Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Early language experience facilitates the processing of gender agreement in Spanish heritage speakers*

We examined how age of acquisition in Spanish heritage speakers and L2 learners interacts with implicitness vs. explicitness of tasks in gender processing of canonical and non-canonical ending nouns. Twenty-three Spanish native speakers, 29 heritage speakers, and 33 proficiency-matched L2 learners completed three on-line spoken word recognition experiments involving gender monitoring, grammaticality judgment, and word repetition. All three experimental tasks required participants to listen to grammatical and ungrammatical Spanish noun phrases (determiner–adjective–noun) but systematically varied the type of response required of them. The results of the Gender Monitoring Task (GMT) and the Grammaticality Judgment Task (GJT) revealed significant grammaticality effects for all groups in accuracy and speed, but in the Word Repetition Task (WRT), the native speakers and the heritage speakers showed a grammaticality effect, while the L2 learners did not. Noun canonicity greatly affected processing in the two experimental groups. We suggest that input frequency and reduced language use affect retrieval of non-canonical ending nouns from declarative memory in L2 learners and heritage speakers more so than in native speakers. Native-like processing of gender in the WRT by the heritage speakers is likely related to context of acquisition and particular experience with oral production.
Generating a surface including an n-sided patch so as to cover an n-sided hole

While parametric surfaces are most conveniently described by rectangular patches, most complex objects require the use of patches with other than four sides. Many methods to generate such patches are widely used, but all have drawbacks. The paper describes the creation of a surface which covers the original surface and the non-rectangular "hole" with a new smooth surface. The method employs the recursive splines described by Savva and Clapworthy (ibid., 1998) and can be used with a control mesh of arbitrary topology. Further control of the shape of the patch covering the "hole" can be achieved by user manipulation of a "controller" point on the patch.
MicroRNA‑200a suppresses epithelial‑to‑mesenchymal transition in rat hepatic stellate cells via GLI family zinc finger 2.

Hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) have an important role in liver fibrosis. Epithelial‑to‑mesenchymal transition (EMT), which is promoted by the Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway, is involved in the activation of HSCs. MicroRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) have been reported to be involved in the progression of liver fibrosis. A previous study indicated that the activation of HSCs was suppressed by miR‑200a via targeting transforming growth factor‑β2 and β‑catenin. However, whether miR‑200a is able to regulate the EMT in HSCs has remained elusive. The present study revealed that miR‑200a was decreased in vitro and in vivo during liver fibrosis. Furthermore, miR‑200a overexpression resulted in the inhibition of proliferation, α‑SMA expression and extracellular matrix production of activated HSCs. Of note, miR‑200a overexpression reduced myofibroblastic markers, including α‑SMA, type I collagen and desmin, and increased the epithelial cell marker E‑cadherin. These results were further confirmed by immunofluorescence staining. Further study showed that the expression of genes associated with Hh signaling, including Hhip, Shh and Gli1, were not affected by miR‑200a. However, Gli2, a downstream signaling protein of the Hh pathway, was inhibited by miR‑200a and confirmed as a target of miR‑200a using a dual luciferase reporter assay. In addition, the inhibition of the Hh pathway by miR‑200a resulted in an increase of BMP‑7 and Id2 as well as a reduction of Snai1 and S100A4. Collectively, the results of the present study demonstrated that miR‑200a suppressed the EMT process in HSCs, at least in part, via Gli2.
Real-Time EEG-Based Detection of Fatigue Driving Danger for Accident Prediction

This paper proposes a real-time electroencephalogram (EEG)-based detection method of the potential danger during fatigue driving. To determine driver fatigue in real time, wavelet entropy with a sliding window and pulse coupled neural network (PCNN) were used to process the EEG signals in the visual area (the main information input route). To detect the fatigue danger, the neural mechanism of driver fatigue was analyzed. The functional brain networks were employed to track the fatigue impact on processing capacity of brain. The results show the overall functional connectivity of the subjects is weakened after long time driving tasks. The regularity is summarized as the fatigue convergence phenomenon. Based on the fatigue convergence phenomenon, we combined both the input and global synchronizations of brain together to calculate the residual amount of the information processing capacity of brain to obtain the dangerous points in real time. Finally, the danger detection system of the driver fatigue based on the neural mechanism was validated using accident EEG. The time distributions of the output danger points of the system have a good agreement with those of the real accident points.
TRPV1 channels and the progesterone receptor Sig-1R interact to regulate pain

Significance The TRPV1 ion channel has been widely associated with the generation of painful responses. The responses of cells expressing this ion channel and, presumably, the overall pain response of an organism may be regulated by controlling the amount of TRPV1 channels in the plasma membrane. TRPV1 levels can be regulated by its interaction with intracellular proteins, but there are no studies describing TRPV1 or any other mammalian TRP channel’s association with chaperones or how these interactions may affect the perception of pain. Here, we show that TRPV1-dependent pain is decreased through Sig-1R antagonism by progesterone and determine the presence of a physical interaction between these two proteins that may reduce pain under physiological conditions such as pregnancy. The Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) ion channel is expressed in nociceptors where, when activated by chemical or thermal stimuli, it functions as an important transducer of painful and itch-related stimuli. Although the interaction of TRPV1 with proteins that regulate its function has been previously explored, their modulation by chaperones has not been elucidated, as is the case for other mammalian TRP channels. Here we show that TRPV1 physically interacts with the Sigma 1 Receptor (Sig-1R), a chaperone that binds progesterone, an antagonist of Sig-1R and an important neurosteroid associated to the modulation of pain. Antagonism of Sig-1R by progesterone results in the down-regulation of TRPV1 expression in the plasma membrane of sensory neurons and, consequently, a decrease in capsaicin-induced nociceptive responses. This is observed both in males treated with a synthetic antagonist of Sig-1R and in pregnant females where progesterone levels are elevated. This constitutes a previously undescribed mechanism by which TRPV1-dependent nociception and pain can be regulated.
Deep class-aware image denoising

The increasing demand for high image quality in mobile devices brings forth the need for better computational enhancement techniques, and image denoising in particular. To this end, we propose a new fully convolutional deep neural network architecture which is simple yet powerful and achieves state-of-the-art performance for additive Gaussian noise removal. Furthermore, we claim that the personal photo-collections can usually be categorized into a small set of semantic classes. However simple, this observation has not been exploited in image denoising until now. We show that a significant boost in performance of up to 0.4dB PSNR can be achieved by making our network class-aware, namely, by fine-tuning it for images belonging to a specific semantic class. Relying on the hugely successful existing image classifiers, this research advocates for using a class-aware approach in all image enhancement tasks.
Potential mercury and hydrochloric acid emissions from wood fuels

The forest products industry has a large number of wood-fired boilers that will have to meet new EPA emission limits for mercury and hydrochloric acid(HCl). The emission standards are 91b-10 12 Btu heat input for mercury and 0.09 1b. /10 6 Btu heat input for HCl, although boilers built after January 2003 have to meet more stringent limits of 3 1b. /10 12 Btu for mercury and 0.02 1b. /10 6 Btu for HCl. Demonstrating compliance with these limits requires fuel analysis and stack testing. However, stack testing is not necessary if it can be shown that the fuel has sufficiently low concentrations of mercury and chlorine such that emission limits would be met even if all the mercury is emitted and all the chlorine is emitted as HCl upon combustion ofthe fuel. Analysis of bark and stemwood samples collected at 30 locations across the United States gave averages of 1.42 1b. /10 12 Btu and 0.28 1b. /10 12 Btu for mercury in bark and stemwood. Based on these results, bark and stemwood fuels have potential mercury and HCl emissions considerably lower than the EPA limits for existing boilers.
PD-L2 negatively regulates Th1-mediated immunopathology during Fasciola hepatica infection

Macrophage plasticity is critical for controlling inflammation including those produced by helminth infections, where alternatively activated macrophages (AAM) are accumulated in tissues. AAM expressing the co-inhibitory molecule programmed death ligand 2 (PD-L2), which is capable of binding programmed death 1 (PD-1) expressed on activated T cells, have been demonstrated in different parasitic infections. However, the role of PD-L2 during F. hepatica infection has not yet been explored. We observed that F. hepatica infection or a F. hepatica total extract (TE) injection increased the expression of PD-L2 on peritoneal macrophages. In addition, the absence of PD-L2 expression correlated with an increase in susceptibility to F. hepatica infection, as evidenced by the shorter survival and increased liver damage observed in PD-L2 deficient (KO) mice. We assessed the contribution of the PD-L2 pathway to Th2 polarization during this infection, and found that the absence of PD-L2 caused a diminished Th2 type cytokine production by TE stimulated splenocytes from PD-L2 KO infected compared with WT mice. Besides, splenocytes and intrahepatic leukocytes from infected PD-L2 KO mice showed higher levels of IFN-γ than those from WT mice. Arginase expression and activity and IL-10 production were reduced in macrophages from PD-L2 KO mice compared to those from WT mice, revealing a strong correlation between PD-L2 expression and AAM polarization. Taken together, our data indicate that PD-L2 expression in macrophages is critical for AAM induction and the maintenance of an optimal balance between the Th1- and Th2-type immune responses to assure host survival during F. hepatica infection.
Nonintersecting Brownian Excursions

Author(s): Tracy, Craig A. ; Widom, Harold | Abstract: We consider the process of $n$ Brownian excursions conditioned to be nonintersecting. We show the distribution functions for the top curve and the bottom curve are equal to Fredholm determinants whose kernel we give explicitly. In the simplest case, these determinants are expressible in terms of Painlev #x27;{e} V functions. We prove that as $n\to \infty$, the distributional limit of the bottom curve is the Bessel process with parameter 1/2. (This is the Bessel process associated with Dyson's Brownian motion.) We apply these results to study the expected area under the bottom and top curves.
Simulation on sensitive detection of small absorber in photoacoustic tomography

Noninvasive photoacoustic tomography (PAT) is a novel technique with great potential in biomedical image applications for it combines the merits and most compelling features of light and sound, and has the advantages of providing high contrast and high resolution images in moderate depth below the surface. When the image depth is on the scale of centimeter, the millimeter-scale resolution images still can be obtained. Thus it is a powerful tool for the early-stage breast cancer sensing. In this paper, photoacoustic tomography is studied by using the simulation method. The results show that: (1) the contrast of image increases linearly with respect to the number of measurement position (NMP); (2) the contrast increases exponentially with respect to noise-to-signal ratio.
Outage performance of energy harvesting relay-assisted device-to-device communication

We study the outage performance of an underlay device-to-device (D2D) communication aided by an amplify-and-forward (AF) relay terminal. In addition, to improve the network lifetime, an energy harvested relay node is considered which harvests the energy from the received radio-frequency (RF) signal and utilizes that harvested energy to transfer the signal from one D2D user to the other D2D user. A power splitting-based relaying (PSR) protocol is used at the relay to harvest the energy and to process the information. In particular, an exact outage probability (OP) expression under Rayleigh fading channels is derived, while an asymptotic outage expression is deduced in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime. The numerical results validate our analytical results, and provides various insights into the impact of power splitting factor and energy harvesting efficiency on the outage performance of D2D communication.
Factors Affecting Sexual Function in Midlife Women: Results from the Midlife Women's Health Study.

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to estimate the importance of risk factors affecting sexual function in sexually active midlife women. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cohort of 780 women undergoing the menopausal transition was surveyed each year for up to 7 years. Data were collected from sexually active women on sexual function, including frequencies of enjoyment, arousal, orgasm, passion for partner, satisfaction with partner, pain, lack of lubrication, fantasizing, and sexual activity. Data were also collected on a large number of potential risk factors for sexual dysfunction, including behaviors (smoking and alcohol use), health status (overall and frequency of different disorders), and demographic information (race, education, income, etc.). Height and weight were measured at an annual clinic visit; serum hormone concentrations were assayed using blood samples donated annually. Data on individual outcomes were examined with ordinal logistic regression models using individual as a random effect. An overall sexual function score was constructed from individual outcome responses, and this score was examined with linear regression. All factors with univariate associations of p < 0.1 were considered in multivariate model building with stepwise addition. RESULTS A total of 1,927 women-years were included in the analysis. Women with much more physical work than average had higher sexual function scores and higher rates of enjoyment, passion, and satisfaction. Higher family income was associated with lower sexual function score and more frequent dry sex. Married women had significantly lower sexual function scores, as did those with frequent irritability or vaginal dryness. A higher step on the Ladder of Life was associated with a higher sexual function score and higher frequency of sexual activity. CONCLUSIONS The factors associated with sexual outcome in menopausal women are complex and vary depending on the sexual outcome.
Secular trends in the prevalence of major and subthreshold depression among 55–64-year olds over 20 years

Abstract Background Studying secular trends in the exposure to risk and protective factors of depression and whether these trends are associated with secular trends in the prevalence of depression is important to estimate future healthcare demands and to identify targets for prevention. Methods Three birth cohorts of 55–64-year olds from the population-based Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam were examined using identical methods in 1992 (n = 944), 2002 (n = 964) and 2012 (n = 957). A two-stage screening design was used to identify subthreshold depression (SUBD) and major depressive disorder (MDD). Multinomial logistic regression analyses were used to identify secular trends in depression prevalence and to identify factors from the biopsychosocial domains of functioning that were associated with these trends. Results Compared with 1992, MDD became more prevalent in 2002 (OR 1.90, 95% CI 1.10–3.28, p = 0.022) and 2012 (OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.03–3.14, p = 0.039). This was largely attributable to an increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases and functional limitations. Socioeconomic and psychosocial improvements, including an increase in labor market participation, social support and mastery, hampered MDD rates to rise more and were also associated with a 32% decline of SUBD-rates in 2012 as compared with 2002 (OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.48–0.96, p = 0.03). Conclusions Among late middle-aged adults, there is a substantial net increase of MDD, which is associated with deteriorating physical health. If morbidity and disability continue to increase, a further expansion of MDD rates may be expected. Improving socioeconomic and psychosocial conditions may benefit public health, as these factors were protective against a higher prevalence of both MDD and SUBD.
Maturity Models in IS Research

Notwithstanding the relevance of maturity assessments in practice, Information Systems (IS) research has – despite exceptions – yet rarely endeavoured into reflecting and developing theoretically sound maturity models. This paper reports a literature review on maturity models in the IS domain. Specifically, it explores what type of research on maturity models has been undertaken (retrospection) and which potentially useful measures might be pursued in IS for future research (prospection). The paper suggests that research on maturity models is of growing interest; nevertheless, comparably few related articles have been published in the leading IS journals. We see that the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and its successor CMM Integration (CMMI) dominate studies of maturity. While maturity models have been addressed in prescriptive, descriptive and reflective works, the notions of maturity and maturity models have rarely been conceptualised in detail. In view of that, the paper presents implications for the practice of maturity model application and research thereof.
Reduction in ischemic brain injury following the administration of pentoxifylline after transient global ischemia/ reperfusion in a rat model

Background: It is well known that the hippocampus, the CA1 Pyramidal cells in particular, is selectively vulnerable during global cerebral ischemia. Recently, it is observed that pentoxifylline has a neuroprotective effect. This study explored the pharmacological relationship between ischemiainduced cell death of the hippocampus and the efficacy of a vasodilator agent (pentoxifylline) in the prevention of delayed neuronal death. Methods: This experimental study was performed on 4 groups: control, ischemia, experimental (200mg/kg pentoxifylline injection one hour prior to and one hour following ischemia) and vehicle (normal saline). Transient global ischemia was induced by bilateral common carotid arteries occlusion. To investigate the apoptotic bodies and caspase-3 activities as a central role in the execution phase of apoptosis, the brains were prepared for the TUNEL technique. Results: Pentoxifylline administration limited apoptosis and caspase-3 activities in rats’ hippocampi. Our data showed no significant difference between the number of apoptotic bodies in the CA1 region of the hippocampus in the control and pentoxifylline -treated groups (p= 0.994). The results of one- way ANOVA revealed that that ischemia significantly increased caspase-3 levels in the hippocampus (p< 0.05); however, the level of caspase-3 in pentoxifylline -treated rats was less than the ischemic group. Conclusion: These results suggest that the neuroprotective effect of pentoxifylline (200mg/kg) may be accompanied by a reduction in ischemic damage within the CA1 region of the hippocampus in rats subjected to transient global cerebral ischemia.
Investigation of Select Ergonomic Interventions for Farm Youth. Part 2: Wheelbarrows

ABSTRACT Previous research has provided evidence that farm youth performing farm chores may be at risk of developing a low back musculoskeletal injury. In order to reduce these risks, effective interventions for reducing the stressors that cause the injuries are needed. The objective of the current study was to investigate alternative wheelbarrow styles as an intervention for youth working to transfer material on the farm with respect to trunk motion and perceived exertion. A lumbar motion monitor was used to capture three-dimensional trunk kinematics while several wheelbarrow tasks (e.g., pushing, pushing over bump, and dumping) were performed by youth. Ratings of perceived exertion and comfort of use were also assessed. Results indicated a reduction in the sagittal trunk flexion and velocity was achieved by adding a push bar to the handles, in combination with three-wheels, or utilizing adjustable handles. However, these alterations had little impact in the predicted low back disorder risk levels. Additionally, the youths' perceptions of risk and exertion levels were greater for these alternative wheelbarrows than for the regular wheelbarrow. Therefore, the mismatch between perception and kinematic response will probably affect usage of the alternative wheelbarrows. While the results indicate that alternative wheelbarrow designs can reduce the awkward postures and motions during wheelbarrow tasks, further research into the effectiveness of these interventions, including spine loading and long long-term use, is necessary.
Volume segmentation using convolutional neural networks with limited training data

Much of the success of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) is due to the enormous collections of labeled data, powerful GPUs, and modern network architectures that facilitate the training and testing of larger and deeper models. The limited size of labeled volumetric microscopy images, however, hinders the proper training of CNNs for volume segmentation. Here, we design various 2D and 3D CNNs with factorized convolutions and online feature-level augmentations to address challenges due to the scarcity of training data. Based on the experimental results, we found that the 3D CNNs consistently outperformed the 2D counterparts. In addition, the 3D CNN that uses both factorized convolutions and online feature-level augmentations achieved the best segmentation performance.