Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
No apparent influence of psychometrically-defined schizotypy on orientation-dependent contextual modulation of visual contrast detection

We investigated the relationship between psychometrically-defined schizotypy and the ability to detect a visual target pattern. Target detection is typically impaired by a surrounding pattern (context) with an orientation that is parallel to the target, relative to a surrounding pattern with an orientation that is orthogonal to the target (orientation-dependent contextual modulation). Based on reports that this effect is reduced in those with schizophrenia, we hypothesised that there would be a negative relationship between the relative score on psychometrically-defined schizotypy and the relative effect of orientation-dependent contextual modulation. We measured visual contrast detection thresholds and scores on the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (O-LIFE) from a non-clinical sample (N = 100). Contrary to our hypothesis, we find an absence of a monotonic relationship between the relative magnitude of orientation-dependent contextual modulation of visual contrast detection and the relative score on any of the subscales of the O-LIFE. The apparent difference of this result with previous reports on those with schizophrenia suggests that orientation-dependent contextual modulation may be an informative condition in which schizophrenia and psychometrically-defined schizotypy are dissociated. However, further research is also required to clarify the strength of orientation-dependent contextual modulation in those with schizophrenia.
Selecting Objects : an OO Architecture of the Relational Model ©

The work deals with development process of complex database systems from the view point of performance and designing. Data behaviour implementation is in question. The proposed architecture «Selecting Objects» bases on the object that encapsulates way to obtain the data in form of SQL query and can be passed through the call stack. This technique provides for combining quick data processing of the relational model and object-oriented designing.
Measured and modelled corner diffraction at millimetre wave frequencies

Due to spectrum congestion in the commonly used mobile sub-6GHz frequencies, research and measurements in the Millimetre Wave (30–300GHz) bands are required to better understand the medium for 5G and beyond wireless connectivity. In this paper corner diffraction is investigated for an indoor environment in a modern building using a wideband (2GHz) channel sounder at 60GHz. Corner diffraction was measured at five different distances from the corner of interest, with parallel tracks at distances of 0.5m, 1m, 1.5m, 2m and 10m. These measurements were then compared with a Knife Edge Diffraction (KED) model where a ‘good-fit’ was observed. Results showed that for 2m parallel tracks the power fell by 30dB as the user moved just 0.5m into the shadow region. For a 10m parallel track, the same effect was observed after moving 1.2m into the shadow region. Such rapid changes in received power can adversely affect the performance of link adaptation and beam tracking algorithms as well as the efficiency of the higher layer network protocols.
Monitoring the Execution of a Multi-Agent Plan: Dealing with Partial Observability

The paper addresses the task of monitoring and diagnosing the execution of a multi-agent plan (MAP) which involves actions concurrently executed by a team of cooperating agents. The paper describes a weak commitment strategy to deal with cases where observability is only partial and it is not sufficient for inferring the outcome of all the actions executed so far. The paper discusses the role of target actions in providing sufficient conditions for inferring the pending outcomes in a finite time window. The action outcome provides the basis for computing plan diagnosis and for singling out the goals which will not be achieved because of an action failure.
Intracranial hypotension: improved MRI detection with diagnostic intracranial angles.

OBJECTIVE Intracranial hypotension is an uncommon cause of headaches that is often misdiagnosed. The classic MRI features of intracranial hypotension can be variable and subjective. The purpose of this study was to provide objective criteria in the MRI evaluation of intracranial hypotension by quantifying normal values for the pontomesencephalic angle, mamillopontine distance, and lateral ventricular angle. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective review of patients with the clinical diagnosis of intracranial hypotension and a control group was performed with measurements of the pontomesencephalic angle, mamillopontine distance, and lateral ventricular angle. Qualitative evaluation of other MRI findings included dural enhancement, venous engorgement, subdural collections, brainstem slumping, and tonsillar herniation. RESULTS In 29 patients with intracranial hypotension, the mean pontomesencephalic angle, mamillopontine distance, and lateral ventricular angle were 41.2° (SD, ± 17.4°), 4.4 mm (SD, ± 1.8), and 130.1° (SD, ± 9.8°), respectively. In the control group, the mean pontomesencephalic angle, mamillopontine distance, and lateral ventricular angle were 65° (SD, ± 9.9°), 7.0 mm (SD, ± 1.3), and 132.2° (SD, ± 5.7°), respectively. The differences in the pontomesencephalic angle and mamillopontine distance values for the intracranial hypotension group versus the control group were statistically significant (p < 0.01). The difference in the lateral ventricular angle measurements was not statistically significant (p = 0.37). Cutoff points of a 5.5-mm mamillopontine distance and 50° pontomesencephalic angle were estimated using receiver operating characteristic curves. CONCLUSION In patients with the clinical suspicion of intracranial hypotension, we found that cutoff values of 5.5 mm or less for the mamillopontine distance and 50° or less for the pontomesencephalic angle were sensitive and specific in strengthening the qualitative MRI findings. Therefore, quantitative assessments may provide a more accurate diagnosis.
Dogs’ (Canis familiaris) Attention to Human Perception: Influence of Breed Groups and Life Experiences

Attending to the perception of others may help individuals gaining information from conspecifics, or help in competitive situations. Dogs (Canis familiaris) are attentive to humans’ signals and their attentional state. We investigated whether dogs of different breed groups differ in their ability to pay attention to human’s perception, first according to the genetic relatedness between dog breeds, and second according to working style differences. Once dogs had learned to leave forbidden food on the floor, they were confronted with 2 food items to which only they had unrestricted visual access. The owners saw either none or 1 food item through a transparent barrier. Our results showed that dogs pay attention to the perception of humans, whereby differences between breed groups became obvious. Within different genetic groups, ancient and hunting type dogs performed similarly, they were more attentive to their owners’ perception than shepherd and the mastiff type dogs. When comparing dogs classified according to their working style, independent workers and family dogs were attentive to the owner’s perception, while cooperative workers seemed not. The dogs’ choice could not be explained by a general or training induced preference for eating behind an opaque screen, or by an influence of the owner’s possible intention to prevent the dog from taking the food item he could see. Our study confirms that dogs are attentive/sensitive to human’s perception, but genetic and working style differences among the breeds, as well as dog sport experiences explain part of the variation seen in their performance.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa-Plant Root Interactions. Pathogenicity, Biofilm Formation, and Root Exudation1

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic human pathogen capable of forming a biofilm under physiological conditions that contributes to its persistence despite long-term treatment with antibiotics. Here, we report that pathogenic P. aeruginosa strains PAO1 and PA14 are capable of infecting the roots of Arabidopsis and sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum), in vitro and in the soil, and are capable of causing plant mortality 7 d postinoculation. Before plant mortality, PAO1 and PA14 colonize the roots of Arabidopsis and sweet basil and form a biofilm as observed by scanning electron microscopy, phase contrast microscopy, and confocal scanning laser microscopy. Upon P. aeruginosa infection, sweet basil roots secrete rosmarinic acid (RA), a multifunctional caffeic acid ester that exhibits in vitro antibacterial activity against planktonic cells of both P. aeruginosa strains with a minimum inhibitory concentration of 3 μg mL-1. However, in our studies RA did not attain minimum inhibitory concentration levels in sweet basil's root exudates before P. aeruginosa formed a biofilm that resisted the microbicidal effects of RA and ultimately caused plant mortality. We further demonstrated that P. aeruginosa biofilms were resistant to RA treatment under in vivo and in vitro conditions. In contrast, induction of RA secretion by sweet basil roots and exogenous supplementation of Arabidopsis root exudates with RA before infection conferred resistance to P. aeruginosa. Under the latter conditions, confocal scanning laser microscopy revealed large clusters of dead P. aeruginosa on the root surface of Arabidopsis and sweet basil, and biofilm formation was not observed. Studies with quorum-sensing mutants PAO210 (ΔrhlI), PAO214 (ΔlasI), and PAO216 (ΔlasI ΔrhlI) demonstrated that all of the strains were pathogenic to Arabidopsis, which does not naturally secrete RA as a root exudate. However, PAO214 was the only pathogenic strain toward sweet basil, and PAO214 biofilm appeared comparable with biofilms formed by wild-type strains of P. aeruginosa. Our results collectively suggest that upon root colonization, P. aeruginosa forms a biofilm that confers resistance against root-secreted antibiotics.
Smoking and health: association between telomere length and factors impacting on human disease, quality of life and life span in a large population‐based cohort under the effect of smoking duration

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are of primary importance as they cause damage to lipids, proteins, and DNA either endogenously by cellular mechanism, or through exogenous exposure to environmental injury factors, including oxidation insult factors, such as tobacco smoke. Currently 46.3 million adults (25.7 percent of the population) are smokers. This includes 24 million men (28.1 percent of the total) and more than 22 million women (23.5 percent). The prevalence is highest among persons 25–44 years of age. Cigarette smokers have a higher risk of developing several chronic disorders. These include fatty buildups in arteries, several types of cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (lung problems). As peripheral leukocytes have been the main target of human telomere research, most of what is known about human telomere dynamics in vivo is based on these cells. Leukocyte telomere length (TL) is a complex trait that is shaped by genetic, epigenetic, and environmental determinants. In this article, we consider that smoking modifies leukocyte TL in humans and contributes to its variability among individuals, although the smoking effect on TL and its relation with other metabolic indices may accelerate biological aging and development of smoking‐induced chronic diseases in a large human population‐based cohorts with smoking behavior. Recent studies confirmed that individuals with shorter telomeres present a higher prevalence of arterial lesions and higher risk of cardiovascular disease mortality. This study originally suggests that efficient therapeutic protection of TL and structure in response to stresses that are known to reduce TL, such as oxidative damage or inflammation associated with tobacco smoking, would lead to better telomere maintenance. Recently, we have discovered the potential use of telomere‐restorative imidazole‐containing dipeptide (non‐hydrolized carnosine, carcinine) based therapy for better survival of smokers. We conclude that a better therapeutic or nutritional maintenance of TL may confer healthy aging in smokers and exceptional longevity in regularly ROS‐exposed human survivors.
Drug treatment of depression

Regardless of the type of antidepressant drug, about 60% of patients with major depression will respond to their initial medication. Response is defined as a decrease of at least 50% in symptom ratings on a depression rating scale during the first 4-8 weeks of treatment. Of the remaining 40% of patients, some respond partially and some do not respond at all. It is generally 1-4 weeks before the antidepressant takes effect. In controlled trials about 30% of patients respond to placebo. Thus, the overall clinical effect seems to be Simplified diagnostic criteria for major depressive episode • Five or more of the following symptoms have been present nearly every day for 2 weeks; at least one of the symptoms is either (a) or (b). (a) Depressed mood most of the day (b) Markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all or almost all activities most of the day (c) Significant weight loss or weight gain or decrease or increase in appetite (d) Insomnia or hypersomnia (e) Psychomotor agitation or retardation (f) Fatigue or loss of energy (g) Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt (which may be delusional) (h) Diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness (i) Recurrent thoughts of death, recurrent suicidal ideation, or suicide attempt or a specific plan for committing suicide • Symptoms cause clinically significant distress of impairment in important areas of functioning • Symptoms are not due to the direct psychological effects of a substance or a general medical condition • Symptoms are not better accounted for by bereavement Summary points
Ostial Lesions of Left Main and Right Coronary Arteries: Demographic and Angiographic Features

In 258 patients with left main tract disease, the atherosclerotic risk factors were compared between patients with ostial and nonostial lesions of the left main coronary artery. Also, it was done for patients with ostial right coronary artery. Women were more likely to have ostial left main coronary artery and/or ostial right coronary artery. A multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the female sex (odds ratio: 2.336) and hypertriglyceridemia (odds ratio: 1.004) were independent risk factors of ostial left main coronary artery lesion. For ostial right coronary artery lesion, the female sex and family history of coronary artery disease were independent predictors. Ostial left main coronary artery and right coronary artery lesions were strongly correlated. The demographic and clinical profiles of ostial stenosis suggest that this group may represent a distinct entity, different from the more common atherosclerotic left main trunk stenosis (LMTD). The female sex and serum triglyceride level can be considered as independent predictors of ostial left main tract disease.
System Potentials, a Novel Electrical Long-Distance Apoplastic Signal in Plants, Induced by Wounding1

Systemic signaling was investigated in both a dicot (Vicia faba) and a monocot (Hordeum vulgare) plant. Stimuli were applied to one leaf (S-leaf), and apoplastic responses were monitored on a distant leaf (target; T-leaf) with microelectrodes positioned in substomatal cavities of open stomata. Leaves that had been injured by cutting and to which a variety of cations were subsequently added caused voltage transients at the T-leaf, which are neither action potentials nor variation potentials: with respect to the cell interior, the initial polarity of these voltage transients is hyperpolarizing; they do not obey the all-or-none rule but depend on both the concentration and the type of substance added and propagate at 5 to 10 cm min−1. This response is thought to be due to the stimulation of the plasma membrane H+-ATPase, a notion supported by the action of fusicoccin, which also causes such voltage transients to appear on the T-leaf, whereas orthovanadate prevents their propagation. Moreover, apoplastic ion flux analysis reveals that, in contrast to action or variation potentials, all of the investigated ion movements (Ca2+, K+, H+, and Cl−) occur after the voltage change begins. We suggest that these wound-induced “system potentials” represent a new type of electrical long-distance signaling in higher plants.
A Study of Multilevel Banded Graph Cuts for Three-Dimensional Colon Tissue Segmentation

Graph cuts is an image segmentation method by which the region and boundary information of objects can be revolved comprehensively. Because of the complex spatial characteristics of high-dimensional images, time complexity and segmentation accuracy of graph cuts methods for high-dimensional images need to be improved. This paper proposes a new three-dimensional multilevel banded graph cuts model to increase its accuracy and reduce its complexity. Firstly, three-dimensional image is viewed as a high-dimensional space to construct three-dimensional network graphs. A pyramid image sequence is created by Gaussian pyramid downsampling procedure. Then, a new energy function is built according to the spatial characteristics of the three-dimensional image, in which the adjacent points are expressed by using a 26-connected system. At last, the banded graph is constructed on a narrow band around the object/background. The graph cuts method is performed on the banded graph layer by layer to obtain the object region sequentially. In order to verify the proposed method, we have performed an experiment on a set of three-dimensional colon CT images, and compared the results with local region active contour and Chan–Vese model. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can segment colon tissues from three-dimensional abdominal CT images accurately. The segmentation accuracy can be increased to 95.1% and the time complexity is reduced by about 30% of the other two methods.
KNN-DBSCAN: Using k-nearest neighbor information for parameter-free density based clustering

Density based clustering is adopted in situations where clusters of arbitrary shape exist. DBSCAN is a popular density concept but suffers from the drawback of dependence on user-defined parameters like many other density based methods. In order to utilize the potential of this clustering method we propose a combination method. The information of k-nearest neighbors is used with DBSCAN to achieve a parameter-free clustering technique. The parameters are set according to information of the data as it gets accumulated in a cluster structure.
Applying text mining to predict learners' cognitive engagement

In academic process, engagement represent one of the important success' factor. This paper proposes a predictive system for learners' cognitive engagement based on their online discussion forums participation. In the first level the ontology OWL and the LSA method are used to perform a semantic classification system of the threads according to a specific context chosen by the tutor. Then the Text mining, as a predictive method, is applied to the classified threads and learners' participation in the forums.
Sigma: Strain-level inference of genomes from metagenomic analysis for biosurveillance

Motivation: Metagenomic sequencing of clinical samples provides a promising technique for direct pathogen detection and characterization in biosurveillance. Taxonomic analysis at the strain level can be used to resolve serotypes of a pathogen in biosurveillance. Sigma was developed for strain-level identification and quantification of pathogens using their reference genomes based on metagenomic analysis. Results: Sigma provides not only accurate strain-level inferences, but also three unique capabilities: (i) Sigma quantifies the statistical uncertainty of its inferences, which includes hypothesis testing of identified genomes and confidence interval estimation of their relative abundances; (ii) Sigma enables strain variant calling by assigning metagenomic reads to their most likely reference genomes; and (iii) Sigma supports parallel computing for fast analysis of large datasets. The algorithm performance was evaluated using simulated mock communities and fecal samples with spike-in pathogen strains. Availability and Implementation: Sigma was implemented in C++ with source codes and binaries freely available at http://sigma.omicsbio. org. Contact: panc@ornl.gov Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Soft tissue volume augmentation in the oral cavity with a collagen-based 3D matrix with orientated open pore structure

Abstract In this study, characteristic features of a new regenerative 3D collagen matrix with an orientated open pore structure are studied in-vitro and in-vivo. The noncrosslinked porcine-based resorbable collagen-elastin matrix is designed to provide support during coverage procedures of localized gingival recessions and for local soft tissue augmentation around teeth and implants and is designed to provide an off-the-shelf alternative to autogenous soft tissue grafts. The in-vitro studies show that the mechanical properties (e.g. suture retention, volume recovery after cyclic compression) and the observed active cell migration into the open porous structure of the matrix fulfil essential design requirements. The in-vivo pig animal study shows that the matrix is well integrated into the surrounding tissue and replaced by newly formed autogenous soft tissue without a significant loss in tissue volume. First clinical case series are being performed to further analyse the new 3D matrix in clinical settings.
A malicious application detection model to remove the influence of interference API sequence

This paper proposes a new model for detecting Android malicious applications. The model obtains the API call sequences of APP runtime, and extracts features from them. These features have the highest correlation with malicious attributes detection, and have the characteristics of small redundancy between each other. And noticed that API subsequences generated by normal behavior that may exist in a malicious application can interfere with the training of the detector. We use VSM and K-means combined with GBDT algorithm to eliminate this interference and improve the detection accuracy. Experiments show that this method can effectively eliminate the influence of interference API sequence and obtain higher detection accuracy.
How Neutrophil Extracellular Traps Become Visible

Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) have been identified as a fundamental innate immune defense mechanism against different pathogens. NETs are characterized as released nuclear DNA associated with histones and granule proteins, which form an extracellular web-like structure that is able to entrap and occasionally kill certain microbes. Furthermore, NETs have been shown to contribute to several noninfectious disease conditions when released by activated neutrophils during inflammation. The identification of NETs has mainly been succeeded by various microscopy techniques, for example, immunofluorescence microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Since the last years the development and improvement of new immunofluorescence-based techniques enabled optimized visualization and quantification of NETs. On the one hand in vitro live-cell imaging led to profound new ideas about the mechanisms involved in the formation and functionality of NETs. On the other hand different intravital, in vivo, and in situ microscopy techniques led to deeper insights into the role of NET formation during health and disease. This paper presents an overview of the main used microscopy techniques to visualize NETs and describes their advantages as well as disadvantages.