Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
False-Positive Head-Impulse Test in Cerebellar Ataxia

The objective of this study was to compare the findings of the bedside head-impulse test (HIT), passive head rotation gain, and caloric irrigation in patients with cerebellar ataxia (CA). In 16 patients with CA and bilaterally pathological bedside HIT, vestibuloocular reflex (VOR) gains were measured during HIT and passive head rotation by scleral search coil technique. Eight of the patients had pathologically reduced caloric responsiveness, while the other eight had normal caloric responses. Those with normal calorics showed a slightly reduced HIT gain (mean ± SD: 0.73 ± 0.15). In those with pathological calorics, gains 80 and 100 ms after the HIT as well as the passive rotation VOR gains were significantly lower. The corrective saccade after head turn occurred earlier in patients with pathological calorics (111 ± 62 ms after onset of the HIT) than in those with normal calorics (191 ± 17 ms, p = 0.0064). We identified two groups of patients with CA: those with an isolated moderate HIT deficit only, probably due to floccular dysfunction, and those with combined HIT, passive rotation, and caloric deficit, probably due to a peripheral vestibular deficit. From a clinical point of view, these results show that the bedside HIT alone can be false-positive for establishing a diagnosis of a bilateral peripheral vestibular deficit in patients with CA.
Toll‐like receptors 7, 8, and 9: linking innate immunity to autoimmunity

Summary: Toll‐like receptors (TLRs) detect infections by highly conserved components of pathogens that are either not present in our own cells or are normally sequestered in cellular compartments that are inaccessible to the TLRs. Most TLRs are expressed on the cell surface, where they have been shown to detect pathogen‐expressed molecules such as lipopolysaccharides and lipopeptides. A subset of TLRs, including TLR3, TLR7, TLR8, and TLR9, are expressed intracellularly within one or more endosomal compartments and detect nucleic acids. Because pathogen and host nucleic acids have very similar structures, these endosomal TLRs may face an extra challenge to induce anti‐pathogen immune responses while avoiding the induction of autoimmune diseases. With the rapid growth in understanding of the biology of the TLRs has come an increasing awareness of their effects on autoimmunity, several aspects of which are the focus of this review. First, recent studies have revealed an inappropriate activation of TLR7, TLR8, and TLR9 in systemic lupus erythematosus and several other autoimmune diseases. Secondly, the potential for therapeutic development of TLR antagonists is considered. Finally, with the rapid progress in the development of therapeutic agonists for the TLRs, there is accompanying attention to the theoretical possibility that such therapy may induce autoimmunity or autoimmune diseases.
Develop a UAV Platform for Automated Bridge Inspection

The contents of this report reflect the views of the authors, who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the information presented herein. This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the Department of Transportation University Transportation Centers Program, in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no liability for the contents or use thereof. Develop a UAV Platform for Automated Bridge Inspection Report # MATC-MS&T: 295 Final Report
Ask, but don't interrupt: the case for interruptibility-aware mobile experience sampling

The mobile phone-based Experience Sampling Method (ESM) enables in situ recording of human behaviour and experience by querying users, via their smartphones, anywhere and anytime. Sampling can happen on a previously unimaginable scale, and across a diverse pool of participants. Therefore, mobile ESM is not limited to capturing users' manual responses, as the surrounding context can be automatically captured by mobile sensors. However, obtaining high quality data with ESM is challenging, as users may fail to respond honestly, or may even ignore the questionnaire prompts if they perceive the study as too burdensome. In this paper, we discuss the potential of using interruptibility prediction models to deliver mobile ESM questionnaires at opportune moments, and thus improve the effectiveness of a study. We examine context prediction and interruptibility inference, which are fundamental challenges that need we need to overcome in order to make mobile ESMs better aligned with a user's lifestyle, and consequently paint a truthful picture of a user's behaviour.
Understanding OSS development in communities: the perspectives of ideology and knowledge sharing

This study aims to understand why open source software (OSS) developers contribute and how their dispersed efforts are controlled to lead to viable outputs. Drawing on theories related to ideology and information sharing, a model is proposed and tested empirically. We found that OSS values are positively associated with collaborative elaboration and communication competence, which in turn affect the performance of OSS task in terms of task completion. Our results also delineate the relationship among OSS norms, collaborative elaboration and source credibility, and task completion. This research contributes to advancing theoretical understanding of OSS performance as well as providing OSS practitioners with guidelines on how OSS communities use OSS ideology to achieve better performance.
Alias-Free Digital Click Modulator

An alias-free, discrete-time click modulator is developed in this paper. Previous approaches rely on translating the continuous-time click modulator to a discrete-time setting, although a key component in the click modulator - the analytic exponential modulator-cannot be exactly transformed to the discrete domain. Every discrete-time version of the click modulator reported in the literature is prone to aliasing effects that are ameliorated, but not eliminated, using interpolation techniques. The precision of the switching times of the output square wave is critical to click modulation because uncertainties in their determination adversely affect the performance and SNR of the modulator. A novel method that uses frequency domain information to compute these switching times without error is also presented. This two techniques are used to develop an off-line discrete-time click modulator that achieves a SNR larger than 180 dB for both multitonal and bandpass signals.
Ghrelin Gene Products and the Regulation of Food Intake and Gut Motility

A breakthrough using “reverse pharmacology” identified and characterized acyl ghrelin from the stomach as the endogenous cognate ligand for the growth hormone (GH) secretagogue receptor (GHS-R) 1a. The unique post-translational modification of O-n-octanoylation at serine 3 is the first in peptide discovery history and is essential for GH-releasing ability. Des-acyl ghrelin, lacking O-n-octanoylation at serine 3, is also produced in the stomach and remains the major molecular form secreted into the circulation. The third ghrelin gene product, obestatin, a novel 23-amino acid peptide identified from rat stomach, was found by comparative genomic analysis. Three ghrelin gene products actively participate in modulating appetite, adipogenesis, gut motility, glucose metabolism, cell proliferation, immune, sleep, memory, anxiety, cognition, and stress. Knockdown or knockout of acyl ghrelin and/or GHS-R1a, and overexpression of des-acyl ghrelin show benefits in the therapy of obesity and metabolic syndrome. By contrast, agonism of acyl ghrelin and/or GHS-R1a could combat human anorexia-cachexia, including anorexia nervosa, chronic heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, liver cirrhosis, chronic kidney disease, burn, and postsurgery recovery, as well as restore gut dysmotility, such as diabetic or neurogenic gastroparesis, and postoperative ileus. The ghrelin acyl-modifying enzyme, ghrelin O-Acyltransferase (GOAT), which attaches octanoate to serine-3 of ghrelin, has been identified and characterized also from the stomach. To date, ghrelin is the only protein to be octanylated, and inhibition of GOAT may have effects only on the stomach and is unlikely to affect the synthesis of other proteins. GOAT may provide a critical molecular target in developing novel therapeutics for obesity and type 2 diabetes.
THE EXPERIMENTAL DISEASE THAT FOLLOWS THE INJECTION OF HUMAN LEPROSY BACILLI INTO FOOT-PADS OF MICE

When leprosy bacilli from human patients are inoculated into the foot-pads of CFW mice, a microscopic granuloma containing acid-fast bacilli develops in a characteristic manner. This has been seen in 22 of 22 instances with leprosy bacilli from nasal washings, in 12 of 16 instances with leprosy bacilli from skin biopsies, and in none of 16 cases where the nasal washings were not observed to contain leprosy bacilli. Quantitative studies revealed a relationship between the number of bacilli inoculated and the time required for the appearance of the lesions. The incubation period was usually 1 to 2 months when the dose was 105.5 to 106.0 bacilli and about 6 months when the dose was about 103 organisms. After the development of the lesion, the number of bacilli harvested was usually in the range 104.5 to 106.0, regardless of the number inoculated. When the inoculum has contained 102.0 to 103.5 acid-fast bacilli, and harvests were reasonably prompt, there were regular increases of 50- to 1000-fold. Passage to new groups of mice has been successful 11 of 12 times. Most of these were second passages. One strain has been maintained in 3 passages with a total increase in acid-fast bacilli of 4 x 104-fold. Another strain has been through 4 passages with a total increase of about 4 x 106-fold. Cultures on bacteriological media favorable for the growth of most known mycobacterial species have not shown growth of mycobacteria.
Personalised iron supply for prophylaxis and treatment of pregnant women as a way to ensure normal iron levels in their breast milk

Rationale: Because the characteristics of all body fluids depends on patient’s health status, is it possible that disadvantaged and socially vulnerable mothers may have lower amounts of iron in their breast milk, and that their babies receive lower content of the mineral for their normal growth and development. Assuring a preventive treatment of the mother might solve this problem. Objective: to demonstrate breast milk iron content from disadvantaged mothers and impact of personalized iron supplementation program. Materials and Methods: cross-sectional study. Breast milk samples were obtained for ferritin analysis. Health’s services usually provides free folic acid and iron treatment however, treatment compliance is low. Patients were random in two groups: “A: Controls” that had free iron tablets available from Health Centre; and “B: Intervention” group where patients accepted to be periodically contacted at home by health’s team for personalized iron dispensation. Results: 360 patients were included. Profilaxis and treatment compliance were 100% and 97,6% for B group while for “Control” one was 63% and 34%(p0.0001). Higher breast milk iron levels were detected in Intervention’s mothers compared with control’s patients (p0.007). Conclusion: Personalized iron prophylaxis and treatment increased breast milk iron levels. Public health policy must ensure iron dispensation for each underserved mother in order to reduce children problems associate to iron deficiency during the first year of their life.
No monkey business: why studying NK cells in non-human primates pays off

Human NK (hNK) cells play a key role in mediating host immune responses against various infectious diseases. For practical reasons, the majority of the data on hNK cells has been generated using peripheral blood lymphocytes. In contrast, our knowledge of NK cells in human tissues is limited, and not much is known about developmental pathways of hNK cell subpopulations in vivo. Although research in mice has elucidated a number of fundamental features of NK cell biology, mouse, and hNK cells significantly differ in their subpopulations, functions, and receptor repertoires. Thus, there is a need for a model that is more closely related to humans and yet allows experimental manipulations. Non-human primate models offer numerous opportunities for the study of NK cells, including the study of the role of NK cells after solid organ and stem cell transplantation, as well as in acute viral infection. Macaque NK cells can be depleted in vivo or adoptively transferred in an autologous system. All of these studies are either difficult or unethical to carry out in humans. Here we highlight recent advances in rhesus NK cell research and their parallels in humans. Using high-throughput transcriptional profiling, we demonstrate that the human CD56bright and CD56dim NK cell subsets have phenotypically and functionally analogous counterparts in rhesus macaques. Thus, the use of non-human primate models offers the potential to substantially advance hNK cell research.
Embolic Stroke Complicating Cervical Aneurysm

Case 2 A 41-year-old woman complained of clumsiness of her left hand followed by a left hemiparesis with moderate aphasia. MRI showed a right temporoparietal ischemia ( fi g. 2 ). Complete cardiovascular work-up was normal. Cerebral angiography disclosed a 21-mmwide sacciform aneurysm of the subpetrous portion of the right ICA showing a heavily calcifi ed wall, without signs of intracranial atherosclerosis. It was attributed to a sylvian infarct due to thrombus migration from the aneurysm. Endovascular ICA repair with stent angioplasty was then considered. Using a previously reported technique [4] , the aneurysm neck was bridged with a self-expandable stent leading to the exclusion of the aneurysm. The patient was discharged on the following day and the clinical follow-up was uneventful after 2 years.
Microleakage of Class II resin-based composite restorations with flowable composite in the proximal box.

PURPOSE To compare microleakage of Class II hybrid resin-based composite (RBC) restorations with and without low viscosity (flowable) RBC in the proximal box. MATERIALS AND METHODS Conservative Class II cavity preparations were made in 50 extracted premolars randomly assigned to five groups (n = 10). OptiBond FL dentin bonding agent, and Prodigy hybrid RBC were used to restore all cavity preparations. Preparations in four of the five groups were restored with flowable RBC as the initial increment in the proximal box. The four flowable RBCs tested were: AEliteFlo, Revolution, UltraSeal XT and Flow-It. In the control group, the entire preparation was restored only with hybrid RBC. Specimens were stored in water at 37 degrees C for 24 hrs after restoration, thermocycled 1,000x, immersed in 2% basic fuchsin, sectioned and evaluated for microleakage. Microleakage was scored on a 0-4 scale. RESULTS Non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA followed by Wilcoxon signed ranks test was used for statistical analysis. The use of any of the four flowable RBCs tested did not influence microleakage significantly (P > 0.05) in Class II RBC restorations.
A Practical Generic Relay Attack on Contactless Transactions by Using NFC Mobile Phones

—Contactless technology is widely used in security sensitive applications, including identiﬁcation, payment and access-control systems. Near Field Communication (NFC) is a short-range contactless technology allowing mobile devices to act primarily as either a reader or a token. Relay attacks exploit the assumption that a contactless token within communication range is in close proximity, by placing a proxy-token in range of a contactless reader and relaying communication over a greater distance to a proxy-reader communicating with the authentic to- ken. It has been theorised that NFC-enabled mobile phones could be used as a generic relay attack platform without any additional hardware, but this has not been successfully demonstrated in practice. We present a practical implementation of an NFC- enabled relay attack, requiring only suitable mobile software applications. This implementation reduces the complexity of relay attacks and therefore has potential security implications for current contactless systems. We also discuss countermeasures to mitigate the attack.
Association between Electronic Cigarette Use and Asthma among High School Students in South Korea

Objectives Little is known about health outcomes related to electronic cigarette (EC) use, despite its growing popularity. The aim of this study is to investigate the association between EC use and asthma. Methods The study design is a cross-sectional study. A total of 35,904 high school students were included as the final study population. The presence of asthma was based on a student’s self-reported doctor diagnosis of asthma in the past 12 months. Results Prevalence rates of asthmatics in ‘current EC users’ (n = 2,513), ‘former EC users’ (n = 2,078), and ‘never EC users’ (n = 31,313), were 3.9% (n = 98), 2.2% (n = 46) and 1.7% (n = 530), respectively. Comparing ‘current EC’ users with ‘never EC’ users, the unadjusted OR for asthma was 2.36 (95% CI: 1.89–2.94). In order to control for the effect of conventional cigarette (CC) smoking, after stratifying the subjects by the three CC smoking categories (never CC, former CC, and current CC), within the ‘never CC’ category, the unadjusted OR for asthma for ‘current EC’ users was 3.41 (95% CI: 1.79–6.49), and the adjusted OR was 2.74 (95% CI: 1.30–5.78). Severe asthma was reflected by the number of days absent from school due to asthma symptoms; current EC users had the highest adjusted OR for severe asthma compared to ‘never EC’ users. Conclusions When compared to a reference population of high school students in South Korea, EC users have an increased association with asthma and are more likely to have had days absent from school due to severe asthma symptoms. In conclusion, the results indicate that EC use may be a risk factor for asthma. The results may be useful in developing a scientific basis for the evaluation of a potential health hazard by EC.
Walking at non‐constant speeds: mechanical work, pendular transduction, and energy congruity

Although almost half of all walking bouts in urban environments consist of less than 12 consecutive steps and several day‐to‐day gait activities contain transient gait responses, in most studies gait analysis is performed at steady‐state. This study aimed to analyze external (Wext) and internal mechanical work (Wint), pendulum‐like mechanics, and elastic energy usage during constant and non‐constant speeds. The mechanical work, pendular transduction, and energy congruity (an estimate of storage and release of elastic energy) during walking were computed using two force platforms. We found that during accelerating gait (+NCS) energy recovery is maintained, besides extra W+ext, for decelerating gait (−NCS) poor energy recovery was counterbalanced by W−ext and C% predominance. We report an increase in elastic energy usage with speed (4–11%). Both W−ext and %C suggests that elastic energy usage is higher at faster speeds and related to −NCS (≈20% of elastic energy usage). This study was the first to show evidences of elastic energy usage during constant and non‐constant speeds.
Inhibition of a mammalian large conductance, calcium‐sensitive K+ channel by calmodulin‐binding peptides

1 The large conductance, calcium‐sensitive K+ channel (BKCa channel) is a voltage‐activated ion channel in which direct calcium binding shifts gating to more negative cellular membrane potentials. We hypothesized that the calcium‐binding domain of BKCa channels may mimic the role played by calmodulin (CaM) in the activation of calcium‐CaM‐dependent enzymes, in which a tonic inhibitory constraint is removed on CaM binding. 2 To examine such a hypothesis, we used peptides from the autoregulatory domains of CaM kinase II (CK291–317) and cNOS (the constitutive nitric oxide synthase; cNOS725–747) as probes for the calcium‐dependent activation of murine BKCa channels transiently expressed in HEK 293 cells. We found that these CaM‐binding peptides produced potent, time‐dependent inhibition of mammalian BKCa channel current following voltage‐dependent activation. Inhibition was observed in both the presence and the absence of cytosolic free calcium. 3 Similar application of CK291–31 had no effect on either the amplitude or kinetics of voltage‐dependent, macroscopic currents recorded from rabbit smooth muscle Kv1.5 potassium channels transiently expressed in HEK 293 cells. 4 Cytosolic application of both CK291–317 and tetraethylammonium (TEA) produced an additive and non‐competitive block of BKCa current. This finding suggests that the peptide‐binding site is distinct (e.g. outside the pore region of the channel) from that of TEA. 5 Our results are thus consistent with a model in which the BKCa channel's voltage‐dependent gating process is under an intramolecular constraint that is relieved upon calcium binding. The intrinsic calcium sensor of the channel may thus interact with an inhibitory domain present in the BKCa channel, and by doing so, remove an inhibitory ‘constraint’ that permits voltage‐dependent gating to occur at more negative potentials.
A Low-Cost Energy-Efficient Cableless Geophone Unit for Passive Surface Wave Surveys

The passive surface wave survey is a practical, non-invasive seismic exploration method that has increasingly been used in geotechnical engineering. However, in situ deployment of traditional wired geophones is labor intensive for a dense sensor array. Alternatively, stand-alone seismometers can be used, but they are bulky, heavy, and expensive because they are usually designed for long-term monitoring. To better facilitate field applications of the passive surface wave survey, a low-cost energy-efficient geophone system was developed in this study. The hardware design is presented in this paper. To validate the system’s functionality, both laboratory and field experiments were conducted. The unique feature of this newly-developed cableless geophone system allows for rapid field applications of the passive surface wave survey with dense array measurements.
Maximizing the Spread of Influence via Generalized Degree Discount

It is a crucial and fundamental issue to identify a small subset of influential spreaders that can control the spreading process in networks. In previous studies, a degree-based heuristic called DegreeDiscount has been shown to effectively identify multiple influential spreaders and has severed as a benchmark method. However, the basic assumption of DegreeDiscount is not adequate, because it treats all the nodes equally without any differences. To consider a general situation in real world networks, a novel heuristic method named GeneralizedDegreeDiscount is proposed in this paper as an effective extension of original method. In our method, the status of a node is defined as a probability of not being influenced by any of its neighbors, and an index generalized discounted degree of one node is presented to measure the expected number of nodes it can influence. Then the spreaders are selected sequentially upon its generalized discounted degree in current network. Empirical experiments are conducted on four real networks, and the results show that the spreaders identified by our approach are more influential than several benchmark methods. Finally, we analyze the relationship between our method and three common degree-based methods.