase. Using upward atmospheric vertical velocity for defining extreme El Niño reaffirms the conclusion that the increased frequency results from increased probability of atmospheric deep convection, as the eastern equatorial Pacific warms faster than the surrounding regions.
A Fusion based Approach of Face Detection using Viola – Jones and Skin Color Modeling Technique

Human computer interaction is dealing with different branches of learning that involves the interaction of human with machines directly. For an effective interaction between the machines and humans a user friendly and interactive interface needed. Automatic Face Detection and Recognition proves as a solution for that. Face is a physiological characteristic that indicates what we have in the mind by analyzing the facial expressions such as screaming, happiness and so on. The various factors such as identity, gender, expression, age and pose can be efficiently analyzed by observing the information contained a face. It is very easy for humans to recognize faces because human beings are very good in recognizing process, but it seems to be challenging for machines in the field of computer vision. Therefore, many researchers contribute their interest and attention in this emerging field. In this paper our focus on analyzing the existing faces detection techniques and combining some compatible techniques to form a model with improved efficiency and better detection rate.
A Synthesis Method for MVL Reversible Logic

An r-valued m-variable reversible logic function maps each of the r m input patters to a unique output pattern. The synthesis problem is to realize a reversible function by a cascade of primitive reversible gates. In this paper, we present a simple heuristic algorithm that exploits the bidirectional synthesis possibility inherent in the reversibility of the specification. The primitive reversible gates considered here are one possible extension of the well-known binary Toffoli gates. We present exhaustive results for the 9! 2-variable 3-valued reversible functions comparing the results of our algorithm to optimal results found by breadth-first search. The approach can be applied to general m-variable, r-valued reversible specifications. Further, we show how the presented technique can be applied to irreversible specifications. The synthesis of a 3-input, 3-valued adder is given as a specific case.