Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tight Link Between Our Sense of Limb Ownership and Self-Awareness of Actions

Background and Purpose— Hemiparetic stroke patients with disturbed awareness for their motor weakness (anosognosia for hemiparesis/-plegia [AHP]) may exhibit further abnormal attitudes toward or perceptions of the affected limb(s). The present study investigated the clinical relationship and the anatomy of such abnormal attitudes and AHP. Methods— In a new series of 79 consecutively admitted acute stroke patients with right brain damage and hemiparesis/ -plegia, different types of abnormal attitudes toward the hemiparetic/plegic limb (asomatognosia, somatoparaphrenia, anosodiaphoria, misoplegia, personification, kinaesthetic hallucinations, supernumerary phantom limb) were investigated. Results— Ninty-two percent of the patients with AHP showed additional “disturbed sensation of limb ownership” (DSO) for the paretic/plegic limb. The patients had the feeling that their contralesional limb(s) do not belong to their body or even belong to another person. Analysis of lesion location revealed that the right posterior insula is a crucial structure involved in these phenomena. Conclusions— DSO for hemiparetic/-plegic limbs and AHP are tightly linked both clinically and anatomically. The right posterior insula seems to be a crucial structure involved in the genesis of our sense of limb ownership and self-awareness of actions.
Latency Performance of SOAP Implementations

This paper presents an experimental evaluation of the latency performance of several implementations of Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) operating over HTTP, and compares these results with the performance Of JavaRMI, CORBA, HTTP, and with the TCP setup time. SOAP is an XML based protocol that supports RPC and message semantics. While SOAP has been designed as an interoperable business-to-business protocol usable over the Internet, we believe that applications will also use SOAP for interactive web applications running within an intranet. The objective of this paper is to identify the sources of inefficiency in the current implementations of SOAP and discuss changes that can improve their performance. SOAP implementations studied include Microsoft SOAP Toolkit, the SOAP: Lite Perl module, and Apache SOAP.
Relationships Between Health-Related Fitness Knowledge, Perceived Competence, Self-Determination, and Physical Activity Behaviors of High School Students

The purpose of this study was (a) to test a hypothesized model of motivation within the context of conceptual physical education (CPE), and (b) to explore the strength and directionality of perceived competence for physical activity as a possible mediator for health-related fitness knowledge (HRFK) and physical activity behaviors. High school students (N = 280) at the end of a CPE course completed the following: Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire–2, Godin Leisure–Time Exercise Questionnaire, Perceived Competence Scale, and a HRFK Questionnaire. Structural equation modeling analysis was used to explore the relationships between the variables of HRFK, perceived competence, motivation, and physical activity. The analysis resulted in a modified model that showed a relationship between perceived competence and physical activity, mediated by introjected and identified regulation. A relationship also existed between HRFK and external regulation indicating students felt controlled. Suggested value-pr.
Online Motion Planning for UAV under Uncertain Environment

This paper proposes a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) based planning framework for the fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) under sensing and motion uncertainty. The objective is to navigate a UAV with a partially known map and noisy sensors to reach the goal position while avoiding obstacles. Taking the non-holonomic constraints into consideration, the off-line point-based planning algorithm is first proposed to compute the approximate value function and find the locally optimal solution, which must be collision-free and feasible. In order to be suitable to the changeable environment with unknown obstacles, a real-time on-line planning algorithm is designed. Simulation results demonstrate the efficiency and utility of our approach for UAV guidance in the uncertain environment.
Ieee Transactions on Wireless Communications 1 a Glrt Approach to Data-aided Timing Acquisition in Uwb Radios – Part Ii: Training Sequence Design *

— The overall system efficiency of impulse radio communications relies critically on judicious allocation of transmission resources, a portion of which should be used to ensure successful timing acquisition. In a data-aided mode, optimum timing offset estimation depends not only on the mechanism used for energy capture and the acquisition algorithm employed to recover timing information, but also on the training sequence pattern from which the timing information is to be extracted. Furthermore, the transmission resources used for timing have to be balanced with that for conveying information messages, in order to strike desirable tradeoffs between timing accuracy and information rate. In a companion paper (Part I), data-aided timing offset estimation is derived based on the maximum likelihood (ML) criterion, where only symbol-rate samples are needed for low-complexity receiver processing. To minimize the mean-square timing errors of these ML synchronizers while at the same time maximizing the average system capacity, training sequence design and transmit power allocation are investigated in this paper. The optimum training pattern, as well as the number, placement and power distribution between training and information-bearing symbols, are formulated as a resource allocation optimization problem, whose solution optimizes system-level performance with the minimum amount of resources consumed. I. INTRODUCTION Ultra-wideband (UWB) radios have spurred great interest in both academia and industry for their potential use in high-speed, short-range wireless multiple access with capability to overlay existing channelized RF services [1] – [3]. The attractive features of UWB impulse radios stem from their unique transmission structure: a stream of ultra-short (on the order of sub-nanoseconds) pulses transmitted at very low power density with a low duty cycle. To maintain adequate signal energy for reliable detection, each symbol is transmitted over a large number of frames with one pulse per frame. As a result, acquisition (a.k.a. coarse timing) is required at the frame level to find out when the first frame in each symbol starts. The acquisition task is particularly critical to reliable transmissions over dense multipath propagation environments [2], [4], [5], [6], where symbol detection performance is relatively robust to where each symbol starts within its first frame-a task to be accomplished by tracking (a.k.a. fine timing) schemes [7].
Sit down, relax and unwind: structural insights into RecQ helicase mechanisms

Helicases are specialized molecular motors that separate duplex nucleic acids into single strands. The RecQ family of helicases functions at the interface of DNA replication, recombination and repair in bacterial and eukaryotic cells. They are key, multifunctional enzymes that have been linked to three human diseases: Bloom's, Werner's and Rothmund–Thomson's syndromes. This review summarizes recent studies that relate the structures of RecQ proteins to their biochemical activities.
Ontological Domain Coding for Cultural Heritage Mediation

An ontology-based representation of information about a domain is flexible enough to support different strategies in presenting the information. In this paper, we present two applications for creating interactive presentations in a cultural heritage domain, that share the same database of informative units and the same representation of the domain, encoded in a light-weight ontology. An application for drama-based guided tours assembles the informative units in a location-aware fashion, by exploiting the structure of the ontology to enforce the notion of discourse focusing in the generated presentation. A browsing-based application for accessing the informative units supports semantic search, consulting the ontology to suggest modifications of the user's search to circumscribe or enlarge the result sets.
Yoway: Coupling Narrative Structure with Physical Exploration in Multi-Linear Locative Narratives

Locative narratives can implement different modes of coupling of the physical space and the narrative content, impacting how the user experiences and understands the story. Narrative causal relations are difficult to maintain when the user can freely explore the physical environment. In this paper we focus on multiple interlaced narratives, and the relation among narrative design, physical space and interaction, and its influence on the players'' exploration mode, story comprehension, and immersion. We conducted an in-situ user study with YoWay, a locative narrative app that presents three intertwined historical fictions in the Glories area of Barcelona. Results show how users were able to combine linear navigation with simultaneous exploration of spatially close contents from interrelated storylines, achieving a good understanding of the story and engaging with the experience.
Modelling moral choice as a diffusion process dependent on visual fixations

A current aim in research on moral cognition is the development of computational models of moral choices and judgements. We fit diffusion models with and without dependence on visual fixations to data on binary moral choices. We find that a fixation dependent model provides a better fit and can capture many features of the empirical data. We discuss the implications for understanding moral cognition and future development of moral choice models.
Laminar Shear Stress Up-regulates Peroxiredoxins (PRX) in Endothelial Cells

Shear stress plays a significant role in endothelial cell biology and atherosclerosis development. Previous work by our group has shown that fluid flow stimulates important functional changes in cells through protein expression regulation. Peroxiredoxins (PRX) are a family of antioxidant enzymes but have yet to be investigated in response to shear stress. Studies have shown that oscillatory shear stress (OS) increases reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in endothelial cells, whereas laminar shear stress (LS) blocks this response. We hypothesized that PRX are responsible for the anti-oxidative effect of LS. To test this hypothesis, bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAEC) were subjected to LS (15 dyn/cm2), OS (±5 dyn/cm2, 1 Hz), or static conditions for 24 h. Using Western blot and immunofluorescence staining, all six isoforms of PRX were identified in BAEC. When compared with OS and static, exposure to chronic LS up-regulated PRX 1 levels intracellularly. LS also increased expression of PRX 5 relative to static controls, but not OS. PRX exhibited broad subcellular localization, with distribution in the cytoplasm, Golgi, mitochondria, and intermediate filaments. In addition, PRX 1 knock down, using specific small interference RNA, attenuated LS-dependent reactive oxygen species reduction in BAEC. However, PRX 5 depletion did not. Together, these results suggest that PRX 1 is a novel mechanosensitive antioxidant, playing an important role in shear-dependent regulation of endothelial biology and atherosclerosis.
Demand Side Storage to Increase Hydroelectric Generation Efficiency

In this paper, a new generation control strategy is proposed based on combined use of different resources including large hydroelectric power plants and directly controlled industrial responsive loads. Water pumping in water storage systems is modeled as a virtual power plant (VPP) in transmission system. The balance model is in the economic dispatch (ED) time frame and loads are scheduled to be dispatched optimally along with the swing hydroelectric plant, which realizes load-following and frequency regulation. The model is implemented on the IEEE 24 bus reliability test system with hydroelectric generation units. Real-field data of responsive loads are used and the results show the value of flexibility of responsive loads in increasing generation efficiency of hydroelectric power plants operated in swing mode.
Potential Blood Biological Markers of Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects millions of older adults worldwide, and the prevalence and incidence are expected to grow at exponential rates in coming years. Identifying potential targets for intervention to delay onset, slow progression, or effectively treat AD is of extreme public health importance. Better understanding blood biomarkers of AD is one means of identifying such targets. This dissertation investigates potential blood biomarkers of AD, including plasma amyloid beta 42 (Aβ42) and Aβ40, and inflammatory markers interleukin 6 (IL-6), IL-6 soluble receptor (IL-6 sR), and C-reactive protein (CRP). Measurement of Aβ42 and Aβ40 in cerebrospinal fluid has been used to identify people with AD, and distinguish from other types of dementia. In plasma, the ratio Aβ42/Aβ40 has emerged as a potentially useful biomarker of AD. However, correlates of plasma Aβ40 and Aβ42 are unknown. We investigated the demographic and medical correlates of plasma Aβ40 and Aβ42. We found that in community-dwelling, older adults, plasma Aβ40 and Aβ42 were significantly associated with age, race, sex, education, Apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype, and serum creatinine. Due to the inflammatory state associated with AD pathology, and with risk factors of AD, inflammatory markers are potentially useful biomarkers of AD. Previous studies have focused on measuring inflammatory markers at one time point; this has major limitations due to the non-specific nature of inflammatory markers, and the large number of inflammation triggers. We studied how change in inflammation over time predicts risk of dementia and cognitive decline. In a cohort of oldest old women, we found that high IL-6 sR at two time points, or transitioning to from low to high reduced the risk of developing dementia. Furthermore, in a cohort of older, black and white men and women, we found that extreme variability in CRP over time was associated with increased risk for cognitive decline over 10 years. This association was stronger among women and among those with no APOE e4 allele. We believe these results not only indicate the complexity of the immune system in older adults, but also suggest the role of vascular disease in the development of cognitive decline. New evidence suggesting that vascular disease is also related to Aβ deposition suggests that the relationships we found may hold for vascular dementia and AD. Future research should investigate how all of these markers together relate to cognitive function, as well as to AD and vascular dementia pathologies, such as amyloid deposition and white matter hyperintensities.
Measurement of canopy geometry characteristics using LiDAR laser altimetry: a feasibility study

Airborne scanning laser altimetry offers the potential for extracting high-resolution vegetation structure characteristics for monitoring and modeling the land surface. A unique dataset is used to study the sensitivity of laser interception profiles and laser-derived leaf area index (LAI) to assumptions about the surface structure and the measurement process. To simulate laser interception, one- and three-dimensional (3-D) vegetation structure models have been developed for maize and sunflower crops. Over sunflowers, a simple regression technique has been developed to extract laser-derived LAI, which accounts for measurement and model biases. Over maize, a 3-D structure/interception model that accounts for the effects of the laser inclination angle and detection threshold has enabled the fraction of radiation reaching the ground surface to be modelled to within 0.5% of the observed fraction. Good agreement was found between modelled and measured profiles of laser interception with a vertical resolution of 10 cm.
A distributed storage system allowing application users to reserve I/O performance in advance for achieving SLA

Performance assurance has become an important aspect in grid and cloud computing which provide services over the Internet, and Service Level Agreements (SLA) are frequently contracted between users and the service providers. However, the I/O performance of the storage or data access service is still provided on a best effort basis. Some distributed storage systems implement performance reservation, but the reservation is implemented inside of the storage and works in an adaptive manner. In order to promise performance guarantees to users, we propose a distributed storage system allowing application users to explicitly make an advanced and time-based reservation for I/O access and storage space. Thus the requested performance is guaranteed during the reserved time. This paper describes our proposed concept and the design architecture of the storage system, including the reservation interface, resource management and I/O control frameworks. Then it explains our prototype which implements a simple resource allocation strategy and I/O control of the storage network along the design. The experiment results using the prototype are also shown. They indicate that the reservation cost entailed only a low performance impact on users, and that the requested performance was achieved by the reservation feature.
Tumor necrosis factor alpha and nucleus-pulposus-induced nerve root injury.

STUDY DESIGN The effects of nucleus pulposus and various treatments to block tumor necrosis factor alpha activity were evaluated in an experimental set-up using immunohistochemistry and nerve conduction velocity recordings. OBJECTIVES To assess the presence of tumor necrosis factor alpha in pig nucleus pulposus cells, and to see if block of tumor necrosis factor alpha also blocks the nucleus-pulposus-induced reduction of nerve root conduction velocity. SUMMARY AND BACKGROUND DATA A meta-analysis of observed effects induced by nucleus pulposus revealed that these effects might relate to one specific cytokine-tumor necrosis factor alpha. METHODS Series-1: Cultured nucleus pulposus cells were stained immunohistologically with a monoclonal antibody for tumor necrosis factor alpha. Series-2: Nucleus pulposus was harvested from lumbar discs and applied to the sacrococcygeal cauda equina in 13 pigs autologously. Four pigs received 100 mg of doxycycline intravenously; five pigs had a blocking monoclonal antibody to tumor necrosis factor alpha applied locally in the nucleus pulposus, and four pigs remained nontreated, forming a control group. Three days after the application, the nerve root conduction velocity was determined over the application zone by local electrical stimulation. RESULTS Series-1: Tumor necrosis factor alpha was found to be present in the nucleus pulposus cells. Series-2: The selective antibody to tumor necrosis factor alpha limited the reduction of nerve conduction velocity, although in comparison with the control group this was not statistically significant. However, treatment with doxycycline significantly blocked the nucleus-pulposus-induced reduction of conduction velocity. CONCLUSION For the first time, a specific substance, tumor necrosis factor alpha, has been linked to the nucleus-pulposus-induced effects of nerve roots after local application. Although the effects of this substance may be synergistic with those of other similar substances, the data of the current study may be of significant importance for the continued understanding of nucleus pulposus' biologic activity, and of possible potential use for future strategies in managing sciatica.
Serum Uric Acid Level, Longitudinal Blood Pressure, Renal Function, and Long-Term Mortality in Treated Hypertensive Patients

Uric acid may have a role in the development of hypertension and renal dysfunction. We explored the relationship among longitudinal blood pressure, renal function, and cardiovascular outcomes in a large cohort of patients with treated hypertension. We used data from the Glasgow Blood Pressure Clinic database. Patients with a baseline measure of serum uric acid and longitudinal measures of blood pressure and renal function were included. Mortality data were obtained from the General Register Office for Scotland. Generalized estimating equations were used to explore the relationship among quartiles of serum uric acid, blood pressure, and estimated glomerular filtration rate. Cox proportional hazard models were developed to assess mortality relationships. In total, 6984 patients were included. Serum uric acid level did not influence the longitudinal changes in systolic or diastolic blood pressure but was related to change in glomerular filtration rate. In comparison with patients in the first quartile of serum uric acid, the relative decrease in glomerular filtration rate in the fourth was 10.7 (95% confidence interval, 7.9–13.6 mL/min per 1.73 m2) in men and 12.2 (95% confidence interval, 9.2–15.2 mL/min per 1.73 m2) in women. All-cause and cardiovascular mortality differed across quartiles of serum uric acid in women only (P<0.001; hazard ratios for all-cause mortality 1.38 [95% confidence interval, 1.14–1.67] for the fourth quartile of serum uric acid compared with the first). Serum uric acid level was not associated with longitudinal blood pressure control in adults with treated hypertension but was related to decline in renal function and mortality in women.
Nitric oxide and cyclic nucleotides are regulators of neuronal migration in an insect embryo

The dynamic regulation of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity and cGMP levels suggests a functional role in the development of nervous systems. We report evidence for a key role of the NO/cGMP signalling cascade on migration of postmitotic neurons in the enteric nervous system of the embryonic grasshopper. During embryonic development, a population of enteric neurons migrates several hundred micrometers on the surface of the midgut. These midgut neurons (MG neurons) exhibit nitric oxide-induced cGMP-immunoreactivity coinciding with the migratory phase. Using a histochemical marker for NOS, we identified potential sources of NO in subsets of the midgut cells below the migrating MG neurons. Pharmacological inhibition of endogenous NOS, soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) and protein kinase G (PKG) activity in whole embryo culture significantly blocks MG neuron migration. This pharmacological inhibition can be rescued by supplementing with protoporphyrin IX free acid, an activator of sGC, and membrane-permeant cGMP, indicating that NO/cGMP signalling is essential for MG neuron migration. Conversely, the stimulation of the cAMP/protein kinase A signalling cascade results in an inhibition of cell migration. Activation of either the cGMP or the cAMP cascade influences the cellular distribution of F-actin in neuronal somata in a complementary fashion. The cytochemical stainings and experimental manipulations of cyclic nucleotide levels provide clear evidence that NO/cGMP/PKG signalling is permissive for MG neuron migration, whereas the cAMP/PKA cascade may be a negative regulator. These findings reveal an accessible invertebrate model in which the role of the NO and cyclic nucleotide signalling in neuronal migration can be analyzed in a natural setting.