Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Passive Cushiony Biomechanics of Head Protection in Falling Geckos

Gekko geckos are capable to crawl on the steep even on upside-down surfaces. Such movement, especially at great altitude, puts them at high risks of incidentally dropping down and inevitable body or head impactions, though they may trigger air-righting reaction (ARR) to attenuate the landing shocks. However, the air-righting ability (ARA) in Gekko geckos is not fully developed. The implementation of ARR in some geckos is quite slow; and for those without tails, the ARR is even unobservable. Since ARA is compromised in Gekko geckos, there must be some other mechanisms responsible for protecting them from head injuries during falls. In this study, we looked into a Gekko gecko's brain to study its internal environment and structure, using the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique. The results showed that the brain parenchyma was fully surrounded by the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the skull. A succulent characteristic was presented, which meant the intracalvarium was significantly occupied by the CSF, up to 45% in volume. Then a simplified three-dimensional finite element model was built, and a dynamic simulation was conducted to evaluate the mechanical property of this succulent characteristic during the head impactions. These implied the succulent characteristic may play certain roles on the self-protection in case of head impaction, which is adaptable to the Gekko gecko's locomotion and behavior.
Maternal Serum Disintegrin and Metalloprotease Protein-12 in Early Pregnancy as a Potential Marker of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes

Objectives The aim of this study was to determine whether the concentration of disintegrin and metalloprotease protein12 (ADAM12) in first trimester maternal serum can be used as a marker for first-trimester complete spontaneous abortions, missed abortions, ectopic pregnancies and hydatidiform moles. Methods The maternal serum concentrations of ADAM12 were measured in the range of 5–9+6 weeks of gestation using an automated AutoDelfia immunoassay platform in 9 cases of complete spontaneous abortion, 27 cases of missed abortions, 56 cases of ectopic pregnancies, 12 cases of hydatidiform moles, and 100 controls. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine significant factors for predicting adverse pregnancy outcomes in early pregnancy. Screening performance was assessed using receiver operating characteristic curves. Results Two hundred and four women were enrolled in the study. In the control group, the level of ADAM12 increased with gestational age. The median ADAM12 levels in the spontaneous abortion (0.430 MoM), ectopic pregnancy (0.460 MoM) and hydatidiform mole (0.037 MoM) groups were lower than that in the control group, while the median ADAM12 level in the missed abortion group (1.062 MoM) was not significant from the controls (1.002 MoM). Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that the level of ADAM12 in maternal serum facilitated the detection of ectopic pregnancies (OR = 0.909; 95% CI = 0.841∼0.982) and complete spontaneous abortion (OR = 0.863; 95% CI = 0.787∼0.946). Conclusions In complete spontaneous abortion and ectopic pregnancy, ADAM12 maintained at low levels in early pregnancies, and there were significant differences compared to normal pregnancies. ADAM12 is a promising marker for the diagnosis of complete spontaneous abortion and ectopic pregnancy in symptomatic women, and under certain conditions, ADAM12 can diagnose ectopic pregnancy and spontaneous abortion before an ultrasonographic detection of the conditions.
A Block Sparsity Based Estimator for mmWave Massive MIMO Channels With Beam Squint

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) millimeter wave (mmWave) communication is a key technology for next generation wireless networks. One of the consequences of utilizing a large number of antennas with an increased bandwidth is that array steering vectors vary among different subcarriers. Due to this effect, known as beam squint, the conventional channel model is no longer applicable for mmWave massive MIMO systems. In this paper, we study channel estimation under the resulting non-standard model. To that aim, we first analyze the beam squint effect from an array signal processing perspective, resulting in a model which sheds light on the angle-delay sparsity of mmWave transmission. We next design a compressive sensing based channel estimation algorithm which utilizes the shift-invariant block-sparsity of this channel model. The proposed algorithm jointly computes the off-grid angles, the off-grid delays, and the complex gains of the multi-path channel. We show that the newly proposed scheme reflects the mmWave channel more accurately and results in improved performance compared to traditional approaches. We then demonstrate how this approach can be applied to recover both the uplink as well as the downlink channel in frequency division duplex (FDD) systems, by exploiting the angle-delay reciprocity of mmWave channels.
Intramuscular Immunisation with Chlamydial Proteins Induces Chlamydia trachomatis Specific Ocular Antibodies

Background Ocular infection with Chlamydia trachomatis can cause trachoma, which is the leading cause of blindness due to infection worldwide. Despite the large-scale implementation of trachoma control programmes in the majority of countries where trachoma is endemic, there remains a need for a vaccine. Since C. trachomatis infects the conjunctival epithelium and stimulates an immune response in the associated lymphoid tissue, vaccine regimens that enhance local antibody responses could be advantageous. In experimental infections of non-human primates (NHPs), antibody specificity to C. trachomatis antigens was found to change over the course of ocular infection. The appearance of major outer membrane protein (MOMP) specific antibodies correlated with a reduction in ocular chlamydial burden, while subsequent generation of antibodies specific for PmpD and Pgp3 correlated with C. trachomatis eradication. Methods We used a range of heterologous prime-boost vaccinations with DNA, Adenovirus, modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) and protein vaccines based on the major outer membrane protein (MOMP) as an antigen, and investigated the effect of vaccine route, antigen and regimen on the induction of anti-chlamydial antibodies detectable in the ocular lavage fluid of mice. Results Three intramuscular vaccinations with recombinant protein adjuvanted with MF59 induced significantly greater levels of anti-MOMP ocular antibodies than the other regimens tested. Intranasal delivery of vaccines induced less IgG antibody in the eye than intramuscular delivery. The inclusion of the antigens PmpD and Pgp3, singly or in combination, induced ocular antigen-specific IgG antibodies, although the anti-PmpD antibody response was consistently lower and attenuated by combination with other antigens. Conclusions If translatable to NHPs and/or humans, this investigation of the murine C. trachomatis specific ocular antibody response following vaccination provides a potential mouse model for the rapid and high throughput evaluation of future trachoma vaccines.
Selective attenuation of Ether-a-go-go related K+ currents by endogenous acetylcholine reduces spike-frequency adaptation and network correlation

Most neurons do not simply convert inputs into firing rates. Instead, moment-to-moment firing rates reflect interactions between synaptic inputs and intrinsic currents. Few studies investigated how intrinsic currents function together to modulate output discharges and which of the currents attenuated by synthetic cholinergic ligands are actually modulated by endogenous acetylcholine (ACh). In this study we optogenetically stimulated cholinergic fibers in rat neocortex and find that ACh enhances excitability by reducing Ether-à-go-go Related Gene (ERG) K+ current. We find ERG mediates the late phase of spike-frequency adaptation in pyramidal cells and is recruited later than both SK and M currents. Attenuation of ERG during coincident depolarization and ACh release leads to reduced late phase spike-frequency adaptation and persistent firing. In neuronal ensembles, attenuating ERG enhanced signal-to-noise ratios and reduced signal correlation, suggesting that these two hallmarks of cholinergic function in vivo may result from modulation of intrinsic properties.
Safety, Pharmacokinetics, and Dosimetry of a Long-Acting Radiolabeled Somatostatin Analog 177Lu-DOTA-EB-TATE in Patients with Advanced Metastatic Neuroendocrine Tumors

Radiolabeled somatostatin analog therapy has become an established treatment method for patients with well to moderately differentiated unresectable or metastatic neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). The most frequently used somatostatin analogs in clinical practice are octreotide and octreotate. However, both peptides showed suboptimal retention within tumors. The aim of this first-in-humans study is to explore the safety and dosimetry of a long-acting radiolabeled somatostatin analog, 177Lu-1, 4, 7, 10-tetra-azacyclododecane-1, 4, 7, 10-tetraacetic acid-Evans blue-octreotate (177Lu-DOTA-EB-TATE). Methods: Eight patients (6 men and 2 women; age range, 27–61 y) with advanced metastatic NETs were recruited. Five patients received a single dose, 0.35–0.70 GBq (9.5–18.9 mCi), of 177Lu-DOTA-EB-TATE and underwent serial whole-body planar and SPECT/CT scans at 2, 24, 72, 120, and 168 h after injection. The other 3 patients received intravenous injection of 0.28–0.41 GBq (7.5–11.1 mCi) of 177Lu-DOTATATE for the same imaging acquisition procedures at 1, 3, 4, 24, and 72 h after injection. The dosimetry was calculated using the OLINDA/EXM 1.1 software. Results: Administration of 177Lu-DOTA-EB-TATE was well tolerated, with no adverse symptoms being noticed or reported in any of the patients. Compared with 177Lu-DOTATATE, 177Lu-DOTA-EB-TATE showed extended circulation in the blood and achieved a 7.9-fold increase of tumor dose delivery. The total-body effective doses were 0.205 ± 0.161 mSv/MBq for 177Lu-DOTA-EB-TATE and 0.174 ± 0.072 mSv/MBq for 177Lu-DOTATATE. Significant dose delivery increases to the kidneys and bone marrow were also observed in patients receiving 177Lu-DOTA-EB-TATE compared with those receiving 177Lu-DOTATATE (3.2 and 18.2-fold, respectively). Conclusion: By introducing an albumin-binding moiety, 177Lu-DOTA-EB-TATE showed remarkably higher uptake and retention in NETs as well as significantly increased accumulation in the kidneys and red marrow. It has great potential to be used in peptide receptor radionuclide therapy for NETs with lower dose and less frequency of administration.
Drivers of Tuberculosis Transmission

Abstract Measuring tuberculosis transmission is exceedingly difficult, given the remarkable variability in the timing of clinical disease after Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection; incident disease can result from either a recent (ie, weeks to months) or a remote (ie, several years to decades) infection event. Although we cannot identify with certainty the timing and location of tuberculosis transmission for individuals, approaches for estimating the individual probability of recent transmission and for estimating the fraction of tuberculosis cases due to recent transmission in populations have been developed. Data used to estimate the probable burden of recent transmission include tuberculosis case notifications in young children and trends in tuberculin skin test and interferon γ–release assays. More recently, M. tuberculosis whole-genome sequencing has been used to estimate population levels of recent transmission, identify the distribution of specific strains within communities, and decipher chains of transmission among culture-positive tuberculosis cases. The factors that drive the transmission of tuberculosis in communities depend on the burden of prevalent tuberculosis; the ways in which individuals live, work, and interact (eg, congregate settings); and the capacity of healthcare and public health systems to identify and effectively treat individuals with infectious forms of tuberculosis. Here we provide an overview of these factors, describe tools for measurement of ongoing transmission, and highlight knowledge gaps that must be addressed.
Supporting Video Queries on Zero-Streaming Cameras

As low-cost surveillance cameras grow rapidly, we advocate for these cameras to be zero streaming: ingesting videos directly to their local storage and only communicating with the cloud in response to queries. To support queries over videos stored on zero-streaming cameras, we describe a system that spans the cloud and cameras. The system builds on two unconventional ideas. When ingesting video frames, a camera learns accurate knowledge on a sparse sample of frames, rather than learning inaccurate knowledge on all frames; in executing one query, a camera processes frames in multiple passes with multiple operators trained and picked by the cloud during the query, rather than one-pass processing with operator(s) decided ahead of the query. On diverse queries over 750-hour videos and with typical wireless network bandwidth and low-cost camera hardware, our system runs at more than 100x video realtime. It outperforms competitive alternative designs by at least 4x and up to two orders of magnitude.
Psychosis, victimisation and childhood disadvantage

Background Adverse early circumstances may be more common in people who later develop psychotic disorders. Aims To use data from the second British National Survey of Psychiatric Morbidity to examine associations between psychotic disorders and a number of early victimisation experiences. Method Psychiatric disorders were identified through structured assessment of adults resident in private households in Britain (n=8580). Respondents were asked whether they had experienced selected events displayed on cards. Results Compared with respondents with other psychiatric disorders or with none, the prevalence of every experience bar one was significantly elevated in those with definite or probable psychosis. The largest odds ratio was for sexual abuse. Controlling for depressed mood somewhat reduced the odds ratios for the individual experiences. Conclusions In people with psychosis, there is a marked excess of victimising experiences, many of which will have occurred during childhood. This is suggestive of a social contribution to aetiology.
Detecting A gender-Related Differential Item Functioning Using Transformed Item Difficulty.

The purpose of the study was to examine gender differences in performance on multiple-choice mathematical ability test, administered within the context of high school graduation test that was designed to match eleventh grade curriculum. The transformed item difficulty (TID) was used to detect a gender related DIF. A random sample of 1400 eleventh graders in Kuala Lumpur was selected. In DIF indexes, females showed a statistically significant and consistent advantage over males on items involving algebra, whereas males showed a less consistent advantage on items involving geometry and measurement, number and computation, data analysis, and proportional reasoning. However it was concluded that gender differences in mathematics may well be linked to content.
Integrable deformations of string sigma models and generalized supergravity

This thesis is mainly devoted to studying integrable deformations of the ${\rm AdS}_5 \times {\rm S}^5$ superstring and generalized supergravity. We start to give a brief review of the ${\rm AdS}_5 \times {\rm S}^5$ superstring formulated in the Green-Schwartz formalism, and then introduce homogeneous Yang-Baxter (YB) deformation of the ${\rm AdS}_5 \times {\rm S}^5$ superstring based on $r$-matrices which are solutions to the homogeneous classical YB equation. By performing a supercoset construction, we derive the general formula for homogeneous YB deformed backgrounds associated with bosonic $r$-matrices. The deformed backgrounds are shown to be solutions of the standard type IIB supergravity or generalized supergravity. Next, we explain that homogeneous YB deformation can be regarded as a kind of the $O(d,d)$ duality transformations. Once YB deformations are realized as duality transformations, the corresponding $O(d,d)$ transformations are applied to almost all backgrounds. Moreover, we discuss spacetime structures of homogeneous YB deformed backgrounds and clarify a T-fold structure of them by showing the associated $O(d,d; \mathbb{Z})$ $T$-duality monodromy. Finally, we consider the Weyl invariance of string theories in generalized supergravity backgrounds. We show that generalized supergravity can be reproduced from double field theory with the dilaton depending on a linear dual coordinate. From this result, we construct a possible counterterm to cancel out the Weyl anomaly of bosonic string theories on generalized supergravity backgrounds. In particular, we show that the counterterm is definitely local. In this sense, string theories can be consistently defined in generalized supergravity backgrounds.
Well-Posedness of Time-Varying Linear Systems

In this article, we give easily verifiable sufficient conditions for two classes of perturbed linear, passive partial differential equation (PDE) systems to be well-posed, and we provide an energy inequality for the perturbed systems. Our conditions are in terms of smoothness of the operator functions that describe the multiplicative and additive perturbations, and here, well-posedness essentially means that the time-varying systems have strongly continuous Lax–Phillips evolution families. A time-varying wave equation with a bounded multidimensional Lipschitz domain is used as illustration, and as a part of the example, we show that the time-invariant wave equation is a “physically motivated” scattering-passive system in the sense of Staffans and Weiss. The theory also applies to time-varying port-Hamiltonian systems.
Multi-Objective vs. Single-Objective Approaches for Software Defect Prediction

Software defect prediction employs attributes of software modules to identify defect-prone modules and thus improves software reliability by allocating testing resources more efficiently. Realizing that single-objective methods might be insufficient for solving defect prediction problems, some researchers have proposed multi-objective learning approaches, and proved better performance of multi-objective than single-objective methods. However, existing compared single-objective methods optimize a completely different goal from goals of multi-objective approaches, which might lead to bias. In this paper, we compare a multi-objective approach that optimizes two objectives and a single-objective approach that directly optimizes a trade-off of the two objectives, in order to further investigate the comparison of multi-objective and single-objective approaches. The conclusion will help to appropriately choose multi-objective or single-objective learning approaches for defect prediction.
Different Materials for Plugging a Dehiscent Superior Semicircular Canal: A Comparative Histologic Study Using a Gerbil Model.

HYPOTHESIS The choice of the material for plugging a dehiscence of the superior semicircular canal is based on the ease of use and the success of the procedure to permanently relieve symptoms without adverse side effects. BACKGROUND Dehiscence of the superior semicircular canal can lead to autophony, conductive hearing loss, and vertigo. Surgical treatment by plugging the canal is a highly effective treatment of the symptoms in many patients, although, the procedure can be associated with some degree of hearing loss in more than or equal to 25% of the patients. The available data indicate that adverse effects may be more frequently observed with bone wax as compared with other materials. METHODS In the present study we compare the tissue reactions induced by plugging the superior semicircular canal with autologous bone pate/bone chips, muscle, fat, artificial bone wax, and teflon in the gerbil model in an attempt to identify the material leading to successful plugging with the least adverse tissue reactions. RESULTS Our data show that successful plugging was achieved in 100% of the ears by bone pate/bone chips, teflon, and bone wax while the success rate was significantly lower (<50%) following muscle and fat. The proportion of adverse tissue reactions was significantly more pronounced using bone wax as compared with teflon and bone pate/bone chips. CONCLUSION The use of teflon or autologous bone as a material for plugging a dehiscent superior semicircular canal should be favored over bone wax, muscle, and fat.
Firearm Injury Research and Epidemiology: A Review of the Data, their Limitations and How Trauma Centers can Improve Firearm Injury Research.

Understanding the epidemiology and risk factors for any disease is the fundamental basis for which we can then create a public health approach to address it. This includes firearm injuries, which claim the lives of nearly 40,000 a year in the U.S. Despite the fact that firearm injury is one of the leading causes of death among young people and has the highest fatality rate for injuries treated in trauma centers, research dedicated to the causes and prevention of firearm injury is disproportionately minimal compared to other causes of injury and death. This review provides an overview of the existing sources of firearm injury data and their limitations to quantify and characterize non-fatal firearm injuries, and to describe the burden of firearm injuries on patients and society. These data are imperative to informing prevention and intervention efforts and the ability to evaluate them. We describe how trauma centers are in opportune positions to improve the surveillance and characterization of risks and circumstances contributing to firearm injuries. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Not-applicable, review.
How teachers can help learners build storage and retrieval strength

Abstract Aim: To be an effective teacher, content expertise is necessary but alone does not guarantee optimal learning outcomes for students. In this article, the authors discuss ways in which medical teachers can shape the learning of their students and enable them to become more efficient and effective learners. Methods: Using Bjork and Bjork's new theory of disuse as their framework, the authors discuss strategies to improve storage strength of to-be-learned information and strategies to improve retrieval strength of learned information. Results: Strategies to improve storage strength include optimizing cognitive load, providing causal explanations, and giving effective feedback. Strategies to improve retrieval strength include situated cognition and various types of retrieval practice. Conclusions: Adopting these teaching strategies should hopefully help teachers improve the learning outcomes of their students, but there is still a need for further research into the science of learning and the science of instruction, including comparative effectiveness of different teaching strategies and how best to translate findings from the psychology literature into medical education.
A consensus guide to capturing the ability to inhibit actions and impulsive behaviors in the stop-signal task

Response inhibition is essential for navigating everyday life. Its derailment is considered integral to numerous neurological and psychiatric disorders, and more generally, to a wide range of behavioral and health problems. Response-inhibition efficiency furthermore correlates with treatment outcome in some of these conditions. The stop-signal task is an essential tool to determine how quickly response inhibition is implemented. Despite its apparent simplicity, there are many features (ranging from task design to data analysis) that vary across studies in ways that can easily compromise the validity of the obtained results. Our goal is to facilitate a more accurate use of the stop-signal task. To this end, we provide 12 easy-to-implement consensus recommendations and point out the problems that can arise when they are not followed. Furthermore, we provide user-friendly open-source resources intended to inform statistical-power considerations, facilitate the correct implementation of the task, and assist in proper data analysis.