Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Deep brain stimulation for people with Alzheimer’s disease: Anticipating potential effects on the tripartite self

Memory dysfunction and cognitive impairments due to Alzheimer’s disease can affect the selfhood and identity of afflicted individuals, causing distress to both people with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers. Recently, a number of case studies and clinical trials have been conducted to determine the potential of deep brain stimulation as a therapeutic modality for people with Alzheimer’s disease. Some of these studies have shown that deep brain stimulation could induce flashbacks and stabilize or even improve memory. However, deep brain stimulation itself has also been attributed as a potential threat to identity and selfhood, especially when procedure-related adverse events arise. We anticipate potential effects of deep brain stimulation for people with Alzheimer’s disease on selfhood, reconciling information from medical reports, psychological, and sociological investigations on the impacts of deep brain stimulation or Alzheimer’s disease on selfhood. A tripartite model of the self that extends the scope of Rom Harré’s and Steve Sabat’s social constructionist framework was used. In this model, potential effects of deep brain stimulation for Alzheimer’s disease on Self 1 or singularity through use of first-person indexicals, and gestures of self-reference, attribution, and recognition; Self 2 or past and present attributes, knowledge of these characteristics, and continuity of narrative identity; and Self 3 or the relational and social self are explored. The ethical implications of potential effects of deep brain stimulation for Alzheimer’s disease on the tripartite self are then highlighted, focusing on adapting informed consent procedures and care provided throughout the trial to account for both positive and negative plausible effects on Self 1, Self 2, and Self 3.
A Single Maturation Cleavage Site in Adenovirus Impacts Cell Entry and Capsid Assembly

ABSTRACT Proteolytic maturation drives the conversion of stable, immature virus particles to a mature, metastable state primed for cell infection. In the case of human adenovirus, this proteolytic cleavage is mediated by the virally encoded protease AVP. Protein VI, an internal capsid cement protein and substrate for AVP, is cleaved at two sites, one of which is near the N terminus of the protein. In mature capsids, the 33 residues at the N terminus of protein VI (pVIn) are sequestered inside the cavity formed by peripentonal hexon trimers at the 5-fold vertex. Here, we describe a glycine-to-alanine mutation in the N-terminal cleavage site of protein VI that profoundly impacts proteolytic processing, the generation of infectious particles, and cell entry. The phenotypic effects associated with this mutant provide a mechanistic framework for understanding the multifunctional nature of protein VI. Based on our findings, we propose that the primary function of the pVIn peptide is to mediate interactions between protein VI and hexon during virus replication, driving hexon nuclear accumulation and particle assembly. Once particles are assembled, AVP-mediated cleavage facilitates the release of the membrane lytic region at the amino terminus of mature VI, allowing it to lyse the endosome during cell infection. These findings highlight the importance of a single maturation cleavage site for both infectious particle production and cell entry and emphasize the exquisite spatiotemporal regulation governing adenovirus assembly and disassembly. IMPORTANCE Postassembly virus maturation is a cornerstone principle in virology. However, a mechanistic understanding of how icosahedral viruses utilize this process to transform immature capsids into infection-competent particles is largely lacking. Adenovirus maturation involves proteolytic processing of seven precursor proteins. There is currently no information for the role of each independent cleavage event in the generation of infectious virions. To address this, we investigated the proteolytic maturation of one adenovirus precursor molecule, protein VI. Structurally, protein VI cements the outer capsid shell and links it to the viral core. Functionally, protein VI is involved in endosome disruption, subcellular trafficking, transcription activation, and virus assembly. Our studies demonstrate that the multifunctional nature of protein VI is largely linked to its maturation. Through mutational analysis, we show that disrupting the N-terminal cleavage of preprotein VI has major deleterious effects on the assembly of infectious virions and their subsequent ability to infect host cells.
Rating MOOCs: Implications from Gamification

MOOCs actually share many similarities with MMOPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games). Since the latter is more successful in appealing participants, it will be beneficial to reflect which ideas from game design are effective to lengthen the engagement of MOOCs students. In this paper, feasible implications from gamification monographs were listed into a questionnaire to analyze students' preferences on MOOCs instructional environment. Three environment factors are extracted: content preparation, interaction and assessment. A structural equation model was proposed to illustrate the relationships between these factors. After verified, the implications work as criteria for volunteers to rate the environment quality of 76 Chinese MOOCs in six different platforms. It turned out that the scores on three factors can be used to predict the engagement endurance level of MOOCs by using K-Nearest Neighbors algorithm. Its error rate is 18.92%. Moreover, correlation analysis found that content preparation (r=0.57, p=
Real-time action recognition by feature-level fusion of depth and inertial sensor

Human action recognition has been an active research topic for its wide applications. Most researches focus on the recognition based on one single modality sensor. In this paper, we present a novel approach for human action recognition, which is based on feature-level fusion of depth and inertial sensor. We extract Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) coefficients from acceleration signals and Histograms of Oriented Gradients (HOG) features from Motion Response Maps (MRM). After obtaining these two modality feature vectors, we adopt Discriminant Correlation Analysis (DCA) to learn a fused feature descriptor with better discriminating ability. To evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approach, we conduct experiments on the multimodal human action database CAS-YNU-MHAD. Experimental results demonstrate the fused feature descriptor exhibits a strong and stable performance in improving the recognition accuracy. Moreover, our approach has a low computational complexity and can be employed in real-time systems.
Global distribution and drivers of language extinction risk

Many of the world's languages face serious risk of extinction. Efforts to prevent this cultural loss are severely constrained by a poor understanding of the geographical patterns and drivers of extinction risk. We quantify the global distribution of language extinction risk—represented by small range and speaker population sizes and rapid declines in the number of speakers—and identify the underlying environmental and socioeconomic drivers. We show that both small range and speaker population sizes are associated with rapid declines in speaker numbers, causing 25% of existing languages to be threatened based on criteria used for species. Language range and population sizes are small in tropical and arctic regions, particularly in areas with high rainfall, high topographic heterogeneity and/or rapidly growing human populations. By contrast, recent speaker declines have mainly occurred at high latitudes and are strongly linked to high economic growth. Threatened languages are numerous in the tropics, the Himalayas and northwestern North America. These results indicate that small-population languages remaining in economically developed regions are seriously threatened by continued speaker declines. However, risks of future language losses are especially high in the tropics and in the Himalayas, as these regions harbour many small-population languages and are undergoing rapid economic growth.
Led into Temptation? Rewarding Brand Logos Bias the Neural Encoding of Incidental Economic Decisions

Human decision-making is driven by subjective values assigned to alternative choice options. These valuations are based on reward cues. It is unknown, however, whether complex reward cues, such as brand logos, may bias the neural encoding of subjective value in unrelated decisions. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we subliminally presented brand logos preceding intertemporal choices. We demonstrated that priming biased participants' preferences towards more immediate rewards in the subsequent temporal discounting task. This was associated with modulations of the neural encoding of subjective values of choice options in a network of brain regions, including but not restricted to medial prefrontal cortex. Our findings demonstrate the general susceptibility of the human decision making system to apparently incidental contextual information. We conclude that the brain incorporates seemingly unrelated value information that modifies decision making outside the decision-maker's awareness.
A predictive model for estimating the viscosity of short-term-aged bitumen

For accurate prediction of pavement performance, it is necessary that the effect of ageing on different mix parameters is accounted for. The short-term- and long-term-aged bitumen viscosities estimated using Global Ageing System (GAS) models are used in the Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide for the estimation of dynamic modulus. Comparison of the viscosities of the bitumens extracted from field- and laboratory-aged asphalt mixes with the viscosities predicted using the GAS model suggests over-prediction for high temperature and lower bitumen film thickness (FT) combinations and under-prediction for low temperatures and high film thicknesses. That the ageing codes used in the GAS model are not sensitive to FT and temperature also has been established in this study. The new statistical model proposed in this study based on fixed effect regression modelling approach for estimating the short-term-aged bitumen viscosity as a function of bitumen type, FT and temperature has been found to predict the short-term-aged viscosity more accurately compared to the GAS model. The predictions with the new model are particularly better for certain combinations of temperature and FT for which large errors are observed in the predictions made with GAS models. The paper also proposes short-term-ageing conditions (sample weight and exposure time) to be adopted for bitumen in a Rolling Thin Film Oven to simulate the field ageing occurring in asphalt mixes having different film thicknesses.
SvABA: genome-wide detection of structural variants and indels by local assembly

Structural variants (SVs), including small insertion and deletion variants (indels), are challenging to detect through standard alignment-based variant calling methods. Sequence assembly offers a powerful approach to identifying SVs, but is difficult to apply at scale genome-wide for SV detection due to its computational complexity and the difficulty of extracting SVs from assembly contigs. We describe SvABA, an efficient and accurate method for detecting SVs from short-read sequencing data using genome-wide local assembly with low memory and computing requirements. We evaluated SvABA's performance on the NA12878 human genome and in simulated and real cancer genomes. SvABA demonstrates superior sensitivity and specificity across a large spectrum of SVs and substantially improves detection performance for variants in the 20–300 bp range, compared with existing methods. SvABA also identifies complex somatic rearrangements with chains of short (<1000 bp) templated-sequence insertions copied from distant genomic regions. We applied SvABA to 344 cancer genomes from 11 cancer types and found that short templated-sequence insertions occur in ∼4% of all somatic rearrangements. Finally, we demonstrate that SvABA can identify sites of viral integration and cancer driver alterations containing medium-sized (50–300 bp) SVs.
Density and Gorgonian Host-occupation Patterns by Flamingo Tongue Snails (Cyphoma gibbosum) in the Florida Keys

A large-scale assessment of the density and gorgonian host-occupation patterns of the ovulid gastropod Cyphoma gibbosum L. was conducted at 63 shallow (< 7 m), low-relief hard-bottom and spur and groove sites in the Florida Keys. Mean densities of C. gibbosum were not significantly different between habitat types, among geographic regions, or between fished and protected areas. Based on sample allocation analyses, spur and groove sites open to fishing in the lower Keys region yielded more C. gibbosum than expected. Most C. gibbosum occurred individually (58 %) or in pairs (31 %) on gorgonians, indicating more gregariousness than expected based on random distribution. Snails were counted on 127 gorgonians repre- senting 3 families and 12 species. Significant differences in gorgonian host-occupation were detected, with more Plexauridae and less Gorgoniidae occupied than expected. Eunicea tourneforti, Plexaura flexuosa, P. homomalla, and Pseudoplexaura porosa were occupied more than expected, while Gorgonia ventalina was occupied in proportion to its abundance. Pseudopterogorgia americana and other gorgonians were under- occupied, even when relatively abundant. Except for P. homomalla, C. gibbosum density was only weakly correlated with total gorgonian density and individual species densities. Spatial variations in C. gibbosum density are not readily explained by preferred gorgonian availability alone. While variable larval recruit- ment, post-settlement survival, and patchy gorgonian distribution may affect these patterns, differential predation pressure by fishes such as hogfish (Lachnolaimus maximus) could also partially explain the dis- tribution patterns of C. gibbosum in the Florida Keys.
Nicotinic Acid Receptor Abnormalities in Human Skin Cancer: Implications for a Role in Epidermal Differentiation

Background Chronic UV skin exposure leads to epidermal differentiation defects in humans that can be largely restored by pharmacological doses of nicotinic acid. Nicotinic acid has been identified as a ligand for the human G-protein-coupled receptors GPR109A and GPR109B that signal through Gi-mediated inhibition of adenylyl cyclase. We have examined the expression, cellular distribution, and functionality of GPR109A/B in human skin and skin derived epidermal cells. Results Nicotinic acid increases epidermal differentiation in photodamaged human skin as judged by the terminal differentiation markers caspase 14 and filaggrin. Both GPR109A and GPR109B genes are transcribed in human skin and in epidermal keratinocytes, but expression in dermal fibroblasts is below limits of detection. Receptor transcripts are greatly over-expressed in squamous cell cancers. Receptor protein in normal skin is prominent from the basal through granular layers of the epidermis, with cellular localization more dispersive in the basal layer but predominantly localized at the plasma membrane in more differentiated epidermal layers. In normal human primary and immortalized keratinocytes, nicotinic acid receptors show plasma membrane localization and functional Gi-mediated signaling. In contrast, in a squamous cell carcinoma derived cell line, receptor protein shows a more diffuse cellular localization and the receptors are nearly non-functional. Conclusions The results of these studies justify future genetic and pharmacological intervention studies to define possible specific role(s) of nicotinic acid receptors in human skin homeostasis.
Performance evaluation of MAC-layer trust zones over virtual network interfaces

In smart building scenarios there are a lot of vulnerable devices that could be exploited to run attacks against other devices within the same LAN. Even though existing solutions mostly tackle the problem by cluster-based authentication and key management schemes, none of them leverages the potential of isolating traffic by network interface virtualization. Thus, we proposed in a previous work a concept to avoid unauthorized communication by considering separating applications with virtual MAC interfaces as the consequence. The decreased attack surface, as the main advantage, is achieved by isolating communication through virtual MAC interfaces based on application-specific demands. To demonstrate the efficiency of this concept we developed an implementation based on state-of-the-art communication protocols. We applied our interface virtualization concept to the IEEE 802.11s WLAN mesh technology, combining it with a lightweight RESTful web service for security credentials deployment. The resulting proof-of-concept implementation in a real-world multi-hop scenario shows performance of the credentials deployment and the impact of the MAC-layer parallelization. The promising results, e.g., no drop of the overall throughput using multiple virtual MAC interfaces, show that our concept can be an efficient solution for future smart buildings.
Statins in Neurological Disorders: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Value

Statins are well-tolerated, mainstay drugs in cardiovascular risk management. In addition to their cholesterol-lowering properties, statins also have anti-inflammatory, vasculoprotective, and antioxidant effects. They have also been associated in some epidemiologic studies with reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and a link between cholesterol and late-onset AD has been documented. Experimental studies in cell culture systems and animal models show that statins have neuroprotective effects that may ameliorate the damage inflicted by stroke and AD. Human studies have garnered compelling evidence that treatment with statins reduces ischemic stroke incidence independent of their lipid-lowering effects. There is also the possibility that statins and extremely low cholesterol levels may increase the risk of intracranial hemorrhage. In this review, we discuss the potential reasons for the effect of statins on stroke and AD, and the multiple mechanisms of action of this class of lipid-lowering drugs.
Ongoing Influenza Activity Inference with Real-time Digital Surveillance Data

Background. In order to track influenza activity, flu-like patient records collected from health care providers are combined to generate an estimate every week during the flu season. However, this estimate is problematic in terms of timeliness and granularity. A promising alternative is to infer flu activity with fine-grained, timely digital surveillance data. Fitting these extra measurements of flu activities will ideally generate real-time estimate of disease spread, at least one week ahead of official report.
Allozyme variation in three closely related species of Caucasian rock lizards (Lacerta)

Genetic diversity at 37 allozyme loci was surveyed from Lacerta valentini (4 populations), L. portschinskii and L. rudis (1 population each). The number of polymorphic loci ranged from 1 (L. valentini) to 11 (L. rudis). Mean heterozygosity (direct count) ranged from 0.003 (L. valentini) to 0.071 (L. rudis). Nei's (1978) genetic distance ranged from 0-0.03 among populations of L. valentini, 0.127-0.163 between L. valentini and L. rudis and 0.366-0.487 between L. portschinskii and the two other taxa. Indices of genetic variability for species having disjunct distributions were lower than in species with contiguous distributions, similar to the case of insular populations, which have lower values than do mainland populations.
A Low-Complexity CLSIC-LMMSE-Based Multi-User Detection Algorithm for Coded MIMO Systems with High Order Modulation

In this work, first, a multiuser detection (MUD) algorithm based on component-level soft interference cancellation and linear minimum mean square error (CLSIC-LMMSE) is proposed, which can enhance the bit error ratio (BER) performance of the traditional SIC-LMMSE-based MUD by mitigating error propagation. Second, for non-binary low density parity check (NB-LDPC) coded high-order modulation systems, when the proposed algorithm is integrated with partial mapping, the receiver with iterative detection and decoding (IDD) achieves not only better BER performance but also significantly computational complexity reduction over the traditional SIC-LMMSE-based IDD scheme. Extrinsic information transfer chart (EXIT) analysis and numerical simulations are both used to support the conclusions.
Analysis of Efficiency Characteristics of Superconducting Coil-Applied Wireless Power Transmission Systems by Transmission Distance

A significant amount of research is being done on the commercialization of magnetic-resonance-based wireless power transmission. To this end, research on boosting transmission efficiency is essential. In this paper, a wireless power transmission system was designed using superconducting coils to boost wireless power transmission efficiency. The efficiency of a normal wireless power transmission system and a superconducting wireless power transmission system was calculated according to the transmission distance. Results confirmed that compared to the use of the ordinary conducting coil, the use of superconducting coil offered higher transmission efficiency at a farther distance.
A Multi-Modal Approach to Infer Image Affect

The group affect or emotion in an image of people can be inferred by extracting features about both the people in the picture and the overall makeup of the scene. The state-of-the-art on this problem investigates a combination of facial features, scene extraction and even audio tonality. This paper combines three additional modalities, namely, human pose, text-based tagging and CNN extracted features / predictions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time all of the modalities were extracted using deep neural networks. We evaluate the performance of our approach against baselines and identify insights throughout this paper.
Demographic Processes Underlying Subtle Patterns of Population Structure in the Scalloped Hammerhead Shark, Sphyrna lewini

Genetic diversity (θ), effective population size (Ne), and contemporary levels of gene flow are important parameters to estimate for species of conservation concern, such as the globally endangered scalloped hammerhead shark, Sphyrna lewini. Therefore, we have reconstructed the demographic history of S. lewini across its Eastern Pacific (EP) range by applying classical and coalescent population genetic methods to a combination of 15 microsatellite loci and mtDNA control region sequences. In addition to significant population genetic structure and isolation-by-distance among seven coastal sites between central Mexico and Ecuador, the analyses revealed that all populations have experienced a bottleneck and that all current values of θ are at least an order of magnitude smaller than ancestral θ, indicating large decreases in Ne (θ = 4Neμ), where μ is the mutation rate. Application of the isolation-with-migration (IM) model showed modest but significant genetic connectivity between most sampled sites (point estimates of Nm = 0.1–16.7), with divergence times (t) among all populations significantly greater than zero. Using a conservative (i.e., slow) fossil-based taxon-specific phylogenetic calibration for mtDNA mutation rates, posterior probability distributions (PPDs) for the onset of the decline in Ne predate modern fishing in this region. The cause of decline over the last several thousand years is unknown but is highly atypical as a post-glacial demographic history. Regardless of the cause, our data and analyses suggest that S. lewini was far more abundant throughout the EP in the past than at present.