Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effects of MDMA on socio-emotional processing: Does MDMA differ from other stimulants?

±3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a popular recreational drug that enhances sociability and feelings of closeness with others. These “prosocial” effects appear to motivate the recreational use of MDMA and may also form the basis of its potential as an adjunct to psychotherapy. However, the extent to which MDMA differs from prototypic stimulant drugs, such as dextroamphetamine, methamphetamine, and methylphenidate, in either its behavioral effects or mechanisms of action, is not fully known. The purpose of this review is to evaluate human laboratory findings of the social effects of MDMA compared to other stimulants, ranging from simple subjective ratings of sociability to more complex elements of social processing and behavior. We also review the neurochemical mechanisms by which these drugs may impact sociability. Together, the findings reviewed here lay the groundwork for better understanding the socially enhancing effects of MDMA that distinguish it from other stimulant drugs, especially as these effects relate to the reinforcing and potentially therapeutic effects of the drug.
Control of triangle formations with a mix of angle and distance constraints

A distributed control law for triangular formation control with a mixture of bearing and range measurements and relative pair-wise inter-agent angle constraints and a single range constraint is introduced. The control law is weak in the sense that two agents are free to choose their own heading within a relatively large range of values. Indeed, the agents can determine their heading independently at run-time given any criteria they desire as long as certain relaxed conditions are met. A convergence result is established that ensures the desired formation configuration is asymptotically stable. Illustrative examples are provided to demonstrate the claims.
Retraction notice

At the request of the Journal’s Editor, the Publisher and the authors, the following article has been retracted. Li J, Jones JT, Donnelly C, Cunningham N, Kashikar-Zuck S and Brunner HI. Pain predicts poorer health-related quality of life in childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus: a cohort study. Journal of International Medical Research. Epub ahead of print 6 December 2017. DOI: 10.1177/0300060517732486. http://journals.sagepub. com/doi/full/10.1177/0300060517732486 The article has been retracted from Journal of International Medical Research because the co-authors of the paper had not consented to the paper’s submission for publication, and because the paper does not present the complete findings of the authors’ research. The corresponding author, Dr Li, submitted the paper with fraudulent contact details for his co-authors and without their consent to submit. Furthermore, the paper made use of an incomplete measurement scale that did not accurately reflect the complete findings of the study, which found other significant variables affected the value of using pain to measure the health-related quality of life of lupus patients. The complete findings of the study are presented in another paper published by the same authors: Donnelly C, Cunningham N, Jones JT, Li J, Brunner HI and Kashikar-Zuck S. Fatigue and depression predict reduced health-related quality of life in childhood-onset lupus. Lupus 2017; 27: 124–133. http://journals.sagepub. com/doi/full/10.1177/0961203317716317
Type and doses of oral anticoagulants and adherence to anticoagulant treatment in elderly patients with atrial fibrillation: the ESPARTA study.

AIM To analyze the use of oral anticoagulants in elderly patients with atrial fibrillation in clinical practice. PATIENTS & METHODS Cross-sectional and multicenter study performed in atrial fibrillation patients ≥75 years treated with oral anticoagulants ≥3 months. RESULTS 837 patients (83.0 ± 5.0 years; CHA2DS2-VASc 5.0 ± 1.4; HAS-BLED 2.1 ± 0.9; 70.8% vitamin K antagonists; 29.2% direct oral anticoagulants [DOACs]) were included. Poor adherence was observed in 27.9% of patients. Higher scores in the Pfeiffer's test and FRAIL scale were associated with poorer adherence. Among patients treated with DOACs, 62.3% received the lower doses. Having high CHADS2 score and being older were associated with the use of low doses. CONCLUSION 28% of patients had a poor adherence to anticoagulant treatment. 62% of patients were treated with the lower doses of DOACs.
Enhancement of localized routing using CDPSO in WSN

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a collection of nodes where each can equipped with sensors to compute and communicate various parameters of a system. WSN is an emerging research in the field of industry, healthcare, agriculture, security and biomedical applications. Efficient routing of data from source to destination is critical in terms of limited resources. Location based routing protocols are less complex in comparison with other protocols. Finding accurate node location has significant for enhancing routing performance in cooperative WSN. In the proposed solution nodes with accurate location information are selected as reference nodes. CramerRaoBound (CRB) algorithm select the reference nodes which give accurate location information. In this paper Cooperative Distributed Particle Swarm Optimization (CDPSO) localized routing algorithm with optimum references is proposed. CDPSO is used to find the accurate nodes locations. Proposed mechanism implemented and tested with various parameters. Simulation results show that CDPSO with optimum references performs better in terms of lifetime, complexity, Packet Delivery Ratio and throughput.
PSCAR: a proactive-optimal-path selection with coordinator agents assisted routing for vehicular ad hoc networks

In this paper, we propose the Proactive-optimal-path Selection with Coordinator Agents Assisted Routing (PSCAR) protocol for Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks (VANETs) in an urban environment. The main idea of PSCAR is to contribute static nodes as coordinator agents placed at each intersection, in order to improve the routing performance and to deal with radio obstacles (buildings, trees.) and voids as encountered in urban environments. Since the coordinator agents are static nodes, each one knows all the paths to any other coordinator agent in the network. Thus, instead of searching an optimal path toward the destination node, PSCAR will determine an optimal path to the nearest coordinator agent to the destination node so as to better anticipate any change of the destinations position. The optimal path is selected according to two criteria: the total physical distance and the vehicle density on the path. The vehicle density is estimated based on a fundamental diagram of the traffic that allows estimating the vehicular traffic density on each road segment. To evaluate the performance of PSCAR we used the Network Simulator 2 (ns-2) and the mobility simulator SUMO. We compare our scheme with some existing solutions with the aim of showing its effectiveness, in terms of packet delivery ratio, end-to-end delay, and network overhead.
Complexity reduction of FDD massive MIMO codebook adaptation for correlated channel

With the introduction of massive MIMO systems, the codebook used for the MIMO precoding is getting larger and choosing the best precoding matrix is getting more complex. In this paper, we tackle the complexity problem that manifests itself when updating the codebook with the channel covariance matrix. We suggest a new method that reduces the number of complex matrix multiplications needed for codebook rotation. Simulation results show non-marginal performance gains in-terms of channel capacity, bit error rate. In addition our method shows larger increase in data rate in case of increasing the number of feedback bits while having a complexity reduction.
Disparity estimation from monocular image sequence

This paper proposes a novel method for estimating disparity accurately. To achieve the ideal result, an optimal adjusting framework is proposed to address the noise, occlusions, and outliners. Different from the typical multi-view stereo (MVS) methods, the proposed approach not only use the color constraint, but also use the geometric constraint associating multiple frame from the image sequence. The result shows the disparity with a good visual quality that most of the noise is eliminated, the errors in occlusion area are suppressed and the details of scene objects are preserved.
The Regulation of Translation in Alphavirus-Infected Cells

Sindbis virus (SINV) contains an RNA genome of positive polarity with two open reading frames (ORFs). The first ORF is translated from the genomic RNA (gRNA), rendering the viral non-structural proteins, whereas the second ORF is translated from a subgenomic mRNA (sgRNA), which directs the synthesis of viral structural proteins. SINV infection strongly inhibits host cell translation through a variety of different mechanisms, including the phosphorylation of the eukaryotic initiation factor eIF2α and the redistribution of cellular proteins from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. A number of motifs have been identified in SINV sgRNA, including a hairpin downstream of the AUG initiation codon, which is involved in the translatability of the viral sgRNA when eIF2 is inactivated. Moreover, a 3′-UTR motif containing three stem-loop structures is involved in the enhancement of translation in insect cells, but not in mammalian cells. Accordingly, SINV sgRNA has evolved several structures to efficiently compete for the cellular translational machinery. Mechanistically, sgRNA translation involves scanning of the 5′-UTR following a non-canonical mode and without the requirement for several initiation factors. Indeed, sgRNA-directed polypeptide synthesis occurs even after eIF4G cleavage or inactivation of eIF4A by selective inhibitors. Remarkably, eIF2α phosphorylation does not hamper sgRNA translation during the late phase of SINV infection. SINV sgRNA thus constitutes a unique model of a capped viral mRNA that is efficiently translated in the absence of several canonical initiation factors. The present review will mainly focus in the non-canonical mechanism of translation of SINV sgRNA.
Occurrence of Chlamydophila felis, feline herpesvirus 1 and calcivirus in domestic cats of Iran

Background and Objectives: Feline herpesvirus-1, feline calicivirus and Chlamydophila felis are the main causes of feline upper respiratory tract disease. This study was conducted to identify of FeHV-1, FCV and C. felis infections in domestic cat population and also to estimate the prevalence of each specific infection in Iran. Materials and Methods: The ocular conjunctiva and oropharyngeal specimens obtained from 80 cats were examined using PCR and reverse transcription PCR. Results: FeHV-1 was detected in 23 (28.8%), FCV in 2 (2.5%) and C. felis in 16 (20%) cats. Twelve cats(15%) had co-infection with 2 or 3 of the mentioned pathogens. Ocular lesions were the most common clinical signs in the FeHV-1 and C. felis infections whereas respiratory lesions were more observed with the FCV infections. It seems that there is an age-related tendency in the infected cats, meaning that the age of the C. felis positive cats was less than those with FeHV-1 and FCV infections. Conclusion: These results confirm the presence and show the prevalence of three major pathogens associated with upper respiratory tract disease for the first time in Iran.
Comment on “Climate legacies drive global soil carbon stocks in terrestrial ecosystems”

Radiocarbon measurements suggest that topsoil organic carbon was derived from recent vegetation. Delgado-Baquerizo et al. (Science Advances, 12 April 2017, e1602008) use statistical correlations to infer that paleoclimate (6000 to 22,000 years ago) is a more important driver of current soil organic carbon stocks than the current-day climate. On the other hand, a wealth of radiocarbon measurements indicates that the organic carbon in most topsoils is only a few decades to perhaps a few centuries old. These seemingly incongruous results can perhaps be reconciled by considering that the long-term pedogenic development of a soil strongly influences the physiochemical properties, which lead to stabilization of new carbon entering that soil regardless of current climate.
Clinicopathological and prognostic significance of MUC 4 expression in cancers : evidence from meta-analysis

Mucin4 (MUC4) is a secreted glycoprotein. Numerous studies had indicated that MUC4 was an attractive prognostic tumor biomarker. However, the results of different studies have been inconsistent. So we conducted this meta-analysis to explore the association between MUC4 expression and cancer prognosis. A systematically comprehensive search was performed through PubMed, EMBASE and CNKI (Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure). Prognostic value of MUC4 expression in malignancy patients was evaluated by pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Meanwhile, pooled odds ratio (OR) with 95% CI was appropriate for the association between MUC4 expression and clinicopathological parameters. Eighteen studies including 1,933 patients were enrolled in this meta-analysis. Significant association was found between elevated MUC4 expression and poorer overall survival (OS) with pooled hazard ratio (HR) of 1.87 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.58-2.23, P<0.001]. Significant associations were also detected in biliary tract carcinoma (HR: 2.41, 95% CI: 1.69-3.42, P<0.001), pancreatic cancer (HR: 2.01, 95% CI: 1.42-2.86, P<0.001) and colorectal cancer (HR: 1.73, 95% CI: 1.17-2.54, P=0.006). Moreover, combined odds ratio (OR) of MUC4 indicated that MUC4 overexpression was associated with tumor stage, tumor invasion and lymph node metastasis. Our results demonstrated that MUC4 may be exploited as a novel prognostic biomarker for cancer patients.
AKT1 Loss Correlates with Episomal HPV16 in Vulval Intraepithelial Neoplasia

Anogenital malignancy has a significant association with high-risk mucosal alpha-human papillomaviruses (alpha-PV), particularly HPV 16 and 18 whereas extragenital SCC has been linked to the presence of cutaneous beta and gamma–HPV types. Vulval skin may be colonised by both mucosal and cutaneous (beta-, mu-, nu- and gamma-) PV types, but there are few systematic studies investigating their presence and their relative contributions to vulval malignancy. Dysregulation of AKT, a serine/threonine kinase, plays a significant role in several cancers. Mucosal HPV types can increase AKT phosphorylation and activity whereas cutaneous HPV types down-regulate AKT1 expression, probably to weaken the cornified envelope to promote viral release. We assessed the presence of mucosal and cutaneous HPV in vulval malignancy and its relationship to AKT1 expression in order to establish the corresponding HPV and AKT1 profile of normal vulval skin, vulval intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN) and vulval squamous cell carcinoma (vSCC). We show that HPV16 is the principle HPV type present in VIN, there were few detectable beta types present and AKT1 loss was not associated with the presence of these cutaneous HPV. We show that HPV16 early gene expression reduced AKT1 expression in transgenic mouse epidermis. AKT1 loss in our VIN cohort correlated with presence of high copy number, episomal HPV16. Maintained AKT1 expression correlated with low copy number, an increased frequency of integration and increased HPV16E7 expression, a finding we replicated in another untyped cohort of vSCC. Since expression of E7 reflects tumour progression, these findings suggest that AKT1 loss associated with episomal HPV16 may have positive prognostic implications in vulval malignancy.
Travel to School and Physical Activity Levels in 9–10 Year-Old UK Children of Different Ethnic Origin; Child Heart and Health Study in England (CHASE)

Background Travel to school may offer a convenient way to increase physical activity levels in childhood. We examined the association between method of travel to school and physical activity levels in urban multi-ethnic children. Methods and Findings 2035 children (aged 9–10 years in 2006–7) provided data on their usual method of travel to school and wore an Actigraph-GT1M activity monitor during waking hours. Associations between method of travel and mean level of physical activity (counts per minute [CPM], steps, time spent in light, moderate or vigorous activity per day) were examined in models adjusted for confounding variables. 1393 children (69%) walked or cycled to school; 161 (8%) used public transport and 481 (24%) travelled by car. White European children were more likely to walk/cycle, black African Caribbeans to travel by public transport and South Asian children to travel by car. Children travelling by car spent less time in moderate to vigorous physical activity (−7 mins, 95%CI-9,-5), and had lower CPM (−32 CPM, 95%CI-44,-19) and steps per day (−813 steps, 95%CI,-1043,-582) than walkers/cyclists. Pupils travelling by public transport had similar activity levels to walkers/cyclists. Lower physical activity levels amongst car travellers' were especially marked at travelling times (school days between 8–9 am, 3–5 pm), but were also evident on weekdays at other times and at weekends; they did not differ by gender or ethnic group. Conclusion Active travel to school is associated with higher levels of objectively measured physical activity, particularly during periods of travel but also at other times. If children travelling by car were to achieve physical activity levels (steps) similar to children using active travel, they would increase their physical activity levels by 9%. However, the population increase would be a modest 2%, because of the low proportion of car travellers in this urban population.
Genes Encoding Cher-TPR Fusion Proteins Are Predominantly Found in Gene Clusters Encoding Chemosensory Pathways with Alternative Cellular Functions

Chemosensory pathways correspond to major signal transduction mechanisms and can be classified into the functional families flagellum-mediated taxis, type four pili-mediated taxis or pathways with alternative cellular functions (ACF). CheR methyltransferases are core enzymes in all of these families. CheR proteins fused to tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) domains have been reported and we present an analysis of this uncharacterized family. We show that CheR-TPRs are widely distributed in GRAM-negative but almost absent from GRAM-positive bacteria. Most strains contain a single CheR-TPR and its abundance does not correlate with the number of chemoreceptors. The TPR domain fused to CheR is comparatively short and frequently composed of 2 repeats. The majority of CheR-TPR genes were found in gene clusters that harbor multidomain response regulators in which the REC domain is fused to different output domains like HK, GGDEF, EAL, HPT, AAA, PAS, GAF, additional REC, HTH, phosphatase or combinations thereof. The response regulator architectures coincide with those reported for the ACF family of pathways. Since the presence of multidomain response regulators is a distinctive feature of this pathway family, we conclude that CheR-TPR proteins form part of ACF type pathways. The diversity of response regulator output domains suggests that the ACF pathways form a superfamily which regroups many different regulatory mechanisms, in which all CheR-TPR proteins appear to participate. In the second part we characterize WspC of Pseudomonas putida, a representative example of CheR-TPR. The affinities of WspC-Pp for S-adenosylmethionine and S-adenosylhomocysteine were comparable to those of prototypal CheR, indicating that WspC-Pp activity is in analogy to prototypal CheRs controlled by product feed-back inhibition. The removal of the TPR domain did not impact significantly on the binding constants and consequently not on the product feed-back inhibition. WspC-Pp was found to be monomeric, which rules out a role of the TPR domain in self-association.
Finite Cell Method: High-Order Structural Dynamics for Complex Geometries

In this contribution, the finite cell method (FCM) is applied to solve transient problems of linear elastodynamics. The mathematical formulation of FCM for linear elastodynamics is presented, following from the weak formulation of the initial/boundary-value problem. Semi-discrete time integration schemes are briefly discussed, and the choice of implicit time integration is justified. A 1D benchmark problem is solved using FCM, illustrating the method's ability to solve problems of linear elastodynamics obtaining high rates of convergence. Furthermore, a numerical example of transient analysis from an industrial application is solved using FCM. The numerical results are compared to the results obtained using state-of-the-art commercial software, employing linear finite elements, in conjunction with explicit time integration. The results illustrate the potential of FCM as a powerful tool for transient analysis in elastodynamics, offering a high degree of accuracy at a moderate computational effort.
Effect of Circulating Omentin-1 on the Retinal Circulation in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

Purpose To identify any significant correlations between retinal circulatory parameters and serum concentrations of omentin-1, a novel adipokine produced by adipocytes, in patients suffering from type 2 diabetes mellitus. Methods Eighty-seven patients suffering from type 2 diabetes and incipient diabetic retinopathy (DR) were analyzed and further divided into two groups according to sex. We compared the patients' retinal circulatory parameters measured with laser Doppler velocimetry and serum omentin-1 concentrations. Results The plasma omentin-1 concentrations were related positively to the retinal blood flow (RBF) (r = 0.212; P = 0.048) and primarily with female sex (r = 0.288; P = 0.06) and negatively to the retinal arterial vascular resistance (RVR) (r = -0.218; P = 0.043). Moreover, the plasma omentin-1 concentration was modestly but not significantly positively related to the blood velocity. Multiple regression analysis showed that the serum omentin-1 level contributed independently and negatively to the RVR. Conclusions Increased concentrations of plasma omentin-1 might be linked to elevated RBF levels probably through elevated blood velocity in patients suffering from type 2 diabetes with incipient DR, especially in female patients, which warrants further investigation.
Characterization of inductively coupled plasma generated by a quadruple antenna

The results of the characterization of large-scale RF plasma for studying nonlinear interaction with a high-power (∼400 MW) short duration (∼0.8 ns) microwave (∼10 GHz) beam are presented. The plasma was generated inside a Pyrex tube 80 cm in length and 25 cm in diameter filled by either Ar or He gas at a pressure in the range 1.3–13 Pa using a 2 MHz RF generator with a matching system and a quadruple antenna. Good matching was obtained between the plasma parameters, which were determined using different methods including a movable Langmuir probe, microwave cut-off, interferometry, and optical emission spectroscopy. It was shown that, depending on the gas pressure and RF power delivered to the antenna, the plasma density and electron temperature can be controlled in the range 1 × 1010–5 × 1012 cm−3 and 1–3.5 eV, respectively. The plasma density was found to be uniform in terms of axial (∼60 cm) and radial (∼10 cm) dimensions. Further, it was also shown that the application of the quadruple antenna, with resonating capacitors inserted in its arms, decreases the capacitive coupling of the antenna and the plasma as well as the RF power loss along the antenna. These features make this plasma source suitable for microwave plasma wake field experiments.