Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lewy Body-like α-Synuclein Aggregates Resist Degradation and Impair Macroautophagy*♦

Background: α-Synuclein aggregates and macroautophagy are associated with neurodegeneration. Results: Modulation of macroautophagic activity does not affect α-synuclein aggregate levels, although these aggregates cause accumulation of immature autophagosomes. Conclusion: α-Synuclein aggregates are resistant to degradation and impair autophagy by delaying autophagosome maturation. Significance: Understanding the impact of α-synuclein aggregates on autophagy may help elucidate therapies for α-synuclein-mediated neurodegeneration. Cytoplasmic α-synuclein (α-syn) aggregates, referred to as Lewy bodies, are pathological hallmarks of a number of neurodegenerative diseases, most notably Parkinson disease. Activation of macroautophagy is suggested to facilitate degradation of certain proteinaceous inclusions, but it is unclear if this pathway is capable of degrading α-syn aggregates. Here, we examined this issue by utilizing cellular models in which intracellular Lewy body-like α-syn inclusions accumulate after internalization of pre-formed α-syn fibrils into α-syn-expressing HEK293 cells or cultured primary neurons. We demonstrate that α-syn inclusions cannot be effectively degraded, even though they co-localize with essential components of both the autophagic and proteasomal protein degradation pathways. The α-syn aggregates persist even after soluble α-syn levels have been substantially reduced, suggesting that once formed, the α-syn inclusions are refractory to clearance. Importantly, we also find that α-syn aggregates impair overall macroautophagy by reducing autophagosome clearance, which may contribute to the increased cell death that is observed in aggregate-bearing cells.
Long-Term Course and Outcome of Severe Postpartum Psychiatric Disorders

Thirty-nine women who had suffered from a severe first-episode postpartum psychiatric illness were re-examined after a period of 6–26 years (averaging 12.5 years). Diagnoses were established according to ICD-10 and Leonhard’s classification, revealing a marked predominance of cycloid psychoses (54%) according to Leonhard. There was no evidence of the nosological independence of postpartum psychosis. Only 4 patients (10%) had never recovered fully since the onset of the illness. In contrast, 6 patients had undergone a monophasic course without any further psychopathology. In 20 cases (51%) the illness had run a multiphasic course. The average number of episodes per patient was 2.5 (range 2–6). The course was not determinable in 4 patients (10%). Nineteen women (49%) had 22 further deliveries after the first manifestation of the illness. The frequency of a relapse in connection with further pregnancy or delivery was 50%. Applying the Strauss-Carpenter Outcome Scale, we found a favourable outcome for the total sample with a mean value of 14.1 (SD = 2.6). The vast majority of patients (75%) showed no persistent alterations. Our findings provide further evidence of a favourable prognosis of severe postpartum psychiatric disorder despite the remarkably high rate of puerperal relapses.
Exploring web browser history comparisons

This work explores how comparing web navigation histories between two people and presenting the results to them might allow them to gain insight about each other. We developed a prototype that presents web matches sorted according to frequency, recency, and web site. Interviews with users of the prototype suggest that common interests and preferences can be inferred from these comparisons.
The therapeutic relationship in cognitive-behavioral therapy and pharmacotherapy for anxious youth.

OBJECTIVE We examined the therapeutic relationship with cognitive-behavioral therapists and with pharmacotherapists for youth from the Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Study (Walkup et al., 2008). The therapeutic relationship was examined in relation to treatment outcomes. METHOD Participants were 488 youth (ages 7-17 years; 50% male) randomized to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT; Coping Cat), pharmacotherapy (sertraline), their combination, or placebo pill. Participants met criteria for generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, and/or separation anxiety disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). The therapeutic relationship was assessed by youth report at Weeks 6 and 12 of treatment using the Child's Perception of Therapeutic Relationship scale (Kendall et al., 1997). Outcome measures (Pediatric Anxiety Rating Scale; Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology Anxiety Study Group, 2002; and Clinical Global Impressions Scales; Guy, 1976) were completed by independent evaluators blind to condition. RESULTS For youth who received CBT only, a stronger therapeutic relationship predicted positive treatment outcome. In contrast, the therapeutic relationship did not predict outcome for youth receiving sertraline, combined treatment, or placebo. CONCLUSION A therapeutic relationship may be important for anxious youth who receive CBT alone.
A qualitative exploration of psychosocial support for siblings of children with cancer.

This qualitative study investigated what school-aged siblings of children with cancer perceive to be helpful in adjusting to having a sibling with cancer. The conceptual framework was guided by the work of House (1981) on social support. The sample comprised 50 school-aged siblings of children with cancer. Siblings were asked to "write about things they wish nurses or parents would do to help children who have a brother or sister with cancer" and "discuss things that nurses or their parents have done that have been helpful in adjusting to the childhood cancer experience. " Content analysis revealed that the majority of siblings reported interventions aimed at meeting their needs for emotional and instrumental support, followed by informational and appraisal support, as being most helpful in adjusting to the childhood cancer experience. Social support interventions should be provided to siblings based on comprehensive assessments.
The Spiritual Life

Classes in religion are part of the core curriculum in each of the University's schools and programs. These classes deal with the study of the Bible, ethics, clinical ministry (which concentrates on ways to understand and meet the spiritual needs of patients in a manner that is noninvasive and individually appropriate), and a variety of other issues related to the student's field of study and personal spiritual journey.
Integrating shotgun proteomics and mRNA expression data to improve protein identification

Motivation: Tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) offers fast and reliable characterization of complex protein mixtures, but suffers from low sensitivity in protein identification. In a typical shotgun proteomics experiment, it is assumed that all proteins are equally likely to be present. However, there is often other information available, e.g. the probability of a protein's presence is likely to correlate with its mRNA concentration. Results: We develop a Bayesian score that estimates the posterior probability of a protein's presence in the sample given its identification in an MS/MS experiment and its mRNA concentration measured under similar experimental conditions. Our method, MSpresso, substantially increases the number of proteins identified in an MS/MS experiment at the same error rate, e.g. in yeast, MSpresso increases the number of proteins identified by ∼40%. We apply MSpresso to data from different MS/MS instruments, experimental conditions and organisms (Escherichia coli, human), and predict 19–63% more proteins across the different datasets. MSpresso demonstrates that incorporating prior knowledge of protein presence into shotgun proteomics experiments can substantially improve protein identification scores. Availability and Implementation: Software is available upon request from the authors. Mass spectrometry datasets and supplementary information are available from http://www.marcottelab. org/MSpresso/. Contact: marcotte@icmb.utexas. edu; miranker@cs.utexas. edu Supplementary Information: Supplementary data website: http://www.marcottelab. org/MSpresso/.
Theories of Risk Perception: Who Fears What and Why?

In social science rival theories seeking to answer the same questions rarely confront one another. Indeed, a variety of perspectives has been employed in research on public perception of risk, but alternative formulations remain largely untested. Missing most of all is a focused comparison of rival hypotheses. One could hardly find many subjects that are better known or considered more important to more people nowadays than the controversies over harm to the natural environment and the human body attributed to modern technology, whether this be from chem ical carcinogens or nuclear power or noxious products introduced by industry into the land, sea, or air, or into water or food supplies. Thus we ask: Why are products and practices once thought to be safe (or
Embodied Proactive Human Interface "PICO-2"

We are conducting research on "embodied proactive human interface". The aim of this research is to develop a new human-friendly active interface based on two key technologies, an estimation mechanism of human intention for supporting natural communication named "proactive interface", and a tangible device using robot technology This paper introduces the humanoid-type two-legged robot named "PICO-2 ", which was developed as a tangible telecommunication device for the proactive human interface. In order to achieve the embodied telecommunication with PICO-2, we propose new tracking technique of human gestures using a monocular video camera mounted on PICO-2, and natural gesture reproduction by PICO-2 which absorbs the difference of body structure between the user and the robot
Variable Aperture Light Field Photography: Overcoming the Diffraction-Limited Spatio-Angular Resolution Tradeoff

Light fields have many applications in machine vision, consumer photography, robotics, and microscopy. However, the prevalent resolution limits of existing light field imaging systems hinder widespread adoption. In this paper, we analyze fundamental resolution limits of light field cameras in the diffraction limit. We propose a sequential, coded-aperture-style acquisition scheme that optimizes the resolution of a light field reconstructed from multiple photographs captured from different perspectives and fnumber settings. We also show that the proposed acquisition scheme facilitates high dynamic range light field imaging and demonstrate a proof-of-concept prototype system. With this work, we hope to advance our understanding of the resolution limits of light field photography and develop practical computational imaging systems to overcome them.
Towards a more reliable estimation of forest parameters from polarimetric SAR tomography data

In this contribution, tomographic imagery obtained from estimating the 3-D localization and the polarimetric signature of backscattering sources within a forest environment from fully-polarimetric multibaseline SAR data at L- and P-bands are presented. Both, polarization diversity and spatial diversity were exploited jointly within the tomographic focusing to estimate the targets' localization and polarimetric signature. We thereby extend our recently proposed time-domain back-projection (TDBP)-based tomographic focusing approach. The tomographic slices obtained from polarimetric spectral estimation using MLBF, Capon, and MUSIC are opposed to the results previously obtained by tomographic focusing of the individual polarization channels. The results are briefly discussed with respect to potential advancements towards more reliable estimation of forest parameters from SAR tomography data.
Thai speech enhancement using Markov random field

This paper presents a speech enhancement algorithm for Thai speech corrupted by noise. A Markov random field (MRF) is used to remove noise from the noisy speech. Specifically, the noisy speech is transformed using a short time Fourier transform (STFT) resulting in time-frequency representation coefficients. Then, it is fed into a voiced/unvoiced classification by using voice activity detector (VAD) for each time frame to recover a formant of voiced-time frame. The next step is to find a neighborhood of every STFT coefficient. The MRF model, which is composed of two states: speech and noise, is used to analyze those STFT coefficients. All of the speech states (significant coefficients) are retained, while the STFT coefficients of the noise state are set to zero. The enhanced speech is estimated by the inverse STFT of the significant coefficients. Experimental results from a perception test on speech corrupted with white Gaussian noise at SNR levels of 0 and 5 dB showed that the proposed algorithm could remove noise effectively.
Testing for Common Trends

Abstract Cointegrated multiple time series share at least one common trend. Two tests are developed for the number of common stochastic trends (i.e., for the order of cointegration) in a multiple time series with and without drift. Both tests involve the roots of the ordinary least squares coefficient matrix obtained by regressing the series onto its first lag. Critical values for the tests are tabulated, and their power is examined in a Monte Carlo study. Economic time series are often modeled as having a unit root in their autoregressive representation, or (equivalently) as containing a stochastic trend. But both casual observation and economic theory suggest that many series might contain the same stochastic trends so that they are cointegrated. If each of n series is integrated of order 1 but can be jointly characterized by k > n stochastic trends, then the vector representation of these series has k unit roots and n — k distinct stationary linear combinations. Our proposed tests can be viewed alterna.
Eta-expansions Iii | F !

The use of expansionary-rewrite rules in various typed-calculi has become increasingly common in recent years as their advantages over contractive-rewrite rules have become apparent. Not only does one obtain simultaneously a decision procedure for-equality and a procedure for the calculation of the long-normal form of a term, but rewrite relations using expansions retain key properties when combined with rst order rewrite systems, generalise more easily to other type constructors and are supported by a categorical theory of reduction. However, until now-contractions have remained the only possibility in the more powerful type systems of the-cube. In this paper we begin to rectify this situation by extending the techniques previously developed to a higher order polymorphic-calculus called F ! , where reduction no longer occurs only at the level of terms but also at the level of types.
Resetting and Annihilation of Reentrant Abnormally Rapid Heartbeat.

Excitable media support circulating waves on a one-dimensional ring. Continuity arguments, developed originally for resetting limit cycle oscillations in finite-dimensional dynamical systems, suggest that there must exist a range of phases and amplitudes for perturbations of the reentrant wave that lead to its annihilation. The annihilation is illustrated in the Fitzhugh-Nagumo equation of excitable media. This phenomenon is related to clinical studies in which reentrant waves in the human heart are reset or annihilated by electrical stimulation delivered directly to the heart.
Robust Sensing of DVB-T Signals

Following the recent Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) decision to allow unlicensed use of the television white spaces (TVWS) in the US on a secondary basis, other regulatory agencies such as Office of communications (Ofcom) will follow suit as well. Since the incumbent television signals in UK, Europe and many other countries follow the DVB-T standard, there is a need for sensing algorithms that are capable of detecting these signals at very low levels (-114 dBm). In this paper we describe sensing algorithms for extremely robust sensing of DVB-T signals. We present simulation results as well as results from the lab and field tests using real over-the-air signals to verify the algorithms.
Pesticide exposure as risk factor for non‐Hodgkin lymphoma including histopathological subgroup analysis

We report a population based case–control study of exposure to pesticides as risk factor for non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Male and female subjects aged 18–74 years living in Sweden were included during December 1, 1999, to April 30, 2002. Controls were selected from the national population registry. Exposure to different agents was assessed by questionnaire. In total 910 (91 %) cases and 1016 (92%) controls participated. Exposure to herbicides gave odds ratio (OR) 1.72, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.18–2.51. Regarding phenoxyacetic acids highest risk was calculated for MCPA; OR 2.81, 95% CI 1.27–6.22, all these cases had a latency period >10 years. Exposure to glyphosate gave OR 2.02, 95% CI 1.10–3.71 and with >10 years latency period OR 2.26, 95% CI 1.16–4.40. Insecticides overall gave OR 1.28, 95% CI 0.96–1.72 and impregnating agents OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.07–2.30. Results are also presented for different entities of NHL. In conclusion our study confirmed an association between exposure to phenoxyacetic acids and NHL and the association with glyphosate was considerably strengthened. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Bacterial adhesion and colonization differences between zirconium oxide and titanium alloys: an in vivo human study.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to compare zirconium oxide and titanium alloys with respect to their tendency to adhesion and colonization of two periodontal pathogens on both hard surfaces and on soft tissues in vivo. MATERIALS AND METHODS The present study was designed as a prospective stratified randomized controlled clinical trial. Patients were scheduled to receive two implants with different types of abutments in the posterior mandible. Three months after implant placement, titanium and zirconium abutments were connected. Five weeks after abutment connections, the abutments were removed, probing depth measurements were recorded, and gingival biopsy samples were obtained. Abutments and biopsy specimens were analyzed by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction to compare the DNA copy numbers of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, Porphyromonas gingivalis, and total bacteria. The surface free energy of the abutments was calculated by sesile water drop before replacement. RESULTS No statistically significant differences were found between probing depths or DNA copy numbers of A actinomycetemcomitans, P gingivalis, and total bacteria both for both titanium alloys and zirconium oxide surfaces and the biops specimens obtained from their buccal gingival. With respect to the surface free energy of zirconium and titanium abutments, zirconium abutments showed lower surface free energy than titanium abutments. CONCLUSION The results of this study showed that zirconium oxide surfaces have comparable properties to titanium alloy surfaces in their tendency to adhesion and colonization of two periodontal pathogens on both hard surfaces and in soft tissues.
Distributed dynamic channel allocation for mobile computing

Efficient allocation of communication channels is critical for the performance of wireless mobile computing systems. The centralized channel allocation algorithms proposed in literature are neither robust, nor scalable. Distributed channel allocation schemes proposed in the past are complicated and require active participation of the mobile nodes. These algorithms are unable to dynamically adjust to spatial and temporal fluctuations in channel demand. We present a dynamic distributed channel allocation algorithm that can quickly adapt to changes in load distribution. The algorithm described in this paper requires minimal involvement of the mobile nodes, thus conserving their limited energy supply. The algorithm is proved to be deadlock free, starvation free and fair. It prevents co-channel interference and is scalable.
Flexural Strength Improvement of Welded Joints Prepared by Vibratory Welding Process

Vibration techniques have been used in welding for improving the mechanical properties of metals in the last few decades. In the present work, vibratory setup has been used for inducing mechanical vibrations into the weld pool during welding. The designed vibratory setup produces the required frequency with the amplitude and acceleration in terms of voltages. An increase in the flexural strength of the weld pieces in to the heat affected zone (HAZ) has been observed. The increase in mechanical properties is attributed to, as the weld pool solidifies, grains are not only limited in size but also dendrites are broken before they grow large in size. Refined microstructure has been observed. The above mechanism is responsible for the improvement in flexural strength of weld pieces welded with vibratory setup compared to without vibration during welding.
From algorithms to hardware architectures: a comparison of regular and irregular structured IDCT algorithms

The inverse discrete cosine transformation (IDCT) is used in a variety of decoders (e.g. MPEG). On the one hand, highly optimized algorithms that are characterized by an irregular structure and a minimum number of operations are known from software implementations. On the other hand, regular structured architectures are often used in hardware realizations. In this paper a comparison of regular and irregular structured IDCT algorithms for efficient hardware realization is presented. The irregular structured algorithms are discussed with main emphasis on assessment criteria for algorithm selection and high-level synthesis for hardware cost estimation.
Semiparametric Analysis of Recurrent Events Data in the Presence of Dependent Censoring

Summary. Dependent censoring occurs in longitudinal studies of recurrent events when the censoring time depends on the potentially unobserved recurrent event times. To perform regression analysis in this setting, we propose a semiparametric joint model that formulates the marginal distributions of the recurrent event process and dependent censoring time through scale‐change models, while leaving the distributional form and dependence structure unspecified. We derive consistent and asymptotically normal estimators for the regression parameters. We also develop graphical and numerical methods for assessing the adequacy of the proposed model. The finite‐sample behavior of the new inference procedures is evaluated through simulation studies. An application to recurrent hospitalization data taken from a study of intravenous drug users is provided.