Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Two Autoimmune Diabetes Loci Influencing T Cell Apoptosis Control Susceptibility to Experimental Autoimmune Myocarditis1

The pathogenesis of immune-mediated myocarditis depends on genetic and environmental factors. To study the genetic mechanisms, we have developed a model of experimental autoimmune myocarditis in the A.SW mouse. Here we provide evidence that loci on murine chromosome 6, and possibly chromosome 1, are involved in regulating susceptibility. Moreover, these loci overlap with loci implicated in other autoimmune diseases including diabetes in the NOD mouse. These two loci also regulate apoptosis in thymocytes as well as peripheral T cells in the NOD mouse, and we report further that A.SW mice demonstrate the same characteristics in apoptosis. These results suggest that common pathogenetic mechanisms involving apoptosis of both thymic and peripheral T cells are shared by multiple autoimmune diseases.
Bayesian Action-Graph Games

Games of incomplete information, or Bayesian games, are an important game-theoretic model and have many applications in economics. We propose Bayesian action-graph games (BAGGs), a novel graphical representation for Bayesian games. BAGGs can represent arbitrary Bayesian games, and furthermore can compactly express Bayesian games exhibiting commonly encountered types of structure including symmetry, action- and type-specific utility independence, and probabilistic independence of type distributions. We provide an algorithm for computing expected utility in BAGGs, and discuss conditions under which the algorithm runs in polynomial time. Bayes-Nash equilibria of BAGGs can be computed by adapting existing algorithms for complete-information normal form games and leveraging our expected utility algorithm. We show both theoretically and empirically that our approaches improve significantly on the state of the art.
The Beginnings of Expertise for Ballads

To study the beginning stages of expertise, 14 students, who were inexperienced with ballads, heard and recalled a series of 5 ballads over the course of 5 weeks. Compared with their first recall of the first ballad, their first recall of the fifth ballad had one and a half times as many words, two times as many rhyming words, and three times as much line structure evident in the written recall protocols. Compared with novices, the 14 beginning experts more often filled in blank spaces in novel ballads with words of the correct number of syllables and more often chose the original stanza of a novel ballad that was paired with a changed version of the stanza. The beginning experts were also able to compose, in 20 min, ballads about two thirds as long as the 10-stanza ballads they learned. Thirty characteristics were identified in the set of the five learned ballads. The ballads composed by the beginning experts used over half of these. The beginning experts also explicitly stated about one quarter of these 30 characteristics, but there was no statistical relationship between the characteristics used and the characteristics stated. Memory expertise is viewed as a pervasive aspect of cognition in which people make use of a variety of regularities in the material to be learned.
Alcohol-related ERP changes recorded from different modalities: a topographic analysis.

BACKGROUND There is controversy in the literature regarding the relationship between event-related-potential (ERP) abnormalities in abstinent alcoholics and stimulus-processing modality (i.e., visual versus auditory). The first purpose of this study was to address questions about whether ERP abnormalities observed in alcoholics are modality specific. The second purpose was to employ current source density (CSD) analyses to investigate topographic differences between alcoholics and controls within each modality. METHODS Data were collected from 30 sober male alcoholics and 39 normal males in a typical auditory oddball task and in a visual oddball paradigm with novel stimuli, with an extensive set of 61 scalp electrodes. Visual and quantitative assessment of CSD maps as well as analyses of variances on both raw and normalized ERP data were performed. RESULTS Positive findings were limited to the N1 and P3 components. The visual N1 amplitude was significantly smaller in alcoholics than in controls at the parietal region; no significant group differences in N1 were found in the auditory modality. Alcoholics had widespread reductions in P3 amplitudes in both modalities compared with controls, although in the frontal region this effect was partially due to the influence of age. These P3 reductions in alcoholics were statistically more pronounced in the posterior compared with the anterior regions regardless of modality. Topographically, sources in CSD maps were weaker in alcoholics than in controls; in the frontal and central regions, the weakness was more pronounced in the auditory modality but, in parietal and occipital regions, it was more pronounced in the visual modality. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that, in abstinent alcoholics, abnormalities in auditory ERPs may be localized to more anterior sources, while abnormalities in visual ERPs may be localized to more posterior sources. ERP topographic features are more sensitive than amplitude measurements in assessing alcoholic-related modality effects.
Bargaining Power in Repeated Negotiations with Outside Options

For repeated ultimatum bargaining, the Folk Theorem of repeated game the- ory suggests that there are many equilibria, among them equilibria in which the second mover, say, the buyer, appropriates all the surplus. This paper shows that the presence of outside options in form of alternative trading partners eliminates some of these equilibria by reducing the cope for extracting surplus in repeated bargaining. The structure of optimal equilibria is characterized.
Reliability and validity of the Swedish version of the Fatigue Impact Scale (FIS)

Fatigue is a complex phenomenon that, for those not affected, is hard to understand. To achieve better assessments, caregivers need reliable and valid tools. The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability and validity of the Swedish version of the Fatigue Impact Scale (FIS) among working-aged individuals diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), as well as in a comparative group randomly selected from the general population in the same geographical area. Both individuals with MS (n=161) and individuals recruited from the general population (n=194) participated in the study. A questionnaire was used for the data collection. The data were analysed using non-parametric statistical methods. Reliability of FIS was addressed by item-to-item and item-to-total correlations. Concurrent validity was tested for by analysing correlations between the FIS and general questions, and construct validity by investigation of differences in the FIS scores between known groups. The FIS was found to be homogenous, with item-to-total correlation coefficients of 0.42 ≤ rs≤0.86 (p<0.001), reflecting the instrument's reliability. The correlations between the FIS and the general questions confirm its concurrent validity, 0.27 ≤ rs≤0.84 (p<0.001). The differences in FIS scores between known groups demonstrate its construct validity. Furthermore, the FIS showed the ability to discriminate between groups of individuals with differences in perceived impact of fatigue.
A Measure of Inference in Classical and Intuitionistic Logics

This paper presents a measure of inference in classical and intuitionistic logics in the Gentzen-style sequent calculi. The measure for a proof of a sequent is the width of the proof tree, that is, the number of leaves of the proof tree. Then the measure for a sequent is the minimum value of the widths of possible proofs of the sequent; if it is unprovable, the assigned value is +∞ It counts the indispensable cases for possible proofs of a sequent. By this measure, we can separate between sequents easy to be proved and ones difficult; we can go further than provability and/or unprovability It is motivated by some economics/game theory problem (bounded rationality). However, it would be not straightforward to obtain the exact value of this measure for a given sequent. In this paper, we will develop a method of calculating the value of the measure. We will apply our measure to various classes of problems, for example, to evaluate the difficulty of proving contradictory sequents. We also exemplify our measure with a problem of game theoretical decision making.
A Design of Paraunitary Polyphase Matrices of Rational Filter Banks Based on (P,Q) Shift-Invariant Systems

In this paper we present a method to design paraunitary polyphase matrices of critically sampled rational filter banks. The method is based on (P,Q) shift-invariant systems, and so any kind of rational splitting of the frequency spectrum can be achieved using this method. Ideal (P,Q) shift-invariant system with smallest P and Q that map of a band of input spectrum to the output spectrum are obtained. A new set of filters is obtained that characterize a (P,Q) shift-invariant system. Ideal frequency spectrum of these filters are obtained using ideal $(P,Q)$ shift-invariant systems. Actual paraunitary polyphase matrices are then obtained by minimizing the stopband energies of these filters against the parameters of the paraunitary polyphase matrices.
Software Pipelining of Nested Loops

This paper presents an approach to software pipelining of nested loops. While several papers have addressed software pipelining of inner loops, little work has been done in the area of extending it to nested loops. This paper solves the problem of nding the minimum iteration initiation interval (in the absence of resource constraints) for each level of a nested loop. The problem is formulated as one of nding a rational quasi-aane schedule for each statement in the body of a perfectly nested loop which is then solved using linear programming. This allows us to treat iteration-dependent statement reordering and multidimensional loop unrolling in the same framework. Unlike most work in scheduling nested loops, we treat each statement in the body as a unit of scheduling. Thus, the schedules derived allow for instances of statements from diierent iterations to be scheduled at the same time. Optimal schedules derived here subsume extant work on software pipelining of inner loops, in the absence of resource constraints.
Visual neglect as a predictor of functional outcome one year after stroke

Objectives: The aim was to study the role of visual neglect in acute right hemisphere brain infarct as a predictor of poor functional outcome during the first year after stroke. In particular, we were interested in the additional value of neglect measures besides hemiparesis, hemianopia, cognitive deficits and age. Patients and methods: A consecutive series of 57 patients with a neuroradiologically verified right hemisphere infarct was examined within 10 days of the stroke. Fifty patients were followed up for 1 year. Neglect was measured with the Conventional and the Behavioural subtests of the Behavioural Inattention Test (BITC and BITB, respectively). The predictors were determined at the 10‐day examination. Functional outcome was assessed 3, 6 and 12 months after the onset with the Frenchay Activities Index. Results: Neglect in BITB was the best single predictor, which together with high age formed the best combination of predictors for poor functional outcome at each follow‐up. Hemiparesis was also included in this prediction model at the 3‐month follow‐up, but hemianopia, BITC, or visuoconstructional and memory deficits showed no additional predictive value. However, neglect usually recovered soon. When neurological and cognitive deficits were assessed at the same time as the outcome, hemiparesis rather than neglect was the strongest correlate of poor outcome. Conclusion: Neglect in acute stroke is an important predictor of poor functional recovery. Residual neglect, which could be compensated in the follow‐up tests, may nevertheless restrict patients' real‐life activities and hobbies.
Depth upsampling method using the confidence map for a fusion of a high resolution color sensor and low resolution time-of-flight depth sensor

This paper proposes a depth up-sampling method using the confidence map for a fusion of a high resolution color sensor and low resolution time-of-flight depth sensor. The confidence map represents the accuracy of depth depending on the reflectance of a measured object and is estimated with amplitude, offset, and reconstructed error of a received signal. The proposed method suppresses the depth artifacts that are caused by difference between low and high reflective materials on an object at a distance. Although the surface of an object is located at the same distance, the reflectance of small regions within the surface depends on constituent materials. Weighted filter generated by confidence map is added to the modified noise-aware filter for depth up-sampling that is proposed by Derek et al., and is adaptively selected. The proposed method consists of followings; the normalization, the reconstruction, the confidence map estimation, and the modified noise-aware filtering. In the normalization, amplitudes and offsets of received signals are calculated and received signals are normalized by those. The phase shifts are measured between transmitted and received signals. In the reconstruction, received signals are reconstructed using only the values of phase shifts and the reconstruction errors are calculated. The confidence map is estimated with amplitudes, offsets, and reconstruction errors. The coefficients of a modified noise-aware filter are adaptively selected by referring to the confidence map. The proposed method shows the enhanced results of removing depth artifacts in the experiments.
Repeated N-Acetylcysteine Administration Alters Plasticity-Dependent Effects of Cocaine

Cocaine produces a persistent reduction in cystine–glutamate exchange via system xc− in the nucleus accumbens that may contribute to pathological glutamate signaling linked to addiction. System xc− influences glutamate neurotransmission by maintaining basal, extracellular glutamate in the nucleus accumbens, which, in turn, shapes synaptic activity by stimulating group II metabotropic glutamate autoreceptors. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that a long-term reduction in system xc− activity is part of the plasticity produced by repeated cocaine that results in the establishment of compulsive drug seeking. To test this, the cysteine prodrug N-acetylcysteine was administered before daily cocaine to determine the impact of increased cystine–glutamate exchange on the development of plasticity-dependent cocaine seeking. Although N-acetylcysteine administered before cocaine did not alter the acute effects of cocaine on self-administration or locomotor activity, it prevented behaviors produced by repeated cocaine including escalation of drug intake, behavioral sensitization, and cocaine-primed reinstatement. Because sensitization or reinstatement was not evident even 2–3 weeks after the last injection of N-acetylcysteine, we examined whether N-acetylcysteine administered before daily cocaine also prevented the persistent reduction in system xc− activity produced by repeated cocaine. Interestingly, N-acetylcysteine pretreatment prevented cocaine-induced changes in [35S]cystine transport via system xc−, basal glutamate, and cocaine-evoked glutamate in the nucleus accumbens when assessed at least 3 weeks after the last N-acetylcysteine pretreatment. These findings indicate that N-acetylcysteine selectively alters plasticity-dependent behaviors and that normal system xc− activity prevents pathological changes in extracellular glutamate that may be necessary for compulsive drug seeking.
Whisker encoding of mechanical events during active tactile exploration

Rats use their whiskers to extract a wealth of information about their immediate environment, such as the shape, position or texture of an object. The information is conveyed to mechanoreceptors located within the whisker follicle in the form of a sequence of whisker deflections induced by the whisker/object contact interaction. How the whiskers filter and shape the mechanical information and effectively participate in the coding of tactile features remains an open question to date. In the present article, a biomechanical model was developed that provides predictions of the whisker dynamics during active tactile exploration, amenable to quantitative experimental comparison. This model is based on a decomposition of the whisker profile into a slow, quasi-static sequence and rapid resonant small-scale vibrations. It was applied to the typical situation of a rat actively whisking across a solid object. Having derived the quasi-static sequence of whisker deformation, the resonant properties of the whisker were analyzed, taking into account the boundary conditions imposed by the whisker/surface contact. We then focused on two elementary mechanical events that are expected to trigger significant neural responses, namely (1) the whisker/object first contact and (2) the whisker detachment from the object. Both events were found to trigger a deflection wave propagating upward to the mystacial pad at constant velocity of ≈3–5 m/s. This yielded a characteristic mechanical signature at the whisker base, in the form of a large peak of negative curvature occurring ≈4 ms after the event has been triggered. The dependence in amplitude and lag of this mechanical signal with the main contextual parameters (such as radial or angular distance) was investigated. The model was validated experimentally by comparing its predictions to high-speed video recordings of shock-induced whisker deflections performed on anesthetized rats. The consequences of these results on possible tactile encoding schemes are briefly discussed.
Kinematic Analysis of 2-DOF Planer Robot Using Artificial Neural Network

Automatic control of the robotic manipulator involves study of kinematics and dynamics as a major issue. This paper involves the forward and inverse kinematics of 2-DOF robotic manipulator with revolute joints. In this study the DenavitHartenberg (D-H) model is used to model robot links and joints. Also forward and inverse kinematics solution has been achieved using Artificial Neural Networks for 2-DOF robotic manipulator. It shows that by using artificial neural network the solution we get is faster, acceptable and has zero error. Keywords—Artificial Neural Network, Forward Kinematics, Inverse Kinematics, Robotic Manipulator
Meta-analysis of quantitative sleep parameters from childhood to old age in healthy individuals: developing normative sleep values across the human lifespan.

OBJECTIVES The purposes of this study were to identify age-related changes in objectively recorded sleep patterns across the human life span in healthy individuals and to clarify whether sleep latency and percentages of stage 1, stage 2, and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep significantly change with age. DESIGN Review of literature of articles published between 1960 and 2003 in peer-reviewed journals and meta-analysis. PARTICIPANTS 65 studies representing 3,577 subjects aged 5 years to 102 years. MEASUREMENT The research reports included in this meta-analysis met the following criteria: (1) included nonclinical participants aged 5 years or older; (2) included measures of sleep characteristics by "all night" polysomnography or actigraphy on sleep latency, sleep efficiency, total sleep time, stage 1 sleep, stage 2 sleep, slow-wave sleep, REM sleep, REM latency, or minutes awake after sleep onset; (3) included numeric presentation of the data; and (4) were published between 1960 and 2003 in peer-reviewed journals. RESULTS In children and adolescents, total sleep time decreased with age only in studies performed on school days. Percentage of slow-wave sleep was significantly negatively correlated with age. Percentages of stage 2 and REM sleep significantly changed with age. In adults, total sleep time, sleep efficiency, percentage of slow-wave sleep, percentage of REM sleep, and REM latency all significantly decreased with age, while sleep latency, percentage of stage 1 sleep, percentage of stage 2 sleep, and wake after sleep onset significantly increased with age. However, only sleep efficiency continued to significantly decrease after 60 years of age. The magnitudes of the effect sizes noted changed depending on whether or not studied participants were screened for mental disorders, organic diseases, use of drug or alcohol, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, or other sleep disorders. CONCLUSIONS In adults, it appeared that sleep latency, percentages of stage 1 and stage 2 significantly increased with age while percentage of REM sleep decreased. However, effect sizes for the different sleep parameters were greatly modified by the quality of subject screening, diminishing or even masking age associations with different sleep parameters. The number of studies that examined the evolution of sleep parameters with age are scant among school-aged children, adolescents, and middle-aged adults. There are also very few studies that examined the effect of race on polysomnographic sleep parameters.
The automatic detection of artifacts in Magnetoencephalographic signals based on fast ICA

As a non-invasive technique applied for the functional mapping of human brain, Magnetoencephalography (MEG) can acquire the neural activity with high temporal resolution and moderate spatial resolution. However, when reading a MEG record, for research or clinical reference, the investigator face the signals from non-cerebral sources like eye movements, heart beat and muscle activity always appear mixed with brain signals. In this article, we proposed a procedure including the independent component analysis(ICA) followed by an automatic independent component(IC) detection module mainly based on the analysis of statistical and spectral characteristics of each IC to remove the artifacts from MEG signals. The whole process was tested with both simulated data and real MEG signal, the results showed that the proposed technique was able to differentiate artfactual ICs successfully.
Measuring lung function in airways diseases: current and emerging techniques

Chronic airways diseases, including asthma, COPD and cystic fibrosis, cause significant morbidity and mortality and are associated with high healthcare expenditure, in the UK and worldwide. For patients with these conditions, improvements in clinical outcomes are likely to depend on the application of precision medicine, that is, the matching of the right treatment to the right patient at the right time. In this context, the identification and targeting of ‘treatable traits’ is an important priority in airways disease, both to ensure the appropriate use of existing treatments and to facilitate the development of new disease-modifying therapy. This requires not only better understanding of airway pathophysiology but also an enhanced ability to make physiological measurements of disease activity and lung function and, if we are to impact on the natural history of these diseases, reliable measures in early disease. In this article, we outline some of the key challenges faced by the respiratory community in the management of airways diseases, including early diagnosis, disease stratification and monitoring of therapeutic response. In this context, we review the advantages and limitations of routine physiological measurements of respiratory function including spirometry, body plethysmography and diffusing capacity and discuss less widely used methods such as forced oscillometry, inert gas washout and the multiple inert gas elimination technique. Finally, we highlight emerging technologies including imaging methods such as quantitative CT and hyperpolarised gas MRI as well as quantification of lung inhomogeneity using precise in-airway gas analysis and mathematical modelling. These emerging techniques have the potential to enhance existing measures in the assessment of airways diseases, may be particularly valuable in early disease, and should facilitate the efforts to deliver precision respiratory medicine.